Broken Pieces with Tony Albano

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

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.

Morning, MetaCurch.

How are you guys doing today?

I am uh I'm excited to be back this Sunday.

If you don't know me, my name is Tony.

I am uh one of your youth leaders here at MetaCurch.

And uh if you're here today, I really am, I'm really grateful that you're here today.

Um God has definitely been you know speaking to me over these last couple weeks, and uh it took a little bit to get here today.

Uh it took a little bit of a journey, and I really do believe if you are here today that God wants to speak to you.

Um, one of the cool things that I really do love about Meta, um, and it's different, I've experienced this different than any other church that I've been to or experienced, it's we really do care and believe that it's important that we share one another's stories.

Um, if you've gotten plugged in at all, or you've maybe seen us, you know, advertise classes here, um, I've gotten the experience to um join in on one of these classes.

I did it twice, I had to do it the second time.

Your boy didn't finish this first one because I missed a couple weeks, so uh, I got to do it again, but I really am grateful for the experience of doing it.

It um it really did highlight a lot of the things in my life that I believe, just like me, you guys, just like me, that we really do suppress, we really do push down, we try and hide from the world.

And I mean, we looked at everything.

Things that I was uncomfortable with sharing with people who I really did not know.

Um, but it became a safe place pretty quickly, and uh really it was hearing other people's stories, my stories, to kind of understand we're all in this same mess.

We're all jacked up.

And it was really powerful to see how God actually uses everything in our story.

From I look at like the trauma in my life or the dramatic experiences that I've gone through, the crazy jobs that I had no idea why I had when I was younger.

It's cool to see how God literally uses every single thing in our life, He redeems it all.

And you see, a little bit about me, I'll get a little bit, uh, you know, I'll share just so you guys know, because I really want you to fit into this picture and know that you know you are with me.

I am with you on this journey as well.

Um, one of the things I learned was like, I like, for instance, I dropped out pretty young.

Uh I dropped out at 15 years old.

My parents, uh my dad was a principal, and my mom was a teacher.

So get you don't know, I don't know how I did it.

By the mere graces of God, I mean, it took a while.

It took actually one of my dad's secretaries getting in his ear.

Um, but I didn't know why I did.

You see, one of the things was I was seeking to be a performer.

Um, I I wasn't a terrible student, I was actually a decent student.

Um, I just knew that I need to get out of this world and prove to the world that I'm something, I'm somebody.

And when I dropped out, I started my first business and I started making good money, but I started realizing that it wasn't even about that.

There was things that I was suppressing.

And as I got older, my parents um they got divorced when I was older, and um I started to realize into my like late teen years, as I became a teenager, uh, and even into my early 20s, that there were some things in my life that I was using to cope with.

Um, I was probably, I was, I'll share it.

I was smoking a lot of weed and like really suppressing every kind of feeling that I had.

I didn't want anyone to know that I was hurting.

So all I did was mask the pain.

And some of y'all can relate with that.

Sometimes some of y'all are masking things, you're addicted to certain things, trying to mask and hide pain from things.

And a lot of us we go through life and we never actually take the time to look in and actually see what happened in our childhoods.

What are these things that you and I are struggling with?

What are these things that you and I are pushing below the surface that we really don't want to come out?

And we hide them, especially in church.

We want no one to know that you know we're all jacked up.

I really want to highlight today, though, that we are all broken.

Every single one of us.

All of us have missing pieces in our life.

The question though is what do we do with all this brokenness?

My message today is called Broken Pieces.

Would you pray with me?

Father, I pray that you would speak to each and every single one of us individually, God.

I thank you for your word.

I pray that today it might seem some of these scriptures that we read are harsh words, Lord.

But I pray that we would stick in, dive in, and see what is the actual context, what can we take away from this, what can we apply to our lives, God?

I thank you for a group of community of people here, God, who are passionate about their story and about using their story to impact and share their story with other people so that they can impact others and realize that God wants to use this brokenness.

I thank you today for the journey that you've taken me on these last couple weeks, and I pray that you will use me in these moments.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You know, uh, if you know a little bit about me, I uh I come from a ministry background.

