Four Reasons to Say Yes to God

The following is a lightly edited transcript provided by a transcription service. Please check the video before quoting.

David Platt at Summit Church

Summit Church this weekend. We have the privilege of hearing from David Platt who is president of the International Mission Board. I don’t know what I appreciate most about David. I might say the power in his writing and his preaching, I might say the bold and visionary leadership that he gives to the 46,000 churches in our convention.

The vision is to take the Gospel to every last unreached people group on the planet. He’s definitely a gift of God to us in that area. But what I would probably say I most appreciate about him is his humble and loyal friendship. He is one of my best friends, not just in ministry, but in life at all of our campuses. Why don’t you put your hands together and join me in welcoming Dr. David Platt??

Summit Church, the words of Paul Philippians one. I thank my God every time I think about you from the first words out of my mouth to you, I just want you to know how grateful I am to God for his grace in this church. And in the words of one Thessalonian, how his grace in you is resounding to his glory around the world.

I am so grateful for the way God is working to mobilize this body to make his glory known in this triangle and places far from this triangle. And so just more than anything here at the start, just hear me saying, press on in what you are already doing and know that I am. And many people are grateful for God’s grace.

And you, I’m so thankful for God’s grace in your pastor and JD as he was talking about just our friendship, just I’m indebted to God’s grace and him.

I was sitting here trying to think of a story to tell you all about JD, but every story that came to my mind I realized would not be appropriate in a gathering like this. And I mean, I thought, well, I could tell no, no, no, not going to tell that.

So I’ll just let that speak for itself about your pastor. I couldn’t think of any one of ’em. If you have a Bible, and I hope you or somebody around you do, lemme invite you to find it with me. Isaiah chapter six in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter six.

Love is a Strange Thing

So love is a strange thing and love makes you do strange things. My wife is the only girl I ever dated, which sounds noble until you realize I was just socially awkward growing up and was afraid to talk to girls. And God in his kindness provided a girl who would talk to me.

And so I figured I should keep talking to her. And so we kept talking and just recently celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, and I was reminded when we were celebrating, we were celebrating that anniversary one year on our anniversary. She gave me a scrapbook that had a bunch of letters and notes that she had written me over the course of our relationship.

And so we started reading through and just seeing, and there was one particular letter that I’m going to risk any semblance of reputation I might have by just sharing a small, very small portion of this letter that I apparently wrote to her when we were just friends at the time. Technically, I mean, you know what that means.

I wanted to be more than friends and she had just moved off to college. She’s a year older than me. So she had just moved off to school and I was still finishing up high school and apparently, we had just talked on the phone when I wrote this letter to her. So this is what it said.

Dear Heather, dude, I am so glad you called tonight. What kind of opening is that? I know that when a guy writes a letter like this, you like to pour over every word you want to make every word compelled to count. I have no clue what compelled me to think of the first word out of the shoot should be, dude.

So I continued. I have wanted to call you Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today. But I just figured you were too busy. You’re not supposed to say that. You’re supposed to say you’ve been really busy.

Apparently, I was not. When I heard your voice, when I heard your voice, it was so awesome that I can’t explain how I felt. You sounded so awesome. Is this not the most lame thing you’ve ever heard? Awesome.

Twice. So it got worse. It got three pages of worse. So agonizing to read through, but so I’m going to jump to the end here. Okay, so this was my rousing conclusion. Dude, man, I wish this wasn’t true, but this is what, dude, I’m not just wasting ink when I say this. Can you tell I never had a girlfriend wasting ink? M

y life isn’t the same without you around and I miss having you to talk with and spend time with. I miss you, something fierce. Fierce. Really, Really Praying for you, dude, for those counting. That’s three dude mentions in a total of eight lines.

Clap in Worship

In Christ. Don’t blame this on him. This is not his fault. He didn’t do this in Christ. David. That is the letter I wrote to my future wife. So no, no, no, no. Don’t clap. There’s one person cla. There’s no reason to clap whatsoever. Maybe you’re clapping because you feel sorry for me. Okay, that would make sense.

Oh, there you go. Oh, thanks. That makes me feel great. Yeah, maybe clapping for my wife. Oh, what a precious woman. She would marry that guy. Or maybe clapping for yourself. I’m glad I didn’t write that letter. I just helped boost your self-esteem all over this room. Maybe you would clap in worship. God, only you could allow a man like that to be married. Just glory.

