LBC Annual Bible Conference 2024 Session 3

Start flicking the lights or something back there. Start at the back and just keep walking forward.

I know, especially this group. Well, the

Lord has certainly whetted my appetite with the Word of God these last two sessions. And Peter's going to come and bring the

Word of God to us in this session. Just want to, just for some of you who don't know, you know, we get so used to everybody knowing what's going on.

We take an offering during our Bible conference just to help defray the cost of the conference, so it's no big deal.

But that's why we take the offering. And maybe all of you knew that.

Maybe most of you knew that. Maybe only some of you knew that, but now all of you know it, so that's why we do that.

I know that many years ago, many years ago in the talk in the town, there was a big worship service that was planned, and we were like kind of saying, well, we don't know if we can do that.

And one of the rumors that started in the town was the reason why they don't want to do it is because Baptists always want money, and we weren't going to take an offering.

So we're not that way, really. All right, well,

Peter, come and minister the Word of God. We're thankful to the Lord for you, and again, thank you for being faithful to the

Word. Well, thank you,

Tim. And I just want to share something

I'm thankful for is, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, are pickles.

So there's something about this place and your pickles that are above, well above average.

And so is that just like a, is that a LaRue thing, or no, if I just, like, your wife You, gotcha.

They're excellent. Those are fried pickles that I had? They're, yeah, they're on point.

And is it only, oh, you have sour pickles there too, right? The spears are sour? Yeah, I could,

I can put away some pickles. I'm always more of a salty guy, like I'm not a sugar guy.

Appetite, I can give up dessert, doesn't matter to me. You give me something with salt and vinegar, ooh, that is good.

I'm just glad that we're recording this. Because imagine missing out on this, like how your soul would be hurt.

Luke 15, Luke chapter 15,

I'd like to, as we start out, we're going to be focusing on 17 through 24, but I think

I'm going to read from verse 11, recapping what we covered just in the last session and also looking at what we're going to be looking at in this section.

So Luke 15, beginning in verse 11, if you are physically able, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God's holy word?

Follow along silently as I read aloud, beginning in verse 11 of Luke chapter 15. This is what the word of God says.

And he, Jesus, said, there was a man who had 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 his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country.

And there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose 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 into the fields 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 and go to my father, and I 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 while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate.

For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate.

This is the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, we are grateful to be back together, gathered together again as the family of God and grateful for your word.

Would you add your blessing to the reading and the preaching of your word for your glory and for our good?

We pray in Jesus name, amen. Please be seated. And so just to recap, last night we looked at how to interpret parables and how not to interpret parables.

More importantly, we ended the night understanding that our best approach to scripture should be one that enables me to remove logs from my own eyes before I think myself able to remove specks from others.

I'm told there has been an illustration of that point drawn by a young child, which I can't wait to see.

I'm told it's me with a telephone pole coming out of my eye. I'm pumped. I want to see how this was like in his mind.

I'm really looking forward to that. But that's the time that we spent yesterday, how to best interpret parables, how not to interpret parables, and then to let's make sure that we're coming to scripture and living really the whole of life, coming to scripture and looking to first be changed, be formed, be shaped by it.

I struggled whether to do Matthew 7 or James chapter one and making that point, but let's just for kicks and giggles, keep your finger in Luke 15.

And would you go over to the book of James chapter one, James one, let's look at verse 22.

And so here, James, the brother of our Lord says this in James one, beginning in verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forget what he looks like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

And so here, God likens the word, the law of God's words, anyone who's a hearer of the word and not a doer is like a person who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

And depending on where you're at in your season of life probably depends on what your experience is like as you look in the mirror.

I remember when I was younger, I would just look just to kind of like real fast as I'm leaving, like make sure

I don't look like there's not something out of place, there's not hair out of place. I actually used to have to check if there was a hair out of place,

I rarely do that now. And looking at a mirror was just to kind of like, it was kind of like something you just did.

But now as you age, you look at a mirror kind of for damage assessment, right? Like when you get up in the morning, you're like,

OK, let's see how last night went, not well. And I've also noticed that when we take, lately when

Sarah and I, we're going to take a selfie with each other, I'm like, hey, hey, come here, let's take a picture.

And we're like, oh, gosh, let's hear it. Let's turn. That's got us at a weird angle.

Let's go this way. And we do it like three times. And we're like, hey, it is what it is. This is it. This is just a losing battle with time and gravity.

And we are who we are by the grace of God. And so looking at oneself in a mirror here, it's a great it's a great illustration that James James says the person who's a hero of God's work, but not a doer.

It's like someone who looks at themself in a mirror and goes, oh, gosh, and does nothing about it. Right.

They are aware of how they look. They're aware that something's out of place. They're aware that adjustments need to be made and those adjustments can be slight or they can require a major, whatever,

I don't know, Agent Orange, black flag or whatever chemicals and stuff that people use on their faces and hair and all this other stuff.

I'm not really I'm not familiar with it. But if you look at yourself in the mirror and do nothing about it, that is the person who looks into the word of God and is a hero of the word and not a doer.

