Self Validation, w/ Pastor Jeff Shipley

Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military styles.

It wasn't the type of people. Thank you, son. I needed that. We're going to be in Luke chapter 15.

And I'm going to try today. I know so much about so many of you in this room that are on the struggle bus right now.

Some of you, you wear it on your face like a sign.

And yet, you think you hide it. And that thin veneer of suburban religion facade that is choking the life out of your spirit.

I'm going to ask you today, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you let that crap fall. That you quit living the lie and start living the freedom.

That you let the fears and insecurities of this world and your past, maybe your family, drop like chains at the mention of the name of Jesus.

I'm going to ask you today. No, the Lord's asking you today to let the vulnerability of freedom permeate your heart and your life and find the joy and the peace that religion will never give you.

There are two kinds of folks in here today. Lost and saved. Lost folks, welcome to Witten.

Happy Mother's Day. Play on your phones. Saved folks, listen to me. You're going to fit in one of two categories this morning.

You are either one of those people in abject rebellion who are trying to self -validate your worth and importance by thinking that the world is the standard by which you're actually going to find happiness in this life.

The other one is a person of moral superiority.

I did not say spiritual, I said moral superiority. You have traded in the peace of God and the power of the

Holy Spirit to align yourself with a moral religious consciousness that is like thorns choking out the rose that God wants you to be.

And I'm going to ask you today, please, to be set free.

Yes, to the same degree in which you gave your life to Christ. In the same degree where you walked down an aisle and gave

Jesus your heart and Lord and Savior and all that other religious garbage. But that true regenerative faith that God gave you once but has grown cold,

I'm going to ask you today, right now, as the Word of God has spoken to you, that you pray, God, I no longer want to live this life.

I have prayed holding on to the back of a pew long enough. I have condemned sin verbally, but harbored it secretly in my heart.

And God, I can no longer live the duality of the hypocrisy of the life that's killing me.

I'm going to ask you today to quit listening to a stupid sermon. I want to ask you today to hear the

Word of your Father whose hand has reached out to both groups of people and offers the same restoration and hope to both people.

Look with me if you will. Luke chapter 15. Now, I want to put this in some harmoneutical context.

And for those of you that don't know what harmoneutics is because you've sat in a church and hadn't learned anything your whole life,

I painstakingly tried to make it all fit on one piece of paper front and back.

And I had to edit a lot of it. But if you... We're not going to talk about harmoneutics tonight, but I listed out my harmoneutical theory or algorithm.

Does anyone not have a piece of paper and want one? Good Mary, James, and Joseph.

Some of you men handle that, okay? Some of you men handle that. And if we don't have enough, one of you chicks go make some more copies.

One of you girls go make some more copies. But anyways, Luke chapter 15, harmoneutically within context of Scripture, Jesus in Luke chapter 9 is on his way to Jerusalem.

And Luke chapter 9 through Luke chapter 19 is a recounting of that journey to Jerusalem.

Now, in Luke 14, part of that journey is he goes to a

Pharisee's house to have dinner. And there's a great crowd following Jesus.

And so you have to kind of see... Think of it like this. Think of an open air barbecue.

Right? And the religious elite and the wealthy are sitting in the domus, sitting around the triclinium, the tables, while the masses are sitting on the peripherals outside in the front yard.

Jesus stands up and he starts talking. And as he starts talking, he's addressing the guy whose house it is, the

Pharisees, but he also is talking to the masses of people that are there following him.

Now, why is that important to know? Well, it's important to know because you can't truly understand

Scripture from some stupid three -point homily. You can't just sit there and take one verse out of context and run with it.

That's how cults get started. Right? But it's not just that. It's also this.

And this is so important for you to understand. Some of the people following him were genuine believers at this point.

Some of them following him were just looking for another loaf of bread or for the next miracle to be entertained.

Some of these Pharisees on the outside, they all claimed to be loving God and super Christians and members of First Baptist Church Jerusalem.

Right? Some of them, though, were dead and cold inside.

But some of them really wanted something different. You see, the Holy Spirit was speaking to everyone through this one telling or sermon of Christ.

Now, the other thing to keep in mind is this. Harmonetically, Jesus does not share 42 parables.

It's really one parable. In fact, all of chapter 14 and all of chapter 15 is one continuation.

