Low Life — Redemption — Rich Wilkerson Jr

Put that in the chat right now. He's more than enough. He's more than enough. I like seeing those comments. He's more than enough. And if you have a Bible, reach for it. Turn with me to the book of John today. John chapter 8 is where I want you to turn. John chapter 8 will be our reading. We are in the third part of a collection that we have titled Redemption. That God restores that which life has ruined. And I don't know about you, but that is my story. We serve a God who, well, He redeems time. He restores things. Redemption means to buy back. Anybody grateful for a God that didn't discard you, that didn't leave you on the wayside, but He buys you back? And I think today on Palm Sunday, this is the day that we remember Jesus entering into Jerusalem and He was coming on an assignment and the assignment was a rescue mission. I like to think about the fact that you were on His mind, that you were worth it to Jesus, that He was going to spill His blood and He was going to die on a tree, a cursed tree for my sins and for your sins, that we might be redeemed. And I'm really excited about this week. I want to encourage people that are watching online or people at our locations today, man, let's spend time this week really praying and inviting people and asking God to open up doors. And I just wouldn't miss one moment of it. Good Friday services, like there are different programs at all the services. Good Friday is about remembering His crucifixion. Saturday is about us going out and serving and loving our city with the egg drop. And then Sunday is victory, man. He's alive. And we're going to tell the whole city of Miami, our God is alive. He's breathing. He's alive. And we kind of call it the Superbowl around here. And it's a fun Superbowl because it's rigged. We already know who wins. Our Savior is victorious. And so participate this week, and invite. But before we get there, let's continue. Part three of our collection, redemption. He's more than enough. John chapter eight. I like that song, There Goes That Man. Well, here he goes in John chapter eight, verse two. At dawn, Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law of Moses, it commanded us to stone such a woman. Now, what do you say? They were using this question as a trap. Someone say, a trap. A trap. In order to have a basis for accusing Jesus. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with

His finger. And when they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. Again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time. The older ones first. Until Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, sir, she said. Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin. I love this passage of Scripture. And today I want to take a few moments and I want to continue on this theme of redemption. And I want to teach, if I can, for the next few moments, this thought, low life. Low life. You can put that in the chat. Low life. Don't call your neighbor a low life. But would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for your word. God, we thank you that today, Lord, it's alive. We thank you that right here, right now, we can hear your voice. We can hear your tone. We can even see you. We can see your posture. God, I pray you'd minister to us in this room and those online, those listening by way of podcast years later. God, your word never returns void. So as it goes forth today, Lord, I pray it would be a seed of transformation. Lord, we thank you that all the years the locust ate God. You redeem time. We love you, we trust you, and it's in your son's name, Jesus' name, that we all said, come on, we all said. I like a loud church, and I think this is the pep rally. I think this is the rally before Super Bowl, come on. If you really love Jesus, every location, make some noise, pep rally time, pep rally. Thank you. Researchers have discovered something fascinating about human behavior. It's very, very little interesting factoid. The interesting thing that they've discovered is that something good can happen in your life, but just because something good happens in your life,

it doesn't necessarily mean that you too are going to share that good. For instance, the psychological term that I want to speak about for a moment is this term called moral licensing. Let me try to explain what moral licensing is in the most simplistic way. Moral licensing, simply put, is that you can do something good, or you can even receive something good, and it can kind of put you into a status quo of, I guess everything's good. Let me break it down. Have you ever gone to work out, and because you've now worked out one time, you now think that gives you the right to eat whatever you feel like eating? Come on, don't act like this doesn't happen to you. You finally, like you work out in the gym one time, you're like, okay, today I'm gonna have a salad. You have a salad, now you're like, all right, I can have all the dessert I want. This is moral licensing to make it really, really plain, but it doesn't just happen psychologically or in our behavior, it happens spiritually. That somehow we can receive mercy, yet somehow we don't extend mercy. That somehow we could receive forgiveness in a category of our life, yet somehow we don't extend forgiveness.

