Higher Ground

The Prodigal God

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. E.C. Polite

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Series Code: HG

Program Code: HG000013


00:38 So heavy laden
00:49 And burdened down
00:58 I did not know
01:08 Just what to do
01:16 So I went and I prayed
01:27 For strength to endure
01:35 Jesus said
01:39 "Be still
01:44 I will
01:47 See you through"
01:53 So I tried Him
01:59 And I know Him
02:05 He'll stick closer than any brother
02:11 So I tried Him
02:17 And I know Him
02:23 He's been better to me than I've been to myself
02:34 There could never be a friend
02:40 As dear to me
02:45 As Jesus
02:49 So now
02:52 When you go through
03:00 Through your trials
03:04 And your tests
03:08 Please don't look
03:12 Don't look to man
03:17 For
03:19 They'll let you down
03:25 Just remember
03:29 there is just one, one, one, one
03:36 Who will go with you
03:39 To the end
03:44 His name is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
03:50 My Jesus
03:53 He'll tell you what, why and when
03:59 Ooh ohh
04:02 I tried Him
04:06 And I know Him
04:10 He'll stick you
04:12 He's been better to me
04:14 Than I've been to myself
04:18 So I tried Him
04:24 And I know Him
04:29 He's been better to me
04:31 Than I've been to myself
04:39 There could never be a friend
04:45 As dear to me
04:52 As Jesus.
04:58 Amen.
05:05 From the darkness came the light
05:11 Out of nothingness
05:13 You made life
05:17 And before the world You were
05:23 Bless Your name
05:25 Forevermore
05:28 Lord according to Your plan
05:35 You created every man
05:41 Just to glorify You
05:45 and Bless Your name
05:49 Forevermore
06:01 Then into the world You came
06:08 By the power of Your name
06:14 And You washed my sins away
06:20 I Bless Your name
06:22 Forevermore
06:26 So I come before your throne
06:30 And You come
06:32 Through no goodness
06:34 Of my own
06:37 And I worship You alone
06:44 Bless Your name
06:47 Forevermore
06:51 I will bless Your name, Jesus
06:56 I will bless Your name
07:02 I will bless Your name
07:07 Forevermore
07:14 I will bless Your name, Jesus
07:20 I will bless Your name
07:28 I will bless Your name
07:31 Forevermore
07:38 I will bless Your name
07:42 I will bless Your name
07:44 I will bless Your name
07:47 Your name's all we need
07:49 I will bless Your name
07:54 Forevermore
08:01 I will bless Your name
08:07 I will bless Your name
08:12 I will bless Your name
08:17 Forevermore
08:23 I will bless Your name
08:29 I will bless Your name
08:34 I will bless Your name
08:39 Forevermore
08:46 I will bless Your name
08:51 I will bless Your name
08:57 I will bless Your name
09:01 Forevermore
09:08 I will bless Your name
09:14 I will bless Your name
09:20 I will bless Your name
09:25 Forevermore
09:32 I will bless Your name
09:37 I will bless Your name
09:43 I will bless Your name
09:50 Forevermore
09:53 Forever and ever
09:57 I will bless Your name
10:00 Oh, the Lord
10:02 Forevermore.
10:06 Amen.
10:11 Luke Chapter 19 and considering verse 10.
10:21 Luke 19:10.
10:31 Trusting that you have it, read it with me everyone.
10:33 What does it say?
10:35 "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save" what?
10:41 "That which was lost." "That which was lost."
10:46 Before I enter to our message for today
10:48 "The Prodigal God" The Prodigal God,
10:57 you all know my momma don't you?
11:00 She is every bit of five foot nothing
11:05 but I learned something about her when growing up.
11:08 She was strong as an ox.
11:11 So whenever she said, "Go into your room,
11:15 I'm going to be in there with my strap."
11:19 Be prepared for a whipping.
11:24 A whipping.
11:28 I thought that I was getting the little wise
11:32 the older I got not kept getting whippings.
11:36 One day mom told me to go into my room
11:38 because she was coming into to give me a whipping
11:41 and I got this bright idea.
11:45 I decided to put on some layers of clothes.
11:51 So when she came in the room just one time
11:53 I was looking mighty muscular and husky.
12:00 But just as I was getting wise, Mom was already wise
12:03 and she said, "Take off my clothes.
