Morgan Teruel: Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.
David Nasser: Man, it's so good to be, in one of my favorite churches that I've never been to in person. And I say that because, to know Matt and Tammy is to know Sandals Church. I see Matt and Tammy about twice a year at a cohort or a pastor's gathering, and and whenever we're together, he they just go on and on and on about you. And, I just wanna tell you that you're blessed to have them, as pastors to to think back that, you know, 8 people gathered in a living room 27 years ago, and out of the faithfulness of just disciple making by this, you know, precious couple, God has now raised up a church that has over 20,000 people and 15 campuses and a partridge and a pear tree and all the things that are sandals is nothing short of just God glorifying, but hopefully honoring to his servants in Matt and Tammy as well. And so so good to be with you.
It's interesting that I feel at home immediately being with you because I've never been here, but I've heard a lot about you. Right? And so to know them is to know you, and I say that to say that I know that you just finished, a a summer series, where you've been studying the book of Colossians, and as you've been studying the book of Colossians, what's interesting about that particular letter, from the apostle Paul to the church, right, that he's writing to is that he'd never been with them. Paul writes 9 letters to churches, in the book in the New Testament and to 7 different churches, and this is one of the churches that he didn't plant. Paul didn't plant the church and and, you know, that that he's writing to.
He's actually sitting in a prison cell. This is one of the prison epistles. Right? And he's he's writing to them, but he's writing and what's incredibly interesting to me is that the first dozen verses in Colossians is just dripping with gratitude. I mean, to read the beginnings of of this particular letter, from 2000 years ago is to read a guy who is so grateful for a church he's never met in person.
He just over and over again exhorts them and says, I thank God for you and I hear incredible things about you because while Paul is in prison, his friend comes and visits him and is boasting on God's work in this new church plant, but he's also talking about the fact that they're having an image issue, and that there are times as a new baby Christian church that's growing substantially and and doing incredible things that they've gotten their eyes off of who who they ultimately are. And and so, Paul, after that conversation with his friend who actually planted the church, right, writes them a letter and he's beginning the letter with a ton of thank yous. He first thanks God for them as a faithful church, and after he thanks God for them as a faithful church, in in verse 12, Colossians 1, 12, he then thanks God for God and the work of God and then we get to verse 13. And what I love to do before we pray is to read these two passages to you. I I call them altoid passages.
You know how it says on an account of altoids, they're curiously strong? You know? And and I love these two verses because they're tiny little verses, but they're curiously strong because in them, you see the heart of God. In them, you see the why, and so Paul is dripping with gratitude and you're going, why is this guy so grateful for the church? Why is this guy so grateful for the head of the church, for for God?
And and as you're going to, you know, to this moment of, like, what's going on? Why is this guy just compelled to Thanksgiving? He reminds us of the why in in these two verses, and he's gonna give us these 2 verses to remind us of what gave them a new image, what gave them the new identity in in the first place. And so, just out of honor for God's word in all of our campuses, if you would, just let's stand together and let's read God's word together, and then we'll pray and then we can sit down. Paul says this, for he says for this is verse 13.
For he now the first he in this is God the Father, alright? And so pretty much verse 13 is a lot of God the Father and verse 14 is God the Son, and and and he says for he, the Father, has rescued us from the dominion of darkness. So he's saying, I'm so thankful. In verse 12, I'm so thankful. I'm I'm just dripping with gratitude.
Why? Why? Because I have been rescued. I've been greatly rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son that he loves. And then verse 14, in whom, the in whom is referring to Christ, we have redemption.
I'm so thankful that I've been rescued. I'm so thankful that I've been delivered, and not only have I been rescued and delivered, but I have been given redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. Man. I mean, that just transcends 2000 years ago for you and me. Right?
I mean, sometimes we wake up and we we are prone to become self obsessed or we are prone to entitlement or we're prone to distractions where it was just pitiful me and what's going on around me and everybody else is getting this and I didn't get this or everybody else has it easy and I've got it hard or everyone else is getting good news, and I'm getting bad news, and then we have to be jarred to remembrance that, listen. At the end of the day, we have been greatly rescued That's right. Delivered. Paul is writing this from a prison cell, but it's not robbing him of his joy Amen. And his gratitude.