Oh, Rich, not me. Well, just go to I-95. I can always show this to you. You ever been that person that, they're trying to get off the exit ramp, and you didn't get in the lane on time, and so you're trying to scoot up, and like you get to the car, you're probably that person, beep, beep, and you're like, please, please let me in. Someone graciously lets you in, you get in, and then a car tries to get in front of you. You're like, no, you're gonna have to wait like the rest of us. You know, it's like, you didn't wait, bro. Yeah. I wonder, could you experience something so powerful yet it still not transform you? Could you go through something that has been so good for you, yet because the good came to you, somehow you find yourself comfortable saying, I guess we're good now. Because when you start talking about grace in church, we all love grace when it's for me. But it's that grace that has to go towards other people that we have a hard time with. So let's just try to make this like simply put, because we don't have a lot of time today, and I want to try to get to the heart of it.

Let's just ask a bold question. Who deserves grace? Like, who are we willing to give grace for? Because I know the church answer, everyone's like, everyone, everyone. Except that one. You don't know my boss, Rich. You don't know my dad. You don't know my spouse. You don't know my kids. You need, you hear this? It's like, let me give you some context. That's when you already know a religious spirit is set in motion, because you have to give context for who's gonna get grace. There was this interesting thing that I read one time, and it goes like this, this is good. That when you listen to information, and you just listen, research says that you retain about 2% of that information. Which, if I'm gonna be honest with you, is one of the most discouraging things for me to hear as a preacher. I have devoted my life to getting behind this pulpit, and I look at most people going, yeah, it's good, Pastor. You won't forget most of this. But they say it's interesting if you take notes, if you take notes. If you want a good mansion in heaven, notes. You retain, someone's waving their notes at me. Look at this, yeah.

Welcome, my good son, you know? Well done, well done, my good and faithful servant. If you take notes, this is just interesting, you retain 20%. Still even that, it's like 80% is still forgotten. But if you take notes, 20% is retained. Here's where it gets interesting. If you listen, take notes, and then you teach what you heard, it jumps up to 67% retention. See Rich, why are you telling me this? I'm telling this that you can sit here every week and I can preach to you about redemption, and you can still forget that you're redeemed. You can sit here every week and you can have all of the most beautiful notes written down, but you're still gonna forget what God has done in your life. It's only until you actually say, wait a minute, I have received redemption. I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna put the word into practice. I'm trying to get something into your heart. I believe one of the greatest pieces of evidence that you have actually been redeemed is that now you want to be in a place that you want to redeem others. I mean this, man. Saved people, serve people. Healed people, heal people. Free people, free people. Redeemed people, come on somebody, redeem people.

Is there anybody in the house who's been redeemed? Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Make some noise if you've been redeemed in this house. But don't tell me you've been redeemed. Show me by redeeming others. Because the great evidence that you have received this grace is not that you've just received it, it's that you've been transformed. How on earth could you get God's grace and then stand on the wayside judging others who don't have it? How on earth could we be a community that lends itself towards moral licensees? Let me give you some context, pastor. You don't understand. I can't forgive them. I can't show them grace. Have you forgotten what God has done in your life? Have you forgotten that God got down in the middle of your mess, pulled you up out of your sin, out of your trespasses? If it had not been for the grace of God, where would I be? Thank you. If hurt people hurt people, then redeemed people redeem people. And so we've been in this collection and I am not interested in giving you theories. I'm not interested in merely teaching you principles and entertaining you for Sunday's sake. The mark of your redemption is going to be,

I want to share that which God has done in my life. I too, on Palm Sunday, realized that Jesus is not just coming into Jerusalem to fulfill an assignment, but rather he is coming into Jerusalem to invite his body, his church, to participate in his assignment. Well, Pastor Rich, what is his assignment? Well, he tells us, the son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost. If we're gonna be his followers, then we too must be about lost people. We too must be in the redemption business. Today, as we make our way towards Easter, I'm brought to this text in John chapter eight. If you've been in church, you've probably heard it preached at one time or not. If you're brand new to church, I'm excited to share it with you because I think it is one of the most powerful pictures we have of who our savior, Jesus Christ is. John chapter eight, it truly reads like a Netflix movie. I mean, people make me laugh. It's like, yo, the Bible's boring. You don't read it if you're saying that. Can we just like, don't, you can say a lot of stuff about the Bible, don't tell me it's boring. This is drama. It's so true to its nature.

