In a few weeks, in a few weeks, we're gonna be jumping back into the book of Romans. If you're new, if you're joining us online for the first time, uh we we've been going through this letter in the New Testament called Romans for a long while, and it's probably the most comprehensive explanation of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us and what that means for us and what our condition apart from Jesus would be, but what living connected to Jesus does for us and how we live that out. It's extremely comprehensive. And so we're taking our time with Romans and we'll go through a bunch of it and then we'll take a little break. But in just a few weeks, we're gonna jump back in and finish up Romans chapter 8, which honestly is probably one of the most climactic sections of Scripture that we have. A lot of people's favorite verses are in Romans chapter 8. It's awesome. And the entire focus of that section is what it really means to be a child of God, to live as a child of God. Romans 8:15 says that we have not received a spirit that makes us fearful slaves. No, instead you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him Abba Father. And Abba was a very personal word that you would use to talk to your father. It's less formal, more personal. Now we get to call him Abba Father. And so we've received God's Spirit. We put our faith in Jesus, and he's adopted us as his children. We are now the children of God. Now that's one of those phrases that we throw out a lot pretty casually. And, you know, usually when we say, oh, I'm a child of God, it's kind of this feel-good sentiment. Like it's encouraging. It's really interesting to think about yourself as a child of God. It means that God loves you and that's great. But oftentimes it doesn't go further than that for us, at least in the term, at least in the way we think about it. You know, I'm a child of God and that makes me feel good and I'm accepted. And yeah, that's that's true, but there's so much more. Because if you really are the son or daughter of God, if he has adopted you, if that's not a metaphor, which by the way, the language is not metaphoric. It's not saying you're like a child of God. It's not it's not an analogy, it's not someone saying, you know, it's kind of like you're God's kids. No, no, it says that God the Father has adopted you. You are now the son or the daughter of God. And then it goes so far to say that you are a co-heir with Jesus. That's intense. You are co-with Jesus in God the Father's eyes. So you're not like a child of God. You are a child of God, and if that is true, that is not just a warm, fuzzy sentiment. That's just not just something that makes you feel good. That is a life-changing reality. Because if look, if you're the child of someone important, that changes things. For example, let's say, let's say your dad was the mayor of the city you lived in. By the way, anyone grow up as the child of a mayor? I'm just curious. Anybody? No? Any if you're online and you're the child of the mayor, just hit the like button, we'll find it. But uh, but like if you were the child of the mayor, mayor, that would open up some opportunities for you locally. That would change a few things, right? But take it a step further. Let's say you grew up and your father happened to be the governor of the state that you lived in. Well, that would change even more. Let's say your father was the president, that would change a ton. You could get away with just about anything. That's not a sorry. It's not a political ding, but it is true. I mean, it's true. Let's let's take it a step further. Let's say you're the child of the God of the entire universe in which you exist. What does that change for you? Everything. If we actually grab a hold of the fact that we are the sons and the daughters of the living God, and we believe that, and we understand that, and we learn how to live that out, that changes everything. It's not just a nice thought, it's not just a warm sentiment intended to make you feel a little bit better when you're going through a rough patch. No, you are the son or the daughter of God. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, that changes everything for your life, and we've got to explore what that really means so we can really grab a hold of it, so we can actually experience the benefits, the blessings, and honestly the challenges that come with being the child of the king. So in a couple weeks, we're gonna jump back into Romans 8 and talk about that. But the reason I'm saying that we're doing that in a couple of weeks because is because first, I thought it would be really helpful for us to get ourselves in the mindset of a child. Because if we're gonna think about what it means to be a child of God, we actually have to think like a child, which is harder for us than we might admit. Jesus actually said this in Matthew chapter 18. There's a situation where some of his disciples come to him and ask, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? They