See Jesus Through My Eyes | Shawn Johnson | Vantage Point

[Music] [Applause] that's perfect thank you what's up church [Applause] could anybody use a breakthrough today [Music] will you pray with me and believe in faith god i do not believe you have any of us tuning into this on accident we know you don't do accidents you don't do coincidences we are here on purpose for a purpose god i pray that you would speak to every single person about our lives right now i pray that as as we start to celebrate the power of testimonies through this new teaching series that you would take other people's stories apply them to our story and do life-changing things in the process we believe that's going to happen we stand in faith in jesus name and everybody said amen you can have a seat let's say hi to everybody what's up all the denver-based locations we love you austin texas we love you brussels belgium we love you and men and women at our god behind bars campuses we love you so much you are family don't ever forget that we're glad you're with us so um i got stuff going on today i sound weird because i got a head cold and i this if you were here the last time i got to talk i told you i had tore my bicep and um was about to have a surgery i have had said surgery surgery went great and uh now i get to wear this really cool brace for the next few weeks so so that's why that's happening and i thought i was really doing something good by wearing a long sleeve shirt to sort of you know blend it in and now i feel like i just have a floating hand and so i don't know um and you'll have to just disregard anything i say that's slightly off color today i took a sudafed and just had a red bull and i just thought i don't even know what that does to a person i'm not kidding i was driving here my wife's out of town and i was driving here and i was like i know i took a sudafed this morning and then i went i know she put them next to each other did i take a daytime or a so i drank a red bull to make sure so we'll just see what happens so welcome to red rocks church we love you so much we're starting this new teaching series called vantage point and and the the foundational scripture of this series is this it's revelation 12 11. it's talking about defeating the power of satan in somebody's life and in case you're visiting like you don't have to believe what we believe to be here but i do want you to know what we believe and we believe that there's a very real god in a very real satan devil the enemy calling whatever you want we believe there's a heaven there's a hell we believe that jesus christ is the one and only son of the one and only god and the one and only way to heaven we believe that the bible is god's perfect word to guide our life until we get to spend forever with him in heaven so that's where we're at you don't have to agree with us if you in fact if you don't all the more merrier please come don't feel like i got to think the way they think believe the way they believe act the way they act dress the way they none of that no matter who you are no matter what you've been through you're welcome in this place and we love you and you've already been prayed for so welcome but this is what it's talking about there's there's two things that defeated the power of satan and it was the blood of the lamb that's referring to jesus and the word of their testimony say that one more time at every location like you mean it and the word up there there's power in our story jesus when he died on the cross they often often times in the old testament referred to him as the lamb of god at the lamb of god who came to take away the sins of the world and and so when he was on the cross being crucified he obviously bled and it was that blood that paid the price for our sins and that's what he's talking about there's some there's life-changing eternal changing power in the blood that jesus shed on the cross and then that verse says but there's power in our testimony when we take what god has done in our lives and and get some courage and take some risks and care about somebody enough to turn around and say look i don't have all the answers and i'm not perfect and i'm not a bible scholar and i'm real messed up but i could just tell you what god's done in my life there's power in that for the next six weeks me doug and ronnie we're going to hit the road and we're not just going to tell you about things that have happened in our life we're going to show you we're going to go to the places and spaces where we have had some of the most um god-ordained moments moments that have changed the direction of our lives and we're going to share those with you and as we do our prayer has been that god would take our story and apply it to your story amen and that's why it's so important that you're willing to share your story because i need your story in the same way you need my story and somebody in your family needs your story and somebody at your office needs your story and somebody in your school needs your story and that's what we're going to talk about today all right you guys excited for this series all right welcome to week one of vantage point [Music] the reason i ended up at this building needs a little setup i was 24 years old i lived in los angeles california and i was trying to work in the film business what i really had done though is get myself into a whole lot of trouble i started hanging out with the wrong people going to the wrong places getting in with the wrong crowds started i always drank i started flirting with a lot of drugs and that turned into habitual use and so i was habitually using alcohol and drugs and trying to get with girls and just living this crazy lifestyle that i thought at the moment was like man this is the dream this is what