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Come And Be Changed (November 16, 2025)

• Organic Church • Season 2 • Episode 54

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What if “Jesus accepts everyone” isn’t the finish line but the starting line? We dive into the hard and hopeful truth that God’s love welcomes us as we are, yet His grace refuses to leave us there. With raw personal stories—like battling a stubborn habit and discovering deliverance in an unexpected moment—we explore how real repentance looks, feels, and changes the way we live.

Together we open Matthew 7 to face the warning few want to hear: saying “Lord, Lord” won’t substitute for doing the Father’s will. Then we turn to John 8, where mercy and holiness meet in one breath: “Neither do I condemn you” followed by “Go and sin no more.” That tension becomes our roadmap. Relationship with Jesus is not legalism, but it is not lawless either. The Holy Spirit convicts, strengthens, and leads us into choices that match our confession.

We also talk about seasons—how a wintered tree isn’t dead, it’s preparing. Calling can shift without your purpose ending. One door closes and a hallway of new doors lights up. And when tragedy strikes, like the heartbreaking accident of a family we met on a trip, we choose love over fear and intercession over indifference. Prayer becomes presence when we keep showing up for the broken.

If you’re hungry for a faith that is more than talk—one that reshapes habits, heals relationships, and walks the narrow road—this message is for you. Acceptance invites you in. Surrender takes you forward. Transformation keeps you moving with Jesus.

If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find messages like this. What is God asking you to lay down today?

SPEAKER_00:

Father, we thank you and we praise you for the anointing that rests in the house this morning. Lord, I pray that as we move forward with this service of worship, Lord, that you are blessed, Father. That we continue to lift you high. Father, I pray that you deliver this anointed word through me, Lord. Allow my words to fall dead to the ground. Allow your words to penetrate the hearts and the minds of those who are in this room. Father, I thank you for those who are here today who have never been in this house, Father, some who have never been in the house of the Lord ever. Father, I thank you for that. And I pray that you give them a peace that passes understanding. Allow them to feel at home, allow them to feel comforted, not by the family that is in this building, but by the Holy Spirit that rests inside of this house today, Lord. Father, the body is designed to be an extension of who you have called us to be. Father, that we would, that we would be able to operate in the spirit in such a way that we can make people feel welcome and comfortable. And Lord, I thank you for allowing that to be real in this house. Lord, allow us to continue to love one another like we've never loved before. Allow hurt to be be passed away, Father. Allow renewing of relationships today, Father God. Lord, I thank you for that. Lord, I thank you for restoration in the Spirit today. Oh, thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Lord, I pray for the classroom workers, Lord, as as they leave this place. I pray that they have a special anointing today, Lord, that the children can hear their voices and absorb every word that is being spoken so that they may know who you are and what you're calling them to. Lord, I thank you and I praise you. I give you all the honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen. You may be seated, and we're gonna let the kids start heading back to children's ministry. Well, church, I want to talk about something today. Um, the podcast team actually recorded an episode last week that that they didn't know that I was already preparing this message that will fit very nicely with this. But I have to tell you something, and it's it's something that I think that most of you know and most of you feel comfortable having a conversation about, but I don't think as a church we want to talk about it the way that it needs to be talked about. Because the problem is that the world now loves the word acceptance, right? Everybody's accepted no matter how they are. Amen. I gotta tell you that that might be true to some degree, it is not what God has called us to. Amen. We are told that Jesus accepts everyone no matter what, but the problem is, is people are taking that as no repentance, no transformation, no submission, just appearance. Amen. Amen? That's a problem, church. We know that, right? How many of us have showed up to church? And I'm gonna, I like to tell on myself when I preach. You guys know that, right? I love to tell the stories because I couldn't be where I am today if it weren't for the transformation of the Holy Spirit, right? Because, see, he had to come into my life and he had to really shake me up. He's still doing that on the regular, but here's the thing. I started leading worship many, many years ago, and when I would lead worship, I would uh before service, um, me and Dan Burrow. I'm not blaming Dan, by the way. I don't want anybody to take it that way. But me and Dan, after we would practice, we would come into the church about 8 a.m. and we would practice worship for an hour, and then we would sneak out and we would smoke in his truck before we came back in to do worship. Right? Can I tell you that that is not transformation? Amen. Now listen, I need you to hear me. I'm not, if if you're a smoker or if you've got something in your life that you haven't given up yet, I am not judging you by any stretch of the imagination because it took me years. Right? See, when the Holy Spirit called me into the house, I'll never forget that moment in my life. Um, one