Steven Furtick - It’s Not What It Looks Like (01/28/2026)
Pastor Steven Furtick preaches from Matthew 1:18-25 on Christmas Eve, focusing on Joseph's confusion and the angel's message: "It's not what it looks like." The sermon reveals how God works through seemingly scandalous or embarrassing situations to bring about His redemptive plan, urging believers to look beyond appearances by faith, trust God's shameless grace, and open the "box" of life's disappointments to find the good gifts inside. It ends with a call to respond in faith, receive Christ, and experience a new beginning.
Standing for God's Word – Matthew 1:18-25
Hey, I want to preach for a few minutes from Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. I won't leave you standing. I'm going to let you sit down in a minute, but let's stand for God's Word. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18 through 25.
I am clean-shaven for a good cause. That's right. Our church family had a goal. We were giving toward our expansion and outreach for the end of the year in a special offering. The people brought over $4 million, and I told them, if we get it to $4,850,000, which was a significant number for us, I don't have time to explain it to you. I said, I shaved my beard. I've been growing a beard for a couple of months, and it's obvious. It's obvious we hit the goal yesterday, so thanks for being generous. You guys are the best.
I did pull a little trick. I told them to tell me when we got close, and then I texted in the remainder because I wanted to make it hit. So it was like the last... I gave the last little bit, and that was fun to do. Pastoral privileges. Amen.
Matthew chapter 1, verse 18 through 25. You got a little bit of room for God's Word? Okay. This is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, came about. His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Everybody say, uh-oh. Uh-oh.
I'm looking kind of bad for Mary and Joseph and their relationship. Because Joseph, verse 19, her husband was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
The Angel's Message to Joseph
But after he had considered this, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Now, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.
I'm glad he's above us reigning. I'm glad he's beneath us sustaining. But I'm also glad that he's with us to walk with us, to comfort us, to direct us, to encourage us, to be our God forever and ever.
And when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
I want to back up to verse 20, where it says, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. What is in her is from God.
I know it seems like she's betrayed you, Joseph. I know it seems like your fiancé is hallucinating, saying that she's carrying God's baby. But I came here to affirm to you through this announcement that what's in her is from the Holy Spirit.
It's Not What It Looks Like
And I want to preach to you from that thought today, and I want to entitle this Christmas message, It's not what it looks like. It's not what it looks like.
I believe there are some people like Joseph today who have some situations in your life that are confusing, but you're about to see, before I finish this Christmas devotion, that it's not what it looks like.
God wants to show you that your first impression is often faulty, and it's not what it looks like. Sometimes when we only see with the eyes of our senses, we miss what God is doing by his Spirit.
And God brought you here tonight just to let you know that it's not what it looks like. Find 12 people and tell them, it's not what it looks like. Before you take your seat, it's not what it looks like. I promise, it's not. It's not what it looks like. I promise. Take my word for it, Tyler Ford. Hey, Tyler, Tyler, it's not what it looks like. It's not what it looks like. It's not what it looks like.
Thank you, worship team. It's not what it looks like. It's not what it looks like.
Speaking of things looking interesting or different, check out what we did before we shaved the beard all the way off just to spoil your Christmas appetite. Isn't that amazing? That's sweet, y'all. You confront like you don't like it, but you know that's next level. If I preached with that, this church would double. You know it would. We're just not ready for the crowd, so I shaved it the rest of the way off. Take that down. People can't take so much of that awesomeness.
Tell somebody, that's a sweet stash. It's not what it looks like.
Dealing with Embarrassment and Scandal
Are you an easily embarrassed person if you are? Raise your hand. I realized as that was coming out that that's kind of cruel to ask the easily embarrassed people to raise their hand, and perhaps that's why they all did this. Just get right there. It's like a slight hand. I like people who lift their hands in worship for the first time and they do a little... You know, you gotta work your way up. Until you embrace the Lord.
Easily embarrassed. I am easily embarrassed, believe it or not. Not up here. Up here I'm comfortable because this is my calling. But in other things that I'm not good at, it really doesn't take much to get me embarrassed.
And when I get embarrassed, I get edgy. When I get embarrassed, I get... I have anger issues when I get embarrassed. A lot of men who express anger, what they're really expressing is embarrassment. And they don't know a way to get it out, and so they get mad.
