What Does God Really Think of Us?

TRANSCRIPT

Now, I don't know about you guys. Sometimes when someone treats me very, very badly, uh, or unjustly over a long period of time, uh, and then something goes wrong for them and they, things get messed up, uh, I. I can't say that my first heart thing is that I'm so sad for you because the, you know, sin has visited at your house and it's such a bad thing.

I wish I could say that, but sometimes there's a little bit in me that just, God, girl, you praise the Lord. Oh, that you got, you got your come UPPs. Now I know that I'm probably, I'm probably the only one in here. I mean, does anybody, anybody in here struggle with that? Where you kinda. Oh, good. There's a few of us.

Otherwise, I was gonna say, I have to do a series next week on denial. It's an ugly thing, but it's not my first instinctive thing. And it should be because I know sin breaks God's heart because sin breaks people. But I still got a way to go sometimes. So I asked, I was thinking a bit about this whole thing, and then I said to Chris, I said, um.

Find me some fashion things that you should never wear out through the ages. Some things you should just never put on. That's spa. So I don't even know what they are yet, so this could be really bad, but I'm entrusting him and I said, just gimme some, some things that we should probably never wear. So what have you got up there, Chris?

Gimme the first one. First one. No broken. Good. No, you, you, that was ages ago. That's the one that's a fashion thing. Uh, that, uh, probably you shouldn't, the waist, we shouldn't look at the waist on that. They, they used to break ribs, all sorts of things, but I don't know, it just, I, I, I don't think looks particularly great on anyone.

Uh, give us another one. That's the next picture. Someone came up with the idea of tights that you colorful 'em up and things like that. I don't know that, that doesn't look good. It's not for me anyway, you know, but, but maybe for some of you, I don't know, but it's just what were people thinking or I give us another one.

The safari third. Yeah, I think I may have had one of those once, uh, but. But it's, it's, it's just not good, you know? Like you shouldn't wear it. What about, what about these, what is this? Is that like two suits? Was that ever a good look?

The only way I would ever wear that is I was, if I was walking through a desert and I needed to carry water. That's, that's about the only thing. And now this last one, before we put it up, don't put it up yet because I do know what this one is. And this is something that apparently no one should ever, ever put on unless, unless apparently you have very, very good calf muscles.

And I've been reassured by certain people that I have very good calf muscles. I don't know, I hardly ever see them. They're at the back. So apparently this is the only, you can only wear these if you've got good calf muscles. And that is this one here. The smuggler.

Okay, take that away. Hey, we saw you the, there you go down there. Hey, we saw you down the beach like that. This is not the appropriate time to talk about that. Great. So what about that? You know, like what other things should people never wear? It never looks good on anybody at any time. You should never, ever wear the garment of self-righteousness.

It doesn't look good on anybody. But you know, the thing I've discovered about self-righteous people, they are completely not self-aware. They are, they're not self-aware. They have no idea that they're walking around with this self-righteous. They walk into places and they're like a big moving stink. And wherever they go through the crowd, people just part, and they have no idea why people are parting.

Now, what is self-righteousness? It's not a religious thing, it's a human theme. And you become self-righteous when you have a view about something and you feel like you are so right about this view that it drops down into your identity about that thing, and then you'll fight people to the death on it because you are not just right about the view you are right.

And that makes you righteous, so self-righteous. It's really, really. Ugly. It sends the message that there's something more right about me than there is about you. I'm better than you, so therefore I dismiss you. I'll look down on you. And when our view about something drops down into that part of us who we are, we become dismissive of people.

We become disrespectful, dare I say, we'll even celebrate the failure of someone that's stumbled into sin because. You may feel like you are right and even right in the view, but you're not righteous. At least not according, not according to Jesus. So let's just go back to that in a little while. We'll come back to that soon.

So we are in this thing on investigating Jesus, how we know and why we follow. Is there anything to the story about this first century rabbi that is worth following? And this is a really, really important issue because the credibility of Christianity rises and falls on the identity of one single individual Jesus of Nazareth.

