SPEAKER_00: You may have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: If you would uh open your Bibles to the book of Luke, if you do not have a Bible, there should be a Bible in the seat under in front of you underneath.
SPEAKER_00: We are uh taking a break from our series in Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: We usually walk through verse by verse, chapter by chapter of a specific book, but in uh honors of today and celebration Sunday, we're gonna be in Luke chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: Um I was out last week, uh, took a couple days of vacation, so I missed you guys.
SPEAKER_00: So it's good uh to be back.
SPEAKER_00: I had a great time.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: But I missed you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, there's a lot of reasons to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: Um you can celebrate a birthday, celebrate a wedding, an anniversary, an engagement.
SPEAKER_00: Or I mean, there's countless things that we can celebrate in life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, but I think maybe the most important thing, but seeing people move from death to life.
SPEAKER_00: People who are lost, becoming found.
SPEAKER_00: It's something to be to celebrate, to rejoice in.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, if we're being honest, that's not something we focus on and rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: And as I think about celebrating, there's one story that comes to mind.
SPEAKER_00: As I was thinking about this Sunday and this message, it was Luke chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: The story of the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe one of the most famous stories Jesus shares, famous parable of a son who was lost and was found.
SPEAKER_00: That would lead to a celebration, that would lead to rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what I want us to do is to walk through this story together, and I really don't have any points for this message.
SPEAKER_00: Just maybe a couple goals that I have for us as we walk through this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Is first is this is that today I know here this morning that there are people who are lost who need to be found.
SPEAKER_00: That there is hope for you today, that you may feel far off, you may feel unloved, you may be even feel that God does not love you, and he has anger towards you.
SPEAKER_00: And today, you'll get to hear the greatest news in all the world that he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And he is after you in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing I want us to see is, and I'd pray as a church, even and encourage us as a church, as we listen to this message, we will be praying that for every single person here to know that they can be found today.
SPEAKER_00: The second point is this as we go over the gospel in this beautiful story for the followers of Jesus, oftentimes we can drift.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes we can become numb towards the gospel and even a story like this.
SPEAKER_00: This is a day to be reminded of the beauty of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And when Christ has done, to be reminded that we were once wayward.
SPEAKER_00: We were once lost, dead in our sins, and Christ saved us.
SPEAKER_00: So, as is tradition here, I want us to stand in reverence for the reading of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So in this moment, let us stand unto our feet.
SPEAKER_00: For those of us who are able to do so, this is just showing honor and reverence to the word of God that when this book is open, God is speaking.
SPEAKER_00: And that we are coming here hungry and ready to receive his word.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 15, starting at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read to verse 17, but we'll be looking at the whole chapter today.
SPEAKER_00: It says this, and he said, There was a man who had two sons.
SPEAKER_00: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.
SPEAKER_00: And he divided his property between them.
SPEAKER_00: Not many days later the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
SPEAKER_00: So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his field to feed pigs.
SPEAKER_00: And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, but when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread?
SPEAKER_00: But I perish here with hunger.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we ask for your help.
SPEAKER_00: God, I I need you.
SPEAKER_00: As I do every single Sunday when I stand here, I need your help to fill me, anoint me, and use me.
SPEAKER_00: God, but I I pray and I pray that everyone in here would pray this as well.
SPEAKER_00: That we would be receptive and ready to receive your word and obey your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, I pray that you would lift the veils in this room for people to see maybe for the first time the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Before we dive into the passage, uh, brief context, and you'll see the context of this parable and the first two verses in verse 1 and 2 of chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: Here in Luke 15, Jesus shares three different parables, and those three parables are all shared in the same setting, the same context.
SPEAKER_00: And so it starts with verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: You can see it there in the beginning of the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.
SPEAKER_00: After these verses, Jesus will then launch into three different parables.
SPEAKER_00: The first parable will be a parable of a lost sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe many of us are familiar with this or not, but a shepherd who had a hundred sheep and one went missing, and the shepherd left in 99 to find the one sheep.
