>>DAVID NASSER: We have with us a pastor,
a church planter today. 22 weeks ago, Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr. and
his wife planted, and their team planted, a church in the Miami area. It started out of a Bible study. It was called Rendezvous, and then Vous church
was birthed out just a Bible study, and in 22 weeks they're meeting in a school. They have about 15 hundred people who are
already a part of this church body. In 22 weeks that is just phenomenal, just
to see the hand of God on their life as church planters making a real difference in one of
the great cities in the world: Miami. Rich and his wife have just faithfully just
been serving the Lord there in that city, and recently he just released his very first
book: Sandcastle Kings. We're going to have that available to you
after convo today. Rich has graciously agreed to sign books and
wants to meet you. Kanye West just did all the artwork on this
book. He did all the graphics and design; Rich was
telling me he did all this. I guess to say thank you since Rich officiated
he and Kim Kardashian's wedding, so that's kind of fun. You know, that just brings up, I think, an
interesting point about our guest. He has the ability I think, just the graciousness,
to walk into the life of people who are very influential and to be salt, and to be light,
and to invest into them and meet them right where they are, and to bring grace and truth. Very few people right now on this planet have
been given that kind of passport, have been given that kind of access. Man, we're just grateful that God has given
that to you, and that you've been a good steward of it, buddy. We're just proud of you. Can't wait to sit under your teaching today. He's going to open God's word for us, and
it's going to be amazing. But let's watch this sizzle reel about his
reality TV show, and then Rich will come up and open God's word for us. Let's watch this. >>VIDEO: I am Rich Wilkerson. Just look right at me. I love my life. How sick is this? Right? It's beyond anything I ever dreamt it could
be. Oh, and did I mention? I'm a pastor. "We live on!" I felt the Lord saying, Rich, you and DawnCheré
are supposed to step out, and you're supposed to plant a church. Do you guys have the resources? No. Do you guys have a plan? Not really. Are you scared? Yes! We're on a journey to bring faith to our generation
in a whole new way. I don't think people are interested in you
know, like tell me what I can and can't do, but I think people are interested in having
a relationship with God. We've got all sorts of people up in this place
united under one name. His name is Jesus, and if we come together
united, nothing is impossible. Man, this whole journey so far has already
brought us around so many great people, from friends in New York to friends in LA, to our
community here in Miami. Hey, how are you doing? There's some water and things in there. Is that good man? You doing all right? My family is my greatest asset. We go one, we go all. Even when we don't see eye to eye. If you lose, you're going to take a legacy
down. Certainly there will be obstacles. How are we gonna pay for this? With the infertility, do you ever have down
moments? Yeah. But, I believe because of God the best is
always yet to come. If you love Jesus, give Jesus one more shout
of praise. I'm ready to do this. >>RICH WILKERSON JR.: Dramatic. Hey, it is so good to be here with you guys
this morning, and grateful for this opportunity to get to come and speak at this amazing,
amazing school. And I appreciate you being here today, and
man I'm just blown away. It's not every day you get to spend your Wednesday
morning worshipping with 10,000 plus college students, and hopefully you realize the privilege
you have in getting to come here and worship Jesus and lift up his name. Come on, if you love your school, come on,
why don't you give your school a huge ovation? And, you know, I've got to be honest with
you; I've been so impressed with the leadership of this place. We kind of try to go places that we feel like
we have relationship with, people we can partner with, and likeminded, same-spirited people,
and I've just so enjoyed it. I've been so honored from the moment I got
off the plane here in Lynchburg. What up Lynchburg? I've been amazing, and I don't know about
you, but I sure love David Nasser. Can we go ahead and give him a big round of
applause? Just thankful for him, and I'm grateful for
his leadership. If you have a Bible this morning, or if you've
got something on your phone, turn with me to Luke chapter 15. I know I'm supposed to talk about my book,
but I guess I wasn't thinking. I just felt the Lord speak and kind of lead
me in a different direction; however, we do have some of the books. The book's called Sandcastle Kings***. It's really a whole book about Jesus. It's kind of got one message: it’s like
Jesus. So really I think the idea of the whole book
is that a lot of people tend to build their life on good things, yet the premise is a
good thing becomes a bad thing when we make it the foundational thing. There should only really be one foundational
