(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We are living in a time period where the world needs to hear the good news of who Jesus is.

The world really needs to be impacted with the local church.

And that's why one of the reasons we're doing this series is because we do believe that the entity of the local church, the people of God is what God is going to use in order to impact the world before his second coming.

Come on.

And I do believe clearly that Jesus is on the way back.

Come on.

And it is time to step up like no other time.

It's time to fill every seat.

It's time to add services.

It's time to expand.

Come on, church.

It's time to grow.

It's time to step in and make a difference with our life.

And that's really kind of what this series is all about, about how God wants to use you and your family, your grandkids, your kids, all those around you to step up and do something great.

Now, one of the things we're doing during this three weeks of teaching is we have exposed some of the new expansion projects we want to do on this particular campus over the next 12 to 18 months.

And we would love for you to step in and help us resource that financially if you are able.

And God puts it on your heart, maybe to go above and beyond your normal giving capacity.

If you're a partner of Valorous Church, step up and help us make some of these projects happen.

There's three major ones.

We want to put a roof to our upper room.

We want to put a baptismal pool out in our front yard with changing rooms.

We also want to put up a big lighted cross on our campus to display that this is a place as people ride up and down this highway out here that they can find the hope of Jesus in this particular place.

And so those are three major capital projects or expansion projects we want to do on this campus.

We don't want to go and make loans for these projects.

Those projects are going to probably cost somewhere between 750 and a million dollars to accomplish all three of them.

And we would love to step up and resource those and not go and add to our mortgage that we already have here on this particular project.

And so we're inviting our church to step in and step up to that.

If you would like to make a commitment, a financial commitment to that, feel free to write a one-time check if that is how you want to commit, make a one-time gift.

But we have made it easy for you to commit over a 12-month period if that is what you want to do.

And this is a commitment card that you'll find and you can be resourced with if you don't have one in your hand.

You can go out into our foyer and get one.

You can also go online to our website and make that commitment.

But this is simply a way to say that over a year period, over a 52-week period, maybe you're going to commit a little bit a week.

Maybe you're going to commit a little bit a month.

Maybe you know that you have some sort of income coming in, let's call it in the month of July, and you want to commit some of that income in the month of July.

Just let us know about that commitment you want to make over the next 12 months and it helps us plan to execute the projects as we know that people are committed to help and make this come forward.

And so again, you can make a one-time gift or you can make a commitment.

If you need to know more about the projects, on the way out today, there's going to be some people with some red shirts on it, out on them, out in our foyer.

Any of those people can answer any questions, direct you to the right path of how you can be involved and what this is all about.

We're glad to answer any questions you have about these expansion projects, but we do believe that in this season, these are three things that God wants to do on this campus in order to carry ministry to the Father.

We have a lot more to do.

We have a children's expansion we want to do in the future, all those kinds of things, but we're engaging in these three projects right now over the next three weeks and love for you, me, to be a part of it.

Something miraculous happens when we all come together to make something happen.

You know that?

Come on.

It makes it begin to be a reality.

And so again, we're not asking you to go break your bank, okay, and your household to make these projects happen.

You put in there what God puts in your heart today.

My wife and I are praying about our commitment above and beyond our tithe to these expansion projects.

And again, we're gonna be making that commitment over the next couple of weeks.

And again, I invite you to do the same and step in and let's all be a part of what God is doing.

If you have your Bibles with you today, we are gonna be talking about You Belong.

You Belong.

Last week we talked about We Build, this week We All Belong.

And I invite you to open it up to Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 15.

And we're going to be reading through a story there in Luke 15, beginning with verse 11 in just a few moments.

But in order to set up Luke 15, the story that Jesus told, one of three stories against the backdrop of a question that he was asked in Luke 15, verses one and two.

Jesus told three stories.

One story was about somebody losing a coin.

One story was about a shepherd losing one of his sheep.

And then the third story is about a son who ran off and another son who was at home and how the father had a heart for both of those sons to belong and be a part of what he was doing, his household was doing in the world.

