What to Do Instead of Asking "Why" in Times of Pain | Chuck Booher

hey crossroads back in 2017 we asked you to be a part of boldly going to the next generation by giving financially here in the church so that we could build spaces that would be inviting for kids and students and their families you are so faithful and giving generously and we're so excited to unveil the first completed space from that project i'm standing in the new addition to our worship center which will house kids ages zero through two years old it also has a nursing mother's room and a family room we are so excited to open these spaces on sunday september 19th but i want to give you a sneak peek as we're putting the final touches on them so this room is for our birth through 11 month babies our team members in here love to care for your kids they can't wait to love on them so that you can enjoy a hands-free worship service [Music] [Applause] welcome to our one-year-old room in this space your children will get to play with their friends they'll watch a bible story and they'll also get to dance to some of our favorite worship songs this environment was designed specifically for two-year-olds your toddlers will get a large group time where they'll do bible story and worship together then they'll come and do their first and our youngest crossroads life groups they'll do craft and activities that reinforce what they're learning [Music] this is our family room where young children and their parents can come to get acclimated before joining us in kids ministry families can enjoy the service in here via a live feed and they can also take communion and for the first time ever we get to welcome moms to our mother's room it's a private and comfortable space where you can come with your baby to watch the service [Music] crossroads thank you for making all of this possible through your generosity i know that so many families are going to be blessed by these faces if you'd like to join us in generosity you can text the word give to 77247 or if you brought cash or check today and you're on our campus you can drop that in one of the offering boxes in the worship center or on the patio will you join me in praying god's blessing over all of these new spaces god we thank you so much for your faithfulness to your promises to us we pray that your presence and your spirit of peace would fill these rooms and that the kids and parents that grow here would know that you love them and that the church loves them we pray that you would continue to allow us to reach our community and the next generation in jesus name amen hey crossroads family my name is addie and whether you're joining us on our campus or online it's great to have you with us have you ever asked the question why why am i still single why can't i have a baby why are gas prices so high we often feel like knowing the why behind our pain will somehow make it better when in reality it rarely does today we'll take a look at how jesus interacted with three people who were asking why during a time of suffering right now let's welcome our senior pastor chuck boor all right hey and welcome to everybody here in the building and on the patio and online and i get so excited we get to be together um by the way i am really excited about that children's area that we have and we're going to do a ribbon cutting at the end yeah let's let's cheer for that um at the end of a service i want to do a ribbon cutting which will really really be fun but if you are wondering hey i want to go see that myself there's an easy way to do it volunteer that's right yeah yeah you could be in there all you want uh my uh my granddaughter elleny uh she got to go and not it wasn't quite done and she goes papa when i come out next summer can i be in there can i work and take care of the kids uh and so she's already planning on it which would be really really cool to be a part of that yesterday uh was a day that i would definitely say was not necessarily wasn't a celebration but it was a commemoration of what occurred 20 years ago when evil became so real so visible so apparent but something else happened on 9 11 20 years ago we also began to understand who the real heroes are it it was the people the men and women that ran into the devastation that ran into the danger and many of them lost their lives as they tried to save others and many of them suffered for years the consequences of the dust and all the other things that they were exposed to and i hope that you and i would say we'll never forget who the real heroes are now i know that all of you who are with us today who are first responders do this as a calling and we appreciate it i also know that many of you who are first responders would say to me well on 9 11 it's not about me it's about it's about the others that that did the new york uh and other places that did risk themselves but i also know all of you who are first responders are a part of a tight-knit community who know what it means to serve others and run into the danger not away from it to run to the problem and not from it so i'm going to ask you to do something today if you're a first responder i'm going to ask you in a moment to stand in a movement of solidarity in honor of all of those on 9 11 who did who did do in a very real way what you're trained to do what you're called to do and so we want to have that as a moment of our saying we remember we care and we know who the heroes are so if you're a first responder right now would you right now stand in solidarity to those who did who did do that and for all of you who are standing we do thank you for what you do but i want to pray right now father we pray that you would never let us forget who the real heroes are uh the men and women who are standing here are because they've answered a calling and they stand