I’m Coming With (Larry Brey)

There is nothing quite like Elevation Nights.

Oh, I love them so much.

Elevation Knights twenty twenty four is about to happen. We are coming your way and we want to see you there. It's not only a time of worship, but I'm gonna be preaching. I might get ally to preach a little bit too, and we're gonna be believing God for amazing things in the following cities.

Okay, so Hershey, Pennsylvania, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Columbus, Ohio, Hoffman States, Illinois.

That's Chicago, Belmont Park, New York. That's Long Island, Boston, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

She diod good at that Elevation Nights dot com. Get your tickets right now. We're gonna be getting ready for you. It's gonna be amazing.

Many of you you expected Pastor Stephen to walk up. And there was a collective side for some of the room, like it's okay, my name is Larry Bribe, but everybody calls me LB and my wife and I had the distinct privilege of being one of the original eight families that got a chance to sell our homes. He quit her jobs eighteen years ago to start Elevation Church and man like, I want to see what God has done eighteen years of servant.

Baby, look what look around, Look what God has done? And thank you.

Before we started this ministry, we got on our knees. There were no people, We had nothing, no money. We had a blank page, but not a blank check it was and we got on the knees and we just prayed, Lord like, bring to people. Yeah we didn't know you, we didn't, but God saw you. God saw you in Gaston, God saw you in Rono. God saw you, and He's set this moment on your calendar to be here today to hear a word, and I'm excited to deliver it. Here here's the verse I want to give you to

I think you can do it, So go do it.

Thank you for being that kind of leader who push us us out.

Thank you, honor you love you, Pastor Stephen.

First Amuel fourteen, chapter one, Just one verse to te off where we want to go with this. This is one day Jonathan, son of Saul, said to his young arm bear, come, let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side. But he did not tell his father. Here's the title for today's message. You can pick out your favorite person around you only get one, say I'm coming with. You can look to your second favor. Don't make him feel left out and rejected. Look at him,

Think you worship team. In this passage of scripture, you've got this.

Young man named Jonathan. He is the son of Saul, who is the king of nation Israel. The king had made some bad choices that had some devastating consequences because of his disobedience.

He was rejected as king. It would no longer be king. In this picture that we see in First.

Samuel, he had woken the dog the Philistines, and he had abandoned the authority that God had given him as king over Israel. And he took six hundred the nation's best fighting men to hide underneath the pomegranate tree. Sir, here you got the king, the leader of Nation Israel, who has been rejected and has also abandoned his post. Those of us that want to lead, we need to understand that when we abdicate our authority, it's the people

Was supposed to be the next king of Nation Israel.

So he's looking at his father's rejection that also forced him to reject the rightful thing that he should have had. And some of you are looking at a situation that you had nothing to do with, and everything you thought would happen is forfeited because of somebody else's disobedience. So when we read this passage, we need to understand that Jonathan did not tell his father. He looks to his armbhar I said, let's go do something about it. He says to him, I'm coming with But he did not

Is to be with my dad. If he's going somewhere, I'd be like, I'm coming with, grab my little hat, jumping.

The pickup truck, and like, let's go wherever you're gonna go. I didn't care where we were gonna. I just wanted to be with my father. I'm coming with dad. I wouldn't I wouldn't notice all the times that we'd be coming home, he'd be swerving, and we thought it'd be kind of funny.

And then finally one night.

I grew up in Minnesota, where it's like really cold. It was like ten degrees outside. My dad was inside this place for a couple hours and I'm out the pickup truck and it is freezing. Finally, I sat there, I said, I wonder what he's doing in there. I remember sneaking out of the pickup truck walking to the side.

Of the building. It was called the Delroy.

It was a bar, so I sneak in the side door and I walk in and I see my dad sitting at the end of the bar, drunk, talking to a woman that is not my mother. And it's in that moment that I saw my dad's humanity and he was no longer my hero, and I felt rejected in that moment. I felt like I was abandoned in them when I felt like, that's the moment.