of the things that I try to do better, uh one of the things I remember so much about um Yorks before Square Church when Pastor Florence was here, we're not super techie, right? And so when you would call the telephone number, you would just get an answering machine, and you didn't know when church services were because you didn't have a website. There was no way to find out when the church was open. Because I wanted to come to church on Wednesday night because I knew I needed something in my life. Any of us ever woke up and said, I need something in my life? Amen. Okay, so that happened to me, and then I woke up and I couldn't go. I didn't know where to go. I'd known Florence my entire life, but I didn't know when they are gonna be here. So I have attempted to do better, but I realized in that moment that if I wanted to be truly transformed, I had to submit to the Holy Spirit. Right? How many of us have had to submit to the Holy Spirit about something? It's not easy, and it's typically not fun. Because, see, when I finally decided that I needed to stop smoking, and let me just tell you, this was uh an experience when it happened, and Pastor Florence laid hands on me and up on the floor, and I come up and I'm like, I'm never smoking again. That's it, right? I am delivered. Thank you, Jesus. And then I drove home. I used to flip one cigarette over in the pack. Anybody? Yes, that's that's the like the you pull it out, you flip it over, you put it back in the pack. That's your last cigarette. You know it's your last, anyhow. Don't judge me. All right, keep your judgment to yourself. Anyhow, I had smoked that last cigarette and I said, I am not buying anymore. I drove all the way home, sat down on the couch, and then got up and went back to the gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes. Because I knew that the Lord had delivered me from it, but my flesh was not ready to give it up. Right? I had not truly been willing to release what God had called me to release. So sometimes I'm telling you the truth, your flesh will overpower your spirit. Amen. And that's an allowance. That's us saying, you know, my flesh has more power than my spirit does. I tell you, that is not the truth today. Does it get the best of me sometimes? 100%. But that is not the case in my life. Okay. Yes, it is true. It is a fact that Jesus loves everyone. If you are sitting in this room and you are questioning that, I want to tell you something. If you think that Jesus doesn't love you, you are wrong. Okay? It's a fact. Jesus loves you regardless of what you've been through, what you're going through, or what you will go through. Okay? Just I need you to hear that today, and I need you to put that in your heart. It doesn't matter what you've gone through, what you're going through, or what you will go through. Jesus loves you. Now, here's the thing: He loves you the same as he loves Dave. He loves you the same as he loves Stephanie, right? He loves you the same. There is no pre-qualifier to the love of Jesus Christ. And he will call you to come to him just as you are. But he does not call you to stay who you are. See, that's the confusion, that's the mix-up. When we walk into relationship with Christ, when we believe that the Father of our hearts, when we believe that he is a true the true master of our lives, then we make meaningful change. Amen. Now, what does meaningful change mean? Well, Pastor Michael, you know, you tell me I have to make meaningful change, and and you know, I'm not as mean to people as I used to be. Is that true? Or are you trying to convince yourself that that's true? Right? Well, I don't swear nearly as much as I used to. Is that true, or are you saying that that is true? Because the conviction of the Holy Spirit will eliminate it from your life with ease. Now you're gonna have to work for some of it, you're gonna have to believe in yourself and believe in your flesh. That is the hard part. Because I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, but I can do nothing through Michael, who gives me nothing. Amen. My flesh gives me no strength. It is Christ in me that gives me strength. And if I can stop focusing on the world and focus on Christ, then I can truly have transform transformation in my life. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Submission to Christ is important. Now, so many of us like to be in charge of everything. Anybody? Anybody? We like to have control. Steph, you and I are like spirit animals when it comes to this stuff, right? Listen, if you want a hug from me, it has to be on my terms, right? Yeah, otherwise don't touch me. There are things like that in our lives that we want so much control over that we don't know how to step back and say, I want the Holy Spirit to have control in my life. Right? That less of me, more of him. Those words are easy to speak, impossible to live out. It is a challenge every day to say, I am going to be less flesh, more spirit. I am going to walk in the spirit, I'm going to treat people like, you know, those little bracelets, what would Jesus do? If we all had one of those today and we looked at it every time we thought something mean or wanted to say something mean. Now, I always thought if they made one of those that would give us a little electrical shock when we thought something mean, that's what I say. I would be fried, right? Like I would be walking around like this all the time because my flesh is so strong when it comes to the world. See, when I'm in the workplace or whenever I'm spending time with people that I don't necessarily feel like spending time with, my flesh wants to take over, right? My flesh wants to take over. But then, and sometimes it's with people I want to be around, right? But when I allow the spirit to move in my life and I say I don't have to live like that, then