IF I COULD TELL YOU ONE THING!

Chris McCurley: My son Charlie and I like to watch football games together, especially in person at the stadium. We've been to Vanderbilt Stadium many times and we always get there early. We like to watch the players warm up on the field before the game. College football rosters are very large nowadays, and so you may have a hundred or more football players on a college football team, and we watch them down on the field and they go through their stretches. And they go through their drills. And because the rosters are so big, you have four or five or more quarterbacks on the roster. And so we see these four or five quarterbacks on the field loosening their arms up before the game. And I think how unlikely, how basically impossible it is for that fourth string quarterback to ever get into the game. There's no reasonable scenario that's gonna see the fourth string quarterback actual getting play time. With that analogy established, let me acknowledge that it is very rare for me to be before you on a Sunday morning to present a lesson. However, I am thankful for it. But here's the problem: when you only get one opportunity out of many, many Sundays, what do you preach on? On what topic, out of all the topics possible, do you speak? Maybe you knew it was your last Bible class lesson to ever teach. Maybe a preacher is knowingly preaching his last sermon. What do you want to talk about? Do you talk about heaven? We sing old songs with lyrics like How beautiful heaven must be, sweet home of the happy and free. We sing new song lyrics that are like this How I Long to Breathe the Air of Heaven where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets. Heaven would certainly make a wonderful sermon topic. Being able to go through this life with its challenges and its struggles and sometimes even heartbreak, but knowing that at the end of the day. We will be made whole. At the end, God will wipe every tear from our eyes as we enter our eternally eternal home in heaven. That would make a good sermon topic. Maybe you preach on the power of God. Maybe you talk about creation, creation of the world, creation of mankind. Maybe you go through any number of miracles that we could read about in the Bible and we can draw the connection that if God is all powerful and if he's all good, then he is certainly bigger than any problem. That I have That would be a good sermon topic to preach. Maybe you just want to talk about practical Christian living. You dive into some Old Testament books like Proverbs, or you flip over to the New Testament, maybe Romans chapter 12, the book of James, and you examine what it looks like to live the life of a Christian. Those practical passages that no matter who you are, young or old, rich or poor, black, white, brown, educated or not. Anyone can comprehend and find ways to apply those lessons to their lives and that would make for a great sermon topic. While there's so many possibilities, I've zeroed in on one this morning. You know, different experiences in our lives as we go through year after year, they affect the way that we view subsequent experiences, right? They color the lens through which we look at future things in our life. Have you ever watched a movie as a child, or maybe teenager, young a adult or something? You watched a a movie twenty, thirty years ago and you understood it one way. Certain things were funny to you then, but then twenty years later on a rewatch, it affects you differently. For example, in the year two thousand six, I watched the movie Click. This stars Adam Sandler. Now in two thousand six I was a very young adult, only a couple years out of High school, a couple years away from being a teenager, and my generation grew up on many of Adam Sandler's silly characters. We loved him on Saturday Night Live. We loved Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison. And so when you watch the movie Click in two thousand six, I'm expecting more of the same and that's basically how I took it. And I know that you're thinking Adam Sandler is not generally known for highbrow cinema, and I would agree with you. but But you watch this movie and then you watch it again twenty years later and it hits you differently. If I watch that movie today, I would have to fight back tears, and it's odd to cry at an Adam Sandler movie, but it would be difficult not to, because now, twenty years later, I've been married for twenty one years. I've been a father for seventeen and I've lived more of my life than I had to that point. And so I see some incredibly deep very poignant moments in this film that affect me very strongly. Maybe you've read a book as a teenager, and then decades later you decided to revisit it and it hits you differently. Maybe even the Sunday school lessons that were taught from a child, as we come back to them as adults, we find things that we didn't find before. It's because our life experiences color the lens through which we view life. And so I want to ask, how do we begin to comprehend, because we have finite minds, we have a limited earthly perspective, how would do we begin to understand the capacity of God's love for us? Because if we don't, if we don't understand how much God loves us, or worse, if we don't understand that God loves us, there can be negative