Portrait of the Father

If you have your Bible, open it up to Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

We're going to read some very familiar verses, but from a different slant.

You ever notice how we as Christians try to explain God?

Out of our limited knowledge and experience, we try to give an explanation of what God will do, what God won't do, and what God may do.

And if we can't come, if you have more questions than we have answers, then we just say he's sovereign.

And you're going to need to remember that because people are going to ask you questions about God, and you're going to say, Well, I think he acts this way, he does this way, and then you're going to have to say, you know, he's just sovereign.

And he is.

I'm not making fun of that.

I'm trying to explain to you that sometimes we use that because we don't know how to explain God.

We try with all of our limited knowledge and experience to the best we can to tell people what God's like.

Even children do this.

We have any grandmothers in the crowd?

I bet you have some stories about grandchildren telling you some stuff, don't you?

Listen to this grandmother's story about her grandson.

My grandson was visiting one day and he asked, Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?

Grandma said she mentally started polishing her halo a little bit and said, No.

How are we alike?

The grandson replied, You're both old.

I don't know.

Is God old?

I'm gonna be honest with you, I've never seen him.

I don't know what he looks like.

I have ideas told to me by others what God looks like.

I've never seen him.

Another child's story is a kindergarten teacher reported this, and she was observing her classroom one day while they were drawing.

She encouraged them all to be artists.

And she would occasionally walk around to see each of the child's artwork.

As she got to one little girl, she's working so diligently, she said.

And she asked her, What are you drawing?

She said, I'm drawing God.

The teacher paused and said to her, But honey, no one knows what God looks like.

So without missing a beat or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, They will in a minute.

I love teaching kids.

I have four of my own.

You ever wonder what God looks like?

Jimmy Evans was uh here about three weeks ago, and Pastor Jimmy was talking about uh one of the scriptures that he shared three weeks ago was uh out of Exodus 24.

He shared a scripture in the Old Testament that I'd never seen.

It was one about Moses and Aaron's two sons, I won't call their names because they're goofy, and uh 70 elders.

They saw God.

Now, you can't do it in this service, but if you sit in more than one service, then I give you the liberty.

Because I was sitting in my third service, and he said that something went off in me.

And I said to myself, I wonder how many people really have seen God.

And so I went down this mental track, and I just I checked out on Jimmy.

You can't do that this morning, but I checked out on Jimmy because he was my third servant, and I just started running down the path.

Who has seen God?

I said, Adam and Eve?

Yep, yep, they saw God.

Maybe Cain and Abel?

Yep, yep, they probably saw God.

These 70 elders, Moses, Aaron, I mean, it's right there in scripture.

They says they saw God.

Maybe Enoch.

And then it just hit me.

Jesus said, I lived with him.

I know him from top to bottom.

Yeah, he's big.

I know him intimately.

So why don't you let me tell you what I've already seen?

And I said, I'd love that.

So I titled this message this morning, A Portrait of the Father through the eyes of Jesus.

Wouldn't you like to know what your Heavenly Father looks like?

Well, the scriptures that I'm going to read to you this morning are only in red in my Bible.

Which means they've only been spoken by Jesus.

So I want you to catch a portrait of the Father this morning through the eyes of Jesus.

You wonder if God ever been misrepresented by us?

Ever wonder that?

I've misrepresented him on several occasions.

Look at the words of Jesus.

Be up on the screen for you.

You don't have to turn here.

Luke chapter 2, verse 49.

Luke 2:49

This is a story, remember when Jesus' parents took him to Jerusalem and they left him accidentally.

Okay.

How many of you have accidentally left your children somewhere?

Go ahead and raise your hand, get them high.

I got CPS standing in the back.

They're looking, taking names.

I've got my hand raised.

We left our son at a place.

I mean, he was mad and dickens at us.

Took about two and a half years for him to forgive us, but he's over it now.

Jesus was left, and his mom and dad came back, and you know, they were probably a little frantic, right?

