The Great Invite: Lost and Found with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the Medicurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at Medicurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life, that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Well, I want to welcome you into week two of our great invite series.

If you're new with us, my name is Clayton.

I'm so glad you joined us either online or at one of our venues.

If you're here in Holodas or at Petrenko, it is no accident that you are here.

If you are a longtime follower of Jesus, it's no accident that you're here.

I think that the word is going to challenge us today.

If you are a skeptic, an unbeliever, someone who has lapsed in your faith or been away from God for a long time, I also believe it's no accident that you are here.

You're in the right place.

This is a movement where you can belong before you believe.

My prayer for you is that you would just lean in and seek what God might have for you today.

We are in this series.

It's called the Great Invite.

Uh, it's not simply about inviting others into a Sunday service, although you might be here because someone was inspired last week and invited you to come.

This is about what it actually means to be the movement of Jesus at the deepest and most fundamental level.

I'm gonna get into our text today.

It's gonna be in Luke's gospel.

That's Luke's historical account of the life of Jesus.

We're gonna be in chapter five and start in verse 27.

It says, After this, Jesus went out and he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office and said to him, Follow me.

So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow Jesus.

Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him at his house.

Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them.

But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

And Jesus replied to them, It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance.

My message for you today is lost and found.

Lost and found.

Would you pray with me?

Holy Spirit, uh, I just like give myself to you.

I pray that you would speak through me as we are in your word, the words of God.

I believe you have something for all of us across our venues, for those who are here with us digitally today.

God, that you would just speak powerfully, that you would move.

Uh, Holy Spirit, we are leaning in.

We believe this movement matters, uh, that we offer hope to a hopeless world, and we are wanting to see movement and revival among us.

And so teach us and inspire us.

I pray that this would not just be information that sits and stays in a service, but it would be inspiration that moves us to action as your church outside the walls of these buildings.

We love you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

And if you have been lost and are now found, say amen.

Amen.

Uh, I'm I'm excited about our text today.

It really points at something that behavioral psychologists have known for a long time now, that the greatest indicator of your decisions, your behaviors, your actions and reactions, the biggest indicator are the relationships that are closest to you.

And so let me give you some examples.

You might be perfectly fine driving your paid-off hoop dee, right?

You don't care, it's got enough AC to get you through the summers, right?

It's not fancy, you don't need Apple CarPlay, you don't need leather seats, you're fine until someone close to you, a close friend or family member, they buy a new car.

And now you go for a ride and you're like, air conditioned seats, you've got to be kidding me, you know?

Like showing up and my pants not sticking to me as I get out.

Like, do I need a new car?

This is crazy.

Apple CarPlay, I can listen to music and podcasts.

All of a sudden, you're at the dealership, right?

This happens in all different areas.

The greatest indicator of the health of your diet, what you eat, how much you eat, what you drink, how often you drink, how often you go out, all of that you can assess by looking at the relationships that are closest to you in your social circle.

Uh, probably one of like the most relevant to San Antonio, you guys know this.

San Antonio has become a little bit of like a foodie town.

You know, we've got the Culinary Institute here, we've become kind of a culinary town.

New restaurants going up all the time.

And you need to know this.

I love food.

I love good food, I love trying new places, but there are so many restaurants, it's become kind of overwhelming to me.

And so there will be a restaurant pop up on my route, like maybe to work in back or to pick up the kids in back.

I'll drive by it for six months.

I'll never even consider going to it until someone I know recommends it.

When someone I know and trust recommends it, it doesn't even have to be a good rec, they don't have to be like, it changed my life.

If they're like, it was pretty good.

I will go to that restaurant that week, right?

Like, that's all it takes is someone I know and trust telling me about a new spot and I will pull up guaranteed.

And what this means is that the people around you have a massive influence on you.

And if you're honest, you know that.

And so the research seems to indicate that your five closest relationship will have more to do with who you are becoming as a person than any other factor.

The people around you have massive influence on you.

However, the inverse of this is what gives you so much power in your role as a follower of Jesus.

