Hello, and welcome
to this message from Calvery Albuquerque. We're excited to hear from our
special guest speaker Kevin Miller. Kevin is the founder and
pastor of a Awaken Church in Clarksville, Tennessee. We pray that this
message encourages you. If it does, we love
to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calveryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online security
at calvertabq.org/give. Worship is so much more than
songs or a musical genre. The important part of worship
is our motivation behind it. In the message Worth
It, Kevin teaches that God's worthiness should
transform a musical style to a lifestyle. Now we invite you to
turn your Bible to Romans chapter 12 as Kevin begins. Hey, if you brought
a Bible go ahead and turn to Romans chapter 12. We're going to look
at a passage that may be familiar to some, Romans 12. We're really going to
focus in on one verse, but we're going to approach
it a little bit differently than maybe you have before. Because I think a lot of
typical church going Americans have a pretty good
handle on what we do. If you asked a typical
church-going American what they do, they would have
a pretty typical response. It would be something like,
what do I do on a Sunday? Well, I go to a church,
and I sit in a chair. And I sing some songs. And then we go out
to eat, you know. That would be kind
of like the typical what you do on a Sunday. But today, I want to ask an
entirely different question. It sounds similar, but it's
actually very different. And I think it's
far more important. Instead, of focusing on
what we do-- although, that's important-- I want to focus on the
motivation behind it. And I want to ask a question,
why do you even do it? Instead, of what
we, do let's talk about for a moment
today, why we even do it. Why is it that we're
here to worship? Why is it that we talk
about reading the Bible? And why do we sing these songs? And why are we
going to talk today about presenting
ourselves to God? Why even live for him? It's so important that
we understand this, because, you know, when
we focus on what, that's kind of the natural
thing for us to focus on, if you think about it. If I have a chance to shake
your hand after the service, I'm going to naturally
lead with questions like, what is your name,
or what do you do? Because it would be kind of
weird if I was like, hey, my name's Kevin. Why do you do? You'd be like go
back to Tennessee. They are not teaching you
proper English, you know. That's not how this works. And although, what do you
do is more natural for us to focus on. Why you do it is
far more telling. Because what if we just took
a zoomed out look at our lives and talk about our motivation
behind our actions. Today, I have entitled
this message-- you should jot it down
if you're a note-taker. If you're not a
note-taker, you should be. There'll be a pop
quiz in heaven, OK. The title of the message is
Worth It, two words, Worth It. I want to ask you today
if you believe that Jesus is worth your sacrifice. I want to ask you that today. And we all have to consider
the answer for ourselves. And maybe you
didn't realize this, but you need to know that
so many of your decisions that you make all throughout the
day are based on this question, is it worth it? Is he worth it? Is it valuable enough? We evaluate our situation,
or even purchases, or relationships based on is it
worth it for me to pursue that. We make decisions like this
all day, all day everyday. I realized this the other day. I went to the grocery store. And I realized, even in the
parking lot, I make decisions-- you do too-- based on is that parking
spot worth the walk. You know what I mean? Like, I see that spot not worth
that walk, take another lap. You know, what I mean? I'll keep driving. Like, I'll drive for 10 minutes. I could have been
shopping for 10 minutes, but I'd rather drive
for 10 minutes, until I find a parking
spot that is worth it. You know, what I mean? And then we get into
the store and we keep-- even if you don't ask
yourself these questions, you're making decisions based
on is it worth it or not. So you're scanning shelves
then in the grocery store, and you're making
decisions on whether or not the name brand or the
store brand is worth it. I think I want to
get some Fruit Loops, but maybe I should go
with the fruit spoons. You know, what I mean? Like, my kids want
the Cocoa Puffs, but I think I'm going
instead go for the corn puffs chocolatey spheres, you know. Like that seems a little
more worth it to me than the name brand
or the high dollar. You get to the-- so
you fill up your cart. And you're going to pay
$100 couple bucks for all your groceries. And you get up to
the checkout line. And you might notice
at the checkout line, they don't have high dollar
