Step Through the Door | The Time is Now

Follow along with message notes at https://www.westsidecommunitychurch.com/notes-resources

Join us as Gabe Kolstad brings us a message about Stepping Through the Door. 

#time #now #thetimeisnow #godstiming #yourstory #Jesus #fullservice #fullchurchservice #christian #sermon #worship #westside #church #2026sermon #churchonline #gabekolstad

Westside is a place made up of real people from all walks of life. We are a “come as you are” church that strives to be a safe place for people to investigate faith. No matter your story, questions, doubts or struggles, we’re glad you’re here today.

LINKS & RESOURCES:
SUBSCRIBE to always see our content and let us reach more people for Jesus: https://www.youtube.com/westsidecommunitychurchpdx?sub_confirmation=1
Give to support this ministry and help us reach people all around the world: https://www.westsidecommunitychurch.com/give

STAY CONNECTED:
Website: https://www.westsidecommunitychurch.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westsidecommunitychurch/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westsidecommunitychurchpdx/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Let's run. Let's do it. Yeah, the time is now. We are in this series because God has blessed our church remarkably. And if you didn't know this, we had to cut our last teaching series short because there's an urgent opportunity for us to step through a door. And I want to talk about that today with you because a lot of us are in situations constantly where we have to make a decision about whether we step through a door or not. But we know this God has opened a door for our church. This is a remarkable time in our church's history and in our city's history. Honestly, I mean Portland is making the national news for the spiritual receptivity that is welling up here. And it's pretty phenomenal. And we're noticing it, not just here, around the city, all around the city. And so we are we want to respond. I mean, I do think this. I think that when you, if you're a follower of Jesus, when God brings you an opportunity and you do step into it, and if you've ever done that, you know the feeling, you know the thrill. It is unmatchable. There's nothing like the creator of the universe and you being in sync so that you recognize what he's doing, and then you step into a moment that he's created where his power is now gonna be at work and you get to participate in that thrill of a lifetime. That's the moment that we're in as a church. And I want to talk about it today because I believe this is your moment. I also know this. I also know that some of you are probably here, and you you go, well, you know, I've I've I know people who've had those kind of experiences where maybe God's answered a prayer really, really clearly, or they've had a miracle happen. And, you know, you might say, like, I believe God still does miracles for other people. I watch it. It's just I can't seem to, I don't know, he's not done that for me. And I I want to invite you into this season right now. I want to invite you into this opportunity because he can work in your life that same way. He can use you in that same way. We can learn together how to operate this way as a whole church, but also as individuals. So that the next time you have a big decision to make, you'll look back on this experience and go, look, oh no, I know how open doors work. I know how God works. I know how to read these situations, I know how to then apply myself in those situations and step through the door because I've missed doors before. I don't know if you have or not. In fact, I'm the kind of person that I've had to learn the hard way because I would I would see a brick wall and paint a doorway on it, and then just put my shoulder into it, you know, and be like, let's just see what happens. And I I've I've broken my shoulder a few times, you know. I'm learning that, you know, God opens the doors and we walk through them. And I think there's a lot of misunderstandings about what this looks like and what this is like. In fact, my first car, okay, first car, 15 years old, I got my first car. Because when in when in my generation, everyone wanted to get their driver's permit the day they turned 15. Anybody in here get your driver's permit the day you turned 15, okay? And look at it, we're all old. Anybody raise their hands, we're we're old, old people, because um, because that's what happens. We we got the the driver's permit like the first day. Um, but and then when I was 16, day I turned 16, I got my license. But I had already had my car because my neighbor bought a piece of junk truck from my parents, and it was all just dilapidated. And and he bought it and he was good with cars. He's like my friend, he was about three years older than me. He fixed the whole thing up new engine, you know, new upholstery, like tires, wheels, uh, shined it up. It was beautiful when he was done with it. And he bought it, I don't know, for like five bucks or something from my parents. And then he put all this money and all this time into it. And then he knew that I really liked this truck. And so when I turned 15, he asked me a question. He said, Do you want to buy this truck from me? And I laughed. I was like, I could never afford to buy that truck from you, dude. I work at Dairy Queen, you know? And and so, by