How to get through what you are going through 1- Shock: When Your World Collapses

hello everybody it's good to see you if you'll take out your message notes inside your uh your program the most influential events in your life you didn't see coming they just hit you right out of the blue and there are a lot of events that happen in life that you can't go around you can't go over you can't go by you have to go through and that's why for the next six weeks we're going to do a series on getting through whatever you're going through now last week I said that there are six different phases in getting through whatever you go through we all go through losses in life in fact we're losing things every day of our lives and we have to learn how to deal with loss in our lives and when you go through a crisis when you go through a catastrophe when you go through a disaster when you go through a rogue window when you go through something you hadn't planned on in your life you're going to go through these six phases shock sorrow struggle and then hopefully you'll get to surrender sanctification and service now we're going to go into detail in these these next six weeks but because the world is broken and we talked about that last week catastroph happen to everybody they happen to you they happen to the people sitting next to you they happen to me they happen to to everybody the Bible says this uh there on your outline Ecclesiastes chapter 9:12 people can never predict when hard times might come like a fish in a net or birds in a snare people are often caught by sudden tragedy we we're just caught out of the blue uh uh by sudden tragedy things just happen and you don't plan them you don't know they're coming they just come now the first reaction to any Rogue win is going to be shock let me show you some examples the Bible has a lot to say about people in shock let me show you some on the screen here's a verse of from Jeremiah Jeremiah says a horrible and shocking thing has happened and here's one from Ezekiel he says I sat for 7even days shocked at what happened to me in other words he said I I I couldn't even move I was paralyzed here's one from Isaiah Isaiah says I'm in terrible pain I'm shocked and I hurt so much that I can't hear or see my head spins early evening he says that that was my favorite time guess you like to watch TV early evening my favorite time has become a nightmare he says I'm in shock my head is spinning I'm numb David says in Psalm 143 I'm in total darkness like someone long dead my my heart is heavy and I feel numb all over these guys are experiencing the first stage of getting through whatever you go through now right now everybody who's listening to me both online and all of our campuses here in America and overseas and here at Lake Forest every one of us here are in one of three conditions you either a know somebody who is in a crisis right now like what we just talked about or B you're in one yourself right now or see you don't realize it but you're getting ready to go into one because they happen all the time in life and you are maybe headed into a crisis that you're not prepared for a financial crisis you you get laid off a a Health crisis you get the dreaded call from the doctor the test came back positive or or a relational crisis somebody walks out of your life these kind of things just happen a loved one dies and you either know somebody in that situation you're in it right now or you're probably going to be going into it in the near future so what I want to do this weekend is I want to speak to all three groups regardless of which one you're in and first I want us to look at how do you help a friend in shock maybe you're not there right now I hope you're not I hope you're not in a crisis but you're going to know some friends that are in that either now or in the days ahead so what do you do the Bible commands us if we're followers of Jesus Christ commands us to help people in pain to help those who are in shock to help people are going through through a difficult time Galatians 6:2 says this by helping each other with your troubles you truly obey the law of Christ now what is the law of Christ love your neighbor as yourself anytime you help somebody in pain you help somebody in shock you are loving your neighbor as yourself God wants us to learn how to take shock and turn it into service last week was an amazing weekend everybody agree with that amen it was an amazing weekend online we had over 60,000 people watch online here at Lake Forest and all of our campuses we had about 33,000 people showed up so if you got a parking spot congratulations and as you know um all all of the major networks ABC CBS NBC Fox uh CNN all covered the service live and it was covered in almost every paper in America and I've been receiving letters all week one of them uh just came in yesterday it was handwritten and it said dear Rick and Kay uh your testimony this weekend touched my heart he watched online you rejected cynicism and accepted Grace and had the courage and objectivity to share your journey thank you for your example and for turning your sorrow into someone else's hope thank you for turning your sorrow into someone else I want our church to be famous for for people who turn our sorrow into somebody else's Hope by the way this handwritten note is from George W bush yeah now the point I want to make is that God wants you to turn your shock and turn your sorrow into somebody else's salvation somebody else's Saving Grace somebody else's hope how do you do that how do you help a friend who's in shock well you know as I look back in the last four months and what my small group did for me they did three things you might write these down these are going to be helpful