Infinite Worth March 22, 2026

The Parable of the Beacon Well good morning fellowship. Man what a privilege it is to be here with each and every one of you today as we do gather together to sing praises to the Lord of heaven and earth our Savior Jesus Christ. And for any of you who are relatively new with us this morning whether you're joining us in the chapel or online at home across the world or here in the worship center my name is Ben Parkinson and I'm one of four we call teaching pastors here at fellowship. We have the privilege of coming alongside the other teaching pastors Justin, Brandon, and Mark to teach and lead the church in the team oriented way that we do. So if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet and you have some time after the service, man please come up and say hi that'd be a huge blessing to me. And like we've said today we are looking forward to our Easter services coming up in just a couple of weeks and I do want to reiterate what we've said about those of you who call fellowship home trying to make Saturday night service the place that you come and spend Easter with us. I know man Sunday morning Easter morning it's so much fun to come and to do that and at the same time we want as many people as possible to be able to come and hear the message of the good news of the resurrection that we have to offer. And so if you call fellowship home and you're willing to do that man it would be an incredible not only opportunity for maybe the person who would sit in the seat that you're sitting in right now to be able to hear the gospel maybe they start a relationship with Jesus for the first time here in a couple of weekends but also for you to get to experience the laying down of your preference in that way the way that Jesus laid down his preferences his rights his life for us on the cross you get to actually practice a little bit of what

Easter is all about in doing that so we hope you'll help us make room for people who need it on Sunday morning. And we are in the second to last week of this series in the book of Isaiah preaching on the glory of God that we're calling infinite worth infinite worth which comes from our definition as a church family of the glory of God which is that the glory of God is the public display of his infinite worth the idea being that although God's always glorious whether we recognize it or not when he publicly displays something on the earth that that we can see that we can hear that we can feel that shows us his glory that's him glorifying himself that's what the glory of God is which by the way like we've been talking about in the series always ends up blessing his creation blessing those of us made in his image and all the things that he's created on the earth because of who God is when he glorifies himself it can't help but overflow in blessing on us because God is the essence of love when he glorifies himself it results in his love being poured out on us because God's restoration because that's who he is when he glorifies himself it results in him restoring our lives because of who he is when he glorifies himself it always blesses his creation which we're going to see again this morning Isaiah chapter 55 if you want to make your way there with me we'll have the verses on the screen of course you're going to follow along that way that's Isaiah chapter 55 we'll look at the whole chapter this morning just 13 verses and as you're making your way there i'll just remind us that up to this point we've seen some pretty specific ways God's blessed us when he glorifies himself how in Isaiah 6 where we kicked off the series we saw in God glorifying his magnificence in that scene in the throne room

it blesses us with awe and wonder which we need we were created to worship we saw how God glorifying his justice in Isaiah 25 and 26 blesses us with that peace that surpasses all human understanding we've seen in Isaiah 28 how when God glorifies his grace to us it blesses us with rest and again his comfort blesses us with strength in Isaiah 41 and 42 but today we're going to look at a passage on Isaiah 55 that shows us something a little more big picture about God and how it blesses us but really really beautiful maybe more glorious than anything we've looked at so far Isaiah 55 is going to show us that when God glorifies himself it blesses us in all kinds of ways we could never imagine because his ways are so much higher than our ways in fact that's the crux of this chapter in verses 8 and 9 as maybe some of you have heard before, even used before in trying to speak to others about their relationship with God. We'll look at them and then we'll come back and talk about them later as well. But I want you to remember, this kind of is right in the middle of the chapter, really the focal point of it all. God says this in verses eight and nine. "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, "'neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. "'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, "'so are my ways higher than your ways, "'and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" Right, sin has so corrupted the earth, so corrupted the world,

