Discipleship – Sermon – Adam Paa – 7/19/26

Hey guys, Pastor Matt here. Um, one of our  visions at the Village Church is we want to be a   place that resources liberally the big C church of  Jesus Christ. And if by his grace we might leave a   kingdom legacy with those resources, we want to  be all about that. And so, thanks for watching   this sermon or preparing to watch this sermon. I  I'm praying that you're watching this in community   in conjunction with your ongoing disciplehip at  a local church. A and if by the grace of God,   this becomes one of those things that continues  to build up your faith, encourage your walk,   fuel your love for Jesus, would you consider  giving to the ministries of the Village Church?   It's actually really simple. You could either do  it in the app or you can go to the villageurch.net   net back/g and do it there. I hope that the  next chunk of time as you watch this sermon,   you find your affections for Jesus soaring.  You find courage flood back into your bones   and you fall more deeply in love with Jesus  than you are at this moment. God bless you.

Hello church. My name is Lindseay Inigenberg  and I am one of the executive uh directors   on staff. There was a time when I lived a  double life. Cha uh going to a church group   once a week and then chasing after the world  the rest of the time. And this way of living   uh filled me with shame and gave me a twisted  sense of identity. But then I encountered Jesus. and he freed me from my guilt  and shame. He gave me a new   identity as a daughter of the king.  And today I am fully alive in Christ. Today's passage is from Luke 15 starting in verse  11. He also said, "A man had two sons. The younger   of them said to his father, "Father, give me the  share of the estate I have coming to me." So he   distributed the assets to them. Not many days  later, the younger son gathered together all   he had and traveled to a distant country where he  squandered his estate in foolish living. Verse 17,   when he came to his senses, he said, "How many of  my father's hired workers have more than enough   food, and here I am dying of hunger. I'll get  up, go to my father, and say to him, "Father,   I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I  am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me  

like one of your hired workers." So he got up and  he went to his father. But while the son was still   a long way off, his father saw him and was filled  with compassion. He ran and threw his arms around   his neck and kissed him. This is the word of the  Lord. Amen. Thanks, Lindsay. Hey, what's up? How   we doing? All right. What's up, my guy? Yo, I'm  tired. You I'm going to need you this morning.   Okay. I I want to need you. Uh, hey, my name's  Adam. I'm one of your care ministers here. Uh,   and and all, as always, I just want to say I thank  God that we go to a church that supports care and   recovery. Trust a lot of churches can't say that.  We should never take that for granted. Amen. Amen.   Hey, let's not take the gathering for granted.  It's been tough not seeing you for the last 3   weeks. It's so good to be back together. But I I  did uh love Trevor's message last night digitally   or last week digitally. He gave us a great  reminder that making disciples is the primary   way in which the kingdom of God advances.  And so to prove the power of disciplehip,   I want to talk about fishing. All right, that's  right. Fishing. If you know me, you know I love to   fish. Uh and notice I said fishing, not catching.  All right, because I just like being on the water   with my line in. Like, it brings me to a place  of worshiping God. But I will tell you this,   like I'm actually pretty good at catching, too.  All right, I do do that, too. Uh, in fact, let me   show you my personal best right here. Uh, yeah,  that's it. I know it's a low-key flex. That's  

that's that's me. Um, but I do also like to teach  and share. One person I've taught about fishing is   my buddy Matt Macaulay. All right. Uh, yeah. Yeah.  There's levels to this thing. It's all right. Uh,   five years ago, me and Matt were fishing at Pine  Cove at our staff retreat. And yo, I was slaying   them. I probably caught a 100 fish in three days.  It was easy fishing. My guy Matt struggling. He   wasn't doing so well. So, I taught him a really  simple way of hooking up a fake plastic worm   called a wacky rig. A really easy way to fish,  really effective. I taught him the wacky rig and   he starts slaying him. Well, then he goes back and  he teaches his son Wyatt the wacky rig. And a week   later, Matt sends me this video of Wyatt catching  a fish on the wacky rig. I want to tell you,   I have been here for five years. I'm about to  go on sbatical tomorrow, but this video that   I'm about to show you is probably the highlight of  my last 5 years. All right, check out this video. Hold on. Hold on.

