We said this in the in the earlier service that it is really powerful to shout out and sing out and declare who we actually are. Right? Because we we live in a world that tries to tell us who we are all the time. And there's no identity that this world will give you that is greater than the identity that God will give you. Because with him, through a relationship with Jesus, we get to be the sons and the daughters of God. And that kind of trumps anything someone can put on your business card. Or any role that you're ever going to play at home or at work or in the world. That you are, through a relationship with Jesus, through faith in him, that you are family, royalty with Jesus Christ, with God. That's awesome. That is awesome. That's good. Good stuff. Well, we are beginning a brand new series this morning. One that I'm really excited about. I hope that comes across today. It's a conversation about a conversation. Which seems kind of odd at first, but if you'll stop and think about this for a second, I think this will make sense. Have you ever had a conversation that changed your entire perspective? One conversation that shifted a paradigm in your thinking. And in one conversation, it's like the whole world changed. You realize something was true that you'd never known before. You completely changed your opinion about something. You had a brand new look or lease on life. I've been a part of a lot of conversations like that. Some have been serious, some not so much. For example, when I was in high school, I was driving around with my friend. I was in the driver's seat. My friend was in the passenger seat next to me. And you need to understand, first of all, that this friend of mine, very intelligent person, one of the most intelligent people I have ever known. This friend got more than a full ride scholarship to a private college. Turned down scholarships. Like, who does that? Who starts going, nah, I don't need that one. Nah, I won't take that one. Because I have more than a full ride to college. It's crazy. Smartest person I've ever known. And so I did not expect the next thing that came out of my friend's mouth. We're driving next to this train. And my friend turns and goes, Do you ever get nervous when you drive next to a train? And I'm driving and I'm like, nah, not really. Why? Do you? And my friend says, Oh, yeah. Yeah, because I'm always worried that the person driving the train's gonna steer it off the track right into the road. And I mean, granted, I'm not an engineer and I've never driven a train, but I'm sitting there driving and I'm thinking about it, and they made this gesture with their hands, and I stop. I said, Wait, do you think trains have steering wheels? Like, do you think that there's some guy on the train that's like trying to keep it on the tracks that's like putting this blinker on, going, oh, we're about to turn left, or something like that? Do you think that? And my friend's like, yeah, how else does the train stay on the tracks? I'm like, the tracks do that. That's what a train does. It's like attached to the tracks, and yes, it can come off, but it takes a catastrophe, some huge oversight for that to happen. My friend told me that for their whole life they thought there's a person with the steering wheel driving this train. This person had more than a full ride to college. I'm like, why didn't I have your scholarships? Come on, I know that. That one conversation, as I explained that, you could see they were just like, What? My whole life has changed. Trains will never be the same again. I've been a part of conversations like that that were much more serious when I was when I was newly married. I'd been married for a few months. I was I was at this church in Kansas City, Missouri, and the pastor there, his name is Roy, was spending a lot of time with me and some other young guys who had recently been married or were about to get married, and he was just being nice enough to invest in us and to try to help us out. Because those of us who have been married or are married know that it's hard. And if you're single and you're maybe about to get married or you can't wait to get married, it's hard. It just is, there's a reason romantic comedies end at or before the wedding. All of them. There's a reason for that, right? It's tough. And so he starts telling us the story of this guy that came into his office the week before who was frustrated in his marriage, frustrated with his spouse. And so this guy's talking about all the things that his wife either does that get on his nerves, or all the things maybe his wife doesn't do that he wishes she would do. And he just says this, and Roy told us this. He said, I just don't, I don't know if it's gonna work. She doesn't make me happy anymore. And then Roy said this to this man, and this you seem to understand, this is a mic drop moment. Like if you have a microphone, drop it and walk away. I'm not gonna do that because I didn't say it. But Roy just looks at this guy and says, What makes you think that's her job? Right? You know what I'm saying? Like, whoa. And then he turned to us, these young guys that he was invested in, and he said, I want you guys to go search the Bible and find where it says that it's the woman's job to make a man happy. And that conversation completely changed my perspective on marriage. Because even though I didn't have some dominating attitude toward Megan, I definitely had buy in, at least to some degree, to this sort of romanticized idea of marriage that we get from our culture, from media. And I bought into this idea that when you when you marry someone, they complete you, they they fill you up. It's them that