That I lost my father.

But if I look back, that was a defining moment for me where I felt like I became an orphan because if I'm honest in my honest moments, I felt like I wouldn't have been able to explain it as an eight year old, but a as a kid growing up. I felt like, if I could have just done it better, maybe he wouldn't have chose that, because it wasn't just that decision, it was all the ripple effects that just tore our family apart. And I want to talk about

You're at an orphanage.

All right, kids, somebody is coming today, so put on your best clothes and be on your best behavior, and maybe you'll get picked.

And you put on your.

Best clothes, you're on your best behavior, and you don't get picked because you don't feel like.

You're good enough.

If I could have just been a little bit taller, if I had have won more trophies, if I would have been more pretty, maybe somebody would have loved me. Maybe somebody would have seen me, maybe they wouldn't have abandoned me. Because the orphan always feels like it's their fault. And I want to talk about the orphan spirit today because some if you are a grown man or a woman, yet you so identify as a child and as an orphan. Why Because I have walked with this orphan spirit all of my life.

Did you know the first orphan is Satan. He wanted to be like God.

He was jealous of his worship, so he tries to overthrow to steal some of God's glory, and God will not be He will not let his glory go to somebody else. And because of that, Satan was rejected and he was sent down.

He was thrown down. It says this in Revelation chapter twelve, verse ten.

It says, for the accuser Satan, for the accused of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down. So the very rejection that Satan experience is what he uses to attack you. I believe one of the primary assignments of the enemy is to use the bomb of rejection to make you feel it. Here's the story that's painted in Revelation chapter twelve, verseent. He is accusing you day and night before God. So with picture Satan staying before God, like.

Did you see JJ? Did you see what he did? Did you see it?

Did you hear him? Did you see the way he's looking? And he is hurling insults day and night.

It is relentless in the attack of how he's accusing you.

He's saying they're not worth loving. Did you see how they acted, They're not worth believing?

Did you see what they did? Did you see what they go back?

To they said they're a follower of Jesus, and then they did that last night.

Come on, Jesus, come on, look it down. They're now worth it.

That's what the accuser is doing day and night with you. And what does our God do with that accusation. He does to you what he did to his son. He said of Jesus, before he did any public ministry, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Before he ever did anything, he affirmed the relationship.

We have a God who looks at you and said, that's my son, that's my daughter. Shut your pie hole. That's the accuser.

Relentlessly attacking your character, and he's got good evidence to win a case in court. Sometimes that does not matter, because when you are the Lord's son or daughter, no one can take you from his aunt.

That's the message of the gospel. I remember when my son.

Corbin, a couple of years ago, he had a bully at school on the bus. He was smacking people in the back of the head and throwing water bounds at him, starting fights on the bus. And Corbin told me about and I said, listen, never start a fight, but if you start to finish it, I said, don't go looking for a fight, but you don't let evil back you.

Into a corner.

And you always defend people who cannot defend themselves. And maybe not James Dobson approved, but it's what I got. And so my wife and I were at breakfast one morning we get a phone call from the principal. I knew exactly what it was, and the prince were like, your son, he's been in a fight. Get down to school. I'm like, oh, yes, I will. So I come into the school. I see my son through the glass and the principal's office and he's kind of.

Like reading Dad, like how is Dad going to respond? You know that look?

Some of you have that way where you look at God and I need to challenge your perception of how you see your heavenly father today. And some of you have gotten in such a mess and you're wondering, how does he see me?

What does he think of me?

I walked in, I looked at my son again, my thumbs up in a big smile, and I walked into the principal's office and the Pro's.

Like, he's a fighter and he should never do this, and he's like I was.

Like, sh that's my son. I don't care what he did. That's my son. And I said, if that punk ever does it again, I'll be back here celebrating him. I know that you are gonna have to suspend him. But after we walk out of the school, we're going to a movie and I'm buying him a pizza because that is my son, and I'm freaking proud of him, because the father always validates the relationship. I need you to understand that. But when you're an orphan, you feel abandoned.