thing; his name is Jesus, because storms come. We can't prevent storms, but we can prepare
for storms, and when your storm does come the question is what is your life built on? We live in a world today of sandcastle kings,
and I believe this book wants to expose and honor Jesus in a key way. I'd love for you to get it. I think we've got a few here today. I want to talk to some of you guys if you
want to come by, and we'll say hello, but the Lord kind of led me to different direction. Luke chapter 15, we're going to start in verse
28. I am from Miami, Florida, and holler at your
boy. Just planted a church 27 weeks ago. We don't know what we're doing. We're in a middle school; pray for us. It's called Vous church; it's short for rendezvous. Try spelling rendezvous. There's a silent 'z', who knew? And nobody could, and also when you Google
rendezvous you get really weird stuff, so we scrapped that. We just go with the 'vous' now, but it's been
an amazing journey. My wife, I wish she was here with me; we've
been married for nine years. Thank you. People clap you know. People are always like, yo, when are you going
to have kids, man? Nine years of marriage, and I'm like I don't
know, we practice like every day so um. At some point, I'm like God I'm doing my part. But she sends her greetings. Her name's DawnCheré. I met her when I was 17 years of age, kind
of in a church service like this one. I saw her. I was on the ground floor; she was up in that
area, like you know, the steps? And I looked up and just like saw her, and
her hair was like flowing and she looked like an angel. I felt like every time she stepped the ground
just shook. And I said: "I choose you!" And it took her a while to choose me back,
but praise God she heard from the Lord and we've been married for nine years, and we're
just loving the journey that we're on. It's been a big year for us; we planted a
church, my first book came out, you just saw a teaser for a docu-series called "Rich in
Faith". Wednesday nights, 10pm 9 central, Oxygen,
there's a shameless plug. But really the premise of all these things
that we're trying to do is that we really believe that whatever the church avoids, the
devil tends to invade. We need to be people in 2016 that are invading
dark spaces. I don't know about you today, but you don't
really know if you're carrying light until you step into the night. I think we need to raise up the next generation
of young leaders, which is who you are, that has a heart and has a passion to actually
engage in the conversation with our culture. And you have never been needed more now, than
you are right now, and we need you to rise up, and we need you to carry the Gospel into
some spaces. And so today I want to preach a simple message,
not from my book, but it's still about the same God and His name is Jesus so anyways. Luke 15, I'll start at verse 28. I've already used five minutes, dang it. OK. Here we go. The Bible says this “The older brother became
angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you
and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so
I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered
your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are
always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because
this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ” I want to take a few moments this morning
and if you're taking notes- I sure you're hope you're taking notes. Research shows us that 98% of people who take
notes make it to heaven. So, um, I want to talk for a few moments from
this thought: lost and found. Lost and found, and I know you don't know
it yet, but I come from kind of the hood of Miami, and there's a whole lot of soul on
the inside of me, and I'm a fourth generation Pentecostal preacher. If you don't know what that means, it just
means I probably have more problems than you. One thing I would ask is that today I want
you to tap into wherever your soul is a little bit. And I'm going to give you full permission
to respond. You can get vocal; you can get loud. I know it's convocation, but we're going to
have straight-up revival church this morning, okay? And so, I'm just going to give you permission. You can say amen; you can say that's good. You can say that's for my neighbor; you can
say preach, it white boy. On the count of three let's just try one of
those so I know I'm in the right place. Here we go, ready? One, two, three. I feel like this whole section's racist over
here. We're going to pray for you. All right let's pray. We're going to jump into God's word. Lord we thank you so much that, Lord, you
brought us here. Lord what an amazing opportunity we have to
be in this place, and Lord we stop, and we rest for a moment, and we tune out all of
the noise around us and we focus into what it is you are saying right now, here. Lord we love you; we praise you. Jesus, do what only you can do. We love you; we honor you. And if you believe it today, come on, all
of God's people said. Come on, all of God's people said? Come on, let's see the love of Jesus. Somebody give Jesus a big shout of praise. You know it's funny. I fly on airplanes quite a bit, and when you
