God's Joy!

How many of you have ever been lost? Alright, there's a few hands that are going up. You know, it reminds me of a story that happened to me when I was about four years old. You know, my memories don't go back too far, but I remember this. We traveled from my hometown of Albert Lee to where my grandparents lived, probably about 50 miles away. And all of a sudden, I decided I was just going to go take a little walk.

So I left their house. Usually I stayed within the safe confines of that. They lived in town, but they had a large lot. They had a large garden in the back, and there were some trees.

So you kind of felt in a way like you're in the country, but also in town. But they were definitely in town. So I found myself wandering away from the house down the street, I guess, just to have a little bit of an adventure.

Well, all of a sudden, I didn't recognize where I was. I didn't recognize my surroundings, and I was totally lost. Had no clue on how to get back. Had no clue on how I got to where I was. I didn't know what to do. And I started to get a little nervous. I still remember that. I thought, where do I turn?

Who can I talk to? Well, I saw somebody walking down the sidewalk, so I don't even remember what I asked or what I said. It's kind of a little foggy now. But all of a sudden, the car drove up, and my dad jumped out, and he was anxious.

He was anxious. What I didn't know is I've been gone for quite a while, and what I didn't know is how worried that they were. Well, they grabbed me, they hugged me, and, Davey, what have you done? They called me Davey when I was young, you know, and brought me back to Grandma and Grandpa's. We're going to talk about a section of Scripture today in a little bit different way. It's a little bit of a different sermon than I normally give.

We're going to go through a whole chapter of Scripture. We're going to cover it verse by verse. We're going to look at some stories about being lost in Luke chapter 15. So if you turn with me to Luke chapter 15, we're going to spend almost all of our time in this particular chapter. Luke chapter 15. We won't stray too far. You know, sometimes as we go through the Scripture, sometimes slow is better than fast.

You know, sometimes deeper is better than shallower, because every word of God is pure. And it's amazing how Jesus Christ would tell stories. He often didn't waste words, but every word had a lot of meaning. So today we're going to go through the 15th chapter of the book of Luke.

We're going to cover three stories. You may be familiar with the story of the prodigal son. That's part of one of the stories here. In fact, the story is called the prodigal son, but I'm not sure if it's really the best title for that particular parable, because really there are two sons in the story, not just one. And just as importantly, there's a father in the story as well.

But you know, as we're going to go, I'll give a little summary here before we start going through it first by verse here, because in this 15th chapter of the book of Luke, there are three parties. There are three celebrations. Over the top, expressions of joy. Three great celebrations. Now, the first one, if we look at verses 3 through 7, just to look at it, Jesus tells a story about a man who lost one sheep out of a hundred.

He lost one sheep, and he went out, and he found that sheep, and he brought it back. And he called his neighbors to come together, and they had a celebration, because he had found the sheep that was lost. And anyone that would have lived at that time knew that sheep were valuable.

They were very valuable animals. They were valuable for their wool, for one thing. And the party was a celebration, because he had found his lost sheep. And then Jesus tells the second story that we're going to read about in detail a little bit. It has to do with a woman who lost 10 coins. And she made an effort everywhere she lost one of her 10 coins, she made an effort to find that coin. Swept the house, finally found it, and then called her friends and neighbors together for a celebration of joy. And then the third story is about a son, about a son who was lost.

And for all intents and purposes was dead, as even the language of the story itself tells us when we get there. And he invites an entire village to come to celebrate. So three parables. A lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Three great celebrations. And they obviously refer to the joy of God. The joy of God. I don't mean to refer you to verse number seven here, because I think that becomes very clear as we'll go through these parables. Verse seven says, I say to you likewise. In other words, I just told you about this story of a man who lost a sheep out of a hundred.

He leaves the 99 and he goes to find the one that's missing. He says, I tell you likewise. In the same manner, in other words, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than for 99 just persons who need no repentance.

Because they deem themselves righteous. And then in verse 10, the second parable of the coin, after he tells the story, Jesus says, likewise, in other words, in the same manner, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

And in the third story, there is one sinner that repents. And there is subsequently joy seen and celebration in the same conclusion can be drawn. And this is about three celebrations, all symbolizing the great joy in heaven over a sinner who repents, who comes to themselves, who comes to the knowledge of sin within their life and their personal life. They have a defining moment and they repent. God says there is great joy in heaven when that takes place. So let's go through Luke chapter 15. Word by word, I'm gleaned what God has to share with us here. Sometimes we'll look at some of the Greek as we go along. Let's pick it up here in Luke chapter 15, the very first verse. It says, then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him.

And when he says this, all the tax collectors and sinners, Jesus is about two and a half to three years into his ministry. And so by making this statement of combining all the tax collectors and sinners together, and they considered the tax collectors sinners, at least the Pharisees did, as Matthew, which is one of the disciples, was one of those, he was a tax collector. But the Pharisees and Sadducees felt that these people would not have any opportunity for salvation. These people, these tax collectors, these sinners, were not well thought of because they were so painted.

Now, if we know the history of the time when it comes to tax collectors, they were despised. The Romans had to have a way to collect the taxes for the empire, and so they made certain arrangements with certain of the Jews to do that dirty work for them, and they would be willing to let them have the freedom to charge almost whatever they wanted, as long as the Romans got their share, if there was any additional amount that they, tax collectors, could somehow derive by demanding payment, they would be able to keep the excess, as long as the Romans got their portion. And their fellow Israelites knew this, and so they were not well thought of, the tax collectors, they weren't. They were lumped together with the sinners. Now, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes are beginning to listen as Jesus Christ begins to relay this story.

In fact, in one of the parallels, it's like the Pharisees go privately to the disciples and say, your master eats with tax collectors and sinners, is what they're saying. And they disagreed with that. They didn't think that's what should be done. And so the scribes and the Pharisees are listening in a sense from a distance, and at times disagreeing with Christ, at times mocking Him, at times going to His disciples privately, trying to discount what the master is saying.