The devil will play you can first eighty. It's not that big of a deal.

Nobody even notices, nobody even really cares. And then you do it and like, oh you dirty dog, you God hates you. What do we do with the accusation?

We agree with it.

We make it into a blanket, we wrap up, and we just take a nap in it. We are so familiar with living in the accusation. It becomes our identity. I wonder how many orphans are in this house and the devil has been speaking lies and you are just giving agreement to it.

You're inviting them.

In watching Netflix and making them a sandwich. Because we become so numb to the sound of the accusation.

That's no longer his voice. It becomes our voice.

That's why I want to talk about the orphaned spirit today. And when I think about the orphan spirit, there's a language, there's a vocabulary that comes with orphans. There's a way that you start to speak. And I want to look at the life of Moses. I think he's a poster child for the orphan spirit. And I want to zoom into one moment in his life, because when you see Moses, what do you see some of us see like Charlton Heston, parting the risk, see coming down with the ten commandments.

At a young age.

His mother and father threw him into the river. Why it was a righteous thing. It was the only way to keep him alive. But to the kid who's been abandoned, the intention makes no difference. And some of you have been rejected. If we were to rewind the tape to see your mother and father, it's.

The best they had.

But the attention did not or matter to the consequences that were devastating. And he was an orphan, born a Jew, but then picked up by Egyptians, and he was raised in an Egyptian home. And he was so confused his whole life. Who am I?

I don't know who I am.

And then at age forty, sees two people fighting, or sees a man treating another man badly, and he jumps in and he kills the guy and buries him. Then the next day his scheme gets found out. Then he runs into the desert because at a young.

Age he was abandoned.

This immense pain that he went through as a child, Now at age forty, he wasn't the one that was abandoned. He abandoned what God had called him to, and he runs. And some of you have been abandoned, and some of you have been You have abandoned what God has.

Called you to.

I think it's the orphan spirit that's been driving Moses all along.

And it's really hard to.

Get to the right destination when I've got the voice of the orphan giving me.

Turn by turned directions.

I wonder why you're getting in a traffic gym because you're listening to the wrong voice. But I need you to be aware of the voice of the orphan who is echoing, chattering in your ear. And you've become so familiar with it, it's become white. It's just happening. And the devil doesn't have to stand on your shoulder accusing you anymore. You just hear repeat, He's left you, He's on to somebody else. You just keep repeating. Moses had been repeating this track, this soundtrack for forty years.

He's eighty.

Now God shows up in Exodus three. God's going to come to him and he says, I need you to do something and watch the cadence of the conversation between God and Moses. Now as you hear the voice of the orphan spirit speaking through Moses. I pray that you hear your voice, because you and I bring the same response to a holy God who's called us to something. And Moses is responding from a place.

I think it's this orphan spirit.

And in Exodus chapter three, verse nine, it starts with this, God's gonna come to him. And you'll see this back and forth five times. It's fascinating to watch this thing happening. In verse nine, he says, and now the crime the Israeli, says, reached me, and I've seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt.

You figure, God said it, go do it? Amen?

No, not the orphan spirit. How does Moses respond? He says this, He says, but Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Here's what I think he's saying. When I hear that, here's the first sound. The response of the orphan spirit is I can't do that.

I can't do that.

And some of you have become really good at this response, and you blame God for your disobedience, Well.

I feel is why I should pray about that.

No, you were just interjecting some Christians to justify your disobedience.

Insecurity is driving your.

Decision and you're not even creating a space for God to speak.

You have predetermined the answer. Now, what's the question. The answer is, I can't do it. What's your question? I can't do that. What's the question? Some it's the orphan spirit in you.

When you're lived life driven by insecurity and doubt, you don't see any situation that would be favorable.

To you winning. I can't do that. I can't do that. God.

