Becoming a people of encounter

Do you know Christ or do you just know how to act like a Christian? There is a vast chasm between the two. Any citizen of a western country can sneeze and fulfill 7 of the 10 commandments. But rule following does not a mature Christian make. We can have a form of godliness but deny the desire of God to powerfully encounter his people. If we do this then we can just say words and salvation happens. The plague of humanity is forgetting who God is. God desires to encounter his people and the ways he does this are multifaceted. The path to true healing is the path of encounter. Tune in as Josh dives deep and shows how the path of Christianity is a path of encountering the heart of God and being forever transformed.

For more about Josh and Wind, visit: https://www.windministries.ca/

Transcript

00;00;20;07 - 00;00;27;18
Joshua Hoffert
Every single one of you are here today because on some level, at some point you caught a glimpse of something transcendent.

00;00;31;20 - 00;00;37;18
Joshua Hoffert
You caught a glimpse of something outside of yourself and got a glimpse of something so otherworldly that it attracted you to it.

00;00;40;14 - 00;00;49;06
Joshua Hoffert
And some of us stewarded that really well, some of us pursue that really well, some of us faltering all over things doing.

00;00;51;13 - 00;01;01;28
Joshua Hoffert
And we're having a conversation with an Anglican priest. And I said, well, what would it mean to you if I said that I had an encounter?

00;01;04;02 - 00;01;29;04
Joshua Hoffert
And he said, Well, I met someone. And, you know, in our kind of wheelhouse, we use that type of terminology and it carries with it certain certain expectations of the meaning of the word encounter that that sometimes we have to lay out. So if I said to you, I had an encounter today, you might naturally think I was talking about a moment of prayer.

00;01;29;23 - 00;01;54;20
Joshua Hoffert
But not everybody's going to talk that way because we have certain ways of speaking a certain language that we use to communicate, that communicates. You know, if you go out and call someone in or you go out on the streets and you do some street evangelism and you say that the Lord's calling you to righteousness, the person's have no idea what you mean, because we understand the terminology within our own culture, and there's certain connotations that come with it.

00;01;54;20 - 00;02;13;20
Joshua Hoffert
But once you have to start explaining it, how do you demystify the language of righteousness? You know, you tell someone, we might use that and say, you know, in a prophetic moment I see that you're a person of righteousness with a mean character and integrity and things like that. So we have to find alternative ways to talk about that.

00;02;13;28 - 00;02;56;17
Joshua Hoffert
So one of the things I want to do, we've been we've been using this language, and Tracey, when she did a few months ago, when she started talking about setting the direction of the church, she started using this language that we are a people of encounter. And and she's talked about what that means. And so let's just dive into what it means to be a people of encounter, because I think, you know, I was thinking about this as I was thinking about what to share this morning is that the last time I spoke, if you remember, I shared about Peter going up onto the mountain of Transfiguration and that everything changed when he saw Jesus

00;02;56;17 - 00;03;24;26
Joshua Hoffert
in his divine glory just six days earlier. Jesus was comfortable rebuking Peter. Right. And Peter was comfortable rebuking Jesus the other way around. Don't talk this way, Jesus, about dying like you can't see that. And six days pass amount of transfiguration, all that Peter can do. And he sees Jesus in his transfigured glory and in the divine image.

00;03;24;26 - 00;03;45;01
Joshua Hoffert
And this, this light that's shining off of them is fallen asleep some worship. And so when we talk about encounters, sometimes we put the bar pretty high, you know, like Peter had an encounter with the Divine nature. And and so, you know, we're talking about this life of transformation and healing and our identity and who we are this year.

00;03;45;25 - 00;04;02;13
Joshua Hoffert
And I sometimes I wonder if when we use the language that says we're people of encounter, we make most people think, I can't attain that because we're like, well, I've never had a Peter moment. Right. How many of you ever had a Peter moment where you follow Jesus on to the top of the mountain and saw him transfigured?

00;04;02;14 - 00;04;44;07
Joshua Hoffert
Probably only three people on the history could say that. Peter, James and John. And so what I want it what I want to do is, is talk about that in however much time that Tracey gave me. Just take all the time I need. I'll get to that in a second. I heard this quote this week from a it was a Russian Orthodox monk.

00;04;44;07 - 00;05;14;09
Joshua Hoffert
You said the goal of knowledge is to lead, to experience, to experience God himself. You know, that really made me think like what all this all this preaching and teaching and discipleship and study and everything that we all do like is our end goal, more knowledge. But our culture says that. Our culture says the end goal like that.

