WEBVTT

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 Good morning. So I'm Will and yeah so today I'm going to be talking a bit on the prodigal son.

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 Yeah if you've been around church for a while I'm sure you'll have come across this

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 this parable before that Jesus taught but today I'm going to focus more on the first bit and

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 about the relationship between the father and the son and focus on forgiveness and the grace

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 and love between that is shown between the two. So before we start I would just like to ask you

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 to think about a question and that is what have you been forgiven for by God? So what have you been

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 forgiven for and what do you still feel guilty about in your relationship with God? So I've got

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 one time I felt guilty I suppose this is a bit like one of those BBC Radio 2 confessions but

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 I already know that I've been forgiven so it's okay. So this is halfway through sixth form I didn't do

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 very well at Cleveland sixth form I was a bit lazy so I moved to Gordano and everything was going to

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 plan. I was on ABB I was it was about January time coming to the end of A levels and I was just getting

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 ready to go to my first choice university and I was really excited. Then this piece of history course

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 came up I did it was split into two I did the first one got a B and I thought oh that's really good I'm on track

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 and then the teacher I'm not sure if she should have done this but she said in controlled conditions

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 what we're going to let you do is we're going to let you look at some previous bits of coursework

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 and if you can just have a look at it see if there's anything you can take from it and then

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 write your own piece. I had a bit of an evil plan actually so what I did is I was sat next to this

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 really really lovely Christian girl called Laurie and I said right Laurie you are right sworn to secrecy

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 and I made a sweater secrecy so one day I brought in my iPad into this controlled condition place took a

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 photo of the highest marked question I could find yeah like for my youth in here like please don't do

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 this please don't do this does it doesn't end well it doesn't end well so I took a photo of the highest

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 piece of coursework I could find and took it home and I basically replicated it I changed a couple of

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 words and then I handed it in for it was like a pre-marking thing so the teachers were allowed to

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 mark 10% and they would tell you if there's any changes they needed to do so about three weeks later

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 my history teacher came in and goes well I can't believe this this is just this is the best piece

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 of coursework this is in front of the entire class she said this is the best piece of coursework

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 I have ever seen I just didn't think you were capable of it

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 and to be honest neither did I it was just it was it was just so good so I actually I felt quite

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 pleased about it originally a little bit gloaty but in the weeks coming up to the deadline I was

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 beginning to think oh no this isn't good and about three days before I felt really really guilty

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 so what I decided to do is I thought oh what I'm gonna if I'll just change the course a little bit

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 um to maybe knock it down from an A star to an A because it's just or maybe a B make it like how

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 I'd actually do it because I just felt so guilty that I just couldn't live with myself so I made a few

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 changes I told a friend they're looking at my course and thinking well are you sure this is what you want

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 to do um it's looking much worse than before and I said that is fine this is what I've got to do

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 so I made changes to this piece of coursework handed it in a couple of months later the teacher came

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 back into the classroom and just said well just what's happened um and I said well what do you mean

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 change your coursework it's gone down from an A star to an E

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 I was so mad I was so mad um and I felt really guilty that I even cheated in the first place

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 just so guilty and I cheated and messed up and you know what I probably deserved that one

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 but guilt is such a consuming feeling um and we can see this like in the parable of the prodigal son

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 so in this parable the son asked for half his father's inheritance and in the culture that's

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 like him saying to his dad look dad I really wish you were dead just give me your money and let me go

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 and live life so he took all this money had he basically went partying spent it all on prostitutes

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 and having fun um and then a famine came and he lost all his money um and he ended up in a pig

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 farmer's place basically feeding pigs and this to the jews was the lowest of the low

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 so in the jewish culture they refused to even name pigs so what they called them was davah

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 which means the other thing so they were basically the most unclean animal um and yet he was in a

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 position where he wanted to be like the pigs and to to eat with them so that is how low this man has

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 gone and after a while the son comes to his senses and he begins to return home and that guilt feeling

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 kicks back in and i know like in my story i know what it's like to feel guilty and i'm sure one of