Why do you look at yourself in a mirror if you're not going to make an adjustment? Why even look at God's word if it's not if you're not doing so with the objective to change, to grow, to make adjustments?

And so similarly to the point that we made last night with Matthew seven, why look to God's word if we're not going to first seek to remove the logs from our own eyes before we go around and remove the specks from others?

And so that is a an approach that we would all do well to take as we look to God's word together.

Then closely related to that fact is that what we looked at just before that we need to understand that we're in the best position to apply the parable of the prodigal son if we see ourselves first and foremost as the prodigal, as the prodigal.

All we like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way. There's not one of us that was only a little lost versus the people out there who are a lot lost.

There's no such thing as lost. We're born with a sinful nature and so we'll make sinful choices.

We're held out and we're held deserving. But God, who is rich in mercy, sets his mercy upon us and grants us faith and trust in him.

And we then respond of our own volition because God has changed what we want. It's always important, particularly for people who embrace a reformed soteriology, for people who say that those of us who are embracing the doctrines of grace and excited about that, that we are not robots.

We always do what we want. It's just that God has changed what I want. Amen. That God has changed my wanter.

So nobody gets dragged into the kingdom of heaven kicking and screaming. There's nobody who's like, I just want to walk with the world, but instead

I love Christ. That's that's not how people relate to that. God has literally changed what we want. He's literally changed what we want.

He's changed what gives us joy. He's changed what we want to pursue. We always do what we want and God has changed what we want.

He's given us a new heart. He's given us a new mind. And so we are good when we are.

We it is good for us to see ourselves as the prodigal first and foremost. It is good for us to make sure that as we read through scripture, that we see ourselves as the one who has received grace and mercy.

Probably another example is I'm getting a little old, but I want to share it with John chapter eight, when we're looking at Jesus, who is the

Jesus who is confronted with the situation with the adulterous woman, which is another situation where John, where Jesus tried to be, they're trying to trick him.

And oftentimes, you know, we know the way that that account ends. Jesus says, he among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.

And we're thinking to ourselves like, wow, would we that's true. We should always remember that none of us are without sin.

It's true. But we should also remember that we're all the adulterous woman. Right, we're all deserving of death, we're all deserving of justice, we're all deserving of punishment, and we've all received mercy.

That Jesus granted her as well. And so I would encourage you to look as you look throughout scripture to always look at the person who's receiving mercy, who's the one who deserves it the least.

The one who gives the wow factor that we can't believe that that person was what we can't believe Lazarus was raised from the dead.

We can't believe that the paralytic was healed. And don't look at yourself and say, would I believe if I was in the crowd, but look at yourself and say,

I was once dead and I have been made alive. Because that's the way for us to humbly approach the word of God.

And so similarly, coming back to our text today, we are reminded that the prodigal son is symbolic of us.

Let's ask ourselves this question. If the Pharisees who are hearing this story, the

Pharisees and the scribes that we read about in the beginning of Luke 15, they're listening. Question, what do the

Pharisees hope happened next in the story? Okay. So where we left off was that this prodigal son said to himself, self,

I'm going to go home and I'm going to tell my father I've sinned against him. And I asked him to hire me as one of his servants, which is essentially him saying, this is the best case scenario that I could be, that I could hope for, that I would perhaps be treated in a way that I would not be stoned to death or I would not be,

I would not be judged. If you would take a look at Deuteronomy 28, keep your finger in Matthew, not

Matthew, Luke 15 and look at Deuteronomy 28. Look specifically at verse 15, says this, but if you will not obey the voice of the

Lord, your God, or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today.

Then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city and curse shall you be in the field.

Curse shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Curse shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground.

The increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out.

The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and frustration and all that you undertake to do.

Until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me.

The Lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

I lost count of how many times I said cursed in that short reading. So this, the

Pharisees know the word of God. The Pharisees would think that this is the result of, that the result of sinning, the result of rebellion would be curse.

That he would be cursed by God and how that would play out in his life would be, we'd have to see how that comes in the days and the weeks and the months and the years ahead.

And so the best case scenario that could happen like, okay, well what's going to probably happen at the end of this story? The Pharisees would think the younger son would be allowed to live as a pariah of sorts on the outskirts of his father's land, trying in futility to repay his father for the rest of his life.

That would be a best case scenario. Best case because it doesn't involve stones hitting his skull.

So that's the best case scenario is that he would get to come back and be hired, which is essentially what he is hoping for, to be hired as somebody who would work on the outside of his land and live as a pariah.

Another possibility would be that the younger son would have to sit outside the city gate in public view for several days in shame.

And so where he would be spat upon, where he would likely be derided, where he would sit out in shame outside the city for what he had done.

This would be a way of him being punished and also a way of the father's honor being upheld.

So the father would basically be saying, okay, well, since he has done this, I should do this for both his sake and my sake.

Another possibility is what we find in, if you're in Deuteronomy already, you can just go to Deuteronomy 21 and verse 21.

