Such a privilege to be here and Chancellor
Falwell, I didn't have dinner with Mel Gibson, but I had dinner with my wife a couple of
nights ago. She says hello. Sounds like a pretty awesome Spring Break,
by the way, just saying. That's pretty incredible. It's, you know, goes without saying what a
thrill it is to be here and just to be on the same stage as Doctor Towns. I so appreciate his writings and his leadership. I really do. We love you. You're an amazing man and a true legend and
I grew up watching Dr. Falwell on TV on Sunday mornings and it's a privilege to be here with
you as well, Chancellor Falwell and your vice president is one of the nicest human beings
in the world. You really are, Johnnie. You're an amazing man and you got great leadership
here, don't you? Are you alive and well? Yeah? Hey, let me read a Scripture to you and I'm
just going to share for a few brief moments and as it's been said I'm from sunny Seattle,
and--man, shut up. I shouldn't have said that. This is Convocation! Please forgive me. I should have worn a tie this morning. You all forgive me for that, too. I'm from Seattle; I'm like one of five Christians
in Seattle so pray for me, okay? Luke chapter 15, can I read this to you? Luke chapter 15. Hey, you guys got robbed. Like, that's a fact. You got robbed last night in Dayton, Ohio. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. We will forgive, but we will never forget. Can I say one more thing? Like I'm really sorry, I thought your mascot
was the Eagles because of Sparky, like, Sparky … the Eagles. So I said, "Go Eagles!" and then I found out
you're the Flames, so--which is awesome. I love flames and eagles, like they're both--I
mean, who doesn't like flames and eagles, you know? So, okay. Luke 15. Luke 15: "Then all the tax collectors and
sinners drew near to Him to hear Him, and the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying,
'This man receives sinners and eats with them.' So He spoke this parable to them, saying…"
and we have the parable of the sheep, the parable of the coin and I want to jump in
our reading to verse 11. It says, "Then Jesus went on, saying, 'A certain
man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father,
"Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided them, his livelihood, and not
many days after the younger son gathered it all together, journeyed to a far country,
and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. When he had spent all, there arose a severe
famine in that land. He began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen
of that country and he sent him in to the fields to feed pigs. He would gladly have filled his stomach with
the pods that the swine ate, but no one gave him anything. When he came to himself he said, "How many
of my father's hired servants have bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger? I will arise, go to my father, and will say
to him, 'Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.'" Put an underscore in your reading that word
that the son uses, "worthy." "'No longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.' And he rose and came to his father but when
he was still a great way off his father saw him, had compassion, ran, fell on his neck
and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned
against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring
out the best robe and put it on him and out a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf'"--filet mignon--"'and
kill it. Let's eat and be merry.'" Who loves red meat in here? Somebody shout, "amen!" In Seattle we eat a lot of tofu but I love
animals so much I eat them. Come on, somebody. Let me read one more Scripture to you. Ephesians chapter, 2 verse 8: "For by grace
you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast." I want to speak to you just briefly this morning
from the subject "What am I worth?" What am I worth? Would you ask the person sitting next to you,
and obviously this couple's not sitting together but you guys just made contact. But just ask the person next to you "What
am I worth?" just real quick. Just, you know, ask them. What am I worth? Now, this is a really long conversation you're
having. You're supposed to ask one question. This is a--hey, would you pray with me one
more time? Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you so much for Your Word. We ask now by the power of Your Holy Spirit
that you would help us to see Jesus and even experience Him in these brief moments we have. We thank you for your grace, Lord, to think,
Lord, where you've brought us from. What an honor and what a privilege it is to
be here. We love you so much. In Jesus' Name, and Lord help the Sonics come
back. In Jesus' Name, and everybody said? Amen. Here's a – “Go, go, Steelers?” That's the lowest thing anyone could have
ever said to me at this point. 2005, I will never forget. The Super Purchase is what I call that game. But anyways, let's focus on Jesus this morning. Here's a question we've all asked. Everyone, no matter who you are, no matter
your background, no matter your cultural context. Here's a question we've all asked, maybe not
in these particular words, but at least the gist. This is what we've all asked: what am I worth? What am I worth? And, well, “what's the criteria?” I think the next question is, “What's the
criteria by which you answer that all-important question?” What am I worth? Maybe you look in the mirror and you go, "Well,
I like my reflection. I like how my eyes are lined up. My ears are pretty level. I must be worth something; I'm easy on the