SPEAKER_00: When they found the sheep and brought it back, there was much rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus would go into a parable of a lost coin, of someone losing a coin.
SPEAKER_00: They have ten and they only had nine to this point.
SPEAKER_00: They were searching their house for the silver coin, and then they find it, and that leads to celebration, to joy.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus here in our text moves to something far deeper and weightier than a sheep and a coin.
SPEAKER_00: He moves to a lost son.
SPEAKER_00: And so there it starts in verse 11 of a father, a man who had two sons.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 12 it says, The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.
SPEAKER_00: And he divided his property between them.
SPEAKER_00: See, in those times, much like today, you wouldn't really receive an inheritance till when?
SPEAKER_00: Till death.
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe in special occasions in those times, and these times that inheritance could be given in advance, but most times that inheritance is given upon death.
SPEAKER_00: And here the son, the younger one, comes to the father and says, Give me my inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: See, what was he communicating in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: He was really saying, I don't want to have anything to do with you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to sit around here and wait until you die.
SPEAKER_00: He was really saying, You're dead to me.
SPEAKER_00: Just give me what belongs to me so I can go.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what did the father do?
SPEAKER_00: Most likely knowing his son at this point that he probably would not be wise with it, gave him the inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: We can only assume from this text that this father was wealthy.
SPEAKER_00: Talks about this father having this home and servants and cattle, like he had property.
SPEAKER_00: It was a lot of money that was given.
SPEAKER_00: And the father says, Fine, I'll give you your inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: So what happens next?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Not many days later.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: He is in a rush.
SPEAKER_00: The younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country.
SPEAKER_00: And there he squandered his property in reckless living.
SPEAKER_00: Says he gathered all he had.
SPEAKER_00: He was not planning to come back.
SPEAKER_00: He took everything with him and went.
SPEAKER_00: But why do a far country?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he could have got the inheritance and maybe stayed there or stayed nearby and lived up and had a fun life, wasting away all the resources he had, but close by.
SPEAKER_00: But no, he wants to get away and far away from his father's house.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want his father, his brother, maybe the servants in the home to know what he's about to do.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to go far away.
SPEAKER_00: Says, I'm out.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been like this with God?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe where you grew up in the church, maybe you had a father or mother who taught you in the Lord or a grandparent who dragged you to church.
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as you were able to, you wanted to get out of there.
SPEAKER_00: You wanted to get out of that home because then it meant you can live your life in your terms.
SPEAKER_00: So what happens next?
SPEAKER_00: First, it says, when he went to the far country, he squandered his property in a reckless living.
SPEAKER_00: It did not take long for the son to waste all he had away.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the wealth that this father had stored for years, gives it to his son, and his son just wastes it all away.
SPEAKER_00: What does he wasted on?
SPEAKER_00: On reckless living.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, that's what the word prodigal means.
SPEAKER_00: Prodigal means reckless.
SPEAKER_00: It was foolishness, it was flashy, it was self-indulgence.
SPEAKER_00: And his older brother would tell us later in the verse, we'll see this, that what he was spending it on was loose living, and it was on prostitutes.
SPEAKER_00: He was living it up, he was going to the depths of darkness, the streets of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And he plunged into it headfirst.
SPEAKER_00: And one day he was in his father's house, and the next he was in the far country, buried in the darkest corner of sin.
SPEAKER_00: He rebelled against his father and his father's wishes to the depths of rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: And left his father's home for a world of pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: What happens next?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
SPEAKER_00: This was a time with little food and people in crisis struggling to survive.
SPEAKER_00: And look at what this does to the son, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who had sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
SPEAKER_00: So when he lost everything, the younger son in this moment, he needs work.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He goes to find work and he finds it feeding pigs.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I want you to think about this.
SPEAKER_00: In the father's house, he probably wouldn't ever need to work ever.