I have been praying that the words of the Orthan that we're going to talk about would become bitter in your mouth, so that as they become spoken, they would prompt you to say, Nope, you don't have to live that way. You do not have to live that way. That's part of the vocabulary of the orphan. I can't do that. And God is so gracious. I don't know how you picture God. And sometimes we'll paint a picture like the God of the Old Testament is the God of wrath.

I don't see wrath.

In this conversation with Moses, I see a loving God. I don't know what has shaped your picture of God, because the reality is the Father often gives a The earthly Father shapes how we see our heavenly Father.

Some of you have a skewed picture of.

Your heavenly Father because the earthly Father isn't what you would have wanted, or your own decisions brought you a place that you rejected it.

But that God is.

Gracious and he leans in, and God's gonna come back. Okay, Round two, that didn't work. Okay, here we go Moses, and God said, I will be with you, and this will be a sign to you that it is I who sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Here is Moses's second response, This is part.

Of the vocabulary. I hope you're writing this down.

I hope you're capturing in this in a way that you would start to examine yourself and let it be a filter that you start to let everything flow through. Am I responding with an orphan spirit or the spirit of a.

Son or daughter.

That's what we're gonna break down today. We're gonna get surgical. But they need you to understand the subtle sounds of the orphan that is causing you.

To forfeit your destiny.

You will forfeit more more territory than the devil will ever steal. And it's in these subtle places of the shadows, in the margins, where you don't believe God. So the second response, God says this, and this says Then Moses said.

To God's second round.

Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me what is his name?

Then what should I tell them?

Here's what I think his response is saying, is the second response of the orphan's fears.

How will I look?

He wasn't concerned how they saw God. He was looking out for himself. What if they don't believe me?

What if they don't like me? He's so looking out for himself. Here's what orphans do.

Orphans are always looking out for themselves because they can never be sure if anyone else is. Orphans are obsessed with how they look. What we do is projection. We project We.

Think everybody sees us the way we see ourselves.

We project I've got the worst name it's possible of how I see myself, and I think that's your starting point. How many of you are project Oh I am such a projector. My biggest fear in life is this, my wife would think about me what I feel about myself. Because if one thing, if I think it, is another thing that she felt it, if she thought it or failure, it'd be over. Why would I tell her something that

I am self aware. How do you see me? Oh? That was wrong.

I shouldn't have said that. But the orphan, Oh you're wrong, You're just an idiot. One is an identity.

One is a behavior.

You need to understand that God always validates the identity. Self aware, self conscious, here's how I think everybody else sees me, and here's how I see myself. Most of you are self conscious, and you're calling it self aware. But the orphan spirit will always make you feel self conscious. But the spirit of a son or a daughter, No, no, no, it'll make you self aware.

You're right. I shouldn't have said that. God, I'm sorry, Please forgive me versus. Oh, you're a horrible person. God is gracious.

He's continuing this conversation because he wants to bring Moses along with this journey. He's not just giving him a one and done. Some of you feel like God's one and done with me. He gave you that chance.

I'm on to the next.

That's not our God, that's not what I just see displayed in the scriptures. I see a God who's in the conversation, who's with you, who's walking alongside of you. Yes, you bring him ninety nine excuses. He's gonna keep coming to you one hundred times, and so the conversation continues. In verse eighteen, he says this, Yes, he says, the elders of Israel will listen to you. God says to Moses, he says, then you and the elders are to go to the King of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of.

The Keepers, has met us.

Let us take a three day journey into the willingness to offer sacrifices to the Lord, our God. But I know that the King of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I perform among them, and then he will let you go.

Moses, do you see.

That I'm going to provide for you? Do you see that I'm going to make every way for you? Do you see that I'm the one running this thing?

Anyway?

All you have to do is show up. Here's Moses's response, first one of chapter four, and Moses answer, what if they don't believe me? You're listen to me and they say the Lord did not appear to you. The third sound of the orphan spirit is they won't accept me. I think that's what Moses is saying here. There's a profound sense of rejection. Rejection. Here's the reality when you're comes into your life. Because we all start out. I

What happens to your expectations.

