“The Place Jesus Meets Us” by Pastor Daniel Floyd

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Want to say welcome again to everybody.

We're so glad you're here on Easter weekend.

What a great weekend to be in church, right?

I love it.

Um Hey, I want to draw your attention to one thing before we get into the message, and it's simply this.

You're gonna receive this card on the way out, and it just shares with you some of the great things coming up really all the way through the month of July, um, beginning with the new series starting next week.

I hope you'll be in church next weekend.

We're gonna talk about between Sundays, how to have a faith that doesn't fade.

How many of you know sometimes like you get inspired on Sunday and then Wednesday morning you're like, help me, Jesus?

And uh so we're gonna talk about that the next few weeks.

How to have a faith that stays fueled for the journey.

Um, and then of course, there's so many wonderful things happening for families this summer.

Um, Summerbash for our elementary, our younger kids, and then of course YouthCon.

You don't want to miss YouthCon parents, get your kids scheduled.

Men's night's coming up, so so many good things coming up.

Make sure you get that on the way out.

We want you to be a part of all that.

Well, I want to bring a message this Easter to you entitled this, The Place Jesus Meets Us.

The Place Jesus Meets Us.

If you're the note-taking type, you can write that down.

If not, go ahead and write it down anyways, all right?

Let's go to the Lord in prayer one more time.

Father, we honor you today, and we're so grateful to be in your house celebrating your risen son and the life that that brings to us, and we're so thankful.

And I pray today that you would speak to every individual person.

We all come from different places, uh facing different things, different backgrounds, but your spirit has a way of tailor-making the message to each one of us.

So would you do that?

Our hearts and minds are open.

We pray you'd speak to us, and we ask this in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

So I went to high school in the 1900s.

Come on, anybody else with me?

1900?

Okay, a few of you.

Okay, I'm just showing my age.

19.

Think about that for a minute.

That's pretty wild, right?

Um, I was living in Raw outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, a little town called Smithfield, North Carolina.

Um, lived there only my freshman and sophomore year, and in my sophomore year, uh became friends with a guy named Shane.

And Shane was a year older than me, and Shane could drive.

And so Shane became a dear friend, because how many of you know, when you graduate from mom and dad driving you or getting off the bus, it's like a good day in your life, right?

And so Shane would drive me to school every morning.

Um, we would go to McDonald's, get breakfast burrito, had to go on a diet after that.

Um, but Shane had the car, he had a 1993 Camaro with T tops.

Matter of fact, I brought a picture for those of you that didn't live that during that glorious era of time.

There it is, quite the ride.

So when we rolled up on campus, big man on campus.

I mean, it was legit.

I don't think you are getting the gravity of this.

I mean, look at that thing.

It's epic.

No, but we would so we uh we rode to school every morning, and one Friday night we decided that we were gonna go to Raleigh, which is about a half-hour drive.

We're gonna go to Raleigh and we're gonna go to the mall.

Because for some reason, everyone, in the 90s, you went to the mall and you didn't shop because you were broke.

You just walked around.

I don't know why, we still don't know why.

But we just walked around the mall, and so that's what we did.

Well, we're on the way back from the mall, we're on the interstate, we're going about 70, 75 miles an hour or so, and Shane, my buddy, goes, Hey, watch this.

Which are the last words of every guy's thing that goes wrong, right?

And so he's like, watch this.

And what he meant to do was he was gonna he was gonna hit the gear stick in neutral and then pop it back and drive, like rev it up and just have it like, you know, jump a little bit.

Well, he made the mistake of hitting it too hard, and it went in reverse at about 70 miles an hour.

And when it went in reverse, what we didn't know later is that there was a failsafe in the car that would shut the thing down so it didn't damage the engine.

And I'm no like mechanic, I don't know anything about cars.

If you're broke down the side of the road, I'll pray for you.

That's what I can offer you.

I can call mechanic.

Um, but I do know there's a transmission, and that is not good on the transmission.

And so this thing died completely.

I mean, the electronics, everything went down, and we went to the side of the road, tried to crank it back up, it wasn't working.