eyes." These are of course conversations I have in
the morning, but, you know – What? Thanks for laughing. What? I was serious. What am I worth? Well, what am I worth? My family, we've got a lot of money in the
bank. What am I - What am I worth? Well, I'm a nice guy, you know. What do you say when that thought passes through
your mind? That concept, that question, "What am I - What
am I worth?" I'm a good person, I'm a nice person, I'm
all for senior citizens, I love helping little old ladies cross the street, I open doors
for girls and guys. You know, I'm a pretty nice person. What am I – What am I worth? Well, I'm--I get pretty amazing grades, I
mean, what am I worth? I mean, I'm the top echelon at Liberty University. What am I worth? I am - I'm cum laude, or whatever that is. I forgot the term. But--you could tell I need more education. But, you know, how do you answer that question? What am I worth? We answer it with social status and wealth
and giftings and abilities and looks and success of all kind or as we define it and determine
it, and it is very apparent to me, as I'm sure it is to you, that nearly across the
board, we all believe that worth is earned. Worth is earned. We, we, many of us, we work from this premise,
that in our social structure and our culture that if you're going to be accepted, if you're
going to be befriended, if you're going to be valued, if you're going to be appreciated,
you have to earn it. You have to prove to people that you're worth
something. You're worth their attention, you're worth
their time, you're worth their words, their affection, whatever it is. I'm going to prove to the world what I'm worth. Now, this is not news to anyone here this
morning. This is much of how our society functions. Some of you, you put on deodorant this morning
so people could sit next to you, at least we hope you're wearing deodorant, gentlemen. What am I – What am I worth? Well, I think sometimes the Pharisees and
Sadducees, these guys, I think they get a really bad rap. Can I just say that? I don't think they're great guys. But I think they were logical. I think they were indicative of the society
and setting that they lived in. They really believed that worth was earned. And that's why when Jesus shows up in the
social setting, Jesus shows up in His cultural context there in the Middle East, okay. He is--truly Jesus is socially frustrating. Like we watch these beautiful, thank goodness
for Mark Burnett and his courage in the Bible series and we watch these movies and we're
all just adoring Jesus as we should, but if you were there at that moment some of His
words, His actions, how He conducted Himself socially, was flat frustrating. The people that Jesus befriended, the people
that Jesus socially developed relationships with—Zacchaeus – you want to talk about
Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus is a thug. Sometimes we make these people that Jesus
befriended, we make them out to be kind of down on their luck kind of people that have
been maligned and abused when in fact Jesus befriended many people who did the maligning
and did the abusing. So no wonder people like the Pharisees and
Saducees and some of the Jewish crowd were frustrated by Jesus' actions, His words and
the people that He socially hung out with. Why? And the reason they're frustrated is because
they too believed that, well, worth has to be earned. And so the scribes and Pharisees in Luke 15,
they ask Him an honest question. It's really not a question as much as a statement
and a complaint. They said, "Look, Jesus, You hang out with
the low-lifes. You hang out with crooks, criminals, and thugs. You're hanging out with sinners." This was a derogatory term in its original
context in setting and language. "You hang out with the outcasts. You hang out with the dogs." Jesus is going to give us an explanation why. Why does Jesus show up and befriend people,
love people, care for people, pursue people that are not worthy of that kind of attention. Bad people. Jesus rewarded bad people with goodness. That's frustrating. Is that not frustrating? When how many of you--I mean, it's just, when
you work really, really hard and somebody next to you who cheated, you work hard to
study for your test, you work hard to study for your grades, and Mr. Cheater over here--notice
I called him a dude. Sorry, guys--they get rewarded? This is frustrating. Jesus says, wait. He goes on to explain why - why he hangs out
with bad people. Starts off, His first story is of a shepherd. And I love Jesus ‘cause he talks in the
language of the day, right? Sheep were like Hondas today, okay? It'd be like this guy had a hundred Hondas
and we're all like, "Yeah, I've seen a Honda, okay?" Side note: Prius, I don't think any man should
drive a Prius. Just, let's move on. It's just - it's--that's irrelevant. We--who cares? Just throwing it in there. But, it's like talking about Hondas, right? So he's like, "Look, this shepherd had a 100
sheep." They all knew sheep. Sheep were everywhere, okay? And He goes, well, this particular shepherd
had a hundred sheep and he counted his sheep one day and recognized that, "Oh, wow, I'm
missing one." Now, I am not a mathematical genius, in fact,
quite the opposite, okay. I am a mathematical dropout, okay. But I know the sum value of ninety-nine is
a lot greater than one. Frankly if you gave me a hundo, and I broke
it down to ones and I misplaced $1 I probably wouldn't even lose any sleep cause I still
got 99. But Jesus tells a story where this illogical
