Latest / Reach Church Podcast / This Is The Way Pt 3 - We Go After The One | Dave Snyder
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to the Reach Church Podcast. This is
- 0:09Speaker 1: Dave Snyder, pastor here at Reach Church. Each week we
- 0:13Speaker 1: share messages from our Sunday gatherings to help you discover
- 0:16Speaker 1: the love of God, be empowered for purpose, and impact
- 0:20Speaker 1: your world. We pray this message encourages you and helps
- 0:24Speaker 1: you grow in your walk with Jesus. Let's get into
- 0:27Speaker 1: today's message.
- 0:29Speaker 2: God's got a.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Way for you. His ways are higher than... than man's ways, right?
- 0:35Speaker 1: His ways are better than man's ways. His ways are higher.
- 0:39Speaker 1: His thoughts are higher than your thoughts. And Jesus said,
- 0:43Speaker 1: I'm the way, the truth, and the life. There's only
- 0:44Speaker 1: one way to live. And so I wanted to help
- 0:47Speaker 1: us understand how we're supposed to live this life. We've
- 0:50Speaker 1: been talking about some really what we call values, core
- 0:54Speaker 1: values for our church, but it's really more than that.
- 0:57Speaker 1: It's for our lives that we're supposed to, we talked
- 1:00Speaker 1: about first of all, we're supposed to be people who
- 1:02Speaker 1: pursue The presence of God. Every day, amen, pursuing his presence,
- 1:09Speaker 1: recognizing the Holy Spirit of God lives in you.
- 1:13Speaker 2: Come on, come on now.
- 1:15Speaker 1: This isn't a Baptist church. You can wake up a
- 1:17Speaker 1: little bit. You've got the Spirit of God in you.
- 1:20Speaker 2: Come on, amen. That's a good place to say amen, right?
- 1:24Speaker 1: We talked about we don't do life alone, that he's
- 1:26Speaker 1: got connection for us, that we're supposed to be connected
- 1:31Speaker 1: one to another. I want you to hear today, that
- 1:34Speaker 1: we are people who go after the one. We go
- 1:39Speaker 1: after the one. And I'm going to share this story
- 1:43Speaker 1: from Luke 15 in just a moment. You know, somebody
- 1:47Speaker 1: said the heartbeat of God is souls.
- 1:50Speaker 2: And I like that.
- 1:51Speaker 1: I think that's true because to God, I mean, that's
- 1:54Speaker 1: the reason he sent Jesus, isn't it? To redeem mankind,
- 1:58Speaker 1: to purchase mankind. So the heartbeat of.
- 2:01Speaker 2: God is souls. That's the gospel message, right?
- 2:04Speaker 1: But I think there's been times where the church has
- 2:07Speaker 1: forgotten our mission. And I don't necessarily mean this church.
- 2:12Speaker 1: I think this church that we heard this morning is
- 2:15Speaker 1: very welcoming. We go after people, but this is kind
- 2:18Speaker 1: of a reminder this morning. But I think throughout history,
- 2:21Speaker 1: the church as a whole has forgotten why we're here.
- 2:25Speaker 1: And the issue is sometimes we get comfortable saying, We
- 2:28Speaker 1: come to church and we got saved. Thank God we
- 2:30Speaker 1: got saved and we can sing about it. I got
- 2:33Speaker 1: saved and I got baptized and I got redeemed and
- 2:36Speaker 1: we get happy about us and we forget about out there.
- 2:39Speaker 1: That there's a world that still doesn't know Jesus. And
- 2:43Speaker 1: so we get comfortable and the church becomes like a
- 2:47Speaker 1: refrigerator to keep the saints from spoiling.
- 2:51Speaker 2: Instead of a hospital to be reaching the hurting.
- 2:55Speaker 1: And the sick and the dying people around us, see,
- 2:58Speaker 1: the church isn't called to be a refrigerator. Come on, somebody.
- 3:02Speaker 1: Come on, we've got to be a hospital. There's a man,
- 3:08Speaker 1: I'd consider him a hero of the faith. He lived
- 3:12Speaker 1: back in the 1700s, late 1700s, early 1800s. And it
- 3:18Speaker 1: was a time when the church, for the most part,
- 3:20Speaker 1: had forgotten its mission. And his name was William Carey.
- 3:25Speaker 1: And he felt God calling him to go to missions.
- 3:29Speaker 1: And this was a time where the church didn't do missions.
- 3:34Speaker 1: That was an unheard of thing because the church was
- 3:37Speaker 1: only concerned about itself. Keeping the people happy and maintaining
- 3:43Speaker 1: what they had. And they weren't thinking about missions. And
- 3:46Speaker 1: when he said, God's called me to go to India
- 3:49Speaker 1: and preach. And he was in England.
- 3:50Speaker 2: God's called me to go to India.
- 3:52Speaker 1: And he went before this board of men to propose
- 3:57Speaker 1: this mission.
- 3:58Speaker 2: Of going to India. And here's what they told him.
- 4:01Speaker 2: They said, young man, sit down.
- 4:03Speaker 1: When God wants to save the heathen, he'll do it
- 4:05Speaker 1: without your help or without my help. But see, they've
- 4:09Speaker 1: forgotten the mission of the church. Jesus said, go into
- 4:11Speaker 1: all the world. preach the gospel. He said to go
- 4:17Speaker 1: into all the world and make disciples of every nation.
- 4:20Speaker 1: But see, sometimes the church has forgotten why we're here
- 4:23Speaker 1: because we get comfortable. And so, but that man went
- 4:26Speaker 1: out anyway, without the, without the blessing of the church,
- 4:29Speaker 1: he went out and he began to work and he
- 4:31Speaker 1: served for decades in India and his movement, he really
- 4:34Speaker 1: created a movement of missionaries that began to go out.
- 4:37Speaker 1: As a result of that, he became known as the
- 4:39Speaker 1: father of modern missions because God put a vision in
- 4:42Speaker 1: his heart to reach the lost.
- 4:44Speaker 2: And this is what I'm talking about this morning.
- 4:45Speaker 1: We've got to be people who go after the world
- 4:48Speaker 1: around us, go after the one.
- 4:52Speaker 2: And so this morning, I want you to look at
- 4:55Speaker 2: this story in Luke 15.
