This morning I’m so excited because we are beginning a brand new series here at Thomas Road Baptist Church and it’s entitled “Back to Life” and the entire thought behind it, the entire hope and the prayer behind it is getting your life back when your future is uncertain, when relationships are hurting, when your finances are challenging and where most of us live. When it seems that our spiritual lives are stuck. When we can’t figure out how to get from here to there. When we get ourselves in a situation where we feel like, man, we’re not doing anything. We’re not going anywhere. We just feel like we’re spinning our wheels and accomplishing nothing.
Well, today we’re going to begin a four-week series. Man, I’m really excited about it. In fact, when you came in today and when you leave today, we have cards out there in the lobby that say “Back to Life” and it talks about this series. We’ve got another form out there that we want to give you that has some encouraging verses and some websites that can help you in the days to come.
And we’re asking you, because I believe this more so than probably a lot of the series that we’ve done in the last couple of months or maybe even the last couple of years. This is one that speaks directly to the heart of the people in our community who are hurting. And so I’m asking you today when you leave, to pick up some of those cards, those invitation cards and go out into the community today. Go to your neighbor, knock on the door and say to him, might be a great way to meet your neighbor; and say, “Listen, I would like to invite you to go to church with me next Sunday because we are talking about some things about how to get through situations when our future is uncertain and when relationships are challenging, when finances are tough and when we feel like our lives are stuck.” And invite them to come and be a part of this because I’m telling you, over the next 4 weeks we are going to be hearing from people like Joni Eareckson Tada. We’re going to be hearing from Tim Clinton, and from Dave Ramsey from FOX News, and also from John Ortberg. They are going to be sharing with us their heart; sharing what God has placed on their heart and what we need to do as followers of Christ to continue to move forward in life.
And I want to share with you right now a verse that is going to be our theme verse for the next 4 weeks. And it’s a verse that I’ve used often. You’ve heard me share this verse many times. And it is in the Book of John, chapter 10 and verse 10. And it says this, “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they have it more abundantly.”
This verse that we’ve read so many times here at Thomas Road is a verse where we’ve talked about how the thief, Satan, comes into our lives and his desire, his passion is to steal our lives, and to kill our spirits and to destroy our families. And how every day of our lives we realize that Satan is out there trying to get rid of us, trying to beat us down, trying to get us into a situation where we are of no use to God whatsoever. We’ve talked about that verse. We’ve talked about how the rest of that verse tells us that Christ has come to give us life and that He’s come to give us life more abundantly.
Now for these next 4 weeks, I want to focus in this verse, not on the whole verse itself, but on one word. One word of this verse. That’s the theme of everything we are going to talk about in the next 4 weeks and that’s this word right here, “Abundantly.” Abundantly. When you look into the Scriptures in the original languages, in the Greek, that word is “perissos.” Perissos. And it means this, “more remarkable, more excellent, over and above, more than necessary.” I don’t know about you but that’s the kind of life that I want. I want a life that’s more abundant. I want a life that’s over the top. I want a life that is more than anything that I can imagine. More than excellent. More than wonderful. That’s the life that I want.
The problem is this, that in everyday life and all the situations that we face, we don’t know how to get to “abundantly.” We don’t know how to get to that place. We get stuck because of all the things that come into our lives, the big boulders that drop in our path that we don’t know how to go around. We don’t know how to go over. We certainly don’t know how to go through. Those things that keep us locked down, that keep us pushed down, held down. It might be physical challenges. It might be financial challenges. It might be relationship challenges. It might be in our own spiritual lives, the challenges that we face. But these big boulders that drop right into our life when it is not expected. And at the worst possible time they show up and we don’t know what to do. And we don’t know where to go.
My friends, in Philippians chapter 4, Christ gives us a plan. In Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7, He says this, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” And it goes on in verse 7 to give us an incredible truth. “And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
That passage, man, it gives us great hope. It tells us, hey, don’t worry about those big rocks that drop into your path. Don’t worry about those problems that you face. Hey, everything is going to be okay. Because you just come to me and you give it to me, you tell me about it. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to give you peace. I’m going to give you peace and not just peace, I’m going to give you peace that goes beyond your own understanding. And listen, I’m gonna guard your heart and your mind and I’m gonna do it all because of what? What Christ Jesus did for us on the cross.
