Bet on God | Homecoming

stinging them and it's been ingrained in them and they need to know that they've still been called by God. And since you've been called on by God, I think it's safe for you to bet on God. Come on, somebody say bet on God. I don't know what y'all want to do. Y'all can stay. Y'all can leave. I'm good either way. I'm just excited. I know that God's gonna do something special. I feel like God's been warming us up all morning for this experience. I don't know what you must be special. I just feel have a seat. Have a seat. Have a seat. Have a seat. My name is Justin. Sorry if we haven't got to meet yet. I co-pass her legacy alongside my wife, Felicia, and I just want to say thank you for answering the call because whether you realize it or not, you're not here by accident, coincidence, because of a poker chip or because of an Instagram ad. You're here because the Bible says Jesus says he says if I'm lifted up, I'll call all men unto me. Meaning, you listen to Jesus, not social media, not a poker chip, not a relative or family member or friend who invited you. No, no, no. Your spirit, listen to the voice of God, which means you hear the voice of God. Tell the person next to you. You hear God. Full transparency. We got four experiences today. My voice is already gone. So you won't preach half as much as I preach today in Jesus' name. So just get used to talking to strangers. It's a safe space. But I think it's phenomenal that when people not only hear God's voice, but they respond to God's voice, then that's when miracles happen. And I think there's going to be a miracle. I don't think I know there's going to be miracles that take place today because you're already being one. One thing I want to explain, it's homecoming. It's not every Sunday. We have a Super Bowl tunnel for you to run in here through. But this is special for us. It's not a holiday. It's a holy day. We've spent 21 days praying and fasting for people that have been distant, disengaged or disappointed in their previous experiences with faith, church, even God to come back home. Can we make some noise for everyone in the overflow room? Come on. We love you. [applause] But my wife and I, we grew up having different experiences and journeys of faith and church, and eventually we started working at churches and for churches. And while we loved our experience, it was a blessing. It was a privilege. We also experienced this church trauma and drama. And we never fully felt at home. We never felt that feeling of when we were teenagers and we first came to faith and we were growing and in that excitement and that passion and that and that that safety. And so in 2022, God told me that what you're looking for,

you have to build it. It's like, okay. And then right before we launched Legacy in January of 2023, I went to Israel. And I heard a phrase that changed my life. It's called, "Aliyah." Everybody say, "Aliyah." Not "Aliyah," the way. Some of y'all. But "Aliyah," it's this phrase where any Jewish person or a person of Jewish origin, no matter where they live or no matter where they're born. It could be Brooklyn, Chandler, Poland, Ukraine, doesn't matter. It is not until they come back to Israel that their whole soul feels at home and they had their "Aliyah" experience. And I said, "God, if you allow us to create a church, to build a church, I need it to be an "Aliyah." Not just for my family, but for everyone else like me, who maybe is not from here, but you called them here and they don't want to wander. They don't want to feel distant, disengaged, disappointed, forever. They need an "Aliyah" experience. So my prayer for you, my prayer that I've been praying is that today would be your "Aliyah" moment. And that your soul would find rest, would find belonging, it would find peace in this house. And so today, I want to preach to you from a passage in Luke chapter 15. And full disclosure, it's kind of a long passage, so put your reading glasses on if you need to. But it's going to set the foundation for everything we're going to discuss today. And my prayer and my encouragement is that as we read this, you're going to see certain characters, and I need you to be intentional, that you don't put your "X" in the role, that you don't put your spouse in a row. I hope you listen. I hope you pay attention. Are you talking to you? No, no, no. desiring to do. And by the end of this experience, we all leave here looking more like Jesus and less like us. That's the goal. Sound good? All right. Let's go to Luke 15. That should have been enough time for you to Google it. Luke 15, I'm going to start at verse 1. And this is what it says. Tax collectors and other notorious B.I.G. sinners often came to listen to Jesus' teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them. The audacity of Jesus to eat with sinners. So Jesus told them this story. If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he lead the 99 others in the wilderness and go search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. And when he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying rejoice with me because I found my lost sheep. In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost in her

