It's Worth the Wait - Bishop T.D. Jakes
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LearningTranscript
00:00:00 [MUSIC]
00:00:10 [APPLAUSE]
00:00:13 >> I invite you to the book of the ages.
00:00:21 The best book of wisdom I have ever read.
00:00:27 The best entrepreneurial guide I have ever read.
00:00:34 The best plan of salvation that we have ever
00:00:39 discovered in the gospel of St. Luke.
00:00:45 Chapter number 15, I will use a very,
00:00:49 very extremely familiar scripture.
00:00:54 And I only excerpt a portion of it because it is so
00:00:58 familiar that 90% of the people of the room would almost be able to quote it by
00:01:03 heart.
00:01:03 And yet, indulge me if you will, in the luxury of extrapolating from this text
00:01:11 an additional thought for the benefit of the hearer.
00:01:15 As we discuss the prodigal son,
00:01:20 not every man is a father, but
00:01:27 all of us are sons.
00:01:31 And if we become fathers, we do not forfeit our sonship for fatherhood.
00:01:38 That duality of roles is of paramount importance,
00:01:44 because in the oldest man in the room, there is still a child.
00:01:50 >> Amen.
00:01:53 >> For that matter, in the oldest woman in the room, there is still a little girl.
00:01:58 >> Amen.
00:02:00 >> And at different moments and times, you are dealing with both of them.
00:02:03 And this text is what I'm going to use to talk to
00:02:11 all of the many different versions of you.
00:02:15 I told them yesterday,
00:02:20 I said there's so many people sitting in your chair.
00:02:23 >> Come right behind me.
00:02:25 >> Yeah.
00:02:25 There's so many versions of you, the happy you, the sad you,
00:02:31 the restless you, the stable you, the impulsive you.
00:02:39 >> Overlooked.
00:02:42 >> The overlooked you.
00:02:43 >> Yes.
00:02:46 >> The curious you.
00:02:47 >> The repentant you.
00:02:49 >> The repentant you.
00:02:50 >> The you that is given to mischief.
00:02:54 >> Yeah, yeah.
00:02:56 >> And the you that is given to wisdom.
00:02:58 >> Yeah.
00:02:59 >> All of them are wearing your clothes this morning.
00:03:02 >> Good.
00:03:03 >> Midway's the story we start in the 15th verse of the 15th chapter of
00:03:10 the Gospel of Saint John, and it reads this wise out of the King James Version.
00:03:16 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country,
00:03:22 talking about the prodigal son, left his father's house and went and
00:03:27 joined a citizen of this far country who were not covenant keeping people.
00:03:36 And when you join yourself to a different kind of person,
00:03:41 they send you to do things you said you would never do.
00:03:44 >> Amen.
00:03:45 >> And he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
00:03:53 So the prince has been sent into a field to feed swine.
00:04:03 And it looked good to him.
00:04:05 >> Wow.
00:04:06 >> He would fain have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat.
00:04:14 And maybe he's hungry because no man gave unto him.
00:04:27 When no man gives unto you, it creates a natural appetite.
00:04:34 You cannot pour out what has not been poured in.
00:04:40 >> Amen.
00:04:41 >> And when he came to himself.
00:04:47 >> Amen.
00:04:47 >> I don't know what age that he is.
00:04:54 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:05:01 >> They told me it was 18.
00:05:03 >> [LAUGH]
00:05:08 >> But it's not.
00:05:09 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:05:12 >> At 66, I'm still coming.
00:05:15 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:05:18 >> To myself.
00:05:19 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:05:22 >> Divesting myself of all the accrudements
00:05:24 that other people placed on me.
00:05:27 And finding out who I am outside of what you want me to be is a process.
00:05:34 When he came to himself, he said, how many hard servants of my fathers
00:05:40 have bread enough and to spare and I, I, I, I perish.
00:05:48 With hunger, anybody hungry?
00:05:53 >> Yes.
00:05:55 >> I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father.
00:06:03 I have sinned.
00:06:07 Nobody talks about sin anymore.
00:06:09 >> No.
00:06:09 >> Father, I have sinned.
00:06:14 Everybody has their own opinion.
00:06:16 But he said, father, I have sinned.
00:06:19 His admission of his sin is what gives him access back to the father.
00:06:26 If you confess your sin, he is faithful and
00:06:29 just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
00:06:34 Father, I have sinned.
00:06:37 I have sinned against heaven and before thee.
00:06:44 And I, I am no more worthy to be called thy son.
00:06:49 I don't even deserve to be your son.
00:06:52 Boy, you don't hear that much.
00:06:56 Make me as one of thy hard servants.
00:07:01 And he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off,
00:07:09 listen to this father, his father saw him.
00:07:12 Do you see your son?
00:07:15 I mean, really see him?
00:07:20 When he was a great way off, not when he's doing what you want him to do, but
00:07:25 when he's a great way off, there are a lot of young men who don't feel seen.
00:07:35 His father saw him and had compassion.
00:07:40 Not rules.
00:07:42 Not mouth.
00:07:45 Not criticism.
00:07:49 There has to come a time that you shut up.
00:07:52 And have compassion.
00:07:57 And ran and fell on his neck.
00:08:01 Yes, and he kissed his son.
00:08:04 Because there is nothing wrong
00:08:09 with being affectionate with your son.
00:08:14 And the son said unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and
00:08:21 I am no more worthy to be called.
00:08:23 I said, see, when, when you don't feel worthy, even when you have an opportunity,
00:08:29 you don't always activate because of guilt and shame.
00:08:34 This cataclysmic moment was something the father waited a long time to see happen.
00:08:43 Anybody waited a long time to see something happen?
00:08:54 The Lord told me to tell you this, and this is my subject.
00:08:58 It's worth the wait.
00:09:01 [APPLAUSE]
00:09:08 I want you to look at somebody and tell them, it's worth the wait.
00:09:12 >> It's worth the wait.
00:09:15 >> Father God, in the name of Jesus, as we approach thy throne, we do it humbly and
00:09:21 submissively before you because thou art God and besides you there is no other.
00:09:25 Release the kind of anointing that impacts people in definite ways,
00:09:31 that changes them eternally, that heals wounds,
00:09:37 that loosens the bound that sets a captive free.
00:09:40 I thank you in advance for what you're going to do.
00:09:42 Have your way, great God, that you are.
00:09:45 I trust you for things I can't even discuss.
00:09:49 Manifest yourself in the midst of your people today.
00:09:53 In Jesus' name, amen.
00:09:55 >> Amen.
00:09:57 >> Rest easy, the work's on me.
00:09:59 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:10:08 >> This is a very interesting text.
00:10:11 It is one of the few stories, parables, as it were,
00:10:16 mentioned in the scriptures that is void of the presence of any woman at all.
00:10:26 There is no female character in this text at all.
00:10:34 If this text were taught today, it would be greatly criticized
00:10:43 because now people quickly scan your page to see
00:10:48 if they are represented properly in the text.
00:10:51 >> [LAUGH]
00:10:55 >> You ain't.
00:10:56 >> [LAUGH]
00:10:59 >> You are not in the text at all.
