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- [00:00]
Pastor Robert
How many have some confident trust in the room? At social, we have a word for the year, and this year, that word is trust. Trust. And it comes from the verse of the year out of Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 35 through 37. And we're gonna read that and declare it together. But as Pastor Robert says, you don't go until I say so. Y' all ready? So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings. Patient endurance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all he has promised. For in just a little while, the coming one will come and not delay.
- [00:51]
Pastor Taylor
Social Dallas family. Y' all sound good. You sound like you got confident trust in the Lord. Hey, as you can see, I'm not there with you, But I will be back next Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Trust me, you do not want to miss Social Easter. It's going to be amazing. But today, I have left you in good hands. Who you're about to hear from is not a guest at Social Dallas. He is a part of the family. This is not his first time. This is his second time here with us. But I first got to tell you, one of my favorite memories of him. He was in town preaching at a church in Dallas right around the time we were believing God for our future home. I told him, hey, we're going to be in the parking lot praying for this building. This man almost missed his flight. Was in the parking lot praying and believing God with us for what is now our future home, y'.
- [01:47]
Pastor Lyle Phillips
All.
- [01:48]
Pastor Taylor
That's what type of man he is. When you can get somebody to pull up and pray with you, you know you have an incredible leader. He's an incredible pastor legacy. Nashville in Tennessee. Love him and his wife Allison. Come on, Social fam. Put your hands together and make some noise for Pastor Lyle Phillips as he comes to bring the word. Come on, Social, let's bless the Lord.
- [02:13]
Pastor Lyle Phillips
Altogether church, I think you can do a little bit better than that. It's Palm Sunday. Jesus, we bless you. Jesus, we glorify you. Jesus, we praise you, we worship you. And we celebrate your victory over death. Hell in the grave. Come on. Hallelujah. Jesus, you're worthy. Worthy of all the praise, worthy of all the glory, worthy of all we've got this Sunday. Man, is good to be in the house of God. Are you glad to be in church? Amen. Welcome to the house of the Lord. As you're finding your seat, find three or four people around you. Give them a hug or a high five, a fist bump, something. Tell them, welcome to the house of God. It's so good to be here. So good to be at Social Dallas. How many of you guys love your church? Let me ask another question. How many of you guys love your pastors? Yeah, we all love Pastors Robert and Taylor and their beautiful family. Thank you so much, Pastor Taylor, for allowing me to be here today. And thank you so much, Pastor Robert as well. This is really an honor and a privilege to preach to you guys. Once again, to be honest with you, the first time that I preached here at Social, it was at Gillies. Do I have any Gillies? Gang? Y' all been around since, you know, we should make that a thing. The OG's, GG, Gilly's gang. What's up? I remember the first time I preached there. I was so nervous, y'.
- [04:01]
Pastor Taylor
All.
- [04:02]
Pastor Lyle Phillips
I have no idea what I said. You ever done any public speaking where your face goes beet red and you have no idea the words that are coming out of your mouth? Like, that was the moment that I preached for your pastors because Pastor Robert is like a preaching hero to me. Let's all be honest. There is nobody who does it better. Amen. He is the best. I think y' all can do a little bit better than that. He is the best. He is the best. And I look up to him so much. He inspires me. I respect him. He's such a mighty man of God. I hope to preach like him when I grow up. I'm just gonna be honest. And so when he invited me, I thought, omg, I cannot believe that I have the honor of preaching at Socia Dallas. So that was really, like, a moment for me in my life where I can say, God opened so many doors for me in ministry after preaching here. And I was telling Pastor Taylor this before we came out for church this afternoon. I said, you don't realize this, but you guys changed my life. And I said, if I talk about it too long, I'm going to weep because this church has changed my life. If you see me in the comments on Instagram, you just going to have to deal with it. I am a de facto member of Social Dallas. I'm like, yes, that's our building. Like, I just. I'm just claiming it. I'm like. Like, it's ours. My wife and I pastor in Nashville, but I'm a member of Social Dallas. From afar. I watch the stream often. And yep, sure did pull up whenever Pastor Robert said, hey, we're looking at this building. I said, send me the address. Drop a pin. I had no idea they were going to pray that morning. I was preaching at another church. And so I'm out there in the parking lot like a good country pentecostal. I mean, I was tempted to stop by Publix or h E B and get me some oil. Do y' all say it like that here in Texas? Some oil. I was tempted to get me some oil. I was going to go prophetic old church conference lady. I was going to get some banners out. I was out there with some salt and some oil. I was going to blow a shofar. I mean, whatever it took. Because I have been believing with you guys for that property. And I am so grateful, aren't you, that God has opened up a door and has made a way for you guys to have that place. And