 How you guys doing? Doing alright? There's nothing like a morning session, right? Exactly, like if you're awake, like I'm so excited to be with you, but the problem is in the morning sometimes my face doesn't show it. Are there morning people in the room? Like where are my morning people? God love you. When I was a youth minister for 11 years in a parish, we used to take kids on trips all the time, which meant I had to get it together in the morning, and I had to get them together in the morning. And if you've been a parent, you know what that is. But I remember one time being on a trip, and you're like sleeping on, you know, like a gym floor, in a sleeping bag, on an air mattress, and I just happened to like roll over, and one of my students is like, hi. And I'm like, how long have you been looking at me? She's like, I've been up since five. I refolded all my clothes. I put my sleeping bag away. I'm ready to go. I'm like, I'm going to need you to find something else to do. I can't wake up with you looking at me, right? Okay, but how about night owls? Got a few night owls? Okay. I used to be you. I feel like now I'm like a neither person. Like I peak at like noon. So we've got a couple hours, and then I'm going to peak. But I feel like we're going to make it. And the only reason why I know we're going to make it is because Jesus is here. And I'd love if we could just pause for a moment and pray and connect with him again. We know that he never leaves us, abandons us, or forsakes us. But sometimes we need to remember that and refix our gaze on him. So can we do that right now? Would you join me in the name of the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit? Amen. Jesus, we love you. We love you, Jesus. Would you come so close to each person in the room right now? Would they feel your face? Would they see your gaze of love, of beauty? You're so beautiful, Jesus. You're so grateful, Jesus, for who you are and what you've done and what you continue to do. Just begin to say the name of Jesus. Jesus. Jesus, we love you, Jesus. We love your presence. We welcome you, Jesus. And in the quiet of your heart, just tell Jesus what you're grateful for. Pour out your gratitude to him. Pour out your love to him. Pour your oil out at his feet. Just fill your heart and your mind with gratitude for Jesus. We just love you, Jesus. We thank you, Jesus. We praise you, Jesus. Jesus, you are the king of glory. Would you fill us afresh? Would you fill this room with your glory, God? Anything and everything is possible in your presence. We just thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Jesus. We love you, Jesus. And blessed Mother, Mama Mary, we love you. And we ask for your intercession during this time with all the holy angels as we pray, Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now of the hour of our death. Amen. The name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Do you love Mary? I love Mary. I love Mary especially, particularly today. Because on my way down here, I was driving and I was heading down I-94 in Detroit and just going about my merry way. Getting excited, praying for you guys, praying for everything that the Lord would do this weekend. And all of a sudden, the cars in front of me began to have a little situation. I see a bungee cord go flying through the air over my car to the car behind me and then another bungee cord and I'm like, this cannot be good. And then all of a sudden, a tire comes flying through the air, ricochets off the car in front of me, goes back up into the air as these cars are shifting and slamming on their brakes and I'm doing that like bracing moment, you know, because you're looking out and you're seeing it and you're like, and I feel like miraculously, the tire somehow bounces over the median and to the other side of traffic and I just continue on my merry way. And I had this moment where I was like, thank you Mary, thank you angels. And someone was like, how do you know it was Mary? I was like, because I was praying my rosary when it happened. So I just want to honor and thank Mary for protecting me and getting me here. But it reminded me too of the preciousness of life, right? That in a moment, things can change. And in a moment, we don't have a whole life to decide to follow Jesus. In a moment, those around us don't have all this time to say yes to them. Have a moment. And the moment is now. Do you know how valuable you are? Do you know how precious you are? Do you know that? Do you know that you know that you know that you are precious and you are valuable? How is value determined? Value is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. What did someone pay for you? The Father gave everything for every single one of us in this room. Your value is immeasurable. He was so desirous of not just having you with him in heaven but a reconciliation and relationship. He wanted to have you close. The Father wanted to keep you, to tuck you, to just hold you close to his heart again. And as we heard from Pete last night, because of what Jesus did, that's the kind of access we have to the Father through Jesus. It's so important, I feel like, that we know his heart for us, that we know where we stand with him, that we know that we know that we know that we are beloved sons and daughters of the King of kings and the Lord of lords and a good, good Papa, a good Father. How do I know this? If you have a Bible, join me in Romans 8, 14 through 17. We're going to spend a little bit of time here. I love this particular verse, verses from Saint Paul to the Romans. So if you have it, go ahead, pull it out. You don't have to because I will read to you and you can just listen. And it begins, For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. Are you led by the Spirit of God? Are you sure? Are you led by the Spirit of God? Four people. If you aren't led, you can be by the end of this weekend. That's the good news. But we, led by the Spirit of God, are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back in to fear. But you received a spirit of adoption through which we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. We are children of the Father. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. The Holy Spirit testifies, witnesses with our spirit that we are children. And through the Holy Spirit we can cry out, Abba, Father, that we have been chosen. We have received a spirit of adoption, not of slavery, not of fear. I think it's important to have a little context here. Like all of us I think in the modern world have some understanding of what slavery was like or what adoption looks like in our western world. But what's interesting is in the Roman Empire this would have looked a little bit different than maybe what we're thinking of. And remember Paul is speaking to the Romans and it's important to know what they would experience in hearing these words. See, slavery was actually very common in the Roman Empire. Some say that one in three members of the Roman Empire would have been slaves. They would have been stripped of any identity, any dignity, any value, any worth. They literally would have like no name. They would belong to no one. But interestingly too, adoption looked different in the Roman world. I think today we think of adoption as, you know, maybe a vulnerable child being placed in a loving family so that they can flourish and grow and belong and be loved. But adoption in the Roman world often took place with adults. It was usually a man of power or of great wealth or a leader who was looking to adopt a male son to carry on his legacy, to take his inheritance and to carry on the legacy of the father. And what was also interesting is is that you could be adopted if you were a slave but what had to happen first was you had to have a renaming ceremony where the father would give you a new name. It would make you eligible to become a son. What I also found really fascinating is like you could renounce, you could like denounce one of your own natural born children but adoption in the Roman world was irrevocable. You could never ever get rid of a son that was adopted. I think it's powerful when we think about adoption in this way because all of us had been adopted. We've been given a spirit of adoption. We've been chosen to carry on the legacy of our father and that inheritance, everything that he has he gives us access to because of what Jesus did. I don't know about you but I believe the father wants churches not full of orphans who don't know who they are but he called himself father because he wants his house filled with sons and daughters who will go out and tell the good news to other orphans that they know the father, that he's good and he's not just any father, he's the king of kings. That's who's choosing them, that's who's adopting them and that's who's making a commitment to them that can never be changed. The problem is as I think sometimes in the church we're sending out orphans to do the work of sons and daughters. I like you, you are my people. But his desire first is for us. As Pete was talking about last night in the garden when things went south and I think about that last part of that sort of narrative where the fall happens and the father clothes his children and sends them out because the garden is no longer their home. What I like to think about is the father sort of whispering in their ear thing but it will not always be so. It's your mission. I have a plan for your rescue. Do you know that he has had a plan for your rescue since the very beginning? That when he sent his son and when Jesus suffered and died on the cross he had you in mind? I can never tire of speaking of that. If we get tired of thinking of the joy of our salvation recalling the joy of our salvation we have missed it. There is endless beauty. There is endless gift and there is endless joy in the salvation in the value that the father saw in each and every one of you so much that he gave everything for you. Do you ever get tired of thinking of that? You can't. Not if you really know. But I believe the father's heart is for us to as we read in John, abide with him that we would trust and know the goodness of the father. We would know our position through Christ as close to the father, in relationship with the father, reconciled to the father so that we could rest our head on his chest and we could listen to the rhythm of his heartbeat of love for us every single minute of the day. How confident would you be? How bold would you be if you heard that heartbeat in your ears, in your hearts, in your minds when you set out to bring a lost son or daughter home? I want my goal, my hope, my desire is to be the living expression of his heartbeat of love to the world for the rest of my life. Someone asked me this question one time. They said, what would you give your dying breath to? I never thought about that. It's an intense question. What would you do with your life to your dying breath? For me, it would be to talk about the father because that's what Jesus did. And his love is so immeasurable. It's so deep. It's so wide. If you've experienced it, I'm telling you there's more. If you've had a taste and you've seen its sweetness, I'm telling you there is more for you today. He's not nearly done. He is not even close to being done of pouring out his love on you because his love is like anything you've ever experienced. He invites you to press your head to his chest to know his