Repair What’s Right in Front of You! | Pastor Mark Crull

I'd like to welcome those of you who are online, those of you who are at all of our multi-site campuses, maybe you're watching this later after the fact, but as Joe referenced, what a past few days we've had with just all of the flooding that has occurred in central Indiana, and literally the corridor from our Anderson campus down to our Noblesville campus, here in Carmel, like just a few miles away, and even Benford, which is close to the Ravenswood, Rocky Ripple area of the White River. I mean, it's devastating for so many families, and just so disruptive. And I wanna let you know that your church is in action, typical Northview Church, we're in action. Yesterday, at our Anderson campus, we partnered with one of our partners, which is Convoy of Hope, and I thought we had a picture, but maybe not. Here we go, up there, Convoy of Hope, where we had 19 pallets of hygiene kits, water, and food that we distributed yesterday at our Anderson campus. Here at Carmel, we made our student center available to one of the local nursing homes that is just right down the road, and we had 18 residents from the nursing home sleep in our student center last night, just as a temporary shelter, all right? One of the residents was 104 years old. I'm like, what is student ministry

gonna look like tonight? I mean, that is wild. And it's through our collective generosity as a church that these things are made possible. It's living generously is a way that we express making Jesus known. And I just, this week has been such a week of that, but I wanna also share with you, like this happens, like making Jesus known is a 365 days a year kind of proposition as a church. And just this week, we had Valor Thursday night, where we had 650 men show up at our Kokomo campus to kick off our new season of Valor. And at our Valor event, Creek Stewart, this is a picture from that event, who was a speaker, he's a part of our church, gave an incredible message to our men. And he invited men, if you've never received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, to get up out of their seat and join him on the stage and lock arms with him. So we had 42 men, I mean, this stage is big, and Kokomo, it's like this stage. It went across the entire stage. 42 men got out of their seats and came up on stage to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord. Then Steve Lancaster, our seventh and eighth grade pastor here at Carmel, that was Thursday night. On Friday night, Steve shares with us at their service, they had 20 students who indicated that they prayed to receive Christ on Friday night

to invite him into their life. One more, I was having a conversation this week with Pastor Joseph Antley at our Noblesville campus, and he was sharing with me, Mark, last weekend was the highest attended weekend that we've ever had as a campus since launching our Noblesville campus. And part of that was the student ministry at Noblesville. The student ministry had over 200 students. They had 27 first-time students to student ministry. I'm like, what is going on in Noblesville? And it's through our regular giving that all of this is made possible. However, however, this flooding is so catastrophic and unusual, we are, this weekend, bringing back the Dollar Club. This weekend, we're doing a collection for the Dollar Club. And some of you may not be aware of that. It's been a while since we've done it, admittedly, but the Dollar Club is a very simple concept. We ask everybody in church to give one dollar, and one dollar isn't going to impact any of our lives, truly. I mean, I can't imagine giving a dollar is gonna impact your life in any way. However, when collectively, all of our dollars come together, we can have a significant impact in a person's life, in people's lives. And it's a powerful illustration

of the body of Christ coming together. And so we are going to collect the dollar club this weekend. There are two ways that you can participate. One is on your way out of service, we have ushers with buckets and you can just drop cash in the bucket, all right? A dollar in the bucket is what we're asking everybody to participate. The other way is you can go to our online giving platform and for this weekend, we have a dropdown that says dollar club and you can select the dollar club and you can give that way, all right? Now, one last piece of encouragement with the dollar club. In the past, there are people that have given substantial financial gifts to the dollar club, which is wonderful, it's inspiring, it's amazing. And I would humbly ask that whatever you choose to give to the dollar club would be an offering to God. It would be above and beyond just your regular giving that you give to the church that makes all the ministries of the church giving. So think about the dollar club as a gift that is in addition to just your regular giving to the church, all right? All right, that's this weekend. Now, before I dive into today's message, I'm just gonna invite you to pray with me as I seek God's blessing on this message, all right?

