Understanding the kingdom of God (Pt 19) : Lost and Found 3

I'm carrying on my lost and found.

Apparently it's part three, the first week in a sentence,

my thrust was this real worship is the fruit

of a truly, personally received, forgiven life.

In other words, to the degree you're forgiven,

to the degree you know for a fact that you are forgiven by Jesus

is a degree to which you are free.

And when you free, your worship becomes so real

because you know who he is, you know how close the Lord is to you.

Then the next week, it was unrestrained acceptance of God's will.

Remember, Jesus tells a story of two brothers

that were sent out into a vineyard to work.

And the one said, I'll go and doesn't go.

And the other one says, I'm not going. And then goes,

and which one is the real servant in the picture?

And Jesus was telling us to the Pharisees

who were sitting in Moses seat, who had been given a role to play

in God's people and they didn't take it.

And then he said, you will have prostitutes and tax collectors

on this side who will hear what God is saying,

repent, turn and come and serve.

And the that really the issue last week was

be the person who says yes to the Lord.

Now your life doesn't belong to you anymore.

It belongs to the Lord. And learn to say yes to the Lord.

This week, as I close the miniseries within the series

of the Kingdom of God Lost and Found,

I want to talk to you about the Father's mercy heart.

Our Father in heaven and his mercy heart.

Do you understand that if the God of this world,

the Prince of the power of the air is at work,

and Jesus said, he is a liar, I knew him.

He's a liar from the beginning. He comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

Do you start to understand something of the psyche of people in this world?

They expect nothing but a beating.

It's almost a prophetic picture that a mother gives birth to a baby

and the first thing happens is the baby gets slapped, doesn't it?

The rest of your life you're going to get slapped by those in authority.

And there are people who have a psyche of expecting

nothing from this world but pain and hardship and difficulty.

And Jesus comes and says, I want to show you a real father,

a father who is very different to that,

a father who is merciful at the very core of his being.

And our world needs to hear about this merciful God,

about how kind the Lord is.

So my first point is the Father's giving heart.

The Father's giving heart.

It's a story we know as the prodigal son.

It's another story of two brothers.

This time it's not two brothers in a vineyard.

It's two brothers working on their father's farm.

And what you're going to see is there is a pull towards the world

in the heart of, of the younger brother,

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

He doesn't want to stay at home with his life.

There's a pull towards the world for him.

And there's another brother, an older brother

who lives in a bubble where he cannot live

outside of his own selfish world. But he doesn't know it.

And Jesus is going to contrast these two brothers

with the heart of a father, because both brothers

and the father are going to experience mercy.

The older brother seems concerned about pleasing his father,

but it turns out he had a heart totally unlike his dad's.

He didn't forgive, he wasn't generous.

In fact, he was jealous of the love

his father gave his younger brother.

What's happened? The younger son obviously doesn't like

his situation at home. How many teenagers today are like that?

They don't like their situation at home.

It's very hard to be a teenager today, isn't it?

You have rules, screen time limits, bedtime rules,

must be in bed by 9 or 10 o'clock.

All the things older people wish for.

You get persecuted for being young these days.

That I'm always on my phone and my parents are always on at me.

You hear what I'm saying? I don't know this for a fact,

I just hear this kind of thing.

But this younger son doesn't like his situation at home

and decides it's time to fend for himself.

And this is where the story begins.

And I want you to see. Whenever a story is in the Bible,

whenever you read a verse, try and read the verse in the paragraph,

try and read the paragraph in the chapter,

try and read the chapter in the book,

try and read the book in the Bible because.

Because you get into trouble when you take things out of context.

But when you keep things in context, it makes sense.

And this story begins where Jesus is talking about

these two brothers and one's about to be lost.

It comes straight after the parable of the lost sheep

and straight after the parable of the lost coin.

You see, God wants us to know.

And please hear what I'm going to tell you right now.

God always is going after that which is lost.

He's always going after that which is lost.

It's the nature of the Father's heart

for the men who are at our men's camp.

You'll remember I said the first question in the Bible is,

God comes to Adam and says, where are you?

The next question in the Bible is, God comes to Adam's son

and says, where's your brother?

And in both cases, horrendous sin had been committed.

And in both cases, God starts the conversation

because God is a father who's always going after what's lost.

It's the nature of God.

And I think that's why people who are unsaved get so irritated

when Christians start to talk.