consequences. If we don't understand that God loves us no matter what. Then when we go through hard times and inevitably we will, if we don't understand that God loves us no matter what, then during those hard times we will feel alone, we will feel uncared for, and maybe that God has abandoned us. If we don't understand that God loves us no matter what, then when we give in to temptation and sin, and inevitably we will, we may eventually feel That God has forgotten about us, that we are no longer loved by God because of the bad things that we've done, and then guilt overtakes us. And once guilt overtakes us, that leads to a downward spiral. If we don't understand that God loves us, then when we pray and we don't get the answer that we want, or in the timing that we expect, and that's inevitably going to happen, we may start to think, what's the point of praying at all if we don't understand God's love is And that He loves us no matter what. And so how do we avoid that mindset, that dangerous trap that Satan sets before us? Because Satan would love for us to think that God has abandoned us. Jesus taught us lessons that help us understand incredibly deep spiritual truths in ways that we can understand. Methods and strategies that two thousand years later, with our finite minds and limited earthly understanding, we can begin to understand and have a greater appreciation for the love that God has for us. If you have your Bibles, please open to Luke chapter fifteen. Jesus is speaking, beginning in verse four, and he says, What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety nine in the open country and go after the one that's lost until he finds it. And when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing, and when he comes home he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost, and just so I tell you there will be more joy in heaven than Over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance. In this day and age and culture, we love our pets. My my, do we love our pets? We see our friends post on Facebook, maybe my beloved pet has gotten out, my dog is missing, I cannot find my cat. Please help me find this cat. If you see it, please call this number. If you find my beloved pet, I will pay you a sum of money. And if you've ever had a pet, if you've ever had a cherished pet and that cherished pet gets out, Well you understand the fear, you can recall the panic and the urgency that you feel. And then that affects the way that you read verses like Luke fifteen beginning in verse four. Jesus uses this analogy that helps us understand. It is not surprising that the shepherd would go looking for the lost sheep. What is perhaps surprising is that he would leave the ninety nine in the open country to do so. Was one sheep one percent of the flock was one sheep worth risking the other ninety-nine? Evidently the answer is a resounding yes, and so I want to I want to ask you, what does that tell you? One sheep is worth risking the rest. What does that tell you? It tells me That every soul, every precious sheep is valued by God. No matter who you are, no matter from where you've come, whether your life has been marked by sin or virtue, you are deeply loved and cherished by God. I read that in the first century in Judea, in Galilee, where shepherding was quite common, that the flock of sheep did not necessarily belong to just one individual, but to the community. And so everyone lived near the village, and one or two shepherds would be tasked with taking the sheep out into the open country where they could graze, where they could water, and at times one would go missing. And so one shepherd would take the other ninety nine and return back home to the village with them for their safe keeping, while the other shepherds stayed behind in the open country looking for the one that was lost. And the one shepherd who had returned home with the ninety-nine would share the news with the village that a sheep has been lost. And so the community, the village, would keep their eyes fixed on the horizon, hoping to see the image far off of the shepherd coming back with the sheep draped across its shoulders. And when they saw that beautiful sight, there was joy. There was a shout of thanksgiving among the community because the sheep that was lost was found. What a beautiful spiritual picture that is. If you continue reading, go to verse eight of Luke fifteen. Jesus said Or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it and when she found it she calls together her friends and her neighbors saying rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I had lost and just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. How universally relatable is this parable that Jesus told two thousand years ago? Because we have all misplaced some items that we had to have, some staples in our home. Our phone, our wallet, our keys, airpods. Have you ever been missing a piece of your child's sporti sports uniform that they had to have for a game in about an hour? That's pretty urgent. We've all experienced needing a document for business or for life, and for the life of us it's not where we thought we left it last. And we can't do the thing that we gotta do until we find this piece of paper. And it feels urgent. And so you've looked under the car