Father in heaven, thank you for your love and your grace in our life. We pray just a prayer of grace that you would pour out grace on all of those in our communities who have been impacted by this flooding. Many of them are a part of our church family. Many of them we know, they're friends, they're other relationships that we have and their lives have been terribly disrupted by this water. God, I pray for your favor and your grace in their life that the churches, all of our Christian churches around Central Indiana would rally and be the hands and feet of Christ to help our neighbor in a time of need. May it be a great testimony and a witness to your goodness and your love, God, just through your church. And I pray, God, that as I now switch gears and turn our attention to this loved one of yours, Nehemiah, God, that you would just use my words to be your words. May I get out of the way and may this message truly, truly reflect you. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Now, I have a question for you. How many of you enjoy shows like this right here? You got Fixer Upper, Hometown Property Brothers on the top. These are homes and these are cars, all right? These shows are super popular, I love them. I'm a sucker for a show that takes something

that is really old and broken down and with time and effort and energy, like it's made new. These are incredible shows. When we were growing up or when our family, our kids were growing up, we had a favorite show that we watched together as a family and it was this one, Extreme Home Makeover with Ty Pennington. Remember that one? Bus driver, move that bus. And the bus would move and this house would be revealed and the homeowners were hidden by the bus and it blew their minds. They were like, what just happened? Like, how did you take this house in one week's time and make it into this new house? Well, as we continue our 52-week series called Great Cloud of Witnesses on these key Bible figures, we find ourselves this week talking about a man who God used to accomplish a big, major Fixer Upper project. His name is Nehemiah and when we study the book of Nehemiah, we're entering into one of the darkest yet most hopeful periods of Israel's history. Nearly 1,000 years before Christ, God had established Israel as his covenant people and under King David and King Solomon, Israel experienced a great time of prosperity and Jerusalem was the epicenter, the political, spiritual, cultural center for God's people. Solomon had built a magnificent temple there in Jerusalem

that bore God's name. You can read about this in 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles but as we've been hearing from these messages on the prophets Israel repeatedly abandoned God's commands and generation after generation, they pursued idolatry. and rebellion despite the warnings of God's prophets. And eventually, God's judgment came. Eventually it came. Do you know that God is a long-suffering God? If you read the Bible, you will know that there's grace upon grace upon grace. He is long-suffering. But eventually, judgment came to the Israelites. And in 586 BC, the Babylonian army under King Nebuchadnezzar invades Jerusalem. The temple's destroyed, including its protective walls, and thousands of Jews are taken into Babylon, into exile. And for 70 years, the people lived in captivity in a foreign land. And then just as God had promised through his prophet Jeremiah, he began to bring his people back out of exile, back to Jerusalem. And he brought them back kind of in three waves. And these waves were led by three different men. The first was Zerubbabel, who was a Jewish governor of Judah. He was in the line of King David, and he spearheaded the rebuilding of the temple. That's Zerubbabel.

And then after that, Ezra. Ezra was a priest of the people, and he restored proper Jewish worship, reestablishing the teaching of the law. And we're gonna talk about that here in a little bit. And then finally, 13 years after that, Nehemiah returns to rebuild Jerusalem's walls, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. Now, Nehemiah was not a priest. He was not a prophet. He was not a king. He was more of like a government official. His title was he was a cup bearer to King Artaxerxes, a Persian king, and he protected the king from poisoning, and he became one of the king's most trusted advisors. Now, Nehemiah wasn't Israelite, all right? But he was the kind of Israelite who was living in this Persian exile kingdom, but he kinda had it all. He had security, he had wealth, he had influence, and he had comfort. And although God had put him in a position to serve a foreign king, Nehemiah's heart never forgot his people. He never forgot his chosen people. When he heard about the Jerusalem walls that they still lay in ruins 140 years after they were destroyed, his heart broke.

