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(no audio) ...occur after a special event. Something wonderful has happened that we want to remember in a special way.

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So we celebrate. Worship is celebration. Some people come to church on three occasions to celebrate being hatched, matched, and dispatched.

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The time of birth, the time of marriage, or at the time of death. Celebration may come at the end of a difficult experience, ruling game, or some delightful achievement.

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Come, let us celebrate. This is a word uttered by a gracious and loving father. The Texas-Oklahoma football game Here's a time of great celebration in Dallas.

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But thousands of dollars have been reported in damages in the past and extra costs for police services due to that celebration. In Atlanta, Georgia, a few weeks ago, students of color

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were celebrating spring break in what they call Freaknick. And they had thousands and thousands of college students there, so much so that they blocked the traffic.

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And people couldn't get to work. People couldn't get business going on the normal way. And it so adversely affected the people of Atlanta that the people of Atlanta said to the students,

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we don't want you back. We don't want that kind of celebration. It's too costly. So there is nothing, however, like a celebration

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for the right reason, carried out in the proper manner. Let us consider why the celebration is in order. Celebration occurs at the end of the story, but let us begin with the beginning.

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I think that that's a good thing. I had a journalism teacher who said that the beginning of an article, it's your to have all of the essential things stated at the beginning. Then you may explain, you know, as you go on.

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And he also said that may be a good thing for sermons, uh, to state all that you want to say at the beginning. Uh, so that, uh, if people aren't with you the rest of the way, at least they got the beginning. So, there are four things that we would like for you to prayerfully consider in this message.

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Rebellion, recklessness, repentance, and reunion. Rebellion, recklessness, repentance, and reunion. Now let's first of all consider rebellion. A certain man, says the scripture in this beautiful story that Jesus told, had two sons.

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The younger son says to his father, "Father, give me my portion of the family estate. I want it now. I want to get my fling out of life now. I want my freedom now.

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I want to establish my identity and independence. In fact, Father, I want to be free from you. I want to get from under your roof and rule. I'm sick and tired of your everlasting thou shalt nots.

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Thou shalt not do this. Thou shalt not do that. So I want whatever is coming to me. I want it now.

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The young man belongs to the now generation. He wants all life has to offer now. In fact, this young man is a rebel. He rebels against his roots.

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The past has no relevance for him. It's considered old, foggy, obsolete. He seeks only existential involvement in the pregnant moment and satisfaction in the conventional pragmatic eagerness to be where the action is.

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Now his father seeks to persuade him to stay there at home. He says, "Son, all I have is yours. What I have is designed for your security and happiness." The father tries to get this son to understand that he is providing

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that which is the best for him But the son Has no appreciation

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for his heritage He's rash and rebellious He's disdainful of the past and He's ignorant of tradition.

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He refuses to listen. He thinks he knows all there is that he needs to know. The father gives the son his wishes. He divides unto him his substance.

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his substance. And the son slams the door in his father's face. He packs his bags and takes a journey into a far country. He's rebellious. He wants to put as much distance as possible between himself and his father. He is engaged in a rebellious rage, rebellion against righteousness, rebellion against rules. His rebellion is

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revealed through ruptured relationships. He has broken relationships with his family. He has broken relationships with the servants and with the community. And we see this rebellion in our society today. We see it in the family. Rebellion involving husbands and wives against each other.

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Rebellion involving parents and children against each other. Rebellion, yes, we see it in the discipline problems in the schools. We see this rebellion in the rising crime rate rebellion.

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The next is "Recklessness." This young man takes a journey into a far country. In other words, he goes as far as he can go to get as far as he can from his father's roof and room.

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Now, he's been read in the church. Oh, he was reared up going to Sunday school, attending worship services, attending discipleship training.

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Oh, he'd done all those things. But now he gets as far as he can get from the church door. He spends his money on parties and prostitutes. He wastes his substance in righteous living.

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He lives recklessly. In the autobiography of Malcolm X, he talks about the fact that he would put a bullet into the gun, just one bullet, and then he would snap it to show that he was not afraid.

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Take a chance on being killed. It didn't matter to him. He was living recklessly. And I read some young people some time ago who were playing a game called chicken.

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And that's where the driver of a car would get up to very high speed and then turn the steering wheel to loose. And the first one to grab the steering wheel was chicken. Living reckless.

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So this young man is engaged in an excursion in reckless living. Young and reckless. Young and reckless. In fact, he reveled beneath the moon and slept beneath the sun.

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He lived recklessly. And so in the course of time, he went down, down, down, down, until he reached rock bottom. he had spent all, he began to be in want. And there was a famine in this far country.

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He suffered from poverty, material poverty, as well as spiritual poverty. But he was in a far country, and any young man coming from a pious Jewish family who who now finds himself in a far country, being sent to feed swine,

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shows how far he was away from home. He was sent to feed the hogs, and he was so hungry that he ate the food of the swine. That was rock bottom, rock bottom.

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Reckless living brings one to rock bottom. But then there comes repentance. While he was down there in this hog pen, something happened.