who repents and returns to God than over 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away. Then Jesus tells another story about a woman who has 10 silver coins and she loses one. And then she flips her whole house upside down to find that one coin. And then she finds a coin. He's like, "Hey girl, y'all got to come over. I found my coin." And she throws a party for the coin. And Jesus is saying, "That's the posture. That's the heart of the Father." And this is consistent with Jesus' way of teaching because the Bible says he never priests their sermon without using parables, without telling stories. So Jesus is essentially like the first, who's my guy from Black Panther, not Michael B. Jordan, not Chadwick, the guy who makes the movies. Ryan Coogler, my inspiration for my mustache. I'm trying to get like Ryan. Okay. So Jesus was the OG Ryan Coogler. And every time he talks about God, he uses stories. He uses his words to create these visual experiences. And that is consistent with Luke 1511, which is where we're going to start reading. This is what it says. To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, "I want my share of your estate now before you die." Hey, that kid might not have woke up the next day. He said that to the wrong dad. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land. And there he wasted all his money in wild living. Somebody say, "Wild." About this time, his money ran out. A great famine swept over the land and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs look good to him, but no one gave him anything. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, "At home, even the hired servants have enough to spare. And here I am, dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant." 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 to him, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being 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. 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 party begins, might as I turn up. Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and twerking in the house, and he asked one of the servants, "What's going on?" "Your brother's back," he was told, "and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return." The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, "All these years I'll slay for you, all my life I had to fight." You laugh too hard. You know, we know how old you are. "And never once reviews to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time, you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends." Yet when the son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitution, His father said to him, "Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me. And everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day for your brother was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, but now he is found. I wanna do my best Ryan Coogler/Jesus impersonation and I wanna communicate this text from three separate perspectives. And my prayer is that we see ourselves and where we are, but we also see the heart of God and where he's calling us to be. I wanna pray one more time. Holy Spirit, help us. Amen. How many of you have heard that story before? The prodigal son, a lot of us. I find it interesting. Every time I've heard that story, it's always communicated from the same lens.

You have a father, you have one son to be wilding out. The prodigal one, you got a responsible one that's frustrated that he's not getting hyped up. The same. But as I was rereading it and you know, as in God, give me fresh lenses for this and not just what I feel, what feels familiar, sounds familiar, I re-evaluated and re-examine what the word prodigal even means. And prodigal in its simplest form just means wasteful, wasteful. Now, is it true that the younger son wasted his father's on the wall of living? Yeah, the text says that. But there's a difference between wasting finances and wasting your time to me from actually living a wasteful life. You ever boss them and be like, it wasn't worth it. You ever dated someone and be like, it wasn't worth it. I like how hands went up even quicker. Like I swiped wrong. So I think it's important that we look at this text accurately because yeah, the younger brother will get to him, he was wilding out. But what if I were to propose to you that the prodigal son was actually the older son? Why? Because he spent all that time in the father's house and when the father gets excited and the father is celebrating the return of the son,

he says, well, I'm kidding, I've been slaving this whole time. How can you be a slave like the father call you a son? That tells me while the prodigal son was wasting in his lifestyle, you were wasting in your mentality. And to me, prodigal living is not even as bad as prodigal thinking. I wonder how many of us have wasted precious moments when we have had access to the house of God. We have had access to the father, but yeah, we still function like slaves, not sons or daughters. What do you mean by that? Well, how is it that you could spend all that time in the house, but yet not have the heart of the house? How could you spend all that time around the father but still not look like the father or think like the father or act like the father, which tells me that for many of us, we have spent years coming to church, but never becoming the church. And that's why we treat it and we treat people the same way the Pharisees did, who actually were the target demographic of this story. When we start off in Luke 15 verse one, Jesus is not talking to his disciples. He's talking to the religious experts who have spent their entire life memorizing scripture and teaching in the law. And he says, you've learned the law, but you've lost the heart.

