A Second Miracle

God, we're grateful for changing the people around us to know more about you. We're thankful for changing us from the inside, so that when we think about you, it ushers in peace. When we think about you, it gives us a calm that will silence the storms around us. So we invite you today to come and do whatever you want to, trusting that what you do and what you want is better than what we would do and what we desire.

God, we pray these things, and I'm trusting that we're all believing them, in the name of Jesus.

And all God's people said, amen. You may be seated. You know, it's funny, because, none of y'all care about this game. None of y'all — I mean, first service I was trying to make joke after joke after joke, and they're like, "I don't care about the Chiefs, I don't care about Philly.

" There are more Steelers fans in this place than there are Eagles fans. Any y'all Steelers fans?

Good. 'Cause I got a joke about them later, and I want to be able to say it. There were like three in the last service, and I think I might have offended him. You know how Steelers fans are, so — got the Roethlisberger jersey — whatever, get over yourselves.

We've, we've not really been in the series the past couple of weeks.

We finished our harvest season and series and prayer and fasting, and that was really a good moment for us as a church. I saw so many people just take steps forward in faith. And we've been doing what I love to do, which is walking straight through Scripture. We've been in the Book of John for a long time, and we've been in John chapter 4 for a long time, but we're going to finish it today.

I'm excited about it.

But I love John chapter 4. This final sermon is a difficult one for me, because it's a miracle story, and just like many other miracle stories, guess what happens — a miracle. Jesus does something really cool, and then it would be easy for me just to preach on the miracle. But the Lord was convicting me of something unique, and I wasn't feeling it.

Like, there was what would be easy to preach, and then there's what the Lord's convicting me of, and one felt good, the other felt kind of icky, if I were to use a non-biblical term there.

And, I was just really struggling to put this together — super helpful. I want to give a caveat before I jump into the message. If I get boring, or if I seem a little somber, if in one of my points I just pause for a second —, Hannah, the kids aren't in here, are they? Okay.

Like, I had to put down our dog this morning, and so I'm like, it hit me a little harder than I thought it would.

And so if I pause during some of this, that's why. So if it gets boring at any point — it's your first time, come back when I'm not sad about my dog. [laughing] I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm not trying to make you feel bad. It's life — that's what I'm going to try to tell my kids today.

Oh man, he — we had him for ten years, and my kids are under ten, so, you know how that's going to go.

That's going to be a fun one. I remember, before we moved out here to the Phoenix area, my wife and I kind of got a vision from the Lord for the church that we would lead one day. And we didn't know if we would start the church, and we didn't know if we'd just go lead at a church that already exists. The reason we were processing through it was because my church at the time had told me to put my package together — whatever that means — because they were going to look at me in the senior pastor role.

And on our way back from Iceland, driving from — sh — Chicago, my wife and I processed in the car about what that would look like.

What kind of church is God calling us to lead? Should we stay at this church? Should we go to a different church? Is there a church that fits how God's called us to lead?

Starting a church was way at the end of the list.

But as we were processing through it, God gave us the vision for this church, and it became pretty clear really quickly we weren't called to stay at our church in Missouri, 'cause — 'cause we're not Chiefs fans, you know. And as we were looking — I looked at some church jobs across the country, some really great options — and every time we would get to a spot in the interview, it became clear to me, as if the Lord was telling me no. And that didn't happen to me often — like, I can logic my way into any decision, but this one just felt like, "This isn't right, this isn't right, this isn't right. " And so we kept saying no to these great church jobs.

And I went to the Lord in prayer, and I was like, "Lord, what are you doing? Like, what do you want me to do? " 'Cause I sure ain't going to start one.

And one of the ladies who had — people who had put me in touch with a church that I interviewed with and then declined — she called me one day. I remember I was working in the basement at the church at the time, and she called me, and I'm like, "Oh no, she's going to rip me apart for declining this job. " And so I ended up calling her back, and she said, "I couldn't say this while you were interviewing with this other church, but I felt in my spirit that I needed to invite you to consider what it looks like to start something new. " And she said, "Where would you like to be long term?

" And her bosses had just moved to the Cave Creek or Carefree area, and so I just threw out there, I said, "We've been looking a lot at Phoenix. " And this person said, "Well, I live in Phoenix, and this is definitely an amazing place to come start a church. " And from that point, like, I didn't look at anything else, I haven't thought about anything else — that was so clearly where God wanted us to go. But I would have never known it had she not invited me to consider it.

