SPEAKER_00 0:00

Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came home, who has devoured your property and with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Steve O, what are you doing, man?

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Hey, Pastor Cliff. Uh I'm just going over some files for the campus. You know, as campus pastor, I gotta keep up with a lot. Uh what can I do for you?

SPEAKER_03 1:22

You won't believe the best news, man. I was out at Wolfie's today and I saw one of our former employees. Yeah. I hired him back on the spot. Remember Cody? Cody McGill Cody. I know Cody. You hi You hired Cody back? Yeah. You remember what he did. I know. He had a bad exit, uh, just kind of He just left us, he didn't give us any notice. Said a few things and he shouldn't have on Facebook and all, but So you just hired him back? Like science? Here's the deal. When I saw him, he just ran to me like and just was crying and I felt bad for him, and then I was like, Cody, why don't you come back home? Because for real? And I was thinking about what you were doing. You know, you were so burdened with campus ministry, it used to be on facilities. I just decided to bring him back and be the assistant campus pastor. No, no, no, no, this has to be a joke. Here's the thing: since he's in such financial trouble, I decided to give him the same salary as you make. I'd be kidding me. Yeah. But the reason I want to talk to you is about because I want to give him like a welcome back party, like blow it out, maybe give him a$5,000 bonus. What? Yeah, I was wondering if you would like maybe call like Mystic Ice Cream, get one of those trucks out of here. This has to be a bad dream. Maybe you're gonna wake up. I'm thinking like Stavros could host it with, you know, Cliff Chi and PC.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

You I've been here with you for 18 years. You've never once offered me a$5,000 bonus. I don't even think you've thrown like a real Stavros Mystic Ice Cream party for me.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

I've served you faithfully. So we just gotta rejoice with Cody, because I mean he's lost and now he's found. So listen, you you maybe could you get some banners and some balloons? So I'm planning the party. Yeah, yeah. You're you're kind of helping plan the party, but you're like doing most of the work. I'm playing. Just to help your this is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

This is ridiculous. Welcome back to Cody! What are you doing here? This is an amazing party. Stupid Cody.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Pastor Steven's a little bitter about bringing Cody back to work with us. Cody's not a real person, by the way. Yeah, I heard a story this week about uh a pastor who was uh counseling a man who was struggling with bitterness, and uh the man came to the pastor with all these grudges that he was holding and was struggling to overcome the bitterness, and so the pastor uh gave him uh a task, gave him some homework to do. The pastor said, I want you to get an empty backpack, and I want you to wear this backpack 24-7, you know, except when you're showering and sleeping and whatever, but I want you to wear this backpack all the time. And whenever someone hurts you, whenever you want to be bitter and hold a grudge, I want you to put a brick in the backpack. And a couple weeks later, the man came back to the pastor for uh some more counseling, another session, and he came in, hunched over, and he said to the pastor, I'm exhausted. This backpack is so heavy. And the pastor asked the man, Well, how many bricks are in your backpack? And the man said, Well, I stopped counting a long time ago. And the pastor said, Well, that's funny because all the people that hurt you stopped thinking about it a long time ago. You should really let it go. You see, bitterness weighs us down like a backpack full of bricks. We said from this pulpit recently on the topic of bitterness that being bitter and harboring bitterness in your heart, it's kind of like drinking poison and hoping that it hurts someone else. Bitterness just weighs you down. It just holds you back, it just hurts you, it just eats away at you on the inside. You see, many of us here this morning we're harboring some bitterness and we want freedom from bitterness. But this morning, whether you want freedom from bitterness or not, all of us need freedom from bitterness, but the question is, how do we get it? How exactly do we experience freedom from the bitterness that's holding us back and weighing us down? Well, there's good news from God's Word this morning about how to experience freedom from bitterness. So I hope you brought your Bibles with you. I hope you've got something to take notes with this morning. And if you haven't already, turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 15. Luke chapter 15, as we discuss freedom from bitterness. Oxford Campus, this morning, we are continuing our parables sermon series, including today, five more Sundays in the parables series, and then after that it's Easter. Easter will be upon us very quickly. But more timely of an update is this. Today we are studying part two of two in the parable of the prodigal