Uh I don't really come from like if you looked at my life or my family's life, you'd be like, there's no way this fool's up here preaching.

Makes absolutely no sense.

Um, and I didn't really have the bad experience of like the church, like feeling really judgmental when I came in.

I was blessed.

I was like, cool, these are really cool people.

They like me, I like them, I could rock with them.

And there were some things I was, you know, hiding.

I had my walls up, you know what I mean?

Like, I'm not gonna tell them all the stuff I'm doing when I'm not here on Sunday, right?

I mean, you know, we could see some of the stuff online, like Pastor Clayton says, y'all forget that he follows you on social media, right?

But as a little time went on, and as I actually saw that there was a call on my life, um, I stepped into it.

I ran right into it.

And uh sadly, I remember this as it's kind of a crazy experience because this is my first job at a church.

Um, I was a young kid, early 20s, and I was brought on to lead a campus.

So we were a multi-site church.

I was brought on to lead a campus and to lead a youth program.

And the reason I was being brought on was because the campus pastor who was there, he was actually on his way out.

Now he wasn't like, hey, I'm moving to you know, South Carolina, it's beautiful there, I'm gonna catch a job there.

No, he was like, no, leadership, things are going on crazy.

We're starting our own church.

So my first day, I roll in and people are judging me.

All eyes are on me, and people aren't just judging me.

No, they're telling me how they feel.

They're telling me either I'm too young, I have no experience, uh, they're telling me good luck with this place, and they're telling me all the things about the building that, you know, are going wrong with it and why people are, you know, this place is just shut down, there's no big deal for it.

And literally, I tell the first day I was there, someone even told me, remember, young kid in ministry, I'm aspiring.

This is awesome, this is great.

She looks at me in my face and she tells me, Do you even have a degree in theology?

I was like, No, I didn't even think about going to college yet.

Maybe.

I mean, you know, high school dropout.

And she's like, Good luck getting anyone to listen to you.

My gosh.

I mean, that was like one of the worst experiences I was ever part of.

But I do want to postface that with saying, though, looking back, that was actually, it ended up being it.

Now it took some time, culture took some time.

Me and Tori, it ended up being one of the most loving and encouraging environments we've ever been part of.

And it was one of the most, one of the most fulfilling jobs I ever had.

But a lot of us, we have that same exact experience, especially on the front end.

We have these things that we're dealing with, we have the things that we're hiding, we're pushing down, that we know we're struggling with, and we want no one to know what's going on in our lives.

And maybe you can relate to me in that sense.

And the church looks like really the last place that you want to run in and share all these things.

And I'm proud, that's why I really am proud of coming to a church, being part of a movement where story is actually something that is ingrained in the fibers of who we are.

Because we actually look at and use these things and allow God to glorify them.

See, there's a word though that I actually struggled with for quite a while.

You might relate with me, the word repent.

That word, I mean, it took me a while to really understand what that word meant.

And if you're like me, um, you only remember that word, like, and I didn't grow up in church, but this is all I knew about him, right?

The angry preacher, the hellfire brimstone preacher just preaching, repent, you angry sinners, right?

And he's telling them all these different things of like why they need to turn to God.

And I thought the word really meant to just turn around, get my life, and just, but really, if I'm telling you, like, hey, yo, you need to repent, and I'm yelling at you, is there any way that you and I want to turn around and go right to this man who's telling you, repent, change your life, follow after this Jesus?

Like, he's angry.

I'm good, bro.

Like, I'm over here, my people are there.

They're fun, I'm hanging, we're having a good time.

And really, the church becomes this place where we feel we can't go to when we misunderstand what repentance is.

We look at our lives, all of us equally before God, you and I are broken.

And I don't think you and I are okay with being broken.

A lot of us are stuck, a lot of us are tired, tired of hiding the deepest, darkest places in our life, tired of running from things.

Maybe when you even show up, like you have the thought of like maybe someone could recognize me from my past, and I don't want people to know about my past.

I've been running far away from that.

And some of us were scared to be vulnerable, we're scared to share our story.

Surely, though, there has to be a better way, right?

Like, life should not be like this.

There has to be a better way.

