Today's scripture reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15.
Please follow along in your bulletin.
And he said, A man had two sons.
The younger of them said to his father,
Father, give me my share of the estate that falls to me.
So he divided his wealth between them.
And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together
and went on a journey into a distant country.
And there he squandered his estate with loose living.
Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country
and he began to be impoverished.
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country
and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pots that the swine were eating
and no one was giving anything to him.
But when he came to his senses, he said,
How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread?
But I am dying here with hunger.
I will get up to my father and say to him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.
I am no longer to be worthy to be called your son.
Make me as one of your hired men.
So he got up and came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him
and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
And the son said to him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.
I am no longer to be worthy to be called your son.
But the father said to his slaves,
Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him
and put on a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet
and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again.
He was lost and has been found.
And they began to celebrate.
Now his older son was in the field.
And when he came and approached the house,
he heard music and dancing.
And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring
what these things could be.
And he said to him,
Your brother has come and your father has killed the fattened calf
because he has received him back safe and sound.
But he became angry and was not willing to go in.
And his father came out and began pleading with him.
But he answered his father and said,
Look, for so many years I've been serving you.
I've never neglected a command of yours.
And yet you have never given me a young goat
so that I might celebrate with my friends.
But when this son of yours came,
who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes,
you killed the fattened calf for him.
And he said to him,
Son, you've always been with me.
And all that is mine is yours.
But we had to celebrate and rejoice.
For this brother of yours was dead
and has begun to live again and was lost and has been found.
This is God's word.
Good morning.
How is everyone today?
Wow, everyone's asleep apparently.
How is everyone?
Okay, that's a little better.
For those of you who don't know me,
my name is Eric.
I'm the youth guy here at Watermark.
I've been here a little over a year now, I guess.
And as you heard,
we're talking today about a story about a lost son.
And I wanted to start out today
looking back at what's been happening in this passage
before we get to this story
because it's sort of important as we look at this story
to see the context that it's in.
So as we look at this story of this lost son,
what we see is actually that Jesus is telling a series of stories.
It's three stories in a row about things that are lost and found.
First, there's a sheep.
This man has a hundred sheep.
One of them wanders away.
He goes out.
He searches for the sheep.
He leaves the 99 that are there,
goes out, gets this sheep,
brings it back,
and has a party to celebrate
that this sheep that was lost has been found.
Next up, there's a woman.
She has 10 coins,
and one of them goes missing.
She leaves the nine where she knows where they are
and scours her house,
looks up, down, left, right,
everywhere she can for this lost coin
until she finds it.
And when she does,
she has a party,
invites all her friends over,
and they celebrate
because this coin that was lost is found.
And then we get to today's story.
There's a father.
He has two sons.
The younger one comes to him and says,
Dad, give me my share of the inheritance.
Basically, I don't care about you.
I just want your stuff.
So give me my stuff so I can go.
The dad gives him his share of the inheritance,
and he leaves.
He goes out to a foreign land.
He spends all his money,
parties it up,
has fun,
enjoys life,
runs out of money,
and right as he does,
boom, a famine hits the land.
And so this man has no money,
and even if he had friends
who'd be willing to help him,
they didn't really have anything
to help him with
because there was no food available in the land.
He looks for a job,
gets a job feeding pigs,
which for a Jewish boy
was like the worst job you could ever have,
and gets to the point
where he's so desperate and so low
that he just wants to eat the food
that he is feeding to the pigs.
And he takes a step back,
and he looks at his life,
and he realizes,
wow,
in my dad's house,
everyone,
even the lowest servants,
at least they have food to eat.
And I've basically forfeited my right
to be a son anymore,
but maybe I can go back.
Maybe I can say to my dad,
hey, I'll work for you.
I'll be your servant.
I'll try and pay back
maybe some of what I owe you.
And at least then
I can have some food in my stomach.
I won't have to feed these pigs.
It'll be okay.
So he goes home,
starts this journey along,
going back,
and his dad sees him from far away
and runs out
and gives him a huge hug.
