Paperless Post | Chad Veach

0:00 Hey, what's going on, everybody? Thank you so much for joining us for this week's message from Zoe Church. We are a church in Los Angeles that is all about the person and the message of Jesus. We're going to jump into our welcome home message today. But before we do, I want to thank every person. It's the first of the month. We always thank every person that gives tithes and offerings to our church and through our church. If you'd like to begin your worship in the area of tithes and offerings, go to our website, zoechurch.org backslash give, and you can give there. But let's jump into this week's message called Paperless Post. Praise the Lord. Okay, go in your Bible to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22. We are in between series, so I get to preach today whatever I want. I want to preach a verse that I so love.

0:54 The book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible. If you're new to church, you're new to faith, this is where the story all ends. Revelation 22, this is the last part of the Bible. It says this. It says, the spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come. Let the one who is thirsty come. and let the one who wishes to take the free gift of the water of life. I like that. The spirit of God and the bride. If you don't know what the bride is in the Bible terms, let's just take out the word bride and replace it with the word church. The spirit of God and the church of God, they are shouting to humanity, come on, show up. They're inviting the earth. They're inviting the world. They're inviting anybody that doesn't have hope or as the Bible refers to as thirsty.

1:50 And we all know what a thirst trap is, so stay away. But anybody that's thirsty, to come drink from water, to receive the free gift. I like the word free and gift combined. Anybody else? Who in here has got a Costco membership? Praise the Lord. Ain't nothing like a college guy walking through the aisles just looking for a sample. Amen. Looking for a free gift. the spirit of God and the church of God are shouting to anybody that's thirsty, something like that.

2:30 Come. Come. That was so good. You can't make it up in church. You can't make it up. I want to preach a message today. Write down the title. It's called Paperless Post. I don't know if you love to go to parties just let me see your hand if you love to attend a party where the party people at yeah if you are if you are docile and mundane you're gonna hate Zoe Church Zoe Church we are loud and we are clappers somebody say amen we we we put the we put the the dulce in the piñata. Okay. We, we let a party around here. Okay. But, but, but I love to go to a party. I like going to a good party. Nothing, nothing drives me crazier than going to a party where there's no music. I get anxiety. I get anxiety for the host. I like to go to a party and there ain't nothing better than when you get an invite to a party. You know what I'm talking about? Like when you get that invite and you're like, it's a good invite, you know, like a good one. Like you're like, I was hoping I got on that list. Yeah. You get invited to a good party. You are so excited because there's nothing better than the feeling of being wanted. There's nothing better than the feeling of being desired. I've said it before. Let me remind you, stop sitting at tables where you're tolerated. Start sitting at tables where you're celebrated.

3:53 Oh, come on. Tell them, Pastor. no you got to go where you're desired where you're wanted you know how do you know if you're wanted at a place when you're wanted at a place you don't have to think twice it's like breathing air you never have to guess it when you're unwanted you start to think am i wanted here i like this the bible's teaching us the spirit of god and the church of god are inviting everybody to show up In other words, this is not for the select. It is not for the elite. It is not for the perfect. It is not for the religious. Is anybody thankful that the gospel of Jesus is for, oh, you ought to clap louder. It's for every tribe. It's for every tongue. It's for everybody.

4:46 Come on, give them a shout of thanksgiving that you've been invited to the table of the Lord. See, the question is not if you're invited. The question is what's your response? the question is not if you're desired the question is can god's invite cut through the noise of your life so you can hear heaven shouting to your life come on you're desired, you are wanted in this house. You are wanted in my kingdom. So you got to sometimes let God get through. You ever have your phone go off, but it's in between all the pillows and it's stuck. And it's just in between all the, you know, your sons of thunder have put the phone in the crevices of the pillows and you can't hear it. Sometimes there's so much distraction of life, we can't hear God shouting to our spirit, come. Sometimes we can't hear what God is trying to say to our life. And I just love this because I believe our church is a church of invitation.

5:59 If you don't know what church is, put up the Greek definition on the screen. It's the word ecclesia, it's an assembly, it's a gathering, or literally the called out ones. How about for this message, the invited ones. We're a gathering of people from our different backgrounds, from our different ethnicities, from our different socioeconomic backgrounds, from whatever political party you agree with or disagree with. We've all been invited into God's house. Doesn't matter what you've done, touched, smoked, looked at, participated in, even cowboy fans are welcome in the house. Give them a shout of praise. Somebody's like, are they? I didn't know. The Spirit and the church are shouting at humanity. They're not shouting, fall!