seats, you've looked under the cushions of the couch, you've turned your house upside down looking for this item that you need. This woman in Jesus' parable would not give up until her lost coin was found. So I think about the analogy that Jesus is drawing, because this one coin was important enough to the woman that she not give up. This one coin stood between her and being able to provide for herself. This one coin stood between her eating or not. And so when she finds it, there is rejoicing. And that's what heaven looks like. When a lost coin, when a lost soul is returned. I read this biblical scholar named William Barclay. He said that rabbis in first century Judaism could have believed that God receives the sinner who comes to him quote the right way. First century Jewish mind could conceive that God receives the sinner who comes to him the right way. But the first century Jewish mind could not comprehend That God would go actively looking for his lost sheep. Rather only if that sheep comes back in shame and self abasement. They could not dream of the God who actively looks for a sheep, who actually actively seeks him out. They couldn't understand it, but we can, thank God be for this parable. In both of these passages Jesus is clear there is rejoicing in heaven when one singular soul is saved. Isaiah the prophet said it like this as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. Parable of the lost sheep, parable of the lost coin. And then if your eyes scroll down in your Bibles, you see the big one, right? The parable of the lost son, the prodigal son. Again, life's experiences affect the way that you read certain things, right? For instance, if you hear the story of how an East Tennessee, how an East Tennessee man in 2019 went on a family vacation as Many of us have. And he had three daughters out in the water, and he was on the beach with his wife, and one of the daughters w became caught in one of those dangerous riptide currents, and she couldn't get out of it. And the two other daughters who were in the water with her swam over to her to try to help her, but then they became trapped in the same riptide current. And they're starting to get pulled out deeper and deeper. And this father His name is Fred Pepperman. He did not hesitate to run straight into the water, straight into that riptide current, and he was able to get his three daughters freed from it. However, sadly, he collapsed and he was not able to be revived. And in one sense, we see how heroic those actions are, right? He ran toward the danger and saved those who were floundering. And it's incredibly heroic and it's an amazing story, right? On one hand. However, on the other hand, it's a pretty ordinary act of parenthood, right? It's a pretty ordinary act of fatherhood, because all of us who have been parents or grandparents, we would do the same thing without hesitation, would we not? We can relate to this man on such a personal level. Jesus tells of a father whose youngest son said, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. Give me the share of property that's coming to me. It seems that this son is fueled by greed and by foolishness. He said, Father, I want to live apart from you. Father, I want to live independently of you. Father, I don't need you in my life anymore, nor do I want you in my life anymore. And the Father granted the request, and that's a hard pill to swallow. So I think, why did the Father grant that request? He knew better than his son, and he was in control of the funds, and he could have simply said no, and yet he granted his son's request, even though his son was fueled by foolishness and greed. And why does he do that? I think that it's a picture of the free will that God the Father gives to each of us. The son proceeds to leave. He leaves his home, he leaves his family, and he leaves that father who loves him more than anything. And if you are familiar with this story, you know that the son lives recklessly. The son squanders that inheritance, perhaps frivolously, seemingly, swiftly, he's lost it all. There's three painful offenses that I see here, three personal affronts toward the father. Asking for that inheritance only to immediately leave. That's painful. Engaging in this unbridled, unrestrained lifestyle that's marked by a lack of self control for the parent, that hurts. And then being a poor steward of all that the man and his wife had worked for for years and had been disciplined to save for years and then in just a matter of a short amount of time it's been squandered. I'm very sure that the father's heart was broken. And why am I sure that the father's heart was broken? Because I've been a father. And the last seventeen years of my life have colored the way that I view stories like this. Jesus drawing this family connection makes it so universal, helps us to be able to understand it. Look at verse sixteen of Luke chapter fifteen. Jesus said, The younger son was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. It took me until sixteen verses. Because for fifteen verses, I'm pretty irritated with this younger son, pretty angry with him. But finally at verse sixteen, my feelings begin to flip a little bit. The party had ended, the funds had been depleted, and we start to have some sympathy for him. It's a universal truth that we can understand of the love of the father, the love of the parent toward the child. Who of us wouldn't be brokenhearted? We all would. Read with me in verse seventeen. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here 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 am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let's celebrate. For this son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. The son said, Father, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. And the father said, You are my son. And he said, Dad, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Let me just be a hired servant. And the father said, You are my son. We understand the joy of the Father. If we put ourselves in his place, we understand the pain that the Father had felt night after night, day after day, however long it lasted, year after year, thinking that his son had been lost. So we understand yes, you are my son. We understand that the offenses that the Son had committed, the riotous living, the squandering of the blessing, the disrespect. Those don't matter anymore because we thought our child was lost and now he's home. We can understand how the every parent in here, every grandparent in here, great grandparent, probably everybody that's in a family can understand how the father felt because we understand the deep emotions that are involved in family. But that's not the point of the parable, is it? That's not the point of the parable because I am not the father in this parable. We are the son, the sometimes wayward child. We are the child whose actions sometimes constitute a personal affront to our Father. We are the child who sometimes say, Father, I want to live apart from you. Father, I want to be independent of you. Father, I don't need you in my life anymore, and I don't even want you in my life anymore. We are sometimes the child who squanders the blessings given to us. We are the child who sometimes lives recklessly in sin. We are the Son, who some like the Son in the parable, sometimes finally realizes that sin actually offers nothing for us. God the Father loves you, He knows you, He values you, even cherishes you, and He will pursue you to the very end, and I'm thankful that Jesus had a way of helping me to understand the love of my Father in heaven in a way that I can understand. Luke fifteen, these three parables, the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the lost son, are sometimes called the gospel in the gospel. So when it came time for me to select a sermon topic for my one opportunity, I wanted to preach the gospel in the gospel. Several weeks ago someone, it was either Chad or Chris, they posted this picture on the Walnut Street Facebook page. I think it was a Sunday morning 'cause it's early and I'm scrolling and I see it. And I was affected by it because the title or the caption is First Day in Heaven. First day in heaven. The artist could not have depicted a more joyous look on the lady's face. And so sometimes I'm guilty of if I'm listening to you, or if I'm listening to something on TV, I'm listening to someone speak, if I'm reading something, I'm guilty of assuming I know the rest of it, and so I stop listening and formulate my own thoughts. And I think I did that with this because first day in heaven and I see the look of joy on this woman's face. And because of my life experiences to this point, my tendency to think ahead and read ahead, I'm assuming that she is in heaven on her first day running up to hug the neck of someone in her life that had passed on before. And we've all felt that, right? We all have that anticipation of opening our eyes in eternity and seeing someone who is there waiting for us. But then I slow down and I look to see how the male figure is dressed and I see, I got that wrong. The artist here is depicting God, God the Son, perhaps. And I missed that. If we could rotate this image, I can see the joy of look on her face, and if we could somehow rotate the image based on the parables in Luke chapter fifteen, I know with certainty that Jesus' face is full of joy just as hers is. I understand the love of the Father more. There are several invitations in the Bible. Matthew chapter eleven, there is the invitation to rest. Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. In Mark chapter one there is an invitation to discipleship. Follow me and I will make you become disciples of men. In John fifteen there is the invitation to live in Christ. Jesus said, Abide in me and I in you. And then in Psalm thirty four says, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Luke chapter 15 shows me an invitation from a loving father to his most cherished possession, his son. If you are lost, come back home. Do you need rest for your weary soul? Do you need to be a disciple of Jesus? Do you need to abide in him and he in you? Do you need to taste and see that the Lord is good? Are you a lost sheep? Are you a lost coin? Are you a lost? Child who needs to come home to his father. We want to help you this morning. We want to baptize you in the baptistry behind me. We want to, as the church family, pray for strength, for forgiveness for you. However we may assist you, you're invited to come while together we stand and sing.

Romans 12 · chapter mention Luke 15 · chapter mention