Detour: What now!?

Just one quick reminder before we dive into our texts today. As you heard Lisa talk about next week, that one service, 10 a.m., not here at our location, but at Knights Park, which is just down the road at 21 in Van Dike, but specifically to those who are watching online, we will not have the opportunity to have online worship because we can’t bring all of that technology to the park. So if you’re one of our online viewers, maybe this is a great way to come join us and experience Shepherd’s Gate in person. Also, if you happen to be one of those people like you, come here right at 1059 early, you’re there 1030 service, 1029 and 29 seconds. You don’t want to do that next week, okay? You really want to make sure that you get there early to get to the parking and then there’s a little area that you have to walk to to set up your camping chair. So some of you might want to come early and tailgate. That’s you know, that that’s possible as well. Those of you with kids, I just wanted to give you that heads up because we are going to start the service right at 10:00 next week. 

But I think we should just come to actually see if five Lutheran churches can actually worship together. Don’t you don’t aren’t you excited about that? That five churches working together means incredible. But today we are continuing our series that we started last week called Are We There Yet? How many of you like to go on trips? How many of you have asked this question of others? Are we there yet? I mean, at some point we all have. Last week JJ kicked it off by asking, where are we going today? We’re going to be looking at detours. And then two weeks from now, we’ll finish it up by looking at the destination, our detours, a good thing or a bad thing. Interesting. But let’s start with defining a detour. What is a detour? A change in plans is probably the easiest definition for it. You thought you had everything put together and you were going to head this way or do it according to these schedules in this plan. And then something changed and you had to take a detour. And JJ talked about this last week that there’s really just two personality types on the planet. There’s those that plan the journey. 

They tend to be the type people. They have to have everything in line and so they do all of the detailed planning for the trip. And then there’s the people that just come along and they enjoy the journey. If you’re a kid, you get to live in this until you become an adult. And usually in marriage, one person is the planner and the other person is the one that just comes along and enjoys the trip. Or if so, if you’re married this morning, how many of you you’re the planners. Go ahead. Let me see your hands. All right. Those of you that just go along for the trip and enjoy the trip, go ahead, Kate. Those of you that enjoy the trip, you should thank the planners of the trips. Okay. That’s appropriate to do. It’s a lot of work to plan things. And you know where this is going. You know that oftentimes in life there are there’s things that just pop up, but there’s good detours and there’s bad detours. I’ll give you some good detours when a kid is born. Is that not a good detour? Now, you might be saying, well, is that really a detour? Because you kind of get like this 9 to 10 month heads up. Sound like a kid just shows up out of nowhere. The detour comes when the parents take that kid home and the grandparents and all the friends leave and then all of a sudden you realize you are responsible for this thing and your whole life gets turned upside down. 

And no matter how many YouTube videos you watch or how many books you read, you are never actually really, truly prepared for how your life is no longer you’re your own. Amen. And look at what we got to see today in baptism. God, bringing more and more people into his family, putting his seal of faith in their heart, in their lives. What about financial gain? Does anyone want to have a financial gain Detour? You sold a business and you made more than you thought or you a you know, you bought a business and all of a sudden it was profitable. Or maybe you took a new job and they gave you an instant raise and then they gave you a big bonus that you weren’t expecting. And so you’re like, Wow, look at this. Look at what’s happening. God is blessing me. And now all of a sudden I have this financial gain. Marriage is marriage still a good thing? Yeah. Okay. I asked that at nine two. So at least we’re still in agreement there. Or what about when the bloodwork comes back and it’s actually the way that it should be? Isn’t that not cool when you can say that like, Man, I finally got my health under control, got my diet under control, or I received the diagnosis that everything’s going to be okay. 

And this part that I was struggling with before, I no longer am struggling with those of you that are empty nesters, good thing or bad thing. Some of you are sitting next to your kids, so you don’t want to admit that is the most liberating moment your life. Right? But let’s be honest, even when you first were starting to go through that, you started withdrawal because you were so used to having your kids in your home and you had an emotionally transition to having to figure out how to live without kids. Once again, what about vacations and retirements? I mean, who doesn’t like to go on vacation? Or when you finally save up enough and you’ve done everything accordingly and you’ve checked all the boxes and you can finally enter into that retirement phase, It’s awesome, isn’t it? But, you know, sometimes life does throw us curveballs. And what do you do when things don’t go your way? How do you respond right, right, right. What do you do when your person isn’t the one that gets elected to a certain position in office? What do you do when things start to unravel in your family? What do you do when people make decisions that you don’t want them to make and they end up affecting you those around you?

