Ed Young - Wasted and Wanting

August 6, 2025 | S25 E188 | 29:0

The Winning Walk with Dr. Ed Young is the international on-air and online teaching ministry of Dr. Ed Young. The Winning Walk proclaims the proven truth of God’s Word to give men and women the world over a winning way to live life.

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The Winning Walk with Dr. Ed Young | Ed Young - Wasted and Wanting | August 6, 2025
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  • Male announcer: spend time with god each day.
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  • Get dr. young's 90 day devotional, "putting god first."
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  • Ed young: it is my prayer that this devotional will help you to
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  • Become all that god has designed you to become.
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  • For yourself or someone you love.
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • Pastor ed young: when you read the bible, it's a good idea to
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  • Know how to read the bible.
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  • You have to read the bible in its context.
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  • What does that mean?
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  • That means you have to understand what's going on
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  • Before and after and during that inspired word from god.
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  • If not, you'll have a totally confused understanding of what
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  • God is trying to say to you and what he's trying to say to me.
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  • So we read it in context.
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  • We've been studying one of the greatest chapters in the bible.
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  • Luke chapter 15.
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  • It's the great lost and found chapter.
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  • Lost, found, lost, found, lost, found.
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  • Shepherd lost a sheep, found.
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  • Woman lost a coin, found.
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  • Father lost a son, found.
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  • But to understand this chapter, we have to see what was
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  • Going on.
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  • You read in luke, jesus was healing people of every kind of
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  • Ailment you can imagine.
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  • Here and there and over there: blind, lepers, lame,
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  • Demonic, healing.
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  • And in the context of this, large crowds were coming.
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  • And so the pharisees and the scribes, the religious
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  • Establishment of the day they said about jesus, he associates
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  • With sinners, he runs around with sinners and on top of that,
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  • He goes home and eats with them.
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  • My, my, my, how can he be a prophet?
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  • How can he be a teacher?
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  • What's his credentials?
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  • What's his education?
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  • Where has he been? where is he from?
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  • Who's his parents?
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  • Because we see he runs around with sinners, sinners and he
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  • Sits down and eats with sinners and their charge against jesus
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  • Was absolutely true.
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  • Isn't that something?
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  • And jesus then seeks to explain to those supersonic religious
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  • People, their position as far as being lost and found with god is
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  • Concerned because i am sure they would have said we're found,
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  • We're with god, we're moral, we're ethical, we keep the law,
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  • And all of these sinners are lost.
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  • Here, we see ladies and gentlemen, a beautiful
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  • Understanding of scripture, we understand what jesus was
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  • Teaching and saying to you and to me in the 21st century and
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  • What he was saying to those stiff neck, super pious
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  • Religious pharisees and scribes.
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  • I want you to look at it in luke chapter number 15.
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  • It begins there in the story of the prodigal son, it says a
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  • Certain man had two sons and the younger son said, paraphrase,
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  • Dad, i wish you'd die.
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  • That's what he said.
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  • He said, give me the inheritance i will get when you die.
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  • Isn't that something?
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  • Now, most fathers in the middle east, and actually all around
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  • The world, but particularly the middle eastern father, if a
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  • Young whipper, snapper had come up and said, i want the share of
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  • My inheritance, i'm gonna get when you die, that medieval
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  • Father would slap that younger son and say get out of my
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  • Sight, right?
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  • That's what they would do in the middle east.
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  • But what did this father do?
  • 00:04:47.610 --> 00:04:50.313
  • An unbelievable thing, a remarkable thing.
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  • He said, okay.
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  • Okay, and he went out and started to sell enough goods so
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  • He could give that young son his share of what he would get when
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  • He would die.
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  • Now, this is that little phrase in there, it says not many days
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  • After, you know, the son, not many days after, he didn't leave
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  • Immediately when the father said he'd give him the heritage
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  • Because the father had to sell some property, had to sell some
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  • Sheep and some goats, he had to sell some of his crops in order
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  • To get enough money for that kid to go off and take everything
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  • That he'd get--this was a wealthy landowner, a wealthy,
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  • Wealthy man.
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  • And when he sold all of this, it affected his family, it affected
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  • His other son who stayed at home, it affected the whole
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  • Community because they all worked together and so i'm sure
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  • They were saying, what got into him, what's going on, what led
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  • Him to embarrass his father, to steal from his father, to wish
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  • That his father was dead, to hurt the economy in
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  • Our community?
