Good morning. Please be seated.
My name is Trey Os. If we have
not met, my wife, Melissa and I
joined Cp...
Well, it was Cp back in that day.
Cp,
in 19 96.
We had just graduated from college.
This is my family.
This is
My wife is there between my son and
my third daughter.
This is our dog. We just got a
dog which is a big deal for us.
It's a little dog, but his name is
diesel. So little dog, big name. Mom picked
the dog, boy picks the the the name.
But, Mi michele is number 1. Mariah is
number 2 next between Mc michele and I,
but all 4 of our children were baptized
here at Cp.
And And,
we consider this church home,
we were here, for the first 10 years
of our marriage.
And in the first service, as I was
sitting there, I was I was reflecting on
how this church has been a blessing to
us. When Miriam was born, so she's the
tall 1. She's nearly 6 feet tall.
She had a little bit of a heart
issue. And so she was born at Texas
women's,
and the elders came and prayed over her.
And what was interesting is we were scheduling
her heart surgery. She had a situation that
she needed surgery,
but they came and prayed, And the next
day the doctor came in with tier tears
in her eyes, and she says, I can't
explain it, but your daughter's fine.
And it was the elders at this church.
There was another moment that really impacted my
life and it was in my dad who
my mom and dad and my brother and
his family are there in the back.
He was diagnosed with cancer.
And so we knew nothing better than to
come and be prayed over by the elders
of this church.
And 10 years later, he's cancer free.
And so God has been at work through
you in my life, and this is just
a great honor
to be able to share god's word today
with you.
Today, we are going to look at a
passage in Luke 7. But before we do,
I wanna explain a little bit about what
I do for a living. So
I was here in the marketplace in Houston
after graduating.
Love what I did. Was on the Missions
committee of the church,
and my wife was with me, and we
looked at each other and said, why don't
we
answer our own prayers for others to go
out of this church, and let's let's move.
And so we left
the states and move to China as missionaries.
And we only committed to 1 year. Like,
it was a 1 year deal. God, we're
gonna tie this for you in
somehow 1 year turned into 25.
But we came home to have our our
oldest daughter,
And when we returned the, a friend of
mine said, man, you seem to really love
people from China and I said I do.
And he said, would you consider minister administering
to Chinese students at Rice University.
And I was like, I think we can
do this. And so we gave 1 more
year, and that's where we found Bridges international.
You see many of us
can try to go to places that are
inaccessible,
but the truth is is is that those
same places are sending students to America. So
places like Iran or the parts of the
Middle East. It's parts of India that you
would think oh, I can go anywhere in
India, you can't go long to be honest
with you. But all of these students are
coming to Us universities, and we have the
blessing, but also the privilege
of being able to share the gospel to
love them with love of Christ to show
biblical hospitality.
And 2 of my friends that I I
think of that came from a part of
the world in the Middle East that
we really couldn't meet them there.
Were Oc and fatima.
And when they first arrived,
Ahmed said, look, I
was raised to some muslim, but the truth
is
He said, I'm an atheist. He says my
religion is my academics. And he he was,
like, I have... I want nothing to do
with God. Fatima on the other hand,
was really engaged, really interested in who this
person of Christ was.
She ended up giving her life to Christ.
And which was a wonderful thing. But what
ended up happening is O started to get
mad at her and fight her and argue
with her
And she said,
the Lord was very clear to me, Jesus,
in my spirit said, love him. Just love
him. Don't respond. Just love him.
And so Aqua kept pressuring. And 1 night,
they had an argument or he tried to
have an argument,
and they ended up just going to bed,
and he said,
In
the night, he had a dream. And he
said the Lord used this stream basically to
bring him to himself. He said, I was
in this city, and I was running from
a group a mob, a group of people
and he said I couldn't get away from
the mob, and he kept running until he
got to an alley that was a dead
end. And he said he noticed at this
alley, there was a book. And so he
goes and he opens the book, Well, it's
the Bible.
And he said out of the bible came
this beam of light,
but he said it there also came a
fragrance, a sweet aroma,
out of the bible.
And he said he woke up.
And he explained to his wife
what had just happened
and he'd concluded it with, like, there was
a sweet aroma coming from the Bible, and
she said, like the 1 we... I can
smell it in our room.