And they, personally, were upset with Jesus telling sinners and tax collectors that they could have salvation because that's not the way they viewed it. That's not the way they taught the exact opposite. And Jesus knew what they were thinking. He could read the minds, and so He understands what's happening here. And so He begins to tell the story. That sets a little bit of a stage here for what's to follow. Verse number two, and the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. They disagreed with that. They disagreed with what Jesus was doing. That's why they said this. But Jesus says, He eats with them. That's a key phrase. That means He welcomed them. That means He was in close proximity with them. And they felt you weren't supposed to eat with unclean people. This was disturbing to them. That's just the way that they viewed it. Because instead of Jesus Christ eating with the scribes and Pharisees with the religious leaders, He was eating with sinners and tax collectors, which made them feel, if they were eating town, that nobody was eating with them. They were all with Christ, and no one was eating with them. Then Christ goes on to tell this parable of the first one we're going to cover in verse three. So Jesus spoke this parable to them, and this is what He said.

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave 99 in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. And when he finds it, what does he do? He lays that lamb on his shoulder, and he rejoices. And then he calls together his neighbors and his friends, and he says, rejoice with me. And he says, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. Now I find it interesting that he discusses the 99 and the one. Jesus teaches you and me that the Father would come after the one percent. The Father would come after the one. He was so concerned that he would make an incredible effort to go after the one.

And he's using the parable of sheep to teach about people, isn't he? Let's pick it up here in verse number seven. And I say to you that likewise, in that same manner, in other words, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance. Now let me ask the question, who doesn't need repentance?

We all do, don't we? We all do. Everyone needs repentance, except there was an element at that time some of the spiritual leaders of God's people that didn't feel that they needed it. They felt that they already had where they needed to be. They didn't think they needed it.

They were already righteous in their own eyes. They didn't see themselves the way God saw them and the way he sees us. So Jesus is trying to make a point with them. He really is. He's trying to reach out to them at that time. Now I think this is very noteworthy in verse seven here, chapter 15, when it talks about joy. Now a lot of people have talked about an example of the angels being joyful when there's a sinner that repents. And I've even thought that, you know, that a baptism of someone, when they've repented, that the angels are shouting with joy. But brethren, I think as we look here a little bit more, we look at the scripture more carefully, I think we'll see that there is joy among the angels, but they're not the ones that are the most joyful. That it's the father that is the joyful one. Let's notice, let's go back to verse number five, and we'll see how this all works. There was a certain man that left 99 sheep to go after the one. It says, when he founded this man, referring to the father really, if we take it to its extension, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls his friends and neighbors, maybe the angelic realm, and says, rejoice with me. And I imagine they did. But you see, it's the father that has the greatest joy, isn't it? Rejoice with me because I have found my sheep. Jesus Christ, when he talked to Peter, he said, feed my sheep. They're not your sheep, Peter, they're my sheep. And the man says, I have found my sheep. Rejoice with me. It's not just the angel's joy. I think the angels are in the presence of God's joy. And God says, okay, I'm joyful. I want you to rejoice with me.

So it's the father that's talking here, verse six, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. A lot of people, I think, have gotten this wrong, including myself over the years where I thought it was just the angel's joy. I don't know, the father was never mentioned.

But I think the scriptures show that there is joy in the presence of the angels, God's joy. The angels aren't celebrating as much as God the father is. So when we look at these three stories, lost sheep, lost coin, lost son, we're talking about the father's joy, and that it's an important moment. It's actually God's joy, and the angels get to see and experience his joy, and then they participate with him in that joy. So Jesus gives this parable to show that one out of a hundred, one percent of sheep, and I think he's really referring to people here, are important. One percent are important. One out of a hundred are important. And then he goes on in verse eight, and he begins to emphasize this thought even more in the next parable. Verse eight, let's take a look. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, doesn't go and light a lamp and start sweeping the house every nook and cranny of every corner of every part of the square footage of that house? She sweeps with a broom, thinking maybe she'll probably sweep up that coin eventually, I suppose, and puts the lamp on so it's bright so she can see clearly?

And searches carefully until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors. Sounds very much like the first one that's called friends and neighbors. Calls the friends and neighbors, possibly looking at the angelic realm, and says, rejoice, notice, with me.

The father being the woman that's looking for the coin, the spiritual father, rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I lost. Now, what's noteworthy is how important this one coin was to her. Let's review some of the background of the time back in the Middle Eastern culture two thousand years ago. You know, women didn't have a lot, and they weren't really thought of as well as the men. In a sense, second-class citizens in a way, in that culture of that time. And a woman had to be very careful because she didn't have much money. Really, all she would have was the dowry that her father would have given her. And so often she didn't have much. And often that they would have their wealth on their person. They'd have a special jewel or a diamond, or maybe even a coin as part of their headdress, or something under their garments. It would be close to them. Because it didn't take much for a husband at that time to write a bill of divorcement because things weren't going well and she would have to leave. And all she would have was her dowry that maybe she had, or the coins or the jewelry that she had. Something that she could take with her on her person. You know, she couldn't have anything from the family. So these coins were very important. Otherwise, you'd be stuck out in the middle of nowhere with not much financial wherewithal to be able to survive. So we're talking about 10% of her coins here. A 10% of her, possibly a good part of her wealth. And she lost it. It was important to her. And then she rejoices when she finds it. Verse 15, in the same manner, likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner of every kind. Brethren, this is how important human beings are. This is how important. We've gone from 1% of sheep to 10% of money. And now we're going to go to the next parable, which is 50% of when it comes to human beings. Brethren, I think what Jesus Christ is trying to help us to understand is how important it is that God keeps His eyes on you and on me. That we are very important to Him. And that these lost human beings are important. And that's what these tax collectors and sinners were at this time. They were actually lost. But Jesus Christ is teaching in this parable, no, everyone is important. Everyone.

When it comes to this parable that we're about to read about the prodigal son, Charles Dickens said this about this parable, about this short story. He said, I believe that this is the best short story that's ever been written. That's quite a significant statement because he was a brilliant writer of short stories. So if he said that this is the best short story that I've ever read, that implies that he read it. He got his nose into the scripture and he read it as well.

I also believe it was Dickens who actually said there are three stages that he liked in his stories. Seems simple, but apparently it was important to him. There's the beginning, the middle, and the end. And he referred to the story of the prodigal son as a great story. It was a great outline because there were three stages in the story of the prodigal son, and this is of three stages. Number one, sick at home. Number two, homesick. And number three, home.

