Turning Back Home | Ears to Hear #11

MAYBE God won't chase you... but that is ok. I prefer God's way of waiting for us to turn back to him after leaving. Sharing two parables and a personal story, I hope my point is clear and one of hope. 

Title Song: Nothing but the Blood of Jesus by Free As a Bird

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Thank you for joining Ears to Hear. My name is Reed McCrae, and I want to ask you a question. Do you feel that God chases you? Not chasing you away, but does He chase after you when you've gone astray, which we all do. We all make mistakes in which, if the fear of the Lord is in our heart, we tend to want to hide or shy away. Such as our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden, when they had partaken of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they now knew their minds were enlightened to be aware of their own nakedness. And they said, quick, let's hide. We don't want God to see us in this state. We're now made aware of the reality of the situation that we have caused ourselves. Because that's that is what happens when we transgress against God, is we take something God has said, and I've discussed this, but we cause an unnatural situation to happen, a situation where God would not want us to be in, and we we put ourselves there via our own choices. And so the natural tendency is to turn our backs, to turn away from a loving God, to hide from a God, to cover ourselves. And so I think as Christians, we want to romanticize the idea that, well, God's gonna chase after me. If he loves me, he will come find me. I think and I pose a suggestion that that is a very dangerous mindset to always assume that God is going to chase after you endlessly. And hear me out, let's think about this. When we look at the stories of the 99 sheep and the one lost sheep, and when we look at the story of the prodigal son, I want to draw some conclusions here. The story of the 99, leave the 99 and go after the one, there's there's a lot of paintings of Christ with that lone sheep. But what we fail to realize is that parable was given to the followers of Christ as an instruction for what we are to do. We ought to go after the one. That is our responsibility. As now born-again members of the fold of God, part of his shepherding efforts, we've been saved, we've been the one. Now, our burden of responsibility is to go and rescue someone else, to pass it on, pass it forward. We look at those paintings of Christ and we're thinking, Christ's leaving the fold he's gathered, we're safe. It's dangerous for us to go out and find that one. So it's Christ's duty and responsibility. It's God who is gonna do that chase and bring in that lost sheep, that sheep who's wandering into unknown pastures. I'm not suggesting that God won't pursue us. In fact, the home screen on my phone, and I think this is gonna be backwards, but that says relentless pursuit. My max screen is that. It's black, it says relentless pursuit. I have a watch screen on right now. Relentless pursuit. One of the leaders in my faith, one of our apostles, he said, God is in relentless pursuit of you. Pursuing anything is worthwhile so far as it's good. I've taken just those two words, relentless pursuit, because I think it's both ways. I love the idea. When that was said, it it sank into my heart. I love that so much. God is in relentless pursuit of me. Wow, like how, like, oh, I got choked up thinking about that. But am I also in relentless pursuit of Him? And am I also in relentless pursuit of others? Am I in relentless pursuit of the things which are important to me, my dreams, my aspirations? Am I in relentless pursuit of all things which are holy and pure? And it's a reminder for me daily, every piece of tech I get on, it's that's what life's about. It's about a relentless pursuit, unrelenting efforts. Efforts, despite any opposition that may come, it is unrelenting. It is like the river which stays its course no matter what. It is ever flowing and will ever continue on its path. So, does God chase you? 99 sheep, one's lost. Our responsibility, our responsibility is to go find that sheep. The story of the prodigal son, I'm gonna read a couple verses from our lovely chapter of Luke in the New Testament, and I'm reading King James Version. And he said, He being Jesus, as he's speaking parables, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me, and he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living, and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went, and he went, this son went, and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine, and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. Pause, time out. Who left? And the son went away and joined himself to a foreign country, a foreign land with foreign ways of living. We have left our heavenly home, have come to a fallen earth, we have left physically. The choices we make daily deem whether we are leaving God spiritually. In this story, the son leaves. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose. So he's having this moment in this foreign country where he's realizing what his life has panned out to be. He had everything, he wanted more, he takes his inheritance, he goes and ruins it. He gets to the point that the scraps of the pigs that he was tending after, he would have loved those scraps. That would have been that's where he was mentally, physically, emotionally. He was willing to dine on the scraps of swine. Sad. Very sad, lowly place of light to be. Spiritually, what does that look like for you? Have you been there? Are you there? Do you know someone who's there? Verse 20, and he arose. The son arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. That's that's the juice, that's the the gold nugget of this story. Verse 20. He arose and came to his father, and when the father saw him, he ran. So, why doesn't the father in the story of the prodigal son immediately go after his son? The father doesn't leave. The father does not leave his house, leave his home to follow after, to chase his son with his back turned to him. We want to romanticize the idea that as we go down our paths of sin, God is chasing us the whole way. I don't think so. This story isn't about a literal father and two sons, and it's this isn't a historical event. Has this maybe happened in the history of humankind? Probably. Most likely, statistically. But Christ isn't talking about that. Christ is giving the people, he's giving us a little insight into this heavenly way of living, this heavenly life that can be ours. We think we know better, we leave. God doesn't leave his home until a certain point. God does not chase after the son until this one point. When he saw his son coming back, he runs after him. Well, why would a loving God let us run away? Well, the thing is, we are running away. We're the ones who just said to God, who just via our choices told God, I know better, I'm following my will, I don't need you right now. I'm not remembering you. Essentially, I don't want you. So it's not that God is like petty. I wouldn't dare call God petty, but there's scriptures about God being a jealous God. And we take modern jealousy and just like slap that over what that's saying, and I don't think that's totally accurate. It's the best word to convey that God has laws in which he abides by, that he expects us and hopes that we abide by, because he knows that is the best way for us to achieve bliss and happiness and joy in this life and peace. He knows that. So if we decide we know better and we're going to put anything above the throne of God, anything above his will that we deem is correct, it's not like God is okay, well, fine, like you're you made your choice, you made your bed, you sleep in it. God isn't up there hitting one of these and tapping his feet. God is just simply fully understanding our nature and pretty much understanding like they'll see. That is my son, that is my daughter. Within them are the seeds of the spirit, within them is the light of my son Jesus Christ. So long as that light doesn't become completely diminished by their own actions, they will realize, as this son did. Verse 17, and when he came to and came to himself, boom, it hit him rock bottom. What's the fastest way to swim up to the top of a swimming pool? It's jumping off the bottom. It's pushing off the bottom. If you've hit rock bottom in your life, you know what I'm talking about. It's not rocket science. You can be in the middle of the pool on your way down. The person who's at rock bottom and kicks off is gonna get to the top faster than you at the middle, trying to like 180 reverse swim to the top. This son hit his rock bottom, he came to himself, he snapped out of it. The light of Christ spoke enough to his heart, he had seen enough, he had suffered enough to realize yeah, this wasn't this wasn't the way I thought it was. Let me completely turn my back again. Let me make another 180, as I've done before, in the wrong direction. Let me make it in the right direction and haul back. Let me Usain bolt this back to my father who's waiting for me. At which point God sees us, he meets us where we are. I and and that can be like figuratively at any point on that journey. Christ will meet us in the lowliest of low places, but it's not that he's chasing us there. It's not this idea that it's Christ's responsibility to follow me down my path of sin and to like whisper over my shoulder the whole time, full well knowing I'm not even going to listen to him. But if we are a hundred miles away in a far country sinning against God, I think that moment, that very moment we turn our back to that life and start looking back home, the direction of home, right? The path that I need to take, however brutal or long it is, when we fully face that, it's a moment in which God, who is always watching us, he's not chasing us, but God, who on his heavenly throne knows all, he will see us, and he starts coming after us. That's the pursuit, that's God's relentless pursuit. It is unwavering. He won't miss that moment. God isn't turned around at any point of our journey, he's always facing you. Wherever you are, whatever country you decide to go in, whatever sin you decide to indulge in, he's facing you. And once you just look at that brass serpent so you don't get killed, right? That story is so funny to me, bro. I that story, these people, because of the easiness of the way, they fell. All they had to do was look at this rod with a brass serpent on