12:04 I don't want to beat up on my clothes that I bought."
12:09 And layer after layer came off
12:14 until it was just me and the strap
12:18 and she began to whip and whip.
12:24 It must have worked I'm a preacher now.
12:31 But I often think about those times
12:35 when I would try to prepare myself
12:38 for what was coming ahead.
12:43 Christ ministry was coming to a rapid close in two months.
12:49 He would stand before the unjust justice
12:52 of Caiaphas' judgment hall.
12:55 In two months
12:57 He would bear the excruciating scourging
13:00 of that Roman whip call the cat o' nine tails.
13:05 In two months He will watch as disrespectful Roman soldiers
13:11 will clear their throat
13:14 and then project their garlic stain spittoon
13:17 into his face.
13:19 In two months He will model an ignominious clown that falls
13:25 and be thrust upon a splinter-ridden cross
13:30 that would dig deeply into his already bruised
13:33 and bleeding back.
13:35 In two months He would endure the insults
13:39 and ribaldry of a satanically inspired crowd.
13:45 If you can't come down don't stay up there.
13:49 He hung there for six hours.
13:54 Not because it was fashionable, not because He wanted to
13:58 but because He loved us that much.
14:01 Understand something,
14:03 we can quantify the time that Christ hung on the cross.
14:06 However for Him it was a little different experience.
14:10 Remember now, when He was on the cross
14:13 that Father enshrouded Him with a covering of darkness
14:18 so that He could not sense the presence of God
14:21 His Father anymore.
14:23 That was the first time in eternity history
14:25 that He had ever experienced
14:28 what it would be like to be cut off from the Father.
14:30 Let me share something with you, beloved.
14:32 Hell is not about the fire that's going to be there
14:37 to destroy the wicked.
14:38 Part, that's part of it but the other part,
14:40 the weightier part of it is hell is eternal separation
14:44 from the God who loves you
14:48 and cares about you.
14:51 You don't think like me that knowing of this,
14:53 Christ would have prepared himself for His whipping
14:59 and get me a few legions of angels to come,
15:03 they'll take care of the matter.
15:05 I don't have to suffer as badly
15:07 but instead knowing the condition of the heart
15:11 of those around Him,
15:13 the publicans and the sinners and the Pharisees.
15:16 Christ instead tries as if for the last time
15:19 to get them to understand
15:21 the unfathomable love of His Father.
15:25 He does so by telling them three back to back parables
15:30 as recorded in the 15th chapter of Luke.
15:33 Turn there with me in the 15th chapter of Luke.
15:37 There we find, you got it there three parables
15:43 called The Lost Sheep found in verses 3 through 7,
15:47 The Lost Coin in verses 8 through 10
15:50 and The Lost Boy in verses 11 through 32.
15:55 It is important to know that these parables represent
16:01 three dimensions of lostness.
16:07 They represent what?
16:09 Three dimensions of lostness
16:11 in the Parable of the Lost Sheep.
16:16 Here we find that the sheep knew it was lost
16:20 but it didn't know how to find its way back
16:23 out of its lostness.
16:25 It's also interesting to know that this particular parable
16:29 was addressed to the men in the crowd.
16:33 Then we'll come to the Parable of the Lost Coin,
16:38 The Lost Coin.
16:40 The coin does not, it's in the house
16:43 but it does not know that it's lost.
16:45 Let me see if I can help you understand a little bit better.
16:48 The coin is lost in the church
16:51 but it doesn't know that it's lost.
16:56 This particular parable
16:58 is directed at the women in the crowd.
17:03 Of all the 30 plus parables that Christ told,
17:09 perhaps none is more poignant,
17:11 passionate or popular as the next one, The Lost Boy.
17:17 The Last Boy because within that one parable
17:21 both dimensions of lostness are mentioned.
17:26 The sheep knew it was lost
17:28 but didn't know how to get back.
17:31 The coin was in the house
17:34 but didn't know it was lost in the house.
17:37 That's in that parable
17:38 but then there is a third dimension of lostness
17:40 that we have to also consider
17:42 and that is the father's lostness
17:45 at not being able to love his sons.
17:51 He is in fact the prodigal son.
17:53 It's interesting that Christ addressed this parable
17:56 to the young adults probably in the crowd.