And so if you live with a man who gets angry, I bet if you tracked it, he's actually humiliated and looking for a way to express humiliation. But humiliation is humiliating to express. So we turn it into anger, which we think symbolizes power. It's really a form of weakness, but this isn't a psychology lesson. This is a Christmas Eve worship experience.
And I was thinking about how embarrassing this must have been for Joseph. See, if you just read the Christmas story and don't feel the Christmas story because it's familiar to you, I think you missed the opportunity to really appreciate the narrative. And you don't encounter God in the story. You may feel nostalgic by singing some songs, but let's feel this for a moment tonight.
How embarrassing to have your fiance running around claiming God got her pregnant. How embarrassing. And we can sanitize the Christmas story, but it's really very scandalous. It really is. It's very scandalous how God came into the world in this way by being born to a virgin.
Mary's Silence and Personal Encounter with God
I always imagine that Mary at some point came to Joseph and explained what the angel had told her. Because, see, first the angel came to Mary and I preached about that this weekend. I don't know if you got to hear that message. Go back and listen to it if you can. Again, it's online. It's called, There's Been a Change of Plans.
And that's what the angel said to Mary. Hey, I know you're planning a wedding, but you need to plan a baby shower because the Son of God is in you.
And I always imagine, I don't know why, that Mary and Joseph talked sometime after that. In actuality, several months passed. Mary went away, and we don't have any record of Mary and Joseph ever talking.
When it says here in the text that Mary was found to be pregnant, look at it in verse 18. It doesn't mean she was found to be pregnant. In verse 18, she was found to be pregnant. It doesn't necessarily mean that she was covering up her pregnancy, but perhaps she couldn't find the words to explain what she had experienced.
Because sometimes you don't have the vocabulary to explain your experience with God to other people. Sometimes you just know that God is doing something in you, but you can't really share it. You don't know what to say about it. Some things are too deep for words.
And certainly the scripture says that Mary treasured these things up in her heart. We don't have a record of Mary sitting down with Joseph and telling him about her encounter with the angel. We have a record of the angel having an encounter with Joseph.
And I think it's important to point out here that everybody has to encounter God for themself. You can't live off of your grandparents' faith or your parents' faith. You have to encounter God for yourself.
Now you can't live for God by yourself, but you must encounter God for yourself. You can get people around you who can support you in your faith, but they can't substitute their faith for yours. You have to have your own personal revelation of who God is to you and your response to who he is to you.
Joseph's Gracious Response and Shameless Grace
And this is what happens with Moses. Perhaps Mary did pull him aside, and when they saw each other from a distance and Joseph found out she was pregnant. He found out because she was starting to show. She was along in her pregnancy.
I don't know what that first encounter must have been like, but in today's language, Mary would have said from a distance, Joseph, I know it looks bad, but it's not what it looks like. Please believe me. I didn't cheat on you. Please believe me. I wasn't unfaithful to you. It's not what it looks like.
Have you ever got caught in a situation where you wished you could explain to somebody? It's not as bad as it looks. I know this. My kids are doing this all the time. Why were you banging your brother's head against the floor? Dad, I promise I wasn't banging his head against the floor. We were playing a game.
Everything goes back to we were playing a game, which my children think cancels out the action. So, as long as I was pretending that his head was a basketball, I wasn't bouncing his head against the floor. I was bouncing a basketball. It's not what it looks like. I know it looks like he's crying and he wants me to get off of him, but really those are tears of joy because we're bonding. Dad, it's not what it looks like.
I was talking a little bit about being easily embarrassed, and I said, who's easily embarrassed? In every family, there is at least one person who is virtually unembarrassable. Every family has one. These people. These people prey on those who are easily embarrassed, and God will put one of each in every family. Every family has one of each.
Usually, the easily embarrassed one will be a teenager, which I find incredibly ironic that our kids spend so much of the formative years of their life embarrassing us in public. How many restaurants did your parents have to leave because you were crying so loud, and now you have the nerve, now that you've hit puberty, to start talking about dropping me off a block away? I'm embarrassed of you.
I wish one of my kids would be embarrassed of me as a teenager. But in the spirit of Christmas, I wanted to tell you about my father-in-law. My father-in-law is the least embarrassable... Made up a word. The least embarrassable... Don't play it on Words With Friends. It won't work, but it'll work for the sermon.
The least embarrassable person I know, my father-in-law. I want to show you a few pictures of him. His name is Merle. I love him. I told Holly, get some pictures just to show you his personality. These are not carefully selected pictures. These are just stock photos. This is him. This is what he does. This is who he is. This is an accurate portrayal of his personality. He's not embarrassing. I love him. He's amazing. He's not embarrassing, but he's just never embarrassed.
