The Brightest Welcome: Radical Grace for Grumblers and Prodigals

[music]

Hello Beloved, welcome to the season finale of season six of Grace at the Fray.

 

In general do you feel like you understand God’s grace? Do you get it? Do you feel a visceral sense of gratitude and joy at the thought of grace? Do you get just how radical it is, how counter intuitive? How generous? If you don’t, you’re not alone. I know I don’t. 

 

Maybe you are overwhelmed and perplexed by the reality of God’s grace or maybe you are indifferent to the reality of God’s unmerited favor toward you. Either way, grace feels like a completely different language and I barely know a few words and my accent is atrocious! God’s grace is both spectacular and hard to really believe in and easy to disregard. 

 

And you know what? God’s grace is sufficient for that!

 

So I want the last episode of this season to be about how radical grace is and the reality of God’s grace even for those who just don’t speak the language of grace and even for those who don’t care to.

 

In the last episode with my guest Dani Taylor, I mentioned having writer’s block for a sermon I was writing and how that wrestling match was bringing up the normal anxieties that I struggle with, like having to prove myself to others, needing something to show for my efforts, my extraordinarily critical attitude I have toward myself. Writers block for a sermon about grace really brought out some ugly stuff in me and the conversation with Dani was really helpful so I thought it would be fun to preach that sermon to you today. 

 

But first, since this is the final episode of the season, I want to give my thanks to the amazing podcast production team. Anna, Ashlie, Grace, Holly, Rachel, Tim, Evan, Hudson, y’all are so awesome! It’s a pleasure working with you and you all do such amazing work. So thanks! Hey, and everyone, pray for these folks. The Lord is working through each of them in some really beautiful ways.

 

And second, I want to invite you to celebrate with me. Today is, one of the founders of Serge, Rose Marie Miller’s 101st birthday. Happy birthday Rose Marie! She’s been on the podcast a couple times. I’ll leave links to those episodes. 

 

And finally, it’s Christmas time and I want to invite you to give toward the work of Serge. We always focus our end of the year giving on missionary care and Rose Marie is a great example of someone who has had incredible longevity on the mission field. How is a 101-year-old still on the field? Missionary care. When you give between now and December 31 your gift will be doubled…and I want to give a special thank you to the donors who have made this possible. Go to give.serge.org. Thank you for your generosity!

 

Alright, let’s do a sermon about grace.

 

[music]

 

Alright, as we begin I want you to take a deep breath and make yourself aware of God’s love for you. God loves you. He delights in you! This is where we begin as we sit before the Lord and hear Him speak by His Spirit.

 

The passage for today is Luke 15. This is God’s word…

 

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

 

So He told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

 

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

 

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 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 his 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.

 

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and everything I have belongs to you. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

 

This is God’s Word. 

 

So, Lord, bless this time as we sit before you, show us what grace means. Show us what it looks like to trust you, and follow you as your children. We pray in Your Name, amen.

 

When you are learning to be a good writer, they will always tell you to stay far away from trite phrases. A trite phrase is an expression or figure of speech that gets used so frequently that it loses its impact and even its meaning. You must avoid them at all costs because it makes your writing sound stale.

 

So for this sermon, I want to think outside the box because it’s a no-brainer that if we want to get the ball rolling we are going to have to hit the ground running so that we can all get on the same page about this passage about God’s amazing grace. 

 

Ha! That sentence was so gloriously loaded with trite phrases, I’m pretty sure all you writers and English majors out there puked in your mouth a little.

 

What do you do when grace becomes like a trite phrase? You go back to Luke 15. 

 

If you want a story that embodies the nature of God’s grace, His unmerited favor and His love for humanity, you tell this story. If you want a story that communicates God’s heart for rebellious people and self-righteous people, you tell this story. If you want a picture of what the Kingdom of God is like where grace reigns over earning God’s love, you tell this story. If you want a story that talks about the overwhelming never ending reckless love of God, you tell this story. 

 

But at the same time it’s like, “Oh no! This is the best passage ever, the most well-known of Jesus’ stories. Everyone knows this story! You don’t even have to go to church to know this story. It is so deeply embedded in our cultural identity, it’s almost cliché.”

 

This is the greatest story ever so how do you talk about it when it is so familiar? And when this story is all about God’s grace for you, how do you talk about it when the idea of God’s grace is so overused that it’s lost its meaning? What does it even mean, “amazing grace?”

