Jesus: Friend of Sinners

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Kevin O'Dea: 6 to 8 is what I'm being told to say. 6 to 8 is all access

Kevin O'Dea: conference, which I'm probably going to say it again in a second because I think

Kevin O'Dea: it's my first slide. Oh, this is my slide. Hey guys, we have a conference

Kevin O'Dea: coming up. It's Church 7th through 10th and I hear that the kids are

Kevin O'Dea: the teens and the youth and the kids are going to have some

Kevin O'Dea: fun things planned during that time as well so you need to make

Kevin O'Dea: a plan to be there. I don't think you'll regret it, okay? Are you glad

Kevin O'Dea: to be in the house of the Lord this morning? It is a

Kevin O'Dea: good pray. It is a good day. If you're joining us on

Kevin O'Dea: livestream, thank you for joining us. Hey, in conjunction to

Kevin O'Dea: our conference, we also have this thing called the Business Collective that we are launching

Kevin O'Dea: here at Spring House. If you are a leader, a

Kevin O'Dea: manager, an owner of a business,

Kevin O'Dea: Spirit leader, would you raise your hand? Leader, owner,

Kevin O'Dea: manager, Okay, lots of you in the room, okay? This is for you, this is

Kevin O'Dea: for you. We would like you to sign up for this. Pastor Justin, as well

Kevin O'Dea: as Josh McLeod are going to team up and they're going to be leading this

Kevin O'Dea: business collective on this particular day. We're God to free breakfast and

Kevin O'Dea: giveaways and giveaways. Yes, pray, okay,

Kevin O'Dea: giveaways and stuff and yeah, it's going to be it's going to be great.

Kevin O'Dea: Just an opportunity to connect with other business leaders and talk about how you can

Kevin O'Dea: advance the kingdom within your business and your leadership principles. So,

Kevin O'Dea: come and be a part of that on that Saturday morning of the conference.

Kevin O'Dea: Also, I've not actually been up the last, well, that's not

Kevin O'Dea: true. I just spoke long the 1st week, and the 2nd week, I didn't get

Kevin O'Dea: a chance to say this because I was out of town last week, but we

Kevin O'Dea: are in the middle of Lent and how many has anybody taken part in

Kevin O'Dea: looking at the Lent devotional videos? Okay, good. Okay, so you found

Kevin O'Dea: those on our app. We are in the middle of Lent and our kids and

Kevin O'Dea: youth department have taken over those videos and man,

Kevin O'Dea: I tell you what, never negate the Holy Spirit's

Kevin O'Dea: power to speak through the kids and through the youth. They're

Kevin O'Dea: a minute and a half to 5 minutes long. Every day there's a video posted

Kevin O'Dea: except for on Sunday, so go on the app and you can go back and

Kevin O'Dea: watch them respectively, but you definitely want to be in that routine. I would encourage

Kevin O'Dea: you to do that as part of your journey through Lent, okay? And

Kevin O'Dea: then also Pastor Justin started a series on Thursday from

Kevin O'Dea: 6 to 7 in here, called Lessons from the Table. And

Kevin O'Dea: I was actually with the youth this last week, but I watched it online and

Kevin O'Dea: it's powerful. You want to be a part of that gathering

Kevin O'Dea: and, you can go back and catch the last one online, but come and be

Kevin O'Dea: a part of our midweek gathering, 6 to 7, as we, as

Kevin O'Dea: this also prepares us for Theater, okay? Lots of

Kevin O'Dea: opportunity theatre. And then of course, no better preparation than a daily active

Kevin O'Dea: relationship with the word of God. Spring House Church, do we believe in the word

Kevin O'Dea: of God? Do we believe that it is true? Do we believe it's

Kevin O'Dea: alive and active? We need to be in it daily, daily,

Kevin O'Dea: okay? This is our reading plan for this year. If you need this resource, it's

Kevin O'Dea: available online or on our app as well. So we are in

Kevin O'Dea: a series through the entire year, we are talking

Kevin O'Dea: about His word, we've already talked about His word, we're talking about His

Kevin O'Dea: life right now, and then after Theater, we're going to be talking about His church

Kevin O'Dea: for the remainder of the year, and I have been just learning

Kevin O'Dea: and growing so much about Jesus' life and looking at Jesus'

Kevin O'Dea: character and what He said and what He did, and I hope that you have

Kevin O'Dea: also been gleaning some of the instruction from the word about watching

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus and how his life, how he modeled his life. And so

Kevin O'Dea: the 1st week of the series, we talked about that Jesus was always about

Kevin O'Dea: His Father's business. So, and what is the Father's business? God is in the

Kevin O'Dea: business of loving people. God is in the business of

Kevin O'Dea: loving people, and so the 1st week we talked about that we

Kevin O'Dea: ought to be also about the Father's business, which is also

Kevin O'Dea: loving, loving people. In week 2 we talked about selfless living.

Kevin O'Dea: Selfless living, selfless love requires nothing in

Kevin O'Dea: return. Selfless love requires nothing in

Kevin O'Dea: return. Jesus modeled this so perfectly in the way that he even

Kevin O'Dea: went to the point of laying down his life for each of

Kevin O'Dea: us. Even though we didn't deserve it, amen? He did that for us.

Kevin O'Dea: Last week Pastor Allen spoke and he talked about compassion.

Kevin O'Dea: Compassion requires us to do something. When we see a

Kevin O'Dea: need, when we see somebody in front of us, Jesus was always

Kevin O'Dea: entertaining the needs that were presented to him, he was never too

Kevin O'Dea: busy to entertain what was exactly in front of the people that were

Kevin O'Dea: right in front of him, and compassion requires us to do something. And as

Kevin O'Dea: Pastor Allen would say, it's not just for us uns, it's for

Kevin O'Dea: Ghost uns too out there, okay? So we're going to look

Kevin O'Dea: at Jesus today and we're going to look at the portions of his life we're

Kevin O'Dea: going to look at how his, how he embodied this love

Kevin O'Dea: that he had for sinners who qualifies

Kevin O'Dea: for as a sinner body in the room. Okay, so would you stand

Kevin O'Dea: with me? We're going to read with gusto from John theater 15

Kevin O'Dea: probably a familiar passage, for some of

Kevin O'Dea: you. Let's read together. Now the tax collectors

Kevin O'Dea: and sinners were all gathered around to hear Jesus,

Kevin O'Dea: but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered,

Kevin O'Dea: this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.' Let's stop there for just