- 4:57Speaker 1: And let me just set it up for a moment
- 5:00Speaker 1: because Jesus was, you know, I think if, if some people,
- 5:06Speaker 1: if some Christians were to actually get around Jesus, they
- 5:10Speaker 1: would be surprised. at how he acted they would be
- 5:14Speaker 1: surprised at how he lived because i think the way
- 5:20Speaker 1: jesus lived as i read through the gospels it's not
- 5:22Speaker 1: the way a lot of religious people like to live
- 5:26Speaker 1: he wasn't concerned about making uh religion look good he
- 5:31Speaker 1: wasn't concerned about about making people comfortable was he he
- 5:35Speaker 1: went after people and so it says he was eating
- 5:39Speaker 1: and drinking with sinners He was hanging out with people
- 5:45Speaker 1: that maybe some of us wouldn't want to hang out with.
- 5:49Speaker 1: He was hanging out with people who the world considered
- 5:54Speaker 1: lower than them, right? The religious people considered them lower.
- 5:57Speaker 1: I want you to look at the story of the
- 6:00Speaker 1: lost sheep. And you can play, I think there's a
- 6:02Speaker 1: video you can play in the background while I read
- 6:04Speaker 1: this story. It says the tax collectors and sinners were
- 6:09Speaker 1: approaching to listen to Jesus and And the Pharisees and
- 6:13Speaker 1: scribes were complaining, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
- 6:16Speaker 1: So Jesus told them this story. What man among you
- 6:19Speaker 1: has a hundred sheep and loses one? And he doesn't
- 6:23Speaker 1: leave the 99 in the open field and go after
- 6:26Speaker 1: the one until he finds it. When he has found it,
- 6:29Speaker 1: he joyfully puts it on his shoulders. And coming home,
- 6:33Speaker 1: he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them,
- 6:37Speaker 1: rejoice with me because I've found my lost sheep. I
- 6:41Speaker 1: tell you in the same way, There will be more
- 6:43Speaker 1: joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
- 6:47Speaker 1: 99 righteous people who don't need repents. Right? So let
- 6:53Speaker 1: me just break this story down for a minute. There's
- 6:55Speaker 1: a man who has a hundred sheep.
- 6:58Speaker 2: He loses one.
- 7:00Speaker 1: I was thinking this morning about the, I don't know
- 7:03Speaker 1: how many of you were here years ago. There was
- 7:05Speaker 1: a guy named Arthur Burt who used to come through.
- 7:07Speaker 1: Anybody remember Arthur Burt? Maybe five of you remember. And
- 7:10Speaker 1: so I can tell this. This was his little thing.
- 7:14Speaker 1: He had a lot of interesting things he would share.
- 7:17Speaker 1: And he told this, I don't even know what you
- 7:20Speaker 1: call it, a little anecdote about some sheep. He said
- 7:23Speaker 1: there was a man who had 26 sheep and one died.
- 7:28Speaker 2: How many were left? Can you answer for me?
- 7:31Speaker 1: Let me read it. Let me say it again. There
- 7:33Speaker 1: was a man who had 26 sheep.
- 7:37Speaker 2: One died.
- 7:38Speaker 1: How many were left?
- 7:42Speaker 2: Let me say it a little slower.
- 7:43Speaker 1: There was a man who had 26 sheep.
- 7:50Speaker 2: One died.
- 7:52Speaker 1: How many were left? Oh, see, and I guess the
- 7:56Speaker 1: point is you have to pay attention. Now, you couldn't
- 7:59Speaker 1: have paid attention probably well enough to catch that, but
- 8:03Speaker 1: sometimes we're not paying attention to the world around us.
- 8:06Speaker 1: And again, there was this man. He had 99 sheep.
- 8:10Speaker 1: He could have been pretty happy. He could have ignored
- 8:13Speaker 1: the one that was lost. I think if you're in school,
- 8:17Speaker 1: if I got a 99, I was happy. Now, some
- 8:20Speaker 1: of you weren't. I know Courtney wouldn't have been happy
- 8:23Speaker 1: where she at. I know she would have been upset.
- 8:26Speaker 1: I need that 100, right? Some of you would have
- 8:29Speaker 1: been upset. I need the 100. But listen, this man,
- 8:32Speaker 1: he's not happy with 99. So he goes after the one, right?
- 8:38Speaker 1: To everybody else, that's just a number on a spreadsheet.
- 8:43Speaker 1: But not to him. To him, that represented something. It
- 8:49Speaker 1: was something he had to go after. Listen, in your life,
- 8:53Speaker 1: you are not a number to God. You might be
- 8:56Speaker 1: a number to the government. They give you a number
- 8:58Speaker 1: when you're born. You might just be a number to them.
- 9:01Speaker 1: You might just be a number at work or a
- 9:03Speaker 1: number to some other place. But listen, to God, you're
- 9:07Speaker 1: not just a number. So he went after the sheep,
- 9:11Speaker 1: didn't he? And Jesus looked at people and he's saying,
- 9:17Speaker 1: I see people who are lost. I see people who
- 9:22Speaker 1: need a shepherd. And again, the danger is the church
- 9:24Speaker 1: can get so focused on the people that are here
- 9:28Speaker 1: that we forget there's a world out there that needs Jesus. See,
- 9:33Speaker 1: we can't make the 99, the 99 can't make us
- 9:37Speaker 1: forget the one. It doesn't mean we stop caring about
- 9:40Speaker 1: the 99. It doesn't mean we don't care about you and.
- 9:42Speaker 2: About what's happening.
- 9:43Speaker 1: No, we talked about that last week, that we do
- 9:46Speaker 1: life together, that we care about each other. Of course,
- 9:48Speaker 1: that means we care. But listen, how many around us
- 9:52Speaker 1: know people that don't know God? How many of you
- 9:56Speaker 1: know people who stopped coming to church? Where are they?
- 10:00Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 10:02Speaker 1: Listen, no, we gotta be going after the one. There's
- 10:06Speaker 1: some people who are drifting in life, drifting from their faith. See,
- 10:12Speaker 1: we need to live with a focus on the one.
- 10:13Speaker 1: We're people who go after the one. Let me put
- 10:15Speaker 1: up verse four again. I want you to see what
- 10:17Speaker 1: he says. What man among you who has 100 and
- 10:21Speaker 1: loses one, doesn't leave the 99 in the field and
- 10:25Speaker 1: go after it and listen until he finds it. See,
- 10:31Speaker 1: that says something to me. Until he finds it. Sometimes
- 10:36Speaker 1: you look for something and you say, oh, well, I
- 10:38Speaker 1: didn't find it, right? I looked and I didn't find it.
