SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Be seated, please.
SPEAKER_02: It's great to be here today.
SPEAKER_02: I've known your pastor for almost 30 years.
SPEAKER_02: I knew him when he had hair, and he could stuff a basketball right in the loop.
SPEAKER_02: You know, he's something else.
SPEAKER_02: So uh dunk a basketball.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we go back a long way.
SPEAKER_02: I'm delighted and honored that he'd asked me to come and preach today.
SPEAKER_02: Um it's great living back here.
SPEAKER_02: Tell you a little bit about myself.
SPEAKER_02: Uh my wife and I, uh this coming May 29th, we'll have been married 60 years.
SPEAKER_02: So I've been married, I've been married to the I've been married for 60 years to the same woman.
SPEAKER_02: So uh, and somehow she's put up with me all these years.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we have three children and seven grandchildren.
SPEAKER_02: Our children are all involved in the ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, our two sons, both in ministry, and our daughter is married to a pastor.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we have seven grandchildren.
SPEAKER_02: Uh the oldest of those is in missions in South Asia, and she's expecting our first great-grandchild.
SPEAKER_02: So God has blessed me in just so many ways, uh, my family, and uh I'm just delighted to be here today.
SPEAKER_02: And God is good.
SPEAKER_02: Keep trusting him.
SPEAKER_02: No matter what's going on in your life today, no matter what the circumstances are, God's not finished with you yet.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I'd like to, thank you.
SPEAKER_02: I'd like to uh speak today on Luke chapter 15, if you want to look there.
SPEAKER_02: Um, Jesus loved to teach in parables, tell stories, but his stories were meant to do much more than entertain.
SPEAKER_02: They were meant to enlighten, to communicate truth, and truth that would fit into our lives somewhere.
SPEAKER_02: So he expected those listening to pick up something of truth that fit directly into their lives.
SPEAKER_02: And these parables that we look at today were spoken because Jesus had critics.
SPEAKER_02: Any of y'all have any critics today?
SPEAKER_02: Somebody you know kind of after you?
SPEAKER_02: Well, the way to stay away from criticism is simply don't ever do anything.
SPEAKER_02: Don't be significant, don't take any risks, and nobody will bother you.
SPEAKER_02: But do something, and you're gonna have some critics, and Jesus had plenty of critics.
SPEAKER_02: And so we read about this starting in Luke chapter 15, there in verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: So tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to Jesus to listen to him teach.
SPEAKER_02: And this made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was spending so much time associating with these notorious sinners.
SPEAKER_02: He was friends with them, even eating with them.
SPEAKER_02: So they they really didn't like this.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't understand.
SPEAKER_02: You see, these critics, their brand of religion created superiority, spiritual pride.
SPEAKER_02: They thought because they were so correct in their keeping of religious law and traditions that they had the right to despise people, look down on those that were not like them.
SPEAKER_02: And so I think they had lost touch with the reality of their own lives and their own problems and their own sinfulness.
SPEAKER_02: And the way you can do this is by ignoring your heart.
SPEAKER_02: You just look at externals and look at the things you can do that you think are right, and so that kind of blows you up with this spiritual pride.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus frustrated them to death because he intentionally associated with sinful people.
SPEAKER_02: He felt this was his mission.
SPEAKER_02: This is why the Father has sent me into the world, not to, you know, keep myself away from needy people, but to be intentional in building relationships with them.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus saw sinners as loved by God, but caught in their sin.
SPEAKER_02: And so he had this mission to touch everyday people, ordinary people.
SPEAKER_02: Look at the disciples, the followers of Jesus, and you see that they were not the up-the-up people of that day.
SPEAKER_02: They were not powerful politically or educationally.
SPEAKER_02: They were common everyday people, and Jesus spent time with them.
SPEAKER_02: And so I think they sensed we matter to Jesus, not because he cut them any slack morally, but because he loved them.
SPEAKER_02: He cared about them.
SPEAKER_02: How did they know this?
SPEAKER_02: Well, he lived where they lived.
SPEAKER_02: You know, he would spend the night in a fisherman's house there in Capernaum.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, when he called his disciples, you know, they were ordinary people, uh, many of them with some pretty bad problems.
SPEAKER_02: He had a nickname for James and John.
SPEAKER_02: He called them sons of thunder because they had such bad tempers.
SPEAKER_02: And so when we look at Jesus and we think about these followers of his being saints, I don't think they thought that.
SPEAKER_02: I think they were just like you and me, except Jesus made this incredible difference in their life.
SPEAKER_02: And he associated with the people, he was living with them, and they had access to him.
SPEAKER_02: He was approachable.
