Children's Story - Luke 15 - Kenya Kids

There's no one, there's no one like Jesus. There's no one, there's no one like He. I walk, I look, here and there. I search, I search, everywhere. I jump, I run, here and there. There's no one, there's no one like He.

That was children in Kapune, Kenya that I went to visit a few years ago. I went over because Carol Platt, a friend of mine, asked me to come and to talk to the children that she was sponsoring. Children who had been orphans and were now— well, they still were orphans, but they were being looked after by good people now. But they had not been able to hear the Bible stories when they were kids. So I went over and I had all kinds of ideas of what I would talk about. And we went to two different places. One was a place in Kapune which had about 16 orphans. And the other was a school which had 50 or 60 orphans. And as we got to the first place in Kapune, the first night it was late and they decided to have a worship. And I asked Leon, who's Carol's husband, I said, what should I talk about? And he said, there's only one message these kids need to hear. And I tell them the same message every time I speak. And that is that God loves them and they are very special to him. So instantly I thought of a story. It's actually 3 stories, but it's one parable that Jesus tells. And he tells it because there's people who say, why do you hang out with these weird people, with these poor people and these tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus tells this story and he says— it says in Luke, it says that Jesus told them this parable, but then he tells 3 stories. So we get from that that it's going to be 3 stories nested in one that's telling an amazing point. The first story is the story of a man who's a shepherd and he loses one of his sheep. He puts all the other sheep in the pen and he locks it up and he goes out in the night and he finds his lost sheep and he comes back. And Jesus said, "Would not any of us do this? We would go and rescue the one sheep." Then he says, "But what about one out of 10? There was a woman who had 10 coins and when she was counting them at the end of the day one day she realized that one was lost." And so she quickly swept the house and she looked under everything and on top of everything. She looked everywhere that she could and finally she found the coin and she celebrated because she found the coin and she told all of her neighbors. And then the third story is the story of not 1 in 100 or 1 in 10 but 1 out of 2 and we actually find out at the end that it's actually 100%. It's the story of a son who comes to his father and says, and there's 2 sons that this father has, and the son comes and says, Dad, I I want the money that you're gonna give me when you die. I want that money now, even though you're not dead, because I want to go and I want to party and I want to have fun with my friends. I want to go to distant lands. I want to spend all the money on myself, and then I'll find something useful to do, like a job and stuff. But until— I just want to spend all this money and have fun. And rather than his dad saying, no, you can't do that— remember, this is Jesus telling a story about how God loves us— he gives him the money, and the boy leaves, and he's gone for a long time. And after he's been gone for quite some time, all the money is spent. And a recession hits the place that they're living in, and famine follows, and there's no food, and there's nothing for this young man to do. There's no jobs, there's no money, and so he starts looking for anything and everything that he can do. And from having been a crazy rich kid that was partying all the time, he ends up working in a piggery looking after the pigs for this farmer. And when the farmer is not looking, he digs through the food of the pigs and he finds seeds that he can eat, pods like green beans, and and he breaks them open and he eats the seeds right out of the pigs' food. And as he's doing that one day, he, the Bible says, Jesus said, he came to his senses. In other words, he was out of his mind. He was doing something that his father would never have wanted him to do. And he thought to himself, my father's servants live way better than this. And they have a room, they have food, they have everything that they need. I'll go back and ask my dad if I can be a servant. I won't ask to be his son because I can't be because I've already taken the money as if he's dead. So he walks back and as he's walking back, he's thinking to himself and he's practicing it and he's saying, Father, I have sinned against you and against heaven and I'm no longer willing to, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. And he keeps repeating it over and over. Father, I've sinned against God and against you and I'm no longer worthy to be your son. And he's planned it all out until he gets to the gate. And of course, this is a big property and his father, has been pacing the porch of the house for the whole time he's been gone, waiting and hoping that his son will come back. And when he sees him at a distance, Jesus says the father runs to meet the son. And as this dad is running towards his son and the son is looking and thinking, oh my goodness, he doesn't even want me to come in the gate, he's so mad at me, he's gonna push me back out of the gate. And Jesus says, but then when the father got to him, he threw his arms out and he wrapped them around his son and he said, my son's come home. And the servants caught up with the old man and they said, "What do you want us to do?" And he said, "I want you to bring him sandals for his feet and I want you to bring him the ring for his finger," which meant that he could sign for things that cost money. He was a son again. And the boy said, "No, no, no, Father. I want to be just a servant. I don't deserve to be your son. I've sinned against God and against you." And his dad said, "Nonsense. We are going to throw a party." And so they did. And at that party— and what Jesus actually says at each one of these times, when one sheep is found, the shepherd throws a party and invites all of his friends when one coin of 10 is found, the lady throws a party and invites all of her friends. And she probably spent the coin just to have the party, but it was the joy of having found what was lost. And the father throws this huge party for his son. And while the party is going, the other son who stayed at home the whole time is still out in the field working until it's too dark to see, which is what he does every day. And as he comes near the house, he hears partying and and he says to one of the people standing in the yard, because it's such a big party, there's people out in the yard, "What's going on?" They said, "Didn't you hear? Your brother's come home. Your father's thrown a huge party for him and welcomed him home." And the older brother was so upset he wouldn't go in. He wouldn't go in for the party because he was so angry that his younger brother not only had he ran away and spent half of the family fortune, but he was now being treated like a king when he returned home. The father heard that he was outside and the father came out and he said, "Why aren't you coming in? Come into the party. Your brother's home. He was lost but now he's found. He was dead but now he's alive." And he says, his brother basically said, "He's still dead to me. Like he died the day he left. Why would you welcome him back?" And the father tries to convince his older son that you need to forgive him too and you need to embrace him because Remember, it's Jesus telling a story about what God's kingdom is like because that's what God in heaven does. So we learn at the end of this story that Jesus isn't saying that 1 in 100, 1 in 10, 1 out of 2. He's saying 2 out of 2. When it comes to people, every single person, 100%, have to make a decision to come home. They have to make a decision to come into the party. I want to play you another song, this one by the kids at Hands of Hope Academy, and they're singing about that decision. That decision that we all have to make when the roll is called up yonder.