Come Home To Gods House

Anyway, I'm glad to see you all in God's house.

Welcome to all of our guests.

Welcome to all of our locations that are tuning in, our online and social media audience.

We know God has a word for you.

Would you stand to your feet?

And by the way, I'm sure some of you invited some people to come to church today that didn't show up that said they would be here because of the rain.

And I want to encourage you, here's what you do.

When you talk to them later on, they say, they say, Ah man, I was gonna come, but you know, it was raining and it was flooded and all that.

Say, no problem.

Next week I see you in church.

Okay?

Don't just give up.

Keep on inviting people out to the house of God.

If you need a Bible, raise your hands.

The wonderful ushers will get them to you.

By the way, today is a great day, isn't it?

How many of you know today is a great day?

Do you know why?

Today's the beginning of cowboy football.

I mean, China fans, I'm sorry for you.

Tonight you will be in mourning after we whoop you by at least 24.

If you have your Bible, hold it up nice and high.

Let's go ahead and make this declaration of our faith all together.

Ready, go.

This is my Bible.

It is my primary source of spiritual nourishment.

I will read it every day and become all that God wants me to be.

My mind will be renewed, my life will be transformed, I will become fully surrendered to Christ.

Therefore, I will hide his word in my heart so I can be all God has destined me to be.

Amen.

Y'all sound great.

Would you kindly remain standing in honor of the word of God?

We are going to the Gospel of Luke, the 15th chapter, and I'm going to read perhaps the most famous parable Jesus ever told.

I'm going to read a little portion of it beginning in verse number 11.

Then he said, A certain man had two sons.

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.

So he divided to them his livelihood.

And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and wasted his possession with prodigal living.

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he had begun to be in want.

And then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine, and he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

My favorite verse in this text, but when he came to himself.

No matter how far you've gone, no matter what you've done, no matter how bad you think it is, I want you to know God is always ready, willing, and able to intervene in your situation and turn your situation around.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?

I will arise and go to my father.

And I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

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

Make me like one of your hired servants.

And I'm going to stop there.

Today we're kicking off a new series called White Flag.

And I want to minister to you from the subject.

Come home to God's house.

Let's pray.

Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, we open our hearts to you.

Speak as only you can by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Anoint my heart, anoint my lips, that preaching may be easy, effective, and enjoyable.

We give you all the praise in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, You may be seated.

Well, as you can tell by the title of this series, White Flag, this series is all about surrender.

It's about what happens when we stop fighting with God and finally turn the reins over to the Lord.

Anybody ever have a fight with God?

Come on, can we just be honest?

We all fight with God in all sorts of ways.

You know, we're we all got a little Jacob in us.

We we wrestle with God.

We want our way instead of God's way, and we want to do this instead of the way that God says.

We all fight with God, and in our humanity, we actually think that we can win those fights, you know?

We think that, you know, we we're stronger than God.

There's an old saying we used to say in church, your arm is too short to box with God.

God always wins, and there's no better place in the Bible to start a series on surrender than the greatest story ever told, a boy who came to the end of himself and surrendered to God.

Because surrender is not losing, surrender is the greatest win.

Surrendering to God is the greatest thing that you and I can ever do.

And that's why we say around here, with Jesus, you're destined to win.

It's not just a slogan, it's because we believe that.

We believe that the best life for any person to live is a life surrender to God.

That God has the best plan for you, that He has a good plan for your life.

The Bible says a plan to prosper you, not to harm you, plan to give you a hope and a future.

And when we surrender, we experience that plan.

Charles Dickens said this.

He said, This is this story, the prodigal son story, the greatest story ever told.

And it's commonly referred to, as I just said, the prodigal son.

And I think it's better called the story of the prodigal God.

And there are some people who say, Well, how could you call God prodigal?

Because our understanding of the word prodigal has been influenced by the behavior of the younger son.

And we know that the behavior of the youngest son was wheels off, wasn't it?

We know that he did everything immoral, ungodly that you can possibly do.

But that's not really what the word prodigal means.

The word prodigal in the original language means extravagant and recklessly extravagant.

It means pouring out in some area of your life, constantly doing, going above and beyond.

And so, yes, it describes the behavior of the younger son, but how many of you know it also describes the behavior of God?

How many of you know when it comes to you and I that God is recklessly extravagant with you and I?

I mean, when you think about it, what king do you know that gives up his throne?

What king do you know that trades a crown of jewels for a crown of thorns?

What king do you know that gives up everything for people who sometimes serve him and follow him?

God is recklessly extravagant with you and I.

And what I hope to show you today is that the definition of the word prodigal more aptly fits the father in the story than it does the young son in the story.

And here's why that matters on a weekend like this.

Because if that's who God really is, if God is recklessly extravagant with his love toward us, then there's nobody in this room.

There's nobody at any one of our locations, nobody watching by television, on the internet, watching by social media, wherever you're watching from, that is beyond the grasp of Almighty God.

Because God is recklessly extravagant.

And so today I want to show you why theologians refer to this particular text, this passage, as the gospel in miniature.

They call it the gospel within the gospels.

And the fact of the matter is, Jesus is in every book of the Bible, isn't that right?

