Lost

But moms are made different, aren't they? They're unique. One, they carried another human in their body for nine months, something I will never do. And no matter what you see on the news, not possible. All right.

And so I want to honor moms as we get started today and just remind you some of the ways that she's special. When you're a baby, she knows your cry and dad doesn't. FYI, dad might know there is crying, but it blows my mind how a mom there could be like a nursery of 30, 40 babies, and it's like, that one's mine. How did you know? They just know.

There's studies on it. I've read the studies. I still don't get it. They just know. Maybe it's a special connection you have because you lived inside of her body.

I don't know. As a toddler, she read you the same book 47 times in a row and didn't complain. That is love, just so you know, cuts the crust off your sandwich or however it is you like your food. And she still remembers today how you like that. How about that for mom in elementary school, she knew all your friends names, all of the teachers names, all the drama.

And I don't mean if you were in theater, all the different things that happened. She can still remember the kid that was mean to you when you were in third grade. How about that? Moms are special. And then as you grew to adolescence and eventually she went to all your performances, even the ones that were really hard to endure.

Anybody here play the recorder for music class? I guarantee nobody's favorite band has a recorder solo in it, just so you know. Yeah, but she cried when you played the recorder solo, probably poorly. And there you go. Maybe you play in the symphony, the recorder now.

If so, please talk to me in the lobby. I've never met anyone doing that. So when you're a teen, she learns to listen more than teachers. When you get to college, praise God for Venmo and that she always has the refrigerator full when you come back. And moms are special, right?

And as special as you are moms, none of you are perfect. I don't put a bunch of pressure on you today. Today's message is not Proverbs 31. And I hope you have a business you started and a job that you do in addition, and you make close to your family. And you're always there for everything.

I'm not gonna do that. Today we're actually gonna talk about our Heavenly Father, and you'll have some overlap in the way that you love your kids and the way that you see his love. But the message is really to change many of our paradigms for who he is. And many of you come in here with preconceived ideas about how even the story that I'm gonna read to you goes. And some of you have heard it so many times, it'll be easy to hear it like it's a movie that you've already seen where you start folding laundry or checking your email.

If you actually pay attention to what Jesus is trying to do here, it'll blow up all your paradigms. And it's not just a story of grace, and it's the prodigal son story. Luke, chapter 15. If you've got a Bible and moms, I'm sure that you can probably relate to losing things. How many moms here would acknowledge maybe you've lost your kids before at a store, at a friend's, you turn around, you're.

Where do they go? What happened? Okay, done that. Maybe at the very least you've lost your keys. And whenever you lose something valuable to you, maybe your wedding ring, maybe keys, maybe the dog ran away.

Like, different things happen. You go looking like, no, most people don't just go, ah, dog ran away. But we feed him, so he's probably coming back. Maybe you do. Most people don't.

I remember a stage of life that we were in when I was driving all four of our girls to school in the morning. My wife's a nurse. She gets up at 4:30. She's usually gone from the house before anybody else wakes up. And as much as you might like to think that mornings at a pastor's house start with devotions and then prayer at breakfast and we politely walk out of the house together, that is your fantasy, not my reality.

Just so you know, what happens at our house is four girls would come out. We had pure chaos. We also have two dogs. So just because we were bored and so we added that in there. And everybody's got different personalities, right?

Like we got One that's like 15 minutes early, is on time. Others that are like, I'll wake up right when I'm supposed to be there, like all of that happens and it's always chaotic. And since we've lived in the house, because I know I'm forgetful, I have a system. The first thing I do when I come in the house, I put my keys on a hook. One day amidst the normal chaos, the keys weren't on the hook and I started to Go hysteric.

Because I've already got all the drama taking place. I'm flipping cushions out of the couch, looking for my keys, looking in drawers, cursing my wife because she's more of a free spirit. I'm more anal. The drawers reflect her free spirit. So I can't find anything.

Then I moved from hysterical to historical. Historical is I started to go through my steps. Maybe I left them in the door. Nope, not in the door. Maybe I left them in the car.

What did I do? They have to be somewhere. Just like your mom told you. The keys didn't stop existing. So then I went from historical to accusatory.

I began to interrogate my children. How many tests do you have today? Who has motive? Who hid my keys? And right before I'm about to pull up the big lamps and put them in a room and separate them and do all that stuff, my wife calls Shan.

So. Oh, okay. What's going. Hey, Scott, I realize that your keys are in my nursing bag. What?

Stethoscope, band aid. Scott's keys. Like, well, how does that happen? But I was pursuing them because they were lost. What we've been seeing in Luke chapter 15 is that Jesus has been telling stories.

