Love Isn't Fair - Luke 15

We're going to continue our study in the Gospel of Luke

before we get into it, I'll also continue just the conversation

about the families among us and just just from my own point of

view. We, we, we just talked about the

importance of families and the, the amazing seasons that so

often are used by God as discipleship for our lives so

that we can grow and, and, and learn how to love one another

within our family more. So out of curiosity, how many of

you are actually parents? So I'm going to do a formal

poll. How many hands look at all the

parents in the room this morning.

OK, next question, How many of you are parents of at least two

children? OK, that we're going somewhere

with this. And if you didn't raise your

hand, how about how many of you grew up in a family with at

least one sibling? So everyone's about to just

completely be spoken to this morning.

And let let me explain to you why this is an important survey.

If you are now parents of at least two children and if your

children are now, let's call it in the age of reason, they can

now question your decisions as parents and they can question

how well you do at being a parent to all the children.

You have now entered into this very important revelation of how

life works. How many of you have had kids

watch you parents make decisions on behalf of the family or even

disciplinary action and said that's not fair?

How many of you experienced that?

Of course, all of us, and again, all of you at one point were

probably growing up in a household that saw your parents

remind you that they had to do things that weren't fair.

Just this week, it took me all of one day thinking about this

very notion. I was given the perfect example

by one of my children. We're driving home from the

grocery store and in a moment of disrespect, I have one of those

parenting circumstances where I say, when we get home, we're

going to have to talk about this the way you just talked to your

mom. We're going to talk about it.

So we get home and I send her to a room.

And so for those of you wondering who I'm talking about,

we're not talking about Tommy. I only have one son.

It was one of the girls. We go to a room and every once

in a while, by God's design, AA moment of discipline can turn

into a great moment of of just love and moment between father

daughter. So I went from conversation

where I'm disciplining her to reminding her how much I love

her. And then it turns into a whole

bedtime routine. I'm tucking her in and praying

with her and kissing her goodnight.

Beautiful. Every once in a while it it

works out perfectly, except for I leave the room.

I've got three other children that were waiting for me while I

was spending an hour with this child who was disobedient.

The others were left to do chores and make lunches.

And so they 1 by 1 looked at me as I come out of my daughter's

room and they say, are you going to do that for us?

I don't have time tonight to do that four times.

And so I got the that is so unfair.

It's not fair that the one who is disobedient gets all of your

attention and a one-on-one bedtime routine.

And I had to remind them what all of you have to remember that

life isn't fair. And we bring all of that up

because if you've ever said that to your children, you're

actually walking in a beautiful and a profound moment of

theology that Jesus is going to address today.

Life is not fair. And by the time we get to the

end of this story, we are going to be so grateful that life

isn't fair. And more importantly, the

Kingdom of God isn't fair. We're going to read one of the

most important stories that you will ever hear to try to

understand the heart of God when it relates into teaching us how

the Kingdom of God works. And one of the fundamental

essence is it's not going to be fair.

And by the end of this, we're going to be so grateful.

And we're also going to be reminded that all of us are

still little children at times. And we want everything to be a

math equation. We want the way that we are good

to have good output. We want the way that we serve to

have things that turn into blessings.

And I'll just remind you on the onset that the Kingdom of God is

not fair. And it's a good news message.

And so to get this message, I'm going to take on the the, the,

the heavy lift of having you turn to one of the most

important chapters of all the Bible.

It might be my desert island chapter.

If I was alone on a desert island and I had to choose one

chapter, it might be Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

And so turn to Luke chapter 15. And before we get to what is

Luke 15 · chapter mention

considered one of, if not the great parables of Jesus, it's

between this and the Good Samaritan.

Most of you have heard the story of the prodigal son.

We're going to start at the beginning of the chapter to get

the context as to why Jesus is going to tell a parable.

Jesus employs parables when he has to speak a heavenly truth

with an with a earthly story because people aren't getting

it. So in the beginning of this

chapter, we're going to we're going to get the scene set up

that will turn into these parables because of something

that is happening over and over again to where some people are

not getting it. So start with me in verse one.

You cannot miss the context says then all the tax collectors and

the sinners drew near to him to hear him.

We stopped there immediately already the person of Jesus, as

you study him, as you read the Gospels, as you get to know him,

what you will find the genuine Jesus was always so welcoming to

everyone and and this is such a beautiful reminder for some of

you even now as you maybe had to with bravery and courage walk

through the doors of the church. The person of Jesus, when you

really get to know him. He, he is a person where

sinners, tax collectors, those who were far off in this day,

very non religious, they drew near to him.

