[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here, and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in.
Come on, one time. For Jesus this morning, for our king, for Christ himself.
Oh, such an honor to be in the house of the Lord this morning. I'm glad you got up this morning. I'm glad you woke up.
I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you probably took a shower. The person next to you is equally as glad.
I'm glad you made it to church. I'm glad that you're here. Grab your Bibles. We're going to spend some time in the book of Mark. Mark, chapter four. And as we're turning there, I just want to say thank you for being such a generous church. We could not do what we do without a lot of faithful people standing behind us. Financially, it is making a world of difference. We're able to do some incredible things. Let me just tell you. We had almost 400 men gather here on Friday night for our fifth annual beast feast. It was epic. I. I just cannot. I can't, actually, legally, I'm bound to not tell you some of the things that happened. I'm just kidding. There's some. There's some amazing things that happened. But the most important thing that happened is 24 men accepted Christ on Friday night. Come on, somebody. That's awesome.
We had the altars flooded with guys that were repenting and confessing their stuff before the Lord and getting some things right between them and God. And it was a sight to see. Those things are not possible without you standing behind us. It takes a lot to get that to happen. I'm just saying you're a huge part of that. Thank you so much. We did have one family that showed up and the guy that had invited them met them at their car, and the. The. The husband and the wife and the kid get out. And he said, oh, no, I forgot to tell her that this is a men's only event.
So I want to apologize to you personally. If that was you, I want to say sorry. But he told her, like, I'm so sorry. Like, we do have some women's only events, but this is a guys only event. I did not get a chance to tell you that. She's like, guys only, like, what?
And then she looked at her husband, she says, give me your credit card. He said, oh, no.
Oh, no. I want to apologize to the man as well. Like, I really hope you felt like you got your money's worth because that is a, that's a hard place to be at. But I'm glad that you came back to church. Thank you so much for being a part of that. Also, let's. Two weeks ago, we were able to do the very first UNITE staff collab in the history of our city where we got multiple churches from all over East Texas to bring their staff to come together to sit at the same table and destroy that spirit of competition between the churches that are here. We're a part of the Kingdom of God. We're part of the Bride of Christ.
And watching 120 people that serve in churches get to get together and begin to spend time encouraging one another, sharing resources, networking with one another, it was a beautiful thing. You were a huge part of that. I love that we're not a church that's in competition with anybody. That's not what we're here to do. We're here to champion you and help you become the part of the Bride of Christ that God has called you to become as well. It's a beautiful thing and I love that. Thank you once again for being a generous church. I like to just sit up here and just tell you every week where your money's going, the things that you're getting to see that are just beautiful, beautiful. So that's a beautiful part of my job and I'm so grateful for you to be a part of it. Also, I want to say a special hello and what's up to all of our friends watching from all around the world. So can we welcome them in? Come on, all of our online friends. We love you.
From Africa to Abilene, everywhere in between, we want to say thank you. What's up to Carson over there in Kansas, Matt, Ginger and White Elk. We love you very much. Welcome. Welcome in from wherever you're watching from. Grab your Bibles. Mark chapter four. As we're going to spend all of our time today, I want to get into a brand new series. Over the next few weeks, everything that we do will be built off of this series. We're going to get into a store to a series called Jesus the Storyteller. Jesus the Storyteller. Now, there's lots of ways that we could describe our, our, our relationship with Jesus and how he has come across to each of us. For some of us, we know Jesus better as our Healer. Sometimes we know him better as our friend. He is the Word made flesh. He is the Son of God. There's so many ways that we can look at Christ, but I want to focus in on something that I don't think gets enough attention. And. And that's Jesus, the storyteller, the way that he tells stories. So his. His version of stories would be called parables. We don't use that word a lot anymore, but it just simply means stories, stories that have a deeper spiritual insight. So Jesus gives some incredible parables. There's about 30 different parables that Jesus gives, and there's a particular reason of why he gives each one in the manner and to the audience of which he brings it. So we're going to dig deeper into the parables of Jesus. And I believe that as we do that, that God's word's going to start digging into us. It's going to come alive in a brand new and a fresh way.
