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This morning's scripture comes from the book of Luke, chapter 15, verses 11 through 24. And he said, There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property that's coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. This is the word of the Lord.

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He brought me to my east. When God I enjoyed that song.

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I also enjoyed singing with all of you. I was sitting right here on the front row, and I couldn't tell if the choir was behind me or in front of me. I don't know. You guys were singing all of it. It was awesome. I loved uh singing with you, and that's uh something we say often around here is we don't have uh worship performers, we have worship pastors because uh guys like Jackson want to lead us to sing along with them and praise the Lord through singing. So I'm so proud of you guys for doing that today. Hey, in um in 2016, it was almost 10 years ago, uh, there's a guy named Kyrie Irving that made a shot that saved LeBron James' career. A hot take from Pastor Garrett this morning. No, it's no secret around here that my favorite sport is basketball, and some of you uh you know a lot about basketball, some of you know a little bit about basketball, but no matter your basketball knowledge, the name LeBron James is probably a household name. What you may not know is that in 2016, a lesser-known name, Kyrie Irving, probably saved his career. So in the NBA, the playoffs are uh run in in seven-game series. Uh first team to win four games wins the series. In the history of the NBA, 288 series have ended up three games to one. And only 13 times has the team that was down one game to three come back to win the seven-game series. Only 13 out of 288. And it's only happened once in the NBA finals in 2016 when Kyrie Irving saved LeBron James' career. They were down 3-1 to the Warriors. They came back to tie the game. It was game seven. It was 89-89 in game seven. LeBron James had a big block, and then Kyrie Irving made the three that won the game for the Cleveland Cavaliers and ultimately gave LeBron his third championship and gave the Cleveland Cavaliers their first championship as a franchise. Now we all love a good comeback story. Whether it's basketball or football or baseball or hockey or soccer, whatever your favorite sport may be, we all love a good comeback story. But you know who loves a good comeback story more than any of us? Is our father in heaven. God, our father, loves when his children come back to him. Nothing gives our father in heaven more joy than when his children return to him. God loves a good comeback story more than any of us. And so if it brings our father great joy when his children come back to him, then the next question is how do we do it? How do we come back to God? When we've strayed far away, when we feel far from God, when we are far from God, how do we come back to him? If that brings him great joy, we want to bring joy to our Heavenly Father, we want to come back to Him, but how do we do it? And that very topic will be the title of our Bible study this morning, How to Come Back to God. So, Oxford Campus. If you haven't already, go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 15. Luke chapter 15, and I'll meet you there in just a moment to discuss how to come back to God. We are uh we are in our parables sermon series this morning. If you can believe this, including today, there's only six Sundays remaining in our parables sermon series, and then the Sunday right after that, it's Easter. Easter is upon us, it'll be here before you know it. But I've enjoyed this uh parables sermon series quite a bit. Simple stories with powerful truths, simple stories with profound truths. Today's parable is the parable of the prodigal son. Some might call it the parable of the loving father because ultimately the point of the story is not on the sinfulness of the prodigal son, but on the graciousness of our heavenly father. But it's commonly known as the parable of the prodigal son. We made the case a few weeks ago that uh the parable of the Good Samaritan is probably the most famous parable. I think I'll stand by that. But the parable of the prodigal son, I bet it's in the top five, in terms of most famous, most well-known parables. It's a longer parable, it's a parable with a lot of depth to it, and so we're actually gonna take two weeks as a church to study the parable of the prodigal son. If you're familiar with this parable, you'll know that there's two sons, and today we're gonna study the younger son, and next week we'll study the older brother. The parable of the prodigal son. Now, physically and and and literally, where was Jesus when he told this parable? Where was he geographically? Who was he talking to? Why did he tell this parable? Well, in the book of Luke, Jesus has a long journey back to Jerusalem for the last time. Starting at the end of Luke chapter 9, all the way until the middle of Luke chapter 19. Jesus is on his way from Galilee in the north back to Jerusalem in the southern region of Judea. It's about 11 chapters long, his journey to Jerusalem for the last time. Here in Luke chapter 