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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] Still away, still away home, still away, oh, still away Haven't got long to stay here, still away, oh, still away

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Still away, still away home, still away, oh, still away Haven't got long to stay here, dreams are ending Settles down, it's real near, the choppy south is near my soul Haven't got long to stay here, green trees are bending,

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Settlements are dribbling, the job is out, But dear my soul, haven't got long to stay here. Steal away, oh, steal away, steal away, steal away, oh, Steal away, oh, steal away, haven't got long to stay here.

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If you can't marry before I do, tell all my friends I'll come in two When I get to heaven, I'm gonna sing and shout, "I'm a good boy, this baby" If you can't marry before I do, tell all my friends I'll come in two When I get to heaven, I'm gonna sing and shout, "I'm a good boy, this baby"

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Steal away, oh, steal away, steal away, steal away, oh, steal away, oh, steal away, never got long to stay. Steal away, oh, steal away, steal away, steal away, oh, steal away, oh, steal away, never got long to stay.

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Never got long, never got long, never got long to stay. I want to lift up just a particular verse from this passage, the 31st verse, if you have your Bibles, the 31st verse. "And he said unto him, Son thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." He said unto him, "Son thou art ever with me, and all that

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I have is thine." The subject of the message, everything is yours, everything is yours. previous message we dealt with the youngest son and we considered his life we saw how he rebelled and how he wasted his substance in the far country later he returns to his father. His father welcomes him home and prepares a banquet, a feast.

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Now we focus our attention on the older son. He is in the field. He's laboring there for the father out in the field. He represents the person who has stayed at home,

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who's carried out the father's commands. He's been faithful in performing the duties that have been assigned to him. But in reality, this oldest son represents a way of life

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that is somewhat a monotonous routine. He faithfully performs the duties, but what he does is a sort of a chore and a bore. He does everything that he's supposed to do.

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He carries these things out, but he carries them out in an atmosphere of gloom. it's dull, it's drab. You know how many times our religion is like that? We come, we're faithful, we go through all of the motions, but we don't enjoy it. And here we have a

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picture of a banquet at the Father's house. It's a vivid presentation of what our religious life is all about. It's a banquet. It's a joyful experience. And here we are this morning and really this ought to be called our happy hour. You know I see signs as I go about you know happy hour from such-and-such a time to such-and-such a

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time that's the happy hour and they have certain prices sometimes certain offerings but I wonder sometimes if if someone came from another planet and they were told that this hour where we are right now is our happy hour and they just came and looked in as spectators I wonder what they get the idea from the

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way we look and the way we respond that this is our happy hour I wonder well here is this this elder son for years he has thought how much better off he is than the youngest son. Oh, this youngest son has been a spendthrift.

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He's wasted his father's wealth. He did not really treasure his inheritance. As far as the young son was concerned, easy come, easy go.

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But this elder brother is the respectable one about town. He is the child that has done well. He's the one who's proud of his reputation.

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He is constantly complimenting himself how much better he is than his younger brother. You see, this elder brother is within the fold of organized religion. He's loyal to the church, he's faithful to the denominational program, he does whatever he's asked to do and he does more.

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But he thinks that in so doing that he stores up for himself certain cash benefits with God that can be used for a rainy day. This elder brother has lived the kind of religious life that I call that of a chore and a bore. It's the kind of performance that is nothing more than ritual. He performs specific duties. He

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He has done it for many years. He's high on the seniority list. In other words, he can talk about all of the years that my brother has been out in a far country

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running around with harlots. I've been right here at home with the father. You see, he has stored up some seniority. And many times when we have done something for a long time,

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we have a tendency to compare ourselves with the newcomers and feel that because of our seniority, that we have certain superiority based on our seniority. And that's the way he felt.

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He'd been there all the time. And he's out there in the field even now, he's out there working. I somewhat think that we ought to be kind to this elder brother and notice him because

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after all he's not a terrible person. He's the kind of person that stayed at home with his parents while his other fellow has been running around and didn't care about what happened at home. But here he's been faithful, so we can congratulate him for that.

