Bearing Witness To The Truth Podcast
This podcast is made available in the hopes that those seeking to know the truth of God's word as he intended it to be taught and understood. I have submitted myself to the guidance and obedience to the Holy Ghost and his teachings of God's word to my spirit, that I may bring a level of knowledge, understanding and awareness to all that seek to know the Lord more abundantly through his word.
Bearing Witness To The Truth Podcast
Lost Without Him
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Being saved. Y'all just let me talk to you, Z. Let us talk. One thing about being saved as far as a big which is a big concern of mine is to be mindful. To do my best, y'all, to be mindful of how I live. And I think all of God's children should be mindful of how we live. Not just before people, but before God. And there's a big concern of mine, I'll be in the back of my mind, other things are concerned, but this one is that I truly do not want to be lost. And I hope that that is also a concern for all of my brothers and sisters, all of God's children, that we are doing our best not to be lost. And I say lost, I'm talking about lost to God, lost to eternity. I don't want to be lost, brothers and sisters. I do not want to be lost, and I'm I I strive each and every day to make sure that I am aware that I'm not doing those things that will cause my soul to be lost. And I know a lot of people go through life haphazardly, go through life nonchalantly, just not bothered by this. But this is a very serious state, y'all. None of us should want to be lost for all eternity. After all we've done, this living we've done, after all this stuff we think we have done, we should not want to be lost. I want to read something to you, because one thing I have come in on I have come aware of that without Jesus, without God in our lives, all of us are lost. If we don't have God in our lives, if we don't have a relationship with our Lord and Savior, we are playing the game of being lost for all eternity. Because there's no other way we can come out of that state of being lost. There's no other way we can come out of that state of being doomed for all eternity. I wrote something here, I typed up something, let me read it to you. These are just some of my thoughts before I get into the word. This truth, this there's a truth that must be revealed to all mankind, all of us who have been born on this earth. And it is this that we are all lost without Jesus. This state of being lost is not merely a loss of time or place, but a loss of soul and eternity. Lost to the Father. I want to really talk about this being lost to the Father and what that means. In this state of being lost, we are unable to find our way. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can be found and then step out of being lost forever. We must seek him quickly. Remember this point. We're in a time right now we must be seeking him quickly. As quick as possible. Get as all of the much as Jesus you can get. We must seek him quickly and be found of him. Or suffer the loss of being lost for all eternity. Those are just some of my thoughts before I get into the word. During my meditation time, I had I had to type that down. But that's what comes to me. For us to realize this state. We so many people are lost. But here I'm going to tell you something. Hold on to this truth I'm about to tell you. God does not want us to be lost. The Holy Ghost does not want us to be lost. The heavenly host does not want us to be lost. But the thing about it, if we are not trying to be found by him, we are in essence telling him that we want to remain lost, and we're also telling him that we do not want him in our lives. Because in order to be found, the only one we can be found of and taken out of that state of being lost is Jesus. But when you turn your backs to him, when we show him that we rather live according to the world, we are telling him we would rather remain lost than to be found by Jesus. I thought it was so ignorant. If you ever read about when Jesus was standing before Pilate, and Pilate wanted to bring back an old traditional law that he had implemented as governor, is that certain times of the year he would set a guilty prisoner free, no charge. Just out of his kindness and also the act of amnesty. But there's a markable thing here, we go back and read the story. When he stood Jesus before them, and he stood Barabbas before them.