SPEAKER_00: And here he is, feeding pigs.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for us, we can understand that that is not the most glamorous job.
SPEAKER_00: There probably wouldn't be a long line of us wanting to work that job to feed pigs.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to understand the context.
SPEAKER_00: This was a Jewish people, Jewish audience Jesus is speaking to.
SPEAKER_00: The pigs were unclean.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't even eat pork.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is trying to paint a picture to his audience.
SPEAKER_00: How low this Son has gone.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the low of the low of the lowest place.
SPEAKER_00: He is living and serving pigs.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, he goes even lower.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: And he was longing, longing for what?
SPEAKER_00: To be fed with the pods that the pigs ate.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is he working to feed pigs, he is literally jealous.
SPEAKER_00: He is envious of the pigs' food.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes lower.
SPEAKER_00: Not only does he desire it, but what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, and no one gave him anything.
SPEAKER_00: He was not even worth the opportunity of being given pig's food.
SPEAKER_00: So what happens?
SPEAKER_00: He's desperate.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I want you to imagine it.
SPEAKER_00: That just a couple days ago he was sitting on the top.
SPEAKER_00: He had the money, he was having the time of his life, and then moments later, he's in the mud with pigs.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger?
SPEAKER_00: See, the wayward son came to his senses when he lost everything.
SPEAKER_00: I want to sit here for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: You know what probably was, I believe, the greatest blessing for this wayward son, this younger son?
SPEAKER_00: It was the famine.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it was the famine that brought him to the lowest place for him to realize and remember his father's house.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just say this for a moment?
SPEAKER_00: That I know that there are some of you where you have experienced a famine.
SPEAKER_00: Or you are in a famine, a crisis.
SPEAKER_00: And as followers of Jesus, the Lord actually calls us, even in those moments in suffering, and trial and the worst of things, to rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing, sometimes we will wait for the famine.
SPEAKER_00: We will wait until we're in the lowest place, until we realize God is all we have and all we need.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you not to wait for that moment.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of times why we're stuck in sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're stuck in sin because we haven't gotten to the bottom yet.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't gotten to the lowest point yet.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what he realizes.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing I can do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to die of hunger.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the Lord, what he will do is he will bring us to the lowest place.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you, if that's you in this room, don't wait for that to realize that you can call on him, that he can save you.
SPEAKER_00: So what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Here I am, I'm about to die.
SPEAKER_00: But he's recalling, sitting at the seat in his table, the table of his father's house, how much food there was.
SPEAKER_00: His servants in the house are eating better than him, and he was a son.
SPEAKER_00: So he creates a plan for the mess that he's in.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his plan in verse 18 and 19.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
SPEAKER_00: Treat me as one of your hired servants.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna get away from here and these pigs, and I'm literally about to starve to death.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go to my dad's house.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna say, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Say, I lost the right to be called your son.
SPEAKER_00: And just make me into a servant.
SPEAKER_00: See, sin, it promised him freedom, but it enslaved him.
SPEAKER_00: It promised him pleasure, but it left him empty.
SPEAKER_00: And he realized that and he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20, look at this.
SPEAKER_00: And he arose and came to his father.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you do this, but I don't know if you ever have a situation, maybe a situation similar to this where you need to apologize, you need to own up to something you've done, you need to have a hard conversation with someone.
SPEAKER_00: And you kind of rev rehearse what you're gonna say in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Is that just me or you you know anyone else here?
SPEAKER_00: You kind of rehear what you're gonna say, how they're gonna respond, and I can only imagine that as he gets up and starts walking, and it's a long walk, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Later we'll see that from the text that implies he doesn't even have any shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And he's walking and rehearsing this, saying, I'm sorry, I'm not your son anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I get that, but can I just be a servant?
SPEAKER_00: And repeating this over and over as he's walking miles and miles and miles and miles to get back home.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking about the anger, the resentment, the judgment of his father, the lecture he's gonna hear.
