Grand Opening | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

Hey. If you have a bible, open them up to Matthew chapter 14.

As I was really thinking, praying, man, how how do we start this thing? What what's the message that God has for us? I stumbled across a story. I've been reading through a story these last couple weeks that I think there's some things in here that I I really hope that we can see. And, again, it's gonna be a story that you've probably heard before. It's a it's a miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000, but there's some there's some real things in there that I hope we can see this morning as we we start and lay the foundation of what is this community of faith, called Echo Church. Now, again, just some kind of setup.

If you look at Jesus' life, the scriptures, there's four books that record his life. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We call them the four gospels. They they all tell different miracles. There's some overlap in those stories of which one say the same things.

But the interesting part about Jesus' life is we know that he was on this earth for about thirty three and a half years. K? Historians and theologians have put together all the the details that we have in the gospels, and they've tried to figure out how many unique days of Jesus' life do we have recorded.

And at best, they say we have about twenty seven days on the low end, maybe fifty five days on the high end of his life on this earth recorded. That means what we have is a small tiny glimpse into a few weeks of what it was like when Jesus was on this earth. But you got to understand,

Jesus was doing all types of miracles. The Bible tells us he was doing other miracles than the ones that we see in the scriptures. But here's the purpose of the miracles. Here's kind of the so what. Here's what I wanna start this morning looking at one of the most incredible stories

in all of the Bible. It's it's actually the only miracle in all four of the gospel accounts besides the resurrection of Jesus.

There's only two miracles that all four of them record. It's Jesus coming back to life after death, and it's this miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. It tells us it's a significant and important story for us to understand. But here's kind of the why. Here's the so what. Here's why miracles are such a big deal. The miracles of Jesus, they show us, they show you and I what is possible with a life that is completely submitted to the Holy Spirit.

Here's what I mean. Remember when Jesus said that we will do even greater things than he did? That you and I are supposed to be a supernatural community. And when you really truly understand what Jesus did in the miracles that were just normal in his presence,

it begins to show us what is possible and what truly my hope in my heart is for this faith community. Now again, John, his gospel, before we get to Matthew 14, he tells us, here's the purpose of the miracles. Don't don't miss the purpose with all the the the big grandiose parts of the miracles. John chapter 20 verse 30,

it says that the disciples, they saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. Again, John affirms that there was multiple miracles that happened. Only some of them are recorded in scriptures that we know about. Verse 31, here's the why behind the miracles. Here's the why this morning.

But these are written so that you may continue to believe. A word that John will use 90 times in his gospel. Here's the purpose of what we're supposed to do when it comes to Jesus. Believe

that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. The miraculous proves that Jesus is more than just a good teacher. He did things that only God could do. So the first reason we do it is to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Here's the second thing, and by believing in him, you will have life in the power of his name. There's two reason the miracles of Jesus matters to us, is it shows us that Jesus is God that you can trust your entire life with. And secondarily,

the miracles show us the the power source that we have access to. And if you wanna truly live and understand what the abundant life Jesus came to give us is,

you've gotta really understand some of these things that Jesus was trying communicate to us in these miracles. All of this is a setup to Matthew chapter 14. Again, it's recorded as the feeding of 5,000, but we know that that was only 5,000 men. It's it's better to think about 5,000 families that were represented here. Again, we believe that this crowd was probably north of 20,000

people. And if you just stop and think for a second, the average town that Jesus, when he's going town to town, the average size of these towns were anywhere from 200 to on the really big end, 700 people. So for a crowd of 20,000

people to form is in and of itself a miracle. Again, this is pre TikTok. Right? Doesn't matter who takes it off or puts it back on. Right? Like, before TikTok, before the Internet, before electricity, before a phone existed, somehow the word of Jesus has spread through these little communities

to where 20,000 of them are going. Maybe there's something to this Jesus guy. And 20,000 people are sitting there with expectations

in their hearts, things that they're hoping that this Jesus guy can do for them. And all of that lays the groundwork for the story we're gonna read. Matthew chapter 14 verse 13. Here's how it starts.

Says as soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed, and they followed him on foot for many towns. Now again, before we get to the miracle, here's the here's the setup, here's the context. Jesus says upon hearing the news,

he goes to be by himself. The question has to be asked, what is the news? If you go back and read a couple verses before, we find out this is the moment where news about Jesus' cousin, his best friend,

John the Baptist, the news about his beheading and his killing has gotten to Jesus. And Jesus has just realized that his closest friend on this earth is now dead. And again, Jesus was, yes, a 100% God, but he was also a 100% man. And Jesus' heart was broken. And he's sad, and he just wants to be by himself.