Because deep within themselves, they know that the God of the universe

who made them in his image is going after them.

God is going after lost people.

Every person in this room who's a Christian today,

every person watching, every person listening.

You became a Christian because God went after you.

Nothing in you was looking for Him.

He came and found you because he wanted you.

Luke, chapter 15 from verse 11, Luke 15:11.

Luke 15 · chapter mention Luke 15:11

To illustrate the point further. Lost coin, lost sheep.

Jesus told them the story. A man had two sons.

The youngest son told his father, I want my share

of your estate now, before you die.

So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings

and moved to a distant land.

And there he wasted all his money in wild living.

This story illustrates the heart of God,

the kind of merciful heart that is available to you and I.

And I want to preface this sermon by saying this.

You and I will not really understand love

until we understand the Father's kind of love.

Where the last word with God is always mercy.

Where the last word of God is always mercy.

You see, this father we're illustrating has a giving heart.

We're going to see that what the son asked wasn't wise.

But the Father gave him what he wanted.

And a pre lesson that Jesus wants us to understand

in this passage is it's one thing to say

God may have a giving heart. The other issue is,

do you have a receiving heart?

Can you receive when God wants to give?

Do you know how many people want to bless others

but they can't receive?

And freely you have received. Freely give.

You can only give to the degree you have received.

Do you remember Peter and John walking at the gate?

Beautiful. And there was a cripple and they expected money.

He expected money from them and asked them.

And they looked at him and said, we don't have money,

but what we have, we give you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Rise up and walk. They gave what they have.

And a pre question Jesus is going to be asking is this.

Do you have a heart to receive what what God wants to give?

Because God wants to give a whole lot.

But if you're not able to receive it,

so many stunted people in relationships

come out of relationships that are dysfunctional.

Then when they get into a real relationship,

they're unable to receive from their partner.

And how do you give if you can't receive

freely? You've received freely give.

Can you receive forgiveness, acceptance, identity, favor?

Can you receive blessing? Can you receive healing?

Because you can't give what you haven't received by revelation?

And I believe that God wants to break open into our lives

a heart of overwhelming generosity.

I think God wants us to live large.

He wants us to care for, to nurture,

to always have something left in the bank of our hearts for others.

I don't think he wants us depleted. Not enough.

I think Israel struggled in not enough in Egypt.

Then they moved into the wilderness.

Remember, just enough manna for the day,

just enough quail for the day.

And God moved them from not enough to just enough.

Then he moved him into the promised land of more than enough.

And the heart of God is that his sons and his daughters

start to learn to live in a space of more than enough

where you're not dictated to by the whims of a ruling party,

in a country where you're dictated to by the truth of scripture,

where the word of God dictates your spirit

and your heart of generosity.

I want to just talk about South Africa for 1/30 seconds.

And let me say this. This country belongs to the people who live in it.

And our future should be determined by us,

not by a greedy few.

And I want to say to you, I believe change is coming

because I believe there are so many million South Africans

who are saying, hang on, this is our land.

It belongs to all of us who live in it.

But I want to tell you, it's going to take a generous spirit

from generous people willing to live together

to bless our nation and the prophecies

God has spoken over. This land will come to pass,

but it will require a generous people.

Thank you for your excitement. Yeah, whatever.

Think back for a moment to how this parable ends.

Strategically, we're going to get there.

Jesus doesn't tell us what the older brother

decides to do with when the father addresses him.

Jesus kind of leaves it up to us.

How are we going to respond to the mercy

and the kindness of God?

You see, being a younger brother in those days

wasn't exactly a good position to be in

because when the father died, the older brother

got a double portion and all the other remaining siblings

got to share the rest.

And as you can discover from this older brother,

looking at what he's like, you know,

no one knows a brother better than another brother, isn't it?

Siblings know each other best.

Vanessa and I think we really know the boys

and we'll say something. And you look at the boys

and they look at each other and there's communication

happening without words. That says a whole lot, isn't it?

And I'm constantly surprised by my boys

realizing that they have revelation of each other

and something has happened that I don't think

that this younger brother is leaving home because of Dad.

I think he's leaving because of his butt. He's out.

That's why he says, I want inheritance before you die.

Because once you die, this guy gets to manage everything.

And there's no way on this planet I'm safe with him.

I'm telling you. So rather give me what I've got,

what I'm going to be due, that at least I know I get that.

