Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
Good In Tension | Week 1 | Grace and Truth
Good In Tension Week 1: Grace and Truth
Jesus’ way of Loving was:
Messy, Inconsistent, Unfair, Confusing
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NIV
It’s not a problem to solve, it’s a tension to manage.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety -nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:1-8
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. Luke 15:17-24
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” Luke 15:28-32
God could not love you more. Nothing you do will cause Him to love you less.
Discussion Questions:
What’s a funny or everyday “tension” you deal with, something like coffee vs. sleep or eating healthy vs. eating happy?
When you hear the phrase “full of grace and truth,” which word do you personally lean toward, grace or truth.
How have you seen people misuse grace or truth — leaning too hard on one side and missing the heart of Jesus?
In that story, Jesus says, “I don’t condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.” How does that sentence hold tension between grace and truth?
What does it mean for Relate Church (or your small group) to be “comfortable in the messy”?
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All right, good morning, everybody. And I am so glad that you made it to church today. Tell your neighbor, tell that person sitting right next to you, it's already a good day. Sometimes we're just waiting for the good stuff. The good stuff's here already. We've been in it. God is good. This is the day He made. He has made this day, and we have a lot to rejoice in. We have a lot to be glad in. So I'm glad you're here. I'm glad those of you who are online are joining us and worshiping with us and opening God's word together with us. I'm looking forward to a brand new series. This is um, I've been looking forward to this one for a little while and uh just believing that it enables God to stretch us and grow us. And this is something that um every new believer, every uh mature believer, if you're truly trying to follow Jesus, this is a crucial message, particularly today. And I'm excited to dive into it. So we're not gonna take a lot of time uh talking about other things. Are y'all ready? Good, good. Pull out your notes. We're note-taking church. Uh it sticks with you longer. I hope that whenever you leave here, you don't just immediately move on to the next thing that God's word is staying with you and the principles, the ideas, the things that we're living by, God's standards for us, that we're hanging on to them. So, with that said, let's dive right in. This series is about uh the tensions. It's called good intentions, but it's about the things that uh we want to resolve, but we we don't resolve them because it's better when the tension is there. And this exists in our everyday life. This is something that we deal with on a day in, day out, uh, not just in our faith. One of those might be something like you may love coffee, you want more coffee, but at some point you have to sleep. So you have some of some of you have told me that you you do coffee right up until you sleep. I don't know how you do that, but it's one of the it's a it's almost a paradox. It's hard to exist in. Um this is something that when we look at it in the Bible, it's it's like the moments where I want to do this, but uh or I need to do this, but I also need to do this. And because uh they're in conflict with each other, it's impossible for me to do them both. So I've yeah, I end up in this tension, and there are a few really huge areas in our faith where we want to resolve, we want it to be one way or the other. And today we're talking about grace and truth. We're talking about grace and truth. So put put that in your notes, grace and truth. And um, I think it when you really start to look at how Jesus lived, how Jesus loved people, full of grace and full of truth, it it seems impossible to do. It's one of those things that on paper it makes no sense, it creates a tension that as believers we want to resolve. And why? When you start reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the story of Jesus' life, the story of Jesus interacting with people, healing people, uh bringing deliverance, bringing life where there's death, it often is confusing. Like, how is he doing that? Or how it's often unfair. In fact, that at one point Jesus walks past a bunch of people who need to be healed, um, where there's a lame man at the gate, and he comes to one man and heals him, and he doesn't heal all the others. While at other times, Jesus uh makes it fair and feeds a multitude of people. He doesn't just feed one person, it's often very messy the way Jesus does ministry. It's not often the way we do ministry, the way we do church, the way we, it's all everything's got to be fair. If one kid gets candy, they all got to get candy. If we do something for one person, we got to do it for everybody. When the truth is that Jesus did not operate that way, and it creates this confusing dynamic that's really hard to live up to. At times, Jesus seems harsh, calling out people's sins. Uh, and uh at other times, Jesus is very kind, he's uh understanding and full of compassion. Sometimes uh he seems to ignore sin altogether. And so when we're trying to follow Jesus, it's like, okay, do I do do I act with compassion this time, or