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he's out there even now in the field working and he hears music and dancing. You see life is a banquet, it's a joyous occasion no matter what happened we ought to delight in the fact that we are sons and daughters of God. It's a banquet and while he's out there in the field and he hears music and

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dancing he calls one of the servants and says what's happening in there? Say, "Why your brother has come home and and and and the father is is rejoicing and and the servants are there in the house he's killed the fedded calf and and everybody is making merry because your brother is home again and he was angry he was

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angry. Instead of rejoicing he's angry. So many people are angry when they ought to be rejoicing. Someone who has drifted away from God and somehow has come to himself and has made a new decision, they ought to be rejoicing, they ought to be happiness but he's angry. And so many people don't go into the

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banquet of life because they're angry. Angry with God. "Hail to God!" The table is set, the fatted cat has been killed, there's music and there's dancing and the Father wants everybody to enjoy life! But he is out there angry, angry, and he would not go in. And the father, who, the same father, waited for the younger son to come back, now goes

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into the field to the older son and he asked the father so why have you done this? Why have you killed a fatted calf you know for this son of yours who's been out there squandering your substance with prostitutes in a far

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country and the moment he comes home you kill a fatted calf for him I've been here all time you've never killed a fatted calf for me to make merry with my friends I've been carrying out your commands while he's been out there running around and you've never done all this for me and the father says to him

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Son, everything I have is yours. Everything is yours. That's a spirit of compassion, the spirit of generosity. Everything is yours. I know that you ladies sometimes have gone into your husband's pockets, a pocketbook to get something that he said well how much shall I get? You say everything, it's all yours.

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Everything. That's a wonderful feeling, isn't it ladies? Everything is yours. everything. Don't worry about how much you get, as much as you want, it's yours. That's a spirit of generosity, it's a spirit of compassion, everything is yours. That's what God says to us, everything is yours. Son, nothing is taken from you

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because provisions are made for the younger son, because the celebration honors his return home, because there's still just as much joy for you in life as is there for the younger son. And that's a wonderful thing to understand about God, that he makes it possible for us to have everything, all of life is

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yours. The hills and the valleys, the level places, the sunshine, the rain, the prosperity and the adversity, everything is yours. In other words all of life is there for you to enjoy it fully and to the greatest everything is yours. You see the elder brother thought he could live fully as long as he made the most of his

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personal gifts and ignored his social responsibilities. He felt no obligation to his brother. He accepted his brother when he was at home doing as he was doing and many can accept those in our particular peer group. We can accept our brother when he's on our level when we consider that person as our equal but

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God did not make the world only for advanced nations to explore the weaker nations of the world, God wants us all to enjoy life. He wants us all to have the basic necessities of life and he's put enough here for everybody and he wants everyone to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. This gospel

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that is provided for the human family, the word is that everything is yours and And when we assume the responsibilities of a particular job, the job is yours to perform. He does not say just do the pleasant task. When you are assigned a job, you accept a job to do a particular thing and you are hired

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to do it. You are not just to do the things you like to do, you do the whole job. All of it is yours. There's some tasks that may be easier than others, some are more difficult, but

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all of it, all of life is ours. So don't be shut up in narrow confines of a denominational structure that prevents us from really living our lives and not not make ourselves, so to speak, prisoners within a little cage like that old story of the bear that was in the cage and he just took two steps forward

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and around two steps backwards and just stayed right within that little cage and when that cage was removed the bear was still taking those steps and going around just as if the cage were there. But God wants us to be free to live our lives. God wants us to be free to fully enjoy all that is prepared for us. In

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In other words, God has so arranged it that we are to enjoy the fullness of God, fullness of God. Everything is yours. So not just the brother's joy, but you ought to be joyful.