 

It sounds like a trite phrase. We have to watch out for trite phrases, right? If God’s grace feels like a trite phrase, like it’s grown stale and lost its impact, this passage is for you…

 

So here are my three points. First, you really do love God’s grace, you really do. The second is, you also hate it. You do, you hate it. And the third is, you know what, the Lord gives more grace. 

 

So let’s start with this reality; here’s the reality, you really do love grace and you love the story of the prodigal son, even though it’s become so familiar that even non-church goers know it. We all love this story! I can easily prove this to you.

 

A while back I discovered a short film on YouTube that I can no longer find and I don’t remember the name of it, but it was a modern retelling of the prodigal son story. If you’ve seen this or know what I’m talking about, send me the link!

 

One night, a young man gets into a cab and calls his parents’ house, “Hey mom and dad, I’m in town and I know you probably don’t want to see me after all this time and after everything, and I was just calling because I am in town and maybe thought I’d come by. So maybe I’ll come by and if you want to see me, maybe leave the porch light on and I’ll know you want to see me, okay, bye.”

 

And most of this movie is spent in conversation with the cab driver about how he ruined his family and debating on whether to actually drive to his parents’ house. He finally decides to go home and when the cab pulls up to the house, the porch light is on…and every lamp is pulled out on the lawn and the Christmas lights are on and every light in the house is on and the head lights on the cars and every flashlight, every light they could find was on, the brightest welcome. 

 

This is grace. 

 

We love this story, but in Luke 15, Jesus is telling a much bigger story.

 

Jesus tells a bigger story because the Pharisees were grumbling about how Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them and I think it’s because Jesus wanted to embody Isaiah 57:19 by “bringing peace and healing to those who are far off and to those who are near.”

 

Jesus tells three stories in response to the Pharisees grumbling about how He hangs out with the people that have made themselves far from God. In verse 1 it says the Pharisees grumble and complain that Jesus “receives sinners and even eats with them!” What is this? It symbolizes more than just a meal. It means He’s throwing parties and inviting all the rejects. 

 

Imagine if Luke 15 was a teen movie where Jesus is the most popular guy in high school always throwing big parties at His house and the Pharisees are like the cool, rich popular kids saying, “Why did you invite all the losers?” and Jesus joyfully says, “Because I’m full of grace,” and then the day after the party, Jesus enters the high school lunch room and walks past all the cool kids and sits with the losers. We love those movies even when they are super cheesy. You may scoff, but when the coolest person in school or the most important person at work pays attention to you…you live for that!

 

The Pharisees grumble, “Why did you invite all the losers?” and Jesus could have said, “I’m full of grace,” but in good rabbinical fashion, He answers them in the form of a story. First, Jesus tells a story about a shepherd who lost a sheep and when he went out and found it, what did he do? The shepherd throws a party for his friends, because the sheep belongs with the shepherd. 

 

Then Jesus tells the story of a woman who lost a coin and when she found it, she threw a party and invited all her friends to celebrate, because the coin belongs with its owner. And I love this story because the party probably cost way more than the coin was worth. I think this is a woman who is just looking for any excuse to throw a party. And then Jesus insinuates that the angels are always looking for an excuse to throw a party in heaven. 

 

Then He tells a story about a son who runs away and squanders everything, and when he returns the father rejoices because his son was dead and he’s now alive again. He was lost and now he’s found. So he throws a party, because the child belongs with their father. 

 

[music]

 

I want to pause this sermon and invite you to join us in prayer for the Serge field workers that we, here at the headquarters in Philadelphia, are praying for each week. We gather on Tuesday and Friday mornings to pray and this week we are praying for our teams in the Middle East. Would you pray with me? 

 

Lord, we pray that you would bless these folks. Give them joy in their work in your Kingdom and the pleasure of your joy as they follow you. Give them wisdom and let your grace abound in their relationships with one another, with family members and children, and with the people that they serve. 

 

Heal all sicknesses, liberate the enslaved, protect them from the powers and principalities of darkness, restore to them the joy of your salvation. And let your Kingdom come and your will be done in these places, just as it is in Heaven. We pray in your name, amen.

 

Now back to my sermon…

 

Alright so we love grace, we love this story. But we also hate it. 

 

Three stories about celebrating what was lost is now found and put back where it belongs. This is probably enough to shut down the grumbling of the Pharisees. Imagine the Pharisees understanding what Jesus means with these words, “Okay fine Jesus, we get it. You’re eating with them because they were lost and you found them. Got it.” And in the framework of Jesus’ storytelling He could have ended in verse 24, with “And they began to celebrate,” but Jesus is a masterful storyteller, and I think He tells these three stories to set us up for the climax. 