And he's like, what? And he. He goes,
yeah. That was the smell.
And they went out into their living room.
There was no smell.
For 24 hours, there was the sweet aroma
in Oc med Fatima bedroom.
That led him ultimately to faith in Jesus
Christ.
And that's... Those the those are 2 of
the people out of many that we want
to minister to. But I share the story
because for Oc med,
Jesus, as well as the gospel
had to become personal
before it became transformational.
And I think that is true for every
single 1 of us.
Jesus has to become personal to you before
you can see his work in you
transform you. And so today, we're gonna look
at a story
from Luke chapter 7.
It's only told in Luke,
We don't hear of the story in any
of the other gospel.
But it's the story
of a ph who invites Jesus to his
house to eat.
Who gets scandalous
interrupted by a center,
the prostitute
of the town,
and Jesus is not bothered. In fact,
he forgive.
And so let's look at luke 07:36
to 51
of the ph asked him to eat with
him, and he went into the Ph house
and recline at the table and behold,
a woman of the city who was a
center when she learned that he was refining
at the table in the Far house,
brought an a
flask of ointment or perfume.
And standing behind him at his feet, weeping,
she began to wet his feet with her
tears and wipe them with the hair of
her head and kissed his feet and anointed
them with the ointment.
Now when the ph who had invited him
saw this, he said to himself,
is that if this man were a prophet,
he would have known who and what sort
of woman this is and who was touching
him
for she is a sinner.
And Jesus answered, by answering said to him,
Simon. I have something to say to you.
And he said say a teacher.
A certain money lender had 2 debtors, 1
owed 500 den air and the other 50.
When they could not pay, he canceled the
debt of both.
Now which 1 of them love him more?
Simon answered the 1, I suppose, from whom
he canceled the larger debt. And he said
to him, you have judged rightly.
Then turning toward the woman, he said to
Simon, do you see this woman? I entered
your house and you gave me no water
for my feet
but she was... She has wet my feet
with her tears and wiped them with her
hair. You gave me no kiss, but from
the time I came in, she has not
ceased. To kiss my feet.
You did not annoy my head with oil,
but she is anointed in my head with
the ointment.
Therefore, I tell you her sons, which are
many are forgiven.
For she loved much, but he who is
forgiven Little loves little.
And she said to her, your sons are
forgiven.
Then those who are at the table with
him began to say among themselves, Who is
this? Who even forgive sense,
and he said to the woman, your faith
has saved you.
Go in peace.
Please pray with me.
Father, we, we love you.
God, thank you for this story that is
a great reminder that you really have first
loved us,
and that our love comes from a love
that you've shown us through Christ.
Father, would you use these words to transform
our lives to be a little bit more
like you.
And father, I pray for those in this
room,
Lord, I pray that they would have ears
to hear God that you would set me
aside and just use this time to to
honor your name. And for those father that
maybe are a little too comfortable. I pray
that this would victim.
But honestly, father for those that are feeling
convicted that these words would bring comfort.
And so father, thank you. We pray the
all Jesus name.
Amen.
So we're gonna look at this story
in 4 parts,
and I will try to move quickly through
them all. The the 4 parts are this.
The first is a personal yet sincere invitation,
a scandalous
interruption,
an illustration of great forgiveness,
and then finally the impact of saving faith.
And so let me set the scene of
this personal yet sincere
invitation,
We learn from verse 40 that that the
fair who invited Jesus to his home is
name is Simon. And Simon
is someone of notoriety in the town.
People know him because he's outstanding.
He may be hip critical, but the truth
is is he's
respected. He gives. He's memorized. The torah, he
is a person who you probably wouldn't be
that embarrassed being around.
Because he's the Who's who of that community.
And he extends an invitation to Jesus to
come and dine with him. And if we
look in scripture, Jesus often
is minister administering at a table.
He is inviting,
maybe he's inviting people honestly to himself through
this time together with him. And,
as I reflected on this, I reflected on
Revelation 3,
where Jesus tells us as his followers.
He says I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens
the door, I will come in into come
into him. And eat with him and he
with me. He will dine with us. He
is inviting us to a table. But you
see Simon had invited Jesus.