We got out of the car, sat on the embankment because we're on the side of an interstate, and somebody came along that felt sorry for these high school kids.

They ended up calling the cops, so blue lights and red lights, and ambient, I mean, everything shows up, a wrecker shows up, and then finally parents show up.

I was like, I should not be in trouble.

I was a passenger in this deal.

I did not do so.

My buddy Shane, his dad showed up, and Shane said before we got there, he's like, I mean, he was distraught.

He's like in tears.

He's like, My dad's gonna kill me.

I've ruined this brand new car he bought me.

So Shane's dad showed up, and he didn't kill him, but he got close.

There's some choice words and there's some elevated moments.

I just walked away.

I was like, I'm not a part of your family.

I'm just a passenger.

I'm just a passenger, that's all.

I was thinking about this as we think about Easter and we think about Jesus, that some of us, when we're in the not so great moments of our life, the the proverbial we're broken down on the side of the road.

You know, the moments that don't make the highlight real is what I'm talking about.

You know, it's it's the we only post the wonderful moments.

It's the picture you took five times today to finally get the kids a smile after you yelled at them for.

Come on, don't look so spiritual in church today.

We know how it goes, right?

It's the great family vacation photo.

It's not the one where all the kids are arguing and you're just like, why did I even bring you on this vacation?

I could have left you at home and had a better okay, I'm just kidding.

I'm talking about the the moments that we wish no one knew about.

The moments that we're not so proud of, the decisions that that we feel like if someone knew, maybe they wouldn't see us in the right light anymore.

I'm talking about those moments, and I think in those moments, we think Jesus shows up like Shane's dad.

With a scowl on his brow, with a disappointment in his voice, with a finger pointing with the heavenly taser gun just waiting to zap you because of what you did.

And so as a result of that, we end up living life going, I like God close enough that if I have an emergency, but I don't want to get so close that he sees all the details of my life.

And I want to propose to you this Easter and show you from the book of John that just maybe Jesus meets us in a different way than Shane's dad.

Maybe he comes in a way that would surprise you.

So I want to look at the Gospel of John.

There's four Gospels in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And John gives us some visits that Jesus makes post-resurrection.

I want to call it the post-resurrection tour, all right, everybody?

Like he made t-shirts, there's dates on it, city stops.

Okay, it's not true, it's a joke.

It was funnier than how you responded.

The other services got it.

This I don't know what that says about you all.

Okay.

So he makes them stops and he goes to three individuals, and from these three individuals, I think we'll learn three things.

Number one is this is where Jesus meets us.

He meets us in our quiet questions.

I want us to look at John chapter 20, verse 24, begin reading there.

John 20:24

It says, Now Thomas, also known as Didymus, one of the twelve, 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 finger 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 finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand and put it into my side.

Stop doubting and believe.

And Thomas said, My Lord and my God.

And then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

So here's the scene, the picture that John is painting for us is there was a moment where all the disciples were together, minus Thomas, and Jesus appears to them and shows that he is the resurrected Lord, that what he predicted actually did happen.

Well, they get Thomas, and Thomas comes back and he's like, they said, Hey, we've seen the Lord, and he goes, No, don't buy it.

I don't believe it.

Thomas is a bit skeptical.

Thomas has some questions about it, and and so then Jesus visits them again whenever Thomas is in the room.

And a matter of fact, the doors are locked, and and if someone appeared through the wall to you, you would need to hear peace be still, right?

And so Thomas is in the room that time, and Jesus goes, Hey, you can touch my hand, you can feel my side.

I'm not, I'm willing to give you proof.

And for some of us today, we are we are represented by Thomas.

I relate to Thomas.

Thomas is more analytical.

Thomas needs more why behind the what.

Thomas doesn't want a fake faith.

Thomas doesn't want a faith that's just like lip service.

Are y'all tracking with me?

That's not just like, I believe, but knowing inside he's kind of wrestling with some things.

He's got some questions.

Can I just tell you today that Jesus isn't put off by your questions?

