God’s Lost and Found: The Older Son

Today's scripture reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

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

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

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

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