Deuteronomy 21, we can actually start in verse 18. 21 and verse 18 says, if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the city at the gate or the place of the place where he lives.

And they shall say to the elders of the city, this, our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice.

He is a glutton and a drunkard. Verse 21 says, then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones.

So you shall purge the evil from your midst and all Israel shall hear and fear.

So that would be another perfectly legitimate response to what the younger brother did.

This son did would be that he would be stoned to death because of his rebellion.

Verse 20 of Luke 15, let's go back to our text today, which shows what the younger father, younger brother, excuse me, did.

So verse 20 says, and he arose and came to his father.

Now let's just remind ourselves where he has been. He has been off in a far country, both literally and metaphorically speaking.

He has squandered. We don't know this yet, but we know the end. He has, he has spent his money in all sorts of reckless living, which we know is including, but is not limited to sexual exploits.

And so he's been with prostitutes. He then moved from there to the outer parts, probably of the city where there is farmland, and then hired himself to this man to feed the pigs.

And so he's been wallowing with pigs. And then he says, I know what I will do.

It says, the Bible says he came to himself. Literally, he came to his senses and he said, I think I'll go home and talk to my dad.

Nowhere in that text is, I should probably shower first. Nowhere in that text is, will

I pass a target, right? So he is looking and feeling and smelling like he has been doing all of those things.

And so verse 20 says, when he arose and came to his father, understand that he looks completely disheveled.

The understand he smells like all sorts of fecal matter and disgusting food and everything that he would have filled up on him that he would have been surrounded by and involved with.

He smells like how he's been living. And he arose and came to his father.

And then we still, we see this comment here in verse 20, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.

His father saw him. That's an important part of the text to focus on because it's not just like me standing from here.

I can see somebody walk by if they're walking down the hallway. I can look over here at this section and in my periphery,

I can't see who, but if somebody were to walk by, I could see them walk by. Does that make sense? Like he would just get my attention and they'll probably pass before I can look to see who they are.

But I wouldn't be able to see who it was. It's interesting that Jesus specifically says, while he was still a long way off.

Like if you took out that portion of that sentence, that sentence still makes sense. If he said, and he arose and came to his father, his father saw him and felt compassion.

That would have been a legitimate way to write this account. But Jesus specifically says, while he was still a long way off.

And you can't see somebody far away by accident. And so his father was looking for him.

His father had his eyes fixed towards the horizon. His father was looking for his son.

He didn't see him by accident, just happened to catch his attention. His father was looking.

I don't know if that means that his father would have been at the top of his house looking. I don't know if he would have been standing outside looking. I don't know if while he's doing whatever he's doing in life, he just happens to look up and think of his son and get back to what he was doing.

But the bottom line is the father was looking for the son because he saw him while he was a long way off.

And the fact that he saw him and then we're told, what else in verse 20? While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion.

He saw him and felt compassion. That's the Greek word that is Splagnitsumai.

Splagnitsumai, meaning he literally felt it in his gut. In his gut.

We make a lot of talk of the seat of the emotions being the heart, right? Oh, my heart was broken or all this other stuff.

But if you think about it, when somebody walks into a room that you find attractive and you notice you have butterflies in your what?

Stomach, right? When you're stressed out, you have a knot in your stomach. And so we don't speak like that.

But the Israelites and the Greeks, that made sense. It can still make sense to us.

I've tried to tell Sarah that when I see her, my bowels move. But she just thought that doesn't flatter her at all.

It's not the effect I thought it would have. But here, Splagnitsumai means he was moved with compassion.

Moved with compassion. Not like, oh, wow, what's up with him? He looks like he needs help. It's this, oh, this gut punch of seeing somebody and just being like, oh, my gosh.

I don't know if you've ever been in a situation like that. I don't know that I've ever been in a situation like that, where I just saw something that was so outrageous.

So, so horrible that I was just, oh, just moved that I had to do something.

That's what's happening here. His father saw him while he was still a long way off. And felt compassion.

And what was he moved to do? It says his father saw him and felt compassion. And ran.

And ran. Didn't run from him. But ran to him.

The first thing that he was moved to do was to not just see his son, but to see his son quickly.

And when he realized, he goes, that's him. He could not help but run and go and make himself like, he couldn't get there fast enough.

He couldn't get there soon enough. No doubt he wanted to get there before other people could get there. Because other people had a good idea of what they wanted to do to him.

And so he is running because he had compassion. He's running because what he was looking for, he had seen.

But there's something else. There's two aspects of the running that I think is so key to understand.

And that is this. That Arab men don't run. Arab men don't run.

That's not what people do who live over in the middle. They don't run. They don't run.

They don't go out for jobs. They don't run. It's not, it's thought of as a shameful thing to run.

In fact, there are Arabic versions of this parable that omit the fact that the father ran.

It's wrong to do that. They're adjusting. But they're like, surely this isn't, surely this isn't happening.

So let me read to you a quote. Not really a big quote, guys. This is kind of long. Try to follow along. But it says this.

