Transitions & Changes | Summer at Shoreline | Pastor Sam Mata | Message

Hello Shoreline, how are you guys doing today? Come on, have you been living in the goodness of God? I love that song. Give God praise for just a moment. He is good and faithful. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. You know, here at Shoreline, we value our volunteers, those that come early, sometimes they go the extra mile, they stay late, and they use their gifts and talents, so we want to give honor where honor is due. We reward that. I want to encourage everybody that is watching online, thank you so much for joining us. Give them a big round of applause. We want to welcome our South Campus as well. Those of you that are behind bars and watching on the platform, God behind bars, you're part of our family. We love you dearly. Give them a big round of applause as well. And welcome. We're so glad you guys are with us. Like I was saying, we give honor to volunteers, because our vision here at Shoreline is to help people know God, find life, and make a difference, and our volunteers do that. They go the extra mile. So today we want to honor a wonderful young man. He's very, very talented, very skilled. He was standing right up here playing the guitar. He also plays the piano. Very talented. David Bogatch. Give him a big round of applause.

He's right here. And ladies, he is single. He'll be out there signing autographs later as well. So we love all of our volunteers. Once you stand to your feet, we're going to recite our Shoreline Creed. It's something we do every time we get together like this to kind of recalibrate our hearts and prepare our hearts and remind us that everything that we have is all because of God's goodness and His grace. If you are visiting with us, feel free to read along. I think it'll give you a good snapshot into the heart of Shoreline. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. we love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you.

We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. Memphis, here you go. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. God bless. Let's give God praise for just a moment. You may be seated. And it's an honor to be here with you guys, to bring you greetings from the South Campus where we, my wife and I have been there for 19 years. We've actually been part of the church for about 33, 34, maybe 35 years, I don't know, I had hair back then. But it's been a while. But we've been at the South Campus for a while, so I'm gonna, in September I'm sure you've heard and I'm gonna be serving here at the North Campus. Helping people get connected and just making sure, please remain seated, remain seated.

Everybody just. But we're really excited to be here with you guys and just serving alongside you guys and introducing people to Jesus, that's what it's all about, amen? So I wanna read a story to you guys in scripture, if you have your Bibles, open up to Mark chapter four, and maybe you can follow along on your smartphone. But I love stories in scripture because they're about real people, just like you and I. Trying to figure out life, trying to follow Jesus, trying to lean into what's important in life. And I love that we can still look at their stories and how they apply to our lives. And I wanna encourage you, your life is a story as well, that people can look at and learn about Jesus. Not perfection, because none of us are perfect, but I believe that our life is a story where we can learn from each other and teach others and the people, we can learn from each other and just different things like that where our story is a very powerful thing. So I wanna read a story here in Mark chapter four, and it's been a day of preaching and teaching for Jesus. It's been a busy day, he's been doing miracles, he's been teaching a lot of wonderful things. Some of them, they don't understand everything, but here's where we find ourselves in Mark chapter four in verse 35 through 40, it says this, that day when evening came, he said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. And leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with them. A furious storm came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. I love those little details in scripture. The disciples woke him and said to him, teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?

There's a story that we all can learn from, right? You guys have heard that story, maybe you've read it. But Jesus tells them, hey, we're going over to the other side of the lake. And the disciples believe him, and they follow him. And I believe there's a big difference. between believing and following. I think that following starts with believing, but God doesn't want you to just be a fully devoted believer. He wants you to be a fully devoted follower, where you follow Jesus, where you trust him with your life, where you don't just believe that he exists and that he is good and what he has said, but you actually surrender your heart to him and you follow him, even though we may not understand every single thing in life or every single thing in scripture. Jesus never told us to understand, he just told us to follow him. He told the disciples, follow me, and they believed him and they followed him. And I believe for all of us here today, he wants us to do that, that we can step into a relationship with God where we follow him and life can be what he created us to live, amen? So I would suggest that believing is different than following,

and he wants us to be fully devoted followers of Jesus. And I believe that when we truly follow the Lord, when we truly follow Jesus, I believe that he changes us. There's some change that happens. I think it's really difficult to follow Jesus and not experience some kind of change in your life, where you feel his grace and his love and his peace and his forgiveness, and God heals you from a past hurt or things like that. He gives you a vision and a purpose for your life. When I started believing in Jesus, that was one thing, but when I started following him, that's when he started changing a lot of things in my life, and I'm not done yet. My wife would say, see, I told you, I'm not perfect by any means, I'm still following Jesus, but the more I follow Jesus, the more he shows me about himself, about myself, and what I can understand about his grace. So we wanna be fully devoted followers. So for many years, I was raised in church. I knew to believe in Jesus, to believe his word, to believe what I heard about him, but when I started following him, that's when change really started happening in my life, and he's not done yet. He still has a lot of things that he wants to change, but don't look at me so wholly. I know how some of you guys are.

