Homecoming Part 1 | Lost & Found with Chris Schlotterbeck

He's glorious.

Behold the one who has come to life.

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Hey, good morning, everyone.

Hey, great response.

It's good to see everyone.

So glad you're here.

If you're joining us from home,

thank you for welcoming us into your space.

It's hard to believe, but it is March.

2024 is quickly passing us by.

And think about it, now that winter has come and gone,

I want to pause for a minute.

This is very important.

And we do it every year to deal with lost and found.

I mean, over the winter months, we always accumulate stuff

and we've collected tons of things

and we've got to get it back to the people that it belongs to.

Is that okay if we do that for a minute?

For example, I got some party cake peeps.

I mean, whose do these belong to?

Does anybody, anybody need peeps?

Peeps?

Don't put your hand up if they're not yours.

Claim them.

Oh, this has got to be a guy's.

I got a super pack of dude wipes.

Oh, there we go.

Wow.

Oh, are you kidding me?

Assistant pastor for dummies?

Rudy.

You're supposed to be reading the Bible, bro.

Oh my goodness.

I mean, look at this.

All right.

What daughter or young girl has a pink unicorn?

Oh, Matt Breeden.

That's yours?

Oh my goodness.

Man, you learn a lot about people in the lost and found, right?

An instructional guide to the art of lip syncing

and making people think you can actually sing.

And this is my staff.

Like seriously.

Hot sauce.

I mean, who brings hot sauce to church?

Lance?

No, no, don't do it.

Oh, oh.

Wow.

I mean, I got several more, but I'm going to pause there because I think we've seen enough.

Like these items are lost.

Think about it.

And then they're found.

And when they're found, what does that bring to the house?

Excitement.

Excitement.

Everyone look at your neighbor and say, welcome home.

Now look at the neighbors you ignored and say, welcome home.

That's it.

So today, this morning specifically, we're kicking off a new series here at HTV entitled

Homecoming.

And for the month of March leading up to Easter, we'll be focusing on what is possibly Jesus's

most well known parables.

And it's parables that focus on homecomings.

Now the brilliance of these parables is lost to many of us because we've heard them so

many times.

These stories are so iconic that people who are not even associated with church know or

can put language to these stories, as is in the case with many of Jesus's parables.

However, because it's so familiar, many people lose sight of how amazing these parables truly

are.

What makes these and several others of Jesus's parables so amazing is that we can find ourselves

in each one.

Now let me preface this like a good movie or a good book, we're all tempted to identify

with the hero in the story, but just let me tell you now, you and I are not the heroes

of these stories.

Although we want to be, and there's something inspiring about being the hero of the story,

quite often we associate more with the different characters that we're going to be reading

about this morning.

And if we're honest with ourselves, many of us will discover that over the course of our

lives, okay, we have actually been all of the characters in these parables.

And here is the challenge for you this morning.

Be honest with yourself.

Find yourself in these parables because that's why Jesus taught in stories so that we can

identify with them and live in them.

Now if you're here this morning and you're not in a relationship with Jesus, no worries

because when Jesus told these parables, there was no church.

There was no term Christian.

These stories were meant for everyone to find their place in them.

So this is a judgment free zone, no judgment here.

I just want to challenge you to listen and find yourself, which leads us to our first

thought.

See, Jesus pursues sinners.

So we're going to dive in to Luke's gospel in Luke chapter 15 verses one through two.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

We read tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

Now just pause right there for a second.

This is a remarkable statement.

The worst of the worst is attracted to the best of the best.

And I believe that if you're in a relationship with Jesus, this should make all of us look

in the mirror and ask, how are we missing the mark?

Because something about Jesus was so attractive that people who were nothing like him, liked

him, right?

People who were nothing like him enjoyed coming and following and listening to him speak.

Think about this.

Tax collectors were so hated and despised that the sinners didn't even want to associate

with them.

Okay, tax collectors had their own category of bad.

They were the worst of the worst, traitors to their nation, traitors to the people and

traitors to the Jewish faith.

Now sinners, they were people who were outside of God's blessing, either because of their

jobs, which made them ceremonial, unclean and outside the acceptance of formal religion,

or they simply are making bad choices in life, which caused them to be labeled sinners.

And these people all were gathering around Jesus to listen to him speak.

So Jesus attracted the sinners.

So if you're in a relationship with God this morning, ask yourself, do I attract sinners?

Are there people drawn to me because of my relationship with Jesus or because I like

to sin too much?

It's both and.

But let's continue.

It doesn't end there.