It's like He was channeling Pastor Jeff for a second. In other words, giving ever more complicated analogy on top of analogy to explain that analogy, and then giving another analogy to explain the past analogy.

Okay? Do you understand what I'm saying? So Jesus kept giving analogies. You're sitting there going, why did

He give so many? Because He was talking to so many different people. And I take great peace in that.

That means that God here in His Word, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter what point you are guilty, the

Word of God is still speaking to you today. Oh, but Pastor, I haven't heard God in years or in decades.

I feel like me and God are this far apart. I tell you that the grace of God is still reaching to you today.

Now, if you're a lost person, you have no idea why you're even here.

You're a spiritual millennial. You're struggling to figure out whether you're a boy or a girl.

It's okay. God can help you with both. All right? In fact, you might want to go to SOG. We'll show you if you're a boy or a girl.

But the point is, is this. The Word of God today is for every single person in this room.

Now, if you look at chapter 15, verse 1, you will get the immediate context of why

Jesus gives these next few analogies. Chapter 15, verse 1.

Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Him, and the

Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

This is our dinner party. The blue -collar, white trash, redneck, Hick, black folk,

Mexicanese, and all them other folks, they're getting too close to the porch. This is our dinner.

We're going to be intellectually elite. We're going to show how smart we are by talking about theology.

Them unclean people need to go on out there. But Jesus, even in the midst of trying to reach them godless heathens, still had

His hand extended to every single person out there. So in that context, He starts to speak.

And He's talking specifically to the Pharisees at this point. So keep that in mind.

And He gives them three different analogies. The sheep, the coin, and what we're going to focus on today, what you,

I'm sure, have heard as the prodigal son. That is such a cheap title for what the truth of God's Word is in chapter 15.

But as He's sitting there speaking, when they say that, these unclean people need to go away,

Jesus starts hammering them. And He divides them in the last parable, He divides them into two different folks.

Folks that are looking for self -validation because they don't want to follow the crowd or they feel marginalized by institutional religion or they just can't make the cut.

They feel like they're never going to be good enough. And so they rebel and they start doing the exact opposite of what their parents do or did.

Or they start doing the exact opposite of everybody else because they want to be noticed through their rebellion.

They try to self -validate. The other group are the ones that conform. The moral conformists.

In other words, they feel comfortable being within the big group. They feel comfortable and feel justified by following the crowd.

I want you to hear something today. If you're either one of those persons, guess what?

You are still a sinning, godless heathen and still are in need of the grace of Almighty God.

If you're in this room and you don't smoke, you don't cuss, and you don't have tattoos, you are still just as sinful as a gossiping heathen as anyone else in here.

We've got folks in here that are struggling with meth. We've got prostitutes in here. We've got gay folks in here.

We've got everybody and their mother in here at least once. And every single one of us from this pulpit all the way to the back of the room, well, that's

Marty. Never mind. He doesn't count. He's not elect. Don't worry about him. But everybody else, everybody else is on the same level.

Let's look at these first two guys and let's compare and contrast them, shall we? Number one, let's look at the younger son.

Starting here, he told them this parable starting in verse 11. So he gives them this analogy.

And he said, there was a man who had two sons. Note the compare and the contrast.

One is not the protagonist and one the antagonist. They're both on the same level. And he says this.

There were two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.

And he divided the property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took to a journey to a far country.

And there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine rose in that country and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him in the field to feed pigs.

And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread?

But I perish here with hunger. I will arise, go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father, but yet while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced and kissed him.

And the son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Guys, some of y 'all in this room, you identify with the self -validation.

You identify with this rebellious attitude. You are that person who, because you felt marginalized as a kid or you had the middle child syndrome or any of the

Freudian bull crap that's out there, but it basically boils down to a sinful, arrogant heart, you rebelled against the normative and went out and sought validation because you felt less than intimidated or insecure about where you were.

And then all of a sudden, a decade later, you're pregnant with your third kid living in a trailer in Millington on your fourth husband, on your fourth husband, right?

Because you've been through so many men because you're still looking for the validation that the world thinks it can offer you and you keep getting burned, but you're dumb enough to keep trying it.

Does that hit anybody in here? I know. Here comes that moral superiority.

Oh, not me. Yes, you, dummy. Yes, you. You know, most marriages today are made out of codependent insecurity?

And then here's the funny thing. You got Christian chicks and dudes over here going, well, just God hasn't led me to that person yet.