00:11:03 This is a man's story.
00:11:09 It is a story of three different men at three different ages and
00:11:14 stages in their life, all coalesced together
00:11:20 to develop a truth about a God who is
00:11:26 explaining his love through a story about men.
00:11:34 Now, this is not misogynistic by any stretch of the imagination.
00:11:39 Let us be clear, because the Bible is full of women.
00:11:44 From Eve forward, the Bible is full of women.
00:11:51 From Eve to Bathsheba to Ruth, the Bible is full of women.
00:11:59 From JL to Naomi, the Bible is full of women.
00:12:06 To the woman with the issue of blood, to the woman at the well,
00:12:12 to Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Bible is full of stories,
00:12:21 powerful, life-changing stories about women.
00:12:26 It's interesting to note in this particular case,
00:12:30 this father has sons that he could not have by himself.
00:12:34 And yet the woman is not mentioned in the text at all.
00:12:38 I must admit that the Bible is written in the midst
00:12:46 of misogynistic times, where women were not always valued.
00:12:53 Consequently, many of the women who premiere in the text
00:12:59 are often not even given names in the text.
00:13:02 They're just referred to as the woman at the well,
00:13:07 the woman with the issue.
00:13:09 There is no discussion about what their names were.
00:13:13 Oftentimes, men's names were mentioned more readily than women,
00:13:20 because in the times of the scriptures,
00:13:25 the birth of a man child was considered to be more weighty than a woman.
00:13:30 Don't stone me.
00:13:33 I'm just teaching.
00:13:36 I am not saying that men are more valuable than women.
00:13:43 I'm saying that was the attitude of the times.
00:13:47 And so we must put the text in context to understand
00:13:52 the complexity of the text itself.
00:13:55 The interesting thing also to note is that one of the things that I love
00:14:01 about scripture, this particular verse starts out saying a certain man had two sons.
00:14:09 That is not accidental.
00:14:12 We will see that all throughout the scriptures.
00:14:18 A certain man had two sons.
00:14:20 A certain man like Adam had two sons, Cain and Abel.
00:14:29 And when Abel was slaughtered, Seth was born.
00:14:36 And still a certain man had two sons.
00:14:44 There's Phares and Zerah.
00:14:46 There's Hophni and Phinehas.
00:14:51 A certain man had two sons.
00:14:59 There's Jacob and Esau.
00:15:01 A certain man had two sons.
00:15:11 There's God who has the first man, Adam, and the last man, Adam.
00:15:20 A certain man had two sons.
00:15:27 What I love about the word of God, it does not show us just the grandiose
00:15:36 ideologies of successful families that have no turbulence, but
00:15:42 from the very first family, he warns us that families will be complicated,
00:15:49 conflicted, dysfunctional.
00:15:54 If the first family was dysfunctional,
00:16:03 the apple couldn't fall too far from the tree.
00:16:06 As soon as God put the man in the garden and pulled out of him the woman,
00:16:15 and they started the first family, murder hit the first family.
00:16:21 Is a clue that there is going to be turbulence the rest of the book with
00:16:30 families, the law of first mention, the first family that's mentioned
00:16:36 is dysfunctional and all the way throughout the rest of the book we see
00:16:40 turbulence, we see rape, we see molestation, we see drunken fathers,
00:16:45 we see ungrateful sons, we see the impediments of people who dress
00:16:52 themselves up like prostitutes and slept with their father-in-law to get pregnant,
00:16:57 to produce children.
00:16:59 If the Bible were to be cinematic, it would at least be rated R.
00:17:04 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:17:09 >> At least rated R,
00:17:11 because God is honest and vivid about the fact that life is messy.
00:17:17 >> Amen.
00:17:20 >> It's complicated.
00:17:21 That's why you ought not to covet your neighbor.
00:17:25 >> Amen.
00:17:27 >> Because you're standing on the outside and on the outside,
00:17:30 every family looks good and stable and solid and sane.
00:17:36 And part of your pain comes from your comparison.
00:17:40 Because you wish that your family were more like them, but
00:17:45 if you went inside the house, you would find out that
00:17:48 they are not everything that you thought that they were.
00:17:52 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:17:56 >> And maybe you better deal with
00:17:57 the devil you know.
00:17:59 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:18:04 >> Than the devil you don't.
00:18:05 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:18:09 >> Family is tough.
00:18:11 >> Amen.
00:18:13 >> I would rather build a church any day than build a family.
00:18:17 >> Amen.
00:18:18 >> I would rather build a business any day than build a family.
00:18:22 I would rather lay block than build a family,
00:18:27 because block don't have an opinion.
00:18:29 Block don't talk back.
00:18:32 It stays where you put it.
00:18:34 Come on, somebody.
00:18:36 But raising a family, see, every block got a mouth.
00:18:40 >> Amen.
00:18:41 >> And every mouth has an opinion.
00:18:43 And every opinion has to be expressed.
00:18:46 And it is your job to hold together all of these different opinions and
00:18:51 personalities and attitudes and dispositions.
00:18:54 And mood swings.
00:18:58 And midlife crisis.
00:19:01 And menopause.
00:19:03 And adolescence.
00:19:04 You gotta hold it together for a long time.
00:19:12 There is no retiring from your family.
00:19:16 There is no resigning from your family.
00:19:19 You will always be attached to them.
00:19:22 Don't believe your divorce papers.
00:19:24 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:19:30 >> Just cuz you signed a release doesn't
00:19:32 mean you're out of jail.
00:19:33 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:19:35 >> Cuz the first time trouble rises,
00:19:37 the first time they have a car wreck, the first time they get sick,
00:19:41 the first time they get in trouble, they're gonna call you and it's gonna affect you.
00:19:45 I know you said you don't care and it don't bother you.
00:19:47 But you're gonna have flashbacks cuz you got a brain.
00:19:50 And you're gonna have a, how to run a real people at it.
00:19:53 Are y'all sitting in the section over here?
00:19:55 Flashback.
00:19:56 Have you ever had a flashback?
00:19:58 You broke up but you still got a flashback.
00:20:01 And you're a little worried but you can't call.
00:20:04 And you tell yourself you don't care but you do.
00:20:06 And you're walking around in the middle of the night with that little sick feeling
00:20:10 in the bottom of your stomach.
00:20:12 Because your stomach won't listen at your head and
00:20:15 disconnect from the fact that you are still connected though you are free on
00:20:19 paper, you are still bound by experience and families are messy business.
00:20:25 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:20:34 >> We live in a time now that
00:20:36 everybody wants everything quick.
00:20:39 >> [LAUGH]
00:20:42 >> Quick love.
00:20:44 >> [LAUGH]
00:20:46 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:20:50 >> Immediate gratification.
00:20:55 I'm gonna talk about some stuff you don't know about cuz you grew up on instant
00:20:59 grits.
00:20:59 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:21:02 >> But I remember when grits weren't
00:21:04 instant.
00:21:05 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:21:07 >> So what you call good grits,
00:21:09 I just call gritty.
00:21:10 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:21:12 >> Cuz real grits are slow cooked.
