U-Turn 2024 | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from at church. We hope this message

will light up your day, you know when it comes to you turnsiens.

I'm reminded of Daniel, the prophet Daniel, and because he took three weeks,

which is how we came out with the twenty one days. So Daniel

took three weeks to set himself apart for the Lord so that he could humble

himself and draw nearer to God. That was what he was essentially doing in

those twenty one days that you read in Daniel chapter ten. And you know,

as he did the Daniel Fast, of course, the fast of just

well quite similar to a vegan diet. I really wanted to set himself apart

and then draw near to God. And that was what he was trying to

do. And I believe he did it because if you read Daniel chapter ten,

you realize that he received a lot of prophetic vision during that time.

But before we can even draw near to God, we must first be able

to embrace humility. True repentance. For me, Uton is always about repentance.

It's a strong word that sometimes we don't like to talk about, but

a lot of what I'm going to be talking about today is about repentance,

because we are in uton and we can't approach God in faith without first repenting,

and so our salvation journey actually begins with repentance. That's my belief.

And then the main ingredient to repentance is humility. Okay. So when I

think of this, I think of the parable of the lost Son, or

the parable the prodigal son. Who hasn't heard of the parable of the prodigal

son? Anyone knows, even our kids known, because it's probably repeated over

and over and over again, right, you know. The remarkable thing is

the parable is so well known. I remember four weeks ago when I went

into a juvenile correctional facility. Uh. And I go in from time to

time just to uh. We call it class Christian okay, for the non

Muslim kids or not. They're not really kids. The the attacks made me

juvenile delinquents. Okay, So it's Christian class. And I can be in

a classroom full of really gruffy looking young boys. Uh. Some are actually

waiting for a trial. Uh. Some are on waiting for a charge,

Some are actually preparing to go into the death row. They have all sorts

of cases that some are doing their time, some are in rimann. But

when I ask them, you all know the parable of the prodigals and or

the loss, and all of them, no believers and non believers likes.

It's something that we have heard over and over again being shared. And I

wonder we know that how many brothers are there in this parable? Two brothers?

Okay, which one do you feel, over the years you identify more

with I ever thought about that the older or the younger one? Yeah?

Just bad and mine bad and mine? So what is a parable? I

sometimes like to describe it as a story with a sting in its tale,

because whoever listens to it originally somehow or when you get the gist of it,

you'll be like hm. So the first question that we have to ask

when we are reading any parable of Jesus is this, who did he tell

it to Okay? Question number one? Who did Jesus tell the parable too?

And then why did he tell it to them at that time, in

that place and in that situation. We must ask those questions. So let

us get a grasp of this parabola by looking at the first two verses.

Okay, I'll be reading the whole chapter fifteen, because that's where we get

the account of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. And he says this text,

collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This

made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such

sinful people, even eating with them. Okay, so when you look at

those two verses, you find that there were how many groups of people?

Two? There were two groups of people in the situation, just like there

are two brothers in the story, and that gives you sort of an idea

right from the get go. The two groups of people here were the friends

of Jesus and the enemies of Jesus. If you don't realize that Jesus made

friends and enemies, then you haven't really understood your Lord yet the reality of

things. So wherever Jesus went, he seemed to split people down the middle,

and they just couldn't be neutral towards him. It's either they love him

or they hated him. So some people became his friends and others became his

enemies. And it is in this setting that the parable was told, where

there were enemies of Jesus, grumbling about the type of friends that he was

making. That was what was happening. And of course a man may be

told by his friends he associates with. I think each of us sometimes you

can tell a person by who he hangs up with. The kind of friends

he makes will tell you a great deal about a person's character, personality,

outlook. And you know these are free. This is actually essentially one of

the free choices that we can make. We can choose our friends. You

can't really choose your family. You can't choose who you were born, which

family you were born into. You can't choose how your kids. Of course,

nowadays with signs you can do all sorts of funny things, but the

realities, you can't choose your family and your relatives. But you can choose

your friends, and we need to bear that in mind. Be course,

it's quite mind boggling to see what kind of people became the friends of Jesus

and what kind of people became his enemies. You see, the people who

were his friends who were text collectors for the Romans, not even for the

Jews. No, this were text collectors for the Romans. These were Jews,

who volunteered themselves to collect money for the invading forces, and Jesus hung

out with them, mixed with them, even call one of them to be

his disciples. That's Matthew or Levi. He is a text collector. And

they called Jesus the friend of tax collectors. Now you can imagine a person

who made friends with people like that, And Jesus was sitting down having great

parties with text collectors. Now, and this was one of the group of

people that nobody else wants to have a meal with. Jesus had a meal

with them quite often, I think, on different accounts you'll see it.

