The Robe, the Ring, and the Sandals: What God Gives When You Come Home

The Robe, the Ring, and the Sandals — Victory Church Winchester, Missions Week 2026

Introduction

Morning church, how are you today? I've had such a blessing. It's been such a blessing to be here this week and have the chance to be here last Sunday night for the prayer meeting and here Wednesday night for the missions dinner. It was such a good time getting to know all the Kingdom Builders committee and various people from the church as we got to share a little bit.

You know, Pastor Ron said "Anybody can come to Mount Jackson." And on Wednesday night when they asked me in the meeting, "What would you have us do if you came to Teen Challenge?" and I gave the rehab director answer: if you want to come volunteer, we will teach you how to give drug tests. Okay, you can laugh there. Okay, it's a joke. That's bad when you got to tell people it's a joke.

No, we won't have you give drug tests. But I am excited to be here today and share a little bit with you about the ministry and share with you in the Word.

My Story

I have been involved in Teen Challenge for 20 years now, but I did not start as a director or a pastor. I ended up in Teen Challenge back in 2005 as a drug addict myself. I was a crystal meth addict. I had spent five years of my life just struggling with addiction.

The Lord got a hold of my life through the ministry of Teen Challenge. I made my way to Long Island, New York as a 110 pound meth addict with needle marks up and down my arm. Had burnt through all my relationships, burnt through all of the friendships, did all the things that you do when you're running from the Lord and you're using drugs. But God used the ministry of Teen Challenge to get a hold of my life and interrupt the path that I was on and put me on a new path heading toward Jesus. And I gave my life to Christ and I've been serving in ministry ever since. Yeah, amen. He is so good, man.

I'm grateful for what the Lord has done. I've been in ministry ever since. I joke and say most of my adult life. I took a year-long hiatus. I needed to take a break and I went to do something less stressful. I went and worked at the Lord's Chicken Shack for a year. Chick-fil-A. And then the Lord, I call him Jehovah Sneaky, right? Because like, I'm hanging out and then all of a sudden I get an invitation to come back into ministry and here we are doing this. And so I'm grateful for the privilege to do it.

About Teen Challenge

Teen Challenge is the world's largest faith-based discipleship program focused on helping people overcome addiction by teaching them and showing them how to walk in relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a long-term program. The ministry has been around since the 50s when David Wilkerson got a call from the Lord.

Maybe you've read the book The Cross and the Switchblade or you've heard the story before. But he got a call to go to New York and help some teenage gang members, coming out of the rural country of Pennsylvania. This guy goes into the worst neighborhoods in New York. If you've never read the book The Cross and the Switchblade, we have a mini version on our table in the back. You're welcome to take one. They're free. And it just tells you the story of how God started this ministry.

And by accident, over the next 60 years, that one act of obedience turned into the network that is Teen Challenge today. See, listen, a lot of times we think about vision and mission like we have to have it all together when we say yes. That's not the case at all. Most of the time God just asks us to take that first step of faith, and you'll be surprised on what will develop when we simply make a decision to say yes and be obedient to the Lord. He begins to order our steps as the scripture says. And we started way back here thinking one thing, and then 60 years later, after going to New York to a place you know nothing about, God ends up blessing your obedience and turning into thousands of locations all across the world helping those who are struggling with addiction.

Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge was founded by my father 25 years ago, and I've been privileged to be a part of it since the residential program opened.

About SVTC's Content Mission

I'm grateful to be here. If you'd like to learn more about the ministry, we've got some stuff on the table in the back. We have a website. On that website right now we've got roughly 300 different resources that you can go check out. Over the last few months we've been focusing a lot on developing more faith-based recovery content.

I noticed a problem. I started to search on the internet trying to find help, trying to find information about addiction and recovery and all this stuff, and I couldn't find a whole lot of Jesus-centered stuff. Like, when you type in Google and you search, what I found was a lot of rehab programs in Florida trying to get your information so that you would go to their luxury rehab. Any type of addiction search. And we realized there was a huge gap for faith-based content on the internet. So we've been producing and putting content out consistently.