for you what do you do when you got a friend in shock number one show up that's just the first thing you do you just show up you don't stand on the sidelines you don't wait for an invitation now I know when you see somebody in pain they've lost their job they just discovered they've got breast cancer uh a loved one died somebody just asked for a divorce a lot of times I don't know what to say okay let me tell you something you don't have to say anything in fact it would be better if you just show up and shut up you don't need to say anything so stop worrying saying I don't know what to say to my friend who's in shock who's in pain you inry you don't need to say anything you shut up but you show up that's the ministry of presence and by the way don't wait for an invitation you just show up you remember the story story of Job how he lost everything on one day he lost his health he lost his wealth and he lost his entire family to a group of terrorists and here's what happened Job chapter 2 when job's three friends heard all about the troubles that had come upon him they set out from their homes and they met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him now that's a true friend that's a true friend when they heard their friend was in shock that he'd lost it all they heard about the troubles it says they set out from their they didn't wait for an invitation they didn't wait to be invited they just set out said our friends in pain we're going when Matthew died my small group was on the driveway of Matthew's house within minutes I mean minutes and they were all there and this is a group that I've been in for 11 years and you know what I didn't need them to say anything when you are in deep deep pain you don't need words you need touch that's what you need you need touch and the guys in my group they just came over and they were just patting me on the back and I was sobbing and they were hugging me and they were just standing there and they'd walk over for a little bit and be quiet then they'd come back back over and put put an arm on my a hand on my shoulder I didn't need any words there were no words to describe the pain I was going through at that moment I was in shock that's the first stage of getting through what you're going through and they they were literally there in minutes and then you know what my small group did they all spent the night at my house that night they slept on the floor they slept on the couch they didn't go home they said we're not leaving we're going to be with you all night Josh and jimie small group did the exact same thing Amy and Tommy small group they rallied around Amy and Tommy our family was smothered in love they people who were closest us in our small groups showed up when we need them most and here's the second thing you do for a friend you share their pain you share their pain and this is the second thing that job's friends did it says in job chap 2 12 and 13 that job's friends saw him from a distance they remember they're coming to see him and before they even get to him it says they began to weep aloud they haven't even got to him yet they they just see him from a far distance and they were already crying they began to weep aloud and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads now my small group did not do that I would have thought it pretty weird if they had but that was a middle that's a middle eastern C Uh custom that says we're in this with you buddy big time we are feeling it with you I we feel your pain they tore the robes sprinkled dust on their heads then they sat on the ground with them look at this for seven days and seven nights and no one said a word to him that's a friend have you ever sat with anybody a day without saying a word I doubt it they they said seven days without and seven nights nobody said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was now I want you to write this down the greater the grief the fewer words needed the greater the grief the fewer words needed you're going to need to use this when people are in pain around you the greater the grief the fewer words needed now if it you know somebody gets a splinter you can talk to them for half an hour okay and you know if they had a bad hair day you can talk to them on the phone for 30 minutes and cfor them on that if they lose a loved one you just need to be quiet you just need to be there it is the it is the ministry of presence now the bible says weep with those who weep and what that means they people when they're in this phase this is just one of the six phases they um they don't need words they need tears and by the way remember when somebody's in pain the whole family is likely in pain too I remember when the last several months when uh Kay and I and our family would be together and someone would come up and say oh Pastor Rick I'm so sorry for your loss and I'm going do you not realize all these other people had the same loss they're in as much pain as I am my wife my kids my grandkids my family my in-laws they're in the same pain so you need to realiz everybody's in pain so you show up you share their pain and then here's the third thing you do you take the initiative when you have a friend who's in shock you take the initiative the Bible says in Proverbs 3:27 whenever you possibly can do good to those who need it now do good means anything it could be run an errand offer to babysit bring a meal uh you know Mo Alan do good means any practical thing you can do whenever you possibly can do those who need it now let me tell you what not to do don't say to somebody who's just gone through a major loss they just got fired they just got a bad report from the doctor's office don't say call me if you need anything that's about the