so when I start, I started to see cars pull up. I said, oh, they've called the cops on me. Somebody has seen that I'm out here at this property. But it was just the social team, and we threw down and we prayed and believed God. And so I am so grateful to be back. I'm so grateful to hear the testimonies and the stories of breakthrough and everything that Jesus is doing here at social Dallas. So one more time, could we thank the Lord for this incredible local church, for your awesome pastors and what God is doing in the city of Dallas. I love the city of Dallas. Everywhere you go here, it just. Except for Gillies. Gillies smells like weed. But everywhere, like, everywhere you go, it just smells like cologne or fragrance diffusing. I don't know. Your city is so nice. It's not like Nashville. You should come to Nashville, though, because Pastor Robert is preaching at our conference this fall in October. So we would love to have you. Legacy Nashville is the church. My wife Allison and I, pastor, and Pastor Robert's preaching there. We got a lot of amazing people who will be there. Our worship pastor will be leading. John Wilds. You guys know John Wilds. He's our worship pastor at our church. We got Cody and Carrie, Kerry Jobe, Cody Carnes. Got them coming out. We got Jackie Hill Perry. I mean, we got a whole. Got a whole Gillies gang. Yo, what's up? It's gonna be fire. Y' all should pull up. I mean, just think about it. Everybody's doing it. Go to Nashville. Come out. What day? I don't know. Y' all have to email me. It's a. It's sometime in October. I I wasn't prepared to fully advertise it, but it's at the beginning of October, so I'm so excited you're pumped to be a part of it. If you will send me a message. My staff will hate this, but I'll do a social discount code, all right? They'll hate it, but I'm right now, I am declaring what the discount code is going to be. Gillies Gang. That's what's up. It's going to be Gilly's Gang. I'm telling you right now. Just put it in the chat. If you watching and you've been around since. Gillies Gang, the chat. Y' all did not come ready for me today. I'm gonna tell you right now, it's the second service and Jesus is in the building. Today is gonna go crazy. I don't know what you showed up ready to do, but I came ready to praise the Lord and give hell a migraine. Anybody else in here? I gotta do one more thing before we read the Bible. My son is here, y', all, and Today is his 11th birthday. Bro, bro, stand up real quick. They probably have a camera somewhere. I don't know. They might. That's him. Hey. His name is Isaiah Triumph. We named him Triumph because he was born on Palm Sunday. Today after the triumphal entry, everybody just say, happy Birthday, Isaiah. Give us a bow or something. Prince. Hey. There we go. All right, you can be seated. This is such a joy. We prayed for you guys this morning. We traveled together. I think this is our first time. We prayed for you guys this morning and just got ready together in the hotel and we were reading the Bible together and we were praying over Social Dallas because I believe that God is going to do something powerful in this room today. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Amen. I believe that because Jesus is in this room right now. Do you know that he promised us if we'd gather together in his name, that he would be there in our midst? And I want to testify today that Jesus is in the building. So I don't know what you showed up needing, but I do know that he is the answer, the reason why he goes by so many names as Pastor Taylor did. So awesome. I'm like, come on, just preach. I'm ready to go in. He has so many names because he is whatever you need him to be. So whatever you got going on in your life today, I want you to know that Jesus is the answer. And, Jesus, we see you, we say thank you, and we're grateful for Your word. I'm going to go to Luke chapter 15 today. Luke chapter 15. I'm going to read verse one through three just because I want to set the stage for the people who are a part of the audience that Jesus is speaking to. And then I want to read one parable from Luke chapter 15. If you're familiar with this chapter, it's all about the lost. And I think that a pre Easter message serves this time of celebration well because we need to be reminded of why Jesus went to the cross. Jesus suffered and he offered himself as a substitutionary sacrifice for each and every one of Each and every one of us who, before he found us, were lost. I know a lot of people will testify and they'll say, well, when I found God. But the truth is, you didn't find God. God found you. God was not the one who was lost. And I'm grateful that he is still in the business of finding lost things. Anybody else? So In Luke chapter 15, there's three parables. One is the parable of the Good shepherd, which is all about Jesus. There's the last parable is the parable of the Prodigal Son, which is all about our Heavenly Father. And then the parable sandwiched between those two is the parable of the lost coin. And that's the one that I want to examine for a little bit this morning. So Luke chapter 15, if you would be willing to indulge me, would you stand to your feet for the reading of the Word of God? I don't know if y' all do this here. I do this back home in Nashville, and I love it because we can honor God's Word by standing and reading it together out loud altogether as a family. Does that work for y'? All? All right. Luke chapter 15, verse 1 says this. Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable. Now let's jump down to verse eight, or what? Woman having 10 silver coins, if she loses one, does not light a lamp and sweep the house. Will you say that? Sweep the house, yo, that's been my prayer all week long. As I've been examining this parable, I've been praying and asking God to search my heart. And I'm going to say any way that I don't care about the lost. Sweep the house. If you are a Christian in the building today, I don't want you to be like the Pharisees that are murmuring and grumbling and gossiping in their heart. But I want to ask you to pray with me, Lord, sweep the house. Because I believe that Social Dallas is a church that cares about the lost. Sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it. And when she has found it, calls together her friends and her neighbors saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so. I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Isn't that incredible that heaven throws a party every time a sinner is reconciled to God? Today I want to ask you a question. This is the title of my message. It is, have we lost the plot? Have we lost the plot? Have we become like the woman in the story that has lost people the way that she once lost the coin? And are we willing to receive the great invitation of Jesus to call a search party pre Easter and go get the lost? Even those who are lost in the house and are Christians, but do no longer feel that they belong. Have we lost the plot? Let's pray. Lord, we say thank you for your word. It's everlasting and unchanging and yet always faithful to change us each and every time we come before your word in humility, requesting that you would transform us more into your image. And I pray that you would do just that today, God, I lay hands on myself. I pray you'd anoint me. I pray that you would move upon each and every one of us. I pray that we would leave this room different, having not only a zeal for the house, but also a zeal for the lost in Jesus name. And all of God's people said, amen, you can be seated in Jesus name. You know, there are two places that I can promise you you can find Jesus. If you are looking for Jesus, there are two places that I am positive you will be able to find him. Number one is at the church. Can I get two good Amens? You know, what happened is at the church. And this is why I don't like missing church. Because I know Jesus likes to show up at church. You remember that moment whenever Jesus walked through the walls and he revealed himself to all of the disciples except for Thomas because Thomas skipped that Sunday because it was nice weather and he wanted to go to the park? Uh oh, I'm messing. All right. I'm just a guest, okay? I'm not going to do you like that. But this is why I don't want to miss church because I Don't want to miss the Sunday when Jesus determines I'm going to walk through the walls and reveal myself to everybody. When revival breaks out, I don't want to be absent. Are you with me? I am sure that if you are looking for Jesus, you can find him in his own house. He said himself, the church. This is the thing that I am building. Therefore, the church is God's permanent mailing address. If you are looking up the last name Christ in the phone book, I don't think we do that anymore. But you can find his address right here in his house. Whenever his own parents were looking for him as a preteen, they searched and they found him in the temple. And he said, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I would be in my Father's house when they came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane? He said, why are you arresting me here out in the wilderness? Why didn't you arrest me in the temple where I was teaching? Get this. Every single day. I know there's a movement today where people paint Jesus as some kind of hippie. You know, peace and love, bro. And he's anti religious. But that's not the case at all. Jesus was more religious than all of us. He was showing up at the house every single day. If you're looking for Jesus, let me tell you one place that you are sure to find him in the church. Now here's the other place. If you are looking for Jesus, here's another place that I can guarantee that you will find the Messiah. Around sinners. Around sinners. He will be caught around the last people that you think he should. There are people that you, me. As Christians, we will look and we will judge and we will say, that person right there is not worthy for Jesus to associate with. But if you look for him very long, you will find those are the exact people that he is willing to hang out with, regardless of how it may put a dent on his reputation. And you see that in Luke chapter seven, the Son of man has come eating and drinking, and you say, look at him. A glutton and a drunkard. A friend of tax collectors and sinners. Now, I don't know about you social Dallas, but I am grateful today that Jesus is willing to associate with sinful people. I am thankful today that there is no place that is too dark for Jesus. I am grateful today that whenever Jesus stepped into the muck and the mire of my life, he did not take the temperature of the atmosphere and determined that it Was too dark to work a miracle. You know what I'm saying? Cause sometimes we look at Jesus, we're like, he's taking a temperature, you know, like he's got a thermometer. It's too dark here. I'm not going to do any saving. No, he's not a thermometer. He's a thermostat. He comes in, he sets the atmosphere. The darker, the better as far as Jesus is concerned. And I'm grateful for that, because whenever Jesus found me, he found me in the worst of places. I know today, you know, I'm looking pretty good with my Texas boots on. I said, I'm preaching in Dallas, y'.
