Speaker 1: The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying, I
Speaker 1: have loved you with an everlasting love.
Speaker 2: I have drawn you.
Speaker 1: With unfailing kindness. Hear the word the Lord for you.
Speaker 1: Let's pray Father in Jesus name. We thank you for
Speaker 1: your word. We thank you for this time together to
Speaker 1: worship you, to be together, to commune with one another.
Speaker 1: And we thank you so much most of all that
Speaker 1: you love us beyond our comprehension.
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: We asked that you would come and move and lead
Speaker 1: us to the Father. Come, Lord Jesus and speak to us.
Speaker 2: Walk among us, and Father, be here Jesus name. Amen,
Speaker 2: please be seated.
Speaker 1: So my wife Laurie showed me in the Epic Times
Speaker 1: a particular article right before Valentine's Day that sort of
Speaker 1: shocked me. And it shocked me because you'll see in
Speaker 1: a moment.
Speaker 2: How much it speaks to the word you just heard.
Speaker 1: So doctor Alexander, even Alexander, he is a well respected.
Speaker 2: Neurologist that was in the prime of his life, but.
Speaker 1: He contracted bacterial meningitis and he was in a deep
Speaker 1: coma so much in the hospital that the doctor said
Speaker 1: he had two percent chance two percent chance of living
Speaker 1: and for seven days his brain showed no activity whatsoever.
Speaker 1: At that point he encountered he actually his spirit left
Speaker 1: his body. He was having a what some call a
Speaker 1: near death experience. But he left his body and a
Speaker 1: radiant being came up to him and spoke to him.
Speaker 2: And delivered this message.
Speaker 1: You are deeply loved and cherished forever. You have nothing
Speaker 1: to fear, and you are richly cared for. Sounds amazing
Speaker 1: considering those words were very similar to Jeremyah's word speaking
Speaker 1: from the Father. So miraculously, doctor Alexander recovered, and he
Speaker 1: says love is what pulled him back from the brink
Speaker 1: of death. See, he had been adopted at birth, and
Speaker 1: he said, I had this subconscious belief that maybe i'd
Speaker 1: it didn't even deserve to exist, that maybe I didn't
Speaker 1: deserve love since my own mother had given me away.
Speaker 2: But he believed this.
Speaker 1: He said, this love expressed to him in this message
Speaker 1: cured the deepest scars of his heart and brought healing
Speaker 1: to him and brought him back to life. The Lord
Speaker 1: appeared to us in the past, saying I have loved
Speaker 1: you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with
Speaker 1: unfailing kindness, King James says, loving kindness.
Speaker 2: I like that word too, loving kindness. I've drawn you.
Speaker 1: So Here the prophet Jeremiah is speaking to the people
Speaker 1: of Israel, and it's actually at a time when he's
Speaker 1: speaking about restoration coming, and it's actually the same chapter
Speaker 1: where the promise of the New Covenant is given. But
Speaker 1: as he's speaking to his people and talks about from
Speaker 1: the past, he's reminded them of his deliverance out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: He's reminded them of their time on Sinai, where he
Speaker 1: walked with him through the difficult time of the desert.
Speaker 1: He's reminded them of bringing them, leading them into the
Speaker 1: Promised Land. All these different things. I have been with
Speaker 1: you all this time, showing you my love, drawing you
Speaker 1: to me all this time. Whether you knew it or not,
Speaker 1: do you know that you're in a love story?
Speaker 2: You are? You are in a love story with God.
Speaker 1: From gen Genesis to Revelation, we see again and again
Speaker 1: the Lord pursuing out of his love, pursuing us, creating us,
Speaker 1: redeeming us, walking with us, being with us, showing his
Speaker 1: love all along the way, drawing us, as he says
Speaker 1: to us, with unfailing love, loving us with an everlasting,
Speaker 1: forever love. The God of Love is pursuing you, not
Speaker 1: just the world, but you. These words are for you
Speaker 1: this morning. Of course, the greatest expression of the love
Speaker 1: of God is Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus his love,
Speaker 1: sending his only son to die on the cross, sacrificing
Speaker 1: his life, putting all the sins of the world, all
Speaker 1: your sin, on him. Of course, that is the greatest
Speaker 1: expression of love that could ever ever be right.