So, going out in public with him is sort of like Social Russian Roulette. If you know this about him, he's easy to love, but it takes some getting used to. When I got into the family, I just didn't understand what memos he didn't receive about what is socially acceptable.
You know, just the volume you say things at, the timing you say things, the people you say them to… He understands none of this. He is alien to embarrassment. It's a foreign concept.
For example, who goes to a coach-pitch baseball game with six-year-olds? Who does this? Merle does. Okay. Who does this? Six-year-olds. And when the opposing team comes up to bat, yells to the infield, Easy out, boys! Easy out! Who does that? Merle does.
Yes, that happened to me. The commissioner of the league was looking over at me, standing on the fence, because he knows I'm the pastor of this church, and he looked at me with a look on his face like, these kids are six. And I look back at him like, and so is my father-in-law, mentally and developmentally. Get off me. His daughter was hot. He came with the package. It's not my fault.
No, he's awesome. He's amazing. I love him. I love him. He watches my sermons. I love him. He's amazing. I love my family. I love relatives. But he is unembarrassable. Am I telling the truth, Holly? Virtually unembarrassable.
Now, I'm thinking that in this passage, how easy it would have been for Joseph to respond by embarrassing Mary. And I see in Joseph's response a man who was embarrassed, but look at what it says in verse 19.
Yeah, the scripture team, they're all over it. They got it ready. It says, he was faithful to the law, yet he did not want to expose her to public disgrace.
Wait, that's remarkable. She had exposed him to public disgrace for all that he knew. He had no idea yet where this baby came from. He only knew it wasn't his.
Yet there's something gracious about this man. You never hear him say anything in the Bible. We don't know much about poor Joe. It doesn't talk about his feelings. But in his humiliation, he did not humiliate. In his embarrassment…
I have to think that this is a picture of what our heavenly Father is like. I have to think that the reason that God let Joseph be humiliated by what seemed to be a betrayal is so we would see an earthly picture of how our heavenly Father…
Listen, the fact of the matter is he could have called us disgraceful. He could have been humiliated by our behavior. He could have been ashamed of who we were. But I thank God, and this might be the first time somebody has ever put these terms together, but I thank God that his grace is shameless toward me.
It's a shameless grace. How many are grateful for shameless grace? He wasn't ashamed. He wasn't afraid. He didn't let what people thought or what people said stop him from taking Mary home.
I have in my mind a picture of a God who is never ashamed of his children. So many people are hesitant to come to God. So many of you don't come to church very regularly because you feel so ashamed about what you do in between the times you come.
So how do I come to God like this? I'm so ashamed. I'm so embarrassed. I wanted to let you know your God is unembarrassable. He's unembarrassable. He's completely unembarrassable, and his grace knows no shame.
I'm excited about it. That's a Christmas message right there. The shameless grace of God.
Seeing Beyond Appearances by Faith
And yet there's a deeper level. There's a deeper level that we can apply this message. I mean, think of it. The angel says to Joseph, I know what it looks like, but it's not what it looks like.
Don't we need to hear that sometimes in our lives about the situations that we're facing? Sometimes in our lives we're facing things that are so painful, so hurtful, so impossible, that we need to be reminded by God it's not what it looks like.
Two ways to live, by faith or by sight. If you live by sight, the scripture says that Joseph thought about what he was going to do. He thought about it. He thought it over. He thought it out. He came to the end of his thought process.
And God said, now that you've thought your thoughts, would you like to hear my thoughts? Now that you've tried to figure out what you should do without me, would you like me to weigh in on what you should do?
And the angel appears to him while he's asleep. Isn't it amazing that God has to put us to sleep sometimes so he can get us to see what he wants us to see? Sometimes God has to knock you out to get through to you.
Because as long as you're running around trying to solve your issues and your problems, you'll always mess it up. You'll respond from the wrong places.
The scripture says that when God made Adam, he actually let the man go into a deep sleep, pulled out his rib, and then made the woman. The greatest gift that God ever gave a man, he put him to sleep to give it.
The greatest gifts in your life won't always come from your striving and your effort and your ambition. Some of the greatest gifts in your life will be when you see striving and know that he is God.
