How did that happen?

You can go this week and tell people I go to church where everyone feels like there is a good God, they want to do good, be kind and help people. You can say I know a lot of people who want to do good.

Most people will say, that’s nice, makes sense. Like finding hamburgers at McDonald's or people who want to get well at a hospital.

Do you know though, that there is so much more to being a follower of Jesus than wanting to do good, wanting to be kind and help people? There is more to this amazing God because don’t raise your hands on this one unless your compelled to how many of us found ourselves furious and doing something to get back at someone else; saying it’s ok to do something because other people were doing, stuffing our faces with food we know we shouldn’t eat, drinking too much or for some of us taking the drink we know we cannot have, abusing ourselves with the meanest things we think about ourselves, abusing ourselves with our addictions, ignoring the problems of others because it’s all too much and feeling like God is at least pissed, maybe ashamed of us.

My friends there is a life of purpose, a commitment to a Kingdom, a relationship to God beyond rules.

It is a real relationship that you are being called to or have already been called to, where the God of all of it, the highest of high, the greatest, leads, guides, and directs your ways. God himself! No matter where you are in life, no matter what you have told yourself or done this week, God is presenting himself to you, and inviting you to repent. To be transformed by God by beginning with the understanding that everything about our sinful life is to be discarded. We aren’t just ashamed of it, feel sad about it, we do know it was wrong, but we are committing to follow God and trust him, putting on the new way of life. This is repentance.

Ephesians 4:22–23 The Message

22 Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, 23 a life renewed from the inside

That new life is a gift from God. It comes because we can trust God to show us the way through the pain, to be with us rather than rely on ourselves, and what we are willing to do. We can trust that God can work on the total idiot at work, and that we do not have to punish them, instead we can do as Jesus shows us and love them.

How does this happen with all the stuff going on in your life, because the amazing highest of high God. God the Father, came to us, in Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, so that you could be saved. So that you can be loved to the point that he paid the price for your sin, on the cross, and the Holy Spirit, raised Christ Jesus from the dead, conquering sin and death so that this life right now, is just preparation for eternal life for all who follow the Lord Jesus.

My friends Jesus did this for you.

How many of you have seen the amazing new pictures of our universe from the new observatory satellite? The God of the universe.

The God who sees all of that cares about you.

Don’t believe that I can understand why.

I heard that Jay Lo and Ben got married again on July 16. So nice, that’s

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck for those of you not as connected like me. Surprisingly they didn’t invite me to the wedding, Anyone else here? No, of course they didn’t and they don’t know me, couldn’t know me because they are small. They are just like you and me and can only care about a few people maybe at the most 250? They may know thousands and be able to recall with some help even more but they can’t really have a relationship with me or you.

God is not limited.

Check this piece from the ancient Bible that reveals who God is.

Galatians 1:15 The Message

15 Even then God had designs on me. Why, when I was still in my mother’s womb he chose and called me out of sheer generosity!

God knows us before we even know ourselves. God wants us to know Him. The history of this universe is about God revealing who He is to you and me.

Think about it.

The history of the universe is about God revealing who He is to you and me. God shows us in His ancient texts. It happened before and since God is the same yesterday, today and forever the stuff that happened back then can and does still happen. I’m going to share with you a story of God still doing it today later but I know that if you ask around you will hear the stories of God revealing himself and working in the lives of people around you.

Along the way in this learning that God is our savior, bigger than us just being good, we are going to look at the most amazing change, how a person’s life goes from being about themselves to being about Jesus. You might have heard it called “being saved” or being born again” both phrases straight from the Bible, but what does that look like?

We don’t make up what being “born again” means, we go straight to the source for what God reveals about himself in the ancient Bible and can learn what God is doing today.

This is from one of the earliest followers of Jesus and a writer of a lot of the Christian Bible, Paul the apostle, The Bible never changes but our language is always changing so I am using a Bible that uses words a little bit easier to understand called the Message, same Bible just with simpler words. These are Paul’s words first written in Greek in the simplest way I think for us to understand:

Galatians 1:11–16 The Message

11 Know this—I am most emphatic here, friends—this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism. 12 I didn’t receive it through the traditions, and I wasn’t taught it in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ. 13 I’m sure that you’ve heard the story of my earlier life when I lived in the Jewish way. In those days I went all out in persecuting God’s church. I was systematically destroying it. 14 I was so enthusiastic about the traditions of my ancestors that I advanced head and shoulders above my peers in my career. 15 Even then God had designs on me. Why, when I was still in my mother’s womb he chose and called me out of sheer generosity! 16 Now he has intervened and revealed his Son to me so that I might joyfully tell non-Jews about him. Immediately after my calling—without consulting anyone around me

Those simple words are powerful. Here was a guy, named Saul among his Jewish friends going by the name Paul among his Greek and Roman friends, who said God revealed himself to Him.