Some of y'all need to change a little bit as well, amen? So change happens. Change happens all the time. There's change in relationships, change in friendships. Sometimes there's change in careers. Sometimes there's change in houses. Maybe you move from one house to another, maybe from one state to another. Change is always happening. Technology is changing all the time. Everything changes. The weather changes, our situation changes. We may find ourselves maybe single for a while, and then we get married, and then we have children, and then we're empty nesters. Praise God for empty nesters, amen? We kicked all our children finally out of the house. They can come visit every once in a while, leave their grandbabies, you guys can leave, but sometimes you find yourselves through just the seasons of change. Sometimes even hairstyles change. Sometimes they just go away and never come back, amen? And not everybody can pull this off. I see some of you brothers in there pulling the same off thing, it's awesome. When I get to heaven, I'm gonna get my mullet back, that's all I know. That's the one thing that my wife fell in love with, like, oh, hello, Mr. Achy-Breaky-Heart, how you doing?

So I had this beautiful flowing mullet, and I know I'm gonna get it back in heaven. Thank you, Jesus. The angels are just kind of holding onto it for a little bit, kind of combing it through and stuff. But that's how I see it. But change happens sometimes, right? Change is happening all the time, maybe in our job or relationship, or even in our walk with God. Hopefully every single day you're understanding how much he loves you and his grace is for you and the plan, the purpose that he has for your life. Hopefully some days are better than others and where you understand that this change is not a bad change, it's a good change. Maybe God wants you to get rid of some things in your life. Maybe he's asking you to change some things in your life. We can help you with that. We can pray with you for that. There's a difference when we change ourselves and when God changes us. When we change ourselves, we do all the work. We get tired, we get frustrated, and that's not working. And then we say, okay, God, you try to change me. But I've already tried this. But God wants to change our hearts. And I believe that we need to learn how to navigate through change. Because sometimes some things that we go through

in our life, some issues, might be from a change that happened a long time ago and we didn't really navigate through that in a healthy way. Maybe it was a divorce, or maybe when you were a kid, something happened, or there was something that changed. Maybe your parents got divorced when you were a little kid or something, or maybe somebody left you, or a friend died, or you lost a job, or you had to move, or something happened in the past that was a change that you were not expecting. And if we don't navigate through that change in a proper way, in a healthy way, trusting Jesus, that change can actually change us for the worse. We can be bitter. We can be maybe unforgiving or not trusting. Maybe we can be a little bit shelter. Maybe we can shut our hearts off to Jesus a little bit. But if we navigate through whatever change we go through in a healthy way, God actually can change us for the better so it's not just life-changing. We're changing to be more. more like Christ and more like trusting Him and more like understanding, God, You're not done with my life. Yeah, I went through this change, but it's not the end of the story. You're still writing my story. You're still helping me through this change. I'm gonna make it to the other side. And I believe that the disciples through this change

that they went through, he said, follow me, let's go to the other side. And I believe that it changed them. And maybe in the future when they were gathered around, hey, remember when Jesus told us to get to in the boat and go to the other side and we got there and man, the storm came and I thought we were gonna die. You remember, it kind of had something to do in their hearts and the same thing, when God meets you through a change, you remember that it'll help you in the future, amen? So I believe we need to navigate through things in a healthy way. I believe that God wants us always to mature in our faith, to understand how much He loves us and His plan for our lives that we can grow in our understanding of who He is and understanding of His word. And I believe that everything that is alive grows. If you are alive in Christ, you're growing, you're maturing and He said that we were dead in our trespasses, right? But then He made us alive in Christ and change happens. It's no different for the disciples here. They followed Jesus and it changed them. So I wanna share a few things from this story that we can learn and apply to our lives when we go through change in our lives so God can change us for the better so that no matter what changes lie up ahead, we've been transformed by the love of Jesus.