i've always wanted but like everything that's opposite of god's will for your life the bible says that stuff's fun for a season and then it ends up turning on its head doesn't it and it wasn't fun anymore it was just a habit a lot of habits then it turned into a lot of misery and a lot of sense of purposelessness a friend of mine had tried to commit suicide and we went to go see him at the hospital and he's hooked up to all these machines and and he's in a coma and the doctors had already told us that he's not going to make it and the crazy thing is is we kind of said our goodbyes and then me and my friends went out and partied that night and it hit me the next day the next day i woke up and i was thinking about the day before and i was like if that had been me if i would have been on that bed in a coma about to die my friends would have went out and partied without me what i really had done is just surround myself with a lot of people who like to party but i didn't have any real relationships and and i started to realize like i'm not making a real difference in this world like this world isn't is in a better place because of me like i don't do anything that matters and i started having all these crazy thoughts and for the first time in my life i started having panic attacks and i i would be walking around like crazy in this in this apartment like i couldn't ever catch my breath and and i would i would randomly cry and about three weeks of that and i got real suicidal and i actually sat down one day with the intention of taking my own life and right before i did i had this thought wait a second when i was little my mom took me to a place like this it wasn't this big but she took me to a little church and in that little church they talked about heaven and hell and what if they were right and all of a sudden that started to scare me because if they are and i take my life today that means i'm about to go to one of them and i don't know the rules to get in see and so i got scared and i couldn't go through with my suicide attempt and i called one person who i knew had a church connection and the truth is because somewhere deep in my soul i knew what i was missing i called a guy who had a church connection because somehow i knew as far apart from god as i was at the time somehow i just knew what i'm missing out on in life is god and he did what i knew he would do he brought me here to this church in illinois and i remember standing here and i think he had to go do some stuff and so he was inside and i remember standing out here that very first sunday by myself and i wish so bad they had security footage from that day because i'm a hundred percent on the security watch that day like all the guys with earpieces were like leather jacket copy that we got a problem front door like i stood right here i had my leather jacket on straight out of hollywood right my leather jacket on my gray thrift store pants chain wallet combat boots and i'm burning through cigarettes i started thinking about that this week how many people that went to church here all the time that know the rules and know how to play the game and know how to dress and know the words the songs and how many of those people walked by me and thought what's this dude doing here he didn't belong here i was acting tough and i was smoking cigarettes and giving people like you know kind of that maul look you know what i'm saying like what's up what's up bro i was acting tough but the truth is i stood right in front of that door and i remember like it was yesterday i was dying on the inside and although i didn't want to admit it i was so hopeful that something on the inside of this building was going to change my life because i was desperate for change and i knew i needed change i just couldn't believe i was at a place like this looking for it so i finished my last cigarette stomped it out and headed inside for my very first church service as an adult so i walk in here and all of a sudden i'm like oh my gosh i didn't know churches like this existed like it's like we're in the pepsi center i mean this place is gigantic and and i haven't seen this many suits in one room in forever and and someone has they're a friend of my friends who brought me so they they show me where i'm supposed to sit and so they bring me right over here and i'm just taking this thing in like i'm going what in the world is this place and they sent me right about here and i'm watching i'm taking it all in for the first time and if you're watching this and you've been going to church for a long time i want you to think about the first time you went put yourself back there because church church is a different animal if you've not been to it for for a while or maybe forever right so i'm sitting here and i realize that everybody knows the words to the song they know when to sit they know when to stand i don't know any of it and the first song they start playing they put the words up and it says something about lambs and blood and i was like and then people are putting their hands in the air to it people are putting their hands in the air all singing about the blood of a lamb and i'm like what kind of cult did my friend bring me to this is crazy i didn't realize that the bible says that jesus was the lamb of god who come who came to take away the sins of the world and it was the blood that he shed on the cross that provided us with salvation i didn't know any of that all i know is we got hands in the air and lamb's blood and then a guy comes on stage and he's he's saying slash singing hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah i don't know what that means so now i'm like oh he brought me to a a different language service and we got lamb's blood in a different language and that suit is