in solidarity for those that that ran into a situation that no one thought could ever occur or saw coming in any way shape or form and lord we won't forget we won't forget there's evil but we also praise you there's good we won't forget the vile things that people do but we thank you for the heroes that that seek to make a difference uh and so lord for each and every one of those who gave their lives we pray for their families today for those who were lost as victims we pray for their families today and i pray lord that we would also be a country that on moments like this would realize it's more important to come together than be torn apart that there would be a desire for unity a desire to hold on to what's important and i pray that moments like 9 11 will remind us of that in jesus name amen amen thank you you guys [Applause] there's a question that we very often get faced with i i can't imagine you haven't had a point in your life by now that you haven't asked that question and it's the question why when we think about 9 11 we ask the question why why and then what occurs is we begin to have other individual times we ask that question it may be by the way that you're faced with wondering why am i still single and i really really planned at this point in my life that i would be with somebody else but it hasn't occurred uh or a big question why comes when a couple can't have a child and i've sat with couples and prayed with couples who said but we think we'd be great parents and let me just say this in many many many occasions i know that couple and i know they'd be great parents anybody else know couples that would be great parents and you go why and then not to be mean i know some people who've had children and they don't they shouldn't be parents and uh you begin to wonder why why or maybe it's sickness uh this coveted season a lot of people have asked why why did they get it and i didn't why is there so bad and mine's not or mine is why and by the way that disease question has raised a lot of wise for a lot of people in a lot of occasions uh kathy and tim roberts tim is our head of creative arts and kathy his wife i've known kathy since she was in high school she loves the lord oh she loves god and they were faced with a really big why and i want you to get an idea of what she wrestled through so in january 2020 we were celebrating tim and josiah's birthday and we noticed that ella was really pale and she was not herself and her throat was hurting so we took her to the doctor right before we were gonna go celebrate and um the doctor said she has strep throat and um i asked does she look a little pale to you and she said she does let's let's get her a blood test it wasn't until 11 30 that night that we got woken up by a call and um it's kind of like everyone's worst nightmare to get woken up by a call like this the person on the other end said um we don't want you to panic um we need to get we need you to get um ella to the hospital right away um i woke her up and i told her we're going on a crazy adventure it's 11 30 at night and we're driving and we got there and they immediately had to start an iv they started doing a transfusion a blood transfusion which is another scary thing and the whole night is kind of a blur but i remember the next morning a doctor came in and said i had a chance to look at her blood under the microscope and it's sheets and sheets of unhealthy cells and she has leukemia and um i lost it just like i am and um you know i'm i'm a pretty tough mom i don't i don't cry very often but um this is overwhelming ella at the time was three at that time i just pictured all of the ugliness of cancer happening to my daughter and i just thought that's not fair like she's the coolest girl everybody loves her um she's the life of the party and she makes everybody laugh and no this is not okay so then in in march tim noticed that my other daughter ava who was 11 at the time had a lump in her throat and we took her to the doctor and questions were popping up everywhere what is it we don't know test after test we still don't know most likely it's lymphoma which is another cancer for another daughter within two months of each other why what's wrong what are we doing what's why is this happening i've been a christian for 20 years i grew up going to church i trust the lord i know that he is good i wondered how this could be so after finding out that i might have a second daughter with cancer my conversations with god got a little bit more desperate it just left me asking why and i remember going through that and when you have one child who's sick you're gonna say why and then there's two and uh you ask did i do something uh have i put our children in that situation so many people in the moment of sickness begin to ask why we want the miracle but what we have to realize is very often in the midst of needing that miracle it comes in the midst of a lot of a lot of deep deep seated questions that say why a lot of very intense time of praying uh in john chapter 11 before jesus would do the seventh sign in the book of john john tells us of seven signs jesus did that showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the chosen one of god that he was the messiah in the midst of that section is some big why moments uh in john 11 verse 1 it says now a certain man was sick lazarus of bethany the village of marion her sister martha it was mary who anointed the lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother lazarus was sick so the sisters sent word to him saying lord behold he whom you love is sick by the way you probably didn't miss that three times in those two verses it says he was sick i think because most of us know the outcome most of us know the miracle that would occur we might miss the pain of the moment uh the time of heartache