SPEAKER_00Barabbas being a murderer and a killer.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonJesus being innocent. Do you not know that the crowd cried out the name Barabbas more loudly than the name of Jesus? But that didn't, that amazed me, but that didn't shock me. But what shocked me is when Paul and now tried to let the people know this man ain't done nothing. Why you on this? And and these the ignorance of the people who were lost in their thinking, lost in their hearts, they cried out that let this blood be on us and on our children. They don't realize the curse they were putting on themselves. In other words, they would rather, they know they were wrong, but they chose rather let this innocent blood be on us and let it be on our children. I'll rather put the curse on your children lives before they can get here. Because we choose baratas and not Jesus. I said that to say this, that we in our ignorance, spiritually, a lot of times don't realize our acts and our doings speak louder than our mouths because the things we do tell the Lord and show the Lord that we rather remain lost in who we are and what we're doing instead of being found and having a relationship with the Father. Now I told you, God don't want us to be lost, Jesus doesn't want to be lost, and the Holy Ghost won't be lost, and the word of God backs me up on this because I'm gonna read something to you. That our brother Matthew wrote. Everything surrounds this focal point right here. That really Jesus really came to save that which was lost. And I'm gonna tell us something, tell you something right now. We are the debt. The Bible is gonna tell you that Jesus came to seek out the lost. I mean he came looking for you. He came down here specifically looking for us, mankind, because we were lost. All of mankind was lost, the whole world was lost, everybody born and had died was lost. And it was Jesus came seeking us out because the Father's wishes were that we no longer live in a state of being lost. Listen to what he said. For the Son of Man, that's Jesus talking about himself, for the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost. And put your name there. You and I are the death that was lost. And if we are, and until we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we remain that that is lost. Still lost. Jesus came and died and rose from the dead on the cross, but people are still lost because they have not accepted what he has done to redeem us from that state of being lost, from that state of sin. Matthew said that, but brother Luke also said something. He wrote down something that Jesus said. Two things Luke wrote down that Jesus said that ties in with what Brother Matthew just said. Luke says this. He didn't come to destroy men's life. Listen to what Luke said. The Son of Man, this Jesus talking about Himself. Luke just wrote it down. He said, For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives. He came to save us, but to save them.
SPEAKER_00Luke said something else. Jesus said, but Luke wrote this down.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonHe says, For the Son of Man is come, this is what I like. The Son of Man is come to seek. Seek means to look for, he's looking for you. Is Jesus still looking for you? Have he already found you? Have you accepted him? For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save. He come to find you so that he can save you. To seek and to save that which was lost. There's that is again. Jesus is seeking us. Now why he doing all this? Why Jesus got to seek us? He he he forever God, he forever the son of God.
SPEAKER_00Because his love. So much so that he was willing to put himself in this position to be able to seek us and to save us that are lost. No, I don't want to be lost.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAnd I'm saying now through the word of God that is not God's will. It's not Jesus' will for us to be lost, for us to perish, for us to spend eternity in hell. That's not God's wish. That's not God's plan. But if you don't put yourself in the position to be found, to come out of the world, to stop living like you've been living, you and I are going to be lost. If we don't start taking our souls serious, if we don't start doing things that are totally godly, if we don't start living a holy and righteous life, we are going to be lost. And I don't know how blind some of our eyes is today, but listen, you need to open your eyes today. People are being lost each and every day. Somebody's number came up today and they was lost without the Lord. I'm here to tell you. Sooner or later, our numbers are gonna come up. You don't know where it's gonna be, you don't know where it's gonna happen. But the thing about it is, not knowing that part may be bad, but I'm here to tell you there's something worse for your number to come up and you don't have the Lord in your life.
SPEAKER_00Well, like the Bible says, why did this day? Why you got time to repent?
Pastor Rickey D. DixonWhy do you got time to put yourself in a place for the Lord to find you, who he who has been seeking you for years, but you still ain't you still ain't quite came on in yet. I know the Lord wants me to be saved. I know I need to be doing this, I know I need to be going to church, I know I need to be reading the Bible, but I ain't just quite just willing to just stop doing everything right now. But what you're waiting on, this is your soul, and you only got one. And it's time for us to wake up and be tell the truth about ourselves, tell the truth about our lives. Stop being in denial and stop deceiving ourselves. You just trust me, you don't want to be lost. Trust me, you don't want to be in a state of being lost when Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_00And the whole world behold him.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAnd you're gonna realize all this time I've wasted for what? For nothing. And now to suffer the consequences of being found in the state of being lost. Now I got to go to the next level of being lost, and that's being lost for all eternity. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now I'm tying all those three scriptures in. Matthew said it first in Matthew 18 and 11. That's the first verse I wrote, read. These are all my foundations. Second scripture I read was Luke 9 and 56. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Then Luke and 19, Luke 19, chapter verse 10, is where I read, the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
SPEAKER_00We lost, y'all. We lost without him. We don't know nothing without him.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonWe can't do nothing without him. We lost. And I can't speak. I'm so glad this is an individual. I was talking to somebody the other day about this an individual thing. And I can't speak for nobody else, and I'm glad I can't speak for nobody else. And I'm glad can't nobody speak for me. But as an individual, I know I got to see Jesus for myself. As an individual, I know that I got to realize and tell the truth that without Jesus, I'm lost. Without the Father, I'm lost. And I don't want to be lost. And those just cannot be merely words in the life of a human being. Those words got to ring truth and some sincerity. Because when you really focus on what lost really means, see, some of us we play this game because we don't really know how devastating this thing is gonna be after a while. Until the reality hit us. Then it's gonna hit us like a ton of bricks, and we're gonna realize we are lost without the Father, and there's no hope. This message of Jesus' ministry is so true. This is why he came to save us a world that was lost. And this message is the key to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It points to the very heart of Jesus. Because he didn't want mankind to be lost, because to be lost is to be lost without the Father. And I'm here to tell y'all right now, without the without God in our lives, ain't nothing else gonna happen. Ain't nothing happened if we don't have God in our life.