Every time that Jesus gives one of these parables, they're so rich in imagery and they're rich in strong characters. I love that each one of them has. Has a different character that we can kind of identify with or say, oh, that's the good guy or that's the bad guy. But the crazy thing about each one is that every time he tells a story, it brings us a little bit deeper into an understanding of who he is and of who we are.
And Jesus has a way of teaching complex truths in a way that anybody can understand.
And I love that about him. He's a fantastic storyteller. Now, every story, we know this to be true. Every story that you like, every book that you like, that you've read, that's a work of fiction or whatever. Every story that you've ever read that you feel like, oh, man, that's awesome. They all have one thing in common. They have fantastic layers.
Now, there are some movies that you probably grew up with, and it's like, oh, you know, you killed my family, now I'm going to kill all the bad guys. Like that. Wonderful. I love that. Some. Sometimes that's all we need. Yeah, great. It's one layer, just revenge.
Like, keep it simple. That's the kind of movies I like. No, no, but the greatest movies have multiple layers, and you're able to dive into them as deep as you want to go. Even movies like Forrest Gump, huge amount of layers in that story. That's the reason why you can just turn it on on a Saturday and just be in the background and just Suck out of just sucks you into the story because there's so many layers to it. You have forest relationship with Jenny and forest relationship with his mother, and then Bubba and then Lieutenant Dan, and then with Nike, and then with Chocolate. Come on, somebody.
But it has all these different layers of his relationships with other people and how each of them intersect at different points in time. Because it's a fantastic story with a bunch of layers. And that's exactly how Jesus presents stories, as parables to his people, in different layers. Now, the story and the layers are only as deep as you allow yourself to dig into them, because you will get out of Jesus's story what you're willing to put into it. But there are so many depths that the Lord wants to take each person to, and he does that through amazing parables.
Each of them invite us into the drama. They. They call us to respond. They're not just stories.
They're much, much more than that. As Jesus breaks down these complex truths in a way that anybody can understand. And Jesus does something that's incredible that not many storytellers can do. He inverts the expectations.
He inverts even the main characters. The people that you thought were going to be the bad guy become the good guy, and the people that you thought were going to become the good guy become the bad guy.
You ever seen a movie where it's like that? You're like, oh, that's the main character. I love that. And then it becomes the bad guy. You're like, I don't like that actor anymore.
You ever seen a movie that just made you hate the actor as a person?
That's how you know they're a good actor.
They're. They're acting. But think about this. In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus takes the heroes and makes them the villains and the priest and the Levites, who are well respected and special and set apart, they become the villain. And the person that becomes the hero is the Samaritan, the people that everybody hates.
In the story of the Prodigal Son. We're going to look at this next week, the story of the prodigal Son. You look at the Father and you look at the son that says, I want my inheritance right now. He leaves and goes into this life of sin. Then he becomes the good guy.
It's a story about grace. And the faithful brother, the one that stayed home, the one that was doing things the right way, becomes the bad guy because of his pride, because of his arrogance, because of his unwillingness to forgive and so Jesus does this crazy thing with his stories of how he flips the expectation. He flips the script, as we used to say back in the day. He. He. He takes the heroes and makes them villains and the villains become heroes. He has a fantastic way of making the stories go one direction and then putting a twist on him at the end so that you recognize something deeper is there.
And so multiple times in Scripture, his. His disciples come to him. They're like, hey, we don't understand what. What in the world you're just saying. Why don't you just say it plainly?
And I don't know about you, but there's multiple times in my own relationship with the Lord where I've asked the same thing. Just tell me. Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it. Just be clear with me. And the Lord's like, I want you to trust me. Ah.
Can I have a second option, please?
I want. I want you to listen. Mm. Just. I'm listening. Just. Just. Just help me. Just be clear. But that's exactly the way that Jesus presented his parables. And so his disciples came to him one day, Mark chapter four. And they asked him about these parables. Why do you teach like that? Why? Why. Why do you do things that way?
