SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome. There you are. Great to see you this morning. How are we doing? Good, good, good. So glad that you're here. So glad that you've taken some time this Sunday morning to enjoy just being together with friends, with family, as we call ourselves. We're really thankful for you being here and hope that you feel welcomed by your time. We don't have it all together. And so if you came in hoping to find a group of people who have the life all figured out, that's not us. We don't have it all figured out. And in fact, the longer that you spend time here, the more often that you come, you start to see that there's lots of blemishes. There's lots of issues that we have. But thankfully, it's not about us. It's about what God is doing in us and through us. And we're grateful for his grace and our weaknesses, right? So we don't have to put fronts on, we don't have to act a certain way to prove ourselves to anyone, because God is sufficient in all that. We love kids here at Point Communion Church, and we don't see them as a burden. We see them as a blessing. We see them as a gift from God, a sign that his hand is on us, that we have so many young children running around. And so for those of the elementary kids in the room, uh thank you for being patient with us as we're continuing to try to get a facility to use on Sunday mornings for you to meet with leaders and to learn in age-appropriate ways. I've been really thankful for the elementary kids being in the room. It's just a reminder of the life that we have around here. And uh and so hopefully soon we will be able to make that next step, that next transition. But also next week, next Sunday evening, we will be meeting for our next family gathering, uh, which is where we get together once a month to pray, uh to worship God, to talk about what's going on here at Point Community Church and how you can be a part of that. And one of those pieces will be uh the discussion about what we're gonna do for kids' space in the future. And so you're gonna want to be here because we do not want people uh to turn away from coming to hear the message of the gospel because there's no space for them. Uh we got we've got to find ways to create more room, and specifically for the kids. And so we're really thankful for the opportunity that God has put in front of us, and we want to share some of that with you next Sunday night, uh, right here in this room at 6 o'clock, okay? So mark your calendars, make a plan to be here. You'll be glad that you did. But for you elementary kids, we showed you a little video last week and we've got another one for you, so watch the screen.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

And that's why we need to remember the baker doesn't want us to be afraid of anything. What about giant spatulas that want to flatten us?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Nope. What about birthday parties or afternoon snack time? Nope. What about giant mean cakes that want to eat us? Nope. What about getting forgotten on top of the refrigerator and going stale and crusty? Nope.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

The baker doesn't want us to be afraid of anything. The baker wants us to fulfill our purpose.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

What's our purpose?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

To be eaten. Alright. So, uh, kids, God has a purpose for your life, and it's not to be eaten. Okay? We said this last week, but let me remind you: God has a purpose and a plan for every one of you adults. God has a purpose and a plan for you, right? And so we are thankful that he has that, and we're thankful that he wants to use our lives to point others to him. So, as we continue on this morning, I want to just say one note, one further one other note about kids' ministry and specifically about the teams that serve kids. I am so grateful that we've got adults who get the fact that we have a sacred stewardship with the next generation. And so they come here on Sunday mornings early, a couple hours before we even start, and they get prepared and they get their hearts ready and they get the rooms ready, and then they go and they serve kids. And I love that because I was reading this week in Mark chapter 10, where Jesus is teaching, and all of a sudden these kids are coming up to him, and the disciples are trying to shoe them away. And Jesus says something, it's so so powerful. He says, Let the little children come to me. Let them interrupt me. Bring them up, bring them on, bring them, put them in my lap. You know why? Because children are a gift. And we we want to bless them. And so I'm thankful for those leaders that every week serve uh in those rooms with the kids and invest in them. They're not just keeping them quiet while we're in here, they're actually teaching them the things of God and pointing them to Christ. And so uh we're really, really thankful for them. And if you would like to be a part of that team, you can talk to myself, you can talk to Harley, you can talk to one of our elders. Um, we're really, really grateful that we get to serve these kids and to show them uh who Jesus is. And I'm really thankful, since I have five soon to be six of them, uh, that that somebody else besides just my wife and I are investing in them. Okay. So uh so we we maybe are creating a space