Receive/Respond

Parents' Night Out is this Friday night.

And so if you're new to his hands, let me explain how this works.

It's really simple.

We believe that parents with children need some time off from time to time.

And so every first Friday we do an event called Parents Night Out.

We've done it for the last several months.

You show up at 6.

You can show up after 6 as well.

You just can't show up after 9.

That's the rule.

You can show up at 8:30 and drop your kids off for a really quick, uh, quick night out.

But uh show up at 6, drop the kids off, and then you go out, you have a night out.

You go on a date, go get some things done, just take a nap, whatever you need to do, and then uh come back at 9 to pick them up.

And we're just excited to provide that.

There's no cost, there's no charge, it's just a night off for you.

So uh so take advantage of that.

Sign up on our website.

You can go today, go to our calendar, find it on, I think it's November 6th.

Is that right?

That's Friday.

Um, sign up and you can uh you can let us know how many kids are coming, all that kind of stuff.

That'll be awesome.

Want to take a quick second and read something to you before we pray and jump into the message.

Uh we have these cards that you can grab on the back four columns.

Uh you can fill them out and leave them in the boxes where you leave prayer requests and offerings and whatnot.

And it's just a chance for you to share your story.

And every once in a while I'll stand at this big board that we have in the coffee shop and I'll just read the stories that have come in, and they're they're always amazing.

This is one we got a few weeks back from someone that recently moved out of state.

And in their moving, you know, leaving Georgia, leaving his hands, they wanted to uh to share something with us.

This is what they wrote.

His hands church has changed my life.

I first attended in 2009 and was brought here by friends in addiction recovery.

And she wrote, The Lord has removed my addiction.

His words have become clear in my life.

I've rededicated my life to God.

I was baptized here.

Four big things.

And she says, Though uh though I'm leaving, though I'm moving away, I have received a treasure chest of spiritual friends who pray with me, who pray for me.

His hands church equals family.

I just want to say thank you to all of you for making these things possible because it's not what happens on this stage that makes these stories happen.

It's it's you, it's the church, it's people.

And I want to say a big thank you to those of you who invest in people.

You serve on teams, you pray, you you give.

You know, if you're new, we don't pass a plate or anything like that.

But when you give here, you're investing in people's lives.

You're investing in people knowing God, you're investing in people's lives changing.

So thank you for that.

You're amazing people, stay faithful, keep doing it because God is doing big things.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you for all that you're you're doing here in us, through us, and just help us this morning to connect with you, uh, to keep connecting with you, and mainly, God, to leave this place better and more ready for the life that you've prepared us for.

We ask this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, hey, first of all, uh, put your hands together because we saved daylight last night.

We saved it.

Daylight has been saved.

It's here.

This is that month where every year daylight savings time hits and you get an extra hour of sleep, and you're either the person that's smart and goes to bed on time and gets an extra hour, or you just go, sweet, I can stay up an hour later, and it's the same thing.

Somehow that becomes two hours.

I don't know how that works.

Um, and I love daylight savings at this time of the year.

I'm always like, this is a great idea, way to go, Ben Franklin.

But but then in the spring, in the spring, it's the worst day.

And I'm I'm sorry, today, as good as it is, getting an extra hour of sleep, I don't think it makes up for the spring.

I just don't.

And so, you know, if you're a farmer, I'm sure you love daylight savings.

Uh, if you're like the rest of us and you just don't really care, just keep the clocks the same.

I'm just proposing that maybe we make that change, but hey, whatever.

Um, so I have a really important question to start with today.

Does anyone like 80s music?

The 80s?

You know, that's about what I expected.

Um, so I love 80s music.

I mean, I'm serious.

We had satellite radio for a while in our car, and the reason we don't have it anymore is because there's an 80s station, and that's all I wanted to listen to.

It's just straight 80s music nonstop, and it drove Megan crazy.

So we don't use, we don't use satellite radio anymore.

Um, that's gone, but it's okay.

It's onto my heart.

It's in my heart, I'll have it forever.

See, I was born in 1983.

My mom was 20 years old when she had me, and she was really into music.

And so I have these very fond memories of being in the car with my mom, listening to the radio, and and she listened to what was current.