Sick at home, homesick and home. And I think that's pretty insightful thought that Dickens had, because I think so many of us have gone through the same particular set of circumstances in our life. We're sick at home, and then we're homesick, and finally we're home. And with God, so many of us want to do things our own way. In so many ways, we're just like the children of Israel, back in some of the stories that are shared in Scripture, for after a while they didn't want God around. They wanted to do things their own way. And then all of a sudden they begin to find out it doesn't work, and it begins to find out that they have trouble in their lives, and then they start looking for God. And finally, hopefully, with understanding, they begin to realize where they are in their life, and what is happening to them, and they come to a defining moment, and then they come back home. Whereas the Hebrew word is teshubah, which means return to God. And it's a Hebrew word that's often used in the Old Testament Scriptures that has to do with repentance, returning to God. So now let's launch into the third parable, this third story, often known as the prodigal son. Verse number 11. And then he said, a certain man had two sons.

So we begin to introduce some of the characters here. We're going to find out that there's a certain man, which probably has to do with the Father, which probably has to do with our spiritual heavenly Father. We have these cast of characters, and there was two sons, not one but two. Two sons in this particular parable. And as we go along, we often think about it that these two sons could possibly refer to all of us in one way or another in our lives. Two sons, specifically talking about a younger son who was a sinner and an older son, that possibly is some scholars feel that represents the scribes and the Pharisees, that they were the self-righteous ones, that they didn't see a need to change. So a certain man had two sons. And of course, one of the characters I left this out to was Jesus Christ, the storyteller. He's also part of the story in a sense as he's telling it.

But let's back up just for a moment, and I want to ask a question. When Jesus Christ gives this parable, who is he talking to? Who's the audience of that time? What were they thinking? What was the culture like? Well, they had a culture in that time, and at that culture of that time, the father was a very important figure in the family. He was very well respected, and he had supreme authority over the family. The father was always held up as being extremely important, being honored. And there was a possibility that in this particular story, this father was a rich man. We know that the father pictures are heavenly fathers, and I think Jesus Christ did this intentionally as we go through this. And all the people at that time, they knew the fifth commandment. They knew that they were to honor their father and their mother in a sense that was also part of obeying God and honoring God by honoring their father. So the Jews had reference to the fifth commandment, and they knew that was part of the authority of God. And God gave the father figure, was their understanding, to be the sole head of the family. So here's who we're talking to, who Jesus Christ is talking to. Two thousand years ago, a Middle Eastern culture. And if this was a rich father, possibly he was one of the elders in the city. Possibly he was sitting at the gate and would have to make judgments among people that had questions. He would have dressed very, very nicely. And so we see here a certain man had two sons. And in verse 12, when the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood.

What did the younger son receive? When this livelihood was divided, what did the younger son receive? Now, it's interesting. It doesn't say, it says, divided his livelihood. It doesn't say divided his inheritance. It says it divided his livelihood. We'll get to that in a moment. Because we'll find out this was a very unusual request of the son to ask for something at this time. That it was actually a sign of disrespect based on the culture of the time. Now, when it came to livelihood, what did he receive? Did he receive land? Well, it doesn't appear as if that happened because the land would have been handed down from generation to generation. It would have stayed with the fans. So most likely what he received would not have been land. The father probably had to divide the assets, possibly distribute some of his property to his younger son, or to sell something, or to sell part of the land in order to have a portion to give to his son. Something he could take with him. You can't take land with you. So something he could take with him. It could have been money that he had in the bank. It could have been other possessions. It could have been livestock. It could have been cattle. It could have been goats. It could have been sheep or furniture. So how much of the possessions of the father's livelihood would you think that this younger son would have received? Okay, maybe some of you think half, but that wouldn't have been true because, you see, he wasn't the oldest son. He wasn't the firstborn. The firstborn would get a double portion. That's according to Deuteronomy chapter 21 and verse 7. So the younger son would have ended up with one third because the older son would have gotten two thirds. And of course, if they were any sisters, they don't get anything. Just maybe a small dowry that would have gone with them to their husbands, to their new family. So he would have gotten a third, wouldn't he?

So the son that stayed, the oldest son, he would have gotten two thirds, a double portion. Now that comes into play later because the older son complains that his father never gave him anything like his younger brother did when the father had already given him two thirds of the wealth at that time. It says he divided to them his livelihood at that time, to both of them. They received their portion of the livelihood, their livelihood of the family, of the father. But since the younger son left, he forfeited his one third interest in the land. And so he received one third of the livelihood, but it was probably another property that he could take with him. Later on, the father tells the older son, everything I have is yours. You know, he tells later, you know, all that's left is yours.

And because he'd already divided it at the time that this younger son is leaving.

Verse number 12, and the younger of them said, father to his father, father, give me. Which when we think of this at this time in this culture, that would have been a demand. It's like saying, I want it. Give it to me right now. It would have been such disrespect because this was not the way things were normally done at that time. It would have been later. It wouldn't have been done in this way. The younger son had no right to it at this time. And actually, in the traditions of the fathers at that time, he could have taken his son to the elders and said such disrespect.

When they told the elders what his son had done and in the way that he had done it, his son possibly could have been stoned for showing disrespect. Almost like commanding the father in an imperative mood. Give me right now. Commanding it. It was not what was done at that time. It was a sign of disrespect to say, give me like your son or your daughter coming to you right now and saying, give me your car. It was a disrespectful way. It wasn't allowed. That just wasn't allowed in that way at all at that time. And when the younger son did this in this way, he was basically saying, I want nothing to do with you or the family or anything else here. At that time, if something like that would have been done in a family, the father would have probably most likely taken his son to the elders and they would have slapped his face in a sense, struck him across the face in front of the elders. And his father would have said, you are dead to me and would have sent him away. But that's not what this father did, even though his son was showing him the ultimate disrespect. Now, this is probably where the Pharisees who would have been standing on the sidelines, listening a little bit from a distance to the teachings of Jesus Christ would have most likely said, yeah, that's exactly what should have been done. They should have slapped him in the face and possibly even had the son killed. But Jesus Christ came to reveal the father. He came to reveal the father the way that the father is and not the way that they had thought of the father. They didn't understand the way the real father, your father and mine, the way that he really is. And so Jesus Christ begins to teach that through these three parables. He's beginning to teach how much love the father has for you and for me. It's more than we possibly have ever imagined. And so he's begun to show us through the parable of the lost sheep, and then he shows it through the parable and the excitement and the rejoicing of finding the lost coin. And now Christ is showing people are even more important than all of that in the parable of the lost son. So it's noteworthy when the younger son leaves, he says, give me, give me. Verse 13, and not many days after, so after this confrontation, it doesn't take very long that the son gathers everything together, that the father has probably had to try to arrange to send with him on his way. You know, it says, in only not many days, only a few days. You know, that meant the father didn't have much time to try to get all this together. And some of you may know, if you've had to try to arrange something like this in a short period of time, and you have to try to convert assets into something that's a little different way you can carry it with you, if you have to sell it so quickly, you often don't get full value for it. You have to maybe sell it at a discount in order to try to arrange things in a short period of time.