Parents in this room, please make sure your wills are sorted out.

You don't want your legacy to be people fighting

each other over your stuff.

And the younger brother makes this request

and you know what? The Father can look in this boy's eyes

and know the exact outcome and the exact consequences

of this request.

He knows his youngest son well enough to know

he's unreliable and easily influenced,

but he doesn't comment on it.

He gives to the Son what the Son really wants.

And it's a picture from Jesus that.

Listen to this. Every person is where they are

because they want to be there.

Right now you are as close to the Lord

in your relationship with him as you've chosen to be.

You're as far from the Lord as you've chosen to be.

You're walking in as much of the Holy Spirit

as. As you've chosen to because he gives the Spirit without measure.

You and I are pressing into God and receiving from him

and being as effective as we're choosing to be.

God always gives you what you want

and he's showing us the consequences of the choices you make.

That leaves you in the place you're in.

But later we're going to discover that the Father's mercy heart

will always draw you into what's best.

And. And it doesn't matter how far off the page you go.

He'll always bring you back if you let him.

This father had grounds to worry about his son,

but he released him.

And you might say, this is dangerous.

Have you ever tried to keep a person with you against their will?

It results in difficulty, hardship, stress,

and the father's just got to say, okay, you got to go.

Because a time is going to come when the mercy you have received

is the mercy you're going to have to give.

You know, our children were given us to love,

not to sit on their heads.

And while we feel responsible for their behavior,

there does come a time we got to say,

well, to some degree, you've got to learn to live

in the decisions you're making.

And so the father will not only give you his love,

he'll give you rope, he'll extend the leash,

and you can decide how far you want to walk

and where you want to walk to.

Which leads to number two, going big with pigs.

Because if you're a younger brother,

if you're a person who does not have a disciplined life,

who doesn't live for the good of your father

but lives for yourself, you're going to go big with peace.

There's no other way to say this.

And sometimes people have to see for themselves.

The Bible says, taste and see that the Lord is good,

but you can also taste and see that some things aren't good.

And if you don't want to taste and see the Lord,

this father's heart must have troubled him.

He watched his son walk out of the door,

suitcase in hand, a lot of cash in his pocket.

How do you think that father felt just having a look

at his son walk out the door?

A word quickly to youth and to teenagers, young adults.

You have your parents hearts in your hands.

Handle them with love, with care, and with respect.

Until you're a parent yourself, you will never understand

the degree to which your parents hold you in their hearts

and the degree to which your every decision

and your every action has an immediate ramification

on your parents.

And it's the exact same with God,

an immediate ramification.

He must have prayed deeply as his boy walks out the door

looking, lord help him and Lord help me.

As it turns out, we know what's going to happen.

The young man takes his money, goes to another country,

experiences hard times.

Everything his father was concerned about

and probably warned him about happened.

I carry on in verse 13.

So a few days later, the young son packs all his belongings,

moves to a distant land.

There he wastes all his money in wild living predictable.

About the time his money ran out

a A Great famine swept over the land

and he began to starve.

He persuaded a local farmer to hire him

and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

The young man became so hungry that even the pods

he was feeding the pigs looked good to him.

But no one gave him anything.

Many people have found themselves in this place.

You've been reduced to hanging with the piece.

And when you hang with the pigs,

you don't even benefit from their piggy lifestyle,

you just hang with them.

And in most cases, such people are actually acting

in rebellion against what they know is best,

while justifying the decisions they've made.

How many times have you phoned someone in a bad way

and you say, how are you? I'm good, everything's good.

It's called self justification.

You see, the people, sometimes you hang with the pigs,

probably pretend to other people that things are going well,

while in reality their lives are going into increasing ruin

and they will not surrender.

They will never admit how bad it is

until finally they can't even eat the pig food.

People don't often comment until they finally realize

how lost they are.

And that's what happens in the story.

The younger son eventually discovers,

to his own massive surprise, I'm actually lost.

I'm actually not where I should be.

And in that moment, verse 17 says,

he finally came to his senses.

And he said to himself, at home,

even the hired servants have food enough to spare.

And here I am, dying of hunger,

I will go home to my father. It's rehearsed here.

I will go home to my father and say, father,

I've sinned both against heaven and you.

I. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Please take me on as a hired servant.

He's thinking, this now, this is a plan.

So now he heads for home.

