the heavens with our praise and worship. Y'all sing with us. Already sing a little more to smo- This is the love of God this morning. Good thing about it is, He leaves in 99 to go after the one.
Then so so we took a breath, don't deserve it. If you are sad, otherwise I was your foe. I'll kick down, lie alone, tell you. Cause no shadow, you can show shadow, you won't.
Y'all fired up today. Y'all feel the spirit of the Lord moving in this place already. Hey man, you may be seated for just a moment. It is so good to see each and every one of you.
If you're here for the first time in a long time, I want to make you feel welcome. You are our VIPs and one of our great volunteers didn't stop you on the way in. I want to grab one of those blue cars from in front of you. Feel it out.
Stop by the VIP area. We've got a special gift for you as well as Pastor Dayleby there after the service. He just loves to say thank you for worshiping with us today. A lot of good stuff happening.
You probably noticed that they're working on the parking lot behind us there. Hopefully that'll be done really, really soon. We'll have to worry about parking across the road and all that stuff. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a second.
But there's a lot of good stuff going on here at New Light Church. It's a great day to be in the house of the Lord. How many of you glad you showed up today? Amen.
Amen. Amen. Well, a couple of things I want to mention to you next week. We're going to have baptism.
So I think I have about four or five people already signed up. Amen. Yes. So we'll be contacting you this week.
But if you are interested in that, if you've never taken that next step, you've been saved maybe for a week or maybe for years and you've never taken that next step to be baptized, I would highly encourage you to sign up to be baptized next week. It'd be a part of our baptismal service. It's going to be a great time when we come out and celebrate the Lord. Also on May the 3rd, we're having our old timers day.
And somebody said, well, what does that mean? That means you get to wear those coveralls, overalls, whatever. You get to wear peaky blinders, whatever outfit you want to wear. We're going to go back old school and then we've got a special guest going to come up here and play a little banjo for us.
And we're just going to have a good old fashioned hoe down there. That sounds good. And then we're going to just throw it back a little bit and kind of remember what God's done for us over the past 100 plus years here at this church. And where he's brought us from.
And then we're going to look forward to what he's going to do for us next. Amen. So we are going to celebrate. It's going to be a great time that day.
Looking forward to it. You'll hear a little bit more information as we get closer to that as well. We do have impact tonight. Impact is our high school ministry.
It'll be out at the pastor's house. I think they're going to be out in the pool. So if you are a high school age and you want to go be a part of that, you can get directions from the connect desk. They can give you the address.
All that stuff. They encourage you to bring some friends. It's going to be a tremendous time tonight. Looking forward to that as well.
I don't know what I'll do. But I know that they always do a great job of pastor AJ Kerabeth. And looking forward to a tremendous night there. Let's see what else I've got.
Oh, a couple of other things we need to talk about. So we got church 101 a week starting next week or not next week, first week in May, we'll have church 101. If you want to be a part of that, if you're new here, you're not sure how things work. You want to take that next step.
You want to be involved. You want to start serving church 101. You can get all this information, by the way, because I know I talk fast at a connect desk. And they'll tell you everything you need to know.
As well as Pastor Nathan is kind of heading up a mission trip. So we want to go on a mission trip. It's going to be early 2027. So if you're curious about that, you don't have to know commitment right now.
But if you are interested in going on a mission trip with us, an international mission trip, we're going to Mexico, or Costa Rica, or somewhere like that, the minister to people, love you to go by the connect desk and sign up for that. And we'll have a meeting with you just to see who's interested, who wants to go, and be a part of what God is doing. So we can carry this mission beyond these four walls out into the world. Amen.
A lot of good stuff happening. So much going on here at the church. And like I said, we have the parking lot going on. Matter of fact, somebody handed me $1,000 for our $4,000 to $3,000 today for the thing.
Now listen, you may notice out there that they're starting to get to grab all that stuff done. And that's just phase one, getting all that done. That's phase one, getting it all leveled out. So we can just park on it.
There's another phase that's going to come behind that. We'll actually pave that and do all that stuff. But we just thank y'all so much for giving and being a part of that. And we couldn't do it without your fake fun.
It's to give weekend and week out. I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for giving. For those of you who are given to the four to three, whether you're given one time for $1,000, or you signed up to give monthly, thank you so much for doing that. And for those of you who give your tithes, your offerings, all those things, we just thank you so much for being a part of what God is doing here through the ministry of New Like Church.
