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Party Time

Message preview for April 25.

"Party Time", part 4 of Crazy Love series.

Main Idea: It's crazy that we celebrate in the Father's grace rather than suffer in his wrath.

Main Text: Luke 15:11-32 - The father's feast.

Main Points:
• We are always being sold the newest upgrade or improved version of a product. We often want to upgrade and improve our lives. Six of the 10 best selling books of 2009 were self-improvement books.
• Many treat Jesus as an upgrade to their lives. That is, adding Jesus to your life will improve your life. The truth is my life doesn't need an upgrade, it needs an overhaul, transformation.
• Jesus didn't come to upgrade our lives, he came to change our lives.
• The party represents the Father's salvation and the change that happens in our lives.

Four ways the Gospel changes us:
1. Joy: My condition is changed from lost to found, so my joy is "in Christ" not in my circumstances.
2. Gratitude: thankfulness isn't a means to get something, it's a response to something that's been done for us. My response to the Gospel is gratitude - "thankful in everything."
3. Grace: I am no longer a "doer" trying to ascend to and attain God's grace; I am a recipient of grace, a beneficiary, no longer the object of the Father's wrath.  My response: good works, "invest and invite" evangelism.
4. Full: my satisfaction is no longer anchored in the temporal, material, or emotional. The "Bread of Life" sustains me and satisfies me - I go to the party and I am full.