And Jesus speaks. Look at this. In verse 10, when he was alone, the 12 disciples, they asked him about his parables. And he told them, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside, everything is said in parables so that they may be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
He said, they may be ever hearing, but never understanding otherwise. He said, if man. If they would listen, if they would hear, if they would look, he says, you know what I would do? He said, I'd forgive them.
They'd have a deeper relationship with me.
Another time, they came and asked him, like, oh, you told this other parable. What does that mean? I don't understand?
And he starts rebuking them. He's like, how do you not understand? Like, I'm explaining it in a way that you can understand, but you still don't get it.
And he begins to explain to them the parables and what he's doing. He says it this way. At the end of it, when he's explaining why he does it that way. He said, for the people's hearts has grown callous.
I don't know about you. If you've ever had a manual labor job, if you've ever had to swing an axe or swing a Shovel for a long time. After a couple days, you don't get grown man hands. Anybody ever had grown man hands?
No. You never had to work a manual labor job? Am I the only person that's ever had to. Come on.
You ever shake a grown man's hand? You're like, okay, that is a man right there.
Let me shake somebody's hand. You're like, oh, you must be in ministry. You got them soft ministry hands.
But he said, that's kind of the way that their heart is. It's got thick calluses on their heart. They don't want to see, they don't want to understand.
Says the people's hearts have grown calloused.
They want me to entertain them. They want me feed them, give me some bread, give me some fish. Once you tell a good story, why don't you heal somebody? I'm here for entertainment.
And it's sad because that's still the reason why many people come to church today. Do something, Pastor. Entertain me. Say something good.
Tell me something. Feed me. What can this church do for me?
Jesus understood that 2000 years ago. He said, I'm going to give you a parable. I'm going to give you something to think about, something to chew on, and that's going to begin to do some works on the inside of your heart and pull things out that you need pulled out.
He said the people's hearts have grown callous. Their ears are hard of hearing. They've shut their eyes.
Otherwise, he said, they might see with their eyes, they might hear with their ears, they might understand with their hearts. And then they're going to turn back and guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to heal them.
But he tells these stories to pull people into the divine drama, to pull them into the story. He uses stories as a spiritual filter to separate those that were too proud, to separate those that were playing games with God, and to draw them into a deeper relationship. Say, come on, take one step towards me. Go a little bit deeper. And each of those stories has incredible layers. So that as people hunger for God, as they have the humility to be taught, he brings them closer. And the same is still true for me and for you. Today we come to God in our pride and in our arrogance and our brokenness and our humanity.
And he says, why don't you come a little deeper? Come on, come a little deeper. I'm going to give you a story. Think about the story, and then see it again with fresh eyes.
So we're going to take A look over several different parables over the next few weeks and go deeper than perhaps you've ever gone before. If you're into theology, if you're into the. Going into the deeper layers of the story, this series is going to be for you. I think you're going to really enjoy it. But I want to give you three things that help us to kind of set up the stage for, for what we're going to talk about over the next few weeks as we look at the parables of Jesus and Jesus as a storyteller. Here's the first of three things I want to show you. Number one, we see, we hear and understand what we want to.
Now, there's, there's not a lot of people that will amen that, but every single person knows it to be true. We see, we hear, we understand as much as we want to.
If you intrigue me, I might want to dig a little bit deeper.
If I really want to know, I'll research it, I'll Google it, I'll go a little bit deeper if I'm interested.
And Jesus understands this. He said, you see, you hear, you understand. If you want to.
Let me just tell you this. This is not a common problem that we deal with today in our ADHD world. And if we've ever had an ADHD world, this is the ADHD world.
I have a hard time what we call today, locking in. Come on, where's my friends with some adhd? I have a hard time doing it. I, I have, I have 12 things going on in my mind at once. And I found it to be really rude when I'm talking to somebody and I'm like, over here is where I'm thinking. And then I, I, I get it. There's probably a lot of medication out there for me. I understand. But it's hard for me to lock in. And there are other times I'm, I'm just gonna put myself out on front street. I'll throw myself out underneath the bus. I'm talking to somebody, and I'll just grab my phone and start. Huh?