so corrupted our hearts as we're born into the world that the natural bent of our minds, the natural ways that we think are different than the ways that God thinks, even though we're made in his image, created to emulate him. Our natural bent is to act in ways different than God acts, even though we're made in his image, so that when God does things the way he does them on the earth, what this passage reminding us is, is yeah, it feels foreign to us. It feels strange sometimes, and yet I think we'll see today why I'm so thankful that he does things differently than I would do them, because his ways are truly jaw-dropping. They are absolutely glorious. Instead of reading through the whole chapter today and then going back and preaching through it verse by verse, we're just gonna read it as we preach through it, starting off in verses one and two. Let's look at together chapter 55 verse one, the very words of God to the people, both now of Israel and Judah, right? We've kind of seen through Isaiah speaking to one group or the other at times here. He's speaking to both here towards the end of the prophecy of Isaiah. He says, come everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters. And he who has no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which is not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food. So right off the bat here in this chapter, we can see that God's ways are not our ways, can't we? He says, he who has no money, come buy and eat. He says, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. What in the world is God talking about there? How do you buy something without money? How do you purchase something without any way to purchase it? Especially the most decadent, delightful things on the earth in Isaiah's day like wine and rich food and milk. I know a lot of us wouldn't put milk in that list, right? Of decadent, delightful things. But you had to remember back in their day, milk was this special delicacy, right? What does God call the promised land to his people when he says, I'm gonna take you to this incredible place, a land flowing with what? Milk and honey, right, yeah. It was a decadent thing, it was a delightful thing. It was something that not everyone had access to all the time.

God says, come and buy the best things the world has to offer with no money, with no price. How does that work? Well, the reason God says it that way is because contrary to popular belief, God has actually created the world so that the things that matter the most in life, the most delightful things in life don't depend on our ability to actually buy them with money. Money can't buy you the things that truly satisfy the way God's wired us and wired the world. Which is completely opposite of how humanity thinks and lives, don't we? In our minds, the things that are the most delightful, the things that are the most decadent, the things that matter the most in life always cost money. Driving around the best cars costs money. Staying in the most decadent resorts on vacation costs money. Living in the nicest homes costs money. Eating the best food costs money. Getting tickets to the most expensive show, the most popular show costs money. No, the decadent things on the earth that we want to delight ourselves with always cost money. In fact, they cost the most money, don't they? So we work our fingers to the bone for it and we burn the candle at both ends for it and we hold back being generous to others to be able to afford it and we beg, borrow, and steal for it.

It even affects our relationships, the way that we view people in our lives at times, right? We can view people in our lives as threats to keeping us from getting to enjoy the most wonderful things in life. For some of us, it may be siblings because there's an inheritance out there that we think we deserve a certain amount of and we're kind of threatened or worried that they may be getting more of it than us or maybe you and your siblings have divided over that. There's friction there in your relationship because of it. Coworkers who you're worried are gonna get. ahead of you in your company and get promoted over you or maybe kind of backstab you or do things that are gonna keep you from making as much money as you could, which in our hearts and minds means I won't be as satisfied as I could be, I won't enjoy life as much as I possibly can because we view it as a threat. Now our lives revolve around making money, keeping money, saving money, spending money. Because we think we'll be able to buy things with money, that's where satisfaction is. And yet what does God say about all of that here in these first two verses? He says, why do you spend your labor for that which does not satisfy? It says the exact opposite of the way that we tend to function in our lives.

God says, sure, there are things that people spend their entire lives trying to find a way to afford and to buy, but because each of, every one of you is made in my image, the only thing that's gonna satisfy you deep down are the things that satisfy me. Because I created you to be like me. And those aren't the things that will ever satisfy your soul, even though you build entire economies around them. Even though you feel devastated when you can't get them. Even though you judge one another for not being able to afford them. Even though you get jealous of people who have them, you base all of your happiness on these things and yet they aren't the things that will truly bring you joy and satisfaction. Now, that's not to say that the things that matter in life don't cost us something. They do cost us something, that's why God says what he says in verse one, don't miss what he says, he says to those who have no money, no, still come and buy and eat. You still have to buy the things in God's world that truly satisfy, you just don't pay for them with money. That's what he's saying. Says you pay for them in other ways. So, what's God talking about here in Isaiah 55? Seems kind of really confusing. Well, that's what he goes on to explain.