Often when you liquidate that quickly, you don't get full value.

So it says, the younger son gathered it all together, and he journeyed to a far country, and there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living. I think the old King James says, riotous living. The word prodigal in English means wasteful. It's like, you know, just like winnowing, throwing grain up into the air and trying to separate the wheat from the chap. It's just like he's spending money like throwing it up into the air, you know, in a very short amount of time, having a good time, but having it disappear quickly. Notice it also says this in verse number 13. It says, he journeyed to a far country. What country would that have been?

Well, his home country was Israel, and so if he went to another country, it would have been a Gentile country that he would have gone to. He would have left his home country. Now, at that time, probably the nearest country, nearest Gentile country, would have probably what's present-day Syria that have been about 50 miles at least. So he would have been at least 50 miles away from home and possibly further, maybe up to 100 miles away from home. And so we see that he went to a far country, a country which he would have been exposed to a lot of different things, and what he was probably exposed to at home. You know, prostitution would have been something very prevalent, and he could have probably had anything or, you know, or everything in that particular society, in that particular country, going to a foreign country. And that's what he wanted. Verse number 14. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land. Now, we've got a situation here that's almost like the perfect storm. And right about the time he has spent everything, a severe famine starts at about that time. It's just, it's all happening. This is all happening now about the same time. Now, they were used to famines over there. They would have times when the rain wouldn't come, and they were used to times when the crops wouldn't grow. And so they were aware that these types of things could happen. So they would happen occasionally. But what's worse here, what's worse, is this was a severe famine. It wasn't just a regular type. This was a severe famine, which means that these were really, really bad times. And he obviously had begun, had already wasted all of his money. And then notice it says, and he began to be in want. Now, when we talk about being in want, we're talking about the necessities for life. We're talking about food, shelter, and clothing, aren't we? To be able to survive a severe famine. You've got to have food. You've got to have a place to live. Now, if you've been back in his old country, back in Israel, you know, what would have happened there? Back in Israel, what happens to the poor there? What happens to those that don't have any money there? Well, God makes provisions for them. You know, you don't glean the corners of your field. God made provisions for someone who was starving to be able to have something to eat. That's just the way our Heavenly Father is. They would have had the opportunity to glean the fields. But was it that way in a Gentile nation? Oh, no. No, it wasn't. Not at all. In fact, this younger son is now about to embark on the most challenging period of his life. He's about ready to enter into a major adjustment period in his life.

He's in want. Not just looking for things that I'd like. He's in want for things that he needs. Verse number 15. He's in desperation. Verse 15. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he, that citizen, sent him into his fields to feed swine. I think it's noteworthy. I'd like to focus on the word joined here just for a moment. He joined himself. In the Greek, that word is, if we translate another way in English, it's glue. It's glue. This young son went and grabbed hold of somebody. It wasn't going to let him go. He enjoined himself to a citizen that must have had something to offer him, and he wasn't going to let go. He was just going to hang around because his survival was at stake. Now, I've had some difficult times, but nothing compared to what this young man's going through. But I had a time that I'll explain that maybe that'll help understand.

I was a senior at college, and I'd run out of money. I was running an apartment with two other friends of mine, and we got to the point where we had, I had spent everything. And you know, I actually started to lose weight. I don't recommend this as a diet program, but you know, when you get to the point when you're putting water on your cereal instead of milk, you know that things are getting pretty rough. And I can tell you, it just doesn't taste the same as milk on cereal when you put water on cereal. But I had gotten to the point where I've watched my pennies. I wasn't buying much food. The cupboards were getting bare and bare, and so there was nothing left. And right or wrong, I was too proud to ask for dad and mom to help give financial assistance. I needed a job. Not only going to school, but I needed income. So with my two other roommates, we went over to, in the beginning of our senior year, we went to the Watts line, which was an area of the church where they would take phone calls for literature requests. And so I applied for a job there, and they had us take some sample calls. They were able to listen in to see how we did. You know, how's Dave doing? Is he going to be able to answer these calls in a way that's good, in a way that's positive, in a way that's encouraging, the way that he makes the the caller feel comfortable? Well, my other two roommates got hired, and I didn't. When I got to the point where I took the last 69 cents of coins that I had, and I went down to Trader Joe's, which if you're not familiar in California, it's a grocery store, and I bought on sale a couple of chicken wings and a carrot stick to make chicken soup.

My clothes were starting to fall off my body.

I went back to the Watts line, and I joined myself to them. I just showed up. They weren't paying me, but I just showed up, and I kept taking phone calls. I'd go there when my roommates were there because they had transportation. I could ride with them, and I just kept taking phone calls. And the supervisor there wondered while I was there.

Eventually, they hired me, and I must have improved because he decided to hire me. And it helped me to dig out of the financial hole. But see, that is what this young man's situation was a lot more serious than mine. He joined himself like glue. I'm not leaving.

You know, it's hard to know whether this citizen of this foreign country even wanted him around, you know? He couldn't get rid of him. Finally, he said, okay, if you're going to do something around here, you're going to feed the pigs. So he sent him out into his fields to feed the swine.

