Surprise Parties

So I'm a little bit uh nostalgic right now because as you've heard over the last few weeks, if you've been here, we are celebrating our 20 years, uh, 20-year anniversary as a church, which is really, really cool.

And it also makes me feel really old.

Just gonna say that.

I'm not really old, but um I was looking at old pictures because I've been here almost the whole time.

I've been here 19 years, and there were some pictures we found from those days, and there were people who still go to his hands who were like my boss back then, and I thought they were old.

And I saw pictures from those days, and I'm now older than they were, or at least look older than they did in those photos, and I go, Oh, I am now old.

Okay, this is how life works.

But 20 years, this is an incredible thing to celebrate.

And I'll never forget when this church started my first experience here.

So I pulled into the parking lot, my wife and I, Megan, we were uh visiting from Kansas City, Missouri to interview for the youth pastor position.

And we walked into the building, it was an unforgettable experience.

First of all, there was this banner on the front of the building, and it said, party on Sunday, 10 a.m.

And I love that.

Now, what I learned after uh getting the job, which by the way, had no idea that would happen.

We literally walked out the first day, and I was like, there's no way I'm getting this job.

I was 23 years old, I had very little experience.

Now I look back and I go, oh, I was cheap.

That's what it was.

Like, they're like this, we basically don't have to pay this guy.

This is great, you know.

But I walked away really honestly intimidated because this was just bigger than anything I'd ever been a part of, and I was uh wowed by it.

Just the whole, not the stage and all that stuff.

It was just the people and the and the culture.

Like I believed in Jesus, and I'd been a part of lots of communities that believed in Jesus.

I don't think I'd ever been in a place where so many people kind of exuded Jesus, if that makes sense.

And so I was intimidated.

I walked away like I'm not getting this job.

But Megan and I both looked at each other and said, but I want to go to church here.

And so, really grateful that that worked out.

I mean, I was a I was a child, I just want you to know, like, I was a kid, like 23.

And that doesn't mean those of you who are 23 are children, but you will feel like that one day, I promise.

So we we walked away and ended up getting the job and coming back, and there's that same banner, party on Sunday.

Now, after I was a part of the staff, I learned that that banner was actually kind of controversial.

It ruffled some feathers, some very stuffy religious feathers in our community, okay?

And that's all right.

It's okay to do that from time to time.

Jesus did it all the time.

The intention of that of that banner was not to push the envelope.

Now, months later we did put up a billboard on 575 that said happy hour, Sunday's 10 a.m.

Um looking back, that one might have been that might have been us.

That might have been us responding to the backlash of the party on Sunday with like a hold my beer kind of thing.

Um and it's okay.

Look, look, I look back at that season, and I know our hearts, we we our hearts were in the right place for the most part.

Maybe there was some hubris, maybe there was some, you know, if if you were around churches like us in the early 2000s, there was a little bit of this edge, or at least this attempt at edge.

It was kind of like this isn't your grandmother's church, unless, of course, your grandmother goes here and then it is her church, but she's like a cool grandma.

And uh, and some of that stuff was just silly.

I'll admit it.

Some of that stuff looking back, it's like we were we didn't know what we were doing, we were trying stuff, and a lot of that stuff, you know, I have minor regrets about.

But that's the way life works.

Like all of us have early 2000s regrets.

I'll show you one of mine.

This is a picture of me on my first day working at his hands, and um, as you'll see in this photo, I had frosted tips.

That's me, and uh, the hairline is seriously changed, and so is the yeah, that's I regret getting frosted tips.

That is an early 2000s, and I'm showing this to all of you, so now you can you can uh join in the embarrassment with me.

Um we all have regrets.

Some of those things, you know, in the early days of our church, like, oh, I wish we hadn't done that.

However, party on Sunday is not one of those things.

No, Party on Sunday was was not a flippant, edgy marketing campaign trying to, you know, trying to make it out like we were taking church less seriously or something like that at all.

Not at all.

Party on Sunday was this declaration that this was going to be a place where you could enjoy the love of God, or you could celebrate what he's done for you and how good he is.

We had a motto that we still use here on the staff that we we take God very seriously.

And if you're part of this church, you know that we take God seriously, we take the Bible seriously, we take faith seriously, we take prayer seriously.

I know because my wife is on the prayer team, and an hour and a half after church is done every Sunday, they're wrapping up.

We take those things seriously.

We just don't take ourselves seriously.

I think that's important.

