Churches in Pickens

“Life isn't fair. Thank god grace isn't either. So think about this. If the disciples were the first hirelings two thousand years ago, first shifters, 6AM guys. What does that make us? Two thousand years later, we're the 5PM crowd, all of us in the story. We're late to the game. We should be grateful. Grateful for the grace of what he's given us.”

“He sent his only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for your sins. What more could he give you of value? And yet many of us are not grateful. Many of us have demands or we're mad, we're upset, we're pouty with god because god's doing more in somebody else's life or god's giving them more things or whatever it is but you've gotta understand that that we brought nothing to the table. We bring our sin and our shame. He gives us righteousness. He gives us holiest. He gives us the perfection of Jesus into our lives. He gives us the holy spirit. He wipes the ledger clean. He gives us abundant life now and eternal life to come and that is the work of god. And so, if he doesn't do one more good thing in my life, he's done enough.”

“Father god spared no expense in demonstrating that grace and love to us. So, here's the bottom line. You can't complain about the generosity of a god who has already given you his son. None of us earned a place at the vineyard. None of us deserve the invitation. None of us brought anything to the table but our need and god has given us so much more.”

“The third thing and the last thing here is the community protects the wandering. What happens when the person won't listen? Verse 16 says, alright. So you go, you took one, they don't listen to you. Now, what do you do now? Verse 16. You take two. Take two others and go along with you. If they still don't listen, verse 17. You go and you take them before the church. Now watch the progression. Because what it looks like is that, hey, this is getting heated up here. It's one person, two people, then the church. And when I say church, I don't mean necessarily the pastors. I mean the body of believers. Okay? At first glance, it sounds like an escalation of punishment. Like, we're just gonna we're gonna pour it on thick. Alright? You don't listen to me. Alright? Well, listen to me, Caleb and Jamie. Well, you didn't listen to me, Caleb and Jamie. Well, we're tell everybody. We're gonna make you listen. We're gonna punish you. That's what it could sound like. That's what we think sometimes. But here's what's actually happening. It's not an escalation of punishment. It's an escalation of pursuit. Pursuit. Not punishment, pursuit.”

“So I need you to think about this as we close. Are you that black sheep? Maybe maybe it's not on display in your life, but in your heart, in your mind, you have wandered away from God. And you're walking under this condemnation and shame, and and you don't wanna tell nobody, but you kick yourself in the rear every time, and you beat yourself up, and you tell yourself this story, you feel like you're not good enough. God is chasing after you. He's chasing you. He wants you. He loves you. He cares for you. Will you come to him? Stop running. Come to him. There's no judgment. There's no condemnation. He wants to restore you.”

“He says, if they listen to you, you've won them over. I love that language because you can, you haven't won the argument. You haven't won that your position is right and theirs is wrong. You've won your brother. And there's a massive difference because you can win an argument and lose a relationship. Alright? But Jesus says, we're trying to win our brothers. And when you're winning someone over, the heart behind it is, I love this person. I care about them. I genuinely have a concern for their life and their spiritual well-being.”

“But you need to ask the lord to do what only he can do to help you in this matter but you have to tend the soil of your heart. So, I'll review this question again. What is the gospel producing in your life right now? What is god doing at at work through the gospel? This the seed that is has been sown into your heart. Is it taking root? Is it being watered? Is it being nurtured? Is it being matured? Is it producing something in your life?”

“To tend. Listen, you have some agency in this. It's not just but, well, I have an indifferent heart. I have a shallow heart. I guess I'm just, no, you're not. You have some agency here. This is why Jesus is even telling the story so that you might prepare your heart. You can prepare your heart in a different way. You can till the hard soil of your heart. You can remove the thorns and the rocks from those places so that you can make room for the gospel to grow into your heart. You have agency in this.”

“So let me ask you a question, What is the gospel producing in your life right now? In terms of character, in terms of life change, in terms of affecting others' ministry. Because here's the goal. The goal for you is fruitfulness. The goal for you, what god wants from you, from the gospel that's been entrusted to you, they would take root in your heart and they would be this amazing bumper crop of spiritual vitality coming out of your life. The fertile soil results in a harvest and this is what God wants in your heart. If not, then something is wrong.”

“Can I just tell you the truth? There is no deal in with the man upstairs. You don't get to make a bargain with god. You don't get to make a deal with god. There's a holy god and there's a sinful humanity. There's a a debt that you cannot pay and there's the the debt that Jesus Christ went to the cross and paid in full. You don't get to negotiate your way to heaven and you don't get to manufacture your own goodness and somehow earn enough religious credit to balance the scale in your life so that one day when you stand before God, that he would say, hey, you did a pretty good job. We're even. It's not gonna happen. The debt you owe God is unpayable. You can't do enough good works or be good enough to pay God what he has asked for. And that's why Jesus came. Jesus came to hang on a cross and to say, it is finished.”