They loved to be near him. He's a welcoming person in his

ministry. And yet it says, and the

Pharisees and the scribes complained, what is he doing?

What is he thinking saying this man received sinners and eats

with them, So he spoke this parable to them.

A broader view of the Gospel of Luke and the narrative it's

telling is going to and look out for it.

As you read the chapters leading up to this, There's going to be

a theme of eating throughout the Gospel, and we've already looked

at a number of it from Luke Chapter 9 all the way to the

Luke 9 · chapter mention

cross. There are a number of times

where Jesus is at a dinner or in fact teaches about a dinner or a

feast or a banquet as a way to understand the heart of God.

You'll remember even just last chapter if you read Luke 14,

Jesus says the Kingdom of heaven is like a wedding feast.

And the whole point was the people who get invited don't

come. And so he goes to the highways

and the byways and he invites the least of these, the ones

that no one would expect. And then he says when you give a

dinner, don't invite your friends.

Everybody does that. I want you to invite people that

normally wouldn't be invited. And now the author of this

gospel is taking us to a real live moment where Jesus is

living out the banquet that reminds us that heaven draws

people that are not normally expected to be at the table.

And part of that lesson is those who are assuming their role at

the table at the feast are the ones who miss it.

And this is what the scribes and the Pharisees are living out as.

They complain that Jesus is keeping such odd company tax

collectors and sinners and those who seem so unholy.

And they complain and they use it against him as a reason to

not trust that he could actually be the Messiah.

So he turns to them. He says he turns to them and

tells parables he's going to tell 3 parables, all of them

with a similar theme, but the the picture will get more and

more intense as to how it teaches it.

So the audience is the religious people who missed the point.

The parables, The first two very quickly are the parable of the

lost sheep and the lost coin. Painting a picture with one

refrain that repeats itself over and over again.

A shepherd goes out and he loses a sheep, one out of 100 and he

leaves 99 in the safety of home to find the one that is lost.

And when he finds it, this is the point.

He puts it on his shoulders and he carries it home.

And he's so grateful that he found what was lost.

And he rejoices. And then he says or, or, or

think of it this way. There's a woman who loses a

coin. She has 10.

She loses 1. And so she does what you do when

you lose something in your house.

You sweep the whole house. You turn on the lamp and the

lights, and you look for everything.

You look through everything until you find it.

It reminds me of my wife when she loses her glasses and she

can't see anything. So I have to join the search

party. And we sweep the whole house and

we retrace our steps and we turn on the lights and we look for

the glasses. And what happens when you find

them? I can see again.

This feels so good. I found the coin.

Rejoice with me. He's appealing to a natural

human instinct. When you lose something you

love, you're excited when you find it.

And those two parables are building into something that is

the the most exalted example of losing something you love, which

is when you lose the relationship with the person you

love the most. This is the context and the back

story. Jesus speaking to those who

can't understand why he would be eating with such unholy people.

So he speaks the parable and now he comes to the greatest parable

of the three, often called the parable of the prodigal son.

But as we start in the introduction, it's important to

note what the setup that Jesus offers is actually telling us.

It says in verse 11, then he said a certain man had two sons.

It cannot be limited to the interaction that the father has

with the prodigal son. It's a beautiful story.

What happens to the younger son as he leaves and then returns is

it's, as stated, the the beautiful picture of the

redemption of the gospel. But we must remember that this

is a story that is meant to teach us about the second son,

the older son as well. In both of the Son's

relationship with the Father, we have a necessary, much needed

reminder of how the gospel works and how we respond to it.

So this morning we'll walk through this story.

We will see the gospel on display in story form, and we

will also get AI hope invitation to in the end understand God's

love more fully. No matter who in this story you

might relate to, some might relate to the younger son or the

older son or even the father who has lost the Son.

And as we go through this, we will look for the heart of God

on display through this story. It says a certain man had two

sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give

me the portion of goods that falls to me.

This is why the story is often called the prodigal son because

he is making a request that is going to set him up for some

really bad decisions he's about to make.

And it starts with the younger son approaching his father and

asking for his inheritance before the father dies.

Now you, you, if you've ever heard this story preached,

you've probably heard the intense disrespect that it would

require for a child to request their portion of inheritance to

a father that is still living. And no doubt, I do not have to

appeal to ancient times for you to understand that.