And our hope is that we can feel both sides parking lots up and across the road with people. And they're fighting for seats. And you're very uncomfortable every Sunday because you don't know where you're going to see it. And you're just hearing you're saying, thank you God that I'm fighting for a seat.
So as I get to worship you with people who want to be around you, are you excited about it? Some of you are, some of you are. But why don't you go ahead and stand here and think let's get ready to worship a little bit more today. John 836 says, whom the Lord sets free, whom the sun sets free is free indeed.
And we're getting ready to sing a song called Who I Am. And I shared with the worship team on Wednesday night. I said, you know, a lot of times we can define ourselves by our mistakes, by our worst moments, by some of our biggest regrets. And sometimes our biggest critic is the person that we look at in the mirror every morning.
And we come in here and we're like, I'm not worthy. I don't deserve this. But what we need to remind ourselves is each and every day, each and every moment every day is that God chose us. He called us and he sent his son to die for us on the cross.
And if he says you're free, if he says you're he is, if he says you're chosen, if he says that you are, he is adopted child. Then who's gonna stand against him, right? So that's who we are. So here's what I want us to do is say this on I Am, who you say I Am.
I want us to be the spirit of Papa. Just say I Am who you say I Am, right? We are gonna proclaim it today that we are who God says we are. Can you give him a shout of praise?
We get ready to sing it. My dad, the highest who we will come. He brought me his love. Oh, Miss.
Just say I am too. Your house is morning, worship you. I know a lot of us need it this morning. And Lord, I want to ask that you help us, anybody who needs our lives can just be a minor lives are changed in the Lord.
Thank you for your grace and your mercy. And what we ask that you open our hearts and our minds is morning, it's saying yes, your name Lord. May be seated. With six laps on and up, I go will, person, beer.
Eyes fixed on you because you endure it. No excuses, never came up short. You said you never fail me and you never have. And I know you never will.
I don't fear what is ahead because I know this race is not mine to win. It is yours and you already won. So that voice in my head tells me to stay down, that I'm weak, that I'm not enough. I remember the greater is he that is living in me, the same strength that bore the weight of the world that defeated sin, the same power that conquered the grave is living and breathing inside of me.
In your name, I am strong. In your name, I am powerful. In your name, I am unstoppable. Good morning.
How we doing? Good to be in the house of the Lord today. What about that praise team? Give them a hand would you do that?
They bless us every week. We're so thankful for them. Help me welcome those who are watching online and listening on the radio. Let them know you love them.
Welcome to the new light church. Love that internet ministry. For sure it's good to see you again. I want to jump right in this when the current series called Unstoppable.
Boy, have you enjoyed this series? I really have myself enjoyed preaching. I learned a lot of things. Hope you have.
Let me give you some context of what this is all about. We talked about unstoppable grace. We talked about unstoppable mission, right? We've learned that no grave is too sealed.
No stone is too heavy. No sin is too deep. No past is too broken. No fear is too strong for our unstoppable savior, Jesus Christ, what God starts, hell itself cannot stop.
You ought to come unglued right there. What God starts, hell cannot stop, right? So boy, I tell you, we learned a lot about the unstoppable mission and we learned a lot about the unstoppable grace. And many of us have witnessed that grace in our lives.
So today I want to talk about something that looks like this. We've already sang about it, unstoppable love. Here's kind of the picture I want you to get in your mind as we preach about this today. How many of you have watched the movie Unstoppable where Denzel Washington, where the train kind of gets away, and you don't watch that stuff?
I don't watch it, Donna happened to be watching it one time. And I anyway, the train got away, man. I mean, they could not contain that thing. So here's what I want you to think about the love of Lord.
It's unstoppable. And every time you think about that, I want you to see that train how unstoppable it was. That's exactly how God's love is for you and I. When they first came out with that song, the reckless love of God, there was a lot of debate in the body of Christ about whether it was true or not.
And some religious people would say, I don't know about that reckless love of God. Well, it is, and I'll prove it to you in scripture in just a moment, but I want you to think about it this way. If you've experienced in your deepest, maybe you said this way, your deepest experience, with some love in this world, maybe it was a parent that never gave up on you when you were a young person. And maybe you were wayward, but the parent stayed right there with you.
