[MUSIC PLAYING] Would you turn in your Bibles
please the Genesis Chapter 31-- first book of the Bible,
Genesis, 31st chapter-- Genesis Chapter 31. Somebody once said that
families are a lot like fudge. They're mostly sweet, but
sprinkled with some nuts. Everybody has that weird
uncle, or goofy cousin, or extravagant aunt. You just never know who's
going to be in a family until you meet them. There was once a mother
who had a young daughter. And the daughter
said, mommy, where did human beings come from? She said, sweetie, God
created Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve had children. They had children. And eventually, that's
how we came here. Well, she then asked her
father the same question-- where do people come from? And he said, well, a long
time ago, there were monkeys. And they evolved. And this is where we came from. We evolved from them. So now this little girl is very
confused, goes back to mom, and says, mom, I
don't understand it You said God created us. Dad says that we
evolved from monkeys. So which is it? And Mom smiled and said,
sweetheart, it's quite simple. Your father was explaining
his side of the family, and I was explaining
my side of the family. [LAUGHTER] You know, you can
choose your friends, but you can't
choose your family. But you can choose to
adjust to your family. And you can choose to add
positively to your family. There was an old
husband and wife. They had been
married four years. They were sitting by the fire. He reached over
and took her hand. And then he turned
toward his wife and had a romantic thought. And he said, after 50 years,
I've found you tried and true. Well, she couldn't
hear very well. Her hearing was going. And she said, what? And he said, after 50 years,
I've found you tried and true. And a scowl came over her face. And she said, well, after 50
years, I'm tired of you too. [LAUGHTER] There is a common
term that has emerged over the last few decades. And that is the
term dysfunctional-- a dysfunctional family. It was popularized at
first in the late 1960s, became very popular in
the '70s, mainstream in the '80s, and then continues
to be overused since the '90s-- a dysfunctional family. And that's a term
to describe families that have problems in dealing
with one another and problems that follow the kids after
they leave the house. However, dysfunction may be more
pervasive than you might think. Playwright George
Shaw once said, "If other planets are
inhabited, then they must be using Earth as
their insane asylum." And maybe in hearing that
comment, you're thinking, did he know my family? Now we're looking at
Genesis Chapter 31. And we're going to look
in particular at a family that I would say
is dysfunctional. And you'll find out
why in a moment. In fact, I would even say you
could take Genesis chapter 27 all the way to chapter 33
and call it dysfunction junction because it is the story
of one messed up family. We come to chapter 31,
which is the story of Jacob and his two wives,
Rachel and Leah, and his father-in-law
by the name of Laban, and then Laban's sons. All of them are in this story. There's a little bit of
sweet fudge in this family but you'll see there's
a whole lot of nuts. We're in chapter 31. If you don't mind, can I scoot
back one verse into chapter 30, just for a little
bit of context? Last verse of chapter
30 is verse 43. Let's begin there. "Thus the man became
exceedingly prosperous," the man here is Jacob. Jacob, who is now
moved, married, integrated in a new family,
"Thus the man Jacob became exceedingly prosperous,
and had large flocks, female and male servants,
and camels and donkeys. Now Jacob heard the words
of Laban's sons, saying, 'Jacob has taken away all that
was our father's, and from what was our father's he has
acquired all this wealth.' And Jacob saw the
countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not
favorable toward him as before. Then the Lord said to
Jacob, 'Return to the land of your fathers
and to your family, and I will be with you.' So Jacob sent and called
Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock, and
said to them, 'I see your father's
countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before,
but the God of my father has been with me. And you know that
with all my might I have served your father. Yet your father has deceived me
and changed my wages ten times, but God did not
allow him to hurt me. If he said thus, 'the speckled
shall be your wages,'" those are speckled animals, "'then
all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus,
'the streaked shall be our wages,' then all the
flocks bore streaked.' So God has taken away the
livestock of your father and given them to me.'" What I'd like to do
with what we just read is consider it in three levels. Beginning with the
most basic level, I want to show you three levels
of family relational life. So I'm going to make
three statements. The most basic followed
by the second, which is God's response to all that,
and then the third, which is our response to God's response. Let's begin with the most basic. Here's the statement. Every family is dysfunctional. I don't apologize
for that statement. I aim to explain it. Every family is dysfunctional. Jacob came from a
