Hidden Treasure | Part 10

Hey. If you guys have a bible, open up to Luke chapter 15. We are gonna be wrapping up our parable series this morning with arguably the most famous parable of all time. It's the parable of the prodigal son, and it's really a collection of three parables that Jesus tells to illustrate

what I would argue is one of the most important things for us to understand in the entire bible. K? If you were to get stuck on an island and you can only take with you one chapter from the bible, I would say to take chap to take Luke 15 because in this parable, in these stories,

Jesus is gonna use really simple terms to explain some of the most profound truths

of how God operates, who he is, what he does, what moves his heart, and how you and I are called to interact with him. So here's what I'm doing. I wanna read the first the first couple of verses to give us the context of the story, and then we'll we'll kinda work our way through it. So Luke chapter 15.

Are you there? Yes. There we go. Verse one, it says that the tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. Now side point, I don't know what you have to do to be considered not just a sinner, but a notorious sinner.

Apparently, these people are, like, wilding out. Like, these are these are, like, just some crazy people because they are recorded in scripture as notorious sinners. So there's some really bad notorious sinners who have come to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law complain.

Why? Because he was associating with such sinful people. He would even have the audacity to eat with them. So Jesus is gonna tell them this story. K? So here's the scene. Jesus,

in Luke 15 has started to pick up a bit of a following. K? People are starting to realize there's something to this Jesus guy. He might not be just a carpenter. He might not just be this dude that's from this town that nobody knows of called Bethlehem. Maybe just maybe he is who he claims to be. And every time he teaches, crowds gather.

But it's not just the typical church people that are there. It's like the dude that was drunk last night is there with the prostitute that he took home from the bar. They're there together. And they're not hiding the fact that they slept together last night. Like it's this crowd that's like, wait, what are they doing?

They're not qualified to be here. They're they're they are far from what we've understood to be somebody who can have a relationship with God. There's a crowd of notorious sinners listening to Jesus teach and a bunch of religious leaders who are there, why?

Not because they think that Jesus is such an incredible guy that they wanna be around. They're mad that a guy who's claiming to be God is allowing people who have bad reputations

to spend time with them because they've been taught their whole life the only way to have a relationship with God is to work your way to get there. These are guys who have memorized the entire Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. They've memorized it.

They've taken God's laws and God's standards and added their own rules on top of them to usher in an entire different an entirely new level of holiness. And they're mad that Jesus is not congratulating them on their piety and is instead hanging out with these bad people. So Jesus says, you wanna understand why

I hang out with bad people. Let me tell you a story.

Before I get into these stories, I gotta give you a story of my own to kind of illustrate what I think Jesus is trying to teach us. K? So I I grew up in San Diego. It's like God's favorite country. We talk about this a lot. Right?

The proof is is that all of you go there during the summer, and we, as San Diego natives, we wait. Like, it's like June 1 hits, we're like, wait. Here they come. And you just see the pasty legged Arizonian people coming to our beach. We're like, they're here. But don't worry. You just give it a couple months. They'll be gone. The beaches will go back to normal levels, and it is what it is. But I grew up as a kid. Like, literally, my summers were basically spent at the beach because the beach is free entertainment. My mom would pack a cooler full of stuff, and we would all just head to the beach and hang out for the day. And my dad's law firm was in Downtown San Diego, so he could come and meet us for lunch because it was, you know, ten minutes away from where he worked. And it was what we did during the summer. All my birthdays were at the beach. Like, it's just it's it's what we did. And if you've ever been to San Diego, specifically a beach called Mission Beach, there's a little thing called Belmont Park,