So love. In the next few minutes I’ve prayed one primary thing for our time in the word and that prayer is that in the next few minutes and in a supernatural way, that right where you’re sitting, you not just the person beside you in front of you, behind you, but right where you’re sitting, you might be reminded in a fresh supernatural way away of how much God loves you.

God Loves You

That’s my prayer. I want to show you in a familiar passage, but I pray in a fresh way how much God loves you. And I want to show this to you, not just for you. I want to show this to you. I’m praying you’ll see this.

I want to show it to you on behalf of people around this triangle who don’t know how much God loves them. And I want to show this to you on behalf of people far from here in other nations who have never heard how much God loves them, nobody’s ever told them,

I want to show this to you in such a way. So my hope is that you might see, and feel the love of God for you in a fresh way that might cause you to say at the end of the next few minutes, God, I’ll do whatever you want me to do in this triangle to make your love known to other people.

I’ll do whatever you want me to do and I’ll go wherever you want me to go in the world to make this love known to other people wherever knowing whatever might mean, wherever might mean, I mean to say God, I’ll go wherever. I’ll go to Syria, Northern Iraq, and ISIS territory. I’ll go to Somalia, al Shabab, I’ll go to West Africa, Boko Haram, I’ll go. I’ll take my family wherever you want us to go to make your love known.

That might sound crazy, but love makes you do crazy things. So look with me in Isaiah chapter six, again a familiar, maybe a dangerously familiar passage of scripture to many. So if you’ve heard this passage before, just try to picture it like it’s the first time you’ve ever envisioned it. Isaiah says these words, in the year that King Siah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

So picture this high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings with two, he covered his face and with two he covered his feet. And with two he flew and one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, woe is me for I’m lost from a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

And one of the seraphim flew to me holding his hand of burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

God is Worthy of All Glory

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here I am. Send me, let’s pray. God, I know I can’t manufacture what I’m asking. Hoping for the next few minutes, God, I pray that you will do it. I pray that by your spirit you would take this word and you would apply it in our hearts and that you would help us to see the depth of your love for us.

Pray for that in every single person. They would see the depth of your love for them in a way that would evoke an Isaiah-like response. Just a few minutes from now of total surrender, God, I pray you do this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So see what Isaiah saw. See who God is. Ladies and gentlemen, we have an incomprehensibly, glorious God who reigns over all. Isaiah says, all this happened in the year that King Zaia died. King Za had reigned for 52 years, we’re used to a president for four, maybe eight years, 52 years for many people, this was the only leader they’d ever known.

And for the majority of his reign, he’d been a good and godly king and the nation had prospered. And so when he was gone, there was a major void, things in turmoil. What’s going to happen? Isaiah looks up and sees King.

Zaia may not be on the throne anymore, but the real king is still on the throne. Throughout history, kings have come and kings have gone. Presidents have come, presidents have gone, leaders have come, leaders have gone. One king remains over all of them throughout all time and he’s surrounded.

Burning Ones

So the picture here, Isaiah says he’s surrounded by angelic attendance. Seraphim their name literally means burning ones. I love this. The picture is of angels that are literally ablaze with the adoration of God.

They live, and they burn to worship God and their multitudes of them. The rest of the scripture tells us multitudes of multitudes beyond number all flaming with pure nuclear-powered praise of God. So just think of it all last night while you were sleeping, they were singing.

When we came into a gathering like this and we began singing, we weren’t starting something, we were joining in something, a heavenly chorus that is continually resounding to God. When we lay our heads on our pillows tonight and we begin to fall asleep, they’ll still be singing forever. They’ll be shouting his glory, singing his praise. So what is their song selection?

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. It’s like these angels are grasping at the leash of language to try to find words to express the wonder of the one who is before them. And so this word just keeps pouring out of their mouth.

They can think of the details. Holy, holy, holy, a word that talks about how God is without error, no sin in him. He’s perfect. Nothing wrong with him. He’s never had a wrong thought, but a wrong deed had a wrong motive. He’s all together right and just and pure and perfect, he’s holy.

But think about it, there’s a sense in which without error that could also be said about the angels who surround God. At that point, they don’t have sin. So we know that for him to be holy means more than he’s just without error. The whole picture of him being holy is that he is without equal.

God is Incomparable

There’s no one like him. He’s incomparable. It’s what God says later in Isaiah chapter 40, he says, to whom will you compare me or who is my equal says the holy one. He’s totally unlike anyone else in his holy grander, and he reigns sovereign over the whole earth.