Right, the end of verse two finishes with him saying, listen, listen diligently to me, delight yourselves in rich food. Okay, God, how do I do that? So he picks up in verse three, starting off talking about listening to him some more. He's gonna tell us the things we can buy without money that truly satisfy. Look at verse three and four, he says, incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live. He says, I'm gonna tell you what is delightful, what real life is about. He says, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. God says the things that truly satisfy that money can't buy begin with entering into an everlasting covenant relationship with the God of David. And notice he says a covenant based on not our steadfast love for him, he says on my steadfast, sure love for you. Not ours, but his. And the Hebrew word there for steadfast, sure love is the word hesed, which sometimes translated not just love, but to give us a sense of what kind of love it's talking about, it gets translated kindness,

merciful, loyal, unfailing. God says the kind of satisfaction you work your whole life, killing yourself to try and afford with money can really only be found in a relationship with the one who has created you based on my kind, merciful, loyal, unconditional love for you. It's only found in relationships filled with true, unconditional love. But not only does true satisfaction, the satisfaction we crave, begin with a relationship with God built on his unconditional love, for us it grows into relationship with others who we would never choose for ourselves, quite honestly. Look at what he goes on to say in verse five, he says, behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, right, talking to Jewish people now, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. God here is foretelling a day to the Jewish people where the offspring of David, he says, will call out to the other Gentile nations, says you will call out to them a people you do not know and they shall run to you. You're gonna be in relationship with these nations you hate. You're gonna be in relationship with these nations that you don't want any part of. You're gonna be in relationship with these nations

that you think are so awful and evil and terrible because they don't worship me the way you worship me, he said, there's gonna come a day where you're gonna call out to them to come to you and they're gonna run to you, why? Because of the Lord your God. And then he says, because the Holy One of Israel, speaking of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. God says the way that I've created you to work and the world to work is that the satisfaction that you try to buy with your wealth can only be found in. personal relationships with me and with others around the world. And when I say others, he says, I mean relationships with people you never would think you could have relationship with. People you think of as maybe your enemies. Those coworkers we talked about that maybe you think of as rivals to your satisfaction right now. Those estranged family members that you've broken off relationship with and it feels impossible to ever have a healthy relationship with again. Kids, parents, God says I can restore marriages that otherwise would end in divorce. Not just to where they used to be before the friction started to happen, but better than before.

You can have deep friendships, you can have family, you can have neighbors, you can have God, and all of that is not just for the rich and famous. In fact, you can't buy it with money. Even though a lot of times the rich and famous on the earth try to buy it with money. You can't do it. So how do we get it? If we can't buy these things God's talking about, this real satisfaction with the money that we have, then how do we buy it? Like what is he talking about? What's the currency that we have to offer? Verses six and seven, look at it with me. He says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. And let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. So I love what God says here, right? Because God says the way you buy it, first of all in this passage, he says is by seeking me, by seeking the Lord, by calling upon me. He says forsaking the way of the wicked and returning to the way of the Lord, right? He says you have to return to do things

the way that I do things. You have to return to my way. What's interesting is when we think of that, we think of people returning, calling on the Lord and returning to the way of the Lord. We think primarily of someone who was living a life and doing a bunch of things that were bad, right? Like substance abuse or sexual immorality or cheating somehow or whatever it is. We think about those people cleaning up their life, returning to the Lord, obeying God better and that that's what God's talking about. Now to be sure, I wanna say and be clear this morning, when we do those kinds of things, the things he's asked us not to do in his word, it absolutely is harmful to us. He does want us to return to him and start obeying his word in those things that I just talked about. Not only that, but those kinds of things, they do also ruin the kind of relationships that he says real life is all about, satisfaction is all about. So it's not that that's unrelated necessarily to what he's talking about for sure. But notice what God says at the end of verse seven. What's the real game changer when it comes to delighting in the things that actually matter on the earth?

Look at what he says when he says, let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. God says the way you're gonna stop wasting your money for that which is really not bread in verse two and your labor for that which is not satisfied is that when you turn to me, he says, and enter into this relationship, this covenant relationship with me based on my unconditional love for you, this kind, merciful, loyal relationship, you're gonna experience me having compassion on you. You're gonna experience me pardoning you in our relationship here. And not only will my unconditional love for you, my unconditional acceptance for you, my never-ending forgiveness of you, not only will that eventually begin to motivate you to stop doing those sinful things that ruin your life, that don't bring you abundant life, that ruin your relationships, yes, all of that, but he says it's also gonna, in turn, push you to have those same kind of merciful, gracious, forgiving relationships with others around you, these nations that are gonna come flocking to you that you never would think you would even want to come flocking to you. That instead of living in a wake of broken relationships, full of people you hope to never see again,

