Prodigal Parts

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. Well, hello everyone. Welcome to Salt Church. There we are.

I was wondering if the lights were going to happen here. I was going to preach to the darkness. That's okay. Jesus spoke to the darkness and it became light, right? Give a big hand clap to our brothers and sisters at Crosspoint in Wilmington, North Carolina for that amazing video they put together.

Yeah. I mean, they allowed us to use it. And I just, when I thought about this series, they had this video and I contacted them and they were like, Oh yeah, you can, you know, use it for all you want. You know, and it's just a powerful video. Get some of that Billy Graham anointing into place, you know, right?

The way to heaven and the way to eternal judgment. A little bit of hellfire and brimstone there, but that's good, man, because it's all about love. And, uh, it's, it's amazing, you know, the story that we're going to share about the prodigal we're beginning today. Um, but before I do, I do want to do a little bit of a vision time here. Uh, uh, just to kind of share some things that are happening in our church.

And, uh, um, one of those, uh, as you know, we have been, uh, praying for a new place to meet. And, and you know, what's crazy. I'm reminded of the story of Abraham as he took Isaac up to the mountain to put him down, uh, on the altar, but towards God to sacrifice. He took a bold, bold, bold move to do that, but he trusted God in the process. Right.

And what did God do? He provided, he provided another offering. That's what happened to us about a week ago. Um, we are, we were aiming and we still are aiming. We got a $20,000 goal, uh, to, to, uh, in our Elevation 2020 campaign.

We're, we're looking to the future of our church. We're trying to elevate the heights of generosity here. And, uh, we've been looking at, uh, moving over to the Laskin area to this, uh, uh, venue called Elevation 27. And, uh, we just kept hitting some roads with it, but you know, by faith, I'm just charging through. I was charging through.

It's going to happen because God's going to do something. And, and we just been really, really pushing to get there even by Easter. So it was like, wow, you know, and it was a big, bold thing for me as a pastor to say, okay, we're going to move our church and we're going to do it in a few months. You know, we're going to do this, we're going to do this. And, uh, sometimes, you know, as you're doing that, you see doors close, you know, like, ow, ow, it's just not working right now.

It's going to take a lot longer than I thought it was going to take. Right. And that's what faith is all about though. Right. You know, you trust God in the process.

So in the process of being bold and stepping out and telling you guys what we want to do, God started dropping other opportunities in our lap. Because he provided the, the, the, the sacrifice, the extra sacrifice on the side. And, uh, so I got a call out of the blue about a week ago from the museum of contemporary arts saying that their facility is coming open and they would love for us to meet there. They called me, which is really cool. And I was like, you know, and we were like, okay, we've been actually praying for a place and we've been aiming for another area and we're not done aiming for that area, but this is an awesome opportunity for us to make a move soon.

So we started praying about it more and, and I talked to the pastor there and this is really cool guys. This is really awesome. And this should be really encouraging for you as a church. Um, they had actually been praying for the, Next person to come into that facility, because while they were there, there has been something different in the atmosphere at MOCA. Something has been different in the atmosphere, that entire place, the entire surrounding area.

And when they told the director of the place that they were leaving, he said she started crying because she said, I don't want to lose you guys. And they were drawn, you know, they're like, we don't want to really move, but we want to stay here because we are a spiritual covering, but we've got another opportunity and another place we can go to now that we feel like we can be more of an influence in that area. And it was a wide open door for them. But he says, I've been praying. I was praying.

And I thought about you guys and I was going to give you a call and you gave me a call. So how crazy does God do things, you know? So MOCA, if you haven't been there, we call it MOCA Museum of Contemporary Arts. It's a 270 seat theater that will eliminate having to set up chairs. There's still some little things with a few things with kids space and stuff, but we can figure that out.

We'll we'll figure that out. But and I also asked him, you know, how soon do y'all want to move? He said, well, we were thinking May. I said, well, we want to move. You know, we want to do an Easter opening.

