Reckless Love

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham.

A little later in the program, we'll tell you how you can get the best of 2021 Message Series. But first, here's Dr. Graham's message, Reckless Love. Now take your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 15. There are three short stories, parables recorded in the 15th chapter of Luke. Many of you are familiar with these three stories. One is about a shepherd who lost one sheep out of 100, and he left the ninety in nine and he went after the one lost lamb until he brought the sheep safely home. And then the next story, told by Jesus Himself, concerned a woman who had a very valuable to her priceless coin, and she lost one of the ten coins that she had and she searched the house.

She turned the house upside down, whatever it takes to find the one lost coin. And then the most famed of all the stories of Jesus, these parables, a parable is a short story with a long meaning. The most famous of all is the story known as the story of the prodigal son, about a father who had two sons, both of them actually lost, one at home, one far from home.

But two sons that were lost and the one son that was found. Three stories about sheep, about silver coins, and about two sons. All three stories are about the reckless love of God. You see God seeking, God searching, and God saving.

The redeeming, restoring, reckless love of God. In the first parable, God is a shepherd seeking the lost sheep. In the second story, God is a woman finding the lost coin. And in the third story, God is a father saving a lost son, loving a lost son. These are remarkable, wonderful stories.

But they all have one message, and it's the message that we need to hear again and again and again. Whether you know God and maybe far away from God, or you've known Him for many years, this is what we need to know and know again and again and again. God loves lost people. God loves the lost and the least and the last. And each of these stories describes this reckless love of God. And in these 32 dramatic verses, Jesus shows us the heart of God.

What love, God's love is really like. And in this story of the father and his two sons, there's all kinds of pathos and poignant words. There's a plot that tells us our own story because we all were lost and now we're found.

We were dead, but now we are alive. And who's not among us who have not known of families who have lost children or lost sons and daughters who pray that they will come home and in their rebellion find the reckless love of God? It's a plot that speaks to the heart of every person who will listen. And of course it has the consummate happy ending. When the son returns and the party explodes on the farm of the father as they celebrate the son who is alive again. It's known as the parable of the prodigal son, but the real hero of the story is not the prodigal sin of the son, but the prodigal love of the father. There's never a time in Luke 15 where the son is called the prodigal son. In fact, when you read the story it tells us that this son wasted his life in reckless living. The King James gave us that word prodigal. He wasted his life in prodigal living.

And it's a word that doesn't so much mean wayward living as it means wasted living, reckless living. And in the midst of this stands the father. In these 32 verses, the father is mentioned 12 times. You can't miss the father in this great story. The God figure who is the father. It is the reckless love of the father that brings us home to him.

That's the message. This father loved his son even when his son did not show love for him. This father who loved his son enough to let him go and to potentially lose him for the sake of love. The love of a father that waited and even welcomed his broken son back home. There's no love greater than this. It is the love that is greater than all our sin. It is the love that is extravagant, expensive, expansive.

You cannot measure it. And it is the love that is eternal, the never-ending, overwhelming, reckless love of God. The reckless kind of love, the relentless kind of love that never ever gives up. Really, is who God is. It means that when we spend our lives on ourselves and we waste our days that God keeps loving us and that God has loved us in a love that has poured out his own blood on the cross for our sin. This is what God has done. He has poured out his love in reckless prodigal abandonment. You could even call this parable the parable of the prodigal father. Because it is the prodigal father whose love would never give up on his son. And when Jesus died, he poured out his blood until nothing was left.

This is how much God loves each one of us. The son was reckless with his life, but the father was reckless with his love. The son was sinfully rebellious and indulgent, but the father was lovingly indulgent in giving his love away to his son.

The story tells us of a father who risked his son's future, his son's own future by being willing to let him go. Let's pick up our reading in the third verse of chapter 15. Told him a parable, a story.

And then down to verse 11. 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 property that is 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, there's our word, reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. And so he went out and hired himself out to one of the citizens of the country who sent him into the field to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything.