items there for you to buy. They have little tiny trinkets
that costs normally under $1, because they know
it's going to be a lot harder for
them to convince you to buy something big. You've already spent
a lot of money. But, hey, if those Tic-Tacs
are $0.59 cents, worth it. You know, add that to my cart. Gatorade, $1.29, worth it. I'll take some of that. And we're just constantly
making decisions based on value, whether or not
that thing, or that person, or that time is worth it for us. There are so many other
decisions that we make. You go to the gym
tomorrow morning. You wake up and go to the gym. You've decided that
that is worth your time. If you stay in bed
and eat chocolate, you've decided that
is worth my time. That's a much better
use of my time, a job promotion, a car, a
house that you want to buy, a relationship you're
going to pursue. You're asking yourself
constantly, is that worth it to me? Is that worth it? Is that thing worth it? Today, is really very simple. This message is very simple. I want to ask you
a simple question. Is living for and sacrificing
everything for Jesus worth it? Is he worth it? Now I know some of you, because
we're in church, you would say, yes, he's worth it. But many of us are not proving
that through our lives, right. Many of us would say,
yes, amen, he's worth it. But then when it comes to
a sacrifice God is calling you to make, you're not ready. You hold it back. Today, we have to
make a decision. If you're a follower
of Jesus, I'm praying that God would
convict you in areas that you're holding back. I'm praying the same for myself. If you're not a
follower of Jesus, oh, man, today is your day. God brought you here. It is no accident or coincidence
that you were in this seat. It's welcome weekend
here at Calvary, but that's because it's welcome
weekend into the kingdom of heaven today. And I'm praying that God
changes your life today, as you see that Jesus is
worth it to follow after him. So today, I've had you
turn to Romans 12:1. It's really-- this is
not about what we do. This is about why we do it. This is less an
exposition of Romans 12 and more an examination
of our motives. Let's read Romans 12 verse one. Paul writes, "I beseech
you-- in other words, I urgently plead
with you-- therefore brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." I want to give you a few
thoughts from this text. Number one, write
this down, worship-- we need to start here with
the definition-- worship is a declaration of worthiness. When we choose to worship
something or someone, we are declaring that
that thing or that person is worth our time,
worth our sacrifice, worth our commitment,
worth our attention. It's a declaration
of worthiness. That's what worship
is all about. Now all of us are worshippers. Whether you realize that
about yourself or not is really beside the point. Some of you may say, well,
I'm not really into singing. That doesn't really matter. Singing is one way
that we worship, but it's a small part of the
many ways that we can worship. We worship God-- you
see worship God-- worshipping God is not
just-- worship is not just some musical style. It's not just a genre. Worship is a lifestyle. This is why Paul is saying,
present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God. This is how we worship, OK. So whether or not
you like to sing is really beside the point. Every one of us
right now is living for someone or something. And that is the thing,
those are the people, that you are saying is
worthy of your worship, whether or not they are
actually worthy is also beside the point. But if you're living
for them, your lifestyle is saying that they
are worth your worship. So Romans 12:1, if you read it
in the English standard version says that, as Paul offers this
plea, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice." He says, "This is your
spiritual worship. It's a way that you
declare God worthy." Revelation 4 and 5, if you read
toward the end of your Bible, there is a scene
coming in the future. John gives us a peek
into the future. And it's this beautiful worship
scene around the throne of God. And over and over in
Revelation 4 and 5, you're going to read phrases
like, they burst out into song or they begin
saying, because God is worthy to receive worship,
worthy to receive honor, worthy to receive
power, and glory, and wealth, and all of
these and God is worthy. Their worship,
their declaration, comes from the fact that
Jesus is in and of himself worthy of anything we
could ever give him. You believe me? You believe that? So God is worthy of that. And so here's the
great thing about this. When we consider worship
through the lens of worthiness, it highlights two
important things for us. Number one, it highlights
who is worthy of our worship. But it also highlights