the tension that was there and so in the midst of that time when he's this sick and his health is uh going downhill in a way that it's clear he could die there's hope they know jesus they love jesus and don't miss this they know where jesus is so they know that he got the message they know that he heard about the situation so as they're sitting there watching him begin to die they're realizing jesus knows jesus heard jesus can change it all and where is he why isn't he here why hasn't he come more quickly see i i want you to know that god does miracles but very often the miracle for most of us may be in the midst of the why to begin to wrestle through how does our faith hold us up during this time you know sometimes people ask well why did this occur and then we sometimes act like well it only occurs to bad people see i think sometimes we why do why do bad things happen to good people is one of those why questions we get so let me just get it out there bad things happen to good people that's something you and i need to never let go of god never promised that based on your being good or bad would determine whether you get sick or don't get sick right whether you you get the promotion or don't get the promotion by the way how many of you know bad people who got a promotion yeah yeah and you know what we need to understand is god never said this world is going to make sense in such a way that basically you do enough good you get enough good back that by the way is that teaching of karma which isn't even true yet so many people hold on to it but god said this god said even my son suffered there was no one who was more good than jesus he was all good and he would suffer so god had one son without sin but he has no children without sorrow and you and i will go through times of sorrow we'll go through times of heartache and it's not based on being good or bad it's just based on living in a sinful world that by the way god doesn't even want us to really be a part of and so we can understand that and hold on to that by the way i've learned a lesson that i bring up all the time when it comes to the idea of miracles and that's this it's that second truth i don't want you to miss the first truth is bad things happen to good people the second is for a miracle to occur there's got to be a problem uh there's not ever gonna be a healing without a sickness right there's not gonna ever be a time that god brings provision that's miraculous unless you had an intense need uh and then there's this promise from god in the midst of it all that i hang on to and quote all the time in ecclesiastes 3 11 where it says yet god has made everything beautiful in its own time by the way i i read that kind of quick yet god has made everything beautiful in its own time he has planted eternity in the human heart but even so people cannot see the whole scope of god's work from beginning to end so we don't always understand god we don't always understand what he's doing we don't understand sometimes why he doesn't come through on certain things why the miracle we're seeking doesn't happen but one thing god does do that is miraculous is god makes everything beautiful in its own time uh the old testament is written in hebrew and the word everything in hebrew actually means are you ready everything now are you ready for that every single thing god will somehow make beautiful and you gotta wait a minute lord there's a lot of ugly there's a lot of ugly out there and yet you're going to make even that beautiful and the word uh by the way everything does mean this it actually means uh to become beautiful to decorate to make right so god will take the worst thing ever and decorate it in such a way that it becomes powerful and meaningful and incredible it becomes a joy it becomes something that you go wait a minute there's no way anything good can come from this and god makes good things come from it that's the miracle uh and i've watched god do that over and over i believe it so strongly that whenever something bad's happening i actually will stop and say lord i cannot wait to see what you do with this one because i don't see how you're going to do this one and god's god's like i'll show you and he does i may not have always seen someone heal but i've seen good things come my father got a disease called crutchfield jacobs disease it's very rare your brain begins to waste away and he suffered for 18 months 18 months of suffering at the very end they had to put him in a chemically induced coma so that he would not be in such extreme pain and i remember thinking god either heal him or take him because i can't see any good from him suffering but i want to tell you god did something shocking he made good come and you might say really and how could that be and here here's the answer it was so clear we got a front row seat of watching a really good marriage my mom was a rock my mom loved him unconditionally my mom served him and stayed by his side and my mom didn't buckle she cried she had hard times but she would not not be there for him and i got to watch my mom in that moment my sons got to watch my mom show that kind of love and boy i'll tell you what the glory of god was there uh and and we were changed for the better because of her in that moment god made something beautiful out of that and i want you to know that that's what god does and so in lazarus's case he's sick and jesus is about to take us into a moment where we begin to get some answers to the wise see the wise are going to be there why god why god why god and god wants to have you ask that he wants you to be honest about it he wants you to be with him in it but notice what happens in verse 4 of john 11. it says but when jesus heard this he heard that lazarus was sick he said the sickness is not to end in death but for the glory of