18:01 It's just a parable that we want to focus on.
18:03 It comes in two acts.
18:05 Act one is the act about the younger brother.
18:09 Act two is the act about the elder brother.
18:14 You will recall some times ago
18:16 I preached about this first act,
18:18 do you recall.
18:20 I preached it under the sermon title
18:22 where little Wayne meets Sasha Fierce.
18:28 You know that? I will re-preach that.
18:33 But I want to lift up some highlights
18:36 to help fresh up our story.
18:39 You'd recall that a young man gets up one morning
18:42 smelling himself and he goes in to talk to his father.
18:45 Said, "Father, give me everything
18:47 that's coming to me."
18:48 Understand something
18:50 that while it was quite customary
18:52 for father to divide up his inheritance among his sons
18:56 while he was living,
18:57 he did not have to give it to them until he was dead.
19:01 And so for a son to come and ask his father
19:05 give me what's coming to me
19:06 doubt his father was still living
19:08 was to say to the father "I see you as being dead.
19:12 Give me what's mine."
19:14 Imagine the ache and the hurt
19:17 in the father's heart to have his son come and say
19:21 "Give me what's mine
19:23 because in my mind you're dead."
19:28 Why was he so hostile towards his father?
19:32 Simply because his father did everything possible
19:35 to provide him with a spiritual, stable home
19:40 and sometimes, sometimes
19:44 our children don't appreciate it.
19:49 They believe that perhaps you're hollowing something.
19:52 You're keeping them from knowing something
19:55 that they should know outside in the world
19:57 and so he comes and says
19:59 "Let me go into the far country.
20:04 Where is my stuff?
20:07 I want to take my stuff with me."
20:10 And so the Bible says that he took his inheritance
20:13 and he went into the far country
20:16 and there verse 13 it says,
20:19 "And there wasted his substance"
20:20 with what kind of living?
20:22 "Riotous living."
20:23 In fact, the Greek says living riotously, riotously.
20:28 That's an interesting thought to pick up living riotously.
20:32 Because when we look at that word riotously
20:37 in the Medo Greek,
20:38 it comes from the word "Asotos."
20:41 When you get a word in Greek that begins with the letter "A"
20:44 it takes on a negative connotation
20:46 so that to the word that follows the "A."
20:49 The word that follows the "A" is so which means to save.
20:54 So that if you put an "A" in front of a save
20:57 it means doing something opposite than saving.
21:02 You're destroying. You're squandering.
21:06 You're wasting.
21:08 You're living a riotous living.
21:14 In other words, it wasn't just any other kind of living,
21:16 this boy was a player player.
21:21 Mickity mickity mickity mack.
21:30 He had it all,
21:33 he had money, he had women, he had friends,
21:40 had everything that the world says
21:43 makes you successful.
21:47 But when they get to the place
21:49 that we allow someone or something else
21:51 that define success for us, that's the moment
21:53 when we find ourselves a failure.
21:56 But in fact, they complete their success
21:58 outside the will of God
21:59 only when they walk in the ways of the Lord
22:02 to truly understand success.
22:04 The ways of a good man are what?
22:07 Ordered. Ordered by the Lord.
22:09 If God is not ordering us,
22:11 expect how can you be successful?
22:16 Something else is going on in your life.
22:19 But the Bible says
22:23 that if we train up a child
22:26 in the way he should go will he what?
22:30 What will happen to him? He won't depart from it.
22:38 In the book
22:40 "Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions"
22:43 George Barna says that the most ideal time
22:47 to get a hold of our young children
22:48 and introduce them to Christ is at the age of five to thirteen.
22:52 And that if we miss that window of opportunity
22:56 should they wander off in the world,
22:58 it's more difficult for them to find their way back to God
23:01 because they never left him.
23:05 They had no starting point.
23:08 That he who confirms that concept because it says,
23:13 train up a little child in the way that he should go,
23:15 and when he is old, it won't depart from him.
23:22 It didn't say he won't depart from it,
23:29 it's going to stay there if it's put there.
23:32 It's gonna remain there if you'll put it there.
23:35 He will walk off from it
23:37 but it will never walk off from him.
23:40 If we train up a child in the range of God,
23:44 it's going to be there.
23:46 Somebody ought to say it today.
23:51 I got excited about it.
23:57 It won't depart from him.