And he's coming to that place. And so let's just pray and ask God to give us the same spirit. And so Lord, thank you. Ditto. Ditto in what Paul says, that not just that church, but Sandals' church, not just the church, the young church that that started it all, but generations later, us, as your church here in California, are filled with gratitude because we have been rescued from the dominion of darkness, that we have been delivered by by your son Jesus and his completed work on the cross and his resurrection.
Thank you that we have found redemption in the forgiveness of our sins. For the moments where we forget, bring us to that moment, the hour we first believed when we were delivered. Let us never forget what you've done, to have hope for what you're gonna do in the future, and we pray this in your name. Amen.
Morgan Teruel: Hey, everybody. Thank you for being a part of Sandals Church online today. Before we continue on in the message, we just wanna take a moment to invite you to be a part of the work that God is doing here at Sandals Church by going to give.sc. For now, let's continue on into the message.
David Nasser: You may be seated. And so I, I'm, driving to California, by the way, because I am delivering my daughter to Pepperdine Law School, this afternoon. And so, she, she and her husband have 2 cars and a U Haul that has all their, like, newlywed furniture, you know, in it, and they asked us if we would help them make the drive. And, we started in Nashville, Tennessee, and we drove to Tulsa, And then from Tulsa, we went to Santa Fe, and then from Santa Fe, we went to Vegas last night. And then, this morning, they're driving 5 hours, and I flew early, to to be with you, and and and and as I'm driving my daughter here, I I was thinking about how I often often had this conversation with Grace as I dropped her off for school, and that this is by far the largest, the longest commute we've ever had, but ultimately, it's the same thing that I did with her growing up.
I used to drop Grace off at school all the time when she went to elementary school, when she was in kindergarten, when she was in middle school, and I remember those days, like dropping her off in front of the school and and and and and she'll tell you, if you ask her, the reoccurring thing, that that always happened was that when we got to the moment where we were turning the radio down and she was about to open up the car door and she was about to go out, that the same thing was said to her every single time. My son will tell you the same thing. Both of them will tell you that they heard this over and over and over and over again whenever they got dropped off at school, and I have driven literally from Nashville to come here to Malibu to drop off my kid at Pepperdine, and I'm gonna say this to her. I'm gonna say the exact same thing to her that I've said to her growing up, again, as we hand her off to Pepperdine Law School, and it was always this, and whenever she was getting out of the car, I would look at her and I would say, Grace, remember who you are and remember whose you are.
And so Grace can tell you that she was pickled in that. She can tell you that when she was in kindergarten, we were dropping her off and I would say to her, Grace, remember who you are, honey. Today, when you go out into that school, that's a mission field, so remember who you are, and remember whose you are. As a matter of fact, sometimes if if the person in front of us was a little slower and I would say that to her and we'd have another couple of seconds, I'd go tell me who you are and she'd go, Grace Nassar, and I'd say tell me whose you are and she'd go, I am Christ Grace Nassar. One time I was driving Grace to school and there was a school shooting that had happened the day before, and as a middle schooler, the whole drive was not filled with music.
You know, the whole drive was filled with this reality that parents drop their kids off sometimes at school, and and and we take for granted that there's this false sense of security that your kid is immune to a tragic school shooting. And the day before, the whole nation was talking about this tragic school shooting, and so on the drive over to school, we were talking about how she was gonna go to school, and she went to a good school and a good suburb and all of these things, but at the end of the day, that she might go to that school. And when she goes to that school, there might be that moment where someone walks in and brings terror. As we were talking about that, I said, Grace Honey, I don't know if I can ever promise you that I can protect you from a shooter. I can tell you that even if I was at that school, even if I was there with you and it was a school shooter, that I wouldn't probably be the one who would be able to protect you from that, but I can tell you this, we've given you the ultimate protection.
There's nothing nothing that a shooter's ever gonna do to you to rob you of your greatest gifting and your greatest security, which is in Christ. And that day, that day when I said to her when we pulled up and and we were just kind of reminiscing about that, and I said to her, remember today when you go who you are and whose you are. I was saying to her, it's not just when you're tempted because this boy asked you to go out with him and he's really cute and everybody else wants that ass, but then you get that ass, but you're gonna say no because it's unequally yoked. It's not just that, or it's not just like, hey, don't listen to that music, or or don't do this, or don't say this, or be nice to your teacher. It might even be a school shooting.
It doesn't matter. In tragedy, in triumph, it doesn't matter. Remember who you are and remember who's you are. That's right. And I'm saying that to say that ultimately most of the book of Colossians can be stewed down to that.