the way, I do have some history with Dairy Queen. I still love Dairy Queen, and I can still put an awesome curl on top of an ice cream cone. And I challenge any one of you to a contest of curling your ice cream cones. But anyway, so I'd made a few bucks at Dairy Queen and I was like, I don't have enough for that though. And he said, Well, I'll sell it to you for this amount. He told me he'd sell me the truck for 1200 bucks, but I knew he had over$2,000 into it and all kinds of time. And I felt like, that's wrong. I can't steal it from you. I can't take from you this, all that money and all that value. And so he said, I'll sell it to you for$1,200. And I said, No, I can't, I can't do it. I won't do it. And so I kind of walked away from the deal. I went home, I told my dad. I'm like, Dad, you're never gonna believe what Mike offered me. And uh he offered me to buy his truck for$1,200. And my dad's like, so what'd you say? And I said, No way, I can't do that. That's like robbing you. My dad grabs me by the shoulder and he's like, What are you doing? You know, like God is trying to bless you. This is what he tells me. God is trying to bless you, you need to receive this. And that I changed my whole view. I remember that like it was yesterday, 15 years old. My dad's like, God is trying to bless you. You need to receive this. That's like a lesson for me in open doors. He God had opened the door, and I was going, why? You know, we do this a lot as Christians, actually, because you look back at your past and you and you try to determine whether you're qualified to step through the door based on your past. And Jesus is going, like, I don't even remember your past. Did you know that? I don't even remember your past. All I see is you now as my child and your glorious future. We gotta learn how to walk through an open door. And today we're gonna do just that. I think again, this is this is important collectively because we're in a space, in a time. I mean, just look around the room. This place is full. Did you park in the parking lot? It's full. I know it. I just know because that's what happens on Sundays. You know, our kids' spaces are full, we're we're full. And then there's three other services besides this. And um, what we know is that we cannot continue to see God reach people like he has been consistently over the last five, six years in this space. And so he's opened a door. We didn't even, we didn't even go after it. It came to us. I got tired of putting my shoulder into the brick and I gave up, and I was like, Lord, okay, I'm gonna stop inventing opportunities then, Lord. If you're not getting what I'm putting down, you know, if you're not picking up what I'm putting down, then I'm just gonna stop. And I'm gonna wait on you, and we're gonna wait on you. And so God brought us an opportunity that we did not go after, it came to us, and now he's asking us to step through the door. And it's a it's a building half a mile down the street. You saw it on the video. It's the answer to all of our prayer requests. And there have been unbelievable amounts of things that God has rearranged and brought to bear and all kinds of conversations, and I'm gonna tell you a few of them today, but I want you to know this is our time. This is the time. And so we believe God is moving us this direction. But I want to talk about how to get through a door based on what scripture says in Joshua chapter three. So if you've got a Bible, grab it. If you've got your notes in your program, grab them out. If you're with us online, take the notes tab there in the app, or uh click the link there in the chat and pull up the notes because we want to walk through how do you get through an open door? Because you're gonna face this in your life. You go into a season and God's like, I got a new job opportunity for you. And you're like, is this from God or is this from the devil? Is did I make this up? Is this gonna be good or is this gonna be bad? You know, or maybe it's a new season. You're like, I've never been in this season before, I don't know what to do. Do I step through the door or don't I? We all need this skill in our individual lives, and we need it collectively. In Joshua chapter three, the nation of Israel needed to figure out how do we get through an open door. They had been wandering around the wilderness for 40 years under the leadership of Moses. He had been the one that led them out of slavery in Egypt. And then they end up in the wilderness for 40 years. And now Moses is dead in Joshua chapter 1, 2, and 3. Moses has already passed off the scene, and now Joshua is the next leader for the nation of Israel. And his job, the reason he got called there by God, was to lead God's people into the promised land. They were not supposed to stay in the wilderness. There was another place for them. A land, as we know, flowing with milk and honey, and it was gonna be a place of abundance. It was the place where God was gonna make them a great nation, it was gonna be a place where then his glory would be made known to the whole world from there. Joshua had a big job. Him and his buddy Caleb were there in Joshua chapter three. And what we see is how to step through an open door. The first thing I want you to write down in your notes is that number one, God is our guide. God is our guide. If you're wondering how to get through an open door, I