Are You Sure You’re Right

Ray Young: You are in the wrong restroom.
Those are words you never want to hear.
Imagine my surprise as I'm standing in the men's restroom
for the first Texas Tech football game three years ago,
and I look over, and there's a woman.
She has to be 70 years old.
She pushes her walker right up and touches the urinal.
And I said, no, ma'am, I'm sorry.
You're in the wrong restroom.
She adamantly said, no, I'm not.
You're in the wrong restroom and you need to leave now.
I got as close as I could get without touching anything and turned away.
And I said, ma'am, if you'll give me just a second, I promise I will leave.
Just back up.
She didn't.
But as soon as I could, I turned and walked away.
And as I was walking towards the exit, my mind is racing.
do they put urinals in women's restrooms and i walked out and looked sure enough
i was in the right restroom and as i walked down the corridor i thought
oh i hope i'm never that person who is completely wrong but thinks they're completely right
you see there's some decisions in your life that's what i want to talk to you about really
just one there's some decisions in your life that you just can't get wrong and there's some
decisions that you don't want to leave to default in john chapter four there's this really cool
account there's a there's a man he's he's an official he's in charge of people he's got power
and he's heard some stuff about Jesus because Jesus has done some miracles in Capernaum where
he's from before, but he doesn't know what he really thinks about him until his son gets sick.
And the boy gets so sick that he's about to die. And so the man travels what appears to me to be
about a two day journey. And he finds Jesus in Judea and he comes up. And when he finds him,
he says this, he implores him. He says, I want you to come down and heal my son because he's
at the point of death. Now, if you just pause there for a second, how do you think he asked Jesus
to come heal his son? Do you think it was, Jesus, I know you're really busy,
and you're doing super important stuff, but if there's any way you could spare a moment or two,
if you could come over, my son's really sick. I think he's going to die,
but I don't want to be a bother. Anybody? No. Can you imagine the urgency, the intention,
that you have to come? And then look what happens. Jesus says to him,
go, your son lives. And if you've never stopped here and thought about it, I want to encourage
you when you open your Bible to really, to not see it as flat, but to step in. And if you were that
man, can you imagine the heartbreak, the fear, the concern he's got of my boy's about to die.
And I think maybe Jesus could do something about it. And then Jesus seems to be dismissive. Go,
your son lives. But I want you to notice these words. The man believed the word Jesus spoke to
him and he started off. If you could put yourself into his sandals as you walked away,
would your mind be racing? Would you say, wait a second. No, I came to get Jesus. I'll go,
but you've got to come with me. I need you to come because my boy's going to die and you're
the only one who's got a shot at fixing this. That's what I think I would do. But this man
just took Jesus at his word. He believed the word that Jesus spoke and he started off.
And apparently, when you read the rest of the account,
I encourage you to read it,
he goes a whole day's journey.
And when he's a day away, his servants meet him,
and they say,
Sir, your son lives.
And he asks him,
When? When did this happen?
And he finds out the seventh hour yesterday
is the very time when Jesus said,
Go, your son lives.
And so the father knew it was at that hour
that Jesus said to him,
Your son lives.
And he himself believed,
and his whole household believed.
This morning, I want you to think about that decision.
I know you're at Lubbock Christian University
and you could be here for countless number of reasons.
I know you're in chapel
and you could be here for countless number of reasons.
But there are decisions in your life
that change everything.
If you really stop, you can look back
and there's some decisions you either made on purpose
or by default that you would do anything to go back and change, wouldn't you?
And if I could just go back again.
Now, I'll tell you, at 57, nearly 58 years old,
there's a lot of stuff I'd like to change, but there's nothing I'd go back.
Like, I don't want to do that again.
But what I want to make sure of is that I make the decisions that really matter.
I don't know what your experience was growing up.
I don't know what you think about Jesus or if you think about him or not.
But I shared this guy with you because I want to encourage you to make a decision that will shape your whole life.
And the truth is what you believe about Jesus changes everything in your whole life.
Either one way or the other, it makes a difference.
And you may be sitting there today and saying, Ray, I don't even believe in Jesus.
I'd say, okay, that's fine. I hope sometime that changes for you. But that shapes the way you live.
It shapes the way you view yourself, the way you view others, the way you view the meaning and
purpose of life, the way you treat other people. And that's not saying that people who believe in
Jesus get it all right. If there's only one, I'm enough evidence to go, that's obviously not the
case. But what you decide about him, what you decide about who he is, what you believe about
him and why you believe it and then what difference it makes in your life. It's the most important
decision you will ever make because it shapes who you are. It determines the rest of your life.
When I walked out of that bathroom and confirmed, I'm really in the right one.
I wanted to go back and say, hey, ma'am, you really are in the wrong spot and you need to leave.
But I've had enough encounter there with her that I didn't think I'd change her mind.
So I just kept on walking.
But I walked away with this commitment.
I want to be sure when I make a decision and I believe something to be true, that it really is true and that my actions honor that.
I just came today to encourage you to think about the most important decisions in your life and how they impact the way you live.
Thanks.
Thank you.