It’s interesting. Last weekend, my family, we had the opportunity to go up to my brother’s cottage, which is at Higgins Lake. How many of you been to Higgins Lake? One of the most beautiful lakes in Michigan. And thanks be to God, he has a pontoon boat. So we got to spend a lot of time out on the water and just being with family and enjoying the 4th of July holiday. And so we had decided that we were going to come home on Sunday and we had both of our cars up there. And so my wife, Lisa, actually left 30 minutes before I did, and she had our one son and I was in the in the other car with our other son and my nephew who is up there. They call me Uncle Timmy. He said, Uncle Timmy, is it okay if I go home with you? And I was like, Yeah, sure, I don’t care. You want to come home with us? And then he said that he said, Uncle Timmy, is it okay if I drive? I was like, You want to be my Uber driver and I can just sit in the back? Sure, Absolutely. Here’s the keys. Let’s go. And so here we are. We’re on 75 I-75. We know the main artery here from Michigan. And we get a call from my wife’s car and my wife says, you are not going to believe this, but traffic is at a complete standstill. This is so frustrating. 

Don’t people realize that I have things to do? I need to get home. I got things at the house that I need to do. I got to prepare because I got to work early tomorrow morning. You need to fix this. And I said, Honey, I don’t have a staff like Moses, but I can just put on I-75 and go in. The cars split in between, but I will pray for you. And then we hung up and I looked at my nephew and I said, Hurry up, get off on this X. And he’s like, Wait, what do you want to do? I’m like, Get off on this exit. There’s a county road and I got Google Maps open, I got Waze maps open, and I got Apple Maps open. And I’m like, We can beat this thing. We can get around this thing. And so he’s off on that. He’s off on his detour around the county roads. And I was like, And we get to the spot where all of a sudden we see the stopped cars. And I was like, Isn’t that incredible? We’re now passing down and why we get so excited about that. It’s like, look at all the suckers over there, right? There is no love in that. And so here we are, we’re crisscrossing on all of the county roads, like basically going down 75. And as I’m sitting there, I’m looking at, I’m like, shoot, okay. I think now there’s an opening on 75. 

We get back on. Maybe, just maybe, we can catch up to him. And I was like, Imagine if we beat them home. Imagine how excited my wife would be if we were to beat her at home. So then it became a game. So we get back on I-75 and I’m not joking. 2 minutes later, we came to a screeching halt and we look down at our maps. And Waze was the first one that had the the information that there was an accident that was a half a mile from where we were. And people begin to put their cars in park because we weren’t moving. And it’s amazing within a few minutes that the fire trucks start racing up the ramp and here comes the police cars and here comes the ambulances and our incredible first responders that have to be available even on holiday weekends. And I called my wife, I called her car and she said, hey, you’re not going to believe this, but we’re stuck and we’re not sure how long we’re going to be here. And she said to me, she said, How do you remain so calm? I said, Number one, I’m thankful that we’re not the ones in the accident. And number two, it gives us an opportunity to pause and to pray for the people that are and to pray for their safety and to pray for our first responders who are ministering to them in this moment. 

And we’re so incredible when they finally were able to move the accident kind of over and everyone had to go into one way. And you know how long that takes when you smash all of the cars. And I’m thinking we’re only a half mile. Imagine everybody that’s behind us on I-75. And then we saw a truck that was completely engulfed in flames. The engine was completely gone, pulling a camper. And those of you that pull campers, I have a camper, I pull a camper. You know, that’s one of the biggest things we fear is that something will go wrong on the trip. And we just prayed over that man and his family as we passed them. What do you do? How do you respond? We know there’s difficult situations in life. Death is probably one of the biggest ones we deal with. Even when you know, death is coming, it is still difficult to grapple with. It really doesn’t sink in until it’s actually finalized. What do you do when you go through a financial struggle? All of a sudden, the checkbook, not evening out or expenses are coming or all of a sudden you have unexpected expenses. How do you respond? What do you do when the marriage dissolves or you unfortunately have an injury or you get a diagnosis that you never thought you would have and now all of a sudden your life is completely flipped upside down and that becomes the focus of every single one your days. 

