Skip to content The Glory Of The Father Feb 19 · 50 min ...more
The Glory Of The Father
February 19, 2025 · 50 min
Discover the heart of the Heavenly Father, distinct from earthly experiences, reflected in the loving mercy and comfort He offers.
Series The. Only. God. February 19, 2025 · 50 min · The. Only. God.
Discover the heart of the Heavenly Father, distinct from earthly experiences, reflected in the loving mercy and comfort He offers. ...more Show the full description Show less Discover the heart of the Heavenly Father, distinct from earthly experiences, reflected in the loving mercy and comfort He offers.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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In this video 0:00 The Compassionate FatherComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
The Compassionate Father 0:00 Well, good morning. Will you help me welcome all the Brave campuses that are worshiping with us this morning? So great to worship with all of you. It's a special day at Brave, across our campuses this morning. We are0:12 baptizing 45 different people. Good praise God for that. Such an exciting time. And as we continue our worship, will you join me as we pray together? Our father in heaven, we give you all the0:24 glory, honor, and praise for who you are, and we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, and your holy spirit who indwells each and every 1 of us who believe in you. We pray today Lord as we look into your word that you0:36 would have your way with us Lord because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, because we wanna hear0:47 you. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he says, and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree0:57 with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, Amen. Amen. So excited to be back in our series, The Only God. And just to give you a little bit of review, around Christmas time, we studied the person and work1:09 of Jesus Christ. And then in the last month, we studied the person and work of the Holy Spirit. And today, we're gonna begin to look at who is the father. Now, it's important for us to understand the1:21 Trinitarian belief that the Bible spells out that the Godhead is father, son, and holy spirit. 3 distinct persons of 1 distinct essence. There's 1 God in 3
1:33 distinct persons. And we ask, how can that be? And our answer is this, glory. Glory. There's there's no 1 like our God. The father is not the son of the spirit. The son is not the father or
1:45 the spirit. The spirit is not the father of the son, but they are all 1 essence. And as we've taken a look at this co eternal Godhead that has always existed that's responsible for everything
1:57 that we see in our world, we're gonna take a look at who the father is. Now, when I say the word father in the church, it triggers some people because of your experience with your earthly
2:09 father. And you begin to think if God is like that, then I don't want anything to do with God. But it's important for us to understand how God reveals himself as father, because our God is
2:21 an incredibly loving father. Jesus said when he was here, he goes, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. He said, I and the father are 1. Jesus is an
2:33 exact representation. He said, I only do what I see the father doing. Jesus wanted to be with his father all the time. He spent time praying to his father all the time. Throughout his earthly
2:44 ministry, he's talking to his father all the time. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night he's betraying, he's talking to his father, but he's submissive to him. He's even saying, I don't wanna go through with this,
2:54 but not my will, father, but your will be done. Submitted himself to the father. It doesn't make him less than. Jesus is as much God as the father. The Holy Spirit is as much God as the
3:06 father in the son. But Jesus submitted himself to the father. So it's important for us to understand who is the father wanting to please and what is this father
3:17 like? First Corinthians or second Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3 says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies or compassion, and
3:29 the God of all comfort. If we really understand who the father is, we're gonna learn to love the father. And today, because of where we are with baptisms, there's a lot of
3:41 different places I could have started this series. But today, I'm going to talk about the compassion of the father. The compassion of the father. The the father looks and sees a need and takes
3:53 action. His incredible love that he has. And to look at this today, we're going to look in Luke chapter 15. If you have a copy of the scriptures, we're gonna invite you to turn there this time. And the reason I picked
4:04 Luke chapter 15 is for several reasons. Number 1, when there was confusion about who the father was, this is what Jesus began to teach about his father, what he was like. And not
4:16 only told 1 story or 2 stories, but told 3 different parables to give us an idea as to who the father was. You'll find this very, very familiar, if you've been in church at all,
4:28 but it's important that we understand who our God is. I mean Luke 6 36 says, be merciful just as your father is merciful. To know mercy is to know our father.
