When the Miracle Fades - April 27, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

I was reminiscing about the kids when they were younger.

And, you know, each one had their different security thing.

I can't remember. I think it was Adam, my oldest son. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, honey.

But we had this, it was not a bib, but it was like a big stuffed Tweety Bird head.

And it had like a little blanket, looked like a cape. And I think it was Adam

that just loved that thing. He thought it was his best friend.

You would take that and you'd put it up to him. And he would just smile and

just look at it. And Debbie Winchester's grandson is here today,

baby Henry, who we prayed for.

Huh? Oh, Leroy. Yeah, we've been praying for baby Henry too, but baby Leroy.

I've got all these babies we're praying for. So it's kind of like when my kids

get in trouble and I yell every single name before I get to the right one.

That's another thing that started happening after 50. I don't know where that came from.

That was before 50? Oh, man.

We'll have a special prayer service for your pastor.

Baby Leroy, when I saw him before church started, Debbie brought him up to me

and he finally gazed upon me.

And now it wasn't a smile that he gave me. It wasn't gas either, but it was a frown.

And so hopefully he's somewhere where he's happy right now.

But you think about children. I remember a pastor once told a story of going

into a grocery store and coming across a scene that just blessed his heart.

And it was a little baby who had a pacifier in her mouth, had a backup pacifier

in her right hand and a backup backup pacifier in her left hand.

And she was clutching onto those things.

And the scene, what made it funny is she kept trying to take the other ones

and put them in her mouth where she already had a pacifier.

And I think about that with relation to human beings and to us.

Kind of question, how many pacifiers do we need? Well, hopefully,

you gave them up a long time ago, at least the baby ones, but there's still things that we cling to.

There's still things we go back to that provide that level of comfort or security

that we look after, that we think that we need.

Sometimes those pacifiers, they can be things like possessions,

like the physical pacifiers.

Sometimes those things can be positions that we have, a position on a board,

a community elected position, or a community volunteer position.

We like to go back to those things. They give us a sense of identity and security and of worth.

I'm not saying anything things are wrong, but there's things that we revert back to.

Relationships. There's certain relationships that we have that we just feel

so safe, and we feel that we just need to hang on to those. and those aren't bad either.

But sometimes there's things that we just go back to that aren't so healthy.

Perhaps it is a bad relationship that's not so great, but we do have a sense

that this person's not going to leave, that I'm not going to leave.

And so we deal with some complex issues.

Sometimes we have feelings of inferiority that we just revert to.

I mean, we can be having just a great day and all of a sudden we get a little

frightened because our day's going so good and we start to look,

okay, great. When's the other shoe going to drop?

You know, when are things going to happen that's just going to throw a monkey wrench in there?

So we revert back into these feelings of inadequacy or insecurity,

even though we're looking for security. It's an ironic kind of thing.

Sometimes we look to the applause or the approval of others,

and that's our security blanket.

That's our pacifier that we go back to. And, you know, again,

some of these things in the right context are not wrong.

They're not bad. But.

They just go back to this innate need that we have to feel secure.

And even salvation, for instance.

There's a lot of people that, we talk about eternal security of the believer,

but there's a lot of people that deal with eternal insecurity.

They don't know if they're saved or not.

I may have prayed a prayer once, but I don't know. Did God really hear my prayer? Did he answer?

I mean, even in their salvation, there's not a sense that I know I'm good with God.

I know God's grace covers me.

I know that I, if I were to die right now in this moment, that I would be with him.

I mean, when we think about all these terms, it kind of brings up a huge need that we have.

We enjoy the miraculous things of God, but when that fades, what is left?

Do we go back to those security things that we have and forget what God did

in our life, what God is doing in our life, or do we have a way that we cope

with that? It's not a new problem, by the way.

It's something that the children of Israel experienced. When we think about

the Old Testament, especially a couple examples, we have this human tendency

to forget God's provision.

We have this human tendency to forget the miracles that God did,

the miracles, the things that he's done in our lives.

I mean, think about the children of Israel, okay?

When they were captive in Egypt for hundreds of years, when they were a slave

there, think about how God brought them out, how he brought them out,

led them out of Egypt through Moses.

It's an astounding story, but it also reminds us, as we think about the Old

Testament, especially the Exodus, when we look at the book of Exodus,

how God led them out, but how those same children of Israel always wanted their security blanket.

