Never Give Up Loving
Luke 15:1-32
I know Mother’s Day can be a wonderful, joyful day. And I know Mother’s Day can be awkward, difficult, and even depressing. There are so many reasons why today can be a hard day for so many women. Life’s circumstances, difficulties, challenges, the actions of others can change how you thought things were going to be. Unexpected sickness, unexpected death, radical changes that you could never see coming – all of that can make this a very difficult day for many women.
And I want you to know, God sees and God knows. “El Roi” – I am the God that sees you. God knows exactly where you are at today. When it comes to this subject of motherhood (and all others), God is with you dancing and singing on the mountaintop. God is with you trudging through the darkest valley.
Really, the only thing about Mother’s Day that is completely universal, that can speak to every situation that every woman listening is in – is this:
God is with you in the highest highs of this day, in the lowest lows of this day, and everywhere in between.
For some, your life may look like that mom walking through the grocery store with her toddler in the cart, and her baby crying and screaming, reaching out to grab anything on the shelf, and throwing a bonafide “grocery store fit.” All the while the mother was calmly and confidently saying, “Calm down Ellen. You’re going to be okay, Ellen. Ellen, just settle down.”
When another woman passed her and praised her saying, “It’s so wonderful how calmly and lovingly you’re talking to your daughter Ellen.”
And the mom looked at the woman sternly and said, “My daughter’s name is not Ellen. I’m Ellen.”
God is with you in every season, and in every stage of life, and that is my prayer – that you would know that more than anything today.
I genuinely believe I have the best mother in the world. The amount of my life that I owe to her is immeasurable – what she has done for me is immeasurable. But our lives did not follow what Ozzie and Harriet and Andy Griffith were telling my mom what her life should look like in the mid-’60s.
As a single mother during that time, my mom was determined to make our lives still look like what they were supposed to. She would have been happy with the single mother version of “Leave it to Beaver” or even “Dennis the Menace.”
Then my mom got remarried, and she was determined to make our new family look like the Brady Bunch. And when I say “determined,” I mean relentlessly committed day and night to merge two families into one loving unit. And ultimately, she was successful after some pretty rough years.
But my mom never taught me that Ozzie and Harriet, Andy Griffith, Leave it to Beaver, or even the Brady Bunch were real life. But what she did teach me (maybe the top thing my mom taught me) is never give up loving because love always wins. That may be the number one lesson my mom taught me, and that’s what I pray you would hear today.
What my mom taught me is through twists and turns, through ups and downs, through a life that doesn’t always work out like you thought it should, my mom taught me – never give up loving because love always wins.
In Luke Chapter 15, Jesus tells three parables back-to-back, that he combines to teach some very powerful truths. But the truth I’d like you to see today is this never give up loving – because love always wins lesson in these two parables.
Luke 15:1-2 (NLT)
1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
And so, to try to get the religious leaders to understand his love for notorious sinners, Jesus is going to tell three parables.
Here’s the first one.
Luke 15:3-7 (NLT)
3 So Jesus told them this story:
4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost UNTIL he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.
6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
This is an awesome explanation of God’s love for one last sinner – that God will relentlessly search for us until he finds us and carries us home on his shoulders. But it is also an awesome explanation of a love that never quits and a love that always wins.
And then he tells another parable back-to-back.
Luke 15:8-10 (NLT)
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully UNTIL she finds it?
9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’
10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
Again, a parable of God searching for us until he finds us. But also, an example of the never give up “turn the house upside down” love that always wins.
And then, the previous two parables lead up to the granddaddy of the never give up loving because love always wins examples.
Luke 15:11-24 (NLT)
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.
12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.
14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” ’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.
23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,
24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
And, if you know the story, you know the other son, who had stayed with the family and had done everything “right,” well, he got angry that the party and the attention and all the love was being poured on the Prodigal Son. And the father explained to the “good son” both his love for him as the good son and the father’s never give up loving – because love always wins, love for the prodigal who had returned home.
Luke 15:31-32 (NLT)
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.
32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”
The father is saying to the “good son,” I never gave up loving your prodigal brother because love always wins.