The reluctance on the part of the Arabic versions to let the father run is amazing. For a thousand years, a wide range of such races were employed, almost as if there was a conspiracy, to avoid the humiliating truth of the text that the father ran.

The explanation for all of this is simple. The tradition identified the father with God, and running in public is too humiliating to attribute to a person who symbolizes

God. Not until 1860 does the father appear running in Arabic.

1860. The worksheets of the translators are available.

Even in the great version of the first rendition of the Greek was he hurried. So it's not like they're saying he walked, like they're not lying.

But just, let's not say, can we not say road? Can we say speed walked? Can we say he was in a rush? But not he ran.

Like, let's just get that idea across in a different way. And only in the second round of the translation process does the word mean, that was the word he ran, appear.

The Hebrew of Proverbs 19 and verse 2 reads, he that hastens with his feet sins.

That's a paraphrase. The father represents God. How could he run? And so running was not something people of any nobility or any notoriety did.

They'll get there when they get there. I'm on my way. They saunter.

They walk with great ease. And they're not in a rush.

They're not going to run. The fact that the father ran is mind -boggling.

Because Arab men don't run. People who lived in that section of the world at that time in that culture don't run.

Let me add to it something else. If he ran in what he was wearing, the

Bible doesn't say what he was wearing, but I can, like, he's for sure not wearing joggers, right? So if he ran in what he was wearing, which is likely a robe of some sort, he would have to lift up his robe.

Or he'd trip over himself. Like, you can't take big strides if you're hitting a rope. So he'd have to lift up his robe, which would expose his legs.

I don't know if you ever noticed him, but when we're in al -Baytia, which is, they were under the

Ottoman Empire for so long, men don't wear shorts. Men don't wear shorts.

They wear pants. They wear breathable pants in the summertime. But men, boys, little boys wear shorts.

But the men don't wear shorts. To show your legs is shameful.

So I, like, I didn't get that email. And so I'm an Albanian, and it's really hot, and I've got several pairs of shorts.

And it's fine, like, because I'm obviously not Albanian, but I stood out. I was, I'm walking around, and I don't feel really,

I didn't feel really weird. Like, there's several days that I'm like, wow, no, like, I don't see many people wearing shorts.

And I was like, that's incorrect. I don't see any people wearing shorts. Many implies there's someone. I literally see zero.

They don't wear shorts. It's customary in Middle Eastern culture to not show your legs.

And so this is why I think the father, some people say the father represents

God, the pursuing love of God. I couldn't agree more, but I would get more specific and say this, the father represents

Jesus, God, the son. Because Jesus took on and died as a son.

Took on my shame, right? We don't see God, the father, God, the Holy Spirit taking on shame, but God, the son,

Jesus Christ took on the shame, took on the reproach to show me compassion.

He died on the cross as if he were a criminal. He died a horrible, horrible death that was the shame of all of society at that time.

And so I think, and it might be, you know, people sometimes say potato, potato. I'm gonna say potato, potato.

There's God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy Spirit. I think the father represents Jesus because the pursuing love that he has is also mixed in with this element of shame, of reproach.

All in that he ran. His father saw him when he was a long way off.

Oh, instantly felt compassion. But the compassion didn't mean that he was disgusted with him.

The compassion didn't say, oh, wow, he's never gonna be able to get his life together. It drove him to run. He didn't care what other people thought.

He didn't care how he would have been talked about. He saw his son that he was looking for and he ran.

And then verse 20 says, he ran and what? Embraced him and kissed him.

Technically speaking, somebody could see him run to the son and think he's fighting bad.

He's gonna deck him. He's gonna like get there and just follow him with the, like, he is gonna just take him out.

He's that angry. That would have made sense. And so you can see him running like, wow, that's a little weird that he's running, but I bet he's that ticked off.

But that's not what he does. He attacks him with love. He embraces him. He kisses him.

In some traditions, in order for the son to regain even just the respect of the father, the son would get on his knees and would have his face touch the ground and would kiss the feet of his father.

This is the opposite where the father is running to the son in all his squalor, in all his smell.

And he is embracing him. He is kissing him. In my mind, I can't even see the son hugging back.

And I think the son's just like shocked. Like, I'm alive. He didn't take me out. Just kind of like, okay, wow, this is, okay.

Just shocked that his father is treating him with this love and this compassion. He embraced him and he kissed him.

It shows the uninhibited, shameless love that the father had for his son.

The title of the sermon is Lost, Found, Parted. That's the common theme you see in Luke 15.

Someone who loses a sheep, the sheep is lost. Diligently looks for the sheep, the sheep is found. And then what does he say?

Rejoice with me. I found my sheep. I had a hundred sheep. I had a hundred sheep. I'm now back to having a hundred sheep.

Every sheep matters. 99 is not enough. Lost, found, parted. A woman who loses a coin and can't find it.

That's a valuable piece for her. She looks around for it. She's worried. She's scared. It's lost. She finds it. She tells her friends, rejoice with me.

I found my coin. Lost, found, parted. And finally, in the parable of the prodigal son, where Luke dedicates the most of his ink, where there's the most amount of detail, we see one who is lost, just like you and me.

