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I guess that it is a neat thing to do because all of the states of our great country do it. They select a flower to represent the state and a song and a bird and then of course a slogan. These things are supposed to be representatives of the state and sum up life in that particular area of the country and sometimes they do just that. Just knowing that the coyote is the state animal of South Dakota tells you a lot doesn't it!? We live in the state of Texas and you would be proud to know that our state flower is the blue bonnet, the state bird is the mocking bird, the state animal is the longhorn, and the state tree is the pecan. You might not know that the state motto of Texas is "friendship" and that the word "Texas" comes from an old Caddo Indian word teysha that meant "hello friend." That's why you and I see the signs that say "Drive friendly the Texan way" which is a good thought even if it isn't close to the truth!

Still "friendship" or "hello friend" is not a bad slogan and motto for a state and it certainly beats such mottos as the motto of Virginia, Sic Semper Tyrannis, which sounds like a special kind of dinosaur but is actually Latin for "Thus Ever to Tyrants." The motto of South Carolina is also in Latin: Dum Spiro Spero which means "While I breathe, I hope." Leading the list of unpronounceable and unmemorable slogans is Hawaii's. It's motto -- and I'm not making this up -- is Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono which is Hawaiian for "Don't drop the coconut you fool!" Not really. It means "The life of the Land perpetuated in Righteousness." Catchy. I'm glad to live in the state of "friendship."

I understand that none of this is changing your life and you probably didn't come to church to hear me give you a categorical state history lesson. But I bring all of this up because I just spent seven days in the state of Pennsylvania and there is a great tragedy because they have the slogan wrong in their state. The slogan of Pennsylvania is currently "the keystone state" and they have the little keystone symbol everywhere and I have no problem with that in itself. But I think that a slogan should represent what a state really is. I think that the motto should embody what it's like to be in that particular state. And so definitely they should change the slogan to match what it's really like to be there. And after seven days of driving through the state, I have a more appropriate motto for Pennsylvania; one that is fitting and true. They should change the motto to "the state of no u-turns." Or maybe "the no u-turns allowed state."

In Texas they have this great little invention called the "U Turn" on our interstates. And I never appreciated it until this past week. If you get off track or go a wrong way in Texas, there's no reason to panic, because all you have to do is get in the left-hand lane, go down to the next light, and hit that little U turn lane which swings you right back around the opposite direction that you were heading. It's quick and painless and you don't even have to wait for the lights. Whoever invented that little concept needs a medal and award or something. Because of the U turn lane, in a matter of seconds you can be going the right direction even if you were heading in a completely wrong direction!

After they give the guy that invented those little lanes his award, we need to ship him off to Pennsylvania. They need him desperately, because -- as I mentioned -- it is the land of no u-turns. When we got off the plane on our trip, we got our rental car and then decided to buy a map, get something to eat, and drive the 40 minutes to where we were staying and get settled in. When I came out of the airport, I turned the wrong way and when I got off on an exit expecting to see a little U turn lane, there of course was not one and so I had to turn on the intersecting road. There was a little gas station there so I went in and bought a map and realized that if I could just get back to the interstate going the right direction we could be well on our way. The only way to exit the gas station was to go the opposite way of the interstate and so I pulled out across four lanes of traffic to be sure to get to the left-hand lane of the next light. I could see across the street where I wanted to go but as I looked up at the light I saw that little sign that would be haunting me by the weeks end: a picture of an arrow doing exactly what I wanted my little car to do with a slash through it and the word "no U-Turns allowed." I had no choice but to keep going straight away from where I wanted to be. I got down to the next light now getting into the little town and guess what "no U-Turns allowed." By now I was getting frustrated. I told my wife who knows not to answer these sort of questions "how are you supposed to turn around in this place?" I turned right and now I'm lost.

I drove for a few minutes until I saw another light but as I decided to make an illegal U-turn, some guy cut me off and as I swerved onto the next lane to go straight, I accidentally cut off this older gentleman who proceeded to lay down on his horn and tailgate me for a few miles all the while cussing me out. I did what the only logical thing to do and that was stop and eat. Being the "friendly" Texas driver that I am, I waved a friendly wave to the old gentleman and smiled real big and then before he could get his gun, cut across two lanes of oncoming traffic into a Wendy's. An hour and a half later, I found my way back to the interstate a good 15 miles from where I had gotten off simply to make a U Turn. I'd like to say that was the only time that I got lost and had such an experience, but it was to repeat itself the next day and a few more times throughout the week. I was trapped in the land of no U-turns for seven days and I'm just glad to be back! Even our plane back was delayed: I'm telling you, once you are somewhere in Pennsylvania is it incredibly hard to reverse your direction!

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I don't know if God is a Texan or not, but I do know that God allows U-turns! God thought of U-turns long before man ever built a paved road. U-turns are a "God idea." They are an available lane of travel that He has placed in every one of our lives.