We have a podcast that's on YouTube. We have about a hundred episodes where we're having conversations about recovery and about how Jesus transforms lives. The podcast has been a blast. A year ago today, actually, I got the chance to sit down and interview Ben Fuller on the podcast. That's a great conversation. We had him in the community about a year ago for a fundraising event and that was such a good time.

But I want to get into the Word today. And you can find all that info on the table to learn more about the ministry. And I'm going to share some stories about people that have been through the program throughout my message today.

We thank you for supporting us. You guys have been a supporter of Teen Challenge for quite a while. We've been here several times. The last time I was here, I think I had a choir of 30 guys behind me. I wasn't singing. And in 2015, we did a fundraising event over there in your gym with Ruth Graham. We had her in for an event. And so thank you guys for your partnership and your support over the years.

The Prodigal Son

Today I want to talk about the Prodigal Son. This is probably one of my favorite passages of Scripture to preach, because of the heart of the Father that's so evident. It's not just one of my favorite scriptures to preach because it's one of the most common ones, but it's my story. Right? If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, it's your story too. It's the story of a father who made a decision to let his son come home when he should have never made that decision. On the surface, rationally, this story makes no sense.

I don't want to focus a lot on the son's journey home, but I really want to focus on what the father does once he gets there.

John Selby's Story

We had a guy graduate the program back in 2008, a young man by the name of John Selby. John and I have become good friends since, but he sticks out more than anybody else because him and I share a birthday. You know, there's just some of those random things that happen over the years. Like, how many people have birthdays on November 30th? And John is one of those guys.

When John came into Teen Challenge, he was facing some criminal charges. He had been on cocaine and he had made some poor decisions under the influence of cocaine. Housesitting his neighbor's house, he broke in, did some things while he was housesitting, and like, in the cocaine-induced mind you don't make great decisions. Right? He decided it would be better to burn the house down. I kid you not. This was the thinking while on drugs. This wasn't John. Of course John did it. He took responsibility for it rather than get caught having broken in the house.

Interesting part: at the time, John was also a firefighter. So he lit the house on fire, went home, and then came and responded to the call and helped put it out.

But this decision ended up with him facing some charges. He was able to get his sentencing deferred and come to Teen Challenge. He spent a year in the program. God really got a hold of his life while he was there. But just because you make the decision to follow Jesus doesn't mean that we're forgiven of all of the earthly consequences of our actions.

John had to go to court a year later. He ends up in front of the judge and after everything that he had done, he thought that there was going to be some maybe a little bit of mercy given, because that's really what he was looking for. He wasn't looking for justice in that moment. He did the crime. He was looking for mercy.

And he shows up in front of the judge and his attorney, even going into the courtroom, said, "John, I don't think you're going home today. We're proud of you. The courts acknowledge the decisions that you've made, but you made a really bad decision and there was some cost. The family lost things. There's some restitution that has to be paid. We think you're going to probably go to jail."

John ends up standing in front of the judge. And you know, if you've ever been to court, or you've ever had that lifestyle, you've ever been in a trial, they do something very interesting when they go to sentence you. If the judge has made a decision to suspend your sentence, they don't tell you that on the front end. Right? So you're standing in front of the judge and the judge looks down at you, and what he does first is he hands out your sentence. So let's say you're getting 20 years and the judge is going to suspend it all. What he's going to do is he's going to look at you and say, "I sentence you to X amount of years." And then they do the worst thing in the world if you're on the other side of that bench. They pause. Right? They pause before they tell you the rest of it. For some people, there is no pause. That's just it.

But for John, God had been working on the judge's heart. And the judge looks at John and he says, "I'm going to give you 10 years... but I'm going to suspend all of it."

Over the next few years, John took that mercy and he did something with it. He ended up getting a job, serving as a youth pastor, got married, he's got three kids. Within two years he paid back every single dollar of the $50,000 restitution. Because God got a hold of his life. Yeah, amen.