I wanna try to just give you three turning points. I'm gonna give you my points right up front because the way I see it is in an outline format. I see the accusation, I see the incarnation, and lastly, I see the liberation. So let's put the text to work for a moment. John chapter eight, let's start with the accusation. The Bible says that Jesus, just try to get the picture, try to go into the movie with me for a moment, he is in the temple and he's teaching. So just get that idea. Here he is sharing truth. Some people are not taking notes, some people are taking notes. It's like, yeah, we can't wait. They're at church, they're enjoying it, when all of a sudden, a woman is dragged into church. Now, the Bible quickly tells us that this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Let's just examine it for a moment because there's some words that just jump out. Caught in the act? of adultery, some people have too much time on their hands. How do you catch someone in the act? Imagine that sting operator, imagine that text thread, that group chat, are you guys ready, let's go get her. Like what? They caught her in the very act and then they drag her in. This is violent, this is public. I just want us to try to lean into it for a moment

because we read this stuff and it's like, yeah, that's a story from the past, but it's a story for us right now that we would digest this and see what's taking place. She is being drug into the church where there's all these people around, she's caught. Have you ever been caught? Talking about exposure. I'm talking about it going public. I was just trying to think about this past week, moments where I've been caught. I remember one time I was in high school and I had cheated on a test. And your boy is not a good cheater. I had put all the answers on my wrist and I had worn a long sleeve sweatshirt and I'd gotten through the business. But then when I turned my test in, I'm so dumb, my... You ever heard the term caught red handed? It comes from my life, you know? What do you do when you get caught? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, come on. We start lying, we start creating a script, we start telling a fable. No, no, no, you got it wrong, teacher. No, no, no, I was embarrassed, I was ashamed. I was caught red handed. And so many of us, we know what it feels like. It's one thing also to be caught in private. It's a whole nother thing when you get caught in public.

She is being shamed, she is being labeled. And how many of y'all know, in society, we have a label for a woman like this. We call her a low life. I know, Rich, come on, that's so mean, come on, man. No, no, no, that's what we call someone. Caught in the act of adultery, public scandal, massive downfall. In fact, the law, according to the law, this woman, for this crime, should be stoned to death. When I say stoned to death, that is not what you used to do with your friends in high school. Or this past Friday, for whoever's here right now. They would take rocks and violently throw them at someone until they died. I just want you to see this, because society calls her a low life. And this is what shame does, right? Sin says, this is what you did. Shame says, this is who you are. So there is a label put on her. She's no longer a daughter. She's no longer a future. She no longer has a promise. She is the woman caught in the act of adultery. And how many of y'all know, so many of us, we have moments like this where shame tries to relabel us. Shame says, it's not just what you did, this is who you are.

This is your identity. And what I have learned about people is people have two versions of themselves. There's the version that we present, and there's the version that we protect. There's the version that comes to church on Sunday, and then there's the version that we are Monday through Friday. There is the version that we call resume version. Then there's real you version. I employ a lot of people. I have never, ever read a bad resume. No. Because it's the presented version. No one's like, yeah, so my insecurities are this. No one ever is like, hey, I really fall apart, and stuff goes crazy when that happens. You don't put that on a resume. It is the presented version. But we are looking at a moment where a woman is caught in her lowest moment. She is caught red-handed, and she's being exposed, and there's a crowd of people, and everyone's looking at her, and they're accusing her, and the Bible says that these Pharisees, they come to Jesus, and they say, Jesus, according to Moses' law, this woman should be stoned. What do you say about that? Now, what's fascinating is that these men

are not actually about exposing the truth. They're trying to trap the truth. Because what they're trying to do is they're trying to catch Jesus in a moment. You see, this question is almost impossible to ask, because if Jesus says, yes, let's stone her, it means he's breaking Roman law. And if he doesn't say we should stone her, it means that their accusations are true. This is not a real rabbi. He does not adhere to the law. This is a no-win situation. So understand, these men are not about the truth. These men are about a trap. Because right away when I read this, like, questions start showing up. The Bible says in Leviticus that both parties must be presented. Where is the man? We call this selective outrage. This is not about holiness. This is hypocrisy. at its finest, that you can have holiness on your lips, but still have hatred in your heart. Here they are, and they're not about the truth. They want to trap Jesus, and they want to expose this woman. And friends, do not think that we are so far removed from this moment, because people love to get loud about certain sins. Let me just say it this way.