But if you're here today and you're like, I don't know, I want to believe, but I just got some questions about, I don't understand some things.

That Jesus doesn't push you away.

He's not repulsed by that.

He he's willing to answer the questions.

And Thomas had some of those.

He he was a thinker, he was he wanted to know, he wrestled with some things.

I like Thomas a lot.

Thomas gets a lot of like shade.

People throw shade on Thomas.

I'm like, why are you throwing shade?

Matter of fact, he's forever known as doubting.

How would you like one moment to define your whole life?

Aren't you glad God doesn't do that to us?

I mean, he had one moment, everybody.

He had one moment where he doubted, one moment where he needed some proof.

Aren't you glad that God isn't like, well, jacked up Jason?

That's how I see him.

Prideful Paul.

There he is.

Are you all with me?

Aren't you thankful God doesn't do that to us?

But this is Thomas.

Thomas just needed some answers, and I think all of us have some quiet questions that things that don't make sense, right?

And we kind of like just maybe push them down instead of going, I can bring them to God.

Can I tell you something?

You can bring.

Matter of fact, the post-resurrection tour included a doubter.

Jesus, intentional with his time, wanted to go to Thomas.

And some of us today, that's where we are.

We want to believe, but we just got some questions.

We need some proof.

Can I tell you something, dude?

Christianity isn't, it is faith, but it is faith in facts.

It's not faith in just a hope-so.

No, he appeared to 500 people.

Are y'all with me?

Like he got up out of the grave.

There's extra biblical recordings, historical recordings, that the appearance of Jesus.

Like he got up out of the grave.

I'm just not putting my faith in some hope or some wish or just one day.

No, it is in the person of Jesus Christ who lived a sinless life, died the death, you and I deserve to die, lived the life we can never live, and rose again three days later, proving that he is who he claimed to be, the Son of God with the power to take away the sin of the world.

My faith isn't in a fairy tale, everybody.

There's proof for it.

Some of us wrestle with questions.

I love what the author John Acuff said.

He said, if you're wrestling, that means you're moving close because you can't wrestle with somebody that's far away.

I just want you to know today, if you're wrestling, you got some things that don't make sense.

And they're real.

You prayed and didn't get to the answer to the prayer.

They got the diagnosis, you believed for healing, and they passed away.

And Jesus doesn't run from those.

And I wonder for Thomas if the root of his doubt wasn't the disappointment in his life.

Because disappointment can lead to doubt, doubt can lead to cynicism.

Cynicism can lead to mistrust.

And I wonder for some of us today if we kind of keep Jesus at a distance in our life because we're just disappointed with how some things went down.

I mean, think about it for a moment, right?

Thomas is with Jesus, following him.

I mean, these disciples, they left a whole lot.

They laid down businesses, they laid down reputation, and it started out with just 12 of them, then it got like 72 of them, and then hundreds are following, then thousands are following them, right?

And I know Peter's like, I'm gonna be the VP of marketing for this movement.

Like, you know, Matthew's like, I'm gonna be CFO of this thing.

Like, I mean, the movement is just growing and it's moving, and then all of a sudden he's dead, and they're left with nothing.

I imagine there's the disappointment of what could have been, what should have been, what maybe would have been.

And so he needs some proof.

He's like, I believed once.

But I need I'm gonna need a little bit more this time.

And can I tell you something?

Jesus meets us in that place.

And Jesus, if you'll let him, will meet you in that place.

He not only meets us in our quiet questions, but he meets us in our failure.

Aren't you thankful today that Jesus meets us in our failure?

I want us to look at Peter as an example of this.

Now, to look at this example, we've got to back up a little bit and we've got to go back to pre-crucifixion.

If y'all are with me, say amen.

Alright, so we're gonna rewind.

If you ever had a cassette player, you hit play and rewind at the same time.

It makes that noise.

Try it.

Go to Advantage Stop and get one.

You gotta back up.

So Jesus and Peter are in this discussion and they're in the garden.

This coming near the end of Jesus' life, and Peter's like, Man, I'm with you.

Basically, they didn't have guns, but he's like, basically, I'll take a bullet for you.

