Kyle: The question in this series is a very personal one: Is God trying to warn you? Is He trying to get your attention and call you to make some changes, to get some help, to take some action now…right now…before it’s too late down the road? One of the things we’re seeing with the warnings of God is that how we respond to those warnings now makes a difference between there being consequences down the road or being blessings. When we respond to God’s warnings, we not only avert consequences but we put ourselves in a place to receive His blessings.
I was reading that when a military operation takes place in a warzone they will oftentimes create what is called a “safe zone.” The safe zone exists within a warzone, but it is a place where people can come and find rest. They don’t have to worry so much about their safety. And, really, that is what the Word of God is for us. It is our safe zone. It is a place where we can run to and a place where we can find assurance in the decisions that we’re making for our lives. That is the way Proverbs describes the Lord. Proverbs 18:10 says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” That is really what this series is about: that we hear God’s voice, we run to God, and in Him we find safety, we find the best way to live. One of the things we’ve said is that God’s warnings are both personal and they are timely. They come at just the right time for us.
Today Dave and I are team-teaching and we want to talk about two of the most personal and important questions that you’ll ever answer…decisions that you’ll ever make…and how you answer these questions has either some tremendous consequences or tremendous blessings down the road. So here are the two questions we want to discuss together. Question number one, “What am I going to do with my life?” It’s kind of a question of career. Second question, “Who am I going to marry?”
Dave: To help us think through these questions, we’re going to study the lives of Abraham and also his nephew Lot. As we look back on their lives and we see some of the consequences and some of the blessings that they received, we’ll realize that it was out of a response to whether they were obedient or whether they were disobedient to God.
So take your Bible out. Turn to the very first book of the Bible, Genesis. We’re going to turn to Genesis chapter 12. At this point he is called Abram, and his wife Sarah is called Sarai. In chapter 12 of Genesis we read this famous promise that God gives to Abraham and essentially to the Jewish people. We’ll begin with Genesis 12, verse 2, and go through the fourth verse:
“I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
Now that is an incredible promise. But if you go back to verse 1, right before God gives this promise He gives Abraham a condition. Look at verse 1: “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.’” So here is Abram. He is seventy-five years old and God says, “Hey, it’s time for a career change for you,” and God is calling him to do something different with his life. God makes this great promise about the future, but it would mean Abram leaving his hometown, leaving where he had been successful, leaving his comfortable life and doing something different.
The decision that Abraham faces is one that every one of us faces as well. So that first question that we must answer is, “What am I going to do with my life?” Notice that God doesn’t mention to Abram where it is that he is to move. He doesn’t give him that luxury; instead he just says, “Leave your homeland and go to the land that I will show you.” Well, how does Abram respond? Look at verse 5: “He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.”
Kyle: So doing what God wanted him to do required tremendous sacrifice. He had to leave this comfortable, established life. But here is what we see: There was no way for him to experience God’s blessing in the future unless he accepted the challenge right then. That is often true with God’s warnings and God’s promises. It is when we act now that we can receive His blessing in the future. But what happens right now may not be that pleasant.
Let me give you some examples of that. When Noah built the ark, he and his family were saved, but first he had to do all the work of building the ark, being mocked by the people. Or when Moses had the opportunity to free his people from the land of Egypt—something he had, no doubt, dreamed of doing since he was young—but it required him to stand in front of Pharaoh and say, “Let my people go.” And Joseph…he became the second most powerful man in all the land, but first he was falsely accused, he was imprisoned, sold into slavery. When those men sat down with their, you know, guidance counselors in school (and) mapped out their career paths, I’m sure that is not the direction they thought things would go. But God was working; they were faithful, and in the end they were blessed.
I know for some of you in our church right now this is kind of a season of career uncertainty. You’re not really sure about the job market, a little concerned about losing your job. Or maybe you’ve lost your job and you’re between jobs and you’ve been searching. It is very much possible that you will look back on this season as a season where God was working now to prepare you for a blessing later. We see that throughout Scripture.
