Take Me Home!

Today, Christians worldwide are celebrating something that has already happened. It's already happened. And yet the power of the resurrection impacts us now. Paul, when he was writing about the gospel of Jesus, you know what the word gospel means? It means good news. So it literally means good news. The gospel of Jesus, he kind of condensed it into one little statement. And it says in 1 Corinthians 13, or excuse me, 15, he says, I passed on to you what was most important and what has also been passed on to me. Christ Jesus died for our sins just as the scripture said. He was buried. He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the scripture said. He was seen by Peter and then by the 12. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. This gospel account says that Jesus died a real death. And then he was in the tomb. He was dead in a tomb for a couple of days. Now listen, this is not a resuscitation. This isn't, hey, he stopped breathing. Let's give him mouth to mouth. And he comes back a couple of minutes later.

This is a couple of days worth of being, it's a resurrection. Come on, somebody. There's a difference between resuscitation and a resurrection. And then as he came back up alive, not only did his inner circle see him, but 500 people saw him. And there were more than just an inner circle. So it's not just a, they told me to say this story. It's a real story. Real people saw him. It's one of the reasons I believe in Jesus today. And today it is good news for all of us. I wanna give you a message today. I've entitled, Take Me Home. Remember I said, take me home. Home is where you know you're safe. You're loved, you're known. You let your guard down. It's familiar. Ever been on a trip out of Minnesota and you're been gone for a little while and then you're driving home. It's a long drive. And then you see the border sign that says Minnesota. And it just warms your heart. And you're like, I'm home. I'm back. I finally came back.

Home is a place to escape to. It's to live out of. It's a place where you run back to when you're in trouble. Home is your safe place. The place where you are the real you. The best you. The person you were meant to be. There truly is no place like home. John Denver wrote a song that many of us know. Country roads take me home to the place where I belong. West Virginia, mountain mama. Take me home, country road. All right, give yourselves a hand. You all sang with me. Trying to get back home. Home is a starting point. It's a sending point. It's a place to return. It's the reset button. It's the baseline. It's the return to normal. Even birds have a migratory home signal built into their DNA. This morning, as I got up to leave our house that we moved into in 2002, and when we moved into our house and our boys were real young, and I remember that we had all these geese and what they leave behind in our yard everywhere.

Because apparently, before our neighborhood went in, that's where their landing spot was, their feeding spot. And so they were returning there. Now, all these years later, 24 years later, all of the descendants of those original geese were in my yard. How did they know to come back to this spot? It's because it was built into their DNA somehow. And a mixture of that and the magnetic signals of Earth and the seasons, and somehow, they keep coming back to that same place. This is the way it is with humanity. In Genesis, in the book of Genesis, there's this creation of count where people were created. The birds and the land and the animals and everything was created, but people were created, Adam and then Eve. And in that place, the first human beings walked and talked with God, their creator. They spent time with them and he gave them purpose and assignments and responsibilities to be fulfilled. And everything was perfect. They had no problems. In fact, their mind and their body and their spirit were kind of. in a place of absolute peace. Didn't mean that they sat down and did nothing. They had purpose to their lives, but they didn't battle what you and I battled necessarily. Then in chapter three, things changed

because they left home. You see, that place where they were was their home place. God gave people freedom to do whatever they wanted, except eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the serpent questioned the words of God coming up against Adam and Eve, and he says, listen, surely you're not gonna die. He questioned the words of God. The enemy was doing to Adam and Eve was he's saying, you won't really lose your home. You won't die, you won't be ejected, you won't lose anything. God's just trying to keep something from you. You won't lose, but of course, they ate of that fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And the consequence was that they were kicked out of the garden, they were kicked out of home. Sin is believing the lie that you have a home with anything other than your creator, your father in heaven. People have tried to find a sense of freedom in anything else since that point. Religions worldwide have tried to find home in practicing outward rituals that promise temporary relief. Went to Thailand at one point in the last couple years, and while we were there on a trip, we saw that there were millions of people that were Buddhists and they were genuinely amazing people,

