Back In The Saddle

One of the greatest ways I can clarify the gospel for you is the gospel is not, I messed up. My dad is going to be so angry. The gospel is, I messed up. I need my dad. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how far you've wandered and who you wandered with, don't worry where you've been. You can get back in the saddle again. You can come back to God. [01:00:20] (38 seconds)  #ComeBackToGod

It's easier sometimes for us to ignore the pain. It's easier for us to reason that that the hurt and the difficulty, challenge, the the shame of coming back and admitting that we're wrong, that that it might not go well, that it might it might turn out bad, it might hurt us more. And so instead, we live with the wounds and the pain and the shame of what has happened before. But those wounds don't heal in denial. Healing begins with honesty. And I believe that you created the festival of trumpets all those years ago to constantly sound a reminder to us that we don't have to be afraid of being open and honest with you about what we've done because you already know, and you want us to remember that we can still come back. [01:02:33] (51 seconds)  #HealingStartsWithHonesty

And if you've ever been in that situation where you've gone back in the room, where you sent the text message, made the phone call, where you owned up and apologized to what you did wrong, you know it takes some courage. Because we spend this time in our mind expecting anger and punishment, and and we we plot and we scheme about all the ways that if we face up to this, everything is gonna fall apart. But instead, that moment tends to be the very time that the healing begins, that things begin to be made right. [00:31:02] (33 seconds)  #CourageToMakeItRight

You don't have to be afraid to come back to God. But maybe you're saying you don't know, TC. You don't know the things that I've done. You don't know what's what's what's happened to me. You know, there's things that I've done that I could never be forgiven. You don't know me, and you're right. I don't know what you've done, but God does. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He knows what you did, and he's still waiting for you to come back. [00:59:21] (38 seconds)  #GodKnowsAndWaits

Now why would they have this kind of necessary self denial on a day that is called a festival, supposed to be a day of celebration? Well, I think it's because restoration requires participation. You know, this day of atonement forced Israel to face something that we don't naturally like to face, and it's the fact that sin, that's the Bible's word for it, that our disobedience of God, that our selfish choices cost something. God doesn't ignore our sin. [00:40:53] (34 seconds)  #RestorationRequiresRepentance

Her birth parents had spent years wondering about her, hoping they'd get to meet her. And they had spent every single year since they left her in that market on Valentine's Day waiting at the broken bridge just in case she did had decided to come back sooner. For so many people, our fear of coming back to God is that we will be met with anger first. But when we come back, we discover that we've been on God's heart the whole time. [00:58:24] (45 seconds)  #LovedWhileAway

In order for messy, broken, imperfect people to be restored and have relationship with God, how is that received? How do messy broken people find that restoration in God now? Devoting ourselves to him, offering our lives a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. To boil it down even further is what God is teaching us through the festival of trumpets, is that if we devote ourselves to him, even if we have wandered, rebelled, rejected, ignored God, no matter how how far you have wandered, devotion can bring you back to him. [00:55:26] (45 seconds)  #DevotionBringsRestoration

God, we make a lot of different excuses in our mind of why coming back is too much. It's easier sometimes for us to ignore the pain. It's easier for us to reason that that the hurt and the difficulty, challenge, the the shame of coming back and admitting that we're wrong, that that it might not go well, that it might it might turn out bad, it might hurt us more. And so instead, we live with the wounds and the pain and the shame of what has happened before. [01:02:23] (31 seconds)  #StopRunningFromHealing