So it's you know, the hits of the 80s.

That was the soundtrack that I grew up to.

Uh, we watched a lot of MTV in my household.

I had to have surgery on my ears when I was a kid, when I was three, and I don't remember this, but my mom said that they put these little, these little uh, you know, headphones on so that I could have my hearing checked, and there was a microphone that I was supposed to use to tell the doctors when I could hear the beeps, and she said, I grabbed it and I started singing John Bon Jovi at the top of my lungs.

You know, shot through the heart.

That was the song I went with.

I love the 80s.

I love 80s music.

Um, I think I like it too because I cannot dance at all.

And and 80s music, you don't have to.

I mean, yeah, the Michael Jackson stuff, sure, but most 80s songs, whether it's Eye of the Tiger or Anything by Billy Idol, you can just do this.

And it's like, it's just fist pump music.

And I love that because I can live here, I can do this, and that's about it.

Now, there's a lot of songs from the 80s that I love.

There's a lot of songs that compete for the top spot in my heart, but there is one that, in my opinion, is the best song: the 80s song.

It is, it is literally my favorite song ever.

Some of you may agree with me, some of you may be like, yeah, that's okay, but this is for me, it's it's Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins.

You know what I'm talking about?

The theme song, The Top Gun.

When I saw Top Gun, I decided to be in the military as soon as I saw that movie as a kid.

Because it was like so much fun.

They play volleyball, you know, they they kind of goof off and and goose dies, but it was an accident.

Wasn't supposed to happen.

I saw saving Private Ryan in high school, and I was like, I don't know, it didn't, wasn't the same as Top Gun.

It was very different.

Maybe not.

But but that song, the theme song of Top Gun Danger Zone, it is, oh, it's so good.

If I hear that in the car, I don't care who's around.

I don't care.

You know what I'm saying?

You hear this?

You can just do this the whole time.

There's a good We can just take this in for a second.

I love it.

Yeah.

Danger zone.

Danger zone.

Okay, you guys can turn that off.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chris, for putting that on for me.

That was awesome.

I made my day.

Made my day.

So so here's the thing.

It literally is my favorite song.

I just don't know the words to it.

Um and and I'm guessing a lot of you are like that, where you have songs that you love and it comes on in the on the radio, you crank it, you don't care who's around, you're gonna go full-blown karaoke.

You just don't really know the words, but you think you do.

You think you do until the words start.

And then you realize within like two seconds, oh, I have no idea what this song says.

I just love it.

And that's how I am.

Every time that song comes on, I turn it on and I start, and you know, I'm fist pumping, and then the words start, and I just kind of mumble.

I'm just like heaven in the engine, listen to you know, that's what I do.

And then and then it's that one part, right?

It's the chorus, and that that I know.

I know those those words, highway to the danger zone, because it's not danger zone, it's danger.

You just go, highway to, and I'm so excited.

Now you know I'm not on the worship team, but it's okay.

I love that song.

I actually I love music.

I I'm terrible though at remembering words.

I'm terrible.

It doesn't matter what kind of music it is, even worship music.

There are songs that we have sung in this room together for five, seven years, and I have no idea what the words are.

At night we'll put Liam to bed, and we have this tradition where we we scratch his back and we we sing to him, and we usually sing worship songs, and most of those worship songs are songs that we know from here, and I'll just butcher the words.

I mean, they're not even close, and sometimes after we put them to bed, Megan will look at me and say, How do you not know the words to that song?

And I'll be like, the words, they're on the screen.

I we don't need to know the words.

Tell us the words every single Sunday, so my brain just doesn't see that and go, This is necessary.

Just I'll just look at the screen.

I'm like that with a lot of things, even scripture.

There are verses that mean the world to me.

There are verses that are so powerful, and I'll tell someone, oh, you need to read this verse.

You need to read it because it talks about like, you know, it's God's love, and Jesus is there, and He says that, oh, He says this thing, and I don't remember what it is, but it's big.

You need to read this verse.

And I'll get on Google and like type in 20 words that I think are in the verse, and I'll have to find it.

In fact, it's even like that with my absolute favorite verse in the Bible.