00:21:15 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:21:16 >> Come on, talk to me somebody.
00:21:18 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:21:19 >> Real grits are slow cooked,
00:21:21 take a long time to get the grits right.
00:21:24 But that stuff you all throw it in the microwave that you call grits,
00:21:28 it's not really grits.
00:21:31 Because if you want something to have real flavor, you got to slow cook it.
00:21:36 You gotta put it on a smoker.
00:21:38 You gotta give it some time.
00:21:40 You can't cook collard greens in 15 minutes.
00:21:44 It takes time to cook green.
00:21:47 You gotta put the meat in and let it boil down and
00:21:51 let it thicken up and let it get a little flavor in it.
00:21:54 Come on somebody, you gotta cut your greens and wash your greens and
00:21:59 add them in at the right time.
00:22:01 And then cover them up and let it cook down, let all the juices cook down to,
00:22:07 you can't tell the greens from the broth and see we don't have time for that.
00:22:12 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:22:16 >> We want instant sons and
00:22:18 instant fathers and instant marriages.
00:22:22 Listen, it takes 30 minutes to have a wedding.
00:22:25 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:22:29 >> But it may take 30 years to have
00:22:31 a marriage.
00:22:32 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:22:39 >> And most of us, if we don't get what we
00:22:42 need when we need it, like we need it, and the style that we need it,
00:22:46 in our love language.
00:22:48 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:22:55 >> We're out of there.
00:22:58 And all of these love languages sound like the United Nations to me.
00:23:02 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:23:05 >> How am I supposed to know what your
00:23:07 love language is?
00:23:09 I'm still trying to figure out what my love language is.
00:23:11 And when your love language and my love language and
00:23:14 then the kids love language gets in there, it sounds like the day of Pentecost.
00:23:19 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:23:23 >> Touch me, no, give me space.
00:23:25 Acknowledge me.
00:23:27 No, don't make me stand up in front of people.
00:23:29 Shut up!
00:23:30 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:23:40 >> The family started before the church.
00:23:50 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:23:53 >> God knew he had to slow cook it
00:23:55 because it was going to take a long time to get that right.
00:23:58 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:24:00 >> He didn't even bring up the church to
00:24:02 the New Testament, but he started the family way back in the Book of Genesis
00:24:07 because he said this is slow grits.
00:24:09 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:24:11 >> We got to cook it real slow.
00:24:13 >> Real slow.
00:24:14 >> Real slow.
00:24:16 >> Because the brothers are going to get jealous.
00:24:18 >> What?
00:24:21 >> And brothers do get jealous.
00:24:25 >> Good job, Paul Redding.
00:24:28 >> They're going to murder and they're going to kill.
00:24:31 And they're going to be envious, some vocally, some silently.
00:24:36 It takes a long time to have a family.
00:24:41 >> That's all right.
00:24:43 >> And we're in trouble, our communities are in trouble.
00:24:46 Our nation is in trouble, now our world is in trouble, but
00:24:50 all of it is only because our families are in trouble.
00:24:53 >> That's right.
00:24:55 >> How can you have a strong community and a weak family?
00:24:59 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:25:04 >> You must understand that the community
00:25:06 is made up of families.
00:25:08 It is in your family that you learn authority, that you learn order,
00:25:15 that you have protocol, that you have, used to, anyway, I'm sorry.
00:25:19 Used to, I'm old folky.
00:25:21 Used to have discipline.
00:25:22 That's where you learn your art, your skill, your talent, your rules,
00:25:27 your regulation, what time to go to bed.
00:25:30 It's nine o'clock, go to bed, go to bed, clean your room, wash your drawers,
00:25:36 clean yourself up in case you have a wreck.
00:25:39 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:25:47 >> I never did understand what a wreck had
00:25:50 to do with clean drawers.
00:25:51 He dead, but he has.
00:25:53 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:26:03 >> Mama, I died, but my drawers was clean.
00:26:10 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:26:12 >> They cut both my legs off, but
00:26:13 my drawers was sparkling white.
00:26:16 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:26:26 >> This is messy, this is complicated,
00:26:29 this is difficult, this is tough.
00:26:31 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:26:34 >> It is tough, because the star of
00:26:38 the story is seemingly the son.
00:26:44 The biggest fool in the text has the lead role.
00:26:47 The most selfish, self-aggrandized,
00:26:57 aloof individual in the whole story has the lead role.
00:27:01 The father is the supporting cast.
00:27:08 And that's what it means to be a father.
00:27:13 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:27:18 >> To be the supporting cast,
00:27:22 it's your job to support.
00:27:25 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:27:31 >> And nobody preaches about the father.
00:27:34 They always preach about the son.
00:27:39 They sing songs about the son.
00:27:43 They do sermons and poetry on the son.
00:27:46 Nobody says anything about the father.
00:27:48 And the father is the one who held everything together.
00:27:53 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:27:57 >> But it hurt.
00:27:58 It hurt.
00:28:03 And just because a man doesn't cry,
00:28:12 does not mean that he doesn't hurt.
00:28:16 This is how I look when I'm happy.
00:28:22 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:28:40 >> This is how I look when I'm getting
00:28:42 ready to knock your head off.
00:28:43 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:28:52 >> This is how I look when I'm scared.
00:28:53 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:28:58 >> And some of our homes are busting up
00:29:00 because you expect my face to radiate my emotions
00:29:06 like yours does when in reality I can feel everything you feel and go.
00:29:12 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:29:16 >> When they bring me bad news,
00:29:18 I take it like this.
00:29:19 When they bring me good news, I take it like this.
00:29:26 And just because the father didn't cry, didn't mean he didn't hurt.
00:29:33 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:29:43 >> And unfortunately, we live in a society
00:29:47 that gives empathy and compassion to that that is visible.
00:29:52 So the more invisible you become with how you feel,
00:29:59 the less compassion you receive.
00:30:01 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:30:05 >> Because they start saying,
00:30:06 that's just how he is.
00:30:07 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:30:09 >> You built for this.
00:30:10 You can do it.
00:30:12 You can handle it.
00:30:14 Because I took it like this.
00:30:17 Inside I wanted to die.
00:30:21 I wanted to throw up.
00:30:25 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:30:31 >> And I took it like this.
00:30:33 The father doesn't get the lead role because he's not given enough drama now.
00:30:38 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:30:40 >> He probably did when he was younger.
00:30:42 But drama dries up with age.
00:30:47 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:30:54 >> It's like a war that just dries up and
00:30:56 shrinks down and calms down.
00:30:58 The younger son said to his father,
00:31:04 give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me.
00:31:08 Who says anything falls to you?
00:31:12 What entitlement that you think just because you're my son,
00:31:18 that something is supposed to fall to you, that I owe you something.
00:31:23 I had you.
00:31:24 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:31:27 >> I did that, I had you.
00:31:28 You here.
00:31:29 Glory, that's your inheritance?
00:31:33 You breathe.
00:31:34 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:31:40 >> My son said, thank you for it.
00:31:42 [LAUGH]
00:31:45 >> He comes to his father with a spirit of
00:31:48 entitlement expecting his father to give him his inheritance.
