Grace | Week 1

I am a hugger by nature. And I don't know how to fight that. Just I like to hug. There's about a 90% chance when we see each other, I'm gonna hug you. And I don't care if you don't like it. That just makes me wanna hug you that much more. It's gonna happen. And just curious. Anybody else? Huggers?

Dude, that's why I love this place right here. How many of you would say, Nawson, we're good. Just a handshake is all I need. Me see that hand. Hold it up high because I'm gonna find you. Oh, I see you. Alright. No. That just gives me that's fuel for the fire right there.

I've noticed this about church. I noticed that hugs are weird. And most of the times, we don't know what to do in them. So before we dive into God's word, I thought we could walk through some hugs together

so that we had a better understanding what was going on. And if we could get some maybe just shine some light on it, it would help you know how to get out of maybe an awkward hug So you know what's happening and you know what's next. To do that, I asked my friend David if he would help me. Hey, David. Come on out, man. Help me welcome David out. Yeah.

Dude, thank you. Yeah. I met David my first time out here, and he helped me with the message. And we were doing this, and I was like, dude, he's a hugger. I'm a hugger. That's why we're friends, I think. Well, that's not why, but that's how it started. David's

gonna help us because there's several different types of hugs. And so, dude, we'll just kind of explain them, walk through what to do, how to get out of it, just kind of tell people what's going on. Now the the the first hug that you're gonna see in church a lot usually has some hand spirit fingers waving like this, and it sprints towards you. Right. And it's quick. Real quick. And it's like that.

It usually involves a teenage girl. Yeah. Teenagers are horrible about this one. Right. Or a guy. Yeah. It's just it's super weird. You just need to know this. If that happens, if you see this, it's gonna be over quick. So just don't even fight it. Just let it go.

If it's your kid, you're gonna wanna do this because there's gonna be, hey, dad. I need $20. That's gonna come after that hug, and you're gonna wanna guard that really quick because they're gonna want money from it. But if it's not your kid, if you're just, like, hanging out and just see him, if there's this involved, just it's gonna be over before you know it, so just don't even fight it. Another

type of hug, and this one is a little more awkward, is the I don't know what to do with my head hug. And it's where everything you do, their head follows you There you go. And it's super uncomfortable. It becomes like a serpentine dance almost. When this happens, just just stop and just go handshake.

Hand hug. That's what this is. Because we're shaking hands, but in my head, I'm hugging you. We're embracing. So it's it's embraced. So it's still good. So hand hug. So when you start to do the head dance, just stop because it's gonna get weird if you don't. And then just shake hands.

There there's another hug. This is probably my favorite, really, out of all the hugs. It's the I don't know when to let go hug. Yeah. And you're gonna be here for a while. So yeah. There's usually, a rub and a pat. Yeah. You know that it's too far whenever you hear kind of a yeah.

No. When when you hear the moan or the groan, you've gone too far and you took something beautiful and you ruined it. So when that happens, you're gonna wanna push away gently Right. Because we're still Christians. Push away and just realize that you don't ever wanna hug that person again. Now

men, we we do this a lot as men, and I don't really know why. I I call it the bro hug. And it's where you just kinda come in. You're like, hey, dude. Sup? Sup, bro? I don't know what sup means. And,

ladies, nobody does. It it's just something that men say. We say sup, and it really is all inflection if I say sup. That's like, hey, dude. You checked the game out last night. Dodgers came back late and won the game due to sig. So deep inflection sup, that's more of a, like, sporting event type thing. But if it's a higher, if it's like sup,

something like that, that could mean my hot water heater broke, dude. What are you doing after church?

It could mean anything. So if you get the bro hug, just know that there's gonna be a sup after it. I don't know what it means. And you don't have to either. Just reply back with sup. And that way, we walk out of that and everybody's good. Right. The the last one that we kinda need to talk to because this church. If you don't come from a church setting, this is gonna be weird for you, and I don't want this to offend you. When you go in for a hug like you normally would, you're instantly gonna be turned sideways. Side hug. Because from church camp, we were taught that side hugs make friends and front hugs make babies. Babies. You you have to

good. Dude, that's so funny. That's so funny.