We see one who is found by the grace of God, just like you and me. And we see somebody who is worth celebrating, just like you and me.

Point number one. Nobody is too far for Christ to see, to reach, and to save.

I emphasized pretty strongly yesterday and today the importance of seeing ourselves in the story.

I'm not chucking that aside. Having seen ourselves in the story, if we are believers, we do well to be reminded that nobody is too far for Christ to see, and to reach, and to save.

Again, verse 20 says, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.

Nobody's too far for Christ to see, to reach, and to save. My dad, it's part of my testimony that I'll share tomorrow, but my parents are divorced.

My dad is a self -proclaimed atheist. God saved my mom, and God used her greatly in our life to preach the gospel to us.

And God, in his kindness and his mercy, saved myself and my sister. My dad has remarried, and my dad is, he's an atheist.

He's an okay guy. You'd probably get along with him, but he is an atheist.

And I believe that the Lord saved me in 1989. My dad has never been interested really in the gospel.

He likes what I do. He's kind to me. He's proud of me. He thinks I'm a do -gooder.

You know, like, look at him, all the good he does. When I was a youth pastor, it was like, look at him. He loves the kids.

He doesn't make a connection between what we do and Christ. Does that make sense? It's just like, oh, he really serves kids.

That's kind, but he doesn't get it. He doesn't get it. I've shared the gospel with him on a number of occasions, but I've been,

I believe I've been a Christian since 1989. Today is Saturday, March 23rd, 2024.

So that's 35 years. It's not trending well.

It doesn't seem to be moving in a positive direction. And so to my shame,

I want to let you know that I pray for him less now because I'm pretty sure it's just not going to happen.

And so it's kind of falling off my radar. Does that make sense? I'm not saying do you agree with that, but do you understand what

I'm saying? Because I start to think like,

I mean, surely if God's going to save him, he would have done that by now.

He's not getting any younger. But surely if God was going to use me to be a witness to him, he would have done it by now.

Do you ask me if God could save him? There's a right answer to that question, right? There's a right answer.

I will give you the right answer. A thousand percent. Yes, God, God, with God, nothing is impossible. Yes, God could save him.

If you corner me and say, do you think God will? I become a functional atheist.

And I'm like, I start to think of odds. I mean, odds are probably not.

Who have you given up on? Who has not come to Christ and has not shown an ounce of interest in Christ?

And so you have talked yourself into, I don't need to, even maybe it's self -preservation, right?

If I expect him not to save him, I won't be upset when he doesn't, which is ridiculous because cynicism makes a terrible insulator against disappointment.

But who have you given up on? Who did you once pray that the Lord would save? Who do you even still pray for the

Lord would save? But you do it in kind of a rote way. And if really push comes to shove, you're like,

I know God could save him. But you want to know, I really think he probably won't.

The text reminds us nobody's too far for Christ to see, to reach, and to save.

Romans 1, 16, Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. Do you know why? For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

It is the power. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

It's not just like, it's this option, bro. And if they choose it, it's gonna be great. There's power in the gospel.

God saves people. God saves sinners. God breathes life into dead hearts.

God replaces hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. Nobody is too far for Christ to see, to reach, and to save.

The gospel has not changed. God's power has not changed. It is the power and always will be the power of God to salvation for those who believe.

Who are you tempted to believe is too far away from the Lord to be saved? You know on paper, that's not the right answer if you're on a test.

But in your heart, you're like, not holding my breath.

I think we need to remind ourselves that even if they're far beyond our reach, they're not beyond God's.

I think we need to remind ourselves that his arm is never too short. I think we need to remind ourselves that God saves people through a bunch of different means.

And even if things happen in different ways and you're like, they're so far, God's like, yeah, I'm not worried, bro.

Like I could still do it. Yeah, but look at who they're with. Yeah, but look at the group they run with. Yeah, but look at what they kind of believe.

One thing God has never said ever is like, wow, this is really something. He's never wrung his hands.

He's never paced. He's never been like, what are we gonna do? I love saving people, but this is like Tom.

Do you see Tom? He's never, things

God has never said. Wow, hmm, huh, that's really something. What are we gonna do?

Said God, never. God's response to your prayer request for your person, for somebody to be saved is always this.

This is not hard for me. This is not hard for me. I can do that.

And we don't know God's will. We don't know what God is. We know God's revealed will, but we don't know God's will for every single day of our lives.

And certainly the rear view mirror is clearer than the windshield, even though it's small and looks wonky. We can look back and see, oh, look what

God has done. This is what God has done. We know what his will was for our life. We can see what has happened in my life.

I know how he's acted in prominence, but God never think that God is like, wow, that's really your dad,

Pete? I know, he's kind of a tough one. He's like, he really is. Really doesn't believe in me.

He's very, very fiercely logical. And so it's like, yeah, I don't know if you can teach somebody like that logical, if you can understand faith.

Because at the end of the day, I do believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead because the Bible tells me so. This is not hard for me,

God says. This is not hard for me. I can save her. I can bring him back.