It all hinges on him. So if you are considering faith in Christ. If you are reconsidering, because perhaps you've been in a place where they took certain portions of the Bible and maybe used them kind of harshly with you and you've been hurt and you're trying to figure, can I trust God again? Can I trust him?

Or, or maybe even sitting for a while and you go, I don't even know if I believe this anymore, and you're trying to work out what to do. The big question for you to grapple with this is the big question, not does God exist? Ma'am, we could sit all day long and talk about that and drink bottles of wine and carry on and still have no idea at the end.

It's not even, is the Bible true? It's too big. It's too broad. The question you've gotta grapple with is, is Matthew, mark, Luke, or John, a reliable account of the events of Jesus? And if any one of them is reliable, then what they said about Jesus is true and you need to sit up and take notice of that. So this series is about exploring that and understanding can we trust this?

The writings of Luke, it's historically accurate. People know it. It's not just a church thing. This is a historical kind of thing. Now, eventually his document got joined by about another 26 and became 27 documents of what's known as the new Covenant. And that was considered so important. It was so radical.

It was so considered to be God inspired, considered to be reliable and good theology for the church, considered to be great for historical purposes, that they put it into a vault to keep it nice and safe so it'd be preserved forever. That happened about 350 AD and that little vault was called Tabia, which was the Bible, but it was running around.

Luke was running around. All these documents were running around as early as 60 ad. And so these were credible witnesses, but Luke is right up front. He's not trying to, he's not trying to tell us he's writing a religious thing. He said, I'm just trying to document the life of this guy called Jesus Christ.

And of course, the one scripture that we use at the start has always been many of undertaken. So this is not a, this was not a, uh, uncommon thing. Many were trying to do up an account of Jesus' life, the things that were fulfilled among us. He would say. They were handed down to us by the reliable, firsthand eye witnesses.

Luke wasn't right in the Bible. He had no idea there would be a Bible. He was just wanting to document this guy. He was trying to document Jesus paradigm shifting position, his culturally offensive position. To the culture of the day, his liberating, dignifying, and hope giving teaching and activities.

Jesus claimed to know God and know what God was like, and he also claimed to know who God likes, which is really interesting. So we're gonna look through Luke chapter 15, and it's another iconic parable. But the context of the parable clarifies the point of the parable, and Luke will make the point all the way through that.

The point of the parable is actually the point of Jesus' life. His whole life was about the point of this parable is why he came. Taylor talked on a bit last week about advertising and branding. He says, what's your brand? Is it good news or not so good news? It's kind of like that when Jesus launched this whole thing, this was such good news.

He was kind of rebranding what faith was like. So let's take a walk through Luke chapter 15. Now, I love the first verse in this. Now, the tax collectors and sinners. This is fascinating to me. I thought a tax collector would be a sinner. But apparently these guys, they've got their own category all to themselves.

And I could see how this would kind of work a little bit, you know, like, uh, you know, like if you were just, just say your husband and wife thing and you stray, you play up, you know, like, and she finds out and it gets real messy and it's getting ugly and the heat's on and you're going, oh yeah, honey, I'm so sorry.

I know I'm a sinner, but I'm not a tax collector. Right? I'm better than him. So it gives you a little bit of a bolster out there, you know, but th this, this particular statement is, is letting us know there were people that were considered so unclean. So offensive, they weren't allowed near the temple. They were considered hopelessly separated from God, but they were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

They're all gathering round to hear him. I reckon Luke, Luke would've been going, man, this one is amazing. As he's writing this, he'd be thinking to himself, this is amazing. All these different people are coming, but the religious people, ah, they wouldn't be thinking that at all. They'd be thinking, this is not amazing.