And as he heads for home and he's walking back,

can you imagine, as any parent would,

what the father's been doing this whole time?

During the days he's waiting for his son,

I think he may well have sent a servant to check on his boy.

How's my son doing?

He may have tried to follow on social media through friends.

How's my boy doing?

His heart went with his boy.

And when the son leaves the home,

the father's heart goes with it.

He's never quite the same again until his son returns.

Because you see, God says he never leaves nor forsakes us.

So wherever you and I choose to go,

the heart of our father goes with.

And I tell you, it bothers and it upsets and it hurts him.

But he goes with us.

But the moment came.

I've underlined that in purple in my notes.

The moment came.

The moment every single praying parent ever prays for.

When the father sees his son coming back

from a long way off,

I think he must have looked down that road

day after day after day.

When with a longing and broken heart,

hoping his boy is going to come back.

Verse 20 says, so he returned home to his father.

And while he was still a long way off,

his father saw him coming.

Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son,

embraced him and kissed him.

You see, in the story, the father didn't wait

for the younger son to properly show repentance.

He didn't give him time to get the pig swill smell off of him.

Doesn't give him time to say how sorry he is for long enough.

You haven't said it enough. I want to hear some more.

He doesn't. Tell him, you're not going to have to pay

a heavy price for your wastefulness.

Just stand in the corner.

The father gives the son no time.

He literally runs after him, embraces him,

kisses him in his mess, in his dirt,

in his smell and in his sin.

In a sense he's saying, come here, son.

Come to me, boy. The bath and the cleanup can come later.

Come to me. There's total joy in my heart.

You're home.

I think it's like the thief on the cross

or that woman we spoke about last week with her hair

washed. Jesus feet.

They don't even have time to give the long prayers.

That thief on the cross, remember me.

Today you'll be with me.

No sinner's prayer? No. Close your eyes.

Repeat after me. Can someone please play the piano?

In fact, there's no record almost anywhere

in the whole Bible of anyone praying a sinner's prayer.

This woman is washing Jesus feet.

Remember we spoke about it last week.

And Jesus says two things to her.

He says, you sins are forgiven and your faith has saved you.

Forgiven and saved.

With a heart attitude that changes towards him.

This younger son is welcomed immediately

by a father that is incredibly caring.

He was lost and he's been found.

The Bible says whosoever wants to may come.

It was the Father's generosity towards the Son

that turned the heart of the Son towards home.

You see, he knew his older brother, but.

But he also knew his Father.

And he knew that no matter where I go,

I cannot go far enough away from my Father.

It is this kindness, it is this goodness

of God that leads to repentance.

God is kind to the unthankful and the wicked.

Luke 6:35.

Luke 6:35

Do you know God is even kind to people

who actually prefer to sin?

The kindness of God invades, reaches out, goes towards.

And you and I are going to go and meet

a whole lot of people tomorrow again

who are youngest brothers who have run off

and the heart of the Father wants to reach towards them.

Point number three, the sound of scandal.

When you've been in a mess and you coming back,

God's going to erase and the enemy's going to remind you.

God's going to erase, the enemy's going to remind,

God's going to erase, the enemy's going to remind,

and you're going to have to decide who you listen to.

You see, we grow up in an environment

we raised with an attitude that forgiveness is hard to obtain.

The way forgiveness works in human relationships

allows one person to grind away at another,

always holding their offence against them.

That's why as Christians, once you forgive,

you should never go back there.

Remember, Remember.

Happens mostly in marriages, doesn't it?

Parents and children. You got your little checklist in the side,

you got to bring back what happened last week, you need ammo.

And Jesus takes your sin, throws it in the sea of forgetfulness,

says, I won't go there again. I erase.

The enemy reminds.

And when someone in our family,

our physical or our spiritual family,

has done foolish things, it's not our job

to keep reminding them how foolish they've been

and the price they're going to have to pay.

The forgiving heart of the Father is one that yearns

and waits for the lost child to come back.

This should shape our responses and our attitudes

as a church towards anyone going through difficulty.

What would our Father do? How would our Father.

Because this is currency of the kingdom.

Some people are too ashamed, too dirty to come to church.

They're too unworthy.

How many of my biker friends I invite to church,

I get the standard response, hey, if I come in there,

lightning's gonna follow. I get it all the time.

And my response is, we have lightning conductors.

You're safe. We have insurance. You're safe.