One of the coolest areas ever. If you've not been, which I know a lot of us go to San Diego to get away from the heat for a little bit, I would encourage you. Go down to Mission Beach, check out Belmont Park. It's this really cool little area right off the boardwalk where you can go and there's there's food. They've got like this big arcade. They now have like this big artificial wave that you can ride, which I always laugh. I'm like, you realize right on the other side, there's a free wave that you can ride, but just, you know, it is what it is. And it's just like this really cool area. They've got this old wooden roller coaster, and you've ever ridden it, you're like, this thing sucks. It, like, hurts the whole time. You're like, my back hurts. You're like, this is this is what a 100 year old roller coaster feels like. And,

the reason I'm telling you that is because we used to spend a bunch of time at Belmont Park. We would just kinda walk around. And there was one day in particular where we were walking and my little brother Dennis, because again, my there was like my mom and then just this gaggle of kids behind her. And

one day my little brother Dennis who was probably three years old at the time was he was kinda like the butterfly chasing kid. You know, like the kid that just would go off on his own and do his own thing. And we're like, what are you doing? And he's like, I'm chasing butterflies. Like, that was who Dennis was. Well, we're walking around Belmont Park one day, and we kinda start to do that thing where we're like, hey, where's Dennis? And my mom's like, I thought he was with you. And I was like, I thought he was with you. And we all realized Dennis isn't with us. And then we look around and we realize that Dennis isn't in sight anywhere, and my mom goes into complete panic mode. Right now, being the dad and having walked through similar things with my kids, I understand what she was experiencing at the moment. And she's like man, she's got literally within, like, twelve seconds. She's got Belmont Park on lockdown. Like she's got the police barricading in, like searching everybody on their way out. She's got like helicopters flying. She's called my dad to come and help us look. And what she did to us kids is she like sent us into different parts of the park to search for him. And my sister was tasked with going to like a certain area, and then I was tasked with going into the arcade area to look for him, which in my mom's hindsight was a really poor choice because

I've never been too bright of a a person, but definitely as a child was was not all the way there. And I go into this arcade, I'm supposed to be looking for my brother and somehow I stumble upon a machine that somebody has put like $20 in credits in and then just walked away. And I'm like if this is not a sign from God, I don't know what is. And

so I just walk up and I start playing video games, and I'm like, oh, this is cool. You know, in the in the back of my mind completely forgetting that my brother's lost and my mom is on the verge of a complete emotional breakdown thinking that he's being smuggled into Mexico, and I'm just playing like Dance Dance Revolution or something. Right? Like and I'm sitting here playing this game thinking nothing of it until I start feeling somebody smacking me in the back of the head, and it's my mom who's come into the arcade. And she's like, are you kidding me? Your brother's lost, and you're in here playing video games. And she, like, drags me out by my hair, and I think I got grounded for, like, six months after that. But, like, eventually,

we walked outside, and somebody was like, hey. There's a little boy that's, like, sitting underneath the roller coaster, and he's just crying. Maybe this could be your son. And we walk over and it's like the saddest thing ever. This little three year old boy literally sitting underneath the roller coaster just sobbing, crying, so afraid that he was lost.

And then the sense of relief and joy that came over my mom's face and me in the back of my head, just like, man, I could have cared less if my brother was found.

And the reason that I tell you is, truthfully, I don't think that there's a better illustration of what we're going to see in Luke chapter 15. We're going to see a story that most of us have heard.

If you've been around church, heck, even if you haven't been around church, most of us have at least heard the story of the prodigal son. The story of a son that was wayward, that made a bunch of poor choices, and God went after him, and God pursued him. But you and I have to remember, it's not the story of the one son that was lost.

It's a story that we should remember as the story of the prodigal sons because there's two brothers. There is a brother that is lost that can't be found, but there's another brother, an older brother who's just inside playing video games who could care less that his little brother is found.

And what Jesus is going to do in this story is he's going to paint a picture of you and I as humans. He's going to address the crowd that's in front of him. Again, remember, he has a group of notorious sinners, terrible bad people, and religious leaders. And he is in a blanket statement going to paint a picture that

all of you are lost. Some of you realize it because you've been running from God. Some of you are lost. You just don't realize it because you've been hiding in plain sight. You've been hiding in church. You've been hiding around the things of God, but all of you are equally lost.

So here's kind of the big idea that we're gonna work from. That it's only when we realize that we're lost that we can be truly found. I think the parable of the prodigal son can be summed up by that one statement. Because again, it's not a story of a son that made a bunch of poor choices. That's half of the story.