That was kind of the sentiment Peter was saying.

And Jesus says back to Peter, Peter, no, you're gonna deny me three times before the rooster crows tomorrow morning.

And so, if you know the story, Judas betrays him.

The officers come and they get Jesus out of the garden.

So from the garden, they took him up to Caiaphas's house.

And at Caiaphas' house, there is a courtyard area, and that's where Jesus is.

The other gospels let us know.

The scene looks like this.

There's some fire pits around there.

People are gathered around them.

Jesus is over here, Peter's falling at a distance.

Some of the disciples have dispersed because they just don't know what's happening.

And Peter's denied Jesus once, he's denied him a second time.

And then this is where we enter the text.

And Luke 22 gives us the insight into this.

And it says, About an hour later, after his second denial, another asserted, Certainly this fellow was with him, for he's a Galilean, meaning he lived around the Sea of Galilee where the majority of Jesus' ministry took place.

And Peter replied, Man, I don't know what you're talking about.

The original language makes it much more emphatic than this.

I don't know that he was cursing at the man, but that it was on the edge of that.

Are y'all following me?

This is how vehemently he was saying, I don't know what you're talking about.

And just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.

And the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.

And then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him.

Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.

And he went out and he wept bitterly.

Can you imagine this scene for just a moment?

I mean, think about it.

Jesus is in Caiaphas's courtyard.

He's being brought up on charges, kind of a kangaroo court.

I imagine he's tied up, or two Roman soldiers on either side of him.

Peter's over at a distance.

And at one point the text tells us that he was by one of the fire pits because a young girl, like a teenage girl, said, You're with him, and that was one of the denials.

So he's over at a distance, watching what's going on, and then he does it again.

The rooster crows, and then Jesus turns and looks straight at Peter.

I don't know about you, but I just imagine that shame had to overwhelm him in that moment.

He locks eyes with the Savior on the third time that he denied him.

The moment that Jesus needed Peter the most.

The moment that he needed him, hey, I need you to be with me in this moment.

Peter denies him, and I can imagine shame overwhelmed him in that moment.

Because here's what failure is failure is the gap between who we want to be and who we show up as.

And Peter wanted to be all in.

That's what he told him the night before.

I'm with you, Jesus.

I'm all in.

I will never leave you.

I'll never deny you.

You know, I'm all in.

That's who he wanted to be, and who he showed up as was someone who lacked the courage to not deny him whenever people were pointing out that he followed Jesus.

And I don't know about you, but I found myself in that place in life many times.

The dad that I want to be, and then the dad I show up as.

The friend I want to be, and the friend I show up as.

The spouse I want to be, and then the spouse that I show up as.

How about this?

The follower of Jesus I want to be, and then the one I show up as sometimes.

And in that gap is where we feel failure.

And when we feel failure, you know what comes soon?

Is shame.

And here's what shame says.

Shame doesn't say I did something wrong.

Shame says I am something wrong.

And for some of you, that is the narrative that the enemy of your soul plays over and over in your mind.

You are something wrong.

Why do you even try?

How could God ever love you?

You did it again, and you'll do it another time, and you'll do it another time.

See, that's just who you are.

Your mom was that way, your dad was that way.

That's just the cycle you're in.

You'll forever be like that.

You're you're just an angry person, you're just a prideful, you're just a and what we do in those moments is we always revert to the familiar.

We never move forward in faith to the future God has for us.

Because shame always causes you to hide.

Shame always causes you to retreat.

Think about in the garden, right?

Adam and Eve in the garden, they sinned, shame filled them.

What they do, they hid from God.

Because that's what always happens.

Failure leads to shame, shame leads to hiding.

It is the human experience.

You maybe even be here and you'll be like, I don't even know if I like believe in Jesus.

I don't know, I'm into this church thing.

I'm just here because my mom made me come.

Thank God for your mom.

It is the human experience.

Failure breeds shame, and shame breeds hiding.

And that's what Peter did.

And in John chapter 21 is where we find Peter, and Peter has gone back to fishing because Peter was a fisherman.

