Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Raquel West: Please stand for our prayer of illumination.
Raquel West: Pray this prayer with me.
Raquel West: Guide us, O God, by your word and spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Raquel West: Amen.
Raquel West: You may stand.
Raquel West: Um, don't sit.
Raquel West: Today's scripture coming is coming from Luke 15.
Raquel West: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing nearer to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.
Raquel West: So he told them this parable.
Raquel West: And he said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of your property that is coming to me.
Raquel West: And he divided his property between them.
Raquel West: Not many days later the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
Raquel West: And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
Raquel West: So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs.
Raquel West: And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
Raquel West: But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger?
Raquel West: I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
Raquel West: Treat me as one of your hired servants.
Raquel West: And he arose and came to his father.
Raquel West: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Raquel West: And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Raquel West: But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and 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.
Raquel West: For this my son was dead and is alive again.
Raquel West: He was lost and is found.
Raquel West: And they began to celebrate.
Raquel West: 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.
Raquel West: And he said to him, Your brother is come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.
Raquel West: But he was angry and refused to go in.
Raquel West: His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you, and I have never disobeyed your command.
Raquel West: Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.
Raquel West: But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.
Raquel West: And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
Raquel West: It was fitting to celebrate and be glad.
Raquel West: For this, your brother was dead and is alive.
Raquel West: He was lost and is found.
Raquel West: This is God's word.
Raquel West: You may be seated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Thank you, Rocky.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That was a fitting reading of Luke 15.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a story of a young girl who lived on the edge of a forest, and she loved to wander in the forest until one day she got lost.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As it grew dark and the little girl did not come home, her parents grew worried and they began calling for her and searching the forest, but it grew late.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So they came home and they called their friends and their neighbors and they said, Hey, can you help us come and search for our little girl?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Meanwhile, the girl wandered around the forest and she became anxious as it grew dark because she could not find her way home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: She tried this path and then another and then another and became more and more exhausted until it got so dark that she came into a clearing in the forest and she found a big rock and she laid down next to it and fell asleep.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Her frantic parents and neighbors scoured the forest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They called her name and called her name, but to no avail.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, this experience of being lost is what the Bible calls the fundamental human condition.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Have you ever been lost?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Have you ever been so disoriented that you didn't know how to find your way home?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You know, all of us have this longing, this deep need to find a place where we can finally call home, a place that you don't deserve or earn, a place that you can come to where you are accepted despite deserving it and despite being impressive.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so this morning I have one point, which is only two words, but summarizes this whole sermon, and that is this come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not a command, but it is a plea.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I hope that if God pleases, you will hear the plea not just coming from me, but from him as well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if you have a Bible or a device or the worship guide, go ahead and get Luke chapter 15 in front of you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're gonna look at verse one here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm actually gonna walk through more of the text than was read this morning, but start with me at verse one as we see the setup to this parable.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Luke 15, verse 1 says this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So he told them this parable.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pause for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Who is them?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, in this little setup here, we see there's two groups of people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's the tax collectors and the scribes, and then there's the there's the fair, I'm sorry, there's the tax collectors and the sinners, and then there's the Pharisees and the scribes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You've got the the irreligious and the religious, you've got the insiders and the down and outs.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're they're both in the room, if you will.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus tells the parable, it says in verse 3, he told them this parable.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Notice that that that word, this parable, it's singular.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Commentators for thousands of years have pointed out that this story actually almost feels Trinitarian.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's one parable with three stories telling one message.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do the lost come home?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So let's look briefly at the first two stories, the the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin, before we really slow down on the lost sons.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at the lost sheep in verse four.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Notice the shepherd is not passive.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Instead, he goes after the one, he seeks, and I love this phrase, underline this if you will, until he finds it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a diligence, there's an unwillingness to give up here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 5, it says, and when he comes home, when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And when he, here's the main point of the sermon, comes home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Imagine being these friends and neighbors.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Would this feel like overkill?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Throwing a party over a lost sheep?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One out of a hundred, even at that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, look at verse 7.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Just so I tell you, there will be more joy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Somebody say, more joy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: More joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Jesus is not concerned about the fact that there is a joy that is disproportionate to the recovery.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is heaven like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's be biblical here for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Heaven throws parties over repentant sinners.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what heaven is like.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Again, I could spend more time, but let's look at the lost coin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 8 with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or what woman having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, do you assume that God is waiting for you to clean yourself up first?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or do you believe that God will sweep the house to look for you?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 9.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says, And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's just assume for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I think this is funny to think that the shepherd and the woman live in the same town.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The same friends and neighbors are like, for real again?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Another party?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Friends and neighbors now at another party because a coin came home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Jesus goes on in verse 10, just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Notice here, the Holy Spirit doesn't waste his breath.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at it, it says, notice the joy, it takes place in the presence of the angels.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not saying that the angels are the source of the joy, it's saying the joy happens in front of the angels in the heavenly courtroom.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's God's joy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God is the one rejoicing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So let's be biblical again here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Heaven is a world of joy, and God is the rejoicer in chief.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what the Bible says about heaven.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so as we turn now to the third story, traditionally called the parable of the prodigal son, you have to understand that prodigal means someone who is reckless or wasteful or extravagant in their spending.