- 10:41Speaker 1: And maybe a year later you find it. It was
- 10:42Speaker 1: behind the couch or something. But I looked and I
- 10:44Speaker 1: didn't see it. But he looks until he finds it. See,
- 10:50Speaker 1: it's implying something. He's going after the one. It's not
- 10:54Speaker 1: just concern. You know, you can be concerned and not
- 10:56Speaker 1: do anything. Am I right? I mean, there's a lot
- 11:00Speaker 1: of things in this world I'm concerned about. I hear
- 11:03Speaker 1: about them on the news, and I say, ooh, isn't
- 11:05Speaker 1: that terrible?
- 11:06Speaker 2: Oh, isn't that sad?
- 11:07Speaker 1: I'm concerned about these things, but I'm not doing anything
- 11:11Speaker 1: about it.
- 11:12Speaker 2: What am I going to do?
- 11:13Speaker 1: And sometimes we take the Christian life that way. Ooh,
- 11:15Speaker 1: I'm concerned there's a lost world. You can be concerned
- 11:19Speaker 1: and not move. He could have been concerned. There's a
- 11:21Speaker 1: lost sheep. Isn't that terrible? Maybe it'll turn up. Maybe
- 11:25Speaker 1: it'll come home on its own. No, so it's got
- 11:28Speaker 1: to go from being concerned into movement. See, God wants
- 11:31Speaker 1: you to be people who move, not just be concerned.
- 11:35Speaker 1: He wants you to be people who go after the one,
- 11:38Speaker 1: people who move. See, we can care about the lost
- 11:42Speaker 1: and never go after them. There's another story in Luke
- 11:48Speaker 1: 19 about a man named Zacchaeus, right? Some of you
- 11:52Speaker 1: know the story from being a child in church and
- 11:55Speaker 1: they have a little song about Zacchaeus. It's a cute
- 11:57Speaker 1: little song. And he was a short man, the Bible says,
- 12:03Speaker 1: you know. And so Jesus is passing through in this
- 12:08Speaker 1: town called Jericho. And Zacchaeus, again, he's a short man.
- 12:12Speaker 1: He can't see over the crowd. And so it says
- 12:14Speaker 1: he climbs up in this tree so he can get
- 12:16Speaker 1: a sight of this man that everybody's talking about. This
- 12:21Speaker 1: holy man, this righteous man, this man who is doing miracles,
- 12:25Speaker 1: this man who is known by God as much as
- 12:29Speaker 1: he knows about. He doesn't maybe understand he's the Messiah
- 12:31Speaker 1: and all this, but he knows there's talk about this man, Jesus.
- 12:35Speaker 1: And so he climbs up in the tree. And here
- 12:38Speaker 1: comes Jesus, and what happens? Jesus stops right in front
- 12:42Speaker 1: of him, right? And he calls him by name, Zacchaeus,
- 12:45Speaker 1: I want you to come down because I'm going to
- 12:48Speaker 1: your house. And I want you to think about this
- 12:52Speaker 1: for a minute because Jesus saw him. How did Jesus
- 12:55Speaker 1: know his name? Only by the Holy Spirit, right? Maybe
- 12:59Speaker 1: he had a reputation. Maybe people had talked about Zacchaeus.
- 13:02Speaker 1: He was a little short tax collector. If you see him,
- 13:04Speaker 1: make sure you stay away from him. Maybe there had
- 13:06Speaker 1: been some talk about him, But I believe it was
- 13:08Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit telling him, I want you to stop
- 13:12Speaker 1: and talk to this man. In fact, it says Jesus
- 13:14Speaker 1: was passing through Jericho. Passing through means I'm not staying.
- 13:19Speaker 1: Am I right? I'm just passing through. But when Jesus
- 13:23Speaker 1: sees him, he stops. He says, Zacchaeus, he calls him
- 13:27Speaker 1: by name. He knows your name. And he calls him
- 13:30Speaker 1: by name. And he says, I want you to come
- 13:32Speaker 1: down because I'm staying at your house today. So I
- 13:36Speaker 1: want you to think about that. God changed the plans
- 13:39Speaker 1: of Jesus for this little man. This man that everybody
- 13:43Speaker 1: else hated him because he was a tax collector. Everybody
- 13:47Speaker 1: else hated him because he used to steal from people.
- 13:50Speaker 1: And when they would go to charge taxes, it wasn't
- 13:53Speaker 1: like the tax man. Now, not many people maybe like
- 13:55Speaker 1: the tax man now, but when back then you wouldn't,
- 13:58Speaker 1: you would have really hated the tax man because he
- 14:01Speaker 1: could come up to you and say he could make
- 14:03Speaker 1: up dollar amounts.
- 14:04Speaker 2: Yeah, you owe a thousand dollars now. And you said, no,
- 14:07Speaker 2: I paid it last week.
- 14:08Speaker 1: No, you owe it again. And he could do whatever
- 14:10Speaker 1: he wanted or put you in jail and you had
- 14:12Speaker 1: to pay. And it was extortion and it was thievery.
- 14:15Speaker 1: And everybody hated the tax man because that's how they acted.
- 14:19Speaker 1: And yet Jesus said, I'm going to your house. You know,
- 14:24Speaker 1: most of us wouldn't want to bother with that man.
- 14:28Speaker 1: None of the religious people wanted to bother with him.
- 14:30Speaker 1: But Jesus went out of his way for him. You know,
- 14:33Speaker 1: what does that tell you? There's people around you that
- 14:38Speaker 1: maybe you've stayed away from. You say, I don't want
- 14:41Speaker 1: anything to do with them. But maybe God's calling you
- 14:45Speaker 1: to go a little bit farther. Maybe he's calling you
- 14:49Speaker 1: to move. Maybe he's calling you to eat with them.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Maybe he's calling you to do something for them, to
- 14:55Speaker 1: reach out to that one person. But I want you
- 14:57Speaker 1: to hear what this does for Zacchaeus. Can you put
- 14:59Speaker 1: up verse 6 for me? So Zacchaeus quickly came down
- 15:04Speaker 1: and welcomed him joyfully. All who saw it began to complain.
- 15:08Speaker 1: He's gone to stay with a sinful man. But Zacchaeus
- 15:11Speaker 1: stood there and said to the Lord, look, I'll give
- 15:15Speaker 1: half my possessions to the poor.
- 15:16Speaker 2: Now, wait a minute.
- 15:19Speaker 1: Did we miss something? Jesus didn't say, hey, Zacchaeus, you
- 15:24Speaker 1: son of a gun. Get down here. I know what
- 15:28Speaker 1: you've been up to. I know you've been stealing. I
- 15:32Speaker 1: know you're a thief. I'm going to go to your
- 15:34Speaker 1: house and do an inspection and see. The Lord will
- 15:38Speaker 1: tell me the things that you've stolen. He doesn't say
- 15:41Speaker 1: any of that. He says, I'm coming to your house.