So as you’re answering this question, “What will I do?” I went through Scripture and just came up with some questions for you to ask yourself about your job or maybe a job possibility to see if you’re listening to God’s warnings. So let me just give you a few of these questions:
1. Am I using the abilities and talents that God has given me?
2. Am I doing the job for more than just money?
3. Have I found ways to love God and to love people when I’m at work?
4. How does this job affect my spiritual life and my family life?
And all these questions really help answer the most important question about your job, which is, “(5.) Am I glorifying God with what I do?” And if you look at the example of Abraham, what you do doesn’t have to be ministry related. He wasn’t called to be a prophet or a preacher. Abraham was a herdsman. So honoring God doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re involved in full-time Christian service. Scripture would say, “Whether you’re a herdsman or a handyman, whether you are a dentist (or) a decorator, whether you are a manager or a minister—that when you’re answering this question, “What am I doing to do?” the most important thing to consider is, “Am I doing this for the glory of God?” First Corinthians 10:31 puts it this way: “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Dave: Now if you were not preaching, what would you be doing? Do you think you would return to the very first job that you had?
Kyle: No, I don’t.
Dave: His first job, in case you have forgotten, was in Missouri as a Precious Moments tour guide at their factory. (Laughter as Kyle’s picture appears on screen) That’s a dapper looking picture.
Kyle: Mm-hm.
Dave: Do you think you’d go back to that if you weren’t in ministry?
Kyle: If they didn’t make me wear the pink shirt, maybe. Maybe. I don’t know. You know, I really don’t know for sure what I would be doing. I’ve thought about that before. I thought that maybe I would’ve become kind of the popular choice of history teacher/basketball coach. That’s kind of a popular combination. I may have done that. I don’t really know. The longer I do this, the more I’m convinced there is… I don’t know that I could do anything else. It’s just hard to imagine myself doing anything other than this. I think that is one of the ways you know you’re called by God into ministry—is that it is just hard to imagine doing anything else with your life.
Dave: And how old were you when you decided to pursue ministery or when you really felt like, “Hey, this might be what direction God wants me to go”?
Kyle: Like you, I grew up in a minister’s home and was around some great examples of that, but I…you know…as a young child didn’t really want to have anything to do with that. Then when I was thirteen years old, I kind of got pressured into preaching on a Sunday night at my home church. When I say “pressured,” my dad made me. (Laughter) So I stood up in front of three or four hundred people and I delivered this sermon, and I was shocked because when I sat down on the front row after the sermon I remember…I remember like it was yesterday sitting there and thinking two things. Number one I thought, “This is what God wants me to do with the rest of my life.” And the second thing I thought is, “I can’t believe my mom made me wear this tie.” (Laughter) I remember thinking that—looking down and thinking, “Was that really necessary?” You know, for Abraham his call was very clear. That’s not always the case. What was it for you? Was there a time when you knew that this is what God was calling you to?
Dave: When I was in high school, my senior year, I had it narrowed down to three things. I wanted to be a comedian, a politician or a preacher. Those were the three passions that I could see my life taking. And I decided to go to Bible College and to pursue ministry and kind of let the Lord choose the course of my life. And I don’t know if there was a moment in time where at that moment I sensed it, but now looking back there was a time that was quite pivotal. I did my internship in Bible College at Southland Christian Church over in Lexington and we had a week of camp where I went and served on the faculty there. I was nineteen or twenty years old at the time, and it was just one of those unforgettable weeks. Tuesday night they had a campfire service and someone preached. After the sermon was over we were all getting ready to leave and a kid who was quite popular, loved by everybody, stood up and he started crying. He just looked out at everybody and said, “I need to change the direction of my life.” He said, “I feel like God is calling me to go in a different direction,” and everybody was just caught off guard. And he reached in his pocket and he pulled out a bag of marijuana and said, “I came with some really impure motives to this week at camp and,” he said, “I’m going to turn my life over to Christ.” And he took the marijuana and he threw it in the campfire. (Laughter) The faculty quickly dismissed the kids to their bunks… (More laughter) And I remember some of the faculty thinking that the week had gone to pot. (More laughter) I like to look at it more as a spiritual high. (More laughter)
Kyle: (Kyle moaning) Don’t encourage him. We don’t want him to go the comedy route. (Laughter)
Dave: But that was Tuesday night and it really was…it was a powerful night if you could imagine a kid doing that. But Thursday night I preached and I was supposed to keep a journal for my college credit. This is one of my favorite entries and I would say this is when I really knew that I was called. It’s about one in the morning on a smelly bunk bed in a cabin that I wrote these words down:
I preached at campfire tonight. I didn’t get to run through my sermon ahead of time. I had notes in my Bible and I had a flashlight, but I didn’t end up using either one. The Holy Spirit was in me. I could feel Him. I preached with more power than I ever have. In the background where I stood there were three illuminated crosses. After I preached five people came forward and gave their lives to Christ, and there is no doubt in my mind that I will preach the gospel until the day I die.