gotta say I'm trying to show you in the way that I love you in the relationship I have with you where real delight is found, where real satisfaction is found, that you'll live in a wake of relationships with people who can't wait to be around you, can't wait to spend time with you, can't wait to share life with you because they're so blown away by your willingness to love them even when they have hurt you. They're gonna be so blown away by that, they'll have these incredible relationships with you and to forgive them even when they didn't deserve it. And so instead of you only having these shallow relationships that are a few years old, you're gonna have relationships with. History and memories and depth because you won't cut them off every time you get hurt and move on and cut them off and move On and cut them off and move on you'll you'll pardon the way I abundantly pardon you You'll show compassion the way I have compassion on you you'll forgive the way that I forgive you and you have these relationships with depth and with and with History and with and with forgiveness is a part of their story It'll make them more sure and not less more meaningful and not less more secure and not less You'll stop seeing your co-workers just as people that you use to get the money you want to try and have a satisfying life You'll stop seeing them as just competitive obstacles to gain the money. You want to try and have a satisfying life and You'll realize it's the relationship you build with them that actually gives you the satisfaction That you're longing for because you're made in my image And I'm all about Pardoning and showing compassion for the gain of relationship. That's what my entire being is about You'll stop seeing the hurt that family members cause each other as a reason to end those relationships and you start seeing it is an opportunity to display the glory of God to them and to experience the joy God experiences when

He pardons when he forgives when he has compassion on people Because we'll see here toward the end of the passage. It brings him joy To do this. It's the benefit he gets out of it But here's the interesting thing. I want you to see in this passage. I don't want us to miss it It's after God says that he's a God who shows compassion It's after what God says that he's a God who abundantly pardons those who return to him That's when we get those famous verses in 8 and 9 It's coming off the heels of that that he says in verses 8 and 9 for my thoughts are not your thoughts Neither are my ways declare the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than your ways in my thoughts than your thoughts What's fascinating is we tend to quote these verses use these verses talk to people about these verses When they're going through something hard that we can't explain, right? And we're like man, I would never ask you to walk through something this hard I don't understand why God would allow this why he'd ask you to walk through this and so we tend to use these verses to say but his ways are higher than our ways his thoughts not like our thoughts like He does things that we can't possibly fathom or understand as a way of saying I would never make you walk through it But God is for some reason and we have to trust him in that because his ways are higher than our ways Now that sentiment is true God does ask us to walk through hard things that we don't understand and he does do Incredible things when we look back on them We'll see how they were for our good and for his glory in all kinds of ways when we see him Face-to-face that sentiment is true. It's just not what this verse is talking about So the context of what he's saying here What's amazing is the context of what he's saying here is that the way that God is not like us It's not that he asked us to walk through hard things We wouldn't ask ours to walk through the way that God's ways are not like our ways is that he pardons people we would never pardon He shows compassion to people. We would never show compassion to The way God's different than us is that whereas we try to live in a world where we're constantly judging one another and Canceling one another and condemning one another and separating one another Into people who deserve my time and attention and people who don't people who deserve my love and people who don't

That God's actually created the world So that the people he wants to include in his kingdom and in his life and in relationship with him Doesn't depend on their ability to deserve it He's wired the world so the most meaningful things we can't buy with our money and he's wired relationships So that the people he wants to include don't have to deserve it from them It's the exact opposite of everything that we feel in the way that we live on the earth The relationships that God includes in his kingdom only depend on his ability to forgive and his ability to pardon And when you think about it, really we should all get that because that's what heaven is supposed to be right? And when we think about where all this is going and the reason why we place our faith in Jesus Christ The hope that we have that when we die, we'll live will be resurrected and be with God for every eternity What is the promise of the scriptures? What is eternity? All that heaven is is billions and billions of billions of people who God Undeservingly pardoned so he could be in relationship with us who God Undeservingly forgave so they could be in relationship with us all that heaven is All that heaven is is us being in a perfect relationship with a God who pardoned and forgave us abundantly that we did not deserve to be in relationship with That that's that's what we say utopia is And that's what God's saying, right? That's utopia. That's perfection. That's satisfaction. That's delight That's the rich food of life that you long for that you crave even though you don't realize it and you keep thinking It's a This other thing over here that you gotta find a way to earn and buy and get for yourself these things, but you're really never gonna be satisfied there. What it is is the thing that if you really sit down and think about it, you said heaven is. Relationship with people who've been pardoned, who don't deserve it, the richness of those relationships. Now, so that's what it is, but how do we buy it, right? That's what we have to buy with no money in order to experience the delight