dumbest thing you can say it's somebody in shock because now you've put it on them they've got to work to get your help call me if you're not taking the initiative you're forcing them to take the initiative don't say call me if you need and by the way don't even say how can I help because when somebody's in shock they haven't the slightest idea how you can help when somebody is in shock they are numb they are paralyzed they pick up a newspaper and they look at it but they can't even read it their Vibes aren't even focusing on it they're just in another everything is moving moving in slow motion if you've ever been in shock you know what this is and and so you don't say you know uh call me if you need me or what can I do for you because they can't think of that's forcing them to think and they can't think what you do want to do is you want to say to these people um you give them options and some of you say I'd like to bring you dinner Wednesday or Thursday then then they got a choice so you're not saying can I do anything for you just say I'd like to bring you dinner would Wednesday or Thursday work best I'm you can call and say uh I'm going to the store can I pick up something for you that's practical I'm going to Lowe's you know what any of you could have called me and said I'm going to Costco Rick what do you need I want one of those really big safes and uh so you you you make the suggestion does that make sense you don't ask them what do you need you say I'd like to do this for you can I do this for you I'm going to the store uh whatever you need now I know that some of you who are listening right now here and at all of our campuses and even online some of you are barely hanging on you're you're in this stage because of something happening in your life and you're kind of going through the motions and maybe just here you're you're just going through the motions coming to church I'm glad you're here I really am what do you do when you're in a catastrophe because some of you are in that right now well I don't want to give you a long list of things to do let me just give you two when you're in this first stage you need to do two things number one you need to cry out to God cry out to God this is the bare minimum two things to do because this is probably all you can do when you're in shock cry C out to God Psalm 50:15 says this call to me in your day of trouble and I will rescue you and you will honor me do you see what that says that you actually honor God when you call out for his help why because you are depending on God it honors God when you depend on God Lamentations 2:19 says this get up cry out in the night night some of you need to do this right now cry out cry all through the night pour out your heart like water in prayer to the Lord lift up your hands in prayer to him now he says cry out in the night cry out all through the night why I'll tell you why because when you're in shock you can't sleep ever you've ever been in shock you know you don't sleep when you're in shock you just keep waking up and waking up what do you do when when you keep waking up cry out to God God I'm hurting God I'm sad God I'm sick God you just pour out every emotion you've got to God that's what God wants you to do you pray if you want to listen to some some praise music or something but but open up your heart to God that's the first thing you do the second thing you do is you let others help you I let other people help me and when you're going through shock you need to be easy on yourself don't be rough and by the way never try to make a major decision when you're in shock CU it'll almost always be wrong so postpone any major decision if you just go through a major crisis don't act like it didn't happen it did if you just got laid off or whatever happened in your life don't act like it didn't happen it did and postpone any major decision that you can when Matthew died Kay and I I were right about a week into a major remodel of our house and a week into we looked at each other said that would be the stupidest thing in the world to do right now all of those little tiny decisions you've got to make and we're in shock so we just said no we're not going to do it now we just called all of the contractors said no we're not going to do it we'll do it later maybe later but not right now be easy on yourself take it take it easy and accept assistance from others let other people help you you know I love the fact that my neighbors my neighbors took my trash cans out I didn't ask them to do that but they take them out and put them back I had neighbors who went and washed my car last week my my neighbor Yasser who's a Muslim insisted on driving me to the first service he said I no no I'm not going to let anybody else Rick I'm your neighbor love your neighbor as yourself and and so he drove me to the first service my neighbor did he said I I I want you driving I'll I'll drive you that's what a friend does Proverbs 17:17 says this a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity what's that saying the Bible is saying that relationships are best when you're in pain a brother is born for adversity friends are made Fairweather friends show up you know it's interesting when you're in shock who shows up and who doesn't and and what you need to do on that is not judge the people who don't show up because they may be in their own kind of pain but just realize that real friends every real friends walk in when everybody else walks out a brother is born for adversity a friend loves at all time now I'm saying you got to let other people help you when you're in this first stage and the reason why I'm saying this is because your natural reaction when you're in deep pain is to withdraw your natural reaction