And you're going to — I'm going to read this passage in a moment, and you're going to be like, "What's this have to do with the passage? " Well, I'll explain it, but this sermon is kind of going to feel like two sermons. But I promise you, I'll combine them at the end in such a way that I hope is edifying and helpful for each of you.

So let me read it. We're going to be in John chapter 4. This is after Jesus finishes his time in Samaria, north into Galilee, where he is from, starting in verse 43. It'll be on the screens if you're following along — we use the NIV version on stage on Sundays.

Verse 43: "After the two days, he left for Galilee.

(Now, Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ) When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem and at the Passover Festival, for they had also been there. Once more he visited Cana in Galilee" —

And the Scriptures help us with what significance Cana holds — this is where he had turned water into wine —

"and there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. Jesus said to him, 'Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe. ' The royal official said, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.

' 'Go, ' Jesus replied, 'your son will live. '"

That's a word.

"The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, 'Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him. ' Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, 'Your son will live.

' So he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee. "

Today the sermon title — I'll probably change it later — the sermon title is called "A Second Miracle." Now, just by show of hands, and if you're willing, an amen, or a yeah, or an excited "woo" — how many of you want to see God do a second miracle in your life? Woo, I do too.

So does Philadelphia. I, for the Chiefs — it'll be like, what, number five? Miracle? I want to see God do something powerfully in my life.

Now, I've seen him do some stuff in my life, and many of you have seen him do stuff in your life, and I want to see it happen again.

I think we can all agree that we want God to do something in our lives. Even the most — like, the most on-the-fence person in this room — you would probably admit that, yeah, I'd love to see God do something in my life, I haven't seen it yet. So whether you're skeptical or whether you've been consistently faithful, we all want to see God do something. And what I found in my life is that God's desires and will to perform miracles often stand in contrast to what I might specifically desire and will for my own life.

Let me say that again, because I don't think it was very articulate: what I want God to do is often drastically different than what God wants to do.

Anyone seen that in their own walk with God? There are things that I want, there are things that God wants, and the whole faith journey is me aligning my wants to his wants — that's what the faith is about. Now, if you thought you would step into faith and tell God what to do, I just want to tell you up front — there are some times where you can declare some things that fit within the category of God's will, and he's going to perform them in your life. But most of the time, your wisdom is, you know, so far below God's wisdom, that you're going to find that you're making some adjustments to some of these miracles in line with his will, rather than doing exactly what you would like.

And so what I want to do is I want to give you three initial points and one final point that'll help you see God perform what he wants to do in your life.

It's kind of, you know, the Jeff Foxworthy style — "you might be" — if you want to see a second miracle in your life, then do these things. The first one: if you want to see a second miracle, if you want to see God do something, you've got to welcome him. Now, it's interesting what happens in the text, and there are some things in the parenthetical that we see in this text that I want to just give you some color to, or context to. So when Jesus comes back up to Galilee from Samaria — I'm not going to show you a map today, but let's just say Galilee is just a little bit northeast of Samaria — and there's a road from Samaria that will take him to Galilee.

On the way is his hometown of Nazareth, and very close by to Nazareth is Cana.

And as you go closer and closer to the Sea of Galilee, you've got a city called Capernaum, where, in Mark and Matthew, we see Jesus do a huge portion of his miracles in greater ministry. So what happens is, on the way — and Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us a little bit more about this — Jesus likely stops, and the Bible tells us in other passages that he could not perform a miracle there because of the lack of faith. And we see that he prophesies that a prophet can't do anything in his hometown. So in Nazareth, they didn't believe that he could do anything.

So guess what — he didn't do anything.

Let me say it this way: they didn't really welcome what he was bringing to their table, so he wasn't able to bring it in the way that he wanted to. However, as he goes a little bit further toward the Sea of Galilee, he arrives in Cana. Now, the text tells us what had happened in Cana — this is where he performed his first miracle, he turned water to wine. Now, that's pretty cool, turning water to wine.

I've already preached a whole message on it — feel free to go back, I don't remember what I called it, but if you just go back far enough, you'll find it eventually on our YouTube.