4:40 In Matthew 5 48 says, therefore you are to be perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect. He's perfect and yet he's merciful. And there's so much we're going to teach about this topic. But today, I want to talk to
4:51 you about the compassion of the father. So if you have your bibles open to Luke chapter 15, let's take a look at the context. It says, now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near
5:03 him to listen to him. Both the Pharisees and Scribes began to grumble saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So there's a lot
5:15 of people coming around Jesus. 2 groups specifically identified, tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors extorted money from the people. They were
5:26 Jewish people who extorted more taxes, and then they pocketed the extra for themselves and passed the taxes on to Rome. They extorted the people. They were the least liked people in the entire community, tax collectors.
5:38 And then there's another group of people called sinners. Right? Sinners would be who? Really everybody. But they're the known sinners. They're the ones that the world looks at and
5:50 says, if there's any such thing as a sinner, it's this group of people. And the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders and the scribes that were experts in the law, were having a problem that Jesus would
6:01 hang out with the ill repute of the society, the tax collectors, and the sinners. So they begin to grumble. They begin to say, why is it if this religious leader
6:13 Jesus claims to be God, would he hang out with people like that? Here's an answer. What other choice did he have? I mean, the Bible declares that all have sinned and fallen short
6:25 of the glory of God. Every single person from the time they come out of the womb has a resume of how they made their life about themselves. That's why babies cry. That's why 2 year olds are selfish. And that's why that
6:37 condition doesn't change whether you're 30, 50, 70 or 90. We live a life that thinks it's about us. That's our sinful nature. We focus on who we
6:49 are. And the people that had a problem with that were religious people who viewed themselves as better than those people there. And if you look at the world and you think you're better
7:00 than other people in the world, that's who Jesus is addressing. Because he's trying to explain to them what his dad is like. He's trying to tell them, let me explain to you who my dad is. And
7:12 so that's the context. All these sinners, tax collectors, the worst of the worst are gathering around Jesus, and the religious people are saying, how could he hang out with people like that? So Jesus not only tells 1
7:23 story, 2 stories. He tells 3 distinct stories here, so they will understand the heart of his dad. So let's set up the context. So he told this first parable saying, what man among you, if he has a hundred sheep
7:35 and has lost 1 of them, does not leave the 99 in the open pasture and go after the 1 which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls
7:47 together all his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep, which is lost. I tell you in the same way, there'll be more joy in heaven over 1 sinner who repents than
7:59 over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. So, Jesus begins to tell them a story to an agricultural society where everybody owns some animals and that was their property.
8:11 He said, suppose you have a hundred sheep and 1 wanders off. Do you not just leave the 99 and go find the 1? You wouldn't just say, well it's just a sheep. Not when it's your property, not when it's
8:23 something that's valuable to you. Think about your own property. We value our property. We value our belongings. We value the things that are ours. And if we misplaced them or lost them, we wouldn't just say, it's just a
8:34 car. I'll get another 1. You go find it. You go look for it. It's just a computer. You wouldn't just go buy a new 1. You go find it. You look for it. He says you go look for that sheep. And when you found it, you'd put
8:45 it on your shoulders, you'd bring it back. Not only would you rejoice, you'd call all your friends together and say, look, this is the sheep I lost. The 99 are still here, but I found this 1. Come rejoice with
8:57 me. And here's what he says his dad is like. I tell you the truth. There's more rejoicing in heaven over 1 sinner that repents than over 99 righteous people that don't need to. So here's what my dad's like. When