Any of you could understand the amount of disrespect that a

child would place on you or you to your parent if you ask for

whatever they have that they're planning to leave to you in

advance. It's often stated that this is

in some ways the younger son coming to the father and say

you're dead. To me, our relationship is

really just the goods that you own that will someday be mine,

and I care so much more about the goods that I do you.

Then I'd rather just sever my relationship with you and take

what is mine now. A horrible, disrespectful and

disgraceful moment for a younger son to request this of his

father. And with that, this story will

now unfold to give us such a beautiful portrait of the

sinner's journey, a portrait that I hope some of you will be

able to relate to in the humility of your own life.

And in reality, it's a portrait that every single one of us

should listen to because the Bible says we have all sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God.

The sinner's journey is everyone's journey to get to the

gospel. And the first portion of this

that will help us understand what sin does to a life is he

asks for his inheritance out of order.

And what sin ultimately offers you is the instant gratification

of a pleasure that will be yours someday, just not today.

All of you who have put your faith in Jesus are living with

the most deferred gratification that you possibly can by faith,

which is someday. Your real treasure is going to

be heaven. And there's nothing in this life

that is worth the treasure of heaven.

So live your entire life with such a confidence that the real

glory will be someday and not now.

That is the Christian journey. And sin comes and says, but what

if you just got glory now? What if the delayed

gratification to wait for your husband and wife, you could just

have with instant pleasure now and all the other examples of

the temptations of sin is to offer you something that God has

for you someday, just not today. That is why I think one of the

great analogies for sin is our day is the credit card.

The credit card essentially says, I know you don't have the

money, but I'll give the money to you now and then you can buy

whatever you want and then in a couple weeks you get the bill

and you realize that you always have to pay back more than what

you borrowed. That is sin, and in a picture of

sin's journey and the sinner's road, you'll see the heart of

God in display with the heart of the Father.

The response is not how dare you?

The response is not I'm still alive, get back to work.

The response is have it your way.

That will be God's response as you choose to harden your heart

against His goodness and a relationship that you were made

for with Him. If you choose the fleeting

pleasures of this world, as it says in Romans chapter 1, God

Romans 1 · chapter mention

gives you over to unrighteousness.

And one of the ways you will experience the chastening in the

discipline of God is when He says to you, have it your way.

And so it says. So He divided them His

livelihood. He sold the portion of the

inheritance that was due to this younger Son and gave it to him.

And now we have in verse 13 another picture of where this

road takes you, it says. And not many days after that,

the younger son gathered all together and journeyed to a far

off country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal

living. Hence the often summarized title

of this parable, the Prodigal Son.

And notice the pattern. He receives his inheritance

early. He gathers everything together,

and what does he do? OK, Dad, I'm going to deposit it

in the bank, buy a couple tools to help around the house, and

just have that as my own personal nest egg.

But I'm still with you. No, as always is the case when

you are tempted, as the book of James says, you are tempted

away. And sin, great or small, will

always isolate you and take you away from the people that God

has placed in your life as family and church, community and

people, as as neighbors to grow with and be a witness to.

And sin always takes you off to a foreign place where you're

eventually alone. He goes to a foreign country and

wastes his possessions with prodigal living.

And prodigal is not a word we use in everyday language.

It essentially means excess. He's got the money to live a

lavish lifestyle for a little bit of time.

And so lest you be deceived by the offer of sin, please do not

hear the preacher at church say sin is going to be horrible

immediately. It works because like a credit

card, it gives you a little pleasure up front.

He has a certain lifestyle he can afford for a moment and that

is the season of sin. For those of you who have been

tempted by sin and drawn away from the Lord, you know that it

was fun for a moment until you wasted everything and the

journey will take you towards what it says of this man.

He wasted his possessions. Here is the promise and the

warning for all of us once again to hear the shiny temptation.

The the, it's like the lore in the water of sin.

It will take you, offer you, offer you instant gratification,

pull you away, and it will eventually waste everything you

have. Sin will waste your time.

Sin will waste your money. Sin will waste beautiful seasons

of your life that were meant to be a blessing.

You're growing and setting yourself up for what God has for

you. Sin will require you to hit rock

bottom and restart everything. Sin will waste your

relationships. It will sever you from family

and ultimately, if you do not hear the message of God's love

calling you away from this distant land of isolation and

prodigal living, you will sadly die in your sins and it will be

clear that it was a waste of a life.

But by God's grace and the beautiful storytelling power of

Jesus, this is not where the story ends.

The story is actually showing us that where sin can take you down

a road of despair, the gospel can reach you.

