The Prodigal’s Return Home!

I can be awkward. I have the mic. Hello. Oh there you

go, there it is, I said, don't be awkward, okay,

all right, all right, so I'm gonna pray over you. Is that?

Okay? Has it come to that? Go ahead? I guess all

right, if you'll just reach your hands out. Lord, we love you,

We thank you for Kim in the words she's got today. We thank

you that you perfectly lined up praise and worship today. I'm gonna tell that

part. Sorry, Jesus, Lord, we love you, bless her in

Jesus' name, Jesus. We all said amen. Yeah, okay, I'm

moving this back because I'm gonna walk around. I'm expectant this morning. Who

I'm expectant for sure, Give me just a minute to get set up.

And while I'm doing that, I'm gonna tell y'all that God just totally like

knocked my socks off this morning. I was I literally in my notes part

of and y'all will see why in a little bit real soon. Here's my

notes right here. Let's see the very last page, and it goes on

in the next page. My son thought I should clarify for those of you

who are visitors she's my wife. Oh oh yeah, I'm Kim. He's

like, you probably ought to clarify that, dad. People don't know.

Yeah, thanks, thanks son. Yes, this is true. I didn't

even think of that. Okay. So my name is Kim. I'm the

youth pastor here. Yeah. So I am very, very grateful that Justin

is giving me another opportunity to come up here and share my favorite subject with

you guys, which is Jesus. Just fy. Okay, So on the

last page of my notes, you came running down my prodigal road. You

came running with the reading and ringing a robe. Grace is a collision on

the way back home with the arms of a father who won't let go.

And that is a song that we sang. And that was just such a

confirmation God loves me so much. He loves me so much that he's like,

girl, you are exactly where you need to be, sharing exactly what

I am showing you to share. And I was just like blown away.

So anyhow, yeah, I'm gonna pray. We like to pray here.

That's good, right, Oh that's magnetic. I don't think I realized that

before. That's good. Okay, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you that

you come, thank you that you show up, thank you that you know

that we have these bodies that really love to tangibly sense things, and we

love it when we get to sense your presence. We love it when you

walk in the room. And Lord, I just pray that every thing that's

in your heart to share today in this service, that you would be able

to do that. And Lord, I pray that you would let me even

feel your emotions over this. But Lord, I just asked it I would

still be able to talk. I mean that would be good, But just

have your way, have your way, and prepare the hearts that you know

that need to be prepared today for what you have to say. Thank you,

Jesus, Thank you Jesus. Okay, not exactly sure how all this

is going to come out. I don't usually know, but that's okay,

he knows. So the first thing I want to remind you of, and

I talked about this a little bit last time. I think about a month

ago I was up here, Jesus came to reveal the Father to us.

Amen, we know that, right. So I want to go really quick

to John seventeen. Dear Mark, Luke and John and I'm not gonna flip

there. It's John seventeen twenty six. Jesus is praying for us there.

I encourage you to read that if you have a chance, that whole thing

is so good. But he says at the end of this, he says,

Father, I revealed you to them, and I will continue to do

so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will

be in them. So when Jesus came to this earth in the most unimaginable

way, wrapped in human flesh, in the form of a baby, God

literally entrusted his son to creation, to the ones. The Creator entrusted himself

to the creation, which is wild, absolutely wild. And when he came,

Jesus came doing the works of the Father. Jesus came to reveal the

Father. Jesus didn't just come. And this isn't making this a small thing

by any means. But he did not just come to die and to raise

to rise up again. However, you say that Jesus came to reveal the

Father's heart to people who did not know the Father's heart. He came to

show us what the Father looked like. He said, if you want to

see the Father, you can look at me, is what he'd say.

And he said that many times in different ways. So I'm saying that to

you now so that you understand when i'm telling you this story that Jesus had

a purpose. Jesus was using the story to tell us something, huh,

to tell us something about the Father. Okay, many of you know this

story titled the Prodigal Son, but this story is actually, in my mind

called the Loving Father. And as we read this story together, I want

you to use your imagination. And y'all know I say that when I come

up here because I use this a lot when I'm with the kiddos and stuff.

