Embracing God's Grace || Pastor Mark Clark

We're gonna dig into the Word of God today. I'm

so honored that one of my friends, Mark Clark, is

here with us, originally from Canada. So it's our first

Canadian ever to preach in our pulpit.

Okay, we got a Canadian, but he not Canadian anymore.

He woke up one day and he was like, what

am I doing here?

And now he's in northern California at a church called

Bayside Church, one of the most incredible churches in all

of the United States and making a profound.

Impact in northern California.

They have a campus in Orange County, and Mark has

become a great friend over the years. To me, he's

one of the greatest teachers of our day. He's one

of the greatest writers. He's an author, and he's so thoughtful.

All he does is read and write. I mean, he

just loves to think. He's a scholar and he's a

lover of Jesus. And so we're so honored today that

we're a church that leans in. So get ready because

you are going to experience the power and a move

of God delivered through this man of God.

So would you do me a favor and give him a.

Patreo, welcome by standing on your feet and maybe, oh

it's for Pastor Mark Clark.

Thank you, thank you, sir, thank you. Oh my goodness,

thank you, thank you, thank you. Sit down, sit down,

sit down. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, thank you.

Adam.

I I love this church.

I love the leadership Adam Diego Pastor, Diego Pastor, Ashley pastor.

This crew is amazing. This church is amazing.

And when he's explaining me as a scholar, uh, yeah,

that's that's not true.

Uh. And and the minute you heard that, you're like,

oh gosh, like, can we get out of here? Because

I know what that's gonna be. Like, Hello, welcome to

Patriot Church.

Glad you're here. Uh.

Ephesians Chapter one.

I want to share two verses with you and uh

and kind of weave in a bit of my story

that I hope will actually encourage and help you in

the midst of your life.

I am Canadian. Is there is there any Canadians here? Okay? Great,

thank you for welcoming me.

It's perfect.

Oh my gosh.

All right, So grew up in Toronto and then moved

across the Vancouver You guys have.

No idea where any of these places are.

I now, I am now in America, and I talk

to people about geography, and they're.

Like, in America, America, that's good.

And then you start talking about anywhere else in the

world and they draw a blank. So but but my story,

I hope can connect to yours. And it's part of

the Biblical story in a in an amazing way. The

apostle Paul writes this letter called Ephesians. And as I've

watched Pastor Adam preach, I notice how often he goes

back to the well of the Book of Ephesians. Because

it's such a beautiful book. It's a book that kind

of founds every big idea in.

Regard to Christianity.

And uh, and I got some things that I wanted

to to share with you to encourage you out of Ephesians.

Chapter one, verse one says this Paul. He's he's kind

of introducing himself to the church. And he says, Paul, Now,

now stop right there. If you got a Bible underlying

the word Paul, because some of you walking in here

right now might be like, Okay, here's my problem that

that this is exactly the kind of people God uses

the apostle Paul. He's a great guy. He's a he's

a he's learned. He wrote thirteen books of the New Testament.

You know, those are the kinds of people that God uses.

The choir boys, the good people, the righteous people, the

people who memorize their Bibles, the people who have never

watched rated R movies and they don't say these swear words.

And they don't and they're good people and and and

the problem with that is is is you know that's

not you. And part of your problem is you come

in here and you see all these people on stage

and they're they're righteous, and they're holy, and they're put together,

and some of you see this is this is the problem.

God uses good people and he can never use someone

like me. And that's the narrative that goes in your

brain that God could never use you. God could never

bless you. God can never take you to change the world.

And I am here to say to you that that's

not true. That listen, I am the poster boy for

God could never use me.

All Right.

I grew up the.

First time I ever walked into a church, I was

nineteen years old. And the only reason I stayed was

because there was pretty girls there. Can I get an

amen from the youth section or whatever?

So I never walked into a.

Church before because here's what in my mind, here's what

the church was gonna be.

It was everyone was gonna be average, two hundred years old.

It was gonna be orange, shaggy carpet and smell like mothballs.

And I was like, I don't want anything to do

with the church.

I grew up in an atheistic, agnostic, secular setting, no Bible,

no prayer, no church, no nothing. My dad was such

an atheist that when my mom proposed to him that

they call my brother Matthew, all right, she wanted to.

She said, Hey, I want to name my.

First kid Matthew, and my dad said absolutely not because

that name is in the Bible, right. And then four

years later they had me and named me Mark. So

clearly this guy had never picked up a Bible before

in his life. My middle name is Andrew and my

brother's middle name is James. We got four disciples knocked

off and this guy is clueless. So I Uh So,

when I was about eight or nine years old, uh,

my parents got divorced and the tragedy of that the

trauma of it. For me, for those of you are

who are kids of divorced it actually when my when

my parents sat me down and said, hey, listen, we're getting.