unbreakable, unchanging, never-ending, unfathomable love. And for some of us, when we go back to that Roman scripture where we say the word father and we think about father, we can all have mixed emotions or feelings about that. Maybe you had the best father, the worst father or no father at all. What I'm telling you today is you have an Abba father and he wants to blow your mind when it comes to thinking about what a father is like. I know for me this was a tough one. I went through multiple kind of conversions to the different aspects or parts of the Trinity in my walk with the Lord. I kind of started with Jesus and then I met the Holy Spirit and I was like, this is so fun. Holy Spirit, yes. But of course, what do Jesus and the Holy Spirit want to do? They want to introduce me to the father, the real father. Not the father that I grew up thinking I needed to please, to be perfect, to earn love, to just do things the right way. Not the father that in some ways, if I was honest, when I was younger, treated a little bit like a spiritual vending machine. If I just put in the right code, my Cheetos will drop and it will be good. No, not the father who asked me to be better, to do better, to just try harder. It's the father who took me in just as I was. He says, I love you. You can't earn it. You can't deserve it. The challenge is to receive it. He's better than you think. What I feel like the father is inviting us to this morning is there's this word when we talk about the love of God. I like Hebrew. Anybody else like Hebrew words out there? Anybody? No, just a couple, two, three. We can talk later. I began to do this word study when I was on a silent retreat on the word Hased. Have you ever heard about the Hased love of God? It's this incredible, deep, rich word that, like, in Hebrew has, like, 14 meanings. That's what I love about Hebrew. Like, there's 14 meanings for one word. For some of you who are like, I like precise, I like clear, just give me one. You may struggle with Hebrew. But I love it because it's full and it's rich. And the Hased love of God is this unbreakable, secure, attached, unending love. It's faithful. It's steadfast. That's the love of the father for each of you in the room. And what I feel like the father is saying, I've given you my Hased. I've shown you season upon season in your life of my faithfulness, of my steadfastness, of my attached love to you that will never end and never change. My question is, can I have yours? Can he have our Hased love? Of course, ours will never compare. But as I think was spoken about in the homelings today, he will take whatever we bring as that offering. Whatever our yes strengthened by our blessed mother brings. You have an abba. And when you learn that you are the delight of his heart, when you really, really know that you are the delight of his heart, you want to spend your life delighting him. Yes? Yes. You want to do. You want to be. You want to carry yourself in the world in a way that delights your papa's heart. Right? Not from a place of performance or striving or have to earn, but rather when a kid knows how much they are loved, they look and they're like, did I do a good job, dad? Are you happy? Are you pleased with me? Of this place of connection, of relationship, of knowing. Have you ever had that moment in your life where perhaps you're talking to one of your children or someone else, and all of a sudden the words coming out of your mouth are your mothers? Or your fathers? You're like, you swore up and down, you're like, I will never. And then you have that moment where you're like, ah, I am my mother. How did this happen? Or you look in the mirror and you turn just so and you see the slope of your nose or things start to change and you're like, I see my mother in the mirror. How do these things happen? How do we become like them? It happens because we spend so much time with them. They have such an influence on our life. They're so part of forming us that we become like them. And for me, I want the world to look at me. Please God. And say, she reminds me of my dad. He reminds me of the father. Do we resemble the father and his heart to the world? But people look at you and be like, wow, they sound just like their mom. They sound just like their dad. And if we want to delight his heart, if we want to be a delight to him with what we do and how we live, I think we have to value what he values, amen. I want to value what the father values. And what I would suggest to you this morning is this, the father has a particular value for the lost. So if I'm going to live, abide in this place of his heart, if I'm going to make his heart my home, and this is where I live, when I leave from that place, when I allow the overflow of that place to send me into my day, into the world, I think it will send me to the lost. Because from the beginning, he had a plan. He had a rescue mission, not just for us, but for every one of his sons and daughters, even if they don't know that they are. But you don't have to trust me. You don't have to trust Sarah's opinion. The good news is I got some scripture to back me up. Anything in the life of Christ, and then in a particular way, the lost parables, where we see one after the other after the other, three lost parables, parables about the lost that Jesus shares. I think it's a highlight. It's saying this is what matters. This is what's important. So I want to dive into these three lost parables as we think about, I know who I am. I'm a son. I'm chosen. I'm adopted. I have infinite value. And if I know my chosenness, then I see the chosenness in everyone around me. And I must do something about it, just like Jesus did. Let's begin with the parable of the lost sheep. And I love how this parable opens. It says