There is a verse in scripture that I would call my life verse.

Some of you may have a verse like this where in all your years, this is the one thing that God has ever said that was ever written down in scripture that speaks to you more than anything else.

And I have a life verse.

It's Ezekiel 36, 26.

I'm gonna read it because I don't want to get the words wrong.

This is what it says I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you.

I will take out your stony, stubborn heart, and give you a tender, responsive heart.

And I read that for the very first time, at least the first time I remembered reading it, it was eight years ago.

And it blew me away.

I mean, it jumped off the page and it spoke to me in a way that no verse ever had before.

It was speaking directly to me in the stage of life that I was in.

It became like my heart's prayer, what I wanted to see happen in my life.

I got so excited about this verse that I reached out to Megan's sister, who is this unbelievable artist, and I asked her to draw a picture that kind of illustrated this verse, and this is what she drew for me.

She gave it to me.

How cool is that?

It's the Holy Spirit like turning this heart of stone into a you know a real heart.

I mean, I love, I love this verse.

But here's the embarrassing part.

For two years after I read this verse, two years, I would go and I'd talk about it, I'd tell people what it said, I'd write it down, I would quote it, I would recite it, and two years later I found out that I had the words wrong.

It's like a danger zone moment all over again.

I didn't butcher it like I do most songs.

There was just one word that I got wrong as I was telling people my favorite verse.

Oh, this is it, this is my life verse, here's what it says.

One word that I got wrong.

See, this is what I thought it said.

This is what I thought I had read.

Slightly different.

I thought I had read this.

I will give you a new heart, and I'll put a new spirit in you.

I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, receptive heart.

Slightly different.

I thought it said receptive heart, when really it said responsive heart.

Receptive, responsive.

That's a pretty easy mistake to make, but but in this situation, in this instance, I actually don't think it was a mistake for me to see that word.

I actually believe, and and trust me, this isn't the first time I blamed a mistake of mine on God, but but in this situation, I actually believe God wanted me to see the word receptive before I could understand that the word actually is responsive.

We're in the middle of a series, kind of nearing the end.

It's a series called Defined Right Now.

We're talking about the fact that our lives are defined by the decisions we make.

It is not our circumstances that define us.

It's the way we respond to our circumstances.

Jesus' life was the same.

The way that we respond, our ability to respond appropriately, is everything.

Nathan shared a quote with me this last week from a man named Justin Sua who trains Olympic athletes, and he was asked, what's the difference between an Olympic athlete and just a great athlete?

And he said, hands down, it's their ability to deal with failure and their ability to refocus after instruction.

Their ability to deal with failure and their ability to refocus after receiving instruction.

So in other words, he's saying it's their ability to respond and to respond appropriately.

If we have the ability as people to respond appropriately to whatever situations life throws at us, we will succeed.

We absolutely will succeed.

See, here's here's this little caveat, and I think it's the reason that God had me see the word receptive instead of the word responsive when I first read this verse, is that you cannot respond appropriately if you cannot receive.

You cannot respond to what you cannot receive.

I have friends who are who are first responders.

They're emts, they they have jobs like that, but they can't respond to an emergency if they don't receive a call about an emergency.

Have you ever known someone that has an inability to receive something?

Maybe they have an inability to receive criticism.

It just doesn't compute for them.

If you try to tell them you did something wrong, that that that wasn't the right way to go about this.

It's not that they just have a hard time with criticism, it's just they can't receive it.

They immediately shut down.

It goes in one ear, out the other, they turn it right back on you.

They just cannot receive criticism because they can't receive instruction, because they can't receive criticism, they have no chance to ever respond appropriately, so they don't get better.

I've known people, I've been like this at times, that can't receive praise.

It's not that they're just really humble, that something in their self-esteem, something in their self-concept is so broken that they cannot even receive a compliment and respond appropriately.

Because if someone gives you a compliment, the appropriate response is thank you.

But I've known people I've been there before too, where if you say, hey, you did an amazing job, they'll say, No, no, no.

No, I really I messed up this one part really bad.

Or if you say, hey, you look really nice today, no, no, my hair's a mess, my hair is awful.