I actually think a lot of the people that rejected Jesus in his day, especially the religious ones who knew the they knew the scriptures they should have received him, they just took themselves too seriously to be able to receive him.

Party on Sunday was this challenge for me.

I had never been in a church that had trained me to be joyful.

I'd been in church that had trained me to have conviction and be serious.

I'd been in churches that trained me to be outraged at the world around me.

I had never been trained, taught, discipled to be joyful.

And we're commanded to be.

I mean, Fred did a great job last Sunday talking about the joy of the Lord, Nehemiah 8.10, Old Testament.

Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Jesus says in John 17 as he prays before going to the cross, now I'm coming to you.

He's talking to God the Father.

I told them many things while I was with them in this world so that they would be filled with my joy.

The teachings of Jesus have have many purposes, but the purpose Jesus identifies here is so that you would be filled with his joy.

In John 15, 11, Jesus says to his disciples directly, I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy.

Yes, your joy will overflow.

Guys, if we believe what we say we believe, if we all believe that we have a God, the creator of the universe, the one true God, and he's created us and he loves us and he's forgiven us, and we are his children, and we have eternity to look forward to with him.

Shouldn't church be a party?

To some degree, shouldn't it be a celebration?

So that's what that party on Sunday was about.

Now, as I've been praying about what to share and what to teach, I'm still praying through what's the next scripture we're gonna go through, because Nip typically we're going through a big chunk of scripture at one time, a book of the Bible or something like that.

Still thinking through that, still praying through that.

Um, but we're gonna do a series for the next few weeks called Party.

And this isn't flippant, but it is gonna be fun.

In fact, I'm gonna ask for your forgiveness if this offends you.

Um, but if you ever meet me outside of church, I will have a hat on, but it will be backwards.

And so I thought maybe because we're doing the party theme, maybe I could be genuine, more genuine.

Guys, I'm sorry, this is me.

This is me, this is who I am.

I'm sorry.

Um, so you know, party.

Let's let's party.

Let's party for a little bit.

If this goes well, I'll just do this all the time, and I'll this is I'll never have to turn it back around when church is done.

Um, we have a God who loves us.

And and it's funny, I was gonna start this series with sort of a theological uh journey through all of the times in scripture that God not only commands his people to celebrate, there are commandments in the Bible.

We think of commandments as the thou shalt not.

No, there are commandments in the Bible where he's like, look, you better get some good food and some strong drink and celebrate.

There are commandments where he tells his people to celebrate.

And it's not like if you want to, it's like you do this.

Like, all right, I'll have a good time, Lord.

You know?

He invents celebrations.

Jesus was filled with joy.

That's one of the reasons that when our church first started, Stephen Susan, who commissioned those statues that are out front, they they wanted a Jesus that had a smile on his face.

Because yes, Jesus was serious, and yes, he cried, and yes, he hurt with people, but he unhe clearly had joy.

I mean, half the stories of Jesus, you find him, where is he?

He's relaxing with people, he's at dinner with people, he's hanging, he's at parties.

They actually criticize him.

The Pharisees criticize him.

Maybe they wanted to be at the party too, they just couldn't say it.

I don't know.

All they had to do was walk in.

I was gonna go through like a deep scriptural understanding of this, but I decided we'll do that next week.

It'll still be fun, I promise.

But the best way to kick off a theme called party would be to look at a party.

And so we're gonna examine one of the most interesting parties that scripture describes, and it's and it's one that we actually find coming straight from the mouth of Jesus.

So I'm gonna open up to Luke chapter 15, and we're gonna read really the most, pretty much the majority of Luke 15 today.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Um, Jesus gives a series of stories here that are meant to teach us something.

There's three, and the last one happens to become perhaps his most famous story, even to the point that if you haven't grown up in church, you've never been here before, anywhere before, you might know this story to some degree.

And so, verse one says this tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus.

Why?

Because he was such a downer, right?

That's what no, like there was something about Jesus, there was something magnetic about Jesus, something that drew ordinary people with struggles and problems and issues.

They were drawn to Jesus.

And they came to listen to him teach.

Now, this made the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with him, the audacity.

So Jesus told them this story.

If a man had a hundred sheep and one of them got lost, what would he do?

Won't he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go search for the one that's lost until he finds it?

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

When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, celebrate with me, because I've found my lost sheep.

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away.

He goes on, in verse 8, he says, Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one.

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

And when she finds it, she will call on her friends and neighbors and say, Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost coin.

In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents.