00:31:55 Wait a minute, inheritance is what you get when I die.
00:31:59 So you mean you're in such a hurry to get what I got that you can't wait on me to
00:32:06 die, you want me to get out the way because you would rather have the gift
00:32:11 than the giver?
00:32:12 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:32:14 >> You'd rather have the seed than the
00:32:16 sower?
00:32:19 You'd rather have the healing than the healer?
00:32:22 That's what you mean every time you pray in the emergency room to a God that you
00:32:27 don't serve, you want him to heal you.
00:32:29 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:32:30 >> But you don't want to have a relationship
00:32:33 with the healer.
00:32:34 Don't act like you don't understand the prodigal son,
00:32:37 because there's a whole lot of prodigal sons and daughters in this room who
00:32:41 only come to God when they get in trouble.
00:32:45 And as soon as the trouble is over, we don't see you no more because.
00:32:49 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:32:52 >> You pray prayers like, Lord, if you
00:32:54 just get me out of.
00:32:55 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:33:05 >> Can I go deeper?
00:33:06 >> Yes.
00:33:08 >> Give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me.
00:33:10 And then it says something that is the most telling.
00:33:18 He divided unto them, both of them, his living.
00:33:26 >> His living.
00:33:32 >> His living.
00:33:33 How much is that?
00:33:36 >> He's living.
00:33:40 >> His living.
00:33:41 >> His life.
00:33:42 >> His life.
00:33:43 See, whatever he had accumulated, he had spent his life to get it.
00:33:53 >> Yes.
00:33:56 >> So when he gave it to his sons, it wasn't that he was giving him money.
00:34:04 He was giving them his life.
00:34:06 He divided unto them his living.
00:34:12 I have given you my life.
00:34:16 While you pick through it and tell me what's wrong with the gift.
00:34:21 >> Amen.
00:34:21 >> How it should have been wrapped and how it should have been handled and
00:34:29 what should have been done with it.
00:34:31 It was my life.
00:34:32 I could have had it without you.
00:34:36 I could have had it without you.
00:34:39 I could have went to Paris and I could have went to France, but
00:34:42 I sent you to school.
00:34:43 >> Amen.
00:34:47 >> I could have went to Venice, I could have been in Italy, I could have been in
00:34:50 Rome, I could have went to Afghanistan, I could have taken trips to Dubai.
00:34:55 But I paid your tuition with my life.
00:34:59 >> Amen.
00:35:02 >> That hat on your head is my life.
00:35:05 >> Amen.
00:35:07 >> That ring on your finger is my life.
00:35:10 >> Amen.
00:35:13 >> And he divided unto them his living.
00:35:16 And that's okay.
00:35:19 Because if you're really a father, you should love your seed enough
00:35:26 to invest your life.
00:35:29 >> Amen.
00:35:31 >> Stay with me, I'm going somewhere.
00:35:33 Yeah, because if I'm going to give my life to anybody, I should give it to my seed.
00:35:40 If I were going to die right now and I had to pick out who I was going to give
00:35:46 my life to, I would give it to my seed first.
00:35:53 The problem is he divided unto them his living, not their living,
00:35:58 his living, and the prodigal son took his living and went a whoring.
00:36:04 He spent it on sluts.
00:36:08 And tramps and parties and fake friends.
00:36:18 He spent it in strip clubs and hookah bars and having parties and
00:36:26 dropping it like it's hot and making it rain up in here.
00:36:29 He made it rain, he made it rain, you don't get it.
00:36:35 He made it rain with his father's life.
00:36:38 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:36:48 >> I gave you my life and you bought weaves.
00:36:51 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:36:56 >> To impress men who gave you nothing.
00:36:59 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:37:07 >> It's Father's Day.
00:37:08 It's Father's Day.
00:37:12 And I had to sit here and watch you waste
00:37:18 my living knowing I would not get another one.
00:37:21 Knowing this is my last run.
00:37:24 Knowing that I'm running out of time.
00:37:26 Knowing that I won't get a do over again and I had to watch you blow it and
00:37:32 listen that you tell me what I should have done.
00:37:34 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:37:40 >> Because even though you haven't done
00:37:42 it, you seem to know how to do it.
00:37:45 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:37:55 >> If another childless person tells me
00:37:59 how to be a father, I'll scream.
00:38:01 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:38:05 >> I know this is gonna get me on TikTok
00:38:06 for sure, but here I go.
00:38:09 If another woman tells me how to be a father,
00:38:12 I will open my mouth and flat out scream.
00:38:16 You can no more tell me how to be a father than I can tell you how to birth a baby.
00:38:21 I don't know nothing about birthing a baby.
00:38:24 I don't know nothing about nursing a child.
00:38:27 You have to know what you don't know.
00:38:30 Shut up being the teacher and just be the wife.
00:38:34 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:38:44 >> How do you know how to be a father?
00:38:51 Not only are you not a father, most of you didn't even have a father, and
00:38:58 yet you're an expert on how to be.
00:39:00 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:39:10 >> But that's all right,
00:39:15 I'm not gonna bother you cuz you're not in the text.
00:39:17 That's all right, I'm sorry.
00:39:18 I got off the text.
00:39:19 Let me get back to the text.
00:39:20 I'm not gonna bother you today and all your ideas and
00:39:23 all the stuff you read in Essence and Women's Today and
00:39:27 all the things you heard at the beauty shop about what a man ought to be.
00:39:30 I'm not gonna bother you today because you're an expert on something you have
00:39:33 never done.
00:39:34 I'm gonna leave you alone.
00:39:36 I'm not gonna try to argue with you cuz you talk faster than me.
00:39:39 Go ahead.
00:39:39 >> [LAUGH]
00:39:41 >> But just because you outtaught me
00:39:42 doesn't mean you changed my mind.
00:39:44 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:39:58 >> That's why I looked at you like this
00:40:00 when you talked to me.
00:40:00 >> [LAUGH]
00:40:10 >> And there you are.
00:40:14 I want you to feel what the father felt when the son walked out the door with his
00:40:21 life and blew it.
00:40:28 It's not like he went out there and increased it and invested it and
00:40:32 grew from it and multiplied it and did something with it.
00:40:36 He took everything I told him and everything I taught him and
00:40:39 everything I gave him and everything I put inside of him and gave it to sluts.
00:40:45 >> [LAUGH]
00:40:48 >> That never appear again in the text.
00:40:51 >> [LAUGH]
00:40:54 >> Riotous living.
00:40:55 >> [LAUGH]
00:41:00 >> And to all of that,
00:41:01 the father said nothing.
00:41:03 >> That's amazing.
00:41:06 >> He said absolutely nothing because he had to.
00:41:11 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:41:21 >> He had to wait.
00:41:22 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:41:25 >> He had to wait when it looked like it
00:41:28 wasn't gonna pay off.
00:41:29 >> I know that's right.
00:41:31 >> He had to wait when it looked like he was a failure.
00:41:35 He had to wait when it looked like it didn't work.
00:41:38 He had to wait when it looked like it didn't matter.
00:41:41 He had to wait while they went on without him.
