SERIES: Guest Speakers
MESSAGE: The Runaways
SPEAKER: Kelly Bransford
SCRIPTURE: Luke 15:11-32

TRANSCRIPTION
Welcome to Calvary Albuquerque.
We pursue the God who is passionately pursuing a lost world. We do this with one another through worship by the word to the world.
My name is Kelly. You're like, who is this person? My name is Kelly. I'm the student-ministry director here at Calvary. And I have the awesome privilege of getting to teach tonight and share God's word with you. I don't know how it happened, but I'm here. And if you guys have a Bible, take it out, because we're going to study God's word tonight. You guys ready to do that?
[APPLAUSE]
All right.
Can we pray together real quick? Let's pray. Father, we thank You so much for Your word. It's alive. It's powerful. Lord, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. And, Lord, I pray that You would pierce hearts tonight through Your word, that You'd speak powerfully. Lord, I know that-- and we know this together, Lord, that Your word, it goes out from Your mouth, and it accomplishes exactly what You want it to, Lord. So, I pray that You would do that tonight, we would stand in awe of You, Lord. Your the God of impossible things. You're the God who speaks through a donkey, and You can speak through anybody, Lord. And so I pray that You would speak through me tonight, and it would be for Your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.
As a kid, did you ever want to run away from home? Anybody here? Whew! Maybe for some of you, maybe that's a little bit of a tough story. Maybe it brings painful memories. But maybe it brings kind of light-hearted memories for you. Or maybe you're a parent and you had kids who have talked about running away from home, and that scares you. But I remember, as a kid, having these thoughts. Maybe I could just jump out of my window and hightail it to Disneyland or something and pack all the Gushers from the pantry and see if I can get away with this. I never did it, but my wife did, actually. She's here.
One time, when she was 8 years old, her and her brother decided that they were going to run away from home. They were going to go somewhere fun and exciting. They wanted an adventure. So they packed their stuff. I could picture my wife as an 8-year-old. So cute, right? She has her bags, and she's packing her clothes. And they climbed out of a window, and they just went off into the sunset. Adventure is out there, right? They wanted something fun and exciting, and they ended up getting about a half mile down the road to a Taco Bell. And they realized that they didn't have enough money for chalupas or something, so they decided, well, let's just go home, and they came home. Now, if you have a story like that, that's kind of cute. That's kind of innocent, because, at the end of the day, the kid comes home. They're safe in their bed and where they belong.
But there are stories of runaway youth that aren't cute, that aren't innocent, that are tragic and horrific. Homelessness and runaway youth is a huge, huge issue in our world. It's estimated that, on any given night, there are about 1.3 million homeless youth living in abandoned buildings or on the streets across our nation. Now, some of them have become homeless because they were abandoned and for other reasons, but most of them are homeless around our nation because they've run away and they were successful at it. And it's a scary thought for any of us in here to think about that. Family problems, including neglect or abuse, are some reasons why kids would want to run away from home. But, for whatever reason, this is an issue that plagues so many people. And, a lot of times, these kids, they want to find a better life, but what they end up finding is a life of homelessness a lot of the time. A life of drug use, sex trafficking, the list goes on, and it's a huge problem.
Well, tonight, I want to talk to you about runaways. I want to talk to you about the story of the prodigal son. Have you ever heard that story, the prodigal son? We're going to be in Luke 15:11-32. today. So, if you have a Bible, we're going to look at that runaway. That's the story of the prodigal son. It's also called the parable of the lost son. Maybe you've heard it like that before. It's basically part three of Jesus's redemption trilogy that he has to share with the crowds, with the Pharisees, with the disciples. The first one was the parable of the lost sheep, and then Jesus goes into the parable of the lost coin, and then he finishes it all off with the finale, the story of the lost son. And it just left the audiences that heard Jesus, including the Pharisees, just stunned with jaws dropped in amazement at what Jesus was saying.
Now, I've called this message, "The Runaways." "The Runaways." And we're going to see how God chooses to deal with prodigals that have wandered away from home. And, hopefully, this would be an encouraging message to you. A sobering message, yes, but an encouraging message, because we're really going to zoom in, narrow in, focus in on the heart of God and just see how His character shines through His creation and everything that He does. And, hopefully, your perspective will be changed as we look at God.
So, let's look. If you have your Bible or an iPhone or whatever it is, take it out, and let's read just the first few verses of this story, verse 11 through 13. And then we'll go from there. "And He said," speaking of Jesus, "a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided it to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living." Let's stop right there.