And so this is a story about the father's heart.

Come on, somebody.

And I do believe if we understand our heavenly father's heart, and it can become part of our heart, then we can be a house with his heart, come on, and begin to impact people from all walks of life.

And so Jesus is asked a question, or he was basically not asked a question.

He was basically, accusations were made against him because of some of the people he was hanging out with in Luke chapter 15, verses one and two.

And Jesus basically refutes those complaints against him with the three stories.

And we're gonna look at the third story today, found in Luke chapter 15, beginning with verse 11.

But let's see what was happening to Jesus.

The Bible says in Luke 15, verses one and two, tax collectors and other notorious sinners.

That means a lot of people who had missed the mark of God's glorious standard.

Other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach, isn't that remarkable?

The Bible says that some wayward people often came to listen to Jesus teach.

Now why do you think that people who were way off from God would come and listen to Jesus teach?

It was simply because he was sharing a message of hope.

He was sharing a message of, you know what, there is life beyond your lostness.

There are challenges and things that come against you in life, but Jesus says in another place he came to seek and save that which is lost.

And so he had a message for the world and it was God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, whoever would believe in him would not waste away, would not perish, but would have eternal life.

And Jesus shared this message everywhere he would go.

The Bible says that this made in verse two, the Pharisees and the teachers of the religious law complained that he was associating with such sinful people eating with them.

How many of you know there's a difference in being like those you associate with and associating with them.

It all has to do with your heart.

Are you associating with people who are not living out their God-given purpose because you like to be like them, or you're the leader that's going to step in and reveal something beyond their circumstance and challenge to help lift them up.

And so Jesus was one who wasn't stepping in to say, I'm better than you.

Jesus was one stepping in to say, there's a better way for you.

There's a better life for you.

There's more in you than you could personally see.

There's a God who wants to do more through you than the lens you are currently looking through.

And what Jesus was really saying the whole time he was here on earth, you belong to the Father's house.

You belong to the kingdom of God.

You belong to something beyond this world.

And so Jesus is speaking this message, but the people who were studying the religious law wanted people to be religious, but they didn't want people to be in right standing with their heavenly Father.

Because being in right standing with your heavenly Father is recognizing something.

That you are a son, that you are a daughter, and your heavenly Father has your best interests in mind and he wants to probe your heart and lift your spirit and help you come out of the slumber and the laziness and the sin and the waywardness and the mire that you currently have been programmed by and touch your heart and lift you up and do something amazing in your life.

Come on, somebody.

And what Jesus says is I don't care what your religious pedigree is.

He says you belong.

And I don't know how you walked in here today.

I don't know what your view of God is.

I don't know, you know what, how you even got here, who invited you, did you come in because you saw a building on the side of the road.

But what I do know is my Bible says that God is drawing men, women, boys and girls unto himself through Christ Jesus, and he works in mysterious ways.

And maybe it's because you basically are off the rails and you are, you're at the end of yourself and you need help and you need hope.

And I'm here to offer it to you today.

God brought you here today to touch your life because you belong.

Come on somebody.

But make no mistake about it.

When you come into God's house, God don't expect you to say the same.

He expects to deposit his values, his heart, his life into you so that you go out of here and understand that you know what, you are greater than the things that are trying to draw you away from God.

You have the spirit of the living God living in you to help you overcome in this life.

In other words, God won't leave you the same.

God's going to create environments for you.

God's going to create opportunities for you to step in and become something great.

But my friend, you have to make the conscious choice.

I don't care how old you are.

I don't care what background you come from.

You got to make the conscious choice to engage with God and his house and have a heart for his house.

Come on somebody, that's what you're created for.

Created by God, for God, and to do great things in this earth.

But oftentimes we get it off track and we miss our purpose.

And the church is here simply to have the heart of God and continue to reach out to those who don't know him yet so that they can become a part of his family and be built up in their journey also.