Yeah. Oh, like, this is really rude. What am I doing? Am I the only person that's ever done that? You ever found yourself like, yeah, I'm listening. But I, we have a hard time locking in. We do.
There's a story told of a guy that walks into the bar and the bartender says, what are you doing here? You never come here at this time of day. Oh, my wife kicked me out. I didn't have any other place to go. Well, why did she kick you out? I don't know. Something about me not paying attention. I wasn't really listening. I don't know. Like, I have a hard time locking in. And Jesus knows, like, we have a hard time doing that. And so he gives stories with strong characters and rich imagery to pull you into the story, to lock you in and lock you into your attention. So you can say, wait a minute, wait a minute. I need to address something about my life that matters.
Here's what we know as we read the parables of Jesus. Those who want to know Christ better will always get to know Christ better.
You want to know Christ better?
You will always get to know Christ better.
We see, we hear, we understand. If we want to.
If we can get ourselves to lock in on that which we know is important.
We see this back in Jeremiah's day. Jeremiah, being a prophet and the Lord begins to speak to us through the prophet Jeremiah. In chapter 29, he says this. You're going to seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your. Somebody say the next word, your heart.
Now, notice this. In Western culture, in the English language, the word that we use for heart to describe that sentence is completely different than the Hebrew word that we're seeing in that scripture.
In Western culture, we can do something that they would not do. In the Hebrew language that we're reading translated into English, that word in the Hebrew is the word cardia, where we get, like, cardiac arrest, like, you had a heart attack. And we understand it as the muscle. Or when you say, seek me with your heart, that means you're gonna seek with a lot of emotion. You're gonna really try to get emotional about this. And we have this way of doing something in Western culture that they would not do in the Hebrew culture. We separate logic from emotion.
Right? I know this to be factually true. I understand this, okay? I'm seeking after this because I can understand it, I can get it. It makes logical sense to me.
And then we separate over here. I feel this.
This might be true because I feel it. There's something about this. If I really want to pursue something, I pursue with all of my heart. And we celebrate and separate either logic or emotion.
And when we talk about this scripture, you're going to seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart. Some of us would say, I'm going to seek the Lord through understanding. I've got to understand, seek him through my knowledge. But here's the thing. Your mind is limited, your knowledge is limited, and you're missing out on a whole other different realm of what you could be experiencing. Others would say, I want to seek the Lord with all my heart. I want an emotional experience. Make me feel a certain way.
And we separate logic from emotion. But in the Hebrew culture, you wouldn't do that. Because the heart is not logic and the heart is not emotion. The heart is not cardia. It's not the actual muscle beating inside of your chest. The heart means the center of who you are.
It's who you are as a whole.
So when he says, you're going to seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart, he's saying, I want all of you.
I want you to be all in.
Not just how you feel, not just what you can memorize, not just your theology, not just your expression. I want everything about you.
Seek me with all your heart. So Jesus message was clear to everybody. But the meaning of his parables, they were only revealed to those who really desired to understand.
They can see the story. That's a good story. I get it.
He says, do you?
Because for those that have eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to understand, he said, oh, if those eyes started working, if the heart starts working, he says, they would turn from the direction that their lives are going. He said, and when they do that, I would heal them, I'd forgive them, I'd have a relationship with them.
So we know that. We hear, we see, we understand if we want to.
And that's the question that it brings all of us face to face with today.
Do we want to?
Let me just make this statement very, very clear. Your relationship with God is as deep as you want it to be.
It's as deep as you want it to be.
And Jesus proved this through multiple stories, inviting us to come in closer to get to know him better. Here's the second key I want to share with you, Number two, about Jesus's parables. Number two. Truth isn't music to everybody's ears.
Somebody say Amen.
Truth. We'd say this in Texas. Truth ain't music to everybody's ears. I don't want to hear it.
In our first service, my doctor was sitting on the second row, and we've had multiple conversations about my health and what I should be doing. And she might be telling me the absolute truth. Do I want to hear it? Absolutely not.
She's like, P.T. i love you, but you gotta drop some weight. Mm. Mm. Leviticus 27. The fat belongs to the Lord. And that is.
That may be true for You. But that's not my truth.