Paul is saying to this church, hey church, your new church plant, don't get your eyes off who you are and and whose you are, because we're prone to let others reimagine for us our image. We're prone to listen to other people and and they'll tell you who you are based on how much money you have in the bank or based on what neighborhood you live in, based on, you know, how you perform, and and and so much of this world is built around you're a winner if you can produce and you're a loser if you can't, but in all of that, remember that ultimately one person gets to give you His likeness. Remember who you are, and remember whose you are. And Paul is saying that and as he's saying that to them, what he's saying is remember, the ultimate identity that you have is in the one who redeemed you. The ultimate identity that you have is in the king who's now become your king of a new kingdom that you belong to.
And so you might be a dual citizen in all kinds of kingdoms, but there's one kingdom that you're always gonna belong to, and that's the one that you've been delivered to, and so don't ever forget who you are and don't ever forget whose you are. And the way that he does it, is he testifies to the work of the gospel in his own life. Maybe today, maybe today, you're listening to me, and what you be you need to be reminded of, more than anything else, is not new theology, but testimony. And I'm not talking about my story, but your story. Remember who Christ made you.
Remember the hour you first believed. Remember when you were Saul but you became a Paul. When you were blind but all of a sudden you could see. Remember your Damascus road experience. Sometimes we're prone to forget.
We wake up and life's so uphill that we just go, man, pitiful me and all of these things, and we need to be reminded of the Vacation Bible School where maybe somebody flannel graphed the gospel for you, or that godly grandmother who faithfully shared the gospel with you, or that person who on a Sunday morning just decided to like book the the sermon and stop for a few minutes and linger a little bit longer in John 3 16, and then all of a sudden it cleared the fog and in that moment, you once were lost but now you're found. And he's reminding him, don't forget who God made you. If you had told me when I was a 9 year old kid that I'd have a microphone in California at Sandals Church, talking about identity in Christ, talking about a king that's a good king, talking about a dominion that I would want and celebrate, I woulda laughed at you because when I was a 9 year old kid, honestly, I hated the idea of a king and a kingdom. When I was a 9 year old kid, I hated the idea of God being the one who would have dominion over me.
I'm originally from the nation of Iran. So when I was 9 years old, I saw a king, the Shah of Iran, be overthrown. I saw a kingdom crumble. I saw the brokenness of darkness and all of those things, and honestly, I saw it be replaced with religion. I call it religion gone wrong.
When I was 9 years old, I saw the Ayatollah Khomeini and his religious zealots take over my nation, and when that happened, I remember those days. If you told me when I was a 9 year old kid that I'd be, you know, in a church in California on a weekend with a microphone telling people remember who God has made you, celebrate, be thankful, I'd have said you got the wrong guy because when I was 9 years old, honestly, I hated God. I know most 9 year olds don't think stuff like that. I know most 9 year olds don't wake up and think, I hate God. Most 9 year olds think stuff like, I don't know.
Should I eat this crayon? Alright. But I I grew up I grew up thinking I hated God when I was a 9 year old kid because honestly, I just felt like he went first. I felt like I hate him because he hated me. When I was 9 years old, I I remember as a little kid, as a as a Shiite Muslim by heritage going to my school.
I went to a military school in our little army base in Iran, and I and I'll never forget walking in and and this was about 2 weeks into the Iranian revolution, and as a little kid, I was kind of, you know, not really aware of all that was happening, and and we got called outside in our little school on our army base to an assembly. I made my way outside and I was standing there with my friends and a soldier came and stood in front of our entire school, he got out a piece of paper, everybody got quiet, and he quoted the baron and then he read the name of 3 students, my name being one of them, and asked us to make our way to the front. And I made my way to the front, I was a little kid, I didn't understand what all was happening, and I'll never forget this guy took a gun out of a holster and put it on my forehead and with his hands shaking, he looked scared enough to mean it. He said that he was called to come and take my life. And when you're 9 years old and you see somebody leading worship, leading worship, not with a guitar in their hand, with a microphone in their hand, leading a Bethel song, no no, leading worship with a gun in their hand because they're saying it's an act of worship.