son. Last week we studied the younger brother, and today we're studying the older brother. Now, if you look throughout our parables series, most Sundays in the series, we've taken one parable at a time. There have been a handful of Sundays when we studied two parables on the same Sunday. But this is the first, and it will be the only time when we've taken a parable and broken it up into two Sundays. The parable of the prodigal son that's so dense and there's so much going on in the parable that we've broken it up into two parts. Last Sunday was part one. If you missed it, you can catch the recording on our website. But today is part two. The older brother, the older son, who's bitter and teaches us a lot about freedom from bitterness. Now you'll remember from last week that in Luke chapter 15, Jesus is in the middle of his final journey to Jerusalem. It's an 11-chapter journey, if you will. It's from Luke chapter 9 to Luke chapter 19. Jesus is journeying from Galilee in the north down to the city of Jerusalem, in the southern region of Judea. In Luke 15, he's probably in the region of Perea, east of the Jordan, as he's making his way down to Jerusalem. Jesus in Luke 15, he's speaking publicly to a large crowd. And among the crowd are some scribes and Pharisees. Now it's really important that we take Luke 15 as kind of a whole unit, as one big speech, because it is. In Luke 15, there are three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. But really it's one big speech, one big unit, as Jesus addresses the crowd, but specifically addresses the scribes and the Pharisees. If you'll remember from last week, what prompted Jesus to tell these three parables is Luke chapter 15, verses 1 and 2. Among the people in the large crowd gathered there in Perea are some scribes and the Pharisees, and in verses 1 and 2, it tells us that the scribes and the Pharisees they were grumbling because sinners were coming to Jesus. May that never be the case here. May we never grumble about sinners coming to Jesus. But in verses 1 and 2, some scribes and Pharisees were grumbling about sinners coming to Jesus, and Jesus is like, Let me tell you a story. And he talks about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Last week was the younger son, today is the older son. Last week was the younger brother, today is the older brother. And the title of our message today kind of gives it away. It's kind of a spoiler. The older brother, he's not happy that his younger brother's home. He's bitter. And today we learn a lot from the younger brother about how to experience freedom from bitterness. And so, Oxford Campus, if you're taking notes this morning, let's dive in. Number one on your notes is this. Number one, re-evaluate your personal knowledge of God. If you want freedom from bitterness, then you might need to re-evaluate your personal knowledge of God. Look with me in verses 25 through 27 of Luke chapter 15. In verse 25, it says that the older brother, the older son, he's hard at work in the field. Now we've already said that for the most part, the older brother today, he's going to be a bad example for us. We're going to learn a lot about what not to do from the older brother today. But the older brother, the older son, he's not completely void of admirable characteristics. There's a few good things about him. And in verse 25, we see one of those things, his work ethic. The older brother was hard at work in the field. All of us should be hard at work, especially young men like the older brother. Young men should be hard at work, not sitting on the couch dependent on someone else. And this is a good example for us about being hard at work in the field. Now, the older brother, he's kind of done with his work day. He starts heading back to his father's house. And as he approaches his father's house, he hears music and dancing. It's kind of like if you were approaching Brownwood Square or Lake Sumter Square any night of the week, you would hear music and dancing. Now the difference is when you approach one of these villages' squares in the evening, there's music and dancing 365 days a year. That's pretty normal. In this passage, it's very abnormal. In fact, we don't know for sure, but I bet it's unprecedented. I bet it's never happened before. The older brother is approaching his father's house and he hears music and dancing, and he thinks to himself, What is this? What is going on? And so in verse 26, the older brother he calls to himself one of his father's servants, and he says, What is this music and dancing? He says, What does this all mean? See, this is the first knowledge gap we see in the older brother. He simply has an awareness issue. He doesn't know that his younger brother has come home. He doesn't know that a party is being thrown. He has a knowledge gap, an awareness issue, and that's in verse 26. But his knowledge gap in verse 27 actually gets worse. It gets bigger. In verse 27 of Luke 15, the servant responds to the older brother. And in his response, check this out, in verse 27, there's a comma that changes everything. Watch this. In verse 27, the servant says to the older brother, Your younger brother has come home. Comma. Now, before that, comma, here's what I imagine the older brother