Join Us For Mesa Church | May 30

like so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning mesa church i'm kent this is alex and we are so excited that you're joining us today if you guys did not know this is my husband alex uh we're so excited that you're joining us today online just because we're online doesn't mean that we can't have community to go ahead and type a quick hello in the chat at the bottom of your screen listen let us know where you're tuning in from let us know uh are you a coffee or a tea person or breakfast can i have some we're both coffee people so let us know let us know what you are um and let us know how it's going uh wherever you are tuning in from we're so excited that you're joining us today today is week three of our insomnia series and for this series we're tackling five of the big questions of what keeps you up at night so a few months ago pastor jordan uh went to social media and he posted a poll asking the congregation members what keeps you up at night and these were the five most voted on and most replied topics he also talked to the junior high so if you're a youth out there do not end high school he also consulted you guys to figure out what kept you guys up at night my my big stance was caffeine so yeah it's a we're a multi-generational church and we're very proud of it and yeah so this series was designed for you guys in mind for the whole entire congregation and we're very excited about so we're excited for you to be able to hear this next installment we have glenn rouse actually giving the message today which is super exciting um but yeah so today you're all gonna have an opportunity to find out more about who we are here at mesa church as well as a chance to take your next step so here we truly believe that everyone has a next step in their journey with christ whether that's taking that first step and saying i want to give my life to jesus or taking that a step further and saying i want to get baptized we believe in partnering with you in that step because we know that life can get really daunting when you're trying to do it by yourself and it's easy just to hide within yourself but when you have community coming around you and supporting you it makes life a whole lot easier you know we're made for community we're made to be together um speaking of being together uh if you feel like there is more for you like you're hungry for that community then we have small groups that are launching june 6th i believe i believe that is the date so summer small groups are coming up check out all the different opportunities that we have we have so many in store for you for every every season of life whether you're single you're married you have children you're an empty nester like we have so many different opportunities because you truly believe life is not meant to be down alone if you want to take that step further if you feel like you have a bigger calling in your life and you want to start serving we have so many dream teams and we need you we need your help we need you to volunteer alex and i are on two we're on the communications and the youth one and it's amazing it's incredible being part of a team is honestly the most rewarding experience so we'd love to welcome you to come and join us also as speaking of youth all of our youth and kids are now in classrooms and it's because of you guys and your faithful generosity that we've been able to accomplish this so if you would like to partner with us so we can continue to make a difference and the young lives around us as well as in the community world around us you can click give at the top right of your screen or your online host will be posting the link in the chat so we would love for you to partner with us so we can continue to make that difference i think we're almost out of time any final words um shanna dingdong all right well thank you guys so much for joining let's get into the experience see you then [Music] [Music] hey mesa church thanks for joining us today my name is pastor pete so glad you guys are here why don't you stand with us for those of you gathered today online come on let's worship the lord together one two three hey you have come and we have found life everlasting now we'll lie to know [Music] i'm [Music] you are [Music] you have called us [Music] for us [Music] i'm walking water [Music] [Music] forever [Music] jesus [Music] dancing in the arms of forever i'm singing like i'm [Music] your love is all i want you are you are come on let's give the loads of praise in this place today god we thank you for your presence that is here lord we ask right now that's you are the life god we we hear it in your word and we know that today is a perfect opportunity for us to gather whether we're here physically whether you're joining with us online from the comfort of your own home whether you're watching at a coffee shop wherever it may be wherever we find you at this moment can i let you know that god's presence is here and that when we gather together when we bring our faith and our expectation god will meet you right where you're at because we know that his promises never fail we know how good the lord is to us today come on let's worship him [Music] as we declare the lord's promises today let's believe them to be true [Music] you are with me what can separate us you are for me what can't stand against us shadows have no power over me fear is empty [Music] your plans for me are good and i know [Music] your promises never fail your promises never fail healing and freedom as you speak favor over me faith is breaking all [Music] your name alone [Music] your promises never fail your promises never fail your promise is never fail come on based