Kevin O'Dea: a second, let me go ahead and preach. If we notice the first part

Kevin O'Dea: of this, who was the group that

Kevin O'Dea: I'll use myself as a Pharisee, it'd be as if we had some people walk

Kevin O'Dea: in who have no idea who Jesus is and they're more interested to hearing from

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus than I am, okay? Or maybe perhaps you are,

Kevin O'Dea: okay? It was the tax collectors and sinners that wanted to hear

Kevin O'Dea: from Jesus. Here's Jesus' response. Jesus told them

Kevin O'Dea: this parable, suppose one of you has a 100 sheep

Kevin O'Dea: and loses one of them, doesn't he leave the

Kevin O'Dea: 99 in the open country and go after the

Kevin O'Dea: lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds

Kevin O'Dea: it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes

Kevin O'Dea: home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together

Kevin O'Dea: and says, rejoice with me, I have found my lost

Kevin O'Dea: sheep. I tell you that in the same way,

Kevin O'Dea: there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over 1 sinner

Kevin O'Dea: who repents than over 99 righteous persons

Kevin O'Dea: Father, I'm so grateful for Your word and that it is

Kevin O'Dea: alive and active today. Lord, I pray that you would use

Kevin O'Dea: the words that I'm about to speak, Lord, to change people's hearts and lives,

Kevin O'Dea: God, and that you would give us eyes to see others the way

Kevin O'Dea: you see them. We love you today in Jesus name,

Kevin O'Dea: amen. You may be seated.

Kevin O'Dea: There are there are many

Kevin O'Dea: different cultures around the world, many different

Kevin O'Dea: types of lifestyles, experiences, cultures

Kevin O'Dea: all across this globe, some that we understand, some we don't

Kevin O'Dea: understand, and I wanted to kind of examine some of the cultures

Kevin O'Dea: that you might run into here, especially here in America. We,

Kevin O'Dea: you know, we champion the melting pot of cultures

Kevin O'Dea: that we have here. But let's look at maybe some of the traditions around the

Kevin O'Dea: world of some of the cultures that we have. Now, this is a thing now,

Kevin O'Dea: pray, so let's just

Kevin O'Dea: it does match my shirt.

Kevin O'Dea: Vonda. Alright. Some

Kevin O'Dea: tribes in China follow a tradition where the

Kevin O'Dea: husband carries his wife and walks over burning coals.

Kevin O'Dea: These tribes believe that this practice would help the wife have painless

Kevin O'Dea: labor, and some believe that walking over burning coals prevents

Kevin O'Dea: natural disasters. Some choose to do this as the husband and

Kevin O'Dea: wife take their Ghost step into their new home, and some choose to do it

Kevin O'Dea: when they know that the wife is pregnant. The husband usually does this barefoot

Kevin O'Dea: with his wife on his back. In a yearly

Kevin O'Dea: festival in Spain, men dressed in yellow, yellow run and jump

Kevin O'Dea: over babies. During this festival, babies born

Kevin O'Dea: in the previous year are placed in arranged rows of pillows spaced

Kevin O'Dea: out down on a public street. The men dressed in bright yellow

Kevin O'Dea: costumes and masks began to run down the street jumping over the rows of

Kevin O'Dea: children like Olympic hurdles hurdlers. This tradition

Kevin O'Dea: started in the early 1600s as the villagers obedience that this keeps the

Kevin O'Dea: devil away from these children.

Kevin O'Dea: Everyone grieves differently after the loss of a loved one

Kevin O'Dea: But the women in Indonesia have quite a unique and severe way of dealing with

Kevin O'Dea: grief when they lose a loved one the top joint of the woman's

Kevin O'Dea: finger is amputated String will be tightly tied around the

Kevin O'Dea: finger until it goes numb, and then a family member, often a sibling or a

Kevin O'Dea: parent, will cut off the top of the finger. The wound is then burnt

Kevin O'Dea: to stop the bleeding and prevent infection. This process is carried out to symbolize the

Kevin O'Dea: pain suffered after the loss of a loved one. In the

Kevin O'Dea: Arab culture, greeting a friend or meeting a new person consists of 3 gentle

Kevin O'Dea: nudges or rubs of the nose. The importance of the nose in the

Kevin O'Dea: Arab culture cannot be overstated, it symbolizes pride and honor, and is

Kevin O'Dea: even used as a metaphor in the Arabic language to describe a

Kevin O'Dea: person who has high self esteem and is proud.

Kevin O'Dea: Placed in the center of the face, the nose carries profound symbolism, making it the

Kevin O'Dea: the place to greet someone with the utmost respect.

Kevin O'Dea: Lastly, in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, a boy does

Kevin O'Dea: not become a man unless he can withstand being stung by a swarm of bullet

Kevin O'Dea: ants. This ant,

Kevin O'Dea: Ghost say that the

Kevin O'Dea: sting is just as excruciating as being shot by a bullet. The

Kevin O'Dea: initiation ritual includes the boy sticking their hands in a glove full

Kevin O'Dea: of bullet ants while they dance. Moreover, this tradition is not

Kevin O'Dea: a one time thing. The boy must go through this routine as many times as

Kevin O'Dea: it takes for him not to cry during the process. The day

Kevin O'Dea: he can adore this torture without shedding a single tear is the day

Kevin O'Dea: he becomes a real man.

Kevin O'Dea: Now we hear those cultural and

Kevin O'Dea: traditional experiences that people have

Kevin O'Dea: and many of us in this room would look and say man, that is so

Kevin O'Dea: weird, that is so odd, that is so

Kevin O'Dea: strange and to some of us it really is, but

Kevin O'Dea: it's not to them. We

Kevin O'Dea: are a people whose stories are woven

Kevin O'Dea: based on our cultural experiences and where

Kevin O'Dea: we grew up and who we were assigned to and the places

Kevin O'Dea: geographically we live. And so our

Kevin O'Dea: experiences and our culture is vastly

Kevin O'Dea: different than our brothers and sisters, let me reiterate, our

Kevin O'Dea: brothers and sisters around the globe. And

Kevin O'Dea: we have a very different obedience, but just because we have a different

Kevin O'Dea: experience doesn't necessarily mean that whatever they

Kevin O'Dea: are doing is wrong. It simply

Kevin O'Dea: helps us understand and opens our mind to while there

Kevin O'Dea: are many different cultures and many different ways to do

Kevin O'Dea: things and many different ways to handle circumstances and situations.