doing. I imagine the older brother hearing this news, and he thinks to himself, finally, I knew my younger brother would come home. And he's got this sinister grin, and if he's not carrying any tools back to his father's house from his work day, maybe he's rubbing his hands together and he's thinking, finally, my younger brother came home and he's gonna get what's coming for him. My dad's gonna punish him. But the servant says, Your younger brother has come home, comma, and your father received him safe and sound and killed the fattened calf. You can just imagine the older brother going from this sinister attitude of his to just absolute shock. My dad did what? My dad received him safe and sound and killed the fattened calf. You see, the older brother he thought, he thought he knew the heart of his father toward his younger brother, but he had no idea. His knowledge gap was so much bigger than an awareness issue in verse 26. He didn't know his younger brother had come home, but he kind of expected his younger brother to come home eventually. And then verse 26, or in verse 27, that is, when his younger brother finally came home, the older brother thought he knew exactly what would happen, but he had no idea how much his father loved his younger brother. A lot of my afternoons and evenings recently have been consumed by uh little house projects. You guys know that three weeks ago we we moved into a new house in Wildwood, and I've just been hanging curtain rods and doing all kinds of different stuff in the house. And when it comes to house projects, there's there's three categories of house projects for me, okay? There's the projects that I know I can do myself, I'm confident. There's the projects I know I cannot do myself, and I have to ask for some help. Some of you have come over and helped me with some house projects. And then there's that third category of project, the the projects I think I can do myself because I'm stubborn, and then I get halfway through and I realize I'm in over my head. Okay, I had one of those projects on Friday. On Friday, I was installing a motion-activated light switch in my garage because I just kept waking up in the morning and realizing my garage light had been on all night. Anyways, trying to get ahead of the problem. So I take the I take the manual switch out of the wall. There's a bunch of wires coming out of the wall, and I turn the breaker off beforehand. Don't worry. I know a little bit about electricity. And so I take the manual switch out, and then I've got all these wires coming out of the wall, and then I take the motion sensor switch out of the package, and I've got wires out of the wall, wires coming out of the motion switch in my hand, and I'm like, these don't match. Okay, there's there's a bunch of two black wires and a white wire, silver and red coming out of the wall, and then there's silver and black and green and white, and it doesn't go together. And so uh before I set my house on fire, I I called my dad. Okay, my dad is an electrical engineer by trade. He he just he lives for these phone calls, okay? And so I called dad and I was like, hey, I know you've told me dozens of times over the years, but just remind me again what the red wire does and what the black wire does. And with dad on speakerphone, we uh and Hannah had to I had to call in all the troops. And with Hannah in the garage too, we got the we got the motion sensor light working, and I'm I'm pleased to report that it works today, and my house did not catch on fire the past 48 hours. But I really had to, I had to, in that moment, reevaluate my personal knowledge of electrical wiring and call my father. And in a similar way, the older brother, he had to re-evaluate his personal knowledge of his father. He thought he knew how his father would respond when his younger brother came home, but he had no idea how much his father loved his younger brother. And I wonder about you this morning. I wonder if you need to re-evaluate your personal knowledge of God. I wonder if you are bitter towards someone else and you are seeking solidarity with the Lord. Here's what I mean. I wonder if you're talking to God and saying, God, that person hurt us so badly, right? And God, we're never gonna forgive that person, right? And God's saying to you, wrong. They did hurt me pretty badly, but I'm gonna forgive them. And you should too. You see, here's the thing: just like us, God can be hurt by sin. In many ways, God is hurt more by sin than we are. But unlike us, God is incapable of being bitter. Because God always forgives quickly. And we should too. And so maybe you need to reevaluate your personal knowledge of God this morning and not only reevaluate your personal knowledge of Him, but do a better job of emulating his heart toward other people. God always forgives and he always does it quickly. We should always forgive and we should always do it quickly. Now, that phrase, forgive and forget. Oh, I wish it were true. I wish it were possible. We can forgive, we can never forget, but we can forget and move on. We can forget and let it go. Would you do that today? Reevaluate your personal knowledge of God. Hey, Oxford Campus number two on your notes is this. Number two, be enthusiastic about the