shepherd still has 99 of the 100 sheep he has, but he risks the greater sum value to
go after the one. Does anyone have issue with this parable? This doesn't make any sense. What an irresponsible shepherd. Who's back with the 99? He's off with the one, but 99’s greater
than one, and the one deserves to be lost. He's dumb. He's the wanderer and he got what he deserved. But the shepherd leaves the good 99 and goes
after the dumb wandering one. What is Jesus talking about? And then we go to the next parable and He
says and there's this woman and she's got a coin collection. Cool. All right. Great. She's got 10 coins. She counts her coins and she's missing a coin. She goes bonkers. She goes ballistic. She's flipping her mattress over, she's got
all the cushions on the couch, it's flying everywhere. Who knows where the 9 coins are now? They're buried in the shrapnel of her sheets
and mattresses and cushions because she lost a coin. What are we talking about, Jesus? What is He trying to say? Friends, this--it's funny how we read these
parables, we're like, "Oh, isn't it beautiful?" No it's not beautiful; it's illogical. It's ridiculous. Okay, so, the first two stories you could
kind of like say, "Look, a sheep, they're dumb." Ironically it's a metaphor used for us as
human beings, but anyways, sheep are like the dumbest animals ever, so like, the sheep
made his own choice. Coins, coins are inanimate objects. They can't think, so frankly it's the lady's
problem, right? It's like, "Look lady, you lost your own coin. Can't help you, okay?" But the final story deals with a human being
who has a will, emotions, and a soul, and--the Bible says, we already read the story. It's this guys. He's, you know, put a lot away for the college
fund, retirement fund for his boys. He's got two boys and the younger of the boys
says, "Dad, look, I'm moving to Amsterdam, I want my stuff." Poor Amsterdam, you know? But--Vegas, okay, we'll go with Vegas. But he's like, "Look, I'm going to--I'm out. I want to party. Give me my stuff." Dad says, "Is this what you really want?" He goes, "Yeah, that's what I really want." He goes off. He parties. He's got friends as long as he's got cash. He runs out. Now he finds himself out in the farmlands
and he's working for a farmer and he's feeding the pigs but the small print on his job description
says, "You can't even eat the pig's food." Yeah, the guy's at his lowest, lowest, and
what comes to mind to this son is how good it was at Dad's place. But notice his knee-jerk reaction is not,
"I'll go back and be a son." His knee-jerk reaction is, "I'll go back and
see if I can become an employee, because obviously I'm no longer worthy of being a son. I had abdicated that right. So I'll go back and just see if Dad will become
my boss. No longer my father, just my boss. I will not be his son, I will be an employee." This is a picture of how we process things. This is the human condition on display. "If I don't bat a 1,000, if I don't cross
all my t's and dot all my i's, then I am no longer worthy. I have not earned the right?" And almost now in society we define humility
this way. Humility now is, you know, when you failed
and when you faltered, you have to expect less and think less of yourself. When of course humility is not thinking less
of yourself, it's not thinking of yourself at all. But anyways, he goes back and he prepares
his speech, doesn't he? Little, pathetic little speech. But I can relate with it. And something ridiculous unfolds for us. Now remember, Jesus is literally just telling
these stories. He's got a great crowd of Jews listening who
have been under the tyranny of some 200-plus laws, and Jesus does something extraordinary
in this story. He says, "Now when the son starts to return
home, his father saw him" because evidently his father had been looking on a regular basis
for the return of his son. And the son comes, but the son doesn't even
get all the way home because the father runs out to see him. Now when Jesus said the father ran, all the
Jews present would have sucked air because dudes in that day didn't run. Jesus is telling an illustration, a story
here of exceptional, ridiculous, illogical, counter-culture kind of love. He says, "The father ran." What am I worth? Boy, we're about to learn. So far we've got two stories, the one and
the 99, the one and the nine. The one seems to be worth a whole lot to God. Maybe the shepherd is revealing the Son. Maybe the woman's revealing the Spirit. Maybe the father here is revealing the Heavenly
Father. Maybe the answer Jesus has given us is, "The
reason I hang out with low-lifes and bad people, undeserving, unworthy people, is because I
am who I am." The Bible says the father runs. And you know what's funny? This little, this pathetic, little speech
that the boy prepares - do you know the father never even acknowledges it? You notice that? He doesn't even give it the time of day. You know there are people here this morning. You are busy preparing your comeback speech
with God. And I have great news for you: He's going
to ignore it. You think that's how you're going to be blessed,
that's how you're going to have a good life? Because you say it all right and you make
up for lost time and you really convince God that He should hire you as an employee, but
it's very apparent to me that that's not at all how God works. He functions on the basis of grace. Grace and truth, truth and grace, embodied
in one person: Jesus. And the Bible says that the father fell on
his neck and started kissing his face off. And the son - seems to me, the son is kind
of uncomfortable in the embrace, isn't he? While he's being held by his father, he's
trying to communicate. "No, I know I'm not a son anymore. Just make me an employee." Ha, ha, ha, ha. this kid thinks he was a son
in the first place because he earned it? Ha. You think that's how the Kingdom of God works? You earn it? Jesus said you must be born again. Do you know how you enter the Kingdom of God? Birth. Birth. And birth is a gift. I've got an eight-year-old, a six-year-old,
and a three-year-old. I can only imagine. Zion is my eight-year-old's name. Zion comes to me at the breakfast table and
says, "Dad, I've got an announcement to make." "Okay." He would talk like this too, by the way. "Dad, I have an announcement to make. I believe today I have finally earned the
right to be a Smith and I am glad to say that I am now worthy to be your son." I would probably say something to the effect
of, "Shut up and eat your Rice Checks." Gluten-free, it's how we roll. "No, no, dad, really." "No, no, son, really. Shut up. You think you're a son by worth? You're a son by birth. You just became a Smith. It was a gift. Accept it, enjoy it, but please do not offend
me by trying to earn it. Be who you really are." This father seems to be a beautiful picture
of our Heavenly Father. He's completely disinterested in this son's
comeback plan. He just wants to hold him, but it seems to
me the son is uncomfortable with the embrace, just like many of us are very uncomfortable
with this illogical truth of God called "grace." I don't--what do you mean, you just love me? You forgive me? But I'll try harder. I'll make it better. Ha, ha, ha, ha. As if! It's amazing to me as we squirm in this embrace
called "grace," and we're so trying to, like we're going to impress God. Ha, ha. That we actually think, like, God's going
to be like, "Wow! Michael! Get over here!" "She just prayed 38 minutes! Wow, never in all of eternity have I seen
that!" "She got a B plus! Whooh!" God loves you. He doesn't need you, but He wants you, and
He loves you. But the only thing that impresses God is His
Son, and that's why it's impossible to please God without faith, because it's impossible
to please God without Jesus. And all of us who trust in Jesus are pleasing
to God, for our life is now hidden in Christ and when God sees us He sees Christ. It’s sheer gift. It’s sheer grace. We accept Him. We trust Him, put our life in Him, and now
our life is lost as He lives his life through us and when the Father sees us, He sees His
Son, and we are loved and we are accepted and we are approved. Wow! The Father - I feel bad for these kind Jews
listening to these metaphors, listening to these parables. He says, "So the father turns to his servants
and says, 'Get a ring! Get a robe! Get sandals! Let's party!'" And all the nice Jews are just sitting there
going, "Party for what? ‘Cause he squandered the family's inheritance? He marred the family name? You reward him like he's coming home from
Liberty University with a PhD! Quite the opposite and you're throwing--you
got filet mignon, you killed the little baby cow for him! How does this guy - where does he get off
thinking this is okay?" It's grace on display. Look at the infinite worth of the one sheep,
the one coin, and the one son. They were all lost. Look at the ridiculous measures the shepherd
goes to, the woman goes to, and the father goes to. God is clearly telling us that we cannot find
our worth in the world we live in, but we find our worth in the image we were created
in. We were created in God's image, and we are
His and He loves us, and when we put our trust in His perfect sinless Son, we're accepted
and we are His. I'll end with this - could someone play the
piano? Is that okay if we do that? ‘Cause it just makes me sound extra spiritual
at the end if someone--it's awesome. Just wait, it's so cool, it's great. If someone could just play the piano and then
it will just get really awesome. Whatever. Jesus--by the way, your outfit is sensational. It's true. I love this guy. What's your name? Brandon? Friends forever, bro! I love you. Brandon's awesome. Oh, and Dr. Towns, your outfit is next level. You look amazing. He just asked how does his outfit look? Incredible! Anything you do is incredible. I'm just going on record to say that. Anytime you're ready, Brandon. Hey, Jesus - there's just one setting in Mark
chapter 10. And you know the story; you're brilliant Bible
scholars. Jesus is approached by parents with their
kids - remember this story? And all of His disciples start shooing the
kids and parents away and Jesus says, "No, no, no, no, no. Let them come to me." And the Bible says He grabbed them, took the
kids up in His arms and He held them. And then He says these words, listen closely:
"Unless you become like one of these, you will not see or understand my Kingdom." We have to let God hold us, embrace us, even
when we don't deserve it, friends. Our responsibility is to become simple and
uncomplicated like a child, and just trust the embrace of grace. Trust this God who accepts us and loves us. I pray that you'll experience that today. Can I pray for you? Father, we thank you so much for your grace
today. Lord, we are overwhelmed with the thought
of who you are and what you've extended to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray for your presence, your goodness,
and your love to sweep through this place and may these extraordinary students know
that they are who they are by the grace of God. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.