We're doing a series called the Stories Jesus Told. Oftentimes, the stories he told were parables. A parable is a story that's thrown alongside of a truth. Is the story true? Not in the sense that it historically happened, but in the sense that it's accurate to the truth that Jesus is illustrating.

Yes. And so Jesus tells three stories in a row, and they're all about lost things. They increase in value. And the ratio to the things lost and things found changes as you go through the stories. First, it's a sheep.

One sheep leaves the hundred that were already there. And the shepherd, a good shepherd like Jesus, goes after the one. And the story ends in verse seven. In the same way, all of heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents. Then there's coins, and one coin out of ten coins.

And so it goes from 1 to 100 to 1 to 10, and then verse 10. In the same way, all of heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents. And in the story today, if you're a parent, will be easy to relate to. It's oftentimes mistitled the prodigal son. But that puts all the attention on this younger brother.

And it's not that the attention should be shifted to the older brother. It's that the attention should be on the Father. And what we're going to see in the story is there are multiple ways to be lost. I've titled today's message Lost. And what we're going to see is the heart of the Father for the lost.

But what we need to see is are we lost? And in what way? Because we're going to see. There are more than you could imagine ways to be lost. The younger one's easy to focus on because he's the most obvious way to be lost in rebellion.

But remember our context. The context of our passage went back to chapter 14, where Jesus is meeting with some religious leaders, Pharisees they called them. These people were oftentimes driven by pride. Everyone isn't exactly the same, but at the root of trying to accomplish religion in your own strength, you have to at some level become self righteous because you're doing so many things other people aren't doing. And that's what they were.

And so Jesus intentionally offends them not to be a jerk. The point's not Jesus is a jerk. Jesus is offensive. So you go be offensive. That's not the point.

Jesus cares about them so much, he's got to get past the religious noise in their heads to try and get to their hearts. And that's why he uses stories. We've seen in this series that stories have power because we emotionally engage with stories in a way different than we do with stats, in a way different than we do with just declarational truth. And Jesus was the master storyteller. These Pharisees are offended and angry at him.

And he's told multiple stories in Luke chapter 14, and he comes down to talking about the cost of following him, which should rock our worlds when we think about our experience of Christianity. Verse 27, he says this, whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Then he tells some stories about counting the cost. Number 33 says this in the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Well, that's interesting in a world where if you go to church, they pick you up in a golf cart, drive you to the front door, bring you inside, give you a gift for being a guest, walk you to your seat, make sure the room's got the right temperature for you, is the lighting okay, is the band cool enough, is the speech engaging enough, but it's not about you.

How can you even think that? How is there not some cognitive dissonance in reading something like this after your experience with Christianity? He goes on the same way. Those who do not Give up. Everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Numbers 34. Salt is good, but only. But if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor the manure pile. It's thrown out, useless.

Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.

It's not just hear the words, it's not just know the story he's saying. Whatever God's speaking to your heart, hear the message, and that's what I hope for you today. And then in verses one and two, we see the audience of the stories Jesus has been telling. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. That's sometimes hard for us to hear too, in our churches today, because you've probably heard that we're all sinners.

It's true. Romans 3:23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We've all blown it. And the Bible says if you break the law in one way, it's like you've broken the whole thing.

And we understand that. So we don't get the punch of what's happening here. The self righteous, the Pharisees that are also there, they feel like, yeah, but those are sinners, like the bad ones, and tax collectors, terrorists, traitors. And so they're judging Jesus, arms folded and angry. The sinners and tax collectors and their brokenness and need for help are leaning in.

And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners, and they're not mad that he preaches to them, but they're mad that he eats with them because that shows they belong. Then he tells the stories about the sheep, about the coin, and then join me. In verse 11, Jesus continued, he tells a third story. There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, father.

And he uses a command here, he's the younger son. This is an honor. Shame, culture, this is unacceptable. He commands his father, give me my share of the estate right now. If you're a listener of this, whether you're a Pharisee or a tax collector or one of the other sinners, you're thinking, oh, this dad, and rightfully so, is about to beat this son within an inch of his life.

Some of you were raised in my generation and you're like, that's right, yeah. So what happens next is shocking. It's one of the first glimpses we get of the Father. So he divided his property between them.

He gave them what they wanted. The Bible refers to that as wrath. Sometimes One of the hardest things you can do as a parent is let your kids fail. We see our Heavenly Father doing that here because the Father is a picture of our Heavenly Father. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had.

He liquidates these assets because he needs cash, probably takes the short end of the stick on some deals and set off for a distant country. There he squandered. And you might underline that. It becomes relevant later when we talk about the older brother squandered his wealth in wild living. And that is how God, Jesus, as he's describing this, states what he did after he'd spent everything.

