Moore College Mission Matt Baines

Well, it's great to be with you again this evening.

I just want to reiterate what Sam has said already.

If anything I say tonight resonates with you,

we want to give you the opportunity

and we want to encourage you to respond in some way.

And Sam's going to talk about that more afterwards.

But I want to begin by making a confession.

I hate reading instructions.

I know that shouldn't come as a shock, given that I'm a man,

but I hate reading instructions

and I especially hate reading maps.

And I want to tell you a story.

It's a little embarrassing.

One day I applied for a job as an accountant.

That's not the embarrassing bit, by the way.

And I organised an interview with a recruitment consultant.

And I thought...

I was on the phone, I was trying to take the address down,

and I thought, yeah, I've got the address in my head,

and lo and behold, the time comes around to go to the interview

and I've forgotten the address.

Now, I think I know roughly where this guy's office is,

so at the right time I head out to try and find this office

and I don't seem to be making much progress.

And about ten minutes after the interview was supposed to have started,

I get a phone call from this recruitment consultant.

And he says to me,

Matt, are you lost?

And I say, I'm not lost.

I'm just directionally challenged.

And I realise that I'm often reluctant to admit

I often don't recognise that I'm lost until it's too late.

And this is about a story about a guy just like me

who's reluctant to admit that he's lost.

In fact, he doesn't realise that he's lost until it's too late.

Now, to appreciate this young man's situation,

we've got to go back in time

and understand just how fragile life can be

in Middle Eastern culture 2,000 years ago.

If you were in a wealthy family

who maybe owned a farm,

you might have hundreds of silos full of grain.

And if you have a bad couple of years,

if the harvest fails a couple of times,

you could go broke very, very quickly.

There's a very real danger of starving to death.

So, when this young man sets out from home,

blows his cash on fast living

and finds himself working as a slave

in a land that's struck by famine,

he's in very, very dire straits.

He's quite literally at death's door.

Just as an aside,

Jews aren't allowed to eat pork.

So, you know things have gotten pretty bad

when you're a Jew and you long to eat pig food.

But this guy's problem isn't just physical hunger.

He's got deeper problems.

And his problems don't actually start

when he gets to the foreign country.

His problems actually start at home.

At the very beginning of our passage,

in verse 12,

the younger son asks

for his share of the family's inheritance.

And there's no apparent reason.

He doesn't need the money.

He doesn't want the money for any particular purpose.

It's only later in verse 13

that he actually heads to a foreign country.

There's a much deeper problem involved.

In Middle Eastern culture,

it's very, very shameful

to ask for your inheritance early.

Because when you ask for your inheritance early,

it's like saying this.

It's like saying this to your mum and to your dad.

I wish you were dead.

I wish you were dead.

That's what it's like.

You see, the father and the son

have a broken relationship.

They're estranged.

They're alienated from each other.

And later, the physical distance between them

merely underlines the emotional distance between them.

So when you find yourself in a mess like this,

how do you find your way out?

When you've got very deep physical needs

and emotional needs,

what can you do?

Well, there's basically,

there's two solutions.

The first is to try and fix the problem yourself.

It's interesting that the young man in our story,

he's not as useless as you might first think.

He tries to fix his problems for very early on.

If you have a look at verse 13,

he tries to fix the hole inside him

by going travelling and by living up a party lifestyle.

Now, there's nothing wrong with travelling

and there's nothing wrong with going to parties.

But they can't fill all of our physical

and our emotional needs.

Then things get worse.

He finds himself short of cash

and so he gets a job

to try and work his way out of his problems.

It's a pretty menial job.

Now, maybe he's hoping that

he'll rise through the ranks

and maybe make something of a career for himself one day.

And I want to say,

that's okay, work's terrific.

But again,

work can't fulfil

all of our physical and our emotional needs.

Travelling,

partying,

working,

none of these things worked.

They couldn't fix the hole

inside this young man's stomach

and they couldn't fix the hole

inside his heart.

But then,

in verse 17,

it says,

he came to his senses.

And what he does next

is really critical.

In verse 18, he says,

I will set out

and go back to my father.

So I want to take a step back

and ask,

what's Jesus trying to tell us

by telling us this story?

It's this.

