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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 Well, good morning, Waters Church. Good to see you all here. Are we ready to get0:06 into god's word this morning, this afternoon, whatever it is for you? We are so excited. I am so excited that you're here and it is a great day to be in the presence of the Lord. We're starting a new series called Come0:18 Home. Somebody say, Come Home. Come Alright. Take out your Bibles, Luke 15, and take out the notes. If you're in house, it looks like this. So, notes like this, take them out, fill in the blanks. I've0:30 already done so because somebody gave me the answers already. If you're not in house, you can get on to Waters Church dot guide. It looks like this. Waters Church dot guide. If you're online and then you click0:42 on today's message and you can click this and fill out the blanks digitally. Wonderful way of accessing the notes that way as well and we're gonna get into Luke 15. So, before we get into that,0:54 a reminder or a little bit of an announcement, we have a new class slash course slash small group happening in our church. It's called Alpha. Alpha is an1:06 outreach to people who have questions about the Christian faith. We're starting this program at our church to reach out to people far from God, people that you might know. And it's a safe1:18 environment for them to ask their questions and we're so excited to get it started very soon. The person leading us named Mehdi. He is our location pastor for South Coast. He and his wife April will be1:29 leading this group. I believe it's gonna be a real instrumental part of our church going forward to see people come and know Jesus. That's why we're here. We wanna let people know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and1:41 the life, but we also wanna do it in a relational manner. We do it on a Sunday morning, but we can also do it in a small group environment. And at this point, here's where I'm at with the world, with the darkness that we1:50 see around us. I'm gonna do anything that we can to reach as many people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so I'm excited about that. More details to follow. You might not understand everything right now. That's okay.2:01 More details to follow. We're excited to get that started. Second thing I gotta tell you is there's a Good Friday service at all of our locations on Good Friday. That is 2 Fridays from today. Can you believe it? We're2:12 almost to Easter. So 2 Fridays from now, we will be having 2 services. They are identical. Choose 1 and come. 4 PM or 6 PM, Good Friday. What we do on Good2:24 Friday is we come in and we start with worship. We have scripture readings, a very short message, and then we go out of our buildings in complete silence. Complete silence. And believe it or2:36 not, our amazing Waters Kids ministry has some way of keeping your kids quiet on the way out of church. I don't know what they do. It might involve drugs. Just trust2:48 them. They'll keep your kids quiet, and they'll give them the right instructions. They we can all leave quiet because what we're doing on Good Friday is we're remembering that there was a real death of Jesus. There was a2:58 real death. And we tried to just kind of reenact what the disciples must have felt like that Friday night as they went home and thinking that that was it. It was over. And every year we do this, it makes3:10 Easter that much more real to us because it is a glorious truth, the resurrection of Jesus. It is the central doctrine of the Christian faith, the resurrection of Jesus. Paul says if if Christ is not raised, we're all3:21 more we're all more miserable than everybody. And so we we do Good Friday to kind of, like, window do whittle down to quietness and silence, and then we come in on Saturday night if you're a Saturday3:33 night or or Sunday morning on good on Easter sun Easter Sunday, and we just shout and praise and rejoice because we know that the the grave is defeated. Hell is defeated. The devil is a3:45 loser. Jesus is alive. Amen. So that's gonna happen in 2 weekends. Make sure you pick 1 of those services. Okay. Let's get into the text. Come home part 1, everybody. Here we3:56 go. God's heart for those who are not home or god's heart for those who aren't home. Luke 15, I I almost called this message how to get lost.4:10 How to get lost. I really probably should have called it that. Let's let's act like we've already called it that. Part 1 of come home, how to get lost. There. We'll just edit out all the other things right there. I want4:20 you to write this down at the top of your notes. Easter is coming. Easter is coming. And I always get excited for Christmas and Easter because every Christmas and Easter, more people are gonna come4:32 to church than at any other time in the year. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to have your game face on for the next 2 weeks and prepare your heart and get your your mind focused4:44 on being an inviter. Being an inviter. The world needs the light, and we are that4:55 light. Jesus is the light of the world, but he also told us that you are the light of the world. Why? Because we are the body of Christ. And I think about our Jesus. He came for5:07 sinners. He did not come to start a religion. He came to rescue hopeless lost people. And we are not a religious organization. We are a rescue5:19 operation. Can I get a good amen right there? We're here to see people come out of the darkness and into God's marvelous light. The reason why we are all about this at our church is because that's what Jesus was all5:30 about. In fact, we have a saying in our church. It's on the walls in all of our locations. We're here for those who are Not here. Not yet here. All weekend, this has been happening. I've had I've had that little5:42 pause right there at the last part, and this side of the audience has said it, and this half side of the audience has been oblivious to it. So I'm thinking saved, not saved.5:55 Now let me illustrate that. You people over here should be concerned with these people over here. Now I know I'm generalizing. I know. Okay. Anyway, but the point is this. That's what a church is for.6:07 And and a church that that turns inward is 1 of the worst places to be. We wanna be outward focused. We're not gonna become like the world but we're gonna go into the world because that's what Jesus did 20006:19 years ago. He came into our world and he reached us. Amen. And and so, I wanna prep our hearts for this. That's why the series is come home. I'm I'm I'm calling you home. I'm calling our church home and I'm calling6:31 lost sinners home and I and I believe we as a church, if you're you're saved, man, you gotta be welcoming those people home and and and an inviter and and active in being a participant of Jesus seeking6:43 the lost. But here's the thought, we will never ever seek the lost until we understand how Jesus feels about them.6:54 You work with unbelievers. You might live with unbelievers. You might be related to unbelievers. And how many know, and and and I'm sure this is the case for some of you, that unbelievers can bug the life out of you?7:07 Poke at your faith, call your names, criticize you, ostracize you, marginalize you. We're in a country right now where they're doing that from the highest levels of our government. Christian faith and belief7:21 is being sidelined on a regular basis. If you can't see that, you are blind. It's happening on a on a institutional basis in our government run7:32 schools, in our government sanctioned programs. We're we're seeing our country whole scale, marginalized, devout Christian faith. It's the only faith, by the way, that you can mock7:44 and get away with it. The only movement that you can criticize and no 1 calls you a hater. And then and we've gotta be aware that Jesus told us this would7:56 happen. And the love of lawlessness, the love of pleasure, the love of of godlessness would increase and and people would abandon the faith. But here's8:08 the thing, as we see the world getting darker, as we see it getting shaken by COVID, by plagues and famines, fires8:20 on the West Coast, and floods on the East Coast, and then wars and rumors of wars, and who knows really at this point what's true, what's lies,8:32 What's right? What's wrong on the news? We can't trust it. It's all a big mess. Jesus told us, expect this to happen and when you see it happen, understand that's not a time8:44 to throw down your face and give up. That's a time to lift up your eyes and look because your redemption is drawing nigh. Jesus is at the door and he's on his way back. And as we8:56 awake the return of Jesus, we've gotta be active in reaching as many people with the gospel as possible because I think all this shaking, whole lot of shaking going on, is9:07 awakening a lot of people to their need for god. I want our church to be ready. Luke 15, stand with me as we read this passage. This is a very familiar passage. Well, at least part of it is. It says9:19 it's in verse 1, now, somebody say now. Now. The tax collectors and sinners were all, somebody say all. All. So 2 words I just ask you to say for a reason. Now and all. Now the tax9:31 collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him, Jesus. And the Pharisees, the religious people, the scribes, grumbled saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this9:43 parable. The word so means for this reason. In response to what they were saying about him eating with sinners, he told them this story. What man of you, having 100 sheep, does not leave the9:55 99 if you lose 1 of them, and and and you leave the 99 open country and you go after the 1 that is lost until you find it? And when you find it, you lay it on your shoulders10:07 rejoicing. Then you come home, you call together your friends, your neighbors, you say to them, rejoice with me. I found my lost sheep. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over 1 sinner who10:19 repents than over 99 that don't need to repent. Verse 8, another story. Or what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses a coin does not light a10:31 lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she finds it. When she's found that she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I found my coin that was lost.10:43 Just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of god over 1 sinner who repents. And he said this last parable. There was a man who had 2 sons. And the younger of them10:55 said to the father father give me the share of property that's coming to me. He divided his property between them and not many days later the younger son gathered all that he had. And he took a journey to a far country11:05 and there he squandered his property and reckless living. When he spent everything a severe famine arose in that country. And he began to be in need so he went and hired himself out to 1 of the citizens of that country11:17 who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. And no 1 gave him anything. How11:28 to get lost? This is God's word. Let's pray. Father, I I ask in Jesus name that you will speak to us, that our eyes will be open, our ears will be open, our hearts will be receptive,11:40 our lives will be changed and transformed through the preaching and teaching of your word, and may we see Jesus, him and him only in his mighty name we pray and everybody said amen. God bless you. A seat. Lost things.11:52 I love how Luke 15 opens 2 key words like I asked you to say. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all coming to hear him. Why is that important? Because12:04 sometimes the chapter divisions in your bible are in the wrong place. You've gotta connect Luke 14 to Luke 15. Don't let chapter divisions always be the start and end of where you read your bible.12:16 The bible comes alive when we widen our contextual view of the text and we see, oh, this is the reason for this text following that text. In Luke chapter 14, Jesus goes to another dinner12:28 party of a different sort of group. He goes to be the guest of a Pharisee. The Pharisees were religious people. The Pharisees were church goers. The Pharisees believed the Bible. The Pharisees tried their hardest to live12:40 out god's word. The Pharisees believed that they were clean and holy and pure and the world was dirty, yucky, and messy and so in in response to the ugliness of the world they separated from the world and they isolated12:50 from the world and they and they judged the world and they kind of hated the world and so when Jesus starts hanging with sinners and tax collectors and bad dirty people they don't like Jesus And Jesus is at that13:01 party, and I shared a message series called For the Sake of the 1 right before Christmas based on Luke 14. How many of you remember that? And I talked about a message the message of Luke 14. This the title of the message13:12 was the church that Jesus annoys, the church that Jesus upends, the church that Jesus bugs. What kind of church is that? A religious minded church, an inward focused13:24 church, a church that's that's only focused on people who are already in, has no heart for people lost and gone and going to hell. And Jesus does that in Luke 14. He goes to the Pharisees house for a dinner13:36 party, and he just bugs the life out of those religious people. He criticizes them for wanting to be in the important seats. And how often do churches do that still to this day? I13:47 wanna look important. I wanna be important. I wanna be on stage. I wanna be in charge. I wanna be in I wanna be in leadership. Well, why? For you or to help God's people? There's a big difference between wanting to be in13:59 charge and wanting to help God's people. The Pharisees just wanted to be in charge. They wanted to have the seed of Moses, Jesus says. They loved the important places in the synagogue. They loved being called rabbi and14:09 teacher and all those kind of titles. And Jesus just bugs him. He says, look, don't do that. Don't act so super spiritual and religious just for the sake of being seen by others. And he just bugs these people for a14:21 whole chapter. Luke 14 just bugs them to death. By the time he's done at that dinner party, they're scratching them off the invite list for any of future parties. So he goes to another dinner party in Luke14:33 15, and this 1 is a different group, a totally different audience, tax collectors and sinners. And I've always loved the fact that the Bible and the gospels always14:45 puts the tax collectors as separate from the sinners. Because to be a tax collector in that in that time was probably the most hated occupation you could be. You taxed your own Jewish people. You were hired by Rome,14:57 Gentiles, to tax the your own Jewish people and take their money and you would overtax them to line your own pockets and Rome would help you do that. And you would take the money of your people and put it in the hands of15:07 godless Rome whom the Jews hated. So to be a tax collector was to be in a sinner in a whole another category and Yet Jesus is hanging with these people. Now you can15:19 understand why the religious people were all upset. This man claims to be a prophet, claims to be sent from God, and yet here he is hanging out with the very people that we know we should hate. And Jesus15:30 decides to tell them a story, but the funny thing about it is There's a passage of scripture. There's a line from Jesus between Luke 15 and Luke 14. And I would claim I would say that it is the most demanding text of all15:41 the Bible. The most demanding text of discipleship in all the Bible, and it comes from the mouth of Jesus. Here's what Jesus says in Luke 14 26. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife15:52 and children and brothers and sisters and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And then he says this, whoever cannot take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. That's demanding.16:04 Hating anything else that comes between you and Christ. Now he's not saying go hate your mom and dad, hate your wife, hate your kids. I mean, some of you, that would be easy. He's not saying that.16:16 He's saying love less than me. I've gotta be first. Now why does Jesus say I gotta be first? Because Jesus is God. And your first priority as a disciple16:28 is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Christ first, Jesus first. Some people say, am I saved? I don't know if I'm saved. Let me ask you a question. Is Jesus16:40 first in your life? Is he everything to you? Do you love the lord? Are you ready to abandon all things and follow him? And then he says this in verse 33, if any of an if anyone cannot16:52 renounce all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. In other words, everything's on the table, lord. You are god. You are lord. And here, there's an old good old preacher saying,17:04 if Jesus is not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. And that that the Lord has you in his hand, and you are his servant, and you are his object of his plan and17:16 purpose. And then in verse 35, he says, let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now on the heels of that text in Luke 14 35 comes17:28 Luke 15 verse 1. Can we put Luke 15 verse 1 back on the screen? Because it says this, now the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to what?17:40 Hear him. And it's kind of interesting, isn't it? That the people who drew near when Jesus made his most demanding call for discipleship are the cultural17:51 outsiders. Now, live in a very different context than the 1 in which Jesus ministered. In the 1 in which Jesus ministered, if you were very religious, you were considered part of the in18:03 crowd. In our context it's the opposite. There is a religion in our world is the religion of irreligion. The religion of irreligion is the popular18:15 group of our culture. That the religion of irreligion is whatever you feel inside is what makes you you believe it, accept it, receive it, and and18:27 ostracize anybody who dares to reject it. The religion of irreligion is about materialism and consumption. How much can you get? How much can you own? How much can you can acquire? How much can you have?18:39 Materialism, consumerism, you deserve it. It's your time. It's your life. Don't let anybody get in the way of your life, your dreams, your passions. That's the religion of your religion. The18:51 religion of your religion believes always lead to heaven. And all you need to do is try your very best and be sincere and you'll get to heaven. That's the religion of irreligion but let me tell you something. There is19:01 absolute truth in scripture that cuts across all of the irreligion of our age. It upends the apple cart of the insiders of our current context and here's what I want you to know19:13 that Jesus Christ can be offensive to the people who are on the inside of the context to which he speaks and today more than ever, I feel the need to speak the truth of Jesus to a culture that is19:24 embracing lies whole scale. The truth not lies is what we need to hear from today's pulpits and today's preachers and the truth will set you free from the lies of this age as never before.19:36 As darkness continues to increase, we need to proclaim the light brighter than ever before. And Jesus cuts across the cultural laws, the rules, the regulations of his day,19:48 and he makes this religious insider crowd upset while at the same time embracing the outsiders. Here's why that means good news for you. If you're an outsider today, good news, Jesus will receive20:00 you. And I look at our world and I look at the darkness and I look at the increase Of all that we see and I say man there's still people that got us saving. I this is a golden20:12 opportunity. Where we see how quickly people can go from the inside to the outside hello. Will Smith learned that this week, didn't he? Man, a guy was20:23 cultural insider as insiders get. Front row seat at the most glorious, glamorous awards show that America's ever created. I think it's awful nonsense but they love it.20:36 And there he was and 1 slap brought him down. 1 slap. Look, Jesus can sometimes be the slap in your life.20:48 You claim him, boom, you're outside. You say yes to Jesus, suddenly the people who used to love you now hate you. You trust in Jesus and suddenly people think you're crazy. You're out of date.21:00 You're on the wrong side of history. Where are you going? You've joined a cult. They tell you all kinds of weird stuff. No, they're part of the cult. We're the ones that the son has set free and we're free indeed.21:13 Whoo. And it is not our job to look down our nose at the world. That's what the religious people did in Jesus today. It's our job to be the hands and feet of Jesus and go out into the world and be the light and the salt21:23 to a world that desperately needs to hear that Jesus Christ is alive. Amen. And that's what our church exists for and let us never become a church that's stuffy and full of old, dusty religious people.21:35 Amen. But let us be active and involved in reaching those who are lost in sin because that's what our Jesus did and that's what we're here to do.21:47 And I thought about this message, how to get lost. 3 ways, 3 different things get lost. A sheep, a coin, a son. A sheep, a coin, a son. They all get lost different ways. So point number 1 if you're21:59 taking notes is this. God sees every sinner's full story. That person at work that bugs you who's a sinner, not a Christian, irreligious, atheist, agnostic, I don't know.22:11 Well, can I tell you? There's a story behind that. Sometimes we just take people at face value for how they treat