WEBVTT 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:08.880 Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.000 You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.439 At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:20.079 For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:23.679 Please stand for our prayer of illumination. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:26.879 Pray this prayer with me. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:42.880 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. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:43.359 Amen. 00:00:43.359 --> 00:00:44.320 Amen. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:45.600 You may stand. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.000 Um, don't sit. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.840 Today's scripture coming is coming from Luke 15. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:01:04.239 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. 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:06.560 So he told them this parable. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:17.840 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. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:20.799 And he divided his property between them. 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:31.439 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. 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:39.120 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:48.239 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:55.599 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:07.439 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? 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:15.280 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:21.360 Treat me as one of your hired servants. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:25.120 And he arose and came to his father. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:38.159 But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:47.599 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. 00:02:47.599 --> 00:03:03.919 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. 00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:07.520 For this my son was dead and is alive again. 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:10.000 He was lost and is found. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.400 And they began to celebrate. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:25.439 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. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:34.240 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. 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.439 But he was angry and refused to go in. 00:03:37.439 --> 00:03:48.080 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. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:53.919 Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. 00:03:53.919 --> 00:04:02.960 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:12.240 And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:15.280 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:19.279 For this, your brother was dead and is alive. 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:22.480 He was lost and is found. 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:24.399 This is God's word. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:27.040 You may be seated. 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:28.800 Thank you, Rocky. 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:31.120 That was a fitting reading of Luke 15. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:40.639 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. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:49.839 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. 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:56.879 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? 00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:04.000 Meanwhile, the girl wandered around the forest and she became anxious as it grew dark because she could not find her way home. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:18.160 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. 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:21.680 Her frantic parents and neighbors scoured the forest. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:26.079 They called her name and called her name, but to no avail. 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:35.360 You see, this experience of being lost is what the Bible calls the fundamental human condition. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:37.920 Have you ever been lost? 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:43.040 Have you ever been so disoriented that you didn't know how to find your way home? 00:05:43.040 --> 00:06:01.600 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. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:10.160 And so this morning I have one point, which is only two words, but summarizes this whole sermon, and that is this come home. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:11.839 Come home. 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:14.720 It's not a command, but it is a plea. 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:20.560 And I hope that if God pleases, you will hear the plea not just coming from me, but from him as well. 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:26.480 So if you have a Bible or a device or the worship guide, go ahead and get Luke chapter 15 in front of you. 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:28.480 We're gonna look at verse one here. 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:37.120 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. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:41.199 Luke 15, verse 1 says this. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:54.399 So he told them this parable. 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:55.839 Pause for a moment. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:57.199 Who is them? 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:01.759 Well, in this little setup here, we see there's two groups of people. 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:09.519 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. 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:14.560 You've got the the irreligious and the religious, you've got the insiders and the down and outs. 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:17.040 They're they're both in the room, if you will. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:22.399 And Jesus tells the parable, it says in verse 3, he told them this parable. 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:26.000 Notice that that that word, this parable, it's singular. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:32.240 Commentators for thousands of years have pointed out that this story actually almost feels Trinitarian. 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:36.560 It's one parable with three stories telling one message. 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:39.199 How do the lost come home? 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:40.879 How do the lost come home? 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:48.959 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. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:51.519 Look with me at the lost sheep in verse four. 00:07:51.519 --> 00:08:03.279 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. 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:05.680 Notice the shepherd is not passive. 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:12.959 Instead, he goes after the one, he seeks, and I love this phrase, underline this if you will, until he finds it. 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:16.160 There's a diligence, there's an unwillingness to give up here. 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:21.839 Verse 5, it says, and when he comes home, when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:26.560 And when he, here's the main point of the sermon, comes home. 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:37.200 Imagine being these friends and neighbors. 