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Have you ever heard the story of the Prodigal Son? If not, CLICK HERE. If you have… here’s a challenge: a lot of us have probably felt like the prodigal son before, being stupid and wasteful and then running back to God’s waiting arms. BUT, have you ever considered that we have probably acted like the prodigal’s brother as often as we have acted like the prodigal? If you remember, the prodigal’s older brother got mad when his father threw a party at the return of his selfish, sexually-immoral brother. Why did he get mad? Here’s why: ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
His father (a picture of God) corrected him, and encouraged him at the same time, by replying: ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’
So the challenge is this… when you see someone come back to youth group after being gone for a while, maybe after doing some stupid things, do you rejoice and celebrate - or do you complain and whine and gossip about them? We will all have our opportunity to be the prodigal son, returning to God from our mistakes and sins. And I assume we have all been like the older brother at one time. But, BUT, we also all will have the opportunity to be like the prodigal’s father… welcoming the less-than-perfect (aren’t we all) back into our church home, helping them become healthy again…
rescuing them (and US) from our ordinary lives! 