Because it also means that you have massive influence on the people that you are around.

It works both ways.

The recommendation of your people matters, it changes your behavior, your decisions, your actions and reactions.

And you matter to the people who trust you.

And we really do.

We we don't trust companies, we don't trust commercials.

Well over 70% of people, before they ever buy a product, they will go online to Yelp or Google review.

We don't trust your commercial.

I don't think that paper towel can pick up a whole spill glass of wine.

I don't believe you, right?

I gotta go to Yelp to find out.

And we trust people, and especially the people who are closest to us.

And so you have massive influence.

The question is, how are you using that influence?

Are you using it to lead people towards truth and godliness and righteousness?

Or, like most people, are you just simply swept along by the current of culture?

We're gonna look at a really, really interesting part of the story of Jesus.

The guy that's called Levi in the story, we know as Matthew.

Matthew, who would become a disciple of Jesus, Matthew, who would write one of our four gospels.

As a matter of fact, the gospel that has been used throughout Christian history more than any other document in the Bible.

Matthew is incredibly influential.

He's influenced so many people for good, but that's not where we find him in the story.

And it's not where Jesus found him in his life.

And so we pick up his story in Luke chapter 5, verse 27.

Luke 5:27

It says this.

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, that's Matthew, sitting at the tax office and said to him, Follow me.

Now, there's something that you need to know about tax collectors in ancient Israel.

They were the most despised people in the entire community.

The historical context is the Israelites, who were a very proud people, and they're very proud of where they were, and they were God's chosen people.

And yet the Roman Empire was expanding, and Rome came and occupied Israel.

And what Rome knew, because they were trying to keep the peace, this was during the period called Pax Romana, Rome establishing the peace through strength and strategy.

They knew to maintain the peace, they needed insiders in the Israelite community.

And so one of the ways they did this is they would turn citizens to work for Rome.

And that's what tax collectors were.

They had betrayed their very own people in order to be in league with their captors.

Not only that, but Rome would pay you handsomely for this.

So you began to live a lifestyle of wealth and affluence that very few Israelites would ever, ever experience.

And the tax system was rigged so that the tax collectors would take more out on top than they needed, growing their wealth, and they might as well, because you despised them as a part of their community.

They were seen as the lowest of low.

They were viewed as worse than thieves because it wasn't that they were just robbing one person, they were robbing their entire people.

They were seen as more immoral than prostitutes because they were prostituting themselves out to their captors.

They were seen as more unclean than the sick or even the lepers.

They were the worst of the worst, and there is no comparison in our modern day.

There is no single occupation or single people group that we collectively all despise at the level that tax collectors were despised.

I mean, people burned with rage.

Rome would have to put centurions to get them where they were going because there was always a chance an Israelite would try to take you out.

And it says that Jesus was walking and he saw Matthew.

And the Gospels were written in Koine Greek, and this Greek verb for saw, it's not just seeing, like with your physical sight.

It means to almost see through, to gaze intently.

It's like Jesus looked to the very depths of who Matthew is: his heart, his soul, his promise, his purpose, his potential, his trauma, his pain.

He saw all of them.

And this is really good news because part of the question a lot of people have that keeps them away from God and keeps them away from the movement of Jesus is what will Jesus think about me?

Because I kind of know myself pretty well, and I know how many times I have screwed up, and how many different ways I've screwed up, and how many people I have heard, and I know the depths of depravity in my own soul, and I know the terrible thoughts that I have thought about others, and I know all of the ways that I have rebelled against what God has asked of us.

I know all of these things.

And to that we learn Jesus sees you, and that as the creator of you, he actually knows you at a more intricate level than you even know yourself.

So it's like I'm well aware that I am jacked up, and I also live with the awareness that I don't even realize how bad it is, and yet at the same time, he sees your potential and he sees your promise and he can see your future.

And so, how does Jesus respond to someone who is living separated off from the culture, separated off from God, separated off from a future with God?

We already read it.