That was my calling. (Audience applauding) And I don’t think I really recognized it at that time, but, you know, I wrote those words nearly thirty years ago but I could’ve written them yesterday. I still feel compelled to reach the Gospel until the day I die. It was a life changing evening for me. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:16, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”
Let me just take a minute and I want to speak to those of you who are under the age of twenty, and I agree with everything that Kyle just said. He is right. God can use you in any profession, but I unashamedly ask you that we desperately need people who will feel a call to full-time Christian ministry, to vocational ministry. We need people like Bowin and Lindsey who will say, “This is what my future is going to look like. I’m going to walk in the direction that God wants me to and I’m going to say ‘no’ to the American dream.” Maybe you’ll serve in youth ministry, maybe you’ll serve in a women’s ministry, maybe you’ll be a preacher. Well, the church is only one generation from extinction and the kingdom needs you. Last month when I interviewed Rebecca St. James, the contemporary Christian singer, she told about a time when she was twelve years old—You were thirteen; she was twelve years old—and in a worship service everyone was challenged to give their gifts and talents to God. Rebecca said that she prayed this prayer: “God, I don’t know what I have to give to you, but here is me.” That is a prayer that I hope that some of our young people will pray. It was that year that she started pursuing singing. God only knows what He’ll do with you if you’re willing to offer a “Here’s me” prayer. I would love for our students to really prayerfully consider if God wants to use them vocationally for the rest of their lives. Do you feel that God is calling you to serve Him in some type of ministry? Bob Shanks says this. He says, “Career is what you’re paid for, but a calling…a calling is what you’re made for.”
Kyle: Whatever you decide to do with your life, the most important thing is that you’re listening to God’s voice, you’re following His will and you’re doing it to honor and glorify Him. Really with this next question that we’re going to address, that is the same principle—that you are listening to God’s voice and you are wanting to glorify Him. It’s a question that Abraham and his nephew Lot are going to answer, and it’s one that almost everyone in this room will answer at some point. Here is the question: Who will I marry? Who will I marry? This decision brings with it in the future either incredible blessings or oftentimes devastating consequences.
So here is what happens. Abraham, Sarah and his nephew Lot move to Canaan, and once they’re in Canaan God blesses them incredibly. In fact, they are so blessed that Abraham makes his nephew Lot a business partner. (He) shares the business with him. The business continues to grow and soon Lot’s herdsmen and Abraham’s herdsmen…they’re not getting along. They’re fighting with one another and Abraham decides to split the business up and he says to Lot, “Look, you choose half the land and I’ll take the other half. Whatever half you don’t choose, that’s what I’ll take.” So Lot looks at the land and he chooses the land that is right next to the city of Sodom. Now from a business standpoint, this was clearly the best decision. It was the best decision for his business, but the question is, "Was it the best decision for his spiritual health, for him as the spiritual leader of his family?”
Here is what we see as we read through the story: it slowly really begins to impact their family. They’re influenced by their culture. The city of Sodom is a very sinful city. It was famous for its immorality. It reaches a point where God decides He is just going to destroy the city completely, but before He destroys Sodom He gives Lot and his family a heads up. He gives them a warning and says, “Look, you can leave now. You can leave now and be spared, but when you leave you must not look back at the city.” (He) makes a very clear command. But we read that when Lot and his wife are leaving the city that Lot’s wife looks back at the city, and when she does she is turned into a pillar of salt. She ignores the command and the warning of God. Jesus talks later about Lot’s wife in Luke 17:32 and Jesus simply warns, “Don’t be like Lot’s wife,” by turning back to your sin after you have left it. So that is Lot’s wife. The New Testament uses her as an example of the kind of spouse you don’t want to be.
On the other hand, the New Testament points to Abraham’s wife, Sarah, as an example of what a wife should be. Listen to what 1 Peter 3:4-6 says:
Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as "my dear husband."