SPEAKER_00This should be the central core of our mission on earth.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonEven at his followers, even as his disciples, this should be the central core of our mission to not want to see nobody lost. Not just do not want to see ourselves lost, but when the ministry of Jesus Christ comes over us, we should want to extend that ministry and carry that ministry on so that we too don't want to see nobody lost. Because your eyes should have come open to how serious of the seriousness of what being lost really means. And you shouldn't want that on nobody. I don't care if it's your enemy. You should this this the listen, the punishment that comes along with being lost without the father, you shouldn't want to wish that on nobody. I don't want to see nobody have to go to. And see, that's what Jesus, he didn't want to, he knows what the wrath of his father means. And he didn't want to see nobody have to endure that. So he gave us the best choice that he could ever give us. If I go down and give myself for them, well, they all they gotta do is accept me, and they could totally avoid being lost and totally avoid the wrath of my father. But guess what? You still gonna have some knuckleheads that still gonna want to choose the world over the Lord. And their fate is gonna be sealed. Sadly, but it's gonna be sealed because God is not gonna change who he is, and he's not gonna change his word and what he has spoken.
SPEAKER_00Because my book tells me that his words are forever settled in heaven, and it can't change.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonOkay who he is, he's not gonna change it. But since the word wasn't gonna change, Jesus saw fit to come down so that we could change. Since the world ain't gonna change, so he, through him, he wanted us to be to change our lives to what the word said. It's possible now through Jesus for our lives to be changed in accordance with the word of God. In other words, Jesus fixed it where we can come up to where the word is instead of bringing the word down to our level, which ain't finna happen. But we now through Jesus can come up to the level and to the standards of the word through Him. See, the first thing about being lost is You yourself got to first come to this reality and this truth and admit to yourself that you lost. You got to first see yourself that without Jesus you lost. And tell the truth. Oh, we might not have seen it at first, but I'm here to tell you. I believe that there is a state of being in mankind that a lot of us have experienced, but we shoved it to the side. And we tried to ignore it. Somewhere in our lives, God has tried to get our attention. Somewhere in our lives, God has tried to expose Himself to us through His truth. And He has caused us to see glimpses of our lives that show us that we weren't doing right and we weren't living right. Oh, but we ignored it. We shoved it to the side. We didn't want to believe it. But nonetheless, He has tried to get our attention. It may have been not until you went through something that you realize if I don't stop doing this, I'm gonna die in hell and go to hell. I'm gonna die in my sin. See, God is a just God. Everything He does is joy, is just and a lot of times He don't just send destruction. A lot of times He sends a warning first. Let me see if I can get their attention first. Warning after warning. Warning after warning. Hope in the hope that something would stir up in us and cause us to see ourselves and to see our state of being lost. But I'm finna tell you about a young man, this happened to. Oh, he thought he was grown. He was the younger of this man, this man's sons. And he thought, and see, I know this in the Bible. I know this particular parable has been taught in a many different ways. Well, I say, I'm like this. God has showed me a whole nother revelation concerning this particular passage of scripture about this young man. He made a decision. When he came to his father, he said, He gave me my portion, my portion of the inheritance that belonged to me. Let me go on about my business. I'm paraphrasing a little bit. The father gave it to him. But here's the thing that the Holy Ghost pointed out to me. That was the wrong move before this young man left home. The Holy Ghost revealed to me that what he really did was make a decision to separate himself from the Father. See, that's the whole state of being lost right there. Our state of being lost is because sin caused us to be separated from the father. And our sins will forever keep us in a state of being lost. Separated from the Father. Because to be separated from the Father is spiritual death. This young man, he made a decision, the Holy Ghost told me, he made a decision. He wanted to leave his father's house and be separated from his father. But what he's gonna realize is that being out here, being out here in this world, wherever you may be, without God in your life, you're setting yourself up for not only for a fall, but you're setting yourself up for destruction. But then again, a lot of people know why the father didn't stop him. Well, why God ain't stopped us from doing a lot of things we doing. Because the father wants us to see ourselves for ourselves. And that's what the father did to this young man. He let him go because he knew life was gonna whoop him, life was gonna show him something. But the father was hoping when life began to show him something, that it was gonna stir him up and bring him back in remembrance. I'm gonna read the scripture about that in a few minutes. He's gonna win what we need to remember. He was hoping that it was gonna bring him back to a state of remembrance just