In Psalm 32, the line, “You preserve me from Trouble” resonates with me, but I don’t relate to most of the typical “Troubles” that my friends face at high school. I don’t drink, and I don’t really go to parties. I’ve never been one to cave to this kind of peer pressure. So, for me, God preserves me from a different kind of trouble. God helps me escape the troubles that I create for myself. Cynicism, harsh judgments,  procrastination, worry: these are some of my biggest shortcomings. These are the troubles that I face most often. These are the ones I can’t bear without God’s help. – sure each person here can think of different troubles and shortcomings that they face every day. Sometimes, these troubles feel too heavy to bear alone. I know that God looks out for me when I feel small and hopeless. But when I don’t invite God into my heart, the world seems to move too fast. I feel like I can’t keep up with myself, or with the people around me. Without God in the picture,  I forget to appreciate all the blessings in my life. The passage says, “While I kept my silence, my body wasted away.” To me, this is how I feel when my connection with God is weak. I feel starved without God’s guidance and presence in my life, and I fall victim to my self-imposed troubles.

I often hear that we try to ”fill a God-sized hole” with superficial things: with
Facebook posts, with new clothes, with a new car. I know that I do this, too. When I
don’t invite God into my thoughts, I feel empty: and I try to fill that emptiness with the
wrong things. I start thinking of spiritual fulfillment  in terms of good grades and
appearances. I think, maybe, if I had this much free time, or this many college
acceptances, I would be happy. I know that this isn’t true! The truest source of
happiness in my life is a trusting relationship with God. Without that presence, I focus
too much on my outside instead of my inside.

Admitting these troubles to God can make us feel light again. I know that God
forgives me for my cynicism and for my procrastination. When I pray, God helps me put
my worries and my iudgments in perspective. No matter what our troubles are, God
opens all of us to healing and grace. We are all loved unconditionally, and we are all
sent out to carry the message of God’s forgiveness to others. “Happy are those whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Though sometimes, we resist being
open to God and God’s love -like the psalmist, who wastes away in silence, or the two
sons of the father in our parable from Luke – I know that when I invite God into my
heart, and open myself agan to God’s healing and forgiveness, God helps me become
the best version of myself as an ambassador for Christ. (Maddie)

To quote one of my favorite songs, “There’ll be days. The heart don’t wanna beat. You pray more than you breathe. And you just wanna fall to pieces.” I think many of us can relate to this feeling. A feeling of unworthiness or complete helplessness with nowhere to turn. But then the chorus says “Break on me… Shatter like glass… Come apart in my hands …Take as long as it takes.” If you’re like me, you don’t merely associate these lyrics with human relationships. If you’re like me, your mind turns to Jesus. His hands. Breaking on Him. Often we forget that He is there to listen. To listen to our complaints, our brokenness, even our most regretful thoughts. He is there because He loves us through every tough time and every moment of emptiness.

Lately that is the word I have been relating to most. I’ve felt empty. Feelings of outrage
and confusion concerning a recent shock in our school and feelings of sorrow and heartache regarding a suicide that hit too close to home… have left me empty. It is in times like these that we need Jesus to break on. We need Him to be patient with us as we are trying our best to understand His plan and be at peace with it. In all fairness, it isn’t our fault. Our human tendency is to question and to seek out the conflict before the compassion. As much as we hate to admit it, at one point or another, we have all been guilty of wanting to hear the copious dish of the latest gossip. These juicy pieces of drama serve as a convenient distraction for avoiding our own sins and flaws.

Luke 15 is well known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. But there are 2 sons in the
story. There is the jealous, hypercritical older brother, that many of us can relate to. The oldest son that never once turned his back on his father nor did he seek celebration for such an endeavor. The brother that couldn’t wrap his head around the sight of his father’s open arms for his little brother. But I also believe we can relate to the younger son. The son that made such a devastating mistake by leaving, and then was petrified to return. He felt unworthy of his father’s love and yet took courage on his journey back home.

When we are feeling jealous or remorseful are times when God wants to love us most.
God is willing to lead us down paths of confession and forgiveness and God is begging us to listen. As hard as it is for me to admit I myself have been struggling to listen. Starting down that path to forgiveness is terrifying. A recent situation in my life has caused me to freeze up in shame and I have been constantly in fear of losing God’s trust and His window of repentance.

