Bayside Baptist Church

Jason King: Today we officially launch Go Beyond. Go Beyond is a four-week message series that really launches us into, as a faith family, 24 months of believing that God has greater things ahead for us in the future. I believe that for you personally, I believe that for us as a church. Over the next few weeks, what we're going to join together to do is to ask God to do even more in us and through us, personally and as a faith family. So from the outset, I want to challenge you to ask God this question over the next few weeks. God, how are you calling me to go beyond where I am right now?

Now I love this moment for us as a church. It's a crossroads. It's a critical moment for us. God is moving, people's lives are being changed, there's a very real sense when we gather together that God is at work among us, and there's an expectation, I believe, for God to do so much more in the future. Our city is growing. Half our county does not know Jesus. Thousands of people drive by our church every single day, and I want to challenge us to believe God together that he wants to use us to significantly impact this city, this area, for Jesus Christ. That includes you. That includes me. It's all of us.

You know God is always leading you and me to take a next step of faith. Do you believe that? That's what God is at work to do. As he leads you by his spirit, if you're in Christ, he's leading you day by day to take a step of faith to become more like Jesus. And if you're outside of the faith, maybe you're on the outside looking in trying to figure out what this whole faith thing is, God is leading you to take a step of faith to give your life to Jesus and begin that journey. He's always moving you and me closer to him and to his heart every single day.

So we want to live right now for the future impact God wants us to have, not just as a church, but for you personally, in your own life, in your family, for people who are hurting and people who are far from God. There are people who God wants to bring to be a part of this faith family, like many of you who at one time were not here. There are people who are not here yet that God wants to bring into the Kingdom of God and this outpost here at Bayside.

In John chapter 14, which if you have your Bible, I want to encourage you to go ahead and open up to John chapter 14. If you don't have one, there'll be one in the seat back in front of you, but we'll also have it here on the screen. But in this moment in John chapter 14, there's this picture that Jesus gives us and this promise that he makes, this word that he downloads to us, and he's teaching us and showing us what his promise is for those who follow Christ. Jesus said it this way. He said, those who believe in me, greater things will happen in your life and through your life than even what Jesus did while he was on the earth. He was promising through the power of the Holy Spirit and the movement of God in and through their lives. That's what we're praying to see become reality today.

So I want to ask you a question before we jump into this text today. Do you believe that God wants to do greater things in and through your life? Do you believe that God gives you the power and the capacity to do exactly what he promised his disciples? Let me ask you this. More than do you believe that, is that what you're seeing happen in your life right now? Are you seeing God's power and his presence so active in your life, through your life, that you're experiencing what Jesus promised?

I want to challenge you. That's what Go Beyond is all about. It's about taking steps of faith to move beyond where we are and to trust God for the future, to walk in the future personally and as a faith family that he has for us. So in John chapter 14, Jesus taught us that God wants to do greater things in our lives as we trust him, as we walk, and that's what he was saying to his disciples in this passage that we're going to look at. He wants you to know today that you can experience his power, his presence in your life in a fresh way, and the reality the same things that Jesus did and even greater things can become reality in your life today too.

So how do you get there? That's what I want to talk to you about today. How you can experience the power of God, these greater things that Jesus promised in your life. I think there's a few ways that this passage teaches us today. The first thing that this passage teaches us, how you begin to experience this is this. You need to build your life on faith. Notice it didn't say build your life on your career, on a standard of living, on being comfortable, or a number of other things. Build your life on faith. I want you to look in John chapter 14 beginning in verse 12 and see where this comes from. Jesus had his disciples together. This is part of what's called the Upper Room Discourse. He's sitting there talking to them, telling them as he's getting ready to leave them to fulfill the ministry that he started. He says this to them. He says, I tell you the truth. Anyone who believes in me will do the same works that I have done and even greater works because I am going to be with the Father.

Now what does that mean? He's saying you build your life on faith. Anybody who believes in me is going to do the same work that I've done and they're going to do even greater works than me. Anyone who believes in me. Now what does that mean to believe in Jesus? We have to be careful here because we've begun to believe this idea or think this idea that our belief is just some facts that we agree to. But to believe as Jesus is talking about here is actually goes to the root of what this word actually means. It's to believe as Jesus defined it, not how we want it to be or what we hear today. Everyone of us under the sound of my voice, this is where you have to start. It doesn't matter your story, doesn't matter your background, doesn't matter what you did last night. To believe in Jesus begins to change everything about your life, and God invites you to start there. That's where you've got to start.