how blessed he was as long as he was connected to the Father. We should never have a desire to want to be disconnected from the Father. If you do, you're setting yourself up. Let me read something to you. And when he this young man here, he done been gone for a while now. He done been he done been in a state of, he done been bachelorized now for a long time. He done been out the falls high now, and the world out there treating him rough. He ain't being blessed like he usually, like he was being blessed in daddy's house. Uh-huh. And when he came to himself, see when you come to yourself, you come to a state of looking at your own life. I mean, at the point you're looking at your life, you ain't you ain't looking at what nobody else is doing. You ain't you ain't in nobody else's business. Your life is what's most important to you right now. He came to himself looking at his life. Look at me. I ain't never had to live like this. I ain't never had to eat hog slouch. Because the parent, he started thinking about eating what the hogs was eating. Come on now. You done got wear real down low. Life done kicked you around like a kickball. Because you ain't connected to the father. See, none of this happened while you was with the father. If it did, the father was there to protect you. The father was there to turn it around. Because you was with the father. And when he came to himself, now he's talking to himself, you see. When you go to talking to yourself and about your own life, you are you on you get to a place you can be helped now. But you say, you telling your own self how wrong you are. Anybody ever do that? You telling your own self the mistakes you've made. You talking about your own self man, how did I make this decision? You telling your own self. And nobody telling it to you, you tell it to yourself. And he said, How many high servants of my fathers have bred enough to spare, and I perish with hunger.
SPEAKER_00Hallelujah. Something beautiful in all of this.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonWhen you begin to see yourself and come to yourself, when you're in a state of being lost without the father. When you see, see, to be with the father is mean you at home. Come on here. What do we realize now? See, when you're with the father, you're at home. But see, so many of us want to leave home. We want to leave the father because we think we can do better. By leave home. I'm talking spiritually now. Don't get it twisted. I'm talking spiritual. To be with the father means we're at home where we ought to be. Because the father's children, the father's sons and daughters ought to be where he is. Young man got talking to himself, got to realize he remembered how things were blessed in his daddy's house. Even those in my father's house that ain't his sons and daughters, even the seven that he had blessed because of him. But the beautiful thing about this, not only did he see himself, but he saw how wrong he was. Thanks to God. You we all got to remember, we all got to admit to ourselves how wrong we are and what the stuff we done did without God. Tell the truth, Lord, I was wrong. Lord, I done sinned. Lord, I bachelored. But I'm gonna repent. I'm repenting right now. And that's what this young man's heart started doing. He began to repent. He said within himself, the Bible said, I will rise and go to my, I'm going to the very one I messed up with. I ain't going no middleman, I ain't going to no no somebody that knows him and didn't get the message to him. No, I'm going to directly to him. The one I messed up with is my father. I will rise and go to my father. And I will say unto him, when I get to him, when I see him, say, this is what I'm going to tell you. Because I'm going to repent. I'm going to say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I'm just going to tell the truth. The stuff I did while I was out there, Lord, you know what I did? I don't sin because I know you don't even lie to that kind of stuff. Among your sons and daughters. You don't accept that kind of stuff among your people. And I did and I shouldn't have done it. Lord, I was wrong and I have sinned before heaven and before thee. That's what I'm going to say to my father. When I sin, I'm going to repent. Because I realize I now know not only, not do I know that I'm lost without him, I have experienced what it feels like to be lost without him. And it ain't no good feeling. And I need to go to my father. I need to get back connected. So I don't have to keep experiencing. So I won't have to keep feeling this state of being lost. I'm also going to tell him I'm no one no more worthy to be called God, so you ain't, Lord, I done messed up so bad you I ain't even got to call me your son or your daughter no more. See, that's humbling. Not only did he repent, he's gonna repent before his father, but he now also he has a humble spirit. I don't even want to be called you ain't got to call me your son no more. I'm not even worried of stuff I done did. Oh no, Lord, I ain't I ain't even worried of stuff I done did. Because I wasted all my money. I don't want to tell you what I wasted all my money on doing. I don't want to tell you all the ugly things and wicked things I did out there. But all I know, I want to tell you this. I'm not even worried because the stuff I did, ain't no way I can be worthy to be called your son or your daughter no more. And I'll take that if you just take me back out of this state of being lost. I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy high servants. See, this stuff he's telling yourself that he's gonna tell the father. He ain't told the father yet, but in his heart he's already repenting. Hallelujah. Hold on now. I need somebody to get spiritual with me tonight. Don't you know? I'm gonna read to you that the father had already accepted him back before he got home. Because I'm gonna tell you something about God. Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00God not only can hear our thoughts from afar off. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God can hear our hearts, even when our hearts repent from afar off.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAll this stuff that He is, all this stuff we can say in our hearts when we repent, all this stuff that we can uh humble ourselves before God in a state of being lost when we repent. The Father hear a repentant heart, a broken and contrite spirit. The father had already heard it. Because he was speaking this from his heart, not just his mouth and his lips. I don't have to be called his son no more, and he can demote me to the level of just a high servant, and I accept that because even a high servant will also, at least, will still have me connected with him. And the Bible said he rose and came to his father. I'm going back to God. And see, a lot of us need to stop lying to ourselves. We have not come to God yet, not on his terms. See, we think we don't come to God on our terms that God done accepted that. But I mean to tell you the book, tear all that down. You don't come to God on your terms, you come to God on his term. And to come to God on his term, you got to come repentant and humble and from a sincere heart. He came to his father. And this is how I know the father had already heard him. Because the father in this parable represents God. And God can hear you. I don't care if you're praying right now in California or if you're praying right now in Dallas, Texas, God hear you. That's why the Father didn't waste time because he had already accepted his repentance. That's why you're gonna read, that's why the father ran to him and threw his arms around his neck. This isn't it there. But when he was yet a great way off, he hadn't made it, he ain't made it all the way home yet. The Bible said he was still a great way off from the house. But how many of y'all know wherever you at, the father see you? Come on here.
SPEAKER_00Trust me on this. The father see you. Hallelujah. I don't care if you're at your Lord's point.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonGod see you wherever you at right now. I mean in your life, wherever you're at in your life right now, not just your location. God see where you're at, where you're at in your mind right now. He sees where you're at in your heart right now. He sees where you're at in your spirit right now. God see you. Even if that place you at has you a great distance from where God is, he yet sees you. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. Hallelujah. Come on here. Somebody grab this, grab this. The father, now sweet, let me tell you something. See, while we're going around here, want everybody else to see us? While we're going around here, wanting to be recognized by everybody else and be popular in the eyes of man, you better be hoping that God see your desire should be when you want to do what's right, you should want the father to see you. If don't nobody else see me, Lord, you see me. I want you to I want God to see me. Why he was a great way off. The book said his father saw him. Why God saw him? Because this boy had already repented and humbled himself. In spite of how wrong he done, yeah, he got out there and done wrong. Yeah, he sinned, but he repented. And he was sincere in his repentance. Yeah, he blew every dollar that man gave him, blew his whole, the Bible, he blew his whole entire inheritance. Blew all his blessings. And some of them blew all our blessings. We ain't got no car, we ain't got no job, we're about to lose our little piece of job, we ain't had both set of clothes and don't know when, ain't about no bad new shoes and all know when. All our blessings have been shot. His daughter. God knows all of us is pitiful.
SPEAKER_00God knows all of us is lost.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonBut yet it's still the father's compassion is like no other. There is no greater love, there is no greater compassion than the love of the father. But the Bible says he had compassion. And because the love of God is so strong, the Bible said, and ran. It's the Father running to the Son. Now you say, well, he the one thing wrong, let him run to me. Uh-uh. I'm telling you. See, that's why we don't understand love, the love of God. The love of God is strong. Even when we are at, we we the one that's wrong. And don't deserve what God has for us. I'm telling y'all, I've told y'all this before. That was a time I knew I was gonna get God for just beat my back off. That's why I expected that because I know what I did. And I just got to contemplate Lord. And at that night, he's gonna tear the skin off my back. I didn't have no high. But then when I got my back ready, God flipped a script on me. And it was during that time he showed me his greatest love. Hallelujah. I mean his greatest love. God is not, didn't I just read y'all that Jesus said he didn't come to destroy men's lives? Go back and read what Luke just said. He didn't come to destroy us. God don't want to destroy us, he wants to love us. And he's very pleased when we come to ourselves in a state of repentance and realize how wrong we are. And that state of wrongness, what we've done, it turns our hearts back to him. Because it made this boy go home. Yeah, I'm going back to the father. And the father go to meet him, not just meet him, but he ran to him and fell on his neck. That's a hug.