And the son says,
Dad, I'm sorry.
I sinned against you and against God.
I don't deserve to be your son anymore.
Please just take me back as a slave.
And the dad says,
Son, come.
You are my son.
We're putting the best robe on you.
We're putting a ring on you.
We're putting sandals on you.
We're celebrating.
We're going to have a party
because you were gone.
You were dead.
And now you are back.
Now you are alive.
And so they have this huge, huge party.
And there's another son in this story.
This son is the older brother.
He's out working in the field.
He has been working in the field
the entire time
that the younger brother has been gone.
working hard,
working long hours,
doing his work,
being industrious.
And he hears the sound of a party
going on back home.
And he calls one of the slaves over.
And he says,
What's going on down there?
The slave says,
There's a party.
Your brother who left,
he's come back.
And this older brother is furious.
Rather than rejoicing
that his brother has come back,
he is angry and bitter
and refuses to go into the party.
The father comes out,
which he should never have had to do,
to invite his son into the party,
the celebration.
And the older brother complains,
Dad, I've never disobeyed you.
Dad, I've always done exactly
what I was supposed to do.
Come on, why can't I have a party
with my friends?
And the dad basically tells him,
Look, your brother,
he was gone.
He was dead.
He's alive again.
He left us and he has come back.
We need to celebrate.
Look, everything that I have,
it's yours already.
You can do whatever you want with it.
But we have to celebrate right now
because your brother was gone
and he has come back.
Come join the party.
And the story ends.
And two weeks ago,
Mike spoke on the younger brother.
He shared about the journey
of the younger brother
and what it took for him to come back
and this whole process.
But today we're looking at
a different character in the story.
We're looking at the older brother.
And personally for me,
the older brother is actually
one of the characters in the Bible
that I can relate to the best.
I am an older brother.
I'm the oldest of four boys.
And growing up,
I would get in trouble occasionally,
but I was always like the good kid.
And my brothers got really annoyed by that.
I was the kid in Sunday school class.
We'd have little charts
and we'd have stickers
for like Bible memory verses
and Bible reading and stuff.
And you get prizes
if you got enough stickers.
And I was the one
who would have stickers
all the way across
and the rest of the class
would have like two or three stickers each.
That was me.
I was the kid in school
who like every teacher
wanted me in their class
because I was well behaved
and I got my straight A's.
And my brothers actually hated
having teachers
that I had had before
because the teachers expected them
to live up to that standard
that I had set.
And so I was the ideal older brother.
I did everything right
and I had this all down
and my younger brothers knew it.
They knew that I had it all down
and they knew that they were expected
to have it all together
because I had had it all together.
And so they really did not enjoy that.
And I didn't really enjoy it either
because when they would go in there
and they would have these same teachers
that I had had
and they would get a B in that class,
I'd be like,
you let me down.
Come on, bro.
And so I can really relate
to the older brother
and his feeling of how
this younger brother
had let him down
because he hadn't lived up
to the same standard
that he had lived up to.
And as we've gotten older,
my brothers have actually
turned out pretty okay.
But my older brother complex
I think is something
that has definitely stuck around.
And so today we're going to take
a closer look
at the older brother in the story.
We're going to see
what it is about him
that makes him
refuse to go into this party,
refuse to celebrate,
refuse to rejoice
in the fact
that his brother has come home
and see what parts
of our lives reflect him.
And as we look
at this older brother,
the first thing
that I want us to see
is that yes,
this older brother
has always stayed at home.
He has always obeyed perfectly
everything the father
has ever commanded him to do.
However,
despite his obedience,
he was just as lost
as his younger brother.
Even though he had stayed home,
even though he had not run away,
even though he had worked
to build the family fortune
instead of going
to a far off land
and squandering it,
he was just as lost
as his younger brother.
The first thing we see
of the older brother
in this story
is that he's refusing
to come into a party
to celebrate the return
of his younger brother.
He stands outside the party,
not just despite his obedience,
but actually because
of his obedience.
The father welcomes him in
to this rejoicing,
and the son says,
no, because I have been
such a good kid,
I'm not going in.
