Sermon

WHEN HOPE DOESNT LOOK LIKE WE EXPECTED | SUNDAY 3RD MAY | PS PAUL MILLER

Tauranga Elim Message Podcasts

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  1. Are any of the interns here? Is we got

  2. one over here? We got Amy serving, isn't

  3. it? Is Cam and utter here as well. Are

  4. they here? They're away this weekend. I

  5. um I just had this You have to take it

  6. to them all. Uh uh Anamarie, you have to

  7. make sure you take good notes for this.

  8. I I woke up this morning and uh who who

  9. loves our interns? Yeah, our interns are

  10. fantastic. If you don't know what they

  11. do, they they they serve this church.

  12. They serve people and they have given up

  13. a year of their life to to come and

  14. actually serve this church and serve our

  15. nation and serve our city. And I just

  16. woke up this morning. Wow. It was meant

  17. to be this emotional just uh I just got

  18. this thing. I'm going to take a There we

  19. go. Slow down, Paul. Slow down. I just

  20. had this word over turns that he is

  21. worthy of your sacrifice.

  22. andory.

  23. You have to take this because the rest

  24. are here. It's all right. I'm just going

  25. to get enemy. He is worthy of your

  26. sacrifice.

  27. Most of us don't see the sacrifice, but

  28. I'm going to say he is worthy of that

  29. sacrifice.

  30. We don't

  31. compose myself. There we go. two German

  32. missionaries, Johan and David, they

  33. heard of a of an island nation that was

  34. keeping slaves captive and the gospel

  35. hadn't got to them.

  36. To keep a long story short, no preacher,

  37. no clergyman would ever be able to stay

  38. on that island. The the owner refused

  39. that and two young guys, they called,

  40. they got the call and they got on a

  41. boat, travel from Germany to Jamaica,

  42. wherever it was. And on that boat they

  43. said, "May the lamb that was slain

  44. receive his glory."

  45. I just see that over our interns this

  46. year. I know it's it's weird. There some

  47. grown man crying, but this is a real

  48. thing over. He is so worthy of our

  49. sacrifice.

  50. He is worthy of our sacrifice. I'm just

  51. going to carry on because I don't know

  52. how to recover from that. But hey, my

  53. name is uh uh Paul and uh if you haven't

  54. met me uh my name is obviously Paul and

  55. I'm part of the team here and it is my

  56. privilege this morning to be up here

  57. this morning and and just say you guys

  58. are looking good and uh just a fabulous

  59. team this morning. So I'm going to be

  60. sharing from uh Luke 24 verse uh 13-35.

  61. If you guys got your Bibles that would

  62. be cool to turn there. But before we go

  63. there I'm going to tell you about my

  64. fabulous life group that I go to. It is

  65. the greatest life group. It is called,

  66. we need we need a better name. It is

  67. called the Brookfield Life Group, but I

  68. don't know why we haven't come up very

  69. creative name. We actually our chat is

  70. called uh Chatterbox Connect Fire.

  71. That's our our group name. So, it is so

  72. cute, isn't it? Um uh we were we the

  73. other Monday we were just talking

  74. through life because life group is about

  75. studying the word of God. Yes. But it's

  76. also about doing life together. And we

  77. were just talking about our highs and

  78. our lows, our our victories and our

  79. challenges. And we're also doing this

  80. game uh this resource called it's not

  81. it's not just about Sundays. It's a it's

  82. a card game or sort of prompt about

  83. conversations and and some of those

  84. questions we got prompted is is you know

  85. like talking about yourselves is am I a

  86. a home bunny or am I a a do I go out a

  87. lot or what's what's hope mean to you?

  88. And these other questions were uh I mean

  89. do you what was the first impression of

  90. me when you sort of saw me? Those sort

  91. of questions. We're talking about that

  92. and then one question popped up. It was

  93. this weird one that we all sort of

  94. struggled with was if Jesus was to turn

  95. up to Toadonga Elim today, what clothes

  96. would he be wearing? And we were just

  97. like, you know, the moment like I have

  98. never thought of this. And like some

  99. people were like, u I think he's going

  100. to have like robes on. I'm like, yeah,

  101. maybe not. Some people were like, maybe

  102. he's going to have like a really pimped

  103. out Versace suit or something like this.