Now, this all leads to this story we're about to read.

And it's often called the story of the prodigal son.

That may not be the best name for it, but that's what it's been called.

That's what it's known as.

And this story is a little different.

And here's what I mean by this parables are the typical form of teaching that Jesus employs, and they're very short stories.

And parables are not allegories, they're not meant to be examined where every little detail in the teaching is analyzed, right?

A parable is a simple short teaching, kind of like what we have here.

There's a woman and she loses a coin and then she finds it.

We're not supposed to look at parables and go, what do the coins represent?

Well, they represent people, right?

Hmm, why are there ten?

What's the significance of the number 10?

It's it's like, stop.

You're overthinking it.

Okay?

Allegories, and if you were someone that can remember high school or you're in high school, I don't know if they still read this book.

Have you ever read like Pilgrim's Progress in high school, um, or pretended that you read it and you know, did the Cliffs Notes version, or today just chat GPT, whatever.

That's an allegory.

Every single character represents something, every single detail is meaningful.

It's it's an allegory, and it's meant to be analyzed layer by layer.

And Jesus doesn't really teach in allegories, but occasionally he will teach in a way that's a little different.

It's a little bit more expanded, there's more layers to it, and I'm not saying that that means every single word, every single detail has to be hyperanalyzed, but these types of teachings of Jesus are meant for us to engage with a little bit more curiosity and questioning.

And so, with that in mind, Jesus teaches one of his longer stories in Luke 15, 11 through 32.

It's called the The Prodigal Son.

It says to illustrate this point further, Jesus told them this story.

A man had two sons.

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

So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.

About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.

He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything.

When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, At home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger.

I will go home to my father and say, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you.

I'm no longer worthy of being called your son.

Please take me on as a hired servant.

So he returned home to his father.

And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.

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

His son said to him, Father, I sinned against both heaven and you.

I'm no longer worthy of being called your son.

But his father said to the servants, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him.

Get a ring for his finger, sandals for his feet, and kill the calf that we've been fattening.

We must celebrate with a feast.

For this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life.

He was lost, but now he's found.

So the party began.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working.

When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants, What was going on?

Your brother is back, he was told.

And your father's killed the fattened calf.

We're celebrating because of his safe return.

The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in.

His father came out and begged him, but he replied, All these years I've slaved for you, and never once refused to do a single thing you told me.

And all that time you've never given me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.

Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf?

And his father said, Look, dear son, you've always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.

We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead and has come back to life.

He was lost, but now he's found.

Now, it's an incredible story.

And we can analyze it, we can spend months on this story alone, and maybe at one point we should.

I'm sure many of us can relate to the older brother.

You know, you feel like you've done things the right way, you've tried your best, you've taken life seriously, you've done this, and sometimes when you're doing it the right way, you know, and you see someone else who does it the wrong way, and then things work out for them, it makes you mad.

You're like, that's not fair.

I actually think that the older brother in this story is the saddest character of all.

Number one, he's not in the party.

Like, be at the party, man.

Enjoy the fattened calf.

It's it's there.

But he's reduced his relationship with his father down to that of a worker.

Like he's forgotten that he's the son, and that's what the father says.

Everything I have is yours.

You if you wanted the fat and calf, all you had to do was ask.

But you've decided to treat me as a boss and an employer, and you've decided to work for me.

And I think there's a lesson for some of us there who maybe do have a tendency to uh, it's that religious thing, and it's not, there's a version of it that's really good.

We take God seriously, we work hard, we do things the right way, but sometimes that can solidify a kind of coldness where we're not moved with joy, and we take following God so seriously that it starts to become us taking ourselves too seriously, and we can miss out on really great things.

And so if you've ever felt like that, that may be for you.

But the the two main characters obviously are the wayward son and the loving father.

Now, who could the father represent?

Huh.

Like, who could that be?

It's God.

It's God the Father.

It's not hard.

Jesus made that one easy for us.

It's a softball.

And man, is that father good?

Like when the son comes to him and the son says, I want my share of the inheritance now, what the son is saying is, I would rather have your money than have you.

Because you're supposed to wait until the father dies and then you get the inheritance.

He's like, I don't want to wait.

I want to wait on you.

Just give me the money now.

And I'm out.

He's literally saying, The Father, I wish you were dead.

The father gives it to him and he lets him go.

And that is love, by the way.

Love and freedom always go together.

That's one of the big questions people have philosophically.

If God is so good, then why does he let bad things happen?