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:40.000 Would this feel like overkill? 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.559 Throwing a party over a lost sheep? 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:45.120 One out of a hundred, even at that. 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:47.279 Well, look at verse 7. 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:52.080 Just so I tell you, there will be more joy. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:54.159 Somebody say, more joy. 00:08:54.159 --> 00:09:03.519 More joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:10.639 You see, Jesus is not concerned about the fact that there is a joy that is disproportionate to the recovery. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:12.480 What is heaven like? 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:14.240 Let's be biblical here for a moment. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:17.679 Heaven throws parties over repentant sinners. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:19.759 That's what heaven is like. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:22.720 Again, I could spend more time, but let's look at the lost coin. 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:24.000 Look at verse 8 with me. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:33.840 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. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:39.039 Listen, do you assume that God is waiting for you to clean yourself up first? 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:45.440 Or do you believe that God will sweep the house to look for you? 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:46.879 Look at verse 9. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:54.159 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. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:55.519 Let's just assume for a moment. 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.960 I think this is funny to think that the shepherd and the woman live in the same town. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:01.919 The same friends and neighbors are like, for real again? 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:03.759 Another party? 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:08.080 Friends and neighbors now at another party because a coin came home. 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:18.720 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. 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:22.000 Notice here, the Holy Spirit doesn't waste his breath. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.440 Look at it, it says, notice the joy, it takes place in the presence of the angels. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:36.879 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. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:38.720 It's God's joy. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:40.639 God is the one rejoicing. 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:42.159 So let's be biblical again here. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:46.559 Heaven is a world of joy, and God is the rejoicer in chief. 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:49.440 That's what the Bible says about heaven. 00:10:49.440 --> 00:11:02.799 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. 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:06.879 And you see, up to this point, the shepherd lost one of his hundred sheep. 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:09.440 That's only about a 1% of his assets. 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:12.559 The woman actually lost one of her ten coins. 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:13.200 That's a little bit more. 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:15.039 It's 10% of her assets. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:19.600 There's an intentional intensification happening in this moment. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:25.360 We're being primed when we get to this third story to ask the question: how much has the father lost? 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:26.639 Well, let's see. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:28.559 Look with me at verse 11. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:39.440 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. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:42.799 You ever wonder why did the younger son leave? 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:44.399 We don't know. 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:52.080 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. 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:55.360 Give me my part of the inheritance. 00:11:55.360 --> 00:12:07.039 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. 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:08.720 I don't want you. 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:12.399 Now give me your stuff, but I'm gonna go my own way. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:18.480 And the Father grants the freedom to reject his love. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:21.840 Look with me at verse 12. 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:24.799 It says, And he divided his property between them. 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:32.960 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. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:36.000 God will give you what you most want. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.399 He's non-coercive in that way. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:44.240 So if you want a life of autonomy and self-definition and going your own way, he might just give it to you. 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:46.000 Look at verse 13. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:56.960 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. 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:05.840 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. 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:08.480 That's the freedom of the far country. 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:12.399 And the father knows this, but he lets the son go. 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:20.799 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. 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:28.240 You see, what happens is sometimes it takes a famine to expose our false freedom. 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:32.559 And in this moment, the father is teaching by taking away. 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:36.720 And I know enough to know that he's doing that in some of our lives too, right now. 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:43.360 We feel a famine, and the father's allowing it because he's trying to draw us to come home. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:45.039 Look at verse 15. 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:57.840 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. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:05.519 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. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:11.919 And yet, notice the Father's love is willing to let us feel the consequences of our actions. 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:14.559 The father is not an enabler. 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:20.480 The father of the prodigal son does not send care packages or money or help to his son. 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:25.519 He lets his son feel the full consequences of his actions. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:34.559 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. 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:40.559 But notice the son has to come to himself before he can come to his father. 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:41.840 Look at verse 17. 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:45.600 But when he came to himself, Augustine of Hippo has this brilliant line. 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:50.080 He says, the prodigal son must have traveled so far that he even left himself behind. 