There was a severe famine because life happens. Bad things take place in that whole country. And he began to be in need. So he went and he hired himself out to a citizen of that country, the far off land, who sent him to feed to his field, to feed pigs. That would be offensive too.

There's a lot of shocking things in this story. A Jewish boy with an inheritance, a rich Jewish boy, is now not only with pigs, he's feeding the pigs. And it gets worse. He wishes he could eat their food. That's how hungry he is.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. But no one gave him anything when he came to his senses. And that's a pivot point in the passage. Because every person has to come to this point where you see yourself as you really are. And that's what happens.

And that's the gift the father gave him when he gave him all the stuff, knowing he was gonna fail, knowing he would come face to face with his own emptiness. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants not, how's my older brother doing? How many of the hired servants have food to spare? And here I am starving to death. I'll set out and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven.

First God. Oh, he's got perspective. And against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. That's true.

Make me like one of your hired servants. If you just take this and this is all you focus on, which is traditionally what's happened in this passage. It's a great story of grace, but you miss that what Jesus is doing. Don't forget the context is verses one and two. Who's the audience?

It's those religious guys that think that Jesus is on trial. And what Jesus does here, it's like, have you ever seen a court case that Ended different than you expected when it started. Let me ask again, how many of you were alive during O.J. simpson trial? The glove doesn't fit.

You must acquit. You saw the Bronco. Everybody's like, everybody knows he did it. Not guilty. What?

That's how Jesus is telling these stories. Because when the Pharisees hear the first and second story, they go, yeah, yeah, the problem's the. See how much trouble. See how much pain is caused. That means the shepherd goes and risks his life for one.

Most shepherds wouldn't do that. But he's pointing to different kind of love than most people have ever seen or thought of, blowing paradigms. And then he ties it back. All of heaven rejoices. One sinner repents.

All of heaven rejoices. One sinner repents. Remember why they're sitting there? They're mad at Jesus because he eats with sinners and tax collectors. And he tells this story, and it does not end that way.

It does not end. All of heaven rejoices with one sinner that repents. So the point of the story is not this turning point. What we see is there's multiple ways to be lost. And here's your outline for today.

First we see the younger son lost in rebellion. Then we see the older son lost in religion. But the main point is that the heavenly Father is lost in translation because neither one of the sons, and probably no one listening to the story, grasped who the Father was. And so what should happen, if you'll open your heart to what I believe God has for us this morning, is that any small view you have of God should be blown up today and then replaced with something you probably didn't expect. Look at it.

The rebellion is the easiest clearest to see. Remember the audience. Verses one and two we see here. And he tells the stories. Verse seven, verse ten.

If you got your own Bible, which you should bring your Bible, because then you can see if what I'm saying is true, because it might be true type stuff, but it might not be true from the passage. And if you have your Bible, you can always look at the context and context. Get the store. Verse 7, verse 10. There's this theme, 1 of 101 out of 10.

Now we got 2 of 2, and the first of the 2 of 2, I want you to realize he's lost before he ever leaves. Did you see that? How many of you remember the show Lost? That was on TV? It was in, I don't know, 24, 2010.

I think it was you guys. How many saw that just so I know how much I have to tell. Okay. A bunch of you. All right?

Everybody with gray hair. All right. Got it? Yeah.

If you hadn't seen that show, what happens is a commercial flight crashed on an island. And anybody who watched the show, especially over those seasons, changed the way they took every flight after that point. Because now you start to get on flights, and you're not just getting to your seat, you're going, all right, who's a liability, who's an asset? This guy can't even get his bag in the overhead. I'm gonna take care of him.

If we crash, who's gonna have a romance? Like, what's all this stuff? All this stuff. Have you seen the show? But did you notice in the show, one of the things they did that was revolutionary in that show at that time was they would show a main character, Jack, who was a doctor, and he's struggling with something on the island.

He's helping people out. But then they flashback. They used the flashback and the flashback where there was Kate, and she's in handcuffs, or Sawyer, and he's angry and frustrated, or Locke, and he's already upset and bitter before he ever got on a plane. Jack's Morning. All of the characters are lost before the plane ever crashes.

That's what's being shown and told in the story. And so they'll show something on the island, and it's almost a metaphor for what was already true. The plane crash just took away all the pretenses and got rid of all the stuff that they used to hide their lostness from themselves and the rest of the world. But they were all already lost before the plane crashed. That's what Jesus is doing here.

He's showing us there are a lot of people that are lost. And we think it only looks like this guy over here squandering his money. He was lost before he ever left. Did you notice that in the passage? Go back.