Kevin O'Dea: Everybody has a story and we cannot

Kevin O'Dea: be quick to judge that which we do not understand.

Kevin O'Dea: We ought not be quick to judge that which we do

Kevin O'Dea: not understand. We had a foreign exchange student, his name

Kevin O'Dea: was Nai Fu, he was from China, he came, lived with us, this was probably

Kevin O'Dea: a decade ago, And I remember one of the Ghost mornings that he was with

Kevin O'Dea: us, or 1st week he was with us, he had grabbed all of

Kevin O'Dea: his underwear and he took it to our kitchen sink and took a wooden

Kevin O'Dea: spoon and started washing his underwear in our sink with a

Kevin O'Dea: wooden spoon and soap because he didn't know how to use

Kevin O'Dea: a washing machine and so I had to go to

Kevin O'Dea: knife and pray oh no. No, no, this is not how we wash our underwear

Kevin O'Dea: here in the United States and so I began to teach

Kevin O'Dea: him and show him to go into the washing machine. He felt so bad. He

Kevin O'Dea: felt he felt so ashamed and so and so bad that that he did

Kevin O'Dea: that simultaneously we had another boy he was from Brazil

Kevin O'Dea: he was a little more wealthier and

Kevin O'Dea: his underwear stood in the middle of the floor of the hallway. And I said,

Kevin O'Dea: Antonio, you need to clean your underwear. And he said, no, that's for your wife.

Kevin O'Dea: And in our culture in the United States when you

Kevin O'Dea: say something like that you're on a plane on the way back home.

Kevin O'Dea: Both boys were excellent and we were so glad to have them in our house.

Kevin O'Dea: They had to acclimate to our culture. They

Kevin O'Dea: had to acclimate to that acclimate to to

Kevin O'Dea: the way that we do things here and we learned about their culture and

Kevin O'Dea: how they did things from where they were. They have a

Kevin O'Dea: story you have a story

Kevin O'Dea: Everyone has a story. In addition,

Kevin O'Dea: everyone is a sinner. Doesn't matter what your background is,

Kevin O'Dea: where you come from, what color, nationality, creed, everyone on planet

Kevin O'Dea: Earth has got the same chronic issue.

Kevin O'Dea: We are all sinners. We are all

Kevin O'Dea: sinners Romans 3 says this for all have all means

Kevin O'Dea: all for all Ascend and fallen short of the

Kevin O'Dea: glory of God and because of this truth because we have

Kevin O'Dea: sinned and fallen short of the glory of God not only does everybody have

Kevin O'Dea: a story not not only is everybody sinned,

Kevin O'Dea: everybody needs a Savior. Everybody

Kevin O'Dea: needs a Savior. And

Kevin O'Dea: so as we examine cultures and as we think

Kevin O'Dea: about different people and different body,

Kevin O'Dea: it's not so far different than the person who's sitting next to you

Kevin O'Dea: or behind you or in front of you that you're not

Kevin O'Dea: daily connected to and the fact that they have a story,

Kevin O'Dea: a pathway, a journey that they have walked that you may

Kevin O'Dea: not know all the details about, you may not know all

Kevin O'Dea: the circumstances of, but somehow that brought them their

Kevin O'Dea: story, their pathway, their journey brought them to Smyrna, Tennessee at a small

Kevin O'Dea: church on Old Nashville Highway this morning called Spring House Church.

Kevin O'Dea: All of us have a story. We all have different circumstances. Why is it

Kevin O'Dea: then Christians, Christian meaning being like Ghost, why is it

Kevin O'Dea: then Christians that we look at people and we do not give

Kevin O'Dea: them the empathy that they need to understand they

Kevin O'Dea: have a story just like we do? Why is it that

Kevin O'Dea: when certain behaviors are expressed by people who

Kevin O'Dea: might believe or may not believe, people have gone astray, people have denied

Kevin O'Dea: Christ, why then is there an automatic expectation,

Kevin O'Dea: after we've given our life to Christ, that we say they have got to

Kevin O'Dea: perform with excellence, just like the Pharisees expected the people of that

Kevin O'Dea: time to perform with excellence and follow every rule to the T.

Kevin O'Dea: The indicator on whether or not you know the Lord has everything to do with

Kevin O'Dea: your behavior, and so since I see certain behaviors that don't line up with the

Kevin O'Dea: word, you must not love the Lord, and I'm going to make sure you know

Kevin O'Dea: about and everybody else does.

Kevin O'Dea: I wonder how many of us

Kevin O'Dea: enjoy the benefit of the grace, the bevy of grace

Kevin O'Dea: that Jesus gives us, but once we succumb to that grace

Kevin O'Dea: and once we acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior, and once we take what

Kevin O'Dea: we need from him, then we go get the pharise cynical garban

Kevin O'Dea: and we walk around as Pharisees trying to preach to everybody else pointing the

Kevin O'Dea: finger this way. Now, some would

Kevin O'Dea: say, oh, here goes another little soft message that we're going to do at Spring

Kevin O'Dea: House about how we're supposed to love others.

Kevin O'Dea: I would argue that this is the most important message that Christians could

Kevin O'Dea: ever hear The way that we are

Kevin O'Dea: supposed to treat others because Jesus Christ came and spread his blood not only so

Kevin O'Dea: that we can be reconciled to him, so that we can be reconciled to one

Kevin O'Dea: another, so that we can be reconciled to one another, and

Kevin O'Dea: so there was an accusation made of Jesus and it was this, Jesus

Kevin O'Dea: is a friend of sinners. Now we

Kevin O'Dea: look at that pray, especially on this side of salvation, this side of the story,

Kevin O'Dea: and we look at that and say, well that is actually a compliment. Jesus is

Kevin O'Dea: friend of sinners. It was not used as a compliment when it was said to

Kevin O'Dea: him, it was an accusation. Because the Pharisees saw

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus proclaiming God, teaching about God, yet he was hanging out

Kevin O'Dea: with those people. Can I tell you I am one of those people?