  104. And and some of I think someone said he

  105. would look probably like Brody, you

  106. know, like I don't know what Brody with

  107. baggie jeans and a t-shirt and and

  108. someone with way more wisdom than me,

  109. cuz it definitely wasn't me. He goes, "I

  110. bet if he turned up, we wouldn't even

  111. notice him.

  112. He would just looked exactly like us."

  113. And isn't that probably a more of true

  114. statement than we realize, right? Who

  115. can can you guys remember that game uh

  116. Guess Who? Like do you can does this

  117. generation over here remember what guess

  118. who is? Yeah. Kind of a few nods over

  119. there like that. You got 30 tiles in

  120. front of you all with different sort of

  121. uh expressions on their faces. Some with

  122. glasses, some with beards, all that sort

  123. of stuff. And and you would have to like

  124. guess who the other person had and what

  125. they were looking at. And so we're going

  126. to play a game here this morning as I

  127. start just to sort of soften the moment

  128. here because I've already cried. We're

  129. going to play guess Who. So I need you

  130. guys to look around. Sort of look at the

  131. people next to you. So okay. Okay. So,

  132. I'm looking at someone. I've found that

  133. person in the in this crowd. And okay,

  134. my first clue is he is devilishly

  135. handsome. All right. Okay. Look around.

  136. Who? Don't stop looking at me. I'm not

  137. going to talk about myself. Although I

  138. am, you know, if the shoe fits. All

  139. right. Look around. Okay. So, I see a

  140. lot of the guys going, "Yeah, that's me.

  141. That's me." All right. That's right. I

  142. can see your shoulders back a little

  143. bit. This is fantastic. Okay. So, next

  144. one here is uh some will describe this

  145. person wise beyond their ears. Oh. Oh,

  146. straight away. A few guys. No, that's

  147. not me. We called a few of the crowd

  148. right there. So, wise are we still we

  149. still guessing? We're still guessing.

  150. Um, this is as someone would have said

  151. this person has definitely married up.

  152. You know what I mean? Like she is way

  153. more attractive than him. So, I've just

  154. sort of say so. Ross is like

  155. this is fantastic. Um, uh, this person

  156. um loves a good yarn. Okay. So, we sort

  157. of All right. There's a few people out

  158. there that don't know who this is. Some

  159. would say he is reflective in nature.

  160. So, does that sort of ring a bell

  161. anywhere over there? So, so it's good.

  162. I would say this person would probably

  163. spend more time in prayer than you this

  164. week. Oh, that's getting a little bit.

  165. Everyone's like, "Dan, that's not me.

  166. That cuts me off." And um

  167. who who hopes that that was like kind of

  168. the end? Like all those things are quite

  169. nice to be talked about, right? You

  170. know, that's cool. Maybe you want a

  171. wife. Put your hand up there. You can.

  172. That'll be good.

  173. Uh, a magician. Magician won't reveal

  174. his secret, so I won't tell you who I

  175. was actually talking about there. But

  176. that was definitely Pastor Aaron down

  177. here. You know, reflective in his nature

  178. cuz when this the lights are here, he

  179. sort of it does sort of bounce off a

  180. little bit there. I was going to go on

  181. to cricket and stuff, but I thought

  182. you'd lose you all. So,

  183. what happens when hope does not look

  184. like we expect?

  185. What happens in our life when hope the

  186. hope that we have does not look like we

  187. expect?

  188. We come to this portion of scripture

  189. between

  190. the arrest of Jesus and the torture, the

  191. death and the burial and his

  192. resurrection. We follow the story of two

  193. disciples, Cleopus and one unknown

  194. disciple. Maybe that's on purpose to so

  195. we can insert ourselves into the story.

