Hello and welcome
to this message from Skip Heitzig
Calvery Albuquerque. We pray this message
strengthens your relationship with the Lord. And if it does, we'd
love to hear about it. Email us mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calveryabq.org/give. In the series
"Against All Odds" we discovered the overwhelming
and compelling evidence that Jesus was the
long awaited Messiah. Not everyone believed in Jesus. I the message "Believing
the Miracle-making Messiah" Skip looks at how
Jesus' miracle provided solid evidence of his identity. Now we invite you to open
your Bible to Matthew, chapter 11 as
pastor Skip begins. Would you please turn in your
Bibles to the book of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew. It's in your New Testament. It's the first book
in the New Testament. Matthew, chapter 11. We're going to be reading
from that in a moment. But let's begin by praying. Can we do that? Father, we come before you
and we present our bodies as living sacrifices. That's what Paul told us to do. Holy and acceptable, which
is our reasonable service. We pray, Father, that
as we are focused on things of the Spirit,
now, focused on your Word, we give you our full attention. We pray, Lord, that you would
bolster, strengthen, confirm our faith in you. Make us stronger going out
this morning from this place than we were even coming in. Lord, I pray that through
the fellowship together, the songs that we have
sung and the reading of your word, that
we would be equipped for whatever comes this week. In Jesus' name. Amen. Back in World War
II David Greenglass was a traitor to the
United States of America. He sold secrets to the Russians. Atomic secrets. And having done that,
he fled down to Mexico. Well while he was down
there his conspirators figured out a way
that he could meet with the Russian
ambassador of Mexico City. However, his identity
was absolutely vital. Identifying that man to
those people was paramount. So Greenglass was given
six signs in advance. Six pre-arranged
signs known to him and to those that he would meet. So number one, once
he was in Mexico City, Greenglass was to write a
note to the ambassador signing his name as I. Jackson. Number two, after
three days he was to go to the Plaza de
Colon in Mexico City. Number three, he was to stand
before the statue of Columbus. Number four, with
his middle finger placed in the guide book. In addition, number five,
when he was approached he was to say that it was
a magnificent statue and that he was from Oklahoma. Number six, the secretary
to the ambassador would then give him
a passport so that he could leave the country. Those six identifying
signs made it impossible not to
identify the right person. We have been looking
at a series of signs given from the Old Testament,
predictions, prophecies, prearranged predictions as to
the identity of Jesus Christ, the identity of the Messiah. Not six, but over 300. We're not looking at all
300, of course, but some of the highlights. And one thing is
obvious, God wanted to make sure it was
impossible not to identify. Or was impossible not
to mistakenly identify the Messiah. He wanted us to make sure, as
he wanted the Jewish examination to make sure, who he was. So prediction after
prediction was given. For example, Isaiah said that
he would be born of a virgin. Micah said he will be born
in Bethlehem and he was. Hosea the prophet said he
will be called out of Egypt and he was. The prophet said he would arise
out of Galilee and he did. Isaiah called him a servant
and we looked at that. And then Paul the Apostle,
we noticed last week, said he came at
just the right time. In the fullness of the time. When you put all those
puzzle pieces together you have an unmistakably
accurate composite picture of who that Messiah was to be. Well, one of the descriptions
of what he would do is that he would
perform miracles. That it would be one
of the authenticating, confirming signs that this
one was the one because he would perform miracles. So Isaiah, 29 and
Isaiah, chapter 35 say "the eyes of the blind
shall see, the ears of the death will be unstopped. And then the lame
shall leap like a deer and the tongue of
the dumb shall sing." Those are predictions made
by the prophet Isaiah. But there were others
who also believe that when the
Messiah comes, you'll be able to spot him
because of his miracles. You've heard of the
Dead Sea Scrolls. They're scrolls that were
found in desert caves of Qumran down by the Dead Sea. They were placed
in those caves, we believe, before
the time of Christ. And one particular
document found in cave number four of the Dead
Sea scroll archaeological dig found a statement in a
scroll that reads this-- "the heavens and the earth
will obey the Messiah. He will heal the sick,
resurrect, the dead, and to the poor he will
announce glad tidings." And so when Jesus came on
the scene, almost immediately miracles happened. His first miracle was turning
the water into wine in Cana. But then he healed
people who were sick, he raised people who were dead,
he controlled forces of nature like calming the storm. And it was so