7:00 um no not so sorry not for you no the spirit and the bride are yelling come if you're thirsty in your soul I know the one that can quench your thirst with the power of his love and the power of his grace his name is Come on, praise him today. The spirit and the bride say, come. I'm gonna give you three things. Write down number one. The first thing he says, come just as you are. In other words, you don't have to get all sophisticated and get all cleaned up and get all ready. You don't have to wear your church clothes. No, you can come with all your baggage and all your issues and all your brokenness and all your addictions and all your sin patterns. I heard this story years ago in a book called What's So Amazing About Grace? And the author, Philip Yancey, told a story about this lady who was in prostitution and she had struggled for years in addiction and prostitution.

7:59 And she finally got a meeting with the pastor when she came to church. And the pastor asked this lady who had been struggling her whole life, he said, in all your years of wandering, in all your years of addiction, in all your years of letting your body be used, did you ever think to come to church? She said, why would I ever show up at a place that I already felt awful about myself? Why would I go to a place that I would feel even worse? No, lady, you got the wrong interpretation. of the love of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter how broken. It doesn't matter how thirsty. It doesn't matter how addicted. Oh, come on. Somebody praise him like you believe that this is come just as you. Come on, Zoe. Praise him if you believe it. Come just as you are.

8:43 See, religion says you got to get all fixed up and cleaned up. Religion says you better look the part and play the part. But Jesus says, come with all of your, come on, if you talked to the woman at the well, she would have said, he welcomed me just as I was. If you would have talked to Zacchaeus in that tree, he would have said, he welcomed me just as he was. If you would have talked to the lady that wasn't invited to the man's house who was throwing the party, and she walked up behind with her alabaster jar, and she broke the perfume over his feet and wiped it with her hair and wept at his feet. She said, I wasn't invited to the party, but I was invited to the man. Jesus loved me just the way.

9:24 Come on, praise him today. Just the way I am. When Jesus found you, he found you in your worst place. You weren't put together. You didn't know the lyrics. You didn't know a verse. You didn't know anything. You just know that the spirit in the church for shouting to you. come. Look at this verse, John chapter 6, verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. I love this because the only reason why you and I get to show up today to the gospel of grace is because the Father sent his Son, and his Spirit is drawing us close to God. There is nothing about God that wants you to be far away from him. But the heart of our father wants you to be close to his son, Jesus. That's why it's an invitation. And some of us have been looking at that invitation for far too long. Some of us have been looking at that invite going like, I don't know if I'm at a place right now where I can really reply. You ever get an invite to a party and you look at you like, I don't want to seem desperate. So I'll just wait a couple of days to reply.

10:39 but you ever get an invite you're like i don't know that's like in three months i don't know what i'm gonna be doing in three months and so they give you the options yes no maybe and why do they limit us to 200 characters i'm not a man to be limited to 200 characters if it's yes i can't wait to celebrate we're gonna party like it's 1999 If it's no, I want you to know in extreme detail why I can't make the party, and I'm so sad that I can't be there.

11:12 But some of us have thought, I don't know if I'm good enough to show up. I don't know if I'm loved enough. I don't know if what I'm dealing with and everything I'm doubting has disqualified my life from an invitation. No, the gospel is come just as you are. Come just as you are. You don't have to be anything you're not. You are a son and a daughter of the most high God. You've got an invitation.

11:42 Watch Luke chapter 15. Look at this about Jesus. Tax collectors and other notorious famous sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. And this made the church people, the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people. He was even, how dare he? while he was even eating with them. Can you imagine our Savior at Chipotle with these people?

12:13 This is disgusting. Because Jesus did not come to save the righteous. He came to save the unrighteous. He said, I did not come for those that are healthy. I came for those that are sick. I did not come for those that are already in good. I came to rescue those that are caught up in evil. Is there anybody thankful today for the gospel of Jesus that has come? Come on to any man, any woman that would accept the perfect love of Jesus Christ. Clap louder if you're grateful that he didn't cast you aside. He didn't revoke your invitation. The spirit in the church yelled at you, come. If you're thirsty, come. If you're broken, if you're needy, if you're desperate, if you're addicted, if you're in depression, if you're in suicide, if you're going through a hard time, if you're walking in evil ways, if you're deviant, if you're duplistic, come.

