Ed Young - Wasted and Wanting

September 5, 2025 | S25 E3605 | 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 | September 5, 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?
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  • 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
  • 00:09:07.493 --> 00:09:10.529
  • 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.
  • 00:09:45.631 --> 00:09:49.902
  • 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.
  • 00:10:04.483 --> 00:10:11.657
  • So the prodigal came to his senses.
  • 00:10:11.657 --> 00:10:17.897
  • He said he came to himself.
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  • He didn't come with the idea, i've got to get back in
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  • Relationship with my father.
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  • He didn't come with the idea, boy, i've done wrong,
  • 00:10:25.738 --> 00:10:27.339
  • Taking all that money from my dad.
  • 00:10:27.339 --> 00:10:29.108
  • 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
  • 00:10:37.650 --> 00:10:40.986
  • 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
  • 00:10:48.527 --> 00:10:53.766
  • 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
  • 00:11:00.172 --> 00:11:04.877
  • Fix myself.
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  • I'm gonna leave my wife, my husband, that's my problem, i'm
  • 00:11:06.512 --> 00:11:09.582
  • Gonna fix myself.
  • 00:11:09.582 --> 00:11:11.150
  • It's the job that i have, it's where i live, i'm gonna
  • 00:11:11.150 --> 00:11:14.487
  • Fix myself.
  • 00:11:14.487 --> 00:11:16.155
  • And a lot of us, just like the prodigal he said, he came to
  • 00:11:16.155 --> 00:11:18.824
  • Himself, i'm gonna fix myself.
  • 00:11:18.824 --> 00:11:22.328
  • And he made up this little speech.
  • 00:11:22.328 --> 00:11:24.830
  • 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.
  • 00:11:35.674 --> 00:11:38.944
  • Because remember his audience?
  • 00:11:38.944 --> 00:11:41.781
  • Who is he talking to primarily?
  • 00:11:41.781 --> 00:11:44.116
  • The scribes and pharisees.
  • 00:11:44.116 --> 00:11:45.918
  • One thing about the scribes and pharisees, they knew the bible.
  • 00:11:45.918 --> 00:11:50.856
  • And when the prodigal started saying, i've sinned against
  • 00:11:50.856 --> 00:11:54.927
  • Heaven and before you, they recognize that as almost the
  • 00:11:54.927 --> 00:11:59.899
  • Same words pharaoh spoke to moses after the ninth plague,
  • 00:11:59.899 --> 00:12:06.438
  • When pharaoh trying to manipulate moses said, i've
  • 00:12:06.438 --> 00:12:10.242
  • Sinned against heaven, i've sinned before the lord, and i've
  • 00:12:10.242 --> 00:12:12.912
  • Sinned before you.
  • 00:12:12.912 --> 00:12:14.947
  • Was pharaoh repenting?
  • 00:12:14.947 --> 00:12:16.549
  • No, he was trying to deal with moses saying, shut down these
  • 00:12:16.549 --> 00:12:20.586
  • Plagues, and that why the plague of the locusts in which
  • 00:12:20.586 --> 00:12:25.257
  • Everything green in egypt had been eaten up by the locusts.
  • 00:12:25.257 --> 00:12:30.596
  • And pharaoh makes the same speech that the prodigal is
  • 00:12:30.596 --> 00:12:33.699
  • Making and you could be sure those past jews said we've heard
  • 00:12:33.699 --> 00:12:37.603
  • That before.
  • 00:12:37.603 --> 00:12:39.171
  • Yeah, that's not sincere, that's not repentance.
  • 00:12:39.171 --> 00:12:42.775
  • He tried to manipulate moses and what is the prodigal doing?
  • 00:12:42.775 --> 00:12:46.579
  • He's got a speech, he thinks he can manipulate the father.
  • 00:12:46.579 --> 00:12:50.482
  • And remember the father in this story is a symbol of
  • 00:12:50.482 --> 00:12:55.788
  • God himself.