SPEAKER_00: And he's walking and walking.
SPEAKER_00: But look what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: God help us to see this.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: And he rose and came to his father.
SPEAKER_00: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
SPEAKER_00: You know what's my favorite part of this story?
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: It says he was far off.
SPEAKER_00: He was long away from the home.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens?
SPEAKER_00: It says the father sees him.
SPEAKER_00: What does that imply?
SPEAKER_00: He was looking.
SPEAKER_00: And he was sitting on that porch every single day waiting for his son to come back.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He runs.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't wait.
SPEAKER_00: He's not there with his arms crossed.
SPEAKER_00: He runs.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give some context here.
SPEAKER_00: Men of this status, of this age, do not run in this culture.
SPEAKER_00: They don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: That would be dishonorable.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They were these long clothes and a lot of times when they would lift their clothes up, it would show their knees.
SPEAKER_00: This was something they would not do.
SPEAKER_00: And the father does not care about it.
SPEAKER_00: He cares about one thing is embracing his son.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what he does?
SPEAKER_00: It says he embraces him and he kisses him.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you this, he probably didn't smell very good.
SPEAKER_00: And his face probably wasn't very clean.
SPEAKER_00: But that didn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: What mattered was his son was here.
SPEAKER_00: And he ran to him.
SPEAKER_00: And before the son says a single word, his father embraces him.
SPEAKER_00: This is the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: Please, you have to understand this that God is not angry towards you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he is angry towards the sin in your life that is destroying you.
SPEAKER_00: But he is waiting for you.
SPEAKER_00: He is calling you home.
SPEAKER_00: He is pursuing you.
SPEAKER_00: And so how does the son respond to this?
SPEAKER_00: I imagine it rehearsing over and over what he's going to say.
SPEAKER_00: And his father embraces him, kisses him, and look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
SPEAKER_00: See, the son still doesn't understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: He has no idea.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you this?
SPEAKER_00: This is for the last person in the room, but this is also for those who follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we are servants of Jesus, but we are sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of times what we do is we make ourselves into servants.
SPEAKER_00: And we come to God saying, I'm your servant, which is true, but we are more than that.
SPEAKER_00: We are sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, just make me into a slave, make me into a servant.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe to help him understand in this moment what's happening in this moment, he gives a physical representation that no, you are a son.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: It says, But the father said to his servant, bring quickly the best robe and put on him.
SPEAKER_00: And put it on him, and put on a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.
SPEAKER_00: The father says, No, you're no, you're not a servant, you are a son.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the robe.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the ring, a symbol, a status to show you and to show the servants that what?
SPEAKER_00: You are a son.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: It says, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It was a calf that they would hold off to the side and feed and feed and feed and feed until it was big and plump and ready for something worth celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Father said, Bring out the fattened calf.
SPEAKER_00: Let us eat.
SPEAKER_00: Let us celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24 it says, For this, for this, my son was dead and is alive again.
SPEAKER_00: He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he use this word dead?
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The son never physically died, but it's a symbol of what Jesus is trying to tell us, tell this crowd he's talking to.
SPEAKER_00: See, all of us, we have sinned against God.
SPEAKER_00: And we deserve death.
SPEAKER_00: Because the wages of sin, the payment for our sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a gift of God in Christ Jesus through faith to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is why we celebrate today.
SPEAKER_00: People who've gone from death to life, who were lost, who are now found.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing, oftentimes we end the story there.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_00: Really, the story is not just about the younger brother.
SPEAKER_00: There was another brother in the story.
SPEAKER_00: Really, if you look at the context, Jesus is really primarily wanting to teach something to the Pharisees who are there, the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: Now his older son was in the field and he came and drew near to the house.
SPEAKER_00: He heard music and dancing.
SPEAKER_00: And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, Your brother has come and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.
SPEAKER_00: This is good news.
SPEAKER_00: This is great news.