bro so out of style and i'm just a hot mess and then i had to like stop stop stop focus on why you're here and so i started to regroup and i started to just kind of take it all in so i'm making it through the worship experience which i didn't even know that's what they called it with the guys in the suits and the three ladies in the matching dresses and a tambourine did i mention there was a tambourine on this side of the stage besides the point and all of a sudden it kind of stops and everybody sits down and i sit down it was weird because i started to like be aware of things about myself that i usually wasn't aware of like i think i'm the only person in this room who smells like smoke i wonder if they can smell it i wonder if they can smell it i wonder what they're thinking and then i started doing this i'm kind of just looking around and i'm kind of taking everybody in and everybody seemed to be pretty happy everybody seemed to be pretty smiley and here's i started thinking if these people knew what i've been into over the last three years over the last three days would they really want me here would i really have been getting hugs and handshakes out in that little lobby before i made it through the doors if they knew who i really was and i was 100 percent convinced the answer to that question was no way there's no way if they knew the kind of life i live the kind of stuff i've said even about god the way i heard about heaven and hell as a kid but walked away from all of it like they wouldn't want me here i'm not good like the rest of these people and i think it's interesting because i'm not sure that's just a first time visitor mentality i wonder how many of us watching this right now who've been doing church for many many years have those same feelings you're watching online right now or you're sitting in a building right now and the truth is in your mind there's really good people all around you who love god and worship god and are faith-filled and don't have habits and don't have issues and don't deal with doubts and don't have the things that i have and if they all knew me would they really want me here i think that's why we got to constantly remind ourselves church this is not a courtroom this is a hospital and that's where broken sick people go and we are all broken just broken in different ways and and nobody in the room's perfect whether you're watching online at home in an office in a gym in a church building we're all broken people we're all imperfect people who need a perfect god but so many times we sit in an environment like this and all we can focus on is i'm so screwed up that if they knew they would never want me around this place you ever feel that i don't think it's just a first time to church thing i can't tell you how many times years into a relationship with god i'll be in a church service i've sat in church services as a pastor and went if they really knew how screwed up i am they wouldn't think the same thing about me they wouldn't want me here you ever feel that it's real in it john 10 10 says that the thief comes to steal kill and destroy but but god but jesus came to give us life and life to the full what we know is is that we're here a part of this service for a reason what we know is that according to the word of god his presence is with us wants to change us today wants to speak to us today so if you want to steal kill and destroy that what do you want to do you want to whisper lies in your ear telling you you don't belong you shouldn't be here who are you kidding you're a hypocrite you're not good enough you don't have the faith you don't have what it takes who right so we just gotta we just gotta recognize it for what it is it's a lie from the pit of hell i am a child of god i am an heir to the throne he does want me in his presence step boldly with confidence into my presence in your time of need to experience my mercy and my grace right i just want to remind you and i said it before and i'ma say it again i don't care how screwed up you think you are how far away from god you think you are what your beliefs are what your doubts are what your defects are you're welcome here you're wanted here you've been prayed for we're glad you're here please keep coming back we believe that god's got an amazing plan for your life if you have a bible flip open to uh john 4 we're going to look at a lady who would deal with that exact same feeling that feeling of i'm just not good enough and i bet you they don't want me around if you spend some time in church you'll know this woman as the samaritan woman the woman that jesus talked to at a well let's read john 4 we're going to start in verse 4. now he had to go through samaria so he came to a town in samaria called psychar near the plot of ground jacob had given to his son joseph this is jesus is on the road jacob's well was there and jesus i guess i didn't need to say that they're going to tell us just read jacob's well was there and jesus tired as he was from the journey sat down by the well it was about noon god doesn't waste words so it was about noon is important he gave us that detail for a reason we're going to see that in a second when a samaritan woman came to draw water a samaritan woman is coming to draw water from a well to take care of drinking and bathing and laundry and cooking and the whole thing she's coming to draw water from a well and and it's going when she leaves it's going to be a very heavy jar of water to carry back to wherever she's living i was on a missions trip with uh with our youth group here in in south africa and we actually went to a well similar to what the bible's talking about here a well where today in the mornings women mostly women children didn't see many men mostly women down by the well in the