It says, He saw Matthew sitting at his job working for the enemy, and he said to him, Follow me.

This is a very specific use, it's an imperative verb.

And what it means is follow me and don't stop following me.

Follow me without ceasing.

We get this wrong sometimes in modern Christianity.

It's like follow me until you get your ticket to heaven, and then you're good, you know.

Just kind of live, you do you, find your own truth, express your own energy, you know.

Jesus is like, no, follow me, and then wherever I go, don't stop following me.

Or like, follow me all the way until baptism.

Then after baptism, you know, you're kind of on your own.

Live however you want.

Follow me.

That's how we think this is modern consumer Christianity.

Follow me for about an hour 15 on Sundays.

And Jesus is like, follow me and don't stop following me, and when it gets hard, follow me, and when you have success, follow me, and when you want to rebel, follow me, and when you fall down, get back up and start following me again.

And this is amazing because when Jesus found me as a young man, I was the tax collector.

I was far from God, and I was far from God because I was running from God.

I was living in rebellion, and I thought God wanted nothing to do with me.

And when he found me, he saw me more clearly than I could even see myself.

And you need to know this.

For those of you who are already believers, Jesus sees you and he wants you to follow him.

The goal of this movement is not to just believe in Jesus so you can one day get to heaven and then go on while you're on earth living like hell.

The goal is to believe in him so that then you can follow him and keep following him.

He sees you.

If you're not a believer today, you're a skeptic, you're on the fence, you've been hurt by religion.

He sees you and he calls you.

Follow me.

He sees potential and purpose in you that probably you cannot even see yourself.

This is an incredible moment because last week we saw Jesus calling some of the disciples, and like one was a fisherman, he was kind of a hothead, but you know, he was fine.

The other guys he called, they were already disciples of John the Baptist.

They were already about it.

They just transferred from John to Jesus.

But now he calls Matthew, a tax collector, the lowest of the low.

And I'm telling you, the greatest lie that the devil tells to keep people from coming to their heavenly father is yeah, Jesus calls some people, but bro, but not you.

You know who you are, you know what you've done, you know the mess you've made, you know the people that you've hurt, the decisions, the attitude, the actions, the pride.

Like God's interested in a lot of people, but probably not you though, right?

You need to know this.

I am sure that you have hurt some people like I've hurt some people.

I am sure you have made some decisions that you now regret, like I in my life have made some decisions that I now regret.

I am sure you have plenty of closets with plenty of skeletons inside of them.

But what I know is you aren't Matthew.

You have not betrayed your entire country.

You are not seen universally as the lowest of the lowest of the lowest.

And Jesus calls Matthew, so that when the devil whispers that lie in your ear, you can look at Luke 5, 27 and say, If he called Matthew, he calls me.

He sees you and he calls you into relationship with himself.

And then God, who created us ontologically, that means built in with freedom.

We were made in the image of a free God, and we were given the gift of freedom.

And what that means is Jesus calls us.

Some of you, you don't know Jesus.

Today, he is going to, through the word, call you, and then you respond.

Let's look at how Matthew responded in verse 28 immediately.

Leaving everything behind, he's rich.

Like he is so wealthy compared to the average Israelite.

It is incomprehensible.

He is paid well for his treachery.

He is hated.

Jesus goes everywhere preaching to Israel, Jewish people who all hate him.

He leaves it all behind.

He leaves the job, the status, the money, the relationship with Rome, but more than that, he leaves behind the sin and the guilt and the shame and the insecurity and the searching for meaning and the purposelessness.

He got up and he began to follow Jesus.

We have a decision to make, and for a lot of people, Jesus sees us and he calls us, and maybe he calls you through the word or through a friend or through experience, or there's all kinds of ways that Jesus might be trying to get your attention.

And you hear it, but maybe you don't believe it, and so you don't follow.

And maybe you hear it, but you believe the lies of the enemy, and so you don't follow.

And Jesus just continually, continually, continually tries to get your attention.

Even today, you're here at one of our venues, you're here with us online, and God is trying through this word to get your attention.

