Embracing God's Lavish Grace: The Prodigal Son

1. "The Bible is one unified story that leads to Jesus. So that, you know, so yeah. It shows this horrible plight of man and how lost we are. We must have a Savior. Because we just can't do this without Him. And even knowing the law and knowing the right thing to do, unless the Holy Spirit comes in and empower us, we can't do it. We're not doing it." [34:11] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "It sometimes makes righteous people or self-righteous people better angry when they see God loving people that they don't think he should love. You know, I don't know if you remember this. They, they, when Jesus went to, when Jesus went to his hometown and he told them, he read from Isaiah and said, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your eyes. And they were in awe of him. And then he basically said to them, and by the way, I'm just going to love some people that, that you don't love. I'm going to demonstrate the love of God to people you don't love." [38:17] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "So yesterday at this conference, there were two men who, who raised their hands and said they'd given their life to Christ. And you think about how. So there's rejoicing in heaven about that. So how, how many people do you think worldwide come to Christ every day? Have you ever thought about that? So statistically, what the best number that I could find is that 82,000 people become Christians every day. 82,000 people. That's a lot of rejoicing folks. You know, I, I, it would seem like to me is there's never a time. I'm in heaven when there's not rejoicing, right? They're rejoicing about who God is and they're rejoicing about what he's done." [40:33] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Ingratitude is at the heart of a lot of rebellious living. That we don't understand what we've got. Or we're not thankful for what we have. And not many days later, the young son, he gathered his, now he's got the money. The young son gathered everything and went on a journey in a distant country. And there he squandered his estate with prodigal, wasteful living. He squandered the money that he had. He wasted the money that he had with wasteful living." [43:54] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "If you do survive, it's the grace and mercy of God. It was the grace and mercy of God that protected you in the midst of really bad decisions. But God was still working in your life. He was still pulling on you and tugging on you. I mean, how many of you can look back with clarity and think, man. Only by the grace of God. I only survived. I only survived because of God's mercy and grace to me. Even before I had confessed him. Way before I confessed him as Savior and Lord. He was working in my life so that I would get to confess him as Savior and Lord. Have you just said, thank you Jesus for that." [54:14] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "He says, I'm going to get up and I'm going to go to my father. And I'll say to my father, father, I have sinned. So where does he repent? He repents while he's still in the pig pen. Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men. So he comes to his senses and he has a plan. And he's rehearsing his repentance as he begins the trip on the road home." [55:09] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. He felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. This is my favorite part of the story. His father was looking and expecting for his return because he saw him a long way off. You know, he's sitting on the porch thinking, I wonder if today's the day. I wonder if today's the day my son's going to come home. And he looks up and he sees way down the road. He sees Jesus. He sees what is to him as a parent a familiar figure." [56:05] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "It makes all the sense in the world that we, recognizing our lostness, recognizing that we're in the pig pen. It makes all the sense in the world that we would, we would come to our senses. And we would say, I'm going home. It makes all the sense in the world. But what doesn't make any sense at all is that the father would run to us. Isn't that amazing? And how did the father run to us? I love this scripture. Ephesians 1, 4 and 5 in the message. I don't know if it's in the message. But this is how it reads in the message. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind. And had settled on us as the focus of his love. To be made whole and made holy by his love." [58:44] (68 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "He planned it to love us. He wanted us to be healed. And he wanted us to be made whole. He wants to be made holy by his love. And so they meet. His father, grace, meets him. He embraces him. He kisses him. You know, he's got to smell like a pig. Right? He's filthy. His clothes are torn up. And the father doesn't even pay any attention to that. You know, Jesus takes us as we are. He's not waiting for you to get your act cleaned up. You know. If he's waiting for you to get your act cleaned up, it ain't never going to happen. Where does he mean this? He means right where we are." [01:00:21] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "If your Christianity. Feels like slavery. And drudgery. And not joy. And gratitude. And sonship. You're not doing it right. Because Christianity is about living in and enjoying. The lavish. The Bible is deliberate about this. It's wanting us to know that God's grace is not just enough. I'm going to eke over the threshold of heaven. I'm going to barely make it into heaven. I'm going to struggle in. No. No. We're going to walk in. Clothed with the righteousness. If we're going to walk in in our own merit. We're lost. But we're walking in with our heads held high. Because we're sons of the living God." [01:10:11] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)