- 15:45Speaker 1: And do you know there's a change in Zacchaeus? Because
- 15:49Speaker 1: Jesus is coming in my house. I'm going to give
- 15:52Speaker 1: half of everything to the poor if I've extorted. Now,
- 15:55Speaker 1: we could probably remove the if. If I've extorted it, Anything,
- 15:59Speaker 1: I'll pay back four times as much. Before I read
- 16:04Speaker 1: the next verse, I just want you to think about
- 16:06Speaker 1: this for a minute because all Jesus said was, I'm
- 16:08Speaker 1: coming into your house. When he comes in, things change,
- 16:13Speaker 1: don't they? You know, sometimes we get it backwards. We
- 16:16Speaker 1: want to change the world. We want them to start
- 16:19Speaker 1: acting right. We want them to start living right. We
- 16:22Speaker 1: want them to start looking like they're holy without Jesus.
- 16:25Speaker 1: You can't do it. But when he comes in, everything changes.
- 16:31Speaker 1: Maybe in your life, you used to be like Zacchaeus.
- 16:33Speaker 1: You used to be a low down, rotten kind of person.
- 16:37Speaker 1: You did some things you're not proud of. But when
- 16:39Speaker 1: Jesus came in, did you get changed? Did he change
- 16:42Speaker 1: you from the inside out?
- 16:44Speaker 2: See, we're not supposed to stay the same church.
- 16:47Speaker 1: If you're coming to church and you get Jesus in
- 16:49Speaker 1: your life, he changes you.
- 16:51Speaker 2: You can't live the way you used to live.
- 16:53Speaker 1: You can't do the things you used to do and
- 16:55Speaker 1: be happy because You've got Jesus on the inside.
- 16:58Speaker 2: He changes you.
- 17:01Speaker 1: Come on. So Jesus says in verse 9, today salvation
- 17:07Speaker 1: has come to this house because he too is a
- 17:10Speaker 1: son of Abraham.
- 17:10Speaker 2: Listen to verse 10. For the son of man.
- 17:14Speaker 1: Did I give you verse 10?
- 17:17Speaker 2: I'll read it to you.
- 17:18Speaker 1: For the son of man has come to seek and
- 17:22Speaker 1: save the lost. Jesus came he says the reason I
- 17:27Speaker 1: came was to seek and to save the lost anybody
- 17:34Speaker 1: remember playing hide and seek when you were a kid
- 17:38Speaker 1: or if you have kids you've probably played hide and
- 17:40Speaker 1: seek recently and the point of hide and seek I'll
- 17:45Speaker 1: just tell you in case you haven't figured it out
- 17:47Speaker 1: it's to find the person who's hiding and sometimes the
- 17:51Speaker 1: church has acted like the person hiding No, listen, we're
- 17:55Speaker 1: called to seek and save that which was lost. You know?
- 18:04Speaker 1: But listen, when people saw Jesus going to Zacchaeus' house,
- 18:09Speaker 1: they complained. You know? They saw somebody who was unworthy.
- 18:15Speaker 1: They saw somebody who wasn't good enough. And there's people
- 18:18Speaker 1: out there who feel like that. They feel like Zacchaeus does. Like,
- 18:23Speaker 1: I'm not good enough to come in church. I'm not
- 18:26Speaker 1: good enough to get around church people.
- 18:29Speaker 2: They don't want me.
- 18:30Speaker 1: And maybe they've been in some churches where people have said,
- 18:33Speaker 1: you're not welcome here. You know, there's churches that are
- 18:36Speaker 1: out there that'll do that. Hey, they come in and
- 18:39Speaker 1: they've got, maybe they've got some tattoos they don't like,
- 18:42Speaker 1: or they're dressed the wrong kind of way. And they say,
- 18:44Speaker 1: you're not welcome here until you get yourself cleaned up.
- 18:46Speaker 1: And they got it so backwards. You don't get cleaned
- 18:49Speaker 1: up until you have Jesus in your life. And Jesus
- 18:54Speaker 1: isn't concerned with how you're dressed or how many tattoos
- 18:57Speaker 1: you have. He's concerned with the inside. But we like
- 19:01Speaker 1: to look at the outside and judge people. We had
- 19:04Speaker 1: a guy, I'll tell you this story. Some of you
- 19:06Speaker 1: have heard it before. We had a guy when we,
- 19:08Speaker 1: when the very first service at our Liberty campus, it
- 19:12Speaker 1: was about a year ago, just over a year ago,
- 19:15Speaker 1: this guy came in and I saw him up in
- 19:18Speaker 1: the front of the church and And he was dressed
- 19:20Speaker 1: like a cowboy, right? He had his cowboy hat on.
- 19:22Speaker 1: He had a leather vest. He had his big boots on.
- 19:26Speaker 1: And he was in the church. And I preached that Sunday.
- 19:28Speaker 1: And I pulled up a chair on the stage. I said,
- 19:31Speaker 1: there's a seat for you at the table. God's got
- 19:33Speaker 1: a seat for you at his table. It doesn't matter
- 19:37Speaker 1: how you look. And I kind of preached about this
- 19:39Speaker 1: kind of thing. God wants to invite you to his table.
- 19:43Speaker 1: And I told him, there's a seat for you at
- 19:44Speaker 1: this church, that we love you. And we'd love to
- 19:47Speaker 1: have you be part of this church. And I preached
- 19:49Speaker 1: that message. And at the end, I had an altar call,
- 19:52Speaker 1: and he came to the front. He said, my name's Cowboy.
- 19:54Speaker 1: I said, of course it is.
- 19:56Speaker 2: And he said, my real name's David, which is my name.
- 19:59Speaker 1: And so I said, hi, David, but I'm going to
- 20:01Speaker 1: call you Cowboy, because he wanted to be called Cowboy.
- 20:04Speaker 1: So he asked for prayer, and he said, I've got
- 20:08Speaker 1: stage four cancer. He was very, very skinny. I've got
- 20:12Speaker 1: stage four cancer. Would you pray for him? I prayed
- 20:14Speaker 1: for him. I hugged him, loved on him. And he
- 20:17Speaker 1: didn't tell me all this at the time, but later
- 20:19Speaker 1: he went around telling everybody, he said, I found a
- 20:21Speaker 1: church where I can belong. He said, they told me,
- 20:26Speaker 1: he told people this. He said, they told me there's
- 20:28Speaker 1: a seat for me. They said, they've got a seat
- 20:31Speaker 1: for me. He said, I've been to churches my whole life.
- 20:33Speaker 1: I've never been to one that welcomed me. I've never
- 20:37Speaker 1: been in my whole life, and he was in his 60s.