SPEAKER_02: He was approachable by the lowest of the low and the sickest of the sick.
SPEAKER_02: And he didn't charge them anything.
SPEAKER_02: He said, didn't they come in here and this, you know, pay this, pay that.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't live in a headquarters somewhere, real fancy, a mansion or something.
SPEAKER_02: He was like them, lowered himself because of who he was, but that's not the way he thought.
SPEAKER_02: He loved these people.
SPEAKER_02: He cared about them.
SPEAKER_02: And so they believed him because of his investment in them.
SPEAKER_02: But he had these critics, and so he told these stories.
SPEAKER_02: And these stories he told, remember, not to be entertaining, but enlightening.
SPEAKER_02: And so he wants these critics to understand his mission.
SPEAKER_02: And he actually cares about them.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I think, you know, we don't care about our critics.
SPEAKER_02: We just want to prove them wrong.
SPEAKER_02: No, I think something deeper than that's going on here.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is seeking to minister to these critics as well in these stories that he tells.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, you know, I've come to seek and save the lost.
SPEAKER_02: That's my mission.
SPEAKER_02: He said, healthy people don't need a doctor.
SPEAKER_02: Sick people do.
SPEAKER_02: I've not come to call those who think they're righteous, but those who know they are sinners.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't really have any trouble recognizing that I'm sinful.
SPEAKER_02: The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_02: On the doorposts of the homes, uh, there would be what's called the Shema, or hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.
SPEAKER_02: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_02: Every time they go in and out of the house, they would touch that verse of scripture on the doorpost.
SPEAKER_02: And so, I don't know about you, but sometimes I love myself and stuff that I like more than I love the kingdom of God and the things.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody else have a problem with that?
SPEAKER_02: Or are you, you know, you're not like me?
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I don't love my neighbor as I love myself.
SPEAKER_02: Frequently I don't.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the second commandment.
SPEAKER_02: And so all of us struggle following the teachings that are there because by nature, by fallen nature, we, you know, you don't have to practice to be a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: Did you ever figure that out?
SPEAKER_02: Just kind of comes natural, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus says, this is why I've come to reach out to you in the midst of your need.
SPEAKER_02: Because all of us are in desperate need of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus was the personification of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: God's unmerited, undeserved favor.
SPEAKER_02: I think another thing about sin that we need to realize is that sin is not just the sinful things that we think, sing, or say, or do.
SPEAKER_02: Sin is a condition of the heart.
SPEAKER_02: It's about who we are deep within.
SPEAKER_02: And Jeremiah the prophet said it like this: He said, the human heart is the most deceitful of all things.
SPEAKER_02: The human heart is a great pretender.
SPEAKER_02: We're good at putting on fronts and not really dealing with the truth in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: The human heart is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.
SPEAKER_02: We're capable of great harm.
SPEAKER_02: And so God wants to change that.
SPEAKER_02: God wants to redirect us.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to rebirth us.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus' critics didn't take the time to examine their hearts, they just looked at the surface.
SPEAKER_02: And he was trying to get them to kind of cross that bridge into touching the heart and not just being so full of this spiritual pride that is so deadly.
SPEAKER_02: And so he answered his critics with three stories or parables about the importance of lost things.
SPEAKER_02: And so he tells these three stories to lead them in step by step to seeing the truth.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't just start with a big picture, he starts a little smaller and goes there.
SPEAKER_02: The first story he tells about the value of something lost, he talks about sheep.
SPEAKER_02: A lost sheep.
SPEAKER_02: So he's asking them the question: does one lost sheep matter?
SPEAKER_02: Does it have worth?
SPEAKER_02: Is it important?
SPEAKER_02: He says, as a shepherd, he's got a hundred sheep.
SPEAKER_02: And 99 of them are fine.
SPEAKER_02: But one of them is lost.
SPEAKER_02: One of them has strayed.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I went to John chapter 10, and John chapter 10 is where Jesus called himself the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, I'm the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_02: My sheep hear my voice, and they know me and follow me, and I give them eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: They will never perish.
SPEAKER_02: They know my voice and they follow me, and I call them by name.
SPEAKER_02: So from that I take, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02: Shepherds called sheep by names.
SPEAKER_02: Sheep recognized the voice of a shepherd.
SPEAKER_02: You see, there would be sheep in a sheep pen corral from many different shepherds.
SPEAKER_02: So the shepherd would go and would call his sheep.
SPEAKER_02: They would recognize his sound of his voice and their name, and they would follow him.
SPEAKER_02: Also discovered that sheep aren't driven like cattle, they're led.
SPEAKER_02: The shepherd walks in front of them and they follow behind.