the most loving and kind people, but they are locked underneath the cruel religious belief that mean spirits wanna take their souls and they need to offer a daily sacrifice or they'll be wiped out. That's not a way to live in peace. They need Jesus, the resurrection and the life. People have chased enlightenment through religions and philosophy and education and careers and accomplishment. And despite all of our recent technological and scientific advancements, we're still dealing with the problems of people who have lost their way. Why are we still dealing with the same conflicts in 2026 that we were during World War II and we were in previous centuries? It's because all of AI can't fix what's in the human heart. We're away from home. But God wasn't content with separation from his kids. So he sends messages through his servants to prophets like Moses. Moses led the people of Israel into the desert and there God established a covenant of laws of how to rebuild a relationship, a new home with God. The Psalms champion God showing people how to live in this law. In fact, in Psalm 119, 105, it says, your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. There was so much good in that old covenant,

but still the story of the people of Israel is the story of people everywhere on the planet. Every human being wandering away from home. All of our efforts, all of our best intentions, and yet no road home. The great prophetic message in Isaiah 53, the messianic prophecy, it says, all of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. This is the human story. And yet, God doesn't want us to stay there. He didn't stop with the Old Testament. He brought his son, Jesus. And I want you to see how Jesus intervened in the life of a real person. I want you to hear and see Diego's story. My name is Diego Lopez. Life before Christ, BC, the BC era. I would say it's a classic case of prodigal son. I had walked away from God at 15, 14, with hurt for a lot of different reasons. And my life was covered in sex, drugs, addictions, pain, the occult witchcraft, and it was trying to fill a God-sized, shaped hole with things that the world could offer. It was fun for a bit until it wasn't. Kind of an imploding point was, I had gone back. from the military and I had a severe PTSD episode at the front porch of my house. For whatever reason, there was some sort of explosion and I thought that I was under attack.

My mind took me back to the last carrier that I was on when I was in the Navy. And while I knew that I was in the front porch of my house, while I knew that I was there, my mind thought that I was at war. It was the first time in a couple of years that I felt death looming on me. It was to the point where I realized I either have to finally accept God or I don't think my life is going to go any further than what it was. It was the first time in probably 12 years that I had exclaimed out to God not to get myself out of a ticket or because of a pregnancy scare or because I thought I was overdosing or anything that was of that merit. It was strictly because I was done. I wanted peace. I had finally gotten to that point of brokenness. Like it says in the parable of the prodigal son Luke where the son was surrounded by pigs and he realized, like, I can go back to my father's house and I might not be a son again but I can be a servant and he'll take care of me. So in that moment I just remember in a way realizing I've got to come back to Christ and that was the moment where I believe the Holy Spirit finally came in, in the sense that I finally let Him. And the way He did that is He brought Jesus on the cross in my mind, in my room. And I'm thinking, man, as much as I'm in pain right now, as much as I'm suffering, how much did Christ suffer on the cross for me? And what's crazy is I, no one had been talking to me about God. I said the sinner's prayer for the first time not to get out of something but to finally surrender. I was actually delivered of two major addictions that moment, like that. Honestly, everything that has happened has been but God. How else do addictions that have lasted over a decade just go away? I've tried out self-health books, meditation, all these things, and but God. But God. It's like, if He didn't intervene, where would we be?

But He's still intervening in people's lives. In fact, this is His whole plan all along. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. See, God the Father sent His one and only Son to die for us. And Jesus came to the earth and called people back to the Father, back home. For the Son of Man came to seek and saved those who are lost. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories about lost things. If you could imagine a crowd like we have today and Jesus is talking to that crowd, He shares each of these stories to talk about the value of a person's soul. And as He looks at the crowd, He has many different backgrounds in that crowd just as I do today. To some in the crowd, they need to know that they are valuable, that He would do anything to go and find them. To others, He's waiting for them to come home. And Diego referenced the story of what many today call the prodigal son. But actually, in Jesus' story, there were two sons. One son wandered away, the younger son, and took his inheritance early and left, basically left the family. But the father's heart never left his son. The son reached the spot where he had spent everything he had and gave up and wanted to come home. And when he did come home, he saw his father running to him because the father never gives up on his kids, put his robe on him and welcomed him home as a son. But you might think that Jesus was only talking about that one son who had wandered away. He was also talking about the older son who lived in the house still, and yet he did not have the father's heart. Both sons were actually lost. Did you know you can have all your outward life together? You could even be attending church.