John and I are friends now. We talk. And God has still got a hold of his life all these years later. But in that moment when you're standing in front of the judge and you're asking for mercy, silence is your best option. You don't try to negotiate. You just stand there and you hope that the judge will give you mercy in that moment.

The Worst Apology in the Bible

See, the Prodigal, when he returned home, he had rehearsed this speech. He had made a decision to come home, and he was in the pig pen as the story says. He came to his senses, and as he came home he puts this speech together. And as we read in the text, he never even got the opportunity to finish the speech. The father interrupted the speech.

But the Prodigal came home with the wrong mindset. He had a terrible apology. And you say, "Well, Pastor Justin, that doesn't make sense. On the surface it seems right. 'Make me like a hired servant.' I mean, that sounds good. A lot of people that apologize to me, they don't offer to do nothing for me. You know, at least the Prodigal was offering to do something for the father."

The reason it was a terrible apology is because he misunderstood the father's heart. He was coming home and trying to be a servant where the father saw him and wanted him in the house as a son. You could put it this way: he was trying to negotiate a payment plan when God was simply offering him a pardon. He was standing in front of the judge and he was getting ready to receive his sentence, and all he needed to do was just be quiet during the pause. He just needed to be quiet and let the father wrap his arms around him and receive him home.

The scripture says in Luke 15:20-22: "He arose, came to his father. He was a great way off. His father saw him, had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. No longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.'"

He was willing to offer his son a pardon. Aren't you grateful for the moments in your life when you received a pardon when a payment plan would have been appropriate? Aren't you grateful for the moments in your life when God forgave you of something that he had no business of forgiving you of? The mistakes and the failures that you made, that God met you on the road and didn't look at you as a criminal that needed to be sentenced, but a son and a daughter who was worthy of compassion.

I'm so grateful for the love and the mercy of God that meets us. I remember when I finally came to my senses all those years ago. I had burnt every relationship I had. I had squandered my relationship with my parents, good Christian people. And you know, the moment that I came home, they didn't remind me of how much of a mistake that I had made. They didn't remind me of my failures. Matter of fact, they took the last 200 bucks that they had, threw me in the back of a van, and drove me to New York to Teen Challenge so that I could get my life in order. There's an act of mercy that God gives.

When the son came home, he was met by a father. 1 Corinthians 4:15, Paul says that we have many teachers but we don't have many fathers. People that are willing to show compassion and establish people in their sonship and who they are in Christ.

The Three Gifts

When the son came home, the father gave him gifts. And I love this. I'll never forget the first time I heard somebody unpack this and this thing really came alive to me. Because I'd always talked about the pig pen and the son coming home and the father meeting him, but these gifts have meaning. There's nothing that's been put in the Bible that's not been put in there for a purpose. If it made its way into these 66 books, it's extremely important for us to pause and ask, why did God put that in the Scripture?

And the father gives the son three specific gifts.

The Robe: Identity

The first that he gives him, the Bible says he puts a robe on him. This robe. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

The son comes home. He had been in the pig pen. He probably hadn't eaten a whole lot. He was probably looking a lot like me, 110 pounds, a little smelly I would imagine. And the father meets him on the road and puts a robe on him. He covers him. The same thing Jesus did for you when you gave your life to him. He covered all of your sin. As far as the east is from the west, the Bible says, that's how far he's removed our transgressions from us.

He puts this robe on him, and I love this. I get this visual when I see this. I think of a skinny son with a robe that's probably a little too big. You know, you ever borrowed clothes from an older sibling? You get the hand-me-downs and they haven't quite fit. They don't quite fit yet. They're kind of baggy. Right? I remember back in the day when that was a thing. Baggy jeans were more popular than skinny jeans. Right? I grew up in the era of JNCO jeans. You guys remember those? The ones that are so massive? You know, maybe the father gave the son a pair of JNCOs. It's just way too big.

