Speaker 1: You know we often talk about the time when he died and we often talk about the time when he rose.
Speaker 1: But can you imagine the disciples' hearts on the Saturday before?
Speaker 1: Imagine if you've been like.
Speaker 1: You know I've preached on waiting.
Speaker 1: I do not like it, and when I decide I'm going to wait somewhere, like in a Walmart line, I will not move, no matter how many times my wife tries to tell me there's a shorter one down there.
Speaker 1: If I've spent over two minutes in this line, I have planted my roots.
Speaker 1: I am going to remain until the Lord comes to glory.
Speaker 1: Imagine there's a reason that we don't hear too much activity going on.
Speaker 1: There was no miracles performed when Jesus was in the grave.
Speaker 1: He had promised something and they had no idea what they were waiting for.
Speaker 1: They had no idea what was going to happen.
Speaker 1: All they know is that when Saturday was there, nothing was going on, except for they were being looked for by the enemy.
Speaker 1: Nothing was going on except for they were being looked for by the enemy.
Speaker 1: But I believe that God is still active in our sad Saturdays, in your secluded Saturdays, when you feel like you're by yourself and you are alone and you don't have a reason to go on.
Speaker 1: God is still there in the Saturdays before the new day.
Speaker 1: I love.
Speaker 1: I love the day before Sunday.
Speaker 1: I don't know what y'all are doing, but I'm preparing for service and I know you don't have the same job I do when you come here.
Speaker 1: But imagine if all of us got in the right mindset before we laid our head down on our pillows Saturday night.
Speaker 1: Imagine if the disciples had their mind right.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't have went with the things to anoint his body and take care of it.
Speaker 1: If you'll stand for the reading of God's word I know y'all just sit, but you're going to get some exercise in.
Speaker 1: Today I am going to be reading other scriptures, but you do not have to stand for each one unless you just feel like it.
Speaker 1: You may not know this here, but we are not a dead church.
Speaker 1: We get a little loud, we get a little proud that our Savior lives.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I challenge the Tuesday prayer meeting.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you don't have anything going on at 10 am on Tuesdays, please come to prayer meeting.
Speaker 1: Just stop by, come in.
Speaker 1: We're praying, we got worship music going.
Speaker 1: I go myself with anointing oil and I anoint the altars.
Speaker 1: I anoint every instrument up here, every microphone, every pair of drumsticks, I anoint the corners of this church and I go anoint the youth building, because when we start praying and anointing things, things change and this country will be made whole from this body of believers.
Speaker 1: Because prayer changes everything, not some things.
Speaker 1: It changes everything and even if we don't see it, we know he's still working.
Speaker 1: Even when we don't feel it, we know that he's still coming on Sunday morning, because you may not see God doing anything in the quiet Saturdays, but I guarantee you, in just a few short hours, god's going to do something in your life and I speak that over you right now, before you even go into your Monday, that this hype that we feel, this excitement we feel about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he is alive every single day and he is active.
Speaker 1: And in the name of Jesus, I speak that over you that you better start living in the spiritual gifts God has put on you, because we are not a dead church.
Speaker 1: We believe what the Bible says is true.
Speaker 1: It is the unadulterated word of God and we are going to speak it and believe it as if it is already done, because we serve a God who still does miracles.
Speaker 1: We serve a God who still brings brokenness and people who are lacking to fruition.
Speaker 1: People become healed, marriages get restored, minds become clear again.
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, let me tell you a secret.
Speaker 1: If you're new here today and this may be your first time, or the first time to be back in a while guess what?
Speaker 1: There's a lot of new people here, so nobody knows who's new and who isn't, so you're in good company.
Speaker 1: In Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, we're going to read a very small clip of what Paul is writing here, and this is something that we base our faith on, because we as a church can become a Pharisee minded people worried about what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong, when everyone, under the sound of my voice, people I have met, people I don't know Jesus came and he died and he rose again for them, just like he did for you and me.
Speaker 1: In Romans, 3.23, it says for all have sinned, say all, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: Let's pray Father, right now, in the name of Jesus, holy Spirit, have your way in the rest of this service.
Speaker 1: Penetrate the hard hearts.
Speaker 1: Let your word cut and divide.
Speaker 1: Let your healing power restore and renew our minds.
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a suit coat or the shirt or the shoes, but I feel God in this place today.
Speaker 1: Is it the shoes?
Speaker 1: We're having debates.
Speaker 1: God is so good and if you don't know, you haven't been paying attention.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go on so.
Speaker 1: We have this several times throughout the scripture.
Speaker 1: You have Old Testament, you have New Testament.
Speaker 1: There's many ways that Jesus is named.