9:09 he sees people turn from their sin and turn to him, there's great rejoicing in heaven. That's what my dad's like. And I'm telling you because I know my dad. And I'm telling you because my father and I
9:21 are 1. And I'm telling you because if you've seen me, you've seen my dad. So I'm telling you the truth here. That's what he's spelling out. So he tells a story about property because everybody in that society would have
9:32 understood what it meant to have a lost sheep that wandered off and found it. Lost coin. Second parable. He says, or what woman, if she has 10 silver coins and
9:44 loses 1 coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. And when she's found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I have found the coin
9:55 which I had lost. In the same way I tell you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 sinner who repents. So now he's told a story about property. Now he's telling a story about something else we care a
10:07 lot about, our money, our resources. A woman at that time that wasn't married, that was her only resource. She didn't have other income coming in. If she only had 10 coins to her name, it's not that each
10:18 coin was a penny, it was a sum of money. And if some of it was misplaced, she wouldn't just say, oh well, at least I got 90 percent. It's like you, if you went to the bank and you realize, my goodness, they just took 10
10:29 percent out of my account for no reason at all. You wouldn't be like, oh, well. You would go searching for it. What happened? She sweeps the whole house and when she finds it, she doesn't just find the coin, she starts
10:40 rejoicing. She calls her friends that she's probably told, hey, pray for me. Help me find I found it. I have it. And Jesus said, I tell you what, you care about your property and that's important to you, and you care
10:51 about your money and that's important to you. Let me tell you what my dad's like. In heaven when there's 1 sinner that turns from their sin and turns to me and they have a relationship with my father, there's
11:03 rejoicing in heaven over that. That's what my dad's like. And he's setting the stage for the story that he's about ready to tell. He's setting the stage to let people know, let me tell you what my dad's like. There's
11:15 nobody Jesus wants to talk more about than his own father. There's there's nobody he wants to bring more glory to than his own father. He loves his father. He's submitted to his father. He he he wants the world to know
11:27 his father. The prodigal son. Now, just by show of hands, how many have heard this story in church before? So you'll find this story very familiar. But
11:39 let's let's talk about it because I think it highlights 3 truths sinner
11:51 The father endures until a sinner repents. Notice the great patience that the father has with Sinner. Jesus said and he said, a man had 2 sons.
12:03 The younger of them said to his father, father give me the share of the estate that falls to me. So he divided his wealth between them. So here's the story. It's called the
12:15 prodigal son, but the first line of the story is there's a father that has a man who has 2 sons. So it's really the story of the 2 sons. That's really what it's about. And you'll see the but notice the younger son comes
12:25 to his dad and asks for his inheritance early. Here's what the younger son was saying to his dad in modern day vernacular. Dad, I hate our family and I hate you. I don't wanna live in our house anymore. I'm
12:37 sick and tired of your rules and everything else. And I know there's an inheritance that falls to me. And when my older brother gets the lion's share of it, I get some of it. And because I don't like you and because I
12:48 wish you were dead, I wish you just give me the inheritance now while I'm young and can have fun and do what I want and get the heck out of my life. Now young people, how well do you think that would go over with your
12:59 parents? Here's what happened. The father divided the state between them. That's what you want, I'll let you go. Why? Because the father doesn't make you love him.
13:12 The father doesn't force you to love him, because if he did that wouldn't be love. He he, allows you to get to know who he is so that you want to be in a relationship with him. So he endures with your sin.