24:03 He knows he is lost but he knows how to get back.
24:12 Don't think your children don't remember
24:14 what you taught them.
24:16 Don't think they don't remember
24:18 what's happening in Sabbath school.
24:20 Don't think they don't recall the lessons
24:22 in their little primaries.
24:25 Don't think, don't underestimate them,
24:27 they understand the stories in the guide.
24:31 And when you least expect that, when you have given up on them,
24:35 when you think
24:37 that they are completely out of their minds
24:39 the Bible says and then he came to himself.
24:44 Then he came to himself.
24:46 He understood that as long as he was living riotously
24:50 that he had lost his mind but praise God
24:52 that comes a moment in their experience
24:56 about wayward children when they come to themselves.
25:04 I want to thank God
25:08 that we come to ourselves.
25:14 It occurs to me for something to come to themselves
25:17 means that they have to be outside of themselves.
25:21 How consistent a definition
25:24 that is with what Christ declared from the cross.
25:27 Father, forgive them, why?
25:30 They don't know what they are doing.
25:31 Anytime you're involved or evolved
25:33 you'll say you are out of your mind
25:38 and you got to come back to yourself.
25:45 It's interesting that he knew exactly how to get back home.
25:51 Remember now,
25:52 he is a young Jewish gothic ruler
25:58 and yet he is in, he has taken a job
26:00 with all of his money gone
26:01 because he had to get rid of everything he had to pawn.
26:04 He had to pawn his iPod, his iPad, his iPhone
26:08 in order to keep up his crack habit.
26:18 And now he is working at a pig farm
26:23 eating the husk of the Ceratonia siliqua tree.
26:28 Carob beans.
26:30 Can you imagine eating the carob beans
26:33 morning in and morning out?
26:36 In fact, the Bible says
26:38 he doesn't even have the luxury of eating the beans.
26:41 And let me good pod of beans
26:43 but he didn't even have the opportunity to eat the beans.
26:46 He had to eat the husk that have the beans.
26:52 That's the same food that the pigs ate.
26:56 It says, taken life had gotten as low as that of a pig.
27:02 A Jew becoming a pig.
27:07 Are you listening to me?
27:09 Yes, sir. Yeah.
27:10 Things that you live for, that you would do.
27:13 Things that you thought were beyond you.
27:16 Then you get outside of yourself
27:18 you don't even know how far down.
27:21 You will recall
27:22 of what you will ever say I'll never.
27:27 Amen. Amen.
27:32 Put in the right circumstances
27:33 you don't know what you are doing.
27:36 I used to tell my family and to mom,
27:38 I'll never eat a skunk.
27:42 I've never been holy in the wilderness either.
27:45 I'll chase that rascal over that saint.
27:52 Now, but I just have to stink.
28:09 Sometimes I don't know where I get stuff from.
28:17 The Bible says in verse 20,
28:21 "And he arose, came to his father.
28:25 But when he was yet" how far?
28:29 "A great way off, his father" do what?
28:32 "Saw him, and had compassion, and ran,
28:34 and fell on his neck, and kissed him."
28:39 Imagine now, his father saw him
28:44 which indicated he been looking for him.
28:50 It doesn't say how long he'd been looking.
28:53 It didn't say how long he'd been away from home
28:56 but what it does say that he,
28:58 that he came from the kind of family,
29:01 he came from the kind of home
29:03 where his father would stay up and look for him
29:08 to come back home.
29:10 Oh, I miss somebody 'cause he admitted that
29:13 I'm talking about God the Father today.
29:22 His father was looking for him and as he walked,
29:27 he was in his rocking chair, you know.
29:31 Just rocking, enjoying the Palestinian breeze.
29:41 Having the cup of lemonade and he stops rocking.
29:49 I know the way that boy walks there.
29:52 I've seen that walk before.
29:55 But keeps rocking
29:58 because his hopes are starting to rise.
30:02 Understand now,
30:03 understand the father has been existed
30:06 in a state of lostness because his son had gone
30:10 and that was the one less a relation
30:15 that he had to look and so he felt
30:18 as if this can't be it.
30:20 My void is not about to be filled
30:22 but as the boy came closer
30:24 and he watched his hat blow in the wind.
30:27 He says he looks a little different.
