Latest / The Extra Mile Podcast / #15 - Are You Still Searching for Home? (with Pastor Ty Beckman)

Transcript

#15 - Are You Still Searching for Home? (with Pastor Ty Beckman) · The Extra Mile Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a picture of our free will.
0:02
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: That every single person where a shepherd can force a sheep back into the pasture, and this woman can force a coin back into the purse, God's never gonna force us to love him.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: We have to willingly choose to go back home to the Father.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's such a powerful point in the story is at the end of the day, God loves us.
0:22
SPEAKER_01: He's already came so far our way by sending his son Jesus to leave heaven, to step on earth, to go onto a cross.
0:29
SPEAKER_01: But if there's gonna be a final connection, it's us turning and it's us coming and returning to him.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: Hey, welcome everybody back to the Extra Mile Podcast.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: Again, my name is Steve Hussey, lead pastor here at Faith Church in Florence, Alabama.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: And uh our goal is every week as we get around the table to go back into the message we preached the previous Sunday, just to do a deep dive and uh just talk about some things that God spoke to us and then maybe go the extra mile and share some things we didn't have time to share.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: And I have with me around the table back pastor Scott Beckman.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: I'm back two for two, last two weeks.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: You did so great last week we had to have you back.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we're going for that trifecta.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: We're going for that trifecta.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Now I feel pressure.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: And you should be.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: I know I'll feel the pressure.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Well, listen, let me uh let me start with this question.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, a lot of the people who are going to view this were not here at church on Sunday.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: Yep, yeah.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: And but we'll get there in a minute.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: But let me ask you a question.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: Um, what if if I were to ask you, what is one of the most common things the average person loses?
1:31
SPEAKER_01: So imagine you're you're probably on the you know uh top 100 or 100 people was asked this question, top five answers on the board.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: What do you feel like is something that people commonly lose or misplace?
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Man, it's gotta be things that I got the top five.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: I guess I guessed them and I was.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be a wallet.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Wallet's one, keys, keys, keys gotta be on there.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, I know with technology it's easier to find, but is a phone on there?
1:58
SPEAKER_00: The phone's on there.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so three for three, got two more to go.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: So this one might be just because of people that's in my own life.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but losing losing the readers.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Is it readers?
2:08
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: Glad okay, okay.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Call me Wendy's.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Wendy's.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you this.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: It's in the house.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you the hand.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: You lose it in the house.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Man, come on.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Dude, I gotta go five for five.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Is it the is it the remote?
2:29
SPEAKER_01: You went five, we both went five for five.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: Just let the record show that is not on the notes.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: That's not on the notes at all.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: You won't even you weren't even affecting that question.
2:38
SPEAKER_01: So here's why I share that is um this past Sunday we did a message um talking about uh the prodigal son.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: Comes from the lost chapter.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: And it's not lost because we don't know where it's at.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: It's Luke 15.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Lost Chapter because Jesus tells three parables of things, items that are lost, yeah, that are gone looking for.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: And um it's a reflection of his love for us, of how he pursues us.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, the way the story starts, the way the chapter starts is the religious people are upset with Jesus because he loves sinners.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: He loves spending time with them because that's why he came.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: He didn't come for those who are found, he didn't come for the healthy, he came for the sick, he came for the lost.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: So the whole chapter is a reflection of what God thinks about us.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: And here's why I asked the question about things that are lost.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: When you lose your keys, how do you feel?
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Man, you gotta you gotta turn the whole house upside down because now I always wait till the the wrong moment to be looking for them.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: I gotta get out the door.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm supposed to be there five minutes ago.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: That's right, trying to find it.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: And so um, you go to great lengths to find the things that are worth finding.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, I think what Jesus tries to hit is um the value, but the focus.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: When you lose something, you don't focus on what's secure, you focus on what's lost.
3:53
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I grew up, I had three kids, and if one of them, if Zach, because he was the youngest, sometimes he would run off and get ahead.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: If he went missing, we never thought, well, we still have Caitlin Lauren.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: Like our focus went on the child that was lost, not the two that was secure.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: If you have your keys, you're not like, well, I have my wallet, my phone, so I'm good.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: No.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: Your attention immediately goes on to what's lost.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Jesus is trying to emphasize is it's not that he doesn't care about the religious, or it's not that he doesn't care about the Jews.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: He cares about everyone and he cares most about those who are lost.