We get the setting. There's two sons in verse 11. Then verse 12, the younger one said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate.

I want your stuff. I don't want you. Most of us would never be so bold to say that to God, but a lot of people use him that way. I want your gifts. I'm not interested in your relationship, your presence.

It sounds good in, like, a worship song. And if it's a good feeling, I'll take that. But really, I just want you to make my life go the way that I want it to go. That's what's happening here. That's what this is a picture of.

Give me your stuff. Because the inheritance didn't come until after the father died. So this is offensive. He's basically saying to his father, I wish you were dead. Can I have my stuff now?

And Deuteronomy says, the way that you divide it up is that this younger son would get a third of the estate and the older son would get two thirds of the estate. And the dad does it, and he gives them their stuff. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, just probably a picture of him liquidating the assets he's given animals, property, different things, and he set off for a distant country. Why? Why would he do that?

Why would he go to that? Because he believed a lie that we've all believed at some point. The grass is greener. We talked about it a little bit when we talked about the sheep. What happened to this add sheep that wandered off from the hundred sheep?

The grass was greener somewhere, literally. Probably greener grass for that sheep. For us, it comes more like this. You remember when you were a little kid and you wanted to be older because then you could do more stuff? I remember having conversations with my kids where I would say, like, this is just how it is.

You just got to eat your vegetables. Nobody likes the vegetables. You just got to eat the vegetables. That's a rule. And they'd say things like, I can't wait till I'm your age, and I don't have any rules.

And I'm like, taxes, stop signs. Like, we have way more rules you don't even understand yet. But then you long for the next stage. And so they want to get bigger. And then we go on and go to school, and then they start getting homework, and they're like, I don't know if I like this so much, but maybe when I get to college, college is fun.

Maybe I'll get a real job. And then it's like, once you're an adult, you're like, man, I wish I was a kid.

It's the cycle. The cycle of the grass is greener. The grass is greener. There's a cycle in the Bible. It's a cycle of sin.

Adam and Eve fell into it. They had perfect relationship with God, but that's not enough. Try to imagine what it was like to be this younger brother here. We don't know what his relationship was like with his older brother. Did they just constantly have a rivalry?

We don't know if they were 18 months apart or 18 years apart, we don't know.

We don't know if the dad was too strict.

We don't know if the dad was so loose that nothing really mattered. We don't know. We do know they were rich because they've got hired servants at the dad's beck and call the moment he wants something. They've got a robe, they've got a lamb that's probably big enough to feed 200 people. And they can throw a party for 200 people at the drop of a hat, but it's not enough.

So I want what's mine. Give it to me. And I don't want you. And it goes to a distant land, some of your translations say, or a far off country. Why?

Why that?

Well, sometimes we want to go where everybody knows our name. Sometimes we want to go where nobody knows our name. And why would you want to go to a place where nobody knows you? Because then you can create the Persona that you desire. You can curate your life.

It's called social media. Now, in the Bible, it was called a far off land. You get to present to the world what you want to be true of your life. And that's what he wanted. What he didn't realize would happen is that once he got everything that he wanted, who he truly is would be exposed.

The emptiness that he felt at home before he ever left was exposed once he wasted all of the things that he had put his hope in when the money was gone and difficulty came not because of his disobedience, just because that's how everyone there experienced the famine. And before we judge him, because he's out with pigs as a Jewish guy and he should have known better than that. And he's not only with the pigs, he's feeding the pigs. And he wants to eat what the pigs eat. And it just keeps getting progressively worse and worse and worse.

If you're a Jewish listener to this, to this story, and more and more offensive, I mean, we've experienced a shutdown and people went nuts. Two weeks in your house with TV and conditioned air. You read in the Bible what people do in famines. It's beyond what I should say on a Mother's Day. I'll just say that there's one story in Second Kings where people are paying big money for donkey head.

I don't know what you're doing today for lunch after church. Anybody getting donkey head? Anybody? Anybody? The same guy that plays the recorder?

Definitely. See me in the lobby? Yeah. He's desperate. And in desperate times, people do things they would think they would never do.

And that's where he's at. But he has this moment where he turns and he comes home. See, what happens in rebellion is your emptiness gets exposed. But the emptiness is not to shame you. It's an invitation to you.

And so if you're a rebel today, and I don't just mean the rebel who dreams about being able to do whatever they want, that's the same heart. You just haven't left home yet. And here's the reality. In the next year, five years, you probably will in a second. I'm gonna remind you why he came back.

And it's not just because he felt so bad, but the emptiness you feel in your heart. Whether you've left God or not is your invitation to come back. The older brother has a different invitation. First, there's rebellion through being lost through rebellion. Then there's being lost through religion.