us, and we gotta remember that there's a story behind them. Let me have you write this down so I know22:23 you're getting it. Not all sinners are lost the same way. Not all sinners are not every sinner is just out to get you. They're just the product of their environment, the product of their upbringing, the product of their22:34 imaginations, the product of their feelings, whatever. So 3 things. Right? Sheep coin son. Sheep coin son. Letter a sheep was lost because of his own foolishness. Some people get lost because they're22:46 just dumb. I shared a message series called be bold. We talked about Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. Right? And I meant the the first point I made in that series was what? That if the Lord is a22:58 shepherd, that means that we are what? Baa. Right? And I said, to be called a sheep is not an is not a compliment. Sheep are skittish. Sheep are scared23:10 of everything. Sheep are stupid. They're senseless, and they're defenseless. This is how the Bible describes people. The Bible does23:22 not describe people as lions. We're lambs. We need help. We need a shepherd. We need somebody to guide us, lead us, and help us. And a lot of people who don't know Jesus, listen, you just need to understand, they're23:34 lost sheep. They may have gotten lost simply because their parents were lost and the blind was leading the blind. They may have gotten lost because they followed their feelings and23:46 they got stuck in some thorny bush And they don't realize even how they got there. They're sheep. They're foolish. They don't make wise decisions. That's the human23:57 condition. How many remember when you were not saved? The stupid things you believed, the foolish things you said, the ways that you lived. You were just like them. And I24:09 wanna say something to the people who were saved longer than 10 years. There comes a point where you get saved and you stop remembering what it was like to be lost. Don't let that happen to you.24:21 That's how you turn into a religious hypocrite. That's how you turn into a hater. And the world doesn't need more of that. The world needs people who remember what it's like to be lost because that's what they are. And I24:32 would suggest to you that in every context in which every single 1 of you are, there's a whole lot of religious haters, but there's probably 1 person in that situation, in that job, in that organization, in that family24:42 that God has sent you to to be their light, to be their friend, to be Jesus to them. So what does Jesus say? What man of24:54 you having 100 sheep? Verse 4. If he loses 1, doesn't leave the 99, go out in the open country and find it and seeks until he finds it, he throws a party. Scripture talks about this as this25:06 was our condition. Verse 6 of Isaiah 53, all we all we like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way, and the lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus25:18 died for us. The sheep were paid for by the shepherd's blood. But we were lost. We're fools. We were undone by our own stupidity.25:30 The coin, letter B, lost because of someone's carelessness. Now a coin doesn't get lost on its own. A sheep can get lost on its own but a coin, no, somebody lost the coin. Somebody25:42 made a mistake with the coin. Somebody was flippant with the coin. I don't know. The coin got lost because of someone's carelessness. Some people that you work with and live with and are related to are lost because of25:52 someone else's actions. Now, you know that I'm not a big fan of blaming other people for your problems. But let's be honest, there are some people that don't want to step foot in a church because of a priest26:04 or a pastor or a youth minister. You know what I'm talking about. I don't have to go any further. There are some people who don't want anything to do with the church because all they ever gotten from the church is26:15 judgmentality and hate. And I totally get that. And sometimes we met when we message our message, we don't think and we just kinda like26:27 draw the scarlet letter on people. We can always do better but listen, sometimes people are hurt and lost and far from god because of the carelessness of someone else. This woman was careless.26:39 She she lost a coin, but but the coin was still precious to her, so she went to work. Verse 8, what woman having? 10 silver coins. She if she loses 1, none none the 10 silver coins.26:51 Everybody listening to Jesus would have known what this is about. Women in those days would wear a headband with 10 silver coins on their head to signify that they were married. And to lose 1 was an act of shame. It was27:02 almost like you had lost marriage. It was almost like you were a shameful woman. So she was desperate to find that coin again because of the value of that coin of what it represented and so she what does it27:14 say? She lights a lamp. She sweeps the house. 