notorious, his miracles, that even his
enemies, people who disagreed with him were forced
to say, you know, something's up. Did in the Jewish Talmud
Jesus is called a sorcerer? Why a sorcerer? Because they knew
of all of the signs that accompanied him
wherever he went. Well, there are 35
recorded miracles that Jesus performed in
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 35. But those weren't the only ones. Because John writes
at the end of his book "and many other
miraculous signs Jesus did in the presence
of his disciples which are not
written in this book. But these are written
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ
and that, believing, have life in his name." One of those who
believed in Him was a guy by the name of John the Baptist. J the B for short. John the Baptist pointed
to Jesus, believed in Him. But in chapter 11 of
Matthew, John is in prison. And he's not getting out. He's going to die in jail. And while he's
there, he struggles, he doubts, his faith is rocky. So much so that he
needs to ask a question. Find out what's
going on with Jesus. We're going to read it. But what I want to do
is take the opportunity in the first six verses
of Matthew, chapter 11 to give you three stages
of faith in respect to the person and
work of Jesus Christ. And they're simple. Devout believers wrestle
with their faith. You'll see it in John. Devout believers wrestle
with their faith. And then the second stage,
developing believers reason through their faith. And finally,
determined believers remain in their faith. We'll see all of
that in these verses. Verse one begins "it came
to pass when Jesus finished commanding his 12
disciples that he departed from there to teach
and to preach in their cities. And when John--" this
is John the Baptist-- "had heard in prison
about the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples and said to him, are you the coming one? Or do we look for another? Jesus answered and
said to them, go and tell John the things
which you hear and see. The blind see, the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the
gospel preached to them. And blessed it is he who is
not offended because of me. As they departed,
Jesus began to say to the multitudes
concerning John, what did you go out into
the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft
clothing are in kings' houses. But what did you go
out to see a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and
more than a prophet. For this is he of
whom it is written. Behold, I send my
messenger before your face who will prepare
your way before you." John the Baptist is the
forerunner of Jesus. You've heard the
term forerunner? He's the guy that
came before him. And when Jesus came, pointed to
him and said, that's the guy. That's the Messiah. So John the Baptist, the
forerunner of Jesus Christ, was someone who, himself, was
predicted in the Old Testament. This is Matthew's
point in verse 10. He's quoting Malachi the
prophet, chapter three. That says, "behold,
I send my messenger before your face who will
prepare your way before you." Here is John, predicted
in the Old Testament, along with Jesus, as the
one who would point to him. And John do this to
be true because when he's baptizing in the Jordan
River, and they all come out and the religious leaders
said, hey, who are you? Are you the Messiah? Are you the Christ? He goes, no, I'm not. And so they say,
well, who are you? And he quotes Isaiah
40, "I am the voice" crying in the wilderness. Make straight the
way of the Lord." That's a quote right out
of the Old Testament. So John is saying, I
am not the message, I'm just the messenger. He is the Word, I'm
getting people's attention. I'm just a lowly road
worker pointing the way that you need to follow him. John the Baptist, J the
B, was an uncommon man with a common misunderstanding. A common misunderstanding as
to who the Messiah would be. And I'll explain that. Jesus said something very--
we didn't even get to it, but in verse 11, you
can even look down, Jesus says of John the Baptist,
"he was the greatest man ever born of a woman." But he was an unusual guy. I mean, if you
know the Bible, you know this guy was a little
bit different, right? He hung out in the desert
regions, he ate bugs, and he wore animal fur, so PETA
would not like this guy at all. And he was very different in
his approach to preaching. He just called it
like he saw it. He told people when
he saw them, repent. Repent because the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And he would just
call it like it was. And that's one of the
reasons he gets into trouble. Now let me just give you a
thumbnail sketch of who he was. His dad was Zacharias. His mom was Elizabeth. Both of them were old. Zacharias, his dad, was
a priest in the temple and his mom, Elizabeth, they
were past having children. And as older
people, they'd never had a child, she was
infertile, until one day, while Zacharias
is in the temple, doing his deal, burning
incense, the angel Gabriel shows up and says, John, you and your