The first thing I noticed is that Jesus goes with them. Jesus goes with them. He said, let us go to the other side. He didn't say, hey, you guys, go to the other side, I'll meet you later or I wanna keep preaching and teaching. He said, let us go to the other side and that us is a very powerful word. It means that we're all in this together, that nobody is alone and most importantly, Jesus said, I'm with you, I am going with you. I'm sending you but I'm going with you as well. You're not going by yourself. This change that you're about to go through or the changes that you've been through is not on your own. I am with you. Aren't you glad about that? That no matter what we go through, Jesus never takes a day off. He's like, well, let me know how it goes. I'm busy over here fixing the mess in this world because I got so many things. Let me know how it goes. Like, no, I am going with you. So whatever change we're going through, maybe you're in the middle of a transition right now. Maybe it's in a marriage or a relationship or your finances or your job or your career, whatever change you go through, you will never find yourself alone trying to navigate it, trying to find wisdom in that.

Jesus is right there with you. And he told us, let us go to the other side. We're going through this together. We together are doing this and I will never leave you nor forsake you. We're going through this change together and I am with you. That's what Christmas is all about, right? Emmanuel, God with us. It's not just through the Christmas season. It's every day, every moment, every second of our lives, God is with us. You can trust him every single day. You'll never find yourself alone. He is with us. Even in the great commission in Matthew 28, when he told the disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel, teach them to obey everything that I've commanded you, baptizing them and teaching them what I've told you. And then he says, wait, and I am with you even to the end of the age. See, God gives you your purpose in life and he goes with you. He doesn't just send you out and try to figure it out. He goes with you. He tells us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And you can follow him in that. When the disciples were about to preach the gospel and they were in the upper room and Jesus said, do not leave until the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

He was saying, listen, you won't be able to do this on your own. And I believe he would tell us the same thing. You can't go through this on your own. Don't believe the lies that you can do it on your own. Self-sufficiency is really something that we all struggle with. I can do this. I can do it on my own like Jesus. Like, well, go ahead and try, but I'll be right here with you when you're ready. He said, don't leave until the Holy Spirit comes upon you because what you're about to go through, you're gonna need my help. You're gonna need my power, my wisdom, my grace, my strength. And he would tell us the same thing here today. Don't do life on your own. Trust him. He is with you. Amen. If you ever feel alone, all you gotta do is whisper the name of Jesus and he's right there. When two or three gather together, he's right there. In the midst of your challenge, he's right there, no matter what. Even Joseph in Genesis, when he was going through different challenges and changes in his life, God told him he was gonna be a ruler

and he finds himself in the pit. His brothers threw him in the pit. And then he finds himself in the prison and he finds himself in the palace. And there's a phrase in that story in Genesis where it says, and God was with him. And it's the same for us. Maybe God has a promise for us, but we find ourselves kind of working backwards. We're going in the pit and then in the prison and then the palace. But God would say, no, no, it doesn't matter what it looks like. It doesn't matter. I am with you and I see the future and I'm with you and I will always be with you. He goes with us. We are in this together is what Jesus would tell you. And the second thing is they left the crowd behind. Some of us just need to leave some things behind, right. In order to change and follow Jesus, there are some things that are going to be pulling us back. Some things that are comfortable. Some things that the flesh likes. Some things that we have been used to in our lives that Jesus is like, you know what, you don't need that baggage anymore. If you follow me, I have a great future. Just leave those things behind. Because you are not going to need them where I am taking

you. Some of us need to leave things behind. Like old thinking, old friends. How many of y'all need to get rid of some friends? If they are sitting next to you, don't look at them right now, it would be a little awkward. But we all need to get rid of some things in our life and leave those crowds behind, amen. Some things like old ways of old habits or old pain or old hurts or old discouragements. Old ways of reacting when something happens. We kind of, man, why did I do that? I have always done that. Jesus said, you can leave that behind as you trust me and follow me. Not everybody is going to where God wants you to go in your destiny, in your purpose. Some things are going to weigh you back. It's easier to pull people down than to pull people up. So are your friends pulling you down or are they pulling you up? Are they encouraging you to get close to Jesus? If your friends are not encouraging you to get close to Jesus, it's time to get some new friends in your life, amen. That's why here at Shoreline we believe in community. We believe in doing life together. No one at Shoreline is allowed to do life alone. Navigate life alone. We want to introduce you to some really, really good friends. There's some groups that you can get involved in. Some Bible studies, some community where you can do life