And what Jesus would often do, again, his life shows us some of the rhythms that we need to put into our life if we're going to experience the things that Jesus got to experience. Jesus would often,

when he was processing through heavy things, he would go and be by himself and just spend time alone with the father. His heart is broken. He's he's heavy, and so he goes to be alone with God. And it's not a coincidence that this happens right before the miraculous feeding of the 5,000.

He here's kind of the so what in this. Life is going to throw us some curve balls. Things are going to happen. Things are going to come out of the blue and devastate us. And we have to allow God to deal with those things sometimes in private. We we've gotta be able to spend time with him alone.

Because, yes, we are believing that God's gonna do something powerful through our lives. Yes and amen. But if you don't let him minister to you and you try to just start having him minister through you, sometimes you will operate out of brokenness

instead of through your brokenness. I wrote it down this way if you're taking notes. See, I believe that the miracle that God wants to do through you, it begins by him doing a miracle in you. See, sometimes before God can do something through our lives, he's got to do something in our souls and in our hearts.

And I love that Jesus, fully God, knew, man, there's sometimes I just gotta be alone. I gotta get away from the crowd, get away from the noise, get away from the hype, and just spend time with God and allow him to minister to my heart. But the crowd starts to form. Verse 14 says that Jesus,

he saw the huge crowd as he stepped back from the boat, and he had compassion on them, and he healed their sick. Again, it's interesting when you look at this, like, what motivated Jesus to to take action and do something to this crowd, to interact with them, to step out of his brokenness, and not just say, not today, guys. Like, what motivated God to to move to his people? See, grew up in a religious setting thinking that God was like this big angry being up in heaven, And he was just like super upset with all the mistakes that I had made. And if I was ever going to have a relationship with him, if he was ever going to interact with me, primarily it was gonna be him like throwing lightning bolts at me for all the sin in my life and all the dirty things that I had done. And I had this picture that God was in heaven and he was mad at me.

And the amazing part is as I read these stories, I look at the things that drove Jesus to take action and it wasn't anger. It wasn't disappointment. It was compassion. And I love that the God of the universe, he looks at you and I in our broken states,

and his compassion drives him to do something for us, to step into our brokenness, to come into our marriages, to come into our finances, to come into our addictions, to come into the messes that we've made of our lives, and the God of the universe wants to do something

with that. Jesus sees the crowd. His heart breaks for them. And here's where the story starts to get good. It says verse 15. That evening, the disciples came to him, and they said, hey, this is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so that they can go to villages and buy food for themselves.

Now again, the part that's amazing, if you go read the same story in the other gospel accounts, you get a lot of color that Matthew leaves out of this. See, Jesus says that when he sees the crowd, he sits on a hillside and he just starts to teach them. Now Matthew tells us that about nighttime,

the disciples have to come to him and go like, hey, bro, you're going a little bit long. Like, you've got to see this story. K? This is what's hard when sometimes you read the the scriptures, you go, oh, I've heard this story before. You'll miss it. Like this you've got to, like, almost pull up a seat and just look at what you're seeing. These are real people that happened in real places in real moments in history. And Jesus sees this crowd kind of like this, and he goes, guys, we're gonna have a church service. Right? So they get the guitars, they get the singers, they like lead out with worship. Like, we're gonna get the crowd prepped, we're gonna get the worship going. And then Jesus comes out and he's like, it's time for me to start breaking down the kingdom of God. Know? And he's like, blessed are the poor in spirit. Right? And he's just up there preaching his face off. And I I have to imagine, again, it was an amazing sermon. K? No matter who your favorite communicator is, Jesus was like that times a thousand.

He's up there with like the perfect hair, the beard is looking good, the robe is flowing. And again, somewhere there's a monitor like this that's counting down the time that Jesus has given for this message.

And every time as you're a communicator, you're like, stop moving so quickly. Okay? I'm not going to listen to you anyways. Alright? Let it go. And Jesus, he preaches so long that it gets to nighttime.

Like, think about that for a second. Everybody's sitting in the crowd like, you think I go long. You're sitting here like, bro, get us out of here. Like, we're gonna miss the breakfast special. Like, I don't even think we're gonna make it for lunch now. You know? Like, somebody told the guy that the NFC championship game is on today. Like, let's go home.

