The Way Back | Week 1 | Joshua Paul | Echoes Church

Well before I was ever a pastor, I was actually a touring musician. A few less tattoos, but a lot more hair. Fun times. I actually went my very first tour when I was 16 years old. I ended up graduating high school early, and then I toured full time for the next five years.

I still look back at it as some of my fondest, fun memories.

What an incredible privilege it was to play music and make a living doing that, but it wasn't just the playing music part that was awesome. It was kind of some of the other things that made touring possible. See, I got to see the world. I went and played music in three different continents across,

gosh, over a dozen different countries, and I got to do that playing music. Like, who doesn't want that type of experience? But again, it wasn't just the traveling moments, it was the things that made touring possible were the sponsorships.

And so I wanna share some of the sponsors that I experienced when on the road. One in particular, we were headlining a tour, and this was a US tour, and we were sponsored by Denny's. Yeah, I'm talking about the breakfast diner you're thinking of right now. We were sponsored by Denny's.

About almost twenty years ago, they tried to run this campaign that was like the rock star late night menu. So what we did is we play a show in whatever city, at the end we'd do a meet and greet at the closest Denny's.

The whole tour package ate for free, which was awesome. They made money on all the fans showing up, which is really cool.

From the outside looking in, you're like, man, that's rad. Sponsored by an organization like Denny's is pretty cool and also eating for free is also really great. The problem was the inside when you eat 30 plus Denny's Grand Slandwiches every night, It's not so good for this area here, but I still had a good time.

Another one I think of is Van's Warp Tour. So it was really popular in nineties, early two thousands. It it fell off for a while. It's actually kinda making its way back the last couple summers, but we did that tour a couple different years. And I remember one year in particular. This is how every day started for about two months span. We'd get up with our guitar tech, I'd go to the production tent, we'd get our set time for the day, a case of water, a case of beer, then we'd go to the Monster Energy tent, I'd get a case of energy drinks, then we'd go to the Willy Wonka tent, I'd get a massive box of candy, fist bump the Oompa Loompas because they legit had actors on the road with us that were Oompa Loompas, and then go back to our bus and just kinda do whatever I wanted till our set time and our signing that day. At the end of Warp Tour, they called this behind the scenes the summer camp for bands. Every single night, we would just have a barbecue and party in the parking lot until bus call to go to the next city.

I share all this with you in no way to try to impress you, I'm actually sharing it with you to try to reveal something to you. See, by the world standards, was living the dream, but towards the end of it, I started hating who I became. See, had the attention, I had the applause,

I had the status, I had the platform, I had the glamour of being an artist. I unfortunately had the ego that came with it as well, but from the outside it looked awesome, but the inside, I just became more and more empty. And though at that time I wasn't intentionally running away from God,

I certainly wasn't running toward him, and the more I chased the world, the more I lost myself.

So I ended up walking away from all of it. I knew from a young age I felt called to ministry, I just didn't know what it looked like as a child, and then after the touring career, as I was wrapping it up, I knew God was calling me to serve the local church.

So I was living in California, applied to churches all across the country, got two job offers. The first one was to be a music director at a large church in Texas. It'd be full time, salary, route the gate, just take everything I was already doing it and put it in church context.

The second offer was a junior high pastor's assistant for ten hours a week, $10 an hour, a part of a mobile church plant that met at a high school just like this. The first one would have been the easy one. It would have been the one that honestly would have made more sense,

but I knew deep down inside there was something in me telling me I would make music my idol in ministry just like I did in the world, and I could not afford to do that. I was more concerned with my relationship with God. So I turned down the position that continued status,

the position that continued a platform, the position that continued to give me some of the things I was getting in the secular world, but in a church to build a relationship with God, and I learned something in that season. The value of your life is not built on what you have, but on who you have.

See, as much as I didn't like who I'd become, I recognized I still was never too far gone for the Lord to still rescue, redeem, and restore me. And your story probably looks different than mine in lots of different ways, but I think for all of us in some capacity, we can remember a moment, maybe in the past,

maybe for some of us in the present, where we felt like we were too far gone, that we lost ourselves. We didn't recognize the person we saw in the mirror. We didn't like where we were. And we end up there, I think we have to ask ourselves a question, what do you do next? See, a lot of people, they stay.