together and share one another's stories and understand prayer and understand celebration. When you get through a difficult time, people that have been there with you walking because it's their celebration, because it's your celebration. Because they prayed for you all the way through. And you go through a difficult time and they're there. You go through a great time and they're there. That's why we have serving teams this morning. We had huddle this morning out in the lobby. And we gather all the volunteers that come in early to serve. And I love that atmosphere, friends serving with friends, doing life together, accomplishing a task. But more than anything, having community with each other. They left those things behind and got some new friends. Listen, we want to introduce you to some really, really good people here at Shoreline. Some good friends. You can have the best friends that you ever had. Sometimes we have to leave things behind that lifestyles and things like that that we were experiencing. I remember when I was believing in Jesus and I decided to fully follow him, to surrender my heart to him. And I was not living right. I was not doing what God called me to do. And I knew about Jesus at a young age but I started following him. And I knew I had to leave some things behind. So I had this little black book. And in this little black book there was a bunch of names and

numbers of people that were up to no good. And they were not prayer partners, so you know what I'm talking about. They were not leading me to Jesus. I could get anything, anytime, anywhere, anytime of the day. All I had to do was make a call. And it wasn't like Amway or Avon or anything. You know what I'm talking about. It was like party favors. Anything you needed for the weekend, just give me a call. And I had all those names in this book. And I remember standing in my backyard and I'm like, okay, Jesus, I'm going to follow you. But it's been really hard. I have been trying to do it on my own. I'm going to follow you. And I remember looking at that and I was going to grill some food. And I started the barbecue pit and looking at the fire and I'm looking at this book. And I know I have to get rid of this. I want a change in my life. I want to follow you fully. But I have to get rid of this. I remember I threw it in the fire and it was a big fire. There was a lot of cinders in that book. It started burning. I'm like, whoa. And to me it was a symbolic gesture, like I'm leaving all that behind.

Sometimes we have to do that, right. We have to throw things in the fire. Get rid of it, Lord. I don't need that anymore. I'm going to follow you and trust you all the days of my life. Because your plan is better than my plan. My plan got me in this mess but I'm going to follow you every single day of my life. And I believe that God is faithful to complete what he starts in us. Paul wrote this in Philippians 3, forgetting what is behind and pressing ahead. Pressing forward. So Jesus wants you to trust him. He's with you. But he also wants you to leave some things behind. Old worry. Old fear. Old disappointments. Maybe somebody offended you, been carrying that around. But God is like, it's time to get rid of that because where we're going you're not going to need that. And we hold on to it because we feel bad for ourselves. What happened to you was not right. I'm not saying it was okay. It was wrong. But you don't have to carry that into your future, into your life. It's okay.

God can restore you and allow you to forgive and don't carry It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. that around. It's okay. Because where we are going is a lot better than where we have It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. been carrying that thing around. It's okay. What is it you need to leave behind as you follow Jesus? Some people may not be with us physically but they are with us emotionally. And even in our mind. They are still living in our mind. We think about them. You know we have given our heart to them. We have given a part of our life to them. And maybe they walked away and we hear a song, bam, bam, bam and we think about them again. Or something triggers, oh, man, I can't believe. And we retreat back instead of going forward. God wants to heal you from that. God wants to restore your heart from that, amen. You don't have to bring that into the future. Some things we have to separate some soul ties. Sometimes you reunite your soul with somebody and give a part of

you. And it's hard to detach but God is bigger than any soul tie. He can sever everything from the past and make you a brand-new creation. As he says, old things are passed away and everything is made brand-new. And we can live in the new every single day of our lives because we have chosen to leave those things behind and follow Jesus the rest of our life. Another thing I see is that they kept Jesus in the boat. Keep Jesus in your boat. If you learn anything today or experience anything today, just stay close to Jesus. If you feel far from him, it's not because he stepped away. We step away. I want to encourage you, friends, stay close to Jesus. Keep Jesus in your boat. I notice that the Bible says in this verse, in the stories that there was other boats with them. It says, Jesus, let's go to the other side. It says there was other boats with them but then they don't even mention the other boats anymore. It didn't say the disciples and Jesus and all the other boats got to the other side. They are not mentioned anymore. I wonder what happened to them. Maybe they retreated. Maybe they saw the storm. I'm not into this. And they retreat and go back.