Man, those are great promises aren’t they? Those are great truths, things that we can grab a hold of and no matter what we face and no matter how big of a rock that seems to drop in our path, listen that promise is what can help us get through. But the problem is a situation where we allow ourselves to get pressed down, where we don’t know what the future holds. We live in a life of uncertainty. An uncertain future. Not knowing what’s going to happen tomorrow. Not knowing what’s going to happen a week from now, and a month from now and a year from now and decades from now. We don’t have a clue and so we sit there in our fear. We sit there gripped in all of the fear that we feel and we just say, “God, I can’t do it anymore.” And we just sit back and we do this, we quit. We quit on life. We quit on joy. We quit on happiness. But if you remember, we go back to John 10:10, what is it that Satan wants to do? He wants to steal and to kill and destroy. So when we do that, we allow Satan to win.
You know if we look in Scriptures and we read through the Scriptures, we find there’s one person really, man, I’m telling you. You talk about an uncertain future? You’re talking about what the future holds? If there’s one person in all the Bible that we can look to find out the toughest possible things that you can go through, of course, it’s Job. The life of Job. Man, we know what happened to him. Here’s a guy who’s loving God, walking with God, serving God, trying to do all of the right things and Satan comes, the thief, comes to what? To steal and to kill and to destroy. And so he comes to God and says, “Hey, do you know what? Job wouldn’t serve you if he didn’t have all of this stuff. If he wasn’t healthy, he wouldn’t serve you.”
So God allowed Satan to take away his family, to take away his wealth, to take away his health, left him literally with nothing. The passage even tells us that Job himself even got to a place in life where he just, he cursed the day that he was born. He wished that he had never been born. But we also know in Job chapter 13, verse 15 it says this. Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. And in all of the things that Job went through, in all of the pain and suffering that he felt and that he experienced, a life that literally was ripped away from him.
Man, you talk about uncertain future, he had an uncertain future, but let me tell you. He understood this principle. He understood that uncertainty in our future is not uncertainty to God. It’s only uncertainty to us. There is no uncertain future with God. God has our whole lives in His hand. Job knew that. That’s why back in Job chapter 1, verse 22 it says literally of Job, “In all of this.” In all of this stuff, in losing everything , you know what it says? It says that Job did not sin or charge God.
Do you know what that verse means for you and me? It means this that in all of the stuff that Job went through, he didn’t quit. He didn’t give Satan the victory. He didn’t lie down and give up on life No. He trusted God. He didn’t sin. He didn’t charge God. He said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him,” because he knew, he knew the God that he served, was all that he needed.
Wouldn’t it be great today in talking about an uncertain future, in talking about all the things that we face? Wouldn’t it be great if we could get a chair right here, right in the middle of this stage and bring Job up and let him sit here today and talk to us about what he went through. Wouldn’t that be great? If he could come up here and share with us. Man, let me tell you the tough stuff that I’ve been through. Let me tell you the suffering that I’ve gone through and the pain that I’ve faced. Let me tell you, you talk about uncertainty. Let me tell you what I’ve gone through. Wouldn’t it be great if Job could be here today and share that with us. He can’t, but my friends someone can, who’s been through probably more than any of us in this room has been through.
Talk about uncertain futures. Over 40 years a quadriplegic, 40 years of pain, 40 years of suffering. But all through every day “though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” Let’s hear today from Joni Eareckson Tada.
Q: Well, Joni, it is great to be with you today. It’s been a number of years since you’ve been at Thomas Road Baptist Church; in fact, I remember as we were talking earlier before we started filming, that you were at Thomas Road in the late 70s. I was about 9 or 10 years old and even at that time it was such a blessing to me even as a child when you were there and shared your story and how God has done so much.
Now here we are many years later and God is still using you and God is still has an incredible plan for you through all these years and today that’s kind of really what we want to talk about, Joni. But before we do that, can we talk a little bit really about before the accident? Before, you know what happened to you. And of course I’ve read your book many years ago and I know the story but there might be many who are watching today who may not. Tell us a little bit about before.
A: Well, I’d become a Christian through Young Life at the age of 14 but pretty much tucked Jesus in the back of my Levi jeans and brought Him out once in a while when the need was great. My prayers were the vending machine sort where I would push all the right levers and expect God to give me a new boyfriend, lose weight, help me to get academic recommendation to college. Let’s see, Jesus, I would love for a scholarship. I mean everything was about me, me, me.