To believe the word in the original language actually means this. It means that you entrust yourself with complete confidence and the implication is that you have a total trust and commitment to the one who you're believing in. This type of belief understands that the power and the nearness of God are close to you to help. That God is with you, that he's for you, and you're convinced that what he has revealed is what is true. You're so convinced that you're willing to build your life on this commitment.

I love what the Billy Graham organization website says when it talks about the word believe in the text here. He says this, to believe in Jesus doesn't mean you just believe that he existed or that he was a great person whose life and teachings have made a deep impact on the world. Nor does believing in Jesus even mean that we acknowledge that he was more than a mere man but was the Son of God who came from heaven to save us from our sins. He says all these things are true but they aren't enough to save us from our sins. Even the devil believes all these things about Jesus but that doesn't make him a Christian. The Bible says even the demons believe, do you remember that in the book of James, and they shudder. To believe in Jesus as the Scriptures teach us is to commit all of our lives to him and to trust him totally and completely.

It's the idea that you understand something to be true and then you choose to build your life upon it. Now some of us today may be building our lives upon a little bit of some truth and a little bit of something else. Maybe it's something that you heard on a social media clip or something that you read somewhere or you heard on a video somewhere or you've taken in from somewhere else. Maybe it's something your mama told you or maybe it's something Oprah said or somebody else like, here's what faith really is. And so you've taken a little bit of what the Scriptures teach. Yes, you believe Jesus is awesome, but you've combined that with a lot of other things and what Jesus means when he says you, anyone who believes in me, he says you have to believe in me as I say it, not how you want it to be, not how you feel like it should be, but according to what has been revealed. To believe means you trust what he's revealed so much that you're willing to build your life upon it.

If that's not your definition of believe, I would challenge that you may not be believing in Jesus. Jesus says if anyone believes in me, in other words, if anyone takes this approach and builds your life on faith, then this is true of these greater things. And so if that's where you are today, I know that in our culture, even in church culture, you may have been in church for a while and heard here's what it means to believe. You just agree with some information, you pray a prayer, and then you carry on with your life. You kind of got that box checked off. Can I challenge that for a minute? Or maybe you're not familiar with this at all and you're thinking, I don't even know what it means to believe in Jesus. Don't make excuses or rationalize or think that somehow your deal is the exception to what Jesus speaks right here. Instead, would you ask God to speak into your life, to reveal to you, Lord, do I really believe in you? Am I really trusting you enough to build my life on what you have spoken? Not faith in some information or faith in church or going to church, but faith in someone whose name is Jesus Christ.

You see when you believe in Jesus, it literally changes everything about your life. And when you have this kind of faith, look back in the text, Jesus promises you something. He said, if this is you, he said, you can ask for anything in my name. Greater things are going to come about. Greater things are going to happen in your life, the same things that I did and even greater things. Now what does that even mean when he says greater things? Have you thought about that? Does it just mean that since there's more of us, there's going to be more stuff that happens or more that takes place so it's greater in quantity? Or maybe that there's more people that would be impacted because more people are following Jesus now that he's been gone and more and more the movement has grown? Maybe that's the case.

But that's not the word that's used for greater in the text. The word used for greater here means greater in quality. In other words, it's more impressive, more miraculous. But that doesn't fully make sense either because the disciples didn't feed 5,000 people in Jesus' absence. The disciples didn't walk on water. The disciples weren't able to do some of the miracles that Jesus did. They didn't calm the storm. So I don't know that that's what he's talking about either. But what it does mean when he says the same things and even greater things, what it does mean is that once Jesus died and was raised to life, then the greater things are that his disciples, you and me, could now testify, they could share about the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus and bring people to the Kingdom of God, to bring them from darkness to light, from death to life. The greater things are the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus describes and says, I'm going to leave him when I leave, he's going to come and he's going to live in you. That's the very next chapters in the Gospel of John. The greater things are that the Holy Spirit will be at work in us, working to make us more like Jesus and to help us lead people to find the power of the resurrection in their lives. That only happens with faith. It only happens in faith. Anyone who believes in me, Jesus says, these things will happen in your life.