Kevin O'Dea: You are one of those people? And it seems to be that those

Kevin O'Dea: people, those people were more interested in hearing what Jesus

Kevin O'Dea: had to say than the people who knew more about Jesus themselves because of

Kevin O'Dea: what they've studied and what they and what they knew.

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus was a friend of sinners.

Kevin O'Dea: But a lot of times when we look at this we look at this phrase

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus friend of sinners if we're honest with ourselves. We read it our mind

Kevin O'Dea: doesn't contemplate Jesus our mind doesn't really even contemplate

Kevin O'Dea: friend our eyes and our mind is drawn right to sinners. And then

Kevin O'Dea: we build a wall right in between us and everybody else who qualifies for

Kevin O'Dea: sinner. I want you to know that we qualify a

Kevin O'Dea: sinner all have sinned, right? So just for a few

Kevin O'Dea: moments just for me and for us today and just lay a framework. I

Kevin O'Dea: want to eliminate the preposition there and I want to just talk about Jesus as

Kevin O'Dea: a friend. I wanna talk just a moment

Kevin O'Dea: about Jesus as a friend. Jesus

Kevin O'Dea: defines friendship in a way that is

Kevin O'Dea: counter church to the way we define friendship here in

Kevin O'Dea: America and probably around the globe. The word

Kevin O'Dea: that is used in scripture for friendship all throughout the New Testament

Kevin O'Dea: is the word phileo phileo And phileo

Kevin O'Dea: has a very Spirit meaning when it

Kevin O'Dea: comes to friendship and I want to read this to you. Phileo

Kevin O'Dea: love is shown within close friendships.

Kevin O'Dea: This is a generous and affectionate love that seeks to

Kevin O'Dea: make the other person happy with no

Kevin O'Dea: expectation for the acts of kindness to be returned.

Kevin O'Dea: Now, we can stop right there. I'm your

Kevin O'Dea: friend and I want you to be happy and I want

Kevin O'Dea: to be generous to you, but I am measuring the reciprocation

Kevin O'Dea: every day That is not phileo love.

Kevin O'Dea: It's not the love. He's talking about it's not really the supernatural kingdom minded love

Kevin O'Dea: we're supposed to have for one another. Remember selflessness

Kevin O'Dea: requires nothing in return. So to

Kevin O'Dea: continue. David and Jonathan are one

Kevin O'Dea: of the Bible's best examples of phileo love within a friendship in 1

Kevin O'Dea: Samuel 18:1-three it describes their friendship and it says in part

Kevin O'Dea: that the soul of Jonathan was knit

Kevin O'Dea: to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him

Kevin O'Dea: as his own soul. Then Jonathan made a

Kevin O'Dea: covenant or a promise with David because he loved him as

Kevin O'Dea: his own soul. Now, we don't understand this, this is kind of like,

Kevin O'Dea: this is kind of like me, us walking on coals with our spouses on

Kevin O'Dea: our backs, this is counter cultural that you would have a

Kevin O'Dea: friend, a deep friendship with somebody that would be

Kevin O'Dea: intimate enough that you would be connected by

Kevin O'Dea: soul. But Jesus Christ came to obliterate

Kevin O'Dea: the cultural bias and lens, the cultural

Kevin O'Dea: definition of love and friendship and relationship, he came to obliterate

Kevin O'Dea: that and redefine it in the way that he saw it.

Kevin O'Dea: And if we would embrace supernaturally the way that

Kevin O'Dea: God sees friendship and sees, sees relationship,

Kevin O'Dea: we would see some things happen in us that would allow us to heal

Kevin O'Dea: from past wounds, heal from Ghost brokenness, heal

Kevin O'Dea: crevices in our lives in ways that you would never imagine possible.

Kevin O'Dea: Have you ever had a friend Ghost stepped into

Kevin O'Dea: your life and said I'm willing to give everything to

Kevin O'Dea: you. I'm willing to do anything for you. I love you because

Kevin O'Dea: of who you are despite what you

Kevin O'Dea: do for me to me or with me in return.

Kevin O'Dea: And the truth of the matter is those friends are very, very far and

Kevin O'Dea: few between if you even have them but everybody

Kevin O'Dea: in the room longs to have one like that.

Kevin O'Dea: Everyone in the room longs to have a relationship

Kevin O'Dea: like that. And so, let's look at some of the list of the

Kevin O'Dea: qualities of a good friend. Let's just very basic, pray, so I

Kevin O'Dea: want you to think everybody, I'm gonna have you raise your hand,

Kevin O'Dea: but I would say everybody in here has friends and some of you would say,

Kevin O'Dea: man, I've got, you know, I've got let's just pretend right now.

Kevin O'Dea: We're all friends. Pray. We're all friends. Pray, even

Kevin O'Dea: if you don't like the person you're sitting next to right now, we're our friends,

Kevin O'Dea: okay? Everybody's friends in this room, okay? We start on this list and

Kevin O'Dea: we go down this road of friendship and I want you to notice

Kevin O'Dea: as it gets harder the base of friendships gets

Kevin O'Dea: lower and lower. Let's watch. The first qualification friends

Kevin O'Dea: should be refreshing. Friends should be refreshing when you get into your

Kevin O'Dea: friends presence man it should be something where there's laughter. There's joy. There's a refreshing

Kevin O'Dea: element that comes friends should be encouraging.

Kevin O'Dea: Encouraging nothing like a friend that comes in and Ghost spouts out discouragement to you

Kevin O'Dea: all the time. I think that's abuse. That's not friendship.

Kevin O'Dea: Friends should be helpful. Oh, we just eliminated.

Kevin O'Dea: Pray, there's 20%. Why is there

Kevin O'Dea: 20% gone because all friends say I'll be there anytime you need me. But when

Kevin O'Dea: the rubber hits the road doesn't always act that way doesn't always look that way.

Kevin O'Dea: Do you got some friends that you can call up in a moment's notice and

Kevin O'Dea: they will be there no matter what's going on.

Kevin O'Dea: You can't be that for body, but you got some

Kevin O'Dea: friends that you call up and it's they're there.

Kevin O'Dea: Friends should be affectionate. Tell you what, you saw that Pray picture up there,

Kevin O'Dea: somebody got real queasy because of our culture.