- [18:56]
Pastor Taylor
All.
- [18:57]
Pastor Lyle Phillips
I gotta wear my lucchesis. Hey, what's up? I feel very proud of that, so you're gonna have to forgive me while I get excited about the fact that I can wear cowboy boots. I mean, I know I'm from Nashville, but I was like, I gotta put my demon stompers on today. I'm preaching in Dallas. When Jesus found me, y', all, I know with the boots and everything, you're like, you were probably always a pretty good kid after all. We may have if you heard my story. I grew up a pk. I grew up going to church every single time the doors were open. I grew up Pentecostal in the south, in west Kentucky, in a little tiny church right in the middle of a tobacco field. So you would think, like, if anybody saved, I would be really saved. Do y' all know anything about brush arbor meetings? You ever heard of those? Before it. My papaw, which is southern for a grandfather, he would build these things like lean tos, and we would go out in the middle of the summer with no air conditioning, and we would have a red hot revival. And so I grew up around holy rollers. I'm talking about them praying mamas. You know, they had them beehive hairdos. Listen, if you get on one of their prayer lists, you ain't ever getting off. It's. It's so different than men of God. Let me tell you right now. Because if you get on a man of God's pray. Listen. Prayer list, they might pray for you. When they think about it and remember, you know, like, they see you leaving the parking lot on Sunday afternoon at church, and they're like, I'm praying for you. And you're like, I can't tell, man. What did you forget? Like, what. What's. But let me tell you right now, if you ever get on a praying mama's Prayer list. You ain't ever getting off. They'll write your whole name, your legal name, your government name on the leaflet page of their Bible and you'll get a voicemail at 3:30 in the morning. It's just tongues. You somewhere you ain't supposed to be right now. The Holy Ghost done woke me up. Da da da da da da da yeah. Let me tell you, a praying church, mama man will bring you right back into the house of God. That's how I got saved. I'm telling you right now, because when I was a teenager, I knew that God was calling me to ministry. And I said, no, thank you Jesus, I am not going to be a preacher. Because my belief at the time was that preachers were way too poor and I wanted to be a professional basketball player. Now I know you can't tell from where you're sitting. I'm actually quite tall. Psych. I was like, I really want to be a basketball player. I'm not going to be a preacher. And so I checked out mentally entirely from church. Probably 13 or 14 years old. I moved out of my house before I graduated high school. And despite the fact that everybody and their dog had prophesied over me that I would be a preacher, I had turned into a drug addict. I was living in my car when I was 19 years old, y', all, I got put into a state hospital and diagnosed as schizophrenic. I was shooting up heroin in one arm and methamphetamines in the other. I've been arrested more times than I can count. I've been shot at more times than I can count. When I was 19 years old, I buried my best friend and my roommate who got shot point blank range in the chest, died in the street as a result of a drug altercation. When I tell you that I am grateful that Jesus does not fear the darkness, that Jesus is willing to go anywhere to save a soul, that Jesus doesn't shrink back when he looks at at you in your mess. I'm telling you today, Social Dallas, I'm testifying to you this afternoon that I give God praise. When I was 21 years old, y', all, I was not looking for God. But can I tell you, God was looking for me. Nobody was evangelizing me. I did not own a Bible. I was not watching tbn. I thought the SWAT team was coming to arrest me because I saw somebody walk past my window and, and I got up and I said, oh, tonight is the night I'm gonna be arrested. And I looked out the window and I didn't see anybody there. So I took a few steps back and I had not been in church in years, but let me tell you, I never forgot the glory. Goosebumps. Y' all know what I'm talking about. When our sister hit that oh, oh, oh, You said, he is here. God is in the room. You know what I'm talking about. So I stepped back away from the door. And that same atmosphere that I used to experience in that little country church in the middle of a tobacco field when we would get to going is the same atmosphere that filled that drug infested apartment where I was selling crack cocaine out of the cabinet and growing weed in my closet. Jesus stepped in and he spoke to me directly. He said, in six months you're going to be dead or in prison unless you come home to me right now. I'm just testifying a little bit today. I just want you to know that I am grateful that Jesus is still willing to be associated with sinners. I don't know where you came from, I don't know where you came up. I don't know what anybody told you. I don't know what you're going through in your season right now. But I can tell you this. Just because you're in the muck and the mire does not mean that you've been despised by Jesus. You may have thought a friend brought me here, but the truth is the spirit has drawn you here and this is what Jesus does. And Jesus in fact will offend the religious people by those that he is willing to hang out with. He'll hang out with people that you think, oh man, Jesus should not be hanging out with them. And yet those are the people that he's eating with, those are the people