We read in our text in Ezekiel about God telling the sinful people of Israel to "turn yourselves, and live." Ezekiel could very well be known as the "U-turn prophet" because his primary subject matter was people turning around from sin and going back to God. When God first called him to be a preacher, He said:

God was saying "Ezekiel you are the messenger and your job is to warn the people that are going the wrong way that they need to turn around." "If you don't warn them and speak what I have commanded you, then their blood will be upon your hands." That's why I preach so hard and so direct sometimes. I'm not trying to win a popularity contest or be voted president of the glee club, here. I'm not even trying to get a church with a lot of members so that I can get a raise and live in a nice house and be known as a successful pastor. I simply want you to go to heaven. Furthermore, I want to go to heaven myself so if God gives me a message and I don't preach it to you because I'm scared of your reaction, then God will hold me responsible for your soul. In other words, not only will you be lost but so will I for not telling you that you needed to turn from your sinful ways.

The good news is that I've got a positive message to deliver to you: God allows U-turns. God went on to tell Ezekiel and therefore any other preacher:

And then a few chapter later we come to our text:

And then we come to the final impassioned cry of God through Ezekiel in chapter 33 of the book:

"Turn ye! Turn ye!" Surely the message of God is obvious, Ezekiel, you must preach that there is a "U-turn available!" And it's a positive message that is still applicable today! Maybe you find yourself having chosen the wrong path all of your life. Maybe you made a bad choice this past week or even this morning. Maybe you stumbled and turned. Possibly you are now even spiritually headed the wrong direction from where you should be going. Or maybe you sit here under condemnation in the house of God unable to pray and praise like you should because you feel bad because of a bad decision or trap that you fell into this past week. If so, I've got good news for you today: God allows U-turns! It is a lie from the pits of hell that you have to wander off and go all the way back to what you used to be just because you failed or stumbled once! It is a lie from the pit of hell that you must suffer and work your way back to where you once were. It is a lie from the pits of hell that you are not worthy to praise God like you did before and that you can't be what God intended for you to be because of your mistake. True, you messed up. Yes, maybe you went the wrong direction. But your mistake has brought to you to a crossroads and now you must choose which direction to go. Remember: you are in a state of Grace! And here, God allows U-turns! Take it today!

Don't keep ambling down the wrong turn until you look up and find yourself miles away from the will of God. Take a deep breath, and get your attention back on Jesus and turn around. Turn from the sinful road. Turn from your errant direction. It doesn't have to be a long, hard complex and difficult task, because God has built into His kingdom a U-turn called mercy. It's activated by true repentance. It's accessed by admitting that you have failed God and asking Him to forgive you and making up your mind to not make the mistake again and for God to help you turn. I can't repent for you but I can tell you that it's available for you. Repentance is not a dirty word, but a privilege and a choice. It choosing to make a change of direction in your life. It's choosing to go back to God just as you first chose to go away from Him.

A U-turn called mercy! I could preach on that a while. Grace is when God gives you something that you didn't deserve. Such as salvation, eternal life, and the Holy Ghost. When you get those things activated in your life it's by God's grace. But Mercy is when God DOESN'T give you something that you DID deserve. Like not allowing you to die in your sins even though your actions deserved the judgment. Like giving you a chance to repent and not have to completely reap the effects of the bad decisions in your life. Mercy is the U-turn in God's kingdom. And catch this: we may be saved by Grace, but if we live in this sinful world after that conversion and yet make it to heaven, it will be because of God's mercy! There is none righteous in His sight, no not one! All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. John said that if we say we have no sin then we are a liar! There isn't one person that received the Holy Ghost and got baptized in the name of Jesus and then lived a completely perfect, sinless life afterwards. The only way that would happen was if someone was to shoot them right after they got the Spirit!

The Holy Ghost doesn't make you perfect, but rather gives you the tools to learn to overcome sin by applying the Word of God to your life. Your old sinful nature is still around but the Holy Ghost is there to help you overcome it with a new nature, the mind of Christ! That doesn't mean that we can continue in sin, but it does mean that as we are learning to live for God and to overcome our sinful nature, that when we sin and when we accidentally fall, what we are NOT to do is beat ourselves up and then just stay down. What we are NOT to do is to say "oh, I messed up now I'm heading the wrong direction so I'll just go back to what I used to be!" NO NO NO! There's a U Turn called mercy! Take the U Turn! Say "I might have messed up but I'm going to turn around and head back toward the cross! I'm going to get up and turn back to the direction that I was going before I strayed!" Never forget the message of Ezekiel: God allows U Turns!

