The Church of Eleven22 - Saturated Wednesday: Pastor Jim Burgen

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Come and See: The Church is a Place for the Broken. On Saturated Wednesday, Pastor Jim Burgen reminds us about the importance of creating a welcoming church environment for all people, especially those who are broken, lost, and struggling. The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To learn more about how God is moving at Eleven22, visit coe22.com.

Good. I can't, sit down. I can't, I can't, I can't believe I'm here. You guys are a big deal. All right. That you're big, because the Lord's a big deal, amen, right? And you make a big deal about the Lord. And how about that worship team? How give it up? Come on. Follow your campuses, let's give it up. Man, my heart's down there. And then Lindsay's up here and she hits a note. I think my water's about to break. You know, it's like, you said I could say anything I wanted. So, no, I love it. I, uh, so, uh, this has been a lot. long time coming. Our friend Don down here, he runs conferences and he said, you got to meet Jobie. I'm like, nah, okay, because I don't really like pastors. I don't even like many Christians,

but I don't like pastors because they're just like, yeah, well, you've met some of them. Anyway, I'm sure they're not here, but anyway, so finally it's like, so we got to get, kind of start connecting and all that. And then a couple weeks ago, we did a retreat together, and they told me how to stay right here. Anyway, so we did a retreat together. And so he walks up the driveway and we start talking. And I'm like, like, yeah, what about this? And he goes, well, what about this? What about this? Finally, it's like, you complete me. It's like, and he said, you had me at hello.

And you know, he just got weird for a minute, and now I have a cough. He gave me that cough. Any judgment you have about that? It's probably the Holy Spirit saying, yeah, pay attention anyway. But no, I love this man. I think this is what we do. We love what we do. And, you know, if you fire us, you know what's he going to do?

He's going to work at Cabellas. That's what he's going to do. And I'm going to work at Boot Barn because, They don't sell it, you don't need it. Anyway, now, I got to get into this. I love, I love being here. All right, so, and you know what? I usually get asked of speaking at a conference once.

Not twice, all right? So, yeah, it's going to get real here, but here we go. So I love to tell you about myself. So I'm out in Colorado. We'll get to that in a minute. But I'm a pastor's kid and a pastor's grand kid. And I never really wanted to do this. Like, I was one of those people, and maybe, maybe just nod your heads if you can relate to this.

Like, I got crushed by the church. Anybody? Yeah, I mean, it's like, it got, like, so it crushed my dad more than anything. And so it's like, I always believed in Jesus, but it's like these Christians just are just the meanest people I've ever met my life. And so I believe in Jesus, but I hope nothing that I say today actually applies to you. But if it does, hold on to it. And if it doesn't, just blow it off. But so anyway, so I partied all the way through high school.

and went to college in Tennessee, in Johnson City, Tennessee. And it's a Christian college, but I didn't go there because it was Christian college. The drinking age was 19, and it was 500 miles from my house. And that's why I chose that path. And anyway, and I blew it out. I was on every probation that college offered. And so my sophomore year, though, I met Robin. And that's not, that's not this document.

That's this data. I met this girl. She's so cute. Her name's Robin. This summer, I worked in two weeks. weeks we're going to Italy for our 40th wedding anniversary. And it's like, you know, I was a youth pastor for 22 years and I would tell every girl in my youth group you should run away from people like me. Like I am horrible news, but she couldn't resist. I was on the swim team. She saw me in a

speedo and she goes, I want some of that. And so we started going out and she said, so we need to go to church. And I'm like, I'm done. I don't want to do that. But I wanted to be with her. And so I don't really like church. So she drove me off to this campus ministry at East Tennessee State University. And listen, my dad was a pastor, but I don't remember hearing about grace. Every day of my life, I wondered if I was going to heaven or hell or not based on how I did today. It's like, is that trampoline faith? I'm saved.

I'm saved. I believe that Jesus came back and I'm going to read our movie. I'm just firewood. I mean, it's just like, it was really, really, really scary. And so we're late to ETSU one day, so we have to sit on the front row. And then I was sitting right down here because we had some on the front row because we were late. And so anyway, so the guy who led the ministry was, you look at him and go, he's a hillbilly, right, from East Tennessee. And he is, but he has a PhD in storytelling from UT.

So he can tell a story, all right? But he started talking about grace and about Jesus, like he was up, like they hung out this afternoon, you know? We'd pile in the back of his pickup truck and we'd go do a campfire, and he tells a story, about Jesus, he just came alive. So I'm late down here to the campus ministry, and so he starts telling this story, A Voyage of the Don Treter, C.S. Lewis book. I didn't read any Christian books, like, yeah, right?

So anyway, but I'm listening to this about this boy who became, and this is why I got the name of that book out there in your local lobby. So a boy who becomes a dragon, because when you think like a dragon, act like a dragon, do dragon things, eventually you just become a dragon, which is cool for a while, right? I mean, you can fly.

start campfires, crush people. It's like, it's a lot of fun, but then you realize I'm just a reptile. I'm just, I'm just this, right? And it's like, but how do you stop being a dragon? So in the book, of course, this is it in the notes. How much time do I have? Day and a half, right.