Most people get loud about sins they don't struggle with. And even in evangelical America in 2026, certain sins somehow get higher than other sins. So sexual sin wants to be loud, celebrity sins, massive downfalls. Let's really get around and get loud about that. But we're pretty quiet about gossip. Pretty quiet about the unforgiveness that actually lives in churches sometimes. Pretty quiet about the lack of hospitality, the lack of generosity. Come on, somebody. We do not want to be a church that throws stones at other people. We want to be a church that allows God to examine us. So where is the man? We don't know where the man is because it's selective outrage. And we look at this and go, oh man, that's just the past, that people were not very civilized back then. Oh, really? Really? I think this feels a lot like 2026. No, I don't think we throw stones, but we do pick up phones. Come on. We don't get around in circles, but we do go to comment sections. Think about our society.

We cancel people, we label people, we write people off, we disregard people, especially if it's public. Because there's even something down deep that's like sinister inside of us. In fact, there's this dopamine hit that hits us that as long as I'm doing better than you, I guess I'm good. And sometimes there's something inside of us that wants to see somebody fall, wants to see somebody fail, because their failure reminds you that somehow you are successful. But I want to encourage our church right here at VU. Man, if putting somebody else down makes you feel better, you're probably holding a stone. You're probably hurling accusations. You probably have forgotten about your redemption. I was watching the news this week, and I don't like to comment a lot of things on culture, but there's this girl from The Bachelorette, and she has this terrible moment caught on camera, and I'm not excusing it. It's a sad thing to watch, but it's fascinating to watch a society comment tens of thousands, probably millions of comments towards a real person who was caught in one of their lowest moments. Some of us, we got faster thumbs than we've got prayer lives.

Some of us know all about criticizing, but you haven't spent any time interceding. Let's just be real honest. If your lowest moment was put on camera, woo, you might get canceled too. Why? Just because you haven't been caught doesn't mean you're innocent. We're raising a community here. Some of us, we need to check our hands. We need to check our hearts. What's in us that we feel better about ourselves watching somebody fall? They don't want the truth. They want to trap the truth, and so here comes this accusation. But from the accusation, we go to the incarnation, because I love Jesus. The Bible says that there's a man who's going to take you to heaven, the Bible says that they're pushing Jesus, they're pressing Jesus, but Jesus, he doesn't say anything. In fact, I believe that when religion gets loud, Jesus gets low. The Bible says that he stoops down into the dirt, and he begins to draw in the ground. What a beautiful picture. They continue to push him. They continue to press him.

Finally, after a moment, he responds, and he says, you who have not sinned, you cast the first stone. It's all he says, and then he goes back to writing in the dirt. I love Jesus because he's teaching us something. How many of y'all know there's a big difference between reacting and responding? Some of us, we got to learn this, like just you got to watch Jesus sometimes. He doesn't react, he responds. I need help in this category. All the married people can say amen, you know? Like, you ever like been in an argument before? Don and I, we don't have arguments, but I wanted to help you, so I wanted to relate with you, but we don't have that. But sometimes, like right, like you ever like just react? Reaction's always immediate. Reaction's always loud. This has happened to me so many times where I'm like, you ever win in an argument later? Do you know what I'm talking about? Like you got into something and then 20 minutes later, you're in the shower. And you're like, oh, I should have said that. I guess just me, just me. But I reacted and because I reacted, I missed the moment.