And let me say this. The devil tries to come in and say when you have messed up "see, you are not a child of God. You are not able to make it in His kingdom and this mistake and sin proves it." That's what the devil tries to make you believe, but let's look at what your mistake really proves. It proves what you already knew: that you are an imperfect human being filled with the Spirit of God that is trying to overcome a sinful nature through the power of God and the blood of Jesus Christ! You already knew that, so get up and turn around and refuse to listen to the voice of the enemy!

Let me show you an interesting passage of scripture that has very much to do with U-turns and the devil. In the third chapter of Zechariah, we find God shows him a unique vision:

This is a different Joshua from the man who commanded Israel after Moses and wrote the book of the Bible called "Joshua." This is the local high priest, the anointed of God, in the time of Zechariah. This is a vision of what was going on in the spirit world. Zechariah saw Joshua standing before God in dirty clothes, representing his sinfulness and his faults which were many. Satan is there pointing out those faults to accuse and resist Joshua doing anything for God. But in the story we find that God rebukes Satan and not Joshua! And God says "is this not a brand plucked out of the fire?" That's not a good thing. What God is saying is that the people of Israel are on fire with judgment because of their sinfulness and iniquity and yet He has chosen this man and "plucked" him "out of the fire!" God is admitting that Joshua is a sinful man who has sinned against Him. But as the vision unfolds, despite the dirtiness and guiltiness of Joshua and the accusations of Satan, God gives Joshua a new set of robes, white and clean and a new hat, signifying a greater anointing and position! And He does so in the very presence of the devil, himself!

Obviously, Joshua decided to take the U-Turn of God's mercy! Obviously He had repented to God and desired for a change of direction. He was guilty and dirty with sin. But his usefulness to God and subsequent salvation was not based upon his present state but what direction that he chose from that point. It goes back to the sermon that I've recently preached: wherever you are at, you've got two ways to go. And let me tell you today that just because you messed up doesn't mean that you should keep going back to where you were before God found you. Don't let condemnation eat you up! Take the U-turn! Admit that you need God! John was writing to born-again church members when he wrote his letter where he said:

So you messed up, that proves that you aren't perfect, but whatever you do don't keep heading in that direction, getting further and further away from God. God has sent a messenger today in the spirit of Ezekiel to declare to you "God allows U-turns!" Take the U-turn of God's mercy!

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It's a positive message and it should be a popular one but unfortunately it tends not to be well received. I'm speaking of this message "God allows U-turns." The people in Ezekiel's day didn't receive it very well, and crazily it doesn't always go over well today. Seemingly, people should welcome the reminder that God allows U-turns but it is not always the case.

One of the reasons that people don't always receive with joy that God allows U-turns is that there is a two-edged sword to it. In order to make a U-turn in God's mercy, you've first got to acknowledge that you are going the wrong direction and thus NEED a U-turn! Therein lies the rub with many people. They simply don't want to admit that they need a change. They'd rather hide their faults and ignore their sin rather than deal with it. They don't really want to change their ways to match scripture but rather to change scripture to match their ways. As the Christian singer Carman once said, we live in a generation of people who would "rather come out of the closet rather than clean it." He's right and that attitude goes for more than just the sin of homosexuality. It seems that people today are very adept and energetic at covering their faults and justifying sin and not very excited about repenting from them if repenting meant admitting that they needed to do so in the first place! At any altar call, there are always some that come that I probably really wasn't preaching to and yet there are always those to whom I was preaching that refuse to come and pray. And then there are those smart people who know I was preaching to them and come and kneel and yet do not truly repent or make a change in their life. Remember, you are not fooling God and are only fooling yourself, if you choose to not take the U-turn of God's mercy!

Paul prophesied of this generation when He told Timothy:

They "shall be turned unto fables." They'll have "itching ears." "Tell us a story, preacher. Preach us a good sermon that tickles our ears and tells us what we want to hear. Whatever you do don't preach against anything that might actually hit home. Avoid scriptures if you have to, or twist them but don't preach about sin if it is something that I have to change."

We have lived to see that prophecy come true in our generation and the side result of this attitude is that there are many, many preachers that have taken the anointing and skill that God has given them and done exactly what the generation wants: they preach what you want to hear. They'll tell you anything you want to hear as long as you come to their church and put money in their offering plate. You'll never hear them confront sin. They'll never be confrontational in their delivery. They'll never "tell it like it is." But you'll also never feel the tug of conviction of God pointing out things that need to change, either, because they'll never preach to you of the need for a U-turn and thus they miss the entire point of God's mercy! By and large "Repent ye" while being the cry of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, Himself, has been lost in today's churches.

But God told Ezekiel that if he did not warn the people of their sin then their blood would be upon his hands as well. The point is this and please catch this: A preacher who won't preach to you the truth about sin in your life doesn't love his own soul enough to save it, therefore how can he truly love yours? A preacher that will tell you only what you want to hear, then is someone who does not give a rip about your soul or his own because he's willing to say nothing while you damn yourself to hell by your own actions. Love and truth are inseparable and you can't have one without the other!