Maybe they give up in the middle of a storm. Maybe they sunk. Whatever it is. But they are not mentioned anymore. The only boat that is mentioned that gets to the other side is the one that was following Jesus. And Jesus was in their boat. I want to encourage you, keep Jesus in your boat. Keep Jesus in your life. Stay close to him so you can get to the other side. Not everybody will get to where God has for them. Because maybe they don't have Jesus in their boat. They don't have Jesus in their life. If you have Jesus in your boat, in your life, there is no storm that can come against you that he can't calm. He can still say, quiet, be still. And if the storm is still raging, he can quiet the storm inside of us. But we don't have to worry because he is with us and we will keep him close to us. Amen. Jesus said this in John 15... Abide means from the word minnow, which means to remain, to stay, to dwell. It's not a temporary place. It's your home. You know when you get home and you are like, oh, I'm home. And you turn on the air conditioner and put on your stretchy clothes. And everybody has stretchy clothes and you are ready for

the storm. You get home and I am home. This is where I live. This is my home. That's where Jesus wants to be with us. Where we live. Where we dwell. Where we remain. This is our house. This is where I live forever and ever. I am staying close to Jesus. I am not going away from him. He's not going to leave me, so why would I leave him. Abide in him. There is a scripture in 1 Thessalonians 4.13, maybe you experienced loss in your life. I love this passage that says that we don't have to grieve like the rest of mankind that has no hope. I don't know how people navigate through life without Jesus. It's very difficult. Sometimes we need to just kind of regroup and say, okay, God, I don't have to grieve. I don't have to go through that. As some people that don't know you, I have you, so you are going to help me get through whatever change is going on in my life. I'm going to abide in you. I'm going to abide in Jesus. We have everything that we need. Amen.

Another thing that I notice here is this interesting phrase that I saw, they took Jesus just as he was. I thought that was interesting. They took Jesus just as he was. So I want to encourage you, take Jesus just as he is. Good news. Jesus doesn't need to change. We do. Right. Sometimes we are like, Jesus, if you can just change this about you and kind of fit into my little box or fit into my plans. And Jesus is like, no, this is the way I am. I have a great plan and purpose for your life. I don't need to change. You change. We need to do the changing. Take Jesus just as he is. If we want Jesus to take us just the way we are, we need to take him just the way he is. We can't fit him into our box or our plans. His plan is better. We can't put Jesus in a box and make him look or feel or act or be the way we think he should be. We got to take the whole lamb. We got to eat the whole lamb, amen. You know we may say, Jesus, I surrender my life to you. I will give you my heart and my life. Almost everything. You take care of these areas of my life and I will take care of these areas of your life.

And Jesus would say, okay, go right ahead. But it doesn't work that way. If you want to experience the fullness of joy and love and grace and what God has for you, you have to take all of me. And you know what? We need all of Jesus. We need all of his word. He tells us, hey, forgive others. Wait a minute, I want to follow you but I don't want to forgive them. Jesus, okay, you can walk around with that but I have a better plan for you. If we are honest, sometimes some parts of Jesus are very hard to follow, right. Because the kingdom of God is like a paradox. And we can't just look at scripture, well, I don't like that part. I don't like this part. And we start tearing papers out. I don't want this one. Deleting scriptures. If we do that, we will find ourselves with two pieces of leather and the book of Galatians. What else? We took everything out. God wants you to take all of him. And that means he's our Lord, he's our Savior, he's the supreme authority. He has the last word in our lives. Even though we don't understand, we would have done things

differently. But God has a better plan for our lives. He does things way different than we do and we can follow him. And we need to make sure that we know that God is for us. So he is worthy that we give him all of our hearts. And we take all of him, amen. Another thought that I see is direction is more important than timing. I love this thought. Direction is more important than timing. The storm comes and Jesus is sleeping on a cushion and he's on the stern. And I don't know much about boats but I know that the stern is in the back near the rudder where you direct the boat. That's where you use the rudder to direct the boat. So Jesus is still in the place where he's directing the disciples' lives. He said, we're going to the other side and it doesn't matter what it looks like. I'm still in the place of leadership. I'm still in the place of directing your life. Trust me, it might take a little bit longer but we're getting to the other side. The direction we're going is more important than the timing. You ever had to wait on Jesus? Come on, you ever had to wait, Jesus I'm praying, I'm believing. But when? Right. We have to wait. His timing is not our timing.

And Jesus, we can say, Jesus, you are supposed to be directing my life. He's like, I am. I'm working things out. I'm working things out inside of you. You are still doubting. He's still telling us, why are you so afraid? Where is your faith? Sometimes as he's getting us to where we are going, he's got to work stuff out in us as well. And you never know what he's preparing in the head of us. Sometimes we get to the place where he's like, oh, this is why you want me to wait. Because if I would have gotten to this place, I wouldn't have been able to handle it. I would have thought it was all me that did it. But only you could do this. Only you could direct me. It was only in your timing. It was only your plan. And I stuck with it and I followed you. And God, it just makes sense now. Because the timing was not my timing, it was your timing. God is working everything out. Whatever change you are going through, listen, direction is more important than timing. Just wait on Jesus. He'll give you all the ability to wait upon him. But don't lose the focus of the direction that he's leading you. And healing your heart and restoring that relationship and