Or you think they could talk calmly.

Jesus, come on now, son.

How come you're not just going with us?

Bobby said, Jesus, where have you been?

Why did you do this?

And Jesus so calmly turned around and said to her in Luke 2, 49, said, Why is it that you sought me?

Do you not know that I must be about my father's business?

These were the actually first very recorded words that Jesus ever spoke in Scripture.

What's on his mind?

Daddy.

I read a story a couple of years ago about a little boy, he's three years old, his name's Brian.

Brian had a uh terrible accident one day.

He was uh he was pinned under the garage door before they had the censors, before they made that law.

And the door pinned him and began to crush his chest until he had no more breath.

He called for mom, and mom wouldn't come.

And it snuffed out his life.

By the time mom got there and raised the garage door and called the paramedics, Brian was he was he was long gone.

The paramedics were able to come, they gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, revived him, but they didn't know how long he'd been gone.

Before the paramedics got there, his mom leaned down to him and said, Brian, please don't go.

Please stay if you can.

The dad was on a flight from LA all the way across to the east coast, and they caught him in Denver, and he turned around and flew back.

The test seemed to show that the brainwaves weren't working.

They were really very, very concerned.

And all of a sudden, a presence filled the room that changed everything.

The doctors and nurses couldn't explain it.

Within a week, Brian was home.

Perfectly healthy, perfectly whole, perfectly normal.

What they weren't expecting is what this three-year-old would tell them a month later.

He called his mom in one day and said, Mom, sit down, I have things to tell you.

That's what she thought.

So, do you remember the day the birdies came?

A three-year-old is trying to explain what he saw in the heavenlies.

Do you remember the day the birdies came?

She said, No, Brian, what do you mean?

Say, Mom, they're beautiful.

They're wingspan, they carry big matter of fact, one of the birdies came in and got you and told you to come out and help me.

And she began to weep.

Said, Do you remember when you leaned over the little boy and you whispered, stay if you can?

Knowing exactly what he was talking about, knowing he wasn't fabricating and making it up.

He began to tell about the bright light and the warm love and the voice that he heard out of that light.

And he stumbled over his words, trying to describe to her what he has seen, and she could see the expression on his face that it was something awesome.

My question to you this morning is do you think that boy will ever forget that day?

Why in the world do you think we think Jesus has ever forgotten what his daddy looks like?

I want you to see something this morning through the words of Jesus.

He's trying to help you because he knows the Father intimately.

And I want you to read this story this morning differently than you've ever read it before.

A look at the Father through the eyes of Jesus.

Turn with me to Luke chapter 15 if you're not there.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

We're going to start in verse 11.

This is the story of the prodigal.

If you're taking notes and you have a pen, I want you to do something different today.

Every time you see the word Father, I want you to underline it in your Bible.

Matter of fact, if you would do a word study on Father, you would see that this word father is in the New Testament 422 times.

About 300 times Jesus or his disciples speak about it.

He has something to say about the Father.

If you don't catch anything I say for the rest of the time, catch this.

Take this home, deposit it in your bank, and take dividends off of it the rest of your life.

It's this.

Jesus was born of a virgin, came, lived, he was crucified, buried, went to hell, raised from the dead, and presented himself to the Father so that you and I could know him.

That's it.

He wants you to have a relationship with his father because he's seen him.

He came to earth because he seen him.

He wants you to know him.

Because he's awesome.

This is a story of the prodigal.

It ought to be called the story of the father's response.

Because there's 11 times in this particular scripture Jesus addresses what the father did.

The father did.

What was his response?

What was his reaction?

Look with me, verse 11.

A certain man had two sons.

The younger of them said to his father.

The underlining, there's the first one.

So he divided to them.

Have you ever seen that word them there?

I've never seen.

I've read this story, I don't know how many times.

I've never seen this word them.

He divided to them his livelihood, meaning he gave to the older and the younger.