I can reach him there. I can use other means outside of you. You're not, sometimes we think they're not around any other

Christians. And God's like, wow, you're right. That's really difficult for me, said the creator of the universe, right?

Like, he's not worried. God can reach them.

God can reach them. I have a family member who is made just a bunch of foolish choices and did everything essentially wrong, not just by God's standards, but by the world's standards.

Like, I could hook up with an atheist and say, look at this one. And be like, yeah, that's pretty dumb. Like, you don't have to have the

Bible to say what this, like this and this and this. Like, that's not good. And so they were cohabitating with their friend at the time, boyfriend, girlfriend at the time.

And decided that they were going to move to a far off country, not a far off country, but a far off place, away from all family.

And just that that's where they were gonna live. And then their relationship was such that they ended up breaking up.

And the family member of mine, they were dating, they were gonna go and move out to another place.

And then they decided not to do that for a bunch of different reasons. And then the family member of mine decided to still go out and move there.

So they're like, I'm still kind of excited about that. Now, understand that the family member that I'm speaking to you about has been in multiple psych wards.

You can have a conversation with them today and it can go super well. And then you can get a phone call from my dad the next day and be like, pray for them there.

They ended up checking themselves in. They were suicidal yesterday. They're on all sorts of meds and all that. Now they're gonna do that and they're gonna remove themselves from any sort of like family or friends.

They're gonna start over in Hee Haw, somewhere way far away from all of their cousins and parents and anybody who could come to their aid.

They know nobody. They just got a job out there. And so they're gonna move there. And so that's what they did.

And it did not go well. It went like as bad as we thought it was going to go. And again, there are no

Christians that I know. None of them that I know. You assume this, but I should probably clear this up.

I don't know every Christian. That might've, just FYI, I don't know every

Christian. God convicted me and reminded me that I don't know every Christian. I'm like, there's not any

Christians. How is she gonna get saved? And God's like, oh, I don't know. Well, lo and behold, she ends up working with a

Christian. In one of her many episodes at some mental hospital, this coworker visits her.

And starts talking to her. And just builds a friendship with her. She gets out of the psych ward for however long, short she was out of the psych ward.

And she's invited to go to church with her. And this relative of mine's like, yeah, sure.

Sounds fun. You seem nice. We'll go to church. And so she intends this Bible study that she goes to every single week.

I get a phone call from this family member of mine. They're starting to ask me questions about the

Bible. And so I'm wondering. So, and I'll just be very honest with you. I'm like, she's losing it here.

Like, that's what I thought. That's what I thought. I was like, oh, instead of being like happy that she asked a question about the Bible. I'm like, she'll be locked up.

This is it. She's, this is a precursor to something's going wrong. But asking questions about the

Bible and I'm answering them. And we stay on the phone for 10 minutes. We stay on the phone for 20 minutes next time. 23 minutes next time.

37 minutes next time. 45 minutes next time. And then she sent me a text saying that she really believes, she thinks she's saved.

She thinks she's saved. She's heard about what it means to be saved and what it means to believe in Jesus.

And she thinks she has like this love for God. That's really hard to understand. But she's seen her own sin and understands what

Jesus did for sinners. And believes that the Lord has saved her. And so I'm like, wow.

That's, that's really, really great. That's really, really great. I'm so glad.

I believe, here, see if you can catch what I'm saying. I'm so glad. I believe that you believe that you believe that.

I'm really bummed that you, and I'm just a skeptic and a cynic. And of course, I'm not saying that to her.

I'm saying thank you for sharing that. And then when I hang up the phone, I tell my wife about how skeptical

I am because that seems like the most God -honoring thing to do at the time. God saved her.

She was baptized. She's still part of the church. She's still working out different things in her life because there's a lot to work out.

I'm telling you right now, if she dies, she's going to heaven. God saved her. This is being recorded?

It is being recorded. I couldn't be less thrilled with the church she's going to. Can I just say that? I'm like, it's not doctrinally sound.

I'm kind of hoping she asks me about some of the things that they believe because I would love to say, I'm glad you asked.

Here's a list of other churches I would like you to go to. Like anyone, throw a rock, go to a church. Try to mess this up.

It's a rough church. God's using it in her life. Used it in her life to preach the gospel to her.

Used it to save her. Used it to, that was the means by which God used to take out her heart of stone and give her a heart of flesh.

But I'm telling you, Mike, this is against all odds. This makes no sense at all. This shouldn't have worked.

It doesn't make sense. She's away from everybody. She knew that, like, it makes no sense. And I'm like, wow.

And God's like, just another day of me being gone. I saved people.

It's what I do. Nobody's too far for Christ to see, to reach and to save.

Who are you tempted to believe might be outside of the realm of possibility of being saved by God's sovereign grace?

You know what? Can we just pause for a minute? Can we close our eyes?

Just for a moment, if you would. Would you picture the person that you've either given up on intentionally, you're done thinking that you would hope they get saved or you just realized, oh, wow,

I've forgotten about, it's been a while since I prayed for them. It's been a while since I invited them.