 

The whole point of these stories isn’t a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost younger son. It’s a grumbling older son!

 

The older son sees a party is happening—on his bill by the way, because the estate belongs to the older brother now that the younger brother has squandered his inheritance—and he gets angry, he grumbles. And we think, come on, don’t be an idiot, what an idiot. 

 

We think “Ah, I see what you are doing here Jesus. The older brother in the story, the older brother is the pharisees!” And the pharisees, what are they? They were the religious leaders and thinkers, pace setters, cultural influencers. In their cultural context that meant they were successful at the most important thing, following God’s law, and they lorded their success over others. Their main argument was, “We are God’s people and we need to act like it, or else!”

 

At the heart of it, they thought, if you do all the right things, you’ll have the best life possible. It’s a transactional attitude. It is a mentality that hasn’t gone away today. It’s a bit different but it’s the same transactional heart. 

 

Grace gets in the way of our pride. That’s why we hate it. 

 

Pay attention to all the areas in your life where you say, “I earned it. I am able. I deserve it.” These are all built from pride. 

 

For us, maybe it’s some variation on the American Dream, I guess. Hard work and diligence that leads to wealth and influence and a great house and an amazing spouse and successful children. None of these things is inherently bad, but the Pharisee heart uses them to prove our self-worth, to show we are better than others, or at least we’re not as bad as others, and we become self-righteous and entitled and we grumble when things don’t go well with us, and we really grumble when things go well with folks who haven’t earned it, and we become judgy when people get what we think we deserve.

 

Virtually every post on social media offering some critique of the state of the world comes not from a heart of compassion and grace but from a pharisee heart of self-righteous entitlement and arrogant condemnation. And when someone does post something compassionate and kind, the cynics pounce because we don’t know how to navigate a world of grace where we dish out unmerited favor and celebrate that grace is happening. You gotta earn it!

 

Do you remember the movie “Saving Private Ryan”? At the end of the movie, as the last of the soldiers sent to save private Ryan is dying in battle, he whispers to private Ryan his last words, “Earn this,” and he dies. Ah that’s the worst thing to say! Because 40 years later as Ryan is visiting the graves of his fallen comrades who died so he could earn whatever life he could make for himself, he turns to his wife and asks, “Am I a good man?” He wants to know if he earned it. He doesn’t know because you can never know if you earned it. But earning it is all we know how to do. The idea of grace gets in the way of our pride. 

 

That’s why we hate it. It’s why the Pharisees grumble. It’s why the older son is angry and it’s why you do all the right things and you are still miserable. 

 

Do you have an older son “earn it” mentality? Do you have a Pharisee heart?

 

Where did you grumble this week? Where did you experience misfortune or even suffering and you thought, “What did I do to deserve this?” Where did someone experience a certain amount of fortune that made you jealous? “Why can’t that happen to me?”

 

Where did you feel a sense of superiority over someone else? I love the comedian Jim Gaffigan’s take on McDonalds. “Oh, you eat at McDonalds? I didn’t know I was better than you!”

 

For me, every time I’m at the grocery store and I bring my shopping cart back to where it belongs and I pass a cart that has flippantly and disrespectfully been popped up onto the curb I think, “Oh, I didn’t know I was better than you,” to whoever put it there, where it does not belong. I don’t know them but I know I’m superior so I can grumble about them.

 

Where have you caught yourself saying to God, “I’ve been so good and I’ve followed all the rules, this bad thing shouldn’t happen to me and this good thing should happen to me?” Maybe you don’t actually think those things, but maybe it just comes out in a grumble, you just grumble. 

 

So what happens to people who hate the idea of grace? They become self-righteous and arrogant and entitled and needy and worst of all, they are religious and they’ve couched all of their behavior in religiosity so it looks so good, but they’re not nice. 

 

I don’t mean just Christians—and Christians, we are so guilty of this and the world hates us for it because they expect more from us—I mean all types of religious pride: judgy vegans and right wing Chads and left wing Karens and self-righteous moderates who are better than all the extremists. They intimidate people and the only reason other people are nice to older brother Pharisee types is that they are scared and needy too! And Pharisee types are normally higher in the social hierarchy. So you gotta play the game.

 

Then it gets really meta here—Christians with a Pharisee heart think, “Oh dang! I know I shouldn’t have a Pharisee heart so I’m going to work really hard this week to not grumble.” 

 

Sorry, beloved, that’s not how grace works. You’re still trying to earn it. 

