WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:01.679 Well, welcome to Redeemer. 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:03.200 My name is Russ Masterson. 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:04.080 I am the pastor here. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:10.400 It's been a few weeks since I have been here and gotten to preach and teach, and so I'm excited to be back. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:16.320 Excited to have you guys here, whether you're here sitting with us, or we have a live stream going beginning this week. 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:17.519 It's our first week doing that. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:20.239 It was not part of the vision of our church, mind you. 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:40.399 Don't know if my face needs me on the internet, but we're there for you that are watching at home, and we're so excited that if you can't be here with us on Sunday morning, that you are here with us Sunday morning, even though perhaps you're sitting on your couch or your recliner and more comfortable than those of us that are here. 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:42.159 But we're one church. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:56.960 We were one church when we were some of us watching the service that had been pre-recorded, and then some of us here, and then some of us listening to podcasts, and we're still one church as we're beginning this live stream to serve you and uh serve our people well. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:00:57.840 So it's there. 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:01.920 So three announcements to just get us started, uh just kind of church-wide announcements. 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:06.640 Uh the first is this that we had been sending out a weekly email to remind you to sign up for this. 00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:10.560 You signed up to get here to make sure we don't overflow, we don't have to reject people. 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:12.319 Um, that's not what we want to do. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:16.640 But we're not going to be sending that weekly email anymore as a reminder. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:18.000 You still need to sign up. 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:24.400 You need to go to our website and go through the process of signing up just like you have been for the past month or so. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:26.959 Uh, but we're not sending the weekly reminder. 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:32.799 You'll we're converting back to just the monthly email coming about the first week or so of each month. 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:37.040 So you just have to remember if you want to come to church, you need to go to the website, you need to sign up. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:39.519 So that's still the process, you just won't get the reminder. 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:42.400 Uh the live stream's going on, that was number two, already covered that. 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:55.760 Number three is this Wednesday night, our elders will be meeting to pray and discern and talk and decide what church will look like for us this next season. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:58.400 So please, please, please uh pray for us. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:05.359 Uh we need it in that conversation as we discern and pray and hopefully move in wisdom. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:07.040 So I'm rested. 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:13.439 I do feel rested and sort of like recharged up to like do this another year, um which is always a good feeling. 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:18.159 Um, but I'm also tired, um tired in in certain ways. 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:21.199 Like I kind of call it like corona adjustments. 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.479 Like you're just constantly adjusting. 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:33.680 Everything's constantly adjusting, your schedule's adjusting, school is adjusting, um, socially, like social adjustments, right? 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:40.560 Like air fives and elbow touches and uh the corona shuffle, um, right? 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:52.960 You see somebody and you're shuffling because they moved too close, or you didn't realize you were closer, and then they shuffle around, and there's just that adjustments, constant, constant adjustments. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:54.319 And those are tiring. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.800 These schedule adjustments, social life adjustments. 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:05.840 I don't know if you've been on a family vacation with extended family, lots of adjustments, constant adjustments, and all that can be tiring. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:07.199 It can be tiring. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:08.800 Maybe you know what I'm talking about. 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:11.280 Life can be tiring in that way. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:13.280 And we can even get tired of church. 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:15.039 I don't know if you've ever been tired of church. 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:15.919 I can get tired of church. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:17.199 I mean, church can get tiring. 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:21.199 Uh people in the church, not you, not you, not me, right? 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:22.240 Just other people, right? 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:23.599 The other ones. 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:25.439 Um, that can get tiring. 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:30.719 Church with mask on can get tiring, um, but that's not gonna go away anytime soon. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:34.879 Um we're gonna do it, but it's it's tiring. 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:47.680 Uh this week, what I was reminded of as I was driving to get my hair cut, where I gave a you know, air high five and lots of shuffling around the barber shop to get in the right spot and adjustments being made everywhere. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:04:01.280 I was reminded on the way there, I was listening to a sermon of the preacher I like to listen to, a guy named Paul Walker up in Charlottesville, Virginia, and he was just laying on, laying on the love of God to me, to you. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:05.120 And I thought, man, I get tired of a lot. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:17.040 Like I can get tired of church, I can get tired of people, I can get tired of adjustments, I can get tired of all these surprises we keep getting, but I I just I never get tired of Jesus. 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:23.680 I just never get tired of the person and the work of Christ for me. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:27.040 And we're gonna talk about that this morning. 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:39.040 So, this fall, we're gonna take three weeks with the prodigal son, next three weeks, and we're gonna talk about humility and grief and hope. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:43.120 And then we're gonna go through the book of Hebrews, it'll get us to Advent. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:51.600 Advent's the season before Christmas, and then we're gonna work the season going to Christmas, and then we're gonna have Christmas, and then a vaccine's gonna come out, and we're all gonna hug a lot, right? 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:54.720 Like that's the schedule for us for the future. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:58.959 So the prodigal son is where we're gonna start these next three weeks. 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:13.199 And so the prodigal son, during my sabbatical, I was contemplating this prodigal son's story, and I want to use the story's launch points to talk about humility and grief and hope, because I think that fits into a lot of what's going on for most of us these days. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:18.560 You remember the story, family, two sons, younger son asked the dad for his share of the inheritance. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:20.240 Seems like a pretty wealthy dad. 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:21.360 Wealthy family. 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:26.319 The father says, okay, would have been a would have been a bit of a hit to the dad. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:31.199 For the son to ask for the inheritance, ask for his money while the dad's still alive. 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:32.399 Dad does it. 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:35.279 Son runs off, takes the money, runs off. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:44.560 You remember the story, runs off to a foreign land, a far-off country, he's in that far-off country, and he is spending the money and he's partying, he's having he's having a he's having a good time. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:46.079 He's really going for it. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:59.120 Then the money runs out, the parties run out, so the friends run out, and before long, you remember the story, he's working on a farm, he's so poor, he's so hungry that he longs for the food that the pigs eat. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:06.160 And then Luke 15 says, as he's feeling the weight, the weight of all those mistakes, right? 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:13.519 Like the weight of all that shame, of that narrative and storyline of stuff he's done. 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:15.680 He remembers his dad. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:18.959 It says this in Luke 15, verses 20 through 24. 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:21.680 And he arose and came to his father. 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:29.199 But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:34.560 And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven, and before you I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:47.920 But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:50.959 For this son was dead and is alive again. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:52.959 He was lost and is found. 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.279 And they begin to celebrate. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:57.519 So the father runs to him. 00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:03.600 No report needed, no shaming, just acceptance and a party, a party form. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:09.759 So how does the son get to the point to return? 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:11.600 Risking shame, right? 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:15.199 I mean, he's risking being shamed or condemned or having to work his way back in. 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:16.480 How does the son get to that point? 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:20.000 How does the father get to the point to resist a lecture? 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:21.759 I mean, I'm a dad. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:26.800 I love to double down on a good lecture while my children are not listening. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:29.120 I mean, every dad loves that moment, right? 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:31.040 So what's going on with the son? 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:33.839 What's going on with the father? 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:35.199 A few points. 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:39.439 Point number one is this is God can use disappointments to grant us humility. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:40.879 And that's good news, right? 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:42.399 Because we know disappointments. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:46.079 God can use disappointments to grant us humility. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:49.680 So in this story, certainly the father's disappointed when the child runs off. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:56.399 He's left waiting to embrace his son if his son comes back. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:59.279 If, if his son comes back. 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:02.079 Imagine if your child ran off. 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:07.199 You didn't know where they were, what was going on, and you're left wondering, you lost control. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:08.399 That's humbling. 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:10.319 You don't have any control anymore. 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:14.160 If the child comes back. 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:21.040 Maybe, like me, you you know this feeling in the last few weeks or the last few months of losing control. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:34.559 Maybe you've actually lost control on somebody, it's possible, or lost control in general, or maybe you just know the feeling that you thought you had control over certain things in your life, and then those things have been ripped away. 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:47.600 Because you thought you had control over your health, and then that didn't seem to be the way it worked out, or money, and that didn't seem, or schedule, or school, or travel, or some event you were looking forward to. 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:58.879 Life can be full of a lot of disappointments, and the lesson in it is always that we don't have as much control as we thought we did, and that's very humbling. 00:08:59.919 --> 00:09:04.559 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7 says this humble yourselves. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:16.000 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:31.519 So point number two coming out of that verse is this humility shows us our neediness, preparing us to receive the party of God's welcoming delight of us. 