The Lessons of Life

We open the Word of God to Luke chapter 15. We're going to be doing this for several Sunday evenings, examining the parable of the prodigal son. Most people say, well, why would you preach the parable of the prodigal son on a Sunday evening to a congregation composed primarily of believers? Why not go to the mission with this? Well, of course, the parable of the prodigal son is a great evangelistic passage, no question about that, but there's much more to it than that.

And all scripture is profitable to us. And so tonight we want to talk about the lessons of life. Life is a school.

Life has its dropouts. You'll meet people all over Chicago who in one way or another have dropped out of school. They've either become dope addicts or alcoholics or entertainment addicts.

Some of them have become emotionally disturbed to the point where others have to care for them, and this is always a sad thing. Some do it with activity. Some do it with isolation.

Some do it with meanness. I don't think anyone here tonight wants to drop out of school. Of course, the ultimate in dropping out of the school of life is suicide.

It's rather interesting that the one professional group in America that has the highest rate of suicides is psychiatrists, and they are the ones who are supposed to be helping us in the school of life. Now, there are three ways you can learn in the school of life. You can learn by education.

I mean by that reading books and listening to lectures and watching movies and listening to tapes. You can learn about life through education, and this is good. Or you can learn about life through example.

You can watch the lives of other people, and you can say, I see that this is what happened to him. I don't want that to happen to me. The third way, of course, is by experience.

You have to go through it yourself. There's some things you cannot learn except by experience. You can read books about swimming and watch movies about swimming and even go watch the Olympics and not know how to swim.

At some point, somebody has to push you in the water. You have to swallow some water and gurgle a little bit and start swimming. This is how I learned how to ride a bicycle.

One of the neighbors was sick and tired of seeing this kid running around the street not knowing how to ride a bicycle, and so he put me on my sister's bike without my sister's permission and just gave me a push. And you either go or you drop, and I went. I don't recommend you learn how to drive an automobile that way, but it worked for the bicycle.

Now, when it comes to things that are physical in the dexterity of the fingers and the feet and the hands, you have to have experience. But you know, one of the saddest ways to learn the lessons of life spiritually is to do it the way the prodigal son did, the hard way. It's not necessary for a person to get electrocuted to learn about electricity.

It's not necessary for a person to get poisoned to learn about poison. My doctor does not have to have cancer to be able to operate on people who do have cancer, nor is it necessary for us to sin in order to learn some of the lessons of life. But sad to say this is the way the prodigal learned.

I want you to follow me as I read Luke 15, beginning at verse 11, and would you notice the three lessons that this young man learned through the difficult experiences of life? And he said a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after that, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.

And when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

And they began to be merry. Now, there are three lessons that this young man learned in the school of life. First, he learned a lesson about sin.

He learned the meaning of misery. Now, none of us has to go out and sin against the Lord to learn this lesson about sin. We can learn it from this book.

We can learn it from his experience. None of us has to go out and practice sin to learn these lessons. Now, what did he learn about sin? Well, basically, he learned that sin is deceitful.

You remember in the book of Hebrews, the warning is there, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Now, sin is very deceitful. For example, sin promises life and always brings death.

He learned that. You see, sin says to you, oh, you can have pleasure. And Hebrews chapter 11, verse 25, says there is pleasure in sin.

If there were not pleasure in sin, people wouldn't sin. But you see, sin begins with pleasure and then it leads to pain. You remember when Jesus performed his first miracle, when he turned the water into wine and the people drank the wine, they said to the toastmaster of the wedding feast, you've saved the best wine until now.

For the Christian who obeys God, the best is yet to come. There's pleasure and more pleasure and more pleasure. The path of the justice is the shining light that shineth more and more under that perfect day.

There's fruit and more fruit and much fruit. But sin operates just the opposite. It begins with pleasure, then less pleasure, then less pleasure, then no pleasure, then pain and then intense pain and then eternal pain.

And this young man learned the hard way that sin promises life, but it always brings death. The father said in verse 24, this my son was dead. Now, I don't have to amplify this tonight.