were always asking that question. And it's like they always anticipated Jesus to point to one of them and be like, You are. And they'd be like, See, told you, I knew it was me. That's never how it goes, though. It's always a bad question to ask Jesus. And so Jesus called a little child to him, and he put the child among them, and he said, I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The way things work in Jesus' economy, the kingdom is just his way of life. His way of life on this earth, his kingdom. It's always upside down from the way that the world works. And so the servants are the greatest. The humble child is the greatest. And this is a really powerful teaching if you think about it. It's one of those teachings that if you've grown up in church, it's kind of cliched, like, oh yeah, Jesus wants to approach him like a child, let's have faith, childlike faith, that kind of thing. But but honestly, it's it's super loaded. And as I was reading and studying and preparing for jumping back into Romans, talking about what it really means to be a child of God, it hit me that you know what, if I can't think like a child, if I can't engage with God like a child, like Jesus said to, then I'll never really be able to grasp what it means to be his kid. And so we're gonna spend a few weeks talking about what it means to approach God like a child so that we can experience what life is like like the child of God. I'm gonna start with a question. So I'm gonna just do some soul searching, really think about this. When is the last time that your jaw literally dropped in amazement? When is the last time you saw something that just blew you away and you couldn't contain yourself and you just went like that? I've got some friends that uh that we've got this like ongoing text thread. I love text threads. I don't know if you guys have those where you've got like seven or eight different people that text you and you just kind of keep it going. Anyone, anyone have those that you enjoy? Anyone hate those and avoid them at all costs? Okay. Um I quick aside, this was not planned. I promise I'll bring it back, but a few years ago, I got included accidentally in a text thread from some family in like the Midwest, and I had no idea who any of these people were, but it was Christmas, and I get a text, and there's like 12 people on the text, and it says, Merry Christmas, we miss you guys. Someone had just transposed the wrong number. And I'm getting pictures of this family's house, and it's snowing, and and I'm just like, Megan's like, what are you gonna do? I'm like, I'm gonna ride this out as long as I can. So for six months, for six entire months, occasionally I would just throw out like back to that thread, miss you guys, how's it all going? And they'd respond back, and then eventually I got this one text as I kept who is this? I don't have this number saved. And I was like, the jig is up. So I just literally texted the family, hey, not to be creepy, but you guys included me in this text thread like six months ago. It's been wonderful to get to know your family, but uh, I don't know any of you at all. So it was awesome. Hey, when life presents you with an opportunity like that, you gotta you gotta take it. Megan was like, I would never do that. I'm like, I know. But and she's probably right, you shouldn't do that, but I did. So I like text threads, and I've got this thread with my friends, and you know, we'll we'll share funny stuff and oftentimes, you know, pray requests, but also when something really good happens, you know, you get on there like, hey guys, this happened. It's awesome. And my favorite way to respond to good news in a text thread is I have this go-to gift. This go-to. And and I I have it for you guys, I want to show you. This is my go-to. Like, I love it. Leave it looping for just a second. This is like, so a couple things. That's uh the character Andy Dwyer from Parks and Rec. Anybody a Parks and Rec fan? Okay. Um I used to get compared to Andy Dwyer often, before I'd ever watched the show. Uh, and once Chris Pratt lost a lot of weight, became an action star, never got compared to him again. But uh, but basically it's because he's just a giant child, and that's the way I guess people saw me. And so the reason I love this so much, before you guys take it down, is it's so endearing because you don't like it's such a childlike expression. That is the way children respond when something amazing happens, but adults don't do that. And so seeing an adult do that in loop form, especially, it's just it's just awesome. It's just awesome. You guys can take that down. That is that is my go-to response anytime someone shares something awesome. And it's just it's so endearing to see someone drop their jaw in amazement and wonder. And you know what? I have four kids, so I see that expression all the time. And it doesn't even take that much. A couple weeks ago, I took my kids to a park up in Ball ground, and this park