Now I want to be clear that this is not just a promise for preachers and professional vocational ministerial people that work in a church. It's not just for missionaries on the other side of the world. The reality of it is that when you believe in Jesus and build your life upon this faith, this is the result of your life. There are greater things, your life invites people into the Kingdom. And the reality is that Jesus says, I'm going to the Father. Shortly after this moment he's with the disciples, he leaves them and they are to step into this void of ministry that he left behind. And they would be able to do this only because the power of God, the Holy Spirit, would work inside their lives and live in them. And that's his promise to you and me today too. You see when you build your life on faith, you receive the power of God, the Holy Spirit, and he's the one working to change you and to use your life to help others find the hope in Jesus Christ.

Now you may not know this, but Otis Elevators is one of the largest elevator companies, really been the standard in elevators for the last 150 years. As a matter of fact, if you were to ride our elevator here at Bayside, it's an Otis elevator. This company's been around for a long, long time. A guy named Elijah Otis didn't invent the elevator, but he did come up with a braking system for elevators. Anybody glad about that? None of us were around in the 1850s when elevators were becoming a thing, but the deal in that day was essentially a platform that people would stand on. It's not the sophisticated elevator, it was a platform, and there were some significant problems because the cable that let the elevator down and brought it up sometimes would break. And when it would break, it was not good. People died, people got hurt, it was very problematic, and people were really afraid of elevators. But he invented this braking system that was independent of the cable, and so even if the cable broke, the elevator would stop. That's a pretty significant improvement on the elevator, right?

In this day actually, elevators were no more, buildings were no more than six stories tall because gravity just took over and it was very problematic in this moment. So in the 1850s, he had a creative way of showing people what he had created. He went to this exhibition and it was a big sort of World's Fair sort of environment in Manhattan. And every hour on the hour, he gathered people together and he got in his elevator and he told his assistant to cut the cable that controlled the elevator. And sure enough he did, his brakes worked, and he demonstrated each hour on the hour that his elevator could be trusted. And so people began to buy them.

And now you fast forward to today, those elevators in that day were $300 a piece. If you've bid elevators or worked in commercial construction, you know they're not quite that cheap anymore. But over time, it's reported even now that just in New York City that there are 70,000 elevators in that city alone. And it's estimated that the equivalent of the world's population travels on an Otis elevator, escalator, or moving walkway every three days. Think about that. If you've been on one here at church, you've ridden on an Otis elevator.

Now I think about that for a minute. There's a big difference between knowing information about something or someone and stepping into that elevator and saying, cut the cable. And that's what I want to say to you. Some of us are living in this place where we just know some information about Jesus and we feel good because we come to church and we are reminded of that information. But that's not what Jesus is calling you to. That's not what it means to believe in Jesus. What it means to believe in Jesus is that you receive what he's spoken and you build your life upon this, that you step into that elevator and you're trusting that what he said is what's going to happen to live a life of faith. And Jesus invites you to put your faith, your trust in him today.

The second thing that Jesus is teaching in this passage is that if you want to see greater things come to bear in your life, not only do you need to build your life on your faith, the second thing is this. You need to change your attitude. Change your attitude. Now what do I mean by that? Look back in the text, verse 12 and we'll read it again and then verse 13. He says this, I tell you the truth. Anyone who believes in me will do the same works that I have done and even greater works because I'm going to be with the Father. Look at this. He says, you can ask for anything in my name and I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.

Change your attitude. What do I mean by that? According to the great Google in the sky, attitude is defined as a settled way of thinking or feeling about a person, object, or situation, which is typically reflected in our behavior. We just think about attitude as what our kids give us when we tell them to do something they don't want to do. Now there's no shortage of anecdotal stories and even statements about how your attitude is important. But the reality is your attitude, my attitude, ultimately determines our perspective and our decisions and direction in life. It reveals what's most important to you. And oftentimes if we're honest, we don't connect our attitude with faith. When we think about attitude, we just limit it to how people, whether they're nice or not, or whether they're pleasant or grouchy. That's how we do it.

And I would say there is a connection between your faith and your attitude in that way, but that's a sermon for another day. But according to Scripture, your attitude is how you think or feel about something or someone and it's reflected in what you do and your behavior. So your attitude speaks of your thoughts and your feelings. The way that the Proverbs would talk about it is you need to guard your heart because from your heart flow the rest of your life. It results in what you choose to do. What's going on in your heart, what's in your mind, what you're filling your heart and mind with. The Bible teaches that your actions and your behavior come from what's inside of you.