You lower them to the level of your expirit so you no longer experience disappointment anymore. Some of you started out with an expectation that would make you rise up. Now it's fall into the place where you're tripping over it. Not because you don't love God. You fear rejection. We talked about projection. I want to talk about projection because those of us that are familiar with rejection, we project I am going to reject you before you reject me,

Because I don't I don't know if that will be accept it.

How many of us are orphans living in a place of such fear of rejection. It does not let us receive the love of the people that are around us.

Thank you.

One person clapped. I appreciate that, And God continues in verse eight. Is this helping anybody?

Thank you?

Verse eight of chapter four. Then the Lord said, look how gracious God is. He's putting up with all of his excuses.

Blah blah blah blah. I'd be like on with them enough already. But God is so gracious.

And he says, if they don't believe you and pay attention to the first sign, they will maybe believe the second. But if they don't believe these two signs, or listen, do you take some water from the nile, pour down on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood in the ground. Now, Moses says, verse ten, pardon your servant, Lord, I've never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since I've spoken.

To your servant.

I am slow and speech and tongue. Here's the sound of the orphan there. It's like, I'm not enough. Here's what scarcity does in our lives and rejection does. It starts with I don't have enough, it moves on to I'm not good enough. Then eventually it stands in the place of I'll never be enough. We grew up really poor, like free government cheese, poor as a kid, and so that mindset of an orphan who had no money.

I might be able to buy new clothes right now, but I still feel like a third grader eating a cheese sandwich. I remember we were so poor.

When I would go to the gas station, I will only put two dollars worth of gas in that a time, because that's all I could afford. I remember in college I got a credit card. Don't do that, don't give your kid a credit card. And I remember using my credit card for the very first time. I go to the gas station. I'm like, I'm putting ten dollars worth of gas in this car. I have lived in large today ten bucks in the car, baby, and I run

Most as you're my boy, most as I got you.

I picked you not because you're eloquent, not because you're good, because you're mind.

I picked you because I'm sovereign and your mind.

If I were looking for eloquence, I would have passed by you long ago. But the way God picks is not what you and I use. And so God comes to him another time, and he said, if God says this in verse eleven, he says, the Lord said to him, who gave human beings their mouths? God is like stepping the the game. Who gave them their mouths? Who made them deaf or mute? Who gives them sir or makes them blind?

Is it not I? The Lord? Now go, I will help you speak and teach you what to say. God's like I got all your excuses covered. Verse thirteen. Moses has pardoned your servant, Lord, Please send someone else.

I think the fifth sound of the orphan spirit, the orphan heart is I'm going to fail, and some of you will always play it safe because you never want to fail, because the reality is when you live life is an orphan It's one thing between failing and the whole other thing to be a fail year.

That's what the orphan spirit does.

And outside of Christ, we would close the book and we'd be done with a sermon, because that's all this available as orphan spirits. But the story does not end there, because we serve a great God, and there's a whole other side of the sermon. And I'm about to preach. I'm about to show you the God that we serve. I'm about to bring the God who loves you.

For your life.

Some of you so identify, and I get the moments of silence because I'm getting really close. Because the orphan spirit is an equal opportunity employer.

The matter race age is going to try to enslave every single one of you.

But here's the scripture I want to speak over you is in Romans chapter eight, verses fourteen to seventeen. This is the good News of the Gospel. Here it says, for those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Oh this makes me happy just reading this. The spirit you received does not make you slave, so that you live in fear again.

You see what he's speaking there because the orphan spirit is what happens outside of Jesus. It can still be what you go to in Jesus because it makes you a slave, and it's driven by fear. That's the orphan spirit. That's the old spirit. That's the one that died. But he keeps popping his head back up. That's how you were. But this is not who you have to be. And he says, so that you live in fear. But the spirit, rather, the spirit you received, brought about your.