15, Jesus, he is likely uh east of the Jordan River in the region of Perea. He's likely in an area where he can speak publicly to a large crowd because that's what he's doing here, is speaking publicly to a large crowd. Now, in Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells three parables. We studied the first two last week: the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. And today is the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son. Now, what prompted this string of three parables? Why did Jesus tell these three parables? Well, in the crowd that he was talking to, likely in Perea right there in Luke chapter 15, in that crowd were a lot of religious leaders, Pharisees, and scribes. But if you look back in Luke 15, verses 1 and 2, check out those two verses. Now also in the crowd were a lot of tax collectors and sinners. And the Pharisees were not happy about it. The Pharisees were grumbling because sinners were coming to Jesus. Verses 1 and 2 of Luke 15. You know what Oxford campus is? I pray that that would never be the spirit of this campus and of this church. I pray that as sinners walk through our doors seeking Jesus, looking to meet Jesus, I pray that we would never grumble about it. If somebody walks through the doors and you say, I know what that person was doing last night. I saw what that person posted on social media. I know what that person thinks politically. You see what that person's wearing? No, no, no. We don't grumble around here. It doesn't matter what someone's done, where they've been, if they're coming to Jesus, we let them come and we help them. We don't grumble about it around here. But the scribes and the Pharisees, they were grumbling in Luke 15, 1 and 2. And so Jesus responded by telling a string of parables, the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. Something I'd like you to notice about these parables before we dive into the prodigal son specifically, is the parables kind of escalate in value with each parable. Here's what I mean. In the parable of the lost sheep, there was one sheep out of a hundred that was lost. Then check out the lost coin. There was one coin out of ten that was lost. Now look at the prodigal son. There's one son out of two that is lost. It's escalating in value as we as we move from one parable to the next, but it's all in response to these grumbling Pharisees and scribes about sinners and tax collectors coming to Jesus, about people coming back to God. And so what can we learn from these parables about how we can also come back to God? Oxford Campus, if you're taking notes this morning, number one on your notes is this. Number one, stop trying to run your own life. If you want to come back to God, then step one is you must stop trying to run your own life. Look with me in Luke chapter 15, verses 11 through 16, okay, the first six verses of our parable today. As the parable goes, a father who was a wealthy man, he had a lot of uh he had a lot of land, a lot of cattle, a lot of employees, and he had two sons. And in verses 11 and 12 of Luke 15, the younger son went ahead and asked for his portion of the inheritance. How rude. Now, back in ancient times, uh, the way inheritance was was divided up was the eldest son would get a double portion. So if there were three sons, the father would divide it up four ways and give the eldest son a double portion, or if there are four sons, the father would divide it five ways and give the eldest son a double portion. And so here you have two sons, and so what the father would do is he would divide it up three ways, give the older son two portions, and give the younger son one portion, one third. And so in verses eleven and twelve, when the younger son goes to his father, he's asking for one third of the father's wealth, one third of the father's estate. Now here's the thing: in those times you were legally allowed to do this, but relationally, you you torpedoed your relationship with your father. You're looking at your father and basically saying, I wish you were dead. What a terrible thing to do. But it gets worse because uh it was publicly humiliating for the father. Here's why. The father, his wealth and his riches, they weren't uh they weren't cash. He he had all of his wealth, to use business language, he had all of his wealth tied up in fixed assets, in land, in property, in uh cattle, in horses, and in cows, and different kinds of animals. All of his all of his money was tied up in fixed assets, and so in order for him to give his younger son his third of the inheritance, he had to go liquidate a lot of his fixed assets. He had to go all around town and sell a bunch of stuff and say, my younger son is asking me to go ahead and give him his inheritance. It was publicly humiliating for the father what he had to do in order to put cash in his younger son's hand. But then in verses 13, the younger son he takes the cash and he goes off to a far country. That phrase, far country, is one Oxford campus that we ought to meditate on. The far country, it's a place that we imagine in our minds. It's a place that we imagine would be better than our current situation. You know the phrase, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. That's the far country