The Church of Eleven22 - Grace Celebrates - Run Over by the Grace Train - Wk 3

Episode Date: September 29, 2024

When you're confronted with other people's sin, do you respond with disgust or compassion? Just like the father in the story of the prodigal son, Jesus feels compassion when bumping into sinners. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen. If you got your Bible, so I hope you do. We're going to go to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. We're in week three of this series. We're calling Run Over by the Grace Train. And as we get started, hey, we need to be in prayer for sure for the people affected by the hurricane that came through.

We did pretty good here. Man, our brothers and sisters and Jessup got hit really, really hard. And so our campus isn't able to meet up there. So be in prayer for those folks. For those of you watching online, we love you. We are praying for you. everybody that, that, um, know somebody that was hurt or, or lost property or whatever, we are definitely, definitely in prayer for you.

As you make your way to Luke chapter 15, you know that we are in this two-year discipleship journey called the 10-10 life. We talk about it all the time. We just celebrated a bunch of stuff about it and praise God for all of that. And the enemy, the Bible says, Jesus says about our enemy that he, he comes to only steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus says, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. But one of the lures of the tricks of this world is the enemy wants to try to tempt us to think that we can find life in some other place, apart from God, apart from Jesus, apart from the good shepherd.

And every single time he tempts us to do that, he lures us away from where life actually is. And we're going to look at a parable that Jesus teaches today that it's very famous. Even if you're brand new to Bible study, you probably have at least heard of this one before. but it's so important to know, to read this parable and understand, about the character and nature of the heart and soul of who God is and what he feels about you. Now listen, if you're new here, I don't talk about feelings a lot, all right? I have a feeling every once in a while, but I don't talk about feelings a lot.

But it does matter. A.W. Tozer, this old dead the theologian, very smart guy, he said, the most important thing about you is what you think when you think about God. That's it. the most important thing about you is what you think when you think about God. And in the New Testament, in the Gospels, Jesus, 189 times when he talks about God, the sovereign, the king, the almighty, the judge, the primary way that he describes him is this, that God is father. He doesn't say he's like a father. It's not like an analogy that God is father.

And in fact, if you're a father like I'm a father, we get to borrow his title while we live here on this planet. that God is father. So if A.W. Tozer, when he says the most important thing about Jesus, what you think when you think about God, then what do you think about God? How do you see Him? Do you see God as a grace-filled father? Now, some of you who say, well, no, I don't because you don't know my dad. Well, listen, God is not a reflection of your earthly father. God is the perfection of what it means to be father.

And that's why the father wounds are jack you up so bad because it's so out of line with what God intended for you. Well, let me ask you this. If you ask people on the street in Jacksonville or whatever, what do you think about when you think about God? How many people out there do you think they would say, well, he must be a grace-filled father because the church is full of grace,

and that's how they've treated us. Well, again, AW-Totzer says the most important thing about you is what you think when you think about God. I said, this, you know, modern day theologian, I say the second most important thing about you is what you think God thinks when he thinks about you. What do you think God's face towards you is? And most of us think that God's pretty frustrated with us.

You know why? Because you're frustrating. Don't believe me? Take a gander at my email inbox, all right? You're a very, very frustrating people. and you are a very, very frustrating human being. Why? Because we don't do what we say.

We don't even do what we want. We can't live up to our own promises. Anybody with me here? Anybody raise some kids? Frustrating? Right. Why? Because you're expecting one thing,

you experience another thing. And so therefore, we think, because we get frustrated with each other so much, maybe God ultimately is frustrated with us And what we're going to learn in Luke chapter 15 is we're going to learn how God feels about you. Now, pay very close attention. Your feelings make a terrible God. If Frank was here, he'd an amen that's so loud.

It is shotgun. Amen, right there, all right? Your feelings make a terrible God. There's no wrong feelings. My therapist is right here. She's my friend, and she's a therapist. But feelings are an incredible gift from God. There are tools to navigate this thing called life.

There are no bad feelings, but feelings make a terrible God. See, she did it. Not as loud as that frank, but it was cuter. Okay. Feelings make a terrible God, but God's feelings towards you is the foundation of life. God loves you, and Jesus is the proof. And this is love, not that we first love him, but he first loved us and gave his son as the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies.

Therefore, God cannot be dissatisfying. in you if you were in Christ. If you knew that, it would change everything about the way that we live. When we screwed up, we wouldn't run from him and hide like Adam and Eve did. They got him in this mess to begin with. We would run to him because he's a good dad

and he loves his kids. Luke chapter 15. See, normally I worked this all out on Thursday, but the hurricane messed it up, so we'll see how it goes. Before we get to the parable we're going to look at, it's known it's the parable of the prodigal son. It's a bad name.

talk about that in a second. You got to know who Jesus is talking to. Most people miss the whole point of the parable of the prodigal son because they don't realize the primary audience. In Luke 15, 1, and 2, Jesus says this. Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. Now, you don't understand. When you see the word tax collector, this isn't just like people that work for the IRS that nobody likes. And listen, if you work for the IRS, we don't like you, man. We don't like you. We love you. Jesus says we have to. We have to. We've, we've, you, but would you just leave us along? Good gracious, man, all right? These tax collectors were not just overcharging the Jewish citizens a little bit of money.