And there's a key phrase that Jesus uses here that helps us know where you and I need to start with our lives and ask God to change our attitude towards our lives. Now Jesus uses it in the context of how we pray, and it's part of how we're to pray, but it's more than a tagline. Did you notice those words in there when he said you can ask for anything in my name? Underline that phrase or write that down just as a reminder that that's really the attitude shift that God wants to bring to bear in your life and mine. It's where we start with asking God to change our attitude. It's more than a tagline, it's really what's most important to us. Jesus says if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

Think about that. I want you to notice how connected your prayers are to your attitude. Think about what you ask for, what you're praying about, how you're praying. It reveals what really is most important to you. How you pray reveals that what you're focused on or what you're devoted to. Chuck Swindoll says it and probably hits it on the head for most of us. He says this, usually we pray in our own interests and in what furthers our name or our wants. We pray and we want answers that will improve our situation.

You know what? I have a tendency to pray in Jason's name and you have a tendency to pray in your name. Now I don't mean that's a tagline that you use at the end of your prayer. I mean that's what you want when you pray. It's what I want when I pray. We're focused on furthering what we want or what we think is best for us and more often than not, our focus is in alignment with only one person in this world, and you know who that is? It's you. I'm praying for me. You're asking God for things that will help you.

This is where we all start. But what you pray for, Jesus' point here, the way that you pray, what you're asking for, what your focus is, it reveals what's impressed and most important upon your heart. What do you want when you pray? Do you want what's best for you or are you willing to put that aside and read and understand what God wants for you and to make a choice to come under that and trust God with that? Yes, you have needs and concerns. So do I. And that's part of our prayers. God tells us to come and to pour out our needs before him, but is that all you're praying for? For life to be easier, for your kids to succeed, for some deal at work to go through, or for you to get a promotion, or for more money than month, or for that girl or that guy to notice you at school?

You see God wants to shift the focus of our hearts and that's what Jesus is getting at. To ask in Jesus' name is not just that you're name dropping at the end of a prayer. You all ever known anybody that name drops? You probably got that friend that's like, "Hey, I was with this person the other day," and nobody cares. Is that just me? Am I the only one who people start name dropping? But that's what Jesus is saying. He's not telling us you just got to name drop Jesus at the end of your prayers and you get what you want. But isn't that how we sometimes pray? We work on learning his nicknames and we've got a few nicknames we work in our prayers. We get a little more polished and we feel like Jesus is going to listen to us a little bit better, and then we've got to end it with "in Jesus' name." And then this scripture right here is supposed to work.

But the reality of it is, how many of us have grown frustrated because we've prayed and we've asked in Jesus' name and God didn't answer our prayers? We've misunderstood that, but Jesus' point here is to pray in his name is to shift the focus of our heart, to change the attitude of our heart and to say, God, it's not what I want, I want what you want. God, do that in me. Help me. What Jesus means when he says if you ask for anything in my name, I will do it, he's saying when you change your attitude about your life, what you really want, and you shift the focus of your life away from just the mirror and what's going on in your life to the Kingdom of God, to the purposes of God, away from your own stuff only. And when that happens, it changes how we live.

And it's the same thing David said in Psalm 37. Do you remember these verses? Psalm 37:3-5. Trust in the Lord and do good. That's the life of faith. That's what we're talking about. Build your life on faith. We just talked about that a minute ago. You're building your life on believing in Jesus. That's trusting the Lord and following his word. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you'll live safely in the land and prosper. He says God's going to move you forward in the agenda he has for your life. But look at this next verse. Take delight, some of your translations may say delight yourselves in the Lord and he will give you your heart's desires. That doesn't mean that God's giving you a blank check for whatever it is that your whim in that moment. What he's saying is as you walk by faith, you trust in the Lord and do good, and God begins to change your attitude. He shapes your heart as you delight yourself in him. In other words, as you're thinking, "God, you are so good. I'm going to ask you to change what's most important to me." And as you shift that, guess what? He's going to give you what your heart desires because it aligns with what he desires for your life. That's why he says in verse five, "Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him and he will help you." That means God's got you when you are walking in this life that he's intended for you. When God begins to change our attitude. Your attitude is your habit of thoughts. It's how you see the world, understand your role in it. It's how you respond to change when God does changing work in your life. It's how you face difficult circumstances, trials, seemingly hopeless situations.