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And you see, up to this point, the shepherd lost one of his hundred sheep.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's only about a 1% of his assets.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The woman actually lost one of her ten coins.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's a little bit more.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's 10% of her assets.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's an intentional intensification happening in this moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're being primed when we get to this third story to ask the question: how much has the father lost?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, let's see.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 11.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You ever wonder why did the younger son leave?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We don't know.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But what we do know is that when he says, Give me my share, he's saying, You are worth more to me dead than alive.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Give me my part of the inheritance.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, this is really getting at the core of the human condition, which is that the root of all sin, the root of all going astray, is saying something to God like, I don't need you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I don't want you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now give me your stuff, but I'm gonna go my own way.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the Father grants the freedom to reject his love.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 12.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says, And he divided his property between them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is a principle throughout the story of Scripture that gives me great concern, and that is this God will give you what you most want.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God will give you what you most want.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's non-coercive in that way.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if you want a life of autonomy and self-definition and going your own way, he might just give it to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says, Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the far country always looks like freedom, but it's the kind of freedom a fish gets when it jumps out of the water and onto the dock.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the freedom of the far country.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the father knows this, but he lets the son go.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we see in verse 14, when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, what happens is sometimes it takes a famine to expose our false freedom.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in this moment, the father is teaching by taking away.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I know enough to know that he's doing that in some of our lives too, right now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We feel a famine, and the father's allowing it because he's trying to draw us to come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 15.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So the son went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, the story of the prodigal son is hailed as maybe the greatest picture of the love of the father that we have in Scripture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And yet, notice the Father's love is willing to let us feel the consequences of our actions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father is not an enabler.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father of the prodigal son does not send care packages or money or help to his son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He lets his son feel the full consequences of his actions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the father knows that the only thing that will rescue the son is that he feels the effect of reaping what he's sown.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But notice the son has to come to himself before he can come to his father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 17.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But when he came to himself, Augustine of Hippo has this brilliant line.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, the prodigal son must have traveled so far that he even left himself behind.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, this is what addiction literature calls hitting rock bottom.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This coming to oneself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: M.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Scott Peck has my favorite definition of mental health.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, Mental health is the ongoing dedication to reality at all costs.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because reality can be a really good tutor.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It can teach us to come home to ourselves, to come to ourselves and realize that we're in a place that we don't want to be anymore.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But but you have to notice that it's not coming home when we improve ourselves, it's coming home when we collapse ourselves.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 17.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But I perish here with hunger.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I will arise and go to my father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's important to know.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is it that moved the son to come home?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It was first contemplating the poverty of his own, of what happens when you run your own life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But second and more importantly, it was contemplating the abundance of the Father's house.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's more than enough.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you believe that the Father in heaven has more than enough?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: More than enough to forgive, more than enough to satisfy, more than enough to revive.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If so, arise and come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We go on in verse 18.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, and he's a good preacher, he's got three points.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Check this out in verse 19.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's point one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Point two, I'm no longer to be worthy to be called your son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And point three, treat me as one of your hired servants.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But this is actually asking a lot.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, in that culture, a son didn't just come home embarrassed, he came home to danger.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What he has done is brought shame on his family and his entire village.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it actually would be right for the village to publicly cut him off in an act of dishonor, for his act of dishonor, which means before he ever reaches the house, he has to make it through the crowd.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the plot tension of this moment as we get to verse 20.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it says this, and he arose and came to his father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and ran.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the father knows this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father ran to accept his son before the village could reject his son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father lifts his robe, exposing himself to public shame.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The son deserves rejection, but the father takes his humiliation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The son deserves exclusion, but the father restores him, and he does that publicly.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, is this just a happy accident?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No, I don't think so.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father was looking for him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He was searching the horizon for his boy to come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Maybe every day, maybe every day he would get up and he'd walk the outskirts of his property hoping to see his boy come around the corner.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the father is looking, and day after day he went home disappointed, but he never gave up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He never gave up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the father is looking for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of you are a long way off.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You've run a hundred miles from home, and you wonder, what would it even take for me to come home?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's encouraging about this story is you just turn around and it will be as if you never left.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the father is looking for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's searching the horizon for sinners to come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what we see in the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In verse 20, it even gets better.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The son hasn't even properly apologized yet.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pete Greg tells this, he says, if you were to sit down with this son afterwards and ask him about the story, he might say something like this: I was hugged until I cried.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I was held so close that the excrement wiped off of me onto his white robes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I was listened to until I had no more lies inside me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I was accepted until I was changed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the son in verse 21 says to his father, it says, Father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: First word that the son utters out of his mouth when he comes home is Father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now he had his little prepared speech.