30:30 He walks a little different,
30:32 but I declare that looks like my boy Jimmy.
30:36 I declare that's him and nobody were serous.
30:41 He doesn't wait for Jimmy
30:43 to come all the way up to the house.
30:48 The Bible says he went and ran
30:52 and got Jimmy.
30:55 And when he got to Jimmy
30:59 he said, "Look here, this is my boy.
31:05 He is ragged, he is stinking.
31:10 He looks gaunt and emaciated
31:14 but he is my boy."
31:17 And so the Bible says, he places a robe around him.
31:23 Now you seek a word robe in the Bible
31:26 but in the Greek it says stole
31:30 from which we get our word stole
31:33 from which we get mink stole.
31:38 He didn't put just any other kind of robe on him.
31:42 He put an expensive robe on him.
31:45 He put a robe on his path that the moment upon he saw him.
31:50 That would see that he was no longer coming
31:53 by the stain of his rebellion, the stain of his sin
31:58 but instead got cover him with his all righteousness.
32:03 Then the Bible says that he put a ring on his finger.
32:07 It's a signet ring that identifies
32:10 that you belong to a certain family.
32:16 He doesn't want anybody
32:17 to just look at him as if he just anybody.
32:20 He wants people to know this is my boy.
32:22 Oh, I love something about God
32:25 that no matter what a mess we make of ourselves,
32:29 He will never disown.
32:30 Have you ever had a family member
32:32 that disowned you because you made a mess of yourself
32:36 that just threw you to curtain?
32:37 And nobody claims you as theirs but when it comes to God,
32:43 God has a way of saying to the world
32:46 "I don't care what they've done
32:48 as long as they're coming back to me,
32:51 I claim them for My own."
32:53 He put shoes on his feet
32:57 because only slaves walked around barefoot.
33:03 But folk who belong to somebody
33:06 walk around in Stacy Adams.
33:10 He is mine.
33:14 And the Bible says, he said, "Kill the fatted calf."
33:17 The fatted calf is significant.
33:19 Now let me tell you something else.
33:25 When he goes to get his son
33:28 and he sees him a great way off,
33:32 inspiration gives us the impression
33:33 that he ran to meet him.
33:36 What's so significant about that?
33:39 Because when you reach a certain station in life,
33:43 you don't run in public.
33:49 You don't embarrass yourself like that
33:52 especially not for some ragged hobo bum son
33:55 that just got off of crack.
33:57 You maintain your dignity
34:00 but God was trying to illustrate for us,
34:03 I don't have any dignity to maintain
34:06 when it comes to My child who is always right at home.
34:10 Amen.
34:12 Praise the Lord.
34:18 Am I speaking to somebody today?
34:22 Parents don't worry about your name,
34:24 your name now mean nothing.
34:27 How can you mess with my name?
34:28 My dad name has been in the family,
34:31 that's all that is been in the family.
34:35 Haven't done nothing with it.
34:38 There, there he is, kill the fatted calf.
34:42 The calf was fatted for the entertainment
34:47 of the dignitary.
34:50 How can somebody from a pigpen now become a dignitary
34:53 at oriental banquet?
34:57 My faults are not your faults.
35:00 You don't mind my ways, your ways.
35:03 You run your party your way.
35:06 Let me run my party my way.
35:09 God places a completely different value
35:11 on a soul than we do.
35:18 And the party is going on.
35:20 Can't you hear the music,
35:22 "I want to dance with somebody?"
35:29 Did you hear it?
35:34 It's a celebration
35:37 but actually he is elder brother.
35:40 He's been out there all alone.
35:43 He's been out there in the field.
35:46 And here is the party coming on.
35:49 And as he gets up to the house he sees the service
35:52 doing the electric slide.
35:58 Where are you off scouting to?
36:01 Your father has come back home.
36:04 Your father has said to kill the fatted calf.
36:07 I want you to understand
36:09 everybody is silent except for the elder brother.
36:15 Get this. Don't miss this.
36:17 Don't miss this.
36:18 When folk come to Jesus
36:23 that we all attend a silent above that.
36:28 But let me tell you, let me tell you
36:29 what happens sometimes
36:32 when folk come back to the Lord.
36:33 Look at verse 25 and 4, it says
36:37 his elder brother came out of the field
36:38 and heard the music and the dancing
36:41 and he called the servant, what does it mean.