SPEAKER_00: If you're the brother, you want to go in there and celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: My brother who was lost, I didn't know where he was.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know if he was alive.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to celebrate and have a party.
SPEAKER_00: This is great.
SPEAKER_00: But look how he responds.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: But he was angry and refused to go in.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this.
SPEAKER_00: The father pursues both of them.
SPEAKER_00: You see that there?
SPEAKER_00: It says his father came out and entreated him.
SPEAKER_00: The father sees him not celebrating with everyone else and goes to the older son.
SPEAKER_00: But he answered his father.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I've been here the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to give him the fattened calf.
SPEAKER_00: You've never even given me a goat.
SPEAKER_00: He's upset.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But when this son of yours, notice he doesn't say brother of mine.
SPEAKER_00: He says, this son of yours who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't deserve forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't deserve to come back.
SPEAKER_00: Look how the father responds, verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Everything that I have is yours.
SPEAKER_00: It's always been here.
SPEAKER_00: You see, maybe even the older son saw himself as a servant and not a son.
SPEAKER_00: See, the older son was in the father's house, but he was far from the father's heart.
SPEAKER_00: See, we can do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: We can come here into the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: And think just because we have proximity to the house of God and the people of God, that means that we belong to Him.
SPEAKER_00: But no, you can be in the house of God and you can grow up in the house of God, but that does not mean anything.
SPEAKER_00: Are you a son?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love the Father?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a relationship with the Father?
SPEAKER_00: And here's the reality: there may be in here some older brothers in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a heart of bitterness towards God.
SPEAKER_00: Where you see God the way that He blesses others and He saves others, you say, No, that's not right.
SPEAKER_00: That should be for me.
SPEAKER_00: Or you envy others, and you're upset at God.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is what Jesus is getting at verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that it was the tax collectors and the sinners that were around him, and it was the Pharisees that were grumbling, saying, This man receives sinners and he eats with them.
SPEAKER_00: See, whose responsibility could you say was it to go look for the younger brother?
SPEAKER_00: The older one.
SPEAKER_00: To maybe hear what's going on, to see, to warn him, to go to him and say, to come back.
SPEAKER_00: The father loves you, don't live this way.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's what the Pharisees were doing.
SPEAKER_00: They were people who knew of God, but were far from God.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't care about God's heart and his mission to reach these people, these tax collectors, these Pharisees, these people who are far off.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you this?
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you the good news?
SPEAKER_00: See, me and you, we were far off.
SPEAKER_00: But we had an older brother.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Who, although we were in the depths of darkness, we were in the streets of sin.
SPEAKER_00: He came looking for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: That he came and God put on flesh and became man, searching for us.
SPEAKER_00: And saying, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That won't fill you up.
SPEAKER_00: That won't satisfy you.
SPEAKER_00: In my father's house, I prepare a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: There's a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You are dirty.
SPEAKER_00: And you cannot, in your dirtiness, come into the house.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll make you clean.
SPEAKER_00: And the way that I'm going to do that is I'm going to take your filth and your dirt and your sin and your mistakes, and I'm going to put it on myself.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to die the death that you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: So that you can be free.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's the good news.
SPEAKER_00: And so even today, as we celebrate people who are being baptized, people who are coming from death to life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about those we are celebrating today, but those in the future.
SPEAKER_00: See, what was the problem that the religious people had with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that he was just talking with them.
SPEAKER_00: He was eating with them.
SPEAKER_00: He was living amongst them.
SPEAKER_00: He was befriending them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we need to be as a church.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm calling you towards, not to just go out and share Jesus in a lost and dying world, words, uh, world with just words, but with your life.
SPEAKER_00: To be in a homes, to be in relationships with people who are far from God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he was being criticized for.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'll tell you what, those religious people, they probably had conversations with those sinners.
SPEAKER_00: But what?
SPEAKER_00: They never sat with them.
SPEAKER_00: Embraced them, loved them, pursued them.