I can find peace and comfort in all relationships, good, bad, or indifferent. Amen. That's a challenge, though. We have to be willing to listen to the spirit, and we have to understand that he is not going to accept our lifestyle, our attitude, or our heart if it refuses to bow to him. The truth is, Jesus invites everyone. He invites everyone to transformation. Write it down. Put it in your notes. Listen to this again next week. Jesus invites everyone into relationship with him. But if you are not willing to change, if you are not willing to adapt to the lifestyle of Jesus Christ, he will not accept you. Did you hear that? That didn't feel good, did it? Because we all think that when we show up to church on Sunday or we say something nice to somebody or all of these things, that we're going to be guaranteed entrance into heaven. Some of us will get there and he will say, Depart from me, for I never knew you. Some of us he will say, Well done, my good and faithful servant. The gates will swing wide and we will be in our heavenly home. Amen. The problem is you aren't going to know till you get there. Right? But you have to live your life for Christ. Every day, every hour. Striving to be more Christ-like so that you can have a heavenly home, a guaranteed place. Listen, I'm not trying to scare anybody into being nice. Right? Listen, I don't care if you're nice to each other or not. As long as you're nice to me, I don't care. Right? Be mean. No, I'm just kidding. I want you to be nice to everybody. The problem is this. Oftentimes we think that being nice is the only precursor into salvation. It is not. You can be kind and wonderful and do great things and give away money to all of these people, but at the end of the day, if you are not truly following Christ, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, listen, I need to tell you the truth. If heaven is real, guess what else is real? Hell. And that's not a place we want to go. And I know that some people like to joke about it, and there are probably people in this room that still joke about it. The point is, is hell is not a place you want to go. Right? It is eternal. You will know for all eternity that you are stuck in this place. And you're gonna think about all the things you could have, should have, would have. Any of us ever been there? I think about that stuff all the time, right? I should have said that. I should have done this. I could have instead. It doesn't matter now. It's not any different. I can't change it. I can't take it away. Amen. I have to be willing to move forward and not trouble myself with the things that cannot be undone. We're gonna read Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 to 23. And it says, Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. Did you hear that? Only those who do the will of this Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, we cast out demons in your name, and we performed many miracles in your name, but I will reply, I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws. Who that was like that wasn't a great Rick Flayer, but I tried. It was close. I think we have to we have to really meditate on this word for just a moment because it says we have to be doing the will of God. And here's the thing you can't openly, willingly choose to do things against what God would have you do and expect to enter into the kingdom of heaven when the scripture tells us that that is not possible. Amen? Just by show of hands, how many of us want to go to heaven? I kind of assumed it was a couple of us, right? A few of us in here that did. The problem is, is we have to ask ourselves daily, weekly, monthly, hourly, by minute, sometimes, if we are living cr living our lives like Christ wants us to live our lives. Amen? Am I living aligned with Christ's calling on my life? And I want to be very clear your calling is different than my calling. Right? Your guys' calling is different than mine. My wife's calling is different than mine. Every person in this room has a calling to something, and it is always different than somebody else's. And you have to be willing to examine your heart and pray about it, speak to God about it, to figure out what it is that you are called to do. You know, when Jesus looks at somebody and says, I never knew you. Get away from me, you who breaks God's law, that has to be devastating to him. Right? Because we are born into a sinful world. Amen. We know that the moment that we hit this world that it is full of sin, corruption, it is broken. It is not designed for those of us who are saved. It is designed for those who are willing and capable of doing wicked things. Amen. And the challenge is it is our responsibility to show Christ into that broken world, right? And so when he says, who are willing to do the will of his father, that is the will of the Father. The Great Commission is to preach the gospel until all of the earth has heard, right? The Bible hasn't been translated into thousands of languages yet, right? That means that Jesus' return cannot be imminent until every ear has heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? Now, I'm not trying to tell you you got time because there is no better day for salvation than today. Yesterday was great, tomorrow will be fine, but tomorrow is not promised, right? If you are not saved and you want to be saved, if you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, today is the day. Because that is what we should be looking forward to. And it's what we should be encouraging to the communities and the world around us. Because when they see Christ in us, see, I can read you the Bible all day long, right? It's actions that change your opinion of who Jesus is. Because see, there are some bad Christians in the world. Now, what I mean by that, those typically tend to be