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:40.480 So humility is not just too, it's not a belittling, it's not a shaming, it's preparing us to receive the party. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:46.480 Verse 6, if we can nerd out just for a moment, let's nerd out on a couple words, key words. 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:49.039 Because our exaltation comes by humility. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:50.480 So let's let's learn these words. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.399 This word humble comes from the word tapa'ano. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:10:07.120 You don't have to say that, which means to assign a lower place, rank below others, to lower your opinion of yourself. 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:09.039 Oh wow. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:11.039 I mean, we all got opinions right now, right? 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:20.159 I mean, get me started on a few soapbox issues right now, and I'm ready to go, just like you're ready to go because you have a few opinions and a few soapboxes. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:23.679 And this says, no, no, no, humble yourselves below others. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:28.720 Just possibly you're wrong, just possibly I'm wrong, just possibly somebody else is right. 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:35.200 And even if you're right, humble yourself, lower your opinion of yourself. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:37.840 So this isn't a shaming. 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:41.279 We don't have a shame-based religion, it's not what this is. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:51.919 This is a freeing self-forgetfulness that you don't have to always be right, and you don't have to always be in control. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:11:03.120 Exaltation comes from the word huopsao, which means to be lifted up to honor and happiness. 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:05.039 Oh, we all want that part, right? 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:06.480 Like, that's the part we wanted. 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:08.639 Like that was the part of the verse that really jumped out, right? 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:10.080 Like, oh, he'll exalt me. 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:16.000 But the way that we are exalted to honor and happiness is by humility. 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:28.240 When we stop self-justifying, when we receive the party that is only given to us by humility under God's reign in your life, so you're not God in control of all things. 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:34.799 We're all learning that in this season, and that we're placed in a position that we are filled with anxieties. 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:36.879 Filled with them. 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:38.720 The sun ran off. 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:42.960 Imagine the amount of anxiety that this dad would have. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:48.320 Oh, you know it because you have your own anxieties based on the season that are just mounted up. 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:52.720 And this passage says, yeah, that is humbling. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:55.679 So cast all those anxieties. 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.399 Cast means to forcefully throw. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:05.039 Forcefully throw them on him, for he cares for you. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:07.840 This isn't an equation for prosperity. 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:08.639 It sounds like it. 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:12.480 I mean, it almost works out that way, but it's not like an equation, like a guarantee. 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:15.840 Like if you just do this every single day, everything will be okay. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:17.440 It's not going to work out that way. 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:32.080 But what it is, it's a description of what a humble relationship with God looks like and the trajectory it does move us in as we move in the freedom that God wants for our hearts. 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:38.720 I think this verse is also teaching us our calling into a contemplative life. 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:49.200 I think that could be one of the best things out of this whole corona pandemic could be for us to get and receive the calling of a contemplative life. 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:50.559 That's your calling. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:54.960 You are free in Christ, but you're not as free as God intends for you to be. 00:12:55.279 --> 00:13:01.200 And the freedom that God is calling you to move in, I guarantee you will have something to do with slowing down. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:06.240 Slowing down enough to cast all those anxieties on Him. 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:12.399 Not frantically speeding up like if you just catch up with the news enough, right? 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:24.639 Like just swipe to the right on your iPhone and read the headlines, and then all of a sudden the new headlines from today, you know, so drastically different from yesterday, all of a sudden that's going to give you that joy and peace your heart is forever longing for. 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:26.720 When has it ever worked out? 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:35.440 Frantically speeding up for more news or more information has never worked, and it will never work to satisfy your heart. 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.399 So I don't know what a contemplative life looks like for you. 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:39.039 I really don't. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:41.600 I don't think I could give that to you because I think we're all different. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:46.399 For Christie, it looks like really very early, early mornings. 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:47.759 Okay, so I'm still asleep. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:51.200 For me, it's more like a normal morning time for me. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.000 Also, for me, I can't watch the news. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.879 I have to have a very limited amount of news. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:13:59.039 I just can't handle it. 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:01.519 My heart can't handle it. 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:03.600 I have to come to grips with that. 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:05.519 I want to be informed after that. 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:09.600 I can't keep watching, I can't listen, I can't read, I can't deal with it. 