The Prodigal Son: Humility

Well, welcome to Redeemer.

My name is Russ Masterson.

I am the pastor here.

It's been a few weeks since I have been here and gotten to preach and teach, and so I'm excited to be back.

Excited to have you guys here, whether you're here sitting with us, or we have a live stream going beginning this week.

It's our first week doing that.

It was not part of the vision of our church, mind you.

Don't know if my face needs me on the internet, but we're there for you that are watching at home, and we're so excited that if you can't be here with us on Sunday morning, that you are here with us Sunday morning, even though perhaps you're sitting on your couch or your recliner and more comfortable than those of us that are here.

But we're one church.

We were one church when we were some of us watching the service that had been pre-recorded, and then some of us here, and then some of us listening to podcasts, and we're still one church as we're beginning this live stream to serve you and uh serve our people well.

So it's there.

So three announcements to just get us started, uh just kind of church-wide announcements.

Uh the first is this that we had been sending out a weekly email to remind you to sign up for this.

You signed up to get here to make sure we don't overflow, we don't have to reject people.

Um, that's not what we want to do.

But we're not going to be sending that weekly email anymore as a reminder.

You still need to sign up.

You need to go to our website and go through the process of signing up just like you have been for the past month or so.

Uh, but we're not sending the weekly reminder.

You'll we're converting back to just the monthly email coming about the first week or so of each month.

So you just have to remember if you want to come to church, you need to go to the website, you need to sign up.

So that's still the process, you just won't get the reminder.

Uh the live stream's going on, that was number two, already covered that.

Number three is this Wednesday night, our elders will be meeting to pray and discern and talk and decide what church will look like for us this next season.

So please, please, please uh pray for us.

Uh we need it in that conversation as we discern and pray and hopefully move in wisdom.

So I'm rested.

I do feel rested and sort of like recharged up to like do this another year, um which is always a good feeling.

Um, but I'm also tired, um tired in in certain ways.

Like I kind of call it like corona adjustments.

Like you're just constantly adjusting.

Everything's constantly adjusting, your schedule's adjusting, school is adjusting, um, socially, like social adjustments, right?

Like air fives and elbow touches and uh the corona shuffle, um, right?

You see somebody and you're shuffling because they moved too close, or you didn't realize you were closer, and then they shuffle around, and there's just that adjustments, constant, constant adjustments.

And those are tiring.

These schedule adjustments, social life adjustments.

I don't know if you've been on a family vacation with extended family, lots of adjustments, constant adjustments, and all that can be tiring.

It can be tiring.

Maybe you know what I'm talking about.

Life can be tiring in that way.

And we can even get tired of church.

I don't know if you've ever been tired of church.

I can get tired of church.

I mean, church can get tiring.

Uh people in the church, not you, not you, not me, right?

Just other people, right?

The other ones.

Um, that can get tiring.

Church with mask on can get tiring, um, but that's not gonna go away anytime soon.

Um we're gonna do it, but it's it's tiring.

Uh this week, what I was reminded of as I was driving to get my hair cut, where I gave a you know, air high five and lots of shuffling around the barber shop to get in the right spot and adjustments being made everywhere.

I was reminded on the way there, I was listening to a sermon of the preacher I like to listen to, a guy named Paul Walker up in Charlottesville, Virginia, and he was just laying on, laying on the love of God to me, to you.

And I thought, man, I get tired of a lot.

Like I can get tired of church, I can get tired of people, I can get tired of adjustments, I can get tired of all these surprises we keep getting, but I I just I never get tired of Jesus.

I just never get tired of the person and the work of Christ for me.

And we're gonna talk about that this morning.

So, this fall, we're gonna take three weeks with the prodigal son, next three weeks, and we're gonna talk about humility and grief and hope.

And then we're gonna go through the book of Hebrews, it'll get us to Advent.

Advent's the season before Christmas, and then we're gonna work the season going to Christmas, and then we're gonna have Christmas, and then a vaccine's gonna come out, and we're all gonna hug a lot, right?

Like that's the schedule for us for the future.

So the prodigal son is where we're gonna start these next three weeks.

And so the prodigal son, during my sabbatical, I was contemplating this prodigal son's story, and I want to use the story's launch points to talk about humility and grief and hope, because I think that fits into a lot of what's going on for most of us these days.

You remember the story, family, two sons, younger son asked the dad for his share of the inheritance.

Seems like a pretty wealthy dad.

Wealthy family.

The father says, okay, would have been a would have been a bit of a hit to the dad.