Would you now ask God to restore hope?

In your mind, in your heart, would you confess your unbelief to Him or your forgetfulness to Him?

And whatever shortcoming it is that you need to confess, would you just ask for God's mercy and do so boldly, by boldly approaching the throne of grace, knowing that He will give you the help that you need in this your time of need,

Hebrews 4. But would you pray for God to work in that person's life, even now,

Lord, would you, even in a tangible, bizarre way, would you cause these people, everyone that we are thinking of right now, would they just be aware of you?

Would they, would they randomly just think, that's weird, I never think about God. Why did God just cross my mind?

Would you cause them to just be a little stunned, a little like, huh, and Lord, for your glory and for their good, would you draw them to yourself?

Would you save souls? We pray, amen. Nobody's too far for Christ to see, to reach and to save.

Point number two, you're never more like Jesus than when you're excited for people to receive mercy.

That's what we see throughout Luke 15, right? Beginning in verse seven, Jesus says, just so I tell you, when he finds a lost sheep, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

God loves the turnaround. God loves, the story that I just told you, he loves, he loves the wow factor.

He loves the wow factor because it makes him look great. He is appropriately self -centered.

He is focused on himself and his glory. He loves, just like for you to worship anyone else other than God would be to worship an idol.

To worship anything else other than God would be to worship an idol. Guess what? For God to focus on anything else other than God, he would also be worshiping an idol.

So God is most appropriately focused for his glory and for our good.

He loves shock value. He loves, wow, saved him. Wow, that person's completely self -righteous, was brought up in a home where they would just think like, we're good, we never miss a

Sunday. We never miss a Wednesday. We never miss a Bible meeting. We never miss a Bible study. Wow, that person said, but I need

Jesus. He loves saving people in a wow way. And you're never more like Jesus than when you're excited for people to receive mercy.

Matthew 9, verses 12 and following, Jesus says, it says, but when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a position, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means.

I desire what? Mercy and not sacrifice. Micah 6,

Micah 6 in verse 8. It's such a popular verse. He has shown you, O man, what is good and what does the

Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your

God. That's a key part of the Old Testament scriptures. It's an imaginary conversation between the

Lord and Israel. And in the first five verses of Micah 6, the Lord introduces his case against the disobedient people of Israel.

And then verses 6 and 7 record Israel's response with a series of questions saying, well, with what shall

I come to the Lord? Should I bring you our firstborn? Should I bring, it's this very, it's this kind of like whiny, like, oh, well, what should we bring?

Should we bring you everything we have? And then in verse 8, even though Israel is focused on their external religious rights, in verse 8, the answer is, he has shown you,

O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your

God. Their focus is on their external religious rights and their question shows this progression of from lesser to greater.

Would God be satisfied with burnt offerings, offerings required in the law of Moses? Should they bring thousands of rams?

Should they offer their firstborn? What would be enough to cover their sin? In verse 8, with God's answer rooted in the law of Moses, he has told you what is good.

In other words, Israel should already have known the answer to their questions, but I find it interesting of how it's worded.

Do justly, love mercy. Here we have justice and mercy, two things that are good and right in the sight of God.

Yet God tells us to only love one another. Does that make sense?

God wants us to live with a sense of right and wrong and to do what is just. Do justly would have been understood by Micah's audience as live with a sense of right and wrong according to God's word.

In particular, the judicial courts had a responsibility to provide equity and protect the innocent. Injustice was a problem, just like it is in our day and age.

Do justly, but friends, listen, love mercy. Do justly, yes, but love mercy.

Love mercy means loyal love or loving kindness, the Hebrew word has said.

Along with justice, Israel was to provide mercy. Both justice and mercy are their foundations to God's character, expecting his people to show love to their fellow man and to be loyal in their love toward him just as he had been loyal to them.

Paul in verse 71, verses 12 and following says, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our

Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent opponent, here we go, but I received what, mercy, because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our

Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom

I am the foremost. Here it is again, but I received mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost,

Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life.

Do justly, love mercy. And when we do what is right and love the mercy of God, we are more prone to humbly walk with God and others.

Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. You're never more like Jesus than when you are excited for people to receive mercy.

Finally, point number three. Oh, I skipped a lot, sorry.

Point number three, God gives mercy and grace to all who trust in him.

But the mercy of God is shown in the fact that we're not treated as our sins deserve. He, Psalm 103 verse 10 says, he does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards him, towards those who fear him.

As far as the East is from the West, they never meet. So far does he remove our transgressions from us.

And the mercy of God, we're not receiving what we deserve, but it's the grace of God that we're welcomed and called and adopted and loved.

It's the grace of God that God just doesn't, not that the father here doesn't just not stone him, but then kind of shun him.

Just like, I'll let you live, that's mercy. I'm not gonna charge you like I have the right to do. Great, that's mercy, but nothing beyond that.

And so the fact that we don't go to hell because of Jesus is the grace of God, but we don't just become warm food.