Speaker 2: We know that. But he loves you, He really really
Speaker 2: loves you, and he likes you too.
Speaker 1: By the way, sometimes we say, oh, he loves me,
Speaker 1: but does.
Speaker 2: He like me? He likes you too.
Speaker 1: He made you the way you are, right, He made
Speaker 1: you the way you are. You've been deeply loved since
Speaker 1: certainly certainly from your conception, but probably from the beginning
Speaker 1: of time.
Speaker 2: You have been deeply, deeply loved by God. He was
Speaker 2: there your conception.
Speaker 1: He was there when you took your first steps. He
Speaker 1: was there when you fell on your face running down
Speaker 1: the sidewalk. He was there when you had your first kiss.
Speaker 1: He was there when you had brokenness and hurt, when
Speaker 1: you chose paths of destruction.
Speaker 2: He was there, He's always been there. Think about.
Speaker 1: Your life and the times that he's shown you, he's
Speaker 1: revealed to you the evidence of his presence and the
Speaker 1: evidence of his love. But the resolution of this love
Speaker 1: story is still to be told. And I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the love story inside the bigger love story. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the love story between.
Speaker 2: You and your heavenly Father. It's open ended. It's open ended.
Speaker 1: And for those of you who are here, who who
Speaker 1: who don't have a deep relationship with your heavenly Father,
Speaker 1: it's still open ended whether or not you will.
Speaker 2: Because it's all up to you. It's all up to you.
Speaker 1: My first glimpse of the love of God was when
Speaker 1: I was four years old. I had what I now
Speaker 1: know was a vision. At the time, I didn't know
Speaker 1: what a vision was. But I saw the Lord Jesus
Speaker 1: on a cross. On the cross, I saw him with
Speaker 1: his crowns crown of thorns, with the nails in his
Speaker 1: hands and feet, blood dripping down his face and off
Speaker 1: his hands. And the only feeling I had was love, absolute.
Speaker 2: Total, complete love. And I knew that. I knew that,
Speaker 2: I knew that I.
Speaker 1: Was loved, And I have always known that and it
Speaker 1: has never ever ever left me. Soon after that, I
Speaker 1: gave my life to the Lord. I prayed the Sinner's
Speaker 1: prayer with Annie K. Gave my life to him and
Speaker 1: he has always, always, always been there. But when I
Speaker 1: was growing up, I grew up in a family I
Speaker 1: like to say, you know, we didn't know we were
Speaker 1: just we didn't have the name dysfunctional, but that's what
Speaker 1: we were, you know, I mean, we really were, and
Speaker 1: a family of seven, five kids. I was the second
Speaker 1: of five. But my parents they didn't know how to love.
Speaker 1: They loved very imperfectly. They did their best based on
Speaker 1: their level of brokenness and their own past and some
Speaker 1: of you recognize that in yourself or in your parents.
Speaker 1: And they fought constantly. I went to bed many times
Speaker 1: lying in bed, not being able to go to sleep
Speaker 1: because my parents were fighting. And eventually they eventually long story,
Speaker 1: but they did divorce, and that was an area of
Speaker 1: brokenness for my life.
Speaker 2: But the Lord was with me and I knew that
Speaker 2: and he protected me.
Speaker 1: I didn't that didn't mean I didn't have to go
Speaker 1: through the process of healing, forgiveness and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: but he was there. I was abused as a child,
Speaker 1: it's sexually abused by a family friend, and that was
Speaker 1: very it was devastating. But even in that, I knew
Speaker 1: I was loved. And even through that, through the process
Speaker 1: of forgiving and and letting go that came because I
Speaker 1: knew I was loved, I could do that. I could
Speaker 1: walk through that healing and cling to my heavenly Father
Speaker 1: because of the love of God has so much power.
Speaker 1: I grew up close friends in the neighborhood. Three of
Speaker 1: my closest friends. My friend Paul, he died, he choked
Speaker 1: to death on his own vomit, having over drank alcohol
Speaker 1: at a party. My friend Dominic became so addicted to
Speaker 1: drugs that he eventually lost virtually all his teeth. And
Speaker 1: my friend Jimmy Kay the strongest guy in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: If he wasn't on your side, then you might get
Speaker 1: beat up because he's also a really angry kid, and
Speaker 1: he played football like crazy and we could never tackle him.
