Chris McCurley: Good evening. I'll second what Dan said about the blessing it is to be here tonight. Well, that kind of caught me off guard. Speakers are working. What now? You might be asking yourself why I can't come up with better titles for my lessons. But this lesson in particular is one that I've kind of put together from something I've been working on for a little bit now and talking to a few people who knew they were new converts, so to speak. One of them had been baptized when he was a child, fell away for many years and is trying to come back to the Lord now. And so I got to thinking about that. And I thought about the fact that oftentimes We sit here in a situation like this and someone has decided to give their life to God and they go forward and they come up here and the preacher talks to them and there's a quiet over the audience. Except you'll hear a man or two saying, who is it? Who is it? And you know that if his wife could give them their whole family tree, you'd never figure out who it was. She elbows them or nudges them, quietens them down. Process goes through someone has given their life. They want to be baptized into Jesus. And what a wonderful feeling that is. I don't know if you're like me, I almost get chills almost when that happens. It's such a wonderful thing to be a witness of to see someone giving their life to Christ like that. And they're baptized and everybody comes up forward and we're hugging them afterwards. Tell them we love them. We're here for you. We were so excited you made this decision. And then I think a lot of times we all go home and maybe that's the end of it. And here's this person trying to navigate a whole new life. in Jesus and maybe let me just put it on me. I've been guilty in the past of letting that go without following them and helping them along. I compare it to when a newborn, a baby is born. It's so exciting that a baby's born. We all want to see the baby. We all want to touch the baby, hold the baby. They smell so good. They're so precious and we love them and, we would never just let them go on and raise themselves. We go through their lives with them and we help them. Might be teaching them to walk and you're holding their hand as they're learning how to walk or they're running out here and they fall down. And what do we do? We go help them up. We try to teach them how to live and everything, but think maybe we're dropping the ball a little bit when it comes to new converts in Christ. So what now was something that I've been working on, just something I could sit down with several points. I thought of with someone and what I was thinking from a standpoint of one-on-one or maybe a small class setting and talk about what it means when you've given your life to God. What now? So that's where this lesson was derived from. What I've done is taken some points for it and I've put together three what now points that I wanna share with you this evening. As we get started, the first what now I wanna share with you is never forget that it was God that wanted a relationship with you to begin with. Run to Him, not from Him. When Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis three, it wasn't Adam asking God, where are you? It was God asking Adam, where are you? You know, you would think when that happened that Adam would have been running to God, God, ⁓ I'm so sorry. We've messed up. We've done what you told us not to. They realized that they'd done wrong. That was clear in the scriptures, but instead of that, they ran and hid. And I've been guilty of that myself in my life. And I think maybe we can all relate to that. God has always initiated the relationship between he and mankind. I mean, he created us after all. Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus is God saying, I'm coming to you. The creator of the universe and the mankind wants to spend time with us. He wants to spend time with me. Let's make this personal. He wants to spend time with you. He wants you in his kingdom, the church, but If you take that a step further, God wants us to spend eternity with him. Why do we have a hard time sometimes letting that register in our minds? It seems like to me, I've lived a lot of my life reaching for God, trying to go to God. wanted to live my way in certain ways, but I also wanted to reach out to God. And the whole time God was reaching out to me. He wants a relationship with me. 1 John chapter 4 verses 14 through 16 says that, We have seen and testify that the father sent his son as savior of the world. God has sent his son as what? A savior. Where did he send him? To the world. And who did he send him to? Me and you and all of us. John chapter 3, 16. We're very familiar with that. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that. Though whoever believes him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But verse 17 says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Let that sink in for a minute. We can get in a mode where it almost seems like God's trying to condemn us constantly, doesn't. He didn't do that. He didn't send Jesus into this world to condemn us, but to save us. Let me say that again. God wants a relationship with us. He wants us to be saved. He sent his son to us. You might say that's all sounds good, but you don't understand my struggle. I've had that said to me before. You don't understand what I'm going through. I remember when Alex was, I don't know, 11, 10, 11, 12, somewhere in that she made me understand or she made clear to me that I don't understand. She had something going on at school and I was trying to talk to her today. You just don't understand. And that stuck with me for a while because I thought I understood. I I knew what I was talking about, but according to her, I don't understand. And a lot of times people are like that. You don't understand my struggle. You don't understand what I'm going through. Well, that person doesn't understand what I'm going through. They don't understand what you're going through. We all go through some sort of struggle or not. I may not know your struggles, but you don't know mine