blessings of others. If you want freedom from bitterness, then you've got to be enthusiastic about the blessings of others. Look with me in verse 28. This is a dense verse. There's a lot packed in verse 28 of Luke chapter 15. The older brother, he gets to respond to the servant. The servant just told him, Your younger brother has come home. Your father received him safe and sound and killed the fattened calf. And in verse 28, the older brother gets to respond. And the older brother says, Well, praise the Lord. I'm so happy. I'm going to go into the party right now and find my younger brother and give him a big hug. That's not what verse 28 says, though, is it? You see, what the older brother does in verse 28 is he he breaks the pattern of Luke 15 up to this point. Remember, Luke 15 is kind of one big unit, one big speech. And when the shepherd finds the lost sheep, the shepherd rejoices and throws a party. And when the woman finds the lost coin, the woman rejoices and throws a party. And when the father, when his youngest son comes home, the father rejoices and throws a party. And then word gets around to the older brother. And what does the older brother do? Well, he doesn't rejoice and throws a party, and throw a party. Verse 28, the older brother is angry.

unknown 18:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

How bitter do you have to be to be angry about the repentance of your younger brother? The bitterness in the heart of the older brother was so deep-seated that when his younger brother finally came home, and his younger brother had a heart of repentance, and the father had a heart of restoration, the older brother wasn't happy, he wasn't rejoicing, he was angry. How sad is that? He was angry, and verse 28, he refused to go into the party. Now this seems insignificant to us, but it wasn't very significant back then. Back then, the older brother really should have had a role in the party. The older brother should have been the first one to hear about the party. He should have been helping plan the party. He should have been the first one to show up to welcome guests, but he was none of those things. He didn't know the party was happening. He was the last one to show up, the last one to be invited, and then he declined the invitation. This was very significant in those days. And so what does the father do? Verse 28, the father leaves the party to go looking for his older brother. The father leaves the party to go looking for his oldest son. Now, here's the thing, Oxford Campus, this is really, really cool and really important. Who was truly lost in the parable of the prodigal son? The younger brother or the older brother? Watch this pattern. In the beginning of Luke 15, when the shepherd lost his sheep, the shepherd went looking for the sheep. When the woman lost a coin, the woman went looking for the coin. Watch this. When the father lost his youngest son, the father did not go into the far country looking for his youngest son. The father waited for his youngest son to come home. But when the father could not find his oldest son in the party, the father didn't stay in the party waiting for his oldest son to join the party. The father left the party looking for his oldest son. Who do you think was really lost in the prodigal son parable? Maybe it was the older brother. Because he refused to be enthusiastic about the blessings of others. He refused to be enthusiastic about the blessings that his younger brother was receiving. You see, Oxford Campus, our our natural inclination, our sinful inclination is this. We want to celebrate the failures of others, and we want to mourn the successes of others. That's our natural inclination, isn't it? Here's what I mean by that. When someone else succeeds, our natural inclination is to say, Well, that's really nice, but I wish it was me. And when someone else fails or falls, our natural inclination is to say, Well, that's sad, but at least it wasn't me. But God is calling us to turn that natural inclination upside down. God is calling us instead to celebrate the successes of others and mourn the failures of others. That works on a micro level, on an individual level. It works on a macro level, on a church level, and here's how. When one of your brothers or sisters experiences A victory in their spiritual life, in their finances, in their health, in their family, in their relationships. It's up to you to celebrate that. To celebrate the successes of others and the blessings of others. And likewise, when one of your brothers or sisters experiences a failure or a fall in one of those areas, it's up to you and me to mourn with that brother or sister. It works on an individual level. It also works on a church level. Check this out. You know that at First Baptist Leesburg, we are one church in four locations across Central Florida. Oxford campus is one of four locations, one of four campuses at our church. And when one of our other three campuses, South or Village Park or downtown, when one of our other three campuses experiences a victory, someone coming to Christ, someone getting baptized, new members, good giving, good attendance, new building, new staff, whatever it may be, what we should not do at Oxford campus is say, well, I wish God