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:56.559 Now, this is what addiction literature calls hitting rock bottom. 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:58.559 This coming to oneself. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:14:59.200 M. 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:01.840 Scott Peck has my favorite definition of mental health. 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:08.000 He says, Mental health is the ongoing dedication to reality at all costs. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:09.600 Why? 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:12.799 Well, because reality can be a really good tutor. 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:22.320 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. 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:31.600 But but you have to notice that it's not coming home when we improve ourselves, it's coming home when we collapse ourselves. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:33.120 Look at verse 17. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:42.159 But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.480 But I perish here with hunger. 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:47.200 I will arise and go to my father. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:48.639 That's important to know. 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:51.919 What is it that moved the son to come home? 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:57.759 It was first contemplating the poverty of his own, of what happens when you run your own life. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:03.759 But second and more importantly, it was contemplating the abundance of the Father's house. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:05.840 There's more than enough. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:08.080 There's more than enough. 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:12.720 Do you believe that the Father in heaven has more than enough? 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:18.639 More than enough to forgive, more than enough to satisfy, more than enough to revive. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:21.759 If so, arise and come home. 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:23.600 We go on in verse 18. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:28.080 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. 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:29.679 Check this out in verse 19. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:32.320 Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:33.120 That's point one. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:36.720 Point two, I'm no longer to be worthy to be called your son. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:40.159 And point three, treat me as one of your hired servants. 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:43.759 But this is actually asking a lot. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:50.320 You see, in that culture, a son didn't just come home embarrassed, he came home to danger. 00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:54.399 What he has done is brought shame on his family and his entire village. 00:16:54.399 --> 00:17:06.799 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. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:10.799 That's the plot tension of this moment as we get to verse 20. 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:14.640 And it says this, and he arose and came to his father. 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:20.559 But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and ran. 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:23.920 You see, the father knows this. 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:29.200 The father ran to accept his son before the village could reject his son. 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:33.440 The father lifts his robe, exposing himself to public shame. 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:37.279 The son deserves rejection, but the father takes his humiliation. 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:42.079 The son deserves exclusion, but the father restores him, and he does that publicly. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:44.559 Now, is this just a happy accident? 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:46.079 No, I don't think so. 00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:47.920 The father was looking for him. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:53.279 He was searching the horizon for his boy to come home. 00:17:53.279 --> 00:18:01.039 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. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:08.240 And the father is looking, and day after day he went home disappointed, but he never gave up. 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.480 He never gave up. 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:13.279 You see, the father is looking for you. 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:17.119 Some of you are a long way off. 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:23.519 You've run a hundred miles from home, and you wonder, what would it even take for me to come home? 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:30.160 What's encouraging about this story is you just turn around and it will be as if you never left. 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:33.759 Because the father is looking for you. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:37.680 He's searching the horizon for sinners to come home. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:39.680 That's what we see in the text. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:41.519 In verse 20, it even gets better. 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:50.000 But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:53.519 The son hasn't even properly apologized yet. 00:18:53.519 --> 00:19:02.480 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. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:07.680 I was held so close that the excrement wiped off of me onto his white robes. 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:11.119 I was listened to until I had no more lies inside me. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:14.480 I was accepted until I was changed. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:21.680 You see, the son in verse 21 says to his father, it says, Father. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:28.880 First word that the son utters out of his mouth when he comes home is Father. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.279 Now he had his little prepared speech. 00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:32.319 You remember three points. 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:33.039 Look at point one. 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:35.680 He says, I've sinned against heaven and before you. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:38.799 Point two, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:41.039 But notice what happens here, verse 22. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:46.559 But the father said to his servants, he doesn't get to point three. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:48.160 Why? 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:50.000 Three points. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:51.200 The first two are true. 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:58.079 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. 00:19:58.079 --> 00:19:58.640 Why? 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:01.359 Because he will not let him earn his place. 00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:07.440 He will not let him earn what he can only be given and must receive freely. 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:12.400 You see, he will not let you come and say, I want to earn my right to come home. 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:14.160 Treat me like a hired servant. 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:21.839 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. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:26.160 And so it's either all of grace or it is not at all. 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:39.279 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. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:43.440 You see, the father used his servants to treat his son like a son. 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:46.240 He won't let him be treated like a servant. 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:55.200 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. 00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:57.680 Not like all the other times, of course. 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:02.960 And we think that if God will just take us back, you know, because we feel really bad. 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:06.880 But listen, verse 22 has two words that won't let that happen. 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:09.039 Bring quickly. 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:13.119 The father will tolerate no probationary period. 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:16.799 He has an urgency to restore those who come home. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:23.119 And we see that the father he comes and he doesn't hand the son a towel and say, Clean yourself up. 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:24.640 You disgust me. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:26.720 He's covered in pig manure. 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:28.799 That's not what the father says instead. 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:30.319 The father clothes him. 00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:36.160 He replaces his worn-out rags with the best robe to restore his status. 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:44.319 The father slips a ring on his pig-stained hands to give him back his authority as a son of the house. 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:51.839 The father puts shoes on his far traveled feet, restoring his dignity, because only servants went barefoot, never sons. 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:59.759 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. 00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:02.799 The status of sonship. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:13.519 It says in verse 23, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:15.599 Let's linger over these three words. 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:17.519 The fattened calf. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:18.799 Definite article. 00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:20.000 There's only one. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:22.480 Two, it was fat. 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:24.799 Three, it's a calf. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:26.160 This is like Kobe beef. 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:27.519 How's this for exegesis? 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:28.160 Is this working? 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:28.720 Okay. 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:34.559 Listen, I imagine for a moment that this father's fattened calf is known in the town. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:39.359 And the butcher comes around, and the butcher's like, hey, I'll buy that calf off of you. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:43.200 And the father looks at him and he goes, It's not for sale. 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:46.480 I'm saving it for when my boy comes home. 00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:48.400 You can't have it. 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:52.480 The butcher and all the townspeople say, That man has lost his mind. 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:54.720 That boy's never gonna come home. 00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:59.759 Think about the joy in the father's heart when he gets to say these words. 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:03.119 He gets to go, bring the fattened calf and kill it. 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:05.519 Let us eat and celebrate. 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:06.960 My boy is back. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:13.039 His father's heart is full of joy at the return of his son. 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:16.240 He can't help himself. 00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:26.240 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. 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:29.039 Ronald Rolheiser says it like this. 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:30.160 I've got a slide behind me. 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:33.279 It says this real love is always a coming home. 00:23:33.279 --> 00:23:35.440 It's not a place we deserve or earn. 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:41.359 It's coming to a place where you sense others will love you without necessarily being impressed with you. 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:48.960 Thus, real love is always experienced as a security, a safe place, a home, a safe harbor that we sail into. 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:50.160 It is a place of rest. 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:56.559 For this reason, it is experienced as a place from which you do not want to or need to go home. 00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:08.559 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. 00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:14.400 Whoever you are, wherever you are, come home. 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:17.359 This is what's on offer. 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:23.200 Verse 24, it says, For this my son was dead and is alive again. 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:25.519 You hear the resurrection language there? 00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:30.799 He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:36.640 I think it's important because coming home is akin to dying and rising again. 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:44.640 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. 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:53.119 Augustine of Hippo said it like this there is no saint without a past, and there is no sinner without a future. 00:24:53.119 --> 00:24:55.839 That's the good news of Luke 15. 00:24:55.839 --> 00:24:57.920 And the story could end here. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:01.680 It'd be a great story, but it doesn't. 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:02.960 Why not? 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:06.400 Because there's more than one way to be lost. 00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:08.880 Look with me at verse 25. 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:15.599 Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:17.519 I'm so sorry, fundamentalists. 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:20.160 There's dancing in the father's house. 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:22.799 Just teaching the Bible here for a moment. 00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:23.759 Is that okay? 00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:24.960 Verse 26. 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:28.880 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:37.039 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. 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:39.200 But he was angry and refused to go in. 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:41.359 His father came out and entreated him. 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:47.519 But he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:52.640 Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. 00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:55.920 Some of you identify with the younger son. 00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:56.960 That's good and right. 