either. Recently, I was visiting with a gentleman up in Nashville. He's a good friend of mine. Now we've known each other for a while and And he's one of the ones I was talking about. was, has fallen away and lived a very rough life, you may say for many, many years. And he and I've had a lot of conversations and he literally grabbed me one day and he said, please don't ever give up on me. He trouble with alcohol and some other things, you know, and that really stuck with me. I please don't give up on me. Please keep coming back. And we've had some frustrating conversations. We've had some good conversations, been some tears shed along the way and all, but here a few weeks ago, I stopped by to see him. And when I got there, he's sitting in his backyard and he has Bible out and obviously he'd been thinking. And his first thing he asked me is he said, what the POT, what apostle do you compare yourself to? Thought that's an odd question right off the bat. So I said, well, you've had time to think about which apostle you compare yourself to. And I thought I knew where he was going to go. And he said, Judas. And I said, well, I don't really buy that because you're sitting here at the table. You're not hanging from that tree right there. You just gave up. If you think about it. And I talked to him about what if Judas had done like Peter and realized that he had denied Christ he'd done wrong. He could have been more powerful than the apostle Paul ever thought about being what crowd could Judas not talk to and say, you think you got probably think I don't understand what you've been through. I kissed the savior on the cheek and sold him for silver. Think about the impact it could have had. But we know he didn't do that. He hung himself. And so I told my friend that I think you're more like what I would compare myself to would be Peter. Have a heart for the Lord, but you keep messing up, but you're here. You got your Bible in front of you. You're trying to live like you should. We may not know the struggles that are people going, people are going through. And I've And I've had the I've heard this and used it, but I think it fits here so well. And so I was looking at it I was thinking about the statements that I've heard. If you've lied like Abraham or laughed at God's plan for you, God's willing to call you a friend and bless you beyond belief. If you cheated people like Zacchaeus, he's willing to befriend you in front of all your enemies. It's in Luke 19. If you've left him like the prodigal son, he waits for you, looking for you. From afar, he's watching. And when you come back, he welcomes you with open arms. No questions asked. You know, his son was trying to explain what he'd done. The father didn't want to hear it. He was just so happy his lost son was found. He'd come back. That's in Luke 15. If you've ever been despised like this Meriden woman, he'll sit down with you and talk with you. And love you no matter who you are or where you're from. If you've been caught in adultery, he'll forgive you in front of your accusers. If you denied him like Peter, he'll give you a second chance and a third chance and a fourth chance and so on and so on. I remember when we first started coming to Walnut Street, that was actually in 2012. time is passing by. But when we came here, of course, George Caudill was here and I knew George Caudill was my principal. And so I always loved him, but I didn't know him personally. And I looked at him as a figure of authority, of a disciplinary. And someone is ready to catch you when you do something wrong. And I hate to admit it, but I ended up in the office a couple of times, never in George Caudill's office. But I can tell you that I was in Ralph Overton's office one time and he was pretty well let me have it like I was one of the football players or something. And George Caudill was sitting in the office listening, laughing and nagging him on the whole time. And I just remember George Caudill giving me a hard time like that. But when we started here and I got to know him, I saw the man that he was. And I'll never forget, there was a situation, we had the recovery class going on at that time. Several people were coming that struggled with drugs and alcohol and messed their lives up and were trying to make things right. And there was one in particular person that had messed up again and again. And some of the people in the class had gotten frustrated. You know, we've tried and tried to help this guy. He just keeps messing up, keeps messing up. And I'll never forget George Caldwell stepped up and said, I think we ought to give him another chance. I think he's really trying, but he's struggling. That impacted me more than anything George Caldwell has ever said or done. In my presence, he gave me a hard drive, whatever you call it, ⁓ full of lessons that he had done that I've used and it's so valuable. Some of the men here, some of the people here may have gotten that too, a little zip drive with that on it. Tons of lessons and that's information and great to learn from, but nothing like the lesson he taught me and that his compassion for that man. So let's give him another chance. I believe he's really trying. So we need to remember No, I may not understand what you're going through, but we all go through something. And the what now is we've got to pick up from whatever that something is and move on. The second what now I want to talk to you about is we've got to trust that God knows what's best for us. God knows what's best for you. Now that you're a child of God, you're living a different life. You're no longer living for you. Now you're living for the Lord. And that can be a tough change. Proverbs chapter three, verses five through seven. Says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. This can be a lot easier said than done. We give our lives to God, requires a complete change. It requires ⁓ a complete change in how we live and maybe who we associate with and what we do, what we say. It's a big change to go through. It's a change from directing our own paths. If you don't have God in your life, you're