Speaker 1: To name a few, we have Emmanuel, we have Christ, lord, master, logos.
Speaker 1: The Word In the beginning was the Word and Jesus was there.
Speaker 1: Like we said last week, in the beginning, every single event that happened in our history, jesus was there, from creation to his death and then rising again.
Speaker 1: Jesus is there and he is here today, the Son of God.
Speaker 1: He is also referred to as the Son of man.
Speaker 1: These are just a few, but one that I would like to add to this list is and this brings me to the title of the message today is bridge.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the bridge from our sinfulness, from our sinful nature that we do not have to learn, it just is.
Speaker 1: He is the bridge from us to the Father.
Speaker 1: Jesus rose from the dead to be a bridge, to bridge the gap between us and Jesus, us and the Father, to bring us into his presence, to make us in right standing righteousness, to make us right before God, because you cannot do it yourself.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how good you act, no matter how many right words you say, no matter how many prayers or Hail Marys you say does not get you into heaven.
Speaker 1: The only way to the Father is the bridge of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to ask you this, and some of you.
Speaker 1: If you've been in church for a while, you'll probably know the answer.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you this A lot of times, we know the answer, but the way we act says we don't Y'all ready for the question.
Speaker 1: You're not ready.
Speaker 1: Do you need Jesus?
Speaker 1: Y'all just heard all the Christian people, right?
Speaker 1: Yes, well, matter of fact, we do.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm here today.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you this how many times do we listen to me?
Speaker 1: How many times do we as Christians, as mature big quotations on that?
Speaker 1: Mature Christians put our walk and where we are on our journey with God and paste it on someone else as if it is supposed to fit them.
Speaker 1: On our journey with God and paste it on someone else as if it is supposed to fit them.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this Did Jesus do that?
Speaker 1: The only time we see him do that is towards the church people.
Speaker 1: Y'all didn't come here to hear that.
Speaker 1: Let's go on Now.
Speaker 1: Ask yourself this Can't I just be a good person and God will allow me in to heaven when I die?
Speaker 1: Now we automatically us who know the word, we are very quick to say no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: But yet we act like, when we act, good enough, it is good enough to cover up our bad.
Speaker 1: That's all the time I do this, you do this, we watch our children do this.
Speaker 1: If Tristan does something he's not supposed to do.
Speaker 1: Tristan is my son.
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, I preach about him a lot.
Speaker 1: He gives me a lot of material.
Speaker 1: Tristan, if he does something wrong, will start doing good.
Speaker 1: I did not teach him that.
Speaker 1: Yes, you need to make right what you have done wrong, but he thinks that it'll make daddy calm down and forget.
Speaker 1: Does it help?
Speaker 1: Yes, but you will still get the punishment due to you because of what you have done.
Speaker 1: Now this is true with us in our spiritual walk.
Speaker 1: We are sinners.
Speaker 1: We all have sinned.
Speaker 1: We need Jesus Christ to cover our sins, because we cannot.
Speaker 1: We do not have the ability or the authority to cover our sins only by his blood.
Speaker 1: Can you be good enough?
Speaker 1: Romans 3.10.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, write this down.
Speaker 1: Romans 3.10 says, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one.
Speaker 1: No one is in right standing with God.
Speaker 1: So what does that do?
Speaker 1: It does two things.
Speaker 1: If you don't know God and you're here today, guess what?
Speaker 1: You have a chance.
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: If you know God in here, you are acting like a Pharisee.
Speaker 1: We don't want to put ourselves in those coats, right?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to be a Christian today.
Speaker 1: No, you're acting like a Pharisee and you keep judging people.
Speaker 1: Are you not convinced?
Speaker 1: Jeremiah 17.9 says this the human heart is the most deceitful of all things and it is desperately wicked.
Speaker 1: Who really knows how bad it is?
Speaker 1: Which means we probably haven't capped it out yet there's still more stupid that we can do.
Speaker 1: Some of us have a PhD in DUMB and we want to blame everybody else.
Speaker 1: Oh, it can't be my fault.
Speaker 1: Oh, god's not moving in our services Can't be my fault.
Speaker 1: I'm not reading.
Speaker 1: Not moving in our services Can't be my fault.
Speaker 1: I'm not reading or praying or doing anything the Bible tells me to do.
Speaker 1: But it can't be me.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to stare right up here to my slide, because here's what happens.
Speaker 1: We get really gifted, and this is not a spiritual gift, so let's point that out right now.
Speaker 1: We get really gifted at pointing out other people's faults and saying, oh, you need Jesus, but your house isn't in order.