His obedience keeps him
away from the father.
It's actually a form
of rebellion in some ways.
And ultimately,
it's because
he doesn't see himself
as a son.
He sees himself
as a slave.
The older brother
does not understand
that he is a son
to the father.
He thinks that he is
a slave to the father.
And we see this
as soon as the father
comes out to talk to him.
The father comes out,
he says,
hey, we got a party
going on inside.
Do you want to come?
And rather than saying,
hey, I'm your son too,
the older brother's response
is that I have always
perfectly obeyed
everything you've
commanded me to do.
He says,
I have been
the ideal slave.
Not I have been
the ideal son,
I have been
the ideal slave,
and I deserve
special treatment
because of my obedience.
Basically,
his sense of justice
had been messed up.
I have always
perfectly obeyed,
he hasn't.
I deserve
special treatment,
he doesn't.
He is getting
special treatment,
and I am not.
That is not right,
that is not fair,
I am not going in.
And the reason
that this sense
of justice
has been let down
is because he sees
himself as a slave
rather than a son.
But the problem
with the older brother
is that his complaints
to the father
are based on
a wrong understanding
of their relationship.
And the father
sees this immediately.
Mike talked
last time
about how
the father
is a good father,
he knows his sons.
When the younger son
came to him,
the father could have said,
no,
I am not giving you
your inheritance,
you are staying here.
But instead,
he knew his son
well enough
to give him
the inheritance,
let the son go off,
and wait for the son
to come back.
With the older son,
he could have used
this son's arguments
against the older son.
He entreats
the older son,
he says to him,
hey,
come into the party.
And the older son
says,
no,
I've always
perfectly obeyed
everything.
And the father
has the option
at this moment
to give him
a command,
come to the party now.
If you say
you've always
perfectly obeyed,
perfectly obey now,
come inside.
The father
doesn't do that.
He knows
that the issues
in his son's heart
are deeper
than mere
obedience issues.
The issues
in his son's heart
come from a wrong
understanding
of their relationship.
And so rather
than issuing
the son a command,
you need to come
now.
Rather than arguing
with the son,
saying,
no,
you haven't always
perfectly obeyed me.
Remember that time
you disobeyed
with whatever?
The father
changes the whole
topic of the
conversation with his son.
Rather than saying,
no,
you haven't been
the perfect slave,
he says,
I don't want
you to relate
to me
as a slave.
I don't want
to be a commander
who bosses you around.
I want to be
your father
who loves you.
I want you
to be my son.
The question
that we are
dealing with here
is not,
have you always
perfectly obeyed
everything I said,
but do I want
you to treat
me as a commander?
And the answer
is no.
The father
wants the son
to treat him
as a father,
to love him,
not to see it
as I need
to do this
in order
to get
what I can.
That ultimately
his obedience
as a slave
didn't determine
whether the father
accepted him
because he was
already accepted
by the father
for his status
as a son.
And because the older
brother misunderstood
this, rather than
bringing love
into his relationship
with the father,
he brought hatred
and anger
and bitterness
that were poisonous
to their relationship.
Also, because the brother
had a messed up
understanding
of his relationship
with the father,
he has a messed up
understanding
of the father's
possessions as well.
Because he sees himself
as a slave
rather than a son,
he sees the father's
possessions
as his wages
for obedience
rather than his
possessions already.
I mean, basically,
if you look at
the older brother's
argument,
a lot of his argument
about not coming
into the party
when the younger
brother comes home
has to do with the fact
that this party
costs so much
and you spent it
all on him
and not on me.
You owe me, Dad.
I've always been here.
I've always been working.
I've always been industrious.
He hasn't.
He went and wasted
all your money
and now you're
giving him more.
What's up with that?
The issue is that
because the son
saw himself
as a slave
rather than a son,
he saw the father's
possessions
as his wages
rather than
as his own possessions.
And the father
sees this as well.
He jumps up
and he says,
hey,
everything that I own,
it's yours.