I use this in my own life. I want you to imagine yourself

there. I want you to think about what it smelled like, what it

sounded like, what it felt like. I want you to think about it.

And I'm gonna I think. What I'm gonna do first is I'm going

to read through the story. And then I think what I'm gonna do after

that is I think we're just gonna see how the Lord takes us. I

have a lot of scripture. We'll see what he wants to do with it.

But I have some treasures to unveil, and there is no way I

can pat unpack all of that today. I wish that I could my husband

say, Kim, it's not about saying a bunch of words. Just remember

people can only comprehend so much in one you know, in one sitting.

So I'm going to try my best to rein it in and focus with the

Lord's help. So we're just gonna start with the scripture. We're in Luke

fifteen, okay, And I want to set this up, so I'm gonna

give you all minute to go there. I really want you to go there.

And I'm reading the NLT, so on your phones in the Bible app

you can change it to NLT. That will make it a little easier to

read. And setting this up for y'all. So Jesus, as many of

us know, Jesus would hang out with what the religious people called the sinners,

right. He hung out with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the

drunkards. This is who Jesus hung out with. Because Jesus said, he

said, I did not come to those who are well. I came to

those who are sick. The ones that are sick are the ones that need

the physician. That's who he came for. He came for those, So

let me just read the first part of Luke fifteen. Task collectors and other

notorio sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. He drew them. That

tells you something about him. He drew those people. Okay, it makes

me like, I love that about him. I just love that about Jesus.

This made the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law complain that he was

associating with such sinful people, even eating with them. So Jesus, as

he said many times in the scriptures, Jesus knew their thoughts. Okay,

he knew that they hated him. He knew the religious people didn't like them.

The religious people they really the Pharisees. They liked to put burdens on

people. Jesus called them whitewashed tombs with dead man bones inside. Okay,

so they looked really good on the outside, but on the inside they were

dead. And they would put burdens on people, and they would use the

law to put burdens on people, so that they never could get out from

underneath that oppression. There was a religious oppression, and they could never get

out from under it. So Jesus came to set the oppressed free. He

came to set them free from the law in the form of how it would

oppress them. Okay, So that's just setting it up. So Jesus is

hanging out with these people, okay, and they're well, I guess actually

he's teaching in there there, So this is one of those situations, so

I I need it correct that there, so he tells the he starts telling

parables, okay, And parables were such an awesome way to teach without saying

exactly what it was, and then later on he would go and tell his

disciples what it was really all about. So parables were a way to reach

the people that were really hungry because they would the Holy Spirit would take those

parables and they would be able to understand them in their hearts. So it

was for people that were really looking for that treasure. So today, as

I'm reading this, I want you to really ask the Holy Spirit to help

you to be able to see things you've never been able to see before,

because a lot of us have heard this story over and over and so I

really pray that you would have fresh eyes to see and I pray that you'd

actually be able to feel the Father's heart as we read this today. Okay,

So he begins to talk about the lost Sheep. We all know that

story. Jesus says that there was a sheep that got away from the fold,

and there were one hundred sheep, and he left the night. The

sh upper left the ninety nine to go after the one, and I'm sure

that really upset the Pharisees. They were like, well, what do you

mean anyways, I don't know that they did that. I would just like

to imagine they're like their faces and stuff. It's fun. And then the

next story he tells about a woman who had ten precious coins. Each one

I believe I could be wrong on this. I'm not gonna say where.

Each one was worth a lot of money, and she lost one and whenever

she found the one, she had a party. She was really excited,

so she left all her other coins to go find the one. And then

the next story is the parable of the Prodigal Son, or as I like

to say, the Loving Father. So let's read that together. We are

in Luke fifteen. I need glasses here, okay, eleven, Thank you.

Jesus kept going because it says. To illustrate this point further, he

was gonna make sure it was very clear, very clear. He's trying to

tell the people about their father. So let's listen. He told him this

story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father,

I want my share of your estate now before you die. So his father

agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later, this

younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there

he wasted all his money and wild living. About the time his money ran

out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve.