It's afternoon time. And now at this point, the disciples,

they're sitting there going like, dang, bro. This guy is long winded. You know? Like, Jesus, we get it. Like, but I think you drilled the point home four hours ago. You know? And so the disciples somehow again, this isn't recorded in scripture, but you can you can see it. Right? The disciples go to the side. They're like, somebody's got to say something. Like, who who's gonna say something to him? Like, he's way over time. Like, we're we're not even gonna get home for dinner. Like, we've already missed the football games. But they're like, who's gonna say something? I'm not saying something. So they're like, send the keyboard player out. Like, right? Do the Oscars thing and just start playing the music. Like, oh, it backfired. He's not listening. You know? So they do rock paper scissors or something. And some poor guy, we don't know who it is, but one of the disciples draws the short straw. Right? And he goes up to Jesus and he's like, hey, man. Listen. Amazing message. Like, this is it's the it's literally the best message I've ever heard. Like, this is mind blowing.

But, like, I think you're done. Like, I think people are ready to go home. But notice what the disciples say. See, they know, like, I'm not going to tell them that I want to go home and that I'm hungry because that's selfish. And we're not supposed to be selfish because we're followers of Jesus. Right? So so what do they do? They come up with a brilliant plan. They're like, Jesus really loves people.

So we're going to tell them, Jesus, the people,

they want to get to Chick fil A before Chick fil A closes. Okay? They're really hungry. And if he can tap into Jesus' motivation to the people, maybe he'll stop. So this disciple, that's his great plan. He goes up. He tells Jesus, hey, the people are hungry. We got to let them go. And what is Jesus' response? Look at verse 16.

But Jesus says, that isn't necessary. You feed them. Could you imagine, like, the grand plan is, is like, let them know that they're hungry. And then he's like, what did he say? He's like, he said to us to feed them. Like, I I don't even have any food. Like, the plan just fully backfires.

Right? And again, I know you said, like, what is the point of all of this? All of this is a setup to this moment. See, Jesus was intentionally doing everything that he did. He was getting them, the disciples and the crowd, to this place where they were kind of now at the end of themselves.

Because at the end of ourselves, that's where we have the greatest opportunity to meet God. At the end of ourselves where we're frustrated and tired and disappointed and overwhelmed, that is some of the greatest places where God can meet us.

And Jesus sees this crowd that is desperate for something, and sure sure there's something that they're hungry for. The disciples are mistaking it for physical hunger. And Jesus looks at his crowd, his following,

his closest allies, the people who said yes to following him, and he says, you guys do something about it. Here's the reason that I felt like I should preach this message to us at the very beginning of this journey called Echoes Church together. Because I believe that God wants to do something supernatural

in our community, that I believe that God wants to move through the East Valley in ways that we've never seen before. But here's what I want you to understand. God's gonna use you and he's gonna use me to do it.

He's going to use our obedience. He's gonna use us saying yes. And what I hope we see this morning that this story proves to me more than almost any other story, the reason that I think it's recorded in all four of these gospel accounts is because, yes, God's miraculous plan,

it's accomplished through his willing people. What God wants to do on this earth,

he does it through us. He looks at his disciples and goes, guys, you don't get it. You're the ones that can meet their needs just like me. You understand who I am and that does something for you. You have access to the power of heaven because of who lives inside of you, and you can do this with me. And I think so often we sit back and we go,

God, I don't know how you can use my life. I'm just an accountant. I'm just a teacher. I don't know how you can do something through my life. And God says, just give me your willingness and give me your obedience and watch what I'll do. Remember the story of Noah? It's a crazy story.

God decides he's going to wipe out all of humanity, flood the earth, and he goes to one guy and he tells Noah, Noah,

build a boat. If I'm Noah, I'm like, dog, you build a boat. You know? Like, I'm gonna get the animals. Like, I got a big job. Like, have you ever tried to track down a bunny? Like, they're hard to capture. Right? But the amazing part is, is all throughout scripture, there's this participation between God and his people.

When we do our part and God does his part, the supernatural happens. I wrote it down this way, if you're taking notes. When man does the natural, God does the supernatural. When we do our small insignificant task, God does the supernatural

and miracles begin to break out. Remember what Paul said, first Corinthians chapter three? He says, for you and I, we we are coworkers

in God's service. Like, what's the point of church? Why do we do this? Why were people here till 10:00 last night tying balloons together and setting up inventory management systems for a bunch of shirts? Why were people here at 05:00 setting stuff up? Why are people in kids ministry right now? Because we understand that God's rescue mission for this world, we have a part to play in it.

