Before Big Decisions

Good morning. It’s good to see all of you that are joining us in person. And those of you that are streaming in online. If this is your first time here, you’ve been come in the last couple of weeks. Just want to welcome you to Shepherd’s Gate. My name is Tim. We have the privilege of being the lead pastor here. And isn’t it interesting that we have now made it to the end of the summer? How many of you are having a good summer? Maybe I should start on the positive. You’re enjoying your summer. You’re right. This is the last Sunday in August. And those of us with children in the home, and those of you that had children in the home and have gone on, you will remember this. I would submit to you this morning that right now, what’s going to happen in the next two weeks is the hardest transition for families in our entire calendar year. Transition into Thanksgiving’s easy. Transitioning into Christmas is easy. Even transitioning out of Christmas and New Year into January is really not that big of a deal. But when you talk about a Michigan summer and being out late and having kids and having them just have an incredible time and then having to transition them back into going to bed early and doing morning routines and getting up in the morning and making sure they get to where they need to be. It can be very stressful, can it? 

Right. Am I making this up? I mean, some of some people aren’t even here this morning because they’re probably just so frazzled because they still got to get things, because so many of our kids are starting school this week. And so it’s one of the reasons that we actually picked this sermon series at this time of the year. We strategically said, hey, what if we do a sermon series on prayer and what if the goal of the sermon series is to help people pause long enough, reflect, and to invite God into every aspect of their lives, especially during the chaotic seasons. And so that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. So much so that what we thought would be really cool to do is just go to passages in the Bible, in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which is where we read about the life of Jesus. And we look at passages where Jesus is praying. Now here he is. He’s fully God, yet he’s fully man. Yet he often would withdraw to different places, and he would be by himself. And he would pray to God the Father. Now he’s three persons in one there. There, father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet he’s setting this pattern. He’s setting this example for for us in how we are to live our lives. And so we really wanted this sermon series to be an encouragement to you and for you. 

Because so often when you hear this, everyone in the room, instantly you’re going to your prayer life like, well, gosh, shoot, I don’t pray. Oh, I failed again, or oh, I can’t believe you know, I haven’t been more intentional to include God in my daily activities. And so here at Shivers Gate, we believe in calling people out, not calling them out. And we call you up into your full potential of giving you practical ways to take those baby steps to be able to integrate prayer into your life. Because here’s the reality you have a loving God in heaven who wants to spend time with you. He wants to hear what the concerns of your hearts. He wants to know what it is that you’re going through. And the amazing part is that he already knows everything about you. You don’t have to inform God what you’re thinking. You don’t have to tell him the burdens that are on your heart because he already knows them, but yet equally as important as he invites us. Then to speak those things out, to lay them at his feet and watch what it is that he can do in our hearts and in our lives. And so the last couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at that, and today we’re going to be looking at this idea of big decisions. It’s probably a good idea, but before we make a big decision, we should pray. 

Do we all agree with that? This morning? Now, last week, Pastor Ben started by asking us why we don’t pray, and many of you responded by saying, some of you, you just might not know how no one ever taught you. You didn’t grow up in a home that prayed, and so to all of a sudden just become this great prayer warrior. It’s just not going to take place. Or maybe you prayed and God didn’t answer your prayer or you didn’t feel anything. So you’re like, well, what’s the point? I feel like I’m just wasting my time. Maybe you don’t see that it can actually make a difference. So often when we’re presented with the problem, we just try to handle it on our own, don’t we? I mean, can we all admit to that? We feel we have the resources. We we feel we have the knowledge, so why bother God? God’s got enough things on his plate, and maybe we don’t need to have him be a part of it. And obviously, the most easiest answer in all of this is just we’re just too busy. I kind of want to take it one step further this morning and ask, what is it that we do? Instead of praying? We know why we don’t pray, but what is it that we fill our lives with instead of praying? What do you do? Worry. Wow! Someone said that the first service. What else?

To do the news. We watch the news. Which is a great idea when you’re feeling down on yourself right?

Anything else that we consume our lives with? Work, we thank you. Social media. Anybody want to admit that this morning? I’m glad you said that, brother, because this is what’s so interesting. I did a little research this week, and I went to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Did anybody else go to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website this week? And this data is from 2023. So this is like fresh information. And imagine the millions of dollars that was spent figuring this out. But they said the average American, the average American 24 hours a day looks something like this, that the bulk of our time we spend sleeping and personal and on our own personal care. Does that surprise anyone?