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

such sinful people, even eating with them.

Now in the NIV, I wanted to show you this translation.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathered around to hear Jesus, but the Pharisees

and teachers of the law muttered, this man welcome sinners and eats with them.

Now we must remember Pharisees and teachers of the law were religious leaders, right?

That taught the Torah based on their interpretation of the Torah.

And they believed they had gotten it right in their life and they had God's favor on

them.

They believed that they were the spokesmen from God to the people and represented the

people to Rome at this time.

So they are also in this crowd, okay, with the tax collectors and the sinners.

And they are realizing that, wait a minute, all the wrong people are showing up to hear

this man teach.

So they began to mutter.

And that's just such a great term, isn't it?

Mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter.

I think we got to bring that back to our culture.

And what were they muttering?

This is what they would be muttering.

If this man is from God, why is he not spending time with us godly people?

He doesn't even invite us to be a part of his teachings.

He doesn't even want us to over for dinner.

And this was baffling to them because we must remember that eating with someone or a certain

group of people during this time period, it meant something, right?

Having dinner was not just a formal event.

It was considered a legitimate encounter between people.

And the biggest issue that these religious people had with Jesus was when, hey, Jesus,

when are you going to tell these sinners, these outcasts that they're doing it all wrong?

Well, when are you going to call them out on their sins?

When are you going to tell them they're outside of God's blessing?

When are you going to label and point your finger about each of their sins and tell them

to change?

But here's the reality, as it turns out, both of these groups of people, both the sinners

and the religious establishment, were both confused about God.

In fact, both groups were suffering from the same confusion.

Both of these groups were confused about how God views sinners.

And Jesus wants to help them get it right.

And he wants to help us get it right as well.

Because here's the reality.

At some point this past week, and for some of you even this morning, you and I sinned.

That's the reality.

Whether knowingly or unknowingly, we sinned.

And when we begin to recognize this truth, that we can't fix ourselves, that we can't

help ourselves, listen, there's not enough TED Talks, Oprah interviews, or podcasts that

can fix our brokenness.

It's when we realize that without God, we are lost, that's when everything changes.

So Jesus, he goes on to tell this group of people three stories about a lost sheep, say

lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.

A lost sheep, there you go.

A lost coin, flip it up, and a lost son.

And what is Jesus trying to communicate to us?

Here's the reality.

Jesus is simply trying to speak to the state of humanity.

That we are all lost.

That our default settings are not people who are found.

Our default settings is we are lost.

So look around the room.

Look all around.

Turn your heads.

Look around the room.

Find someone you don't know.

There are only two groups of people in this room.

It's not young and old.

It's not male and female.

There's two groups of people in this room, lost and found.

And this is the only groups of people that we will ever meet.

Lost and found people.

And in these three stories that are all connected, Jesus is letting us know that he is obsessed

with lost people.

He is obsessed with people who are lost and do not know their way.

And we know this because we read in Luke 19 10, Jesus' mission statement of why he came

from heaven to earth.

The son of man can to seek and save those who are lost.

He did not come just to save the lost, but to seek and save the lost.

See it's one thing to save them, but it's a whole other thing to actively be looking

for people who are lost.

Now I personally never get lost, but I do remember a time that I lost someone that was

extra special to Jess and I.

It was a Monday.

Of course Mondays are our days off if anybody wants to know.

And we were in Syracuse at the time.

And quite often when we were in Syracuse living there, we took our kids to the zoo.

The Syracuse zoo was wonderful.

It was a giant circle.

So we would go later in the morning, do a complete lap.

And just before lunch, go and take the kids home, get them lunch.

And then they were young enough that we put them down for a nap.

So it was approaching lunch.

We had finished the lap.

We had just looked at the red pandas, which happened to be my kids' favorites.

Or actually I think the penguins were last.

And as we were going into the exit area, like the auditorium, we began to, Jess and I were

talking with one another and we actually ran into somebody that we knew.

In our conversation, we had lost what the kids were doing.

Quickly as we began to look around, we realized, uh oh, we only have two children, but we brought

three.

And the one that was missing was named Trinity.

Now this shouldn't be a surprise to those of you that know her because she just goes

her own path and she's really good at it.

Well, Trinity decided she wasn't ready for lunch.

So she hooked onto another family and did another lap.

Jess and I quickly realizing that you lost the child.

I went one way by the penguins.

Jess went the other way towards the elephants.

We knew it was in a circle.

We would hopefully find her somewhere.

We began running, searching Trinity, Trinity, Trinity.

I never found her.

But as I began to make the turn to go the other way, Jess comes walking towards me with

Trinity in her hand.

Now the crazy thing is I still remember Trinity's face, the look on her face wondering, hey,

what did I do wrong?

I was just going to see the animals hooked onto another family.

No big deal.

Even though her mom and dad almost had a heart attack.

But there was one thing I did not say during this whole situation.

I never looked at my wife and said, well, at least I have two other kids.

We're good.

Those words never came out of my mouth.

And I tell you that because that puts the parable of a lost sheep into a completely

different context for you and I, which leads us to our next thought.

See God loves humanity uniquely.

Luke 15 through seven.

So Jesus told them this story.

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do?

Won't he leave the 99 others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost

until he finds it?

And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.

When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with

me.

I have found my lost sheep in the same way.

There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than

over the 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away.

Now if you're anything like me, our natural reaction to this parable is it's just one

sheep.

I mean, you have a hundred, heck, you can lose nine more and still have 90.

You're good.

It's no big deal, but the reason that we can think that way is because they're not our

sheep and we're not their shepherd.

But see when we suddenly put it into the context of the story that I just told you about Trinity,

when we make it about our kids, like Jess and I experienced losing her in the zoo, guess

what?

Everything changes.

Even though I had two other kids, one was lost and we did everything in our power to

find that one.

And friends, that's how God feels about you this morning.

It doesn't matter that he loves everyone.

He loves you uniquely and he will do whatever he has to do and whatever lengths he needs

to go to, to find you.

This is what matters.

That is why the shepherd leaves the 99 to find the one.

That sheep had a name and it means something to the shepherd and he will do whatever he

has to do to find the one.

Listen, the most powerful thing that you can hear this morning is that God doesn't love

us equally.

He loves us uniquely.

He doesn't love us equally.

He loves us uniquely.

And until you get that revelation, friends, you will simply think that you're just another

sheep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

God loves me.

I hear it all the time from all the churches.

Listen, I'm trying to tell you, he will leave the 99 to find you.

He loves you uniquely with all your quirks and all your wrinkles and all your mistakes.

I mean, why do you think there's not a single person on this planet that has the same fingerprint?

Because you are unique.

Because God loves each of us uniquely and he will do whatever he has to do to find the

one.

And friends, he is looking for a church, HCV, that will go and find the one.

Because see, when the shepherd, notice he goes and finds the one, what's he do?

He picks that sheep up.

He puts it over his shoulders and he carries that sheep home.

And do you know why he had to carry that sheep home?

Because sheep don't know how to find their way home.

Yes, it's true that God loves you uniquely.

Okay, I agree with that.

But there are similarities, unfortunately, between sheep and all of us in this room.

So no offense here.

I'm not trying to insult you.

Remember, this is Jesus comparing us to sheep.

And sheep think they are smarter than they really are.

They really do.

But they need someone to guide them.

They need someone to protect them because they don't have teeth.

They don't have any defensive mechanisms.

Sheep can get lost easily.

They just wander off.

Sheep stink.

That's the Bible.

That's not me.

Sheep, they have a lot of fear and anxiety.

Did you know that sheep can be scared of other sheep in the herd?

Heck, sheep can even scare themselves when they drink water and they see the reflection.

And then when sheep go to drink when they're thirsty, they can go to get a drink of water.

And if they drink from a stream that's running too quickly, the sheep literally can get carried

away by the current because they're too busy drinking.

They're drinking and swimming at the same time and end up drowning.

They don't even know it.

The thing that was supposed to quench their thirst is the same thing that carries them

away.

And here's the reality.

Same goes for us.

Could be a relationship, could be a job, could be a career, could be a habit, could be an

addiction, something that we thought was going to quench our thirst now has carried us away

from what is the most important thing in this world.

And that is our relationship with Jesus.

Sheep need to drink from still water.

And I want to encourage you, if you're in a relationship with God this morning, you're

guided by a shepherd that leads us to peaceful streams.

Look at Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows.

He leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to His name.

See, sheep get lost because they don't know how to find their way home.

They need someone to carry them home.

It's one thing to be lost like a sheep because when you're lost like a sheep, you know you're

lost but you just don't know how to get home.

But it's another thing to get lost like a coin.

See some people are lost like a sheep.

They just need someone to go and get them, take them home.

But the reason Jesus tells the parable about the coin is there is a difference between

sheep and coins being lost.

I mean think about it.

If you're looking for a sheep, all you have to do is listen for.

That's it.

You're going to find the sheep.

The problem with being lost like a coin is you don't know you're lost.

See coins don't know they're lost.

A coin doesn't make a noise when it's lost, which leads us to our next thought.

See humanity was created in the image of God.

Look at Luke 15, 8 through 10, suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one.

Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds

it.

And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, rejoice with

me because I've found my lost coin in the same way there is joy in the presence of God's

angels when every even one sinner repents.

See coins represent the people that are lost but they don't even know they're lost.

People who are lost but don't know the value they have inside of them.

And it is up to people all around them who are like that woman in the story who turned

on the light and swept the house searching for that coin because there are times that

we have incredible value in God's kingdom, but we don't even know we're lost because

we're not operating in their gifts.

And there are people here this morning.

There's people watching online who are lost and don't even know you're lost, but yet you

carry great value inside of you.

In Matthew 22 verses 19 to 21, the religious leaders, they're trying to trick Jesus regarding

Matthew 22:19–21

paying taxes to Caesar.

And here's the interaction.

Show me the coin used for the tax.

When they handed him a Roman coin.

Now remember this would have been similar to the coins that the woman had lost.

He asked whose picture and title are stamped on it?

Caesar's, they replied.

Well then he said, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to

God.

Now many of you are thinking, well, of course, what's this have to do with the parable of

the lost coins?

Well, a deeper question I want to pose to you this morning, especially if you're like

this lost coin, whose image is on you?

Whose image is on you?

Do you realize the image of God is on you?

It doesn't matter whether you profess that Jesus is Lord of your life or not.

His image is on every single person in all of humanity.

See, you and I never walk past a normal human.

Everyone that we see, everyone that we come in contact with has the undeniable imprint

of the hand of God on their life.

How do I know that?

Genesis 1 27.

So God created human beings in his own image in the image of God.

He created them male and female.

He created them.

Humanity is God's artistry.

And if you want to know about the artist, look at the faces of art that you see on every

single person's face that you pass every day.

We never walk past an ordinary person.

I mean, how many of you know that we're all God's children living within his creation

because he put his image on us?

The same thing that Jesus says about that coin is the same thing he's saying to us this

morning.

His image is on us.

He's back to God with his gods.

He wants our lives.

He doesn't want pieces of us.

He doesn't want the Sunday morning version of us.

He wants all of us.

And he wants seven days a week.

Some people are lost like a sheep and they wander and can't get home.

So the shepherd picks them up and takes them home.

Some people are lost like a coin.

They don't know they're lost yet.

They have incredible value in God's kingdom and someone has to turn on the light, sweep

the house and find them.

But there's one more which leads us to our next stop.

See humanity is given a choice.

Luke 15, 11 through 20 to illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story.

A man had two sons.

The younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die.

I want to pause there a second.

Essentially the younger son is saying, hey dad, I wish you were dead.

I'm tired of living in your house under your rules.

I want to do life my way.

And there are some people that are lost just like that.

You want to do life your way with no restrictions.

Don't put me in a box.

The prodigal son ran out to live his own way.

And the same way the shepherd went after the sheep, the same way the woman searched and

swept the house for the coin.

We're expecting the father to run after the son as soon as he's leaving.

But notice, father doesn't do that because his son being lost is different than the others

because he chose to leave.

He asked for his inheritance.

He asked for his share.

He didn't wander off.

He wanted to go.

He was full of pride wanting to live life on his own terms.

And the grace of the father was to let him leave.

As we continue, so his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

A few days later, his younger son packed all his belongings, moved to a distant land,

and there he wasted all his money.

Of course, living wildly.

About that 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 field 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.

And 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 will go home to my father and say, father, I've sinned against both heaven and you and

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.

Now notice, the father let him leave and the father waited till the boy hit rock bottom

until a crisis hit before he responded.

And here's the reality, some of you are in the middle of a crisis right now.

That's why you're here.

It could be a relationship, it could be financial, it could be school problems, it could be friendship

problems.

Life has finally gotten your attention.

And you're coming to your senses.

This is God's way of trying to get your attention.

See, God's not all about chasing you, but God is standing on the porch just like that father

every single day looking into the distance, waiting for his son to return home.

And the day his son hit rock bottom and realized how dirty and unclean he was, that that life

shouldn't be like this.

Why am I wasting my time?

It's better to be a slave in my father's house than to eat with these pigs.

The day the son came to his senses, he began to run back to his father's house.

Think about it, he was going back to be a slave, not a son.

But before he could even get to the front door, his father, he's there looking for him,

waiting for him.

He's hoping he comes home.

And notice the father runs towards the son.

I don't know who this is for this morning, but I want to encourage you, if you simply

take one step toward God, he'll take 20 steps towards you.

Your life is not broken.

He loves you.

He cares for you.

He wants to be in relationship with you.

God will run towards his son, towards his daughter that is tired of living an empty

life without meaning.

I mean, there's only so many Bud Lights you can drink.

And we laugh about it, but it's true.

Now if we were the father, if I was the father, put myself in his shoes, isn't it true that

many of us would say, told you so?

What's wrong with you?

I told you not to go.

Told you what was going to happen soon as the son gets home.

But hear me friends, this is not the story that Jesus tells.

And for many of us, we have to stop projecting what happened between you and your earthly

father onto your heavenly father.

God is not there waiting for you to return home wanting to hit you upside your head when

you get there.

God is not going to wait for you to get home to remind you of all your mistakes.

That's not what the story says.

The story follows the same pattern as the sheep and the coin, which leads us to our

final thought.

God celebrates the lost coming home.

Luke 15, 6 to 7, 9 through 10, 22 to 24 when he arrives, he will call together his friends

and neighbors, says, rejoice with me, I've found my lost sheep.

In the same way there's more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns

to God than over the 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away.

And he's challenging the religious there.

He's saying, yeah, you got it all together, but guess what?

God celebrates those that are lost.

Stop thinking you got it all together.

And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, rejoice with

me, I've found my lost coin in the same way there is joy in the presence of God's angels.

And think about that party.

And even one sinner repents, but his father notice said to the servants quick, bring the

finest robe in the house, put it on him, get a ring for his finger and sandals on his feet,

kill the calf.

We have been fattening.

We must celebrate with a feast for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life.

He was lost and is found.

So the party began and friends, that's why we like our Jesus the party at HCV, because

we celebrate the loss coming home and we will continue to do so when they found the sheep.

They had a party when they found the coin.

They rejoice and had a party when the son came home, right?

He wasted his father's inheritance, made all the wrong decisions, was broke, busted and

disgusted.

He didn't get a speech about how wrong he was, how he was no good.

No, it was get the fat a calf, call DJ somebody and play some music.

I was going to say DJ Lance.

I forgot his name.

My son was lost.

He was dead, but now is found.

See Jesus pursues sinners and desire that they return home to the party because he looks

at you as a son or daughter.

I mean, even the angels rejoice.

I mean, just reading that scriptures, just you can just see heaven's celebrating.

And I'd be willing to say there's a good chance that there's someone here or watching online

feels like a lost sheep and you don't know your way home.

And I want to encourage you, God will pick you up and carry you home.

There could be someone here that feels like a lost coin.

You don't even know you're lost.

You don't even know you have value and I'm here to tell you that the very image of God

is on you.

You were created in his image.

Maybe you're like the lost son who's making selfish decisions, choosing to walk away from

God and yet the father is standing and waiting for you to return home.

You know, before I go to our action steps, I want every person to have the opportunity

to come home and have a party with Jesus today.

Jesus is pursuing you, loves you, chose to give up his life.

Even while you had no idea you were lost.

You can always come home to God and that's what this series is all about.

That son noticed he didn't take a bath.

He didn't get cleaned up.

He didn't have it all together.

My man's stunk.

He was hanging out with pigs and what's the father do?

He puts the best robe on him and says, no, he's my son.

I welcome him home.

He's in the family.

So if we could all go to that place of prayer, no one looking around.

This is an intimate moment between individuals and God.

And as we go to that place, listen, I'm not talking about returning home to church.

I'm talking about entering a relationship with Jesus.

Entering a relationship with the God that loves you so much.

And I felt like there was going to be people here this morning that you've been hurt by

someone in the church.

Someone in the church judged you and hurt you and you've walked away from God.

And you didn't even know you'd been lost, but you've lost your way.

So no one looking around.

Again, this is an intimate moment.

If there's anybody here, anybody online that it can associate with these lost items, just

slip your hand up so I can agree with you and see you.

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

Hands all over and we'll just pray this simple prayer together.

Jesus, I'm broken.

I'm full of doubt, shame, regret, sin.

Change me.

I believe you're God's son.

I believe you died for me.

Make me new.

Set me free.

Help me God to welcome others home.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Can we just celebrate a little bit?

Isn't it fun to clap, have fun in church?

It's like that's what the angels do.

Why wouldn't we?

You know, if you prayed that prayer for the first time, I encourage you to get baptized

on Good Friday.

We're going to have a Good Friday worship and baptism.

It's going to be incredible.

It's going to be life changing.

If you want to get baptized, sign up, you know, be sure to be a part of that.

And there's just nothing like coming home to that relationship with God.

And that leads us to our action steps.

Three simple steps that I want to encourage you with of winning the loss.

Because listen, we're called as followers of Jesus, inviering a relationship with Him

to do as Jesus modeled for us to seek and save.

And instead of seeing the world as a whole, I want to encourage you this week, this month,

break it down, break your world down into neighborhoods, break your world down into

your workplace or into your classmates.

Each person you come in contact with daily deserves to know Jesus, true or false.

You're darn right they do.

Jesus was not just a man from the Bible that was a good person.

He was God in flesh that changed your very life and could change the lives of others

through you.

See, winning the loss is more than just sharing the gospel with someone.

It's walking alongside the law showing Jesus is present even in the darkest moments, which

leads us to our first stop.

Just be available.

Live wisely at Colossians 4 or 5 among those who are not believers and make the most of

every opportunity.

Notice, let your conversation be gracious and attractive.

In a hyper busy world, people need more than ever to slow down and see each other, to have

conversations, to be connected.

Again, listen, stop using COVID as an excuse.

We need to be connected with people.

And as you slow down, pray that the Holy Spirit would guide and lead you into these conversations

and more importantly than your mouth, those of you that like to talk, let's start using

our ears.

Because when we listen, it speaks volumes to people in need, whether at work or at school,

at the baseball fields, they're primed areas for listening rather than talking.

Make yourself available because God can use those conversations to begin a journey of

faith for someone that may be lost, that may be struggling.

Being available, even when it's uncomfortable and being open to the views of others that

even you may disagree with, it's okay.

It's called being the light of the world.

Ephesians 5, be careful how you live.

Don't live like fools, but live like those who are wise.

Notice, make the most of every opportunity in these evil days, which leads us to our

next step.

We'd be available.

We'd be flexible.

See, there's a temptation for us, those of us in a relationship with Jesus, to believe

that we know it all.

To believe, oh, I know what's best for others.

And we'll quickly learn the hard way that every situation is different.

Every person grows up in different family units and every struggle is not the same.

And that's why we have to listen and be available.

Now throughout the gospels, Jesus went into the uncomfortable places to help those in

need.

Remember there was a woman that was caught in adultery, filled with shame, hopelessness.

She was struggling.

What was she going to do?

She was staring at the ground, but she wasn't alone.

There was a man next to her, the man that was different than any she'd ever known.

Her accusers questioned him about her punishment, expecting him to agree and throw the first

stone and kill her for her sin.

Instead, he remained silent and wrote something in the ground, on the ground, in the sand

that remains a mystery to scholars even to this day.

And Jesus stands up and says, all right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the

first stone.

When Jesus stood before the woman's accusers, he stood as the light and hope for those unworthy.

On that particular day, he changed the rules, right?

There wasn't one stone thrown for they knew that they had all sinned.

And Jesus hung out with the outcast because he was creating a model for the church to

follow Hubsidi.

We are to follow his example and live Matthew 9.

When Jesus heard this, he said, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.

Now go and learn the meaning of the scriptures.

I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices for I've come to call not those who think

they're righteous, but those who know they're sinners.

Be available, be flexible, share your story.

Second Timothy four, I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Jesus, and I want

you to see those words in the sky Bible.

Notice we are being challenged in the presence of God and in the presence of the Holy Spirit,

preach the word of God, be prepared whether the time is favorable or not, patient and

correct rebuke and encourage your people as good teacher.

See, when the Pharisees challenged Jesus to why he's hanging out with the sinners, Jesus

doesn't respond with an answer, an argument or an accusation.

He respond with a story, several stories.

And here's the truth.

Storytellers rule the world.

There's something about a story that can change your life forever.

And as followers of Jesus, everywhere we go, we are presented with the opportunity to tell

our story, who I was before Jesus and who I am now.

Because when we share our story, when we share our testimony, that's how we overcome.

We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.

And listen, you don't have to go to Bible college.

You don't have to memorize the book of Leviticus.

Okay, because you won't be able to.

But you can tell your story of how God changed you, redeemed you and restored you in Christ.

And God is challenging us to stand and share that testimony.

Listen, I'm going to end with this.

The world doesn't need more people acting like they got it all together.

The world needs someone to stand up and say, this is who I was, but I'm no longer him or

her.

I am found.

I was lost, but now I'm found.