You can know the right things to say and be just as lost as the older brother. Jesus was speaking to the crowd and saying, I want both sons to truly come home. Not just on the outward, but on the inward. Everybody has an inside me and an outside me. He was speaking directly to the inside me. Jesus had a title for himself. He called himself the Good Shepherd in John 10. He says, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. In other words, he's going and he's looking for them and he'll give his life up for them. This is exactly what Jesus did. But he was also contrasting in John chapter 10, his mission of finding the sheep and rescuing the sheep with the enemy who Jesus calls the thief. And the thief has a different mission. The thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy. And the thief wants to take what you have and continue to keep taking until you're wiped out. And Jesus said, listen, I have come that you might have life. The thief wants to take from you, but the Good Shepherd wants to give you life. That life word is zoe, which is fully complete life. You don't have anything else you need. It's like Adam and Eve before they sinned. In the garden, they were home. Jesus said, I call you to come home and you'll have life. Jesus is the way home.

He is your way home. John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus' mission is to bring us back to the Father. In John 14, he says, don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? This should be great news for all of you that have given your life to Jesus. He's speaking to you about this. He had to leave after his resurrection so that he could go away and do a construction project in heaven, in his Father's house. Just recently, I had the honor of going and seeing the seven churches of Revelation in Turkey and Greece. And while we were on one of the site visits we were on, there was an excavation project going on about the same era as what the scriptures were written to. And they had a typical home. And that home had a kind of a grand courtyard. And then it had kind of a bunch of hallways, if you will, to other quote unquote rooms. They were actually almost their own houses. Because the families of that era, they would gather together, they would raise their kids, and then when their kids would get married, they would add another room onto the same house. Now some of you don't wanna live with your mother-in-law.

I get that. Some of you mother-in-laws don't wanna live with your son-in-laws, right? But the point was that the picture of family was very different than what we know it as today. The picture was that the father wanted to still be involved and connected to his family. So when Jesus was saying that he was going away to prepare rooms in heaven for us in his father's house, he was essentially saying, I'm going there and we're going to be with the father. It's not like we're just gonna go to heaven and escape and we're gonna be on our own and have our own little thing going on. No, we're gonna go back to the way it was in the garden. We're gonna have relationship with the father. Where nothing is missing and absolutely everything is there. We are who we were meant to be. We're, we got our Snickers bar, if you will. That we're connected to the father. And this is what Jesus was saying. That this, on Resurrection Sunday, that you have promise and hope that Jesus isn't just gone, he's gone to take us to be with the father. Jesus' death and resurrection is the difference between Christianity and all other religions because he takes you home. I love what it says in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul's writing to the church in Corinth, and he says, and if Christ has not been raised,

then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost, and if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, Just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection. Christ was raised as the first of the harvest. Then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. Come on, somebody, that's good news. You have something to look forward to. On Resurrection Sunday, we're not just looking back, we're looking forward. Jesus' resurrection verified our way home, not just in the present tense, but also hope for our own futures. We all will be resurrected when Jesus comes again. Jesus' resurrection also brings us home and gives us resurrection power. Many of us face many battles in life, things that are overwhelming to some of us, and we're wondering how we can make it.

And listen to what Romans 8, 11 says. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in who? In you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. You have hope because you have the Holy Spirit resurrection power with you today in 2026. And then we have relationship to the family. It's not just we gave our life to Christ and we're isolated alone. No, he brings us into the family. In Romans 8, 15, Paul writes, so you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him Abba Father, for his Spirit joins with our Spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. I want you to see that not only does the resurrected power of Christ live within us, give us power to live, but it also brings us into relationship with the family

maybe we don't feel like we deserve to be a part of. Turn to the person to your right and left and say, hey, I'm so glad you're in the family. I'm so glad you're here. We belong, I'm glad you're here. I want you to see what happens to Diego because of the resurrection and the life in his story beyond the moment when he gave his life to Christ and surrendered, he was brought into the family and now God has given him his purpose. Watch the rest of the story. I don't believe it's a coincidence the first place I try out is Emmanuel. I see a big church and the first thing I'm thinking of is like, if they start speaking about the money gospel or affirmations or anything, I'm gone. As soon as praise and worship starts, the Lord just said like, be quiet and worship me. And as soon as I did that, it was, I couldn't deny that's where God wanted me here. That next month, I was already serving in youth group and it just, but God kept ruminating through my mind that none of this can be happening logically without God. Now I'm going to North Central to be a pastor. To sit in his presence, don't run away from it. It's because of God. And I can't say, I don't know how that happened. I don't know where that came from. I can't say that because I do know where it's coming from. It's coming from my father.