If I would have paused, if I would have gathered myself, if I would have responded. You ever like start a sentence and your sentence gets out in front of you and you're trying to edit your sentence in real time? That's the dumbest. Not the dumbest, but not so smart. You always, not always, but frequently. But it's already landed. It's because reactions are foolish and responses are wise. A reaction can keep the, a reaction can turn an argument into World War II. But a response can oftentimes make the relationship even better. And the Bible says he doesn't react, rather he responds. He stoops down low. And this is where I think the biggest revelation of the entire text comes and hits me because we oftentimes call society a low life for their actions or for their behavior. But here comes Jesus and he is showing us the real low life. Jesus is redeeming a moment. Jesus is getting down and he's showing you that I am actually low in ego, low in status, and here I am, I'm gonna get down on your level. Why is it? It's like, you ever been at a hospital or go to the doctor's office? How many know, like doctors,

they don't shout diagnosis across the room. It's cancer. No, I told you. They don't do that. What do they do? They come in close. They diagnose. Why? Because healing requires proximity. This is another picture of the incarnation that when God came to save you and redeem you, he didn't send a text message from heaven. No, our God stepped out of the heavens and he put on skin and he gets down into the dust. He gets down into the dirt with us. It's really, really easy to judge people and criticize people we don't know, but it's really hard to hate people you sit with. Sit with them. Get with them. Respond, respond. If you've been redeemed, your desire is to redeem other people. And here is Jesus. And he starts drawing in the dust. I don't know what he's drawing. I'm not gonna even go there because so often preachers do things. It's like, oh, wow. Listen, I don't know what he's drawing,

but I do know what he's saying. This is not the first time we've seen the hand of God draw. The Bible says in Exodus that God's hand etched out the law. In Daniel, God's hand shows up in judgment as it judges the party of Balthazar. And it says, you have been weighed and found wanting. But in the New Testament, God's hand is writing in the middle of mercy. In the Old Testament, it's the law and it's judgment. But in the New Testament, it's redeeming and it's restoring. And I don't know what Jesus is exactly writing in the dust, but I do know from his body language what he is saying. Because make no mistake about it, rabbis, especially rabbis standing in front of women, especially rabbis standing in front of women who are disgraced, they do not stoop lower than them. And he doesn't do it once. He does it twice. He is communicating with his body language that I am the God who gets low. I am the God who gets lower than your mistake, lower than your issue. I get down into the dirt. I'm the God who washes disciples' feet. I'm the God who stepped out of the heavens and walked amongst humanity. I'm the God who's gonna be hung on a cross. I'm the God who was born in a manger. I'm the God who gets low.

Anybody grateful for a God who got low? The real low life of the story is Jesus Christ, the God who gets into my mistake, the God who steps into my situation, and he starts writing in the dust. And we do not know what this incarnate God is writing, but we do know what he's saying. I believe he is saying liberation. For as he begins writing, it's fascinating. Roman culture, did you know that a judge would write the verdict before he declared the verdict? So here comes these Pharisees. He's, and they think they're putting this woman on trial, but I believe in one moment as he starts writing, they go, oh, wait a minute, we're on trial. They thought they were sentencing her to death, but he starts writing out their sentence. What is he writing? I don't know what he's writing. I have no idea what's written in the dirt. What I do know is what Jeremiah says. Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 13. This is powerful. This is prophetic. This is how he says it. He says, Lord, you are the hope of Israel. All who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

I believe this is a illustrated sermon to say the least, that right here as he begins to write, we don't know what he's writing, but I do believe those that forsake Jesus, their names, their verdict is written in dust because they refuse the spring of living water. Numbers chapter five, one of the most peculiar Old Testament laws. So grateful we don't live under the old covenant. Some of you coming new to church, you're like, what does that mean Jesus is our message? It means that we look towards everything in the Old Testament and we discover how Jesus fulfilled it because we know on our best day we never could. Numbers chapter five, if a man was suspicious of his wife cheating on him, he would grab that woman, bring her to the high priest. The high priest would then take dust from the ground, put it into holy water. He would take the water, he would begin to write curses on a parchment paper. He would then have her drink the water and then as she drank the bitter water, the judgment of God would reveal, either she would die or she would still be standing in one moment the judgment would be passed. But here comes Jesus in John chapter eight and he is the true and better high priest and in rather than make someone drink the bitter water, he says, no, I'm gonna write those who forsake me in dust