That is a part of love. And that's something a lot of us have experienced in our lives. And maybe you've watched the spouse, or maybe you've been involved with this, that really messed up, went down a dark road, and you watched them come together and support each other and love each other. You witnessed that.
And it could be anything. The point is, no matter what you witness in this life, God's love is much greater than that. When you think about the love of God, I want you to think about the word commitment. I want you to think about how committed he is to you and I, how he stays with us, never leaves us, never forsakes us.
I want you to think about it in those terms. And I'll give you a scripture that I help you understand this from the Apostle Paul, Romans 838 and 39. Now, when you see this, you got to ask yourself a couple of questions. And the first question is, is why did Paul say that?
Why did he, what gave him the right to say that? So let's read it and see if we can understand it. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. We got to stop right there because here's what I want you to see.
Why would Paul be able to say this? What in the world had he gone through that would help him say this and have this firm position on the love of God? Well, you got to know a little bit about his life. But here's what I know about Paul's life.
I understand that he was at the stoning of Stephen. He was there. He held the code and he witnessed that thing. In fact, not only did he witness it, he kind of embraced it, if you will.
And Stephen was stoned because he was preaching the Word of the Lord. And so he lost his life. Paul was right there. But then Paul on the road to Damascus had this encounter with the Lord.
I mean, it was a tremendous encounter with the Lord. He saw the Lord and the Lord spoke to him and said, why are you persecuting me? And of course, you know the story. He was knocked to the ground and he lost his eyesight.
And then he was sent to a place called Straight Street and Ananias comes over and lays his hand on him. And he receives his sight back and he's baptized in the Holy Spirit and powered by God. Then he's giving us the covenant of grace. We're saved by faith through grace.
And we understand that. There's a lot of other things about Paul, you have to understand why. Would he be able to make this statement such a broad statement right here? How come he was so convinced?
Well, I'll tell you why he was convinced because when you look at his life, you'll understand this that once he didn't serve the Lord, now he's serving the Lord. He was an enemy of God just like you and I, or an enemy of God. But yet while he was an enemy of God, God still sent his son to die on the cross of Calvary for Paul. Paul had been shipwrecked, he had been beaten, he had been placed in prison.
He'd gone through so much, much more than the average believer will ever go through. And God rescued him every time. So therefore, he could say, I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. When you've gone through some stuff, church, and when you've lived the way, you shouldn't have lived and you got involved in some things you shouldn't have gotten involved in.
When you watch God delivering you time and time and time again, you watch God come through. Every time you turn around, then you can be convinced that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. If you've experienced that, would you give God a hand clap of praise and let him know it right now? Would you do that?
Yeah. Paul was convinced that this need to death for life, neither angels or demons, neither our fears for today or our worries about tomorrow. Isn't that good? Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Isn't that really good? The point is you cannot run the love of God.
And some of you are here today and you've tried out running and you're stating that lifestyle. And you know, if one moment, the lifestyle's pretty good, the next moment you're depressed, the next moment it's pretty good, the next moment you're depressed. And the way that works is simple. This is the spirit man in you is calling out for God.
There's a hunger and a thirst in your heart that can't be filled by anything but God. And you get out there and you satisfy the face for awhile, but then when you go home and you lay down at night, you're restless and you're under conviction and you're, you know you need to change your life. Here's what I've come to say today. You cannot outrun the love of God.
You might as well give it and throw the towel in and say yes to God and embrace Him because you cannot run that. So here's what I want you to see today. I wanna give you three things about the unstoppable love of God. I want you to remember those today because they're so important.
The first one looks like this right here. Jesus loves pursues us relentlessly. Now when you think about that word relentless, it means he never gives up. He never stops.
And I wanna tell you right now, you may not be serving the Lord today or maybe you're kind of cold with the Lord. Maybe you're safe, but you're not where you need to be. God still is gonna pursue you. He wants to make you better and better and better and he wants to prepare you for eternity.
He wants you to be Christ-like in your living this life today. So he never stops. He never gives up on us. Now watch the reckless love of God in this scripture right here.
We just sang about it, Luke 15, three and four. So Jesus told them this story. If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others in the wilderness and go to seek for the one that is lost until he finds it?
Is that reckless? Let me help you with it. How many of you know sheep are dumb? And how many of you know they're defenseless?
They can't defend themselves so the shepherd takes care of them. But here's what he says about one of this is a reckless, this is not a good business deal. This is not even practical. Why in the world would you leave 99 and go for the lost one?
