The Harvest Heart - Part 6 - Pastor Philip Steele - June 14th, 2026

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.

Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church.

We have more resources available to help you build your faith and frame your world by the Word of God.

From our website, lifeofffaith.net, you can connect to our YouTube channel.

Watch the live stream feed from our church services.

Access books and downloads in our web store.

And discover more about Life of Faith Church.

Producing live city, state, nation, and world.

Visit lifeoffaith.net today.

Amen.

Go today, this morning, uh to John chapter 3 with me, John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention John 3 · chapter mention

And we've been looking at this subject of a heart for the harvest.

And uh there's some things that the Lord has had us to get into uh concerning the love of God and how it's manifest in the lives of people.

Hallelujah.

And uh we want to welcome everyone here today, all of our newcomers.

God bless you.

Thank you for being with us today.

If you did not stop at the media center uh on your way in, please do so on the way out.

Uh we have a gift for you, and we would like to bless you for being here with us today.

John chapter 3 and verse 16, a very familiar verse.

John 3 · chapter mention

But there's so much here.

Of course, we know that this is a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus.

And Nicodemus was a secret follower of Jesus, and that's why he came to him at night.

And he began to talk to him, and he said, We know that you're sent from God because nobody can do these mighty works that you do if God wasn't with him.

And Jesus had told him, You have to be born again.

And as he explained this, he got down to verse 16, and he said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Now, if you've been in church any length of time, you've heard that verse.

But there's so many key areas here.

He says, first of all, God so loved the world.

God loved the world.

Now, that word world is the world that was, the world that is, the world that will come, right?

And the world there is not so much indicative of the planet as it is the people on the planet.

And he says, God so loved the world that he gave.

And the word loved is in the prominent position here in this sentence.

For God so loved the world that he gave.

So it was God's love bringing eternal life to the world.

The love of God.

God so loved the world that he gave that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

So God's motive, we can see God's motive, love.

We can see his action, he gave, and the gift, Jesus.

They're all one.

God's motive, which is love, God's action, which is giving, and God's gift, which is Jesus, are all one.

They're one inseparable unit.

Why?

Love could not be love without its expression and its gift.

Love is not just words.

Love is an act.

Love is an expression.

When you love somebody and you want to show them that you love them, oftentimes you get them a gift.

And it's an expression of your love.

And Jesus said to Nicodemus, understand this.

This is how much God loved the world so much he gave his perfect son.

That's how much he loved the world.

And so if you're breathing on the planet that we call earth, you're part of the world, and God loved you so much that he gave Jesus for you.

Hallelujah.

Everything about the gift of God is personal.

He did it for Kevin, but he did it for me.

He did it for Robbie, but he did it for you.

So, yes, I know he did it for you, but I know he really did it for me.

I have to take it personal.

So God's desire, God's motive was love.

Oh, this is important.

Why?

Because God did not send Jesus because of what we could do for him.

Love is never doing anything for anybody so that that person will do something for them.

Love never says, I'll do this for you if you do this for me.

Love says, I'll do this, period.

You know that saying, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

That's not a scripture.

That's not scripture.

I mean, I understand the meaning there, but that's not love.

Love doesn't say, I'll help you if you help me.

Love just says, I'll help you.

So when God looked at the world that was in need of a savior, he did not look at what the world could do for him.

He was only looking at what he could do for the world.

Hallelujah.

Both of those words, loved and gave, they emphasize something.

In the Greek, they emphasize something.

A definite act.

A definite act.

The result of his love was that he gave.

God so loved, definite act, that he gave, definite act.

He definitely did that.

The word there, of course, God so loved, is the word agape.

A love that has no strings attached.

A love that doesn't say, I love you, but do you really love me?

Agape is a love that says, I love you regardless of where you're at, what you're doing, how you're being, I love you.

Love does not excuse, love does not overlook, but love says right where you're at, right in the middle of what you're doing, right in the middle of the problems that you have.

I love you, I'll help you.

Right?

This is important.

You know, we used to hear in church all the time, especially when I was a kid growing up, you can't clean a fish before you catch them.

You got to catch them first, and then you can be concerned about cleaning them up.

Now, I know that's a that's an elementary thing, but with all of us, ever what stage of life you were at, there are people on the sound of my voice, you were born again when you were a child, others when you were a teenager, some when you were an adult, some older.

But here's the thing: God never looked at any of us and said, when you get everything right and you clean up just right and you do everything just correct, then we have something to talk about.

No, God understood that none of us had the ability to fix anything in our lives that we were dealing with, and he sent Jesus anyway, he sent the word anyway, and he said, right in the middle of where you're at, I'm gonna love you and help you.

Hallelujah.

Agape love.

It's a love that loves so profoundly it knows no limits, knows no boundaries as to how far it will go to show love to the recipient.

God so loved the world he gave.

The Bible says Jesus so loved us that he died for us.

Hallelujah.

If necessary, agape love will even sacrifice itself for the sake of the person it so deeply loves.

Agape is the highest form of love, a self-sacrificial love that moves the lover to action.

It's the highest form of love that there is.

And what you have, and I'll read you a verse in a minute that will bear this out.

Here's the thing: God does not need any of us to love him.

You'll hear people preach sometimes, and they'll leave you with the indication that somehow God needs something to feel good about that.