I see you, and he calls you, he chooses you, he loves you, and he knows.

Whatever you're thinking right now, it's like I get it, and I'm sure that's true for most people.

Ooh, but if Pastor even knew, God knows.

And you may have put yourself in some hard spots.

I'm just telling you, you're not Matthew.

And it's very interesting what happens next because Matthew has his life transformed by Jesus.

And what we do in the West is when someone has this transformational moment with Jesus, we then take them and we sideline them.

It's like, okay, that's great.

Jesus got you, He saved you.

Um, now you need to learn some stuff.

How much how much scripture can you quote from memory?

And most people are like, none, right?

Like John 3.16, because Tebow like put it on his face one time.

It's like, what's your theological position on end times?

It's like, I don't know what any of those words mean, you know?

It's like, okay, well, you got some stuff to learn, and then once you learn enough, then you can get in the game.

That's how we think because we prioritize information and we prioritize education and we prioritize this prideful, you know, ivory tower view of how Christianity is supposed to work.

And what happens is someone is miraculously saved by the power of Jesus, they are on fire for the gospel, and then we sit them on the sideline for so long that by the time they get in the game, all their passion's gone.

That is not how the movement moved, and when movements move, movements grow.

What you see in scripture is every time someone has a transformational experience with Jesus, they immediately become a witness for Jesus.

Do you know who the first evangelist is in Jesus' ministry?

It's a Samaritan, which the Samaritans were hated by Israel.

It is a woman who 2,000 years ago would not have had a voice in the culture.

It's a Samaritan woman who's been divorced five times and is now living with a man she's not married to.

She is seen as the worst woman in her village, and that is who Jesus chooses to be his first evangelist for the gospel.

Matthew, the tax collector, immediately gets to work.

Let's look at verse 29.

It says, Then Levi, that's Matthew, he hosted a grand banquet for him at his house, for Jesus at his house.

Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with him.

Matthew wastes no time.

Then, immediately after, this is falling action.

He met Jesus, Jesus saw him, he caught him, immediately followed him, and then immediately he gets all of his people together.

And who are his people?

It says, tax collectors and others.

Later in this same passage, they're gonna be called tax collectors and sinners.

Well, you need to know, and we we know this reading other Jewish literature at the time, is that was a catch-all phrase.

Tax collectors were highlighted because that was the worst of the worst of the worst.

That is a traitor, thief, prostitute, all in one.

Tax collectors and sinners.

And sinners represented all kinds of people.

These could be thieves, criminals, prostitutes, people who were just immoral, people who were divorced without reason.

It also could include things like Gentiles, which just meant foreigners, people who were ceremonially or religiously unclean, who were socially unwanted.

It could include those who were sick or diseased because over time people got this idea if you had a disease, it was because you were cursed by God because of your sin or the sin in your family.

The tax collectors and sinners, this is a catch all categorization of all who were on the margins.

All who were fringe, who were religiously unclean or socially outcast.

And you guys know this, we've seen this throughout modern history.

If you can take a group of people and just label them and categorize them, then you don't have to deal with them as unique individuals created by God.

If you can label them, you can as a whole dismiss them.

There's a great work of cinema, one of the masterpieces, and it deals with this: how we can just label and categorize and dismiss.

And this of it's a kind of niche artsy film, you might not have seen it, but it's the cinematic masterpiece, Mean Girls.

And you have the plastics and they rule the school, and you have the jocks in their second tier.

And it's if you go through it, it's all labels and categories, so that some of the categories can just be dismissed.

And this is what would happen.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, these were those who were the religious elite, spiritually superior in their own minds.

They were the ancient mean girls.

This is how they dealt with folks.

It's very interesting because last week we learned that every person who's a believer in Jesus has their own ministry, and that's so critical.

It's so critical because if you don't understand that, then you will think the only way this movement reaches the world, the only way we see revival, is if the ministry, like what happens in Sunday service or what happens in the meta academy, you will think that only the spiritual professionals, those of us who do this for a living, it's up to us.