00;05;14;16 - 00;05;37;08
Joshua Hoffert
What sets you up for success? Like you think about the whole of Western civilization says What sets you up for success is the acquisition of knowledge. As long as you know enough things, how how are you going to get gainful employment? You get a degree. The degree proves that you know things. The whole system is set up under this idea of acquisition of knowledge and knowledge isn't inherently evil or bad.

00;05;37;08 - 00;06;07;18
Joshua Hoffert
Of course, knowledge can be incredibly helpful, but knowledge that doesn't when it comes to the Christian life, knowledge that doesn't lead to encounter actually leads to cross to Christianity. Here's a quote from Jonathan Edwards talking about the the Israelites. He says this Jonathan Edwards is a great theologian in the 18th century. And he said this. They had a high thought of themselves because they were God's covenant people and circumcised.

00;06;07;24 - 00;06;49;22
Joshua Hoffert
And the children of Abraham, they despised the Gentiles as polluted, condemned and accursed, but looked on themselves on account of their external privileges and ceremonial and moral righteousness as pure and holy people and the children of God. And I read that I read that quote the other day, and I went, Oh, my goodness, That was some of the church today, we see ourselves as, you know, we hold the we hold as long as we hold the right viewpoints, as long as we think the right thoughts, we kind of get our 12 doctrinal points correct, that we're a good and holy people.

00;06;50;10 - 00;07;18;26
Joshua Hoffert
We absorb, observe the moral commands, like how many of you have fulfilled the Ten Commandments today so far? Yeah. Yeah, We haven't left yet. Yeah. Depends on what I say next. I've said this before, but any Western citizen of any Westernized country, most countries in the world today, but especially we're talking about Canada, America, you know, the West, that kind of stuff.

00;07;19;26 - 00;07;42;09
Joshua Hoffert
Any, any, any citizen can sneeze and fulfill seven of the Ten Commandments. Right? We've grown up in a society that really teaches us what the rules are. So we kind of we kind of get raised in the system. That said, as long as I as long as I believe the right way, think the right thing and adhere to the rules, I'm okay.

00;07;42;14 - 00;08;09;20
Joshua Hoffert
And this is very much like the system of the Pharisees. The Pharisees had a form of godliness, but last night I kind of put our charismatic lingo into their they had a form of as repulsive, then a form of godliness. But they lacked the encounter. You know, the Bible says a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, they had a form of godliness with the denied the encounter.

00;08;09;20 - 00;09;01;01
Joshua Hoffert
They denied the vibrancy of life with Christ. And that's been said about the North American Church, of course, that you could remove the Holy Spirit, and most churches won't miss him. What what makes you a Christian? Because you attend church every Sunday faithfully, because you tithe consistently, You know, you feel morally good because, well, I donated to the new intern coming, so.

00;09;01;25 - 00;09;27;09
Joshua Hoffert
Oh, I did Awesome. You should do that. I don't think you should. So does that make you a good Christian? Is that what constitutes being a Christian, that you've been here at SCC or any other church for that matter, for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years? Does that make you a Christian? You read the Sermon on the Mount, and so you try and kind of do the things that the Sermon on the Mount tells you to do.

00;09;27;09 - 00;09;52;08
Joshua Hoffert
Does that make you a Christian? Is is the pursuit of my life to fulfill an obligation or is the pursuit of my life to please the one who created me? There's a big difference between those two things. What drives me, what makes me who I am today? What, sir, what, what, what serves to give me focus in my life.

00;09;53;23 - 00;10;20;15
Joshua Hoffert
Because I'm trying to earn something. Because I'm trying to fulfill something. Because I have an obligation. Because there's a pattern I've been shown. Am I just here today because my parents raised me as a Christian and that's just what you do. You kind of go down the line, Where am I here today? Because God arrested me. And that's a question we have to come to grips with.

00;10;20;15 - 00;11;01;16
Joshua Hoffert
Who am I and what drives me? God is following. You know, it wasn't really until the 20th century that we even had this idea that the power of salvation was to say the sinners prayer like that. You somehow articulated the proper points of doctrine and then articulated the proper points of doctrine. You are now saved. So that's denying the God that that is having a form of godliness.