The reality with your attitude and mine is we have a choice. But listen to me, church, it's not just the power of positive thinking. The choice is that we have the choice of what we put into our hearts because from our hearts flow the spring of life. And when you are delighting yourself and you're content in who God is and you're trusting him, when you're building your life on faith and allowing him to shape your attitude, your attitude comes in alignment with him and he will give you the desires of your heart. So the challenge is to let God shape and change our attitude today.

The last thing Jesus says in this passage for you to see greater things in your life is this. You need to choose God's purpose for your life. Choose God's purpose for your life. I want you to look back in verse 13. Jesus says this, "You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it." We just talked about that. But look at what he says next, "so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name and I will do it." You know, over and over in Scripture, there is this reality, there's this small detail that's so easy to overlook or even just not even really accept and just think that we can kind of bypass it. It's that God has a purpose for your life and for my life and his purpose for our lives is very specific. And it's not up to you. It's not up to me.

Now it may take you a little while to discover what your specific contribution to the Kingdom of God is, but God's leading you there, and it's not a destination that he's trying to get you to, it is a journey of walking by faith and recognizing that you have a choice in life. You can choose to walk in your purpose and to keep the focus on you. That's why we're talking about change your attitude. God, would you shift my heart? Would you change my heart and what I believe and what's really most important to me? Or you can choose the other way, and that's to walk in the purpose and the plan and the direction that God has for you. After all, if you're in Christ, you've been bought with a price. Scriptures say that you're not your own, that you now belong to Christ. And he has good things he wants to do in your life. Your purpose is not your job, it's not a promotion, it's not success or even retirement. Your purpose transcends all of those things. All of those things may be a part of your life, but that is not your purpose.

I want you to look in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 where Jesus says this is your purpose. Look at these words. You may be familiar with this, but I want you to listen to it. Remember Jesus in John 14, just after this passage he says, "Hey, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. He's going to give you power and that's how you're going to experience and do greater things than even what I've done." So Jesus tells his disciples, this is after he's ascended, he says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." It's the power of the Holy Spirit. The greater things come not because you or I are awesome. They come because of the Holy Spirit of God at work in us. And look what he says the Holy Spirit is going to do. Your purpose and my purpose in life. "And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere." In this day it was Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Do you want to know what your purpose is? It's for you to grow in your faith as you build your faith on believing in Jesus like he's defined it. When you allow God to change your attitude by the power of the spirit and the shift in your life is away from focused on you and it's focused on God's Kingdom and his plans and his way, and then you choose to walk in that, choose to live that out. He wants you to grow in the power of the Holy Spirit and then God wants you to help other people find the Kingdom of God. And he wants you to live confidently in this place where you know that you are living in the purpose for which God has created you.

Jesus says this, he wants you to embrace the reality that your life is not about you. My life is not about me. He says this this way. "You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it." And then he says the result of you doing that, of aligning yourself with his name, not just using it as a tagline, but aligning yourself with his name, with his purpose, is that the Son brings glory to the Father. That simply means that God answers the prayers you pray when those prayers are in alignment with his Kingdom and his purpose. God says, "I got you. You're not living for yourself. You're not focused on number one. You're living in the power and the purpose that I've created you for. Your faith shapes all of you including the choices that you make." It means that the Kingdom of God is active in your life and coming to bear in your life. You want to know how you can tell if you're walking in this, if you've embraced the purpose for your life? Other people right now are being impacted for the Kingdom by your life. There is a wake behind your life. If you're walking in this, if this is who you are and what God is doing because remember Jesus said, "Hey, if you believe in me, this is what's going to happen." If you're walking in this, then you will see a wake behind you of people who've been impacted by the Kingdom.

Now what I'm not talking about is the fact that you have a Christian bumper sticker and you didn't cut somebody off in traffic and you're thinking, "Man, that's going to lead them to Christ." Just take the sticker off there and... It also doesn't mean that when you go to work that you just quietly keep your mouth quiet, keep your mouth shut, and just kind of be a good person and that somehow that's going to point everybody in the office to Christ. Or when you play golf, you're the only one that doesn't cuss and slam a six-pack and so you think, "Man, that's just going to lead everybody." No, no, it's when the overflow of what God is doing in your life, in your heart, changes the way that you live. And the purpose that God has for you is to invite and bring people to the Kingdom of God. That takes intentionality. He wants to lead you in that today and he tells right after this passage, "Hey, the Holy Spirit, I'm sending the Holy Spirit to you, and he's the one who's going to do the greater things in you. All you need to do is to walk by faith and to trust him." Your life is about God's Kingdom, not your own.