the many things that are not worthy of our worship. For example, last
time I checked, your paycheck didn't love
you enough to die for you and your sin, but Jesus did. Last time I checked that girl
or that guy that you think is going to add so
much to your life-- although, they might add
some joy to your life-- didn't die for you in your sin
and fill you with eternal hope, but Jesus did, right. So let me remind
you what Jesus did. Because if we're
talking about worship being a declaration
of our worthiness or that he is worth
our worship, let me remind you why I believe
that Jesus is worth it. Can I remind you that
if you are in Christ, you have been bought. You have been redeemed,
and resurrected, and forgiven--
come on somebody-- and called, and
equipped, and repurposed. And God has given purpose
to your pain, and meaning for your life, and
filled your life with hope for all of eternity. I would say that our worship
is simply saying, Jesus, you're worthy of it. You're worthy of it. Your worth it, God. And of all of the things that
you could have done for me, you are worth my worship. Now part of the way-- part
of the reason that we worship is because God is so merciful. So write this down. Let's talk about God's mercy. God's mercy is not
based on our merit. Write that down as a
reminder for yourself. Because you might
at some point, begin to think that God owes
you some kind of favor. But see mercy-- the
definition of mercy-- by definition mercy
is an unearnable. You see Paul is about
to make this giant plea. He says in verse
1, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God." He's about to make
this big plea. We'll talk about here in
a moment for sacrifice. But he builds his argument on
the foundation of God's mercy. He's saying, since you
know the mercies of God, now I want you to do this. It's built on that argument. Show of hands or
maybe you could clap, how many of you are thankful
for God's mercy in your life-- come on-- that God's mercy is
new every day, amen? We're thankful for, we love it. We sing songs about it. We write lyrics about it. We love God's mercy. But here's the irony of mercy. The irony of mercy is that it
highlights that we're a mess. Did you ever think about that? You don't need mercy, except
for the fact that you're a mess. I'm a mess. You only need a
cast on your arm, because your arm was broken. You only need stitches,
because you had a deep cut. You only need mercy, because you
failed, and you've fallen, see. So we'd like to think of
the positive side of mercy. But the other flipside of
mercy is the whole reason we need it is because we're
fallen, and we've failed. And there's no hope without it. So mercy by definition,
can't be earned. God gives it freely, but-- then we have all these
questions about God. I talk with people. Maybe you're even
thinking-- maybe you're wrestling with a similar
question like this today, or maybe you have a family
member or a friend that's thinking something like, I don't
know if I want to serve God, because God isn't fair. OK, that's a valid point. I understand. And I would agree
God is not fair. And here's what I would say to
that, thank God he's not fair. Because my Bible says in Romans
6:23 "That the wages of sin is death." You want to talk about
fair, then that's fair. Fair is God giving you
exactly what you deserve. The Bible says not only is the
wages of sin death, but James-- the book of James
says, if you've broken one part of the law,
you've broken all of it. One sin in any of our
lives has earned us, according to scripture,
eternal separation from God. You want to talk
about God being fair, it's going to get
real ugly real quick. You don't want God to be fair. Thank God that he's not
fair, that he has not given us what we deserve. So then we come up
with other questions, things like, well, I
don't know about your God, because if your God is
so loving and so good like you say he is, why do bad
things happen to good people? Maybe again, you're wrestling
with that question today or you know someone who is. Why do bad things
happen to good people? Legitimate question. It's news headlines. We know we live in a very
fallen, twisted, ruined world. Why do bad things
happen to good people? Here's my follow-up
question to that. Who are all these good
people you speak of? Because the Bible says
that not one is good. I'm not good. You're not good. No one is naturally
pursuing God. So I don't think we need to be
asking that question at all. It really shouldn't
be, why do bad things happen to good people? Let's ask the right question. Why do any good things
happen to such bad people? That's God's mercy. That's the answer. The answer is, because
God is merciful. If one good thing
