Jesus - The Older Brother

Daytime now. We’re not nice anymore. It’s that time of year. Are you growing out of your head or dying straight? Which one? My wife washed my helmet. Yeah, she washable. I’m the same size I always been. I ain’t shrunk at all. You didn’t give the feast the other night. I saw you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Time of year again. What time? Daytime? Well, it was supposed to be the comedy hour. But I’m getting mad. That’s a point. Yeah. Well, the writers are on strike. Oh, that’s true. We’re not supposed to be the writers. The writers are on strike. This is what you get. When you want fair wages, look what you get. And the actors are on strike, so, you know, y’all lost. Clearly. What was that fella? Gladiator? We fell in Gladiator? Oh, yeah. You lost the ring. The A’s. When did you put your sword? Every time I put mine back here, it hurt. Okay, they took my sword away. They took my sword away. He offered you his knife. Yeah. No. Look here. I’m coming to a sword fight with a knife. Part of the night. That’s like going to a knife fight with a gun. You’ll get it right there. Right there.

All right. Well, let’s get to the business. Let’s get to the business. We have a point? Okay. We got it. Hey. Oh, right there. That’s one thing to stick up. That’s behind the notes. See? I’m watching Gladiator back here, actually, on Netflix. You know what happens? What happens? He gets killed. Oh. - Thumbs down. - Alright. Well, vacation files come. We have a good time as you can know. And here it is again. It starts tomorrow night, 6 o’clock. - 6 o’clock. - I got notes right here. - My sun dial, yeah, let’s see. Yep, right there. Eight pounds, yep, yep, yep. - My notes, huh. - I’ve got notes. - She just can’t read them, yeah. - Somebody read it. - Thank you. - Alright, take 4-2-12. Everybody welcome, everybody come. We’ll have what we have, what we have for meals in our night. Bummer. - Oh yeah. - Lamb chops or something. You know, like I went to a feast the other day, lamb chops, horse leg. Woo! Yeah. Listen, they’re hard to catch, but you can eat for weeks. - Well, we will put you back in the dungeon. Yeah, yeah. You’re going into the day. Everybody is invited. Come, we have a good time. We’ll learn about, we’ll learn about Jesus. We’ll learn about God. The, as we, as you can, I don’t know if you can tell by us or not, but we’re the keepers of the kingdom. I hope the kingdom’s a better shape than we are. I know it is. - Yeah. Please register your tower. Get the little, get the little, card back there. The QR code right here. At least one register. I got two more register. - Yeah, get on it. Yeah. I didn’t follow all my. - Yeah. - So, tomorrow night, Monday through Friday. We’ve got some input on Friday. We’ll have a good meal for you every, every night. We’ll have crafts. We’ll have missions. We’ll have activities outside. Bible study. Food is number one. - Food is number one. That’s the mafia. That’s our mafia. - The jesters? No, that’s us. - That’s what we do. That’s us. - Yeah. - Oh, okay. - Hey, look. If you don’t have a class, come on out and spend some time with us. We’ll have a meal too. For everybody. If you want to spend some time, adults want to come out and just spend some time with us. I’ll always. - Yeah, you got this to talk to you, so, you know. - All right. - We can let it go. - Yeah. - Yeah, our horses double parked. We gotta go. - Yeah. - All right. Leave the door open and let what wanders in. All right.

So, here we go. Now we’re down doing business, whatever that was. Number 12 in your hymnals, “Great is the Lord” is our opener this morning. So, if you stand, we’ll sing. Words are on your screen. - Great is the Lord. He is holy and just. By His power we trust. It is love. Great is the Lord. He is faithful and true. By His mercy He proves He is love. Great is the Lord. Glory. Great is the Lord.

So, behind me that we just witnessed, it’s Vacation Bible School Week. And I think that’s one of the best weeks all year long. Church, kids from everywhere will be here. I can’t think of anything better than telling a child about Jesus and doing it in a fun way. So, all of you that are helping with that, thank you for doing that. The rest of you just want to come out and be kind of put to use or just kind of walk around and see what’s going on and that kind of thing. It’s going to be great. If you notice, Friday night is the commencement and we’ve got some really good food Friday night. And so, it’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be outside and we’re just going to have a great time. So, keep down with everything in prayer. And it’s just a wonderful, wonderful week. And make sure, because you can go online and register. So, make sure that you do that. It’s already set up there and we would, man, we just want to have you here and have the kids here. And if you see kids, get them here. So, those are some things.

If you’re, we’re just glad you’re here today. It’s good to have some folks back. I know Paula was out, I think, last week and being sick. And, of course, Beth and I, and thank you for prayers for us. And we’ve got, you know, and everybody else. And we’re just glad and we’re just glad you’re here. In fact, Michael, you’ve got even some good news, don’t you? We’re celebrating. Yeah, that’s awesome. And that’s not just for Michael, but for one sitting next to you, except for Claudia, too. So, and the family. So, yeah, it’s good to have good news. You know, God’s always working and always in charge.

If you’re one of our guests this morning, on the edge of your little bulletin this morning, his little tear-off sheet, a couple things for that. If you’re a guest, if you wouldn’t mind filling it out and putting in the offering plate or just put it by your seat, we’ll get a hold of it. And we’d love to contact you and just get with you. But also, you may have a prayer request. And we would love to add that and get folks praying for you. So, if you’ll just fill that out and leave it, we’ll make sure we get to the right person. And Angela will put it on the list and we’d love to pray for you. you with that.