has a bunch of ducks and geese, and you can you can feed them. I don't know if you're supposed to, but they're there, so we did. And we brought a bunch of bread, and we're like tearing off pieces of bread and throwing it, and my youngest son Eli, every single time a duck would eat his piece of bread, he would do that exact expression. And he would just turn and be like it was the most amazing, he's never seen anything like it. You know, a duck ate a piece of bread, and he is just his life is complete, you know, he's never experienced anything greater. He's that easily amazed. You know, if it snows outside, the kids go to the window and it's like snow. And I mean, we live in Georgia, they don't see snow that often, but it's it's snowed enough. It's not like they've never seen it before. But there's something about children, they are so easily left in a state of wonder. And that's what I want to talk about this morning, is wonder. If we're gonna be God's kids, if we're gonna live engaging with God in the way that we're meant to and experience all that goes with that, we have to be people who have the ability to be left in awe, to have a wonder in our hearts for God. We actually have to be people who can have our jaws drop in amazement over who God is and what he does. Very often, all right, someone started the clap thing, you gotta do it. Two weeks from now, we're gonna have a clap training session, and after the service, we're gonna just work this out. Because we still as a church, we have, if you're new here, we haven't figured out the whole clapping thing. Sometimes one person claps and then we just no one knows what to do. But uh, it always comes from this side of the room, but it's all good. So sometimes I I we we think in terms of of what is more spiritual, and it's easy for us to go, oh, having really deep theological conversations about God, that's a super spiritual thing to do. But in reality, dropping your jaw and just being amazed and blown away by God is as spiritual of a thing as you can do this side of heaven. And honestly, it's something you'll do on the other side of heaven. When you when you get a glimpse in scripture into heaven, the angels who who see God all the time, they're not like over it. They're not like, oh yeah, that's that's God. You know, it's not like someone goes and gets this vision of heaven and they're like, this is amazing. And the angels are like, I don't know what you're talking about. This is this is God, like He's always there. The angels themselves are worshiping God constantly. They're they're blown away by His presence and they're in His presence all the time. And so sometimes, guys, the the most spiritual thing you can do, the deepest, most powerful spiritual act you can do is just to drop your jaw in wonder when you consider and think and reflect on who God is, what he's capable of, what he's done. Wonder is it's a spiritual discipline. And it's something that children do so much easier than we do as we get up, as we get older. When's the last time your jaw dropped? And honestly, think about this. Is there anything, is there anything in life that brings you back to that place where where children just live, where your jaw drops and you just go, wow. What makes you go wow? Think about that for a second. I I have a few things that that do actually take me back to that childlike mindset where I'm just blown away and I want to share my amazement with other people around me. One of those things is sleight of hand card tricks. I don't know why, but I a sleight of hand card trick can just it just I go wow, that's the most amazing thing. And it annoys my wife because I'll go on this YouTube like black hole sometimes where I'll watch one and I'll be like, Megan, watch that. And she's not as impressed as I am. Um but I have that same expression, and I'll just watch the next one and the next one. And I I love it. And so it's funny, I actually have a friend, and a lot of you guys know this guy, his name's Arthur, and he is incredible at sleight of hand. And I thought, since we're talking about wonder, since we're trying to be like children, wouldn't it be fun if we actually got to experience that? If we could like have a moment where we'd drop our jaw and just go wow. So I called Arthur and I said, Hey, can you come on stage on Sunday morning and just wow people with one sleight of hand card trick? And he said, sure. And so uh so the pressure's on, okay? Pressure's on for Arthur, but it's also on for you. Don't be prideful, and if it blows you away, be like, eh, I mean, it seemed better. Don't do that. Arthur, you want to make your way out? You guys give Arthur a round of applause as he comes out. He's an awesome guy. If you recognize Arthur, it's because he also plays keys in the worship band, so that's great. And he helps out in our kids' areas a ton. And so with that said, I'm just gonna hand it to you.

That's it. It's it's up to me now.

Yeah, you have to blow people away. You get one shot.