He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into

his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even

the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one

gave him anything. When he finally came to his senses, he said to

himself at home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and

here I am dying of hunger. I'll go to my father and say,

father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I I'm no

longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired

servant. So he returned home to his father, and while he was still

a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and

compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

His son said to him, father, I have sinned against both heaven and

you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. But

his father said to the servants, quick, bring the finest robe in the

house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger, and

sandals for his feet, and kill the fatted calf we have been fattening.

We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and

now has returned to life. He is lost, he was lost, but

now has found. So the party began. Okay, I'm not gonna read

further. That's as far as we're gonna go for today. So it's just

a great story in itself. It's so good. So okay, what do

you want me to do? Lord? Oh? Okay, there, this

is rich, guys, so rich and so worthy of your time. Okay,

just give me a second. What do you want to do? Mm

hmm. The father was looking. He never stopped, He never stopped looking.

He was fattening a calf. That takes time. How long does it

take anybody know? Months? One hundred and eighty days, one hundred and

eighty. So let me set this up for you. Now, I'm not

saying for sure that this is what it was, but historically there's things that

we can look at. So according to this story, we can guess that

the father was a wealthy man, a man of some prestige, and he

would have been a part of a village. The village gates would be at

the front, and then you have possibly you know, people selling their wares

and different things, and you have people that live in within maybe the village

walls, and then you have houses up back, maybe on because this area

is a hilly area. So I would imagine the father possibly lived on top

of the hill, okay, and his son, his youngest son, comes

to him just full of pride and says, father, give me my inheritance.

I'm ready to go out, I'm ready to go live in distant lands.

And that actually asking for his inheritance early like that would be equated to

saying I wish you were dead. And so the father gives the inheritance,

and the sun goes off, and he goes off to live with gentiles.

And one reason we know that that they weren't Jesus is because they had pigs.

Pigs were considered so unclean they could not even be touched without a ceremonial

cleansing afterwards. And so the sun goes and wild living. Who knows a

lot of us could imagine what that could be. And he spends all his

money, and now he's having a beg, and so Jesus uses I believe

the point of saying that he went and fed the pigs, and he was

going to eat the pods that the pigs were eating, to show the desperation

of his hunger, to show that he literally was starving in order to get

to that place. So at this point, the son doesn't have necessarily the

motive of oh, I broke my father's heart. I'm so repentant. No,

he's starving, and he's thinking, you know, even in my father's

house, the servants eat plenty, they're well cared for. I'll just go

and do that. And so he begins back home, and when he comes

back to his father, he's walking on the road. Now I'm gonna pause

here and tell y'alls. And that was going back and forth. So there's

something called a kazza ceremony. I don't know if you've heard of this before,

and I may not be saying it correctly, so I'm gonna kind of

read this part. The prodigal son likely faced the prospect of something called the

Kazza ceremony. The Kazyesa was a ceremony that a Jewish village would have in

exactly this situation. Someone had left home, rejected the community's principle, lost

all his or her possessions to the gentiles, and then returned. The villagers

would break pottery at the feet of the individual, symbolizing that they were no

longer in community with the returning person. They were breaking relations with him.

It was a way of shaming the individual, of making him feel completely empty.

Importantly, the ceremony would take place on the outskirts of the village before

the individual could make his way back home. So there's people back in that

time that would watch from the village walls, and they would watch and see

who was coming. There's usually a gate to guard the city, and they

would let people in and out, and they would keep the door shut if

it's someone they didn't want. And so it's likely that there was a watcher

on the walls and saw him coming home, and everybody knew who this kid

was. But the only difference was he left with his head held high,

wearing fine clothes, and now he's in tattered rags and he smells like a

pig and he has his head down in shame. Most likely. So,

hey, guys, grab the pot. They're ready to roll it out.

They're bringing it out to the front of the gates, and the father is

up on the roof. He's watching, he's watching, and so what does

he do? We know he ran, but the word for ran actually means

to race. The significance of that is this the father men in that time

in the Middle East, they had to in order to run, they had

to tie up the ropes. They had to show their legs, and this

was considered very shameful. Men of prestige did not show their legs. This

was a humiliating act. But the father decided to take upon himself the shame.

