You Don't Have to Fix Yourself First

Have you ever thought, "Once I get my life together, then I'll get serious about God?" You're not alone. So many of us believe we have to clean ourselves up before we can come back to Him. But the Parable of the Prodigal Son reminds us that God meets us with compassion, not condemnation. Today, we're talking about why you don't have to be perfect to be welcomed home.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

You are welcome. Lay your words down. Lay your worries down. There is room for you. There is grace for you. Finding truth. Finding peace. Finding our way. Step by step. Day by day. Here, honestly. Here, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Honestly. Hello there. Welcome back to Here Honestly. My name is Lex. In case this is your first time, listen to me. This is a place where you can slow down, where we can open God's word and have honest conversations about real life. So today's summary is basically that sometimes we think we have to become better than we can before we go back to God. But the story of the prodigal son reminds us that God is not standing at the door waiting to criticize us and read us fulfills. He's actually waiting with compassion, grace, and open arms. So I want you to get comfortable because this is a space where we talk about faith beyond the surface level. We're going to get into some nitty-gritty, but please don't mistake me for your teacher. We are all students here. Nobody's at the front of the class. This is not popcorn reading. Nobody's going to put you on the spot. We are all students here. The questions we have, the seasons we don't always understand, because I'm in a couple of different seasons right now. And the moments where we are learning is what really means, what it really means to walk with God. So wherever you are listening today, if you are driving two hands on the wheel, man, whether you're driving, you're getting ready, or taking a break from a busy day, because it seems to be every day is busy, or just needing the quiet moment, I feel and hope that you are welcome here. So grab your Bible, grab your journal if you have one, because I know I got hungry. And let's spend some time with Jesus together. And like I always say and will continue to say, this is just my little disclaimer. Before we begin, I always want to remind you that what I share comes from my personal study of scripture, prayer, and my understanding of God's word. I do not claim to have every answer. And I never want this conversation to replace your own time with God. So please, by all means, do your own due diligence. Go to God on your own. Go to Him in prayer. Go to Him in His Word. Open up your own Bible because it's better for you to know it for yourself. And that's a part of the reason why I wanted to shift my focus with my podcast because I want to know the word for myself. I want to open the Bible for myself and get that understanding that was just instilled in me growing up. So go to God for yourself. Read that scripture. Put your own eyes on it, basically. And my encouragement is always that you just won't take my word for it. Please open up your Bible, read it for yourself, ask questions, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide your understanding. And with that, we're gonna get into our first segment called Let's Get Honest. And I really want us to talk about something that we might not always want to admit. And that is that sometimes we avoid God. Yep. We do it. Don't say you don't because you didn't. I know you didn't. Not because we don't love him or we need some time. And you know how you got that one person that you like, oh my God, I need some time from him. I don't want to be around him. I wanna be around him. I don't want to talk to her right now. I'm putting her on DD. You know, sometimes we might put God on DD just because we don't feel like talking right now, you know? But it's really just because we're ashamed. I think we do it because we're just ashamed. And we know, we know we've been distant. Mm-hmm. Just like when that one person calls you and you talk to them, and God knows how long. You know you've been missing in action, and you might not want to call a spade a spade, but you know you've been distant, you know. And you know, I think we also know that we've made choices. Mm-hmm. Well, gonna love a choice that we are not proud of. But I also think we need to know that God is right there. Even when we don't be talking to him, even when we don't pay him no mind, he is standing there with his imaginary arms open and looking at us like, girl, come on. Come on. Mm-hmm. And you probably expecting God to be like, oh, so now you want to come back? Oh, now you're talking to me again? Oh, oh, you're gonna act like you ain't just oh, okay, that's what we're doing. Okay, okay, okay, bet. But the Bible actually shows us something completely different. And that is why this parable that I got for today's point of um attention is so powerful. So we are gonna go to Luke chapter 15, verse 11 through 32. So again, that is Luke chapter 15, verse 11 through 32. If you need to pause it here, go right ahead. I ain't going nowhere. And as always, I do recommend reading the amplified version. A couple other ones I recommend are NASB and NIV if you want like a more modern verbiage. But I also recommend comparing the two scriptures or compare two versions, excuse me, of whatever you're reading, because y'all believe it or not, sometimes they be taking words out. And these versions that they go between, yeah, girl, I'm telling you, it'd be happening. So, like I said, always read it for yourself. Read more than one version if you uh want to, that'll also give you some clarity and um understanding as well. And this is the parable of the prodigal son. So I'm gonna read it from the