bringing that promise to life. For kids to serve the Lord, whatever direction he's going through, don't negate that. Because he's working things out. And direction is more important than timing. I believe you know they are freaking out. Jesus, don't you even care? Don't you care? We're about to die. And he says, where is your faith? He's like saying, hey, I thought my word was enough for you. I thought you saw the miracles. I thought you saw the blind eyes open and the deaf ears hear. And now the lame are walking. I thought I gave you my word. I called you by name. I thought that was enough. And Jesus, it doesn't matter. I'm still leading you. You still can follow me. So we need to live our lives by the compass and not the clock. The direction that we're going is more important than the timing of when we get there. Because in the timing we can see God working it out. God healing our hearts. God restoring all things and making them brand new. And we're still headed in the right direction. But there might be some delays. I was talking to one of the disciples when they were going through the storm.

Wait a minute, it was only like an eight-mile crossover to the other side. And it seems very, very close. But it's taking a little bit longer than I thought, Jesus. Ever said that? Taking a little bit longer, Lord. Where are you? You still sleeping on that cushion in the stern. Nope, I'm right here and I'm working it out for you. You just trust me, the time will come if we don't give up in due season, you will reap a harvest as what Galatians 6, 9 tells us. Sometimes direction is more important than timing. We're still headed in the right direction as we follow Him. So the boat is filling up with water. And I imagine they're anxious and they're fearful and they're worried and they're saying all these different things to Jesus. And I expect Jesus to say, oh, my little children here, come on to me and just sit on my lap where I'll hold you. And you know like Jesus with the lamb, you know, that we've seen pictures of. The kind Jesus, the loving Jesus, He's all that. But He challenges them and says, where is your faith? Why are you so afraid? And I imagine they're like, why are we so afraid? Because there's water to our knees and we're in a boat in the middle of the sea and people die when this happens. You ever try to reason with God, like what, what do you mean? This is what's happening, don't you even care? And Jesus is like, I care, I know what's going on. I'm going to rescue you.

I'm going to get you out of this. I have a plan for your life. And why has our faith failed us? Well, because, hello, you were sleeping on a cushion in a stern. And I believe they're real with Jesus. And God doesn't always make sense to us in our natural mind, does He? It's a paradox. You know, but He's still God. Because His ways are not our ways. Just like His timing is not our timing. There's a story in scripture where there's a blind guy and Jesus heals him by spitting in the ground and making mud and putting it on his eyes. We would never do that, right. We don't do that here at Shoreline. We have a mud ministry. You grab some mud and put it on your eyes. No, we won't do that here. But it's very different than what we would do, right. Jesus, what He does is very different. He says, someone slaps you on one side, give them the other cheek. No, I don't think so. Did you see what that guy did to me? How they hurt me. But what He's talking about, respond from the healthy side of who you are. Not from retaliation.

Not from vengeance. That is His. But His ways are different than ours. And He says, love your wives. Men, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Oh, that's a difficult one. What did Jesus do? He laid down His life. So guys, what do we need to do? Lay down our lives. We would reason with Jesus, like Christ loved the church. I mean, love the church as Christ loved the church. My wife is always late. Maybe that's why Jesus is late, right. Maybe he's going, when is the last time Jesus told you he had a headache or brought something up five years ago that you did and didn't forget. No, Jesus is not the same as we are, amen. Jesus loves us. And direction is more important than timing. I remember many years ago, my wife and I got married. We have been married 34 years. April we celebrate 34 years. Yes. Give her a big round of applause. She deserves to go on a vacation by herself, putting up with me for that long. But when we got married, we were excited. We lived in South Austin and didn't have the south campus. We only had the north campus.

We would drive north all the time to go to church. And we loved it. And I thought we got to get closer to church. And there was no south campus. I moved to the north so we can be closer to church. And I didn't use a realtor or anything. I made a sign for sale by owner and put it in the front yard. Nobody looked at it. Nobody had interest in our house. I am like, God, I know you want me to be close to church. So I want to move to be close to church. Because I want to get all involved and be a part of it. I am going to sell my house. And nobody looked at it and I felt like God was saying, it's not time yet. It's not time yet. You are going the right direction. It's not time yet. So I told my wife, I am going to take the sign off and see what happens. We started our small group ministry. We had a small group at our south home. We were the only group in our south Austin area. We had a lot of people coming from south Austin. Okay, we will have a group. And many people came to our group at our house. And God said, actually at first service there was a lady leaving and Pastor Sam, I was part of your group 34 years ago and I said, Jesus, in your home, do you remember that. I still have friends even right now.