where we think the grass is greener. Now, in the south we say that the grass is always greenest on top of the septic tank, but that's for another time. The far country is where you think the grass is always gonna be greener on the other side of the fence. And that's where he went. And he went to the far country, and very quickly he spent all of his father's inheritance. That whole third of the inheritance that he was given, he spent all of it. It says in the verses that he squandered it. And not only did he run out of money, but at the exact same time the younger son ran out of money, there was a great famine in the land. So the younger son had no money to buy anything, but there wasn't anything to buy anyways, in anywhere. He was in a real tough place. And so what the younger son does in verses 14 through 16 is he goes and he finds employment in a in a pig sty. And so now the younger son is working with the with the pigs and feeding the pigs. That's how he's employed and making a living, and the way he's feeding himself is he's eating the pig slop. That's how he's feeding himself in verses 14 through 16. He's in a real low place. Now, just on a human level, the idea of working with pigs and eating pig slop is gross. But on a cultural level, there's an extra layer of significance here. Jesus knew what he was doing when he included pigs in the parable of the prodigal son. To the scribes and the Pharisees that were grumbling about the sinners, the pigs were unclean. And this idea that the younger son was working with pigs and eating pig slop signaled to them that he had really, really hit rock bottom. See, the younger son was trying to run his own life and it wasn't going well for him. And likewise, we should stop trying to run our own lives because it won't go well for us. I want to tell you a story about something that happened a couple days ago. I tell you often about my kids. You know, we have three kids, uh, their ages are four and three and two, and uh, you get to hear a lot of stories about my kids, and uh, I promise that uh no toddlers were harmed in the making of this sermon illustration, okay? So the other day um we were we were leaving to go to school, okay? We were all going together. So I was I was going to work, Hannah was going to tag our women's ministry on Tuesday mornings, and and May was going to school. So I sent my youngest two, my three-year-old Piper and my two-year-old Gunner. I opened the garage door and I said, Hey, just go ahead and go get in the car and get in your car seats. And they did exactly that, right? No, wrong. So it was it was probably only like 30 seconds, but I go out in the garage, and the two children are in the car, but all the doors are closed and locked, and Piper is in the passenger seat of the car, and Gunner is in the driver's seat. Now I told you nobody was harmed, okay? The keys were inside, okay, so nobody was locked in the car, and they couldn't start the car, all that good stuff. But just the sight of Gunner in the driver's seat of my car is a frightening sight to behold. I want you to think about that when you try to run your own life. It's kind of like Gunner trying to drive a Honda minivan. It's not gonna go well. And we should stop trying to run our own life. I wonder about you this morning. I wonder if there's some way that you're trying to run your own life. I wonder if you're you're thinking to yourself or talking to God and saying, My my marriage would be so much better if I were just unfaithful to my spouse. Or my kids would have uh such a better upbringing if we just skipped church on Sundays and we were on the water. Or my business would be so much more lucrative if I just cut corners and I was dishonest to clients. I wonder if there's a way that you're trying to run your own life and you need to stop doing it this morning. If you want to come back to God, step number one is just like the younger son, you have to stop trying to run your own life. Hey, oxygen campus number two on your notes is this. Number two, respond to God's wake-up call. If you want to come back to God, then you must respond to his wake up call. Look with me in verses 17 through 19 of Luke chapter 15, the next three verses in our passage today. It says in verse 17 that the younger son, he was he was there with the pigs, he was working with the pigs, eating pig slop, and then in verse 17, he came to himself. He came to his senses, he snapped out of it, he had a wake-up call from God. He said, What am I doing? Sometimes when you hit rock bottom, the only place to look is up. And that's what happened with the younger son in verse 17. He came to himself, he came to his senses, and he had a wake-up call from the Lord. What did he do with his wake-up call? Well, it goes on in verses 18 and 19 to say that he started kind of rehearsing a speech. He's like, I will go to my father and I will say this. He's he's rehearsing, when I go back to my father, here's what I'm gonna say. You guys ever do that? When you know you're gonna have a tough conversation in a couple hours or a couple days, you kind of rehearse it in your mind. Well, if they say this, then I'll say that. Or if they say that, then I'll say this. That's what he's doing here in verses 18 and 19. The younger