god and there's two words that i don't want you to miss so that it's for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified by it now here's what i don't want you to miss so that uh whenever you study the bible there are certain words you ought to underline or circle or or highlight whatever you do and i do all that you always ought to look for the word because because that that's powerful therefore is always something you need to ask what's therefore there for and then there's these two words so that when i'm reading scripture and i see the so that i stop because god's about to give you a so that teaching a so that moment a so that and and an understanding that you have like an aha now i understand god better and so when you and i are studying scripture and you see so that it begins to give us an answer that we can hold on to when the wise are there we may not understand the why completely but we can begin to see the so that and jesus jesus does something jesus said in the midst of the sickness that lazarus is experiencing this is all so that the son of god may be glorified it's going to be the seventh sign the seventh great sign uh in the book of john that will bring the disciples to a place where their faith will be rock solid and so what happens in that moment is they begin to understand the so that and sometimes that's all we're going to get by the way god so that you can be glorified so that you can be believed in so you can be trusted see i want to say this i believe after being a pastor since the 1970s that's a lot of years that that the biggest miracles i've seen are not when the healing comes but when it doesn't come and people's faith is stronger and their joy isn't taken see and and so i believe in miracles i believe in the healing i believe in in the deliverance i believe in the provision i believe in in god interceding i believe in divine appointments but i also know when none of those things happen i have watched many of you this crossroads family your faith isn't dependent on the sign it's dependent on jesus and see that to me is the miracle it's god being with you when you're brokenhearted psalm 34 18 says the lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit and that saving comes and that this you won't be crushed you still hold up you still hang on and we begin to experience that uh that so that moment comes when god's comfort comes uh and so in second corinthians 1 it says blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ the father of mercies and the god of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that don't miss the sow that why does god comfort me why does god come for you so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by god um for a lot of years when i was early in my ministry i would go and be with people who had lost a loved one but i didn't know what it was like i hadn't lost anybody and then we did and i found god's comfort in a powerful way and then i found out that i was better with people after that uh some of you know the greatest heartbreak of my life wasn't the death of loved ones it was my oldest son walking away from the lord and i'll never forget when it happened i i went and met with the elders of the church so that they would know the heartbreak we were experiencing but i also offered them i said you know what my oldest son is not walking with jesus and if you want i'll resign and those men said no you won't you won't and they said you know what chuck you're just now living life and experience heartbreak like a lot of people do and you you need to stay there you need to serve even though your heart's breaking you don't stop it was probably not even a year later i remember i was with two of the elders of ccv and one of them said do you remember when you offered to resign i said yeah he said i'm so glad we didn't let you resign you know why chuck you're a way better pastor now you really are why because i i knew the pain and the agony and the hurt and it made me more empathetic um i think i am a better pastor now and it wasn't in perfection it was in heartbreak isn't that interesting it was in the moment of of losing something and turning and saying but i've got jesus anyway it was the so that god could be glorified so that it was clear that that there's only one that we turn to in those moments who can truly help and that's the lord so we begin to understand that one of the great things about miracles is very often we have a lot of whys in our life that we may not get a total answer to but we do get to sow that and the so that is so that god can be glorified and so that our faith can grow and so that god's comfort can come and that's when we start understanding something else that's miraculous god's timing see it's interesting that lazarus sickness happens they sin to jesus knowing where he is knowing he can make it in time but he's not there and in verse five it says now jesus loved martha and her sister in lazarus for six so when he heard that he was sick he stayed two days longer in the place where he was now that's the part that you go wait a minute why not hurry why not get there as fast as you can jesus if you come you can heal him later on in the story martha stands in front of jesus and looks at him and says if you had been here you could have healed him uh mary will come later and the first thing she says is those exact words if you had been here my brother would not have died now isn't it interesting they probably said that over and over to each other when jesus comes he can heal him when jesus comes he can heal him they had seen him do it over and over again they had watched watched people be rescued from that kind of pain that kind of suffering and so they believed that he could do it and yet he didn't come by the way i i think the the thing about the story that