God doesn't need anybody to make him feel good about anything.

He's God.

The Bible says he's the one that fills all in all.

He is He is the epitome of completeness in Himself.

There's no deficiency in God.

He has nothing in His personality that says, I need you to make me feel better about myself.

God never, God, if we could use this analogy, God never wakes up in the morning and says, I really need somebody to tell me they love me because I don't feel very godly today.

He doesn't need my praise.

He says he inhabits my praise.

He doesn't say I need it, I inhabit it.

I move on the wings of your praise.

Why?

God is God all by himself.

He needs no one to make him feel better.

Here's my point.

So he did not love you to get something from you.

He loved you just to love you.

He loved you to fix you, he loved you to heal you, he loved you to turn your life around.

God sent Jesus all for us.

Hallelujah.

I've heard people say, well, you know, God got a family out of it.

He did.

He did get a family out of it.

But God was not incomplete without a family.

Everything he did for man, he created man because he loved man.

He, when he created the man, he put him in a perfect environment because he loved that man.

That man turned against the love of God.

And God, even in that moment, he put man out of the garden, and people say it was punishment.

No, it wasn't.

It was not punishment.

He said, I've got to get him out of the garden because I love him so much.

I don't want him to partake of the tree of eternal life in a fallen, cursed condition.

I've got to get him out of the garden.

Why?

I love him so much.

Hallelujah.

Do you see that?

So God didn't heal us, save us, deliver us because he needed something from us.

Remember when the prophet, even under the old the first covenant, the prophet Elijah, he went to God and he said, I'm all by myself.

I'm the only one left.

And God said, Look, I've got hundreds that haven't bowed their knee to Baal.

Right?

In other words, there are other people that will do what you're doing.

So God is looking for the willing, and He will use and empower and bless the willing.

But He doesn't need anything from me.

Hallelujah.

Agape is love with no strings attached.

No strings.

There's no strings attached to God's love.

I love you, and that's it.

Hallelujah.

Do you see this?

This is important.

And this is not a message to teach on that, but I realize there's holy living and godly living and things that God asks us to do, and I understand that.

And we ought to live that way.

But here's the thing: God says, there's no strings attached to my love.

I love you.

That's it.

He said, I love you with what kind of love?

An everlasting love.

Hallelujah.

Look at Romans 5 and 8.

Romans 5 and 8.

The apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit says, but God commended his love toward us.

The word commended is he proved, he showed, he exhibited, he demonstrated his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were yet sinners, God demonstrated his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, not born again, not one with him, he sent Christ to die for us.

One translation says this God put his love on the line for us by offering his son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatsoever to him.

So God didn't wait until we were of some use to him.

He had Jesus die before we wanted anything to do with God.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

So whenever you got saved, but before you got saved, you wanted nothing to do with God.

And then somehow, somehow, he got the gospel to you and you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what happened?

But God that you didn't want anything to do with saved you, turned your life around, rescued you, and delivered you.

All because you chose to have something to do with him.

Hallelujah.

Isn't that great?

And so there are people today, they're living their lives like they don't need God.

They don't want anything to do with God.

They're of absolutely no use to him whatsoever.

And all they have to turn and do is say, God, forgive me.

I repent in the name of Jesus.

I need Jesus to be my Lord.

Bam! Instantly the love of God comes into their life, and they're a new creature, they're a son or daughter of God.

And they've not proven anything.

All they've did is ask God to change their life.

God didn't wait for you to prove it.

God didn't wait for you to prove that you meant it.

Amen.

I've talked to people before and they say, well, you know, I mean, they asked me to forgive them, but I'm waiting to see if they mean it.

What do you mean?

That's not the love of God.

Love just forgives.

Amen.

And that's what God did.

Do you know God knows everything about you?

Now we know that.

Think about this.

God with total knowledge, omniscient, omnipresent, God knows everything.

There's nothing about you he doesn't know.

He said, I know your hidden thoughts, I know the hidden motives of your heart.

Think about that.

He saved you and knew the next time you were going to mess up.

And saved you before you ever did it.

And knew you were going to do it and had already provided forgiveness through the avenue of 1 John chapter 1, verse 9, that says, if the believer sins, God is faithful and just to forgive.

1 John 1:9

My God, he's faithful and just to forgive us, and he knew he forgives us for something he knew we were going to do.

Hallelujah.

The immensity of God and his love.

Hallelujah.

He knew that was going to happen, and he saved you anyway.

He knew when you were going to do the same thing again, and he forgave you anyway.

The whole time that person was saying, God, I promise I'll never do it again.

He knew when he was going to do it again and he forgave him anyway.

And when he did it again, he said, God forgive me, I'll never do it again.

He knew when he's going to do it again and he forgave him anyway.

Because that's love.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

And the whole time that he's forgiving, the whole time he's forgiving, he's empowering you to give you victory over that.

Because the more God loves you and the more you receive that love, the stronger you become in your spirit.

The closer you get to God, the stronger you are in your walk with God.

And that's why you've got to understand the love God has for you.

That's what the apostle John wrote when he said in 1 John, he said, We have known and believed the love that God has for us.

I gotta know it.

Yes, I know God loves me, but I believe God loves me.

How do I how can I know and believe God loves me?