Can anybody spend over an hour getting ready for church this morning? You don’t want to admit it. Okay. The second is this is on our leisure and sports. And if you dig a little bit more into statistics, what you’ll find out is it’s really generational because older generations tend to watch more television. They consume their time doing that, where the younger generations, of course, are on social media.

And so Gen Z is really kind of seeing some emerging things taking place. And if you’re from Gen Z, if you’re one, you’re you’re part of that generation where you’re in middle school, high school, you know, early college, maybe even into your mid to late 20s. All this data in research is coming out about your generation. I don’t know if you know this. And just this week I bought a book because I want to dig into the data that they now have based on the way that you were raised and based on the invention of the iPhone and what took place, because you’re the generation, believe it or not, that when you were born in the hospital that they handed you a cell phone before you left. That you were scrolling and sending text messages by day two, I mean, it’s incredible what your generation has been exposed to, which the previous generations don’t fully understand that. But now what’s coming out is all the data about how detrimental it’s been to your health and well-being. And it’s why all of these things mental health, depression, anxiety are through the roof with your generation. And then I dug a little bit deeper, and I found an article where they had actually interviewed and researched a bunch of Gen Zers who admitted that all of this stuff that they have been exposed to is detrimental to their health. 

And so they admit it’s bad for them, but yet they make zero changes because they become so accustomed to it, because it’s their way of life. It’s the way they communicate, it’s the way they function in the world. And so Ben and I were talking about this, and we were thinking like, how in the world can we come alongside students and young adults? How can we come alongside families because we know the next generation after them is going to be coming up in kind of similar circumstances? And how do we make sure that we guard our hearts, our minds, and help people really navigate the world that we find ourselves in? I know some of you, you were looking at this third bullet point saying, what’s up with that? 3.56 hours of work or work related activity. Here’s what’s really interesting. The detail behind this. Those who work from home.

How many of you work from home averaged 5.1 hours a day at work. Those that go into the workplace. How many do go into the workplace? Average 7.9 hours of work per day. So basically what they’re saying is, even though over 50% of the population is now working remotely, they’re not really working. Blame the government. These aren’t my statistics. Okay. Over two hours or close to just under two hours of household activities. And of course, we have to eat and drink to sustain our lives. And I don’t think it’s a big surprise to anyone that less than an hour a day would be spent on every other thing that we have to do with our lives, including squeezing out a little time to pray or squeezing out a little time to do a religious activity. Now, again, I want to applaud you. Those of you that are here today, especially with young families and all that you have facing you the next couple of weeks, those of you that are tuning in online, being in church, being connected to others is so valuable, and we’ll get into that in a moment. But let’s be honest, oftentimes prayer is moved up on our priority list when we have to make big decisions. 

You all just said that. Like when we make it big before we make a big decision, it’s really important. Like maybe we should pause and in that moment take it before the Lord and ask that the Holy Spirit leading guide us in that decision. And so today we’re going to be going to Luke’s gospel, Luke chapter six, and we’re going to find Jesus doing what he does best, praying. And he goes on a mountainside, which I love, the fact that he’s always out in nature, he’s always just around creation. And he goes on this mountainside to pray. But this time he spends the entire night praying to God. And these are the moments when you want to lean into the Scripture, when you want to say, okay, if you’re spending the whole night, if you are, you know, forgoing sleeping, what is it that’s about to happen?

What huge decision is it that you are about to make? And this is what it tells us in the next verse. When morning came, Jesus called his disciples to him. 

He chose 12 of them, whom he also designated apostles. Simon, who he named Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon, who was called the zealot. Judas, son of James, not to be confused with. Confused with Judas Iscariot, who all, oh, by the way, became a traitor. And so here he is conversing with God the Father and spending the evening in prayer, knowing that this is going to be one of the biggest decisions he makes. I think we can agree with that. Who are the 12 guys that he’s going to bring around him, that he is going to pour his life into for the next three years, that are going to eat, sleep and live with him, watch him perform miracles and really be kind of this group of men that one day he will commission to go and change the world. Minus one, and it makes you stop and wonder, well, how have we included God in the big decisions in our lives? Do we stop long enough? To just have that moment? 