00:41:43 He had to sit there and wait.
00:41:47 >> Jesus.
00:41:48 >> He had to wait while he was running out of time.
00:41:51 >> Yeah.
00:41:52 >> He's running out of time.
00:41:53 The boy has more time than the father.
00:41:56 It is not the oldest son, it is the youngest son.
00:41:59 He has the most time and the least sense.
00:42:03 And the old man with the least time and
00:42:06 the most sense has to sit back.
00:42:09 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:42:10 >> Jesus.
00:42:11 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:42:13 >> And watch me.
00:42:14 I got it.
00:42:14 That's it.
00:42:16 That's it.
00:42:17 Help, help.
00:42:19 And just wait, waiting is so hard that the Bible said,
00:42:25 they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
00:42:30 That means you expend energy just waiting.
00:42:34 I'm just waiting.
00:42:35 I'm just waiting.
00:42:37 I'm tired from waiting.
00:42:39 I'm weak from waiting.
00:42:41 I need revival just to wait.
00:42:44 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:42:54 >> And so he waited.
00:42:56 >> Yeah, yeah.
00:42:58 >> Cuz good grits.
00:42:59 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:43:08 >> He waited while he spent his money
00:43:11 at payday loans.
00:43:12 He waited while he made dumb decisions.
00:43:16 He waited while he got tied up with people that never meant him no good.
00:43:21 He waited while the young man valued his friends more than his father.
00:43:26 He waited while his fake friends who were only with him for
00:43:32 the money and the opportunity that he got because he had a father
00:43:36 who helped him to be who he was, he had to wait while the son picked
00:43:41 his friends over his father, he had to wait.
00:43:45 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:43:51 >> And he didn't say a word.
00:43:57 Brothers, shut up.
00:44:02 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:44:06 >> They can't see it till they see it.
00:44:09 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:44:12 >> They can't know it till they know it.
00:44:16 They can't be it till they be it.
00:44:20 They can't see it just like you couldn't see it when you were their age.
00:44:24 They can't see it either.
00:44:26 And you have to, the Bible says, in patience you possess your soul.
00:44:31 You possess your mind.
00:44:33 You keep yourself from a nervous breakdown.
00:44:35 When you develop patience,
00:44:37 you have to know that you shall bring forth fruit in your own season.
00:44:42 And your leaves shall not wither, and whatsoever you do shall prosper.
00:44:46 But it's not the boy's season.
00:44:49 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:44:55 >> You gotta wait on that girl to grow up.
00:44:59 Yes, she's gonna act a fool.
00:45:00 Yes, she's gonna do stupid things.
00:45:02 Yes, she might come home pregnant.
00:45:05 Yes, she might get on drugs.
00:45:07 Yes, your heart is broken.
00:45:08 Yes, you feel like you're a disappointment.
00:45:11 Yes, you feel like a failure.
00:45:13 At your most vulnerable age, you feel like I failed.
00:45:17 I put everything I had in you, and look at you, but you gotta wait.
00:45:23 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:45:31 >> I don't know who I'm preaching to,
00:45:32 but I feel like I'm preaching to somebody today.
00:45:37 See, we have lost our ability to wait.
00:45:40 If the marriage don't work out in the first three years, we're out of there.
00:45:43 If we're not happy in the first five years, we're out of there.
00:45:47 You don't understand how long it takes for two different people from two
00:45:51 different worlds and two different family backgrounds to mesh together and
00:45:56 figure out how to make this work.
00:45:58 You ain't gonna be happy every day.
00:46:01 I can't make you happy.
00:46:03 I'm trying to make me happy.
00:46:05 I don't even know what I want.
00:46:07 How do you expect me to know what you want?
00:46:10 I don't know what you want, and I can't make you happy.
00:46:15 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:46:31 >> And so,
00:46:36 so, the old man waited.
00:46:43 This Jewish boy has gotten tied up with some Gentile people.
00:46:58 Wait a minute, you couldn't stay with me and I loved you.
00:47:04 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:47:07 >> And now you have attached yourself
00:47:10 to a citizen of that country.
00:47:15 And I had to wait while you gave them honor.
00:47:18 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:47:22 >> You couldn't be attached to me.
00:47:24 >> Wow.
00:47:27 >> But you attach yourself to the Gentiles who sent you
00:47:33 out there to feed what I would never feed you.
00:47:37 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:47:39 >> For a Jew to eat swine was a curse.
00:47:44 And the moment they got his attention, they sent him to the hog pen.
00:47:49 Not to eat the swine, to feed the swine.
00:47:56 And the boy is so low in his vision and his self-esteem,
00:48:00 that now he's craving stuff that he's never been exposed to at home.
00:48:06 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:48:12 >> And it's not that he was about to
00:48:13 have a ham sandwich or some barbecued ribs.
00:48:16 >> [LAUGH]
00:48:18 >> He was lusting after corn husk.
00:48:21 >> [LAUGH]
00:48:23 >> Y'all are city people,
00:48:24 you don't know nothing about a hog pen.
00:48:26 >> [LAUGH]
00:48:27 >> A hog pen stinks.
00:48:28 >> [LAUGH]
00:48:30 >> It's full of slop.
00:48:31 >> [LAUGH]
00:48:33 >> And feces and mud.
00:48:35 >> [LAUGH]
00:48:37 >> And the son at his lowest estate,
00:48:40 you can tell he's at his lowest estate because when you get down to your lowest,
00:48:45 stuff that never looked good to you starts looking good to you.
00:48:47 >> [LAUGH]
00:48:48 >> Stuff that you weren't attracted to,
00:48:50 you start being attracted to.
00:48:52 Things you said you'd never do, now you start doing them.
00:48:55 And now he would fain have filled his belly with that which the swine did eat.
00:49:02 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:49:04 >> Because he was hungry.
00:49:06 I'm not blaming him, he was hungry.
00:49:09 But while he was hungry, there was food at his father's house.
00:49:15 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:49:20 >> If a man gets hungry enough,
00:49:21 you'll eat anything, you'll do anything.
00:49:23 I understand that.
00:49:24 I know what it is to be desperate.
00:49:26 I wanna talk to some desperate young men in this place right now when you get
00:49:31 desperate, stop telling people what you won't do.
00:49:33 Stop telling people where you won't go.
00:49:35 Stop telling people what you won't smoke.
00:49:37 Stop telling people what you won't drink.
00:49:38 Stop telling people who you won't sleep with.
00:49:40 That's cuz you're not hungry.
00:49:42 If you get hungry enough.
00:49:43 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:49:46 >> You gotta sit there and
00:49:48 act like you don't know what I'm talking about.
00:49:50 You gotta sit there with your church face on and
00:49:53 act like you haven't done anything that you thought you would never do.
00:49:58 You gotta sit there and look at me on this Father's Day and
00:50:01 act like you ain't got no mess, no secrets,
00:50:04 no stuff you don't want nobody to know about like you have never been to the hall.
00:50:09 You're such a phony.
00:50:10 That's why I'm full with church folk.
00:50:12 I wanna talk to some real people who have done some nasty stuff.
