So good to be in the house of the lord.
I’ll never forget 1 Saturday afternoon when I was sixteen years old.
I walked in the kitchen, and my father was grilling hamburgers that Saturday afternoon. I was like, yeah.
I’m hungry, dad. He said, great.
He said, can you run to the store for me and pick up a few little items?
I just need some mustard, some pickles, just a just a couple little items. I said, absolutely.
I mean, I was sixteen years old just waiting to get behind the wheel.
Any excuse to drive, and I was right there. So he went to give me his keys.
And as he was giving me the keys, he said, now look, Victoria, He said, I want you to go straight to the grocery store.
I want you to come straight back. And don’t open the passenger side window. Don’t roll it down.
Because it’s off the tracks. And he said, I have to get it repaired next week.
So don’t open the window. I took the keys from his hand, and I rushed out the back door, jumped in the car, cranked it up, drove down the street to my best girlfriend’s house, and picked her up.
I said, we’re going to the grocery store.
As we were on our way to the grocery store, about to leave the neighborhood, we saw some of our friends who lived in the neighborhood walking down the sidewalk.
So we started waving. I said, let’s pull over so they can see us driving.
So we pull over I said, roll down the window so we can say, hi.
She looks at me, and she said, I thought she said the window was broken. I said, it’s okay.
It’ll be fine this time. This one time won’t hurt anything.
So she rolls the window down, and we talk to our friends.
And I’ll never forget as I was driving off, She was rolling that window back back up, and it was as if time stood still.
That window shattered in 1,000,000 pieces. I looked at that window.
I couldn’t believe it. Millions of pieces. I looked at my girlfriend.
I said, you’re going home with me.
Listen, I’ll never forget driving that car home thinking, what am I gonna tell my father?
Drove up the driveway, walked in the back door, and there he stood in the kitchen.
With the biggest knot in my throat, I said, dad, I gotta tell you something.
I did everything you told me not to do. I said, dad, I shattered your window.
Please forgive me. I couldn’t believe what I had done.
But, you know, that Saturday afternoon is a sixteen year old girl.
I’ll never forget my dad’s response to me.
As I looked at my father, and he looked back at me, and I’m sure he was disappointed.
He looked at me with eyes of compassion.
It was as if he looked past my failure, past my mistake.
Somehow, he saw a daughter on a journey. And he showed me unconditional love that day.
He didn’t berate me He didn’t tell me how terrible I was.
Somehow, he found it in himself to look over my faults and show me his love.
Can I tell you if an earthly father can do such a thing?
How much more does our heavenly father? Look at us today.
Through eyes of compassion and love, So often we feel like he’s looking at our mistakes, counting our failures against us.
But can I tell you the scripture says when we were yet sinners?
Before we even knew what was right and what was wrong, he looked down through the corridors of Tom, and he said, I love you unconditionally.
That is the heart of the father.
Now your story might not be the same with your earthly father. I don’t know.
But I can tell you it has helped me understand the love of my heavenly father.
You see, that day, I had to do something.
I had to admit what I did, and then I had to ask for forgiveness.
Then I took it one step further. I had to receive his forgiveness.
Because see, it was up to me at that point.
Was I going to make a decision that my father loved me and that he indeed forgave me?
And I could shake off the shame, shake off the guilt, because, see, there was something really important that I needed to do.
I needed to have a relationship with his father in my life.
And if I was going to draw back and not feel like I was good enough, I would have never come and asked you for the keys again.
But guess what? I did. I asked you for the keys again. And he gave them to me.
I’m saying all that to say. Some of you have shrunk back.
You’re not asking god for the keys again. You’re saying he couldn’t possibly want that for me.
How could I possibly achieve that? Man, I make a mistake all the time.
I I I can’t get to where god wants me to be.
If I even ask him, will he even hear me? Can I tell you?
Your heavenly father is not looking at what you’re doing wrong, He’s looking at what you’re doing right.
He sees your 2 good moves. Yeah. You may have blown it. You may have even blown it yesterday.
Well, can I tell you when you come and you say, god, forgive me?
He sees us as a work in progress. We are sons and daughters in progress.
And he’s not holding that against us.
So he didn’t tell you something when I asked my dad for the keys again?
He didn’t say to me. Well, don’t forget what you did. Don’t forget how you wronged me.
He didn’t come at me with guilt and condemnation.
And I wanna remind you today if you’re not asking for the keys, because you feel guilty, maybe a little ashamed.
Maybe you can’t even believe god would do that. That is not of god. That is the accuser.
And those are the things you’re gonna have to shake off and make a decision today When I ask god for forgiveness, he freely forgives me.
He pardons me. Luke Twel says He takes great pleasure in giving you the kingdom.
That tells me he’s got some keys for you today. You gotta ask you, don’t walk timid before god.
He likes boldness. He likes tenacity. Listen. God has come boldly before the throne of grace.
So you can obtain mercy and find help in your time of need. See, there’s the key right there.
You gotta be bold. You gotta ask for forgiveness. You gotta receive it.
You gotta forgive yourself, and then you gotta know that god’s gonna help you get to where you need to be.
Amen, he’s a good father. Thank you for watching this message.
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