Instead of being an empty nester, you’re still dealing with difficult kids and teens, and you’re trying to figure out God, you gave them to me, but how do I manage this? Let’s be honest. There’s people in here that are overworked. You’re frustrated that you can’t afford to go on vacation. You’re frustrated because you thought you were going to retire at a certain age and now it doesn’t. Look, you’re going to be able to do that. And so now you have to work longer than you wanted to, even though you can see your other friends are being able to retire when they wanted to. And it’s frustrating. Here’s the first truth I’m going to give you this morning. I got seven for you this morning. The first one is this Our entire lives are just one detour after another. And if you learn to view your life and through that lens, I’m telling you, it’ll set you free from embracing every single one of life’s moments. And so today we’re going to look at the Apostle Paul. And if you’re new to Christianity, if you’re new to the Bible, let me just explain it this way. The Apostle Paul started out as someone who would go around and he would persecute Christians. So he was a devout Jew and he was he was so sold on Judaism. And when people started telling others that the Messiah has come in, his name is Jesus, Paul didn’t like that. 

And the people that he hung around with didn’t like that. And so they would find the people that were proclaiming Jesus and they would throw them into jail and oftentimes they would actually literally kill them. And so he was part of that until God transformed his life, completely transformed his life from the inside out. And all of a sudden he becomes a missionary. And a missionary is simply just someone who goes and tells others about Jesus. So now he becomes the very thing of what he was persecuting. But then later on in his life, he actually becomes a prisoner here because of how outspoken he was about his faith. And that’s where we’re going to pick up today. The interesting thing about Paul as well is not only is he is he from a Jewish lineage, he’s also a Roman citizen. So he had this kind of dual citizenship. And during this time, Rome kind of ruled the area. They were the government for the people. And so we’re going to pick up where he’s actually arrested in Jerusalem and he’s brought before the Jewish leaders. And they’re actually creating these lies, they’re creating these scenarios, and they’re trying to convince the Romans to either lock them up in jail for the rest of his life or to kill them. So sound familiar to you about somebody else? 

We study around here named Jesus. Isn’t it interesting? Same pattern. And so what they do in order to spare his life because there’s a mob of men that literally devoted themselves to doing everything they could to try to kill Paul. They transfer them to SSRI. So the Roman rulers did this and is kind of a cool place. You can actually go and visit there today. It’s in modern day Israel. And so you can go and there’s a colosseum and then next to the Colosseum there’s a place that was kind of a palace for the Roman rulers, and next to the palace was a prison. And so here he gets transferred to Caesar Rhea, so that he can stand trial, so they can continue kind of giving his defense of why they should let him go. And so knowing that he’s a Roman citizen. So how long do you think they kept him in prison? So anybody know? And if your God and he’s your mouthpiece for telling other people about Jesus, how long would you want Paul to be in prison?

You ready for this? Spent two years. Two years going through their judicial system, two years waiting to be able to go before different rulers and be able to make his case. Now, I know we have no idea what that’s like because our judicial system now is super quick and efficient. Correct. But here’s the guy’s very life that he’s fighting for. And what ends up happening is, as he’s going before these leaders and you saying, listen, these Jews are making this stuff up and this isn’t true. This is what he ends up getting to the point of saying these words. He said, If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, kill me. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews, if they’re not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. You can’t kill me and you can’t hand me over to them to have them kill me. I appeal to Caesar. And when he said these words, he’s claiming his Roman citizenship. And so at the time, anyone that would see these words means that you would take it to the next level. He could take it to the next appeals court. And what’s so fascinating is after spending two years going in and out of different courts before different rulers, they get to the very end of this process. 

And two of the rulers, King Agrippa and Festus, are actually having a conversation and they’re listening to Paul and they leave the room and they say to him, another one, another, listen, this this man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment. And he says to him, This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. What if you’ve kept me locked up for two years? I’m going do everything that I can to be set free. I want to get back out and tell people about Jesus. And now you guys are going to have the same conversation and say, Well, if you wouldn’t have just appealed to Caesar, you would have been we would have let you go, because really we believe you and we don’t believe this Jewish mob. But because he does, this is what kicks off our text today. This is what happens next. It was decided that Luke and Paul would sail for Italy because Rome is in Italy and that’s where Caesar is at. How many of you would like to go on a cruise to Italy? How many of you would like to go on a cruise to Italy as a prisoner? Okay, That’s the context here. So Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius. He boarded a ship and they’re about to set sail for the coast and they’re about to be put out to sea. And wouldn’t you know that someone else joins them on the journey? And so here’s kind of my detour. 