Some of us, isn't it? We want people to have a bath

before they come to church. That's what they believe.

Well, then don't get a gym contract until you lose your fat.

It's the same context.

And God is preparing us for broken people to come back,

where you and I have to extend the heart

of a loving, caring, generous Father

whose heart reaches out for them

and it should shape our approach

and our response to ministry.

Just in case you haven't got the angle on what I'm saying,

have you ever looked at the story of Hosea the prophet?

Hosea the prophet was a righteous prophet,

a teacher in Israel. But like a pastor today,

and to get a message to the nation of Israel,

God goes to Hosea the prophet and tells him

to marry a woman who is a prostitute

and and who's going to be unfaithful to him.

His obedience meant he had to handle whispers,

scandal, questions.

As to those little kids running around your house,

are you actually the father?

When Isaiah's wife Gomer became so degraded

through debt that she sold herself into slavery,

she's cheated with other guys,

she sold herself into slavery, she's made a mess of herself.

Hosea is a leading prophet in Israel

and and God comes and says, at this point in her life,

I want you to go and I want you to buy her back.

It's a tough assignment.

Hosea 3:1 Then the Lord said to me,

Hosea 3:1

go and love your wife again,

even though she commits adultery with another lover.

This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel,

even though the people have turned to other gods

to love and worship them.

So I bought her back for 15 pieces of silver

and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.

Then I said to her, you must live in my house

for many days and stop your prostitution.

During this time you will not have sexual relations

with anyone or even with me

who still wants to be a prophet.

God uses an illustrated sermon

and he literally going to break Israel's heart,

as Gomer the wife of Hosea is to her

is how my people are to me.

God says, your hearts are always going off astray.

And it's out of this story of Hosea,

the prophet with a broken heart

who has to minister to his wife

in order to minister the word of God

to the people of God.

It's out of that story that some of the most wonderful words

of the Old Testament come to us

that Jesus uses to help people understand

the merciful heart of our Father.

Do you remember the words?

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Do you remember that passage?

It comes out of the story of Hosea.

The new living translation says,

I want to show you love, not offer sacrifices.

I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.

And Jesus uses that passage twice in the New Testament,

once in Matthew 9:13,

Matthew 9:13

where the context of the passage

is the Pharisees are calling the people

Jesus is hanging around with

the Pharisees are calling them scum.

Pharisees call the friends of Jesus scum.

And Jesus stands up and says,

I desire mercy, not sacrifice

the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

And the second time is in Matthew 12:7.

Matthew 12:7

The Pharisees again.

And this time the people of God.

The disciples are walking, eating grain.

And the Pharisees say, why are they eating grain

on the Sabbath? They shouldn't be.

And Jesus is saying, do you understand

that the Sabbath was created for man,

not the other way around?

God always desires mercy, whether it's in your stuff

or whether it's in your relationships.

God always wants mercy,

which leads to the end of the story today,

the power of mercy.

As the prodigal son returns home,

the Father runs and embraces him,

indicating to us in his heart

he had forgiven his son long before he came home.

In the same way that Jesus was slain

before the foundation of the earth

as the Lamb of God.

Every single person on this planet

who wants to come to Jesus,

his full forgiveness and acceptance

has already been paid for.

The Father has already in his heart forgiven

the the question is not can he give?

The question is, can you receive?

The Father so loved his son

that forgiveness was his only course of action.

Verse 21. His son said, father,

I've sinned against both heaven and you.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But his Father said to the servants, quick,

bring the finest robe in the house. Put it on him.

Get a ring for his fingers, sandals for his feet.

Kill the calf we've been fattening.

We must celebrate with a feast.

For the Son of mine was dead

and has returned to life.

He was lost, but he's found.

So the party began. Hey.

The son didn't get to ask for forgiveness.

Think for a moment of the joy of the Father's heart

and the joy of the Son's heart

when the two find each other

in a place of reconciliation.

Every time someone receives the Gospel,

a father and a son or a father and a daughter

find each other and the agony of their parting

is removed by the joy of the celebration

of a lost child coming home.

But of course, the older brother comes into the story now,

doesn't he? He can't enter that joy.

This is the saddest part of the story.

A great deal can be said for this older son.

He's worked hard for his father. He.

He's taken on responsibility of the younger son.

Where would this church be if I wasn't here?

Probably a lot better.