dysfunctional family, and he is now married into
another dysfunctional family. I'm going to show you
that in brief in a moment. What you need to see,
though, is God is at work. And I did a little bit of
research in this this week. And it seems to be a
common thread among those who study this
topic, and that is that dysfunctional people
have a way of attracting other dysfunctional people. In fact, one author calls
them dysfunctional magnets. So here's Jacob,
and here are Laban, and they're like two peas
in the dysfunctional pod. It's funny how they
even came together and what came out of it. Let's begin with
Jacob and his history. Now Jacob's grandpa
was Abraham, right? You know that. His dad was Isaac, so you have
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They sound like heroes. Far as we're concerned,
they're Bible heroes. However, grandpa wasn't perfect. Abraham deceived, he
told lies about his wife on two different occasions,
he passed that practice, unfortunately, onto his own son
Isaac, who lied about his wife later on. And then you come to Jacob. Now, his father, Isaac,
married a woman named Rebecca. So Isaac and Rebecca have
two children, Esau and Jacob. When they are born,
they're off to a bad start because one parent
favors one child, the other parent
favors the other child. That's weird. That's bad stuff. So dad, Isaac, favors
Esau, the firstborn, because he's sort
of a man's man. He likes to hunt, brings
stuff in, and he likes that. When it comes to Jacob, Jacob
is Rebecca's favorite son. The Bible says he
was a mild man-- that's a Bible way of
saying he's a mama's boy. He stayed home and he cooked. And so they started off poorly. They're playing off one another
because of the favoritism of their parents. Now let me add
something to that. Before they were born, God
made a prediction to Isaac about these two boys. He said, the older one is
going to serve the younger one. Culturally, that was backwards. Culturally, the firstborn is the
one to whom the family blessing goes to, thus the second
born, or the youngest, usually served the oldest. But God said, not here. The older will
serve the younger. Now Isaac should have
said, I'm good with that, because it happened to him. He had an older half brother
by the name of Ishmael. Ishmael was pushed aside. God selected Isaac to
be the Son of Promise. So when God says to Isaac,
you're going to have two boys. The older one is going
to serve the younger one. He should have said,
I'm good with that. Been there, done that, have
the T-shirt, we'll do it again. But rather than that,
Isaac tries everything he can to not let that happen. So his wife gets pregnant. There are twins in the womb. At the birth, Esau comes out
first-- he's the first born. And he comes out
with a lot of hair. So they're very inventive
in their naming. They call him Hairy. That's what Esau means-- hairy. So after Hairy is
born, twin number two comes out of the womb grabbing
onto the heel of Esau. So again, they're very
creative in their naming. They call him heal catcher. That's what Yacov means. Jacob means supplanter, one
who grabs the heel or one who trips somebody else. So picture that little
baby coming out of the womb after number one, holding
onto the heel as if to say, I want your position. That becomes a metaphor for
how they live their life. Well, when these boys are
grown, Esau, the oldest, who's been out hunting,
comes home and finds Jacob-- guess what he's doing-- cooking. Cooking in the tent. And he's cooking this
red chili posole. And Esau comes in and
says, yee, posole. Give me some of that stew. And Jacob was quick
on his feet, says, you can have a bowl of this
red stew under one condition-- I want your birthright. Esau says, I could care less
about that spiritual stuff. I'm not into that anyway. You can have it. They shake on it. Years pass, fast-forward
several years. Dad is now old. Isaac knows he doesn't
have much time, so he calls his son
Esau, the firstborn, and says, go out hunting. Come back and bring
me some good meat, then I'll give you
the family blessing. Just to show you how
messed up the family is, Rebecca, the old man's
wife, is eavesdropping on the conversation. In the next section of the tent,
beyond the little tent flap, she's listening to
this conversation. She takes her
favorite son, Jacob, and says, let's deceive dad. Let's steal the blessing. You need to dress up and put
some sheep's fur on your skin so he thinks you're hairy like-- he doesn't see well anyway. So come in and lower
your voice a little bit, and we'll make you smell bad
like you've been outside. And then he'll
feel you, and he'll think that you're your
brother, and he'll give you the blessing. So can you see just how
messed up this family is? So he comes in, pretends
to be his brother. His Father blesses him thinking
he's blessing the firstborn. He takes that blessing to heart
and then runs away and gets out of town. So you've got these
two boys, Esau and Jacob-- complete opposites. Totally different. Both flawed but very different. You've discovered that in having
kids, that one child is born and then another child is
born and their personalities are completely different. I heard about a
child psychologist that also had twin boys. And one boy was pessimistic