I’ve found myself feeling a lot like the Prodigal Son. I’m frightened to return to God because I don’t think I deserve His love or even His time to listen. As humans, we are born with countless defense mechanisms that close us off to the people around us. But most importantly, they close us off to God’s love. Regret and avoidance lead us astray from admitting our mistakes and confessing them to Him. I have been ashamed and apologetic as I travel on my own journey to find the Lord’s forgiveness. I have wrestled with the pain I have felt and the pain I have seen but I know I am not alone. He is around us even when we feel unworthy to walk towards His light.

Our Lord is patient and wants to listen. Against our resistance and our hesitant nature, He assures us we will be given the chance to lay our sins before Him. But along the way, it is important to take our time. To pause and take a deep breath. To stop for a moment and pray. To press play when we are ready.

Once we accept our mistakes, is when we will find God at the end of the path. An
important quality of our heavenly Father is that no time to return to Him is too late. There are no deadlines like so many of us have today. God will always and forever be there. There for you and there for me. Out of pure, steadfast love, the father wanted to celebrate with both his sons. As he ran out to greet his lost son, our Father does as well. As guilty and lost as I am right now, God will love and greet me when I let him in. As he invited his older son to join the party when he was resistant, God our Father does as well. No one can be so lost that they cannot be found.

Today I challenge myself to celebrate others and put myself in second place. Let us all open our hearts to reflect God’s love by altering our human tendency instead to be more inclined towards compassion and open mindedness like God has shown us. When we find ourselves feeling like either brother, let us take a moment and let Jesus in. Let him listen. Right now, as I feel as remorseful and ashamed as I imagine the Prodigal Son felt as he returned to his father, I am eternally grateful to Our Father as he guides me towards forgiveness. Friends, it’s okay to fall to pieces. It’s okay to feel vulnerable and scared because we know that His hands are there to catch our broken pieces. (Braylen)
Luke Speed
I wonder if any of the brilliant writers of the sermons you’ve heard this morning, have experienced God’s grace as much as I have at home? Yes, I know God loves everyone the same but does God love you more if you’re the son of a preacher? I am kidding, but I do experience God’s grace in many different ways living under the same roof with someone who embraces God every day.

I understand most ordinary sermons are supposed to tie the whole meaning and purpose into it as if it flows like a river. Yet I am no ordinary son of a preacher, I am the best one. I am kidding, in fact if you were to compare the amount of times I have proceeded to get myself in trouble, you would think I would be low on the list
of four. Now my mom would not like me saying that but what is a good sermon
without truth?

I can tell you without skipping a heartbeat, that I can relate to the prodigal
son more than I lead on. As some may say there is a back-story to every beautiful
face like mine. For those of you who may be new to the story or need a refresher, the
prodigal son had a back-story too. He was tired of working for his father and older
brother and wanted his inheritance money early. In that day and age, that is like
wishing for your father to die so you can have his money. His father said fine, take it.
The son traveled into another country and spent his inheritance within months on
drinks, women, and food for himself. He found himself wanting to eat out of the pigs
trough within weeks after losing all of his money. The pig was the least respected
animal of the culture, given the nastiest, scraps and left over’s, and the younger son
found himself craving the glop.

He gives himself a speech and decides to go work as a slave for his father because the shame he feels is so great and he feels as if he will not be respected as a son anymore. When he arrives back, his father is so overwhelmed he runs to greet and hug him. In the younger son’s confusion, the father throws him a party and slays the fattest calf to cook and eat.

Now if my father cooked ribs every time I came home in trouble, I would come home every night asking to be grounded. Now I do not find said ribs and barbecue waiting for me at home but what I do find, from someone who is so close to God’s love, is forgiveness. No matter how many times I stay out too late, go somewhere I shouldn’t, say things I shouldn’t say, I still find a glimmer of forgiveness every, single, time.

When asked to write this, I was asked what the prodigal son story meant to me. What I found in this story was patience and trust in me to learn from mistakes and make better choices. It’s what I find in my mother and father …..and it’s what I find in God. Trust, patience, forgiveness, and endless love.