makes your life all wonderful. But when we start holding other people responsible for our own joy and happiness, that always backfires. And so even to this day when I'm when I'm getting frustrated and I'm starting to be tempted to say, you know what, if she would just this or that, or or if this was different, then I nope. I go right back to that conversation. It's not her job to make me happy. That's not it's not her job. It's not my job to make her happy. That's a loadoff, but it's not her job. That one conversation completely changed my perspective, and I'm grateful for that. And today we're gonna begin exploring what I believe is the most important conversation that has ever happened in the history of the world. This one conversation did not just change the perspective of one person for a season of life. This one conversation has changed the perspective of God for all humanity. It's this conversation that Jesus had late one night in Jerusalem with a man named Nicodemus. It's late at night in some back alley of Jerusalem. And Jesus has a conversation, an exchange with this man named Nicodemus. In this one conversation, we have it recorded in John chapter 3, in this one conversation, Jesus lays out his mission and his message with more clarity than he ever had before or than he ever would after. There's never been a conversation that so clearly tells us who God really is and what God values, that clearly lays out and spells out who Jesus is and what Jesus came to do. I mean, it's in this one conversation that we get the phrase born again. The whole concept of being born again that comes from this conversation in John chapter 3. It's in this conversation that Jesus explains that we have to be born of the Spirit, that something inside of us needs to change, that we have a spirit that needs to come to life, and that we need to be filled with the Spirit of God. That happens in this conversation. John 3.16 is probably the most famous Bible verse ever, definitely one of the most famous statements that's ever been made before. So much so that you can be someone that's never going up in church, and if if you see someone hold a John 3.16 sign up somewhere, you can probably fill in most of the lines for yourself and get pretty close. That statement for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that statement comes in this conversation. The first time anyone ever heard that, ever. It was Nicodemus with Jesus. This one conversation has changed humanity's understanding of God. And this one conversation that happened 2,000 plus years before you were born, this one conversation has the ability and the potential to change your life day in and day out. And so we're just gonna we're gonna pour over this conversation for the next few months. We're gonna explore it, we're gonna dig into it. It's so relevant for our lives. And I'm so excited about this. I'm as excited about this, about this series as I've been about one for a really long time. And I'm excited for so many different reasons. I won't lay them all out now because then I won't have anything left for next week or the next week. But but number one, I'm excited for this reason, and this is huge for us as a church, this is huge for us culturally. We're just gonna spend the next few months talking about Jesus. I mean, here's the thing, guys, Jesus He deserves to be in the spotlight. Like he has to be in the spotlight. And unfortunately, this happens so often in church, you've probably experienced this, but sometimes a church gets to a certain size or a certain level of success, and somehow, it's unintentional, I believe that, but somehow Jesus goes from the spotlight to the periphery. And all of a sudden, maybe it's the person on stage that's in the spotlight. And so everyone leaves church and they're like, oh, aren't they amazing? Oh, what they said, did you hear what they said? Oh, I'm gonna tell my friend about what they said, and it's that person. And sometimes churches even kind of grab a hold of that and do some things that encourage that. And Jesus isn't in the spotlight, it's this guy or it's this girl, and and although they may be great, although they may be awesome, they're not the one that has the answers for life. They're not the one that is the solution for life. That's Jesus, and that's Jesus alone. And that's why, that's why at his hands, Jesus is the only one that gets famous. That's why it has to be that way. And sometimes, because again, I'm passionate about this if you can't tell, but sometimes it's not the person that gets the attention, it's the church itself. And so all of a sudden the church starts to talk as if it's the church, the organization of the church that can really meet your needs. That if you have an addiction or your marriage is struggling or you're financially strapped or you're dealing with anxiety or whatever it might be, heartache, hurt, tragedy in your life, that the church is the answer. And so the church begins to talk like, hey, if you go here, if if you'll be involved in church, church will save you, church will help you. No, no, no. The only purpose the church has, the only thing that makes the church valuable in your life is the church's ability to connect you as directly and as quickly as possible with the person of Jesus Christ. That's the only role of the church. And everything else we do is great, but it's all periphery to Jesus. He is in the spotlight because he's the answer. And so I'm really excited to spend two months or whatever it's gonna be, just getting to know Jesus better. And what I hope happens for you, what I pray happens for you, is that over the course of these next few months you begin