that he's hanging out with, and those are the people that he is giving his life for on the cross. In fact, I think that if you could go to Jesus headquarters now, I realize Jesus did not have corporate offices, but if he did, I have to believe if you're an entrepreneur or business leader in here, you'll know what I'm talking about. I have to believe that in Jesus hq, if you were to walk into the lobby to have a coffee appointment with Jesus, you would see a banner up that said Luke 19:10, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. If you've ever wondered what the mission statement of Christ Jesus might be, for the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost. Whenever the disciples, whenever they Were tired of all the persecution and pushback and were wondering, why are we doing this at all? Jesus, I have to believe that he would point to the wall and remind them of the big why the mission statement for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. The most scripturally prepared people on the planet to recognize the Messiah when he showed up were those that missed him the most. You ever think about that? Why is that? Is it because he did not share in their tradition? Well, he showed up at the temple every day. He was a good Jew. He probably dressed in a similar way. Is it because he did not share their passion for worship? No, he worshiped. He memorized the scriptures. He knew the Bible from the front to the back. It wasn't that because he showed up with different priorities. Whether this banner was on the office wall of the Sanhedrin in the temple or not, I don't know. But I do know that whenever the Messiah showed up, the Pharisees missed him because he came with different priorities. Their priorities were their placement in church. Their priorities were their position in church. And their priorities were using the church to fatten their pocketbook. But whenever the Messiah shows up, he's saying, what y' all doing is all right and fine, but what I'm doing is prioritizing something entirely different. And it's not your religious traditions. It is the people that I've come to give my life for. And this is why they missed it, because Jesus showed up with a purpose. And his purpose was people. The reason that I read this passage of scripture to you today is because I believe that the woman in the parable is actually representative of the church. Scholars would tell you, if you're looking at the first parable in Luke chapter 15, where the Bible talks about the Good Shepherd, I think we can all agree that the good shepherd is Jesus. Would you agree with that? Jesus will leave the 99 and he'll go to the 1. It's not because he doesn't care about the 99. No. He puts them in the pasture, which is a place of safety, and he'll go get the one. Anybody grateful for the Good Shepherd? If you look at the latter part of Luke chapter 15, a lot of scholars would say that right there, the parable of the prodigal son. You got the Father who's waiting on the porch for the boy to turn around. He jumps off, he runs. He embraces him. He gives him a signet ring, puts a robe on his shoulders. A lot of scholars would say that right there is representative of the Heavenly Father. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm also grateful for my Heavenly Father that restored my identity when I came to my senses and decided to return home. Anybody else? But that middle section here, which we read. Scholars will debate over who exactly the woman represents, because some have said, oh, the woman represents the Holy Spirit. Come on, why wouldn't Jesus be lecturing about the Godhead? Why wouldn't the woman represent the Holy Spirit? But then you have another group of scholars that would say, there's no way that the woman could represent the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit doesn't lose people. And I would align with that because I think we could all agree the Holy Spirit don't lose people. I think the woman represents the church because I think it's absolutely possible, just like the Pharisee, we could get really passionate about our experiences. We could get really passionate about our worship services. We could get really passionate about belonging to the in crowd. We could get really passionate about our positions in the church and the opportunities that we receive. And in the meantime, neglect people entirely and lose the coin. Now, I know people are not inanimate objects. I know that people are not coins. And I am not suggesting today that all the lost people in the world are the church's fault. But what I am declaring today is that the lost people of Dallas are the church's responsibility. And I believe that we are in a season right now where Jesus is taking some inventory of his church. I know that may sound a little prophetic, may sound a little grandiose, but if you read through the book of Revelation, which, by the way, you can read Revelation, I know it's kind of a scary book, it's apocalyptic literature. But if you read through it, you will notice that in Revelation, chapter two, there are these moments whenever Jesus will take inventory of his church. And this is just the opinion of one preacher. I think that Jesus does that often, that he comes in for inspection. And one of the things that he did to one church in Revelation chapter two was he said, I have this against you. You're doing all these amazing things, but you've forgotten your first love. Some people would say, oh, he's talking about prayer. Oh, he's talking about worship. But some would also say, no, he's talking about people and he's talking about the lost. I'm going to suggest to you today, social Dallas, that we can get so good at church. We can get so good at the things that we do at church. We can get so particular about our preferences. And in the process of that, we can forget all about lost people. Which is why I want to ask the question, have we lost the plot? Because this is in fact what Jesus calls all of us to do. Do you believe that your discipleship does not begin in your desire for God, but your discipleship begins in God's desire for you? You're not saved because one day you got hungry enough for God that you intellectually assented to go through the process of being saved. No, you are saved because God is hungry for you. You did not get saved because you gave your life to God. You got saved because God gave his life to you. Jesus gave his life to you. And you see that moment where Jesus is walking the shoreline of Galilee and he's calling out the brothers Andrew and Peter, and he says, come and follow me, and I'm going to turn you into something. What's that? A fisherman of people. I am calling you to care about the lost. Now, what's crazy to me, as a pastor of 20 years, y', all, how often I have talked to my own church and other churches and I have preached and I have appealed and I have said we must care more about people. And you know what? People tell me that's great for you, Pastor, because you seem to have an extroverted personality. But I took a personality test once upon a time, and as it turns out, I'm an extreme introvert, and therefore I do not have the personality to tell other people about Jesus. Am I lying? Listen, your faith is something that is deeply personal, but your faith is not to remain private. This is what I love about Jesus, is that he reveals his intentions for humanity from the jump. Whenever he calls out Peter, he said, I want you to follow me, have relationship, which is going to be wonderful. You're going to worship me and you're going to receive the glory. Goosebumps, baby. But then in the process of following me, I'm going to make you. And what am I going to make you into? A fisherman of people. I'm going to work on you. I'm going to work on your heart. I'm going to transform you. I'm going to mold you and make you into somebody whose heart is broken for what my heart is broken for which first and foremost, is people. So if you don't want to fish, then you don't want to follow. And unfortunately, I think we have a whole lot of Christians today that would say, I'm following Jesus. But they ain't fishing. Oh, am I. Am I going to get into trouble here. I realize I'm just a guest. Don't throw anything at me. But it saddens my heart that people will tell me. I would tell other people. I would search for the lost. I would invite somebody to Easter service. I would care about those who have hurt and offended me. But I just don't have the right personality for it. Obviously you are not familiar with the disc test, Pastor Lyle, because I took it at work when they onboarded me through hr and as it turns out, I'm a high S on the disc. And that means that I'm deeply introverted and I do not have the right personality type to tell other people about my Savior. If not the disc, it's the Enneagram, y'. All into the Enneagram in Dallas, I guess. Big in Nashville. You know, people. No, I can't. I can't be an evangelist pastor because, as it turns out, I'm a nine on the Enneagram, and therefore, I do not have the personality. Some people be like, no, I took a quiz on Facebook. Turns out I'm a gopher. I don't know. It's like some kind of animal that it spits out or. I figured out that I was this character from the hit TV series Friends. And I can't actually tell anybody about Jesus because it's not in my personality makeup. When did Jesus consult with your personality before he calls you to search for lost people and to love them and to bless them and to invite them into the kingdom. Kingdom of God. He doesn't consult with your personality before he calls you. He just gives you a new personality when you come to him. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. And the new creation that God has formed you to be is a creation that passionately pursues the lost coin. The lost coin. All of us have been the lost coin at one point in time. Amen. But just because you're lost does not mean that you're worthless. And that's the reason why the woman searched with such passion. There's two words here that I want to draw your attention to. I think they're so important. I'm getting ready to close in just a moment, but there's two words here that I want to draw your attention to. One is carefully. And the other one is until. Because these two words describe how passionately the woman sought for the lost coin. Number one, she sought carefully. And you know why she sought so carefully? Because despite the fact that the coin was lost, the coin still had value. Just because people are lost, they still have value. Just because people are hidden, just because people are in the dark, just because people are covered up by their own dirt, they still have value. Can I illustrate this? So I brought a gift for somebody. It's 100 bucks. Anybody need 100 bucks? I picked a guy on the last one, so I'm gonna pick a lady on this one. Yeah, you can come up. I got a hundred dollars for you, sister. Now, this is valuable. Amen. That's why you said, hey, I'm. Go ahead, run that on in. We trying to go to Cheesecake Factory afterward. Come on. Going to pay for about two people. That's it these days, you know. Okay.