4:25
SPEAKER_01: And so he gets in and tells these three stories, and he starts with one that's probably the most well-known.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: No doubt, no doubt.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: It's this shepherd that has a hundred sheep and one goes astray, one goes missing.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes looking for the one.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: And it's like really God is giving us kingdom preference, kingdom economics that it's not that the 99 are not valuable, but he is more focused.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: There's like a greater value on the one than the 99.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: Because the 99, and this is it, it's not that they don't have value, but they're secure, they're safe.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the one that's not home is at risk, is at jeopardy.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: And so the shepherd leaves.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't know what which one of those three out of those three pebbles, one of the six out to you?
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's got to be the lost coin for me.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: I preached about this at Boundless like the very first year.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: And um, whenever I was looking through the all the different things I could have talked about, there was just something moving about that story that depicts the love of God, yeah, that you know, sweeps the entire house.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: And and we find we see that value that the the lady places on the coin.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And obviously she's tear tearing the whole house up.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: And I've just seen that visual in my own life whenever I've lost things.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: And it, you know, this question is what I kind of left this to.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: It's like, what you're willing, you know, what are you willing to do for the loss?
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Because that is that's the picture of Jesus.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: He was willing to come down and to to you know, get in the mess, get in the muck of this world to save me and you.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, I I've come one central mission to seek and to save those that are lost.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: So that's the one that I would have to go for.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I um the thing that stood out to me when I when I read the the parable, The Lost Coin, is and I shared this on Sunday, is that you can be lost and be in the house.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: You know, the Bible says, Man, this she lost this coin in the house.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: And you know, there's people sitting in churches every single Sunday, and they're sitting and they're listening, but they're lost.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: And um, but I love it again.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: The whole parable is that no matter how lost you are, we're gonna get into the parable of the prodigal son in a minute.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: No matter how far you've gone, God's love doesn't diminish based on your disposition.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: In fact, probably the further you are, the greater his compassion because he knows what he has for us and the bounds he's willing to go to come find us and come rescue us.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: And so that's right.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: The whole chapter, if you've not read it in a while, man, I'd encourage people to go back.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: It's just a picture of God's love.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: It's rich, yeah, no doubt.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: Um so let's dig in, man.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: We spent some time primarily on Sunday talking about the parable of this prodigal son or this lost son.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, again, so many of us we know the story.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: He goes to his father, he's got a brother in the house, but he goes to his father and says, Hey, dad, give me my inheritance early, which we know the deal.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: You don't get your inheritance.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: This is 2,000 years later in another culture.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Until when?
7:10
SPEAKER_01: Until the parents die.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: So basically, him going to ask for his inheritance early is such an insult to his father.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, Dad, I want your stuff more than I want you.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: So let's pretend you're not here and give me my stuff early.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And what's he do with his stuff?
7:25
SPEAKER_00: He wastes it.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he he goes out in the wild living.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's um, that resonates so much with me and my story.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And I think everybody to some degree, you can resonate with the story of the prodigal son, uh, because we've all been wasteful, right?
7:38
SPEAKER_00: That's that word prodigal.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: I was looking it up because uh we use that.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: That's a churchy word.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I've never been like, hey, that that dude's a prodigal.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the word doesn't mean what a lot of people think.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people think prodigal, that means he's lost.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Prodigal means that you are reckless and wasteful.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: And uh, if I were to look back in my own story, I was very reckless, very wasteful with the resources I had.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: And the most important resource I had was my time.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh, I was wasting it, I was spending it, you know, even in the simplicity of playing video games.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: And then I found myself partying, getting involved with these bad communities.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, that is the the picture that I think a lot of people don't understand about this story, that we can find uh our place, our our way that we connect with the story because we're all wasteful.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: You might say, Well, I I haven't, you know, ever felt too far away from home, but we've been wasteful uh with our resources that we we're living with.
8:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: Again, prodigal, you said it it's wasteful living.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a life, what the Bible's pointing to is a lifestyle.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: He's living this lifestyle that the father never would have chosen for us.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: Now he loved a lifestyle, and I think a lot of times we're living lives that we love that is not what our heavenly father would choose for us.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: And you know, there's an old saying, father knows best.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: And so that's the picture we find.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: This kid, he's taken his inheritance early, treated his dad as if he's dead.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: He's gone to a distant land.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: Basically got as far away as he could from his father, and he's living a prodigal, wasteful lifestyle.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: And um, and we know the story, man.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: He spends all his money, which, you know, I'm I'm wondering, like, golly, how did you how did you go?