on churches together what i am standing on every promise that you make [Music] i will [Music] in your day [Music] and i believe oh i am standing on every promise that you make [Music] i will [Music] in your name for i know your thoughts your plans for me are good and i know you hold my future and my hope your promises never fail your promises never fail your promises never your promises never felt [Music] once i was that kept us [Music] heaven's [Music] is [Music] for all that we've seen they're still born [Music] all around jesus [Music] heaven's all around heaven's all around jesus [Music] [Music] coming [Music] come and move how you want to do it only you can do come and move how you want to come and make the open you come and move how you want to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] do it all you can do heaven's all around heaven's all around [Music] is jesus heaven's all around heaven's all around jesus [Music] want to go [Music] [Music] [Music] come and make the old brand new come and move how you want to do it only you can do [Music] oh [Music] yes [Music] blessed are sure [Music] love glory divine thereof salvation the purchase of god [Music] washed in his blood [Music] is [Music] watching and waiting [Music] is [Music] moon come on this is mine this is my story this is my soul [Music] this is my story [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] wonderful jesus [Music] jesus [Music] wonderful in this place [Music] [Applause] [Music] for jesus [Music] yes [Music] oh he's you are victorious [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] we worship you lord [Music] life doesn't feel good it doesn't mean it it doesn't it doesn't mean for a second that our god isn't good and it's in those moments when life doesn't feel good or it doesn't feel wonderful you've gotta you've gotta look back at jesus there's nothing that he ever did that was bad he was wonderful he was perfect he was good and i want you to just in this moment lay down whatever distractions that have got you looking at your problem focused on the thing that's in front of you instead of looking at the goodness of god and even when times are hard you have to look at the goodness of god you have to look at his perfection because it will lift your eyes and your perspective above let's just begin to sing that song and this morning if you are weighed down with life's issues i have an encouragement from the throne room of the living god over all the universe look at me and see your problems get small look at the world and your problems will overwhelm you and you will drown but i am able to take your hand and lift you up even when you can't look up so do what you can to look up this morning and if you see someone who needs prayer just put your hand on their shoulder and to begin to intercede for them because i believe the greater days are upon us and the holy spirit is going to be poured out on you and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and nothing will stop you from fulfilling god's call on your life this morning let's lay it down at his cross [Music] wonderful jesus [Music] oh [Music] you are victorious [Music] is [Music] you are victorious [Music] you are victorious [Music] worship you jesus we worship you lord we worship you we worship you god we just come before you lord in the quietness of this moment and we surrender everything lord we surrender everything our hopes and our dreams and our visions for life and what we think needs to happen lord our expectations we throw them out the window jesus give us a new vision your vision for this life do a deep work in our hearts lord so deep that we don't even understand exactly what it is that you did but you fixed something that was broke maybe from a moment as a child where we were hurt god maybe from an experience where we hoped for something and it didn't happen and now we've just settled god you are able to do exceedingly abundantly far beyond our expectations god raised our expectations to a kingdom level today we pray for signs and wonders we pray for the baptism of the holy spirit we pray for more lord we are not going to settle for what we have when you are standing as a host at the table and there is a spread before us i'm not going to eat crackers while i'm sitting there with you and you've got a feast before us i pray lord that you would turn the hunger switch on in our lives and if we have become apathetic or if we have become complacent if we do not resonate with anything that's happening and lord something needs to switch inside of us holy spirit we're asking you to do what we can't do in our human strength give us a hunger for more of god and i'm not talking about sunday morning only lord i'm talking about in life in all of life 24 7. wake us up at the middle of the night and give us visions and dreams of what you're going to do in the middle of our work time and work space lord just give us a vision and an image of jesus and how you would do miracles in that space if we're only listening and willing and praying god just show us give us that spiritual hunger today give us that spiritual hunger lord begin to stir the pot in our lives we just pray that you'd stir it up in jesus name amen amen amen amen we're going to continue with this spirit of worship this spirit of a surrendered heart with our giving our finances you know that's one of the parts that we can just let literally lay at the feet of jesus and ask him to multiply it and this church has been so faithful thank you god for a faithful church that sees the need gives to the need lord in generosity this church has been faithful we've been faithful because you have been faithful in our lives and so lord we're