They stay because of fear, because of shame. They don't think there is a way back or they think if there is, they wouldn't even be welcomed back. But Jesus answers this exact thing. The book of Luke chapter 15. See, this is a teaching where Jesus is telling three parables or three stories.

They're each about recovering something that was once lost, and his examples are a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Now, the premise of each is the same, something of value goes missing, they find it, restore it, and then celebrate.

I think if you want to go read the other two passages right before this in the same chapter, they're so contextually compelling of the same idea, but I wanna specifically talk about the son because I think there's something relational, personal, and emotional that we can all connect with some capacity.

So we're gonna start in verse 11, Luke chapter 15 verse 11. To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story.

A man had two sons, the younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. Now this wasn't just a request from a son to a father, this was actually a first step of rejection.

See culturally at this time asking for your inheritance early was essentially saying, want what you have, but I don't want you. I want the reward, but without the relationship. I think for some of us, that's how we treat God. See, we want his provision, but we don't want his process. We want his promises without his

provision over the presence that it takes to then fulfill the promise. We want his blessing without the boundaries to receive the blessing. We want his favor without the formation it takes to receive that favor. And here's our first mistake. We want what God can give us more than we want God himself.

Something inside of us, all the way back to the Garden of Eden, creation in the book of Genesis, there's something inside of us, this innate desire that was born in sin that we want when we want, when we want it, how we want it. And see, wasn't just eating the fruit back then, it's us continually saying,

I'll decide what's good for me. I'll determine what's right for my life. I will do what makes me feel good. See, look at it as an example in scripture, but doesn't that sound like culture today? The younger son in the story, man, is just like us.

It wasn't just rebelling, it was rejecting what the father had in store. The son is telling the father, just like we tell God sometimes, I don't trust your timing. I don't trust your wisdom. I don't trust your authority. I want what I want.

And what we need to understand, the kind of the same idea but said differently, the first step away from God is desiring what he can give more than desiring who he is. We start building this relationship based on what we get out of it instead of who we're getting out of it.

I want to ask for all of us, where in our lives have we asked God for something? Not even always bad things, but this is this is where the the temptation, the tension lives. We'll ask God for a restored relationship. Yes and amen. I hope he does it. We'll ask God for provision over our finances breakthrough financially.

Man, I hope God blesses that for you and your family. We'll ask God for an opportunity for a new job or maybe that promotion that we've been waiting for. Man if you're qualified for it, I hope God calls you to it. We'll ask for a better outcome than our current circumstances.

Man my hope is God actually would guide you through whatever storm you're going through. Those aren't bad requests. Here's the thing, we will ask God for what we want, but we won't ask him what he wants for us.

Did you catch that? We will ask God for what we want, not even bad things at times, but we will miss asking God what he wants for us. We'll ask him for his blessing, his favor, his peace, his comfort, yes and amen. But when's the last time you ask God for some humility, for some contentment,

for discipline to be continually formed like him through sanctification? We'll ask for the first things, but we rarely miss, and we rarely actually ask for the things that matter, that turn us towards him instead of away from him. And I think back

just for a moment, can you imagine if God did answer all your prayers with yes? I mean I look at my life, the first thought's like that'd be pretty cool, because I asked for a lot of stuff, I thought it cool at the time, but I'm immediately reminded of Bruce Almighty.

If you all remember when Jim Carrey's playing God, he's hearing all the prayers and he just goes the reply all hits yes and send. You know what happened shortly after? Absolute chaos. I can now confidently say, I thank God that he said no to me far more than he said yes. I

think sometimes God blesses us more with his no than his yes, and that's not easy to hear and that's certainly not easy to live out, but he's all knowing, all powerful, and I believe sometimes

God will bless us more with his no than he does with his yes, but can we be in a posture to actually receive that and be thankful for it? But we'll see in this story what happens when you get what you think you wanted. The son got what he wanted, we're gonna see what happens.