You know, that's what we want to do. Right. And he says, he says, well, that's so cool because we really we're really ready to move, too. So let's work it out. So everything's not set in 100 percent stone right now.

But I just want you all to be encouraged. We're looking for an Easter launch in a new location. Are you all with me on this? This is going to be awesome. We're going to do incredible.

I mean, we're just going to blow this thing up. We want to get as many people in the door on the first day and we just it's basically like a relaunch of our church. You know, just going into a new area, launching it again, letting people know about our church and and about the exciting things that are happening in people's lives in our church. I hate that we are missing quite a few people today. I know it was the time change and I'm so glad you're here today to be here.

I know it was probably hard to get up after you lost an hour sleep today, but we're excited about that. So I want to encourage you keep giving guys because we need office space. We need more children's ministry. I mean, although we're not moving to elevation right now, that could still be in the future. This is just a stepping stone to one place so that we can start thinking and planning visioning for the future.

We never want to get comfortable where we are. Amen. It might be great where we are. It might be growing, but we always got to think beyond ourselves. How can we reach more people?

How can we be more influential? We've got a good message to share with our city. Amen. We believe in the power of Jesus Christ to change and transform lives. And we want to do that together.

Come aboard. If you're not on the team, come on the team. We still need kids help. Guys, don't we, Tim? My goodness.

We're always stretched on kids. It seems like we lose. We gain two. We lose two. We gain two.

We lose two. And frankly, I'm tired of hearing that we need people in the kids area. Okay. So if you've got some kids experience and you like kids, please do connect. At least once a month goes a long way.

Connect with Tim. And we are looking for a new kids director, too. So if you know anybody that's interested in kids and wants to step into that, because Tim has some new endeavors he's heading into with his theater that he's been envisioning for quite a few years, talk to him about that. He's got some exciting things coming up in the oceanfront area that we can be a part of that, too, and help that launch and get started. And you can be a part of that individually by helping him, whether it's financially or some type of support.

He would appreciate that. So amen to that. Hallelujah. Let's start our new series called Prodigal. And so this new series will carry on until Easter.

And I picked this purposefully because I think this is this is a beautiful story. And I love the power of stories. I love the power of stories. We all love stories because we can connect with them in some way. Many of you here probably watched a movie in the last two or three days.

It has a story to it, you know, and it probably drove your emotions to one way or another. It made you think a little bit about your own life or the life around. You or other people. I love how stories do that. They are very powerful.

And Jesus used a lot of stories to communicate truth. In fact, most of his teachings were in story form. I don't understand why people don't like story form and teaching. You know, you got those people on this side that's like, oh, it should be straight from the Bible. No stories.

You know, let's use a lot of Hebrew and Greek language, which is great. I love that part of it. But there's got there's power in a story. There's power in a testimony. And Jesus uses this to communicate to the people in that day.

And he shares this story. Particularly, he was sharing a number of stories in the passage of Luke 15 about the lost. He talks about the lost sheep. He talks about the lost coin. And then he talks about a lost son.

So he really digs into this parable about a prodigy. And here's the deal. My challenge for you in this series, is to do two things. It's to think about people you want to reach. Or you're praying for.

Or think about that prodigal that's in your life. That person that's in your life that you so desperately want to see come to the Lord. Maybe they're wayward. Maybe they're a child. Maybe they're a friend.

Maybe they're a neighbor. Whoever they are. Whoever they are. I want you to begin to think. And I want you to begin to pray for that person.

Because my job by teaching you this is for you to begin to catch the heart of God for the lost. We should have a bleeding heart for the lost. We should be inviting, inviting, inviting people into our church every week. Because we are desperately concerned with the people that Jesus is concerned for. So my hope is that you grab onto that.

And my hope also is this. That you think about what you can do. And how you can be a part of bringing in the prodigal. And that you can begin to investigate yourself a little bit. So as we look in this story, we're going to flow through this.