Well, most of the bad things happen happen because of us.

And he gives us the freedom to do those bad things.

And the only way to stop that would be for him to control us and not give us freedom.

But love and freedom go together.

Love and control do not.

Not up to a certain point.

You know, as parents, we raise our children when they're young, more control.

And then they get older.

You gotta figure that out, right?

God gives us freedom.

He loves us.

Even if we misuse that.

But when the son comes back, the father is what?

He's already watching.

He sees them from a long way off.

It gives you this idea that like every day he's been looking out in those fields, looking out in that direction that the son left, wondering, is this the day he comes home?

And he's ready for him.

And it's like he's decided in his heart what he's gonna do.

And he runs and he greets him and he meets him halfway and he embraces him and he kisses him.

And the son does his rehearsed speech and he's like, Stop.

You are not my servant.

You are my son.

It's beautiful.

But imagine being the son, and by the way, the reason you should imagine being the son is because for the most part, you are.

That's us.

This is us.

Think, I mean, guys, this is this is meant to be a party, so don't go too far with this thought.

Think about how much you have squandered in your life.

Like, honestly, think about how many awesome opportunities you've had.

Like, man, had I, who I'm not trying to stir up regret.

I'm just saying all of us have messed up.

All of us have regrets.

All of us could look back and go, man, I wish I could go back in time to that 20-year-old version of myself and just, you know, punch him.

Just something.

Shake him.

What is wrong with you?

You know?

All of us have that.

We've all messed up.

We've all made mistakes.

So we've probably all wondered, especially if we grew up in church and God's been on our minds, we probably all wondered, I wonder how God feels about me.

We've probably all had that experience where, you know, going to church feels a little weird.

Because you feel far from God.

Because maybe you've made decisions that have been that.

You've kind of tried to walk away, and then going to church, you're like, oh, I just, whoo, you kind of feel like the sun.

Like, should I go back?

I don't shame, guilt, all those things.

And imagine put yourself in the sun in this story's mind.

Like, what do you think he was expecting?

What would have surprised him that day?

Would rejection have surprised him?

I don't I don't think so.

If the son said, no, you had your chance, you know what you did, you broke my heart, you sinned against me.

No, you made your choice.

Would that have been wrong?

That would have been just.

And I don't think it would have surprised the son to hear that, because I don't think that would surprise any of us.

Sometimes we have that suspicion.

Sometimes we worry about being rejected by God.

And I want to say this really, really clearly.

If you have ever felt like you are rejected by God, that is a lie straight from Satan, because this story and everything Jesus teaches us shows us he does not reject his children.

I don't think the son would have been surprised with rejection.

Maybe the son would have been surprised by like an apathetic forgiveness, but I don't think so.

Like if the father had said, hey, look, I mean, you're my son.

Yeah, you can come back.

You can come back.

It's gonna take some time for me to figure out what that looks like.

And you know, yeah, you can work with the servants for a while.

I'm gonna have to talk to your brother.

He's pretty mad.

Um just give us some time.

Like something like that, the son was probably expecting that.

Like a yeah, you kind of a reluctant reception.

Yes, you can come back, but you know, it's just it's gonna have to be different.

That seems pretty normal.

But I promise you, what surprised the son was a surprise party.

And this is the story, we have a biblical story of a surprise party.

Now, let's just talk about this concept for a second.

Raise your hands, engage with if you don't mind.

How many of you are surprise party people?

You're like, if I walked into a room later today and there was a party on my behalf and I didn't know it, I would be excited.

Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, the extroverts.

There we go.

The extroverts.

Right?

I get it.

My my wife is an introvert.

She's not shy, but she's an introvert.

And so for her, two people is a party.

And like bumping into someone at the grocery store to her feels kind of like When you were a kid and you bumped into your teacher, not at school, and you didn't know what to do.

You're like, I wasn't expecting this.

I wasn't prepared for this.

She handles it fine.

But I'm not like that.

In fact, sometimes I'll see someone and she'll be like, please don't go talk to them.

And I'll be like, But I just gotta go.

I I'll even see someone I don't know, but is wearing a shirt of a team that I like, and I'm like, I gotta go talk to that guy because we have so much in common.

And she's like, No, I love a surprise party.

I've only thrown one surprise party for my wife one time, and I was smart.

I invited four people.

Two of them were her parents.

I was like, that's and and she it took her a second.

She was like, okay, yeah, no, we're good.

This is good, you know.