00:50:17 Some stinking stuff, some wretched stuff,
00:50:21 some stuff you had to blindfold yourself to do.
00:50:25 I wanna talk to some people that looked at corn husks and thought it was sexy.
00:50:31 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:50:47 >> And all the while this boy has broken his
00:50:50 own values and his own rules and his own integrity and
00:50:55 everything I put in him and everything I put on him.
00:51:01 And now he's down in the hog pen where my parenting is tested.
00:51:06 My parenting is not tested when you're in my house.
00:51:12 My parenting is tested when you leave.
00:51:17 My parenting is not tested at 9 o'clock in the evening.
00:51:20 My parenting is tested at 3 o'clock in the morning.
00:51:23 My parenting is not tested when I'm driving you to the prom.
00:51:27 My parenting is tested when you got your own car and
00:51:30 you're over somebody else's house you shouldn't be over.
00:51:33 My parenting is tested when you fell in love with that married man.
00:51:37 My parenting is tested when that boy got ready to kill you
00:51:41 over a girl who was just using you for your money.
00:51:44 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:51:49 >> You don't have to be a father to
00:51:50 understand this pain.
00:51:52 Cuz there's a whole lot of women in this room who have been raising children and
00:51:57 you know what it is to walk the floor at 3 o'clock in the morning and
00:52:00 you can't fix it and you can't stop it and they won't talk to you and
00:52:05 they won't take your calls and they won't listen to you and all you can do is wait.
00:52:10 You tried fussing and it didn't work.
00:52:12 You tried cussing and it didn't work.
00:52:15 You tried praying and it didn't work.
00:52:17 You spoke in tongues and it got worse.
00:52:19 They went to jail, they got in trouble, and even on this day some of you are hurting
00:52:24 because the people you love are locked up.
00:52:26 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:52:36 >> And he would fain have filled his
00:52:38 belly with that which the swine did eat.
00:52:40 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:52:45 >> And all while he was about to eat slop.
00:52:48 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:53:00 >> Have you ever waited on somebody you
00:53:01 love?
00:53:02 >> Yes.
00:53:05 >> Have you ever waited on them to call you?
00:53:06 >> Yes.
00:53:09 >> Have you ever picked up your phone and kept looking for a text?
00:53:11 >> Yes.
00:53:17 >> Have you ever waited on somebody to miss you?
00:53:19 >> Yes.
00:53:21 >> Right there.
00:53:22 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:53:30 >> He looked out the window.
00:53:37 He waited, not knowing if he would ever see him alive again.
00:53:42 Not knowing if the ambulance that just passed by was carrying my son,
00:53:48 my child, my wife, my future, whatever it is you're waiting on.
00:53:53 I'm wondering if it's gonna get back.
00:53:56 Is it ever gonna get back?
00:53:58 Is it ever gonna come home?
00:54:01 It's not just waiting, it's worrying.
00:54:04 It's worrying and waiting and worrying and waiting.
00:54:07 See, the worry is the torment that the devil leaves with the waiter so
00:54:11 that you can't get comfortable in the waiting.
00:54:13 That's why you have to wait on the Lord and have your strength renewed so
00:54:17 you can fight off the worry.
00:54:19 All the images that come to your mind, all the coulda, woulda, shoulda,
00:54:23 all the this might happen, that might happen, this might die, that might die.
00:54:28 That, that, this might happen.
00:54:30 And there he is where his father can't help him.
00:54:33 Where his father can't reach him.
00:54:35 Where his father can't touch him.
00:54:37 And he's already spent everything that his father put in him.
00:54:40 And now he's down to nothing.
00:54:43 And that's when we find out what you're really made of.
00:54:46 When you're down to nothing.
00:54:48 When all hell has broken loose in your life and
00:54:51 it looks like you'll never get back up again.
00:54:54 That's when we find out are you a man.
00:54:56 I don't know you're a man while you got money.
00:54:59 I know you're a man when you're broke.
00:55:01 I know you're a man when you're backed in a corner and you're shoved to the wall.
00:55:06 And if you don't fight your way out, you won't get out.
00:55:09 That's when I find out what you're really made of.
00:55:12 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:55:22 >> And I don't know what the father did wrong.
00:55:25 Every father does something wrong, something stupid, something crazy.
00:55:30 And all while you're waiting, you have nothing to think about but
00:55:33 maybe if I'd have spent more time.
00:55:37 >> [INAUDIBLE]
00:55:40 >> Maybe if I'd have took him to the movies.
00:55:41 Maybe if I'd have been at the football game.
00:55:43 Maybe if I'd have been at the dance.
00:55:45 Maybe he wouldn't be in the hall of fame.
00:55:46 Maybe it's my fault.
00:55:47 Maybe it's, I'm talking about guilt.
00:55:49 I'm talking about guilt.
00:55:52 I'm talking to the men, but I'm really talking to everybody because this is
00:55:56 genderless, these feelings are genderless.
00:55:59 They don't have nothing really to do with gender.
00:56:01 I'm talking about guilt.
00:56:02 Maybe I should have said something.
00:56:04 Maybe if I'd have fixed the sandwich before they died.
00:56:07 Maybe if I'd have went to the hospital that night.
00:56:08 Maybe if I'd have went and got them out of jail.
00:56:10 Maybe, maybe, maybe if I'd have drove down to the crack house.
00:56:13 Maybe, maybe if I'd have fought a little harder.
00:56:15 Maybe if I'd have argued one more time.
00:56:17 Maybe if I'd have pleaded.
00:56:18 Maybe if I'd have started crying.
00:56:19 Maybe if I'd have sat down in the floor.
00:56:21 Maybe, maybe, but these are the thoughts of the waiter.
00:56:24 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:56:25 >> While you wait.
00:56:26 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:56:28 >> Maybe if I'd have been a better wife,
00:56:30 he wouldn't have left me.
00:56:31 Maybe if I'd have been a better husband, she wouldn't have cheated on.
00:56:34 Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe it's the thoughts that run through the mind of
00:56:37 the people who are waiting.
00:56:41 And maybe the waiting isn't worth it.
00:56:45 Maybe I'll never see him again.
00:56:49 Maybe my son is dead.
00:56:57 All of this Jesus teaches to tell you what God goes through.
00:57:02 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:57:07 >> See, see, you think I'm talking about
00:57:09 Father's Day, but I'm not.
00:57:11 All of this Jesus is teaching is to illustrate to you what God goes through
00:57:17 with you.
00:57:18 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:57:20 >> While you spend everything he gave you
00:57:24 in riotous living and being irresponsible and going in your own way.
00:57:29 What you don't realize is that God is waiting on you.
00:57:32 He's, he's looking at the watch.
00:57:34 He's watching.
00:57:35 I gave you a chance.
00:57:36 I gave you another chance.
00:57:38 I gave you another chance.
00:57:39 I gave you another chance.
00:57:40 I'm waiting on you.
00:57:42 I'm waiting on you to come back home.
00:57:43 I still love you.
00:57:45 I still want you.
00:57:46 I'll take you back even though your friends have dropped you,
00:57:49 your girlfriends have dropped you, the harlots have dropped you.