to fall more in love with Jesus. You become more infatuated, more amazed. That's what's happened to me, is I've prepared for this because he belongs in that spotlight. So we're gonna we're gonna make sure he stays there. Okay, why don't we actually start talking about John chapter three? How about that? Um, if you have a Bible, you can turn there. If you have a phone, you can pull it out. That is a real Bible, by the way. It's the words that make it scripture, not what it's printed on or what it's displayed in. We will put the verses up on the screens. John chapter three, we're gonna stop talking about talking about this, and we're just gonna talk about it, okay? Verse 1. Here we go. Are you ready? All right, there's a lot of buildup for this. There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. Okay, I think that's gonna be good enough for this week. Let's stop there. Alright? I'm serious. Um, and don't worry if you're like, wait, we're we're really stopping at verse. That's not even two verses, that's 1.5 verses. Um, we are gonna stop here, and and if you're worried that this is gonna be like a 50-week series at this pace, I don't know what to tell you. I uh I'm not great at planning, and so I don't really know how long this is gonna take. I don't think it's gonna take 50 weeks. It's worth 50 weeks. I wanted to go further this week. I actually wanted to go a lot further than these 1.5 verses. I really did. I actually had something else planned out, and I met with a friend of mine, and I'm like, hey, here's what we're gonna talk about, and so have this ready and have this ready, and then I just got stuck. Does that ever happen to you? You get stuck and you just can't move past something. Sometimes that happens to us in really unhealthy ways. Like we'll get in an argument with someone and we'll be like, no, I'm over it, I forgive you. And then two days later, you know, hey, back to what you said two days ago, because I just can't get this out of my head. I got stuck, couldn't move on, and here's what I got stuck on is this very, very simple phrase. This very simple idea. Nicodemus came to Jesus. He came to Jesus. I want to suggest to you this morning that there is no greater action that you will ever be able to take in your life, there's no more important decision than you will ever make in your life than the decision to come to Jesus. It's that one action, that one decision that has the potential to change everything for you. And I'm not just talking about the initial moment that you come to Jesus where you give your life to him and you commit your life to him for the very first time. I'm talking about daily, on a regular basis, to make it your habit in life that when you need something, you go to Jesus. Nicodemus came to Jesus and he was unbelievably blessed because of this. Because, like I said before, no one has ever, no one's ever heard Jesus tell about his mission and his message this clearly before. As we get into this, Jesus lays it out and spells it out like never before. Usually, when Jesus would teach and he'd talk about what he was here to do, he'd use this phrase called the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. And he would say, The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl that's so valuable someone sold everything they had to buy it. And everyone would go, Wow. Sounds important. Not really sure what to do with that. Okay, can you give me something more? Jesus loved to spark curiosity and get people to ask questions. Or Jesus would say, Hey, the kingdom of heaven, it's like a mustard seed, this tiny seed. You put it in the ground, grows into a big giant tree, birds come and they they make nests in it, and everyone would go, cool. What does that mean? Can you please stop with the illustrations and just get into logistics? Can we get into logistics, Jesus? And Jesus didn't like to get into logistics, but he does with Nicodemus. It never would have happened, though, if Nicodemus didn't come to Jesus. This conversation that he gets to be part of is the result of a decision that he made to seek Jesus out and go to Jesus. So I want to ask you this morning do you go to Jesus? Like who do you go to in life? We all go to someone. That's normal human behavior, right? Everyone in the room probably has a go-to person. Or at least a go-to behavior or a go-to thing that we rely on when life gets hard. When your life gets tough and you're up against it, and there's problems and there's frustration and there's anger and resentment, who do you go to? Maybe you have unbelievably wise, godly people in your life that you can go to and they pray for you and they give you advice and they give you direction and you just walk away going, wow, that I'm so glad you told me that, because if not, I would have gone in a different direction, it would have been a disaster. I hope you have that. If not, there are great people here that we can introduce you to. The prayer team's a great place to start. But in my experience, that's not what most people have. It's amazing how often we choose go-to people who have no ability to actually help us with our problems. Really is amazing. And I've been the victim of this many times in my own life. Like let's say you're frustrated financially. And every single month you get behind, and so you're putting it on the credit card, and every single month you're going, hey, you know what? I'm gonna get it taken care of this month. We're gonna make progress, but then the car breaks down. And so the next month you're like, you know what, this month we're gonna do this, but then you know, something in the house breaks, or your kids have something going