Just as verse 11 set up the younger brother story, the father has two sons. The younger son, okay, the response of the younger son is setting up the story. Because notice it doesn't end in the same way. All of heaven rejoice. You'd think it would.

That's how you'd think the story would end. It's actually a setup for the next character. So you see what happens. He comes to himself. We read that already in verse 17.

That has to happen. He sees himself for who he is, takes responsibility for his own sin. But then you see what happens here. And remember who Jesus is speaking to, the Pharisees that are judging him. James chapter one tells us the cycle of sin that I alluded to.

You can read verses 14 and 15 on your own. James chapter one also says that God's word is like a mirror. No one looks into a mirror and forgets what they look like. What the jury that's judging Jesus is about to realize is Jesus ain't the one on trial to pause for a second and think about who Jesus is. He is God.

John chapter one tells us that Jesus is the Word and the Word became flesh. He's the very word of God. He's the word of God. He says himself. John 14, I am the truth.

Which makes it really interesting when you see how Jesus interacts with people in the Bible. Here's a guy who has all of the answers and he asks most of the questions. I was doing a study this week on my own, not even for the sermon, just curious to me about how many questions Jesus asked. And I wondered if anybody had counted it up. And then I thought, how many questions was Jesus asked because he gets asked a lot of questions.

183 in the Gospels. Do you know how many he directly answers? 3.

You know how many questions he asks? Different estimates by different people who've counted. And you can count in different ways because sometimes it's the same event and two stories and it's like, do we count that once or twice? All of them are over 300. So for every question he directly answered, he asked a hundred additional questions and he's the one with all the answers.

You know why? Many times we go to Jesus with our questions thinking we're putting him on trial. He's not on trial. He's God. He is not sitting here with the Pharisees looking at him like this thinking, I better prove myself.

He's God. He's got nothing to prove.

The people that think they're in the jury box are about to find out they're the ones on trial.

And they think because they're leaning into the story now going, see how bad that kid was? See how bad that son was. We forgot about the other brother. And that's the mirror. When he came to his senses, verse 17.

He said, how many of my father's hired servants might underline that in just a minute, have food to spare. And here I am starving to death. It's a famine. Probably literally means he's starving to death.

Then you look at what happens next. I'll set out, this is what I'm going to do. He comes up with a plan. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned. Interesting that he starts off with against God, against heaven and against you.

The verse 19. He sees himself accurately. Verse 17. Here's what it looks like. I'm not worthy to be called your son.

That doesn't fly in a self help age. But it is true, we're not worthy to be his children. Verse 20. So he got up and he went to the father. So he's got his speech.

Have you ever pre written a speech that you go over in your head and maybe you're gonna ask a girl out? All right, I noticed you. I noticed you noticing me. All right. No, that's not.

I noticed. And you're thinking about the speech. Or maybe you messed up and you did leave your kids at school and you're supposed to pick them up and after practice and now it's 8 o'. Clock. All right.

I do love you. And it wasn't I forgot you. So I thought your dad was gonna like have you ever gone through a speech or maybe you've got a relationship that's not reconciled? And you think when I see them. And maybe you're gonna tell them off, or maybe you're gonna tell em how much you love them.

When you go over the speech. Well, this guy, remember, he was in a distant country. There are not a lot of lines here. And we get this summary. What do you think that was like on the walk back?

All right, Father, I've sinned against you. I'm not worthy to be your. Should I say that or should I do? What do you think that walk was like? He's going over the speech.

And then notice what happens. And we'll come back to the father, but we can't miss it right now. He got up and he went to his father. Well, he was still a long way off. So as soon as the dad could see him.

Which probably means the dad's been looking every day since he left. We don't know if he's been gone for months or years, but dad's going out and checking. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. And he was filled with compassion. That means he felt his son's pain.

Moms, you know what that's like. And he ran to his son. We'll come back to that. Threw his arms around him and kissed him. And then the son, he's got his chance.

He's been rehearsing the speech. Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said. He interrupts his speech.

Speech is only a few lines.

Spiro, I know you've done some poetry and you memorize the poetry. Can you imagine? Like, a few lines in. They were like, we got it. You'd be like, but I have more.

I have more to give you. Some of you just rush for, like, I need to repent. I'd be like, no, no, I'm not done with the sermon. That'd be dumb. The dad, he turns and he doesn't speak to his son, tells the servants, go get the best.

The best, the best. Look what happens. Please. The father said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

The Greek says, the best sandals, the best ring, the best robe. The best robe we know would be the father's own robe.

The ring would be a signature ring, which is what you would. It's authority. You're signing envelopes, sealing contracts with the ring and the sandals were a sign. You're not a servant, you're a son. You're not here to clean feet.