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 you do too um so he begins to rehearse a plan of what he's going to say to his father in his head

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 so he comes up with this he's going to say father i have sinned against heaven and against you

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 i'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants so he

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 was basically just planning to say this to his father anyway as he approached the town

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 his father saw him and was just immediately filled with love and compassion so he ran up to him threw

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 his arms around him hugged him and kissed him and the son was trying to explain like um like his story

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 like that he felt really guilty but the father ignored him and he put a robe around him and gave

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 him a ring and this is to signify like him being restored to the sonship in the family and he even got

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 fattened calf which was fantastic um so it was just showing the father's love and the celebration of

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 him the son coming back to to the father um so there's three points that i've taken from this

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 um and the first point is forgiveness so no matter how far you are or how far you've strayed from god

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 no matter how guilty you have felt from doing bad god will always forgive you and welcome you back

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 with open arms like the father did um and the son was always welcome back it was just his choice

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 whether he wanted to turn back or not and i suppose that's like us it's our choice to turn back to god and

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 to to ask for forgiveness um and this leads on to the second point grace so god forgives us because of

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 the grace of what jesus did on the cross and because of his forgiveness we are called to be free and live

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 free for god so it's really important just to know as christians that there is actually no condemnation in

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 christ um and you just can't earn it you just can't earn this grace so as the the son was on his way

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 back he was trying to think of just excuses but actually there's nothing that he could have done

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 it was the father's love to come back and you you just can't earn that with god because we've messed up

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 and it's actually about his grace about what jesus did on the cross taking all our sins and

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 all the bad stuff we've done and we're just instantly forgiven by the father and i suppose

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 the third point is this it's that you are loved and that you are like family to god

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 so it's father's day um so it seems a bit unfair not to mention this um but each and every person

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 was chosen at birth to be a child of god and he loves you and he always has done

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 many of you might have had a bad personal experience of a father you may have never had a father

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 or actually might find father's day really painful um because you may have lost a father

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 but i just really believe that it's important that you know that god the father he loves you

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 and wants you to know that you are part of his family

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 and wants you to know that he's always been there for you and will be there for you if you ever

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 have a call on him so i'd just like to ask you these two questions again

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 what have you been forgiven for by god

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 and what haven't you forgiven yourself for

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 so some things could be like this i mean some of you might have

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 not forgiven yourselves for fiddling with your tax returns some of you

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 might not have forgiven yourself for causing family arguments for breaking up the family

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 i mean some of you might not have given yourself for

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 for watching things late night on your computers or even having an affair

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 but i think it's really important to know that god has forgiven you he has forgiven you already

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 and sometimes actually we need to forgive ourselves

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 because sometimes it can be easier to forgive others and actually

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 ourselves are the hardest people to forgive

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 i mean

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 and then there's the whole repentance thing so

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 when you say you know what god i'm say sorry i'm i'm just really really genuinely sorry for what i've done

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 um and turn to you this is what repentance is so repentance is you basically you turn around

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 um and it's about accepting god's forgiveness but actually

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 having like a change of heart and not wanting or like really trying not to um do to sin again

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 i mean it's inevitable we will sin um because we're just human but it's that act of turning

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 that god sees um and he just loves you and yeah

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 can just help to begin a healing process

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 um

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 i also think it's important for you to give over the hurt

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 um

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 that what other people might have done to you

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 so other people might have caused you pain

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 um and it might not be your fault at all

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 um and unforgiveness can actually cause us pain too

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 so i first heard this explained by nicky gumbel

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 but

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 he explains that

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 unforgiveness is

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 almost like drinking poison

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 and hoping the other person gets hurt

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 so

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 it's like drinking poison hoping the other person gets hurt because

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 when you have unforgiveness it doesn't hurt the other person it's only hurting yourself

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 um

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 and

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 god might not

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 magically cure you of unforgiveness

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 um

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 but turning to god he may help you deal with what you're feeling

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 and give you the strength to begin to forgive the person

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 who has hurt you

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 you

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 you

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 and

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 you

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 you

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 you