do I act uh with the truth? Do I come in and I just tell people what the truth is and everything else can just get out of the way? It's hard to know how to be like Jesus when it seems like he's doing two things at one time. We want to resolve the tension and create a book of rules that says if you're gonna be in the church, you have to act this way, look this way, show up at this time, and if you don't, you're out. Here's the truth, and then then we're gonna switch gears a little bit that if we're going to live like Jesus and if we're going to be the church that Jesus called us to be and love like Jesus, then we're going, it's gonna get messy. Tell somebody next to you it's gonna be messy, it's gonna be inconsistent, it's gonna be unfair, it's gonna be confusing. And so today I want us to look in uh of all the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, one of them, uh I certainly my favorite is the book of John. John has a way of telling Jesus' life and describing Jesus in this epic, artistic, poetic way. And when we look at it today, uh if we just start in chapter one, Jesus is described as uh he was in the beginning with God. He was God, the the word was there, and watch what happens. It's described in a way that the that the light came to men, and it's very poetic and and and and amazing the way he's described. But what what he's describing is that God sent his son, God came into the world, and the world rejected him. It's almost like uh this picture is painted uh like this that it's like God painted uh a painting of us, and then he went into the painting, and then the people in the painting didn't recognize him, so they kicked him back out and rejected him. It's like God made us, gave us everything, and then we just rejected him. And how does he respond to that? How does how does Jesus deal with the rejection? How does Jesus in uh verse 14 of John chapter 1, verse 14? Here's what here's our key verse today, and then we're gonna uh unpack a lot of other scripture. John chapter 1, verse 14. It says, The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Earlier describes the word as God, that he came, he became a part, he lived with us, he set up camp and lived with us. We got to experience God in person, he dwelt among us, and John in particular, he says, we have seen his glory. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only. And I would say it like this if I had experienced someone and you had never met them, and I got to come and tell you, this guy is crazy. You would you wouldn't believe how he was. And if there's one thing that I needed to tell you so that you could understand how he was, because I lived with him, you didn't. You need to know this one thing. And the one thing that he says about him, he says, who came from the Father, full of what? Full of grace and truth. So, what happens whenever we're full of grace and truth? Here's the mind-blowing thing. Here's the hard part about full of grace and truth that we don't get. If if this is grace and this is truth, it's hard to imagine being full of both at the same time. Because grace says, Oh, you're fine. You you tried hard, you did your best. You it's okay. Just relax and uh, you know, just try to do better next time. And then in life, when we encounter situations and we have the the choice of bringing grace or bringing truth, truth is the exact opposite. Truth says you did not do good enough. Truth is you're not good enough, and you probably never will be. The truth says everything you have done is a failure up until this point, you've you'll never reach the standard. Truth is harsh. Truth is your clothes don't match. You smell kind of funny, you didn't get your hair right today. You met you failed your test. And so, whenever we encounter situations, we want to like, okay, I'm gonna give a little bit, a little bit of grace, but you know, we can't forget the truth. We have to decide whether we're going to give grace or truth. And Jesus had this crazy way in every situation. In fact, if you've read the gospels, you've seen that the Pharisees and the Sadducees come to him and they test him. It just straight tells us that they were testing him when they asked him. And often that question comes right down to Jesus, will you make a stand here and choose truth? Will you will you tell the truth? And Jesus has this epic, sneaky, amazing way of every situation that comes, he has this way of not having to choose one or the other. He doesn't just come in with a little bit of grace and a little bit of truth. He has a way of coming in with a full measure of grace and truth. Here, this is the tension. If this message is about how do we live in the tension, how do we become good at living in the tension? It's how do I, how can I figure this makes no sense. Because I feel like grace and truth is a thing that swings back and forth, and it's a scale that's an opposite scale that I have to pick one or the other. And Jesus had this amazing way of doing both at the same exact time. So, how do we do that? I lean both, I lean one way or another. If you were raised with uh in a household where there was mostly truth, then you probably you might have OCD because you know when things are out of place. If you were raised in a household where you had mostly grace, then your clothes might not match today, and that's okay. But a good household is has a little bit of both, and you probably know that one