our conversation is centered on creating safe spaces and i really want to kick it off by reading
this scripture in ezekiel 34 from verse 4 to 6. so it says the weak you have not strengthened
the sick you have not healed the injured you have not bound up the straight you have not
brought back the lost you have not sought and with force and harshness you have ruled them
so they were scattered because there was no shepherd and they became food for all the wild
beasts my sheep were scattered they wandered over all the mountains and on every hill my sheep were
scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search or seek for them now in this scripture
the lord is communicating to certain shepherds that have lost sight of their responsibilities
and he was communicating that through the prophet ezekiel what stood out to me so much is that he
calls the weak the lost the broken all of that he says these are my sheep not people that will be
my sheep when they have transformation when they get it together that in the messiness of their
situation that the lord identified them as his sheep and i think we begin to change um not even
you know where we see brokenness sometimes like in the body that that perspective begins
to change when we embrace how to see people the way jesus sees people to recognize that
the messiness of your situation because that can be expressed in so many ways that can be expressed
in someone who's dealing with lust it dealing with jealousy dealing with an identity crisis
all kinds of things but that jesus looks and he says these are still my sheep the truth of
it is that for any of us and really for all of us but for those watching as well that when you come
into christ there is a transformation that takes place through the intimacy of that relationship
but transformation now becomes the fruit and the evidence of the relationship but what it takes to
get there is a lot of shedding a lot of unlearning and literally people on a journey now i have been
in certain you know church settings and it wasn't really about the leadership of the house having
a judgmental mindset but again the church is for all people right everyone walks in and there are
times where you will see where people can be a bit judgmental or even just christians being a
bit judgmental because your way of following jesus does not look like my way of following him but i
believe it's getting back to the word of god god looks at the lost god looked at the the scattered
god looked at all of that and he said this are my sheep and again there is the institution
of pastors prophets evangelists and all of that and in this scripture when he's talking about
shepherds i believe that we are all shepherds to some capacity some of us are shepherds in our home
some of us are shepherds in the church some of us are shepherds for our community
there are teachers that could be watching this and your shepherds to your the kids in your classroom
and so at the end of the day it's coming to this place that hey when someone's outlook on life
when so the way someone carries themselves it may not look like what i believe is the way in christ
but maybe you're still in that seed stage maybe there's still a work that god is doing in you
and i have no knowledge of you know our job as believers is to point people to jesus and it is
the holy spirit's work to bring transformation and as long as i can say hey i'm going to point
you to him by being a representation of his love and his truth and i love it so much that jesus
not even eloquently jesus has the balance of truth and grace right because sometimes
we can say yes i can speak the truth about maybe the way your lifestyle doesn't match
up with the word of the lord but there is also the grace that follows it to say you know what
you're on a journey and i may not understand your journey because i'm not the one that created you
but it is my job and it is my role to love you and it's my role to point you to jesus some of
my closest friends today are people who literally felt like they didn't have a place in the kingdom
of god they didn't have a place in relationship with god simply because they felt like they were
condemned a lot based on their lifestyles and it's so crazy the power of just letting someone know
not only are you loved by god but you are also loved by me that you don't have to change for me
to love you that's the work of the holy spirit and one of the things that the lord began to
highlight to me so um just really greatly was the case of the lepers in the scripture
and that we as a church should not be aligned with the kingdom of darkness to bring people
to this place of feeling like because everyone else rejects me maybe the lord rejects me too
we see this particular story in matthew that there was a leopard that went to jesus and he said
lord if you're willing cleanse me it was not that lord i'm not sure if you have the power i
recognize that you're all powerful and i recognize that you do this for other people but i'm a leper
society calls me an outcast and somehow i've seen how they treat me to think that maybe this is how
you're going to treat me so if you're willing then you would do this for me and jesus first
of all touches him he does a thing that you're not even supposed to do with lepers and then he says
i am willing and this is who we are called to be as a body this is who we are called to be as
believers and this is how we create safe spaces when we say i see you the way the lord sees you
you are his sheep you are loved and i will let the holy spirit do that work of transformation
most definitely i love that you said that all of this messiness was being called gods
god was claiming all of the messiness because i think we create this false dichotomy between
the lost and those who know jesus as like the broken and the perfect the messy and the organized
you know like for some reason outside the church door is chaos like walk through the church doors
suddenly everything's fine and anyone i'll use this example it's like getting married right
one day we're not married then we speak about 50 words we promise to do something for the rest of
our lives we form this relationship and then all of a sudden at that moment we're supposed to know
how to be married we're never supposed to have a fight we're never supposed to have a problem
when we become the bride of christ we still got to grow up some growing to do there's a learning
curve that's still there and i think we make it unsafe for people because there's this expectation
that of the before and after salvation moment where the after is just going to be everything's
fine and there's no messiness here and so then when people find themselves struggling
there's a shame associated with it because we haven't made space
for people to safely address the growth healing learning curve that this life with jesus is
you know when we come to jesus our spirits are changed instantly but then our minds have to be
renewed every part of our lives have to be renewed and not just once god continues to renew us over
and over again you know i think as as believers and as leaders in the church or people who have
been walking as christians for a long time i know for me when i really focus on being like him
then the only time i have left really to do anything is just to love i i have time to love
people where they are because when you've walked with the lord you know where you've come from
and it's so important there's so many scriptures in the bible that tells you to remember
not to forget you know and and the thing is it's so important to understand that
like she said when you come into christ you're a baby you're a new creation old things are
past all things are new but the new things you have to learn how to do at tbn our mission is
to use every available means to reach as many individuals and families as possible with the
life-changing gospel of jesus christ thank you for helping make the gospel of grace go around
the world and it's because of you that partner with us that this ministry continues god bless you