That is what pushes me forward, to continue on a path with God. It’s why I am up here today….. it’s why I go to amazing places like Montreat, it’s why I have been a part of Younglife for my 4 years in high school. And the best part ofthis endless love is being proud that I am loved by God and being able to go out and share it. However large or small the act, being able to share that love, is indescribable. As Brian Tracy said, “Love only grows by sharing, You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”

Our scripture today from 2 Corinthians talks a lot about reconciliation. This passage
helps us take the message of forgiveness we receive from God as it was given to the prodigal son when he returned home to his father, and how we can help spread that message. Some of you may already know, but I’ve been to seminary. So I know that reconciliation is a broad term, full of many different interpretations. Generally speaking I like to define it as making peace, helping people and the classic love your neighbor no matter what kind of deal. Now, while I was living at Columbia Seminary as my mother studied there, we, the children living on campus, had an excellent  playground with lots of space to run around and act like the kids we were. I like to
describe this experience in my childhood as Playground Politics because each one of us
brought vastly different personalities and character traits to this playground. Seminary calls all sorts of people, after all, and sometimes this contrast in character led to conflict or to deeper friendships. It was this experience that first taught me what it meant to be an Ambassador of Christ. It taught me how to include the ministry of reconciliation in my life and to pass on the message of peace and love, regardless of our differences. Regardless of the human boundaries we set based on differing opinions, social class, background, lifestyles, and so on, we can still pass the peace and love of christ. Many examples of how this can be done surround us as a congregation and community including our Threshold Ministry, the Global Village Project, Hagar’s House, DEAM, and Habitat for Humanity to name a few. Our youth group  demonstrates how reconciliation can be shared every summer on our mission trips, such as our most recent trip to Washington DC where we served every person we encountered on the street in some way with a handshake and smile, or a fresh sandwich. Personally, this task of reconciliation that we are all called to do has grown into something even bigger for me.

When I was a young boy helping people was my thing, my passion. My neighbor would
be doing yardwork, for instance, and I would head on over and start helping him out. It wasn’t work to me, it was what I did and loved doing as a 7-year-old kid. Now, like any 7-year-old I had dreams of what I wanted to be when I was all grown up. One Monday, for instance, I wanted to be a fireman racing against time to beat the fire, the next day a policeman keeping my neighborhood safe. Then Friday morning I was going to be a medic in an ambulance saving someone’s life. I still get excited when I see an ambulance or fire truck drive by, as many of the youth that went to DC with me this past summer can tell by now. But, one day I went to Ohio to visit my grandparents and we took a road trip to the Great Lakes for a day. While I was up there I saw a helicopter fly by, and it said “Coast Guard” on the side. I had heard about them, but with this helicopter, this really cool thing that a 7-year-old could spend hours just staring at, I had questions and a growing curiosity. Once we got back to my grandparents’ house I asked my parents, what is the “Coast Guard?” My parents literally said it was the Fire Department, Police
Department and EMS combined into one giant package. My mind exploded. Everything I ever wanted to be, all in one. Today I am waitlisted for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and have come to love the humanitarian focus it has in its daily missions. I’m waiting patiently in the hopes that they’ll take me.

This calling has become my way of being an Ambassador for Christ. It has become how
I hope to represent what reconciliation actually is. Someday I hope to be out there flying a search and rescue mission, and bring someone home safe. It’s my dream that before I pass on that I have saved at least one life. It doesn’t matter who they are. It doesn’t matter where they came from, what they do in life or why they need saving in the first place. A life is a life and this is how the Coast Guard shows reconciliation. This is how I’ve come to share how God welcomes us back like the Father in the Prodigal Son. But this is only MY way of fulfilling God’s call to be an Ambassador. We are all new creations in Christ, yet everyone’s way of being Christ’s Ambassador is going to be different. It doesn’t have to be big, it doesn’t have to be a lifestyle or career choice. But it should influence how we live, where we go and what we do in this world. We all have a way that we can be spreaders of peace, of love, of care and of service.

The ministry of reconciliation is one of those things that somebody, anybody and everybody can be a part of. For this text tells us that the gift of forgiveness has been given to all of us. May the peace of Christ be with you. (Luke)