And it's a broken heart that begins the story of Nehemiah. Now, I'm gonna teach this sermon in the format of SOAP methodology. Is anybody a part of a SOAP? Raise your hand if you're a part of a SOAP group. I know I saw some of you here. SOAP is an acronym for Scripture Observation Application Prayer. This is basically inductive or expository Bible study. You read God's word, you make observations of what you see in God's word. There's another piece in here, interpretation, but we don't have that in SOAP. But you interpret it and then you apply it. How does this apply to my life? And then you pray, all right? You will see, I'm making five points today, we're gonna follow this methodology in the sermon so it'll give you a taste if you wanna check out a SOAP group. I've been doing it literally for 20 years, I think more than 20 years, every Wednesday morning. Here on Wednesday, you can join me. Any guys, no ladies, please, but the guys, you can join me. Seven to eight in the barn, come visit us, all right? Now, so his story starts with this broken heart and we're gonna read about it in the first four verses of chapter one of Nehemiah. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekeliah,

in the month of Kislev in the 20th year while I was in the citadel of Susa. Hannah and I, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, those who survived the exile are back in the province and are back in the province, are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire. When I heard these things, I sat down and I wept. For days, I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And this leads me to my first observation, which is this. God gave Nehemiah a burden before he gave him an assignment. Interestingly, Nehemiah had never seen Jerusalem. He was born and he grew up in Babylonian captivity, in exile. Yet when he heard about the condition of God's city, he couldn't move on with his life as though. Nothing had happened. His heart was broken over what broke God's heart. All right? And I have a question for you this morning. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever experienced something in this world or in life and you know that that breaks God's heart and it broke your heart too?

Well, that's what Nehemiah was experiencing. This burden that he carried, it's like a holy discontent. Something has to change. We can't, this can't keep happening. All right? Through scripture, throughout all of scripture, we see God do some of his greatest works by placing a burden inside someone's heart. Think about Moses. He had a burden for his people who were enslaved in Egypt. Think about Esther. When Haman gave that wicked royal decree that only King Xerxes could be worshiped, she was burdened and she approaches the king at the risk of her life because of this burden to ask for it to be changed. Think about the Apostle Paul going to the New Testament. This verse is wild right here. The Apostle Paul in Romans 9, 3 says, "'For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race.'" How deeply must the Apostle Paul had felt towards the Jewish people that he would be cut off from Christ if my people would only recognize and believe and accept Jesus as the Savior and Lord. Even our Lord Jesus had this burden. In Matthew 9, we see this. When he saw the crowds, this is Jesus,

he had compassion on them. Compassion comes from the heart. It's a burden because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. You see, God often begins his calling not with a detailed plan, but with a burden that refuses to go away. Nehemiah's weeping, mourning, and praying, and fasting became the birthplace of God's mission in his life, his assignment for his life. And what about you? What is it that breaks your heart that also breaks God's heart? And that's our application for this first point. In addition to asking God to bless your plans, I assume all of us do that. We all want God's favor when we're planning something. In addition to that, ask him to break your heart for what breaks his. That's a very practical way to apply that observation. Now, in response to this broken heart, what does Nehemiah do? He prays. And I wanna read you this prayer. There are some good prayers in the Bible. This is a good one. Listen to this. Then I said, Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins of Israelites, including myself and my father's family. They have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed the commands, the decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember the instructions you gave your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the furthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. He's talking about Jerusalem. They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this, your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servants success today by granting them favor in the presence of this man. He's going to go to Artaxerxes and ask to be, to go to Jerusalem.

Here's the second observation. Nehemiah prayed before he took action, all right? Nehemiah prayed before he did anything else. In response to this burden, he prays. And there's a whole, literally a whole sermon of material in that prayer that we could talk about right now. I mean, it is filled with God's worship, the confession of sin, it has scripture, it has the Torah in it, it has God's promises in that prayer, it's given in humility, He makes a bold request. In many ways, that prayer parallels the Lord's prayer that we learned, our Father, that Jesus taught us to pray. All those elements are in there, we could talk about that. We don't have time to today, but it's an amazing prayer. He goes to God, He pours out His heart, and notice something remarkable about this prayer and fasting, He does it for four months before He acts. He's like, how do you know He did it for four months? Well, the first chapter talks about the month of Kislev. Chapter two begins with the month of Nisan, and there's a four-month period between these two months. So He is going to God in prayer before taking action, and these burdens, this burden never went away. It's like a beach ball in a swimming pool. You know how that goes? You try to push that beach ball under the water, and you wrassle it down, but eventually, inevitably, the ball pops up to the surface, and these burden, if it doesn't go away, it's from God.