You know, we've been pastoring the church three and a half years and God's done some phenomenal things. And we've, until today, the numbers going crazier today, I'm so excited, but baptized over 638 people until today and counting. Seeing almost 2,000 people publicly give their life to Jesus and counting. And you know what blows my mind? The most critical people of the methods pharocitical Christians oh i just love pastoring church people i just love pastoring people who are full of opinions but low on fruit i just love pastoring the older brothers in the house who can't understand why we spend so much money on a helicopter egg drop or i'm bringing Santa Claus to church or why do we let kids come in costumes the day after halloween because the parents are already bottom so they might as well use them twice be good stewards of the money bring that little spider-man to church next sunday dressed up i digress but i wonder if we're not careful we can become the older brother in this story which is actually the prodigal son and we spend our mind thinking that the prodigals are the ones that are far from god not realizing you could be next to the father and be even further from the father than the ones that are far from the and can i propose another thing as i'm in my why and kugler anointing what if part of the reason that the younger brother left the house in the first place was because he is he was tired of experiencing the apathy and criticism of the older brother who lived in the same home because if you can be apathetic when the brother comes back

that tells me you were pathetic when he was here and i want to apologize to all of the sons and daughters of god who were blocked from their blessing by older brothers who did not value them did not see them and who made them feel less than and so they found comfort outside of the house because they only felt rejected and not enough inside of the house i'm sorry for false prophets who have brought division to the house of god by setting legalistic standards that were not biblical in the first place they were their own personal convictions which were real for them but were not shared by the body but that's the prodigal son we still got to talk about who i would call the lost son the lost son the younger one who had the audacity to tell his daddy yeah yeah yeah i know i'm in the will but that's after you die i'm trying to live now so you're worth more to me dead than alive can i get my will now which would have been the most insulting thing as child could do to their father in that culture because fathers were honored so fathers were respected and the father was the provider protector and leader of the families so for you to have the audacity to say i don't value what you bring and who you are i just want what you can give me i just want what's in your hand i don't care about your heart that was humiliating and i wonder how many of us have done the same thing where we said god not your will but my will be done and i don't want to wait for your will i don't want to wait for your timing i want what is mine and i want it now and the shocking part about this story well the the first shocking part to me is that the son didn't wake up after being knocked out that was the first shocker for me the second shocker for me was the father obliged and said okay and he gave him what he wanted the bible says he divided his wealth meaning he liquidated his assets he he he had to count up all the sheep and the property and and and then what they owned and then he had to do a fire sale on it

and i bet you all the neighbors like what's going on why are you selling yourself what's going on and his response was because this is what he wants so he now is bringing dishonor and humiliation not just to himself but to his father because he could not appreciate who his father was and what he had and what he planned for him and then the bible says that a couple days after getting what he wanted he went to a distant land i would say distant and the bible says he goes to this distant land and anytime you read scripture and it says distance distance is an indicator of separation and separation is a description of sin because sin at its core simply means to miss the mark can i talk to you for a few moments about the sin of isolation i think it's scary how comfortable uh we are in our society saying i'm spiritual i'm not religious i'm i'm a christian but i don't need to go to church to be a christian that's like saying i'm a basketball player what team are you on la thinness Bro, you're washed. That's what you are like You might be playing a fantasy league, but you're not actually in the game. And yet we normalized in our society, distancing ourselves from the will of the father, disengaging ourselves from the heart of his house, and then having to go through the disappointment of what it means to reap what we've sown and to get what we've asked for. I think that one of the saddest things about the story is that the son's prayers were answered by the father, and it resulted in him not living the best life ever, but wasting the life he had and ending up in a place that was disgusting, that was degrading. But in his mind, in his mind, when he said, "I want my will," he didn't know what his will would actually result in. You know, sometimes the worst prayer is the one that God answers that was not his will. Because when you're like, "But God, this is who I want," and he gives you who you want and they're not who you need, all of a sudden, when you're signing the paper, you did not anticipate signing, and you're dealing with the pregnancy alone that you did not anticipate parenting, and you're dealing with the dysfunction that you learned how to function in. It's because it was your will be done, not his will. It's because you got your will early instead of trusting his will.

