Find a Way

What do you do when you desperately want someone to know Jesus, but every way you’ve tried to reach them seems blocked?

In Jeremiah 36:1–7, God gives Jeremiah a message for a people He longs to restore. But there’s a problem: Jeremiah cannot go where the people are. The obstacle is real. Instead of allowing it to become the end of the mission, Jeremiah finds another way.

In “Find a Way,” the first message in the Burning Scrolls sermon series, Pastor Jason Barnett challenges Christians who believe, attend church, and genuinely care about people, but may have quietly settled into “we tried.” What happens when our heart for the lost begins to align with God’s heart for restoration?

This Christian sermon explores evangelism, sharing your faith, reaching people for Jesus, biblical restoration, Christian discipleship, and faithfully carrying God’s Word when familiar methods no longer work.

Who is the person you want to see restored to God? What obstacle has made reaching them difficult? And is there another way?

If their restoration matters to God, it should matter enough to us to find a way.

Linkoln shares his story on why he started coming to Ravenna Church of the Nazarene and shares why you should consider doing the same.

Ravenna Church of the Nazarene
530 Main Street, Ravenna, KY 40472

Transcript

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Pastor Jason 0:00

What if the reason people aren't being reached isn't because they don't want Jesus, but because we've stopped finding ways to reach them. I'm Pastor Jason Marnet, and this isn't our Pastor My Podcast. I should probably give you a little warning before we get started. I'm a little more passionate in this sermon than I intended to be. I've just been a difficult season, and apparently some of that fire followed me into the pulpit. So I came into Sunday with this determination that darkness doesn't get the last word. God is still restoring people, God is still changing lives, and the church still has a mission worth giving ourselves to. We're starting with a simple question. What happens when there's somebody you desperately want to see restore to God, but there's a very real obstacle standing between you and reaching them? So grab your coffee, settle in, and forgive the preacher if he if he gets a little fired up this week. Let's hit the dirt path. I think at this point, most of you, you know the story of how Nicole and I met. Right? Most of you know that story. If you know, that's a really fun story. It's a really long story, but I don't have time to tell you the whole version today. So I'm just gonna give it to you in one terribly crafted sentence. Three hours of pickup lines, Christian Mingle. That's that's all you need to know. That's how Nicole and I met. And so after Nicole and I started dating, I thought that was the end of my days coming up with these bad, terrible pickup lines. But believe it or not, God gave me another fantastic use for them. And it was as I was working with teenagers, and I was working with a lot of these young teenage boys, and they needed to learn how to talk to girls that they were interested in. So I found a new direction to channel that energy to help them. Now, I will say I didn't just give them pickup lines, okay? I did teach them to be themselves. I did teach them to approach them and actually strike up a conversation and not be super weird about it most of the time at work, not very often. And I I and I also taught them that if she says no, no means no. Go away, right? But but but really also my other main point for them was too, if she says no, at least make sure she remembers you with a smile and a laugh later in life. You know? And so that was so that was what I would do. I would I would help these young guys out. I would feed them lines and send them in to watch what happened. Now, one of my favorite memories was with me and two of the boys. One of them was a high school student, one of them had just graduated. Both of them were homeschooled, so they they really needed some help interacting. And I remember one of the older boys, he we were walking through the mall together, and he sees this girl that he liked, he wanted to go talk to. And she worked at the Lady Footwalker, and that was a problem for him. He's like, but I don't have any reason to go into the Lady Footwalker. And so keep in mind, this kid, he had a he had a sister that was younger. He has a mom, right? Christmas comes every year, birthdays come every year, and sometimes, sometimes brothers and sons can just be nice for no reason at all. Right? Like, don't tell my sister that I said that or Nicole's sisters. Um, but but brothers can be nice for no reason at all. And so I gave I gave this kid some advice on this situation about this girl he wanted to go talk to. And my advice was deeply profound. It was you find a reason. You make up something, you think of a reason to go in there so you can talk to her. Um he did it, he didn't eventually go and talk to her, but I won't tell the rest of that story for now, but but my point to him was if if you really want to talk to this girl, if really if getting to know her and getting to know her name and wanting to go on and think this girl is really important to you, you will be creative and you will find a way. Right? That's what we do. That's what happens when something or someone really matters to us. We will find a way. And see, when we encounter, and sometimes though, as we're trying to find a way, we will encounter obstacles like this kid did with the lady footwalker. It's an obstacle. And sometimes an obstacle can be an excuse, but