son is. Rehearsing his speech when he goes back to his father, exactly what he'll say. I want you to notice a couple things in his speech. He says, When I go back to my father, I'm gonna ask him to just make me like one of your hired servants. I don't want to be your son anymore. I'm not worthy. I just want to be an employee. What's interesting about a hired servant is there's a couple different kinds of servants in the first century. Household servants were more common. Household servants served an estate year-round, 365 days a year. They had residence on the estate, but then there were hired servants, seasonal servants, that came in during busy times. They had no residence on the estate. It's kind of like how big stores during maybe Black Friday or Christmas time will hire some seasonal workers. That's what a hired worker is. That's what a hired servant is. And the younger, the younger son, he wasn't saying, I want to be restored to sonship. He wasn't even saying, I want to be like one of your household servants. He's like, I'm so lowly. Just make me one of your hired servants. Make me one of those seasonal workers, is what he was saying there. But I do like his resolve. Did you notice his resolve in verses 18 and 19? He didn't say, I should go back to my dad, or I might go back to my dad, or I could go back to my dad. He said, I will rise up and go back to my father, and I will say these things to my father. In verse 17, the younger son had a wake-up call, and he responded with resolve. In Oxford campus, that's how we should respond. When God issues to us a wake-up call, we should respond with resolve. Not maybe, should, could, but I will go and obey the Lord. You know, the idea of a wake-up call, the concept of a wake-up call, it's it's kind of an antiquated idea, isn't it? In a day and age when we have smartphones, a lot of us use our smartphones as our morning time alarms, whether we're at home or at a hotel or whatever the case may be. But it used to be the case that you would go to a hotel, and before you go to sleep at night, you would pick up the phone and you'd call the desk. You guys remember this? You'd call the desk and you'd say, My room number is this, and I want you to call me and wake me up at this time at 6 a.m. And then the next morning, the desk worker would call your room and give you a wake-up call. We don't really do that anymore, but those those wake-up calls, they had their time. They had their season. But here's the thing about a physical, literal wake-up call in a hotel room. Think about this. You are dead asleep in your bed. And there's nothing you can do to wake yourself up. You need something from outside of yourself to wake you up. And that's the phone call. The same is true in our spiritual lives. When we are stuck in the mud of our sin, there's nothing we can do to get out of it on our own. We need the grace of God to reach down and meet us where we are and issue to us a wake-up call. We need something from outside of ourselves to wake us up and give us a chance to respond. But that's the other thing about a physical, literal wake-up call, isn't it? Did you ever have a wake-up call in a hotel and you're laying there in your bed and the phone rings and you reach over and grab it and just slam it back down and you roll over and go back to sleep. That's a bad way to respond to a wake-up call. You might miss the conference or miss the flight or miss the meeting. What you should do when that phone rings in the morning is pick it up, say thank you, put two feet on the ground, and move on with your day. And the same is true about a spiritual wake-up call. We need something from outside of ourselves to wake us up and snap us out of it and help us come to our senses and come to ourselves. But ultimately, when the wake-up call comes, we have an opportunity to respond. We can hang up the phone on God, or we can say, Thank you, I needed this, and move on in obedience to Him. And so I wonder about you this morning. I wonder if God has issued to you a wake-up call about something in your life and you're wrestling through how to respond. Would you respond in obedience today? Or maybe you are stuck in the mud of your sin somehow. And you're scared to ask God for a wake-up call because you know he'll do it. Be careful what you ask for. But I would be I would encourage you to ask God for a wake-up call today because just like he did for the younger son in Luke 15, 17, he'll do the same for you. He'll help you come to your senses and come to yourself. Hey, Oxford Campus, number three on your notes is this. Number three, be certain that God will run to you. If you want to come back to God, then you have to be certain that God will run to you. Look with me in verses 20 and 21 of Luke chapter 15. Verse 20 in particular is a pivotal verse in this parable. It's a pivotal verse in this passage. In fact, Luke 15, 20 is the verse that inspired the song we watched via video before this Bible study today. In Luke 15, 20, it says that the younger son, he arose and he came to his father. Okay, that's the beginning of Luke 15.20, but check out the rest of Luke 15.20. Everything that the father does. The father sees his son, he feels compassion for his son, he runs to his son, he embraces