And I wonder, I wonder what your will and your will power has led you and gotten you. Because the Bible says that he ends up in a distant place, there's a famine meaning he loses everything because you can't always predict the economy. You can't always predict someone else's actions. You can't always predict what will happen in the future, and that's okay because as long as you're connected to provision, you don't have to predict everything. But when you've isolated yourself from the source, then all of a sudden, everything that you end up with and have to figure out is on you because you are separated from the will, plan, and heart and house of your father. So now he's distanced himself. He's now having to find a way to survive instead of thrive, and his way of survival causes him to be attached to a foreigner. Now that's important in Scripture because a foreigner represented someone who is outside of covenant with God, outside of the culture of the people of God, outside of relationship with God. And so what happens is he's subjugating himself to a Gentile, and the Gentile says, "Oh, you want to survive? You want to make it? Go feed the pigs." Now you got to understand how defiling that was. This was a Jewish man, meaning he was supercoaster. He could barely even spell pig, it was so disgusting. And now he has to go feed the pigs. And not only is he feeding the pigs, but he is now surrounded by the pigs because distance leads to disengagement, and disengagement leads to delusionment. You know what I'm talking about? And you can start off looking at someone else's life and be like, "That can never be me. Couldn't be me." Because they're in a distance. But when you shorten the distance and you get closer, and now you've distanced yourself

from the plan and the purpose of God, what used to be, could never be me, turns into, "Well, I'll never do it again." And then, "I'll never do it again," turns into, "Well, I just got to survive. I just got to, like, what else am I supposed to like?" And now you have found yourself lowering your standard and glorifying the sin that used to be despicable, that used to be detastable, that used to be something that would be like that would defile me, I could never, I would never, I would never want my kids to experience that. I would never want my future to, I would never want to experience that, but now you've become so distant from the Father that the thing that used to look disgusting now looks delicious. Because the Bible says he started envying the pig slop, it's like, "Well, you know what, it ain't really, I mean, I mean, she made it work. I mean, yeah, but!" [BLANK_AUDIO] Yeah, but they make six figures. Yeah, but, but at least I'll be financially secure. Overflow, they not talking to me like I want who, who grew up like I grew up. When I was growing up, I was in middle school and my, my family moved in a while. I got parents and my got parents. We lived, we moved out of Oakland into the suburbs. And so I'm able to ride my bike around the neighborhood and like, you know, not worrying about like I, where you from, you know what I mean? I'm just like, just chilling. And so we're going on these ventures all summer and all, I have in a great time. And then once we're done, like, you know, you wake up early, Hey, let's go play. We go meet at the Ronnet blue spot going on and we're like, we gotta come to higher. I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. So let's go. Let's go to miles.

We'll go to miles. We'll go play Grand Theft Auto for a little bit and then we'll come back. And so you come home and are you play Veggie Tails? I don't know what you played when you're a child. I don't know. Okay. Madden. Okay. And so, you know, when you, when you live in the suburbs, you're like, you know, I'm trying to get five stars. So, so I love our church. Okay. But then you get home and you're on the couch with your friends and then your Godmom comes in and she'll be like, Oh, just smell like outside. Why you better get out. You better go take a shot. You better go host off. You singing on my furniture. You be like, no, no, no, we're just playing for a little bit. We were just tired, but we're about to go back and then we're about to go to his house and it's like, ah, ain't no in and out. Either you inside or you outside. You ain't coming in and out the house because you smell like I was. I loved it. Just either universe. I see the white people like, yeah, Hispanics like see Asians like, yeah, absolutely. That was my childhood too. We so y'all have my grandma. And God told me to tell you that you smell like outside. And if you're not careful, you will get used to being outside for so long that