They can't respond because they can't receive.

Our ability to respond determines, it defines our lives.

Okay, but we cannot respond to what we cannot receive.

See, I believe it's our ability to respond to what God is doing in us and around us that defines us more than anything else.

But in order to respond to God, we have to have the ability to receive what He gives.

And that can be challenging.

It really can.

When I read this verse, Ezekiel 36, 26, years ago, when I first read this verse, my heart was the stony, stubborn heart.

To borrow an often used phrase from scripture, I had a hardened heart.

And your heart can be hardened by a lot of things: pride, arrogance, bitterness, unforgiveness, selfishness.

The list goes on and on.

In my particular case, my heart was hardened by guilt and shame.

Eight years ago, when I read this verse, I was in the middle of an addiction and I was not winning the battle, I was losing ground.

I dealt with so much guilt and shame as a result of that because I was committed to God, I was committed to being a godly man, I was serving in the church, and I just I felt like a failure.

I felt like a hypocrite and an absolute fraud.

And that guilt and shame, it hardened me.

It made my heart that that stony, stubborn thing that God described to the point where I could not receive from God.

I had no hope in responding to God because I could not receive from him.

I could not receive love from God.

If someone walked up to me and told me, hey, God wants you to know, God told me to tell you that he's pleased with you, that he's proud of you, I would just say, Oh, great, thank you.

And then in my mind, I would immediately think, well, now I know they don't hear from God.

I really did.

I mean, I couldn't, I could not receive forgiveness from God.

I knew in my mind that that forgiveness is something he has given us, that we simply accept it.

But because of the guilt and the shame and the hardness of my heart, I could not receive that forgiveness.

So I was striving.

I was working to make up for all the mistakes that I had made, but it was never enough.

See, a stony, hard heart can't receive anything, nothing, nothing penetrates, just bounces off, and that's where I was.

As a result, my life was completely ineffective.

It really was in so many ways.

I was ineffective at my job.

At the time I was working with students here at the church, but I was really, really struggling.

Things were not going well.

I didn't really know what to do.

What I was trying wasn't successful.

I was literally just like throwing darts at a board hoping something would work.

I was ineffective in my marriage.

I was not a good husband.

I was selfish.

I didn't understand my wife.

I didn't really care to understand my wife.

I just wanted, I wanted her to meet my needs.

I was I was ineffective physically.

I reached my all-time high in weight.

It's a number I'm I'm creeping closer to every day.

But you know, at that time, I was there, at least now I'm in my 30s and I have some excuse.

Then I was in my early 20s, I had none.

I was just ineffective, and I was broken.

I worked here with the students.

I used to drive to work every single day, and this is not an exaggeration.

I drove to work every day, and in my mind I would be thinking of backup plans, other jobs that I I could get, other things I could do, because I believed in my heart that they had hired the wrong person, and I was just waiting for God to let them know that and then make that decision.

My heart was hard and it could not receive anything from God.

I could not respond to what God was doing in me or around me, and as a result, I was ineffective.

If you want to talk about Jesus' life and just grossly understate the true success of his life, you could say this Jesus was effective.

I mean, that is a gross understatement.

Jesus is effective, his life was incredibly effective.

No one's ever left a mark on history like Jesus left.

In fact, one of my favorite quotes about Jesus comes from a man named John Stuart Mill.

John Stuart Mill was a very well-known political theorist and philosopher in the 1800s.

He wrote things that still affect modern culture today.

We just don't really remember his name.

The reason this quote is so amazing is because he was not a Christian.

He was not a Jesus follower.

In fact, he was an atheist.

But listen to what this atheist, this brilliant man, said about Jesus.

I love this quote.

He said, about the life and sayings of Jesus, there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of insight, which must place the prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who have no belief in his inspiration, in the very first rank of those men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast.

In other words, this this man, this atheist, says, Yeah, Jesus is the best.

I can't top him.

Jesus' life was effective, to say the least.

And when I have an opportunity to meet someone who's very successful, to meet someone whose life has been effective in some way, I make it a point to find out why.

Why they're successful.

What do they credit their success to?