this, now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him, Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. Some people blow by this particular verse. I think there's a powerful question the Lord has for us. Does your table look like Jesus's? Does your kitchen table, your dining room table, does it look like Jesus's? What the scribes and the Pharisees say, who are they eating with? Who are they engaging with? Would they be scandalized with your mercy and compassion and love? And Jesus, in response to this, in seeing they're missing the boat, says this, so he told them a parable, which one of you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Almost like Father Dave was talking about earlier, this doesn't make a lot of mathematical sense. From a logistical, natural, rational perspective, it does not leave the 99 for the one. And maybe some shepherds, I mean, I'm not a shepherd. This doesn't necessarily move me as much, but they would know the value of their sheep because they lived with them literally and they knew their voice. But maybe the idea of sheep and being lost, maybe that doesn't really speak to you as well. So the Lord doubles down again and then he tells us the parable of the lost coin. And the parable of the lost coin says this, or what woman having 10 coins if she loses one of them does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it. When she has found it, she calls together her friends, her neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Probably heard this a lot in church growing. If you grew up in church, you heard this a lot. I've heard this, I've read this, I was like, hmm. And in the beginning, especially when I was younger, all I could think of, all I could relate to was when you found that quarter in the couch. I was like, so I find the quarter in the couch, I pull it out and I'm supposed to call my friends. You'd be like, hey guys, found some change in the couch. Come have a party. And they'd be like, you've lost it. But what's interesting culturally, the context here is that some scholars say that these ten coins would have represented this young woman or woman's dowry. That literally her future depended upon having ten. Like you can't go out with nine coins. You can't go out and make your debut into the world with nine coins. You need a full ten. So if your future, if your life depended on it, would you not sweep the house? Would you not spend everything to find it? And then would you not rejoice when you did? This scripture though became really real to me a couple of years ago when I was walking with one of my friends who had really been struggling with addiction. He's a good guy, wasn't raised in faith, in church, nothing. Like never had heard about Jesus, never went to church, nothing. And unfortunately as he got older, you know, he's filling that God-shaped hole with all things. And Bellin's doing addiction. And he went off to rehab and we were praying really, really hard and we asked the intercession of St. Maximilian Colby to help him get clean. And he did. And he had a radical encounter with God when he was in rehab. Don't you just love those sovereign touches of God? Don't you just love when you're praying and you're praying and you're praying and the Lord's like, watch what I do even without you. So he's this like encounter with the Lord in rehab, comes out, cleans so, Bernie says to me, Sarah, I had an encounter with God. I don't know him, I don't understand him, but I know that he's real. I think I need to become Catholic. I was like, all right. He was like the easiest RCIA get that like, the Lord had already moved in his life. And he responded. He said, I think I need to become Catholic. I said, okay, cool. He's like, would you be my, would you be my sponsor? And I sat him down and had a very serious, I'm like, I'm not a fluff sponsor, okay. I'm not just one of those placeholders that's gonna go up there and put my hand on your shoulder. This is the real deal. So if you're asking, know what you're asking. You're like, I want it. I'm like, okay, let's do this. And it was a rough ride. It's one thing, right, to be chosen. It's one thing to be adopted. It's another thing to learn to live as a son or daughter. Amen. And that spirit of fear was nipping at his heels. That spirit of the old man was nipping at his heels. But we made it and we got to Holy Week. Right. And it was like, I'm like, this is it. We're gonna do it. And I went hard. I went on a silent retreat. I was like praying and fasting for him. I was like, we're gonna do this. This is gonna be glorious. Lord, I'm ready. I don't know if he's ready, but I'm ready. And I remember driving home from that silent retreat. I hadn't eaten in like five days. So you know how you feel? Spicy. And he calls and he tells me, Sarah, I don't know if I can do it. I'm like, yes, you can. He's like, I was like, you don't know what I've been doing. I'm like, yes, you can. You can do this. You can do this. We're gonna get through it together. He's like, no, you don't understand. Like I cut my face shaving and now I have this huge infection on my face. He's like, so I couldn't, I don't think I could have the cup. I can't. I can't do it. I was like, let me call you back. So then I had one of those spicy car conversations with the Lord. I don't know if you ever had one. It's one of those out loud. And I was like, Lord, you know what it's taken to get us here. I have a need like, please, Lord. And he woke up the next day and it wasn't completely gone, but it was healed enough that he was like, I can do this. And the church even said, we'll give you your own little cup so you can feel like comfortable and confident in receiving the Lord. So we get there. Like we had a little moment