problem ourselves. You think I'm laughing. You see my house. All right. So um this morning as we continue week three of Gospel DNA, we have said that the gospel is the most important foundational message of our faith. It is really what we're all about as believers in Jesus, because ultimately the gospel is the person and work of Jesus. Okay, it's the good news. It's the good news because the gospel could really be broken down into four key ideas, themes, and even pieces of a story. That God, He creates the heavens and the earth. He creates the world, He creates it perfectly, without sin, without suffering, without decay. But then man, Adam and Eve are the two that we know in the story, but if it had been us, we would have done it as well. They break God's law, they rebel against God's law, and as a result, they don't just break relationship with God, they break relationship with each other, and now we live in a fallen world where we see sickness and we see suffering and we see sadness, and we have all this pain that's in the world. And so we see this uh this this world now that it's not what God intended it to be. But God, literally, but God, steps in and he sends his son Jesus to bring salvation, to redeem us through dying on the cross, right? And he redeems us through the person and work of Jesus, and that's the good news. But here's the great thing is that now we have hope as we look to the future. We're not just saved in the past, we're also being saved, and one day we will be restored. So one day Christ is gonna come back and he's gonna take us home, and it's gonna be a beautiful day. That's the gospel. But here's what I've noticed. We really have three ways that we live. There's really three ways that I live, three ways that you live, and response to that message, in response to that good news, and really just in general in life, there's three ways that we are living our lives out as human beings. I think one of the stories that helps capture these three ways the best is a parable, which is just a story that Jesus told. It was a made-up story in Luke chapter 15. So if you have a Bible, I encourage you to get it out. If you don't, the words will be up on the screen from the text. But I encourage you to read it for yourself. There's some Bibles underneath the chairs. If you need a Bible, you don't own one, feel free to take one of the Bibles that are under the chair as a gift to you. We want to make sure that you have God's word and that you have the ability to read it. Also, you can use your phone, you can you you can use apps from your portable devices. Uh, feel free to do that as well. You won't offend me. All right, Luke chapter 15. I want to read this story to you, and then I want to talk about the three ways that we live and how they relate to what we see in this parable, this story. Verse 11 is where we're gonna start. And I'm reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, so if it's a little bit different, it's okay. Here it says this. He, being Jesus, also said, A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me. So he distributed the assets to them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had, and he traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth. He squandered his estate in foolish living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of the country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him any. When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired hands have more than enough food? And here I am dying of hunger. I'll get up and I'll go to my father, and I'll say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired hands. So he got up and he went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, the father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, he threw his arms around his neck, and he kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father told his slaves, Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let's celebrate with a feast. Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they begin to celebrate. Now, his older son was in the field, and as he came near the house he heard music and dancing. So he summoned one of the servants, and he asked what these things meant. Your brother is here, he told him, and your brother and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back, safe and sound. Then he became angry, and he didn't want to go in. So his father came out and he pleaded with him, but he replied to his father, Look, I've been slaving for you for many years, and I have never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me a young goat, so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with the prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him. Son, he said, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and he is found. There are three ways that we live, and this parable shows us these ways very clearly. Um this parable is actually called the parable of the prodigal son. Maybe that's one that you've heard, a title that you've heard. But I would tell you that a better way to maybe title this parable would be the parable of the two sons. And maybe even leaning towards the older son, but we'll talk about that in just a minute. But in the story, Jesus is telling this parable to a group of religious leaders, a group of rule followers, a group of men who really understood the Old Testament law