I believe it because he said, I sent my son because I love you.

I love you with an everlasting love.

God is love.

Hallelujah.

Why that's shouting ground.

God loved us before we were able to love him back.

God simply loved us without any thought or expectation of receiving anything in return.

Hallelujah.

Agape is not looking for what it can get, but what it can give.

Agape is compelled to show love regardless of the response.

Regardless of the response.

Agape simply loves without any thought or expectation of receiving love in return.

We see that even in the Old Testament.

God said, I've stretched out my hand to you day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, century after century, and you just won't turn to me.

Hallelujah.

How do I know that God operates in that kind of love today?

Because he operated in that kind of love before Jesus ever came and died on the cross.

The love of God did not show up when Jesus died on the cross, it was already there.

That's what sent Jesus.

God cannot change.

And that's why you read all through the Old Testament and we and we talk about that.

We think, can you believe those people?

Well, it's just more blatant there.

Amen.

Over and over again, he said, I've stretched out my hand, tried to get you to sit change, tried to get things, and over and over and over and over again.

Why?

Because he's love.

Amen.

God did not wait for us to love him.

He loved us first and proved that love by sending Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin.

Hallelujah.

Look at 1 John 4 and 19.

You know, over the years I've I've had people, as a pastor, I've had people say that.

They'd say, Well, you know, I just got some things I need to clear up, and then I'll be ready.

Wait a minute.

You can't clear them up without his help.

See, you're trying to clear up what you messed up.

And if you messed it up, you can't clean it up.

It takes the love of God to fix that.

And it doesn't matter how fractured something is, it doesn't matter how far away I seem to be in some areas, the love of God will fix it.

He said in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19, a very simple verse, but notice this we love him because he first loved us.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

We love him because he first loved us.

So God started the love action.

He loved us first.

Everything in our life, God was first.

My life, God gave it to me.

My existence, God gave it to me.

My abilities, God gave them to me.

Right?

The very breath I breathe, God gave it to me.

My sight, my hearing, my you name it, God gave it to me.

So when Paul wrote and he said, he said, You're not your own, you're bought with a price, therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit that belongs to God's.

To God.

My body belongs to God by right of purchase and right of creation.

He created me.

Because he created me, he has a right to me.

But because he loves so deeply, he allows people that he created and that he gave life to to live outside of what he wants for them because God is love and he will not force you into anything, it must be accepted and received because it's a free gift.

Oh, hallelujah! And so people will say, I need to fix this and clean this up, and then I'll be ready.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're ready right now.

You may not know you're ready, but I can tell you, you're ready.

Stick a fork in you.

You're ready.

You're done.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

You know, when you're you're making biscuits, whoo, Jesus.

And and you can kind of tell by the way they look on top when they're about done in the middle.

You don't don't pull them out too early because you'll you'll you'll have a doughy mess.

Don't leave them in there too long, they'll burn.

Now you know that.

And if God knows when we're ready.

That's why I said today.

Today is the acceptable time of salvation.

Today, right now.

Why?

Because you're hearing the word in whatever capacity, you're hearing the word.

When somebody came to you on the street and witnessed to you where some of you got saved, it was because you were ready that day.

That was not a coincidence.

That person just didn't decide to go witnessing that day.

God had moved on them to be where they were.

God had put you there.

It was your day of salvation.

And here's the thing: there were days of salvation that all of us overlooked.

We walked past, we didn't accept them.

And what did God do?

He appointed another day when somebody else would encounter us and share the gospel with us.

Why?

Because he's consistently going after the people that he loves.

So God initiated, God started the love action.

God did not need to be reconciled to man.

Man needed to be reconciled to him.

God never left man, man left God.

God never went anywhere.

Amen.

You know, it's like the story of the couple they'd been married about 45 years, something like that.

And the wife told her husband one day, she said, you know, honey, she said, we used to ride down the road, and she said, uh, people couldn't tell if it was one person or two.

We were so close.

He said, Yeah, that's true.

He said, but honey, here's the thing.

He said, all these years, I've been doing all the driving.

Who moved?

I didn't move.

God never moved.

God never moved out of the position of being man's savior.

God never moved out of the position of wanting a relationship with mankind.

God never needed to be reconciled to us because God never left.

You know, I hear people sometimes and they make a statement that I don't understand.

I believe they do not understand what they're saying.

Well, you know, I got mad at God.

For what?

What has God ever done for you to be mad at him about?

Well, he didn't do this and he didn't do that and he didn't do this.

No, no, we can't, we cannot, we cannot truthfully and justly say that.

Because God always does what faith will permit him to do.

You can have two people sitting in a service on the same row, both of them unsaved.

And one will give their life to Jesus and the other one won't.

Why didn't both of them get saved?

Why didn't God make both of them get saved?

Because one of them chose to accept the love and the other chose to reject it.

This is important.

Never get mad at God because He's your answer.

He's the one that stays with you through everything.

He's the one that stays with you when you don't understand.

He stays with you through your mistakes.

He stays with you through your failures.

He stays with you no matter what, the darkest night, the brightest days.

He stays with you when everything's going right and when everything's going wrong.

He's the answer.

He's the very present help in the time of trouble.

He's your rock.

He's your eternal God.

He's your fortress.

He won't fail you.

Because he's love.