  • 00:12:55.788 --> 00:12:58.524
  • So the prodigal gets up and i've said a long time he
  • 00:12:58.524 --> 00:13:01.827
  • Was repenting.
  • 00:13:01.827 --> 00:13:03.162
  • No, he wasn't, he was hungry, he was going home to manipulate
  • 00:13:03.162 --> 00:13:09.068
  • His dad.
  • 00:13:09.068 --> 00:13:12.004
  • And so he retraces his steps.
  • 00:13:12.004 --> 00:13:15.374
  • And then an amazing thing happens.
  • 00:13:15.374 --> 00:13:18.878
  • His father knowing that he would not make it looked out and was
  • 00:13:18.878 --> 00:13:24.416
  • Watching that road day after day, hoping, praying,
  • 00:13:24.416 --> 00:13:28.888
  • Anticipating his son would come back home.
  • 00:13:28.888 --> 00:13:33.859
  • Now let me tell you how that whole community would have
  • 00:13:33.859 --> 00:13:37.997
  • Been structured.
  • 00:13:37.997 --> 00:13:39.632
  • There would be a village in which in the middle of the
  • 00:13:39.632 --> 00:13:43.002
  • Village would be the wealthy landowners, the prosperous
  • 00:13:43.002 --> 00:13:45.704
  • People would have bigger houses and all the other houses would
  • 00:13:45.704 --> 00:13:48.941
  • Surround them.
  • 00:13:48.941 --> 00:13:50.576
  • It's not like there was a house here and there's all the land
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  • And the cattle.
  • 00:13:53.612 --> 00:13:54.947
  • Oh no, they would all have lived together and the streets would
  • 00:13:54.947 --> 00:13:58.183
  • Be probably no more than 12 feet wide through the village enough
  • 00:13:58.183 --> 00:14:04.056
  • For a loaded camel to pass.
  • 00:14:04.056 --> 00:14:06.158
  • And the second story would lean together be about 6 feet apart.
  • 00:14:06.158 --> 00:14:10.996
  • And so that father, in the middle of it, was looking out
  • 00:14:10.996 --> 00:14:15.067
  • For that son because he knew, listen carefully, if he ever
  • 00:14:15.067 --> 00:14:19.071
  • Decided to come back and the community would see him, they
  • 00:14:19.071 --> 00:14:23.275
  • Would never let him get to the father.
  • 00:14:23.275 --> 00:14:26.545
  • They would have began the ceremony
  • 00:14:26.545 --> 00:14:28.814
  • Of being cut off, kezazah,
  • 00:14:28.814 --> 00:14:33.152
  • And he would be excluded and cut off and never allowed to
  • 00:14:33.152 --> 00:14:37.389
  • Go home.
  • 00:14:37.389 --> 00:14:38.891
  • So the father knew that and he watched and he watched when he
  • 00:14:38.891 --> 00:14:43.162
  • Saw him a great way off.
  • 00:14:43.162 --> 00:14:47.433
  • The father did a remarkable thing just unheard of anywhere,
  • 00:14:47.433 --> 00:14:51.804
  • Any time in culture in the bible, the father picked up his
  • 00:14:51.804 --> 00:14:55.641
  • Long robe and he climbed down and he ran to meet that son.
  • 00:14:55.641 --> 00:15:03.749
  • A jewish patriarch would never, never do that.
  • 00:15:03.749 --> 00:15:07.987
  • It was against the law, the mishnah, you know, was
  • 00:15:07.987 --> 00:15:12.024
  • Interpretation of the talmud and the torah.
  • 00:15:12.024 --> 00:15:15.828
  • And it said, if a bird would fly under a man's robe, he couldn't
  • 00:15:15.828 --> 00:15:21.700
  • Get that bird out in public, it would be embarrassing and
  • 00:15:21.700 --> 00:15:25.671
  • Disgraceful to show his ankles.
  • 00:15:25.671 --> 00:15:28.774
  • Listen, that's how pious they were about the law.