scripture, and then if you listen to my last episode, I'm gonna give you a little uh razzle dazzle, like Money Mike said, and I'm gonna modernize it just so we're all on one accord, because sometimes you just need a little bit of understanding, and I don't really trust that y'all gonna do it for yourself, so I'll go ahead and do it for you. I'll take this one for you, but yeah, go to the word for yourself. At least make me believe you're gonna do it a little bit. So we are now in Luke chapter 15, and it's basically saying, and he said, A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me. So he divided his estate between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered everything together and traveled to a distant country, and there he wasted his fortune in reckless and immoral living. Now, when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to do without and be in need. So he went and forced himself on one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He would have gladly eaten the karog pies that pigs were eating, but no one was giving any no one was giving anything to him. Sorry about that. But when he came to his senses and said, How many of the father's hired men have more than enough food? But I am dying here of hunger. I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Just treat me as one of your hired men. So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and he moved, and he was moved with compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and give him a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet, and bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and has come back to life again. He was lost and has been found, and they began to celebrate. Now, we're gonna put a little twin-twin sticks on it. Just this meage. For those of you that may have read that and been like, okay, I get it a little bit. So let's put it in the context of a female. Because you know we like to put ourselves in situations and we all got that imaginary friend we'd be getting advice for. Yeah, I know of viruses. I I'm clocking your teeth today. I surely am. So imagine a daughter who grew up with everything she did, the finest of everything, didn't want for anything, had it all laid out for her. Never a question. Not just the material things, though. Think about it in the terms of like love, guidance, uh, that protection, just those intangible things as well. And also a home that she could always run to. You know, we all got that person we know can always go back home. But she gets to a point where she thinks, I know better. I can do life on my own. I want to do it my way. I don't want to have a curfew. I don't want to come home. I want to stay out late. I want to party with my friends. We all know we were that girl, or we know that girl, okay. So she or maybe you left. Hey y'all, I don't want y'all to take me Kiki or joking as I'm pointing fingers. I'm prom I promise you I'm not. I'm just making light of the I'm just making light of it. I just want you to keep keep me. So let's say Sand Girl leaves. She's like, I got this. I know my way around this big old world. I don't anybody tell me what to do. I got a license. I'm 18. I'm big, bad, and I got this. So she chases everything she thinks will make her happy. She's chasing validation, she's chasing attention, she's chasing success, relationships, lifestyle things, all that good stuff. But eventually she finds herself exhausted, disappointed, and realizing the things she thought would fulfill her actually left her empty. It's kind of crazy how all these intangible things that we chase and work for our whole lives, they don't mean a thing after a while. That's kind of crazy. And now she probably, like some of us, is thinking, how do I even go back? How do I go back home? How do I go back to the place that I swore I wasn't gonna go back to? How do I go back to the people I swore I didn't need anymore? Um, and what will they think of me? What's my aunt gonna say? What's my cousin gonna say? What's my mom gonna say? What's my dad gonna say? What's my friends gonna say? We we carry that all on our shoulders. If you've ever been in that situation, you know, like we carry that on our shoulders of just thinking like, oh, I don't want to look a certain way. We got our pride in front of us, and it's like, oh, I can't turn back now. I can't let them people talk about me. We so worried about what somebody else is gonna say. And oh, can I really just, you know, walk back into that, into that place, into that home after everything, after everything I said, after everything I did. But I think that the shocking part of this story is that the father isn't standing there waiting to remind her or remind you or remind whoever you may be resonating with of that mistake. At least not this father. Now, some parents, you know, they'd be ready to tell you what I was talking about. But Julian, well, listen, you know what I'm talking about, y'all, okay? We just don't charge to the game. Parents are gonna be parents, yada yada yada girl. But not this father in particular, okay? Not this parent. They were not standing there ready to remind this son or this daughter for putting an end to our uh perspective of those mistakes. They were watching her. Her her dad was watching her. He was running toward her before she could even explain, before she could say all the things, all the reasons, before she could prove herself, before she could earn her place back. He was already watching and waiting and looking out for her. And I think for my first point, I want us to talk about the confusion we sometimes face with consequence and rejection. We sometimes get those two confused because even like this prodigal son, he experienced consequences from his choices, but his father never stopped loving him. You can see in that