Prodigal: Heart of God | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Um, in 2023, we said this is our vision.

Really simple, is to simply follow Jesus.

What does it look like to be an apprentice of Jesus?

Something that got lost over the last several years, especially among Christians over the COVID era of life, is Jesus got lost from everything.

Our political opinions and preferences got elevated, and Jesus' voice got devalued and lost in the fright.

And so we said, okay, what does it look like for us as a church to return to Jesus, to really get to know him, fall in love afresh with him, and then become this type of people that would be starting doing the very things Jesus would do if he were here in our place.

That's what it means to be an apprentice.

And so we're teaching for the entire year out of the Gospels.

Everything we're teaching is from the Gospels.

Our last series that concluded last week on Easter was through Jesus' I Am statements in the Gospel of John.

Today we're beginning a new series called Prodigal.

It's now Jesus' most famous parable.

In fact, if you've never been to church, you actually know this story, or at least know parts of this story.

At very least, you've seen some TV show called Prodigal or Prodigal's Son.

It's used all the time.

Now, here's what's interesting is for many of us, we are so familiar with it that we miss out on the significance and the meaning and the point often altogether.

And so we're gonna spend four weeks looking and studying and learning about uh what is actually at the very heart of God.

And to begin, I'd just love to ask maybe this question Have you ever wondered what is God really like?

I don't know if you believe in God or not.

Most of you do, I assume, since we're here all together.

But like, what is God really like?

If there is a God, what is he really like?

Is he just this impersonal force that got everything going and just kind of sent the world off spinning, distant, aloof, doesn't care?

Sometimes it feels that way.

Is he this old man in the sky that is kind and you know, well-meaning, but has little to no power?

Is he angry, has his arms crossed, always waiting and for you to screw up so he can bop you on the head, and you're constantly waiting for, like we said, I think it was last week or a few weeks ago, the other shoe to drop?

Is he this genie?

Is he this force?

Like, what is God really like?

And as we ask that question, we also ask this question and does God really like me?

Does he really like me?

Whatever this God is, does he really like me?

And here's something amazing.

And we've said this throughout uh the year so far studying the life of Jesus.

The gospel writers, those who were the biographers of Jesus' life, uh, in particular, John said in John chapter 1 that Jesus came to explain the Father, to explain God.

John 1 · chapter mention

Like when you look at Jesus and you wonder what is God really like, Jesus says, Hello.

Right here, not this, not me, but you know what I mean.

Like Jesus is like the explanation, the revelation of who God is.

If you want to know what God cares about, look at Jesus.

If you want to know how God responds to injustice, look at Jesus.

If you want to know what God gets angry about, look at Jesus.

In fact, said another way, the life of Jesus brings into crystal clear clarity the very heart of God.

Like, like Jesus.

Jesus answers, what is God really like, and whether or not God really likes you or me.

That question, what is God like and whether God really likes you or me, is one that we don't just wrestle with.

It's one that we've wrestled with for all of humanity, and religious people have a way of answering this, and Jesus had a way of confronting it.

What's fascinating is you see uh the setup for the parable of the lost son is Jesus confronting, or really first being accused of something that he got accused of quite a bit, by the way.

Um, and then he's confronting a narrow view or understanding of what God is like and who God really likes.

It begins this way.

Says, now tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

That's amazing, by the way.

How cool is that?

I know tax day is in a couple days, um, but you if you didn't know, you do have extra time, I've been told, but I'm not giving any tax advice.

I'm not allowed to do that there.

Um, but here's what's interesting is in our day, we read this and we're like, yeah, tax collectors, um, we can't even get a hold of one.

It wouldn't it be nice to get a hold of one?

What all you do is get mail from them, right?

Uh in their day, these were the most despised, lowest.

This would be a Jewish person who is in cahoots with Rome, who's denied their people and now exploiting them for their own personal gain.

And so the minute this would come up, if we were kind of like doing this interactive theater and you heard tax collector, you would boo at that.

You want to try that?

Now, tax collectors, yes, you liked it.

Okay, and sinners, and this is just a catch-all for everybody else.

Everybody else, that the type of people that God doesn't like.

That's tax collectors and sinners in their day.

You know who God doesn't like?

Tax collectors and sinners.

This is just a catch-all for all the wrong type of people.

Now, here's what's so funny and interesting.

We're all gathering around Jesus.

Pastor author Andy Stanley says it this way.

I love this line.

People who look nothing like Jesus really liked Jesus.

Man, what a call for us as followers of Jesus, that people who look nothing like us, think nothing like us, in the way that we live our lives, in the compellingness of what we hold, the hope that we have, I think they should really like us.

And it seems like Jesus really liked them too.