his son, he kisses his son. Do you see all that the father does in Luke 15, 20? All the son had to do was take a couple steps back toward his father, and the father did the rest. Oxford Campus, the same is true for you and me. If you've wandered into the far country, or if, just like Luke 15, 20, if you still feel like you're a long way off from God, all you have to do is take a couple steps back toward God. Turn around, take a couple steps back toward God, he'll take care of the rest. Ultimately, the the message of the prodigal son is not about the sinfulness of the prodigal son, but about the graciousness of our heavenly father. If you turn around and take a couple steps back toward God, he'll take care of the rest. Let's look at these verbs, the things that the father does in Luke 15, 20. First of all, the father sees his younger son. You know what that means? The father was looking for him. The father didn't turn his back on his younger son. The father was looking for him, hopeful that his younger son would return, and he did. You know what that means for you, Oxford Campus? God will never turn his back on you. We may turn our backs on God during different seasons, but God will never turn his back on you. The moment that you turn us turn around and take a couple steps back toward God, he sees you because he's watching for you and he's waiting for you to come back to him. The father saw the younger son. The second thing he did is he felt compassion for him. That's weird. Shouldn't the father see the younger son and feel anything else other than compassion? Shouldn't the father see the younger son and feel anger? So mad at him for taking a third of his estate? Or shouldn't the father see the younger son and feel annoyed? Like, oh, he's coming back for more. No, the father saw the younger son and he felt compassion. You know what God feels when you turn around and come back to him? He feels compassion. When you have a repentant heart, he's not mad at you. He's not annoyed with you. Christians with repentant hearts, those are people for whom God feels compassion. If you come back to God. The third thing the father does is he runs to his younger son. This is unheard of. This is disgraceful for a father to stand up and run. In ancient times in the first century, the father was a person in a position of great honor. You don't let your father run to you, you run to your father. And so, in this story, for the father to stand up and pick up his robe and run to his younger son was unheard of, unspeakable. But kind of like the pigs back in verses 14 through 16, in verse 20, Jesus knew who he was talking to. He was talking to a crowd of scribes and Pharisees who would think of this as an unspeakable act. The idea of a father standing up and running. But that's what God does for us. The moment we take a couple steps back toward him, he does the rest. He closes the gap and he runs to us. We don't have to run to him. Now, if I were the younger son and I saw my father running to me, I'd be like, uh oh. I'm in trouble now. I'm gonna get a talking to, I'm gonna get a beating. Honestly, the Old Testament law said the younger son should be stoned and killed for what he did. If I'm the younger son and my father's running toward me, I am nervous. But what happens? The father embraces the younger son. And quite frankly, even if I'm the younger son and my father embraces me, I'd be like, what kind of embrace is this? Am I in trouble yet? And then the father kisses his younger son. It's not an angry embrace. It's not an annoyed embrace, it's a warm embrace. The father couldn't be happier that his son has come home. If you turn around and take a couple steps back toward God, then you can be certain that God will run to you. God will do the rest. He'll close the gap. All you have to do is repent. You know, we we have a lot of uncertainty in our world today, don't we? There's a couple things, uh, a couple ways in which I feel like there's some uncertainty in our household, and it's a silly example, but has anybody ever sold something on Facebook Marketplace? Anybody ever use Facebook Marketplace to sell a few things? Okay, there's a few of us. Alright, so we we just we just moved houses a couple weeks ago. You guys know that? And and uh one of the things is I wanted to move as little as possible and sell as much as possible, okay? So we we sold several things on Facebook Marketplace. But the way it works, if you've never used it before, is you put a picture and a description of the thing that you want to sell on Facebook, and then you're not really sure if the person's gonna buy it when they show up. Because they might show up to your house or to the designated meeting spot and be like, ah, that's not really what I thought it was. And they might walk away without buying it. Now, here's the thing: my wife Hannah and I, we're we're very different salespeople, okay? So Hannah is too nice and too kind, and uh she so she you you sold a high chair. We had several high chairs. Hannah sold a high chair recently on Facebook Marketplace, and this this lady shows up to buy the high chair, and Hannah walks out and she's given her the whole history of the high chair, and this is everything we've spilled on it, this is everything every way we've damaged it and repaired it. We're missing this part and this part, and I was like, just don't just make just close the deal. And the lady still bought it, so it was okay. But then I sold a set of patio furniture. Nothing crazy, just a couple chairs and a couch. 