Here, you can have my sandals. The best.

That's the setup for what happens next. The dad says, bring the fattened calf. Kill it. We don't know exactly how big it is, but most scholars leave feed 200 people. Let's have a feast and celebrate.

For the son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and he's found. So they began to celebrate. And he's about to expose how the other guys felt when they heard the first two stories.

Remember the audience. It's verses one and two. The people in the story are made up. Meanwhile, the older son was. Oh yeah, older son.

We forgot about him. He was in the field, so he's working. And what's he working on? Don't forget the one son is squandered. That's the language that Luke uses.

The first third of everything they owned. The next 2/3 all belongs to the older son. And the dad divided it up and it's his. Some people say, why didn't the dad go looking for the older brother? Should have gone looking for his brother.

But it would have been at great expense to himself. Jesus is the true older brother. He comes voluntarily, sacrificially pursuing, laying his life down. This brother, is what religion will do to you. When he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

It's a Pentecostal party, not a Baptist one. And so he called one of the servants and he asked him what was going on. Why doesn't he call his dad? Why doesn't he call? There's lots of questions here.

Your brother has come. That's all he told him. And your father has killed the fattened calf, which you think to yourself, that's my fattened calf. It's not a sheep fattened calf. Because it feeds 200 people.

Because he has him back safe and sound. Because the dad was just saying that. The older brother became angry. He refused to go in. He's pouting little baby.

So his father don't miss this went out. The father leaves his own party. And he goes out the same as he ran to the first son. He's going out to this son and pleaded with him. I don't know what it's like when you arrive home, but how could you be mad at a party?

When my kids were little, they would run, that's all. They don't do that anymore. They're all Doing their own thing now. Right. I'm not shaming them for that.

Just what happens at the stage of life. Right. But it doesn't matter what my day's like. If I came home and there's a party, I'd be like, cool. I'm not Jewish.

Maybe it's a pig picking. Who knows what's going on? I don't know. Just glad there's a bunch of people dancing, singing. That's cool.

Who are these people, Shannon?

Not this guy. Why? Notice the contrast that the younger son said, I'd rather be a servant at my dad. I'm not worthy to be a son. I'll be a servant because even the servants are taking care better than I'm.

This is a better job than I have right now. I'm gonna be a servant. The dad doesn't even let him say that. You're not gonna be my servant. You're my son.

The best. The best. The best. This guy is a son is at the house, but has the mentality of a servant. Don't you see?

All I've done, all the work, I've never disobeyed. He goes on to say, I do all the right stuff. He rejects relationship through religion. The first guy rejected relationship through rebellion. This one's far more deceptive.

And only you know what's really happening in your heart. Well, the first son had emptiness. The second one has entitlement. And so some of you, maybe you were born into the church. You've always been there.

Yeah, maybe you had some wild days in college and then you're back, but you're like, do you see all that I do for God? Do you see the things that are happening? If I do this stuff, then doesn't he owe me? You don't want to say those words, but it's in your heart. And that's not to expose you.

I just want you to know that it's there because God's intentionally showing us lostness in different pictures. And some of us think that lostness is just prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners. There are a lot of lost people in the church of America. That's why the sinners aren't drawn to the church. Because what's gonna draw them is not a cooler service or more golf carts or better programs.

People that are so wrecked by grace that they think, maybe I need what they have.

And that can't happen when the church is full of older brothers. Because the older brothers are going, oh, Jesus did so much for me. That's the least I Can do back for him. That's debtor theology. It's wrong.

Jesus paid a debt you couldn't pay, so he's not asking you to pay it back. He's like the Father in the store. I just want you. And some of us get caught up and being like this older brother and going, but didn't you see what I did in the nursery? And I was there for vbs.

And then I showed up and nobody else was there. And I set up chairs. I took down chairs and I was doing that. You obey so that he will pay, right? You don't want to say that, but that's what you're saying.

You're lost in religion. And your entitlement in your heart is God's invitation for you to come home. Look what happens. The Father comes out to the son in verse 28. He became angry.

He wouldn't go in. He's got the heart of an employee. Notice this, and remember, employee. He's like you. Prove you long.

Prove that you're accepted. Prove that you've done enough so that you can get the bonus check. The son. You just are there because you're the son. Look what this guy does.

Look, all these years I've been slaving for you. That's a significant word. And notice he doesn't call him Father. The Father has spoken to him and he says, look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. He's so blind to his own sin.

In an honor shame culture, one of the ten Commandments in our Bibles.

Honor your mother and father. Look, I'm always obedient to you. You owe me. That's not honorable.