A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve.

He persuaded a local farmer to hire him and the man sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. Do you notice how fast that happened?

Verse 12, he got what he wanted. Verse 13, there's already distance being created between him and the father. For some of us that distance, that distant land as scripture refers to, it may not be geographical. For us that distant land, it might be relational. It might be spiritual. It might be moral.

For some of us that distant land might be an addiction that we live in now. What once started as I'm gonna go have a casual social drink with a friend has now turned into I have to drink every day.

Some of it could be an unhealthy relationship. That distant land that seemed to be innocent at first, but it's with someone of the opposite sex who isn't your spouse or isn't your boyfriend or girlfriend and you start thinking and feeling, maybe saying, potentially doing things you never should have done,

but it started innocent. It could be that internet browser or social media, the endless scroll. It just happened to be an ad or an image that caught your attention, but once you clicked on that, you scrolled some more, then you clicked again,

you scrolled some more, and you clicked again, and now you're at a place where you have to hide it all and make sure to clear your search history. Maybe for some of us it's building a life so busy that we don't, hear me, not can't, we don't make room for God. For all of us in the room right now, myself included,

we will come to church on Sundays, check the box of one hour, and my ask is, what are you doing with the other one hundred and sixty seven hours of the week not talking to God?

We're attempting to build a relationship based on the things we want, the things that we get from the Father as opposed to who, and in the beginning those things might seem innocent, it might seem appealing, satisfying, exciting, but that's only because sin only advertises the fun at first, never the famine that follows.

Sin will always and only advertise the fun at first and never the famine that will inevitably follow. See the son here was trying to fill an internal, eternal void with external experiences, and science confirms this, not just scripturally, but for us today.

Neuroscience will tell us when we experience novelty or risk or new experiences, it releases dopamine. Dopamine's the chemical that's connected with this pleasure and reward. That's why new things feel so intoxicating, invigorating. Again, not even a bad thing. But when dopamine is released and triggered, it always,

always drops. And once it drops, you need even more of said things to ever try to feel that same high again. That's why what started as fun or freedom will always end up in dependency. And the weight of the situation hits in verse 16. After all this happens to him, no one gave him anything.

When he had the money and the resources and the wild living, he had the friends and the companions with him. When he had the status, he had the attention of those around, but when he lost those things, he also lost them. When that stuff ran out, so did they. And it's at that moment,

I think where it'll hit you, that the distant land, the greener grass on the other side, the things that you think will solve your problems, man, they will always over promise and under deliver. You can chase the things of the world, you can chase success, and you can chase pleasures,

but eventually that void will overcome the distractions. That void inside of our heart and life because it's been broken by sin, the relationship has been broken by sin with Jesus, that void will eventually overcome every single thing of this world you try to fill that gap with, and this is what we will realize.

You didn't run because you thought God didn't have something good for you. You ran because you thought there was something else better.

That's a little bit of a mouthful, but just think about that for a second. You didn't run because you didn't think God had something good for you. I think we all innately believe God has something for us.

If you have any relationship with him, you think he has something good for you, but what happens is you run because you thought there was something else better.

We'll continue in verse 17, when he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, at home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.

This is the pivotal moment right here, when he came to his senses. See, he stopped blaming his situation, he stopped blaming everyone or everything else. He confessed, he repented,

and it wasn't about shame or self hatred, it was this ownership, this accountability to why he is there and how he got there. See psychologists will tell us that we will rationalize our behavior before we admit our behavior. Did you catch that rationalize? We will tell ourselves rational lies.

We as a people are so good at trying to protect our own self image, but that's why repentance, it always begins with honesty. When the son here, he stops and he just starts with, I have sinned.

And he doesn't go any further. He doesn't try to rewrite it. He doesn't try to justify it. He doesn't try to explain what he did. He just owns it and that's where the power is at. Because the hardest person to tell the truth to sometimes is yourself. That moment where you realize this isn't working,

this isn't who I want to be, this isn't where I belong, that's where the power is at, and it's not condemnation, man. That is a holy conviction. What does he do next? So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.