So let me just say that I'm preaching to EVERYBODY in here today! You are a sinner. You have failed God. You are in need of the forgiving power of Jesus' blood. And not only that there is something in EVERY one of our lives that God is wanting to change. There is something that God is dealing with you on. Maybe it not murdering people are such but there is some area in your life in which God is carving away and in which you need to make some changes. If there wasn't then you would be perfect and the Bible says that the only one that is perfect is Jesus Christ. Since we've got that established then it follows that there is some area in your life that you need to surrender completely to God, today. And so you'd better thank God for a preacher who is willing to not only point that fact out, but who is willing to also give you a message: "God allows U-turns!" It's a positive thing and you should receive it as such! No matter what Satan has said or what the truth says, there is the lane of a U-turn called mercy! Don't stay where you are, but allow God to change you!

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As a man of God who cares for you, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that there is another side to God allowing U-turns. If you've gotten a little off course, then there is always a way to get back quickly to where you should be. Thank God for that, but if that is true, then God must also allow U-turns in the other direction, that is, it is also possible to be going the right direction and to take a U-turn back the wrong way. It can happen quick. It can be a road taken in seconds. You may have been saved from your past sins, but you haven't made it to heaven yet. There is no such thing as "once saved always saved" on this side of eternity. And if the Old Testament goes out of it's way to preach to you that God allows U-turns in the right direction, the New Testament joins in to warn that God also allows U-turns in the wrong direction. Paul, writing to the church in Galatia, which was backsliding said:

They had been serving God and yet had made a U-turn back into what God had delivered them from! If it were not possible, then Paul would not have said that it had happened!

Similarly, the writer of Hebrews, writing to church members that were in danger of going back to what they used to be, said:

Peter wrote the same warning like this:

The devil would like you to think today that you have it made and so a little sin doesn't hurt. The devil wants to use God's U-turn of mercy to become a turn back toward what you used to be. Some would say "after all, if the mercy of God is there for you and He will forgive you, then why not just keep sinning and asking forgiveness?" Paul addressed this question in Romans when he wrote:

In other words to take such an attitude that "I'm saved and I'll just keep sinning and just ask for forgiveness" is to really make a U-turn back to what God delivered you from. There's a difference between messing up and getting back up and trying again and suddenly realizing that you've taken the wrong direction and making a U-turn to get back on track -- there's a difference between that -- and continuing to live in willful sin just because you think that God will always forgive you. Mercy is not a license to sin. Grace does not mean that nothing's really wrong. There must be a separation from willful sin in our lives. If we happen to find ourselves on the wrong track then the right thing to do is to make a U Turn and head back in the right direction through repentance, but there is a great danger that many have fallen into today in using grace and mercy and forgiveness as justification to continue in sin. They sin and repent, sin and repent, sin and repent, sin and repent, and have done it so much that their repentance means nothing because it is obviously not true repentance at all which means to desire a change of direction but just confession to justify their sin. To do so, the New Testament makes it clear, is to return to your former life. It is to return to the point of not being right with God. It is to use the U-turn of Mercy as a license to turn from walking toward God and go back to evil and doing what your flesh wants to do.

One of the most powerful sermons that Jesus ever preached was only three words long and is found in the Gospel of Luke:

Lot was the nephew of Abraham who was living in the sinful city of Sodom when God decided to destroy the plain because of their sin. Because of the prayers of faithful Abraham, God sent two angels to get Lot out of the city. The sad thing is that Lot really didn't want to go. The scriptures say in Genesis 19:16 that Lot lingered the next morning and the angels grabbed him and his wife and his daughters and physically pushed them out of the city and told them to run to the hills and not even to look back.

That passage of scripture has often bothered me because it was almost like God forced them to be saved. God doesn't make people serve Him today. God is not going to send some angels down and force you out of sin, so why do so in this story? But now I think I understand. Because as they were fleeing, Lot's wife couldn't help herself, she was so drawn and connected to the sinfulness of Sodom that she looked back and when she did, the Bible says that she was turned into a pillar of salt. She died lost because she turned back to her sin on her way to salvation!

Remember Lot's wife! That's what Jesus said. What did He mean? I think that the story is there to remind us that even if God were to send angels down to force you out of sin, that you would still have the ability to make a U-turn and go back to it if you so desired. You've got to serve God not just to escape judgment but out of a love for Him! It was love for sin that cause Lot's wife to turn around back to Sodom and it is only a love for Jesus Christ that causes people to turn around from sin back to the Cross and holiness. Either way the choice is yours, because God allows U-turns.

What is the right choice? The answer is found in our other text:

Turn back to Calvary!