going to pray in a moment that you would multiply our tithes and our offerings as we worship as we give them back to you if we've done that this week lord as we're doing that this morning may our hearts just release this back to you lord in jesus name if you're standing here today and you're thinking man i just don't have any money to give i'd love to give but my cupboards are bare i'm behind on my rent you've come to the right church if you're struggling i want you to see me after this service and we're going to help you because this church has been faithful in their ties in giving we have been able to help so many people with such practical things like grocery and paying bills and maybe you're sitting here and you've been helped and you can just testify to that last year there was a couple who the husband lost their job and so she was doing everything she could she was going to the food bank and making sure she had food and all this stuff and and we were able to help in some very practical ways and a couple weeks later he got a new job making more than he was before and now they've been able to be on the giving end because they received and we've all been there so if you're going through a hard time don't don't be ashamed of that or afraid to ask come come see me today we can be generous i can be generous with you because this people is a generous people that reflects the generous heart of god and we want to help you so let's go ahead and pray for people's needs today and just pray that god multiplies more than anything multiplies his word in our hearts that it would not return void father we just commit our tithes and offerings to you lord ultimately it is a gift to you you said if if even you give me a cup of water in my name i will not forget it and so lord we want to do what we can to help hurting people this morning and we worship you with our giving because you have been faithful and you have been so generous and we celebrate all that you are doing in jesus name amen i want to point you to the screens we've got a video for you [Music] amen well we are [Music] well welcome to mesa church wanted to say a special welcome to those online who are hanging out in their living room thank you for allowing us to to join you in your home we hope to meet you soon in person at some point even if you live a long ways away come visit orange county so mesa church in orange county welcome to the table so grateful that you are here this morning and hopefully your heart has been touched by god and he is ministering to you and just speaking to the parts of your heart that you don't even know are hurt and we want you to know that our desire is that you would experience all that jesus has for you in a relationship with him the last couple weeks we've been in the series called insomnia this last year has been interesting on our mental health and things have kept us up at night in fact a couple months ago i pulled the congregation and i just asked the question what is it that has kept you up at night and so two weeks ago we talked about social media last week we talked about physical health and today i'm very excited to introduce our speaker today glenn rouse has been on the pastoral staff he has served as an elder at various times uh as as the as the chair person pro tem of our of our elder board and in all of the people at our church i think he's probably one of the best at the gift of encouragement if you know glenn he's so positive and he always has an encouraging word a positive way of looking at things and that's just one of the micro things that i love most about him i know if i need a word of encouragement glenn's my guy so without further ado i'd like to invite glenn up to the platform so that he can present god's message to us this morning you know i was sitting there and during those prayers i thought you know i just need to come up and close in prayer would you join me in close you know i am rather excited about this morning and my topic in this series of insomnia what keeps you up at night is the prodigals we love i don't know about you but there are times i've been awakened in the middle of the night and the lord has placed a name on my heart someone that once walked with the lord and someone that he is saying to me pray for them because they're coming back have any of you had that experience before one or two of you that's good you know for the last several years this church has hosted a 21 days of prayer fasting to start the year it's a great event this year's was a little different because we did it on zoom [Music] but a lot of people came and a lot of people prayed and after 21 days i said you know something is happening here can we continue and so the pastoral staff led it through 28 days and then they said god has been present he has answered prayers and we have felt that he wants us to continue can we continue and we have and this morning at 7 00 a.m there's a group of people today called the dream team prayer group that prayed for this service [Music] it was our 147th day of prayer and god has been amazing we pray for many things we pray for you we pray for our pastors and our staff we pray for mesa church we pray for those who have physical personal emotional economic and spiritual needs [Music] we pray for the over 65 missionaries [Music] and the works that god has called them to we pray for our local surrounding communities and the various works of god there we pray for america we pray for israel and if you have been on the mesa church prayer list guess what we pray for you this morning as i looked around this congregation and said you know we prayed for you we prayed for you and we prayed for you you know what occasionally we