sometimes an obstacle is an obstacle. It means we have to stop, examine it, and figure out what we're gonna do. But if it really matters to us, what's really important, we will find a way to make sure that obstacle is not the end of the story. But too often we'll come to an obstacle and we'll say, Well, I tried. I tried. Teacher, I was gonna do my homework, but the cults were on yesterday, so I'm sorry I tried. Too big of an obstacle. Okay, that's a really poor example. But we come up to real obstacles that really matter, but rather than trying to find a way around, rather than trying to do other than we just like, yeah, well, oh well. Again, I'm not making light of obstacles, and again, I'm not making I'm not saying that you know, when we say there's an obstacle, we're just making an excuse. It can be a legit explanation to why this makes it hard, why this is a problem. But my question for us today is what happens when we run into an obstacle? When I'm talking about running into house, what happens when we run into an obstacle for the mission that's in front of us? It might be a legitimate obstacle in the way, but what are we gonna do about it? And I think that is the question that Jeremiah 36 is gonna answer for us today as we dig into it. So we're gonna be in Jeremiah chapter 36. I'm gonna be reading verses 1 through 7. And it says, it's my turn to butcher some names this morning. Jeremiah chapter 36, starting at verse 1, it says, In the fourth year of Judah's king, Jehaiakim, Josiah's son, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Take a scroll and write in at all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations from the time of Josiah until now. Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I intend to bring upon them, they will turn from their evil ways, and I will forgive their wrongdoing and sins. So Jeremiah sent for Baruch, Mariah's son. That's Jeremiah had dictated all the words that the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them in the scroll. Then Jeremiah told Baruch, I'm confined here and can't go to the Lord's temple. So you go to the temple on the next day of fasting and read the Lord's words from the scroll that I have dictated to you. Read them so that all the people in the temple can hear them. As well as all the Judeans who have come from their towns. If they turn from their evil ways, perhaps the Lord will hear their prayers. The Lord has threatened them with fierce anger. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Alright. Now just notice when you read the book of Jeremiah, there's a reason why Jeremiah is known as a weeping prophet. There's not a whole lot in there to get excited and cheerful about, okay? But let me give you some context to what's going on here. Who here has read through the book of Jeremiah before? Well, if you read through the book of Jeremiah, you'll notice that Jeremiah has a very unique way of telling the story and sharing his prophecies. It's not written in chronological order. One minute you'll be talking about the fall of Jerusalem, next minute you'll be talking about his early days in ministry. He bounces around and sharing what God tells you to share. So Jeremiah is very interesting in that department. Now, chapter 36 actually takes place way before the chapters right before it. The chapters right before it and right after it talk about the fall of Jerusalem. Talk about the seizure of Jerusalem by Babylon. But here in chapter 36, Jeremiah is going back to the early days of King Jehoiakim. The early days of his ministry, where he first starts sharing these prophecies. So in verse 1, when it says in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, right? That's what it says in verse 1. To us, that doesn't mean a whole lot, right? It's like, okay, great. I can even tell you it's around the year 605, 604 BC. That's what year it happened around. I just told you that date. You're probably thinking, okay, great, I don't care. This isn't history class. There's no quiz going to take place. I'm not going to remember that date. But to the Jewish people, to God's people living in Jerusalem at this time, this is a date they remember. This isn't a date that's important to them. Why? Because this is the year that Egypt gets defeated by Babylon. See, up to this point, God's people are kind of a vassal state. Matter of fact, Jehoiakim is made king. Yes, he's the son of Josiah, a very godly and righteous king that loved the Lord. But Jehoiakim is made king because Egypt takes power and puts him on the throne. And all of a sudden, this bigger nation that was their protector and their watchers, all of a sudden, they just got whooped by the Babylonians. So this is at the doorstep of a national crisis. They know this is not a good situation for them to be in. They are concerned. You see, Jeremiah, he'd been warning Judah for years that they need to repent to turn to God. Because remember, God's people have a covenant with God. It's basically, I will be your God, you'll be my people, right? But but for that, God's like, I'll be there for you, I'll be with you. I've built my temple here to show you my presence is here. But this promises covenant is only gonna work is if you keep your side of it too. And God's people don't keep their side of it. So Jeremiah's task is trying to tell these people that think they're okay because they have God's temple in their country that they're not okay. You can imagine that made him very popular. That's sarcasm if you didn't know that. He was not very popular.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah. So let's move into verse two here.