Divorced and my dad left.

The trauma of that gave me a mental illness called

Turet syndrome. Now, I don't know if you guys know

what Turet syndrome is, but it's the reason I'm like,

I'm up here and you'll see me. I twitched my

face around and my body twitches around. You're like, what's

wrong with this guy? Touret's syndrome is what's wrong with me?

When I was eight years old, the trauma of that

moment gave me trusted. No, here's the Turets. For those

of you who don't know about Turets, it's it's a

way not to be cool in high school, all right.

So so what happens is is you you do all

these random habits, and you you do ticks and and

things that you have to do because you're you're and

and one of the things that if you watch someone

in taretess on YouTube, they swear a lot, right, And.

That's what was me I'd be I was like twelve

years old to be.

Sitting at a bus stop and I'd just be swearing

at people randomly. Af af like not the letter like

the word af Red, I mean as you af right,

I mean ran Ran, I mean.

Right now here here.

Here's the one job you're never gonna get in life

when you randomly throw f bombs around at people a preacher.

Right, it's not gonna work.

But how many of us in this room know that

God uses you not because of you, but in spite

of you, because it's not the last job ever for

a kid like that is gonna be what I'm doing

in front of you today. Right, Well, I've been to

Patria church, af got in a small group. What that

doesn't work. I can't be swearing at people. But God

took me and all my weirdness and all my brokenness,

and he decided to use me to preach and be

on a stage for a living. Why because it makes

you feel good about yourself and.

That's a good thing.

Because I remember God, when I was nineteen or twenty

years old, I was gonna go to the film industry,

That's what I wanted to do with my life. And

God brought a group of people around me and they said, no,

that's not what you're gonna do. You're gonna go and

be a pastor. You're gonna be a preacher. And I

was like, no, I don't want to be a pastor

because here's the thing. Would you agree with me? People

are the worst, right like you all, I'm not a

good pastor.

Man. My church knows this. I'm not like Pastor Adam.

He he loves you, all right, He he cares about

you because.

He's a pastor. He left, he's he's Oh I talked

to him.

Every person I saw him with is like he knows

your name and he knows your.

Story and all. This person's greatest person.

I meet people in the lobby of my church, I'm like,

hellow like Hi, I'm David.

I'm like Hi, David Billy all right.

I'm just like I don't I'm not gonna need this

information in about eight minutes, all right. And so and so,

when people came around me and they're like, here's what

you need to do.

You need to go plant a church.

You know what, you gonna be a pastor, I was like

the last thing I want to do in my life

is to be a pastor.

Because people complain all the time.

And then oh the worship was too loud, Eh start.

A singles ministry for me, It's like, figure your own

life out. Why you can't find a person in this crowd?

Good lucks like fish in a barrel. You don't need

a ministry for that.

So I was like, I was like, man, I don't

I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to

be good at this job. And you can see why.

And so, but a weird thing happened, not only so

my dad. My dad passed away when I was fifteen

years old, and it caused me to ask a lot

of big questions about origin, meaning morality, destiny, where am

I going in life? And it caused me to come

to know Jesus. When I was eighteen years old, a

guy came and shared Christ with me, and I got

into the.

Pastor and I didn't know what I was doing.

And then I moved to Vancouver because I wanted to

go into the academic realm because again, people are the worst.

So footnotes though, I like footnotes because they don't talk

back to you and make dumb decisions with their life

and cheat on their wives. And so I was like

footnotes is what I want. And then God said, not

only do I want you to be a pastor, I

want you to plant a church. I want you to

start a church with sixteen people in your house.

Now we're talking about Vancouver, Canada, right, we're talking.

About progressive posts Christian Like. They say that Canada is

probably a generation or two ahead of America in regard

to secularization.

Right, so I like to say when I'm.

Speaking in front of Americans, I come to you from

the future, right, I come to you from where your

country is going in regard to atheism, secularism, post Christian thought.

And here I am.

And God says, I want you to plant a church

in Vancouver, Canada.

I'm like, I don't want to do that, man.

Because nobody likes Jesus here, nobody cares. This is this

is the West coast man, this is all like there

are They already think they're saved because they wear Lululemon

pants and carry a water bottle and eat kale And

they're like, oh, I'm I'm connected, And I gotta get

up every week and tell these people, no, no, no, you're.

Not actually saved.