Adoption to sonship. And by him we cry abba Father.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit though we are God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co heirs of Christ.

That is good news. That means that all who have received the Holy Spirit have been adopted and we have the right to become children of God.

Not because of your performance, because the orphan spirit is always trying to prove itself through the performance. If I could just do it a little bit better, if I could say it a little bit more articulate, maybe just maybe I'd get picked. That's not what it means to be adopted as son or daughter of the Most I got this, You're adopted into sonship. We do a lot of ship in church, fellowship, discipleship, leadership, but it all

Is that.

And I love the scripture that you've been adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High God, and it means that you are co heirs. Here's what that scripture really means. It means you got access and you got inheritance. You mean I am a co heir with Jesus. It means I got all the access Jesus.

Have I have. You mean all the rights and benefits that Jesus got I got.

Yes, that's the good news, son or daughter of the Most that God.

You have that access and you have that inheritance.

That's for all of us who have received Jesus as our lord and saver, being forgiven of our sins. We have been adopted as sons and daughters of the Most God. But here's what I realize is when I as a pastor in anybody who wants to leave, when I'm driven by the orphan spirit, I will build an orphanage and not a church. Here's the reality I wish I could say I have perfected this a week ago.

I get on my son so hard and.

It's completely me speaking from an orphan spirit, and I so hurt him. I had to go to him after and say, man, I'm so sorry, buddy, forgive me for that.

I'm still in process.

I'm still in motion that little orphan and pops her head up really often in my life. But what I have through the person of Jesus is the ability to take that thought captive, make it obedient to him and how do I want to operate? So I had to ask my son for forgiveness. I'm still working on it. But for those of us who call Elevation Church home, here's why you love this church so much. Because Pastor Steven has been my pastor for twenty years.

But he's more than my pastor. He's my spiritual father.

He's the one that made me feel seen and known, and he made me feel like I was home.

He made me feel like I belonged. And for all of you that call Elevation Church home, aren't you glad that we've got a pastor who's a father, who's creating a house where you're gonna have to prove yourself in this place. Oh my goodness. Oh, but I want to take a second to say, how do you see God? How do you see him?

Do you picture to him with a furrowed brow, arms crossed, waiting in disappointment, judging every one of your decisions based upon what's the image you see? Is it a face filled with kindness? Or is it a distant God who isn't personal to you? Because you'll never feel like you're a son when your father is distant. So when we use the term abba father, it's only used three times in the New Testament. It's the most tender term of God.

How do you picture God? Because I cannot see myself as a son if I have a bad picture of my father. Oh, I got to start with how do I see God?

And I want to go to a familiar passage, but I want to frame it through a way of helping you learn how to see God differently. It's gonna be the story of the prodigal son. Some of you you've heard it so many times. Cool, that's fine. I want to go through it in this way, and I want you to.

See God a little bit different. Here's the review of the story.

He's got two sons in this story of the prodigal Son.

It's out of Luke chapter fifteen.

The younger son is like, Dad, I wish you were dead, because if you were dead then I could have your inheritance. I don't want to wait until you're dead. So how about you give it to me now so I can go enjoy it. And here's the reality. God is good.

And sometimes you'll be asking God for what you want, but it's not what you need. Oh, some of the worst things that happened in your life is you got what you wanted. Ah.

And he got what he wanted, and he went to Vegas and he got naked and crazy.

Is that?

In the passage he goes off and he squanders this living in wild living, squanders it and he wakes up in a pig pen one day. Now, remember this is the son who rejected his father. This is a good dad. But he woke up in a pigpen and he starts rehearsing his orphan speech. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired slaves.

Give me that, Give me that. Romans eighth fifteen passage again.

Says he said, the spirit you're received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear. Again, here's a son who was loved by his father. Because of his decisions, he woke up in a pig pen. I said, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired slaves. And he starts out in this journey to come back to his father. Here's what I would want to speak over some of you today. You did not come to church coming home to the father. You are creating in the in image

That's the Holy Spirit prompting you, calling you back to your father. That's the God that we serve.