Speaker 1: But now, through these scriptures, can we all agree and move on.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead to the next few slides.
Speaker 1: I have that.
Speaker 1: None of us are good enough, so shouldn't that bring a level of compassion to our hearts?
Speaker 1: Yesterday we were driving by and this is not to toot my own horn and just so happened I was in a car, so it's not supposed to be funny, but this guy was homeless apparently.
Speaker 1: Anybody want to put apparently behind that a lot.
Speaker 1: You see a guy that's homeless apparently, but he could be riding in a better vehicle than I have.
Speaker 1: There's all these things like oh, I'm sure he's making a lot of money.
Speaker 1: There was some research done on homeless people.
Speaker 1: I don't remember what state, I don't remember what town, I know it was a large one.
Speaker 1: This guy made $40,000 plus a year.
Speaker 1: On the side.
Speaker 1: He said why would I go to a real job when I can make cash this way and the government can't touch it?
Speaker 1: Hello, and before you quit your job and start begging on the corner somewhere now, before you quit your job and start begging on the corner somewhere, calm down, it's not that great.
Speaker 1: I have two rules.
Speaker 1: If I have cash in my pocket, I'm going to give it.
Speaker 1: Okay, maybe I have three if I have cash and I normally don't I don't carry cash around a lot because I can't keep track of it.
Speaker 1: It just disappears and I look down and it's gone.
Speaker 1: But a card, I know exactly what I spent.
Speaker 1: I see it coming out of the checking account and I can't keep track of it.
Speaker 1: It just disappears and I look down and it's gone.
Speaker 1: But a card.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what I spent.
Speaker 1: I see it coming out of the checking account and I can keep track If I have cash.
Speaker 1: Two things One I do not give my money unless God tells me to.
Speaker 1: The problem with a lot of us is that we're not available to God to tell us to, because we've already got reasons why we won't do it before God even puts it on our heart.
Speaker 1: Number two I never count the money that I take out of my wallet to give, because that automatically gets inside of my mind of, oh, he's going to do this, he's going to do that.
Speaker 1: I start putting strings on it.
Speaker 1: Just that was free, because I know that that man, that woman, whatever their condition is, whether it's true or whether it is not is not my place to decide that.
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be a channel for God to be flowing through, not him handing me the authority to make those decisions in his place.
Speaker 1: He is well capable to take care of what he needs to take care of, because us in the church house we're really good at putting conditions on allow God to move.
Speaker 1: Now we say that the heart can lead you wrong.
Speaker 1: You ever drove by someone and your heart or maybe it's your head saying no, no, no.
Speaker 1: I know what he's going to do with that money because they're twitching already before I even give it to him.
Speaker 1: No, I know what he's going to do with that money because they're twitching already before I even give it to them.
Speaker 1: I could smell the alcohol on them right now.
Speaker 1: Let me pose it this way to you what if that one thing of love?
Speaker 1: Oh, my third rule is.
Speaker 1: I always mention God's name to them Because there is power in his name.
Speaker 1: And when I put that out there and I put God's name on that money with them, that's all God.
Speaker 1: There is no time.
Speaker 1: And of course they always say oh God bless you.
Speaker 1: You know we're in East Texas.
Speaker 1: Oh God bless you too, brother, you know it's whatever, but I spoke God's name with authority, the God that is my Lord and savior.
Speaker 1: I spoke that into existence in that small exchange and small conversation.
Speaker 1: What small areas of your life are you not allowing God's name?
Speaker 1: We want proof that the heart is deceitful and that it's evil.
Speaker 1: Have you ever, anybody ever, been in a dating game before?
Speaker 1: Some of y'all have had some bad dates, and how many of you held on longer than you should have.
Speaker 1: Oh, I can change him If I could just get her to church.
Speaker 1: Man, that's a lot of material for some memes.
Speaker 1: If I could just get him to church, if I could just.
Speaker 1: And then you end up married 20 years later and you're still the one coming to church, and he's not.
Speaker 1: Because your heart led you down, not God.
Speaker 1: Your heart led you down a path that was deceiving to you.
Speaker 1: There's a reason they say love is blind.
Speaker 1: There should also be another one Love is stupid.
Speaker 1: You end up in situations that you shouldn't have.
Speaker 1: Isaiah says it like this but your iniquities have separated you from your God.
Speaker 1: Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.
Speaker 1: Our sins can be a blockade between us and God, because we live and we are born into sinful nature.
Speaker 1: But the reason we're supposed to be bearing the fruits of the spirit is because we are supposed to be chopping up and getting rid of that flesh so that the Spirit can take hold.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the only way to God Iniquities.
Speaker 1: It means immoral behavior.