of your parents was the grace, and one of your parents was Mr. Ungrace. Mr. Truth. Usually dad, right? But a good household has both. Uh, we we need both. We have to have both, and I tend towards one or the other. It's really difficult to exist in both at the same time. If it's uh if it's a situation where it's all about you and I have to figure out, I would tend towards truth with you, but I would tend towards grace if it had to do with me. I'd be like, nah, nah, I tried my best. If it's about you, though, I'm much more willing to say, oh, that was bad. That was terrible. What were you thinking? Right? We have this way of giving ourselves grace, but when it comes to other people, and yet Jesus was full of both. He didn't swing back and forth, he existed right in the middle. And for us, we have to figure out how do we do that. This series, this message in particular, is about that tension because it's a 10, it's not a problem to solve, it's a tension that we have to learn to manage. I will tell you just right off the bat, we are not good at this. We are we are uh the and when I say we, I mean the church, people, humans are not good at this because naturally we go one way or the other. But Jesus was very good at this. The most famous probably story in the Bible, in fact, if you look at every encounter that Jesus has, you can recognize both grace and truth in his responses, in his actions, and in the things that he chooses to do. However, probably the most famous example of this is when Jesus meets, uh comes into a situation, and and we believe that the the uh religious leaders had set up a situation to test him. But in this situation, there's a woman who's been caught in adultery, and all of the leaders have decided she needs to be stoned, she deserves death, and then so they pose to Jesus this question what will what do you think? And Jesus does something that shocks them all. He says, Yeah, let's do it, let's kill her. She deserves to die, let's kill her. But let the one with no sin cast the first stone. And then gradually reaches down and he writes something in the sand, and one by one, all of them, all of her accusers leave, but then she's left, and he says something so amazing to her. In one sentence, we get both grace and truth. Not little of each, not 50% grace and 50% truth make up one whole. No, he gives them the full measure of grace. He gives this woman who's been accused and deserving of death. He gives her a hundred percent grace and a hundred percent truth. And he says something that we have to learn to carry in our hearts. He says, I don't condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin. Like, yes, you're a sinner, but I don't condemn you. So naturally, we would think, so I don't condemn you, or you're a sinner. Yes, both. Both. But if she's a sinner, we have to kill her. That's the rules. How do we exist in this if there are rules, if there are uh truths in the Bible that are so powerful and can't be compromised? How do we exist in both? Okay, Jesus taught this, and I want us to read it. It's basically the entire chapter of Luke, chapter 15, and we're gonna read through most of it. I want you to write right in your notes as we go. Jesus taught this principle, and he did it in the form of a parable. Parables, actually, a few different parables. And the first thing you need to know about parables is this that when Jesus is telling a parable, and in those days, whenever a parent, in the in modern times, if you're hearing, you know, this is a parable, I'm telling you a story. You know that you are in the story somewhere. So when Jesus is telling the story, the the audience knows that uh where am I in this story? They know where they're at in the story. And Jesus makes it very clear. Watch this. Luke chapter 15, verse 1, it says, Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. So just right there, I need you to understand this uh this situation. It's like Jesus is speaking, and just like this morning, people got up out of their homes and said, I'm gonna go down there and hear what is being said. So they came, they gathered around, maybe just similar to what you guys are. Maybe it was in the on the countryside or the maybe it was right in the middle of the city, but they gathered around and listened, and the the first group of people is divided into two. That's the tax collectors and sinners. And that's important because why is there a distinction between tax collectors and sinners? Because the tax collectors were so bad and so hated they had to be separated from the sinners. We got the bad ones, and then we have the even worse ones, the tax collectors. What's amazing is that G one of Jesus' disciples, Matthew, is a tax collector. If you go back and read when like you, it's easy to imagine that Jesus calls the fisherman, hey Peter, why don't you come follow me? He leaves his nets and comes to follow him. But when he calls Matthew and says, Hey, come follow me, all the disciples are shocked. They're like, wait a second, that you can't have that dude in our group. People will think we like him. Isn't that what happens at church today when people somebody show, oh, we can't have them in our group, we can't have them in our small group, we can't have them on the stage. People would think we approve of the way they live and what they stand for. And I think it's amazing. It's almost like Jesus tells the disciples, relax, it's not gonna