about how to behave, how to act, and how to appear religious and holy and righteous. In fact, he's been telling them a series of parables, and he's really pushing on them about some issues that were going on in their hearts in their self-righteousness, okay? But the first way that Jesus shows us that people can live this life is as a rebel. As a rebel. If you're following along in the notes there, that's your first blank to fill in, is that people can live as a rebel. And this is how we do this. We avoid God by ignoring him and living however we want. Now we talked about this last week, and if you weren't here last week, I encourage you to go and find the downloaded, the download the message from online either at pointaustin.org, or you can go on iTunes and find it. But I encourage you, because we talked a lot about this issue of idolatry, how that things in our life can become consuming to us, and we can worship them. Even though we were made to worship God, we can worship pleasure and we can worship stuff to find our significance and to find our satisfaction. Right? And so in the story, we see that there's this rebel son, this younger son. And let's be honest, this is not hard work to figure out that this guy's in the wrong. I mean, what he starts out by saying is he goes to his dad and he says, Dad, give me the share of the estate I've coming to me. Translation, Dad, die. What he is saying to his father in that moment is, I wish you were dead so that I could have what's rightfully coming to me. Pretty strong words, wouldn't you say? Not only does he say this to his father, but his father then gives him the estate, and what does he do? He goes and he begins to live like a modern-day celebrity. He begins to squander his wealth. That word squander, we don't use that much. But this idea that he goes out and just as fast as he can distribute this money to get what he wants, to buy his stuff, he uses. You know, this is a great uh great reminder that money is not our root problem. It's not our main problem in our lives, but it's the love of money. And that money, many times, which we long for, I mean, we look at the world around us and we see poverty and we think that if we could just get those people some money, their lives would get better. What you discover is that a lot of times money just funds our sin. Money just gives us the capacity to do some of the things that we shouldn't do. Because when we don't put it into submission to God, we find ways to do things that are not honoring to God and things that we we buy into and we we give to, give towards, uh, that are actually destructive in our lives. And so he squanders his wealth. He uses all this money to get friends and to buy them drink. And in fact, the word that's there when it's talking about squandering him literally means that he went out and he paid for prostitutes. He went out and spent it living it up. It's like he was living out a real life rap video. He had the nice ride, he had the girls, he had the bling bling, and he was doing his thing, and everything was going great until he ran out of money. And he runs out of money, and what happens? He's not only poor, but all of his friends desert him. Because he doesn't have the money anymore. All of his friends desert him. He doesn't have the capacity to even pay for some food. So what does he do? He goes and he gets a job working for a farmer feeding pigs. I mean, at least from the story, we can tell that this father who he's who wanted dead and wanted the estate must have had some decent amount of money. We don't know how wealthy he was. Maybe he had a five-camel garage. I don't know, but he at least had some money. And he, in his money, he gives it to his son. I mean, he must have gone through quite a bit of money pretty fast. And he's got all these friends and he's got all this stuff, but it's gone. And now he finds himself in pig slop. Now, I don't know if any of you have ever been around pigs, but they're gross. I know sometimes they look cute when they're little. In fact, I was talking to someone yesterday out here in the field, and they said last year there was a carnival here, and everybody was uh swooning over this little baby pig at the carnival. They were like, oh, it's so cute. Listen, those pigs grow up and they're gross. Okay? My wife here, she's a country girl. She grew up in the country, she used to show pigs, and I can tell you they stink. It is nasty, and it's nasty to watch them eat and to wallow in mud. And here's this wealthy son who's now spent all of his wealth, and he is with the pigs. And listen, this is crazy. They wouldn't even feed him the pig feed. They were in a famine, and they needed to feed their pigs, and they weren't even, they wouldn't even feed him the pig feed, the carobods. And he comes to his senses. But here's the thing in our lives, some of us have said to God, forget you. Notice in the story that the F in father is capitalized. There was no mistaking that Jesus was making the correlation that this father represents God. And in our lives, we can live as a rebel. We avoid God by just saying, God, I'm gonna do what I want to do. Don't tell me what to do, don't tell me what not to do. I'm gonna go and pursue life. And here's the thing about God. I said this last week from Romans 1, and I remind us again today: God does not make us choose Him. God does not force us to follow Him and to obey Him. He