And as he's seeing his son approach and the people preparing to do the

Kazys, the ceremony to shame his son and not allow him to come back

in. He ties up his robes and he begins to race. He begins

to run towards his child. He is not grabbing a belt to whip his

child. He is not planning to knock his son over. He's not going.

You know what, I think, I'll just let him learn his lesson.

His son pretty much told him he wanted him to die. But you

know what all the father cares about is getting to his son before the people

that want to shame him to And so he takes off. And when he

sees his son, immediately as the son's in the middle of telling his prepared

apology, the father says, quick, quick, grab me a rope,

quick, quick, grab me, grab me a ring, Quick grab me

sandals for his feet, and I'm gonna talk about each of those in just

a second. The father's on it, he's on it. He's like,

before these people have a chance to shame my son, I'm gonna show them,

and I'm gonna show him how accepted he is, how wanted he is,

how I forgive him, how I am holding nothing against him. The

father didn't demand an apology. That father didn't even listen to him. He's

so focused on loving his son. He doesn't even ask him about what he

did with all his money. He's not even asking him why he's in tatters.

He's not even worried that he smells like a pig. He's wrapping himself

around his son. That is the love of our father that Jesus wanted us

to see. Who that is so good. And I believe that I'm sharing

that today because God is calling the prodigal's home. Yes, I believe that

I heard that in my spirit. But it's not it's not what we all

think. Look, guys, there's different degrees to being a prodigal. Okay,

what you need to know is the prodigal was in his father's fold.

He was the sheep that went away, was in his father's was in a

shepherd's fold. This was someone that was in the household that left and came

back with nothing. This we would think of this as a believer, This

would be this, This would be us, and how many of us sometimes

go I kind of feel like a prodigal. I'm ashamed of what I've done.

I can't go back to my father. Maybe if I just serve enough,

maybe I'll just serve. Maybe what if the son, when the father

had embraced him, what if he had pushed him away? What if he

said, no, no, no, no, I'm just gonna go.

I'm just gonna go be a servant. I'm just gonna And what would that

do to the father's heart? What if what if that's what we do?

What if the father is sitting here going I have made you a son,

and you're just acting like a servant. And that doesn't mean we don't serve.

But our servanthood comes out of a place of sonship. Our servanthood does

not come out of a place of shame. Right and think about what this

would create within this son. What kind of loyalty would this kind of grace

create? See, this son collided with grace and grace. What is grace?

Grace is getting what you do not deserve. Mercy is not getting what

you deserve in the negative, and grace is receiving something that you did not

earn. That son did not earn his father's robe, his ring, his

sandals, and yet they were all placed upon him. He did not earn

that forgiveness, Yet it was given to him, whether he wanted it or

not. What you, guys, what we do not always know when we

mess up, is that forgiveness is available, whether you want it or not.

It is there. It is that to us to let him put that

robe on us, to let him place the ring and the sandals on our

feet, and to say, yes, I will be your child, eld.

Let's look at the significance of of each of these m I'll do this

because I like t walk around. Okay, all, each and every one

of them signify acceptance and love, not condemnation and judgment. The father did

not, for a moment condemn his child in this, and that's amazing.

I don't know that would be hard for me. Sarr, kiddo. So

just kidding. Okay, So the father, you're so funny, You're the

favorite today. Okay, okay, So this is the passion translation. Turning

to his servants, the father said, quick, bring me the best robe,

my very own robe, and I will place it on his shoulders.

Oh. I love words, guy, So I have things I'm reading to

y'all because it's so good. So the best robe belongs not to one of

the servants, but to the father and is saved for special events and celebrations.

This wasn't just any robe. The word used there means a long robe.

That kind of robe was worn by the upper class in the East.

It was a symbol of honor and status. You'll think about this for your

own life. Just think about as I'm saying this. By requesting this robe

for his son, who had just returned after squandering his father's wealth, the

father wasn't just covering his physical nakedness. He was reinstating his honor, his

place in the family, and erasing the shame that came with his prior actions.