You're just kinda not thinking to yourself, man, people need to remember who they are and whose they are in Christ. You think, I don't know what we've done to have God so mad at us, but God has sent someone here to take my life because of religion gone wrong. The school principal got between me and the gun and and begged him to come back another day, and for all I cared, the brother didn't need to come back another day. And I went home that afternoon, and I told my dad what had happened, and and I'll never forget, my dad sat me on his lap, started to cry, and he started to tell me. He said, son, the Ayatollah Khomeini has taken over the government, that the king has been overthrown.
All these things are happening. They're telling everybody who's anybody, and because of my position in the army, they're trying to make an example out of our family. But then he said this, he said, but don't worry. You're not gonna go back to school tomorrow. The guy's not gonna get you, and we're getting out of here as fast as we can.
And I remember in the next few days hearing my mom and dad as we were home, right? Me and my sister, I remember hearing my mom and dad kinda huddled in the kitchen. They wouldn't let us listen in as they were planning our escape, and honestly, in my mind, we were escaping as fast and as far as we could from God. In my mind, I was like, I don't know what we've done to make God so mad, but apparently he's after us and we gotta get away from him. And then one day, all of a sudden, they were ready to lock and load with the escape plan.
My mom had heart issues at that time, and so my parents went to these doctors that my mom had been going to see, and they they brokered a deal. They left them our home, our cars, our clothes, and everything that we owned, and in exchange the doctors got in on the plan, and so I'll never forget, a couple weeks after them planning, my my this ambulance showed up at my house, and my mom acted like she was having heart issues, and it was believable because she had a track record of having heart issues. And so this ambulance took her to the hospital, we followed, you know, the ambulance, and they took my mom in this back room, and they came out, and they said that she needed emergency bypass surgery, and that she needed to be taken immediately to Switzerland for this surgery, and it was all fabricated. And so we bought two way airline tickets like we were going and coming back, and we got homework assignments like we were going and coming back, and we called in for a house sitter like we were going and coming back, but we aren't coming back, we're running for our lives.
And I'll never forget holding my dad's hand in the airport and his hand just kept shaking, and he kept saying to my mom, if they find out we're escaping, they're gonna kill us right here on the spot, but they didn't, Because when you look back at your testimony, you can see how even when you think even when you think God is hurting you, he's really the one who's helping you. You know, it says in Isaiah 419910, do not fear for I am with you. I hold you in my righteous right hand, and I look back and see how even in that day when I thought we were getting away from God, God was really the rescuer. He was really not the herder, but the healer, and God took my family that day and we escaped from Iran. We flew up and we landed in Switzerland, and this ambulance got by the plane to have my mom be put in it, and instead my mom sat up and said, I don't need to go there.
This was all fake. Instead, I wanna be taken to the American consulate to plead to become an American citizen, and that's what we did. This is back when America had borders and everybody couldn't just come in. Alright? So, you know, I remember those days, and I remember being stuck in in in in Europe for 9 months, and for 9 months we were stuck in Europe while people were watching on TV how Iran was going through this revolution.
We're watching how Iranians were burning the American flag and calling America the great Satan and how they'd held 54 Americans hostage in the American embassy in Iran, and so here we were from the wrong place at the wrong time trying to make it to America, and it was a hard stop. We were stuck in Germany. We were stuck in Switzerland, and we went from one country to another trying to wiggle our way in, and we just could not get our way in. We tried legally. We tried illegally.
We tried every way we could, we were stuck in Europe, until one day, my mom got us together and she said, hey, since we want to go to America, I've got an American idea. And she showed us this picture of a white guy with a beard and a mullet, kind of a handsome guy, you know, and and she said, do you guys know who this is? And we said no, and she said, well this is Jesus Christ, and and he's an American, and and he's America's God. And so since we want to go to America, we ought to pray to him and ask him to let us into his country. She didn't she didn't realize he's actually more from my neck of the woods than y'all's neck of the woods, and so that's the first time we ever closed our eyes and my mom held our hands and and prayed out loud to a new king.
And my mom mentioned the name Jesus in a prayer, and and can I just tell you, we didn't know him, but he knew us before we knew him? Come on now. And we mentioned the name Jesus in a prayer a couple of times. I don't even remember the prayer or something like, Jesus, please let us enter your country, whatever it was. Bad theology.
But God was bigger than our theology and our geography, and a week later, the doors we couldn't open for ourselves opened up, and we're coming to America. So all of a sudden, we're flying America. And what's weird is we were pretty much the only Iranian family coming to America that didn't move into, Irangelis, your neck of the woods. Instead, we go to Texas, y'all. And we don't just go to Texas, we go to a military town in Texas.