it, and they could be saved. They wouldn't have been killed by the poison. Like, that's it. Because of how simple it was for them to just face it, they immediately rationalize. Well, where's the scientific evidence? I mean, I could just hear, like, in modern language, what naysayers and Pharisees and zealots and people who miss the mark would say, Well, how is that gonna actually save us? This is a real threat, and looking at something doesn't translate to being out of danger of these things, so I'm not even gonna waste. It's so funny. That's what we're doing. God wants us to face him. The brass serpent is a type of Christ being on the cross. Are we looking at the cross with that idea of now that I'm facing it, I am relentlessly pursuing this direction indefinitely, and I am not turning into Lot's wife. What happened to Lot's wife? Boom, pillar of salt. I like to think this, like she she's going like this, and as she's going like this, like slowly she's morphing into salt, and then she like solidifies as she's turned turned around the other direction. Like the second that decision is made, the process starts. And that's how it goes. That's how it goes. And so we we know this story, and there's there's a whole like second half with the son who stayed and is all like petty and whatever. Not the point in today's episode. Why didn't God leave his house? Why didn't he just just think about that? Whatever those implications are for you. Do you ever get mad at God for not following you in your pursuit of putting your will above his? Why would he? Why would he do that? Okay. There's a hymn. I want to read a couple verses from it. If you haven't heard this hymn, it's called Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It is, it is top, it's what maybe one of the greatest songs of all time. I'm a big music guy. This song is just glorious. I dare I say, stop, pause this podcast episode, hop onto YouTube or something, type in Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, listen to a rendition of this, ball your eyes out for a second, come back, let's let's read some of these lyrics. There's a couple lines here, right? I love this one. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it. Mount of God's unchanging love. Okay, that's at the end of verse one, and earlier in verse one it says, Tune my heart to sing thy grace. Oh, the idea, I I'm not good, but I play guitar and it gets out of tune. I don't sing because my voice is permanently added tune. But tune my heart to sing God's grace and praise the mount I'm fixed upon it. This is the prodigal son's prayer when he when he comes, when he snaps out of it, when he came to himself, he now is like, oh, let me. I'm tuning my heart back into the melody of God's love. I'm tuning it, and then there's the mount, there's the house of my father. I'm fixed upon it. I'm I am going nowhere but there. That's a great line. Okay, here we go. Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. This act of being saved by the atonement of Jesus Christ, it's it's been done. Completed. We don't have to have the faith necessary of the people who lived before Christ to look forward to this event. We look backward to it. In in our modern human construct of time, we look backward on the cross and the resurrection. We look backward on that. He rescued me, he already did it. We are not we are not the the victims. Like we we become a victim because we feel the selfish acts of our own sin, and then we just want forgiveness, we want it. Christ was the victim on the cross of our actions. We inflicted that upon him, and in doing so, it affects us because we're detaching from his throne, from his grace. And this line, here's the one. Oh man, this is so good. Bind my wandering heart to thee. Right, lots of themes of wandering here. Prone to wander. We're in verse 3. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. I might as well end right there. We are prone to wander. Lord, I feel that. Do you feel that? Do you feel so prone to wander, predisposed to things not good for you? Prone to leave the God I love. Why? Why would I do such a thing? I love God. Why do I feel tempted to leave Him? Why do I feel tempted to do all these things that just that just take me away? Here's our prayer. Here's my heart. Take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Verse 4. Oh that day when freed from sinning, I shall see thy lovely face. Robed then in bloodwashed linen, how I'll sing thy sovereign grace. And I don't want to, I'll let you go through the lyrics of the rest of the song. That day when I'm freed from sinning, when is that day? When is that day for you? Can we be perfect in this life? Reality? No. Is that the ask of Christ? That we become perfect now? No. So those cancel out. It's like a math equation. That's not the expectation to be to be perfected now, this moment. So what is that day when we're freed from sinning? Well, in some regards, it's that day you decide to relentlessly pursue God back up the road. Back out of that foreign country you've gone into. That's the day you're freed from it, taking you away from God. You will you will sin. You're gonna mess some things up. That's just that's how it goes. But are you messing up because you're You're