And Simon,
we can't fully know his motives.
We would
believe, you know, hey, let's believe the best.
He was just curious, like nico dim, maybe.
He wanted to know more about this person.
But the truth is is that the ph
were often working together to try to ent
Jesus.
And so the reason we know that maybe
his motives were not all pure that they
were actually inc sincere is what we read
later. But
Before we go there, I wanna read a
quote from John Macarthur that I think explains
it well.
Now here Jesus was willing to go into
the house of a man that he knew
was a hypo.
He knew the man had evil intentions toward
him. He knew the man was going to
do everything he could to get some inc
evidence against Jesus.
By something that Jesus did or said,
he knew he was looking to mount the
case for him, but nonetheless,
Jesus
gracious says he always is and coming to
seek and to save that which is lost,
is willing to expose this wicked.
The hip critical ph to the power that
he had to transform.
And so he entered the Far house.
You see this invitation was personal,
but it was
sincere. And so verse 44
to 46 kinda help us say, okay. This
is how we know it was sincere.
This is when Jesus
after having his feet washed by this woman,
ends up speaking to Simon about what he
didn't do. And it says this. Do you
see this woman?
I entered your house and you gave me
no... Water for my feet but she has
wet my feet with her tears and wiped
them with her hair. You gave me no
kiss, but from the time I came in,
she has not ceased to kiss my feet.
You did not annoy my head with oil,
but she has annoyed in my feet with
ointment.
You see there's 3 things that would happen
in that day that everyone knew you would
do if you had a guest,
especially a guest of notoriety like Jesus, a
rabbi.
You see you first, you would actually greet
them
with a kiss. And that that that kiss
was a
it was a sign of respect. If sign
of friendship, you would... They would put their
hand on their shoulder and just greet them.
I took my son once I was appreciating
a wedding in that part of the world.
And so he's only 10 at the time
and I remember
being able to take him, but we were
greeting people that way. And to watch my
10 year boy, like, trying to greet... It's
a kiss on the cheek. Who was like,
oh my gosh, Dad. Why did you bring
me here? Like it was overwhelming.
But that was custom
for thousands of years. It was a sign
of friendship. So the first thing was a
the kiss. The second part was that they
would walk on these dusty roads.
They had sandals on, they would come in
dirty. Their feet were incredibly dirty. And so
as a sign of just courtesy,
either if you had servants, they would wash
your guest feet. If you didn't have servants.
You would provide a basin and some water
for your guests to wash their own feed.
Simon didn't neither of those 2.
The third thing Simon did not do was
provide oil or perfume.
Imagine walking you're hot.
And you get to the place where
you're going to dine and
you smell. You have a little bit of
a stink. Well,
they would use rose oil.
To just freshen things up,
and
they would put a dab on,
the person's head, the guests head.
Those 3 things were customary at any point.
Like, it was just known. Everyone knew. That's
what you do. I think back to being
in China, and when we first arrived, like,
we would have friends over to our house
and or to the apartment. And when they
would leave, I would say, hey, it was
great having See, which is totally normal for
America.
But as I got to know them, I
noticed that they would walk with me
out of their dorm room or wherever they
lived, down to the street, I'd get on
my bike, and they'd be standing waving at
me as I wrote off. And so when
I had the courage, I said, what why
do you do that? And they said, oh,
in our culture,
you song. It's called so it's seeing someone
off.
And and and I said, so when I
tell you buy from my my house, like
I don't leave my
couch. What does that communicate to you? They
were like, you don't like me. I'm like,
oh,
You see, I learned pretty quickly to song
my Chinese friends all the way to when
they left. To tell them by, It was
almost like a game to tell them by.
But that was culturally appropriate for me as
a missionary there.
And what's so interesting is Simon knew exactly
what he was doing. Simon knew what the
culture required,
but he did not do it.
Here is what John bloom from desi and
God said about this moment.
And Jesus feet were still dirty.
Offering foot Washing guests had been a deeply
ingrained custom for near east peoples for thousands
of years.
To not offer it was to disarm one's
guests.
It's not like not likely that Simon simply
forgot but Jesus showed no sign of fence
and the meal on the table,
superficial pleasant trees were exchanged, and a few
polite questions were asked.