And the story is actually one of of hopelessness that turns into

great hope. It says, But when he had spent

all there, verse 14, there arose a severe famine in that land,

and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself

to a citizen of that country, and sent him into the fields to

feed swine. And he would have gladly filled

his stomach with pods that the swine ate and no one gave him

anything. There are two incredible

conditions that hopelessness has brought into this story.

Hunger and loneliness. Famine.

The food has run dry. He's wasted all his money.

He has no backup plan. He has joined himself to a

person of this foreign country. And the best job that he could

get was feeding this the the pig's food.

And in his hunger, he says, I wish that I could just have some

of this food. And he says, and there was no

one there to even share a plate of food with him.

The hopeless despair of this story is that eventually sin

will leave you completely hungry, off the diet of this

world and completely alone. And here is the first stop of

encouragement because some of you no doubt relate to the

Father. Anytime you ever preach in a

sanctuary where anyone has got a long sustained time of family

and church, there's no doubt some who have become prodigal

children. There's no doubt some of you

right now who would consider yourselves prodigal parents.

And here is the point of the story.

That sounds like one of those upside down encouragements.

It is OK as you watch your children ride off into the

sunset of the world to pray for them to become hungry and alone.

It is within your love for them that you would say God send a

famine into the the the lot of this world where they have set

up their tent. May they be completely broken so

that they would remember who they are.

Very scary prayer for a, for a parent to pray.

You know, I think of the season I'm in.

As stated, I live in a household where my children can only

wander so far. They're right under my my gaze

and I can watch their mistakes and I can pick them up and I can

correct them in real time. And the faith of a parent is

when you set your children in the way they should go and you

say, Lord, they're yours now. And it is sometimes very

challenging to not just want to be a parent that chases them out

the door, drags them back into church and and just tells them

everything they're doing wrong. Pray this prayer, Lord, may they

be hungry and alone. Because the beautiful good news

of the gospel is when you really understand it, it has to reach

you while you're hungry and desperate.

And this is where Jesus is going to take this story.

He says he would have eaten if someone would have shared the

food, and yet no one did. He's in a distant land.

He's wasted his money. He has come to a place where we

get one of the most beautiful and subtle turns of a story in

Scripture, verse 17. But when he came to himself, he

said maybe a better translation. When he came to his senses, he

remembered what a beautiful thing it is when we come to our

senses and remember who we really are.

You know, Romans chapter 1 says that God does give us over to

Romans 1 · chapter mention

unrighteousness. He does say have it your way,

but it also says that any one of us that are living in

unrighteousness have suppressed the truth in in in

unrighteousness. What can be known of God is

evident in the world around you in creation, in those moments

where the word was planted from the Sunday school to junior high

to high school. And the word does not return

without void. And there's something inside the

children that have left to find their way in the world that they

just need to remember. They need to come to their

senses. And what does he remember?

He remembers the father. This is such an important and

subtle reminder for us. He doesn't remember how to get

back to the church that he was last at.

That might be part of it. He doesn't remember the the

program that he was a part of. He doesn't remember the exact

functions of how the the pastor used to teach him how to follow

Jesus to the beginning of the gospel in your life is to

remember that there is a Father in heaven who created you to

know him. So how many of my father's hired

servants have bread enough to spare and I'm perishing with

hunger. My father has life.

My Father could nourish me. And so this is the the journey

of sin turning into redemption, to remember that there is a God

in heaven who made you and he wants to be known as a father.

And then the turn he says, I will arise.

I'm going to go home. I'm going to go back to the

place I came from, my good Father who has food, who I left

to be in this famished land. Notice what he says as he's

making the the, the plan of repentance.

He says, I'm going to say to him, Father, I have sinned

against you. I've sinned against heaven and

before you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

I want you to hold on to his prayer of repentance.

What a beautiful thing it is when we've become so hungry and

alone in the the in our lot, in this world that we realize that

we need a Savior. The gospel will fall on deaf

ears until you can relate to this young man's prayer.

I am unworthy. I have sinned.

I need help. This is the invitation that

should never the word repentance should never be a a hell fire

and damnation. It should always be the kindness

of God, like a father calling his child home.

For those who realize that they are sinners, that there's a

Savior that will forgive you of your sins.

For those who realize that you're in a foreign land, that

there's actually a place that you were made for.

