BIBLE SCHOOL

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• BIBLE SCHOOL
• DEEPER
• Luke 15 11 31

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• Henri J. M. NOUWEN
• THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON
• or
• A STORY OF HOMECOMING
• Luke 15 11 31

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• Part 1 The Younger Son
• Part 2 - The Elder Son
• Part 3 The Father
• Conclusion Becoming the Father

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• The Younger Son Leaves
• A radical rejection
• means he wants his father to die
• It is the denial of the spiritual reality that we
  all belong to God.
• Leaving home is living as though I do not yet
  have a home and must look far and wide to find
  one.

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• The Younger Son Returns
• Being Lost
• He returns with nothing having squandered
  everything.
• The farther I run away from the place where God
  dwells the less I am able to hear the voice that
  calls me the beloved, and the less I hear that
  voice, the more entangled I become in the
  manipulations and power games of the world.

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• The Younger Son Returns
• Claiming childhood
• When he found himself desiring to be treated like
  one of the pigs, he realised he was not a pig but
  a human being, a son of the Father.
• The younger son chose life over death. God says
  I am offering you life or death, blessing or
  curse. Choose life.

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• The Younger Son Returns
• The long way home
• It is a self-serving repentance that offers the
  possibility of survival. One of the greatest
  challenges of the spiritual life is to receive
  Gods forgiveness
• As we reach home and feel the embrace of the
  father, we realise that not only heaven will be
  ours to claim but the earth as well will become
  our inheritance

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• The Younger Son Returns
• The True Prodigal
• Jesus himself became the prodigal son for our
  sake. He left the house of his heavenly father
• The young man being embraced by the father is no
  longer just one repentant sinner, but the whole
  of humanity returning to God.

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• The Elder Son
• The Elder Son Leaves
• The one who stayed at home also became a lost
  man.
• He did his duty, worked hard every day and
  fulfilled all his obligations, but became
  increasingly unhappy and lacking in freedom..

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• The Elder Son Leaves
• Lost in resentment
• Its a human trait to be able to identify with
  feeling of envy toward the wayward son
• The lostness of the resentful saint is so hard to
  reach precisely because it is so closely wedded
  to the desire to be good and virtuous

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• The Elder Son
• Without joy
• Complaining is self perpetuating and counter
  productive.
• Once the self rejecting complaint has formed in
  us, we lose our spontaneity to the extent that
  even joy can no longer evoke joy in us.

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• The Elder Sons Return
• The father wants not only his younger son back,
  but his elder son as well.
• Gods only desire is to bring us home.
• Love is not love which alters when it alteration
  finds.
• All I have is yours,

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• The Elder Son Returns
• Through Trust and Gratitude
• Trust and gratitude are the disciplines for the
  conversion of the elder son.
• God wants to embrace us as much as he does any
  other wayward brother or sister
• Trust and gratitude require the courage to take
  risks.

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• THE FATHER
• God, creator of heaven and earth has chosen to
  be, first and foremost, a Father
• Can a women forget her baby at the breast feel
  no pity for the child she has borne? Even if
  these were to forget, I shall not forget you.
  Look I have engraved you on the palm of my
  hands.

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• The Father
• The Heart of God
• The question is NOT
• How am I to find God? but How am I to let
  myself be found by Him?
• How am I to know God? but How I am to let
  myself be known by God?

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• The Father
• The Heart of God
• The question is NOT
• How am I to love God? but How am I to let
  myself be loved by God.
• He is the one looking for you and me
• Can we accept that we are worth looking for as
  his sons and daughters?

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• CONCLUSION - Part 1
• Jesus is the true son of the Father.
• He is the model for our becoming like the Father
• To see Jesus is to see the Father
• Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

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• CONCLUSION Part 2
• Jesus shows us what true sonship is.
• He is the younger son, without being rebellious.
• He is the elder son, without being resentful.

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• CONCLUSION Part 3
• Keys to becoming a compassionate Father
• GRIEF
• FORGIVENESS
• GENEROSITY

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