Even in his lowest moment, he knew that if I could just get back to my dad, I'm not worthy to be called your son. But just if I can get there, and he sets out in this journey, walking this walk of shame, hands in his pocket, shuffling his feet, head down, shoulders slumped, the posture of an orphan who doesn't feel good enough to be picked. And in the passage, the father he always knew his son would come back home.

He sees you. And what did that compassion do? It made him run to his son.

The son just move towards the dad, and the dad came running to him.

That's Abba, father.

If you just turn to him, you just look towards him and moved, he will come running towards you. That's Abba, father. What's the look on the dad's face? Tears because he was broken that his son had to walk through that. And the son starts giving his orphan speech, Dad, I'm.

No longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me. He just said, Let's give him a name. Let's call him paul.

Little Paulie would walk around the house when he was a little boy. He'd play with all of his daddy's things because he knew he was his dad's son. Paul and Paul went to the pig pin. Paul woke up one day and said, I need to go back to my father.

Now.

The father, at a distance, sees his Paul. You see, sometimes we don't make God personal.

He's so personal. He knows your name, Paul, that's my baby boy.

And his heart was broken that his son had to experience that rejection. And he runs to him and he meets him and the son starts giving him a speech.

He's like, it's like, my son who is dead is alive?

I can.

And then he puts a See, here's the thing, because co air means you've got access and you've got inheritance. In that culture, when the son disrespected his father like that, he would have never been allowed to come back into his father's presence.

That's what religion always does.

It says, based upon your behavior and your performance, you know no longer worthy, so go get right and then you can come back into his presence.

That's religion. That's not a god. That's not the god that we serve.

Because the town's elders would never have allowed that son to come back into his father's presence again. They would have met that boy on the road, taken him behind the woodshed and beaten him, because that's what his performance deserved. Why is the father running to get to the sun one because his heart is filled with compassion, and too.

Is he needed to get there before the mob?

Because no, no, you've got unlimited access to me because you're my son, not because of what you did, not because of who you know, but you are my son.

This son of mine who was dead is alive again.

And then he says, put a robe on him, it's his inheritance, because that's your kingship, his inheritance. Put a ring on his finger, it's the authority. You never lost the authority. It's always been yours all along. And then what's amazing is he put sandals on his feet. You know what the difference between a slave and his son was. Slaves didn't wear shoes, sons did. He's re establishing his sonship that he never lost.

A'b a father. His heart is filled with compassion, and he came running to him.

But as I was studying for this, I became fascinated because there's this other son. He was out working on the back forty He shows up.

Because they're gonna have a party.

The dad's like, hey, kill the fatted calf, throw the brisket on the trigger, let's eat, let's go. And so the son shows up and he starts smelling the aroma of meat, and he hears the party, and he's like, what's going on?

They told me your son or your brother? He's back.

Look how the sun responded the other son. So you got Paul the prodigal. This is Patrick. I'm gonna call him Patrick the prideful Luke fifteen, verse twenty says the older brother became angry and he refused to go win.

The father went out and pleated with him.

Look at the position of the posture of the father. He goes to him. He goes to both sons. One was a prodigal who smelled like last night, and the other one who's been working for a reward that was not his father's relationship.

I wonder how many of us think that God owes us something.

He was angry, refused to go and so he father went out and he pleaded with him. But he answered his father, look all these years i've been slaving. You mean the son who was in the house of himself as an orphan too, because he was working for the reward, not the relationship. He got two orphans in this home. And I've never disobeyed you. You never gave me even a young coach. So I can celebrate with my friends.

And abba Father. How do you see God?

A God who's filled with compassion and kindness, or God who's got a scorecard just marking down the mistakes you make?

How do you see God? And this whole thing is created because we have access to God.

Through Jesus Christ. And what you need to understand is when Jesus went on the cross. God had to abandon his son in that moment because the wrath that was intended for you and me needed to be laid on his son Jesus. So in that moment, his son felt rejected and he was abandoned. Jesus was orphaned on the cross, and Jesus.

Cries, up, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The greatest pain in the cross was not the nails.

It was the separation from the Father, and.

It felt like rejection.

And what we need to understand is we've got a savior who has been tempted in every way with you are as I am. He is one who has been orphaned, and he knows what it feels like to be separated. But three days later, Father looks back towards the sun and he feels his pleasure and he rises in victory.

That's the God that we serve. We have access because of the finished work of Jesus. But Jesus was preparing his disciples for the cross.

He knew his assignment. They didn't take his life, he gave it up. He knew the assignment he was preparing them for when he would go to the cross. It says this in John Chapter fourteen, Verse six team He says, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to help you, because he's preparing for them when they're going to feel like they're going to be rejected and they're going to be orphaned because the one that they had put all of their allegiance to

Inside of you.

And because of that spirit, it gives us the right to cry out Abbah Father, because we've been adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High God.

That's the God that we serve.

And I was preparing for this sermon, I kept going back to that place of I just wanted to be with my Dad, the deepest cries in my heart, where I just want to be with you. I'm coming with But then I read the words of David who penned this as a boy, and I saw on one thirty nine verse sibiesis, but where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Verse eight? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If you go to the mountaintops, I'm coming with you. If you make your bed into depths, I'm coming with you. I'm not intimidated by your shame, I'm not put up by your mistakes. I'm a God who's coming.

I'm coming with you.

Stand your feet at all of our locations.

The way to be adopted as a son or daughter of the Most High God, is they're confessing that you're a sinner, believing in your mouth that Jesus is your lord, and confessing that he died and rose again. And if you have never placed your faith in Jesus, if you've never been made a new creation.

This is why God brought you here. He wants to forgive you of all of your sins. He wants to redeem you, and it wants to make you a s and a daughter.

And what I want to speak over some of you men, I'm not your father, but I'm a father, and I would want you to hear from your heavenly father's voices, proud of you. You've been waiting your whole life to hear those words. He's proud of you, not what you did. He's proud of who you are. That's the God that we serve. And some of you have been keeping God at a distance because you feel like religion. I need to clean myself up before I come to him. That's

This is a holy moment.

This is where sons and daughters are coming back to God. And if you have never placed your faith in Him, if you've never been forgiven of your sins, we are going to say a prayer together out loud for the benefit of somebody who's making this decision for the first time or coming back to him.

Pray with me out loud, Church family. I believe that Jesus Christ.

Is the son of God who died in the cross and rose from the grave to forgive me of my sin. I give you my life, I give you my sin, I give you my shame. Forgive me, and I'll spend my life following you with your headst about in your eyes that closed. I'm going to count the three and when I get there, without hesitation, I need you to boldly shoot your hand in the air, declaring you are

I'm all a's celebrate that sarch family. Let's celebrate that search family.

Thanks for joining us today.

We pray that God has spoken to you in a unique and powerful way through the message.

Well.

We are in our year in Offering season as a church where we get the opportunity to reflect back on all the ways that God has been faithful to our ministry this year, but also to look ahead at what we're believing God for in the upcoming year. And each year as a church, we get to come around a special offering and offering that contributes to both outreach efforts in local and global cities and as well as the expansion of our ministry continuing to reach people all over

You'll see two options. The first is to begin tithing.

Maybe you've been wanting to prioritize God in your finances, but you haven't taken that step to make a commitment to doing so.

This is a great place to begin.

Or perhaps you've been giving consistently in this season, God may be challenging you to stretch above and beyond the tithe to give a sacrificial gift to our year end offering. If you're part of one of our physical locations, you can choose your campus there, or if you're part of our online ministry, of course you'll choose Epham or online and then enter the amount that you'd like to give.

God bless and we'll see you soon.