And that's exactly why they say that God's love is reckless because he will leave the 99 that are okay in his hands and are good in for that way we're one that's out there. And maybe he's lost an unknown without God and maybe can't find his way back home. I'm so thankful that the reckless love of God pursued me. And I know many of you are thankful that he pursued you and you can go back and look at your life.
And I don't care how you're raised or how you came up. Here's what I do know. I know that God never gives up on you. He never stops pursuing you.
He never gets tired of pursuing you. He never gives up on you. And while a lot of people will give up on you and the church will give up on you. And sometimes you may even give up on yourself.
I've come to tell you today that the God that loved you so much when you were an enemy of his, he died on the cross of Calvary for you. He gave a life ransom for you. He paid a debt that you could, you'll get happy in here sometime today. He paid a debt that you could not pay.
He saw you right where you were. He knows exactly how you are. He knows exactly the way you lived your life. He knows exactly what the devil's doing in your life.
But he never stops. He keeps on pursuing. He's relentless about this thing. So when you look at this, there's not a practical thing for a business man right here.
When he leaves the 99 others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that has lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. There are some of you in such a place today because sheep in the Bible are symbolic of you and I. And here's what I want you to see.
Some of us get ourselves in such a mess. We run from God and we don't realize we're running from God and we get out there. Things happen in our life that we get to the place sometimes when God saves us, he has to pick us up and rest us on his shoulders and bring us safely home. How many have you been there?
How many have you been there? If it wasn't for the Lord, you wouldn't be here today, right? If it wasn't for the mercy and the grace of God, you would be a disaster in this life and your life would be totally wasted. But this is how the great shepherd does that.
And then he goes on to say this, when he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbor saying rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. There's a party going on in heaven every time somebody gets saved. In the same way, there's more joy in heaven over one lost center, right? There it is.
You know what a center is, the enemy of God. Did you know that? He's a law breaker. He's one that continues to sin and sin and sin.
He separated from God. There's a broken relationship between them and God. That's what a center is. Did he says, there's a rejoicing going on in heaven over one lost center who repents and returns to God, then over the nine and nine others who are righteous and have it straight away.
Here's the reality. The last two weeks we witnessed 16 people who were lost and running from God come home to be with the Lord. Right here in this church, hundreds over the past year and multiple hundreds over the past several years who are running from God. And look, the message is simple today.
You cannot run the love of God. You can't get away from it. You can't get too ugly. You can't get too bad.
You can't do too much that God will not run to your rescue every single time. When you think about this word center right here, and then the one who saves us, he's always looking to rescue someone and restore someone and deliver someone. If you're here today, you are a candidate of that. It doesn't matter where you've been or what you've done.
God is relentlessly looking for you to help you to watch this scripture right here. In Ezekiel, let me give you a little bit of background about this right here. In Ezekiel, here the shepherd is gonna search for the sheep. And there's a reason he's doing that.
He's doing that because the priest of that day stopped doing their job. This is a whole testament. In other words, the shepherds didn't shepherd like they should. The priest didn't priest like they should.
And the government wasn't doing anything to help people. In fact, God's people were all alone. They were there on their own. And they were lost and undone.
They were out in the wayward world. There was no guidance. There was nobody to help them. There was nobody to lead them in the right way because everything had been corrupted.
Does that sound a little bit familiar today? It works that way. Time has a way of repeating itself. But here's the God that we serve.
He said, okay, if the preachers won't preach it, if the priest won't priest like they ought to do it, if the shepherds are not looking out for the people like they should and the government's not doing what they ought to do, God said, hey, I'll stand up and I will pursue them. I'll do whatever I have to do to reach them and minister to their every need. We ought to shout right there and give God a hand and clap a phrase. God's love does not rest on one person or one government rest on his shoulders, amen.
Here's what he says. For this is what the sovereign Lord says. I myself was searching fine my sheep. If the priest don't do it, if the shepherds don't do it and the government don't do it, God said, I'll do it.
Isn't that good? He's a faithful God. I myself was searching fine my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for a scattered flock.
I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. Now this scripture has reference to the great tribulation and the second coming of the Lord. But the point in the principle that just stands out to me is this is when the church doesn't do what the church ought to do. When the preachers don't do what the preacher ought to do and when the government not doing what the government ought to do, God says, hey, I'm still faithful.