This is what we were taught to do because this is safe. So when you come in for a hug, just stay at the side and just don't fight it because we're gonna push and we'll fight hard on this one. We'll stay right here. And then and then you're good. And we're out. And hopefully this helps some of us. Thanks, dude. I appreciate you.

Thanks, David.

While we're laughing and kind of having fun, would you pray with me? God, thank you for today. Jesus, thank you for what we're doing.

Vacuum. God, that you don't suck all the joy out of life, but in fact you give us joy and happiness. So God, as we tear apart your word today and as we look through scripture, God, would it come alive? Would you speak? God, would you be louder than the voices that are telling us something different? And God, today, would you allow us to hear, see, and know something new about you that changes us to be more like you? So God, do these things in spite of who we are because of you. And in your name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Today, I wanna walk us through something, and it's a story from Luke 15. So if you've got a Bible, don't go to Luke 15 because we're not gonna get there yet.

To go through the story in Luke 15, we're gonna have to take the scenic route through Genesis.

So to get to Luke 15, we're gonna have to go a different direction first. And and hopefully, this this will all make sense. There's a story in Luke 15, and I love it. In Luke fifteen one, it it says that Jesus starts to speak, and he's hanging out with notorious sinners and tax collectors, and there's Pharisees and Sadducees there. And and it's it's awesome. The the Pharisees and the Sadducees are so upset with Jesus. They're so ticked off. They're like, why would God hang out with them? Notorious sinners?

Like a notorious sinner is somebody who sins and it's not good enough. They're the ones who are like, dude, that ain't nothing. Hold my beer. Check this out. That's a notorious sinner. They take sinning to a whole new level.

And you've you've got Jesus talking, and I love this, man. When you read scripture, Jesus almost always is talking, and it draws in this crazy group of people that would never normally come together. You you've got the notorious sinners who are far from God, And then you almost always have these religious people,

the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These are the people who have lectures on standby that are just waiting for you to screw up because they've got judgment and they've got so much condemnation,

and they've got they're so ready to point out all of your sin, and they see everything that you're doing wrong, and it's so apparent to them, and they can't wait to tell you how you're messing up and how disappointing you are. And they're right there. And in the middle of Jesus' story, I think, is us,

normal people. I mean, I'm a sinner, but I wouldn't say I'm a notorious sinner. I mean, I'm pretty good at it, but I wouldn't say I'm notorious.

And I'm religious. I mean, I love Jesus, and I love the Bible, I love kind of what it does, I'm much more in love with Jesus than I am religion. So I don't know if I would be a religious person.

It's got the normal people in the middle. The problem with being in the middle, usually the notorious sinner and the overly religious are way louder and they overpower us in the middle.

But as Jesus starts to tell this story, he overhears the Pharisees, the religious people asking that question, why is he hanging out with them? And in the middle of that, Jesus instantly becomes Netflix and he starts to tell these three crazy good stories. The last of these three stories is oh my goodness. It's

He's sitting there, and he and he hears it. And instantly, Jesus goes story mode, he said he says this. Dude, there's this really rich dad. This guy's got a ton of money. He did really good at work. He's made lots of money, and he's got two sons. And one day one of his sons walks up to him and he looks at his dad and he's like, Dad, this is so cool. Dude, you made so much cash. This is awesome.

But dad, you're in great shape, dude. You started this CrossFit stuff. You started eating healthy. It's gonna take you forever to die. Like this is a horrible thing. Why don't you give me now

what I'm gonna get later? Like dad, why don't you give me my inheritance now? Because by the time you die, I'm gonna be old and I don't wanna I can't celebrate when I'm old. So give me now what I would get later and let me enjoy it while I'm a kid and have fun. And when Jesus says that, I almost instantly picture those religious guys just kind of puff up and like, are you serious?

What type of jerk would say that to his dad? Dude, I hope he puts the kid in his place. I hope he comes in with a high hand and just raises it and brings hellfire and brimstone and sets that kid straight. Who would say something like that?

I think Jesus picks up on it. So he goes on with the story. So the dad says, all right. And he gives his son his inheritance. And the son does what any kid would do in that moment. He's like, Vegas.