You need to be eating more vegetables. Mm, mm.
No.
Vegetables are only mentioned 19 times in scripture. Meat is mentioned 290 times. Come on, let's major on the majors. Let's minor on the minors. It might be speaking truth. I want to hear it. Now she's telling me the truth. Do I want to hear it? No.
Truth isn't music to everybody's ears. And when God speaks truth through his parables and through his Son, does everybody want to hear it? No. Especially those who would say, that makes me look bad, that confronts my sin, that confronts my attitude, that confronts my critical spirit.
It may be true. Do I want to hear it?
Truth isn't music to everybody's ears. And so in the Greco Roman world that Jesus was in and that the original language was written in Greek, and they understood truth to be a philosophical concept. And it's very similar to how we treat the word truth today in the American culture. Truth becomes a philosophical concept of how we define it. So you'll still have people today say, well, this is my truth.
Now is it true or is it my truth? Because oftentimes those aren't the same thing.
And so the Greeks understood this to be a philosophical concept. We can think about it, we can process through it, and we can separate truth from the one that's saying it and determine whether or not we even want to listen to what they had to say. So because they could separate truth as a philosophical concept, they could say, well, what you say may be factually correct, but I don't like you, therefore I reject what you're saying.
Or they could say, I don't believe it's sincere. What you're saying might be a fact, but I don't think you really mean it.
Or they could say, I dismiss your truth based on the fact that I don't think you have integrity.
And the same is true today.
We can look at the person saying truth. Well, I don't accept what you're saying because I don't like you, or I don't like what you're saying, even though I know it to be true, but I don't feel like you really mean it.
And so if we take truth as a philosophical concept, we will miss the point. And so when Jesus brings truth, many people would say, that's not music to my ears. Why? Because I don't like the way he says it.
I don't like the way he told it in a story because it makes me out to be the bad guy.
And here's the thing about Jesus parables, they'll get in your business.
It's not just a story.
It goes much deeper.
And so truth.
Truth is a central theme of Christianity.
Central. Truth is just as much central to the theme of Christianity as grace, as mercy, as redemption.
Truth is central not as a philosophical concept, but here is God coming down in human form, the truth coming down in truth, speaking in truth. Jesus says, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Jesus saying, truth is not a concept. Truth is a person. It's me. And the words that he's speaking are truth. Whether you like them or not, they're true.
And so if we try to separate ourselves from the way that we've been taught to look at truth and say, look, let me just look at God's word. It's true whether I agree with it, like it, prefer it or not. And all of a sudden, a whole new world becomes open to us.
We see that maybe I've. Maybe I've taken truth and made it what I wanted it to be.
It's interesting that Jesus Christ himself, the Word made flesh, is standing before Pilate at his own trial, right before they take him to the cross.
And he's standing at this illegal trial, and they begin to ask him all these questions, and they're beating him up and they're pulling out his beard and spitting on him and all these things. And then Pilate begins to grill him and ask him all these questions, looking for a way to find fault with him. And he asked this in Mark chapter in John, chapter 18, Pilate said to him, so you're a king.
Are you really a king? Tell me the truth.
Jesus answered, you say that I am king, but for this purpose I was born. And for this purpose I have come into the world. Why? To bear witness to the. What's the next word? The truth. And by the way, that's what his parables do. Everything that Jesus said is bearing witness to the truth. All of his stories bearing witness to the truth, backing up the message that the Father is speaking through the embodiment of his Son. He is the truth.
He said, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.
And then Pilate asked a question, an amazing question, but the wrong question. Pilate says, well, what is truth?
Let me just tell you now, the question isn't what is truth? The question is, who is truth?
Truth is a person.
And there's a concept that Christ is revealing of himself in every one of his parables, showing us the truth once again. Truth isn't music to everybody's ears, but for those that are of the truth. We hear his voice.
We know his heart calling us deeper.
Not because he hates us, but because he loves us and doesn't want to leave us in the mess that we're in.
Truth is something that we need to hear, even if we don't want to hear it.
Here's the last thing I want to share with you about the parables that we're going to dig into over the next few weeks. Number three. Parables demand a response.