You folks know from the word of God that sin will kill everything in us. Sin will kill the conscience. Sin will kill the intelligence.

Sin will ultimately kill the will. It paralyzes. Sin kills the body.

Sin can damn the soul. Sin promises life and always brings death. What does James say? Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin, like the birth of a baby, and sin when it is full grown bringeth forth death.

The second thing he learned about sin was that sin promises freedom and always brings slavery. The boy was sick and tired of being home. He cried out for freedom.

There's something in everybody that just cries out for freedom. I don't want to be under anybody's discipline. Later on, we're going to have the sad responsibility of meeting his elder brother.

I'm tempted to believe that if I had an elder brother like that, I might have wanted to leave home, too. I don't know. But the Lord doesn't give this as an excuse.

Here's a young man who says, I don't want to be fenced in. Don't fence me in. Don't tie me down.

I want to have freedom. Many years ago, P.T. Forsyth, the great congregational theologian in Great Britain, made a magnificent statement. I have never forgotten it.

I didn't hear him say it. I read it in one of his books. And Dr. Forsyth said, every man's responsibility is not to find his freedom, but to find his master.

Every man's responsibility is not to find his freedom, but to find his master. Everybody has to have a master. There must be some power that controls our lives.

And the master you choose will determine the life that you live. And this young man said, I want to be free. I want to run my own life.

Of course, this is a part of the promise that Satan comes along with. In Genesis chapter 3, Satan said to the first woman, he said, now look, why do you want to be under the thumb of God? You can be free. Why? If you'll partake of this fruit, you'll know the difference between good and evil, and you'll be like God.

That's been the lie that Satan has foisted upon civilization ever since. Man can be like God. That's Romans chapter 1. They worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator.

And sin always promises freedom, but it brings slavery. It's the worst kind of slavery. Because when that slavery first begins, it seems like freedom, doing what I want to do, enjoying what I want to enjoy.

But they forget that the important thing in life is not doing what I want to do or enjoying what I want to enjoy, but being what God wants me to be. Being is far more important than doing or enjoying. And slavery begins with a sense of false freedom, and then it turns into just a little bit of slavery, and a little bit more, and a little bit more, until finally the person is completely enslaved by sin.

This young man was out looking for freedom. He ended up being told what to do by the pigs. You see, the pigs weren't working for him.

He was working for the pigs. He discovered a third deceitful thing about sin. Sin promises life and always brings death.

Sin promises freedom and always brings slavery. Sin promises success and always brings failure. Now, everybody wants to be a success.

Some people don't know what success is, but this fellow, he said, I want to be a success. I don't want to be here at home, and my father tells me what to do, and my big brother tells me what to do. If I were just on my own, I would be a great success.

And sin promises success. Be independent. Be your own self.

You know what God's success formula is? If you've never memorized it, memorize it. Save you some trouble. Matthew chapter 25, verse 21, that's God's success formula, where he says, well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.

Now, there are three parts to that success formula. Number one, you start as a servant, and you end up as a ruler. Number two, you start with a few things, and God gives you many things, if you're faithful.

Number three, you start with work, and you end up with joy. Now, this is God's success formula. You start as a servant, learning how to take orders, and you graduate, if you're faithful, to being a ruler, knowing how to give orders.

You start with a few things, and if you're successful with them, being faithful, God gives you many things. You start with good, hard work, and if you're faithful, God gives you joy. You can see this illustrated all through the Bible.

It was true of Joseph. God said, Joseph, one day you're going to be a king, but I'm going to start you off as a servant. And so, he began as a slave in Potiphar's household.

He began as a laborer in the jail, in the prison. One day, God made him a ruler. He started off taking care of a few things.

One day, God gave him the whole land of Egypt. He started off with hard work, and one day, God gave him the joy of sitting on the throne. This was true of David.

David started by taking care of a few sheep. He started off as a servant. He became a ruler.

He started off with a few sheep. He ended up with the nation of Israel. He started off with hard work, and he ended up with joy.

This was true of Nehemiah. This was true of Timothy. This was true of Paul.

This was true of the apostles. This is God's success formula. Now, the prodigal son reversed that formula.