you get laid off you don't want to talk to anybody you just find out you got breast cancer you don't want to talk to anybody you just had a miscarriage you don't want anybody to know about it you just had some major thing happen in your life it is the human reaction to withdraw into isolation and that is the exact opposite of what you need need in shock you need Fellowship next week we're going to talk about sorrow in sorrow you need worship but in shock you need Fellowship you need people you don't need people to talk to you you just need people to show up in your life now I just want to say this if you're going through a crisis right now please let us know please don't hold it in please don't keep it to yourself this church is here to help you we are here to help we have all kinds of groups support we we have all kinds of pastors who can talk we have counselors we have all kinds of things to help you out but we can't help if you hold it in if you keep it a secret if you're trying to walk through your pain by yourself when there's people willing to help that's not that smart this church is here here for you in fact we want to pray for you in fact I want to pray for you right now now what do you do when your world collapses well I thought we'd ask a couple people who've experienced that at a level none of us have ever possibly experienced 20 years ago the the worst disaster man of mankind happened in Rwanda with the genocide when 1 million brothers sisters fathers and mothers were killed in 100 days and it literally called caused a nation to collapse and so I asked two of my good friends from Rwanda Louie and lilos to come and let me just ask them how did you get through that and so let's welcome first Lily and Louie thank you friends thank you so much you don't have to stand up thank you friends these these dear friends are two of the Rwanda peace board and you're going to meet the rest of them in just a minute but um lilos and Louie I want to ask you just two questions first what was it like to have your world collapse what did it mean to you how did you feel and then I'm going to ask you the second question I'll come back to that one and that is how did you get through it so let's just start with tell me tell me the story Lou thank you uh 1994 was my worst year in my life and I was in Tanzania training to be a pastor in the Anglican Church in Rwanda so the worst happened when I was in a seminary yeah it was a terrible time I had just gone back to Tanzania uh after my Christmas holidays so when I was in Tanzania in April 1994 the worst happened and uh I lost my three brothers in one month Three Brothers wow they were killed one one was killed together his with his wife MH uh they left two children they miraculously survived but the two were still young not yet married so that was my really worst moment in life and uh uh I was in shock as you have just preached I was in shock uh terrified confused bitter angry uh it was the worst moment in my life just all those emotions at once yeah lilos what about you okay indeed Pastor I lost my mother uh during genocide in '94 uhhuh I was not in Rwanda I was married in Congo in ' 91 and the time I left my uh my my family I embraced them but I didn't know that it was the last time I see my mom face to face oh and uh in '94 for me my mom and my dad could never die because my mom she was a deacon in church uhhuh she was a faant and uh a strong believer and and as a young believer I could not imagine how Jesus could let my mom go sure so I said maybe she will pray and she God will remember what she has done and then she'll forget about my mom my mom will stay alive because my M my father would survive because he was in Belgium for I treatment that's how he survived wow and uh 3 weeks later after 6 the genocide happened 6 April 3 weeks later my brother called me from G which is a town in Congo near Randa yes he called me he said Lily where where are you I said I'm at home why he said are you alone I said yes I'm alone I was finished to B my baby boy our baby boy the first born Kevin he was 5 months he said Lily now it's true mom has gone to the Lord I said no Jesus cannot do that I cried I screamed I shouted I said I accuse God of all Injustice in the world I said he cannot do that if my mom go who else will stay yeah God is is not fair that was my belief and I stayed in the room the baby room the whole day till night and until H people in Congo came and uh uh came to comfort me yeah but I said this is not fair because my mom was very dear to me and when I left Rwanda I was thinking one day at least one day I could go back and meet my mom and that's what happened to me and from that day I could not breastfeed my my my son all of sudden it stopped just dried up yeah it dried up I could ask even old mamas I asked them with every method it cannot come back I had to struggle with with the milk with our baby boy so that's it but later on I could understand that it was a shock it was shock it was a shock and many other things yeah later on I discovered wow you can imagine talking to people in Rwanda many have lost four 5 10 15 and 20 relatives all murdered and I mean I lost one son many people in Rwanda lost entire families and we're going to deal when we get to the third stage on struggle the question of when we're angry at the world angry at God angry at ourselves angry at everybody else and the question of fairness we'll come to that but the question I want to ask both of you again now is how did you how did you do it how did you get through the the initial shock thank you Rick uh I felt sinking like you remember when Jesus when Peter saw Jesus Peter start sinking in the water exactly I F I felt sinking in the sea of bitterness and