Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Good morning.
Hey, hey, hey. Lord Jesus.
Father, in this next time together, Father, I pray.
The words that I say would be useful, father, that your spirit would do something really real among us this morning, through your word, all of my wonderful friends in rediscover church said amen. Hurrah. Good morning. Good morning. Now.
It's wonderful to get to stand here and to see everybody's faces. Lots of faces. I know.
I also, there's lots of faces that I don't know yet. A very warm welcome to you too. Those people who do know me. I was on staff here for maybe five or six years.
Loved that. This last year I haven't been here so much because I've been setting up new business things.
But it's really lovely to be back. It's really lovely to be back. And yeah, Small ripple of spontaneous applause. Yes, that's cool.
For those of you who don't know who I am, here are a couple of quick des fun facts, which Sean spoiled the first one. As well as Jesus and my wonderful family, I also love Newcastle United.
My favorite food. Well, my most exciting food I've ever eaten is fried chicken. Birthday cake.
On my birthday this year, the guys came to the door, I wasn't feeling very well. And that was like the best birthday present ever, ever, ever, ever. You need to be their friend.
It's wonderful. Right? Another des fun fact. What else have I got? My midlife crisis.
I got my own personal number plate.
I'm just putting it out there. NU09, Newcastle United, number nine.
Des. That's Alan Shearer.
Sorry, just putting it out there now. Okay.
You will be getting to know me a bit more as the thing goes on. Let's get a little bit deeper. Other things about me, my favorite scripture.
Okay. I don't know if I've got this on screen or not. If we've got. Okay, this is my favorite scripture. You're getting to know me a bit more now. I love it when some people think this scripture was a bit of a cop out. I think this is the most faith filled.
It gets me every time. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego about to get thrown in there, they look at the king. If we are thrown into the fire, our God whom we serve is able to save us from it. Absolutely. And he will save us from your hand, O King. But even if he does not, we want you to know, king, we ain't serving your gods or worship the object of gold that you've set up. That's my favorite scripture. Love it. Okay. Moving on. Someone else, a bit vulnerable. About me, my legacy.
If I had a legacy, I would love people to remember me as someone who encouraged them to be brave.
That's what I'd really love some of you to remember me with.
I also love. Can I get a drum roll? On your knees. I also love Poppy, my cat.
I love Poppy.
Oh, I love Poppy.
Why am I telling you all these things about about me? Well, we're going to be exploring the screen that came up first. The question today is, what's your story?
What's your story?
And at different points today, we'll be exploring some of our stories and we'll be taking a pause and I'll be asking you, what's your story?
Awkward pauses. I'm cool with awkward pauses, but we'll be having some of those today. Okay.
I would love us to get 1 Peter 3 up on the screen. 1 Peter 3.
If you've never read the book 1 Peter, it's like four pages long or something. It's great. Loads of fantastic stuff in there. And we're going to start just before the way he dresses our stories. Can we read this together?
Finally? All of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tender hearted and keep a humble attitude.
Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do. And he will grant you his blessing.
For the scriptures say, if you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies, turn away from evil and do good.
Search for peace and work to maintain it.
The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right and his ears to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.
Now, who will want to harm you? If you are eager to do good, but even if you suffer for what is doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don't worry and don't be afraid of the threats.
Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.
And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.
But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Can we just keep that on screen, please? That last one, Brilliant.
Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. If someone asks you about the hope you have as a believer in Jesus, always be ready to explain it.
Now, I know that some of you because we've been getting into this apest thing, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, that's for the evangelists.
I'm alright with that stuff. That's for the evangelists.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Wrong.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: In Jesus, we all have hope, all of us.
And if someone asks us about our hope as a believer, we need to be ready to explain it and to give an account for it.
Some of you I know, you know, Justin and Rick, they're probably sitting there going, come on. And some of us maybe sat there thinking, oh, okay then.
Okay then. So we'll move through. But here's the rules. Here are the rules. Next slide.
This is from 2 Peter.
This is a fundamental rule. We don't need to embellish anything. Let's not be naughty with our stories. Christ stands for who he is and what he's done in our life stands. We did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. No cleverly devised stories. Right? That's the rules. Just the truth.