Speaker 1: The only way to wipe away our crimson stains is by the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Don't let your past rob you of the present God is trying to do to you.
Speaker 1: Most of you know, but this is my story, this is my song, the reason I am so passionate about showing compassion to those who are hooked on drugs and those who do not know God, and that we need to start looking at them in a different way, that they are a valued soul, that there is a value system that the word of God puts on them.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what they look like.
Speaker 1: It does not matter what they smell like, it does not matter what their bank account says or if they don't have one.
Speaker 1: God sent his son to die for them, and the reason I know this is because I was once there.
Speaker 1: I remember being homeless, living in the car that I had at the time because my father, my mother, left.
Speaker 1: My father kicked me out.
Speaker 1: I had no protection anymore because this boy is a mama's boy.
Speaker 1: When mama was gone, daddy was singing his own song and I couldn't dance to it, so I had to leave and I blamed him.
Speaker 1: When I called him the first time from the jail cell, I cursed him.
Speaker 1: I was still high.
Speaker 1: I cursed him.
Speaker 1: I said every name because you know what?
Speaker 1: This day right here that we're in Easter, easter was coming and I was thinking that my pastoral father wasn't going to let his son be separated from his son on Easter Sunday.
Speaker 1: That's not the pastor thing to do, that's not love, but it was a love that actually left me there to learn the lesson.
Speaker 1: And in this time of separation from the world, the first time I ever said no to meth was inside of the jail cell.
Speaker 1: Somebody snuck it into the toe of their shoe up inside of there and by this time I had been sober and I knew that visitation was coming.
Speaker 1: It had been several days.
Speaker 1: I knew visitation was coming.
Speaker 1: I knew my dad was coming to see me because I finally talked to him again.
Speaker 1: You talk about a grown man.
Speaker 1: I was in a cell with nine other guys, a grown man crying on the phone in the corner so nobody would see me.
Speaker 1: Because I didn't want anybody to see a grown man crying, I got up in my bed, I had a top bunk and I covered my head up.
Speaker 1: I cried myself to sleep and for the first time and I don't remember when I slept in peace.
Speaker 1: That was the journey, that was the first step.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this what would you have thought of your pastor in that position where you are now and where I was then?
Speaker 1: Would you have reached out to me and stepped outside of your comfort zone to talk to me about Jesus and how much he loved me?
Speaker 1: Because I guarantee you this, telling me what I was doing wrong was not going to get me to come to God, because we are born in sin.
Speaker 1: We understand sin very well.
Speaker 1: That's how we end up living there so comfortably.
Speaker 1: What loved me into the church house and got me to come was when somebody extended their hand and said no matter what you look like, no matter how you are acting, you need to come to church and you need to get ahold of God and let God get ahold of you.
Speaker 1: And in this moment, in this process I talk about process all the time because we get so caught up on the product and we forget about the process.
Speaker 1: There's a process.
Speaker 1: When people come to God, sometimes it's right then and they let go and God frees them and they're sober.
Speaker 1: For me it was months and months of going back and forth.
Speaker 1: Back and forth God, I'm sorry Back and forth.
Speaker 1: When I found Jesus in the jail cell, I was passing out scriptures on little paper to everybody in there.
Speaker 1: I was talking about Pentecost and we speak in tongues and we believe in healing and we're going to go to the devil's place and take his ground back.
Speaker 1: I was excited.
Speaker 1: I was preaching in the jailhouse.
Speaker 1: I got out and I got the—out of the body of my car was the pipe that I had shoved in there before the cop got me and it had some in there left and I bought another bag.
Speaker 1: Actually back then I could get it without even paying for it.
Speaker 1: They would show up and deliver it to me, to my house.
Speaker 1: I couldn't go anywhere because I had to sell my car to get out of jail for my bond.
Speaker 1: I had it delivered.
Speaker 1: I went to the church and I got to an altar the church that we came from, over in White House.
Speaker 1: I got down at the altar and in the back of my pocket same wallet actually in the back of my pocket right there, tucked into that little place, that secret place that nobody knew about, the secret place that nobody knew was even there, the secret place that nobody knew was even there.
Speaker 1: And I got down at that altar and I said, god, I need something different.
Speaker 1: This ain't working.
Speaker 1: And I would love to tell you then, at that moment, I stood up and started living my life for Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'd already broke the pipe and so I got some tinfoil and a lighter and I creased it down the middle of it and I put the shard up there and I lit it all the way down and smoked it through a pan and I cried the entire time and didn't even get to enjoy my last high.
Speaker 1: I would love to tell you that that was the last time I ever did it.