You can trust me Psalms would say it this way. I can never escape from your Holy Spirit, Capitol A.S. God. I can never get away from your presence.
If I go up to heaven, you are there. And if I go down to the grave, some translations say, hell, you are there. Isn't that really good? He's not just in the church building today.
Wherever you go tomorrow, he'll be there. You cannot escape the presence of God and you can't escape the love of God. It doesn't matter what kind of lifestyle you're living. It doesn't matter where you were last night.
And how much you had to drink or how many drugs you shot up in your body and how much of a hangover you may be on today in this field. It doesn't matter the choices you made yesterday. What I've come to tell you today, there is a God in heaven. He is searching for you.
He's looking for you. His love is unstoppable. He'll come right where you are if you go down into the pula hill and if you're resting right there and everything is hellish around you, we still serve a God that will go right into place. You are he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.
He doesn't mind how messy your situation is. In fact, he does great miracles in those situations and we ought to give you a hand clap of praise and let him know we love him. I don't know about you, but I remember when he reached down and grabbed me. I remember that.
And I'm so glad that his love pursues me. I'm so glad it's relentless. I'm so glad it's reckless because I live the reckless life. Is anybody in here that can testify with me?
You live the reckless life one time. You were not the good old boy, y'all to be. You knew all about it, but you were out there and hell really had your mind and had your body. But I'm so glad that God said, hey, that's just another challenge for me.
That's just another opportunity for me. And if you came in this building today and your life's not where it ought to be, I've come to tell you it's just another opportunity for the God in heaven to rescue you and change your life and do something great in your life. That's who we serve. When you think about that, we'll go this way.
The Bible says in Romans, here it is again, when we were utterly helpless. Everybody say helpless. And Christ at just the right time. When we were really helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us, enemies of God.
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were yet still. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the not church tradition, not by keeping the law, not by being good, but he made us right in God's sight by what? The blood of Christ. He will certainly save us, rescue us, restore us and deliver us from God's condemnation.
For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his son, while we were still enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his son. Isn't that really good? Here's all I want you to know today. You cannot run the love of God.
You can't be bad enough. You can't be outcast enough. You cannot run the love of God. So here's what God is saying to you today.
Stop running and come home today. Wouldn't that be a great relief for some of you? Stop running, stop playing. Stop going out there and let the devil wreck your life.
Just stop running and turn to Jesus Christ and let the love of God work greatly and mindily in your life. That's what it's all about. So when you think about that, the second thing I want you to see is this. Jesus loves stays with us faithfully.
Aren't you glad you serve a faithful God? Because a lot of people think it's all on them, but it's really all on God. You got to get that revelation. Jesus had to come die for you because you couldn't help yourself.
And I don't know why when we get saved, we think that we got to do the work. You see, we don't have to do it that way. It's all on him and on on us. And you say, wait a minute, don't we have a responsibility?
How about the principles in the word of the Lord? Let me explain it to you this way. You can read that word and every time I read that word, I say, you know what? It's impossible for me to live this way.
Listen to me carefully. Religion says, you got to do, do, do, do. Grace says, done, done, done, done. Because here's what I've learned about God.
When I anchor my faith in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross of Calvary, then I understand one powerful principle that every believer needs again and understand. That is simply this, is that once I place my faith in Jesus and what he did for me on the cross of Calvary and I anchor it there and I refuse to move it from there, I refuse to get into religious works and activities, I refuse to get into the do's and don'ts, then I'm trusting what Jesus has done for me and then and then only can the Holy Spirit come down and work in my life and transform my life and make me what God said I ought to be. There's nothing in this world that can make any of us any more than what we are except Jesus Christ. And he does that through the work of the Holy Spirit.
And I've come to tell you today, if you're fighting that battle and you're trying to be what this word says you ought to be, you are in the wrong lane. You need to stop that. You remember when he says when you've done all you can do just stand, trust what Jesus has done and watch the Holy Spirit come into your life and transform your life completely. So I say it would say it this way.
When you go through deep waters that's a bad deal, right? I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up, the flames will not consume you for I am the Lord, your God.
Did you hear what he just said? He said, hey, I've taken responsibility for your life. I'm not worried about what you do or don't do. I know in life you're gonna go through some difficult times.
I know things are gonna get real hard. I know there are gonna be bad doctors reports. I understand there's gonna be bad family dynamics. I understand that you live in a cruel world, but you understand this.