Sin comes to you and says, start off as a ruler, and you'll be a big wheel. He started off as important. Where did he end up? A servant.

Sin says, start off with everything. Boy, just take as much as you can get. Where did he end up? Nothing.

He lost his shoes. He lost his ring. That ring was a mark of sonship.

Sin says to you, start off with great joy, and where do you end up? Toil. You see, the prodigal son completely reversed God's formula for success because sin promises success and always brings failure. And alas, we still have people today who say, I don't intend to start at the bottom.

I'm going to start at the top. God says, all right, you want to start at the top. It's a long fall.

I don't intend to start with a few things. I'm too important for that. I want to start with many things.

Fine. It's a big loss. I don't intend to work.

Not going to get me to get my hands dirty. I'm just going to enjoy life. You'll end up working.

Toil. Pain. And so, sin always promises success and brings failure.

Finally, sin promises that you'll find yourself, but you'll lose yourself. It says here he came to himself, which means he was beside himself. He wasn't himself.

Sin comes and says to the young man or the young woman, it doesn't have to be young either. It could be an older person. You know, you really ought to find yourself.

Get out there in the world and live it up and really find yourself. You'll never find yourself until you express yourself. I was handed a newspaper clipping this evening.

I always appreciate it when people give me these things because I can't read everything. A psychologist has recommended that we permit teenagers to have trial marriages. You're not married, but you live together as though you are married.

This takes the pressure off of adolescence. And if it works out, fine, you can get married. If it doesn't work out, well, you can just forget about it.

Oh, but that doesn't work. It's been proved over and over again. I'm surprised he hasn't read the studies on this, that where there is no commitment, there can be no growth in love and devotion.

And you can't build a home on that kind of a thing. You can't build a marriage on the installment plan. You've got to put your name on that contract and say it's forever.

But this is the way sin is. You see, sin says, oh, you can find yourself. But ultimately you end up losing yourself.

You see, when you yield yourself to Jesus Christ, you find yourself. Each one of us is different and you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. God doesn't make you like anybody else.

God doesn't say I have to be like D.L. Moody or D.L. Moody had to be like Charles Spurgeon or Spurgeon had to be like McShane or McShane had to be like Calvin. When you yield yourself to sin, you become like everybody else. Sin has a way of conforming you to everybody else.

Sin is a factory. Sin is an assembly line where everybody comes out with the same scars and the same pain and the same ruin. But Jesus Christ doesn't work that way.

He's the potter who takes each life individually and molds you the way he wants you to be. So this young man, the hard way, learned a lesson about sin. He learned the meaning of misery.

Sin does not keep its promises. It promises life and brings death. It promises freedom and brings slavery.

It promises success and brings failure. It promises you'll find yourself and you lose yourself. There's a second lesson he learned.

He not only learned a lesson about sin, the meaning of misery, but he learned a lesson about himself, the meaning of maturity. I want to talk to you about maturity. Our world has become a great big playpen and a lot of immature people are playing with their toys.

I have a feeling that some of the automobile accidents out on our highways are caused by grown-up people thinking they're playing with cars in a sandbox in somebody's backyard. An automobile for some so-called adults becomes a toy and get out of my way. I think it was yesterday we were coming home, we're going to a banquet, I've forgotten which, and two, no it was this morning I think, two cars were racing each other down the street, a city street.

A lot of immaturity. Now this boy had the idea he wanted to be mature. Did you notice in this lesson the false marks of maturity? You see, one mark of immaturity is not knowing what maturity is.

For example, this boy was indifferent. They think that by being indifferent, I don't care what my father thinks, I don't care about my home. You hear this phrase, ask me if I care.

That's supposed to be a mark of maturity. That's not a mark of maturity, it's a mark of immaturity. Mature people do care.

Mature people care very deeply that what they do doesn't hurt somebody else. But he thought that indifference was a mark of maturity and his friends said, oh, I like to see you do that. Well, that's great.

I notice here he was independent. Father, give me. He didn't say, Father, what's the best way to use my inheritance? Father, you worked so hard to get this for me, how should I use it? No, independence.

A lot of these folks don't know the difference between independence and true freedom. They think that independence is a mark of maturity. I can hardly wait till I'm old enough to do what I want to do.

Well, you'll never get that place unless you come to the place where the Lord is able to tell you what to do. God can't turn somebody loose who can do whatever he wants to do. I can't do whatever I want to do, nor can you.

That's the worst kind of bondage. It's not a mark of maturity. I notice here his impatience, verse 13, not many days after he gathered it all together and went out to the far country.

Impatience is not a mark of maturity, it's a mark of immaturity. Children can't wait. Is it Christmas yet? Is it my birthday yet? Are we there yet? Children can't wait.

Adults can wait. I've spent many hours talking with people about this matter of marriage. Oh, we just can't wait.

If it's the real thing, it'll keep. If it's not the real thing, you better give yourself time to find out it's not the real thing. If it's the real thing, it will keep.

It'll pass the test, indifference and independence and impatience. But the real mark here of immaturity, and he thought it was a mark of really being grown up, indulgence. He wasted his substance in riotous living.

A little kid says to his mother as she sends him off to bed, boy, just wait till I'm grown up. I'm going to stay up all night. And you know, when he gets old enough to be able to decide to stay up all night, you know what he's going to do? He's going to go to bed.

He'll be tired. Indulgence. Why do people have the idea it's a mark of maturity to spend money any way you want to spend it? That's not maturity.

That's childish. And yet some Christians spend their money like a kid going to a county fair. It's a mark of maturity, they think, to be able to eat, drink and be married, do what you want to do, indulgence.

And yet this is hardly a mark of maturity. You see, maturity means you can tell the difference. When a person is mature, he's able to make distinctions.

When you're teaching a little child how to talk, for example, and the doggie goes running across the street and you say, and the little child says, so he comes to the conclusion it has two ears and four legs and a tail. It's a bow wow. And so you're driving out in the country and you see a cow, four legs and two ears and a tail.

Bow wow. Oh, no, no. Moo moo.

Oh, so you got to make a distinction, say. Now, as a child grows older and matures, he learns how to make distinctions. This young man was unable to make distinctions, for example.

He didn't know the difference between popularity and success. He thought that because he was popular, he was successful. And he wasn't.

He was popular because he was rich. If your circle of friends is in your life because of what you have and not because of what you are, they aren't your friends. The Lord Jesus Christ was the poorest of the poor, yet he gathered around himself a wonderful group of people because of who he was and what he was, not because of what he had.

Popularity is a lot is a great deal different from success and success from popularity. There are many people who are successful who aren't popular. Jeremiah was a success.

He wasn't popular. Paul was a success. He wasn't popular.

There are many people who are popular who aren't successful. Barabbas was popular. The crowd said, give us Barabbas, crucify Jesus.

He was popular. He wasn't successful. You can go through the Bible and you can go through history and find people who didn't know the difference between popularity and success, between reputation and character.

And my friend, if you are building your life on the things that you possess to get the crowd that you want, you're a failure. This young man didn't know the difference between prices and values. A lot of people haven't learned that.

Prices and values. You go to a little child and you have, well, you have a nickel and a dime. You can't buy much with the two of them together anymore, but you have a nickel and a dime and you say, which one do you want? Well, the nickel's bigger.

And so a child goes by size, unless someone has whispered in his ear, take the dime. See, the average child goes by size. And yet you and I would say, now, wait a minute, that dime is worth much more than the nickel.

Neither one is worth much, but the dime is worth more than the nickel. This young man did not know the difference between prices and values. He thought that because he had things, he had values.

Someone has said that a teenager is a person who knows the value of the price of everything and the value of nothing. That's not true of every teenager, but it's also true of some adults. It's good to have the things that money can buy if you don't lose the things money can't buy.

What good is a $100,000 house without a home? What good is a $50,000 ring without love? And here's a young man who didn't know the difference between prices and values. We have people like that today. He didn't know the difference between independence and freedom.

See, God says you can't be independent. Nobody here tonight can be independent. We come into this world as little children, as babies, totally dependent.

As a child grows into adolescence, he becomes independent. But as he grows into maturity in adulthood, he becomes interdependent. You can't be independent.

I dare you to manufacture your own electricity. I dare you to have your own police system, your own fire system. I dare you to have your own medical supplies.

You can't do it. Nobody can be independent. We desperately need each other, especially in the city.

We've learned to be interdependent. And true freedom is not independence. I'm going to have my own way.

True freedom means I'm interdependent. I'm going to become what God wants me to become and make my contribution to this world, to the church, to the home. But this young man didn't know the difference between independence and freedom.

I suppose every young man, every young woman at some point has said, I want to be totally free. I want to be absolutely independent. Only to find out it just doesn't work.

So he learned the meaning of maturity. We won't go into it in detail. I've already preached about this in a previous message, but his two prayers indicate the change in his life.

Verse 12. Father, give me. That's the baby.

Verse 19. Father, make me. That's the mature person.

The immature person goes through life saying, give me, give me, give me, give me. The mature person says, make me. Make me.

Fulfill in me what you want to fulfill, which leads us to our third lesson that he learned. He learned the meaning of misery, a lesson about sin. He learned the meaning of maturity, a lesson about himself.

And he learned the meaning of mercy, a lesson about salvation. And of course, that's the main lesson of this parable. Back in verse one and two of chapter 15, then drew near unto him all the tax collectors and the sinners to hear him, Jesus.

And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners, plural, and eateth with them. And so here you had two groups of people. You had the scribes and Pharisees over there criticizing.

You had the publicans and sinners over here listening to the Lord Jesus. As I pointed out in our first message in this series, is it not unusual? Jesus attracted sinners. The Pharisees repelled them.

We have the crazy idea that when you get more like the Lord Jesus, unsaved people want less and less to do with you. That just isn't true. The more we become like the Lord Jesus, the more there is an attractiveness to us where the salt of the earth and salt makes people thirsty.

They don't agree with us. They don't understand this, but they say there's something there and I want to find out what it is. And so the whole thrust of this parable is that our loving heavenly father receives sinners.

Now, the Pharisees couldn't figure that out. Their theology said, if you are a sinner, you're done for. But my Lord says, if you are a sinner, come to me.

I think this is one of the most beautiful pictures of what Paul wrote over in Ephesians chapter two. Let me read it to you. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ by grace are ye saved.

Now, what's he saying here? Number one, God is great in love. Number two, God is rich in mercy. And number three, God is rich in grace.

Did you know that people are not saved simply because God loves them? God loves the whole world and the whole world's not saved when God's love is translated into grace and mercy through Calvary. Then there's salvation. Now, what's the difference? I've told you many times what the difference is.

Grace means God gives me what I don't deserve. Mercy means God doesn't give me what I do deserve. Can you remember that? Grace means God gives me what I don't deserve.

Mercy means God doesn't give me what I do deserve. Now, this parable says to me, God is great in love. When the father saw him, he had compassion on him and he ran to him and he embraced him and he kissed him and he talked to him.

I wonder how many fathers would do that today. This is Calvary love, God's soul of the world. You know, in the other two parables in this chapter, the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, the shepherd went out to find the sheep, the woman went out and found the coin, but here the father did not go out and find the son.

Interesting, isn't it? You see, the first two parables show us that God searches for sinners. The last parable says sinners should come to God. Some of our great evangelical churches today are being split right down the middle over the old argument, which nobody has yet settled, between man's decision and God's election.

And the Lord Jesus kind of put them both together in these parables. He said, look, yes, God does go out and find the lost sheep. Sheep didn't come back.

The man went out and found him. Yes, the woman does look for the lost coin with the image on it. We have the image of God and God comes for us.

But lest anybody think it's very mechanical, he adds this third parable where the father in love just waits and suffers. And when the son makes that move home, the father's there to meet him more than halfway. Nobody, nobody can look up to God and say, I wasn't saved because you didn't save me.

Mr. Moody used to pray, Lord, save the elect and then elect some more. Now, that may not be very good theology. I don't know.