found is we were praying that someone would say listen i have someone in my life that used to know jesus and he's turned and walked away can we pray for that verse and we would and it became kind of common and pretty soon i said you know maybe we should just collect all these names and let's pray for them every day now we pray for them as a group some days and we pray for everyone by name often the day that we created that list there was 14 of us online and those 14 people generated a list of 47 prodigals 47 of our loved ones that had walked away from jesus today we're going to talk about why people leave the church what we can do as christ followers to make a difference in their lives and most importantly how very much god loves his prodigals won't you please join me in a prayer oh father how we love you you are magnificent you are mighty you're all powerful always present yet you love being with us we thank you for being here today lord we thank you for our prodigals we thank you that you love them more than we do we pray that spirit will be present he will speak to us plainly and give us a mission of reaching those who have walked away amen you know i was a prodigal once my mother and my sister and i attended a small church in kansas until i was seven and i remember mrs belong she was my sunday school teacher and i remember the vbs projects vacation bible schools i still have a project that i made when i was six years old which is 102 years ago i remember standing next to the pastor in the back of the church and as everyone filed past to leave today i would shake hands with everyone that left that church was good for my young soul when we moved to california we attended a church for a while and then didn't over the line baseball football skateboarding on steel wheels friends crawdad fishing at the local cemetery church had become something we did as in the past many years later i accepted an athletic scholarship to attend cal state university at fullerton and me and my two friends we got an apartment over on malvern street and and it was a pretty wonderful thing we've checked in and as we're signing the lease the manager department said hey listen just want to let you know heads up just going to let you know that right above you there lives two jesus freaks and they're coming after you we smiled and and and sure enough sure enough the first day we are in our apartment a knock comes on our door hi my name is jan welcome i loved it one of my roommates was a philosophy major and since that moment when the manager told us what was going on he could not wait for this i do not even believe that he said good morning to jan when she walked to our door what he said was so do you really believe in the literal seven day creation to which jan said yes would you like to go to church with me on wednesday wednesday church never heard of that yes is that all you've got to that question yes and i wish that as a lesson that i had learned that day but it took me decades decades to learn it for what jan said without saying is that she stated boldly i am not here to win an argument i am here to win souls come wednesday night come wednesday night like sardines five of us packed into a sub-compact car and headed to costa mesa to a small church there when we arrived there was no parking when we got inside the church a half an hour before it started there were no seats they had literally began to place people on the steps of the platform there were people in front of the pews and then there were people going out the two toward the two doors in the back and and me and jan and my two roommates were sitting midway back the aisle and as the service began i turned around and i noticed that there was no escaping i would not get out alive we were sardines the people had filled in all the way to the back the foyer was standing room only and they were standing there filled on the left side of the church was a bank of windows and a patio outside where there was at least 100 people gathered looking through the window wishing they had my seat and so did i we sang songs and a long-haired young man named lonnie frisbie came forward and began to share about what jesus had done on this amazing trip that they just had to europe miracles happened that night i came face to face with the jesus movement you may have heard about it a couple of weeks later i decided to go home for the weekend you know it's laundry and a good home-cooked meal already so i went home but my real intent was to tell my family about this wonderful man amazing man called jesus that had saved my life saved my soul and i remember telling my dad i wanted him to come to church with me he looked at me straight in the eyes and said son i have memorized and forgotten more of the bible than you've read and that was news to me because he had never once been to church with my mom and my sister and i well i looked him right back in the eyes and said dad i am so sorry to hear that after an awkward moment of silence like yours he told me that my grandfather was a baptist preacher in the hills of tennessee no doubt he had prayed for his grandchild my dad and perhaps for me that we would come to know the lord that day so many years later i was speaking to his prodigal and the holy spirit was using me to answer the prayers of a man i'd never met eventually my entire family came to know the lord as their savior you know people leave the church for many reasons the barna group and lifeway research each did a study on that asking why people leave the church and they came up with a rather extensive list one that i believe we can fit into one of five categories and i want to talk a little bit about them today the first category