That was it.

This guy, he gets like the ultimate surprise party.

He's coming hoping he can just be received as a servant.

And instead he gets a party?

He gets celebrated?

Now, I want to challenge those of us that didn't raise your hands.

You did not make the right decision.

I saw some of you were shaking your heads.

You didn't just not raise your hand, you were like, no.

Absolutely not.

But let's ask a question.

Introvert, extrovert, forget it.

If I asked that same question right now to the kids in the grove, how many of you would be thrilled if later on today you opened a door and there was a party in your honor?

How many hands do you think would go up?

What does that say about us?

Like, let's let's get introspective for a minute.

What does it say about it?

We all know the answer.

Like they would light up.

I don't think that maybe a couple of kids are like super shy and that does happen.

Maybe you have that kid and you're like, trust me, they would hide behind me, they would grab my legs and use me as a shield, right?

That happens.

But most of the kids would be like, Yes.

What does it say about us as people that as we get older, the idea of being celebrated bothers us if we're not prepared for it.

I must, I gotta get prepared to be celebrated.

I get it.

Even though I'm extroverted, look, I don't think he's here today because he's he's traveling out of town.

But Fred, who gave the message last week, when I turned 40, Fred surprised me on it was a Sunday that I turned 40, and he interrupted the message, which I've never done that to him, but it's okay.

Uh and he said, hey, hey, hey, he stood up and he he led everyone in a happy birthday song for me.

And I've never enjoyed something less.

Um I just stand here and listen to you know a lot of people sing happy birthday.

And I appreciate it, but I appreciated it because I was in my head, I was like, this is okay, this is okay, this is good.

I can handle this.

I just stood here because I know Fred, I know the heart behind it, it was love.

But what does it say about us as people that as we get older, that part of us is a child that longs to be celebrated for no reason.

Like you could have a surprise party, and kid won't be like, what is the occasion for this?

You just be like, you, you're the occasion.

They'd be like, yes, let's go.

And we as people, most of us, are like, no, no.

There's something there.

I don't have the answer for you.

I've asked a question, I can't answer.

But maybe there's just something about life and something about the mistakes that we make, and we get older and we get cynical and we get kind of scarred, and something about us resists celebration.

Could that apply to God when it comes to how we relate to Him?

Now, here's an interesting question.

I already know the answer to it.

If I said, uh, how many of you are willing to celebrate God?

Of course you are.

You're here.

You engage in group singing, no one's favorite activity, unless you're like one of the most extroverted people in the world, unless you're like karaoke bar extrovert, and how many of you are karaoke bar extrovert?

That's a small number.

These people are borderline nuts, okay?

That's like the highest.

There's like, I'm outgoing.

I will talk to people, I will not sing to people I don't know.

I might, but have to be in the right situation.

I might like it.

That's true.

Let's try it right now.

No, I'm just joking, we're not doing that.

Um what song would I nope, nope, no, no, all right.

Uh oh man.

Like there's something about us that's changed.

And so, yes, how many of us would celebrate God?

We we engage in groups singing together, we celebrate God, but let's flip that.

How many of us would be willing to be celebrated by God?

That's an interesting thought.

But is that not what happens in the story?

And by the way, this is not a young man receiving an award for achievement.

I've been to those celebrations, I've been to banquets where someone has accomplished something great and they deserve to be celebrated, and everyone's like, we gotta honor this, what this person has done, and we all clap, and that's great.

This is not a lifetime achievement award.

It's like, hey, everybody, this is the guy that squandered all of our money and betrayed us and left us and has done terrible, terrible things.

And he's back.

Woohoo! But that's what the story is.

This is not just a father receiving his child back.

This is a father throwing a surprise party to honor and celebrate a sinful son.

How many of us could sit there and receive that?

Worship team, you guys can make your way back up.

Um we're actually gonna finish.

I know this is a surprise.

That's how parties work.

Um we don't do this very often, but occasionally, I feel like the best way to wrap up a conversation is to go back into worship with God.

Now, there are gonna be those of us that when the song starts, you're like, it's my chance to leave.

Um, and you're free to do that, and we won't judge you much.

Okay.

But I I feel like the song that we sang right before the message, I think it's important for us to sing that again.

I think we need to sing this.

Because I believe that we have to become comfortable as not just followers of Jesus, but as children of Father God, we have to become comfortable receiving love from our Father.

Like we have to be comfortable being celebrated by God because Jesus said it clearly, all of heaven celebrates when someone comes to him.