For the son to ask for the inheritance, ask for his money while the dad's still alive.

Dad does it.

Son runs off, takes the money, runs off.

You remember the story, runs off to a foreign land, a far-off country, he's in that far-off country, and he is spending the money and he's partying, he's having he's having a he's having a good time.

He's really going for it.

Then the money runs out, the parties run out, so the friends run out, and before long, you remember the story, he's working on a farm, he's so poor, he's so hungry that he longs for the food that the pigs eat.

And then Luke 15 says, as he's feeling the weight, the weight of all those mistakes, right?

Like the weight of all that shame, of that narrative and storyline of stuff he's done.

He remembers his dad.

It says this in Luke 15, verses 20 through 24.

Luke 15:20–24

And he arose and came to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven, and before you I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.

For this son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

And they begin to celebrate.

So the father runs to him.

No report needed, no shaming, just acceptance and a party, a party form.

So how does the son get to the point to return?

Risking shame, right?

I mean, he's risking being shamed or condemned or having to work his way back in.

How does the son get to that point?

How does the father get to the point to resist a lecture?

I mean, I'm a dad.

I love to double down on a good lecture while my children are not listening.

I mean, every dad loves that moment, right?

So what's going on with the son?

What's going on with the father?

A few points.

Point number one is this is God can use disappointments to grant us humility.

And that's good news, right?

Because we know disappointments.

God can use disappointments to grant us humility.

So in this story, certainly the father's disappointed when the child runs off.

He's left waiting to embrace his son if his son comes back.

If, if his son comes back.

Imagine if your child ran off.

You didn't know where they were, what was going on, and you're left wondering, you lost control.

That's humbling.

You don't have any control anymore.

If the child comes back.

Maybe, like me, you you know this feeling in the last few weeks or the last few months of losing control.

Maybe you've actually lost control on somebody, it's possible, or lost control in general, or maybe you just know the feeling that you thought you had control over certain things in your life, and then those things have been ripped away.

Because you thought you had control over your health, and then that didn't seem to be the way it worked out, or money, and that didn't seem, or schedule, or school, or travel, or some event you were looking forward to.

Life can be full of a lot of disappointments, and the lesson in it is always that we don't have as much control as we thought we did, and that's very humbling.

1 Peter 5, 6 and 7 says this humble yourselves.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

So point number two coming out of that verse is this humility shows us our neediness, preparing us to receive the party of God's welcoming delight of us.

So humility is not just too, it's not a belittling, it's not a shaming, it's preparing us to receive the party.

Verse 6, if we can nerd out just for a moment, let's nerd out on a couple words, key words.

Because our exaltation comes by humility.

So let's let's learn these words.

This word humble comes from the word tapa'ano.

You don't have to say that, which means to assign a lower place, rank below others, to lower your opinion of yourself.

Oh wow.

I mean, we all got opinions right now, right?

I mean, get me started on a few soapbox issues right now, and I'm ready to go, just like you're ready to go because you have a few opinions and a few soapboxes.

And this says, no, no, no, humble yourselves below others.

Just possibly you're wrong, just possibly I'm wrong, just possibly somebody else is right.

And even if you're right, humble yourself, lower your opinion of yourself.

So this isn't a shaming.

We don't have a shame-based religion, it's not what this is.

This is a freeing self-forgetfulness that you don't have to always be right, and you don't have to always be in control.

Exaltation comes from the word huopsao, which means to be lifted up to honor and happiness.

Oh, we all want that part, right?

Like, that's the part we wanted.

Like that was the part of the verse that really jumped out, right?

Like, oh, he'll exalt me.

But the way that we are exalted to honor and happiness is by humility.

When we stop self-justifying, when we receive the party that is only given to us by humility under God's reign in your life, so you're not God in control of all things.

We're all learning that in this season, and that we're placed in a position that we are filled with anxieties.

Filled with them.

The sun ran off.

Imagine the amount of anxiety that this dad would have.

Oh, you know it because you have your own anxieties based on the season that are just mounted up.

And this passage says, yeah, that is humbling.

So cast all those anxieties.

Cast means to forcefully throw.

Forcefully throw them on him, for he cares for you.

This isn't an equation for prosperity.

It sounds like it.

I mean, it almost works out that way, but it's not like an equation, like a guarantee.

Like if you just do this every single day, everything will be okay.

It's not going to work out that way.

But what it is, it's a description of what a humble relationship with God looks like and the trajectory it does move us in as we move in the freedom that God wants for our hearts.

