Transcription
I'm going to walk in the light as he's in the light because the just live by faith and I believe one day I will stand before him and answer for my life. Are you with me?
So I honestly don't have time to be all those other things. I just got time to be in him. If you think life is a grind, if you feel like life's a grind, it's because you're living it outside of why you're here and now you're not finding grace to live your life. So life is a grind. He would never fill your tank to travel roads you're not called to be on. You've got to realign your GPS. It's taking you in the wrong way. You're not going no way. If life's a grind to you, you're not living what you're here for.
When my wife was in deception and my kids were running crazy, life wasn't a grind. Purpose didn't change. I couldn't even hug my own kids for reasons the Lord said, "That's fine, hug everybody else's kids that'll let you. They all have the same value to me." See, you can't even preach that in a sentimental American church because your neighbor's kids aren't as valuable as your kids. But in truth, they are, because the same price was paid for all. So I just hugged a whole lot of kids. Yay! And I didn't feel forsaken by my kids and I wasn't sitting, "What did I do wrong as a dad?" Sometimes people just make choices. Sometimes people have every reason to do right and still do wrong.
You know what the Lord said to me in that season? He said, "Hey Dan, because I started to meditate, if there was, I started to meditate, is there anything I should? I wonder if I helped feed this. I wonder." You know how you do? You know what the Lord said to me in my heart? He said, "Am I the best father ever?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Do I need a parenting program?" I said, "That's silly, no." He said, "Then why isn't everybody running to sit on my lap? If I'm the best father ever and I don't need a parenting program, why isn't everybody sitting on my lap and let me father him?" He said, "Dan, it's not always a father issue. Sometimes it's just a lack of sonship and belonging. Sometimes it's just willfulness and wrong decisions." He said, "It's no reflection of your fathering." Actually, actually my kids know that. They know that now. My wife knows that because I wouldn't change. I wouldn't feed the story.
Let me tell you what my son wrote in this, in this front page of my Bible. He wrote this in my Bible: "I love you, Dad. Thank you for surrendering your life to Jesus and becoming the man of God he destined you to be. Thank you for imparting so much truth in me since I was a young child, for never losing sight of me or my value, for fathering me and sticking by my side through thick and through thin. And thank you for supporting me so strongly in this season of my life when I'm learning who I really am. May the Lord continue to teach you and guide you in divine wisdom and revelation as Holy Spirit leads you in all truth. I love you, Dad. Again, thank you. Your son."
You know, he came back after a couple-year thing on drugs where he didn't even talk to me, didn't even know where he was, he was on the run, you know what I mean? I didn't track him down, didn't look for him, just believed God for him and kept living my life in Christ. I didn't even pray every day. I wasn't in fear. I was like, "God, you got to save my son." Nope. "I don't think this is unto destruction. I just believe your mercy is greater. God, he has so much of an investment in him. You have blessed him to be my son, not just your son, and I believe he has an investment in him. God, would you bring him to that place of knowing you?" And I just went on and lived my life in Jesus. And you could never tell I had a wayward son. You'd never see me pumping gas and you say, "How you doing?" "I'm not in denial and I bless the Lord. Praise God, I'm doing great, man. Praise the Lord." "Oh, good, man. Good to see you." Genuine. Everybody that's ever known me, that's all they've known me to be. Anytime you've ever seen me, Keith, I'm just okay. It doesn't mean circumstances are okay, but I see clear. Are you following me?
So one day he knocks on the door after being gone for a very long time. He knocks on my door. My wife's out of town. I'm in the kitchen jarring tomatoes. I'm a farmer kind of guy. I'm canning tomatoes. I got the little jiggler going. I got worship going. I got tomatoes everywhere, jars. I'm like, "Yes! I'm just Jesus."