Let's stop right there. The father was apparently a wealthy man. Everything in the passage speaks of this man who had great wealth and barns and farms and inheritance. When his son came home, he threw a big party, spared no expense. So it's clear that this father was fabulously wealthy and that he holds nothing back from his two sons.

Later in the story when the self-righteous elder brother who stayed at home questioned his father's love, the father's reckless love. The father said, have I not given you all things? Everything. I've given you everything. And everything was anything apparently these boys needed or wanted.

He held nothing back. Our God is a father who is extravagant in His love and wealthy beyond our imagination. And the Scripture says, have we not been given freely the riches in Christ all things? God is so generous with us. He has been so good to us.

He has been so, so kind to us. The father's reckless love is so selfless that it just pours out and it seems to be irrational because here's this defiant son who demands his inheritance. He in effect is saying, Dad, you are dead to me. Give me what's coming to me now. I'll cash out. I'll leave the farm and you will never see me again. I reject this life.

I reject your love. Give me what's mine and I will go. And amazingly, recklessly, the father gave him the portion that was due him of the inheritance. Gave it to him. He says, all that I have I give to you. And this defiant son cashes out what he has been given and leaves in a few days, it says, as quickly as he could. He couldn't wait to leave.

And so the last time the father sees him, he's on his way to a place called the far country. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, reckless love. We hope you're enjoying today's message. And we're excited to share that for a limited time, your gift to PowerPoint will be doubled up to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, thanks to a generous matching grant to say thanks for your gift today. We'll send you the most popular and encouraging messages from this past year together in one collection called the best of twenty twenty one. This is the last day to have your gift doubled. So call today. Call one eight hundred seven nine five four six two seven. That's one eight hundred seven nine five four six two seven. You can also text the word PowerPoint to three one three one three one text PowerPoint to three one three one three one. And don't forget to visit Jack Graham dot o r g where you can shop our store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our Web site again is Jack Graham dot o r g. Now let's get back to today's message. Reckless love. Far country is any place that separates you from the love of the father. Remember he had two sons. One left and went far away, separated from his father. One stayed but his heart was far from the love of the father as well.

The elder brother. You can be in church. And yet your heart is far from God and the love of God. That's what happened to this boy. This ungrateful son wanted what he wanted. And the good and generous father gave it to him. Even though no doubt it was breaking the father's heart. Even though he prayed like crazy that the boy wouldn't do it.

But he did and the father didn't stop him. That's the reckless love. Of God.

His love that never runs out. Now God's love does not ignore our sin. In fact God loves us though we have sinned. God demonstrates His love towards us.

The Bible says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You cannot outrun the grace of God. You cannot outlive the love of God. He loves us beyond what we can ask, think, or imagine. And I want you to know something today that no matter how far you are away from the love of the Father, God has never one second stopped loving you.

He loves you with an everlasting love, an eternal love, an expansive love, an expensive love. God loves you even when you are rebelling against Him. God loves you when you are breaking His commandments and living a self-indulgent life. God loves you though you are breaking His heart. God loves you. How else could you describe something but that it is a reckless love? You can never out sin the love of God.

He'll never stop loving you. So the son gets away, he thinks, as far as possible. He took his cash and he started down the road and he ran right into hell. But when he leaves, the father's weeping. The son, the other son, the older brother, just by his attitude must have been saying, I told you so.

But can you imagine the neighbors talking? The shame that this brought to this good, good Father? Can you imagine neighbors saying things like, can you believe what that old fool did? He gave his son his inheritance, he should have told him to leave and never come back. What kind of man, what kind of father would indulge his son in this way?

That's what the world said, that's what his own family said. This man is being played like a fool by his own son. And so the son goes away, he leaves home, but he never leaves the father's heart or his prayers. The dad knows he's headed for heartbreak. Father knows that his son is going to suffer, but he recklessly lets him go with tears. He turns him loose. Did you know that God sometimes allows us to go into rebellion and sin because that may be the only way that we wake up and come back to Him?