hurt our reputation. And if you think this is bad, him hanging out with us, we're going over to his house. Get ready for this afternoon when he invites all of his friends, and then we're having a party together. Jesus was never worried about his own reputation. He brought grace and truth, and he does that in this situation. He has a group of basically sinners and tax collectors on one side. And can I just point out this that it's amazing that in those days, the worst people in society, the worst people that everyone thought these are the worst people, the tax collectors. So bad that they were uh they had their own column when we were describing. We've got religious people and then the sinners and the tax collectors. It's amazing that those are the people on the front row of the crowd. Can I tell you that when we get this right, when we start living in grace and truth, that's what church will look like on Sunday mornings. It's sad that when someone walks into the church, we immediately start, oh, I don't know if this fits or not. I don't know if this is the right place for you. If we do this right, then church looks a lot different on Sunday mornings. Maybe somebody sits next to me that I don't want sitting next to me. Maybe they don't look like me, they don't act like me, they don't believe like me, or they uh they don't have the same reputation as me. Watch this. And the next verse says, But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with him. In other words, they're throwing a little barb out there, like, Jesus, you're gonna let these guys stay here? Like, dude, pick a side. We're supposed to be on the same team. You say you're a rabbi. You got people following, you're teaching the law, you're teaching people how to live, and you're hanging out with these people. So let's do this. In the rest of our story today, in the rest of our time, let's just assume that we have two groups of people here. Don't get offended, but you guys right here are the sinners and tax collectors. He's switching sides. Come on, man. You're proving my point. And we'll let you guys be the religious folks. And so when they say this man welcomes sinners and eats with them, it's almost like this. There's a two crowds of people, and all the religious people are pointing and mocking everybody else on the other side. And Jesus is trying to get across the point here. Jesus is trying to teach them, and so rather than just telling them uh, rather than just telling them, hey, you guys need to act right, he starts to tell them a story. And just imagine that you're standing there in the crowd, you know who you are in the story. You're either the religious, or we'll call them the good guys and the bad guys, or the misbehaviors and the behaviors. You know who you are in the story. You're the one with value and the one without value. And Jesus tells a story that gets them both. Watch this. In verse 3, it says, Jesus told this parable, and he says, Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? Now, I think that when Jesus is telling this, he's talking to the group of people who believe that they are the chosen faithful, the good ones that are a part of. Imagine they know that God is our shepherd. The Lord is my, they've read Psalms. The Lord is my shepherd. They imagine that they are a part of his flock. And now Jesus is telling them that, okay, you're the good 99, you've been found, you're in his flock, but there's one, and I just think Jesus probably looks over and winks at him and says, That lost one is over there. Leaves the 99 in the open country and go after the one lost sheep until he finds it. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. And then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep. And he might even have pointed, you guys are the lost sheep. I can't imagine how that made them feel. Because we know that the sinners and the tax collectors knew they were sinners. They were here to hear, they were there to listen to Jesus, but they had no qualms with being called sinners. They were often called sinners, they were often called unworthy. You can't come into the church, you can't hang out with us, we can't even touch you, we can't have a meal with you. They knew they were unworthy, they knew they were the lost ones. Imagine hearing that and thinking, oh man, we are unworthy. And then Jesus gives them the explanation for the story, like they need it at this point. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner. This is like Jesus telling them that there's more value, that heaven is excited and celebrating over them and not you. You think you're you think you're all that. You think you're here every Sunday, that you deserve everything. You're the one that's behaving. And God loves you so much more. But I'm telling you that heaven's celebrating when one lost one comes. That's Jesus is like trying to can in my mind. Have you ever seen a teacher who's just trying to get his students to realize the truth of something? You're all you're not seeing it. You're not getting it. It's not it's not computing in your brain. And then he goes on, he tells another story. Three stories in a row. The first one is about sheep. The second one, he it's the same story, pointing out the two groups of people, but this time he says, uh, imagine someone has 10 coins and they lose one. How far they'll go out of their way to search day and night to find this one, to sweep the