The whole earth is full, full of his glory. All over the earth, the angels cry a continual explosion of the glory of God. In all nature, the sun is shining according to God’s command. The wind blows at God’s bidding.

The oceans stop where they do because God tells them to stop where they do Later in Isaiah 40, after he says, to whom will you compare me? Who is my equal? Says the holy one. He who brings out the starry hosts the stars one by one and calls them each by name, by his great power and mighty strength.

Not one of them is missing. Astronomers tell us there are billions upon billions upon billions of stars in our galaxy. We can’t count them all, but our God can. He brings them out one by one and calls them each by name.

God is Sovereign Over All

Bob Mary over there, Z 1 43 69. I don’t know what their names are, but our God knows their names. They obey him. He’s sovereign over all nature, sovereign over nations. He charts the course of countries.

This is clear all throughout Isaiah, he holds the rulers over the earth in the palm of his hands. This is good news. Isn’t it good news to know that Assad in Syria is not sovereign overall? Neither is Kim Jong-un in North Korea.

Modi in India is not sovereign over all either Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel or Barack Obama in the United States, our God is sovereign over all of them.

Isn’t it good news to know that no matter what happens in 2016, neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump is sovereign over all, God is sovereign over all, over all things, all people, all of the earth. See, we have an incomprehensive glorious God. We’re grasping ourselves at the leash of language to try to find words to express his wonder.

So Isaiah sees this and then immediately sees who he is, which was Isaiah’s response to this vision of God. Wow. It was Woe is me, woe is me. The language is literally ruining and destroying me. I’m lost before an incomprehensibly. Glory, Gloria.

God, I’m a sinfully lost man amidst a sea of sinfully, lost people. He says Isaiah knows that he deserves total destruction, and condemnation before this God, he can be in this God’s presence.

When we talk about the fear of God, sometimes we say, well, fear of God. It’s not like you’re afraid. It’s just to revere God. It seems like Isaiah’s afraid. He’s terrified by the holiness of God and for good reason.

What Sin Looks Like Before God

He knows his sin and what sin looks like before holy God in a way that I don’t think we do. We have a dangerous tendency to minimize the seriousness of sin in such a way. So you’re reading through the Bible, right?

You’re walking through scripture and you see stories in scripture where you wonder, doesn’t that seem a bit severe? I’m reading through Genesis 19 recently, Sodom and Gomorrah, cities just like that. Totally destroyed under the wrath of God, totally destroyed. And then what does God tell a lot and his family?

So go, but don’t look back. I’m telling you, don’t look back. And so they’re running out and Lot’s wife does what? She looks back. All she does is take a glance and what happens to lots? Wife gone just like that.

She died for a glance. All she did was take a glance. You’re gone and you get a couple of books later, Leviticus, Aaron’s sons, Nate and Toba you. They offer unauthorized fire before the Lord. One time, one time. And automatically the fire consumes them. They’re gone.

One time. Numbers chapter 15, you get to numbers chapter 15, and you’re reading and you see a man who’s caught picking up sticks on the Sabbath day. They bring him before the Lord and say, what shall we do to him? You know what God says?

He was stoned for picking up sticks. Now, some people begin to say, well, maybe that’s just God in the Old Testament. So new covenant, new Testament. Well, at the beginning of the church Acts, chapter five, Ananias and Sapphira walk into a church gathering. They lie about their offering and what happens to them? Both of them died immediately.

That’ll hurt your attendance. Next Sunday, people start dying in the offering. This is not a church growth methodology. So we read, let’s just be honest. Don’t we read those stories and think that seems a bit severe, seems like it’s overdoing it. We wrestle with that for valid reasons.

But here’s where we’ve got to realize the key here is we think that’s overly severe because we have a man-centered perspective of sin. So following this, we picture sin. If that happened to us, if somebody were to lie to us, they wouldn’t deserve death.

If somebody were to disobey us, they don’t deserve to be gone just like that because we’re thinking about it in terms of ourselves, but it’s what we need to realize that what matters here in sin is not how small or big we might think it is.

What matters is the magnitude of the one who is sinned against. Just think about it. If you sin against a rock, you’re not very guilty. Big deal, right? If you sin against a man or a woman, you’re guilty. You sin against an infinitely holy God, one sin at a glance, one unauthorized fire, one disobedience on this, one, sin against an infinitely holy God means you are infinitely guilty.