on, and so it just keeps happening and keeps happening. And you're frustrated, you're you're discouraged. So you go to someone else, someone you know. And it happens to be someone who also struggles financially. And you go to that person and they go, Oh, I know. It happens to us too, and you wouldn't believe what happened to us this month. This broke down. Can you believe that? So, yeah, we're in the same situation, it stinks. And you feel you feel good because you're understood, and that is so important. And what's great about God is he understands you as well. It's good to be understood. But you walk away feeling encouraged that you're not the only one, but at the same time, that person actually offered you nothing of value to change your situation. In fact, maybe that conversation even enabled the behavior, and now you're going like, see, yeah, this is just kind of the way it is. I guess this is how it goes. Or maybe you're frustrated at work because your boss, we can just be honest in church, is a jerk, okay? Let's just say that's the case. I'm sure no one in here has that experience. And maybe you have a superior where you work that lets a little bit of authority go to their heads, and so they talk down to you. Or maybe you own a business and you have a client that you really depend on, and that client gives you a lot of business, and so that client, you just you feel like you have to sort of take it no matter how they talk to you. And they like to make you feel small. They like to give you emergencies and you're frustrated. And so as soon as they're out of earshot, you make a beeline to that other person that has the same experience as you, that other person in the office that can't stand that boss too. And maybe you talk about your boss without even saying words. You just look at them, they look at you, you roll your eyes, they roll theirs, you nod your head, and you're like, yep, they're a jerk. I know, right? And in that moment, you maybe feel a little bit better because you know you're not the only one. You're understood. That's valuable, that's good. But has any problem been solved? Has any lost ground been made up? No. In fact, maybe you're just more solidified in where you're at, but you don't want to be where you're at. It's incredible how often we naturally go to people who who maybe love us, who maybe even understand us, but they they actually cannot help us. It's not their fault. They're not equipped to do it. Who we choose to go to is of utmost importance in life. Who you choose to make your go-to, go-to person is as valuable and as important as any decision you'll make. And sometimes, if we choose the wrong person, the results can be disastrous for our lives. Like let's say you're frustrated in your marriage. And so you go to someone else who's married, and they're frustrated in their marriage too. And you start talking about your spouse and how your spouse is this and that, and they're like, oh, I know, and I get it, because mine's this and that. And let's say maybe they're even the opposite sex. And so eventually you start thinking these thoughts, very dangerous thoughts. I wish my spouse understood me like you do. And see, if those thoughts start coming, you need to like run. You need to excuse yourself from that relationship altogether and be like, it's been nice to know you, but you'll never see me again. Because that's not gonna end well. And even though there might be several decisions that have led you to that point, it was ultimately the decision to go to that person with your pain that might put you in that situation to begin with. See, who we go to is incredibly valuable. And we can choose to go to people who might get us, but they can't help us. Or, or we can choose to go to Jesus, like Nicodemus. We can choose to go to someone in Jesus who not only gets us, but he loves us. He loves us more than anyone on this earth could ever love us. Not only does he get us, and not only does he love us, but he can actually help us because Jesus has the answers that you need. Because Jesus has everything that you need. And if you make it your life's practice to go to him, to make going to him your first instinct, the results will be transformative in your life. Because when you go to Jesus, you get what you need. Take some time this week and read the Bible. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. First four books of the New Testament that tell the story of Jesus, and try to count the number of times that someone goes directly to Jesus with a problem and gets exactly what they need. It happens, happens countless times. And it doesn't even seem to matter the condition of the person that goes to Jesus. It doesn't even seem to matter how they go to Jesus, just so long as they actually go to Jesus. For example, we can go to Matthew chapter 9, verse 20. It's the story of this incredible woman. It says, just then a woman who had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding came up behind him. And she touched the fringe of his robe, for she thought, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. And Jesus turned around when he saw her and he said, Daughter, be encouraged. Your faith has made you well. And the woman was healed from that moment. This woman has so much faith in Jesus. She believes so strongly that he is who he says he is, that he has so much power that in her mind, if I could just touch his robe, I'll be healed. That's that's incredible faith. And so what does she do? She goes to Jesus, she finds him. If you read other stories that give us a different angle on that story, she fights her way through this crowd just to touch his robe. She gets