whole house and find the one lost coin. And again, I think he's probably winking and sure, you're you're so valuable over here. What about that one? The lost one also has value. And as if they didn't quite get it yet, he says, Okay, okay, okay, let me start over. You're not getting it. Let me tell you, let me say it in a way that you'll get this time. So he gives them a third story that's almost identical, just a different, they need to hear it from a different direction. Okay, so here's the story. Instead of sheep and instead of coins, he tells a story this way, and he just, it's all it's the most blunt, uh, straightforward. Okay, we got two groups of people: the sinner, the uh, the misbehavior, and the the ones that are doing the right thing. And he says, Okay, let's just assume there's a father with two sons. Like you can't confuse this. And he says, I'll paraphrase that the the the youngest son, the misbehaving son, the the bad son, comes to the dad and says, Dad, essentially this. I wish you just died and I could get my inheritance. So I could tell you that probably everybody in the crowd at that point was like, oh, they are either side of the crowd understands what this means and is probably offended at this point at the young man. But dad, if you're not gonna die, why don't we just pretend like you die? You give me my inheritance and I'll go. So the dad does this. Imagine the people in the crowd are both the sinners, tax collectors, and the religious people. I'm sure the religious people more are giving like a shameful ooh, and looking over at the other crowd because they know who they are in the story. The father agrees to give him an inheritance, and not long from then he spends the whole inheritance, and he ends up in a worse situation where he has nothing now. He can't even provide for himself, and the only way that he can eat, the only way that he can take care of himself is he ends up in basically a pig sty with pigs in slop, imagining, if only I could go home. If only, if only I could go back to my father's house, it would be way better than this. And I think that at this point, probably all the religious people are thinking, that's what you deserve. And probably all the sinners and tax collectors are thinking, well, you know, you gave it a try, but you don't deserve that either. But I think probably both sides were angry and offended. And if we ended right there, especially all the religious people would be thinking, that could be the end of the story. He tried his best, he took his took what was his, and then he went off, and now he's with the pigs. Got what he deserved. Yep, story over, perfect story. But watch what happens in the story. When he comes to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? And here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against you and against heaven. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. So first, just just stop there for a second. The unworthy son, he has this insecurity that I'm not worthy. I'm not enough. Like I'll just go back to my father and throw myself at his mercy, but I don't even deserve for him to talk to me. He says, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father. Now, if you're the religious people, I think this is probably what you're thinking. Story was perfect, but this is even better. We're about to see him get what he really deserves from his dad. Dad's gonna be able to tell him, You never should have left. And then the religious people love to put people in their place. The religious people love to just dump out a big old serving of truth on somebody. Y'all know some people like that? Uh-oh. Don't look at anybody. Come on, man. Hopefully, y'all get this. It says, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with. And if you're the religious people, you're thinking, aha, I'd be full, full of anger right here. If I saw my son after everything that he had done and taken half of what I had worked my entire life for, and squandered it and let and just blew us off like we did, like he wished we were dead. Like I'm nothing. Here he comes. That awful son of mine. I'm sure that's what the religious people are thinking. Because they just have truth running around in their mind. But watch what watch what Jesus says. He saw the father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. This was probably a shock for them. It was probably a shock for the uh for the religious people. And it's it goes on to say this He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. The son said Him, watch this. This is important. Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. This is exactly what he told himself he was going to say. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, but if you could give me like a uh a second tier or a third, just make me a servant. But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. If it's me, I love my son. But even if if Jake did this to me, where's Jake? Right here. He's here somewhere. Right there. Jake, if you did this to me and you came uh walking back after all this had happened, I would still love you. I would still accept you. But I might not be quick to put the robe on you and to do all the things. I might say, hey, let's give him a moment before we just bring him back in. Let's see if his, let's see if he's really serious about doing the right thing here. Let's see if he's committed to this or not. Or let's see what his attitude looks like. No, but the dad, the father says, Bring him in quick, put a robe on him. Bring the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Change his clothes. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. And let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again, and he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Okay? Imagine. The father wants to celebrate and his two sons. This is usually where the Sunday school ends. This is where the Sunday school lesson that we've all heard ends. Father runs out to meet him, brings him, hugs him, puts the ring, put the robe, bring the fatted calf. Let's celebrate. Yay, story's over. Amazing. That's what God wants for all of us. But that's actually not the end of the story. The story goes on to tell us not only does one of the sons feel so unworthy that he just says, I'll just be a servant. At the other end of the house, we have the other son. It's like the unworthy, lost, misbehaving son over here. And Jesus is telling the story to a bunch of people who feel the same way. I'm not worthy to be here. Yeah, they're right for treating me that way. And yet the religious people don't want to have anything to do with them. The firstborn is out doing, if you read on, we're not going to read the whole thing, but if you read on says the firstborn is out in the field, he's working as he should be, uh, doing his normal thing, and he comes in trying to feel, what's all the celebration about? And one of the other servants tells him, Well, your other brother is home. Your dad's killed the fatted calf. It's time for everybody to celebrate. And verse 28 says this the older brother became angry and refused to go in. Have you ever known an angry Christian? Yeah, if you yeah, you know them. Maybe an angry nun, an angry pastor, an angry church member. I've known a bunch of them. I've known people who were Christians, but uh I felt like the only reason they believed in hell is because they were excited that some other people were going there. And they would love to watch it happen. And Jesus describing this, giving them this story, he's just telling two groups of people a story that is so parallel to their life, they have to be getting it. Dad's throwing a party, killed the fatted calf, and there's a son on either side of the house. One of the sons doesn't even feel worthy to come in, and the other son is so angry he won't come in and celebrate. And so the father went out in verse 2029. So the father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Like I've been doing the right thing. Can I tell you? We'll just pause here for a second. If you are that angry Christian, can I tell you that it's probably because you think you deserve something that someone else is getting? That you couldn't stand the idea of someone else coming in and not working as hard as you and still getting your inheritance. It comes from a place of self-righteousness that I deserve to be here because I've performed well. I've been performing all these years. And how dare you let the one who's not performing have the same place as me? How dare you bring them in? And Jesus is trying to talk to tell right in front of him, both sons. You don't feel worthy. You don't think the other one's worthy. You both agree, but this is not based on performance. This has nothing to do with whether or not you've done the right thing or not. It's because your father loves you. It's because your father thinks you have the value of a coin or the uh you're part of his flock. So if you're that one that's carrying around anger or self-righteousness, that's Jesus is saying, you can't do that. That's not what this is about. Watch what the son says, the good son. He says, I've done all these things yet. You never even gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. He was upset because the other son was being celebrated. But when this son of yours, who squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home, you kill the fatted calf for him. My son, the father said, and here's where Jesus gets very serious. I feel like he probably slows down to make sure that both crowds, this is this is what we're talking about. My son, the father, said, You are always with me, and everything I have is yours. This is where we get the truth. Everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is now found. Like in other words, I'm not gonna he doesn't get to come home and now we're gonna resplit up your inheritance. You're not losing. Why are you so mad? Why are you so upset about this? Please. He says he pleads with him. Please come in and let's celebrate. He's he's back and you never left. Why are you so why won't you celebrate? This is not about performance. I think this is the same exact thing that happens over and over and over in our church and in every other church. We think it's about performance, and God just wants us to know He loves us. And why are there so many lost people that feel unworthy to come into the house and celebrate? And why are there so many Christian people? Why are there so many uh followers of Jesus who won't come in and celebrate with the lost people? They won't even let them in the house. The reality of our worship our relationship with our Father is this that God could not love you more. Nothing you do will cause him to love you less. God could not love you more, nothing you do could cause him to love