You know, this young man was trying to find something or someone to hang on to. He was that desperate, and so he found this citizen. And it was a citizen of that country, which meant it was probably a Gentile. It was a citizen of that far country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Now Jews don't feed swine. In fact, they don't even want to touch them, do they? Because of the diseases, you know, that they carry, the poisons that come out of their skin.

He sent him out, which is a possible reference that he went out and stayed with the pigs where they were, lived with them, possibly a lean two, you know, that type of thing.

Now if you've ever raised pigs, and maybe some of you have, and I've talked to some church members that have raised thousands of pigs, they had big pig operation. This is what they told me. They said, you know, you kept the pigs and the hogs away from everything else. You know, you didn't want them close to you. They tore up the ground. They weren't good for the ground. They rooted up. They tear it up. Plus their waste destroys it. It kills everything. So he probably would have been definitely out in the country, out of the city, far away from the city, you know. And I imagine most of us here have experienced the smell at certain times of hogs, operations, you know, when the wind's just right, you know, that awful smell that goes along with raising the pigs.

So he probably would have been about as far away from people as you could get.

I mean, he would have been probably totally alone and alienated out there.

So he was in a bad way. So you can imagine the Pharisees and Sadducees at this time thinking, oh, you know, he's feeding pigs. Now some of us may think, well, wait a minute. What do you mean they didn't raise hogs in Palestine? What about the story about Jesus casting the demons out of the swine, you know, or excuse me, out of the men?

He cast demons out of two men and into a herd of swine and they went rolling down the mountainside and perished in the water. So some feel, because of that story that the Jews did raise pigs. But let's ask a question. Who controlled the country at that time?

The Romans. The Romans were an occupying nation. They occupied that country at that time. They controlled it at that time. And the Romans brought in people to raise the pigs. It was against the religious movement or feeling of the Jews to raise swine. They wouldn't want to raise it. They wouldn't want to touch it. They wouldn't want to eat it. But the Roman soldiers did.

In fact, in Italy today, they eat a lot of pig. And so most likely the Roman soldiers were used to that. They didn't want to leave that diet at home, so they bring in people to raise the swine. I think it's also noteworthy, maybe a side note, but that the only animal that Jesus Christ cast the demons into were pigs. He didn't cast them into sheep. He didn't cast them into goat. And I think that tells us what he thought about pigs. So he sent him into the fields to feed swine. Now, according to historical accounts, at that time, feeding pigs, even by Gentile standards, was one of the lowest jobs that you could have.

It's just not something that, I mean, it was the lowest of the low jobs. Some of the historical accounts say that you didn't even get paid. You were able to have a place to live, and they would feed you pig. They'd feed you pork. And you could trade for something else, but that's how you were paid with living conditions and pig meat. That was your main food. So here you are, isolated, because you work with the pigs.

People don't want to be around you because of the smell and the fact that you could be carrying the diseases that they rubbed off of you that you could give to them. You know, a lot of diseases have come from swine, and one of the most recent in our generation is swine flu. That comes from pigs. So people necessarily wouldn't want to be around a swine herder because you could pick up diseases from them. No lower job to have. Lonely, isolated, and as it says, he's hungry.

Said he would have gladly, as we read in the next verse, or he would have gladly have eaten at the pods that the swine ate. Verse 16, he would have gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate. Now, years ago, some of you may have worked with pigs, and you'd have what you'd call as a way of feeding them. They called them the old slop bucket. You'd go out and slop the hogs.

And what you'd put in is you'd have like a five-gallon pail. You'd have it in the corner of your kitchen. And you'd put in those old rotten tomatoes and everything that was waste. You know, something that you just would not eat. And then they'd go out there and they'd slop the hogs and they'd eat anything. And so this is where he was at. He was just like he was so hungry that he'd put his face into that and he would eat what the hogs were eating.

And they were eating, as it says here, these pods. And his situation was pretty critical. I mean, he is literally beginning to starve to death. So he wanted to even have been happy to have these pods fill his stomach. These pods here are actually carob pods, like the carob chocolate thing. They open up these pods and they take out the carob that's inside.

But the pod was so thick and was so tough that hardly anything could eat it. You know, the sheep couldn't eat it, the goats couldn't eat it, the horses couldn't eat it. No other animal could eat it, except the pig. And you wouldn't have been able to digest it if humans, if you were to eat that, you would get sick. But he was so hungry that he would have gladly had just something to put inside of his stomach to eat. You know, we talk about wanting to fill your stomach with anything because you're starving to death. You know, there are stories and maybe things you've seen on the internet, whether it be in Africa or other nations, where there's a severe famine and they're starving to death and they strip the bark off of trees and the trees die.

But they strip the bark off of the trees and then they boil it to make it soft enough to eat so that they don't die. And we know stories in World War II when the Germans were advancing on the Russians and they had the Russians surrounded, they were going to starve them out.

The snow and the weather was so bad, the snow was piled up, they had no way of escape, and the Germans were just going to starve them out. And the Russians actually pulled the wallpaper off of the walls and they ate the glue to survive.

You know, we talk about things like this. We've not been through something like that. Probably most of us haven't been through anything like that, and maybe the nation as a whole hasn't been through that. But there's a possibility that those types of things may come in the future if God so says that that needs to come to get our attention.

Where people are literally starving to death, and that's where this boy was in this part of the story. They go on and it says, and no one gave him anything. Nobody was giving him a thing.

No one was looking out for him at all. He was in a pretty bad way. Verse 17, but when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bred enough and to spare? And I'm dying of hunger. I'm perishing with hunger. So he comes to a defining moment. And in everyone's life, hopefully we all have a few of those defining moments. There's only a few that happened in our lifetime, and this was a defining moment for him. Unless he did something, he was going to die.

He had nowhere to go but the grave. He came to himself. And when we come to ourselves, I think it's a time where we realize that our life is ruined and we need God.

I think in part it's important for us when we speak of this prior to Passover and the spring holy days that we ask ourselves a question individually. Which one of these sons are we? Which one are you? Which one am I? Are we this prodigal son that has started to wander away from God and we need to come back?

Or are we the self-righteous son that thinks we got it all figured out and there's nothing that we need to repent of? Chances are maybe we've been both at certain times this last year. But the Passover is a time when we rededicate our life to God. That we examine ourselves like we heard in the message this morning. That we examine ourselves, not one another. That we examine ourselves to see what sin remains. What sin is there because we all have it, all come short of the glory of God. We've all sinned.