00:57:53 The money is gone.
00:57:54 I'll take you broke.
00:57:55 I'll take you stinking.
00:57:56 I'll take you dirty.
00:57:58 I'll take you smelling like feces.
00:58:00 I'll take you any kind of way I can get you back.
00:58:03 I so love you that I'm willing to do whatever I gotta do to get you back.
00:58:10 This is not just about the love of a father.
00:58:13 Everybody doesn't have a father who loves them like that.
00:58:16 This is the love of our father, our God, who so
00:58:20 loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, his living,
00:58:26 that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
00:58:33 And you are making him.
00:58:35 [APPLAUSE]
00:58:45 And so the Bible says that there was this moment.
00:58:53 There was this moment in his life.
00:58:55 Oh my God.
00:58:57 Lord have mercy.
00:58:59 There was this moment in his life, this epiphany, this divine awakening,
00:59:05 this illumination, this apocalyptic unveiling of truth
00:59:12 that he came to himself.
00:59:14 And he wasn't in church, and he wasn't in prayer meeting,
00:59:16 and he wasn't in Bible class.
00:59:18 You don't have to be in a special place to come to yourself.
00:59:21 Sometimes you can wake up in your own bed.
00:59:23 Sometimes you can come to yourself in a nightclub.
00:59:26 Sometimes you can come to yourself in the street.
00:59:29 Sometimes you can be half drunk and have an epiphany and say, wait a minute.
00:59:33 I'm better than this.
00:59:34 I know better than this.
00:59:36 I come from better stuff than this.
00:59:38 I'm meant for more than this.
00:59:39 Surely my destiny doesn't end here.
00:59:42 Surely my life doesn't end here.
00:59:44 Surely I was made for better than this.
00:59:46 Surely, surely, surely.
00:59:48 No choir, no praise team, no preachers, no singers, no dancers.
00:59:54 He came to himself.
00:59:56 And I'm wondering if there's anybody in here that's having a moment where
01:00:10 you come to yourself.
01:00:15 I came to myself.
01:00:17 Wait, that's a strange statement.
01:00:19 I came to church this morning.
01:00:21 I came to the party shop.
01:00:23 That's travel.
01:00:24 That's distance.
01:00:26 That's time.
01:00:27 That's motion.
01:00:28 That's movement.
01:00:30 That's logistics.
01:00:31 I came to myself?
01:00:35 You mean I have to travel to get to me?
01:00:38 You mean I have to get on the road and start the car to find who I really am?
01:00:43 Yes, it takes a long time to come to yourself, to come to yourself where you
01:00:50 really know who you are.
01:00:53 He came to himself without moving his body.
01:00:59 He's still in the whole pen.
01:01:01 They're still snorting.
01:01:03 They're still stinking.
01:01:05 It's still dirty.
01:01:07 It's still a mess.
01:01:08 But nothing that hell sends against you can stop you from coming to yourself.
01:01:14 I don't care what you're surrounded by.
01:01:16 I don't care who's around you.
01:01:18 I don't care what it looks like.
01:01:20 I don't care what you did and who you did it with.
01:01:23 When you get ready to come to yourself, you can come to yourself.
01:01:28 I wish I had a witness.
01:01:29 Is there anybody in here that ever came to yourself?
01:01:33 Holler at your boy.
01:01:54 Watch the order.
01:01:55 He came to himself and said to himself, "How you talk to yourself determines where you
01:02:03 go."
01:02:04 He talked himself into trouble.
01:02:08 Now he has to talk himself out.
01:02:10 He says, "I will arise and go to my father's house."
01:02:16 Glory to God.
01:02:17 But he knows who he is now.
01:02:19 This is me, daddy.
01:02:21 I'm dirty, but it's me.
01:02:23 I'm stinking, but it's me.
01:02:25 I'm broke, but it's me.
01:02:27 I'm messed up, but it's me.
01:02:29 I'm hurting, but it's me.
01:02:30 I'm hungry, but it's me.
01:02:32 I've been a fool, but it's me.
01:02:35 I finally figured out who I am.
01:02:37 I spent all your money.
01:02:39 I messed up all your stuff.
01:02:41 I spent your time and your life and your energy, but I came to myself."
01:02:47 And listen, watch this young man.
01:02:50 Listen good.
01:02:52 He is so afraid of being rejected that he is rehearsing.
01:03:05 I will say to my father.
01:03:07 He ain't even there yet, is he?
01:03:11 But he's practicing.
01:03:12 This is how I'm going to say it.
01:03:13 I'm going to say, "I'm no more worthy to be called thy son.
01:03:17 Make me one of your hired servants."
01:03:18 And he's driving down the road trying to get his speech together because he don't even
01:03:26 know his father love him.
01:03:32 He don't even know that his father's been waiting on him.
01:03:36 He is preparing to convince his father to take him back.
01:03:45 When his father is sitting at home, sometimes your fear is lying to you.
01:04:05 Your fear is telling you that I'm mad about the money, that I'm mad about the time I wasted,
01:04:16 that I'm mad about how you spent my stuff.
01:04:20 And your fear and your guilt makes you think you got to rehearse.
01:04:27 It ain't what you're going to say to me.
01:04:30 It's what I'm going to say to you.
01:04:34 And he's rehearsing.
01:04:35 I'm going to say to my father, "I'm no more worthy to be called thy son."
01:04:38 And I'm not even going to ask him to get my bedroom back or anything like that.
01:04:42 And I'm not going to ask him for a robe or a ring or anything like that because I know
01:04:45 I messed up and I'm not worthy to be his son.
01:04:48 But if he just make me a hired servant, I'm going to tell him, I'm going to come all the
01:04:52 way down.
01:04:53 I'm going to hum it down.
01:04:54 And when I talk to him, I'm just going to say, "I'm not expecting you to give me back
01:04:58 the privileges that I blew.
01:04:59 I'm not expecting you to love me like you loved me before I messed up.
01:05:03 I'm not expecting you to take me back the way you took me before.
01:05:06 But if I could just work in the house, if I could clean the floor, if I could mop the
01:05:10 floor, if I could cut the grass, if I could do something in the yard, just make me one
01:05:14 of your hired servants."
01:05:15 And this is what he's practicing to go back.
01:05:17 And what he's saying to himself contradicts what the father is waiting on.
01:05:23 Y'all don't hear what I'm saying?
01:05:25 Because he's saying stuff that the father's not feeling.
01:05:29 The father doesn't feel like you're no more worthy to be my son.
01:05:33 I disown you.
01:05:34 I don't want you.
01:05:35 I don't love you.
01:05:36 I don't need you.
01:05:38 The father wants his son to come home, not a servant.
01:05:42 He wants his son to come home.
01:05:45 He wants his son to come back before he dies.
01:05:49 He wants his son to come back while he can see him.
01:05:54 So the man you're getting ready to talk to is not the man that's waiting.
01:05:58 It's the man you imagine.
01:06:08 You came to yourself, you know who you are, but you don't know who I am.
01:06:15 You don't know how fast I would run.
01:06:19 Oh, I can't look at you and do this.