You think about it, if you’re reading through the story of scripture right now, you remember Genesis chapter three, what happened? They ate a piece of fruit. All they did was eat. They took a bite of a piece of fruit.

And from that one sin came, the Bible says, came condemnation for all men, billions of sinners since then. All from one sin and all the effects of sin, world wars, murder, terrorism, natural disasters, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, wiping hundreds of thousands of people off the planet just like that. All of that has come throughout history because of one sin. And we in this gathering have committed thousands upon thousands of them.

Infinitely Holy God

We have no clue about the depth of the seriousness of our sin before an infinitely holy God, sees it, who he is, who we are, what we deserve, and destruction upon us. And then see what God does. He commands a cef to take coal from the altar, the place of sacrifice, and he brings it over to Isaiah, touches his lips, and says, do you see the words?

See your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for it’s covered. How is that possible? Think about this with me. How can a holy God who’s perfect and right and just how can he say to a guilty sinner, you’re innocent?

How can God say that and be true? Because Isaiah is guilty. If there was a judge on the bench in our country today who knowingly took guilty criminals and one by one declared them all innocent and sent them free, we would have that judge off the bench in a heartbeat. Why?

Because whether we’re conservative, progressive, liberal, or whatever, we have a sense of right and wrong. We expect the right to be praised. We expect wrong to be condemned, and we expect God to do the same.

If God is just, then how can he look at those who are guilty and say you’re innocent? How can he look at the totally rebellious and say, you are perfectly righteous? That’s a scandal. How is it possible?

I’m glad you asked because this picture here in Isaiah six is just one of many pictures that we see in the Old Testament. Turn over to the right, a few chapters to Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah chapter 53, 1 of many pictures of God providing sacrifice to atone for people’s sins.

As you read through scripture, you just think about the different pictures you will see and the days to come as you’re reading through the Bible and you see the Passover and you see this lamb perfectly spotless without blemish brought into a home and then days later slaughtered its blood, put over a doorpost.

And that’s how the mercy of God is shown to that house because there’s a picture of the penalty of sin. Death has been paid by sacrifice. Same thing on the day of atonement. When you get to Leviticus chapter 16 and you see the high priest bring in two goats among the people of God, the first goat is sacrificed.

Atonement for Sin

It’s blood taken and sprinkled over. The atonement covers a picture of how the penalty for sin. Death has been doled out. And then he takes the other goat places his hands on the goat and confesses the sins of the over as a picture representative of the sins of the people now being passed onto the goat.

And then what happens to that goat? That goat is taken outside the camp far away as a picture of this is how God covers over sin, through sacrifice and removes his people’s sins from his people. And it’s the same word it’s used in Leviticus 16 to talk about how a goat takes sins away that Isaiah uses in Isaiah chapter 53 verse four, to give us a picture of the prophecy of Jesus.

He writes 53 verse four, surely he has borne our griefs talking about Jesus. He has carried away our sorrows, yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

We Are Sinful People

Oh, see it. We have an incomprehensibly, glorious God. We’re a sinfully, lost people. And we have a scandalously merciful savior who came to us. Jesus came to us and he lived the life that none of us could live a life of perfect and total obedience to God. And though he had no sin in which to pay the price for his life, he died.

He died on the cross. Why? For our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities on the cross, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus as we saw it in T-shirts, when people are baptized in this church, Jesus took our place, he stood at our place, took the holy condemnation, holy, righteous wrath of God, do you and me in our sin.

He poured it out on his son in our place. And then even better news, three days later, Jesus rose from the dead in victory over sin. We’re not talking resuscitation, reincarnation, we’re talking resurrection, not talking. Died, went to heaven for a couple of minutes, came back, and wrote a bestselling book about it.

We’re talking dead for three days and walking around alive, we’re talking, you go to a funeral tomorrow, you see a man’s body put in a coffin, that coffin put in a grave, dirt poured over that coffin, and then, later on, this week, that guy comes up to you on the streets and says, hello.

That’s unusual. It’s the greatest news in all the world. Sin has been defeated, death has been conquered so that anyone within the sound of my voice and anyone in all the world who will turn from their sin and put their trust in Jesus will be forgiven of all their sin and reconciled to a holy God forever and ever. He says in Isaiah 43, verse 25, I will take your sins totally away.

I’ll remember them no more, no more. And to think of it all my sin, all your sin, God says, I won’t remember any of it. And it’s not because he has amnesia. Our God is omniscient. He knows everything.