Every single book of the Bible points to Jesus.

But here's the other thing: He's in every story of the Bible.

Every story of the Bible, we think it's a story about this or that.

It's a story pointing us to Jesus.

Take, for example, the story of David and Goliath, right?

David defeats a giant that nobody can think is defeated.

He's an unlikely hero.

And because of one man's action, a nation goes free.

Jesus defeated a giant nobody thought could be defeated, sin and death, and because of his actions, you and I get to go free.

How about Daniel and the lion's den?

Here's a guy who is, you know, unjustly criminalized or accused of something, thrown into a pit, a stone is rolled in the front of it.

He's expected to die, but in the morning he comes out alive.

Who's that pointing to?

Jesus is put in a borrowed tomb of Joseph Arimathea.

The stone is rolled in the way.

On the third morning, he rises up.

Nobody expected him to be alive, but he was.

It's the story of Jesus in every single book in the Bible.

And here in Luke chapter number 15, we find Jesus and the plan of salvation all over this story.

But let's begin with understanding why Jesus told the story.

Jesus told the story because they levied an accusation against him.

Anyone ever been insulted before?

Anyone like being insulted?

Right?

Anybody think when you're being insulted, I can't believe I don't know why people are insult.

Can I just tell you, everybody gets insulted?

Everybody gets murmured about, everybody gets talked about.

Look at what happened here.

Luke chapter number 15, verse number two.

The Bible says, And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

Now, this is not a compliment, this is an insult.

Here's the insult they levied against Jesus.

Are you ready?

He loves lost people too much.

Jesus, we can't believe he loved lost people like this.

And here's why they're saying this, because Jesus is not only hanging out, right?

Jesus is actually having meals with them.

In Bible times, when you had a meal with somebody, it was an offer of peace and community.

And so Jesus is hanging out with people who the Pharisees see as really far from God, and they are trying to tell everybody he can't be from God.

If he was from God, let alone his claims that he is God, there's no way that he would be hanging around people like this.

And it's levied against Jesus.

It's meant to discredit him, it's meant to say, you know, don't follow him, don't listen to him, he's not real.

And it's said in the company of two groups of people who are listening.

The first group of people, verse number one, back up there.

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him.

By the way, these are the outwardly immoral people.

These are one group that's listening.

All the people, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the drunks, the drug addicts, the people that everybody looks at and goes, I can't believe they're doing those kind of horrible, immoral things.

The people who are studying, uh who are who are who are uh uh you know having issues with all sorts of identity in their life, all of that kind of stuff.

These are the kind of people, and what I love about Jesus is they didn't run away from Jesus, they flocked to Jesus.

Kind of makes you pause for a minute, doesn't it?

Kind of makes you think what's different about our message that people who are that kind of immoral are not flocking to the house of God.

Jesus is talking to these people, and in the company of these people, there's also another group.

And these are the group, this is the group that is levying the accusation against Jesus.

This group is the group that are the Bible thumpers.

This this is the group that are the religious elite.

This is the group that knows the Bible inside and out.

They're the other group, and and these are the ones that are outwardly, everything looks good.

How many know some people outwardly everything looks good?

Look like they got they got it all together on the outside.

But how many of you know what God said to Samuel when he went to David's house?

He said, Don't look at the outward appearance.

For man doesn't just look at the outward appearance, man looks on the heart.

And it is possible to have everything good looking good on the outside, but inwardly for your heart to be far from God.

And these people, they thought their stuff didn't stink.

They looked at the outwardly immoral and they were like, Look at them, I can't believe he's hanging out with them.

But Jesus is getting ready to talk to them.

And I want you to remember that group for a minute.

We're not gonna talk about them for the first three points, but at the end of the sermon, we're gonna come back.

And what Jesus says about them might be the most important thing that anybody in this room hears.

And so that's the backdrop.

Now let's look at what the story tells us.

Why this is the gospel within the gospels.

The first point, I want you to see this.

I think this is so appropriate to all of us.

Most people live their lives wanting God only when they need him.

Most people have either lived their lives wanting God only when they need him, or are living their lives wanting God only when they need him.

And we see this in the younger son.

Luke chapter 15, verse number 11.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Then he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of the goods that falls to me.

And as Jesus is telling this story, immediately his listeners are shocked because of one simple reason.

No son would ever ask their father for an inheritance whether the father was alive.

No son would do that in Bible times.

Only on the deathbed was the inheritance distributed.

And the father would gather all the sons, and to the eldest son he would give a double portion, and all the remaining sons would get an equal share of whatever else was left.

And so what the son was actually saying to his father is I want what you have, but I wish you were dead, because I really don't want any relationship with you.

I want to be blessed by you, but I don't want relationship with you.

Let me modernize this for a minute.

God, I want a good life.

God, I want to be prosperous.

God, I want to be healthy.

God, I want a good job.

God, I want money to go to Italy on vacation every single summer.

Little joke, some of you know I was in it, Lily, right?

God, I want all this stuff.

God, I want you to make sure I have a good career and a good retirement.

God, I want everything, every good thing that you have to offer.