you will forget what home actually feels like. And God wanted me to tell you that it's time to stop going in and out of the house because everything you need is inside the house. So stop staying. But guys, even though it looks good now, even though it posts good now, before you know it, you will start being with pigs and even pigs. And you will be like, well, I just don't understand why this is happening to me. And it's because you went outside of his will to get your will. But what you actually needed was inside the. Are y'all going to help me preach? Y'all going to help me preach? But here's the problem. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. It's impossible to be found inside the house when you don't recognize that you're actually lost. And I want to talk to you about the sense of separation. Did you notice on the text that said, but when he came to his senses, he was like, what am I doing? Jeffrey, the butler be having Tupperware with leftovers and I'm over here eating pig slops. And I wonder how many of us have become desensitized to the voice of God, because we're listening to the voice of our actual friends or our successful friends who also, you know what I mean? Or are living in pig slops and they justified and they normalize it. So you don't even recognize what you smell like and what you're doing because you don't have the actual sense of separation. And you think you're doing God's will because you found some stupid tiktoker that can give a Bible verse or some weird theology that makes you feel good about the sin you're living in. So you don't even think it's sin because you don't feel guilty.

Here's the truth. Sin is not a feeling. It is a standard. And any time you missed the mark of the standard you were living in sin, regardless of if it feels good in the moment, because the Bible says the wages of sin is death, meaning the wages of sin is distance disengagement and disappointment because you will never feel fulfilled by being apart from the one who created you. But he comes to a census. And when he comes to a census, he says, I'm going back home. But before he can go home, he's already imagining what the response will be like. So he starts rehearsing his speech. Have you ever had the conversation before the conversation? You get that email. Hey, your supervisor wants to meet with you on Monday. OK, I'm going to just start telling him, listen, I've been. Your, your, your significant other says, Hey, we need to talk. OK, OK, well, what happened was, and, and, and I don't even know. And so he starts rehearsing the conversation before the conversation and, and, and notice his words. He says, I'm going to just tell him, Father, I've sinned against heaven because he's like my dad's religious. So I got to throw God into it. He says, I sin against heaven and I'm sitting against you. I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. But can I tell you about the third character? We talked about the prodigal son. We talked about the lost one, but I want to talk to you about the gambling father. We talk about the gambling father. And I know he was a gambler because as the son is walking back to the house, rehearsing his speech, the Bible says while he was still a long way off, the father saw him. And the only way you can see someone before they see you is if you are already

looking for them, which tells me that every day that the son was wasting his present, the father was betting on his future, like this just might be the day where he, this is might be the day where he comes, this just might be the day where he, and multiple days when it worked, he never saw him, but he still went back out there, meaning that father had a gambling problem and the problem was he believed that if he kept gambling on grace, the grace of God, the grace of the father, the love and kindness of the father would lead him to repentance. And so he's like, I'm just hoping, I'm just betting, I'm just believing that who remember what it felt like to be in my house and that the sin, the stink, the smell, because you know the father heard some stories because people will be talking, you know, you didn't need social media to know what Shenanai was doing over there in another car, you knew, you knew, but as the son is returning, the father sees him and the Bible says in Luke 15, 21, his son said to him, father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Father, I sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Father, I sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son, which blows my mind, because I remember 30 minutes ago, y'all all quoted the same verse in Ephesians chapter four, verse one, that said, I beg you, therefore, a prisoner for some more beg you to lead a life worthy for you I've been by meaning the son had no power or no right to disqualify his worthiness because he didn't call himself, you cannot disqualify yourself from something you never apply to, you cannot tell someone else what you're worthy of when they're the ones who deemed you worthy in the first place. And this is how I know I'm not just making stuff up because I googled it. I didn't googled, I used cloth, but anyway, I looked it up and the definition, the language that Paul used in Ephesians 4-1 was the exact same verbiage that Jesus used in Luke chapter 15. Everybody say, actually goes, look at that, that means worthy.