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father goes out to the field, oh how good, how compassionate, how sympathetic, how loving is this father. He goes out to the field and God still comes to us. He takes the initiative through Jesus Christ. Sometimes people feel that they have somewhat stored up some seniority with God because they've been doing certain

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things for him in the church and and we think that maybe we ought not have certain things to happen to us because I've been faithful to God I would not have cancer I would not have arthritis I would not have this but all of that's part of life. All of this somehow is an opportunity to help us to rejoice in God

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no matter what happens that's what the Apostle is talking about when he said I have learned. In whatsoever state I find myself therewith to be content. And somehow as we see this elder brother I want the men to get a view of themselves, not only the men but the women also to sort of get a view of

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ourselves. Because that's the purpose of the parable that somehow when you look at this picture, when we see it, this picture that Jesus paints, we ought to be able to see ourselves in it. We ought to say, "Well, here I am right here! This is me right here! Here I am!" And we ought to see ourselves because so often we can have our names on

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the church road, and we can be faithful in doing the duties, we can pay our tithes, we can do all of those things and still not have the joy of the presence of God in our lives. where religion is something that's radiant, something that fills our lives with meaning and somehow even in the midst of our sorrows we can take the fact that we are joyful in the Lord, that we can rejoice and be glad. This is what it means,

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everything is yours son but the eldest son would not go in, he would not go in it's all yours the door is open the band is playing the table is set Everything is yours. The kingdom of God is yours. All of God is yours. You have complete access to all of God. It's all yours. All of life. You can receive it. You can live it. All of it is yours.

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has a story about Spurgeon, the great gospel preacher of another century. He was preaching to large crowds and at the close of one of his sermons, there was a student there from the university who came up as people were shaking hands with the preacher after the sermon and he said to him Mr. Spurgeon I noticed that while you were

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speaking you made three grammatical errors I took note of them and he said here they are you made three grammatical errors and Mr. Spurgeon paused for a moment he said young man I'm using the best grammar I know for Jesus Christ So what are you doing with yours? In other words that's a good question for us to ask.

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It's rather easy to look at someone else and to listen to someone else and to pick out the faults and the failures of someone else, but what are we doing with our lives? In other words all of our lives. As a song that was very popular a few years ago, "All of Me". why not take all of me? Well God wants all of us, everything that we have, every

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bit that we have to say Lord here I am all to thee I give, here it is everything, I surrender all. That's what God wants us to do because he gives all to us in Jesus Christ. Everything God has to say to us, all that he has to say he has said through Jesus Christ and all that he has to give us is in Jesus Christ all that I

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need is in Jesus all that is necessary for the salvation of the world is in Jesus and so the word is seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything is yours. Don't have to worry about what else, everything! somehow when we put our hands in the hand of God, when we link up with the

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eternal, that everything we need for the journey is provided. Everything is yours. Seek ye first the rule of God and his presence in your life and everything else will be granted unto you. As we come now to the hymn of invitation it's a privilege to accept Jesus Christ, to accept, to trust, to commit our life to the one who

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grants us everything that we need, who has promised us that if we trust in him we will that sufficiency, that strength that will enable us to go from one good degree of grace to another and as we sing now let us pray that someone here today will accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life knowing that in accepting him

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everything is yours. Everything that you need, the fullness of God is available. Would you trust Him? I ask you to stand where you are and come forth and give the preacher your hand, give God your heart. I invite you to come. ♪ Oh, when we hail Him, Jesus ♪

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♪ All our sins and pain will be ♪ ♪ All our sins and pain will be ♪ [Music] [Music]

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[Music] ♪ We love you, O'er all the years ♪ ♪ O'er all the years ♪ ♪ All the years ♪

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♪ And all the years ♪ [Music] [Music] ♪ I'll never leave you alone ♪

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♪ Please, there's no holding you back ♪ ♪ We shall never be apart ♪ [Music] [Music]

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[Music] ♪ The power of His truth ♪ ♪ And His love ♪ ♪ To all the earth ♪

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♪ He was a true God ♪ ♪ Jesus was our Savior ♪ Let us bow our heads. O gracious God, our Father, we thank you for the good news

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address to every one of us that everything is yours. The fullness of God help us not to labor in the field feeling that we have rewards based on our righteousness, but to to know that our salvation is full and our freedom is sure only through Jesus Christ. The Lord bless you and keep you.

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The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace, now and forevermore. Amen. [Music]

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♪ Magnify, O Lord, magnify His holiness ♪ ♪ According to my earnest expectation ♪ ♪ And my hope that in nothing ♪ ♪ I shall be ashamed ♪

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But that with all boldness As always you For I am in a straight betwixt two Having a desire to depart

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And to be with Christ, which is for better. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]