This is unhealthy, and if you look at culture, like we're coming to the point where we're looking at the things that you and I are hiding, suppressing, and culture is now taking these things that were once unhealthy, and it's looking like we're celebrating them.

Instead of changing these things, instead of finding the root cause of why you and I cope this way or deal with things this way, we're now starting to live in a culture where they are lifting these things up.

We are embracing these things.

And I can tell you that's not working.

I'm sure you can relate to me, that's not working in your life.

You know, the things that sometimes it looks like life's going on, life's going good, and I get myself going and I'm like, yo, things are great, but then I find myself in a rut again.

Right back to where I'm living, like I'm part of the world.

Yet the world is celebrating all this sin and chaos.

There has to be a better way.

The Bible actually has a lot to say about this idea.

Um, it highlights our brokenness, our wickedness, and uh, when you look at this idea, we find this idea, I think, pretty blunt in Romans 3.

Romans 3, verse 10, it says, As the scriptures say, no one is righteous, not even one.

Romans 3:10

No one's truly wise, no one's seeking God, all have turned away, all have become useless, not one does good, not a single one.

Their talk is foul like the stench from an open grave, their tongues are filled with lies, snake venom drips from their lips, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

They rush to commit murder.

Destruction and misery always follow them.

They don't know where to find peace, they have no fear of God at all.

Pretty harsh.

Paul's talking about y'all.

He's talking about me.

And if this is the week that you finally got your friend to show up to church, like you've been inviting them week after week, like I really am glad you were here.

I really am glad you're here.

We shouldn't be scared of the things that is written in scripture, but I can imagine it's pretty easy just to think of these scriptures, pull them straight out of context, and just think about the hellfire preacher who's just beating this over their congregation, who's just judging them and allowing these people to soak in and feel this way.

But if we're really honest, if we look at these texts, if we actually find the context as we're going to do today, I think it's going to speak to you.

You see, there's a problem with the world because we inherently think that we are good.

Most people think we are good.

But really, when we look at the truth that comes from God's inspired word, it's all over the pages that you and I fall short.

The storyline starts there, that we already abandoned God.

So, really, none of us are good.

We've all fallen short of God's glorious standard.

And you see, when I walk through my life, when I walk through the story of my life, when I look at it, it's kind of crazy to see the stuff that I'm capable of.

The stuff that can get really deep down inside my heart and actually affect the relationships that I have, the people that I actually love.

It's crazy to see that like I can manipulate these people.

For a long time, I lived as a villain.

One of the things I learned in one of the classes, like I learned that I was living not as a hero in my own story, but living as an actual villain, manipulating and using people.

And it's crazy to look at that and think, wow, I thought I was a decent person.

I thought I was doing well.

But really, when we get down to the core of it, what Paul is saying, all these different things, when you look at these scriptures, you and I, we find ourselves in this mess.

But what's the scripture actually prescribing to us, us unrighteous sinners, right?

Just like the hellfire preacher beating us up over again, again, judging us.

What does this actually mean?

What's Paul's point?

See, to understand this, you got to know a little bit of context.

So it's a letter, it was written to the Romans, right?

The Roman church, and uh, they're struggling, right?

They're struggling like a lot of the churches are struggling, and Paul has to continuously write to these people.

Paul's actually has not been to Rome at this point.

They don't really know who he is, but he knows that there's a thriving church of people who are gathering and proclaiming Jesus, but he knows there's some things that they need to work on.

And you see, the Jewish people, they were pretty unhappy, right?

This is God's chosen people.

They've been through it for thousands of years, they've been the ones proclaiming the name of God Yahweh, and then now the Gentiles.

Jesus, he's on the scene, he dies, he resurrects, and now this good news that Jesus told us repent, for the kingdom of God is here.

This good news is now here for everyone.

And now they're feeling a little salty, right?

This used to be our movement, but now it's for everyone.

And these Gentiles, you, me, people who are not Jewish, are now on the same level field as these Jewish people.

And they're not okay with it, they're not cool with it.

And the Jewish believers, they become the angry hellfire preachers, beating them over the head with repent, turn to the law, repent, get circumcised.