i don't want you to miss is that both martha and mary still believed were they disappointed yes they still believed were they heartbroken yes they still believed they didn't understand why he didn't get there sooner but they still believed they didn't stop believing in him they didn't stop loving him and they didn't this is a big one they didn't stop stop believing he loved them see it's clear he loved them matter of fact when they sent word uh to him they said lazarus whom you love they knew the love of god was real they knew the love of jesus was true and they didn't let go of that and so in my times of heartache and pain i've sometimes actually said those words i know you love me lord i know you love me by the way god does love you you might sometimes feel like if i'm going through this does god love me the answer is yeah he does he does and and that love from god is real that love from god's true and there's no doubt that that jesus can and will change everything but his timing that's what i don't want you to miss he does makes everything that ecclesiastes verse he makes everything beautiful in its time in its time and so i watched the lord do that i've seen it in my life i've seen it in the live of many other people and we see it here in this story that jesus's timing is going to be perfect uh in john chapter 11 verse 7 it says that after he had said to him or after this he had said to his disciples let us go to judea again after they had waited two days and the disciples said to him rabbi the jews were just now seeking to stone you are you going there again and jesus answered and said are there not 12 hours in a day if anyone walks in the day he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world but if anyone walks in the night he stumbles because the light is not in him then he said and after or then he's i this he said and after that he said to them our friend lazarus has fallen asleep but i go and there's those words again so that i may awaken him out of his sleep and the disciples then said to him lord if he has fallen asleep he will recover and now jesus had spoken of his death but they thought that he was speaking of literal sleep so jesus then said to them plainly lazarus is dead and i am glad for your sakes that i was not there and here's those words again so that you may believe in other words right now you didn't understand why i waited you didn't understand why we didn't go sooner you guys don't understand that you probably thought it was because i was afraid the jews were going to attack me that wasn't it it was so that now that he has died i can do something so your faith will be so true so strong that it'll carry you through the the tougher times that are about to come and she said but let us go to him and then thomas who is called didymus said to his fellow disciples let us go also go and i love thomas here so that we may die with him by the way i i just think thomas is so interesting to me because it's like well he's gonna die let's just go die too but the timing of the lord is so interesting he said you know what when it's night time you'll stumble if you walk around so you need to wait for the daytime to do it in other words you need to do things in the right timing you need to understand my timing and there's a reason why i waited two days and you didn't get it but you will get it it's so that your faith will be stronger there's a reason why chuck i didn't take your dad sooner the reason why you know that you right now might be single and don't get it uh there's a reason why uh there's a reason why the couple didn't have the child and we may not always know it but there's a reason why there's a reason why one person got covered so bad and another did it god god works god moves god always does in the end what's best and so we may not always understand here in this life i do believe when we get to heaven we're going to get the answer to every single question but you know what i do know is that god god's timing is always right and so there's that so that moment and what we need to do is believe keep believing not let go and again maybe that's the greatest miracle of all that our faith is not dependent on the miracle occurring or not occurring our faith isn't dependent on on god doing things in the timing we choose it's just trusting him and his love john 11 17 so when jesus came he found that he had already been in the tomb four days so he waited till he died and he also waited till now he's been in the tomb for four days which means he went through a time of being prepared there was a whole process and it says now bethany was near jerusalem about two miles off and many of the jews who had come to martha and mary to console them concerning their brother martha therefore when she heard that jesus was coming went to meet him but mary stayed in the house martha then said lord if you had been here my brother would not have died i know that she goes even now i know whatever you ask of god god will give you and jesus said to her your brother will rise again and martha said i know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day and jesus said to her i am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die do you believe this and she said yes lord i believe that you are the christ the son of god even he who comes into the world and so what we know is that in that moment martha was unwavering in her belief her faith was strong she wasn't gonna quit she wasn't gonna to say i'm done she said i know that if you had been here it would have been different i know whatever you ask now god will do but i know that one day we will all rise to be with you by the way did you catch those three things because you and i can have that should have that lord i know that you you couldn't do anything i know even now you could do anything