of this rich food God's talking about. We have to be willing to forgive people like God forgives us, to show compassion on people the way God shows compassion on us. And here's why he's saying you gotta buy it, even though it doesn't cost money, because forgiveness, church, is never free. It's never free. Someone has to absorb the consequences of the hurt to pardon someone else who has hurt them. It's not free. Pastor Tim Keller, who's one of my favorite all-time theologians, talks about the cost of forgiveness in this way. He says when speaking of forgiveness, Jesus uses the image of debts to describe the nature of sins. When someone seriously wrongs you, there's an absolute unavoidable sense that the wrongdoer owes you something. The wrong has incurred an obligation, a liability, a debt. He says anyone who's been wronged feels a compulsion to make the other person pay down that debt. How do we do that? He says we do that by hurting them, yelling at them, making them feel bad in some way, or just waiting and watching and hoping that something bad happens to them. And only after we see them suffer in some commiserate way do we sense that debt has been paid

and the sense of obligation is gone. Keller says that the natural way the human heart works is to say, yeah, I'll forgive you when I think you've paid enough, suffered enough, because it costs something. He says this sense of debt, liability, and obligation is impossible to escape. Anyone who denies it has simply not been wronged or sinned against in any serious way. Everyone in here agree with that? You've been sinned against in some serious way? Is there a natural sense in your heart that yeah, there's a debt there that needs to be paid? Yeah, there's always that. He says what then is forgiveness? Forgiveness means giving up the right to seek repayment from the one who harmed you. But it must be recognized that forgiveness is a form of voluntary suffering, he says. You're volunteering to suffer on behalf of the other person in order to forgive them. He says what does that mean? Think about how monetary debt works. He says if a friend breaks my lamp and the lamp costs $50 to replace, then the act of lamp breaking incurs a debt of $50. If I let him pay for it and replace the lamp, I get my lamp back and he's out $50. But if I forgive him for what he did, the debt does not somehow vanish into thin air.

When I forgive him, I absorb the cost and the payment for the lamp. Either I pay the $50 to replace it myself or I will lose the lighting in that room the lamp used to provide. That's what God's talking about in verse one of Isaiah 55 when he says he who has no money, you still gotta come buy something. Come buy it and eat. He says now listen, this is gonna be the most satisfying thing in the world to you. It's gonna delight your soul, but you're gonna have to pay for it. You're gonna have to buy it, but not with money. Come with no money and buy that which truly satisfies your soul. What is that he says? The joy of forgiving others and absorbing the debt yourself the way that God does in his relationship with you dozens of times a day. God says this is what our relationship is based on. My delight in forgiving you over and over and over again to have relationship with you. That's where satisfaction is found. That's where life is found. Don't believe me? Look at the rest of the chapter with me. Verse 10, he says for as the rain and snow come down from heaven and then look, do not return there, but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. He says so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed for the thing for which I send it. This is one of the most beautiful parts of this passage to me. God says the way that I work is not like you work in that I've created the world to need things that only I can send it. He says when I send those things, guess what? They don't come back to me in the same form that I sent them. Notice what he says here. He says I send rain and snow upon the earth to water the earth, but it doesn't come back to him as more rain. God doesn't invest rain in the world and then get back a greater return of rain to himself. He says it doesn't come back up to heaven, does it? He says no, the earth absorbs it. He says it produces seeds for the sower to use. And then the sower plants those seeds to produce bread for the eater. or to eat, God says the way I work, the way that's so much different than the world around you is that I give things away that I deserve to keep for myself to bless others who I wanna have a relationship with.