mean the first and most important thing is to recognize that he has to be the one doing it. He has to be the one opening the door. We have to be following him. There's lots of ways that we can make it seem like a door is open, or we can sort of force our way into something that is man-made or created by us and try to make it seem and you know, a little smoke and mirrors, and this must be from God. But what we see from Scripture is how he clearly says, This is from you. He is our guide. We're following him. And I want you to see in Joshua chapter 3, verse 3 and 4, it says, When you see the Levites, the Livical priests, carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, move out from your positions and follow them. He says, Since you've never traveled this way before, they will guide you. Let me just kind of explain a little bit. So the Israelites had been in the wilderness, now they're right up against the promised land at the border, and they're gonna cross over. The only problem is that the Jordan River is in their way. And the bigger problem is that the Jordan River is in flood stage. And the bigger problem is that there's two million of them. So what would you do? Build a bridge. No, they didn't have that option. Um, and so they were trying to figure out what do we do? And so God says, You're gonna cross the river. Uh, and you're not, you've never been in this situation before. I mean, none of us have, we've never been in that, and so we'd be like, Well, you gotta show us the way, God. And so he goes, Here's what's gonna happen. The priests are gonna take the Ark of the Covenant, and they're gonna go before you, and you're gonna follow them. So the Ark of the Covenant, if you flash back a little bit, was that box, that golden box that was in the tabernacle, the place where God dwelled. Well, he actually dwelt inside the box. According to Scripture, he dwelt between the cherubim, actually. The cherubim were those two angelic figures carved out of gold in at the top of the box. And they were wings kind of came together, and God's presence, it says he dwelt between the cherubim. So when the when the tabernacle filled with God's presence, it was emanating from the Ark of the Covenant. God dwelt with his people through this box, this ark. And inside the ark was the Ten Commandments, was the rod of Aaron, and was the jar of manna that the children ate when they were in the wilderness. Very, very special. And he goes, This ark is gonna go in front of you. So, in other words, you're gonna follow God into this opportunity. And so was we look as a church at this whole thing. It's been extremely confirming to go, we could have never, we could have never invented. We could have never, there's no way that this is circumstance. We could never have created something like God has done in opening up this opportunity for our church to take possession of a much larger space, to make room to continue to reach people in a in a time when God's bringing more people, in a time when everybody is demonstrating this hunger and this thirst for the things of God in our city, in Portland, Oregon. And there's this miraculous move, and it's really encouraging. I put something uh up on the screen for you called the wheel of discouragement. The wheel of discouragement. Um, excuse me, the the the wheel not of discouragement, of discernment. That's the totally different thing, right? It's not the wheel of discouragement. I read my notes wrong. Let's rewind and I'm gonna start that over. You ready? Put something up on the screen for you called the wheel of discernment. How's this? Okay, this is how you know if a door is open, okay? Uh, because it's it's hard. Sometimes you're looking at an opportunity, you're like, I don't know if I'm supposed to do it or not. And here's how five things, real easy. The word of God. Is this opportunity in line with the word of God? Second thing, the the Spirit of God. Does the Spirit give us peace about this opportunity? Third thing, the third thing, counsel, the counsel of godly people around me. Do they, do the people that I trust that that are following Jesus, do they look at this and say, we think that's actually the way that God wants you to go? And how about this one? The circumstances. Do the circumstances confirm? Do they support? Does the door open? You know? And then spiritual unity. Does the body have the sense that this is what God is leading to? And that's why, by the way, that's why it's so important to be in community, because sometimes you could be all by yourself trying to make a decision about whether you date somebody or not, and you're going like, I definitely think I should date this person because they're cute, right? And but if you got in community, they might be like, oh well, yeah, what about these things? Have you checked? Do you know? What is this what you want? Do you want to end up in this circumstance? You know, like the the body of Christ is very important in these things. And we've, as a community, we've been spending a lot of time together, especially with our leaders. Oh my goodness, I've spent so much time with our leaders over the last month. We've had meetings, we've had gatherings, we've had prayer times, we've walked through the building, I've had cups of coffee. I've had so much coffee in the last month. It's probably why I can't say the word discernment. Um