These tax collectors were Jewish citizens who had bought into the Roman system in order that they might exact taxes from their brothers and sisters to fund a tyrannical government that had probably killed, crucified some of the people that they were getting taxes from. This is a bad deal, man. This is like running a lemonade stand for Al-Qaeda in New York City on September the 12th. That's what this is like. Nobody's a fan of these folks, bad dudes. Now, the tax liaisers and sinners. And again, man, if you grew up in Sunday school, you're like, well, isn't everybody a sinner? This is a special classification of sinner. This is probably like sex workers and things like this, these groups of people. Now, when those people

we're all drawing near to hear Jesus, the Pharisees and scribes. Don't you hate those guys? You are those guys. I know you don't think so, but the longer you go to church, the more likely you are to become a Pharisee in the scribe. And I know you don't see yourself as a religious person

because you go to 11-22. And nobody's got pointing hats or the wand or the smoke thing and nobody's in Latin going, nobody's doing that. You're at church at Walmart or whatever campus you go to. But the more you go to church, it'll get on you. And you know you're becoming one

when you begin to look at somebody else. I'm like, what are those people doing here? You know what the number one thing Jesus got in trouble for? His people would say, why is he hanging out with those people? And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, this man receives sinners

and eats with them. You see, it's crazy, man. Jesus loved all people and all people wanted to be around here what Jesus had to say. But the religious people would look down their nose that some of those people

and say, what are those people doing here? The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And I know what's happened to you. You've walked in our lobby and you bumped into somebody

you went to high school with and they were like, what are you doing here? I was going to ask the same thing. We used to steal stuff out of this Walmart and how we worship Jesus in this place. This is crazy, isn't it not? Yeah, we're a movement for all those people.

I also want you to know, we are also a movement for all you stuck up church people that they think God benefited when he saved you. hang in here we're going to get to you here in a second so that's the context you got to understand sinners and tax collectors that were attracted to jesus in this message of grace and religious people they weren't even really listening to him they were listening at him because of this message that he had so he told this parable verse three and this parable was three

parables the first parable was called the parable of the lost sheep the key is that he says what shepherd among you if he had 99 sheep and lost one wouldn't leave the 99 to go after the one and then when he found the lost sheep he would celebrate

because this sheep was lost and his found and so the reason that we're a church that just tries to reach one more is because we serve the kind of shepherd that was willing to leave the 99 to go after the one more and then celebrates that's what he says

and then the next one The next parable he shares is called the Parable of the Lost Coin. This woman has 10 coins. It's all that she really has, and she loses one, and she's willing to turn her house inside out to find the one coin. In other words, she doesn't mind disrupting what is found in order to find what is lost. Listen, church people. I don't mind making you church save people uncomfortable if it means we can find that one lost or dead.

person that doesn't know Jesus here. That's the point, okay? That's why we launch campuses to send missionaries and plant churches and do all the things. And then, now remember, he's aimed at the religious people that are grumbling. And then the third parable, we call it the parable of the prodigal son. It's a bad title. There's a parable of lost sheep, lost coin, and it should be called if they ever invite me to sit on a translation committee, which, you know, chances of that pretty low, but if the tomb is empty. So, What it ought to be called is the parable of the lost sons. You see, the word prodigal means without restraint.

And the King James uses the word prodigal to describe the younger son, but what we'll find here is the one that is without restraint is going to be the father. So it's actually two lost sons and one lavish father. That's what it is. And I want to look at the losses of both of these brothers. So the third parable he preaches, comes up in verse 11, and Jesus said, there was a man who had two sons. That's called a father, by the way. In our country, this is our number one problem.

You fix this, everything is fixed. And the younger of them, the younger son, said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. Check this out. And the father divided his property between them. This is how he knows the Jesus story. I've told him this before. When do you get the inheritance? You get the inheritance when your daddy's dead.

And I don't know how you grew up, but then Dylan, if I had gone to my daddy and said, Perry Martin Jr., you're dead to me, I just want your stuff. Why don't you give me what's coming to me? And he would say, I'm about to show you what's coming to me. That's how that would go. And then one fell swoop, he goes, and he'd wear me out. Just whack-out, whack-out, whack-out. And I know some of you're like, oh, my God, we don't spank.

We are fully aware of that, and I don't have time to get into it. That's fine. That's fine. So he says, give me what's coming to me. And the dad divided his property between them. So in the first century, what would happen is the older son would get two-thirds of the inheritance, and the younger son would only get one-third. And he had to sell some stuff to make this right.

Here's the reality. Both sons were given what the father gave to them, and everything they had was from the father. Let me make the connection. Everything you and I have is a bloodbought grace gift from above. and every single one of us live on a continuum between entitlement and gratitude. Entitlement is you owe me, and gratitude is thank you for giving me. And so what the younger son is going to do, he's going to peg way over here on entitlement,

and he's going to reject the father for his own rebellion and self-indulgence. That's what sin is. Every single time we say, forget you, God, there's some feelings that I'm chasing after, and I think somewhere out there with rebellion, I'm going to be able to find those things. Every single time we do that, it is a sin against our Heavenly Father. And here's what's crazy about this story.