In fact, you should follow our YouTube, like, subscribe, start sharing it so we can see more and more people come to saving knowledge of Jesus. And when you're out of town, you can actually watch something — you know, we have a full live stream service, we say it's for outreach, not convenience, but sometimes it is convenient to have. And so he's on his way, he arrives in Cana, and go figure, they welcome him. You know, he created like a big party that one night at that wedding in Cana, so they're like, "More, please, Jesus.

" And I think it's cool that this man in Capernaum, this royal official who has a son that's on the verge of death, heard what they had said about him in Cana, and so he comes over and he talks to Jesus. But we've got to welcome his presence — you got to welcome Jesus.

It says the Galileans welcomed Jesus. If you want God to do something. In your life, but you're hostile to him is not something—or that he won't, he might—but if you welcome him, he will. He'll do something.

And many of us live in such a way that we don't.

You might say that you welcome Jesus, but if I were to go a little bit further into the Book of John, once we get to John chapter 6, Jesus is going to say something difficult. You're going to walk out of this room, go back to your house, and Jesus is going to ask you to do something difficult. That's when you find out whether you're welcoming Jesus or not. I know some of y'all are in here and you're like, "I don't know about this Jesus character.

" I'd invite you right now, in the name of Jesus, open up your heart and your mind to him and see what he might do as you test him by following him. See if what his will for your life is better than what your own will is.

See, but most of us in this room, you're going to go home, God's going to call you to do something difficult, and you're going to be like, "I don't know about that. " He's going to say, "Show up to church on Super Bowl Sunday. " I'm proud of you. I'm so proud of you guys.

He's going to say, "Open up my word early in the morning. " If you do that, it's going to be something very difficult, and when the difficulty comes, that's when you find out how really welcoming you are of Jesus. There are times in my life where he's called me to love people that I don't really like. I'm—I'm just—I'm a pastor.

I'm—I'm—I'm a pastor, but I'm—I'm a—I'm a man, not a great man, you know, 'cause I—I can't grow a beard like some of you people out there, but I get it. I know what it's like to have to forgive someone who wronged you deeply and then call them up, even though they didn't say sorry to you, and say, "Hey man, just want you to know, like, let's—let's reconcile here. " God's going to call you to do something difficult, and are you going to be welcoming of him in that? The Galileans welcomed him, but we know in the other passages that the Nazar—, those from Nazareth—did not welcome him.

They saw him as the carpenter, not as the Savior. And when you see Jesus as who he really is, you're going to be much more willing to welcome him.

That's why we start church the way that we start, with music, because we recognize people are coming in from all different walks of life, different thought processes about God. And one thing that we know about music, especially when those words are directed to our Savior, is it can give us a little bit more calm, and it can open us up to something that the Lord wants to do. Not only are we worshiping God through the music, but it also calms our spirit and enables us to be receptive and welcoming to what he has for us. A lot of the songs, you'll see, the first one is like, "We welcome your presence.

" Why? Because many of us ignore his presence.

But if you would open yourself up to it, you're going to see something fresh. Now I want to be clear about the second miracle thing I keep talking about. It might not be something like this. What I've learned in my life is the miracle of his presence is good enough.

What does Paul say?

He says, "Regardless of all the other circumstances in my life, I have learned that your grace is sufficient for me. Even when I am weak, then you are strong. " Even when I got this thorn in my side, even when stuff's difficult in life, you being present is amazing. I've learned in my life that signs are limited.

The miracle that I want in my life is for God to do a work in me. This is why in Ephesians he calls us—I think it's Ephesians, my wife knows the Bible better than me, I understand it better than her, that's how we compliment each other in Christ—is it Ephesians or Philippians where he says, like, that we're his workmanship, his poa?

Huh, that's what I thought, but I wasn't going to say it. I wanted you to say it. See, my wife is more spiritual than me, guys, you got to know this. I can just talk better than her, that's how we work it out.

But you talk well too.

He says we are his workmanship in Christ Jesus. He says in, Romans 12:1 and 2, he says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove the acceptable, right, and good [will of God]. " That the thing he does in you is the biggest miracle possible. The fact that you have been saved and redeemed from your sin by the grace of Jesus, that's the miracle.