people who are obsessed with religious law. We're gonna talk about that in just a minute, okay? And you're a bad Christian because you didn't X, you're a bad Christian because you didn't this or that, or because you did, or because whatever. Listen, relationship and religion are two very different things, right? So I am in relationship with Christ. When I fall short of the glory of God and I go back to the Father and I say, you know, Father, forgive me for I have sinned, he is going to uh forget that just the same. Now I'm not telling you that's a license to sin. Let's be clear, okay? But he is going to forget that. He's going to forgive that. However, when all I'm focused on is the legalism inside of the Bible, and all I'm going to say to you is that, well, you have to do life this way, and if you aren't giving 10%, you can't enter in the lesson. That's legalism. We're focused on the law. We are not focused on the relationship. Those people tend to disrupt the body. Those people tend to not enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's the truth. They're the ones that are going to get there and say, hmm. Depart from me, for I never knew you. Because they're obsessed with what the law is and not with what Jesus has taught us. See, Pastor Holly had a question on her um on her exam, one of the things that we talked about. And it said, if you had to describe the ministry of Jesus Christ, how would you best describe it? And I said, the easiest way is love. Right? We are to love others like Christ loved the church. Right? Now I want to remind you that the church is the bride of Christ. Right? So I love my wife very much. I don't love my wife as much as I love Jesus. Right? Because Jesus loves the church, and I don't mean this building, I'm talking about the body of believers, whether they're Catholic, whether they're Nazarene, whether they're Methodist, it doesn't matter. Jesus loves the church as if it were his bride. Right? And so I am going to love others at that level because if I don't, I have to question whether or not I'm truly walking in what God has called me to walk in. See, Jesus calls everyone. He says, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy burdened. That's Matthew 11.28. I don't know if I put that up there on your scriptures or not, did I? It doesn't matter. It's Matthew 11, 28. You can jot that down in your notes. But I want you to notice what he says. He says, Come to me. He says, Come to me. That means you cannot stay where you are and still follow Jesus. Right? That means you cannot sit in your seat and still follow Jesus. Because Jesus is still walking. He's a mile and a half ahead of you, and you're still sitting there thinking, well, why am I not being blessed? Why is the world getting a hold of me? Because you have decided to stay where you are. He says, Come to me. That means you cannot stay where you are and still follow Jesus. You cannot cling to your sin. Are you ready? Get your pens out. You cannot cling to your sin and claim salvation. There it is. You cannot cling to your sin and claim salvation. Now, what is sin? Sin is anything that you are willing to put above God. Right? So listen, my smoking, I never thought that was the case. Right? What did it matter if I went out to the parking lot and had a cigarette before I did worship? Right? And then I had somebody from the church send me a Facebook message, and uh they said, you know, I'm really disappointed in you. Because every week you stand up in front of all of these people knowing what you were doing. And I thought, well, I won't tell you what I thought. Uh let's just say I knew Jesus, but I didn't know Jesus. You know what I mean? And I thought to myself, and I really, really, and this is when the Lord started to speak to me about it. And he said, But you know what? You can be mad at her, but she's right. All of those kids look up to you, and you're allowing them to see that that is acceptable. Ouch. And so when the Lord really began to speak to me, he allowed me to know that I could not stay where I was if I wanted to follow him. Right? I couldn't stay in that sin. And that's when I knew it was truly a sin and I was putting it above God because I was allowing my desire for this habit to be more important than my relationship with God's people, right? Now, it wasn't necessarily more important than God in my life, but it was definitely more important than God's people, right? If you didn't like me, you didn't like me, I didn't care. I'm still a little bit that way. I don't need you to like me, but I need you to hear me, right? I'm not trying to make friends with every person I come in contact with, but I want them to know Jesus, right? There are lots of people don't like me. That's okay. Dale just raised his hand. How about that? How about that? What? Yeah, the truth is out. Now we know. Jeez, Dale. You cannot cling to your sin and claim his salvation. We cannot continue to allow our sin to override God's salvation in our life. He's not calling you to come as you are and stay as you are, he is calling you to come as you are and be transformed. Amen. He wants you to be transformed from situation to situation and from glory to glory, right? Now, there I genuinely believe that in Pastor Holly and I, we we we she doesn't like change. She would be very comfortable if everything just stayed the same all the time. And when change happens, she has a hundred questions, which is not a bad thing, I want to be clear. But she's like, Well, but how will this work and how will that work? And what will we do if this happens, and what will we do if that happens? And you know what I always say? We'll figure it out. Because I love change. I believe that the human form was designed to change in the spirit, right? I believe that when we wake up each day, his mercies are new, and