But there's this process of discipleship that starts once we become covered. Can I encourage you for a moment? If you're a new believer and you're new in this thing with Christ and it feels a little uncomfortable right now, friends, that's okay. The robe is a little too big. As you make the decision to follow Christ, that's the beauty of committing to a local church and being involved in your small groups and showing up at things, because there's a discipleship process that takes place. This church exists to help you grow into the robe, to become all God has created you to be. Discipleship. The robe was a little big, but we grow into the robe.

Galatians 4:6-7: "Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father.' You're no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then you're an heir of God through Christ."

As you make the decision to follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit is planted in you, he begins to cry out within you: I want to be like you, Dad. I want to be like you. You guys remember when you were younger? And I remember when our kids were younger, everything that I did, you know, they wanted to be just like you. When they get older and they become teenagers, some of that changes a little bit. You know, can't get a hug and a kiss anymore from my teenage girls. I've got four girls, by the way. Yeah, they still hug me every once in a while. Like, I have to force them. It's like torture.

But when they're younger, you know, "I want to be like you." You remember the excitement when you first got saved? When you had that radical transformation and you showed up at everything? You couldn't stop talking about Jesus. "I just want to be like him everywhere that I go." It's the Holy Spirit working in us.

The Ring: Authority

The second thing that the father gave the son was the ring. This ring was significant not just because it was a piece of jewelry, but because of what it represented. It was a piece of authority. It represented authority.

See, the ring in biblical culture carried with it the family seal, and if you had the ring, you had the ability to act on the father's behalf. It was a signet ring. This was significant on several occasions because this is the same son that had squandered everything that the father gave him that belonged to him. He threw it all away. And the father brought him back and said, "I'm giving you the privilege and the ability to act on my behalf." He could sign documents. He could make decisions. He could represent the household.

But this wasn't just access. This was authority. The father's saying, "You're not just back in the house, but you represent this house."

See, the ring is learning our covenant authority that we have in Jesus. And this is something that's difficult when we've made a lot of mistakes, when we've failed over time, is coming back and realizing that what I have in Christ, I'm not just forgiven, but I have the authority to walk this thing out.

I think a lot of people spend so much time trying to resist temptation, and there is a place for that. We should flee certain lusts as the Scripture says. But I think the more important part is understanding that the authority that we have is in Christ. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. We've been given the authority to walk this out. Understanding what I carry in Christ. In Christ. With Christ. Growing. Spending time with Christ.

It's the "I want to be like you, Dad." Yes. But, "I also want to be with you, Dad." Your authority doesn't just come in wanting to be like Jesus. Your authority doesn't come by your parents or your friends or your spouse's relationship with Christ. Your authority in Christ is developed, has grown, in our relationship, the time that we spend with Christ. "I want to be with you, Dad." It's the kid who says, "Dad, did you see me?" Right? "Watch what I'm doing, Dad!" We're so excited.

Right? Jesus did this. He sent the disciples out to do, two by two, were with him. Jesus says in Matthew 11:29, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I'm gentle. I'm lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Yoke. It's shared labor. It's walking with Christ. You're not doing this alone anymore, but you're learning by walking next to him.

So if the robe is who you are, the ring is what you carry.

The Sandals: Purpose

And the last gift that the father gave him were the sandals. And the sandals, they're where you go. They're where you've been called to go. It's purpose.

And this is where we're going to land the plane today, because so often we get the robe, we get the ring, but then we just don't do anything with our faith.

You know, when I got a hold of Jesus, like I shared with you earlier, my life prior to Christ was drugs. I had 15 years before I started using drugs, so from 0 to 14 no drugs, from 14 to 19 lots of them, mess, from 19 on after I went to Teen Challenge. 2021, somewhere in there. My brain is honestly, like, those years of my life from the drugs that I used, I don't remember a lot of my childhood. But everything after was just ministry.