where we had a party before. And just like I asked you that question, does like your dinner table look like Jesus? The table before where we had a little like party, pre-party for the Easter vigil. That table looked like Jesus, Jesus' table, because he invited all of his friends. So much so that at one point, I wasn't sure he was going to actually make it to the ceremony, not because of what was happening on his face, but because what was happening in the front yard. Two of his friends who'd had a little too much to drink, were in like an altercation. He like goes up to break it up and I'm like, please don't let him get arrested. Like this is what we were doing leading up to the Easter vigil, right? So we end up at the Easter vigil and I'm sitting in that pew and I'm sure like parents who've struggled and wrestled and wrangled kids to sacraments or other like big moments where like you're tying bows and you're straightening ties and all that to the moment. When you sit in the pew and you take that deep exhale, we're like, ah, we're here. Nothing can go wrong. They're dressed. They're appropriate. So we're sitting in the pew and filing in behind us are all of his buddies who went to the bar in between, who had never been to a Catholic church before and never been to Mass before. So they're behind us in the pew in row two, right? We're row one because we're like the special guests, right? And the priest comes up and he's like, I would like to introduce to you the new members of our community and of course, who has to be number one, my friend. And I have to go with him because that's how it goes. So he introduces us and as we're starting to walk up on the altar to stand in front of the community so they can welcome us, his buddies behind him erupt into like, whoa, that's my boy, all the stuff. And I am like standing there on the altar going, they just, they just don't know. It's such a solemn event. Like it was if the starting lineup was just announced and their buddy was like the starting point guard, right? But I was like, okay, that's context, right? That's all the only thing they know. But I remember being like having one of those very proud, arrogant moments and being like, they do not know what they do. I felt the Holy Spirit kind of check my heart and say no, Sarah. That's what all of heaven is doing right now. That's what all of heaven is doing right now. Do you want to be a part of the party? Do you want to be the son that comes in and celebrates and rejoices? See, this is what delights the Father, I believe, when we bring his children home and all of heaven rejoices. Maybe you're like, okay, lost coin, Sarah, sheep. It doesn't really speak to me. The Lord goes one further and he tells us the parable of the lost brother. Don't tell anyone, but I rename this in my Bible. It's in a little parentheses and I write the parable of the good Father. Because to me, that's what I see when I read the scripture. But let me read it to you. Then Jesus said, there was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me. So he divided his property between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country where he squandered it in wild living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country and he began to be in need. So then he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him to the fields to feed the pigs. He would have gladly filled himself with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired hands have bred enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger. I will get up and I'll go to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands. So he set off and he went to his father. But while he was still far off, the father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, quickly bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and get the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and disfound. They began to celebrate. Many of you know what happens after this, right? Then the older brother gets kind of, he doesn't want to party. What kind of a spirit of offense do you have to be walking into not want to go into a party? Well, your own brother has come home. But it's interesting because when you actually focus on the words that the brother says to the father, I think we learn a lot about how much he knew the father's heart or didn't. Even though he was living in his house, because he says to him, Father, I have slaved for you and you've given me nothing. He has fallen back to a spirit of fear and slavery and scarcity and all of the things that come with it. But what I love is the father's response even to the older brother. He says to him, my son, you have always been with me and everything I have is yours. Maybe today you're like, yeah, I've been slaving for the Lord. The Lord wants to remind you and he wants to speak the truth to you when he says, my son, my daughter, you have always been with me and everything I have is yours. We've been living in a weird time, yeah? I don't think anybody's confused about that. And maybe you yourself have felt in this season that you've fallen back into a spirit of fear. But there are moments where you forgot his face or you couldn't hear his heartbeat of love for you and you opened the door to that fear and you let it back in. Or maybe you were a bit more like the prodigal in that you took what was already was yours. You knew what was yours and you tried to control it. Because if we're honest, I think all of us at some point in our life have had maybe even like prodigal parts of our heart. In his homily today, Father Dave was talking about giving everything, giving his whole heart, giving your whole heart, not counting the cost, not parsing it out, not giving little bits. But