Parables demand a response. So Jesus doesn't just tell parables to entertain people. They're not just good stories. It's not just a good movie. It's not just Forrest Gump, oh, wow, what a good movie. No, he doesn't tell parables to entertain. He doesn't even tell parables to inform. He tells parables to transform.
To change your life, to change your way of thinking, to change your heart, to change the direction that your life is going, even if you think the direction that you're on is the right one.
He tells these incredible stories to transform our lives.
So if you've ever been to a family reunion, you know that that's the place to hear some incredible family lore. There might be some. Some tall tales shared around the old campfire with the. Those that are our ancestors. And that's exactly how my dad's family is. So my dad is. Is. Is German mixed with American Indian. And those guys can tell a story, man, they can spin a yarn. And you would not believe some of the things that have come around from, from our England Ingram family reunion. Some stories that you're like you, that's illegal.
You might want to lay low for a while.
There's. There's a lot of outlaws and some in laws that can spin some stories. But here's the thing. They're stories. They're meant to entertain.
Jesus said, my stories are seeds.
It's a seed.
Now, if a seed isn't planted into a heart that's receptive, it produces nothing. It's just a story.
So when his disciples were asking, tell us why. Why are you speaking in parables?
He said, you just gave this. This parable of a mustard seed. Why do you say it like that?
And Jesus says this in Mark, chapter 4, verse 20. He says, but the seed sown on good soil represents those who do this. They hear the word, they accept the word, and it begins to produce a crop. Some 30, some 60, some 100 times what was sown.
Jesus Is speaking about the seed of his word, his parables.
He's saying, oh, if they were to see it, if they would hear, if they would recognize that their hearts are callous, I'd take them deeper, I'd forgive them. And what begins to come out of their heart produces incredible spiritual fruit. It produces incredible results.
Thirty, sixty, a hundred times. That one little seed, that one story, that one thought, that one idea planted into their hearts.
So when his disciples asked him about his stories, he began to show us a powerful point. And I want to make sure that you hear this. I'll put it up on the screen for you to see it. Jesus stories were more than metaphors. They were mirrors.
They're mirrors held up in front of each of us.
You see yourself, the story.
You're confronted with the things that you need to see. And by the way, this wasn't even true of just Jesus parables. Look at the parable that Nathan the prophet gave to David the king.
If you've ever read 2nd Samuel, chapter 12, you need to go back and look at that this week. It's incredible. As Nathan begins to give a parable to king David. Nathan, the old prophet walks in there.
David sees him. This is my old friend. What do you got to say? He said, I need to tell you something. Something happened, and it's bothering me.
He said, what happened?
Nathan tells him a parable. Nathan says, you know what? There's two men over here in a certain town, and one of them is super wealthy, and he has cattle and he has sheep, and he has all good things and has a great life. And then his neighbor is a very poor guy, doesn't have anything, he said, but his neighbor used all the money that he had, and he bought one little lamb that was just weaned from its mother.
He took that lamb and he raised it as one of his children. He said. He took it, he fed it by hand, and he loved it. He said it even. Even slept with him at night. He used it like a pillow.
He said, this thing grows up as a. As a member of the family. It grows up as part of us, and it grows up alongside of his children. Said he treated that little lamb like a daughter. It's all that he had, he said. And then the. The rich neighbor on the other side gets a guest one night, and as the guest comes, he goes to feed his guests. And he doesn't take from all of his cattle and all of his sheep and all the wealth that he has to provide for his friend. He goes to his poor neighbor's house. And he takes that little lamb and he kills it and he grills it and he serves it to his guest.
And he could have used all the resources that he has, but he steals from his neighbor that didn't have anything.
And at this, King David began to get angry. It produced a response in the king. He said, you tell me who this man is. That man will be dead today.
Whoever has done this wicked thing when he had so much, I'll kill him.
Who is it, Nathan? Who's the man? And Nathan looked right at him, point his finger, said, you're the man.
That's. You said you thought you could keep your sins a secret.
You could have had anybody that you wanted, but you chose another man's wife. And then you sent him off to die.