And here's the thing: love cannot violate its principles.

Love cannot violate its principles.

Amen.

That's why everybody, everybody in the world is not going to be saved.

Because love said this: You've got to believe in the price that Jesus paid, you've got to receive him as your Lord, and you've got to encounter me as your father.

Everybody's not going to do that.

And love will not violate its principles to save anybody beyond their will to be saved.

Hallelujah.

God never turned his back on man.

Man rejected God.

Hallelujah.

Look at Isaiah 53.

Am I helping you this morning?

It's important that we see this.

We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all.

So notice man went astray.

Everybody went astray.

You know, very often people teach and preach about something they call the age of accountability.

I've not found an age of accountability in the Bible, but I do believe that there's a time when a person is more prone to hear the things of God.

And they they they believe they have found that to be around eight, nine years of age.

But here's the point.

Here's the point.

At some point, every person in this room, at some point, realized you were sinning.

And at that point, you either made a decision to make Jesus the Lord of your life, or you made a decision to go astray.

Hallelujah.

Aren't you glad he goes after the one that went astray?

But here's the point.

It says, all we like sheep have gone astray.

So there's nobody that you know, nobody that I know that does not need the love of God in their life because we've all gone astray.

Every one of us.

And notice what it says.

Here's love.

The Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.

Think about love.

My iniquity was laid on Jesus.

We talk about that.

That He paid the price for our sin.

What was the price for our sin?

The wages of sin is death.

But God, who did?

God laid them on him.

Whose sin?

The sin of the entire world.

That's why the sin problem has been fixed.

There's no sin problem.

Meaning you come to Christ, you ask him to be your Lord and Savior, your sin has been laid on Jesus.

You're accepted into the family of God.

But think about love.

I'm going to take your sin and I'm going to lay it on him.

I'm going to put it to his account.

He's going to die like he sinned, even though he never sinned.

He became sin, not a sinner.

And so God took Chris's sin and laid it on Jesus like Jesus did what Chris did.

And Jesus paid his price.

And we got Jesus' reward.

Eternal life with the Father.

Freedom from sin and destruction.

That's the epitome of love.

You can think of no greater love than a father looking at somebody that did not want anything to do with him until that very moment and saying, okay, I accept that.

I'll take your sin and I'll lay it on your elder brother.

He never did anything wrong.

He never sinned.

He was perfect.

But I'll take your sin and put it on him because I love you.

Hallelujah.

How could you ever get mad at a being like that?

That would take my sin and lay it on my elder brother, who never did anything wrong.

And say, Because I love you so much, I'll punish him with your sin.

And that's what the scripture says.

It says, it says that God laid the iniquity of us all on him.

God punished him with our punishment.

Because he loves us that much.

Hallelujah.

And people say, Well, where was God when I needed him?

Right there.

Right there.

In the 70s, we used to sing a song that said he was there all the time.

He was there all the time.

He never went anywhere.

I know there are things, even in here today, I know there are things that have happened to people that you don't understand.

And you're still asking God for an answer and you're still questioning God about certain things.

God doesn't mind your questions, but you're questioning God, and when you're questioning him, you have to question him with this knowledge.

I don't understand in my natural self what happened here.

But I know that you are a God of complete love.

I know that you are a God of complete compassion.

There's something I don't understand.

I'm going to look past what I don't understand, and I'm going to choose to believe how much you love me.

Oh, hallelujah.

Glory to God.

God never turned his back on man.

God never turned his back on man.

Because man was the object of God's love.

Hallelujah.

Every person is born separated from God.

Every person, as a result of Adam's sin.

Every person is born a sinner.

And must what?

Return.

They have to return to God.

Every person is born innocent in the sense that they don't know sin, but they're born a sinner.

They're born with a propensity to sin.

They have to return and be reconciled back to God.

How through Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah.

That's the bridge.

And we think about the totality of redemption.

And we think of, you know, Jesus died for me, and we think that was the price, was his death.

But he died with my sin.

Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I'll live yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

Hallelujah.

And so he did pay the price, the ransom, to buy me out of bondage to sin and to buy me out of the prison of sin.

But in God's mind, he became me.

He became me.

He was punished in my place.

Not just for me, in my place.

Hallelujah.

You know, Dottie Rambo wrote a song years ago.

I don't know if you know who Dottie Rambo was.

She's in heaven today.

She wrote a song called I Should Have Been Crucified.

You know what?

According to the law of God, I should have been crucified.

But the Bible says, remember what the Bible says in the book of Psalms in Hebrews?

It says, one day in the annals of eternity past, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they had a council, and God was discussing.

Now I'm paraphrasing some of this.

God was discussing his plan, what he was going to do.

And it says the son stepped up and said, I understand that sacrifice and burnt offering is not what you want.

That's not what you want.

That won't fix the problem.

A body you have prepared me.

Here I am, send me.

I'm coming in the volume of the book.

He said, I'll go, I'll live a spotless, sinless life, and I'll give my life for every person on this people planet.

And the Holy Spirit said, Yes, he's going to die and give his life, and he'll be three days and three nights in the grave, but I will go into the belly of the earth and I'll raise him from the dead.

And after he's raised from the dead, whoever believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.

He's the firstborn from the dead.

Glory to God.

He's alive with the life of God.