And then there's another group that Jesus is always friendly with. They're called the

sinners. Wow, and they were the ones who have long since given up

on religion. They are probably the ones who tried to observe all the tank

commandments. And then I don't think I can do this and booh, and

then you realize one of those things text collectors who were often rich, the

sinners who were often poor. So you can't really see that Jesus only hung

out with the rich guys and not the poor guys. He hung out with

basically this group and a lot of the sinners included, like I said,

hardworking people, but they reached a point when they decided, I want to

stop being religious and I just want to live my life. And so one

of the greatest insults that was given to our Lord Jesus Christ, which I

personally believe is not really and insult. I think probably is a compliment.

But he's called the friend of sinners. Some people will be like, ah,

what kind of lord you worship? Me? Friend of sinners? But

I think it's a compliment of who our Lord really is. Because he made

friends with this kind of people, he made enemies with another kind of people.

So you think about it. For every Zachlius, for every met you

that Jesus hung out with, he actually lost another entire crowd of people who

didn't like him hanging out with the text collectors. In the sinners who are

the enemy as well, they are made up of respectable and religious people,

those who at least were trying to be good, trying to keep the tank

commandments, trying to live a decent life. Why did they become Jesus' enemies?

Well, basically because he became friends of people that they themselves had no

room for that. That's just the same way of looking at it. They

had no room for these people. Jesus hung out with them. Don't quite

like it. So it was in this very tense atmosphere that Jesus told the

parable. Now do you begin to see that there is a sting in the

tale, because it's going to come at some point, And so this is

the situation. So Jesus is sitting down and joining a party in the text

collector's house with sinners around him. People looking in from outside, all these

respectable religious people, and they would have thought, no, here we are.

We live a great life, a respectable life. We have tried to

be good, we've tried not to do evil, compared to all these sinners

that Jesus is hanging out with. Basically, they were murmuring, they were

complaining, And Jesus took those two groups and he began to talk to them

in the nice roundabout fashion by say, but Jesus spoke a lot of words.

If you look at Look fifteen, a lot of things were downloaded there.

But I guess before he got to the end of the parable, most

of them got the message loud and clear. And so we have two little

parables that help us understand the main parable, the lost ship and the lost

coin. Two lost things, one which was lost far away, one which

was lost at home. Let's read the parables, So Jesus told them this

story. If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost,

what will he do? Won't he leave the ninety nine others in the

wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it,

And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on

his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors,

saying, rejoys with me, because I have found my lost ship.

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner

who repents and returns to God than over ninety nine others who are righteous and

heaven straight away verse eight. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and

loses one. Once she light up a lamp and sweep the entire house and

search carefully until she finds it. And when she finds it, she will

call in her friends and neighbors and say, rejoice with me because I found

my lost coin. In the same way there is joy in the presence of

God's angels when even one sinner repents. Is there a way to increase the

height of this reason? Yeah, just a wee bit. Oh good,

great, thanks, okay, So do you see the clue right in the

beginning of the passage two sons, One was lost far away, the other

was lost at home. So technically it is not the parable of the prodigal

sun per se is actually the parable of two lost sons. Eventually later when

we read the story, you'll see it one like the sheep had strayed away

into far country, and then the other like the coin is within the house

but still lost. You see it. So Jesus in a way, he

is an amazing storyteller. And his team was that losing something brings sadness,

but finding it again brings great joy. That was a team. And he's

already trying to explain why he's happy with these text collectors, and why he's

enjoying a meal with the sinners, why there is such a great atmosphere inside

there, and why there is such a miserable atmosphere outside of those people who

were complaining about what was going on in the house. So his teaching that

laws means unhappiness found means joy. And there is one other thing. Loss

puts someone on their own, finding makes them want to share it with others.