anger and revenge yeah and I cried I know I I cried like Peter because I was feeling myself thinking and uh I thank God for the fellowship of students in the Seminary uh I was enveloped by Love by care of the students who were with in the Seminary they surrounded me with love they surrounded me with care they cooked for me they washed clothes for me they oh my they they wrote notes on my behalf oh so that love also helped to me in the process Rel in relationships that's right so that uh that that was that was those were the steps and uh because of in being in that environment of Fellowship uh it helped me also to to hear the word of God to revisit what the Bible says about suffering about pain about uh about losing your beloved relatives and uh I was very much helped by rediscovering the meaning of the Cross once again wow because by meditating on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and also by meditating especially the seven words of Jesus At The Cross you know Jesus At The Cross he could forgive and could say he was saving still saving and still forgiving so God understands suffering cuz he suffered exactly so the the meaning of the Cross and discovering the meaning of go the cross helped me so much WoW to start my journey of hearing and thank you thank you elos okay two things helped me to recover Slowly by slowly first it was the church in Congo the people of Congo in their culture it's known that they know how to mour they how they know they would even hire people to come and mourn but not only that the church itself they come around me they help me to understand and not to be angry uh with God and uh especially those moments it was not easy as a foreigner in a in another country to to to understand to handle the loss it was not easy and especially it there was my husband but the church they would come two months day after day there was somebody coming to our house and they would do everything in the house they were showing up yes every day every day every day that's the first thing and I discover the meaning of the Church of the Fellowship of the of the family of God number two later on my husband and I were chased from Congo you know what happened in Congo also and these people had to go back to so we didn't want to go back me I was afraid to go back and to see again my my the place where I grew up I was afraid sure but I did know that to go back and to see and to stay there and to check everything that helped me to heal wow and I really thank God I was healed Soul spirit body and I was recovered through the word and to go that process of accepting go back to Rwanda so in 97 that's where after the church that's where I was completely healed and I thank God you know let's let's congratulate these thanks these people for this testimony you know I didn't know what uh Lou or lilos was going to say but they both said exactly what I just said and that is you need Fellowship when you're in shock okay it's not like you need a lot of prayer it's not like you need a lot of you need people in your life good godly people both of them said there were people who came around them in the church who who surrounded them now let me give you a little advice for your small groups most of you are in a small group we have over 7,000 small groups now at Saddleback there are four levels of Fellowship in a small group most groups start off at a very shallow level but our goal is that you can get to a deep level so that you can be there when people need you and people will be there when you need them the the shallowest form of Fellowship in a small group is called The Fellowship of sharing all of our groups do this and there's nothing wrong with it sharing is simply how was your week what did you do here's what I did and we're just catching up on on our weeks that's the fellowship of sharing that's okay it's not the deepest level but it's a it's not a bad level it's just the shallowest level Fellowship of sharing when you start studying the Bible together you move to a deeper level of intimacy and that's called The Fellowship of studying when you study the scriptures together it draws you closer together than simply sharing if all you do is share you don't go that deep you got to study then when your small group actually does a project together you actually begin to minister together you help in the community that's called The Fellowship of serving that's even deeper and if you're small group has ever done a local peace trip or a Global Peace trip or you've worked in the Peace Center or you've done some kind of ministry together you know that if you go spend some time together working together it draws you even closer Fellowship of sharing the fellowship of studying The Fellowship of serving but the deepest level of Fellowship is the fellowship of suffering suffering and that's when you enter into other people's pain now you know after 9/11 do you remember how everybody was talking about it's important to be prepared for disasters and they actually started telling about how you should have disaster preparedness kits and actually my my wife made one of these backpacks for my car and her car and it lasted about you know 6 months in my car but she still got hers and and you know so that if if uh you know an earthquake happens you want to be near K Warren believe me okay she's got everything you need in an earthquake and if you can have a disaster preparedness kid is there a way to prepare yourself for an emotional disaster yes yes there is you can prepare for an emotional catastrophe and you can do it now you know my watch in turn it over on the back it says shock resistant I want you to be shock resistant okay I want you to be able to handle the shocks of life better than most