I'm gonna be with you. The flames will not burn you up. The flames will not consume you for I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I hear what God said.
I'm the One who rescues you. I'm the One who delivers you. I'm the One who restores your life. Have you got that church?
You and I can't do that. No church discipline can do anything to transform my life. Only Jesus Christ by way of the Holy Spirit can transform. I lost soul.
I didn't even transform a redeemed soul. That's the way it works. Psalms would say it this way. When you keep track of all my sorrows, what's this?
You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Now that's a powerful scripture right there, because here's what it says to you and I about your life and about my life. God knows every sorrow I've been through.
He knows it personally. He knows everything you've been through. He knows it personally. He knows the disappointment.
He knows the heartache. He knows the suffering. And here's what I love about my God and your God. Every tear that's ever been shed because of a hurt in this line are bottled up in heaven.
Did you hear me? Every tear you've ever, that's how close he is. That's how his love is. Everything you've been through, he's got it bottled up right there in heaven and it's written in his book.
I don't know why it writes it in the book, but it's in the book. He doesn't have a memory problem. He knows everything, but he writes it there. The point is, he wants you to understand that he is a personal savior.
That while there are millions upon millions upon millions of people in this world, he's big enough and great enough to be your personal savior. He knows everything about you. He knows when you get up and when you lie down. He knows exactly what you're going through.
He knows exactly where you are. He knows exactly what the tricks the devil is trying to play on. He knows exactly where you suffer. He knows exactly where you're weak.
He knows exactly what you have. He is a great God and his love is unstoppable when it comes to his children. Somebody give him a praise up in here today. Psalms would go into explaining it this way right here.
He would not let you stumble in that good. The one who watches over you will not slumber in that real good. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. Now that ought to be a powerful message to some of you hear today.
No matter what you're going through, no matter how it looks, no matter how you feel, and no matter what other people are saying about it. The Bible says he never sleeps or slumbers. He knows exactly where you are. And he's already said, if you go up into heaven, I'll be there.
But if you go down into hell, I'll be there as well. His presence is everywhere. He's unstoppable love is everywhere. Here's what I want you to see today.
You don't have to be strong. Jesus is strong for you. And a lot of times religion tells us that we have to be strong, that we have to do. And we have to make sure we cross every day and dot every eye.
Well, you can't cross every day and dot every eye because if you could, Jesus would have stayed in heaven. You can't do that. And the Bible says, Jesus is the only one that can do those things in your life. So here's what I want you to see.
When the rebellious teenager breaks your heart, guess who's right there with you. Listen to me, when those tears are coming out, guess who is collecting those tears? The Bible says he's collecting everyone of those tears. He's writing it down in the book.
He knows exactly where you are. He knows exactly what you have needed. The point is you're never alone, no matter what's going on in your life. When the financial pressure keeps you up all night, anybody had that happen.
It just keeps you up all night. Guess who's writing it in his book? He sees right where you are. He collects every tear there when depression wants to keep you in the bed.
I'm going to tell somebody today, you may be depressed today. Maybe come in here today and you're oppressed today. Maybe you don't know what's wrong with you. Can't figure it out.
Well, I've come to tell you that there is a love of God that is unstoppable. He knows where you are. He followed you into this building today. He made sure you got up this morning and got here.
You may be depressed out of your mind. You may not know which way to turn. You might not know which way's up or which way's down. But I've come to tell you that God, the one who loves you and the one who died for you while you were still in any of his, he brought you into this place today so you can hear one clear message and that is his love is unstoppable.
His love will go wherever you are. It is relentless. He'll never give up on you. You may walk out of here today and you may not say yes to the Lord, but that love of God is still right on your trail.
He's like the hound dog of heaven trying to get you to understand. He loves you and has a better life for you. We ought to give him praise and honor and glory if you believe that, sir. We ought to do that.
When addiction tries to keep you down, when addiction tries to keep you down and you've tried every program out there. You've tried everything that anything in this world can offer you. You've tried all that and it's still holding you down. The unstoppable love of God is right there with you.
Somebody say amen. I want to tell you right now that addiction is not greater than the love of God. I'll say it again. Addiction is not greater than the love of God and I tell you this.
I know people who have loved God and they've been addicted and the church when it meant this, but it's absolutely true. We have addictions in our life. Some of them are greater than others. Some of you have a worry addiction.
Does God still love you? Some of you have a fearful addiction. Does God still love you? Some of you have a gluttony addiction.