Do you notice in those two little stories, when the ship was lost,

the shepherd went out on his own to find it, but when he

found it, he called his friends and his neighbors, and then everything was

shed together. And then likewise, when the woman lost the coin, she

went on her own around the house looking for it, but when she found

it, there was a time that she called everyone to get together. So

these two stories actually have a lot in them that prepares us for the main

story. And there is only one parable in this chapter. Sometimes we say

there are three parables, but no, actually you think about it, there's

only one parable, because Jesus started off by saying, Jesus told them this

parable. So two little stories prepares you for the big one. Now our

minds have got a certain idea and a certain team. Basically, the sorrow

of losing, the joy of finding, the loneliness of being lost and of

seeking the loss, and the togaredness of being found and celebrating. So Jesus

has prepared his audience, and they are with him and now they are listening.

And another thing that we must take note about the two little stories before

we get to the big one, is this, things that happen here on

earth affects Heaven. You see in both the stories. At the end of

it, it says that the angels celebrate even if just one person comes and

repents off his sin and makes a fresh stun. Shouldn't we therefore celebrate the

same here on earth when it happens? Okay? So this is food for

thought that sometimes I think when we read the scripture, we have to try

to understand what is it trying to tell us. Now we are ready to

study the parable of the prodigal Son. Let's go into it. Don't worry,

I think you all be scady now, need he stne Verse eleven,

okay, verse eleven. I'm going to read the whole thing. I read

it a bit quickly to illustrate the point whether Jesus told them this story.

A man had two sons. The younger 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, his younger son

packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted

all his money in war living. About the time his money ran out,

the great famine swept over the land, and he began to stave. 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

pots he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave

him anything. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself

at home, even the hired servants had food enough to spare, and here

I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say,

father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no

longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired

servant. 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 and embraced him and kissed him. His

son said to him, father, I've sinned against both heaven and you,

and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. But his father said

to the servants quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it

on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet,

and kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,

for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life.

He was lost, but now he is found. So the party began.

Meanwhile, the oldest son was in the fields working. When he returned home,

he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of

the servants, what was going on. Your brother is back, he was

told, and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because

of his safe return. The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in.

His father came out and begged him, but he replied, all these years

I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told

me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young

goad for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes

back, after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the phaeton

calf. His father said to him, Look, dear son, you have

always stayed by me and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate

this happy day, for your brother was dead and has come back to life.

He was lost, but now he is found. The Lord bless the

reading of his word. So there are two sons here, and we have

to look at both of them, because there is a happy ending to the

story of the first son. And actually the parable doesn't end happy because of

what happened to the second son. So let us look at the first son.

Let me pain you a story here. Here is a young man who

started out his life, probably with the words give me, probably what most

of our kids learn as well, give me. He thought that life begins

by getting hold of things, by seizing opportunities, and that was what was

going on in this young man's son. But in reality, life actually begins

when you say forgive me. I believe in that with all my hand.

That's what repentance is. Repentance is essentially saying, Lord, forgive me,

for I've done what is not right. So the Jewish law is that if

a man who dies has two sons, his property will be divided into thirds.

The oldest one usually gets a double portion because they have the responsibility of

taking care of the entire household and then the younger son will get one third

of it. So that was the law. But he could also give the

money away at the start and virtually retire. It's up to the father.

So basically, the younger son was asking that I want it now. And

then this is the second wrong thing that you realize about this young son's attitude

that in a way wrecked his life to one things now rather than late.

And that's the essence of sin. Actually, it is what ruined Esau's chance

of ever inheriting the father's blessing, because one day, it's all was hungry

and then he saw nice bowl of soup in front of him, and then

he realized, Man, I want it now, and he wasn't prepared to

wait. And this is how this young man was talking. He was not

just saying give me, He was actually saying give it to me now.

See, the most wonderful thing to me in this story is that the father

gave it to him. He must have known what the son was like,

he's like, and he must have known that, no, what could this

son possibly do with the money that I'm going to give him? And he

was perfectly within the father's right to say, no, son, when I'm

dead, you'll have it. What you do with it then is your own

business. I don't really care. That's what probably most fathers who say,

in fact, actually, if any of us have our kids, come and

ask me for the inheritance now nicely. But it takes a big father to

let the son ruin himself. Son, here's a sum of money. You

don't want to stay, go, come back when you want to be part

of the family. I think that took courage. It took a good father

to do that in a way, and parents have we sometimes had the courage

to give our children the chance to in a way wreck their lives and then

welcome them back when they do come back. That comes a stage in your

family life when you've got to do this with your children. I mean,

I think in the growing stages. Sometimes you've got to let them rack the

bicycle if they want to learn how to ride a bike. Then all the

probably gotta let them wreck your car if you want them to learn how to

drive. But more importantly they are important desis that you probably have to let

