MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: IS THERE MORE FOR ME? | Steve Norman

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Is there more? Is there more? My guess is you've had a moment in your life where you have asked that question. Some of us remember asking it earlier than others. Um just want to let you know, in case you're not paying attention to the calendar, we're almost to October, which means that we're almost to Halloween, which means that Christmas is basically coming next week, right? Like that's how the timeline works. And when we're young, man, we start thinking about Christmas early. Like I'm gonna date myself. We didn't have the the the interwebs back in the day. We had these things called catalogs. They were made out of paper. And you didn't know what you wanted until the Sears catalog showed up on your porch and you flipped through that thing. And some of us were like, I want 19 toys that I didn't even know existed, but I saw them in the catalog, and if I don't have them, I will die. And so in our mind, we come up with this list of all of these things that we need to satisfy this gaping hole in our six-year-old soul. And then we have our list and we tweak our list and we edit our list and we get our list of Santa and we get our list to our parents and we get our list of strangers and relatives and grandparents, and we have our list, right? And then Christmas morning comes, and there's boxes that are wrapped underneath a tree. And and in our house, we, man, we play this excruciating exercise in patience. Our parents are like, you can open one stocking gift, and then we're all gonna eat breakfast at a table and sit down like human beings, and we're gonna read the narrative that reminds us of the reason for the season. And I remember being like, hurry it up already! I know the story. I want to open my stuff. And so we get to the tree, and we there were six of us kids in our family, and so the oldest child would go first, and then the second, like so, like everybody had to open their gifts in order. There was not a tornado and chaos of paper and wrapping and tinsel, like you had to wait your turn. And I remember every time you grab the gift, your pile underneath the tree would get a little bit smaller. And like there's this, there's this excitement that you're getting stuck, but there's always this horror that the moment isn't gonna last all day. It's gonna be over by noon, and you play with your toys uh with reckless abandon for about another three hours, and then all the adrenal and all the sugar wears off, and there's a part of you who looks at your stack of stuff and you're like, I think I'm glad that I've got it, and I'm grateful that people cared about me enough to give it to me, but is there more? Like, is is is this it? I I was expecting a different kind of experience or a different kind of feeling. Anybody ever remember that when you were small? Um, I'd like to say that that moment comes and goes once, but it comes back, doesn't it? Like I just read an article this last week that said there's an entire generation of students that were sending off to college and they're so excited about the college experience, and they go to Amazon and they spend a couple grand on dorm decorations and they get everything set up just so, and they get about, and we're the stats are telling us that more and more students, an overwhelming number of students are getting about two weeks into their college experience and they're coming home. Not to quit college. A lot of them are just like, oh, I'm just gonna pivot my classes online, but I got all of two full weekends into college and realized that the college experience was not delivering what I thought that it would. I found myself asking, is there more? And some of us are well-adjusted people, and but we're we're accomplished, and we got our degrees, and we got our certifications, and we pay our taxes, and we mow our lawn, and we do all of the things that we're supposed to do. And you get to 40 or 42 or 47 and 51, and you're like, I've done everything that I'm supposed to do, and I did the Bible studies, and uh I volunteered, I did all the things, and and I love my family, but when I look at my life, I go, I thought that by now it would be different. I thought that once I had accumulated these achievements, or once that I had accumulated these accomplishments, or once I had accumulated these resources, and once we paid off this house, and then we then we got the one by the lake, and we got some toys to go with it, and everything is looks on paper like it should be great, and yet it's not what I thought that it would be. Is there more? Is there more? Is there more? And sometimes we have what we think we need, but other people that we we care about their blessing and their honor and their approval, they look at our lives and they're like, eh, I'm not exactly impressed, and we don't know what to do with that. It happened to me, my son was in kindergarten, and it was bring your parent to work day. And so I was so honored that like he wanted to show me off to his friends. And at the time I was pastoring um a campus for a large church in suburban Detroit, and one of the things that we did for our missions program is that we would do distance running to raise money for clean water initiatives in Kenya. And one of the one of the races that I got a chance to participate is I got to go down to Florida and run the Disney Marathon. And uh, if you know distance runners, you know that like the kind of medal