And everybody say, Kaleo, that means called. And I wonder if Paul in prison was rehearsing and remembering what he had heard Jesus say in, in, in to the, is people to the Pharisees when they were free and he used the exact same language when he was talking to the church of Ephesus, hey, I need you to lead a life worthy of your calling because you've been called by, well, that matters. Because the brother called the prodigal son, the older one, he called the younger brother, that son of yours, meaning he's no relation to me. And then the gentile, the one who hired him said, you're a slave. That's only worth working with pigs. So I wonder if you've been rehearsing what other people have called you more than what the father calls you. And because you're responding according to what has been called, the titles that others have called you or not called you because who didn't call you back, who didn't show up for you or who didn't believe in you or who pushed you out. And so you've now disqualified yourself from being worthy of a call that you never even asked yourself to receive. When the father, let me tell you how the father responds, the father's response to the son's rehearsed prayer and an apology was a sound that I love. I want to talk about the sound of revival. I want to say the sound of revival. The sound of revival is phenomenal. Because even as the son is speaking to the father and saying, I'm no longer worthy, the father never acknowledges what he's saying. How many of y'all are grateful for the prayers God ignored, for the doors he closed, for the time where he didn't count it against you when you was talking off the side of your neck and saying reckless stuff. And he just. And the father, instead of acknowledging the insecurities, the guilt, the shame and the condemnation of the son, he tells the servants, quick, go get me a robe.

Come on, bring, bring my problem. He says to his son, as the son is apologizing out of guilt and condemnation and shame, the first thing he does is not say anything. He hugs him and the Bible says he kisses him. I'm not going to do that, don't worry. But listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, and I feel Holy Spirit on this. Some of you feel like God is ignoring you because when you pray, he's silent. Not recognizing the first thing God does is not speak, but hug. The first thing God does is not tell you what to do. He shows you how he feels about you. And some of us are thinking God isn't speaking to us because we haven't surrendered to the embrace of the Father. We haven't experienced the kiss of the Father on our sweaty, dirty, stinky face. And then this is what's beautiful about this. He says, "Bring me a robe." Now you got to be thinking, well, why does he say, "Bring me a robe instead of bring me a washcloth." Because this boy smelled like he'd been, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." Because that's carnal thinking, that's legalistic thinking that says he has to get cleaned up before he's worthy of the robe I want to put on him. And that's why the Father says, "I don't need him to clean himself up. I'm going to cover him." And so he covers the son and he puts his robe on him. Now here's what's phenomenal about that. I told you that the Father had been gambling a lot on grace. But I didn't tell you why that mattered because in Jewish tradition, the thought process was that the reason the Father looked every day to see the Son and the reason he ran to the Son, even though that was humiliating for the Father. Like, come on, he's a G. You know, Gs don't run to nothing.

Party don't start till a couple of Gs in the room, I like it. So the Father doesn't run to nobody, but when he sees his son a long way off, he doesn't say it's about time waiting for you to show up. How many Sundays you done this? He runs to him first, why? because the moment you repent, grace closes the gap. And the reason that most Jewish scholars believe he ran to the Son was because he wanted to get to him first because everyone else knew what the Son had done. And according to Jewish tradition, they would have the legal right to stone him for associating with Gentiles and subjugating themselves to Gentiles and smelling like swine. So the Father said, before shame gets to him, I'ma get to him. Before guilt gets to him, I'ma get to him. Before condemnation gets to him, I'ma get to him. Before the Pharisees get to him, I'ma get to him. Before the comment section gets to him, I'ma get to him. And he ran to his son and covered him with grace and honor. And then that wasn't enough. He said, give me my ring. You see this one? This is the only ring I had out of this, my wedding ring was the championship rings from my Golden State Warriors season ticket years. Y'all wouldn't understand, but anyway, he says he put the ring on his finger. Why would he put a ring on a dirty finger? Because the ring represented authority. And the last time the Father had probably used that ring was when he was ex-proving the sale, the fire sale of his property. But now that the Son is home, the same ring that divided the house is now restoring the house. And he's saying, the authority that is in me, I'm placing it on you because not only do you have the honor of God and the honor of the Father, you have the authority of the Father.