01:06:23 Let me go somewhere else.
01:06:24 You don't know how fast I would run to get you.
01:06:30 You don't know that I would break my back to get you back.
01:06:38 And the Bible says, while he was yet a great ways off.
01:06:50 It wasn't after he got in the car and joined the deacon board and cleaned up his act and
01:06:53 stopped smoking, stopped drinking, stopped smelling like dope.
01:06:56 No, no.
01:06:57 While he was yet a great ways off.
01:07:00 While he was still smelling like a pot factory.
01:07:02 While he was still, eyes was glazed over.
01:07:05 While he was still snorting cocaine.
01:07:07 While he was yet a great ways off.
01:07:10 The father saw him.
01:07:18 Jesus is teaching us about God the father so that we can get some indication about how
01:07:26 to be a father.
01:07:30 The father don't run down there and talk, "You mean you spent all my money, you wasted
01:07:33 everything and you've been out there with them tramps and them sluts and now we're down
01:07:37 to nothing and here you come back here and you think you're gonna move back in your house
01:07:41 and come back in here.
01:07:42 The devil is a liar.
01:07:43 You must be out there now."
01:07:44 The Bible says that the father was moved with compassion.
01:07:56 Men, stop being so hard that you lose compassion.
01:08:05 So what if he was wrong?
01:08:07 So what if he was stinking?
01:08:09 So what if he was with the swine?
01:08:11 He's still your child.
01:08:20 Some of you act like you love your rules more than you love your son.
01:08:32 This old man has no rules.
01:08:36 This old man, this old man.
01:08:47 When you get my age, you don't run over everything.
01:09:01 It has to be something really serious for you to run over it.
01:09:05 I might walk over, I might take a scoot over, but if I come running, you either need to
01:09:10 open your arms or duck.
01:09:17 What would make an old man run?
01:09:21 If you see a son, that's a great ways off.
01:09:33 God said, "If you not even close to right, and I see you coming, if I see you trying
01:09:56 to be clean, if I see you trying to get yourself together, if I see you trying to stand up,
01:10:03 if I see you trying to be responsible, I will run out to meet you.
01:10:09 You ain't even got to come all the way back.
01:10:11 I don't need your speech.
01:10:14 I just need to see you coming.
01:10:17 If I see you coming, I'll run out there to get you."
01:10:26 Get seven people and tell them God is on the run.
01:10:27 God is on the run.
01:10:28 He's on the run.
01:10:29 He's on the run.
01:10:30 He's on the run this morning.
01:10:31 He's on the run.
01:10:32 He's on the run this morning.
01:10:33 He's on the run.
01:10:34 He's on the run.
01:10:35 He's on the run.
01:10:36 I don't know who he's after this morning, but he's on the run.
01:10:37 He's on the run.
01:10:38 He's on the run.
01:10:39 God is on the run.
01:10:40 God is on the run.
01:10:41 God is on the run this morning.
01:10:42 God is on the run.
01:10:43 God is on the run.
01:10:44 He's chasing you.
01:10:45 He's longing for you.
01:10:46 He's looking for you.
01:10:47 He's turning over stuff trying to find you.
01:10:48 God is on the run.
01:10:49 He's on the run.
01:10:50 He's chasing you.
01:10:56 God is on the run.
01:10:57 He's longing for you.
01:10:58 He's looking for you.
01:10:59 He's turning over stuff trying to find you.
01:11:00 God wants you back.
01:11:01 I don't care what you did.
01:11:02 I don't care who you did it with.
01:11:03 God is on the run.
01:11:04 God is chasing you down.
01:11:05 God wants you back.
01:11:17 What made the father run is that the boy was worth the wait.
01:11:26 Watch this, you still don't get it.
01:11:28 The one who's coming back saying, "I'm not worth it.
01:11:34 I'm not worth it."
01:11:37 It's the one that the father thinks he's worth the wait and he's worth the run.
01:11:48 I don't care if you're 70 or 17.
01:11:53 This Word is for you.
01:12:01 I don't care if you're a woman in the balcony or a little boy in the back.
01:12:11 I don't care who you've attached yourself to and made a fake family out of them and
01:12:18 you're more loyal to them than you are those who put the most in you.
01:12:27 I know you made some dumb decisions and you blew by living, but you're worth it.
01:12:43 I may be the only one in the whole story who still believes you're worth it.
01:12:56 You don't get it.
01:12:57 You don't even believe it.
01:13:00 But when I see you coming, I think you're worth it.
01:13:13 And in that moment, while the son is talking out of his shame, you know what the father's
01:13:22 talking about?
01:13:23 "Bring me the robe.
01:13:27 Kill the fatted calf.
01:13:28 Bring the ring and put it on his finger.
01:13:32 This my son who was dead is alive again.
01:13:40 I'm going to throw a party for a failure and a reject."
01:13:55 Because I so love you.
01:13:59 It's not just that I love you.
01:14:02 I can't even help it.
01:14:08 I can't stop it.
01:14:11 I loved you when you took the money.
01:14:14 I loved you when you spent the money.
01:14:17 I loved you when you didn't come home.
01:14:20 I love you when you ignored me and acted like them other people were more valuable than
01:14:24 me.
01:14:25 I loved you then.
01:14:26 I so love you.
01:14:28 I'll take you back muddy.
01:14:31 I'll take you back with your flies and your gnats all around you.
01:14:35 I'll take you back stinky.
01:14:37 I'll put my robe over your dirtiest secret and I will cover you up because I so ... You
01:14:53 ain't live till you love like that.
01:14:58 You ain't live till you love like that.
01:15:00 If only people you love is nice, neat, cool people who got it together and they fine and
01:15:07 they educated and they smell good and they look good.
01:15:10 You don't know nothing about love.
01:15:12 Get out of here.
01:15:16 Love will make you turn somebody over and clean them up.
01:15:24 I don't know if I have done well enough at this to accomplish what God wanted me to accomplish.
01:15:35 But the Lord said to me that you are worth the wait.
01:15:51 If you would just try to come.
01:16:04 If you just start to do better.
01:16:09 The old man run out to meet you.
01:16:19 He missed you.
01:16:24 He missed you.
01:16:31 You looking for love in all them other places.
01:16:37 He thinks you're worth it.
01:16:42 Oh God.
01:16:48 He thought I was worth saving.
01:16:51 He thought I was ... He thought I was worth dying for.
01:17:10 He thought I was worth shedding his blood to get back.
01:17:16 Even when I thought I was a bad deal, I told him myself, I told him, I said, "Lord, why
01:17:20 would you want me?
01:17:23 You ain't getting nothing."
01:17:26 I said, "This is a bad deal."
01:17:30 I said, "I can't do this."
01:17:36 We started arguing when I was 17.
01:17:39 I started preaching when I was 19.
01:17:43 I can't believe I'm 66 and still doing it.
01:17:57 He thought stuff about me that I didn't think about myself.
01:18:03 I had evidence not to think highly of myself.
01:18:10 His evidence was stronger than mine.
01:18:14 His evidence was a cross.
01:18:16 Amen.
01:18:26 Amen.
01:18:27 Amen.