Some of you in here, your kids just started college, and I can’t imagine the the emotions that go through as you go into their dorm room and you set everything up, and they’re all excited about starting this whole whole new chapter of their life, and then you have to back away and leave and go home and in that moment realize that they’re moving on and that they’re no longer going to be in your home as much as they used to be. Big decision in their life, what are those other times in our lives when we really are faced with big decisions? Sometimes it might be saying, you know, I think my time at this place has come to an end, and so I’m going to make a career move or change and it can be scary. It can be overwhelming. But I really feel like this is where God is leading me. Maybe it’s moving to a new house. And so you’re stressing out and you’re trying to get things ready at the place that you were, and now you’re looking at the place that you’re supposed to be, and maybe you’ve already gotten to the new place, and you’re looking back and you’re saying, well, did we really make the right decision? And and was God a part of that, or did we screw up or how do we sort this out? Maybe you’re dating somebody. 

You’re wondering, is this the one? How do you know God? Is this really you? You have for me to spend the rest of my life with? Now, remember, there’s another evening that Jesus stayed up all night long praying. Pastor Ben talked about this just a couple weeks ago when we started this series where we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The night he’s betrayed, he actually took all the disciples with them, and he told them to pray and he left them in a certain spot. And then he went on further to spend time with God, because he knew how important that evening was going to be. And when he goes back, he finds the disciples. Where are they doing? They’re sleeping. And he kind of says to them, he says, you couldn’t couldn’t stay awake. Did I tell you how important this is? That’s the night he betrayed. It’s the night he’s dragged all over Jerusalem into the next day, when he’s hung on a cross and all the sins of the world are placed upon him. And three days later he would rise from the dead. And he would declare victory over sin and death and the devil for you and for me. And then he would appear to his disciples, to his followers, and once again he would confirm that he is who he says he is. He is the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Imagine the joy that must have filled their heart, seeing Jesus once again face to face, seeing the greatest miracle that has ever taken place on this earth. Jesus gets to the end of that time with his disciples and he tells them, guess what? It’s time for me to go back to the father. 

So I’m going to take you out to the certain spot, to a certain place, and you’re going to see me ascend back to God the Father. But I’m going to commission you to go and do everything that I have taught you, everything that you have witnessed and watched me do, including prayer. Now you are going to go and you are going to do this in my name. And as Jesus is ascending into the heavens and they’re all standing there watching, what did the guys do? They kept watching. Even though he told them to leave. They kept staring into the sky until he had to send an angel down to tell him, no, no, no, he’s not coming back. At least not yet. You need to go fulfill the mission that God has given you. And so that’s where we pick up in acts. The first chapter with the disciples says they return to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day walk from the city. And you can imagine the conversation that they’re having with each other. When they arrive, they go upstairs to the room where they were staying. And you might recognize these names. Those present were Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James. What do you think they were doing? I. 

Do they fall asleep again? Do they remember what it was that Jesus told them to do? Says they joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. And as they’re praying, as they’re having this prayer service, Peter, who’s kind of the leader of the clan, he stands up among the believers, numbering about 120 people, and he says, brothers, in the scriptures, the scriptures had to be fulfilled. And what the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus the betrayer, he was one of our number and shared in our ministry. He wasn’t picked on accident. God knew that he would betray him. God knew that that all of these things would come into being. And so Peter goes on to say, it is written in the book of Psalms, may his place be deserted. Let there be no one to dwell in it. May another take his place of leadership. They realize the importance of this moment. They realize it’s the fulfillment of 

Scripture and now their task. Because Jesus isn’t there to tell them who they are, to pick, to be the next apostle. And so he goes on to say, it’s necessary to choose one of the men who’s been with us the whole time. It just makes sense. Like we should probably find a guy who is there. From John’s baptism to when Jesus was taken up because they were eyewitnesses of his resurrection. And so they nominate two men. Joseph called for service, also known as justice, and Matthias. Once you find that interesting, two guys and what do you think these two guys did? Does anybody know? Joseph decided he was going to have his convention in Galilee. Okay, so he gathered around all the people that knew him and liked him, and he invited them all in. And he told them his platform about how he would make an incredible apostle. Then you have Matthias, who said, no, I’m going to have my convention in Jerusalem, and I’m going to get all the people that know me and around me, and I’m going to tell them what my values are, and then we’re going to let the people decide.