figuring your out your way up through this life yourself. And now you're turning your life over to God to let him direct your paths. And that can be very difficult. Change is not easy anyway. I don't know if Chris Webb is here. He talked about that this morning and asked, can people change? And I said, I hope so. But he didn't realize this because I had this in my lesson tonight. People can change. But one thing I learned as I was in a motivational course one time that was focused on changing ourselves, obviously from a professional standpoint, being successful as we could possibly be. And it was talked about change and in that it talked about to be able to change, we have to put ⁓ something in our life to death or maybe some things in our life to death if we're gonna make a true change. And also what this person brought in that was, In doing that, we may have to grieve that process. So when I was thinking about talking to a new convert, I was thinking about how that applies to all of us as well. But when someone gives their life to Christ and starts a new life, we shouldn't expect them to be able to just flip a switch automatically. They've had a whole different group of friends they were friends with, people they associated with, a whole different life that they're living. and now you expect them to just wake up the next morning and be a new child in God and live in that way. Well, it might take a grieving process. We may have to grieve those changes. Listen to this brief description of grief and see how it applies to that. The grief process is highly individual, nonlinear journey of emotional, physical and cognitive reactions to loss, often involved in stages like denial, anger, bargaining, depression. and acceptance. It doesn't follow a strict timetable. It's different for everyone. Healing can take weeks, months, years. Essential coping includes self-care and allowing a time to process emotions. And I think that applies to us as we give our life to God and the life that we're living. The thing about this, this is written for new converts I was singing about, but everything applies to me as well and it applies to you as well too. We go through changes in our lives. You may have been a Christian since you were a kid. May have given your life to Christ years and years ago. But since then, things happen in this life. We suffer loss. People hurt us. Got through all kinds of struggles and you can all make that personal to you. But the thing about that is is. We're all going through that. And we need to let me. converts in Christ or anyone that maybe is an old convert. We need to let them know that it's okay. That's not something you can just flip a switch and turn over. If someone is addicted just because they've been buried in baptism doesn't mean they're going to come up not addicted anymore. It's going to be a process for them. I've told so many people and I heard it right here, I think, but so many people talk about, you know, I just can't, I can't change. I can't give myself a look. You don't have a chance if you don't give yourself to God. Give yourself to God and allow him to help you through that change. God will help us through that change if we're willing to. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 16 and 17 says, therefore from now on, with regard no one to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. Verse 17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, is a new creature, old. things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Well, sometimes when old things pass away, there's a grieving process and we need to understand that when we're helping someone through this process. As long as we're breathing over loss. Hopefully that means we won't go back to it because it's dead to us. So let's not push people too hard. I've heard people say, all right, now you're not going to do that anymore. Stand in the church building. Well, of course I'm not going to, but what about when they get out around their old friends or their old acquaintances and all that thing, all those people go back to work, go back to school, whatever the case may be. Simply not that easy. Ephesians chapter four, verse 21 through 24. Indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. A new man means new beginnings and new times. And it's something that we need to be patient with. Colossians chapter three, verses one through seven says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desires, covetedness, idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these two, you once walked when you were living in them. The one thing that we all have in common here tonight is we've all, if we're in the Lord, we've put the old man to death. We're living a new life. That's what we all have in common. So sometimes those what now moments, we need to just remember that we all have that in common. Some people struggle with other things that we might not understand, but we do need to understand that sometimes there's a grieving process and for them to truly change. I believe that you have to go through that grieving process. Third, what now? And this was originally designed for someone who's new in Christ. Someone's given their life to Christ, but it fits so well to us as well. You've fallen in love with Jesus. Now make sure you fall in love with his pride. Ephesians chapter 5, 25 through 27 says, husbands love your wife just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. You know, I've talked to people before. Actually, I know a few people that they believe in God and they have given their life to God and they're living for God, but they don't like the church. It's a bunch of hypocrites out there. Someone I work with all the time. That's his feeling about it. And he's just so opposed to that. Now, I think if we were going to get real about it, a lot of times there's there's a what we call an excuse. You can make an excuse. ⁓ you know, so and so goes over there. So that's my excuse for not having to go there. But I really, and I've told people that, but I really believe, I know that if you're going to grow in