This is embarrassing. There are people coming to round that seemed like Jesus. There are nothing like Jesus. And the reason they loved him was that because he was righteous. But he was not self-righteous, and because he wasn't self-righteous, the unrighteous actually found him very, very attractive. Now, of course, he was the good news and that's why they were drawn to him.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as they go, the pist teaches the law. This is the old guard. I love this word. This word doesn't come out very often. If you got it up there, it's they muttered. That's a great word. I hear that quite regular when I say some things and I hear going,

they muttered and what were they muttering? Think about what are they muttering? 'cause he's, he's trying to pull 'em into this story and they would've been saying, you know what, this Jesus, he, he can't, he can't be from God because if he was from God. Yes, they would avoid him the way that they avoid us.

Yeah. We're the religious people and they don't want nothing to do with us because we're holy and we're separate and we're exclusives. So Jesus, whatever he is doing, he must be watering down the Torah. The first five books. He's gotta be watering it down because they seem to like him. So this is stirring, this story is stirring a whole lot in, in people's lives and then goes, and then it says the mess man welcomes and eats with sinners.

Well, that seals the deal, isn't it? If he was truly from God, he'd be sitting with us and avoiding them. It's guilt by association. That's what the religious is. He can't be from God. 'cause guilt by association. Lemme tell you if, if Jesus was worried about guilt. By association. He would never have left heaven.

He just said, dad, you know what? To hell with 'em, that's what they deserve. Leave him alone. Let's go start another universe over here. Kind of what we do when something goes wrong in a situation, you know, if we can't fix the situation, we, let's start another one over here and just ignore that Jesus is not apparently worried about guilt by association.

So let's get ourselves pulled into the story. Self-righteous are all there. The unrighteous are all there. So the question is, which one are you? Are you part of the self-righteous? Which way do you lean or do you lean more to unrighteous? I. Now I, I'm gonna get a show of hands here and you guys can do this online as well.

This'll be fun. Um, I'll go first 'cause this is my category. This is where I tend to kinda like lean. If I, if my relationship with God starts to slip my connection and that I, I can fall this direction and it's into, I fall into the self righteous. And you can always tell when your goes like, what is the matter with these people?

Why are they doing that? Oh, well, I, I mean, you should see me over nighttime if I happen to flick on the White House and listen to some of stuff. Well, the Democrats, they want to get all the electric cars now, burn 'em all, burn them all, burn the Teslas, burn everything. It's like, what is the matter with these people?

And then it goes right down to anything. I can see someone doing something. Why are you doing that? Why are you behaving? Like that's, that's what, what is the matter with you? So that's where I lean. Are there any other people that lean with me to the self-righteous look at that. Yes. A room full of recovering Pharisees, and we are here and we're, we're on our 10 steps or 12 steps, whatever.

It's, then of course there's the unrighteous, uh, and these are people that struggle a little bit. It's like, it's like, I know God loves me. I, I hear it every single week. You tell me God loves me, but I don't think he likes me. And I just don't think he likes me, and I just always feel unworthy and blah, blah, blah.

And so that's the unrighteous feeling. Any anybody fall into the unrighteous, you feel more unrighteous. That is great because that is what I was hope. Oh, I've got a few. Okay, got a few because that means you've been around for a while and you get it. You get how much God loves you. But these were the two sets of people.

They were both there. They both there, but they, neither of, neither of the groups understood what God was like and who God likes. So to, to explain it, Jesus tells three parables about three things that got lost that were very valuable. Uh, and he poses a question, and the parables all answer exactly the same question, exactly the same way.

The first is how it starts. He goes, suppose one of you has lost a hundred sheep. So you have a hundred sheep. Sorry. Suppose you have a hundred sheep and you lose one. Now, of course they're from a agricultural culture, they, well, I'm gonna leave the 99 and I go find it. They knew exactly and, and that even just losing one, it would had created emotion in them.

For us, it doesn't do anything, you know, it doesn't really do anything for us. So I want you to switch this whole thing about sheep. Let's talk about kids and credit cards. All right, so you're a husband. You go after the shops, you've gone shopping, you're taking your kids out there somewhere through the shops.