We go to Killeen, Texas, where Fort Hood is, the largest army base in the world. So can you imagine during the Iranian revolution, during the Iranian hostage situation, during all of that when everybody's, like, watching Iran be America's great enemy on TV, Iranians moving into a military town in Texas. Can you say wedgie waiting to happen? And that was me. I mean, we parachute in, I got the wrong language, the wrong clothes, wrong everything.
I'm like, hello, I am David. And they're like, dude, you are so gonna get beat up today after school. And that was me. I heard every nickname, every 7 11 joke, every turban joke. I got called bean dip, and I'm not even Mexican.
I was like, you're not even accurate in your racism. You know, it escaped halfway across the world. Again, to honestly unplug from one kind of terrorism, physical, and plugging to all other kind, emotional. And can I tell you the weapon of mass destruction for emotional terrorism is not when people say really mean things about you, it's when they ignore you and pretend you don't even exist, and you become invisible? And for the next few years, we'd come to America as refugees.
We'd come here for safe harbor, but it didn't be all very safe because I remember being the kid who everyday sat by himself and ate his lunch alone. Every day was the loner. Every day would watch 15 invitations go out for the birthday party at the at the skating rink, and there were 16 kids in the class, And I was the one kid who never got invited. And I remember in my mind always thinking, this is what's happened when God has taken over our country, and we've left everything that was secure behind. It's his fault.
So that's what I mean when I say I mean, if you had told me when I was a 9 year old kid, if you told me when I was a 10 year old kid, new in America, that one day, I would say, you should be grateful. I should be grateful for the the one who has delivered us and rescued us, I would have said you got the wrong guy because I didn't think God was rescuing me from anything. I thought God was the one revenging, not rescue. And for years years, that was me until the day my freshman year in high school was about to start. I'll never forget.
I was sitting in my room and I was crying, and my dad heard me, and he came in and he said, what's wrong? And I told him, I said, dad, it's not going well for me in America. You know, we've been here for years and nobody likes me. I don't like them. It's not going well.
Now I gotta go to high school. High school's even worse. And so I told them all the reasons why I wasn't excited about school starting the next day, and my dad felt sorry for me, so he told me, let's go, and he made me stand up and walk out to the garage with him, and we got in the car and he, out of pity to try to help me blend in, took me to the mall. And that afternoon, my dad gave me this extreme makeover. You know, I call it going from geek to chic, baby, overnight.
You know? I went from Abdul to Julio, baby. I'm just telling you, like, I walk right in the next day to the American high school, and I was the same insecure kid on the inside, but I'd been given a makeover on the outside. And instantly, I found out what you know, that people will sometimes care more about the label that you wear than the person you really are. And I just learned from that moment on how to play high school.
You know how the apostle Paul says in Romans 1212, to not conform to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I just remember conforming to the patterns of this world because I was just lonely. And even if he was fabricated friendships, I was willing to take it. And my high school years became the years where I learned how to play high school. I learned how to end up at the right lunchroom table.
I learned how to dump the right girl right before she could dump me, so I could climb the social ladder. I learned how to be cold to people, to be perceived as cool to people. And it's true where it says in the Bible, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, but to forfeit his soul? And on paper, it looked like finally I'd figured it out, but I had sold out. And I'd completely conformed.
And I graduated from high school popular, but I graduated from high school completely emotionally bankrupt, and I barely graduated. I had a 1.9 GPA when I barely graduated. And so 2 months after high school, one night, I'm in the car with the only buddy I have who's not gone off to college yet. And to be very honest, we're sitting in front of my house. It's almost midnight, and we're passing this joint back and forth.
We're trying to finish up this this joint, and and while we're passing it back and forth, my buddy looks over at me, and he goes, you're so down tonight. What's going on with you? And I said, man, we just graduated from high school 2 months ago, and all our friends are going into this school and this school and this school, and I didn't have a good GPA. And so I said, Dan, tonight at a party, I hug like 9 people goodbye that are heading over to Auburn, and then like 6 people goodbye that are going to Alabama and all this stuff. And I said, all the stuff we built in high school faded away.
We've got nowhere to be accepted anymore. I'm just bummed about that. And my buddy looks over at me, and he does something I'm really surprised about. He he looks over at me, and he goes, well, I've got an idea. He goes, you ought to come with me tomorrow to church, and I'm surprised he's inviting me to church because he's literally handing me a joint while he's reminding me to church.