Speaker 1: But Jimmy, Jimmy got into drugs as well. He got
Speaker 1: he got into uh uh.
Speaker 2: A lot of bad, bad things.
Speaker 1: He ended up in prison, He ended up uh he
Speaker 1: had lots of street fights and everything else ended up
Speaker 1: in prison. Uh family accounts of battery and ended up
Speaker 1: dying in prison.
Speaker 2: Why was I spared?
Speaker 1: I was spared because I was not captured by the world,
Speaker 1: because the love.
Speaker 2: Of God had captured me. That's why I was spared.
Speaker 1: Now, for the entire three years of jesus ministry on
Speaker 1: this earth, what did he talk about and what did
Speaker 1: he do? His words and his works were all about
Speaker 1: Your heavenly Father loves you. He cares about you. Come
Speaker 1: enter into a love relationship with him through me. That's
Speaker 1: all Jesus talked about. That's all he demonstrated time and again.
Speaker 1: Your heavenly Father loves you so very much. If you've
Speaker 1: seen me, you've seen the Father. You want to know
Speaker 1: what the Father's like. Open the book, look at the
Speaker 1: New Testament. That is the Father, That is your father
Speaker 1: in heaven. That is the one who loves you. That
Speaker 1: is the one who draws you.
Speaker 2: To him with his unfailing love.
Speaker 1: But Jesus also told stories. He told parables, right, and
Speaker 1: there's one parable where he really told about his father's love.
Speaker 2: You might know that parable.
Speaker 1: As the parable of prodigal Son, but you may not
Speaker 1: have realized that it's a love story.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a look at that love story
Speaker 1: right now. It's Luke, chapter fifteen, starting in verse eleven.
Speaker 1: There was a man who had two sons. The younger
Speaker 1: one said to his father, father, give me my share
Speaker 1: of the estate. Now, according to the custom, if he
Speaker 1: was a younger son, he was a second son of
Speaker 1: two sons, he would get a third of the estate,
Speaker 1: a third of all that his father had when he died.
Speaker 1: But to come to his father and to speak to
Speaker 1: him and say this is what I want was not
Speaker 1: only unheard of, it was absolutely disrespectful, completely, particularly in
Speaker 1: that culture of honor. It was like the worst thing
Speaker 1: you could ever say to your father. And by implication,
Speaker 1: he is rejecting him, and he's rebelling against him, and
Speaker 1: he's basically saying, father, I do I love you, and
Speaker 1: I do not respect you. In fact, he's saying, father,
Speaker 1: I can't wait till you die. Could anything been more
Speaker 1: painful to that father, I'm sure it broke his heart
Speaker 1: into a million pieces. The son's demand would also been
Speaker 1: a great grief to his family, absolutely stunning, and in
Speaker 1: our front, to the entire community who would have known
Speaker 1: this family and to have heard what had happened now
Speaker 1: most of you here, In fact, I would venture to say,
Speaker 1: all of you here, at one time or another, and
Speaker 1: maybe even this morning, have been a prodigal son or daughter,
Speaker 1: have been that younger son. You know, we simply want
Speaker 1: to live our lives the way we want to live them.
Speaker 1: What we want to do, you know, and enjoy what
Speaker 1: the Father gives us. The blessings of life, the blessings
Speaker 1: of family, the blessings of good work, the blessings of health,
Speaker 1: whatever blessings we have.
Speaker 2: We have so many, many.
Speaker 1: Of them, and we want to enjoy those, and we
Speaker 1: want to do what we want to do. But in
Speaker 1: doing so, we deny what the father desires most from us,
Speaker 1: and that is a love relationship or he's first, or
Speaker 1: he's our first love.
Speaker 2: Verse twelve B. The second part of the verse says,
Speaker 2: this what the father does.
Speaker 1: So he divided his property between them.
Speaker 2: So he does it, and he didn't have to do it.
Speaker 1: Any normal father in that culture would have thrown him out,
Speaker 1: disowned him, and maybe even beating him up first. But
Speaker 1: this father gives him what he asks for. Here you go,
Speaker 1: Here you go, son.