- [35:35]
Pastor Taylor
All right.
- [35:35]
Pastor Lyle Phillips
Well, see, you got blessed in the process. Let's go. So you. Obviously, you want it because 100 bucks. And we know it's valuable, right? And this one is clean. I mean, this one is fine pressed, you know, But. But if I wad this guy up. Still want it, though? You still going to take it? Even though I'm winding it up like this, it still works. What if I throw it on the ground? It's all good. You still going to take it? Even though it's sitting here where people have been stepping and it's dirty now, and it's right there, and I'm kicking it around with the Demon Kickers and you still want it? How many times? Listen, I don't know what some of y' all been through. I didn't do it enough for some of y'.
- [36:27]
Pastor Robert
All.
- [36:31]
Pastor Lyle Phillips
I'm on my 12 third marriage. I done try to get free four times. What if I took it outside and I threw it in the dirt and the Texas mud and it rained on it and it was all filthy and nasty and you still want it? Still want it, right? Because despite its condition, It still has value. I don't know who in here today needs to hear this, but in spite of your condition, you still have worth. And if everybody else has rejected you and everybody else has neglected you and everybody else has marginalized you and. And everybody else has tossed you into the trash, let me tell you about one person. Let me tell you about one man. Let me tell you about our Messiah, our Savior, whose name is Jesus, who will not overlook you in spite of your state or situation, but will find you as you are and say you still have value. Now, even though this thing is wrinkly and busted and disgusted, it still has value. Why is that? Because it's got the photo of a dead president named Ben Franklin, Right? It's got his image. I see. I don't know if you're familiar with Genesis chapter one, verse 27 or not, where my Bible tells me that, no, no, don't leave. I'm going to give you the hundred bucks. You can have it. You done been my volunteer. You go get it. You must serve here. Do you work here? You serve here. See, that right there is a real servant leader. She was like, I did my duty. It's okay. No, I'm going to give it to you. Take it, take it, take it. Yeah, it's yours, it's yours, it's yours. Genesis, chapter 1, verse 27 tells us that every single human being is created image of God. So the people we drive past every single day and overlook the people that we see in the midst of their stuff. And we say, oh, they don't really matter. Whenever God looks at them from the high point of the cross, his heart breaks in half as he stretched out wide and hung up high in public shame and says, this is why I came. I came to seek to save the lost. So can I encourage you today even though I can't give everybody hundreds? I wish I could. I did this at my church last week and we have four services, so I used 20s, but you only had two, so I used hundreds. Oh, by the way, I actually stole that illustration from Pastor Ty Tribet. I don't know if y' all know him or not, but years ago, I saw it on Instagram. And listen, I'm gonna give honor, all right? I don't want somebody comment like you stole that. I just said I stole it. I'm admitting it. But I think it's a powerful illustration that gives us the opportunity to remember. And the same way that we see that seal on that dollar that says the United States of America, I would double dog dare you to look for people in your life that are like that lost coin. And instead of writing the name of our nation on it, write their name on it. You got to name your lost coins. And as we're preparing for Easter, I want to encourage you social Dallas to name your lost coins. I want to encourage you to write it down this week, even right now, if you're taking notes, you can write it down in the notes of your phone. You can write it down on a note and say, this is a person I'm going to invite to Easter service. This is a person that I'm going to passionately, carefully look for. That's what the scripture says, that she looked carefully. If you look that up in the Greek it means meticulously. It means to turn up every single pillow. It means to look in every single corner. It means to turn up, you know, the mattress. It means to lift up the rugs like I'm going to look. And here's that. Here's that second word, until. I think until might be the most powerful word that any of us could use for ministry because this is the way in which Jesus pursues the lost. It's always until. Well, they didn't accept my invitation to Easter last year. Yeah, but I'm searching until. Well, the last time that I told them a little bit about Jesus, they told me that they were now pursuing a different religion. You don't stop knocking. You keep knocking until. Oh, yeah, well, I called them last year. Turns out, man, they're back on the bottle again, strung out on drugs. Jesus