go and let them decide. And this is similar to what God the Father

did for each and every one of us. Actually, you think about it,

he gave every one of us life and health. He gave every one

of us a chance, he gave us gifts, he gave us ability,

and he gave every one of us opportunities. It is whether we erecked it

or we really made the best out of it. Well, our lives will

be a testimony of what that means. But this is a father who is

essentially saying, there you are. I've divided to you my substance, All

that I have I'm giving to you. But sometimes we've got to look around

and say, look what have we done to it? But it still takes

a bold father God to give us a chance to sin, and all of

us actually have that. We have choice, That's what choice is. So

this youngest son hated off to a gentile city. Basically this city was probably

the party city. Any Jewish kid living in Galilee would have hated this direction

if they realized, I want to rebel against my parents and I've had enough

of the dorah. So this is what he went. He went off,

and he went there because he wanted life. Maybe he had it, he

enjoyed it for quite some time. He was wasting his life away, and

he was wasting his dad's money. He forgot about his dad, but his

dad never forgot about him, and that is a situation. Then, of

course real life happened. First there was a famine and he began to be

in want, and then he began to be in need, and the money

was fast running out. Basically, he had wasted everything away and he had

nothing left. All his father's heart and property money dissipated, so the end

was coming. You don't know how many of you'll realize how the Jewish actually

think about pigs. Pigs are considered unclean animals for the Jews, completely non

kosher. And you know, here is a young man sitting with the pigs.

What does that tell you? It basically tells us that all his self

respect is gone. He basically got to a point where he no longer looks

up to himself. And when a man does that, he's almost done for

he's almost finished. Yet when a man gets to the end of the road,

it might just also be the beginning, because isn't it strange that human

nature, in human nature, that we have got to get to the bottom

before we start calling on to God when other things have failed we are prepared

to try him. It's sad that we go to him last, but that's

the real reality. Most of us are like that, me included. Sometimes

no try everything else, to try to to try. But on the other

hand, even if he is the last resort, he's the wonderful person to

turn to at the last part of it, because God doesn't even turn anybody

down who has put him at the end of the line and tried him last.

Sometimes we have to get to wrong bottom to go and go through disasters

and catastrophes in our lives until we realize, look in the mirror and then

say, man, I'm so foolish, what's up with all this foolish behavior?

Did you know that you can't come to God until you have come to

yourself first? And that's the reality of it. Until and unless there was

a realization, this young man wouldn't even have thought of going back to the

Father because he was pondering. You read the scriptures, the order and how

he was actually thinking started thinking about oh, why my why, why why

am I doing this? Why am I fisting with a pick? Not even

fisting, I can't say it's fisting. Why am I eating the pig's food.

And that's why many people can't get to God, because they have never

come to terms with themselves. So this man came to himself and realized that

man, I am so foolish. Now for the first time in his life,

he was prepared to say, I have sinned in the sight of God,

and he had. And he realized that good thoughts never save nobody.

So this man's realization of his true condition and true foolishness and true sin would

not have done anything for him unless he turned the thoughts into action. And

that is exactly what he did. And that's a lot to do with repentance.

You will hear me repeating this, team turn your thoughts into action.

Don't just think I repent and you don't do anything about it. But your

thoughts must be turned into action. Because the word repent means to change one's

mind. It means to think again, particularly with reference to our behavior.

Therefore, to repent means to think about the things from God's point of view.

You then agree with his analysis, agree with his verdict, and then

come to a knowledge of the truth about what God is and who we are,

and then we act on it. You see two things will usually happen.

Now a person will become deeply aware that God is much better than he

generally thought to be. Or the other thing that can and sometimes happen is

we will realize and we will be aware that we are actually much worse than

we thought we are. If you reflect deeply upon God, you will realize

this, mau God, you are just amazing. And then about yourself,

Oh man, I think I'm a lot worse. And you may have certain

thoughts now, but if they remain just as thoughts, it would do you

nothing unless you do something about it. And so that's why this youngest son

decided that I am going home. But his thoughts and motives were still very

mixed. On the one hand, he wanted to go back, which was

good. On the other hand, he thought he could still bargain with his

own father. He thought, I don't think I can be his son anymore,

so I don't think I'm worthy of it. Maybe you'll like set me

as a laborer. And he still never thought about the father's feelings. What

would the father feel if my son is working for me in the kitchen.