And Joseph went to sleep and an angel appeared. And there are many angelic appearances in the scripture that relate to the birth of Christ. The angel appears to Mary Gabriel. Four months later, same angel comes back, returned trip from heaven, and visits Joseph.
The angel appears to them separately but gives essentially the same message. The angel appears to the Shepherd. The star guides the Magi. And in each case, in each appearance, the message is the same. It's not what it looks like.
You can't just look at your life with your natural eyes and your natural senses and your natural mind. You have to pray what Paul prayed, that God would open the eyes of your heart, meaning he would let you see what he sees, how he sees it.
Failure Is Not the End – A New Beginning
Can I encourage somebody who went through a failure this year? You don't have to raise your hand. I wouldn't make you raise your hand for that. But I bet every hand could go up. There are actually people in the room who had such significant failures this year that they actually stopped believing that they failed and started believing that they were a failure.
Because the failure was so significant that it seems to you like it's no longer just what you did. I failed. It's who you are. I'm a failure.
And so you're looking at it from your perspective. And from your perspective, it was a failure. But let's get a different perspective this Christmas. Because failure is not always the end.
See, for Joseph, I'm sure he was sad. I'm sure he was sorrowful. I'm certain of it. I'm sure he was confused because this looks like the end before my marriage even begins. I'm going to put this woman away.
But sometimes what seems to be the end to you is only the beginning with God. And I realize that every dead end in my life has the potential to become a new beginning if I look at it a little differently.
I'm going to need a little more faith in here, because there may be somebody who came to a bitter end this year. Something came to a close in your life, a relationship, a dream, a business, an opportunity, a season ended.
But the angel of the Lord says, it's not what it looks like. I am Alpha and Omega. I'm the beginning and the end. It's never over when God is in it. Nothing is wasted when it's in his hands. Nothing is over till God says it's over.
Nothing is over. Nothing is over. Nothing is over. Nothing's over. Don't you dare put a period where God could have comma. This thing's not done. God's not finished. Don't you stop till he's finished.
He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. You're looking at it wrong. It's not what it looks like.
It looks like failure, but it's really an opportunity for you to humble yourself and say, God, now that my dream has died, it's time for yours to come alive.
Would you slap three people gently and tell them it's not what it looks like? It's not what it looks like. It's not what it looks like.
The Gift Inside the Box
Here's the analogy. Here's the analogy. Here's the analogy. My mom, she's a great gift giver, and she likes to play mind games giving gifts. She plays games with the boxes she puts the gifts in. Anybody else do this?
She'll take a really nice box and put a really junky gift in the really nice box. When you're opening the paper and you see the box and you get excited, she'll get a little look in her eyes, a little mischievous look in her eyes. I've seen it many times.
She taught me. She said, what's on the box isn't necessarily what's in the box. I have to preach that for the next three weeks. What's on the box isn't necessarily... The box may say Nordstrom. The gift may say Dollar Tree, because what's on the box...
I might be talking about your boyfriend. I'm not trying to, but I might be. I might not. I didn't say I was. Sometimes... We're going to put this one online. I like this one.
Sometimes. Show it back at Matthews, too. Sometimes... What's up, Matthews? Sometimes what's on the box...
You try something. Some of you are making decisions by what you see. You're making decisions by what you feel. Oh, well, maybe I'd be happier outside my marriage. Oh, well, maybe I'd be happier if I cut that corner. Oh, maybe it's not so bad, but be careful.
Because everything that's shiny isn't necessarily significant. It's not what it looks like. It's not what it looks like.
On the other hand, sometimes my mom will give you a gift, and she'll get the most beat-up box you've ever seen in your life. I mean a moldy box, a cockroach in it. I'm exaggerating. I just want to paint a picture.
She'll put a beat-up box, and she'll put the best gift in the least beautiful box. Doesn't God do that sometimes in life? Doesn't life sometimes hand you a box, and you peel the paper and say, What is this?
That's Joseph. What is this? I was faithful. I deserve a faithful wife. I'm a faithful man. But in the box was the Savior of the world.
The package doesn't have to be pretty for the gift to be good. The Scripture says, Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variance or shadow of turning.
Every good and perfect gift, if it's from God it's a good gift, he's a good giver. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, how shall he who did not spare his Son not also with him graciously give us all good things?
I wanted to preach this message to somebody who needs to open the box. See, you're standing here with your disappointment. You're crushed by your disappointment. You're disillusioned by your disappointment. The box looks bad.