Because here's the thing going inside of yourself, finding yourself.

The New Age Gospel is not what saves you. You

need to come to the end of yourself. And here's

the thing, the one commons and I'm in all the

problems of your life is you. And you show up

here and you think you can find salvation in you.

You are a disaster, you are a wreck.

You are sinful, pitiable, par blind and naked.

But Jesus isn't. Jesus Christ.

Died on a cross, rose again for your salvation. Stop

trusting in yourself. And everyone said that will never work

because in Canada, no one wants to hear that they're sinful.

No one wants to hear that they need to give

their life to Jesus. They think they're already all right.

And so I just started doing that every single week,

a kid in his running shoes and a hoodie yelling

at everybody about how they're a disaster but Jesus needs

to be the hero of their life. And people start

to meet Jesus and this thing started to happen. We're

over time. God saved literally thousands of people all across

Canada because I was willing to say send me, I

was willing to go I know I'm not going to

be good at this, but maybe through me, God, you

could do a thing. And here's the crazy thing about

what God does. How many of us know? Where was

the Apostle Paul when he wrote the Book of Ephesians him? Well, no,

he was in prison. So I had never heard of

fulsome prison before. I mean i'd heard it through the

Johnny Cash song when I was a Canadian. But when

I moved to Sacramento, I realized I lived twenty minutes

from fullsome prison. And in fact, we as a church

have a campus in fullsome prison where every single Sunday

I look at a camera and I say hello and

preach to our fullsome prison campus and it's three hundred

guys in jumpsuits sitting in the service, love in Jesus,

worship in Jesus.

Go and I and so.

I remember our team came to us and they said, hey, man,

we want to do we want to do a day

in fulsome prison. I was like, yeah, it's a really

good idea. Let's let's, you know, shoot some video and

projected in there. They're like, no, no, no, man, we're

talking about you going. I'm like, what why would I

what do you talk? I don't know, Like I wouldn't

do well in prison. I'm just saying. So I was like, ah,

I don't know. They're like, no, we're going in, man,

we're going in. We're gonna do a whole conference. You're

gonna preach there. I'm like, oh, okay. So we show

up that day. We're standing outside the prison and it's

literally like just like the movies, like big stone walls,

huge gates, and they're like, okay, we're gonna go in.

And then literally, no joke, all the alarms start to

go off.

Meet me, Meet me real.

I'm like, what is going on? And they're like, sorry,

there was a shanking in the prison. I'm like, all right,

well we gave it a shot. We'll see you later,

you know.

And everyone's like no, no, no, it's it's just a

ten minute delay. Ten minute delay. What are you talking about?

This is over and they're like no, man. So we

walk in.

The big gates open, we walk in and I see

the guy on the gurney. Literally he's on the gurney

like shaking. I'm like, what the and we going? And

I thought I thought we have like our own little

like tunnel or whatever, we've kind of pop up in

the chapel and there'd be some like some plexi glass

or something.

Uh.

Yeah, it wasn't like that, man.

I I went I went in and there was a

whole bunch of inmates and I'm walking right with them

and they're like, mercy, it's just like the movies.

They're all tattered up and they're like, what's up? And

I'm like, we'll sup right, and I.

And I got I got into the chapel and this

guy no joke, makes a beeline for me all right

and then tie it up guy to shoot.

He just walks right up to me and I'm like,

oh no, and he runs.

Up and he gives me the biggest hug and he goes,

how are Aaron and the kids?

And I'm like, you know my family? How how long

are you in?

For?

Like a while? Right right?

He said, you're an.

Uh.

Because this guy listens to me preach every week. He

knows my whole life. And all the prisoners started walking

up to me. They going, he's smaller in real life,

look at him bah And they're laughing at me, and

I start and I'm like, Lord, what do I preach

to these men? And God said, here's what I want

you to do. I want you to preach the Prodigal

Sun's story.

And so I got up.

I started preaching Luke fifteen to these guys. And I

looked at them and I said, how many of you

in this room had to father that abandoned you?

How many of you in this room how to father

who drank.

Too much and hit on their beat their mom or

their sister and abandon How.

Many of you? And all three hundred hands went up,

and I said, listen to me.

In Christianity, you get a father who will never leave you.

In Christianity, you get a father.

Who will never drink too much, who will never beat

on your mom.

All he does is run out to you.

The minute you repent, he runs out and embraces you

and puts his own robe on you.

It's a beautiful thing.

And they're crying, and I'm watching these men and I'm

thinking to myself, See, these are the kinds of people.

God uses the people that he's not supposed to use

the people. Some of you walked in here and you're like,

God could never use me.