exactly what she came for. But then we compare that to a story we find in Mark chapter 9 about this father who brings his son to Jesus, and this father's boy, he's demon-possessed, which may sound crazy and weird, but sometimes crazy and weird things happen. And so he brings his son to Jesus, and Jesus starts asking questions. We get there in verse 21. Jesus says, How long has this been happening? And the father replied, Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into a fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us if you can. And I this is I love this by the way. I love Jesus so much. Listen to his answer. What do you mean if I can? He's like, Do you think I can't? Do you do you think trains have steering wheels? Like, what are you misunderstanding who you've come to? If I if I can. And then he says, anything is possible if a person believes. It's a powerful statement. So the father instantly cried out, I do believe. Believe, but help me overcome my unbelief. Isn't that great? That's like going to Jesus. Just put yourself in this guy's shoes or sandals or whatever you wore. And go to Jesus and then be in that moment where Jesus says, if you believe, and you go like, I believe. Sort of. Jesus, I kind of believe in you. And before we cast any judgment on this guy, I mean, how many of us can relate to that? How often is that the attitude of our hearts? That's that's normal. Jesus, I totally believe you can do this, and I want you to do this, but if you don't, I have a backup plan. I'm just saying. God, please heal me, change me, make this situation work. Uh, but I need you to act fast because I don't I don't know if I have time to wait for you, because if you don't, I you know. I mean, it's it's normal, right? I kind of believe. When my son was in the hospital when he was first born, Liam, my oldest, was in the NICU for two weeks, and I I sort of had great faith in the hospital. Just being honest. I would say that. Yes, I believe. I would believe, but in my heart, I was like, please, God, please don't let me down. But here's what's amazing about this story. Jesus does not turn to this man who, who let's be honest, does not flatter him. Like Jesus says, Do you not think I can do this? Do you not believe? And he's like, No, yeah, sure. Yeah. Maybe. He doesn't say, Hey, let me tell you the story of a woman who had so much faith in me that she believed if she just touched my robe, she'd be healed. Let me tell you about this woman. Why don't you go and get that kind of faith, come back, and then I'll heal your son? That's not what happens. Jesus heals his son. Just like the woman of great faith, this man gets exactly, exactly what he needed. And see, this man and this woman don't have much in common. They certainly don't share the same measure of faith, but what they do have in common is one action. They went to Jesus. And they got exactly what they asked for. They got exactly what they needed. Because when you go to Jesus, that is what happens. He has what you need. He is what you need. So I want to suggest and challenge you to make going to Jesus your go-to reaction when you face trouble of any kind. What if you made it a rule in your life this week, this year, that you will not go to anyone before you go to Jesus? That you won't talk to another person about a frustration, that you won't go to anyone else for advice. I'm not saying don't do that in addition to going to Jesus, so long as that person can actually help you and has valuable advice, you know, do that. But don't do that instead of going to Jesus. Never replace Jesus with someone that's not Jesus, because you need Jesus. So what if you made it your rule that, hey, before I go to anyone else, before I vent, before I roll my eyes, before I just have a conversation where I let my anger come out, before I go to someone else for advice, before whatever, before I do any of that, I go to Jesus first. And I go to him with my problem, I go right to him, and I ask him for what I need. What if that was the rule you lived by? See, if it was, I believe you would experience God's involvement in your life like you never have before. See, because Jesus, he's faithful. He shows up. That's what separates him from all the false gods in history. None of them showed up. That's why they're false. He did. That's what he does. Now, when I say that, I want to I want to address something. Because I want to make sure that here we never talk about following God and act like it's easy. Right? Because that happens so much in church where someone says, hey, just go to Jesus, and you're like, okay. I'm gonna go to Jesus this week, I guess. How's this work? Is there a button? Like, what do you push? No, it's it's hard. Following God is not easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it. Living this life of faith, it's challenging. There are obstacles. There's an entire, according to the Bible, there's an entire spiritual force working against you to have this life. So we're not going to pretend like this is easy. And I want to I want to let you know that if you ever deal with this frustration when you go to Jesus, that happens often. You've probably had this experience before at some point, where you go to him and you pray, because that's what we mean when we say go to him, right? Just pray and tell him what you need, ask him for what you need, and then and then what happens when you hear nothing? Because if we all say, hey, this week we're gonna go to Jesus, this month I'm going to Jesus, and so tomorrow something bad happens to you, something challenging, and you you go and you pray, and you're like, Jesus, I need you to do this and I need it