But God, I'm really not interested in having a relationship that revolves around you.

And just like it was then, it is now.

It's kind of the height of disrespectful.

It's kind of the height of saying, God, you know, all I'm looking for is what you can give me out of this situation.

This is not just an ancient story about a rebellious kid.

This is how most people live their lives.

They want rewards from God without relationship.

God becomes the emergency number that they dial, not the father that they live with.

We treat God like the spare tire and not the steering wheel.

We think God is just there for us when we need him and not uh there to live and move and have our being in him.

And this is what the younger son is saying to the father Father, give me what is yours and then leave me alone.

I want transaction, I don't want to trust fully with my life.

There's so many people, the relationship with God is very transactional.

God is not looking for transactional, God is looking for transformational, God is not looking for an occasional visit, God is looking for a permanent relationship, God is not just looking for a live-in that can move out anytime.

God wants a marriage that is covenant that lasts forever.

That's what God is looking for.

And this is a shocker.

And what's a shocker about this is the son asked for this inheritance.

So the request shocks Jesus' listeners, but what shocks them more are the actions of the father.

Verse number 12 said, So he divided the livelihood to them.

The father in the story, of course, is supposed to represent God.

Blesses the child anyway.

He gives it to him, his inheritance, he doesn't deserve it, he hasn't earned it, he hasn't warranted it.

In fact, he deserves nothing, and yet he blesses them with kindness anyway.

And this act of undeserved kindness teaches us something that is so countercultural about people's opinions about God.

People think God is undeservedly mean to people.

They think God just randomly does all sorts of bad things to people, you know, and bad thing to this one and bad thing to that one.

But the fact of the matter is, when you read the Bible, it's just the opposite.

God is undeservedly kind to people.

That what he's saying to these two groups of listeners, to the outwardly immoral and the inwardly immoral, he's basically saying to them, everything that you have, every good thing in your life, every blessing that you have, can I tell you what it is?

It is the goodness of God, it is the grace of God in your life.

Matter of fact, listen to Lamentations.

It says, it is because of the Lord's loving kindness that we are not consumed.

Can I tell you how that struck me?

Has anybody ever played the role of the fool?

Anyone ever done something you just know, man?

And you came out unscathed, you came out without a permanent scar, you came out living, you came out still blessed, you didn't lose what you were supposed to lose.

You know what that is?

That is God's loving kindness.

That is God saying to us, You don't deserve it, you haven't earned it.

It's because of my grace.

It reminds me of a story I heard about a guy who goes to heaven, you know how this goes, and St.

Peter meets him at the gate because St.

Peter is quote unquote the gatekeeper.

I don't know where we got that from, I can't find that anywhere in the Bible, but it's just what we say.

And St.

Peter says to the guy, listen, we're gonna play a little game here.

It's a points game.

You tell me some of the good things you did, and I give you points.

If you get to a hundred points, you get to come in.

Now that sounds foreign to us, but stop and think.

Isn't that the way most people are living their Christianity?

They're living it based on a points game.

They're living it saying, well, if I do enough good, at the end of time there's gonna be this big cosmic scale, right?

And God's gonna put all my good stuff on this side, and then he's gonna put all my bad stuff on this side, and if my good stuff outweighs my bad stuff, then God's gonna say, Come on in.

And so Saint Peter plays along, you know, with the guy.

He says, Okay, points game.

He goes, Tell me something you did good.

The guy said, been married to the same woman 50 years, been faithful the whole time.

Saint Peter goes, three points.

He says I was faithful to church and supported them with my tithe every week of my life.

St.

Peter says, two points.

The guy says, Well, I got it, I got it.

I started a food pantry and I fed the hungry and the needy all the days of my life.

I made sure people had clothes and food and all that stuff, and Saint Peter says, one point.

And the guy gets so exasperated, he says, at this rate, the only way I'm gonna get in is by the grace of God.

St.

Peter says, Come on in, come on in, come on in, come on in, come on in.

See, what we're trying to do is we're trying to play a points game, and we don't realize it's nothing about points, that's about the grace of God, and yet God is kind and loving and gracious to us anyway.

Even when we act like the younger child, God blesses our life with shelter and food and air in our lungs and good things and all these wonderful things that we take for granted.

That is the loving kindness of God.

And can I tell you that loving kindness of God when we're acting like a younger son is not meant to give us a false sense of security.

It's not meant to so that we think I'm good with God.

People think they're good with God because everything in their life is going right.

Sometimes when you're good with God, everything in your life goes wrong.

Look at I didn't get no amends off that.

Right?

Ask the apostle Paul how his life went sometimes.

Shipwreck, left for dead, you know, night and a day in the sea, uh, in the sea, beaten by his own countrymen, stoned by his own people, right?

Perils of his enemies and perils of his own countrymen, all sorts of things because he was serving God.

Yet we get lulled in this false sense of security that everything is right with God just because everything is good in our lives, and you're gonna see today everything could be good in your life, but you could still be far from God.

And this brings us to the second shocking thing that Jesus says, because at this point, what's happening here is they can't believe that this father gave this young son his inheritance.

They're going, What are you talking about?