And if we do our job well enough, if we get the product right and the programs right and the strategy right, then we might make an impact.

And that is never how the movement of Jesus actually reaches the world.

You have a ministry because the Holy Spirit lives in your life.

The Holy Spirit is on you and desperate to work through you.

Revival happens when the church, the called-out people of God, take their role seriously to do whatever it takes in their social circles to get people to Jesus.

It's really amazing what Matthew has done here because to everyone in Israel, the people at that banquet were the outcast, the unwanted, the unclean, the marginalized.

Don't miss this.

To Matthew, those are his friends.

To Matthew, the tax collectors and sinners, those are his people.

And because they are so mistreated by the religious elite, these people are never showing up to temple to learn about God.

They are never spending their Saturdays at synagogue reading Torah.

Never.

No interest.

Jesus is actually becoming pretty well known at this point.

His popularity is on the rise.

My guess is Matthew's friends didn't really have any inclination to want to come and sit with a spiritual teacher named Jesus.

They came because they knew Matthew.

And I told you last week you have a ministry, and it's our job.

It is actually our job, and we should take it personally to tell people that God is placed in our life to come and see what God is up to in the movement that you're a part of, to share the gospel through your life, to share your testimony of what God has done, to share that you are a part of the movement of Jesus here at Meta Church.

That you should take that personally, and it is an expectation of believers that we do that, and that is how we see revival.

And I hear you, it's like, right, but what does that look like?

To Matthew, it looked like throwing a party.

It looked like breaking bread with the people he already knew and introducing them to Jesus.

And if you're paying attention to the text, you might be ahead of me.

You're like, yeah, but Matthew had one real strategic advantage.

Um Jesus was there, right?

Like Jesus surely did all the heavy lifting at that party.

It's interesting, Matthew walks with Jesus for three years, and after Jesus' resurrection, 40 days later, he ascends back to heaven.

And he tells his disciples, he's like, Hey, um, I'm gonna leave.

And they were like, Hey, that's a terrible idea.

Like, you're Jesus, and we're kind of just idiots, right?

So you should definitely stay.

And Jesus is like, No, I gotta go, but I'm not leaving you alone.

I'm sending a helper.

I'm sending my spirit, and the spirit of God will seal the life of everyone who believes in me.

It will be on them and in them and desperate to work through them.

Which means every time you show up in your social circle, whether you're living like it or not, whether you're aware of it or not, every time you show up, Jesus shows up.

Every time you pull up to the table, you bring Jesus to the table if we only have eyes to see.

If we only live with an awareness of the divine appointments all around us.

You know what Paul said to the Corinthians?

It's like, look, Jesus left.

He's coming back, but he left and he gave us the spirit.

And Paul said to the Corinthians, now you are ambassadors of God.

Jesus left it in our hands.

If we don't move, if we don't do whatever it takes to get people to Jesus, who will?

Your ambassadors of Christ, it says, crying out on Jesus' behalf.

Be reconciled to God.

God hasn't just given you the people in your social circle to smoke ribs and watch games, to have another family to go to Padre with, to have someone to gossip about what's on TV with, to have someone to go to the club with.

You don't need a 45-minute sermon every time your friend shows up, or, spoiler alert, they will quit showing up.

What you see out of me on Sunday, this is not what people get when I meet them in H E B.

What they need is real and organic and authentic, and the people of God who are bold enough to proclaim their faith.

And some of you heard me last week, and you're like, look, but you don't get it.

My friend group, they don't believe in God, they don't trust the church, they've been hurt by religious leaders, they don't trust institutions, and I get it, and you're right, but they trust you.

Matthew's friends didn't trust the religious leaders, they didn't trust another rabbi.

They showed up because they trusted Matthew.

We make it so complicated, you know?

It's like I'll drive by the same hole in the wall for a year and a half, and then when someone I know and trust goes, Hey, you know that hole in the wall off military?

You gotta try it out.

And honestly, I might be like, really?

That restaurant?