[Music]
And I hear boom, boom, boom, boom. And I went, "That was the front door." "Oh no." I mean, I'm just tomato guy. I run to the door and I peek out. I don't see anybody. I said, "I know that was the front door." I opened it and there he is, standing against the wall, trembling and crying. He's 123 pounds, he's pale, and he doesn't look well. That's when you know if you know Jesus, because he caused hurt, he caused pain. It seems he's just been going, forsook and took advantage of his upbringing and his provision, betrayed his parents. So a lot of parents believe all that I just said. So when they open the door, they don't know how to receive him or they say, "Where in the blank have you been? Do you realize, man, what are you just back against the wall? You're out of what you need. You just, do you even know what you've done to the heart of your mother?" That's what happens when somebody comes home broken because they broke so many people along the way that people don't know how to respond because they're broke. So they've been praying for the fire to go out, and then when they have a chance, they fuel it.
It was so fun to see my boy on the porch because he's knocking on the door, he's home. I read the story, we always call it the story of the prodigal son. I think it's the story of a true father. I think the moral of the story is the father, not the son. Because if you take the father out, you just have a son that has regret. But you enter the father into the story, now you have restoration and redemption.
[Applause]
So I just looked over and I said, "Well, hey, buddy, man, it's good to see you." He's crying his eyes out. I said, "Man, you don't look well. Are you okay?" He said, "No." "Can I hug you?" "I said, "Come here." "Just help me." He said, "Can I come in?" "I said, "Come on." I was like, "Wow, we come in." He said, "I don't even know where to start, Dad." He fell on me, just helpless, crying. He doesn't know. He just came from this whirlwind of deception. The last thing he needs is reprimand. He knocked on the door, didn't he? Say, "Yeah." "I know what's up his sleeve. Drug addict, scammer." No, I'm gonna let the goodness of God lead him to repentance. Watch this. Watch this. Watch. I don't know if you can handle this. Watch this. I'm preparing you. He can't betray me. I didn't wake up for him to love me or do me right. He's my son, and he can't break my heart. We didn't have him so he lives my dreams. I am not a controlling parent. I don't find my identity from my children. I love my children, but I find my identity through Jesus. So that way, I can see them through him. There's a difference. I've watched countless parents, you know this is true, pastor, you've pastored. Parents lose their identity when their kids go awry. Parents implode, and there's two birds with one stone. And most of the time, three dads angry and insulted, and mom's a wreck. She can't sleep at night, she's crying all night and calling it prayer. I've pestered this stuff, and I'll shake them out of that thing and say, "What are you doing? You're telling me that's faith? Stop. Why isn't your light shining?" Yeah. See, maybe you don't want me to pastor you. I won't give you permission to be anything less. Well, likey that man called me a bunch, and he wasn't in a good place. And the reason he called me wasn't good. He always got the same thing. And sometimes I talked straight, didn't I? Real straight. But he always knew I loved him, and I said it for him. Are you with me?
So I looked at my boy, and I said, "Well, let me start then, since you don't know where to start. I said, 'Do you understand I'm not disappointed or angry with you one bit?'" He said, "Dad, that can't be true. And I don't know how that can be possible after all I've done." I said, "I don't know how you believe it can be possible. My life's not my own. You don't owe me anything." I said, "If I cry one tear, I cry for you because you're so much more than what you're choosing, son. I'm not disappointed with you." And he looked in my eyes and saw that there was no disappointment, and he lost it. He told his mama, "That was the transformation in my life when I saw the love of God in Dad, when all he could see me for is what I was created for, not where I've been. And I was overwhelmed by the love of God." He said, "I know he's my dad." And I heard him preach it a thousand times growing up, but I saw it in his life. And I gave him every chance to be something else, and he didn't know how.
[Applause]
Sure beats anger, frustration, hostility, calling your best friend 20 minutes after the encounter and saying, "Do you know what that boy had the nerve to do? Leave here for two years, not even show his face, text, call, and have his mama a wreck, and then he wants to knock on the door crying like he's so sorry after all this?" You think he could have called him? Between, he said, "Yeah, we need to pray for him." I just know Jesus never treated me that way, and he never treated you that way. So he never taught us to be that way. So it's amazing how we continue that way. We did not get that wisdom from the Lord. We got that wisdom from the world that is self-centered to the core. Listen, the greatest problem on the planet is in politics. It's not racial conflict. The greatest problem on the planet is that every day men wake up and live for themselves when they're made for God's image. That's where every war, fight, skirmish comes from, every argument, every debate, every bit of tension, and every non-productive emotion from self-centeredness. People say, "Well, God gave us emotions." Not the ones you grew up with. He didn't. Adam gave you those in a separation from God. Jesus wants to restore your emotions by restoring your purpose, your motive, your value, your foundation. So if he can get selfishness out of you, you respond a whole different way.
