Burnt Turkeys and Crazy Uncles - Part One - Expectations

[Music] [Music] oh [Music] all right welcome everybody to part one of this brand new series called burnt turkeys and crazy uncles i want to say hello to all of our campuses all of you who are joining us live online through itownchurch.com and then all of our church family and correctional facilities all across the state come on church let's put our hands together and welcome one another today so great to have you in god's house today grab something to take some notes with we're gonna jump into studying god's word in just a moment but as you get ready to study the word let me tell you a couple of things that are coming up make sure we're all on the same page last weekend we talked about these random acts of kindness cards if you missed last weekend or you missed your opportunity to grab these we will have them available at the exits as you leave at all of our campuses again today the front of the car just says a little something extra to show you jesus loves you this is a wonderful opportunity for you to go above and beyond for the people that you know in your world to share the love of christ in the holiday season it's amazing how uh the seasons have just a way of highlighting the pain and the loss in our lives it can be a very difficult season for people and so we want to share god's love with people in a radical way during this season this is just one of the small ways that you can do it and so you can bake something for someone you know or buy something at the store leave it as a little gift on their doorstep and leave one of these four cards with them on the back there's a qr code that they can scan and they'll get a video from kate and i that just kind of explains what we're trying to accomplish through this and the fact that god uh dearly loves them and cares about them inviting them of course to church and so this is a wonderful opportunity for you to make a difference another thing that we're doing in this season is what we're calling the winter wonderland it's our version of the angel tree we have hundreds of uh foster families that have self-identified and asked for help for christmas and so we are going to be buying christmas presents for all the children in the home both the bio kids and the foster child and you can pick your family today by just going online all of it is virtual so there are no angels or tags for you to pick up in the lobby but you can jump online and then grab one of those families and go shopping for them bring those presents of course back to the church as we said and then we'd love for you to come and actually tangibly share the love of christ as we create the winter wonderland experience with the distribution of the toys and i love one of the things my wife's heart is always to make the parents the hero and so our church is not the hero we're going to slip the gifts into the trunk of the car without the kids noticing so the presents are from the parents not from our church because we believe in building that bond in the family amen everybody isn't that awesome so you guys can be a part of that and then of course on december 13th we have our annual vision offering this is a weekend that we go above and beyond our normal ties to accelerate what god wants to do in reaching his lost kids it's never made sense to me my entire life that on jesus's birthday he's the only one that doesn't get a present and so we thought what if we took the second weekend of the month and gave as the lord leads us above and beyond to really radically make a difference in reaching god's lost kids because that's the center of his heart especially in the holiday season as so many people are hurting and so every year we ask you to pray and every year our church gives above and beyond and i'm again asking you to pray and here's how it works do what the lord leads you to do if you don't hear from god that's totally fine the bible says that we should give as the lord leads us not reluctantly or under pressure because god loves a cheerful giver that's our mentality here at i town it's why we're telling you about it a month in advance so you have plenty of time to pray and prepare when you give we're going to be accelerating our vision to reach lost people with all of our outreach efforts here at i-town but then we also come alongside our ministry partners in town and we do little projects with them renovate a room buy some furniture maybe purchase a vehicle so that they can uh just change the game and how they're reaching people for jesus as well and then there are ministries we partner with all across the country and around the world as well all out of that vision offering so be praying and see how the lord leads you it'll be an amazing weekend and we have so much vision for all that god has led us to do not just through the end of the year but beginning next year as well and we'll be uh unrolling all of that in the weeks uh to come and i'm very very excited about it the last thing is an i-town christmas i know that we're headed into a season where things seem as though uh the economy and the in life and public things are gonna be slowing down uh once again and so i know this is a little bit counter-cultural but we just have taken the position that people are so desperately hurting that what our world needs right now is jesus and they need hope and they need life and they need the light of christ and so not only are we not going to be canceling christmas but we're going to do 18 identical christmas eve services for our community to be able to attend very excited about it we're calling it a december to remember for a couple of reasons first of all it's a december that all of us will