No matter the twists and turns, the ups and downs, no matter if things don’t work out like you thought they should never give up loving because love always wins.
At the age of nineteen, Abraham Piper, the son of well-known pastor and author John Piper walked away from his Christian faith. For the next four years, in his words, he “just wanted to drink gallons of cheap sangria and sleep around.”
Of course, his parents were “brokenhearted and baffled.” After four years of living as a prodigal son, Abraham returned to the Lord and reunited with his parents. Based on his experience, he offers the following advice to mothers and fathers of wayward children.
Don’t expect them to be Christlike
If your son is not a Christian, he won’t act like one, and it is hypocrisy if he does… his most dangerous problem is unbelief – not partying.
No matter how your child’s behavior proves his unbelief, always focus more on his heart’s sickness than its symptoms.
Welcome them home
If he has any inkling to be with you, don’t make it hard for him… Obviously, there are instances when parents must give ultimatums: “Don’t come to this house if you are…” But these will be rare (in most cases). If your daughter stinks like weed or an ashtray, spray her jacket with Febreeze, and change the sheets when she leaves, but let her come home. If you find out she’s pregnant, then buy her prenatal vitamins, take her to Doctor’s appointments, protect her from Planned Parenthood, and by all means – let her come home.
If your son is broke because he spent all the money you gave him on women and liquor, then forgive his debt as you’ve been forgiven, don’t give him any more money – and let him come home.
If he hasn’t been around for a week and a half because he’s been staying at his girlfriend’s – or boyfriend’s – apartment, urge him not to go back, and let him come home.
Point them to Christ
Your rebellious child’s real problem is not drugs, or sex, or cigarettes, or porn, or laziness, or crime, or cussing, or homosexuality. The real problem is that your child doesn’t see Jesus clearly… Jesus will replace whatever they are chasing right now – but only his grace can draw them from their perilous pursuits and bind them safely to him – captive, but satisfied.
My advice to you is my mom’s verbatim advice to me. You never give up loving because love always wins. Thank you mom for such an incredible, life-changing, direction-setting lesson. Never give up loving because love always wins.
From the famous love chapter.
1 Corinthians 13:4,7–8 (NKJV)
4 Love suffers long and is kind . . . 7 [Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.
That’s what my mom has taught me, and that’s what God has taught me.
Never give up loving – because love always wins.
And I want you to know, God sees and God knows. “El Roi” – I am the God that sees you. God knows exactly where you are at today. When it comes to this subject of motherhood (and all others), God is with you dancing and singing on the mountaintop. God is with you trudging through the darkest valley.
Really, the only thing about Mother’s Day that is completely universal, that can speak to every situation that every woman listening is in – is this:
God is with you in the highest highs of this day, in the lowest lows of this day, and everywhere in between.
For some, your life may look like that mom walking through the grocery store with her toddler in the cart, and her baby crying and screaming, reaching out to grab anything on the shelf, and throwing a bonafide “grocery store fit.” All the while the mother was calmly and confidently saying, “Calm down Ellen. You’re going to be okay, Ellen. Ellen, just settle down.”
When another woman passed her and praised her saying, “It’s so wonderful how calmly and lovingly you’re talking to your daughter Ellen.”
And the mom looked at the woman sternly and said, “My daughter’s name is not Ellen. I’m Ellen.”
God is with you in every season, and in every stage of life, and that is my prayer – that you would know that more than anything today.
I genuinely believe I have the best mother in the world. The amount of my life that I owe to her is immeasurable – what she has done for me is immeasurable. But our lives did not follow what Ozzie and Harriet and Andy Griffith were telling my mom what her life should look like in the mid-’60s.
As a single mother during that time, my mom was determined to make our lives still look like what they were supposed to. She would have been happy with the single mother version of “Leave it to Beaver” or even “Dennis the Menace.”
Then my mom got remarried, and she was determined to make our new family look like the Brady Bunch. And when I say “determined,” I mean relentlessly committed day and night to merge two families into one loving unit. And ultimately, she was successful after some pretty rough years.
But my mom never taught me that Ozzie and Harriet, Andy Griffith, Leave it to Beaver, or even the Brady Bunch were real life. But what she did teach me (maybe the top thing my mom taught me) is never give up loving because love always wins. That may be the number one lesson my mom taught me, and that’s what I pray you would hear today.