Everything that I have
belongs to you now.
You know,
yeah,
I haven't given you
this kid
so that you can have
a party with your friends,
but guess what?
You own all of them.
It's like this kid's
waiting for his dad
to hand him a $10 bill
and the dad's like,
look,
you've already got a bank account
with a million dollars in it.
Don't complain.
I'm not withholding.
You just don't understand
what's already in front of you.
And so because
the son doesn't understand
his relationship
with his father correctly,
he doesn't understand
how the father's possessions
relate to him as well.
and
he becomes bitter
against his brother
because he sees
these possessions
as more valuable
than his family.
Basically,
culturally,
the inheritance
got divided up
so that the older brother
got twice as much
as the younger one.
So the older brother
would get two-thirds
of the father's wealth.
The younger brother
would get one-third.
When the younger brother
came and asked his dad
for his share
of the inheritance,
the father would have
given him a third
of everything
the father had.
The younger brother
goes off.
He goes to a far-off land.
He spends it all.
And in doing this,
he forfeits his position
as a son in the family.
In order for him
to come back
to the family,
he would need
to be adopted back,
which means
that he once again
would receive
a share of the inheritance.
Which means
for the older brother,
rather than getting
two-thirds
of what the father has,
he gets two-thirds
of two-thirds
of what the father has
once the brother
comes back.
And because he sees
the possessions
as more valuable
than the family,
he becomes bitter
when the brother
comes back
because he knows
that this is going
to cost him
a lot financially
and he doesn't want
to bear that burden.
He sees the money
as more valuable
than the brother.
And here's the thing,
money is not bad.
Material possessions
are a good thing.
They are blessings
from God.
But when we view them
as more important
than God
or when we view them
as more important
than the people
that God has put
in our lives,
that becomes an issue.
And I think as we look
at the older brother
and these issues
that are going on
in his life,
a lot of times
they can reflect us.
They can reflect
the attitudes
and thoughts
that are going on
in our hearts.
Maybe not to such
an extreme level,
but I think they're there.
I think a lot of times
we can look at
our immediate
present circumstances
and see something
not going our way
and think,
hey,
God's withholding
from me right now
because we can't see
the full picture
because we don't understand
that he is a good father
and that we are his children
rather than his slaves.
Ultimately,
the Bible says
that God
is a good father,
that we are his children,
that we are not his slaves,
and that through Christ
he has given us
everything.
The question is,
do we see that?
Do we understand that?
Or do we look at
a business transaction
that didn't go through
that cost us a lot of money
and say,
God is withholding
from me right now.
God is not a good father
because he didn't
give this to me.
And I think,
you know,
this is something
that even happens with me.
So for me,
I think it's very easy
to look at
all of the things
that I've done
for God.
To look at everything
that I've accomplished
and to think that God
owes me because of that.
A couple months ago
I was having
some stomach issues
and I went in
to have some tests done
and I had been
having these issues
for a long time
and I thought to myself,
I really hope
God heals me right now.
And I looked back
through the list
of things
that I had done for God.
I mean,
I was top
of my high school class.
I could have gotten
a top level
college education
that could have gotten
me an incredibly
high paying job
and I didn't.
I went and studied
Bible so I could
go into the ministry.
I gave up
lots of money
in order to go
and follow him.
When I was in college,
you know,
during my summers,
instead of going
and partying it up,
I went and worked
at a Christian camp
so I could tell kids
about Jesus.
And then my third
summer of college,
I packed up
and I moved overseas
to Hong Kong
to work in a church.
And I'd been here
for two years
away from my family,
away from my friends
back home,
and I looked at
all of these things
that I had done for God
and I said,
God,
look,
look at everything
that I have done for you.
You owe this to me
to fix me
and make me better
to heal my stomach.
I had this mentality
of a slave
rather than a son
and I looked at
the things that I had done.
I looked at my obedience
and I said,
God owes me
for these things
rather than
recognizing that
every breath
that I get
is a gift from him.