And if you're not familiar with the prodigal, I don't know if there's anybody in here that's not familiar with the prodigal son story. I think most people are, whether you're churched or not. You've probably heard the term prodigal, right? About a father with two brothers. And one of those brothers wanted his inheritance.

He took his inheritance. He went to a far land. He splurged and spent it all. And he wasted it away. And then a famine came.

He had nothing. He gave himself away to a servant to work in the fields. And even looked at the pigs and saw the pods. And even began to want and desire to eat with the pigs because he was so desperate in a place. And then he came to his senses and realized that he had a father who had everything.

And he returns home to his father, not knowing what his father's response was going to be. But as he arrived, his father ran out and embraced him with arms wide open, bringing him a crown, a ring, a robe, and sandals to put on his feet and welcomed him back home. And it's a vivid picture of our father in heaven and how much he loves us desperately, even when we are wayward. So I'm going to take this message series and I'm going to focus on quite a few things. I'm going to take it from different perspectives because there's two different perspectives as a whole you can look at this story and kind of pull out.

And one of these is the wayward believer, believer, you know, perspective of the story. So we see people who maybe were believers or are believers and have steered out and gone away and have come back or were praying for them to come back. And we see that maybe in this story from that perspective. And then we have the unbeliever perspective. That's this this child may have never had an authentic relationship with Christ.

And although it goes back to Adam and Eve, you know, it kind of gives. It gives us a picture of Adam and Eve's story who were walking with God but chose to sin and fall away from God. Though they were away from God, they still were sons and daughters of God. But by the grace of the cross, by the purpose of the cross, by the avenue, the bridge that a cross creates, when we were talking about the schism was far too wide, God brings a cross into the picture to deliver people through His Son, Jesus Christ. And we can have a way home because of that.

So I tend to take, personally, I tend to take that story as the lost person, who's completely lost, who's never made a decision for Jesus, and because of the context in which it was written, it was, he was really dealing with, he had the Pharisees over here, and before you even enter into the story that are looking at Jesus, he hangs around sinners and he hangs around tax collectors. How dare he? They were the church people in that day. How dare Leon hang around sinners? How can he do that for, you know, why is he doing that?

Just this week, I heard somebody make a comment about, about somebody even in our church that was, that was going through some struggles and, and how dare we let him in our church and in our family and yada, yada, Jesus was receiving the very same thing, these same things. And we should be, a church should be a place for the believer amen it should be a place where they can come in and they feel welcomed and they can hear the grace of Jesus and the purpose that he came is for them and their hearts because he has a love for us so deeply that God the father gave his son on the cross he Jesus himself chose to become man in the form of Jesus Christ a savior so that's where I tend to take that story when I when I look at it but we can apply it in both ways we can apply it in both ways and today I kind of want to deal with the first the first uh view or the first perspective and I'm just gonna be honest with you theologians and bible teachers they debate about it all the time they're always debating about what this really meant and where is it going so I'm not saying anybody's right or anybody's wrong necessarily but the application can be very similar whether it's a wayward believer or if it's a lost believer so let me just carry you down this path so we're going to look at this today so we're going to look at the believer's struggle and I'm calling this prodigal parts I thought about calling it private parts but I didn't know where that would go but the truth is prodigal parts are private parts in our lives they're parts that we want to hide from others right next week we're going to deal with the son's the son's perspective the following week we're going to deal with the crowd's perspective the Pharisees and the people around the following week after that we're going to deal with the brother's perspective there was a second brother that had problems with what was going on how many of you relate to that I've been there and then we're going to look at the father's perspective on Palm Sunday we're going to see the father's perspective and it's going to launch us right into Christmas and I hope that gives you I mean excuse me Easter Easter thank God for my wife on the front row let's just go all the way to Christmas guys I could actually do that with this story I was digging through the scripture and I was pulling out all kinds of stuff I could go I could go weeks on this hey Christmas is all the time in our hearts right amen the advent of Jesus amen and his resurrection day is coming we celebrate together amen so prodigal parts let's just talk about that today so I'm going to start in Luke 15 if you have your Bibles you can turn to Luke 15 I would encourage you to read over the whole story I'm going to dig out pieces of the story each week so we're not going to cover the whole thing because we don't really frankly we just don't have enough time and I would love to be able to teach all day but you don't want that because and and because you're going to be like lunchtime is coming soon so and so so Here we go, starting with verse 11, it says, And he said, a man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Give me the share of the estate that falls to me. So he divided his wealth between them, and not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country. And there he squandered his estate away with, and I love, I'm using the NASB, I love the term loose living, loose living.