Dave: Is it really possible to swim against the current, though, and to defy the odds and not blend in with society but to go the path that God has chosen for you? When I think about it, 98.5% of Americans will marry at least one time in their life, so that means that this decision is monumental to your future. One of the best steps that you can take to stay in the safe zone is to marry a committed believer in Jesus Christ. Both Kyle and I will be quick to tell you who we married has brought great blessings to our life, to our family, to our ministry. You know us pretty well. What we decided to do today is to find out a little bit of how well we know our wives. So we did this last night and it was incredibly embarrassing. (Laughter)
Kyle: More for him than for me but…
Dave: It really was. (More laughter) So we asked questions of the other person’s spouse in order to see how well they knew them. So…
Kyle: And not that we’re keeping score…
Dave: No!
Kyle: But if we were… If we were competitive, if we were keeping score, I scored one point last night and he scored zero. So that’s kind of where it stands. Not that we’re keeping track. (Laughter)
Dave: Right. No question… Round one did go to Kyle. (Kyle chuckling) So do you want to go first or do you want me to?
Kyle: I’ll go first.
Dave: Okay. And these are different questions every hour so they have not seen them. He has not seen them.
Kyle: All right, I’m going to start off with one that I think…I think you’ll get…seeing that last night didn’t work out very well. I’m going to build up his confidence a little bit here. What temperature does Beth like the thermostat to be set to at night?
Dave: I’m telling you what. We could hang meat in our house. (Laughter) It’s like a morgue in there. She loves it to be cold. I know what I see but I am going to say 66.
Kyle: Sixty-seven…I’ll give you that.
Dave: I was going to say 66.6 but… (Laughter) It’s a little scary number to see when the wife of a preacher puts that on the dial, you know? You’ll give me that?
Kyle: I will. I’d say…
Dave: All right. I appreciate that. Believe me, anything under 68 I should get credit for.
Kyle: Yeah, that’s fair. So 67…
Dave: Okay, this is a great question. I asked DesiRae this. I said, “How many dates did you all go on before Kyle spent over twenty dollars on you?” (Laughter)
Kyle: You know, I…I am constantly trying to earn and pay for her affection, so I…I think…I think I probably spent twenty bucks on the first date. I would think so.
Dave: But she said, “Probably the second date.” And in your defense that is what she said. She said, “He has really spoiled me right from the beginning.”
Kyle: Glad she recognizes that. (Laughter)
Dave: So I will give you that as well.
Kyle: Oh, there you go.
Dave: Okay, round two.
Kyle: Full of grace… All right, let’s see. What was it about you that she found most attractive...first found most attractive? And you know what, while you’re thinking about this…
Dave: Oh, I know the answer. (Laughter)
Kyle: I’d like to show a picture just to realize how… (More laughter as picture of Dave and Beth appears on screen) It’s like a combined weight of one hundred pounds in that picture. (More laughter) Before Dave was called to preach—Could we put that back up there?—you may have seen him on Cops. (Laughter) I think he shut down that methamphetamine house. (More laughter)
Dave: I got my start at church camp. Wow! That is a scary picture. I’m not sure where you got it.
Kyle: So what did she first find most attractive about you?
Dave: I know what the answer is to that. I don’t know if I should say it but… It was…
Kyle: I don’t… (Laughter)
Dave: I can’t believe you’re asking… You probably didn’t ask me this… Now I really hope this is what she said.
Kyle: It may be what she told you, but I asked for the truth. So… (More laughter)
Dave: Okay, she has told people… She was a sponsor who went on a campout with me, and she had always seen me in a three-piece suit at church all the time and I had a cut-off shirt and she… (Kyle laughing) You have to understand something. I have no muscles on my body. The only muscles I had were my stomach muscles. I’m going to say my stomach and I pray that that’s right. (More laughter) Thank you for having me. (Dave pretends to walk offstage) Thank you, thank you. That’s not it I take it? (Dave walks back towards Kyle)
Kyle: Well, it is and it isn’t. I think she answered in a way to be more sensitive to the church audience. (Laughter) She said… You are right. She said, “His cut-off sweatshirt.” Now when I hear, “Cut-off sweatshirt,” I’m thinking the arms, right? Never occurred to me that it was a tube top. (Laughter) Never… never crossed my mind.
Dave: Can we… Can we close the service with prayer right now? (More laughter)
Kyle: So she did say, “Cut-off sweatshirt.” I thought it was sleeves; she meant the bottom half. (More laughter)
Dave: Well, now it…
Kyle: That’s worth a point.