remember because it's been the craziest year that i've lived through probably all of you as well uh but also it's very important for us to reflect on the good things that god did for us you all know that there was a life before coronavirus came along and our god was very faithful in that life and he will continue as he's been faithful in 2020 this too shall pass and his faithfulness stands forever and god is good to all of us and i think it's important for us to remember that to draw faith for what he wants to do and so here's how christmas works if you've never been there's a couple of things that are very special every single service uh we will have christmas carols and we will worship together we're going to take communion together in all of these services i'll have a christmas message for you and then we're going to light candles at the end always a very special moment and as i mentioned all 18 of them will be identical and i promise that if you bring your friends and family that are wrestling with who god is in their life that this will be a special moment that the hearts could be open we see hundreds of people saved every year and we're praying that god gives us an even greater increase for the kingdom this year as we share the life and the hope of jesus with our hurting community and uh the only thing that we ask is that you jump online and grab free tickets to come you don't have to okay if you don't have a ticket we'll still let you in the room but what ticketing does is it allows us to spread everybody out through all the different services last year we had a little over 12 000 people who came to these and so i don't know what to anticipate this year could be more could be less we're fine however we just feel called to do it but uh we want to make sure that uh we do the best we can to protect a seat for you and your family and so if you jump online those are all completely free you just grab your reservation and then you get in the room earlier so if you don't have a ticket you can still come you just won't be able to get in as early your family may not be able to sit together or uh you know we'll just do our best to fit everybody of course but we're trying to do our best to spread everything out and be as responsible as we can but our perspective is always the same we will never turn people away from being able to experience the presence and the power of god and i know he's going to be here in a special way it's going to be a great christmas amen everybody so we will have our first wednesday service as usual in december but then starting that friday will be our very first christmas eve service and then we'll go wednesday friday all the way up to the week before christmas and then we'll have a million services that week and it will be a lot of fun all leading into christmas and i'd love for you to join us multiple times if you like but there'll be plenty of seats available so jump online and grab those it's been a crazy year amen everybody it's been nuts like who knows uh what the world will look like in 2021 but uh maybe you feel like this guy found this tweet online he said i don't need to celebrate thanksgiving this year because i've already spent every day of 2020 arguing politics with my family and falling asleep after eating too much that's kind of been kind of been the whole year so we're going to talk about what all this looks like and how to manage expectations for the holidays i know many of you are already retweeting uh your thanksgiving plans we have a big family so we can identify with this lady when the cdc finds out you have more than 11 family members we bought that dress for kate just in case a lot of kids make sure we're protected it's difficult when we walk through seasons like this because we have certain expectations some of you have big expectations every year of the holidays and maybe now more this year than ever before because it's been a pretty awful year and we're hoping that this would kind of cap off a bad year with a very fun and memorable christmas season and so we have these dreams of how it's going to unfold and what it's going to look like and so oftentimes our expectations are dashed and i think uh many times it's indicative of our journey with christ and our relationship with him and uh you know truthfully every year i'm kind of the big defender of thanksgiving like christmas is coming too early and the only reason why we don't celebrate thanksgiving is because it's not commercialized there's nothing they can sell besides turkeys and so they just would go straight from halloween to christmas because they can sell more merchandise and stuff and we can we cannot have christmas until we are thankful so we're not going to set up the christmas tree and we're not going to celebrate christmas until thanksgiving comes that's been my whole life okay that's out the window this year everybody our christmas tree is up the summers have moved on the church is decorated both in principle and practice we have thrown thanksgiving out the window so today i have a christmas message for you all right we're going to study this whole idea of the very first christmas and we're going to challenge some of the ways that we look at it because i promise that you can probably relate better to mary and joseph than you ever dreamed and they had a lot of horrible things that they walk through in that very first christmas maybe you feel like mary where in luke chapter 1 and verse 38 she responds i am the lord's servant may everything you have said come true here am i god send me and then her whole life just totally fell apart i mean literally everything shattered in front of her she headed into just a season of adversity and heartache