However mixed the motives were, he still got up and went and I tell

you this, It does not matter how mixed your motives may be. But

if you will get up and go back to God, he will have you.

He has a way of straightening out our motives. He doesn't mind why

a person comes, as long as they come. And that is what happened.

As soon as the father saw the son, he ran and he kissed

him. And that's God's love. There was no rebuke for the past,

there was no advice for the present, there was no demands for the future.

The father said, bring the rope, bring the ring, bring the

shoes, bring the sandals. And the one thing that God asks us to

do when we come to him is to leave behind that self will, self

indulgent, self centered life that we thought was life. He says, you

have got to leave that behind and just come home. Basically, this is

what he's saying. You can't come home and stay in the far country at

the same time. If you leave that, you leave the far country.

Then sonship is yours. And that's why when he came home, they begin

to dance. So life is to be had in Christ. You can drop

everything else and lose everything else. And if you have Christ, you still

have found real life. That's the reality of it. The happiest person that

there was not the boy, what it was the father, because he said,

my son was dead, my son was lost, but now it's found.

And do you know you can be lost even though you know where you

are, and you know you can be dad, even though you are alive

and kicking. That is the message of this chapter. If you don't know

Christ, now you are dead and you are lost, whether you know it

or not. But when you find Christ, you are alive and you have

been found. That is the freedom that we live in the knowledge of Christ

Jesus. So let's ask this question that we sometimes ask the children in our

children's church. Who was said to see the prodigal son come home? Well,

the kids will probably answer the phaeton cough, but yes, your unswer

is right. No. Wouldn't it be nice if the parable ended that boom

everyone celebrates, But it didn't end there. He wasn't a happy ending.

And when you look at the older brother's actually very very sad. Almost every

sin in scripture you can see in him pride because he was saying, no,

what's going on? You can almost hear the pride in the tone of

his voice. How come I was not told? So pride is there?

Anger is there to know? He was angry and he wouldn't go in.

Resentment is there? You there never gave me a budy, not even a

small goat. And then there was Mally's as well. No, your wayward

son has wasted your money on prostitutes. That's malicious because nowhere wasn't mentioned previously

that he was with prostitutes. You realize that there was Mally's in his heart,

so Maley's pride, anger, resentment. But you know the real problem

with this boy was one of the things that is wrong with a lot of

us who sometimes have been brought up in church all our lives. Okay,

don't get me wrong, by many of us science we live this respectable life,

but we haven't really had a life. We have been sons, and

yet we have been slaves at the same time. And so the prodigal son

became a slave when he sold himself to the pick owner. But the eldest

brother was also a slave, because it shows in what he said, the

things that the older brother had done on the father's farm. All this while

was a duty, it was not a delight. He had been loyal.

He had done everything that the dad ever wanted him to do. He had

been faithful, but there had been no joy, no love there on his

side. And there are two things that the older brother didn't like. Number

one, he didn't like that the prodigal son was getting things so easy,

ah, so easier, go out, squander everything and come back. And

then number two, he didn't like it he was enjoying it so much like

just don't like. And this is the resembment that we can sometimes develop.

No as faithful church goers, we can carry on thinking that we must try

to be good to be of worth, when in essence we are good because

we put our faith in a good God, and never through our own effort.

That is why when somebody gets it all so easy and he's just handed

to them on the plate, we don't like it. We resent it whilst

we have been here all these long, struggling through doing everything, weak in,

weak out, and we resent that it's so easy for others. But

one of the important tests of our relationship to our father in heaven is this,

are you chill when a person gets it easy and enjoys it, or

are you angry and resentful? We have to ask ourselves these question, what

do you feel at all that will we actually be excited if this cold heartless

murderer certainly became a Christian or you know, hard times we were like,

man, this guy did a lot of bad stuff. Would we celebrate God

knows even better what they have done? But God still accepted them. You

know, I was reading this account of a I think it was a minister

who was ministering during the Nuremberg trials. And Nuremberg trials, of course was

a trial, a war crime trial for the Nazas, if I'm not mistaken,

in the sixties, and of course there were all these different SS officials

who were on trial, Nazi officials, and many of them were actually on

a death row, and so this this minister had to minister to them before

they go. Some of them actually came to the saving knowledge, not just

came to the knowledge, but response to the knowledge of Jesus right before that.