but if you'll just look to me in one moment, I am the living water, drink of me and you will never thirst again. I can redeem you, I can restore you, I can wash you clean in one moment. Come on somebody give him praise. This is the good news. I don't know what he wrote but I know what he said, you are liberated and he declares out loud, you who are without sin cast the first stone. Why is this? It's because according to Jewish law, you had to be spotless, you had to be a person full of integrity, you had to have credibility. I don't know what he starts writing but I do know the outcome, the outcome is the oldest to the youngest start dropping their rocks and walking off. I don't know, I know that age spoke of authority, spoke of maturity. I think some of these old dudes were like, wait a minute, the longer I live, the more I'm into restoration, not exposure. I've lived long enough to know I need the grace of God. It's young people got tweets, old people got testimonies. Young people say, I would never. Old people go, if it had not been for the grace of God, I would have never made it. I wonder is there any mature folks in the house today

that would say if God would have judged me at my lowest moment, I wouldn't be here. Let me drop my rock. Let me let go of this weapon. Let me release, let me forgive. And one by one, the rocks are dropped. Until the text says, it's the woman and only Jesus stood with her. Only Jesus was there. And what a picture. Because the only one who was qualified to stone her was the only one who chose not to condemn her, but to cover her. Who is this man? Who's always moving on my behalf? It's just her and Jesus. And he says, woman, where are your accusers? And she says, they're not here. And he says, well, neither do I condemn you. He does not say you're innocent. He doesn't once say you're not caught. He doesn't once say you're not guilty. He says, I do not condemn you. Very, very important, especially if you're new to church. This is how the gospel works. A lot of people, they spend their whole life And stop sinning, stop sinning, stop sinning. And we think that's holy. I get what that means and I understand why that's our desire because sin will destroy you.

I just preached about it two weeks ago. It will kill you, it will rob you. No doubt about it, stop sinning. But the order is everything. Jesus says there is no condemnation, so now you can live a life of transformation. When we try to flip the order, it becomes about willpower and self-righteousness. Get your act together and then you can have relationship with me. That's why some of us, even in this room that are watching online, you've been a part of this ministry for a year and you've never responded to the altar call because you keep thinking it's on your effort and your willpower. You keep thinking, I gotta clean myself up and then I can respond to Jesus. It is the opposite. Let him declare you are my son, you are my daughter. And now out of that love, live for him. Huge difference, huge difference, huge difference. But it's the gospel. Neither do I condemn you. Now, therefore, go and sin no more. He's not light on sin, he's heavy on restoration. He's showing us the path that it's my radical love. I'm the God who gets low and liberates people. Don't hear the message wrong. True redemption leads to sanctification.

Redemption and sanctification, they go hand in hand, they're partners. Like redemption without sanctification is incomplete. In fact, I would say it this way. Redemption without sanctification is just inspiration. And what I would love our church to mature in is I'm grateful for anybody who's here today or watching online. I was at the tennis this past week. I ran into so many people in the tennis just coming up, Pastor Rich, man, I love the church. It just makes me feel so good. I'm not putting down their testimony, but that's not why we come, just so you can feel good or so you can just get a pick me up or just like you can be inspired. I'm grateful when that happens, but that is not the reason why we gather. We gather because there is one who shed his blood and he died on a cross so that my sins could be washed clean and I've drank the living water. And now because I'm approved in him and because I'm loved by him, I wanna be used. I wanna be used. I don't wanna stay in my sin. I don't wanna stay in my shame. I wanna be set free. I wanna be redeemed. Let me try to illustrate it. If this microphone breaks today

and these things break sometimes, the team would get it and it has value. They would go and have it repaired. They would have it restored. Once they had the microphone restored, how many know we're not gonna keep it in the back in a box. God has redeemed you and restored you because he intends to use you. Anybody grateful he wants to use you? And that's where we get lost because we think those that are being used by God are somehow the best, somehow they're superior. It's not true. Usually those who are being used by God just understand, man, if it had not been for his grace, if I had not been redeemed by his power, go and sin no more. I didn't save you, redeem you, and restore you so that you could throw rocks. I saved you and redeemed you and restored you that you might become a conduit of my grace. This is Palm Sunday. We are being reminded of a God who didn't just come to fulfill an assignment. He came because he knew that assignment was gonna have sacrifice, and so it is in the kingdom of God. We're all here, most of us, because of somebody else. I always love when we talk about giving in the offering. I always say, given in the offering won't get you to heaven,