Do you think that’s what happened? I want you to listen to this prayer. It’s so cool. They prayed, Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Can we pause there for a moment? Do we believe that God knows everyone’s heart? Yes. Do we believe that he knows the hearts of our political candidates? Do we believe that he knows what’s going on in the world around us? Yes. Do you believe that he knows what’s going on in your heart? He sees. He knows. He understands the world in which we live in. As they’re praying, they say, show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs. And so in their system, in this day and age, it wasn’t an election. They actually cast lots. And the lot fell to Matthias. And so he was added to the 11 apostles. Isn’t it interesting going to God in prayer, a huge decision to make, and trusting and believing that God was leading them to the right person at the right time. You ever think about what this guy signed up for? What this guy won a life of persecution, a life and going out and being bold for the gospel, and not about being afraid to speak into the darkness and see sometimes inconvenient truth that maybe people don’t want to hear. 

But standing on the Word of God and preaching what needed to be preached so that more and more people would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. And it’s not that God couldn’t continue using Joseph who didn’t get selected. But this was a very specific position at this time in the history of the church. See what’s so fascinating as you continue reading the book of acts over and over and over again, every single chapter, what you see is this pattern that they say that we now, today are compelled to follow because they would go out and they would boldly share their faith, and they would rub shoulders with those who didn’t know Jesus. And they lived in a world that wasn’t always excited to hear the message of Jesus persecution after persecution, threats of being thrown in jail, some of them, their businesses and their livelihoods being threatened because they were Jesus followers. Acts chapter two paints a beautiful picture of how God has sustained the church to this day. Because this is what they did, they would devote themselves. I want you to think about that word. They devoted, they committed. They said this is a non-negotiable to the apostles teaching. They made sure that they gathered together and told the stories that Jesus had told them, and they would open up, and they would read the scriptures from the Old Testament and they would remind themselves, oh, yeah, look at this scripture, and look how Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. And look, there’s this prophecy over here that hasn’t been fulfilled. But we can be excited because one day it will be fulfilled. That’s why gathering here this morning is so important. Coming together, committing to being part of a local church every single week. 

And I know here we are, we’re coming off the summer, we’re coming off vacations, we’re coming off just so many different distractions that we have. And me too, because I’m glad that I was able to get away with my family, and I’m glad that we’re able to stream the service whenever we’re not here in person for worship. My challenge this today, now, as we begin this transition, this huge transition into the fall, when you will have more things on your schedule, when there’ll be more things vying for your attention school schedules, sports schedules, activity schedules, all of the other things that now come into play.

Early bedtimes. Right? Parents. Early bedtimes. Amen. Waking those kids up early, making sure their lunches are prepared. All of the facets of having to live with kids, and yet making sure church is a priority and your family making sure that no matter how crazy things get that you get here, and that for one hour every Sunday, you devote yourself to being in worship, and not only so that you can hear the teaching of God’s Word because this is how God speaks to us. We’re just the vessels that get to deliver this important message, that you also get to be a part of fellowship. 

This is why, you know, here at Shepherd’s Gate, we encourage you to come to in-person worship. We know so often people, their first contact with us is watching online. This is why we have the online capabilities. Or maybe there’s people that just physically can’t get here because of physical or medical reasons. But our goal is for everyone to be able to come into worship together so we can hear each other singing. And so after the service, we can hang out and have a cup of coffee and catch up on life and find out if there’s prayer requests that anybody needs for the week. And love and support and encourage one another as we see the day of the Lord coming closer and closer. You heard Reggie say in the video, I mean, there’s some really good news to share with you today that the reason we have to go to to the service times that we do is because of the parking lots not clearing out in time after the 9:00 service. In fact, here it is, the last Sunday of August where we just went through the summer months, which attendance tends to dip.

And yet I’m here to tell you, on the last day, the last Sunday of August, our in-person worship attendance is up 26%. Can we praise God for that? That’s you. That’s you coming and being part of what it is that God is doing here. We want to make sure that we have tons of room and why we have the two kids programs, so that more and more can hear the message of Jesus. Look what else it says. We come together, we break bread. As we share in Holy Communion so frequently here at Shepherd’s Gate, and we receive the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. And of course, we come to pray. And I know some of you, this may be the only time throughout the week that you pray. It may be when we’re gathered together. And if that’s it, and that’s the first step for you. I would encourage you to do that. Continue to be here. Continue to join us in prayer. Continue to lay your requests before our father. So again, as we think of this transition, as we think of prayer and in how we are called and compelled to request that the Lord, how do we develop a rhythm and habits to pray like Jesus, who taught the disciples to pray? So then we pray like the disciples, and we continue this forward, knowing and trusting that God is at work in our lives. Again, I’ll tell you this. The easiest way to do it is to start small. And again, you’re here. 