And so today, let's look at this story and how it speaks to us today.

Because if we understand the heart of God, it helps all of us know that we belong and it gives us a heart for his house.

I want you to not only have a heart to go to heaven, I want you to have a heart to bring heaven to earth.

Come on somebody.

I want you to have a heart for his house.

I want you to have the heart to bring up there, down here, and to engage today.

Because his house today on this earth, and I mean we can dissect it theologically all you want to, but his house today on this earth is the local church.

Come on somebody.

The people of God caught out of darkness into the wonderful light and living life on purpose.

Come on.

So, Luke 15, Jesus tells this story against people who were complaining about who he was hanging out with.

Jesus told this story.

A man had two sons.

He says, the younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die.

So the father agreed and divided his wealth among his two sons.

A few days later, the younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all of his money on wild living.

About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve.

Come on.

The stock market busted.

He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into the fields to what?

Feed the pigs.

The young man became so hungry that even the pig food he was feeding the pigs, it looked good to him.

But no one gave him anything.

When he finally came to his senses, when he finally came to his senses, look at your neighbor and say, it's time to come to your senses.

Look at your neighbor and say, it's time to come to your senses.

Some of you don't have a neighbor because you need to invite somebody to church, come on.

He said to him, at home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare.

And here I am dying of hunger.

He says, I will go home to my father and say, father, I have sinned against both heaven and you.

I've, I've missed it.

And I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Please take me as a hired servant.

So he returned home to his father.

This is the important part because here's the father's heart.

The son went off and wayward living.

He wasted his life away.

He came to his senses and he says, you know what?

I need to turn away from running my own life.

And maybe I need to turn my heart back to the father.

And here's the father's heart.

And while he was still a long ways off in verse 20, the Bible says, his father saw him coming.

Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, he embraced him and he kissed him.

His son said to him, father, I sinned against both heaven and you and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

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 and kill the calf we have been fattening for we must celebrate with a feast for this son of mine was dead and he is now returned to life.

He was wasting his life away, but now he has trusted the heart of the father.

He has come home, come on and we must celebrate.

He was lost, but now he is found.

The Bible says through the party began.

Meanwhile, everybody say meanwhile, there was another son who basically this son represents those who were complaining against Jesus for hanging out with notorious sinners and tax collectors.

This next son represents the Pharisees and the teachers of the religious law.

There was an older son in the fields working.

When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house and he asked one of the servants what was going on.

Your brother is back, he was told, and your father has killed the fattened calf.

We are celebrating because of a safe return.

The older brother was angry and he wouldn't go in.

And his father came out and he begged him, but he replied, all of these years I have slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to do.

And all that time, you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.

In other words, you know what, what you just did for the other son, I'm jealous of it.

And my heart has been wicked because you know what, I was really doing all of these things so you would do something for me and you didn't show up and do something for me like you did the other son.

And so you know what, I don't really think you're a good, good father.

Yet when the son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing a fattened calf.

His father said to him, look, dear son, you have always stayed by me and everything you, everything I have is yours.

You're here with me.

You're in the father's house.

Everything I have is yours.

Everything I have belongs to you.

And he says, we had to celebrate this happy day for your brother.

He was dead.

He doesn't understand that.

And he has come back to life.

He was lost, but now he is a found.

You see, Jesus says we can either run towards him.

We can either rebel against him or we can either join him in the mission to reach those who basically are running away from him.

And if you're a part of the house, you're a part of God's family, you're part of the local church, and you don't understand that all of what God offers up is there for you, you're really missing something about life.

You should celebrate each and every week.

God's a good God.

He's a good father.

His blessings are there for you on a continual basis.

But you've got to understand too that those who have run off, who have squandered things away, who are lost, who don't really understand the goodness of God, God's heart is still for them to come home.

And God cares about them just like he cares about you.

Some of you in this room are fortunate enough to have more than one child.

And what you know is, you know what, no matter what life speaks, if the child is wayward and runs off, or the child is there just serving you on a regular basis, you don't distribute your love based on what the child is doing for you.