God, man, y 'all need to stop with the leading stuff. For real. This is kind of like, well, God's going to open a door. Can you get rid of the hyperbole of modern culture colloquialisms and go back to obedience to the

Word of God? And here's another thing for some of you chicks. Some of you, and I'm talking to some of you specifically.

Some of you can't see the man that God has put right in front of your face because you've been used to be treated like crap for so long.

That's the only way you understand love. Look right here. Well, he's not tall enough, or he doesn't have blue eyes, or he's not this.

Can you please, for the love of God, let go of the cares of your world and your own feelings and insecurities so that the gift that God is trying to give you that's standing right in front of you won't pass on and marry some dumb hick?

Okay? We've got a lot of single people here. Tons of them. And it's amazing to me some of you people won't capitalize on the very gift that God has sitting in front of you.

Look. Carissa married Hunter. Look at Hunter.

Really? But she married him. Now they're fixing to have a little baby.

Are you exhausted? Are you hopeless today? Listen to Fox News or CNN or MS...

I don't even want to say those. If you watch MSNBC, number one, you're an idiot.

Number two, you need help. Okay? You really do. But anyways, if you watch the news or listen or look at our world, you're just going to get exhausted.

You just will, man. I mean, seriously, guys. We're living in a day where you are told to follow the science.

And in the same breath, say, we're not really sure we can identify males and females anymore, but let's follow the science.

That's what you're doing. You're taking stupidity and it's going to exhaust you.

Look at this cat. He had everything. He thought he understood everything. He was in control.

And he went off on his own, in rebellion and self -centeredness. And he came to a point in verse 15, he went out and hired himself out to be one of the citizens of that country who sent him in the fields to feed the pigs.

Imagine a Jewish guy feeding pigs. There is not a lower job for a

Jew. There's not a lower job. If you don't get that, go to your nice kosher restaurant and ask for a ham sandwich.

You'll figure it out. You'll figure it out. This guy left where he was and had a place of acceptance and authority and love.

But because of his own need, his own selfishness, he left that and instead became a citizen of that country.

Some of you in this room today claim that Jesus Christ is your Lord of your life.

But you spend more time in the country of this world than you do in the country of Jesus Christ.

You sit there and say, I believe in God, but I can worship God on the lake just like I can worship in this building.

And if worship was the only criterion that God had given you, it would be right.

But you're not here to worship God. You're here to serve God.

And how do you serve God? By serving each other. When's the last time you washed the feet of somebody in this room?

When's the last time you actually did a ministry? You've been so long sitting in a pew looking at smoke machines and lights, you forgot that your very existence will never be meted out by going with what the world or religion says, but by humbling yourself before God, loving

Him and loving each other as you love yourself. You've been too far gone in a foreign country.

You've been too far gone in feeding pigs. You need to come back. And that's what this young man finally gets to.

His self -validation runs out. And if you look at verses 18 -20, he does what some of us in this room today need to do.

You need to turn your eyes home. You need to take your eyes off the world or you're trying to live out a friends or a cheers environment with a bar or a group of friends to find validation.

It's funny. I always loved it. How many of you people my age, we don't have many, but how many people my age, the people that were at your wedding, your groomsmen and your bride chicks, what are they called?

Bridesmaids. How many of y 'all are still best friends to this day? Raise your hand. One. Two.

How many of y 'all, your best friend in high school is still your best friend today? One. Two.

You people that are three years out of high school, that doesn't count. I'm a senior.

Guys. Listen. I promise you this.

The security that you know today is fleeting at best. There is one thing that is only constant.

And that is your relationship with Christ. And I promise you, if you try to find solace in any other thing, though it will be momentary, it will pass and leave you destitute.

Every time. Guys, this guy did the only thing he knew how to do. He turned his eyes back towards home.

And he got to a place where three things this morning, three things, listen, he humbled himself, he repented, and he did it now.

Number one. First, he humbled himself. He got to a place where the reality that sin has kept him longer than he wanted to stay and cost him more than he wanted to pay.

He got to a place where he actually admitted that. And look, he was willing to leave it all behind.

Now, some of you haven't reached that point. And I'm asking you today, don't wait until it has squeezed the life out of you like an old toothpaste tube.

Don't be my age with the scar tissues that some people my age have and are trying to fight not to transfer it onto their children.

