It Is Written

Parables: Prodigal Son

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001378A


01:30 ♪[Music]♪
01:40 ♪[Music]♪
01:49 >>John Bradshaw: This is It Is Written.
01:50 I'm john Bradshaw, thanks for joining me.
01:53 Life was hard for 5 year old Saroo.
01:55 He lived in a small village,
01:57 in poverty,
01:58 in India.
02:00 One of four children being raised by a single mother.
02:02 Dad had abandoned the family a couple of years earlier.
02:05 Saroo's older brother was the man of the family
02:08 at nine years of age, and he'd search trains
02:11 for money that passengers had dropped while traveling.
02:13 One day the older brother took Saroo
02:15 along looking for money on the trains.
02:17 The two boys became separated,
02:21 and the little boy fell asleep on a train,
02:22 he ended up a thousand miles from home
02:26 totally and utterly lost in Calcutta,
02:30 where ultimately he was adopted by a family from Australia.
02:35 They took him to start a new life in Hobart, Tasmania.
02:40 Have you ever been really, really lost?
02:44 A friend and I couldn't find a out way out
02:45 of the old city of Jerusalem.
02:47 So I said, "Follow me."
02:48 “Easy.”
02:49 And it was.
02:50 We went this way, we turned left, walked some more,
02:52 we turned left or maybe it was right
02:54 and we walked and we walked and we walked,
02:56 and eventually things started to look familiar.
02:59 Very familiar.
03:00 We ended up exactly where we'd started.
03:04 Still lost, with no idea how to get unlost!
03:07 The Bible tells us in Luke 19 and verse 10
03:10 that “the Son of man is come to seek and to save
03:13 that which was lost.”
03:15 Which is just as well.
03:17 Because when sin entered the world,
03:18 human beings were absolutely and totally and completely lost,
03:24 with nothing they could do get themselves found again.
03:27 Much like the little Indian boy who found himself
03:29 in a strange city, among people who didn't speak his language,
03:33 living in an orphanage,
03:34 wondering if he'd ever see his family again.
03:38 The Bible tells a story about a lost boy.
03:40 The story is known as
03:41 “The Prodigal Son”
03:43 and we'll look at the story as part of our series,
03:45 “Lessons for All Time”.
03:47 We find the story in Luke chapter 15, starting in verse 11
03:52 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons.
03:56 And the younger of them said to his father,
03:58 ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.'
04:02 So he divided to them his livelihood.
04:04 And not many days after,
04:06 the younger son gathered all together,
04:08 journeyed to a far country,
04:10 and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
04:15 And when he had spent all,
04:16 there arose a severe famine in that land,
04:18 and he began to be in want.
04:20 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country,
04:23 and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
04:27 And he would gladly have filled his stomach
04:29 with the pods that the swine ate,
04:32 and no one gave him anything.
04:37 Now let's try to get inside this story a bit.
04:39 A young man approaches his father, he says,
04:41 “I want my portion of the inheritance.”
04:43 Now usually a son wouldn't get that
04:45 until after his father was dead,
04:46 so in effect the son is saying,
04:49 “I wish you were dead.
04:50 And I can't wait until you're gone
04:51 so I can get my hands on my share of your estate.”
04:55 Man, that's disrespectful.
04:57 So what did the father do?
04:59 He gave the son what he was asking for.
05:02 And it wasn't long before the boy was gone,
05:05 sounds a whole lot like he didn't even look back.
05:09 Not completely surprising.
05:11 Young people will want to leave home because they think
05:14 it's going to be more fun ‘out there' in the world.
05:17 This young man wasn't the first to think that way.
05:20 There've been a lot of young men,
05:21 young women too, for that matter
05:22 who've left home only to find out later
05:24 that life at home was really pretty good.
05:26 But home can seem so... restricting.
05:30 Parents have rules and they sometimes insist
05:33 that those rules be obeyed,
05:34 while there's so much out there in the world.
05:37 So much “fun” to have.
05:40 It doesn't always work out how you think its gonna work out.
05:43 It was a good life for a while for the young man.
05:44 And it was fun while the money lasted.
05:47 You can imagine can't you; lots of friends, fast cars,
05:50 fast chariots? I don't know.