Speaker 2: Listen out of the generosity of his love.
Speaker 1: The father gives, he gives, he gives, he gives. He
Speaker 1: loves you so much, even when his heart is broken
Speaker 1: for some of you here this morning. His heart is
Speaker 1: broken just telling you that.
Speaker 2: Verse thirteen.
Speaker 1: Not long after that, the younger son got together all
Speaker 1: that he had set off for a distant country and
Speaker 1: there squandered his wealth in wild living.
Speaker 2: Now there's a surprise. He was just waiting to do
Speaker 2: it right.
Speaker 1: The son demands his inheritance, takes it from his father,
Speaker 1: takes the money and runs. In doing so, he further
Speaker 1: rejects the love of his father. He rejects his family,
Speaker 1: he rejects his community, and he rejects any faith that
Speaker 1: he had, because to go into the far country is
Speaker 1: to go away from God's people, to go to where
Speaker 1: the Pagans worship their idols. And so he does all
Speaker 1: this as he rejects the farther and again by his actions,
Speaker 1: he's saying, I don't want to have anything ever to
Speaker 1: do with you, father, I am completely done with you. Now,
Speaker 1: we don't think that spending our lives the way we
Speaker 1: do is rejecting his love, putting him second or third
Speaker 1: or away.
Speaker 2: But that's what it is.
Speaker 1: That's what it is.
Speaker 2: Now the Father lets him go without a fight. Here
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 1: In essence, your heavily father says, I love you so
Speaker 1: much that I will not make you love me. He
Speaker 1: doesn't want robots Autona toms.
Speaker 2: He doesn't. He wants somebody to love him back. He
Speaker 2: wants you to love him back. I won't make you
Speaker 2: love me.
Speaker 1: He won't force the relationship that he desires from you.
Speaker 2: But he's there with open arms. He's there, he's right,
Speaker 2: and he's near.
Speaker 1: He's as near as your neighbor to you right now
Speaker 1: and nearer. But the risk is worth it so that
Speaker 1: he has.
Speaker 2: A real love relationship with you Verse fourteen.
Speaker 1: So after he had spent everything, there was a severe
Speaker 1: famine in the whole country, and he began to be
Speaker 1: in need. So he went out and hired himself out
Speaker 1: to a citizen of that country, who sent him to
Speaker 1: his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his
Speaker 1: stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but
Speaker 1: no one gave him anything. He ends up in a
Speaker 1: pig sty, starving to death. Jesus gives us a very
Speaker 1: simple picture of what it means to be away from.
Speaker 2: The father's love.
Speaker 1: Spiritual poverty, emptiness. You know nothing will truly satisfy and
Speaker 1: fulfill you.
Speaker 2: As the lover of your soul. Can he is the
Speaker 2: love of your soul?
Speaker 1: He is. Yes, I spent time as a prodigal as well.
Speaker 1: I chose to live my own life about the time
Speaker 1: I went off to college. The attractions and the temptations
Speaker 1: were too great for me. At least that's what I thought.
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know, but they were partying, heart
Speaker 1: eating relationships, not focused on God relationships, selfishness.
Speaker 2: I could go on with many things.
Speaker 1: But by the time I was twenty two years old,
Speaker 1: I already had an engineering degree, I was working on
Speaker 1: my masters. I was getting basically out straight a's. I
Speaker 1: had a full scholarship. I was paid for being for
Speaker 1: doing research. I was living on the beach.
Speaker 2: With some of my.
Speaker 1: Buddies, hanging out, partying, having a great time in and
Speaker 1: out of various relationships. Wow, you think I'd have the
Speaker 1: greatest time ever, But I wasn't. One weekend, I was
Speaker 1: in the San Berardino Mountains with my girlfriend and some friends.
Speaker 1: We were at a cabin there and I was out
Speaker 1: on the porch, and I remember it so clearly. I
Speaker 1: went on the porch by myself, and I looked out,
Speaker 1: just kind of out the scene off into the mountains there,
Speaker 1: and I was completely empty.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: It was like it didn't matter if I still believed
Speaker 1: in God. I was far from it, and I felt
Speaker 1: like he has no use for me.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going to die.