wife are going to have a baby. You're going to
have a little boy. Well, Zacharias, even though
he saw the angel Gabriel, didn't believe Him. And asked for a sign. He goes, OK, I'll
give you a sign. You won't be able to
talk for nine months. How's that? I'll say, it was sort
of a curse on him, but I think maybe even
more so for his wife who couldn't have a
conversation with him, meaningful conversation
for nine months. So during this time as
Elizabeth starts growing and that baby start
showing itself, when she's about
six months pregnant her cousin Mary up in
Nazareth miraculously gets pregnant by
the Holy Spirit. You definitely know that story. And she goes to visit her cousin
Elizabeth down in Jerusalem. Well, as soon as Mary walks
through the door and says, hey, something happens. And Elizabeth says
to Mary, "as soon as the sound of your
greeting reached my ear, the baby leaped for
joy inside my womb." So J the B is already excited to
meet Jesus because in the womb, Elizabeth says, he's
jumping up and down. Then came the day he was born. Now remember,
Zacharias cannot talk. So when they say, what's
his name going to be? He has to take a writing
tablet and write on it his name will be called John. And then when he
can finally speak he says to his newborn
boy, "and you, my son, will be called the
prophet of the most high because you will prepare
the way for the Lord." It's exactly what
he grew up to be. He grew up as the
forerunner pointing the way, preparing the way, for the Lord. Something else, John the
Baptist and Jesus were cousins. We know this to be true because
their moms were cousins. Mary and Elizabeth
were first cousins, making Jesus and
John second cousins. Which means they
knew each other. They probably had gone
to a family reunions. Certainly when it was the
feast time, the festival time, and they went up to Jerusalem,
they hung out together. And I've always thought
that this added authenticity to the testimony of J the
B. Because how many of you would say, my cousin is God? How many of you would say, my
cousin is the one who takes away the sins of the world? You'd say, my cousin adds a
lot of sins to this world. But John was
absolutely convinced that his cousin Jesus
was the Messiah predicted by the prophets. But something happened to John. He gets arrested. And he gets put in prison. Why is he arrested? Because, I said, he
calls it like it is. So when Harod Antipas,
the ruler, dumped his wife and married his brother Philip's
wife, her name was Herodias, and brought her home,
he let it loose. He said basically, you're
a vile, wicked sinner against God. Well that didn't go over
very well with Herod. So Herod has him put in prison
where he stays until his death. And while he is in prison,
there he starts to doubt. He hears about Jesus. He hears what he's doing and
saying, but he thinks well, I'm writing in jail while
the Messiah that I'm convinced is the Messiah
and pointed the way to is out there doing his thing. So John's doubt is based upon
an unfulfilled expectation. Remember, I said John
was an uncommon man with a common misunderstanding? The common
misunderstanding was simply this-- when the Messiah
comes he's going to first immediately set up his kingdom. Because it says so
in the Old Testament. Didn't say he'll
do it first, but he says he will set up a kingdom. Now he knew the prophets. He knew what Daniel,
chapter two said and Daniel, chapter seven said
that the Son of Man will establish an
everlasting kingdom. So he's in jail going,
where is the kingdom? He starts to doubt. And he's probably thinking
thoughts like, well, didn't Jesus announce
up in Nazareth, I've come to set
the captives free? Didn't Jesus say in that speech
in the synagogue in Nazareth, I've come to set at liberty
those who are bound? So John's thinking I'm bound
but there ain't no liberty. And what's up with that? If he came to set free the
captives, why am I still here? John doubts. I remember my first struggles
with the Christian faith after I became a believer. I remember struggling. And I struggled with it because
I had been saved that summer and then I went to college. And I had wonderful
professors who made it their aim to
undermine my Christian faith. One of them told me
those words exactly. I will undermine
everything you believe. I thought, well I thought you
were paid to teach me zoology, I didn't know that
was your stated goal. But it was. And there were many
others after him. My anatomy professor, my
physics professor, et cetera, et cetera. And I remember getting really
down and doubting and wondering if this was even true. And I wrestled and I struggled. But my doubts became my
stepping stones, eventually, to an unshakable faith. Something else, and
I'll talk a little more about that in a
moment, but it is not unusual for even spiritual
leaders like John the Baptist to have times of uncertainty. Moses second
guessed his calling. Jeremiah the Prophet
wanted to quit and never say
another word for God. Elijah the Prophet
wanted to die. So as I go through the Bible,
I find these great giants of the faith from time