Good news, you're not going to hell. That's great, we're coming on top of winning, right, if we're not going to hell because that's what we deserve.

But then we have grace on top of that because then we're also able to defeat death even as Christ has defeated death.

The grace of God is the fact that we're welcomed and called and adopted and loved and cherished members of the family of God.

That's why in Luke 15, when the son says to a father, I've sinned against, like he repeated this, right?

You can picture him like, we say before, he goes, I know what I'm doing. I will say to my father, I'll just say, hey, just call it, it is what it is.

I've sinned against heaven, I've sinned against you. I'm for sure not worthy to be called your son. Could you at least treat me like a higher servant?

He had this, sinned against heaven, against you. He mentioned heaven first. Now I'll say him, I'm just going to say it like how it is.

I'm not worthy to be called your son. Father, I've sinned against heaven. And then all of a sudden, okay, wow, my father's charging me.

Oh gosh, this is not going to go well. Okay, oh wow, whoa, he's hugging me. He's kissing. Oh wow, this, oh gosh,

I must smell terrible to him. And he said, okay, I got to say my line. Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you,

I'm not worthy to be called your son. But the father says to his servants, just bring, hey, just bring the best robe.

Find the best robe. Put it on him, put a ring on his hand. Put shoes on his feet.

The servants wouldn't be wearing shoes. They need to get shoes for him to wear. People in service didn't wear shoes.

Put shoes on his feet. Also bring the fat, get the fattened calf? The fattened calf? The, the, the fattened calf?

Then we're going to use that now? Yeah, we're going to use it now. Bring the fattened calf and let us celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive.

He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate. I'm going to try something.

I meant to ask Tim if he thought this would go well, but I forgot, so we're just going to wait. We're having a baptism.

We do baptism Sundays at our church. It's our tradition that we do it twice. We do it twice a year. We do one in the spring and one in the fall.

We have a baptism class for people who want to be baptized to make sure that they understand what baptism is, that they meet with one of us and share their testimony.

How did God, how did God save you? You want to hear about what the

Lord has done in your life? And I encourage them to think through it in three sections. I was, but God, so now.

Does that make sense? Every one of us can fill in those blanks. I was, what was

I before Christ? But God did something in me and for me and for his glory.

And so now I worship him. I was in every way, shape and form a sinner.

There are a lot of things that I should be right now because of my background that just statistically, you would say, oh, a child in this situation.

So I was hell bound and hell deserving, but God in his mercy and grace changed my heart and gave me a love for him.

And so now I seek to walk with him and do my best to repent and to grow and to change.

I was, but God, so now. So here's what

I'd like to do. Hope this goes well. Would you just fill in those blanks for us?

Would you edify the body? Would somebody just, just in one sentence, just tell me. What were you?

What did God do? And what are you now? I was, but God, so now.

What about you? What were you? What has God done? And what are you now?

So somebody fill in this blank. I was, talk. I was, what's that?

A fool. You were a fool. But God, that's right.

So now, amen. Someone else.

I was a sinner, but God showed grace.

So now, that's right. You're a saint. Someone else.

I was, it was God's enemy.

That's right. But now, what am I supposed to say? But God, that's right.

So now, that's right. I was blind, but God, yeah.

So now, we all have a story.

We all were far off. We all had rags and smells.

We all were wallowing. We all were going to die. But God saw us, ran towards us.

We love him because he what? First loved us, embraced us, loved us, kissed us, and has given us a seat at his table instead of a seat in judgment that we deserve.

What grace, amen? Amen. What grace.

Can we sing a song to close? I'm gonna,

I'm gonna play it on the piano for us. Can we do that? It's a, it's a hymn.

I don't know what hymn number it is. Nope, that's a Bible. Uh, marvelous grace, grace, grace,

God's grace. What's that called? What's that? Grace greater than our sin, that's right. 78.

Thank you, 78. Verse to verse and one another way. 70, oh, here it is.

Great. All right, let's stand and sing this together. Grace greater than our sin, that's right.

70, oh, here it is. Verse to verse and one another way. 70, oh, here it is.

Grace greater than our sin, that's right. 70, oh, here it is. Grace greater than our sin, that's right.

70, oh, here it is. Grace greater than our sin, that's right. 70, oh, here it is. Grace greater than our sin, that's right.

70, oh, here it is. Grace greater than our sin, that's right. 70, oh, here it is. Grace greater than our sin, that's right.

70, oh, here it is.

Grace greater than our sin that our errors place. S capacidad de creer grace greater than our sin.

Se puede creer Grace that's great here before you as recipients of your grace, recipients of your mercy, and in need of it each and every day.

And so, Lord, would you grant us gratitude? Would you grant us shock?

Would you grant us awe? We looked before at how far we've come. Would you now remind us of where we sit because of your mercy and your love?

Thank you for running towards us. Thank you for embracing us. Thank you for not only not giving us the treatment that we deserve, but for then lavishing us with grace and counting us as in the beloved.

For your glory and our good, we thank you for the gospel in Jesus' name, amen.