You distribute your love based on your heart for your kid, come on.

In other words, you're not there just helping them because they're performing for you.

You have a heart for them to come home and know all of your goodness, all the things around you.

But again, oftentimes people rebel, they run away from God.

And if we're going to have a heart for God's house, we have to have his heart.

And what his heart does is his heart is always looking for opportunity to invite somebody to come home, to help somebody know that they belong.

No matter where they are in life, as you're going through life, as you're doing life in the marketplace, as you're doing life, you know what, in your neighborhoods, some of us are retired.

We do life with people every day.

You know, as we're doing life in school, the question is, do you really know that you belong to your heavenly Father because of who Christ Jesus is and the gift of salvation that he has given you?

And do you really see that opportunity for anyone who would so dare believe?

But you have to begin to see the opportunity.

Notice here in the passage of scripture, it says in Luke chapter 20, that the father was looking, though the son was uncertain and he was unsettled.

It says here in Luke chapter 15, verse 20, when he decided to return home to his father, while he was still a long ways off, his father saw him coming.

In other words, the father was anticipating that.

His father wasn't going to bed and say, you know what, I'm going to hope he comes tomorrow.

No, no, no.

His father was continually anticipating looking for the son to come back home.

In other words, he recognized that as he released the son to go out and try to discover the meaning of life on his own, that something might happen.

But when his son got to the end of himself, what he would do is he would return home and then he could receive the heart of the father.

But the son had to kind of go his own way and try his own thing before he could decide to come back home and understand the heart of the father.

But what's amazing to me about this passage of scripture is the whole time the son was gone and no matter how far off course he got, the father never stopped anticipating his return home.

And what God calls you and I to do is never stop anticipating.

Never look at a person and say they're too far gone.

Never look at a person's waywardness and say, you know what, they've just really gotten too far off track.

No, no, no.

It's saying at some point in time, they're going to hit a dead end street.

And when they decide to hit that dead end street, I'm going to be standing here no matter if they rebelled, no matter whether they run, I'm going to be standing here with open arms anticipating their return and expecting them to return because I know the Father's heart.

And so the local church isn't here to always point fingers at, you know what, where life has carried you to.

The local church is here to open up their arms.

And again, not to condone you for your wayward living, but to wrap their arms around you and say, in spite of your foolishness, guess what?

God still loves you.

Come on church.

And again, it's anticipating and God expects his church to be a church.

If you had a heart for his house, to be a church, to wait and anticipate people to come, expect people to come.

Expect people to return home.

And again, I believe we live in a day and age where there's more people coming home and especially to the churches that will receive them with open arms, there's more and more people coming home to begin to experience what God has in store for them if the church is sitting there looking for the opportunity.

And so understand what it means to anticipate and to wait and to look until the person returns.

It's kind of like a linebacker on a football field.

And I don't know how many of you know football analogies, but oftentimes a linebacker is anticipating something to happen.

They're anticipating to be able to basically bust through the line and let's call it, do a pass rush and tackle the quarterback.

And they're anticipating things to happen, but what they do is they patiently wait.

And the minute, you know what, that snap count happens, they do something called a blitz and they blitz a gap in order to tackle the quarterback, but they're patiently waiting.

They're not passively waiting, that's what I want to say.

In other words, anticipating someone's return, is it passively waiting?

It's expecting, it's believing, it's getting things in order, come on, so that when they do return, we can properly minister to them.

In other words, it's saying, you know what, we're expecting.

Are you really expecting God to take this church from where it currently is?

I'm talking about numerically.

Are you really expecting God to explode because we have a heart for the Father's house in this community and lost people need to come home?

Are you really expecting it to go from where it currently is to 5,000 people?

Are you expecting it?

And if you're expecting it, you live life on purpose.

You live life with a heart for the house.