would do that here. And that's not fair. We've never gotten one of those. That's not how we operate at First Baptist Leesburg. When one of our other campuses wins, we win. Because we're one church. When one of our other campuses falls or fails, we fall and we fail because we're one church. That's how this works as a multi-site church. It works on an individual level. You should celebrate the successes and mourn the failures of your brothers and sisters. It works on a church level. We should celebrate the successes and mourn the failures of our other campuses. That's how this works. We should be enthusiastic about the blessings of others. Oxford campus, the last thing I'll say about enthusiasm is this. Enthusiasm is free of charge. It costs you nothing to be enthusiastic. Did you know that? We have some hopes and dreams for this campus and for our church at large that costs some money, and we're grateful for your giving. But here's the thing enthusiasm, it's free. We can start today. It costs us nothing. And if these two things are true, if God is moving at Oxford campus, which he is, and if enthusiasm is free, which it is, then there is no excuse for Oxford campus to be unenthused. We should be the most enthusiastic group of people on the planet. All it takes to be enthusiastic is a mind shift and a heart change, and we can be enthusiastic about the blessings of others. The older brother was not, but we certainly can be. It's all about him. If you have a pen and you're able to write in your Bible, you might even underline or circle those pronouns. I, I, me, I, my. He's talking about himself. He's not thinking at all about his father. He's not thinking at all about his younger brother. He's thinking all about himself. Notice in the beginning of verse 29 how the older brother says to his father, he says, For years I have served you. The older brother, he's been harboring this bitterness in his heart for years. Remember in verses 18 and 19 of Luke 15, we talked about it last week, when the younger brother in verse 17, he had an epiphany. He came to himself, a Holy Spirit epiphany, he came to himself, and then in verses 18 and 19, he was rehearsing his speech that he would say to his dad when he came home. The younger brother in verses 18 and 19, he rehearsed his speech for a couple of days, and then he went home to his dad. In verse 29, the older brother, he's been rehearsing his bitter speech for years. He's been holding this in for years, and it's all coming out in verse 29. He goes on to say, I've served you for years and I've never disobeyed you. No way. I don't know about you with your kids or your grandkids, but if one of my kids comes to me and says, Dad, I want some ice cream, I have never disobeyed you. Uh-huh. Like, I got some good kids, but there's no way they've never disobeyed me. In verse 29, this is an exaggeration. This is this is a lie that can't be true. I've never disobeyed you. The older brother says, You've never done so much for me as given me a goat, much less a fattened calf. But you did this for my younger brother. I want a party so that I can celebrate with my friends. Ouch. The older brother is bitter because he's never had a party, but he says, The reason I want a party, dad, is not so I can hang out with you, but so I can hang out with my friends. How insulting is that. It's kind of like last week when we talked about the younger brother, he asked for his third of the inheritance, and it was kind of like looking at his father and saying, I wish you were dead. In verse 29, the older brother has a similar moment when he looks at his dad and says, You've never thrown me a party, but whenever you decide to throw me a party, it's not because I want to hang out with you, it's because I want to hang out with my friends. So insulting. The older brother has been rehearsing his slights, rehearsing his offenses for years, and it's all coming out in verse 29. You know, I've got uh you guys know about my kids. They're four, three, and two, and I enjoy uh watching my kids develop and learn new words and new phrases and new conversational skills. But if you if you talk to my kids much, they're they're over in the lighthouse right now. If you talk to my kids much, one of the things they like to do is they um they like to tell you about their injuries, okay? Unprompted, they'll just tell you about it. And thankfully no one's been seriously injured, it's just like skinned knee or whatever, but they'll they'll tell you about their injuries just because they haven't seen you before or they haven't seen you in a while. And uh so gunner, he's two years old, and he's recently he um, this is like three months ago, uh he dropped something on his toe and it it like hurt him pretty bad. His toe turned purple, okay? And so he was telling everybody about his purple toe. But the way, um all three of my kids will do this, the way that they'll tell you about one of their injuries is they'll walk up to you and say, Hey, yesterday I dropped something on my toe, and now I have a purple toe. And I have to explain to the other person, well, first of all, it wasn't yesterday, it was three months ago. Second of all, his toe's not purple anymore, he's okay. But they love telling you about their injuries, and