scripture, he welcomed him back with open arms. He welcomed him back with understanding, and he was like just happy to have him back. But that son was so in his head about, oh my gosh, I don't know what I could possibly do. Like, he was more so worried about his image in his father's eyes, but his father was not even concerned. And just even think about it. Like, have you ever had a moment where you have m mistaken a difficult season in your life for God just leaving you to just fend for yourself? Cause I know I've had a moment or two like that in my life where I'm like, God, if this is the point where you're trying to teach me a lesson, the lesson has been learned. You can go ahead and give me an A plus so we can go. I mean, so over it, man. When you have those difficult seasons, it's just like, God, did you just drop me off and forget to come get me from the daycare? Like, oh my gosh, come get me, please. I don't want this. Take these shackles off of me. When am I gonna dance? Lord. When am I gonna dance, Lord? We have all had those moments, maybe just me, but I can definitely relate to that. But also, I want y'all to think about a moment where you may have felt like you allowed that shame, that shame, that guilt, that fear to make you hide from God, to make you say, Look, I I can't even go to Him. I can't even, I can't even see what's going on. There used to be times, y'all, when I used to get in trouble in school. I was so terrified to go home. I didn't want to face my mama. And that was back when, I don't know if they still do it or not, but that was when they would call home. They would call home. And as soon as you got in trouble, as soon as you had access, they leave in that voice message on that phone. And you gotta hope. You got to hope that she not answered. And if you get home before that person does, before my mama got home, I was trying to get to that phone. I was trying to leave that message as fast as I could. But my um dumb self, I thought um, I thought it was only calling the house phone. I didn't know they called a cell phone too. My mama knew before she even left work. My mama knew before she even left work. I was scared. It wasn't even shame. It was just like fear of like, oh my gosh, how do I even go to my mama? Because I think even with parents, like, we be so scared to like just mess up as kids because it's like we know our parents know they raise us better than that. And we we get so scared to go back to them. I don't know what that is about, but we just get so scared to go back to them. And even when I was out there doing stuff that I knew I had no business doing, like one particular incident that came to mind was like I was cussing in school. Mm-hmm. I got caught cussing in school. It was about seventh grade. And like I said, they called home. I got ISS because my English teacher caught me cussing. And man, my mama whooped my behind. And you know what? She made me write, I will not cuss in school a hundred times. Yup, my mama was a stickler for a good punishment. Y'all, I don't want to make myself sound too bad, but y'all not gonna shame me. I got in trouble so many times. I knew that it took three and a half pages to write it a hundred times. And that's on one side. I did it that many times. Yeah, yeah. We're gonna move on because it got too personal. But for my next point, it's basically that God wants us to have a relationship, not just repentance. God wants both, not just one or the other. And just like this son, he had prepared a speech. He was in his mirror looking over his like self, just looking like, okay, how am I gonna come at it? Okay, I can't say it like that because that sounds a little too harsh. Okay, I can't say it like that because I sound scared. Like he was really in his head just trying to get this presentation right. He planned to return as a servant. Think about that. He came prepared to go back to his dad less than when he left. You know how much of an ego downer it's gotta be that, man, I guess I'll eat what the peas is eat, and I guess I'm lowly as the servant, so I'll just go back like that because I can't possibly go back how I left. There's no way. But the father restored him, he restored him as a son. And sometimes we come to God saying, I'll prove myself. I can do this. I'm gonna go to you and I'm gonna show you better than I can tell you. And God is simply saying, I never asked you to earn what I already gave you through love. I never asked you to earn that. And I think in today's society, I don't know where it started or what it's come from, but we always feel like we have to earn something, especially when it comes to God. I feel like when we've applied like man-made concepts to God. I can't, I know what I'm trying to say, but I hope that makes sense. Like we're so used to having to earn things at work, earn things with friendships, earn things with relationships, earn things from our spouse or our kids, or whatever the case may be. We're so used to having to show that value first before we get what we feel is ours, but that just does not apply to God. And I want y'all to remember that he never asked us to earn what he already gave us through love. For crying out loud, that man died for our sins. Just think about all the things you've done across your lifetime. Jesus died for that. Before you even knew you might do it. You were still a itty bitty little egg. And God already knew. He was like, Bet, I got you covered for your whole life. For your whole life, I got you covered. What a God. What a God. Are you are you raising your hands? Because I am. Can I get an Amen? I didn't hear you that time. Can I get an Amen? Alright, we're gonna move on to point number three. You are not too far away. Oh, I want to elaborate on this, but I'm not gonna go too too deep. But I want y'all to know you are not too far away. I