The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: Pastor Josh Turner

Episode Date: October 31, 2021

I don't, please, I don't know what to do with that. So, man, it is so great being back with you guys. I was just with y'all at Saturated. And if I keep showing up this regularly, I'm just going to dub myself like y'all's weird uncle that kind of just shows up from Georgia and every once in a while is like, all right, man, and I just leave and go back to Georgia.

And it's an honor being here. And I want to explain to you how much, I love you. And the way that I'm going to do that is by telling you that I had tickets to the World Series last night. And I said, no, I'm going to 1122. They said, what's 1122? I said, I don't know, they're stealing my dream of going to the World Series, but no, for real, I had tickets, and I wanted to be with you guys. I love you guys. I love this church. Your pastor said, you're, y'all are very encouraging. I'm going to give you my wife's phone number,

and I want you to call her and tell her to be more encouraging to me because I need a win. Joby and I, Bishop Martin and I were talking, and I was just saying how much, like, I love you guys. And, you know, on the screen, he said, we've known each other for 12 years. But we also know that Dillon is from, that Joby's from Dillin, South Carolina.

And in South Carolina, they're not great at math. And so Joby and I've actually been friends for 20 years. and I don't know if I made him mad for eight years and he just kind of wrote that part off. I don't know, but I want to say something to you as a church and I want you to hear this. This is not from Josh Turner, the pastor. This is from Josh Turner, the friend of Jobi Martin.

There's a lot of churches in this world that their pastors don't ever feel like they can take a break or a sabbatical because the people get so used to a style of preaching. And they always want to hear from that. that preacher. Or there's people in the church that goes, well, I've worked all my life. And I don't understand why he gets to take sabbatical and I've never done one. That's at least how they sound in my head when they say that stuff. And so thank you for allowing my friend to take a break

so that he can always be sharp in his relationship with the Lord, so that he can always come back and lead you better. And just seriously, thank you. That, that means. means a lot to me as his friend. And we were at the Florida, Georgia game yesterday. And I don't know how many times he, like, almost picked me up and, like, spun me around, like in the sound of music. But I was like, Joby, this is, we're both in our 40s. Stop. One more time, you know, like. So I'm really excited to preach today to you guys. I, you know, usually when you come to 1122, the way that you guys do things is Jovey would say, hey, I need you to come preach. and he would give you the scripture that he wanted you to preach on or the passage of scripture.

Usually it's like, I need you to preach on Leviticus. And I'm like, oh, great, Leviticus. Like, nobody likes even reading Leviticus. And so this one, he's like, just go for it, dude. Whatever you want to preach. And so here's what I want to do this morning. I want to just help be a voice to remind you of how much God loves you. That's it. I want to help get it in us. And I want you to hear me when I say this to you,

this is the greatest struggle of my walk with the Lord. This has always probably been my greatest struggle. I struggle with understanding, I don't even know of understanding, maybe even accepting the depth of God's love for me. Because I know all the reasons that I'm unlovable. All of you in here, you know the things that you do that are not. not for the heart of God. We know the mistakes we make. And so what we end up doing is we end up trying to put our human understanding of love on an eternal father.

And our human understanding of love is if I do something, there's repercussions and someone may love me less. If I make a mistake, then the person I make the mistake against, they are now disappointed in me. If I screw up, then I've let people down. And what we end up doing, not wanting to a lot of times, is that you know, is we take this and we place it upon God. And we think that God is up there in heaven

waiting for us to screw up. We think that God is up there in heaven and we're letting him down all the time. And sometimes subconsciously, we live with this idea that God is disappointed in us. Let me ask you this question. Have you ever missed doing your daily devotions or your time with the Lord

and then you kind of felt guilty for the rest of the day? We were like, Lord, I'm sorry. I mean, it was an early morning. God, you know how the Buckman Bridge is, you know? And so what we end up doing is we end up putting things on God that cause us to struggle with His love for us. All of us do it. And I think every one of you know what I'm talking about.

That there's things that we struggle with. So I just want to remind you today of actually how much God truly loves you. And the way we're going to do this is by looking at the story of the prodigal son. So if you have your Bibles, I'm going to turn with me to Luke 15, 11 through 24. I believe that this story is one of the most beautiful pictures of the heart of the father in the Bible besides the, you know, the crucifixion is the most loving Jesus dying for us. But I believe what Jesus is trying to illustrate here is how much God loves us. See, a lot of people think that God sent his son to die for us because we were so bad.

God sent his son to die for us because he loved us so much. And so I want to look at this story. And as we look at this story, I want you to remember that this is Jesus telling the story. That this is Jesus illustrating the story of the heart of the father. It starts this way. It says, to illustrate this point further, Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die.

So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. This already is a massive deal. What the son is doing, he's not going to his dad in a spirit of honor and saying, hey, dad, listen, you and mom have worked your entire life, and I know that you have an inheritance for me. You know, and dad, there's some things I want to do. There's a new house coming on the market, and I could you really use the money for a down? Do you think I could maybe get it, dad, before you and mom are gone? Like, he doesn't, that's not what he's doing. Basically, many theologians and scholars believe what he's saying to his

father is, hey, dad, I don't care whether you're alive or dead. I just want what's mine, give it to me. It is a massive slap in the face to his father. And the father, because he's a good father, takes the gifts, takes the inheritance, and gives it to his son. After his son just disrespected him. The son then takes it, the Bible says he sets off for a distant land. A distant land is far away from the father's heart. We all do the same thing. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever taken the gifts that God has given you and misused them?

Like some of you, let me give you an example. Some of you, you took the gift of talk and speech. And yesterday, you used it to cheer for the Florida gators. And I want you to know that breaks the heart. of God unless you're Tebow and nothing you do breaks the heart of God somehow. Even Jesus is like, Timmy, you know what I mean? Like, but we all do it. We all take the gifts that God has given us and misuse them.

Have you ever taken your mouth and used them to hurt somebody with your words? You ever taking your eyes and looked at something you weren't supposed to look at? you ever allowed your imagination to go to a place that's dark you ever have those car imagination where you're just riding by yourself daydreaming and someone hurt you or said something to you and you're like next time this is what I'm going to do I'm going to say this to him and by the end of it you're like beating them with a bat behind a big lot in your head and you're like oh that that escalated quick like we all do this and what I'm trying to get you to understand is every single one of us in this room including myself including everybody else that we are the prodigal that we have

taken the good gifts our father has given us and said, cool, thanks. And we set off for a distant land, a place far away from the heart of the father. And listen, sometimes we don't mean to. I'm not saying this as like, we're evil people. I'm just saying we all have a massive sin nature. And we have taken good gifts and good things that the Lord has done for us and we've misused them. And all of us in some aspect or another, we're all a prodigal son or daughter. It goes on, verse 14. At about this time, his money ran out.

Greed and famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. You know what I've learned in life?

sin looks better at a distance. And I think the reason that sin looks better at a distance is because we can romanticize it. We don't think about the repercussions. As I was working on this sermon, I did some research. You know that one in seven marriages site Facebook or Instagram or social media is a reason for their divorce? Because what happens is we end up connecting with old flames.

My wife that I've been married to for a long time or my husband I've been married, like she doesn't make me feel this way anymore. The spark's gone, but I remember, I remember in college, I remember in high school, I remember how they made me feel, and I bet you they'd make me feel that way. And what we end up doing is we end up romanticizing the sin. We end up fantasizing. Listen, if sin wasn't fun, we wouldn't do it. All of us in here, we have our favorite sin. All of us.

And I can tell how quiet it is right now that that made a lot of you very uncomfortable. Some of you're like, how do you know? And so it's like, we don't ever think of the repercussions of it. Listen, Satan is never going to give you anything to make your life better. Like, think about this. Every single one of us in this room, regardless of where you are right now, you were made in the image of the God of the universe. You were made in the image of the one that cast the devil out of heaven.

You think he's a little ticked off at you? You think when he looks at you, he's like, I remember when he threw me out, I'm going to take him out. He's not going to give him. us anything. He's not going to be like, oh, this one time, you can have a good one. You know what I mean? Like, he's never going to give us anything to make our life better. What we have to remember is sin will always take us further than we're wanting to go and it will always cost us more than we're willing to pay. Always. And I think this young Jewish boy is figuring this out.

Because you have to understand, he's Jewish, so a pig is a ceremonially unclean animal. So he is not to be taking care of them. He is supposed to definitely not be in a pig pen looking at the food they're eating, desiring to eat that food. Now because he is around these animals and he is touching these animals, he is now ceremonially unclean himself.

So now because of that, he is unable to go into the presence of God and worship because of he is ceremonially unclean. He cannot go into the temple in this area. So don't you think that in this moment as he's sitting in this pig pen, he didn't see this coming when he was going to the distant land? you think he was going, you know what I'm going, you know what I'm going to do, I'm going to get all my money,

I'm going to go to the distant land, the place I've heard about, the place I've heard stories about, I'm a party, and I'm going to end up in a pig pen. See, a lot of us, we just have to play it out a little bit more. The decisions that you're making right now, ultimately, where are they going to lead you? You end up in a destination, not by your intentions, but by the direction that you're headed. And this young boy is sitting here in a pig pen. And I bet you he's like, man, it took me. further than I wanted to go. We do it. All the time. It goes on, verse 17. When he finally came to his

senses, he said to himself, at home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare. Here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, Father, now I've sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. What I love about that is what brings him back to his senses isn't how bad his situation is. It's the remembrance of how good his father is. He's sitting there and he's like, what am I doing? At home, the servants,

they've got more than enough to eat. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go home. I'm going to say to Dad. Dad's going to be mad. I'm going to go home and I'm going to say, hey, dad, I've sinned. I'm no longer worthy of being called your son.

Please take me as a hired servant. See, what I think he's doing in this moment is what he's expecting is an angry father. I think he's expecting. expecting a father that's staying there going, hey, our boy's back. Oh, yeah, he looks like he's been in a pig pen. You were right. He did it. Did you spend everything, son? Son, everything that I worked for me and your mom, your whole life stored up for you so you'd have a, did you blow it on women and booze? Did you just, I knew it. Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,

I think he's preparing his speech. You ever been caught doing something and you knew you had to give an explanation of what you got caught doing so you prepare your response in advance? Why did you do that? Well, see, what had happened was, like, I think that's what he's doing in this moment. I think a lot of us look at God that way at times. That when we make mistakes and we fall short and we sin and we do the things that we know are contrary to the heart of God, we expect him to be waiting on us being like, I knew you would do this again.

You ever prayed and said, God, if you're not, if you're going to be waiting on us, being like, you ever prayed, and said, God, if you help me this one time, I swear I'll never again in my entire life. That was like Sunday and now it's Tuesday and you're like, God, the last time was just a warning flare. This time I'm super serious. I'll never do that thing again. And what we're doing is what we're expecting is that God is going to run out of mercy for us. What we're expecting is that God is going to run out of grace for us. And so when we go to prayer, it's almost like we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're expecting a father that is already disappointed in us.

This is my struggle. I understand it. I understand when I do things that I feel like God has disappointed in me. I wish as a pastor and a preacher, I had it all together a little bit more than this. But I bet some of you in here know exactly what I'm talking about. You did the thing you said you would never do again. And now you feel like you can't be in the presence of God

or God's mad at you or God's disappointed in you. But guys, that's not what we find. That's not at all what we find when we return home. Just like the son, I think, is surprised by what he finds. I think it's surprising to us what we find. And this is, if I'm honest, this is the type of love I don't understand. I don't get what the son finds and what we find when we return to God. So here's what I'm going to do.

I want to give you three things that the son finds when he returns home. and I want you to understand that these are the same exact things that we find when we return home back to God. And no matter how far away you are in the distant land, no matter how much of a pig pen you are coming from, no matter any of the mistakes that you made last night and yesterday, there is no part where God will not respond to you like this we're about to look at. So three ways, three things that we find when God returns home, the first thing we find is we find a father that was waiting. It says this in Luke 15, 20. So he returned home to his father and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.

If you have your Bibles, underline that phrase, long way off. How do you often see things from a long way off? You're looking for them. Most of the time when we see things from a long way off, off. We're not accidentally seeing them. We're actually looking for the thing that's a long way off. I think the son left. I know the son left. And I think the father, he went back to working, managing the sheep, managing the household, doing all the things he needed to do. But I also believe that he had one eye fixed on the horizon the entire time. And I believe he's going, I know that boy

of mine, that boy that I raised, that boy that I, that I, that I, that I, we raised in Christ, we took care of, we loved him. I know that he's a, I know that he's a guy. I know that he's out there in the distant land, and I know that he's making bad choices. I know that he's probably squandering the inheritance I gave him, but I also know he's going to come back one day. I know that he's going to break over that horizon. Listen to me, no matter where you are right now and how distant you feel like you are from God, you have a father with an eye that is fixed on the horizon for you, that he is looking for you. And he knows that there is going to be a day that you come back. And he's sitting there, and he's waiting. You know, so many times I think we give up on ourselves.

and God's like, I never said that about you. Last service, I felt like the Holy Spirit said something to me. I'm Jobi's only charismatic friend. And so I felt like the Holy Spirit said something to me about somebody dealing with shame. And I said something in the congregation. And this kid came up to me afterwards. He goes, I was watching online.

You said it. It was me. I got in my car and drove here as fast as I could because it was what is what I needed to hear. Listen to me. no matter how far away you are, God has his eyes and he is looking for you. He is waiting for you. He knows. And there is nothing that you, there's nothing that you could do to make him ever go. Just forget it. They're not coming. Nothing. And he's standing there

and he's looking for his son. He's waiting on the one that disrespected him. He's waiting on the one that made all the mistakes. He's waiting on the one that has squandered the gifts. I know he's gonna come home. I want you to think about this with me too. This hit me one time. So this young man, he gets his inheritance and he sets off for a land that I'm sure he's heard stories about.

So if you were gonna go out in Jacksonville to a nice restaurant, restaurant's just opening, you've heard stories about it, it's a new chef coming to town. You got reservations like six months in advance. You and your woman are going out. You and your man going out.

How are you dressing? You look good. You put on the good clothes. The good black T-shirt. You know what I'm saying? I wear black because it's slimming. And so, I don't know why I did that, slimming. I have ADD.

But you look good. You're going out, man. You and your woman, you got a night on the town. You got your good clothes on. I mean, this boy just got all his inheritance. He's going to a place to spend it on wild living. Wild living would involve women in this situation. How do you think he looks when he left?

Good. You probably put the purple robe on. The one that were people like, can't hide money. You know what I'm saying? He's like walking down the road. The son that comes back comes back from a pigsty. How many you know, the son that left didn't look like a lot like the sun that returned. And I just imagine, and maybe this is me reading into scripture sometimes.

in my mind kind of works, that he's probably, as he's getting back on his father's land and he's walking back to the house, he's probably passing servants that knew him, people that he grew up with, nobody recognizes him. Because he doesn't look the same. He doesn't smell the same. He's got some dirt on him, got some pig on him.

The Bible says, from a long way off, the father knows exactly who he is. You may be a long way off right now, and you may have a long way off right now, And you may have people saying to you, I don't even know who you are anymore. You've changed. You've made mistakes.

You're not the same person. You're not the boy I raised. You're not the girl I raised. I don't even know you. And your father in heaven's going, oh, I know exactly who you are. And from a long way off, he sees you coming. The first thing we find is we find a father that's waiting.

The second thing we find is we find a father that was running. A father that was running. It says this in 15, 20, So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son. Underline that word compassion. You have your Bibles. Now, I don't know about you.

I know my parents are watching, so Dad, I'm sorry about this. But if I had gotten my inheritance from my father that he worked his entire life to give me, I disrespected him, and then he gave it to me somehow miraculously still. and then I went to a distant land and squandered it all in wild living and I'm coming back broken, made mistakes full of shame and he starts running at me

I'm not thinking he's like, come here, I'm like, yo man, what we doing? Where are we going right now? Your boy's been lifting, square up. You know, like, so that's... So he, like, I can't imagine the father in this moment. The Bible says,

filled with love and compassion, he just takes off running. That word compassion, when you look at it in the Greek, is the word splagnyzomai. It's literally translated to have such an emotion, your bowels ache. Some of you are like, I got spagnesomai right now.

But it's to have this feeling that when you see it or when it jars you or whatever, you can't help but not be put into action. So this father sees his son who has spent everything. He is ceremonially unclean. He is filthy. He has squandered and hares. He squandered his gifts.

And the father is filled with such love for him that he just takes off running to him. And you have to understand, for a man of this stature, his father, men of this time did not run. It was considered undignified. They carry themselves very noble, very regal, kind of like Pastor Jobi does, but with less denim. So this father seizing, he takes off. What's interesting about that word compassion, it's the same word in the great. that the Bible uses to describe the way that Jesus feels about us every time. So in the book of Mark, we see that Jesus, it says he's tired and he hasn't had anything to eat. So he and the

disciples are actually trying to get away so that they can have some time to rest. The crowd follows Jesus. He gets off the boat and it says, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to preach. So Jesus sees people at his, it just, I just studied this because I'm doing some stuff from my kids through the Bible. I just studied this, that even when Jesus is tired and hungry, his love for broken people still causes him to move into action toward us. All of you in here, what you need to understand is that the moment that you break the horizon, your father is running to you. He's not waiting for you. He's coming to you. Like, I don't even know what to do with that. What I would expect was anger. What I would

expect is shame. What I would expect is to be told, I knew you were going to do this, I knew you were going to screw this up, I knew this is how you always operate. But this father is filled of such love that he begins to just take off running to his son. So if that's who God is, why do so many people want nothing to do with him? Isn't that blow your mind? Like you're like, no, man, God really loves you. I think so many of us in here, including myself, there's a part of it where we have confused Zeus and God. We think God is sitting up in heaven with a handful of lightning bolts going, do it one more time.

Say it one more time. Boom, flat tire. Now you're late. I'm God. That's what God does when he gives you flat tires, by the way. Ooh, ooh, you know, like so. And that's what we think. Guys, that is not our God.

He is not waiting. for us to make a mistake so he can punish us. He is waiting on us to return home so that he can embrace us. And that's point three. The third thing we find is a father that's embracing. It says this, 15, 20, so he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off,

his father saw him coming, filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him and kissed him. underline that phrase kissed him. When you look at that word in the Greek, that phrase is the phrase catafilio. And it means to fervently kiss. So this father, I always go back that I want us to understand the son has disrespected him. The son has squandered his gift.

The son has ceremonially uncleaned. The son has done everything wrong in this moment that the father has been trying to protect him from his entire life. And the father runs to him and he doesn't just kiss him once. He kisses him all over. Here's what I would expect. The father running to me and going, whoa, whoa, you're filthy. Have you been around pigs? I knew it.

Where's the money? What'd you do with the money? Yeah. Why don't you go clean yourself up and then maybe I'll embrace you? Our father, our savior, embraces us in our filth. And there's so many people, guys, and I was one of these. I'll clean myself up or I'll get right first and then I'll go get right with God. Because I felt like I was too dirty for God.

I felt like I was too messed up from God. Some of you know exactly how I feel and what I'm talking about. We feel like at times that there's this point where God's like, listen, I was good for all the other stuff, but that was too much. That was too big of a mistake. That's not our father. Our father, in our filth, embraces us. And he is the one that cleans us.

Do you remember who you were before Jesus saved you? You know, one of the prayers I always pray for myself is, Lord, never let me forget who I was before you saved me. Before I was a pastor, I was in business, and I'd have to wear something. suits every day. I had hair. It was awesome. It was kind of like a foe hawk situation. I was into it. And I can remember driving to work on 95 to Bay Meadows and sitting in traffic, sobbing by myself. I remember telling my wife, I said, I don't know how to find out what I'm supposed to do with my life. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. And if I find out what I'm supposed to do, I don't know how to do it. I was just so lost. I want to remember that feeling. A, because it helps me remember that I never

did anything to change my life in the first place. It was only Jesus and His grace in my life. But also, if I remember this, if I remember the brokenness, it will always keep me going for the one more. it'll always keep me pursue him because I don't ever want anybody to ever feel the way that I did luckily a guy invited me to church me and my wife and so I grew up in a Methodist church you know there's like a organ player she's about 103 give or take and we only sang stanzas two and four we didn't think she'd make it through all four of them so we just did two and four, which was always strange to me. We're going to skip these other lines. We don't like them as much as this part. Hit it. She's like, mm. So that's how I grew up in church. So my

buddy invites me to this church, and it was a church like this. Light, haze. I mean, can you even have the Holy Spirit if you don't have haze in the sanctuary anymore? That's how you know it's in here. It just kind of wafts in. And so we go to this church and we walk in. And we walk in. And I'm holding my son. He was like one at the time. I never been in church like this. People's hands in the air. I walked by like grown men just crying.

And I'm like, oh, cool. This is a cult. This is I have fully, this is where we die. And so like I'm in this moment. And I can remember standing there like this in service, looking at all these people. And I'm like, well, this is not what I'm looking for. These people are nuts.

Some of you, when you walked in here, you were like, this is a cult. Like this, you know what I'm saying? You're like, what is this? I'm like, this isn't what I'm looking for. I probably just need a hobby. I feel broken. You ever tried to fix your brokenness with a hobby?

I hate golf. I send more when I golf. I'm like, the devil is real. Like snap it over my knee and like, and I'm standing in the service and I'm watching these people. And I'm just thinking I just need a hobby. I'm just going to go back to drinking

and party in. And I happened to look over. Oh, and mind you, I was also hung over very badly that Sunday. If you want a preacher that has it more together, I am not your guy. Let me just say that right now. My son is on my left and then my wife, Becca, is on his side. And I just happened in this moment to look over at him. And he had pushed himself up on the seat and was standing with both of his hands in the

air. Guys, when I tell you, I lost it. I don't have the adequate words to explain the spectacle I made of myself in that moment. I am like, we're in the parking lot. I'm like, we're never leaving here. We live here now. This is our home. My wife's like, get in the car, get in the car.

Just like an emotional mess. And all these years later, this is the way I know to articulate it. And this is why I felt like God said to me, son, I know where you've been. Son, I know what you've been doing. And I'm just glad you're home. And it was the first time that I felt the embrace of my loving Savior. And it, listen, trying to keep it together.

Be strong. It changed the entire trajectory of every aspect of my life. Some of you in here, you are the prodigal, and you have not come. come home yet. And you have a father and you have a savior that he's waiting on you, he's going to run to you, and he's going to embrace you, and he's going to say, listen, I know where you've been. I know what you've been doing. Don't worry about that. I'm just glad you're here. I'm glad you're home. And you know what's so interesting about the story of the prodigal son is what the son actually deserved was death. Let me read this to you from Deuteronomy 21, 1821. You know it's a heavy one

Olson when you go Deuteronomy. I mean, it's just right out of the gate. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother, it will not listen to them when they discipline him. His father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, this son of ours is a stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard. Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. What the son was to be taken to the city gates and stone. But if anyone had picked up a rock to throw it at the sun,

they would have hit the father that was embracing him. If anyone were to pick up a stone and throw it at you, they would hit the father who embraced you through his son, Jesus Christ. All of us are the prodigal, but all of us have a great father that's waiting on us. He knows what we've been doing. He knows where we've been. And he's just glad we're home.

So let me ask you, where are you in your relationship with God? Some of you, I'm going to give you a chance to receive Jesus as your Savior, and that is the embrace. And then it's a continuing embrace with the Lord. Some of you, like me, when we go back into a song here in a few minutes, you need to come to the altar.

And you say, God, listen, This is my prayer. God, listen, I know how much you love me. I know that there is nothing I can do to not cause you to love me as much as you can all the time. I don't understand a love like that. God, could you please just help me with it? Could you help me understand how much you truly care for me? And that you're not some angry father waiting to punish me, but you're actually a loving father who's waiting to embrace me.

me. And thank you that you did it through Jesus. Some of you, that's going to be your response today. And some of you, you're probably in a place where you feel like you've gone too far into the distant land and there's no way back. I was preaching one time and I was telling a story about the altar. And I said, guys, I was trying to explain at the church. I said, you know, the altar is like, I used to always say this way, if God and I are 100 feet apart, the altar is me saying, God, I'm coming 50, and I know because of who you are, you're coming the other 50. I'm preaching this in the moment, and the Holy Spirit convicts me, which is also the worst as a preacher. When you're like, the Holy Spirit's like, that's not right. That's heresy. And I'm like, my B.

So I'm walking and I'm saying, I can tell you which way I was walking on the stage, and God says, it's more like I come 99.9.9 and you just kind of turn around. There's some of you in here that you feel like you're so far away from God that you can't get to him. but I just want you to know the moment that you begin to turn to him, he's already there in that moment. He's there. And so I just want to give us a chance to respond because it's great to come into church and laugh and to have fun

and incredible music, but at the end of the day, it's always, always, always, what do you do with Jesus? The hope we have in this father is because of Jesus. So if you're in here, I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and bow your heads with me. You know, the Bible is very clear that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. What that means is that every person who has ever lived on this earth, we all sin. And because we're all sinners, it means we're all in need of a Savior.

Jesus Christ is that Savior. And the Bible tells us that when we confess with our mouth and we believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is a son of God who is crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected for us, that in that moment our sins are separated from us as far away as the east is from the west, but also we now are the righteousness of Christ. So your sins are separated and you are now righteous, not because of the things you do or do not do,

but because of what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. We are able to come out of the distant land and be embraced by the Father in our brokenness and in our filth because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. And there's some of you in here. Maybe at a campus, maybe watching online. that you need for the first time ever to commit your life to Jesus. So what I'm going to do is I'm just, I'm going to count to three.

And if you need to commit your life to Jesus, I'm just going to ask you to raise a hand. I'm not going to do anything weird. I'm just going to count to three. I'm going to ask you to raise a hand. If you're in here, if you're watching on campus, if you're watching on line, one, two, three raise them amen amen now if you're in here and you would say josh i i need god to help me get this in my heart like the holy spirit spoke something to me and i just want god to like kind of help me seal it in my heart if that's you i'm going to count to three and would you raise a hand one two three raise

You guys can put this down. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to lead us in a prayer. And then Michael's going to lead us, and the team's going to lead us in a song. And if you raised your hand for anything, can I encourage you to come to this altar? Can I encourage you that if you didn't raise your hand for anything,

you still need to come to the altar? To come to the altar. Can I encourage you that if life is great right now, come to the altar? The altar isn't the place that we go just to complain and ask God for help. Sometimes the altar's place we go and say, God, thank you because everything is great right now and everything is from you. So I'm going to lead us in the world, go into a song.

Everybody repeat after me and let's say this like we mean it. Say, Lord Jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins. Jesus right now I confess with my mouth and I believe in my heart that you are the son of God. That you were crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected for me. Save me, Jesus. Be the Lord of my life. Amen.