Dave: Golly, whose idea was it to play this stupid game? Wow!
Kyle: That’s great. We need a picture of that. (More laughter)
Dave: No, you... (Dave looking out at Beth in the audience) She says, “I’ve got one.” No, you don’t want that. Just be quiet, Baby. (More laughter) Let’s move on quickly.
Kyle: Please. Delete, delete, delete. Yes.
Dave: Yes. If DesiRae were given the choice would she prefer a chocolate chip cookie or a brownie?
Kyle: I’d say that she would probably be on the “more chocolate the better” side of things, so I’m going to say a brownie.
Dave: Correct answer? Brownie. I could eat the whole pan. (Laughter) Good.
Kyle: I don’t like chocolate. I think that’s one of the reasons she was attracted to me. More for her… (Laughter) All right…
Dave: Can you give me a bunny?
Kyle: I will. I will. What kind of toothpaste does she use?
Dave: Close-up.
Kyle: Well done. Well done. Three for three.
Dave: Three for three. Thank you very much. Thank you. And this is for the tie.
Kyle: Technically it’s already tied from last night but this is… Whatever… whatever… It’s fine. We… (Laughter)
Dave: DesiRae’s favorite Scripture?
Kyle: I’m…I’m guessing it’s not Song of Solomon 5:14, “His arms are like rods of gold. His legs…”? (Laughter)
Dave: No, no. His stomach muscles are… (More laughter)
Kyle: I think I know this. I can’t think of the reference but I see it.
Dave: Tell me what the verse is and…
Kyle: It’s written on her mirror. Matthew 11:22…something like that. It starts off and goes like, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Dave: I’m going to have to ask the judges on this one. He said, “Matthew 11:22.” He did quote the verse relatively close to it. It’s Matthew 11:28. Judges? (Audience applauding) Wow.
Kyle: It’s not overwhelming but I’ll take it. (More laughter)
Dave: Last night the question I had asked DesiRae was… I said, “DesiRae, what drawer do you keep your hairspray in?” and then I asked him the question. He got it right, but DesiRae added, “He uses mine more than his.” (Laughter)
Well, if you get anything out of our Newlywed Game here…although I’m scared what you will recall from the Newlywed Game…the most important thing I hope you walk away with is that…know this…our wives love the Lord more than they love anything. We are so blessed to have them alongside of us in ministry and there is no way that we could do what we do without them.
Kyle: That’s right. Yes, and this is actually a big year for you…
Dave: For both of us…
Kyle: Both of us, yes. Dave is going to celebrate his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary this year, which is awesome. (Applauding)
Dave: Thank you. And… (Dave and Beth’s wedding picture appears on screen) Where are you getting these pictures from, man? Golly, a walking menagerie… Kyle’s got his fifteenth anniversary as well. (More applause as Kyle and DesiRae’s wedding picture appears on screen)
Kyle: Yes, I know that we could both tell you that when we stood up and we exchanged vows with our wives, we had no idea how that one decision would impact so many other aspects of our lives in the future. That’s why the Word of God gives us so many warnings about who we marry, this decision that we make. I just want to say a word to a lot of our singles who are out there. This is the time to be listening to God’s warnings and His promises about this area of your life. I know that there is this tendency to want to kind of ignore His warnings because you grow impatient and you want to have more options. But God, as a loving Father, has given you the best advice on how to make this decision. He warns us most importantly… (In) 2 Corinthians 6:14 Paul says, “Don’t be yoked together with unbelievers.”
Dave: I can’t begin to imagine what life is like for those people who don’t have a Christian spouse. I know we have a number in this room that is your situation. Maybe you came to Christ later in life. And my admonition and encouragement to you would be to continue to be an example of who Christ is for your spouse. Let them see the difference that Christ has made in your life. That is what makes the gospel attractive to them. If you are living under the impression that your spouse, your mate, is to fulfill your every need and that they are to complete you, I hate to tell you, you are mistaken. That is humanly impossible for them. Their job is to love you; their job is to encourage you, but they cannot complete you. Only Jesus Christ can do that, so don’t expect them to do something that is humanly impossible. I know that the majority of those of you whom I’m speaking to are married, and I want to remind you that marriage is all about surrender. It’s about surrendering your will. It’s about humbling yourself. It’s about making changes. It’s asking for second chances. It is granting second chances to your spouse. And I would say, if you’re marriage isn’t that hot and if your marriage relationship right now is struggling, then hear me when I say that God specializes into taking nothing and turning it into something. And He does that all throughout the Bible. If the God who spoke the universe and the solar system into existence…if He can do that… well, He can do something out of your marriage. And if your love tank is empty, you know, the two of you can fill that by reconnecting and recommitting your life back to Christ.