- 20:39Speaker 1: I've never been into a church where I felt welcome.
- 20:42Speaker 1: For the first time, I found a church where I
- 20:45Speaker 1: feel welcome. Five months later, he passed away. And our
- 20:50Speaker 1: campus pastor, Daniel, had the privilege of doing that funeral.
- 20:54Speaker 1: But it touches me so much when I think about
- 20:56Speaker 1: Cowboy because Cowboy is the reason Jesus came. But the church,
- 21:01Speaker 1: for the most part, had said, we don't want you
- 21:03Speaker 1: because you don't look like us.
- 21:05Speaker 2: And you don't talk like us.
- 21:07Speaker 1: We only want people who look like they belong in church,
- 21:09Speaker 1: but that's the people Jesus came to save. And I
- 21:14Speaker 1: don't know this morning if there's some people in your life,
- 21:17Speaker 1: some people around you who need saving. Listen, I know
- 21:20Speaker 1: you don't do the saving, but you can bring them
- 21:22Speaker 1: to the one who does. Welcome them in church. Make
- 21:27Speaker 1: them feel welcome. Seek and save. Amen. It says in
- 21:35Speaker 1: Romans 2, 4, it's the kindness of God that brings
- 21:38Speaker 1: us to repentance. I want you to look at Luke 15,
- 21:44Speaker 1: verse 5. We're still talking about the sheep. When he
- 21:50Speaker 1: found it, he joyfully put it on his shoulders. It
- 21:55Speaker 1: says in the next verse, it talks about how he
- 21:57Speaker 1: carries it home. But I want you to think about
- 21:59Speaker 1: this because this is the grace of God. He gives
- 22:04Speaker 1: you what you don't deserve. He gives you something you
- 22:07Speaker 1: don't deserve. You didn't deserve to be carried. You didn't
- 22:11Speaker 1: earn it. He went and found you and he carried you.
- 22:14Speaker 1: Because he looked at you, he said, he's not going
- 22:16Speaker 1: to make it on his own. I need to help him.
- 22:20Speaker 1: I need to carry him until he can learn how
- 22:22Speaker 1: to walk the right way. Until he can learn how
- 22:25Speaker 1: to live the right way. That's what grace looks like.
- 22:28Speaker 1: Jesus paid my debt and he makes me his child.
- 22:33Speaker 1: I didn't deserve that, right? And all through the Bible,
- 22:37Speaker 1: you know, there's, I think there's people, when you get
- 22:39Speaker 1: to heaven, I want you to do a little survey.
- 22:43Speaker 1: I want you to go meet all these people in
- 22:45Speaker 1: this Bible and you tell me how many of them
- 22:49Speaker 1: would have fit in in some of the churches around here.
- 22:52Speaker 1: Because I think there's a lot of them who, if
- 22:55Speaker 1: they went to a church, they wouldn't be welcome. You know,
- 22:59Speaker 1: I'm not sure how welcome Peter would have been in
- 23:02Speaker 1: some of the churches. In his pre-Jesus state. I read
- 23:09Speaker 1: through the Bible, I see stories of people that God
- 23:12Speaker 1: went after. And a lot of them weren't seeking him.
- 23:17Speaker 1: It's not like Peter was like, where am I going
- 23:18Speaker 1: to find Jesus? He's just out there fishing. And Jesus
- 23:23Speaker 1: found him. He went after him. And in fact, Peter
- 23:26Speaker 1: has a similar reaction to Zacchaeus when Jesus says, go
- 23:30Speaker 1: put your nets out in the deep water to catch
- 23:32Speaker 1: all those fish. And what does Peter say? He falls
- 23:34Speaker 1: on his knees. He says, go away, go away from me.
- 23:38Speaker 1: I'm a sinful man. I wouldn't, Lord, I don't belong
- 23:42Speaker 1: in your church because I'm a mess. Lord, my life
- 23:45Speaker 1: is a mess. I don't deserve to be near you.
- 23:48Speaker 1: But Jesus said, no, I'm calling you. I'm calling you
- 23:51Speaker 1: to become a fisher See, Jesus sees things in people
- 23:55Speaker 1: that we don't see. I know I'm talking to the
- 23:59Speaker 1: choir this morning, but I want you to understand, we
- 24:02Speaker 1: have to be reminded sometimes of what this word is
- 24:06Speaker 1: all about. What is the gospel all about? So he
- 24:10Speaker 1: carries the sheep. When he finds it, he doesn't leave
- 24:12Speaker 1: it where it is. He doesn't say, okay, sheep, I
- 24:14Speaker 1: found you. Now I hope you find your way home.
- 24:17Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be terrible? But listen, that's how sometimes we act.
- 24:22Speaker 1: Someone comes to know the Lord. Isn't that wonderful?
- 24:24Speaker 2: Here's a Bible.
- 24:25Speaker 1: I hope you figure it out. And they go home
- 24:27Speaker 1: and they open to Leviticus. And they say, what is this?
- 24:32Speaker 1: I don't want the Bible. And I'm joking a little,
- 24:35Speaker 1: but it's kind of true. If you can remember back
- 24:38Speaker 1: when you were saved, were you a little confused? What
- 24:41Speaker 1: am I supposed to do?
- 24:42Speaker 2: I got saved. What does that mean?
- 24:45Speaker 1: And listen, sometimes people don't know, and so they need
- 24:48Speaker 1: other people, other believers to come around and kind of
- 24:51Speaker 1: carry them. until they can learn how to walk on
- 24:55Speaker 1: their own. We started this thing here we call our
- 24:59Speaker 1: mentoring program. When someone is born again, we try to
- 25:01Speaker 1: connect them with someone right away because there's believers, there's
- 25:05Speaker 1: people who are like you that are mature in your faith,
- 25:09Speaker 1: and you can help them. So when they have a problem,
- 25:12Speaker 1: they say, hey, I just opened my Bible, and this
- 25:15Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. You say, wait a minute, let
- 25:16Speaker 1: me tell you. Why don't you, instead of Leviticus, let's
- 25:19Speaker 1: start in the Gospels. Why don't we start in the
- 25:21Speaker 1: New Testament, and I think things will become more clear. Or, hey,
- 25:25Speaker 1: I'm struggling, and I had some addictions in my life,
- 25:28Speaker 1: and I don't know what to do. Hey, let me
- 25:30Speaker 1: pray for you. Let's get you around some other believers.
- 25:32Speaker 1: But see, if they don't have that kind of connection,
- 25:35Speaker 1: what happens is they have a world that's pulling them back.