You go back, you get lost, you get back to the car and you realize you've lost your 8-year-old and your MasterCard. Oh, well, so you get in the car, you head on home, drive home, mom, mom says, uh, hey, where's the eighth year old? And, and, and my MasterCard, oh, I lost them somewhere, but, Hey honey, come on. Come on.

I've still got the 5-year-old and the visa.

We don't get excited about what? We haven't got lost. You, you get emotionally attached to what's lost. She said, we need to get back there and find the 8-year-old and the visa. This is what this, that's the kind of emotional attachment for us. The same as them to realize that you don't, we don't focus on what's unlost, we focus on what is lost.

So they're having this, they're, they're, they're grappling with this, okay, there's this thing going on, and the righteous and the unrighteous are all there. And then Jesus interprets it for him and he says, I tell you, in the same way, there'd be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents rather than 99 righteous people who do not need to repent.

He's the master storyteller pulling these, these groups in so they kinda understand. So the, so what you're talking about is, is about being reconnected. That's what you're talking about being reconnected. Ah, so you, the group would've been going, so are you telling, are you telling me that God views unrighteous people as something valuable that's been separated from its owner?

Wow. And then he say the righteous people. Is that how you view people that are not as right as you or seems as we're coming up to election or is not as left as you? Is that how you view people? This, this is so, so, um, would be so affecting the culture of this people the day that are pulled into this story.

And if, if you think it couldn't get any worse, then he says he just carries on and goes, oh, or suppose a woman, what, what you are gonna tell parable about a woman? This is even more amazing. Because they figured it out. Hang on. The one, the someone in there represents God looking for lost people now, now you're making the woman the hero in this story.

This is blowing my mind. This is just so upsetting them. He associates the woman as the hero in this whole event. Crazy.

All the women knew the significance of what was happening because no one ever consults them. Yeah. No one ever listens to 'em. They're not allowed it to speak, and they're going, he's, he's talking about us. This is radical. I'm telling you, every woman in the world, whether they follow Jesus or don't follow Jesus, or in whatever faith, whatever, they should all have a bumper sticker on that says, I love Jesus.

Because the reason women are such elevated in society today as co-equals was right down to him. That was his radically culture shifting kind of teaching that he did. So every woman needs to get a bumper sticker that says that. So then he goes back to the parable. Suppose a woman's lost 10 coins, they've got 10 coins, loses won.

O this is tied. This is actually very emotional attachment because the coins were tied to their wedding, their dowry kind of thing. And so, um, loses one. I reckon the ladies would've been going, oh, they've been so wanting to answer this question, but he knows they can't answer the question 'cause they've gotta be quiet.

In this culture, this first century culture was women and children were like, um, commodities. They had no value. So what Jesus is doing here is unbelievably challenging to what has been for thousands of years. And so they want to go, oh, but they know they can't answer, so he just answers. Probably goes, oh, she searches still.

She finds it. That's what we were gonna say, Jesus, if we were allowed to say, but we couldn't say it. And then he just goes on to the next parable. A wealthy man had two sons. The youngest son was waiting for his dad to die. But he just wouldn't die. He'd just keep living on year after year. So in the end, he gets so impatient and he says, father, give me the share of my estate.

Now, for the first time, both groups, the self-righteous and the unrighteous are on the same page. This is unbelievable. This is unbelievable. This guy wishes his dad was dead. This is tantamount to murder in the culture of the first century. And they know what should happen. They should take him out and stone his.

Sorry, but so this is, this is, this is not, this is an emotionally charged environment. This story is getting more and more, he, he says, is so good at pulling people in stories. So good at putting them in. So they, they're grappling with that. Okay. Right. Okay. So now the father's going to give him. The estate.

That is just ridiculous. So he divided up this property between them and they're going, why? Why would he do this? This, no one does this. This is ridiculous. This is so foreign to them. This is driving them crazy. But the two parables prior are repeating the same thing, and now we're down on the third one, which is getting more and more intense for them.

Because his son was lost.