I love coffee, and I'm even unsure if I want any more coffee at this moment. Because we because here's the thing, because it's been so important, so important to know. Does the body sense this? By the body, I mean the church, the body of Christ. And so what we're sensing is yes, this is how this is how you discern. And if you like this, if you want to know more about this, we're gonna be doing this in our midweek motivation on our podcast this week, going deep on this wheel. And uh, and I encourage you to check that out. Second thing in your notes, not only is God our guy, but also two, purity matters. Purity matters. Purity matters. Oh man. When the children of Israel were getting ready to cross the Jordan River, that was a big thing that God was gonna do, right? He's gonna do a miracle, he had to do some sort of miracle for that to happen. And what we see in scripture is that purity really matters when God wants to do something great. When God showed up to Moses in the burning bush, first thing he said was, Take off your shoes because you're standing on holy ground. When Isaiah was gonna be the prophet of God and was gonna speak the things of God to the nation of Israel, the angel flew toward him and burned his lips with a hot coal to cleanse them. Because Isaiah had said, I'm a man of unclean lips, and God said, I want to purify your mouth so you can speak my truth. When Jesus came to be our Savior, we are told that he is the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, because only one perfect sacrifice could have paid the price that we incurred, the debt that we incurred. Purity matters so much. And with the nation of Israel, it mattered as well. Look what it says in Joshua chapter 3. It says in verse 4, it says, Stay about a half mile behind them. That's the priest carrying the ark, keeping a clear distance between you and the ark. Make sure and don't come any closer. Wow, that's a strong statement. It says, Then Joshua told the people, Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you. He said, You need to be pure, because tomorrow God's gonna do great wonders among you. And then what Joshua actually told them was, I want you to do this ritual, this very specific ritual. It's gonna be you you you bathe, you wash your clothes, you abstain from sexual immorality, and you also clean up your relationships. So it was this 360-degree purity ceremony that they were gonna do. Because Joshua was being told by God, you need to purify the nation of Israel because I'm gonna do some special things. Those two things go together. When God wants to move in power, he does that through people who were ready. And that's really important for all of us to recognize because it applies to us individually. In Exodus chapter 19, when Moses was at the top of the mountain, he's gonna come down with the Ten Commandments. God tells him this He said, Go down and prepare the people for my arrival. We learn it's the exact same ritual, the exact same ceremony that Moses was asked to lead the people into, that now Joshua is being asked to lead the people into. Because once again, God is saying, I want the people to be ready. Paul says in the New Testament, he says in 2 Timothy chapter 2, he says, You are to be a vessel for the Lord to use so that he can do noble things through you. A pure, clean vessel. And this is something that God's always cared deeply about. Yes, we are in the age of grace. Thank God for his grace, right? Where his blood has covered our sins, and we are no longer held hostage to who we were. Our past, our present, and our future sins have been paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. Our standing with God does not depend on our behavior, but our fellowship with God does. And so we can put a block in our relationship with God by simply disobeying. And it might be that in a time like this, when God's gonna do miracles among us, that he's calling us to say, purify yourselves. Because tomorrow I'm gonna do great things among you. And he just has decided that he will work through clean vessels. That's what he's decided. And so I want to beg you, my friends, to join me in examining our lives and being upfront about it. If you're a follower of Jesus here today, his Holy Spirit is in you. And let's ask God to convict us of things that need to go. I mean, Paul said this. He said, When I was a child, I acted like a child. He said, Now I'm a man, I put away childish things. He outgrew those seasons of rebellion in his life. And is there anything in my life, in your life, that needs to go? Because here's the thing that scares me a little is that what if what if we're not ready? What if we became not ready? What if we decided we're not gonna be ready, we're not gonna go through the door, we're not gonna surrender all of our lives to Jesus so he could use us. I don't want to be holding back our church. And I don't want anyone to hold back our church. Let's together say, just like the children of Israel, we're gonna purify ourselves because tomorrow God is gonna do wonderful, miraculous things through us. That's what he wants to do. There's this lady, mom, who had a child and she was having trouble. He was a teenager, and he was just always giving her grief about this show that he wanted to watch, which happened to have some profanity and maybe a little bit of inappropriate scenes in it. And