sometimes I think, without maybe even consciously realizing, we look at the Father and we say, give me my inheritance, I'll control it. I'll take it. I know what to do. Or you can have this and you can have this, but you can't have my family. So we tuck them behind us. Or you can't have my job or you can't have this or you can't have where I live or you can't have whatever it is. You can't have my control. So we tuck it behind us and then we offer him these other things. As if he'd be distracted by that. Maybe that's been your experience over these last, well, 18 months or so. Where you saw yourself kind of going back to an old way, but the good news is, is today, in this moment, the Father himself reveals himself to you, looks you in your face and says, my son, everything I have is you. And like Father Dave said, what do we have to fear? If the king of the universe is our dad, I believe that the enemy is most afraid of confident sons and daughters who know who their father is. When the enemy comes, and maybe he's come and he's tried to whisper and he's tried to distract you and he's tried to move your face away from the one thing, the most beautiful thing. Jesus, the Father. I believe the Father invites us to sit today to look at the enemy and say, do you know who my dad is? I don't boast in myself. I can't, that would be foolish. But I boast in my Jesus. I'm confident not in myself, but I'm confident in him. I'm confident in all of the inheritance that's been won for me by Jesus on the cross. Not just in heaven, but now. I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna read this scripture to you, but I want you to almost imagine yourself in this scene. Sort of like Ignatian prayer, right? Where we imagine ourselves, put ourselves in the center of the scripture. What would you imagine? What would the scene have actually looked like? What would it have smelled like? You ever thought about that? Prodigal was just rolling around with pigs. Probably had showered in a few days. This was not a man who came dressed appropriately to meet a king. This was not a man who had time to clean himself, to bathe himself, to make sure he smelled great and was appropriate to meet a king. He came in his filthy rags. My friends, he just wants you to come in your filthy rags. If all you have today to feel like to offer the Father is your brokenness, your insecurity, your filthy rags, whatever they are, listen again to the story of the prodigal. There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me. Give me what's mine. I'll take care of it. I'll control it. So he divided his property between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country where he squandered his property and wild living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place through the country. He began to be in need. My friends, the famine will always come. The suffering will come. It's inevitable. Don't wait. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him to his field to feed the pigs. He would have gladly filled himself with the pods the pigs were eating and no one gave him anything. No one gave him anything. He around him saw him and offered him the bread that he seeks. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare? But here I am, dying of hunger. I will get up and I'll go to my father and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands. So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I have no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, quickly bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. So imagine what that would have looked like. Want you to imagine yourself, maybe just in the role of the prodigal. Maybe the Holy Spirit is convicting your heart right now of some ways that you've taken what God freely gives and tried to control. Maybe you've fallen into that spirit of fear. Maybe you haven't trusted in the goodness of the Father. Maybe your gaze has shifted off that one thing. I just invite you to imagine yourself standing on that robe and whatever it is. Maybe it's just your insecurity, your anxiety, your worry, your fears, your doubts, your filthy rags. So what are you going to imagine just standing there and holding those in your hand? But I want you to look up and I want you to see the Father and he's running to you. Full speed running to you. And as the Father gets close, I want you to see his face of love, of mercy, of tenderness, of compassion, not of anger, not of disappointment. And as he collides with you, he wraps his arms around you. He puts a robe on you, a ring on your finger and sandals on your feet. But as you stand there, you realize there's something in your hands. And there's an invitation from the Father just to leave it at His feet. Just to release to Him the vestiges, the things of this past season that you've been walking through. Just to leave them here with Him. So if you'd like to just imagine yourself even just releasing them to Jesus, to the Father's feet. And as you do, you realize now your arms are free to wrap them around the Father. Your head on His chest feel His rhythm of heartbeat, of love for you. Let Him robe you in His delight. Let Him robe you in His protection. Let Him put a ring, a ring on your finger, your sonship, your daughtership. And let Him feet, put sandals on your feet. Let Him fit your feet. There's the readiness of the gospel. Because His invitation to you is, now will you go back out on that prodigal road? Will you go get my lost sons and daughters? And just in your heart, if you want to say yes to the Lord, and I just invite you to say yes, like yes, Lord, I will. Delight His heart. He's a Father you can trust. And when His heart becomes your home, you will stop at nothing. Bring others.