Speaker 1: I actually thought I thought that that something's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be an accident. I'm gonna my heart's gonna stop.
Speaker 1: I don't, but I thought I was gonna die because
Speaker 1: I thought I am useless here. I'm living for this.
Speaker 1: Whatever I was in the PIGSTI I really was. Have
Speaker 1: any of you been there? Yeah, Verse seventeen. So when
Speaker 1: he came to his senses, he said, how many of
Speaker 1: my father's hired men have food to spare, but here
Speaker 1: I am starving to death. I will set out and
Speaker 1: go back to my father and say to him, Father,
Speaker 1: I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no
Speaker 1: longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like
Speaker 1: one of your hired men. So he decides to go
Speaker 1: home just to be a hired servant. He's no longer
Speaker 1: a son, He's not worthy to be a son. And
Speaker 1: so he's rehearsing what he's going to say to his father,
Speaker 1: and he begins to head home. Verse twenty says, So
Speaker 1: he got up and he went to his father. He's ragged,
Speaker 1: he's dirty, he's weak, he's hungry, he's broken, and says,
Speaker 1: but why he was still a long way off. His
Speaker 1: father saw him and was filled with compassion for him,
Speaker 1: and he ran to his son, threw his arms around
Speaker 1: him him. Is it that amazing?
Speaker 2: Amen? That's yeah, that is wow, wow wow. All this
Speaker 2: time the father had been anxiously looking for him.
Speaker 1: That's why he saw him in the distance, because he
Speaker 1: every day he'd be looking out there, every free moment,
Speaker 1: he's looking out there. Is my son coming home? Is
Speaker 1: my beloved son coming home? And he saw him, saw
Speaker 1: him out here?
Speaker 2: Is that my son? I think it's my son. He's
Speaker 2: probably limping.
Speaker 1: But dragon just you know, clothes, if you know, just rags,
Speaker 1: wearing rags, just skinny as a bone.
Speaker 2: And so he runs.
Speaker 1: A Jewish man would never run, not of this, not
Speaker 1: not of that age that that's that would be beneath them.
Speaker 1: That would be shameful to do. And yet he runs,
Speaker 1: he runs, He runs for two reasons. The first reason
Speaker 1: is that the uh that the son would would encounter
Speaker 1: a gauntlet of the community who probably hated him for
Speaker 1: basically dishonoring the community by what he did to his father,
Speaker 1: and we're just been horrified by it. And then they
Speaker 1: probably they'd probably be, you know, casting a spurgeons at him,
Speaker 1: probably just going.
Speaker 2: Oh there's that you know, there's that bomb. You know.
Speaker 1: The father runs out, I think, first of all, to
Speaker 1: protect his son. Father humbles himself to protect a son.
Speaker 1: The second second thing is he didn't want to wait
Speaker 1: another second before he was in his son's arms. Not
Speaker 1: another second, There's no time to waste. Threw his arms
Speaker 1: around him, King James. I love the King James. It
Speaker 1: says he fell on his neck. He fell on his neck, yes,
Speaker 1: and kissed him. The neighbors watch and disbelief. Right, how
Speaker 1: how can you treat him this way?
Speaker 2: You know all he did to you? Are you crazy? Yes?
Speaker 1: I'm crazy in love with my son, all this running,
Speaker 1: all this running and falling and hugging and kissing.
Speaker 2: What an amazing, loving mess.
Speaker 1: Right, it's the spontaneous love just flows out of the father.
Speaker 1: Spontaneous love and his actions tell us all we need
Speaker 1: to know, all you need to know about when you
Speaker 1: return to him, about when you seek him, seek his heart.
Speaker 1: It's one of the most powerful scenes in the New Testament,
Speaker 1: if not the Bible. Isn't it about the scene? It's
Speaker 1: Jeremiah thirty one three. What we just read Jeremiah thirty
Speaker 1: one to three lived out expressed, demonstrated, running, falling, hugging,
Speaker 1: and kissing slight. Let's see verse twenty one. Son says, father,
Speaker 1: I've sinned against Heaven, against you. I am no longer
Speaker 1: worthy to be called your son. But the father stops him.