And ultimately,
you know,
it turned out
that the thing
that I had
was not easily curable,
that it's probably
something that's chronic
that's going to stick
with me for a long time
if not forever.
And when I found that out,
I was upset,
I was angry,
I was,
I felt like God
had let me down,
like God was withholding
from me
something good
that I thought I deserved
because of this
big brother attitude.
And so,
you know,
as I talk today
about the big brother,
I think I'm
the primary person
that I'm talking to
because this mentality
of the big brother
is something that is
so strong within me.
And I think
within the church,
the big brother attitude
is sometimes
even encouraged
because obedience
is a good thing.
We want obedience.
And so,
we take people
who are obedient
and we give them
these higher positions
in the church.
but in reality,
this can create problems
because when we're
in this big brother mentality,
we look at ourselves
as our means of salvation.
We look at our slavery
and our service to God
as the way
that we are saved
rather than recognizing
that we are sinners
who need grace.
And the thing is,
if you're sick
and you know
that you're sick,
you'll go to a doctor,
you can get cured.
If you're sick
and you don't know
you're sick,
you don't go to the doctor,
you just die.
If you're a sinner
and you know
that you're a sinner,
you go to the Savior
to be saved.
If you're a sinner
and you don't know
that you're a sinner,
you don't go to the Savior,
you just die.
And I think that
this older brother mentality
keeps us from recognizing
the fact that we are sinners.
It keeps us
from running to the Savior,
the only one
who can fix our brokenness
and just leaves us
in this place
where we're left to ourselves
and where we die
separated from God.
And as we look
at our lives
and our hearts
and we see
what is it
that are the traits
of the big brother,
I sort of brainstormed
this week
and thought about
what are traits
that would appear
in the big brother,
in the older brother.
The first one
I came up with
is that older brothers
are very fast
to admit that they're sinners
in a broad and general sense
but slow to admit
the specific sins
that they deal with.
We're older brothers,
we have our doctrine down.
We know that
all have sinned.
We're not going to
mess that one up
on a Bible trivia test
but when someone says
what specific sins
do you deal with,
it gets really quiet
really fast
because we don't want
to admit
actually how messed up
we are.
We just want to admit
vaguely that we're messed up
so that people don't think
that we're full of ourselves.
The next trait of older brothers
is that we harbor anger,
bitterness,
and envy in our hearts
when our sense of justice
isn't upheld.
Because we see God
as a slave master
and ourselves as slaves,
we don't like it
when other people
that we think
have done a less good job,
a worse job,
being slaves,
get good things
and we don't.
When someone else
gets some type
of amazing house,
you know,
houses like I said
are good things,
good houses
are good things
but when someone else
gets them
and we don't
and we look at God
and we say,
hey, what's going on?
That's not fair.
We have anger
and bitterness
and jealousy
towards that person
and towards God
because our sense of justice
hasn't been upheld.
older brothers
think that we've made it
on our own goodness.
We don't recognize
the fact that we need Christ.
Older brothers
hate grace
because grace
gives to other people
what they don't deserve
and grace makes us admit
that we're not really
as good as we'd like
the world around us
to think that we are.
Older brothers
want control.
They want to be
in leadership positions.
They want people
to see how good
they really are
and sometimes
older brothers
are more concerned
about being in positions
of leadership
than about living lives
that follow Christ.
I think the summary
of it is
older brothers
are okay
not becoming
more like Christ
as long as they can
convince the world
around them
that they really are.
Older brothers
are okay
being stuck in their sin
as long as they can
put this mask on
for the world around them
that says
that they're not.
Older brothers
are willing
to sacrifice
a relationship
with Christ
in order
to appear
to the world
around them
to have life
all together.
And as we look
at the big brother
we see
that his situation
is bad.
His situation
is desperate.
He is separated
from his father.
He is separated
from his family.
He doesn't understand
his relationship
to them
but when we get
a clearer understanding
of the story
we actually see
that his situation
is even worse
than it first appeared.
See the older brother
doesn't really come
into this story
until the second half
of the story.
Jesus starts the story
and says there's a man
who had two sons.