You See, the older son is living with the father,

but has never had a revelation of the father's love

because he can't show it to his brother.

He's a dutiful son. He's not a loving brother.

He finds his place in crossing T's and dotting I's

making sure everything's right.

There's not an overflowing of love.

Love and of mercy and of forgiveness.

He doesn't know the depths of his father's field.

I carry on in verse 25.

Meanwhile, the oldest son was in the fields working,

but of Martha there.

When he returned home, he heard music and dancing

in the house. And he asked one of the servants,

what's going on? Your brother's back, he's told,

I'd love to have been there. Just look at his face.

Your father's killed the fattened calf.

We are celebrating because of his safe return.

The older brother was angry, wouldn't go in.

His father came out.

Now the father has stopped looking for a younger son.

Now he's looking for the older one.

His father came out and begged him,

but he replied, all these years I've slaved for you.

Never once refused to do a single thing you told me to.

And then all that time, you never gave me

even one young goat for a feast for my friends.

Yet when this son of yours comes back

after squandering your money on prostitutes,

you celebrate by killing the fattened calf.

His father said to him, look, dear son,

you've always stayed by me.

Everything I have is yours.

We had to celebrate this happy day.

Your brother was dead and has come back to life.

He was lost and now he's found

dad goes out to the younger brother.

Celebration goes out to the older brother. A fight.

He's not interested in the party.

And the father doesn't say to this older brother,

hey, wake up. Get your heart right. Have a look.

He says to the older brother, do you realize

that everything I have is your horse?

In other words, do you realize you could have had

about a thousand fatted calves by now?

Your problem is not that I have given you.

When I gave your brother his part of the inheritance,

I gave you the double portion.

What did you do with what I gave you?

You see, the problem is not what I give.

The problem is your inability to receive.

You couldn't receive the farm.

You couldn't receive the privilege you have.

And now you moan because your brother gets a calf.

The farm is yours. Who knows?

Did he have 100, 1,000, 10,000 cows?

Who knows you're moaning about one.

Everything's yours.

The church is the older brother

you have received, but you don't know how to.

All the calves are yours, all the celebration,

all the friends, all the privilege.

Every day is yours. You couldn't see it.

I'm slaving a slave for you. You're not.

Listen here, you stupid punk.

See the sip of water? Do you realize

when you're slaving away?

It's not for your father, it's for you.

The inheritance is yours.

You're working for nobody else.

Every inch you've put in is for your own life

and your own future.

You should have received that you can freely give.

The Father begged this older brother, have mercy.

See, the heart of the Father is reconciliation.

The Father not only forgives,

he reaches out to the one who doesn't think he needs forgiveness.

Isn't it amazing how God the Father

will always follow you to remind you that he loves you?

I mean, He's God. Why does he have to run after you and I?

The Spirit pursues us. He follows us.

He draws us back into relationship with him all the time.

Every time you even blow it,

the spirit goes after you to bring you back.

Have you ever noticed that God,

the God of the universe, is reaching out to you

and showing you his love to bring you back to Him?

You would think it would be the other way around.

You'd think he's going to put broken glass

over a thousand kilometers for you to crawl over

to show him you're worthy of.

But you know what? When you big with pigs

and you're eating the swill and you're out there

and you're lost and broken and come back to him

smelling like hell, he's the one who runs to you

to embrace you.

Why doesn't the church.

This story is far more about the older brother.

And I don't have time to preach on it.

You know what the biggest problem was?

The older brother was jealous of the younger brother.

You know what happens when you're jealous?

The Bible shows you jealousy releases the demonic

and you can be this upstanding.

I'm slaved away. I've done everything right.

I've done everything as I know to do.

And you've released the demonic into your family

and into your effect.

1 Samuel 18. When the victorious Israelite army

was returning home after David had killed the Philistine

women from all over the towns of Israel

came to meet King Saul.

They sang and danced for joy

with tambourines and cymbals.

This was their Song.

Saul has killed his thousands, David his tens of thousands.

This made Saul very angry.

I mean, he just got his kingdom saved, by the way.

This made Saul very angry. What's this? He said,

they Credit David with 10 thousands

and me with only thousands.

Next they'll be making him their king.

From that time on, Saul kept a jealous eye over David.

The very next verse says,

the very next day a tormenting spirit from God

overwhelmed him.

You open the door. I look at my fellow,

I look at this, I look at that,

and I've got a bit of jealousy.