Many versions say prodigal living, some versions say wild living, King James Version says prodigal, and the New King James Version says prodigal, so that's where we get the word prodigal. And often when we think of the word prodigal, we immediately go to a wayward person, right? But if we look at the true definition of prodigal, it means this word, and we don't use this word a lot, desolutely. Desolutely. And the definition of that word is a person lacking restraint.

And it even goes further to say such as drink and promiscuous sex, which obviously is the case in this story. A lot of that was happening with this as we look at the whole of Scripture here. But I would say a person lacking restraint is something that we struggle with in all of our lives. Lacking restraint, right? Am I fair to say that?

That somewhere, in some place in your life, in the past, in the present, whatever it is, is you have lacked restraint somewhere in your life. You have a prodigal part that maybe you are dealing with. Because everyone lacks, everyone has a battle. There's always the battle. So today I want to talk about the believer's battle.

How do we handle it as believers? What is the believer's battle when it comes to our prodigal parts, those private parts of our life that we are dealing with? So we're going to look at the triune nature of man to kind of understand this. And many of you have heard this. I've taught on it before.

There's a debate on whether there's more of a, there's a by or a try. But I particularly fall in the try area because we see all over Scripture, the separation between three parts or among three parts of the man, of the being. And that is the spirit of man, the body of man, and the soul of man. The spirit of man, the body of man, and the soul of man. And in Genesis 2-7, it says, Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground.

So that's the body. And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. That's the spirit, the spirit of God that was breathed into man. You exist today because God breathed a spirit into a first man, Adam. And we are here today because of that, right?

And then it talks about, and the man became a living being. That is the soul of man. So here's the thing we have to understand about the spirit. The spirit he created to relate to him. So the spirit of man is who he created so that we can alone relate to him.

We can connect to him and relate to him. The body was created to relate to creation. So creation is good. God created us physically, physical creation. We can relate to creation.

And then the soul of man is where we relate to him and we relate to creation. And this is where the battle really takes place. So we're going to dig into this because here's the deal. If you go back to Genesis, you see that Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the fruit, right? Or you would die.

Now, when Eve and Adam ate of the fruit, did they die? Bye. Bye. Thank you. Yes and no.

Their spirits died, but they kept living, their bodies kept existing, eventually their bodies faded away, obviously, I know that, but their bodies kept going, and their souls kept living, they didn't stop existing, but it says they died, their soul, their spirits die, but their souls are living. And this is where the battle is, the soul of man, the soul of man, our thoughts, our personalities, the way we connect to God and we connect to nature, that's where the battle is. So here's a few things, why is there a battle in the soul? Why is this product, these prodigal parts, these that connect to our soul, why do we have those? Number one, the soul is selfish.

The soul is for number one, it's all about what I can get out of life, if it feels good, do it, if it tastes fine, drink, whatever makes me feel, whatever fulfills my personality, or my sense of worth, that's what I long for, that's the greatest struggle for everyone, is the soul, it's about what I believe. And think about this for a second, I want to dig this apart a little bit, let's talk about the mind for a minute, the mind is a very phenomenal thing, right? That's why the scripture talks about our right thinking so much, right? In the mind, in the head, we have this thing called the subconscious. And all you psychology people are like, yep, I know about that, I can tell you about that.