and maybe you can identify with that man you were like finally i'll surrender my life to christ i'm excited about his plan for my life and then it feels like things couldn't have gotten worse and so we're going to walk through the christmas story and see some challenges and hardships that they had to navigate and then of course as always we'll go to god's word and we'll give you some practical principles of how to navigate those in your own life during this holiday season in matthew chapter 1 verse 18 it says this is how jesus the messiah was born his mother mary was engaged to be married to joseph but before the marriage took place she was still a virgin she became pregnant through the power of the holy spirit so we all know how the story goes of the virgin birth here's mary historically we know she's probably about 14 15 maybe 16 years old he's pretty young and uh and culturally joseph would have been about 30 which is illegal in today's culture just so we're all clear but that was normal in that culture because it took a man a while to get his career established and to be able to be earning enough money there was a dowry that had to be paid in order to win a bride and so joseph would have had a conversation with her father as unromantic as it seems and come to a contract deal for mary he was in the process of working towards that to be worthy of her hand in marriage and then in the midst of all of that his dreams of this happy life with this woman that he was in love with were shattered she comes to him and says joe i know this is going to be a hard thing for you to hear but i'm pregnant but it's not a man joe it's the holy spirit it's the lord now all of us know how people get pregnant and none of us believe that the lord does that to people especially up until the time that it had never happened before and let's be clear it's only happened once ever in the history of mankind and will never happen again so if you come up with that excuse we all know you're lying but mary says joe it's the lord the holy spirit got me pregnant and i can only imagine how joseph must have felt in fact jot it down he felt feelings of betrayal i had this dream i had this life that we were earning towards working towards building towards and now the woman that i was going to give my heart to has betrayed me and we know he felt that way because the bible tells us in matthew chapter 1 and verse 19 joseph was her husband was faithful to the law yet he didn't want to expose her to public disgrace so he had mine to divorce her quietly joseph was planning to divorce her why because he didn't buy the story i don't believe you is what joseph said that's a cute story but that's crazy people who say that they got pregnant from the lord are crazy mary that doesn't happen you cheated on me so i can't go through with this now i want you to see a couple of things because this commitment was much stronger than the engagement that we have in our culture the bible uses the word engaged but notice to break the engagement was equivalent of divorce because they were considered married there was a covenant that had already taken place even though the relationship had not yet been consummated so this is a deep level of commitment and in fact a hundred years before in jewish culture before tradition had become lacks mary would have immediately been stoned to death it was only because of the lacks laws of the day that joseph was able to withdraw from the contract save all of his money from her father and then put her away quietly as scripture says so that she wouldn't have to be tortured or killed or punished because the pregnancy and so joseph was a good man and i believe really loved her and cared for her but he was not didn't believe what she was saying so he was ready to back out of the relationship it took an angel showing up going joe this is the lord don't be messing this up bro we're trying to save the universe you have to marry this girl all right like you got to go through with this i know you don't understand yet but now is the time to trust and so joseph had to go through his own journey i just wonder how many of you today have suffered through some type of betrayal in this season it's been a crazy year maybe at some point you had to take a step back from culture and go you know what maybe there are some imbalances in our culture today i'm not saying america is all wrong and i'm certainly not saying we have to tear down everything that we value in our history and in our culture but maybe just maybe our culture isn't balanced maybe there's an imbalance maybe there is a privilege that comes with having lighter skin maybe there's something to this that we ought to address and maybe we ought to stand up for those that are less fortunate and don't have as strong of a voice and are just asking that we have the conversation maybe we ought to see some actual change to take a step towards really quality in our culture and maybe you lost relationships over that maybe people walked out of your life because they said that's not real or that's not a conversation we should have that's not something we should do that's not a problem or maybe you just said you know what the bible speaks very clearly to some of these issues that we're all going to be voting on and maybe you didn't even take a clear stand for one a candidate or the other but you just said you know the bible has some clear things to say about the the policies and then you lost relationships because people said well you can't even christians you can't really love people if you call sin sin that's not love or it just doesn't make any sense why you would take a stand for that person or for this person and all of a sudden the devil