The Father knows what the boy's doing and allows it and even is going to fund it. And you're like, well, why would you do that? The only thing I can come up with is this, is that how could this younger son ever know the love of the Father without some free? freedom and autonomy to make some decisions. And yet the father is going to love him enough to not save him from the consequences of these

decisions. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey. He took a journey. He's going to go off into the distant land and do whatever he wants with whoever he wants, whenever he wants, and the dad's not going to be able to hold him back. And this thing is a journey. Here's the problem with the temptation of sin. See, we always think it's a round trip, and I'll be back soon.

It's not a round trip. It's always a trap. You see, the Lord of Sin is always going to bait you down a road that you don't want to go down, and it's going to cost you more than you can pay. It's going to keep you longer and you wanted to stay, and it's going to hurt far worse than you ever dreamed. And it's all after this desire to satisfy some appetite that we have. and he took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

This is where the King James calls it prodigal living. You see, we talked about this last week in the dog story. Rebellion always feels like fun and freedom at first, but it can only lead to death and bondage. You see, if your life, if you feel like you were trapped in sin, it's because your life is a journey. It's not a snapshot. If you know somebody that's an alcoholic, or if you have torched your life without a alcoholism. It ever started there. You know where it started? A couple beers. I mean, what's a big deal? What's the big deal? I can have a couple drinks and I'm fine with this. And then you get to a

point one day where it's like noon and you're like, what time can I get home and have a drink? And it's one little step. There's one little step. And nobody ever intended to end up in a place where the enemy is trying to define you by this. Why? Because it is a journey that you thought It starts out with fun and freedom. But it's not a trip, man. It's a trap. Or if there's been infidelity in your marriage, if you cheated on your spouse or they cheated on you,

do you realize how this started? It started with one little decision. She's just lunch. I mean, I know she's not my wife, but we have stuff to work on. And nowhere in the Bible does it say, thou shalt not eateth luncheth together. It doesn't say it.

I've looked through the whole Bible. It's not a sin. It's just stupid. Nobody ever wakes up. be like, you know how I want my week to end? Custody battle. That's what I'm going for. No, man.

It's one little step. It's one little step. It's one little step. It starts. You think it's just a trip, but it's actually a trap. If you ever known anybody with a drug addiction, just a little weed, man. What's wrong with smoking a little weed? You know how many people do that and it's fine, it's fine, it's fine.

I'll be fine. I'll be fine. I can promise you. Nobody ever woke up and be like, first thing I'm trying to heroin mixed with fentanyl. I think that's going to be my start. No, man. It's just a lure. Debilitating debt. You know what it started with?

One, boop. Well, that was easy. Oh, I got points, points. I got points. And then before you know it, you're upside down. Here's the thing. All of you won't ruin your life with one drink or one lunch. Don't do drugs.

Or one credit card swipe. All of you won't. Some of you will. There's some men and women sitting here right now. You're not going to be married in five years because of a step that you're about to take right now. And if you think, not me, you're screwed. God opposes the proud. The safest thing you can do is say, dear God, save me from me.

Please give me eyes to see that I don't run away from you and begin what feels like a trip to be fun. There's actually a trap that's there to kill me. You see, the nature of the desire of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, is we want more and we want it now. And this world spends billions of dollars a day to bait us down a road. And we think these little G gods, these temporary things of this world, he thought reckless living out in a foreign land would be so much fun. And it is fun for a season. I mean, I can remember growing up in my little fundamentalist youth group and they'll say, sin won't even be fun. you when you love Jesus and I thought you people aren't doing it right.

I'm not saying it's not fun for a season. It'll just kill you. It's just not worth it, man. It's not worth it. It's like, listen, we live in a world spends billions of dollars a day to try to get us to buy the newest, the shiniest, the whatever the thing is. And our brains are broken, man. Our brains are broken.

We think that the temporary things of this world are going to fully and finally satisfy. And it won't. You ever have buyers or? remorse. You ever get that thing that you just had to have? And then after a little while, you're like, I don't really like that. That's why we call this thing the cul-de-sac of stupidity. Not because stuff is stupid, because you're stupid. Hashtag Cybertruck. That's what I'm saying. I've seen so many lately. Speaking of, here's what advertisers know. Here's what advertisers know. There's this thing

called focalism. You know what focalism is? Focalism is that thing, like when you're about to buy a new car, you know, like you decide Honda Civic. That's what a white Honda Civic. That's what I want. You haven't seen a white Honda Civic in your whole life until the moment you decide you want one and then at every stop line. I'm like, oh my gosh, there is it a sign? No, it's not a sign. You're dumb, okay? That's called focalism. Also, there's a part of the brain called impact bias. You know what impact bias is? Impact bias is when we overestimate the impact something is going to have on our life. That's what it is. It's called impact bias. It's not true. It's We just think it's going to do more for us than we think it can do, all right?