No matter how bad it was, they wanted to go back to Egypt.

Many times they would say, Moses, what have you done? You brought us out here in the desert to die.

We had everything we needed in Egypt, except for freedom.

And you brought us out here now to perish. I mean, think about it.

There are 40 years in the wilderness, 40 years out in the desert.

Estimated over a million people traversing the landscape.

And in those 40 years, God provided for them. Here's some of the ways.

He parted the Red Sea so they could get to where they were needing to go.

That's miraculous. That's astounding. You think about how God would lead the

children of Israel, the Israelites, with a cloud by day and a fire by night.

That's incredible. That's amazing. And I was hoping the other day,

I think it was Friday, there's supposed to be a smiley face in the sky. Do you hear about that?

There's supposed to be the crescent moon at just the right angle and then two

stars above it. that looked like a smiley face.

Now, not the Walmart smiley face, but just something to make it.

But then it was all cloudy. You couldn't see anything. I digress.

Just seeing that makes you happy. Imagine seeing a pillar to lead you,

a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Oh, how amazing that would be.

We think about the daily provisions with manna, with whatever it was to go out and to collect it.

It would nourish them. It would feed them. We think about how their clothes

and their shoes did not wear out during that time.

That's astounding miracles. But yet all the while, they complained.

All the while, they worried. All the while, they longed to go back to Egypt,

to go back and be captives again.

And that can be frightening. They had a warning in Deuteronomy 8, verses 11 through 14.

Deuteronomy 8:11–14

Listen to the warning that they were given. Take care lest you forget the Lord

your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes,

which I commanded you today,

lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in

them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied

and all that you have is multiplied,

that sounds like pretty good times.

Then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought

you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

The warning that God was given to them was, hey,

don't become all fat and sassy and forget who enabled you to be at this point,

who brought you along so that you could have all this, who provided the way

that you could have the blessings that you're enjoying.

It's a scary, scary thing. And you think this warning, they would listen.

They would continue in the commands and the ways of the God that led them out

of Egypt, that took care of them for those 40 years?

But yet we learn in Psalms that they really didn't listen. This is kind of the

country song, I think, of the Psalms right here.

I like country music, so I'm not bashing it. I like all kinds of music.

But listen to this, Psalm 106, verse 7 and verse 13.

Psalms 106:7

Our fathers, when they went out of Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works.

They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea at the Red Sea.

They soon forgot his works. they did not wait for his counsel.

Kind of like the country song where everything's gone bad and all they can do

is just sit around and drink and think about it.

You know, one of them drink and cheating songs kind of thing.

They couldn't keep up. The human tendency was there to go back to what they

thought they needed, which wasn't what they needed.

They needed to trust in God, but yet they would always revert back.

And maybe even you in your own life, you tend to fall back into what's secure.

You fall back into what you know and what you have a handle on in the routines

that time after time have proven them to be a place of comfort or security for you.

Nothing wrong with that. I just want to encourage you that God might have something

different in mind for you, that God might want you to step out of that comfort

zone because he wants to grow you in your faith, because he wants to teach you something,

something for your good but for the good of others as well.

And so I think about our New Testament example today, which comes from the scripture

and the continuation of the passage we read last week on Resurrection Sunday,

and that's John chapter 20, verses 19 through 31.

John 20:19–31

And we'll read that together. It's kind of lengthy, so if you're not able to stand, I understand.

But hear the word of the Lord from the gospel of John chapter 20, starting in verse 19.

John 20 · chapter mention

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together

with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among

them and said, Peace be with you.

After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were

overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

And again, Jesus said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

And with that, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. If you do not forgive

them, they are not forgiven.

Now Thomas, also known as Didymus, was one of the twelve.

He was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.

But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers

where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.

A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.

Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

Then he said to Thomas, Put your fingers here. See my hands?

Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.

Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God.

Then Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples,

which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe

that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

May God bless the reading of this scripture to your life today.

Thank you for honoring the word. You can be seated.

We think about this example of the disciples, and really it's no different than

what we talked about with the children of Israel, because think about it.

We celebrated the resurrection Sunday last week, Jesus rising from the grave.

We hear the testimony of the women who saw Jesus and who went back and reported.

We see Peter and John that ran to the tomb, saw the empty tomb, the grave closed there.