Okay, you will find out a little bit about me later on as I tell you a bit more of my story.
We have some special guests.
Could the staff, the volunteers, and everybody that is here from Dio Gloria coffee shop come and join me on stage to rapturous applause.
Come on, we can be louder than that. Guys, come join me.
Yes.
We have Tilly, we have Sam, we have Wes, we have Heidi, and we have Emma.
Hello.
Now, some of you who've joined us in the last year won't even have a clue. Could we put the Dio Gloria slide on, please? You won't even have a clue what Dio Gloria is.
Well, God gave us a vision as part of the Newton Abbott plant. You look scared, Sam. I promise I won't.
As part of the Newton Abbott plant, we really believed that God wanted a voice on the high street. So we bought a building that was falling down and it was rubble. It was awful, wasn't it?
But there was faith.
It didn't open for a little while because we were having trouble with different authorities. And we were even told in the middle of the shop, Phil and Mark and I were told, you will not open a coffee shop here. This place will not open.
God said otherwise. God said otherwise. We went to a different building control. We got London building control involved. And a really long story short, we're open.
We're open.
And they sell that stuff, which is really quite wonderful to eat.
It really is. And I brought these guys up as part of the message. This Morning. Because the last scripture at the end, can we bring that back up again before that?
There we go.
So in the coffee shop, we don't. We don't stand there with placards saying, jesus is Lord, the end is nigh, any of that stuff. Although some people who do that, if God's asked them to do that, great, wonderful.
We operate much more out of here.
If someone asks us about our hope as a believer, be ready to give an account for it.
Tilly, how's that working out?
So we don't preach it. People, does anybody ask about a hope as a believer? Tell us what's going on. Give us a couple of examples.
[00:11:39] Speaker C: Hello, everyone.
Hello.
So Day of Glory is an amazing space. And when we first opened, people would come in and they'd always come with expectations and ideas, and they would come and say, is this part of a community? That was always the line, and that is the perfect way to open up and say, well, it's owned by our church. This is our link. There's a church in Newton Abbot. There's a church Exeter. This is what we do. This is what we believe. And it was such an amazing way to just go out there and literally speak about Jesus in a coffee shop. That is the only difference we have from things like Starbucks from Costa, is that we have Jesus with us. And we're able to share that so easily just by people asking.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Amazing.
Some days when you go, you go to the high street in New Nabba and we're just off there.
The coffee shop that's full often isn't your big names, It's Dio Gloria. Right. And has there been. Let's encourage the church. Have people asked, how has God worked through it?
[00:12:42] Speaker C: I would say every day we have two or three people who come up and ask questions. And they're not empty questions. We've had at least two people now who are regular comers of our church in Newton Abbott who were nothing. They were nothing in Christ. As in, no, that's wrong. As in, they didn't believe in Christ. But they came into the coffee shop, just asked this one lady, she came and said, oh, I've got kids. I don't know what to do with them on a Sunday. We're like, hey, you can come to church. You do Discoveryland now. She's part of our church every day. She's given her life to Jesus. And that's just one example of so many.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: And there was a story, there was a lady from another faith came in. Is that right? And just asked the Same question. What is it about you guys?
Tilly, there was a guy who came in who just been diagnosed with cancer. Is that right? What happened with him?
[00:13:34] Speaker C: So we have another lovely guy who works with us. He's called Joe. He's now a bus driver. But when he used to work with us, he just served. This old gentleman said, how are you doing? He just went, yeah, I'll have an Americana. And that was that. And Joe just felt like he just had to go up to this guy and he just went, yeah, here you go. Here's your Americana. You're doing all right. And he says nothing. He just looks at Joe and goes, I've got cancer. You don't do that. You don't go into a coffee shop and just say to the person serving you, I've got cancer. But we feel like Deo Gloria is a space where people can come, can talk about that. There's such a God environment in there, the Holy Spirit is in there, that people can come and share that with us. And through that, Joe was able to pray for him, to invite him to church. And it's things like that. And it's so amazing to see what God is doing in that place.
[00:14:19] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: God is working in that place, right?
Those of you who know me, I do get emotional sometimes. Just bear with me if I do.