This show y sure, especially in front of the household servants, is

a public proclamation that the son's past is forgotten and his original status and the

family remains unchanged. He gave grace by reminding his son and everyone else that

he is still in his household and his beloved child the robe for filthy rags,

for filthy rags, he gave him the robe. Whenever I was picturing

this, I was thinking of like when I was little, I remember the

smell of my dad's clothes, and that's just something special. I don't know,

smells are like a special thing for me, And so just thinking about

that I imagined when the father grabbed that got the robe from a servant and

placed it on his son's shoulders, the son smelled a pig. Remember,

I mean, maybe not a pig, but death not good. Right.

Maybe he watched before hopefully, but when he put his father's robe on,

he was he was being wrapped with his father. He was being in caste

and who his father is. And he actually got to smell the fragrance.

And that is such a picture of what our father does for us. In

Christ. We receive a new garment, Our filthy rags are gone, and

we receive a new garment, and God literally wraps us in himself, and

we even receive a new fragrance to the king. And that's just such a

beautiful thought to me about the fragrance of that robe. And it was his

best robe, his best robe. Okay. And now let's look at the

ring. So the ring possibly was a signet ring. Okay, And we

know you've seen all movies. It's so cool. Everybody wants to do it.

You have the ring and you like put it in the you put the

wax and then you press it to seal it in. There's what's that movie?

That we love that has that. There's a movie anyway, I can't

remember, but anyway, it feels official documents. And so when he gave

him this ring, he was saying, I'm bestowing back upon you authority so

pretty much anything that I would do, you now have the authority to do.

You now walk around with my authority. You walk around as if you

are me, and you can make decisions as if I am making them.

The Father bestowed that onto him, and then oh, in this it says

it signifies restoration of authority and trust. That's what really got me. Trust.

He was giving him trust. What some of y'all, I'm gonna say

us are afraid to step out because you're so afraid to mess up, You're

so afraid you're gonna screw up again. But the Father is so much bigger.

His plans are so much bigger than your little mistakes. Oops. His

restoration is so much more faithful. He is a redeemer. He is a

restorer, that is who he is, And so he wants us to see

ourselves the way that he sees us as his sons, as his daughters,

with his authority, so we can be brave to step out and place his

seal on things. Amen, all right, and then sandals. The interesting

thing about sandals is that slaves were often shoeless. And it's very likely that

this son came back without shoes on, or shoes that were very tattered,

because he did travel a very long distance. And so the father gives him

new shoes. And that you can go really deep into that, but he

gives him new shoes to signify that you are now a son, You are

not a servant. That is so beautiful, so beautiful. Okay. So

I want to share with y'all some scriptures. I know for sure that there

are people right now out here that do not feel like you are a part

of God's family. As I read these, just know that these are for

you. These are for you. So the son came with his head held

in shame, and the father lifted his head. In Psalms three three through

four, one of God's names is yahweh room roche, the one who lifts

my head. Shame causes us to bowload. Now, God does not He

loves when we're bowed low in humility, because in humility we are actually operating

in our identity, our true identity, and shame we're operating in our false

identity of who we were, but in humility, we're operating in who we

are in him. And therefore we bow low because we know who he is,

and we know who we are in him, and we can't help but

just worship this King of glory. That's the difference. So that Psalm says,

but in the depths of my heart, I truly know that you,

Yahweh, have become my shield. You take me and surround me with yourself.

Your glory covers me. Continually I think of the robe you lift my

head high. When I bow low in shame. I have cried out to

you, Yahweh, from your holy presence. You send me of Father's help.

You send me a father's help. He responds to our cry. He

responds, he is drawing us. You know, the prodigal son thought that

it was the hunger and starvation that was actually drawing him home. But what

he didn't know is it was his father that was drawing him. He didn't

even know it. And sometimes our motives for coming back to God they might

not be pure. But you know what God's drawing you. That's really the

truth. He's drawing you. He's drawing you, And he's drawing people in

this room right now. I know it for a fact. He's drawing you.