  • 00:15:28.774 --> 00:15:32.344
  • But this father, he didn't care.
  • 00:15:32.344 --> 00:15:33.946
  • He tied up his robe, he ran to meet that son.
  • 00:15:33.946 --> 00:15:37.383
  • Why?
  • 00:15:37.383 --> 00:15:39.218
  • Oh, he's glad to see him come back home.
  • 00:15:39.218 --> 00:15:41.253
  • No, he knew if he did not meet him outside that village and a
  • 00:15:41.253 --> 00:15:45.391
  • Villager would see him first, knowing that this young man,
  • 00:15:45.391 --> 00:15:48.961
  • This pig herder coming home had disgraced the father and
  • 00:15:48.961 --> 00:15:52.564
  • Disgraced the village, they would have cut him off and
  • 00:15:52.564 --> 00:15:55.367
  • Shamed him and never allowed him to come home.
  • 00:15:55.367 --> 00:15:58.237
  • So the father had to run out.
  • 00:15:58.237 --> 00:16:00.672
  • Now notice this, the boy began to make his little speech.
  • 00:16:00.672 --> 00:16:04.877
  • He said, father, i've sinned against heaven before you.
  • 00:16:04.877 --> 00:16:07.846
  • And i'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
  • 00:16:07.846 --> 00:16:10.482
  • About this time the father got there and he embraced him and he
  • 00:16:10.482 --> 00:16:14.486
  • Kissed him and covered him, i'm sure by his robe, and the son
  • 00:16:14.486 --> 00:16:19.591
  • Never got to say, make me as a hired servant.
  • 00:16:19.591 --> 00:16:26.532
  • Now watch this, the son thought he could go back and bring
  • 00:16:26.532 --> 00:16:32.504
  • Something into the grace and in the forgiveness that he hoped to
  • 00:16:32.504 --> 00:16:35.974
  • Receive his father--father make me as a hired servant and i will
  • 00:16:35.974 --> 00:16:39.778
  • Work long enough and hard enough to repay you for all the
  • 00:16:39.778 --> 00:16:44.316
  • Inheritance i have thrown away and exploited with
  • 00:16:44.316 --> 00:16:48.220
  • Sensual living.
  • 00:16:48.220 --> 00:16:51.423
  • But the son never finished that speech.
  • 00:16:51.423 --> 00:16:54.793
  • Why?
  • 00:16:54.793 --> 00:16:56.328
  • Because repentance for him was exactly what repentance was for
  • 00:16:56.328 --> 00:17:02.101
  • The sheep and the coin, it was the acceptance of being found.
  • 00:17:02.101 --> 00:17:08.273
  • Ladies and gentlemen, that's grace.
  • 00:17:08.273 --> 00:17:11.844
  • The boy thought i'm gonna go, i'm gonna earn my way back, no,
  • 00:17:11.844 --> 00:17:15.280
  • It never works like that.
  • 00:17:15.280 --> 00:17:17.616
  • It's all by the love and the grace of god.
  • 00:17:17.616 --> 00:17:20.752
  • The boy thought the problem was he'd thrown away all the money,
  • 00:17:20.752 --> 00:17:25.424
  • Though the problem was that he had broken a relationship with
  • 00:17:25.424 --> 00:17:29.027
  • His father, and that relationship was reestablished
  • 00:17:29.027 --> 00:17:32.798
  • With his father and therefore the village would never have
  • 00:17:32.798 --> 00:17:35.868
  • That ceremony of cutting him off because the father had embraced
  • 00:17:35.868 --> 00:17:39.238
  • Him and more than that, the father had said, look, bring the
  • 00:17:39.238 --> 00:17:42.975
  • Best robe and put it on him.
  • 00:17:42.975 --> 00:17:44.910
  • That was the sign of a family robe, a uniform if you would,
  • 00:17:44.910 --> 00:17:48.614
  • And they put a ring on his hand, that would be a signet ring.