and one boy was optimistic. And no matter what
happened, the pessimist was always down,
and always negative, and always had a
bad thing to say. The optimist was always, life
is good, everything's great. So one day, this parent,
this child psychologist, decided that he would
do something different for the next Christmas,
which he did. He decided to buy his
pessimistic son all the toys, all the games, and just load
his room up with as much as he could. Maybe that would change things. And he gave to his
optimistic son nothing but a pile of horse droppings. Kind of a cruel
experiment, right? Christmas night, he
walks into the son who's the pessimist with
all the toys around him and the kid's crying. Dad says, what's wrong? You've got all the
toys, all the games. He said, man, look
at all the manuals I have to read to
figure these things out, all the batteries I have to
have to make these things work. And he goes, and they're
all going to break anyway. He's just crying. He's pessimistic. He goes then into the room
of his son, the optimist. And his son, the optimist,
is dancing, and singing, and happy, dancing
around the horse manure. And his dad says, what on
earth are you so happy about? The little boy said, well,
with all this manure, there's got to be a
pony in here somewhere. Just always the optimist. Well, Jacob would be the kid
who says, if you got a pony, I'm stealing it, and
I'm leaving town. He takes the blessing,
gets out of town. But here's what I
want you to see. Back up for a moment. Once you get out of the intrigue
of what the family was really look like, and you look
at the Bible as a whole, you understand that Jacob is
considered a biblical hero. In the New Testament,
he even makes the list in Hebrews chapter 11 of the
hall of fame of faithful godly people. It says, by faith,
Abraham, by faith, Moses, and by faith, Jacob. His name is mentioned. So he's a Bible hero. Yet, he is all messed up
and highly dysfunctional. Well, he leaves home, goes east,
meets the girl of his dreams. Her name is Rachel. She's gorgeous, and he
falls hard for Rachel. Rachel takes Jacob, the
deceiver, home to meet her dad, named Laban. When Jacob meets Laban,
he has met his match. Laban turns out to
be a master deceiver. He says, you want my
daughter as your wife? No problem. You just got to work
for me for seven years, and then she'll be your wife. And then one of the most
beautiful romantic passages of the Bible. It says, "and those
seven years seemed but a day to him because of
the love that he had for her." So he worked seven years. Then comes the wedding day,
and that wedding night. And that bride is all dressed
up, and he thinks it's Rachel. But it's not. Laban, the master
deceiver father-in-law, switches his daughters on Jacob
and gives him, not Rachel-- the girl he loved-- but her sister Leah, the older
sister who wasn't as pretty. He wakes up the next day,
turns over in the bed, and sees it's Leah, and
he was like, [GASPS].. That's what Laban did. You say, well, how is
that even possible? In those days, at weddings,
brides were heavily veiled, and the husband didn't
really get a good look except until the next morning. So father-in-law
pulls a switcheroo. He's just out
deceived the deceiver, and he's goofing around
with his own daughters. So he has to work another
seven years to get Rachel. Then we come, years
later, to this scene. Years have passed,
two wives later, two more concubine wives later,
a whole bunch of kids later, and then verse 1, "Now
Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons," so that's
his brother-in-law, saying, "Jacob has taken away all
that was our father's. And from what was
our father's he has acquired all this wealth. And Jacob saw that the
countenance of Laban--" that's the body language. You know how it is when
somebody was always looking to you with a nice
look, and all of a sudden they look at you with a scowl? That's what's happening. "And indeed, it was not
favorable toward him as before." So now you've got
these two deceivers. They've spent time together. At this point, they
can't trust each other. And these false
accusations are flying in the family about Jacob. I'm sure that when
Jacob left home, when he fled after stealing the
blessing, he probably thought, whew, am I glad to
be out of that house. Now I can have a normal life. And yet, he marries
into this family only to discover it's very much
the same as his first family. I bring that up
because there was an interesting study
from Brown University, and the researchers said this-- many people hope that
once they leave home they will leave their family
and childhood problems behind. However, many find that they
experience similar problems as well as similar feelings
and relationship patterns long after they have left
their own family environment. And it's easy to answer why
that is because wherever you go, you take you. All that made you, all
that formed and shaped you, all of that stuff
from your background follows you around
until you deal with it. But the greater point is this-- all families are dysfunctional. All of them. Every human on this planet
has their own issues. And because every person
has their own issues, that will affect the balance