13:10 I like that it's come just as you are because religion says clean the outside of the dish. For her night, you know, Julia, I wanted to make sure I got to be my wife's driver with all of our kids to drive her to prepare the word of the Lord and deliver her to her night. And so nothing like driving a swagger wagon with my princess, my queen, and my world, and our four children. We had two, too many, and driving them out. And driving her out, so I said, do you want me to get the van washed before you preach the word? She said, go get the van washed. When I washed the van, I pulled up. Our van sparkles, okay? Our van looks beautiful. It's a Toyota Sienna. Both the doors open with a button. I thought it was beautiful. But, you know, women see things different. So when she came out before we left, she opened up the sliding door. She said, wait a second.

14:03 What is this inside? I said, oh, sugar, don't you worry. We're rolling. She said, we're not rolling like this. It's dirty in here. I said, you think we can fix our children that fast? We can't fix these kids. They're going to make a mess. most of us believe that if we look good on the outside and we look good to others if we present ourselves better than what we really are we'll be accepted and approved jesus said that's what religious people do they clean the outside of the dish but the inside of the dish is filthy he said you ought to work it backwards clean the inside of the dish it will affect the outside of the dish. That's why your countenance and your spirit are a reflection of your eyes and your soul. I don't know about you, but I don't want to present myself as clean. I want God to do a mighty work on the inside of me because he invited me when I was thirsty, when I was broken, and when I was desperate. Come just as you are. Yeah, I got problems.

15:13 Welcome to the club. We all got problems. For all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. So he says, come just as you are. Write down number two. You've got access to the door. Oh, I just love this. You've got access to the door. John 10, 9. Jesus says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. And he will go in and he will go out and he will find pasture. I am the door. Jesus in John 10 says seven I am statements. Seven times he says I am. This time he says I'm the door. Before that he said I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The only way that he became a door was because he became a good shepherd. He laid down his life on the cross.

16:07 died a brutal death for all of humanity, died for three days, and then rose from the grave. Because he's the good shepherd, God qualified him to make him the door. Anybody thankful that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life? No one gets to the Father except going through the, come on, praise him, Zoe. There's no other way to the Father. There's no other way to heaven except through the door of Jesus. He said, I'm the door. I'm the door. The only way you have access is that you have access through me. Have you ever been to an event and they put around your neck a lanyard and on that lanyard it said VIP access? Ball out, baby.

16:49 You walk around that concert like, see that Fiji water? I can have it. Those granola bars? Access. Backstage? Holler at your boy. I got VIP access.

17:11 See, there's three things that keep you from walking through the door of Jesus. It's fear, it's shame, and it's comparison. fear of not being enough, fear of your failure, fear of your future, shame from your decisions, comparison that you're not good enough or as good as those people, fear, shame, and comparison. But when you understand the only reason I have access is because of Jesus. It is not because I'm great, it's because he's great. It's not because I did anything, it's because he did everything. He became a door so that I could walk through it and walk in it and find pasture. You know what that means? Find space for my soul. Find space for my family. Find rest for the weary. Find pleasure forevermore in his presence. I don't know about you, but I'm just grateful that my access wasn't denied. Jesus looked at me and said, I died for your sins. Come on in, enter into my gates. Come on. Praise him today. If you believe you got, I got access. I got access. Look at Ephesians chapter two, verse 18. For though, for through him, we both have access to the father by one spirit through him, through Jesus. We have access. We have access. And most of us are thinking like, I'm not good enough. I'm not put together. I got issues. I've got problems. I've got, I just, I, recently I was at this place, I was at a, I was at an establishment that is like a member's place. And it was one, like a hot summer day here in LA. And so I thought I wore like an appropriate shirt and, you know, shorts. I'd love to show off my legs. And so I was wearing short shorts, just, it's a whole issue. And I'm in the Cav knots category. And so I went to this place and I didn't realize how, you know, fancy it was. And so I showed up in sandals. I showed up at flip-flops. And the guy was like, hey, just a heads up here. We don't allow sandals. We'll let you in this one time, but you can't come back ever again in sandals. And I was like, you don't like

19:21 my hush puppies? Like these claws were made for walking. And they're, they're, they're, we'll let you in this once, but you know, just don't you ever come back like that again. And most of us, most of us think that God's going, hey, we'll let you in today. We'll let you in. You can get prayed for today, but you get, go clean, go get cleaned up if you want access again. No, my access was not based upon my behavior. My access is based upon my belief. I believe in Jesus and that gave me access to the father. And if you only knew the access that you had, if you only knew the access you've been granted. I think you'd pray different and you'd live different. I think you'd pray bigger prayers. The Bible says that let us therefore now come boldly before the throne of grace. I get to run up to my father in heaven. There used to be a wall of separation. Humanity was on one side. God was on the other side, but Jesus broke down the wall of separation and became a door for me to walk in to have access to my father.