13:26 Have your own track record of sin in your life for how you've rebelled against an eternal perfect almighty just god. Every 1 of us. Some have done it in ways that society would say, that's awful. I
13:38 can't believe you've done that. Others of us have sinned in ways that nobody really knows about because our pride is so great and so strong. We kinda cover it up so nobody knows. Our greed and our selfishness
13:50 and our desires for us are all those things. But here's what God does. He endures with great patience for you. So he divides up the estate. And he says, okay, son. If that's what you want you know what? You're right. I
14:02 do love you. And I have set aside an inheritance for you. And you know what? You can have it. Because all that I have is yours. And if that's what you need to know that I love you, you go ahead and take it. And that's
14:13 what he does for his son. This would have been a disgrace in the Jewish society. Everybody would have looked at this dad and say, what a weak man. Inheritance? He should have disciplined him and told
14:25 his son he had no business. But that's not the father. The father is a generous father. So he divides the wealth between them. Notice verse 13. And not many days later You know what that
14:36 means? Just about the time he got the money, he had a plan. Not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he
14:48 squandered his estate with loose living. Let me tell you what his son did. The son wanted the money because he had a plan all along. Here's his plan. I'm gonna take the resources I have. I'm gonna get away from any
14:59 accountability that I possibly have and I'm gonna spend all those resources on pleasing me. If you wanna talk about a recipe for disaster, gather all your worldly resources
15:11 for yourself to please yourself with no accountability from anyone that can tell you otherwise. You wanna find yourself in a living hell, That is a great way to do it. You can be 18 and go
15:23 off to college and say, mom and dad, just give me your money. I'm going off here. Nobody's gonna watch what I do. I can do whatever I want. I'm just gonna live for me, and you can find yourself in a disaster. You can be
15:32 30. You can be 80. When you have a plan that says, I want to use the worldly resources I have to please everything about me with no accountability and nobody
15:44 can tell me what to do. It is a recipe for absolute disaster. And people live in that place all the time. Some of us grow up thinking that that's just the American dream. I wanna
15:56 grow up, get the right education, get the right job, get the right house, get the right money, so I can do whatever I wanna do whenever I wanna do it. It's a disaster. Meaning, spending
16:08 your life's resources on you. You you you weren't created for you. You weren't created to be about you. You weren't created to figure out what you could do. You were created for something
16:20 and someone far greater. You were created to have a relationship with the God of the universe. So notice what happens. He gets this idea. He's gonna go off to a distant country. Well, why a distant country?
16:32 Because he wouldn't have any accountability there. I wanna get far away from all these Christians that are gonna hold me. I don't wanna feel bad when I do wrong. I'm just gonna get away. When you have a desire to get
16:43 away from people that truly care about you and spend your resources on you, it's a recipe for disaster. And notice what happens. Now when he had spent everything, verse 14,
16:55 a severe famine occurred in that country and he began to be impoverished. Began to be impoverished. Now check this out. He spent everything. So now, all the estate he
17:07 had where he was thinking, I got it all, man. This is gonna last forever. That's all gone. And guess what else happened? Now there's a severe famine in the land. Well who sent the famine? Who's in control
17:19 of all of the natural things that happened in the world? God is. So check this out. When you decide to live completely for yourself, not only will you be miserable, but God loves you enough. He'll design circumstances
17:31 in your life to make you even feel more miserable than you already are. That's what he does. Because he loves you and he wants you to realize going the way you're going won't bring the lasting joy and peace that he
17:42 created you for. And it says this, that he began to be impoverished. Now it's interesting, isn't it? He already spent everything he has. Now there's a famine in the land. So even if he had money, he couldn't buy food.
17:52 But he doesn't have money and he can't buy food. And he's beginning to think maybe this isn't good. Because even sometimes when we're hitting rock bottom, even sometimes when life isn't
18:04 working out, even sometimes when we don't have peace in our heart, here's what we think. I could fix it. It may be bad, but I know I can get myself out of it. You know I got this anger issue, but I'll work on it. You
18:15 know I got this immorality problem, but I'll fix it. You know I got this addiction to these drugs, but I'll work myself out of it. You know my marriage is breaking, but I know we can get this. When you start living for
18:26 you, you'll always think you can fix it when you can't fix it because you haven't fixed it yet. And so God will design circumstances to get you to realize you can't fix it. You
18:38 need me. Just listen to me because you're gonna hear this and if you don't believe me, the Holy Spirit will convict you of it. Down the road, when you live for you, God loves you
18:50 so much, he will take you to a place where you get to a place you realize that you need him. Fix it. So notice what he does. Notice what he does.