It doesn't have a door, it doesn't have windows.

Like, they're like, no, no, no, trust me.

I will pull up to that restaurant.

Not even because I trust how it looks, I trust them.

And you may get the exact same response.

Like, hey, have you heard of MetaCurch?

I actually, I'm a part of MetaCurch, so it's really cool.

You you go to you go to church, bro?

Really?

Church?

You trust church?

You might get the same response.

And then we just get on our heels.

What if all it took was you standing your ground and going, bro, trust me?

Come and see one time.

What if that's what it took to change the world?

Matthew, the tax collector, the most hated individual in Israel.

He becomes one of the disciples, he becomes one of the apostles, he writes the most important gospel throughout the history of Christianity.

It's very interesting, you know, like the one qualification for the 12 who became Jesus' disciples, you know what it seems to be?

That Jesus called them and they dropped what they were doing, and they just followed.

You're free.

God has built you with freedom, He loves you, so He gave you freedom, and you can use it however you want.

And you can try to fill this void of purpose and meaning with the things of this world, it will fall short.

Or you can follow Jesus and keep following Jesus, and you have no idea the difference that your life could make.

Here's what we see in the life of Matthew, and really everyone who had a transformative experience with Jesus is that found people, find people.

I was, I had nothing to be angry about, and I was, I can't tell you how angry I was.

I was lost, and I was looking, I was trying something of meaning, something that will matter, something to speak to the deep and abiding insecurities that I lived with.

And Jesus found me, and I had plans for my life.

They weren't really good plans or even like probably realistic plans, but I had plans.

But when I was so lost, and Jesus found me, I got a new plan.

Because found people do whatever they can to find people.

It's our job, and we we lay aside and abdicate that job at our own peril.

See, there was a whole class of people who had done this during Jesus' time.

In verse 30, it says, But the Pharisees.

Now, this is always where the story becomes a bummer, when the religious elite get involved.

It's like everything's great, and Matthew's great, and there's a party, but the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

Now you have to understand in the ancient world, to share a meal was not casual like it is today.

To break bread with someone, it meant something.

It was deep, relational communion.

The religious leaders would not be caught dead.

That's not hyperbole.

They would rather die than break bread with tax collectors and sinners.

They cannot understand it because they have walked away from the role that God placed on their lives.

There's a metaphor all throughout scripture of the people who are looking for God as sheep, and then the leaders as shepherds.

This is not a new problem in Jesus' day.

All the way back in the Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel, and he said this, Son of Man, Ezekiel, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.

Prophesy and say to them, This is what the Lord God says to the shepherds, woe, danger, look out, shepherds of Israel.

You have been feeding yourself.

Shouldn't the shepherds feed their flock?

You eat the fat, you wear the wool, you butcher the fattened animals, but you do not tend to the flock.

You have not strengthened the weak.

You have not healed the sick, you have not bandaged the injured, you have not brought back the strays, you have not sought the lost.

Instead, you have ruled them with violence and with cruelty.

You see, many of us left the faith.

We've been away from the church, we have questioned God, not because of anything God did, but because of shepherds who were not tending the flock, who were not protecting the strays, who were not lovingly guiding and correcting, but were protecting themselves, feeding themselves.

Many of us walk away because of deep spiritual wounds and religious trauma.

It's devastating.

And yet, many of us, God, has gotten our attention again.

And you need to know this.

Like at MetaCurch, we're gonna get all kinds of things wrong throughout the years because we're led by people, and then all those people who are leading here, they're led by me, right?

So we're gonna get things wrong, and then we're gonna get on stage and we're gonna tell you what we got wrong, and we're gonna apologize.

But the one thing that we will continue to do is to prioritize why Jesus started this movement and what it is about.

We will go after the lost sheep in our world, even if it costs us, that is what God has given us to do.

And let me make something clear.

When I say we, I don't mean me and my staff members.

I mean we.

And the church has been dying because found people have stopped trying to find people.

And we are so busy feeding ourselves and protecting ourselves and trying to build our own kingdom and trying to build our own brand that we have not been good shepherds to the people in our world.