But yet, where do we see the disciples that afternoon after this amazing occurrence,

this miracle of Jesus, the Messiah, coming back from the dead, escaping the grave?

Well, let me refresh your memory. On the evening of that first day of the week,

when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish

leaders, Jesus came and stood amongst them.

What was their pacifier? We need to hide.

We need to get away. They were afraid. They were confused.

They weren't sure what to do next. And so they did what they always did.

They reverted back to what they knew. Let's go and hide.

The locked doors was a symbol of their fear. And the scripture even bears it

out for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Were they going to be the next ones falsely accused and crucified like their

Savior was? I mean, they totally missed the point of what happened that morning.

They totally missed the fact that Jesus was not in that grave.

And Peter and John, John the one writing this book, he was a witness to that.

But he was still locked in the room with everyone else except for one guy,

Thomas. We don't know where he was hiding at.

We know he wasn't there. But here they were gathered together, locked away.

Now, it just wasn't that time because we see from the passage that here Jesus

comes, miraculously appears in their midst and says, peace be with you.

He had to say that twice because where'd this guy come from?

The door's locked. We know it's locked.

But here's Jesus. And not only that, Jesus gives them a commission.

He hints around to what they're going to be doing. As the Father has sent me, so send I you.

And then the scripture here says he breathed on them, said, receive the Holy Spirit.

You're going to do this, but you're going to have the empowerment of my spirit, of the Holy Spirit.

Well, that should have made an incredible difference, right?

That should have just totally transformed these guys. Now they've witnessed two miracles.

They witnessed the miracle of Jesus not being in the grave, resurrected,

witnessed by the women, witnessed by Peter and John, and the testimony came back to all of them.

But then the second witness later, miracle, I should say, later that afternoon,

they're gathered together, hideaway, locked in the upper room.

And then Jesus appears in their midst through the locked door.

Well, that should have woke him up for them to realize who their Messiah was.

Now, I know grief does weird things to people.

It makes us think weird things. It makes us feel weird things.

We work through the process, and no doubt this just, man, it totally messed

up their hard drive of their heart.

They're trying to do a reboot here, and something just crashed it. It was Jesus.

He crashes the party, gives them this mission, gives them the empowerment through the Holy Spirit.

Says, go on. A week later, let's pick it back up.

Thomas was finally gathering with them. But did you catch what it said in verse 26?

They're gathered together again in the upper room. So a week has gone by.

Man, you can do a lot in a week.

But where were they again? Let's look at verse 26. A week later,

his disciples were there in the house again, and Thomas was with them.

So Thomas finally shows up. Yeah.

Though the doors were locked. Come on, guys. They locked the door again.

Now, they're not down in Compton or South Central LA or something where you got to lock your doors.

Hanford, California, where we used to live. I guess when I was,

that's another story. We've lived in a few bad neighborhoods.

They weren't in a place they had to lock the doors, but they still did.

Jesus makes a second appearance a week later, and a whole week has gone by.

Again, a locked door. I think what this points out to us, or at least what I

see from it, is that miracles don't necessarily change us.

Something greater has to happen. There has to be an inner transformation that happens.

I mean, the disciples saw the resurrected Jesus,

not just once but another time and then several more times after that Thomas

was like oh you guys are pulling a fast one in me yeah Jesus showed up last week alright whatever,

and then Jesus shows up alright Thomas you need to put your fingers and the

wounds in my hands you need to stick your hand in my side no way I see you're here,

Jesus says to Thomas stop doubting and believe and I think there's another message for us in there.

They saw all these miraculous things, but it didn't change who they were.

They were still a week later locked up in a room, ineffective for the kingdom,

having a holy huddle of what they thought would be.

And it was holy when Jesus showed up.

But I got to tell you, we can witness all kinds of miracles taking place,

but unless there's something inside of us that changes, it's not going to have

the impact that it's meant to have.

Some of you in here are witnesses to some great, incredible miracles.

You've seen God do some amazing things in the lives of your family,

in the life of your church, perhaps just witnessing and hearing stories of them.

But how does that change us?

See, there's a big difference between being purified, or excuse me,

and yeah, and being pacified and being purified. Let me rephrase that.

There is a big difference between being pacified and being purified.

And God wants to purify you.

God wants to purify you through and through to be able to do what he wants you

to do, to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit of God living within you,

to be the person that God has meant you to be.

And that takes this kind of transformation that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5, 17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away. The new has come.