when they do, they always start it with yesterday, and no matter when it happened. Now, I tell you that silly story about my kids, that's a true story, by the way. But I tell you that silly story about my kids because isn't that what we do? Don't we rehearse our slights over and over again in our minds for years? Maybe we'll even tell them to somebody who will listen. And what it does when we rehearse our slights over and over again, it makes it feel like somebody hurt us yesterday, when it was years ago. And the person that hurt us, they may not even realize they hurt us. Or if even if they realize it, they've they've stopped thinking about it a long time ago, but we still think about it every day. We rehearse it over and over again in our minds, and it makes it feel like yesterday, when it was years ago. Would you let it go? Would you let it go today? A backpack full of bricks, it weighs you down. But there's nothing stopping you from taking the backpack off and removing all the bricks. Would you let it go today? Honestly, be slow to rehearse your slides. There's really no pace at which rehearsing your slides is helpful to you. I would advise you to just stop. Stop rehearsing your slides. Take the bricks out of the backpack and let it go. Stop rehearsing your slides. Hey, Oxford Campus number four on your notes is this. Number four, resist focusing on the failures of others. If you want freedom from bitterness in Oxford Campus, we have to resist focusing on the faults and the failures of other people. Look with me in verse 30 of Luke chapter 15. We're still in the section of Luke 15 in the section of the parable where the older son, the older brother, is responding to his father. Verses 29 and 30 is where the older brother talks. And in verse 30, the older brother continues talking to his father. And he said that, hey, you know, you've never thrown me a party, but for this uh for this son of yours, who devoured all of your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf. Notice a few things in verse 30. First of all, the older brother, he's so bitter and so angry, he can't even call his younger brother by name or by status. He can't call his younger brother by name, and he can't even call him my younger brother. He says to his biological father about his biological brother, that son of yours, in verse 30. So bitter. He goes on to say that that son of yours, my younger brother, devoured all your property with prostitutes. Now, unlike verse 29, this actually is not an exaggeration. In verse 29, the older brother said, I've never disobeyed you. He probably has. But in verse 30, he says, Your youngest son devoured all your property with prostitutes. That's actually true. We know from verses 11 through 24 that the youngest son took a third of the estate, liquidated it into cash, took all the cash to the far country, and spent it all on debauchery. That's actually true, that he devoured all the property with prostitutes. Now, one preacher I listened to this week, he comically remarks about verse 30, he says, How does the older brother know about the prostitutes? Maybe the older brother's not as pure and innocent as we think. That's just speculation. He devoured all your property with prostitutes, and you killed the fattened calf for him. He was focusing on the faults of his younger brother. Now, here's the thing: Oxford campus, there's a leadership principle that prayerfully I would love for us to apply at this campus, and it's this. It's our job as Christians to love people for the best things about them. Let me say that again. It's our job as Christians to love people for the best things about them. What our instinct is, we want to hate people for the worst things about them. Or we want to be annoyed with people for the weird things about them. That's not our job as Christians. Our job as Christians is to love people for the best things about them. And here's how that works. You know, I'm not perfect. I have some faults, but I'm asking that you would love me for the best things about me. I don't know if anyone's told you this lately. You're not perfect either. But as one of your pastors, I'm gonna do my best job to love you for the best things about you. And I'm asking that you would do that for each other. That you would love each other for the best things about one another. We've all got faults, we've all got quirks, but we've all got some spiritual gifts that by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord has placed in our hearts. There are some good things about each and every one of us by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it's our job. They will know us by our love, John 13. It's our job to love each other for the best things about one another. Don't hate each other for the worst things about one another. Don't be annoyed with each other for the weird things about one another. Love each other for the best things about one another. You're not as bad as you are on your worst day, and you're not as good as you are on your best day. Love each other for the best things about one another. Oxford Campus, we already do a really good job of that. I'm really proud of you guys and the way that you resist focusing on the faults of others. But I tell you