Don't wait that long. Leave now. Whatever relationship you have, whether it be chemical, physical, emotional, whatever it is that is taking your eyes off following Christ, leave it today.

Right here and right now. How do I do that? You humble yourself. And humility is not just simply saying,

I'm wrong. Because in the recess of the night, before you go to sleep and you feel that conviction to pray, or some of you the guilt, and then you fall asleep praying, you're sitting there going,

God, I know You're trying to get me... Right? And then days just bleed into weeks that bleed into months and bleed into years.

And the same weak Christian that you were ten years ago, you're still today. I'm asking you, humble yourself and realize that the influences that you're bringing into your life are pulling you down.

And you're eschewing or walking away from those that will bring you up. You've got to leave them now.

That's humility. Number two, repent. Repent. Dear Jesus, I know

I am a sinner. And I invite You now into my heart as my Lord and Savior.

You just keep doing the same thing you're doing. Guys, let me let you in on a secret for a second.

Please. I know that you have been literally brainwashed by churches.

But I'm here to tell you, they're all idiots. And the only thing dumber than churches are pastors.

Listen to me. You cannot... Listen. Acts 19,

God commands us to be saved. You can't make Jesus Christ your

Lord because guess what? He already is. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Your validation of that does not change the fact that it stood since before Genesis 1 -1.

See? You've got to come to a point where repentance is more than feeling a worldly guilt.

Remember, God does not use guilt. He uses conviction. And how do

I know the difference in the two? There will be a change in your life with the conviction of God. Or guess what?

You're going home. God will turn the street lights on you, son. And He will snatch your butt up out of here.

God disciplines those whom He may love. You say, well, I've been a Christian for 40 years. God's never disciplined me.

Let me help you with something. You're going to hell. You are not a Christian no matter how many youth camps or CFE or vacation

Bible school times you prayed that stupid prayer. You are not a Christian. And this is usually when some idiot

Baptist will sit there and go, well, I've had my letter at this church for 32 years. Great.

You and that letter are going to burn in hell. You are going to burn in hell.

And these words that you're hearing right now will echo in your empty soul for eternity because your arrogance would not let you repent.

You don't need reformation in your life. You need regeneration by the

Holy Spirit. You keep trying to clean up the outside and it makes no difference because you have not come to a place where you've repented and let the

Holy Spirit make you alive and new again. It ain't an invitation. I heard someone tell me one time,

God's a gentleman. Will you please stop trying to put the analogy of this world on an infinite sovereign

God? There is... No, people say, well, you know, God's the owner. No, God's God.

He's God. Anything you come up with is going to be insulting. Okay?

You submit. Well, Brother Jeff, what's repentance? I'm going to show you real quick.

This is repentance. You're walking this way. Well, you might not be as gay as me, but you're walking this way.

Okay? Here you go. You're walking and you go, oh, I shouldn't be doing this. I'm sorry.

Dear Lord, forgive me. Because somebody's singing a song and emotionally you make another one of the decisions that ain't going to last and then you just keep doing this.

At no point during that time did you actually repent. You see, repentance is a changing of your mind based upon the conviction of the

Holy Spirit in your heart. And if true repentance happens, your actions will follow your brain.

It will follow your spirit. It will. Well, Pastor, I'm struggling with sin.

No, you're not. You're wallowing in it, feeling convicted of it, and thinking that is conviction.

That's not conviction. That's complacency in your life. If you've ever been in a fight, and I'm not talking about the seventh grade guys.

Oh, screw you, man. Screw you, man. Screw you. That ain't a fight. That's both two guys that are scared who don't want to fight.

I'm talking about a hair -pulling, biting teeth, knocking out, curb -stomping fight.

Until you're doing that, you're not repenting. That's this guy.

And look what he said. He said, and he got up now. Right now.

Today is the day of repentance. Right here, right now.

You keep putting it off, you do it at your own peril. Next thing. The other side of the equation.

Because I'll be honest with you, I think this is most people who are struggling today in this room.

Let's look at the older son. Start in verse 25 again. Now the older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come.

Your father has killed the fatty calf because he has received him back safe and sound.

But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years

I have served you and never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me a young goat.

Back then that was an equivalent of Corvette or something. You never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatty calf for him.

And you said to him, son. Oh, I'll get to that in a second. Here's the moral superiority guy.