to time struggling. In fact, maybe this
will encourage you. If you are to chase down the
word doubt in the New Testament you'll discover that in every
single occasion except for one instance it refers to believers. Not unbelievers. Believers. For instance, Jesus
said to his disciples, "oh ye of little faith." On another occasion he said,
"how long will you doubt?" And then after the Resurrection,
it's a very interesting passage, it says
"when they saw Him, they worshiped but
some of them doubted." It's wild, right? He's up from the dead
and they are worshipping and some are going,
I don't know. They struggled with it. So it's almost as if you have
to believe before you can doubt. You have to invest, you have
to buy in before you can even challenge what you believe in. So it's not uncommon. And here's how it works. You find a believer
who has faithfully served the Lord to year
after year after year and then suddenly
something happens. The loss of a child. The loss of freedom because
of a debilitating disease. And that person at
some point is going to stop and look up and go, why
would you allow this to happen? Where were you-- where are
you when I'm really hurting? John the Baptist for 18 months
has been preaching the gospel, pointing to Jesus,
thousands of people are around him listening
to it, being changed by it. Now, suddenly, he is in a pit
in the middle of the desert of palace known as Machaerus. And he is in the lower part of
the pit total of about a year's time before he finally
dies, is killed there. And so he doubts. He wonders. And I bet, even right now, I'm
speaking to some people who have had or are having doubts. You're at church, you've
been drug to church, you've been convinced
by a loved one that you should come to church
so you pacify them, perhaps. You're here, you're
listening, but you wonder, all that Christians say about
Jesus, could it really be true? I have my doubts. Let me encourage you
to do with your doubts what John the
Baptist did with his. You know what he did? He went to Jesus. Now he couldn't
get out of prison so he sends emissaries in
proxy to ask him the question, are you the one? Are you really the guy? Or should we be looking
for somebody else? But I love the fact that
with his doubt about Jesus he goes and talks to Jesus. I just want to
know, who are you? Are you really that one? And let me just encourage
you, if you are doubting, there's a lot of
study you can do. There's a lot of
books you can read. But first, why not
take it to Jesus? And let me give you
a challenge, it's what my friend does
even to atheists. He says, I love
talking to atheists and I don't get into all
the philosophical arguments at first. I just say, let me
give you a challenge. Are you willing to accept
my 21 day challenge? He says for 21 days, it'll
take you 10 minutes a day, I want you to read one
chapter of the Gospel of John every day. Read one chapter and
as you go through, ask one simple question--
who is Jesus Christ? Or at least, who
does he claim he is? Or in the very least, who does
John in writing the book, John the author, claim Jesus to be. Just start there and see what
will happen with that first. So devout believers
wrestle with their faith. There's something
else about faith and that is developing
believers will reason through their faith. In verse four, Jesus has
an answer to give John and he gives it to
the disciples who come to ask him the question. After asking it he says
to them, "go and tell John the things which
you hear and see. The blind see, the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the
gospel preached to them." Notice the answer is not
a simple yes or no answer. Are you the one? That's the question. Jesus didn't go,
yep, I'm the guy. He answers it by
appealing to two things. Number one, personal experience. Go tell him what you see. Go tell him what you hear. And second, biblical prophecy. Personal discovery
and biblical prophecy. And he gives a list of
things that are mentioned in the Old Testament prophets. Now those two lines of
evidence, I believe, are vital for your faith. There is the subjective element,
which is what you experience, there is the objective
element which is outside of your
realm of experience. Those are the evidences
that corroborate what you have experienced. So the first one is
personal discovery. Or, as I said, human experience. Go tell John what you
hear and what you see. Listen, your
personal testimony is one of the most
powerful tools you have in your spiritual arsenal. The people ask you
questions, you just start-- you know, before we
get into those questions, let me just tell you
what happened to me. This is what I used
to be like, this is what happened the
day I met Christ, and this is how my life
was different afterwards. You have that story. Tell that story. Now you're going to
need more after that, but begin with that. Tell people what
Jesus did for you. I remember the first time I
heard a personal testimony, I'll never forget it. It was David McCacharen. You don't know who he is,
but he was in high school. He was a rabble rouser,