20:33 Come on, clap if you're thankful today. I've got access to the one that owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I've got access to the one that owns the, he got the whole world. He got the whole world. Can't tell if I'm on key or off key, so it feels good.

20:54 I've got access because I walked through the door of Jesus Some of you need to start acting like you're a son or a daughter of the Most High God. You need to start walking around like you got VIP access on your badge. I know who my father is, and the only way I got in this house was the Spirit of God and the Church of God, and my Father in Heaven invited me in to the banqueting table. I've been seated in the presence of the Lord. So come just as you are. you've got access to the door write down number three I love this step into the abundant life see it goes from invitation to showing up to walking in the abundant life John 10 10 is the verse that our church was founded on our our our church is called Zoe church. It's a Greek word translated into English, abundant life. And our church lives to bring people into the abundant life that is only found in Jesus. Abundant life is not more things.

22:02 Abundant life is more Jesus. When we talk about the abundant life, we're not saying more cars or money or jobs. We're saying more of Jesus in your life. The only way you can get the abundant life is by walking in the will of Jesus for your life. John 10, 10, put it on a screen. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. But Jesus says, I have come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly. The thief of your life, the enemy of your life has come to steal, kill. What was the last one to what? Destroy. So watch this. The enemy of your life goes, Oh yeah, that's fine, that's fine. You can go through the door and you can get saved, but I'm gonna make sure that while you're in the house and at the party, you're miserable.

22:55 So I'm gonna steal your joy, I'm gonna kill your dreams, and I'm gonna destroy your relationships. So that's fine, come just as you are, walk through the door of Jesus, but I'm gonna make sure you have, you ever been to a party and you're miserable, you can't wait to get out of there? Every once in a while you go to a party, years like, Julia, get me the heck out of here. I can't wait. What is the socially appropriate amount of time I got to stay in this casa until I can leave? So sorry. Yeah, we got to go. We got to go. So sorry. We got, we got four kids. We got to go. See the enemy of your life wants you to be saved and miserable. Wants you to have salvation with no sanctification. I want you to show up and walk through the door and then never know where to go in the house. What's your purpose in the house?

23:51 See, the spirit and the bride, the spirit and the church didn't say come so you can be stuck in depression, stuck in addiction, stuck in rebellion. The spirit and the bride beckoned you. called your name so you can step into your God-given potential, so you can step into the plan of heaven for your life, so you can step into a plan and a purpose that's bigger than living for yourself. I'm just believing that out of today, some of us, we're going to stop sitting around at the party being bored, wondering what everybody else is doing, and let's step into our God-given purpose and plan for our life. Come on, clap if you believe it today. I've been made by Jesus for Jesus. God's got a plan for my life. Clap a little bit louder if you believe there's purpose and there's destiny to your future. John 4 verse 13, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst again, but water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. See, when you start walking in the Jesus life, the love of God starts overflowing. The love of God starts spilling out over your life. See, the enemy wants you to barely keep enough water for yourself, but when you drink from the water that Jesus has, it'll spill out and you'll invite all your co-workers, all your neighbors, all your family, all your cousins and all your friends and say, I know a man that changed my life. Come on, the spirit and the bride say, come, come. And you'll never get to the fun part of inviting others into the kingdom until you've got the rivers of living water flowing out of your life. And I'm just, I'm praying for you. I'm praying that you step out of living for yourself and you step into living for God.

25:57 The fastest way to depression is living for yourself and the fastest way to fulfillment is living for God. The spirit and the bride are shouting at humanity. Shout, we're for sure shouting at Clipper fans. Help them, Jesus.

26:19 We are even saying to those guys, Maybe whispering God. And I don't know what cut through the noise in your life. I don't know what it was that day that broke heaven open into your world.