The God of the Universe, the God who died for our sins and rose again. Revealed himself to Paul.

God must choose to reveal himself to you for you to follow Him. Friends, this is always true. Sometimes it can seem like us pastors or church people are giving all the power to a person to pick Jesus like you might vote for President or something. When I share up hear, it might sound like I am saying pick Jesus! That’s not what is happening.

It is the accepting of what God has shown you. It is the truth being revealed to you and you saying I will follow what God already did for me. Being saved is realizing what God has already done.

This is opposite of those who say, “I don’t believe that.” God has not chosen to reveal that to you. It doesn’t make it untrue, it means the person who says, “ I don’t believe that” hasn’t seen it yet. This is a deep spiritual truth behind the arrogance of humanity.

An example.

Formula for speed is D=RT Distance = Rate X Time. If someone learns about this and then says I don’t believe that, agree with that, doesn’t change what it is.

If someone says no, “D=RT” is not how you find speed. I don’t believe that! By refusing to believe or agree is a way for a person to take back the power and seem superior. You can even get louder than the other person saying Distance - Rate X Time is stupid. Who goes at a rate? This rejection of truth is what we see done often by everyone in politics. I do mean everyone. Yet truth is still truth. It doesn’t matter where you are in the universe D=RT is always true.

Jesus is God who came to save us from an end that will leave us stuck in our sin, our screwed up ways and away from God. This is an eternal and universal truth. Jesus is our savior.

God who is bigger than all of us, needs none of us. He is greater than our understanding and does not need us to exist.

Even if no one claimed him, no buildings existed in his honor, God still exists.

Even in places where it is illegal to teach children about him, illegal to become a Christian, God still reveals himself to people. Even if no one is teaching you, God can and does reveal himself to people

Galatians 1:15–16 (CSB)

15 But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me

Before Paul even had the ability to talk God was ready to reveal his true self to him. The Holy Spirit, God is still working today. Revealing himself to people where it is illegal to learn about Jesus. You can stop God. It is happening today, God is miraculously revealing himself to people.

I read this story from our friends at Voice of the Martyrs, a group who helps Christians who are persecuted by being arrested, denied work, kicked out by family members, kidnapped, raped or murdered, all over the word. Here is one man’s story.

“Turn away from Islam and follow me,” the man in white told him.

When Abel awoke the next morning at his home in Nigeria, he had no idea what the dream meant. And no matter how hard he tried, he could not forget the man in his dream. “The next day, again, it happened to me,” Abel said. “I had that same dream for three days.”

(A man in white telling him “Turn away from Islam and follow me.”)

Abel shared the details of the dream with his father and mother, who called it demonic and urged the 28-year-old to recite Muslim prayers to cleanse his mind. He followed their advice, but the dream persisted.

(A man in white telling him “Turn away from Islam and follow me.”)

Seeking relief from his anxiety and confusion, Abel decided to tell a Christian friend about the dream. His friend then arranged for Abel to meet a pastor, who told Abel he believed the man in the dream was Jesus. After explaining that Jesus is more than the prophet that Muslims portray him to be, the pastor shared the gospel with Abel.

The pastor’s explanation of the dream angered Abel, who had always been taught that the Bible had been changed and that Jesus was only a prophet. But as he lay awake that night recalling the dream and the pastor’s explanation, he could only think of more questions he had about Jesus.

One night the pastor gave him a Bible, and Abel began to read it on his own. The more he visited the pastor and read the Bible, the more he felt at peace.

Finally, on Dec. 18, 2006, Abel placed his faith in Jesus. Excited about his new faith, he soon shared the news with one of his brothers.

Knowing that Abel could be killed if their fanatical Muslim father found out, his mother advised him to keep it a secret. Few among their Fulani people group (in Nigeria) are Christian, and those who leave Islam always face persecution, sometimes even death. Abel agreed to keep his Christian faith quiet.

When Abel told the pastor that he had shared the news with his mother, the pastor explained what it meant for him to take up his cross. “There is a high price for the one who follows Jesus,” the pastor told him. “It might cause you to lose your life.”

Eventually, Abel’s father learned of his new faith and immediately called Abel to ask if the news was true. When Abel confirmed his father’s fears, he told him to leave the house. As a proud Fulani Muslim, he could not have a Christian living in his home.

Abel moved to a different city and eventually connected with a VOM-supported training center that provides refuge for Christian converts from Islam. In addition to the fellowship and relative protection he received at the training center, Abel participated in a discipleship program that helped him grow in faith.