He divided up and let it go. The son was already lost to him, relationally. There was no relationship there, and he knew the only way was to let him go, so he divided up and let him go, and the hope that maybe he'd come back. So anyway, the young son gets it and he goes off and he, he is partying, he's out there, he is spending up big, he's doing all sorts of stuff that he shouldn't be doing.

And then, uh, what normally happens in these environments, the money eventually runs out. And when the money runs out, the friends run out at the same time. It's amazing how that happens. And so he's stuck. He's now got nothing. He's broke. And then worse case, even more worse now, now there's a famine in the land.

Now it's just not like we have a flood, you know? And there's no groceries in Rubina, but you can get some up the road. This is a famine. There is no food anywhere. There's nothing. And so this Jewish boy that had such a wonderful situation now finds himself the only job he can get is feeding pigs. He's a pig farmer.

Pigs are unclean. This is the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to him. And he's so hungry. He's eating the pods that he should be feeding to the pigs. He's starving. And the self-righteous in the audience. They go, you reap what you sow, buddy. You reap what you sow. Take that you ungrateful little punk.

Of course, they've said, praise the Lord at the end. Um, praise the Lord. He's getting what he's, what he deserved. Hmm. It's the first time. But in the, in the context of these, this conversation that the, the, the run righteous and the self-righteous are kind of on the same page. But anyway, it says that the, the kid eventually young man eventually comes to his senses.

He comes to his senses. He says, what am I doing? Where am I? How did I get here? And I bet online and in here that some of you maybe have reached the place where, you know what? You stand in front of the mirror and you go, I don't even know who you are. How did I, how did I get to where I am right now? How, how did I get here?

And if that is you today, you're in the right place at the right time because this is exactly this story. This whole thing is about you.

So he looks around, he says, my, my father's servants are better off than me. So he says, I will set out and I will go back. I'm gonna set out and go back. To my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I've sinned against heaven. He realizes that this is against God before it's against his natural dad, and he's heaven against you.

This young man now, he's broken, he's filled with regret. He's, he's, he's, he doesn't know what to do other than he's reached the end of the line, so he just has to go home. But he has no idea how his dad feels about him. But he's reached the end of himself. So he got up and he went to the fathers as he made his way back, and he would've been rehearsing his speech all along.

Well, Dan, you know, I just wanna be your servant 'cause I'm not worthy. And I, I've sinned against God's sinned against you. He, he's doing this and the self-righteous and the story there all going, woo. He's gonna get it. This is gonna be awesome. And then the underwriters are going, oh no, I can't even watch what's, how's this story gonna end?

It's terrible. See the self-righteous. They knew what they would do with this son, but they didn't know what the father would do. Two groups of people don't know who God is, who God likes. Hmm. Interesting.

So they did not know what God is like, and that's the reason why Jesus came. To show us what God the Father is like. He says, that's why I came on one occasion. He says, you've seen the me. You've seen the father. And so much of what Luke has documented is Jesus trying to take away the mystery of his father and show and point the way back into relationship with his father.

Jesus was kinda like God in a bod. Without the calves, God in a bot body show what God the Father is truly like, oh, let's keep going. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with blank. What goes in the blank? The father was filled with anger, resentment. I'm gonna get you revenge.

So if you are the father, what would you put in the blank? If you are the son in this thing, what do you hope's in the blank? What do you hope's in there? Well, he doesn't keep, this doesn't keep us in suspense for too long, but Jesus is telling this story to help you understand we are all the son at some stage.

Some of us might still not have made connection. Some of us maybe have and have fallen away. We are all the sun, the wayward sun at some stage. But he has compassion on him. That's what he has. He's filled with compassion for him. The crowd would quiet down, he said, what have you? Are you kidding me? You have compassion on him after all he's done for you.

And then he starts going on with the story and he ran to the sun. He threw his arms around him and he kissed him. This is inconceivably disgusting. And the young kid's trying to say, I'm fenced in against you and him, and I don't just wanna be a servant. I wanna come back. And, and the father's not even, not even listening.