2 illustrations. Some people are lost simply because the world is dark, simply because27:25 there's confusion abounding. News networks reporting falsehoods left, right, and center. Fake news causing more and more27:37 confusion upon the people. We don't have true news. We have talk show hosts who are advertising slaves. They wanna get your money. They wanna get your attention. Pay attention to me.27:49 You gotta be careful of this and our culture's embraced all of this nonsense. Oh, so much confusion, so much disorder orderness in in in in in just the in the consciousness of our country and some28:01 people, they're just lost in the darkness. We've gotta light the lamp. That's what you are. You're the light. You need to shine. You28:12 can't show up tomorrow with a case of the Mondays and act like everybody else. You gotta hit the floor with your knees and say, father, I'm going to work but I'm not just going to work. I'm on28:24 assignment for you. I pray that you help me to shine the light of Jesus in that place and let other people see you through me. That's what you are you are the light. And then number 2 she sweeps the house28:35 implication the house was dirty. And I think about this the coin was covered in dirt that's what some people are they just covered in the dirt of the world. They've had28:47 dirt cast on them. Somebody threw dirt on their life. She had to sweep. Now think about the illustration of anybody ever sweep? And what does sweeping do? What does a broom do?28:59 It stirs things up, doesn't it? It stirs up the dust. Suddenly there's all this dust. What happened? Well, broom got involved. That's you. You're29:11 God's broom. The sweeping, the stirring is conviction of sin. When you step into the environment, there might be conviction of sin by the people in that environment. That's why they lash out29:23 at you. It's not about you. It's about they know they're in darkness. You represent something that they know is missing in their life. That is if you're living a Christian life outside of the church.29:35 If they're very comfortable with you, something might be wrong. But stirring up, when I was working in the secular world, I was a I worked for the bank and I worked for restaurants, and29:47 I remember just my presence would bring conviction. And I wouldn't preach and I wouldn't, you know, just tell people they were sinners and go, I wouldn't do nothing. I just didn't do what they did after work. I just29:57 didn't involve myself. So, they would call me father Tim because they thought, here he is. Oh, yeah. Christian guy. Yeah. You don't want to go drinking for 1 us afterwards. Oh, yeah. He doesn't involve enough stuff or30:08 nothing. I didn't really it wasn't like I was op obscenely confrontation. I just living a Christian life and the presence of my life just brought stirring to their hearts.30:19 What I'm trying to tell you is sometimes the hate from outside from from non Christians is good. It's a good sign. You don't fit in. They don't like you. Amen.30:31 Amen. Jesus said, don't put your head down. Rejoice. Be glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they treated the false prophets who are before you. Whoo. And I always like to say that the people30:43 who are right in 1 generation are often scorned by that generation. Copernicus was hated. He was called a heretic. Hundred years later, they're like, oops, he was right. Same same thing30:55 with Christopher Columbus and same thing. Well, he's going the other way now but nonetheless, same thing with other great thinkers of the past that people hated in their time and realized later that they were right.31:06 Jeremiah was cast into a pit. Now, we revere him as a man of god, mighty in stature and righteousness. Isaiah was hated and vilified. Now, we know he was written writing the very words of the living god. Paul the apostle31:18 was hated by the Jewish leaders. Jesus Christ himself was rejected by the people of this world and today, 1800000000.0 people called Jesus lord. Whoo. Just because31:30 they hate you today doesn't mean you're wrong. You're sweeping up the dirt. Stirring up conviction in people's hearts. And let me just say that a coin31:43 gets dirty because people lose it, so were you. You were dirty, weren't you? You're filthy. The Bible says in Psalm 53 verse 2, God looks down on the children of men to see if there are31:55 any who understand, any who seek after God. They have all fallen away. They have all become corrupt. Another word for corrupt is they've all become filthy. That was us. That was who we are. We're. That's32:07 in some respects, that's still who we are. Still getting cleaned up by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. My point is have some compassion for people who are stuck in the darkness in the dirt of32:19 life because here's the thing about that coin. Just because it's dirty doesn't mean it's worthless. I want you to write this down. Just because someone is far from God doesn't mean they don't matter to God.32:32 Just because someone is completely on the other side of an argument with you doesn't mean that they don't matter to God. Be careful. Love them in Christ's name. I know it's hard. I know it's crazy. This is32:44 getting nutso. In so many ways beyond the pale. Now our educational system is being exposed for the corruption that is involved here as children32:55 are literally being indoctrinated into transgenderism, sexual confusion, and and a and a bill from Florida that's so innocuous, it's not even funny, has to be labeled33:07 as the most hateful, intolerant thing on the planet. I wanna say publicly and confidently, thank god we have at least 1 governor who's not afraid of the beast that is coming upon this age and is willing to stand up and33:19 say the truth. Where are the preachers though? Where are the pastors and the men of god who need to stand up on the pulpit and say, this is nonsense. These are lies. Come out33:31 from among them