So the dragon's walking down the path and he meets Aslan, the lion, who's Christ in all the figure in all the books. And so he says, well, I don't want to be a dragon anymore, well then you have to get undressed. And then he goes, oh, I'm a reptile. So he starts pulling off all the other things. these scales. And there's just another layer and another layer and another layer. And finally,

Azzlitz says, I have to get, I have to undress you. And so, so he uses that he lays down on his back and the line, takes his claws and he rips him open. And I'm, I'm, I'm down here right now. I can't breathe. You ever been in that moment? I can't breathe. That's about, that's me. And he reaches in that dragon mess and he takes the boy out. He throws him in the river and comes up. And now I've got tears running down my face. I'm like, don't cry. Do not cry. But I'm crying and I make one of my first deals with God. I'm sure that that's heresy, but I'm just getting warmed up. Wait for later.

But anyway, and I made a deal with God. If you can do that to my life, I'll follow you. And that's where it turned. I'm not saying that, and then I became a pastor. That's another argument, right? So I started coming back that direction. I never wanted to do this, though. All right?

So I've been dating Robin about two years and I feel like God tapping me on the shoulder. They're like, hey, I had an idea, and I'm like, oh, we are not having that conversation. No, I have a calling on your life. Have a calling on your life. So I sat down on the curb behind my girlfriend, now wife, on the curb, and we had an argument with God, and he says, I want you to preach. I'm like, no, I'm not doing this church thing. It's like, I'm just not.

So we went back and forth for a while, and he won, and he tends to do that. But I'm a little nervous. You all think this is water. Anyway, yeah. So here's the deal I made with God. Come on. We're going out later, all right, right there. Here's the deal I made with God.

Hey God, I'll do this in one condition. If I can talk about real things and real ways that real people are going through, then I'll do that. And he said, I wouldn't want you to do anything else. So I've been doing that for 40 years. Come to find out, adults don't really like that. Like, and you just make us feel better.

It's like, no, you know. So that's why I did 22 years in student ministry. And thanks for being here tonight. Wait, right up there. Get around for students at our campus, right? Yeah, yeah. So anyway, so I've been doing this for, I was a student pastor for 22 years,

and I've been doing flat irons for, I had to go to Boulder to start a church, all right? There's the only people that have me. And, you know, I love Florida, by the way. I love, I don't know if I could say, I love your government. I love so many things about, I live in Colorado.

My state has lost its mind. Like people come to Florida and go like, you're not bringing that with you, are you? Like, no, because they brought it from California. But anyway, that's another. But, Mother, I'll say, so my state, all right, I realize this has to be biblical, right? My state was the first one in the same year we legalized gay marriage and marijuana and now mushrooms, which is biblical. Because the Bible says that two men that lay down together should be stoned. That's in the Bible.

Let us sink in. You'll get it like, oh. And if that offends you, email Jobie, I don't care. Actually, a gay man. You tell that to your gay friend. They'll laugh. They'll laugh. All right.

Anyway, so you said be myself. Okay? So I'm going to do that. Hey, I love what I'm going to talk about today. I wrote it down in manuscript, not because I don't know what's it. I'm so passionate about this. And if I really just keep on rolling, we'll be here all night. And I'm ADHD.

Somebody going, oh, really. 72 milligrams a day. I am. And it's not working. So here's my model, people, prayer, and pills. I don't know which one's working. I'm on all three. So, uh, if you have a bunch of,

Bible? Y'all, Bible church? I heard you were, all right? Or an app or something. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 7. Only like three people have left so far, so they'll be more. So it's part of the famous sermon on the Mount. Actually, Matt Chandler's going to be here tonight tomorrow, right?

Right, great, great guy. So Matt and I were in a class together, at Wheaton's class, and we each had to write a paper, and I got an A, and Matt got a B. And so we point that out to him tomorrow when he's here. but I got an A, the preface said, I made a decent argument, but my thesis disagreed with thousands of years of church history. And so you get an A, but you're a heretic. And so anyway, that's what I'd like to teach you tonight.

But so I'm going to nerd out for a second. There is in biblical, like in grammar, right? There's a structure called a kiasm, all right? And it's a biblical, I just saw all the English teachers going, that's correct, Jim. All right? And so, which means that a section of the chapter 7, It starts with a statement, and then down lower the paragraph, it will restate the statement

kind of differently, but everything in between is about those statements. You follow me? None. On camera out there in space world, you're not. Okay, all right. So, so Matthew chapter 7 says this, judge not, it's very famous, okay? There it is, okay. Judge not that you be not judged.

We all know this, right? For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, not notice a log that's in your own eye. Or how can you say to your brother, let me take a speck out of your eye, and then there's a log in your own face, right? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you'll see clearly to take

the speck out of your brother's eye. And then scroll down there to verse 12 of that same section. I don't have to put it up, it's the gold rule. So, whatever can do to others as you have them do to you. So whatever comes between those verses has something to do with, don't do to people what you don't want them to do to you, and do to others like you would want other people to do to you. Got it?

Everybody follow me? Okay? Now hang on to that, okay? So it says, don't judge, it'll be judged. Next. Verse six, weird verse, right? Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs

lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Now that is a very weird, like, hey, he's talking about Jesus and stuff, all that. Let's talk about dogs and pigs, all right, right? I was always taught that what it meant was don't waste your time on people that aren't interested in God's word.