So how do you get there? If you're thinking today, "Man, I would love for that to be me at work, on the golf course, I would love for that to be me in my home, I would love for that to be me," how do you get there? This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 12 verse 2. He says, "Don't copy the behavior and the customs of this world. It's okay if you're not like everybody else. But instead, let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Oh snap, there's that again, right? He wants to change our hearts, our attitude. He says, "Then you will know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." This book right here, God has in it what he needs for you to let shape your life to walk and live by faith.

I thought one of the best ways that we could tell this story today would be to let you hear the words of a young man named Jacob Hammond. In just a moment I want you to hear his story on the screen as he shares how God changed his life and shifted his life to now be focused on the work that God is doing in him. So turn your attention to the screen for just a moment.

Jacob Hammond: My experience in church before coming to Bayside, I hadn't come to church since I was 16 years old. Life for me was dark at times. I had a problem with alcohol, I had a problem with marijuana, and I felt lost a lot. And in the couple years before I came into Bayside, I wanted to definitely search for something bigger than myself, but I was trying to do it all by myself. First time I came to Bayside, the first thing I noticed was how welcoming and nice everybody was. And then during the service, I remember holding back tears because it was the right message at the right time that I needed to hear.

My parents, I didn't even know that they had been praying for me. They had told me about the 21 Days of Prayer. I think I came in the middle of it. Didn't really follow up with the guest services or trying to connect. And then I believe the second or third time that I was here, I filled out the connect card, I got a Life Journal. I hadn't started in the Life Journal right away, but that was a big part in getting me back into the Word. My parents had Bibles in the house, and I had told them I'd like my own Bible. And I know that there was some Bibles in the house that were already annotated and everything, so I was like, I would like to start fresh with a new Bible. And I prayed about a Bible. And then a couple weeks later I was on a hike and at the gazebo, the Chilhowee gazebo in Ocoee, there was two Bibles sitting on the ledge there. And I believe that someone actually left them for someone like me.

When I had lunch with James months ago, he gave me the opportunity to give my life to Christ then. He said, "You don't have to wait to get baptized to give your life to Christ." And I think I missed that opportunity. I didn't really understand what he was saying at the time. And then a few weeks ago when I decided that I was going to take that next step, James said the same thing. He said, "You could give your life to Christ right now." And I finally understood what he meant by that. Getting baptized during 21 Days of Prayer was the perfect time. It came full circle with me joining the church.

Jason King: I love Jacob's story because it makes me think of a couple of verses in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 and 21, listen to these words right here. It says this, "Now all glory to God, who is able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen."

Do you think it was a coincidence that Jacob walked through these doors in a very dark time in his life? That he was holding back tears as he believed God was speaking to him and meeting him as he walked in here? That he kept coming week after week? That he met James Johnson, our discipleship pastor, who invited him to follow Jesus not once, but twice? Do you think it was a coincidence that he said yes to Jesus? That he was able to find victory over addiction? That he prayed for a Bible and he just happened to be on a hike in the middle of nowhere and he didn't say this, but one of the Bibles was the New Living Translation, which is what we use every single week?

You see thing after thing has happened in his life since he started saying yes to God. One of the things that James told me as Jacob first started attending is that he would grab onto the back of the chairs and he could see white knuckles as God was speaking into his heart. Do you think it's a coincidence that all of those things came to pass in his life? Maybe. Or maybe God did immeasurably more in Jacob's life. And just maybe he's still doing that work right now. I believe his parents and I believe Jacob would say it's not a coincidence, it's an answer to prayer.

And can I tell you that's really what Go Beyond is all about? Go Beyond is more than a series, it's more than an initiative, it's a movement in our church where God is calling you and me in a very focused way to go beyond where we are right now in our faith. To go beyond for our families and for people who are hurting and people who aren't yet here. You see we believe God wants to reach more and more people just like Jacob who over the course of the last year heard, has received, has said yes to Jesus Christ.

And so I believe that we can say together that God has done immeasurably more in Jacob's life. And I would say to you, I believe he would say to you, no matter your story, no matter where you are, God invites you today to experience greater things in your life through faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray together.