Dude runs off, dude parties like a rock star. He runs to Vegas. He's doing everything. Anything that'll buy temporary happiness

and temporary fun, this dude's all for it. He's grabbing by the fistful. Dude, drugs, alcohol, women, anything that he can get ahold of, he's grabbing and pulling in and partying and having a blast until he runs out of money. And then when he runs out of money, he runs out of friends. And he's left completely broke,

completely alone. And he's in a foreign country, and he has absolutely nothing.

And he's sitting there, and the son has this this moment of clarity where he's like, what in the world have I done? I'm gonna go back home. Dude, I'm gonna go back to my dad, and I've screwed up way too much to be his son, so I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna beg my dad to let me be a servant. I'm gonna go back and just plead with my dad. Just hire me as one of the workers. Man, I'll wash mom's llama. I'll do whatever you want me to that they don't wanna do. I'll do anything, dad. Just please take me back. I know I can't be your son, but please take me back as a servant.

And I think right then is when the crowd kind of like draws in. Because I think those notorious sinners are in that moment like, dude, that's me. I ran away and I screwed up. Just man, I've done so much. I'm notorious at my sinning. I go to I tell people I'm going to church and they're like, really? Like I'm so far

past anything. I just picture them on the edge of their chair, dude, hanging on every word. They're just looking at Jesus like, dude, what's next? Does the dad kill him? Does the dad like just strike him down? What happens next? And they're so just ready to hear

the second half of the story. And then the religious folks, dude, I just picture them like leaning back in their chair ticked off, and they're already rolling through their head all the lectures. Well, of course, you're alone, dude. Of course, you're homeless. Of course, you deserve it,

idiot. What were you thinking, dude? You're the dumbest kid on the planet. You took something beautiful from your dad that you didn't deserve, and you totally destroyed it and you ruined it. Why wouldn't you be alone? Why wouldn't you be sick? Why wouldn't you be tired? Why you should be hungry.

And they just start rolling through with condemnation. And then you got us in the middle. And again, we're not notorious. We may be talented at sinning, but it's not really like our job. And we're not overly religious. I just picture us in the middle like, dude, kind of curious. What what does happen?

I mean, does he does he come home? Does he come home and his dad accept him? What what happens in that?

For us to show the world something different,

we're gonna have to come to terms with this word called grace. There's this word called grace that's so beautiful. It's amazing. There's this word called grace that sets us and sets everything else apart. And too many of us think of grace like a hug. For too many of us, grace is completely awkward. It's uncomfortable,

and we don't know how to get out of it. Too many of us don't want anything to do with grace because we look at it as kind of a, why are you touching me? And we push it away because it's it's uncomfortable, because grace is messy. And we don't know what's gonna happen, we don't know what their intent is. And so we treat grace like a hug,

and we push it away.

And for us to understand grace, we've gotta understand the central truth, and it's found all through scripture. I And think it's one of Jesus. It's one of the best things I think that he says. And it's simply this, you were a son or a daughter of the king of the universe long before you ran away to sin.

Long before you chose sin, ladies, you were a daughter of the king of everything. You were the daughter, the princess of creation before you chose sin. Men, long before you took off and were stupid, you were a son, a prince of the commander of heaven's armies. And long before we chose sin, we were a son or daughter.

And the way that that happens is through grace. I want you to see how I got to that because most of us right now probably are struggling with it. It shows up in Genesis. Go go with me to Genesis three.

And this is kind of where it starts. Genesis three is where all of this hopefully starts to take place. It's starting in verse six. It rolls with this. The woman was convinced. And instantly, know that a man wrote it because he doesn't even say Eve. He's like, the woman. So she's already guilty. The woman was convinced.

She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too. And this is the darkest moment in history. I don't know how this moment makes it to VBS.

This is Stephen King with a butcher knife about to chop everybody's head off because this is where sin enters into the world. That this is the darkest moment that we have, I think, on the planet. This is the moment that everything that's beautiful and perfect is tainted by sin. And and men, this is usually where we look at women and we're like, dude, this is all Eve's fault. It's her fault. What's she doing coming up to Adam? She And was probably all, you never eat my cooking. Why don't you just eat this? And she's just in his ears so Adam ate it just to shut her up because she wouldn't quit. And it's all Eve's fault. And men, before we get a little self righteous, man, please listen to me.