- 25:40Speaker 1: They have relationships that are pulling them back to where
- 25:43Speaker 1: they used to be. They had friendships, family members who
- 25:47Speaker 1: were saying, you don't need that.
- 25:48Speaker 2: Come on back. with me and the devil.
- 25:52Speaker 1: But listen, as a, as a church, we need people
- 25:55Speaker 1: who stand with those people who say, no, I want
- 25:58Speaker 1: to help you.
- 25:59Speaker 2: I want to carry you for a little bit.
- 26:01Speaker 1: I don't mean we got to do everything for him,
- 26:03Speaker 1: but just be somebody who can encourage them. If you're
- 26:05Speaker 1: willing to do that, I need some people who are
- 26:07Speaker 1: willing to do that. Amen.
- 26:10Speaker 2: Because listen, we don't, we don't save ourselves. Jesus does.
- 26:14Speaker 1: It says, cast your cares on him Because he cares
- 26:18Speaker 1: for you. So there's a good shepherd. He wants to
- 26:21Speaker 1: care for you. But listen, just finding lost people isn't
- 26:26Speaker 1: the goal.
- 26:26Speaker 2: Did you know that? Because there's lost people all around here.
- 26:29Speaker 2: We can find them.
- 26:30Speaker 1: We can even go and force some of them to
- 26:32Speaker 1: say a salvation prayer and they might say it with us.
- 26:34Speaker 1: But that's not what we're called to do. We're called
- 26:37Speaker 1: to go and make disciples. We're called to make disciples.
- 26:41Speaker 1: How do you make a disciple? That means you've got
- 26:43Speaker 1: to do a little bit of life with them. You've
- 26:46Speaker 1: got to get them connected. You've got to help them.
- 26:47Speaker 1: You've got to carry them just a little bit. Because
- 26:51Speaker 1: some people, listen, they won't figure it out on their own.
- 26:55Speaker 1: Galatians 6.2, can you put that one up for me?
- 26:58Speaker 1: Carry one another's burdens. In this way, you fulfill the
- 27:03Speaker 1: law of Christ. So we're people who go after the one.
- 27:08Speaker 1: In this church, we say we make room for one more.
- 27:12Speaker 1: That might mean there's times where somebody comes on the
- 27:15Speaker 1: stage and says, hey, slide in a little bit.
- 27:17Speaker 2: I don't mind that.
- 27:18Speaker 1: I like that because that means more people are finding Jesus. Now,
- 27:23Speaker 1: I've noticed there's some room in here this morning. So
- 27:25Speaker 1: next week, you may have to slide in. But let's
- 27:30Speaker 1: make room for one more. Hey, I don't mind if
- 27:33Speaker 1: the parking lot's a little bit full and I got
- 27:35Speaker 1: to go around. I don't mind if I got to
- 27:37Speaker 1: park across the street and walk over. Did you know
- 27:40Speaker 1: there's a restaurant, our favorite restaurant in Greensboro called in
- 27:43Speaker 1: case anybody's looking for a gift card later. It's called
- 27:47Speaker 1: Dave's Hot Chicken, okay? If you haven't, I don't get
- 27:51Speaker 1: a kickback if you go there, but I would recommend it.
- 27:53Speaker 1: Best hot chicken in Greensboro. Not that I like to
- 27:57Speaker 1: go to Greensboro too much, but if you go up
- 27:59Speaker 1: there and you go to that place, you won't be
- 28:01Speaker 1: able to find parking because they've got a tiny little
- 28:04Speaker 1: parking lot.
- 28:05Speaker 2: Anybody been there? Is it just me? Yeah, you've been there. Okay,
- 28:07Speaker 2: you know what I'm talking about. And you try to
- 28:10Speaker 2: park and there's no parking. And if you get... If
- 28:13Speaker 2: you think I'll park in the parking lot next door,
- 28:15Speaker 2: they're going to tow your car. You can't do it.
- 28:17Speaker 2: So you just got to circle it till you find
- 28:18Speaker 2: a parking spot. But you know what?
- 28:20Speaker 1: I don't mind that because the chicken is so good. Listen,
- 28:25Speaker 1: if I'll do that for chicken, I think what we
- 28:27Speaker 1: got here is better. Would you be willing to have
- 28:31Speaker 1: some difficulty parking if that meant more people are getting saved?
- 28:34Speaker 1: Come on. Would you be willing to slide in if
- 28:36Speaker 1: it means more people are getting saved? See, I'm willing
- 28:39Speaker 1: to do that, but we need a church who's willing
- 28:41Speaker 1: to do that. not just the pastor. Amen. Amen. I
- 28:48Speaker 1: want you to look at verse six and coming home,
- 28:53Speaker 1: he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice
- 28:56Speaker 1: with me because I've found my lost sheep. I tell
- 29:02Speaker 1: you in the same way, there'll be more joy in
- 29:04Speaker 1: heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous
- 29:09Speaker 1: people who don't. need repentance.
- 29:11Speaker 2: But I want you to catch that.
- 29:13Speaker 1: Rejoice with me because he doesn't just find the sheep.
- 29:18Speaker 1: He doesn't just bring it home, but now there's a party.
- 29:21Speaker 1: He gets all his friends together. He calls all of
- 29:24Speaker 1: his neighbors. Come on. I lost a sheep, but now
- 29:27Speaker 1: he's found this. This guy was lost, but now he's found.
- 29:31Speaker 1: Can we celebrate together? See, we need to celebrate some
- 29:34Speaker 1: things in here. We need to celebrate when somebody comes
- 29:38Speaker 1: to know the Lord, there should be a celebration. when
- 29:41Speaker 1: somebody's baptized there should be a celebration because it means
- 29:44Speaker 1: there's a life that's now dedicated to the lord but
- 29:47Speaker 1: he says there's there's more joy in heaven and really
- 29:52Speaker 1: what he's doing he's pulling back the curtain of heaven
- 29:54Speaker 1: so you can see what heaven's like all right It
- 29:58Speaker 1: reveals something about heaven. They celebrate. But that also means
- 30:07Speaker 1: they're watching. Oh, that's interesting, isn't it? See, they wouldn't
- 30:12Speaker 1: know unless there's a scoreboard up there and there's just
- 30:14Speaker 1: a number, but I don't believe that's what it's like.
- 30:17Speaker 2: Oh, there's another.
- 30:18Speaker 1: Oh, it turned from, yeah. And let's celebrate. No, I
- 30:21Speaker 1: think they're watching how you are living in this day.
- 30:26Speaker 1: They're watching you. The opportunities God's given you. Hey, watch this.