00;11;01;16 - 00;11;28;21
Joshua Hoffert
But denying the power thereof is to say, just say the words, and that's going to do it. Like, I'm not saying I'm not I'm not I'm not going to criticize the method because there's lots of people that say in a Billy Graham crusade, I know lots of people that looking at, you know, because I'm 41 and so I know people who are older than me that were saved at crusades like that.

00;11;28;27 - 00;11;45;27
Joshua Hoffert
I'm not I don't want to criticize it. I'm just saying it it was a it was a season in time that was an effective model. But we've turned it into the sacred cow. And this is how people get saved. So we repeat certain words and all of a sudden you're in the kingdom of heaven and it's like, Great, just hold on till the end.

00;11;45;27 - 00;12;33;10
Joshua Hoffert
No, what we've been what's been communicated to us, the culture that we've grown up in is not so much that Christianity is about union with the father, but it's about believing the right things and having the right code of ethics. When you look at salvation, what constitutes being saved from a historical perspective? What constitutes being saved was an encounter with the Holy Spirit.

00;12;34;21 - 00;13;08;13
Joshua Hoffert
Like you couldn't divorce the two. It wasn't just saying a prayer. It was coming into contact with something outside of yourself or, like I've said, catching a glimpse of the beauty of God, which isn't something that you communicate like how do you communicate with the beauty of God? It's like this really, really pretty. We talk about the impact, the way he touched me, talked about what changed.

00;13;09;22 - 00;13;58;13
Joshua Hoffert
We communicate the beauty of God based on how he's transformed my life. These are the great early church fathers that it's easier to measure the whole ocean with a tiny cup than to grasp the ineffable greatness of God with the human intellect. That's a good one, isn't it? It's easier to measure the ocean with a tiny cup than to grasp the ineffable greatness of God with the human intellect.

00;13;58;13 - 00;14;29;02
Joshua Hoffert
You can't explain him. You can just be with him. Scripture. And I've told you guys this a number of times. This book is a collection of stories of how people encountered the grandeur of God that is at his core. That's what it is, is a collection of stories that says God has come and he wants to be with his people.

00;14;29;02 - 00;14;51;22
Joshua Hoffert
And it didn't die 2000 years ago. That message is still present today. God has come and he wants to be with his people. He doesn't want a group of people that are you know, it's great that we have greeters at the door that open the doors for you not criticizing this, just it looks like it's great that we do that.

00;14;51;22 - 00;15;43;27
Joshua Hoffert
That doesn't make you a Christian that didn't come to convince us to be better moral people. He came to share his essence with us. I just want to look at a couple of verses real quick. Psalm 106 30, verse 21 says this They forgot God, their savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wonders in the land of ham and awesome things by the Red Sea.

00;15;44;14 - 00;16;02;09
Joshua Hoffert
Therefore, he said he would destroy them had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to turn away his wrath from destroying them. We're going on to verse 24. Then they despised the pleasant land. They did not believe in his word. They grumbled in their tents. They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.

00;16;02;23 - 00;16;22;29
Joshua Hoffert
Therefore, he swore to them that he would cast them down in the wilderness, verse 27, and that he would cast down their seed among the nations and scatter them in the lands. They joined themselves also to bale pay, or that those an idol, a false god and eat sacrifices offered to the dead. Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds and and a plague broke out among them.

00;16;23;14 - 00;16;57;04
Joshua Hoffert
Look, there's a progression that begins with the Israelites with this statement. They forgot God. They forgot they were going through the motions of what it meant to be an Israelite. Like these guys still had the tabernacle in the wilderness. They still had Moses with them. They forgot God, but they were happy to go through the obligations and the rules.

00;16;57;04 - 00;17;42;13
Joshua Hoffert
The obligations and the rules did not create with them moral structure. They forgot God. And then what happens? This degradation begins. They despised the pleasant land of looking at the things that have been given to them and didn't consider them anymore, didn't appreciate them anymore. They didn't believe in his word. They no longer trusted who he was, that he would be with them, that he would sustain them.

00;17;42;13 - 00;18;03;14
Joshua Hoffert
They began to live their life by fear and anxiety and in very practical ways. Right. Like where's where's my provision going to come from today in the wilderness? This is talking about the Israelites in the wilderness. This is where the Israelites say, we don't like the things that you're giving to us, which was the manna in the wilderness.

00;18;03;19 - 00;18;21;27
Joshua Hoffert
We want to go back to Egypt. This is just these are very practical things that begin to work out in their life. How am I going to be sustained? Where is my provision going to come through? I guess I have to work harder. I've got to do it on my own. They forgot God. They didn't consider the things he'd given to them as as having any value.