The first thing you've got to understand about these kind of people, and if I'm talking about you today, you need to come down here and repent just like the dope -smoking heathens sitting in this room.

The first thing they are is their moral superiority lets them be a little salty.

Come on, man. I worked all day on that. They get a little savage.

They ain't bussing, bussing. You know? Okay, I'm done.

Y 'all just can't handle my freshness. I am so fire.

I'm such an idiot. Do you know how hard you've got to love someone to make a constant idiot of yourself to try to get them to understand

God's Word? Look, verse... Thank you,

Bilbo. Alright, so verse 28. He was angry and refused to go in.

Are you one of those Christians that you care more about the justice of God falling on those who are outwardly and publicly failing than you are the mercy of God?

You preach more about the doctrine of God's justice than you do of the doctrine of God's grace.

Your validation comes not from your own personal relationship with Christ, but how you point out the missteps in others.

You're the older son. He sits there and he refused to go in.

And look at the arrogance. Verse 29. Look at the arrogance of this guy. Look at his statement.

Look, these many years I have served you. Now look at this next line.

I have never disobeyed your command.

Woo! You know what he just said? I'm Jesus Christ. I'm perfect.

I'm not like the rest of these people. You know what we need in America is one more legalistic church.

Just one more. And it needs to be on Houston Levy because for some reason God is calling every church in Memphis to Houston Levy.

Praise Jesus. That white suburban money. Oh! Man, they need Jesus so bad.

Guys, remember this please. For the love of Jesus.

Please remember this. The dope -smoking whore that's sitting in this room and your lying, gossiping tongue are both equally damnable in the sight of God.

Watch this. God tells us seven sins that He hates.

And you know homosexuality didn't make the list. Really? I'm preaching, baby.

I'll hold you in a second. She's saying, Pops, please come get me.

I haven't seen her in six months, so I mean... Listen to me. And some of you say,

Pastor, we've heard you say this a hundred times. Well, you that's saying that in your mind of the person that I'm talking to.

See, your arrogance is showing a little bit. Listen. What God does hate is a gossiping tongue.

It says He abhors it. And it says this, Those who go to seek to make division among the brethren.

I have spent 17 years, guys. 17 years fighting certain folks who are now gone, praise

Jesus. Because all they wanted to do was rule the ruins. All they cared about was their voice being heard.

All they cared about was pointing out the failures of others to elevate their own godlessness and arrogance.

You people don't even know who I'm talking about, most of you. Some of you do. Some of you do. You're sitting in this room free.

There's no one in this room who's going to make fun of you because you're black or Mexicanese or you're redneck white trash.

Well, I'll probably make fun of you, but that's okay. You're sitting in a room and you can be in this room and be admitted to any failure.

And you know what you're going to find in this place? You're going to find love. You're going to find grace.

Now you'll find also a size 12 boot in your butt every once in a while because that's what a church is really for is to hold each other accountable.

Right? You'll find that, but you'll find love here. You know why?

Because we as a church body have fought against the older son mentality.

We have taken the moral superiority that exists in so many congregations and in a loud, grotesque, violent, and bloody way beaten the living snot out of it for years.

So that the person who is struggling with homosexuality comes sitting here and knows that they're loved even in their failures.

So the person who has committed adultery can sit in this room and know the grace of God. It's amazing how we pray for the grace of God to pour out on sinners, yet we don't exemplify it by example.

And then we wonder why our churches in America are dying hundreds a week. It's because we failed.

We have the moral superiority. Look at this. I want you to know today that there is restoration for some of us in this room today when you have tried to be as good as you can be and you still realize good isn't good enough.

Welcome to grace. Welcome to grace. You will never, ever be that good.

You have used rules and laws and legalism and you only feel good with God when you're doing right.

You only feel like God loves you when you're in total obedience. And when you're not, you feel like God has thrown you out like a piece of trash.

Well, I'm here to tell you according to the authority of God's Word that is your feelings and not fact.

God's hand of grace has extended to you and will extend towards you till the day you die.

No matter how many failures you have. No matter how many of you try to get into God's good graces by espousing correct doctrine but in an unloving way showing not the grace of God but the hatred of your own self towards others who are failing.

When you have been struggling with depression because of your secret sins and the only way you think you can fix it is by showing yourself to be more holy than the guy next to you.

That recipe is a recipe for disaster. Jesus is here today offering you the same grace and the same hope that saved you.