9:16
SPEAKER_01: We don't know how much money he got, but the picture almost gives us like he got a pretty good lump sum.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: Blew through pretty quick, which tells us probably he was living pretty aggressively.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no doubt about it.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh living la vida loca.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: I had to say it one more time.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: You dropped it on Sunday.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: There it was again.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: And uh so he's living this lifestyle, and the Bible tells us that now that all the money's gone, this famine comes.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: And it's this picture of um, man, this this life that God never intended you to live, where you're thirsty and you can't get satisfied.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: You don't have what you need to satisfy yourself, and he's um he's out of money, he's out of friends, he's out of hope, and he ends up becoming a pig farmer's hand out feeding his pigs, and he is so hungry, he's looking at the the pods, which is basically what's left after the corn is stripped off of it.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: And he's so hungry, he wants to eat what he's feeding the pigs.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: And it is this yeah in Jewish culture, it is a picture of a man at his lowest.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's left his father, he's left his home, he's left his security, he's left his identity because a good Jewish boy is not a pig farmer, yeah, and certainly not feeding pigs, and certainly not wishing he could eat what the pigs eat.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: If we could just go back just for a quick second, because I think what could we could easily just jump past, because I know how many people that are listening to this podcast that come on Sunday morning that say, we serve a good God.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: Like they would they would affirm that truth.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: I think everybody that's listening to this, you're interested in more about what God's word says.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: But you might, if you were to really read this text, you say, Would a good God really use a famine?
10:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I was thinking about that.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: It is God justified in him using a famine?
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And I think the answer is yes, because sometimes God allows us in our free will to actually hit rock bottom so that the only place we can look is up.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Because let's say, let's say the the tides are coming in and the crops are growing, he might be able to flourish, but sometimes I believe the Lord even allows the difficulties of life to point us back to his strength.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think we we all know this is true.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: I mean, almost no matter where you are in your spiritual journey, we pray harder when things are harder.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: You know, not that you can't love God when things are good, but man, people, you know, there's an old saying there are no atheists and foxholes.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: When you're in the middle of war, you're gonna turn to God.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: And I said that Sunday, you know, it's God uses the famine to remind us of the Father.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: God uses scarcity to remind us of the Savior.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: Because if everything's good, our bills are paid.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: We tend to not pay attention to God, but we have nowhere else to turn.
11:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, God allowed him to face that season because he needed to be reminded that hey, you're not in a good spot.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: And I think so often we just equate the bad in our life.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's got to be the devil.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: And there ain't no doubt.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: There, there is spiritual warfare, everything's spiritual.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: We have an adversary.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: He is against us, he is opposing us, he does not want us to succeed.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: But I believe, again, sometimes we don't need to say, man, the devil just keeps on.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we have to say, wait, is my free will pushing me away to a distant land right now?
12:17
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we have to almost say, Lord, thank you.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: Because then in that moment of gratitude, you actually turn your turn your eyes back to him and the things of this world, you know, will go strangely dim at that time.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: And I think uh whenever I deal with teenagers all the time, they're always just maybe even uh they're they're angry that they didn't make the team, they're angry that the breakup, you know, they're angry about all these things and they they blame it on the devil.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, maybe God is re-re, you know, he's getting your focus back on the father.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe that's what he's allowing to happen.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think what you're pointing to is it's probably fair to say in this story that Jesus tells, if the if he never would have run out of resources and the famine wouldn't have come, uh it's almost like you can assume he would still be out in a distant land away from the father's house.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: What caused him to begin to turn around and go back to the father's house was the famine.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: So I don't think God wants us to go through times of suffering, but we make bad choices and we choose other than what God's best is for our life.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna face those things and he's not always gonna guard us.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the day, he wants us to come home, not be comfortable.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: So and on Sunday morning, you know, I think whenever you're on point number two, you know, we're talking about rejection, you know, how he he went away, but then that moment of reflection in your time of being a pastor here at this church, you know, what has it been like for you whenever you've seen people that's had the moments of people coming to their senses?
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh, like what leads them to that moment?
13:45
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it it's just famine moments?
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it's being far away?
13:49
SPEAKER_00: What do you think opens up people's eyes or their mind becomes clear?
13:53
SPEAKER_01: It's it's absolutely during difficult times.
13:55
SPEAKER_01: And I I say this and I'm not sure people believe me.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: I have a handful, I have four or five things that I tell people when they come to see me for counseling or wisdom.