  196. And we will just cut to verse 21 here.

  197. It says this. But this is what they said

  198. in the in the crux of what this this

  199. thing is about is he says, "But we

  200. Cleopus says we had hoped

  201. we had hoped that he Jesus was the one

  202. who was going to redeem Israel." Because

  203. you got to understand Cleopus in this

  204. moment. See, Friday has gone. Easter

  205. Friday has gone. their friend that they

  206. knew, their rabbi, their messiah that

  207. they had hoped had not destroyed the

  208. Roman Empire, but instead willingly died

  209. a violent death at the hands of these

  210. Romans.

  211. So, they had gone through Friday seeing

  212. their good friend give his life up for

  213. something that they did not expect. And

  214. they had gone through, they had woken up

  215. Saturday morning lost, sad, despondent.

  216. Had they just wasted three years

  217. following someone who they believed was

  218. the Messiah of the world but had let

  219. himself be killed by the by the Romans.

  220. They had gone through Saturday when

  221. everyone had scattered and everyone was

  222. confused and had not known what was

  223. going on and why had Jesus not called

  224. down angels. Why had he not like uh

  225. Roger was saying why he had not struck

  226. everyone with blindness or lightning?

  227. They had gone through Saturday and they

  228. had come to Sunday and they had waited

  229. till Sunday, the third day that he said

  230. that he was going to rise from the dead

  231. and he was not around. Some ladies had

  232. seen an empty tomb and Peter had seen an

  233. empty tomb but they had not seen Jesus.

  234. And so these two full of sadness, full

  235. of despair, full of their hope being

  236. crashed, their whole world around them

  237. crushed. They decide to go home. They

  238. decide to leave Jerusalem and travel

  239. home. Maybe it was to start again. Maybe

  240. it was to get their bearings in life,

  241. maybe to figure out what happened. But

  242. we find these guys here leaving

  243. Jerusalem. So verse 13 of chapter 24 of

  244. Luke, it says, "Now the same day, two of

  245. them were going to a village called

  246. Emirates, Emmas, sorry. But seven about

  247. 7 miles from Jerusalem,

  248. roughly a two to two and a half hour

  249. walk, three if you've got a uh if you're

  250. slow." They were talking with each other

  251. about everything that had happened, the

  252. circumstances. As they talked and

  253. discussed these things with each other,

  254. Jesus himself came up and walked along

  255. with him, but they were kept from

  256. recognizing him. That's a powerful

  257. statement. They were kept from

  258. recognizing him. Was this because I

  259. don't know like this is just a strange

  260. thing. Like they had spent three years

  261. with this guy. They had traveled with

  262. him. They'd eaten meals with him. They

  263. had seen him do so many miracles. And

  264. you would think they would recognize

  265. him. But maybe it was because Jesus is

  266. what they had also seen him completely

  267. disfigured. They had seen him could go

  268. through all the pains of what he did in

  269. the cross. And maybe they saw him

  270. completely healed and they couldn't

  271. recognize him. Maybe Jesus was wearing a

  272. different colored t-shirt. I don't know.

  273. But it could be that guys are just so

  274. colorblind and so oblivious to the

  275. things, but they could not see him. I

  276. don't know about you guys. I have this

  277. at home all the time when I'm looking

  278. for the tomato sauce in the fridge,

  279. right? And I am at the fridge. I have

  280. been there for three and a half minutes

  281. and I have checked every shelf, every

  282. every sort of door, every nook and

  283. cranny in the fridge and I cannot see

  284. it. And Karen's yelling at me from the

  285. lounge. It's in there. It's in there.

  286. And that moment that all maybe guys we

  287. fear is that when you hear them get up

  288. cuz you have not found it's right there

  289. in the door, they say, and you hear them

  290. walking. So you start rattling through.

  291. You start pulling everything out. And

  292. and it's I don't know about you, but my

  293. wife has magic, dark magic powers. she

  294. can come past me as her arm goes into

  295. the fridge. It is this it's it's weird.

  296. As she goes into the fridge, this the

  297. bottle of sauce appears. It is it is the

  298. most uncanny thing. And my eyes are

  299. opened. It's like, "Oh, there it is."

  300. And she whacks me with a frying pan and

  301. then we get on with life. So, how you

  302. know?