something, the enemy does not like what God is doing here. And the enemy is going to try to sow discord among us at Oxford campus in the months and the years ahead. We're not gonna let him. Because by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will resist focusing on the faults of others. We will resist focusing on the faults of one another, and we will love each other for the best things about one another. That's how we're gonna move forward as a campus, and that's how we're gonna find freedom from bitterness. Oxford campus, you're doing a great job. Number five, last one on your notes is this ask God for wider eyes to his goodness. If you want freedom from bitterness, then you might need to ask God for wider eyes to his goodness. There's a well-known Baptist preacher, many of you may have heard of him before, Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon is, he's gone to heaven, he's famously quoted as saying this where eyes have not yet been opened, I ask that God would open them. And where eyes have already been opened, I ask that God would open them wider unto his goodness. Quote Charles Spurgeon. Look with me in verses 31 and 32 of Matthew, excuse me, of Luke chapter 15, the last two verses of our passage today. The father gets to respond to his oldest son. The father gets to respond to the older brother. And look what he says. In verse 31, he says, You have always been with me. Everything I have is yours. I find it interesting at the beginning of verse 31 how the father chooses to say, You've always been with me. You know, the father representing God, I often think about God's presence in terms of God is with me or God will be with me. I seldom think about it in terms of I'm with God. Think about the end of Matthew chapter 28, where Christ gives the great commission. Jesus says, Go therefore, make disciples, baptize, and teach, and behold, I will be with you until the end of the age. But here in Luke 15, 31, the father felt like his oldest son needed to hear this truth that not only had the father always been with his oldest son, but his oldest son had always been with the father. That's what he says to him. And then he says this he says, All that I have is yours. That's actually literally a true statement. Remember what the younger son did? There's only two sons in the story, in the parable of the prodigal son. And the younger son, in verses 11 through 24, he asked for his third of the father's inheritance, and he spent it all in the far country. The other two-thirds belongs to the older son, to the older brother. And right now, at this point in verse 31, all that's left of the father's estate is the two-thirds that belongs to the oldest son, to the older brother. And so in verse 31, when the father says to his oldest son, All that I have is yours, he means it. All he's got belongs to his oldest son when he passes away. You see, the father's goodness was all around the oldest son, was all around the older brother. He was right in front of the older brother. His eyes just were not open wide enough to see it. Hey, have you ever, you probably haven't noticed this before, but have you ever noticed on the roads out here in Central Florida, have you ever noticed how many red cars are on the roads? You ever noticed that before? I bet you'll notice it today on your way from Oxford campus to lunch, how many red cars there are on the road, because we've planted that seed in your mind now. But I bet you've never noticed it before. I bet you have noticed the total quantity of cars on the road and how many cars there are of all kinds of colors and how bad the traffic is and how how jammed up a particular intersection is now, and it didn't used to be that way. But I bet you've noticed, never noticed how many red cars are on the roads. Really, the the color is arbitrary, Oxford campus. Yellow cars, green cars, blue cars. It doesn't matter. The principle is this: you see what you're looking for. And if you leave here today, driving home or driving to lunch, and you're looking for red cars on the roads, you're gonna see a lot of red cars because they're all over the place. We don't need more red cars on the roads, you just need to open your eyes wider and look for them. The same is true in verse 31, and the same is true of us today. We don't need God to be more good to us. God has been so good to us. God has been too good to us. As we talked about last week, his grace is extravagance. We just need him to open our eyes wider to his goodness. That was true of the older brother, that's true of us today. Oxford Campus, we're finishing our Bible study here in verse 32, where the father uses some language that he used back in verse 24. In verse 32, the father looks at his older son, at the older brother, and he says, Check this out, your younger brother was lost, and now he's found. He was dead, now he's alive. In verse 24, the father says these phrases to his servants when he calls his servants to himself and says, My youngest son has come home, he's lost, now he's found, he's dead, now he's alive. Let's throw a party. But here he is in verse 32, talking to his oldest son, who is so bitter. And he says those phrases to his oldest son. In Oxford campus, then the story ends. Jesus was a