Somewhere in my senior year I realized, you know, I am doing this all wrong. Lord, it’s too much about me. Do something in my life that will jerk it right side up. Well, I prayed that in the spring of 1967 and about two weeks after my high school graduation, I went swimming in the Chesapeake Bay with my sister, Kathy. I swam out to this raft, took a dive. I had no idea the water was as shallow as it was. Hit my head. That snapped my head back, crunched my cervical vertebrae and I was underneath the water, holding my breath paralyzed, hoping that my sister Kathy would quick notice that I was going to drown real fast.
At that instant she had her back turned to me but she was ready to walk up on the beach from the shallow water. A crab bit her toe. And so she quickly turned around in the water to look for me to scream to watch out for crabs. Well, when she saw I wasn’t on the raft, didn’t see me in the water, she knew something awful had happened. Quick, came swimming and found my shock of blond hair. I had peroxided my hair, Nice N Easy Summer Blond, the night before and she saw that. Quick rescued me. Pulled me up out of the water and I’m spitting and sputtering, gasping for oxygen.
Just as I was drowning, she rescued me. God used a bottle of peroxide and a little crab. I mean, seemingly obscure innocuous details, so small, so incidental, but He’s that sovereign over not just the big things like a broken neck, but also small things like a crab and peroxide to rescue me. I still marvel at that. God is amazing.
Q: A miracle even at the time of the accident. What about the days after the accident? I know in your mind and what you must have been going through. Tell us a little about those early days.
A: Well, I had prayed, as I just told you, for a closer walk with Jesus. God, do something in my life to jerk my life right side up. Oh, you’ve got to be kidding, God. There I am lying paralyzed with doctors telling me I’ll never use my hands, never walk. I’m 17 years old. This is an answer to prayer? God, you’ve got to be kidding. I mean you’re never going to be trusted with another prayer again! I was so shocked and stunned. And eventually when the reality began to sink in that this was permanent. This was the way my life was going to be. Oh, Jonathan, I plummeted into such deep despair and terrible depression and I, just for months, I couldn’t even accept what was going on in my life. I didn’t know how to process it and the depression quickly turned to suicidal thoughts.
Q: How did you work through that?
A: Well, I didn’t realize it but at the time there were Christians praying. My high school youth leader covenanted together with my high school girlfriends, two or three of them, to pray for me every Thursday morning for an hour. And for a full year, that’s what they did. I didn’t realize this at the time but I think I’m here, shaky from the repercussions of those prayers. I mean that’s how powerful it was in my life. But God began to use their prayers to soften my soul and get it ready for the inevitable truth that I was to discover about Jesus in His Word. And I often say, Jonathan, we wrestle not against the powers and principalities of spinal chord injury but against evil rulers that would love nothing more than to keep us steeped in depression, doubt, fear, paralyzed by insecurities, worry, anger, resentment. God wants to bust that wide open. Lob a hand grenade into it and blow it to smithereens and He’ll do it through the prayers of others. I’m convinced.
Q: Well, share a little bit about that because you shared how you went through depression, even suicidal thoughts, the anger that you must have felt, the uncertainty about what the days were going to look like. Let me just ask you a question from someone who is going through a similar type of thoughts and similar situations in their life. Is it okay to have some of those kinds of thoughts of feeling like well I don’t know what is ahead for me? I am uncertain about my future. Are some of those thoughts okay?
A: Well, all you have read in the Book of Psalms and you’re going to stumble across more than a few Psalms where, not only David, but also the other Psalmists, voice, okay, God, how long? Is this never going to end? They feel as though they are ensnared with the chords of death. They can’t breath. They feel suffocated by their circumstances and that’s how I felt. And I so identified with Jesus. God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? Why have you deserted me? And so immediately when I began to look at Jesus in the Gospels, I saw, oh my goodness, God’s not some meditating mystic sitting on some mountaintop twiddling His thumbs and contemplating his navel. He is real. He is Jesus. And He understands what it means to suffer. And so for Jesus to ask questions of God, why have you forsaken me? Then, maybe it’s okay that I ask questions too. And maybe I’ll find answers.
Q: You mentioned the Book of Psalms. Some of the truths that are found. When you were going through what you went through back in those early days, were there some specific Scriptures, or truths or promises from Scripture that meant a whole lot to you? That helped you get through those difficult days?