The fact that someone died on a cross and rose from the grave, that's the miracle. The miracle is not that something I specifically prayed for came to be, that's cool, but the real miracle is that you spend eternity with God when you simply confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe he was raised from the dead.

And if we welcome him, we get to receive that miracle today. I'm not saying he won't do some of those physical miracles, he might, and that's cool, but the bigger miracle is his presence. So welcome him, welcome him into your life. This man, was very welcoming.

It says when he heard Jesus was coming back from Judea, he made [his way] to Cana.

Now it's not crazy far from Capernaum to Cana, but it's far enough to be a full day endeavor. And so this man makes his way over there, and he greets him, and he asks him his requests. So my second point is: not only should you welcome him, but if you want a second miracle, you might need to beg him. Now let me be clear here—God's not trying to get you to beg him because he wants the accolades of you getting on your knees and begging him, "Lord, please help me.

" That might be the result, but that's not why he does it. The reason he wants you to beg him for the things that you desperately want in your life is because he wants a connection with you.

And by beg, don't think about the begging, think about what it takes to beg. When I beg, I'm desperate. I heard someone say this last week at a little cohort I was at. He said he asked his staff this question—, and it's kind of their litmus test question—he said, "When's the last time you wept out of desperation for the Lord?

When's the last time you wept out of desperation for the Gospel presence, or the good news of Jesus, in your life? " And I thought it was a good question for me to ponder on, because when I'm not desperate, I'm not looking.

When I'm not desperate, I'm not listening. When I'm not desperate, I'm not begging. But when I'm desperate, that's when—that's when I go to the Lord. Now, now let me get you here a little bit.

We have learned in our day and age, to be stubborn, not desperate.

—should I make the joke? I'm going to make the joke. It's like Steelers fans, like, I don't know why, but the vibe is just like, those are the guys who wouldn't tell you if they got a problem, you know what I'm saying? Those are the guys who wouldn't—all right, I'm done.

It went better in the first service 'cause there were Steelers fans sitting in there to talk back with me.

I'm done with the Steelers jokes. They do have a vibe that is kind of like that, you know, a little toxic masculinity going on over there. But what I'll say is many of us think in our stubbornness that we need to keep our problems to ourselves. But here's the truth: when you are seeking results, and you're not getting those results through your own intentions and activities, it's time to go higher.

You need to beg the Lord for the desires of your heart.

If you want a second miracle, you have to beg the Lord. The Lord tells us to ask for the desires of our heart. In James it says, "You do not have because you do not ask. " And what that's not saying is that when you ask, you're going to get what you want.

When you ask God, he's going to give you what you need. But even when you ask God for the desires of your heart that are in no way similar to the desires he has for you, even then it's okay.

Like, how many parents do I got in the room? Parents of kids, or adults—like when they ask you for something, sometimes they ask you for things that are just—you're so dumb, I'm not giving you that thing, am I right, parents? You know, it's like my kid asked me for a second video game 'cause he lost one in my car seat, and I'm like, "No, you stick your little old hands in there and you find it. " Right?

It's like, "I'm going to help you help yourself, and you're going to get this game—that's my gift to you. You get the game, just—I'm not paying for it again. " But even when he asks me, even when he begs me, he's like, "I really want a game, " or my daughter's like, "I really want this, " and I'm like, I don't care about that, but I care about them, so I'm entertaining the conversation.

And this is God with you—like, God might not ever give you the thing that you ask him that is completely out of the category of his will for your life. He might never give it to you. But the fact that you begged him means it opens up the door for a connection that is two-sided, and now he gets to speak to you. I always say when you come to Jesus in prayer, you're going to leave with one of two answers: either he's going to answer the prayer, and you're going to be pumped about it, and it's going to be part of your testimony, or he's not, and a couple years later you're going to look back and say, "Thank you, God, for not answering that prayer.

" Those are the two results—if you don't go to God, it's different, but when you go to God, he loves you so, so much, he wants a connection with you, that even when we ask for stupid things, he still entertains the conversation. But when you beg him at the second level, when you beg him for things that are within the category of his will for your life—I mean, think about it, think about when your kid asks you for something that you want to give him or her.

It's like—my kid came to me, I don't—I don't remember what he was asking me, but had something to do with his faith in Jesus. He's like, "Hey, can I do this? " And I'm like, "I'll never buy you that video game, but I'll totally do that. " It's just different.