I knew this guy was a heretic.

But Jesus says, number two, we all find ourselves in need of forgiveness at some times in life.

Anyone never ever need forgiveness?

Can I can I raise both hands?

And this is why.

This is why we have to be people who don't hold awe in our heart, right?

Can always have relationship with people because sometimes you know there are different things.

You know, somebody abuses you, you know, somebody beats you, you know, and you're in a relationship.

You can forgive, but you may not be able to enter into that relationship again.

But the reason why we ought not to always have awe in our heart is because every single one of us will need forgiveness at some time.

And how can we expect people in God to give it to us if we can't give it to other people?

But watch where Jesus takes the story next, because we all land in this part of the story.

By now, the listeners are hooked.

The father has actually given the disrespectful, undeserving son his inheritance.

They're going, Come on away, guy, this is crazy.

And Jesus goes deeper.

And he says, The boy takes, goes into a far country, and he wastes it on wine, women, and song.

He blows it in brothels and with prostitutes, and he he leaves it on the hotel nightstand, and he shoots it into his veins, and he he wasted the entire thing.

Look what it says here.

And finally, he's got nothing left.

Verse number 13, and not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

And the only job he can get is feeding pigs, and he's so hungry that he eats out of the pig's trough.

Now remember who's listening the outwardly immoral and the inwardly immoral.

The outwardly who have done all sorts of bad things, outwardly immoral, and the inwardly immoral who have all of their ducks in a row.

And the inwardly immoral are going, I can't believe pigs.

No self-respecting Jew would ever do this with pigs.

Pigs, that's not a kosher thing, you know.

And the outwardly immoral are going, but I've done some pig pen things.

I can relate to that thing.

And here Jesus is dealing with the reality of sin.

He's telling us that sin will take you to a pig pen.

Sin is only fun for a season, but eventually it will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you're willing to pay.

And most of all in the story, what does sin do?

It separates the young son from the father.

He's in a far country.

Far from there's a chasm between the young son and the father.

And here's what Jesus is saying: that's what sin does.

Sin separates, for the wages of sin is death.

Now, the death it's talking about is not just physical death.

It's talking about a more important kind of death, spiritual death.

Matter of fact, when you go back to the Garden of Eden, when God tells Adam and Eve, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you do, you shall die.

If you read it in the Hebrew, it says this when you do in dying, you will die.

Why two deaths?

Because not only does sin cause physical death and the ailments that we experience in this world, but sin causes a greater kind of death, and that is spiritual death or separation from God.

And what Jesus is doing here is he's saying, Listen, this is a big problem because sin separates you from God.

It leads you to a pig pen.

But that's not the heart of God, right?

The heart of God is not for his creation to be separated from him.

So verse number 17.

But when he came to himself, he's done all sorts of crazy things.

Why, women, and song, prostitutes, brothels, drugs in his vein, drinking binges, all sorts of things.

And all of a sudden he comes to himself.

But, and I love the fact, but when he came to himself, that's my butt God.

That's God never giving up.

That's God visiting places you would never think God visits.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and despair?

And I perish with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father.

Now stop there for a moment.

I want to talk to all of the parents who have kids that are doing prodigal things, kids that are doing pig pen things.

Never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up on them.

You keep loving them.

You keep opening the door for them.

You keep welcoming them, you keep praying for them.

God will never give up on them, and neither ever should we.

But here's what happens when he comes to himself.

Do you know what I believe this is?

Is I believe it's God visiting the pig pen.

I believe God visits places that most of us think God would never show up in.

And the places we think God does show up, how many of you know there are some churches God never shows up in?

They look good on the outside.

Nobody ever, you know how God you can tell if God shows up?

Do people get saved in that church?

If churches can go years and months and nobody ever comes to Jesus, what are we doing?

What is the point of it all?

Now, sure, we're getting discipled as Christians, but as we're getting discipled, shouldn't our heart for the lost be getting hungry?

Should it be that difficult for us to reach out to people and invite them out to the house of God?

But God visits these places, God visits those bars, God visits those brothels, God visits those places and back alleys where people are shooting up, and God will use a pig pen that has been meant and designed to kill somebody to turn their life around.

And notice what the young son does.

He decides he's gonna repent.

He decides he's gonna turn from the pig pen and return to the father's house.

Now let me say this for the people in the back.

Because just the people in the back.

The people up front, you already got this.

The people in the back, you need to hear this.

There's a brand of Christianity that says repentance is not required.

There's a brand of Christianity that says that you can continue to live however you want, and you're still a child of God.

Can I say it for the people, just the people in the back?

Maybe the people over on the airwaves, right?

Because everybody in here's got this.

Repentance is required, it is necessary.

He decides he's going to repent, but I want you to see what repentance is, because it's a lot different than what you and I think it is.

He says, I'll go back to my father's house, I will confess my sin and ask him to take me back as one of his hired servants.

Now it's interesting how he picks a hired servant.

In the Bible, there were three groups of servants.

And by the way, servants and slavery, not the same thing.

Okay?

If you would come to Wednesday night Bible study, I think Pastor Keyson, you taught on this one particular week, you would know the difference between the two.