There are three characters in this story that we're going to talk about tonight, and the first one showed up, the son. There's also a father, and there's an older brother that we're going to talk about, as well. But let's just talk about this first character, the son. See, this really is a story of repentance. It's a story of repentance. Now, repentance-- I ask my students all time. And by the way, we have a little bit of middle school and high school students over here. We love them so much. Make some noise, guys.
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
All five of them. We talk about repentance a lot in our youth group, and, of course, Pastor Skip talks about repentance. Repentance is being sorry enough to change. That's how I would describe it. Being sorry enough to change. It's pulling a U-turn, right, when you know you're going the wrong direction, pulling a 180 in life and, instead of going your way, you're going God's way now. That's what repentance is.
Now, let's look at this first son. Let's look at his rebellion, and let's look at his journey of repentance and how the father chose to deal with him and how God chooses to deal with us in our rebellion, as well. So, our story starts off with a son coming to his father and saying, Dad, give me my inheritance. He's saying, give me the portion that belongs to me. The portion of money that you have in your will, I'll take it now. He might as well have said, Dad, I wish you were dead. But since you're not, I'll take my money now. I'm leaving. I'm going to start a new life. I'm going elsewhere. I don't need you. I don't need this family. I'm done. And, so, he took his portion. The father was gracious enough to give him his inheritance that belonged to him, that was his. And the son left. He took his inheritance and left, and, as he left, he broke his father's heart. He broke his father's heart. And he left the home that he knew all of his life. I see it as like a green hill country. He leaves that. And he goes into the city. He joins the party scene. The scene just changes completely at this point, and it goes from home sweet home to now the big-city party life, the clubs. I just picture him. If he were alive today, the prodigal son, he would be going to the bars, going to the clubs, dancing at the raves. He's doing this thing with the light sticks and all this. He's picking up all the ladies. He's driving all the nice cars. He's just buying stuff. Whatever can fulfill him. Whatever can make him happy. He's got the nice things. Just spending. Going to the bars. Drinks are on me! He's probably listening to Pitbull party music. I don't know. That's just what I think. That's how I picture it in my mind. And he's doing this. He's living in the fast lane. He's just doing whatever his heart desires.
And it's going pretty well for him for a time, until one day his card declines, if it were now. He runs out of cash, and he's just like, wait a minute. He looks at the stuff that he's bought, all of his expenses, and he realizes he can't afford them anymore. He's wasted his money on this lifestyle that only lasts for a season. And he finds himself now, not only broke, but alone. The friends that he had before, they're nowhere near him. They've all moved on. The girls that he surrounded himself with, they've moved on, as well. He finds himself with nothing and now nobody by his side. And on top of that, there was a famine in the land, and he ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't just him. It was the whole area around him, stranded with a famine. And, so, he literally doesn't have anything to eat. He's wandering around trying to find something. And he ends up being fortunate enough to find a job feeding pigs for some stranger.
Now, ladies, don't think he's a cute little pet-store owner, feeding little teacup pigs with a spoon or something. These are big, gross, nasty swine. He's working there, and that's a horrible job, especially for a Jewish man. Especially for a Jewish man. Because it was ceremonially unclean for him to do this. It was humiliating. And here is. And he's like, man, pig food sounds kind of good right now, because I have nothing else. He's like, maybe with a little sriracha, maybe a little Cholula sauce, it might taste pretty good. And his hand gets slapped. No, those are for the pigs! Get back to work!
At this point, he's hit rock bottom completely. At this point, he's starting to process what is really going on in his life, and he becomes heartbroken. He finally hit rock bottom. He's finally at the end of his rope. Verse 16, it says, "No one gave him anything." "No one gave him anything." Now, let's stop for a minute. That's the way that sin works, isn't it? That's where sin leads. You find yourself disappointed with what you thought would happen, and you end up with nothing. You end up feeling helpless and hopeless, and there's nothing there. It promises satisfaction. It promises freedom. And maybe it brings that for a moment, for a season, that pleasure, that freedom, that desire to do whatever you want for a short time, but it always comes back to bite you. It always comes back to enslave you once again.