Truth number two, I really, really believe worrying at a critical time now and this is so important that we find people who will go to the ends of the earth with us. See, both of these guys signed up voluntarily to get on this ship to make this incredible journey with Paul. And what I think’s happening in our society is too many people are trying to go through life alone. There’s too many lone rangers, and especially when it comes to men, men are notorious for not having any friends, even one other guy that they can call or trust in here. Look at the pattern, Paul, with two guys who say no, we’re going to make sure that we go with you and we’re going to watch this play out and we’re going to give up our most precious resource, our time to see this to the end so that we can continue watching you do the ministry that God has called you to do. And so here they are. They’re in the boat, they’re out sailing. It says much time had been lost and it actually became dangerous. And so Paul speaks up and he warns the men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to the ship and cargo like, hey, just you know, I know these earthly things are important to you. And we’re also, by the way, going to lose our lives. And so what is the guard do? What does the centurion do? Instead of listening to prisoner Paul, he followed the advice of the pilot and the owner of the ship. And that shouldn’t be too surprising to us, should it? 

I mean, would you listen to a prisoner or would listen to the guy who owns the boat and the guy who’s actually a sailor and steering the ship? And I want to show you a map. I want you to see just this insane journey that Paul is embarking on with his two buddies. And you can see there Crete in the middle. We’re going to be talking about that in a moment. And then I want you to look at that long red line that goes from Crete to Malta. Okay? Because our text, we’re going to spend a lot of time right in that middle part. You can see how they’re kind of hugging the coast over on the right shoulder, hugging the coast, which was what their plan was all along, to get all the way up to Italy. But we’re going to see what it is that God does in this circumstance. And so it says this when a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity. So they weighed anchors and sailed along the shore. And before very long, a wind of hurricane force, which that’s a big deal, is it not? I mean, that’s a huge storm called the northeaster swept down from the island. The ship was caught up by the storm.

It could not head into the wind, so it gave way to it and were driven along. Now, those of you that have boat, you’re going to you’re going to love this sermon. You’re going to love because it has all these terms in there for you. But those of you that own boats, it is not a good idea when you lose control of your boat, is it? Has anyone been on a boat with somebody else, somebody else’s boat, and you watch them lose control of their boat and then you wonder if you question your friendship with them. Like, why did I agree to do this? It’s not a good thing to lose control of your boat. Now look at what happens next. 14 nights go by and they’re still being driven across the Adriatic Sea. When about midnight. The sailors, since they were approaching land, they thought, here it is, here it is. We finally hit land. They take these sounding devices and they were putting them in the water to try to figure out if they were actually approaching land and they were having such a terrible time. The scripture tells us that it was overcast and they couldn’t even see the stars at night to help navigate them in the sun wouldn’t come out during the day. So they’re literally caught in the worst possible situation. And I would say to you, isn’t it often in our lives when things start out small and then they quickly become overwhelming? 

How many times do we see that? We say, there’s this little speedbump here or this little circumstance here, or maybe you entered into a little sin over here. And then in a short period of time, all of a sudden we get ourselves in a place that we never thought we would ever be in Instead of addressing it back here, remember, Paul warned them, Hey, I wouldn’t do this. Hey, I would actually go a different way and try a different route. And yet when we go our own way, what ends up happening? We get ourselves in a whole huge mess. Well, look at what happens with the sailors fearing they would be dashed against the rocks. Those of you that own boats, boats and rocks don’t mix well. Right. They dropped four anchors from the stern. What part is the stern? The back. And what did they do? Tell me you think that was a good idea? Why didn’t they pray 14 days and nights earlier? Because they’re just like us. We often resort to prayer as a last instead of a first resort. I’m guilty of this. Many of you know the year that my family has having as just a few months ago, both of our boys had appendicitis and had surgery to have their appendix Xs removed three weeks apart. And we spent a whole lot of time down at Royal Oak, Beaumont. 

And what’s interesting is the second time we were there for our second son, we were getting ready to go back and we were in the room and we were kind of talking and joking about it. And I think we were kind of just real confused and we were kind of pinching ourselves saying, Are we in a dream? Like it’s like Groundhog Day, we just did this. How can we be back doing this all over again? This is nuts. Like, how are we ever going to explain this to anybody when all of a sudden we were walking along the hallway and someone said, Pastor Tim, and when you’re me and you’re in a public place and someone from behind you says, Pastor Tim, you know what they accused me in on? They’re probably from our church. So I turn around and it’s always that moment of I hope I remember them. I hope I know them, I hope I know them. I hope I know them. And I did. She’s a member of our church. She’s a nurse. And it’s like one of the chances that she would be a nurse. She wasn’t there for Henry, but she here she is for Brady’s.