Filling with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. You can't see someone far off unless you're looking for them. I mean, just think for a moment, any context, any environment, you don't notice someone that's in the distance unless you're looking for them, And so his father

gave him what he asked for, knowing he was being rejected, but was waiting for him to come back home, and what did he do? He ran. He didn't wait, he didn't walk, he ran. He met his son where he was, and his son didn't have to clean himself up or get his life together, just had to get up, turn back, and find his way home.

And that's the same for you and I. The Lord's just waiting for us to turn back to him and he will meet you there. That's the beauty of it because he's already waiting, he's already watching, you just have to find your way back.

In verse 21, his son said to him, father, I have sinned against both heaven and you. I'm no longer worthy of being called your son, but his father said to the servants, quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him, get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet, and kill the calf we've been fattening, we must celebrate with the feast.

For the son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found, so the party began. The son starts with, I have sinned. The father responds with, bring the finest robe, a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And culturally at this time, a robe, man, that signified restored identity.

A ring on his finger, that meant restored authority. Sandals on his feet meant restored sonship back into the family. The father didn't reject the son, he restored him immediately, and that's the truth we need to know today, that God's not waiting for you to come back to him and then to punish you,

he's waiting for you to come back to him not to say shame on you, but shame off of you. He wants to embrace you and restore you, And I wanna show you a quick story of what this looks like for someone that experienced this type of life change here at Echoes. Check this out.

My name is Shauna. I am a single mom. I have two kids. My daughter is 10 and my son is seven years old. And we started attending Echoes in November 2025.

We started going to Echoes just because I heard about it from a friend. They shared that pastor Daniel's style of preaching was something that I might connect with. So we went on a whim after attending a different church for about a year before that, just kind of going on and off. In my household specifically,

I felt like God was not discussed really at all as a kid. And then as I got older, it was kind of more just the fire and brimstone, the scary part of being a Christian, like, don't have sex, don't do drugs, God's always watching. So that was tough because I didn't really have a foundation.

I think I just distanced myself a lot from religion, and I didn't

really know much about the Bible or know much about God or Jesus. I just kind of wrote it off and lived life very much without Him for a lot of years. My first service that I attended at Echoes, he talked about how the Bible was written by 40 something people and it's still, it's accurate. And I think the very cynical part of me that wanted to be like, there's no way that this happened. But I remember just being like, this is what I needed to hear. Like, that logical

part of me that I think a lot of people have that struggle to believe in the Bible or in God because they just think it's not possible. Like, you know, it's it's all miracles and stuff that's hard to believe. He talked about how to read the Bible and how to do that mindfully and purposefully.

And I feel like that, again, was just exactly what I needed to hear. Like, I just need to start. I just need to use it as a tool to learn and connect with God. It was truly

just the perfect sermon. Like, I felt like I was called to be there that day. Like, that was how perfect it felt. I was sitting in the auditorium and I was like, this is just where I'm supposed to be. And I remember crying and being like, thank goodness, somebody told me. What I would say to somebody if they felt like they had messed up or been too far from God to even come back, I think it's

just not true. I think that there's plenty of people that have felt that way and I am one of those people and I have struggled with feeling many different times in my life that I wanted to reconnect with God, but I was too far from God, or I was too ignorant, or too scared, or I had sinned too much to be able to

find a church and reconnect or to, you know, even pray to God. So I think, you know, it's never too late. God is always there. There's nothing to wait for. It's just us taking that next step, and and pursuing him and trying to seek out that relationship with him. Can we thank Shana for sharing her story?

You can run from God, you can never outrun him. Some of us today need to be reminded of that reality just like she was. I love what she said at the end there. It's never too late. God is already there. There's nothing to wait for. Look at the son in the story.

When he came back home and he didn't have to clean himself up or get his life together, he literally was working in a pigpen, got up, and went home. I think for a lot of us we think we have to behave first before we belong, but that's not the way it goes.