happens in your life, it's because God is merciful. That's why. So the problem, though, is we
feel this sense of entitlement. Like, I've given God so
much, he should be glad that I'm on his
team, as, though, God owes some sort of favor. Don't make me go back
through what God owes us. The wages of sin is death. It's not it's not pretty. But God's answer to our sin, if
we'll let it be, is his mercy. You can't earn it, but
God freely gives it. Anybody thankful for that? God's mercy is not
based on our merit. And I love it, because he
makes it so accessible. It's accessible for
you today, by the way. The Bible says that God's
mercy is new every morning. Hebrews chapter 10
says-- or chapter 4, I'm sorry says, that we should
approach the throne of grace with confidence, knowing
that we can receive mercy and grace in our time of need. When's our time of need? Any time you're breathing, you
need God's mercy and grace. I do too. And it's accessible today. God's extending it. God's inviting you into it,
if you'll just walk into it. He's holding the door. He wants you as you are,
because you can't ever earn God's mercy. By definition, it
can't be earned. So it's on that
foundation Paul writes based on the mercies of
God, not the mercy singular, but the mercies, the many
diverse mercies of God, on that foundation he says, I
want you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Now a couple of problems
I have with that. Number one, I don't
like sacrifice. So being real with you, if it
involves me giving up something that I would rather
hold on to, not so much, I don't really want to do that. And then when you combine
sacrifice with living, now we're talking
about we're talking living sacrifice, no thanks. I don't want to
sign up for that. It sounds far too painful. I don't really want to
be involved in that. Then we have to ask
that original question, where we started. Is it worth it? Why? Why would we even do that? So here's the answer. Paul's about to argue this for
us, but let's write it down. Number three, jot this down. God's mercy makes our
sacrifice make sense. Did you hear me? God's mercy makes our sacrifice,
any type of sacrifice, makes sense. It's just logical. Paul is about to argue here
that we live for Jesus. We sacrifice
everything for Jesus, because it would be
illogical for us not to. That it just literally
wouldn't even make sense. He says, based on
the mercies of God, therefore, based on
the mercies of God, present your bodies
as a living sacrifice. That seems to only make sense. In fact, the words
that he's using here, it just says, that's
your reasonable service. That's just kind of
what you should do. That would only make sense. It would only make
sense then based on God's mercy that you
would live in this way, that you would sacrifice
everything for him. But I do want to highlight
that we're looking at Romans chapter 12, not
Romans chapter 1. Because that plea would
have been a really rough way to start the letter, right. Hey, I'm Paul the apostle, I
want you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God. You will be like, I'm not
reading this letter any longer. I got through the first verse. Notice that we're in
Romans chapter 12. What that means is,
he spent 11 chapters of the deepest richest theology
you will find almost anywhere in scripture,
setting up building the platform, the foundation for
the plea he is about to make. I know you guys
are Bible students. Pastor Skips our pastor. And you've learned in
Romans 12:1, when you see, "I beseech you, therefore." When you see the
word therefore, what do you do you find out
what it's therefore, right. It refers back to
something else. Remember, we're talking
about 11 chapters previously in this book of arguments
that Paul has been building up to this point. Would you do this with me? If you got a Bible, flip
to Romans chapter 1. I want to just give you
a super quick flyover of the arguments for God's
mercy that Paul is making. And I want you to see that
it's only logical for us to present everything
we have to Jesus. Watch this. Romans 1. We got to go quickly. He says in verse 16, "I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of
God's salvation for everyone who believes." Chapter 2 verse 4, "It's
the kindness of God that leads us to repentance." Verse 10, "Glory,
honor, and peace to everyone who works
what is good to the Jew first and also, to the Greek. For there is no
partiality with our God." Chapter 3 verse 23, "All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus." Chapter 4 verse 7,
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven." Can I get an amen for that? How many of you are thankful
that your lawless deeds are forgiven through Jesus,
whose sins are covered? "Blessed is the man to whom
the Lord shall not impute sin-- Chapter 5 verse 8-- but God