we should be teachable beings to what God is calling us to, right? So if he is telling you, hey, you really need to step out of whatever season that you're in and be willing to go to the next season, you have to be willing to do that. I'm gonna share a story now. Story time, are you ready? I need to get my seat and then I need no, I'm just kidding. I have a friend that I work with who used to be the youth pastor, the children's ministry pastor, and the uh the prison ministry pastor of a of a local church. And he works in the same organization that I do. And yesterday, while my wife and I were at our Christmas party, or not a Christmas party, it was just a company party, he came to me, came to us, and he said, I want to tell you a story. And he flips around a chair, and he's quite the storyteller. And he's sitting there and he's telling us the story that there's a tree at the courthouse that he has fallen in love with, and he just loves to see this tree. And he does title work, so he's constantly there. And he said he had had a really bad season in his life, and he walks past this tree, and it's in the middle of winter, and that tree is dead. Right? It's got no leaves on it, it's just standing there. And the Lord spoke to him and said, That tree is not dead, it's preparing for a new season. Right? Now, here's the worst part. That wasn't the end of the story. So he comes through because in the fall he always loved how that tree looked. Because it's beautiful orange. He showed me a picture because he had taken a picture of it. It's this beautiful orange color. And he said, and I realized that the tree that I admired in the fall was the tree that was dying. He had fallen in love with this idea that this tree was perfect in that season, but truly that tree was dying. And then he says to me, But you know what? Then I realized when I see it in the summer that this tree has not changed, it's just a different season. He said, and the next thing I know, I'm standing in the courtyard staring at this tree, crying, and people are walking by thinking I'm crazy because the Lord is speaking to him in this moment. Now, do you ever think for a second that something that you have fallen in so much love with that that God would use that to speak to you in a moment of such desperation? Amen. And then he said he had been root removed from his position in the church because of an unfortunate circumstance in his life, and he was broken, his identity was gone because he identified as a youth pastor and a prison ministry pastor, and that was his identity, and he had lost it, and all of the sudden he gets a text message, and it's a text message from a kid that he had taught at another church in children's ministry years ago, and this guy said to him, This this young man said to him, You know, I just want to let you know that all those years of you speaking into me, it's allowed me to grow, it's made me who I am. Yada yada, it's this really flowery, wonderful text, and then he indicates that he is the new youth pastor of the church that he had been removed from. God is good. Because you know, it is so painful to think that I'm being stripped of something, but you're not losing someone else's gaining. His season did not end, it just changed. Amen. You know, that was a heartfelt story, and it was warming, and I'm sure all of us love to hear that. And you know, I as I was thinking about it and as I was telling that story, I think I'll ask him to come and share at some point with us because he's a wonderful man, he's very anointed. But I want to share, and he's funny, like that's I answer the phone and he'll be like, say it with me, and he'll say, like, uh, really weird stuff. Anyhow, sometimes you'll call him and he just starts singing to you on the phone. I love him, love him to death. But that story gives us great hope. And then I had another situation this last week, and I want to share it with you. But this is not as this is not flowery, this is not warm, it's not fuzzy. But I will tell you that God is always good, and we have to remember that. We went on a cruise, we had a wonderful time on the cruise, we got home and we're sitting in the council room, my wife and I with a few other people, and my wife flips her phone around and she shows me a Facebook post. And this Facebook post is of these two little boys that we met while we were doing karaoke on the cruise ship. Cutest little boys ever. Owen, I don't remember how old Owen was, but Owen was little, and he comes up to me. He's like, I'm singing I want it that way by the Backstreet Boys. What are you singing? Right? And he was like, he was in it to win it. He loved it. All right. His brother and his sister sang together, and it was just absolutely glorious. And we made connection with them. My kids played with them in kids' club, and on their they lived in Ontario, Canada, and they drove. Like we drove, and it was like 16 hours. I can't imagine what their drive was like. No, thank you, right? Anyhow, they drove, and somewhere in West Virginia, they hit a deer. Right? That's a bummer. The unfortunate part was was when they hit the deer, they were also rear-ended by a semi. The nine-year-old died. Owen, the little one, severe head trauma. Don't know if he's gonna make it. Mom has broken ribs, broken arm, dad broken leg, little girl was in a car seat, no injuries but obvious trauma. Explain it to me. Help me understand why that would happen. And as my wife and I were talking about it and we decided we needed to tell our boys, at least, because they had formed relationships with these kids. I told them, I said, we have two options now. We can live in fear. Every time we're on the road at night, we can be afraid that we're gonna see a deer, hit a deer, something bad might happen. Amen. Or we can choose to live in love and we can spend