does his best work at division chaos confusion and you lose relationships or maybe you just felt a conviction of you know what as a as a believer i know i need to be in god's house i'm spiritually thirsty and i need the presence of the lord and i'm going to exercise my fundamental right given to me by the constitution to gather together in public in order to worship god and honor the scripture do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together so that we can lift up the name of jesus and experience the tangible presence and the power of the holy spirit and maybe friends in your life even christians said you're dangerous and you're radical and you're causing other people problems and you're making a bad name for the body of christ and you're endangering ever you're going to kill everyone it's ridiculous all of a sudden they walked out of your life i know i understand i had close friends in the midst of this whole pandemic people that you thought man they had your back and we're going to walk this thing together and we see eye to eye and we're on the same page and we got the same vision for life and then you get on the other side of coronavirus and you find out that they bought a cat come on betrayal just like i thought we were together so many of us have suffered loss of relationships and it just hurts you so deeply joseph and mary they understood we go to luke's account luke chapter 2 at that time the roman emperor augustus decreed that a census should be taken throughout the roman empire and because joseph was a descendant of king david he had to go to bethlehem in judea david's ancient home he traveled there from the village of nazareth in galilee and he took with him mary his fiancee who was now obviously pregnant you all know that there's that like iffy time that like you better just keep your mouth shut am i saying a thing i'm one of those guys that like she could be going into labor and i'm just like not quite sure i've said too many stupid things in life i'm not going to be like congratulations this is amazing that can go bad real bad but mary the bible says is obviously pregnant so there's no risk here she she's definitely pregnant like nine months pregnant because while they were there the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her first child a son as we know the story goes she wrapped him snugly in these strips of cloth and laid them in a manger because there was no lodging available for them all of this passage i would define as relentless hardships relentless hardships once joseph said yes mary says yes their world falls apart you see it's not because they've got the wrong political party in office it's because they've got the wrong government altogether the romans are oppressing the hebrew people they've got an occupying foreign government and they're telling them you have to travel to go register just to pay taxes so i just want you to see this story for what it is here's mary she's trying to bring her first child into the world much less the savior of the entire universe you can imagine the stress that this poor woman is carrying and now she finds out she's got to travel four days four days by donkey to go to the city that her husband was born in not so they can see relatives over the holidays that they don't even like but so they can register to pay taxes can you imagine of all the men the lord could send into my life i got to marry you joe four days away your crazy family four days on a donkey i'm nine months pregnant joe i don't want to go i don't want to go there i told you i don't like those people i told you i don't like this trip i told you i don't this is a bad holiday this is a hardship it's bad just to pay taxes not to mention this whole concept that there was no room for them when they arrived so one of two things happened because there's two different theories that theologians have one of them is that it was a hotel like our modern day hotels the inn and that there was no room so you know how that went down for months joe for months you knew we had to go for months you couldn't jump online make a phone call one room that's all we needed i told you to call i told you they were going to sell out i told you you should have jumped online i told you if you would just listen to me joe now i'm in a stable it's all your fault away from my family with your crazy family four days away or i told you we should have left early i told you you keep thinking that donkey's fast your donkey is not fast didn't take three days it took four joe i told you and now there's no room that's bad every husband who has had a pregnant wife knows this is as bad as it can be this is bad you know the other theory is that uh they didn't actually have hotels back then that the jewish people were so hospitable they'd keep a guest room open for distant relatives or even strangers who were passing through so they could take them into their home and that word in in the original greek literally means resting place so there's a lot of people that felt like it was the guest room that was available in joseph's family's home so think about this they get there that's even a worse scenario there's other family who's already arrived and they won't vacate the guest premises for the pregnant woman the non-pregnant people will not let the pregnant woman stay in the guest house they make her stay in the garage downstairs that's real bad that's a big time hardship so no matter what you believe about history this is bad all the way around and then you think about the entitlement that they were probably having to work through because few people think about this joseph was in the lineage of david which meant that if rome was not running their