And let me tell you, uh, as an adult male, if you that was if that was your pitch, I'm good, I'm done, I'm walking away, we're good, that's a wrap, I don't want to hear it.

And they want them to fall into everything that they've gone through their whole life instead of moving forward, they want them to become part of what they had, plus Jesus.

And you see, to understand why uh this list of human traits about us, why it's important to look at, is because in the context of who Paul is talking to, it highlights not just us listening to it today, but if we can get the context, we'll understand why it isn't so important.

So, what I want us to do is to look at the context, quite simple.

I want to break it down just chapter by chapter.

And I'm not saying like, yo, pull out your Bible, we're about to be going through some verses.

I want to paraphrase chapters one, two, and how we got to the three right here where we are, where we just read these verses about how great you and I are.

So, Romans 1, it highlights that Gentiles are sinners.

And Paul's going over how basically it's evident to the world, no matter who you are, if you're in this world, God is evident.

You just look out into the world and you can see that there is a God.

So he gives them no excuse for not following this God of this world.

And he lists out all these, like to these non-Jewish people, all like the things that they're doing, how they're living in sin, how they're living far from God and how he intended them to live, and how they're worshiping false idols.

And you can just imagine, though, like they're sitting in a group just like this, right?

Just like this.

We got Gentiles and we got the Jews.

Probably split up.

I don't know if they're sitting in the same rows.

I don't know, they're a little angry at each other.

But they're reading this letter from Paul.

They don't even know this guy, he hasn't even visited them yet, but he's heard about this church and he's writing this letter to them.

So you can imagine the Jews, right?

Because Paul comes from their culture, they're like, and they're like, Yeah, preach it, Paul.

These Jews, they're wild.

I mean, these Gentiles, they're wild, dude.

Look how they're living.

And right when they get on board, it's like, got them.

It's a wrap.

These fools shouldn't even be here.

We get to chapter two.

And Paul, it's like a slap in the face where he says, basically, Jews are sinners.

See, Romans 2 is a sharp slap in the face to the hypocrisy that these Jews were living.

You see, they wanted the Gentiles to follow the law, but they were not even following the law themselves.

And it's kind of crazy because they have the written word, they got the pamphlets, they got the CDs, they're wearing the choir robes, they look the part, right?

They have everything that would look the part of being a follower.

And yet Paul says, you don't even follow him.

You actually blaspheme the name of God.

Like, why in the world would people look at your life and think, I want to follow that God?

So he slaps both of these groups in the face, and then he brings it back together.

Romans 3.

All are sinners.

And I'm telling you, context is key because if we just go one verse above what we started with, it says in Romans 3, verse 9, what then?

Romans 3:9

Are we Jewish believers any better off?

Not at all.

For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

Verse 10, as it's written, there's no one righteous, not even one.

This whole group of people in front of him, as they're reading, none of them are righteous.

He brings them all to an even playing field.

You thought you were better because you were God's chosen people, or you thought you weren't gonna be condemned because you didn't know.

But God said that it was written on your hearts.

You knew the law, you knew there was a God.

He doesn't, and the verdict is that we're all guilty.

You see, now Paul didn't put this list of shortcomings just so we can beat them over the head, right?

Or just so we can hear this and go, yeah, man, I get it.

I'm jacked up, you're jacked up.

He didn't want to leave it there.

You see, what he was actually doing was creating a bridge between these two groups of people for the early church to continue to move forward.

There couldn't be this kind of destruction, this unity in what the gospel was.

There was a misaligning with what the true word of God actually was meant to produce and do in you and I's life.

And you see, we find it in chapter 3, Romans 3, verse 23.

Romans 3:23

It says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

You and I, we all fall short of God's glorious standard.

Their throats are empty graves, venom is on their lips.

No one does good, not even one of them.

See, scripture always highlights the bad news.

The bad news is we are separated from God.

You see, from almost birth, you and I become sinners.

As humans, you and I equally produce hell here on earth.

It's just part of what we do as the human nature.

But you see, scripture shows us the bad news to highlight the best news.

And Paul continues in chapters four and five to bridge this gap, to bring it together, to understand that he's not just gonna leave him there.