Look at 2 Corinthians 5.

Hallelujah.

That's why the Bible calls our salvation, it says, it's so great a salvation.

It's so great.

Nobody can fathom that.

You know, the scripture says, it says, for a good man, some would think about dying.

It says for a righteous man, some would even, you know, uh go that direction.

He said, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet in sin, he sent Jesus to die for us.

So what does that mean?

There's nothing good in me.

God didn't look at you and say, well, you're pretty good, I'll save you.

There was nothing good in you.

I was a good person before I got saved.

You might have done some good things, but you were not good at your core, because you cannot be good at your core without Jesus.

Because there's no goodness in man without the goodness of God.

That's why the rich young ruler came to Jesus and said, Good master, what do I have to do to be saved?

And Jesus said, Under the law, as speaking as a prophet under the law, he said, Why do you call me good?

There's none good but God.

Now we know that Jesus was thoroughly good, but he's speaking to a man under the law, bringing his motives out.

Because that man really thought he was good.

He really thought he had it all together.

Because I don't cheat and steal and commit adultery and I honor my father and mother.

I've done all those.

And Jesus said, Oh, so you're pretty good, huh?

Well, here, do this.

Go sell what you're holding and give it to the poor.

Oh boy.

What did he find?

He found he wasn't so good.

But the only good one ever born into the earth came and made me righteous with his righteousness.

Everything I have came from him.

My goodness is because of him.

My righteousness is because of him.

My holiness is because of him.

The Bible says, my righteousness, my earthly, my fleshly righteousness is as filthy rags.

But thank God Almighty.

On the cross of Jesus Christ, I exchanged my righteousness for his righteousness.

I was clothed in his holiness.

I became a son of God.

We became children of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.

Heaven is our home, God is our Father.

Jesus is our elder brother.

Oh, hallelujah.

Glory to God.

Amen.

2 Corinthians 5, 18.

We'll read a couple verses here.

It says, and all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.

Preposition by, denoting that Jesus is the channel.

Jesus is the avenue.

Jesus is the way.

Notice God reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah.

And given to us the ministry of reconciliation to this end, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now I want you to see some things here.

First of all, it says he reconciled us to himself.

God came to us, we didn't go to God.

That's important that we understand that.

Even if you decided to give your life to Jesus, people will say, Well, you know, I found the Lord.

No, you didn't, he wasn't lost.

He found you.

He came looking for you.

You went astray.

Jesus, God never went astray.

You know, I was lost in sin.

One day I found the Lord.

No, no, no, no, no.

He found you.

He was looking for you.

Say it out loud, He was looking for me.

Well, how do I know that?

Because Jesus told the parable.

And he said, listen, if there's if there's a shepherd and he has 99 sheep, a hundred sheep, and one goes astray, one gets lost, one goes their own way.

He said, He'll come find him.

He'll come find him.

The sheep didn't meh didn't go find the shepherd.

The shepherd came and found the sheep.

Aren't you glad?

Wherever you were, whatever age you were, aren't you glad that the shepherd Jesus stepped into that void and found you where you were and made a difference in your life?

I remember one time, this has been uh what decades now ago, over nearly 30 years ago, there was a young man going to our church, and uh he uh he had been saved out of addiction and the the scourge in that, and it's still somewhat of a scourge, but the it was in the news every day was crack cocaine, and that that was the thing, smoking crack, uh doing all that.

And so uh he uh had a misstep.

He he call it backslide, whatever, but he uh he decided to go back to that life.

And so um Kans City, Missouri, there.

We our our church in in Kansas is on the Kansas side, about 20 miles from Kansas City, Missouri.

And so anyway, he was he was down there in an area around Tentham, Paseo, Truman Road down there.

Uh if you've never been there, you wouldn't understand the directions, but the point is that's where all of that activity was back in the day.

And so he's in this house and and he's doing what he's doing.

And they had the the boom box going.

And you know, back then it was cassette tapes, and uh say had a cassette tape going with some music on it, loud.

And uh he's sitting there in this house.

This is his testimony.

He's sitting there in this house, and all of a sudden, the music stops, and I start preaching.

And here's what I said I don't care if you're sitting in a crack house running from God, backslid.

God is looking for you to come home, and you just need to get up and run.

He said, Pastor, I just stood up, started running.

Well, see what had happened?

We had an outreach out down there every Saturday, and we passed out cassette tapes of messages about how much God loves you.

We had given one of those guys down there a cassette tape.

Well, he had recorded over all of it with music except that last two minutes.

Now, why was that tape in the machine while this guy that was running from God is in that house?

The shepherd was looking for him.

Do you believe that God loved him enough to put that tape in that machine that day?

Then God loves you that much.

God loves your family that much, God loves your children that much, God loves your grandchildren that much.

I don't care how they have to hear it.

If they have a flat tire on the side of the road, somebody that comes to help them can be a born-again spirit-filled believer that God just happened to say, You need to be at work today, and I need you to go as the shepherd and show my love to that person.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

That's always blessed me.

Right in the middle of that mess, right in the middle of sin, right in the middle of a place where a lot of people would never find themselves.

Jesus said, No, he needs to hear this.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

When when when you know Pastor Michelle didn't hear the gospel until she was 23 years old.