This is how Taco Bell is still in existence. Nobody's ever planned to go to Taco Bell. If we all brought up our calendars, nowhere does it say next Tuesday Taco Bell. That's where we're going. No, that's not how Taco Bell works. If you're in college, you're just dumb, you don't know any better. Okay, but if you're like grown, no chance. So how does it happen?

Here's what happens. It's 2 o'clock in the morning on a Friday night, and you're probably out doing something you shouldn't do anyway. And you're driving home and you see that sign. Aw, open late. You're like, this is what we should do. And then you pull into Taco Bell and you pull up to the drive-through and you see the pictures.

Have you seen the pictures of Taco Bell? Nobody's ever unwrapped something from Taco Bell and it looked like the pictures. You family photo people. You should talk to the Taco Bell photographers because if they can do that with a Chalupa, imagine what they can do with your family. right two o'clock in the morning you're like this is brilliant nine a.m.

This ain't brilliant. You see we're chasing a feeling over and over and over and over. Let me ask you this, okay? I know the Taco Bill thing's funny and stuff, but where are you chasing a feeling at the expense of a relationship with your Heavenly Father? It's just one more drink. You're taking that pill and it's in a prescription bottle. It's just not yours.

Are you going around the system? Your self-medicating. Where are you chasing after the desire of the flesh at the expense of your relationship with your heavenly father? This is what the younger son does. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country. And he began to be in need. And here's what he thought. Uh-oh, I didn't see this coming.

You see, sin is always so short-sighted. A part of the reason Jesus says that he's the good shepherd and the good shepherd. and the sheep hear his voice. And when you follow him, it leads to abundant life is because the good shepherd can see what you can't see. The good shepherd can see that relationship that he has for you in the future if you'll just obey him instead of settling

for that boy you're going out with right now. The good shepherd wants what's best for you and what's best for you is him. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine rose in that country and he began to be in need. And so he went and he hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country

who sent him into the, the fields to feed pigs. And I'm telling you, when he said this, the religious Jewish people there went, pigs. Pigs were unclean, pigs were nasty, you couldn't touch them, you couldn't be around them, you couldn't eat them. This is like the lowest of the low. This means he is ceremonially unclean. He's not welcome in his house. He's not welcome in the temple. He's not welcome in the synagogue. This is bad. Verse 16, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. Look at this next line, boy. You want to talk about some boundaries. and no one gave him anything.

You see, the lure always has a hook. That lure of sin always has a got-you. And now this boy, because he rebelled against his father, to go out and do what he wanted, whenever he wanted, in the pursuit of happiness, now he's a prisoner of his own doing. And look at this, and no one gave him. him anything. Our Heavenly Father will not enable your bad behavior. He's not a helicopter

dad. He never promises to save you from your own consequences. Often it's God's kindness to let you land flat on your back so that you will finally look up and realize you need him and not the things of this world. Listen, some of you right now, man, you look great. You really do. Everybody looks great. It's the best you looked all week. And you're living duplicitous lives. and it would be God's kindness that you would get busted. It would be God's kindness that somebody would find out about your porn addiction or find out about that affair or find out about those drugs that you're not being honest about or whatever the thing is, man.

It would actually be God's kindness that you would get busted, so then you would have the opportunity to repent and to confess and come to him and receive his grace lavished upon you. Romans chapter 1 says that it would be God's wrath for you to be turned over to your own desire. But in Romans chapter 2 says, it's his kindness that draws us to repentance. One of the scariest things I pray for us is the church that God would bless you or break you, whatever it takes to draw you unto himself. And so this boy is flat on his back busted. You see, here's the problem.

When your whole life is defined by how you feel, this will be your end. Because all you'll have is you and your feelings. and when your life consists of a journey of self-discovery, bathed in self-indulgence, all you will end up with is your self-centered world of regret and disappointment. That's where this goes. And this is the air we breathe in our world.

Either the inner psychological self is sovereign based on my personal experience or God is sovereign based on who God is. Either I am who I am based on how I feel about me or I am who God says I am because it is he that created me. one will lead to life abundantly and one is a trap. And this boy is flat on his back.

Verse 17, but when he came to himself, the new international verse says, but when he came to his senses, this is what I've been praying for you all week, that some of you would come to your senses, that you would come to yourself, that you would realize that the thing you're looking for

cannot be found inside of you. And so he says, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger, I will arise and go to my father. This is the first time that the boy does not look to the boy for the answer, but the boy looks to his father. The boy looks outside of himself and says, I need somebody to do for me what I can't do for me.