He's not even listening to him. Doesn't care about it. He throws his arms around him. The guy still reeks of booze, bacon and babes. You know he is. He still reeks of it, and he throws his arms around him, embraces this unclean sun.

This is more than what they can take. He is been living with the pigs unclean. He's totally unclean, and the father puts his arms around him. This is so extravagant. It's such an extravagant love, and Luke wants us to know it. Now, of course the self-righteous would've said, well, hang on a sec, dad, just hold down a bit.

You know, like, uh, it's kind of an emotionally charged moment going on here and, you know, maybe we shouldn't, uh, you know, uh, I know what you're gonna do next. You're gonna, you know, I know you're gonna give him a robe and you're gonna. Put a ring on his finger, and that's for a son. But you know what? You, you really shouldn't do that.

You'll do that yet because you should be a servant and let's just wait and see how it goes. Because you know, he's in a very desperate position right now. And he could say anything and it might not be gentlemen. And the father would say, this is not about behavior. This is not about behavior. It's about relationship restored.

And he says, these words for this son of mine was dead. And is alive again. He was lost and is found. Whew. This story is like driving people insane and as they're listening on, like, this is not the God that we have been shown for the last 2000 years. This looks nothing like this, God. So the implication is God doesn't see good and bad people.

He just sees lost people and found people. The Greek word for lost. For lost in uh, the new covenant is called Lummi. Lummi. And what it means is lost to God or found by God.

So what if we saw people in terms of lust and found instead of good and bad, think that'd change anything? Have we found them at. She just looked at people lost and found instead of good and bad. Now, there's another character in this story, of course, and that's the older son. The well-behaved do everything the dad says, kind of son, and he comes in from the field and there's this big celebration going on and, um, anyway, uh, he just won't come in.

He refuses to come in. And so the father has to go out and say, come on in. Your brother's back, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he says, this is his response. All these years I've been slaving for, you never disobeyed your orders.

This story's actually about two lost sons.

One took the money and ran, one stayed, but he's got no relationship with dad. No relationship whatsoever. He's just doing his duty and waiting for what? His father to nine. It's about two lost sons. And he goes on, he says, but this when, but when this, I like this. But when this son of yours, not this brother of mine.

No, no. When this son of yours has squandered your property with prostitutes, oh man. I hope mom doesn't find out about that. Comes home, you kill the fatten calf. I don't get it. It's not fair. He doesn't deserve it.

And if Jesus would've added a bit more in here, he could've said, well, who said anything about deserving anything? I'm just celebrating that a relationship that was disconnected is now connected. And maybe if it'd have written a bit more on, he'd have gone to the older son. I had to celebrate. Yeah, because your brother, this brother of yours that was dead is now alive again.

It's interesting. He didn't say about the son that he was good and now he was bad. Sorry. And now he's good. Yeah. He can come back because he, he was bad. He was out there with the pigs, but now he's good, so now he can come back. He didn't say that at all. He said he was lost. Yeah, but he was lost before he even asked for the inheritance to go.

And the older brother doesn't even realize he's lost. He's just, he's just Biden his time waiting for dad to go get the inheritance anyway, but relationally, they're both lost. What Extravagant love. Extravagant love God has for human beings. He's not, he doesn't seem to be deterred by our sinful state. He doesn't seem to be worried about the mess that worried the religious leaders terribly.

How could you possibly put your arms around someone that's been sleeping around with prostitutes and eating, living with pigs and all that kind? How could you possibly ever do that? That was never in the culture of our day. He needs to be shunned and cut off, and Jesus is just like in this one story, changing the whole perspective of the father and showing how much he loves.

I guess the question for us isn't like, like now we know what God is like and who God likes, which is pretty much everyone. I'm pretty sure most of us weren't as bad as the sun in this equation, but if you were, congratulations, you, you still got a good ticket right there,

but he's saying this should change you. How are we gonna change how, you know you shouldn't see people as good or bad, you just need to see them as lost. And found one's disconnected from God and one's need to be connected to God. And sin should break your heart when you see someone that is broken and in trouble because rather than saying, well, you get to what you deserve, there's that self-righteous thing to say, yeah, I could have, probably should have got what I deserve, but I didn't.