SPEAKER_00He hugging him and kissed him. That's my boy. That's my daughter. And we're gonna see why he did all this in a few minutes.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAnd the son said to him, the very thing that's because see the son was real. And he didn't forget what he said he was gonna say to his father. Yeah, I see the Lord, he showed me my father showing me compassion. He hugged me and kissed me. But I got to get it right. I got to, I got to speak this thing because the Bible said, I got to confess my sins before him. I got to confess, I got to tell my father what I did. I got to come clean. And he's and the son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said unto his servant, it's like the like he didn't hear what that boy said. I just told you I sinned. I just told you I vote you in heaven. The father act like he didn't hear. You know why he act like he did the first thing about the father mouth? He called the servant. Get the cooking. Kill the father case. Put some new clothes on it. Get all the blessings that he missed while he was gone. Put them on the knife. Put the rain on his finger. Put some new clothes and shoes on it. Kill the father cats. Because we finna have a feast. I'm gonna tell you why in a minute. You know why the father didn't bring up what that boy just said to his dad? Let me show you something with the Holy Ghost revealed to me. I just told y'all a while ago. Because the father had already heard his repentance from the heart. Because God here on him, even when he wasn't even at home yet, God, the father, heard his repentant heart while he was afraid. And he didn't need to bring it up. I told y'all about the forgiveness of God. When God forgives, he don't bring it up no more. He didn't bring up not one time, nothing that the boy did. He didn't bring up the money he wasted, he didn't bring up what he done with the money, he didn't bring it up. Once you have repentance, repented and asked for forgiveness, the forgiveness of God does not bring it up no more. Even when you come back home and have been gone for years and come back alone. If you come back right with a repentant heart and a humble spirit, this is how God receives you and I. Because his the thing is, I don't want my son to be lost, and I don't want my daughter to be lost. He called to the serpent. Bring forth the best robe. Not just, don't just bring nothing secondhand. I want you to go get the best robe made out of the best material. You see how God always wants the best for us? Now come on, saints of God. My heart is just telling me right now, that's why we should want to give him our best when it comes our turn to show our best toward him through worship, through blessing his holy name. You're giving thanksgiving. Living for him. We should be giving God our best because he always gives us his best. He said, not just go get a robe, get the best robe. He's gonna look good because he's back home. And put it on him. And put a ring on his hand. And shoes on his feet. Look at that. You see what? When you left God and the blessings stop, when you come back and repent, the blessings just take up where they left off it. And you fall right back into the blessing of the Father. Because there's a certain amount of blessings that you can only get while you're with the Father. And you cut them blessings off when you leave the Father or try to live without him. The blessing just started. Listen, he already got new clothes and new shoes and a wrangle thing and just got home. Just walked in the door. And that ain't all he ain't to. And bring here the fatted calf. That young calf I've been fattening up just for this occasion. It's time to put him on the roaster. And kill it. And let us eat and be merry. Now, this is why the father did all of this. And this is why the father does all of this in our lives when we come back to him when we don't realize how lost we are. This is what the father said. And this is why he did this. He said, For this, my son was dead. He was dead to me because he left me.
SPEAKER_00And he was spiritually dead.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAnd is alive again. Here it is, what I'm talking about tonight. And he's alive again. He was lost. That is, he was lost. We lost without the father, y'all.
SPEAKER_00But the thing about it, you don't have to stay lost. He was lost and is found. He done come back to me. He done repented. And they begin to be merry.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonJoyful. Y'all know the scriptures in the Bible says, heaven rejoices over one son of that repented. Then over a hundred people that's just and don't need no repentance, they glad for that one to come back. The heavenly host know how serious being lost is.