The younger one
comes to him
and we know
that there's
a second son
but we don't hear
anything about him
until the story
is halfway over.
And that's sort of odd.
And as we look
at the context
of what's going on here
in the stories
we see the first story
of lost and found
that Jesus tells
involves a lost sheep
and when the sheep
gets lost
someone goes out
to look for it.
The second story
is a lost coin
and when the coin
gets lost
someone goes
to look for it
and in each
of these stories
there's someone
who obviously
is supposed
to be looking for it.
There's a shepherd
who is responsible
for the sheep
and the shepherd
is the one
who goes to find
the lost sheep.
There's a woman
who owns the coins
and when they get lost
she is the one
who goes
and looks for
the lost coin.
But I think culturally
we lose out
on the fact
that someone
was also supposed
to go look
for this lost brother.
When Jesus
starts the story
by saying there was
a man
who had two sons
his audience
would have
automatically thought
of another two sons.
They were Cain
and Abel.
For those of you
who don't know
Cain was Abel's
older brother.
They brought
sacrifices to God.
God accepted Abel's
he didn't accept Cain's
and Cain was angry
with his brother
and killed him.
God comes to Cain
and he says
Cain where's your brother?
And Cain says
am I my brother's keeper?
Am I responsible
for taking care of him?
And God basically says
yes you are
and I know
that you killed him.
And so as Jesus'
audience hears
Jesus say
this intro line
there's a man
who had two sons.
They would have been
reminded of Cain and Abel.
They would have been
reminded of this
thing that God
says to Cain
that he is responsible
for his younger brother.
And when the younger brother
goes away
they would have expected
that the older brother's
duty as a son
would be to go
and look for his younger brother.
And the older brother's
absence from the first
half of this story
tells us that
he did not do that.
He stayed at home.
He was industrious.
He was productive.
He was earning money
for the family.
He was so focused
on being a slave
and doing his duty
of being a slave well
that he missed out
on doing his duty
as a son
and as a brother.
And the thing is
in the first two stories
the thing that was lost
was way less valuable
than a person.
But the people thought
that it was of such value
that they went
and looked for the sheep.
They looked for the coin.
And here
the brother doesn't understand
the value
of his younger brother.
He understands
the value of money.
He understands
the value of getting
in the good crop
for his father.
He doesn't understand
the value
of a human being.
And so rather than
going out
and searching
for this brother
who was lost
he stays.
He works on
building up
the bank account
that one day
is going to be his.
And Jesus tells
this story.
He tells of this
horrible older brother
who doesn't understand
his duty
as an older brother.
And he shows
this brother
failing so miserably.
And as he does this
he puts this longing
in us.
He puts this desire
for a brother
who will do things right.
Who will go out
and search for the younger one
when he is lost.
Who will celebrate
when he comes home.
Who will understand
yes it will cost me
I will be less productive
I will have to
share more of the family
fortune with him
but ultimately
it is worth it
to bring my brother home.
And the way
that this older brother
in this story
fails to do this
just creates
this longing in us
for an older brother
who will.
And the older brother
that this story
is ultimately pointing to
is Jesus.
Because the Bible
says that all of us
whether we
have the tendencies
of an older brother
to try and perfectly obey
and make it on our own
or whether we're like
the younger brother
who goes off
and goes astray
and parties it up
and lives the wild life.
That ultimately
all of us are sinners.
All of us have gone
far away
from God our Father.
That all of us
have become separated
from home.
That all of us
need an older brother
to come out
to search for us
in a far off land.
That we need
an older brother
who is willing
to bring us back
to the Father
at great cost
to himself.
And in Jesus
we have that.
We have an older brother
who came down
to the earth,
left the comforts
of heaven
and came to this
far off land,
humbled himself
to becoming a slave,
perfectly obeyed God
his entire life
and then humbled himself
to the point of death
on a cross.
He paid the ultimate price,
his own life,
to bring us back
to the Father
because he is
our perfect older brother.
father.
And as Jesus
tells this story,
he points to himself.