people some people never recover but you can do things how do you improve your resistance to shock well let me just give you two things write these down number one and we've already heard it now several times cultivate stronger relationships cult cultivate stronger relationships God never intended for you to go through life on your own by yourself handling all your problems without any support group in fact God created a spiritual family that spiritual family is called the church and your spiritual family is going to outlast your physical Family Physical families sorry they don't last people grow up they move off they get married they're divorces people die physical families don't last but the family of God is going to last forever your spiritual family will actually Outlast your your physical one and so you need to cultivate strong relationships now the best time for you to build a safety net for the crises that are going to inevitably happen in your life is obviously before they happen you need the safety net now one of the reasons why I was able to handle what I've been through is because I had a safety net that was already set up with very strong relationships as I said the small group I'm in I've been in it 11 years we've been in through every kind of Crisis you could imagine and now it was my turn and that kind of safety net was there it's why I keep saying to you you need a church family and you need to be in a small group and here's what the Bible says says Ecclesiastes 4 two can accomplish more than twice as much as one and if one falls down then the other can pull him up that's why you need a partner that's why you need a group one falls down the other can pull him up but if a man falls when he's alone he's in trouble one person standing alone can be attacked and defeated by any kind of circumstance but two can stand back to back and Conquer and having three is even better for a triple braided cord is not easily broken I would not have made it if it hadn't been for the relationships and the small group that I had if you are not in a small group I beg you let us help you start one let us help you get today not next week because we don't know what's going to happen next week today start building the the strong relationships you need to cultivate strong relationship number two the other thing you need to do is grow spiritual Roots you need to grow spiritual Roots so that when the heat's on you don't you're not a tumble weed you don't dry up and blow away now Kay alluded to this last week you cannot be a spiritual tumber weed you've got to get some roots in your life you've got to know the Bible better so when the tough times comes you know what's going to keep you strong it's what you know that gets you through you need to know the be Bible better you need to know God better here's what Jeremiah 17 says blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence they are like trees planted along a riverbed Riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water such trees are not bothered by heat or worried by long months of drought they leaves Stay Green and they go right on producing Delicious Fruit you got to have root so you can have the fruits you got to put down some spiritual Roots last week um Kay and I and our family we were all on vacation we went to yosee for a week and because I knew I was coming back and so we thought we'd take the our vacation one week before we we came back and we went up to the maraposa uh uh Grove of redwoods now you many of you know I grew up in the redwoods in Northern California I grew up up in a little town called Redwood Valley not Redwood City Redwood Valley Way up in the northern part of the state the California Redwoods the coastal redwoods are the tallest living things on the planet nothing is bigger than the the the sequia Redwoods are the largest redwoods and the coastal redwoods are the tallest redwoods and they can grow up to 400 feet tall now here's an interesting thing I want to show you a picture of roots let me show this is up at uh this is the root of one of a giant Redwood and there's my family in front uh that's a goodlook family isn't I tell you I need to Instagram that picture but here's an amazing thing for a tree that's over 300 ft tall that's not that many roots really those aren't that deep and the big surprise to people about redwoods the largest living thing on the planet is that their Roots aren't nearly as deep deep as others are and the reason why is this redwoods grow in groves and instead of putting down really deep tap Roots they grow roots out sideways and they hold each other up this tree fell over that tree fell over because it wasn't in a Grove and a tree that grows really tall and isn't in a Grove doesn't have any other roots to hold it up it's going to fall over over you got a giant Grove here it's called Saddleback in fact we've got Saddleback at the Grove hi Saddleback at the Grove but you need to be in a Grove you need to be in a small group you need to be a church where we hold each other up does that make sense so you don't have to be super deep but you do have to be super connected and if you're super connected you're in this family you're not an attender you're a member an attender goes to church a member is a part of church that's the difference Colossians 2:6 and 7 says this just as you trusted Christ to save you trust him too for each day's problems live in vital Union with him let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him see that you go on growing in the Lord and become strong and vigorous in the truth what a beautiful picture you know before this service I saw an amazing examp example uh of this verse I want you to watch this this video hi everybody and