more time as a family telling each other we love each other, because you never know when God is going to take one of us from this from this place. Amen. Those are our options. And so, what I want to say to you in this is that we cannot look at the bad things that happen as always just being bad things, amen. We have to be willing to look at those and say, God is still good, right? We just don't understand the goodness all. The time. I wish that I did, and I wish that I could explain it to you, but I will tell you that they have great peace. They are still mourning a loss, but they still have great peace. I am so thankful that we met this family because we fell in love with those kids the minute that we met them, because uh Owen was so much like Easton, it was kind of scary if we're being honest with one another. Like just willing to talk to anybody, willing to be friends with anybody. And it's heartbreaking to see, but I know that when God called us into their circle, listen, we have to pray for them, right? I don't know what else to do. I can't take it away. I can't make it, I can't take away the pain. But God placed us in their lives so that we could intercede for them. Amen. So that we could go to the heavenlies and say, Lord, heal their hearts. And and we did get a small update, but I don't, it's one of those things that as you share it, you just you have to be cautiously optimistic. But they think that Owen is gonna make it. But they said it could be a year to two years before they know, because they don't know the level of trauma that he has experienced at this point. The hard part is is we can't be there, right? But we still have to be willing to intercede for them. We can't forget about them, we can't forget about the lost or the broken, and oftentimes that's what we as Christians tend to do, right? On Facebook, I'm praying for you. Anybody ever did that? Yeah, yeah, and then well, I don't ever pray for you, or I do it once and I never do it again, or I don't follow up with you and check on you to make sure you're okay. We've all been there, right? That's hard, and we have to do better because the world is expecting us to be the buffer. Are we willing? Because we're called, but are we willing? I think we have to understand that Jesus, when he intercedes for us, when he stepped in and took all of our sin upon him, that death is not a scary thing any longer. Amen? That none of us want to experience it. And should the Lord tarry, we will all taste of physical death, the death of this flesh. But I promise you this that so long as you are following Jesus and you are living righteously, you are living on a path that Jesus has called you to live on. You will not taste of death the same way that those who do not will taste of death. Amen. And I want to encourage you with that today. What time is it? Do I have time? I've got 15 minutes. We're okay. We're okay. I want to encourage you to continue to love the world who will not always love you. I want to encourage you to love the people who do not love you. I want to encourage you to lean into relationships that seem hard. And if it doesn't mean you have to talk to them. Okay? But it means you have to love them. It means you have to be willing to pray for them. It means you have to be willing to intercede. Jesus forgives, but he absolutely commands change. Amen. John 8 11. Um, and I want to read some of this because this is the act of the woman caught in adultery. And it says, Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning, he was back again at the temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman that they had caught in the act of adultery, and they put her in front of the crowd. Are you ready for this? We know this story, but I want you to listen. Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The very act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? What was that? It was a trap. Right? Because, see, they're chasing Jesus right now. They need Jesus to say something that will allow them to arrest him, right? So they're chasing him. They try to trap him with this. And it says, Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The law of Moses says, says to stone her. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer. So he stood up again and said, Now, Jesus is a smart man, right? Now he is not smart in the flesh, he is smart in the spirit. I will remind you what that when the devil tempted him, he responded to scripture with scripture, right? He didn't allow the devil to pervert the word of God. He said to him, That's not how this is gonna go. And in this moment, he says, All right, stoner, but let those who have never sinned throw the first stone. Those who have never, that's that's fine. If that's what you want to do, do it. But you had better make sure that you are blameless before you do. What am I saying to you, church? Sometimes we walk out into the world and we see people we do not like, we see people we don't agree with, we see people who are living differently than us, and we look at them and we say, they are not worthy of my love, they are not worthy of the love of Christ. And you can tell me you don't say it, but I know you think it, and as soon as you think it, Jesus knows you thought it. Right? And so we think it, and then and we're looking at these people and we're like, they are not worthy of what God has to offer. And I want to tell you something. Unless you are without sin, you had better not cast that stone. I have heard people call me names, I have heard people make up just blatant lies about me, and every time I get angry, every time. And when I get mad, I say things I don't mean, and when I get mad, I act a way that I am not proud of, and every time I say, Lord, take it away from me. And he says, How many times? How many times are you going to allow