Theologians would call this regeneration, which is going to lead to repentance. And he says, and I will say to him, Father, I have sin against heaven, and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your soul. son, treat me as one of your hired service. You guys ever get in trouble and you're on your way home and you're rehearsing your apology before your dad? You're working that out. That's what he's doing here. Now, here's what's crazy, man. I love this so much. The boy still doesn't understand

what the gospel is. He's actually still pursuing his own feeling. He thinks he can feel better if he just goes back to his dad. And the problem is the boy does not understand yet what it is to be run over by the grace train because grace is unmerited favor. And what this boy is, he thinks is he thinks he's going to bring merit to the situation. He actually thinks, if I go back to my dad, but hey, at least let me cut grass here and I'll stay out there in the servants quarters, but at least I'll have something to eat. And what's going to change him is not that he passes a theology exam. What's going to change his life forever is his encounter with his heavenly father who loves him and is going to lavish his love on him. That's what's going to change your life. Not agreeing with

what I say or not, but if you experience the loving God pouring out his grace on you, that's the only thing that's going to change you. You see, when we try to work for God to earn his blessing and approval, it reveals that we don't know him. You are not primarily a worker on God's estate. You and I are primarily through the blood of Jesus, a son in God's family. And when we understand that's who we are, it changes everything about everything about everything. Most Christians don't believe the gospel. They're not actually Christians. Most people that claim to be Christians don't actually believe the gospel. There was a Pew Research poll that came out a bunch of years ago that said

over 50% of people that claim to be Christians think that their good works is a major role in them getting into heaven. The first week of the series, we started with Ephesians 2, that we are saved by grace through faith, not by our own work. The work that saves you is Christ's finished work on the cross and us putting our faith in his finished work, not our good works. And so the boy comes home. And the boy arose and he came to his father, but while he was still a long way off,

his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him and kissed him. That word compassion here is sphigitso my. It means from the gut. This is how God the father feels about one of his children who decide to come home. not judgment, not condemnation, not I told you so, but when you come to your senses, when you realize, uh-oh, there's a problem, the problem is me. I'm not a stinker that needs a life coach. I'm not bad, need to be better. I am dead in my sins and I need to be made alive. I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for myself. When you begin to believe that

when Jesus died on the cross somehow, it counted for you, God from the gut has compassion on He does five things for his boy. Now remember, in this story, the dad is God the father. He does five things. He sees, he feels, he runs, he hugs, he kisses. That he sees his boy from a long way off. Why? Why?

Because every single day, man, he's pacing his grounds. He's looking at the horizon. He's just waiting for the day where his son will come to his senses and realize that if he comes home, then he will receive the grace of the heavenly Father. Let me tell you this. God sees you. And I don't mean in some kind of like judgey way, like God's watching. That's not what I mean, man. I mean, you've gone through pain. You've gone through turmoil. You've got some serious wounds and some of them are self-afflicted. You don't have to be alone. God sees you. And then he feels compassion. This is how he feels about you.

not anger and disgust but compassion which let me ask you this if you call yourself a Christian when you bump into sin what do you feel disgust or compassion because when Jesus will bump into sin and sinners he would feel compassion and then he runs to him there's so much here man there's so much here he runs to him I told you a million times first century Middle Eastern men that owned property they didn't run

it would have been humiliating to run part of the reason is remember in the stand firm series that gird up your loins they ran around these choir robes all the time and they'd have to gird up your loins you'd have to tuck your robe into your tidy wadies and show all that man thigh to be embarrassing it was embarrassing in the first century fellas it's embarrassing now get some darn shorts boys seriously and then it was humiliating you're like I don't run to you you run to me my affairs are in order if you need to talk to somebody you run to me and here he lowers himself he humbles himself he humiliates himself and he runs after his boy.

And a part of the reason he runs after his boy is he doesn't live like out on a farm by himself. There would have been a gate at the city and elders would have sat at the gate. And according to the book of Leviticus, any boy that dishonors his dad like this should be stone. And a part of what the dad sees is he sees his son a long ways off. And he's got to outrun the judgment of the law and get to his boy before the law hits him first because they might kill him. Or at least they might kill him. cut him off and send you back out into the distant land.

And this is what Jesus does for us, that God sees us for a long ways off, and he runs from heaven to earth so that he can get his grace on you before you were a judge by the law. And then when he gets there, he hugs him. He wraps his arms around him. He squeezes him so hard that if you were standing there over the stone, ready to judge the boy, you can't tell where the father begins and the boy. ends and he's going to take the shot just in case. And then he kisses him. Literally in Greek, he covers his face and kisses. I mean, what would you do if your son was lost and was foul?

Let me ask you this. Do you know the kiss of the father? May I can scream at you for an hour. It's not going to change anything in your life until you know the kiss of the father. Look, man, I kiss my boy. He's 18. He don't love it. He don't love it. He don't love it. He's not a touchy guy whatsoever. And I don't care, man. You know, he was home this weekend from school and he walks in the house and he's a little bit taller of me and I grab him by the neck like this. And he trains MMA. So if he grabs back, I don't know where it's going, you understand? But I pull him down here and kiss him right on the head.

And he's like, come on, man. I'm like, look here, dude. You can either receive it with grace on the head or I'm going to hold you down and kiss you right on the lips. You understand? I don't care. Daddy's kiss you boys, man, I'm telling you. Do you know the kiss of the father? You see, here's the reality is everything that the boy was looking for somewhere out there could be found in the father.