get on an airplane oftentimes you get seated next to somebody you don't know. And you always have that moment where a conversation
kind of strikes up and questions start being asked. And you know there's always this moment on
the airplane when I'm sitting next to somebody, that they're going to ask me this one question
that I don't like the question. The question is: Hey, what do you do for a
living? Now before you start judging me on the inside,
I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. I'm proud to be a pastor; I'm proud to be
Jesus follower. Yet in my experience, I've learned that whenever
they ask me that question, I'm going to get one of two responses the moment that I tell
them I'm a pastor. The first response is that they're going to
maybe get angry at me and every poor experience they've had at church they're going to take
it out on me, and like get mad, and wear me out. I can handle that one. The second one is much worse though; I've
discovered this many times. The second response if they're not mad at
me, is that they start to confess every freaking little sin they have ever committed in their
entire life. They're like, "Oh man, when I was in the 7th
grade-." I'm like, dog, I did the same thing in the
7th grade. I don't want to know about it. It makes me laugh, because they'll just start
sharing things. I'm not really, I don't want to be privy to
that. Yet every once in a while when I'm on these
airplanes I'll find somebody who starts to almost attack, and starts to antagonize and
question. Have you ever been in a spot before where
you needed a defense? The other day I was flying, and you know,
I typically just fly, you know, in the back with the normal people, and every once in
a while because I fly a lot I get upgraded fare. Right, don't judge me? And I got upgraded into first class, and so
I was sitting in first class. I was next to this lady and she's like, "so
what do you do?" I was like "I'm a pastor". And the moment I told her I was a pastor,
and I was sitting in first class, like she went in on me. You know, she's like, "How dare you sit in
first class. You belong in the back." You know, I'm like trying to say you're right,
and by the end of it I'm like, "you know what, you're right; I do belong in the back. You know, what am I doing up here?" I have like no defense, like why am I up here. And I was thinking the other day. Sometimes in life, we come to these moments
where we need a defense. We come to these moments where we are accused
or someone criticizes, and how do we defend where we stand? You know for Jesus, as he began HIs public
ministry of three years time and time again He was ridiculed; He was persecuted. He was criticized. Why, because everything about His ministry
was counterculture to what they had already seen. I mean this guy is always hanging out in dark
places. This guy is always at the party. This guy is always sitting at the table with
people he shouldn't be sitting with. Can you imagine if they would've had Twitter,
or if they would've had Instagram when Jesus was hanging out in Jerusalem? I mean can you imagine what TMZ would've been
saying about Jesus? I mean He's hanging out with, you know, the
desperate housewives of Jerusalem. Like what's He doing? And everywhere He goes people are criticizing
Him, and people are asking Him why is He doing what He's doing, and most the time He just
stays quiet about it until we come to this moment in Luke 15. Luke 15 is an amazing moment, because most
theologians would say that in Luke 15, this is Jesus' defense to His ministry. You say, Rich why are we landing here today
with what Jesus' defense was? We're landing here today, because as you leave
this place, and as you go out into the world, let me just tell you. If you're going to be a carrier of the Gospel,
and if you're going to take light into the night, you're going to need a defense, and
your defense shouldn't come from your own conviction. Your defense shouldn't come from your own
feeling; your defense should be the same defense as Jesus. You know what Jesus defense was? Jesus' defense was pretty simple. He is obsessed with lost things. Jesus is in the business of finding and reclaiming
that which is lost. And in Luke 15 He puts it so simple, and He
puts it so beautifully. That day He's got a big crowd of people around
Him. He's got Pharisees that are there; He's got
sinners and tax collectors there, and they're going "Yo, dude, why are we always seeing
you in these spots? Why are you always doing this stuff? Why are you doing what you're doing? He goes, it's pretty simple. Let me tell you some stories. Don't you love Jesus? He's just like a storyteller, like He's easy,
man. He's just like basic, bro. I just, I love it. Here's what He says. The first story He tells, He goes I want to
tell you about a shepherd who had about a hundred sheep yet one of those sheep, it wanders
off, and the shepherd leaves the 99 to go after the one. Now right off the bat as we read this story,
what's amazing about it is that I've read it many times and it's like, you know I kind