And he ends
the story
without an ending.
The father is out
in the field
with the older brother.
The father invites
the older brother
into the party
and we don't get
an answer.
We don't know
whether the older brother
went back or not.
The reason he did this
is because
the crowd
that he was talking to
was made up
of religious leaders.
He was talking
to older brothers.
He was talking
to the people
in Israel
who had done
everything right
their entire lives.
He was talking
to the guys
who had books
to interpret
the Old Testament law
that added on
all these barriers
to keep them
from breaking
these rules
and commandments
and who thought
that they had made it
through their own goodness.
And because they thought
that they had made it
through their own goodness
they looked down
on the others
who hadn't.
They looked down
on the fact
that Jesus would love
tax collectors
and sinners
and prostitutes.
And Jesus
basically says
hey
I'm here
to save.
I'm here
to bring you
back to the father.
These ones
who went astray
who messed up
they recognize that
they've come back
and were celebrating
and now the invitation
is for you.
Will you come?
And he leaves the story
without an ending
because he wants them
to write their own ending
to the story.
He leaves them
with a question
will you
come in
and join the party
join the celebration
celebrate the fact
that God is working
that God is saving
or will you continue
to rely on your own goodness
continue to trust
in yourself
for salvation.
as we're here today
the story still
doesn't have an ending.
Ultimately
the ending of this story
is for each of us.
Will we look
at our good deeds
and trust
in our ability
to obey as slaves
in order to make us
good enough
to be accepted
by the father?
or will we
recognize
that it's not
our obedience
that's needed
that Christ
has already been
our perfect obedience
that we have failed
that we have messed up
and that we need
our perfect older brother
to bring us back
to the father
and will we trust
in that
and go with him
back
to the celebration
with our father?
let's pray
dear father
we thank you for
today
for this chance
to come together
as your people
to look at your word
to celebrate
the fact
that we have
a perfect older brother
who has come
to bring us back
to you
who has come
at a great cost
to himself
to a far off land
has paid
the ultimate price
to give us
a new relationship
with you
our father
God I pray
that each of us
would examine our hearts
would look
for the places
where we have followed
and resembled
the older brother
and trusted
in our obedience
as a form
of rebelling
against you
forgive us
for those times
let us recognize
that through you
we are sons
and daughters
not slaves
let us recognize
that through you
we are accepted
because of Jesus
and not because
of our obedience
and that ultimately
what you desire
from us
is our love
and not our slavery
thank you for your love
for us
in Jesus name
amen
can I hear amen
to that
thanks Eric
for sharing God's words
really good
hey if you
we don't want you
to leave here
if you have something
on your heart
you want to share
with somebody
have somebody
pray for you
so we have people
who we've been
training up
as prayer leaders
to pray for you
it's all confidential
they'll be up here
in the front
actually right afterwards
there's a training time
for people who are
interested in being
part of the prayer team
and what that entails
and it'll be right out
these doors
in a room right
across the hall
so if you are
interested in that
please join that
because we
we are a church
that we realize
how much we
need to pray
continually
as God has placed us
here in this community
also as you walk
out on the door
there's a table there
and on the left hand
side of the table
there's a sign up sheet
for the choir
we're going to start
a Christmas choir
that we've done
every Christmas
it's been an amazing
and encouraging time
as a church
and so if you would
like to sign up
for that
please sign your name
down there
I see Ed and Edward
in the back
talking
and so Ed and Edward
are going to be there
I know they're going
to sing right away
I'm giving you guys
a hard time
but anybody
anybody
my wife will join too
right?