I got a loving father that embraced me in the midst of my mess, and he still does it occasionally. Now when I get myself outta sorts, he's not worried about it. He just wants people to connect with him. And love for God is best demonstrated by love for people. That's how it goes. Can you imagine what would happen if everybody loved one another the way that Jesus loved us?

Seriously, we transform our families, our businesses, our workplaces, our schools, universities, churches. You know what? It might even turn out a few prisons if the people in there could finally figure out how much their heavenly father loves them. And it doesn't matter how bad mess you're in, there is always the opportunity to come home.

And if you make the decision to turn and head back in a contrite spirit, he's there. You're not. The son didn't come back demanding anything. He came back with a servant heart, but then the father immediately. Gave him a ring, gave him a robe, gave him shoes, which is the definition of the sun hood, not the servant.

If I could only just, if only humanity could grasp all that, you know, maybe some of you right here or wrong in the room, or maybe you're going, oh boy, oh boy. You know, like. I don't recognize who I am. I dunno where I am. I dunno how I got to where I was. I can't even believe I'm in the mess that I am. But that's the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's why Luke's documenting it. You don't wanna miss this 'cause without this, we are lost for eternity. We've got nothing. So here's the good news of the gospel. We are broken. We can't fix ourselves. We are trapped in sin and death. And nothing in this world will ever meet that need. It's only a relationship with our Heavenly Father Through Jesus Christ as our savior, he saw we were trapped.

He saw we were stuck, couldn't fix ourselves. So Jesus came born of a virgin, wholly, pure, and at the right time became a living sacrifice for us. So that we could get free from this sin and this mess and this stuff that has started to define who we are. Instead, we can give that to him and he will wash us and cleanse us and clean us and help us take steps to move back to his original design for us, which is way better than anything you could dream about.

And for that one person that said to me. How do you start this relationship? I'm gonna show you right now, I'm gonna lead you on a prayer that I pray on a regular basis. 'cause I'm still no model of perfection. I'm still on the journey. Something that I pray on a regular basis. And this is where it starts and this is how it continues.

So let's just close our eyes, you guys online in the room. Not 'cause you need to close your eyes, but just because it just helps you to focus. I. You don't have to pray this out loud after me. I'm just modeling for you how I pray and how I live. I say things something like this changes each day. Heavenly Father, thanks for sending Jesus to die for me and my sense sin and my mistakes, and thank you for having ones like Luke.

Write it down. So that I could be absolutely assured of who you are and I could have confidence in your death, burial, and resurrection. Lord, right now, I ask you to come into my life and take up residence in my heart. I surrender everything to you and allow. You have to control. Have control. I give you permission.

To identify things in my life that are still attached to the mess that I was in, so that you can help me move forward and become more free. I thank you that this, that where the Holy Spirit comes in, he now gets the opportunity to actually rebirth every era of my life. Out of the mess, back to your perfect design.

So I thank you for sending Jesus, and I receive him now as my Lord and my Savior, and I ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So that's how you start the journey. It's simple. I, I talk to people in the, in the cafe all the time, and they're so confused about how do I start a relationship with God and keep it going?

It is so simple, but religion has made it so difficult. You have just gotta build that intimate relationship with God. Allow him, because even though when you pray that prayer for the first time and he comes into your life, we are like a temple. This is called a temple nest where God dwells. If you've ever seen a picture of a twe of a temple, there's like nooks and crannies and holes and bits and pieces everywhere that you can hide.

So God might be in the living room now, which means you've surrendered your life and he's, he's here. But now he'll take you on the journey and say, now I want to talk to you about, lemme talk to you about how you run your business and the way you treat people. Sounds a lot like Moses. You need to make it a lot more like Jesus.

He might talk to you and say, I know you grew up in a difficult environment because of some things that happened to you, and your sexuality is a little bit distorted, but let me come into that space. Let me heal that space. Let me get you back to your original design. And so it's a lifetime progress where he leads and we follow, he leads and we follow.