So all right, let's do this so we can see it. Let's turn this on right here. So this is a card trick. I'm not gonna use a full deck of cards, so I'm just gonna use a uh a small selection of cards that I've collected over the years. And these cards, they're all the same. They're the best card, they're the aces. They come from different decks, though all the decks looked alike as well. And even though all these cards are the same, each one of them can do something incredibly unique. Let me show you what I mean. We'll take them and we'll um we'll set them out like this. We'll have a face up ace, face down ace, face up ace, face down ace. We'll call this the mixed pile of face up and face down, and uh these aces over here, these are all gonna be the face-up aces. Alright, now you gotta watch. If I take a face down ace and place it on top of these and just give a little shake and a little wave like that, they play follow the leader and they all turn face down. Just like that. If I take a face-up ace and place it on top and give another wave and a little snap, they all play follow the leader and turn face up. I'll do it again. Now you know what to watch for, don't blink. Just a little wave, a little shake, a little snap, and all of them turn again face down in front of your eyes. Now this last one creates a problem for me because it's the last ace here. When I add it to the pile and give a shake, and when all of them turn face up again, I'm a little bit outnumbered. We have three face up now, just to two face down. So we'll recruit somebody here. Turn them face down, give a little shake, and they all turn face down one more time. And now we have an even pile. Here to make another face up, we just give a little snap like this. And that leaves me with the last two face down aces. Now, here's kind of the pretty part. I told you that all these aces came from different decks, though they look the same, but these really did. You see, this one comes from a purple deck of cards. This one comes from a green deck, and these that's orange and that's black. And this last ace over here is kind of cool. He really becomes the leader. He leads them all into a perfect hand in a game of cards. There you go. Well done. Well done. I know you want to touch them.

I do, I really do like goodness gracious. I'm just go away. Just get out of here. Mess like messes with my hand. I love it. All right, does anyone drop their jama and awesome wild and a muscle? Well done. So Arthur and I will uh we'll grab breakfast together, you know, every so often, and every time we do, I'll go, hey man, do you have a deck of cards on it? And he always does. And and to this day, he's never done the same trick twice. And I'm it's always the same. I just kind of go, like, stop. This is crazy. Like, how do you do that? It just makes my jaw drop, and I'm in awe. I'm in I'm feeling that sense of wonder. A few years ago, Arthur and I were having breakfast together, and the night before I had gone down one of those YouTube black holes watching card tricks, and I saw this one that it blew me away. I was like, this is awesome. And I remember I'm meeting with Arthur tomorrow. I'm gonna show him this. And so I did. I I sat across from Arthur and I pulled up my phone and I said, Arthur, dude, check this out. I saw this last night. And he watched it, and his response was, uh. And I was like, What are you kidding me? Like, Arthur, like, look at that, watch it again. You must have missed it because that was amazing. And then it hit me. Oh, wait a minute, he knows what happened. Like, he he sees all the things I don't see. And so that sense of awe and wonder, I kind of sometimes I feel bad because like Arthur, he doesn't get that same sense of awe and wonder whenever he sees card tricks. Like for me, it's something that's so out of left field, I don't understand it, it blows me away. But he doesn't have that same experience. And I think the truth is when it comes to God, sometimes the longer we follow God, those of you who've maybe been in church for a long time, same thing can kind of happen to us where we we lose that sense of awe and wonder because, you know, we've we've heard that story, we've we've worshipped him so many times, it can become normal. And I think what's vital for us as Jesus followers, especially if we're gonna engage God like a child, is to never let God be normal. I don't mean not not normal in the sense of he's familiar and he's close. But it's vital that we we never believe that we've got him figured out. It's vital that we never allow ourselves to think that we've we've seen it all, we've experienced it all, we get it, we get the God stuff. In fact, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 8 puts it really simply. Or sorry, chapter 8, verse 2. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much.

Right?