- 30:33Speaker 2: Put it up on the screen.
- 30:34Speaker 1: I just gave somebody an opportunity to lead somebody to
- 30:37Speaker 1: the Lord. Let's watch what happens. Don't waste your opportunity. Listen,
- 30:43Speaker 1: I think that means we have to notice some things
- 30:45Speaker 1: around us. Notice when there's people around us who need Jesus.
- 30:51Speaker 1: Because I don't want my face up on the screen
- 30:54Speaker 1: in heaven and them saying, not this guy again.
- 30:57Speaker 2: He's going to blow it. He's going to miss the opportunity.
- 30:59Speaker 1: God's put an opportunity right in front of him and
- 31:02Speaker 1: he's not going to take it.
- 31:03Speaker 2: No, I don't want to be like that. I want
- 31:06Speaker 2: to be somebody who heaven can celebrate with.
- 31:10Speaker 1: You know, it says in Hebrews 12, we're surrounded by
- 31:13Speaker 1: a cloud of witnesses. He's just gone through the list
- 31:17Speaker 1: in Hebrews 11. He's told you all the people of
- 31:19Speaker 1: faith that came before us. He's talking about Abraham. He's
- 31:22Speaker 1: talking about Moses. He's talking about all these heroes of
- 31:26Speaker 1: the faith. And then he runs right into chapter 12.
- 31:29Speaker 1: He says, therefore, since you're surrounded by this cloud of witnesses,
- 31:34Speaker 1: you need to run the race God's put in front
- 31:36Speaker 1: of you.
- 31:37Speaker 2: See, listen, church. I'm not trying to make you feel bad.
- 31:43Speaker 1: But listen. Listen. Don't miss your opportunities. Listen, there's been
- 31:48Speaker 1: opportunities that I know have been put in front of me,
- 31:50Speaker 1: and sometimes I've missed it. Sometimes I've missed it. I
- 31:52Speaker 1: had to repent and say, God, I know that person.
- 31:54Speaker 1: You sent me that person, and I was too busy.
- 31:58Speaker 1: I couldn't be bothered. In fact, there was one time
- 32:01Speaker 1: God pushed me so hard, I didn't want anything to
- 32:04Speaker 1: do with the person.
- 32:06Speaker 2: I was sitting on a bench. I was tired.
- 32:08Speaker 1: I had been out doing ministry at some place and
- 32:11Speaker 1: I wanted a quiet time. I walked over to have
- 32:13Speaker 1: some quiet time. I had my Bible. I just wanted
- 32:16Speaker 1: to read my Bible for five minutes and be quiet
- 32:17Speaker 1: because I was working with students and they're exhausting. And
- 32:21Speaker 1: I'm reading my Bible. I see this guy looking at me.
- 32:24Speaker 1: I think, oh, Lord, this guy's going to come and
- 32:27Speaker 1: he's going to want something. I know what he's going
- 32:29Speaker 1: to want. He's going to want money. I'm going through
- 32:31Speaker 1: the whole thing. I've already had a conversation with him
- 32:32Speaker 1: in my head. I didn't want to be bothered by
- 32:35Speaker 1: this guy. And I was fighting it. I'm trying to
- 32:38Speaker 1: read my Bible out of the corner of my eye.
- 32:39Speaker 1: I'm watching this guy. I'm like, no, he's still walking
- 32:41Speaker 1: towards me. And, oh, man, when he walked up to me,
- 32:43Speaker 1: I was just like, oh, come on. And you know
- 32:46Speaker 1: what he said? He broke my heart. He said, hey,
- 32:49Speaker 1: I see you have your Bible. He said, I need
- 32:52Speaker 1: to get my life right with God. I was like, shoot.
- 32:55Speaker 1: You know, I would have missed that opportunity. I wanted
- 32:57Speaker 1: to get up and run when I saw him. But
- 33:00Speaker 1: I almost missed the opportunity. Hey, don't miss the opportunities.
- 33:05Speaker 1: that God's sending you. Because there's people that maybe they
- 33:08Speaker 1: sit down right next to you and they're not going
- 33:09Speaker 1: to say, hey, I need to get my life right
- 33:11Speaker 1: with God. But, you know, maybe if you asked them,
- 33:15Speaker 1: they'd say, yeah, I do. Don't miss the opportunities. This
- 33:19Speaker 1: is what I'm talking about today is we're people who
- 33:22Speaker 1: go after the one. We care about the people around us.
- 33:26Speaker 1: We care about the world who's hurting and dying. And
- 33:31Speaker 1: so it says we celebrate. We celebrate when someone's restored.
- 33:34Speaker 1: We celebrate. Heaven throws a party, so we should too.
- 33:38Speaker 1: There's one more story. I want to close with this
- 33:40Speaker 1: story this morning. And it's a story about two sons.
- 33:45Speaker 1: It's also in Luke 15. And Jesus shares a couple
- 33:49Speaker 1: stories in Luke 15 that have the same kind of theme.
- 33:53Speaker 1: But I want you to look at this one in
- 33:55Speaker 1: verse 11. It's called the parable. In my Bible, they
- 33:59Speaker 1: call it the parable of the lost son, the parable
- 34:01Speaker 1: of the prodigal son.
- 34:03Speaker 2: You know the story, right? The son comes to his father.
- 34:08Speaker 1: He says, I want a share of my inheritance before
- 34:12Speaker 1: you die, which is the backwards way of doing that,
- 34:14Speaker 1: isn't it? That doesn't usually work out too well.
- 34:18Speaker 2: He says, okay.
- 34:19Speaker 1: He gives his son his share of the inheritance. The
- 34:21Speaker 1: son takes the money. And it says he goes to
- 34:24Speaker 1: some foreign country and he just lives like a heathen.
- 34:28Speaker 1: I mean, he's just spending all the money. He's just,
- 34:31Speaker 1: he wastes everything and he has nothing. And it says
- 34:36Speaker 1: he kind of hits rock bottom. He ends up feeding pigs,
- 34:39Speaker 1: which for a Jewish person would be the worst job
- 34:42Speaker 1: you could get because pigs were unclean, as you know.
- 34:44Speaker 1: And he's feeding these pigs and he's watching the pigs
- 34:47Speaker 1: eat and he's so hungry. He says, I could eat
- 34:50Speaker 1: that trash. Maybe I'll get in there and eat that
- 34:53Speaker 1: garbage with the pigs and it says he comes to
- 34:58Speaker 1: his senses and he says why am i living like
- 35:00Speaker 1: this he says i don't deserve to be called a
- 35:04Speaker 1: son in my father's house anymore but my father has
- 35:07Speaker 1: servants and maybe he'll hire me and i can at
- 35:12Speaker 1: least work there and my certain my father's servants are
- 35:15Speaker 1: well fed i could at least have some food even
- 35:17Speaker 1: though i can't be a son anymore right so he
- 35:21Speaker 1: goes home But the father's watching. And from a long
- 35:27Speaker 1: way off, the father sees the son coming and it
- 35:31Speaker 1: says he gets his robe and he puts it on
- 35:34Speaker 1: the son. He puts a ring on his finger. He says,
- 35:36Speaker 1: I want you to kill the fag. My son was lost,
- 35:40Speaker 1: but now he's found. My son was lost, but now
- 35:43Speaker 1: he's found. He throws a party for the son who
- 35:46Speaker 1: was lost, even though he doesn't deserve it. He says, father,
- 35:50Speaker 1: I don't deserve to be called your son anymore. But
- 35:53Speaker 1: the father doesn't care about any of that. He says,
- 35:55Speaker 1: my son was lost, but now he's found. Listen, I
- 35:59Speaker 1: know there's people around us. Maybe there's people in this
- 36:01Speaker 1: room this morning. You've been away from God and you say,
- 36:04Speaker 1: I've been living life my own way. I've been living
- 36:07Speaker 1: like I shouldn't be living. I've been doing things I
- 36:10Speaker 1: shouldn't be doing. God wouldn't want me anymore. I don't
- 36:12Speaker 1: know if you've known people like that or if you
- 36:15Speaker 1: can relate to that. You say, I don't feel worthy
- 36:19Speaker 1: to be called his son. But listen, he doesn't wait
- 36:22Speaker 1: till you're worthy. He puts the robe on you. He
- 36:26Speaker 1: calls you His child. Not because of what you've done,
- 36:30Speaker 1: but because of what He's done for you.
- 36:36Speaker 2: Just a moment. I want to share this.
- 36:39Speaker 1: Because the story, as you know, it's not only about
- 36:44Speaker 1: the one lost son, it's about another son too. We
- 36:48Speaker 1: call it the prodigal son, but it's really a story
- 36:50Speaker 1: of two sons. Because there's another son in the story
- 36:54Speaker 1: who Never left home. He was behaving right. He was
- 36:59Speaker 1: living right. Serving his father.
- 37:03Speaker 2: And he was mad. When that son came home, he
- 37:06Speaker 2: was mad.
- 37:08Speaker 1: He said, you know, you shouldn't have had a party
- 37:13Speaker 1: for this boy. He wasted your inheritance. He wasted everything.
- 37:19Speaker 1: He was living like hell. I know he was. And
- 37:22Speaker 1: he starts listing stuff. I don't even know how he
- 37:24Speaker 1: knows this stuff. But he's like, he was with prostitutes
- 37:27Speaker 1: and he was doing this and he was doing that.
- 37:29Speaker 1: He just got home. You're not talking to him, but
- 37:31Speaker 1: he assumes he was living pretty horrible.
- 37:34Speaker 2: Maybe he was. He doesn't deserve it. I've been faithful.
- 37:41Speaker 1: And see, the story is two sons because on one hand,
- 37:43Speaker 1: you have the son who was lost and you see
- 37:46Speaker 1: the father's heart welcoming him home. And then on the
- 37:49Speaker 1: other hand, you see the other son. And I think
- 37:52Speaker 1: that could be in this story. It's the religious people.
- 37:56Speaker 1: And sometimes the church has acted like that son. We
- 38:00Speaker 1: don't want you. If you're not like us, we don't
- 38:04Speaker 1: want you. Well, thank God I'm not like you. You know? Well, hey,
- 38:08Speaker 1: we don't want you in here because you don't look
- 38:10Speaker 1: like us. You don't smell like us. You don't talk
- 38:13Speaker 1: like us. And here's the lesson. They were close to
- 38:18Speaker 1: the father. That son was close to the father. And
- 38:21Speaker 1: you can be close to the father and not have
- 38:23Speaker 1: the father's heart. You can come to church and not
- 38:29Speaker 1: have the heart of the Father or the people around you.
- 38:35Speaker 1: But listen to what the Father says. He says in
- 38:39Speaker 1: verse 31, Son, you are always with me and everything
- 38:45Speaker 1: I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and
- 38:48Speaker 1: rejoice because this brother of yours who was dead and
- 38:52Speaker 1: is alive again was lost and is found. That's the
- 38:57Speaker 1: heart of God. That's how God sees us. We were lost,
- 39:01Speaker 1: but now we are found. We can't forget we were
- 39:03Speaker 1: lost too. We used to be lost, but for the
- 39:07Speaker 1: grace of God, we would look like some of the
- 39:09Speaker 1: worst people. Some people are one paycheck away from being homeless.
- 39:16Speaker 1: But for the grace of God. This morning, I want
- 39:19Speaker 1: you to stand with me. And I want you to
- 39:24Speaker 1: hear two things because this morning maybe there's somebody in
- 39:26Speaker 1: here that you're away from God. You say, my life's
- 39:30Speaker 1: not right with God. I've been living, I've been living
- 39:33Speaker 1: kind of like that prodigal son. I've been living life
- 39:34Speaker 1: my own way. I haven't been living for God. I
- 39:41Speaker 1: want you to know something. If you're away from God,
- 39:43Speaker 1: he's looking for you. Every day that father was going
- 39:47Speaker 1: out waiting for his son to return. He was probably
- 39:50Speaker 1: watching every day because he saw him from a long
- 39:52Speaker 1: way off. God's waiting for you. He's waiting for you.
- 39:56Speaker 1: Maybe you came in here looking for something. You're looking
- 40:00Speaker 1: for answers, looking for God. You're curious, but listen, before
- 40:05Speaker 1: all of that, he was already looking for you. Jesus said,
- 40:09Speaker 1: the son of man has come to seek and save
- 40:12Speaker 1: the lost. That's why Jesus came It's why he went
- 40:16Speaker 1: to the cross. It's why he rose from the dead.
- 40:18Speaker 1: But seek and.
- 40:20Speaker 2: Save the Lord.
- 40:21Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to today's message from Reach Church.
- 40:26Speaker 1: If this encouraged you, we'd love for you to share
- 40:28Speaker 1: this podcast and leave a review. It helps more people
- 40:32Speaker 1: hear the good news. For more information about Reach Church,
- 40:36Speaker 1: our ministries, or how to get involved, visit us at reachchurch.world.
- 40:42Speaker 1: We love you, we're praying for you, and we'll see
- 40:43Speaker 1: you next time right here on the Reach Church Podcast.