If he came to me today and said he wanted a fifth Bible—he's only got one—but if he wanted a fifth Bible, I would buy him four Bibles. Wouldn't you? I'm like, "You can read this one, you got the NIV translation, you got the NLT translation, you got the NASB translation, I'll give you a Greek translation—you can't even read it—I'm gonna get you as many Bibles as I want. " Why?

Because it's within the category of desires for his life. And God loves you so much more than we can even think about loving our kids. So when you ask him for something that's within the category of his will, you move from connection to a deeper level of calling, and he wants to fawn on you. The Bible says you're the apple of his eye, and when you ask him for things that he wants to give you, he's going to dote on you because he loves you.

Now, that doesn't mean when you ask him for things that could be within the category of his will, it's always what you expect, but it means that he sees your heart.

While man only sees the outward appearance, he sees your heart. He's not judging you for what it looks like, he's loving you for who you are. He loves you, and when we beg to God, whether it's the stuff he wants or whether it's the stuff he doesn't care about as much, he still brings you closer. So beg to God.

This man comes up to Jesus and he begs.

Picture the desperation that this man would have had, knowing his son is near death. None of his activities did the trick, so he went to someone who he thought might be able to. And you might be in this place where you have not seen God do a miracle in your life yet. That's okay.

He might be able to in your life if you trust him.

I know he will, but you might not know. Try it out. Try going to him and see what he provides. He might perform what you want, and he might give you peace about that same thing, but not perform the specific miracle, whatever it is.

It gets you in a better spot.

Number three: if you want a second miracle, you have to be resilient. And I love what happens in this passage. He goes to him—this is in verse 47—he goes to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. And I don't know if you guys noticed Jesus's response—he has a lot of responses like this—it's like, really, that you could have said it different, Jesus?

But this is what he says.

He says, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe. " This man asked him to heal his son. Doesn't that seem reasonable? The last miracle.

That he performed was he got a bunch of people who are already drinking a little bit more, in party mode. That was the first miracle.

I don't know if you've ever thought about that. If I'm this man, I'm like, "Surely the Lord is going to be happy about my request, because the last group he performed a little old miracle for, his mom, and turned water into wine so that the people at the party didn't look bad in front of the rest of the community. This is my son, he's going to die, surely I'm justified. " And then I go to him, and then he's like, "Oh, you people keep seeking signs, unless they get a sign they'll never believe.

" Here's what's cool: the man, the Royal official, he has resilience in this conversation. His response isn't, "Oh, okay, thanks for that response, Jesus. " The Royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies. " Ain't that bold?

Jesus talks mess about people needing to see signs, and then he's like, "Hey, just come on, dude. " That's bold — talking to the King of the universe right here, savior of the world, "Just come heal my son, " and the man is commended for his faith.

And so, I don't know, I think we should have a little bit more resilience in our faith. Sometimes we're like, "Oh, God didn't do this. " Well, how many times did you pray about it? "Well, God wouldn't want this.

" Well, how many times you talk to him about it? Or, "Man, if God wanted this, then he would have done this a long time ago. " How do you know? What if he wanted you to build up some resilience, thick skin, so that you could get to the place where when the real bad stuff happened, you would still have faith in him?

Who knows. I don't know what the Lord wants to do specifically in your life, but what I do know based on all the Scriptures is that when we enter into this faith in Christ and follow, there will be tribulation, there will be difficulty, there will be trials. And when you go through trials, those who fall during trial are the ones who lack the resilience to stick through trials. And I want to encourage you, if you want to see a second miracle, or a third miracle, or a twentieth miracle, or the Revelation of God that gives you discernment that goes far beyond what you could have gleaned by looking at, by looking at YouTube, or Wikipedia, or ChatGPT — like, the Lord can give you something supernatural.

And if you're not resilient, you'll never get there.

But if you have resilience to stick through — what is it that James says? He says, "Blessed are those. Blessed are you when. For it's the testing of your faith that produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be complete, lacking in nothing.

" He says, if you persevere through trials, God will make you more and more whole — that's a miracle. If you want outward transformation in your life, you got to stick through the inward transformation that he wants to do.