That God wants to use us to do something significant on this earth. And it's not just the professional Christians. It's all of us in this room. It's all of us understanding that the needs of the people, the needs of our community, we have the power and the potential to meet those needs.

And what God is asking us is, will you do the natural things? The things that you can do, the things that you might think are insignificant. And I know it's easy to go like, well, what would one

service of me serving in kids ministry do in grand scheme of things? But just think about it for a second. Do you realize that almost every single week, heartbreakingly,

we've had to turn families away because we don't have room in the kids ministry? And it's primarily because we don't have enough bodies to watch all of the kids. And parents have had to walk out of here who came here to go to church. And imagine for just a moment if we said yes to stepping into one hour of serving, and maybe what God would do in that small moment is their kids would get dropped off, they would come here, they would meet the God of the universe, and their entire lives would change. And you know why and how?

Because God did the heavy lifting. He did the supernatural. We just do our part. We do what God has asked us to do. We trust Him with what He's given us because we understand that God's plan to change the East Valley. It's sitting right here in this room. It's you and I becoming willing to say, yes,

God, we will step into this. Look how the story continues. This is get this is where it gets good. Verse 17,

but we have only five loaves of bread and two fish, the answer. Again, the gospel of John tells us that they go throughout the crowd when they hear the disciples say, okay, Jesus wants us to feed these people. They do exactly what we do. They start to think, okay, well, what do we have?

What do we currently have? They go through all the crowd and they said that they find one boy that has two fish in five loaves of bread. And again, I've ordered this on Amazon. It's amazing what you can get on Amazon these days. My Amazon history is wild, but

they go through the whole crowd and they find one little boy that clearly is not on keto because who eats five loaves of bread with two fish? Like, that's a lot of carbs, but

one little boy has two fish and five loaves of bread. And for whatever reason, this little kid who's overlooked, he's not the one that's even counted in the story, he's like an afterthought in the story,

he gives the disciples what he has. And what do the disciples immediately do with it? They do the exact same thing we do when we look at what God has given us. They completely discredit it. They look and they go to Jesus and they say, we only have. God, this is this is all that we have.

And here's the danger. Here's where the enemy is going to keep some of us stuck in patterns and ruts for years and years and years. The reason that some of us won't get victory in this year is because we're convinced that God can't work with what seems to be really insignificant, which is what you currently have.

See, here's what's beautiful about God's invitation to our participation in his kingdom. God's not asking you to do it all. God doesn't say, hey, I need you to fund this church completely by yourself. See, this is the principle of tithing. Tithing is saying, God, this amount of money, it's insignificant in my hands,

but I trust that you can do something with this. But what we have to do is refuse to allow the enemy to take what we've been given and discount it as nothing. You've been given a testimony to steward.

You've been given a marriage that God wants to use for his glory. You've been given a calling. You've been given a purpose, and it's not an insignificant one. And where this whole thing begins to turn, this next verse and this whole thing is crucial.

Because the disciples take what they have and they go, man, this is this is nothing. God, what what can you do with the little that we have? Look at what he says. Verse 18. Jesus says, bring them here. Bring them to me. See, the invitation of Jesus is to take the insignificance

that we feel, the insignificance of our life, the insignificance of our finances, the insignificance of the time that we can serve God, and to trust that in the hands of our maker, the hands of heaven, that our insignificance

can become more than significant with his addition and his power. Again, I wrote it down this way. When when we give Jesus our little, he's able to do a lot. It is so easy. It would be so easy

for our team to sit here and go, guys, there's no way that we can pull off the services that God has asked us to pull off. Like our team is tiny right now. But here's what we know. If we just do our part and we come and we set up the chairs, we do all this stuff, God is faithful to do his part. And somehow

God takes our little and he does something significant with it. Here's the question I have for you today. What is it in your life that you've been discounting is insignificant and not that big of a deal and not that much that God is sitting here saying, but would you trust me with it?

Would you give me that marriage that is on the brink of failure? Would you trust me again with your finances that you think are beyond repair?