I don't know how you can live in America and not hear the gospel until you're 23 years old, but that's how it happened.

Amen.

And she's up at the hospital, and and and uh uh her uh first husband at that time is brain dead, dying of an overdose.

Morphine overdose, had a morphine patch on, and and uh the thing malfunctioned and released all that morphine and did.

His body all at once.

And she's there.

And if you've ever read her her testimony, it still touches me today.

You know, this is a person that she had been with since she was 15 years of age.

That had told her what to do her whole life.

And she said, now I'm standing here.

His family don't want anything to do with me.

My husband, his brain is swelling.

And I stood there, and here's what she said.

She said.

She said, Tell me what to do, Bo.

What do I do?

And at that moment there was a knock on the door.

She opened the door, and here comes a guy in a biker vest with jeans, wallet chain, big beard.

Talk like this.

Named Zach Reynolds.

Outreach pastor at the Assembly of God Church.

And he had heard about this issue.

What did she just say?

What do I do?

And here he comes.

First of all, can I pray for him?

Of course.

She doesn't know anything about things.

He prayed.

I'm not concerned about that.

Then he turned to her.

He said, Now look, whatever decision he's made, he made.

We can't help him.

What are you going to do?

With the love of God.

I want to hear that.

He wouldn't let go.

He said, Come down, come down to the chapel.

Let's talk.

So she wanted to get rid of him, so she went down to the chapel.

And sat there in the chapel.

And he went through scripture after scripture after scripture.

How much God loves you, how much God cares about you, how much God wants to save you.

God sent Jesus into the into the earth.

I've heard it time and time again.

She said he had so much to say, it was like, if if I got he's proven it too much.

I've got to get saved.

And she said she she prayed with him and repented, partially to get rid of him.

Aren't you glad God will accept us in our flesh?

And she said, but something was different.

Something was different.

You know, in just a couple hours, she tried to go get high and couldn't get high.

And she didn't understand it.

She got mad at the guy that had sold her the drugs.

She thought he had done her bad.

And years later, if she had grown, she was asking the Lord about that.

And the Lord said, When you confess Jesus as your Lord, you made a covenant with me.

You became mine.

He said, You didn't know any better.

I was helping you.

Now you believe what you want to about that.

But that's what she said the Lord said to her.

Well, listen, aren't you, I'm glad.

And there's others in here that have been touched by her ministry.

I am glad.

I am glad that God sent Zach Reynolds to that hospital room to minister to her on that day, right after she said, What do you want me to do?

Hallelujah.

See, no matter how far gone things are, you might be dealing with things in your family.

You might be dealing with things in your children or your grandchildren in your own life.

Listen, God doesn't have just one Zach Reynolds.

God doesn't have just one Philip Steele or Michelle Steele.

He's got more.

He's the shepherd.

He's always looking to save somebody and turn their life around.

Hallelujah.

So it said he reconciled us to himself.

And then notice, he reconciled the world to himself.

So God's not angry at anybody in the entire world.

Hallelujah.

See, we have to focus on what the Bible focuses on.

Yes, God hates sin, but he's not mad at anybody.

Why?

His anger was poured out on Jesus.

If his wrath was totally poured out on Jesus, he doesn't have any for his people.

Amen.

God, who is love, initiated the action to reconcile man back to himself.

Reconciliation has at its core the idea of bringing a person back into favor.

So I was out of favor with God.

And he brought me back into favor.

In reconciling man back to himself, God did not hold their sins against them.

That word imputing, not imputing their sins.

This is so powerful.

Not taking inventory, not reckoning up all the reasons.

We've read in uh 1 Corinthians 13, love pays no attention to a suffered wrong, that's the idea.

Love does not take inventory.

Amen.

So when you got born again, what you had to fix was the fact that Jesus wasn't your Lord.

Brother Hagin wrote a little book years ago called Three Big Words.

And those three big words are remission, atonement, and forgiveness.

Remiss, atonement, and forgiveness.

You know what happened when you got born again?

People say, well, I was forgiven of my sins.

Well, you were, but your sins were remitted.

They were washed away, just like they never existed.

The Bible, when it talks about forgiveness of sins, in a lot of cases it's talking about Christians that sin and God forgives them.

They repent and God forgives them.

So when you got born again, the sin that you had to correct, the sin that you had to correct was not making Jesus the Lord of your life.

The moment you may, because remember Romans 10, 9 and 10, what's it say?

If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, what'll happen?

You'll be saved.

Notice what it doesn't say.

Believe in your heart, repent of every sin you've ever committed.

Ask me to forgive every sin.

Nope, it just says, believe in your heart, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

Now, why is that important?

Because that's the sin that keeps people outside the love of God is Jesus not being their Lord.

That's what God cannot fix for anybody.

They have to fix that for themselves.

They have to make Jesus their Lord.

Amen.

Because every sin that you had committed, the moment you made Jesus your Lord, God forgot it.

The only sin he cannot forget is not making Jesus your Lord.

That's it.

Because that's the prerequisite.

And notice, so he's not holding their sins against him.

Love doesn't look at all the reasons it should not do something, it looks at the reason it should do something.

So God never looks and says, Why should I save them?

He looks at them and says, How can I not?

Hallelujah.

So every verse, every verse that I found that has to do with God reconciling and forgiving mankind also emphasizes the price that love paid for that reconciliation.