has to do with the pressures of the world and we can all relate to that right covet 19. teaching at home teaching online our jobs or lack thereof kid sports 24 ac hour access to information computer games going to the gym and on and on and on the list goes i recently saw a meme that said i began to miss church or they began to miss church until they no longer missed church you know here's an amazing thing psalm 139 says that god has placed his hand of anointing him on you and with that he has placed spiritual gifts in you to be used for his glory and you know where you do that in the as pastor shared a few weeks ago we are all a part of the body of christ and when we come together we form a healthy body of christ and everyone using their gifts everyone using their gifts for the kingdom of god is a powerful powerful statement when barb and i got married we had made the decision before we got married that we would never make the decision on a sunday morning to come to church that decision was made before we were married and you know we just we chose to use our gifts we chose to become involved in ministries of whatever god calls us to be and whenever possible we used our daughter as well involved sorry aaron we involved our daughter in the ministries that we participated in and it served us well the second category of why people leave the church is that they have been hurt perhaps by me possibly by me probably by me i've been here for 47 years bound to have hurt someone it could have been a pastor could have been a volunteer it could have been a guest that said something that didn't even know anyone could have hurt them and it led me to realize that the church must be a place of acceptance compassion and love that is what we're about right jesus says in john 13 34 and 35 a new command i give you that you love one another just as i have loved you you are also to love one another by this all people listen to that by you loving one another all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another wow how powerful is our love for one another that people walking into the streets from from the streets into this auditorium come in and say the love of god is so present the love between people is so powerful that i want to come and i want to know the god that they worship that is so powerful that is just amazing to me and what i hear about this church is that's the way people feel when they walk through our doors we love one another we are kind and i just want to tell you a great job because that's what they say not what i'm seeing that's what they say when they come into this place keep it up still others have left the church because they say the church is the judgmental i took the myers-briggs personality inventory and guess what i'm judgmental and then my wife just thinks it's mental they just you know just but that is not a characteristic that god wants me to have i need to allow god to be the righteous judge oh boy and i need to love people to him as we love them they come that's what we need to be not judgmental and it will work out for our benefit not to be judgmental why because luke 6 37 says this do not judge and you will not be judged do not condemn and you will not be condemned pardon and you will be pardoned forgive and you will be forgiven give and it will be given to you a good measure pressed down shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap for with the measure you use it will be measured to you could he be any more clear we are not to judge we are not to condemn we are to pardon i or we must allow the holy spirit to be the holy spirit he's the one that changes lives ours is just to love some people especially young people have left the church because they could not rationalize the perceived differences between the creation story and scriptures and what they've learned in a science class a few years ago i was counseling on the internet-based ministry that reaches out to hurting people allows them to come online and do an online chat with a christian and i engaged a man from australia one evening and when i asked him why he reached out he began with this he explained to me that he once was a christian but his knowledge but gave it up because the biblical account of creation did not match the knowledge he had from science we debated back and forth for a long time and actually i enjoyed the conversation it was great however the conversation ended when he had to hang up and go to work so after the call i realized that my arguing did not change his mind what it did was keep me from hearing why he had called and telling him how much jesus loved him i should have invoked the jan rule i'm not here to win an argument i'm here to win souls and besides what do i really know i wasn't a science major nt wright probably the most the leading christian theologian in the world today writes this the early christians even paul did not develop a detailed doctrine of creation they knew the genesis account is a highly poetic highly complex narrative whose main thrust has nothing to do with the number of 24-hour periods in which the world is made and everything to do with the wisdom goodness and power of the god who made it our last category the reason people have chosen to lose leave the church is that they were disappointed in god he did not answer his or her prayers the way that they had hoped they didn't get into harvard their dad died he let terrible things happen to them so how do we speak to someone who is disappointed with god well we listen carefully and we listen without judgment we listen carefully and we do not defend god because guess what god does not need defending we're to be honest and genuine we're to love them we're