There's a sense of the brevity of life and a sense of the need to act, the need to do something meaningful with your life. That's really what's behind this idea of YOLO. (You only live once.) So somebody's going to do something different, something maybe risky, maybe even dangerous and they say YOLO.

Well, you only live once, right? Well, the brevity of life concept is actually in the Bible. It urges us to consider what life is all about. It considers us, it urges us to consider why we are here. What are we doing here? Now, most people who emphasize and live by the concept of YOLO find, are seeking to find meaning within themselves.

They're seeking to craft and express a certain identity that's all about them. See, YOLO, the way it's used really on social media and in our culture tends to have a self-focus. Does YOLO actually bring meaning? That's kind of a question I want to ask and leave you with this morning. Well, this morning we are going to look at a story told by Jesus. The story's about two sons and a father.

The story is 2,000 years old, but as typical with Jesus, it's a very contemporary, very relevant story to us now. Now, that is the genius and the beauty of Jesus and his teaching. The story explains really two different ways of engaging life. Both of these ways seem rational, they seem good, they seem very useful.

But Jesus will show that though each of these ways holds promise from a human perspective, that each fails to bring the meaning and the purpose that has been pursued. Jesus has a different way. A way that really has to do with a relationship to God as Father.

We find meaning in our lives when we experience the grace of the Heavenly Father. So as we work through this, ask some questions:

Do I find myself reflected somewhere in the story of these two sons? Have I found what I'm really looking for in life? Where am I looking for that? Does my philosophy of life, and we all have a philosophy of life, does my philosophy of life bring the joy that I desire? And last question to think about is, how do I look at God? How do I perceive God?  So we're going to look at the two sons.

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