welcome to baptism you know we uh we baptize every service here at Lake Forest and almost every service at all of our other Saddleback campuses one of the great truths of scripture is that God wants us in his family that we were created by God to be a part of his forever family the most amazing thing to me is that that God wants to adopt me and wants to adopt you into his family now everybody is created by God everybody is loved by God but not everybody's a part of God's family until they choose to be a part of it and God adopts you into his family let me read you a scripture Ephesians 1:5 says this God's unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ and this gave him great pleasure now until I'm adopted into God's family I'm a spiritual orphan I was a spiritual orphan for a long time and so were you but one day when I put my trust in Jesus Christ God adopted me into his family and the great thing that I like about adoption over natural birth is you're chosen God chose me he wanted me and you know that in Roman law when in the New Testament it talks about how we're adopted into God God's family in Roman law once you were adopted there was no way you could ever leave that family you were permanently in the family and once you're in God's family you're in God's family forever now the symbol of adoption into God's family is baptism it's a symbol of what Jesus did for us how he died was buried in the ground for three days and rose again and so it's a symbol of burial of Jesus and Resurrection it's a symbol of me dying to an old way of life and beginning a brand new life and it is a symbol of being brought into God's family adopted into God's family now about 5 years ago three wonderful young people came into my life Noah and Cynthia and Erica and I remember standing outside the orphanage in Rwanda when Glenn and Elizabeth stify who were in my small group were going in for the the time to find who was going to be a part of their family and who they were choosing to be a part of their family and now uh Noah and Cynthia and Erica have been not just a part of the stify family but I feel like they're my own kids and they're part of our Saddleback family and today they're saying we're not only physically adopted legally adopted we're spiritually adopted like everybody else into God's forever family and and so to dat we've got pastor we've got dad we've got Granddad we've got small group leader we got everybody involved in this baptism and I think we're gonna first start with uh uh Noah [Applause] so come on all right it takes four guys you're so important okay four guys to baptize Noah can we put that over there thank you thank you Erica a picture Pastor yeah let's get got a picture everybody together come on everybody get in here together first now the cool thing about Noah with a name like that he really understands water and Noah it's a privilege for all of us to baptize you today this makes you my brother in Christ that means when we get up to heaven I'm coming over to your Mansion for about a thousand years okay all right if you cross your arms like this know it's an honor you guys can all get in here to baptize you my brother in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit just like Christ buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in a brand new life come on here we love you no all right okay santhia come on you're [Applause] next the megawatt smile I'm going to be her agent in Hollywood so all right sth it's an honor to baptize you my sister I've known you now for five years and it's a privilege to baptize you just like Jesus commanded we're all in the same family I baptize you my sister in the name of the father and the son Son and the Holy Spirit buried with Christ in baptism and raised to [Applause] walk there's a lot of love in this pool right now all right Erica come on out okay and I always call Erica Miss energy cuz she bounces off the floor bounces she was telling me about uh uh kids uh big event this week and she literally was bouncing around when she was talking about kids event Erica it's an honor to baptize you my sister just like Jesus said I baptize you in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit buried with Christ and baptism and raise [Applause] the come on everybody get a grou grou all right come on man get fantastic now if you have not been baptized it's time for you to step across the line say I'm putting my faith in Jesus Christ I'm going to let him adopt me into his family and I want to encourage you to join me after the service if you're here at Lake Forest right here in these Waters and I'll be here right after the service God bless you all right what a beautiful picture not only of physical adoption by the stify family bringing those three kids out of a a place where they needed just enormous love and to have a mom and a dad and now to have spiritual adoption and be a part of the family of God let's bow our heads for prayer Jesus I know that there are many people hurting here today I know that there are people who are in shock I pray that they will cry out to you I pray that they will let you adopt them into your family if you've never said yes to Jesus Christ just say something like this Jesus Christ I want to be adopted into your family I want to trust you for my salvation I don't understand it all but I ask you to forgive all my sins and I ask you to come into my life and I ask you to show me the purpose that I was made to live for I want to live for you the rest of my life in your name I pray amen

Channel: Saddleback Church Hong Kong

Views: 87,173

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Id: 1NF6G0T9KKQ

Length: 50min 51sec (3051 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2015