that you get is a big deal. And so I had this awesome Mickey Mouse medal on this really cool ribbon. And so when I was showing the students, the kindergarten class my stuff, I showed them my Disney medal. And I I was pretty excited about it, and I thought that they would be excited about it too. But there was this kid in the back who raised his hand, he's like, Yeah, I got a question, six years old. And I go, Yeah, what's your question? He goes, Did you win? I was like, No, I didn't win, you jerk. I ran 26.2 miles, I had cramps for days. It's kind of a big deal. He was nonplussed. And how many times does that happen to you in life? You're like, you do the thing, that's a big deal, and everybody's like, eh, is there more? Like, what else you got? I I'm not impressed. It's not enough for me. So, like, is there more? Is this horrifying question because if the answer is no, what does that mean? But maybe that's not the answer. Let's look at the text together. I believe that every single person that we're gonna look at in the next moment, we're gonna look at four examples of people who had encounters with Jesus. His answer to their soul ache was a resounding yes. There is more. There's more than the mundane. We look at this in Luke chapter 5, verses 1 through 11. It says, as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, to these days, uh we call it the Sea of Galilee. Um the Hebrew, the locals, they call it the Sea of Kinneret, which means harp because it's kind of shaped like a harp. The people were crowding around Jesus and listening to the word of God, and he saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and he asked him to put out a little from the shore. He's like literally running out of real estate from which to preach. And then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. And Simon answered, Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. And when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that the nets began to break. So they signaled their partners on the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so full, they began to sink. And when Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid, from now on, you're gonna fish with me for people. So they pulled the boats up on shore, left everything, and followed him. Peter and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John, they only know one thing. Fishing on that lake. They grew up in the lake, they grew up around boats, they grew up around fish. They catch fish and they sell fish, they catch fish and they sell fish, they catch fish and they sell fish. That's all they know, it's all they've seen, it's all they're equipped to do, and their father did it, and now they do it. That's the script that has been given to them by their village and their heritage. And then Jesus shows up and he's teaching about the mystery of the kingdom. And I love it. When Jesus tells, when Jesus gives an illustration that the kingdom of real, he doesn't, kingdom is real, he doesn't tell a story, he usually performs a sign. One of the signs that he performs in their synagogue is he casts a demon out of a person. Now, I don't know about you, but um I haven't been to a church service recently where a demon has been publicly cast out, but if I did go, I would not forget that. Like that would be like, you should come to my church. Um pretty amazing things are happening there. So Jesus casts out demons, and then Jesus goes to Simon's home. His mother-in-law is sick, he heals her on the spot. So Peter and his brother Andrew and James and his brother John, they're hearing the teaching, they're seeing the signs, and their curiosity is piqued. They're like, maybe, maybe change is afoot. And Jesus says to Peter, take the boat out. And so Peter takes the boat out, and Jesus is like, let down nets. And I can only imagine Peter being like, Lord, respectfully, you're really good at the exorcisms. I am really good at the fishing, and I don't tell you how to cast out demons. So how about you not tell me how to catch fish? Like, he doesn't say these things. This is me imagining what might have happened in that conversation. But then he says, But if you say so, I will. I love his humility and his surrender in that moment. And when he does what Jesus tells him what to do, the catch is so spectacular, the nets start to break and the boats start to sink. That's a good slash bad day for a fisherman, right? You're like, the good news is we're gonna make a ton of money. The bad news is um we might lose our business. Uh, but God is gracious, the nets don't completely tear, the boats make it back to shore. And there's two responses. One, Peter repents because he's like, truly, you are God. Something mystical is happening here, and I want to get my life right. And then there's astonishment and worship from the guys around them. Now, think about this for a moment. I used to think that this miracle was just proof of Jesus' divinity, like just so that he could show them that he's God. And that's true, but what are the implications of that? Think about this. Your whole goal as a fisherman is to do what? Is to land the catch of a lifetime. And what happens in this day? They land the catch of a lifetime. It's almost as if Jesus is saying, your whole life arcs towards making a lot of money catching fish. Guess what? I can do that for you in eight seconds. Done. Now that you've achieved all of your professional dreams, what would you like to do now? Where are we gonna go from here? Your whole life is this. Okay, great. I'll