  303. But they were kept

  304. from recognizing him.

  305. Were they so despondent and sad

  306. because their dreams of a free nation

  307. under the rule from Roman rule didn't

  308. come to pass.

  309. They were so stuck in their

  310. circumstances talking about what had

  311. happened.

  312. They couldn't see Jesus right there in

  313. front of them.

  314. If I reflect on our lives, if we if we

  315. reflect on our lives, there's been many

  316. times in if I even say my life that I've

  317. been so stuck in circumstances and

  318. situations that I have not seen Jesus

  319. right next to me.

  320. It's a scary prospect, is it not? That

  321. three years of their lives they had

  322. spent with Jesus and they were still

  323. consumed with the problems in front of

  324. me and they could not see Jesus.

  325. I remember Aaron did this beautiful job

  326. a few months ago talking about Haggi.

  327. This was Sarah's and Abraham's and

  328. Ishmael's Haggi and she finds herself in

  329. such a horrible circumstance been being

  330. kicked out of by Abraham. And go listen

  331. to Aaron's sermon about this a few

  332. months ago. It does it beautifully. But

  333. Haggi if you you don't know this is the

  334. first person to ever give God a name

  335. before Abraham before anyone else gives

  336. God a name. Haggi is the first to name

  337. God.

  338. And you find herself, she finds herself

  339. dying of thirst.

  340. She had puts her son Ishmael underneath

  341. the tree to die away from her because

  342. she couldn't stand the thought of him

  343. dying in front of her. And she comes

  344. into a bush and she starts to cry out to

  345. God. And here we find in Genesis 21:1 19

    Genesis 21:1

  346. after her crying out, she goes, "Then

  347. God opened her eyes and she saw a well

  348. of water. So she went and filled the

  349. skin with water and gave the boy a

  350. drink. When we cry out to God, God opens

  351. our eyes to see what's right in front of

  352. us. The well was there the whole time,

  353. but she couldn't see it. So she calls

  354. God Alroy, translated as it means God,

  355. the God who sees me, declaring, "I have

  356. now seen the one who sees me." So we

  357. come back to these two disciples. We see

  358. in the middle of their pain, Jesus was

  359. present.

  360. Can we get this across our lives? In the

  361. middle of what they were going through,

  362. Jesus was still present with them. Even

  363. when they could not see him,

  364. >> he was right there with them.

  365. >> Walking the walk with them, present in

  366. their pain.

  367. >> Their eyes could not see it, but Jesus

  368. was right there beside him.

  369. >> How good is that for our life? Is it not

  370. encouraging this morning that what we go

  371. through, the pain, the the the

  372. hopelessness, the the the the journey of

  373. life, the highs and lows, Jesus is right

  374. there beside us. Even if we cannot

  375. recognize him. So good to know that,

  376. isn't it? This morning, in the midst of

  377. their circumstances, Jesus was present.

  378. When we are too caught up in our worries

  379. and our concerns, Jesus is still

  380. present. When we're still so

  381. hyperfocused on our reels and our news

  382. and our what's happening in Ukraine,

  383. Jesus is still present in our

  384. surroundings. When we look at our bank

  385. account, Jesus is still present in those

  386. zeros. He's present in those zeros.

  387. He's walking with us. We need eyes to

  388. see him this morning. How many times

  389. have we missed Jesus walking beside us

  390. because we have kept something from

  391. seeing him. And our prayer this morning

  392. is give us eyes to see you, Jesus.

  393. Back to the disciples. He asked them,

  394. this is Jesus talking, "What are you

  395. discussing together as you walk along?"

  396. They stood still, their faces downcast.

  397. One of them named Cleopus asked him,

  398. "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem

  399. who does not know the things that have

  400. happened in the last these days?" And

  401. Jesus, I if you don't know if Jesus has

  402. a sense of humor, this is the word,

  403. "What things?" The very dude that was

  404. whipped 39 times and went through the

  405. cross, he's like, "What things?" He's

  406. like, it is such an iconic moment of

  407. where Jesus

  408. Jesus knew exactly what they were

  409. talking about. Yet he still asked the

  410. question.