And I know it's a simple illustration, but you might be missing the gift because you don't like the box. You might be missing the power of God, the purpose of God, because you don't like how it came wrapped.
Wouldn't you be a fool to not take a Lexus because it didn't have the bow? Wouldn't you be a fool to not take the diamond because you didn't like the box? Open the box.
If you're going through pain, embrace the pain. I guarantee you there is power God wants to put in you through the pain. Open the box. Tell somebody next to you, Open the box. It's what's inside that matters. It's what's inside. It's not what's on the box. It's what's in the box.
And sometimes what's on the box says pain, and sometimes what's on the box says betrayal, and sometimes what's on the box says brokenness. But if you can get past how it's packaged and how it feels and how it seems and what people say and what you went through, I believe there's strength inside. I believe there's a gift inside. I believe there's hope inside. I believe there's something.
It's what's inside. Joseph, don't be afraid to take her home, because what's in her is from me. What's in her is from me.
God wants you to know that what he's doing in you is more important than what's happening to you, what they did to you, what they didn't do for you, what he's doing in you in all things. He's working for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.
Who needed this message this Christmas? It's not what it looks like. That's your chorus. It's not what it looks like.
When they offend you around the Christmas tree tomorrow, it's not what it looks like. They're not being disrespectful or hurtful or crazy because they don't love you. It's because they have some things going on inside of them that they're taking out on you.
If you realize that it's not what it looks like when people say some things to you, you won't be so easy to offend, and you'll be a lot happier in your heart because you have X-ray vision to see through to the heart of the matter to know that it's not what it looks like.
You'll be able to look at a situation that seems to be dead and realize that it's really God allowing a setup. See, when you get this message, when you get what Joseph got, you can look at a letdown and see how it's actually a setup.
It doesn't matter what they do to you. It doesn't matter how it happened. It doesn't matter.
God's Heart Over Appearances
See, because I know because in the genealogy of Jesus, where it's like the ancestry.com of how Jesus was born, Matthew traces the whole thing back. And he gives the major points along the way. He does it all in Matthew 1. I didn't read it to you because I thought you'd be bored with it. I could do an exercise and see how long it would take you to start walking out.
This is the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham. Abraham was father of Isaac, Isaac, father of Jacob, Jacob, father of Judah, and his brothers, Judah, father of Perez, Zerah, his mother was Tamar, Perez, the father of Hezron, the father of Ram, Ram, the father of Amminabab, Amminabab, I said that wrong. I don't know. I said it wrong. The father of nation, nation, the son of Solomon. I could keep going because it keeps going, keeps going, it keeps going, it keeps going, it keeps going.
And then he gets to David. In fact, Jesus is called, and it's mentioned in the text, the son of David. He's called that in the scripture, the son of David.
The history of God's people was really the tale of three kings. You got Saul, Saul, who was the first king, the first king, Saul. He was tall, handsome. Everybody wanted him to be their king because he had a pretty package, but it was empty in the box. He had a small heart. His heart wasn't big enough to do and be what God needed him to be.
And in one of the most puzzling scriptures in the whole Bible, it says that God actually regretted that he had made Saul king. Theologians have debated, from my standpoint, unsuccessfully because we still haven't sorted it out, what does it mean for God to regret?
But at some point along the way, God made a pronouncement that he said, I'm done with Saul because God often rejects what man accepts and accepts what man rejects.
Why? Because to God, it's not what it looks like that matters. The people wanted a king that looked like a king. God wanted a king with a heart like a king. He said, I'm looking for a man after my own heart.
And so the prophet goes to Jesse's house. Jesse brings out all of his sons. He trots them out. Each time the word of the Lord came back through Samuel the prophet, this isn't the one, this isn't the one, this isn't the one, until they all pass through except David.
David seemed so significant to his father, to his brothers, to everyone gathered that day, that they didn't even bother to bring him in. He wasn't even a candidate for king. But it's not what it looks like.
Because God doesn't choose like people choose. And I may be speaking to somebody today who feels like their life is very insignificant. A teenager who feels like your life is insignificant. A dad who feels like your life is insignificant. Somebody who's working a job that's so menial, it feels like your life is insignificant.
David was out in the sheep field while the other brothers were lining up for the coronation. But when God chooses you, he looks past what people can't see past. He doesn't select based on appearance.