His desire to feel, Jesus says, oh, you want to feel something? How about peace and rest for your soul? The desire to have, oh, you want to have some stuff? You're going to inherit the kingdom of God. The desire to be somebody, make much of yourself. How about to be a son of God more than a conqueror? That's what we get when we come home. And so he runs to him and he hugs him and he kisses him.

And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, but the father. In other words, he doesn't even allow him to do his apology that he'd been rehearsing. He says to his servant, I love this so much. See, the boy still thinks he brings merit and the dad is going to lavish his boy with loving grace. This is Tim Keller wrote a book called prodigal God. This is why. The one without restraint, the one with the lavish lifestyle is actually the father.

His love upon his son. And he says, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. This is a picture of salvation. He gives him his robe. Nowhere in the Bible doesn't say when the boy comes to his senses and he knew he smelled like pig crap and he ran by a holiday Inexpress and like dusted it off. That's not what happens. He comes just as he is and the dad runs to him and gets some of it on it and wraps his arms around him and says, come on, bring me a robe. Bring my robe.

It would have been the best robe. It would have been perfect, spotless, clean. and he wraps the robe around the boy. This is a picture of imputed righteousness, not imparted. Imparted means, if I do my part, you do your part. Imputed means you come home to God and he wraps the righteousness, the perfect life of Christ. He wraps that around you like the breastplate of righteousness. So when everybody sees the boy, they don't see his filth.

They see the perfect righteous robe of the father. Secondly, he puts a ring on his finger. He changes his name back to the family name. It's like a signet ring. You ever see those cool, like Braveheart movies where the king, like, writes a scroll to somebody and rolls it up and goes, and does the signet on the wax and then hands it to somebody? This is in the name of the king. And so what the boy can do now, now the boy can write checks and the name of the ranch that the father owes.

And then the last thing is he put shoes on his feet because he is adopting him back into the family because only son got shoes. And the boy did nothing to deserve it or nothing to earn it. Verse 23, and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate. See, Grace celebrates. They throw a party, and how do they throw a party? They eat the fatten calf. This means that the dad had been planning for this a long. You can't fatten up a calf in 30 minutes.

He's been planning and planning and planning for the day he would come home. And again, this is Old Testament. They're still in the Old Covenant at this point. I know it's in the New Testament, but Jesus has not yet resurrected from the grave. but we have a new and better covenant covenant. Mostly that means grace. You know what it also means? Bacon, rat filet.

You can't do that here. You can't. But in the new covenant, because you couldn't eat bacon and you couldn't have blood in the meat. And now, because when Jesus says it is finished, it was mostly about you going to heaven. But it also include, don't cook that thing too much

or you wrap some bacon around that thing. You understand what I'm saying? You know how you make bacon better? rabbit and bacon. Hear me? And that's what we get to do. We get to celebrate with bacon wrap. That's gospel meat.

Every time you eat a bacon wrap fillet, you praise Jesus for the cross and the resurrection. That's a part of it. Now again, you know, sometimes I talk to vegetarians. I like a vegetarian. I'm telling you, I like it. Deer's a vegetarian. They're delicious.

And so let me tell you your problem. Let me tell you one of your problems. You got a lot. You see, when you eat meat, like the Bible says, then there's like levels. There's like a hot dog. Then there's bacon-wrapped fillet. So hot dog is like regular, but if you want to celebrate,

you crank that grill up and you wrap a filet and bacon. If you're a vegetarian, I just don't know how you celebrate. That's just my thing. That's what I'm going to say. Like, what's a celebratory vegetable? And somebody's always going to be like, what's it called, some kind of fancy mushroom? The best you've got some mushroom.

Where I'm from, that's a common. to a decent steak. You understand what I'm saying? So that's what they're doing here, man. And they're going to throw a party. For this, my son was dead and is alive again. Not bad to better. He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. And we would love to stop here, but Jesus keeps going. Don't forget who's listening.

In this moment, both groups of people that are listening are beginning to think about their dad. And the sinners and the tax collectors are going, so there's hope for me. Because this was not the reception that I received when I tried to go home. And the religious people are going, what do you mean? That's not fair. It's not fair.

And this next part, Jesus is aiming at the that's not fair crowd. Now his older son was in the field. The older son represents the religious person, the Pharisee, the church person, the grumbling. Let me put this on the bottom shelf. If you were here Wednesday night of saturated and you heard Jim Bergen's sermon

and you sent me a mean email about it, this is you. I'm over to crying my eyes out because I've dedicated my whole life to everything that dude was saying. Did he use some language? Oh, yeah. If that makes you uncomfortable, sweet.

This is an emergency room, people. This ain't a country club. Can you imagine walking into the emergency room? Like, wow, all these sick people here. That's why we exist. We are here to bring the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every...

He didn't use the right pronoun. Shut up! Please don't let your... Please don't let the elephant get away the lamb. Get your order out of order there. The moment you begin to look down your nose and any people that Jesus died for, you terrify me. You terrify me.