Anyone who claims to have all the answers doesn't know very much. It's very important for us to reflect on all of the unknown, unexplainable, unthinkable, unbelievable aspects of God. I'll give you an example. Psalm chapter 8. The entire chapter is just a chapter of wonder, being in awe of God. And it begins by by the psalmist writing, O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth. Your glory is higher than the heavens. You've taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. When I look at the night sky and I see the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you set in place, what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Some translations say, When I consider the work of your hands. And in this situation, the writer, he's he's looking up at the heavens, he's looking up at the night sky, and he's taking it all in. And you know, this is thousands of years ago before there was electricity, and and your view of the night sky was not robbed by any of that stuff at all. So he's just seeing it all, and he says, Looking at this, I recognize how big this is, and how small I am. What are mere humans that you would even think about us? And you know what's interesting. Typically, the more you learn about something, the less it blows you away. But our universe is one of those unique things where the more we learn about it, the more it actually rocks our world. And so years ago, I was a youth pastor, and there's a pastor in Atlanta named Louis Giglio. Louis has been an unbelievable pastor for a very long time. He's written some incredible books, and if you're not familiar with them, check them out. Louis had this talk that he was giving really all across the country. And it was called God of Wonders. And I got a DVD copy of it, and it impacted me so much that I used to just have the youth group watch it once a year. Because again, we just need to be blown away by God. And in this, in this, he talked about some of the aspects of our universe that we can't fully comprehend. But if we recognize the fact that our God made that, that's who our God is. It just fills you with wonder. There's no other thing to do but to just go, wow. For example, there's a star in our universe, the biggest star that we've been able to find. It's called Canis Majoris. Quick show of hands, how many of you have heard of this before? You've heard of Canus Majoris. Okay, not that many. Guys, it's it's huge on a scale that we can't even comprehend. And this is something that Louis talked about in this message years ago. It's so large that you could fit four quadrillion earths inside of it. Now, that's a number that we don't really even understand. Quadrillion. And to give you perspective, um one million seconds ago would be about 11 days ago. But one quadrillion, one quadrillion seconds ago would be about 32 million years ago. That's how much bigger a quadrillion is. And four quadrillion earths could fit inside this star. And in this message, Louis said that if you had four quadrillion golf balls, for example, you could cover the state of Texas in golf balls almost two feet deep. And that's how many earths fit inside this star. And so when when David is writing, when I look up at the heavens and I see all that you've put into place, like he didn't know that. He didn't know that there was a star out there that could fit four quadrillion earths. He actually didn't even know uh really what the earth was and how big the earth was. But but the more we've learned about the universe we're in, the more it actually blows us away. I feel like if you could go back in time and say, hey David, you know what you wrote in Psalm 8 about looking up at the heavens and being like, wow, you were you were right to a degree that you don't even understand. Like our God made that. I mean, honestly, think about the universe and what it says about our God. Think about its size, for example. How big and how powerful must our God be that He created the universe? The furthest star that we found from us was just found a couple of years ago, 2018. And they they named it Icarus, which I was surprised that that name was still around. Like they found a lot of stars. I feel like that one would have been taken, but whatever. It is nine billion light years away. And and if you're familiar with the concept of a light year, because again, we're just looking at Psalm 8, this whole like space and how big God is thing. Like if you want to know how big what He's created is, a light year is how far a particle of light travels in a year. And if you know anything about light, it's it's fast, right? Speed of light. Light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. So that means if you want to get to that star, you just have to go 186,000 miles per second for nine billion years. And then you're there. You made it. Journey done. Stretch your legs. Think about this. This is what's so crazy. If you really want to get trippy, this is the universe God's made, how big it is, and even for us to understand how small we are and how our brains can't even process it. Because when you see something in the night sky, like you're actually looking back in time. For example, the the moon. It takes 1.3 seconds for the light reflected from the moon to reach us. So when you look at the moon, you're seeing it 1.3 seconds ago. But like that star, if someone could point it out to you, you're not looking at that star now, you're looking at that star nine billion years ago. Because it's taken that long for that particle of light to get here. So who knows what it looks like now? That's crazy, right? Crazy. And what the