05:51 An apartment in a fashionable part of town,
05:53 shopping for the,
05:55 for the hipster look,
05:56 nights spent out clubbing...
05:59 But his lifestyle caught up with the young man
06:01 and before long he was flat broke,
06:03 and so desperate for money
06:04 he has to take a job feeding pigs;
06:06 a tremendous fall for a boy from a Jewish family.
06:11 He had to eat pig food, because there wasn't a soul
06:14 who would give him anything to eat.
06:17 Now that's how it often is, spiritually.
06:20 You have someone who feels restricted in his
06:22 or her Heavenly Father's house,
06:25 and comes to the point where they say, “I am outta here.”
06:28 And off they go, leaving church behind,
06:30 leaving the Bible behind and trying to leave their conscience
06:34 behind in the pursuit of pleasure.
06:37 But that fun can wear off pretty quickly.
06:39 When the money runs out and the friends aren't anywhere
06:41 to be found and you get evicted from your apartment and
06:43 that nice car is repoed,
06:47 what then?
06:48 You can start to think about how good you had it,
06:51 back in your Father's house where you were accepted
06:54 and loved, at the very least by God.
06:59 What then?
07:00 The Bible tells us what happens next.
07:01 We start reading in verse 17.
07:05 “But when he came to himself, he said,
07:07 ‘How many of my father's hired servants
07:10 have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
07:15 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him,
07:17 “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
07:22 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
07:25 Make me like one of your hired servants.”'
07:29 You can imagine him sitting, sitting in the pig pen
07:31 thinking this through.
07:32 “Look at me,” he said to himself.
07:34 “I had everything, and now I have nothing.
07:36 I'm miles from home without a friend in the world,
07:39 I've got nothing to eat and this stinks.”
07:44 But how can he go back to his Dad?
07:46 He's insulted his father terribly.
07:48 Word has got back to the family
07:49 about the boy's terrible lifestyle.
07:52 He's disgraced his home.
07:56 What would you do?
07:58 Would the Father accept you after all you've done?
08:02 We'll find out in just a moment.
08:04 ♪[Music]♪
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09:32 ♪[Music]♪
09:34 I'm John Bradshaw.
09:35 Thanks for joining me on It Is Written.
09:38 We continue our series on the parables of the Bible;
09:41 Lessons for all time.
09:43 looking at the parable of the Prodigal Son
09:44 a young man who asked his father for his inheritance,
09:48 left home with a pocketful of money
09:50 and then plunged into a life of debauchery.
09:53 And things turned sour for him.
09:56 He burned through his money,
09:58 he lost his friends,
09:58 and when a famine came he was so desperate
10:00 he took a job feeding pigs in order to survive.
10:04 Life hit rock bottom.
10:07 What would you be thinking if you were that boy?
10:10 Would you go home to Dad?
10:11 Well, what else could you do?
10:13 And that's what he figured.
10:15 “What else can I do?”
10:16 I can imagine him practicing his speech.
10:18 Can't you?
10:19 “Father, I've sinned against you.
10:20 No, no, no thats not it.
10:22 Father, I've sinned against heaven, and against you.
10:25 Yes, yes, that's better.
10:26 Against heaven, and against you.
10:28 Yup.
10:29 I'm no longer to be called your son.
10:30 Right, right, that's it that's what I'll say.
10:32 That's the right tone.
10:34 That's how I feel too.
10:35 I'll tell the old man to treat me like one of his servants.
10:37 That's it.
10:38 I'll be a hired servant.
10:40 No inheritance, no authority,
10:42 no say in anything, no nothing.
10:43 After all I've done, that's all I deserve.
10:46 No longer even part of the family.”
10:48 So let's read on.
10:50 He starts the walk of shame, that long journey home.
10:53 He looks different now.
10:55 People saw him heading out of town with a spring in his step.
10:58 He was off to conquer the world.
11:01 But now he's coming home with his tail between his legs,
11:03 a picture of despair.
11:05 He's lost money,
11:06 he's lost weight,
11:07 he's lost all respect anyone ever had for him.
11:11 And he was taking a big risk.
11:14 What if Dad didn't want him around?
11:16 Verse 20:
11:17 “And he arose and came to his father.