A few weeks ago I got to meet John Smoltz, the Hall of Fame Braves pitcher.

Was pretty cool.

I didn't expect to meet him.

I was I was speaking at something and he was there and he walked up to me.

And you know when you see someone famous and you kind of recognize them, but you're not sure enough to go up to them and say, Hey, you're this person, aren't you?

Um because that'd be really weird if they're like, no.

I saw him and I was like, I think that's John Smoltz.

And he walked up to me and he said, Hi, John Smoltz.

And I'm like, I knew it! I knew it.

I just didn't want to say anything.

I didn't want to bother you, sir.

We got to talking for about five or six minutes, me and John, because I can call him John now.

And um, and so John starts talking to me, he starts giving me the story about some stuff that he's been involved with since baseball, because he's been successful even after baseball.

And it was really easy for me to pick up.

I didn't even have to ask him the question.

It was easy for me to pick up on what has made him so successful, what has made him so effective in his life.

It's his relentless competitiveness.

He told me this story.

He's the kind of guy that if you tell him you cannot do that, you will not be successful if you do that, it just makes him want it more and go harder after it.

And he was actually uh a founder of a of a private school in Alpharetta, and and the reason that that school exists in large part is because people didn't think it could.

And John was involved and some things were going awry, and and he just kind of took the reins and said, No, this school's gonna happen, and I don't care what y'all say, I can do this, and boom, school.

Relentlessly competitive.

What if you could ask Jesus about about his success?

What if you could look at Jesus and say, hey, Jesus, your life was incredibly effective.

You did amazing things, they're still talking about you 2,000 years later.

What do you credit your success with?

What do you attribute your effectiveness to?

Jesus thankfully has already answered that question for us.

It's in John chapter 5, verse 19.

John 5:19

Listen to what Jesus says about his own ability to succeed and be effective.

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself.

He does only what he sees the Father doing.

Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

In other words, Jesus says this my effectiveness is accredited to one thing, my ability to respond to what God the Father is doing.

I watch what God does and I respond.

That is what made Jesus who he was.

Jesus said what he said out of a response to God.

Jesus did what he did because he was responding to God.

Jesus went where he went because he was responding to God.

Everything he did was out of a response to God because he was watching, he was seeing what God was doing, receiving God's plans, and then responding to those.

And that that caused Jesus to be in some unique places in his life.

In fact, in one time, Jesus was in a very difficult place because he responded to God.

We see it in Matthew chapter 4, verse 1.

Matthew 4:1

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

To be tempted there by the devil.

Now, the wilderness was really a desert.

We might think of a wilderness and think of woods and trees and whatnot, but their term wilderness meant the desert.

In fact, it was a place that the people of that day called the desolation.

Just in case you want to know how nice of a place it was.

The desolation.

That's where Jesus went.

And he went there.

Why?

Because the Spirit had led him there.

He was responding to God's leading, and he found himself in a really tough place in the wilderness.

He was there for over a month.

He was alone.

He was isolated.

He was hungry.

He had no food.

But he was there for a big reason to be tempted by the devil.

Jesus was there to be tested.

And the outcome of this test would define him, how he responded to this test would define him for the rest of his life.

Jesus was victorious in the wilderness.

He saw past the lies that Satan threw at him to tempt him.

He walked out of the wilderness, having had victory over Satan for the first but not the last time.

See, how could Jesus be the one to lead us away from the influence of Satan if Jesus himself could not resist the influence of Satan?

Jesus was victorious.

He responded appropriately to the challenge that he faced.

But what I think is really interesting about this story is that right before Jesus responded to this incredible test, the biggest test he had ever faced in his life, up to that point, right before he responded, he received.

Matthew chapter 3, Jesus is baptized.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

This happens right before he goes out through the wilderness.

We start in verse 13.

Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

But John tried to talk him out of it.

I'm the one who needs to be baptized by you, he said.

So why are you coming to me?

But Jesus said, it should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.

This is another way of Jesus saying, I'm not doing this out of response to you, but to God.

He's responding to God like usual.

John agreed to baptize him.

After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him.

And a voice from heaven said, This is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy.

I mean, God pays Jesus the most unbelievable compliment.