You already belong. You just have to find your way back and the father is waiting, watching on the horizon for you to turn towards him and he will run after you. He will meet you there, rescue you, redeem you, and restore you. And it's there that you experience true life change.

But for some of us, if you feel distant still and you need that opportunity to come back to the father, I want to create that moment right now. I wanna ask that we all bow our heads and close our eyes.

I want us all to pray something together, and I want us all to pray it out loud. Because if something is speaking to you, if you feel the weight of this moment, know that it's not me, that is the Holy Spirit moving, nudging, speaking to you.

And so this prayer is a simple invitation to Jesus to take over our lives. Now the the power is not found in the words alone. The power is found in our posture and that's why we can all repeat this together.

But scripture tells us if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, that then you will be saved. So I wanna ask, would everyone repeat this after me? Father, I've been running, but I could never outrun you. I confess that I've sinned, and I ask for your forgiveness.

I believe Jesus died for me.

I believe he rose again, and today, I give my life to you.

Restore me, lead me in Jesus' name. Now we'll just stay in this moment for a second, eyes closed, heads bowed. There's two groups of people I wanna ask a question to. If you just said that prayer for the first time,

again, not just the words themselves, but it was a spoken confession, a commitment to give your your life to the lord. You wanna find your way back to him right now

because you do not have to wait any longer. He is already there. If you said that prayer for the very first time today, no one else looking around, God heard you, I just wanna celebrate with you. Would you lift your hand up? Just lift your hand straight up if you said that prayer. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. Yeah.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Thank you, guys. Keep your hands down. And second group, I wanna ask, if you said that prayer, but maybe you've already accepted Jesus into your life, but you feel maybe like the son, maybe you feel like I did years ago, that you felt too far gone, too messed up, too broken,

too many regrets, but you just wanna find your way back. If that's you and you just wanna use this moment again, confessing with your mouth, believing in your heart that Jesus is Lord, just to recommit your life back to him. If that's you, would you raise your hand for me?

You're just turning back to him now saying, Lord, I still believe in you, but I wanna confess that I'd recommit my life to you. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's so good, guys. That's so good. Yes. You guys can put your hands down. And all God's people said, amen. Can we celebrate all the decisions that were just made today?

So there's a next step for all of us. On your way in, you got this wristband. On the outside, it says echo Jesus every day. That's our mission here at Echoes. But if you didn't look at the inside, it says my one with a blank line.

I'm just looking at my one.

This message is not just for you, it's for someone in your life that needs to be reminded of that hope. And here's why it says my one. You all know people in your life that are far from God that I will never know. Pastor Daniel will never know. Echoes Church will never know unless you step in and fill the gap.

God has put people in your life, in your work, your home, your family, your friends, your school that need to be reminded they have a way back. But no one's gonna reach them except God has called you uniquely to this exact moment for such a time as this to step in the gap, bold faith, to invite them

to this truth that they are never too far gone. They're never too broken. They think the church isn't for them. They think God's disappointed in them, but we remind them that, no, it doesn't matter how far you ran. You did not outrun God.

And so at the end of service, I wanna ask, would you all prayerfully consider who that person is? Write that name in there.

Over the next days, weeks, and time to come, you will wear this regularly. You will pray for them full of faith, and then you will invite them to join you for Easter at Echoes. There's no better time. They're not gonna stumble here on accident. They're not gonna ask you to ask them to come to church. You have to step in boldly and invite them to join you.

Can do we that church? Be a people called by God to be disciples, to go reach the one that God uniquely has put on your heart and life? I believe we can. And I wanna do what scripture did now as we close out service. Let's all stand. At the end of this story, you remember what they did? They celebrated. They had a party.

For all the people in here that said yes to Jesus today for the first time, for all the people that said yes to recommit their life to God, for all the people you're thinking about that you need to reach for your one, we're going to worship an expectation in advance for them on their behalf, giving God the glory he deserves. We will worship him and honor him, but we will sing for us, and we will sing with faith for them now. Can we do that? Give God some glory. Let's give him some praise. Come on, church. Let's do this.