of like it because it's beautiful, you know? God's going and picking up the sheep. But let's get all of the key characters in
motion here. Number one, you know Jesus, He is the shepherd. Number two, you and I, we are the sheep. You're like, yeah, cool man we're sheep. I know it sounds kind of sweet, but guess
what? It's not really much of a compliment. You know that sheep are some of the dumbest
animals on the planet? You're like, thanks God, you know? Jesus calls you and I- not just this one time,
but multiple times throughout the Scripture- he refers to you and I as sheep. You're like, what are you saying? Like we're dumb? Sort of! Sheep are an interesting, peculiar animal,
because sheep happen to have some of the worse eyesight on the planet. I mean they can hardly see anything. Yet, sheep happen to have, they got one incredible
trait, they happen to have incredible hearing. I think it's amazing that Jesus would liken
you and I to some sheep, because the reality of what He's saying is He's saying, guess
what? You don't walk by sight; you walk by faith. So faith comes by what? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing in the
Word of God. Meaning when we step out of these doors as
men and women of faith, we don't look around at our current surroundings and then draw
up conclusions. No, if you're going to be a follower of Jesus
what you do is you close your eyes, you open up your ears, and you say God speak. I'm going to listen to you. I don't walk by sight; I walk by faith. We're Christians. We're not people of convenience, people of
conviction. We don't walk by what we see; we live by what
we hear. Some of you right now in college, I'm telling
you what, if I had one encouragement to you it would be this: get a word from God, and
don't let anybody get in the way. Grab hold of God's Word and live it out. Nonetheless, Jesus He says that we're sheep,
and He says a shepherd's got a hundred sheep and one of them he wanders off, and the shepherd,
what does he do? He leaves the 99, leaves the 99, and he goes
after the one. This is like, this is preposterous. This is crazy; this is illogical, but Jesus
is giving his defense as to why it is He's doing what He's doing. He's saying I'm obsessed with lost things. The truth of the matter is aren't you and
I the same way? Aren't you typically more focused on what
you're missing as opposed to what you already have? Last year we were getting ready to plant our
church in September, and before we were planting a church I'm trying to be a senior pastor,
so I'm like, you know we've got to do something really spiritual. I said, let's do a 21-day fast, you know? It just seemed like the right thing to do,
and so I decided to do a liquid fast. I'm like, I'm going to do this, and liquid
fast, let's go. 21-days, and you know I'm not a legalist,
if the soup's got some chunky stuff in it I'm still going to eat it people. And so I'm trying to do smoothies and muscle
milk. I don't think that's really on a liquid fast,
but nonetheless, grace. Thank you God. And so I'm trying so hard, and I'll never
forget one day I'm sitting at this hotel, and I'm working on my message for Sunday morning
that's coming up. And we're on the fast, and I'm like I can
barely think, you know? I'm like- I feel like I'm going to die, you
know? I'm like, this is horrible, why did I do this? You know, woe is me. And I'm sitting there and, honestly, this
overwhelming feeling comes over me. I'm like, I've got to get some food; I've
got to eat. I've got to eat; I've got to eat. And so, like literally, I jump up from the
table and I'm like, I've got to get soup, and so somehow I leave the hotel, but I leave
all my stuff. I don't know what happened, but I leave all
my stuff, because I'm like dead set on getting, you know, some soup. I'm literally, you know, Esau in the Bible. I'm trading my birthright for porridge, okay? I get to the house and I'm eating, and I go
to bed that night not really thinking much. The next morning I wake up, and I can't find
my Bible or my computer. Like who...? I can't find either one? I start to flip out. I start blowing through my house; I'm turning
my house upside-down. Like, where is my stuff? I'm searching around for hours and hours and
I cant find it, and so what most husbands do is after they can't find it on their own
they find their wife, and they start to blame their wife. I'm like, "DawnCheré where did you put my
stuff? This is you! It's the woman!" And so I'm upset, and I'm blaming her, and
I'm flipping, I'm turning my house upside-down. Where is my stuff? I've got a headache. I'm like, where is it? All the sudden the phone rings, and when the
phone rings it's the hotel I was at. They said, "Mr. Wilkerson, did you happen
to leave your Bible here at the hotel?" I was like, yes Lord? Are you speaking to me? And she goes, "Yeah, we happen to have it." I go "how on earth do you know it's my Bible?" She's like, "uh, your name's on the front." I'm like huh, yeah I'm an idiot, okay. Soon as she said that she had found my lost
Bible, I wish- I'm not going to do it, the whip and the nae nae don't have anything on. I through a party; I went nuts in my house
dancing, because that which was lost was found. Look at what the Bible says. The Bible says that the shepherd, this is
Jesus, he leaves the 99 that are found, and he goes after the one sheep that is lost. He gets the sheep. When he gets the sheep He comes back to the
house. He calls all of his friends; He calls all
of his people, and he says, hey everybody let's throw a party! And they start to throw a Holy Ghost turn-up
party. Why, because that which was lost is now found. Why did they throw a party? Because the sheep is valuable to the shepherd. In fact, it's because of our value that I
think Jesus, He keeps His sermon going. He shifts and says, that's why I want to tell
you another story. This other story is about an old woman who
lost one of her ten coins, and when she lost the one coin, she turns upside-down trying
to find the one lost coin. Why does she turn the house upside-down? Because the coin has value. I don't know who you are; I don't know where
you come from. I don't know if you believe in Jesus or not. I don't know who's preached to you; I don't
know what kind of stuff you've heard, but can I just be honest with you? God thinks you're valuable. God says you are amazing. God places value on you, and if you're not
careful what a lot of us tend to do is a lot of us tend to derive our value from everything
else other than God. If you're not careful instead of getting your
value from the Word, you'll try to get your value from the world. I mean be honest man, the world has no business
defining your value. You are not what you've done; you're not what
you're going to do. You're not your behavior; you're not your
morality. You are who God says that you are. He says that you're fearfully and wonderfully
made, and all the days ordained for you were written in this book before one of them came
to be. He knit you together in your mother's womb. He says you have value. Even if you're lost or found, you are still
valuable. It's funny though, because a lot of us if
we're not careful, what happens is we quit listening to God's word and we start listening
to this world and we let this world dictate our value. The other day I was on an airplane. It must have been a few months ago, and I
was traveling, and as I was traveling- you know I fly on airplanes a lot, and the whole
experience on airplanes, like I just, there's still things. I don't like to fly; I kind of get nervous,
you know? It's like a scary deal, and I hate turbulence. How many of you know turbulence? That's like you know, that's of the devil,
right? Like, come on, let's be honest. It's, I mean that's demonic, you know? The other day I was in a service and this
guy's like foaming, and I'm like what's your name? And he's like, turbulence. I'm like, I knew it. It's a demonic name. Turbulence, you know? I just don't like it. Every time you hit it it's just scary, that
you know you're on the thing and it's like rumbling. I just don't like it; I don't like it; I don't
like it. So I was flying the other day, and I was coming
back from London. I landed from London in New York, and I had
this, I don't know, little moment of going, I don't feel like flying home. I feel like staying in New York, and I called
my wife and said, "Hey should Daddy come home? Should the king return?" And she's like, "no, the king can stay." No I'm kidding; this is all a joke. Anyways, so I was like, "Babe, I'm going to
come home." And I remember I left New York, and I was
flying a direct flight from New York to Miami, and I'm sitting next to this guy and everything
is cool. And we're flying, and out of nowhere on the
airplane all the sudden there's this massive, like I'm telling you, boom. A thud hits this plane. Boom. I mean it goes; lights go out; smoke fills
the airplane, and people like begin to like panic. You know what I mean? Like ahh! This guy next to me is like, "Oh my God, we're
going to die!" I'm like, I don't like when people panic like
that, you know? And so I'm like grabbing him, I'm like, stop
it! You know? In the name of Jesus, shut up! We're fine; we're going to live! Choose life! You know, I'm like mad at him. I'm grabbing his forearm like, shut up! We got this; we're good. He's like, okay. And we're like holding hands in the weird
way. You know like when you cross, lace fingers. Like, why are we doing this? It's like a moment, you know? It's like, this thing's like ah! And I've learned that when you're in turbulence,
all you've got to do is look at the flight attendant, right? Because the flight attendant, she's been there
before. You ever noticed that? Like, flight attendant has been there, and
so I always go, if the flight attendant's cool I'm cool. But what do you do when the flight attendant
begins to panic? She's panicking, we're holding hands like
we're going to die, you know? And all of the sudden as we're sitting there,
the smoke clears somehow, and all of the sudden the pilot comes over the loudspeaker and he
says, "Ladies and gentlemen, we're so sorry, something's happened. We're not quite sure what's going to happen,