He's like, you ought to come to church with me tomorrow, And I'm like, you go to church? And he's like, Baptist. The first time I heard the word Baptist, I thought it was a type of weed. I I literally thought it was a type of miracle, and I was like, really? And and he goes, yeah, man.
And and he he says to me, he says, man, come to church with me tomorrow, and and I told him, I said, dude, there's no way I'm going to church with you tomorrow. And he said, why? And I said because I turned the music down. I said, because, man, when I was a kid, I saw religion destroy my country, and I'm a Muslim by heritage, but I'm not even much of that. And I said my parents are a little more devout than me, so it's just this, like, big mess.
I said there's just no way I'm going to church with you tomorrow, and instead of giving up, he tries one last thing, he names the 5 prettiest girls from my high school. And he told me, he goes, all of them are gonna be at church tomorrow. And instantly, I felt motivated to visit, you know? But I told him, I said, but man, the problem is that my dad you talked me into it, but my dad's not gonna let me go to church. He said, why?
I said, because my dad is a Muslim. I said, dude, there's no way my dad's gonna, you know, let me go to a Christian church, and he kept bugging me. He wouldn't let me go. He was like, just go ask him go ask him go ask him. So on a Saturday night, just to get my buddy off my back, I walked into the house, kinda stoned.
My buddy walked up to the door to make sure, you know, and and he stood at the door, and I walked down the hallway, and I knocked on my parents' bedroom door, and I said, hey, mom and dad. It's midnight. I'm home. You don't have to get out of bed. I'm sorry to wake you up.
I know you're gonna say no. Just say no really loud so my friend can hear, so he'll leave me alone, but he wants to know if tomorrow morning I can wake up and go with him to a Christian church, but instead of saying no, my dad quietly from his bed yells out, like, really loud. He goes, what is the name of it? And I have no idea what he's saying, but he's asking the name of the church. Well, my buddy figures it out down the hall, so he hears my dad say what is the name of it, and so he yells really loud down the hall.
He goes, Shays Mountain, and as soon as he says the word Shays Mountain, my dad yells from the bed. I mean, like, literally, the door's closed. I I can't even see him. I'm just hearing him. He yells from the bed.
He goes, I know those people, and I have no idea what he's talking about, but here is what God was up to without me knowing. 2 weeks before that Saturday night, when I'm standing there stoned, asking my dad if I can go to church for all the wrong reasons, 2 weeks before that, what I didn't know was that there were these people from this church, Shay's Mountain Baptist Church, that had parachuted into my dad's restaurant. My dad had opened up a restaurant. I know it's confusing, but stay with me. Alright?
So my dad had opened up this French restaurant, and this guy named Aubrey Edwards, who was the worship leader at this church and some other church leaders were there eating at my dad's restaurant, and they'd seen how he was shorthanded on waitstaff, and instead of complaining about the service because the service was bad that day, they'd gotten up quietly, rolled up their sleeves and waited on tables at my dad's restaurant, And God in his sovereignty had used that, right, to massage my dad's heart. Then they went back the next day and served him again, Then they went back the next day and served him again and then they invited my dad to choir practice. And my dad who doesn't give a rip about choir practice went because kindness is a superpower. Come on. And then I went to choir practice, and at the end of choir practice what I didn't know was that this guy named Aubrey said, hey this is my friend mister Nassar, and he's got a restaurant, and for a couple of days now we've all been going over there and helping them out, and there's a piece of paper going around, and I need you to sign up.
If you're going to be in the choir, we're going to lead worship at his restaurant, not with a guitar in our hand, we're gonna lead worship with a towel in our hand, we're gonna be busboys, we're gonna be dishwashers, we're gonna serve. And so for 2 weeks, what I didn't know was these Christians had shown up at my dad's restaurant and had been serving. They called it missions, my dad called it stupid Americans, but God God was bigger, right, than whatever my dad could figure out. And so 2 weeks later, I'm standing there and I'm asking my dad if I can go to church, but instead of saying no, my dad goes what is the name of it, and out of 1100 churches in that city, it's the exact same church as the people that had helped him out, and so that's why it was front loaded when my dad goes, what is the name of them? And my buddy yells out the name, and it's the exact same church as the people that helped him out.