You've been on the edge, but he's drawing you in deeper. And

this is part of what's kept you the shame. He does not intend for

you to live in shame another minute. He is not ready to punish you

for what you have done. I'm gonna show you that just a minute.

Okay, So in Psalm's sorry Isaiah forty nine fifteen. But how could a

loving mother forget her nursing child and not deeply loved the one she bore?

Even if there is a mother who forgets her child, I could never,

no, never forget you. Can't you see? I have carved your name

on the palms of my hands. Your walls are always my concern. In

Isaiah fifty four to six, I am drawing you back to me, says

yahweh see your name carved on the palms of his hands. He cannot forget

you. How many of y'all in school you wrote stuff on your hands.

You wouldn't forget. He has written your name. See it there, He's

drawing you. He's calling you. Today. Today is the day. Today

is the day Isaiah fifty four to ten. Even if the mountains were to

crumble and the hills disappear, this is God, your father speaking. My

heart of steadfast, faithful love will never leave you, and my covenant of

peace will be with you, will never be shaken. Says yeahweh. His

love and compassion never give up on you. Never. Don't you think that

father that was there looking for his son was thinking, the father's love and

compassion never gives up on his children. The father's love and compassion never gives

up on his children. Lord, I will not give up on my child.

I will not give up on my child. I will not. And

I see him, and I'm running and I don't care the shame. I

don't care the humiliation. I'm running. I'm running to embrace him. Okay,

tewod Corinthians five nineteen, five nineteen. I'm in the New Living.

What do I want to start there? For God was in Christ reconciling the

world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. I want to

say that again, For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,

no longer counting people's sins against him, and He gave us this wonderful message

of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through

us. He's making it through me today to you. We speak for Christ

when we plead come back to God, come back to God. There's people

in here right now that you are here, but you're not here. Come

back to God. The sin is not the issue anymore. There's not a

separation between you and Him because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Because of

the blood of Jesus Christ. It says that he is no longer counting people's

sins against him. Y'all. He loves you so much. He had this

plan. He had this plan starting way back when it all got messed up,

and he waited and he spoke through the prophets. He spoke, and

he spoke, and he spoke until his son came, and he gave himself

as a sin offering on your behalf, as the guilt offering. He bore

the shame in his body on the cross, so that we could be set

free, so that we could come back to the Father with nothing, nothing

separating us. If there is something that you feel is separating you, it

is because of the shame. You can come back to the Father even in

the middle of your mess up. You can be in the middle, steeped

in sin and say, I'm coming to you, Lord, I'm coming to

you because I believe what you say. I believe what you say that you

are accepting me in the beloved Okay, Hebrews ten, Hebrews ten. This

is one of my favorite verses in the whole world. I think it's hebrewsin.

I should know if it's one of my favorites, right, hang on,

I'm looking into different versions. Okay ten? Oh oh, okay,

okay, okay, okay. And since we have a magnificent high priest who

welcomes us into God's house, we come closer to God and approach him with

an open heart, fully convinced that nothing will keep us at a distance from

Him, for our hearts have been sprinkled with blood to remove impurity, and

we have been freed from an accusing conscience. Now we are clean, unstained,

and presentable to God inside and out. Is that not amazing news?

Is that not amazing news? Up a little further up there, it says,

And so, dear brothers and sisters, Oh wait, let me go

further up. Okay, when since I've been forgiven, there's no need to

offer any more sacrifices. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can

boldly enter. You can boldly walk back in your dad's house. We can

boldly enter Heaven's most holy placed because of the blood of Jesus. By his

death, Jesus opened a new in life giving way through the curtain into the

most holy place. Let us go right into the presence of God. When

with sincere hearts fully trusting in Him, we can go right back home.

We can go right back home. That is what faith is. It tells

us to continue on this faith, in this faith in which we first believed.