country david at minimum would have been royalty and possibly would have been the king and now he's just having to travel like a commoner back to a city where he's not really celebrated because his family has cast him out and distanced themselves because this scandalous pregnancy of his wife before they're ever married man that's a hardship and i know that we go through hardships in life as well but some of you the hardship you're facing is thanksgiving without toilet paper so i don't know if you know this because it's sold out again already like i don't know what the deal is why i was at kroger last night it's gone the whole aisle it's gone it's like i just fall to the ground like no why why don't you buy all the food that's what you need to survive why the toilet paper what is it about the toilet paper everybody takes all the toilet paper simmer down on the toilet paper everybody that's a hardship if you ran out of toilet paper last time and had to use the paper towel you know it's hardship it's bad it's bad it's not the same problems joseph and mary had but it's bad jesus promised in this world you'll have trouble going to be hard following christ now luke chapter 2 verse 8 that night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby guarding their flocks of sheep and suddenly an angel of the lord appeared to them and said don't be afraid i bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people the savior yes the messiah the lord has been born today in bethlehem the city of david and when the angels said return to heaven the shepherds said to each other let's go to bethlehem let's see this thing that has happened which is the the lord has told us about the shepherds are super excited what i want you to notice is that mary and joseph were so abandoned by friends and family that the lord had to go round up a bunch of dudes to come and celebrate the christ child now i don't i don't know all of your wives but i know mine and i'm fairly certain that dirty men that we don't know would be the last people she'd want in the delivery room after the birth of the child and these guys don't even get it like god bless them they have sweet hearts about the whole thing but you can tell their dudes because they're like let's go let's see this thing they didn't say go let's go see this baby let's bring him a gift let's check on mama they're like let's go see this thing that the lord is talking about thing so you can imagine crushing loneliness would have been a part of this journey for mary and joseph they're already carrying the stain of public opinion people just assuming that this is joseph's baby because there's no other logical reason that he would marry this girl why else would he go through with it she got pregnant outside of marriage the law would require if you really strictly adhered to it that she'd be stoned to death so at minimum they must be ostracized and cut off from relationships so here she is either in town with david's family and all they had to do was come across town and nobody came or worse yet she's in the garage and they won't come one flight of stairs down to welcome the christ child the lord has to go get the shepherds and the shepherds in that culture couldn't go to the temple in worship they were considered unclean because they worked 24 hours a day seven days a week with animals and they were outcasts of society no father wanted his daughter to marry a shepherd so it was hard for them to find love hard for them to build a family they weren't allowed to testify in court because they were such thieves and liars that everybody just discounted them as a people group all together and yet what a beautiful picture that jesus said if i'm coming to the world the first people i'm bringing in are the people that religion has rejected i'm going to bring them right in and let them know hey you're welcome here but you can only imagine the loneliness even in their hearts of just knowing that these strangers are the ones that god has to bring to welcome the christ child so what do we do about this in the moments we have left how do we navigate this from scripture the first thing i want you to do number one is realize that people need grace yes maybe you have been betrayed in this year but it's on us not to retaliate but to back up from the situation you see what we're taught in today's culture is to become more and more entrenched in your worldview and to only surround yourself with people who look like you talk like you believe like you only consume media that confirms what you believe and it's an incredibly toxic thing to do because it makes you very narrow-minded what you and i are called to do as christians is learn how to understand and empathize with a perspective that's not your own philippians chapter 2 and verse 3 says it this way when you do things don't let selfishness or pride be your guide you see i would submit to you that the number one problem with american relationships is that selfishness and pride are the standard how does it make me feel how does it make me look is it good for me and based on that i'll have all of my relationships if you like what i have to say if you believe what i believe about god and about politics and about everything else then you can be in my life otherwise i don't want you so don't let those things be your guide instead be humble which means giving weight to others give more honor to others and to yourself and then it says be interested not only in your own life but in the interest of the lives of be interested in the lives of others so look at the world around you and understand take yourself out of your own situation and learn how to empathize with other people's past and other people's