But the sentiment of it, I like. I have yet to go to a rescue mission and say to the people, now, if you're one of God's elect, listen to me. I don't know who the elect are.

Only God does. And so I'm glad I can preach the word of God to whosoever will and let God take care of the rest of it. The father in love met the son.

He's great in love. He was rich in mercy. Now, if you'll read Deuteronomy chapter 21, you'll find out what the law said he was supposed to do.

Deuteronomy chapter 21 says, if a man has a son who is stubborn and rebellious, go tell the elders about it, take him outside the city and stone him to death. That was the law. And so when this boy came home, the father could have taken him outside the city and stoned him to death.

But mercy means God does not give us what we do deserve. I deserved hell. I still do.

But God and his mercy forgave. And God is not only rich in mercy, he's rich in grace. Grace means God gives me what I don't deserve.

What did he give to the fellow? Did you notice here that everything he was looking for, he found back home? Russell Conwell used to run all over the world giving his famous lecture, which is in print on acres of diamonds, told the same stories over and over again about people who went all over looking for what they wanted to find. And when they got back home, there it was. And that's what happened here.

This young man wanted to have clothes. He ended up in a dirty old robe in the pig pen. When he came home, he got clothes.

He wanted jewelry. When he came home, he got a got a ring. He wanted the best shoes.

They put shoes on his feet. He wanted to eat. They gave him a meal.

They killed a fatted calf. He wanted to have parties. They gave him a party.

Now, why didn't the father give all of this to him before he left home? He wasn't ready for it. He wasn't ready for it. Too bad he had to learn the hard way.

But he learned the meaning of mercy. He learned a lesson about salvation. God is rich in grace.

God is rich in mercy and God is great in love. The boy came home and he said, look, I'll work my way. I'll be a servant.

Oh, but by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And so he put the robe on him and the ring on him and the shoes on him and the food in him and the joy around him and everything he was looking for, he found back home.

Which says this to me, the things you are looking for in life, you'll never find until you come to the father. God has them. You'll find substitutes, but you won't find the realities of life until you come to the father.

This young man was lost. This my son was lost and he's found again. This young man was ignorant.

It says he came to himself. This young man was dead. My son was dead.

He's alive again. Here are the three conditions of every unsaved person. Lost, ignorant, dead.

But it says he came to the father. Whenever I read that little phrase, he came to the father, I instantly think of John chapter 14 in verse six. Remember what it says? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the father but by me. If you're lost, I'm the way. If you're ignorant, I'm the truth.

If you're dead, I'm the life. You can come through me to the father. In other words, it was not a cheap thing for the father to forgive his son.

Don't get the idea it was a cheap sentimental thing. Oh no, it was an expensive thing, a costly thing. It cost the father for this boy to sin and it cost the father for this boy to come home and it cost the father to forgive me.

It cost him his son, Jesus Christ. Well, there are some of these lessons we cannot learn except by experience. The first lesson, please don't learn by experience.

The second lesson, please don't learn by experience. You can learn about sin from God's word. You can learn about maturity from God's word.

That third lesson, salvation, that's something you have to experience. I wonder if anybody here tonight will say, I will arise and go. Because if you will, you'll discover a beautiful thing.

The father is going to meet you more than halfway and you won't come home to being a servant. Before you even get there, you'll find his arms around you, the embrace of love, the kiss of love, the forgiveness of love from your heavenly father. Let's pray.

Thank you, father, for giving us in the word your truth. I pray for any who may be here tonight who have never come home and never come to the father to be saved through Jesus Christ. Thank you, father, that you are great in love.

You are rich in mercy. You are rich in grace. Thank you.

You haven't given us what we do deserve. You gave to Jesus what he didn't deserve. Oh, how he suffered for us.

Thank you that your grace is free. We can't earn it. We can receive it by faith.

I pray, father, that you'll help people here tonight to come and receive Jesus Christ and be born into your family, receive the robe of righteousness and the ring of sonship and the spiritual food and begin to be merry and continue to be merry until they enter into the joy of the Lord eternally. For we pray in Jesus name. Amen.