 And I remember thinking in my mind like, that’s right. I’m not only a dad and I’m a pastor, but we also need to make sure that we pray over our kid. And it was great to be there. We obviously trust the doctors, we trust the nurses, We trust the medical staff that was there. And I’m telling you, it was a trigger in my mind that said, Hey, guys, we got to go back in there and we got to make sure we rally around Brady and put our hands on him and hold hands and pray together as a family again. So often it’s the last resort, not the first resort. Look what happens to these guys in an attempt to escape from the ship. They realize things aren’t going to get any better. The sailors left down the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. And that interesting doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. What are you guys doing? Nothing. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. So I often think that we get impatient with God sometimes. We don’t like to wait on his timing for things in our lives. Can sometimes we take things into our own hands and we begin to mess with others. 

We begin to do things that aren’t even moral. We begin to think and say things that we really shouldn’t think or say. And when you know all this being the sailors says that Paul says to the centurion and to the rest of those guarding him, unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved. It’s very profound. Do you know why he said this? Anybody know? Because if you don’t have the sailors and all you have are some soldiers and some prisoners, who’s going to run the boat? Think of it. He’s like, Dude, this is common sense. If they get off this boat, we’re all we’re all hosed. And so the soldiers cut the ropes that help the lifeboat and let it drift away. You imagine that moment? Imagine just like the swords, like just getting ready to get drawn, Like just the the intense moment of all of them trying to be on this boat together. Well, it says just before dawn, Paul urged them to eat for he says for the last 14 days, you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food. You haven’t eaten anything. And so I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. And then he says this Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. It’s kind of an interesting thing for Paul to say, isn’t it? Again, he’s a prisoner and he makes this bold declaration. And the reason that he’s able to say this is because God had actually told him that he would spare every single person on the ship. 

So, Paul, in the circumstance that he’s in, is still being used by a vessel, by God to bring comfort to others. After he said this, he took some bread and he gave thanks to God in front of them. He broke it. He began to eat it. And look at what happens. They’re all encouraged. They eat some for themselves all together. There’s 276 on board and it’s a big boat. And when they eat as much as they want it, they can eat as much as they wanted. They lighten the ship by throwing some grain into the sea, then. Incredible. I would say this is our truth. Number six, six out of seven is this. No matter what life throws at you, give thanks to God. In the good times when things are going well and you feel blessed and you feel honored that God is entrusting you with certain things, give thanks to God. And when things get dark and they get frustrating and you go into a place of just wondering if God is there and if he cares, do this. Give thanks to God, give thanks to God in all circum stances. Because here’s the truth. He hasn’t promised a good life to any of us. Did you know that there is no good life chapter in the Bible? Good life Book of the Bible? God promises His son Jesus Christ. 

He promises our salvation. He promises eternal life with Him. That’s our ultimate goal. That’s our ultimate destination, not whatever world we think we can create here on this earth. Jesus, the cross forgiveness of our sins and eternity with Him. Look what happens next. It says, When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach. Can you imagine? Can you just see all these people going up? They must be going nuts on this boat. Here it is. It’s a sandy beach. It might look like Aruba, right? my gosh. Look, there’s Aruba. And when they decided to run the ship aground, if they could. So they’re trying to come up with this plan of here’s our one opportunity to save ourselves. So cutting loose the anchors, boat owners, is that a good idea? They let them into the sea and at the same time, they untied the ropes that hold the rudders.

What are the rudders Do what are the rudders? Do? So no anchors, no rudders. What do they have? A canoe, a very large canoe. Then they hoisted the for sale to the wind and made for the beach. What do you think happened? Do you think? God said, Okay, everyone learn their lesson? I proved my point. I use Paul. Some of these guys. Maybe they came to faith in Jesus through this whole experience. God, I think they’ve experienced enough. I think could just let them canoe this thing up to the land. It’s not what happens. Says the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The boat stuck fast and would not move and the stern was broken into pieces by the pounding of the surf. The soldiers then began to plan to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away in escaping. Can you imagine the intensity of this moment? Utter hysteria and panic in all of their lives? It was a centurion who wanted to spare Paul’s life, and somehow he was one that gave the order from them from carrying out their plan of people senselessly losing their lives.