That's the payoff I get. I don't get the return on investment of the same thing back, I get the return on investment of my relationship with you who I love. But then notice in verse 12, we're the ones that get the joy and the peace that we don't deserve. He says, for you shall go out in joy, and you shall be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. This is the opposite of the way that we tend to think about life on the earth. The way that we tend to think about business, the way that we tend to think about what we need to do to get the things that we wanna have to be satisfied in life is we tend to say, okay, I'm gonna invest my time and my work and even some of my money, I'm gonna invest it to make some kind of product for somebody out there to purchase back from me, right? But as I do that, I'm gonna try and make this product for as little as I can. I'm gonna try and pay the other employees around me as little as they'll take. And I'm gonna try and pay the government as little tax dollars as I have to so that I can get back the most money I can get in return. I'm gonna invest some, but my hope is to get back

more of the same for myself so that I can then go buy the things that are gonna satisfy me in life. Our general bent is to try and maximize blessing ourselves while minimizing blessing others in that food chain. Here's how God's ways are so much higher than our ways. He's actually created the world to work so that the greatest glory and the greatest joy that he receives doesn't depend on his need to bypass blessing us, doesn't depend on his need to minimize what we get out of it so that he can get more of it. He's created the world so that he gets the most glory for himself and the most joy for himself by pouring out things on the earth that it absorbs, he says. It never gives that rain back to him. He never gets that snow back to heaven. But it blesses him with relationship. It blesses him by blessing the people who he loves, the people that he wants that rain to accomplish something for. It comes back to him in the form of our true delight and satisfaction. It's why Jesus earned perfect righteousness on the earth, right? So he could pour it out on us, give it to us, or we didn't deserve it, and then he climbed up on the cross and absorbed the consequences of being able to forgive us of our sin. He did exactly this.

This is the gospel God's talking about in Isaiah 55. He pours out righteousness on us, absorbs the consequence of our sin so he can forgive us and he gets relationship with us in return, that's what he gets out of it. To be able to call us co-heirs to the throne that he deserves to have by himself. He says I'd rather share it. That's where real delight is found. I'd rather be in relationship with you. That's where real joy is found. And he says eating that bread, that's more satisfying than any five-course meal you could possibly imagine. That's more rich than any decadent thing you could possibly experience. That's why chapter 55 ends with this verse in verse 13. He says instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle and it shall make a name for the Lord. He says that's how I make a name for myself. That's how I glorify my, this is my glory. This is how I make the name that I want for myself, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Now he says instead of our relationship with God turning into a thorn or a briar, which it should based on the way that we've hurt him, offended him, sinned against him, it's his willingness to purchase the compassion and the pardon and the forgiveness necessary to buy that to make it a cypress and not a thorn.

To make it a myrtle instead of a briar. That's what he says glorifies him and brings him joy. That's what makes him jaw-droppingly glorious in a way that we should all stand in awe of. And to show you a real picture of what this looks like in someone's life in our church, I want you to watch Jessica's story with me this morning. My name is Jessica Hildebrand. I lead our women's ministry on our Maumelle campus. And I also am part of the teaching team in West Little Rock as well. I grew up in a small town in Arkansas and was raised in a loving home. Gave my life to Christ at the age of 12. In my early teen years, I met a young man and decided to start dating him. And he was someone that my parents didn't approve of. I was kind of led to have to make a decision to either continue to see the young man or leave home. I chose to leave home my senior year of high school. I left academic scholarships behind, athletic scholarships behind. I moved to Michigan, got married early, had a child when I was 19. After a year or so of marriage, I realized I had gotten myself into quite the pickle. It was a pretty chaotic marriage. It was full of abuse and financial difficulties, adultery, you name it, we had it. It eventually led, after a couple years of marriage, to divorce. I moved back home with my daughter to Arkansas, met another individual, had a relationship on and off that, again, was pretty chaotic, and I ended up getting pregnant and having my son.

I went to work for my brother-in-law and sister as a bookkeeper. That was a very trusted position, obviously, dealing with their finances. I decided to make the horrible decision of stealing money, a large sum of money. Eventually that got caught by the federal government, and I was sentenced to two years in federal prison. I was, by all accounts, a liar. I was a thief. I was now a convicted felon. I lost custody of both of my children. A lot of people ask me what the turning point was. You would think prison would have been it, right? What bigger wake-up call would you possibly need? But for me, that wasn't it. I remember very vividly laying in the floor of my closet, just weeping over how I had gotten to this point in life, who I was, who I had become. It was devastating. I recognized that I needed a Savior, and that it wasn't just a label. Christian wasn't just a label for me. I think if there is a turning point, that was it. Standing up and teaching women's Bible study gets a pretty good contrast to my life twenty years ago. I'm not sure this is me. Y'all have got the wrong woman. But in God's grace, He showed me that He actually has designed me as a teacher, and He gave me such a love for His Word and desire to share that with women. I think it's just so obvious, especially people that knew me then and know me now, how it's nothing but the work of God. Women's prison ministry gives me the opportunity to go in and speak with women about what got us all to the place of being incarcerated. One thing that we all have in common is sin.