The other half is a brother who could care less that somebody in his family that was lost is now found, and it's gonna paint a picture that for all of us, we are all lost, and if we don't realize it, we will never truly be found, and we will just be people who are kind of aimlessly wandering through

life. So you tracking with me so far? Okay. So Jesus has this crowd in front of him, and he actually tells a a trilogy

of parables. He tells three separate stories, but we don't have time to go into all of them in detail. So I'll paraphrase the first two, then we'll spend the the bulk of our time this morning looking at the the last one, is the parable of the two brothers. But Jesus starts with this crowd. And again, remember he's addressing

not a question that's been asked. He's addressing a thought that the pharisees have had. So it starts this whole interaction starts by Jesus reading their minds and understanding they're really upset that I'm hanging out with bad people. So he goes, hey guys, listen. Let me tell you a story.

And they're like, okay. And he says, imagine that a guy has a 100 sheep.

Imagine that he's got a 100 sheep and he loses one. And they're like, well Jesus, what are you talking about? He's like, just stay with me. Okay? It's my story. Imagine a guy's got a 100 sheep and he loses one. He wakes up one day and he's counting. He's like 96, 97, 98, 99. I'm missing one.

So this is what the guy does. He leaves the 99 that he has and he goes after the one. And he goes wandering and searching for the one dumb sheep that ran off on his own like way.

And the people in the crowd would have known exactly what Jesus was talking about. I know in our culture we're like sheep, what are we talking about? This is like Jesus saying, hey, a guy's got a 100 Honda Civics. Okay? We're like, okay, I know what a Honda Civic is. I know what it's worth. And imagine if your entire net worth was a 100 Honda Civics,

and you woke up one day and one was lost. And it was really the the the sheep's fault. The sheep ran off. Most of us, if our entire net worth if I gave you a $100 broken up into $1 bills and you woke up one day and you found that one was missing, most of us would literally care less. Like I still got 99.

I got 99 bills and I don't care. Right? Like it's we're not worried about the one.

Yet this shepherd goes and finds the one that's lost. And then what does he do? He takes the lost sheep, brings it home, calls his shepherd buddies, and he's like, hey guys, let's get the shepherd pie going because we are throwing a party. They're like, what are we celebrating?

He says, we're celebrating because I had a sheep that was lost, but now it's found. They're like, Jesus, what are we talking about? He says, well, that's kind of like what happens in heaven when one person who was lost returns back to God. When a sinner repents, a party ensues in heaven.

What Jesus starts to do with the story of a guy that has a 100 sheep, loses one, finds one, throws a party, is he begins to set up the idea that there is absolutely immeasurable

value in lost things being found in the kingdom of God. Then he goes into a second story and says, imagine for a moment that a lady has 10 coins. What he's talking about is what ladies would get on their wedding day. They would get a headband that has 10 silver coins on it. They didn't get a wedding band. They would get a headband that they would wear. He says, imagine that lady wakes up one day and one of the 10 coins that's on her headband is gone. This lady just goes nuts. She starts like Marie Kondo ing the whole apartment. She's like flipping couch cushions. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch Netflix. Okay? She's like this doesn't spark joy. Let's get rid of it. And

she's going crazy. She's just going nuts trying to find the one lost coin. And then what does she do? After she finds the one lost coin, she calls all of her neighbors and throws a party.

And it's like if you're sitting there, you'd like, Jesus, what are we talking about? We're trying to figure out why you hang out with bad people and you're telling us a story about a lady that's going crazy for a coin that she lost. And then this lady throws a party

for the coin that was found. A party that probably cost more than the coin was even worth. Just like the shepherd threw a party that would probably cost more than the dumb wandering sheep that he found was even worth. And he says that's what the kingdom of God is like. That's what happens in heaven

when somebody who's lost is found. And what he's doing is he's showing people who fundamentally don't understand who he is and why he does what he does. He's telling an audience of people who think that they are too far gone

and a group of people who think that they are good enough because of what they've done, he's telling them that in my kingdom, in the kingdom that I am ushering in, there is immeasurable value on lost things. You wanna know what gets God excited? It's when lost things are found.

And then he's gonna tell them a story about a father that has two sons. So if you have your Bible, go to verse 11. Jump down to verse 11 with me.