John 21 · chapter mention

Three years earlier, Jesus came on the Sea of Galilee to these fishermen and said, Hey, are you catching anything?

And they said, No.

And he said, Well, throw your nets on the other side.

And I imagine in their mind, like, you're the son of a carpenter, not a fisherman.

But we'll try it.

So they threw their nets on the other side, had a big catch.

And then he called them to come follow him.

And he said, I'll make you fisher of men.

And now three years later, Peter has returned back to that same spot.

And I wonder if Peter thought there's no way he could use me now.

There's no way he would want me now because of what I just did to him.

And so I'll go back to what I know.

Well, the scripture says that Jesus is on the shore and he's cooking up some fish, and somebody in the boat goes, It's the master.

It's Jesus.

And so the Bible says Peter jumps out of the boat and he runs to the shore and he comes to Jesus, and Jesus is cooking a meal for them, and he he does this dialogue with him that you find in John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

If you've ever read the Bible, you've probably read it.

And he says to him, Peter, do you love me?

And Peter says, Lord, you know I love you.

And then he said, Well, feed my sheep.

And then he did it a second time.

He said, Do you love me?

And he said, Lord, you know I love you.

Feed my sheep.

Then he did it a third time.

Peter, do you love me?

And Peter's like getting a little frustrated now.

And he's like, Lord, you know that I love you.

And he said, Well, feed my sheep.

And there's so many incredible things in that little text.

Like, like the words Jesus uses for love are different, and and they kind of turn up the commitment each time.

And there's this whole beautiful thing of how he denied him three times and then he asked him if he loved him three times.

It's like, you messed up three times, and we're gonna wipe it out because I know that you love me.

Are you following me?

But here's my question: Why use a shepherd analogy with a fisherman?

Peter doesn't know anything about sheep.

He fishes for a living.

Why use that analogy?

Why didn't you use a fishing analogy, Jesus?

It would relate more, it's more relevant to who you're talking to.

And I never understood this until I was in Israel.

And I was with a Bible scholar in Israel who said, here's why, most likely, potentially, Jesus used a shepherding analogy and not a fishing analogy with a fisherman.

And it's this.

Because fishermen who fished for a living would take their catch to the market to sell.

Well, if there were bad fish in the batch, they would throw them out because they wouldn't bring money at the market.

But a shepherd would leave the 99 to go get the one and would never let one run away.

I wonder if in Peter's mind, when he denied him, he thought like a fisherman and said, if I would throw out bad fish, surely Jesus is going to throw me out and he can't use me.

But Jesus showed up on the shore of Galilee to say, Peter, I don't think like a fisherman.

I think like because I am the great shepherd and I will leave the 99.

I will come back on this shore and I will come and find you, Peter, because I love you and I am for you.

And here's what I want you to hear today.

Maybe you walked in here today and you're like, man, I don't even know why I'm here.

I don't even know how God can love me.

I'm just coming because it's what I'm supposed to do on Easter is show up at church, and I'm one of those bad fish that he probably wants to throw back.

Can I tell you something?

Jesus doesn't think like a fisherman, he thinks like a shepherd, and he will pursue you and come after you with grace and mercy and love.

Anyone thankful today that we have a great shepherd who goes after the one?

So he meets us in our quiet questions, he meets us in our failure, but finally he meets us in the weight we carry.

How many of you know that life can be weighty?

It can be heavy at times.

One of the individuals that Jesus meets on the post-resurrection tour is Mary Magdalene.

The Bible says in John chapter 20, verse 11, that now Mary stood outside the tomb crying and she wept.

John 20:11

And she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

And they asked her, Woman, why are you crying?

They've taken my Lord away, she said.

She thought they had stolen the body.

And I don't know where they have put him.

At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus.

And he asked her, Woman, why are you crying?

Who is it you were looking for?

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him.

And Jesus said to her, Mary.

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Riboni, which means the teacher.

If you're unfamiliar with Mary's story, it's a powerful one.

Mary, when she met Jesus, was bound by so much.