He celebrates us, he loves us that much.

But there's something about us that resists that.

There's something about us that just we know maybe we know ourselves too well.

We know what we've done.

Well, the father knew everything that that son had done, even the older brother knew.

Rumors had gone around, word had gotten back to what he was doing with his money, and the father knew.

The father wasn't ignorant.

God is not ignorant, he knows all your stuff, he knows all your stuff.

Most of the people in your life know some of your stuff.

He knows all of it, and he loves you, and he celebrates you.

And he would throw a party on your behalf.

In fact, in heaven, Revelation tells us what we have to look forward to, and a big part of it is a feast.

It's a party.

But if you can't receive from him, you'll never experience that.

Not like you're meant to.

I'll wrap up with this.

Um years ago, 10, 12 years ago, I was reading the Bible.

Because I'm so spiritual.

And uh, no, and I was I I a verse just leapt off the page to me.

I don't know if you've ever had that experience where you read a verse in the Bible and it's like, that's for me.

This is my verse.

It's like my verse.

I actually had someone design a tattoo of that verse, and it was really cool, and I didn't get it because I'm not a tattoo guy.

I'm a hat guy, not a tattoo.

So didn't get the tattoo, but maybe I should get it on a hat.

I'm gonna do that.

Um I'm gonna do that.

That's that'll be great.

Okay, good idea.

But this verse was like my verse, and here's what it is it's Ezekiel 36, 26.

God says, I will give you a new heart.

That one's for Monica.

I'll put a new spirit in you, I will take out your stony, stubborn heart, and give you a tender, responsive heart.

That verse jumped out to me.

But here's the funny thing: I quoted it wrong for five years.

Imagine being a pastor and telling everyone your favorite verse and misquoting it.

That's fun, that's humbling.

I would tell people, yeah, my favorite verse, oh, Ezekiel 36, 26.

And I get to that part.

I'll take out your stony, stubborn heart, and I feel like I have one of those very often, and I'll give you, and here's how I would say it, a tender, receptive heart.

I said receptive, not responsive.

I said that for years.

And then one day I I just saw it.

I was reading it, I was like, wait, responsive?

And I was like, I must have been reading a different translation.

Checked him, nope.

I've just been misquoting my favorite verse.

And then, and I'm not saying I did it on purpose and it was a God thing, I was like, I made a mistake, I messed up.

But God can, He uses our mess-ups, He's really He can work with them.

And it's like this thought hit me: you cannot respond to what you can't receive.

Like if you can't receive from God, you can't respond.

That's why the Pharisees could never respond to Jesus, they couldn't even receive him, they couldn't receive his truth and his goodness and his love, and he would do amazing things, it would just bounce off them because their hearts were not receptive.

And what I'm saying is that if we want to respond to God correctly, if you want to live your life in response to the God who loves you and has created you, you have to have a heart that receives.

And what are you receiving?

You are receiving his love.

And whatever part of you wants to push that away, whatever part of you is uncomfortable with the love that he has for you, whatever part of you that you just go, I just uh that that's gonna keep you a from being at the party.

B from being able to live in response to that.

You have to receive his love because he's given it to you.

So we're gonna worship a little more just for a few minutes.

And I'm gonna pray.

I'm not gonna tell you how to worship.

You don't have to stand up if you don't want to.

If you do want to, go for it.

This is up to you.

But this is an opportunity, this is four minutes to receive from God and to ask God to make you receptive to his love.

Father, over the next few minutes, I just pray that we would take this as an opportunity to open ourselves to you and to become comfortable.

Comfortable, Lord, receiving your love.

Comfortable enough to be celebrated by you, comfortable enough to be the son who doesn't resist a party thrown on his behalf even when he doesn't deserve it.

None of us deserve your love.

We're not pretending like that's true at all.

But we still want to receive it.

Make us able to receive from you this morning so that we can be the children at the party.

And we pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Thank you.

Would you increase my ability to be loved?

Would you increase my ability to be love?

Be loved by the same thing.

God, we love you so much.

Thank you for your love.

Thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your mercy, your kindness, your goodness, your faithfulness to us, God.

Thank you for loving us like you do.

Help us to receive it more and more.

Increase our ability to be loved by you each day, each morning, each hour of each day.

God, we need reminded often.

So I pray that you would just remind us often and pull us in and pull us close and help us to be receptive to that and responsive to that, like Joseph was saying.

God, we love you.

We pray all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.