You didn’t grow up in church. Maybe you didn’t have parents that were religious. Maybe your kids have never heard you pray. Let me just encourage you today. The first thing you can do is pray before your meals start there. If you have the opportunity to have breakfast with your family in the morning, it doesn’t have to be long and it doesn’t have to be fancy. And it doesn’t have to be King James Version. Just, you know, what you didn’t know was a version of the Bible that’s very wordy. The Bible actually tells us we don’t know what to pray for as we should. That doesn’t mean we get off the hook of praying. It just means that whatever we utter to God, God will figure it out. God will sort it out because God knows the intention of our hearts. And as we start the school year, it might be so much something so simple as God. Just watch over my family today. Watch over my sons. Watch over my daughters. Protect myself. Spouse. Bring us all back safely tonight. Tell you another thing to do. Easy thing to do. Don’t let anybody go to bed in your house without first praying. Institute the rule and dads, the spiritual leaders. I’m going to talk to you first moms single moms. If you’re in here, this also applies to you. But you know how much we press into wanting to call men up into that spiritual role that we believe he has called us and gifted us and placed us in our tradition and our family for a long time has been to go into our kids bedrooms, ask them simple question how was your day? Is there anything we can pray for? 

Pray over them and then we will also give them the blessing, which is what you hear every single Sunday morning when you come to church. It’s how we close our worship services. And my son, who started on the travel baseball team this last year, because of the scheduling of that and because of the distance of some of his practices in the fact that my wife and I are really good friends with his coach, who’s a Christian man, and they’re in a Christian house, and my son and his son are really good friends.

They go to school together. There was times that he would spend the night at their house because logistically, we couldn’t get him to the things that we needed to get him to. And after a few nights of spending the time there that he did, he came home and he said, hey, let me tell you how the angel hearts do their evening prayers. Like, oh, this sounds cool. They actually gather together in one room, so how many people you have? And they do their highs and they’re low, so everyone goes around the circle, parents included, mom included, dad included. 

Whoever it is. And you just give your highs and lows and then everyone just takes a turn praying. And again, it doesn’t have to be something that’s so outlandish. You don’t have to have this long prayer. I can just be something so easy as thank you God for today. Help us to have a good night’s sleep. Thanks for giving us Jesus. And so now we’ve kind of shifted to that model in that mode, and it’s kind of fun to hear what our kids have to say are sometimes they beating the tar out of each other during prayer time, boys. And you have to tell them to stop. Of course it’s messy. Nothing in life is easy. I think. Sometimes people think, oh, you’re the pastor and everything just comes naturally to you. And you went to school and took three classes on prayer. And so for you, praying is easy. Do you know why praying is easy for me? Because I have to do it. I have no choice, right? It’s part part of the gig. Is it kind of kind of the occupation that I signed up for? And the more you do it, the more that you get in this habit and rhythm. I’m telling you, it’s incredible to watch, because what you do in those moments is you’re inviting God into the situation. You’re inviting God into your family. You’re inviting God into your marriage. 

So those of you that are empty nesters, those of you maybe the kids are out of the house, or maybe your kids are older, they’re in college and you’re like, well, those times are gone. No, they’re not, they’re not. If you have a spouse, you can grab the hand of your spouse and say, we’re going to pray before we go to bed tonight. I just believe there’s not a woman on this planet that wouldn’t want her husband to do something. As simple as that. Ladies, am I correct? Guys, did you hear it? It’s that habit. And it’s not a god. Two, it’s a get two. We get to do this. We have a loving, gracious God that wants to hear our requests. He wants to commune with us. He wants to connect with us. He wants to hear what it is that’s holding us back. And so often as we’re releasing these things, as we say these things, there’s a there’s a physical and emotional and even a mental release that takes place in our lives. It’s actually good for our health to pray. Jesus put it this way in Matthew’s account, it’s not an if. It’s a when, like, just get out of your mind. The whole idea about if we’re going to pray, no, no, it’s when you’re going to pray. And he does this really cool thing about giving. And in this context, he’s talking about giving to the poor. And the reason he’s talking about that is because he’s trying to help people to look past their own life and to be a vessel to be able to give to others, or when you pray or when you fast. 