of the family that they're in, and it will affect the balance
of the family they marry into. They take that with them. And I bring this up because
I've heard this for years. People say, but I'm from
a dysfunctional family. And my answer is,
join the human race. I'm from a dysfunctional family. I conduct a
dysfunctional family. I'm a dysfunctional human
being and so are you. We don't function the
way God originally intended us to function. And that's because of one little
three-letter word called, what? Sin. It happened at the fall. Paul said, "by one
man's sin, death entered the world
and death through sin and it spread to everyone." We're all affected. So it affects every person,
thus it affects every family. Every family. Some of you will
remember a comedian by the name of George Burns. He lived to be a long time
but he's no longer with us. George Burns said,
"happiness is having a large, loving, caring
close-knit family in another city." Can we just dispel the
myth of the perfect family? There is not one. We're all broken,
flawed individuals, thus those are the families. In fact, let me take
it a step further. Even God's family on
Earth, the church, is a dysfunctional family,
and you're part of it. You say, oh no, no, no, I'm
looking for the perfect church. You've heard this before. If you find one, don't join it. You'll ruin it. It doesn't exist. You say, oh, but
the early church, they weren't dysfunctional. We should get back to be
like the early church. Really? You need to read
your Bibles again. Read, in fact, 1
Corinthians, and you'll discover Paul is really
writing a polemic against all of the problems in
that church and how to correct those
problems-- from not loving each other, to abusing
spiritual gifts, to disorderly conduct
at the communion table and at the love
feast, all the way to incest in that
church congregation that they didn't deal with. That's dysfunctional. Then, Jesus talked about his
salvation and redemption. And the people who
would follow him he called them poor,
broken-hearted, captive, blind, oppressed. So we are all broken. We're all dysfunctional
people with our own issues. As JI Packer wisely
put it, we are all invalids in God's hospital. Every family is dysfunctional. Let's take it now
to a second level-- take it up a step. God can function
in our dysfunction. All of us are dysfunctional
to some degree but God can function
in our dysfunction. What other choice does He have? So we've read the text. I've told you the
story about Jacob. He comes from that
messed up, weird family. He's married into this
messed up, weird family. Now watch this. In the midst of
all that, verse 3, "then the Lord said to Jacob,"
boy, that's good to read. "Then the Lord said to
Jacob--" now, God speaks, "'Return to the land of your
fathers and to your family, and I will be with you." God says that to Jacob. Go down a few verses. Go down to verse 22, in fact. "And Laban was told on the
third day that Jacob had fled." I'm sure he left town
without saying anything to anyone-- just left. "Then he took his
brethren with him, pursued him for
seven days' journey, and overtook him in the
mountains of Gilead." I think he wanted to kill him. "But God had come to Laban
the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him, 'Be careful
that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.'" Here's a family in all of
this legacy of dysfunction, but God is speaking. And here is the obvious point. A dysfunctional family never
stopped God from functioning. It never stopped
God from working, never stopped God from
blessing that family, and never stopped God from
working through that family. Because here, in
chapter 31, you've got these dirty looks, these
aloof looks, cold shoulders. I'm not looking at you
nicely anymore, whispers around the tents. And God speaks to Jacob. God speaks to
dysfunctional Jacob in the midst of his
dysfunction and to Laban in the midst of his. It's not like God
said, well, Jacob, I have a truth I want
to convey to you, but I'm not going to tell
you what it is till you get your family act together. And when you get a little more
perfect, a little more mature, then I have something
I want to say to you. Right in the midst of all
this crud, God speaks. Because God can speak
to and lead people in your family who
are not perfect. The perfect God works through
and uses imperfect people. Amen? The Holy God speaks to and
works through unholy people. And here's why-- there are no
other kind of people for God to use. Because if everyone
is dysfunctional, then God has to function in
the midst of our dysfunction. That's the gospel. That's why Paul said, "God
has chosen the foolish things of this world. He's chosen the weak
things of this world. He's chosen the base
things of this world." Hey, did Peter fail? The apostle Peter. Did he fail? Yeah. He denied Jesus three times. Did Jesus use him again? Sure did. Moses failed, lost his temper. God had used him. David failed-- anger,
murder, adultery. God used him. Abraham, the father of faith
was faithless a few times. Isaac, same way. Jacob, same way. But taking failure as the
final word is to fail. Taking failure as the
final word is to fail. Learning from
failure is to grow. So don't let your