  411. He knows exactly what you're going

  412. through this morning, Mezzanine.

  413. Yet he still asked the questions, "What

  414. things?"

  415. He's walking beside you. The hope is

  416. right there and he knows the answers,

  417. but he's still going to engage you and

  418. he's still going to go, "What are you

  419. going through?

  420. It's powerful to know this that he is

  421. walking beside us and he's entering into

  422. our circumstances. He's not just

  423. loitering behind. He's not He goes,

  424. "What things are you going through?"

  425. Isn't it? As a parent, sometimes you

  426. just like when you're parenting your

  427. kids, right? You just want to get them

  428. and you like you just want to I don't

  429. know how to describe it without being

  430. violent. like you just want to grab them

  431. and go stop doing this and do this

  432. instead. Like I want to hit you with a

  433. frying pan. Like uh I don't know where

  434. frying pans are coming from. But Jesus

  435. doesn't do that. He doesn't grab these

  436. two disciples and slap them with like a

  437. fish. He That was such a good word from

  438. Sue, wasn't it? He goes, "What things

  439. are you going through?" He enters into

  440. what they're going into.

  441. The answer enters into your problem.

  442. Church, isn't it encouraging that the

  443. creator of the world wants to know what

  444. we're going through?

  445. Come on. He wants us to vent to him, to

  446. share our burdens, to cast our cares on

  447. him. David got this in Psalm 142. He

  448. goes, "I cry aloud to the Lord. I lift

  449. up my voice to the Lord of merc for

  450. mercy. I pour out before him my

  451. complaint. Before him I tell my trouble.

  452. When my spirit grows faint within me, it

  453. is you who watch over my way. Imagine if

  454. we took all our complaints to him first.

  455. All our disappointments to Jesus instead

  456. of social media.

  457. Imagine we took our anger to Jesus first

  458. before we poured it out on those around

  459. us. Imagine if we took all our

  460. frustrations to Jesus before we sent

  461. that email. Yeah. Just it would be so

  462. good. Imagine if we spent some time

  463. alone with him before we walk out that

  464. door on that relationship.

  465. Jesus is present. He's walking with us

  466. and he wants to enter into our

  467. circumstances.

  468. Verse 25, we carry on after him

  469. listening to a whole lot of verses about

  470. them explaining. He goes, he said, Jesus

  471. said to them, how foolish you are. I

  472. love the saying, love has been walking

  473. with them. He has been entered into

  474. their conversation. And uh instead of

  475. just going there, there it's going to be

  476. okay. Tomorrow is a new day. Life is un

  477. life is unfair. He goes, "This is the

  478. this is love telling us what to do. How

  479. foolish you are."

  480. Come on. Jesus does not speak to the

  481. circumstances. He reminds us. Let's see.

  482. See what he goes. He goes, "How foolish

  483. you are and how slow you are to believe

  484. all the prophets have spoken. Did not

  485. the Messiah have to suffer these things

  486. and enter his glory. And beginning with

  487. Moses and all the prophets, he explained

  488. to them what was said in all the

  489. scriptures concerning himself." Okay?

  490. So, love walks with us. Love enters into

  491. our conversation. And love looks like he

  492. doesn't just go there, there, it's okay.

  493. You'll get over it. You You will get

  494. through today. No, he goes, "Guys, you

  495. don't understand. We don't believe with

  496. your heart. Let me show you in the

  497. scriptures what you can go through." It

  498. it's it's interesting like if I was to

  499. say you guys um imagine if I said like,

  500. "Let's come back to the next week when

  501. when when pastor Aaron's uh sort of

  502. sharing next week you're going to come

  503. and it's going to be the greatest uh day

  504. in your life. Your hearts are going to

  505. be burning. Your whole life is going to

  506. be changed. You'll never be the same."

  507. And so you imagine you turned up next

  508. week and instead of worship, instead of

  509. baristas, instead of great good-looking

  510. greeters and funny MC's that we have,

  511. and Pastor Aaron just gets up and and

  512. just goes through a Bible study for

  513. three and a half hours because that's

  514. exactly what happens here in the

  515. scripture. Jesus does just takes these

  516. people on a through the Bible.

