Well, we've been talking the last few weeks about the power of made-up stories, and you know this.

I don't even need to convince you. Story is a powerful thing. Stories all around us, the most powerful

stories resonate with our lives, and we don't even realize how much they impact and guide and influence our lives.

But made-up stories aren't just powerful for our experience in life.

They don't just resonate.

They're not just part of our culture.

They're an important part of learning.

And as a matter of fact, in the rabbinic culture, in the Jewish culture, which Jesus first

showed up on the scene, he used story in a powerful way, in a significant way in people's

lives.

And actually, in the Hebrew tradition, made-up story was called the Hagada.

And this is the last week I'm going to make you hungry for ice cream on a Sunday morning talking about this.

But Hagada is storytelling with a point.

And this is part of the reason that lots of people surrounded Jesus when he was teaching.

He told powerful stories with

significant points and he disrupted and disturbed the status quo and culture.

And his stories, they always had a point.

And not only did they have a point, they had a point that led to a decision.

In the first week of this series, we talked about the depth of God's love.

We looked at the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. It was three stories that Jesus told in a row.

And the point of the story is that God celebrates lost things that are found. When people are

lost to God, when people have lost their way and they come home, God celebrates. And he throws a

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