That'll just about make you a Calvinist. So my dad says, I know those people. You can go there but only there. So I'm telling you that to say Look, don't miss me. I'm telling you that to say, the reason I get to be here at Sandals this weekend, the reason I get to show up here is because a church showed up at my dad's restaurant.
Right? They showed up. And so when when we read a passage in Colossians and it's about a kingdom and a king who would come in and rescue, His weapon of rescue is not a gun. His weapon of rescue is kindness. Yes.
Yes. Come on. It's grace. People showed up at my dad's restaurant, and it was an avalanche, an avalanche of service, and it softened my dad's heart. And I get to be here today because somebody was the church.
Not in a church building, somebody was a church at my dad's restaurant. So So on a Sunday morning, I got up, put on my chinos and went to church. And as soon as I showed up, they were having a youth rally, I walked into gym and as soon as I showed up, they were like, David, Nazareth, come to church. And can I just tell you the second they saw me, it was like, we don't even need a passport to go to the 10:40 window? It's come to us.
And I kid you not, for the next 8 Monday nights in a row, for the next 8 Monday nights in a row, they showed up at my house on a Monday night, knocked on the bed the door, and said, can we come in for a few minutes? And came into my house and shared the gospel with me. They had this thing called visitation. We called it harassment. But can I just tell you there'd be 15 of them?
There'd be 12 of them. There'd be 11 of them, and they would show up and they would sit down and they would have every time it was the same. It It was the same. Maybe a different Bible verse, but like the same message. You know, in one week it would be, he who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God.
The next week it would be I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me. The next week it would be God so loved the world that he gave his only son that if you believe in him you will not perish but have eternal life. But every week it'd be the same thing, That I am a dreadful sinner in need of a mighty savior and His name is Jesus. And every week, every week when they would go through the beaded bracelet or whatever with me, or the track that surprisingly opened up into a cross or whatever it was. Every week, they would share the gospel.
I would look at them and say, guys, I don't want religion, and they would say, we don't want religion for you either. And I would say, I hate religion, and they would say, we hate religion. And over and over again, they would say, we're not trying to convert you into a kingdom of religion. We're trying to call you, invite you to be a citizen of redemption. And for 8 weeks, I heard the gospel on a Monday night, and I went to their church every time their church opened for the next 8 weeks, because they would drive the church and literally drag me to church.
I acted like they were dragging me, but I wanted to be there. There was something about these people that was different. And one night I was sitting at their church and the preacher was preaching, and this preacher was like the opposite of Matt Brown. Alright? You know how like Matt's cool and he's got that necklace and all that stuff going on?
Looks like he's doing sit ups back there or whatever he gets, so I got This guy that was preaching the night I became a Christian had a comb over. He was sweating out of places that God doesn't even put glands. I'm just telling you, he wasn't cool. He's not hip and had King James only, you know, an old school preacher, but even though he wasn't very cool, he was anointed. And when you're lost, you think of it as annoying, and it felt like somebody had handed this guy a sticky note with all my information, because everything he was saying just sounded like, who told them?
Who told them? Who told them? And this guy, man, he just preaches the gospel, and after he preaches the gospel, he says, and I want you to have the courage, if you don't know him, to get out of your seat and come here and and meet me in the front. And I remember all of a sudden, I saw people coming to the front, and I thought to myself, all my life, I've been terrorized by religion, and now some preacher is trying to terrorize me down an aisle. I didn't know he just loved me enough to tell me the truth, and so during the invitation, while all these people were hitting the aisle and coming forward, I hit the aisle and I went the other way.
I thought, I gotta get away from this, And I remember all my drive home that as I left, I thought, I'm not letting him back in my house on a Monday night again, tomorrow night again. They're starting to get to me. But I had this weird idea that, like, God was contained in church buildings. You know? I didn't know that God's everywhere at all times.
You know, I I I love what the psalmist says in Psalm 139 where he says, where can I go from your presence, oh lord? If I go to the mountains, you are there. If I go to the valleys, you are there. And I remember I went home that night. I was so mad, because this preacher had had just basically confronted me out of love, you know?
And I walked in my house. My parents were out of town that night, and I walked in, and I as soon as I walked in, the presence of God was thicker in my house. And I remember I walked into my bedroom and I sat there for the next 2 hours. I just thought about all the sermons they'd preached to me on a Monday night, and I just sat there and I just kept thinking and kept thinking and kept praying, and and I just remember all of a sudden all of a sudden it dawned on me that this wasn't about relate you know, religion. This wasn't about trying to clean up my act.