  517. He uses the scriptures to get through

  518. their unbelief.

  519. He doesn't talk about their current

  520. circumstances. He reminds them of what

  521. God has already done and promised. See

  522. the Greek language has two words for the

  523. word of God. There's obviously the logos

  524. which is the written word of God and

  525. Rama which is the spoken word of God. So

  526. we literally have the Rama which is

  527. Jesus the spoken word of God. He is he

  528. could have said anything but he goes

  529. back to the logos. He goes back to the

  530. written word of God to help these

  531. disciples see who he was right next to

  532. them. He doesn't talk about

  533. circumstances. He doesn't talk about all

  534. that sort of stuff. He talks about

  535. Jesus. Guys, we need to know Jesus

  536. through the scriptures.

  537. Can I say this? The clearer we know

  538. Jesus from the Bible, the quicker we

  539. will be to recognize him.

  540. He is with us. Even when we don't see or

  541. feel, he listens to all our complaints.

  542. And the way faith is developed is by

  543. hearing the word of God and reading,

  544. understanding the word of God. Verse 32,

  545. they say this. Were not our hearts

  546. burning with us while he was talking

  547. with us on the road and opened the

  548. scriptures.

  549. If we had to identify Jesus, can I ask

  550. this question? Based if we had to

  551. identify Jesus in a in a lineup, it's a

  552. weird sort of thing to think about.

  553. Based on how much we read the Bible, do

  554. we think we can identify him?

  555. If we were had to identify Jesus to the

  556. extent of our Bible reading, how well

  557. would we go? This is not asked to

  558. embarrass or shame but to create a

  559. hunger in us to know him through the

  560. reading and hearing of the word of God.

  561. We live in a time of an abundance,

  562. right? We have uh printed Bibles a we

  563. have Uver Bibles. We have two zillion uh

  564. devotions available on Uver. And we have

  565. so much opportunity to know him. And yet

  566. we live in a hyperdistracted world.

  567. Right? Can I can I I think I wrote this

  568. down. We have disciplined ourselves to

  569. live highly distracted.

  570. A lot of us will go, I don't have time

  571. or I don't have the the energy or I

  572. don't have the the opportunity to read

  573. the Bible. Yet I can say this. We have

  574. disciplined our ourselves to live highly

  575. distracted lives through phones and

  576. conversations and through what's going

  577. on around us. We have disciplined our

  578. lives to to live highly distracted. We

  579. may call it downtime or me time. But we

  580. have habits in our lives that keep us

  581. distracted. Yet it does not fulfill us.

  582. It does not keep us whole. It just it

  583. doesn't fulfill anything. The brokenness

  584. of our marriages, our relationships, our

  585. loneliness, our anger, it's always still

  586. there.

  587. It's funny. all the stats that we have

  588. in our society is we're getting more

  589. anxious, more worried, more

  590. disconnected, more alone.

  591. It seems everything the world offers is

  592. falling coming up short.

  593. Like George said when he got baptized

  594. three weeks ago, I did see George here

  595. somewhere. He goes, "I tried filling the

  596. hole in my heart with work. It didn't

  597. work. I've tried filling it with

  598. marriage and it didn't work. I tried

  599. filling it with kids and it didn't

  600. work." He goes, "Not till I found Jesus

  601. that the hole in my heart was finally

  602. complete."

  603. Lifeway did a a study of 40,000 people

  604. ages 8 to 80.

  605. And they said that they uh tracking what

  606. actual reading of the Bible does and

  607. helps people in their lives. And it said

  608. this, they said, "If you read the Bible

  609. once a week, there is no discernable

  610. difference in your life." So today,

  611. there's no discernable difference from

  612. what I the Bible that we're getting. If

  613. you read it two to three times, there's

  614. a slight increase in your change of your

  615. life and what you go through. But they

  616. say when people engage with the Bible

  617. for four times in a week, things

  618. drastically ramp up. The more time you

  619. spend getting to know Jesus, the more

  620. this is what the stats say. If you read

  621. the Bible four times in a week, loan the

  622. lonely uh feeling lonely drops 30%

  623. across those people. If you read the

  624. Bible four times a week, anger issues

  625. drop 32%.