And this is incredible. He orders those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. Can I ask a question? Who boards a ship that doesn’t know how to swim? Prisoners. Very good. Here’s what happened. The rest, who couldn’t swim, get there on planks and other pieces of the ship. And this way everyone reached land safely. The promise that Paul gave them on the boat. How many were there? 276. Paying attention. I love it. Once safely onshore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The Islanders showed us unusual kindness. Think of this. They built a fire and welcomed us because it was raining and cold. What a way to end the story. Here they are. Some of them swimming to shore, some of them holding on to whatever piece of the boat they can hold onto. And yet all of them made it to shore without killing each other. How long do you think they were on this island for before they got a new ship? Anybody know? Two months. They spent two months on the island. Do you think at this point that Paul has had enough? Like, do you think do you think God can have a little, little grace and perform some more miracles for Paul to get him back doing what he was called to do and preach the gospel? Here’s the crazy part. If you read the text, you continue reading the story.

As soon as they get up to the fire and as soon as they’re there, out of the rain and the cold, a snake comes up and bites Paul in the arm. Come on. God, how many of you you’ve had snake bite moments where everything is falling apart and you’re like, I’m just trying to get this thing to shore.

And I prayed to God and he didn’t even let me get to shore. Instead, the whole thing came apart. It all fell out from underneath me my whole life, my marriage, my business, whatever It is. And then the very next day, you get another tragedy in your life and you say yourself, Where are you? God, she doesn’t. I don’t believe in you. This is why I don’t worship you. This is why I don’t go to church. Why does he allow these things to happen to people? Here’s the crazy part. Paul takes the snake, rips it off, throws it to the side, the people on Malta, their eyes got this big. They’re like, Who is this guy? And how was he able to do this? He spent the next two months telling them about Jesus and all the people on that island became followers of Jesus. Was that part of God’s plan? Absolutely. And this is why this last truth is so important. Embrace the detours in life as opportunities for God to do his greatest work. 

What I love so much about the heart of Paul in reading his account is he never wavered in his faith.

He knew who is God was. He was ready to die at any moment and every single day that he had on the face of the earth. He saw it as an opportunity to tell somebody else about Jesus. And the reason he was able to live in that light, in view of who God is, is because he knew who God was. He knew the relationship that he had with the Father. He knew that no matter what life could throw him, being a prisoner or being on a ship, being with a bunch of crazy dudes, being shipwrecked now bitten by a snake, that God would give him everything that he need, that he would need, and that every single time there’d be an opportunity to tell somebody else about his savior. Jesus Christ. Can I just say this as we head into this week, all of you are going to have an incredible opportunities to show people Jesus, because no matter where you’re at this week, whether you’re at the grocery store, whether you’re at the salon, whether you’re at work, whether you’re on the pickleball courts, everyone’s going to be talking about what happened yesterday and it’s going to be so easy to get political.

It’s going to be so easy to take sides and imagine if God’s people took this opportunity to redirect people and to help people understand the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, that our focus doesn’t have to be on the things of this world that are focused, can be on the eternity that God has for us. And then he wants more and more people to come to a saving knowledge of him. Wouldn’t that be incredible? Maybe this week some of us need to lay down our cell phones. No one says amen on that one. Maybe some of us need to lay down our laptops, maybe some much needed chair of that stupid television and whatever news station you watch and go out and be with your neighbors. Go on that. Walk in your neighborhood, go to that pickleball court, go to the grocery store and enjoy every cent everybody else that’s on their cell phone and just smile at people. Jesus loves you, she says. A purpose and a plan for you. Yeah, there’s difficulties in life. Yes, you may have seen things or had things done to you that are just unimaginable. 

God has never stopped loving. You guys never stopped pursuing you. God has never stopped calling you to himself and wanting the best for you, which is his son. Jesus Christ. Hey, man. So let’s be those people this week as we close our time together this morning, the worship teams coming and they’re going to be singing a song that fits perfectly with everything that we’re talking about today. But we thought it would be appropriate to end this morning a little differently than we normally do. And so what we’re going to have to do is just we’re going to have you remain seated. And as you’re seated, I want you to just listen to the words as the worship team sings them over us. And I want you to think about these words in view of your own life where you’re at, because maybe you’re here today and, you’re angry. I get it. Maybe you’re mad at God. I understand. Maybe you’re wondering what’s going on in our world. It’s difficult. Once again, let these words speak to you, Remind you that God sees you. He knows you, He created you and He loves you. And He will never stop working out his perfect will and plan, no matter. Many detours are thrown into your life. Amen.