I mean, the joy on this man's face. I mean, just  the joy. It's It's made my five years. It's made   my five years. Uh, but here's the thing about  Wyatt. Like, he's caught up in a bigger story   than he even knows. Because, see, he knows his  dad taught him the wacky rig. He even knows   that I taught his dad the wacky rig. But what he  doesn't know is he's part of a bigger story. Like,   I didn't teach myself how to fish. My dad, Dante  Paul, was my one of my fishing disciplers. Uh, he   taught me the basics of fishing. He made time for  it. We grew up on Lake Louisville, Lake Roberts,   just giving me time to fish and practice and get  better. But Dante Paul, my dad, wasn't my only   fishing discipler. Derek Mclardy, was also one of  my fishing disciplers. Look at this man. Look at   this. That's all he does is catch hogs. Yo, he's  one of the best fishermanmen that I know. He is   the one who taught me the wacky rig. That video  does not exist unless Derek teaches me the wacky   rig. But just like me, Derek didn't teach himself  how to fish. His dad, Mike McCclardy, taught him.   Now, here's the thing. This is my point, right?  Wyatt and Mike are connected across generations,   across cultures because of fishing. They'll never  know each other. Mike passed away a few years ago.   He's in heaven now with the Lord. He's an elder  of his church, faithful man of God. But Wyatt   and Mike are connected through fishing, right?  Actually, Wyatt got baptized last night, too. Yo,   that was pretty good. Uh, it was pretty amazing.  Yeah. Um, but look at Wyatt's look at Wyatt's   fishing tree. All right. And this tree could be a  lot bigger than what it is. I could have expanded  

in a lot of ways. And Wyatt, if you know him, this  was 5 years ago. He's an excellent fisherman now.   Like the student has become a teacher. He's going  to expand his tree. But the reason I share that   is it's the same for us as disciples of Jesus. We  are here today because past generations, people we   will never know their name from different cultures  were dedicated and obedient in their day to make   disciples. And we are the fruit of that. We are  connected with these past generations, these past   people because of Jesus. And now it is our turn to  pass that on. That's how powerful disciplehip is.   And so what I thought we'd do today is I just want  to share with you guys five disciplehip principles   that have been passed down to me that I want  to pass on to you. These are common disciplehip   principles we also talk about in care because  care is disciplehip. That's what everything   that we do here is about disciplehip. And so I'm  hoping that these disciplehip principles based   off biblical truths will be but they will help  you will have fruit in your life. Very similar   to the wacky rig with with wyatt. Okay. So that's  what we're doing today. And the way that I want to   share these disciplehip principles is through  the story of the prodal son. So if you don't   know the story of the prodigal, let me give you  a quick overview. All right? There are two sons,   younger son, older son. The younger son says to  his dad, "Yo, dad, give me all my money. Give   me the inheritance that I'm owed." And the dad's  like, "All right, cool." And he gives it to him.   And he goes off and he parties. He goes off to  a distant land. He squanders it all. He lives   wild. He loses all his money. He's got bad luck. A  famine hits. He gets hungry. He can't find a job.  

He finally gets a job taking care of pigs. It  gets so desperate that he actually wants to eat   pig food. That's how desperate he gets. And  finally, he comes to his senses. He's like,   "What am I doing? I'm an idiot. I'm going to go  back home. It was better with my dad." So, he   returns. He goes back to apologize to his dad. His  dad sees him from a long way off, runs up to him,   hugs him, gives him a ring, gives him a robe,  throws on some new sandals, kills the fat cow,   throws a party, celebrates that he's home, doesn't  shame him. But then the the older son's like, "Yo,   what are we doing here? Why are we celebrating  this guy? Like, I have been faithful. I have   been obedient. Why what are we doing, Dad?" And  the dad's like, "Hey, like, I get it. But hey,   you're good. I still love you, but you're you're  a brother. He's back home safe and sound. We   going to start we're going to celebrate. We're  going to party." All right, that's the overview.   That's the Adam P version. Okay, there's the  overview of of the prodal if you don't know. So,   let's get into these disciplehip points. The first  point I want to be really quick on, we talk about   this all the time. We said we need community.  That's the first point. Say that with me. We need   community. All right. 11. There we go. Okay. Uh  the opposite of addiction is connection. Really,   the opposite of any of the enemy's schemes  is relationship. Relationship with God and   relationship with God's people. If the devil can  isolate you, that's where he can do his best work.   We need connection. But specifically, you need  disciplers and mentors as part of your community.   You need someone to teach you the wacky rig. You  need someone to be able to take these biblical   principles and help you apply it to your life.  Because here's what I know about religious folks.  