I had lunch with a friend of mine that we met in our small group 34 years ago. I have dear friends that are still part of our life that we met that long time ago. And I was thinking this is why God didn't want us to move north. Because we were the only ones south where people could connect. And we multiplied that group after a while, three or four groups that came out of that group. And now it's time. And the house sold in four days. And I even got more money for that house. Because that's how God does. The direction is more important than the timing. I look back going, of course. I wouldn't have all of these dear friends that I have had for many, many years if we had sold that house and moved north. I don't know what would have happened. But in that house we got to make friends. For a lifetime that are still part of our life You know and sometimes we just don't know everything that God is doing and then the last thing There's purpose in your change You know God doesn't just change us to changes. He does it because he loves us But he's writing your story the changes that we go through. They're just chapters in our lives They're adding up to a beautiful story and the ending is beautiful We get to spend the rest of our lives with Jesus forever and ever in heaven But he's still writing our story and I remember many times, you know thinking about that. Why am I going through these change? Okay, that's right. And God has used my story to help many other people so the disciples get to the other side and in Mark chapter 5 you expect a

Wonderful welcome party with food and celebration and the band and mariachis and everything right on the other side of the lake But instead they encounter this demon-possessed man. He runs up to the lake and like That's how I picture it and the Bible says that they had They had exiled this man to this island because nobody knew how to deal with him He would he would break the chains that they tie him and they would take stones and he would cut himself and he was very Very troubled evil spirits were inhabiting him, but they get to the other side They see him Jesus steps out of the boat and the man Confronts Jesus like hey son of God. What do you have with me? And Jesus said in the name of Jesus, you know, he or he rebuked and it came out He said leave this man you impure spirit and the man gets delivered He gets set free and the disciples witness it and I'm wondering what would have happened if they hadn't followed Jesus to the other side they would have missed seeing this miracle firsthand and that's not the first time they saw miracles They were the ones handing out the baskets of fish and bread. They were the one bringing the lame people to Jesus They were the ones that were helping the crowd control and helping people know Jesus They were the ones the first ones to see the wit and witness the miracles that Jesus was doing I wonder if they would have missed that This man getting set free. So it's part of their story I can imagine like you remember when we got to the other side and there was a guy that medicine he was crazy But Jesus rebuked it and that was part of their story So on the other side of your change It's gonna offer hope and healing to a lot of other people people need to know what God did in your life Because they need God to do that in their lives And you're gonna be the only Bible that might read or maybe the only Jesus that they know But when you say look, this is what God did in my life, and he's continuing to write my story I believe he's gonna do that for you as well Then it offers people a very tangible hope like an anchor in their soul when they say if God did it for you Then he's gonna do it for me. So don't give up on this story. Don't retreat keep Jesus in your boat Stay close to him and he's gonna get you to the other side. Amen. I Remember one time I was with our men's group and I was telling my story how I was raised and how messed up it was And it was very dysfunctional and it was just you know

I'm just thanking God that he pulled me and he healed me from all that and You know and I was telling the story and this friend of mine called me the next day He's like Sam. Did you did you tell your story about this? I said, man, I think something similar To that happened to me, but I thought I saw it in a movie Because I had repressed it I had forgotten about it and I thought it was something like I remembered but I thought it was in The movie but I started thinking maybe it happened to me It really happened to me and your story kind of reminded me of that and I was thinking if God did that for you Maybe he'll do that for me and I couldn't believe it really happened So I called my brother and I said hey, bro, did this really happen to us? And he said yes that really happened to us He said God started to heal my heart God started to comfort me to God started to show that it wasn't right what happened, but he was with me all along so your story gave me hope to open up my heart to receive the grace and the healing and the comfort of God because that's What a story does More than anything else your story is gonna bring hope to other people because of what you did and I believe that God is looking for people that are tried and Tested and they didn't give up on Jesus They didn't just believe him but they followed him through the good times and times of trial and they got to the other side and now you can confidently say Listen, God restores marriages because he restored mine and he's gonna restore you God delivers addictions because he broke me of addictions He's gonna help you through yours. God restores broken hearts because he's gonna restore your broken heart I see how he did it in me. He's gonna do it in you and your story is a very powerful tool in the hands of God And he's still writing our story. I love that, you know my wife and I worked at a local hospital many years ago and I had given my heart to Jesus and I started telling everybody about the Lord a lot of people didn't believe me because I'd go to happy hour with them and do all Kinds of crazy things with them and now I was transformed but one by one They all started hearing my story of how God was transforming when I left there to come into ministry full-time everybody was I was saved in that department at the hospital where I worked at. One by one by one by one, they would close the door, hey, can you pray for me, tell me