This place isn't thriving, right, because there's some magic formula. This place is thriving, right, because a bunch of kids who are full of the light of Jesus, right, are standing there and Christ lives in them. And people are coming to them and they're saying, what is different about this place? What is different about you?
Where. What other coffee shop does somebody walk in and say, I've got cancer. Can you pray for me?
It's just wonderful.
So part of our encouragement today is you might be there feeling, you know, you look at Tilly.
Hello, Tilly. Tilly is a wonderful, precious, amazing lass who's come from Albania with English as a second language, who's brave enough to stand there for Jesus. And God's using that on a high street in England.
Two things. Yeah, two things I'd love us to do.
First of all, can you remember these guys in your prayers?
Pray for strength for them, for courage, and that God would really use them and use that space.
Secondly, if you've never been, would you go bring a friend? It's a great coffee shop. Great coffee.
It's great coffee.
And the third thing, as these guys leave the stage, will you give them the biggest, most encouraging round of applause? You Possibly can guys love it. Thank you. Thank you, guys.
Amazing.
So proud of you. So proud of you.
Okay, a little bit more about my story. I'm just looking at the time.
Just looking at the time.
Some of our stories, our stories in God, we maybe think that they have more value or more potency when the stories go by the script.
When the stories go by the script. Like one quick story I could tell you.
Years ago, I packed in my job because I really felt that God was calling me to be full time playing drums in a band, which I did for 12 years, toured the world and all that. It was really cool. But to start with, we had no money, like nothing, Nothing at all. And Rachel and I, my wife Rachel, we prayed one night because we really wanted to honor God. This has only ever happened once to me. We just said, Lord. The biggest strain on our finances was a car loan that Rachel had took out before we met.
And within three days, a check came through the door. This has only ever happened once to me for about a difference of about 20 pounds from somebody I knew years ago, three or four years ago, beautiful couple, William and Karen made out to me for the amount that we owed on the car finance. So God, you know, Jehovah Jireh provided for me there. That's a story of hope in my life that I can tell other people.
We celebrate when it goes by the script, and we do. Thank you, God. Here's another story about when I was in the band.
This is between Sam, he was. That's my boy there, Sam. And Oliver, my second. My second boy who was playing the drums today. Yes, I love them so much.
I was away with the band one weekend and I was abroad, I was overseas and Rachel was pregnant. I can't remember how many months Rich was.
And I had a phone call from Rach and Rich was losing the baby at home and she was by herself.
And we ended up. We lost the baby. And I couldn't do any of that. Couldn't get home. Couldn't get home.
Oh, man, it was tough.
It was tough.
But there's hope in all things. In all things, there is hope. And then the next year, maybe eight or nine months later, Rachel's pregnant again.
This is Oliver. Oliver was in there. That was his first house instead of Rachel. And I was away again. And Rachel's body started doing similar things to what it had done the year previously. And I was away again. And I was at the Psalm Drummers Conference in London. I was playing the drums and, oh, I just started to weep and Cry. And I went and sat at the side of the stage. I was doing a seminar later on and I was crying and wailing. I was like, God, what is going on here? What is going on here?
Guy Kim sat next to me. Guy came and sat next to me.
He started crying as well. Two of us sat there just crying. And he said, I know this is a real big one, I know this is out there, but I really feel I need to tell you that your little boy's gonna be alright.
So we cried a bit more.
And that was Oliver.
I don't know why we had the experience we did the year before. I don't know why that happened. I don't know. But there's hope. There's real hope. And God reminded me the year after that, he just. He knows. He knows us.
He knows us. That's part of my story. That's part of my story.
Steve and Aaron, would you mind joining me to more spontaneous, rapturous applause?
We love you, Steve.
We're gonna just have a chat. I know time's ticking on. Time's ticking on, so. But these guys have got amazing stories.
The wonderful Steve Dunn. We all know Steve. Aaron. Aaron is Steve's son and my pal.
Steve, Someone prophesied something to you years ago. What was that? Tell me the start of your story.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Well, yeah, funnily enough, years ago, I was in a prayer meeting and someone came over to me and out loud prophesied, steve, the Lord says to you, you are going to preach the gospel to millions of people.
