Who Is God? Part 1 | Luke 15 11-32 - Clint Leavitt

Stories are central to the human experience; we love to tell them and love to listen to them, and we tend to walk away from them having been changed in some way. Jesus was a master storyteller: He had a way of telling stories (the Bible calls them parables) that forced His audience to ask profound and relevant questions about their lives. We've all got an idea of who God is: a judge, a teacher, an impersonal force. Yet the picture of God that Jesus gives us is radically different than the pictures of other human religions and, as it turns out, far more transformative. Listen as Pastor Clint explores the Parable of the Loving Father, and what this tells us all about God. Sermon Resources: 1. "For over fifteen years I have been asking people of all walks of life from Morocco to India and from Turkey to Sudan about the implications of a son’s request for his inheritance while the father is still living. The answer has always been emphatically the same...the conversation runs as follows: Has anyone ever made such a request in your village? Never! Could anyone ever make such a request? Impossible! If anyone ever did, what would happen? His father would beat him, of course! Why? The request means--he wants his father to die.” -Kenneth Bailey, from "The Cross and the Prodigal: Luke 15 Through The Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants" 2. “Leaving home is living as though I do not yet have a home and must look far and wide to find one…I leave home every time I lose faith in the voice that calls me the Beloved and follow the voices that offer a great variety of ways to win the love I so much desire.” -Henri Nouwen, "The Return of the Prodigal Son" Join or follow us below: Facebook: www.facebook.com/thespringmid...​ Instagram: www.instagram.com/midtown.pres/ Website: www.midtownpres.org/ Community Groups: www.midtownpres.org/community-groups Sunday Services: www.midtownpres.org/