A: Oh, yes. I’ve got to tell you this story real quick. When anybody would come into the hospital to read the Bible to me, they’d ask me what do you want read? Well, of course there were many Psalms. Psalm 23 was a favorite. It’s a favorite for us all, whether you are sitting in a dentist chair getting a root canal or whether you are paralyzed in bed, you are holding on to Jesus as your shepherd.
But in the Gospels I always wanted read to me from John chapter 5 where Jesus was at the Pool of Bethesda and I always identified with that man paralyzed, lying there on the straw mat. And I used to picture myself there at the Pool of Bethesda and I kind of imagined Jesus coming into the colonnades and He’s over there causing a kafuffle. Maybe He’s, oh my goodness, maybe He’s healing people. Well, Jesus, over here. Heal me. Don’t pass me by. Heal me. And yet, as often as I ran that mental movie of God, heal me, He never healed me.
Fast-forward 30 years later. 1998 my husband and I are in Israel taking a tour and we just happened to go by the Pool of Bethesda when nobody is there. All the tour buses are gone and there is just me and my girlfriend and I’m looking out and I said to Ken, “Ken, you’re not going to believe it. There were so many times I used to imagine myself here at this very place, by this pool with the covered colonnades and I used to ask for Jesus to heal me. “ Well, at that point, Ken wondered down the dusty trail to investigate the ruins and I leaned my arm on the guardrail, tears streaming down my face as I said, “Oh, Jesus, you brought me here 38 years later, as many years as that man was paralyzed on that straw mat, so that I might tell you thank you. Thank you because a no answer to physical healing has meant a big yes answer to a far more profound and deeper healing, a settledness of soul. A kind of peace that’s profound and joy that effervesces, an intimacy with you that I wouldn’t trade for being on my feet any day. And, Jesus, thank you for healing me in a way I never expected.” And it was those Scriptures where I could easily picture myself in the midst of the action that really resonated with me then, and still resonate with me now.
Q: Well, there’s no doubt that Scriptures are something that play a pivotal role in situations like what you were going through, what so many other people are going through, in depression and uncertainty. But, I want you to take just a moment and give us some coaching because I know certainly in those days and probably every day since there have been Christians, good-meaning Christians who have come to you and they’ve made the statement, “Hey, I’m praying for you” and “Can I help you?” and “What can I do for you?” Give some coaching to those of us who are trying to help those who are going through situations like you’ve gone through. There are some things that we do that are probably good but there are probably some things that we do trying to be helpful but really are not being helpful. Are there some things that you can think of there?
A: Oh yes, absolutely. For any of our friends looking in, pray. Pray. I just shared with you earlier that it was the prayers of my high school buddies that really cracked the tough exterior of resentment and bitterness that had encased my heart in fear. I was so paralyzed by anxiety about the future but I know it was their prayers, faithful, committed specific prayer that made all the difference. Let’s not make light of prayer. Gather around that hurting family member or that loved one for whom you are praying. Gather around them a whole cadre of 4,5, 6 other prayer warriors, who like yourself will take their needs before the throne every day in a specific way. And, boy, that will…oh, you give God that inch and He’ll take a mile. And He’ll make so much of it in the life of that person for whom you are praying. Whether that person is the lost sheep on the cliff rejecting God, whether that friend is going through cancer, or that friend is going through divorce, whatever. Pray for them.
And secondly, be a friend. I mean don’t be quick with a shooting from the hip, the pistol of you know, trigger pointing people to all the answers that you think are all neat and tidy and organized. When people suffer, it’s like, it is like God has thrown a hand grenade into their life and blown their life to smithereens. And it hurts. So just come around them and be a friend. Don’t be quick to give answers. Just give “The Answer, “ Jesus, through your hands and your time and your touch. Don’t be quick with a bunch of words. Just give “The Word” through the presence of your companionship and sharing the fellowship of that suffering. Just putting that person at ease. And, I don’t know, just doing all the sorts of things that you normally might do.
I remember when I was first injured, the friends who meant the most to me were the ones who just said, “Hey, Joni, there’s a picnic in the park going on today. How about we throw you in the front seat of our Camaro and drive over there and we’ll have fun listening to the band.” Or taking me to the Mall, to a boutique, just hanging out with me, just looking at the latest colors of Revlon nail color. I don’t know, just things that showed that this person loved me and I wasn’t a project. I wasn’t their Christian project. I wasn’t a missions project. I was someone they wanted to be with and love to Jesus. That’s good advice. It’s basic but it’s powerful.