so she was always just a little uncomfortable with what he was watching, and one day she decided she was gonna lay it down for him. She's like, hey, no more of that show. Sorry, you can't watch it anymore. And he, of course, you know, had a heart attack and flopped on the floor, and you know, it was a big deal. Like his life was ending because he can't watch the show, right? So he's putting up all the all the you know defenses and and and trying to you know make a case for why he should watch the show. It's only a little bit of profanity, mom. Come on! All my friends watch this. It's not I'm not gonna turn into an axe murderer if I watch this show, you know. Just like, let me watch the show. And eventually, you know, they had fought about this a lot. And he's like, it's just a little bit of profanity. So one day he comes from home from school and he plops his backpack on the counter and he notices that his mom is making brownies. And she says to him, Want some brownies? And he's like, Yeah. In a way, he's like, I must have really won this battle because now mom's giving me brownies. Like, I got her in the palm of my hand right now. And so she goes, Great, can I get your help making the brownies? Sure. So she said, Great, would you go out into the yard and I want you to go in the backyard and I just want you to find just a little bit of poop. Just a little bit. And he's like, Why? She says, because we're gonna put it in the brownies. He goes, Mom, that's disgusting. And she goes, No, no, I'm just a little bit of poop. Just a little bit, not that much. You probably barely taste it. And he's like, Mom, that's disgusting. And he gets the point. Right? The point. A little bit of poop goes a long way, right? Um, hey, listen, there's no place for poop in the Church of Jesus, okay? Um, let's get rid of it. Let's leave it behind. Let's purify ourselves because tomorrow the Lord is going to do wonderful things among us. In in John Dunn's writings, he says, No man is an island unto himself. It's not like whatever you do doesn't affect me, and whatever I do doesn't affect you. We're a body. That's what Jesus says. And so let's, as a body, prepare ourselves for a very special season ahead. Number three in your notes leaders go first. Leaders go first. This is what we see in Joshua chapter three. It's what we see here right now. It's what's happening in our church, and I'm thrilled about it. Simon Sinek in his book, Leaders Eat Last, he's talking about a military mess hall where leaders eat after their team. Leaders let their team eat first. But what we see in scripture is leaders go first when it comes to sacrifice. Simon Sinek says the true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. In fact, one of the things I see happening right now is not only are our church leaders doing this, but leaders from the community are doing this in the space that we're looking at. Let me show you an example. I met somebody this week. Uh named Olympia. Here's a picture of her and me. She's a little bit taller than me. And actually, she's like bending way down for this picture. So it was kind of a fun moment. She is a 10-season WNBA player who was on two championship teams, and she's now leading two programs a week out of the full gym that's in that building over there. And she's doing these outreach programs for youth. And she asked me, she goes, Do you think, do you think if you get the building, do you think that we could keep doing this kind of outreach here? And I'm like, Well, we're not really interested in community outreach or any kind of serving in the community, so probably. No, I was like, are you kidding me? These are the dreams we've had that we can't fulfill. And we would love to partner with projects like that. Did you know there's another program that's also meeting in that same gym once a week, led by uh a group of people that care deeply about youth as well, and they're doing the same thing? There's all sorts of opportunity here for us. But you know what? Uh, both in Olympia's case and in Mitch uh Mitz's case, these people are funding even the programs out of their own pocket. Because what happens? Leaders go first. And that's how God gets stuff done. Look what happens in Joshua chapter 3, verses 12 and 13. It says, Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. It says, The priests will carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of the water will be cut off upstream. The river will stand up like a wall. Okay, so what's going on is these people are standing there looking at this flooded river, going, like, how are we supposed to get two million people across this thing? And God's like, easy. The priests will carry the ark over to the edge and put their feet in the water. And you're like, I don't get it. What's the connection? And he goes, No, no. At the town of Adam, the water's gonna stop, it's gonna stand up like a wall, and all that other water is gonna flow down, and now two million people are gonna walk safely across on dry ground. But the but what has to happen? The priests have to. They're holding the box that has the presence of God in it that's made out of gold. I don't know how slippery it was, but this must have been a very terrifying moment, knowing that if they mishandled this moment, they could be dead. If not from God striking them dead, then from sinking into the mud. So