19:02 So he went and hired himself out to 1 of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. Now, you. But to a Jew
19:14 in the first century, 1 of the most unclean animals in the world would be a pig. Swine. You wouldn't even want to go near swine. You don't eat swine. You don't go around swine. Nothing like that.
19:26 Now, he's so desperate, he's like, I'll fix it. I'm gonna hire myself out to somebody, and here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be with the pigs. As a kid growing up, you would have been taught, you don't want to go
19:38 anywhere near pigs. You're gonna be unclean if you touch a pig. Don't go anywhere near them. Now he's so desperate, I don't care. I just need to make money, so I'm gonna go be with the pigs. And check it out. As if
19:48 that's not bad enough, notice what the next verse tells us. It says, and he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating and no 1 was giving him anything to eat.
20:00 Here's this guy. He grew up with his dad having everything he needed, having all of his resources provided for. He was in the presence of his father. He decided to take from his dad, go spend it all on wild and
20:12 loose living. Now he's out of money. Now there's a famine. He goes himself goes and hires himself out to feed swine. And now as he's feeding the pigs, guess what's going on? He's watching the pigs
20:24 eat pee pods. And he's not only with the pigs, he's wishing he was a pig, because the pigs are eating better than him. If only I could be a pig, they're getting pee pods. I mean, you
20:36 talk about getting to the low of the low. Let me tell you this. Let me tell you this. God loves you so much. He loves you so much. He will be so patient with you and endure with you as long
20:48 as you have breath to get you to realize you can't make your life any better without him. That that's the message. And he will endure with great
21:00 patience. I wanna tell you this because a lot of people come into church like, yeah, I don't think God could love me because of and you start making a list. Let me tell you something. You've never
21:11 sinned too far away for God's grace not to love you back. God's grace is greater than all of your sin. Amen?
21:23 I don't care what you've done. I don't know every 1 of you. I don't care what it is. I know the gospel, and the gospel says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And no matter how great your sin is, the
21:34 grace of Jesus Christ is greater. That's why God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for your sin, To get you to turn your life to him. And God will bear with great,
21:47 great patience. As long as you still have rest, he's still coming after you. He's still engineering circumstances so that you will see how good he is. Because that's how much he loves you.
21:59 And we fight it and we think, oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna work my way out of it. We push against it until we get to a place where we realize it's the father that's enduring until we repent. But let me give you a second
22:10 truth. Repents. He celebrates that. Now, notice what happens. Now he's feeding pigs, wishing he was
22:22 a pig, jealous of what the pigs are getting to eat in their slop. Notice verse 17. But when he came to his senses Now he started to wake up like, wait a second. Life's not so good
22:34 anymore. When he came to his senses he said, how many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger? Now he starts to
22:45 think. He's like, now listen. My dad has a lot of hired men. He has a lot of slaves on the farm. All of those men, they're eating plenty. They're eating bread. You know what? It'd be better
22:57 to be a slave in my dad's house than to be free out here because this isn't working for me anymore. I'm looking at pigs and I'm jealous of what the pigs are eating. My dad's hired hands
23:09 back on the farm. They're getting 3 squares a day. They got fresh bread. You know what? They got it better than I got it. I thought I had all the freedom to do whatever I wanted. My freedoms only got me into trouble.
23:21 This isn't good. There's a better way. So he begins to think to himself, and here's what he says. He says, I will get up and go to my father, and I'll say to him, father I've sinned against heaven,
23:33 and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as 1 of your hired men. Now it's obvious that this guy had gone to church because he gets a 3 point sermon and he thinks that's gonna score him
23:43 points. He's gonna go to his dad. He's gonna say this. Dad, I've sinned against heaven. I've sinned against you. It was wrong of me to take your money. I squandered it all. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
23:56 Number 2, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Number 3, make me 1 of your hired hands. I mean, I'll be happy if I can just eat and be part of your hired men. Make make
24:07 me a slave that's good enough. Now, that's not repentance. Did you know that? Repentance is not mouthing the words to something. Repentance is not just saying, oh, I'm sorry. I got caught.