So Jesus overlooked the offense.
So we're not here to focus on Simon,
and it's not just about Simon who invited
Jesus. It's about this woman. A center. And
so our next point is the scandalous
interruption.
And so it goes on and it says
and behold in verse 37.
A woman of the city who was a
sinner,
learned that he was refining at the table
in a Far house.
Now that word behold,
is truly there to say, look, this is
a big deal. Like, this does not normally
happen. So let me paint a picture further
of what was
this meal was like. This is not like
a traditional meal that we would have here,
where you're in a dining room at a
table with chairs.
This is 1 where it's a low sitting
table
where men would only be the ones eating
by the way. It would be typically in
a courtyard.
And the courtyard would be big enough that
people from town if they wanted to come
and listen to this rabbi or the distinguished
guest. They would be able to
gather around the edges of the courtyard.
And so this is what that woman did.
She came
because she heard Jesus was there.
And when she shows up,
you know,
Jesus is sitting there and the way he's
having to recline, which was tradition of the
day, his feet were behind him. It's almost
like he's laying on 1 side, eating
and his feet are behind him. And as
this woman
breaks away from the the crowd that Sydney
against the wall. She gains courage
to go to the feet of Christ.
You see this woman
needed Jesus.
And my guess
is that even though this is the only
time we hear about this woman, in look
7,
is that she likely heard the words of
Jesus
in Matthew 11
that said come
all y who are bare burdened and and
heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
I am guessing that she had heard Jesus
teach.
And she had figured out that Jesus
was the lover of her soul.
And so she could do nothing. She could
care less of the crowd
she had to go
to his feet.
And so
it's it's interesting,
Charles Spur says that she was
a particular kind of center. You see here
on this on the screen. She was not
a center in the ordinary sense of the
word. She was a center by trade,
a center
by profession.
You see, I...
She was known in the city.
And I realized this is con, and I
could be totally off. But as I was
praying about this,
I was comp I'm confident that
that Simon knew who she was because of
how he responded.
But did he ever pay her for her
services?
It's convict to think about.
But that is the type of person
that I think Simon could have been
But it's also,
she was not hiding the fact that she
was there,
and she had the courage because she was
desperate.
To walk up to the feet of Jesus.
And so
let's look at what
John Macarthur says
about the the the scene here.
Jesus was declining at a low table as
was the custom.
It would have been shocking
to all for a woman of such low
reputation to come to the Far house.
Such dinners involving dig militaries were often open
to spectators.
But no 1 would have expected a prostitute
to attend.
Her coming took great courage and reveals the
desperation in which she sought forgiveness.
Her weeping was an expression of deep repentance.
And as you look at the scene,
you have her weeping
and enough that she was sobbing.
She had enough tears
to literally cleanse
the feet of Jesus.
But where it gets really,
really scandalous is that she let down her
hair.
And as a woman of that age,
You do not let down your hair. That
was akin to basically starting to un undo.
Like, it was completely a modest. So she's
creating this comp... This scene
And and and what's fascinating to me is
everyone is bothered,
but Jesus.
Everyone is bothered.
And yet, she doesn't stop there. She takes
this vial a perfume that more than likely
she made
the money
to pay for that through her prostitution. And
yet she takes this rose oil perfume and
the fragrance of
her forgiveness
is filling the air. You see she's putting
that on his feet
because she loves
Jesus so much.
And there's nothing inappropriate about this scene. Jesus
again is very, very comfortable.
And so
as we look at her
in this moment,
the attention goes back, Jesus is
focus turns to Simon. And why is that?
Look at verse 39.
Now when the ph who had invited him
saw this. So when Simon saw what was
happening, he said to himself.
If this man were a prophet,
he would have known who and what of
what sort of woman this... Is touching him
for she is a sinner.
You see, I think Simon
was too caught up and who she was.
Before
to realize who had she had become because
of Christ.
He was too caught up in her past
and her profession and to realize that God
had redeemed her
that Jesus was doing a work.
He was far from the Lord, and yet
she was yet so near.
And
I love what
John Blu says again. He says Simon watched
the woman pour fragrant oil
from her jar on Jesus feet. He felt
both contempt and pleasure.