Q: Just being real.
A: Absolutely.
Q: Well, here we are decades after the accident. I know you’ve been through many many years and you’ve had time to process these things and certainly, God has been using you in an amazing way through these years. But I have to ask the question. Now after these many years after the accident, are there still times that in your heart and in your mind that you sit back and say “God, why?” Is there any uncertainty even today? About why did I have to go through this? Why, God , did this happen?
A: Well you are right, Jonathan, it’s been decades since you and I met and I’m what 60 now. You’re in your forties now. I’m in my sixties and that’s a whole new ballgame. After having gone through the change of life, I started having pain like, hello, where did that come from? I never had pain for the thirty years that I was in my wheelchair, thirty-five years. And now that I’ve been forty-some odd years in my wheelchair I’m experiencing chronic pain. And it at times has been overwhelming. And at times my heart has been bleeding and I look at the Lord Jesus and say, “Oh, Jesus, I just don’t think I can do this. Quadriplegia and pain is just too much of a burden to bear. Are you sure that you know what you are doing?”
But at moments like that I’ve got to remember that God does not, He does not say into each life a little rain must fall and then aim a hose in earth’s general direction to see who gets the wettest. No, His trial for me is specific, it’s ordained, it is designed, it is meticulous, it is sovereignly, carefully put together to meet the need of the moment in my life. God has given me everything that I need that is necessary for life. And for anything that is not necessary, I don’t have it. So that means this pain is designed by Him for this moment.
And the Scripture that has touched me the most and I’ve clung to it in those times that I feel overwhelmed, is Hebrews 13 verse 5 where it says, “He himself has said.” I love that. It’s not just Jesus. It’s Jesus Himself, Jesus said this. “I will never forsake you nor will I desert you.” Joni, you can bear this with my grace and if you want my joy on a deeper more intimate level, it means you ‘re gonna have to do the First Peter, chapter 2, verse 21 thing, “To this we are called because Christ suffered for you. Follow my example. Follow in my steps.” Daily take up the cross and die to the fear of the future. Die to the worry. Die to those thoughts that you think you can’t do it without His grace. Die to that. Take up your cross daily and die to those sins as I have taken up my cross and died for your sins. That’s what it means to be intimate with me, in that little inner sanctum of fellowshipping in His sufferings in a place where sometimes only our worst fears will take us.
Q: You know as a pastor, Joni, I have the opportunity and the privilege really many times to be with someone maybe in the last moments of their life, to be with families after they’ve lost a loved one or after an accident in those types of situations. And as a pastor I often pray with them and I share with them the statements, many that you’ve shared today and the Scriptures that you’ve shared today. And you know that you’ve got to trust God, God doesn’t make mistakes, but you know coming from me it’s one thing. Coming from you it’s a completely different thing and it’s a completely different perspective. What has God taught you during this time of many decades? What has God taught you and how has this helped you deepen your relationship with Almighty God?
A: Well, two things real quick. First, He’s not fast to give us answers. Don’t be looking for Him to pull out the blueprint of your life and explain it all. It’s not going to happen. It just ain’t gonna happen, because God’s interested in something else. When we ask why, I don’t think, even if He did give us answers, it would make any difference. It would be like you know, pouring million gallon truths into our one-ounce little pea brains. We just couldn’t contain it all. We couldn’t understand it all. So I think when we ask why we aren’t so much looking for answers anyway, we are really looking for God to be “Daddy” and pick that hurting child up who has skinned his knee and says, “Why, Daddy?” And we just want Daddy not to give us a lot of answers and stand there and say, “Well, sweetheart, you shouldn’t have been riding your bike so fast, and you should watch the gravel and next time take care of the trajectory.” No, we don’t want that. We don’t want the answers. We just want Daddy to pick us up and press us against His breast and say, “There, there, honey.” And pat us on the back and say, “Sweetheart, it’s okay. Daddy’s here. It’s okay. God is here. It’s okay. Sweetheart, I’m with you through this. I’m not going to leave you.” I think that’s what we really want. We want God to be Daddy when we are hurting and when we are confused about the future. And we want Him to just assure us that our world is not spinning out of control in some nightmarish chaos. We just want Him to be Daddy and be right there in the midst of our suffering.