mornings we help them carry these jars and jugs and containers of water to their house and i'm telling you real heavy real hard work a lot of it up and down rough terrain and and our our guide said something that made this story come alive to me he said hey i want you guys to to notice how early this is happening today and i was like trust me i'm not a morning person bro i've noticed all right he's like you won't see anybody down here in the afternoon because as you're about to find out this is too hard of work it's it's already like it's it's grueling and when it gets hot it's torture so nobody's coming to this well in the afternoon and he mentioned this story and he said that's why john said this woman came at noon something's not right something's going on weird in this story because nobody goes at noon to get water it's too hot it's too much it's too hard work i'm gonna give you the context of this story this woman has had five divorces and is currently living with a guy she's not married to now this is a extremely religious culture and i don't say that in a positive way see we'll get into this at another time on another day but we're not about religion we're about relationship with jesus religion says i got to do and don't and obey the rules so i can earn my way to god and relationship with jesus says no you're perfect in god's sight because of what jesus already has done and you can have a relationship i don't want to be a part of religion i want relationship with jesus so but this is a very religious society and it's all about the do's and don'ts and how well do you follow the rule and we'll all pretend that we're perfect that's the culture well she's broke too many of the rules and so she is now what they would call unclean and they also believe that not only are you now shamed because you're unclean if i get close enough to this girl her shame can be transferred onto me just by proximity so not only can i not get cl now she can't come to church okay if you're unclean you don't get to go to the worship services anymore we don't want you around church people don't don't want you around god doesn't want you around and so all she can think about is because they really know me they really don't want me because i'm too much of a mess i'm too far gone i'll go get water at noon and the first verse we read said jesus had to go through samaria the truth is geographically he didn't have to go through samaria in fact most jewish people in his position wouldn't they would walk around because jews hated samaritans that bad but jesus said no no no i gotta go i have to because if one of my kids is hurting over in sumerian i don't play these religious games in fact john the chapter before he knows he's about to tell us the story of the of the woman at the well and so in chapter 3 he says this i know i'm skipping ahead a little bit guys read chapter john 3 17 for god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him so he said john knows i don't want you to read chapter four and go his original readers would go what in the world is jesus doing hanging out with a samaritan woman he's a jewish rabbi jews hates samaritans a rabbi can't be talking with a woman this woman is unclean he's going to be unclean now he can't go to the temple none of it makes sense and john goes i don't even want that to trip you up so in the chapter before he says that's not why jesus came he didn't come to play religious games and condemn people who have made mistakes like everybody else wants to do i came to die for you i came to save you i came to restore you i came to love you i came to value you and she's about to find this out it's about to blow her wildest dreams she was 100 sure she doesn't fit in and nobody especially god type people would want anything to do with her and she's about to have an encounter with jesus and realize he doesn't want to condemn me he wants to love me and welcome me home and save me and it's about to change everything amen let's go back to rockford and see what happens next isn't it true that there's certain places certain moments in our life that as we look back on the course of our entire life we go that moment right there that place right there that changed the direction of my entire life this seat right here is that for me we finished worship i'm making fun of things in my mind i'm 100 sure nobody wants me here and the pastor comes up he's kind of a little guy with a southern accent which really took me by surprise and he's supposed to do a sermon and he starts to pray and and i'm telling you you can't make this stuff up he all of a sudden stops he goes church i can't explain this but god has put something so strong on my heart i can't even begin to preach the message today there is somebody in this room who so badly needs the love of jesus that if you don't give your life to him today you're going to lose everything it was like this it was like the whole room was empty and he was just talking to me that's how i felt and he said just bow your heads right now we're going to pray and we bowed our heads and they told us to all close our eyes and i don't know if people cheated or not he's like if if you know that's you and you know that god brought you here for a reason and you need to experience his love and his grace and his forgiveness and you need a new life he said raise your hand and i could not believe it with with drugs in my pocket i sat in this seat i don't know if anyone else traced their hand i didn't look i couldn't believe it was happening and then he did something that i really wasn't expecting to be honest i felt a little tricked he said if you raised your hand i want to ask you to come front i want to ask you to come down to what they called an altar this is an old school altar call i