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  • So he got out of dodge.
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  • Now that young man knew there was no way he could ever go back
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  • Home to the father and he could never go back to the community
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  • Because the community had something called kezazah
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  • It was a ceremony in which they would
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  • Take burned nuts and they would take burned corn and put it in
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  • An earthen vessel.
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  • And if a jewish man or boy went off and lost all their money to
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  • Gentiles--who were the gentiles?
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  • Anybody that wasn't a jew.
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  • If you weren't a jew, you were a gentile.
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  • And if a jew went off and lost all the money to gentiles, they
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  • Could never come back to the community.
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  • In fact, if they came back, they would take and shame them and
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  • They would take that earthen vessel and they would break it
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  • And they would call their name and say you have been cut off,
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  • Zip, never to return.
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  • So that young guy knew all this.
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  • He'd been brought up in this culture, and so he got all the
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  • Loot together and he took off and he went to the far country
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  • And the bible tells us he lived extravagantly.
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  • In other words, he was some kind of cool cat there, among
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  • The gentiles.
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  • You could be sure that a lot of the mothers said, you know, this
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  • Young man who's come to town, he's got it all.
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  • He's handsome, he's got funds, he's an operator.
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  • Wouldn't it be nice if one of my daughters would date him and
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  • Maybe marry him, man, that would be great.
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  • We'd go way up in society.
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  • I'm sure he made some deals, i'm sure he dated a lot of women,
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  • His older brother said later on he ran around with prostitutes,
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  • But you can't live that kind of "let the good times roll" very
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  • Long, i don't care how much loot you've gotten from your dad.
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  • And before long he ran out of money, he ran out of friends,
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  • Said no one gave him anything, a little scripture there.
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  • He ran out of everything and a famine came in the land, he
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  • Couldn't get a job, he tried there in the far country, and
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  • Then finally a pig farmer hired him to herd and feed the pigs.
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  • He became a pig herder.
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  • And then you have one little verse of scripture that explains
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  • What's going on as to why he even thought about going back.
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  • Look at verse 17, it says, "i perish with hunger!"
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  • That's it.
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  • Prior to that you have verse 17, the first part said, "he came to
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  • Himself," was that a turning point in his life?
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  • He came to himself?
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  • A long time i have preached that and taught that.
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  • I was wrong.
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  • When he came to himself, it merely means that he began to
  • 00:09:06.502 --> 00:09:09.538
  • Think about himself and who he was and think about a way that
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  • Somehow because he was so hungry and he had bottomed out and a
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  • Jew feeding pigs and living with pigs, you can get no lower
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  • Than that.
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  • He came to himself, he saw who he was.
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  • Did you hear about the rabbit who came face to face with
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  • A rattlesnake?
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  • The rattlesnake looked at the rabbit and said, i know who
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  • You are.
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  • I recognize those ears, twitching nose, that little
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  • Bushy tail, all that fur, you're a rabbit.
  • 00:09:44.640 --> 00:09:48.911
  • The rabbit said to the rattlesnake, you're right.
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  • And he says, i know who you are.
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  • You got a big mouth and you're smooth and you have all those
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  • Diamonds on your back.
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  • You're a television evangelist.
  • 00:10:03.492 --> 00:10:10.666
  • So the prodigal came to his senses.
  • 00:10:10.666 --> 00:10:16.906
  • He said he came to himself.
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  • He didn't come with the idea, i've got to get back in
  • 00:10:20.576 --> 00:10:23.079
  • Relationship with my father.
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  • He didn't come with the idea, boy, i've done wrong,
  • 00:10:24.747 --> 00:10:26.348
  • Taking all that money from my dad.
  • 00:10:26.348 --> 00:10:28.117
  • No, he came to himself and then he made a little speech.
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  • He said, you know, my father he has hired servants.
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  • They eat better than this, they live better than this, and he
  • 00:10:36.659 --> 00:10:39.995
  • Made up a little speech and some of the people think when he came
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  • To himself, he began to repent.
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  • No, that's no repentance there.
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  • It's all selfish, all his idea, some people have the idea when
  • 00:10:47.536 --> 00:10:52.775
  • They get in trouble in life, they get hungry and things go
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  • Bad, they say i'm gonna fix myself.
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  • I'm going to a psychologist and get some counseling, i'm gonna
  • 00:10:59.181 --> 00:11:03.886
  • Fix myself.