  626. If you read the Bible four times in a

  627. week, bitterness in relationship drops

  628. 40%. This is this is a massive survey

  629. across 40,000 people across all ages.

  630. This is what what the stats say. If you

  631. read the Bible four times a week,

  632. alcoholism drops 57%.

  633. This is just by reading the word of God,

  634. guys. Sex outside of marriage drops 68%

  635. when you read the Bible four times in a

  636. week. Come on, guys. Spearing feeling

  637. spiritually stagnant drops 60% when you

  638. read the Bible four times in a week.

  639. Viewing pornography drops 61% when you

  640. read the Bible four times in a week.

  641. Sharing your faith jumps 200%.

  642. >> Sharing your faith jumps 200% when you

  643. read the Bible four times in a week.

  644. How good is this? What we're looking for

  645. is in front of us.

  646. Jesus is walking with us. He's entered

  647. into our circumstances. He wants to hear

  648. our vent, but he also wants to show

  649. himself to us through the word of God.

  650. And when you read the word of God, your

  651. whole life has changed.

  652. As we come to a close, can I get uh

  653. Ellie on the keys? As they approached

  654. the village by which they were going,

  655. Jesus continued on. I love this. He

  656. continues on as if he was going further,

  657. but they urged him strongly, saying,

  658. "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening.

  659. The day is almost over." So he went in

  660. to stay with him.

  661. But they urged him strongly, saying,

  662. "Stay

  663. with us." Jesus indicated that he was

  664. going to go further. But verse 29, they

  665. urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with

  666. us."

  667. Jesus was going to go on.

  668. He was going to go past. He was going to

  669. continue. They had to invite him in.

  670. They had to initiate. Stay with us.

  671. The disciples had to invite Jesus into

  672. their world and invite him into their

  673. life and say these words, "Stay with us.

  674. And it goes on to say that

  675. when he came, he like Roger did, he

  676. broke the bread. They had communion and

  677. their eyes were finally opened and they

  678. were able to see Jesus for who he was.

  679. Can I say this? This journey this

  680. morning is not leading us is leading us

  681. not to getting our problems solved or

  682. venting to God or hearing scripture.

  683. It is getting our eyes open to Jesus by

  684. inviting him into our hearts.

  685. When you when I have the wrong view of

  686. Jesus, life and circumstances will lead

  687. you will lead you eventually to a walk

  688. away from him. If Jesus is just a rubber

  689. stamp on your life,

  690. or he is only just a safe place to run

  691. to when you get in trouble,

  692. you will probably find yourself walking

  693. away from him because you don't know who

  694. he fully is. In week three of Alpha, we

  695. do this one week called, it is probably

  696. the most powerful week in Alpha

  697. because it talks about who is Jesus.

  698. He's either a liar, a lunatic, or he's

  699. Lord.

  700. And I can tell you, we've had had

  701. atheists come through. We've had people

  702. struggling with faith come through.

  703. People that are just searching come

  704. through. We've had people from different

  705. faiths come through Alpha. And I

  706. encourage you if this is you, man, I

  707. would sign up outside today cuz it will

  708. change your life. Not alpha per se, but

  709. getting into a group with people that

  710. are going to have a meal with you and

  711. share life with you and discuss what's

  712. going on in your world and having a

  713. place for you to vent all your doubts

  714. and vent all these sort of things. They

  715. come to this point on generally on week

  716. three is Jesus is either a liar or he's

  717. a lunatic or he's Lord.

  718. And this morning, what is he to you?

  719. Is Jesus a liar? Did he all he say was a

  720. lie and it's a waste of time? Or is he a

  721. lunatic? Was he just crazy? Was he all

  722. that he said that is just crazy? Or to

  723. this morning, is he lord of your life?

  724. Have you invited him into your life?

  725. you get your eyes opened.