Pastor Jason 12:58

I could camp out in the context section of that sermon all day to it, because there's so much there, but that'd be boring for you all and exciting for me. So verse 2. This is this is kind of the meat of the text we're gonna start getting into here. It says, take God tells Jeremiah, take a scroll and write in it all the words I have spoken to you. Remember, Jeremiah, this is so for Jeremiah, God's not saying, Hey, I need you to go write a new sermon for today. He's saying, remember all those messages I gave you before? It's time to write them down. I want you to write them down so the people can hear them, so people can read them. Remember, Jeremiah's been preaching this, he's been saying it, he's been talking about it. And God's like, alright, that's not working. They're not paying attention, so let's try writing it down. And so Jeremiah's message, the message that God gave Jeremiah to give them, the message itself isn't changing. The message is staying the same, but you know what is changing? How that message is getting delivered. It's going to be delivered in a different way now. So that's what God tells Jeremiah in verse 2. Then you go on to verse 3. And actually in verse 3, he tells us why God wants Jeremiah to do this. He says, Perhaps they will turn from their evil ways and I will forgive them. So Jeremiah's been preaching all these messages about, hey, if you don't stop doing what you're doing and turn back to God, bad things are going to happen to you. It's a message of warning, right? It's a message of, you know, there are consequences to sin and disobedience. Following God doesn't mean you're going to do whatever you want. Just having the temple of God doesn't make you immune from committing sin and doing things that displease God. So that's the message Jeremiah's been saying. But he's not saying it because he's trying to scare him straight. Because here's the thing: when you scare people, when you use fear to try and manipulate people, it only works for a little while. It only works while they're afraid. But when fear wears off, so does the commitment. But understand God's heart behind this warning, the reason he gives this message is not because God wants to destroy them. We don't serve a God that's sitting up there with a newspaper waiting to swatch you and smash you like a bug or strike you with a lightning bolt. No, God gives this message to Jeremiah because God's heart is God wants to restore the relationship between him and his people. That is always God's heart. Yes, we serve a God that is all-powerful and almighty, but you know what governs God's power and his mightiness? He doesn't just use his power to put it on display and say, I'm the one in charge. God uses his power to display his love. His love is what controls his power. This is a side quest. I might have a few of these today, but you see, we live in a world that bases everything on who has the power, who's in charge. That's not the way God's kingdom operates. God's kingdom operates like who loves the most. That's not my notes. We'll keep going. Alright, verse two. So again, this message, it's not changing, it's the delivery is changing based on what God wants him to say. But God's heart is still the same, no matter what the message says. And then that those words are interesting, right? That word perhaps. God's giving them a genuine opportunity. He's gonna, he's like, he's like, I'm giving you this chance to stop what you're doing and turn around. And that word turn literally means turn back or return. So again, this verse gives a glimpse into God's heart. So we know God God gave this, God gave his word to Jeremiah again, changed the delivery system. Now Jeremiah is supposed to share it with the people. But Jeremiah has a problem. He has a very big problem. In verse 5, it tells us what the problem is. Jeremiah says, I'm confined here and I can't go to the Lord's temple. Now, if you're like me and ask questions, I was that kid in Sunday school class that always asked the teacher a thousand questions because I always had a thousand questions. And I would have asked the teacher, well, why can't Jeremiah go to the temple? Why can't he do it? Well, we don't really, no one really knows for sure why you can't go there. So my confident answer to you today is we don't know why he couldn't go there. Give you some of the speculate things. It may have been possible he was ceremonially unclean, right? For a Jewish person to be unclean meant they couldn't go to the temple. Like they touched a dead body or they touched something that was considered unclean. That would make them unclean, so they couldn't go to the temple. So that might be why Jeremiah couldn't go. Personally, now again, this is this is speculative theology. I can't prove this to you. This is just based on what I know about Jeremiah and the book of Jeremiah. I think Jeremiah couldn't go to the temple because the last time they went, they tried the killing. And to understand why they tried to kill him, he went to the temple and he and basically his sermon, and you can read this earlier in the book of Jeremiah, he's like, his sermon is, you think you're safe because you have the temple. This building means nothing without following the God who gave it to you. That's the sermon he preached in the temple to the people that were leaders of the temple. You can kind of imagine how they responded. They loved it so much they tried to kill him. So that's how that went. So I personally I think that's why he's like, I can't go back there. If I go back there, I'm not even gonna get a chance to talk, they're gonna lock me up, burn the scroll, and kill me. But now we have a problem, don't we? Because God gave Jeremiah this word that he was supposed to write down, take it to the temple and share with God's