Adam's right there beside her and he never steps up and leads his family.

And instead of stepping up and saying, hey, Eve, you know what, dude? Why don't we go to Taco Bell? Let's leave that tree alone and let's go get a burrito supreme because God said to lead and you don't see that. Instead, you see Adam right beside his wife saying, hey, that looks good. Can I can I have some?

And sin enters into the world.

You get for us to understand grace. This can't be the beginning of our story.

You see too many of us that would call ourselves Christians, our stories start here. Our story starts at sin. And your story doesn't start at sin. Your story starts way before sin because long before sin, you were a son or daughter. And our story doesn't start at the fall.

And tell me this isn't true. How many times have you heard somebody share their story and it always starts with, well, you know, hey, I was a drug dealing pimp and then I killed like 14 people and then I turned 12 and I accepted Christ and my life totally changed. And we start with sin.

Our story doesn't start with sin. Sin doesn't define you. You were a son or a daughter way before sin. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Go go back a page to Genesis one.

Because Genesis one is where everything starts to take place, and this is where the creativity of God really gets shown off a little bit. Genesis one verse 20 says,

then God said, let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind. So God created sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water and every sort of bird, each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God blessed him saying, be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the season. Let the birds multiply in the earth. And evening passed, morning came and marked the fifth day. Then God said, let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind, livestock and small animals that scurry along the ground, wild animals. And that is what happened.

God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind, and God saw that it was good. This is the moment that creation starts. And too many of us look at this moment, we start arguing over how long it took. Who cares?

This is the moment where God was in heaven. And I think he looked at his angels, and he's like, Dude, check this out. Grand Canyon. And the angels are like, Dude, that's sick. And God's like, No, no, no. That ain't nothing. Check this out. Trees and forests erupt. And with a word God spoke,

He said fish and fish. He's like people who like to fish and people who can't fish, Tim. And then He spoke and those things came. You get trees don't have to be as beautiful as they are.

With the word, he said tree. And we had everything from little tiny saplings to sequoias that you can drive your car through. We have these things that in different seasons change color and their leaves go from red to greens to browns to yellows, and they're beautiful. And then we have trees that produce fruit, and right about now they're making these really beautiful little flowers that make your asthma go up and you had to get a shot, and that's just God going, gotcha. And it's fruit that you can eat, and it's so good. And with the word,

with the power of his voice, he spoke and those things took place. With the word, God was sitting there one afternoon and he said, sunset, pa. And the sky exploded.

And you've got violet and orange and yellow and these beautiful colors all over the sky. And he knew that some of you would be weird and you'd get up way too early. So he's like, all right. Check this out. Sunrise. Pa.

And with the word, those things happened. It didn't have to. It could just be night, day, night, day, night, day, night. Check this out, sunrise. And with the word, God spoke that And then got into animals and got into some of the cool creations. And with the word, God said scorpion. I don't know why. Don't get mad at me.

You know, it's true though because there's like a billion of them right here. God says scorpion. Next time you step on one, flip it over.

On the belly of a scorpion, it's got six little holes, three on each side. Inside of those holes, it's gonna look like pages in a book. It's their lungs, they're called book lungs. And they go up and down, they're called sphericals on their stomach. Inside the scorpion on the top right around the chest area is gonna be a v that's gonna look really weird. It's called a pectineal comb. A boy scorpion has a really long comb and a female scorpion has a really small comb. Female scorpions only have to breed one time and they're fertile the rest of their life. Let that soak in for a minute.