But in the Bible, there were servants, right?

And there were these things called bondsmen.

And bondsmen, they were servants, but they were part of the family.

They had family rights.

Then you had servants, which were kind of like a little bit harder life, but still family rights.

And then you had hired servants.

And hired servants were day laborers, and here's what they had to do: they had to work real hard for the master to decide whether they could stay for the night and be welcomed back tomorrow.

And so hired servants were constantly working to be part of the family.

Now watch this closely because this is where people confuse religion with relationship.

The boy's plan is I'll work it off.

I'll pay it back.

Make me a hired servant.

Listen, that's penance, not repentance.

See, that was a good place for y'all to say amen.

But you have no idea what I'm talking about yet.

Let me break it down.

That's penance, not relationship.

Repentance is not simply wanting your situation to change.

There's a lot of people who have wound up in the pig pen who are sorry they got caught, they're sorry they lost their job, they're sorry their marriage is a mess, they're sorry they have a mess on their hands in life, they're sorry they have financial problems, but they're not necessarily repentant just because they decide they're not going to do that anymore.

Because them deciding strictly that they're not going to do that, so bad things don't happen to them anymore, is a change in moral conduct so that the outcome could be better life circumstances.

Oh, you ain't got this yet.

This is so good.

This is so good.

Repentance is not a change in moral conduct, simply.

Repentance is when you have realized you sinned against God.

Not even against people, even though mostly every sin is against people, either yourself or somebody else.

Think about David, right?

David committed some really bad sins.

Really, really bad ones.

David, the man after God's own heart.

He was out on the veranda one night.

He was where he wasn't supposed to be.

Be careful when you're where you're not supposed to be.

I I know I stay away for six weeks, but after a minute, I need to be where I'm supposed to be.

Because if I start not where I'm, I'm supposed to be preaching the gospel.

That's my calling.

That's what God.

And if I stay too far away from where I'm supposed to be, how many of you know the devil is looking for a place to take me out?

And David was looking, and the devil was obliging, and he sees Beth's sheep and he knows she's married to his best friend's best friend.

And he calls her in, he sleeps with her.

Then to cover it up, he kills his best friend.

And God sends Nathan the prophet to talk to David.

Do you know why?

Because God visits pig pens.

Because even when we do pig pen stuff, God doesn't give up on us.

And along comes Nathan, he tells him a little story.

And finally, David gets it.

At first, David wants to blame everybody else.

Oh, I'm preaching good now.

And David said, This should be done, and that should be done.

We are so quick to say what should be done to everybody else, and we are not so quick to realize God's talking about you.

And then David repents, and he says this, he says, I have sinned against God.

Because that's repentance.

Repentance is the realization that you have sinned against God.

Notice the young boy does not start when I made a mess of my life.

He starts with I have sinned against heaven and before you.

The mark of true repentance is you see your sin first and foremost against God.

And that's why the Bible, listen carefully.

For godly sorrow produces repentance.

Watch this, leading to salvation.

Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

What's the sorrow of the world?

Sorry, my life is bad because of the things that I did.

Sorry, I'm going through a difficult time because of the choices that I made.

So I'm gonna make different choices now so I don't have to go through a difficult time, and that's okay, and that's not bad.

I'm not trying to discourage people from making better choices, but if that's where it ends, that kind of penance produces death because it does not solve the real problem, which is not what's going on in your life, it's what's happening in your relationship with God.

Repentance is required because it is the realization that I have sinned against God.

It's not simply wanting your situation to change, it's being sorrowful that you hurt the heart of God.

That's the mark of true repentance, and it leads to salvation.

Godly sorrow, listen, is an inward heart change that produces an outward life change.

True repentance is not behavior modification, it is heart transformation that eventually shows up in behavior modification.

It is an intense love for God that empowers you to honor God with the way that you live.

It's like the old song we used to sing in church something on the inside, working on the outside, oh, what a joy in my life.

Got Jesus on the inside, working on the outside, oh, what a joy in my life.

Got the Holy Ghost on the inside.

Y'all don't know this, or y'all looking at me like, what's he talking about right there?

I wish people have been saved for more than a minute.

There are times I was at a church this uh last Wednesday, what the fifth fastest growing church in America, and I was there preaching, and uh and I told him, I said, You got somebody that can back me up?

They said, Oh yeah, Pastor, we got someone.

I said, make sure they don't play elevator music when I come up.

I said, I mean back me up.

Oh, yeah, they can do it, they could do it.

So I got a song on my heart.

I said, Y'all know this song?

And he looked at me like this.

See, what we used to sing about was it's what happens inside that eventually affects what happens outside.

And what we are expecting is we are expecting the outside to change first, and somehow for that to affect the inside.

No, it's gotta come from within, and then it shows up on the outside.

The boy asked, he said, Can I get the lowest rung on the ladder?

I want to be a day laborer, I want to do something to earn my way back to being received as a son.

Every single morning I'm gonna work hard, and every single night I'm gonna hope that you accept me.

This is religion.

Work today.

Hope you're accepted today.

Wake up tomorrow, start all over again.

But my Bible and your Bible says, For by grace you are saved through faith and out of works, lest any man should boast.