great storyteller, a great teacher. He was more than that. He was the Son of God, he's our savior, but he was a great storyteller and a great teacher. And here in verse 32, we have a strategic cliffhanger. We don't know what the older brother does. We don't know if the older brother goes into the party and humbles himself and welcomes his younger brother home, or if the older brother wanders off into the far country himself. We don't know. But Christ employs this strategic cliffhanger on purpose because he wants you and he wants me to think about how our story ends. We may not know how the story of the older brother ends, but we can know how our story ends if we believe in Jesus. You see, here's the thing, Oxrocampus, in verse 32, the son, the younger son, was dead, and now he's alive. And the father, he chose to celebrate the new life of his younger son by killing the fattened calf. Track with me for a minute. Way back in Genesis chapter 3, when Adam and Eve they sinned for the first time. Some of you who've been around Christianity for a while, you've read your Bible a few times, you remember this story. When Adam and Eve sinned for the first time, they made for themselves coverings out of fig leaves because they were naked and ashamed. And then in Genesis 3, 21, the Lord God came walking through the garden and he said, Those fig leaves are not good enough. And God killed an animal, the first time death ever took place in our universe. God killed an animal and he made for Adam and Eve coverings out of animal skins. The only proper and sufficient covering for the nakedness of Adam and Eve was the death of something else. In Luke chapter 15, the only proper and sufficient celebration for the new life of the younger son and the younger brother was the death of something else. The fattened calf. You seeing a pattern here? Oxford campus, Christian brothers and sisters, we have new life. We have life abundantly, we have life eternally. But the only reason we have new life is because someone else died. And his name is Jesus. Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ lived the life that you and I could never live. He lived a perfect life. And it was his perfect life that qualified him to die the death that you and I deserve. He died in our place. But he didn't stay dead on the third day. He rose again from the dead, defeating death once and for all, so that anyone who repents of their sins and believes in Jesus can be saved. The only proper and sufficient covering for Adam and Eve's sin was the death of something else. The only proper and sufficient celebration for the new life of the younger son was the death of the fattened calf. The only reason you and I have new life today is because Christ died in our place. And we may not know how the older brother's story ends, but if you believe in Jesus, then you can rest assured how your story will end. You'll be in a party in heaven forever. But hey, as we close our time of Bible study today, maybe you're here today and you're you're not a Christian. Can I tell you something? I'm really, really glad that you're here. God has you here for a reason this morning. And hey, as our as our praise to you. Comes back up to lead us in one more song of worship. Let me tell you what's about to happen. If you're in the room today and you're not a Christian and you know you're not a Christian, you've been listening in on this Bible study for Christians and you're saying, Pastor Garrett, I don't need freedom from bitterness. I need freedom from brokenness. My heart is broken, my life is broken, and I'm finally realizing that it's all rooted in my broken relationship with God. And I'm ready to make it right through Christ. Hey, if that's you today, if you're not a Christian, but you're ready to make today the day of your salvation, let me tell you what's about to happen. In just a moment, I'm going to pray to close our time of Bible study. And when I say amen, I would invite everyone in the room to remain seated, to sing and pray and reflect right where you are, with one exception. If you're that person who's ready to place your faith in Jesus today, then as we sing, I would invite you to walk forward. Several members of our team, myself included, will be standing across the front. And we would love nothing more than to talk and pray with you today about placing your faith in Jesus. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, God, we love you and we praise you. God, I pray for my Christian brothers and sisters, for anybody in the room today that's harboring bitterness in their hearts. God, would you give them freedom from that bitterness? You've given us a blueprint to experience freedom from bitterness right here in Luke 15. And God, I pray that we would leave this place and follow that blueprint that you've given us. But God, I pray for that person in the room today who's not a Christian. And they know they're not a Christian. God, they don't need freedom from bitterness. They need freedom from brokenness. And that freedom can only be found in Christ. So, God, I pray that they'd find it today. I pray that they'd walk the aisle and talk to one of our pastors and pray to receive Jesus today. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.