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Josh Grogan's "You Raise Me Up Video"
I want to share some thoughts with you tonight that I think will help you to realize how much God has done in your life. I was listening to a song the other night…I’m not sure that it was written or intended to be a Christian song necessarily, but in fact this song is my love song to Jesus. The name of the song is “You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban, and the reason I call it my love song for Jesus is because that song always takes me back in my memory of who I was before I knew my Lord, and it always reminds me of how much He has done in my life. Listen to the words of the song:
That’s exactly what Jesus has done in my life and I am so thankful to Him because I know that without Him, my life would be nothing, but because He is so strong and so loving and so faithful in my life, I have done things that I would have never even considered if I didn’t know Him. He’s an amazing Lord!
I want to share a little with you tonight about who I was before I met Jesus and how much He has done in my personal life. I remember always being a very insecure person. I never excelled at anything in my life…and it seemed that no matter what I tried, I could only accomplish mediocre at best. I was extremely shy and I never mixed well in groups of people. I was pretty much a wallflower wherever I went, and I never knew how to have a conversation with people. I had a few friends growing up, but only one BEST Friend, and we did most everything together until we discovered boys and then we started drifting apart. After high school, I went to her house one day and she and her family were gone…they had packed up and moved, and I had no idea where they were. Even to this day, I have never heard another word from her again.
But then I got married and had two babies, but I was still very insecure, very shy and after a couple of years, I also became very unhappy. I didn’t like very much about myself and I thought the answer to my problems was to find a man that would make me happy. But little did I know back then that it was that very concept that caused most of the pain that I felt during that time. What I didn’t realize was that I could never find out who I was through a man…I needed to know my Father in Heaven in order to learn who He created me to be. I needed a Savior…I needed Jesus in my life.
Then in 1983 at the age of 30, I found Jesus. It was a long story about how I came to this point, but in the interest of time, I won’t go into all the details. All I knew was that suddenly, my life started changing. I’m not saying that I became confident and the life of the party after that. No…that’s not what happened at all. But I began to change in my heart, in my thinking, and it began to show in my life. Things I once would have thought nothing about, suddenly became wrong and I couldn’t make myself do it. My thought-life began to change drastically as the Holy Spirit became the central part of who I was. He would challenge me in my heart to do things I would have never done previously…and day by day…week by week…month by month…year by year…I became a whole different person. Friends…I would hate to think of who I would be today if I didn’t have Jesus in my life. He challenged me in ways that I would have never imagined. He caused me to do things that would have been impossible for me to do without Him in my life. I learned to trust Him and I learned to depend on Him. I learned that He is the strength of my life and most importantly of all…I learned that He is ALWAYS faithful. He enabled me to raise two young boys into Godly young men who love their families and care deeply for others. He enabled me to serve Him in ways I could never have dreamed in my past life. Never would I have imagined standing in a church and preaching the Gospel. Never would I have imagined traveling to foreign mission fields to tell people who have never heard the Gospel about how much Jesus loves them. Never would I have dreamed of the amazing things that God has allowed me to do…not because of who I am. I KNOW who I am…but because of Who Jesus is and what He has done in and through my life. Sometimes I am in awe of how He has faithfully brought me through so much and strengthened me to be so much more than I could have ever been on my own.
And so I wanted to share my story with you tonight Friends, because I want you to realize how much God has done in your life too. I want to encourage you to sit alone in the presence of the Lord from time to time and think about who you were before you met Jesus. Remember how much He has changed your life from who you used to be and then just begin to praise Him for it Friends. And let me say this…if you look back, and you see that your life has not really changed at all…that you are pretty much the same as you have always been…then maybe you need to get real with yourself and realize that maybe you were never really born again after all. Because one thing I know for sure…God loves you just as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way. When you are truly born again, you WILL begin to change, and it will amaze you how He will use you for His Kingdom and for His Glory. So take some time and thank Him. You can even sing my love song for Jesus to Him. “You raise me up to more than I can be”.
And so before I end tonight Friends, let me pray with you. Bow your heads with me if you will:
Father, You constantly amaze me with how much You have
changed me to be more like Jesus. I am so thankful to You, because I remember
who I was before You made me Your child, and I can’t imagine what my life would
have been like if I had stayed on the path that I was on. I needed You so much
in my life back then…and I still need You so much today. I just want to say thank
You Lord for all that You have done for me, and for choosing me to be Your
Child. I am forever grateful to You Father and I give You praise tonight, in
Jesus Name…Amen.
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