And I walk around with such a peace because now I know that the Holy Spirit truly lives inside of me. And I want to be able to let other young adults know who have been lost in drug addiction, have been lost, gone in sex addiction, have been lost to the ways of the world who think, no, God's not gonna take me like this. I gotta get right first. It's like, you're gonna clean yourself up before you get into the shower? No, he just wants you to come back. It's a plea of just come back. I'll take care of everything else. Because wholeheartedly, it hasn't even been me that has brought about this change. It's been God solely. All because I decided to say yes to him and surrender. I surrender. I surrender. I surrender. Dave, Diego, I want you to come here, would you give it up for Diego, he just gave his life to Christ. Are you glad that you came home? Yes, I'm very glad, I should say joyful. Joyful. And you have people that were praying for you in the backdrop, your mom was in a previous service. Yes, my mom was in the previous service, she prayed for 12 years, day and night, crying, sowing tears for me. So, in this context, there have been people praying for a lot of people in here. And one of the things that I know is that shame doesn't live in the presence of God. We need to not be ashamed.

You didn't seem like you had shame, even though you had all those previous addictions and the bad stuff. Why is that? Romans 8-1, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. I don't look in the mirror and see, I don't see the man that the world saw. I saw a new creation in Christ because I finally said yes to God. Come on. Thank you. Would you stand with me today? Would you stand with me? Why don't you just go ahead and bow your head and close your eyes. You came today and there are no mistakes. Perhaps someone invited you, maybe you come every week. Maybe this is your first time. For believers who have trusted in Jesus, Jesus' death and resurrection is something to celebrate. It's also a reminder that he's coming back. We have another home to look forward to. And it's also a responsibility to welcome others home. But some of you today have been far away from home. Far from the care and the leadership of Jesus. And somewhere inside of you is that DNA that says, I need to go home. I need to return. And Jesus is the only one who can take you home. How many of you today know that you need to go home? You may have never before put your faith and trust in Jesus and surrendered to him. But you know today you need to do it. This is your day. Or some of us did it a long time ago and we need to return home and surrender again to Jesus as our Lord and our Savior. Nobody's looking around. But if you say today, Pastor Nate, I know I need to go home. I need to return back to God.

I need to surrender to him. That's you. Just put your hand up and say, that's me, Pastor Nate. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24. I'm doubling now. 25. No condemnation. You know you got to come home. We're ready for you to come home. I want to, those of you that raised their hands or you wanted to, I want to lead you in a prayer. But I want to do it in a unique way today. I want to meet you at home, if you will. If you raised your hand, I want to pray with you. Why don't you leave where you're standing and come down and meet me right here. I want to pray with you right here, right now. If that's you, just come on down. Just come on down. And then I want everybody else, lean to the person on your right and your left and say, if you want, I'll go with you. Come on. Turn to the person on your right. If you want, I'll go with you.

Come on down, I want to pray with you. Come on down. Come on down, even in the balcony. They're coming now. Come on. Come on. Yes. Yes. Yes. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yeah, they're still coming. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. We'll give room. There's time. There's still time for people as they come. Yes. These are special moments. You matter. You matter. Yes. Mom, keep clapping.

They're still coming home. We got to keep clapping. You never know. Come on. Once you come in and live with us, you're going to love it. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Once you come in a little bit closer to me, move this way and there's people coming behind you. Yes, yes, they're coming from the balcony. Yes, making their way down. There is no better decision in all your life than to surrender the one who is your creator, amen? No better decision. Oh, they keep coming, let's go. Put your hands together, church. People are coming home. Come on. Come on. Oh.

No more running away. No more trying it on your own. Turning and following Jesus and surrendering to him. I want to lead you in a prayer and I'll give you words to pray, but you got to mean it in your own heart. God can sniff out a liar better than any of us, right? So let's not try to hide anything. Let's actually drop our guards. He already sees it all anyways. He wants the toxic stuff out of our life. The promise is that he'll make us new. So I'll give you words to pray. You can pray it out loud after me. Mean it from your heart. Everybody else, you can join right in as well. Say, dear Jesus, thank you for loving me so much that you came to the earth, you died on the cross for my sin, then you rose from the dead and I know that you're alive. Today, I give up. I surrender to you. Please forgive me of my sin and make me new. I choose to turn and follow you for the rest of my life. For the rest of my life. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Somebody give the Lord some praise. Oh, all right, so I think it's really important to be serious and say, okay, what are we going to do from this point forward?