Does God still love you? Come on. Does it still love you? Well, I don't care what kind of addiction is he still loves you and there are people who've been saved gloriously safe who love the Lord that have had an addiction from to greater than their ability to handle.
I've come to tell you today that the love of God still pursued them was with them and maybe they lost their life, but I have some great news when they woke up one day they woke up in the presence of Almighty God shouting and dancing and free of the addiction that bound them while they were here. I could get kicked out of the church for that right there, but it's true. God doesn't endorse addiction. He doesn't endorse alcohol addiction or drug addiction.
He doesn't do that, but he also doesn't endorse your gossip. He doesn't endorse your gluttony. I always got a kick out of those preachers who weigh 400 pounds on a pre-subaculate because it made the big list, right? He said gluttony went there at the kingdom of God.
Is that what he said? Gossips wouldn't be there either. And the church is filled with those somebody saying, man, so here's my point. So we draw religious lines and we think, well, you know, God will accept gossip.
He'll accept gluttony. He'll accept a little bit of fear and worry and doubt. He'll accept some of that stuff, but he says without faith, it's impossible to please God. So aren't you glad about the rest of the love of God because we are some messed up folks on me.
Now, am I saying you have a right to live a life of sin? Absolutely not. Am I saying that you're not a perfect person? Absolutely.
Yes. To deliver you, you better believe I am and only because of what Jesus did. Can't any of us make it to that place called heaven and have the abundant life that God said he desires that we can have only by the blood of Jesus Christ. The Lord is close.
Wait a minute now. The Lord is close to the wait a minute. That was weak. The Lord is close to the the Lord is close to the.
He rests with those whose spirits are. I thought he was only close to those religious folks that had it all together. Did it say that? I thought he was close to those who had all, you know, all the teas daughter crossing all the eyes, started.
I thought he was close to those who came in with their King James Version Bible. Now I'm not going to read a gender neutral Bible. Okay. I'm not doing that.
And I want to tell you this right here. Christian people and listen to me carefully or messed up people. We have our ways about us. I'm including me.
We have our ways. We have our personal convictions. We have the church culture that we were raised in and some of us like some things better than we like other things, right? And some of us love to stand on the healing say, Hey, I believe it this way.
I was raised this way. I got it this way and I want it that way. And if I can get it this way, I can be in heaven with the Lord. You better back up.
Because I want you to understand that we are messed up people that we can't do right even when we want to do right. If we could, Jesus could have stayed in heaven. Amen. So you got to go there.
So here it is. He said, I'm close to the broken heart and I want to be a broken hearted Christian. I'm not going to be a down Christian and a downcast person. I live on my lips.
I'm not going to be dragging the floor every time I come in here. But I can be broken hard at times, but God's love is right there with me and he rescues those who spirits are crushed. In fact, he said, I didn't come for those who think they're righteous. He said to sick people need a doctor.
Well, I'll tell you right now, I'm going to be sick all my life spiritually. I want Dr. Jesus in my life. That means I'm never going to get to the place where I think I'm okay.
I know I am in mess, but God said I'm going to pursue you relentlessly. I'm coming after you and I'm going to stay faithful to you. Even when you're not faithful is what he said. Right.
Last thing I want you to see right here is this Jesus loves, transforms us completely. And when you think about this, it's not just a makeover. It's a transformation. When God deals with you, he's just not improving you.
He's transforming you. That's what his love does. It comes to transform us and makes us here's the problem that God has though. When you were raised in a church culture, you're religious and you got more religion.
You do Jesus. And here's what happens. It's hard for God to transform your life, but he comes to transform you and the script should be clear about this. In fact, second Corinthians says this, this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone and the new life has begun. Let's talk about that. I want you to get a word that you probably missed when I read that. I want you to say that word right there.
Be gone. Does that sound like that you've arrived? Does that sound like there's a work that's got to be done? So when you see this, when you come to the Lord positionally, you have it all.
If you want to die, the day you come to the Lord, if you were to die, you're going to heaven. You're going to do all these things. The Bible says going to happen. But if you live a long time, you're going to learn something and you're going to learn that you didn't get it all.
You got saved. You got it all, but experimentally, you don't experience that in your life every day. In fact, it's a lifetime of sanctification that God has to work in our life. He's working on us every single day.