11:20 But when he was still a great way off,
11:22 his father saw him and had compassion,
11:26 and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
11:30 And the son said to him,
11:31 ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight,
11:35 and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
11:38 “But the father said to his servants,
11:40 ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him,
11:42 and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
11:46 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it,
11:49 and let us eat and be merry;
11:51 for this my son was dead and is alive again;
11:55 he was lost and is found.'
11:58 And they began to be merry.
12:01 There's a lot here, isn't there?
12:03 He's walking home when his father sees him
12:05 ‘a great way off'.
12:06 Which tells us that somewhere inside the dad
12:09 there was a longing to see his son.
12:11 He'd look up the road in the hope
12:13 that he'd see his son again.
12:14 And when he did?
12:16 Now put yourself in the shoes of the boy.
12:19 You're walking home.
12:20 It has taken every ounce of self-will you have to
12:22 drag yourself home to dad.
12:24 You know there's a good chance dad is going to reject you.
12:29 And what does the boy see?
12:30 He sees his father, running towards him!
12:34 Now I don't know for sure, but I'm wondering
12:35 if that boy is thinking,
12:36 “Oh no, dad's gonna run me off!”
12:40 But that's not what happens.
12:42 The father embraces the boy.
12:43 He kisses him.
12:45 He puts the signet ring on his son's finger,
12:47 showing that the boy has authority.
12:49 Dad ignores what his son says about being a hired hand.
12:53 After all the wickedness he's been involved in,
12:55 the father is restoring the boy,
12:58 giving him back his place in the family.
13:00 No one could have expected this.
13:02 “Slaughter the animal we've been fattening up
13:04 for a special occasion.
13:05 This is the special occasion we've been waiting for!
13:07 My son is back from the dead!
13:09 He was lost,
13:11 but now he's found!”
13:13 So the question is, how does God treat sinners?
13:17 How does God feel when people who have
13:18 completely failed God and disgraced themselves
13:23 turn around and come back to God?
13:25 This story tells us.
13:27 You know, that father in the story represents God,
13:30 our heavenly Father.
13:31 The Father runs toward his son.
13:34 Now this is the only time in the entire Bible
13:36 that God is portrayed as running.
13:39 And what is it that causes God to run?
13:41 He runs toward a repentant sinner!
13:44 That's how excited God is about welcoming a sinner home.
13:48 A Middle Eastern friend of mine told me once, that when
13:50 he was a boy being raised in Iraq, men very rarely ran.
13:55 He said it was considered to be beneath their dignity.
13:59 So for something to make a man run,
14:01 that's got to be extremely important.
14:03 Life and death, almost.
14:05 And this is life and death.
14:06 Spiritual life, in the place of spiritual death.
14:11 And think about this with me.
14:13 The father didn't even know why the son was back.
14:15 There was no e-mail telling him his son was coming home
14:17 with a changed heart.
14:19 For all the dad knew, the boy could have been coming back
14:21 looking for more money, or just passing through town
14:24 on his way to a party someplace.
14:27 The Father doesn't interrogate the boy.
14:28 He doesn't say,
14:29 “Are you going to smarten up your act?”
14:31 He doesn't ask for a good behavior pledge.
14:35 He's just glad to see the boy back,
14:37 and he restores him,
14:38 and he welcomes him,
14:40 and let's him know that he's accepted and loved.
14:44 And that's God!
14:46 You don't want to waste your time thinking God
14:48 has a score to settle with you.
14:51 You don't want to be thinking God isn't good,
14:53 or God won't accept you!
14:55 Think of the disasters God has welcomed back
14:59 after they fell from grace.
15:01 David; an adulterer and a murderer.
15:03 Moses, a murderer.
15:05 Manasseh.
15:06 Nebuchadnezzar.
15:06 King Solomon.
15:07 These guys had Ph.Ds in wickedness.
15:11 They had turned sin into an art form.
15:14 And yet when they turned to God,
15:16 God accepted them.
15:18 God's grace is amazing!
15:20 What He did for the prodigal son,
15:21 and for David and Moses and Solomon and Peter
15:24 and Saul; who became Paul,
15:25 and the woman taken in adultery and the woman at the well
15:28 and so many others,
15:30 He'll do for you, and for those you love and care about.
15:34 It's that simple.
15:36 Now you know what I've heard people say so many times?
15:38 They say, “Look at the Father in that story.
15:41 He waits!