And of course there were many people who like these people don't deserve to

be safe. So it was just a journey of how this minister had to

process, no processor, what was going on ministry and some of them,

some of the officials, until they died, they will still not accept Jesus

and they are just you know, it's hit little like that kind of thing.

But he was trying to balance out, not because of public opinion and

all, and many people felt that these people don't deserve to be safe,

you know, war criminals that caused genocides. Where do we stand in that?

But sometimes it comes back to even the simplest of things where I don't

have to go so extreme. Do you see how we ourselves can react like

the elder brother. I hope we don't. I hope we will instead say

that I'm chill they came home because those men were no worse than me,

and I'm no better than them, and we all need God's grace equally.

Your heart will have told you whether you have got the father's love in your

heart or the elder's brother's reaction. That is the meaning of this parable actually,

and the sting is in the till. And I want to tell you

that I believe many of us have more in common with the older brother than

with the younger And I stand here and testify me too, because we are

the ones that have always been in the house right. But I want to

finish by telling you this. The father in the story was living towards both

the older brother and the younger brother. He came out to the elder just

as he had run out to the younger, and he dealt so tenderly with

him. Son, this is your brother. You have nothing to lose by

welcoming him. All I have is yours, and you can have had your

party any time you want. But that is a tragedy that those of us

who are in the House of God are lacking in truly knowing the Lord.

We could have had it all along. The elder brother could have had the

phaton cough himself by just asking, because it was already his. It is

therefore right to celebrate. It is therefore right to praise the Lord, to

be excited that more and more people are coming to the Lord. Let us

ask the Father to give us his love, and let us stop being slaves

to duty and delight in grace. One of the things that I really believe

is we have to actually learn to delight in our duty. Well, we

all have a role and a function and a duty to play. Is whether

this duty becomes a monotonous, mundane boring, something that starts to develop resentment

or is it a delight in a serving the Lord, whether it's weaking weak

out. I mean, think about it. When we hit off to eternity,

eventually we will be serving the law for eternity. Actually, that's one

of the things that my kids sometimes can't really grasp about heaven. They're like,

what we're going to do forever? And I'm like, praise and worship

God on the band all the time. That's how they process it. Know,

does that mean that we're going to be just then? Like? Yeah,

I mean I don't know the exact details, but yeah, it's like

serving the lawn all the time forever. If we can't grasp that here on

earth and once a week is a burden and a duty, I don't think

anyone will look forward to heaven. But we are called to look forward to

heaven. Right. See. The two things that the older brother couldn't stand

couldn't couldn't stand what's grace, which is giving everything to a person who didn't

deserve it, and gratitude being thankful for what he already has. And because

of this there was no happy ending for him. In fact, if he

truly understood grace and was grateful, he would have went to the far country

to seek his last brother himself. We don't see that being said, and

that's why it's so important for us actually sometimes to ask ourselves why sometimes we

You know, evangelism is part of the church. I believe the church operates

three things. Fundamental worship, evangelism, fellowship. These are the three things.

You ask me, what's a church? Am I doing a church related

event? I will always ask by is there worship? Is there? Fellowship?

Is there evangelism? A lot of us don't seek. We have come

to a place where we are happy in the house, or actually we are

not because we complain in the house more than anything. That's the reality again.

So coming back to overall scriptural events, do you know what really happened?

Those people who murmured at Jesus being friends with sinners, they actually correspond

to the older brother in the story, and they are the ones who actually

wrote the eventual ending of Jesus on Calvary. Essentially, it's like this,

It's like the older brother, after hearing everything, look up to the father

and say, I will kill you. And that is exactly what happened for

the father in the story. Is Jesus the elder brother was the Pharisees and

the scribes and the religious people who got Jesus onto a cross and killed him

because of who he is. I asked you at the end of this sad

parable, what ending have you written to the story? Write your own end

to the story, and Jesus of invites us to do that. You know,

sometimes this discovery that God finds self righteousness as offensive as sin. Hear

mere self righteousness is as offensive as sin. It comes a great shock to

us because our human pride can't really take that. And that's why it shows

why true repentance is needed. That means you need to repent of your bad

deeds, but you also need to repent of your good deeds. Jesus came

to save us from our sins. It is important to know what those sins

are from which we need to be saved and confess it to the Lord and

too repentance, because that is where it all starts. Salvation starts with repentance

and it ends in heaven. But both our good deeds our bad deeds must

we must repent for it. That's why it says none of our righteousness,

our righteousness is like filthy rags. That's the reality of it. But a

lot of times we always bring our know yes we do bring our wrongs.