Now, his older son was in the field, and he came and he drew near to the house, and he heard music and dancing. Here's that, Baptist, he heard dancing. That's some dancing. And he called one of the children. of the servants and he asked what these things meant. Here's what religion will do.

Religious people don't want to talk to the father. They want to talk to the people that work for the father. I don't know if you know this. If you grew up Catholic, guess what? I got some crazy news for you. There is one mediator. His name is Jesus. If you grew up Catholic, there's this thing in the Bible

called the priesthood of the believer. You're a priest. You're also a saint. So tell you an aunt of that. You can get a necklace with your own face on it. I'm like, look there. Saint Ted. It's just true.

And so the brother wants to talk to the workers about what's going on instead of talking to the father in verse 27 and he said to him your brother has come and your father has killed the fat and calf because he has received him back safe and sound every single time Jesus changes lives religious people always get ruffled let me tell you how it works around here we'll celebrate like we've baptized over 2,000 people this year and about hundreds of people get saved here on a regular weekend and I'll share that with folks and then religious people will like well pastor how do you know that they're actually saved and I go are you want them to be, don't you? Because it sounds like you think you're saved. Here's what I say. Okay.

So if you're, if you're saved, which about 50-50 on whether you are right now or not. But if you make it to heaven, I'll be glad to introduce you to the people that have met Jesus here. Okay? That's what I say. So the servant says to the brother, your brother has come and your father has killed the fat and calf because he has received him back safe and sound. Verse 28, but he was angry and refused to go in. This scares me, man. This scares me so much. It actually scares me about our church. Please, please, please don't sacrifice the relationship with Jesus for a little bit of church attendance and some religion. Please don't. Please don't. And here's what, here's the part that we miss often in this parable. His father came out and entreated him. In other words, the older son is

lost. The younger son was lost in his rebellion. Everybody gets that. The older son was lost in his religion. The younger son was lost in his badness. The older son is lost in his goodness. The older son is lost in his selfishness and self-righteousness and he rejects a relationship with the dad, and he's acting like a servant instead of like a son. And the dad entreats it. The Greek word means to beg. This is going to be the second time in the parable that the father humiliates himself. He comes out of the party. He's running the party. He's spending a bunch of money on the party. He's got a bunch of guests at the party. And instead of staying in the party, he leaves the head seat and he goes outside of the party and he treats me, he's the bag. He goes to his

boy and he's like, son, what are you doing here? This party is for you. He says, he says, he's, he humiliates himself with tears to his son. I mean, think about this. Jesus wants you to try to get your mind around this. The almighty sovereign king of the universe who spoke everything into existence and predestined and elected and forenew and drew us unto himself and put death to death that God gets on his knees and says, won't you please come home. To the church people, please don't miss the party because you think you're good enough that you don't need the grace of God. And the dad goes out and he goes,

boy, what are you doing? What are you doing out here? You've always been my son. I've always been your dad. Everything I have is yours. Please don't get your anger and your self-righteousness in the way of a relationship

of this party that we have. You see, here's the crazy thing, man. It's often easier for the rebel to get saved. We got a bunch of them. Dude, we were baptizing people the other day. I think we set the record for, face tattoo baptisms. Praise God. If you got face tattoos, I just want, you're my

favorite 11-22er. If your life is in the pit, it's so easy to know that you need Jesus. I mean, it happens right here all the time, because you realize my life sucks. Somebody like, you want Jesus? I'll take him, and then brunt, got him. It's the church person that often misses it.

Because you think you're okay. That is, by definition, self-righteous. And you're not okay. You know what you need to be saved? You need need. So please don't be satisfied with a little bit of morality and some church attendance. And some of you are entitled like the older brother.

And I beg you to humble yourself before Jesus and surrender your life through his lordship and not your church attendance. And here's how the brother answered his father. Look, these many years I have served you and I never disobeyed your commands. Yeah, right. You've never given me a young,

goat that I might celebrate with my friends. See, this is not a covenant rooted in relationship. This is a contract of services. And so let me ask you again, when you're confronted with other people's sin, do you respond with disgust or compassion? And then he says, but when this son of yours, see, religion divides, man. He doesn't say when this brother of mine comes home, he says, when this son of yours who has devoured your property with prostitutes, by the way, nowhere previously in the story was the word prostitute mentioned. Here's what religion. loves to do. Religion loves to take a bull's eye and put it on one particular sin as if it's the worst sin of all time. And it's always the one thing that a religious guy publicly has not ever

dealt with. But when the son of yours, who has devoured your property with prostitutes comes home, you killed the fat and calf for him. And the dad said to him, he's continuing to entreat him. He says, son, here's where knowing a little bit of Greek is going to help you out here. That word, is different than the previous words that the whole parable uses for son. This word in Greek is technon. And it means like little boy, but it's not a derogatory thing. It's not like, look here, little boy. I mean, think about this, dads.

If you had to go get your son because he was being self-righteous, how would you go get him? Like you every minute, Thanksgiving and somebody had, you know, you got CNN and Fox News sitting next to each other. and they're like, one of them leaves, and then who's got to go get them? Dad's got to go. If Mama goes getting something, they'll go scratch people's eyes out, they're going to be dead. So, Dad's got to go. How would you go get your son? This is very convicting me, because I know how I would go.