and i also know that in the end we'll be in heaven together the greatest miracle of all is jesus rose from the dead so that death was conquered and you and i can go to be with the lord in heaven one day you know it seems like very often when someone who's a christian dies we ask act like that was a a defeat almost like god failed but you already know it's true all of you who are christians deep down you know it's true that when you shut your eyes on this worth you're gonna wake up in heaven so you know that i uh was heard uh uh dr tony campolo tell about a funeral he was at it was in an almost all black church and what happened is that they had an open casket and the pastor came out and he said this man was my friend and there's a lot of things i didn't get to say to him i wish i could say so i'm going to say him and he walked down and went up to the casket and just he turned his back on everybody else but he's on a microphone and he starts talking to the man in the casket saying you know ralph i never told you and he began to tell ralph things and tell ralph things and tell her all things and he said you know ralph that's all i got to say and he turned around and said that's all i got to say to ralph right now so you know what i don't have anything else to say so he goes ralph and he grabbed the top of the casket he said i just want to say one last thing good night and he slammed it and everybody jumped they had never seen anything like that and he looked out and he said but you know what right now jesus just said good morning you know so what i want you to know is that yeah is that it's not a defeat when we go to be with jesus it really is true that if you get into heaven and people on earth start praying and saying lord bring them back that you'd be yelling be quiet stop do you not know what i'm getting and experiencing why would i want to come back here you know and and so we know that ultimately that resurrection moment will happen we're still going to have wise and yet we're still going to have god so kathy had a lot of whys in her life and she began to wrestle that through with god some more watch this so it took about six months to find out but we did learn that ava's lump turned out to be something called castleman's disease she did have surgery to have it removed but it's completely resolved ella is not considered cured yet she is about a year and a half into treatment and she has eight months left we're still in the midst of everything she's getting chemo regular spinal taps lots of pokes ivs and regular doctor visits in the middle of the waiting i realize that god is with me whether i feel him or not the thing is is he is always the good guy the result of a broken world is what we find ourselves in it's okay for me to depend on him because we're supposed to need god and so i'm grateful that he's with me and um circumstances are not going to dictate how i feel about him i haven't lost my faith in the season i know that god is with me and that he cares and that he's good yeah and that awesome [Applause] there were times so she was angry which you can totally understand right there's times she just wanted it over kathy just wanted it to be done and everything to be better but uh her and tim bonded together more the family got tighter uh we got to watch uh ava uh get baptized right out of here on the patio one night uh that shocked him was leading worship somebody sees some shaking heads tim's leaving worship and turns around and there's ava standing in the pool with me and he's like he rushes over he got the baptizer and um then we got to see caleb get baptized just a little bit ago what i'm trying to say is this is a family that's still fighting the battle but they're getting victory after victory and win after win they haven't got the ultimate one yet we're still waiting for that final for the doctor saying that that that little girl that eve is better all the way but as a church family we rally as believers we get close to god and don't let go but we don't always get the total answer but we do get god's presence and that's what kathy was trying to want you to know she loves jesus and in the midst of the tears and the joy in the midst of the times that were more desperate the times that she had greater confidence in the midst of it all she said jesus cares right now there are some of you who need him you need to either come back to him because something shook you or something moved you away from him but you need to come back because he loves you when he cares about you and you might have had a lord if you had and thought i would have been with him more well this is the time to say you know what even if you don't i am going to follow you i am going to be close to you so some of you need to recommit your lives to the lord it may be somebody in the building or on the patio or online but you need to do it some of you need to understand that this is the time for you for the very first time to let jesus truly be the one who loves you and cares for you not to believe in a god who's out there but one who loved you so much that he gave his only begotten son so if you would believe in him you would never perish but you would have eternal life this is that moment and right now i'm praying that there'd be some of you who would say yes to the lord the bible teaches there are two steps we take so that we might begin a journey with god a life with god that's real whereas presence is true by the way in the midst of the time with my dad i i knew something was real i knew the presence of god was real god was with me i mean there were so many times i sat there going you're here now i know it and i want you to have that kind of relationship with the lord i want you to be that close to him and so there are two steps you take either to begin that life with