You live life to say, you know what, I believe men, women, boys, and girls, kids, babies, families, people from all walks of life, homeless people, hurting people, rich people, poor people are going to come because you know what?

They can't be satisfied with what this world is offering them.

And I need to have a heart for God's house and set up the environment.

So when they come home, I'm prepared to do exactly what the father did in this story.

Quick, get the fatted calf, get the robe, get the ring, get the sandals, put it on their feet because they need to know they belong.

It's a church looking for opportunity, looking beyond us four and no more, looking beyond, you know what, just us being a family.

We're not a complete family until the wayward and the broken come home.

The church is the family of God, but the family is broken because there's still hurting and lost people that don't know who my heavenly father is, who your heavenly father is, and if your heart don't bleed for those not already here yet, you know what, the family don't have the right heart.

Come on.

Are you expecting the old man who has lost everything in his life, who is, you know what, he's worked hard his whole life.

Maybe he's lost his spouse, lost his kids.

He didn't live life on purpose.

He's lonely, he's broken, come on, and he needs to find hope.

He needs to find healing.

He's not too far gone yet.

There's a father who loves him, come on, and cares about his heart.

But you see, if that doesn't get in the heart of the family, in the heart of the kids, then what we do is we become like the second son.

We just become a bunch of jealous kids, and we forget the father's love that he already has for us.

My friend, I'm inviting you to be an inviting church.

I'm inviting you to be a church that looks for opportunity.

I'm inviting you to be a church that has the father's heart and believes, you know what, that God touches people's life, seeing what he sees and having the audacity to step in and make a difference.

Let's not stop looking and let's not stop expecting.

Again, I'm glad we have this great campus that can be a magnet in this community.

But without you and I going out as sons and daughters of the king and continually to touch people in our everyday life, it doesn't really matter what's in the house.

Because the fact of the matter, they're not here to experience it yet.

We have to continually have a heart for reaching out, a heart for more growth, a heart for the next person, a heart for the next family, the heart for all of this in our life.

We have to anticipate and expect people to show up.

And if you are here today, and you know what?

You have been lonely, you have been lost, you have been broken.

I want you to know that the whole reason we do all that we do as a church is number one, we worship Jesus, the one who brought us to our Heavenly Father, but we want you to personally know this Jesus too, so you can feel the Father's heart, come on.

And you can't come into the relationship with the Father until you understand the gift of His one and only Son.

Jesus was on mission, and because Jesus was on mission, He upset a lot of people who were around Him in that particular day, because He had a vision, and it was to seek and save that which is lost.

And because He had a vision to seek and save that was lost, some of the spiritual elite got aggravated with Him.

And they're like, dude, what are you doing?

You're hanging out with notorious sinners and tax collectors.

And if I could just speak on behalf of Jesus for a minute, He's saying, because I care about them, and I'm trying to bring them out of their mire and their slumber and their place.

I don't hang out with them because I want to be like them.

I hang out with them so that they can become what they're designed to be and know my Heavenly Father.

And so again, don't make the excuse, oh, you know what, I just go hang out with all these people so I can do what they do.

No, God don't call you to do what they do.

God calls you to change the environment and change the atmosphere.

Look for the opportunity.

They're all around you.

The Bible calls us to be holy.

You know what holy is?

Holy means to be set apart.

That doesn't necessarily mean in this day and age because of my clothing, come on, or what I wear or, you know, how I fix my hair and all that kind of stuff.

What it means to be set apart is, you know, you're not influenced by all the things of the world.

You're influenced by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit sets you apart in a world that's being influenced by all of these other things in life.

And again, so God calls you to be holy, to be set apart.

Listen to his voice, listen to his heart over and over again, not to be influenced by all the other people in the world.

And God calls us to be a set apart people, a holy people, not to be snatched out of this world, not to be separated from the world, but to be in the world so we can change the world.

And so that's what it means to literally be holy.

It doesn't mean necessarily, though you should, if you're holy, memorize scripture.

If you're holy, you should know your Bible, you should read your Bible because it helps your holiness, come on.