It's a new nature, folks.

It's like a new baby being born.

You're a baby Christian when God encounters your life. You have the miracle

of salvation. You experience the death, the burial, the resurrection.

When you ask Christ into your heart, he forgives your sin.

You give him your life completely, and he exchanges your old,

dirty, filthy rags of sin, and he gives you a new being.

Transforms your life. Again, I can't help but think of the old Salty the Song song.

Bullfrogs and butterflies, you must be born again. That's exactly what it is.

It's what Jesus told Nicodemus about in John earlier in the book.

You must be born again. It's this new transformation that takes place in a person's life.

It's a true transformation that changes the very essence of who you are.

No longer are you a sinner.

No longer are you just a person who was marked by the sin after sin after sin,

even when you meant well and you ended up having this blow up in your face and sinning.

That's your old nature, the nature of sin.

But because of what Jesus Christ has done, when you give him that,

he gives you a new nature.

You're a new creation, the scripture says, don't just take my word for it.

Again, 2 Corinthians 5.17.

You are a new creation.

Transformed by God. I want to share a story with you about true transformation

that happens centuries ago.

The year was 1597, I'm told, or what I read anyway.

In 1597 in Japan, it was a much different Japan than it is now.

Not just because of all the buildings and the skylights and the flashy signs they have.

But culturally speaking, you see, in that era, in the 16th century,

they persecuted Christians, Christian missionaries that would come.

They persecuted their own people who would turn to faith in Jesus Christ and

have their own lives transformed.

And this is a story about a group of them.

You see, it was 1597 in Nagasaki, Japan. There are 26 Christians who were arrested

and tried for the crime of believing in Jesus Christ.

The crime of following this man, Jesus. The oldest man was 64 years old.

The youngest of this group was only 12.

The authorities led them to a hill where they said, if you're going to follow

Jesus, then you will die like Jesus.

And they made several crosses on this hill, crude crosses that were put together,

and they were going to kill each and every one of these Christians.

There is a young man, the 12-year-old, his name was Ibaragji.

And I know I butchered that, but that's what we're going with.

Ibaragji Kun, this 12-year-old. The authorities were very disturbed that someone

so young was going to have to die because he had placed faith in Jesus,

and this was not allowed.

And so the authorities begged him, the government officials begged him, recant your faith.

Say you don't believe in Jesus. You have your whole life ahead of you.

Ibarigi said, sir, it would be better if you yourself became a Christian so

you could go to heaven where I'm going.

And he said it with a smile on his face as it's recorded.

Then without hesitation, he turned and looked to all the crosses that were on

the hill and asked the official, which one is mine? the official reluctantly

pointed out the one that was to be for him.

Ibariji ran over and he fell to the ground and he just hugged that cross.

Well, the story goes, the official could do nothing.

The law did what the law is going to do. All 26 of them were put on those crosses

and all 26 of them sang until they could not sing anymore.

And they gave up their life. There were no locked doors with these 26.

There were no pacifiers needed for each and every one of these people that were killed.

Evidently, each and every one had already died to themselves and had been raised with Christ.

And what occurred here, even in this young man's heart, was so incredible that

it made this young 12-year-old courageous, this young 12-year-old fearless,

this young 12-year-old confident that if he were to die right then,

he knew where he would be going.

That's the kind of transformation I'm talking about, where you die with Christ.

You live in a new life resurrected by the power of God in Jesus to live and

to do what God wants you to do, to live and to do and to be who God has created you to be.

There's a verse in Revelation that I hope each of us are aware you will be at least today.

Revelation chapter 12, verse 10, 11. Listen to this. Then I heard a loud voice

Revelation 12:10

from heaven say, Now have come the salvation, the power, and the kingdom of

our God and the authority of his Messiah.

For the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God

day and night has been hurled down.

They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.

They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Looking ahead to future events, looking ahead to what the martyrs have done,

even little 12-year-old Iribaji,

to think that they knew where their security lay, and it did not lay with recanting

their faith in Jesus, but it lay with Jesus Christ himself.

Boy, that line in there, you can't get away from it. They triumphed over him

by the blood of the Lamb, but Jesus died on the cross, his blood shed for them, forgiving their sins,

making the way for them to have reconciliation with God, but also by the word of their testimony.

But giving up even their very lives to live for God.

Same thing, really, what happened to the disciples.