When a female scorpion gives birth, they're born the babies are born live, but the female, she depletes almost all of her calcium giving birth to her babies. So what she does is so cool. She takes the baby, she takes this they're born in an embryonic sack. She eats the sac off of the baby, which I know is gross, but sacs are rich in calcium

and it helps replenish what was lost when she gives birth. And she takes the baby scorpion, which is really soft, not like little Wayne soft, but soft because the skeleton hasn't hardened. And she puts it on her back. And and they usually have seven to 14 babies. And and the the baby's then right around on the mom's back because their skeletons haven't hardened yet, and they can't protect themselves. So the mama scorpion takes care of the baby scorpions for about seven days, and in seven days, the exoskeleton hardens. And once their exoskeleton hardens, they molt or they shed that layer of skin. And they have a brand new layer of skin that's hard, and their stingers are developed by seven days. And they can sting your foot, and you step on them. It's the circle of life.

When God spoke scorpion, he didn't speak neck. He just says scorpion. So scorpions don't have a neck. So when God spoke scorpion, they not only have eyes in the front of their head, but they also have eyes on the top of the head. It makes it easier to sting your foot. And with a voice,

God spoke that complexity into being. With just the sound of his voice, he spoke, and that took place and took form and took shape.

And then you. Because with the voice, God spoke, and that stuff happened. But then

then you. Go go turn the page over to two. Look in two verse seven. In Genesis two seven, God speaks, and that happens. But but then it comes to us. In two verse seven, says, then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person.

If you go up to the end of chapter one, it says that we were made in God's image. This is where God gets crazy creative. He speaks all of that beautiful stuff and weird stuff into existence.

But then there's you and He can't speak you into existence because you're too beautiful. So what He did was He got down and the Bible says that He formed you

And he he put thought into you. He's like, dude, you're gonna like basketball. So he made you really tall. And he's like, you're gonna love music. Can't wait for you to meet Jimi Hendrix. This guy and he started, like, building stuff. And all this stuff about you was thought through.

And it wasn't accidental. It was this conscious effort from God himself creating you by thought and with intentionality.

And all the things about you, your height, your weight, your size, your shape, your hair color, your lack of hair color, all of that stuff was designed by God intentionally because he thought of you. And when he built you, it says that you were made in his image. You resembled him. And I love this thought, man.

I wish my dad could be here so you could meet him.

My dad's the coolest dude on the planet, dude. My mom has Parkinson's, and so my dad doesn't get to travel much because he takes care of her. And I I wish that he could be here so you could you could just meet him because he's crazy cool. My my dad looks a lot like an old Elvis,

And he always has as long as I can remember. Like, don't think he's ever changed. He's always worn like pointy cowboy boots, polyester pants, a pearl snap. And it didn't matter what's happening in my dad's life. He could be mowing the grass and it'd be like cowboy boots, polyesters,

a button snap. He could be changing the oil in his car, dude, and that's how he rolls. He could be going to church, and that's how he's dressed. And I love my dad so much because my dad showed me what grace is.

My dad, dude, he taught me grace from as long as I can remember because of my dad, I remembered riding in the car with him and if a car broke down on the side of the road, my dad would pull over and push it out of the way and he would crawl under it and get greasy and dirty and it didn't matter where we were going. He would try to help that person.

I remember in Texas where I'm from when it would rain, it would flood really bad in front of our house. And we're talking like waist deep water and cars would drive through and get stuck. And I remember countless times watching my dad work all day, come home exhausted,

throw on the cowboy boots and the polyesters and walk out and push cars out of the water and then push them into our driveway and into our yard and let people keep them there until they could afford to get them towed off or fixed. And I remember seeing grace

through my dad. And it used to irritate me as a kid because I would see my dad do stuff. And as a kid, you do what your dad does. And so I would go out and I would push cars or I would try to do something like my dad. And people would say things like, oh, Tim, dude, you remind me of Guy. That's my dad's name. I'd be like, Dude, what are you talking about? I ain't got no cowboy boots and polyester. You better back up, dude. No, I ain't nothing like my dad. And as a kid, I used to hate that.

And it's weird. The older I've gotten, dude, I wish people would say that I remind them of my dad. I think that God in heaven sometimes looks down and he sees you and he's maybe with the angels and he's like, that's my boy right there. Check this out.

Yep. Right there. That's him. Look at him. Look. Yeah. That's my boy. And you get that when we show grace to people, we look like our father.