So I'm saying, yes, yes. And inside, I'm thinking you're joking. I mean, where do we meet first? You know, the Albert Hall, Wembley Stadium.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: Okay. So that you just kind of put that on the shelf for a little while because that would be a story of hope. Right? Wow.
The next thing, one of the next things in your life that happened, I guess, didn't feel like an amazing story of things going by the script.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I did put that. I didn't despise that prophecy. I just put it on the back burner and said, God, that's up to you. And then back in 1993, on a Wednesday night, we just said good night to our home group and I was going to watch Manchester United play Galatasaray in a European Cup. I was going to put my feet up and there was a knock on the door and there was a police officer standing there and he came in and to cut a long story short, he said, your brother, who is PC Patrick Dunn, in the Met police in Clapham. There's been an incident at 9 o'clock this evening and sadly, he's been shot dead.
And before the shock set in when the police officer left, Joy and I prayed together. We prayed two things. First of all, we prayed, lord, whoever has done this awful thing, we just pray we choose to forgive them. We choose to forgive them.
And secondly, we prayed for something good to come out of this awful situation.
And basically, once the press got to hear about forgiveness and how I forgave, I had the press, I had tv, churches, prisons, you name it, I had newspapers phoning me up and for, well, years. And it's still happening. It may be still happening tonight. But I remember being on the first television program and saying how and why I can forgive.
And I asked the producer after, how many people do you think were watching that program? She said, 2 million people would have been watching that program.
And also got to know the Home Secretary, Michael Howard. Whatever you think of Michael Howard, he actually got Aaron some work experience in the Home office. Sort of got to know him, you know, but also was able to share with him. I gave him a book about a guy who had been around all the prisons in England getting testimonies of prisoners that become Christians and how their lives had changed. About six months later, I read in the Daily Telegraph, St. Michael, tongue in cheek, St. Michael sends his angels into prisons. You know, he was encouraging groups of Christians to go into prisons. So, you know, you just never know what may come from awful situations.
You listen to prophecies, you may put them on the back burner, but God opened an amazing door to share the gospel with literally millions of people. And that's not because of who I am, it's just because of what he did and just being available to share the hope that's within us.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Amazing.
Our story when it's intertwined with his story. Because you can't separate the two when you know Jesus, they're both together.
Christ can bring hope and a future out of every single situation.
Everything, everything.
Steve's story is seen by Aaron and probably many other stories, right? You see the good, the bad and the ugly. But we passed. Just as Aaron's life is connected with Jesus, I hope my children see that in me. You know, the stories that we pass on, wonderful story of hope because similarly, you didn't receive enormously wonderful news about a year and a half ago, right? Just. Could you tell us about that, Aaron?
[00:26:18] Speaker D: Yeah, so, yeah, my name is Aaron, so I'm married to Katie. We've got our son Noah here as well. So we live up in Taunton. We're part of a church called Living Light up there. And yeah, so very end of 2023, I went in for an operation. Very minor. It was general anaesthetic, but they were like, come in in the morning, probably by early afternoon, really simple.
And then kind of started to get a few letters about, you know, we want to check this out. And then it was actually about a year ago this week or last week, ish, something like that. I had an appointment with them and they said, actually everything from the original operation is going okay, but we did an MRI scan and we found out there's something inside you and not. We're not particularly happy about. And about a year ago, I was being told that I had cancer.
And the. They said they'd caught it early, but it was. It was diagnosed as cancer. And they were saying, you know, what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to remove quite a large part of your digestive system. We're then going to have to put you on radiotherapy, chemotherapy, all that sort of stuff, which was pretty unpleasant to have the news. When we first got the news, it was a bit of an interesting one because I didn't feel too much shock. Katie, my wife, was quite upset by it, and they gave us a little bit of time. Interestingly, in that department, in that. In that department that when we were in there giving us news, there's actually 11 people from our church work in that department, which is hilarious. Anyway.
And I said to Katie, I said, you know, I said, the funny thing is, God told me yesterday, it's not the sort of thing I wanted to go and sort of just say instantly, hey, this is, you know, by the way, God just dropped this in. He said to me yesterday, he said, tomorrow they're going to tell you that you've got cancer, but it's going to be okay. And I was like, okay, I'll just. I'll just hold on to that one.