Speaker 1: You can't finish his the rest of his he'd planned
Speaker 1: to say about being a servant and about blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. But the father says to his servants, quick,
Speaker 1: bring the best robe, put it on him, put a
Speaker 1: ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, Bring the
Speaker 1: fated cat and kill it. Let's have a feast and
Speaker 1: celebrate for this son of mine was dead and he's
Speaker 1: alive now, and he is lost.
Speaker 2: He was lost and now he's fine found. And they
Speaker 2: began to celebrate.
Speaker 1: This in the midst, like I said, in the midst,
Speaker 1: he stops him he doesn't even let him continue.
Speaker 2: He says, son, doesn't you're back?
Speaker 1: Best robe that represents his acceptance, that would have been
Speaker 1: his robe. The ring off his finger, the father's authority, sandals,
Speaker 1: the sign of sonship, being a son and not a slave,
Speaker 1: not a servant. The fatted calf a sign of the
Speaker 1: father's joy and in his son's return, and a full
Speaker 1: community celebration. Why don't we know that is because a
Speaker 1: fatty calf was too big for a family to eat.
Speaker 1: This was it was for the community to come. And
Speaker 1: so what the father's doing is restoring that, restoring his
Speaker 1: place in the community. Showing them all the stuff he
Speaker 1: put on his son is saying that's my son. You
Speaker 1: respect him because he's mine. My heavenly father fell on
Speaker 1: my neck too soon after my on the porch experience.
Speaker 1: The Lord broke up my relationship, that long term relations
Speaker 1: to that that I was in and that I just
Speaker 1: never should have been in, and I was.
Speaker 2: I would.
Speaker 1: I was so grieved by not only that, I was
Speaker 1: grieved by that, but I was grieved by my life.
Speaker 1: And I would I would actually go and lie on
Speaker 1: the bedroom floor with with the lights out and listen
Speaker 1: to music.
Speaker 2: And that's what I did.
Speaker 1: And I did it for you know, multiple days, at
Speaker 1: different times when I wasn't studying. I did study still,
Speaker 1: but I was just just grieving, grieving my life. And
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, one day when I was in
Speaker 1: that place, the Lord came into the room. He came
Speaker 1: into the room. I didn't see him face to face.
Speaker 1: I probably would have died. I didn't see him face
Speaker 1: to face, but he was there and he filled the
Speaker 1: entire room and his presence was so amazing, and it
Speaker 1: took my breath away and I'm I'm just in awe
Speaker 1: at that moment.
Speaker 2: And then he calls my name. He says, Gary. You
Speaker 2: know when the Lord calls your name, he call he.
Speaker 1: Said Gary, and I was just like, Oh Lord. He said, Gary,
Speaker 1: you have been a Christian all these years and all
Speaker 1: that time.
Speaker 2: You'll live for yourself.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, no truer words have ever been spoken.
Speaker 2: And when he said that, I just wept. I just was.
Speaker 1: I was broken by that, this, Oh Lord. And he
Speaker 1: gave me some time to collect myself and then he said,
Speaker 1: now it's time to live for me.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm thinking you still want me? That was it.
Speaker 1: I mean, just what I felt is his love and
Speaker 1: mercy and grace and all that he still wants me.
Speaker 1: And I said, and of course I wasn't I said yes, Lord,
Speaker 1: I said yes, yes, yes, And I said, Lord, from
Speaker 1: this moment forward, I promise you, if you give me
Speaker 1: the strength, I will never ever say no to you again.
Speaker 1: So like the prodigal, like the prodigal son, I was home.
Speaker 1: Can any of you relate to him calling you home
Speaker 1: and welcome you home?
Speaker 2: I bet you can.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna move forward here for the sake
Speaker 1: of time. How important is it to you? How important
Speaker 1: is it to the father that he has a relationship
Speaker 1: of love with you?
Speaker 2: I want you to think about that. How important is
Speaker 2: it to him?
Speaker 1: Don't have time to go over the older son. But
Speaker 1: if you know the story at all, you realize that
Speaker 1: both of them were lost, not just the younger one,
Speaker 1: but the older one too, living at home, not knowing,
Speaker 1: not pursuing, not caring about father's love. Right. What they
Speaker 1: didn't realize is the father's love.