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  • I'm gonna leave my wife, my husband, that's my problem, i'm
  • 00:11:05.521 --> 00:11:08.591
  • Gonna fix myself.
  • 00:11:08.591 --> 00:11:10.159
  • It's the job that i have, it's where i live, i'm gonna
  • 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:13.496
  • Fix myself.
  • 00:11:13.496 --> 00:11:15.164
  • And a lot of us, just like the prodigal he said, he came to
  • 00:11:15.164 --> 00:11:17.833
  • Himself, i'm gonna fix myself.
  • 00:11:17.833 --> 00:11:21.337
  • And he made up this little speech.
  • 00:11:21.337 --> 00:11:23.839
  • This is the speech, he said, i'll get to my father.
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  • Father, i've sinned against heaven and before your sight,
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  • I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, make me as a
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  • Hired servant.
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  • Well, you say that was repentance, no, it wasn't.
  • 00:11:34.683 --> 00:11:37.953
  • Because remember his audience?
  • 00:11:37.953 --> 00:11:40.790
  • Who is he talking to primarily?
  • 00:11:40.790 --> 00:11:43.125
  • The scribes and pharisees.
  • 00:11:43.125 --> 00:11:44.927
  • One thing about the scribes and pharisees, they knew the bible.
  • 00:11:44.927 --> 00:11:49.865
  • And when the prodigal started saying, i've sinned against
  • 00:11:49.865 --> 00:11:53.936
  • Heaven and before you, they recognize that as almost the
  • 00:11:53.936 --> 00:11:58.908
  • Same words pharaoh spoke to moses after the ninth plague,
  • 00:11:58.908 --> 00:12:05.447
  • When pharaoh trying to manipulate moses said, i've
  • 00:12:05.447 --> 00:12:09.251
  • Sinned against heaven, i've sinned before the lord, and i've
  • 00:12:09.251 --> 00:12:11.921
  • Sinned before you.
  • 00:12:11.921 --> 00:12:13.956
  • Was pharaoh repenting?
  • 00:12:13.956 --> 00:12:15.558
  • No, he was trying to deal with moses saying, shut down these
  • 00:12:15.558 --> 00:12:19.595
  • Plagues, and that why the plague of the locusts in which
  • 00:12:19.595 --> 00:12:24.266
  • Everything green in egypt had been eaten up by the locusts.
  • 00:12:24.266 --> 00:12:29.605
  • And pharaoh makes the same speech that the prodigal is
  • 00:12:29.605 --> 00:12:32.708
  • Making and you could be sure those past jews said we've heard
  • 00:12:32.708 --> 00:12:36.612
  • That before.
  • 00:12:36.612 --> 00:12:38.180
  • Yeah, that's not sincere, that's not repentance.
  • 00:12:38.180 --> 00:12:41.784
  • He tried to manipulate moses and what is the prodigal doing?
  • 00:12:41.784 --> 00:12:45.588
  • He's got a speech, he thinks he can manipulate the father.
  • 00:12:45.588 --> 00:12:49.491
  • And remember the father in this story is a symbol of
  • 00:12:49.491 --> 00:12:54.797
  • God himself.
  • 00:12:54.797 --> 00:12:57.533
  • So the prodigal gets up and i've said a long time he
  • 00:12:57.533 --> 00:13:00.836
  • Was repenting.
  • 00:13:00.836 --> 00:13:02.171
  • No, he wasn't, he was hungry, he was going home to manipulate
  • 00:13:02.171 --> 00:13:08.077
  • His dad.
  • 00:13:08.077 --> 00:13:11.013
  • And so he retraces his steps.
  • 00:13:11.013 --> 00:13:14.383
  • And then an amazing thing happens.
  • 00:13:14.383 --> 00:13:17.887
  • His father knowing that he would not make it looked out and was
  • 00:13:17.887 --> 00:13:23.425
  • Watching that road day after day, hoping, praying,
  • 00:13:23.425 --> 00:13:27.897
  • Anticipating his son would come back home.
  • 00:13:27.897 --> 00:13:32.868
  • Now let me tell you how that whole community would have
  • 00:13:32.868 --> 00:13:37.006
  • Been structured.
  • 00:13:37.006 --> 00:13:38.641
  • There would be a village in which in the middle of the
  • 00:13:38.641 --> 00:13:42.011
  • Village would be the wealthy landowners, the prosperous
  • 00:13:42.011 --> 00:13:44.713
  • People would have bigger houses and all the other houses would
  • 00:13:44.713 --> 00:13:47.950
  • Surround them.