And I could share that with Katie in the moment. And so we went home from that and it was pretty shocking. We were kind of processing, and the first thing that we did. I think a lot of this comes from what, you know, from what dad and Mum demonstrated when they got their news, as we said, okay, God, this is over to you. This is over to you. We said, you know, whatever you need to do through this, if this is that you want to have a healing because you want to cause confusion in that department and cause conversations to Happen, we're okay with that. If you want to use this for any other way, that's okay. But, God, we are giving this over to you.
We had, I felt at one point, so me, my wife, we lived in Canada in 20, 19, 20, 20, and I suddenly started feeling like, oh, actually, do you know, I think we should take. I think we should take communion together. And that day, somebody from Canada and one of our friends over there said, just text me and said, hey, I know what, I know what you guys are going through. Have you thought about taking communion together every day? So we took communion every day together for. We must have taken it 150, 160 times, something like that. We got through a lot of bread anyway, and.
Yeah, and so we kind of felt like that we. We were praying every day. Every day. Funnily enough, actually, Des and I, we probably go back. I don't know, we probably first met nearly 20 years ago, something like that. So when Des was touring with his band, I was full time playing bass, touring with another band. And we kind of crossed paths a few times. And then there's one time when we were actually here at this church in your other building. And. And there was one of those moments where people said, do you need any prayer? And I put my hand up and there's Des standing behind me at that moment, which is amazing. Anyway, and so we're praying. God then spoke to us and said, where are you putting your faith? And I said, well, God, I'm putting my faith. And we are putting our faith in the fact that you will heal. It says that you will heal. And God said, actually, where are you putting your faith?
And the thing that really kind of God really spoke to me was, you know, actually in that moment, if we are saying to God, okay, God, here's my problem, here's my solution. Now off you go and do it.
Ultimately and probably subconsciously in that moment, we're actually saying, God, you actually serve me in that moment. This is my plan, not your plan.
And God said, actually, your faith should be rooted and is rooted. The fact that God is good and actually his whatever. However this plays out, God's plans are perfect. And God is a good God whether you get healed or whether you don't get healed, God is good through everything that he does.
Amazingly, they removed the tumor. It got taken off to the histology department in Taunton. It then got sent off to a specialist cancer lab somewhere else in Southampton, I think it was. There should have been a two week turnaround on that.
And they ended up keeping it for two months before we got any results back because they said, this is people who are consultant level and above. Basically, they kept it and they tested it and retested it and retested it because they were saying they've never seen anything that looked like that that wasn't cancer.
Which is amazing. I mean. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's incredible, you know, and actually the healing and genuinely is a medically verifiable healing, because there was cancer and then there wasn't. And that is amazing. You know, that is. That is absolutely incredible. But the biggest bit of story for us alongside that is actually where we have now placed our faith, which is, you know, it's very easy to be like the.
Have the verse in your mind, all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord. But good doesn't mean easy. So good means that you will face trials, but they'll be good. There will be a good purpose in it and an expand from that. I'm going to stop talking because there's a lot more to that, but here you go.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing.
And it does actually, in one Peter, earlier on there, it talks about the sufferings, but then how the suffering, it builds our faith and develops our faith, which then brings more glory to God.
Now, I know there are so many stories here and some have resonated with the forgiveness and then with the healing. And I know you see, healing's a big one. I know there are people here today where the healing hasn't happened yet.
I know there are people today who have struggled with cancer for years.
My story, before I kind of met Jesus, my mum.
My mum, Norma Minto, wonderful. My mother writes, he was one of those where she would light a room up. Honestly, she'd walk in a room and, like, the room felt better when she was in it. She was amazing woman, Amazing woman.
And when I was 14, she got the call as well. You know, she actually. So my mom had a brain tumor.
We prayed for my mum for two years.
I didn't really know Jesus then. You know, I was. I'm not quite sure who I was praying to because I guess I must have really had a faith in him. My dad had a strong faith. My sister, you know, the prayer that went in my mum's faith was amazing.
And my story didn't go by the same script as Aaron's. It didn't. My mum died when I was 16.
So here's the thing.
Does my story not apply?
Would we be able to get that scripture back on screen because this is where all of us are. We all have different stories and we're encouraged.