26:43 I don't know if you can remember the day or the hour. I have a friend who's coming to lead worship at Zoe Conference, Brooke Ligerwood, one of the best worship leaders in the world. She says, when I lead worship, I lead with such ferocious passion because I can still remember being a teenage girl in New Zealand showing up at a church by myself, the Spirit of God hitting my life for the first time. She said, I could still taste the metallic taste of sin in my mouth when God delivered me from that life.

27:25 Do you remember when you were? Do you remember where you were when God called your name? What a beautiful morning for us at Zoe. the man that led my father to Jesus in the 9 a.m. service. There is no Zoe Church without that man. There is no legacy of last Sunday we passed as a church. 14,000 people have said yes to Jesus at Zoe Church. None of it happens without a man telling somebody, come.

28:09 My dad said that when he got saved, he was such a mess, comes from a broken home and a broken family, and he was living a broken life, and somebody loved him enough to say, no, the gospel's for you. And he showed up in his pain and his problems, and God loved him enough, but he didn't just step through the door. He stepped into the abundant life that is found in Jesus. And my prayer for our church is that we'd have a bunch of people that don't believe in God alone, but we live for God. We live for the glory of Jesus. We're stepping into the purpose and the plan and the dream that God has for our life. Amen? Come on, clap if you agree with that today. Worship team, come join me. just watch this on the screen real fast. I want us to understand this. The Spirit stirs hearts, but the church speaks words, sings songs, open doors, shows love.

29:10 Can we take a moment and clap for all the volunteers today, by the way, everybody that's serving. Come on, let's really, come on, from kids to parking, production, coffee, merch, hosts, Come on, clap for the security team today. Praise the Lord. Worship. the spirit empowers, but the church embodies. Without the church, the spirit's call would not have human hands, human faces, human voices through which to shine. Without the spirit, or the spirit is the power, but the church is the vessel. The spirit inspires, but the church proclaims. And I want to tell you, we're in LA, not to be us four no more. Kumbaya, we're just this group of holy people that gets together on Sundays and we don't want anybody else to be here. No, I pray that somebody next to you smells a little funky today. That's the green stuff.

30:12 You smell like sin. Don't judge somebody that they look like sin. Just say you smell like it. the spirit needs the church the spirit moves through the life of a church to show the love of jesus the spirit empowers the church to heal restore and to witness it becomes his hands and it becomes his feet the spirit chooses voices to be his echo throughout the world and the spirit stirs the church to cry out come drawing others into the story clap if you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit at rest and at work. Clap like you want the Holy Spirit to overwhelm and invade and lead in power through our community. But I tell you what, the church needs the Spirit. Come on, worship team. The church has no true voice without the Spirit's breath. Without the Spirit, our words are noise. With Him, they are power, hope, and life.

31:08 The church needs the Spirit to reveal Jesus beyond human intellect, turning beliefs into a relationship. The church can't live the supernatural life without the indwelling of his strength. The church has no compassion for fire victims, broken people, thirsty people, needy people without the power of the Holy Spirit. And the church needs the Spirit to keep it awake. Glory to God. Holy and longing for the return of Christ. I'm telling you, I've been in meetings with hundreds that felt like thousands, and I've been in meetings with thousands that felt like hundreds. It's all about the indwelling and the power of the Holy Spirit overwhelming a church to say, we're going to be alive, and we're going to be awake, and we're going to be hungry. Come on, we're not done crying out to the earth. We're not done shouting in the highways and the byways. We're not done lifting our voice on social media. We're not done telling our coworkers and our neighbors.

32:08 We're giving them one word. And it's not look at us. It's look at God. And we're shouting to LA, come! Come! come come we're not just asking Jesus you can stand your feet we're not just asking Jesus to show up in power we're inviting anybody that believes that they're not good enough anybody that's stuck in addiction anybody that believes that they are too far gone from the love of Jesus we're saying no if God did it for somebody like me how could he not do it for somebody like you. If God did it for them over there, how come he can't do it in LA right here? If God did it way back then, I believe he'll do it right here today. Come on, Zoe, let's pray. Again, thank you so much for listening to this week's message. We hope you were encouraged. We hope it brought you strength in life. I also want to encourage you to register for our conference, Zoe Conference 2026 at the end of January in this next year. Get signed up, get registered, put the dates in your phone we would love to see you at zoe conference it's 159 dollars for anybody that would like to come pastor louis giglio dr darius daniels brooke ledgerwood john wilds zoe worship it's going to be incredible and it wouldn't be the same without you make sure you get registered today we'll see you next week