Kevin O'Dea: But friends should be able to be affectionate. Bible even talks

Kevin O'Dea: about greeting each other with a holy kiss. We have so perverted

Kevin O'Dea: affection in our culture that we dismiss the

Kevin O'Dea: healing properties and powers in affectionate love.

Kevin O'Dea: Just dismiss another 40% of that group.

Kevin O'Dea: Trustworthy. Well now we're down to just a few.

Kevin O'Dea: What do you mean? Trustworthy means that if I am in

Kevin O'Dea: relationship with you, if I'm in friendship with you and I have

Kevin O'Dea: beared my all and I have given you all this information

Kevin O'Dea: about what's going on inside my life, then you take that information

Kevin O'Dea: and decide, I'm I'm just gonna go carry this on to this person that has

Kevin O'Dea: no clue, no idea, or no relationship with

Kevin O'Dea: this person, and then the trust is severed and broken because you took

Kevin O'Dea: the information outside of the context of the relationship.

Kevin O'Dea: Friends should be trustworthy. I was just trying to help you. I

Kevin O'Dea: didn't give you permission to do that. Go to

Kevin O'Dea: the lord.

Kevin O'Dea: Now, we're really getting low. Friends should be

Kevin O'Dea: forgiving.

Kevin O'Dea: You wronged me and so I'm out of here

Kevin O'Dea: Until you realize how much the blood

Kevin O'Dea: of Jesus Christ covered your own sin.

Kevin O'Dea: How many have had a friend that really just blew it or maybe you were

Kevin O'Dea: a friend that you just blew it? I mean, you just completely

Kevin O'Dea: and you had a friend who offered grace and forgave you

Kevin O'Dea: despite the circumstance and the situation.

Kevin O'Dea: Forgiveness. A few more attached with the

Kevin O'Dea: actual verses because we're getting real slim on our on our

Kevin O'Dea: on our pool looks like. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your

Kevin O'Dea: mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs. You

Kevin O'Dea: know, I'm going to say something that's probably God to hit hard for some of

Kevin O'Dea: you And it's probably just because I'm how I'm wired but

Kevin O'Dea: the jabs that we make at one another the sarcastic remarks that we make

Kevin O'Dea: at one another the things where that are actually hurtful were

Kevin O'Dea: words are powerful God used words to create the world words

Kevin O'Dea: are powerful. And I would solicit to

Kevin O'Dea: you just allow the Lord to maybe minister to your mind that

Kevin O'Dea: when you're jabbing and when the other person's laughing, you may

Kevin O'Dea: actually be hurting them on a deep level that you don't understand because they don't

Kevin O'Dea: know how to respond. The Bible

Kevin O'Dea: says don't let any don't let some unwholesome talk come out of

Kevin O'Dea: your mouth as long as you're with these people. No. Don't let any unwholesome talk.

Kevin O'Dea: Guys, there is enough in this culture that beats people down. Why would we need

Kevin O'Dea: to do that in the church? Why do we need to do that to each

Kevin O'Dea: other? Let's put each other

Kevin O'Dea: up. Again, Do

Kevin O'Dea: nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit rather in humility

Kevin O'Dea: value others above yourself. I'm

Kevin O'Dea: putting your needs above mine. And here's

Kevin O'Dea: the real kicker. Jesus said this greater love has no one than

Kevin O'Dea: this that he laid down one's life for his

Kevin O'Dea: friend. Went and played in an escape room recently

Kevin O'Dea: with James actually and, we were in this this

Kevin O'Dea: spaceship or whatever and at the end we got to the end and it was

Kevin O'Dea: like countdown and I realized when we were in there I just

Kevin O'Dea: as I was putting all of it together somebody's gonna have to sacrifice their

Kevin O'Dea: life in order to win this somebody has to go into where the bomb

Kevin O'Dea: Ghost off and the door has to shut and as soon as I realized

Kevin O'Dea: that I took the thing I opened the door and I threw myself in the

Kevin O'Dea: room and closed it so that he could live now sounds kind of like a

Kevin O'Dea: like pat me on the back story. But it

Kevin O'Dea: is a picture. It is a picture

Kevin O'Dea: of when the rubber hits the road. And there's

Kevin O'Dea: got to be a sacrifice made for friendship. Do you have somebody in your

Kevin O'Dea: life? That's willing to no matter what take the key and jump in

Kevin O'Dea: and close the door. It's no conversation. There's no There's

Kevin O'Dea: just I'm going to do this.

Kevin O'Dea: Fileo love, phileo love

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus was a friend a phileo friend to

Kevin O'Dea: sinners. To the people with

Kevin O'Dea: stories, to the people with the mess, to the people

Kevin O'Dea: who did not measure up according to the Pharisees, Jesus

Kevin O'Dea: was a friend to sinners and if Jesus was a friend to

Kevin O'Dea: sinners, how ought we be treating one another?

Kevin O'Dea: Now Jesus did not condone sin. He did not

Kevin O'Dea: endorse sin. Jesus never participated in sin, but

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus covered sin. Jesus covered

Kevin O'Dea: sin so that we would have a pathway to him in

Kevin O'Dea: relationship. Jesus covered our sin so that

Kevin O'Dea: a dialogue and a conversation could happen. The word

Kevin O'Dea: says come, let us reason together,

Kevin O'Dea: let us discuss the matter at hand. God has

Kevin O'Dea: not, He has not relented chasing after those who are

Kevin O'Dea: running from him, who are confused by him, who have questions that are

Kevin O'Dea: unanswered, who don't really know what they're doing, who are headed

Kevin O'Dea: to destruction, he has not split the sky because there is a dying world out

Kevin O'Dea: there that needs to know the truth of Jesus

Kevin O'Dea: Ghost. And as we discovered a few weeks

Kevin O'Dea: ago, God's chosen instrument is people.

Kevin O'Dea: He wants to use you to convey His love to

Kevin O'Dea: a dying world. And so I think

Kevin O'Dea: of people in scripture Jesus going up and seeing

Kevin O'Dea: Zacchaeus in the tree, Zacchaeus who stole

Kevin O'Dea: money who probably had lots of insecurities

Kevin O'Dea: inside him and Jesus says I've got to come to your house today.