gives us the freedom to choose and to do the things that we want to do. In fact, in Romans 1, it even tells us that when we choose to go and to pursue the pleasures of this life, that in some ways it's us experiencing the wrath of God through the freedom of choice. That we experience the consequences of pursuing things other than God to satisfy our hearts. And that's what happens with this younger brother. You might call this the way of irreligiosity. Being irreligious, being morally indifferent. I don't really care what the rules are, I'm gonna play by my own rules. I'm gonna do life the way that I want to do it. But there's a second way that we see in this story. And I want to jump down to the story a little bit farther, and specifically into verse 25. Verse 25 tells us that there was an older brother. An older son. Now, the older son, he is there and he comes and he hears that this music is playing and sees some sort of party happening, and he asks the servant, and the servant says, Hey, uh, we're throwing a feast for your little brother. He came home. Isn't that awesome? And he's like, No. No, it's not awesome. He just took half of the estate and went off and spent it on prostitutes and drugs and whatever else he was doing. That's not awesome. Why are they throwing a party? He's never thrown me a party for my friends. Wh, wham, wham, wham, right? And he just starts to throw a pity party because he looks at this situation and it doesn't make sense. But here's the primary root issue. It's not just that he's comparing himself to the younger brother. He is really struggling with entitlement because he believes that he is owed something from the father. He believes that he deserves some major credit for having stayed at home, having been faithful as a worker, having done what he was supposed to do, and so he's now convinced himself the father owes him something. And here's the second way that we can choose to live in our daily lives. Not as a rebel, but as a rule follower. And this looks like, specifically, that we avoid God by working hard to earn our salvation. Working hard to earn our salvation. Now, anybody in here think that following rules is a good thing? Yeah? I mean, I tell my kids every day, follow the rules, right? About obey. That's important. Obey and it's good. Disobey, not good. We tell our kids in our family, some of y'all have heard me say this, that obedience brings blessing and disobedience brings conflict. Right? We tell them all the time, obeying rules is good. But here's the thing. That's really not the issue. It wasn't just that he was a rule follower, it was that he was following the rules because he wanted the father's stuff. And he thought, not only do I want it, I deserve it. Now, here's the connection for us today. Because in this story, I've got a feeling that for those of us that are here today, the majority of us in this room represent the older brother. The majority of us that are here represent the one who thinks we deserve God's blessings. We deserve what the Father has to give. Now, let me be honest. Some of us here, if we were to sit down and have a conversation, you would say things like, Man, we are saved by God's grace through faith. You would say that. It would come out of your mouth that, yes, I have done nothing to earn God's blessings. I have earned, I have earned none of God's favor. It's all his grace. We could speak that out. But here's the problem. What we say and how we actually live don't always match up. Because many times in our lives we say we deserve nothing, but all the while when we pray to God and He doesn't answer our prayers, He doesn't give us what we want, we get sick, we start suffering, we start looking at God and say, God, have you not seen how good I've been? Have you not seen how I've gone to church every Sunday for three years straight? I mean, it's like give you a gold star. Good job. We play this game with God like somehow we deserve his love and his grace and his mercy. And so we're religious conformists. We're moral performers. We know all the rules. We know what to do, but all the while, guess what? Just like the younger son, we want the father's stuff and not the father. Just like the younger son who was rebailing against the rules. We just want God to see our activities, whether that's giving money, whether that's, you know, telling people about Jesus, whatever it is, and we say, God, now you owe me, I'm entitled to these things because of what I have done. You see, the truth of the matter is that the younger son and the older son are very much the same, though outwardly they look different. Because that's not the gospel. The gospel isn't for you are saved by your works. The gospel is you are saved by Christ's works. And so this morning, when we think about gospel, we need to understand that our tendency is to either lean towards being a rule follower or being a rebel. That is the tendency of the human heart. Towards being a moral performer or being morally indifferent. To say, I'm gonna follow you, Jesus, but I'm gonna do that at the cost of you owing me something. I've always got a favor I can ask of you because look at my life. In fact, in this story, it's crazy. The older son, when the father goes out to him, he says something that's really ridiculous. He says, I have never disobeyed you. Did you catch that? I have never disobeyed you. Do you think that's true?