They're just not worth it. But that just doesn't sound much like, Jesus. Right? So let's just unpack it logically, right? If you have a dog, and I have two, right, and that dog is hungry, and then you say, here, come here, guys, all right, here's some Bible verses. Or you have a herd of pigs, all right, and they're starving, and you fill up their trough with very expensive pearls. You might even get them in a headlock and just shove some pearls down their throat. What will be the response? And the answer is, well, you do that long enough, Eventually that dog's going to bite you, and then that pig's going to run over you, and he's going to try to eat you too.

Why? Not because the Bible verses aren't true. They're true. They're Bible verses, right? And not because the pearls aren't valuable and precious. They are. Here's why. Write this down.

Okay. Because it's not helpful in this moment. Right? It's just, I mean, I'm not saying they're not worthy. Here's why. You can't eat Bible verses and pearls. Have you ever had anybody try to shove Jesus down your throat? Right, right?

And you just weren't ready for it, all right? Eventually, even if they're right, I know I'm wrong, I know I'm screwed up, I know I shouldn't be doing this, I know what the Bible says about that. You try to, you just want to fix me. You try to fix me long enough. I will put up for a while, and I know me. I'll bite you. I'll put you under my boots, all right?

So where are you going with this? Well, maybe here's a better way. This is where I'm going to depart from church history a little bit. Instead of doing that, how about this? Ask. ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives

and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks, it will be open. So ask, seek, knock. In the past, again, I've always been taught my whole life that this applied to prayer and how we're supposed to approach God. But Jesus already talked about prayer back in Chapter 5. It's not like you went, oops, I forgot to tell you about this.

All right? So I'm sure, I think they do apply to how a person can approach God, but in context, Jesus and not, talking about how to approach God, he's talking about how we're supposed to deal and approach one another in context, right? So here's a, here's a concept of love. So I'm training my first horse right now, basically, he's training me. I'm very bruised right now, and I understand why cowboys walk like this. It's just biology. It's just that how God made us. And anyway, so I stepped into horse world, and a few weeks ago, we did something cool. Joe, you got to do

this, all right? So we built a 40-foot round pin. horse pen on stage, put 80,000 pound of sand down, and then we brought in a untouched, unridden horse, right, new in every service, right? And some of them were like really damaged, some of them had trauma, some were dirty, some were like, like, what is happening here, right? And in 40 minutes, my friend Todd, he builds a relationship with that horse until finally they trust him, and actually he's able to ride them. Okay, here's my point, okay, when that horse shows up, he or she is not an empty page waiting to be written on, all right? Every horse has a story.

They have baggage. They have things that happen to them. They did some things, and some people did things to them. And they brought all that into where they are right now. Some of it was their fault. Someone was like, well, I didn't vote for that. It just landed on me, right? And I got the scars to prove it.

They've experienced a lot of life and have learned in their minds, apparently this is what I have to do to survive. Here's a horse term for that. We're living what we learned. And we're all doing it. And the Todd's job, the job of a trainer is, you can trust me. And it's going to take a while.

You can trust me enough that you could give me access to the most vulnerable part of your life. Your back. In Horseworld, the only thing that wants to get on your back is a predator. And that horse has to come to a point going, you're different. Right?

And we're all the same way. Dallas Willard, one of my favorite theologians says, nobody is holding on to what? Nobody's sitting in whatever room you're at or wherever you are, whatever country. You're not sitting there holding on to what you believe. Like, I believe that this is true.

That didn't happen in a vacuum. Right? You're living what you learned, all right? If I say God, you think this. Why? Because that's what life says, this is what God is. That's your experience.

If I say marriage, if I say sex, if I say gay or straight, if I say money, if I say parenting, whatever there is, you mean you're talking about this, all right? Not because one day you were just sitting there in your truck and whatever going like, I think this is what I'll believe. No. This is what you have learned in reality, and in that reality, this is what you have concluded. I'm not throwing stones. I do it. All of us do it, right? This is what I have to do to survive.

You're living what you learned. And then Jesus comes along, and the number one teaching that comes out of his mouth is, hey, you might want to be. to repent. Why? Because new things are possible. New things are possible, right? New things are available. He opened up every one of his famous, I mean, it just says that. And then he began teaching them saying, this is the gospel, repent, rethink your life. So in light of that, when I said God, I want you to think something different. When I think guilt and shame, when I say that, I want you to think about something different. I want you to think about everything different. But you got to start somewhere. So where would you start? Here's an idea, right? Ask. Seek, knock. Hey, hey, I got a question.

What's up? What's going on? Seek. How did you get to this place? Knock, can I have permission to come into your life? And eventually maybe I'll even have access to the most vulnerable part. So I'll give you an example of this. So my friend Todd, again, you got to get him here. He said, I was talking to this girl, and she says, I think I want you to baptize me, Todd. And she says, but I have a question first. She says, what do you think about LBGTQ? And he responded, you mean, what do I think about you? Very different questions.

He said, I love you. And she goes, well, you know what I mean. He said, all right, how about this, all right? What do you think about Christians? And she said, I get it. See, she trusted Todd because he asked, he saw it, he not, right, and he couldn't reconcile how he treated her as to,

as opposed to how a lot of Christians in her life had treated her. Todd cared more about her story than he cared about her current behavior. Most of us, and I spent a lot of my life doing this, skip over the story and we get to behavior modification. Well, before we get any further here, right, you got to stop that. and you've got to knock that off.

And I don't see, I don't see that in Jesus. I mean, Jesus never ignored sin. Jesus never winked at sin and said, I get it, all right, right? He never said, it's no big deal. He said, I love you, and we'll get to that. But you have to believe that I actually love you. Right? Not the label on you.

Not the banner over you. Not the three divorces. Not the addiction. Not the relapse back into cocaine. I don't, I know it's all there. but I love you. Right? And then we can get to the other, all right?

So let's keep on going, right? Here's the difference in approach. Which of you, if his son asking for bread, would give him a stone, or if he ask him a fish, would give him a serpent. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

So whatever you do, which others would do to you, do that for them. This is the Bible. that all hangs on that right and the obvious application there is right parents are right if your son your daughter comes up and goes dad i'm really hungry can i can i have some of that bread and you yeah and then you gave him a rock you just wouldn't do that most of the time you just wouldn't do that and um but i'm just speaking for myself i've experienced it in church see there's nothing better my mom passed away a year and a week ago and my favorite thing about my child was walking on sunday

after church and there's a roast in the oven and there was bread and there was buns and there was rolls and stuff like that. Listen, that smells good. And I would follow my nose into the kitchen. I just walk in and say, Mother, I just need whatever is making that smell. Right, right? See, here's where it falls apart when the church fell on me and my family, crushed my dad. What happens when hungry people up show up at church looking for promised bread in this case, the bread of life? And when they get here, they get hit with a rock. Anybody been to that church? because I have. I was hungry, I was starving, I smelled something good, I smell right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they bait and switched and went, you know, some bread, wherever, right? Bam! You got to get fixed first. You got to clean up your act first. You got to change first. See, seek and save the lost. Sounds good.

It's exciting. It's spiritual. I've had, if I went to most churches in America, go, oh, yeah, we want to seek and save the loss. Do you? I love the word seek. It's the Greek word sozo, all right? I'm part of an organization that, But when Flaton's first started doing missions, I was already part of Afghanistan.

And I said, does anybody want to go to Kabul with me? And I think they thought I said Cabo, because 600 people showed up. And I said, no, no, no, no, no. We might die. We didn't. So if Sozo, the organization is called that because it actually is the Greek word for somebody is about to fall over the edge and you pull them back from the brink of destruction. Jesus says, I came to seek and pull back from the edge.

Now, Afghans thinks I'm doing that with medicine and schooling and nutrition, things like that, but that's just our cover, right? We're snatching back from the edge. I love seeking and save loss. Good, good. I love come and see. One of our values, our fifth value about reaching out, yours is like one more. It's come and see, right?

When Jesus, think about this, when Jesus met Peter, what did he say to him? He didn't say, you stop that. He said, just follow me. Hang out with me. And by the way, have you noticed that Peter is the worst fisherman ever? Unless Jesus is right there with him, he doesn't ever catch anything. He sucks as a fisherman. He's just this redneck, blue collar, you know, beer drinking, like, I don't, I'm not a good fisherman, but this is my life.

And then Jesus says, hey, come and follow me. Well, where are you going? I'll just come and see. And if you come and see, here's why a time will come when you will tell me who I am. Right? But it's going to take a time. And eventually he goes, you're the Christ.

But even when he said, Jesus, I believe you're the Christ, he was still a mess. Think about it. Peter was in the best small group ever. You know, mine's pretty good. No. No, like, hey, Jesus, tell me out the creation. Well, the first thing I did was this.

I mean, it's like, he wins. I don't understand that scripture. Well, I wrote it, so here you go, right? Best small group ever, whatever. And after three years of being in the best church, best, you know, discipleship program, whatever, he denied Jesus. But when did it change? Pentecost.

When Jesus just didn't walk around with him anymore, Jesus moved in through the Holy Spirit. And that changed. Jesus in him changed him. See, here's the other thing, all right? I'm going to get to, right. Jesus, because a lot of you think that your sin surprises God. Like, oh, well, I would not have saved her if I knew she was going to do that on Tuesday. All right, right?

It's like, Jesus knew Peter was a disaster when they met on that beach. Right? And when Jesus picked him and called him, nothing Peter did in the next three years surprised Jesus. Ready for this? Or disappointed him? You're only disappointed going, oh, I didn't see that coming. No, I knew who I was signing up. He knew what he, when he decided to save and change.

change and used Peter, he knew everything about what he had done and what he was going to do. So whenever Peter, I have stumbled in there, relapsed, that fair? Jesus knew, he looked at him and go, this is not the last chapter of your life. Salvation happens in a moment. I believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, I accept him as my Lord and Savior. I renounce all alliances with the demonic realm. I, Jesus is my king. That is a salvation moment.

growth takes time change go church sanctification takes time see Jesus had an idea called 1122 you know this isn't Jobi's idea I mean I love him but

he's not this good right right right right this isn't his church this is Jesus church Jesus had an idea long before Jobi was conceived listen I'm just interviewing for a job when they fire me in Colorado so Jesus has an idea this is my church, and it's going to be different

than everything everybody's experience. It's not going to be about external rules of religion. It's going to be a hospital to seek and save the loss. And for the record, when Jesus said, because in response to it, he's in Zechias's house, remember that? Why is Jesus in there with Zakias? He's a sinner. Jesus said, I came to seek and save the loss. Everybody listening

knew, he's actually quoting in Ezekiel 34 goes on to say this, I came to seek and save the loss, that you lost. You religious lost. The shepherds beat the very sheep they were told to take care of. I'm the good shepherd and I will find them and I'll sozo them. I'll pull them back from destruction. Here's a plan. Come and see. Hang out. Follow me. You decide who I am. I don't know who's in this room. This is the first time I've ever been in this room, right? Here's what it surprises

me. Every week in these rooms and all your campuses and all around the world, right? Lost, broken, desperate people crawl into church. Right? Sometimes I'm going like, why? After what you've been to? Why? But they're hungry for bread. And we say come and see and they're met with, well, you're kind of a mess. Do you really want to seek and save the lost 1120 time? I'm asking you. And what level, how about this? Right this. What level of lostness are you comfortable with? Right? Well, a six, but nothing like a nine. Nine's creep me out. I'd write, right? Ten, come on. Let's go. I'll hire you. Number one question asked of Jesus had nothing to do with God or heaven or is this a sin or is that a sin. Number one question

of Jesus. Prove me wrong here. There's some version of this. Why do you, why does he, why does your teacher hang out with people like that? Why is he friends with sinners? Why does he eat dinner with Zakias? Like, why? And Jesus' response is because Zakias is why I'm here. Sinners had to sneak into religious banquets.

Like one of my favorite stories, and I'm going to go off the rails here for a minute, right? Remember Jesus is that religious ruler's house, and then that hooker comes in and washes his feet with his teeth. And they're going, he doesn't know who's touching her. Well, they did. How did she get in the house? I think she had her own key. That's just me. No, that's a religious leader.

That would never happen, all right? Right? So here's my question. You know people like that in your church. By the way, we is people like that. So be careful. If you want to throw a banquet, if you want to build a church, they'll show up.

I'm passionate about this. Don't be a church for sinners and then bait and swish them because Zacchaeus will show up and he's hungry and he's a mess. So I'm going to tell you my versions of my flatterness versions of this. Okay, so a few years ago,

before we moved into our Walmart, we were in a little strip mall of six services, people would be breaking down walls and people, like, we had one bathroom. Right? It had one urinal and one toilet, right? So there's a line, right? So I stand in the line. line, you know. And so finally, I'm peeing. I always hum when I pee. I don't know why.

You're going to shiver. But anyway, so I'm standing there, peeing, and then the stall opens next to me, and I just sense a mass. A huge man. And so I'm going to be peeing, and he goes, Pastor Jim. I'm like, yay, hey, man. He goes, oh, I was praying that I would meet you. And I'm like, well, okay, like, I'm peeing. And then he goes, So, then he starts saying this, and he says, so I've been coming here for about six weeks, and since I've been coming here, I've been delivered from gay porn and all kinds of sexual addiction and all this kind of stuff.

And I'm like, okay, hold on. Do you want to go out in the lobby? But no, no, no, no. I turn around and he goes, wham! And he's a large man, rainbow suspenders, a lot of chest hair, some gold chains, a lot of cologne, and I'm like, hey, man. All right?

I just love you, I just love you. I'm like, that's cool. Let's go to the lobby. Let's go to the lobby, right? And in the back of my mind, I'm going, this didn't happen when I lived in Kentucky. It didn't, right? It probably did.

We just, never mind. So anyway, so we go out there, and so his name's Richard, and I get to know Richard over the next several months, and here's his story, all right? So Richard grew up, and he was always, he just didn't fit in, and then his dad says, well, you're 16,

and I'm going to buy a, he bought him a couple of prostitutes, and that didn't go well. And so he goes, oh, you must be getting. So he bought him a couple of men, right? And that didn't go well either. And so Richard, he runs away from home. He ends up in California where nothing good can happen, all right? So he...

I can't say that in Boulder, but I think I'm safe. I don't know. All right. So anyway, so he moves in. He starts to become part of a church. The youth pastor sexually abused him. Then he runs away, and he ends up in Denver. And there's a rescue mission downtown Denver.

He knocks on the joy. He says, can I come in? He's like 18, 19, 19 right now. Can I come in? He goes, no, you miss the sermon. So it's starting to snow. And you know what that is? Florida, snow.

Anyway, so he turns around, walks down the steps, and there's a man, opens the car door, and goes, come on, I'll take it. And for the next several years, that's his life. So after a while, he said, I can't do this anymore. And he tries to commit suicide. He takes a whole bunch of pills. But right before he, right before he passes out,

he says, I don't want to do this. Dial 9-1-1, goes unconscious, wakes up. All right, here's what happened. Now, you don't have to believe this. This is just what Richard told me. Okay? So pray through it, right? He says, I'm asleep.

Jesus comes to me and says, you want to live or want to die? He goes, Jesus, I want to live. He says, drink this and give him a cup of cold water, and he woke up. So he survived it. Now, he gets out of the hospital, he goes, that was grace.

I need to find a church. I'll find a church with the name, grace in the title. So he goes to one, and he tells the pastor, hey, here's my story. And he says, don't tell anybody your story. Why? We can't handle that. So he left that one.

He goes to another church, and the very first sermon was, you know, if babies aren't baptized, they go to hell. And he goes, well, I'm not going to this church either. Then he went to a third church, and they said, you sing too loud. And so, anyway, so a couple Saturdays after this, right? Richard and Gary, his partner, right? They are sitting in a diner, and they're kind of doing all this, and the waitress comes over, and she says, hey, hey, guys, what's wrong?

They started telling the story, and what happened to him? He goes, well, you need to come to my church. and like, hmm. He says, no, no, no, they won't do that to you at my church. What's your church? Flatirons. You can just sit with me. So Richard and Gary showed up the next week, and I remember right where they were sitting.

I did a series, this name of the series called Three Foot of Monkey Poop, What to Do When You're in Deep. It's the story of the prodigal son. It's magnificent, all right? He said, great, right? And it's all about no matter how much filth you get covered in, Jesus is more, and he can wash you, right? Amen? Right. He can take it all the way. And he said the first time I ever thought there was still hope for me.

Now skip ahead. Two more months. We have baptism in a lake. We don't have an ocean. All right. But we have baptism in a lake. And I baptized Richard. So this is true story. He comes up to me after the baptism. He goes, Pastor Jim, I have a date with a woman. And I thought, this is not going to go well. And he says, do you think, all right, here you go. Do you think it's okay if Jesus would be okay if I had a, if we we had a bottle of wine. Here's one went through my head. A bottle of wine, sex with a dude, drink up. That's what I thought. I said, you'll be good, you'll be good, you'll be good.

And the date was a disaster, all right? Two years after that, Richard died alone in a hotel room. He was not completely changed, but please hear this. He was completely saved. Right? So I remember standing up in front of our church and I just said, I sure am glad Richard is a part of our church, and somebody to yell out,

yeah, me too. I sure am glad that we're creating a space for Richard to bring his friends. Yeah, me too, right? And that just went on. It was just spontaneous. And so for years, we only had one T-shirt. It just said, me too,

and then Coulter hijacked that. We couldn't do that one anymore. But here's where it comes up. I believe that that is the most repeated phrase you'll ever hear in your first five minutes in heaven. So somebody's going to look at you and go, like, how did you get here? We went to college together, right?

Like, how did you get here? Here's what we're all going to say. So I really screwed up. I bumped into Jesus. He cut me a sweet deal, called me, saved by grace through faith, and he told me I could come. Me too. All right?

There's just nothing else, right? Are you okay? Are you okay with Richard coming to your church? Because he's a mess. He got beat up by life, then he got stoned by the church. Do you want him? And what will he find when he gets here? Right?

Here's another one. This one is, yeah. So, and this is all in the book out there. So there's a book out there. Yeah, yeah. I sold like four copies. I'm making bank. Anyway, so,

so her name's Melissa, all right? And I'd been warned, Melissa's looking for you. I'm like, okay. So then finally, I see Melissa coming across. I'm like, boom, buddoo, buddh, right? She's not a handsome woman. And here's what I mean by that. She goes, my name is Melissa.

My name is Melissa. And I was like, yeah, okay. And she goes, so I'm eight years post-shop transgender. It's like, oh, okay. She goes, I had three questions for you. Okay, let's go. She goes, can I be here? I went, yes.

I'm not kind of like, apparently she'd heard other answers before. Yeah, Jesus loves you, so of course, we love you here. So how about this? Pastor Jim, if two years from now I meet somebody, will you do my wedding? And I went, I don't know.

We'll cross that bridge. I totally avoided it. I was like, I don't know, I don't know. I'm sweating right now. right? So then she has this, hey, can I go to the women's retreat in two weeks? This got real, didn't it? Right? So tune in self-righteous people, right? So think about this. Do you understand this? I don't know what caused this. I don't know how to fix it. I think about it. Like his name is Chris then, right? He's in the middle of a crisis and he goes, I got an idea.

I'll have surgery. And then he stands in front of a mirror and goes, that's better. And he actually believes it. He actually believes it. He's living what he thinks he has learned to survive. What do you want me to tell Melissa? Have another surgery? Go to the men's retreat. Well, explain that one to the dorm. Right? It's just like, where should I tell her to go? So, well, what did I tell her? Buy the book. I'll tell you. No, I let her go the first year and she slept in a separate day. dorm. By the next year, I had a much harder conversation because I was in relationship with her and said, how about this? We will surround you with people who will walk you back into your true identity. And she got up and stormed down to my office, left the church, and before she got home,

she called news stations. I had three trucks in my parking lot, and I'm on the front page of the Denver Post. Now, here's what's happening right now. Both halves of the room are thinking some version of, I don't know if you should have done that. I don't care. I don't care. Listen, Jesus cleared a field with hard teachings. It was thousands, and then he did a truth bomb, and then it was just 12 guys there. And he looks at him, he goes, are you going to leave me too? And Peter goes, where else would we go?

Who else has words of life? And so my question is, like, where do you want me to point her? See, the only way that Melissa, if she is ever healed and saved, is by the work of the Holy Spirit, the blood of Jesus Christ, and the ongoing washing of the word. Of those three, I'm responsible for presenting the word of God, and the other two are above my pay grade. Come on. Because somebody here is a version of Melissa.

You just don't know it yet. And somebody's brother or sister or son or daughter or mom or dad, they're in this. And they're testing the waters right now. What if they came with me? Right? Proverbs 29 says this. If you're trying to, you know, please seek people. opinions please people. He says, it's a trap. If you're trying to please God, there's safety,

which means this. Here's an aha moment for me. I'm really late to the party on this one. Here's what I've discovered. If I make this decision, these people are going to be pissed at me, all right? If I make this decision, these people are going to be pissed at me. So what am I going to do? I'm going to make the right decision because the only person I don't want to piss off is Jesus, all right? So I'm going to go with that and deal with the consequences. I believe he'll do that. And I'm sorry I said piss. I'm not really sorry. I heard a teacher say this. If you hold on to truth and grace,

you will get shot from both sides. Bring it on. Bring it on, right? Jesus commanded a lot of things. The first thing he told his church, the first thing, just follow me. Well, where are you going? Just come and see.

You'll figure it out over time. Then I am who I say I am, and I keep every promise I've ever made to you, but it's going to take some time. Do you really want to say come and see? And if they say yes, what will they see? Again, this is, you should write this down. lost people act lost

wait right right the story that changed my life in college dragons act like dragons until aslan the lion reaches in and undragons them

and if you don't understand that and hope that they understand saved you have a very limited shelf life I got one more story and then we'll have breakfast no they haven't even turned red yet right they told me about the red

I ignore them at home too right so okay So I'm in the lot, it's Easter, so it's like, you know, Easter, your lobby's like, uh, right? We all have COVID now, right? Anyway, so we're all pushing in, right, like, but then the war, it's like the red sea split, and then I hear, Pastor Jim, Pastor Jim, and I'm like, here he comes, here he comes. His name's Hank, I find that out in a minute.

Hank, here's his backstory is he sits in our, he sits right over here in, in my auditorium and answers all my rhetorical questions out loud. Like, like, if you're hanging off. a chain over a cliff, how many links need to break before you fall? Five! Well, this is true. You will fall, okay, ready? So anyway, and his backstory is that he's being, his caretaker is his son, and his son

just says, I need a break. And so he just drops him off a church in his pajamas, and he sits there over there going, five. A couple weeks before he goes, I'm with you. Pastor Jim, I'm with you. I'm going to, I hope so, because if not, security is going to shoot you. And I don't want you. I don't want you to get shot.

So anyway, so he's coming. Here he comes, all right? And you really can see the security. Craig Hank, Craig Hank, Craig Hank. So he comes and goes, hey, Pastor Jim. And he has voice modulation problems. It's just one volume. Hey, Pastor Jim, how are you?

It doesn't matter. If he whispers, he just comes close. He goes, hey, Pastor Jim, how are you? Right? And then he's a spitter, and it landed on my lip. It landed on my lip. All right? I'm like, ah, what would Jesus do?

I don't know. Pastor Jim's about to puke, right? But anyway, I'm like, right. So he goes, Pastor Jim, I got, I said, yeah, he goes, was that Billy Joel on the piano today? It went, no, no. I liked him, you should keep him.

Oh, okay. All right, we will. He goes, hey, my name's Hank. Hi, Hank. They call me crazy Hank. Okay, okay, he goes. People say I'm effing crazy. I said, I don't think you're effing crazy.

He says, they say him bipolar. I said, you might be. And then we went on for a while about that. He's a mess. Now, here, I told that story a few years ago at a church planning conference? Hi, Mom. She's in heaven.

That's weird. So there's five, six thousand church planners in a room going, we want to go reach the loss and broken. Here's what I said, because I didn't say effing. Okay? And I didn't say it here either, right? But I'm talking to people who say that we are going to dig in deep. We're going to storm the gates of hell.

We're going to go gain territory back for Jesus, all right? I said, if the number one thing you're concerned about in your dinner conversation tonight is the pastor dropped the F bomb twice, is please don't go start a church that I have to apologize in my lobby for every week. If we really want to go do this, it's going to get messy.

And would you want anything else? I mean, think about your life and Jesus reached into your pig pen. Think about Chris's story. 40 years ago, I asked Jesus to trust me with the messiest people he had that no other church would want. 20 years ago, flatterings open, its doors wide, and they said, come and see.

And here's what I know about Joby and about 1122. Here's what I know about Richard, about Melissa, about crazy hang. Here's what I know about a 19-year-old college student who got sexually abused all the way through elementary school, who's living what he learned by carrying shame, fear, insecurity, and false identity. Everybody's got a story. Nobody shows up church or the round pin, a blank page. Let's give our lives.

let's create a space to come and see and bump into Jesus who is better than anything you can imagine he's bigger than any sin you've ever committed he has more grace than you could ever hope for this is why we do what we do it changed it saved my life has Jesus saved anybody's life yes

Jesus has this idea this idea 1122 flat on his and he tried to describe it. So it's a church, but it's like a banquet for hungry people. And it's like a hospital for people who aren't healed yet. And by the way, they still act sick because they are.

See, you and I, we cannot change Richard or Melissa. Can anybody change anybody? Can anybody fix anyone? Can anybody save anyone? It's above our pay grade. That's the job of the Holy Spirit, write this down. And you are not him. but you can't get in his way

unless you drop whatever rock you're holy in the gospel hostage to until they act better. I don't want to come across a school in 1122. You're doing good. Like there's power in all these rooms right now. Like it rips the roof off. I'm sitting over there. I can't breathe.

I'm like, because I've really lost a lot of faith in the church. But then I come to an oasis like this. and Jesus is alive and he's pulling and he's drawing. So keep going because here's, I don't have a better word for this. I've spoken to Joe, but I was like, and I've been through this, all right? Here's the tendency. You won't do it on purpose, but you'll get really, really, really successful. And you'll do a lot of, you'll circle the wagons and you'll protect what we have and say,

we got ours. Richard can go find his own. Don't, don't, please, please don't do that. Bread, not stones. I want to talk to anybody. Listen, my voice right now, and you're like, I'm not a Christian. I don't know if I believe all this stuff, all right? I get it.

And I just want to say, I want to honor you is that you showed up. Right? Because you know, you know, you're hungry for something. It's like, I don't know if it's a Jesus stuff because that got shoved down my throat by the blah, blah, blah. But listen, I get it. Here's what I want to tell you, right? If you're just checking out this Jesus thing or the first priority, I think you found a good place. to figure some stuff out.

And listen, we all have stuff. You're sitting in your row right now going, oh, you don't know about my stuff. Yeah, I'll play that card game with you. We all have stuff. We've all done stuff. We've all had stuff done to us. We've taken on identities

and we actually believed that we are, our past, we are what happened to us. The motto of my life is, I want to remind men that what God says is true and possible for you is still true and possible for you no matter what you've done or what has been done to you. That applies to women, but men just have a harder time believe in it.

Steeleless from Jobi, our past does not have the right to define or condemn our future unless you choose it to. So I was hunting with a friend of mine the other day, and he's just going, he's a farmer, and he just came through a long stretch, a rough road, and he doesn't know what he's like, I said, like what thoughts you have? I might just end it, those kind of thoughts. I'm not there, I'm not there. And then this past week after church, I was talking about it on the phone.

I said, what did you think about? He goes, here's my takeaway from this past weekend. I said, this is going to preach. Now it is. You can't trip over your past if you keep moving forward. All right? Give it up for Tim, right? Well, what do you mean move forward?

where, come and see. You'll meet Jesus and you'll figure it out. Here's a, I don't know how I was going to end this thing, but I need a refill, but, um, let me say this, all right? So there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a place for confession and prayer down here, and I've heard about you all. You're very responsive to what the Holy Spirit is drawing you too. So I like, maybe talk to two, three, like, some of us, us, very careful with pronouns today, right? Some of us are looking through the files and going, I have bait and swiss and beat up sinners with rocks more than I ever loved them. And I'm sorry, I need to repent of it. And you'll be forgiven. And the Holy Spirit will change you, and you'll drop your stones, and you'll pick up a loaf of bread and go, hey, I found bread. Are you

to? Me too. Maybe you just need to come up here and fall on your face and go like, God, you didn't do that to me. Why am I doing that to my son? Why am I doing that to my dad? And everything do to others as you would have them do to you. Don't do to others what you don't want done to you. Sunday, I'm flying home tomorrow, then I'm getting on a plane, I'm preaching in Serbia Sunday, and then Egypt, that later, and then I'm going to go party with my wife. Again, not think about you. I want to be here Sunday because it's going to be, it's one more. It's like, as I've talked about Melissa, crazy Hank, whoever is,

I believe the Holy Spirit brought somebody in your mind going there hungry. Jobie's going to bring the fire. All week long, it's going to be fire, right? Ask God to put that person on your heart. Again, fall before him in prayer and go, God, give me the courage to walk across the Starbucks tomorrow. go like, okay, so, um, we're going to go to church. I don't know what, I don't know how you're going to do it. It's like, um, I've, how about this? I found something really, really good,

but you trust me enough to give it one shot. Okay. I mean, bribe them, kidnap them. There's grace for that. Fellons all over my church, right? So, um, um, but here's the other thing. If you're not a believer, if you haven't put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved and his blood is greater and stronger and the only thing that can wash three feet of monkey poop off of you whatever that whatever pig pin you've been in is like first of all he knows about it he's not disappointed in you and he's reaching out to you while we're still sinners that's when Christ said hey the bath's ready don't get cleaned up to take a bath come and be washed, right?

And I bet, heck, you got an ocean. You can get baptized in nine. You don't have to wait until Sunday, right? But anyway, so that would be the response to this. One is personal repentance, Christians. Have we drifted off to, I don't really think about them anymore, followed by who is in my life that needs to be washed. And the third one would be like, I need Jesus.

Let's stand up. I'm going to pray. I can honestly say that being with you tonight is one of the joys of my life. I love your pastor. I love what the Holy Spirit is doing in this place. And I feel like it's home. And I don't say that about a lot. But we have the same Father.

Right? And we have the same mission. We're all saved by the same grace. Father God, I just, I'm just overwhelmed. with the grace that reached into my pig pen is that I'm not done with you. As a matter of fact, I'm going to use your pig pen to reach a whole bunch of other pig pens. I'm like, okay. God, we're just humbled by your grace, by your love, by your ongoing forgiveness.

We don't ever want to take that for granted. God, in the next few weeks, I don't know if his name's Richard, but Richard will show up and Melissa and Hank, A 19 year old kid who thinks like, I guess this is all I deserve. And then he will bump into the best two words in the entire Bible, but God. And God, you'll change it his or her life. And you'll use this church to do it because it's your church and it's what you do. It's why we worship you and you alone. Pray all of this in the mighty, mighty name of Jesus.

Amen. Let's go.