I think this verse is also teaching us our calling into a contemplative life.

I think that could be one of the best things out of this whole corona pandemic could be for us to get and receive the calling of a contemplative life.

That's your calling.

You are free in Christ, but you're not as free as God intends for you to be.

And the freedom that God is calling you to move in, I guarantee you will have something to do with slowing down.

Slowing down enough to cast all those anxieties on Him.

Not frantically speeding up like if you just catch up with the news enough, right?

Like just swipe to the right on your iPhone and read the headlines, and then all of a sudden the new headlines from today, you know, so drastically different from yesterday, all of a sudden that's going to give you that joy and peace your heart is forever longing for.

When has it ever worked out?

Frantically speeding up for more news or more information has never worked, and it will never work to satisfy your heart.

So I don't know what a contemplative life looks like for you.

I really don't.

I don't think I could give that to you because I think we're all different.

For Christie, it looks like really very early, early mornings.

Okay, so I'm still asleep.

For me, it's more like a normal morning time for me.

Also, for me, I can't watch the news.

I have to have a very limited amount of news.

I just can't handle it.

My heart can't handle it.

I have to come to grips with that.

I want to be informed after that.

I can't keep watching, I can't listen, I can't read, I can't deal with it.

Informed, but nothing more.

That's my heart.

Your heart may be different, but you've got to discern that out.

What is a contemplative life of moving in the freedom Jesus wants for you look like?

I need to take walks.

Helps me slow down.

I need to be with the Lord in nature.

That helps me.

Helps me reconnect.

It helps my heart to be walked back to the heart of God.

I need to listen to music.

I need to read his word.

I need to hear the promises of God declared over me.

And you have to figure that out.

What does the contemplative life look like for you?

What a gift we have in these days where there's not as much stuff for us to do.

That perhaps we could begin to form that.

And in that, what we're realizing is that we are already loved and we're already cared for.

Last point, good news.

Because as it turns out, even when you are told you should be humble, and I should be humble, and we know we should, because we know the benefit of which I've just kind of described for you, even when you know all of that, uh, we're not great at being humble.

So we need the last point here, and this is the humility, point number three, the humility of the father allows us to enter the party.

The father wraps his arms around the sun when the son returns and immediately returns.

It's all returns almost as if there's no thought.

So automatic, so a part of the father's nature, and he says, We're throwing a party, slaughter that fattened calf.

Priest and author Robert Capin, he said this parable is a festival of death.

Right?

The son has to die to himself to return to the father.

The father has to die to himself to receive the son.

And then the image of Christ in this story, Christ's work for us, is that the fattened calf was sacrificed.

The fattened calf didn't even do anything, and the fattened calf is sacrificed to provide the party.

So the party can happen.

And this party's for you.

Enjoying the forgiveness we have in Jesus' death.

Incarnate God dying for us, humbling himself for us, that we will have forgiveness of all of our sin.

Any shame we have is taken care of.

Nothing to add.

So that thing and that thought and that story and that thing that happened, you're trying to work your way back out of it or do enough good to make up for the bad, all of that has been taken care of in God's grace to you.

You're welcome into the party.

What a party that is to have that forgiveness, to enjoy your forgiveness.

And the party is about this free righteousness given to you.

That in Jesus, he takes all of your unrighteousness, you know, a little bit of good, a little bit of bad, and you know, a little bit of good and bad motives and behaviors, and all of that, that's up and down, all of that.

He takes all of that kind of weighing out.

And he gives us the righteousness of himself, the righteousness of Jesus.

And so we're already righteous.

That's a party to enjoy.

That we're already righteous, and we don't have to wake up to prove it today.

Now that's actually humbling to receive that, because what it means is you've given up thinking you're good enough to earn God's favor, to be better, more good than bad, and earn forgiveness, or be more righteous in order to be righteous enough, and you've given up the whole game to go into a party.

I mean, it's like walking into an ocean, right?

Like you're not in control anymore.

It's going to a party.

This is the image for us this morning.

It's going to a party, and you have nothing to do except to receive the party that's given for you.

That's provided for you.

The forgiveness of Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus for you, that God loves you, cares for you, calls for you to live a contemplative life, moving and growing in the freedom that we have in Jesus.

That is lavish love for us to enjoy.

Let's pray.

God, thank you for your goodness to us, that you care for us and you call us to cast our anxieties on you.

And there is a party for us to enjoy.

A party in your grace where we are already forgiven and already righteous, and we get to rest and grow in your grace to honor you in Jesus' name.

Amen.