Speaker 1: I would love to tell you that that was the last time I ever touched it, that I ever touched drugs, that I ever touched alcohol, not even a few months later.
Speaker 1: After then moving to White House, I had to call my cousin.
Speaker 1: No, we hadn't moved yet.
Speaker 1: We were still in Palestine.
Speaker 1: I had to call my cousin.
Speaker 1: I was stranded.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a car.
Speaker 1: I got out of jail.
Speaker 1: I had to call him and say I messed up.
Speaker 1: I was on the worship team with him at his church.
Speaker 1: I messed up.
Speaker 1: I was on the worship team with him at his church.
Speaker 1: I was playing guitar for him.
Speaker 1: He was leading worship and I had done cocaine the entire night and was still a little drunk, and I was stranded at somebody's house and all I could think about was God, what am I doing?
Speaker 1: Why am I here again?
Speaker 1: And he came and picked me up and he said you don't have to tell me a thing.
Speaker 1: And he loved me in spite of me.
Speaker 1: Church, we've got to start loving people in spite of their hang-ups, in spite of their mess-ups.
Speaker 1: They could come in here drunk in the morning.
Speaker 1: We should hold their beer at the door and let them in.
Speaker 1: Is that extreme?
Speaker 1: It should be, because they're going to die and go to hell.
Speaker 1: We don't have time to play games anymore.
Speaker 1: Jesus came and died for them so that we can reach them.
Speaker 1: You've got the salvation.
Speaker 1: Get out of the way and let somebody else have a turn.
Speaker 1: Come on, let somebody else have a turn.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's your first time here, because we're pretty new here, so you may have come here years ago or whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: To me it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: God loves you, god cares for you.
Speaker 1: This pastor loves you.
Speaker 1: This pastor cares for you.
Speaker 1: This pastor wife has the biggest heart I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: If you've come here today and you are struggling with peace and rest in your heart, it could be a secret place that nobody else knows about.
Speaker 1: God can get in those secret places.
Speaker 1: The spirit of God can rescue you from yourself.
Speaker 1: That was.
Speaker 1: The biggest enemy to me was me.
Speaker 1: If you meet me, I'm an outgoing person.
Speaker 1: Put drugs on that and I talk to everybody.
Speaker 1: There was nobody I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Everybody in that town knew who I was and knew what I like to do.
Speaker 1: I had to run.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you got to get out of the mouth of the lion and run.
Speaker 1: Now, that was not an approval for divorce, so just pointing that out.
Speaker 1: But if you want to rest in peace, the enemy wants to for you.
Speaker 1: Listen, the enemy wants you to stay home and stay mad.
Speaker 1: Who's ever been hurt in church before?
Speaker 1: Hello, church.
Speaker 1: Hurt is real and it is the biggest tool of the enemy and the devil.
Speaker 1: Don't have to do much, though.
Speaker 1: Hurt is real and it is the biggest tool of the enemy and the devil don't have to do much, though.
Speaker 1: He wants you to stay mad because he knows that when we get together, we find our strength.
Speaker 1: We can find encouragement, our unity, build our faith and extend our family.
Speaker 1: The biggest trick of the enemy is separating you from the herd.
Speaker 1: If he can make you feel alone or that nobody wants to be around you or nobody cares about you, you will constantly feel lost and you will lose your purpose.
Speaker 1: You will not be fulfilled anymore.
Speaker 1: He will rob you of God's promise for you.
Speaker 1: Luke 15, it says this we have three things here we have a lost sheep, we have a lost coin and we have a lost son.
Speaker 1: And jesus is telling these parables back to back to back because there's a, there's a significance to something being lost because we all are.
Speaker 1: We all have been.
Speaker 1: We all, as we read in romans a minute ago we all have sinned, we all have fallen short to god's glory.
Speaker 1: We all need to be standing and righteous with god, and the only way to do that is with Jesus.
Speaker 1: In Luke, chapter 15, you can read this later, but we're going to skip through it a little bit Now.
Speaker 1: This is me coming out.
Speaker 1: This is not a King James Version, so just bear with me.
Speaker 1: All right Now.
Speaker 1: The tax collectors and sinners were all gathered around to hear Jesus, but the Pharisees, the Pharisees and teachers of the law muttered well, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
Speaker 1: You ain't supposed to be hanging out with those folk.
Speaker 1: How can they sit together?
Speaker 1: They're not even in our denomination.
Speaker 1: Hello, church people were saying this have you ever met church people?
Speaker 1: Come on somebody.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus told them in this parable because he knew he knew they were being stupid and selfish and ignorant.
Speaker 1: So he said this suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
Speaker 1: And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and he goes home.