cannot say that enough. The distance between you and God is never, ever, ever, ever too great for him to reach you. Never, never too much. And there's only one scripture that I felt like was of enough importance for this, but you can definitely go search for more. The scripture is Romans chapter 8, verses 38 and 39, and it basically says that nothing can separate us from the love of God, and I want y'all to always keep that in the back of your mind. So for today's heart check, I just have one simple question. Just one for y'all. Is there an area where you have been avoiding God? And just really sit with that, think about that, think about in totality of your life. I don't want you to think about just this year, this month, this week. Just think about in totality. Is there any area where you feel like you've been avoiding God in your life? And also, just to ground everything out for today's episode, please do remember that you don't have to clean yourself up before you go to God. Because I've been there where I felt like, even before I got baptized, I felt like, okay, God, I gotta have this checklist of stuff already checked off before I go to him because I can't possibly be this person before I go to God. And that's just something I had told myself, I had convinced myself of. And that that was at a very young age. I'm talking like 2013. I had convinced myself that I had to be put together already. But I urge you, wherever you are at with your walk with Christ, you do not have to clean yourself up first. God does not mind a little dirt, a little grass on the floor. A little hole in his shirt. A little nothing. He don't mind the bumps and bruises. Even if he's ashy, girl, he don't care. He's gonna hold on to you just the same. And he's gonna love you just the same. So for this week, our practice I want you to incorporate is that I want you to spend five minutes. Just five. You got five minutes. You got five minutes for that man. You got five minutes for that job. You got five minutes for them kids. You give the Lord your five. Please. Spend five minutes just talking honestly with God about something that you've been avoiding. You can even record it as a voice note if you want. Sit in your car one day. If you want to just do it before you go to work, or before you get in the house with the kids and that man, because I'm gonna be driving you crazy, girl. But just spend five minutes. No performance. Don't think too much about what to say. Just literally be honest. And please do remember that you are not the worst thing you've ever done. You are not, you are not, you are not the worst thing that you have ever done. You are not the mistake that you keep replaying. And I'm talking to myself with that one. You are not the season that you are trying to survive. God already knows, He already knows, y'all, your entire story from start to end, chapter by chapter, line by line. And he is still, keyword still inviting you closer. You do not have to run from him because of what happened. Run toward him. Literally, like, uh, what's his name? Forrest Gump. I'm talking like Forrest Gump style. Run toward him, y'all. He has been waiting for you. He has literally been waiting for you, just like he's waiting for me and anybody else you know close to you. He's waiting. Open arms, shoulder to shoulder, not shoulder, but side to side. Whatever. But on that note, thank y'all so much for spending time with me today. I hope this conversation reminded you that God's love is not based on how perfect we are, how much we accomplish, or how well we have everything together. He meets us with grace, he calls us closer, and he reminds us that we always have a place with him. Keyword always. If today's episode encouraged you, I do invite you to continue the conversation with us on Patreon. That's my little community I'm building up over there. So please come and join us. I'm working on devotionals over there, um shortened little episodes of Bible studies that are elaborate elaborating on the episodes that I released to the public. And it'll also just help you go deeper into God's word with that extra resources that I have named, and I'm gonna continue to create. So until next time, stay rooted in God's word. Give yourself grace, keep choosing Jesus one day at a time, and I will meet you back here soon.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Hey, I'm just so heavy I'll save. God, send me out the rain. Now I got peace, now I got brains. Fix right in his image I made. So it's true, I finna remain. I see that the proof, it's helping me think, God. When they didn't think I'd do it. I knew it was movin'. Earth, you wanted me ruling. I knew whatever's amazing. God, I'm giving you praises. We all sing. I'ma keep praising your name. I don't care what these people gon' do, what these people gon' say, what these people gon' bang. We out here making the cipher. We in the world where we can't be the same. Okay. So I went for my hand on the Bible, speaking the truth and we making it plain. We finna pop it, lock it, sock it, pocket, walkin' with God and we not finna change. Holding your word and I can't be afraid. Did it with Christ and we making a change? We did it, we did it, we own it, we got it. Fake like a seed, I just need me a grain. He backed on the scene and he healin' the pain. Father, I know how you makin' it sound. When they didn't think I'd do it. I knew you was movin'. Earth, you wanted me rollin'. I knew whatever's amazing. God I'm giving you practice. We gotta go thing. With the power. Now I got all of these things with the make it go up with the I'ma keep making this thing. Like, I'ma go right with the king. I'm not twisting a thing. You don't want to bring me a dream. Look how we pick on the phone. Oh, beat the road. Hey, you play the funny, we own. They bitch to use it for everything.