I was never taught a version of Christianity when I got saved that didn't require putting the sandals on and going somewhere with the faith. That when we come to Jesus, there is a purpose that he's requiring, he's asking us to walk in. It's just in the Scripture wherever you look.

And so many people struggle with this when it comes to addiction. And the ones that I see struggle after Teen Challenge are the ones that go through the program, they have this great experience, God gets a hold of their life, they do so much, and then they just do nothing with their faith afterwards. They don't get plugged in. They don't connect to people. They think they're going to be the exception and they go back to hang out with their old friends. "I'll be the one that saves all of them." It usually doesn't happen that way. They get sucked back in. Rather than understanding that they've been given identity, they've been given authority, and God's put sandals on their feet and given them an incredible testimony to carry with them.

God caused us to put the sandals on our feet. It's not just about removing our old life, but it's about getting connected to the purpose of God.

My Father's Story

My father started this ministry, as I shared earlier, 25 years ago. I shared a little bit of this at the dinner. My dad was on Social Security disability when he started Teen Challenge. He had some health issues, and he was in his mid-40s when God got a hold of him and called him to start Teen Challenge. And he was wrestling with disability because he had an issue with his legs, venous insufficiency. He couldn't stand for more than a certain amount of time.

And he could have accepted the disability and just said, "This is it. This is what God's called me to do. This is my lot. I just have to live with it." He went to a church, in a service like this, heard somebody call out and say, "God's calling somebody in this church to start a Teen Challenge."

Over the next 10 years, a man who had never graduated high school went on to get two master's degrees, do the work to start a Teen Challenge, all of this while fighting off a disability that God never healed him from. He still did it anyways.

Nathaniel's Story

We lost my father on Christmas. And at the memorial service, man, several people came up to me. One of them was a young man named Nathaniel. Came to our center in 2007. Hadn't kept up with him. You know, I mean, even some people just don't do social media. I hadn't kept up with him.

And Nathaniel comes up to me and he says, "Pastor Justin, I want to thank you and your dad. Your influence on my life, since leaving Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge, since working with you guys, I've launched and started seven sober living homes in the greater Richmond area. I've been serving the Lord ever since."

All because my dad chose to put the sandals on. He chose to stop looking at the circumstances around him. "I don't have enough. I'm disabled. I can't do that. I'm an addict. What are people going to think of me? I used to be a drug addict. I mean, they know who I really was. You know, they know who I really am. I don't do well with people. There's no way I could shake hands. I'm just not called to preach. I get nervous."

And we make so many excuses. You know, when God's not looking for you to figure any of that out. That's not your job. Your job is simply obedience. You've given me the sandals and I'm just going to take one step at a time.

Over the years, that obedience, man, it's costly. I'm not going to lie to you about that. It costs you something from time to time. But no cost, as Paul said, no cost matters more than the beauty of knowing Jesus, knowing that he's walking with us.

The Foster Baby

Friends, I believe this morning there are some people in this room that have been running from the call of God. You took the robe. You took the ring. But you keep looking at those sandals. Keep looking at them. "I don't know if I'm qualified." And God is saying, "Man, if you would just say yes, you'd be so amazed with what I could do with your life."

There's going to be ebbs and flows. There's going to be ups and downs. I've been in rehab ministry for 20 years. I could tell you stories. I could tell you so many stories. The miraculous testimonies of Nathaniel, but also the phone calls with the grieving mothers who have lost their kids to overdose. "Pastor Justin, I thought they were doing so well. I don't understand." There's going to be ups and downs. But I am telling you, the yes is worth it. It's so worth it.

One story as I close and get ready to do the invitation. Christmas morning. I was thinking about my yes and Ashley and I's yes over the years, and it not just being Teen Challenge. One of the things that we got involved in also was foster care ministry, taking kids into our home.

And back in 2022, we got a call from the foster care agency to go sit in the hospital with a little baby that was born. This was addiction ministry, because the mom gave birth to the baby premature while on drugs and then just left. When we went, she didn't even have a name. She didn't have a name. All the tags, we still have them, say "Baby Girl."