Christ, you need to be a part of his family. Why would he call the church his bride? Why would he compare it to that? If it wasn't that important to him. Look at this beautiful description of the early church. Acts chapter two, verse 41 says, then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day about 3000 were added to them. And that continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Verse 44. Now all who believed were together. all who believed were together and they had all things in common. Sold their possessions and their goods and they divided them among all as any had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. I can just see that's attractive. I think if this description of having all things in common and living the way they were, I could see that being a real evangelistic tool to the people in the area around them. You know, there's something different about the church. There should be something different about us. If we're living in this world, people see that. And when people see a church that has a lot of strife, Or they know someone that doesn't want to be a part of a church is does nothing but drive them away from God. People mess things up. We can say things that hurt people. We can do things. We can find all these little petty things about the church. The difference is Jesus is perfect. The bride is not. We struggle because the people struggle. But that doesn't mean that we should minimize the fact that Jesus called the church is bride. And when you think about it, there's power in numbers. If you're a new convert, You need to be around Christians as often as possible if you can all the time because the world is going to be pulling you in every direction. Why would you not want to be amongst people who have the same belief you do? The people that are striving for the same things that you are? Why wouldn't you want to be in a group of folks that as you're a new baby in Christ? They're holding you by the hand, helping you learn how to walk in this life spiritually. When we fall down, someone grunt. comes and picks us up, helps us to a fate, helps us walk again. We put them in Sunday school class. We want our little ones to be in class. I know people that have come to church. They wouldn't go to church, wouldn't do anything. They have children. Once they have children, they decide this is important. We need to be going to church, raise these children up in God. And that's okay, whatever brings them. But we need to remember that. I need to be around you. And you need to be around me. We all need to be around each other. It doesn't take me long when I'm around a group of nonbelievers to start falling into that group that I'm with. One thing, one that I'm not bringing in the lesson, but I'll mention it is I've really been focusing on how our language is an evangelistic tool or it drives people away. If someone doesn't use foul language in this day and time, you know who they are. probably where you work at, there's a good chance that the people around you, when they come around you, they may not try to say what they would normally say, or if they say something, they'll say, ⁓ I'm sorry, I'm sorry. They realize it's different, but it's very easy to be conformed to the group that you're around. So that's the importance of the church. My desire and intention with this short lesson was just to remind us that We all have what now moments throughout our walk with Jesus. Those of us who are new Christians, those of us who are old Christians, I didn't mean to look at you, Walter. There's a few other old ones here too. But those, any of us, we all struggle in one way or another. And we all need to remember ⁓ what now for us. Life happens, we sin, we suffer loss, setbacks in this life. What now? Turn to God, give your life to Him. As I finish up tonight, just want to remember that God knows what's best for us. Trust Him that He knows what's best for us. Be in His Word, search His Scriptures, be around His children, attend classes, do your best to be in God's Word. He knows what's best for us and He's trying to guide us in. Secondly, remember that the church is designed to help us make it through the what now moments. A diagnosis of cancer, the loss of a loved one. We've just suffered losing Scotty Page. It's been hard for me to handle these last few days. He went to the NHC with us and we've become very close. That's kind of a what now moment. For some people that can try their faith, but because of the life that Scotty lived and the person he was, It builds our faith up because we see the life that he lived. But just remember that the church is designed to help us make it through these days. And finally, remember most of all, and I think this is one of the biggest things that we all struggle with. God loves you and he wants you in a relationship with. He's not just standing back saying, come on, if you want to. Everything from the creation has been designed for God to be connected with man. and that we would have a hope of being in eternal life with him. He gave his son cruel death for people that would despise him and mock him, spit on him. God loves us so much that he went through that because he wants a relationship with you. I hope that this is something that we can take encouragement from tonight. You may be here tonight. I would say most of us are Christians, but if you haven't given your life to Christ yet, this will be a great time to do it. And we'd love to help you through that. And we would love to help you once you come up out of that water with what's now what now help you make it through life or you may have been a Christian for years. Like me, I was baptized as a teenager, so I don't know that I really even understood what it meant to die to this life at that time. So as I grew older and I was in the world, I've stumbled, I've fallen away at times. I haven't been living like I should. I've walked through the doors of the church and not been where I should in my mind and my heart with God. He knows that. But whatever we can do as a church, we want to encourage you to come while we stand and sing.