they have to take the risk and obey. And what happens when they do is that um indeed God parts the Jordan River. Absolutely amazing. And they walk across on dry ground because the leaders decided that they would lead the way and they would go first. And that's what's happening in our church right now. As a matter of fact, um, as you might see, I want to show you what's in your pro what your program cover today. You might have seen this. Some of you were here last week. We introduced this last week, but if you didn't see this, I want you to see it. Inside is information about what's going on in our church, and on the back, there's um a kind of chart of what this probably looks like for us to succeed in bringing$750,000 above and beyond our normal giving back to God over the next 12 months. Because that's what it will take to secure the building, make it usable, and move in.$750,000. And so uh what we're doing is we're saying, let's as a church pray about how God wants to use us individually and come together and make commitments so that we'll know how are we gonna achieve this goal. We've obviously gone first to the leaders, and our leaders know. And in fact, I've started asking the leaders, not not all of, not everybody, but the leaders who've had time to process, hey, share with us what your goal is here so that we'll know. 31 households have reported back of what God's leading them to do. And out of those 31 households, we are at 32% of the goal of$750,000. 31 households, and I think that deserves a round of applause for those leaders who are going first. That is only a fraction of the leaders in our church and a tiny fraction of our church. And so it's exciting to think this train is moving, this ship is gonna sail, this door is open, we are gonna go through this door, and I don't want anyone to miss out because that's such an important part of our journey. Because we're gonna cross over, just like the children of Israel crossed over. And they they received then all the blessings that God had for them. God has more ministry in front of each one of us, and we get to experience what that looks like. But number four in your notes is this is nobody stays behind. Nobody stays behind. Nobody stays behind. Because God doesn't want to leave any of us in the dust. And I'm not just talking about a building here, I'm talking about what God does and how he does it because he grows our faith as we step out in faith. He uses us in ways that seem scary. I'm sure the priests were like, You mean I'm gonna stand at the edge of that river and I'm gonna put my foot in. What if I slip? And God's like, You aren't you're not gonna slip. I got this. You just obey. How do I know that when I put my foot in the water, you're gonna back up the water like you said? Some of these leaders are like, How do I know that this number that I put down on this card that God's gonna provide that so that I can give that generously? And God's saying, I'll do it. I always do it. I always do it. That's what we learn when we step out in faith is he's so faithful. And so nobody stays behind because we want everybody's fingerprints on this, but more than that, we want everybody to grow in faith through this process. I want to grow in faith. I already have started to grow in faith through this process because this has been a doozy of an opportunity, and it's been so fun. We're by the way, having seek nights in the space that we're talking about. What that is, is just one hour on Wednesday nights through the month of May where we're just getting together to pray in the space, just to seek the Lord. And if some of you would like to, anybody can come. It's Wednesday night, you can just check the box on the card, or just show up next to Crunch Fitness in Aloha on Wednesday at seven. And we are just there's no program, there's no music, there's nothing fancy, we're just getting there to pray and seek the Lord. And it's how we're experiencing this move of God is by being in his presence. Um in Joshua chapter 3, verse 17, it says this it says, they waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground. They waited there in the middle of the river. The priest had to stand in the middle of the river with the ark, until two million people went by. How long do you think that took? How tired do you think they were? I mean, do you think anybody came over, like, let me hold your arm up for a second? Probably. But here's the interesting thing. They waited until everybody passed by. And do you remember what he said? He said, Purify yourselves, because tomorrow the Lord is gonna do something great among you. You know why God said to purify themselves? Remember when he said, stay a half mile away from the ark? And then he said, But purify yourselves, because tomorrow I'm gonna do something great. Well, every one of those two million people had to walk right past the ark, not a half mile away, but right next to it. You know what miracle moments do is they put you right in the presence of God. That's where the magic happens. It's where your soul changes, it's where you realize how great he is. You fall in love again with this Jesus who's given everything for you and provides every step of the way, and the God who never fails on his promises. And you meet him in such a personal and intimate way in these moments, he's walking us right through his presence. And