What my mom taught me is through twists and turns, through ups and downs, through a life that doesn’t always work out like you thought it should, my mom taught me – never give up loving because love always wins.
In Luke Chapter 15, Jesus tells three parables back-to-back, that he combines to teach some very powerful truths. But the truth I’d like you to see today is this never give up loving – because love always wins lesson in these two parables.
Luke 15:1-2 (NLT)
1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
And so, to try to get the religious leaders to understand his love for notorious sinners, Jesus is going to tell three parables.
Here’s the first one.
Luke 15:3-7 (NLT)
3 So Jesus told them this story:
4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost UNTIL he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.
6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
This is an awesome explanation of God’s love for one last sinner – that God will relentlessly search for us until he finds us and carries us home on his shoulders. But it is also an awesome explanation of a love that never quits and a love that always wins.
And then he tells another parable back-to-back.
Luke 15:8-10 (NLT)
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully UNTIL she finds it?
9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’
10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
Again, a parable of God searching for us until he finds us. But also, an example of the never give up “turn the house upside down” love that always wins.
And then, the previous two parables lead up to the granddaddy of the never give up loving because love always wins examples.
Luke 15:11-24 (NLT)
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.
12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.
14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” ’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.
23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,
24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
And, if you know the story, you know the other son, who had stayed with the family and had done everything “right,” well, he got angry that the party and the attention and all the love was being poured on the Prodigal Son. And the father explained to the “good son” both his love for him as the good son and the father’s never give up loving – because love always wins, love for the prodigal who had returned home.
Luke 15:31-32 (NLT)
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.
32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”
The father is saying to the “good son,” I never gave up loving your prodigal brother because love always wins.
No matter the twists and turns, the ups and downs, no matter if things don’t work out like you thought they should never give up loving because love always wins.
At the age of nineteen, Abraham Piper, the son of well-known pastor and author John Piper walked away from his Christian faith. For the next four years, in his words, he “just wanted to drink gallons of cheap sangria and sleep around.”
Of course, his parents were “brokenhearted and baffled.” After four years of living as a prodigal son, Abraham returned to the Lord and reunited with his parents. Based on his experience, he offers the following advice to mothers and fathers of wayward children.
Don’t expect them to be Christlike
If your son is not a Christian, he won’t act like one, and it is hypocrisy if he does… his most dangerous problem is unbelief – not partying.
No matter how your child’s behavior proves his unbelief, always focus more on his heart’s sickness than its symptoms.
Welcome them home
If he has any inkling to be with you, don’t make it hard for him… Obviously, there are instances when parents must give ultimatums: “Don’t come to this house if you are…” But these will be rare (in most cases). If your daughter stinks like weed or an ashtray, spray her jacket with Febreeze, and change the sheets when she leaves, but let her come home. If you find out she’s pregnant, then buy her prenatal vitamins, take her to Doctor’s appointments, protect her from Planned Parenthood, and by all means – let her come home.
If your son is broke because he spent all the money you gave him on women and liquor, then forgive his debt as you’ve been forgiven, don’t give him any more money – and let him come home.
If he hasn’t been around for a week and a half because he’s been staying at his girlfriend’s – or boyfriend’s – apartment, urge him not to go back, and let him come home.
Point them to Christ
Your rebellious child’s real problem is not drugs, or sex, or cigarettes, or porn, or laziness, or crime, or cussing, or homosexuality. The real problem is that your child doesn’t see Jesus clearly… Jesus will replace whatever they are chasing right now – but only his grace can draw them from their perilous pursuits and bind them safely to him – captive, but satisfied.
My advice to you is my mom’s verbatim advice to me. You never give up loving because love always wins. Thank you mom for such an incredible, life-changing, direction-setting lesson. Never give up loving because love always wins.
From the famous love chapter.
1 Corinthians 13:4,7–8 (NKJV)
4 Love suffers long and is kind . . . 7 [Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.
That’s what my mom has taught me, and that’s what God has taught me.
Never give up loving – because love always wins.