SPEAKER_00Because we're so self-righteous and we so God calls us stiff neck, people. A rebellious stiff neck. We just stiff neck and hard-headed. Read some ST.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonBecause a lot of people, when they see somebody come out of the world and think they deserve what they ought to get, and love to see them being punished, some of us are gonna go straight to hell because we lack compassion and patience with other people who are struggling to come out of the addiction of sin. Instead of rejoicing and being glad when some of them do make it back, because everybody don't make it back to the Father. But for those who make it back, because of what they've done and what you heard or thought they done did, you still want to be a judge against them and hold it against them. But when you should be glad that they they God changed their heart before it was too late. And it's something in us that ain't quite right when we lack that type of compassion for our fellow man and our brothers and sisters. That you don't have, I'm gonna tell you like this, you don't have the love of God. Because the love of God would not be upset because somebody repented? Because somebody started coming back to church? Yeah, but you didn't hear all that stuff they did out of the street. Well, you did when you was out there in the street. You say because no, because you ain't told nobody. You think it's hid? Nothing is hid for the father. Because nobody didn't hear about your dirt, but you want to be the one to point out somebody else's dirt.
SPEAKER_00We should have the compassion of the father and thank God. Do you not know the closer we get the that this world is not supporting or even encouraging that people be saved?
Pastor Rickey D. DixonWe should be glad that somebody still wants to be saved in this day and generation that we're living in in 2022. That somebody still won't know who God is. And those who have known him and have fallen off, we ought to be glad that some of them want to repent and come back to God. And the son said unto the father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. But the other son, just like that other group of people, getting mad when they see the father blessing somebody who we think don't deserve to be blessed. But it ain't for you to tell God who to put his blessings on. You ain't you to tell God who deserves to be blessed and who don't deserve to be blessed. He done left home. How he getting all this? I didn't leave and I ain't got all this. But the father had to deal with that other son. He said this. For this, my son was dead. You got to understand, I'm a father. And I love all my children. And when one died to me and come back to life, I'm gonna be glad. I don't care what you think or what nobody else thinks. I'm glad that he alive again because all my children don't make it back. But for those who do, that were dead, I'm gonna be glad that they come back to life. And to come back to life means they came back to the Father. Because once you reconnect to the Father, life enters in your life again. Spiritual life. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost. He tells an older boy.
SPEAKER_00He was lost and is found. He found his way back home.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonSee, some of you don't know. See, I grow up in this thing. I done seen a many folks who are lost and never found their way back to God. I almost been one of them. In the 17 years that I ran from God, I could have never found my way back to God had it not been for his love and compassion. I could have been lost forever. And they began to be merry. That means they begin to be glad and rejoicing that this bottom made it home. He also had to tell his older boy. It was meat, in other words, it was suitable. We was right to do this. That we should make merry. It's right that we should be rejoicing. And be glad.
SPEAKER_00For this, thy brother, this your brother, this your sister. For this thy brother, this your brother was dead.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAnd being that this your brother, and you my son too, you should have just as much love for your brother as I do for your brother that's my son. So why ain't you got compassion for this thine brother was dead and is alive again. And was lost. There it is again. He tells he was lost, y'all. We are lost without the father, and is found. We must stay in the father. Don't let nothing take you away from God. Don't let nothing cause you to lose the father. I don't have people talk. They hate God. They blame God for this happen. They blame God for that happening. Why would God let this happen?
SPEAKER_00I hate God. I've heard people say that. That kind of talk. But that's the wrong Lord, have mercy.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonThat's the wrong heart to have against God.
SPEAKER_00Offer you to let a situation cause you to even speak like that against God. Paul, before I let you go, Paul spoke to the church in Ephesus. Because Paul understood this.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonRemember where God saved you from. Whatever level or ever state of lostness you was in, remember what God brought you when he brought you out of that state of being lost.