this to affect you until you realize it doesn't matter? It doesn't matter what the world thinks about you. The world does not hate me. The world hates what they see in me. Now I'm not saying the world always hates perfection because I am not perfect, but sometimes the world sees Jesus in a way that they can't understand or that they can't grasp. The goodness of God. You know, when I lost my job, I was mad, I was bitter. And then God said, But why? Because you know I've got good things in store for you. Amen. And then when I called Pastor Holly and I told her, she said, Pastor Michael, in the spirit, I just see this long hallway. And all of these doors are illuminated. There are going to be options. And then I get the job that I have. Alyssa, how long was I there? Not even two months. And they're like, hey, we want to give you a promotion. Thank you, Jesus. Right? And then last week they offered me another one. Can I tell you something? God is good. And that hallway that Pastor Holly saw with all of those doors, they just keep opening. And every time they open, I think, Lord, why? Right? I just feel like I'm getting good at this, and now you're pulling me over here. And he says, Because I told you I would, and so I will. Amen. I told you I would, and so I will. If the Lord has called you, if the Lord has told you, then let me promise you something, He will. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. It may not be next week, but I promise you, if He told you He will, He's gonna do it. And it's gonna be bigger than what you expected. It's gonna be more than you can contain. Listen, we're pouring out blessings upon blessings upon blessings. Living in the overflow cannot be selfish. Amen. Living in the overflow, listen, if God is gonna fill my cup, I gotta fill somebody else's cup. If God is gonna continue to bless my family, I have to continue to bless other families. Amen. Listen, sometimes blessings is just saying, hey, I just want you to know that I love you. I've been thinking about you, you've been on my heart, and I just want you to know that God is really doing something great in your life, and you may not see it, but I want to promise you that He is good all the time, and all the time He is good. Amen. Amen. Who we must love. But see, Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you, but then we forget the next part. What does it say? Go and sin no more. Right? Okay, so here we are at the altar. Lord forgive me. I screwed up, I'm sorry, I want to be back in your good graces, and when you stand up and Jesus says, Go and sin no more, what does that mean? Yeah. Oh, why isn't anybody answering me? It means go, depart from me, walk into the world, and don't do it again. And oftentimes we get up from the altar, we walk back to our seat, and we do it again. We get up and we say, I've left it in the hands of Jesus. I left it in the hands of the only one who can take it from me. And then I picked it up and I carried it back to my seat with me. And now I'm gonna hold on to it till next week and I'm gonna hope that there's a moment that I can go to the altar to lay it down again. I want to promise you something, you can lay it down at home. You can lay it down when you're in the shower, right? You lay it down wherever you go. I'm telling you that when God speaks to you, when your heart is convicted, lay it down and walk away. Lay it down and walk. I was not delivered from smoking in the church. That it didn't happen that way. God finally said to me, if you do it again, you're gonna be sick. Do you know the last time I smoked a cigarette? Maybe not the last time I smoked a cigarette, but the last time I actively smoked was when Emmett was born. Terrible delivery. I won't even get into that story because I'll cry, messed up my whole, I mean it wrecked me, right? And our best friends were coming to see us, and they said, Can I bring you anything? I said, Yes, a pack of Camel Menthol silvers, please. It's like bring me a carton. I don't care. I need a cigarette. And so they bring it, we're at OSU. She delivered at OSU. So we're down there, and you're not allowed to smoke on that campus anywhere, right? Guess what I did? Smoked on that campus, and I'm talking chain smoked until I physically couldn't stand it anymore. Right? Physically ill. And God said, You're done. You're done. Deliverance doesn't always happen in the church. Deliverance doesn't always happen where you expect it. I remember when I got saved, I got saved in the church. Like when I gave my life to the Lord, I was in the church. That's not common. That's not normal. Oftentimes people are saved in the most bizarre places. People get saved standing in Walmart because people like Joe stop and pray for them. Amen. We need to be open to the move of the Spirit. We need to be willing to take whatever it is that we're doing, lay it down when God calls us to lay it down, walk away, and sin no more. How much time do I have? I got four minutes. We're not going to get all this done, folks. All right. I'm going to skip for just a second. What does Jesus accept? Jesus accepts repentance. He will not accept rebellion. Amen. So when he speaks to you and he says, I need to lay, you need to lay this down, he is going to accept your repentance. He is not going to accept the person who says, I'm not laying this down. He might tell me, I might know that I shouldn't be doing this, but guess what? I'm still gonna do it. Because he'll forgive me. You're right, he will. But you have to be willing when God speaks to listen. He will accept you as broken, he will not accept you as boastful. You guys know what boastful means, right? He is not going to accept the people that walk out into the world and brag about living in the world, about being sinful in nature, about, you know, the people who are like, well, I'm