to show empathy and tell them that we don't understand either but one what day we will and what we do know is that god has not left them and that he loves them deeply and wishes to heal their hurt with his love and we would be so fortunate to be chosen to be a part of that healing process that restoration process don't you think so isn't that something that would just fire your soul up i just love the idea if you are a prodigal and you feel hurt by god i have some understanding my sister died of als my only sibling died of als way too young my sister-in-law bonnie died of cancer and i have other disappointments in life too but one thing i know is this one day at the wedding feast of the lamb as i look around the table i will see my sister paula i will see my mother i will see my father i will see my great-grandfather that i have never met who prayed me into the kingdom i will see barb's mom i will see barb's dad i will see bonnie jean brigmon and everyone who calls on the name of jesus and says can i come can i come and accepts an invitation to the banquet and then we're all going to be together in eternity that'd be nice there's going to be a big party and i want to be there as you can see there's much we can do to impact our prodigals but the amazing thing is god can do so much more more significant hope the hope that we have for our prodigals is in the never-ending amazing relentless love of our god and jesus defines this love in the parables found in chapter 15 of the gospel of luke and i invite you to turn there right now turn on your phone and check it out if you will because we're going to read it together the chapter finds jesus speaking to a crowd luke observes in verse 1. now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him his message listen to this his message is so compelling that the tax collectors and the sinners are pressing in that is amazing and guess what they are hearing the words of jesus when he says come to the table come to the table you know i think about them and i think why did they come well maybe they heard the story of matthew who was previously a tax collector ostracized by the religious communities and now is a part of the inner circle of the one many people were becoming to believe was the messiah the one that was to come and they said you know if matthew can get there maybe there's room at the table for us and that's exactly what jesus said to him there is room and the pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying this man received sinners and ease with them it is to this crowd those hungry for truth and those who grumble at it that jesus speaks three parables parables are stories with a spiritual meaning he paints a word picture of how god's love is demonstrated for the lost the first about a lost sheep the second about a lost coin and finally the third of a prodigal son and how the father waits expectantly for his return the lost sheep begins in verse four 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 and when he finds it he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home then he calls all his friends and neighbors together and says rejoice with me i have found my lost sheep i tell you in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who dot need do not need to repent that's how much god loves his own his prodigals he leaves the 99 and goes to find the lost one he searches for his lost sheep until he finds him and then he places him on his shoulder and takes them home it's an amazing story and there is rejoicing in heaven when anyone returns friends he is the good shepherd he is the one who wants to lead you into green pastures please say yes the party's been prepared for you the parable of the lost coin begins in verse eight or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one doesn't she light a lamp sweep the house and carefully search until she finds it and when she finds it she calls her friends and neighbors together and says rejoice with me i have found my lost coin in the same way i tell you there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of god over one center who repents in this time in history when jesus told this parable most homes had no windows and their floor was dirt and as you shuffled through this you broke that dirt up and there's a lot of of dust and can you imagine losing a coin and it falls in the dust and certainly you kick more dust on it you've lost it it's an amazing story to think about how much effort it would take you light the candle and then you sweep the floor every corner until you find that coin and when you do you just rejoice because you have just found ten percent of what you've have that one coin represents so much in their life let me do a modern day example of this suppose you bought bitcoin at one dollar and let's say you bought 10 of those coins and they were put into a digital wallet and today five years later you have lost your password how much work would you use at bitcoin being at thirty eight thousand dollars would you spend searching through your house for those ten little passwords to get into your digital wallet and when you found it guess what you are throwing a party right i'm with you well jesus is quoted in john 10 10 as saying the thief comes to rob to kill and to destroy but jesus says of himself but i have come you might have life and have it abundantly in this parable is not difficult to imagine the urgency of god in finding the lost one who has been covered by dirt dirt that has hidden his eyes from the light of the world the spirit sweeps away the enemy's clutter the light is seen understood embraced and another celebration takes place do you get the theme about celebrations i love that we celebrate these things and finally the parable of the lost son speaks of the father who constantly scans the horizon for the return of his prodigal he knows by the way that the prodigal is coming that's why he looks he knows if you're a prodigal he knows you're coming home he knows so the story begins in verse 11. there was a man who had two sons the younger one said to his father father give me my share of the estate so he divided up his property between them not long after that the younger son got together all he had set off for a distant country and squandered the wealth in wild living after he has spent everything there was a severe famine in the whole country and he began to be in need so he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his field to feed pigs how much fun is that he longed to fill his stomach with the paws that the pigs were eating but no one gave him anything when he came to a census he said how many of my fathers hired servants have food to spare and here i am starving to death if i may interject there may come a time in your prodigal's life when life becomes very difficult even unbearable and perhaps at that moment they will begin to remember what it was like when they were home with you to remember what it was like to sit next to you into church and maybe have remembrances of of going to sunday school and being with mr walt or mr lou or miss gwen or miss kimberly or miss linnell possibly commander dan or pete perhaps they will remember attending a summer camp a youth ministry trip and they were good times and they begin to think of returning home a decision is made in a speech is prepared in the ones that we pray for we've had a call from a prodigal saying just this we're excited about that parable continues in verse 18. i will set out and go back to my father and say to him father i have sinned against heaven and against you i am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your higher servants so he got up and he 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 his father 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 he is now found so they began to celebrate if you're a prodigal know this god is not waiting for you to make it all the way back on your own he runs to greet you he embraces you and he begins as you begin to make your apology silences you were forgiven the moment you turned to return home he already has the royal world prepared for you you are the son of a daughter or daughter of royalty he has placed your a ring on your finger a symbol of family new shoes just for you because everyone loves new shoes he sets in motion a great celebration the feast is prepared all your friends are invited and you are welcomed home the seat the seat is this prepared for you if you're a prodigal is this prepared for you come to the table is what jesus says to you come before me is another table it says there's room at the table for you so there's room at the table and on that table are place cards just like going to a wedding and they give you a little seat assignments there well that's what this is like for you have been invited to a celebration you have been invited to the marriage supper of the lamb there are cars down here with names on them and those are the names of the prodigals that we have been praying for like this one there are other cars in the table that are blank in a few moments i'm going to invite you if you have a prodigal to come to the table and write their name on a card because these names we pray for every day and we want to join you in praying for your prodigals there's another table in the back and there's one outside in the overflow area just come up and write their name on that card and if you want we have prayer workers from our morning prayer dream team and they will pray for you for your prodigal today or you can simply write that name on the card and set it back and then return to your seat if you're watching online today we invite you to type the name of your prodigal in the comments section and our online host will take those names and make sure the prayer team gets those and we will pray for them i promise you that last week pastor told you that the cure for insomnia is to trust in the lord and you can trust him with your prodigal i hope you have a good night's sleep tonight because you know that there's room at the table for your prodigal please stand with me friends may the lord bless you and keep you may he cause his face to shine upon you be gracious unto you and give you peace peace and knowing that your prodigal is being sought by the good shepherd that the holy spirit is sweeping away the enemy's dirt and that the light of the world is beginning to shine on them and finally the father is running toward them with a brand new outfit for the party sweet dreams my friends they're coming home [Music] before i spoke a word you were singing over me and you have been so so good to me [Music] before i took a breath you breathed in me and you have been so so kind to me [Music] i couldn't [Music] reckless when i was your foe still your love for me [Music] you paid it off [Music] [Music] love of god [Music] mostly there's no shadows [Music] coming after me [Music] [Music] so [Music] love [Music] i don't deserve it [Music] [Applause] [Music] reckless [Applause] [Music] love of god oh it chases me down fights leaves the 99 i couldn't earn it i don't deserve it still you give yourself away all the overwhelming never any reckless love [Music] i'm so grateful for the i like the word relentless better than reckless that's just me i just i'm so grateful for the relentless love of god he just never stops whatever you're praying whatever prodigal you're praying for