 

Do you resonate with all of this? Does it trouble you or do you have a list of excuses? Does it trouble you that God offers His grace and your knee jerk reaction is “no thanks, I’m doing fine”?

 

If you feel troubled by this, you are actually on a good trajectory. There is some sign of life! I think Jesus tells these parables to the grumbling Pharisees so that they will become troubled by their grumbling and then begin to move toward humility. 

 

This leads to the third point: The Lord gives more grace.

 

The first verse explains why Jesus even told these parables in the first place and who He told them to, and it proves just how radical God’s grace is.

 

Personally, I find it easy to show tenderhearted mercy to a humble person but really hard to show grace to a proud, arrogant, mean person. The book of James says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Jesus’ parable is an invitation for proud people to experience His grace.

 

How do I know this? Because the parable doesn’t end with the return of the younger brother. It ends with the invitation to the grumbling angry older brother to enter the party.

 

This is grace: Jesus wants self-righteous, entitled grumblers to join the party. 

 

What does the party symbolize? It’s the inheritance of the Father. It’s fellowship with God.

 

Henry Nouwen has a great book called The Return of the Prodigal Son where he talks about how we normally see ourselves as either the younger rebellious brother or the older rule following brother, two different ways of being far from the heart of God, two different ways of missing out on the party that is fellowship with God. 

 

He says, “but have you ever thought about how the intention is for us to become like the father in this story? We are meant to come into the inheritance of the father, not just to get his stuff but to become like him in his generosity, to foot the bill for grace because we have a glorious inheritance—fellowship with the father.”

 

We are actually called to run out to the prodigals and cover their shame and bring them in with a ring, a robe, and a kiss. We are called to leave the party and find folks who think they are too good to hang out with all the losers; called to beg them to come in and experience fellowship with God. We are called to embody the grace of the father.

 

This is the calling and destiny of the church as we clumsily follow Jesus into the inheritance He has purchased for us. Our job as the church on mission is to be gracious as our Heavenly Father is gracious, to show the world that the Lord gives more grace.

 

How do we do this? How do we embody grace to a world in desperate need of grace, especially when it always comes at great cost to us?

 

Remember, Jesus is telling these stories of grace for people who think they can earn fellowship with the Father, who think they deserve the inheritance, for those who think they are close to God but are far off.

 

The older son is angry because the father is throwing a party for someone who didn’t earn it, at the older brother’s own expense! What’s left of the inheritance all belongs to the older son so of course he’s grumbling and that is how he has instantly placed himself far off. 

 

What does God do for those who are far off? He runs out to them.

 

Have you ever read Deuteronomy 21:18-21? 

 

This is a tough passage for modern readers, but Jesus’ audience in Luke 15 would have known about it and it would be playing in the background of this parable. I’m going to read this and you have to hear it in the context of Luke 15. Don’t be distracted by it so you miss what it is pointing to.

 

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.”

 

This is the context as Jesus tells this parable, and everyone’s expectation as the prodigal son is returning home is that the father would obey the commands here in Deuteronomy, but of course, he doesn’t. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him—while he was still far off.

 

But the older brother makes himself far off too. Remember, he left the party in anger and instantly made himself a Deuteronomy 21 kind of son. He brought shame on the family just like his younger brother. He made himself far off, just like the younger brother. Both brothers brought the consequence of death upon themselves. 

 

But what does God do for those who are far off? He runs out to them.

 

Why did the father run out to the younger son? Because he loved him, of course. But also because the rebellious son had brought shame on the family and the consequence was death and the father had to run to his son and protect him from the townspeople who would stone him to death to atone for the shame he brought on the family. The father covers him, disobeying Deuteronomy 21, bringing his son’s shame onto himself, willing to receive the consequences of his son’s sins.

 

And he does the same for the rebellious, angry, self-righteous older brother. This is how the Lord gives more grace!

 

Now, as someone with a Pharisee heart, I might have had the audacity to correct Jesus as He was telling the parable. I might have grumbled and said, “You know Jesus, the problem with this parable is that you have the Father disobeying the Law of Moses! What’s up with that?” because that’s what rule following grumblers do. They just have to have all the rules followed. But if they take it seriously, it really puts them in a corner. 

 

In the story, the father disobeyed the command of Deuteronomy 21 and wasn’t punished for disobeying the law. This parable leaves the law unfulfilled. No one was stoned to death. 

 

I think Jesus tells the story this way because He is leaving room for how He Himself would fulfill the requirements in Deuteronomy and suffer the consequences of death on the cross in the place of rebellious sons and daughters who are lost in shame and grumbly self-righteousness.