That's in Colossians one twenty three. And I'm gonna go there in a

second. But when you get saved, it's amazing. You don't do anything,

and you're just you just receive it, right, You just receive this

gift. But somewhere along the way, as we are believers, we suddenly

think that now we have to start earning it. I want you to think

about that for a second. Somewhere along the way we think we have to

start earning it, and we lose faith in the Gospel, in the truth

in which we first believe. We're literally we received a gift. Go to

Colossians one, twenty Colossians one, twenty Colossians. So this way kim Okay

nineteen for God and honestfulness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him,

God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and

on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you,

who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from

him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now He has reconciled you to

himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result,

he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless

as you stand before Him, without a single fault, without a single fault.

Do we get it? What? What could love like this? Believing

this kind of love? What could this do for us? What could this

do for our doer Ben was talking about, you know, go do the

things. What if we begin to believe the love that God has for us,

and instead of trying to do all these good things out of our effort,

what if instead we realize how good of a father we have, and

how loving he is, and how his grace is completely undeserved, and we

go, Oh, my gosh, my mind is absolutely blown. I will

be loyal to God for the rest of my life because of what He has

done for me, because of this great love, because he gave me a

ring and a robe, and he puts sandals on my feet. Go to

Ephesians one. I still struggle after so many years, and where things are

Okay, Oh, this is so good. Okay, Ephesians one. We're

gonna start in three. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord,

Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. Look, y'all, this isn't

because of our doing. This is a gift. He has blessed us with

every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are doing so many things,

because we are at church every Sunday. No, because we are united with

Christ. Period. That's it. United with Christ. Even before he made

the world. Mind blown, God loved us and chose us in Christ to

be holy and without fault in his eyes. There it says it again a

different part of the Bible. We just read that a moment ago in Ephesians

without a single fault. Remember that here it says it again, without fault.

In his eyes, he Seesus is holy, he sees Us is blameless,

He sees Us as restored, He sees us as innocent. God decided

in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through

Christ Jesus. This is what he wanted to do, because he is a

loving father. He wants you back. He wants you back. You don't

have to do it on your own anymore. He wants you back. And

those momas out there, your hearts are hurting so bad. He is there.

Your prayers matter. Do not stop, Do not stop. They matter,

They matter. They are making a difference. You are making more of

a difference in prayer than you could imagine. And one day you're gonna see

it. Don't give up. So we praise God for the glorious grace he

has poured out on us who belonged to his dear son. Literally, here

we are and he's pouring it out. He's pouring it out. You don't

get more grace by doing more things. You don't earn this, this is

not earned. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our

freedom with the blood of his son, and forgave our sins. He has

showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding too. We

get that too. What oh my goodness, I mean, I could just

keep going. It's so good this, it's such good news. This is

the gospel. This is the gospel. This is I want y'all to get

excited. This is good news. You guys, how much have you been

striving? How much have you felt like you never can add up to what

you want to be? How much have you thought, I'm just so tired

of trying to earn this love? Why nobody loves me? Nobody loves me.

I just can't just people just they let me down, they don't let

me. Guess what, There's one who loves you. He always loves you.

And if you will stop, if you will stop trying to earn the

love of everybody else and just receive the love of your father, then you

will have healthier relationships. You have healthier relationships because you're not trying to get

get get from people. You're under the fountain that he is poured out.

He's poured at his grace and now you can get filled up, and you

can go out and love not because you're trying to get loved back. That

is the key to healthy relationships right there. The love of the Father,

the love of the Father. Thank you, Jesus, Thank you Jesus.

It's so good. I think I actually did all. I did all my

notes. But oh no, I'm not done. Y'all thought it was done.

Here's another one about being welcomed in the God's house. I didn't say

this, and I want to say it. This is David talking, but

but I know you will welcome me into your house, for I am covered

by your covenant of love and mercy. So I come into your sanctuary with

deepest awe to bow and worship and adore you. This is someone that knows

his identity. He knows, he says. But I know you will welcome

me into your house because of our covenant, because of Jesus, and because

you love me. You love me so much that Jesus right, it's really

because he loves you. It's all because of his great love with which he

loved you. I didn't tell y'all this. I didn't tell I didn't get

this scripture. So I'm really thank you Lord. So this just goes along

with like, this doesn't have as much to do with us as we think.

Where is it? Nope, it's not that one. Oh yes,

I remember. Ooh, I love the words so much, I really do.