No
yeah
you don't want me
I'm just testing you
right out
but if you're interested
please sign up
it is a huge blessing
we're going to start
practice next Sunday
so you'll get your name
and you'll send out
emails for all that
also in your bulletin
there's like four things
just look at your bulletin
there's a couple things
in there
one of the things
is just basically
we're going to
I put in there
a gorilla series
we want to do
some sermon series
on things that are
the gorillas in your life
and what I mean by gorillas
are you know
you're eating table
and there's this gorilla there
and they're eating food
and you know there's something
you want to talk about
to your friends
but you have this fear
that if you mention the gorilla
something bad is going to happen
right
and so often when I mention the gorilla
I feel like I get my arms ripped off
and people beat me to death
with whatever we're talking about
so we want to talk about those things
as a church
and if there's any things
or issues that you want to
talk about in sermons
there's a number there
it's a brand new number
text any question
that you have there
and we want to work those
into a sermon series
and try to figure out
how ways we can
approach people
that we're talking to
also next Sunday
we are not going to be here
we're going to be in Cyberport
okay
so
but
we're not sure
where we're going to be
in Cyberport
okay
we have one place
we're praying about
a second place
and it's been
as a staff team
it's been
we've been praying
more than
just about anything
I think most of us
always pray about
our next house
and where we're going to
get kicked out
and those type of things
and so
we need you
to go on the website
and check that front page
because we'll place
on there immediately
where we're going to be
but we're going to be
at Cyberport
possibility is the theater
but we're looking at
even a neater location
for that
so
you promise me
this is your thing
you have to do
this week
you will look on the website
and you will find out
where we are next week
okay
also in the bulletin
about three down
we have a really neat
opportunity
we're working with some guys
and they're basically
reaching out to about
500 refugees
that live in our area
and so again
we feel like God
has placed us as a church
in this area
to impact this area
we've been doing outreaches
nursing homes
cleaning the beaches
all these other things
but it's a really neat
opportunity for this
holiday season
they've listed some things
in there that they need
they need clothing
there's all ages
there's families
there's little kids
they need diapers
and so next week
we want to start
collecting those things
so if you pick up
some old clothes
or jackets
cold weather things
please bring them
to church
and we will
take those from you
and we promise
that those will get
into people's hands
who need them
okay
so we want to be about
meeting needs
so that's what we want to do
so next week
we're going to start
collecting all those things
they're in the bulletin
and they'll be on the website
and on the city too
if you're not on the city
you need to get on that
because that's how we
communicate as a church
again if you don't
what is the city
come talk to me
and we'll sign you up
it's kind of like
our church Facebook
okay
let me pray for us
as we think about
what we just heard
we're talking about
on a journey
we're talking about
lost things
we've talked about
lost sheep
and lost coins
and now we're talking
about lost sons
and daughters
in all these stories
there's someone
who goes out
to search
we've talked a lot
the last three times
about redemption
redemption is about
being found
by God
but it's not about
just being found
by God
because we're dead
we can't find ourselves
but it's being about
found by God
and wanting to be found
in this story today
you had two brothers
who were lost
one wanted to be found
one did not
Father we just thank you
for this day
we thank you for your son
who is the hero
of the story
we thank you
that he always shows up
he's always there
sometimes we don't feel
like he's there
but he's the hero
he's always there
and we can trust him
we thank you
that on a journey
you're trying to take
our focus off of ourselves
and take us out
of the center
of our story
and you're trying
to put yourself
in the center
where you should be
because you're God
and we're not
so we thank you
for your son
who is a true
older brother
who left
incredible comfort
in heaven
to come down
and sacrifice
many many things
and ultimately
his life
to show us
what a true
older brother
should look like
Father as we look
at him today
and as we just
marvel at how
gracious
and merciful
you are
help us just
to be overwhelmed
with your goodness
and your mercy
help us to come
to you as brothers
and sisters
and sons
and daughters
and not as slaves
and to realize
that you are amazing
and as we
contemplate that
and as we live that
and as we confess
when we fall short
and we repent
of our sin
and our selfishness
we pray that you
would show us
people in our world
that we need to
also share this
message to
because you left
us here
not just so we
can be slaves
but you left us
here to be
sons and daughters
to point other
people
to the hero
of our story
the hero
who always shows up
your son Jesus
so Lord
as a church
we just worship you
we thank you
for all these
provisions
and all these
friends
we pray all these
things in your
amazing name
because we love you
amen
thank you guys
next week
cyberport
check the website
have a great week