want to ask you to come down to the altar and pray i didn't even know what the altar meant which kind of freaked me out a little bit but i knew i could feel like as salvation was being explained to me that jesus christ died on a cross to pay the price for my sins and i could have forgiveness and a new life as he briefly explained it and offered this prayer like my heart started beating out of my chest like i could feel it and maybe you're watching this right now and you're having that same feeling you can feel something that that's the holy spirit that's not coincidence that's the holy spirit that's god himself tapping you on the shoulder right now trying to get your attention saying i got a better life for you i got something else you don't have to live this way you don't have to keep going the way you're going you can have a brand new life and when we choose that we put our faith in him he forgives us of our sins his spirit starts to live inside of us and we're on our way to heaven i didn't know any of that stuff all right what i knew is he said i could have a new life and jesus was the answer and i raised my hand and he said now come forward to the altar and in my leather jacket and chain wallet and combat boots knowing i stuck out like like a like a sore thumb i just didn't care and i walked down this very aisle right here i just kept looking at the floor because honestly i was afraid of what everyone else might think of me but i didn't care i got right here and i looked over here and i saw there was one other person over there and they got on their knees so i just assumed i guess that's what you do and so i got on my knees right here and i couldn't stop me i was just crying and crying and i didn't know what to pray i never really prayed and i remember all i kept saying was god i'm so sorry god i'm so sorry god i'm so sorry and i think i said it like a million times i was thinking about it this week i think i think one of the reasons why all i knew to say was i'm sorry and i just kept saying it and saying it saying it it was because i felt like when i was coming to this altar and when i was coming to god that i was coming to an angry father that's that's what i thought that's why i kept saying sorry sorry sorry what i didn't realize is i was coming to a loving gentle excited dad with his arms wide open going welcome home son it's like that story in luke 15 where the prodigal son comes home that was me and and if you read it for yourself it talks about how on the way home he started practicing his apologies i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry but he didn't even get a chance to get it out the dad just runs up to him and he says no no none of that you decided to come home welcome home you're loved you're valued you're accepted you're here you're mine and it wasn't like a negative thing he actually took him inside and took him to a party and so today if you feel that tap of the holy spirit you feel something on the inside saying man i need jesus today understand you're not coming home to an angry father you're coming home to an excited dad who's been waiting and counting the moments and counting the days until finally he could get your attention on a day like today and you would come running home to him and he would be able to wrap his arms around you and give you the grace and the love and the mercy and the acceptance that you've been so badly craving and you get all that and heaven forever when you decide to make this decision that i made so many years ago right here at this church that's a crazy experience huh i got to be honest um we've been walking around here for a couple hours now and uh as you just saw it's been very moving to me um in a way that really surprised me i didn't think it would be it's been very moving to go back to the place where i first gave my life to god partly because it reminds me of what i was going through back then of who i was back then and can i just say that if you've already given your life to god an amazing exercise for you to do this week is take yourself back go go back to that spot mentally go back physically if you can go back to that spot where you had some real god moments in your life because here's what i've realized um i'm not what i want to be these days in the sense of and i think we all feel this like i wish i was better at i wish i did this more i wish i did this more i wish i didn't struggle with this quite as much as i do like we all have those things where i'm not quite where i want to be but i'll tell you what church just being in this building and being in this room has reminded me i might not be what i want to be yet but i sure am not what i used to be god has brought me so far and i'm telling you guys i remember that day like it was yesterday and i walked out of that door heading to this parking lot and about the time we hit the parking lot i already had this thought i gotta tell somebody i just did like i gotta tell somebody about what and i'm not kidding i have no clue i had no clue how it was gonna work out um i had this thought go through my head like i'm gonna spend that was so real that was so life-changing i remember walking out going i can breathe like i felt like i stepped out of a squat rack and just had this like lightness and airiness and peace that i hadn't had my whole life and i remember thinking as i was on this sidewalk walking to the parking lot i'm gonna spend the rest of my life telling people about what i just experienced that thought in and of itself makes no sense like i wasn't ready i wasn't prepared i hadn't read the bible i didn't know anything i hadn't changed the direction of my life i still had illegal substances in my pocket like none of that had changed but what i all of a sudden realized is is what