15:42 He waits by the road hoping to see His boy return.”
15:47 Well, yes, I suppose.
15:49 But that's not the whole story.
15:51 Where was God while the boy was stewing in sin?
15:55 Its really an important question.
15:58 We'll find out in just a moment.
16:00 ♪[Music]♪
16:11 >>Announcer: In Matthew 4:4, the Word of God says
16:14 "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone,
16:16 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"
16:21 “Every Word” is a one-minute,
16:22 Bible-based daily devotional presented by
16:24 Pastor John Bradshaw,
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16:29 Look for Every Word on selected networks,
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16:41 Here's a sample.
16:45 ♪[Music]♪
16:51 >>John: Parents want to make sure their children
16:52 do well in this world.
16:54 Get a good education,
16:55 enjoy good health,
16:56 learn life skills.
16:58 But the best thing a parent could do for a child
17:00 is to instruct that child in the ways of God.
17:03 God says in Deuteronomy 11:19:
17:05 “You shall teach them to your children,
17:07 speaking of them when you sit in your house,
17:09 when you walk by the way,
17:10 when you lie down,
17:11 and when you rise up.”
17:13 Children don't just catch faith in God like they catch a cold,
17:16 and you can't leave this to the bible class teacher
17:18 at church or school.
17:20 Parents have a responsibility to bring faith into the home
17:25 to make God's word real and relevant.
17:28 The greatest gift you can give your children
17:30 is an understanding and an appreciation of the word of God.
17:33 It's something that will benefit your children forever.
17:38 I'm John Bradshaw for It Is Written,
17:40 lets live today by every word.
17:42 ♪[Music]♪
17:51 Thanks for joining me today on It Is Wrtitten.
17:53 In the parable of the prodigal son,
17:55 a young man's life hits rock bottom
17:57 after he left home and dived headfirst into a life of sin.
18:01 The story has the son returning home,
18:03 with the father waiting to meet him.
18:04 This story represents a sinner leaving the arms of God
18:07 and then and then returning to a very patient and loving Father.
18:11 The Father is pictured as waiting at home
18:13 when sinners wander away.
18:16 Is that what God does?
18:18 Does God simply wait at home for sinners to return?
18:21 Waiting at the gate hoping, hoping to see a wanderer return?
18:26 Well, yes, and really, really no.
18:33 Notice what the passage said in verse 17.
18:37 “But when he came to himself, he said,
18:40 ‘How many of my father's hired servants
18:42 have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”
18:47 Now, there isn't a person on Earth who “comes to themselves”
18:50 when they're lost in sin.
18:52 We simply respond to the drawing of the Holy Spirit.
18:55 God pursues us.
18:57 The Spirit of God woos us.
19:00 God said in Hosea 2:14,
19:02 “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness,
19:05 and speak comfortably unto her.”
19:08 God draws sinners.
19:10 He pleads with sinners.
19:12 Which means,
19:13 God wasn't only in the front yard looking up the road.
19:18 He went after that boy.
19:19 He followed Him to a far country.
19:22 He followed him to the bars and the casinos.
19:24 He followed the boy to the pig pen.
19:26 The Bible is talking about the son's work with the pigs
19:28 when it says it was then that the boy came to Himself.
19:31 He was sitting in a pig sty, when God sat down beside him
19:37 in a pig sty,
19:38 and spoke to his heart.
19:41 God in the front yard?
19:43 That's sanitized, isn't it?
19:45 The God who pursues sinners
19:48 doesn't just wait in the front yard hoping they'll come home.
19:52 God pursues sinners.
19:54 Here, God is in a pig sty, with mud between his toes,
19:57 because God will go where ever He needs to go
20:00 and do whatever He needs to do
20:01 in order to draw a sinner to come home.
20:04 Paul wrote that where sin abounds,
20:05 grace does much more abound.
20:07 And even in that hopeless place so far from home,
20:11 that boy wasn't out of the reach of a loving God
20:14 who wanted Him back in the safety of His father's home.
20:18 God will pursue your children.
20:21 God is going after your unbelieving spouse right now.
20:24 God is tracking the steps of your parent who thought that
20:28 he or she could outrun God like Jonah tried to do.