man, he was a party animal. And suddenly he comes
to school with a Bible. And I see it and I go, what up? He goes, well let me tell
you what happened to me. And he told me his story. And first of all, I
thought he was insane. Told me about how he met
Jesus, I said, whatever. At the same time it
made an impact on me. It was his-- it's what
he heard and what he saw. It was subjective. But notice what else, Jesus now
appeals to biblical prophecy. Verse five, he gives the list. "The blind see, the lame
walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised up." How's that for a resume? "And the poor have the
gospel preached to them." Now why does Jesus
tell those things? Because he knew it would
make an impact with John. He knew that John
knew his Bible. He knew that John loved the
prophet Isaiah especially because he quoted from him
more than any other prophet he knew that John knew
these prophecies. Like Isaiah 35 which predicted
"the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of
the deaf will be unstopped, the lame will walk." And Isaiah, chapter 61,
there is a reference to that. Isaiah 61 is
something Jesus quoted in the synagogue
in Nazareth when he said "the Spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he has
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." So go back to John and tell him
I'm the man with the message and my message is
proven by my miracles. I'm the man with the message
and the miracles to prove it. Go tell John that. When it comes to miracles,
I have discovered, my belief is that people
do two things with them. Make two mistakes
concerning miracles. Number one they naturalize them. What I mean by naturalize as
they make the term miracle a loose term, an empty
term, a common term. Well every baby
born is a miracle. Well, no it's not 353,000
of them will be born today. And 353,000 more of them
will be born tomorrow and it happens every single day. So it's not uncommon. That's common. Well every sunset is a miracle. Well, sure, you and I can't do
that but it happens every day. Miracle, by definition, is an
extraordinary, uncommon event. Well, it's a miracle I got
a parking space at the Apple Store. That actually may be a miracle,
because I've never gotten one. But you get my drift, all
that does is cheapen the term. It sort of degrades
the definition. And so people will
naturalize them. Another mistake people make
is they trivialize them. They explain them away. Somebody says, well,
it says right here, Jesus performed a miracle. And they smile politely with
that little erudite smile like, I know better. As if to say,
well, that's simply a primitive interpretation
of a very normal occurrence. These were primitive people. This is a long time--
they're uneducated. And so they had to
figure out a way to explain something
that happened around them and so they said
it was a miracle. But I've always loved what
the once unbeliever who became a very strong believer
CS Lewis said about miracles. In fact, he wrote a book
on it called "Miracles." And in that book he had
something very profound to say. He has a lot of profound
things, but here's something very short, very simple,
but very profound. "If God, then miracles." "If God, then miracles." If there is a God who can act,
then acts of God can exist. If a supernatural being
exists, then supernatural acts can happen. If Genesis 1:1 is possible,
then everything else is also possible. I've always thought that. If you can believe the
first verse of the Bible, the rest is a cakewalk. "In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth." That's a good trick. If he can pull that off,
everything else is pretty easy. If the big miracle, then
smaller miracles can happen. "If God, then miracles." And if you do not believe
miracles are possible, if you believe they
never really happened, and if you believe that
life simply spontaneously sprung from non-life,
like all evolutionists and naturalists do, then you
already believe in miracles. If you believe that life
spontaneously sprung from non-life, you already
believe in miracles. And actually, when
you think about it, there's no problem to turn water
into wine if you can be the one to make water out of nothing. It's not a big deal to
multiply loaves of bread when you can make
grain out of nothing. And by the way, God is never
a prisoner to his own laws. He establishes
natural law but that doesn't mean God can't
come along and go, yeah, I'm going to do
something different right now. I'm going to, in
fact, take this law and supersede it
with another law. And before you say,
well, that can't happen. It happens all the time. In fact, we do it all
the time example-- gravity. Things are earth-bound,
anything with weight falls to the center of mass. Gravity. Did you know the space
shuttle-- remember that thing? It closed off, I think, in 2011. From the 80s to a few
years ago that thing flew. Amazing that it did. Space shuttle weighed
4.5 million pounds. I don't know, law
of gravity says that thing ain't going nowhere. But if you apply a
couple of other laws that will supersede the