Kyle: Really, it is this…it is this book that tells you how to do that. (It) gives you the wisdom, gives you the direction on how to build a marriage now that will bless your life later. God gives it to us in His Word. In fact, we just looked at that passage. When Peter points to Sara as an example for wives, he talks about her inner beauty. I mean, you think about how much there is out there in our culture…if you walk down the magazine aisle in a store, you’re going to see all kind of covers that deal with outer beauty, that define outer beauty and give you secrets to be beautiful on the outside, but God’s Word…Peter points to Sarah as an example of inner beauty. And this is how you should live as a wife. This is how you should live as a husband. So God’s Word gives us the direction that we need now to have the kind of marriage, have the kind of life that we long for in the future.
So whether it is a decision of what you’ll do with your life or who you’re going to marry, God’s Word is our safe zone. That is where we run. Proverbs 29:25 captures this well. It says, “Whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”
Dave: Most of you are well aware that WHAS-Radio personality Francene Cucinello died suddenly of a brain aneurysm last month. Thursday we received a letter at our house from Francene’s mom. She lives down in North Carolina and she said:
Dear Beth and Dave,
Francene always left some of her clothing and personal items in her room in my home for when she visited North Carolina. Yesterday I was in her room and in the dresser drawer I found these notes. I think they are probably the result of a sermon which stirred her and she thought worthy of keeping its message.
And what she sent to us was a note page from a bulletin from last March and it just has Francene’s notes on it. These were the only notes she had in this entire drawer that she had kept. And when Francine takes notes, she will put down what we say but she will also put down what Francine thinks as well. I just thought it was so strange that this was the message that her mom found. The main points…
Point 1: This is your one and only life. Enjoy it.
Point 2: Life is short. Give it your all.
Point 3: The race is long. Stay with it.
And underneath that, she just wrote this on her own. She wrote down, “Go to heaven and take as many people with you as you possibly can.” Then the fourth point:
(Point 4): Your hour will come. Be ready for it.
And she just wrote, “Seize the day. Make your life count for the Lord.”
Evidently that message served as an early warning system, because two weeks after that sermon Francene said that she wanted to make a commitment to Christ and she wanted to be immersed, and she requested that Beth be the one who baptized her. So late one afternoon with just a few stagehands milling around getting set for the Easter Pageant, I stood here and I heard her say in that baptistery, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, my Lord and Savior.” And my wife took her back in the water and brought her back up, symbolizing the death and the burial and the resurrection of our Lord. And Thursday as I read these takeaways from her from that sermon it was…it was very eerie for me, because no one would’ve dreamed that a 43-year-old would be gone so quickly and that those would be the notes that would be found. And I asked myself, “Is that coincidental or is that providential?” You know, God got her attention…and maybe He is trying to get yours. What is God trying to communicate to you? He will get your attention in any way that He can, so pay attention to the early warning system and be obedient and move to the safe zone. What is the safe zone? Walk in His will; get in His Word, and meet in His house.
Kyle: The best news of Scripture for all of us here is that it is never too late to make that decision, that no matter where we are now—maybe we look back with regrets, wish we could hit rewind and do some things over—that God still has the power to redeem. God can and does restore. God can and will redeem when we surrender our lives to Him. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is an obscure passage from Joel chapter 2. The nation of Israel has been devastated by a plague of locusts. It has destroyed their crops, their herds. But God, through the prophet Joel, is speaking to His people, calling them to repent and to surrender. And in Joel 2:25 God says to His people, “I will restore what the locusts have eaten.” And that’s His heart. That’s His heart for the people then, and that is His heart for us today.
So if you have a decision to make, if you are ready to repent and surrender, if you are ready to enter the safe zone and start doing things God’s way, we want to give you a chance to do that. In just a moment we’re going to sing and when we do you can come down front right over here to me—to Dave and me. If you want to talk to someone about your relationship with Jesus or if you’re ready to make this your church home, we’d love to have you as we stand together and as we worship.