00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:59.599 I know first part of my story that would be true. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:01.279 I identify with the younger son. 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:05.039 But now my greater temptation is probably that of the older son. 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:10.000 The younger son runs away from his father, and it's obvious. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:15.519 But the younger son stays and tries to control his father, and it's subtle. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:21.519 You see, you can be far from the father's heart, the father's house, but near to the father's heart. 00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:28.559 But even more concerning is that you can be near to the father's house, but far from the father's heart. 00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:33.839 These two ways to be lost are fundamentally the same, though, if you look at the text. 00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:39.279 You see, the younger comes back and says, Treat me like a servant, and the father's like, No, you're my son. 00:26:39.279 --> 00:26:46.160 And the older one says, These many years I've served you, and the father's like, Yeah, but you're my son. 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:55.279 You see, the fundamental place of conflict over your life is whether you will embrace sonship as something that's freely given. 00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:57.839 Text goes on. 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:07.200 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. 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:09.359 Do you hear the contempt? 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:12.160 You ever wonder why people leave church? 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:22.880 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. 00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:24.640 That's why people leave the church. 00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:30.480 That's why New York and San Francisco are full of people from the South and the Midwest. 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:34.960 It's because they're fleeing older brothers that are in churches in those places. 00:27:34.960 --> 00:27:38.880 You ever wonder why people don't come back home to the church? 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:43.279 Well, it's because they feel the contempt of older brothers. 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:49.440 They feel like if they came home, they would be treated like this older brother treats his younger brother. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:52.079 So why would they ever come home? 00:27:52.079 --> 00:28:08.319 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. 00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:10.880 That's why we would come home to the father. 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:19.039 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. 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:28.880 Listen, the moment that grace is free to the undeserving is the moment the older brother loses all control over his father. 00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:31.519 His works mean nothing. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:35.599 All of his years serving in the father's house are worth nothing. 00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:44.720 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. 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:50.559 That's why the religious are always furious when there's grace to the undeserving. 00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:55.440 It's threatening, takes away their control. 00:28:55.440 --> 00:29:05.839 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. 00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:10.960 Like, what if we believe that this really is the heart of God for the undeserving? 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:13.200 All that is mine is yours. 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:17.920 It's a fundamentally different way of viewing life with God. 00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:21.279 It's a different religion altogether. 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:28.799 Verse 29, when the son says, Look, these many years I've served you, yet you never gave me fill in the blank. 00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:37.359 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. 00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:44.880 I've served you, you don't give me anything, God and the Father, I love it. 00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:48.000 Jesus is never a Pharisee to the Pharisees. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:55.599 You've always been with me. 00:29:55.599 --> 00:30:00.640 Which asks the question Does the older brother come home? 00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:02.319 We don't know. 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:04.880 The text doesn't tell us. 00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:11.440 I think that's because Jesus is a master storyteller and he's putting it on you, the listener. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:13.440 Will you come home? 00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:18.240 Will you come home to the scandal of grace in this text? 00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:23.920 Or will you stay away until you can clean yourself up a little bit? 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:30.559 You see, the main point of this parable is that the father would rather hurt hug a dirty child than a distant child. 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:32.880 Come home however you are. 00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:34.799 Come home wherever you are. 00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:39.680 This story isn't just about unbelievers becoming Christians, although it is that. 00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:42.880 It's for Christians who live like unbelievers. 00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:47.440 The Father's looking at you saying, Son, daughter, you've always been with me. 00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:53.440 All that is mine is yours, but you act like a hired servant in the Father's house. 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:56.880 And so Jesus doesn't tell the end of this story. 00:30:56.880 --> 00:31:02.640 And I think the reason is because he wants to show us that there's hope in this story for all of us. 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:05.279 As we come to the end, I want to go back to the beginning. 00:31:05.279 --> 00:31:06.960 Look again with me at verse 2. 00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:10.640 The whole inciting incident for the parable. 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:20.799 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. 00:31:20.799 --> 00:31:25.279 So how does this parable answer the Pharisees' grumbling? 00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:31.920 Well, listen, if you compare the first two stories with the third, you'll notice that there's something missing in the third. 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:37.920 You'll notice that something that happened to the sheep and to the coin didn't happen to the lost son. 00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:41.680 No one went out to search for the son. 00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:45.440 Where's the older brother? 00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:53.759 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. 00:31:53.759 --> 00:31:58.480 You see, Jesus is saying, You are the older brothers, and these are the younger sons. 00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:02.880 The older brother should have gone out to bring the younger brother home, but he didn't do it. 00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:06.079 He refuses to come into the party. 00:32:06.079 --> 00:32:10.559