And Jesus, the Bible tells us, cast demons out of her.

And he set her free.

So you can imagine the affection and the affinity that she had for Jesus.

And now all that is gone.

Because he's dead.

And it tells you from all their responses, they didn't really believe him when he said, I will come back alive.

If they really believed he would come back from the dead, they wouldn't be grieving, they wouldn't be dying, crying, they wouldn't have returned to fishing.

They'd have been waiting.

They'd have been outside the tomb, like, by the stone.

They'd have been like, I'm posting this.

You know.

I wonder in your life if you've ever been beside the grave of grief.

That's where Mary is.

Maybe it's not the grief of someone that you lost.

Maybe it's the grief of a broken relationship, a marriage that didn't make it.

Maybe it's the betrayal of a friend that you confided in.

Maybe it's the grief of the emotional weight of life.

See, we don't all cry like Mary, but we all carry some kind of weight.

It's the human experience.

We carry the weight of the pressure of life, the weight of responsibilities, the weight of relationships, the weight, the emotional weight of life, the mental weight of life.

We all carry weight.

And it's in the weight that Jesus meets Mary.

And I love this detail in Scripture.

That she's grieving and she doesn't even see it's Jesus.

She thinks it's the gardener.

She's so overwhelmed by grief she can't even see straight.

I imagine you've been there at times where you're so overwhelmed, like life is so heavy, you're like, I don't even know if I'm thinking right right now.

I don't know if I'm even seeing this situation correctly right now.

This is where Mary is.

And in the middle of this, Jesus just simply says, Mary?

Have you ever had a moment in life where it felt like a whole film reel went through your mind in a split second?

You know what I'm talking about?

Are you all with me?

Like it just felt like someone said something that brought back a thought, or you experienced something, or a smell, or whatever it is, it brought back and it like took you back to elementary school, like in a moment.

It's like you saw the whole thing like in a second in your mind.

I just have to wonder for Mary if that's not what happened in that moment.

I wonder when he simply said her name, if she flew back to the moment where he first said her name, where she was so bound and lost and hurting and no hope, and there was no one that could help her.

But then she met Jesus that day and he called out her name and he set her free and he invited her on this journey.

She was one of the ones that would have been following these disciples, and she would have saw the tomb of Lazarus and the resurrection, and she would have saw the Mount of Beatitudes and the teaching, and she would have seen the blinded eyes open, and she would have seen 5,000 being fed with fish and loaves.

She would have done.

I wonder if in a moment, like all that went by like a movie reel in her mind.

And he said her name, he called out her name.

It had to be some level of intense emotion because the Bible said she cried out, teacher.

She didn't say, like, oh hey, it's you.

You did it.

You got up.

It wasn't just a passing thing.

There was this well of emotion where she cried out, teacher.

Because she recognized that voice.

When he called her name the first time, everything changed.

Everything changed.

Listen to me.

Everything changed.

And I believe today that Jesus is calling your name.

For some of you, you've carrying the weight of life and you think you're supposed to carry it all by yourself.

Jesus is calling your name to say, No, I step into the weight that you carry.

I meet you, and that's the place I meet you.

And I'll I'll walk with you in this life.

I'll journey with you because surrendering your life to Jesus is not about heaven one day only.

It's about heaven two day.

It's about walking with Jesus step by step, day by day, moment by moment.

And he invites you.

He meets you in your questions.

He meets you in your failures.

He makes you in the heavy places of life.

And our response as he moves towards us is to move towards him in faith.

Faith that says, I don't have all the answers, but I'll begin the journey with you.

Faith that says, My failure, no matter how great, cannot separate me from the love and the grace of God.

The weighty moments in life that say, I'm willing to lay my burdens down at your feet and realize I don't have to carry this all on my own.

See, Christianity is the only world religion that doesn't start with I.

I'm a moral person, I go to church, I have a membership, I read my Bible, I'm nice to others, I'm generous at times.

No, Christianity starts with He.

He came, born of a virgin.

He lived the sinless life you and I could never live.

He died on the cross, dying the death we really deserved.