Would you trust me with that addiction that you've been trying to hold so tightly to yourself and trying to keep it in isolation and keeping it by yourself to where nobody knows about it? See, the amazing part is, is everything that you and I want in this life, I'm convinced. It all starts with a moment of surrender.

It starts with us having a moment where we go, God, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can trust you. God, I don't know if I can admit this. I don't know if I can tell my spouse what's been really going on. God, I don't know if I can trust you financially. Don't know if I can trust you with whatever it is.

And it starts with a moment of just going, okay, God, I'm releasing this thing to you. This little boy, he could have been like, man, it's dinner time. Like, I need to eat.

But something happens where he makes a decision to surrender what he has to God, even though it doesn't logically make sense to him how this is gonna feed a group of 20,000 people. Here's what I'm trying to convince you of this morning is I believe that everything significant is found on the other side of surrender.

That some of the greatest work that God wants to do in your life, it is disguised as you letting go. And you saying to God, I can't carry this anymore. God, I've been trying to fix this on my own and it just keeps getting worse. I am surrendering it to you even though I don't know what's on the other side of this.

And I just wonder what would happen to a few 100 people here this morning if we decided this week to surrender some things to God and to trust that maybe we could discount these things and think these are insignificant. But in the hands of heaven,

these things that are insignificant can become much. This is the prayer. This is what Paul says. Ephesians chapter three, here's why. Now all glory to God who's able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

The reason that we trust God with our little is because we know that he's able to do more than we could ever try to do on our own and we trust him. Look how the story happens when the boy surrenders the food, they bring it to Jesus. Verse 19,

then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven, and he blessed them. And then breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples who distribute it to the people. Look at this verse. I'm telling you, there there's so much in here. There's almost a rhythm of what and how God moves in our life. See, what is surrendered to God, it it is put in the hands of Jesus, and then he blesses it. Jesus takes it in front of them. And before the father, he blesses what has been surrendered to him. And I've always thought, okay, that's the moment when God blesses it, then it multiplies, the miraculous goes out. But there's a step in the middle there that honestly, if I'm truthful,

I don't like. Because it says that He takes it, He blesses it,

and then He breaks it. And it's in the breaking that the supernatural begins to happen. And this is one of those things where I go, wait, wait, no, no, no. I like the blessing part. I like the miracle part, but there's this step that we can't skip that God knows

that sometimes there are breakings that we need to go through. There are seasons of pruning that the father in heaven needs us to walk through because He knows what's on the other side of this for us. And this is the hard part for me. I can't even sit here right now and tie a bow on this whole thing and tell you, here's exactly why. See, I don't really fully understand how and why God uses breaking, but I know that this pattern is all throughout the scriptures that God takes something, He blesses it. There's a period of breaking and pruning

and strengthening before the multiplication happens. And the invitation that we've been given is not to truly and fully understand what God is doing in every day of our life,

but to trust like the prophet Isaiah says that God, your thoughts are greater than our thoughts. Your ways are above our ways. And even when I don't understand it, I'm going to say yes and trust you. Because if I'm in a season of breaking,

I trust that you're doing something through it and that you will never waste hard things in my life. See faith, faith is really the decision to obey even when you don't understand.

It's willing to say yes even when you don't get it. But here's the hope. If you find yourself here today and you feel like you're in the middle of a season that is crushing you, you feel like you are being broken right now, let me just remind you that maybe you are about to see a miracle beyond your wildest imaginations.

Don't give up in the season where life feels like it's pulling you apart. Because in the hands of the maker, breaking can lead to breakthrough. But this process sometimes can be hard and we'll wanna just say, man, I don't wanna do this.

But Jesus takes this, what has been surrendered to him, he blesses it, he breaks it. And then what does he do with it? He doesn't give it to the people.

He gives it to the disciples. Why? Because we are co laborers with Christ. We have a role to play. We have an assignment. And what we need to see is that God is going to entrust to us the things that have the potential for the miraculous, but we've got to do something with it. Look how the story continues. Verse 20,

afterwards, they all ate as much as they wanted. And afterward, the disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftovers. About 5,000 men were fed that day in addition to all the women and the children. Verse 20, the NIV says a word that I want us to see. It says, they all ate and they were

satisfied. Here's why this miracle is recorded in all four gospel accounts. What this whole story shows us is the plight of humanity, the the the plaguing

thing inside of our soul that goes, no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, this thing seems like it just won't go away. See, the Bible says that God has placed eternity in our hearts and that we are longing for heaven. We are eternal beings living in a world that is perishing,