unknown 23:44

No.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

No. See, all these kids know that. They know that.

unknown 23:49

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

You say we've we've never, and yet sometimes in our heart, that's what's there. That is the underlying mindset. And we become self-righteous, we become entitled. And we might even call this rule-following religion. Now, some of you may think that you're here today participating in a religious service. But I would actually argue with you that what we do as Christians is actually anti-religion. And here's why. Because religion at its baseline, when you look at religion across the world, when you look at humanity, what you will find is that religion says, I perform so that God will love me, so that God will accept me. I do these things so that God will like me and accept me into his family. But the gospel says, I have been accepted because of Christ. So now everything I do is response to his goodness. It's the anti-religion. It's not that we are trying to climb up a mountain to get to the top where we can be with God. It's that he came off the mountain and carried us up the mountain with him to be with him. He did what we cannot do. Are you with me? And that's why we worship. That's why when we sing these songs, they have meaning and they move us and they stir us, is because God, we are hopeless and helpless causes apart from your grace and your mercy. As a kid growing up, I remember so often how that when I did the wrong thing, I would try to make up for it by doing the right thing. I remember a time when I spilled a candle. My parents had told us 1,800 times, do not touch this candle. Quit dipping your finger in the candle and making it look waxy. It's just not funny. And I just kept doing it and I kept doing it until one day, what happened? The candle ended up in the middle of the linoleum floor. We had linoleum, for those of you that remember linoleum. It was ugly. And it fell in the middle of the floor, and wax went everywhere. And I did everything I could to clean that up. And mom comes in, and I am washing the dishes. I am folding the clothes. I am doing everything I can to make her happy. And you laugh because all of you have done this. Because every single one of us in here have tried to make up for our bad stuff by doing enough good stuff. And let me just tell you today, we can't. It didn't work with my mom. It definitely won't work with God. You can't do enough good things to earn God's forgiveness and his grace. It's a gift. But let's go on. Because there's a third key character in this story, and that is the Father. But as we think about how do we live in light of the gospel, this third way that God has shown us we can live is as restored or rescued. That we can live our lives as a person who has been rescued. Notice what happens when the younger son comes to his senses. We said a while ago, he's in the pig slop, and he has this moment where he goes, Are you kidding me? I really can't believe I'm here right now. How in the world did I get to the place where I'm eating with pigs? My dad's servants eat better than this. I'll just go back, I'll beg him, I'll plead with him, and surely he will accept me, he will take me back. So he gets his plan together and he starts to head back. And in this story, we see him really broken, really returning to God, to his father, is this the story to his father, who represents God, for salvation and resting in his grace. This is the third way that you and I can choose to live. Is we can say, God, I'm gonna stop trying to perform for you. God, I'm gonna stop ignoring you and avoiding you because I don't like what you say, and I'm just going to trust you, and I'm going to remember that I don't deserve anything and I can't earn anything, and I'm just going to surrender myself to you. Now, here's the thing, here's what I've heard. The reason that the gospel offends us so much is because if God really does give us salvation, listen to me. If God really does give us salvation as a gift, then there's nothing that He could ask of us that we should say no to. Right? I mean, let me say it this way. If I go to my kids, my son Leaf is in here, and I said, son, I'm going to give you $1,000. But then the next day, our car breaks down and I need $500. And I go back to him and I say, Leif, I need $500 of that $1,000 back. He better not say no. Sorry, Dad. It's mine now. Okay, that's a whole nother topic with money. But the illustration is true that, listen, if God has given us everything, if God has given us life for eternity and he has given us our jobs, he's given us our relationships, he's given us everything that we need that really satisfies, he offers everything, then there's nothing he can't ask us to give back to him and surrender to him and submit to him. And I think that's what scares the