psalmist wrote was that we should do this as believers. We should go outside and we should look up at the sky at night, and we should drop our jaw in wonder and just go, wow. Wow. My God created this, and it wasn't even hard for him. My God, the God that I worship, the God that I serve, he made that. He made that. And David was appropriate to write, what are mere mortals that he should even consider us? And in context with the universe, in comparison with how big and how grand everything is, how small are we that he should even think about us? But then he goes on. And he writes, Yet you made them, talking about us, only a little lower than God, were created to be in his image, to reflect him. You crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge over everything that you made, putting all things under their authority, the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth. Yes, we might be small, but our God looks at us, values us, glorifies us, gives us authority, trusts us. And to the writer of Psalm 8, look, he's saying, as amazing as that stuff is, the fact that that God that made that loves me, sees me, notices me, that's even more amazing. Like that should fill you with awe. Should blow you away. Quick show of hands. Has anybody ever had a situation where someone important remembered your name and you didn't think they should have? Like you walked by them and they remembered your name and you were like, how did they remember my name? You met them once and you thought they would have right. Did that fill you with a little bit of wonder? Like they remembered my name. The God of the universe calls you by name. The God of the universe, the same God that set everything in motion, that can create something as big and as vast as the world that we're part of. He not only knows your name, scripture says that he knows how many hairs are on your head, he knows everything about you. And he loves you intensely. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4 says that even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. Think about that. Before he made everything, before he set the universe in motion, he was already thinking about you. He'd already decided to love you. I actually love the way the message translation puts it. Long before he laid earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Now, the appropriate response is to drop your jaw. That God who made everything, that big, powerful God sees me, loves me, and he's been thinking about me since before the earth was created. Come on. See, that's the crazy thing about our God is he's not just big, but he's personal. And usually in life, the bigger something is, the less personal it is, right? As anything grows and gets larger, we've experienced this as a church. The bigger we get as a church, the harder we have to work to be personal. It's one of the reasons I love that whole one service thing. It makes it easier to be personal. It's easier just to hang out. Because we fight that dynamic. The bigger something is, the less personal it is, but not with God. He's massive, he's huge, he's powerful, but he's more personal than you can possibly imagine. And we see that in Jesus. Like the way Jesus lived his life, he was never too busy for anybody. He was interruptible at any point in time. There's all kinds of people who come to Jesus, and they're the lowest of the low, and there's so many moments where the people around Jesus, even his closest friends, are like, he's way too busy to spend time with you. And Jesus always stopped those people and said, No, no, no, bring them to me. Because he's not just powerful and he's not just big, he's personal. There's a great story. Luke chapter 5, verse 18 through 26. It says, Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. And they tried to take him inside to Jesus, but they couldn't reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and they took off some tiles and they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd right in front of Jesus, seeing their faith. Jesus said to this man, Young man, your sins are forgiven. But the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law said to themselves, Who does he think he is? That's blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. And Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven or stand up and walk? And so I'll prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. And then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up, pick up your mat and go home. And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and he went home praising God, and everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, We have seen amazing things today. Now, as much wonder and awe as the people who witnessed that saw, how much wonder and awe do you think that paralyzed man felt in his heart? And so, see, a big part of being filled with wonder and awe, of having that childlike sense of wonder with God. It's not just recognizing all the things that God has done. It's not just looking at all the big things that he's done, it's not just thinking about who he is and how great he is, it's actually stopping to realize what he's done personally in your life. How often do we stop and just reflect on what God has done for us? I have I have so many stories I could tell. Let me look at the clock. I got time for a few. I'm conscious of this. I've had a few moments in life where I just I knew God saw me, heard me, listened to me. Probably the biggest, and I guys, I'm just gonna apologize. I tell this story a lot from a lot of different angles, but you know, I'm only 38, and I'm gonna