but we're going to have to make an emergency landing in Raleigh, North Carolina. Shout out Raleigh. And so we land, and you know the ambulance
and you know the fire trucks are all there. It's quite serious, and we land, and we get
off the airplane, but nobody explains anything to us. You know what I mean? They're just like, alright, we got you a hotel
room at the Red Roof Inn. We're like, great, you know? Free continental breakfast! Oh thanks. I almost died, you know? And so we go to the hotel that night, we come
back on- literally, we get on the plane the next day. I land in Miami. I honestly don't think much about it, except
for the fact that when I landed a friend of mine sent me an article from the North Carolina
newspaper that said last night such-and-such airline was struck by lightening and one of
the engines went out. It was a miracle that they landed. I'm like, that's interesting. That's pretty cool, you know? Two days later, I got an email from the airline. They said, "Dear Mr. Wilkerson, because you
are one of our most trusted and preferred clients we wanted to apologize to you, a couple
nights ago for the slight delay that came about." Slight delay? I think you meant my near death! They said, "We wanted to apologize for your
slight delay. Because of your delay we've decided to credit
your airline account 10,000 bonus miles." Before you clap, 10,000 bonus miles, it might
get you a one-way ticket to Buffalo, New York. Shout out Buffalo. I thought to myself, are you telling me that
my life is only worth to you a one-way ticket to Buffalo? Friend, I don't know where you're finding
your value, but I'll tell you this much, you better not let this world dictate your value. You better let your value be defined by God. God says I've got a plan for you. Plans to prosper you, to give you a hope and
a future. This woman, she turns the house upside-down
looking for this one coin. Why? Just because a coin is lost doesn't mean that
it loses its value. The coin has value. Every person on this earth, whether you agree
with them, whether you like them, whether they've done good things, bad things, evil
things, horrendous things, they are valuable to God. God says you're so valuable I sent my son
Jesus on a death mission. Not to die for you, better than that, to die
as you. You know how valuable you are to God? You are worth Jesus to God. You're worth Jesus to God. I don't know where you stand or where you
sit today, but I do know this. You might have been lost for a long time. You might feel like you have been overlooked. You might feel isolated; you might feel like
you've been unused. You might feel like you've missed your chance,
that you've squandered too much, that you're dust, and you're rusty, and you're used and
you're abused. Can I just be honest with you? In the same way that the coin holds the seal
of a president or the seal of our country, that's what dictates its value. In the same way the coin has that, you and
I, we have the image of God stamped on us. It doesn't matter how far out we've gotten
there; we have not lost our value. God says you are valuable. You know, what good is it to be valuable and
unused? See the only way that you will ever be used
is if you're in the hands of the Creator. And the only way you ever get in the hands
of the Creator is when you have a relationship with the Father. This is why I think Jesus told His third and
final story. He said I want to tell you about a lost sheep;
I want to tell you about a lost coin, but then He says I want to tell you about two
lost sons. I think it's interesting to note that, because
most Christians, if we grew up in Sunday school like I did, we note that Like 15 is typically
known as the story of the prodigal son. However, Jesus never called it the story of
the prodigal son. That's what we called it. Jesus said I want to tell you a story about
two sons. Why did he want to tell a story about two
sons? Because on that day He had two crowds of people
in front of Him. If you read at the beginning of Luke chapter
15, verse 1-2, you'll find out that on that day as Jesus was preaching and teaching on
one side He had these tax collectors, and He had these sinners, and He had these drunkards,
and He had these people that were running from God. On the other side He had these Pharisees and
Sadducees and teachers of the law, and He looked at both of them and said I want you
to know that I'm obsessed with both of you. Both of you are lost, you just don't know
it. That's why I'm going to tell you a story about
two sons. One is known as the prodigal; one is known
as the older brother. Both are far from God. First story, He says- as the keys come up
here to help me close this thing, otherwise I'll preach all night, because I'm Pentecostal. I've got ten more sermons over there. We could go all night. But this is what He says. This younger brother goes to His father one
day and says, "Hey dad! I want my inheritance!" Notice that an inheritance tends to grow over
time, but what sin does is sin wants immediate gratification. Sin is about saying I want something right