Now, I know we haven’t talked about fasting here in a while, and shepherds keep and it’s a practice that a lot of people that that are gifted by God to be prayer intercessors, and they have a prayer closet and they go into that prayer closet and they’re able to spend some serious time with, with the Lord in prayer, because that’s what God has called them to do. And so often in that there’s people that will also participate in fasting. So they’ll fast from electronics a little fast from social media. So oftentimes it’s also includes food. And I can tell you this at 20 years ago when I first started at Shepherds Gate, I was dating a girl. I was a student director at the time, and she came to youth group with me. She came to church with me. she went on a couple of youth retreats. So the kids got to know her. Some of the parents got to know her. And I thought I was going to marry this girl. I was completely convinced that she was the one for me. And I literally went to this place. I don’t know if you ever heard it. It’s called Lakeside Mall. And I went ring shopping with my older brother because I had no clue what I was doing. I had no idea how any of that worked. And thanks be to God, he had been there, done that, and had some knowledge, and I was literally getting ready to put a deposit down and trying to figure out the timeline of when I would pay this thing off and when I proposed.

And wouldn’t you know, we were getting closer and closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I decided that we should go and join my parents who were living in Virginia at the time. So I bought us both plane tickets, and I wanted to propose before we went so that my whole family could celebrate with us at Thanksgiving. Don’t you think that’s a good plan? And one week before we left, our relationship blew up. It was awful. It’s terrible. I think I became numb for weeks, couldn’t function. And you know this. Those of you that are single, it is not fun. Going into the holidays is when everything remind you about how much people are in love. Stink in hallmark show. Who wants to go Christmas shopping right now? There’s some Christian version of the hallmark show. I don’t even know what it is. It’s terrible. And it’s only by God’s grace I can tell you this that a few months later, I crossed paths with this girl named Lisa at a surprise party for a mutual friend, and I was terrified about being in another relationship.

I was hard, she’ll tell you this. I was hard on her. I interrogated her. Asked her questions you probably shouldn’t ask on the first date. 

I’m sure. And months and months went by and my family would say, are you ever going to move on? I like, I don’t know, because when you are hurt, when you were Kai, you know this. Those of you that have gone through this pain, it’s hard to get over it. And you’re always questioning whether the next decision is going to be the right decision. So I decided I was going to fast. I decided I was going to take it up a notch and go without eating. And if you’ve never fasted, you don’t know this. But about day three and four, when you’re doing nothing but water, your body gets really cold, but your mind gets really sharp and you’re really focused and honed in. And because you’re going without food, you’re taking that time then to devote to the Lord. And I’m waiting for a sign. I’m like, God, just write Lisa’s name in the clouds outside. It’s not that hard. You created the world. Come on. Toward the end of that week, I’ll never forget this, because I went to my brother’s house and we went down into his basement, and he’s like, what is wrong with you? You look like you’re so stressed out. And I’m like, first of all, I’m hungry. Second of all, I feel like I am not getting an answer from God.

And he looked me straight in the eye and he said, and I quote, you are an idiot if you don’t propose to that girl. True story. And you know, the crazy part is when he said that this piece came over me, that God used him in that moment, in knowing my wife and knowing me as well as he knew me and knows me. But then we would go on and become engaged. And that next month, Lisa and I would celebrate 16 years together as husband and wife. So listen, I say all that to say this, it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes we pray and we think we’re making the best decision, and we feel like we’re being led by the Holy Spirit in some other circumstance, comes along and blows up our plans. Sometimes it’s not even us. It’s a different person that then comes in and breaks the covenant that God ordained and established. But let me tell you this loud and clear today there is life after broken relationships and there is life after divorce. Did you hear me this morning? There is life after broken relationships and there is life after divorce. God is not done with any single person in this room or watching online. He will fulfill his purpose in his plan to the very end for you. 

Amen. And it’s as easy as this. Humbling ourselves before him, praying continually, saying, God, whatever this mountain is. Maybe it’s a relationship thing. Maybe it’s a financial thing. Maybe it’s something with your kids or your grandkids, or it’s a medical diagnosis, whatever it is. Or maybe it’s something really small. Kids that are in this room, you can be part of this as well. Students that are in this room and you’re stressing out about college and you’re stressing out about your career, whatever those things are, God wants to hear from you, and he wants to work in your life to that end and help you get through that valley that you find yourself in. Amen.