At least the first son was honest. I wish you were dead. The second son is so deceptive. I just want your stuff too. But I'll pretend to be in relationship with you to get it.

But it's still a transaction. I've always obeyed, yet you didn't even give me. I don't know how much time you spend on a farm. The fat calf, a better animal than a goat. Goats are gross.

If you've never been on a farm, you never gave me even a young goat. Couldn't I at least have some flank steak so we could have fajitas? You're over here giving him filet. Come on. I'm gonna have a flank steak.

Come on. So I could celebrate with my friends. What kind of party is that gonna be? Oh, see, an employee works for acceptance. A son is present from acceptance Employees, it's transactional.

I do the work, you pay the price. Sons, it's relational. I'm here for you because we're part of a family. It doesn't matter who does more, who does less. It's just we're together.

And some of you are so transactional, you couldn't even fathom what I just said. That's an invitation. Because what we don't want to happen is the third point, that the Father is lost in translation. Neither one of the sons understood the father. The younger son thought, I sinned, so I'm disqualified.

I didn't do enough good boy stuff. I did too many bad boy stuff, so I'm not even gonna be able to be a son anymore. And God blows that out of the water. The older son thinks I obeyed, so I deserve some stuff. And if you've ever thought God, I did all this stuff for you, and then this happened.

I'm not trying to shame you, but that's an invitation. That's the older brother. There are multiple ways to avoid intimacy with God, and one of them is using God to run from God. That's the older brother. That's the guys in verses one and two.

What are you going to show me, Jesus? I'm going to show you. You is what Jesus is saying so that then you can see him. Notice the Father back in the passage. We've already read verse 20.

So he got up and he went to his Father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.

God sees you and all the stuff you're trying to hide from everyone else. He sees that. And I don't mean and try and expose you and shame you. I mean, he knows exactly who you are. Do you?

Because the son finally saw himself and realized, I'm not worthy to be a son. If you think you're worthy to be God's child, you are misled.

He saw him and he hurt for him. That's what compassion means. He felt compassion for him and he ran to his son and he threw his arms around him and kissed him. Now here's what's happening in this Jewish culture that we easily miss. He's a long way.

As soon as he can see him in the distance, the Father's already count the cost. Remember our context, Luke 14. Count the cost. And he knows. In an honor shame culture, a dignified patriarch does not run, because in order to run, you had to pull your robe up.

In order to pull your robe up, you exposed your legs. And that would be scandalous as Silly as it sounds to us. And what the father is doing by running to the son. He could have just waited. The son's gonna.

They're gonna have the same place eventually anyways. He could have just sat and been like, all right, I'm glad you're here. Thanks. Come on out. Welcome home.

Make him a sign. Nope. He's running so that he can absorb the shame.

The shame will be on me. And we don't even need to know the details of what you've done. Notice in the passage, there's no mention of prostitutes until the older brother speaks. And how does he know what his younger brother's been doing? He's been in a far off country.

He doesn't. He's exposing the guys in verses one and two that are sitting there presumptuously assuming what the sins have been of the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the. And all the people that aren't allowed to come to the temple and worship, including shepherds.

The brother says he squandered. Same same word that's used in the early part, that is Luke intentionally uses vague words at the beginning. He squandered it. And reckless living, all reckless means, is making a decision without thinking of the consequences. And we've all done it.

Some are more prone to it than others, but we've all done that.

It doesn't say anything about prostitutes, but the older brother is sure ready to put that in there. The lurid details of somebody else's sin. Oh, they don't even know they're being exposed. And the father's saying, I'll take that shame. It sounds a lot like this passage in Hebrews, chapter 12.

Fix your eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame. Jesus was taking our shame on him, even though he committed no sins at the cross. Why? Because he wanted the same thing.

You want. You want joy. You want happiness. That's what the older brother wants. That's what the younger brother wants.

That's what every human heart wants, is we want to be happy. We want joy. Notice there's a party. He's going, come to my party. And he's going, just give me my stuff.

Henry Nguyen is a Bible commentator, a pastor. I don't agree with everything he says, but he's got a great statement about this passage. He says the far off land is actually symbolic of the empty heart and pursuit of unconditional love and looking in places it will never find it.

Where's your far off land. For the brother, it was staying at home physically but never being in intimacy. For the younger, it was chasing all of his fantasies. Remember what the dad does here? Gives him his robe, gives him his ring.

Do you know what you receive as a follower of Christ? When you trust Christ, you truly come to yourself. See who you are, turn to him. You're given every spiritual Blessing. Ephesians chapter 1.

Adopted into his family. You're told to wear the sandals that are feet, that are ready to walk in the good news of Jesus. You've been recruited into the army. Now you go and recruit other people. Ephesians, chapter six.