now. What I feel I want; what I want I get. So literally, the younger brother goes to
his dad and says, dad I want my inheritance, and so he takes his inheritance and he squanders
it. Sin is never patient, man. He goes to a distant land the Bible says. He squanders it on wild living. He throws some good parties. I'm sure he had a good time. Before I gave my life over to Jesus I was
good at sinning. Man, I had some fun. The problem with it is sin is only pleasurable
for a season. It lies to you. It promises you something that it cannot deliver. The Bible says that this prodigal, man, he
squanders it all to the point that he's got nothing left, and he finds himself living
in a land that goes into a famine. As he's in this famine he finds himself being
hired by a farmer to take care of the pigs. One day, you can imagine, he's sitting there
looking at pigs' food, and as he's looking at pigs' food he goes, man that looks good. I want to eat some of that. Isn't it true that sin always takes us further
than we want to go and keeps us longer than we want want to stay? We start desiring things we were never ever
built or designed for. Yet somehow in this moment, as he's hitting
rock bottom- I've learned that most people either have to learn from revelation or from
rock bottom. The Bible says that he comes to his senses. I could preach on that for a while. Sin, guys, doesn't even make sense. It doesn't make sense. It robs you of what God has for you. The Bible says as he's sitting there at the
pigs' trough he comes to his senses. Do you know what? I ought to go back to my dad I ought to go
and work for him, because his servants are doing better than how I'm doing right now. I'm going to go home. I love this picture, because as he gets up
from the place, the Bible as you read in Luke 15, he begins to craft his apology letter. He's like I'm going to my dad. I'm going to tell him, Dad I'm not even worth
being called your son. I'll be a servant. Hire me out, Dad. I'm sorry; I apologize. He's working on the whole speech. I've done it so many times. I used to sneak out in high school, and my
dad would somehow find out, because he's like in touch with the Holy Ghost. I'd be coming home like, alright this is what
I'm going to say to my dad. See dad, what happened was, I fell out the
window. You know, like? He's crafting his speech. He's writing it down. He's got it all planned; he's got it all prepared;
yet something amazing happens. The Bible says the father is out on the front
porch, and he sees his son in the distance- whoa- sees him in the distance, and he starts
running towards his son. I don't know about you, but I am thankful
that I have a God who long before I responded to an altar call, long before I ever applied
and got accepted to Liberty, long before I ever decided to preach, long before I gave
in the offering, long before I ever served at church, long before I ever went on a fast,
He saw me in the distance! And he started running towards me. You see, repentance is not an emotional thing. In fact, repentance isn't even about your
words. Repentance is a turn towards the Father. That when you turn towards the Father you
can rest assured the Father is going to run towards you. Slow are the feet of repentance, but swift
are the feet of grace. You have a God who's running toward you. He gets to the son and he wraps his arms around
him. I love the picture because you can see the
son going, "Hey, hey Dad. I want to apologize. I've got to tell you all the bad stuff I did. Like I was-" The dad doesn't even let him
get a word out. He starts kissing him, and he goes, "Quick
get the robe! Put some sandals on his feet! Put a ring on his finger! Kill the fattened calf!" Like, who has a fattened calf just hanging
around? I think the Father does. Just in case some people decide to turn towards
Him. Just in case some people decide, I'm going
to come home. The Father is saying I'm obsessed with lost
things. I'm obsessed with finding things that are
lost. I have some blessings stored up for you just
in case you might come home. It's beautiful. Imagine Jesus preaching it, sitting there. And this one group of people, they go, man
that's me. That's me. That's me, man. Like I, I've been running. I have been running hard. Tears are probably starting to come down their
face going, I think I'm understanding this. I think you're saying that I am the prodigal,
and I think you're saying that like Jesus, You're the father? You're telling me that you're running toward
me? That you don't let me get my apology out,
that you just forgive me, and give me a position in Your family? Yeah, you're not a son because of worth. You're a son because of birth. Flesh gives birth to the flesh, but the Spirit
gives birth to the Spirit. Unless you're born again, Nicodemus, you cannot
enter into the kingdom of Heaven. See what's amazing is that as He talks to
one crowd He shifts to another crowd. And Jesus says, I believe in verse 25, meanwhile. Meanwhile, the older brother was out in the
field, and the Bible says when he heard the music and the dancing he became angry. I've often wondered, what kind of a party