Here's what happens. We hear biblical truths.  We hear disciplehip principles and we come up   with formulas like this is how it has to look.  It's got to look just like this. And we miss all   the differences that make a difference. We're  from different cultures. We're from different   backgrounds. We have different stories. We have  all these differences going on in our life. So   you will need mentors and disciples who can help  you apply the word of God to your life without   compromising the biblical truth that can help you  go okay these are the differences in your life   this is how it plays out in your life without  compromising the truth you need disciplers you   need mentors we need community and I share that  with you kind of as a disclaimer because these   next biblical principles that I'm going to share  with you these next disciplehip principles uh they   can be I can't nuance everything I can't I can't  nuance for every situation in here. So, you will   need people to help you apply this to your life.  You with me? Okay. Well, that's all right. All   right. Let's just try this. All right. The second  point, surrender. Let's say surrender. Surrender.   Luke 15 11 through13. He also said Jesus, a man  had two sons. The younger of them said to his   father, "Father, give me the share of the estate I  have coming to me." So, he distributed the assets   to to them. Not many days later, the younger son  gathered together all he had and traveled to a   distant country where he squandered his estate in  foolish living. All right, catch this. The father   knows the son's heart. So when the son asks for  his inheritance and the father gives it to him,  

he knows he's going to go wild out. It's not a  surprise to him that he goes to a distant country   and goes nuts. He knows that. He also knows that  he can't control his son. He also recognizes that   he can't control him from going and doing what  he's going to do. And so he surrenders his son   over to himself. Listen, surrender often times  requires radical sacrifice. And it always requires   radical trust. The type of trust to have you give  up full control. If you've ever been in that place   where you have to give up an adult child and just  okay, go do you. You know how hard that is. You   know how much fear there is. You know how how sad  it can be just to go okay go do you. I got to give   up complete control. Right? So this would be my  encouragement for those who are in here who this   is where you're at. You're having to surrender  a prodal. You're having to surrender someone you   love to the disease of addiction. you're having to  surrender someone over to they just keep on making   the same decision over and over again expecting a  different result. For those of you having to like   surrender over people who don't know God and don't  have any interest in knowing God, this would be my   my hope or my encouragement to you. Number one is  this. God loves your person more than you do. And   God has the power to change that person. And so  you can trust your person with God. That's number   one. Number two, information is not the problem.  You giving them the same speech over and over  

again is not going to help. If information could  have changed your person, guess what? They would   have already changed. Information is not going to  change your person. Even getting them in front of   Matt Chandler, a super anointed man, and having  Matt Chandler sit down with him and tell them   the exact same information that 10 other people  have shared with them is not going to change them.   It's a heart problem. It's a surrender issue on  their end. Information is not going to help that.   Shoot. If someone has to sit with Matt and can't  receive the information from a recovery leader   who's been doing this work for 10 years, humbly,  that should tell you there's a heart issue,   right? So, we have to surrender our people over  and be freed up from recognizing, hey, information   is not going to change that person. Third, my  third encouragement to you would be this. Um,   surrendering your person is not giving up on  them and it's not not doing nothing. Something   my discipler told me is when we surrender our  people over to God, we don't just not do anything.   In that moment, we start preparing for their  return. The father when he when he surrendered his   son and he returned, the son returned, it wasn't  impulse that the father did. It wasn't like now,   okay, what am I going to do? Throw the ring on  him, throw the robe on him, throw a party? No.   when he surrendered his son, he started preparing  for his son's return. So when his son came back,   he knew what he was going to do. He knew how  he was going to receive his son. He started   preparing in that moment. When you surrender your  person, you are not giving up on them and you are  

not doing nothing. You are preparing in hope and  faith that they will return. And the other thing I   thank you. I think so, too. And then the I mean,  you're the only one, but I thought it was good,   too. Um, and then the other thing I would tell you  is this. Like surrendering them is probably the   most helpful thing you could do. Like enabling,  rescuing, controlling, don't help nobody.   Surrender them over to God. Trust them with God.  And for those who are here who you maybe you are   the prodal, you are the person causing chaos in  your life and others lives. You keep on making the   same decision over and over again. Here would be  my encouragement to you. Um, God's not done with   you yet, right? You might feel like he has left  you. You might feel like he has abandoned you.   But listen, God will give us over to ourselves.  But he will give you over in hopes that you will   return. He is still with you. He still sees  you. And listen, he's given you what we call   in recovery the gift of desperation. To be in that  place where the son is to be so desperate to look   around and be like, I got nothing left. I need  to return to the father. It's actually a gift. He   loves you. He's with you. He is not done with you.  You need to surrender. Because here's the thing.   Your best thinking got you right here. Right? The  way you think got you right here. So now it's time   to surrender to God's ways. Surrender to your  disciples. Surrender to your mentor. They have   to give up full control. You can't do that weird  pseudo control thing where you're like, "Okay, I'm   going to surrender." But then you're still going  to hold on to 50% of what's going on. I can't tell   you how many people I've talked to, they're like,  "Okay, I'm finally ready to surrender. Well, man,  

you need to go to rehab next week. I I'm trying  to get a new job right now. That's not full   surrender, right? I I gotta get a haircut next  week, then I'll go. No, that's not that's not   full. That happens. All right. That's not full  full surren I got to give up full control. God   loves you. He's with you. Surrender to him. And  really, honestly, this is the truth for all of us,   is it not? As Christians, we are radically  trusting that on judgment day, we are not   going to look to ourselves to save ourselves.  We're going to look to the blood of Jesus. We're   like radically trusting that that's true. We're  radically trusting that he is going to save us.   We're radically trusting to say that we believe  when things on earth go bad, when the healing   doesn't happen the way that we think it's going  to happen, we we're believing that there will be a   day that comes where all things are made new, that  we win in the end. We are radically surrendering   and believing to that truth. To be a Christian is  to surrender. So let's surrender. Next point, take   responsibility. Say, take responsibility. Take  responsibility. Luke 15:17-20. When he came to his   senses, he said, "How many of my father's hired  workers have more than enough food? And here I am   dying of hunger. I'll get up, go to my father, and  say to him, "Father, I've sinned against heaven,   and in your sight, I'm no longer worthy to be  called your son. Make me like one of your hired   workers." So he got up and went to his father. The  son gets up. He goes back. Remember he went to a  

distant country. This isn't like a dayong trip.  This is weeks, maybe months to go back home. He   took responsibility to get back on the road and go  back home to go through all the discomfort of the   travel to get back home. Listen, when you ask for  forgiveness from our God, he will forgive you in   a moment. He will forgive you right then. But can  we just be real with each other? Our sins impact   people. All right? Like people aren't just going  to trust you like that again. They're not just   going to go, "Okay, cool. We all good." Some of  the things that we do to each other takes time for   people to heal. Right? That's not on them. That's  just wisdom that they have to set some boundaries.   That's just wisdom that they have to wait and give  some time. That's not on them. That's just wisdom   that they're trying to live into. You have to take  responsibility for the whole journey. You have to   take You have to play the long game. I can't tell  you how many people will self-sabotage where they   they'll be with me like, "Yes, I want to change.  I'm going to change. I know this is going to take   a long time." And then six weeks later, they get  like exhaust and they can't do it no more. Like   they can't do it anymore. This person should have  forgiven me enough by now. And they self-sabotage.   And what happens to them is exactly what they  didn't want to happen. You have to play the whole   game, the long game, the whole road. You have  to take responsibility. And not just that, you   got to take responsibility for going underneath  the surface of the behaviors. We are not about   behavioral modification here, right? Now, if you  need to put some things in place that are helpful,   great. But I want to tell you, we will put these  weird things like, "Okay, well, if you do this and   I'll do this, everything will be fine." That's not  going to lead to any kind of sustainable change in  

your life. You have to take responsibility to  go underneath the surface to the core beliefs,   to the lies that you're believing, and uproot  those things, renounce those things, and replace   it with truth. It takes time. You have to commit  yourself. God wants to grow you. Join God in the   process. Take responsibility for the process.  What scripture would call this he that scripture   would call this godly grief. Godly sorrow. Second  Corinthians 7 says this, "For godly grief produces   a repentance that leads to salvation without  regret, but worldly grief produces death."   Worldly grief is like you just sorry you  got caught. Worldly grief is like my phone   got taken away. I'm sad. Worldly grief is just  worried is just deal like just thinking about   the consequences. Listen listen to what the  son said. He said I've sinned against God   and I've sinned against you. Dad, godly grief  is about God and about others. It's not about   you. We're not worried about the consequences.  Notice what he didn't say. He didn't say, "Well,   the famine hit. That was hard. I could have fixed  some things, but the famine hit." Well, if people   would have given me a job, then I wouldn't be in  this situation. Well, if people were more generous   and they would have gave me food, then I would  have been okay. You don't hear any of that. He   takes full responsibility. His side of the street,  as we say in recovery, I have sinned against God.   I have sinned against you, Dad. That's it. Full  focus on taking his own responsibility. That comes  

from a heart of godly grief. Listen, the father  knew the son's heart when he surrendered him. The   father knew the son's heart when he returned. He  knew that he was god. It was godly sorrow that was   motivating this responsibility. We have to take  responsibility from a place of godly sorrow. Uh   listen like like sometimes you make choice A and  guess what? You get consequence A. You don't get   consequence C. Sorry. Right? But godly grief, like  you're not worried about all that because at the   end of the day, you know, you're actually not  getting consequence A because the God of heaven   has forgiven you. And so whatever the consequence  is here on earth, you can move forward in freedom   and make amends. I've sinned against God. I've  sinned against others. That's my focus. Full   responsibility. And then this would be the last  thing I would share here. And I I want to be able   to communicate this well. I I hope you'll hear  my heart here. Um there there are those in the   room who you have been significantly betrayed by  somebody. You've been abused. You've been taken   advantage of. You have been sinned against in  some really awful ways. You owe nothing. Like   you don't own any of that. Like you have zero  responsibility in that. There's never an excuse   for someone to sin against you in those ways. It  does. No. No matter what they tell you, how they   try to gaslight you, you have no responsibility  there. And you do have responsibility to heal.   You do have the responsibility to join God  in the healing process. He wants to heal you.  

Because here's the thing. If you don't forgive,  if you don't go through the healing process,   if you don't work on what what what the  wounds that are that are that that you have,   if you don't do that, bitterness is going to  creep into your hearts. And listen, hurt people   hurt people. And you're going to start you're  going to start spilling over onto other people.   And that's your responsibility to take. God wants  to heal you. You need to take the responsibility   to join him in the healing process. We all need  to take responsibility. Next point, the other's   perspective. Say the other's perspective. The  other's perspective. Luke 15:25-30. Now his older   son was in the field and he came near the house.  He heard music and dancing. So he summoned one of   his servants questioning what these things meant.  Your brother is here, he told him. And your father   has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has  he has him back safe and sound. Then he became   angry and didn't want to go in. So his father came  out and pleaded with him. But he replied to the   father, "Look, I have been slaving many years for  you, and I have never disobeyed your orders. Yet   you never gave me a goat so I could celebrate with  my friends. But when the son of yours come came   who was who devoured your assets with prostitutes,  you slaughtered the fattened calf for him. Son,   he said to him, you are always with with me.  Everything I have is yours, but we have have   we have to celebrate and rejoice because your  brother because this brother of yours was dead   and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So  the older brother misses the father's perspective,  

which means he misses out on the good news. He  misses out on celebration. The father doesn't miss   out on the older son's perspective. He still meets  him. He sees the fear. He sees what he what needs   to be said. So he meets his son where he says,  "Hey, I got you. I love you. Everything I have   is still yours. Like you're safe. We're good." and  we're going to celebrate your brother coming back.   See, he gives him a challenge, but it comes from  a place of compassion. I I know I've shared this   with you before, but uh my counselor passed this  down to me. So, let me pass it down to you again.   Um when you have conflict with people, when there  are people in your life you have differences with,   when you have family members that you don't  understand the things that they're doing,   when you have neighbors that vote differently than  you, when you have co-workers who don't believe   in Jesus and there's a reason there that that you  don't understand. Like when you have these things   with people, what you need to do is you need to  be curious. You need to rec try to understand   where they're coming from. What values are they  sharing? What what story has made up this? We had   a a lady in recovery a few weeks ago share that  she had kept a secret for 40 years. But when you   got to know her story, it made more sense. Did  it make it right? No. But it made more sense.   We have to be curious and try to understand  where people are coming from until you can get   to a place of compassion for that person where you  have empathy like real empathy for that person and  

then if you have to give them a challenge like the  father still does here you do it from a place of   compassion. It's so much more helpful for people's  disciplehip if you challenge them from a place of   compassion. And that can be really hard. In fact,  let me show you a real life example of how this   plays out sometimes. Um, so let's let's say this.  So there's a person that's making a disclosure,   right? That hurts another person. So you have  a person making the disclosure and you have the   person hurt by the disclosure. Well, when that  happens, these two realities start start taking   place. The person making the disclosure, it's  like, I'm I'm a person of of integrity. Like I'm   finally being honest. The other person though  is like I've been betrayed. I've been lied to.   The person making the disclosure is like, "I've  never loved him or her more. They've always wanted   me to be honest. I'm finally being honest."  The person who's impacted by the disclosure,   like, "I've never felt less loved, worthy, or  respected." And then the last one, and finally,   I'm an honest person. And then the other  perspective is how could he or she live like   this? How could they be such a liar? My point in  sharing this is not to put a value on either one   of those perspectives. There's not like one's  right and one's wrong. Both those are true.   That's how people feel in those moments. The  point here is we have to be willing to see the   other perspective. We have to be willing to have  enough grace for that person to try to understand   their perspective. Be like, "Yeah, man. Like like  I I can I I I I am hurt. I'm I'm disappointed. I  

feel betrayed by your disclosure." And at the  same time, I am so glad that you're living in   the light. I'm sure that was really hard to be  honest. It's like just to be able to put yourself   in their perspective and then on the other side  be like I know that this person like this is going   to really hurt them. This is they're not just  going to be okay right away. They feel betrayed   like and then put yourself in their situation. If  there's ever going to be a real reconciliation in   our relationships, you're going to need to be able  to step in and see the other person's perspective.   And I know that's hard, but maybe this will be  helpful. This is what Jesus has done for us.   He has left heaven to put on human skin, to be  tempted in every way. And now he is an empathetic   high priest. He died for us knowing what it's  like to be us. He died for us from a place of   compassion and love for you. So I know it's hard,  but this is what Christ has done for us. And so   this is what we must do for others. Which really  leads to the last point and the most important   point is Jesus loves you. Say that. Jesus loves  you. Jesus. Wow. Okay. What happened there? All   right. Let's say Jesus loves you. Jesus loves  you. There we go. Luke 15 20. So he got up and   went to his father. But while the son was still  a long way off, his father saw him and was filled   with compassion. He ran threw his arms around  his neck and kissed him. Okay. So if you don't   already know, the father in the story represents  God. Okay. So the father sees the son a long way  

off. Our God sees us. He's with us. And the father  doesn't just walk to the son. He runs to the son.   And he don't just like dap him up. He hugs him and  he kisses him. And he throws that ring on him. And   he throws that robe on him. He throws those  sandals on him. He kills the fat cow. And he   celebrates because he wants to communicate that  you are still my son. Nothing you can do could   ever change that. I love you. That's the point  of this prodal. This is how Tim Keller tries to   explain God's love through the prodal. The word  prodal does not mean weward, but according to   Miams Webster's collegiate dictionary, recklessly  spentthrift. It means to spend until you have   nothing left. This term is therefore appropriate  for describing the father in the story as it is   the younger son. The father's welcome to the  repentant son was literally reckless because he   refused to reckon or count his sin against him  or demand repayment. Our God recklessly gives   us love. He spends it like it doesn't even make  sense. And by the way, that's the context of Luke   15, right? In Luke 15, the Pharisees are hating  on Jesus. Like, why are you hanging out with the   the the tax collectors? Why are you hanging out  with the sinners? And Jesus is like, "All right,   well, fine. Let me tell you about who our God is.  Our God is like a shepherd who will leave the 99   to go get the one. And when he finds that lost  sheep, he will throw that sheep on top of himself   and walk his butt back home. And he will call his  neighbors and he will call his friends and they  