That's why Jesus said, death, I have the keys of death, hell and the grave. And when Jesus rose, he says, it is. And why is it finished? He's saying sin no longer has control or authority over your life, only I do. And that's why the Bible says the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you. Tell the person next to you, get your ring on, get your ring on, get your ring on. But not only that, he said, bring out them Gucci loafers from my son. Did y'all see it? And he brought out the sandals. He said, give them sandals. Now, why would he need sandals? They walked barefoot which showed that you were a slave. And remember, when he attached himself to that Gentile, that pig farmer, that farmer hired him, meaning you belong to me, you're my property now. But when he escaped, when he ran, when he left and came back home, the father said, ain't no son of mine walking like a slave barefoot in my house, put the shoes on freedom. So everyone knows he is no longer a slave. That's my son. Meaning when you walk into the house of God, you were not walking like a sinner. You were not walking as a slave. You were not walking like a servant. You were a son of daughter of the house and the gospel. The shoes of peace are your inheritance. So that when you walk, goodness and mercy follows you all the days of your life.

And you can dwell in the house of the Lord, for and better. (tense music) - Stay standing, stay standing. I got a close, I got a close. They decided to have a whole 'nother experience. I was gonna hang out with y'all all day, but they kicking me out. Here's what I need you to catch from the text and translate it to your life. Why would you choose to live like a prodigal? Why would you choose to stay lost? When you understand that not only can you bet on God, but every day God's been betting on you. Because his mercy that woke you up this morning was a reminder that he still has a plan and a purpose and a calling for your life. And as much as the sin and temptation tries to convince you that it's better outside than inside, can I tell you something else that all my gambling friends told me? I got a lot of friends that are still playing parlays even in the experience. And they be on draft Kings a lot. And they tried to actually trade in that poker chip we gave them in the wild horse pass 'cause they were like, "Is it worth what's the worth?" I hang out with sinners, I'm sorry. But can I tell you what my gambling friends taught me? That any time you gamble, any time you find yourself in a situation

where you're betting all the chips in, here's something you should know about gambling. The house always, which is my favorite part of the story when the father says, "Kill the cow, get the bacon." I'm sorry, or the hamburger. And get the party started. Why? 'Cause my son who was dead is now alive. Who one who was lost is found. And it is, I'm gonna find him. I wanna hype him up. I wanna celebrate him and let him know that everything you were looking for out there is available inside the house. Joy, it's in the house. Eve, it's in the house. Provision, it's in the house. Why would you starve outside when there's food inside the house? Why? Because the father's in the house. And if I'm connected to the father, I'm winning in life. Oop. Did you hear that? You heard that my husband, buddy. Somebody said, "Well, I was in the house "and I still got hurt. "I was in the house and I still struggled. "I was in the house and my child still straight away. "I was in the house "and made feel less than or ignored or unseen.

"So I left the house. "Cause I felt more community and comfort "with people outside than people inside. "Can I correct your theology for a moment? "Do I have one minute to correct your theology?" Hey. Just 'cause you're in the house doesn't mean that you don't got broken brothers living in the rooms. So rather than leave the house, just switch the room. Just leave the room. Because maybe that's the growing pain of growing up in a house with brothers and sisters. Is that I gotta learn that if my father says I belong here, I ain't going nowhere. I'm not gonna deconstruct the house that he built. I'm not gonna detach myself from the house that he called me to. I can change rooms. I can grow in my responsibilities. I can get more opportunities. Maybe I need to grow in maturity and wisdom. And maybe I need to learn how to show the heart of the father to starving brothers who don't even recognize that their son so they still live his slaves. So just because you were hurt in the house does not give you the right to leave the house. That's what orphans do. That's what kids in group homes do.