Physicianally, we got it all. Experimentally, we're nowhere close to where God says we ought to be. You agree with that. So when you think about that, here's a scripture for you right here and I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you.
That's a small is that's a human spirit because you were dead spiritually when you came into this world. I will take out your stolen, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. Stop right there. Do you know how you can tell when you've been born again?
Because this means that there's a move in the body of Christ today that says just make a profession of faith and just say, I believe the Lord and everything's good. Well, it is that simple, but I'm afraid that we've come to a place where we forgot that we're supposed to be born again because he said in Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you can inherit the kingdom of God. You can know a lot about the Lord. You can do a lot of churchy things.
You can be a religious person, but that's not being born again. Do you know how you know you've been born again? Read the book right here. Here's what it says.
I will take out your stony, stubborn heart. Can I ask you a question? Have you ever run up with any stubborn church people? Is that contradictory to what scripture says?
Because God said, no, I want to apply a whole heart. I want to solve heart that I can work with and I can grow and I can do. So the way you know you've been born again is you simply ask yourself the question. Do I have that stubborn spirit about me?
Do I have that heart that God can't work with? He said, I'll give you a tender heart when you become tender to the things of God, not religion, but to things of God and a responsive heart to God. You know what a responsive heart does? It tries to live what God says.
It gets in this book right here and it reasons I can't live that way God. I know I'm supposed to be that way, but I'm trusting you to help me do this. I cannot do this on my own and the Holy Spirit begins to transform you. But a stubborn heart says, I know the Lord and I know what the book says.
I go to church, I pay my tithes, I do all this stuff. I'm okay. I don't know if you're okay or not because if you're depending on going to church to get you to heaven, you already missed a boat. If you're depending on anything you do to get you to heaven, you've already missed it.
You cannot do things that work your way into heaven. Only Jesus Christ. He's the way the truth and the life is what the Bible says, right? So Psalms would say it this way.
He has removed our sins as far from us as the East is from the West. See, he takes out that stony heart and he gives you a responsive heart towards him. He removes your sins. He cast them in the sea of forgetfulness is what the Bible says.
Here's the point that I make today. Remember that locomotive. Remember that unstoppable train. What I'm saying to you today is simply this.
God's love for you is unstoppable. If in fact, and he did, he gave his life for you on the cross of Calvary before you were ever going. Before you ever knew you needed the Lord. Is that a reckless love?
Absolutely. If he will leave the 99 and he will pursue you when you're down and out and lost and wherever you may be, is that a reckless love? It's an unstoppable love. So here's where we are today for each of us right here today.
All of you are somewhere in this section right here. Some need to stop running from God today. You're here today and you've never said yes to the Lord. You've never asked him to come in your heart.
You've never repeated before him. You've never asked him to be your Lord and you'll save you. Never done that. You need to do that today.
You say, well, preacher, what does that mean? What does that look like? I'll show you what it looks like. You have this encounter with the Lord and this encounter with the Lord when you when you walk away from it, something's different about you.
You're not a perfect person. You'll never be perfect. You've got to grow now spiritually, but you are a different person. You don't have a stubborn heart towards the Lord.
You don't have a stony heart anymore. What the Lord loves now you love. What the Lord hates you hate. Although you may not understand everything in the word.
You've had this encounter with the Lord where you were born again. That's the only way you can get to heaven. And some of you are here today and you never had that encounter. Maybe you haven't had the encounter because you think you can't leave it.
Well, let me help you. You can't leave it. That's why everybody says the church is full of hypocrites because they read this book right here and then they see people in the church who are not living like this book says live. They're living some of it, but not all of it.
And they call us hypocrites. Well, I got some news for you. Get saved and come on in the church and you'll be a hypocrite with us. It's a real word.
Some of you need to get born again today. You need to stop running from God and you need to say yes to him and let him become the savior of your life because the benefits right of this world. You get eternal life and a question about that you get a new heart. God begins to work on you and it leads to the abundant life that we've been preaching about for weeks now.
The abundant life that he wants you to have. So is every every heads, boundary, very close. I want to talk with those who are running today. You came in this church today.
Maybe you're watching online or listening on the radio. You came in this church today. You're running from God. You know, you'll go out and you'll party and you'll do some of these things and you'll come home and you can't sleep at night.
You can't get any rest. You can't get any peace because you haven't given your life to the Lord. Maybe you're afraid you'll make your religious person. You don't want to be a religious person.