We went over there and it was terrifying for me. Ashley was all in. As the man, I was terrified. Like, she's sick. We don't know. There's so many questions. "What's this going to cost us?" You know what I'm saying? Like, it's a human yes, but it's like you just don't know. With the NICU, being born early, is she even going to make it?

But yet, we said yes.

And over the next year, every surgery went well. We got to give her her name. She's healthy. She's happy. I've got a picture of her standing on the pile of UVA paperwork. It's about this tall. And she's standing on top of it. You know, she's beautiful. She's a joy in our life.

That yes. You know, Christmas morning. The day that I was going to go say goodbye to my dad as he was stepping over to meet Jesus. I walked downstairs. This little girl, man, walks down in front of me, sees the gifts. She runs over. She looks at them. Runs back across the living room, lit up like Christmas. Right? She throws her arms around my leg and she looks up and she says, "Thank you, Dad."

I'm minutes from going to say, I'm hours from going to say goodbye to my dad. That little girl gave me the words that I needed to say when I went to the hospital a few hours later. That yes became a blessing, and she continues to be a blessing over and over and over again.

Invitation

God will move through your yes. Won't you stand with me as we close?

I didn't get through most of my notes. Some of you guys are maybe in a couple different spots this morning. Maybe you're still in the pig pen this morning and today is your come-to-your-senses moment, and God's speaking to you in this place. "I don't know why I'm here today. I'm coming to my senses. I need to return home." Friends, if I could tell you, you're not going to be met with judgment. You're going to be met with mercy. And God is ready to meet you. Some of you already did it today. You responded. It was so beautiful as you started to respond to the call of God on your life.

But the others are those of you who have been maybe on the fence about walking your purpose out. You know that he's called you to do something. Maybe it's your hands. Maybe it's, I don't know, I don't know what it is he's called you to do, but he's saying, "Son, daughter, I put sandals on your feet. It's time to walk it out. It's time to just give him your yes." That's all he's asking for.

My wife and I picked that statement up from somebody 15 years ago. We heard it for the first time and we just, I didn't even borrow it. I hijacked it. And I stole the phrase. You know, because so often we complicate this thing. Just say yes to the Lord.

Every head bowed and every eye closed for a moment. If you're in that spot this morning, first, "Pastor Justin, I am in the pig pen and I need to come to my senses. It's time for me to come home." If you would say, "Yeah, that's me today," hey, could you just lift your hand up in this place? I'm in the pig pen. It's time to come home. Anybody at all? Thank you. Thank you for coming home. Hallelujah, Jesus.

And for everybody else, you've been wrestling with the purpose of God over your life. You know what he's done for you but you've been wrestling with what to do with it. Today's the day. Today's the day. And listen, friends, those of you that have been wrestling with the purpose of God, I'm not going to ask you to put your hand up. That would seem a little counterintuitive when God's put sandals on your feet. Amen?

And if you've been wrestling and today is your day, then it's time. It's time. I want to encourage you today to get out of your seat and just begin to walk toward this altar as you're saying, "Yes. I'm saying yes to the purpose of God on my life." Come on, friends. God's calling you to something. He's put sandals on your feet. I want to say yes to the call of God. It's time to be obedient. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Jesus, I thank you for those that have responded this morning and those that are coming. Lord, you said, Lord, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. God, you said that you would fill us with power, is what your Word says, to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. You said that you'd fill us with your power. You give us what we need to walk this thing out.

Holy Spirit, I just pray even in this moment that you would just begin to sweep through this place. Begin to touch every heart, every life, everyone that's made this decision to say yes to the call of God. Everyone that's made this decision to be obedient and walk this thing out. I thank you that you're going to honor their yes.

Oh friends, I'm laughing because it's so good. It's so good, man. What's in front of you? What's in front of your obedience?

Jesus, thank you. Thank you, Lord. I just thank you for responding, Lord.