pursuing and you're fixed upon the mount that God is at now, and you you have a couple stumbles up that hill, or are you steamrolling away from God? That's not free from sin. That is not free from sin. That that that incurs every cost of sin you possibly could. You are running up an expensive tab on that road. But is the second you can turn, you can snap out of it, you can go, you know what? God isn't, I don't feel where is God? I'm mad at God. Why isn't he here? Well, the thing is, he's always here. He's always watching. You just you just can't even feel him. You couldn't even recognize him if you tried. Because you're so far away spiritually from him. I'll close with a story. A few months ago, this was yeah, a few months ago, maybe six months ago now, I was going through things, as we all do. Personal things, decisions, really is what I was going through, decisions I had to make. And I hit this point, and if I'm you know, just being keeping it real, which is what I started this podcast with saying, is I I just like to keep it real, I really do feel my whole life I have felt this draw and this pull and this fixation on wanting to do what God would have me do. And and I I I feel blessed and fortunate that that is that that feels planted in my heart. I mean it it feels just it kind of in my bones to when when dust settles in my life or I go through periods and in the ebbs and flows of this mortal experience, I I can sit back and and again when fog clears and lifts, I immediately just go, Well, no, I need to reorient, I need to go back to God. That's just like default settings for me. That's how it's always been. And not crazy long ago, I was again going through some decisions and looking forward, and it got to a point where I could kind of see two paths for me to go down. And one was, if I'm being honest, those were like desires I had. It was what I thought would satisfy me, it was what I thought could heal me, and the other path was this path of here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. And and saying those words, I just was at a place where I couldn't do that. I didn't want to. I was prone to leave the God I love. I really was. And I remember talking to God one day, and I I distinctly felt the idea of, hey, you know this like prick you've had your whole life? Almost like the nudge, those default settings that I've had where I'm just kind of nudged in the direction of the Lord. That feeling, I felt God essentially saying, You're old enough, you're grown enough, you've matured enough, you've been through enough, you know me enough. That's not for you anymore. I'm done. I'm done nudging you. And it was a little more concise and too a little too personal to share the exact way in which it was, but the idea, the sentiments impressed upon my heart were these default settings you've had. Um we're just gonna lift those. You're capable of making your own choices without being compelled one way or another, without having the Spirit of God impressed upon my heart that I need to always come back. And I was shocked, I was scared, I was worried. There was so many emotions I went through. Because it was like, is this is this evidence of God doesn't trust me anymore and he's removing this from me? Well, that was one way I could have looked at it, and I could have maybe spiraled. Or, or maybe God in his house was watching me walk away and was telling me, I'm gonna let you go. I'm gonna let you go down whatever path you feel you ought to go down. I'm not gonna chase you. I'll always watch. I'll be every day, I'll be looking off the balcony, ready for you to come back. And if you do, I'm here, I'm watching. But it was God essentially saying, I trust you to make your own decisions. And it again, it it rocked me a bit. That was a pretty heavy experience I went through of, well, dang, like this is, and not to say like I was a robot before and I just, you know, I didn't make my own choices. I definitely did, and I, you know, some good ones, some bad ones. But it was the first time where it was just like, no, in those hard moments, you're not gonna have when the dust settles for you, when when the busyness and craziness of life lifts, it's not gonna be as clear anymore with how crowded life is and with what you've been through. You really will just have to decide out of the love of your heart to follow me, no longer out of like a compulsion. It needs to be 100% self-generated. You can't do it because you think you'll get some blessings, you can't do it because you feel you should, you can't do it because your parents taught you you should, you can't do it just because the societal pressures and religious pressures I feel. If you are going to do this, if you're going to face me and fix your heart upon me, you in your heart, you that will, that seed of willpower that I have, which is really all I have to give to God, I need to plant that in Him and put that trust in Him a hundred percent out of my own free will and choice. I can't be nudged anymore. I can't be a seed in the wind that lands on God's pasture. I need to get to that pasture, plant that deep in the ground, and nourish it for the rest of my life. Thank you for listening. Hopefully, there were some themes taken from this. See you next week.