24:20 Repentance is turning from where you were and turning back towards God. So he hasn't repented yet, but he's going to. We know he's not just giving lip service because
24:31 notice what he says. First 20. So he got up and came to his father. It wasn't just lip service. There's a lot of people that come to
24:43 church. There's a lot of people that hear the gospel like, Yeah. I probably have done some wrong. Yeah. Probably not great. You know? Repentance is when you recognize
24:56 I'm dead apart from Jesus. I have no peace apart from Jesus. I can't live any longer with Jesus. I hate the sin that I'm in. I'm I want to go away from that and I want to go all in with him.
25:08 So notice what he says. I'll get up and go to my father. So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. Now picture this,
25:20 you've just taken all your inheritance from your dad. You've spent it all on wild living. You've disappointed the family. You're living with pigs. Everything you were told not to do you're doing, you're
25:32 wishing you were a pig, and now you say, man, I've sinned against heaven against earth, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, just make me 1 of your hired hands. I'm going back to dad, and you go back, and as
25:41 you're going back from a long way off, you spot your dad and he's looking for you. What do you think is the attitude of the dad? What would you expect the dad to do? What would you expect? Now, all of you have heard the
25:53 story, so I'll tell you what happens. I mean, it tells us right here in the text. He says, so he came and gave his but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him
26:04 and ran and embraced him and kissed him. So you get the picture of while he's sinning and doing all the stuff he's doing from a long way off, from a field away.
26:16 His dad is out there looking for his son, hoping 1 day my boy comes back. And when he sees him, he's filled with with compassion. He sprints to him, which for a Jewish
26:28 father to do in the first century was completely undignified. So here, the father's willing to undignify himself again, go running towards his son. Now time out here. If you were the son and you didn't know the
26:39 scripture, what would you expect the father to do? I mean, young people, if you treated your dad that way, and you're coming home to apologize, and your dad sees you coming up the drive, and he opens the front door and
26:51 starts sprinting at you, what would you think? You probably wouldn't be like, oh, dad, here about how about a hug? I mean, that's the story. You're you're picturing there's gonna be some sort of
27:03 words or some sort of fight, or why did you do this, or how did you disgrace our family? And keep in mind where he's just been, he's been in the pig pen. He's got slop on him. He's got stuff under his fingernails.
27:15 His face doesn't smell good. And yet when his father meets him, what's he have? Compassion. Meaning despite anything you've done, you're my boy. And so he throws his arms around
27:27 him, hugs him, and then begins to kiss his face. That's what the father's like. The father bears with great patience. He endures for a long time. But then he celebrates when people
27:38 repent. See, the enemy lies to us all the time. Says, man, if you try to come back to Jesus, he's gonna punish you. Because all the all the punishment, my friends, took place on the cross. Jesus Christ took it all. And
27:49 when you turn from your sin and you come back to God, you don't come back as a slave. You come back as a son or a daughter. Do you understand? Because notice what happens. Notice what happens.
28:01 He starts to rehearse his 3 points. He starts to Because the sun says to the dad, to his father, as he's being kissed and hugged, father, I've sinned against heaven
28:13 and in your sight. That's 0.1. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me a slave. Make me like 1 of your hired men. He can't
28:25 even get out 0.3. His dad's hugging him and squeezing him and kissing him and showing great compassion for him. Here's what the father says. He says
28:37 this, but the father said to his slaves, he turns to those that are the hired men. He says quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand,
28:49 and sandals on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate. You talk about an amazing story. The son comes home. All I want to do
29:01 is just eat. All I want to do is be a slave. Friends, when you come back to the father, you don't come back as a slave. You come back as family. You're a child of the most high God.