It says to illustrate this point further, Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. How many sons did he have? 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, this younger son packed all of his belongings and moved to a distant land. And there he wasted all of his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and began to starve.

He persuaded a local farmer to hire him. And the man sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. So Jesus goes in and he tells a story. He says imagine a guy's got two sons.

He says the younger son comes to his dad one day and says, hey dad,

I just want my share of the inheritance now. He says, got these flyers from Vegas and it looks pretty awesome. I've been I've been watching YouTube videos on how to count cards and I think I can do it and I know I haven't really you know amassed to anything here and this whole farming thing really isn't for me. I think Vegas is the ticket but the problem is is I don't have any money. Here's what I'm saying.

I know eventually you're gonna die and give me some money, but I want my money now. Now imagine for a moment if you are a father that your son came and said this to you.

My dad would beat me six ways from Sunday. He'd be like, he's like, what is wrong with you? Like number one, now you're not getting any of my inheritance and like you're crazy. What this son is essentially saying is dad, I could care less about my relationship with you.

All I want is what I can get from you. And again, remember, not a real story. This didn't really happen. Jesus is using the story to illustrate

our relationship and how we interact sometimes with our heavenly father. And he says sometimes some people are going to treat God like he's nothing but a slot machine for you to come and pull and get from what you think you want from it. This son thinks what he wants is all of his dad's inheritance so he can go and live this crazy wild

life. Here's the thing that you and I have to understand. Sometimes the very thing that we are asking God for, sometimes the very thing that we are praying for and asking God to give us, it very well might be the thing that leads us to places that we never thought we would go.

Sometimes the reason that God is not giving us the thing that we so desperately think we want is because God knows in his omniscience, in his infinite wisdom, where this thing will lead us. And sometimes we don't have the foresight to understand, yes, I think I'm ready for this relationship,

but I have no context that I'm not ready spiritually to actually commit to this thing. And if I get the relationship now,

what will happen is it will end up leading me to compromise my integrity once, which will make it easier to do it twice, and eventually it will lead me to a place that I don't want to go. And sometimes God will withhold things from us, understanding the greater good for our lives.

But the other thing that the story shows us is sometimes God in his infinite wisdom, sometimes he will actually give us the very thing that we think we want so that we can experience the reality of what it really is.

So that we can understand and realize that this thing that we thought was gonna bring us so much joy and so much hope and so much peace, it really just brought more destruction. The thing that you and I have to understand, the thing that we don't talk about a lot in church is that sin is actually really fun.

If you're not having fun when you sin, you're just not doing it right. Like, it's just the reality. The truth is that sin is fun. The problem is sin is only fun for about five minutes. And what Satan is going to do every single time is he's going to offer you and I a really pretty packed wrapped package,

but inside of it is a trap that is going to snare us. And sometimes when you get the thing you think you want, it ends up being the thing that you become a slave to. Be very careful what it is that you ask for

Because oftentimes we don't realize that yes, this thing might just look like an innocent conversation with an old friend on Facebook, but sometimes the very thing that starts so innocently will lead us to places that we didn't think we would go. I promise you, I guarantee you this son,

if you could have sat with him and said, hey, man. I know what you're asking for is just some money right now. I know what you're asking for is to just move from your hometown to go here because you think it's so appealing and you're so mad with all of this stuff that's happening here. But just for a moment, if we could show him a picture of where he ended up. This kid ends up with nothing. He literally goes and he's living this life and he's got friends while he's got money, but then a famine hits and he's broke. He has nothing.

So he goes and finds a farmer that will hire him to feed pigs, but he's so poor he can't even eat. So what does he do? He starts to eat from the same troughs that he's feeding the pigs out. And the reason that Jesus is using this illustration

to this crowd of people is because I think he's addressing a bunch of people just like us that understand what it feels like to eat out of pig troughs.

We have to understand if we could, for just a moment, pull back the layer between the physical world that we live in and the spiritual world, the spiritual realm that is taking place over our lives, we would see an incredible battle that's happening.