heck out of us. I honestly believe that that's what scares us to death. Because we're like, if I truly give God credit for all of my salvation, then he might ask me to do something I don't want to do. But listen, he knows what you need better than you know what you need. And he is a good heavenly father. In the story, we see the father. And we don't just see the father as this stoic figure. We see this father and his heart for his son. Because what happens? The younger son, he goes back to the father, and as he gets to where he's seeing, I mean, you can imagine this. Imagine this son. I mean, imagine this father. He's sitting up on the porch. He's sitting there and he's watching off in the distance. And maybe he's even praying. Man, I just pray for my son. I don't know where he's at right now. I don't know what he's doing, but I'm just praying. God, would you please bring him home? Some of you parents in this room, you've prayed prayers like that for your kids. For those of you that have older kids, you've prayed for prodigals. He's sitting, maybe he was even just teared up, just praying. Maybe he's on his knees praying, crying out, God, would you just bring my son home? And he sees, way off in the distance, he sees this little, little small outline of a person. And he can tell by the walk. That's my son. That's my boy. That's the one that I love who's left. I haven't stopped loving him. I was angry with him. I was frustrated with him, but I haven't stopped loving him. And it says in the text that he gets up. Now, this culturally would have totally wigged these guys out. But it says that he ran. So they wore a little bit different clothing than we do today. Like robes and layers. And so literally he tucks his robe up into his belt somehow. If you can imagine that, it looks silly. He tucks it up and he starts running with his little white legs that hadn't seen the sun ever. And he runs to his son and he doesn't let him even say a word. He embraces him. How awesome is that? How amazing is that moment when this son who was lost is embraced by his daddy. He's embraced by his father who loves him. And not only that, but his son or his dad, the father, he gives him a ring. In that story. That ring symbolizes the symbol for the family, the signet ring that would have been used to seal letters and contracts and all those things, and he gives him the family ring as if to say to him, listen, you are still in the family, and I love you. What a powerful, powerful moment. And the son starts to go through all of his, hey, like God, you know, I know I was in wrong. Can you just make me a servant? Can you just like make me? I mean, he's just trying to do everything he can to grovel at his dad's feet. And the dad just says, Listen, hey, we're having a party. Go get the fattened calf. Let's celebrate my son who was dead, is now alive, he was lost, and now he's found. What an awesome story. But there's a sad part of this story. Because as I said, there's the rule following son. And he's outside pouting. His lips on the ground. It's so big. He's pouting outside. He's frustrated. And in the story, the father goes out to him as well. You notice that? The father doesn't just run to the son who's been in rebellion, but he he walks outside to the son who has been rule following. And he says to him, Come in. Come in. Come on. But who resists in this story? The rule follower. Because I believe that many times it's the rule followers that have the hardest time embracing the heart of the Father. Because we still have this sense of entitlement that we deserve something. Listen. God is calling us home. He's calling us to come to Him, to be with Him, to rest in His grace. Not in our performance, but in His grace. And I don't know where you are today, but some of you are in rebellion. Some of you said, forget you, God. I think most of the people have said, forget you, God, aren't here today. Because they just don't want to have to deal with God. If I go to that church service, then I might get convicted. I might have to hear something I don't want to hear. But there's a whole group of us in this room that are struggling as rule followers today. And we need God to soften our hearts again to Him, to break us and to remind us that it's in Christ alone. But there's an interesting part of this story that I want to draw our attention to as we close out today. There's an implied character in the story. There's an implied person who's not actually listed in the story. Now it would have been odd to those who were hearing because in Luke 15, Jesus had just told two parables prior to this one about a lost coin and a lost sheep. There was a lady who swept her house because she was trying to find this coin and she swept and she swept and she swept. And if she was at my house, she would have to swept, swept, swept, swept, sweep. She had sweep a whole lot, right? Not