14:03
SPEAKER_01: And this is one oftentimes when someone's going through a difficult time, getting ready maybe to head into a divorce, there's typically some infidelity on one part, something.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I say is listen, seek the Lord.
14:15
SPEAKER_01: And they want to know how do I get my wife back?
14:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: How do I make how do I keep my husband?
14:19
SPEAKER_01: And I and I tell them follow Christ, lean into your faith.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's other things practically you can do to rescue your marriage, but here's what I here's what you need to know is if you get your wife back, but you're still not following Christ, you're you're still lost.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
14:34
SPEAKER_01: But if you follow Christ and you don't get your wife back, you have God.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: But being the person Christ called and created you to be is probably gonna be the thing that makes you the man you need to be to win your wife back.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: So it's yeah, it's almost always tragedy that brings people to have a conversation with me.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: And I always point out, hey, go back to Jesus.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: That'll help shape and form your opinions and your attitudes and your actions to win back your family, win back your wife.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: And so it's good, you know.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh you said it, man.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: I think we blame the devil for bad seasons, but man, I love the sovereignty of God that He can use those bad seasons to bring us back to Him.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: That's so good.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, man, uh you you said it.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't gonna share the four R's, but we talked about this story's rejection.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: It starts with us rejecting God.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: We want to live life on our own terms, our own way.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: And um, then we go through this season of reflection.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: Like once we have it our way, are we happy?
15:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, I thought I was pretty happy before I had Christ in my life, and I hit seasons where I realized my life was much more empty than I thought it was.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, no matter how many friends surrounded me, no matter how many parties I went to, no matter how much I partied, there was a part of me that was empty.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: And so coming to that reflection, we see the prodigal son and um he makes this decision.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: He it's repentance.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: He decides, like, hey, I need to come home.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: But it's by this phrase, he came to himself.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: He he, you know, he he came to his senses.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: And um, man, everybody needs to have that moment where you look at your life and you evaluate where you are and say, man, this is not where, this is not where I want to be, this is not where God wants me to be.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm gonna make a choice to go home.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: And that's that reflection moment that everybody needs to have.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, again, you weren't always saved.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: What what was your reflection moment?
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Man, I I was thinking about that whenever you're talking about it.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, when was that moment for me in the pig style?
16:26
SPEAKER_00: And uh there was this moment, uh, I've told many people about it.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: And what's crazy is I because you were raised in church.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: I was raised in church, uh, grew up in a smaller town.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: My eyes were always fixated.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm gonna go away, I'm gonna go to college, I'm gonna, I'm gonna sow these wild oats.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Like, I was not just gonna go party, I was gonna be the partier.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Like I was on everything I do, I do it to the nines.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: You you you've known me for a little bit past.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: And uh, so I had my eyes fixated on that, and I got involved with the wrong people, doing the wrong things, and uh, it's nobody's fault but mine.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Like I chose it and I wanted to be in it, and I found it.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, what I found was uh the that barrel, uh, even though it seems incredible in the moment, you can get to the bottom of it and it's terrible.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: And I felt empty inside.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: And uh, I remember one night after I had been drinking out, and I I remember in a moment, and for real, uh I've never had like a moment like this before.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: And I sobered up in a second.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: And I remember the me hearing the voice of the Lord for the very first time and said, Is this the life that you want to live?