Because in John ten ten, Jesus says that he's come so that you and I can have life and life abundantly. But there is a real enemy that wants to kill, steal, and destroy every single part of who we are. And you have to realize, the picture that the enemy wants for all of our lives is to end in a place where we

are far from God. We are far from our Father. We are eating out of pig troughs wondering how did we get here. Here's the truth of what I know. There's a lot of us this morning that this is your story. That you find yourself in a position going, man, how did I get here? I didn't think that it would cost me this much.

I didn't think the thing that started so innocently would keep me for this long, yet here I am years later, looking at myself in the mirror wondering how I got here. And you find yourself in a position where you're stuck going, now what do I do?

And the reason that I love this story so much is because it just takes our humanity and it puts it on full display. And if you're not careful, you and I will have a tendency to do the exact same thing that the son is going to do when he finds himself in a position asking the question, how did I end up here?

What we do when we find ourselves in that position is one of the biggest determinations of what the quality and trajectory of our future looks like. But look at what the son does.

It says in verse 16 that the young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. And finally, he came to his senses and he said to himself, even at home, the hired servants have food enough to spare, And here I am dying of hunger.

I will go home to my father and I will say, father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.

Notice the brilliant plan, the comeback speech that this kid is going to do. He understands that because of what he's done, number one, he has lost worth in the eyes of his father. And number two, he's no longer worthy to be called a son anymore. So what does he do?

He says, you know what, man? I'm sitting here literally eating out of a pig's trough and my dad's got a whole bunch of servants at home and they at least have a place to sleep and food to eat. I'll go back to my dad and I'll say, dad, I know I've sinned against you. I know I've sinned against heaven. I

know that I'll never be your son again, but if you could just bring me back as a servant, I will work for you for the rest of my life just so that I can have a place to lay my head. Here's the problem that is deeply ingrained in us as people.

I think that it's in all people, but I think specifically you and I living in Western American culture. We have this thing that is deeply ingrained in us. It's called believing that worth is something that we have to earn.

That there's something in us deeply that believes that if there if if we're ever going to have value in this life, it's something that we have to earn. We have to achieve it. We have to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps. If we get anything out of life, we have to earn it.

And the proof is this son, the moment that he fails, he believes the only way back to the father is to work his way back into right standing with him, not through being a son, but through being a servant, which proves

this son had no idea what it meant to be a son. Okay? Imagine for a moment, my six year old. I got a six year old son named Braden. Imagine for a moment, and again, this isn't true. It's not real. But just imagine with me that this kid was like obedient, and he was listening, and like doing his homework,

and not literally on the drive home from church yesterday, he tried to spit out of his sister's window and spit on her. And I'm like, what goes through your mind? Like, it's it's mind blowing to me. But imagine for a moment.

Imagine for a moment, he sat me down, we're eating breakfast. He's like, hey dad, check it out, man. I really, I feel like I I, you know, I've been doing a lot. I've been helping mom. I was mowing the lawn and doing all this stuff. I feel like I finally earned the right to be your son. I feel like I've earned the right to to be in this family.

And I'm like, dog, you're eating my Cheerios, sleeping in my house, living in like with all of my stuff and yet you think you've done something to earn the right to be my son. Here's what we have to understand. You're not a son by work. You're a son through birth.

It's why Jesus says that all of us, you must be born again. It's not talking about this physical act that we have to go through. He says, you've all been born physically into a family, but you have to be born spiritually into the family of God. And that is how you find worth. It's through birth, not through work.

But we have to understand that it wages war with this thing that we've been taught that says we have to work to earn value.

So the son comes up with the plan and he says, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna come to my dad and I'm gonna give him my little comeback speech and tell him, I know I've messed up. I just wanna be a servant. And what Jesus is going to do is he's going to illustrate to a group of people who know they're far from God. He's going to illustrate to them how God is going to respond

to their brokenness. And look at this how the father responds to the son's comeback speech. Verse 20. So he returns home to his father. Notice this. And while he was still a long ways off,

his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, father, I've sinned against both heaven and you. I am no longer worthy of being called your son. But his father said to the servants, quick, bring the finest robe to the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. Kill the calf that we've 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. The reason that the story is so incredible is because here's the son

who finds himself in a place going, man, I don't know how I got here. And he comes up with this brilliant plan to go, I'm gonna go back to my father and tell him I'm gonna work, and I'm gonna prove to you that I'm worth your love again. And it says that his best attempts to come back to the father, his best attempt

to get back into his Father's house still left him a far ways away. You have to understand our best attempt at being perfect, our best attempt of fixing our issues on our own will always, always, always leave us a far ways away. But here's the good news.