36:42 And 27 says your brother is back
36:44 and your father said killed the fatted calf.
36:47 Verse 28 and he was what?
36:49 Angry.
36:50 He was what? Angry!
36:55 He was angry.
36:57 And the Bible says he will not go in.
37:05 Are you getting this?
37:09 You think everybody is happy about your conversion?
37:14 You think everybody left you came back to city temple.
37:19 You think everybody is happy about the fact
37:22 that you found Jesus.
37:25 You forget this the elder brother
37:29 that sits in the church sometime getting angry.
37:33 This is a more subtle form of lostness because he is lost
37:39 and doesn't know he is lost.
37:45 He is so caught up in his moralistic practices.
37:51 I've been in field working,
37:55 I will come to the church faithfully.
37:59 I haven't given tiny headache one day of his life.
38:04 I stayed here and took care of him
38:07 while that fellow--
38:17 Good thing, I got to edit it.
38:25 He ran out there and got with any little sister he could
38:31 and they're treating him like royalty.
38:33 Now notice what he says here.
38:35 Look here, look here verse 29.
38:36 "And he answered and said to his father,
38:38 'Lord, these many years do I serve thee,
38:39 neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment,
38:42 and yet thou never gavest me a kid,
38:46 that I might make merry with my friends."
38:47 Now understand he's killed a fatty calf for the other son
38:51 and he says you haven't even given me
38:53 one of the calf's babies.
38:56 Just paid me a little bit of attention
39:00 and I haven't done anything wrong.
39:01 You know, I've read
39:03 all the Spirit of Prophecy books.
39:09 I'm vegan now.
39:15 I've memorized entire chapters of the Bible.
39:20 On Sabbath I'm involved in personal ministries
39:23 and then in the afternoon I'm part of the Bible study
39:26 and yet you haven't even given me a kheer
39:31 to celebrate what I've done.
39:33 You must understand something
39:34 about the older brother mentality.
39:38 Sometimes the elder brother,
39:42 the elder brother makes it hard for the other brothers
39:47 to come back home.
39:49 Our cities are full, full of younger brothers
39:53 who go off into the far country and make messes of themselves
39:57 but when they come back to their churches
39:59 they find churches full of elder brothers.
40:06 I'm just telling something about the elder brother.
40:08 He has not stayed at home and done all of these things
40:13 out of obedience to his father,
40:17 instead he does it out of obligation
40:19 to make sure I will get my stuff when he dies.
40:26 So he gets two thirds as the elder brother.
40:30 The other one gets one third.
40:32 He is saying, how much did this party cost?
40:39 He got all his money
40:40 so this must be some of my money get to spend.
40:45 He is spending up my money on this barbeque.
40:57 The other brother sets a standard high for himself
41:02 that spoke of words righteousness.
41:07 I can somehow end my way into the father's favor.
41:14 I can earn my way into the kingdom.
41:18 Let me share something with you
41:19 as I come down the whole stretch.
41:21 In Isaiah 64, Isaiah 64
41:25 I want you to notice what the Word of God says here
41:28 in Isaiah 64:6, Isaiah 64:6 the Bible says,
41:33 "But we are all as an unclean thing,
41:38 and all our righteousness are as" what?
41:47 And our iniquities, like the wind,
41:49 have taken us away."
41:54 "There is none righteous,
41:57 no, not one."
42:02 Carol Cannon in her book in her 1993 epic work
42:06 called Never Good Enough,
42:09 states that there are some people
42:12 who live their lives
42:14 in a constant search for significance.
42:17 They are constantly looking for somebody
42:19 to affirm or validate their existence.
42:27 They measure that affirmation by the things they do,
42:34 never understanding that when it comes to God,
42:37 you can't do enough good to win His favor.
42:44 I want to turn to my favorite verse in scripture
42:46 I want you to see this here.
42:50 This is important, this is special.
42:53 Romans 5:8 notice what the Word of God says.
43:00 "But God commendeth his love toward us,
43:04 in that, while we were" what?
43:07 "Yet sinners," What does yet mean?
43:10 Still. Still sinners.
43:15 What does it say?
43:16 "Christ died"
43:19 you mean while I was in the wrong bed?
43:28 Don't get quiet only now.
43:32 You mean while I was pocketing the Lord's money?