It's like that beach ball that keeps popping up to the surface. And it was prayer that prepared Nehemiah for action. It prepared him for action. When it comes to prayer, there oftentimes are two kinds of Christians, people who pray without acting, and people who act without praying, all right? Is that a little convicting to anyone? It is to me, and you might say, well, like, which do you lean more towards? Are you a prayer, but you don't act, or do you go out there and act, and you don't pray? I think we can relate to both of those, all right? Nehemiah's prayer was not a substitute for action. Prayer prepared him for action. Every great movement of God throughout human history has begun with prayer. Prayer aligns our heart with God's purposes before we take action, and this is the second application point here. Pray before acting, then take action, okay? Pray before acting, and then take action, all right? Now, chapter two, I already mentioned this slightly. Chapter two is basically the story of Nehemiah going to King Artaxerxes, and he asks the king for a leave of absence from his cupbearer duties so that he can go to Jerusalem and check out the situation with the wall, and he also asks the king, would you give me papers

that would give me safe passage on my travels from Persia to Jerusalem, because this was a very dangerous and hostile world that he lived in. And I want you to see how Nehemiah thinks about the king's request, how the king responded to his request. It's in verse eight of chapter two. And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. I think that is a beautiful verse of the Bible. Because the gracious hand of my God was on me. When things go well for you, when things go well for me, do I recognize that this is God's gracious hand in my life, or do I think I'm really skilled, I'm really talented, I'm really smart, I know how to get things done. Look at all of I've accomplished. There's different ways of looking at life. Nehemiah knew this favor, this request that's been granted, this is God's grace in my life. It's just such a beautiful picture of perspective and how we look at life. So Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem. He inspects the situation, he makes a plan, and he rallies the people to rebuild the wall. And it brings us to chapter three. Now, I'm gonna make an observation about chapter three. I'm not gonna read from chapter three. If you have a Bible and if you're looking at chapter three, what it looks like is a super long list of like family names and assignments

and lots of specific details that are taken from chapter three. And on the surface, it appears to simply be this detailed list of names and building assignments about the wall. But when you reflect on it, it makes such an amazing point. It makes such an amazing point. And here's the observation from chapter three. Rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem was a team effort. It was a team effort. It wasn't like Nehemiah went by himself and he rebuilt this wall, all right? The people of Judah worked together as a team to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Each individual and family took responsibility for a specific section of the wall, all right? You know what section they took responsibility for? That section of the wall that was right in front of them. All right, it's such a powerful image. In other words, repair what is right in front of you. Repair the wall that is right in front of you. The rebuilding of the wall reminds us that God's rebuilding work of his people and his church is not reserved for a few selected leaders. It's a calling of every believer. Everybody has a part to play. God delights in using ordinary people who are willing to serve whether their assignment is prominent or hidden. This truth is especially relevant for our church today,

for Northview Church today. It's no secret, Northview is in kind of a rebuilding season right now. Every person who has a burden for our church, I want you to hear me say, you have a role to play in the rebuilding of the church. Rebuild what is right in front of you. The family, your family, right in front of you, all right? Every sacrificial act of giving that you make, whether it's a financial act of giving or a acts of service that you give is valuable towards the effort. Every faithful laborer contributes to the advancement of God's redemptive work that he desires to do in and through our church. I believe that God has great days in store for our church. He desires that this world be changed because of Northview Church. And every part that we play in that effort is a collective. It's a team effort in making God's church great, all right? And it's God's church. It's not my church, it's not our church, it's his church. Jesus is the head, all right? The church is the bride, all right? Six quick observations. I'm gonna hit these quick, real quick. From chapter three, the first one is this. God's work requires everyone's participation. You had priests, goldsmiths, perfume makers, rulers, merchants, families.