  • 00:17:48.614 --> 00:17:51.884
  • He has all the authority of the family that he ever had and
  • 00:17:51.884 --> 00:17:55.320
  • He's barefooted.
  • 00:17:55.320 --> 00:17:57.222
  • He's not a slave, he put shoes on his feet.
  • 00:17:57.222 --> 00:17:59.558
  • Man, he's totally rehabilitated.
  • 00:17:59.558 --> 00:18:02.294
  • He's totally forgiven, he's back in the family with no merit of
  • 00:18:02.294 --> 00:18:06.565
  • His own.
  • 00:18:06.565 --> 00:18:08.066
  • The repentance of the prodigal was he didn't say make me as a
  • 00:18:08.066 --> 00:18:11.570
  • Hired, psh--no, it was this acceptance of the grace, the
  • 00:18:11.570 --> 00:18:15.941
  • Love, the forgiveness of being found.
  • 00:18:15.941 --> 00:18:20.345
  • Here's the question: how do you and i--we're lost, how do we
  • 00:18:20.345 --> 00:18:25.817
  • Get found?
  • 00:18:25.817 --> 00:18:27.553
  • Is it your initiative and my initiative as we go to god?
  • 00:18:27.553 --> 00:18:31.590
  • Or is it god's initiative as he comes to us?
  • 00:18:31.590 --> 00:18:34.693
  • Can i go to god any time i want to or can i go to god only when
  • 00:18:34.693 --> 00:18:39.097
  • He is leading and he is calling me to come to him?
  • 00:18:39.097 --> 00:18:42.501
  • I won't spend a lot of time with the armenians and the
  • 00:18:42.501 --> 00:18:44.770
  • Calvinists if you're a theologian.
  • 00:18:44.770 --> 00:18:47.339
  • But here we see the situation.
  • 00:18:47.339 --> 00:18:49.875
  • How do we get right? how do we get safe?
  • 00:18:49.875 --> 00:18:53.512
  • How do we know we are salvaged?
  • 00:18:53.512 --> 00:18:55.380
  • How do you know we're in god's family?
  • 00:18:55.380 --> 00:18:58.283
  • How do you know, and i know, that we're going to heaven?
  • 00:18:58.283 --> 00:19:02.354
  • Both of us have the idea, the world does at least, that god
  • 00:19:02.354 --> 00:19:07.793
  • Grades on some kind of cosmic curve.
  • 00:19:07.793 --> 00:19:11.797
  • You know, you've had class in which the teacher would grade on
  • 00:19:11.797 --> 00:19:15.367
  • The curve and they'd take the highest grade in the class, say
  • 00:19:15.367 --> 00:19:19.771
  • The highest grade was 75 and perfection was 100, but 75 would
  • 00:19:19.771 --> 00:19:24.710
  • Be the highest grade and they would take all the other grades
  • 00:19:24.710 --> 00:19:27.679
  • And marshal them on down, so, if you and i made a 40 the highest
  • 00:19:27.679 --> 00:19:31.817
  • Grade was 75 and the professor grade on a curve, that 40 might
  • 00:19:31.817 --> 00:19:36.455
  • Be a c and not an f, and so a lot of people think that god
  • 00:19:36.455 --> 00:19:41.493
  • Grades on the curve.
  • 00:19:41.493 --> 00:19:43.028
  • That god is such a god of love, that universal is
  • 00:19:43.028 --> 00:19:45.864
  • That--everybody is going to be saved.
  • 00:19:45.864 --> 00:19:48.500
  • Johns hopkins university, i think this last semester, if i
  • 00:19:48.500 --> 00:19:51.270
  • Read it correctly, they had a professor there that said he
  • 00:19:51.270 --> 00:19:54.706
  • Always grade on the curve.