If you're at death's door,

if you have

very deep physical

and emotional needs,

come to your senses

and return to God

who's your heavenly father.

Sam mentioned that

I told some of my story last week.

If you weren't here last week,

I shared that my dad's a prison chaplain.

He works out at Long Bay Jail

and it's been a great privilege

for me to go out with him sometimes

and visit some of the inmates.

And one day,

I went with him

to the psychiatric ward

and I met a guy named

Anthony Waterlow.

Now, Anthony suffers

from schizophrenia

and four years ago,

he went to visit his father

and his sister in Clovelly

and in a schizophrenic rage,

he stabbed them both to death.

And he's been in the psychiatric ward

ever since.

But when he got to prison,

two really important things happened.

Someone started to treat

his schizophrenia

and someone gave him a Bible.

And he started to read the Bible

and he started to pray.

And he quite literally

came to his senses.

After a short while,

he approached my dad

and said,

can you start running

church services for me

and my friend?

It's incredible.

He's a guy

who has killed

his earthly father

and sister.

But now he knows God

as his heavenly father.

If it's possible

for a man like Anthony

to know God

as father,

it's possible for anyone.

So what sort of thing

can you expect

when you come back

to God as father?

How might an earthly father

respond?

Perhaps you would expect him

to stand there,

arms folded,

waiting for a pretty good

explanation.

Maybe he might be thinking,

you know what,

I'll put him to work

for a few years

until he learns his place

and then I'll slowly

let him back

into the family.

Maybe he's thinking,

you know what,

what this son has done

is just too much.

I can't handle it.

I don't want to even

acknowledge that he exists

anymore.

The father in this story

shatters all of our

expectations.

Take a look with me

at what happens.

It's actually pretty funny.

I kind of think it's

almost like slapstick comedy.

You see,

the father sees his son

a long way off

and that tells you

that he must have been

out looking for him.

And when the father

sees his son,

his heart literally

skips a beat

and he starts to run

through the town.

He lifts up his ropes

and he starts running

through the town.

And again,

in Middle Eastern culture,

that's just something

you don't do.

It's very,

very embarrassing

for a patriarch

in a family

to do that sort of thing.

And then the father

literally throws his arms

around his son's neck

and he gives him

a great big sloppy wet kiss.

And the son hasn't

even said a word.

He tries to.

He tries to begin

his apology

but the father

cuts him off.

And he's about

to say to your father,

Father,

I'm not worthy

to be your son anymore.

But the father

actually reinstates him.

And he gives him

an expensive robe.

He puts a ring

on his finger

and he puts a robe

on and sandals

on his feet.

And he throws

the homecoming party

of the century.

The father welcomes

the son

with complete joy

and acceptance.

Why?

He gives a reason

in verse 24.

He says,

this son of mine

was dead

and is alive again.

He was lost

and is found.

For all intents

and purposes,

this guy was dead

to his father

and now he's alive again.

Every time

someone returns

to God

as their heavenly father,

this is how God

celebrates.

Just like this.

He jumps for joy.

He throws a huge party.

If you come to your senses

and return to God,

he's going to accept

you back.

You don't have to try

and gain

the father's acceptance

by trying to fix

your past mistakes

or by trying to live up

to any expectations.

Just come back.

I want to tell you

a story about

a young girl

from Brazil

named Christina.

Christina.

She was living

in a small town.

She thought life

was pretty boring.

She wanted to enjoy

the big city

so one day,

without a word,

she leaves home

and heads to Rio.

Now,

she had no way

of earning money

and after a couple

of weeks,

she resorts

to prostitution.

When Christina

left home,

her mum was sick

with worry

and she was

a pretty clever woman.

She takes a photo

of herself

and she prints off

a lot of copies

and she takes

each photo

and on the back

of each photo,

she scribbles

a little note.

Then she goes

up to the city

and for days,

she walks around,

walking around

all of the clubs,

walking around

all of the dirty streets,

walking around

the brothels,

the hotels

and she leaves

all of these photos

around.

She attaches them

to letter boxes

and phone booths,

hundreds and hundreds

of photos of herself

with these little notes

on the back.

But after a while,

she doesn't find

a daughter

and she has

to go home.

Well,

a couple of months

later,

Christina

is a broken woman.