now. All right. What happens when you get crickets? We have this amazing, amazing person on our staff named Sheila. Sheila Keefe. And Sheila Keefe is from Valdasta, Georgia. If you don't know Sheila, she leads all of our, she leads all of our leaders. She's actually a leader of leaders, really cool person. And so she leads the leaders who lead our kids and teen programs at the church. We have all these amazing volunteer leaders who lead those areas and she leads them. She's awesome. But she is from Valdasta, Georgia. And maybe you're from Valdasta, Georgia. I've never been there. But apparently, Valdasta has a very unique culture, like no other place on the planet. Number one, she talks different because we're in Georgia, but Valdasta is like more Georgia than this is. Okay? And so she has this really funny way with words, and we kind of tease her in the office. It's part of our part of our shtick, but she she takes it really well. Like, we have a guy on staff named Brian. He's in charge of our building, our facilities. He's also in charge of our new his family foster care group, which is uh kicking off today after church, which is so exciting for you guys that are doing that. Um so she won't call him Brian in the office, though. He's Braun. I don't even know how to spell that. It's like B-R-I-A-W-N, but one syllable, like Braun. Like Braun and Bran, I don't know. So she just she talked, it's awesome though. We love it. It's she has so much character. So we're in the office uh a few days ago, a few weeks ago, and I said something to the team in a meeting, and then no one responded. It was awkward silence, which happens often to me, actually. Happens a lot with you. That's where the awkward clapping comes from. When you're like, I guess we should, I don't know. Um why not? Yeah, like that. Just like that. It's exactly how it goes. It resonated with someone, so maybe we should all clap for that person. I don't know. I get it. Happens a lot to me in the office, too. And so I said something, and there's just silence. I'm kind of waiting for a response, and it's clear that one is not coming. Very awkward. And so Sheila just goes, crickets. And so we all kind of looked at her and we're like, what? She goes, No, crickets. And we said, Sheila, do you think this means crickets? I'm having that whole train experience all over again. And we're like, this means get paid. Like this gesture, this means like, show me the money, right? Like, get paid. This is what Johnny Manzel used to do when he made touchdowns in college before that train did go off the tracks. I mean, he he like, this is what you do. God bless his soul. So we tell her this, and Sheila swears to us, she swears, that in Valdasta, Georgia, this means crickets. So if you ever go to Valdasta and you see someone doing this, they are not being greedy. They are not, they're not asking you for anything, they're just acknowledging that there is awkward silence happening in the room, and they're just going crickets. So, what happens when you go to God? When you say, Hey, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go to Jesus, I'm gonna be like Nicodemus, I'm gonna follow the first 1.5 verses of John chapter 3, and I'm gonna go to Jesus, and you go to him and you get crickets. This is gonna be famous. We're gonna make this famous, okay? New thing. No. What happens when you do that? I want to address that because I think it's really important that we don't get discouraged when that happens. Number one, I'll just say this, I'm gonna put this out there. I would rather get crickets from Jesus than bad advice from someone else any day of the week. Okay. Number two, when you hear silence, silence actually speaks a lot. And I think if we actually tuned in to God when we hear nothing, we might realize that he's still speaking even in silence. For example, let's say I want to buy a new TV, not because I do. We only have three at home. And uh and none of them, none of them are even 4K. I don't have one 4K television. Can you believe that? Nothing. I don't even know what 4K means, but I don't have one. And so if I if I go to Megan today, which I may, we'll see how the day goes, and I say, hey honey, what do you think we got a 4K TV? And she's gonna say nothing. I will hear silence. There will be there will be some crickets. I'm not gonna go. I hear you saying nothing. I take that as your vote of approval for my decision, and I will now go to Best Buy and spend money we don't have. Okay. Um, no. No, her silence actually tells me a lot, and I've I've learned, especially in close relationships, to pay very close attention to silence. Because so often silence is the most powerful way anyone can speak. So maybe you're going to Jesus this week, and maybe you're saying, Hey, Jesus, I mean, should I do this? And I don't know what to do. I want to go talk to this person, I want to, I'm so angry, I just want to go have it out with them, or or I want to make this decision, I want to buy this thing, I want to change my job, I want to, and you pray and you get nothing. That's God saying, hold up. Do not do not proceed yet. Pay attention to silence. Silence is powerful. But but number three, and when we really talk about it, we're talking about this experience where maybe you've never heard God speak. Maybe you've never actually prayed and gotten a response that you've felt, that you've heard. And so again, this whole come to Jesus thing, it's like, well, yeah, but what if that doesn't happen? What if we don't hear him? Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 and 8. He says, Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find, keep on knocking, and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds, and to everyone who knocks, the door will be open. Jesus says, Do not stop. Don't give up. If you pray ten times and you get nothing, pray ten more times. Keep going to Jesus, keep asking, keep seeking. And the language here is really important because he doesn't say keep looking. There are actually two different words in the original language that this was written in. One meant look, one meant seek. See, when you look for something, it means it'd be nice to find it. I lose things in ways that do not make any sense. I've talked about this before, but it's it's incredible how often I lose my wallet, my keys, my phone. I I lose I lose everything. All the time. Most Sundays end with me having to be here for at least 30 more minutes trying to track my stuff down throughout the building because somehow I've put this there and that there. So I lose stuff all the time. Now, I've I lose our remote to the TV like all the time. It's perpetually lost. And so I look for it. Because it'd be nice if I'd find it. I would really be happy if I found the remote because I'm tired of having to get up off the couch to turn the volume up and down on the side of the TV. This is America. Why do I have to do that? I mean, come on. This is one of the best parts of life, right? But when I lose my keys or my wallet, I don't look for that. I seek it. Because if you seek something, it means you look as if you have to find it. And you will not stop looking until you find it because it is so valuable, it's such a necessity. See, I really believe that where a lot of us following God fall short of actually hearing from God. Is that we look but we don't seek. We we look for God because we think it'd be really cool to hear from Him. And I think that that thought in our minds exists because by and large, the church in America has really told us that, hey, a few people, a few very spiritual people, every once in a while hear the voice of God. But it's very rare, and not many people have that experience. That is a lie. You were created by God to hear God speak. You were. And you may not believe that. You may struggle, you may go, oh, but you don't know my story, you don't know where I've been. I struggle. You are a person. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons, meaning that he doesn't play favorites. You were created by God to hear him. And what Jesus is saying is, look, if you'll seek me, if you'll keep asking, if you'll keep praying, if you'll keep coming to Jesus every single day, just keep coming to Jesus, coming to Jesus, coming to Jesus, if you'll keep doing that, you will, you will find what you're looking for. It's him that made this promise, so we can hold Jesus to his own promises. And so if you get, if you get crickets, just keep going. And keep asking. Keep asking, keep asking. And there will be a day and there will be a moment when you hear his voice as clearly as anything you've ever heard in your life. And when that happens, your faith will grow more in five seconds than it could grow in the entirety of a lifetime. And you'll begin to become in tune with the voice of God. I'm sorry, the Bible is so much more than life hacks. And we we fail as a church when we present Jesus and God like this nice add-on for life. Like, hey, if you have Jesus, it just makes life complete. Jesus is He's everything. He's the author of life. He's meant to be foundational for your life. You are meant to hear Him. The Holy Spirit speaks to you. You are meant by God to hear from God. So don't stop going to Jesus until you get what you ask for. Don't stop. We're gonna wrap up with a song this morning. That's how we tend to wrap up. Maybe there's a different way to wrap up. We'll figure that out one day. We're gonna wrap up with a dance today. So everyone stand up. I'll teach you some jazz or size. So I said earlier, I'm not a good planner, and that is absolutely true. I'm surrounded by really good planners, which is good. And so one of the things that is pretty normal for me is to choose what I'm gonna talk about and then change my mind three times, and then late in the week go, oh, okay, which is actually good for me because it makes me pray really hard. Um and Nathan, who leads our worship team, Nathan can't wait until I'm done planning the message to actually plan the songs, because then like he'd be planning it now. And so Nathan always plans the set lists, and and usually I look at those on Tuesday. This week I didn't get a chance to even look at the set list until late in the week, and I'd already decided what I was gonna write, changed the mind. It was a whole mess. And it's so cool. I'm telling you this for a reason. The song that we're doing right now, I had no idea this was on the set list. You're gonna, we're gonna sing it, you're gonna think, oh, this was planned. And it was by the Holy Spirit. It's a song we haven't sung in like a year and a half, and it's about it's about coming to Jesus. It's actually about running to him. It's a play on the story of the prodigal son, which is a story Jesus told in the Bible that illustrates how often when we're at rock bottom and we're struggling, like the only thing we need to do is turn around and run to Jesus. Just run to God the Father. Just run to him, go to him. Because when we come to Jesus, we get what we need. And maybe you're here this morning and you've never actually come to Jesus. You've never had a come to Jesus moment. It's funny how when we say that phrase, it usually means something bad, right? If your boss says we're gonna have a come to Jesus meeting, you're like, oh no, what did I do? And I don't know why that has