earth-bound law of gravity like aerodynamics and thrust,
seven million pounds of thrust we're in those engines to
take it past our atmosphere and into space. Well, if we can do it and
"if God, then miracles." God can do something
anytime he wants. So I'm just saying at least
think this through and let your faith be reasonable faith,
rather than ransacked faith. It doesn't have to be ransacked. It can be rigorous
and reasonable. Which leads me to
a third, and we'll close with this,
determined believers remain in their faith. Look at the sixth verse,
the last statement, Jesus has for John the Baptist. It's like a p.s. Tell him what you
hear and see, tell him what you saw in terms of
miracles of this, this, and that. But then verse six,
and blessed is he who is not offended because of me. The word offended, skandalizo,
means to stumble or bait a trap, to entrap somebody. It's a gentle rebuke
to John the Baptist. He's saying J the B, don't
let this stumble you, dude. Don't get hung up on this. Don't doubt because
what I have just told these guys who are going
to give you this message is enough evidence of who I am
even if you don't understand a lot of stuff. There's a lot you
don't understand, John. I know you're
suffering in prison but I have given
them enough evidence, subjectively and
objectively, that could keep you tethered
to believing in me. So Jesus is saying,
John, don't be offended if God doesn't do
everything you want him to do. John, don't be offended
if miracles happen around you but not to you. John, don't be offended
if people are set free while you stay in jail. John, don't be offended if
dead people get raised up but you stay there to die. And what I'm saying
to you is this-- there's a lot of stuff I
don't know, we don't know, but there's a lot
of stuff we do know. And I will never give up what
I know for what I don't know. I will go always to the
place of the evidence and lay my head on that. And so let me just give you
sort of a parting exhortation in saying, let God be
God and you be you. Even though there's things in
your life you can't figure out, right, I have enough evidence to
believe that God is big enough to handle it. So let God be the one seated
on the throne and you and I be the ones who bow before it. Period. He's the one, he's in charge. And if you are
struggling with matters of faith, as they call
it, wrestle with it, reason through it,
and remain in it. I had a friend named Dennis. I remember meeting him. I met him because he was one
of the emergency room doctors at the hospital
that I worked at. Dennis was a very
confident unbeliever. He told me a story. He was raised in
a Christian home. He grew up believing in
God, believing in Jesus. But as he grew up and came
of age, he had his doubts and his doubts grew to not
only doubts, but unbelief. By the time he got to
high school and college he disregarded the
Christian faith altogether and became a scientist. He was a biology
professor in a college. And then later got
an advanced degree, became a medical doctor. So he was pretty confident. And we had great
conversations together. And over time I watched
through these conversations something happened with Dennis,
he began to doubt his doubts. Which I always love seeing. Because he was so
confident in his unbelief. And so we had this
conversation, he started doubting what
he didn't believe in. He started doubting his doubts. And I was there, I remember
when he gave his life to Christ. And so I saw a man who grew
up with a belief system. He went from faith to doubt. And from doubt to unbelief. And from unbelief back to doubt. And from doubt to
real, vibrant faith. And I discovered that
Dennis is not alone, but some of the best
believers in history were those who struggled
with their faith, were struggling believers
before they became strong ones. Men like CS Lewis, people
like Josh McDowell, Francis Collins, the head
of the Human Genome Project, Lee Strobel, Antony
Flew, and others. In fact, Charles
Spurgeon even said, "I suppose no man is a firm
believer who has not once been a doubter." So all of the prophecies
we've been studying, yep, they're against
all odds but they're not against our God. Jesus said, "with God,
all things are possible." "If God, then miracles." "With God, all
things are possible." So I'm hoping that
through this series you are building and
bolstering your faith. And if you are
struggling with it, you're wrestling with it,
that you reason through it and come to a place of
rest and remaining in it. Let's pray. Father, we want to close
this time together doing what was said to do. You're seated on the
throne, we bow before it. You're God, we're not. You run the universe, we don't. And though miracles may
happen around us but not to us though everybody else may have
wonderful things happening while we feel like
we're imprisoned by some experience or
some event or some disease or some set of occurrences,
it doesn't diminish you in any capacity. You're God. And you're on the throne. And you're in control. And we have enough
evidence to trust. And I simply want