you less. The band's gonna come and we're gonna close, but learning how to live and respond and love people with a hundred percent grace and a hundred percent truth. You realize God never gets mad at lost things. God's never upset at lost things. In fact, you don't get lost, you don't get upset. I don't get upset at lost things. If I lose my phone or my keys, I'm not mad at my phone. I can be upset because this is happening, because I can't figure out what what needs to happen. And I can tell you that in our church, we shouldn't be mad at lost things. We should be saying, let's celebrate, let's allow every lost, let's find every lost one and bring them in. And if we can learn to live with 100% grace and 100% truth, then the lost will be flocking to hear the message of Jesus. They'll be sitting right here on the front row. I think we get it. We try. In our small groups, in our teams, in our in our programs, and the the teaching, and Sunday morning, everything we do, we we try to get it right, but we definitely get it wrong sometimes. This happens uh probably most obviously whenever I whenever I teach on when I start talking about sexuality or things like divorce. It's the it's the message where I and I never tell you it's coming. I'm not gonna uh advertise, okay, we're talking about sexuality and divorce this morning. It just comes, and then all of a sudden we're in this place where the it's like there's this weight of like truth on us because we're reading God's word and it resonates with us, and we know it's true, and it's heavy, and it's hard, and it's it's powerful. And so often you guys, well, I'll meet you at the door on your way out, and you'll tell me, Oh, Pastor, that hit me right between the eyes. But it was so good. Or you'll tell me something like, I can't believe I I've needed to hear that for so long. We needed that so bad. In fact, I took notes so I could give it to somebody else. My brother, my kids need to hear that. I never get the sense whether you're struggling with particular sins or you're in a place where you're feeling the weight of that grace and the truth. Whether you whether the the truth feels heavy on you, I always feel like you're saying, Pastor, don't water it down. Don't don't just tell me what I want to hear. We need to hear the truth, but we also need to be able to say that God loves me no matter what, and that God wants me to be a part of his celebration no matter what. He's already paid a price, and it's agony to hear sometimes. But I'm also so glad that I got to hear it. To truly follow Jesus and love his way, it's messy and unfair, confusing sometimes. People ask, have asked every ever since we began, like, who are you gonna allow to be baptized? Who are you gonna allow to become a part of your team and your serve, who are you gonna allow on the serve team, the dream team? How do you do how do you even know if they're Christians or not? Well, I don't. It's not for me to judge whether you're a Christian. We get to walk together and grow, and it's my job to tell you the truth, but also to love you. And so whether someone comes in with addictions or actively breaking commandments, we've had people walk in and I can tell they're drunk. We've had people come in and join our team, whole families of people who are not professing Christians but professing to other faiths. That is amazing to me because what I see is a father that's running to his children saying, Hey, he's coming back. Let's not run him off in the street before he even gets home. Let's not hold up a big banner and say, hey, only come home if you're willing to apologize. The reality is that just like the woman who was caught in adultery, it's like Jesus says, I love you, you sinned, I paid for it, and I don't condemn you. I want you to leave your sin, but even if you can't leave your sin, I still love you. And even if you keep trying and you keep failing, I still love you. That's grace and truth. I want you to stop sinning. I want you to be the best version of you that I designed you for, but even if you don't, I still love you. You can't make me love you less. Here's where we'll close. If Jesus was the embodiment of grace and truth, a full measure of both, and the church is the embodiment or the body of Christ, then we have to be full of grace and truth. So we're gonna close in prayer, and I just I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to live and decide that I'll be full of grace and truth and today. It's not easy, it's messy, it's confusing. But I believe we can do better, and that's the tension that He's called us to. Finally, here's where we are. If you're that one that is that has been lost or walked away, or you're uh you left the 99 and God's just waiting for you to come home. If you're that lost son or daughter that's felt unworthy, just like the crowd in front of Jesus, if you're that one, he's saying you've sinned, you messed up, but I still love you, and I'll never love you less. Today I want to invite you to say a prayer with me where we just recommit our lives to Him and begin to follow Him again. Would you bow your head and close your eyes right where you are? I won't embarrass you, but I'd love for everyone to say this prayer with me in this room and watching online. Would you say this out loud? Dear Heavenly Father, today I bring my life to you. I choose to follow you. I choose to give up my way. And from this moment forward, I accept.