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with the prodigal living.

Can I tell you the first thing about the Father that Jesus wants you to know?

You have the freedom to choose.

He's not looking for a robot.

He's going to give you the freedom to choose whether he'll be a part of your life or not.

He gives you the freedom to choose whether who will be on your throne today.

You made a choice this morning.

You'll make a choice this afternoon.

Let me tell you what the prodigal said to him.

You'll no longer be a part of my belief system, my value system.

You won't be a part of it.

Stay back.

You'll no longer be a part of my financial decisions.

Stay back.

You won't tell me how to spend my money or how not to spend my money.

You will no longer be a part of my relationships.

You will never tell me who to marry.

You'll never tell me.

You'll never give me an influence on who I have a relationship with, who I live with, who if I choose to have sex inside or outside of marriage.

You'll never be a part of that.

You're out of my life.

I'm choosing my own way.

And the father says, You have the freedom to choose.

This father didn't walk him down the long driveway and say to his son, you're going to make mistakes.

This is a terrible mistake.

You're going to waste everything.

This is going to be terrible.

He's not manipulating with his words or his emotions or his actions.

The father says to you today, through the eyes of Jesus, you have the freedom to choose.

Your choice.

I have a question for you.

Did God force Jesus to die on the cross?

I have a scripture for you.

Luke 22, 42.

You don't have to turn there.

Father, if it is your will, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

Does that sound to you like God forced him to die or gave him a choice?

If God didn't force his own son to have a relationship and force him to do, why would you think he'd force us?

God's not forcing you to have a relationship with him.

I have four children.

I tell my four children listen, you don't have to serve God.

You don't have to serve God.

Now, if I don't make it palatable and enticing to them, shame on me.

I want it to be so enticing, so I want them to know that this is the most exciting life that they can't, there's nothing else out there that even compares to it.

Then if I can't make that so enticing and so palatable to them, shame on me.

But I don't force them.

I'll never force them.

I wasn't forced.

I had a wonderful decision and I made it.

It was the best decision I ever made, but I wasn't forced.

Now I want you to understand, these two young men that they're talking about were of the age that they had the freedom to choose.

Now I tell my kids, listen, if you don't like what you have at home, hot rod hit the road.

You think there's better out there, and you think someone else will provide for you better and love you better, hammer down.

While you're in my household, while you're not of age that you can legally move out, there are some barriers, there are some boundaries.

This young man was of a legal age that he could move out.

And the father says, You have freedom to choose.

Didn't manipulate him, didn't coerce him, said you had the freedom to choose.

Let me tell you the second choice that he had to make.

Look in verse 14.

And when he had spent all, everybody say all.

Now, who made that choice to spend all?

He did.

Then watch what happened.

There arose a severe famine in that land.

Isn't that amazing the timing of the famine?

Why didn't the famine happen prior to him getting there?

Can I ask you a question?

Who's in charge of famines?

Daddy?

Isn't it interesting the timing of this famine?

Remember the story of Job?

Whether God creates or whether God allows.

See, we're here, we're trying to explain God.

He's sovereign.

That's all I can tell you.

Whether he creates or whether he allows, there's a circumstance in this young man's life that he had no control over.

He can't create the famine and he can't make the famine go away, can he?

But he has the freedom to choose how he responds to the famine.

And some of you this morning are myself.

I've been caught in circumstances I didn't create, nor did I could I make go away.

But I had to respond.

Watch this young man's response to the famine.

Verse 14, and he began to be in want after the famine came.

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine.

Can I tell you something?

If you're a Jewish boy, this is a bad day.

I mean, it's gone from a severe famine to worse.

You're now having to feed swine.

That's a bad day for a Jewish boy.

He would have gladly have filled his stomach in verse 16 with the pods that the swine ate, but no one gave him anything.

Listen, I didn't live through the depression in the 20s.

I've heard stories of people to tell me, but I understand when you get into these severe famines and desperate times, whatever you have, you're not just doling it out.