Okay, okay, here it is. But God showed his great Oh

maybe I did read this. I'm reading it again. But God showed his

great love for us by sending Jesus Christ to die for us while we are

still we're still sinners. And since and I did read that, No,

I didn't. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the

blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since

our friendship with God was restored by the death of his son while we were

still his enemies, what we will certainly be saved through the life of His

son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because

our life Jesus has made us friends of God. Y'all, we have got

to start realizing who we are in Him. This right here, Colossians,

I'm gonna read this version. And by the blood of His Cross, everything

in heaven and on earth is brought back to himself. Back to its original

intent, restored to innocence again. How many of us, and you don't

have to raise your hand, how many of us want our innocence restored?

How many of us does our past keep us from moving deeper with God?

Y'all, It's already finished. It's already been done. It's already been done.

If you would realize that you could move forward into a deeper relationship with

God and in that place get the power that you need to be able to

say yes to the right things. Y'all understand, that's where we get the

power. It's in this relationship that we have with Him, where there is

nothing between us any longer. Where we are accepted, We are accepted.

You are accepted by your loving Father, even though you were once a distant

from him, living in the shadows of your evil thoughts and actions. This

is a different version I read earlier. He reconnected you back to himself.

He did that. You didn't do it. He did it, okay.

He released a supernatural peace to you through the sacrifice of his own body as

a sin payment on your behalf, so you would dwell in his presence.

That's one of the reasons that his son died is so you would dwell in

the presence of God. So sin does not keep you from that, cannot

unless you let it. Messing up does not keep you from that unless you

And now there's nothing between you and Father God, nothing for he sees you

as holy, flawless and restored, Holy flawless and restored. You know the

caveat here, and it says that in the next verse, is that you

continue to believe in the gospel that you first heard. He sees you as

holy, flawless and restored, Holy flawless and restored. There's some people here

dealing with some sexual sins. Sorry. Parents. He is restoring your innocence.

He is restoring your innocence. That is how he intended. He intended

you to have a restored innocence. And if you would go deeper with him,

he will begin to show you in the secret place, and you will

receive power from on high to be able to say no and to say yes

to him. It starts with your yes to him. That's where it starts.

It starts with coming back to the Father, coming back to the Father.

I'm gonna end with this. I wrote this this morning. Have you

been marked as unclean, spending your days with gentiles, living off the slot

mint for the pigs. Do you feel the loss of innocence, feel the

stain of sin as a mark upon you? Come home? Come home.

I'm standing here to represent him and tell you come home. This is him

saying it through me. We just heard a lot of words about it.

Come home, Come home to your father. He will give you his robe

of righteousness in place of those dirty rags. He'll place the ring on your

finger and call you as child. Everything he has will be yours too.

He'll put shoes on your feet after he washes them with his truth, for

in his eyes you are innocent, blameless, restored, holy, and flawless.

Come home. There's a call today. There's a call. Like I

said, there's different levels of prodigal. Okay, there's different levels of what

that may be for each of us. There's ways that maybe we're still cool

with God, everything's okay, but there's places where we've really pulled back,

and he's telling you and those places come home. There's some of y'all that

have never said yes to Jesus, and he's telling you now come home.

There's people that there's mothers that have been praying for people's and people in this

room that are here right now, and it's your day to come home to

the Father. It's time and I want you to come for I want you

to come forward if you feel like God is drawing you today for whatever reason,

whether it's to be saved, if it's to come back to Him because

you have stepped away, if it's because your heart is hard and you want

it to be soft towards Him again. I'm gonna ask you to be brave.

Okay. I got up here to be brave to talk to y'all.

Okay, So it's an exchange here. This is not easy. I'm asking

y'all to do something hard, asking you if you feel like He is drawing

you today, I'm asking you to come up here and we're just gonna pray

together. And let's also have prayer ministers come. Let's have them come.

Let's there's people that will pray. We're just gonna give it a minute.

Thank you for listening. For more messages and other resources, please subscribe to

this podcast or go to our website at www dot Cross Kingdom dot org