17:29
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like this fork in the road.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And I wish I could say from that day forward, whenever I sobered up in that second, and I looked up the heavens, I said, like, I don't want this.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe you allowed me to get to this place.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: But it was just like the prodigal son, and I'd wasted a lot of my money, wasted a lot of my time and and living the way that I was.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: But that was the initial moment.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: I felt like the the voice of the Lord was directing me back home.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Now it wasn't the moment I gave my life to Christ, uh, but in that moment, I I could I could point back through my whole uh life as a Christ follower.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: I can point it back to that moment.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: And I came to my senses, and um, from there, there was a network and almost like a gutter, you know, it's the sovereignty of God, like using people and uh people I'd only known for a little bit of time.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: It led me up to the moment I gave my life to pass, you know, a passion conference in in 2016.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: So um so thankful for that moment.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: If I didn't have that moment where I came to my senses, yeah, and I said, Man, I don't want to live this way more.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: That fork in the road was there.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be sitting in front of a microphone talking to lead pastor of Faith Church today.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I think you recognize that those moments that you had, the moment I had that I came to my senses, really, it fits in the story, but the it really was the grace of God that just man didn't give up on us.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: That man continued his God continuing to speak to us and draw us.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, again, that's what the that's what these three stories, these three parables are about.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: It's about how much God loves us, that he's not going to give up on us, and he is pursuing us.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: And you know, man, again, so many people feel like they've gone too far, they've done too much, they've been too bad.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: And man, Jesus would argue with you and say, Man, you you're never too far for me to come after you, and you're never too far gone that you can't decide to come home.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: And I think, Pastor, you would probably say this because what you talked about in your message just for uh a little bit of time, but I think everybody that's listened to this, they need to be reminded of this like every single day.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Because it's usually not the distance.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's usually the distraction, you know, and he found himself journeying back home.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: And yet what kept him from actually getting back home, getting to his family, his main goal, uh getting back to the father, you know, for our sake, um, is that he was on the lotus plant, you know, with Calypso on that island and was just distracted.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, it became blurry in the vision.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: There's so many things that people uh inoculate themselves with and they inebriate themselves with if it's drinking or smoking, if it's as simple as me, like as silly as it sounds, is I use outlets of video games and and things of that nature whenever I was growing up, and it it kept me at bay for so long and kept me distracted.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the um, you know, I talked about when he left the father's house to go to the distant land, he had to go from the distant land back to the father's house, and he faced some of the same people, some of the same places, same bars.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: And uh, I think a lot of people they want to go back to the father's house and they'll start moving that direction, they'll start going to church, they'll start reading their Bible, they'll start having spiritual conversations, and they find they never get to the father's house, they never really surrender.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
20:24
SPEAKER_01: And it's because, man, they bump back into first of all condemnation and shame.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: They can't believe they did some of the things they've done, or they bump back into temptation, they fall right back in, they decide I'm gonna love God, and but man, they they love the party more, they love the lifestyle more.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: And man, we got to lay down the lotus.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: Come on, and man, we got to pick back up the conviction and decide I'm I'm making it all the way home.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: And that is what repentance is it's turning around and getting us home.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: And so, um, two things I want to focus on, man, as we maybe start to to narrow down our time, yeah, is again, you compare these three, and they're they're very similar parables.
20:57
SPEAKER_01: It's somebody who loses something, it's a shepherd, it's this woman and it's a father.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: They lose something valuable, the shepherd loses a sheep, this woman loses a coin, and the the father loses a son.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: And um, and I mean it's these powerful pictures.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: And then you have something I want to focus on that I didn't is when these three things are found.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: When the shepherd finds a sheep, when the woman finds a coin, and when the son returns home.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: You know what happens?
21:23
SPEAKER_01: Party time.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: Party time.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: Par Tay.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's a celebration, man.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: I think about all the things, and that this is found people need to hear this.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: Church people, you need to hear this, pastors.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: You need to hear this.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: Churches that are focused on found people instead of lost people.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: Churches, there's way too many churches that are doing church for church people.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: And church is for church people, it is for people to grow in their faith.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: No doubt.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: But at some point, Jesus said, I came to seek and save the lost.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: And part of our mission, part of what we do, part of our mission here at Faith Church is you know, man, we're here to reach people and to connect them to God and others.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: No doubt.
21:58
SPEAKER_01: There should be a passion in every single believer.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Heart.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: There should be a vision in every pastor's heart that part of our mission, part of our goal, part of the way we spend finances, part of the way we we strategize, plan, and pray is to reach lost people.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: Why?
22:10
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what the heart of Jesus was for.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just to hang out with found people.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: I said this Sunday, there's something unique that Jesus, people, people who are nothing like Jesus love to hang out with Jesus.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: The lost people love Jesus, and it's because he loved them.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: We got to find ourselves loving people because you know what throws a party in heaven?