get more stories as life goes on. But uh, but several years ago, in fact, I think I may have told the story last week, so wow, okay. I'm just realizing. Um, you guys may not know this, but I like basketball. I'm a Duke basketball fan. I have a son who plays basketball. We'll get that out of the way. Okay. So uh told the story many times, but but I I maybe I've never told it in this context. Ten years ago, 11 years ago, um, I was writing some sports articles as a little side gig and enjoyed that. And the ACC tournament was in Atlanta, and I wanted to go, but it was too expensive. I've told this story before. That's why I'm going like this. And so I was at work one day and I just said it out loud. Oh man, I can't afford these tickets. And Susan, who was a pastor here at the time, Susan said, pray about it. And I didn't want to because I thought it was silly to pray about basketball tickets. You know, I just did. I'm like, ah, and she she did the whole note, God's your father and he loves you. And I was like, I know, fine. And so I just to get Susan off my back, I prayed once, God, if you could hook me up with tickets, that'd be great. And so about two months later, I get a phone call from this website that I've been writing for, and I just did this for fun, just for fun. And this guy said, Hey, Justin, um, CBS reached out to us and they want to send you to cover the ACC tournament on behalf of CBS. And I'm like, What is what does that mean? And they're like, Well, you'll have press passes and you'll be courtside every every game, and you'll be in the locker rooms interviewing the players and coaches after the game and writing about it. And and the guy, he didn't know where I lived. He said that the catch is it's in Atlanta, we can't afford the travel expenses, so you'll have to figure that out yourself. And I'm like, got it. Um, so I go, okay, I go. Now here's the thing. That season, my team's arch rival, North Carolina, was ranked number one in the nation. And uh, and and like it was a foregone conclusion that they were gonna win the ACC tournament. So here I am, I'm gonna go, I'm probably gonna see you know my team lose and my my rival team win, which would almost be like torture, you know, to be in the locker room with a team that you've been literally raised to not like, celebrating. That would be hard. But right before the tournament starts, their star player injures his foot. And God did that for me. Now hold on. He didn't break his foot, he actually came back and played in the big tournament, and North Carolina actually won the whole thing that year, so he got his national championship, and like, you know, he went to the NBA. Life worked out really well for him, okay? But for that, that week, he couldn't play. And I remember thinking, no, like, really? So I go, I go very first game. Duke was playing Boston College, who at the time was just egregiously bad. And uh, and there's like two minutes left. It's the first game. It's a Thursday, the tournament ends on Sunday, and Duke is losing. And I'm sitting there going, God, you hurt that guy's toe. And, you know, I don't really believe God hurts toes. I'm half teasing, but it happened. And so I'm like, God, like, if I come here, you know, this all this buildup just to watch my team get upset by the worst team in the tournament on the first day, like, come on. And I had this sense in my heart, like, that's not gonna happen. Like, it was like God was like, no, no, no, just watch. And so there's this crazy play, and last second, Duke wins. And then they win the next game, and they win the next game. And and I get to go into the locker rooms and I'm interviewing players, and there's that North Carolina player with his foot in ice, and I'm kind of like, haha, that's awesome. And uh, but you know, I'm acting real professional, like, hey, are you feeling good? Yeah, okay, let's get a quote for the story. But then, like, it all wraps up, and my team wins. They win the tournament. I'm in the locker room with them, celebrating with them as they win. And if you're asking, like, Justin, do you honestly believe all that was orchestrated for you? Heck yes, I do. Are you kidding me? Like, yeah, I'm the child of God and he loves me a lot, and he did that for me. And it's basketball and it doesn't really matter, but it meant the world to me. And there was, I'm I'm I'm half joking, but honestly, I had such an extreme sense when I was there that this was a gift from God. That he was doing something for me, and little did I know, little did I know, that just a few weeks later I would be in an ICU room with my newborn son, hooked up to all kinds of machines because he couldn't breathe on his own and was having seizures, praying and asking God if he would heal my son, just so I could hear God say, Justin, do you literally think that I would care enough about a basketball tournament to answer that prayer and to send you there just to abandon you when you need me the most? See, guys, the response to that for me was to drop my jaw in awe. Because not only is my God big, not only is my God powerful, but he is personal. He sees me, he loves me, he sees you, he loves you. And it's important from time to time for us just to stop and reflect on what has God done for me. Now that doesn't mean that everything works out in the way that storybook, it doesn't mean that every situation finishes with a neat bow tied around it. But what it means is that, and I believe this, if you follow Jesus, I believe that if you spend time in prayer and you quiet your mind and you quiet your emotions, your soul, and you just pray and say, Lord, show me