You see what keeps us from showing grace sometimes is a faulty foundation. Sometimes we keep from showing people grace because we've built our identity on our sin. And it's not about our sin because we were a son or daughter before our sin. And when we built our foundation of who we are on sin, the foundation is faulty and we don't understand grace. If you go back to Adam and Eve, where we just read in just a second ago in chapter three, if you continue to follow that down after they ate from the tree, Adam and Eve both ran and hid.

And God walks through the garden. He's like, Adam, where are at, fool? And Adam's like, I'm hiding over here, God. And God didn't ask where Adam was because he lost him. He wanted Adam to know where he was. God knew.

And God's like, what are you hiding for? And Adam's like, dude, because we ate from the tree. You told us not to. You see what what a faulty definition of grace does is it gives us condemnation and it heaps guilt and it causes us to hide

and it causes us to pull away from the only person, the only being that can set us free. And when we don't understand grace or when grace our foundation is built on our sin, we lose sight of the fact of who God is And instead of embracing who God is, we run and we hide. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about

because you've done it for years now. You think that your sin is too much.

You think that whatever you've done is so heavy that God can't love you. You think that because I've done this sin, that man I've out sinned to God's grace. And if you've out sinned to God's grace, then it's really not grace. Because if grace isn't amazing, it's not grace.

And I don't know what you've done. And honestly, I don't care. I just know the central truth. You can't outsend God's love because God's love for you has never been circumstantial. It's never been because of you. It's always been because of him. He loves you in spite of you.

And I don't know what you've done that's caused you to run. I just know this. I know that when you run and hide, it's super tiring. And the guilt and the shame and the weight of that,

it's rough. If we're gonna understand grace, we've got to understand that our story doesn't start at sin. It starts when God got on his hands and knees in the dirt, and he thought about you and he formed you and he built you. That's the start of your story.

Because you were a son or daughter long before you ran away. Go to Luke 15 with me now. So I wanna get back where we started.

Jesus is telling the story. Remember? You you've got the son who runs away and does all this stupid stuff, and now he's like, man, I'm gonna go back home. What what do I do? And remember, the the man, the notorious sinners are like, what's next, dude? What's happened? Does he come back?

How how this is so cool. I can't wait to see what happens. The religious leaders are like, dude, can't wait for this kid to come back and get the high hand. Like, this kid's gonna get punished. I can't wait to see that. And then everybody else, the Us, are just kinda sitting there going, what what does happen next? Man, what happens to the son? It starts in verse 20 of verse of chapter 15.

Jesus says, so he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

His son said, Father, man, I've sinned against both heaven and you and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. You see, the son still doesn't get it.

The son still doesn't understand grace. He still doesn't understand mercy. The son's still coming back saying, man, I've screwed up so much. I can't be your son. And I love what Jesus says because it's not on accident. His words are intentional. Jesus says that the father's sitting there watching for his son to return. And I love that imagery. It's almost as if the dad's sitting on the porch scanning the horizon. Is that Tim? No, that's a bird. Okay. He's coming back, though. I'm not gonna give up.

And no matter how far I ran and no matter how hard I tried to hide, no matter how far I tried to keep my sin away from God, he's been waiting there for me to come home.

And I love what happens next because I don't know if Chariots of Fire started playing or if he does the Usain Bolt or if he dabs or what, but I just know he busts a stride out to his son. It says that the father ran to his kid.

And he doesn't he doesn't run at him to condemn him. He doesn't come at him with this great speech of disappointment. Jesus says that the father runs out and he grabs him and he hugs him and kisses him. And instead of getting condemnation, he gets grace.

Son doesn't get it. And he's like, dad, I don't deserve this. Verse 22,

because the father's not done. But but his father said to the servants, quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. Kill the calf we've been fattening for we must celebrate with the feast for the son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost but is now found. So

let the party begin. Dude, you you get when we return and come home. You don't come home to condemnation. You come home to celebration.

And and I love this part about grace. Man, the the father runs out, he greets him with a hug. He greets him with a kiss. He gives the kid a robe. He gives the kid a ring and sandals, and that's not because he wasn't dressed nice. That signified to everybody else that this is still my son.

You see, giving him that ring and those sandals and that robe, that told the servants and that told anybody else looking that this kid still belongs to me. And he's not coming back as a servant. He's coming back as my child.