SPEAKER_02: And so it's easy for sheep to get distracted and wander away and go off in a direction or get left behind because they're not paying attention.
SPEAKER_02: And so, is the one a value?
SPEAKER_02: Or do you say, no, I've got 99?
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't really matter.
SPEAKER_02: Does a lost sheep matter?
SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't think these religious teachers were shepherds because shepherds were the poorest of the poor, but they knew about sheep.
SPEAKER_02: And they would agree, sure, he should get the lost sheep.
SPEAKER_02: That's a good idea.
SPEAKER_02: They'd go along with that.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Jesus scores one.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus scores one.
SPEAKER_02: What does he say there?
SPEAKER_02: He ends with a point this way.
SPEAKER_02: He says, when the shepherd found the sheep, he said, Rejoice with me, because I found my lost sheep.
SPEAKER_02: I tell you, in the same way, there'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: That's where he's going.
SPEAKER_02: You know, lost things matter.
SPEAKER_02: A lost sheep matters.
SPEAKER_02: And in heaven, when a lost sinner comes home, the angels throw a party.
SPEAKER_02: So he moves on from sheep.
SPEAKER_02: The second thing he talks about is money.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a lady, and she has ten silver coins, and each one is worth a day's wage.
SPEAKER_02: And she loses one of the coins.
SPEAKER_02: And so he says, Is this important?
SPEAKER_02: Does she care about this?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, Of course she does.
SPEAKER_02: What does she do?
SPEAKER_02: She sweeps the floor, lights a lamp, sweeps the floor until she can find it.
SPEAKER_02: And when she finds it, there's a celebration.
SPEAKER_02: She says, Rejoice with me.
SPEAKER_02: I found my lost coin.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus then says, the point.
SPEAKER_02: In the same way, there's joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents.
SPEAKER_02: Where's Jesus taking them?
SPEAKER_02: He's taking them to the final story that's the real big one that he's telling.
SPEAKER_02: He moves from sheep to money to people.
SPEAKER_02: Now he's going to ask them, does one lost person matter?
SPEAKER_02: You know, today there have been hundreds of people here in the three services.
SPEAKER_02: And I think what God would say to us through the scripture is, if there's only one person here today that is separated from God and lost, and living out that life, not knowing there's hope, not knowing that God cares or that they matter, that he wants to say, yes, even if there's only one, that one matters.
SPEAKER_02: And today, if you're that lost one, yes.
SPEAKER_02: This scripture is saying that you individually matter to God.
SPEAKER_02: You matter to God.
SPEAKER_02: That's where he's going.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_02: So he moves on to the third story, which is the big one, about lost people.
SPEAKER_02: Does a lost person matter?
SPEAKER_02: And so there are three people in this parable that are crucially important.
SPEAKER_02: There is the wealthy father, a landowner, and he has two troubled sons.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: The younger son is angry and rebellious, and he's a risk taker.
SPEAKER_02: He's a person of action.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's the older brother, and he's very angry, but he's compliant, and he plays it safe.
SPEAKER_02: And we see this worked out in the story.
SPEAKER_02: So here's the story, beginning at verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: To illustrate the point further, why Jesus eats with the notorious sinners, Jesus told them this story.
SPEAKER_02: A man had two sons.
SPEAKER_02: The younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate right now, before you die.
SPEAKER_02: So his father agreed to divide the wealth between his sons.
SPEAKER_02: Now at this point, Jesus critics are very upset.
SPEAKER_02: They're thinking, why would he give this young man his share of the estate?
SPEAKER_02: This isn't done.
SPEAKER_02: You don't, you know, disperse the goods of an estate until a person dies, until the owner dies, until the father dies.
SPEAKER_02: And so what this this young son is totally disrespecting his father.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, I'm not, I don't want to wait until you die, I want it now.
SPEAKER_02: So what he's really saying is, I wish you were dead.
SPEAKER_02: That's just the way it is.
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, he's angry, he's rebellious, he's a risk taker.
SPEAKER_02: And I think he's pretty surprised that his dad says, okay, son, that's what you want.
SPEAKER_02: There's no love or devotion in this young man's heart.
SPEAKER_02: He isn't interested in the things that his father has tried to teach him.
SPEAKER_02: He isn't interested in the great commandment of loving God or his word or the commands.
SPEAKER_02: All he sees is restrictions, limitations, cutting off his freedom to do as he pleases.
SPEAKER_02: And he wants gone, he wants away from that restrictive culture.
SPEAKER_02: And he wants to go and try out what he's heard about that he's never seen.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to go to a pagan city and a pagan culture and live the unlimited, unrestricted life.