So which one are we? Maybe we've been a little bit of both.

Verse 17. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare? He's probably thinking at this time that, well, my father's got all these servants. No telling how many servants and they've got plenty to eat. They've got bread enough and to spare. His father was probably generous. He paid his servant hired servants well. And he says, look at me. They've got enough. They're treated well. They're treated better than I am. And look at me. Oh, I had it all. But now I've got nothing and I'm starving to death. Verse 18. He said, you know what I'm going to do? Verse 18. I'm going to rise up. I'm going to go to my father and I'm going to say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and I've sinned before you. Now, this is an interesting acknowledgment because he says not only had he sinned against his father, but he'd sinned against his heavenly father as well.

By sinning against his father, he'd sinned against his heavenly father as well at the same time. And so Christ, as he tells this story, helps us to realize because this young son sinned against his father, he'd also sinned against his heavenly father. Verse 19. And I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your servants. Make me like one of your hired servants. Now, you know what he's doing? Now, he's come to a defining moment. This is sincere. This is real. This is repentance. You know, the father knows. And he realizes, the father realizes that his son has come to a defining moment. And you know what the son is doing? He's going to start practicing about what he's going to say to his dad. He's practicing. He knows that this is his only opportunity to survive. He's going to go to his father. He's exhausted everything else. You know, maybe this has happened to you. Sometimes you get in trouble at school. You're playing baseball and you break the school window. And you know you're going to get a call from the principal or someone from the school. And you know you're going to have to answer for what you did. You were playing too close to the school. You broke the window. And you know, unless you've got a real good story, you're going to be in trouble. You've got one chance to tell the story. So you rehearse it in your mind and everything that you're going to say. Because you know your tale is going to be busted, unless you've got a good one.

Here, this is so important to this young man because he knows if his father does not take him back, he's as good as dead. He had nowhere else to go. If his father did not take him back, he was a dead man.

As people in the world, Bradman, we have to think about this too, and how it applies to us, how it applies to every son of God. We don't have anywhere else to turn. So he says, make me like one of your hired servants. What a change now he's had in his attitude. You remember earlier, he said, give me. Now he says, make me one of your servants. There was a change in heart. There was a change in attitude. Verse 20. And then he arose and he came to his father, but when he was still a grey way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran. And this is probably one of the most important words we could focus on, the word ran. As a matter of fact, there's some songs out there on Christian radio that talk about he ran or God ran. And it's a very inspiring song about how this father sees his son afar off and he runs to him. It's a beautiful song. It's a song about this pyramid. And the thing about he ran, he was probably a wealthy man and a ruler in his community. And in that culture, in that time, you did not run. Your servants ran, but you didn't run. That wasn't the culture of the time. Servants ran. And so here this father ran and it says, when he was still a grey way off, his father saw him.

Why did he see him a grey way off? Most likely because he was looking. In some of these videos, I don't know if you've seen them. There's an inspiring song I think it's called God Ran or He Ran. And they have these videos and they show pictures of fathers that are arguing with their sons. And their sons just pack up, give me what's mine and leave. And then they put this video, the YouTube videos together, where the father keeps looking out on the horizon, where he last saw his son go. He keeps looking out on the horizon.

Because if you're a father, you know what that's like.

He had his eyes on the horizon, looking for that son to come home. And his father saw him and he had compassion and he ran. Brethren, Jesus Christ is teaching us about your heavenly Father and mine. God has compassion and he will run. This is the father that Jesus Christ is revealing. This is the father that they did not understand. Christ came to reveal your heavenly Father and mine. And this is the way that he is. Jesus Christ wouldn't mislead us. He wouldn't lie. This is the father that we have. And it shows that when we turn to God, when we have that defining moment, when we examine ourselves and we see the shortness that we come up with, when we compare ourselves with our elder brother or with our father, if we have that defining moment and we truly repent, God runs to us.

He runs. He not only accepts us, He runs to us.

He doesn't meet us halfway. He runs to where we are. That's a beautiful scene, isn't it? Isn't that a beautiful story? That is so moving. It's an amazing, incredible, and true representation of our heavenly Father.

If anyone ever says, sometimes I have a hard time asking for forgiveness.

I have a hard time admitting my faults to God. God is just waiting for us to do that. He will run to us. When we do that, it has to be sincere. It has to be a defining moment. And God will just run to us.

He wants to clean us up. He wants to purge us. And He is going to rejoice, isn't He? That's what He says.

He runs to us. Then it says, And He fell on His neck and kissed Him. Which means this Father was virtually losing control emotionally. He just grabbed hold of His Son, fell on His neck, and kissed His smelly, stinky, pig-smelling Son. Who probably knows how many miles, at least fifty if not more miles, probably with only the clothes on His back. He probably sold most everything. He was in want. You know He liquidated everything. He had nothing, probably, but the clothes on His back. And He knew this was His last chance.

So His Father looked some, ran to Him, and fell on His neck. You can imagine, just like the prisoners of World War II. Some of you have seen some of those scenes where people have been literally starved. Not quite to death, but very close. Where they've lost a lot of weight. You know, think about your own son, your own child. Just like a prisoner held there for years, starved down maybe to a hundred pounds. Could barely walk. What would you do as a father? When you saw your son, you would totally lose it.

You would totally lose it. That's how God views you.

We are stinking, and we're filthy with sin. We all are. None of us are perfect.

And when we examine ourselves, and when we come to ourselves, and when we turn to Him, and we repent, He just kisses us. He runs to us. Just a beautiful scene. I'd like to read a true story to you. It happened to a police officer in my hometown of Albert Lee. I heard this story not too long ago, and I wanted to share it with you. His name is John, and he tells the story in this way. He said, I was working the day shift. He's a police officer. I was working the day shift, and things were going along pretty quietly. And so all of a sudden, I got a phone call from my wife. She told me she was at the mall, and our son Isaac wandered off, and she couldn't find him. He said, I told her, I didn't believe her at first. He said, it couldn't happen. I said, you're kidding. As if somebody could kid about something as serious as that. And then he realized, he said, then I could hear it in her voice. And I realized, it was in her voice, that this was serious, and she was doing everything she could to hold herself together to be able to call her husband, and said, Isaac is lost.