and be transformed to the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. I don't know about you but I still believe the blood of Jesus has power to save. I still believe33:43 the blood of Jesus can transform people's lives. I still believe the name of Jesus is the name by which all men must be saved. I believe there's demons but I also believe that Jesus's name drives out the33:55 demons from the darkest of places and Jesus has given us authority to go and trample on snakes and scorpions. Snakes in the schoolhouse, scorpions in the schoolhouse, scorpions in the34:07 courthouse. When we've got a Supreme Court nominee who can't even define what a woman is. But was ironically nominated for being a woman. The confusion my friends34:20 is what I'm talking about. And just because there's dirtiness and just because there's darkness doesn't mean we give up and wash our hands and go to heaven and do not care. No, God has sent us into this dirt and sent us34:31 into this darkness to be the light, to sweep up and stir up, and to be the people for whom Christ died and Christ has sent into the dark places of the world to save those who are lost in sin. Because here's34:43 what I know about my scriptures. Here's what I know about my Jesus. He can wash up anybody. Isaiah 1 18, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Am I talking to anybody who got34:55 washed? Am I talking to anybody who if we saw you 5 years ago, we wouldn't recognize you. Am I talking to anybody who comes from an atheist household, an agnostic household, a house, maybe a Muslim household, and you are35:06 completely in darkness? I thank god we're sending Mehdi and his wife down to South Coast to start a church in Tiverton, Rhode This man was lost in the darkness of Islam lost in the darkness of a religion of hate and35:16 Jesus Christ got a hold of his heart and turned him into a mighty man of god and now he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ to you. That's the power of Jesus He washes people clean.35:29 And we've gotta be here understanding that people are lost in darkness and dirty. And just because they're dirty doesn't mean they're bad. Our Jesus can save them. Then the35:41 lost son. Lost because of his own selfishness. I think this is where most of America is to be honest with you. We are. In many respects the most self centered culture.35:53 In human history. Americans have had it so good we've actually forgotten what real problems are. Yeah, I mean I don't like it any more than you but gas36:05 being 5 dollars a gallon Is a first world problem. I know it hurts. But that's why I tell you couple weeks ago get your kids down to Guatemala into36:17 Peru. Let them see the joy the absolute joy on a child's face when they're handed a ball. A ball. A cup of water.36:29 And so America is a lot like the prodigal son. They've had it so good for so long they don't even realize it. And the prodigal son got lost. Why? Because he's let his36:41 self get ahold of him. What does it say in verse 12? The younger son said to his father, give me. Give me. More damage has been done to more souls on36:53 the basis of those 2 words than almost anything else. I deserve. I want. It's all about me. The New Living Translation has this verse translated, father, I37:04 don't wanna wait until you die to have my inheritance. What the what the son was effectively saying is, dad, I'd rather you be dead and I get the stuff. That's the heart of the prodigal son. Give37:16 me the portion of the inheritance that's coming to me and the father just does. The father lets it have it. By the way, implication, when you ask god to give you, sometimes he gives it to you to let you see how dark you37:27 can get because you'll never learn the other way. How many of you some of you the only way you learn is by hitting rock bottom. The only way you learn is by getting smacked upside the37:39 head. You know what I'm talking about. He divided the property and then it says this. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and went into a far country, squandered his property in reckless reckless37:50 living, and when he had spent everything, suddenly there was a famine. Somebody say famine. You see, I I we we read the New Testament with western eyes. We need to understand eastern eyes. What I mean by that is the38:01 Bible is written in the cultural east, not the cultural west. The cultural west is highly individualized. So, we tend to focus on the son's choices, the son's determination, the son's the son's, you know,38:12 individuality, and that's what got him into the mess that he was in. But notice that the scripture says that he doesn't get he doesn't really end up hopeless until the famine happens. So when an Easterner looks at this38:22 text, they say, wait a second. The famine, that's that's a god thing. God brought the famine. He would never have woken up if god didn't bring the famine and end him up in poverty. Understand this. Some some of you can38:34 say, thank god for the famine that god let happened in my life. Thank thank god I had to go through that hell because if I had never gone through that hell, my eyes never would have opened.38:45 Like I said, some of you never learn it till you hit rock bottom, but how many know sometimes hitting rock bottom is the best place to bounce? And I say this to parents on a regular basis and I every timeShow more
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