She's just

devastated

that she's thrown

away everything

that she had

at home

and one evening

in a little hotel,

she's climbing

the stairs

and she looks

across at a mirror

and she sees

one of these

photos attached

and she recognizes

the picture

and she thinks,

that's my mum.

And she goes

and she picks up

the photo

and turns it over

and looks at the note

and this is what it says.

Whatever you have done,

whatever you have become,

please come home.

if you return

to God

as your heavenly father,

whatever you have done,

whatever you have become,

he'll accept you.

Now,

you would expect

the story

to finish there

but it doesn't.

You see,

there's an older brother

in the story

and he's really upset

and to be honest,

you can understand why.

Try and put yourself

in his shoes.

Your younger brother

has just blown

some of the family inheritance

in the space

of a single generation.

He's embarrassed

the family

and to add insult

to injury,

the father

has put on

an extravagant meal

to celebrate.

Why did he have

to do that?

Why did the father

have to kill

the fattened calf

for crying out loud?

I mean,

that was the kind of thing

you did when someone

got married.

Couldn't he just have

celebrated with some

pizza and Coke?

Surely the older son,

he's got a right

to be upset.

But here's the problem.

The older son

doesn't want the father.

He wants

the father's stuff.

And he thinks

he can get

the father's stuff

based on his performance,

not based on

the father's love.

You see,

the older son

lives in his father's house,

but his heart

might as well be

a million miles away.

And this is the great

tragedy of the story.

Neither

the younger son

or the older son

understand what it means

to be a true son.

But I want to ask,

who is the more

tragic figure

in the story?

Well,

it's the older son.

Why?

Because

older sons

don't realise

that they're lost.

Now,

it's important

to know

why Jesus

is telling

this parable.

Jesus

is in a crowd

sitting and talking

with sinners

and tax collectors.

Tax collectors

were very bad,

I can say that

because I was one

for a while.

And the reason

they were bad

is

they were Jewish

tax collectors

but they cooperated

with the Romans

in order to get taxes.

So basically

they were considered

traders.

They were

socially undesirable.

They were considered

lost.

But there's a few

other people

in the story as well.

At the start

of the chapter

there are some

Pharisees

and some teachers

of the law

looking on.

Now,

they're basically

the religious

and social elite.

They're the movers

and the shakers.

They're powerful people.

They're the kind of people

that you see

on red carpets

and at celebrity parties.

They're successful

and they're admired.

But they're also

confused.

They're thinking

why would Jesus

want to eat

with these kind

of people

and talk with them?

Why would he want

to talk with

sinners and tax collectors?

People who are

spiritually

and socially

lost.

So Jesus

tells them

this parable.

And here's

what he's saying.

He's saying

the religious

and the social

elites

of this world

are often

like the older son.

Society

might look up

to them.

They might do

all the right things.

They might be

generous.

They might

even go to church.

They might be

heavily involved

in church.

But they're still

estranged

from their father

because they

don't want

their father.

They want

the father's

stuff.

Now,

if you're

offended by

the idea

that God

could love

people like

the younger

son,

if you're

offended by

the idea

that God

could love

people like

Anthony

Waterlow,

then you're

an older

son.

When you're

offended by

God's

generosity,

when you

feel personally

wronged,

that he

looks after

the people

that the

world looks

down on,

you're an

older son.

And you

need to know

that God's

love,

the father's

love,

is big

enough for

everybody.

Not just

the spiritual

and social

elite.

And you

need to

return to

your heavenly

father.

father.

So I

want to

say this,

if you're

just outside

the door,

if you're

a long way

off,

whoever you

are,

come home,

come back

to the

father.

It doesn't

matter what

you've done.

Well,

it does

matter,

actually.

It matters

so much

that Jesus

was punished

for our

wrongdoing.

sin.

You see,

God has

run out

to us

in the

person of

his son.

And his

son endured

great shame

by dying

for us

on the

cross for

our sins.

God

desperately

wants us

to return

to him.

And he

showed that

desperation

through the

death of

his son.

So if

you're a

younger son,

if you're an

older son,

if you

would like

to know

God as

father,

we can

give you

a map.

We can

show you

the way.

Whatever

you have

done,

whatever

you have

become,

please

come home.

Come

back to

the

father.

Amen.