1 Samuel 16, 7 says that the Lord doesn't look at the things people look at. Aren't you glad God doesn't judge like people judge? Aren't you? Aren't you glad God doesn't judge by appearances? Appearances can be very deceiving.
We live in a world that's all about keeping up appearances. But you need to get this verse in your heart. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart.
And God said, Go get the one that everybody else looked over. Go get the one that everybody else looked at and said he doesn't look like much. Go get the one that everybody else measured his height and said, Oh, he couldn't possibly be king. Go get him.
Because it's not what it looks like. I want somebody with my heart. I don't need somebody who has it all in their head but doesn't have it in their heart.
I want to know this Christmas, how's your heart? You could spend your whole life trying to manipulate and manage an appearance and an image. But the question of Christmas, how's your heart, child of God? How's your heart, my sister? How is your heart, sir? How is your heart?
Not what is your religious knowledge. You can have the appearance of religion and your heart be dead to God. It's the heart of the matter.
There's more than meets the eye to this thing called faith. It doesn't matter what you wore to church. It doesn't matter what you know about religion. How's your heart?
Are you far from God? God says, it's not what it looks like that matters to me. And some of you, to be honest today, would have to admit, you know what? My life is not what it looks like.
The true condition of my heart is not what it looks like. I've got a lot of people fooled. I've got a lot of people thinking I'm doing a lot better than I am. But if you peel all this back, it's not what it looks like.
I don't have that connection with God. I don't have it. I mean, I deep down know it. I'm popular, but then I go home and I don't even like myself. Because I know how to look like what people want me to look like. So people will like what I look like. But I don't like who I am.
And I want God to change my heart. And you know what? When you come to that point with him, and you humble yourself, and you're not afraid to be humbled in his presence, and you're not afraid even to be humiliated, you don't care what people think anymore.
It's not about keeping up appearances. It's about experiencing him. When you get to that point, you know what he'll do? The scripture says, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come.
He'll put a new heart in you. He'll put new desires in you. But as long as you're keeping up appearances, he can't get past what you look like to heal who you really are.
Now, you can play me off this message and go do whatever you planned on doing and harden your heart. But I take this opportunity very seriously because I just feel like there are many here today who have the appearance of happiness, and maybe the appearance of success, and maybe the appearance of religion.
But you know that as I'm speaking, God's speaking to you, and it's not right in your heart with God. And I want to help you get your heart right with God before you leave to go do what you've got to do.
What good is all the activity in the world if your heart isn't right? What good are all the lights on your house if your heart's not right? What good is your bank account if your heart... From the heart flow the issues of life. It is a heart thing.
The Lord looks at the heart, and he's not ashamed of you. And he's not surprised or scandalized by you. And he's not afraid to take you home and to change you. But you must respond by faith.
Invitation to New Beginning in Christ
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes in this moment. We're not moving around much. Everybody's just focused on what God is speaking to them. And I really don't want to talk long because you've heard the message. Now it's just about you responding in your own heart.
Why don't you build an altar in your heart where you can just connect with God right now? And if you know in your heart I'm far from God. Hey, I'm not going to quiz you on how you got there. I don't know if you've never really had a relationship with him or you had one. You drifted away.
It doesn't matter how you got here. It doesn't matter what it looks like. It matters that you come home. It matters what happens now.
So with heads bowed and eyes closed I want to lead you in a prayer. The prayer's not magical but we'll just pray it. We're going to all pray it out loud as a church family for the benefit of those who are coming to God or coming back to God.
And if this message was for you and you want to begin a relationship with God today you can do it. He'll hear your heart. He'll forgive all of your sins and he'll raise you up to life in his name.
We're praying now at all of our locations repeat after me if this is the prayer of your heart. Heavenly Father. I'm a sinner. I need a Savior. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I believe he died to forgive my sin and Rose again to give me life.
Jesus, I confess you as my Lord and Savior. I want to follow you all the days of my life. Now you have my life. This is my new beginning.
If you just prayed that prayer on the count of three at every location I want you to boldly stand on your feet. Who cares what other people think? This is about you and God.
You say, I'm starting over tonight right now right here on the count of three. Stand to your feet. One, two, three.
Please stand all over this auditorium. That's awesome. Beautiful, beautiful. Stay standing please. Would you stay standing? For just a moment.
God bless you. God bless you guys. God bless you at Matthews. God bless you guys. God bless you. God bless you. Come on, keep on clapping, church. That's amazing. That's really awesome. Beautiful.