You've got to be resilient. And I know that's not in the spiritual gift lists, but if there's anyone who's stuck through their faith long enough, they know you got to have some resilience. But many of us, if it doesn't happen quickly enough, we just flake. And the saddest thing for me, guys, is when I see God do a miracle in someone's life, and then temptation comes in, or then life comes in and distracts him, or then something that is chemical in nature in their body comes in and derails them completely.

Like, I'm not saying everything's your choice — there are things that happen, all of us have different proclivities or propensities to do or think in certain ways, and Satan uses every bit of those to derail you.

And your faith, your choice — but when we see that first miracle come in and something derails us, man, it's so sad to see people not have the resilience to stick through it. Whether someone comes in — this is your first time and you don't come back, that's one thing, you might go to a different church, so I don't know what happens to people when they don't come back — but let's go farther. I'll see people trust in Jesus and go so far as to take a step to make their faith public, and then after they made this public profession, Satan comes in and derails him, and I don't see him again. And, you know, it's less simple, it's way more complex than that, but that's sad too, to see someone make their faith public and then all of a sudden scale completely back.

And I'm telling you, it's not just because you got attacked, it's because you didn't develop the resilience necessary to stick through the hard times.

And sometimes it gets really hard. We say in our church, we used to have a value that said, "We get back up, " because it's like, you know, you get knocked down, you get back up. It highlights resilience necessary to stay in ministry, and if we're going to do what God's called us to do in the West Valley, we got to be resilient. But we've shifted that recently, because of how ministry and life works out, and we say that we're "on" even on our off day, and that highlights the resilience necessary to stick to your faith, because there are going to be some days where you don't want to do what God calls you to do, where you ain't feeling it, where something bad happens in your life, or any number of items, and you're going to be like, "People would understand.

" But then, if you stay resilient, God's going to be like, "But how great an opportunity for you to embody my faithfulness to you, that even when something bad's happening, you can still proclaim the new mercies of God every day. " If resilience — if you're not resilient, you're not going to see the miracles you want to see. And that was the three points I came up with this week, and I was standing in the shower — that's where I get all my Revelation from God, and it's true, guys, it's true.

Some of y'all don't shower enough — see, that's that's a double meaning right there, y'all need to. Anyways, I'm done with that, Lord help me, help me, help me stay back. And I was thinking, I was like, "Okay, like, this sermon is about seeing a second miracle. " But the real action step that God revealed to me earlier in the week was that that miracle would have never occurred had the people in Galilee not shared around Galilee, or the people in Cana — had they not shared around Galilee what happened the first time.

Like, he performed this miracle at this wedding, and that was the one miracle up to this point, this was the second miracle. So before that happened, the people around Galilee were like learning and hearing about Jesus's capacity to do great things all the way to Capernaum.

This Royal official heard about it and makes his way over in order to invite Jesus to do a miracle. He heard about it, and this miracle would have never happened had the people who saw the first one kept their mouth shut. Like, that's the real component of this message. Like, if you want a second miracle, you've got to talk about what he did the first time.

And if we want to see the West Valley changed for Christ Jesus, the people in this room have to talk about what Jesus has done in their life.

And I'm reading this, and I'm thinking about it, and God's convicting me of this truth, and I'm like, "Yeah, but that seems like just a super obviously clear, self-serving-for-the-church action step. You're telling them to invite people. " And I'll tell you real quick, hey, anniversary weekend is going to be amazing, it's going to be fun, it's going to be a low bar to invite people — jump on bounce houses, and then sit through a message, and then listen to worship, and you can stand next to them and say, "Hey, worship's all right, " but bounce houses are cool. Or, "Sermon's all right, but worship was great, " right?

Like, you can have a low bar to invite people to church, and I want to encourage you to do it. God's called us to invite people into the same thing that we were once invited into, right?

And so I think that's a helpful point. But I was feeling, "That's self-serving, that's me telling them to do something. " And then the Lord convicted me, and it's rare, but he gave me a phrase — it wasn't audible, it's just a super clear phrase — he said, "You don't think that's helpful? Like, you don't think encouraging them to tell others about what I did is helpful?

" And I just, I felt convicted, and I was tearing up. Well, I was talking to the Lord and I was like, "I guess. Yeah, it is helpful. " Like, you should welcome Jesus, many of you have.