this morning it's might be a mind better god loves your kid more than you do let's just continue to partner with him this morning before we close the service can we just recommit our hearts to the lord and respond to him if you've never given your heart to jesus would you join us in this prayer lord we confess our sins before you we ask that you'd forgive us we believe in jesus and today we choose we choose to follow jesus for the rest of our lives be our lord and be our savior amen if you prayed that for the first time or the first time in a long time we would love to pray with you in the back corner just to just to cement that decision in your life if you're new or feel new we would love to connect with you at our uh first time guest table right in the lobby we'd love to if you're ready to get connected with the next step we'd love to come alongside of you we've got uh summer small groups launching here in a few weeks if that's something that you need in your life relationship it's been a long year restrictions are lifting i have a feeling some groups are going to be in homes doesn't that feel good if that's exciting to you we would love to connect you to a small group that you can build relationship with so many different kinds of groups and the last thing i want to encourage you with this is for those who are watching online as well in a couple weeks we're having a picnic a church-wide picnic i think it's june 13th and uh we're just so excited about the restrictions lifting feel the freedom come on this is gonna be a good summer it's gonna be a better summer than last summer that's all i can say but we're going to do everything we can to just build relationship this summer i just feel that really strongly for our church this is a season of rebuilding the core we want to build relationship here with each other how can you love each other like glenn talked about from john they'll know that you are christians by your love for one another if we never hang out so please please please please uh take a step invest and uh let's build relationships this summer and it'll be so so good for for all of us and uh for those of you who are watching online thank you so much for joining us we want to just say god bless you there's always room at the table online or in person but we do hope to meet you in person at some point but we just want you to know how much we loved that you've allowed us to be in your living room this morning so god bless [Music] wow what an incredible service thank you guys so much for joining us if this message impacted you or encouraged you in any way we would love to hear your story so you can contact us um whether it's through email or you can go on to our website mesa.church that is the url mesa.church and let us know about your experience we're all about you know change the lives we're all about taking these next steps together so whether that is taking that first step and realizing hey i need to make a change life life is not how i want it we want to partner with you you know we know that sometimes it's confusing how do i say that prayer how do i how do i dedicate my life to jesus you're not alone in your journey we want to be there we want to walk beside you in it or maybe you want to take your faith a step further maybe you want to get baptized we're going to partner with you this is not meant to be none alone your journey and your walk your path is not meant to be done alone so maybe maybe you've been desiring community community is so important we got small groups that are our summer small groups are launching june 6th so you can go to our website you can find all the different options you can sign up or maybe it's getting connected on a dream team we want to talk a little bit about dream teams alex what's that dream team yeah i mean gordon dream team they're wonderful ways to serve and obviously small groups is a great way to get connected in the community in a similar place of life dream team is an awesome way to take that uh one step further to serve and just join a team maybe you've got some passions and skills that wow i'm a huge fan of doing this i love uh whether it's comms youth kids there's so many different dream teams that you guys can be a part of and not only do you get to serve but you also get to meet some amazing people and it almost sometimes ends up being like a small group in and of itself so it's a wonderful community to be a part of if you're looking to to serve and find a community to like-minded people yeah so we we need volunteers we need your help we want you on our team we believe in you and we believe that you have a purpose and a reason for being here so you can go to mesa.church and find all the different options that we have for you we also have a ton of events coming up this summer as pastor jordan was talking about we have a picnic we have a barbecue we have camps we have beach days there's so many things coming up so if you don't want to miss that make sure to be looking at our website or our app underneath the event section and also be following us on social media so our instagram is at mesa.church and then our facebook is obviously mesa church so just be following us for all the different updates on what's happening and all the details that's going to be coming up uh we'll be releasing more and more information as we get closer to the dates so yeah we hope that you had an amazing day and you're gonna have an amazing day thank you so much for joining us this week we can't wait to see you next week be blessed have a great sunday you

Channel: Mesa Church

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Id: -q6YGCBPoB4

Length: 93min 17sec (5597 seconds)

Published: Mon May 31 2021