will celebrate the sheep's return." Our God is  like a woman who loses a valuable coin and takes   a lamp and searches for it. Carefully, it says,  scripture says, carefully will search for the   coin. And when she finds the coin, she will call  up her neighbors. She will call up her friends and   they will rejoice just like what happens in heaven  every time a repentant sinner returns to God. And   our f our God is like the father and the prodal  who recklessly gives love. That's who our God is.   Pharisees, that's what he's communicating in Luke  15. And here's what's awesome. Jesus doesn't just   talk the talk. He don't just talk about God's  love. He is about it. He shows God's love.   Jesus loved Zakius, a dishonest tax collector  despised by the community. Jesus loved Matthew,   a tax collector whom Jesus called to follow him  as his disciple. Jesus loved the Samaritan woman,   rejected because of her her ethnicity and personal  history. Jesus loved Mary Magdalene, a woman whom   Jesus cast out seven demons. Jesus loved the woman  caught in adultery, condemned by the crowd. Jesus   loved Simon the leopard, a man identified by a  disease that made people ceremoniously unclean.   Jesus loved the demonic, feared and isolated until  Jesus restored him. Jesus loved the sinful woman   judged by others. Jesus loved the Roman centurion,  a gentile military officer. Jesus loved the   Canaanite woman, a foreigner. Jesus loved the  thief on a cross, a condemned criminal. Jesus   loved Peter and restored Peter after Peter denied  him three times. Jesus loved Judas and actually   served him and washed his feet before he w before  he would betray him. Jesus loved the children  

considered unimportant by many adults. Jesus loved  the poor, the sick, the the outcast whom society   ignored and avoided. And hey, Jesus loves you.  That's why he died. That's why he suffered for   you. That's why God sent him. Jesus loves you.  Don't be a Pharisee in your life. And don't listen   to the Pharisees in your life. He loves you. That  has to be at the foundation of our disciplehip. It   can't be fear. It can't be shame. It's the love  of Jesus. He loves you. Okay. Are we okay? All   right. We good? Okay. Uh so, and the love of Jesus  changes everything. It changes everything. I want   to tell you about my buddy David. Uh David, he's  he's the white guy there on the left. Uh David   passed away uh a few months ago. Passed away in  November. He was one of our recovery leaders. He   was led in our chem group. Uh, and we've we've  felt his loss tremendously since his passing.   But let me tell you a little bit about David's  story. Um, David didn't have a great upbringing.   He pretty much raised himself. He just kind of  learned from an early age. You just you just kind   of do you to survive. Uh, so that's kind of how  he lived. He got married. He had kids. He became   a trucker. In order to stay up at night, he had  to take narcotics. He got hooked on narcotics.   uh he got fired from his job. So then he turns he  get he turns to alcohol and man he just makes a  

wreck of his life, makes a wreck for his family.  I mean years and years of reckless living. Uh so   it gets to a point where he is suicidal and he  finds himself in an institution and while he's   in this center his wife passes away and so he's  not even with his wife when she passes away. So   then obviously when he returns home he's a mess.  He moves in with his daughter who doesn't live too   far from here, his son who went to this church,  invited him to church, invited him to recovery.   And so, let me now share the rest of that story  from David's words because he shared his testimony   uh before he passed away to our recovery ministry.  So, here's what David shared. My son kept telling   me that there was a church here that could help  me. He kept on telling me to come, that there were   people that could help me. But I was afraid. I was  not ready to confront my pain or have people see   the dark, deep places that I was holding inside. I  finally came to recovery and started in the men's   chemical addiction group, but I knew there was  something still not right. I had not dealt with   my wife's passing. I did the grief care group  and that finally allowed me to come to grips   with my wife's passing, but that's still very hard  some days. I got more active in the church. I was   baptized after one year of sobriety. I became a  member and a leader in recovery. I can't believe   how my life turned around. What did God want with  a beat up motorcycer like me? I give it all to  

God. He made a way for me. He did it for me and  he can also do it for you. The Lord came for me   in my time of need. He saved me and I praise him  and I thank him every day because I need him in my   life until I meet him in heaven. I can't believe  God turned my life around. I am a child of God. I got to share this at his service. Uh me and  David didn't have anything in common except   for Jesus and fishing. Uh and uh he would tell  this fishing story and he would just he loved   to tell it to us. He would tell us multiple  times. Uh he went down to the coast. This is   like a year before he passed away. He was down at  the coast and they're shoreline fishing. and had   his rods and the rod holders and he's just  kind of sitting back chilling. Uh, and one   of the rods bends over. He's got a fish on the  line, but before he could get over to that pole,   it popped off the rod and popped off the rod  holder and went into the ocean. A few minutes   later, his other pole goes down and he runs over  there and he actually gets in time and he reels   it in. And what he caught was his other pole,  right? And so he gets his other pole and that   fish was still on there and he reeled in this big  old fish, right? and he just couldn't believe it.   That was his fish story. Like he just couldn't  believe it. He just would always share it with   us. But that story just makes me think of David  because he just never got over God's love for   him. It just always kept surprising him. Like he  just couldn't believe that a mo an old motorcycle  