SPEAKER_02: And he's thinking this is where it is, this is where the action is, this is where the true excitement is.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to be limited.
SPEAKER_02: And so you could say he has a noseful of the teachings about God, about goodness, about obedience.
SPEAKER_02: And so I think we could safely say their relationship is in ruins.
SPEAKER_02: In ruins.
SPEAKER_02: And so we could ask with the critics, why would the father give him the money?
SPEAKER_02: Why would he do what he says?
SPEAKER_02: As I think about this, I think there's a possibility, a strong one.
SPEAKER_02: That the father recognizes his son is very distant and unresponsive.
SPEAKER_02: And he's not going to get anywhere by another rebuke.
SPEAKER_02: And I think he's willing to suffer the pain, endure the pain of rejected love.
SPEAKER_02: And he's saying, the young man, if he's going to come around, he's going to have to taste what is out there.
SPEAKER_02: And I pray that what is there will end up breaking his heart so that he comes back.
SPEAKER_02: That's the way I see it.
SPEAKER_02: And so he gives him his share, and it doesn't take long.
SPEAKER_02: The next thing we read is that a few days later, this younger son packed up all his belongings.
SPEAKER_02: Packed it up.
SPEAKER_02: And took off.
SPEAKER_02: Moved to a distant land.
SPEAKER_02: And there he wasted all his money and wild living.
SPEAKER_02: Now there's a lot said in that sentence.
SPEAKER_02: Not a lot of elaboration.
SPEAKER_02: Don't think you really need it.
SPEAKER_02: He moved to a distant land, a far country, probably went to the coast where there would be a seaport with all the temptations for sailors, all the wildlife that you could imagine.
SPEAKER_02: And so a place like today we would think of Bourbon Street or the strip in Las Vegas or wherever else, a place where, you know, you can go there and nobody will ever remember what you've done, and you can pretend you're somebody else than you really are.
SPEAKER_02: And so this is what's in his mind, and that's where he goes, somewhere with no moral restraints.
SPEAKER_02: And we're told that he very quickly wasted his money in wild living.
SPEAKER_02: I think this teaches us something important, and it's that lust knows no limits.
SPEAKER_02: And lust doesn't plan ahead.
SPEAKER_02: Lust only thinks about now.
SPEAKER_02: Lust doesn't look long term and where this could lead and who could be hurt and how they could be hurt.
SPEAKER_02: It's just a matter of satisfying yourself right now.
SPEAKER_02: You know, obviously, this young son has never heard that great philosopher Mick Jagger who said, I can't get no satisfaction.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think he learned that in a hurry.
SPEAKER_02: You're supposed to laugh at that.
SPEAKER_02: The other crowd laughed at that.
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, that this lifestyle quickly emptied his pockets and his heart.
SPEAKER_02: And what he thought was exciting and enticing, he quickly discovered was empty.
SPEAKER_02: Not only were his pockets emptied, but his heart was emptied.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't find anything that he thought he was going to find.
SPEAKER_02: And what was once attractive and enticing became a specter that haunted him.
SPEAKER_02: And so we read what happens next?
SPEAKER_02: Things he didn't plan.
SPEAKER_02: Things he wasn't ready for.
SPEAKER_02: When he'd blown all his money, those friends were gone.
SPEAKER_02: And bad times came.
SPEAKER_02: About that time his money ran out, and a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
SPEAKER_02: He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
SPEAKER_02: The young man became so hungry that even the seed pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him.
SPEAKER_02: But no one gave him anything.
SPEAKER_02: Anything.
SPEAKER_02: So he came to the end of his resources.
SPEAKER_02: He came to the end of his expectations.
SPEAKER_02: And he came to the end of these new people that were supposed to be friends.
SPEAKER_02: No one offered him anything.
SPEAKER_02: I think at this point he started to think about home again.
SPEAKER_02: Wasn't as bad as he thought it was.
SPEAKER_02: He began to look at home and see some things that he didn't notice before.
SPEAKER_02: He's hungry, he's starving, and he thinks, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02: My father treats the laborers, the hired people, with dignity and respect.
SPEAKER_02: He feeds them well.
SPEAKER_02: And they not only have enough to eat, but they have it left over.
SPEAKER_02: And here I am, you know, starving.
SPEAKER_02: What am I thinking?
SPEAKER_02: What am I doing?
SPEAKER_02: And so his money ran out, a great family swept over the land, and he's feeding pigs.
SPEAKER_02: And he remembers home in a different way.
SPEAKER_02: Way.
SPEAKER_02: But can you go home when you've made such a mess of things?
SPEAKER_02: When you've burned bridges and you've said things you weren't sure you should ever say, and you've communicated something so very hurtful.