god or to come back to him and the first is to pray the bible says in romans chapter 10 that we call on the name of the lord to be saved jesus said i stand at the door and i knock if anyone would open up to me i would come in to be with him jesus said i'm standing there you just got to say come in so you got to pray a prayer where you say lord come in come forgive me come cleanse me come take me the second step is you got to make it known so in a moment i'm going to lead the prayer and if you pray that prayer the next steps make it known how do you make it known well if you're online i want you to text amen to 77247 or go to crossroads church.family and click on i said yes and please do that don't hold back from that if you're here after we pray the prayer we're going to stand to sing and if you pray that prayer either in the building or on the patio i'm going to ask you to make your way to come down here and let somebody here greet you and then head in this room by the way just make your way to an aisle or even the center aisle and come around but don't hold back from that you could grab someone's hand and say come with me but something happens when you pray that prayer and it goes deeper and it becomes stronger and it becomes more amazing when you make that faith-oriented walk you take those steps let's pray father i know without a shadow of a doubt that you're real you're true and you love us and i know there are lots of times in life where things aren't easy and pain is is too real and the wounds hurt too bad but i also know this that you in the midst of those moments that your presence becomes powerful your peace is passed as understanding your love lord carries us through and so i pray today for some who need to have that that broken heart healed that they would come to you right now i think there's somebody that they would even say that my my heart's been broken and that heartbreak now needs to become something lord that allows them to grow closer to you it allows your loved [Music] wondering why they're even in church because lord they've been so disappointed but god something's stirring in them right now something's beginning to change and that's going to be amazing so i pray they're going to pray this prayer and come lord i want to pray for somebody who's been living a double life [Music] and they don't like the dark side but they keep going back there and today i pray they're gonna get free i pray they're gonna pray this prayer and come so lord right now for anybody who needs to come to you for the very first time or they need to recommit their life i pray they're gonna pray this prayer uh and right now if you love god pray for people to say yes to him start praying for that but i'm gonna lead that prayer right now if you're ready to say yes to the lord i'm gonna ask you to pray it with me say these words say lord jesus go ahead and just whisper them say lord jesus i know you love me and i know you died on the cross for me and you died for my sins i pray you'll forgive me and cleanse me from all my sin i pray you'll heal me from hurt and from pain i pray you'll free me from anything or anyone that'll hold me back or hold me down pray that again i pray to free me from anything or anyone that's gonna hold me back or hold me down but most of all i pray you'll make me yours and i pray you'll make me alive and i pray you'll make me brand new so i say yes and if those are the only words you could say say it if that's all though right now some of you if you haven't prayed anything i'll say i say yes i say yes to you and i say yes to the life you have for me so take me now and make me yours in jesus name and now say it amen and amen means the truth praise god if you prayed that prayer and if you prayed that prayer praise god but when we stand to sing if you prayed that prayer make your way to an aisle and come if you want to grab someone's hand and say and say come with me do it but make that step and if you didn't pray the prayer but you feel god calling you come by the way on the patio come online text in right now if god's called you and you said yes come let's stand together so come alive in the name of jesus [Music] this is [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] all things were good [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] wow hey uh before we leave i wanted us to do something fun together uh we want to throw it outside for a ribbon cutting for our new pop-out so take it away you guys chuck we are out here and we are ready and i'm joined today by some of our elders and key leaders who made this space possible but before we cut the ribbon i want to invite the chairman of our elders mike underwood to pray over this space thank you very much and as as matthew 19 verses 13 and 14 says let the little children come to me do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such disease pray with me our father we ask that your blessing be on this place as we dedicate it to the lambs of your kingdom help us to minister minister to these youngest of children help them learn about you at the earliest age and in jesus precious name we pray amen amen all right are we ready to cut the ribbon all right let's do it in three two one [Music] [Applause] [Music] so next week great ministry is going to happen in that area and i believe incredible things are going to occur as you go today may you go with god's hand upon you with his love in your heart and may his faith the faith you have in him may that faith carry you through any situation in any trial god bless you and have a great week [Applause] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Crossroads Church

Views: 1,852

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Kwk4HyPGiHk

Length: 53min 31sec (3211 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021