The beauty here is that God says to you and me, I know your sin all every single sin you’ve ever committed better than you know them. And I choose to count not one of them against you because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And there’s an old story about a guy who bought a Rolls-Royce in England, a very expensive car built as the car that would never, ever, ever, ever break down. So he bought the car, he’s driving to the countryside one day and it breaks down. And so he calls up Rolls Royce and he says, Hey, the car you said would never break down that I paid a lot of money for.

It broke down. So they immediately put a mechanic on a helicopter, fly him out there with tools and they fix the car and the guy drives on his way. A few weeks later, he’s waiting to get a bill from Rolls Royce.

It’s not often that you get a mechanic to fly you on a helicopter. So he’s expecting a bill, he just wants to get this done. He means he can pay for it, just move on. But he never gets a bill. So he ends up calling up Rolls Royce and he says, Hey, listen, I just wanted to take care of this. This is what happened.

So I just want to pay my bill. Could you just send it to me? And on the other end of the line, the person who tells the person for Rolls Royce says, sir, we’re sorry but we have absolutely no record of anything ever having gone wrong with your car.

Jesus is Our Savior

To think of it, just think of it that you and I, that we would stand before the infinitely holy God of the universe. And he would look at you and say, I have absolutely no record of anything ever having gone wrong in your life.

Take a step further. He actually says I have a record of everything that has gone right in your life. I see you in the very righteousness of my son. That’s a scandal and it’s scandalous, merciful, to think we have been saved from eternal condemnation to walk in and live an everlasting life with God.

So now Isaiah in his depravity, now overwhelmed with mercy, let me tell you what he doesn’t do. When he hears the voice of heaven, boom. And God says, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Lemme tell you what Isaiah doesn’t say. It doesn’t say, well, what are you thinking?

Where might you want me to go? What are my options? I’ll go someplace, not others. No. The automatic response to this kind of love is total surrender. Here I am, no questions asked, no hesitation. Here I am, send me.

Apparently, the love of God does not elicit mere intellectual adherence or casual acceptance. Apparently, the love of God elicits total abandonment. Apparently, when we realize the beauty of the gospel, we realize the urgency of our mission and we say, I abandoned my plans and my dreams and my possessions and the pleasures and the treasures of this world.

My future is yours. Here I am. Send me, I ask people who are hearing this word right now, right where you’re sitting in view of God’s great love for you, which say to him, whatever you want me to do in this triangle to make your love known, I will do it. And wherever you want me to go in the world, wherever you want me to go, in the world, I will go.

God Loves All of Us

There are people in this triangle who don’t know how much God loves them. And there are people in other nations around the world who’ve never heard, they’ve never heard the good news of how much God loves them.

We call them unreached. I know you talked about the unreached around here. Remember though, when we talk about unreached, we’re not just talking about people who are lost. People are just as lost in Raleigh Durham as they are in North Korea. So losses are the same wherever you are in the world. When we talk about reached or unreached, unreached means not just are you lost, but you don’t have access to the good news of how you can be found.

That’s the difference between Raleigh Durham and North Korea. So there’s a few churches in Raleigh Durham and there’s Christians in Raleigh Durham, and we’re talking about places. People in the world who don’t have any churches around them, don’t have any Christians around them.

They don’t have access to the gospel. Sometimes people say to me, well, I don’t know why we talk about unreached people around the world when there are unreached people in my office or there are unreached people in my neighborhood. Well, the reality is those people in your office or your neighborhood aren’t unreached.

You say, well, how do you know? Because they’re in your office, they’re in your neighborhood, they have access to the gospel. How do you know you’re it? God loves them so much. He’s made it possible for them to hear this good news about how much he loves them. And you are it.

God Has Purpose For Your Life

God’s put you in that office for a reason. He’s put you in that neighborhood for a reason. See this God, he’s sovereign. He’s got this whole thing rigged. It’s no accident that you’re working there. You’re not just biting time, you’re not just getting a paycheck.

He’s got you there for a reason. You’re not just living on this campus, you’re not just living in that dorm. You’re not just in this apartment or home for a time. He’s got you there for a reason. He wants the people around you to know how much he loves them. You know it.

So God, whatever you want me to do right here and then, wherever you want me to go, lift your eyes and see people who don’t have access. They’ve not heard, they’ve never heard how much God loves them. Nobody’s ever told them they stand right now as sinners before, holy God, and they’re guilty and they’re sinners. Nobody’s told him how much he loves them.