failure define you. Make your failure serve you. Use it. Grow from it. Launch from it. Do something with it. Case in point,
Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas went
on a mission trip. It was a good,
successful mission trip. At the end of it, Paul goes,
let's do it again, Barney. Barnabas says, OK, I'm
taking my nephew John Mark. Paul goes, no, you're not. He flaked out on the last trip. We're not taking him
on trip number two. Well, they had an argument. It was an unresolved argument. It became so divisive between
them, that they split company. And there's never a record
that they reconciled, Paul and Barnabas. So you have two men who are
dysfunctional in their little relationship with each other. They dig their heels in. They were imperfect but
they were used by God to spread the gospel. God uses two groups
now to do his work. So you've got a church,
the church splits, now there's two
churches to do His work. And Here's my point-- God
reserves the right to use people who
disagree with you. In fact, God reserves
the right to use people who don't like you. I wish He wouldn't. There's sometimes, if God
would just consult me first before He blesses
somebody, it would just make life a whole
lot easier for me. But He's decided that's
not a good strategy to consult Skip about much, so
He just says, no, no thanks. I'm going to bless, and
use, and speak to, and work through people that
don't like you. God reserves that right. So every family is
dysfunctional and God can function in the
midst of our dysfunction. Now here's the third
and best level. Growth is seen--
spiritual growth-- is when we see God instead
of the dysfunction. You're focused on God,
not the dysfunction. Growth is seeing God
instead of dysfunction. Now let's begin in verse 4. Notice what Jacob does in
the midst of all of this. And I just have to say, as
we begin to read this again, I'm proud of Jacob. This boy has grown. "So Jacob sent and called
Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, and
said to them, 'I see your father's countenance,
that is not favorable toward me as before. But the God of my
father has been with me. And you know that
with all my might I have served your father. And your father has deceived me,
and changed my wages ten times. But God did not
allow him to hurt me. If he said thus, the
speckled shall be your wages, flocks bore speckled. If he said the streaks
will be your wages, the flocks bore streaked. So God has taken away the
livestock of your father, and given them to me." I see real spiritual
growth in Jacob. Leaps and bounds. From his early days, when he was
complicit with his mom's scheme to steal the blessing,
to his fugitive days when he ran away and was at
Bethel, thinking God wasn't even with him, to his
confrontational days when he and Laban were negotiating
which girl would be his wife, to this day. Still a confrontation, but
he is very different here. Notice how he's different. First of all, he brings
his wives together to have an open, candid,
honest, frank conversation about the issue. They will agree with him. If you keep reading
the story they said, yeah, our dad's
been a scoundrel. He even stole money
from us, and you just do what God told you to do. We're with you. So he talks it out. But even more than that, he
shows how he views his life. He shows the lens through which
he is focusing and processing all of the negative,
bad, deceptive things that have even happened to him. In short, Jacob is
wearing a new set of glasses outfitted
with lenses that focus on God, not on garbage. Let's call them the
"But God" bifocals. So Jacob puts on his
"But God" bifocals. Oh, yeah, there's the
garbage right in front of him where he's walking
through it, walking in it, but he's gazing on God. The "But God" bifocals. And did you notice as we read
this paragraph that he says, "but God" or "so
God" three times. He acknowledges, first
of all, God's presence. Verse 5, "but the God of my
father has been with me." He acknowledges
God's protection. Verse 7, says, "your father
changed my wages ten times. But God did not allow
him to hurt me." What if your employer
changed your wages ten times? You wouldn't still be
working for that scoundrel. You're thinking, well, it
depends if he changes them up or down, right? Well, it's inferred
that Jacob had his wages change ten times down. "But God wouldn't
allow him to hurt me." So he acknowledges God's
presence and God's protection. And also look at verse 9-- God's partnership. "So God has taken away the
livestock from your father and given them to me." I see this boy as grown
up, spiritually speaking. He's looking at the
God who is functioning rather than the
dysfunctionality around him. Jacob is wearing
the same glasses that Joseph wore when
he said to his brothers, "you meant this for evil
but God meant it for good." He's wearing the
same bifocals David wore when the Bible
says, "David stayed out in the strongholds
in the wilderness, Saul sought him every
day, but God did not deliver him into his hands." He's wearing the same
glasses that Ezra wore in the book of Nehemiah
when Ezra said, "they refused to listen to Your voice. They were hard-hearted,
but You are God." He wore the same glasses