It is the same grace that will sustain you through the stupidity of your own pursuits. You've got to come to a place today where you repent of that as the greatest state of your sin rather than your individual failures.

Guys, people don't understand that about repentance. They want to repent for this sin and that instead of repenting for the fact that you are a sinner.

Everything that you have, everything that you touch are filthy menstruation rags in the eyes of God.

Please. Do you know how you find grace and peace? It's through the humility of knowing there is nothing you have that you can offer

God. Nothing. Last thing. Last thing. Shut up, pastor. I want you to look at the similarities of God's response to both of these people.

Number one, they both are still owners. Verse 22, But the father said to his servants,

Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand. Put shoes on his feet.

And bring the fatted calf and kill it. And let us eat and celebrate for this is my son was dead and alive again.

He was lost and now found. And they begin to celebrate. Yet you go to verse 31 and he tells the older son.

He said to him, Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours.

I don't care how much you have failed in your idea of being a child of God.

Guess what? You are still a joint heir with Jesus Christ. When you get to heaven, the same grace that if you had been perfect is the same grace that will greet you in the place when you come and become absent from your body to go and be with the presence of the

Lord. It ain't going to be a lecture from here all the way to heaven's gates. You see, and while you were still sinners,

Christ died for you and your failures, no matter how great they are, even after your salvation cannot outstretch the grace of Almighty God.

They were both still owners of God's benevolence and grace. Understand this, they're both still dealing in their sanctification process.

Whitten, what is sanctification? You sounded like a

Baptist church. I'm getting sad up here. What is sanctification? It is a gradual, continual process of God making you into a resource, making you into a reasonable service.

It's just like if I take my knife and I've got to make a doorstop for that door, I start whittling that wood, making that wedge.

Some of you feel like God's done with you because you feel the sanctification process of God's sandpaper on your life and you feel like God's done with you, when really all it is is

God trying to make you what He wants you to be. Well, pastor, I haven't felt close to God in years.

Aren't you so happy that your salvation and God's acceptance isn't based upon your feelings? Whew! Thank you,

Jesus. Look at this next thing. He's still talking to both of them.

The boy who betrayed Him and the boy who is angry, the

Father still speaks to them both. When's the last time you read

Scripture in earnest waiting for God to speak to you? How's your prayer life?

If you're a moral superiority person, I promise you, your prayer life is dry and your reading the

Bible is only for either academic study or to show off to somebody else.

God is speaking to you still. I promise you that. And the reason you're so dry is because you're looking from these eyes and these ears, rather than what

God is trying to speak to you to hear. Last thing. And this is the most beautiful part.

What's really cool? They both failed miserably. But He still called both of them

His son. Verse 24, For this son was dead, but now he's alive.

Verse 31, And He said to him, Son, you are always with Me. I'm going to ask the music dudes to come up and dudettes.

I know some of you in this room, listen, you've been going to church for a long time and you identify with that moral superiority guy.

Some of you are truly Christians, but you identify with the younger son.

You've gone buckwild. Let me use, I'm sorry, let me talk Baptisty. You're backslidden and you need to rededicate your life to Jesus.

Do me a favor. Do me a favor. You know what's going to help you? Stop trying to rededicate your life.

Because guess what? That is not found anywhere in Scripture. You don't need to rededicate.

You need to repent. See, the very language shows the arrogance of your moral superiority.

You've already repented once when you got saved and asked Jesus into your heart. You don't need to repent again. You need to repent.

Repentance is the only way for you to find the peace that you are. Well, Pastor, Pastor, you don't understand.

People will think this. Really? Are you still in junior high school? For real?

I tell you, one of the most freeing things in my life being raised the way I was raised is

I don't care. I really don't, man. I don't care. People tell me all the time, you don't look like a pastor.

Cool. I'm not trying to do that. I'm not trying on purpose to do that. I just refuse to live by a standard and a culture that keeps sending people into the abyss of hell and into the oblivion of uselessness.

Those are called churches today. Listen to me. Get to a point where you quit caring what everybody else thinks.

Let's think about what God wants for your life today. Well, Pastor, I'd be embarrassed to come down here.

Then you're not ready yet. You ain't ready. Well, do I have to do this publicly? Yeah. Because here's how your strategy has worked for the last 20 years.

I'm going to pray a little prayer. Watch this. Here's your strategy. Hold on to the back of the chair or the back of the pew.