He says, You are my dearly loved son, and you bring me great joy.

You see, Jesus didn't hear that compliment.

He didn't say, No, no, no, God, I'm not as good as you think I am.

He didn't say, No, no, God, it's really sweet that you say that, but I just, you know, I'm I'm just a humble man.

I'm just I'm just a carpenter.

He received what God said.

He believed it, he embraced it.

He took that in.

I have a personal conviction, a belief that in those moments in his life when the Pharisees, when religious people would look at Jesus and say things to him like you're you're demon-possessed, you're a fraud.

I don't think Jesus had a crisis of identity.

I don't think Jesus said, I don't think I'm a fraud.

I promise you, I'm not.

I think Jesus just looked back to that moment in his life.

He had received what God said, he believed it, and he just said, No, I know who I am.

My father said, This is my son, who I love.

I am pleased with him.

Jesus received from God.

And because he received, because his heart was soft and his heart allowed God's love in, he was able to respond.

If you want to live a life where you respond to God, and you, by the way, want to live that life because that life is an adventure.

That life has meaning, that life has purpose, that life has impact, that is a life that will be remembered, that is a life that will be followed.

If you want to live a life like that where you respond to God, then your priority must be to receive from God.

To receive what God offers you.

I love the way that Romans 12 puts it.

It's perfect.

I'm gonna read from the message version because I just love the way it words this.

Here's what I want you to do, God helping you.

Take your everyday ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life.

And place it before God as an offering.

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Now, to hear that, embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Receive from God.

Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

Instead, fix your attention on God.

Just look at God, keep your eyes on him, you'll be changed from the inside out, readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond.

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings out the best.

He brings out the best of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

It's the ability to receive and embrace what God does for you that makes you a person capable of responding to what God is doing in you and around you.

I love the way it phrased it.

Readily recognize.

Recognize what God is doing and then just respond.

If we're people that have an ability to respond to God, there's no limit on what we can do for the world we're part of.

There is no ceiling on the kind of husband you can be if you're a man that responds to God.

There's no ceiling on the kind of wife and mother you can be if you're a woman who responds to God.

There's no ceiling on your future.

Those of us who are young and we're still dreaming about what's left for us in life, and by the way, that's most of us in this room.

We're usually a lot younger than we think we are.

There's no ceiling on what your life can be if you will be someone who says this.

I respond to God.

I don't have to figure it out on my own, I don't have to make my own way, I don't have to have the plans, I don't have to know the future.

If I'm a person who just recognizes what God is doing and responds, I will be successful.

It's like surfing, which I've never done.

But it's how I imagine surfing to be.

You know, a surfer does not make the waves.

All a surfer learns how to do is to recognize when a wave is coming and respond.

And then ride that wave.

And that can be your life.

That can be all of our lives.

People who who recognize what God is doing, when God is moving, and we respond, and that means we get to be part of something special.

That's how Jesus lived his life.

But if you want to respond, you have to receive.

And sometimes receiving from God is the hardest thing to do.

And so I want you to ask a question in your heart this morning.

Here in a moment, we're gonna finish with worship.

Just a really quiet, contemplative song, and I encourage you to ask this question to God in your heart, to begin asking this question often.

What do I need to receive today so that I can respond?

God, what do I need to receive from you so that I have what I need to respond to you?

Have you received his love today?

Can you say without a shadow of a doubt that you have received the love of God in your life?

I'm not talking about this warm, touchy-feely, fuzzy kind of love.

I'm not talking about candy with L-U-V written on it.

That's not the kind of love that God offers.

I'm talking about this intense, passionate, went to hell and back for you kind of love, the way that Romans chapter 8 puts it, you can't do it better.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.

Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or in the earth below.

Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love that God has for us that's revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate you from his love.

But here's the thing you need to see.

Nothing can separate you from his love once you have it.

Once you've received it, nothing can take it away.

But you do have a choice.

Will you receive it?

Some of us here today, we we believe in God.

When you're here, you're here at church.

Even if you don't believe that Jesus is God, even if you're still in this state of trying to figure things out, you're at the very least open, or someone dragged you here.