more about this Jesus. And I would tell them what God was doing in my life and they would get free and they would get whole. And a friend of mine that I worked with 38 years ago texted me for Father's Day, hey old friend, how you doing? I'm still following Jesus. That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't have shared my story. And as we close, I'm going to tell you this couple of scriptures that God is still writing our story. He's not done yet. Through the good chapters, through the bad chapters, he's always there. But in Ephesians 2.10 it says, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us. That word workmanship, the original word is poema, is where we get the word poem. So if there's a poem, that means there's a poet. A poet wrote that. Whether you're God's workmanship, there's a workman that is doing that. So God is the author of the poem of our life. If there's a poem being written, he's writing it, prepared for us in advance to do some good things. And so he's an author, right? God is an author. He's writing, he says we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author of our faith. In Acts chapter 3, there was a lame man that was sitting by the temple gates called Beautiful. And he was asking for money, begging for money all of his life. And people judged him, some people walked by him. So Peter and John walked by him in Acts chapter 3, and he begs him for money. And he says, listen, silver and gold I do not have, but in the name of Jesus, be healed. And the man is healed, and he jumps up and he's leaping for joy, and he's healed, completely healed.

Can you imagine what he was feeling? And he runs into the city, and he's telling people what happened. People prayed for me. They're like, hey, isn't that the guy that's been sitting by the temple gate, been lame all of his life? And then Peter starts preaching a message, and he's telling them it's by the power of Jesus that this happened. And he says something very interesting in verse 15, he says, he tells them, you killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this, that you killed, he calls Jesus the author of life. And that's so appropriate because he is the author of our life. Now, when an author dies, there's no more books to write. There's no more chapters. There's no more novels. There's no more poems. There's nothing to write because the author is dead, and he's gone. But we have the author of life that is very much alive, and his name is Jesus, and he's still writing your story. He's not dead. There's still more chapters to write. There's still more novels to write. There's still more stories to write. He's not ever going to stop writing your story. So you can trust the author of life here today to get you through whatever change you're going through, because on the other side, he's going to offer hope to people, and in the meantime, you're going to know that God is for you, and he's with you, and your story is a very powerful thing. So I want to encourage you with that. See what the author of God, of life does in your life, and trust him because he's not done yet.

Amen? Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you. Thank you that you're continuing to write our story, that you are with us, and you are for us, and God, even in the chapters where we felt lost, and we felt confused, you were right there with us. You helped us, and you will continue to do that in the future as well. So God, today we just trust you that you're continuing to write our story. Help us to lean into you, to trust you, to keep us close, Lord God, in our faith in you. And still with every head bowed, and every eye closed, if you're here today, maybe you don't know Jesus as your Savior, I'd love to lead you in a very simple prayer where you can open up your heart to him and say, Lord, come inside of my heart, I surrender my life to you. Take all of me, and I take all of you. So if that's you, if you're here today, and you say, Pastor Sam, pray for me, I know I need Jesus, I want to give him my heart. Would you raise your hand just right where you are? If that's you, just raise your hand real high. God bless you. Anybody else? Thank you so much. God bless you. Thank you. God bless you over here as well. Thank you so much. Thank you for your boldness. Thank you for your courage. Thank you, sir. God bless you. Okay, I'm going to ask all of us to place your hand over your heart, and we're all going

to say this prayer together. We're going to just repeat after me as a reaffirmation of our faith in Christ. Repeat after me, especially those of you that raised your hand, say, Heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for me. I receive you, Lord, as my Savior. Forgive me of my sins. Wash me clean. Make me brand new, and help me to live for you by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Come on, give God praise for just a moment. Listen, those of you that raised your hand, afterwards, I want to invite you, there's a table right back over here. There is a sign over here that is brand-new, and over here as well, wherever you are seated, walk over there, they want to give you information and pray with you and help you on this journey following Jesus. The rest of you stand to your feet for a moment. We will have prayer partners up here, if you need prayer for anything going on in your life, come on up here, they would be delighted to pray with you and I would be delighted to do life with you. I want to bless you with this blessing from scripture, it says... God bless you, we love you. Go walk in victory. Have a great, great Sunday afternoon.