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You remember three points.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at point one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, I've sinned against heaven and before you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Point two, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But notice what happens here, verse 22.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the father said to his servants, he doesn't get to point three.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Three points.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The first two are true.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He has sinned, he is unworthy, but the father won't let him speak the third point, which was make me like a hired servant.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because he will not let him earn his place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He will not let him earn what he can only be given and must receive freely.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, he will not let you come and say, I want to earn my right to come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Treat me like a hired servant.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He will have none of it, because coming home is only possible if it's a place you do not deserve and do not earn.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so it's either all of grace or it is not at all.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Before the son could say, Treat me like one of your hired servants, the father said to his servants, in verse 22, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the father used his servants to treat his son like a son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He won't let him be treated like a servant.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Many of us feel that if we if we just grovel enough when we're coming home, we can show God that we really feel bad about it this time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Not like all the other times, of course.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we think that if God will just take us back, you know, because we feel really bad.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But listen, verse 22 has two words that won't let that happen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Bring quickly.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father will tolerate no probationary period.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He has an urgency to restore those who come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we see that the father he comes and he doesn't hand the son a towel and say, Clean yourself up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You disgust me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's covered in pig manure.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's not what the father says instead.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father clothes him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He replaces his worn-out rags with the best robe to restore his status.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father slips a ring on his pig-stained hands to give him back his authority as a son of the house.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The father puts shoes on his far traveled feet, restoring his dignity, because only servants went barefoot, never sons.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the son was stripped of his self made identity, and he was given an identity that could never be achieved, but only received.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The status of sonship.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says in verse 23, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's linger over these three words.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The fattened calf.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Definite article.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's only one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Two, it was fat.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Three, it's a calf.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is like Kobe beef.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How's this for exegesis?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Is this working?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, I imagine for a moment that this father's fattened calf is known in the town.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the butcher comes around, and the butcher's like, hey, I'll buy that calf off of you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the father looks at him and he goes, It's not for sale.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm saving it for when my boy comes home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You can't have it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The butcher and all the townspeople say, That man has lost his mind.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That boy's never gonna come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Think about the joy in the father's heart when he gets to say these words.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He gets to go, bring the fattened calf and kill it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let us eat and celebrate.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My boy is back.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: His father's heart is full of joy at the return of his son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He can't help himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the son goes from longing to eat what the pigs ate to being sitting at the table in the father's house and feeding on a fattened calf.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Ronald Rolheiser says it like this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've got a slide behind me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this real love is always a coming home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not a place we deserve or earn.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's coming to a place where you sense others will love you without necessarily being impressed with you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Thus, real love is always experienced as a security, a safe place, a home, a safe harbor that we sail into.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It is a place of rest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For this reason, it is experienced as a place from which you do not want to or need to go home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our true rest lies namely at a place where we don't have to impress or perform or earn or win, where we feel safe and secure, and we are at home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Whoever you are, wherever you are, come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what's on offer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 24, it says, For this my son was dead and is alive again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You hear the resurrection language there?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I think it's important because coming home is akin to dying and rising again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The reason that's important is because for some of us in this room, you need to hear that there's nothing so wrong with you that a good resurrection couldn't fix.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Augustine of Hippo said it like this there is no saint without a past, and there is no sinner without a future.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the good news of Luke 15.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the story could end here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It'd be a great story, but it doesn't.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why not?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because there's more than one way to be lost.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 25.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm so sorry, fundamentalists.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's dancing in the father's house.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Just teaching the Bible here for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Is that okay?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 26.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But he was angry and refused to go in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: His father came out and entreated him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of you identify with the younger son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's good and right.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I know first part of my story that would be true.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I identify with the younger son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But now my greater temptation is probably that of the older son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The younger son runs away from his father, and it's obvious.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the younger son stays and tries to control his father, and it's subtle.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, you can be far from the father's heart, the father's house, but near to the father's heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But even more concerning is that you can be near to the father's house, but far from the father's heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: These two ways to be lost are fundamentally the same, though, if you look at the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the younger comes back and says, Treat me like a servant, and the father's like, No, you're my son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the older one says, These many years I've served you, and the father's like, Yeah, but you're my son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the fundamental place of conflict over your life is whether you will embrace sonship as something that's freely given.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Text goes on.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The older brother says this, but when this son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you hear the contempt?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You ever wonder why people leave church?