If someone asks you about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. And same Jesus, same faith, different story.
Where's the hope?
Well, in my life, you know, I don't understand everything. Just like I don't understand what happened with the baby. I know there are others of us who've lost babies as well.
One of the things God did in my life, when I gave my life to him and I responded to his ultimate story of salvation is inside me. He has developed. I have no fear of death.
I don't fear it.
I don't what Jesus has done for me. I know you know, I know where my mum is. I know where she is.
And with healings, you know, by your stripes, we are healed. I know we're healed. We're restored. We're all going to heaven. We're ultimately restored. Right? Some of us are healed on this earth as well. Do I still pray for healing? Last week I went out. Anybody here? Last week, you know, when I asked for healing for my foot, no pain all week this week, it's been amazing. Like, amazing, amazing.
But my mum and then your story, and then it's like, where's the hope? Well, we all have hope in Jesus. We all have hope in Him. What time is it? Five past.
I'm going to ask some friends of mine. I'm cutting one of my stories. I've got some friends of mine who are going to join us. Would you guys mind staying here as well? Guys, I just got some friends who have some stories of hope. They're going to come and join us.
Everyone in this room's story is different.
Every one of our stories is different.
And I believe that God can work every single story for those in Christ Jesus to be a story of hope. I believe that with all my heart.
With all my heart. Guys, if you could hold those up, that would be amazing.
Could we come across a little bit to let everybody up here? Hold them up nice and high, guy. Nice and clear.
Come, come through. Come through, come through. Feel free to stand here as well. Everybody on the front. Thanks, Rachel.
Brilliant, guys.
Fantastic. Coin gets. Guys, get them now. I'm telling you. I know from these people on stage there are stories of hope that have come out of miracle babies that we didn't know were going to come.
Dark times.
Some did go by the script, like Aaron's story. Some told he went by the script. Praise God for that.
As you look at these, what's your story?
What's your story? Because we've all got one.
Okay?
Now with the guys on stage. And please, right, don't interpret my tears as someone who's trying to manipulate you. I'm not. I'm someone who is hugely grateful to Jesus for what he's done in my life.
I promise you, I'm not hyping you or manipulating you with any of this.
But I believe that we've all got a story, every single one of you.
And your stories can bring light and bring hope and freedom to those in your world.
Here's the ultimate story, because with the scripture, can we get the.
Go back to one Peter, just that encouragement of having a story ready.
If someone asks you about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.
One of the hardest things I had to take on the chin years ago, and it's really helped me. It's really helped me. But it stung in the moment.
Someone just questioned me when there was something in my life that wasn't right with God. And someone said, do you know him, Des? Do you know him?
Do you know Jesus? Do you know him?
Like, who do you think you are? Did you not see me playing drums? No. Do you know him?
There are lots of ways that we can give the ultimate story of hope. There's the four points, which explains the gospel cards that some people carry around with them. Great. If that's helpful and that helps you, great.
I would ask you, do you know him?
Because to know Jesus, it's there. It's ready. It's on your tongue. I know Rachel. I don't need a pamphlet to help me to explain who Rachel is. I know her.
I know her.
Do you know him?
If there's anyone here today who doesn't know him, he has the ultimate story of hope. Right?
There's no music in the background, just words. Here's the story of hope.
We turn our back on God.
We turn our back on God, and there's this thing called sin. You know, the stuff that we do. We.
We were separated from him. We were designed to be in communion with him. We're designed to be alongside him. And we turned our back on him.
Jesus came. God sent his son to die on a cross so we could be reunited with him, so that the stuff that separates him, the sin, the stuff that we do that just displeases him and separates us from him.
He died on a cross to take it all away, and there's absolutely nothing you can do to earn it. He's done it.
He's done it.
And what he asks you is to follow him.
There's this word that says repent, which means we say sorry for the stuff that was separating us from him. And we say, God, I'm going to follow you. I'm putting that down, and I'm turning around and I'm going to follow you.
But it's so much more than that. Even though that is the most incredible story that's ever happened to know him.
When you know him, you know that he's the father of the fatherless.
You know that he's always with you.
You know that no matter how hopeless the situation is, you know that he's your provider. Do you know him?
Do you know him?