And we can, every event, every encounter, every experience is stored in this area called the subconscious. It's like a supercomputer. It's the best computer you can ever have. The brain is just a work of nature. We can have thousands and thousands and thousands of files that we've picked up in our entire lifetime, right here in the back of our head, all in our memory bank, and some of you are like, well, why can't I remember anything, right?

Because it's in your subconscious. That's why you say, it's on the tip of my tongue, you know, and it really is in there. But you're processing, your brain's trying to process those things. And in a microsecond, a millisecond, your brain, when you connect with something, or you experience something, your brain goes through thousands of files, reduces it to 100,000, and then pulls out about 50, and then narrows it down to like four or five, or maybe three, and maybe even possibly two situations in your life, in your past, that connect to that very moment that you're experiencing at that time. All just like that.

Wow, I think, you know, that's why you experience deja vu. It isn't because of a former life. It's because your subconscious is working, right? You're connecting to something very familiar with something you've experienced before. That's why you might get angry for no reason sometimes.

You ever been in a meeting and somebody just kind of blows up out of nowhere? I had that happen to me one time when I was one of my first jobs. We were in a business meeting, and somebody just got mad, and after they left the room, they're like, what in the world happened to them? You know, where did that come from? Because something, for some reason, a certain conversation or maybe a certain thought reminded you something, reminded you in your subconscious of something in your past, pulled that out, and you related directly to that, and you got angry in that situation, even when there was no reason to be angry.

That's how our minds work. That's why maybe some of you experience insecurity, because there was an insecure situation that you felt. very insecure in a certain situation, and something momentarily may remind you of that in your subconscious, and they pull that file out, right? Maybe that's why some of you deal with fear. There may not even be a reason to fear the situation that you're in, but you fear it because it relates to something possibly in your subconscious that is pulled out, and a file on that is pulled out, and it connects to...

Something in your past. That's why some of you don't like people for any reason at all, right? There's certain people that you just come across, you're like, I don't like that guy. I don't like that guy. You don't even know that guy.

Well, I just don't like him. But you just met him. Oh, I've met him before. I got a whole file on him here in my head. I can connect, right?

I don't like that guy. Am I right? We connect with people and we immediately make decisions and based on experiences because of this thing called our subconscious. Why am I spending so much time on this is because this is where strongholds come from. These are the things we deal with and struggle with.

This is how lust works. Every experience you've had in your life, whether it's TV or whether it's billboards, it connects with you and it creates a stronghold in your life. Now, see, your spirit, when you come to Christ, your spirit is saved for eternity, it's rescued. But the soul side still has a battle, still has a battle that we have to work through and we have to purify and we have to develop righteousness in. Again, the spirit side is saved.

And here's where the issue comes in, guys, because I think there's a misunderstanding of the balance. People just don't understand. And you can, you know, and this desire for me and I know a desire for many, many Christian leaders and pastors who really believe in walking in righteousness is a better understanding of what it means, what grace means. There is a, what people need to understand is there is a finished work of grace, grace in your spirit. When you come to Christ, that spirit comes alive.

That spirit was dead. And when you came to Christ, when you made a decision for Christ, that spirit came alive in your heart and it's set there for eternity. There's no shaking it. God has, has, has locked you in. He's, he's brought the spirit alive inside of you.

But then there's a progressive work of grace in your soul. There's a progressive work of grace in your soul. And it's really important that you understand this because there's extremes on both sides. Those who preach the grace side of the house say, well, we can live. They, they teach unrighteous living.

It's okay to be unrighteous. It's okay just to live the way you want to. It's okay, God. It's, it's okay because God, God just loves you anyway, right? And then there's those on the work side that are so full of legalism that they bring themselves and others in bondage.

Now, let me just say this. If you're trying to, to, to build a bridge or stairway to heaven to make your way to heaven by works, you're just going to be bondage to perfectionism. You're going to be in bondage to legalism and, and you're always going to judge anyone who doesn't live up to your standard because you have such a high standard and that's not a place you want to be. But all these scriptures about the soul are important. They're significant.

A progressive work of grace in your soul. So the soul is selfish. It's about number one, but number two, the soul must submit to the spirit, the soul. So when that spirit comes alive in you, if you want to conquer strongholds, if you want to defeat sin in your life, you need to grow the spirit of God inside of you that he set inside of you that he set for eternity and beyond. I love Romans 9, 12, when, when Paul speaking to the church, he pulls a story of Rebecca and, and Jacob and Esau.

And he says, it was said to her, Rebecca, the older will serve the younger, the older will serve the younger. And when you look at that just quickly in context, you're like, okay, they're talking about Jacob and Esau, how Jacob. Spiritually was the father, you know, that took the lineage from his father and yada yada, we can go that route, but there's a spiritual principle throughout scripture of the younger will serve the older, because there's a spiritual principle here. The soul of man will serve the spirit of man. The soul of man, our goal is that the soul of man will serve the spirit of man.

Think about it. The soul has been running the show for years, right? It's been, it's been about number one, feed me, do what I need to do, but all of a sudden the spirit comes into the picture, right? You give your life to God, God does something in your life, He changes, He transforms you by the power of Jesus Christ, that happens, and all of a sudden the spirit comes alive, guess what the soul's gonna do? Oh yeah, welcome, welcome, you know, I'll just step out of the way.

No, it's gonna fight. It's gonna have, it's gonna put up a battle with your spirit. So how should we respond? So how should we respond? Do we respond to our emotions, or do we respond to the spirit of God?

Your spirit has to mature. Your spirit has, your soul has to be weaned, and your spirit has to come in, it needs to be fed, it needs to be matured. That's why the psalmist says this in 131 too, but I have calmed and quieted myself. I am like a weaned child from my mother, because I lean into the spirit. Like a weaned child, I am content.

You need to be weaned, your soul needs to be weaned. And Paul says it like this, and he just gets really uptight with the church. He says, Brothers and sisters in 1 Corinthians 3.1, I could not address you as people who live by the spirit, because you're not living by the spirit. But I had to address you as people who are still worldly, mere infants in Christ.

That's who you are. And then in Hebrews, he goes on, or whether you believe the writer of Hebrews is different, but I believe it's Paul who wrote this. He says, in fact, those, though by the time you ought to be teachers, and you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again, you need milk, not solid food. And anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teachings about righteousness. They're just not acquainted with it.

But solid food is for the mature. See, I could just read this, and it just preaches itself. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. So you have to be weaned. Your soul has to be weaned.

Now, when we wean a child off of milk and they cry, why do children cry? Why do they cry? Because they think you're trying to kill them. They're hungry, right? Same thing with the soul, the soul of man.

That's why we talk about this progression of soul. Paul, over and over again, talks about this progressive yearning to save the soul. We hear save the soul, which is different than saving your spirit. Saving your spirit is for eternity, but saving your soul. That I wish your soul will prosper, right?

I hope you prosper as your soul prospers. He wants us to, he teaches on that. So we need to kill the flesh by starving the flesh or starving the soul, right? Another word for soul we can call flesh or flesh or soul. We need to starve the soul of man who connects our bodies to do the things that we don't want to do.

So the soul of man, number three, the soul must die. That's a real truth there, guys. You need to hear. And this isn't like an amen, hallelujah, shout, let me get up and let me dance around, you know, a little bit. But your soul's got to die because this is where Jesus.

It really gets down, and this is the truth. This is what he teaches, that the soul must die. He says, to be my disciples, you have to be crucified, right? And I'll get to that in a second. I love how Hebrews 4, 12, and 14 says that, for the word of the Lord is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.

I want you to see that as a weapon, okay? And it penetrates even to divide soul and spirit. Do you see that there? It divides soul and spirit. It doesn't say spirit and spirit, or soul and soul, or soul and spirit are the same, right?

There's different things happening there. It divides soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. It really pierces the heart, right? That's what the word of God does. That's why we don't like to read the word, I'm sure, because it reveals our sin.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him, to whom it is. Whom we must give account. Guys, you're going to have to give account to God one day with how you live. That's why we, whether you're a believer or not, there is a place where we will stand before God and keep account of how we live.

I got another teaching on what that looks like. You can go back to heaven and hell and the afterlife, the sermon we did a while back, and you can kind of get some of that stuff. But listen, I want you to understand that the word of God lays bare. I love that word laid bare. And in the Greek, it's pronounced trachealiso, trachealiso.

And it means the grabbing of a neck like a wrestler, right? And some versions even say this, and this is really intense because, you know, trachealiso, throat, right? And liso, it means to throw back. So one interpretation would go as far as to say the pulling back of the neck to the point that the neck breaks and reveals and opens everything. Man, I'll tell you what, original language really gets real.

Some of these letters get real, okay? The soul must be pulled back by the neck and killed because the soul is selfish. The soul is about number one. The soul wants to do what it wants to do, and it's not going to submit to the spirit. So we must kill the soul.

Here's what Jesus says. And my question is, even before I even look at what Jesus says, why would I, why would believers want to settle for pig pens when they can have everything in the Father's house? Because it's counterintuitive, Pastor. It's telling me to die to myself. It's ridiculous.

What are you talking about? Oh, okay, there's pods on the ground there. Go and live the way you want. What? Prodigal.

Prodigal parts. Matthew 16, 25, then Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciples, what? Must deny, y'all know it, themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their lives, their soul, other interpretations, will lose it. See, there's that soul again.

But whoever loses their life or soul for me will find it. Luke 9 says, my disciples must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. So when he said that, does it mean like I just get saved every day? No, it doesn't. It means daily, daily you have to sacrifice yourself.

Daily you have to put your soul on the line. Daily you have to submit to the Spirit in prayer. And daily you have to submit to the Spirit in worship. And daily you have to submit your Spirit so you can dig into the Word of God and let the Word of God perish you and melt your heart and change you and transform you. It says, I beseech thee, brethren, that present yourselves as living sacrifices.

Christ is holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable service, right? Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind. Why would believers, why would people wanna leave the family of God and go to a pigsty, that's my question. Feed the soul and not spirit, and that's exactly what happens. So why this message to start off the series?

Some of you are asking, man, I thought we were gonna talk about the loss today, now you're talking about the believer, you know? What's going on here? It's just really, really important that if you're gonna have the heart of Jesus Christ, if you're gonna bear his ministry, if you're gonna follow his great commission, you've got to give it all to him. You've got to release it all to him, body, soul, spirit, Lord, it's yours. I don't want you to be a prodigy in closing.

I don't want you to be a prodigy. God doesn't want you to be a prodigy. He has no desire for you to be in the pigsty, but for so many people, they decide, the pigsty is the place I wanna be and miss out on the beauty of supping at the table of the Father. And all the goodness and all the benefits that the Father has for his children. And if we're ever going to start a movement here at Salt Church, let me just say this.

And I said at the beginning of the year that it starts with a higher level of personal righteousness. I am tired of seeing Christians suffer in sin. It's time to raise the level of personal righteousness in our church, in our family. If we're gonna be a movement that changes lives for the glory of Jesus Christ, we have got to be right inside. Because the inside brings about the outside.

And we can be instruments in a movement that can change the world for Jesus Christ. Amen. So don't settle for swines. Don't settle for prodigal parts. Because God's on the other side.

With a ring in one hand and a robe in the other. And if we look at it from that perspective with tears in his eyes, he says, come home, child. Come home, child. I'm waiting for you. Can we bow our heads?

God, I'm just gonna, I just wanna take a moment, Lord, just a picture of the vastness of who you are. The all-consuming transformational power. That I'm just a meager person in this world that just a dot in existence and in time. That I'm only worthy of the pods because I came into this world only thinking of myself. Why would you have chosen me?