You're hoarding it.

And you're taking care of your own.

And this young boy had nothing.

And now he's a slave.

And now he's feeding swine.

It's a bad day.

Not exactly what he thought when he had all his dad's livelihood when he was leaving what he was going to.

But he had the freedom to choose.

And these are the choices that he made.

And in those moments when that pressure was on, he did something very, very right.

And I want you to see it.

Verse 17.

But when he came to himself, things are starting to look up.

He said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger?

And I want you to know something, folks.

I counsel with people all the time that tell me, Jeff, I can't hear God like you hear God.

And I say, Yes, you can.

They say, No, I can't.

I say, Yes, you can.

They say, No, I can't.

I say, Yes, you can.

Because I used to say the same thing.

I used to tell people who were spiritual authorities, I can't hear God like you hear God.

I mean, there's something really magical about it.

It's something really difficult.

I'm going to show you the simplest form to hear the voice of God that you've ever seen in your life, and I just read it to you.

Go back to the verse.

Look at verse 17.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants had bread enough to spare, and I perished with hunger?

Can I tell you something of what happened at this moment?

His thoughts, when the famine came on, he joined himself, he's feeding swine, he's got plenty of time to be thinking.

His thoughts ran home to Daddy.

Can I tell you in that precise moment, God interjected the thought?

Where'd this thought come from?

Back at my father's house, they had plenty of bread.

I mean, they're feeding the dogs off the table.

Where'd that thought come from?

It came from God.

He does the same thing with you.

Some of you just not recognize it.

Can I tell you this?

When I counsel with people, most people never tell me, hey, I'm really having a hard time hearing the devil.

I'd like to hear him some more.

I never get that in counseling.

People don't have a problem in the world hearing the devil.

Can I tell you when this young boy was back at the farm and his daddy just gave him his livelihood?

Guess what thoughts he was receiving then?

Hey, man, there's a party over here.

And I mean, that your daddy's how it's boring, it's all getting up.

Over here, though, man, this is what it's happening.

I mean, you get rid of all the rules, and you get all the freedom, and you get none of that, and you get all of this.

And where do you think that was coming from?

You think he was dreaming that up himself?

No.

Enemies there are just penetrating his mind with thoughts.

See, we know how to recognize those.

I'm gonna tell you something.

God is throwing thoughts in your mind, and you don't even know it.

If you'll recognize his thoughts, you'll get what he's promised.

The reason I can say to you, if you'll give your life to the Lord, the reason I can promise you the blessings and the benefits of the end result is because I've experienced, because I've responded to this voice.

So he made a plan.

Verse 18, he said, This is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna go to my father, the underlining father.

We will say to him, and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

This is his plan.

This is what he's done.

He's had a thought.

It's come to his mind.

Hey, if I go home, at least I can be a servant there, and I won't starve to death, and they have plenty of food, and I'll be able to live.

My father, I'll be a servant, I'm a servant here, I'm a slave.

I've already blown it.

I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna tell my daddy I've blown it, I'm not worthy of me.

That's a good plan.

He obeyed it.

Do you think the enemy at that point said anything to him?

Think he filled his thoughts with, Man, you you've blown it too bad.

I mean, look at you, buddy.

You got a pig slop all over you, you don't got a dime to your name, you lost your shoes, you barely got clothes.

I mean, it's not so bad.

It's all right.

You can't go back there.

See, this is what the enemy does.

He wants you to reach for the carrot, and as soon as he does, he beats your brain out for reaching for the carrot.

He got him to go, and now he's beating you out for doing it.

That's his plan.

That's what he wants to do to you.

Get you to reach for something and slap the snot out of you.

Isn't that a good turn to say in church?

My wife will reprimand me later for that.

But that's the way the devil plays.

Not the way your father plays.

Because if you'll obey the voice of your father, Jesus wants you today to see the response.