This was about me giving up my life. And I knew all the fancy words, redemption, sanctification, anything that ends with t I u n, because these Christians have taught them to me, you know, over and over again, but I just remember I hit one knee, I just lowered myself, I just hit one knee and I said, Jesus, I know you're real, I know you're God, I want you to be my God. That's verse 13. Do not forget the moment that you were delivered from one kingdom to another, from a dark dominion to light. And I'm just telling you, the old me died and a whole new me was born again.
2 hours later, my parents were out of town, came home. My dad heard me crying in my bedroom, he walked in, he said, what's wrong? I told him. I said, I've given my life to Jesus, and my parents instantly became devout Muslims at that moment. Instantly, they were like, you cannot be a Christian.
We're Muslims. I was like, we are? And the night that I went to get baptized at the church that I became a Christian, my parents disowned me and kicked me out of the house and gave me a duffel bag and said that I'm dead to them. And within 5 years, I saw my whole family 1 by 1 come to Christ. And people hear that.
People hear that. And they go, boy, it must have been amazing how God saved the Iranians. Look what God can do. And I always go, it's not half as tough as it is for me and my family, as it is, honestly, to good church people. Right.
Right. In Orange County, and at Liberty University where I was a campus pastor, like religious hotbed, full of a bunch of people who do and do and do, I've never truly trusted, who sing all the right songs, say all the right things, but then close their eyes and pray more to a black boy than a Christ that they know intimately. My wife was that way. My wife grew up in the church. My wife was bible drill champion for the state of Alabama 3 years in a row.
I've seen the ribbons. That's back when you had to earn ribbons. They didn't just give them out. Alright? Tell everyone.
My wife, I've seen my wife was Bible drill check. My wife was on the pastor's search committee when she was 16 to lead, and my wife was 18 18 as a counselor with a counselor badge when she had to walk down the aisle and be delivered, rescued from a dominion of darkness, And the dominion of darkness she had to be rescued was churchianity. She had all the right answers. She had all the right things to say. She sang all the right songs, but it was always about doing and doing and doing and doing.
It was about trying and trying and trying and not trusting. People always hear my story and they go, boy, that's so a a testimony to this passage right here, that God is a deliverer of of a kingdom from darkness and dominion, and they think about Islam or they think about all these but but I I always, like, go, like, you think it was tough for me, try to be Jennifer Nassar back when she was Jennifer Davis and she was Bible Drilled champion and she was a good girl and she was a counselor with a counselor badge on the night she walked down the aisle, took off her counselor badge, handed it to her youth pastor and said, I need Christ in my life. Wow. And the next day, on the outside, it didn't look a whole lot different, but it was the difference was it wasn't about work. It was about worship.
Can I just say, some of you are listening this this at this moment to me, and the dominion you need to be delivered from, rescued from, might very well be a very cleaned up version of of doing and and trying and and and striving, and that's just as much in need of rescue as what I was rescued out of? I got saved out of a lot of unrighteousness. My wife got saved out of a lot of church righteousness, but there's only salvation in Christ righteousness. And so the question I have for you now is not do you go to church, not do you sing songs, but the question that I have for you now is has there ever been a moment when you've been rescued by the true king? Not are you trying, but are you trusting?
Not do you go to church, but are you the church? And so just wherever you are, can we pray together just in all of our campuses, just with your heads back, can we just pray together? Could it be that this is the moment, maybe today, that God before the foundation of the earth had set as your homecoming? Maybe this is the moment when God delivers you, rescues you from darkness to light. If you don't know him, this might be homecoming for you.
And I would want to say, just for you, welcome home. Give your life to him. And so king Jesus, we thank you. We thank you for a gospel that delivers us from a dominion of darkness. Maybe the darkness of religion, maybe the darkness of rebellion, but still darkness, because it's disappointing and not enough.
Every king and every kingdom fails, except you, king Jesus. And so what Paul says to that church is just as true for us today, this church. For those of us who know you, let us be filled with gratitude. As I share my story, let people be reminded of of, god, your work in their story. We're prone to wonder, prone to forget, and so remind us today of the work of the gospel in our life.
So, lord, we love you. We thank you for this, We pray this in your name. Amen.