That's why it talks about we are saved when we, when we pray the prayer like this to start with. Yeah. If anything happens to you tonight, you're gonna heaven. Great. I. But the object was not going to heaven. The object was you being conformed to the image of Christ, which means you become more like Christ every day, uh, so that people see Christ in you because then you become a witness.

Then more people outside will be drawn to you and say, how is it that you have what you have? Why? Why are you managing so well? And I'm struggling so well through life. What is it? Well, it's my faith in Christ. And it's not hard. It's simple. And religion has made it hard, so remember this, please.

Self-righteous doesn't look good on anyone, especially Christian, and it should not be in our faith or in our politics or anywhere. We are no better off than anyone else. We are just fact that we've got connected with Christ. And as long we maintain that connection with Christ, we'll do great. I mean, what if we decided this next week, we are not gonna see anybody as good or bad.

We're gonna just see them as lost to God or found by God. If you do that, you'll, you'll get to the point where you'll no longer size people up and write them off. Have you ever done that? You know, you look at someone, you size 'em up and write 'em off before you've ever actually even spoken to them. That's that self-righteous thing.

No, I'm not gonna do that. Even if they make me feel a little bit uncomfortable, it's because they might be lost to God in that area and I'm connected in that area. Well, let me see if I can help. Let's see what God does. Um. And if you do, if you do see people that, that do size people up and write 'em off, uh, and they say that they're Christian, they have got the wrong version because that's not the Jesus version.

You don't get to do that in the Jesus version. Might have happened in previous situations, but Jesus said, I've changed that. And one final thing now, 'cause I, I do do this every so often and you might fall for it as well. When you lose something, do you ever get angry with the thing that you've lost and get cranky with it and, you know, get disgusted with it.

And, and it's like, and it, it fascinates me that I do this every so often. I'm pretty sure I learned it from my dad 'cause he would do this all the time. Uh, and it's like, uh. But you shouldn't get disgusted or lost or, or upset with lost things like it. It fascinates me how many people I bump into that are angry because they're kids that don't know Christ are sinning.

When I didn't know Christ, I sin like mad. I was good at it. You probably did it too. And it is, but you're trying to project on, they, they don't have any ability to follow Christ and change because you can't, without the Holy Spirit within you, you can't do it. So when you do happen to come bump up against someone that's lost, don't get disgusted or, or angry or anything like that, just realize you need to figure out, maybe God wants you to help them reconnect.

'cause after all in this story that Jesus told the father gave up half his estate. In the hope that he might get that sun bagg and he got him back. Jesus sacrificed his entire life so that you could come back into relationship and I could come back into relationship with him and maybe he's asking us to try and help other people make the connection as well.

So self-righteousness doesn't look good in anyone, but the righteousness of Christ in you. It actually is attractive to unrighteous people 'cause people that were nothing like Jesus, they loved him. The religious people hated him, but they loved him. Let's pray. Father, I just thank you for this series. It's been really practical, but also really, really helpful for us to understand.

'cause sometimes we do forget. We forget that the father is so different. In the new covenant to the old Covenant, so different and we need to remember it. You contextualized for us. You came to show us the heart of the father and how he, he doesn't care about stuff when we mess up. He's there. Open, ready to put his arms around us and welcome us back.

Lord, I just thank you like even for the way that. Things are happening around here for us with, we are meeting with people all the time that are so confused about you and so confused about faith and we just wanna l love them and just wanna nudge them and just help them how to start a relationship with you.

So help us not to be self-righteous Lord, and help us not to size people up and not to look at people as good or or evil, but just disconnected. Lost and found. And so, Lord, as we just listen to this song, now the team's gonna just sing over us. Would you just do a work in our heart to, 'cause there's been a lot here that I've shared that you've had me.

It's a bit prickly Lord, and we're gonna have to reflect on it. So Lord, just take a few moments now to do that and allow you to do your work in us. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.