I think the message of the gospel that we share consistently and faithfully with them obviously has the power to save lives, to transform their lives. They understand that God has created them on purpose, for a purpose, in His image. He has redeemed so much of my life. I have a loving relationship with my father now that if you'd have told me twenty years ago would be possible, I wouldn't have believed it. My daughter, who by all accounts had a very unstable childhood, who did not have Christ presented in the home, is leading women's Bible study as a table leader in Maumelle. My sister, I have a closer relationship with her now than we had as blood sisters when we were young, because Christ has just created such an intimacy there. It's hard to look in the mirror and go, without Christ, this is who you are. You are a liar. You are a thief. You are a felon. You did steal from your family. You did tear your family apart by disobedience. That's hard to know that without Christ, that's who you are. But that's the truth of it, and that's also the grace and mercy of it. It's beautiful and messy all at the same time, but apparently God loves to use that. So here I am. What a great, fine, yeah, let me clap it up. That's the glory of God, right? That's what makes Him infinitely worthy of our praise. His life is the public display of His infinite worth. That a daughter who rejected her parents and abandoned them for a man who abused her and left her would have a better relationship with them now than she did before. His ways are not our ways. But a sister who embezzled money from her sister's business and brother-in-law's Business would have would say now she has a better relationship with her than she had before that happened That's how his thoughts are higher than our thoughts

That a woman who rejected God's Word and his will for her rejected it For a lot of her life leading her to prison would be pardoned by God Restored to teach women his word who'd never disobey it the way that she did never broke it the way that she did That's how he's not like us That's how he's other than us That's God absorbing the consequences of her sin. He paid for him. Someone paid for it. He had to buy it But not with money Right with absorbing the consequences of her sin to give Jessica hope and joy and family in a future and that's her family Turning to the way of the Lord when he says turn to the way of the Lord They turned to the way of the Lord and they let his compassion for them pour out in compassion on her his forgiveness for them Pour out in forgiveness on her That's buying with no money the bread that truly satisfies That's that's abundant life That's rich food. God says in Isaiah 55 We read the scene in Isaiah 6 where Isaiah falls down like a dead man before the throne of God with the angels all around Right, and we say that's the glory of God him on his throne with a train of his robe That fills fills the entire temple and angels angelic beings who won't even look at him because he's so glorious and to be sure his Physical presence is gonna be so awe-inspiring. We would all do the same. It's gonna be incredibly glorious But what God says here toward the end of Isaiah 50 I love how he starts he starts Isaiah that when Isaiah 6 and says you think this is what glory is all about Coming toward the end of Isaiah 55. He says this is what glory is all about This is what truly is jaw-dropping This is what truly is awe-inspiring a God who shows compassion like this who pardons like this who loves? like this That's what glory really is and praise God that his ways are not our ways. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father we thank you so much for this truth God I beg you That we would be the kind of community as a church family that would

so appreciate your forgiveness of us, so Just be enthralled with your pardoning of us your abundant pardoning you say of us in Isaiah 55 God that we would pour it out on those around us. We'd poured out on each other as a community of faith We'd poured out on those around us that don't deserve it God that that Central Arkansas would would look at this family called Fellowship Bible Church And they would say man that feels weird to me that feels strange to me that feels foreign to me They seem way too forgiving way too gracious way too compassionate to each other when they shouldn't be But man, there's something there They seem really satisfied with their life In a way that I'm not they seem really fulfilled in their relationships They seem to experiencing the richness of something that I long for God May you may you do that in our hearts in a way that it draws people to yourself Who say yeah, I want I want that no matter what it costs no matter what I have to pay for it. I want that Lord we thank you that you're willing to buy that which no money can purchase In your name Thanks again for listening to the Word of God We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on if you're needing prayer Or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus reach out to us at fellowship AR dot-com slash contact. Have a great week