SPEAKER_02: Are you welcome at home?
SPEAKER_02: Can you go home?
SPEAKER_02: Has his father cut him off now?
SPEAKER_02: Has his father forgotten about him now?
SPEAKER_02: Has he drawn a line in the sand?
SPEAKER_02: No, don't bother crossing it.
SPEAKER_02: You're dead to me.
SPEAKER_02: What's his father going to treat him like?
SPEAKER_02: I think the greatest sin of the young man wasn't the waste of money or the immorality.
SPEAKER_02: It was the broken relationship with his father.
SPEAKER_02: And so now he's about to make a great mistake.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, a great decision to go home.
SPEAKER_02: To go home.
SPEAKER_02: Risking, will my father take me back?
SPEAKER_02: And he reaches the conclusion, maybe he'll take me back as a hired hand, not a son.
SPEAKER_02: And so the scripture says next, when he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, at home, notice he's talking to himself.
SPEAKER_02: Before, I don't think he bothered to do that.
SPEAKER_02: He just had appetites and he thought about those and that was it.
SPEAKER_02: But now he's coming to his senses and he's talking to himself and saying, At home, even the hired servants have enough food to spare.
SPEAKER_02: Here I am dying of hunger.
SPEAKER_02: I will go home to my father, and I'm going to tell him what's happening inside of me.
SPEAKER_02: I've sinned against both heaven.
SPEAKER_02: I've sinned against God.
SPEAKER_02: I've broken the commands.
SPEAKER_02: And I've sinned against you, Father.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm no longer worthy of being called your son.
SPEAKER_02: Please take me on as a hired servant.
SPEAKER_02: So I think at this point we should ask, he came to his senses.
SPEAKER_02: What happened?
SPEAKER_02: How do we come to our senses?
SPEAKER_02: How does God work?
SPEAKER_02: You know, was it just his circumstances?
SPEAKER_02: Was it just the pain of being hungry?
SPEAKER_02: Of not having, you know, basic food?
SPEAKER_02: Hungry to the point of pain?
SPEAKER_02: Is it just his circumstances?
SPEAKER_02: I certainly think God uses circumstances to teach us a great deal, to bring us to the end of ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: But I think what really happens here is what the Bible calls conviction.
SPEAKER_02: Conviction.
SPEAKER_02: He comes under conviction.
SPEAKER_02: I think the Holy Spirit surprises him with what could be called a holy ambush.
SPEAKER_02: You know, every good cowboy movie has an ambush.
SPEAKER_02: At least one.
SPEAKER_02: And I think at this point the Holy Spirit sneaks up on this young man and surprises him and begins to open a door for him to see his way back to God.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus taught us about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: He said, when the Holy Spirit comes, when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and the coming judgment.
SPEAKER_02: So this is a good thing.
SPEAKER_02: It isn't a slam-the-door condemnation.
SPEAKER_02: The conviction is to lead us to repentance.
SPEAKER_02: The convention is a prelude to hope.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus taught in John chapter 3, humans can only reproduce only human life.
SPEAKER_02: But the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.
SPEAKER_02: So when the Holy Spirit convicts us, he's leading us toward spiritual life, which we've been ignoring and denying.
SPEAKER_02: Just living out our appetites.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus goes on to say, don't be surprised when I say you must be born spiritually, born again, born from above.
SPEAKER_02: The wind blows wherever it wants, just as you can hear the wind, but can't tell where it comes from or where it's going.
SPEAKER_02: So you can't humanly explain how people are born of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: It's a God thing, it's what God does.
SPEAKER_02: So I think this young man is ambushed by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And this spiritual birth is awaiting him.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus also taught us, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you.
SPEAKER_02: He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth.
SPEAKER_02: So Jesus has a personal name for the Holy Spirit, advocate.
SPEAKER_02: And it's a rich word.
SPEAKER_02: Could be translated helper, comforter, encourager, counselor.
SPEAKER_02: Could also be translated lawyer, but that seems a stretch today.
SPEAKER_02: But the lawyer, our advocate lawyer, to bring us before God.
SPEAKER_02: What I see is as our advocate, the Holy Spirit brings us to God the Father and says, look what I found.
SPEAKER_02: Look what I found.
SPEAKER_02: A lost sinner who's repented, who's been born again, born of the Spirit, washed in the blood of the Lamb, sins forgiven, never to be remembered.
SPEAKER_02: Look what I found.
SPEAKER_02: So I believe the Holy Spirit, like the wind blows, can blow into our lives and into our soul, into our spirit, and cause us to begin considering things we never ever considered before.