00;18;22;01 - 00;18;59;04
Joshua Hoffert
And all of a sudden they want to do different things. And it all began in forgetting who God is. They grumbled in their tents. How many of you have grumbled in your tent? You're okay. That's my house isn't big enough. My things aren't new enough. I'm frustrated with what I have. I want a better tent. I want a bigger tent like, you know, that resonate with anybody.

00;18;59;04 - 00;19;35;05
Joshua Hoffert
They grumbled in their tents. Why? Because they started in this place of forgetting who God is is so easy. It's actually. It's the plague of humanity. Is forgetting who God is. They didn't believe in his word, the grumbled. They didn't listen to the voice of the Lord. This isn't that God wasn't speaking. He's speaking. They didn't listen. This begins in forgetting.

00;19;35;05 - 00;20;13;16
Joshua Hoffert
They joined themselves. The bail payer. They said, Fine, we'll find a God who looks like us. We don't like how you look. So we'll find a God who looks like us. I'm going to say something super controversial right now. That's for some. That's a conservative party. For some, that's the Republican Party. We'll find a God that looks like us because we don't like how he looks.

00;20;13;16 - 00;20;45;29
Joshua Hoffert
I hope that offended some people. Yes, they joined themselves to the God which would reflect their own desires. That was an idol. And scripture says when you worship an idol, you become like that saying deaf and dumb. Actually, it says the song say that you worship. They worship to death and dumb idols and they became like them, right?

00;20;46;01 - 00;21;30;24
Joshua Hoffert
Deaf and dumb. What are the two things Jesus says keep people from being healed, not hearing and not seeing, and their hearts stay hard anyway. There's food for thought on this whole degradation begins and forgetting the God is not making him the central facet of your life. Why do we say that we're a people of encounter? Well, I think I laid that out like, I don't want you to forget who God is.

00;21;30;24 - 00;22;04;27
Joshua Hoffert
But you know, when I say encounter, I don't mean that you need to have the experience of Peter on the mountain. I don't mean that when we say encounter, we mean that there's moments in your life where something of the nature of God is communicated to you. You know, sometimes we think we hear the term encounter. We mean having incredible esoteric experiences or having great visions or being caught up into glory or or, you know, where he would say it's the warmth of prayer, the sweetness of his touch, and all those things are great.

00;22;05;12 - 00;22;27;23
Joshua Hoffert
I love those moments, right? But that's not what we mean when we say encounter. We mean that some point in your life you come into contact with the nature of God and something is communicated to you of His nature. However that happens, it happens across the board. Andrew shared with us last week a story about healing with his dad.

00;22;28;19 - 00;22;53;16
Joshua Hoffert
Right. A beautiful story about healing with his father. In that moment. This is encounter something of the nature of God as father is communicated to Andrew and his own father. And then it becomes a touching point in his life for understanding the love of the father. This is not a sweet moment of prayer, though he did communicate. It was a very sweet moment.

00;22;54;11 - 00;23;17;18
Joshua Hoffert
You come in contact with something that's so different than what you've expected that you can't leave it unchanged. This is encounter. These are the moments we look to. These are the moments we draw from. These are the moments that provide sustenance. These are the moments that cause us not to forget God. I want to I just want to demystify what it means when we talk about encounter.

00;23;17;24 - 00;23;35;02
Joshua Hoffert
I don't mean having this doesn't mean that you have to join the firewall, although you should. This doesn't mean that you have to join the firewall and have grand moments of intercessory prayer. This doesn't mean that you have to. Everybody's out to look like Jack who gets so moved by the Holy Spirit. He comes down and lays on his face.

00;23;35;09 - 00;24;17;10
Joshua Hoffert
Although you should do that. What I'm saying is that don't compare your what you think encounter means to other people. God will communicate himself to you in his own unique way, based on your own unique being, because he created you that encounter. I just don't want you to forget God. It's not a sensation. It's not a lovely moment.

00;24;17;25 - 00;24;49;13
Joshua Hoffert
It's something of the nature of God is impressed upon the soul of who you are, because Christianity is a faith of encounter. It is the Bible is a book of encounter, varying degrees of that happening. You know, you've got you can look at someone like Abraham in the Old Testament, right? Abraham is led by encounter. Abraham is told by a voice to get up out of the land you're in and go to the land you don't know what's like.