SPEAKER_00Remember. This is what he said to the church at Ephesus.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonJust three verses I'm gonna read to you. Paul says, wherefore remember, listen at that. See, a lot of us we we we get so so high-minded in the fact that we just know we saved and all like this, but we fail to remember there was a time. Never remember the go back, but remember in this in the sense of what you've been saved from, and that you know it was God that saved you. He said, Wherefore remember that you've been in time past, you know what you what you've done in your past. You know what your past lives were. He said, remember, wherefore remember that ye being in time past, Gentiles in the flesh, you know what you've done in the flesh. Know what you're doing in the flesh now. Who are called, see that the man that had labeled on them back then was called the uncircumcision. All kinds of stuff they called you because you was you was lost. By that which is called the circumcision, you was called out by folks that thought they were saved. They say they were saved, but no word back then they used the term, they call themselves circumcision, but they call you the uncircumcision, means you had no connection or no covenant with God. And I'm trying to go into deeper than that, but I'm just trying to show you a point right now. Call the circumstances in the flesh made by hand. Paul went through, he said this that at that time you were without. See, that was he said at that time you were without Christ. See, that was a time all of us have been without Christ. That's a time all of us have been without God. Oh, you might not want to admit it, but the truth said the truth will make you free. The truth will make you free. Tell the truth. There was a time all of us have been without Jesus, and there was a time in our life all of us were without God. He said at the time, at that time, ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise. Having no hope, you had no hope of nothing. You were just totally lost. Having no hope. God changed all that, but I want you to remember that. Because it makes you think twice next time you go to second guess and you about being living saved and not doing right. Remember where you came from, remember what God brought you out of. When you didn't have no Jesus in your life, when you didn't have no God in your life, and when you didn't have no hope. Remember.
SPEAKER_00Remember yourself.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonBut here's the hope that God put in our lives, even though we didn't have no hope. He put hope in our lives through Jesus. This is how this is how Paul said it. But now, listen at it. He said, but now, yeah, all that, remember all that. And remember that now come back to where you are now and remember how you got him. He said, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off. We just read about the young man the process. Why he was yellow far off, the father saw him. Now Paul is bringing back up now when we were sometimes far off. Now tie that in together when you go back and read this. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes will fall off are made nigh. That word, Greek word nigh, N I G A. Now we say near. Now, because of Jesus, we, even though we are far off from God, we have been brought near or nigh unto God through Jesus Christ. Otherwise, Jesus brought us close to the Father. I'm telling you, let me just sign-up, tell you just how close Jesus done brought us to the Father. He done brought us so close to God now, God Himself, will live in us. And that's close you can get. Having somebody live there in the house with you. God will come and live in us, make his abode in us simply because of Jesus. And before Jesus, ain't no way man and God could have gotten that close. Words past tense, you will fall, but now you're close. Now you're near, are made nigh. How are we made nigh, Jesus? By the blood of Christ. Listen at this. That's Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 11, 12, and 13. Chapter 2, Ephesians, verses 11, 12, and 13. That's meat in that would bring hope to your life. But it also just makes you so close to God, you don't have no desire to leave him ever again. If you ever have left God, I'm gonna let you go. Let me tell you this, hello. Let me tell you this. But you got a group of people who are serious of really about seeing Jesus. And they have, for whatever reason, in their past life, may have left God or turned on God. But I'm here to tell you, for those people who have left God and made it back to God. And because see, while they was out there, they realized how messed up and upside down their lies well without God. And now they both experienced both the good and the bad. The bad being they have experienced what it feels like now to be disconnected from God, but they also have experienced what it feels like to be connected to God. And they know that they know both worlds, have experienced both worlds. And for those people who are sincere and have been able to make it back to God, back to the Father, be blessed by Him, you can't get them to leave God for nothing no more. Ever. Even if they if somebody threatened their life, they're not gonna leave God for nothing. I know what I'm talking about. You know how I know? Because I'm one of them. I'm one of them. You can't get me to leave. I don't care what you do, I don't care what you say, I don't care how you threaten me, I don't care how you cuss me out, cuss until your throat gets gets soaked. I'm not gonna leave it.
SPEAKER_00Hallelujah. And this one thing I know that there is no life without the Father. And to be lost without him takes a toll not only on our lives, but on our soul.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAnd for me, to be without the father ever again is not worth it. I then while I was out there, I found nothing to be worth my soul in the world. But I have seen everything to gain if I just stay with the father, if I just stay connected to the father, because his truth and his spirit has revealed to me that I am lost without him.
SPEAKER_00And that loss means lost spiritually and eternally without him. And I do not want to be lost for an eternity, forever separated from the Father.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAnd I encourage you all this evening, make a decision in your life not to be separated from the Father.
SPEAKER_00Come to ourselves, repent humbly, from our hearts, and go to our Father and humble ourselves before Him.
Pastor Rickey D. DixonAnd when you get back to the Father this time, don't you ever leave Him no more. No more. Not in your thoughts, not in your heart, not in your daily living. Connect and stay connected to the Father until you see His face for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00For we are lost without Him.