He said, was. Was your wife not enough?
Was all the blessings that God's given you not enough? Look at all your wealth and what God has given you.
You take somebody else's. You're the man.
Jesus stories are much like Nathan the prophets. They're not a metaphor. It's a mirror.
And as we're looking deep into God's word and these stories he's telling, we recognize it's a metaphor. And Jesus words reveal the truth about us, and they call for a response. You can't just read it. You've got to respond.
Respond to the story. It shows us this truth that is so needed today that the kingdom of God, it's not passive, it's participatory.
It invites us in to be a part of the story.
And here's the great news today, that when Jesus Christ becomes the Lord of your life, when you take his stories and you invite him in with all of your heart, the inmost being of who you are, guess what? God begins to rewrite your story.
And then the villain becomes the hero, and the heroes become the villains. And there's twists and turns that begin to give glory to God, that become the story that other people can read.
Jesus is an incredible storyteller. He's still telling stories today.
So the next few weeks, I'm going to take you in more in depth to the parables, more in depth than perhaps we've. We've ever gone before as a church. And I'm. I'm believing that. That you're. That you're ready for this. So what I'm gonna ask you to do next week, we're gonna read the story of the prodigal son. Now, you may have read this story a thousand times, but as you're reading this, we're gonna read it together as a church so that when we come back together next week, you'll already know exactly what the Lord has been speaking to you all week long. It's gonna invite you into the divine drama. You're gonna see yourself in parts of this story and begin to respond.
Let me remind you, your walk with God is as deep as you allow it to go.
And my job is not to just throw you into the deep end. My job is to teach you how to swim.
My job is to equip you to do the work God's called you to do. So I'm not here to entertain you this morning. I'm here to invite you in to the drama, invite you into the story, and invite you in to know more about God than you've ever known.
So as you're reading the story of the prodigal son, I want to challenge you to do this. As you read that story, I want you to ask yourself three questions. And for those of you that like to write notes, you're going to want to write this down. I you want, and you're going to write some responses of the things that the Lord is beginning to speak to you.
Let me just tell you, please hear me. You need this.
Please hear me. Your marriage needs this.
Your marriage needs this. Your family needs this.
Church on Sunday morning. It's not going to be enough for you. Your mental health needs this.
So as you're reading the story of the prodigal son, ask yourself three questions. Here's the first question. You might want to write this down. What is this revealing about God's heart?
What does this story tell me about the heart of God?
And by the way, we're going to go into so many different layers of that story. We can go as deep as we can possibly have time for next week. But what is this story revealing about God's heart? Here's the second thing that you're going to want to answer. What is this story showing me about my heart?
Oh, it's going to become more than just a story.
It's gonna become a mirror. What is it showing me about my own heart?
And here's the third question I want you to ask yourself and begin to study as you go deeper into God's word number three. What step can I take to live this out?
What step can I take today to live this out? And here's the great news. When you apply yourself to the word of God, when you start asking yourself those questions, those stories come alive. They begin to speak right into your life, into your situation.
God's going to give you a right now word. This is called rhema. When the word of God comes to life, as you begin to ask yourself these questions, lock in for just a little bit and say, lord, what are you showing me about yourself? What are you showing me about me? And what can I do in response to this? If you do that, I believe that what happens next is going to be incredible. You see, when you set your heart to know God more, what comes next will change your life.
That's our heart here at this church to help you to know God. We're gonna help you do that over the next few weeks as we look at Jesus the storyteller. Is that okay, everybody, I'm gonna finish up right there, if that's okay.
Invite you to go ahead and put away your Bibles, put away your phones, lock in with me for two minutes. As we finish up here today, would you put your phones down and would you bow your head and close your eyes?
And I want to invite you to pray a prayer that the believers have been praying since the fourth century of three. One word, powerful prayer. Holy Spirit, come. Can you do that right now with heads bowed and eyes closed? Holy Spirit, come. We invite you, Holy Spirit, to speak into my life.
Lord, what have I just heard? What are you asking of me, Holy Spirit, come.
Lord, I need your help.
I want to understand your word better.
I want to know you.
I want to hear you.