Look up at a screen and in a blank thing, your mouth is wording the words that are up on the screen.

And you go, man, I feel really bad, God. I'm going to do better. And without accountability, how has that worked for you?

It don't. Because, see, God created the church to do this. Where you at, babe? Hey, I'm proud of you getting baptized today.

Good job. It's okay. Don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you. You've got to have accountability.

You've got to have somebody coming up and going, look at these cheeks, they're so cute. You've got to have people encouraging you, but you've got to say, where you at?

You've got to have people walking up to you and going, como estas? Es bien?

Hay bueno? She doesn't understand English. You have to have folks that come up and go, son, men can see you.

Cut your hair, you know? The little man buns. I don't get them. But anyways, please, don't come up here for a show.

Come up here and go, I need help. I need accountability.

Guys, I'm telling you, that is God's plan A. Repentance towards Him and the church, binding your wounds and kicking your butt.

Number two, listen to me. If you're in this room today and you're either one of those two people, you need to be up here getting help.

And here's what's really cool. We're all in the same stinking boat, man. You ain't special, loser.

You're just a loser like the rest of us. I'm just as big a loser as you are. You're just as big a loser as I am.

I just have a little bit more redemption because I cheer for UT. That's it. Rocky top, baby.

Number two, listen. Well, it's number two again. Listen, if you're not a

Christian, listen, if you're not a Christian, nothing changed when you prayed that prayer.

No matter how good you feel to your mama stroking your little head or they gave you a little party or an Easter basket when you got baptized, you're not a

Christian. Wrap your freaking head around that. Okay? You're not a

Christian. If you continue to live in sin and there's no conviction in your life, you are not a

Christian. Pastor, how can you say that? First John 1 -9. The whole

Gospels. Any man who claims to know the truth yet continues to walk in darkness, he is a liar.

Say it again. Liar. That ain't my words. That ain't Baptist words. That's the word of God. And some of y 'all are going to be

Matthew chapter 7 who show up at the gates and God sits there and goes, who are you?

Oh, don't you remember me, God? I'm the one who worked every VBS. I'm the one who stuffed those sacks that Michelle handed out to all the kids all day long.

I worked for Pastor Jeff, surely. That should merit me a place in heaven.

Carrie's looking for a job. What's Jesus say?

Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. What did it say? For I never knew you.

You might know your Bible, you might know your religion, but you don't know

Jesus Christ. Come today and be saved. If you're not a member of a church, and I know some of y 'all are visiting today and you're like,

God, this is just too over the top for me. You're the person that needs to join. You're it.

You're the one I'm talking to today. How many more Sundays are you gonna sit at home, drink beer, and watch football games, living in the deniability that your failures in life, at some point, time's just gonna take care of it?

Let me tell you something about sin. Time does not erase sin. The blood of Jesus does.

How much longer are you gonna stay there? Come now. Join a church.

I don't want your stupid money. I don't want your stupid membership letter. I don't give a crap about that.

What I do care about is how you can get to a place of sanctification that can plug you in and work you like a

Hebrew slave so that I can sit in my office in the air -conditioned and do nothing. I haven't got there in 17 years, but I'm trying.

We need help here. Guys, and then this. Maybe you just need to pray with someone for somebody else.

This altar's here for you. For those of you that are good with everything. Oh, this was just a good

Mother's Day sermon. Thank you, Pastor Jeff. I'm gonna go eat my ham and roast and open my gifts or whatever.

You're perfect in every freaking way. Y 'all are catching the sarcasm, right? Okay, just checking. Yeah, I was laying it on kind of thick.

I want you to do something maybe you've never done before. I want you to sit there and look at something.

Hunter, do you need any help singing? No, he's good, y 'all. He don't need help singing.

So here's what you can do. Get your apathetic, lazy butt moving and find someone in here who needs some ministry and minister to them.

Well, Pastor, I don't know how to do that. Yeah, you do. Quit relying on your fears and insecurities and just let go and let

God. Man, just sit there and go, I've got to do what the fat, bald God wants me to do and what

God's telling me. Can I pray for you about something? Can I just give you a hug?

Can I minister? I'm gonna ask you to stand with me today. And if God has spoken to you, pastors, chicks, y 'all come up front.

If God has spoken to you in any way today, stop living in rebellion and submit.