  • 00:13:47.950 --> 00:13:49.585
  • It's not like there was a house here and there's all the land
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  • And the cattle.
  • 00:13:52.621 --> 00:13:53.956
  • Oh no, they would all have lived together and the streets would
  • 00:13:53.956 --> 00:13:57.192
  • Be probably no more than 12 feet wide through the village enough
  • 00:13:57.192 --> 00:14:03.065
  • For a loaded camel to pass.
  • 00:14:03.065 --> 00:14:05.167
  • And the second story would lean together be about 6 feet apart.
  • 00:14:05.167 --> 00:14:10.005
  • And so that father, in the middle of it, was looking out
  • 00:14:10.005 --> 00:14:14.076
  • For that son because he knew, listen carefully, if he ever
  • 00:14:14.076 --> 00:14:18.080
  • Decided to come back and the community would see him, they
  • 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:22.284
  • Would never let him get to the father.
  • 00:14:22.284 --> 00:14:25.554
  • They would have began the ceremony
  • 00:14:25.554 --> 00:14:27.823
  • Of being cut off, kezazah,
  • 00:14:27.823 --> 00:14:32.161
  • And he would be excluded and cut off and never allowed to
  • 00:14:32.161 --> 00:14:36.398
  • Go home.
  • 00:14:36.398 --> 00:14:37.900
  • So the father knew that and he watched and he watched when he
  • 00:14:37.900 --> 00:14:42.171
  • Saw him a great way off.
  • 00:14:42.171 --> 00:14:46.442
  • The father did a remarkable thing just unheard of anywhere,
  • 00:14:46.442 --> 00:14:50.813
  • Any time in culture in the bible, the father picked up his
  • 00:14:50.813 --> 00:14:54.650
  • Long robe and he climbed down and he ran to meet that son.
  • 00:14:54.650 --> 00:15:02.758
  • A jewish patriarch would never, never do that.
  • 00:15:02.758 --> 00:15:06.996
  • It was against the law, the mishnah, you know, was
  • 00:15:06.996 --> 00:15:11.033
  • Interpretation of the talmud and the torah.
  • 00:15:11.033 --> 00:15:14.837
  • And it said, if a bird would fly under a man's robe, he couldn't
  • 00:15:14.837 --> 00:15:20.709
  • Get that bird out in public, it would be embarrassing and
  • 00:15:20.709 --> 00:15:24.680
  • Disgraceful to show his ankles.
  • 00:15:24.680 --> 00:15:27.783
  • Listen, that's how pious they were about the law.
  • 00:15:27.783 --> 00:15:31.353
  • But this father, he didn't care.
  • 00:15:31.353 --> 00:15:32.955
  • He tied up his robe, he ran to meet that son.
  • 00:15:32.955 --> 00:15:36.392
  • Why?
  • 00:15:36.392 --> 00:15:38.227
  • Oh, he's glad to see him come back home.
  • 00:15:38.227 --> 00:15:40.262
  • No, he knew if he did not meet him outside that village and a
  • 00:15:40.262 --> 00:15:44.400
  • Villager would see him first, knowing that this young man,
  • 00:15:44.400 --> 00:15:47.970
  • This pig herder coming home had disgraced the father and
  • 00:15:47.970 --> 00:15:51.573
  • Disgraced the village, they would have cut him off and
  • 00:15:51.573 --> 00:15:54.376
  • Shamed him and never allowed him to come home.
  • 00:15:54.376 --> 00:15:57.246
  • So the father had to run out.
  • 00:15:57.246 --> 00:15:59.681
  • Now notice this, the boy began to make his little speech.
  • 00:15:59.681 --> 00:16:03.886
  • He said, father, i've sinned against heaven before you.
  • 00:16:03.886 --> 00:16:06.855
  • And i'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
  • 00:16:06.855 --> 00:16:09.491
  • About this time the father got there and he embraced him and he
  • 00:16:09.491 --> 00:16:13.495
  • Kissed him and covered him, i'm sure by his robe, and the son
  • 00:16:13.495 --> 00:16:18.600
  • Never got to say, make me as a hired servant.