Sometimes we don't, but then we bring our rights. And Lord the Lord

is saying no, no, repent for that as well, because it is

my righteousness that was supposed to be imparted on you when you put faith in

me, not your righteousness. And so remember this. The words of repentance

need to be followed by the works of repentance. You see the example from

Jesus' ministries, the case of zach Yis and I'm coming to an end.

Zakias he promised not only to be go straight, Okay, he may probably

not go straight in the future, but he also what did he do?

What did Zakiers do? He repaid There was restitution everyone who defrauded him.

He repaid interests. Bonus Jesus Joyfuller announced that salvation had entered the house with

him. In scripture, we see John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul

all demonstrate that repentance involves putting the past right wherever this is possible. Some

of this putting right will take the form of negative action. We may need

to get rid of some sources of temptation. Sometimes there are wrong relationships in

our lives. We need to end it. Any link to the past has

to be cut off, and the past must be brought to a conclusion.

That's essentially what the scripture tells us and teaches us. And of course much

of the putting right will take the form of positive action, not just negative

action, positive action like what Zachias did. But remember, words of repentance

must translate to works of repentance. You must end up doing it because repentance

is essentially seeking forgiveness from the Lord, and forgiveness restores the relationship with God

as it as if it had never been broken. Can you imagine that it

puts us right back to the very stunt and therefore, as far as his

concerned, As far as the Lord is concerned, your pass is entirely forgotten.

That means when you repent, and you truly repent, and then suddenly

sometime down the road, you're like, oh Lord, I'm still I still

remember the wrong things that I did, and the Lord will probably say,

I don't know what you're talking about. Puts it as though God knows has

this amazing control over his memory. He can just blot it all out.

And the reason we find it so difficult to forgive is that we do not

have this ability to blat out such memories. And this is also why repentance

is difficult. Some doubt whether a sinner is capable of such an act,

but they forget that divine help is always there, made available to anyone who

truly desires to repent. I really believe. I don't think you can repent

without the Holy Spirit. It's not possible. If putting things right is the

hardest part of repentance, it is also the most rewarding, and why there

is deep relief to be found in putting right a wrong. You see,

the father's joy when the prodigal returned was reflected in the prodigal's joy at having

done what was right. That is amazing. A change life is the evidence

of repentance. So turning to God now means that he can turn to us.

It's as simple as that you turn. It's about turning to God,

and then God can turn to us. So the Bible states that when we

repent towards God, he repents towards us. Actually it's the same word use.

You'll probably be thinking, ah, What does that mean? What does

God repent towards us? You see, when we change our minds about sin,

he can change his mind about us. It's a change of mind right

specifically, God, God repents and changes his mind of the punishment that he

was going to send because the people repented. You see many occasions where God

was going to destroy something or you know, send judgment, but then somehow

he became merciful. That's repentance essentially. So Jesus told his disciples that a

sinning brother must first be rebuilt, but then forgiven seven times a day,

forty nine times a week, one four hundred and seventy times a month.

If he repents in the same way, God can change his mind from judgment

to mercy for us only if we truly repent of our wrong ways. And

this is the strongest motive anyone could have for repenting of their sins, because

scripture says, now, repent of your sins and turn to God, so

that your sins may be wiped away. Ten times of refreshment will come from

the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your

appointed messiah. Is there something in my old life that I cannot keep while

wanting to turn completely to God. You see, repentance is just simply the

willingness to turn without condition, and that is what Euton is about. That

is what the young son realized when he was hitting one direction, and then

he came to a realization repentance, and then he turned around and he went

home, which essentially meant that he could not be at home and still in

the far country because he walked away from the far country. We hope you've

been blessed by this message. For more information on our church, please visit

as church Org. We are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing

that this week is going to be a good week. I hit for you. God bless