And this world can never satisfy the thing that is in us. And what Jesus is illustrating here, what this scripture tells us is that it is only Jesus that when we consume him, when we take of him and eat, that we can actually have satisfaction

at the soul level. The whole crowd, they came there looking for something that was met in the person of Jesus. It tells me that, man, the communities that we live in, the the congregations that we are a part of, the the sports teams that we're on, those people,

they are all longing for this thing that we have the solution to, and his name is Jesus. The question is is what are you doing with the little bit of bread that you've been given? The little bit of bread of life that you've been entrusted with. See, the disciples could have just taken it and hoarded it to themselves.

But instead

they decided to give it out. And all of a sudden as they gave it and they kept breaking pieces off, it just kept going, it kept going and it kept going. It was like, man, there's no way this is going feed this whole crowd. But not only does everybody eat, but at the end of the whole thing, there's thousands of pieces of bread leftover,

12 baskets of leftover. Here's what this tells me, that if you and I can trust God with the thing that we feel like is not enough, God will reward us with more than enough. See, our limited mindset is like, no, I can't trust God with that because then I'll have less.

But heaven says, no, if you trust me with what you feel like is insignificant. I'm telling you the promise on the other side of this is you and your friends, your neighbors, your community will have more than enough.

But you've got to trust that God can do it. And here's kind of the question with this whole thing. Is it like, man, what's the point of all of this? Like, okay, sweet. Like Jesus is the ultimate carb hero. Right? Like if you need bread, come to Jesus.

That's not the point of this. Again, if you read the story in the gospel of John, Jesus, after this moment, he leaves and he walks on water and he calms a storm, but word breaks out in the community that Jesus

can provide bread from heaven and all these crowds start to form again. And in John chapter six, Jesus actually tells us, here's the meaning of this whole thing. Here's the purpose. He addresses a crowd that is there again because they they're hungry and they want Jesus to meet their needs. Here's where he tells us, here's the purpose, here's the point of all of this. He says, John six verse 26, Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. You want to be with me because I have fed you, not because you understood

the miraculous signs. What do we read the very first verse in the beginning? What was the point of the miraculous signs? So that you could see Jesus as savior and you could learn to have life and life to the full. But we go, I don't want the man. I want the miracle.

I want the finances. I want my bank account to be doubled. And Jesus is saying, you don't get it. You're missing it. You're settling for temporary satisfaction when I can provide you satisfaction at the soul level. He continues in verse 35, and he says, I,

Jesus, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Friends, what's the point of this whole story? What am I trying to convince you of? That all of you who are here, who who have accepted Jesus as your savior, what you've been given

is a small piece of the bread of life that is now yours. The question is is what will you do with it? Because so often we think, okay, now the goal is we circle the wagons and we make sure the bad people stay out there. No. No. The story is is that this thing can be multiplied

to an infinite amount if you understand what it is. And if you can actually begin to realize that you have the potential and the power of miracles in your hands, you can take this peace and you can go and reach the world with it. Man, I just wonder what would begin to happen.

As we look at the state of our world, the state of culture, and all things falling apart, I wonder what would happen if the church woke up and remember what we have in our hands. And we remember the calling that's on our life. And we're willing to say, yes, God, use me even when it feels insignificant.

Here's kind of the so what for this whole thing. I read a letter this week that I just wanna read to you. I think you and I are living in such an interesting time in history.

I think we're living in the middle of a cultural battle that we haven't seen in a long time. I wanna read this letter to you. This guy Richard Warren said that our nation is standing on on shaky ground. Faith wants the anchor American life. It's being abandoned.

It's replaced by a secularism that promises freedom but delivers emptiness. Truth has become subjective. Morality is blurred and a generation is now adrift. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rise of sexuality everywhere that we look. What was once sacred has been reduced to entertainment.

Paraded in public and sold as liberation leaving families fractured and hearts broken. Our children are the ones paying the price. Exposed to ideas that rob them of innocence. What was once shameful is now celebrated and yet with all of this quote unquote freedom, people feel more lost and unfulfilled than ever.

Division and anger dominate. Wars rage overseas. Protests fill the streets and neighbors turn against one another. Politicians promise peace, but their solutions seem to only deepen the chaos. The pursuit of unity seems like a distant dream.