demonstrates his own love toward us in that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for me and for you." Come on, Chapter 6 verse 23,
"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Chapter 7 verse 24, "Oh
wretched man, that I am, who will deliver me
from this body of death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord." Chapter 8 verse
38, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, not even the powers
or the things present, or the things to come,
or height, or depth, or any other created
thing shall ever be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Chapter 9 verse 16,
"It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs,
but of God, who shows mercy." Chapter 10 verse 12, "There
is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the
same Lord over all is rich to all
who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name
of the Lord shall be saved." Chapter 11 verse
33, "Oh the depth of the riches, both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgments. His ways past finding out. Verse 36, "Of him and
through him and to him are all things to whom be
glory forever and ever, amen." Chapter 12 verse 1, "I beseech
you, therefore, brethren." on the mercies on those 11
chapters of the mercies of God, present your bodies
as a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God." It's just your
reasonable service. It would only make sense
on that foundation. Amen? Come on it would
only make sense. It's illogical not to. If God has done all of
this and we understand now what we deserve and
that God has not dealt with us as we deserve,
it would only make sense then that we would be willing to
sacrifice everything for him. Here's how this works. A grateful heart
does not need to be coerced to live for Jesus. Because the natural overflow
of a grateful heart is worship, is a lifestyle of
following Jesus, who's given everything for us. It's the natural
overflow of your heart. So I would say
this, if you're not in a place where you're ready
to sacrifice everything for God, I would say you've got
to check your heart. Maybe there's a lack of
gratitude in your heart. Maybe, in fact, there's
a sense of entitlement, as though God owed you
some kind of favor. Let me just take you back
through what God owes you. It's not good. And so God has freely
made his mercy accessible, if you'll take it. If you'll accept it. Now I'm also aware that when we
talk about sacrificing it all or letting God or letting
people into our lives, you might be a little
hesitant with that. All of us naturally would be. Part of our hesitancy
is that our lives, you know, better than I do
about yourself, you know, your life is messy. I know my life is messy. It's not always pretty. But we live in this
social media world, where it's very easy to
portray a picture of our life that's not very
accurate, cropped, edited, filtered, unrealistic
Instagram version of our lives, typically is the one that
we display to the people all around us, right. And I've found also that,
oftentimes, that carries over even into our social
lives and even how we deal with our homes. When you invite somebody
over to your house, if your house is
like mine, you've got to tidy that place up
before somebody comes over to your house, right. You've got some work to
do, because God forbid that somebody would walk in
your house and see a mess, like the house they left
behind to come to yours. Let's be real. They're like I'm
glad you invited us, because I don't want to
clean my house, you know. It's messy. But we get this
idea that we can't-- God forbid that somebody
would walk in and see some unfolded laundry
on the couch, you know. And by the way, when you
come over to my house don't open up the bedroom. I closed that for a reason. And keep the closet close. That's locked for a
reason, because you might get hurt when you open it up. You know what I mean. That's where the
problems are hidden, OK. When tend to board up
our lives and portray this pretty picture
of ourselves, that's completely inaccurate. And this is a
dangerous way to live. In fact, that
editing, tidy up, make it look good mentality can carry
over into all kinds of aspects of life. And it's dangerous. I need to tell you that even
as a pastor, I'm prone to this. November 7, 2011, my wife and
I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. And on the same day, we mourned
the loss of a miscarried child. My wife miscarried on a Friday. I finished my sermon
through tears on a Saturday. And I preached with a
fake smile on Sunday. I wasn't lying when I preached. I meant what I said, but
my heart was ripped in two. And I didn't let
anybody into that. And I'll never forget
that day, because not only was it one of the hardest