Roman 6:23. What does it say? "For the wages of sin is death." It's death. Its emptiness. It's nothing. And that is the truth. And that's where this man finds himself. And that's where maybe many of you have found yourself in the past or even now, leading to nothing. This guy thought that, by running away from home, that he'd find a new life for himself. He thought that, by leaving his father, he'd find fulfillment and satisfaction, but that's not what he found. He only found emptiness and famine. That's what he found. And maybe you've found yourself in a similar place because of sin. You thought that, by chasing after your desires, you'd get something. You'd get the things you need. You thought that, by sleeping around or looking at pornography, that you'd get fulfillment, and you'd find the desires that you wanted. Or maybe you thought that chasing after worldly relationships and compromising your purity, you thought that you'd finally get the attention that you deserve. Maybe you thought that, by lying and by cheating and stealing, you'd get the things that you wanted, but you'd get them fast and you'd be content. Or maybe you thought that, by drinking and getting drunk and getting high, you thought that you'd finally find relief from your problems, and you'd find contentment. And maybe you found that for a short time, maybe for a moment. It promises that stuff for a season, but that went away quickly, you found yourself in bondage yet again.
And if you haven't found yourself in bondage, if you haven't found yourself in that place, you will, because that, I promise you, is where sin always leads. And some of you can say amen to that, and you know that in your heart, because you've been there. That's where it leads. Sin never satisfies. It only deprives. It never satisfies. It only deprives. See, here he is, this prodigal, this young man, this son, coming to terms with reality, finally saying, this is it. I've had enough. He's hit rock bottom. And it says in the text, "He came to senses." He finally came to his senses. He's like, what am I doing? What am I doing? What have I done with my life? What have I wasted? And he comes to terms with it, and he decides that he needs to make a decision right then and there. As he's feeding these pigs, he decides, I got to get out of here. I got to leave. And he starts remembering his father, home. And he's thinking, man, even my father's servants, they have enough food for every day. They have a warm place to sleep. They have enough. They're content. And here I am starving, and I can't even eat the pig food. And so here is. He's like, maybe I'll go apply for a job at my father's house. Maybe I'll go see if I could be a servant. I don't expect to be his boy anymore. I don't expect to be his son. But maybe I could be his slave, and maybe I can just work in the fields for him.
And this is where it picks up. I said this story was about repentance. Well, here's where it gets really good. I just picture him here in that pig sty just standing to his feet with hope, just a little bit of hope in his eyes saying, I will arise and go to my father. I will arise and go to my father. He's trying to figure out what he's going to say. I'll say, father, I've sinned against heaven, and I've sinned against your site. I've sinned against you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. I know that. Please hire me on as your servant. And, so, he's planning on what he's going to say. But he's broken. And I think that's such a good place to be when we are confronted by our sin. See, it's only when we're broken truly by our sin. It's only when we're broken by our sin that we really see the power of repentance in our lives. If we don't think that our sin is a big deal before God, if we don't think that our rebellion is anything, then repentance will never mean a thing. It'll never help. It'll never accomplish anything. We'll never move on. We'll only stay where we are in that pig sty, and we'll find no progress. But he is broken. He was broken. And, so, he says, I will arise and go.
And here's the thing about that. I love him saying that. But here's the thing about repentance. Repentance is not just saying, I will arise and go to my father. Repentance is making the journey home. Repentance isn't just saying, I feel really, really bad. I'm really, really sorry. I should have done better. Repentance isn't just saying, I will try better. I will do my best. Repentance is getting up and making that journey home. Repentance requires action. It requires action every time. Didn't James talk about that? It requires action. Don't just be a hearer of the word, but be a doer. And if you do God's word, you're in His will, and you'll see progress in your life. And, so, he made action. See, it wasn't enough for him just to know that he had to go. It wasn't just enough for him to say, I feel really, really bad about what I did. He had to get up, and he had to go. Charles Spurgeon said, a bushel full of resolutions is of little value. Poquito, right, everybody? Poquito. It's of little value. It's a small value. But a single grain of practice is worth the whole.
How many of you-- do I dare ask this? How many of you made New Year's resolutions for 2016? A few of you. Do Christians make New Year's resolutions? Some of you are like, well, I'm not telling you if I did or didn't. Some of you probably didn't, but I feel like there's some of you that made New Year's resolutions, and you're just not raising your hand, because you're like, that's none of your business, little boy. OK.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm sorry I offended you. I made a New Year's resolution to eat healthier in 2016. Well, it's February. January went really well, but February came along, and, alas, Taco Cabana is a strong and powerful adversary in my life. Pray for me. But here's the thing. Resolutions are good, but they're only good if action is accompanied with them. Resolutions are only good if action accompanies that goal that you make, that plan for your life. Resolution isn't good enough on its own. And that's the thing about repentance. It requires action, not just resolution. And I love that about the son. He didn't just say, I'm going to rise and go, but he went. You can't just say, I'll never do that again. You've got to actively avoid your sin and actively pursue God's word, obey it in your life, and walk in His will for your life. That's what it takes. That's what it takes.