His appraisal
of Jesus was being vin before his eyes.
See, he's he's testing.
He's wondering is this really
a man of God,
but he's concluding no, not at all. Nothing
spoke more eloquently of the false of this
so called prophet, then his stunning lack of
discernment
regarding this immoral woman. No holy man would
have ever let her poll him with her
touch.
He began to rehearse what he would report
to the council.
You see
in those days, a woman touching a man
like that would def file the man too.
It was not okay.
And I just love the fact that Jesus
was completely fine.
Jesus
was willing
to have her touch,
and it was not an inappropriate touch.
And as I think about
how much
god loves each 1 of us.
I am overwhelmed
by the fact that we can love
because he first loved us.
And I think that's what the woman knew.
I think she had heard that she could
come to him despite her profession.
She could
give herself to him.
There could be a new life.
And my prayer for you is that that
is something that you've encountered personally.
That it's not just a lot of head
knowledge that you want to learn the Bible
similar to Simon. Like, yeah. I'm gonna memorize
this.
It doesn't become a ritual. It's not functional.
It's at the heart level. Sorry. I don't
wanna tap the micro phone here.
It's
transformational
because it's personal.
And so
it fa me that the way Jesus responds
to Simon. Again, Simon did not speak those
words of, oh. You know, he doesn't know
who this is. He thinks those words.
And so what does Jesus do?
0.3.
He he gives a parable. He illustrates
what it looks like to have great for...
Forgiveness.
So he goes on and says Jesus,
answering him said to him Simon have something
to say to you,
and he answered, say a teacher. A certain
money lender had 2 debtors, 105 hundred an
Air, the other 50
when they could not pay. That's the key.
Don't worry about how much. Once 10 times
more than the other, there's comment that say
it's like a year's wage versus 10 years
wage, but the truth is this, neither debtor
could pay. That's the point.
He canceled the debt of both
Now, which of them will love him more.
Simon answered the 1 and check it out.
He goes, I suppose. Is that snarky?
You know,
Is he thinking he's about to be trapped?
The 1 I suppose for whom he canceled
the larger debt,
and he said to him, you have judged
rightly.
Then turning toward the woman, he said to
Simon.
You know what? I...
I'm fascinated by this interaction because as we
look at the scene,
Jesus is talking to Simon,
but he's looking at the woman.
So before everyone's looking at the woman,
Jesus is fine.
He's not paying attention to the woman. Actually,
he's paying attention to assignment. But in this
moment he directs his attention to her.
To the center.
And he teaches Simon a great lesson. And
that lesson is the lesson for all of
us.
We have a debt we can't pay.
But we have a creditor
in Christ who has.
And you see, I
am overwhelmed
by what that means for each and every
1 of us. We have access
to the God of heaven
because he made a way through his son,
and it is the only way.
And so yet this woman sees this understands
this,
The other aspect of Jesus
talking to Simon,
but looking
at the woman is this.
You really can't love someone
until you begin to look towards them.
Any of you in your marriage ever have
that going on where you think your spouse
talking to you, but they're watching the football
game. I'll just own that maybe that's happened
to me. And,
so when my wife and I talk, we
have to have eyes on each other.
My daughter taught me that well. I won't
say which 1 because, it... It's a it's
a compliment to her. When she was really
little,
we would come up to, like, this... You
know, in the car, panhandle or, you know,
like, wanting money
and Mara... Oh, it's I already said it.
Mori mariah. That's the 1.
She would go daddy. Do you have money
in your wallet I give it to that
person.
But the truth is is why I share
that it's because in my heart,
I wouldn't even put my eyes on that
person because I'm like, I wanna give them
my money.
But she knew my daughter, like, 4 or
5 years old knew that the The first
step was to look.
So my question is, do you look or
do you turn away?
You see Jesus was looking at her? The
just as he looks with fondness at each
and every 1 of you.
And so,
III
can truth be told just I'm overwhelmed
by the extent of God's goodness to us.
When we don't deserve it. Here's what Macarthur
says.
He says if I lend you 500 air
and can't pay you, and I say forgive
that and Then I incur that debt, then
I have now incurred that debt completely.
That debt is now mine.
The cost is transferred to me, I pay.