The second thing that I’ve learned, God permits what He hates to accomplish that which He loves. Short and simple.
Q: You know, Joni there are people right now who are watching this time together, our time and our conversation here and you know what, they’re going through different types of situations where their future is uncertain. They don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. It might be something like a lost job, it might be something like a marriage that’s falling apart. It might be a bad report from the doctor, maybe even a physical challenge like you’ve been through, and they are sitting there and they are saying, “What do I do now?” What would you say directly to them? Not in our conversation but from your heart directly to their heart, what would you say to them, Joni? Hey, this is what you need to do?
A: Well, the one wonderful thing about suffering is it sure makes you empathize with other people who hurt. And although my disability may be different than your limitation, maybe you feel crippled by fear or handicapped by your singleness or maybe you feel paralyzed by your life circumstances, whatever they might be. In a way, in some small way I can empathize. And so these words are not, they’re not trite, pat, they’re not platitudes. I’m not trying to pat you on the head and dish out to you advice that I think you need to swallow. Make you feel a whole lot better. No, I’m just here to give you Jesus. He is the man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And we can’t find anybody who empathizes and understands more intimately with what we are going through than Jesus.
And if I were to give any advice, I would simply encourage you not to turn your back on Him but to welcome this trial as a friend, as it says in James chapter 1 verse 3. I know that sounds impossible to do. It sounds unearthly. And you know what, it is. It‘ll take divine supernatural strength to enable you to welcome this affliction, this life circumstance, this stage you are in right now that’s so painful. Welcome it as a friend, because you know what? It’s going to be the friend that will introduce you to a Jesus you never realized existed before. A Jesus Christ who is enough for your pain. It’s going to take faith to believe that. It’s going to take faith to trust Him and actually step into that place of yes. No to the fear. No to the worry and yes to Jesus. All I can give you is Jesus. But you know what, that will not just be enough for you. It will be more than enough.
In those words, we hear the incredible truths. Incredible statement that at a time when our future is so uncertain, and our heart is bleeding, our heart is broken, we don’t know what to do. It’s in those moments that we see that not only is Jesus enough, He’s more than enough. Joni shared an incredible passage in our time together. She shared out of Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5, and “Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as ye have for he himself,” and I love how she emphasized that. Listen, it’s not what Jonathan says; it’s not what Joni said. Listen, Jesus said this, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.“
But you know that passage goes on in verse 6 to say something equally as important. It says this, because of what Jesus said. Because he will never leave us. Because He will never forsake us. It then goes on to say, Because of that now we may boldly say The Lord is my helper.” The Lord is my helper. “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?” The boulders that drop in the middle of our lives that interrupt everything, that leave us grasping for hope and grasping for future and not sure what to do. Those rocks that drop right in our path. The Lord is our helper. I’ve got nothing to fear. That rock, it’s no big deal because Jesus Himself said, I will not leave you. I will not walk away from you. I will not forsake you. You can count on me.
I think in times like that in our lives when we are broken and when we are hurting and when we’re lost and when we don’t know what the future holds and we’re left in our uncertainty and gripped with that fear; that’s really kind of all we want, isn’t it? That we can count on someone. Listen. Joni said it today better than I could ever say it. I’m not that someone. The person sitting next to you, they’re not that someone. All I can do is give you Jesus. All I can do is give you Jesus. That’s all we need. He’ll be enough. He’ll be more than enough. I give you Jesus.
Because you see Jesus loves us so much that He came and as Joni mentioned today, became the man of sorrows. He was beaten. He was bruised. He was nailed to a cross as we talked about last week. He went through all of that so that He could be our helper. He was buried in that borrowed tomb and three days later He arose again. Why? Because He loves you and me. Because He wants to be the helper that we can depend on, that we can count on. The one that when we don’t know what to do next, when we are lost, when we are uncertain and we are just standing there in our tears and in our fear and in our depression, in our pain that we can read that verse and see that Jesus is our helper. I have nothing to fear.
Today you may be sitting in this room and maybe you’re not sitting in a wheelchair like Joni is, oh, but you are sitting in a wheelchair all the same because of the uncertainty and the pain and the sorrow and the fear has locked you down. It has paralyzed you to the point where you don’t know what to do next. The reason this series is so important is because, you know what? Christ doesn’t want us to live there. Christ wants us to come back to life He wants to give us life more abundantly. More than you can imagine. More than is necessary. Over the top. Incredible. That’s what God wants to do today.