he's going, I've made you worthy to be in my presence. That's the that's the greatest miracle of all. And I I truly don't want anyone to be left behind in this moment. When Melissa and I got married, we got married on July 15th of 1995. In fact, uh, so we're gonna celebrate our 31st anniversary this year. And we uh on July 15th was a Saturday, it was about 400 degrees outside when we got married, and uh we got married here at this church. And uh the next day, Sunday, we flew to San Francisco for our honeymoon. And we went to San Francisco because it was the only place we could go with$44 round trip tickets. I remember that. We go to San Francisco for three days, and uh we get there, we stayed at the Hotel King George, which was not a fancy place, but it was in Union Square downtown, and we actually got to go back there last year for our 30th anniversary and stay in the very same hotel, and it was very special. But my favorite thing of our honeymoon uh in San Francisco was the trolley car, getting on the trolley car. And the way it worked was that it was very full to start with. So everybody said, get on the trolley car, and we see this full trolley car. We're like, get on the trolley car, it's already full. And they said, Oh no, they'll make room. So we go up to the trolley car and people start magically squeezing in even more. And so people are getting on, more people are getting on, and then we're standing there like we couldn't possibly fit. And they go, no, no, keep going. So they keep moving in, and Melissa gets on, and they stopped moving. And so she's she's sort of hanging on to the edge a little bit, which was kind of freaky. Um, so she's like on the edge because I'm looking at it, going like, now where am I supposed to go? So I I put my foot just barely on the step, and then I reach way in and I grab the rail, you know, and I'm kind of doing this around Melissa, and the trolley car starts to go. And then I noticed there's a telephone pole coming my way right now. And I'm like, what am I supposed to do? And and so everybody just everybody just did the thing that I guess they just noted it, everybody got kind of probably just sucked in a little bit, and it just gave just enough room. That telephone pole just nicked my butt going by. And it was one of those moments where it's like, we got on the trolley car. Listen, I don't care how you get on the train, but get on the train. I don't want anyone to miss this opportunity. God is about to do wonders among us, and it's our time. Would you bow your heads with me? Father, we thank you that you work in human beings' lives. Wow. Thank you that you don't leave us alone, you don't leave us off on our own, but God, you indwell your followers with your spirit and you guide us and you purify us and you send us. And Lord, I pray that we'd all make this journey, that we could all taste and see that you're good because we get to partner with you on something. So amazing. But I pray for my brothers and sisters who are watching online right now or in this room, and as we talked about being purified, maybe there was something that you were convicting them of. Maybe you're here and God just touched your heart. He just whispered in your ear when we were talking about what it means to be purified, and you realized all of a sudden there's something that needs to go in your life. A sinful activity that you need to let go of. If you're a follower of Jesus, you need to let it go. Like Paul say, that's that was the old me. That was the childish me. God, I'm releasing that to you. I'm gonna leave that right here today. I'm gonna walk forward in freedom and in purity, ready to be used by you. You know what God says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thank God for his cleansing. God, we give you those old ways and we pick up your new ways. Ready to walk forward into a miracle moment, to step through a door that you've so clearly opened. God, teach us to do this every day of our lives in every kind of situation you bring our way, to know what kind of a door is open and how we step through it. Lord, I pray for those who are here online or here in this room today and have never yet started their relationship with you. They don't know you as Savior, they don't know you as provider, they don't know you as the miracle maker, they don't know you as the one who's washed away their sins completely, past, present, future, gone, as far as the east is from the West. They don't know you as the one that's slit out the chair at your table and put a name tag there for them. They don't know you as the one that's never gonna leave them or forsake them. And so today, if that's where you are, I want to invite you to know the Jesus that that I know, who has come into my life, who's changing my life and answering my prayers. That he could be your friend like he's my friend, that he could be your guide like he's my guide. Because he's offered this to everybody who asks. So I want to invite you, right where you're at, just to just to tell him that you're ready to say yes. You can say these words back to him in your mind and heart. Say, Jesus, I give you my life. Thank you for saving me. I believe in you. Your life, your death on the cross, and your resurrection. Forgive me of my sins, fill me with your Holy Spirit, lead me and teach me to follow you. And I ask it in Jesus' name.