But but there's a difference between believing and receiving.

And I believe there are those of us here that in our hearts we love God, but it's almost like we love God so much that we want to say to God, no, no, no, no, God, I know you do this for me.

I know it's a gift from you.

I know your your love is something you want me to have, but I want to earn it.

Just just let me keep trying my best to be ready for it.

That would be like us looking at Jesus on the cross and saying, Hey, you come off that thing.

Let me get on there instead.

And he's just saying, No, no, receive my love.

Just receive me.

Have you received his love this morning?

If not, it's yours.

Have you received his forgiveness?

Listen to what the word says about his forgiveness in Psalm 103.

He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west.

And in Micah 7.19, once again, you will have compassion on us, God.

You will trample our sins under your feet.

I get the image of God stomping out a fire, a fire that we've created, but he's the one putting it out.

He says, You will throw them into the depths of the ocean.

That is how far away our sins are in God's eyes when we receive his forgiveness.

But we have to receive it.

We have to accept it.

To claim it, to respond to it.

Have you received his forgiveness?

Have you received his hope?

You might be in a wilderness today.

You might be in a wilderness because God has led you there.

You're like Jesus, you said yes to God, and all of a sudden things are not going very well.

And you're wondering, hey God, what's going on?

I said yes to you.

I followed you, and now this is happening.

I have these medical problems all of a sudden, my finances are a wreck, my job's not working out.

I'm following you, God.

What's going on?

Well, remember, Jesus followed God to the wilderness.

You might be in a wilderness of your own making.

I have been in many of those.

And you have the honesty to look at yourself and say, Yes, I am in a difficult place, but I put myself here.

But it doesn't really matter why you're there because God has been in the wilderness before.

Listen to what he says in Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 6.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid and do not panic before them, for the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you.

He will never fail you or abandon you.

God has been in the wilderness before.

In fact, know this if you're in that season of life right now, God does his best work in the wilderness.

He is at his best, his strongest when we are at our weakest.

I believe that everyone in this room wants to be a person who responds to God.

I believe we want to live lives where one day we can look at God and look him in the eye and say, What Jesus said.

I just watched what you were doing, and I tried to do that.

God, that's how I live my life.

I just watched you, I listened to you, I tried to be sensitive, to see what you were doing, and I responded to it.

That's all we have to do.

To be people who live lives that are great.

We have to respond to God, but we cannot do it if we cannot receive.

So what do you need to receive today so that you can respond?

Whether it's love, whether it's forgiveness, whether it's hope, I promise you that he has it.

I promise that he has more of it than you can handle.

But he has just enough for you right now.

And if your heart is open to receiving from him, the stony, stubborn places in your heart, they will melt away and you will have a soft heart.

You will be able to receive so that you can respond.

See, we don't res we don't receive to receive, we receive to respond.

And if you want to be a person who can say, I'm a first responder in God's kingdom.

I'm one of the first to move when he says move.

I've seen miracles happen because of that.

I've seen lives change because of that, because of simply what God is doing and people responding.

If you want to live that life, then today your priority is to receive.

A receptive heart is a responsive heart.

As we worship right now, make that your prayer.

Make that your prayer.

And if you're ready to receive God today, if you're ready to receive the love, the forgiveness of Jesus for the first time, do not leave today without making that decision and making it firm in your heart.

I encourage you to go to the prayer room.

Walk right in there and say, hey, I'm ready to receive God, and man, you're gonna have an experience to have people come around you and celebrate this moment with you, but receive to respond.

Pray with me, please.

Jesus, thank you so much for this amazing group of people.

Here it is, early on a Sunday morning, and we're here to receive from you.

We're here to receive from you so we can respond to you.

God, make us a church, make us a group of people so passionate, so completely passionate about seeing your will happen, so completely passionate about seeing people know you and come to you, that we are committed to receiving from you.

We want to respond to what you're doing.

We can only respond to your love when we receive it, we can only respond to your forgiveness when we have it, we can only respond to your hope when it's ours.

So, God, open our hearts right now to receive it from you.

As we sing this song, we are praying.

God, our hearts are praying for you to give us what we need.

And we ask all this in your name.

Amen.