SPEAKER_02: How do you recognize when the Holy Spirit starts blowing into your life?
SPEAKER_02: Here are some things I think might help.
SPEAKER_02: Ways to recognize the Holy Spirit when he's at work.
SPEAKER_02: I think a window to your soul begins to open.
SPEAKER_02: You start to see spiritually.
SPEAKER_02: And an inventory kind of begins within.
SPEAKER_02: You begin to see things you've never seen before.
SPEAKER_02: You begin to seek truth.
SPEAKER_02: He's the Spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_02: So he's going to tell you the truth about the Father in heaven, but also about you.
SPEAKER_02: I think we begin to seek truth and we become teachable.
SPEAKER_02: We become hungry for the truth the Spirit wants to show us.
SPEAKER_02: And we actually become correctable.
SPEAKER_02: Because when you only want your own way, you aren't seeking correction.
SPEAKER_02: You're just seeking freedom to do as you please.
SPEAKER_02: I think also you humble yourself, you experience brokenness, you stop making excuses, blaming others or bad breaks.
SPEAKER_02: That's always the easy way out.
SPEAKER_02: Bad circumstances, I'll blame somebody else.
SPEAKER_02: And I think also we stop calling poor choices as mistakes.
SPEAKER_02: Instead, we call them sin.
SPEAKER_02: We begin to see poor choices as sin, not just mistakes.
SPEAKER_02: And we very badly want to make things right somehow.
SPEAKER_02: We want things to get moved in a brand new direction, a right direction.
SPEAKER_02: And it is a wonderful thing to come under conviction.
SPEAKER_02: It's the most wonderful thing in the world.
SPEAKER_02: When suddenly, in the midst of your selfishness, God steps up and says, wait a minute, you've had enough of self, and I'm ready to begin a new life in you.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're under conviction today, no matter what it is, it is a blessing.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a curse.
SPEAKER_02: It's a doorway, not a slammed door.
SPEAKER_02: I think this young son coming home, he's had enough of what the world offered.
SPEAKER_02: He found out what it really is like.
SPEAKER_02: And his selfish choice has never produced anything beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: I think it's important to see that.
SPEAKER_02: When we follow God, beautiful things happen in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: You wait for the person who truly loves you in God.
SPEAKER_02: That's something beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: But if you settle for cheap love, it'll always be cheap.
SPEAKER_02: It'll never be more than that.
SPEAKER_02: But God wants to give us a love that is beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: And he wants us to experience that.
SPEAKER_02: And so I think this son, he's had enough of the ugly of the world.
SPEAKER_02: You know, lust and greed never have a happy ending.
SPEAKER_02: Now he's realized that.
SPEAKER_02: His greed over getting all the money, his lust to go out and do things that were supposed to be, you know, happy and exciting and they weren't.
SPEAKER_02: He recognizes that his sin is against God.
SPEAKER_02: He's broken the commands he was taught.
SPEAKER_02: But it's personal.
SPEAKER_02: He hasn't just broken laws.
SPEAKER_02: He's broken trust.
SPEAKER_02: He's forsaken his heritage.
SPEAKER_02: Everything he was ever taught about what is right and good and true.
SPEAKER_02: He's left it behind.
SPEAKER_02: He sinned against God.
SPEAKER_02: And he hasn't found freedom.
SPEAKER_02: He's found slavery.
SPEAKER_02: I think he's realizing this.
SPEAKER_02: And it's a blessing.
SPEAKER_02: He also says, I've sinned against my father.
SPEAKER_02: I've sinned against people.
SPEAKER_02: I've hurt people, and I've hurt the people who love me the most.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's devastating.
SPEAKER_02: So, boy, he is ready to go home, but he's not sure what he's going to get.
SPEAKER_02: So we're told, so he returned home to his father.
SPEAKER_02: He packed up again, but he didn't have anything to pack.
SPEAKER_02: He just went home in rags and filth, walking down that trail, wondering what would await him.
SPEAKER_02: And what kind of welcome does he get?
SPEAKER_02: You know, for 14 years we had a beautiful little Maltese dog weighed six pounds.
SPEAKER_02: The terror of our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_02: She owned everything on that block.
SPEAKER_02: Walk her down that block.
SPEAKER_02: If anything was out of place, boy, she'd let you know about it.
SPEAKER_02: Dearest little dog, Neil told you how old I was.
SPEAKER_02: I had a hip replaced several years ago.
SPEAKER_02: When I came home from the hospital, that dog would not leave my side on the side where the hip was fixed.
SPEAKER_02: They just seemed to know something.
SPEAKER_02: That dog was determined to comfort me.