days I've ever had to preach. But I remember after the first
service, I walked off the stage and I was talking to a
guy, and this guy came up to me shake to shake my hand. He said, Pastor Kevin, I just
got to tell you, we're so. Excited I'm so thankful that
you've been praying for us. My wife and I are pregnant. And he told me
that their baby was due on the same day my wife was
supposed to be having a baby. And I hugged him, and
I prayed with him. And I ran to my office,
and I cried all by myself. I chose that day to let
nobody into my pain. Now that's since
changed, because I've learned the value
of opening myself up to other people in my life. I want you to know,
Awaken Church now, even just a few
years after that, is one of the most open churches
I've ever been involved in. I want you to know
Calvery Albuquerque is an open church that you can
come and be who you really are. You don't have to hide it. You don't have to put on
a fake Christian smile and pretend that
everything's OK in your life. When somebody asks you how your
day is, how your weeks been, how your life is going, you
should be real with that. You should let somebody in. I'm really here to tell you
a very simple truth today. And that is that you don't have
to fight the battles of life all by yourself. You don't have to do this alone. Really, today is about this. Letting Jesus into your mess. Yeah, Jesus, I got some dirty
laundry out on the couch. And I've haven't
swept the floors in I don't know how long. And I don't really want
you in that bedroom, but I just want you in
my house, in my space. I want you to invade all of me. It's messy, but
could you come in and start the cleaning process. That's what today is all about,
letting Jesus into your mess. You know, I flew
here from Tennessee. And when we got off the plane,
I had to go to baggage claim and claim my bags. So many of you today
walked onto this campus, turned on this radio
show, clicked on a link. And you're watching on
the live stream right now. And you currently are carrying
your own spiritual baggage. Listen to me. I'm here to tell you all
the way from Tennessee that you don't have to
claim your spiritual baggage any longer. Jesus wants to take
it off your shoulders. Do you believe what
the Bible says, that you can cast all your cares
on Him, for he cares for you. He cares for you. He cares for me. Jesus, in fact, invites us in. Here's his invitation. Come to me all you who
are weary and heavy laden, and I'm going
to give you rest. Now I don't know about
you, but I need some rest. I need God's mercy. I need God's peace
infused into my life. I have to have the ability
to let Jesus into my life, to let other people
into my life, no matter how messy
or how hesitant I may be and open up so that I
can give Jesus all that I am. Today;s about you saying
you recognizing I'm choosing to have drawn a
line in the sand. I'm not going to do this
life by myself any longer. I've tried what the
world has to offer, maybe you've tried alcohol. You've tried girls. You've tried getting
in relationships. You tried pursuing money. Guess what? I imagine they have
left you wanting more. And if you're not there
yet, they will be. You will find yourself
needing something else. Because we typically look to
the world to fix our problems. We look to all these
temporary solutions, but your problem is eternal. You gotta let Jesus
deal with that problem. He's here. He's with you. He wants to change you, but
you have to make the decision. Listen. We're considering the question,
why is Jesus worth it? And my prayer for us this
week and across this church, all over this campus,
is that worth it would go from a question
to a declaration. You may have walked
in here wondering, you may have wandered onto
this campus wondering, but I pray here in
just a moment you would be able to leave with the
confident, knowledge, declaring I wondered when Jesus-- when I came here if
Jesus is worth it. I'm leaving knowing
Jesus is worth it. He's worth my attention. He's worth my sacrifice. He's worth my time. He's worth commitment. He's worth it. But that's a decision
that you have to make. I can't make it for you,
as much as I wish I could. It seems logical to me, but
you have to make that decision. And let me warn you with this. When we leave
today, every person within the hearing of my voice
will have made a decision. You're like, no,
that's not true, because I don't know if I'm
ready to make a decision today. Here's the thing, not making a
decision is making a decision. You accept Jesus,
or you reject him. There's no other way. Today, I'm telling you, Jesus
is inviting you into his mercy. You got to let him
into your mess. If you'll let him,
I'm telling you, he has the ability,
because I've seen it. I've lived it. He has the ability to