He had a whole cornucopia of people working on this wall. Number two, faithfulness begins right where you are. I've already said that, but in this chapter, you'll see phrases like opposite their own home, beside their house, in front of his own house, all right? If you wanna build a strong church, build a strong family. Strong churches are built of strong families. Rebuild what's right in front of you. The third observation, every task matters in God's church. Throughout the chapter, every gate, every section of the wall, some projects were big, some projects were small, but every task, whether big or large, matters in the rebuilding. Number four, leaders set the example, all right? Chapter three begins with the high priest and the priest rebuilding the sheep gate. It's the spiritual leaders that worked first. Leadership is demonstrated through example, not through position or title. I would call you, if you consider yourself a Northview leader, I would call every leader to the task of rebuilding. Number five, unity produces extraordinary results, extraordinary results. There were nearly 40 different groups of people mentioned in this, and they all came together with different assignments, but they all came together for one purpose. Unity creates extraordinary results. And lastly, this, some people will choose

not to participate, all right? That's kind of a heavy one, but verse five of chapter three says this. Their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. That is a sad verse of Scripture right there. Serving the Lord is a choice. You have the choice whether you're gonna do it or not. And this brief statement stands in sharp contrast to the faithfulness of everyone else, all right? Not everyone responds obediently to God's call, whether it be because of pride, whether it be because of comfort, or just straight up selfishness. It keeps people from participating in what God is calling them to do, the work that God is calling them to do. Now, I'm just gonna push pause in my sermon right now, and parenthetically. to make a statement. In sharing that, I am not trying to condemn or shame or guilt trip anybody. I hope you believe me in that. I am simply trying to teach God's Word as true and faithful. And I want you to know that if you come to Northview Church, you consider Northview your church home, and you only receive you only receive, there's no expression of giving back in any way. I want you to know this, at least from me,

this is just Mark talking. I am so glad that you are here. You are always welcomed at Northview Church. You are loved and you are valued at Northview Church. In fact, the fact that you are here tells me that you are seeking God, and I am 100% cool with God the Holy Spirit working in your life to lead you to action in his perfect timing, not in my perfect timing, not in what the church expects or whatever. God is your God, and this is between you and God. It's not between you and me or anyone else. And so I am glad that you're here, and you will always have a home at Northview Church. Thank you. This leads me to the third practical application to point to the third observation. Ask God, what contribution do you want me to make? Oh boy, what contribution do you want me to make your rebuilding effort? Did I read that right? Wow, then, there's the application right here. Then listen and obey, that's the application. There's the application right here, then listen and obey. That's the actual application. That's like a dyslexic, I am dyslexic by the way. So that was a moment right there, I just exposed myself. But you get the point. Listen and obey. Number, here we go, we're gonna continue the story

in chapter four of Nehemiah. First three verses. When Sam Ballat heard that they were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life for those heaps of rubble, burned as they are? Tobiah, the Ammonite, who was at his side said, what they are rebuilding, even a fox climbing up on it would break down their walls of stones. All right, here's the fourth observation. God-given assignments will face opposition. God-given assignments will face opposition. Sam Ballat and Tobiah were enemies of the Jewish people. They mocked and they ridiculed God's people in the form of intimidation, lies, distractions, compromise, false accusations, and the opposition intensified because God's people, they were progressing in their work. These characters were in chapter two, I didn't mention it. They first pop up there and they were antagonizing the people, but now because the wall is being rebuilt, they're kind of pouring it on heavier. But Nehemiah refuses to quit.

I think one of Satan's favorite strategies is discouragement. If he can get you discouraged, he can get you out of the game. You are off the radar. But Nehemiah refused to be discouraged, he refused to quit. He goes on in verse 12 of chapter four with this. Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us 10 times over, wherever you turn, they will attack us. Therefore, I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families with their swords, spears, and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters and your wives and your homes. It's like William Wallace in the movie Braveheart when his face is painted and he's on that horse. He's like, fight for your freedom. And he goes on, he says, when our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work. From that day on, half of the men did their work. while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows, and armors.

The officers posted themselves behind all the people of the Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other. And each of the builders wore a sword at his side as they worked." What a picture this is painting of what's going on. Nehemiah's encouragement to the people under this opposition from Samballot and Tobiah was like a threefold strategy that I see in this. And the threefold strategy is this. Remember the Lord, number one, who's great and awesome. Fight for your families, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your home. And then number three, return to your work. Return to the wall, each to your own work. And I wanna focus on the second and the third one. Do you know that your family is in a spiritual battle right now? Our enemy would like nothing more than to rip your family apart. And I think his favorite strategy is mom and dad. If he can rip mom and dad apart, it's like as the marriage goes, so goes the family oftentimes. I'm not saying there's not redemption, there's not restoration, there's not hope for those who've experienced divorce. There is, and it's beautiful. I'm saying, if you're married, fight for your family.