that Paul the Apostle wore when he said, "we know
that all things work together for good to those
who love God and are the called according
to His purpose." It's those glasses,
those "But God" bifocals, that let you see the
hand of providence. They lift back the curtain and
let you see the Divine Hand. At the beginning
of our series, I gave you a quote, a little
quip, by James Montgomery Boyce. It bears repeating. He said, "if you understand
those two words, "but God," they will save your soul. And if you recall them
daily and live by them, they will transform
your life completely." Here is Jacob's life
transformed completely. This happened, but God. That happened, but God. This happened, so God. These are the "But
God" bifocals. So this dysfunctional
pastor is standing in front of this
dysfunctional flock saying, let's wear those
glasses from now on. Let's find those "But God"
bifocals, and let's interpret life through that lens. Let's realize that God
is never intimidated by our flaws, our failures
because He can match all of that with His faithfulness. In spiritual terms,
and in moral terms, we are all sick, damaged,
scarred, lame, lopsided, but God-- but God. I'm going to close with a story
that comes from a book written by Richard Hoefler, several
little short stories in this book. The book is entitled
Will Daylight Come? He writes, "A little boy
visiting his grandparents was given his first slingshot." Remember those days? I do. "He practiced in the woods, but
he could never hit his target. As he came back to
grandma's backyard, he spied her pet duck. On impulse, he took
aim, and let it fly. The stone hit its target. The boy panicked. Desperately, he hit the
dead duck in the woodpile, only to look and see
his sister watching. Sally had seen it
all but said nothing. After lunch that
day, grandma said, 'Sally, let's wash the dishes.' But Sally said, 'Johnny
told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today,
didn't you, Johnny?' And she whispered to
him, 'Remember the duck.' So Johnny did the dishes. Later, grandpa asked if the
children wanted to go fishing. Grandma said, 'I'm sorry but
I need Sally to help make supper.' Sally smiled and said,
'That's all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it.' And again she whispered,
'Remember the duck.' Johnny stayed while
Sally went fishing. After several days of Johnny
doing his chores and Sally's, he couldn't stand it. He confessed to grandma
that he had killed her duck. 'I know, Johnny,' she said,
giving him a huge hug, 'I was standing at the window
when I saw the whole thing. Because I love
you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long
you would let Sally make you a slave.'" I have a question
for you as we close. How long are you going
to let that dysfunction make you a slave? How long are you going to
hide behind that title? How long are you going
to let that title drive the rest of your life? Because no matter how bad
things have been for you, that doesn't have to define you. God is able to function
in our dysfunction. The question is, will
you choose to see that? Will that be the lens
you live your life from, the dysfunction
or the God who can function in the midst of it? I think that the best
example that I can think of, of how God functions in
dysfunction, is the cross. That really is the gospel. The world is so dysfunctional,
sin spread to everybody, everybody is so
flawed and broken. The only solution was to send
His perfect, sinless, only begotten son into this world
to take all of the guilt, all of the sin on
himself in our place so that God can bless you and
take you with Him to heaven. That's God functioning
at peak, even in the pinnacle of
our own dysfunction. And that's the offer God
makes in every generation-- that he will take
you as you are. You come as you are. He will forgive you
as you are, and He will make you a new person. He will change you. But He will forgive you,
make you his son or daughter, and then bring you with Him
into His kingdom forever. Let's pray. Father, what a great conclusion. To think of the
cross, which looked like, from a human
perspective, such a shame, so horrible an event. And yet preplanned from
eternity past, You planned it. You saw, You knew, what the sin,
the dysfunction of Adam and Eve and all throughout history
what that would bring. And so You planned to
send Your son all along. You functioned in our
dysfunction, and You still do. You're a God who loves people. You forgive people. You speak to us. You speak to those around us. You speak through those around
us, all to get our attention and say, surrender. I have a plan for you. Surrender. I can do something with you. Lord, thank you for that
hope that is in the gospel. For just a moment,
with our heads bowed, our eyes closed, I want
you to think about you for just a moment. It shouldn't be hard
to do for most of us. But think about your life. Think about what
choices you've made. Think about your own past,
what others have done to you. But think about what
choices you're making. And ask yourself, have I made
the most important choice, to turn my life over to
the God who loves me? Over to the Jesus who
died for me, who wants to be my Savior and my friend? Some of you have gone to