So when I knock, get the door knocked on, and I see my son, I don't have to apply, apply the last sermon I heard Pastor Doug preach on love. I've become that thing in my relationship with God. Are you following me? And it just comes out of me because it's who I am. And that's what I wanted to establish in Colossians 3. That I never read, but I have another teaching session. See, I have a backup plan. God had a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. I have another teaching session in my pocket, and then I have an open service, a night service. So I got, I got some time left. So we'll get there. I'm not in a hurry. Why do you talk like this at a City Quake where we're supposed to be out loving people? Because if you're not living healthy, you're not going to love well. And if you're not healthy, even going out there doing ministry will become your identity, and you'll find your encouragement through what you do instead of how you live and who you are. So many people hide behind a title. So many people have moved in a prophetic gift. Everybody calls them the prophet, brings all their friends to read their mail, and they find their identity through that. But they get hurt, they get insecure, they need affirmation. Next thing you know, somebody's offended and doing something. You say, "How could God move through somebody like I've seen him move through them?" And then they, that's exactly how when you're living ministry without relationship, when you're letting ministry identify your life instead of Christ in you, the hope of glory.
I'll close this session out with this because we'll get into Colossians 3. We just will. I got too much time left. It's a, it's a, it's a paramount because it tells you in there that you're to put off things and put on things. There's a great exchange through the cross. And here's what I'm telling you, there's things you and I were never created to be that we became through the fall of man. Jesus knows that. His love's so amazing, that's why he called them brethren in John 20. When he walked in the room, do you know the rest of that story? And I'll take this a little bit of time and just, so he goes in the room and, and they're all in there freaking out for fear, and they have the doors shut and locked, and Jesus just shows up. That's pretty cool. Small thing for the Lord, but amazing to us. Whoa! He just says, "Peace unto you." "Peace be to you." What's he saying? He just put his blood on the mercy seat. He's coming down with his voice. He's, he's, he's not mad. He's, "Look, are you kidding me? You bunch of chicken-hearted? You all sat at the last supper table and said, 'I'll die for him. I'll die for him. I'll die for him.' I saw you guys. 'I'll die for him.' I told you I'd be struck, and you'd all scatter." "No, no, we'll die for him." "Oh yeah, you're really dying for me about it, Peter?" None of that in your Bible. He just walks in a room to a room full of men that were scared out of their wits because death owns them. The fear of death owns them. And he walks in the room and says, "Peace be unto you." Why? Because he has his blood now in the mercy seat, speaking better things. And it's Romans 5. You now have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, being justified by faith. Yeah. He said, "I'm going to the Father." Did he go to the Father? If he said, "Don't cling to me, I'm going to the Father." Did he go to the Father? Had to. We know he was on the road to Emmaus. That was two disciples. They didn't know who he was until they broke bread, and they said, "Oh, it's the Lord." And boop, he was gone. He had a lot on his plate that day. But we know he went to the Father. Why? Because he made peace. He made peace. He had to put his blood. He, if he didn't put his blood, he couldn't make the peace.