Because you say that I am your son, and I am your daughter, or you're my son, and you are my daughter, and you're my son, and you're my daughter. From the very beginning of time, you thought of us. It says you knitted us in our father's womb, our mother's womb. I'm getting my words all wrong today, Lord. Forgive me, but you know my heart.

But God, can I just say this, Lord? Thank you so much, that all in the glory and vastness of who you are, you said, Leon, come to me. Let me embrace you. Put a ring on your hand, and a move on your shoulder. For some of you today, here in this place, with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, you've got prodigal parts.

God's got huge plans for your life. I've got eternal plans for you, but you are just struggling with stronghold. If that's you today, I want you to just to be honest and real, and I just want you just to lift your hand up and say, God, you know, I have, I need some prodigal parts taken out of my life. Come on. This is a place where you have to be real.

Amen. Be real, because we've got it. Amen. We've got to be real with ourselves today. God's going to break some chains off of us today.

Amen. He's going to begin the process today. We're going to progress to righteousness. Amen. We're going to do that today.

We're going to do that. Just with, with, in church, just with whole hearts, even if you don't, didn't raise your hand, you're afraid to raise your hand or whatever it is. I just want you to just, just begin to pour, pour those problems on him, pour that situation on that prodigal piece. That's a part of you, Lord. Lord, we're just laying it down.

We're laying it down, Lord. We're putting it at, we're putting it at the cross. We're killing it. We're killing it today. We're making a choice to kill it today, Lord Jesus.

Although we trust in the, in the righteousness that was in Jesus Christ, that was placed on us and that's not taken away from us, Lord. Today, we want to be more for you. We want to be your children. We want to serve you with everything. We want everything that you have to offer us.

And we want to share in the heart of who you are for those that are lost. We want to reach out to those that are lost. And we want to be transformed by the renewing of the mind or conform, not conform to this world, but transformed by the renewing of the mind, because I know that you have something more for us, Lord. Lord, Lord, just, just begin to pour over me, even at this moment, pour over me, pour over my life, pour over my heart, pour over every situation in my life, pour over that fear that I've always kept in my heart, Lord Jesus. I pour over that anger, that anger that just comes out for no reason at all, Lord Jesus.

I come, that, that hatred that I have for somebody, I'm letting that go right now in the name of Jesus, because it's holding me back. It's not worth it. Lord, I put that before your feet. I put it on the cross. I pin it on the cross right now in the name of Jesus.

That abandonment that you felt in your life a long time ago, that just keeps coming back and coming back. And I project it on, on, on, on my life. Now I'm laying it down because I know I'm not abandoning you, Lord Jesus. The only thing that needs to be abandoned in me is my heart, Lord, because you want to come in and, and, and be the, the, the, the, the love that I've been missing and, and, and you heal the hurt that has been on me for so long. That defeat I feel in every situation, that insecurity that I feel.

I'm laying it on the cross because it doesn't matter what people think of me, or what my dad said, or my mom said, or my best friend said many years ago, or whoever that might be, my ex-husband or my ex-wife, whoever that was, they don't determine who I am because you determine who I am, Lord Jesus. My identity is placed in you, so I'm letting it go today. In that same spirit, maybe there's somebody here today that has never surrendered their spirit to him, or the Holy Spirit can raise the dead, and he wants to raise the spirit in you to life again. If that's you today, it says, confess with my mouth and I believe with my heart, you will be saved, you will be saved. Confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, you will be spirit saved for eternity.

If you would pray this with me, Lord, in the name of Jesus, I give my life to you. Come into my heart, come into my heart, bring my spirit from dead to life, transform me from the inside out. I believe that you died on the cross for my sin. I believe that you rose again the third day proving that you are God and that you have the power to raise life because you are God. God, it's that same power that raised Christ from the dead, come into my life and raise me from the dead today.

I give it to you. I give all of it to you. In the name of Jesus, can everybody say amen? Amen.