43:36 Yes.
43:38 Do you mean while I was smelling white powder?
43:44 Yes.
43:46 What are you saying, pastor,
43:49 while I was molesting that child,
43:52 while I was abusing my wife, the Lord died for you,
43:57 right when you were in the midst of your sin.
44:02 Amen. Amen.
44:07 Now, now, can we talk?
44:09 Yes.
44:10 I'm your pastor and I love you but you would just have to die.
44:26 Oh, they seem to say, look at our pastor says,
44:28 you wouldn't have died for me either.
44:31 No, you would.
44:34 If somebody is messing up you just say,
44:35 they just got to mess up.
44:38 I'm not gonna help you.
44:39 But while we were yet sinners,
44:43 Christ died for us.
44:50 So why would the elder brother get angry?
44:55 Why?
44:58 Because all of his righteousness
45:02 is centered in his works.
45:05 He believes that I've earned the right,
45:11 earned the right to be called your son.
45:14 Earned the right to receive everything that's coming out.
45:17 I've earned it.
45:20 How could you then ignore me like this?
45:27 We have lost the moment we believe
45:30 that we deserve a place in God's kingdom
45:34 based on what we've done as opposed to what He has done.
45:39 If we ever get out of view what He has done,
45:43 if we ever get the cross get out of our vision,
45:47 we will never fully understand what it is
45:51 to live by faith in the grace of Jesus Christ.
45:56 Look up here at verse 1,
45:58 "Therefore being justified by faith," by what?
46:01 Faith.
46:03 "We have" what? "Peace."
46:04 Say that word again. Peace.
46:05 "Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
46:08 by whom also we have access by faith into" what?
46:12 Grace.
46:13 "Into this grace wherein we stand,
46:16 and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
46:22 Amen. Amen.
46:26 We are the recipients of God's grace.
46:31 We are recipients of His imputed righteousness.
46:34 Do you know what I mean when I say
46:36 imputed righteousness?
46:37 That means that I'm guilty,
46:40 I'm a sinner. Yes.
46:42 But when I accept Jesus Christ based on His life,
46:46 I'm declared innocent.
46:48 Yes.
46:50 I was a teenager growing up in Germany
46:54 and succumb to peer pressure.
46:57 I want to be a member of that group in my school
46:59 called the Black Glove Club.
47:03 In order to become a member of the Black Glove Club
47:05 all you had to do is walk into the PX
47:08 and steal something without putting it in your clothes.
47:12 And I went to the PX and the boys were with me
47:16 and they were stealing stuff but the moment,
47:19 the moment that somebody got caught everybody is scattered.
47:22 Guess who got caught?
47:24 The Adventist.
47:27 You can always tell on occasion,
47:30 they dance too hard in the party.
47:32 They drink too much.
47:34 They get too loud you can tell it.
47:37 They leave me alone.
47:41 And as they were leading me up to the office,
47:44 they were leading me up to the office.
47:47 I said, I can pay for this.
47:49 I got some money.
47:51 I was just going outside to get a fresh air
47:53 before I went to the race to pay for it.
48:02 They took me up to the manager's office
48:05 and I saw the sign, "No shoplifting.
48:10 Violators will be prosecuted."
48:13 Gave them my ID card.
48:16 They said, the manager said get the MPs up here.
48:21 He looked at my ID card and he said,
48:23 it said, Eddie Polite.
48:24 He said, Eddie Polite.
48:28 Are you related to the commander,
48:30 Command Sergeant Major
48:32 of this post Edward E. Polite?
48:39 Yeah.
48:46 The man then said, hold, wait a minute don't call the MPs.
48:51 Call his daddy.
48:58 I said, "Please call the police.
49:00 Call the po-po, call the man you want to, but don't call,
49:05 have somebody, just don't call my daddy up here.
49:10 I have no daddy.
49:13 That brethren will beat me to death.
49:21 Amen. Amen.
49:23 But I heard them talking and they said,
49:29 the Sergeant Major wouldn't appreciate
49:31 this kind of publicity.
49:34 He has conducted himself with integrity the whole time,
49:38 he's been the commander.
49:41 Based on his life...
49:49 Based on his life and the way he's conducted himself
49:55 let's call his daddy
49:56 and forget about what his son has done.
50:01 And daddy came up there.