00;24;51;02 - 00;25;19;08
Joshua Hoffert
What? How do I go to a land I don't know. There's a lot of lands. I don't know. He's led by encounter. He's formed by encounter. There's moments. It's like it's like we assumed that because every single moment of our you know, if you have a morning devotion or every any time you turn your heart to the father, it's like if every single moment isn't the highest moment possible that somehow we're failing.

00;25;20;12 - 00;25;45;22
Joshua Hoffert
But you've got, like Moses and Abraham at one point, there's a 13 year gap between recorded encounters. That doesn't change. It doesn't mean it changes who he is. David says. At one point in the songs, he says, I will behave in wisely, in the perfect way in my house. Or when will you come to me? Oh, Lord, forgive.

00;25;45;29 - 00;26;04;08
Joshua Hoffert
You've been here in a while, but I'm not going to change who I am because who I am is marked by who you how you've touched me. Something of the nature of God has been communicated to you. And this transforms your life. It doesn't look the same for each one of us. And we don't have to look like Moses on the mountain.

00;26;04;08 - 00;26;27;28
Joshua Hoffert
Moses was a man of encounter. One of the most significant encounters that that marked Moses isn't even recorded in Scripture is Exodus 33. Moses says to God, God, you have said, You have known me by name and I've found fever in your sight. That's not recorded in Scripture anywhere. So Moses is telling us, I've had a personal moment where you spoke this to me.

00;26;28;07 - 00;27;02;03
Joshua Hoffert
I've known you by name, and I found favor in your sight. You've known me by name, and I found fever in your son. The father spoke that to Moses. And again, this. This. This becomes a it's a touching point for Moses. It's an encounter, but it's just a sentence no less profound, because it wasn't accompanied by angels or great displays of light or, you know, being caught up into heavenly visions or something like that.

00;27;02;03 - 00;27;31;29
Joshua Hoffert
It's just a sentence that shapes his identity and forms who he is. You've got Paul, of course, on the road to Damascus has a pretty incredible moment, right? Like he's knocked off his proverbial horse and he hears Jesus say, Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? In terms of the record of Scripture? We've got that moment there and then we've got Paul's.

00;27;32;01 - 00;27;56;27
Joshua Hoffert
The next kind of recorded moments. We have of Paul's life. 14 years. So Paul had a pretty dramatic encounter, but he also had quiet moments with the Lord because he talks about his life of prayer, where the Lord speaks to him about the people that are coming to him, a more of a man of encounter driven because he had encounters, but he didn't make like the daily.

00;27;56;27 - 00;28;21;22
Joshua Hoffert
Well, I haven't had a I have got to knock me off my horse today, so he must not be proud of me. One of the great figures that I love studying in early church history is Anthony the Great. He was the first real Christian monastic practitioner when he was eight. His story of his life when he was 18, his parents had passed away.

00;28;21;22 - 00;28;45;18
Joshua Hoffert
He'd gained an incredible inheritance and he walks into a church and he hears the words of Christ being elaborated on or expounded on to the rich young ruler that says, Go and sell all that you have and come and follow me. So Anthony was struck to the core of who he was and went and did just that. So Anthony's initial encounter in his life is through the preaching of the word.

00;28;47;02 - 00;29;17;07
Joshua Hoffert
That's what transformed his life was the preaching of the word right. This isn't like Paul, where Paul's encounter was the divine light shining upon him. This was the preaching of the word. He was changed because he attended a church service. Look, again, demystify these things, normalize these things. He heard the words of Christ being preached and it changed his life.

00;29;17;07 - 00;30;00;16
Joshua Hoffert
Encounter through the preaching. See? Listen to me. No. You know, another great figure in church history, Jonathan Edwards, he talks about some of the most profound moments he had before the Lord was going on walks and the Lord would impress something of his nature to Jonathan Edwards. And in a lot of his sermons were based on these quiet moments before the Lord, His radical, quote unquote, conversion was going on a lot as radical encounters were going on a walk.

00;30;00;16 - 00;30;23;20
Joshua Hoffert
And he would reflect on the nature of God, the love of Christ, his love of God's sovereignty, the divine nature to reflect on these things while he was walking, and he'd just be captivated by it. So So his encounter is thinking about Jesus on a walk and having the the nature of God somehow engage him in that moment.

00;30;23;20 - 00;30;54;12
Joshua Hoffert
That's encounter being a people of encounter, going to walk and think about God. That's an encounter. That's here's the thing, is that are we going to create space in our life for these things to happen? That's the real question. To be a people of encounter. You create space for encounter to happen. But again, I want to say it doesn't have to be these grandiose, amazing things.