break your addiction. He has the ability to heal you. He has the ability to fix
that failing marriage. He has the ability to
provide forgiveness for you. He has the ability
to fixed problems you didn't even currently
know that you have or that's been riding on
you for your whole life. And I'm just warning
you, if you let those burdens remain
on your shoulders, they will over time wear
you down and crush you. But the church exists as a
hospital for the hurting. And you got to be
willing, because God can't fix a problem that you're
not willing to admit is there. And today, it starts right now. This is your moment, where
you say, I've got the problem, and I recognize Jesus
is the solution. He's worth it. He's worth it. You've got to make
that decision. Would you bow your
heads with me right now. Jesus, this is our moment
right now, our invitation. This is our welcome weekend,
not only here to Calvary, but into the kingdom of heaven. Lord, I pray for those who
are listening to this message, all across this campus,
all around the world, on the Livestream. Lord, I pray that
those who are hearing this, who are
followers of Jesus, would understand
that there are great need to sacrifice every
area of our lives to you. Paul said, present
your bodies, everything that you have as a living
sacrifice to Jesus. But Lord, right now
and specifically praying for those who are
not followers of Jesus. Maybe they know about you. Maybe they've heard all about
you, but they don't know you. God, I pray right now that
would begin to change. That you would, as
you have been already begin working in their lives and
penetrating their hearts Lord, here in a moment,
I pray that you give them boldness to make
a decision that didn't even know they were going to
make today, but you knew it. It's no accident
that they're here. You brought them
here for this reason. And, God, right now,
I'm asking that there would be surrender
across this campus, to those-- everyone
who's listening. Lord, anyone who is
tempted to hold back, I pray you give
them the boldness to make the right
decision right now. With our heads bowed and our
eyes closed, not because this is a moment of secrecy,
because here in a moment, I'm going to give
you a chance to make this a public proclamation
of your faith. But because all right now,
I think it's important that we're focused. If you're a follower
of Jesus, I need you focused in prayer
right now, waging war with me for the souls that
need Jesus in this place. I need you focused right
now praying for them. You don't even know their name. It doesn't matter. God knows their name. But for the rest
of you, who you're hearing this message right
now, and you recognize you are in need, you've got a problem. And you've been turned into the
world to look to it solutions and so far, you've
just been left wanting. I'm here to tell
you until you put your faith in
Jesus, that will be the story of the
rest of your life. You will want more. The world will never
provide enough. It's a temporary solution
for an eternal problem. Jesus is the only
answer to your solution. And I wonder, if there are
people across this campus right now, who need to make a
profession of faith and say, I'm ready to follow Jesus. I recognize today
that he is worth it. So I'm going to
ask you, wherever you are seated right now,
as I give this invitation, I'm going to ask you
to acknowledge that by lifting your hand, even if
you're in overflow, if you're in the outside
listening to this, if you're in the prayer room
right here in the sanctuary, if you're in the balcony, if
you need to follow Jesus today this is your moment. Would you indicate that
decision is your night now by lifting up your hand. In a moment, I'm going to
ask you to make this public. I'm going to invite you,
when I call you to the front. Wherever you are around
this campus right now, I'm going to call you, when
I tell you here in a moment to join me right up here. And we're going to celebrate
the most important decision you will ever make in your
entire life on this earth. And that is to give your life
to the God who died to save it. I wonder if there is
anybody here today. Come on right now. Indicate that decision
by lifting up your hand. I see you're right over here. I see all the way in the back
right over here on the side-- come on-- and the couple in
the family room over here. Where else? Come on. Is there anybody in the balcony? I see on the back
rows over here. Praise God. You can put your hands down
once you've lifted them. Where else? I see your hand, one right
here in the middle, young guy. Man, I love it. Come on, where are you at? More hands. Anybody else, young, old. It doesn't matter,
your background. I see you back there,
waving my hand. I need Jesus. I love it. Come on, who else? This is your moment