Point number two if I choose to listen to this voice, if I choose to listen to this thought that comes through my head to obey it, how do I approach the Father?

Well, let's pick up the story.

I'm gonna go back to verse 18.

I want you to see this.

He said, This is my plan.

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, I've sinned against heaven and before you.

I'm no longer to be worthy.

I'm no longer worthy.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hard servants.

Can I tell you what this boy was saying?

He didn't sugarcoat it.

He said, Daddy, I blew it.

I made every decision wrong.

I'm sorry.

I'm no longer worthy to be son.

Make me a servant.

He didn't hide it.

He didn't sugarcoat it.

He didn't try to try to wash and clean it up.

He just said, This is what I am, this is who I am.

Dad, I'm filled with lust, I'm filled with anger, I'm filled with depression.

I'm not hiding from you.

This is who I am.

These are the decisions I've made.

Will you receive me?

I want you to see Daddy's response.

Verse 20 rose and he came to his father.

And when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

Now, I'm gonna ask you something.

This boy stinks like pigs.

How's his daddy responding?

You see the love and compassion of your father.

Jesus has seen him.

He's trying to tell you something.

The boy could have said to him, Hey, hey, hey, hey, no, no, no, don't stop kissing me, stop kissing me, stop k I I don't want the ring, I don't want the robe, don't want any of this stuff.

I just want to be a servant, I'm gonna go to the servant's quarters, I'm not worthy of some, I'm not gonna receive your love.

No, no, I'm too bad, I've done too many wrong things.

Stop it.

Jenny and I had our first child, uh Jessica, she was two or three, four months old, and we were uh she was teaching a piano lesson one day, and I had Jessica in the back bedroom, and I was I was holding her and she was cooing at me and she was drooling all over me, and I thought it was great.

I'd never you know I'd never been a father, and this was this was one of the most exciting days of my life.

And I was rocking her, and we I was laying on the bed and we and I'd shake her and she'd throw up my mouth.

We had all kinds of fun stuff.

I didn't mind, it didn't it didn't bother me a bit.

It was just this is my baby, and it and I just it was just one of those moments, and all of a sudden, this thought, as clear as I'm speaking to you, penetrated in my mind.

I'd like to hold you like that.

I said, Father, I've been stiff-arming you my whole life, I haven't.

So, yeah, you have.

You have the freedom to choose to receive his love.

You can't make his love grow, you can't make his love decrease.

Your goodness, your righteousness won't make it increase, and your sin and wrong choices won't make it decrease.

But you are gonna make a choice today whether you receive it.

And I said to him that day, I laid Jessica down on the bed and I said, I receive it.

I had one of the most incredible experiences in that bedroom that day.

I felt the love of God wrap around me for the very first time.

I was 25 years old.

One of the most incredible things I'd ever felt in my life.

I'll never be the same.

Have you received his love?

He'll lavish it upon you.

Older brother was out in the field doing what he always did.

Obeyed.

You remember he got all his stuff right?

And he obeyed all those years.

And when he came in, he called a servant and said, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, woohoo! Hey, come here.

What's happening?

What's happening in the house?

I mean, there's music.

Is daddy throwing me a party?

He said, No.

Matter of fact, your brother came home and daddy's killed the fatty calf, and they're all excited, and they want you to come in.

Oh, come on.

We pick up the story in verse 28.

What's this?

And he was so happy he couldn't wait to go inside.

Not what your Bible says.

He was angry.

He would not go in.

Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him.

So he answered and said to his father.

Now he's going to tell you why he's angry.

Lo, these many years I've been serving you, I've never transgressed your commandment.

Don't your children talk to you this way?

My kids love to talk to me like this.

I've never transgressed your commandment at any time, yet you never gave me a young goat that I may make merry with my friends.

But as soon, now watch his language here, but as soon as this son of yours, not this brother of mine.

As soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots.

Question, how'd he know that?

I have my own theories.

You'll have to create your own.