00;30;54;12 - 00;31;11;11
Joshua Hoffert
It can be the subtle things that happen in your daily life. I was talking to a friend, one of his most profound moments before the Lord. He was on a bus and all of a sudden he's looking out and he sees a guy walking on the side of the road and he's just struck with how much God loves that person.

00;31;11;11 - 00;31;48;16
Joshua Hoffert
Just a moment. Right now, that moment has become a touchstone for his life. Is a priest. Because of that moment. Super simple, right? It's not this like radically extravagant thing, but he was available to the father and something happened because of his availability. I have another friend he was telling me about a moment he had before the Lord, where he was meditating on the Peter, walking on the water, but he really wanted to get into the story.

00;31;48;16 - 00;32;12;08
Joshua Hoffert
So he turned all the lights off and he put music on that had a storm. Sounds to it. And he so he's listening to this booming storm sounds. He's got the Bible in front of him, dark in there, and he's meditating on the picture of Peter walking into the water and he sees himself of Jesus. And, you know, like those moments, he's just picturing it, right.

00;32;12;08 - 00;32;38;08
Joshua Hoffert
But all of a sudden it starts to take on a life of its own and the Lord begins speaking to him at one point in this in this in this encounter, he has he looks back and he sees the boat so far off, and he's a bit afraid like, how do we get so far in? The Lord turns to him and says, Look how far you've come and just undoes him.

00;32;38;08 - 00;33;06;03
Joshua Hoffert
Like, I'm talking about our our our heritage is a spectrum of moments with God creates space in your life for it to happen. And it will happen is the lifeblood of being a Christian, where people of encounter we are presently a people of encounter and we're becoming a people of encounter because we value the presence of God. In the presence of God is healing.

00;33;07;00 - 00;33;58;25
Joshua Hoffert
In the presence of God is joy. But that's a super simple, subtle thing. It's not a convoluted, complicated thing. Prayer is the simplest thing. You can possibly do. It's simply turning your heart. It's just not for getting caught. That's all it is. Prayer is a heart turn. Prayer is a heart turn move. We can just get the worship band to come back up.

00;33;58;25 - 00;34;33;15
Joshua Hoffert
Some say one or two more things to give us some space to begin where people have encounters we want to create space for encounter to happen. An encounter can happen, by the way. Encounter can happen where you sit here and engage in worship. Encounter can happen when you sit out there and drink your coffee over a conversation. One is not inherently better than the other.

00;34;35;03 - 00;35;08;20
Joshua Hoffert
We've got to get we've got to get back to realizing that God threads himself through our lives and our daily experience. One of the reasons I love the liturgical church, because in liturgical church, every movement is about encountering his. He's got to understand that God is all in all, He's in every moment. His call is there at every moment.

00;35;10;03 - 00;35;57;03
Joshua Hoffert
Living a life of encounter is simply being available and turning your heart to him. That's the place of transformation. That's the place of becoming like you say these two things and turning over the worship team just to kind of carry us into that moment. This is these are the ones in question, and the other is a statement is this two questions and the statement.

00;35;57;10 - 00;36;39;13
Joshua Hoffert
But the questions go together. Do we know rules or do we know Christ? Do we know how to act like the right kind of Christian, or do we know him? It's a question to ask yourself, Do I know him or do I know how to act like I know him? And if I'm feeling an answer that the father is faithful to come to, the other one is recognize this, you know, in the story of the prodigal son, just as the father anticipated, the son coming home.

00;36;39;18 - 00;37;09;24
Joshua Hoffert
Right. The father longed for the son, the prodigal son in his brokenness, also longed for the father. There was mutual longing between the brokenness, the prodigal son and the anticipation of the father. The father and the son both long for each other. So you may be in the place where you're going. I don't see God longing for me.

00;37;09;24 - 00;37;36;06
Joshua Hoffert
Well, the Scripture says He does. You would be in the place where you go. I don't know that I long for God. I'm too broken to long forgotten. I'm too far away from that. It's been too long. I've let it go. I've forgotten that I'm in that camp. They're what the prodigal son was eating Pig feces. Thinking about his father means of thought.

00;37;36;06 - 00;37;47;24
Joshua Hoffert
Maybe I could go to him. Nothing disqualifies you because the invitation is always given. You can't disqualify yourself because you didn't qualify yourself.