If you ever had a chance, I encourage you to read through the Fox Book of Martyrs.

Fox's Book of Martyrs, I think, is the correct title.

And there it describes how people in the church died for their faith and also the 12 disciples.

We know from that that Peter was crucified upside down, not feeling worthy to

be crucified in the same position as Jesus was crucified.

We know there's other of the disciples that we read about in Scripture, how that's described.

But something changed in Peter.

Something changed in all these men who were locked behind, locked,

again, locked two weeks in a row.

I have to kind of speculate. It's not always what you're supposed to do when you read Scripture.

But I think if it was locked on one Sunday, the next Sunday it was locked,

it had to be locked all week.

They might have gone out and snuck some food and then hurried back to their little safe place.

But I just got to think something changed in these people.

Something changed. They witnessed the miracles. Nothing had changed.

Jesus came to them now twice. It didn't seem like much was changing.

But in my Bible, and I'm pretty sure in yours too, John ends with some amazing

thing that happens. Jesus has some more appearances, says some great things.

And then in Acts chapter 1, just a few pages over, we see Jesus ascends to heaven,

Acts 1 · chapter mention

but he doesn't ascend without making a promise to stay in Jerusalem because

you're going to receive.

You're going to receive something powerful. You're going to receive something that has been promised.

You're going to receive the comforter, the one who will go along with you,

who will go right alongside you. Stay, remain.

He's telling these cowards, and I can say that because there's been times I've been a coward too.

God asked you to do something. Nope, I'm locking the door. Oh,

God, I can't get out. The door's locked.

Wasn't it great that Jesus just breaks through the door and just appears?

I mean, just appears through the door.

When we think about what happened to these disciples, we know that something

took place. Well, what was it?

Go through Acts. Jesus ascends to heaven after giving this great promise,

giving them this great commission, echoing what he had said earlier,

but in greater detail, go and baptize, make disciples of all nations.

They choose another one to replace Judas, who was no longer with them, the betrayer.

We come to chapter 2 of Acts, and the one promised was given on the day of Pentecost,

50 days after the Passover.

50 days has gone by since all the events took place that we've talked about the last few weeks.

50 days, and they're gathered still in Jerusalem.

And we know that suddenly a sound like a blowing, a violent wind came from heaven,

filled the whole house where they were sitting.

And we see the Holy Spirit of God is given to them.

So much so that they begin to boldly speak, boldly proclaim the word of God,

boldly proclaim what God did.

Peter, the one that denied Jesus three times, talk about being a coward.

He tried to be brave and say, Jesus, I'll never deny you.

But then three times he did. And the rooster crows and he knows his goose is

cooked. Not a rooster, but his goose.

We see Peter standing up and proclaiming to this crowd, no doubt still some

hostiles in there, no doubt some curious people who are exploring,

well, these are the guys that follow Jesus. What's going on?

Peter proclaims boldly the word and thousands begin to join this group of people

that not too long ago was locked in an upper room somewhere.

See something powerful that has happened, a transformation that has taken place,

the receiving of the Spirit of God, the enabling power through which they could

stand even in a hostile crowd and proclaim who Jesus was, proclaim the truth

that Jesus has brought freedom,

that Jesus has brought salvation, that Jesus is the Messiah.

It's so noticeable, in fact, that you turn over to Acts chapter 4 down to verse 13,

Acts 4 · chapter mention

we see the scripture says, when they saw the courage of Peter and John,

now these officials who they were speaking in front of,

when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled,

ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

What made the difference? They were with Jesus before. Why is it different now?

Jesus wasn't around anymore, technically speaking, physically present, but spiritually he was.

The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God was filling these men.

They could boldly proclaim, even in front of government officials,

even in front of the Sanhedrin, the religious officials, they could proclaim who Jesus was.

They had been with Jesus.

And folks, that makes all the difference in the world. When you spend time with Jesus,

when you spend time in the Word, when you spend time just studying and reading

and seeing yourself reflected in the pages of Scripture, when you see things

that need to change in your life and you're not afraid to change it,

you get rid of your pacifiers, you unlock the locked doors that you've hidden

away from Christ because you don't want to make those decisions,

you don't want to make those changes,

you're afraid of what other people might think.

When you just can get real with Jesus and his word and say, God,

I need the power of your Holy Spirit to help me make these changes.

You pray that prayer, God will do it.