29:12 You're welcomed back. Putting a ring on your finger symbolize that you had authority in the family. Putting a robe on means you had the place of honor at the banquet. Putting sandals on your feet. Slaves didn't
29:24 have sandals, but you're not a slave. You're my son. You have a place of honor here. And then guess what? Let's kill the fatten calf and eat. Let's I'm I'm throwing a banquet
29:37 in your honor. Well, what did he do to deserve the banquet? Nothing. The father is just so pleased that his son who had once strayed was now home. He couldn't
29:48 contain himself. He wanted him to know you're not a slave. You've never been a slave. You've always been my son. I've always been looking for you. I've always been patient with you. And you're home now, and it is time to
30:00 celebrate because this is what I've been looking for all along. That's what's going on. I mean, you talk about a story that's powerful. This is what it is. And you need to realize whether you're visiting here for the
30:12 first time, whether you come to church every single week, there must be a time in your life where you turn from your sin and come to God. And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no 1 comes to the
30:22 father except through me. That's why Jesus came. That's why he died on the cross for all your sins. That's why he rose from the dead, so that he could be the way of salvation for anyone who at any time would turn
30:33 from their sin and turn to God. And when that happens, there's a party that goes on in heaven. Because why? Because someone is now part of the family of God. None
30:45 of us are born in the family of God. We like to say everybody's a child of God. No. Everybody's created in the image of God and everybody has value, but children of God are those who have repented of their sin and
30:55 trusted Jesus Christ for forgiveness. Then you become a child of God. Then you've received him. And then you become a son or you become a daughter. And in everybody's life, there has to be a time where you
31:07 turn from your sin and go this way. And why does the father say this? He said, for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found, and they began to celebrate. Now, he
31:19 physically wasn't dead, but spiritually he was. And the Bible says that all of us are spiritually dead when we're born. That's why Jesus said you must be born again. There's not some magic prayer
31:31 you pray. There's not some religious hoops you have to jump through. There must be a time in your life where you recognize your spiritual deadness apart from Christ, turn from your sin and turn to Christ, and at that
31:40 moment, you are given life and you are given life in his name. The Holy Spirit comes and indwells you. He regenerates you. He makes you alive from the inside out. Your life goes from, in my generation, black and
31:52 white to technicolor. Right? I mean, it's it's a whole new world. It's not the same. And so there's this huge party going on, and this son has the place of honor. He has a ring signifying who he
32:04 belongs to. He has sandals on his feet that he's not a slave, and they're killing the fattened calf and eating it. And all these people, all these slaves, all these hired men are working on the father's behalf to
32:16 celebrate the son that's come. Friends, when you turn from your sin and you turn to Christ, you are never a slave again. You are a son or a daughter of
32:28 the king, and you're part of his family. There's a celebration in heaven every time that happens. If there's just 1 person that does that, there's this party that goes on in heaven.
32:40 There's a celebration that goes on in heaven. There's overjoy that's going on in heaven.
32:59 While you're on this earth, you never repent of your sin and turn to him, he's righteous and holy and he can't have sin in his presence. And because you've rejected the son, Jesus Christ, there is a place called hell. It
33:11 is eternal destruction. It is a place of outer darkness. It is a place of loneliness and isolation and pain and all of that. Why? Because God did not create that place for you. He created it for the devil and his
33:23 angels and any human being that would reject his love and say, I don't want any part of you. The death of the wicked. The Bible teaches.
33:35 There's never a person that dies, no matter how wicked they've lived where God's like, I showed you. I believe it breaks the heart of God to know that he created someone in his image that has
33:47 rejected him their whole life. And that God, because of his holiness, cannot welcome them into his presence. And I believe it breaks his heart. See, the picture of God is a God of compassion that welcomes you back.
34:00 Week about 1 of Billy Graham's children, 1 of his daughters, who had been married for 21 years and, through a series of events and some unfaithfulness in her marriage, she ended up getting divorced from her husband.