problems and other people's situation it doesn't mean that they're right in their world view they may still by scripture even be wrong but that doesn't mean that they're horrible people the world wants you to make them into a political position or into a problem or into a point to argue and they're not we've got to get out of our entrenched way of viewing the world and into understanding the journey that they've taken and the why they see the world the way they do because that's the position from which we're going to be able to make a difference in the world around us here's a good point for you over the holidays if you're hanging out with family don't think about how they annoy you think about why they annoy you because people can be annoying but think about why why are they getting on my nerves and why do i respond emotionally to this what is it about them and what it is is it about me that's creating this toxic situation because you might find that you'll adopt a different perspective than you have if you'll just open your heart a little bit to people somebody sent this to me and i wanted to read it to you and i want to invite you to not get angry until the end i get it you hated him four years ago and you still hate him now i've seen a lot of hate thrown his way but this guy is a constant winner and overachiever call it jealousy call it envy some people just can't handle how successful he is or how much money he has or maybe they're just jealous of his hot foreign model as a wife that's what people who support him love about him yes there's been some scandals and yes some lies and maybe even a few times he's twisted the truth to make himself look better but he's out there every day proving these haters wrong time after time you may have not wanted him in this role but he's there now and there's nothing you can do about it now i know it's possibly going to get worse over the next several days but like him or not tom brady is turning things around in tampa bay that's funny i don't care what you say some people are just cursed with being new england fans because they were born in the northeast you have to understand where they're coming from why do they annoy me why proverbs 18 says it this way the person who tells one side of the story seems right until someone else comes and asks questions you know we have kids so one of them are running from the basement and they'll lay out this whole story about their sibbing and we're like we should probably kick them out of the family that is the worst thing i've ever heard until the other one comes upstairs and tells their side of the story and it's like oh so child number one bends the truth a little bit to make themselves look better we all do it wait until you have all the facts and understand every side of the argument in life and then you can apply god's grace because the bible says first corinthians love never gives up it never loses faith it's always hopeful and endures through every circumstance number two jot it down hardships are seasonal it is a very difficult season that we are in but i want you to know that they are seasonal and what we're walking through this too shall pass as they've proven before toilet paper will return to the stores at some point normalcy will return and this season that we are in a political unrest and pandemic all of this too shall pass ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 3 says there is a time for everything in a season for every activity under the heavens it happens in life we walk through difficult things as a nation we walk through difficult things as christians we walk through difficult seasons of life pandemics have come and pandemics have gone since we've been a nation this too shall pass it's god's word that stands forever it's his faithfulness that we have to be reminded of in fact i want to take you to the verse that we actually sang about in worship today jeremiah says yet this i call to mind and therefore have hope because of the lord's great love we are not consumed because his compassions never fail you won't be consumed in this season they are new every morning great is your faithfulness man i draw great strength from the fact that no matter how bad yesterday was every single day is a brand new day it's a brand new chance to live the life god has freeze a brand new day to extend grace to others it's a brand new day to live as a victor and not a victim every single day is new because god's mercies are new every morning and he's more faithful than anything in this life but just place our trust in him he said i'll always be there for us and that's where i want to close number three i want you to know that you are never alone i know the devil creeps in and tells you everybody's walked out of your life nobody wants to be your friend you're the radical crazy lunatic your relationships will never recover i just want you to know that you're not as alone as the devil wants you to think you are in fact jesus promises this in matthew chapter 10 mark chapter 10 i tell you the truth that all those who have left houses and brothers and sisters or your mom or your dad children or even businesses farms for me and for the good news will get more than they left here in this world they will have a hundred times more it's not talking about eternity it's talking about in this life a hundred more times homes brothers sisters mothers children in fields god says i'm going to pour out a blessing to you and i just want you to know that it's already here i don't know how alone or isolated you may feel but there are thousands of brothers and sisters in christ in this church alone and they love you and they are welcoming you with open arms look i honor all the