Help you to stand up, to say yes when you need to say yes, to say no when you need to say no.

He'll help you unlock those closet doors that you've got stuffed hidden away,

but God already knows it's there. You're just fooling yourself.

Open up that closet, clean it out.

Let God do a work within you. You see, you are witnesses to the miracle of the

resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You know what God can do in a person's life when they're radically changed.

There's no one here pointing out your cross to you at this moment saying,

there's where you're going to die.

But even if it were, I hope we run full on into that.

Whatever the plan is that God has for you, that you'd say, that's what God wants

me to do. I'm doing that and nothing else.

I'm throwing away my pacifier. That binky is gone.

Isn't that funny? I don't know if this happened to you. After your kids gave

up their pacifiers, did you find them like hidden in the couch,

hidden under a bed in random places?

I won't say, but I had one child that found one. And this child of mine,

I can't say boy or girl, we found him walking around a stinking pacifier,

five or six years old, maybe.

You don't remember, yeah.

Like, what are you doing? No, it wasn't you, okay? Now you got three more guesses.

We think about getting rid of those things.

We think about having our security found in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone,

trusting him, having that faith that goes beyond yourself, beyond the ability

that you have to do what God wants to do.

That's when you start to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.

You start to live into who God wants you to be. And while you might not have

been able to do it on your own, you trust God in faith that as you've made that

step, that he's going to show up and he's going to be there to support you.

And every little step you take pretty soon, just like a baby starts to learn

how to walk, they're running all over the place.

And that could be you running all over the place for the kingdom of God,

sharing his good news, serving others, ministering to others,

being more than just you alone, hiding away, locked behind a door with your pacifier in your mouth.

God wants to free you up from that.

We said this morning that we can unlock the doors.

This is one of my favorite paintings. You will not be able to see it,

but it's Jesus knocking at a door. And it goes off of the verse, Revelation 3.20.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice, basically lets me in, I will sup with him and he with me.

Jesus knocking on your locked door today. It's Jesus knocking saying,

hey, there's no handle on the outside. I can't open it. You got to let me in.

We know Jesus could just go right through the door, but he's waiting for you to make that choice.

He's waiting for you to say, yes, yes, I want to do that.

I want to clean this out and I want to go. I want to go after you.

I want to invocation. But I want to read Romans 12.2 to you.

Paul tells the church at Rome, do not be conformed to this world or the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern

what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect,

that perfect will of God.

We think about being transformed, it's by the Word of God. Being transformed,

it's by the Spirit of God.

Being transformed is by making those choices to follow Jesus,

even when it seems like, oh, I can't do that. I'm too afraid.

I don't know how it's going to happen. I need the security of knowing.

A lot of us may have that issue.

Just abandon all that and say, God, I'm going for it. Let me see how you're going to work.

Now, of course, we reason and we think and we pray and we consult godly people and all that.

But don't be afraid to take a step of faith, folks. You've witnessed the miracle of Jesus.

You've encountered Jesus Christ and his forgiveness in your life. Let that transform you.

Ask the Spirit of God to be with you. Remember, true transformation comes not

merely from witnessing some miraculous thing that happens,

but it comes from that personal death and resurrection experience that you have with Jesus Christ.

And that leads to a fearless and a bold faith.

Guys, I got to tell you, what we need right now in the United States of America,

what we need right now in the world is that bold and fearless faith,

not to be afraid of anything else or anyone else, but to boldly stand up for

Jesus and in love proclaim the truth that is found in God's word.

Take a step, be bold.

Bless you this week. Let me pray for you. Father, we just come before you again.

I just thank you, God, for who you are.

Lord, I pray that we will be bold.

Lord, I pray that we will be fearless, that we'll stand up for those that can't

stand up for themselves.

In love, God, we will share the good news of Jesus with them.

Lord, we'll serve where you give us an opportunity to serve.

Lord, we'll proclaim your truth where you give us an opportunity to proclaim.

And Lord, in all this, We don't want to be just some disciples locked in this

beautiful church building here on the corner of Eustick and back corner road.

God, we want to be out and be salt and light in our communities,

in our jobs, in our schools, in our workplaces, in the places where we go and recreate.

God, we want to be bold for you. So, God, we prayed this morning.

I pray, empower your church through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, fill us to overflowing, we pray.

And God, in this, we want to return the glory to you. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.