You open the door to the demonic.

This older brother has welcomed the door

to that which steals, kills and destroys

when he should have been so happy,

because everything's his anyway.

Matthew 5:7. God blesses those who are merciful,

Matthew 5:7

for they will be shown mercy.

1 Corinthians 10:24. Don't be concerned for your own good.

1 Corinthians 10:24

Be concerned for the good of others.

The older brother just wouldn't believe it.

And I close this morning with these words.

At the heart of all we profess as Christians

stands the cross.

The cross is the merciful heart of God.

You cannot comprehend the cross

until you understand that God's mercy

and his justice are not opposed.

They're expressions of his love on the cross.

He was kind to the unthankful and the unmerciful.

It is the power of mercy that conquers the hardened heart.

The surest way to lead a city to repentance

is to be merciful to them.

And I'm going to urge you, stand with me, please.

I'm going to urge you to receive

the merciful heart of your God.

Because the only way that you'll ever release mercy

is when you've received it.

And I think some of us have forgotten

the depths from which we've been saved,

the depths from which we've been forgiven.

Can you remember back to a time in your life

where all you could rely on was the mercy of God,

nothing else?

And he came through for you.

And what he was doing was not only forgiving you,

he was teaching you to receive.

And I believe if you and I can receive

the mercy heart of God, it'll be so easy to give it.

Okay, now quickly got to do one more thing.

There are folks here that you know you're forgiven.

You know you're a child of God. God,

but you struggle to receive mercy.

I wanted to start by saying you struggle to give mercy,

but that's not the problem.

The problem is you struggle to receive.

It's because you struggle to receive.

That you can't give.

If you need God to break something in your spirit today

so that you can receive his mercy.

It talks about your worthiness,

where the enemy tells you you're just not worth anything.

And God says you're joking.

I sent my son just for you.

You are so worth it.

And I believe God wants to totally set people free

to enable them to receive his mercy.

So again, just one prayer.

I pray over everybody.

If you know you need to receive mercy from God,

come stand here across all platforms.

You need to receive mercy from God today.

There is a hardness, perhaps a criticism,

perhaps you hold things in against people.

Perhaps you haven't realized you actually just need

to receive mercy. That's all.

Just keep coming. There's people coming

from all over the place. Just keep coming.

And as you do, I just want to point this out to you, okay?

I'm not going to get a whole lot of people

together around you and pray for you.

I'll tell you why. Because if you need

the same mercy tomorrow morning,

you need to come to the same God.

You need to learn that he ministers to you.

He does. He. He ministers.

You got to allow him to minister.

You know what happens? Hey, that word gets tested tomorrow.

And you got to be able to stand in the mercy of your God

and be merciful and watch how the anointing of God

releases things in your life.

There's still people coming forward.

Just quickly come forward. Come stand here together.

Okay? Can I ask the rest of us

just to extend our hands towards him?

Father, we bring our beautiful brothers and sisters to you.

And we pray, Holy Spirit,

that you confirm your word with signs that now follow.

Help each one deep within their beings

to leave here today with joy.

In a sense, every person here in the front

needs to walk out of these doors

in the next 10 minutes and get the party started.

They are home with their father.

Sandals on the feet, ring on the finger,

robe around. You haven't even had time to take a bath.

And the Father just honouring you simply

because you're a son or a daughter today.

And I ask you just to receive chains and shackles

coming, being broken off your emotions

and your heart right now.

And as they fall to the ground,

allow them to disappear like dust

and make a decision in this moment.

I'm not going back there again.

God erases the enemy, reminds,

and I'm going with God on this

and just allow him to release you right now.

Receive mercy. Blessed are the merciful.

And from this day, out of the riches

of the mercy, you have received.

Go and be merciful and watch how God sets people free

because you choose to be merciful.

So Lord, we thank you for all these people

who responded this morning.

We thank you for the richness of your mercy.

And I pray Lord that the overarching fruit

of this moment is joy.

The joy of a lost son and a father

who felt find each other and agree

that now we're going to party, we're going to celebrate.

There is now no for no condemnation

for those who are in Christ.

And I speak freedom and I speak incredible joy

over you today.

And I want to tell you as you leave this place this morning,

please know this.

The joy of the Lord is your your strength.

I speak that over you this morning

in Jesus name and God's people say Amen.

God bless you all. Have a great Sunday.