Now watch. He said, "Peace be unto you." Showed him his hands, side. Said they touched and felt. They were glad it was the Lord. And he said, "Peace be with you." It's a different peace. The first peace is you have peace with God. The second piece is relax, chill, and let go of your guilty consciences. Because as soon as they knew it was the Lord, what do you think rocked them? The rooster crow, the denial, the sin. They didn't follow up with nothing. They weren't living anything. He said, "So when they realize it's the Lord, they're like, 'Oh yeah, don't you think that's true?'" And Jesus, knowing where they're at, he says, "Look, come on, peace with you guys. It's all good." And then he says this. This is phenomenal. What he says. He says it's John 20. You can check it out. Make sure it's there. He said, "As the Father sent me, find a limit for me in this. As the Father sent me, so I send for God." So for God was so antagonized and at wits end with humanity, he finally sent his son. For God so that he gave his only. "As the Father sent me, so I." And then he did something remarkable. He said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Why didn't he just say, "Be filled"? Philip, catch, fill, fill, fill. Wow. "Receive Holy Spirit." Why'd he do that? Because of Genesis 1. How did God make man? "The day you eat that tree is the day you surely..." And man got separated from God and his nature. Jesus, the Redeemer, blood speaking better things, not marking men like Cain was marked by Abel's blood, but marked with the blood of Jesus, righteous and redeemed. He comes back as the last Adam, the breath of God to men, and he brings us back to day one, as if sin never happened, because of the power of the blood. And he goes.
[Applause]
And man becomes a living being, and they're born again, and the spirit and nature of God comes into them, a spring springing up into everlasting life. Why? Because of the blood. Live again and be one with the Father. "And the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me." And then he says something amazing. This is how you go out today. He says, "If you forgive the sins of any, they shall be forgiven." Sounds like he's just giving you authority to be the administrator over who's forgiven and who's not. It's not saying that. Watch. He says, "If you don't forgive the sins, if you retain the sins of any, they shall be." When do you have permission to not forgive? When do you have permission to read a book by the cover? When do you have a permission to judge a man by outward appearance or actions? Ever? Okay. So then why does he say, "If you retain sins, they'll be retained"? Sounds like he's giving them, the disciples, permission to not forgive. Here's what he's saying. He just loved them in unfailing agape love, would you agree? Did they do anything right? Did he change the commission? Did he breathe life into him? And did he send them forth? Here's what he's saying. If you go out from this place and love them like I just loved you, in the midst of all your wrong and all your weakness and all your confusion, if you go out and love them like I loved you, they'll know my love and they'll know the way to forgiveness. But if you let your heart get hard, you start getting hurt by men, you start seeing them for what they appear to be and not what I created to be, and you fail to forgive them their sins, how will their sins be forgiven when you are the body of Christ that represents me? Now you look at what happened to the church over the years and how we're so split up and divided, and we're so busted up because of what we don't agree over. And guess what? It's been at the expense of, at the expense of love. There's bodies of called Christians that hate one another because of wrong believing and misbelieving and non-agreement. There's, there's an attacking, a critical. There is such a thing on the earth that doesn't even look close to the heart of God. And yet we all say we're his. We're going to be known by our love. I promise you. So deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow him. Don't just go to church and serve in a ministry. Be her and follow him. Are you good? Because I'm -228. I am not having a good track record at City Quake. Would you stand to your feet and I'll turn it over to Tom before I mess up worse?
You know, people watch YouTube, they come up to me and they say sweet things. This pink note I keep in my Bible. I have a bunch of them. I have a whole pile of cards in my suitcase. It's from my wife. It's not a YouTube fan. It's the one that lived with me for the last 39 years, 13 of it in the flesh, 26 of it in the spirit. Can I read her note to me? This is from my wife. You want these notes from your wife? You really do. "Hope you have the best weekend ever. You're a true man of God, and I doubt God can find many men, if any, on this earth with your integrity, your character, and your heart. Love, your wife." Why'd she write that? Because that's how we live. She doesn't owe me a thing. I owe no man anything but to love. So guess what it does to my wife? It brings the best out in her, and she loves to love me. She would lay down her life for me because I love her.
You did it. Lift your hands to me. With me to Jesus. Would you lift your hands with me to Jesus? Father, we've received grace. We just lift our hands to you as a sign of yielding, of openness, and of yes. I'm just assuming the whole room is saying, "Yes, we want you more. We want you more and more and more in us and through us. Let this thing be simple. Let it abound in grace. Let no one strive. Let us just see that we're accepted in the beloved. And even if we were like them disciples, doing nothing right, you called us brethren. You breathed life into us. And the commission hasn't changed. You said, 'As you go, go preach saying the kingdom of God is here.' Let our lives reveal it. Let people see you and know you because you've changed us for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen." Amen.