In a moment we’re going to sing a song. A song that tells a story even better. A song that says He is my healer. And in my brokenness, He can heal me. In my pain, He can heal me. In my sorrow, He can heal me. What have I to fear? What do I have to worry about because He is the healer. As we sing that song today I’m just going to ask you just to look inside to get past all of the people sitting around you and all of the circumstances of the day and the hindrances to what you are thinking and the distractions that might be around. And just simply to do this one thing. To look inside and say, “God, am I living the life? Am I experiencing abundant life or am I gripped in fear and sorrow and pain?” If you are, just to simply say, “God, here it is. God, here it is because I can’t do it anymore.” But the Lord is our helper; I have nothing to fear because He Himself said it. I won’t leave you. I am there. You can count on me.”
As we sing that song in a moment, I’m just going to ask you if that’s where you are, maybe you need to come and kneel at this altar. To come here before God and say, “God I need you so badly. God, I’m trying to do it on my own, but God, I can’t do it anymore. God, here it is.” And just give it to Him. Maybe today you need to come and give your life to God. And say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I know that you are the Savior today, God, save me. Save me today. The Lord is our helper. You can count on Him.
Lord, today we’ve opened your Word and we’ve found incredible truths, incredible statements, incredible promises that today each and everyone of us, no matter where we are in life, no matter what our situation, God, all of these promises that you have given to us today, they are meant directly for us. And God, for that we are grateful. Lord, we thank you that today you don’t leave us, that you don’t forsake us. Lord, today we thank you that you are our helper. Lord, we thank you that today we have nothing to fear because we know that you are more than enough, so God today I pray for every person that is hearing my voice right now. In whatever situation or challenge they are going through, whatever problem they are facing, whatever hurt that they are feeling, God that right now, in this moment, in this moment that you would be that helper that they need. That you would give that peace that they desire. You would give that life and that life abundant that you want them to have.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, in a moment we are going to stand. We’re going to sing this song. Our pastors are here. The altar is open. And as we sing, I know there’s brokenness. And I know there’s pain. And I know there’s hurt. And I know there’s sorrow but I know above all else that there is a God in heaven who loves you and there’s a God in heaven who wants to give you everything that you need. A God who is your helper. A God who today in the midst of our fear, in the midst of our sorrow, in the midst of being paralyzed by all of the things of life, He is just simply saying “Come to me. Come to me. Come to me and I will give you rest.”
As we stand and as we sing, step out. No one moving around unless you are coming to this altar right now.
Lord, today we thank you for those that have made their way to this altar and are sitting here and just offering you their lives. They’re saying to you in this moment, God, I can’t do it by myself anymore. God, I give it to you. God, I need you the healer. I need you the helper. God, please. Lord, we thank you that you promise us that you’ll do that. Lord, I pray for every person that is gathered here in this place today. I know that there’s a lot of brokenness here. I know there’s a lot of fear and there’s a lot of uncertainty here. Lord, we know that Satan wants us to live in that uncertainty. He wants to steal and to kill and to destroy. But God, we are so grateful that you sent your son to this earth to give us life. To give it to us more abundantly. God today I pray for those who are standing here. Those who are listening, who are watching, who need to experience that abundance that you want to give.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed this morning, people are kneeling all over this altar, crying out to God and maybe you right now are standing somewhere in this room and you know that you belong right here. You belong at this altar because you know what you are going through and you know what you’re facing and you know how you are gripped in fear and you need to say, God, here it is. This morning we are going, we are going to continue; we’re going to continue to sing. The music’s going to continue to play. Our pastors are going to continue to remain here at the front and as we end this service I want you to know, maybe you didn’t come because of the people around you. Maybe you didn’t come because you didn’t want to climb over. Maybe you were embarrassed, or maybe nervous. Listen, I want you to know that as this service ends, the music’s going to continue and we’re going to stand right here and we want to be here and God wants to be there for you. I’m just asking you to come to the front to make your way to this altar. Say, God, here I am. God, today I know you promised never to leave me or forsake me. God, I need you today. I need you today. As we continue singing as people are leaving, I ask you if you need to come to the front right now, right now, step out and you come to this altar. The Lord is our helper. I have nothing to fear. He is everything that I need and He will be that for you today.