Is they get disappointed so all they know how to do is run away, not knowing that the father is running towards them. Here's the question I have for you this morning that I want you to ask yourself. Have I been gambling with grace on my life? What do you mean by that, Pastor Justin? What you are doing is you are consciously disobeying the voice of God and you're acting like tomorrow is promised and you're going to get another chance. And as someone who's officiated more funerals than I'd like to, as someone who has seen more homes broken up than I'd like to see. Let me tell you as someone who even works has seen more legacies deterred and destroyed because they thought I got tomorrow. You're gambling with grace. Don't gamble with grace. When gay, when grace is what allows you to even hear the voice of God to show you I need to change. I need to start, I need to stop, I need to, something has to change. Here's the second question, how do I need to reconnect with my Heavenly Father and/or His house? It could be simple, maybe it's an initial connection, maybe you just have to accept the love, grace, mercy and forgiveness of your Father. Maybe you have to believe that being spiritual apart from Jesus Christ is being carnal and sinful. Being a good person is like comparing yourself to other people that are living in pig slops. You missed the mark, but accepting the fact that apart from God I am a sinner and I need a Savior and I cannot save myself. And believing that the price, the penalty for my sin, the thing that I deserve to experience was paid by Jesus Christ two over two thousand years ago and saying I'm going to choose to put all my chips on Him and accept what He's done as the finished work for my life and stay planted in His house so I can grow looking more like Him, the Son of God. Maybe you need to just commit to staying planted. The Bible says those who are planted in the house of God will flourish. Will be perfect? Absolutely not. It's not that our kids have it off, but our kids at least have a source to depend on. Trust me, I've pastored kids with more money than they know what to do with and they're on more anti-depressants than the kids in the hood. Which tells me that you trying to solve your family's needs carnally apart from the house and the plan of God will cause them more dysfunction and destruction. And you'll teach them how to live off of pig slops instead of learning what it means to flourish in the house of God. And you'll never give them a point of reference to return to if they do go too far, if they do create distance on their own.

Here's the third thing. I would tell you to do in response to those questions is commit, or as they commit. Commit to living like a son or daughter of the house. How do I do that? I need to recognize, repent and return. Come to your senses. You got to recognize like, wait, this is not God's plan for my life. This is not God's will for my life. But then you got to make a conscious decision, not an emotional one, not based on feelings, based on the fact that if I am missing the mark according to the word of God, then I am going to make a conscious decision to change some things, whether I feel like it or not. Why? Because he's worthy and I trust his will more than mine. Here's the third thing I would say, return. It's not enough to feel or think or know if you don't do. The Bible says, don't just be a hear of the word, be a doer of it. So now you're accountable for what you know. Hey, if you're still watching at this point, I believe that it's not an accident. And I believe that if you're feeling something in your spirit, that is God trying to get your attention and invite you into a deeper relationship with him. And so if you're ready to take that step, I want to walk you through what that looks like. It's simple. We're going to say a prayer together. And it's just you acknowledging that you believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and that you're willing to commit your life to following him and learning what it means to be a son or daughter of God. So repeat after me if you can. Jesus, here I am, I believe that you love me, that you died for me, and that you want a relationship with me. I acknowledge that I'm a sinner and I need a savior. And I'm committing to learning what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If I mess up, I will not quit because you've never quit on me. I invite your Holy Spirit to lead me and guide me in your truth from today on. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, we're proud of you. That's a huge decision. And we don't want you to feel like you have to figure it all out on your own from this point. We have a value, a legacy that says we follow Jesus for ourselves, but not by ourselves. So I would invite you to text the number below, follow the instructions, and we're going to send you resources so you can learn what it means to be a follower of Jesus in Jesus' name. Congratulations, your life will never be the same. - Thank you for watching. Hope you enjoyed the online experience. - Hey, if this message impacted you,

make sure you like, comment, subscribe, and share it with the friends so we can continue to share the gospel. Hey, here at Legacy Prayer is our priority. You have any prayer needs, you can send them to [email protected]. - If you'd like to financially partner with Legacy, you can text any dollar amount to 84321. You can also download the church center app, visit our website at legacyaz.church. Click on ways to give. You'll find links to support Legacy Church. - You can find us on social media, otherwise got in love with-- - If we like Jesus. - We'll see you next week.