i experienced was so game changing i gotta go i gotta go tell somebody else about what i experienced i gotta let them experience this through my eyes [Music] amen i'm gonna highlight two things and we're gonna close from that last clip first is this if you do not have a relationship with jesus today is your day this is your moment and i'm so excited for you i was sitting here thinking about it as i was watching i was like so many people's lives are about to change forever today and you're not coming home to an angry father you're coming home to a really excited loving dad who can't wait to change your life and invite you to the party so i'm gonna give you a chance to pray that prayer here in just a minute but as we close i want to i want to talk to those of you who call this place home or maybe you're maybe you don't call this place home but you are watching right now or listening and you have a relationship with god already can i challenge you to stop keeping your story to yourself now maybe you're not maybe you go that doesn't apply to me okay fine then you can pass this on to somebody else who does but i'm telling you if if we're not careful on autopilot we spend way more time saying god thank you for my story than we ever do doing hey can i tell you about my story he loves us to say thank you for my story thank you for my story thank he loves it but he also wants us to say can i tell you about it that's that's that's where the power was right what jesus did and the power of our story i want you to see god from my vantage point i'm not going to argue you to death i'm not going to shame you with scripture i'm not going to hold up signs and yell at you i'm not going to take the bible and beat you over the head with it and see if i can make you feel worse than you already do i'm not going to pretend i have all the answers i don't i'm not perfect i got questions i got so many things i want to ask god when i get to heaven things don't be like care to explain yourself i don't know i i don't that's a great question i don't know all i can tell you is i'll tell you what i have experienced i'll tell you what god did with me because you can argue my theology till your head pops off but you can't argue away my experience with jesus you just can't and so i'll just share my vantage point and that's what we see this woman do in john chapter four she has this conversation this game-changing conversation with jesus and you'll have to read it on your own this week where she realizes wait a second he's not angry he didn't come to condemn me he wants to love me and value me and accept me and pay the price for me and change me and she experiences his power and watch the very next thing she does same chapter verse 28 then leaving her water jar the woman went back to the town and said to the people these are the same people that she was avoiding at the well these are people that scare her to death that make her feel really insecure to make her feel really nervous listen had she hadn't even moved out of the house with the dude she's living with she still had five divorces she didn't take a bible class real quick she can get a theology degree real quick she didn't put her she's the same person she was just now with an experience now i'm yes i'm messed up but i got an experience with jesus with me with which makes me armed and dangerous and i'm gonna go tell somebody about it so she goes back to the town come see a man who told me everything i ever did could this be the messiah they came out of the town and made their way toward him verse 39 many of the samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's let's try that again at every single location many of the samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's there's power in your story i'm telling you power to change somebody else's life he told me everything i ever did so when the samaritans came to him they urged him to stay with him and he stayed two days because of his words many more became believers i love this and they said to the woman we no longer believe just because of what you said now see now i have my own experience and now i know that this man really is the savior of the world it was your courage and your willingness to say let me show you my experience with god let me show you jesus from my vantage point that's what gave me the curiosity and the courage to check out god but now i have my own experience and now i have a story too and that's what they're saying thank you our town is different our family is different our lives are different because you had the courage to share your vantage point thank you we'll never be the same that's what that's what they're saying right there and i don't know about you but my hope is to run into people non-stop in heaven and have people go your story made a difference for me thank you for sharing it thanks for taking a risk on me don't you want somebody coming up to you in heaven and going thank you for taking a risk on me we worked together and i did not make it easy on you we went to school together and i did not make it easy on you we were on the same team we're in the same family we're in the same neighborhood whatever and and i was a real risk but you took a risk on me and when you told me your story it did something to me and it changed me and now i'm in heaven forever because of it thank you so much don't we want that that's what we want church scotty you come on up i'm gonna close hey can you turn my mic off for one second i have to blow my nose pretend you don't see this nothing to see here nothing to see clean sorry guys we're family right [Applause] hey uh i heard something at a staff meeting recently and there's it's a five word phrase i want you to take it home with you and if you're at home just