because our house is dirty, but because we got so many kids. She had to like look under them, look around them. And she's getting, she finds this coin. And in the story of the parable, the lost sheep, there's a shepherd who he leaves the 99 to go get the one. You know the story? He leaves behind the 99, he goes and gets the one, and then he he throws that sheep over his shoulders and he carries them all the way back and celebrates with his friends. I found the one that was lost. But in this story, no one goes to get the lost son. Have you noticed that? No one goes to get the lost son. I mean the father runs and greets him when he returns, but no one gets him. But in that culture, whose job would that have been? It actually would have been the job of the elder brother. It would have been the job of the older brother to go as the representative of the father to go out and to find the younger son in the slop. But where is he? He's back at the house, enjoying, rule following, just biding his time until his dad dies so he gets what he wants, what he really wants. Here's the implied character in the story. I believe Jesus was saying that he, Jesus, is the true elder brother. That Jesus is the one who is greater than that elder brother in the story because rather than rejecting the responsibility to go and to get the lost son, he gets up from where he is in heaven, is what Philippians 2 tells us in other passages, that he gets up from next to the Father and he comes to us and he pursues us and he purchases us with his own blood. You see, salvation is free to us, but it is very expensive to the one who's offered us forgiveness. It's expensive because it cost Jesus Christ his life as the true elder brother, as the one who was willing to come to us to call us home. The gospel is not religion. The gospel is not irreligion. It's something completely different altogether. It is a message that we have been brought home to the person and work of Jesus. So today, I don't know where you are, but I do know that the invitation to come home and to enjoy the feast is available to you. As we transition this morning to closing out with some time of worship, I'm going to ask you to reach down and I want you to grab this little communion cup. And I want you to hear this. In the story, it says that they threw a feast, a party. I don't know if you know this or not, but in the Bible, we're actually told that the heaven is going to be a great party. It's going to be a big celebration of all those who have come home, both the rule followers and the rebels. That we're all going to come home and we're going to worship Jesus. But when Jesus was leaving the earth, he did a simple act we call communion, where after washing his disciples' feet, he held up a glass of wine, and he held up some bread. And he said, This is my body that was broken for you, and this is the blood that was shed for you. And he said, When you eat this, when you drink this, do this, in remembrance of me, remember that I have paid the price for you to join the feast. And what he tells us there is he says that when he comes back, when he comes back, that we're going to join him in a giant celebration, a giant feast. And that we're going to take this meal, we're going to take bread and we're going to take wine, and we're going to, we're actually going to take it with Jesus. What an awesome thought. That the one that this symbolizes us will serve us. So, in awe of that truth this morning. So if you take that bread, and we remember, this is Christ's body broken. Let's take and eat. And you take the blood, this juice symbolizes it, and remember that Christ's blood was spilled for us, the elder brothers. So these guys lead us as we close out. And if you need someone to pray with you today, I pray that you would move from where you are to where you can come and we can pray for you. But don't miss this opportunity to accept the invitation to come home. Because the Father is waiting. The Father is waiting. No matter where you are, no matter what you've done, he's waiting. And he loves you. God, thank you so much for the beauty of the gospel. Thank you that we don't have to perform to get your acceptance, but we have it in Christ. Thank you that even in our rule following, when we try to avoid you by just doing the right things and looking good, but all the while like we're all about ourselves, God, thank you that you still come and you compel us to come to you. You call us to come home. God, I just pray this morning, if there's anyone that has heard this message, that is struggling, God, Holy Spirit, would you just help them to know that you will meet them where they are? Help me this morning as a pastor to stop depending on my performance as a pastor to save me and to look to you, Jesus. Help us to repent of our self salvation projects. We pray us in your strong and awesome name. Amen.