I want to experience you. Take me deeper, Lord.
Take me deeper.
Holy Spirit, would you speak to each of us right now for those of us that our eyes have grown and shut, our ears have gotten dull, our hearts have become callous. Lord, I pray that you would give us a new heart, a heart of flesh.
Draw us deeper into a relationship with you.
Lord, we need this.
Father, I pray for each and every person that's within the sound of my voice that you would take them deeper into a relationship with you, Lord, take them deeper into the relationship with your word, that they would see that your word is true, your word is right, your word is a mirror showing me how much I need you.
With heads bowed and eyes closed. Perhaps you're here today and you're saying, pastor, I don't have a relationship with Jesus, man.
I need that. My friend, you're in the right place, and I'm not here to embarrass you in any way, but I want to help you.
For others in this place, you'd say, pastor, I've been in church before, but I've gotten so far away from God. I need to come home, man. I need to come home.
My friend, you are in the right place, too.
I'm not here to single you out, not here to put a spotlight on you in any way. I'm here to help you. And if that's you, if you want Jesus, if you want a relationship with him, if you need to come home, I'm going to invite you right where you are to pray this prayer with me. Let me help you pray it. You can pray it out loud if you want to. You can pray it with a whisper. The most important thing is that you believe it and take a step of faith today.
If that's you, pray this with me. Just say, jesus, I believe you're the Son of God.
I believe that you came and died, and I believe you rose from the grave so that I could have life, so that I could have forgiveness for all of my sins.
Say that with me, my friend. I'm a sinner.
I've messed up.
I need your grace.
I need your forgiveness.
Please take over my life.
I give it to you right now.
I'm all in.
Thank you for loving me.
With heads bowed and eyes closed all across this room, if that was you, would you do me a huge favor? If you pray that prayer, would you just lift up your hands? With nobody else looking around, would you just lift up your hands? That was me. Pastor, I see you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Good for you. Yes, ma' am. I see you.
Yes, ma' am. Yes, ma' am.
Good for you. I see you in the balcony. Good for you.
Yes, young lady, I see you. Good for you.
I want you to know, if that was your prayer, I'd like to invite you to take a step of faith. If that was you, I'm not going to embarrass you in any way, but I'm going to put a phone number up on the screen behind me, and that number is just for you. If you prayed that prayer, I want to invite you to text me. Text the words I prayed to that number. If you're watching online, this is for you as well. Text the words I prayed to the number that you have on your screen. And what's going to happen is I'm going to send you a link to some things that I've prepared that will help you understand what. What just happened inside of your heart and what to do next. It's the greatest honor of my life to help people meet Jesus and to know him better. I'd love to help you as well. Good for you.
How rich family, Go ahead and look up at me if you would. Then let's stand to our feet together. I'm going to ask the elders and their wives to come to be available to pray for anyone that might need prayer. Also, just want to say, hey, if you're watching this online or if you have social media and you're willing to use that for the kingdom of God, if you believe that what we've just talked about today is important for our world, do us a huge favor if you would make a difference today by using your social media to share this message to your world. When you click that share button, it means a ton to us. We have people responding all around the world. People are getting saved all around the world because somebody like you in Longview, Texas, shared this message with your world.
It's working.
I want to say thank you in advance for those of you that are willing to do that and to use your social media for the spreading of the gospel. It's a big deal.
Thank you for that. Also. Our elders and our wives are right here. So if you need prayer about any area of your life, we would love to be able to pray for you. And they're going to stay right here as the service ends to make sure that you can get everything that you need. For everybody else, let me pray for you. Let me bless you as we go. Father, I pray that you'd bless my friends with an incredible week, that as they dig into the story of the prodigal son, Lord, that you'd reveal your heart to them in a way that they've never seen it before. You take them down deeper into your word that they would experience all the beautiful parts of the incredible story that they'd be invited into and understand you better. Lord, Would you bless their marriages, bless their finances, bless their mental health, bless their children? Lord, I ask all these things in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus Christ. And all of us said together, Amen. God bless you as you go. I hope you have an awesome week.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv or you can check out our
[email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.