He said, I heard it in her voice, that sound that's, the sound that screams, I need you. I told her I'd be there ASAP. And I called in for my other partners to help. And I assured her that help was on the way, and I hung up the phone. I turned on my lights and my sirens, which I had the privilege of doing because I was a police officer, an advantage I have. And I radioed my dispatcher that I needed help, and they should meet me at the mall, where he was last seen.

He said, I could feel my own voice starting to fail, when he called the dispatcher. He said, it took everything within me to be able to keep my voice level, to clearly communicate what he was looking like, what he last wore, and that type of thing.

And this really struck me, he said, I could feel my own voice starting to fail as I passed on the information. My son, not anybody else's, my son was lost.

He said, I've searched for many missing children before and always with concern. But right there, what I was feeling was more than concern, it was fear. This was my son.

I feared that he may be hurt or worse, that I would never see him again. That fear was pure pain in my heart, and I could feel it getting worse. And only with God's strength was I able to let the other responding officers know of Isaac's description and where he was last seen. Had it been by my strength, I don't think I could have breathed a word. After an eternity, I arrived at the mall, I ran inside, I started talking to store clerks, and everyone that I talked to said, no, we haven't seen them before. I even had a chance to tell the story, which implied they'd already been asked. And I just kept moving from one person to another to another. I got to the center court where the jewelry store was, where Isaac was last seen. And I heard someone call my name, I turned around, and I saw it was a neighbor, Tanya. She was pushing a stroller with her children. She came towards me and she said, they found him. He is over here.

I just about lost it right there. They found him. What sweet words.

And there he was, next to my wife. I picked him up, I hugged him, I held him. He laid his head on my shoulders, and like how that certain man took that lamb and lifted the lamb up and put it against his shoulder. He raised up his son against his shoulders, and I fought back the tears. Joy. Pure joy. There was no other way to describe it. My lost son is found. Some of my friends asked me and my wife, well, weren't you angry with Isaac? Or they told us how naughty he was. And I couldn't believe my ears. Naughty, angry, no way. He was lost, and I thought I would never see him again. There is no way I was going to be angry with him. I'm going to rejoice at the fact that he's been found.

Now, if an earthly father can have this type of pull and emotion and joy at the returning of a lost child, how much does our Heavenly Father miss us when we're lost?

We're made in His image. Why would we be any different? This is the God that Jesus Christ is revealing to you and to me, the way that He is. And how much more joy does He feel when His Son is found? Well, that joy is going to be in the presence of the angels, when there's one sinner that repents. Verse 21.

And the Son said to Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, hand in Your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called Your Son. Just what He'd rehearsed. You know, it was His last pitch. He didn't know how His Father was going to react. He did not know. It was His last pitch, even though His Father came and ran to Him. It didn't mean that everything was going to be okay. His Father felt sorry for Him, but what was His Father going to do?

But there was true repentance on behalf of this younger Son. He said, I'm no longer worthy to be called Your Son. Brethren, just like you and I are not worthy as well, we're not worthy to be rescued by Jesus Christ, by God the Father. We're not worthy to have Jesus Christ die for us. And God says, we all need to realize that. None of us are worthy of this Father's love. But brethren, it's by divine forgiveness. It's by divine graciousness that God has this plan, that He died for us. It's a beautiful part of this. And I'm no longer worthy, He says. This was real. This was genuine. And with true repentance now, this young Son is exactly where He needs to be. But the Father said to His servants, verse 22, bring out the best road. Now, in the actual Greek, the word in Greek is stole, like what we would think of as a tuxedo. Because at that time, if you were a rich father or you were a ruler type leader, at that time, if you had these special occasions, you wouldn't wear this road very often. You would only wear it for special occasions, like a holy day or a wedding, or maybe someone, some ruler, was coming into your town, was going to dine with you. He was hardly ever warned. And the Father says to the servants, bring the best road. And He put it on this stinky, smelly... He didn't care. He didn't care. You could imagine what the boy felt like. You know, he wouldn't have had any clothes on. Probably all he had on his back is all he had. He was at that point, and thin at that point. It's all he had. That was about it. So they put the robe on him, and they put a ring on his hand. Put a ring on his hand. Now, that would have been a signet ring. It would have had a crest. It would have been something that, you know, when you go to buy something, you could impress it in the wax, and it would be like a credit card or a check where your credit was recognized. Any young, wealthy boy had the power to buy anything with his father's ring.

Elbert Barnes' commentary says this, about this verse. To wear a ring on the hand was a mark of wealth and dignity, and the rich and those in office commonly wore the rings. Here was an expression of favor and affection of the father to the son.

So here he basically is restoring his son to sonship. Servants wouldn't wear these rings. The sons would.

He was not just to become a servant. He was giving full power of a son. And put sandals on his feet. Which means what?

He didn't have any sandals on his feet. He didn't have them. You know the distinguishing mark, and we'll know this from Roman history, is that you could tell the difference between a servant and a non-servant, because the servants weren't allowed to wear shoes. They weren't allowed to wear sandals. And so here was the father giving sandals back to his son. Verse 23, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry. And the fatted calf here, we know is veal. And what they did here, often before the Holy Days or special events, they would take this calf and they would feed it grain. And this was very tender meat. This was veal and it was very, very expensive, because you had to raise food to feed this young bullock. You know, more commonly what was eaten at that time would have been lamb or fish or something like that, but the veal was very, very special occasions.

And it was tender meat and it wouldn't take long to prepare, but very expensive. And so that's what his father did. He killed the fatted calf, which made the boy probably think, am I really that important? Am I that important? God here is telling us, yes, you are. Yes, you are that important to God. You tax collectors, you sinners are important to God. Brethren, there's those that have turned away from God. There's those that had a relationship. They were part of the church of God. They left the church of God. But when they come back, this story needs to be told. God's in the process of restoring. They need to hear from us. No, you were just lost. That's all you were. So this is an encouraging parable. Verse 24. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be married. You know, so figuratively or maybe even literally, this father didn't know for sure. He thought he was possibly dead. Figuratively or literally, he'd gone into a foreign country. He hadn't heard from him at all. He may as well have been dead in some ways. And you can imagine the scribes and Pharisees at this time shaking their head in disbelief. I can't believe he's telling this story. Because they would never do that. This son of yours, he should have been beaten down. You should have given him just enough food to survive for a while. You should have made him to serve you for a while that he would learn his lesson. He would never ever turn against you. That was the approach they had. That's how they viewed it. Because they viewed the father as a very harsh god.