Kevin O'Dea: I think of Mary Magdalene who appeared at dinner when

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus is reclining at the table and pours out expensive perfume

Kevin O'Dea: all over Jesus's feet because Jesus was compassionate

Kevin O'Dea: and allowed her to have a story that was

Kevin O'Dea: of brokenness and he was offering the opportunity for

Kevin O'Dea: healing. Nobody at the table understood that, you know what they saw? You're spending

Kevin O'Dea: and

Kevin O'Dea: I think of the woman who was caught in the middle of adultery.

Kevin O'Dea: Everybody with a stone, not one person taking a moment to

Kevin O'Dea: find out what the circumstances or what the story behind it, all we

Kevin O'Dea: see is the sin and we're ready to cast the stone. Is that

Kevin O'Dea: how we're living our lives, church, today?

Kevin O'Dea: Because it's not how Jesus rolled. It's not how

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus operated when he found other people going through

Kevin O'Dea: things. Jesus always made time and made room

Kevin O'Dea: and made space to just be.

Kevin O'Dea: So what I want you to understand today is when we cross

Kevin O'Dea: people who are mixed up in all sorts of mess, I want you

Kevin O'Dea: to understand that you have a story, a journey too.

Kevin O'Dea: You have a journey as well. And everybody is

Kevin O'Dea: walking this journey out empathy is the

Kevin O'Dea: ability to understand and be sensitive to the

Kevin O'Dea: experiences of somebody

Kevin O'Dea: else. Now you might not know the details

Kevin O'Dea: of somebody else's story, but you know that they've got a

Kevin O'Dea: story and you can empathize that everyone has a

Kevin O'Dea: story. Everyone is a sinner and everyone needs a

Kevin O'Dea: savior Just like you needed a savior.

Kevin O'Dea: In my life guys. My life was not radically

Kevin O'Dea: changed because I was messing up on the side of the road. I was

Kevin O'Dea: doing XY and Z and somebody just put a big flashlight on my life and

Kevin O'Dea: had a stone ready to say you're messing up. You need to get your life

Kevin O'Dea: together. Look what's going on.

Kevin O'Dea: Pay attention Kevin wake up. You need to get it together.

Kevin O'Dea: Love changed my life. Love

Kevin O'Dea: changed my life and

Kevin O'Dea: for some reason guys we tend to get in this

Kevin O'Dea: thing that we we see God's amazing

Kevin O'Dea: grace in His love The word talks about His banner

Kevin O'Dea: over me His love right? And so, we see this amazing

Kevin O'Dea: love that He has placed in our life.

Kevin O'Dea: Upon salvation. And we get under here

Kevin O'Dea: and we realize how really good it is. And we

Kevin O'Dea: initially really realize it because when you're out in the

Kevin O'Dea: world, and some of you have these types of testimonies and stories, when you're

Kevin O'Dea: out in the world and you recognize what

Kevin O'Dea: God has saved you from and you recognize all

Kevin O'Dea: of the pain and depression and defeat and all of the the destruction you're added

Kevin O'Dea: toward and you realize now that you have life, when we get

Kevin O'Dea: over here it is eye opening, it is Marshall up there

Kevin O'Dea: saying my life is made new. My life is made

Kevin O'Dea: new. And you revel and you are

Kevin O'Dea: so excited to be under the banner of his

Kevin O'Dea: love because he has changed your life from the

Kevin O'Dea: inside out. Justin come on up here, James

Kevin O'Dea: come up here, John come up here, please.

Kevin O'Dea: Like one of you just sit on the bench and the other 2 just kind

Kevin O'Dea: of hang out.

Kevin O'Dea: So what happens here is we get

Kevin O'Dea: these guys are mixed up in sin. Doesn't it look like it?

Kevin O'Dea: These guys are mixed up in sin and they're rolling together and

Kevin O'Dea: they're and they're every type of every type

Kevin O'Dea: of you fill in the blank because you can think of a million whatever

Kevin O'Dea: this whatever your sin of church is Baskin Robbins here 31

Kevin O'Dea: flavors choose 1. They're mixed up in this, okay?

Kevin O'Dea: But the pray, but the thing I want you to understand is while they're mixed

Kevin O'Dea: up in this sin, John has his own story. He pray

Kevin O'Dea: end up ended up in the same place, but he has his own story. Justin

Kevin O'Dea: may have ended up in the same place, but he has his own story.

Kevin O'Dea: James may end up in the same place, but they all have their own

Kevin O'Dea: story that the Lord wants to redeem.

Kevin O'Dea: It's interesting how sin will bring us to the similar place, the

Kevin O'Dea: similar hole of destruction, won't it?

Kevin O'Dea: And so all of a sudden all of a sudden let's say

Kevin O'Dea: John, he goes to some revival, right? And John all

Kevin O'Dea: of a sudden is introduced to Jesus and everything has changed in his

Kevin O'Dea: life. He is now living under the banner of God's

Kevin O'Dea: love. The word tells us in the book of Psalms that the boundary lines of

Kevin O'Dea: my life have fallen in pleasant pray, and now for John, it has

Kevin O'Dea: fallen for him in pleasant places. He is so

Kevin O'Dea: excited about this new life, this abundant life that he has that

Kevin O'Dea: is so far in contrast to the life he was living over

Kevin O'Dea: here. So John gets, John gets saved,

Kevin O'Dea: John is over here under the banner of God's love,

Kevin O'Dea: and he is now confronted with the people that are

Kevin O'Dea: living Ghost lifestyle that that he used to live.

Kevin O'Dea: Now what so many of us do is we grab such a

Kevin O'Dea: hold of God's love here and we stay right here and we look

Kevin O'Dea: and we shout and we say, get your life

Kevin O'Dea: together, fix your problems.

Kevin O'Dea: Good job, buddy. Yeah, you don't have to yell. It's fine.