become the understanding of that statement, because coming to Jesus is not getting into trouble. Coming to Jesus is the opposite of trouble. Coming to Jesus means you find the solution for all the trouble you ever had. Because please understand this if you've never come to him, the world does not have what you need. The world doesn't love you, the world doesn't even care. Here's what this world will offer you. This world will offer you contradictions. This world will offer you confusion, this world will offer you distractions and dead ends. But Jesus Christ will offer you life, he will offer you rest for your soul, he will offer you the power of the Spirit of God active in your life. He will offer you community with Him, community with God the Father, being part of the family of God. He will offer you wisdom that you can never get on your own, he'll offer you insight, he'll give you the answers that you need if you've never come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. And it's really simple, by the way. You don't have to raise your hand, you don't have to stand up, there's no ritual. It's just a conversation with you and him. It's just like being a Nicodemus. Except it's easier for you. Nicodemus had to actually walk somewhere. You don't even have to do that. You just have to pray in your heart. You just have to say, Jesus, I believe you are who you said you were. Which is the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Messiah, God in flesh. The way, the truth, the life. You say, Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are, and then you say this, I'm yours. You surrender your life to Jesus. It's a commitment that you make, and that may seem scary, but you've probably surrendered yourself to something else at some point in time. Surrender your life to Jesus. Give it to Him. And He will change it. He will change it. Please understand, Jesus does not want to improve your life, He wants to transform your life. There's a big difference between those two things. Getting a car with heated seats, that's improving your life. Jesus wants to transform your life so that you are a wholly different person, so that you're someone who cannot have your joy robbed by circumstance. So that you're someone who life cannot overcome you. Because you have life within you. So come to Jesus. And maybe you're someone, most of us probably are in this room, who has come to Jesus at some point in time. Well done, by the way. But maybe you're like me and you constantly fall out of the habit of actually going to him with your problems. Maybe you get stressed and frustrated at the end of the day, and you just want to tune out. And so here's what you go to. You go to a screen. You go to Netflix, you go to your phone, you go to a news channel, you go to a website, and you tune out. And what you need to do is tune in to him. Maybe you you run to other people who understand you, maybe, make you feel better, but they don't actually help you. And so you've come to Jesus at some point in your life, but you've fallen out of the habit of just coming to him every single time you have a need. And this week I want to encourage you to just go to Jesus, to make it your rule. I will not go to anyone before Jesus. He gets first dib on my problems. Yay, Jesus. He wants that. He lives for that. So go to him this week. Go to him today. If you have someone in your life that knows Jesus as well, hold them accountable to that. When they come to you with their problems, just say, hey, hold on. I want to hear you out. I just want to make sure you've gone to Jesus first. Or hey, let's just go to Jesus together. Let's just pray right now. Because he is the one with the answer. Nicodemus came to Jesus and it changed history. So let's come to Jesus and let's see some history happen in our lives. Let's see some history happen in our community and in our world. Let's come to Jesus together. Let this song be a declaration of you coming to Him. If you're coming to Him for the very first time, if that's a decision you're making in your heart, let this song be a prayer of you saying, Jesus, my life is yours, and then I encourage you on your way out, do one thing. Sign up to get baptized. Go to the info desk, say, I'm getting baptized. Don't hesitate going all in with him. Because he is all in with you. Please pray with me and let's come to Jesus together. Jesus, we love you. You're amazing. We trust you. We believe you. And Lord, every single one of us in this room, we all have problems, we all have struggles, we all have difficulties, we all have fears, we all have anxieties. We've all had our hearts broken. We've all had our joy robbed from us from someone at some point in time. And Lord, every single one of us right now needs something that only you have. Because we need life, Jesus, and you have life. You are life. And so right now, Lord, as a church, as a family, we want to come to you. We want to bring our troubles to you. We want to bring our cares to you. We want to bring it all to you, Jesus, because it all belongs to you anyway. And we're just asking God that you would take everything we bring to you and you would transform it into something good for us. And we know that's not too much to ask, Jesus, because we know that's what you want. We know that's what you told us. You love us. So we don't come to you out of fear. We don't come to you out of guilt. We come to you out of love, Jesus, because we know that you love us and we love you. So we're coming to you right now. We're running to you, Jesus, with arms open, fully expecting to receive what you have for us. In your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.