And to tell you he can use any of you, no.

Matter your past, no matter how you view yourself, he

views you different. Now listen, Paul says this, Paul an

apostle of who Christ Jesus.

Here's the apostle.

Paul wants you to know right off the bat that

your life is not about you.

It's about Jesus.

He's the only one that can save you. He's the

only one who can redeem you. He's the only one

who can transform you. He's the only one who can

carry you. Money will disappear, your marriage will crumble, your

health one day, every single person in here is gonna

get a diagnosis and die. But Jesus Christ is eternal,

and no matter what this world does to you, he

holds you. He is the ultimate treasure. Now, this is

the problem. Some of you who grew up in church.

You think that the Bible, this is what the apostle Paul.

Is trying to do.

Verse one. I'm trying to tell you the Bible is

because there's only two ways.

You can read the Bible. Either the Bible is about

you or it's about him. Now, some of you who

grew up in the church, the problem is you read

the Bible is if it's about you.

So you do your DeVos in the morning, and you

you know, you got.

Your cup of coffee and you've already taken your selfie hashtag, hashtag,

Jesus hashtag devo hashtag. And the problem is is you

go to work and when you read your Devo that morning,

you read a story about Jesus and he just hanging.

Out with some prostitutes and some sinners. And you, when you.

Read that story, who were you in that story? When

you read it, you were Jesus.

Every time? What would Jesus do?

And you go, you know, I'm going to minister to

the prostitutes at work. I mean not the real ones,

but the emotional you know, I got all these spirit Joe.

You know, listen, if you read the Bible that way,

it will crush you because here's the thing. You are

not Jesus in that story. You are the prostitute. You

are the person who every single day you cheat on

Jesus and yet he shows you his grace.

That's how you read the Bible.

And if you read the Bible like that, it sets

you free because you can try your whole life.

I gotta be like Jesus. I gotta slay the giants

of my life. No, no, no, you're not Jesus. You're

not David in that story.

You're the Israelites who are hiding up in the bushes

hoping that a representative Israelite would go down and slay

the giant of Satan, sin and death and then impute

it to you even though you did nothing, because you're

the only thing you bring to salvation is the sin

that necessitated it. See, Jesus needs to be the hero

of your life. Jesus needs to be the one that

you look to and go okay.

Uh So here's the power.

When you make your life about Jesus, he changes everything.

I remember when we started our church in Canada, everyone said, well, Mark, uh,

here's the only thing that's gonna work in Canada. You

got to preach these like topical sermons and you've got

to be able to entertain people.

People are gonna come in.

You're gonna, you know, ride around on a unicycle and

juggle and come to my church and hopefully entertain everybody.

And I was like, that sounds awful. What's my other option?

And they're like, well, you could preach the Bible, but

that's gonna be lame. No one in Canada no one

in Canada wants to hear you just preach the Bible.

I'm like, okay, that one. So I started when I

started our church. We're in this little elementary school gym,

and I would just get up and I would start

preaching through books of the Bible, verse by verse, like literally,

we spent three and a half years in the Gospel

of Matthew when we started our church, three and a

half years right like like even in this sermon right now,

I'm on Paul.

An Apostle of Christ. Jesus.

That's it.

That's where we're at, right.

And so I would just tell them every week, you

need to give your life to Jesus.

We preach through Bible verses. And here's what happened. People

started to meet Jesus. People started to.

Get their addictions healed, their marriages healed. And that started

to grow, and sixteen.

People became fifty, became three hundred. And I remember when.

We were three hundred people meeting in this little elementary

school gym and this I said, we're gonna have to

go to two services and the ooh, and.

This woman walked off to us.

She said, I can't go, We can't go to two services.

That's gonna be the nail in our coffin. I'm like, why,

and she said, because I come to.

Church for community, and now I'm not gonna know where

Joanne is and we gotta go for lunch after and

now which and so I So I got up the

next weekend and I preached a sermon. I said, listen,

I didn't start at church so you could get more friends.

I started at church because every single day, people like

my father die and go to Hell. And so next

week we're going to two services. And if you don't

want to, I don't really care what you're gonna do

with your life. I probably won't remember your name anyway,

So just we're just gonna do it. And that next

weekend we went to two services and the church grew

by fifty people in a week. Well she left, so

forty nine people in a week, and I'm like, what

what just happened? And what started to happen is Jesus

to save people. And the church started to grow and

grow and grow because when God shows up to do something, listen,

there's nothing you can do to stop.

At y'all, there was.

There was a weekend when when my staff looked at

me and they said, Mark, I like it was one

of these weekends where I just didn't feel like going

out and preaching. Right, I'm pastor Adam, pastor Diego. They've

never had this but I but I remember I was

like sitting backstage and I'm like, i don't want to

go out and preach. I'm not even in the mood

because I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna look

out at this crowd. I'm gonna see the same guy

whos been sitting in the same seat for four years,

never brought a friend, and he gives nothing. You gonna

go out there and give him my whole energy to

this guy, He's gonna sit there and rate my little

sermon out of ten and move on with his life.

And I'm just sick of this. I don't feel like it.

And my Staf's like, go go go. So I walked

out out and I preached like a what preachers are

probably called it a Jonah sermon, you know Jonah. He

didn't want them Innavites to repent, right, so he just

preached the world like I just went out and liked,

God hates you.

Figure it out.

I don't know.

And no joke. On Monday morning, my admin sat me down.

She said, I don't know what you said on the weekend,

but more people came to know Jesus this weekend than.

We've ever had. In fact, we had to.

Start training the ushers in how to lead people to

Christ because people were walking up to them and going,

hey whatever. He just said, I want Jesus, and they're

like bucket because that's all we trained them to do. Man,

there's a hand out the buckets, and what started to happen.

Was something that was not scheduled.

Jesus started to show up and save people and we

couldn't even keep up with it. That's what happens when

the spirit of God starts to blow. It's everything in

your power. And that's why Paul's going, I want you

to focus on Jesus Christ as the hero of your life,

is the one that you've given your life to, as

the one you believed in, as the one that you treasure.

And some of you are bored with Jesus. You're like,

I don't know about Jesus. Aw, he's kind of like

this a victim guy who walked around in sandals. No, no, no,

that's who he was two thousand years ago for thirty

three years, it's not who he is now. You know

who he is now, the reigning, ruling king of kings,

Lord of lords, who's coming back. I remember this, this

mentor of mine of Vancouver. But a seventy five year

old preacher, he sat a group of us preachers down.

He looked at us, he said, let me ask you

a question. If you showed up to church on Sunday

and not one person came to the church, all right,

just they just didn't show up. What would you do?

And every guys I don't know, go home. And he's like, no,

here's what you do. You still preach the sermon because

there are principalities and powers that need to be reminded

who's in charge, that there has been a victory, that

Jesus Christ has defeated them and is reigning and ruling

now and coming back for his people. And some of you,

he have no vision for your life. Paul right off

the back says, let me give you one. It's Jesus.

And then he says this by the will of God,

to God's holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ, Jesus.

And then He says, this word ready for this. What's

this word?

Grace?

That is the word for all of us who don't

feel like we're worthy, all of us who have a

past where we've been, where we have messed up and

sinned and made mistakes or had a whole bunch of

mistakes made against us.

Paul leads this book, but go, I need you, guys

to grasp grace. You.

Race means undeserved favor, und favorite. That means no matter

what mess you make, no matter how much you fumbled

your life, no matter the mistakes you mad.

Do you know the.

Amount of mistakes that I've made in ministry? And somehow

God still has me doing this.

I don't understand. How listen, have you guys ever heard

of Saddleback Church before?

Right?

So? So sadle Bac Church, you know, sat.

About the Changed Church of Evangelical America, one of the greatest,

biggest churches every I used to read all the books

and I was the church player, all the purpose driven

and the baseball diamonds and all this crit and I'm like, Okay.

I get a phone call six months ago from the

pastor there. He says, I want you.

To come and preach and I'm like, what preach on

saddleback church? Oh my gosh, that's like the super Bowl

of preaching. I get to preach at.

Saddle back, and so I prep this sermon.

It's all perfect, every illustration, every phrase. I'm gonna pay

myself saddle back. I'm gonna make sure it's legit. So

I get up and preach at saddle back. And they

signed this text, and I was talking about, Hey, the apostle,

Paul was a guy. He murdered people. And then I said,

how many of you have murdered somebody before? Of course,

first service goes, all's well right, Second service goes alls, well,

how many How do you murdered somebody before? You know,

God can use You're already ahead of Paul.

Third service goes I.

Said, how many murdered somebody before? And I look over

to them my left side, and I see a hand

go up and look. I'm like, okay, ah, thank you.

For your honesty. Okay, And it was the sign language.

Lady, Shoot, shoot, how many of you murdered?

Wow?

How many of us know that God redeems stupid?

I am not getting invited back there. So when I

was a young when I was a young pastor. I

told a woman that her husband was dead, and I

had the wrong guy.

Yeah, her husband was fine.

I had gone and visited him in the hospital. And

then I went in on a Monday and I walked

in the room, same room, same hospital, and the guy

was there and he wasn't looking good, and I was

I went to step around. The nurse said, excuse me,

what are you doing here? And I said, oh, I'm

here for a pastoral visit and she said, oh, I'm sorry,

he passed away this morning. Now, if you're taking notes

on how to be a good pastor, when someone says

someone passed away.

Say who.

But I just said, okay, sounds good. And I went

back to the office. I told the secretary, and two

hours later, his wife came by the church to drop

something off and was holding a subway sandwich and said,

I'm on my way to go visit him.

And the secretary came back. I said, I don't think

she knows he's dead.

I said, send her back, and she came back and

I said, I'm really sorry.

I said, where are you going. She's going to going

to visit David. I said, oh, David died. David's dead.

He died this morning. She's like, how is that possible?

I was there singing with him this morning. I said,

all these things happened pretty quick these days. He says, downhill,

hees never know, you never know. At which point I'm

not kidding. She passed out into my.

Arms and we mourned the death of David for an

hour and a half until I walked out and realized

that I'd had the wrong hospital. And so the secretary

called and David was fine. He's waiting for his lunch,

and I'm like, shoot, So I had to walk back

into the room. I hey, man, remember that thing we're

talking about it.

Now, let me be honest with you.

Worst day of my life, and I'm gonna be honest

with you. Satan used that in my life to destroy

me because he said, you weren't good enough to do

this job. You're dressing up. You're not a real pastor.

You don't even know what you're doing. You're pretending. You're

dressing up like some man that you think, and you

are not good enough.

You should not plant this church.

It was six months before planting the church, and I

need people to come around me and look at me

and say no, no, no. Do you know what the

Father said to Jesus when he was being baptized, You

are my beloved son and whom I am well pleased.

And he hadn't even done anything yet. You think that

you're gonna plant this church and reach people for Jesus

because you're perfect.

No, it's because he is perfect.

He's gonna use you, and you're gonna fumble it and

you're gonna make mistakes for the rest of your life.

But that's what grace is.

Have you ever thought about people in the Bible. I

saw this thing online the other day about people in

the Bible that we look up to, all.

These great saints, but if you ever.

Looked at their life, think about how you would connect

with this. Noah got drunk? How many of us, I'm

just kidding, don't do that.

How many of us can can connect with Noah? Right?

Noah got drunk? Abraham was too old? How many of

you feel too old?

Right?

Isaac was a day dreamer. Jacob lied. Leah was ugly.

In Genesis, it says Leah is weak about the eyes.

That's the Hebrewph.

Joseph was abused, Moses was a murderer, Gideon was afraid.

Rayhab was a prostitute. Jeremiah was too young, David was

an adulterer, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran

from God, Naomi was a widow, Job went bankrupt.

John the Baptist ate bugs.

Peter denied Christ, the disciples fell asleep while praying.

Martha worried about.

Everything, the Samaritan woman was divorced, Zachias was too small,

Paul was a murderer, Timothy had an aucer, and Lazarus

was dead.

So if you are alive, you got one up on him,

and you are here.

And how many of you need to know this church

is not a country club. It is a hospital for

broken sinners who need grace. And it says this grace

and peace to you from God, our Father, underlying the

word Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, So many

of you need to be told right now. He's a

good father. And what that means for those of us

who didn't have good fathers, here's what that means. It

means no matter who you are, what you've done, no

matter what your past is, he wants to hunt you down,

run after you. And he's great because he's the first

mover man. He doesn't even have to you don't. He

does stuff that we don't even we don't even know about.

I mean, think back to your life. What has you

sitting in this seat right now? What person came into

your life? What family member did God give you?

What thing? I remember a couple.

Of years ago, my wife and I were speaking up

in a marriage retreat. And as we were driving up

to the marriage retreat to teach about marriage for two days,

we got in a fight, which tends to happen, and

so I remember she looked at me and she said,

what are we going to teach at the marriage a treatment?

And I said, well, let me do some teaching and

you can chime in. Now in my head that sounded

really good, but the minute I said it, I was

like ass master, and she's like, oh, you just want

me to chime in? And then she went dead silent

on me.

All right. I don't know, guys, if you've ever had this,

your woman just goes quiet. And she just started looking out.

The window, and I realized it was gonna be a

two hour quiet drive with my wife. Because here's what

happens when you speak at a marriage conference. Your marriage sucks,

and so she's giving me the silent treatment, and I'm

asking her questions, Hey, honey, how'd it go this week?

She's not falling for any of it. And so I

just did what I hadn't done in ten years in

my life. I turned on the radio, like old school radio,

not like the you know. I chose a song on

Spotify and put it in. I just the old school radio.

Boomed lasers just come from space and go into the

antenna on the front of the chuck And we're driving

and I turn on the radio and I'm not kidding you.

The song that is playing on the radio is the

song that we danced to on our wedding night, the

first song out of the gate. Baby, You're all that

I want.

When I'm lying here in your arms, finding it hard

to believe we're in heaven right, And I'm like, and

I'm like, oh my gosh, listen.

If you're here and you're an atheist and you don't

believe in God, come on, man, what.

Are the chances out of the five hundred million songs

that exist on planet Earth that the one I.

Needed right there, right then came through that radio And

the Father, the Father is so good. He's just come on, kid,

come on.

I love each other. I need you guys to pull

this together. He's here and I'm like, I'm sorry, baby.

I remember, I'm sorry baby, And I just put my

arm and I see her arm come out at the

corner of my eye come out and go oh it

shuts off the radio. This woman's heart is cold. But

here's why I tell you that, and then I'll pray

for you. You see, the Father is so good. He's doing

things in your life. And the question is you can

be one or two people.

You can be.

Someone like my wife who just shuts it off, doesn't

want to hear it, you little space, really like what's

going on.

Or you could be someone who goes melt my heart.

Father.

The things you've done, the people you've put in my life,

every decision that has me sitting here in this chair

right now at this beautiful church is all but the

grace of God on my life.

You are a good father.

So Father in heaven, I do pray that you would

melt our hearts. I do pray that we would be

people who stand on grace and not our performance for you,

but Jesus performance on our behalf in front of you,

that we would fully trust in and treasure his life,

his sacrifice, and his resurrection unto your glory and the

good of people.

In Jesus Great name. We pray Amen, Amen, and then.

Hears God, let's stay at our feet because right now

we're all leave here together, but we got.

Plenty of time. I think it's only.

A appropriate that in spite of us, God uses us,

God chooses us, and so this is a moment where

we could.

Go to God in worship.

We talked about last week that when the spirit moves

and when the spirit speaks to you, the Apostle Paul

encourages us to begin to sing spiritual songs and hymns

because the Holy Spirit will solidify what he's already been doing.

And so in this moment I encourage you as we're

gonna do some songs together. Let this be a moment

of deep reflection but also deep worship to say, God,

I can connect with any of those people in the Bible,

and in spite of me, God can use me, God

can choose me. And in spite of me, if I'm

obedient to trust God to open my mouth, then God,

you will do the rest. So as we open our

mouths today to give God all the glory, all the

honor that he deserves. Let us worship God with our

whole hearts. And if you don't know Jesus today, or

you've been far from Jesus, use this moment of worship

to run back to the Father's arms.

The prodigal son. Run back to Jesus today.

No matter how far you've been, God is not far

from me, and God is not far from you. As

you take one step forward, God runs towards you. So

let us worship this morning and give God glory.

God.

Right now, we come before you Lord to worship you today. Father,

God is the Spirit is here, and your presence is here.

May we begin to lay all of our burdens.

At the foot of Jesus today.

God, I thank you Lord, And you've not expected perfection

from us. Lord, but you are looking for willing vessels

to be full of your grace. So fill us right now, Spirit, come,

we welcome you here.

To speak to us today.

Jesus name us worships Oh.

Andy, not hear thousand stories world, thank thank God.

Tener whispers love.

In the dead of night.

DeTar, then you're pleasing that I.

Never loved your acle cood fun soon and so are anddumblove.

So I so I.

Sack it again in your ocle.

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we're all searching.

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we need be for me?

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T your good f so w to you are to

you a life So I am s a.

Perfect saying you are perfect and all love Yeah you are,

Oh you are.

To us to.

Church lifted up you are you are come on.

Everybody said you are perfecting.

You are.

Come on church lifted up and sing with him too.

You are you are.

Perfect love your way, Yes you are perfect to know

love you way.

You are perfecting all abu way.

So you are perpeting aulay.

That's fun if you are perfect to know lomu way more.

Parking to know. You want to sure a good.

Good farm, So you want to be lore sho sue

you are maas you wire to I am to Hi

you are s.

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Wild shire suh And I'm love by.

You and I'm loved by.

Mh you And I'm loved.

By you.

And I'm love by.

I am loved, I am love, I am I.

Am loved by you you, I am love by yeah you,

I am loved by.

You.

Sa he loves sous he loves ourselves. Oh he loves, says.

Ah hess all.

She longs loss all?

How he loses all? He hass all?

How in.

He is jealous for me lovest like a hurricane.

I am a treat, bending beneath the wading the wind

of his mercy. When all of a sudden I am

unaware of these fictions. Eclists by glory and diarlaxs just

how beautiful you are and how great your affections are?

Or meanl and does how sul Oh how he loss

how he suso he saussas, Oh how he s he

los says, Oh.

He sing it again.

He loves to skin, Oh how he loves or having all.

And it's beauty fun, oh so beauty fun. Yes, it's

beauty fun. How he loves me, and it's beauty fine.

It's beauty so beauty.

False beauty, Yes, it's beauty false.

It's beauty fus.

How he loves me.

How and it's beauty fine, its beauty oh so beauty.

Fills so yes, it's beauty.

Fix, beauty fas.

And he loves me.

I'm talking as it's beauty five, beauty or shop beauty fast. Yes,

it's beauty fussy. How he loves me, loves how he

loves me, loves.

Jeez and loves me.

Jesus loves me.

Yeah, he loves me.

See, I trust him God, m now.

I trust him.

Oh my said all will have never never, he would

never fail. Let's said the chuck. Jesus is man.

He's been moved fourth man in the five time at

the time.

Going over the stream.

Oh he's blood.

And what he did for me young.

Small than.

I won't say I trusted God.

Okay, I say, Lord.

Man, he will never be I trust. I'm trusting.

My say.

The one who will.

He will never fail, he will ever be. I sap

the Lord and he heard in the ends, the sap

the Lord and he heard, and he had say that's up.

The Lord heard and he is.

That's what trust. That's what I trusted. Pass the Lord

and he is as the Lord, and he heard, and

he is as the Lord, and he heard, and is

why That's why I trustin. That's why I saw the

Lord pass.

On the Lord and he heard and he answer. I

saw the Lord and he heard, and he answer last.

On the Lord and he heard and he answered. That's

why I trust, said, that's why I'm trusting. I saw

the Lord and he heard.

And he answer as on the Lord, and he heard

and he answer. I saw the Lord and he heard,

and he answers why.

That's why I trusted.

That's why I'm trusted.

He answers pray, He answers pray, He answers pray, He

answer sprit.

He an susd needs.

A prayer, answering God.

He ances ma church to believe that he an his bread.

He answers, he answers brad, he answers.

He answers back. Hold everybody a p as, but answers back.

This is what we believe is it's us bad would too?

Just one?

He said, he.

As by suspe what ye say, bar of the chest

middle much stride o mediosp.

Gyp medio up.

Start have a you want to heaven?

Prom gona just hit them? Con won't be talking all

I cop it's an.

I say, I will tell you what.

Guy start, he's gonna stop et to shun the guy

to shot.

You know, I just shot he guy.

Didn't w because he has come on him.

I'm gonna ask you before we leave this place.

I think casser Mark made it simple that if you're

here in this place and and you're ready to recognize

your own sin, your own shortcomings, and you're ready to

stop running from God, and you're ready today to give.

Your life to Jesus.

You had a man earlier he set himself on fire

so that we could watch him burn because of his

love for Jesus.

Have you say that?

And you're in here and you feel you are far

from God, and you're ready to give your life to

Jesus Christ, you're ready to stop running, and you're desperate

for the Father's love.

You say, I.

Recognize my sin, I recognize my short comes.

I've never given my life to Jesus, or maybe I

have at one time, but as I look in my life,

my life does not reflect that of a believer.

And I'm ready to go all in.

Then I just encourage you right now that if you're

ready to go all in, you're ready to stop running,

you're ready to give your life to Jesus Christ, then

just be bold right now and just lift your hand

up right now. If that's you and you're in this place,

I see hand's going up all over over here.

It's ready.

You're ready to go.

You're ready to give your life to Christ, ready to

recognize your sin, Jesus, I'm all in. Keep your hand up, Christ,

God see hands all over. Can we say this together

as a family. We're gonna say a prayer. The prayer

is not the thing that saves you. Holy Spirit's already

at work. But we're gonna affirm the work of Jesus

right now. So would you all join me right now,

no matter where you're at, courtyard online, in this room,

would you say this with me right now, Dear Lord Jesus,

in this moment, I confess my sins, I repent of

my sins, and I choose to recognize that Jesus.

Died for me, rose again for me.

And I'm going all in, and I choose to call

you my Lord and Savior and I can follow you

for the rest of my days.

In Jesus' name,