The good news is the thing that separates Christianity from every other world religion is we believe that God is waiting for us. We believe that God is the one that's pursuing us.

And Jesus is telling them that there's a father who sat every day and he waited and he wondered, is today the day that my son comes back down the road? Is today the day that he comes home and realizes that I'm not mad at him? Is today the day that he realizes that there's nothing that he can do

to ever lose his relationship with me? Is today the day that they walk back down this road and come back into the fold of the family? And then one day it happens, he's sitting there waiting, looking, and he sees his son. And the moment he sees him while he's still far off, he starts to run towards his son.

And this would have been absolutely ludicrous for this crowd to hear about an old Jewish man that's running. Because these were dignified old men that did not do things

like running. Because again, remember, they're wearing these robes. And so in order to run, they would have to pull up their robe and go running down the street. And the one thing that I think their culture got right that we should probably inherit is at a certain age, dudes, we just don't show our legs. Okay? Like, just keep them hidden. Like, it's I know it's Arizona, but those those things need some pants on them. Okay? You know what I'm talking about.

Just kidding. But he he here's here's why Jesus is using this illustration. He's trying to show an illogical, irrational, unconventional response that the father has to a son that's lost. That he's reckless in his pursuit. He's unashamed

about what people are going to think about him because his primary concern is that that's my son that's lost. And I'm going to run after him, and I'm gonna bring him back into the fold. And the son finds himself in this really awkward embrace called grace where the father just grabs him.

And he starts to try to get his comeback speech out saying, dad, I've sinned against you. I've I've made these mistakes. I've gotta and the dad's like, shut up, fool. I'm kissing you. And he just starts kissing his face off.

And he just starts, like, ugly kissing. And remember, this is a kid that's eating out of pig troughs and sleeping with prostitutes like he doesn't smell good. Like this is not a dude that you would just naturally want to be kissing on.

But his father just loves him. His father just embraces him. And this is Jesus illustrating to this group, this is what God wants to do with you. He's not mad at you. He knows that your life has landed you in a place where you don't want to be. But if you stay there, if you continue down this path, you will never get

what you're looking for. And he tells the service, he says, this is my son. And he says, get a robe, get a ring and some sandals,

all things that would signify to the household that this was a son that was returning back to his position. And he says, it's time to kill the fattened calf because there ain't no party like a red meat party. Can I get an amen? He says, we're having filet mignon. My son was lost and he's now found.

And he throws this party and he celebrates and he says, this is what God is waiting to do for you.

And the reason that I tell you this this morning is because I believe that in this room are people that find themselves, maybe you haven't gone all the way down the road, maybe you're not all the way to the point of eating out of pig troughs, but you know you're close. You know that you are doing things right now

that are leading you to places that you don't want to go. And I'm telling you, it doesn't get any better. You cannot fix it on your own. What God doesn't need from you, if you are there this morning,

what He doesn't need is for you to tell Him how you're gonna fix it and how you're gonna do all of the right things. What He needs you to do is to raise your hand, stop, admit that you're lost,

and realize that that's the moment that you can be truly found and you can be brought back into the fold of the family. You can be brought back into the standing that you had before. Notice that the son, he felt that he was relegated to being a servant, but the father places him back into his position of being a son.

And you would think that anybody that heard this story would be celebrating. But what Jesus is going to do after now addressing the crowd of people who are the notorious sinners, the people that have these really checkered pasts,

what he's gonna do is he's now gonna turn his attention to the people that think they're good enough. The religious people that think through their own righteousness,

they are are better than these broken people. And he's gonna turn the focus solely on them and going, you guys are just as lost. You just don't realize it. And he's gonna do it through addressing the second son, the older brother. So let's read this as as we wrap this up.