To understand that is to get get an
insight into the forgiveness of God. When God
forgave your sins,
he then incurred the dead and Jesus Christ
paid it.
The debt doesn't go away. It must still
be paid,
but the forgive incur
incur it and pays it.
So it's not just forgiveness and it's done.
It's forgiveness and then the debt is transferred
to the debtor.
So what's the difference between this woman
and Simon.
And I would propose really 1 thing?
She knew her desperation.
She knew she was desperate for a savior.
She knew
how much sin she had in her life
and how much cleansing she needed.
And she had heard of this person Christ
Jesus and she
desired to be near him. She could only
respond with being broken down in gratitude
because of that desperation.
You see what it says here as we
look at the last point, the impact of
saving faith
Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are
many are forgiven. For she loved much,
but he who is forgiven little loves, little.
And he said to her your sins are
forgiving,
then those who are at the table with
him began to say among themselves. Who is
this? That even forgive sins, and he said
to the woman your faith
has saved you go in peace.
You see, she's not saved for her love
for Jesus.
Her her
salvation comes because of faith in Jesus,
and that is true for each and every
1 of us.
We have to put our faith in Christ
in Christ alone
in order to experience the type of love.
That God is intended for you to experience.
For you to know,
it comes
not only with an element of
desperation like the woman,
but also this realization of your... The the
forgiveness.
And so I... There's a little equation I
like to use
saying that
desperation,
plus forgiveness
equals left for a savior.
She understood this.
The ph had no idea.
You see he was in his mind forgiven
of he's a good guy.
He doesn't have much need.
And yet, she knew the depths of her
need.
Where are you this morning?
Are you possibly relating more to the fair
sea, and that's okay. There been many days
in my life where I honestly relate to
the fair.
You see the root of every sin is
pride.
It really is.
And maybe you're feeling like, I'm pretty good.
You know, I've been memorizing the book of.
You know, I'm good. But what you notice
if you take a true audit of your
soul,
is it your distant from God?
That that knowledge is not drawing you any
closer to the person or the work of
Christ.
And my prayer for you this morning is
that you would just take a moment and
realize to how desperate you truly are.
Kind of a goofy story and in confession
here. I deal with, claus.
And I don't know if you've ever been
in a situation where you have felt really
desperate. Like, recently, I... I've had my wife
and I've had way too many... Ortho orthopedic
surgeries. We've tried to remain active, and went
before you get 1 as many of you
probably know, you have to have an Mri.
And I had to have an Mri for
my hip.
And when they put me into the Mri,
I'd had never been in 1 before.
I don't know if it's an open or
closed. I just remember someone asking after the
for service. It just felt like I was,
like, I was gonna be crunch. You know?
Like, just crushed.
And so I was, like, for remember I
I had memorized scripture, I was singing praise
songs,
but within, like, a minute of being in
that Mri where I could feel it on
my shoulders.
My feet just started to shake.
I could not control the fact that I
was the claustrophobic kicked in.
And I couldn't think of anything
except for get me out of here.
And I remember when the woman, the technician
put me in. She's second, are you gonna
be okay? I'm like, I'll be fine. You
know, a wash egg over my eyes. She
said, but if you need me,
push the button and I'll come get you.
And I'll I'll never forget how much... Like,
when I started to push the button.
It wasn't like I pushed it once. I
just started pushing it like it was a
video game. Like, just get me out of
here. Like, please, please, you know, the and
she... It... It was 30 seconds, but it
felt like 30 minutes. She pulled me out.
And and I almost wanted to hug her.
Like, I was like, oh, you've you've saved
me. Thank you. You know? But it's just
funny how your mind when you have a
struggle like that,
you... How you respond.
But see, the fact of the matter is
this,
without Christ,
we are destined to an eternity separated from
him.
We are going to a place that is
way worse than being in an Mri machine.
We need him desperately?
Are you in a place that you're like,
you know what Jesus, I really do need
you, and I feel that desperate need for
you.
You may not have a silly example like
this, but there's gotta be something in your
life,
a season, a time where all you had
was Christ.
All you could do is cry out and
say, Lord, I need you.
I need you desperately.
And the fact of the matter is this,
when you realize that, when you are desperate,
but you also realize just how much you've
been forgiven.