  • 00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:25.541
  • Now watch this, the son thought he could go back and bring
  • 00:16:25.541 --> 00:16:31.513
  • Something into the grace and in the forgiveness that he hoped to
  • 00:16:31.513 --> 00:16:34.983
  • Receive his father--father make me as a hired servant and i will
  • 00:16:34.983 --> 00:16:38.787
  • Work long enough and hard enough to repay you for all the
  • 00:16:38.787 --> 00:16:43.325
  • Inheritance i have thrown away and exploited with
  • 00:16:43.325 --> 00:16:47.229
  • Sensual living.
  • 00:16:47.229 --> 00:16:50.432
  • But the son never finished that speech.
  • 00:16:50.432 --> 00:16:53.802
  • Why?
  • 00:16:53.802 --> 00:16:55.337
  • Because repentance for him was exactly what repentance was for
  • 00:16:55.337 --> 00:17:01.110
  • The sheep and the coin, it was the acceptance of being found.
  • 00:17:01.110 --> 00:17:07.282
  • Ladies and gentlemen, that's grace.
  • 00:17:07.282 --> 00:17:10.853
  • The boy thought i'm gonna go, i'm gonna earn my way back, no,
  • 00:17:10.853 --> 00:17:14.289
  • It never works like that.
  • 00:17:14.289 --> 00:17:16.625
  • It's all by the love and the grace of god.
  • 00:17:16.625 --> 00:17:19.761
  • The boy thought the problem was he'd thrown away all the money,
  • 00:17:19.761 --> 00:17:24.433
  • Though the problem was that he had broken a relationship with
  • 00:17:24.433 --> 00:17:28.036
  • His father, and that relationship was reestablished
  • 00:17:28.036 --> 00:17:31.807
  • With his father and therefore the village would never have
  • 00:17:31.807 --> 00:17:34.877
  • That ceremony of cutting him off because the father had embraced
  • 00:17:34.877 --> 00:17:38.247
  • Him and more than that, the father had said, look, bring the
  • 00:17:38.247 --> 00:17:41.984
  • Best robe and put it on him.
  • 00:17:41.984 --> 00:17:43.919
  • That was the sign of a family robe, a uniform if you would,
  • 00:17:43.919 --> 00:17:47.623
  • And they put a ring on his hand, that would be a signet ring.
  • 00:17:47.623 --> 00:17:50.893
  • He has all the authority of the family that he ever had and
  • 00:17:50.893 --> 00:17:54.329
  • He's barefooted.
  • 00:17:54.329 --> 00:17:56.231
  • He's not a slave, he put shoes on his feet.
  • 00:17:56.231 --> 00:17:58.567
  • Man, he's totally rehabilitated.
  • 00:17:58.567 --> 00:18:01.303
  • He's totally forgiven, he's back in the family with no merit of
  • 00:18:01.303 --> 00:18:05.574
  • His own.
  • 00:18:05.574 --> 00:18:07.075
  • The repentance of the prodigal was he didn't say make me as a
  • 00:18:07.075 --> 00:18:10.579
  • Hired, psh--no, it was this acceptance of the grace, the
  • 00:18:10.579 --> 00:18:14.950
  • Love, the forgiveness of being found.
  • 00:18:14.950 --> 00:18:19.354
  • Here's the question: how do you and i--we're lost, how do we
  • 00:18:19.354 --> 00:18:24.826
  • Get found?
  • 00:18:24.826 --> 00:18:26.562
  • Is it your initiative and my initiative as we go to god?
  • 00:18:26.562 --> 00:18:30.599
  • Or is it god's initiative as he comes to us?
  • 00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:33.702
  • Can i go to god any time i want to or can i go to god only when
  • 00:18:33.702 --> 00:18:38.106
  • He is leading and he is calling me to come to him?
  • 00:18:38.106 --> 00:18:41.510
  • I won't spend a lot of time with the armenians and the
  • 00:18:41.510 --> 00:18:43.779
  • Calvinists if you're a theologian.
  • 00:18:43.779 --> 00:18:46.348
  • But here we see the situation.
  • 00:18:46.348 --> 00:18:48.884
  • How do we get right? how do we get safe?
  • 00:18:48.884 --> 00:18:52.521
  • How do we know we are salvaged?
  • 00:18:52.521 --> 00:18:54.389
  • How do you know we're in god's family?
  • 00:18:54.389 --> 00:18:57.292
  • How do you know, and i know, that we're going to heaven?
  • 00:18:57.292 --> 00:19:01.363
  • Both of us have the idea, the world does at least, that god
  • 00:19:01.363 --> 00:19:06.802
  • Grades on some kind of cosmic curve.