You see, us sinners, we're not just gonna stay in that sin.

We're not gonna just judge each other and yell at each other and not move forward.

He's not gonna allow you to just hide and sit in all the things that you and I want to run from and allow the world to celebrate when really we know we are all broken and we don't want to be stuck anymore.

No, we want to move forward.

You see, the truth is in found in Romans 5, chapter 8.

But God demonstrated his love for us in this while you and I still sinners, Christ died for us.

All unrighteous, all falling short of God's glorious standard.

All of us have turned away from God.

You see, you and I, you'd probably do anything for the people you love, right?

Like, no big deal.

If I love you, there's no questions asked, I would do anything for you.

And I'm sure some of you guys have experienced that.

Like, I find myself, Tori, sometimes she's like, What are you doing?

I will give my time to people who don't deserve it.

I mean, I just go out of my way.

It's just who I am.

Now, what about the people that you and I we come in contact with that we don't particularly care for, right?

Or the people who have hurt us, the people who've cursed our name.

You see, Jesus came onto this earth, and yet you and I turned our back from God.

You and I turned away from him, mocked him, worshipped other things out of convenience.

This God, he died for you.

You see, in Romans 6, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wages of sin, that's pretty bad news.

But you see, the gift of God is the best news.

In Romans chapter 2, verse 4, it says, And you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you and I to repentance.

Romans 2:4

This God that died for you.

And it wasn't just some slow, easy death.

No, he went on a cross.

He hung there for you and I when we turned away from him.

And in Romans 2, we get this idea, he's bridging the gap, he's letting them know, the Gentiles and the Greeks, he's letting them know, I mean, the Greeks and the Jews, he's letting them know this, he's letting us know this today.

That all of this, this patience, this kindness, this love, its intention was to lead you and I to repentance.

That's how he describes God dealing with our sin.

It's not this angry deity that you and I could never come to, and that's why we hide ourselves.

We don't want people to know.

We have this image of God that he's angry at us, that he's mad at us.

But really, the God that Paul is prescribing in this gospel, in this person of Jesus, is that this God who's patient, he's graceful, he's mercy, he's loving, is all intended for you and I to repent.

Since the very beginning, Adam and Eve, from the beginning of the garden, I'm sure, even if you don't grew up in church, you know who Adam and Eve are, right?

They were in the garden with God and they sinned.

They sinned and they were exiled away from the garden.

And from the very beginning, God's purpose was to get his people back.

That's the trace of the story throughout all of Scripture, the Old Testament, the New Testament.

It was God working through his people over thousands of years.

His patience, his kindness, his grace was extended over and over again.

There's a psalm that is one of my psalms.

You don't know the book of Psalms, it's some poetry.

Uh Psalm 106 is my favorite psalm in all of the whole book.

It's not the most encouraging thing in the world.

It's not at all.

It's actually quite the opposite.

It's actually pretty heartbreaking.

And if you want to cry, if you want to feel a little, you know, like go and read the whole thing.

I want to highlight one part of the story.

Uh, but let me give you what's happening in this psalm.

The writer of this psalm, he is highlighting the journey of the Israelites, this group of people, the God's chosen people, and he's talking about how time and time again, he has stepped out, regardless of how they were living, regardless of the sin, regardless of where they found themselves, because of their own destruction, because of their brokenness, how God would step in, do something miraculous in their life, get them back on path, and these people they would praise God's name, they'd be so thankful of what God did in their life at this time.

And then fast forward, this writer highlights that they forgot.

And time and time again, you and I forget God.

You and I, we fall into our sin, we fall into idolizing the wrong things.

And this patient God, who's all-loving and all-knowing, wants a relationship with you.

We pick up in Psalm 106, verse 43, it says, again and again he rescued them, but they chose to rebel against him, and they were finally destroyed by their sin.

Psalms 106:43

And even so, he pitied them in their distress.

He listened to their cries, he remembered his covenant with them and relented because of his unfailing love.

He even caused their captors to treat them with kindness as they cried out, right?

Gather us from back among the nations so we can thank your holy name and rejoice and praise you.

This happened again and again.