And the text goes on and says, but there's always a but.

But the Pharisees, now here's the funny part: if you grew up in church world, when you the minute you hear a Pharisee, you think boo.

Like we, you're like, boo.

But that's not who they were.

These were the right people.

These were the these were the ones who began to define what God is like and who God liked.

Pharisees and teachers of the law.

And these teachers of the law, these are the ones that are held with high esteem, high regard.

They're the ones that are looked at to be closest to God, and yet when God stepped onto the planet, they missed him.

They muttered, which is a great word, by the way.

Muttered.

Muttered.

This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

Now, here's what's interesting about this.

You wouldn't welcome somebody that you disagree with.

You wouldn't welcome somebody that you thought was fundamentally opposed to the way you thought God was supposed to be worshipped.

And then it says that he eats with them.

In the ancient day, to sit down and share a meal with someone was the sign of full acceptance.

It was to say that we are together and I love you, I'm for you, I accept you.

A Pharisee and a teacher of the law not only wouldn't welcome someone, they would not let them in their proximity, they wouldn't make eye contact, they would pass by them, they wouldn't look at them, they would ignore them, they would look down upon them, and Jesus says, No, no, no, I welcome you and I'm gonna sit with you.

This is amazing, and by the way, a couple things I think we need to hear today.

Acceptance.

Jesus fully accepted these those tax collectors and sinners.

It did not mean he affirmed their decisions.

See, you can fully accept someone, love them, and at the same time go, I don't affirm the direction of your life, I don't affirm the decisions you're making.

In fact, Jesus is calling, hey, I long for a different life for you, but it doesn't keep me from sitting at the table with you.

And here's something else that's interesting about Jesus.

Jesus seemed to be very unconcerned what religious people thought of him.

You know, I mean, isn't it interesting?

So much of the good that we want to do, think to do, or lean in to do, or maybe God prompts us to do, we're curious and wondering what will someone else think of us?

What will they, you know, say about us?

Jesus seemed to be very unconcerned with what the religious people were gonna think about him.

But he was concerned with what they thought about God.

And that's the reason he tells this story.

Then Jesus told them this parable.

And if you do have your Bible, I just want you to circle the word parable and underline the word them.

Okay?

Circle the word parable, underline the word them.

Now, who is the them?

Help me out here.

Who is the them?

You guys are actually, I don't mean to you did better than the first service, by the way.

Yeah.

Now this is fascinating.

And this will help set up the context for the next several weeks.

The audience for the parable of the prodigal son are Pharisees.

He's talking to those who think they are right with God, look down on those who are not right with God, and trying to explain the very heart of God.

And then it also says parable, but what's here's what's fascinating is Jesus tells three stories, not one.

The parable of the prodigal son is the end, the climax.

A rabbinic Jewish tradition teaching tool mechanism was that you would use repetition to uh build your point.

And uh in their language, they didn't have good, better, best.

You used repetition.

That's why, like when you see holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

It is this whole idea that He is the holiest of holy, and we repeat it three times to emphasize it to the utmost.

And Jesus then shares three stories that build with clarity, that build with intensity, that show this represents what God is like and who God really likes.

And the first story he tells is the parable of the lost sheep.

The parable of lost sheep.

I was let's see if I can hold a mic and a Bible at the same time.

Thanks, man.

He said, I got it.

I don't know that I do, but I'm gonna try.

Then Jesus told him this parable.

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.

That's pretty common in our day, right?

You had that experience.

Like, man, I just lost a sheep last week.

Uh, doesn't he leave the 99 in open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulder and goes home.

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me.

I have found my lost sheep.

I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Now, Jesus is flipping the religious paradigm here.

Because here's what religion says: fix yourself up, work your way to God, and if you clean yourself up and do the right things, then you'll be accepted by God and accepted by the community.

And Jesus says, by the way, the heart of God is when he sees one who's wandered off, he goes and searches for that one.

He pursues that one.

It's not a God who says, work your way to me.

It's a God who is working to find you.

A God that when he finds the lost sheep, there isn't this shaming.

No, there is rejoicing.

There aren't arms that are cross saying, you know what?

You deserved it.

No, there's arms holding and carrying the sheep back.

There isn't scolding, there's a celebration.

He's flipping the paradigm.

And then he tells from the lost sheep, there's a hundred and one gets lost, then builds with intensity the lost coin.

Or suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one of them.

Now, these ten coins, uh, they would most likely be this woman's dowry that she would have received uh from her family as a bit of an investment, a safeguard, uh, her life savings, if you will.

They're not very worth a whole lot.

It's a drachma, it's about a day's wage.

She's only about 10 days' wage, but could possibly represent her life savings of what she has.

Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together saying, Rejoice with me, I found the lost coin.

In the same way, I tell you, there's rejoicing in the presence of angels over God, of God, over one sinner who repents.

All of a sudden, Jesus keeps emphasizing what is God like, and who does God like, what is at the very heart of God?

He says, All the people that you tend to look down upon, the people that you think you're better than, the people that you go like, they're, you know what, they don't have their act together.

And all of us have Pharisee in us.

All of us have something where we are looking down on someone and feel like we're better than.

And he says, that's come completely opposite of the heart of God.

Because the heart of God says it's valuable and it's worth the search.

It's like a woman losing one of ten.

I was trying to figure out how to like emphasize this because like we we don't have things that we lose all that often that valuable.

Um, and then I realized the remote control.

Have you ever lost the remote control?

In my house, me, the amount of energy, effort, struggle, intensity that I take to finding a stupid, remote control.

I mean, there's cushions flipped up, there's accusations thrown around the house about who had it.

Right?

And it's a stupid little remote control.

And God says, you're way, way more valuable than that, and way worth the search for that.

The lost sheep, a hundred, one gets lost.

The lost coin, ten.

One gets lost.

And then we come to the lost son.

There's actually three characters in the prodigal son, and we're gonna spend the next three weeks looking at each of those from a different perspective.

Next week we're gonna look at the younger brother, which we're really familiar with.

The following week we'll look at the older brother.

Some of you didn't know it actually has two sons in the story.

And the point actually is for the second son, it's for the Pharisees.

We'll get to that.

And then there's the father.

And we're gonna spend the next three weeks looking at each of those angles.

But there's two sides, and one is lost.

And here's what all three of these stories have in common.

Something valuable was lost, a careful search was made, and a big celebration was thrown.

Something valuable was lost, and it builds in intensity, it builds that down into scarcity.

There was a hundred, and then there was ten, and then there was two, and it builds in value from sheep to a son.

Something valuable was lost.

And here's the thing: we need to be reminded so often that you are valuable, and you're valuable not because of what you do or what you did or what's been done to you.

You're valuable because God looks at you and says, I love you.

You're valuable because you're made in the image of God, you have intrinsic value.

Because I think often some of us just feel like we're a waste.

The things we've done, like, no, God can never really like me.

He knows everything about me.

He's seen all the ugly sides of it.

He knew what I did last week, he knew what I did yesterday.

He knows what I've been doing.

He says, no, no, no, you have no idea.

You don't get it.

You're precious to me.

You're the object of my affection.

And as a result, you're worth the search.

You're worth going after.

God never looked at you and was like, not this time.

Never never said, Well, they had a bad day and they're getting what they deserved.

We think that of ourselves all the time, don't we?

And somehow we think that's what God thinks about us.

It's interesting, isn't it?

Um because Jesus, if we kind of bring it into our modern day in these stories, he's actually preaching to Christians.

He's actually preaching to modern day Pharisees, he's preaching to people who really think they hold the corner on what God is like.

Many people like me.

And he says, you know what?

I look at you.

And I love you.

And your worst day didn't change my love for you.

And on your best day, it didn't change my love for you.

And I never looked and wondered, is it worth it?

You're worth it.

You're worth it.

And this, by the way, isn't new.

Like Jesus showing up and going, like, this is a new part of God.

I hope you kind of like get to see this side of him.

It's what God has been doing from the very beginning.

In Genesis chapter 3, it's known as the fall of man and Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Um, they take of the fruit of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, the one that God said, You can have anything, but not that.

They do that.

Moment, their eyes are open, scripture says, and they look at each other naked and like, whoa, whoa.

Okay.

And shame covered them.

And what do you do when you feel shame?

You hide.

And we've been doing it ever since.

And we cover the parts of ourselves because we feel so shamed.

Unworthy.

Unlovable.

And God comes in the cool of the day, as he did, as was his habit, to walk with Adam and Eve.

And his first words to them were relational.

It wasn't, maybe some of what our parents have said, and these are this has unfortunately come out of my mouth as well.

It wasn't, what did you do?

I've said that to my kids.

Like, what'd you do?

Are you kidding me?

Really shame-filled words.

I get it.

It wasn't how could you?

It wasn't what were you thinking?

It wasn't, don't you see what I've done for you?

Isn't that the words that you hear from God all the time, the things that you think he's saying to you?

How could you go down that path?

How could you repeat that mistake?

How could you?

Don't you know what I've done for you?

And you heap shame and you go into hiding and you show up to church and you never show the real you because you're afraid that if anybody saw you, they wouldn't like you either.

God's first words to Adam and Eve was where are you?

Where are you?

He's been searching to bring restoration ever since.