Fight for your marriage. If you're struggling, and I'm not saying this because it's Northview. We have, truly, the very best marriage ministry in the entire Midwest region through Better Together and what Pastor Derek is doing with all the volunteers of Better Together. Truly, we had a conference two weeks ago. We had people from all over the country come to Northview to learn about how we're doing marriage ministry. And we have the resources there. Go to bettertogether.us and get connected if you're struggling, because you have an enemy. Number three, or the third part of this strategy, did you notice how the laborers went about rebuilding the wall while under heavy opposition? Check this out. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other hand. What a beautiful picture of the Christian life. We are called to build God's kingdom with one hand, and we are under spiritual opposition, and we're in a spiritual battle with the other hand. Are you an ambidextrous Christian? Can you use both of your hands to live out the Christian life, all right? The practical application to the fourth observation is this. Ask yourself, what distraction is pulling me away from what God has called me to do?

Then eliminate the distraction. That's the application. Eliminate that distraction. All right, the wall has been built. We're fast-forwarding to chapter eight. The first three verses of chapter eight read like this. All the people came together as one in the square before the water gate. Then they told Ezra, the teacher of the law, to bring out the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the water gate in the presence of the men, women, and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the book of the law. And this is the fifth and last observation for today. Rebuilt walls enable God's ultimate aim, rebuilt people. God is in the people business. Once the walls were completed, Nehemiah didn't stop. The greatest rebuilding still needed to happen. Ezra gathers the nation of the people together. He opens up God's word. The people listened, they understood,

they weep, they repented. And Nehemiah declares this in verse 10. The joy of the Lord is your strength. I think it's interesting because it's not the wall is your strength. It's the relationship. It's the joy of the Lord is your strength. The physical wall of Jerusalem was complete. Now God is rebuilding the hearts of his people. The greatest miracle in Nehemiah is not a construction miracle. It's a spiritual transformation miracle. Buildings matter, organizations matter, ministries matter, but God's ultimate concern has always been for his children, the hearts of his people, human beings, relationships. God prioritizes people over things. He prioritizes people over material things, and that's our last application point for today is this. Ask yourself, am I prioritizing people over things? And if not, begin. It's the relationship that matters. I want to wrap up today's message where I started today's message with extreme home makeover. I know that's kind of a funny way to wrap it up. It's like bookends here. And I don't know exactly how it's all gonna go down in the end, all right? When we die and Jesus returns and we're in heaven, how that all is gonna go down.

What I'm very confident of is for those who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, it's going to be a joyous occasion and experience. However, I got thinking about those shows that we started with, Fixer Upper and Fast and Loud, and where these old homes or rusted out cars are brought back to life, they're made new again. And I think the reason so many of us resonate with shows like that is it's hardwired into our spiritual DNA. You're like, what do you mean hardwired into your spiritual DNA? Do you know that God is a restorer? That God is a redeemer? That God is a rebuilder? And also, do you know that you are created in his image? That imprint is on your soul. You can't shake it. So I think when these shows, when the bus moves away and you see it, or on Fixer Upper, when the curtain separates and you see it, that good feeling you have of like, this is right, this is good, that's God. I know that kinda sounds corny, but I think it's God inside of you because you're made in his image and this is what he does. He takes things that are broken and he makes them new. And it kinda got me thinking about extreme home makeover. And what if you get up to heaven and every person who is found in Christ,

God says, this is the picture. God says, bus driver, move that bus. And you have this picture of what Christ has done in a human life. Whereas before you're broken, you're lost, you're hopeless, but after you've been redeemed, restored, and rebuilt. This is the mission of Northview Church. This is what it looks like. This is what it means to make Jesus known. God is in the people business and we are about the business of seeing lives transformed. And I know that there are some of you, whether you're here or whether you're watching online or whether you're at one of our multi-site campuses, there are some of you that you feel like you're here. Like Mark, I am, I feel broken, I feel lost. I feel helpless. And you've never placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the way that you go from before to after is through a choice. Remember I said, obeying God is a choice, serving God is a choice, it's a choice. Do I believe and will I receive Christ as my Savior and Lord?