You can probably look at my face, and I would go in there and be like, what are you doing? You better, you better suck it up, and you better get, you know how much this costs, and you know what you're doing to your mama? That's how I would go. That's not the heart of the Heavenly Father towards you. He gets on his knees, and he begs. And it's where Technon, he's like, Hey, buddy, hey man, what are you doing out here?

What are you doing out here? You're my little boy. Don't you, see, when me and your mama brought you home from the hospital, man, we would just get around you, and we would love you, and we'd pray for you. Don't you remember we'd open Christmas presents together, and I'd coach your little league teams? Don't you remember all those trips that we went on, we'd take those pictures? Remember all the waterslide? You think a grown man was going to water slide?

There's no way I wanted to go on a water slide. I did that for you, buddy. The only reason I did all of that junk is because I don't want you just. stuff. I don't even want your obedience. I just want you. I just want you. And as a grown man to his grown son, he's on his knees and he's just saying, I just want you. Won't you come into the party? Please don't miss it. This is God's heart towards you. It's not just a set of rules that you've got to get right. He's mad if you don't. It's not. He is on his knees right now. The sovereign king of the universe that could judge every single one of us in this minute loves you. It's not. He's not. He is on his knees.

you and Jesus on the cross is the proof. And he just says, won't you come home? Won't you come home? You are always with me, and all that his mind is yours. You see, it's always the right time to come home. It's always the right time to come home. Yeah, people are like, you're getting a little emotional about this, pastor, yeah.

It's the most important things ever happen in my life. Because I was a long way gone, and he came and invited me home. and then I've given all of my life to just share this good news of the gospel to you, to you. That whether you're the rebel when you think, ah, he don't want me, he wants you, God loves you, and Jesus is the proof. Or you've been sitting in church forever and you think you've been good enough. No, no, no, no, no. You've got to come home to the kiss of the Heavenly Father.

It's always the right time to come home. And the dad says it was fitting to celebrate and to be glad. for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. So I want to invite you to come home to your heavenly father. Not simply to a set of doctrines and theology, but to come home to God the Father, and the way to the Father is through Jesus Christ, the Son.

The only paperwork that matters when you get to heaven is not going to be your religious resume, nor is it going to be how rebellious you were. The only paperwork that matters is you, saying yes to the invitation of Jesus. And for anyone who believes, the Bible says you receive the right to be called the son of God. So I'm going to ask you to bow your head and close your eyes. And I want to give you the opportunity right now to come home to experience for the very first time the kiss of the Heavenly Father. And for some of you, he's running after you to throw his arms around

you. And for some of you, he's on his knees entreating you to come home. And if today, for the very first time in your life. You are ready to admit it. I'm a sinner. I need a savior. I believe somehow that when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me. And I am ready to come home to Jesus as my Lord and Savior. If that's you, I want to invite you to raise your hand as high as you can. Say, here I am, Father, save me. Raise it as high as you can. Praise God. Our good and gracious heavenly, Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. God, I thank you that you were almighty, that you were sovereign, that you were king, that you were judge. And yet, you humble yourself, you dress yourself as a servant.

You came on a rescue mission for both the rebellious and the religious, for all of us who had rejected you. And you invite us to come back to you through the blood of your son, Jesus, on the cross. And God, I thank you for the party. I think you don't scoff at our past, but you celebrate. us receiving faith from you and putting our faith in you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Hey, we're going to close just a little bit different. Michael wrote a song about this parable. Some of you are a long way gone. A bunch of people raise their hand today. Some of you are a long way gone, and it's time for you to come home. Some of you are self-righteous, and you need to repent of it. And the more defensive you are, like if you're like, well, what I meant by that email?

That's you're the one I'm talking to. you honestly you got to repent of that so god i want i want the kind of heart the father has and a bunch of us there's the people that we love so much and they're like the younger son and they've run off and so i want you to spend this time don't close your eyes because you got to like see the words that we're going to sing and i want you to feel the heart of the father towards you would you please just sit and receive this song up your baby boy yeah my daddy was my pride and joy was strong and brave and wise was the apple of you what mattered most is when you say it doesn't matter what you do never stop my love

never stop my love make your soul grow yeah you take for granted love you know my bitterness pushed us apart that I would break your life. So I took your love and ran. And I lived a life of born.

My restlessness was done. Hurd and tear stains on my face. It died. Still kept a watchful. And I watched you fall down that you said it doesn't matter. Your father,

my father's my fault. Church family, would you please stand to your feet and join me in celebrating the 26 people that came home today. 26 people surrendered their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And I wish we had grills and bacon rat fillets for everybody, but we don't. But we are going to celebrate. We're going to sing like save people.

If you're a little more Pentecostal in your background, I give you permission to dance. Just spread out a little bit, okay? And we are going to sing and we're going to celebrate because many, many sons and daughters that were dead. are now alive in Christ and he deserves the glory so lift your voice as high as you can