Speaker 1: Then he calls his friends, his neighbors.
Speaker 1: They gather together and say rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep.
Speaker 1: I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven for one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who do not need to repent.
Speaker 1: We've got to start celebrating the small wins.
Speaker 1: If one person comes to Jesus in my entire ministry until the day that I die, it's worth every single moment.
Speaker 1: We've got to stop focusing on the 99 and start looking for the one, because one day this stage is going to be filled with worshipers who were once lost and sinned.
Speaker 1: We shouldn't be out to get other people's people.
Speaker 1: There are so many lost and dying out there that are in a pew, just like today, that never come to church and we miss opportunity day after day and we get so hyped up and excited about Easter Sunday but we don't do anything in between.
Speaker 1: God has not called you to be excited about Easter.
Speaker 1: He's called you to live in his life and do what he's supposed to do.
Speaker 1: God has not called you to be excited about Easter.
Speaker 1: He's called you to live in his life and do what he's supposed to do?
Speaker 1: God wants you to live in his life.
Speaker 1: He didn't die for anything.
Speaker 1: He didn't die for you to just hold on to what he has done.
Speaker 1: You need to celebrate and share what God has done.
Speaker 1: The parable of the lost coin.
Speaker 1: Now, why did he do this?
Speaker 1: Because they had tax collectors there.
Speaker 1: Jesus had a way of getting down to where people were.
Speaker 1: He knew that when he spoke about money, their little ears would perk up.
Speaker 1: Verse 8 in Luke, chapter 15, if you want to follow along, we're going all the way towards the end, at least the chapter.
Speaker 1: I mean verse 25.
Speaker 1: It says or suppose a man or a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one.
Speaker 1: It says or suppose a man or a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one, doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
Speaker 1: And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says rejoice with me, I have found my lost coin.
Speaker 1: In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Speaker 1: Jesus continued there was a man.
Speaker 1: He's hitting everybody, everybody, because back in the day there were so many people who had sheep and flocks, everyone understood money and the value of a coin.
Speaker 1: Everyone understood money and the value of a coin and everyone has family.
Speaker 1: And he's about to tell the parable of this young man.
Speaker 1: Most of you probably know the parable.
Speaker 1: This is a very popular and preached about a lot.
Speaker 1: You have this young man who I don't know if y'all have ever had teenagers before, but mine thinks he knows everything and he's never even paid his own bill on anything.
Speaker 1: He doesn't understand.
Speaker 1: The mouth that he has is writing checks and his bank account's in the negative already.
Speaker 1: He tries to act like he's smarter than he is and I try to tell him son, read Proverbs please.
Speaker 1: For the life of me, the more you talk, the more you see you don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that translates to adults too.
Speaker 1: So we have this son that thinks oh man, if I just I want to live like my dad.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever.
Speaker 1: When you were younger, you thought you should have what your parents have earned their entire life.
Speaker 1: My parents had this huge house.
Speaker 1: It was like 4,500 square feet.
Speaker 1: I'm like, ooh, I'm going to have one of those Less than 1,000 square foot apartment.
Speaker 1: It don't translate right.
Speaker 1: I'm like, lord, I'm working hard.
Speaker 1: Well, then I get my next one.
Speaker 1: I'm like, ooh, this is a bump up, 1,600 square feet and I own this.
Speaker 1: Well, I own one 1,000th and the bank owns the rest.
Speaker 1: But man, I got this.
Speaker 1: I'm on my way, dad, I got you.
Speaker 1: You see me in the rear view mirror.
Speaker 1: I'm coming up behind you and I'm going to pass you my next house.
Speaker 1: It still ain't half the size that there was.
Speaker 1: And I'm like why do I keep comparing my calling to someone else's blessing?
Speaker 1: Why do I keep taking what I have and what God has blessed me with?
Speaker 1: Because what we'll do is we'll take the blessings God has blessed us with.
Speaker 1: This young man had to work for nothing.
Speaker 1: He didn't have to do anything.
Speaker 1: There were people to do things for the people who had people to do things for them.
Speaker 1: Their flocks and their sheep were beyond anything anybody else had.
Speaker 1: They were rich beyond the wildest.
Speaker 1: You know how?
Speaker 1: I know, because the son took his inheritance and his father didn't even feel it.
Speaker 1: So there's no telling how much they actually had.
Speaker 1: He wanted it all right.
Speaker 1: Then he did not focus on what he had and he focused on what he had not.
Speaker 1: Hello Instagram, how many of y'all compare your life to other people's stories I've seen on Instagram like I fly drone as well and it's so cool.