34:12 Parents kind of helped her get through. But she always experienced a little shame because she's Billy Graham's daughter. You know, she should have known better. All these kind of things that she was heaping on her. And
34:23 her parents were telling her, hey, you need time to heal. It's gonna be okay. So they encouraged her to get around some friends or people that really loved her. And so she moved near her sister in Florida, where she
34:33 could attend a church and be around her sister. And it was going okay, but there was a guy that started pursuing her that and this relationship started to happen really fast. And about 5 weeks in, she said, I'm gonna to
34:43 murder this. And her kids called her and said, mom, don't marry him. You don't even know anything about him. You've only known him 5 days. And her mom was in Seattle and called her, said the same thing. Dad Billy was in
34:54 Tokyo, called her and said, hey, just let us at least meet the guy. You know, you've been through a lot. Don't make a fast decision. And she began to think What do they know about? They've never been divorced. They don't
35:04 know how much pain I'm in. So they got remarried she married this guy, and she said within 24 hours, she knew she made a mistake. And within a period of weeks, they were divorced. And the And the shame just came all over
35:14 her. And she knew she needed her mom and dad so she Now here she is as an adult, she's driving home back to North Carolina to be with her mom and dad wondering what it's gonna be like
35:28 do, and she didn't do it anyway. And she went ahead, and now she's been divorced twice. And she tells the story about how she finally pulled up in the driveway in Montreat, North Carolina. And she was met there by her
35:40 dad who was waiting for her. And when she got out of the car, he just hugged her and he said 2 words to her, welcome home. And she talks about the fact she knew she had done wrong. She knew she
35:52 should feel shame, but her dad was just so loving. Like, you're my daughter. No matter what you do, you'll always be my daughter, and I love you. And that, my friends, is what the heart of God looks like. God can
36:04 welcome you back in spite of your sin because of what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. And they can celebrate and the father celebrates when people turn away from their sins and say, I don't want that
36:15 life. I want the life of Christ. I want him to come into my life. And he celebrates. Now you would think the story would end there, right? It's a great story. I mean, he's told 3 stories for heaven's sakes. There's a
36:25 lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and they all come back and we're rejoicing. But the story doesn't end there because there's another truth that you need to understand about the father.
36:38 Center repents. The father pleads until a center repents. Because notice what happens. It says now the older son was in the field.
36:51 And he summoned 1 of the servers and began inquiring what these things could be. So now there's the older son. The older son's been there this whole day. He's watched his brother take the inheritance. He's watched his
37:01 brother go out and squandered all the house, there's music and dance. Now, just a side note here. Just so
37:14 you know. That's just so you know. If you're Baptist in your background, there's music and dancing when there's a celebration. Okay? So that's how the son knows that something's going on because he hears all this music
37:24 and dancing. So he calls 1 of the services like, what's going on? This isn't normal. We don't normally hear music and dancing at this time of day. I want to know what's happening. So the servant tells them and here's
37:35 what he says. He said to him, your brother has come and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received them back safe and sound. Let me tell you what's happening. Your brother, the 1 that went
37:46 squandered all his wealth, he's come home. And your dad's so excited, he's killed the fattened calf. We're gonna have a huge party tonight to celebrate. By the way, he's giving him a robe, he's giving him a ring, he's
37:57 giving him sandals. Aren't you excited? You would think that the older brother would be like, yes. My younger brother's come home. I've been wanting him to come back. But that's not what happens.
38:09 Notice what the brother says, but but he became angry and was not willing to go in. And his father came out and began pleading
38:21 with him. Now why would the older brother be angry? Because you would think that this story of compassion is what everybody would want. You would think that everybody would wanna be loved by
38:33 that, but not the older brother. Do you know why? Because the older brother thought that he was better than the younger brother. And when religious people, like the Pharisees Jesus is talking to, who thought they were
38:44 better than the quote sinners, what they didn't understand is they could have close proximity to the father without having a relationship with him. And what's going on here is you have the older brother who sees hisShow more
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