  • 00:19:06.802 --> 00:19:10.806
  • You know, you've had class in which the teacher would grade on
  • 00:19:10.806 --> 00:19:14.376
  • The curve and they'd take the highest grade in the class, say
  • 00:19:14.376 --> 00:19:18.780
  • The highest grade was 75 and perfection was 100, but 75 would
  • 00:19:18.780 --> 00:19:23.719
  • Be the highest grade and they would take all the other grades
  • 00:19:23.719 --> 00:19:26.688
  • And marshal them on down, so, if you and i made a 40 the highest
  • 00:19:26.688 --> 00:19:30.826
  • Grade was 75 and the professor grade on a curve, that 40 might
  • 00:19:30.826 --> 00:19:35.464
  • Be a c and not an f, and so a lot of people think that god
  • 00:19:35.464 --> 00:19:40.502
  • Grades on the curve.
  • 00:19:40.502 --> 00:19:42.037
  • That god is such a god of love, that universal is
  • 00:19:42.037 --> 00:19:44.873
  • That--everybody is going to be saved.
  • 00:19:44.873 --> 00:19:47.509
  • Johns hopkins university, i think this last semester, if i
  • 00:19:47.509 --> 00:19:50.279
  • Read it correctly, they had a professor there that said he
  • 00:19:50.279 --> 00:19:53.715
  • Always grade on the curve.
  • 00:19:53.715 --> 00:19:55.951
  • And so they went in for a final exam and the class decided,
  • 00:19:55.951 --> 00:20:00.289
  • Well, he's going to grade on the curve, the highest grade will
  • 00:20:00.289 --> 00:20:04.226
  • Get an a, what if all of us do not take the final, the only
  • 00:20:04.226 --> 00:20:09.931
  • Grade for the whole semester?
  • 00:20:09.931 --> 00:20:12.267
  • And we all made a zero and he would grade on the curve, huh?
  • 00:20:12.267 --> 00:20:17.806
  • We'd all make an a and believe it or not, that's what they did
  • 00:20:17.806 --> 00:20:23.111
  • And believe it or not, he graded on the curve and all of them
  • 00:20:23.111 --> 00:20:26.448
  • Made a zero, but it was the highest grade in the room, so
  • 00:20:26.448 --> 00:20:29.351
  • All of them made an a.
  • 00:20:29.351 --> 00:20:31.820
  • That's universalism if we think we get
  • 00:20:31.820 --> 00:20:34.623
  • Right with god by doing good.
  • 00:20:34.623 --> 00:20:38.126
  • I got news for you.
  • 00:20:38.126 --> 00:20:40.162
  • God does not grade on a curve.
  • 00:20:40.162 --> 00:20:43.765
  • Sorry, he doesn't do it.
  • 00:20:43.765 --> 00:20:47.502
  • God grades on the basis of, you're either saved,
  • 00:20:47.502 --> 00:20:54.409
  • You're lost.
  • 00:20:54.409 --> 00:20:56.545
  • You're either found or you're lost.
  • 00:20:56.545 --> 00:21:00.115
  • To say it in this way, you pass or fail.
  • 00:21:00.115 --> 00:21:04.186
  • In god's course, everybody here passes or fails.
  • 00:21:04.186 --> 00:21:09.458
  • Good, better, best has nothing to do with it.
  • 00:21:09.458 --> 00:21:13.995
  • Whoa, how does that work?
  • 00:21:13.995 --> 00:21:18.200
  • You pass or you fail, what about all those good people?
  • 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:21.570
  • A lot of people are--well, how can god send anybody to hell?
  • 00:21:21.570 --> 00:21:25.307
  • Ladies and gentlemen, god never sends a person to hell.
  • 00:21:25.307 --> 00:21:29.444
  • We're free, moral agents, we make our own choice about
  • 00:21:29.444 --> 00:21:33.548
  • This thing.
  • 00:21:33.548 --> 00:21:35.050
  • You say hell is there, why?
  • 00:21:35.050 --> 00:21:36.752
  • Why does god even have to have a hell, hell is there because we
  • 00:21:36.752 --> 00:21:40.288
  • Live in a moral universe.
  • 00:21:40.288 --> 00:21:43.091
  • Without hell, there's no morality.
  • 00:21:43.091 --> 00:21:44.793
  • There's no right and there's no wrong, there's no punishment for
  • 00:21:44.793 --> 00:21:48.363
  • Wrong and there's no reward for being right.