people, because God's heart was for these people to turn away from the path of destruction that they were on and follow God. But Jeremiah says, I can't go there. He runs into this obstacle. But understand something, the obstacle didn't change Jeremiah's mission, didn't change the goal behind it, it didn't diminish God's word. It meant Jeremiah had to find a way. So in verses 6 and 7, and I'll kind of give you a fill in a little bit of this, Jeremiah calls for Baruch, right? Baruch is a scribe. He's a professional writer. Kind of Jeremiah's secretary. And actually, a lot of scholars believe he really helped write much of the book of Jeremiah. In fact, one of my commentaries refers to the later part of Jeremiah as the book of Baruch instead of the book of Jeremiah. And so he comes and actually when Jeremiah starts writing, having, you know, having all his sermons wrote down, it's Baruch who records them. He just dictates them to him. And as this is taking place, I don't know if it happens immediately or if it happened before he got there. This is a plan, but somewhere along the lines, Jeremiah realizes I can't go to the temple. But Baruch can. My voice, what God wanted me to say, is already wrote down on this scroll thing. It's already written in this book. I can't go there and read it, but you know you can, Baruch can. So he simply tells Baru, hey, I want you to take this there. On the day of fasting, which I think I skipped that part on the slide because that but that was important. And he tells him to go on the day of fasting. Now we don't know if this was an annual day of fasting or if it was an emergency call to fasting. Because again, remember what just happened, right? The Babylonians whooped up on the Egyptians. And so the man the nation's in a panic. They know they're in trouble. They've been hearing Jeremiah's messages for a few years up to this point. And so, because the nation was scared, oftentimes the Jewish officials say, hey, let's just do a national fast. Let's all just go and pray, cry out to God, and see what God does. But for whatever reason, there's there's a national fast that's been declared. And so all these people are gonna be at the temple on this day, and Jeremiah knows this. Jeremiah knows I can't go there, but this is the opportunity to read this scroll so as many people can hear it as they can. So again, rather than try and go and do it himself, because he couldn't, because the obstacle was real, Jeremiah found a way, and his way was I'm gonna give this to Mark, and Baruch's gonna go and then he's gonna read. And he tells them, read them, read them so all the people can hear them. Because if they turn from their evil ways, perhaps the Lord will hear their prayers. There's something beautiful about that. Because do you know something? Verse 3 and verse 7 essentially say the same thing. What was God's desire? God was desirous for his people to turn back from their evil ways and be restored to the covenant with him. And here in this last of this last verse we're looking at this morning, it's verse 7. The prophet's heart is the same heart as God's heart. His heart is aligned with God's heart. He wants what God wants. God wants the people restored. Jeremiah wants to see the people restored. You see, the prophet's heart is aligned with God's heart. His mission is God's mission. The message is God's message. You see, Jeremiah loves God, he loves his neighbor, he loves his country, he loves his countrymen, and he loves them so much that he knows that they have this not just because God's told him, he knows because his heart's aligned with God's heart. He knows this message he has is so important, somebody has to tell them. He knows I can't go. There's this real obstacle, right? I can't go there. But this message has to be told. And I care, I love him so much, I care so much that I'm going to send Baruch to do it for me to make sure that they hear this message. Jeremiah doesn't get to the obstacle of I can't go to the temple and say, oh well, I tried. No, his inability to go to the temple matters less because the people beyond it matter more. Right? He cares more about making sure the people hear what God wants them to hear than the obstacle itself. So he finds a way. That is our lesson in this passage for us today. You see, you and I, we have the complete good news of Jesus Christ. Right? We know that Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. We know that he rose again, trampling death and giving us victory. We know that he rose again and sent the Holy Spirit, and now we can live in triumphal victory over sin and death in our life, not just later, but here and now. That is the complete good news of Jesus Christ. We have that, we possess it. Not of our own abilities, not of our own ingenuity, but of God's grace and our faith in Jesus. And to be honest, though, God's message now really isn't that different from Jeremiah's message. Right? Like we have a fuller picture, but Jeremiah's message is the same message. He's saying the same thing. Our God is not about destruction. He's not about destruction. He's not about destroying people. Yes, there is a difference between a sinner who doesn't repent and dies and a believer who professes faith and walks in that faith. There is a difference, right? There's a different destination. I'm not denying that today. But God, I understand God's will is not for that person to die and go to hell. That's not what God wants. If God wanted that, he wouldn't have sent Jesus to provide a way around that. What God wants is for each and every one of us to put our faith in Jesus and then we be restored to a relationship with God. God wants those outside the faith to turn toward him.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Everyone outside the faith to turn toward him.