You kill the fatty calf for him.

I want you to see something.

This is very, very important.

The Father responds in verse 31, and he said to him, Son, you're always with me.

All that I have is yours.

Now I just told you, God's love is not attached to anything, it's unconditional.

But I want you to understand something today.

His blessing is very much conditional.

If you want the blessing of God on your life, you are going to have to obey.

This son has obeyed from the time that he received his livelihood till now, and the Father says to him, Everything that I have is yours.

It's no longer your younger brothers, it's yours.

It's yours, it's yours, it's yours because you've obeyed.

Blessings are extremely attached to obedience.

But don't confuse his love.

His love's not attached to any condition.

You can be in the worst condition you could dream of today, and his love still pours out for you.

And I'm going to prove it to you in the next verse.

But he says to this son, after he says, All that I have is yours.

Verse 32, it was right that we should make merry and be glad.

For your brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found.

Let me tell you what the older brother was saying to the father.

Why didn't you meet him down at the end of the driveway and just chew him out?

I mean, look at what he's done.

He's used your entire livelihood.

He's wasted it all.

And he's made every wrong decision in him.

He's been with harlots.

You should have been down there, you should have reamed him out, and I'm telling you, you should put him in a servant's quarter.

You should put him outside the servant's quarters.

You should make him, you should make him dig the outhouse.

I mean, he's giving him the what to.

And the father says, speaking just softly to him, son, all I have is yours.

You've obeyed me from day one.

You're right.

But I want you to know something.

You've never caught my heart.

You've never caught my heart.

And it's time that you catch my heart for your brother, for everybody around you.

For my heart beats for them.

Several years ago, I was a long time now.

I was a junior in high school.

In my high school, we had a closed campus policy.

Meaning we couldn't leave campus to go to lunch.

We had to do lunch in the cafeteria.

It was a terrible thing.

I don't know who made that decision, but it was terrible.

We would eat lunch in the cafeteria and then we'd go out and sit in the front lawn of our high school grounds and sit around the trees, and as my junior friends would gather around that tree, we'd solve all the world's problems because we were the smartest people on earth.

And my mom and dad could prove that to you.

I mean, we we we solved a lot of problems underneath that tree.

One this one particular April day, a friend of mine named Stephen Bostik, he's actually acquaintance.

He played on my football team.

I knew of him.

I mean, I had a relationship enough to know his name, and we we said hello.

He he that day made a decision that he was gonna run around, and any boy that stood up, he would tackle him.

Now, Steven was a little crazy.

I mean, when he was my sophomore year or my junior year and his sophomore year, he he played nose tackle and he'd always shoot the gap trying to knock the quarterback out.

I mean, that was his number one.

I want to knock him out.

He was also on the kickoff team, and he would receive the kickoff.

We would receive kickoffs, he'd be in the front line, he's one of the blockers of it.

He was a little wiry kid, but he just tenacious.

And on the kickoffs, his number one goal was to knock the kicker out.

And I mean, as soon as he kicked the ball, three steps later, his helmet was planted inside his helmet.

And one time he knocked his kicker totally in cold, knocked him out.

And the coach on the other team was so livid at him, on the next kickoff, he had the two biggest players on his team beside the kicker.

And their number one goal wasn't tackle the runner, kill that kid.

That's Stephen Bustic.

Steven this day on April on the lawn is running around tackling people, and I'm looking at thinking, that's Stephen, what a crazy guy.

The bell rings.

I stand up, and when I stand up to face the bill, and all of a sudden this head plants right here in my chest.

My feet come off the ground, and I'm landing flat on my back.

Stephen Bostik has hammered me.

I come up with a right hook right across his mouth.

I'm livid.

How dare him! A fight is on.

His brother comes over.

I said, I got plenty for you.

I have four older brothers.

I've been trained well.

I hear the word principal's coming.

We break up.

I'm going to class.

I've been saved two years.

I'm walking down the hall.