  • 00:21:48.363 --> 00:21:51.967
  • In other words, if there's no hell, what are you gonna do with
  • 00:21:51.967 --> 00:21:54.536
  • The pedophiles?
  • 00:21:54.536 --> 00:21:56.338
  • What are you gonna do with adolf hitler?
  • 00:21:56.338 --> 00:21:58.673
  • What are you gonna do with all of those in our city right here
  • 00:21:58.673 --> 00:22:03.412
  • Where we live, who are selling thousands of children every day
  • 00:22:03.412 --> 00:22:08.817
  • In sex trafficking?
  • 00:22:08.817 --> 00:22:10.819
  • What are you gonna do with those folks?
  • 00:22:10.819 --> 00:22:14.122
  • I thank god, there's a hell and it is a moral choice that
  • 00:22:14.122 --> 00:22:19.694
  • Everybody makes.
  • 00:22:19.694 --> 00:22:21.530
  • If you're in a little boat and it goes down at sea and they
  • 00:22:21.530 --> 00:22:24.299
  • Send a boat to rescue you and you say no, i don't want to be
  • 00:22:24.299 --> 00:22:28.470
  • Rescued, i'm gonna take care of myself.
  • 00:22:28.470 --> 00:22:30.906
  • Did that boat cause you to drown at sea?
  • 00:22:30.906 --> 00:22:34.409
  • No, you drowned at sea because the choice you made not to get
  • 00:22:34.409 --> 00:22:38.280
  • On that boat.
  • 00:22:38.280 --> 00:22:40.215
  • God grades on the basis of pass or fail.
  • 00:22:40.215 --> 00:22:43.251
  • You say, well, goodness, what do i have to do to pass?
  • 00:22:43.251 --> 00:22:45.921
  • How good do you have to be?
  • 00:22:45.921 --> 00:22:47.889
  • How good do i have to be?
  • 00:22:47.889 --> 00:22:50.225
  • Now, this will blow your mind, but what the bible says, you
  • 00:22:50.225 --> 00:22:52.694
  • Know how good we have to be to be safe, to be salvaged?
  • 00:22:52.694 --> 00:22:57.165
  • We have to be as good as god.
  • 00:22:57.165 --> 00:23:00.402
  • Boy.
  • 00:23:00.402 --> 00:23:03.004
  • I'm disqualified.
  • 00:23:03.004 --> 00:23:06.041
  • You're all disqualified.
  • 00:23:06.041 --> 00:23:09.244
  • On a pass or fail basis, you're not as good as god, i'm not as
  • 00:23:09.244 --> 00:23:13.415
  • Good as god, i guess we're all permanently lost.
  • 00:23:13.415 --> 00:23:17.352
  • No, this is where grace comes in.
  • 00:23:17.352 --> 00:23:21.690
  • God sent his son jesus christ, who was perfection and he took
  • 00:23:21.690 --> 00:23:27.395
  • All the trash hypocrisy in your life and the life of every
  • 00:23:27.395 --> 00:23:32.467
  • Prodigal son or daughter upon himself and was nailed to the
  • 00:23:32.467 --> 00:23:36.271
  • Cross and died and paid the debt to god that you and i could not
  • 00:23:36.271 --> 00:23:41.643
  • Pay anymore the prodigal could pay the debt to his father and
  • 00:23:41.643 --> 00:23:45.647
  • He paid that debt.
  • 00:23:45.647 --> 00:23:47.182
  • And when we receive jesus christ, he puts in you and in me
  • 00:23:47.182 --> 00:23:51.686
  • Righteousness, he puts in you and me, jesus christ, and
  • 00:23:51.686 --> 00:23:55.757
  • Therefore those who are in christ.
  • 00:23:55.757 --> 00:23:57.859
  • God looks at you and god looks at me and says you're good
  • 00:23:57.859 --> 00:24:01.563
  • Enough, in fact, you're perfect just like my son jesus.
  • 00:24:01.563 --> 00:24:05.600
  • He paid the debt that we could not never pay.
  • 00:24:05.600 --> 00:24:11.106
  • That is grace and repentance is acceptance of being found.
  • 00:24:11.106 --> 00:24:19.314
  • Now the prodigal, now the prodigal he put on the robe
  • 00:24:19.314 --> 00:24:25.220
  • Right there when he came back home, he put the ring back on.
  • 00:24:25.220 --> 00:24:29.791
  • He'd left with a robe, lost it.