Speaker 1: I've taken mine up to the mountains before, almost lost it, and I had to go way down and follow the tree line back up because the wind was taking it and it was not coming back.
Speaker 1: And I said, baby, that'd be terrible if you had to climb down there and get that.
Speaker 1: That's what I told her.
Speaker 1: I act real tough y'all until we get in private and then she beats me.
Speaker 1: That's why I told her I act real tough y'all until we get in private and then she beats me.
Speaker 1: That's why I wear long sleeves to cover the bruises.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding, that's a real thing, I apologize.
Speaker 1: And so I see these people that are traveling and they're doing all these cool things and they got cool videos.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: And then I'm like, oh, I never get to go there.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever done that?
Speaker 1: You look on other people's blessings and you try to match their.
Speaker 1: You will wear yourself out and kill yourself trying to work hard enough so that you can match their blessings, when that's not the blessing God had for you.
Speaker 1: And this son went out, lost everything.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he went to a casino or what.
Speaker 1: But he lost everything so quickly that all of a sudden he looks up and realizes that he is eating, because he's so hungry and starved.
Speaker 1: He's eating the same thing that he is feeding the pigs.
Speaker 1: You've been squandering away the blessings God has put on you and trying to do through you and you're eating with the pigs, and God's called you for more.
Speaker 1: You have allowed your spirit to remain in a hungry state for the wrong things, to remain in a hungry state for the wrong things, and you can consume, and you can consume, and you can consume, and you will never be full because you keep feasting on the wrong things.
Speaker 1: And this young man found his way back.
Speaker 1: And Jesus ends the parable with saying that once the father saw the son, everything the son had done, every stupid thing he had done, was gone, and the father, all he could see and realize was that his child was finally home.
Speaker 1: People, if you do not know Jesus or you have been living on the fence, make up your mind.
Speaker 1: Today Jesus is waiting for you to come home.
Speaker 1: He's not going to judge you.
Speaker 1: We're not going to look at you sideways.
Speaker 1: Jesus came to die for every single person under the sound of my voice.
Speaker 1: Today, everyone has sinned.
Speaker 1: When just one finds their way where they belong Jesus, you belong with Jesus.
Speaker 1: All of heaven rejoices, just like this coin, just like this sheep and just like this son.
Speaker 1: What promises do we have?
Speaker 1: What are the promises of a sinner?
Speaker 1: Sometimes we back down from coming to God because we think we've done too much, we think we've been too dark.
Speaker 1: I cannot preach and tell you some of the things that I have done in my drug days.
Speaker 1: My wife and I, like yesterday, we celebrated seven years of marriage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, last night I made her sign a contract she has to stay around for at least seven more more.
Speaker 1: Sorry, baby, it's in writing.
Speaker 1: And so, eight years ago, this is what happened.
Speaker 1: This is how God works.
Speaker 1: When you give everything to God, this is how he orchestrates things.
Speaker 1: I got a job, a real job, a real job.
Speaker 1: March 3rd she agreed to marry me.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 1: Yesterday's date was right.
Speaker 1: Same year Now, she first told me she wasn't going to date me at all and I told her that was a lie from the devil.
Speaker 1: But what had happened was I had been so dark and so deeply rooted in sin that when I came back to the Lord and started really giving him everything.
Speaker 1: I was so raw to the spirit of God.
Speaker 1: See, coming to the church is a good thing, but you keep coming to church.
Speaker 1: Eventually you'll get numb.
Speaker 1: You keep coming to church, eventually you'll get numb, you'll get used to the people and then you don't want no more.
Speaker 1: You'll get used to the greeters, you'll get used to the pastor, you'll get used to the worship and then when a new song comes, you're like that's weird, that can't be God.
Speaker 1: A new class I don't want nothing to do with that.
Speaker 1: That's a bunch of young people.
Speaker 1: We should be intermingling.
Speaker 1: We need your wisdom and you need our freshness.
Speaker 1: When I was so raw to God and what he wanted to do in my life, this is how serious it was.
Speaker 1: I've said this multiple times, but this is how it is.
Speaker 1: When you start giving everything to God and you become fully vulnerable and exposed to the Spirit, he will lead you in your grocery shopping.
Speaker 1: Does that sound weird?
Speaker 1: It's a little foreign because we leave Him out of the small details of our lives and then we want Him on the big things.
Speaker 1: When I came back to God, I was working cash jobs, renovations like drywall, patch-up work, things like that for a guy in White House that owned properties.
Speaker 1: That's how I made cash 10 bucks an hour and I got good at it.
Speaker 1: But I knew I was not.
Speaker 1: I did not have a budget.