He says. I'm going to tell him I'm no

longer worthy. I'm going to just join the lot

of the servants. Verse 20 and he arose and came

to his father. This is let's just pause and and

appreciate gospel on the display but when he was still a great

way off his whole picture is Jesus describing the love of God

is for people that are far off as he's far off his father sees

him this this is giving us imagery that the father's been

waiting on the sinner's road waiting on the road that that

was straight out of town and he waits day after day horizon

line. Is he coming Is he coming back

home and as he sees him a far way off says he had anger so

disappointed in the man's decisions.

He's coming back. He left with a with a caravan of

stuff and he's coming back with nothing.

Of course not. Says that he had compassion.

He didn't have compassion that he was going to tell him about

later. He had compassion like a father

who has compassion for a child who's coming home, compassion

that turns into him running. He's not waiting for this young

man to come back and fall at his feet.

He runs him. He runs after him, and he meets

him at the road, and he falls on his neck and he kisses him.

Never mind all of these ideas about God being angry at sin

because of the ways that we violated him, God is showing us

through this beautiful story that what He wants and longs for

is to pour out His love on all of those who would come to him

as people who are in need of help.

And now we come to the speech. Never.

He had this speech in his mind. He was sitting there at rock

bottom. He said if I could just get in

front of my dad, I'm going to tell him that I can't be a son

anymore, but I can be a servant. And the son comes to him and

it's in this moment he's being covered by the father.

He's being kissed and loved with compassion by the Father.

And he he begins his speech Father, I've sinned against

heaven and in your sight and I'm no longer worthy to be called

your son. And before he can utter the next

line, just make me a servant. I can't be your son, but make me

a servant. The father interrupts him.

But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best

robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals

on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here, and kill it,

and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is

alive again. He was lost and he is found.

And they began to be merry. They rejoiced, and I promised

you that part of this message would be the good news, that

life isn't fair and the Kingdom of God isn't fair, and God's

love is indeed unfair. And there's a whole message for

that that the older brother's going to have to hear because

this is a classic sibling moment.

How can this be fair? But you know who else had to

hear the message? The son who wasted everything,

ruined his life and had to come back and fall at the feet of his

father. His speech was I am not worthy

to be called a son. And he was right.

And in his mind his repentance turned into let me just serve.

And this is where all of us need to hear the gospel in a way that

removes this childlike demand for fairness from our minds.

Because what happens is repentance can turn into

religion because you've heard the message that you're a

Sinner. You've heard the message that

you need a savior. You have your own remembrance of

rock bottom, of prison, of addiction, of broken

relationships, of being so far away from church that you were

embarrassed to come in and you came with the same idea.

I know I'm not worthy now, but you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to work off my debt. Everything I wasted, I'll prove

to you that I can. I can make it up to you someday.

The biggest danger of repentance is religion.

The biggest challenge for this son was to hear that he's still

a son was to not have that second part of his plan come

anywhere near the Father's heart.

I can't be your son. I'll just be your servant.

Some of you are here not as sons of the living God, but as people

who want to serve to work off the guilt of your sin.

It can happen to every single one of us.

You hear the gospel, you hear that God loves you, you hear

that you're forgiven. And you think, OK, now I got to

justify my existence in the church.

Now I got to prove my worth. Now I got to make up all the bad

for with some good. And here's the message that

Jesus wants all of us to hear. Sinners drew near him and he

dined with them and he said it's like a father finding a lost

son. And he says, put the robe, kill

the calf. We are having the feast of

feasts right here and right now because my son was lost and now

he is found. Every single one of you who

raised your hand as a parent now with some glimmer of

understanding, know what this story is about.

In the first half, I want you to imagine that you leave church

today and you go to pick up your child and the nursery worker or

the youth leader or the ministry volunteer, they look and they

call your child's name and he's gone.

They're gone. So worst fear of a parent that

you can ever experience, you would withhold nothing to find

that child. You'd break the speed limit,

you'd call the police, you would employ the whole church to go

and find your child. And let me just tell you, some

of you experienced something like that.

When you find the child, there will be no greater joy in your

life. A child that was lost, that is

now found. And here's what Jesus is saying.

This is the Father's heart for all who would come into the

Kingdom of God. This will be what heaven is

like, that we all like sheep, have gone astray.

But Jesus came into the world that no one would perish dead in

their sin, but they'd get invited to the banquet, not

because we're good, but because we've been adopted as sons and

daughters of the king. This message you have to hear

this. God loves you more than you love

your children. God wants intimacy with you.

He wants you to seek him and and know him and read His word and

have it come alive. He wants to guide and direct

your life because He values you like you value your child.

And part of the message today is to get revived in your heart

that you're not a Christian because you come to church or

listen to sermons or sing songs or serve or go on mission trips.