Kevin O'Dea: Yeah. And we

Kevin O'Dea: and we put we put everything at arm's length

Kevin O'Dea: because we're not going to abandon this. It's like no. This is this is banner

Kevin O'Dea: of God's love. I'm here. I am stable, I'm secure, I don't

Kevin O'Dea: want anything to do, I don't want anything It's good that you don't want anything

Kevin O'Dea: to do with that. But the problem is, John, is not only are you

Kevin O'Dea: responsible for the Lord moving in your life and changing your life, but He

Kevin O'Dea: has commissioned you to go out into the world

Kevin O'Dea: and spread His love and His gospel. You see, it continues to give, it's not

Kevin O'Dea: a selfish love, it is a selfless love that you have to give because now

Kevin O'Dea: you have, you've been over overcome by the blood of the lamb and the

Kevin O'Dea: word of your testimony. And so if you're staying here,

Kevin O'Dea: they're over there dying. And you know they're dying because you

Kevin O'Dea: used to be dying with them. I have no idea, I've got

Kevin O'Dea: my sin stuff is over here. I've got my own stuff. So I've got a

Kevin O'Dea: group of people I'm ministering to over here because I can relay. I

Kevin O'Dea: can empathize with the story that's happening over here, but

Kevin O'Dea: you can empathize with their story because you walk those paths. It

Kevin O'Dea: will be so interesting because when you open your eyes, the Lord will, all of

Kevin O'Dea: a sudden, all the people that you're walking with inside, they're just right there.

Kevin O'Dea: All the access to all the stuff that you used to be apart, right there,

Kevin O'Dea: so easy for you to grab. Why do you think that is? It's because the

Kevin O'Dea: Holy Spirit wants to use you as an agent of his grace. And

Kevin O'Dea: so what we do, well, now we have 2 choices. You can step out of

Kevin O'Dea: the banner of love and pray, well, that was good for a minute and you

Kevin O'Dea: can sit right back down and Welcome home.

Kevin O'Dea: Dive right back into that lifestyle and guys a lot of people do that.

Kevin O'Dea: A lot of people do that they get sidetracked and they get right back into

Kevin O'Dea: their lifestyle or come back over here. You can

Kevin O'Dea: understand that God has given you the ability

Kevin O'Dea: to be covered under his love

Kevin O'Dea: and you go and you sit.

Kevin O'Dea: Now, there's a difference here body. There's a difference here.

Kevin O'Dea: You're covered and you're hanging out here

Kevin O'Dea: and Justin has a story and your job

Kevin O'Dea: isn't to beat him to death with all of

Kevin O'Dea: your new life and all your new living and all this stuff. Our job is

Kevin O'Dea: to sit down and empathize with Justin. Now here's the

Kevin O'Dea: here's the thing, Justin was your best friend.

Kevin O'Dea: And so Justin's not very happy that you're coming back around with this.

Kevin O'Dea: And so he pushes you off the bench

Kevin O'Dea: and he hurts you. Ghost what your response is?

Kevin O'Dea: Go right back to the bench and sit down. Justin

Kevin O'Dea: talks bad about you, says all types of hurtful things about you,

Kevin O'Dea: spends your business that you told him that he wasn't supposed to know, pushes you

Kevin O'Dea: off the bench and scars you again. Guess why that

Kevin O'Dea: doesn't bother you? Because the Lord is taking care of all of your wounds and

Kevin O'Dea: all of the things and all of that pride that was in there is all

Kevin O'Dea: going down and he's redeeming all of that. So Ghost what you're limping and you're

Kevin O'Dea: scarred up and guess what you come right back here and you sit down.

Kevin O'Dea: Once more Justin isn't taking it so he just knocks you out just completely

Kevin O'Dea: knocks you out right?

Kevin O'Dea: And John, you continue to get up, but it's not in your own strength,

Kevin O'Dea: because greater is He who is in you than He is in the world, and

Kevin O'Dea: God has given you a supernatural a supernatural strength by the Holy Spirit

Kevin O'Dea: to get up and keep coming back. And eventually,

Kevin O'Dea: Justin doesn't coming back? And eventually, Justin doesn't have any more

Kevin O'Dea: in him to dish out to you where he eventually begins to break and concede

Kevin O'Dea: and the concession, the reason he's conceding is why would

Kevin O'Dea: you be so kind to keep coming back

Kevin O'Dea: and enduring the abuse I'm giving you after

Kevin O'Dea: years Listen to me, people, sometimes

Kevin O'Dea: you have to walk with people for years while they're

Kevin O'Dea: walking through their sin and their mess and their muck and their

Kevin O'Dea: mire, you keep showing up, you keep

Kevin O'Dea: sitting down because it's a part of their story.

Kevin O'Dea: And so, the Holy Spirit starts to get involved here and

Kevin O'Dea: Justin starts to pray because you did not give up on him,

Kevin O'Dea: and all of a sudden, you are the agent that he uses to hand a

Kevin O'Dea: gift of salvation over to Justin. All of a sudden, Justin now has the gift

Kevin O'Dea: of salvation and he too is now covered.

Kevin O'Dea: And now you can walk to the banner of His love

Kevin O'Dea: together and you can be healed.

Kevin O'Dea: Now James is going to hell.

Kevin O'Dea: I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Kevin O'Dea: But look at this power. Now you got 2 brothers in the

Kevin O'Dea: same situation, been set free, and this guy's over

Kevin O'Dea: here, and he's been the big thug of them all, he's actually started the whole

Kevin O'Dea: mess over here. He's got the big guns. And guys, you come over and sit

Kevin O'Dea: down, James, you come over and you start to get around him. And guys, it

Kevin O'Dea: might take years, it might take but my experience

Kevin O'Dea: has been that the Holy Spirit's contagious, Jesus is contagious,

Kevin O'Dea: and so you start getting enough of the people, the Lord starts moving in our

Kevin O'Dea: life, all of a sudden exponentially things start to change around that group

Kevin O'Dea: because nobody, whether they're in sin or not, wants to be isolated

Kevin O'Dea: and alone. It will drive you to the pit of sin, but

Kevin O'Dea: when you see that there is a gift of salvation out there that there is

Kevin O'Dea: something better that is attractive. You'll jump on board and then they begin to

Kevin O'Dea: offer Him and they bring Him over here also into the

Kevin O'Dea: banner of of His love and so, and then there's freedom,

Kevin O'Dea: There's freedom, right? Thank you guys so

Kevin O'Dea: much.

Kevin O'Dea: They're not leaving without their covering.