to pray for those who haven't fully trusted yet. They've come, they've
listened, they've done that on many occasions. And certainly, there is
enough evidence for them to just wholly trust you. But up to this point,
they haven't done that. They haven't made it personal. And some are struggling. And I pray they
would come to rest their head, their heart on that
pillow of truth of who you are and who you are to them as they
surrender their life to you. Heads bowed, eyes closed,
I'm going to just give you a simple invitation. Very simple. If you are here and you
are at a place where you are willing to surrender
your life to Christ, I'd like to know who
you are because I'd like to pray for you. I'd like to acknowledge you. Celebrate a decision that you're
making at this very moment. And that is to trust Jesus. If you're willing to
do that, if you're willing to give your life to
Christ, right here, right now, I'm going to acknowledge you
when you raise your hand. Would you just raise it up high
in the air and say, Skip, pray for me. I'm giving my life
to Jesus today. Yes sir. Hand went right up, I love it. Anybody else? Anybody else? Raise that hand up saying
over here, pray for me, god bless you. And you and you. I see your hand, right
over here in the middle. Thank you. Anybody else? Raise it up. Up in the balcony. Anybody in the family
room that I didn't see? Right over here, yes
ma'am, in the front. Lord, I just want to
say thanks for that. I love seeing people just make
an acknowledgement of need, an acknowledgement that
life hasn't been everything I thought it would be and I'm
willing now to stop and go a different direction. An experience you call
in your Word repentance. Change your direction, go
in a different direction. No, I just pray for everyone
who has raised that hand. I pray you'd strengthen them,
help them in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand. We're going to close
simply like we do often. If you raised your
hand I'm going to ask you to get
up from where you're seated, if you're in
the back, in the middle, in the front just say excuse
me to the person next to you. We do this all the time. And just say excuse me
and find the nearest aisle and come stand
right up here where I'm going to lead
you in a prayer to receive Jesus Christ as
your Lord and your Savior. And he's going to change
your life as you let him in. So if you raised your hand you
get up and come as we sing. We're going to wait for you. Let us see it right
here, I'm going to lead you in that prayer. (SINGING) Nothing in
this life like Jesus. Like Jesus. Jesus. No thing satisfies like Jesus. Like Jesus. Jesus. Sometimes people ask, well,
why do you call people forward? We do it for a
couple of reasons. Number one, Jesus seemed to
identify people and call them publicly, like Matthew
the tax collector. In public he said,
Matthew, follow me. And Matthew left everything
and followed him with people around looking at him. Because it's something about
making a public declaration that you believe in Jesus. And Jesus said, if you
confess me before men, I'll confess you before
my Father in heaven. If you deny me before
men, I'll deny you before my Father in heaven. And there's just something that
is settled in your own heart when you make that once
for all public decision we're all your witnesses
of what is happening, this holy transaction. So, again, if you raised
your hand or I didn't see it or you didn't raise
your hand but you know you need to be down here
to pray to receive Christ as we sing this through one
more time, we'll wait for you. There's a place at
the cross for you. You come. (SINGING) Nothing
satisfies like Jesus. Like Jesus. Jesus. There's nothing in
this life like Jesus. Like Jesus. Jesus. Those of you who have
come forward, let's gather right over here. I'm going to lead
you in a prayer. I'm going to ask you to pray
this prayer out loud after me. Say these words from
the depth of your heart. God knows who you are,
loves you as you are, is accepting you as you are. But this is your asking
Jesus to come in and be Lord. This isn't religion, this
is a relationship with God. OK? Let's pray. Say, Lord, I give you my life. Lord, I give you my life. I know that I am a sinner. I know that I am a sinner. And I am sorry. And I am sorry. I believe in Jesus. I believe in Jesus. That he died on the cross. That he died on a cross. That he shed his blood for me. That he shed his blood for me. And that he rose
again from the grave. That he rose again
from the grave. I turn from my sin. I turn from my sin. I repent of my sin. I repent of my sin. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. Help me to follow
him as my Lord. Help me to follow
him as my lord. In Jesus' name I pray. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. [APPLAUSE] As believers, it is important
that we remain in our faith as we wait for Jesus' return. Did this message help you
reconcile your doubts? We would love to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calvryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Albuquerque.