  • 00:19:54.706 --> 00:19:56.942
  • And so they went in for a final exam and the class decided,
  • 00:19:56.942 --> 00:20:01.280
  • Well, he's going to grade on the curve, the highest grade will
  • 00:20:01.280 --> 00:20:05.217
  • Get an a, what if all of us do not take the final, the only
  • 00:20:05.217 --> 00:20:10.922
  • Grade for the whole semester?
  • 00:20:10.922 --> 00:20:13.258
  • And we all made a zero and he would grade on the curve, huh?
  • 00:20:13.258 --> 00:20:18.797
  • We'd all make an a and believe it or not, that's what they did
  • 00:20:18.797 --> 00:20:24.102
  • And believe it or not, he graded on the curve and all of them
  • 00:20:24.102 --> 00:20:27.439
  • Made a zero, but it was the highest grade in the room, so
  • 00:20:27.439 --> 00:20:30.342
  • All of them made an a.
  • 00:20:30.342 --> 00:20:32.811
  • That's universalism if we think we get
  • 00:20:32.811 --> 00:20:35.614
  • Right with god by doing good.
  • 00:20:35.614 --> 00:20:39.117
  • I got news for you.
  • 00:20:39.117 --> 00:20:41.153
  • God does not grade on a curve.
  • 00:20:41.153 --> 00:20:44.756
  • Sorry, he doesn't do it.
  • 00:20:44.756 --> 00:20:48.493
  • God grades on the basis of, you're either saved,
  • 00:20:48.493 --> 00:20:55.400
  • You're lost.
  • 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:57.536
  • You're either found or you're lost.
  • 00:20:57.536 --> 00:21:01.106
  • To say it in this way, you pass or fail.
  • 00:21:01.106 --> 00:21:05.177
  • In god's course, everybody here passes or fails.
  • 00:21:05.177 --> 00:21:10.449
  • Good, better, best has nothing to do with it.
  • 00:21:10.449 --> 00:21:14.986
  • Whoa, how does that work?
  • 00:21:14.986 --> 00:21:19.191
  • You pass or you fail, what about all those good people?
  • 00:21:19.191 --> 00:21:22.561
  • A lot of people are--well, how can god send anybody to hell?
  • 00:21:22.561 --> 00:21:26.298
  • Ladies and gentlemen, god never sends a person to hell.
  • 00:21:26.298 --> 00:21:30.435
  • We're free, moral agents, we make our own choice about
  • 00:21:30.435 --> 00:21:34.539
  • This thing.
  • 00:21:34.539 --> 00:21:36.041
  • You say hell is there, why?
  • 00:21:36.041 --> 00:21:37.743
  • Why does god even have to have a hell, hell is there because we
  • 00:21:37.743 --> 00:21:41.279
  • Live in a moral universe.
  • 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:44.082
  • Without hell, there's no morality.
  • 00:21:44.082 --> 00:21:45.784
  • There's no right and there's no wrong, there's no punishment for
  • 00:21:45.784 --> 00:21:49.354
  • Wrong and there's no reward for being right.
  • 00:21:49.354 --> 00:21:52.958
  • In other words, if there's no hell, what are you gonna do with
  • 00:21:52.958 --> 00:21:55.527
  • The pedophiles?
  • 00:21:55.527 --> 00:21:57.329
  • What are you gonna do with adolf hitler?
  • 00:21:57.329 --> 00:21:59.664
  • What are you gonna do with all of those in our city right here
  • 00:21:59.664 --> 00:22:04.403
  • Where we live, who are selling thousands of children every day
  • 00:22:04.403 --> 00:22:09.808
  • In sex trafficking?
  • 00:22:09.808 --> 00:22:11.810
  • What are you gonna do with those folks?
  • 00:22:11.810 --> 00:22:15.113
  • I thank god, there's a hell and it is a moral choice that
  • 00:22:15.113 --> 00:22:20.685
  • Everybody makes.
  • 00:22:20.685 --> 00:22:22.521
  • If you're in a little boat and it goes down at sea and they
  • 00:22:22.521 --> 00:22:25.290
  • Send a boat to rescue you and you say no, i don't want to be
  • 00:22:25.290 --> 00:22:29.461
  • Rescued, i'm gonna take care of myself.