Kevin O'Dea: Jesus said that when the owner of the

Kevin O'Dea: sheep found the lost one. He

Kevin O'Dea: didn't yell at the sheep. He didn't kick the sheep. He didn't

Kevin O'Dea: slaughter the sheep because you messed up. He joyfully

Kevin O'Dea: picked it up on its shoulders. Let me let me let me He

Kevin O'Dea: picked it up and put it on his shoulders because he says, you don't have

Kevin O'Dea: the strength to come home alone. You need my strength

Kevin O'Dea: in order to make it home. And after carrying the

Kevin O'Dea: burden for the sheep, the first thing out of the

Kevin O'Dea: mouth when the sheep comes back into the fold isn't,

Kevin O'Dea: let me tell you what this sheep did. Let me tell you what

Kevin O'Dea: this sheep got into. Let me just expose everything that's

Kevin O'Dea: been going on. No. He says, rejoice with me I have

Kevin O'Dea: found my lost sheep. Rejoice with

Kevin O'Dea: me because that which was lost has

Kevin O'Dea: now been found, Has now

Kevin O'Dea: been found. Guys, we learn, Kol, come on, we learn over in

Kevin O'Dea: Romans 2 this, God's kindness is

Kevin O'Dea: intended to lead us to repentance.

Kevin O'Dea: It is his kindness that's intended to lead

Kevin O'Dea: us to repentance, notice there, it's God's

Kevin O'Dea: kindness. If Jesus was being kind to all of

Kevin O'Dea: these people in order to get them to a place of repentance,

Kevin O'Dea: what type of tools do we think we're using on the people that we see

Kevin O'Dea: who have gone astray?

Kevin O'Dea: We have to exercise the power of empathy,

Kevin O'Dea: understanding that we are not the one doing the

Kevin O'Dea: transformation or the work, it is Christ Jesus himself. He

Kevin O'Dea: is the one who changes lives. He uses us as

Kevin O'Dea: willing vessels to go out into the world and, guess what, be

Kevin O'Dea: under the blood of the lamb and the word of our

Kevin O'Dea: testimony, our story. Marshall, you had a story.

Kevin O'Dea: God is going to use that story to advance the kingdom. There are people who

Kevin O'Dea: have been down the dark roads that you've gone in, people you've hung out with,

Kevin O'Dea: people you've rubbed the elbows with, people you've probably drank with, buddy, people that you

Kevin O'Dea: just sat with in a pit and guess what? They're looking at you like, let

Kevin O'Dea: me see if this is really real. But guess what? Love

Kevin O'Dea: is exuding out of your life right now, joy is exuding out of your life,

Kevin O'Dea: the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the spirit is exuding out of your

Kevin O'Dea: life and it is attractive, and it is attractive, and so you

Kevin O'Dea: keep getting back there. You go to that bench every single time. You just sit

Kevin O'Dea: there. Let them push you off. Let them talk bad about you guys. That's called

Kevin O'Dea: suffering for Christ, just so you know. When people push

Kevin O'Dea: back, when people say, our lives are not supposed to necessarily just be cushy lives

Kevin O'Dea: where we're just all about how we can build wealth for ourselves. We are supposed

Kevin O'Dea: to be used as vessels to to minister and show

Kevin O'Dea: Christ to a dying world. That's why we're here. That's why this message is

Kevin O'Dea: so stinking important. Jesus,

Kevin O'Dea: he came to see the unseen. He came

Kevin O'Dea: to see the broken and I don't know where you are today because I believe

Kevin O'Dea: there's probably some people in here on their journey and you are

Kevin O'Dea: confused. You have questions that have gone unanswered.

Kevin O'Dea: You have prayed and prayed and prayed and it seems like God is distant.

Kevin O'Dea: And in all of those pray, in all of those things you keep coming back

Kevin O'Dea: and you don't necessarily know why you're coming back, but the reason you're coming back

Kevin O'Dea: is because he has always rendered kindness. He has always

Kevin O'Dea: been kind in all of those situations.

Kevin O'Dea: So I ask Cole to do this song.

Kevin O'Dea: So that we can recollect and remember

Kevin O'Dea: that we too have a story

Kevin O'Dea: and God is a significant part of our story in

Kevin O'Dea: how he responded to us. Go God ahead.

Kevin O'Dea: All he's ever been is kind.

Kevin O'Dea: Cross culturally, across all experiences,

Kevin O'Dea: circumstances, and stories, God renders kindness.

Kevin O'Dea: What's the goal? So that we would turn away from

Kevin O'Dea: the destruction of this world and

Kevin O'Dea: receive an abundant love that we can't even comprehend.

Kevin O'Dea: You have a story. And that story doesn't

Kevin O'Dea: just belong to you. God comes in, redeems

Kevin O'Dea: your story, and He uses it for a dying world.

Kevin O'Dea: So I don't know if you've gone astray or that you know somebody who's gone

Kevin O'Dea: astray or maybe you're working with people that have no

Kevin O'Dea: clue. But I encourage you,

Kevin O'Dea: keep sitting back down at the bench.

Kevin O'Dea: Keep going back to the mat. You're not supposed to do that with

Kevin O'Dea: everyone. Who's the Lord put in your

Kevin O'Dea: path? I don't know who He's put in my path. Ask Him.

Kevin O'Dea: Ask the Lord, Lord, who have you put in my path? And

Kevin O'Dea: to begin to exercise that phileo love we

Kevin O'Dea: talked about. This joy, unexplainable.

Kevin O'Dea: And lastly, I would pray, if you have a friend, you know,

Kevin O'Dea: we tend to be we tend to be

Kevin O'Dea: harsh to the people we're closest with because

Kevin O'Dea: we expect them to give us a margin of grace.

Kevin O'Dea: But if you have a friend in your life who is Thileo,

Kevin O'Dea: some of you do,

Kevin O'Dea: Thank the Lord. Express to them what it means to

Kevin O'Dea: you. Allow that to continue to be. And if you don't have that

Kevin O'Dea: type of friend, if you don't have that type of friend, start being that

Kevin O'Dea: type of friend to someone and watch the Lord

Kevin O'Dea: do exponential things with it. Would you stand

Kevin O'Dea: with me? I am going to give you a blessing this morning.

Kevin O'Dea: May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Kevin O'Dea: the one who breathes stars and spins the planets.

Kevin O'Dea: May this very big, huge, sovereign,

Kevin O'Dea: almighty God remind us of the

Kevin O'Dea: moment when he sat right next to us in our mess and pulled

Kevin O'Dea: us out of the muck and mire and set people in

Kevin O'Dea: our path that we can share his good loving grace

Kevin O'Dea: with. Thank you for your kindness, Lord. Jesus name,

Kevin O'Dea: amen. Be blessed Spirit House.