hasn't given you permission to give up on somebody he's not giving up on, because if you're not dead, you're not done. So we've got to keep searching like Jesus searches until. Until they come home. Until the prodigal comes out of the pig pen praying. Mama, I don't know who I'm talking to in here, but I have to believe that there's some women of God and you've been persevering in church for decades, but you've got sons that are lost in God gone, and you've been calling them back to God in prayer, but you haven't seen any fruit come of it yet. Can I tell you? Don't stop searching until. Don't stop searching until maybe. Dad, maybe you got a boy that's lost and gone and you don't know where he's at. Don't stop praying until. Grandmother, maybe you got a grandchildren. Stop. Until. Maybe you lost a best friend. Don't stop until. Lord, I pray that you put a spirit of until on the inside of us. God, I pray you put a tenacity in social dallas that will not give up and will not tap out until we see revival in this city. Until we see every prodigal come home. Until we see every lost sheep, sheep turn around. Until we see every lost coin found and restored and reconciled and healed and beautified. Lord, we say thank you for being the one that searches Until. If you're willing, I just want to invite you to stand with me as I close. We're going to pray together. I. I want to pray over anybody in the room that today you'd say, yeah, that's me, man, I am lost. But before I do that. Could I. Could I pray over those of us maybe you've been in church for a little while and, and you know, when you read the Bible, you always make fun of the Pharisees because you know they're the religious. If you've been walking with the Lord for a long time, can I tell you, you have way more in common with, with the Pharisees than you do the tax collectors. It's so easy for us after we've been saved for a couple of years to turn our noses up at lost people, to turn our noses up at new people, to turn our noses up at, at people who are seeking. And maybe they come from a different denomination, maybe they come from a different religious paradigm. It's so easy for us to be judgmental and keep them at a distance. But just like we prayed as we kicked off, I want to invite you to pray. Sweep the house. Lord, take inventory of my heart, Lord, if I'm neglecting the very people that you gave your life for, God, I pray that you would break my heart for what breaks your heart. I pray in repentance today that you would move upon us as a house. And I pray we would become so passionate about the lost of Dallas and Fort Worth and the surrounding areas that we would not give up until every college, university sees revival. Until. Till every high school experiences a move of God. Until I'm praying that for you. So, Lord, sweep the house today. Sweep the house today. Sweep the house today. I just want to take a moment, if you don't mind. Just bow your head, close your eyes. I have to believe that there's some people in the room today on Palm Sunday. Maybe it was through the illustration of the hundred dollar bill, or maybe it was just through hearing the presentation of who Jesus is and what Jesus is. Like you said to yourself, perhaps under your breath, yep, that's me right there. Lost. This was my last ditch effort today, coming to church. If that's you, I want to pray for you also. If you're in here and you would acknowledge today, man, I am so far from God. I've been popping up at church every now and then, but if I'm honest today, Pastor, my heart is so far from God. I am that lost coin. So for anybody in the room, if you're lost struggling and you need to make a commitment today to give your life to Jesus, I want to pray with you. And if that's you, will you just lift your hand? I don't want you to even think about it. I just want you to lift your hand. I see you guys. Right here in the middle. I see you guys. Awesome. If you just need to rededicate your life to Jesus today, will you also lift your hand? I want to pray with you. Amazing. Come on. Hallelujah. Can we pray all together as a church over every single heart that has lifted their hand to say, Jesus, I need you, Jesus, I need you to find me, Jesus. I'm the lost coin. Let's pray together. Say Jesus. Come on, everybody say, Jesus, I repent of my sins. I turn from my ways and I turn towards you. Holy Spirit, help me, guide me and lead me all the days of my life. I belong to you. In Jesus name we pray and everybody said, can we put our hands together for all of the lost coming home today? And can you lift your hands in worship? Oh, Lord, we praise you today and we say, thank you for finding us, Lord. We say thank you for finding us, Lord. We say thank you for coming to get us. We love you, Lord. In Jesus name, amen and amen. Hey, can you help me thank Pastor Lyle for that incredible word? Come on, I think we can do better than that.