SPEAKER_02: But what she was the best at was welcoming you home.
SPEAKER_02: If you'd been gone, she was ready for you to come home.
SPEAKER_02: She'd hear the garage door opener, and she'd go to that door, and she'd start barking a certain kind of bark that was a happy bark, saying, Get in here.
SPEAKER_02: And we'd go in those the door and she would start dancing.
SPEAKER_02: You talk about a welcome.
SPEAKER_02: It was a dancing welcome.
SPEAKER_02: She would spin countless circles.
SPEAKER_02: She's just so happy she couldn't stop moving, jumping and spinning circles at the same time.
SPEAKER_02: And then she'd stop, and that meant, pick me up so I can lick your face.
SPEAKER_02: Pick me up so I can lick your face.
SPEAKER_02: Tell you, that dog taught me something about unconditional love.
SPEAKER_02: I came to this conclusion.
SPEAKER_02: If I was just half the person that dog thought I was, I'd be something.
SPEAKER_02: So what kind of welcome is awaiting this young man?
SPEAKER_02: While he was still a long way off coming down the trail, his father saw him coming and filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
SPEAKER_02: And his son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and you I'm no longer worthy of being called your son.
SPEAKER_02: And he started to say, Just make me one of your hired men, but he couldn't get the words out.
SPEAKER_02: Because his father would have none of it.
SPEAKER_02: His father said to the servants, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house.
SPEAKER_02: And that meant one out of his closet.
SPEAKER_02: Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him.
SPEAKER_02: Get a ring for his fingers, sandals for his feet, kill the calf we've been fattening.
SPEAKER_02: We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has come to life.
SPEAKER_02: He was lost, but now he is found.
SPEAKER_02: Let the party begin.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus pointed to those critics.
SPEAKER_02: Lost people matter.
SPEAKER_02: And when they come home to the Father, there's a party in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And you need to join the party and see the value of lost people.
SPEAKER_02: I think sometimes as Christians, we look at lost people and we think they should value what we value.
SPEAKER_02: And that's crazy.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're only going to love people who think like you think, you're not going to love a lot of people that are lost.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus really loved lost people.
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't take people long to figure out you don't like them and you think you're better.
SPEAKER_02: God help us from that.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus is reaching out to these critics and saying, Hey, the Father has love that is lavish.
SPEAKER_02: The Father didn't say to the son, where have you been?
SPEAKER_02: What have you done?
SPEAKER_02: I told you so.
SPEAKER_02: There's none of that.
SPEAKER_02: It's a celebration.
SPEAKER_02: God's love for sinners is lavish and sacrificial.
SPEAKER_02: He bestows favor on the undeserving, those who have nothing to offer Him but empty hands, helpless.
SPEAKER_02: God's love is not based on how attractive an object is or a person is.
SPEAKER_02: God doesn't love us because we're good or talented or have a great intellect or wonderful talent.
SPEAKER_02: He loves us because he loves us.
SPEAKER_02: And he is merciful and he is compassionate.
SPEAKER_02: It is who he is in himself.
SPEAKER_02: And that is what is transforming.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing we can do to take credit for God's grace in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It is a gift.
SPEAKER_02: A gift.
SPEAKER_02: But sadly, the older brother was not glad to see him.
SPEAKER_02: Now Jesus is really talking to these critics now.
SPEAKER_02: They are the older brother.
SPEAKER_02: Says, you are you like the older brother?
SPEAKER_02: The older brother, you see, when he heard the noise of the party and the news that his brother, his wayward brother, had come home, he wouldn't go in.
SPEAKER_02: He was angry.
SPEAKER_02: Why would there be a party?
SPEAKER_02: He should be shunned.
SPEAKER_02: He should be rejected.
SPEAKER_02: He should be put somewhere out back.
SPEAKER_02: He's not a son.
SPEAKER_02: There's no party.
SPEAKER_02: So his father goes out to talk him into coming inside.
SPEAKER_02: And he won't go.
SPEAKER_02: And he not only won't go, he tells his father off.
SPEAKER_02: He says, All these years I've worked so hard for you, and you never gave me anything for a party with my friends.
SPEAKER_02: You know, he worked hard, but his work was toxic, poisonous.
SPEAKER_02: Because he did not work out of devotion or love.
SPEAKER_02: He worked for himself.
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't a risk taker.
SPEAKER_02: He played it safe, and so he just would stay home until his father died and then get it all.
SPEAKER_02: And so he would have nothing to do with a wayward brother.
SPEAKER_02: But the father said to him, Look, dear son, you've always stayed by me.
SPEAKER_02: Everything I have is yours.
SPEAKER_02: We had to celebrate this happy day.