Let me ask you this. And I'm speaking to those in here who are continually lost, entrapped in this cycle of sin. Let me ask you this question tonight. Are you tired of what your sin continues to bring to you? Are you tired of your sin? Are you tired of what it continues to bring you to? Are you tired of chasing after ungodly relationships? Are you tired of lusting and maybe even looking at pornography or fantasizing those thoughts in your mind? This is speaking to, hopefully, someone in here who is battling with sin. And here's what I would say to you, don't just feel bad about it. Do something. Do something with it. Don't just take your computer into your room by yourself. If you have a problem, throw that sucker out the window if it causes you to sin. If you've been given too much freedom on your smartphone, do something about it. Build up boundaries in your life. Don't just say, I feel bad, every time. Do you feel bad? Are you tired of the gossip and talking behind people's backs? Do something about it. Change the subject and your conversations. Don't just say, every time I get with that person, you know, my girlfriend, we just feel so bad afterwards because we talked about-- do something. Repentance requires action, not just feeling, not just resolution.
Let's go to the next character in the story before I just continue to talk about that. Because the reality is, in the story, the runaway son is in a good place right now. He's on his way home. He's going back to his father. He is making that journey. But let's go to the next character, and that is the father. The father. Meanwhile, back at home, right? We don't see a bitter, angry, resentful, even forgetful father who turned his son's bedroom into a CrossFit gym or something. He's like, who's my son? I don't know. I don't care. He hasn't moved on. No, we don't see that in that father. We see not a resentful father, but a redeeming father. We see a hopeful father. He's standing outside, and he's waiting. He's hopeful. He's watching for his son to come home. Verse 20 says, we can read together, "And while he was still a long way off," that is the son. "While he was still a long way off, the father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him." The father saw him from a distance. I love that. That's my favorite part of the story. The father saw him from a distance.
Now, when I think of the son, he probably had his head down when he was walking. I have a good idea that he wasn't skipping, like, I got a golden ticket! He wasn't doing that. He was probably walking with his head down. He's probably rehearsing in his mind, like, what am I going to say? Do I address him as "father"? Do I address him as "master"? What do I say exactly? And he's rehearsing in his mind. He was probably walking slow. And I think that makes sense because, see, repentance can be slow, but forgiveness is always fast. Repentance can be slow. Making that journey home is difficult. It's hard. But forgiveness is always fast.
My wife and I, we have a beautiful 19-month-old daughter. This is a picture of her right here. She's so beautiful. And I'm in trouble, because those eyes. You know what I mean? I'm scared. Her name's Diana Jean. DJ. We love her so much. She's our little princess. And here's the thing about this girl. She doesn't like to walk. She likes to run. She likes to run. She runs everywhere. Like, we'll be in the store. And I look away for a moment, and she's down the next aisle. I'm like, oh, dear God. I'm running and apologizing to everybody. You know, I never ever thought that those backpacks with the little leash on the end were a good idea until now. And I don't even know what to think, so pray that I make the right decision and not the wrong one on that, but sounds really good in my mind right now. But here's the thing about my daughter. She's fast. But guess what. I'm faster than her. You're like, gosh, Kelly, she's a baby. Are you that insecure? Well, I don't know. I tell her that all the time. I'm faster than you, DJ. I run up to her. Guess what, baby. I'm faster than you. Kiss her. And she's like, hi! She has no idea what I'm saying. And in fact, just yesterday, I was getting home, and she was running to me. And I was outside, and I ran up to her faster than she could run to me. And I scooped her up, and I picked her up, and I give her a big kiss. I'm faster than my daughter.
The father saw his son from a distance. And he didn't wait for him to come all the way to his front door so that he could talk to him. No, he ran to him. He went out to meet him. He didn't just stay there and say, well, he better come over here, and he better come to me on his knees. No, the father sees him from a distance. The son probably didn't even see him yet. He's walking slow with his head down, but the father sees him, and he runs as fast as he can. He becomes undignified. He does what was culturally insane, to run, for a man of his worth of who he was. But he ran.