 

And when He rose again, He broke the power of sin and shame, and He displayed His victory over all the lies that enslaved us. This is our inheritance.

 

This is the good news. Grace reigns! You don’t have to earn a place at the party. Rebellious prodigals are welcomed. Rebellious rule followers are welcomed. If you are at the end of yourself, you’re invited. If you find yourself capable and entitled and angry and grumbling, you are invited to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. 

 

This is grace, that a son can shame his father, shame upon shame upon shame, wishing him dead, and the father run out to him as he returns. 

 

This is grace, that the father would run out to him, risking death, protecting him from the consequences of Deuteronomy 21, put the robe on him, and restore him to full status as true son.

 

This is grace, that the father would leave the party to cover the shame the older son is now bringing on the family. 

 

This is grace, that the father doesn’t disown self-righteous, grumbling people, and invites them to humbly enjoy that which already belongs to them. Grace upon grace upon grace.

  

This parable has a strange ending. It ends with an invitation but it doesn’t end with a response to that invitation. The invitation is, “everything I have belongs to you, come back to the party.” But did the older son go to the party? It doesn’t say. Do you know why Jesus left it open-ended? For the grumbling Pharisees—and for you and me. 

 

When we tell the story of the prodigal son, it’s the younger son who is the prodigal, but the more I sit with this story, the more I feel like the real prodigal is the older brother who is wasting his glorious inheritance because he refuses to join the party.

 

Jesus’ story ends with a sheep that is back where it belongs, a coin that is back where it belongs, a younger son who is back where he belongs, but an older brother standing outside the party with his father pleading for him to come back to where he belongs, to come back to everything that belongs to him. 

 

The story stops abruptly with the older son spurning his inheritance. Jesus ends the story this way as an open-ended invitation to the pharisees and to anyone with a pharisee heart. You are welcome here. The lights are on, every light is on. It’s all yours—everything I have is yours. You are welcome here. The brightest welcome.

 

Jesus doesn’t resolve the story because we are the ones who have to decide—are we going to go into the party?

 

The party was a celebration of what the father did to seek and save that which was lost and bring everything back to where it belongs. That party is pointing to a celebration that we are invited to every Sunday as we come to the communion table. The table of grace is our party! 

 

And I know this podcast isn’t the Sunday gathering so for this episode, I want to make you hungry for the gathering of God’s people and the celebration of communion. This sermon doesn’t end until we gather for that party.

 

We celebrate communion as the weekly story of God going out to rebellious, rule-following sons and daughters and inviting them, once again, to join the celebration that God has done everything to bring back what was lost this past week and is now found, and put everything back where it belongs today. This is our party. This is the party that is happening every Sunday in Heaven and all over the world. 

 

There is some mysterious thing happening when we come to the table of repentance and fellowship with God that the angels long to see because they are looking for any excuse to throw a party in honor of the exalted Lord and Savior who is full of grace. The angels celebrate in Heaven as we celebrate around the table of grace through our repentance and faith. And there is constantly a party in Heaven because this is what the Kingdom of God is like. It’s a celebration where everything the Lord has purchased belongs to us and we belong to Him, and we belong to one another. 

 

Here is your open invitation to join the party and be transformed by the Lord by participating in His body and blood. Here is your invitation to become like Him as a community of faith sent to sacrificially love a world in desperate need of generous friends. Here is your invitation to taste and see that the Lord is good. Here’s your invitation to be reminded who you really are, son and daughter of the Most High. Here’s your invitation to be reminded that your guilt and shame are taken away and everything is going to be okay, and all there is left to do is celebrate.

 

And that Sunday celebration is an ever-expanding table of grace so that every moment between Sundays is your invitation to repentance and faith, a celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and His rule and reign over the world and His love for you…and it’s your opportunity to invite others to the celebration, because a party isn’t a party until everyone is there, you know?

 

So what can you do right now? Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord! In repentance you say, “Jesus you know all things. You know how I have run from you through my rebellious younger brother actions and through my self-righteous rule-following older brother actions. Forgive me and bring me back into the celebration.”

 

And then hear your loving, gracious Heavenly Father say these five words: “Everything I have is yours!”

 

So go declare the brightest welcome, God’s incredible grace. As you look for opportunities to bring people with you to the celebration, know that the Lord is with you and He is all you need. He gives Himself to you in this moment and He goes with you everywhere you go, so go with this blessing. 

 

May the Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face to smile down on you. May the Lord be gracious to you, turn His bright eyes to you, and give you His peace. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God, life everlasting. Amen.

 

[music]