SPEAKER_02: For your brother was dead and he's come back to life.
SPEAKER_02: He was lost, but now he is found.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus' self-righteous critics had the opportunity to see a great truth.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah?
SPEAKER_02: Lost sheep matter.
SPEAKER_02: A lost coin matters.
SPEAKER_02: But does a lost person matter?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says they matter.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why I spend time with them.
SPEAKER_02: You might ask, why didn't the Father go search for the Son?
SPEAKER_02: Why did he wait at home?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think it's because God calls us, He doesn't coerce us.
SPEAKER_02: He sends the Holy Spirit, that C.S.
SPEAKER_02: Lewis called the hound of heaven, who sniffs us out.
SPEAKER_02: He's on our track, he's on our trail.
SPEAKER_02: And he's relentless.
SPEAKER_02: He won't give up.
SPEAKER_02: And so he's going to stay after us until we surrender, until we come to an ending so Jesus can begin.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say this again.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to be a world-class sinner like the Wavered Sun.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to throw away all your money and commit all kinds of immorality.
SPEAKER_02: You can just be the everyday, ordinary, selfish person.
SPEAKER_02: Ordinary sinner.
SPEAKER_02: Who hasn't ranked up there with the big bad sins?
SPEAKER_02: But you can still just be as lost as you could be in terms of the reality of what God wants to happen in your life in terms of a heart-to-heart relationship.
SPEAKER_02: So what's keeping you from returning home to the Father?
SPEAKER_02: That's why Jesus came.
SPEAKER_02: When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
SPEAKER_02: So he came not only to be friends with sinners, but to die for them.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why we can come home.
SPEAKER_02: What else needs to happen in your life before you would come home?
SPEAKER_02: Worth asking.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Father in heaven, I just pray that the Holy Spirit would be free to move in this place today and touch every one of our hearts according to our deepest needs.
SPEAKER_02: If it's to come home to you, if it's to go and make things right in a relationship, if it's to start loving lost people instead of judging them.
SPEAKER_02: God do a work in our hearts today.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Some points on the screen for worship, reflection.
SPEAKER_02: Please look at those.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for listening to me today.
SPEAKER_02: God bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And this Tuesday, I'll be teaching about the one thing your wife wishes you were better at.
SPEAKER_01: The one thing, not the five, the one thing your wife wishes you were better at.
SPEAKER_01: It's free.
SPEAKER_01: If you can join us, I'd love for you to come.
SPEAKER_01: Let me remind you of one other thing that happens here this week.
SPEAKER_01: Our midweek meal.
SPEAKER_01: We have midweek classes on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to our church, uh you'd like to jump in.
SPEAKER_01: Each week is a different topic on, I mean a different expression of the same topic they've been going on, so you wouldn't be behind or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But we have a midweek meal that happens right here in this room where we start serving at 5 45.
SPEAKER_01: We stop serving at 6 30 so you can get to class.
SPEAKER_01: Uh this week we're having Chick-fil-A, uh nuggets, and sandwiches.
SPEAKER_01: And if you'd like to join us, it's five hours a person, a maximum of$20 uh for the entire family.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great opportunity to meet people, experience community, and then head off to class.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so you can register online if you have any questions about that.
SPEAKER_01: The restaurant in the lobby for the women's weekend, uh, starting today and online.
SPEAKER_01: Let me before we're we're uh dismissed, let me uh explain what you see hanging from the ceiling.
SPEAKER_01: Uh these are decorations that are left over from night to shine.
SPEAKER_01: We may have some pictures we'll put up on the screen of that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Friday night we had a party, uh, night to shine, but we partnered with the Tim Tebow Foundation, and we just held the spotlight on some people that don't get the spotlight on them enough.
SPEAKER_01: Um, especially these people in our in our city and the surrounding areas.
SPEAKER_01: This room was packed, the fellowship hall was a dance floor, we had a respite area out in the warehouse uh for all the parents.
SPEAKER_01: And so we had over 200 volunteers from our church help pull it off.
SPEAKER_01: But the people that drove the bus were a lady named Sherry Elder and a man by the name of Wade Burgess.
SPEAKER_01: So if you see them, please be sure to express some gratitude to them.
SPEAKER_01: They did an incredible job.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just left them up in the past and this morning ended with a party we thought it'd be appropriate.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so we'll get them down sometime this week.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to close our service with a spoken blessing to stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out like you're receiving something.
SPEAKER_01: Because your God is the God who leaves religious people and looks for lost people and loves them when he finds them.
SPEAKER_01: Leave your religious comfort zones.
SPEAKER_01: Look around and love what you see.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.