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He came to himself. Those are some redeeming words. He came to himself. Where was he all the time?

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He came to himself. That means that he was away from himself. He was not really at himself. You know, we say to somebody, you know,

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she's not herself today. Or he's not himself, but he came to himself. And it seems that there is a dialogue that takes place here of the divine self with the human.

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Okay, he said, I don't belong here. He had some thoughts about home. He said, "How many hard servants of my father's "have bred enough and to spare?"

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He repented. He had a change of mind. He had a change of heart. He said, "I will arise from this place

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"and I'll go to my father, "and I will say to him, Father, "I have sinned against heaven and against thee, And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son.

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And in fact, just like me as one of the high servants. And when he repented, he had a resurrection experience. He went home. That brings us to reunion.

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When he was yet a great distance from the house, his father saw him. The father had been looking for this son all the time. In fact, the father had been waiting for him. The father was moved with compassion.

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The father ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against thee. I'm not worthy to be called your son." But the father interrupts the speech.

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He doesn't get to finish it. He calls for a celebration. He turns to the servants and he says, this boy, my son, is in rags.

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But go and get the best robe and put it on him. He's barefoot and that's the way slaves go, but this is my son.

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He says, "Put shoes on his feet." And then he says, "Put a ring on his finger." This denotes authority, put a ring on his finger. And it goes a little farther, he says,

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"Kill the fatted calf." Had this calf in the pen all the time, waiting for celebration, it's time to celebrate. Kill the fatted calf, let's celebrate.

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You know, we often call this the parable of the prodigal son, but I think it's really misnamed. It ought to be the parable of the prodigal father, because prodigal means extravagant. The father is really the leading character in this story, the father.

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Look how extravagant the father is. He gave that boy his possessions. In other words, it was an inheritance. He hadn't worked for it.

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He hadn't done a thing for it. But the father is so extravagant that he gives this boy his portion that he hadn't worked for,

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and then when the boy misuses it, wastes it. Just wastes it. And so many times we waste. A youngster takes his life at a very early age. In fact, it's not just youngsters now.

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Adults. Used to be that there wasn't much, when it comes, much suicide taking place in the black community, but the rates are up now. No reason to live. This, this, this, this, this boy has,

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Has been dead. He said this my son Has been dead but he is alive Which means that he he has been involved in an existence that is meaningless He's been dead what he is doing really doesn't matter, but he's my son

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And and let's celebrate in other words, and I don't want you to spy anything This is my son And so the servants go forth. I see them as they rush forth.

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I see them as they go and look in the wardrobe, and they get the finest robe. And they bring it to-- I see them as they bring forth the shoes.

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And so these are shoes for him. And I see them as they bring the ring. And the father goes in and says to the servants, now prepare the fettered calf.

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and I want you to bring in the best silver, use the best china, let's celebrate. Well, that's good news. >> Yes, yes.

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>> That no matter where you go, no matter how far you go from God, that you can come back and that he accepts you. Because all of us, every one of us here

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has been in that far country. And somehow by the grace of God, we've come back and we can celebrate the goodness of God. And the wonderful thing is that the father celebrates with the child.

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This is my son. And every time we come and celebrate, God affirms the fact that we belong to him. This is my child. This is my son.

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This is my daughter. Let's celebrate. And we can celebrate the goodness of God. It's amazing what God does in providing his loving forgiveness.

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It's amazing. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound to save the wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind,

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but now I see. Celebrate. You know, every day I feel like celebrating the goodness of God.

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The fact you can get out of the bed, you can celebrate the goodness of God. The fact that the blood is running warm in your veins, you can celebrate the goodness of God.

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And say, thank you, God. Thank you. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your patience.

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Thank you for your love. Celebrate the goodness of God. As we come now to the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church to come home.

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Someone may not be at home with God, having good relationship with him, on good terms with your creator, but he speaks, he speaks through this story.

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He speaks to your heart today. Every one of us somehow is addressed in this parable that you can look and see. Just as you look at a picture and say,

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there I am, there I am. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. Calling for you and for me. Come home.

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Come home. You who are weary, come home. I invite you to come to Noah and the church this evening. ♪ Softly and tenderly ♪

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♪ Jesus is calling ♪ ♪ Calling for you and for me ♪ ♪ See, on the portals ♪ ♪ He's waiting and watching ♪

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♪ Watching for you and for me ♪ ♪ Come home, come home ♪ ♪ Ye who are weary, come home ♪ ♪ Turn this weary, tenderly ♪

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♪ Jesus, this holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy ♪ ♪ Lord of all ♪ ♪ Why should we tarry ♪

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♪ When Jesus is pleading ♪ ♪ Pleading for you and for me ♪ ♪ Why should we linger ♪ ♪ And heed not his mercy ♪

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♪ Mercy, mercy for you and for me ♪ ♪ Come home, come home ♪ ♪ He who hath wearied, come home ♪ ♪ Burn as mint and cabbage, Jesus is coming ♪

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[ Music ]