You cannot work for your salvation.

The son came home planning to be hired, but the father was planning to make him a son, inward change that produces outward evidence.

But remember who is listening?

The Pharisees, the teachers of the law.

They knew the law well.

And here's what they knew, and here's what they believed.

When you go so far, there's never any way back.

They actually had a saying there is joy in the presence of God over one sinner, and what they meant by sinner is somebody who's gone too far.

Cross that moral line.

One sinner who is wiped off from the earth.

What's funny about that is that there are times when we have people who do things that we don't see or like or agree with as believers, and when something happens to them, we're like, got what they had coming to.

That's Phariseal.

Jesus flipped that idiom on its head.

In John chapter 15, verse number 7.

John 15 · chapter mention

He said, There's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents.

Jesus flipped it.

Jesus said, He said, I this I'm different than what you think.

I know you think that I'm a God who loves to punish sinners, but I'm a God who loves to forgive sinners.

That means it's never too far, too much damage, too many miles between you and God.

And there are people that are sitting here right now, and maybe you believe that.

Too many miles.

Some people don't show up in church because they feel like I've done too many bad things.

God doesn't want to be around me.

And so everybody listening is expecting some bad things to happen.

Matter of fact, they're expecting, by virtue of what the law said, for this boy who has done this kind of disrespectful thing to be stoned by his father, to be senseless by his father.

Now Jesus just ratches up the shock meter.

Point number three: God is shockingly forgiving.

Luke chapter 15, verse number 20.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

And he arose and he came to his father.

But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

Can you envision the tizzy of the outwardly moral but inwardly far from God right now?

As Jesus is telling you, what?

The Father did what?

He gave him the inheritance?

The Son did that?

He ought to be stole.

What are you saying, Jesus?

Where are you coming up with that kind of gospel?

And and the outwardly immoral are going, really?

That's what God is like.

He's that kind of forgiving.

You see, the whole audience is expecting the boy to receive absolute punishment, but instead the father gives him shocking forgiveness.

Listen, hear me.

Repentance is never rejected by God.

Repentance is never rejected by God.

And it's shocking in every way.

It was shocking in that culture.

It's shocking now because the Bible says if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But there's a new breed of religion that says you don't have to recognize sin and God forgives it anyway.

No.

If you confess it, he forgives it.

No matter how bad it is, no matter what you did.

If you repent, God receives it.

And as far as the east is from the west, so far will he remove your transgressions from you.

He's shockingly forgiving.

And what I love about this is it says that the father ran, well, he was a great way off.

Father saw him, which means he was looking for him.

Can I tell you, you ought to always have an attitude of expectancy when you are praying for something.

I believe that this dad was praying for this boy.

I believe that any good parent, any good grandparent, you are praying for your children.

And you ought to have an attitude of expectancy.

You ought to be looking out over the horizon.

You ought to be saying, God, today is the day that they're coming.

And when you see them, you ought to run to them.

And the fact that he ran tells me something.

You don't ever have to make it all the way back all by yourself.

Because daddy's coming.

Daddy's coming to help you to get back.

And so he runs out there, and you know it, he wraps his arms around him.

And I love the fact that it says that the father ran.

This is a shock to them.

They're going, the father did what?

Aristotle said, Great men don't run.

It was undignified to run.

And when most of us think of running in God, we think of us running to God.

Has anybody ever run to God?

The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe.

Right?

Whenever there's stuff going on in your life, whenever there's problems and tragedy going on in your life, what do we do?

We run to God because He's a strong tower.

That's where we find safety.

That's where we find hell.

Run to God.

Yes, run.

Run to Him in prayer and run to Him in worship and run to Him with your gifts and your run to Him.

That's only half the story.

The story we forget is that God also runs.

And when you read the Bible, one of the things that you see is God on the run.

Matter of fact, the whole story of salvation is God on the run.

God didn't wait up in heaven.

What did he do?

He left heaven and he came to earth.

What is that?

That's God on the run.

God, when he sees the one, what does he do?

He runs after the one and leaves the 99.

What does he do in the case of the prodigal?

He runs after the prodigal.

Why?

He's a God that is on the run.

He sends Nathan to David.

Why?

He's God on the run.

God is, he, Jesus, goes to Samaria to meet a woman at the well of God on the run.

And so if you're sick, if you're broke, if you're busted, if your marriage is in trouble, if you got an issue, you got a problem, you got an addiction.

Here's what I want you to see.

I want you to see your heavenly father on the run.

He's coming with goodness, he's coming to help.

He wants you to just gesture his way.

He just needs a little faith.

He just needs to see you, see you move.

And so he goes, but here's what the Bible says.

When he gets there, he wraps his everything in the Bible is so important.

He wraps his arms around him.

Now, of course, because he was happy to see him.

Heck, I don't see my kids for my kids for two days, and they have to push me off.

They're like, all right, dad, I'm too old for that.

I don't see my grandbury baby in two days and forget it.

I mean, that's of course it's because to love.

But remember what's happening in the community.

They're lining up, they're lining up with rocks.

And so, what is that daddy doing?