God is a lot faster than you. God is a lot faster than we are. And His forgiveness is quick. It's fast. He never makes us walk the whole way alone. He always comes to those and runs to those who are repentant, who have broken hearts. What does it say in James 4:8? It says, "Draw near to God," and what? "And He will draw near to you." You better believe it. You come a little ways. God comes the rest. He comes to you, and He scoops you up. He wants to restore you, because He loves you. And He's going to come to you faster than you thought. If you have sin that you've been battling with and you're just crying out to God, Lord, I'm repentant. I want to change. Here I go. I'm walking. God will come to you faster than you thought, because He wants you to succeed. He wants to restore you.
And, so, the son gets home. The father comes. He embraces him. He brings him back to the house. The son's giving his spiel. He's like, father, I've sinned against heaven. I've sinned against you. And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come put a robe, the finest robe, on this young man. Give him a ring on his finger. Let's kill that calf that we've been fattening up. Let's have a party. It's party time. See, God's heart is exactly like this father's. You want to know God's heart? He's not angry with you. He loves you. He's in love with you. He wants to see you prosper. His plans for you are good, to give you a future and a hope. That's God's heart for you. And if you run to Him, He will embrace you in His arms.
And the truth is, we all need it. All of us have run away at some point in our lives with our sin. We've all rebelled against God. We've all ran from his blessing. Isaiah 53:6 says, "All of us like sheep have gone astray." All of us. But God loves you so much that he did something to pursue you. That's our vision here at Calvary, right? We pursue the God who's passionately pursuing a lost world. And that's God's heart. And, so, when He pursues us, He demonstrates that. In that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus came, and He took our guilt. He took our shame. He took our sin. He took the full wrath of God upon his shoulders. He took your death sentence. Let me tell you that. While we were still his enemies, He came, and He showed us love. That is God's demonstrated love for you, and let me tell you this. There's no greater love. There's no greater love than that, that Jesus would come and lay His life down for you. He considers you His friends. That's the gospel right there. He loves you so much. And if you're broken over your sin, if you're repentant, then He'll come running to you. That's what He does.
So, are you ready to run to Him? See, His grace is available today. His mercies are new every morning. His grace is so amazing, right? His grace is just-- it's kind of scandalous when we think about it. It's outrageous. It's so outrageous, in fact, that some would have an issue accepting it, that some would have a problem with it, because it seems too good to be true. Because it seems unfair. Enter the last character, the older brother. The older brother. He's probably working in the fields. He's doing his thing. He hears the music. He smells the food. And when he hears about his brother, he doesn't get excited. He's not like, what? Sully is back? By the way, the younger brother's name was Sully. I don't know why. Bash brothers for life, bro! You're home! He wasn't excited about it. We don't see a rejoicing brother. We see a resentful brother. We see a brother who's bitter. Now, picture it for a minute. His little brother, after taking his father's money, now returns home after a life lived and wasted. Think about that for a moment. Can you imagine the brother, what he's going through. He's like, are you kidding me? He's home? After he took our father's money and he spent it on hookers and booze and Pitbull? It's not even good music. And now he gets a party, huh? Now he gets a celebration. Now he gets the fatted calf. What about me? He's upset about this, because his father is so quick to forgive that he can't accept it in his life. And you know what? You could hardly blame him, right? When we look at it outwardly, when we look at it at the surface, it's like, yeah, I get it. That's rough. It doesn't seem right. He's like, Dad, I've been serving you all my life. He's like, Dad, I've always been with you. I've never ran away from home. I've never done that. I've never even had an issue with anything that you've told me. He says all these definitives. He says, I never once refused to do a single thing that you told me to do. And he's probably exaggerating a lot, don't you think? Because that's what tends to happen with self-righteous people. We exaggerate things, because we want everybody to know that we're all that and whatever. Exaggeration. But here he is, the oldest son, looking pretty good on the outside, as we read it. Looking pretty good. Looking righteous on the outside. But, listen, inside, his heart was so far from his father's. It was so far from his father's heart.