Where are you?

It's relational.

We walk together in the cool of the garden, and you moved, and it breaks my heart, and I want to bring you back.

Where are you?

Something valuable was lost, a careful search was made, and a big celebration was thrown.

I just honestly think somebody here really needs to know you're worth celebrating.

You're worth celebrating.

Like this is the scripture where we get that heaven throws a party.

How cool is that?

The minute you say yes, you turn from your sins, you turn to Jesus, he says, Welcome home.

The minute you say yes, heaven throws a big old party.

And not some lame party that maybe your parents or somebody else used to throw.

And you're like, oh, is that what a Christian party's like?

Because that's that's it's boring.

It's just boring.

God does not throw boring parties.

Heaven throws this incredible celebration.

Why?

Because something valuable, you were lost, you were found, and now that you're home, it's worth celebrating.

You are worth celebrating.

Jesus, when we look at him, brings into focus the very heart of God.

What is God like?

Look at Jesus.

And does God like you and me?

And Jesus, through these three stories, answers with an emphatic yes.

A number of years ago, I was a it was on a Sunday morning just like this, and I often get up pretty early, and um I was headed to a coffee shop to study, and as I go out my driveway, I see across the street a guy leaning up against my neighbor's truck.

And I was like, Oh, is that Jerry?

I and I look at a little bit closer, and that's not Jerry, but he's leaning up his truck.

Jerry does construction.

I'm like, I want to make sure he's not trying to steal uh tools from his truck, and I hop in my car and I drive up right next to him, and this guy, college kids, just leaning like this, and he's got his phone, and he's kind of wobbly a little bit.

So I pull up and I go, hey man, you doing alright?

And he's just messing with his phone.

Doesn't even respond.

And I go one more time, hey man, you doing alright?

And he kind of takes a step and kind of stumbles a little bit, and he's still messing with his phone.

He's eventually making a phone call.

I realize maybe I'm asking the wrong question.

So I ask a different question.

Do you know where you're at?

Because it's clear he's had a rough night.

And he gets on the phone and is apparently his girlfriend, and apparently uh he was at a party uh that night and got drunk and wandered out the front and got lost.

And he'd been wandering the rough streets of Willow Glenn all night long.

And and he gets on the phone with his girlfriend, and he's like, How could you guys leave me?

I don't know.

I've been wandering, he's just on the phone, and there's this really nice guy talking to me.

I'm like, um, and I don't know.

I mean, he literally said this.

I am not making this up.

I think he sent from heaven.

That's maybe a little far.

I am a pastor, but he gets off, and I look at him and says, Hey, let me give you a ride home.

He hops in the car.

We begin to have a conversation, hear about his night, hear what's going on.

And as we're on the way home, he started saying this, and he said it probably ten times.

He's like, I can't believe you found me.

You saved me, and you're bringing me home.

I can't believe it.

I just had the roughest night.

I my friends all deserted me.

I my girlfriends, she's making fun of me.

I can't believe you found me and you saved me and you're bringing me home.

You found me and you saved me, and you're bringing me home.

And the heart of God, friends, is to welcome you home.

You found me.

You saved me, and you're bringing me home.

Isn't it interesting as Christians we recognize that grace got us in, but we fail to realize it's grace that keeps us all the way.

Grace got you in.

But then somewhere along the lines, we start to believe that it's our good deeds, our good works.

How many times I read, do this, am I a good boy, good girl, and somehow God will like me or love me or want me even more?

And he's like, no, no, no.

Grace got you into the car, and grace keeps you all the way home.

Grace is carrying you.

It is only by grace we are saved.

It is only by grace and follower of Jesus today.

You need his grace afresh.

And if you're not a follower of Jesus, we need, and you need his grace afresh.

The heart of God is very simple.

What is God like?

He loves you.

He says, You are so valuable.

And I'll go to any lengths.

Yes, step into my own creation, suffer at the hands of my own creation, be pushed out onto the cross by those that I created for your sake because of love.

That's the whole goal.

It's amazing.

God does not need us to exist, but he is not content to exist without us.

And I don't understand that.

He says, I so long to be with you.

I'll do whatever it takes.

I like how Tim Keller, pastor, author, theologian says it.

He says, the gospel is this we're more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe.

Yet at the very same time, we're more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

Jesus, thanks for this moment.

Thanks for my friends.

Thanks for the reality and the reminder of your great love, of your heart.

And God, I confess that there's Pharisee that comes in mate.

Spaces where somehow I think I have to do better, be better.

And honestly, times where I look down and there's judgment in my heart.

God, I'm so sorry.

God, would you make us a people to simply live in the grace that you daily and freely give.

Thank you for your great love, your great care for us.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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