To our Creator, we turned our back on him, and it's heartbreaking that every time he steps in to do something for us, you and I, we forget about him.

You and I, we continue going on sinning, not repenting.

And you and I, we continue this loop in our lives.

And Paul wants to point out to us in Romans 2, to the early church, to everyone sitting here today, that don't you see the patience of God, the grace of God, the love of God leads you and I to repentance.

And it took me a really long time to understand what repentance actually meant.

I was told it just meant turn around.

Stop sinning, turn around.

Go hang out with this hellfire preacher who's casting judgment.

Like maybe you'll get a little bit better.

You know what?

Like I doesn't sound nice to me, but what is this actual repentance that we're talking about?

It's been misunderstood for a long time.

You see, but it's actually two Greek words put together.

The first word, you and I, we know this word.

Like, if this was class, it's on the board.

The word is meta.

Meta church.

If you're not familiar, that's the name of our church.

Good job, class.

Meta, it means to change your mind.

I'm sorry, I just revealed the whole entire thing.

It means to change.

And then the word noya.

The noya is the second word.

It means your mind.

So when you put these words together, it means to literally change your mind.

The kindness of God leads you and I to change our mind.

Jesus came proclaiming, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Change your mind.

God is here.

Change your mind of what you believe about this angry deity.

No, it's his kindness, it's his patience with you and I.

You and I, we don't have to run from him.

We don't have to hide these things.

No, it's the kindness of this God that leads you and I to change our mind.

Growing up, my grandfather and I, um, we had a pretty cool relationship.

Um, looking back at it, it's kind of odd because if you met my grandfather, you and I would not have the same relationship.

Um, I was his grandson, I was his boy, I was the man, right?

And uh I didn't go to preschool.

I didn't uh grow up going to preschool.

So um early on, my grandparents they actually moved in across the street from me.

And if you've ever seen the show Everyone Loves Raymond, uh, I'm an Italian family.

Like, that is my life to the T.

Marie, that's my grandma.

She steps in, she's my my mom, she can't cook.

She wants to cook for our family, she wants to be at every event, tell us why she needs to be there.

Like, my life to a T is everyone loves Raymond.

And my grandfather is actually the person in my life who, if you know me, I'm a contractor.

Um, he taught me basically the foundations of what I know building-wise.

Everything I know stems from the first couple years of hanging out with my grandpa in his shop in the garage and learning things that he was teaching me.

The crazy thing about our relationship, me and my grandfather is that um you'd probably think he was uh a little angry or a little too honest, right?

Like he tells it how it is, he comes from that generation where if he's feeling away, he's telling you.

But with me and my grandpa, we had a different relationship.

We had a relationship where like there was just so much encouragement, patience, like room to improve was like allowed.

I didn't have to know everything.

And uh, I would get involved in a lot of projects with my grandfather.

And um, I guess looking back, he used all this as a teaching experience.

And I remember growing up, I'd make mistakes all the time.

Like, he'd give me little very guidance, like little guidance, like go do this, and uh, I'd figure it out uh after you know, maybe three or four days.

Like it, like he wouldn't tell me anything.

Like he would let me sit in the struggle, and finally I would be hiding these things, hiding my mistakes, trying to make it look good, whatever we were doing.

And uh finally I would come to him.

I'm reminded about a time where uh he asked a, I don't remember if I was nine or ten, uh like probably a 10-year-old boy to hang up gutters for him.

I had no idea what in the world like I was doing, hanging gutters, like you know, some of y'all got seamless gutters.

I had I didn't I didn't know nothing about this.

Go get on the roof, figure it out, hang up these gutters.

And uh, so I did.

I went up there, hung these gutters up, and dude, they're looking mint, they're looking clean.

But I step down the ladder, I get down, and I look at it, and I'm like, oh snap.

If you if you know anything, like there's a fascia of there's this wood that goes around your house.

The gutter should be pretty close to the end cap of the roof because the water's gonna fall right into it.

These gutters were like on the bottom of the fascia.

Like, and I knew something was wrong, I knew there was a problem, but I didn't say nothing.

I lived right across the street, I went home, I prayed it wouldn't rain for the next three years.