22:30
SPEAKER_01: When one single person rejoices, all of heaven rejoices, or when one person repents, all of heaven rejoices.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: And what we find in each of these stories is when the sheep comes home, the shepherd parties.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: When the coin gets found, the woman parties.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: She calls all of her neighbors and throws a party.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: And when the son comes home, he throws a party.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: And so, man, what makes heaven rejoice is not another message to found people where they get another deep nugget where they write in their journal.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: But when we preach the gospel, when we invite our friends to church, when we share who Jesus is with the coworker and they resign their hearts and center their hearts and lives of Christ, that's what throws a party in heaven.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: And I think we got to get back to that.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think we should just, as Christ followers, we almost love to celebrate a word.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: Man, I got the word.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: And we love the the growth and depth.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing wrong with that.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: And again, I know your heart.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: You have never been against someone growing.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: That's one of our core values here.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Reach, connect, grow, and serve.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: And uh, I think what we've got to do a better job of as Christfellers having the urgency to grow, to extend our arms out, you know, to welcome people in.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: And we don't just celebrate the the growth we're personally experiencing, but we celebrate the growth of our church and the kingdom of God.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing we can take with us.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: We can't take our sermon notes with us.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: That'll preach.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we're we're gonna we're not gonna be able to take these pages.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: We can only take people.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And we got to grow in the urgency for for those around us.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: That's a good word.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I think about um what what all three pictures implies.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: So the one, this one sheep that goes goes and gets lost, it probably was in the thicket.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: So that means when it came back, you know, probably all over its fur, probably had some stuff in it, was not very clean.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says those this lost coin, she swept the house.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: So probably when the coin was found, it was a little dusty and a little dirty.
24:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: This son that was lost was out feeding pigs.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: Probably didn't smell too good when he got on it.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
24:27
SPEAKER_01: When sinners come home, a lot of religious people turn up their nose and hey, they're not well because they're not dressed right, they don't sound right, they don't talk right.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: I don't like their tattoos, whatever it is.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the day, man, Jesus is celebrating when they walk through the doors.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: And we need to get our party back as Christ followers, man, to love reaching lost people and love to see them come home to the Father.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: So last thing, man, is so there's a lot to compare from each parable, but then there's one major contrast.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: And it is that first of all, we find again the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes and looks for the one sheep.
24:59
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: Number two, the woman who she knows where the nine are, she sweeps the house looking for the one.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: But then we see the son leaves the father, and what we don't see is something different happens.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: And we know what it is.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: The father doesn't go look for the son.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: He stays home.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: And you have to ask, like, if all these stories are kind of the same kind of similar, if the shepherd goes and looks for the sheep and the woman goes and looks for the coin, why doesn't the father go to the distant land?
25:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a picture of our free will.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: That every single person where a shepherd can force a sheep back into the pasture, yeah, and this woman can force a coin back into the purse, yeah.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: God's never gonna force us to love him.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: We have to willingly choose to go back home to the Father.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's such a powerful point in this story is at the end of the day, God loves us.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: He's already came so far our way by sending his son Jesus to leave heaven, to step on earth, to go onto a cross.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: But if there's gonna be a final connection, it's us turning and it's us coming and returning to him.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, again, anybody hearing this, that if you're a Christ follower, have a passion for the lost.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: And if you're a lost person and you wonder, hey, where is God?
26:11
SPEAKER_01: God showed up 2,000 years ago in his son Christ, and he he wrapped himself in humanity on a rescue mission for every single person, and he laid down his life willingly on the cross to take the punishment for our sin.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: And he's extended himself so, so far to come our way.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, he's never gonna force us to love him.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: You have to make a decision to turn around and take that one step.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: We he is as close as the call of his name.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: No doubt.
26:36
SPEAKER_01: So, uh, Pastor Time, I'm give you maybe a closing word, closing thought you want to share.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think um just in closing down, last thing I'll just kind of say is that you know, without going into the weeds of it, this story does involve two brothers.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, one is a prodigal, he's the younger brother, he's wasteful, and yet he he returns home whenever he does.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: The older brother, he's angry, he's upset.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: And um, I think again, there's a lot of people they that you get upset whenever the spotlight's not on you, and you're like, man, look at me.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: I've been serving, I've been here, and yet you're focused on the wrong thing.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: Don't you have a compassion for your brother?
27:18
SPEAKER_01: That's uh yeah, it's uh I it's I think the longer you're in the house, the easier it is to be the older brother.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: Come on, you know, to get so comfortable and to have expectations that hit the attention's always on you.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, Pastor is a good word, man.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: Brother, I'm I'm glad you're at the table with us.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: Maybe next week, three for three.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: I mean let's just pencil me in.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: Let's make the commitment right here.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Sty's gonna be back with us next week.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us for the X Mile Podcast.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: I would encourage you, man, love Jesus because he loves you, pursue him because he pursued you.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: And if you're a Christ follower, man, let's get let's be about pursuing other people.
27:52
SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
27:52
SPEAKER_01: All right, God bless you guys.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next week.