Love that lets us go. So his reckless love allows this boy and anyone to waste their life. Verses 13 and 14, I mentioned it again, it says he squandered everything, his property and reckless living, and then after he'd spent everything, and now he's wasted. He's wasted his possession, he's wasted his person. He's had fun for a while, have a blast while you last.

There is pleasure in sin for a season. But now, the sin is taking its toll, the indulgence and the immorality. He's thrown it all away. It's cost him everything. And he's living like an animal, hungry, tired, eyes sunken, heartbroken, nothing. Nothing's left but despair and hopelessness.

No more money, no more friends. You know, I know there are hypocrites in churches, all churches have hypocrites, and sometimes people who don't know the Lord point a finger at those of us who are hypocritical in the church. And it's true, we have to say God forgive us our hypocrisy at times. Jesus spoke a lot about it, but let me tell you who's really hypocritical and that's the world without God.

Your friends who want to point a finger at other hypocrites, they're the real hypocrites because when you really need them, they won't be there. When your money runs out, when the laughs are gone, when the drinks are done, they're done. That's what happened to this boy. It happened as the prophet once said, He's sown the wind, He is now reaping the whirlwind.

Because the wages of sin is what? Death. Henry Newen, a theologian and a bright one wrote these words, when the younger son was no longer considered a human being by the people around him, he felt the profundity of his isolation, the deepest loneliness one can experience. He was truly lost and it was this complete lostness that brought him to his senses. He was shocked into the awareness of his utter alienation and suddenly understood that he had embarked on the road to death. He had become so disconnected from what gives life, family, friends, community, acquaintances, and even food, that he realized that death would be the next natural step. All at once he saw clearly the path he had chosen and where it would lead.

He understood his own death choice and he knew that one more step in the direction he was going would take him to self-destruction. How many of you listening to me right now, you've been thinking if I go one more step in this direction, it'll all be over. You're in despair. You're on your way to death. And you wonder, is there any hope for me? You realize if you keep going the way that you're going, it's going to end in death and destruction.

It's true. But let me remind you of what we said earlier, what God has said eternally. God never stops loving you. His love never fails.

I've loved you with an everlasting love. Nothing will separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ. That is why when the boy came to himself with a young man, you know, sin is so irrational. Only in one rational moment, it says He came to Himself, He said, duh! Here I am living like an animal and God never made you to be an animal, to live like an animal. He made you to live like His child. You are not an animal. You're made in the image of God. He comes to Himself, He said, this is not the life God intended for me.

Back home, the slaves, the servants of my father had much better than this. So I'm going to get up, and then He thinks, no, no, I can never go back. Some of you are thinking that way, it's too late, I'm gone too far, I can't go home.

But He said, it's the only shot I've got. And so He gets up, rags, ruined, smelling like pigs, the stench of sin is all over Him. And He starts limping His way home. And there was the Father waiting every day, praying every hour for His Son who is far from home.

Reckless praying, reckless waiting, reckless loving. The Father looks down the road and He sees this familiar figure, He's not the saint. He's dragging an arm or a leg, He's limping but He sees Him coming. And then He waited for Him to come all the way to the homestead, to the front porch. And oh, Jesus said, this man, no doubt an older man, gathered up his robe and he ran like crazy. He chased his son down with his reckless love.

And when the boy tried to give his speech about, oh I'll be a servant, I don't need to be a son, the boy had been rehearsing what he was going to say all along. The Father said, hush, hush! And He embraced him. And Jesus said, He kissed him again and again, He kissed him profusely.

And He said, tear off these rags, clean him up, put on the ring, put on the robe, strike the band, we're going to party. Because my son who was lost is found. My son who was dead is alive!

He's alive! Oh, the reckless, overwhelming, never-ending love of God. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, reckless love. As we prepare to step into our 28th year of ministry, generous partners like you are enabling PowerPoint to harness technology, to take the gospel into closed countries and hard to reach regions, and lives are being transformed by Christ. But in order to seize every opportunity God sends our way, your support is vital to ensure PowerPoint finishes this year on a strong financial footing. That's why we're excited to share that some generous friends have offered to double your gift this month, up to $150,000.

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