We read in John 3.16, God so loved the world, he gave his son.

And just before that, before John 3.16, he talked about just like they that gazed on the brass serpent in Moses' day were saved by looking at the serpent.

He said, When the Son of Man is lifted up, whoever gazes on me will be saved.

God so loved the world, he gave his son.

We read in Isaiah 53, 6.

Oh, we like sheep have gone astray.

And what's it say?

God laid on him the iniquity of us all.

2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 20, we just read, God reconciled man to himself through, the Bible says, the death of Jesus Christ.

Through the death of Jesus Christ.

So love has made it so simple to be reconciled back to God.

Hallelujah.

Let's read these last few verses.

Look at uh Romans 10, 9 and 10.

We talked about this earlier.

Made it simple.

It says, For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Verse 9 says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

You shall be rescued.

You shall be delivered.

All in that redemption package.

In Acts 2 and 21, it says, It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I love the way the scripture uses these phrases, whoever.

Whosoever, any man.

That's powerful to me because the door is wide open.

There's no hoops to jump through.

The price has been paid.

Salvation is a free gift.

And that's how I have to look at it.

I've had people say, but you don't know what I've done in my life.

That doesn't matter.

All I need to know is what he has done.

I had a guy in my office one time and and and he was looking at me and he was concerned about some things, and he looked at me real sheepish and he said, Yeah, I understand what you're saying, Pastor, but you don't know what I've done.

And I just looked at him as serious as I could.

I said, Well, you don't know what I've done.

There's nobody in here perfect.

You could be in here, say, 60, 70, 80 years or five minutes.

Nobody's perfect.

Everybody's missed the mark.

And the blood of Jesus has fixed everybody's issues.

And it will continue to fix them.

They'll get fewer and farther between.

Life will get better.

Things will get easier.

More power will come moment by moment into your life as you live for Jesus.

But it's got to start somewhere.

Hallelujah.

Acts 16, 31.

Now, this is important to me because this is the jailer in the church at Philippi that had punished Paul and Silas, you know, beat them, ordered them to be beaten, and was under oath to kill them if something happened.

And you remember the earthquake came and he was going to kill himself, and Paul said, Don't do that, we're all here.

And verse 29, he called for a light.

And the Bible says he sprang in.

Well, I like that.

Ran in just as quick as he could.

And notice what he said.

Fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out.

Notice the question.

Sinners, what must I do to be saved?

What do I have to do to be delivered?

What do I have to do to be rescued?

What do I have to do to see a change in my life?

Hallelujah.

Mana love that.

You know, over the years I've seen people in what people call deep sin.

You know, I don't understand that.

Deep sin.

Well, is there shallow sin?

Deep sin.

God doesn't grade sin on a curve.

Sin and sin is sin and sin.

Here's what I know is whether you ever did an immoral act in your life before you got born again.

You were as far and away from God as the worst sinner that you know.

Because all of us went our own way.

Everybody, before we were born again, we were on our way to hell.

There was nothing that we could do about it.

That was the route that we were going.

What do I got to do to be saved?

And notice what he says.

You have to go to a certain denomination.

No?

You have to remember all your sin.

Make sure that you confess every one of them.

No?

I'm being facetious for a reason.

What'd he say?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.

And your house, what does that mean?

They can be saved the same way.

All they got to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah.

Isn't that comforting to know that you've believed?

When I lay my head on my pillow tonight, I have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So no matter what happens, I have believed.

If I wake up in the morning or if I don't, it's all good because I have believed.

Amen.

For those of us that have believed, death holds no terror, it holds no fear, it holds no weight, because we have believed on the author of eternal life.

And he said, He that believeth on me will never die.

Never die.

I'll never die.

This body, Lord willing, Jesus tarries this coming for the church.

This body one day will outlive its earthful useful usefulness.

And somewhere, somehow, it'll fall over like a thud, and somebody will put it in the ground, and somebody, a preacher, will say kind words over it.

But before I ever hit the ground, the moment my eyes close in natural death, I will be in the presence of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and man, that's really living.

Amen.

And notice how I get there.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved.

Love made it simple.

Love made it easy.

Because believing is a willful act on my part.

Hallelujah.

Love made it that simple.

He loves you that much.

He loves me that much.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

You know, I've told this story before, but it bears repeating.

We've all heard, or I say we've all, many have heard, I don't know that everybody has, in the uh, of course, in the 1800s, a powerful evangelist used by God, Charles Finney.

And we talk about the great meetings that he had, and and you know, going into cities and and the bars would shut down.

I mean, I I I read an account of of him going into a large city, metropolitan city, and uh the bars started closing.

And they were asking, well, you know, why are the bars closing?

Nobody comes anymore.

Finney came to town, everybody's getting saved.

Powerful moves of God.

But, you know, there was a time in his life when he wanted to be a lawyer and he didn't know the Lord.

And his goal in life was to just make a lot of money and just have a good life.

But he worked with a Christian and that law office, and that Christian would talk to them about him, about the things of God.

And he said, one day they were talking, and this person said, uh, Finney, what do you intend to do with your life?

He said, Well, I intend to, you know, practice law, one day have my own practice and and uh you know practice law and be a good lawyer.

He said, Well, what then?