medical community i honor the doctors and the nurses and for the fight that they are fighting against this virus i understand our governmental leaders and their efforts to keep us safe and i'm thankful for the hard work that they are doing but my job is your emotional and spiritual health so i'm going to give you advice that is exactly contrary to everything that you are hearing do not do not spend the holidays alone if you don't have anywhere to go there is a church of thousands of people with arms open wide we will welcome you into our homes and we will share a meal together we will hug you we will love you we are not afraid of you we are not afraid of the virus we want to make sure that we stand together because your physical spiritual and emotional health are our responsibility and we will not stand by while suicide and a depression and addiction and fear rules in our city we will stand together and be the community god has called us to be and we will not let a single person get isolated don't let the devil tell you you are alone because you are surrounded by a chorus of people who are for you and who love you and will stand with you we are not supposed to do this alone and we cannot be together when we are alone that statement does not make sense alone together is alone we are together together i don't want any of you have to think as you wrestle with the dark thoughts that plague your mind if you're going to be able to make it through this holiday season don't put yourself at risk like that let's be the church and then remember that jesus is always with you psalm 23 even though i walk through the darkest valley david wrote i will not be afraid because you are close beside me your rod and your staff they protect me and they comfort me would you bow with me in prayer lord jesus i pray that you would remind us in this moment of your faithfulness your goodness your presence and your power your word says no weapon formed against us to prosper and so we thank you even in the midst of this crazy season that you're there for us god for those that have suffered the sting of betrayal i pray even now that you would bring peace to their hearts and healing to the hurt father we know that hardships are seasonal and that your grace surrounds us grace doesn't mean that we never go through adversity grace means that you give us the ability to do hard things so god as we follow you we thank you that we can take bold steps of faith and we can stand for what we believe in and that this season too shall pass we thank you that we don't have to fight this battle alone that we can stand back to back as the body of christ and conquer help us to rally to one another's side and be reminded that we are never alone because there are always people in our corner and that your presence is with us with every head bowed and every eye closed as we close service today at all of our campuses maybe you're here and you don't have the calming peace that passes all understanding you don't have the presence of god surrounding and protecting you you can't draw from that because you would say dave i'm far from god i understand all of us get to places like that it could been religion that hurt you it could have been somebody that let you down it could have been that you just didn't grow up in church and were never told these things i just want you to know that jesus loves you more than you could possibly imagine he's not mad at you for anything you've done wrong in this life all he wants to do is rescue you if you'll just surrender your heart to him today he'll fill you with his presence with his power with his peace you can leave here a brand new person maybe that's you i'm not gonna make you stand come to the front it's not my goal to single you out or embarrass you we're just gonna pray where you're at if you say dave that's me at all of our campuses with no one looking around would you take the bold step just to lift your hand up high for a moment and say dave that's me i need jesus come on right now let's put your hand up high say i'm ready to surrender i want to give you my life today great job yeah all over the room good it's awesome all right you can put your hands down here's what we're going to do i'm going to lead you in a simple prayer you can pray it quietly in your heart you just need to mean it just make it your own say lord jesus forgive me today for all my sin i repent i believe you died on a cross and rose to life three days later so that i could be forgiven so that i could be set free today i place my trust in you fill me with your presence and with your peace in jesus name i pray god i thank you for how good you are your mercies are new every morning great is your faithfulness god there's no one like you in all the earth today help us to refocus our attention on you you are the anchor in the midst of the storm we thank you during this thanksgiving season that we can be a light to every single person that we meet we love you today thank you for all that you're doing in our lives in jesus name we pray and all god's people said amen amen come on would you celebrate with those who just prayed that prayer today thank you so much for joining i town church online today we would love to have the chance to meet you and your family in person at one of our campuses or of course you can join us streaming live online this weekend now for more details about times and locations and even some of our streaming options you can go to itownchurch.com i sure hope to see you soon and god bless you

Channel: ITOWN Church

Views: 541

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: q-X8-ma0YYE

Length: 41min 39sec (2499 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 23 2020