50:04 Didn't know what to expect.
50:08 They called him in the office,
50:11 spoke to him and daddy took me downstairs
50:15 and paid for what I got caught stealing.
50:17 You know, what I got caught stealing?
50:19 A box of Smith Brothers cough drops.
50:27 Don't offer me one if you see me coughing.
50:41 You talk about the excesses, give me a Smith Brothers cough.
50:46 Daddy went to the register
50:47 paid for that box of Smith Brothers cough drops.
50:51 I walked out the store
50:54 as if I had done absolutely nothing
50:58 because my daddy showed up.
51:03 And everybody treated me as if I was innocent.
51:08 That's imputed righteousness.
51:12 It's nothing that you had in control of it.
51:15 You haven't done a faint to deserve it.
51:18 He's done everything to deserve it
51:20 and we become the beneficiary
51:23 of Christ imputed righteousness.
51:26 And in order to stay that way, in order to stay that way,
51:31 he doesn't stop there,
51:32 He gives you His imparted righteousness.
51:35 When I got home, daddy gave me his imparted righteousness.
51:44 Yeah, he give me something to make sure
51:46 you know how to walk right.
51:52 Power to talk right.
51:56 Power to be right.
51:59 Power to behave right.
52:02 Power to sit right.
52:05 Power in imparted righteousness,
52:09 so that you can stay on the narrow way.
52:16 All of our righteousness is filthy before God.
52:23 You can't pray enough, you can't study enough,
52:27 you can't testify enough, you can't work enough,
52:31 you can't do enough to deserve it
52:36 that negates the elder brother mentality.
52:43 In closing,
52:47 whether you are the younger brother
52:50 or the older brother,
52:54 the father has come out to meet you.
53:01 He doesn't just sit there in glory
53:06 allowing us to flounder in our sins.
53:10 He is a kind of God
53:13 that that down take calls the hound of heaven.
53:16 He seeks after those who are lost.
53:23 I'm glad to serve a God like that today,
53:27 who understands my lostness
53:32 and does something for me.
53:36 When we were in England,
53:39 I was looking for a special church there.
53:45 And on the top of that church
53:47 there is a cross called Charing Cross.
53:50 You can play musicians.
53:52 Charing Cross, that cross
53:57 a little boy got lost one day
54:01 and wandered away from his home.
54:06 Didn't know his way back
54:10 so he just sat down on the curve started crying.
54:16 A buddy comes along, a policeman and asked him,
54:22 "Little boy, what's wrong with you?"
54:27 He says, "I'm lost."
54:32 He says, "How do you know you're lost?"
54:35 He said, "Because I don't recognize
54:37 anything around me."
54:41 He said, "What?
54:45 Tell me your address."
54:47 He said, "I don't know my address."
54:51 "Tell me your momma's name, big momma."
55:00 "Does big momma have a name?"
55:03 "That's the only name I know, big momma."
55:08 "What's about your daddy?"
55:09 "I didn't got a daddy."
55:13 "You got to tell me where you live
55:15 so I can help you get back home."
55:17 "He is saying I told you everything I know.
55:20 I don't know how to get back."
55:22 And he sat back now on the curve
55:24 and started crying some more.
55:29 The policeman decides
55:34 that let me go there piece of another round.
55:38 He said, "Do you remember anything
55:40 that's around the house that you live?"
55:45 He stopped crying for a moment.
55:48 He said, "There is a cross.
55:55 A big cross on top of the church
55:59 by my house.
56:01 If you can just take me to the cross,
56:05 I can find my way back home.
56:08 If you can take me to the cross,
56:12 I can find my way back home."
56:18 There is a prodigal God
56:21 who wanders off into the far country
56:24 not to waste his substance in riotous living
56:28 but to save others
56:30 who have wandered off into the far country
56:33 and wasted their lives in riotous living.
56:40 That's the kind of God we serve.
56:43 He will come after you.
56:47 He loves you that much.
56:51 Do you understand that the word prodigal in that context
56:57 is someone who is wasteful or extravagant
57:00 but it comes from the same root word as the word prodigy
57:05 which means a genius?
57:07 You're not a genius because you waste your life,
57:10 you are a genius because you recognized
57:12 that you're messed up
57:14 and you need to come back to God.


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Revised 2016-04-11