But being holy is not doing all of those things.

Being holy is what God is doing to your heart.

Is He changing you?

Is He transforming you so you can be set apart when you engage with unholy people that are being influenced by the world around you?

But again, God's calling us to be a church, to not be out of this world, to be in this world and change the world, but we have to look for the opportunity.

The next thing I wrote down is this, if we're going to be a church with the Father's heart, is we have to embrace people.

We have to embrace people, look what it says.

It says there in Luke 15 verses 20 and 21.

So He returned home to the Father, and while He was still a long ways off, the Father saw Him coming filled with love and compassion, come on.

He ran to His Son, embraced Him and kissed Him.

His Son said to Him, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your Son.

What do I mean by embracing people?

I don't mean just giving them a hug when they come home.

That's important is for you to give them a hug.

But the Father embraced Him and basically said, come on in and start looking forward and stop looking backwards.

How do I know this?

Because the Father met Him before He ever got to the house.

And again, if you go study all this, Jewish culture, all this kind of stuff, fathers didn't normally run anywhere.

It was not dignified for them to run, but this Father pulls up His robe and He runs to the Son.

And when He gets to the Son, He embraces the Son.

But when the Son starts trying to dialogue all about His past and how He had missed and how He had sinned, the Father embraces Him and basically says, listen, listen, we're going to put all that behind you.

And He interrupts the Son as the Son starts trying to talk about His past and say, hey, listen, we're going to leave that behind you.

We're going to look forward quick, get the fat and calf.

How do I know this?

Because the Father was focused on who the Son could become, not who the Son was.

He didn't embrace Him because of His waywardness.

He embraced Him because of His future.

Come on, church.

And I want you to understand this today, because we at Valorous Church, when you partner with us, as we say it in this little red booklet right here, we have a few promises in here of what we as a church will offer, okay?

We're not promise you in the world, you have to engage.

But what we do is we promise to accept you as you are.

Listen to this though, but, everybody say but, but care enough about your journey not to leave you there.

Other words, I don't know what kind of waywardness you walk in here with, but I'm not here to judge you about your waywardness.

I don't care what kind of lifestyle you're living right now.

I'm not here to judge you about that.

But I'm here enough to tell you God loves you and your waywardness is not what he wants for your life and we're going to offer an environment here for you to become better, for you to heal, for you to move forward, how you don't have to continue to sit around and talk about your past and all of these kinds of things.

We want to embrace you right where you are.

I don't care how far off the rails you are, but again, and I'm not saying this with a lack of compassion, but when you start coming, but, but this, that, I used to be, listen, I'm like, hey, let's get off of that train, get on the right train, let's move forward.

God wants to embrace you where you are and help you become everything you're created to be.

In other words, a father's heart isn't saying, I'm condoning you for where you've been.

Father's heart is saying, I'm embracing you where you are because you've repented and you've recognized that ain't working out too good.

Come on somebody, and you decide to return home to the father and the father embraces you and say, now you got it.

Now we got a plan.

Now we got a future, but make no mistake about us.

Theologically, all of us are in this battle.

We're in this battle with, if we have become a new creature in Christ Jesus, the Bible says the old is gone and the new has come.

But what happens is the old person, the fleshly nature keeps wanting to come back alive.

And the Bible says you must crucify your flesh daily, crucify your old ways daily, crucify the desires of your flesh daily and pick up his spirit and begin to walk with it.

It's a battle, but as you begin to go on this journey and go on this battle, I can promise you you begin to heal and things begin to change.

But there's always going to be this pull against you to think about the past.

That's the enemy's tactic.

He wants you to continue to live in your mess ups and your screw ups and you're missing the mark.

The thing that made you depressed, he wants you to live there.

He wants you to camp out on that.

The thing that's happened to your very family this very day.

The enemy wants you to think it's over.

And that's all there ever is going to be.

But I got news for you.

God is a healer.

And I'm not just talking about spiritually, I'm talking about physically.