It creates such a great love.
A love for our lord, and again, we
love because he first left us, and that's
what the woman knew.
And so the impact of our saving faith
is that we can go in peace.
That we can go in peace like the
woman.
We can be salty and bright as a
dear friend of mine here in Houston says,
to those around us,
who are desperately
grasping for other things just like we prayed
earlier in our confession.
They're they're looking to things that will never
give life.
And yet Christ is here.
I wanna close with a somewhat hard story.
You see the fragrance of forgiveness
yields of gratitude.
And
maybe you're sitting in the audience and you
can relate to this
the question of I've been forgiven of much.
You know, I I turned 50 this year,
and,
for the first, probably 49 years, I I
could say I think a lot of times
I'd relate more to the fair sea than
I would this sinful woman.
If I'm honest,
But there was a night,
where I realized just how much I've been
forgiven, and it happened because a friend forgave.
You see on April first of 20 23,
my son,
and
had a party at our family ranch. My
dad was born on the ranch, and we
love the ranch.
We did a number of activities. There were
6 boys, including my son. It was he,
I'm gonna brag on him. He's a godly
boy. The... He and his best friend we're
the class president and vice president.
And they invited a boy that was kinda
on the fringe,
and they would go from an activity
to bible study. And I didn't tell him
to do this. And so they would go
from fishing to studying John. They go back
out and I'd go ski shooting skate with
them, and then
finishing the book of john. Like, it was
just a wonderful weekend.
And so 24 hours in, I had to
run an Errand. My wife was there.
And I...
We have an Atv that's a side by
side, very powerful, you know, ranch tool. And
I had lecture the boys because they had
been on it all day I said be
careful. They're 15. I didn't think I need
to take the key.
But unfortunately, the 1 boy got in with
Cad, and he rolled it, and it killed
Cad
at our property.
On April first.
I share it because
we were undone by the accident.
I mean, it's it's devastating.
And yet,
here we are at the hospital knowing that
cad is deceased
and income his mom and dad.
His dad is a very large man. Probably
643
hundred and 20 pounds,
play football college.
Honestly, I I just... We hugged, they saw
our faces and knew that something was terribly
wrong.
They go into the room right behind us
as we're in the waiting room and you
hear his mom cry, you know, cry out
because they learned he's gone.
But in the very moment that they learned
he's gone, his dad, very large man comes
out. And I'm like, okay, Here it goes.
He is going to assault me, and I
don't mind. Like, send me to Heaven with
Cad right now. Like, on it, it was
awful.
And he looks at me.
And he says,
I love you.
This was not your fault.
This was an accident.
It because, but I forgive you.
And then he goes, my son is with
Jesus
It was overwhelming.
You see I love cadence stat.
Our daughters are roommates in college.
We do life together. 72 kids put their
faith in Jesus as a result of this
family's response.
But I love Rob. I would do anything
for Rob.
And my love for him has
been magnified.
Because of the forgiveness he showed when I
felt like I had sent much.
You see that same type of forgiveness comes
from Jesus because guess what? You may not
feel responsible for a young boy's death,
but you have sin that would send you
separate to... It would send you to hell.
And yet Jesus
loves you.
He loves you enough to redeem you.
So my prayer today is that if you
don't know of that saving love that at
the end of the service, you would come
up and we could talk.
All you need to ask is say Jesus,
I need you.
Forgive me for my sins. I trust you.
You can begin a new life like the
woman did.
You see
desperation
plus
forgiveness
equals a great love for our savior. That
is the fragrance of forgiveness. Let's pray.
Lord,
we are just overwhelmed
by your goodness.
Thank you that you demonstrated your love for
us and that while we were still sinner
Christ would die for us.
Thank you that in this room,
there are people who come from every background.
God some of them are very near to
you at the moment and then some,
are honestly far. And so would you allow
this to be the moment where they come
in their desperation and say, Lord, I just
really need you.
God, if we've grown cold
because it's just head knowledge, God, would you
refresh our hearts in Christ.
Would you be glorified in us?
Thank you for all that you do and
have done and will do.
Not because we deserve any of it, but
because you are a good good father. We
pray in Jesus name. Amen.