So it's real, right? One of the things is making that public profession of our faith, that's a big deal. You have an opportunity if you've never done so to be water baptized next week. We have a water baptism that serves. I'd love for you to be water baptized. Invite your family and friends, let them all see. I gave my life to Jesus, you know? You can do that and that can be anybody in the church. But I also, we also want to be real practical. Like what do you do today? And what do you do when you go home? And we've got some fresh start books and some Bibles and our prayer teams have got, they're holding them up on either side here. We would love to give these resources to you. We'd love to pray with you if we can and be with you. Some of our prayer teams are kind of in the middle of everybody here. If you're a prayer team member, go ahead and put your hand up just so that everybody up here knows there's people around. We would love to help you out and we're not going to go back into a song right now or anything, we want to give you an opportunity to talk to real people. I want to just say, thank you. I'm proud of you. Like you did something really important and you're loved.

You're deeply loved. You're forgiven. You have a future. You're not alone. You're welcome, welcome home, welcome home, welcome home. Welcome to the family and church. It's on us to welcome them home, amen? We got your back. You got a whole bunch of people that are cheerleaders. They're not perfect people. There's nobody perfect at Emmanuel. The one that thinks they are, watch out. But what we are is we're all forgiven. We're all on the same journey. We want to stay in the race with you guys. I want to encourage you today to pray with any one of these people. We've got Bibles and those Fresh Start books that will really help you. All right, I want to pray a final prayer blessing over. You guys can stay right up here for now. I'm going to make my way up if I can around here on the platform. Jodi, you can come up and help me. We want to pray a special prayer over you, but also over the whole overall church. Jodi, this is a special day for you. Welcome home. My first Sunday at Emmanuel was on Easter. So every time, every Easter, it's just a special thing.

It makes me a little emotional to think this was my first time at Emmanuel. It was on Easter and I kept coming. So keep coming, get involved, get plugged in, get baptized. Pastor Nathan, our location pastor, can help you with that. Otherwise, scan the QR code in the seat back or you can find it on the event on the website. But we're just so glad that each and every one of you are here. I remember when I gave my heart to the Lord, I walked down to the front just like many of you. And it was just like when the enemy comes back, the devil comes and says, you didn't really mean that. You go, yes, I did. And for years and decades, you know, when I wrestle sometimes with my faith, I'm like, you know what, when I walked down that aisle, I meant it. And this is a moment that each and every one of you can look at and go, you know what, I meant it. I gave my heart. I surrendered my life to Christ. So, yeah, I want to pray a prayer of blessing over you. And I want to do something. I do this periodically. Can you put your hand on the shoulders of the people around you here today? Because if you're in the family, we're connected to this. You're not alone. You're part of the family. Lord, would you turn your face towards these, your people, your kids, that you love so much. You gave up everything that you had for our sake. Thank you, Lord, for your love for us, for going all the way to the cross. Thank you, Lord, that you rose from the dead and that we have the hope of the risen Lord being involved in our life in 2026. We pray your blessing over each and every one. I pray, especially for those that followed you and came forward today. Lord, let them feel the love of the Father on their life. The smile of God, the welcome home. Let them know, Lord, that they are wanted, that they are chosen and that they are home. And I pray, God, that you would give them an optimism about the future because they're not walking into the future alone.

They're walking with you and they're walking with the family of God. And we pray, O God, that you would guard the seed that was planted and that, Lord, you would help them to grow. We pray. And Lord, as we go into this week, we pray, Lord, that there will be an anointing on our lives. The smile of God behind us and over us. And that you cause crooked things to become straight. And that, Lord, you allow us to find, Lord, rivers in the desert. And, Lord, the smile of God would extend to homes and relationships and workplaces. And the kingdom of God would come. And that the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead and lives within us would be known on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. We thank you, Lord. We thank you in Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen, Amen, Amen. God bless you.