like him that did all the things that he did  that God would actually love him and choose   him. And that's how we spent the last few years  of his life telling others about the love of God,   right? Like this is what we get to be a part  of. We love because God first loved us. We get   to expand his kingdom by sharing God's love.  That's what made a lives all about here in a   few weeks. And so we like at the foundation of  our disciplehip is Jesus loves us. So now we   go and share the love of God with others. Um so  those are my points. Hopefully they're helpful   to you. Um with that being said, I have prayed  for two kinds of people. Uh and I and and I I   you know I hope God will give you a revelation  and and these points can can be helpful to your   disciplehip. But there's two kinds of people  I've prayed for. Uh the first person is the   person in here who needs to surrender someone  over to God. The first the person that like   has that prodal or you're in the midst of having  to surrender that prodal over. Or maybe this is   the 10th year of surrender that prodal and it  hurts just as bad now as it did 10 years ago.   And like you have that person who's struggling  with the disease of addiction causing chaos in   your life and other people's lives. You have  someone who keeps on making the same decisions   over and over again expecting a different result.  The people in your life that they just don't want   to know God and your heartbroken over that. Uh I  want I've been praying for you specifically that   this weekend that you'd be set free that you would  surrender them over to God that you would fully   trust God with your person. It's the first person  I've been praying for. The second person is for  

the prodals. For those who you've believed the  lie of the Pharisee that you have gone too far,   that Jesus doesn't love you. That there isn't a  way back for you. Maybe you are the one string   with the the disease of addiction. You are the one  that's causing chaos. You are the one who keeps on   making the same decision over and over again. You  don't want to, but you keep on doing it. And you   find yourself now at that place of desperation.  Been praying for you, too. And so, we've done this   every service. And I want to just uh do it again  here. Um I want to invite if you fall into one of   those two places. I want to invite you to come to  we have more space up here now. I want to invite   you to come up here and take a and kneel down if  you're able to. If you can't, you can stand up and   just keep your hands up. But we want to pray for  you. So if you are a prodal in here or if you have   you are in a place where you need to surrender  someone over, would you come up here? Now's the   time so you can move. Come up here and we're going  to pray for you. Again, take a knee if you're able   to. And if you're not um if you're not just you  can stand. So come on up. I'll give you time.

Prayer team you can come up as well. If you're in the chapel, I'll invite you  to do the same thing. You can walk up to   the front of the chapel. If you're at  home, you can kneel before your TV. It's good to cry. Hi, sister.  It's good. God sees you.

All right. If you're still  in your seats, if you just   uh put out your hands and let's  bless our brothers and sisters here. God, we intercede in the mighty name of Jesus. For  our friends here, for those who are surrendering   their people over to you. God, we're trusting you  that you will be who you promise that you'll be,   that you'll save, and that you'll heal, and  that you'll convict so they will return. God, I know a lot of these tears come from years  of pain and exhaustion and betrayal and fear and   sadness and grief. But God, would you replace  place that with hope that we can trust you,   that you see our people and you love our people.  So spirit, would you now convict the people that   are on our hearts now that your your kindness  would convict them? That they would know that you   are real, that they would know that you love them,  that they would know that there's nothing that   they have done. There's nothing that they will  do that could ever nullify your love for them.   You made them. You created them in your image. So  God, would they respond now? Wherever they might  

be at work, at a park, at home, God, in this room,  God, would you convict? God, would you help them   return now? And for the prodals here, for those  who they're just sick and tired of being sick and   tired, they're tired of trying to control this  mess that they're living in. God, remind them of   what's most true, that they are your child. That  you have not forgotten about them. you have not   abandoned them, that you have made a way through  Christ for them. So give them that hope now,   God. But give them the endurance needed for the  road ahead, but more importantly, protect them   from those phariseic voices in their life. You  love them, God. We trust you. We surrender to you.   pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Uh  if you're here, uh if you're here, uh if you could   just look at me, I just want to just say something  to you. Um man, God sees us. He sees you. He loves   you. He loves your person. And hey, we win at  the end. Like we can we can like this posture   that we're in. like we can walk out of here  with full confidence that this posture is the   way forward. And so, thank you for your step of  obedience this morning. Um, well, everybody else   can stand. We're going to sing. You can stay here  if you would like. Um, or you can come up here and  

get prayer. But you stay here as long as you need,  get prayer, and we'll continue on with worship.