SPEAKER_00: We have an older brother who did that for us.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32, last verse.
SPEAKER_00: He said, It was fitting to celebrate and be glad.
SPEAKER_00: For this, your brother was dead and is alive.
SPEAKER_00: He was lost and is found.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we have to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Before there is rejoicing, before there is a celebration, there's remorse.
SPEAKER_00: Before there was a feast in the house, there was a moment in the pig pen of conviction.
SPEAKER_00: Something's not right.
SPEAKER_00: Coming to self.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a great time out there.
SPEAKER_00: But before that, I'm just wondering if there's anyone in the room who you feel far from God.
SPEAKER_00: You feel like the prodigal that way where you've wandered off.
SPEAKER_00: And you feel too far gone.
SPEAKER_00: See, that was what Jesus was getting at.
SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere too far in that culture, that society, the lowest of the lowest people.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever wonder why do they always mention those two people, was the prostitute and the tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to go into detail why the prostitute, we can understand that, but the tax collector?
SPEAKER_00: See, I want you to think about this.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think that you are a nation, this country, and this other country nation comes and they take over and they rule over you, and they take advantage of you and they extort you and take money from you and tax you.
SPEAKER_00: And then you look at who's helping them out, and it's your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: It's people from the who grew up with you, people of the same country as you, and now they're with the opposition, and they're with them, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00: They're taking more advantage of you because they're asking for more and keeping on the side for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: That was the lowest of the low.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you?
SPEAKER_00: You cannot go too far from the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: Please listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
SPEAKER_00: The things you're ashamed of.
SPEAKER_00: There is grace and forgiveness, and there is a father who is waiting, who is waiting for you on the porch every single day.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to run to you.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to run to you, but all you have to do is just get up and say, I'm done being in the filth.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, if you do that today, oh, there's rejoicing in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be rejoicing in this place.
SPEAKER_00: That we're gonna have a time of worship, and you can come down and say, That's me.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm that wayward person.
SPEAKER_00: I want to receive Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's people here, they'll talk to you.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be right here, talk to you how to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's being baptized and saying, That's me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be saved and be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're a follower, Jesus, you've committed your life to him, but you've been wayward.
SPEAKER_00: Or there's been a moment you got out of the filth and you've gone into the home, and the father has put a ring on you, put a robe around you, and you've gone back.
SPEAKER_00: You still got the ring, you still have the robe.
SPEAKER_00: You can't lose that.
SPEAKER_00: You're a son or daughter, but you've dirtied yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And the father's saying, come back.
SPEAKER_00: Come back.
SPEAKER_00: And I know you've been feeling it week after week, day after day, that conviction in that way.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a day today to come back.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're in here and you've been challenged of you know what, I've been judgmental or I've been isolating myself like the older brother, not looking for people who are far off.
SPEAKER_00: God is calling us to respond today.
SPEAKER_00: Can we pray?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, I pray right now.
SPEAKER_00: Come, Holy Spirit, in this room, call your sons and daughters home.
SPEAKER_00: With the weight of what really matters in this world, just come to our minds and hearts in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: God, we've tried it.
SPEAKER_00: We've tried it all.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't do it, it doesn't fill us up, but you, God, you can.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that there are people in here who would say, I'm done, I've tried it all.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that there would be rejoicing today.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, have your way.
SPEAKER_00: God, move in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: This is time to respond.
SPEAKER_00: You want to come to Jesus, you want to be saved, you want to experience forgiveness and the love of God, you can come right down here.
SPEAKER_00: And you can experience that for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that.
SPEAKER_00: If you just want to come and return as a physical declaration of coming down here, maybe as a far Jesus say, I've been wayward and I need to come back.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's coming down here as a declaration of you know what, I want to be the older brother that searches, that finds, that pursues those who are lost and dying.
SPEAKER_00: You come.
SPEAKER_00: There's a father who is waiting for you.
SPEAKER_00: You come as we worship you.