Speaker 1: I barely had a bank account and I knew shopping God would.
Speaker 1: This is going to sound weird.
Speaker 1: God spoke to me on what to put back because I couldn't afford it, and when I would get to the register and check out it was to the dime of what I had in my pocket.
Speaker 1: Because when we start including God in the little things, it adds up when we start including him in things that we have gotten numb to.
Speaker 1: That's why I have the challenge of 15.
Speaker 1: 5 minutes of prayer, 5 minutes of reading a word and 5 minutes praising God before you start your day, and your day will be different.
Speaker 1: Acts 2 21.
Speaker 1: It says this and if everyone and everyone say everyone, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, will be saved.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say might.
Speaker 1: It's not well if they pay a certain amount of tithes, it's not if they go to a certain church, it's not if they have their life all together.
Speaker 1: All who call on his name will be saved.
Speaker 1: There is no fine print on the salvation of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: There is just a period, that's it.
Speaker 1: You will be saved.
Speaker 1: If you call, he will answer.
Speaker 1: He will answer John 14, 6,.
Speaker 1: It says this Jesus answered I am the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker 1: No one comes to the Father except through me.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the only way.
Speaker 1: He is the bridge between us and God.
Speaker 1: No matter what you have done, no matter what you will do, his forgiveness and his mercy and his grace are new Every single day.
Speaker 1: There is nothing you can do to make yourself good enough, nothing.
Speaker 1: It don't matter if you got the right spouse, if you got the nicest car.
Speaker 1: Only by his grace and his mercy.
Speaker 1: None of us deserve it.
Speaker 1: Yet he freely gives it.
Speaker 1: He gives it.
Speaker 1: The reason he went to the cross is for you, so that you would stop living a halfway Christianity.
Speaker 1: Stop putting a label on your chest trying to act proud because you think you've done something, when nothing you can do will save you.
Speaker 1: No amount of good will get you into his grace.
Speaker 1: Only by the stripes of Jesus, only by the salvation of his son, will you be saved.
Speaker 1: And you may look at this and you may say I can't maintain that that's hard following God all the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the salvation part is easy when you say yes, jesus.
Speaker 1: I believe the hard part's afterwards, the steps you take.
Speaker 1: There is no sinner's prayer, there's no raising your hand in church or coming down to an altar.
Speaker 1: It's the action that follows those things that makes you different.
Speaker 1: That's okay if you can't follow up and you can't maintain that, because you're not meant to.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is supposed to lead and guide you.
Speaker 1: The Spirit is supposed to be living inside of you.
Speaker 1: If you're saved and not filled, you're living a half-Christian life of what you could be.
Speaker 1: Y'all wasn't ready for that.
Speaker 1: Limitations 3.22,.
Speaker 1: It says the faithful love of the Lord.
Speaker 1: It never ends His mercies.
Speaker 1: Never cease, verse 23,.
Speaker 1: Never cease, Verse 23,.
Speaker 1: Great is his faithfulness.
Speaker 1: His mercies begin afresh each morning, each time you feel like giving up, hold on because he is still there with you.
Speaker 1: When you feel like you are by yourself.
Speaker 1: You don't see him, you don't feel him, you don't know where he is.
Speaker 1: I promise you he is working on your behalf.
Speaker 1: He did not die on the cross for you to live a half Christian life.
Speaker 1: You want God to start doing things in your life.
Speaker 1: You need to put forth some effort, don't let go.
Speaker 1: God says that he is with us always Because he loves you.
Speaker 1: The sin that once separated you from the Father can now be washed clean, and all you have to do is ask.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is say God, forgive me, wash me clean, Wash me clean and you can now.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the bridge.
Speaker 1: You can now approach the throne room boldly on your own behalf.
Speaker 1: You don't need a pastor.
Speaker 1: You don't need your own behalf.
Speaker 1: You don't need a pastor.
Speaker 1: You don't need a board member.
Speaker 1: You don't need a priest.
Speaker 1: The veil was torn.
Speaker 1: You now can come yourself.
Speaker 1: You don't have to have my permission to pray and approach God.
Speaker 1: That's what it used to be Used to, used to.
Speaker 1: The priest had to go into the temple and make your sacrifice.
Speaker 1: When the veil was torn, it took away that separation to where you can have a personal relationship with God today, a personal, real relationship with God.
Speaker 1: Stop hiding, stop playing games.
Speaker 1: Now is the time to be living the way you are meant to live, with a greater purpose and a higher calling.
Speaker 1: God has not called you to come warm a spot in a church.
Speaker 1: He has called you to be a contributor and not a consumer, to walk in faith and walk in love and have compassion for those who once were like you.