Verse 25. It says, meanwhile, the older 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 the heck is going on? He says, your brother's back. Your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.

The older brother was angry? The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and he begged him. He said, but, the the son said, all these years, dad, I've slaved for you.

Never once refused to do a single thing that you told me. And then all that time, you never gave me even one young goat 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 fattened calf.

His father said to him, he said, look, dear son, you've always stayed by me. Everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this day for your brother was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, but now he's found. Here's the reason that I think this story is so important for us to understand.

Because a lot of us in this room, our story is not the story of the prodigal son.

I think, honestly, God's grace on my life when I came into church when I was 19 years old, I was the prodigal son. I understood the deep level of my depravity. I understood how far I was from God. I understood that there was nothing that I had done that had earned the right to have a relationship with God.

And I was able to understand my brokenness and my need for grace. But there's a lot of people and the tendency that I have to fight now after following God for a longer amount of time, the tendencies that I now have to fight are the tendencies that just fall into patterns of ritual and religious order.

What he's doing is he's addressing a group of people that go, you're just as lost as these people. You're just hiding in plain sight. These people are running from me. You people are hiding all around me. The thing that I know is one of the most dangerous places for you and I to be is to be in the house of God,

but to be far from the heart of God. There are a lot of people who walk in and out of churches every Sunday, and they think they're Christians. They think that they are followers of God but they are not anymore a Christian than I am a car when I'm standing in my garage telling you I'm a car.

You're like why do you think you're a car? Because I'm in the garage. You're like hey man, did you take your medicine this morning? You're like no, I'm a car. And it's funny and we laugh at that yet so many, 85% of people in America today would say that they're a Christian.

And the truth is is we have a lot of cultural Christians who look at bad people going, man, at those terrible people, yet we refuse to look at the self righteousness that we walk around with every day. Here's the truth and the reality that you have to understand. The enemy is totally cool with you coming to church.

He's totally okay with you putting a tip in the box on your way out. He's totally good with you going to home group and getting nothing out of it. Going to small group and talking about none of your real issues and just doing the surface things. He's okay with you waking up every morning, pulling out your bible app, going through the motions, getting nothing out of it, going through your day, thinking that because you checked off the box that you fulfilled your religious duties and that somehow makes you holy.

It doesn't.

You and I have to understand that all of us, yes, those things are good. We should go to church. We should read our bible. We should be in community. We should be in fellowship. We should be giving. But those are things we get to do out of an overflow of understanding that God paid the price for our sins. He died and ransomed us. And now we get to do these things

out of the overflow of our heart. We don't have to do these things. But I think the truth is, if we're honest, there's a lot of us that find ourselves in positions of just getting angry. Here's the proof.

I guarantee you, when Bill gets up here and says, hey guys, we need to build this building because there's lost people that need to be found. This is a place where lost people are coming home, but we don't have enough seats. We need to build this building. And the truth is is the people who've been around church for the longest, you are gonna be the ones that do the majority of the giving to help build this place. And a lot of people, when he says we've gotta give sacrificially, you get mad, and you don't really know why.

But if you're honest, the truth is is you feel like you've already done enough. And please don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not trying to shame you into giving more money to our building. Though if you want to do that, I won't stop you. But here is what I'm saying is that we have to understand. Our heart

really, really easily falls into rebellion, and then it really easily transitions into religion. But what's really difficult to do outside of understanding our brokenness, outside of just stopping, admitting that we're lost, and allowing God to do the restoration in our heart is to stop at the place of relationship.

Both rebellion and religion will miss the heart of God every single day of the week. God is not after religious ritual from us. It's awesome that you've memorized the whole book of Matthew, but he doesn't care if it doesn't actually affect the way you see people.

Here's how we are called to be measured and what the Bible says that people will know that we are Christians. It's by the way that we love people. And he says, you are here thinking that you're these holy people, yet you're mad that these people who are broken are coming to know who I am.

And the truth, the reason that the story matters so much for us is because I think in different seasons of our life, we might find ourselves having the tendencies of one brother or the other. And the truth is, the invitation from heaven for all of us is to stop and to remember

that it's not through our own work that we earn value. That worth in the kingdom of God has to come through birth. So to kind of sum all this stuff up, going all the way back to the story of my brother at Belmont Park.