The man that led me to the Lord saw my countenance and said to me, What's happened to you?

I said, I just made the stupidest decision I've ever made.

I got caught up in circumstances I didn't create, but I didn't respond well.

He said, You know what you got to do, don't you?

And I said, Yeah, I do.

I don't want to do it.

I've already had that thought.

God's already spoken.

I've already heard it.

He said, Well, here's a hall pass.

Go do what you need to do.

I said, Okay.

So I'm walking down the hall.

By this time the second bell's already rung, there are no kids anywhere.

Everybody's in the classroom.

And I'm walking down the hall with my hall pass, so any teacher comes out, I got my hall pass.

All of a sudden, out of a classroom, I don't know where Stephen is.

All of a sudden, out of a classroom, Stephen Bostick steps into the same hallway I'm in.

And people try to tell me there's not a God.

I look at him, he looks at me, and immediately he he repels and goes to the opposite side of the wall.

It's like two maggots.

Whew! I said, no, no, no.

I went right straight to him and said, Stephen, Stephen, stop.

Please.

Man, what I did out there was wrong.

The way I responded, you didn't mean it maliciously.

I know your heart.

I'm sorry.

I am sorry.

Will you please forgive me?

He looked at me like the deer in the headlight look.

Like, okay.

Diffused.

Finished my junior year, went on to my senior year.

We are having two-day football practices the next year.

Stephen calls me one day and said, Hey Jeff, I need a ride to football practice.

Would you mind coming to get me?

And I said, Not at all.

I haven't thought one time about that incident.

We get in the car and I'm driving into football practice.

He says to me, Jeff, what do you have that I don't have?

He said, I understand your anger.

I know about anger.

Let me tell you about Stephen Bostik.

He's one of three boys.

He's the middle boy.

He's an older and younger brother.

He's been an angry boy his whole life.

And it started one day when he and his brother were playing checkers.

And he got mad at his brother, and he picked up a checker to throw at his older brother and his older brother Duck.

And he hit his younger brother right in the eye and put his eye out.

And his younger brother had been wearing a glass eye.

His whole life.

Stephen had been carrying this for years.

He said to me, I understand your anger.

I know that part.

What I don't understand is how you got the peace that came after the anger.

Please tell me what you have that I don't have.

And I began to share in the best of my ability what I what I knew and what I what God had done, the prayer that I prayed in him, just the simplicity of it.

If he had prayed that prayer, if he he would make the same choice, God would do something in his life.

God would make a decision.

If he made a decision for God, God would act on his behalf.

And I pleaded with him.

And he said, You know, Jeff, I want to think about it.

I really appreciate you sharing, but I really want to think about it.

And I said, Take as long as you want.

If you have more questions, I'll answer them anytime.

I graduated high school.

Stephen Bostick never asked me another question.

Don't know if he ever did anything with the information.

It just kind of went out of my mind.

I went on to college and three years later I came home to visit my parents.

My mom, as I walked in the door, said, Hey, have you heard the news?

And I said, What news?

She said, Stephen Bostick was killed today.

I never obeyed that voice.

What if?

I would have said to my father had the eye.

Would you obey that still false small voice today?

I don't know, you may have been beat up by an older brother and called it God.

Been a lot of that going on lately.

You may find yourself here today and you may be the older brother.

Would you catch the father's heart?

If you've been beat up by an older brother or sister and they called it God, would you forgive them today?

Would you release them?

Would you let them go?

Don't let them hold you captive any longer.

I encourage you to read it.

It's John 3.17.

He didn't send his son to condemn you.

He sent his son to love you.

He sent his son so that he can make a way that you can have a relationship with the Father.

He didn't send it to condemn you.

He sent love.

He gave.

Would you receive that today?

Father, I thank you for a clear description of who you are through the eyes of Jesus.

And today, we receive you.

Just like you are.

We'll no longer stiff arm you.

We want you.

Changes.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.