You should beg Jesus for the desires of your heart, because it'll connect you closer to him. You should totally be resilient. But if you can get anything, and this will be so helpful for you — the moment that you start taking what as a miracle and sharing it outwardly, it'll change everything. I could talk to the people who serve in kids ministry in this room who had never talked about their faith before, and now they have to do it in front of five and eight-year-olds.

Raise your hand if you're in the children's ministry — wasn't that helpful?

Like, wasn't that helpful to talk to people about that, to talk to these kids? Doesn't it strengthen your faith to be able to do that? You remember the first time you had to articulate to that person who thought it was weird that you went to church and trusted in Jesus, and you were like, "You had to be there, " I don't know, and then you started to articulate because God gave you the words, and you were like, "Oh. " The first time that you had to talk about what God had placed within you in terms of your calling — you remember the first time you were put on the spot to share about your faith?

You remember the first time that you were having to articulate something that was unclear initially? That's helpful.

And the one thing that'll get you more welcoming of Jesus, more consistently begging Jesus, and more resilient in your faith, is talking about what God's doing. And it's going to feel weird at first — I need you to know it's going to feel weird. You're going to go out to your family members, who maybe, maybe some of them grew up Catholic, they'll be like, "What, you want me to go to this church that meets in some gym, and it's got this super encouraging phrase on top, and this guy who doesn't act at all like a priest and wears cheap jerseys? " Like, it's going to feel weird at first.

But I bet the people walking around Galilee saying, "Yo, this dude turned water into wine, " they're like, "Does he party hard or something? What's going on here? " And then they hear about it, like, "If he can turn water into wine, what else can he do? " And, "If he can redeem you.

" Your friends know where you've been.

Remember my friend John Thomas — we're not friends anymore, he dated my ex-girlfriend — but we were talking one time, and he looks at me and he said, he said, "What God did in transforming you from what that was to what this was, that's proof of God right there. " And you're proof, like, you are evidence that God did the first miracle, so use that evidence to get yourself to the place where you can share. And when you share, someone's going to show up, or you're just going to consistently show up for some person, and eventually y'all say it out loud. Eventually — it might not be next week, guys, that's why it takes resilience — but eventually you're going to see your second miracle.

And that miracle might not be in your life, it might be in theirs. But when you get to see God perform miracles in their life, like, that's going to help you when you're going through the stuff.

Like, the one reason — I mean, I would stand up here no matter what, 'cause I'm stubborn like a Steelers fan, I would have been up here no matter what — but one thing that makes it easier for me to just forget about my stuff today and stand up here and boldly proclaim the message of Jesus is because every week I see somebody, whether it's raising their hand, coming up to me, or coming up to somebody else, and talking about what God is doing through his word. And all I have to do is tell about what he did in me. Yo, that's easy — results, results. And on Anniversary Sunday, we're going to have baptisms as well, so the people who come are going to see some professions of faith, and I'm believing God's going to do a powerful work as we step into the second year.

I want to take us into a moment where we offer the opportunity for those who have never trusted in Jesus to trust in Jesus, because it was clicking to me as I was prepping this message that I'm talking about a second miracle, but some people haven't ever received their first miracle.

That miracle where, when you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, that you're saved, that he places within you his Holy Spirit, and that he starts transforming you from the inside out, that you get peace that surpasses all understanding, and that he'll give you a purpose that is worth hustling for the rest of your life after — that's a miracle. And I want to give you that opportunity, if you've never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. So if everybody would bow their heads and close. Their eyes.

We're going to pray a prayer together.

This is how we do it here — out loud, for the benefit of those who are praying it for the first time. And at the end of that, I'm going to give you an opportunity, at the count of three, to raise your hand to just simply let us know about your decision to trust in Jesus. So repeat after me:

"God, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus Christ, Son of God, I believe He died on the cross and rose from the grave. Forgive me of my sin.

Make me new. And I will follow You for the rest of my life. It's in Jesus' name, amen. "

Every head bowed, eyes still closed. I want to give you an opportunity, at the count of three, if you just prayed that prayer and trusted in Jesus today, receiving your first miracle — I want you to. Three, and we're going to celebrate that, just like celebrating.

Okay, one, two, three! Come on, let's celebrate those who just trusted in Jesus! Amen! Amen!

Amen!