what you've done for me. Remind me, bring to my mind what you've done in my life for me. Your mind will begin to be flooded with all kinds of blessings, things that you could never have manufactured on your own, things that you can only give credit to the God who loves you for, and you will be filled with a sense of awe and wonder because of what God has done for you. And so I encourage you to do that. Because if you want to be a child of God, you want to approach God like a child, you've got to be someone who can drop your jaw. We're gonna wrap up with one more Jesus story. So cool. These things happen a lot. Uh this this story was mentioned in one of the worship songs this morning, and it's a song we've never sung before, and I didn't even know the song. So when that came on the screen, I was like, ah, God, you do your thing. That's awesome. Mark chapter 4, verses 35 through 41, as Jesus came, as evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, Let's cross to the other side of the lake. So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind, although other boats followed. But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him, shouting, Teacher, don't you care that we're going to drown? And when Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, Silence, be still. And suddenly the wind stopped and there was great calm. And then he asked, Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? And the disciples were absolutely terrified. Who is this man? They asked each other. Even the wind and the waves obey him. Now, it's kind of funny because Jesus says, Why are you afraid? And then it says, They were afraid. But it's two different words. In their language, the first word for afraid meant what we would say, scared. But when it says they were absolutely terrified, it doesn't mean they were like hiding behind something. It means they were so filled with awe that they almost like took a step back. They watched Jesus. And they'd seen some crazy stuff by this point. But they watched Jesus say to a storm, stop. Just because he wanted to go back to sleep. You know? Like, stop. Silence, be still. And instantly the wind stopped, the wave stopped. And the appropriate response to that is exactly what the disciples did. They just went, Who is this man? Well, he's Jesus. He is the Son of God. There is no one more powerful. I've seen him do things that to this day I have no explanation for. I've seen him show up in ways in my life, I've seen him show up in ways in this church's journey that just you can't deny. You can't. And if you want to know some of those stories, stick around afterwards. I'll tell you all of them because I've seen him show up in ways that are so insane, and you couldn't script it. You wouldn't think to write it because it wouldn't make sense. But he's real and he's powerful and he sees you. And that means he can calm the storms in your life. That means he can take all the anxieties and all the fears and all the worries and he can say, silence, be still, and it stops when you're in his presence. And sometimes, guys, as a church, as a family, as individuals, we just need to spend time in the presence of God, reflect on who he is, make it a point to actually think about all that he's done, all that he's done out there, all that he's done in here, and respond appropriately like a child. Drop our jaws and just go, wow, wow, that's my God, that's my Jesus. There is no one like him. There is no one who can touch him, there is no one who compares to him, there's no one who can stop him. There is nothing in this world that will ever stop him from loving me. Wow. And so I want to challenge you, encourage you this week. Drop your jaws. Walk outside at night, look up, think about it. Try to count to four quadrillion. You can't. But seriously, think about it. Think about who he is, how big he is, how small we are, and yet how much of a portion of his heart we take up. And be filled with wonder. Be like a child. Just say, wow. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you. Thank you for being amazing. Thank you for being a God who can do anything. Thank you for being a God who is truly unstoppable. Thank you for being someone that all the stories that we have, all the stories that have been told, can't even hold a candle to how powerful and amazing you really are. Thank you, Jesus, for not just being a big God who's up there, but thank you, Jesus, for being a big God who's who's in here, who's with us, who's personal. And Lord, I know that there are people in the room, there are people watching online, and they're in the midst of a really hard season. And sometimes in those seasons, it's it's hard to think about the good things you've done because we don't feel like we're experiencing those good things right now. But I pray, Lord, that you would flood our hearts and our minds with all the wonders that you've done in our lives. Lord, there are people that simply being in this room right now, it is a miracle. The things that you've had to do, the the way that you've had to weave things so that they would be here in this moment, it's a miracle. It should make us say, Wow, it should fill us with awe. Lord, we love you. And I pray this week, God, that we would take this seriously, that we would all be really intentional this week about carving out time to just think about who you are, what you've done, and to allow our jaws to drop in wonder. Because you are amazing. You blow us away. Your power, your might, your love, all of it. Wow. Wow, Jesus. Wow. Thank you. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for loving us. Amen.