I'm talking about mentally.

I'm talking about emotionally.

I'm talking about all of these things.

But you are not a product of what the enemy says about you and your flesh says about you.

You are a product about a good God and what he says about you.

Don't let the enemy put you in a discouraged space on a continual basis and you get in this downward spiral and you're not looking to the future and the hope that you have in Christ Jesus in the future because the enemy has you so focused on the dead parts of your life.

It's an invitation, my friend, for you to have hope in a future, for you to have hope beyond the current circumstances.

But you have to make a conscious effort to say, you know what, I want to, I want to embrace the heavenly father and let him carry me forward.

I want to believe him.

I'm telling you right now, every time I start trying to think about my past, I can be one of the world's worst, doom and gloom, it's over.

This happened to the church, this, this, this, whatever.

And I can be that.

And God just keeps going, listen, you know what, I got a plan and I got a future.

There is hope out in front of you.

There's a plan for your life.

I called you to this, I'll see you through this, all these kinds of things.

The enemy is at work on a daily basis to tell you it's over.

Embrace the heavenly father and church.

Let's be a people that embrace people on his behalf and say, let's stop talking about what used to be and let's start talking about what can be.

Come on, have a heart for God's house.

Again, that's what all the environments here are about.

Again, small groups aren't gossip huddles.

Small groups should be places that you meet together to encourage each other, to build each other up with the word of God.

Every environment here is to help you move past your past.

I'm all for recovery ministries and all that kind of stuff, but if a recovery ministry is not helping you look to the future and all it's telling you to do is sit around and talk about who you used to be, you're missing the purpose of a recovery ministry.

Talk about the King of Kings.

Talk about the Lord of Lords.

Talk about the power of the Holy Spirit.

Talk about Jesus in you.

Talk about where you can be.

Talk about the future God has for you in spite of your past and see if things won't change.

Our kids ministry, it's a place for kids to grow.

We're not just a babysitting ministry.

We're here to begin to teach kids.

You know what, they are important to embrace kids and say, you're going to move past where you are.

You're going to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, a disciplined person that follows him all the days of your life.

He has a plan.

He has a future.

He has a hope for you.

Every environment here is to build people up.

It's what we're here for.

And again, so if we're going to have a heart for God's house, we have to meet people where they are, see the opportunity, embrace them.

And the last thing I wrote down is this, because Jesus teaches us this in this story, is we have to celebrate.

We have to celebrate people's return home.

Look what the scripture says, Luke 15 verses 22 and 24, it says, the father said to his 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 and kill the calf we have been fattening.

We must celebrate with a feast for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life.

He was lost, but now he is found.

So the Bible says the party began.

God spoke to me over a year ago about this baptism pool out front, about a permanent pool, heated pool in the front of our campus for the minute somebody repents of their sin, turns to Christ, receives the Holy Spirit for them to walk into the baptism water at every service, every single weekend and be publicly baptized to say the old is gone, the new has come so they can celebrate new life in public water baptism.

Why do we want that?

Why do we want to spend $250,000 to $300,000 for dressing rooms and a fountain and a baptism pool?

Not because it's cool and it's pretty and it's going to put water up in the week and all that kind of stuff.

No, no.

It's to celebrate life change.

Yes, we could put a vat up here on the stage.

We've done that.

We've done the lobby, all that kind of stuff.

But we want a space where every single week we celebrate people coming home through life change, baptism.

They should be every weekend more and more added to the number, every single service, every single weekend.

And you say, well, what does that do?

That helps keep in front of us.

Not only is it a celebration of new life in that person's life, it keeps in front of us so our heart don't become hard like the older son in this story.

And forget that there needs to be people added to the number daily.

Forget that God's changing lives just like he changed your life.

Because see, it's easy to get calloused, it's easy to get hard.

It's easy to sit in here 10, 20, 30 years and miss the new things that God is doing in people's life on a daily basis.