Now, the younger son had been physically far away, partying and living it up and living a prodigal lifestyle. But here the older son has never run away from home. He's been there with the father, but he himself is a runaway, not outwardly but inwardly in his heart. He ran away a long time ago, because he didn't share his father's heart. Inside the father's heart was grace and love and mercy, but inside the brother, inside this the older son's heart, it was bitterness and anger and self-righteousness and unforgiveness. And, so, he's far from the father. He just doesn't see it. He played by the rules, but he wasn't a team player. Again, it seems easy to relate to this brother. It seems easy to relate to this son. We see somebody leap headfirst into sin, especially if it's somebody that we don't really care about that much, we don't love. And we think, oh, I'll pray for them. I'll pray for them. Anybody got anymore details so we can pray for them? And then we see that same sinner come to repentance and be restored, and we're like, whoa! God, don't you think you're moving a little fast? I mean, that's a little too fast, don't you think? Wait a minute. I mean, they did some horrible things. That person was a jerk. That person was rude. That person was inconsiderate. That person did this or that. And we tend to be that way in church sometimes. And I'm not saying that this is everybody, but I'm just saying, sometimes it could be this way. Or you see that coworker at church, and you're like, what is she doing here? Are you kidding me? I see the way she talks at work. You see that ex-boyfriend walk in the room, and you're like, oh, my gosh, I can't even worship right now.
[LAUGHTER]
I mean, that's serious, right? You see an ex-spouse, or you see somebody in your life walk in the sanctuary, and you're like, are you kidding me? They're laughing at the pastor, his jokes, and you're like, stop laughing.
[LAUGHTER]
He's talking about you! You shut up! It's like, dang. Now, it sounds stupid when we say it like that, right? It sounds silly, and we laugh about it. But, listen, our hearts can be so proud at times and so opposite from the heart of God. And we tend to see people more as obstacles that get in the way of the things we want and the things that we need, instead of seeing them as souls that are deeply loved by God. And that's a problem. We may not say these things outwardly, but maybe at times, we feel that way. And we become like that older brother. And we don't have a heart like Jesus. And, listen, if we don't have a heart like Jesus, we're runaways ourselves. I mean, think about the disciples, when the crowds pressed into meet with Jesus, what did they say? They were mostly frustrated and upset. Send the crowds away! But what did Jesus feel? Compassion. He was moved with mercy. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. And that's why He told the disciples to pray. Pray that the Lord of the harvest would bring more workers into the harvest. And then He's like, amen, guess what. Your prayers have been answered, boys. It's you. Go out and love. Go out and share My good word. Go out and let people see your love, so that they could give glory to Me. We need to have hearts like Jesus. We need to have hearts like the father. The older son was misdirected by his own judgmental heart. And God had to lovingly-- the father had to lovingly redirect him. He had to change his perspective. He got down on the son's level. He said, listen. Son, everything I have is yours. You've always been with me. But look at it like this. Your brother, he was dead, but now he's alive. He was lost, but now he's found. Isn't that reason enough to rejoice? He's here. Perspective change.
See, we oftentimes-- I oftentimes need to be redirected so that my heart aligns with His heart, with God's heart. And that's hard, but we need to recognize that. We need to be redirected to God's heart so that we can see His love because His love is immense. His love is bottomless. His love is limitless. And when we look at it, we see that that love was shown to you and to me. We've all been shown unending love in Jesus, whether you leaped headfirst into sin or you stood still where you're at with a bad attitude. Whether it was outward rebellion or it was inward pride, we've all missed the mark. And we've come to see the truth, that it really is all level ground at the foot of the cross. It's all level ground at the foot of the cross. And we've all been shown that love. So we need to cry out to God. And if you cry out to God and you recognize your need for Him, whether that's you being a prodigal and returning to Jesus, returning to your first love, or coming to Him for the first time, or being that Pharisee that's just been outright proud and self-righteous, looking down and passing judgment on people, we all need to cry out to God and recognize our need for Him. And when we do that, He'll come running to us. Jesus said, as he preached to the masses on the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5, he said, "God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs."
Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your love. We thank You for your grace. We thank You for Your mercy, Lord, that it's new every morning. And no matter where we're at, Lord, You love us. And I pray that, if there are any prodigals that need to return to You, that need to come to You, that they would come to You tonight, those that need to repent of their pride and their self-righteousness, Lord. I'm the first to admit it. Forgive me. Forgive us, Lord, so that we can, with our lives, show Your love to a world that needs Your truth. Father, help us. Give us ears to hear, but don't let us just be hearers, Lord. Help us to be doers of Your word. We thank You that You're faster than us. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen.
What binds us together is devotion to worshiping our Heavenly Father, dedication to studying His word, and determination to proclaim our eternal hope in Jesus Christ.
For more teachings from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.

 


The Runaways - Luke 15:11-32 | SkipHeitzig.com/4047
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