You get a robe of righteousness. It says this in Isaiah 61:10. I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness. Not because you were righteous, because you have the righteousness of Christ.

Because he took your shame and he gives you his righteousness. And you see this happening in this passage while he was still a long way off. The Father saw him, and he's filled with compassion. He runs to him, throws his arms around him, kissed him, and starts his speech and says, give him a robe and give him the sandals and give him the ring. And the older brother's angry, and we see the Father do the same thing.

The older son won't go in, but the Father goes after him. So what we see of the Father is he's not sitting in heaven like a lot of people perceive, waiting for you to clean up your act, or waiting for you to finally figure it out, or waiting like just, no, he's coming after you. You already found he's still coming. He's the hound of Heaven. He doesn't stop.

He's relentless in his love. That's what you're supposed to see here. Any thoughts you have about the way his love works, and when it doesn't do that, and when it does do this, boom, that's supposed to be all blown up.

And what he's showing you here is everybody's invited. Not everybody accepts the invitation. But that was the parable he just told in Luke 14. Now he's saying it another way, because the story doesn't have an ending. You don't know.

If the older brother responds, look what happens. He's angry. Verse 29. He answered his father, look, all these years I've been slaving for you. I've been acting like a servant, never disobeyed your orders, yet you've Never given me what I deserve, this entitled heart.

Even a goat. Verse 30. But when this son of yours doesn't even call him his brother. When your son ever have that your kids. Honey, come look what your child just did.

Yeah, that's what he's doing. Distancing himself. Your son doesn't call him father. He doesn't want relationship with anybody in this family, just wants their stuff. He squandered your property with prostitutes.

Comes home. No one's mentioned. You're the one that mentioned prostitutes. You kill the fattened calf for him. He's going, I'm offended.

And the dad's going, that's okay that you're offended. You're still invited. We can get past your self righteousness. If you can come to yourself and see your own pride, look at what happens. You've got to turn.

But when this son of yours who has squandered your stuff, does this verse 31. Remember how offensive both sons have been to the dad. I wish you were dead. Give me my stuff. First one.

Second one. Look, doesn't even call him dad. A whole sermon could be preached on verse 31. The very first two words, my son, how gentle and loving and radically different than anyone who's ever made up God in their own mind would ever come up with. He.

And he could just wipe them out. And he says, my child, you are always with me. Everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and alive again. He was lost and found.

And then what does the next verse say about what the older brother did? If you've got a Bible, you can look. It doesn't remember. They're made up characters. It's an invitation to all older brothers.

Come to the party. You want joy? How about here's how you move from frustration to fulfillment. Me? You need to actually want the father.

And if all you want is his gifts, even if he gives you the gifts, it's just gonna expose who you already are. So why not? Why not save the plane crash? Why not have to go through the famine, just turn to him. An older brother.

You're further off than your, your brother ever was because you don't even know you're lost.

Come home. Come to the party. That's the invitation to all of us. Let's pray. Bow our heads and our hearts before God.

Father, thank you for loving us in such a way that whether we identify more with the younger brother or the older brother, that for many of us you've shown us we were helpless, not we needed help, not we needed a hand, but that on our own, the life we could best live leaves us empty or entitled and they're both hollow. But you offer fulfillment and forgiveness and grace and truth. If you want truth and you want Jesus, you can turn to him to be your Savior right now. You don't have to wait for the perfect feeling. You don't have to wait for a direct word in your ear or whatever it is, till you clean up your act.

Turn to him right now by faith. If you believe that that Jesus, who he said he was, that he was the Son of God, that he came to this earth, he came to pursue you, and he died for your sins, not his own. He wasn't just a good teacher who was martyred.

And he didn't stay dead, so he defeated death. No one could do that unless they're God. And he said he is. And he is God and he's coming after you and he's inviting you. Will you trust him as your Savior right now?

You can do it simply by acknowledging your sin before him, like that brother who he came to himself. Do you see your sin for what it is? Do you see you're not worthy to be a child of God, but yet he's coming to you and saying, my child, my child. You turn to him and give him your sins and accept his righteousness. Ask Jesus to be your savior and he will enter your life and change your life forever.

He'll change every category you've ever had about who he is in a good way.

The reason why the younger son came home is because he remembered the goodness of his father. Some of you will wander. It's unfortunate I'm not prophetically speaking that over you. Your heart's not with him already. You just haven't left yet.

When you leave and you hit rock bottom, do not forget how good he is. And he will run to you if you'll just turn. Turn rebels, turn religious. Come to the party. Everyone's invited.

It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen.