 Good morning. It's a wonderful morning. I say good morning. Welcome to Trinity of Hover's Church and our Fair Facility. I'm Josh Huffman on behalf of the City of Pikeville. We want to welcome you here to this wonderful, joyous day as we gather together to experience God and the growth of this city and our region and our culture. Pikeville grows in remarkable ways, but nothing is more dear tomorrow than to see us grow together as the family of God. Amen. Amen. Let's show this world that we can celebrate Jesus Christ. Everybody smile and clap your hands and welcome our community to Trinity Hover's Church. It is my privilege to introduce you Pastor Richard Holmes, Pastor Trinity Hover's Church. Thank you Josh. It's a beautiful day that God has given us to celebrate the grand opening of our wonderful new church home. This great facility right here in the heart of Pikeville, Kentucky, an amazing community with great people. And this has been a day long time in the making with much sacrifice, much generosity and a whole lot of hard work and the blessing of God. And it is such a joy to gather here today with the great citizens of Pikeville, Kentucky and our community leaders to open and to have the ribbon-cutting ceremony of our new church home and declare to our region that this facility is open for business as of today to help experience God and His goodness, His love and His grace like never before. And we say to all of Eastern Kentucky and beyond, come on, be a part of the family, be a part of what God is doing. We've made room for you to have a great place for your kids, your family, your friends. And we are so excited about the future not only of our church but of Eastern Kentucky and Pikeville and what God is doing. We want to be a part of it. God bless you. Let's celebrate a great day. Only Son for me, for you, you and your mother's womb. And He loved you and He called you. And it doesn't matter what this world may label you as or even what you think that you are because our Father, God knows exactly who you're supposed to be. His love, His love covers all fear. All fear. We're no longer slaves to this world because of God's love. You surround us all and I love your blood. Thank you everybody. Hey Trinity, what do you think of your new home? I was just informed there's a bunch of people in the overflow. We're making room for you. We're bringing seats in. Just come on in and be a part of what God's doing. It's a great day. I feel in my heart what David said when he said, this is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is an awesome day as today we are kicking off in a grand opening our brand new church home. And if you are a VIP here at Trinity, you are a first time guest with us. I want to say welcome home. We built this place for you. There are so many people that has come together and worked together to make this possible for you to know that this is a safe place that you can come home to God and grow in Him. I want to say thank you to everybody over the last few months that has prayed together and worked together and labored together and covered this time in prayer, covered this moment in prayer for it to be possible. Something like this. Understand, let me ask you, how many of you attended some kind of a wedding reception or a banquet or a Christmas dinner or something here in the Mark 5 over the years? Let me see your hand. You had been in here at some point for some other function. You know then that just four months ago this was a banquet room. This was an empty banquet room with nothing in it and four months later it's the house of God. How does that happen? How does that happen? First of all it's God's goodness and God's blessing but secondly it happens because a whole bunch of people come together and pray and give and labor and sacrifice and put God's kingdom ahead of our own. We put God's priorities ahead of our own and God blesses it and fantastic things happen. So I want to tell you welcome home. Secondly don't be in a hurry today because after this service is over we're having a big party for everybody. We have, amen, we're going to party like it's 1999. Free pizza, inflatables for your kids, face painting, fun photo booth, all kinds of stuff, shaved eyes. Just stick around, enjoy what God is doing because it's a great day to be alive and to be in the house of God. Amen. Let's give God one more big hand clap and praise today. This morning I know we've got a lot of stuff going on. People are trying to get seated. I just want to welcome you to this Pastor Rich. My name is Dusty and it is a delight to be in this grand opening service with you. Trinity's in my home for eight years and it's just awesome to see more people coming in. I want you to know that today if you're a VIP, a very important person, you're a first time guest for us. We want to just acknowledge you. We want to say how happy we are that you are here with us today. We want you to know that this room was built with you in mind. This room was definitely built with you in mind. And I don't know, we may be thinking of our next location already. I'm not really sure because there's so many of you guys sitting in here. What a wonderful problem to have that is. So we want you just to know that if you did not get to take the VIP experience on your way in the door, which there's so many of you may not have got that opportunity, we want you to know that you shouldn't receive this card anyway. You still have an opportunity to experience that. If you will fill this card out. You are one of our first time guests and hold on to it till the end of service. Take it to the tent that is on the outside of the building. You can receive a free awesome Trinity t-shirt. How many likes free things? Are y'all? Everybody like free things? We all like free things, right? So you can get your free t-shirt. It's just a token. It gets the appreciation saying how glad that we are that you did choose to come and be part of this awesome grand opening service. It's truly a pleasure. Trinity family, I want to speak to you just a moment. We're going to be giving of our tithe and our offering in just a few moments. And, you know, it was just four months ago that we had put a goal of $150,000 to meet to put towards the funding of this building. And you came through. You came through great. You exceeded that $150,000. And you know what? It came from generosity that you did that from the bottom of your heart, your generous heart. You did that. And guys, this right here goes to show us that the generosity can't stop because there's more souls to reach. There's more people that needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what I do want you to know is that every penny that you give toward your tithe and toward offerings goes to reach the kingdom of God, the people in the kingdom of God. We make that a priority. Souls are a priority. Where people spend the rest of their lives is a priority to us because we want them to spend the rest of their lives in eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ and with all of their church family. So we value that. So just as we have put blood, sweat, tears into these walls, into this building, and the brick and the mortar has went up, there's a greater value even than that. And that's people's souls. So we want to never discredit that and what that is. So this morning as we're giving, I want you to keep that in mind, just the generosity and the heart of God because God's heart is generous. He proved that in the very beginning when he put Jesus Christ, his very son on the cross to die for you and for me. So keep that generosity in mind. Let's give with that big, big heart because big, big things are going to happen, guys. We expect that and we believe that. Father, we thank you for today. God, this is just an awesome opportunity to stand before you, before all of these people, God. Lord, you're generous. Let us have that same generous heart that you have, that you've displayed for us or that your son so freely, God on the cross and laid down his life for. Would we thank you that the souls of the people who are coming to know you and to know you as their, their father are going to be met here today. Lord, that you are meeting people powerfully. Father, we thank you. We glorify you in Jesus' name. Amen. There's this man. He's not known by his name. He's known by his label. He was discontent. He wanted to be anywhere in the whole world except for home. He was a taker. He said to his dad, I wish you were dead. Give me what's mine now. Decision by decision. His identity was swallowed up in his labels. Wild, partier, promiscuous, immoral, fornicator, alcoholic, addict, broke, friendless, homeless, hungry, humiliated, hopeless, confused, prodigal. Finally, after hitting his lowest point, he came to himself and he asked one simple question. Can I go home? So that was me, senior yearbook. Senior year of high school and I thought I had it all figured out. My senior superlative was labeled life of the party. Unaware of any consequences, I was heading down a path of bad decision-making, broken relationships, and a whole lot of pain. College was one big party. I joined a fraternity and embraced a social album. The girls, alcohol, and parties seemed like a dream too good to be true from a boy from Feds Creek, Kentucky. I racked up quiet the background with one bad choice after another, relying under the heavy influence of drugs and alcohol. Two weeks before my college graduation, I made the decision to drive myself home from the bar and was arrested for drunk driving. I remember waking up at 6 a.m. on the cold hard floor of a jail cell, ashamed, alone, scared, and wanting to end it all rather than facing my family. I spent the next year and a half working on myself and investing into becoming a better person, but I knew that there was still something missing. My girlfriend at the time, she's now my wife, we started coming to Trinity around January of 2014. On January 26th, as Pastor Rich was given a call of salvation, I remember being in the biggest power struggle of my life. Like many times before, I could feel my flesh trying to talk myself and trying to talk my soul out of making a decision to follow Christ. I was making myself believe that I wasn't worthy, wasn't good enough, that I will always be a failure, but God had other plans for me. When I said, I'm not good enough, God, He said, trust in me and I will qualify you. On that day, I was welcome home to God's overwhelming love. I lost myself to truly find who He wants me to be. My relationship with God is unexplainable. He is my father. He is my best friend. Like most people in this area, I was raised in church from a very young age. We went to church every Sunday morning, every Wednesday evening, and I went to the youth group every Monday night. And I remember when I was seven, I went to a VBS at a local community center. And at the end of the week, they gave everyone the opportunity to say a prayer for salvation. And I was like, you know, I want to go to heaven. I love God, my family is Christian. So, you know, I said that prayer and I remember being so excited to go home and tell my mom. And then all through grade school and middle school and most of high school, I lived my life with a checklist of dos and don'ts. I based my self-righteousness on how well I follow the rules of my religion. And I based other people's righteousness on how well they follow the rules of my religion. But by the end of my high school days, I was getting really tired of trying so hard all the time. I was tired of not being able to do what other kids were doing and I just wanted to have fun. So after I graduated, I moved out. My family moved out of town. And that gave me free range to have all the fun I wanted. And I started partying and doing things that I thought I would never do. And that lasted about two years until I finally just, thank God nothing crazy had to happen to snap me out of it. I just decided I wanted to get my life back on track. And then my mom and dad moved back and my mom was like, I heard about this church called Trinity. Why don't you visit it with me? And I was like, sure, why not? You know, let's go. And I got there and you could just feel the presence of God so strong. And it was, I'd never been to a church like that. It seemed like everything in the service was set up for God to move. Nothing was based on traditions and the way the word was delivered, it really impacted me. So I came on and off for the rest of that year. In about early 2014, I was committed to being here every Sunday. And then the only problem was I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to heaven. I prayed that prayer at such a young age, I didn't really understand what that commitment even meant. And I had never gotten baptized. And so now I was thinking, you know, I need to get baptized. And I was texting my friend Kayla about it. And she made me really think, what did that original prayer that I said, even really what did it mean for me in the first place? And then she said, there are baptizing some people in a pool out back of the church after church this Sunday. And because there was so many salvation from the Easter service this Sunday before. And I was like, no, I don't know. I don't think I'm ready for that. I don't know. But I took clothes anyways. And I got there and I was sitting through the service and the end came. And Pastor Rich said, everyone bow their heads, you know, and raise your hands if you're ready to say yes for Jesus. And I just started crying. I could feel the spirit so heavy. And at that point I knew what I needed to do. I knew this time when I said that prayer was going to be because it was what God wanted me to do and know what I wanted to do. And I said that prayer. And I was so excited to be able to say 100% that I knew I was going to heaven this time. And I was forgiven for my sins. And needless to say, I got baptized in that really, really cold pool out back of the church. And yeah, it's my life. I don't base my self-righteousness on my do's and don'ts anymore. And I just try to live my life how God wants me to. I try to make my decisions on what God's plan for me is. And I just want to have a relationship with Him as a friend, as a father. And I want all of you to, too. So thank you. My whole life I was raised in church. The problem was I never thought I needed God. I got out of high school and joined the military in 2008. I was deployed to Afghanistan to do real clearance. While I was there, I had two IEDs. IED stands for Improvised Explosive Device. Basically, it's just that they put the bombs in the road and they want you to drive home. When I got hit, I sustained several injuries. One's my shoulders, my back, and my knees. The most severe injury I sustained was a PTSD, which is short for post-traumatic stress disorder. After I came home, I couldn't trust anyone. And I was terrified to go out in public, as well as many other social dysfunctions. After the injuries in Afghanistan, the doctors put me on a lot of pain medication in order for me to continue going on missions. When I came home, the prescription saw it stopped, so I turned to the streets for my drugs. The PTSD fueled my addiction and soon I began stealing from my fix. After much suffering, I decided to go to the VA in Lexington to get treatment for my addiction and PTSD. Living alone, I found myself in a deep depression for a long time. After a couple years of living in Lexington, I decided to move back to home where my support system was. My loving parents. My mother knew the answer to all my problems, and she always reminded me of it. God. Last spring, they brought me to their new church, Trinity Harvest. And when I came, I knew I needed something. The service began and all I could do was stare at the monitors as they were the worship team saying the words on the screen. I instantly felt comforted. I felt accepted just the way I was. The shame and guilt of my past began to melt away. This label on my shirt was falling off and I was getting a clean slate. Then I knew it was real. I was home. Jesus saw something in me that was a value when I saw nothing. I'm so thankful He loved me when I couldn't love myself. I have transformed inside and out over this past year. I've lost 70 pounds and saved up money and bought a car. I'm finishing my first semester of college in four years. God has opened doors for me to move to Fort Lauderdale later this month to manage a business. This junkie never could have done it without Christ. When I look back at this past year, I'm amazed at how much love and favor God has shown me. He loves me and He loves you too. Thank you for listening to our stories. You've heard a lot about labels this morning already. And you see the shirts that they're wearing with the labels on them. You see self-righteous. You see junkie. You see party animal. And that was a label that the world had placed on them. That was who they allowed the world to turn them into at one point in time. But listen, that wasn't the end of their story. They came running home to the Father, right? And they received their true identity, who they were created to be, right? And just like there's room in the Father's house for them, there's room in the Father's house for me, and there's room in the Father's house for you, right? But let me ask you a question. If you had a shirt on, if you had a label, what would it say? Are you going to allow that to be the end of your story? Are you going to come running home to the Father and receive your true identity? Because it doesn't matter who the world says you are. It doesn't matter what label the world tries to place on you. Matter of fact, right now I just remove all the labels in the name of Jesus. All that matters is who God says that you are. Come home and receive your true identity. Anybody that comes running home to the Father receives victory. Anybody that comes running home to the Father receives freedom. Anybody that comes running home to the Father receives deliverance. They are a winner in Christ Jesus, and it's your day to come home. This song right here is for all the prodigal sons and daughters. You might have did what they said you did, but you're not who they say you are. They say home is hands on my track. Oh, my Father ever gave me, yeah, I squandered that. Now I'm sitting here wishing I could take it all back. I taste it high. I'm drowning in my same feeling. I want you to know that those stories that you just heard and experienced are real. Those are real people with real past, with real pains, but they met a real God. Those stories that we just heard, that's all about who Jesus is and that's all about who this church is. And I want you to know to the hundreds that are here today and to the thousands that are tuning in through EKB TV, I want you to know that this is a safe place for you to come home to God and to grow in Him. That's what matters the absolute most is that we all know that it's safe and it's okay to come home to God. Let me ask you a question right now. Have you ever felt far from God? Or let me put it another way. Has there ever been a time in your life that you are closer to God than what you are right now? If you feel distant from God today, I want you to know that you are not alone. You are not alone. Every single person in this room has been there. Every single person that's gathered together right now has been far from God, has felt distant from God. And when we are in that place where we feel like there's great distance between us and God, it becomes pretty easy for us to believe certain things. We tend to believe certain things like God is mad at us. We believe the image that's portrayed that God has the heavenly night stick and He's waiting to strike us down and to punish us in His wrath and His anger that we have been and we have done such wretched, unbelievable things that God is waiting it to strike at just any moment out of His anger at us. When we feel far from God, not only do we believe that God is mad at us, but we also believe that He's so upset with us because of our failures, our sin, and just really our humanity that He is so mad at us that even if we wanted to come home to Him, we couldn't possibly because He wouldn't want anything to do with us. Because after all, after all we have been an addict. We have been an alcoholic. We're a liar. We're a cheat. An idolater. An adulterer. Criminal. Immoral. Promiscuous. We have been all of those things. Those are the labels that are printed upon the t-shirt that we wear through life that other people see us. We are guilty of these things and God has never loved anyone like us. God has never received much less work through and used anyone that's done the things and been the places and been the kind of people that we are. So even if I wanted to come home to Him, I couldn't because He would turn me away. Just like other people in my life have turned me away and have rejected me because of who I've been and what I've been accused of and what I'm even guilty of, God would turn me away just like so many other people. And I get that. I understand that. I understand in the weakness of the moments of life when everything is against you, when guilt and shame and hurt and condemnation pile up in your heart like a load of bricks. I get how easy it is to believe that. But I also understand that it's a lie. And those things that are whispered and at times screamed in your ear that God is against you and God can't receive you and God doesn't love you and you couldn't possibly come home to Him. That is a lie. And we have the truth straight from the mouth of Jesus about God's heart written for us in Holy Scripture. If you have your Bible, I want you to look at Luke chapter 15. If you don't have a paper copy of the Bible, maybe you, like I do, you have an iPad or a phone or an Android device that has the Bible app on there. Go ahead and open that. Just don't play Angry Birds while you're trying to find the Scripture. Luke chapter 15, and if you don't have any of those, that's okay. We have it on the screens for you. Luke chapter 15, and we'll start reading in just a moment in verse number 11. Luke 15 is a chapter in the Bible that is a trilogy of stories that Jesus told about lost things. Trilogies are awesome. There was an anointed great trilogy called Lord of the Rings that was awesome. Any Lord of the Rings fans that comes in my mind second place to a couple other great trilogies like Star Wars. Two parts of a trilogy. It was so good they had to make two trilogies. But if you think I'm not geeking out over the upcoming new Star Wars movie, you are sadly mistaken. I'm issuing a summons for all the guys that, here's the vision I've received of the Lord, okay? I want to see a big group of guys the day that the new Star Wars movie comes out. We will connect and watch all six Star Wars movies back to back and then go straight to the theater for the midnight showing. And if the owner of the management is watching this of Riverfield Tien, you will have a midnight showing of Star Wars. We will go straight to the theater, get in line and watch Star Wars 7 because it's going to be awesome and the Holy Spirit will be there speaking to us while we watch it. I mentioned this to one guy and he said, Pastor, I'll wear a diaper if it's needed. I said, well, you go on ahead and do that. We'll all make fun of you, but you go on ahead and do that. I'd like to see that. Jesus told stories just like we all gravitate to and we watch and we go pay money for stories. Jesus was a master storyteller and Luke 15 is a trilogy of stories about lost things that Jesus told. It begins with Jesus telling the story of a shepherd that had a hundred sheep. One of them became lost. Now we would think, well, that's okay. The sheep wandered, it's its own fault. The shepherd still has 99 sheep, but Jesus surprised his audience when he said the shepherd leaves the 99 behind and is more concerned with the one lost sheep that got away than he is with the 99 that stayed behind. And he goes and diligently pursues to find the one lost sheep. And when he finds it, he puts it upon his shoulders and he brings it back home. Then part two of Jesus trilogy is about a woman that had 10 coins. She has 10 coins and one of them gets lost in the house. She sweeps the house, cleans the house and looks all over the house until she finds that one lost coin. And then she goes to her neighbors and her friends and says, celebrate with me and rejoice because I found that which is lost. And Jesus wraps up the trilogy. We all know that if it's a good trilogy, the third part is the best of the whole series. Jesus wraps up his trilogy of stories about lost things by telling about a man that had two sons. And that's where we pick up in Luke chapter 15 verse 11. Jesus continued, 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 his property between them. Not long after that, the young son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that 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 fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. But no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? And here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and I will 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 hired servants. So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. This young man is not any different than you and I. He grew up in a home with a loving father that cared and protected for him, but he had a thought in his heart that he treasured and said, I'm going to do things different when I'm on my own. No doubt growing up he pushed the envelope and he tested dad's rules and dad's plans and he probably heard the famous line that I think every dad is obligated by God to say to every child, especially in the teenage years, as long as you're living under my... You will abide by my... No doubt this young man heard that every day. It's the anthem of the teenage child. He heard that and so he harbored this thought in his heart. I can't wait until I'm under my roof and I set my rules. I want to do things different. I'm going to have a different life. I'm not going to live according to what dad wants. I'm not going to do this. That's old-fashioned. That's ridiculous. No one's supposed to live like this. It just takes all the fun out of living and he started to imagine what would I do if I had dad's money? It's going to come to me at some point anyway. When dad dies, I'm going to get a large share of the inheritance. It's going to come to me and what would I do? He starts to envision. He starts to dream. He starts to fantasize about what life would be like when he's alone, when he's calling the shots, when he is leading his own life and he doesn't have to answer to anyone. He doesn't have to be accountable to anyone. He can do what he wants to do and he has his inheritance to bankroll everything that he wants to do and in his mind it is great. And finally, he works up the gumption to one day to have a man-to-man talk with his dad. And he says, Dad, I've been doing some thinking. You're going to die one of these days. You're a pretty wealthy fellow and I'm going to have an inheritance that's going to come to me. And so here's what I've decided. I want what's coming to me now. And I'm sure his dad probably thought, I'll give you what you've got coming to you. He said, I don't want to wait a few more years until you pass away to have my inheritance. I would like it now. I want my inheritance now. And really what he's saying to his father is I wish you were dead. You are standing in the way of me having what I want. Isn't that funny how that works when we get something set in our mind of what we want? That we will say and do anything. We will hurt anybody that stands in the way of us getting what we want. It doesn't matter if we're married to them or we're related to them or we work with them or we go to church with them or we don't know them. If they're in the way of what we want, they have to be removed. And the young son says to his dad, I wish you were dead. I want what's mine now. He is the original inventor of the JG Wentworth tagline. It's my money and I want it now. And what's even more amazing than that is the father agrees. The father agrees and gives him what he wants. Gets the money together. Everything that would come to him upon his death. He gives it to his son and his son packs everything up, heads off to live out this dream that he has been keeping and thinking about in his heart for so long. He heads into a place that Scripture calls the distant country. And it's called the distant country because now there's distance between him and his father. There's distance between him and home. There's distance between him and all that he's ever known and what he was created to have. He arrives in the distant country and man everything is great. It is exactly what he dreamed it would be. It's exactly what he hoped and thought it would be and so much more. He has money to burn. There was a big fight last night. Maybe you heard about it. Mayweather and Pacquiao, as some call it, we're calling it Mayfair and Pacman. It's been reported that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has his mouth guard made of $100 bills. Now that's when you know that you are loaded, that you can spit all over $100 bills. That's where this young man is at. He has money coming out of his nose. He has friends. He's the most popular guy in every room that he goes into. He is living the life that he always wanted to live. He has plenty to eat. He has nice clothes. He can afford to do anything he wants to do. It is absolutely everything that he thought he would be and the place called distant country is amazing. He doesn't know. He can't believe that his dad tried to keep him from going to the distant country. This is an amazing place. The Bible tells us that there is pleasure in sin for a season. There's pleasure. It's fun. That's what the Bible says. That sin is fun for a season. I want to tell you, if sin and fun, you're doing it wrong. So you're like, I can't believe a pastor said that. That's the truth. If sin and fun, now some of you know what I'm talking about. You've just been saved so long. You've done for God. But you had a PhD in having fun in sin. You're like, I can show you. I can teach some of you how to do that. Now here's the thing about there's pleasure. There's fun in sin for a season, but seasons always change. Seasons always change. Just like summer turns to fall and fall turns to winter, the season of pleasure and fun in sin always changes. That season always runs out. And here we see our young friend that's just absolutely engrossed in this season called pleasurable sin. And he does what we all do. He began to make a series of bad choices. And compounding the bad choices were bad circumstances. Some things happened that he didn't know were going to happen. Some things happened that he didn't expect and plan for like a famine. For us that would be a recession, a downturn in the economy. Didn't plan to lose his job. Didn't plan for his stock market crash. Didn't plan for home values to drop and decline. Didn't plan for him to become unemployed. Didn't plan for everything that could go wrong financially and in his investments and with his bank account. Didn't plan for that to happen. And now he's broke. The money that he had is gone. And a funny thing happens when he ran out of money. He ran out of friends. He wasn't paying everybody's way anymore. And he's broke. He's alone. He's homeless. He's hungry. He's walking through the agricultural area of distant country. At the local hog farm they have a now hiring sign put up in the window. As a Jewish young man he wouldn't even be on this part of the country. He wouldn't even be on the side of the road but he's hurting, he's desperate. He's at rock bottom in his life. He goes, hires on at the hog farm. He's slopping the hogs. And he's realizing these pigs are eating better than I am. He goes and asks the farmer, asks some of the other hired hens, hey, you got some extra hog slop? Have you got some extra hog slop? Because I haven't eaten anything. I'm starving. Sorry bud, there's nothing left. We're going to feed these hogs before we're going to feed you. There's nothing. And right there in that moment everything comes to a head right there in that moment. The Bible says he came to his senses. He had the most important realization that anyone could ever have right in the middle of the pig pen. What am I doing? What happened? When I left home to come to the distant country I never dreamed it would be like this. I never imagined, I never thought, even when I played out the worst case scenarios I never imagined it would come to this. How did I get here? How did I go from carrying the label, life of the party? How did I go from wearing the t-shirt that labeled me wealthy guy, rich young man? How did I go from wearing the t-shirt that labeled me the fun guy? How did I go from wearing that label to now I'm wearing the label of bankrupt? Embarrassed. I never dreamed I would get to this point in my life. I never dreamed I would end up an addict. I never dreamed I would end up an alcoholic. I never dreamed I would end up broke. I never dreamed I would end up divorced once, twice, multiple times. I never dreamed I would end up a criminal. I never dreamed I would end up ostracized from my family. I never thought I would get to this place. How did I get here? Friend if those words have been racing through your mind or even falling from your lips you're not the only one. Right now millions of people are finding themselves in some kind of a pig pin in their life. A pig pin of which they never imagined they would be in. They never dreamed that their life would be and they're asking themselves the same question. How did I get here? But the even more important question is how do I get out of here? He said, I'm not supposed to live like this. I don't want to live like this. I'm not supposed to be this person. I don't have to be this person. And instead of thinking about the distant country, instead of thinking about what life would be like if he could do it all himself and call his own shots and be his own God and lead his own life and answer to no one, now he starts to think about what would it be like if I could just go home? What would it be like if I could start over? What would it be like if I could have a fresh start with Dad? And he stands up in the middle of his pig pin. He says, I think I'm going to go home. I think it's time for me to go home. He begins to rehearse a speech, Father, I've sinned against heaven. I've sinned against you. I'm no longer worthy to be your son. Now you can't miss the significance of that moment. He walked away from his father. He walked away from home. He ends up in this hog pin, but now he's changing directions. He's turning from the direction he had been going and he turns around. That's what the biblical term repentance means. It means a changing of direction. It means I was going this way, but now there's a specific moment in my life where I turn around and I go another direction. There is a specific moment where I say no longer am I going to take this path, but I am making a conscious decision to turn and go to the path that leads me home to God. That's what repentance means. It's not saying I'm sorry. It's not saying I'll never do it again. To repent means that the grace of God apprehends us in the pig pin of our life. His mercy follows us, pursues us, and envelops us, and we say, God, no longer am I going to run my life in an opposite direction of you. But today, right now, in the pig pin of my life, I turn around and I come home. I want to set my path to lead me home. And I want to tell you right now, it's not too late for you to turn around and turn back to God, no matter how long you've been in the pig pin, no matter how deep you feel like you've fallen, no matter how covered you feel like you are in the mess of the pain and shame and condemnation and falling away from God, no matter how addicted you feel, no matter how ensnared by problems and failures you feel like you are. It's not too late for you to turn back to God. He says, I'm going to go home. And then he changes directions and heads toward the house. He's thinking this thought that we all think at times. I can't be his child because I've messed up so bad. I know that I've forfeited being that son. But just maybe I can work for him. I know I can't be his son, but maybe I can be his servant. Maybe he's got an opening on his staff and he'll hire me. I can live out in the servants' quarters. I'll earn my way along. We all think the same thoughts. I have to earn God's forgiveness. I have to work my way to prove to him. I have to build up equity with him because I've been so bad. I've went so far along. I've neglected him for so long. You don't know who I've been. You don't know I've done. And there's no way that he could ever just receive me. There's no way that his grace is so powerful and so good that he just washes it all away and makes it as if it never happened. There's no way that he could just welcome me home. I've got to prove it to him. I've got to earn my way back. I've got to memorize enough Scripture. I've got to do enough good deeds. I've got to be holy enough. I've got to be right enough. I've got to be good enough. And friend, that's not true. We don't earn our way or work our way or deserve our way. You and I can never earn God's love. We can never honor God's love. We can never be deserving of the grace of God. We simply receive the grace of God. He's planning this speech as he's walking home thinking he has to have just the right words. He has to polish his speech to impress dad. And if I say just the right words in just the right way in just the right timing, maybe dad will listen. I know there's a lot of us that come from certain religious traditions that we think the same thing that in order for God to really hear our prayer or for us to really be able to have access to God, we've got to say just the right thing in just the right way and we've got to use just the right prayer words and we've got to say it in the old King's English and we've got to be all bring all this form and formality when we're talking to God. And really he's saying I'm not really interested in your words, I'm interested in your heart. He doesn't know what dad's response is going to be, but he doesn't know. The Bible says while he was still a long ways away, while he was still far away, his father saw him. While he was still a great distance off, his father saw him. One version says over the horizon, his father looked and saw him. How can you see someone that is that far away? How could he possibly, no one else in the household saw him but the father? How could he see someone that is that far away because he was looking for his lost boy? Well this young man didn't know was every day he had been gone. The father woke up, walked to the door, walked to the edge of his property, looked and squinted to find and to see maybe today is the day my boy comes home. Hopefully today get ready and they could have killed the fatted calf at any time but he saved it because he's expecting today's the day my boy comes home. They could have put the best robe on anybody but they saved it because maybe today is the day my boy comes home. They could have put the best shoes and the best ring on anybody but he saved it because maybe today is the day my boy comes home and while he was still a long way off, he saw him. Listen today if you feel like you are still a long way off from God, you are still a great distance from him. Be encouraged because he sees you, he knows right where you are, he sees you, he's looking over the horizon of failure and pain and shame and he sees you right where you are. Other people may not notice you, other people may not see you, other people may only see the label and the t-shirt and the stains and the past but your father God sees you. He sees you, he sees past the labels, he sees past the names, he sees past the sin, he sees past the failure and he sees you and right now he's cheering you on. Come on home. I know you've messed up but come home. I know you've wasted it, I know you've wasted years, I know you've wasted relationships, I know you've done some stuff you regret but just come on home. Father sees him, picks up his robe, girds it together and he takes off running. Now catch this, the son is walking what the father is running. That's a picture of the heart of God. At the moment you decide to come home, his grace and his mercy run after you. You take one step and he takes a thousand. The Bible says, draw close to God and he draws close to you. As soon as that young son, I'm coming home, the father ran to meeting. There's the young son seeing him run, oh no, dad's coming to condemn me. He's running out here before I ever make it to the door to tell me I'm not welcome. He's running out here to greet me at the edge of the property and tell me I've shamed him so much, don't even step foot on his property. He's running out here to tell me that I'm dead to him. He's running out here to tell me to go back where I came from and the young son didn't know what to do when instead of striking him and beating him, instead of kicking him and shunning him and pushing him away, the father ran to him not to push him away but to hug him and pull him close, kissed him upon the neck and tears of joy began to flow down his cheek and ran down the head of this young man. He said, welcome home, welcome home. The young boy started and it was speech that he had rehearsed for the miles and miles of the journey but he couldn't even finish it because his dad stopped him and said, let's have a party because my lost son is now found. My boy that was dead is now alive. The son didn't know what to think because he is now on a collision course with the grace of the father. He's on a collision course with the mercy of his father and it completely caught him off guard. I want you to know today if you felt distant, if you've been far away, if you've journeyed into the distant country, God has brought us together right now in this moment to put you on a collision course not with his judgment, not with his wrath, not with his anger, but with his grace and his mercy, to stand up in the gap, to fall upon you with a warm embrace and say, welcome home. This young man according to Jewish law had dishonored his father to the point that he should have been taken out to the city gates and stoned to death and no doubt as the dust started to kick up from the trail, the noise of a homecoming, there were probably people around the home that started to pick up stones. They were looking to kill him. But the father ran to him and fell on him and covered him and said, no, you're not killing my boy. This is my boy. He was lost, but now he's found. That's what Jesus did. You and I with sin in our heart coursing through our veins to serve death, far from God. But at the cross, Jesus stretched his arms open wide and said, no, you're not going to kill him. You got to kill me. I'm going to pay the price. I'm going to stand in the gap. I'm going to take the penalty for their prodigal nature, kill me instead. I want my lost kids to come home and he covered us in his grace, in his mercy. Somebody right now, this is not a corporate message to hundreds in the room or thousands on TV, but God is talking to you right now. And he's wanting you to know that he has opened the door himself. He and his grace and his mercy has opened wide the door for you, sir, you, ma'am. And as much as he wishes he could and as much as I wish I could to walk through it for you, to pick you up and carry you through it, to drag you through it, I can't. You and you alone have to make the decision, I'm coming home. God's opened the door for me. He's opened the door for me covered in my mess, covered in my problems, covered in my sin, in my shortcomings. He's opened the door and he's let me know I don't have to try and clean myself up first. I don't have to get myself ready, I just come home covered in everything I'm covered in, all the labels, all the hurt, all the pain, all the shame, He's opened the door for me wide. He's opened the door for me wide. I just have to come home. And the question for all of us, will you come home today? Will you come home to your Father God today? No one moving, no one leaving the auditorium, no one talking just for the next couple minutes. Many years ago, a young man living in England named Robert Robinson gave his life to Christ. Not long after, at the age of 23, Robinson wrote the familiar hymn, Come Thou Fount. Perhaps you're familiar with some of the lyrics, Come Thou Fount of every blessing, streams of mercy never ceasing. All for songs of loudest praise. It's been said that sadly, Robinson wandered far from those streams, just like the prodigal son and like many of us, journeyed into the distant country of carnality. Until one day, he was traveling by stagecoach and sitting beside a young woman who was engrossed in a book. She ran across a verse in her book that she thought was beautiful and asked the person sitting next to her what he thought of it. She said, listen to these words and give me your thoughts. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Going into tears, Robinson said, Madam, I am the poor, unhappy man that wrote those words many years ago. And I would give a thousand worlds if I had them to enjoy the feelings I had then. Although greatly surprised, she reassured him that the streams of mercy that he wrote about all those years ago still flowed today. Mr. Robinson was deeply touched and turning his wandering heart to the Lord. He came home to God. I don't know what your hogpen may be or look like right now. I don't know what labels you may carry that would be printed on your t-shirt. I don't know how long you've been there. How distant you feel like you are from God. But I do believe that just like Robert Robinson, the grace of God is climbing into your stage coach to tell you the streams of mercy still run deep. And God has opened the door to his house wide open for you. Will you come home to him today? That's the only thing that matters. That's the eternal question. Will you come home to God? I want to ask everyone to bow your heads right now. God has allowed us to have this place and this moment for you, sir, you, ma'am, friend. He has brought all of this