He's saying, if I let him come all the way home all by himself, he may not make it here.

That's why you never have to come home all by yourself.

That's why God is the one who's coming to you.

Because if you have to come home all by yourself, God's got a Holy Spirit, He'll send you.

And he'll say, Okay, let me just empower you to come all the way back.

You might not make it.

So the father goes out, and what's he doing?

He's saying, Listen, son, I'm gonna hug you a little longer than normal.

I'm glad to see you, but I gotta keep this hug on you all the way back.

Why?

Because if I let you go, there's gonna be rocks that'll be coming.

And here's what I want: I want the rocks to hit me rather than the rocks hit you.

Son, I'm here with a hug to get in the way of your rocks.

And if you don't know what that is, that is Jesus on the cross.

That is him getting in the way of the rocks of sin and death, so that you can I can go free.

He's shockingly forgiving.

What kind of God is this?

This is goodness from another planet.

That's why the Bible doesn't just say God does good things, it says God is good, is good.

And if that's not good enough, right?

So you can see that you see the the outwardly um perfect, but the inwardly immoral right now, they're going.

They're going, can you believe what's going on?

And Jesus said, Well, I'm not done yet.

You think you got your draws in a bunch right now?

They're about to re-not it up a little bit more.

He says, Because the next thing the father did was he said, Bring out the best robe in the house and put it on him.

What was the robe?

That was the father's robe.

In other words, in order for the son to get the best robe, the father had to take the robe off of him.

Can I tell you what Jesus did?

He traded his robe of righteousness for ours of sin.

So he could put the robe of righteousness on us so we could be made right with him.

It's the story of salvation.

And then the next thing he says, go ahead and get the ring, put the ring on his finger.

Now, in Bible times, rings had insignias on them.

And the insignia was what they would press into things to mark that this belonged to this person.

And if somebody messed with that particular thing that was sent that had that insignia on it that wasn't supposed to, they knew they had an answer to the person who put the insignia on it.

And so, what Jesus is saying when he said put the ring on his finger is he's I know you all want to throw some rocks, but I just want to tell you that my sign, my seal is on him.

If you mess with him, you got to mess with me.

And then he says this, he says, and get him some shoes, put some sandals on him.

You know, hired servants never wore shoes.

Bondsmen did, regular servants did, but not hired servants.

They never wore shoes.

The old Negro spiritual.

All God's children got shoes.

Why?

Because it means that you belong, it means you're a child.

Here's what he's saying: you don't have to fight for your right.

You don't have to fight to be a child.

You don't have to fight for acceptance.

All you need to do is come on back with a repentant heart, and God is there, ready to make you a child again.

And then he says, and by the way, uh, get the fatted calf.

See, at most meals there wasn't a lot of meat.

At special occasions there were some, but on the most special occasions they went Italian style.

Which, by the way, Italy don't do Italian style.

Italy's portions are like this big, yo.

They brought me out a bowl of pasta.

I said, Is this a half a bowl?

Who's gonna get full eating this?

No one they say, you know, they're they're they're skinny over there because they don't make their food with all the same stuff.

No, they're skinny over there because their portions are this big.

I don't care what you eat, if it's only that big, you're not getting fat.

Matter of fact, when I went to that, like, can I have 10 scoops of gelato?

They're like, Are you an American?

We don't normally give 10 scoops of gelato here.

Only on the best occasions the fatted calf came out.

And what was Jesus saying?

The best of all occasions is not when a sinner gets wiped off the planet.

The best of all occasions is when a sinner comes home to God's house.

Jesus is saying, This is what causes heaven to rejoice.

Now, this would be the greatest story ever told if the story stopped there.

Rebellious kid, done a lot of things wrong, repents, comes home, father throws him apart.

Great story.

But Jesus is not done because how many groups of people is he tell telling the story to?

Two.

And all Jesus has done is given an invitation to one group.

He's only given the invitation to the outwardly immoral.

They've got their call.

Come home.

It doesn't matter what you've done.

Come home, doesn't matter how bad your sin is.

Come home, doesn't matter how much you think you screwed up.

Come on home with a repentant heart and be received by your heavenly father.

But there's another group there, and this group is the outwardly perfect, but inwardly immoral.

And number four, and lastly, today, God's call to come home is for everybody.

Here's how the story ends.

Verse number 28.

But he was angry and would not go in.

This is the elder brother.

This is the brother who did everything right.

He was angry and would not go in.

Why?

Because his father received the son.

Because the father blessed the son and he thought he didn't deserve it.

Don't look at him in that tone of voice.

Because there's some of you that are so jealous when other people get blessed.

I can't believe they got that.

I can't believe they do this.

I can't believe I'm I do this and I do that, and I do that.

And they got all that.

This is elder brother's syndrome.

But he was angry and would not go in.

Therefore, the father came out and pleaded with him.

And so he answered and said to the father, Lo, these many years I've been serving you.

I never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends.

But as soon as this young son of yours came, who devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf, and he said to him, Son, you're always with me, and all that I have is yours.

Literally, I've given you everything I have.

It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again.

It was lost and is found.

In the beginning of the message, I told you, hang on to that second group.