  • 00:22:29.461 --> 00:22:31.897
  • Did that boat cause you to drown at sea?
  • 00:22:31.897 --> 00:22:35.400
  • No, you drowned at sea because the choice you made not to get
  • 00:22:35.400 --> 00:22:39.271
  • On that boat.
  • 00:22:39.271 --> 00:22:41.206
  • God grades on the basis of pass or fail.
  • 00:22:41.206 --> 00:22:44.242
  • You say, well, goodness, what do i have to do to pass?
  • 00:22:44.242 --> 00:22:46.912
  • How good do you have to be?
  • 00:22:46.912 --> 00:22:48.880
  • How good do i have to be?
  • 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:51.216
  • Now, this will blow your mind, but what the bible says, you
  • 00:22:51.216 --> 00:22:53.685
  • Know how good we have to be to be safe, to be salvaged?
  • 00:22:53.685 --> 00:22:58.156
  • We have to be as good as god.
  • 00:22:58.156 --> 00:23:01.393
  • Boy.
  • 00:23:01.393 --> 00:23:03.995
  • I'm disqualified.
  • 00:23:03.995 --> 00:23:07.032
  • You're all disqualified.
  • 00:23:07.032 --> 00:23:10.235
  • On a pass or fail basis, you're not as good as god, i'm not as
  • 00:23:10.235 --> 00:23:14.406
  • Good as god, i guess we're all permanently lost.
  • 00:23:14.406 --> 00:23:18.343
  • No, this is where grace comes in.
  • 00:23:18.343 --> 00:23:22.681
  • God sent his son jesus christ, who was perfection and he took
  • 00:23:22.681 --> 00:23:28.386
  • All the trash hypocrisy in your life and the life of every
  • 00:23:28.386 --> 00:23:33.458
  • Prodigal son or daughter upon himself and was nailed to the
  • 00:23:33.458 --> 00:23:37.262
  • Cross and died and paid the debt to god that you and i could not
  • 00:23:37.262 --> 00:23:42.634
  • Pay anymore the prodigal could pay the debt to his father and
  • 00:23:42.634 --> 00:23:46.638
  • He paid that debt.
  • 00:23:46.638 --> 00:23:48.173
  • And when we receive jesus christ, he puts in you and in me
  • 00:23:48.173 --> 00:23:52.677
  • Righteousness, he puts in you and me, jesus christ, and
  • 00:23:52.677 --> 00:23:56.748
  • Therefore those who are in christ.
  • 00:23:56.748 --> 00:23:58.850
  • God looks at you and god looks at me and says you're good
  • 00:23:58.850 --> 00:24:02.554
  • Enough, in fact, you're perfect just like my son jesus.
  • 00:24:02.554 --> 00:24:06.591
  • He paid the debt that we could not never pay.
  • 00:24:06.591 --> 00:24:12.097
  • That is grace and repentance is acceptance of being found.
  • 00:24:12.097 --> 00:24:20.305
  • Now the prodigal, now the prodigal he put on the robe
  • 00:24:20.305 --> 00:24:26.211
  • Right there when he came back home, he put the ring back on.
  • 00:24:26.211 --> 00:24:30.782
  • He'd left with a robe, lost it.
  • 00:24:30.782 --> 00:24:33.718
  • He'd left with the ring, sold it.
  • 00:24:33.718 --> 00:24:36.121
  • He'd left with shoes, he came home barefooted.
  • 00:24:36.121 --> 00:24:39.457
  • But now when he put the robe and the ring and the shoes back on,
  • 00:24:39.457 --> 00:24:44.896
  • He knew he couldn't earn his way back into the household of
  • 00:24:44.896 --> 00:24:50.569
  • The father.