together today for you to settle this most important issue in your life. It's time to come home to the Father God. I'm talking to some people who have been raised around church. You know the lingo. You know some scriptures. You know some things. Perhaps you've been there where the prodigal's at. I can't really be God's child but I can work for him and you're trying to do it all yourself and earn it all yourself and be good and be holy and be right and be pure and you realize that don't work. The answer is not to be good enough. The answer is not to try and be right enough. The answer is just come home. Just come home. The door is wide open. Just come home. And that's what God is speaking to you personally, individually right now with no one moving and looking around the room. You're ready, sir. You're ready, ma'am, to come home to God and say, Jesus, I'm not wandering anymore today. I surrender my life to you. I say yes to you. I'm sold out to you. I'm not hiding and playing games and wandering anymore. This is my day to come home. This is my day to turn around in the hogpen and say, God, I'm coming home now to you. Receive me, Father. I'm walking through that door and I'm coming home and I'm not looking back. I'm moving forward into my life as your child. As your child today, I begin. I'm coming home. If that's where you're at right now, I want to ask you to stand up just like that prodigal son stood up in the pig pen and said, I'm going home. Just stand up right where you're sitting. Just stand up. That's it. That's it. You're not alone. Come on. Come on. Come on. That's it. That's it. That's it. Church, you ought to be praising God right now. Come on. Come on. You're not alone. You're not alone. That's it. Come on. There's a bunch more of you. That's it. That's it. I'm coming home, Father. I'm coming home, Father. I'm coming home, Father. Come on. There's about 15 more of you that need to stand up and say, I'm coming home. I'm coming home. Tell the world. I'm coming home. tell the world I'm coming home go ahead and get the party started daddy I'm coming home go ahead and kill the fatted calf I'm coming home go ahead and crank the music up I'm coming home I'm not distant anymore that's it I'm not alone anymore I'm coming home come on come on come on come on I'm coming home I'm gonna give you 15 more seconds and we're gonna pray I'm coming home this is your time right now this is your time not another day right now it's your time to come home right now this is the eternal question you're gonna come home the doors wide open come on home five seconds we're gonna pray those of you that stood stay standing we're gonna pray together what an awesome moment this is what an awesome moment this is let's pray this prayer together everybody Jesus thank you for your grace and mercy because of your love because of your goodness I'm coming home sin you're not my master anymore I'm set free today Jesus I surrender you're my Lord you're my Savior Holy Spirit fill me with power I live this moment and every moment as a child of God safe and secure in my father's arms in Jesus name amen come on let's celebrate if you just stood and prayed that prayer and gave your life to Christ welcome into the family of God you're my brother and you're my sister and I love you and can't wait to see what God does in your life this is the beginning of the first and best and greatest day of your life you just made a decision with the eternal consequences and it's unbelievable and listen those of you that did even if you didn't stand but you prayed that prayer with sincerity and you gave your life to Christ we won't have a gift that we want to give to you to celebrate and help mark this momentous occasion in your life we have some great people from our care team standing right here with his hand raised this door right up here if you just prayed and gave your life to Christ I want to ask you to just slip out of your seat come right here and they're gonna lead you into the place we're gonna give you a gift and just say welcome home to the family of God and we want to come alongside of you and help you grow in that and listen it ain't over yet there's some people right now taking their next steps in baptism and we're gonna celebrate with them while they go public and celebrate and share what God has done in your life you're about to be baptized right now just go ahead and follow dusty we're gonna mark this moment as some people take the punch and declare what God's done in their life decided they made their declaration public today you know what if you were one of those that gave your heart to the Lord this morning if you decided to follow Jesus this morning I encourage you to take your next step of baptism because it's so powerful it's just proclaiming to the world what you believe what you've taken your next step as letting the world know I'm serving him he's my savior he's my father amen guys it's been a wonderful grand opening service we can't thank you enough for coming and being with us yeah exactly you're gonna be getting a couple things as you walk out the door this morning I've got a great new series that's starting up coming next week it's about relationships if you want to know about parenting marriage sex if you want to know but yeah I said sex if you want to know about all those things we want you to come back the next few weeks and learn about those what God says about those things we have some great opportunities for you to get involved and connected you receive that connect card our VIPs use that but yes Trinity family you can use that as well to take your next step in serving God this is a great opportunity for you to get on board and start doing that we have got free pizza we have got free inflatables we've got free everything out the parking lot it is a party we want you to come and celebrate with us because we have made this day big enough just for you we want to honor you so please join us after service and we want you to just stick around hang out have a good time with us father we just thank you for today we just can't thank you enough for your grace has been all over this day from the very first service Lord to the very last last one here and even into the party that we're going to take into the parking lot we thank you for that grace Lord you're glorious we can't praise you enough for the souls or that come to know to know you today as their father people who have decided to follow Jesus God we can't thank you enough for that for the value that we put on that we place it High Lord God we just praise you we thank you for what is yet to come through Trinity Harvest Church in Jesus name amen