20:31 God is speaking to the heart of your loved ones
20:33 and your friends,
20:34 and friend, if you're not where God wants you to be,
20:37 you can be sure he's pursuing you right now too,
20:39 speaking to your heart now,
20:42 pleading with you to surrender your life to Him.
20:45 It's better at home,
20:47 it's better at home in your Father's house.
20:49 The glitter of the world looks so good,
20:52 but it doesn't last.
20:54 When a Roman conqueror came back victorious from war,
20:57 there'd be parades and music and the spoils of war and prisoners,
21:01 while the conquerors rode in a beautiful chariot.
21:04 But a slave would stand behind the victor,
21:06 and hold a golden crown above the victor's head
21:10 and whisper in his ear,
21:12 “All glory is fleeting.”
21:16 And it is!
21:17 But salvation, that's eternal.
21:20 People will let you down.
21:21 But God won't - ever.
21:23 He's there for you, drawing you back to Himself,
21:27 and always ready to welcome you home.
21:30 But the story doesn't end with the return of the son.
21:33 This is the story of two brothers.
21:37 And the other brother was not amused.
21:40 Verse 29.
21:43 So he answered and said to his father,
21:45 "Lo, these many years I have been serving you;
21:49 I never transgressed your commandment at any time;
21:52 and yet you never gave me a young goat,
21:54 that I might make merry with my friends.
21:57 But as soon as this son of yours came,
21:59 who has devoured your livelihood with harlots,
22:02 you killed the fatted calf for him."
22:06 One son was gone from home, and was lost.
22:09 This son with the bad attitude, his hard heart,
22:13 he was still at home, he was lost too.
22:17 What ultimately became of him isn't addressed in the parable,
22:20 because that part of the story
22:21 is the story that's still waiting to be written,
22:25 in your experience.
22:27 How is it with you?
22:28 How is it with your heart?
22:30 If you're out there lost, God wants you back home.
22:33 He'll persue you to get you back.
22:35 But if you're home, are you really at home?
22:40 How is it with your heart?
22:42 This is how God deals with lost people.
22:45 1 John 1 verse 9. It says:
22:46 “If we confess our sins,
22:48 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
22:51 and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”
22:55 “God is not willing that any should perish,
22:57 but that all should come to repentance.”
22:59 That's 2 Peter 3 verse 9.
23:02 God wants His children home.
23:05 God wants you home.
23:08 Imagine how you'd feel if you were Saroo's mother.
23:11 Remember?
23:12 Saroo was the boy who went missing,
23:14 he got lost,
23:15 he wound up on a train that took him 1000 miles away from home
23:19 and then he was adopted and taken from India, to Australia.
23:24 Do you think his mother ever forgot him?
23:26 He never forgot about his home, his family.
23:29 And 20 or so years later,
23:31 he made a discovery, he discovered Google Earth,
23:36 and realized he could look at maps and pictures,
23:39 even satellite maps of India.
23:41 So he started looking online for landmarks
23:43 he recognized from his childhood.
23:45 He started in Calcutta, followed the train tracks,
23:47 and worked backwards.
23:49 He looked for hours and hours,
23:50 often staying up late into the night.
23:52 And this went on for months.
23:55 While searching late one night Saroo saw a bridge
23:58 next to a big industrial tank beside a train station.
24:02 He found the name of the town; “Burhanpur”,
24:06 the town where he got separated from his brother.
24:08 From there he followed the tracks to his hometown.
24:12 He found his home.
24:15 Not long after, following a 20-hour trip from Hobart,
24:18 Saroo was back on the platform of the train station in Khandwa,
24:23 the very place his odyssey had begun all those years before.
24:29 The boy who was lost 20 years earlier,
24:30 was now home.
24:32 Found.
24:34 Reunited with his family.
24:36 Back in the embrace of a mother who never gave up hope
24:41 that her boy would return.
24:45 If you're far from God,
24:47 God hasn't given up hope that you'll come back.
24:52 God wants you back to stay.
24:56 ♪[Music]♪
25:06 ♪[Music]♪
25:19 >>John: Here's today's bible question.
25:21 “I've often wondered how come there are four gospels?”
25:24 That's right.
25:25 The Word gospel means good news,
25:27 but when we're talking about the gospels,
25:29 we're talking about the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
25:32 They're accounts of the life of Christ,
25:34 almost like a biography if you'd like.