All of those things are beautiful icing on the cake.

You are a believer in the God who created you to know him as a

father, and you stand here as a son or daughter.

And that should radically change the way you interact with the

Lord and everyone else. Let me give you a small example

and then what we'll we'll very briefly look at the reaction of

the second son. As a warning, I have a son who

is 6 years old, so he's right on the cusp of being too old to do

this. But about every other night he

comes into my bedroom after he's fallen asleep.

He wakes up in the middle of the night, takes his blanket and

marches into my room and share with my wife.

And he just makes himself at home in our bed.

And I want to promise you that he does that because he has the

confidence of sonship with, with without asking him if he's ever

done this, I can just say it without a doubt.

He's never woke up in the middle of the night and thought I

longed to be next to my father and thought, did I take a bath

the night before? Because I should probably clean

up before I that would be rude of me to go into his bed looking

like this. I, I assure you he's never

thought that he comes in in all conditions.

He's never woke up and thought, man, I just longed to be close

to my father in the safety of his room, but I had a bad day

yesterday. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just not

a good kid and I got to I got to do better.

I'm going to I'm going to hold off and be with him.

He bursts open the door and he comes in and he sits between US

and he's the only, he's one of four people in the entire world

that I'll allow that to happen. If any of you try that, I'm

calling the cops. I love you all, but I'm calling

the cops. It is the most important way

that you will ever understand God is by knowing that you have

been bought with a price, you've been adopted by the power of the

Holy Spirit, and now you belong to the household of God as a son

or daughter. That is the gospel.

And here's the wild part. With the time that we have left,

we must hear the actual warning that Jesus told this whole

parable for because there's a second son and he's going to

remind all of us the danger of wanting life to be fair and

wanting the Father in heaven to be fair.

He says, what's going on when all of this happens?

They began to be merry. And the older son was in the

field and came out and drew near to the house, heard music and

dancing and called one of his servants and said, what is all

this about? And the servant said, your

brothers come home, and because he's received him safe and

sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.

Remember, he's looking right at the scribes and the Pharisees as

he says this part. Imagine he's just looking right

at them, making eye contact. How do you feel about sinners

eating at the table with Jesus? How do you feel about the

Kingdom of heaven being a feast for the lost?

And then he says, the older brother answered and said to the

Father, These many years I've been serving you, and I never

transgressed your commandment at any time, and you never gave me

so much as a goat and I that I might make merry with my

friends. But as soon as this son of yours

has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the

fatted calf for him. The father pleaded, Son, you're

always with me, and all that I have is yours.

It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your

brother was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and he is found. The older brother wants life to

be fair. The older brother notice says,

this son of yours, he doesn't say my brother.

And all he wanted to talk about is what he deserved.

I've been serving you faithfully.

I've never wasted your money. I've never gone out with

prodigal living, living and sin. I'm righteous.

He goes so far as to say I've never transgressed.

One of your commandments, the self-righteous, so close to the

table. But don't enter in.

Let me point out, to be self-righteous, you must be self

delusional. I've never transgressed.

I've served perfectly. In other words, I just want

heaven to be fair. I want those of us who are

self-righteous and those of us who have served without failing,

and those of us who are perfect sinners to get in.

And let me just tell you this. Aren't we glad that that is not

how the economy of heaven works? To the older brothers, the

Kingdom of heaven isn't fair. If it was, you wouldn't be

invited because none of us have perfect.

All of us have fallen short. Jesus ate with sinners because

he didn't want to eat alone. So the wherever you relate to

that you might be someone right now and you you're like, I don't

know God is my father. I know God is the subject of the

songs at church. I know God is the author of the

Bible I've memorized. I know God is someone that

someday I may see. The message is you need to know

the love of God, the most dangerous position.

In your journey with Jesus is not to be far out.

It seems as though those who are in the darkest places see the

gospel shine the brightest. The danger is to be so close

that you no longer think you need a Savior.

And the solution is the same for both.

There is one Father, the Father who loves those who are far off,

and the Father who welcomes in those who are close.

And so your mission this week is to know the love of God.

Forget functions of church and the memorization of scripture

and all of the routines of life. Know the love of God.

Bible says he was forgiven much loves much.

It can start by allowing God to open your heart to show you that

your need for a Savior, your need for forgiveness this week

so that we stop judging others and start receiving the grace

that we all need. Thanks for joining us today.

If you would like to watch the full service, check out the link

in the description. For next steps and to learn

more, visit calvaryboise.com.