I was like, dude, like we're but I lived in South Florida, so it rained that night, you already know.

And I remember looking out our front door window, I had to get a chair and like stand up, and like this rain is falling straight off the roof.

Like it's going right into the middle between the two houses.

And I remember in the morning, me and my grandpa were sloshing in the middle of his house, and we're like, and he's like looking at it, and I'm like, yeah, that did absolutely nothing.

And I was ready for it.

I was ready for him to be like, dude, what the crap?

That's what he always said.

Like, and like I remember and like he was gonna be like just ready, just give it to me.

But I remember his words when he just looked at it and he goes, piece of sheet metal, we could screw that in and it'll probably catch it.

Why am I telling you this crazy story, right?

Like, if you and I think about it though, if I think about it, that's the relationship that God has with you and I.

Growing up, I learned from my grandfather pretty early on that the mistakes I was making in my life, the things that I thought I could hide, you know what I mean?

Especially being younger, especially if you have kids, like you think that like they think when they're lying to you that you don't know what's going on, right?

Like you could see right past it.

I thought I was hiding these things from him.

But in the same way, God knows everything that you and I have ever done in our lives and ever will do in our lives.

He knows all the things that you want to make look pretty.

I learned a lot.

My best thing about being a carpenter, I tell everyone always, is like carpentry, you learn how to fix your mistakes.

That's all it is.

You're gonna mess up, but you get better at fixing your mistakes.

And you see, over time I've learned that these mistakes in my life, they highlighted what I was missing, the knowledge that I didn't have.

But every single time I find myself broken, every single time we're so many of us, we find ourselves like in the middle of my grandfather's house, walking around in the very thing I was supposed to fix.

We're walking around in the mess and destruction and the chaos that we're living in.

And the words that my grandfather gave me, the peace that he gave me, the encouragement, the confidence that I can go boldly to him.

Because every single time I went to him, he had a solution.

There was something he already knew I was doing wrong in my life, but now he was able to step in and show me why I need to remove this very thing from my life.

God's not this angry deity who's mad at you.

The playing field is level.

You and I are sinners, but God never meant to leave you there.

The whole story of scripture was to get you back home in the presence of your father who loves you, and the reality of that is that we can boldly come before this God and repent and change our mind.

Allow the broken pieces in our life for God to take up all these broken pieces in our life and mend them back together and allow God to use you in a way that you never thought was possible.

When I look back on my story, how I grew up, all these things of how I dropped out of school, all the drug abuse I had early on, how the things I was masking, I never once thought God was gonna use me in a way to impact other Christ followers.

Can I tell you today, God wants to do the same exact thing with you?

Would you pray with me?

My hope today is that you and I would see the actual character of God.

That you and I would turn, but we would turn away from the way we're living because of this change of mind, because of this loving father.

If you come here today and you had trouble believing, you've had trouble, like you're struggling just being here today.

It took a lot for you to get here today, but you've been hurt by the church.

I want you to know that I am sorry.

God never meant for you to be hurt by the very people that should be calling you to Him.

Maybe you find yourself and you're really judgmental.

I pray that you would have a change of mind, that you would see everyone on this loving playing field, that you would see yourself there, broken, a sinner.

We all fall short of God's glorious standard.

I pray today would be an overwhelming just showing you that you are a sinner.

There's no reason that you and I can judge others when you and I are dealing with these same things.

Maybe you come today and you're you're really dealing with a lot of sin in your life.

You've been trying to shake it.

I pray today you'd have a change of mind and you would let someone in, that you would talk to somebody.

And if you've come in today and you feel broken, that there's no way that God would use you.

There's no way that you could approach this God, that today's message, you would have a change of mind in that.

And you allow God to start using you, to step into your story as He meets you right there in the person of Jesus, who was beaten on a cross for you.

Thank you, God, for your word.

Thank you for the real idea of repentance, of changing our mind.

Thank you for your grace, your patience with us, Lord.

And I pray that that would lead me and that would lead every single person here today to change their mind and to surrender to your love.

Thank you, God, for the work that you're gonna continue doing in us this week.

We lift up all the praise.

We lift you up, God.

Thank you for the work that you're doing in us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

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