give you what you want. Now that we got that out of the way, what should we do? What should we do? And have you ever had a moment in your life where you did all of the things that you wanted to do, and then you're like, I don't know what to do with my life anymore? Because I got the thing. I was the dog that was chasing the car, and once I got it, I didn't know what to do with it. And that's the question that Jesus is asking Peter and Andrew and James and John is like, okay, I will give you the thing that you think you want. Now that you have it, are you ready for something more? Now that you got it, do you realize that it doesn't check every single soul box that you hope that it would? And now that you've caught all the fish, are you ready to fish for people? Now that we've given you everything that you want from business and industry and personal achievement, are you ready to lean into mission with me? See, that massive catch buys them status, it lets everybody know that Jesus is on their team and for them, and also it buys their dad money to float the business while he loses his entire workforce. Jesus invites them to more than the life that they settled for. And I'm not saying that Jesus' invitation to you means that you will just up and leave your job tomorrow, though he could. But it does mean that responding to God's invitation is to see our work as more than grind and see the things that we have learned up until this point in our life to say, like, God, how would you let how would you lever leverage my actual fishing for spiritual mission? How would you use all of the lessons that you have taught me in life up to this point and elevate those for service to kingdom? What might life look like then? See, God is inviting some of us to reframe our wisdom, our gifts, our talents, and our experience for something that is more than me and my glory and my comfort and my status and my security. And the question to that answer is, is there more than just the grind? And the answer is absolutely there is. There's participation in the mission of God to redeem the world for his glory. Is there more? Yes, yes, a thousand times. Yes. On that same note, uh, is there more than the mundane? Sure. Um, is there more than just the pursuit and the accumulation of money? Yes, there is. I was talking to a friend recently, um, his kids recently graduated college, and I go, what's your daughter up to? He's like, Oh, she wants to go in the helping profession. And I go, what does that look like? He goes, she wants to be a counselor. I go, what about your son? What does he want to do? And he goes, Well, he's not exactly sure, but um, he does say that he wants the kind of life that will allow him to drive a Lamborghini. And I go, okay, uh, that that's a thing, and like I'm I'm not judging his motives or intent, but that's a very specific goal. And what he's saying is, uh, whether I impact people for good or not, that is secondary to me. I want, I want, I want the good life, I want the high life. And how many of us have lived, been around the block long enough to know that um that's a natural pursuit, but it doesn't always deliver what we think it will. I have a I was working with a business leader and he goes, a lot of people that I work with, their sole goal in life is to get to the top of Money Mountain. He goes, but unfortunately, once you get to the summit of Money Mountain, you know what you find there? You'll find a hamster wheel that you just have to keep running on to sustain the life that you want. Once you got it, you gotta defend it. Once you got it, you gotta keep it. Once you got it, you have to sustain it. And we have a story about a guy who all he ever really wanted to want, all you ever really wanted was to drive a Lamborghini. And life does not deliver what he thought that it would. We read this in Luke chapter 19, verses 1 through 9. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus, he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. We'll just pause there for a moment. In that culture, to be a chief tax collector meant that you were um persona non grata in your neighborhood because you are a representative of the Roman Empire. And so anybody who represented the oppressor was not a friend to the people. So not only did you represent your cultural enemy, but you are making money lying to us off of that. So not only you represented the bad guys, but you made good money stealing from us with their authority. That's just, it's just, it's like taking somebody who is personally your your individual, isolated, customized IRS agent and a traitor to your nation, your government. So an IRS agent plus Benedict Arnold, all in the same person, that's Achaeus, right? Not everybody's friend. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. Some of us remember this story from when we were kids. And so um he climbed, he ran ahead and climbed up a Fikamor sig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up, said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. And all the people saw this and they began to mutter, Are you kidding me? Jesus is going to eat with a sinner. Like in that day, like if you if you sat down with somebody and broke bread with them, it was a sign of intimacy and value and dignity and connection. So if you if you cared about with somebody enough to go into their home and eat food that they prepared for you, it was a major moment that they were a friend. And the town was not having it. But Zacchaeus, after that meal, stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. So I love this picture. Why does Zacchaeus climb a tree again? Why does he climb a tree? Because he's short, but also let me ask you this question. Have you ever been to a parade? Anybody like anybody ever been to a parade? Um, has anybody ever had um a family with young children come to the parade after you and their kids want to see the parade, but they weren't there early enough to grab a blanket, and the jerk of me is just like, I got here at 5.30 with my blanket. You should have got here at 5.30 with your blanket, but that's not godly, so we don't say those things out loud. Um but when when short people come behind us at parades and their children, do we make them climb trees to watch parades? No, like what do respectful, kind, normal people like what do you do once you let them in? So does Zacchaeus have to climb a tree because he's short? No, he has to climb a tree because what? No one will let him in. Nobody likes this guy. That's how many bridges he has burned in this town. So he's not climbing a tree because he's short, he's climbing a tree because he's short and everybody hates him. That's that's why Zacchaeus is up in a sycamore tree. But Jesus cares so deeply for Zacchaeus that he sees him and he names him and he invites himself over to his house. Somebody once said, There's no more beautiful sound in the world than the sound of your own name. So you can almost imagine that. What do people say in the village? Does everybody ever are they mad because he's going to Zacchaeus's house? No, they hate him so much they won't utter his name. What do they say? He's going to the house of that sinner. You ever have anybody like in your world whose name shall not be spoken? Like just because the resentment runs that deep? Again, that's Zacchaeus. But Jesus invites himself over to Zacchaeus's home. And we don't know what happens over the course of that meal, but something shifts in his heart, and he's like, I'm giving half of everything I own to the poor. And everybody's just like, Well, you're pretty wealthy. Um, you'll be fine. But nevertheless, he does that, and then he has this great line. He goes, If I have cheated anyone, you can almost imagine people in this town to be like, if if you have cheated one, like I have receipts. Like, I would have loved to see the line outside of Zacchaeus, this gate. At the moment that Jesus left town, people are like, I'm ready for my check, please. Like, where do I, where do I sign up? But I love it that that in the scriptures, we read in Exodus chapter 22 that says, if you have stolen somebody's sheep, the radical restitution that you pay back is that you pay them back, you give them four sheep. And it's saying, I am not showing, I'm I I don't want, I don't want us to get to zero. I want you to get in the black because of the truth. Like, I am paying you back with damages. That's radical restitution. And see it, because Zacchaeus's heart has been so changed that he's just like, the money doesn't care anymore. What matters now is restoring relationship with people in this town that I have wronged. And have you ever noticed in your life, whether you make a ton of money or whether you make very little, that money has the ability to warp how we see people around us. And Jesus is like, is trying to tell Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, your life has been all about money up until this point, but I don't want your life to be about people after this. Because every single one of us knows that there have been circumstances in our life where we have had to choose. So that story about that one kid who like all they want to do is drive a Lamborghini. About a year and a half ago, our family had a chance to visit um some friends out in Arizona. They were they winter there and we were doing spring break there, and they were gracious enough to host us that they took us to their church and um they helped us find some accommodations and then they took us out for dinner. And when we were walking out to our cars in the parking lot afterwards, they were walking to their vehicle, which was a Lamborghini Urus, which is um their Lamborghini's version of an SUV, and he turned to my son, who is 16 years old, uh, six is 16 years old and two months, um, who had already had one significant car accident. And he goes, Um, would you like to drive it? And Kelly and I are saying, Please don't. Uh, that's not an offer that you want to extend to anybody. But what I love about what I loved about that moment is that our friend was like, he, and he told he told Kelly this in a later day. He's like, hey, worst case scenario, he goes, something happens to the car, and then he said this, he's like, it's just steel and rubber. He's like, if it becomes more than that, then it's an idol, and we're not supposed to do that, right? And so what we loved about his perspective is he was to say, like, if I have to choose between like how I value things and how I value people, I want to choose people every single day. So Jesus is saying, like, hey, there's there's more. There's more. There's more. And then Jesus calls us to Jesus calls us to wholeness. There's another moment in here that I love that is in John chapter 5, verses 1 through 14. Jesus calls us to more than monotony. Sometime later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the sheep's gate, a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda, which is surrounded by five covered colonnades, like this massive, elaborate kind of pool deck. And here a great