Many claim that God is dead, but could it be? Could it be that we've simply stopped looking for him? Could it be that he's waiting for us to stop searching for hope in ourselves and return to him? I read that letter and I go, man, that is spoken to our culture today. But look at the next line. And

can we

do do And think that's

sixties. And for those of you who lived through it, I've heard I've had a lot of people say, yes, it feels very similarly.

At a time when culture was as dark as we thought it could ever get, when things were as bad as they ever could be, we were going, man, there's no way it could get worse than this. So much so that Time Magazine in 1966,

the cover of their magazine, I wanna show it to you. They literally posted the question. They said, is God dead? Based on where we sit culturally, what's happening today in the world, the obvious conclusion is that maybe God is dead. And for Christians and for God, their best days are behind them.

But you know what happened in the sixties? Some crazy people that we call the hippies, some of those people met the resurrected Jesus in a church where people were willing to say that we believe that God is real and that he is moving in the supernatural and the miraculous today,

that the holy spirit wants to invade you. He wants to overwhelm every part of your life. He wants to restore your marriage. He wants to fight through that addiction with you. He wants to make you an entirely new being. And you know what happened? Is this revival broke out in our nation It's called the Jesus movement.

And hundreds of thousands of people across The US got saved in numbers that we've never seen before. They they estimate that in a five year period, over three million people gave their life to Jesus. And in 1971, look at this. 1966, Time Magazine was asking the question, is God dead? 1971,

the cover of Time Magazine is talking now about the Jesus revolution.

I I say all of that to say this. Friends, I think that you and I have been born into such an incredible time in history. I could not be more excited to be a pastor than right now today.

And here's my question. As I look at where we sit culturally, I look at the reality of what Jesus wants to do with our lives and what he can do with a few crazy people that actually believe that he is who he says that he is and who are willing to say yes and be obedient. I think the logical question has to be as we look at what happened in the sixties is, God, why not us?

Why not again? And God, when they're writing the history of our country in a hundred years, would they not be able to write it without talking about this crazy church that started in Mesa, Arizona?

That something happened in their midst that spread throughout the the city, that spread throughout the state, and ultimately impacted the destiny of a nation because a few people understood that what's insignificant in your hands,

it's significant in the hands of the savior. But here's what it requires of you. It requires of some of you to sit here who already know who Jesus is and just been kind of passively going through this faith journey to step up and go, man, what is the thing in the box that God is asking you to trust him with?

What is the thing that you've been so reluctant to trust God with? And if you'll begin to take that thing, give it to him, do the natural. I'm telling you, he'll do the supernatural in your life. And for some of you who are here,

that move, that step of obedience is trusting Jesus for the very first time, Saying yes to him, giving him the range of your life, surrendering all of who you are.

The scripture say that when we do that, when we confess with our mouths and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, that that's the moment that we are saved. That we when we believe him, our eternal destinies are changed. He comes into our hearts and begins to transform us from the inside out.

And I believe that you are here today for some of you to give to have that moment, to give your life to Jesus. So I'm gonna ask everybody right now with eyes closed and heads bowed to just close your eyes, bow your heads in this place. And if you're here and you know that's you,

and somehow you ended up here this morning, I'm telling you it's not a coincidence. All the things that God made happen for you to end up here, it's a miracle that you're even in the crowd. It's a miracle that you're here.

And if you're here right now and you want to with all the faith that you have, give God the mess of your life, invite him into your brokenness, hand him the reins of your life. I'm gonna give you a moment right here when I count to three to just respond

by faith to what the Holy Spirit's doing right now, and you know I'm speaking to you.

It feels like God is talking to you in this moment. That is the Holy Spirit moving in your heart. If that's you and you want to say yes to Jesus right now, I'm gonna ask you on the count of three, just throw your hand up right where you are. One, this is your moment.

Two, don't let the enemy talk you out of this. This is an act of faith. Three, if that's you, just throw your hands out right where they are. Don't be ashamed. There's hands going up all over the room. Father, we see every hand that's responding to you. We see every heart that is saying yes to trusting you with all of their life.

These are hearts that are saying, God, I'm asking you to take the little, the insignificance of my life, and do something significant with it. You can put your hands down. If that was you, just pray a prayer like this with me in the quietness of your heart. Just say, Jesus,

with all the faith that I have, I ask for you right now to come into my heart and set me free. I hand you my life. I hand you my will. I acknowledge you as savior and as king. In Jesus name, all god's people said, amen and amen.