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I talk to people about this a good bit, and one of the most common reasons, the top two are this: what's called the problem of evil, and number two, I would say, is the hypocrisy of older brothers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why people leave the church.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why New York and San Francisco are full of people from the South and the Midwest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's because they're fleeing older brothers that are in churches in those places.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You ever wonder why people don't come back home to the church?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, it's because they feel the contempt of older brothers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They feel like if they came home, they would be treated like this older brother treats his younger brother.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So why would they ever come home?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, the only hope for any of us to come home is if we hear that there is a father who is far more prodigal than any of us could ever be, far more reckless and lavish in grace than we are in both sin and religiosity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why we would come home to the father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the the reason why the older brother is so angry, it's not because he hates his brother's sin, it's because he hates grace.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, the moment that grace is free to the undeserving is the moment the older brother loses all control over his father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: His works mean nothing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All of his years serving in the father's house are worth nothing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If somebody like this younger son can go away and come home and be accepted with the fattened calf, that's why the older brother is furious.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why the religious are always furious when there's grace to the undeserving.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's threatening, takes away their control.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In verse 31, it says this the father says to his son, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, what if we believe that this really is the heart of God for the undeserving?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All that is mine is yours.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a fundamentally different way of viewing life with God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a different religion altogether.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 29, when the son says, Look, these many years I've served you, yet you never gave me fill in the blank.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like some of us, the reason we don't touch the joy of being in the Father's house is because we struggle so intensely with entitlement.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've served you, you don't give me anything, God and the Father, I love it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is never a Pharisee to the Pharisees.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You've always been with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Which asks the question Does the older brother come home?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We don't know.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The text doesn't tell us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I think that's because Jesus is a master storyteller and he's putting it on you, the listener.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Will you come home?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Will you come home to the scandal of grace in this text?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or will you stay away until you can clean yourself up a little bit?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the main point of this parable is that the father would rather hurt hug a dirty child than a distant child.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come home however you are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come home wherever you are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This story isn't just about unbelievers becoming Christians, although it is that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's for Christians who live like unbelievers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Father's looking at you saying, Son, daughter, you've always been with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All that is mine is yours, but you act like a hired servant in the Father's house.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so Jesus doesn't tell the end of this story.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I think the reason is because he wants to show us that there's hope in this story for all of us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As we come to the end, I want to go back to the beginning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look again with me at verse 2.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The whole inciting incident for the parable.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 2 says, The Pharisees and the scribes, aka the older brothers, they grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners, aka the younger brothers, and eats with them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So how does this parable answer the Pharisees' grumbling?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, listen, if you compare the first two stories with the third, you'll notice that there's something missing in the third.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You'll notice that something that happened to the sheep and to the coin didn't happen to the lost son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No one went out to search for the son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Where's the older brother?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 25 says that he's in the field working for his father's favor instead of going out to search for his lost brother.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Jesus is saying, You are the older brothers, and these are the younger sons.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The older brother should have gone out to bring the younger brother home, but he didn't do it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He refuses to come into the party.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How much more is he not even going to go into the far country to find his brother?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, nobody goes after the younger son until now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because Jesus comes to search and save the lost.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He goes into the far country to bring us home to the Father at great cost to himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in this great reversal, the Father says to you about Jesus, your brother was dead and is alive.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, are you far from God and you know it?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or are you near to God, but you're cold?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Either one, if you feel like the Father is standing there looking at you with his arms crossed, the invitation would be to instead look at Jesus' arms spread out on the cross.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's where we see the Father's love.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Father sending his son into the world in order to bring us home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Coming home has two steps.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: First, coming to yourself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Second, coming to your father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The first one, you have to believe that whether you're close or far, you are far from God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But second, and far more importantly, you have to believe that you can come home because your older brother has made a way.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So listen, there would have been no ring, no robe, no kiss, no fattened calf if the sun had remained in the far country.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so the invitation is to come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Make heaven happy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Bring joy to the father's heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me finish the story that I began with with this girl in the lost forest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, many of the friends of the neighbors got exhausted searching all night and they left.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the girl's father never gave up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He searched and he searched through the night.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And early the next morning, he came into the clearing where the little girl had laid down and fallen asleep.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When he saw his daughter, he started screaming and yelling her name enough to startle her awake.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And when the little girl saw her father, she looked at him and says, Daddy, I found you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, all your life you've been looking for the one who's been looking for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come home.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Father, what a gift it is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What a gift it is that we can come home without earning it or deserving it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus, just as you seek and save the lost, would you do that even now?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In our midst, Holy Spirit, turn all of our hearts back to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We refuse to come back on our own terms.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We take your terms, the terms of surrender to grace.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Freely given to all who will receive.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Help us, Holy Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We pray in Jesus' name.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Amen.