was Jesus throwing that you can hear dancing? It's like, are they stomping the yard up in
that thing? I mean that's like a turned-up fest, bro. Are you getting the picture? Jesus is really into celebrating. Meanwhile, the older brother, he's in the
front yard and he becomes angry and says I'm not going in there. And he goes to a servant, and he says hey,
like this is crazy. What's going on? And the servant's going, yo bro, didn't you
hear? Your younger brother, he came home, and we've
got to be excited, because this is crazy. Like we all thought he was gone, but he's
back, and we thought he was lost, but guess what? He's found! The older brother goes, no I'm angry. This ain't right. So he's out in the front yard, and as he's
in the front yard all the sudden what do we see? We see the picture of the dad walk outside
of the party. See, the older brother, he's a picture of
religion. You can know all about the Father; that doesn't
mean you have relationship with the Father. You can be in the house, but never have a
heart for the house. And He looks at this other group of people,
and He starts preaching to them. The older brother, he's angry and he's upset,
and he's frustrated. And the dad walks out and he says, "Dad, I've
been here always, man! I've been slaving for you; I've been working
for you. You never gave me nothing. Not even a young goat. Man this is nuts. This ain't fair. And I love the dad's answer, because the dad
is so simple. He says, "Son, you've always been with me,
and everything I have it's yours, but we had to celebrate because this brother of yours,
this son of mine, he was dead, but now he's alive. He was lost, but now he's found, and son,
this is what I care about most. I think the thing that amazes me the most
about the father, please notice, the father always has the same position, always has the
same posture. To the prodigal we see him running. To the Pharisee older brother son, what does
he do? He leaves the party. He comes out to Him and says, "Son, come back
inside! It's not the same without you." I hope you know today that Jesus, He's got
grace for those who committed the crime, but He also has grace for those who judged the
crime. I don't know who you are, and I don't know
how you walked into this place. Maybe you're the prodigal; maybe you're the
Pharisee. Maybe your thing is legalism; maybe your thing
is license. Maybe you're so self-righteous; maybe you're
so self-destructive. Can I be honest with you? Unless you're in relationship with the Father,
you're both lost. You're lost. You're lost; you're lost, but Jesus, He came
to find that which was lost. What is our defense as a university when we
go after lost things? Our defense is Jesus' defense. People are the heart of God. The Gospel is not the message of bad people
becoming good. The Gospel is the message of dead people becoming
alive in Jesus. It's time that we be the church that goes
and finds lost things. Come on, if you believe it give Jesus a big
shout of praise all over this house. Hey, why don't you stand to your feet all
over this house. Thank you, Jesus. Just for a moment, can you just position yourself
with your hands just open? I'm going to give it back to David, but with
your hands just lifted, in a posture to receive. Today God is here. Today God is speaking to people. I don't know where you find yourself. Maybe you're relationship with the Father. Maybe today you've just been reassured; you've
been convinced once again what your mission is. Your mission is to go and find lost things. Or maybe you're in here today, and it's a
new semester, and somehow you're on the run, man. You're on the run. I'm not talking about behavior; I'm talking
about your heart. It's just running from the Father. You are just, you're out there. It's either going to be a revelation, or it's
going to be rock-bottom that's going to turn you towards Jesus. Why not hear it today, that the Father has
great things in store for you. Or maybe you're in that third category. You're here today, and somehow you know all
the teaching and you know all the rules, yet you find yourself bitter, and angry, and judgmental. And you know God the Father, but you don't
have a relationship with the Father. Today, why don't you let your heart turn,
because guess what? He has grace for all of us, and He's obsessed
with lost things. Lord I thank you today for these students. I thank you today, Lord, that you are raising
up a generation right here at Liberty University that, Lord, is going to change the world. Lord as they serve their cities, Lord, and
as they serve their churches, Lord, and as they carry light into dark spaces, I pray,
Lord, that you would use them in a mighty way. Lord we're sheep. We're listening to your voice. God we are a lost coin, and although we get
lost we still hold value. Lord, the only way we'll ever be used by You
is if we're in relationship with You. Thank You for loving us. There's no way for us to reciprocate other
than to say, Lord, we lay our lives down in surrendering to you. We love you Jesus. In Jesus' mighty name. Come on church, can we just go ahead and celebrate
Jesus all over this place?