gonna party in hell with all my friends and we're gonna listen to Margaritaville and drink tequila all day. No, you're not. No, you're not. You're gonna be in the dark. And you are going to hear the gnashing of teeth and the wailing of those who know that they are in eternal damnation. That's what you're going to experience. And I promise you, if you think that that's fun, it's not gonna be. I can't imagine. I've never been there, right? But I can't imagine it's gonna be anything like Aruba. I can't imagine that it's gonna be nice and sunny and fun. It's not gonna be. Because if hell were fun, we would all wanna go. Amen. The Bible tells us what it we what we will experience in both heaven and in hell. If you are it if you are choosing willingly to go to hell, then I have to ask, why are you sitting here today? Why are you sitting here today? He will accept the hungry, but he will not accept the hard-hearted. I am hungry for the word of God. My kids are hungry for the word of God. My wife is hungry for the word of God. But the thing is, is while we have the word and we have access to the word and we can read it and we can do all of those things, we also have to make sure that our hearts are not hard to what God is calling us to, right? We can read the word, we can we can see the words on the page, but not absorb them into our hearts and not etch them on our hearts. Amen. And what do you gain from that? Nothing. You know, there are some people who say, Well, I listen to my Bible in the car and that's how I get my ministry time. That's fine. But if you're not touching it and holding it, to me, there's something about this, right? And I'm I'm not saying if you can only listen to it, you know, some people work in a car all day and that's all they get, that's fine. But your heart has to be in the right place. You have to be willing to absorb it, not just here. How many of us have ever listened to an audiobook and then forget everything we heard in that audiobook? I've been listening to an audiobook, I it's probably been six months at this point. I ain't finished it yet. I also don't remember a lick of what they've talked about. But there's something about for me, I have to touch it. I want to see it, I want to, I want to feel it. But there's just a difference. Okay. There's a false gospel, and this is my last point, and then I'm gonna let you guys go. There, the fo there's a false gospel being preached that says Jesus accepts you as you are, no matter what, and nothing has to change. And that sounds comforting, but I promise you it's deadly, right? It is deadly, it will kill you if you believe that. Because you cannot come to Jesus, you cannot come to Jesus and listen to him. You can't, this is this is it. This is the last point, ready? You got your pens? You got your pens? You cannot have your crown without the cross. There it is. You cannot walk into salvation without it first nailing all of those things to the cross, without leaving your sin behind you. Jesus doesn't accept sin because sin destroys the soul that he died to save. He died to save us. That's wild because we we think about that stuff like doesn't that seem crazy? No, nobody thinks so. I'm the only one. I mean, every time I read it, I'm like, this seems wild, right? Oh, okay. Jesus came to the earth knowing that he would be, that he would be martyred so that you and I might have salvation, right? That we might have everlasting life, that we might get to to sit in the heavenlies with the Father. And even when he had the opportunity, he said, Lord, because they the Bible says anything he asked, the Father would give him, right? And in the garden, he said, Lord, should it be your will, let this cup pass from me. Had he said, Father, let this cup pass from me, you and I would not know the love of Jesus Christ. He was willing to die for us so that we might have everlasting life. He died so that our souls may be saved, and sin directly destroys the soul that he came to save. Amen. Matthew 7, 13, 14, it says, Enter through the narrow gate, for the for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate, and narrow is the road that lead to life, and only a few will find it. That narrow gate is Jesus Christ. Amen. That narrow gate is Jesus Christ. Let's just pray together. Father, I thank you and I praise you for this moment that we get to be in your house together, Father. I pray that as these words were spoken, that the spirit of religion was released from this house, Lord, and that that you were just able to rest upon the hearts of those who are here. Lord, that your words were able to sink into their minds. Father, this happened fast today. So much was spoken today, Lord. I pray that you give them a renewing of minds that as they walk out of here, that they can retain and recall all of the wonderful things that you delivered today. Lord, I thank you. And I Father, my heart is just shattered for that family that lost that little boy. Just absolutely Father, just give them comfort today. Guide them and direct them. Father, I am calling upon you to send the comforter to them today. I don't care if they believe in you, I don't care if they don't, Father, I just pray that you send the comforter to them right now. Wrap them in love. Father, as I stand here and I say that I feel that there are people in this building who are hurting, and Father, I pray that you do the same with them. Give them peace, give them comfort. Lord, I thank you for all that you've done in our lives, Father, for all that you're doing in this house. I pray that you continue to just move mightily throughout this body. Bless them as they leave. Bless their words this week, Father. Bless their footsteps. I pray all of this in the precious name of your Son Jesus Christ. And the church says, Amen. Love you guys. We'll see you Wednesday.