of surrender. I see all the way
up in the balcony. Man, I love it. Right here in the
middle, hands going up across the place, maybe even
out there in the courtyard, Wherever you are. I know you've got things to do. But this is far more
important right now. Hang with me. Jesus, thank you
for these hands that have gone up across this
place, all over this campus, all the way up from the
balcony, in the family room, and across the sanctuary. Lord, we're praying right
now, that not only you would give them the
boldness to have lifted their hands as you did. But God, would you
hear in a moment give them the boldness to
step out of their chair and make this a public
decision to follow Jesus. We thank you, Lord,
that you're worthy. And we pray right
now that this would be a pivotal moment
in people's lives, as they go public
with their faith. In Jesus name, amen. I wonder if there's
anybody who's ready to celebrate
some life with me. Come on, can you stand your
feet right now, church. We're going to invite
anybody who lifted your hand or if you should have,
right now, wherever you are. I saw hands in the balcony. I saw the hands in
the family room. If you're outside, if you're
right here, you step out. You come join us right here. This is your invitation. Come to me, Jesus says, all
you who are weary and heavy weighted, and I'm
going to give you rest. Come on, wherever you
are, you come to Jesus, right here, right now. [MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING)
Nothing satisfies like Jesus. Nothing satisfies like Jesus-- Come on-- like Jesus. Jesus. Nothing says
satisfies like Jesus. Nothing says
satisfies like Jesus. Oh, there's nothing in
this life like Jesus. Jesus, Jesus nothing satisfies
like Jesus, like Jesus. So here's what I want to do. We're going to sing
through this one more time. And I just want to give one more
opportunity for those of you listening to this right
now wherever you are, make the trek. Come on, people still
coming in from outside. Make the trek. Wherever you are from,
wherever you're seated, we're going to wait for you. Listen, Jesus gave
everything for you and me. It would only make sense for us
to give everything back to Him. And so maybe you're like me. You grew up going to church,
pretty religious family. You knew all about Jesus. You read your Bible. Maybe up until this
point in your life, you've never made a
decision like this. Maybe today is your day
to say I recognize now I can't earn God's mercy, but
I want to accept God's mercy. Wherever you been,
however addicted you are, no matter how dark your life
is, you come to Jesus now. He's got to you. You come come on. [MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING)
Nothing satisfies like Jesus. Oh, nothing
satisfies like Jesus. Oh, there's nothing in this
life like Jesus, Jesus, oh, Jesus, yeah. Whoa. Come on, listen I'm telling
you, you can't get used to this. When you go to a
church like this, you should get used to
hearing the gospel message. But you should never get
used to seeing people respond to the gospel message. This is it right here. This is it. So here's what I'm going to do. There's a lot of people. And what I want to
do is I want to lead you guys in a simple prayer
to say back to Jesus, I'm all yours. I want to give you a few words. I'd ask you to repeat
this out loud after me. These aren't code
words into heaven. This is an invitation for
Jesus to take over your life. Church, listen, this is a
big deal for these people to be up here. And I want to ask you
if you would vocally stand with them right now. We've got another
one joining us. If you would, vocally stand with
us right now, as we say this, would you say this
out loud with us as a way of reminding these
people they're not alone. You with me? They're not alone. Come on, let's say
this all together. Tell them, Jesus, Jesus, --today, I give you my life. --today, I give you my life. My life is all yours. My life is all yours. I believe you're worth it. I believe your worth it. Thank you for dying in my place. Thank you for dying in my place. Thank you that you resurrected. Thank you that you resurrected. And now because you're alive-- And now because you're alive-- --I'm finally alive. --I'm finally alive. Fill me with your spirit. Fill me with your spirit. Forgive me for how I've lived. Forgive me for how I've lived. I'm all yours. I'm all yours. --in Jesus name-- --in Jesus name-- Amen. Amen. Come on. Woo! We hope that you enjoy
this special service from Calvary
Albuquerque, featuring our guest speaker Kevin Miller. How did this message impact you? We'd love to know. Email us at
mystory@calverystoryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvartabq.org/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Albuquerque.