50 bucks, it's a steal. I had somebody coming to pick it up. So I dragged the patio furniture into the driveway, and uh, two guys pull up in a pickup truck, and I walk out, and my sales pitches, there it is. And the guy looked at me and said, 50 bucks. I said, 50 bucks. And I said, You want help loading it? He said, nope. I said, thanks. I went inside, and I was so fast, Hannah said, he didn't buy it? I was like, nope, 50 bucks. It's over. But the thing is, like when you sell stuff on the Facebook marketplace, you're not sure if the person's gonna get there and actually buy it when they see it in person. Not so with God. When you turn around and take a couple steps back toward him, you can be certain that he will run to you. And it doesn't matter what kind of salesperson you are. Hannah tells the people everything, I tell them nothing. The thing is, you can't hide anything from God, anyways, and it doesn't matter what you've done or where you've been, God's gonna run back to you. You can be certain of that. There's a certainty when we return to God and when we come back to God. And so, what about you this morning? Have you believed a lie from the enemy that you've gone too far or you've done too much? And the Father will run back to a lot of people, but not to you. Would you replace that lie from the enemy with truth from God's word this morning? That no matter how far into the far country you've gone, no matter how far off you are, verse 20, God will run back to you. You can be certain of that. Hey, Oxford Campus, number four on your notes, last one this morning. Number four, trust God's extravagant grace. Trust God's extravagant grace. If you want to come back to God, that's step number four is to trust his extravagant grace. Look with me in verses 22 through 24, the last three verses of our passage of our parable today. The father and the son, they meet on the path, and the son realizes that the father's not angry, the father's not annoyed, that this is a warm embrace, and that the father is happy that his son has come home. Look what the father does, though, in verses 22 and 23. This is kind of, well, it's it's extravagant. It's too much. The father brings to his younger son, he brings him a robe, he brings him a ring, he brings him shoes, he tells his servants to go kill the fatted calf. Something that was saved for very, very special occasions. This is too much. This isn't like the younger son came home and the father's like, Well, I'm really hurt, but you can you can come back in and pick up right where we left off. This isn't right where they left off. This is better. The younger son came home and he's given a robe and a ring and shoes and the fattened calf. That's extravagant. It's too much. And the same is true of you and me when we come back to God. God is merciful, he does withhold punishment, but he's also gracious. He gives us things that we don't deserve. He gives us things that we should look at and say, God, that's too much. And our Heavenly Father says, I know, but my grace is extravagant. What I want you to notice about verses 22 and 23, Oxford campus, this is really cool. What the younger son was looking for in the far country, he found it back home. Did you catch that? He was looking for nice clothes, he was looking for nice jewelry, he was looking for a fancy meal. You know where he found it? In his father's house. He didn't find it in the far country. Oxford Campus, what you're looking for is not in the far country. It's not far off. What you're looking for is found in pursuing God's design. What you're looking for is found in the Father's house. Now, I'm not one to read this too literally. I don't think if you become a Christian and follow Jesus that you're gonna have nice clothes and nice jewelry, okay? Although those things are fine. But I do think in a spiritual way, what you're looking for in the far country, it's not there. It's back in your father's house. And you need to come back to him today. Verse 24 is the last verse of our passage today, all about God's extravagant grace. In verse 24, the father says to his servants, My son was lost and now he's found. My son was, check this out, my son was dead and now he's alive. I like that phrase. My son was dead and now he's alive. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 says that we were all dead in our trespasses and sins, but for the mercy of God. See, here's the thing about being dead in your sins, Oxford Campus. If you were, uh if you were sick in your sins, then you could power through it and go to the pharmacy and get some medication. You could probably help yourself. If you were drowning in your sins, you could find a flotation device and swim to shore. You could you could probably help yourself. But the fact that we're dead in our sins, there's nothing we can do to save ourselves. We need a miracle to bring us back to life. That's why the imagery of being dead in our sins is so powerful because when you're dead, you can't do anything but for the mercy and the extravagant grace of God. The younger son was dead and now he's alive. All of us were dead in our sins, but for the mercy and the extravagant grace of God. Can I tell you uh can I tell you one of my pet peeves? I I have a short list of pastoral pet peeves, okay, but I'll tell you one of them. One of my pet peeves is when you, if you haven't been a Christian for very long or been around the church much, there's there's this thing called a testimony, okay? You ask someone to share with you their testimony, they share with you their story of when they got saved in their faith journey. And one of my pet peeves is when I ask someone, hey, tell me your testimony, and they say, ah, I have a boring testimony. There's no such thing. There's no such thing as a boring testimony. And the thing is, when someone says that to me, I know what they mean. They mean I became a Christian early in life and I don't have a past like some of these other people. Hey, can I tell you that a lot of the people I've talked to that have quote unquote exciting testimonies like you think they might, they wish they had a boring testimony. But there's no such thing as a boring testimony. There's only such thing as dead people that are now alive. You know what we witnessed this morning? Six baptisms, six people with different backgrounds, different faith journeys, but all of them are the same because all of them were dead and they're now alive. There's no such thing as boring and exciting testimonies. There's just testimonies. Dead people who are now alive because of the mercy and the extravagant grace of God. And so, what about you this morning? Are you trusting God's extravagant grace? Or do you think in your mind and in your heart that God has a scarcity problem with his grace? I've done too much, I've gone too far. He doesn't have enough grace for me. Oh, he does. He has enough grace for you and then some. He's not just gonna welcome you home. He's gonna kill the fatted calf and put a ring and shoes and a robe. He has too much grace. He has extravagant grace for you. And are you willing to trust his extravagant grace this morning? Hey, Oxford Campus in Luke chapter 15, verses 11 through 24, we looked at part one of the parable of the prodigal son today. In part one, we looked at the younger son, all about how to come back to God. We love a good comeback story, but nobody loves a comeback story more than God. Nobody loves when one of his children comes back to him more than God the Father. And how do we do it? Well, number one, we we stop trying to run our own lives. We're not very good at it, anyways. We should give God the wheel. We should trust God's extravagant grace. Not only does God have enough grace for us, his grace is extravagant. We should respond to God's wake-up call. We need something from outside of ourselves to wake us up. And when God wakes us up, we should respond in obedience to him. And then we should be certain that God will run to us. If we turn around and just take a couple steps back to God, God will do the rest. God will close the gap. Hey, but maybe you're here today and you're not a Christian. Can I tell you something? We're really glad that you're here. God has you here for a reason today. But maybe you're here and you're not a Christian and you'd say, you know what, Pastor Garrett, I don't need to come back to God. I need to come to God for the first time. I can't come back to God because I've never come to Him at all. Would you make today the day? Would you make today the day when you come to your Heavenly Father for the very first time? Hey, let me tell you what's about to happen. In just a moment, I'm going to pray to close our time of Bible study. And when I say amen, everybody in the room, I would invite you to stay seated to sing and pray and reflect right where you are, with one exception. If you're that person in the room who's not a Christian, but you're ready to become a Christian, as we sing, myself and some other members of our team, we'll be standing across the front. And we'd love nothing more than for you to stand and walk forward so that we can talk and pray with you about how to become a Christian today. God's grace is extravagant. If you'll come back to him, if you'll just take a couple steps back toward him, he'll do the rest. And so will you take a couple steps down the aisle today? Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, we love you and we praise you. We're grateful today for the gospel for Christ and his death and his burial and his resurrection. God, we're grateful that you see us right where we are. You never turn your back on us. And God, I pray for any of my brothers and sisters in the room who need to come back to you today. Would they turn around and take some steps? Because God, we know that's all we have to do, and you'll do the rest. But God, I pray for that one person in the room this morning who's not a Christian. They don't yet have a relationship with you through Christ. Would you make today the day? As we sing and pray and reflect, would you compel them and convict them to come forward and place their faith in you? And God, we pray all these things in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.