  • 00:24:29.791 --> 00:24:32.727
  • He'd left with the ring, sold it.
  • 00:24:32.727 --> 00:24:35.130
  • He'd left with shoes, he came home barefooted.
  • 00:24:35.130 --> 00:24:38.466
  • But now when he put the robe and the ring and the shoes back on,
  • 00:24:38.466 --> 00:24:43.905
  • He knew he couldn't earn his way back into the household of
  • 00:24:43.905 --> 00:24:49.578
  • The father.
  • 00:24:49.578 --> 00:24:51.012
  • He walked with new humility in his life because he knew that
  • 00:24:51.012 --> 00:24:55.083
  • Everything he was, everything he had, all the joy in his life was
  • 00:24:55.083 --> 00:25:00.622
  • A gift from the father.
  • 00:25:00.622 --> 00:25:05.927
  • That's why, that's why we call acceptance of being found,
  • 00:25:05.927 --> 00:25:13.902
  • Acceptance of being saved, acceptance of receiving
  • 00:25:13.902 --> 00:25:17.238
  • That grace.
  • 00:25:17.238 --> 00:25:19.007
  • That's why we call it, guess what?
  • 00:25:19.007 --> 00:25:23.244
  • Amazing.
  • 00:25:23.244 --> 00:25:25.614
  • Amazing.
  • 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:27.382
  • Ed: there's never been a better time than right
  • 00:25:29.751 --> 00:25:32.354
  • Now to make god a priority in your life.
  • 00:25:32.354 --> 00:25:36.024
  • That's why we've created this 90 day devotional, "putting god
  • 00:25:36.024 --> 00:25:40.362
  • First," number one.
  • 00:25:40.362 --> 00:25:42.297
  • And when you and i do that, he is faithful to give the
  • 00:25:42.297 --> 00:25:45.634
  • Direction of guidance you and i need every day to walk
  • 00:25:45.634 --> 00:25:49.237
  • Through life.
  • 00:25:49.237 --> 00:25:50.572
  • It is my prayer that this devotional will help you to
  • 00:25:50.572 --> 00:25:53.074
  • Become all that god has designed you to become.
  • 00:25:53.074 --> 00:25:57.579
  • Male announcer: call today or go online at winningwalk.org to get
  • 00:25:57.579 --> 00:26:01.349
  • Your copy of dr. young's 90 day devotional "putting god first."
  • 00:26:01.349 --> 00:26:06.154
  • Pastor ed: before my freshman year at the university of
  • 00:26:08.923 --> 00:26:11.192
  • Alabama, i worked in a tunnel.
  • 00:26:11.192 --> 00:26:14.162
  • In those days, i thought i'd be an engineer.
  • 00:26:14.162 --> 00:26:17.432
  • We were boring through an alabama mountain where a big
  • 00:26:17.432 --> 00:26:21.002
  • Water conduit was to be placed.
  • 00:26:21.002 --> 00:26:23.738
  • One contractor bored from the east and the other came in from
  • 00:26:23.738 --> 00:26:27.275
  • The west and they had to meet and then we knew they were
  • 00:26:27.275 --> 00:26:31.513
  • Getting close and we were running the lines and the grade
  • 00:26:31.513 --> 00:26:34.749
  • To make sure they'd meet, but we weren't sure, sure, sure.
  • 00:26:34.749 --> 00:26:39.020
  • I remember one morning asking have they broken through yet?
  • 00:26:39.020 --> 00:26:43.024
  • And then they answered, yes, they broke through last night on
  • 00:26:43.024 --> 00:26:46.995
  • The graveyard shift because they worked that mine 24/7.
  • 00:26:46.995 --> 00:26:52.200
  • They broke through on the graveyard shift.
  • 00:26:52.200 --> 00:26:56.171
  • Years later, it hit me.
  • 00:26:56.171 --> 00:26:58.273
  • Jesus worked the graveyard shift at the cross.
  • 00:26:58.273 --> 00:27:02.310
  • He broke through the tunnel of death and defeated death
  • 00:27:02.310 --> 00:27:05.847
  • Forever, for those who receive him.
  • 00:27:05.847 --> 00:27:09.584
  • We can be confident in our future, knowing that jesus
  • 00:27:09.584 --> 00:27:13.421
  • Christ will carry us all the way through this life and then he'll
  • 00:27:13.421 --> 00:27:18.359
  • Carry us all the way to heaven.
  • 00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:21.896
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:21.896 --> 00:27:29.010