  726. And as we close, can I have every head

  727. bowed, every eye closed? Because I just

  728. want to do a challenge to every single

  729. person here because this is a decision

  730. between you and Jesus, not between you

  731. and the person next to you.

  732. I don't know why you're here this

  733. morning. I don't know what circumstance

  734. you find yourself in. Maybe your world

  735. has imploded. Maybe you are here just

  736. trying to restart your life. Maybe you

  737. are stuck in a rut. Maybe you're just

  738. here focusing on your own problems. Can

  739. I tell you this morning, the Bible says

  740. that all have fallen short.

  741. All have missed the mark.

  742. It says that sin which is missing the

  743. mark separates us from God.

  744. It says that sin, the wages of sin is

  745. death. But like Roger said, that God

  746. loved us so much that Jesus came to pay

  747. a price for us. a price that we not did

  748. not deserve, but a price that was

  749. lovingly laid down for us. And the Bible

  750. says that whoever believes in him,

  751. Jesus, will receive eternal life. And

  752. the Bible says anyone who places their

  753. hope in God will not be disappointed.

  754. And when you confess Jesus before man,

  755. Jesus confesses you before the father.

  756. and with every head bowed and every eye

  757. closed. And I've been talking about

  758. Jesus a lot this morning. And maybe

  759. you'll hear that you don't have an

  760. active a real relationship with Jesus.

  761. And my heart this morning is that you

  762. would not leave this place, mezzanine.

  763. You would not leave this place online.

  764. You would not leave what you're doing

  765. right now without an opportunity to get

  766. it to say to Jesus, "Come and stay in my

  767. life."

  768. And how we do that is we simply we're

  769. I'm going to lead you in a simple

  770. prayer. Uh and but before I do that, I

  771. just want to know who is going to be

  772. included in that prayer. So with every

  773. head bowed, every eye closed because I

  774. just want this between you and God. If

  775. there's anyone here who would love to or

  776. would like to accept Jesus Christ as

  777. their savior this morning, who wants to

  778. place their life into his arms and to

  779. come and say, "Jesus, can you come and

  780. stay with me in my life and lead me?" On

  781. on the count of three, I'm just going to

  782. ask for hands to be lifted. One, if God

  783. is doing something in your life, why

  784. don't you lift your hand? Two, if

  785. there's something, if your heart's

  786. racing, why don't you lift a hand on the

  787. count of three? Three. There's any hands

  788. in this place that just need to get

  789. lifted. Yeah, his hands. Cool. His hands

  790. going up all over the place. There's

  791. hands in the mezzanine. There's hands

  792. across the front. There's hands in the

  793. back. There's hands in the front. This

  794. is fantastic. God, church is doing

  795. something God. Church, God is doing

  796. something amazing this morning in this

  797. place. Holy Spirit, let's lift those

  798. hands nice and high. Come on, lift those

  799. hands. This is not a a a scary moment.

  800. This is a moment to celebrate. Come on,

  801. church. Why don't we give a round of

  802. applause just for those that have got

  803. their hands lifted?

  804. It's so exciting. There's hands. That's

  805. so awesome to see. So, with every head

  806. bowed, I'm just going to lead you in a

  807. real simple prayer before I hand back to

  808. Pastor Aaron as he's going to close the

  809. service. And this prayer is just it's

  810. just a simple prayer that just

  811. acknowledges who we are and and invites

  812. Jesus to come and stay in our heart. So,

  813. and why don't we church the why don't

  814. the whole church just say this because

  815. it's just it's encouraging and it helps

  816. those around us cuz I want us to say it

  817. out loud, not just inside of our hearts

  818. this morning. So, so Jesus, come on.

  819. Let's just say this a little bit louder

  820. there, church. So, Jesus,

  821. I come to you today

  822. in need of you.

  823. I give you my whole life.

  824. I give you all my mess,

  825. all my wrongs.

  826. I place my whole life

  827. into your life.

  828. Please come stay in my life.

  829. I accept you as my savior.

  830. Lord

  831. of my life

  832. in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen.

  833. Come on church want to give it up for

  834. those that gave their lives to Jesus

  835. this morning and Pastor Aaron