number of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. And one who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. We're not sure if he was 38, like if he was born that way, or if he had some catastrophic accident when he was 10, and now he's almost 50. But when Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had had this condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to get well? Does that sound like a strange question to anybody else? Like, do you want to get well? Like, why is that pertinent? Because to get well would have meant for that individual a change in perspective, a change in worldview, a change in activity, and a change in rhythms. His life is predictable, it's comfortable, it's manageable. He can't walk, but also he doesn't have to work. He can live off of the generosity of strangers. To be well would mean to leap into the unknown, would mean to embrace work and responsibility and contribution. And the guy says, Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred, because there was this the local legend was that an angel of God would come down and stir the water. And if you were the first person in the water after it moved, you got healed. It's kind of like winning the healing lottery. But this guy's like, My ailment prevents me from I'm always the last one in. I can't win the race. And Jesus says, Well, then just get up. Pick up your mat and walk. And at once the man was cured. And he picked up his mat and walked. And the day on which this took place was a Sabbath. And so the Jewish leader said to the man who had been healed, It's the Sabbath. The law forbids you from carrying your mat. But he says, Um, there was a guy who made me well, and he told me that I could pick up my mat and walk. And so they said, Who is this guy who told you to pick it up and walk? And the man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. And later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, See, you are well again. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you. See, for this man, more meant movement. More meant the opportunity to get unstuck. And is it possible that some of us have found ourselves in situations or in rhythms where we might not be physically paralyzed, but we're emotionally paralyzed, spiritually paralyzed, relationally paralyzed? And maybe we've been there for as long as we can remember. Maybe we've been there for 38 years. And maybe Jesus is asking us, do you want to get well? Do you want more? There is more. Do you want more? And I love it that Jesus respects our agency enough to put it in our hands. It will mean stretching, it will mean discomfort, it will mean uh wrestling down some anxieties and some core fears, but it's an invitation that I'm extending to you. What I live in this story is that Jesus heals him and then runs into him later and he's like, Oh, P.S. stop sinning. He goes, or life will get worse than it was before. Jesus has gives him this reminder. He goes, just so you know, physical healing is not the same as spiritual transformation. You can get healed physically and never be restored spiritually. So more is being liberated from our discomfort. It's more than being liberated from our discomfort, it's being liberated from our commitment to self. And it's connecting with God and others. There is more than monotony, and it means being made whole, being restored in body, mind, and spirit. But it's something that we have to participate with God and we have to say yes to. And for that man, his saying yes to more meant that he chose to get up and carry his mat, something that he had never done before. But that was his sign of both faith and obedience. So Jesus is calling us to more than the mundane. He's calling us to mission. Jesus is calling us more to money, he's calling us to enrich relationships with people. Jesus is calling us from more than monotony, just kind of settling for 30 decades of dysfunction and stepping into wellness and wholeness and healing. And then finally, Jesus is calling us to more than spiritual misery. It's kind of like in the same vein. This kind of builds on the miracle that we just talked about, how we are have physical needs, but we also have spiritual brokenness. And it's easier to see the physical needs than it is to see the spiritual brokenness, but God puts a priority on what? God puts a priority on our spirit over than putting a priority on our body. He cares about that, yeah. But he's like, the most important thing is that your heart and soul are reconciled with God. All of the other stuff is secondary. So we read this story in Luke chapter 5, just says, one day Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were sitting there, and they had come from every village in Galilee, and from Judea and Jerusalem. Think about that for a second. Um, if you ever look at a map, Galilee is about 80 miles away from Jerusalem. So if people had come all the way from Jerusalem and Judea, that they're traveling like three days one way to hear Jesus speak. Like that's how committed they are to being in his presence. And it's there's this line that's beautiful. It says, And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. And some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat, and they tried to take him into the house, it was crowded with people, and lay him before Jesus. And when they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and they lowered his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said, Friends, your sins are forgiven. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can verse seven give for who can forgive sins but God alone? And Jesus knew what they were thinking. He said, Why are you thinking these things in your heart? Which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and walk, but so that you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralyzed man, I tell you, take up your mat and go home. And immediately he stood up in front of everyone, took what he had been lying on, and went home, praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, We have seen remarkable things today. So when those friends clamber up on a roof, it's hard to climb up on a roof on your own. It's really hard to climb up on a roof with somebody who cannot move. So think about like all of the logistics and awkwardness that they're like, all right, um, you stand on this box, and I'm gonna stand up on this box, and I'm gonna get this ladder, and the four of us, we're gonna, we're gonna figure out a way to prompt this guy. It could not have been pretty, friends, trying to like roll a friend who's paralyzed up on top of a roof, then dig a hole in the roof and lower him through it, but that's what they do. And I love it. What's the what the miracle that they want is what? It's for the friend to walk. What's the miracle that they get for him to be forgiven of his sins? In fact, for all of them to forgive of his sins, because Jesus doesn't look at the paralyzed man and say, You're forgiven of your sins. What does he do? He looks at all of them. He looks at the guy on the floor and he looks at the guy on the roof and he's like, friends, you are forgiven of your sins. And I can imagine them saying, like, well, that's not, that's nice and all. That's not why we came. Like, that's not the miracle that we came here to get. And what I love about that story is Jesus says, if I told you that your sins are forgiven, there's no visible sign to prove that that happened. He goes, So I will, I will let him, I'll I'll make him walk. But the reason I'll make him walk is so that everybody can know that the first thing that I said is true, that I can forgive and I do forgive. And I want to be crystal clear about this. Um, I believe that God is a God of miracles. And when it says the power of the Lord was present with him to heal the sick, I believe that the power of the Lord is present um in and among us for healing at all sorts of different levels. And I pray that if you haven't seen God do the miraculous, you'll have a chance to see that in your lifetime. But know this: if God only gives you one miracle, if you only get one, the forgiveness of your sins is a really good one to both start and end with. And there are some of us who are like, hey, I prayed for this miracle, I prayed for this miracle, and I prayed for this miracle, and I didn't get it, and my heart is tearing. Know this God is walking with you through your disillusionment, your disappointment, and your sorrow. But when it comes to the state of your very soul, God says this there's one miracle that I can guarantee you in this lifetime, and that's that you can be cleansed of your sins, you can be forgiven of your wrongs, and you can have your relationship to God and others restored. And the way that you can know that it's true is because of the life, death, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. So when those of us who are trapped in anxiety or trapped in sorrow, we're trapped in guilt, we're like, I've made mistakes, X, Y, Z, and a bunch of other ones in between, I don't know if there's hope or mercy or restoration for me. The answer is there is more, there is more, there is more, there is more. And we know it because Jesus Christ willingly gave his life for us. He died for crimes that he did not commit. He suffered for sins that were done at our hands, and the things that we have thought and done and said that have created distance between us and God, us and the people that we want to love, and us and even ourselves, those can be covered over, erased, and buried, and drowned in the unending mercy of Christ. So if you're a person and you came in here today or you're watching this service and you're not sure that your relationship with God has been calibrated, or that you have been restored to right relationship to Him, or you have been forgiven for things that you have thought, done, or said, maybe that nobody else even knows about. I want to let you know that because of Jesus, there is more. There's more than the mundane, there's more than just money, there's more than monotony, there's more than spiritual misery, there's life, there's help, there's wholeness, there's mission. And because God loves us and respects our free will, he does not impose more on us, but he offers more to us. And all we have today to do is take a step in God's direction and said, I would like to receive the gift that you give. Will you help me? And the answer is never no. So let's pray together and then respond to the Lord in worship. Father God, I thank you that you have more for us. I thank you that you offer more to us. And the more isn't an idea, the more isn't stuff, the more isn't a concept, the more is you. And Jesus, I pray that you would give us the grace to open the doors of our hearts from within and invite you to equip us for mission, to empower us for love, to move us towards wholeness, and to unleash mercy so that healing could happen at the soul level for every single one of us who's here today. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.