And I do believe a church that has a fresh wind and a fresh fire and a fresh vision to see new people come to life in Christ Jesus is a growing church, is a functioning church, is a church that has the Father's heart.

Because my Bible says that Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost.

Come on church, we want to celebrate, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate life change.

We have altar calls here.

The altar calls are places for the believer to come and pray.

But it's also saying, you know what, if God's touching your heart and helping you understand you belong today and you want to repent of your sin and come and pray a prayer of salvation with somebody to wrap their arms around you and embrace you, we're not here to make a spectacle out of you.

But it's a place for you to be able to come and nail that down in that moment.

I honestly believe when we're preaching the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and the family is doing what it's designed to do, bringing new people in here every week, that you see that life change happen in every service, every single weekend.

But we have to have the unction, the urgency, the fire to not just come here and do church on a weekend.

We've got to have the fire on Monday, we've got to have the fire on Tuesday.

Come on and invite people, invite somebody on Tuesday to come sit with you on Sunday.

Invite a family to come to children's ministry, step up and help serve at one of our children's ministry services.

I mean, I don't know what God's calling you to do, but I know he's calling you to do something because I don't believe God puts people in the seat just to sit.

Come on.

He puts people in the seat to serve.

He wants you to know you belong.

You can't really serve with the heart of God until you know you belong.

But once you know you belong, my friend, God invites you into the game to say, you know what?

I'm going to put some of my own desires aside because I have a heart like the father and I care about my brother.

I care about my sister and I want them to come home.

Is every time we go out and serve the hungry, serve the poor, do all these kind of things, is every time going to be a hundred percent success?

Probably not.

Is every time you go speak to a men's group or a rich person's group or whatever else, is it going to be a success?

Probably not.

But the reality of it is this, is do you expect life change to happen where you show up and begin to display the heart of God?

Because I do believe when that happens, the neighbors start coming, your golfing buddies start coming, come on, your basket weaving friends start coming, Marjan ladies start coming, come on somebody, y'all know what I'm talking about, poker players start coming.

If you truly begin to believe that God can change people's life, people start coming with you.

But what they have to see is the heart changing you first.

And when they see the heart changing us first, they want what the Father has done to us.

And may your good deeds be shined before men so that they may glorify your heavenly Father.

I'm inviting you in, I'm inviting you to be a part, I'm inviting you to participate through your serving, first of all, belonging, through your serving, through your financial giving, through us stepping up and seeing what God wants to do.

Let's have a heart for the house.

Let me pray for you today.

Father God, thank you for every man, woman, boy and girl here today.

God, I know you're at work.

God, I also know that the enemies at work sowing seeds of discord, sowing seeds of doubt, sowing seeds of, oh, that's not for me.

But God, I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit, you'd overcome those thoughts, those processes the enemy sows in people's heart.

And God, may you sow the good news of who Jesus is, of why he came.

God, I don't know where any person is in this place today.

God, I know that, you know, we're all in different spaces and places, but God, if there is one here today that don't feel like they belong, feel like they are too far gone, may they hear the heart of the Father today.

Come home.

May they hear the heart of Jesus dying on that cross and resurrecting from a grave and saying, I did it for you.

So you would know the love of the Father, so you can be forgiven of your sins, so you could come home and be a part of the family.

May they hear the heart of the church today, we want to invite them to serve, we want to invite them to get involved, we want to invite them to be a part and do something significant in this world.

God, let me hear the Father's heart.

God, what you're going to do in the world, you're going to do through the local church.

And I pray that we would become the part that you called us to play.

God, my heart today is for no one to walk out of here and feel like they don't belong.

God, may they hear the cry of the Father's heart.

May they feel the embrace of the Father's love.

May they feel the compassion of your Holy Spirit and come home.

God, if there's one here today that needs to be saved, may as the moment we sing this next song, may they stand to their feet, may they come to the lighted crosses.

May they embrace the people standing there and say, today I want to come home.

God, I pray you move in the hearts of people and I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.