Abel’s family, who had learned where he was living, grew increasingly angry about his conversion to Christianity and decided to send one of his brothers, a former classmate, and two other men to kidnap him. The former classmate called him and, pretending that he wanted to catch up, invited him to lunch. During their conversation at a cafe, a van pulled up and the other men jumped out and forced Abel into the van.

The men told him that if he refused to return to Islam, he would pay a price. “I am not going back to Islam,” Abel replied. “Now I am a Christian.”

The men locked Abel in a room, where he received no food except for scraps that his youngest brother was able to sneak to him. After two weeks, another of Abel’s brothers came and ordered him to return to Islam. “I am not going back to Islam, because what I have seen is the truth, and I have made up my mind to stand on that truth,” Abel told him.

His brother then stabbed him several times and began to beat him with rods. But not even torture could persuade Abel to leave Jesus.

His brother eventually left the room, locking the door behind him. But Abel’s mother, heartbroken for her son, sent her daughter to unlock the door and set Abel free.

Abel fled to a smaller city in Nigeria, where he thought he would be safe from his family. After visiting several churches there in hope of finding someone who could help him, a pastor finally agreed to hear his story. The pastor, after a long discussion with Abel, suggested that he stay there and continue discipleship training.

“I went to Bible school to know God more and to be strong in the Lord so that any future challenge like what happened to me would not shake me,” he said.

Since 2011, Abel has discipled other Christian converts from Islam at the training center, helping them gain the same unwavering faith that he now has. Because he has overcome many of the same obstacles they have faced, they trust him as they seek to follow the same Jesus who hasn’t left Abel since that first dream.

In a place where your family beats you, kidnaps you and stabs you because you follow Jesus people don’t often easily change. Yet Jesus still reveals himself today.

If you have ever heard the term testimony, that is what I just read to you, it is the story of how God revealed himself to a person. Some of you know, like Abel, how God revealed himself to you. For Paul the guy who wrote the part of the Bible we read earlier, he did it through an appearance in the midst of sin.

To Abel in Nigeria in 2006 Jesus revealed himself in a dream. about 2000 years ago Jesus revealed himself physically to Paul in a great light.

Some of you can instantly know how God revealed himself to you, Others you might think nothing special happened. Some of you here today, who know that you are a follower of Jesus might think something like I went to church, I read the Bible, I talked to my Bible study teacher, pastor, or someone and then got baptized. You might even think you did it, because you finally realized it was time to say I want a different life than the drugs or some other thing you were involved in. But

Go deeper and see the circumstances that led you to follow Jesus

or even how did you come up with the thought of what you needed to do or even accepting the invitation of someone to come home, the circumstances were acts of God orchestrating the work.

You didn’t figure it out, God laid it out for you.

I can give you examples from scripture of a guy who just gets invited to see Jesus, and then realizes it is an orchestrated even just for Him to be open to the revealing of Jesus.

John 1:44–49 CSB

44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” 46 “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him. “Come and see,” Philip answered. 47 Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered. 49 “Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!”

You are just like Nathaniel. All of us, God revealed himself to us. Nathaniel simply said yeah, I want to go see something weird and Jesus just says Hi, I know you.

For those who are born again - remember God must reveal himself to a person,

John 6:44 (CSB)

44 No one can come to me (Jesus) unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Some of who have been in the church along time probably were told to share your testimony. That God commands us to share Jesus with other people. It’s an awesome honor to share Jesus with others but most people I know never do it and the number one reason I hear is fear. What if I screw it up? What if I tell them, they reject Jesus because I get it all wrong. I say the wrong things. It just makes it so awkward or whatever.

My friends, God reveals himself to people. He chooses to use you in the process. It’s not up to your perfect argument, your amazing memory, the ability you have to argue that cause of Christ. Just show up and be open and honest about Jesus in your life.

When I ask my kids to go get their brother or their sister, they just need to tell them. It’s on their brother or sister to obey me. Believe me if their brother or sister gets ignored, I will not be ignored, I am going to reveal myself to my kids.

It is God who is revealing himself to people. You are getting invited along for the joy.

My friends live as followers of Jesus, always, when people are watching and when they aren’t. Love others and pray for them to be saved, to come to know the love of Jesus that you know, and be willing to be awkward to share that you love Jesus and why whenever you can without worrying if you are perfect or not.

For God reveals Himself to people and if he is revealing himself to you today,

Today some of you are getting it for the first time. God is revealing himself to you.

Today you need to accept this revelation. Accept it.

In just a minute, I am going to invite people to come pray at the front.

Those of you who are part of New Day, you are always here. If your willing to pray with people today, grab your Lord’s supper, thank God for our communion with Him and come pray at the front.

If you are accepting Jesus today. Then you come in repentance today.

Come forward and say yes to God today.

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