Pastor Jason 25:55

And here's the thing: if their restoration matters to God, it should matter to us. And if it matters to us, it should matter to us to find a way to share the good news with them. Again, I'm not talking about forcing things to happen, right? I'm not talking about being a spiritual SWAT team kicking down people's doors. Be like, go to church. I had a friend one time that missed Sunday school, and one of the Sunday school teachers went to his house, got in his bedroom, and drug him out and got him on the church fan. I'm not talking about doing that. That kid's not in church to this day. I'm not saying that was the reason for it, but that was not exactly a good picture of what God wants us to do. We don't need to be like this polar bear trying to get to this guy. If I was the guy, I'd be a little leery of the polar bear telling me about, I want to talk to you about Jesus too. I'm not so sure. I think the polar bear is ready for lunch. Which I should have said lunch, but now you're all ready for lunch, so. Oops. Alright. So I'm not talking about forcing things to happen. I'm not talking about spiritual SWAT teams to kick down the words. But my question is, because of this passage, is how deeply are we committed to getting the message of Jesus to the people who need it most?

SPEAKER_02 27:13

How committed to that are you? How committed to that am I?

Pastor Jason 27:20

And remember, verses three and seven, right? Verse three shows God's heart. God's heart is that all people, that his people be restored to him. And we know through Jesus that that extends to all people. Verse 7 shows the prophet, right? His heart is aligned with God's heart. And what does the prophet want when his heart's aligned with God's heart? He wants to see people restored to God. He wants to see his countrymen off the brink of destruction and walking in relationship with their God. It's that desire for restoration that should drive our effort. That's what I'm talking about this morning. If our desire is to really to get the good news of Jesus Christ to lost and broken people, then that should be the effort that drives us above everything else. Everything else should bow to that one mission. Everything else should fit into that mission. Seeing lost people saved is not the side mission of the church. It is the mission. There is no other mission. And if we get focused on anything else, we're focused on the wrong things. And when we get focused on the wrong things, the church stops paying the church and it starts becoming a country club. It starts becoming a museum. And I'll be honest with you, I am a pastor that has zero interest in being a museum caretaker. I have zero interest in being a part of a church that has no interest in reaching lost people. I am here for one reason only. I've been called for one reason only, and that is to share the good news of Jesus with anyone and everyone who can hear them. And I will do whatever it takes to get in front of one more person. Not because I want it to be cool, not because I want to be popular. I couldn't give a care about my name. I don't care. Matter of fact, my dirt, my my social media house called the Dirt Path Pastor. You know why? I don't care that they don't know my name. I want them to know Jesus. Because I can't save them. Our church really can't save.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

We know who can save if Jesus can.

Pastor Jason 29:37

It's that desire for restoration that drives the effort. Because finding a way is not about attendance or programs, it's about people.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

That's what it boils down to. It's about people.

Pastor Jason 29:55

Not just people collecting, the individual person. And you have to go to them one by one because no one is the same. And they all come with a different story, they all come with different hurts and different problems, but you have to go to them one by one. How do I know that?