I know these things. I’m guessing you know these things. But the Lord did a work in my art on a recent journey through Nepal that just brought this home in a whole new way. We had taken a couple of guys.

We flew into Kathmandu, then we helicoptered up into the Himalayas and we landed at the height of the Himalayas and just kind of walked out for the height of the Himalayas where you can sustain a life and walked out for about six days, and it was about five days before we even met anybody who had heard of Jesus.

You’re talking about people you go up to and you say, do you know about Jesus? And they say, who’s that? There’s just no clue. Never heard. And so of course we would share with them, but there was this one moment when nobody prepared me for what was about to happen. When we came to this one Hindu holy site called Pash Potty, we were around the corner and all of a sudden I was just stopped in stunned silence.

Just picture this with me. I’m looking out. It’s a Hindu holy river and above the river, they have built funeral piers. And we were around the corner and I stopped in silence. I see this river and I see in front of me bodies burning on funeral pyres up and down the river. People are just wailing around them.

And the guy who’s taking us, he starts to tell me what’s going on. He says the custom is within 24 hours of a friend or family member dying. They bring the body to this river. They place it on a funeral pyre and set it ablaze. As the ashes go down into the river, they believe this is helpful in the process of reincarnation.

And he’s talking to me and it hits me. It hits me like I am looking at a physical picture of a spiritual reality. Like these people 24 hours before were alive. Now they’re dead. I’m looking at their bodies burning.

But these people are in hell. The Bible teaches they’re in hell and that they’re going to be there forever, but forever and ever and ever and ever without end. They’re going to be there forever. As if that wasn’t heavy enough, then it hits me that most, if not all these people that I’m looking at their bodies burning 24 hours before we’re alive.

Now they’re dead. They’re in now. They’re going to be there forever. And most if not all of them died and nobody even told them how they could go to heaven.

Who are the Unreached People?

Nobody told them. What is it going to take for the concept of unreached people to become totally intolerable to us in the church? Like surely knowing this great love we know we would not sit back and put conditions on how we might make it known in the world. Surely we wouldn’t relegate this task to a few people in the church.

This is all our task. To put it on the table blank. Check on the table with our lives, no strings attached. God, whatever you want me to do right here, wherever you want me to go around the world, use my life, use my possessions, use my profession, use my dreams, use my family. Whatever you want to do to make your love known, I’m yours.

Would you say that to God? And if there’s any fear in you at all, if there’s any fear in you at all with putting that kind of blank check on the table, he might lead you to this part of the world or that part of the world. It might lead you to do this or that. If there’s any fear in you, I just want to remind you who you’re giving the blank check to.

He Knows Better Than You

He loves you so much. He knows so much better than you. What is best for your life your family and your future? If you can trust him to save you from eternal damnation forever, certainly, certainly you can trust him to lead you on this earth and not just to lead you, but to satisfy you every step of the way.

Seeing his love and letting it drive you to do crazy things, don’t you Bow your heads with me in the quietness of this moment is what I’ve prayed for this moment, that your heart might be in a fresh way, overwhelmed by God’s love. See, I just invite you, just bow your heads and pray right where you are and just see what Isaiah saw.

See God and his greatness. See yourself and your sinfulness and see Jesus and his mercy, pierce for your transgressions, crush for your iniquities. You’re iniquity laid on him and you are forgiven. So what’d you say to him right now? Here I am, blank. Check on the table. You fill it in. No strings attached. My future, my family, and my possessions are all on the table. My dreams, my ambitions, they’re all on the tables.

Make Your Love for God Known

Whatever you want me to do, wherever you want me to go, to make your love known to God, I pray for that kind of faith. I pray for that kind of surrender across every member of the Summit Church. I pray for that for people who today have come to a gathering and maybe have never even trusted you to forgive them of their sins.

God, I pray that some might do that today for all who do and for all who have God that you would by your love compel us to surrender our lives. God, I pray that the ripple effects of that would be felt across this triangle and people’s lives this week who hear about your love because of what you have done in life through your word right now.

And God, I pray if I could be so bold and God, I pray that one day, somebody on the other side of the world who’s never heard the gospel, would hear the gospel for the first time from lips in this room, whose lives were surrendered to you on this day in a fresh way, God may be so for the spread of your love and the enjoyment of your glory here and to the nations. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.