The second group, the elder brother, he's the Pharisees and teachers of the law.

And they're in the story, not by accident, but purposefully.

Jesus is now gonna talk to the people that are accusing him.

But he's not gonna talk to them in the way that you would think.

Because what he's going to do is he's gonna make an appeal to not just the people that are talking about him, but his deadliest enemies.

See, when Jesus said, Do good to those who persecute you, he wasn't just talking words, he was talking what he lived.

And this father now is getting ready.

Uh, Jesus, in the form of this father, uh, this in the story is getting ready to make an appeal to those who are not just his enemies, but those who are planning his execution.

Because the younger one was never the only one who needed to repent.

So was the elder brother.

See, being an elder brother in Bible times was serious business.

The reason why you got a double portion is because you were expected to act on behalf of the father.

And if need be, take care of your siblings.

So if you you you didn't get more because you were loved more.

You got more because you had more responsibility.

Oh, let me just say that for the people in the back, too.

Because a lot of people think they they got more because they worked harder.

They and and and and there's some truth to that, but here's my point.

They got more because God loves them more.

But God is saying to whom much is given, much is required.

That's why it is a cry and shame when blessed people don't do more for the kingdom of God.

To whom much is given, much is required.

Every blessing you get is God saying, I want you to, I trust you to use it for my kingdom.

A true elder brother would have gone and found his younger son at his own expense.

See, people think that the forgiveness for the younger son was free.

No, it wasn't.

It cost the elder brother some of the inheritance that he had been so dutifully obedient for.

And people have wrongfully concluded, well, forgiveness is free.

No, somebody has to pay.

But Jesus doesn't put a true elder brother in the story, he leaves that out on purpose.

Why?

So that you and I would yearn for a true elder brother.

And who's that true elder brother?

His name is Jesus.

He's the one at great expense to himself, redeemed our lives from destruction.

That's what he did.

And he's the true elder story.

But watch this.

The father is prodigal towards the younger son, recklessly extravagant.

Gives him the inheritance, runs out after him, throws him a party.

He loved that younger son.

But watch this, now he's equally as prodigal with the older son.

Because verse 28 says that he left the party and he went out and pleaded with the son to come back.

Now watch this, because here's the son.

Son's at the front door of the party, on the porch, when he is supposed to be in the house, and he is supposed to be working with the father and greeting the guests on behalf of the father.

But he's on the porch, he's right by the front door, like this.

Making it known that he's got a problem.

Now, people think he was behaved.

No, he was disgraceful.

Because that is just as disgraceful to the father when a party is going on.

You are abdicating your responsibilities so you can let everybody know how peeved you are about the situation.

And he's out there, but notice the father doesn't get mad at him.

The father leaves the party and they didn't have to.

And what does he do?

He walks right up to the elder brother and he begins to plead with him.

Come on in, come on in, come on in.

He's pleading with his deadliest enemies to come on in.

And here's what happens it resolves with no conclusion about what happens to the older brother.

Here's what we know.

We know the younger's son's sin left him in a pig pen.

The older brother's sin left him on the porch.

One was the sin of outward rebellion, the other was the sin of self-righteousness.

The sin of self-righteousness, listen to me.

Let me say clear.

Elder brothers don't look like sinners.

Elder brothers don't cheat on their spouses.

Elder brothers coach all the kids' games.

Elder brothers work hard.

Elder brothers cut the grass.

Elder brothers are good mothers.

Elder brothers are good parents.

Elder brothers keep the house and cook and do all the things.

Elder brothers have it all going on the outside, but they are really the same on the inside as the younger brother because what they're doing is they're saying, God, I really want what you have because I deserve it because of how good I've been.

Did you hear his complaint?

You didn't give me a goat.

That's not a relationship.

That's an employee following a complaint.

I did all this, been working so hard, you didn't do this.

That's not relationship.

And this is what this, and he's out on the porch, and the story ends without a conclusion about the elder brother, not because it's sloppy story writing, but it's a master stroke.

It's a master stroke because what Jesus is saying is how anybody's story ends when it comes to relationship with God is up to the individual.

That each and every person has to choose.

The younger brothers who think, God, I've done so much, I thought you wouldn't want me.

The older brothers who've done so much good, God, I thought I've done so much good, I thought I didn't need you.

Both of them need to wave a white flag over their lives.

One over immorality, the other over self-righteousness, one over rebellion, the other over self-righteousness.

God, I surrender to you today.

And here in this room today, here watching at our locations, are people who fall into both categories.

People who are outwardly immoral.

You know who you are?

I'm not pointing that out to condemn you.

I'm just saying we all fall into these categories of people at some point in our life until we become the third category of person.

And that's saved and born again and right with God.

But before that, it's just the outwardly immoral.

The pig pen kind of stuff.

And God is saying, surrender your rebellion.

Get right with me.

And then there's a whole host of other people, polished, pristine, looking good, looking right.

2.5 kids and a dog named Rover.

And God is saying, wave the right white flag over that self righteousness.

And then there's other people are here, and you once were close with God, but you've walked away, and God is calling you home too.

Would you stand to your feet?