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Because that's what Jesus did.

Pastor Jason 30:21

God's heart for people has to become our heart. You see, we can know the message. But we can do so with a heart that lacks the commitment and love for those who need it. Do we genuinely want to see people restored? And here's the thing, obstacles demonstrate our desires.

unknown 30:48

Right?

Pastor Jason 30:48

When we come up to an obstacle and try to reach someone for Jesus, do we say, oh well, too bad. Well, I tried. Yeah, I'm not I'm not trying to diminish the obstacle. I'm not trying to say we're making excuses, right? Because there are sometimes real obstacles that you're gonna run into, real problems that you're gonna have to address and work through. But I don't think we can get to heaven and say to God that we gave it our best when we said, oh well, I tried. If that's a response, do we when we were when we get to option, is that how we respond, or do we respond like our neighbor's life depends on it? Think about it. If you were watching your neighbor's house get flooded and watching them get washed down the stream, would you just stand there and watch them? Would you do everything you could to try and get them out of that river to a safe spot?

SPEAKER_02 31:49

What would you do?

Pastor Jason 31:51

You would do everything, I hope, to try and save them. Think about the firefighters, right? Actually, 9-11 just passed. That building, those buildings were on fire. They could collapse at any minute, but you know what? You see video after video of them walking inside. You know why? Because someone's life depended on them getting in there and getting to them. That's the desperation I'm talking about. And it can't just be the pastor or the associate pastor, it can't just be the church board, it has to be every single one of us who call ourselves by the name of Jesus. We have to have that same desperation. If we want to carry on the faith tradition that was handed down to us by the apostles, that's who we have to become. If we want to reach this broken, messed up world that we live in with all these problems. If you want to do that, that's who we have to become. Why do we have to become that? Why is it that way? It's because we see it in Jesus. Jesus shows us God's heart. That's who our God is. Right? We were so lost in sin that we did not know we needed God. But God didn't say, oh well, he didn't say, I tried. What did he do? He sent his one and only son. He took it. But as in John 1.14, it says, the word became flesh and made his home among us. God became flesh and crossed the distance. Why? Because our restoration mattered that much to him. He was that desperate to do it.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

So if that's God's heart, that needs to be what our heart is becoming. I'm not sitting here telling you I achieved it or I'm right there. There's still moments where Jason gets in the way.

Pastor Jason 33:49

But when I decided to follow Jesus, when I was sanctified to God, I surrendered my will to you. I stood before that group of people at my ordination service and made a promise before God, the Church of the Nazarene. My promise was my life, my everything is given to Jesus to see one more person get saved. And that's all that happens in my ministry. One more person makes it, it was worth it. And if that's God's heart, that needs to be what our heart is becoming. So right now, I want you to think about someone in your life right now. One person. Maybe it's a family member. Maybe it's a friend, a neighbor, or someone you work with. And hey, maybe it's someone you've invited before. Maybe it's somebody you've been praying for for a long time. And again, I understand. I'm not saying that you haven't tried. I'm not saying you haven't tried your hardest. I'm not saying that's not what you want. And I come across a little harsher today than I have intended to. But hopefully you hear the hope behind this is this. My call to you is don't give up. Don't give up because you run into an obstacle. That obstacle is not the end of the story. That obstacle isn't a spot where you say, well, well, I tried, I give up now.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

Who do you generally want to see restored to God?

Pastor Jason 35:25

Now we guys talk about now what is the obstacle? What's between them and Jesus?

SPEAKER_02 35:39

Again, I know, I know you're thinking. I've been there too. I've tried and I've tried. I've done everything I know to do. Again, I'm not I'm not diminishing how how how real that is.

Pastor Jason 35:52

But right now, I want you in your mind, I want you to bring that person and bring that obstacle before God and ask, God, is there another way? Show me something. Again, this is not about forcing something to happen, right? You can't force somebody to give their life to Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

It's what this is about, it's about not giving up.