church maybe most of your life. Some would consider themselves
to be very religious people. My question is simply,
is it real to you? Have you personally asked Jesus
to be in control of your life? Have you given your life to Him? Have you repented,
turned from your sin and turned to Jesus as savior? If not, I'm going to give
you that opportunity. Others of you may be made that
decision years ago but you've wandered away. You're not following
Christ today. I want to give you
the opportunity to come back home to him. If that describes
you in any way, and you're willing to do
that, to come to Christ, to get your sins forgiven, to
start a brand new way of life. Our heads are bowed,
our eyes are closed. My eyes will be open. I want you to raise
your hand in the air. And by raising your hand, you're
saying, Skip, pray for me. Here's my hand. Pray for me. I need to do that. I want to do that today. Raise it up high so I can
see it, if you don't mind. God bless you. Right there to my left,
and over here to my left. Anybody else? Raise your hand. To my right, right in the
middle, and to my left. Yes, ma'am. Just raise it up and
I'll acknowledge. Yes, right there,
toward the front in the middle, and in
the back to my right. In the balcony, a
couple of your hands. Yes. Way in the back to
my left, far back. You're in the family
room, raise your hand up. Right over there. If you're outside,
there's a pastor outside. Just raise your hand up there,
so he can acknowledge you. Father, I want to thank
You for all of these people with hands that have been
raised in the last moment. You know them. You know them far better
than they know themselves. You know what they need the
most, and how You love them, and how You desire to give them a brand
new way of thinking and living their life filled with hope,
filled with forgiveness, filled with Your mercy,
that they will then in turn extend to others. I pray You fill them
with hope, with peace, as you bring a life change
into them and, through them, to their families. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Would you stand,
please, to your feet? Hey, we're going to
close with a final song, and I saw hands go up
around the auditorium, even in the balcony
and the family room. I'm going to give
you an opportunity to put feet on the faith,
on the raised hand. And I'm going to ask you, if
you raised your hand, to find the nearest aisle and
come stand right here, make your way right
up to the front. I'm going to lead you in a
moment in a word of prayer. If you're in the balcony,
I'm going to give you time to walk down the steps. We'll wait for you to come. If you're in the family room,
just walk through those doors, right up front, and come
through the hallway, right into this auditorium. But you come. I'm going to lead
you in a prayer. It'll just take a moment,
and then you'll be dismissed. [MUSIC PLAYING - "O COME TO THE
ALTAR"] (SINGING) O come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. O come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. I'm going to wait
just another moment. And you'll notice that, as
people are coming forward, you've got nothing to
be embarrassed about because this crowd
is not booing you. We're applauding you. We're encouraging you. We're saying to you, yeah. Most important choice
you could ever make is the one your
making right now. So take advantage of this
moment, this opportunity. God is touching your heart, so
you come and respond to him. Come quickly. (SINGING) O come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. That's right. That's right. So good. So good. That's awesome. Hey, those of you who
have come forward, there's a bunch of you. We're so glad each and
every one of you are here. Let me get down here. Make it easier. I just don't bend as
easily as I used to. I'm going to lead
you in a prayer. And this prayer is your
acknowledging your need, and you asking Jesus to come
and take control of you. You're giving your
life away, essentially. It's like you take the
pink slip of your car-- do they still have those? Are they still pink? Were they ever pink? I don't know. It's a California
thing, pink slip. You're giving your
ownership away to God, who made you to begin with. You're saying, You take over. I'm going to live for You, and
I receive what Jesus did for me. So I'm going to pray out loud. I'm going to ask you to
pray out loud after me. OK? Say, Lord, I give You my life. Lord, I give You my life. I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe He died on a cross. I believe He died on a cross. I believe He shed
His blood for me. I believe He shed
His blood for me. And I believe He
rose from the dead. And I believe He
rose from the dead. I believe He's here right now. I believe He's here right now. I turn from my past. I turn from my past. I repent of my sin. I repent of my sin. I turn my life to Jesus. I turn my life to Jesus. As Savior and Lord. As Savior and Lord. Help me. Help me. It's in Jesus' name I pray. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. [APPLAUSE] We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. How will you put the truths
that you learned into action in your life? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