We don't live as the church like lives are on the line.

And the gap between today and revival is a movement of people who start living like lives are on the line, who realize that I was lost, and Jesus found me, and found people, find people.

Jesus railed against the religious elite.

Here we see him at the end of our text today in verse 31.

Jesus replied to them, it is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick.

And there's some irony here because the religious elite, they think they're healthy.

They don't even realize that Jesus is undercutting them in the moment.

There is no greater spiritual sickness than self-righteousness paired with self-deception.

Thinking that I am righteous and holy by my own work and effort, while at the same time being deceived and not being able to see that I am a shepherd who's only feeding myself.

Here's how it ends.

Verse 32 Jesus said, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

Now I need you to know if you're not a believer or you're new or you're skeptical, there is a strain of Christianity that says, look, you're a sinner and Jesus died for you, so put your faith in him, and then you're going to heaven, and then you're fine.

And we can kind of debate and litigate your sins and we'll see.

You know, some of the things the Bible says they're kind of harsh, and so we'll we'll skip over those.

That is not loving.

We will not go soft on sin because God does not go soft on sin.

And God, who knows infinitely more than you and I know, sees that even your favorite sin, even your most pleasurable sin, even your most stagnant habits, they are slowly compromising and destroying your life.

Jesus calls you away from sin because he desperately and deeply loves you.

And because I deeply love and care for you, I will also preach against sin.

But here's the difference for those who have been hurt.

This is not me as the spiritual professional casting dispersion on you, the sinners.

At MetaCurch, it is me as a sinner, it is me in desperate need of a savior, trying to point us to Jesus, who is the better way.

And as long as we get that right, we will move together into lives lived on purpose and with purpose.

Jesus doesn't call sinners to come to him and keep sinning, he calls you to repent.

And repentance is very simple, it means to change your mind.

For those who are believers, you have been given a ministry, and your ministry starts in your own social circle to be bold and to be courageous and to share your faith and to bring Jesus with you into every scenario.

Not to beat people over the head, but to be the embodiment of Christ to those who need him.

And to those who are not yet believers, Jesus sees you and he is calling you.

And Jesus didn't call us into a religious experience.

He doesn't ask for you to jump through hoops or to go through a bunch of steps, he doesn't sideline you until you clean your life up.

All he asks is for your faith.

Scripture says that salvation, which means all of your sins are forgiven, which means you are given eternal life with God, which means you are adopted as God's child, it is a free gift.

Jesus paid the price.

It is free to us, he just wants your faith.

He sees you.

And his invitation is follow me.

As we close, would you pray with me?

Right where you're at across our venues, if you would close your eyes and bow your heads and create some space.

And I want to get us to the gospel.

The good news, the good news that Jesus sees you and has called you.

And so if you're here and you've never had a moment in time where you have made the decision to put your faith in Jesus, I want to give you the opportunity to do that.

If you've never done that before, there's a good chance in this moment the Spirit of God has gripped your heart.

It's unmistakable.

That is your Heavenly Father pursuing you in this moment.

All that is required is faith.

And so with everyone's eyes closed, if you're at one of our venues and you've never had a moment in time where you've put your faith in Jesus and you're ready to do that, I want to ask you, as a symbolic gesture, to just simply raise your hand right where you're sitting, to just raise your hand.

By raising your hand, you're saying, Today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

Amen.

For those who raise a hand, I need you to know Jesus sees your faith and accepts it, which means all of your sins are forgiven.

Scripture tells us you have been given the free gift of eternal life, and no one can take that gift away from you, and that you have come into relationship with your Heavenly Father.

Here's what I want to do for those who raised a hand.

I want to just help you acknowledge this moment through a prayer.

I'm gonna ask you to repeat this prayer with me.

And so no one feels called out.

I'm gonna ask all the believers across our venues to pray this out loud as well.

Let's pray like this.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God that you died for my sins and rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast, you can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps, you can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

And I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.