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:11.360 Informed, but nothing more. 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:12.080 That's my heart. 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:14.240 Your heart may be different, but you've got to discern that out. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:19.120 What is a contemplative life of moving in the freedom Jesus wants for you look like? 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:20.879 I need to take walks. 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:22.559 Helps me slow down. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:24.960 I need to be with the Lord in nature. 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:26.320 That helps me. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:27.759 Helps me reconnect. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:30.960 It helps my heart to be walked back to the heart of God. 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:32.960 I need to listen to music. 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:34.720 I need to read his word. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:38.399 I need to hear the promises of God declared over me. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:39.919 And you have to figure that out. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.000 What does the contemplative life look like for you? 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:46.559 What a gift we have in these days where there's not as much stuff for us to do. 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:49.360 That perhaps we could begin to form that. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:57.279 And in that, what we're realizing is that we are already loved and we're already cared for. 00:14:57.840 --> 00:14:59.120 Last point, good news. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:11.919 Because as it turns out, even when you are told you should be humble, and I should be humble, and we know we should, because we know the benefit of which I've just kind of described for you, even when you know all of that, uh, we're not great at being humble. 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:21.519 So we need the last point here, and this is the humility, point number three, the humility of the father allows us to enter the party. 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:26.960 The father wraps his arms around the sun when the son returns and immediately returns. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:30.720 It's all returns almost as if there's no thought. 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:39.679 So automatic, so a part of the father's nature, and he says, We're throwing a party, slaughter that fattened calf. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:45.759 Priest and author Robert Capin, he said this parable is a festival of death. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:46.879 Right? 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.759 The son has to die to himself to return to the father. 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:53.200 The father has to die to himself to receive the son. 00:15:53.600 --> 00:16:00.159 And then the image of Christ in this story, Christ's work for us, is that the fattened calf was sacrificed. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:07.039 The fattened calf didn't even do anything, and the fattened calf is sacrificed to provide the party. 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:09.039 So the party can happen. 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:11.120 And this party's for you. 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:17.039 Enjoying the forgiveness we have in Jesus' death. 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:24.559 Incarnate God dying for us, humbling himself for us, that we will have forgiveness of all of our sin. 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:26.639 Any shame we have is taken care of. 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:27.919 Nothing to add. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:38.480 So that thing and that thought and that story and that thing that happened, you're trying to work your way back out of it or do enough good to make up for the bad, all of that has been taken care of in God's grace to you. 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:40.799 You're welcome into the party. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:45.440 What a party that is to have that forgiveness, to enjoy your forgiveness. 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:50.480 And the party is about this free righteousness given to you. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:59.759 That in Jesus, he takes all of your unrighteousness, you know, a little bit of good, a little bit of bad, and you know, a little bit of good and bad motives and behaviors, and all of that, that's up and down, all of that. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:02.960 He takes all of that kind of weighing out. 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:07.839 And he gives us the righteousness of himself, the righteousness of Jesus. 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:09.680 And so we're already righteous. 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:12.000 That's a party to enjoy. 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:17.200 That we're already righteous, and we don't have to wake up to prove it today. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:37.839 Now that's actually humbling to receive that, because what it means is you've given up thinking you're good enough to earn God's favor, to be better, more good than bad, and earn forgiveness, or be more righteous in order to be righteous enough, and you've given up the whole game to go into a party. 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:41.279 I mean, it's like walking into an ocean, right? 00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:43.359 Like you're not in control anymore. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:46.400 It's going to a party. 00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:48.400 This is the image for us this morning. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:56.079 It's going to a party, and you have nothing to do except to receive the party that's given for you. 00:17:57.759 --> 00:17:59.200 That's provided for you. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:12.720 The forgiveness of Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus for you, that God loves you, cares for you, calls for you to live a contemplative life, moving and growing in the freedom that we have in Jesus. 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:16.079 That is lavish love for us to enjoy. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:17.119 Let's pray. 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:26.799 God, thank you for your goodness to us, that you care for us and you call us to cast our anxieties on you. 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:31.839 And there is a party for us to enjoy. 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:43.359 A party in your grace where we are already forgiven and already righteous, and we get to rest and grow in your grace to honor you in Jesus' name. 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:44.160 Amen.