The best thing that my brother did that he didn't even realize that he did, something that experts would say you should teach your kids if they ever get lost. If your kids ever get lost, should teach them. Don't try to find your parents. Don't wander around trying to find them. The best thing that you can do is to just

stop. Sit where you are and wait for your parents to find you. Otherwise, you run the risk of being ships that are passing in the night and you just miss each other. And your parents have looked at a place that you were, but you've missed each other.

The best advice that my little brother didn't even realize that he did is he just stopped and he sat down and he sat down under the roller coaster.

And what I'm saying is that you and I this morning, no matter where we find ourselves, if we're here and we're at least willing to admit somewhere, somehow we're lost. All we have to do is to stop. We don't stop at the roller coaster. What we as followers of Jesus, where we stop, is we stop at the cross

and we remember that Jesus died the death that we deserve. That he paid the price for our mistakes on the cross once and for all. That he was beaten, mocked, and brutalized, not for somebody's sins, but for mine. And if we can just stop there, understand

that what he did on the cross forever paid the price and forever made a way back for you and I to come back to the father. That's where we stop. And if you're here this morning and you're the brother that feels like you're you're too far gone, the good news of the gospel is you can't outrun the reaches of God's grace.

And if you're me, the other brother that was just inside playing video games, not Karen, just going through the motions going, I'm not lost. But if you're honest, you feel the temptation to lean towards self righteousness,

my encouragement this morning to you is to stop as well and admit that you are lost and allow God to truly begin the process of bringing you home. So here's what we're gonna do. The ushers are gonna come down. You got communion on your way in. If you didn't get one,

feel free to throw your hand up They will hand you a communion little thing right now. And the band's gonna lead us in a song. And I want you to just take a moment, and I want you to just reflect. The reason that we take communion as a church family is because it is a moment. It is a reminder for us to stop and remember

that the body of Jesus was broken. His blood was shed so that we have the ability to be brought home. So whatever it is this morning that you're struggling with, wherever it is that you feel lost,

my encouragement to you is as the band leads us in this song, talking about the reckless love of God, the irrational pursuit of the father to us, That you would just spend a moment with God and you would just have a minute and you would pray.

Maybe for you, you've got to do the same thing that the son did and start with a prayer and just say, hey, I I I know I've sinned against heaven heaven and against you. And just stop there. Don't go on to tell God all the ways you're gonna make it up. Rest in what he did. And then when you're ready, just take communion.

Take communion and remember the body that was broken for you. The blood that was shed for you. And then at the end of it, I'm gonna come back out. We're gonna pray, and then we're gonna celebrate because we believe this morning the lost people are gonna come home today. Amen? Amen.

Would you pray with me? Father, God, we thank you so much, Lord, that you celebrate when lost people come home. And, father, I know that in this room right now are people who feel lost. God, whether it's through things that they've done or things that have been done to them. The Lord that they just feel like they're lost,

and they wonder if they've gone too far, and if they have the ability to come home. And Father, I thank you that we have this story that forever shows us the heart of God that is waiting for his children to come back. So if you're here this morning with everybody's eyes closed and heads bowed, I'm gonna ask you,

if you find yourself lost and you want to come home, I'm gonna ask you to just respond physically to what God is doing internally and just throw your hands in the air right now. If that's you and you know that you're lost and you want to be found, just throw your hand in the air. Don't don't be ashamed.

There's hands going up all over the room. Don't let the enemy keep you in this place for another moment. Father, I thank you for hearts that are responding to you, hands that are going up all over the room. I thank you that in heaven, there's a celebration happening for lost children

coming back into the loving arms of their father. Father, I pray. You can put your hands down. I pray for every single person here this morning

that if we need to place our faith in you for the first time, that we would do that, that we would confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that what you did on the cross was enough. And then, father, you would begin to remove this thing that's in us that believes we have to work to earn your love.

That we would understand that worth is something that we're given because of what you did. So father, we trust you. We need you this morning. And altogether, God's people said, amen.