And he said, Well, I I plan to practice law and make a lot of money, take care of my family.

He said, Well, what then?

He said, Well, I'll I'll retire, I'll turn the practice over to somebody, and then me and my wife will travel the world.

And we'll see sights that we've never seen before.

He said, Okay, well, what then?

He said, Well, I'll come back home and he said, uh, we'll sit out on our back porch and our recliners or uh uh rocking chairs and we'll enjoy our family and our grandkids and enjoy our elder years.

He said, Well, what then?

He said, Well, I guess I'll die.

And the man said, and what then?

And he said in his autobiography, he said, I couldn't go home.

I stayed in that practice and thought about that all night long.

What then?

He said, I didn't know what then.

I didn't know.

You know, that's the question for every person.

What then?

Because the word of God declares this.

It says, here's the thing: it is appointed unto man once to die.

And then the judgment.

Nobody, no matter who they are, will escape that day.

I'm not going to live forever in this earth.

You're not going to live forever in this earth.

What then?

No matter what you're going through in your life, no matter what you're dealing with, what then is the ultimate answer?

The things that I may be having problems with, Jesus will help me with that.

Jesus wants to deliver me from that.

Poverty, sickness, issues that I'm having, Jesus wants to deliver me from that.

He has to be given the right to do it.

And I do that by believing in him.

Let's bow our heads today, shall we?

On any given day, any given church service.

I do not know who's a believer in Jesus Christ.

I do not know who is not.

I don't know who's where they need to be with God.

I don't know who's away from him.

I don't know who's cold in their walk with him or who's on fire with their walk with him.

Watching online, I don't know who's watching.

But I know this.

I know that Jesus came to be the sacrifice for every person.

There's basically three types of people here today, three types of people watching online.

The first person is that you know you're right with God.

You're where you need to be.

You're living a life that is pleasing to him, you love him, he's your Lord.

The second person here and watching online is you may not be where you need to be with God.

Your walk with him may be cold or it may be lukewarm.

You may be away from him in some fashion in your life.

The third person that's here today and that's watching online, is you don't know Jesus at all.

He's not your Lord.

Your life is not being lived for him.

And what we've said today makes it understandable how simple this is.

What I'm going to simply do, and this is online here in the room, in just a few moments, I'm going to ask you to be, as we used to say growing up in church, judgment day honest with those issues.

And if you find yourself in either of those latter categories, I'm not where I need to be with God.

I'm not living my life the way that I should for Him.

Or secondly, I'm just not born again.

I don't know Jesus.

If that's you, in just a moment, I'm going to count to three.

And by the time I reach three, your hand needs to be in the air, and you need to be acknowledging that something needs to change in your life.

Because God brought you here today for this reason, for this purpose, to understand his love for you.

We're starting right now, we're counting with one.

If that's you in any area, I'm lukewarm in my walk with God.

I need to challenge myself and walk with him at a deeper level.

You're not born again.

Two.

I need Jesus to change this situation, this circumstance.

I need to know his peace on a greater level.

Even if you're watching online, here's the final count.

Three.

If that's you in any area, any area of your life, you need help with but from Jesus.

You need your life to turn around, you need it to change.

Right now, with every head bowed, every eye closed, you slip your hand up and say, That's me, Pastor.

I need help.

I need Jesus to help me.

I need my life to change.

I need it to be different.

If you're watching online right there where you're at, whether you're in your living room or wherever you are, I want you to acknowledge that you need Jesus in your life.

Let's say this out loud today.

Say, Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus came to the earth, that he lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross for my sin and rose again on the third day.

And right now, today, I confess him as my Lord and Savior.

I believe that I'm saved.

In Jesus' name.

Hallelujah.

Why don't you take a moment right now and just look at your neighbor and say, I'm so glad to be saved, aren't you?

Amen.

Take a moment, turn around somebody behind you and say, I'm so glad you're saved.

Oh, hallelujah.

Oh, hallelujah.

Isn't the Lord good?

I say the Lord is good.

You know, I always say this as I want to wrap this up, but this is important.

I I understand, you know, there's times that, you know, you may be rather timid about whatever you're in a new church around people you don't know.

And I realize, you know, a lot of times ministers say things I know they mean well.

They'll say, well, you know, Jesus died publicly on a cross for you.

You ought to be bold enough to stand up publicly.

Look, I get it.

I I do, I understand that.

But listen, if you answered the call to any of those things that we said, maybe you didn't slip your hand up.

You know, God's not holding that against you.

But you have an opportunity now to have a fresh start.

You have an opportunity now to have a fresh start.

And the Lord wants to help you.

Hallelujah.

The Lord wants to help you.

Is there anybody under the sound of my voice?

There are things in your life that you need the Lord to help you get rid of.

Anybody?

Anybody?

Whatever it may be.

Anyone at all?

Things you need help with.

Anybody?

Because the Lord wants to help you.

Hallelujah.

Folks, listen, it don't bother me for people to say no.

I'm gonna do what the Lord tells me to do anyway.

If that's not you, that's fine.

Maybe it's for somebody watching online, somebody else.

But Jesus wants to help you with that.

Turn the whole situation around.

Hallelujah.

I believe God today.

Amen.

I know you do too.

Let's stand on our feet, shall we?

Hallelujah.