but it'll probably get somebody else to heaven. What do you mean by that, Rich? I'm just saying, as you sow seed into God's house, as you serve in God's house, whether your name is ever remembered, whether you're ever recognized, or whether you ever feel like you're in the spotlight, that's not the point. The point is, is that somebody did it for you, now you get to do it for them. I'm not gonna live in this spiritual moral licensing. Just because I'm good doesn't mean everything else is good. We have a responsibility. Go and sin no more. What's at the heart of this? At the heart of this is that Jesus wants you to understand you haven't just been saved for, you haven't just been saved from something, you've been saved for something. I want you to get this. Because a lot of us that live here, it's like, yeah, man, I'm just getting by. Save me from my past. Save me from my sin. True, all very, very true. But it's not just from, it's for. You weren't just saved from sin, you were saved for a purpose. You weren't just saved from your shame, you were saved for identity. You weren't just saved from your past, listen to me, you were saved for your future. Go and sin no more.

Now that you've been redeemed, now that you've been covered, now that you've been protected, walk in the light and share the light. I heard this old story, preacher story, about a little girl who went and got all the materials and she built this boat, painted it, carved it, built it, and then put it on the water and then as it happens, she's playing and enjoying it, but the boat drifted and she starts chasing after the boat, but the boat got away and it was lost. She was so disappointed, heartbroken that she had lost this boat, but a couple weeks later she's walking through town and she sees in a store, she sees her boat for sale. Without hesitation, she walks in and she buys the boat back and as she's holding the boat, she says, now I've owned you twice. First one, I built you and second one, I bought you back and I want to remind our church that we serve a God who is in the redemption business. Redemption means to buy back. You were ransomed. He paid the price for your sin that you might be restored, redeemed, and that you might be of use to him. I'm calling our church to the low life. May this church and this community be known for getting low, for meeting people where they are, not afraid of getting dirty to see someone saved, not afraid of being misunderstood. You ought to know, man, it's been 10 years in this thing, man. We're a church that we're not afraid to be guilty by association. It says it everywhere at the church into the night. That's not a cliche. That is the motto. That is the marching orders. We are not holding stones. We are being reminded of a God who met us in the middle of our mess. He got low, so now I can get low. Come on. If serving is beneath you, I think leadership is beyond you.

If you're too big to serve, come on somebody, you're probably too small to lead. We're being called to the low life. God use us. Work through us. Work through us. You can grab a seat at all of our locations today. That's the call this week. What's it look like to go low? God hasn't put you at your work just so that you could walk around and merely get paid and get a raise. No, no. He's put you there on assignment that you've been redeemed to redeem others. God doesn't put you in that family by coincidence. You're there to be on a redemption mission, to live the low life. This week, I'm encouraging you. Who can you invite? Who can you bring? Not so our church can have a big crowd. We've had lots of big crowds. I'm not interested in crowds. I'm interested in people who have stories that society has said, you are discarded. You have been forgotten. You have been canceled. You should live in your shame. I'm grateful for a God who said, at the cross, I defeated death, hell, and the grave. With it, the devil, your sin, and your shame, you can walk in victory. Anybody believe that? Go ahead and clap your hands. Give God some praise. Look at what Jeremiah says.

This is beautiful. Jeremiah, he prophesied, let me give you this prophecy, but I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord, because you are called an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares. This is what the Lord says. I will restore. Someone say restore. Restore. The fortunes of Jacob's tents and of compassion on his dwellings. The city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place. For them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased. I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained. Their children will be as in the days of the old, and their community will be established before me. I will punish all who oppress them. Can I remind you that we serve a God, that what the enemy meant for evil, God can turn it around, and he can use it for good. He is the God who redeems all things.