  • 00:24:50.569 --> 00:24:52.003
  • He walked with new humility in his life because he knew that
  • 00:24:52.003 --> 00:24:56.074
  • Everything he was, everything he had, all the joy in his life was
  • 00:24:56.074 --> 00:25:01.613
  • A gift from the father.
  • 00:25:01.613 --> 00:25:06.918
  • That's why, that's why we call acceptance of being found,
  • 00:25:06.918 --> 00:25:14.893
  • Acceptance of being saved, acceptance of receiving
  • 00:25:14.893 --> 00:25:18.229
  • That grace.
  • 00:25:18.229 --> 00:25:19.998
  • That's why we call it, guess what?
  • 00:25:19.998 --> 00:25:24.235
  • Amazing.
  • 00:25:24.235 --> 00:25:26.605
  • Amazing.
  • 00:25:26.671 --> 00:25:28.373
  • Ed: there's never been a better time than right
  • 00:25:30.742 --> 00:25:33.345
  • Now to make god a priority in your life.
  • 00:25:33.345 --> 00:25:37.015
  • That's why we've created this 90 day devotional, "putting god
  • 00:25:37.015 --> 00:25:41.353
  • First," number one.
  • 00:25:41.353 --> 00:25:43.288
  • And when you and i do that, he is faithful to give the
  • 00:25:43.288 --> 00:25:46.625
  • Direction of guidance you and i need every day to walk
  • 00:25:46.625 --> 00:25:50.228
  • Through life.
  • 00:25:50.228 --> 00:25:51.563
  • It is my prayer that this devotional will help you to
  • 00:25:51.563 --> 00:25:54.065
  • Become all that god has designed you to become.
  • 00:25:54.065 --> 00:25:58.570
  • Male announcer: call today or go online at winningwalk.org to get
  • 00:25:58.570 --> 00:26:02.340
  • Your copy of dr. young's 90 day devotional "putting god first."
  • 00:26:02.340 --> 00:26:07.145
  • Pastor ed: before my freshman year at the university of
  • 00:26:09.914 --> 00:26:12.183
  • Alabama, i worked in a tunnel.
  • 00:26:12.183 --> 00:26:15.153
  • In those days, i thought i'd be an engineer.
  • 00:26:15.153 --> 00:26:18.423
  • We were boring through an alabama mountain where a big
  • 00:26:18.423 --> 00:26:21.993
  • Water conduit was to be placed.
  • 00:26:21.993 --> 00:26:24.729
  • One contractor bored from the east and the other came in from
  • 00:26:24.729 --> 00:26:28.266
  • The west and they had to meet and then we knew they were
  • 00:26:28.266 --> 00:26:32.504
  • Getting close and we were running the lines and the grade
  • 00:26:32.504 --> 00:26:35.740
  • To make sure they'd meet, but we weren't sure, sure, sure.
  • 00:26:35.740 --> 00:26:40.011
  • I remember one morning asking have they broken through yet?
  • 00:26:40.011 --> 00:26:44.015
  • And then they answered, yes, they broke through last night on
  • 00:26:44.015 --> 00:26:47.986
  • The graveyard shift because they worked that mine 24/7.
  • 00:26:47.986 --> 00:26:53.191
  • They broke through on the graveyard shift.
  • 00:26:53.191 --> 00:26:57.162
  • Years later, it hit me.
  • 00:26:57.162 --> 00:26:59.264
  • Jesus worked the graveyard shift at the cross.
  • 00:26:59.264 --> 00:27:03.301
  • He broke through the tunnel of death and defeated death
  • 00:27:03.301 --> 00:27:06.838
  • Forever, for those who receive him.
  • 00:27:06.838 --> 00:27:10.575
  • We can be confident in our future, knowing that jesus
  • 00:27:10.575 --> 00:27:14.412
  • Christ will carry us all the way through this life and then he'll
  • 00:27:14.412 --> 00:27:19.350
  • Carry us all the way to heaven.
  • 00:27:19.350 --> 00:27:22.887
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:22.887 --> 00:27:30.000