Speaker 2: Was their greatest inheritance.
Speaker 1: The father's love is your greatest inheritance, more than anything else,
Speaker 1: more than any great ministry or service, or any great
Speaker 1: success you have in this life or whatever. More than
Speaker 1: anything else, your father.
Speaker 2: In heaven is your inheritance.
Speaker 1: In this life and the life to come. This love
Speaker 1: story is open ended. It actually ends without us knowing
Speaker 1: what the older son does. Right, Jesus leaves it open
Speaker 1: ended because the ending is up to you. That's why
Speaker 1: it leaves it open. It's open ended. This love story
Speaker 1: is open ended. Your love story is open ended.
Speaker 2: How will you complete it? How will you complete it?
Speaker 1: Jeremiah thirty one to three, You'll go back through one
Speaker 1: more time. I've loved you with an ever lasting love.
Speaker 1: I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. He's reaching out
Speaker 1: to you. He doesn't just love you. He's in love
Speaker 1: with you. He really is, and he will never stop
Speaker 1: loving you. Do you know that everlasting love means like
Speaker 1: everlasting that he will love you if you reject him,
Speaker 1: and he will keep pressing on, reaching out, if you
Speaker 1: reject him completely.
Speaker 2: If you reject him, he will love you. In hell.
Speaker 2: He may not feel that love, but he will still
Speaker 2: love you.
Speaker 1: He will continue to love you for all eternity, crazy love.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you the purpose of your life
Speaker 1: right now. I know it's true because it's in the book.
Speaker 1: The purpose of your life is to fall in love
Speaker 1: with God.
Speaker 2: How do I know that? What's the greatest commandment?
Speaker 1: With all your heart, soul, mind, body and strength, love
Speaker 1: the Lord, your God. Right, that's it, and your neighbor
Speaker 1: as yourself. Let's stand, let's all stand. I'm going to
Speaker 1: have the last slide shown up here because this is
Speaker 1: an activity we don't have time to do, but it's
Speaker 1: something that you can do as you go home in
Speaker 1: your prayer closet. You know the church, the Lord is
Speaker 1: moving to our church into prayer the last few I
Speaker 1: mean last few Sundays. If you've been here, you know it,
Speaker 1: and God's tugging at your heart and.
Speaker 2: You're you're responding. I know you are.
Speaker 1: You're beginning to respond, you because that's where everything comes from. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna encourage you that the first thing ought
Speaker 1: to be not coming asking for anything, you know, not
Speaker 1: coming you know, with with with an agenda, but the
Speaker 1: first that your number one agenda, just to be in
Speaker 1: His presence and to love him, to seek him. Like
Speaker 1: Psalm twenty seventy four when David said, you know the
Speaker 1: one thing I seek after?
Speaker 2: You know you can look that up.
Speaker 1: But this little activity here, it basically comes from Psalm
Speaker 1: twenty seven four where he seeks and asks and dwells. Okay,
Speaker 1: and so that's where that's from.
Speaker 2: Uh SPA.
Speaker 1: Spend time. Spend the first time there. Then you can
Speaker 1: go into everything else. Then you can going to intercession,
Speaker 1: you can go into supplication, you can go into whatever, worship, whatever.
Speaker 2: But start with him every day.
Speaker 1: And these are just some questions, some things to ask
Speaker 1: him and talk to him about. But every day that
Speaker 1: you have as have questions to ask him, have things
Speaker 1: to tell him, and start there.
Speaker 2: He loves you so very very much. Let's pray.
Speaker 1: Father. I thank you so much for your love that
Speaker 1: just keeps coming. I thank you so much for rescuing me, Lord,
Speaker 1: for rescuing me, for pulling me up out of my
Speaker 1: pigs t I thank you, Father, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I want to love you. I want to love you back.
Speaker 1: I want to live for you. I want to know you.
Speaker 1: Draw me into you, Lord, Draw us into you, Lord,
Speaker 1: so that at the end of this love story, the
Speaker 1: consummation of it, Lord, would be just more love, more love.
Speaker 2: More love. Lord.
Speaker 1: Let us fall in love with you in this life
Speaker 1: and grow in love with you for eternity.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Lord. In Jesus name, we pray Amen and amen.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you,