Pastor Jason 36:17

Actually, one of my favorite movies, you'd be shocked to know this, it's a football movie. It's called Friday Night Lights. It's about a high school football team in Texas. And they they're projected to go win the state championship that year, but their starter running back gets hurt in the very first game of the season, the very first drive. And so this whole movie, they scrap and they claw and they barely make the playoffs. They get in the playoffs, they run the table, get all the way to the championship game, and they're up against this team from Dallas that's just, they look like they're the Dallas Cowboys. But for the movie, they probably were the Dallas Cowboys. Probably just as good as the Dallas Cowboys, which that was a knock at the Dallas Cowboys. But um, anyway, this team was big, and in the first half of this game, this team is getting whooped. They're getting it handed to them. And they go in the locker room, and the coach gets to the front of the room, and he says, I'm probably gonna butcher it. If you watch it, you'll you'll you'll be able to see it. But he says something to the effect of, boys, I want you to look at each of your teammates and each of your coaches in the eyes. I want you to to leave that field today, knowing that you get you did everything that you could, that there wasn't one more thing you could have done out there on that field. I want you to look at them with love in your hearts. I want you to be able to walk away from that game with love in your hearts because love drove you. You did it for them, you did it for each other. And I think that's what Jesus is calling you to. That's what what Jeremiah is about, right? He he loved his countrymen so much that he found a way. It's about us not looking back and knowing it's about us, yeah. It's about us looking back and knowing that we did everything. We are so compelled by love that we did everything we could. We held nothing back to try and get them to Jesus. Again, it's not about getting something getting someone to come and warm pew. I wouldn't mind that, right? You want to get people to Jesus. At least if you get them in here, they're gonna hear. If your preacher's worth anything, that's not about warming the pew, it's about seeing them restored to God. Seeing them redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. It's about seeing them set free by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what I'm about. That's what I want to see. And sometimes that starts with just a little bit of a crawl. I get just as excited when I see that happen. So again, ask God, is there another way I can reach them? Because here's the thing, because before we ever start looking for another way, before we have the heart to do that, before we know that desire is taken from us, we have to believe that God has not given up on that person. If God's not given up, we can't. Remember your person. Pray for them. Look at the obstacle honestly, then ask God to help you find a way. Because if your restoration matters to God, it should matter enough to us to find a way. Share the message of Jesus with them. Before you move on with your day, I want to give you a moment to respond. During the message, I asked you to think about your person. Who is the person you desperately want to see restored to God? What is the obstacle standing between them and being reached? Don't just move on from those questions. Carry that person with you this week. Pray for them. And bring the obstacle honestly before God and ask, is there another way? But maybe as you listen today, you realize something else. Maybe you are the person who needs to be restored to God. Maybe nobody's ever actually invited you to follow Jesus. Maybe you've listened to sermons, been around Christians, or even spent time in church. But you've never made the decision yourself. Then let me be the person who invites you today. Jesus came for you. God has not given up on you. Whatever your story has been, whatever you've done, and how far away from God you believe you are. You can turn toward him. You can receive his forgiveness. And you can begin following Jesus today. You don't need perfect words. You simply need to come honestly. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you that you are a God who seeks and restores. Thank you that when we were lost, you did not remain distant from us, but you came to us in Jesus. For the person listening to us, someone on their heart right now. Give them your heart for that person. Give them wisdom when they f the way forward seems blocked. And show them where you're already working, and give them the courage and love to follow your lead. And for the person who realizes today that they need your restoring grace, meet them right where they are. As they turn towards you, forgive their sins. Make them new and help them begin walking with Jesus. Fill them with your spirit and surround them with people who will help them grow. And make all of us into people who love others with your love. A love that refuses to give up when restoration still matters to you. If you decide to follow Jesus today, please don't keep that to yourself. I will love to hear from you and help you figure out what taking uh what taking your next steps with Jesus can look like. You can connect with me by email. That's dirtpathpastor at gmail.com. Again, dirtpathpastor at gmail.com all over case. Or find the dirtpathpastor on TikTok and Facebook. And just remember your personal tweak. Keep praying, keep loving. And don't be discouraged by the obstacle in front of you. The God who came looking for us is still at work restoring people. So keep walking the dirt path. Keep carrying the good news of Jesus. And when the way you expect is blocked, ask God if there is another way. Until next time, grace and peace be in the name of Jesus. Thank you for listening to this episode for that time podcast.