But Jesus Christ was trying to reveal to them and to us the true God, the father, and the way that he is. He came to reveal the father. Jesus essentially says, you don't even know him. You don't know how much love he has. You don't know the reality of the father. So they were probably just shaking their heads, thinking, what foolish teacher this is trying to teach these things. We need to watch him. Because they knew what he was teaching. They knew he was teaching them about God. They knew. And they began to be married. So there was a happy time here. There was a happy time. Now the older son was in the field and he came and he drew near. We're in verse 25. He heard the music. He drew near to the house. He heard the music and the dancing. So there's a party going on. So now, does not only God, he ran, picturing him running. We see God having a celebration. Having a party. Having dancing. All of this is going on. He's running. There's dancing. There's a party. And this is referring to the father. This is the way Jesus Christ reveals it.

It means he had to hire musicians or his servants could play. So the father made sure there was a celebration. Now up to this time, the scribes and the Pharisees have been kind of on the sidelines listening to the story. And what many scholars feel is that now Jesus begins to bring them into the story. And to make them a part of the story. And he begins to liken the older son to the Pharisees and the Sadducees or the Pharisees and Sadducees to the older son.

Verse 26. So he called one of the servants and he asked what these things meant. So he doesn't run up himself. He asked somebody else in verse 26 to go up. Verse 27. He said to them, Your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. Probably in a sense, possibly to the disbelief of the older son because the fatted calf was for special occasions. Which was he was probably supposed to maybe be eating on a holy day and they killed the fatted calf. Verse 28. But he was angry and he wasn't going to go in. So he wasn't going to go into that celebration. He wasn't going to go into that party. And even his brother, whom he had not seen for a long time, he was not going to go see him. He wasn't going to go near him. And even his father went out to plead with him. His father went out to plead with him. And we often don't think of father like this celebration and music and dancing, but that's the way Christ reveals it.

His father came out to plead with him. So here God is so caring and so loving. He is actually sending his son to plead. Jesus Christ to plead with these scribes and Pharisees. Probably saying, come on. Come on now. Let's work together here.

Verse 29. He answered and said to his father, lo, these many years I have been serving you. I never, and maybe a little bit of an overstatement, I never transgressed your commandment at any time. That was probably a little bit of a self-righteous attitude because we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He said, I've never done anything against you. I have never. But he shows his attitude. He wouldn't come to the celebration, which in a sense mocked his father a little bit. His father pleaded with him. He didn't go. Shows his attitude. He wouldn't come to the celebration. He says, and yet you've never given me, you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But he had all the stuff. He had two-thirds. It had already been proportioned at the time when the younger son left. He already had all the stuff. There were daughters. They didn't get anything. He already had two-thirds of the... everything that was left was the older son's. The land, the possessions, the cattle, the money. Yet he wanted his father to kill a goat for him.

Verse 30. That as soon as this son of yours... that's an important phrase, son of yours... the older son couldn't even call his younger brother by name.

As soon as this son of yours, he didn't think of him as a brother. He didn't even call his name. He was really dead to him. Who's devoured your livelihood? Well, the father gave it to him. The father had given the younger son his livelihood. He gave it to him. It was a portion of his future inheritance. It's possible the older son was thinking, you shouldn't have given him anything because of the disrespect. Which means if he wouldn't have given anything, then what would have been left would have been the older brothers. Who's devoured your livelihood with harlots? You killed the fatted calf for him! And he said, son, you are always with me and all that I have is yours. They had Moses, they had the law, they had the promises, they had all of this. But when somebody else that laughed comes back, they still have opportunity. That's important. This shows that God is so forgiving. And the teachers of the law at that time were not some of the weightier matters of the law. They wanted no one else to have salvation. He said, son, you're always with me and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make Mary and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive again and he was lost and now he's been found.

Now, some may say, you know, this is a good story, but it doesn't have an end. It doesn't end. At the end of the story, sometimes you want to know how well, how does it end? What happened with the older brother, the younger brother? Did they ever get together? What happened with this family?

If the older brother does picture the scribes and the Pharisees, and this would have been one of Jesus's last calls to try to reach them for the father to plead to them as well. And did the older son forgive the younger son? Doesn't say in the parable. It doesn't say. Perhaps there's a reason for that because the story was yet to be written. The story was yet to be written. What would happen? With the scribes and the Pharisees, they had yet to decide what they would do with these sinners and with these tax collectors and with the storyteller, Jesus Christ. What did they eventually do? I think history shows. They never accepted the sinners or the tax collectors and they killed Christ. So perhaps we know how the story ends because it had not yet been written, but it was written later.

They hated the father, they hated Christ, and they put him to death. Let's turn to Luke 19. There are many characters in this story. The father who pictures God the father. There's the younger son and the older son, which pictures all of mankind.

And then, of course, there's the storyteller, Jesus Christ. And there's a role that he has. Notice the role that he has in Luke 19. The role that he has, the example that our older brother sets for you and for me, and the role that he played. Look at chapter 19 in verse 10. For the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

That's the role of Jesus Christ. He came to seek you and me. And we're sinners. Who doesn't need repentance?

As we approach Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread this year, I think it's important to ask ourselves the question. You and me, as we ask ourselves the question, which one are you? Which one am I? We the younger son that's left God and are headed down a wrong track and we're leaving him and we need to come back home. Are we the older son that, well, we've never transgressed and we have a self-righteous attitude and we don't see anything in ourselves that needs to change?

Because these are some things to consider, I think, before we partake of the Passover. And chances are we've been both during the year. But if we examine ourselves prior to this coming Passover and we see the need for change and truly repent of our sins and our shortcomings, then there's going to be joy by our Heavenly Father. And he's going to become...he's going to come running.

And the lost will be found.