He was in the grave for three days, but praise God, he arose on the third day and he lives forevermore.

It is all about him, it is not about us.

And some of you think, well, for me to come to God, I gotta figure some things out in my life.

Can I tell you it's the opposite?

You come to Jesus and He'll help you figure some things out.

Well, Pastor, I got I don't know enough about the Bible.

I don't even know where the dinosaurs came from.

I love the story that Pastor Alistair Begg tells.

He said, I wonder what the conversation was with the thief on the cross when he got to heaven.

You know, there were three crosses, Jesus was in the middle, two thieves on either side, one thief blasphemed Jesus, one thief surrendered and said, You are the Messiah.

And Jesus said to him, Today you'll be with me in paradise.

And he said, I wonder what that conversation went like.

He said, I wonder if he got to heaven and the angel met him and was like, Hey, why are you here?

And he's like, Well, about that.

And the angel's like, Do you do you at least have a membership at a church?

He's like, Yeah, never got one of those.

And maybe that angel was like, Let me call a supervisor in.

So maybe Gabriel shows up.

And he's like, Do you have a Bible?

He's like, never heard of that.

Do you know the doctrine of sanctification?

He's like, Yeah, I had no idea what you're talking about.

And then could it be that that angel says, Well, then how did you get here?

And Pastor Alistair Begg said, I imagine maybe the man said something like this.

All I know is the man on the middle cross told me I could come.

And can I tell you something today?

No matter how you got here, and no matter how life has looked before you got here today, the man on the middle cross says, You can come.

His arms are open wide with grace and mercy and forgiveness.

And all he says is, Come.

I grew up in an old hymn that said it like this, just as I am.

That's how you come.

And today I want to give you the opportunity to respond to the God who is moving towards you, the God who meets you.

I want to invite you to take a step of faith towards Him.

The Bible says that if we'll confess with our mouth that he's Lord, really that means that God, I'm done calling the shots of my life.

I'm giving you control.

And we'll believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, we will be saved.

You may be thinking, Pastor, what am I saved from?

Well, you're saved from the penalty of sin, which we all deserve to pay.

But thank God Jesus paid for it on the cross.

So my question today is as he draws near to you, will you draw nearer to him?

Will you by faith surrender your life to Jesus?

And today, I promise you, according to the scripture, will be a day of brand new beginning.

I want to invite you to pray with me as we close today.

Will you bow your head and close your eyes all across the room?

I believe God is speaking to so many of you.

That for some of you, you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, and for some of you, you straight away you know in your heart that you're far from God.

There was a season in your life where you were walking closer with Jesus, and that's not been the case lately.

Can I tell you something?

Jesus isn't showing up today like Shane's dad.

He's showing up with grace, forgiveness, with kindness.

And so in just a moment, I'm gonna lead us in a prayer, and it's just me helping you communicate your heart to God's heart.

If you say, Pastor, that's me.

I need a fresh start, I need a new beginning.

The Bible says if anybody's in Christ, they're a brand new creation.

Here's the great part: all things pass away.

All the old and everything becomes new.

Today can be a day of a fresh start for you.

So before we pray, I just want to know who I'm praying with.

We're not gonna come to you or point you out, but when I count to three, I'm just gonna ask you to shoot your hand up high enough and long enough for me to see, like so many have over the weekend.

If you say, Pastor, that's me.

I need a fresh start.

When I get to three, hands are already going up.

One, two, three.

You just shoot your hand up high.

Just keep it up.

Keep it up.

God bless you.

God bless you.

Hands up all over the room.

I see you, but more importantly than that, God sees you.

And the Bible tells us all of heaven is rejoicing over the step you're taking.

You can put your hands down.

Church, will you pray this out loud with me for the benefit of those who just slip their hand up?

Just say, Jesus, I need you.

I ask you to forgive me of all my sin.

I believe you died for me.

I believe God raised you from the dead.

Today I make you my Lord and Savior.

Thank you for a brand new beginning.

In Jesus' name.

Everyone said, Amen.

Come on, can we celebrate those who made that decision?

Powerful.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.