25:36 If there was only one gospel,
25:38 just one account of Jesus' life and ministry,
25:40 that would probably be a pretty narrow look
25:43 at the life of the Son of God.
25:45 But four gospels gives us a more complete,
25:48 a more rounded view of who Jesus was
25:50 and what His life and ministry were all about.
25:53 And if Jesus really did come to the Earth
25:55 to show us the Father as He said He did,
25:57 then four gospels instead of just one two or three,
26:00 gives us a more complete picture of the Father.
26:04 The different gospels are written
26:05 to different audiences too.
26:06 Appealing more to Jews in one case
26:08 and more to gentiles in another.
26:10 You know God could have just created tulips and not roses,
26:14 but He knew I'm sure that not everybody would be too fired up
26:17 by simply tulips; hence, variety.
26:20 And a greater chance that more people would be blessed;
26:22 a similar principle with the gospels.
26:25 Four different historical perspectives
26:27 offer us a fuller understanding of Jesus.
26:30 Now, are there other gospels that we should
26:32 consider to be important for us today?
26:35 You know, I've Heard of the gospel of Judas
26:37 and the gospel of Thomas and every now and then
26:39 someone will make some noise
26:40 about how important these writings are.
26:43 But neither of them are trustworthy,
26:44 and they don't offer us really anything of value,
26:47 except evidence that they are not to be trusted.
26:50 We are blessed to have four slightly different perspectives
26:53 on the life and ministry of Jesus,
26:55 one from Matthew,
26:55 one from Mark,
26:57 one from Dr. Luke,
26:58 and one from the beloved disciple: John.
27:00 If you read them, and read them carefully,
27:03 you'll be hugely blessed.
27:05 >>John: Today, our free book offer
27:07 is for one of my very favorite books,
27:09 “Steps to Christ”
27:11 Please call or write us, and “Steps to Christ”
27:14 will be on its way to you.
27:16 There's no cost and no obligation.
27:18 Just call 1-800-253-3000
27:22 and ask for the book “Steps to Christ”
27:25 You may also request this free book by writing to
27:27 It Is Written, P O Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401.
27:33 And we'll mail a copy to your address in North America.
27:37 For immediate access,
27:38 you can download a free electronic version of the book
27:41 “Steps to Christ”
27:42 from our website, ItIsWritten.com
27:46 It Is Written is a faith-based ministry
27:48 and your support makes it possible for us to share
27:51 God's good news with the world.
27:53 your tax-deductible gift
27:55 can be sent to the address on your screen.
27:57 Or through our website at ItIsWritten.com.
28:00 Thank you for your continued prayful support.
28:03 Again our toll free number is 800-253-3000
28:07 And our web address is ItIsWritten.com
28:11 ♪[Music]♪
28:18 So how is it with you today?
28:20 Have you wandered from God?
28:22 If you have, I want to pray for you.
28:25 If you haven't, then you know someone who has,
28:27 we'll pray for that person too.
28:29 Come on now, let's pray.
28:31 Our Father in heaven,
28:33 we see in the parable of the Prodigal Son
28:35 that you love sinners, that you're doing all you can
28:38 to draw them back to yourself,
28:40 and that you're always ready to welcome back into your arms
28:42 one who has wandered away.
28:45 I want to pray right now for that person who has left home,
28:47 left your heart,
28:49 now realizes that he or she should return.
28:53 Draw that person Lord,
28:54 and let that one know there is a place for him or her
28:57 in the arms of a loving God.
28:58 And then there are those we know
29:00 who have wandered away from your love.
29:02 Children.
29:03 Grandchildren.
29:04 Friends.
29:06 Parents.
29:06 Brothers and sisters.
29:07 People we once worshiped with
29:10 who've given up on faith in you.
29:12 Thank you for not giving up on them.
29:15 We pray they'd respond to the drawing of your Holy Spirit,
29:18 and return home to the Father's house.
29:22 And we pray in Jesus' name.
29:25 Amen.
29:27 Thanks so much for joining me.
29:28 I'm looking forward to seeing you again next time.
29:30 Until then, remember:
29:32 It Is Written.
29:33 Man shall not live by bread alone,
29:36 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
29:41 ♪[Music]♪


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Revised 2017-07-06