let it sink in it hit me um we're in a staff meeting and we try real hard to have family moments as a team and amazing guy on our team named adam rowe who has faithfully served behind the scenes at this church for almost 10 years adam i love you so much started talking about one of the things that has shaped his life it was somebody else's story it was his sister's story and his sister had multiple sclerosis and she died at the age of 17 during a double lung transplant surgery it was her 65th surgery she was 17 17 years old 65th surgery and adam said if you knew julie like all she was about was helping people and loving jesus i want you i want you you just if you knew julie you knew anything i have is yours if it'll help you see jesus anything i have is yours but i'll help you find jesus adam said before her last surgery before this double lung transplant the family was in there and the doctors were in there and the doctors said do you have any questions last question she asked she said yes if um if i don't make it through this surgery can you donate anything to help somebody else adam said that's just who she was nobody knew it at the time but she wouldn't make it through that surgery and adam stood right here in front of our staff recently he said guys the only thing that wasn't the only thing that was able to be donated was her eyes because everything else from her disease and all the surgeries was too compromised and he said but our family loves knowing that there's somebody in this world that gets to see jesus through her eyes and i sat there and it just wrecked me and i talked to adam about it this week telling him how much i respected and loved him and his family and what an impact his sister's life has made on me and i never even got to meet her and we both agreed as followers of christ that's supposed to be all of our stories [Music] i go to my work and i take risks i go to my school and i take risks i go to family reunions and i take risks i go to wherever god has me in my correctional facility in this hospital room in my home in this neighborhood in this job whatever it is because what i want is i want somebody to be able to see jesus through my eyes that's what i want that's what i'm living for i'm gonna start taking some risks church would you join me i feel like god's challenged me recently go back to that passion you had when you first got saved not about running churches and speaking in front of crowds but sharing your faith with a person go back get that passion for lost people that's who we're called to be church it'll change us it'll allow god to change others and then we can not just have make heaven more crowded on websites and walls but it can be something that describes the way we live our lives and that's the church family i want to be a part of with you deal let's pray god i thank you so much that your presence is with us right now i thank you god we can feel it we can sense your presence and i know you're speaking to people right now god i pray that this week you would start to put names on our heart put faces on our heart begin to reignite a passion for lost people in our souls begin to give us courage begin to give us the ability and opportunity to take some god-ordained risks that we might reach somebody love somebody invest in somebody share our story share our life share our church and god i thank you ahead of time for the eternal lives that are going to be changed when this church family realizes we are an army of broken christ followers but we're armed and dangerous with a life-changing story inside of us and god i pray for those who haven't experienced you yet and i thank you for this moment i thank you for this eternity changing moment that they are about to experience with everyone's eyes closed everywhere i'm talking to those of you who have been feeling god tapping on your heart today i'm talking to those of you who have thought i don't need god i'm talking to those of you who have felt like i used to feel i'm not good enough for god god wouldn't want me anyways and now that you've come face to face with the good news of jesus christ that he didn't come to condemn the world he came to save the world and that includes you if this is your moment and you know today is my day i need to ask god to forgive me of my sins and be the lord of my life i'm gonna say yes to jesus today i'm not gonna be perfect i don't know exactly what it's gonna look like but jesus i want you i want your spirit living in me and i want heaven forever if that's you and you know it right now at every location around the world put your hand in the air put them up high don't worry i'm not going to ask you to walk down front but sometimes it's good for a physical action to follow an inward decision put your hands up high at every location come on brussels come on god behind bars respond to god no matter where you're at if you're watching online there might be a raise hand button you can click click that button if not follow the link that's on the lower half lower part of the screen right now redrock's church dot com forward slash yes and we will get you a 30-day devotional we'll help you find out how to get plugged into a church and in a small group and begin walking this journey with you god i thank you that you are here that you are moving that lives are changing we thank you for your son we thank you for salvation we thank you for the story that you've given us now god help us to go share it in jesus name and everybody said amen let's stand up and let's worship [Music]

Channel: Red Rocks Church

Views: 5,076

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: redrockschurch, Red Rocks Church, RRC

Id: Cd2LHO5TTdw

Length: 43min 52sec (2632 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021