And then I don't know if God's from Texas, but he's like, dude, you better kill a cow and throw it on the grill because it's getting lit in this place. We're fitting to throw down old school. Like we're gonna party. We're gonna celebrate because this kid who was lost is found. Dude, my son who was dead is alive. We're gonna party. We're gonna celebrate because when you come back,

you don't come back to condemnation. You come back to celebration.

Some of you need to come back. Maybe that's why you're here this weekend. I don't know. Some of you need to stop running.

Some of you think that your sin is so deep and so dark and it's so disgusting that it's it's hidden you from God. And you can't come back because if you do, and maybe that's because you tried to come back in church and you got condemnation. And if that happened, I'm sorry.

That's not church. That's religion. And that's not at all what Jesus ever intended.

I don't know what you're waiting on to come back.

I just know this. I know that you haven't out sinned his love for you because he loved you before you screwed up. He loved you through your mess ups, and he loves you in spite of who you are because of who he is. And it doesn't matter what you've done. We have all these rules that we throw on to try to make Jesus better or whatever it is. And I don't know why we make it so difficult to follow Christ because when it breaks down, there's really only two things that we have to do, love God and love people.

And that's it. If we as a church, if we can learn to love God and love people, everything else falls into place. All the other stuff is religion that we heap on top of that. And God's sitting there with a celebration ready for you, waiting for you to return home. And some of you, I don't know what you're waiting on.

Maybe it's the condemnation that's waiting for you. Not from God, but from others. It's here. It's verse 25. Because Jesus knew that, and so he finished the story. Meanwhile,

the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house and asked one of the servants, what's going on? Your brother is back, he was told, and your father has killed the fattened calf. We're celebrating because of his safe return. Brother was angry and wouldn't go in.

His father came out and begged him, but he replied, all these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time, you never even gave me one young goat for a feast with my friends.

Yet this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes and you celebrate by killing the fattened calf? His father said, look, dear son, you've always stayed by me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate this happy day for your brother was dead and has come back to life. He was lost,

but now he's found. You see, some of us have ran away and we're afraid to come home because some of us don't understand grace still.

And some of you right now, you get this because you're like, Tim, this is the most elementary message I've ever heard. Dude, I've in church my whole life. I get it. I understand everything. I know the story of the prodigal son. I could preach it better than you. This is the easy I mean, I've heard this story my entire life.

And if that's you and you're like, dude, this is nothing. I've heard this a million times already. Let me ask you a question. If you know Jesus already, how are you at showing grace to people?

Because you see, it's not knowledge that this book isn't about knowledge or depth. This book is about application. And it doesn't matter how deep the hole is. Application is, are you willing to dig? And it's not about how much you understand grace. It's are you willing to show it to people who don't deserve it?

Because showing grace to people who are are easy, man, everybody does that. It's easy to love easy people. How are you at showing grace to the dude that still has your lawnmower?

Or the car that parks so close to you that you have to do that little Jimmy dance to get inside because you can't open your car door all the way? Or the neighbor with the stupid dog that never shuts up. Or that person that just grinds on you. Don't look at them. Make it weird. But you know who I'm talking about.

Just grind on you.

Because for it to be grace, it has to be undeserved. And I get it, Tim. If I show those people grace, dude, they're gonna take advantage of me. Yeah, they probably are. That's why it's called grace. And it's gonna be no different than the times that God showed you grace and you took advantage of him.

And it's no different than the times that God showed me grace and instead of doing something beautiful with it, I took advantage of it and abused it again and again and again.

You get when we stop treating grace like an awkward hug and we embrace the beauty of grace. We become visible and we make an invisible God seen to our friends. Let that soak for a second.

I I got a lot of atheist friends, and when I talk to them about Jesus and and just talk to them about life, I I always ask them, hey, what would it take, dude, for you to to trust God? And almost always, they're like, Tim, if I could just see him, dude, if God was visible, I would totally trust him with everything. And maybe you know people like that. They would trust God if they could see him physically. You you get that when we show grace to people who don't deserve it, the invisible God becomes visible through you.

And you look an awful lot like your dad.

And this world who's hurting gets a really good image of God but too many of us let our opinions block the view of people from seeing Jesus.

Because long before we chose sin, we were a son or daughter, which means we were brothers and sisters.

So if you've you've been in this for a while, know this. This story that Jesus told when he tells this story, he's not telling this story so much about the kid who ran away. That's just kind of a cool byproduct of the story. The story is not so much about the kid who ran away. It's about the kid who stayed

home. Because this story, when Jesus is telling this story, isn't about the kid who ran away, which really I like to connect with that kid more often. But unfortunately, I'm not the kid who ran away. I'm the kid who stayed home that missed the party. Because when you miss grace, you miss a celebration. And when Jesus was telling this story, he was telling it to the religious people who didn't understand grace

because they were missing the celebration of people's lives being changed.

And if we miss grace, we miss the celebration. And maybe we've missed grace because our foundation is faulty. We built it on sin and it's not about our sin. Your sin doesn't define you.

You were son or daughter long before you ran away. And because of God grace, because of his being rich in grace and mercy, his love for you is bigger than whatever it is you've done or doing or will do. And his love for you will never be because of who you are. It's gonna be in spite of who you are.

And his love for you is always gonna be bigger than whatever it is that you've done because it's who he is. And some of you need to come home. It's it's easy.

It's just you looking to God and saying, God, I'm I'm done. Like, I'm sick of the guilt. I'm sick of the shame. I'm sick of feeling like this. And today, in this moment, God, I'm gonna trust you. And whatever this grace thing is, I I wanna give it a shot. So God, whatever this is, would you forgive me and give me your grace in this moment?

And I don't know how it works. I just know that it true and and that it does work because I've I've experienced it firsthand. When you come to God with your filth and your shame, he gives you grace and mercy in exchange. And instead of condemnation, you get to celebrate a brand new life.

And I think God throws a party for us. And some of you, that's it. That's where it starts. Some of us, though, we've got to get better at showing grace to people who don't deserve it because if they deserved it, it's not grace.

And don't hear what I'm not saying, please. I'm not saying if you're in abusive relationship that you stay in that to show people grace. That's not at all where I'm going with this because some of the best ways of showing somebody grace is to step out of an abusive relationship so that you can love that person in a way that's safe. And I'm just saying there's people in your life that don't deserve to be loved, and you should probably love them.

Fortunately, God makes it easy because he puts them all around you. They're all over the place. You just have to figure out how to love them. How will you be this week at showing grace and helping the invisible God become visible? Pray with me. God, thanks for today. God, I I thank you for grace.

I thank you for the truth that no matter how hard no matter how many times I've screwed up and ran from you, God, no matter how hard I tried to hide, that you never left me there, Jesus. That that no matter what I've done, every time, God, I've come back to you and you've you've never given me condemnation. You've never given me guilt or shame. But God, you've given me forgiveness. And Jesus, I know that this is true for more than just me. So God, in this moment, I know there's people in this room that are running from you. And that's not me trying to be prophetic or weird, God. I just know that, man, just by statistics,

God, there's too many people in here for somebody not to be. So God, in this moment, would you give someone the courage right now to stop running and to come home?

And to not come home to condemnation, God, but to come home to freedom and to celebration. And God, whoever that is in that moment, and if that's you, can I just say this, in this moment, there's nothing more important than you and God having a conversation that goes something like this? God, would you forgive me and let me come home?

I'm sorry I ran, God. I want forgiveness. Would you give me mercy and grace? And would you help me to understand what that means? And in this moment, there's a celebration that's happening because of who God is

and because he loves you. And it starts with that, God, the rest of us, would you help us to understand how to love people that are hard? God, would you help us to understand how to show grace to people that don't deserve it? And God, when we struggle with that, would you remind us of the grace that you show us

and the lavish amount of of love that you give us so freely that we abuse? So, God, would you help us to love people the way that you love us and help us, God, to be a visible showing of you so that when people see us, we look a lot like you. And the invisible God becomes visible through our lives.

So, God, help us this week to show grace. And God for those who are running, man, give them the courage to come home. Jesus do this because of who you are in spite of us in your name. Amen.