So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to just welcome each other. Y’all do a good job of that even before the service. But I want you to just look around and just look at somebody today and say, man, I am glad I get to worship with you today. So let’s just stand, turn around, just look at someone and say, man, I am glad I get to worship with you today. All right. We’ll go ahead and come back and have a sit. And we’ll keep singing. So we’re going to keep singing. Here we go.

Everybody back to your seats. Children’s sermon. Come on. Got a good group this morning. Lily, Fran and Rhett back from Alaska. Ordinary boys got their seats. That’s right. Man, you just got like good Baptists. We got our seats. Come on.

Now I got something. My daughter back years ago, almost 10 years ago, went to China and she got this for me. It says an honorary credential where I was given the title of honorary general. Now there is a picture in here of the Chinese army. Okay. And they’re kind of marching. Do y’all notice anything different in this? Can y’all see the picture? Can y’all see anything different about something strange about that picture? One is smiling, but what’s weird about that picture? Well, he’s holding the gun up. Can you see it? What picture is that? Is there anything weird about that picture? Correct? Can you see anything? What’s weird about that one picture right there? He’s the only one smiling. Who’s the picture? Yeah. What about his face? Who is that? That’s me. Can you tell? You know what my daughter did? She took my picture and she put it on the face of a Chinese soldier. Can you believe that? Isn’t that kind of crazy? Can you see it? Can you see it now? Isn’t that weird? She took my face and put it on the face of a Chinese soldier. Well, it might be. It might be. Yeah. You want to see it again? Okay. See? Right there. Isn’t that weird? Yeah. I mean, she said, who knew? Well, here, and that’s the thing. You know, have you ever looked at somebody and watch them do something and said, you know, I’d never do that. Or you looked at someone, they were Saying some mean things to somebody, and you went, “I’d never say that. I would never act like that. I’d never do that.” You ever say that? I’d probably still say it. “Oh, I’d never do that.” You know? And it’s almost like, you know, someone’s, you know, putting your face somewhere else. You say, “Well, I never act like that. My face would never be doing, saying something like that. My mouth would never be saying something like that.” And sometimes we got to be real careful about saying stuff like that. Because sometimes the things we say we would never do, do. You know? Wouldn’t that be? You know, when I have something, when you guys aren’t here, when you’re right at the end of the service, sometimes I make this statement. That sometimes you may be the only Jesus someone ever sees. Okay? That when someone sees how you act, who should they think of? They ought to think of Jesus. If they say, hear something that you say, maybe they ought to hear that you say the same thing Jesus would say. And so, when we, but then when we say something bad, would they think of Jesus? No, they wouldn’t, would they? If you acted and did something you weren’t supposed to do, would they ever think of Jesus? See, my daughter put something here, and someone said, “Well, maybe that’s Mr. Al. Maybe that’s, no.” So, my thing is this. Number one, we want to treat people like we want to be treated. You know, the Bible’s got an interesting verse that says, do unto others like what? Yeah, as you would have them do to you. Exactly right, my friend. You’re absolutely right. How’d she put my picture in there? She’s got a, she could do that with her computer. Isn’t that crazy that she can do stuff like that? Well, sometimes we need to realize that when someone sees us, they need to see Jesus. Does that make sense? That when you, when they hear you talk, it’s how Jesus would talk. You know, maybe before we do something, maybe we ask this question, what would Jesus do? There used to be a bracelet that had that on it. WWJD. What would Jesus do? So, always remember this. Whenever they see you, they ought to think of who? Think of Jesus.

That’s great. Thank you guys for listening. Let’s go to Lord in prayer. Dear Jesus, thank You. Help us that we can be more like You and how we talk and how we act and maybe with mom and dad and, and, and that, that we would make You proud that when people see what we do, people think about You. Now be with the children as they go off to children’s church and let them just have a great time. In Your son’s name we pray. Amen. Amen, guys. Right. Off story this morning will be number 52. He leadeth me, O blessed thought. So if you stand, we’ll sing. He thought, oh, that’s her fraud. Great to see a bunch of kids. Children, there’s life. Always, always.

If you’ve got your Bibles, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Luke chapter 15. And I want you to, if you don’t have one, grab one in the pew in front of you. Because I want us to just kind of look at some words today as we look at this passage. But prior to that, I want to, Vacation Bible School always excites me. I just love seeing children walking around and running around and just having a good time and just enjoying, number one, being in church. I just think when kids come to church, they ought to have a positive experience. And number two, sharing the gospel with them, creative way. So I just think this week is a magic week, always in the life of a church. And before I preach, I’d like us to just have a time where we just spend some, just some quality time praying for Vacation Bible School. As I look out, I can see where a lot of y’all are going to be involved in Vacation Bible School this week. And I, just as a pastor, just want to say thank you. Thanks for doing that. It seems like it’s a long week. I can remember when it was two weeks. Or if you went to someone now and said, “Can you do two weeks of Vacation Bible School?” And they look at you and go, “Have you lost your mind?” But it used to be two, when I grew up, it was two weeks long. You know, and I remember, you know, two Oreos and Kool-Aid.

And we got great meals and all kinds of stuff this week. So Vacation Bible School has evolved and done well. But I just want you to bow your head for me. I want you to pray, I want you to pray for the kids that are going to be coming here. I want you to pray for the teachers, that their words will just kind of, God will use that and speak through them and to the minds of these children and the youth that are going to be here, that God will just, just, and that it’ll even affect the teachers in this church. So if you wouldn’t mind just bowing your heads and in silence for the moment, I want you to specifically this morning, pray for Vacation Bible School.

Father, I thank you this morning. We get to, we get to perform the Great Commission. We get to go into, into all the world and this, this world that’s around this church. And we get to tell children about you. We get to be creative. We get to have fun. But ultimately, we get to tell someone about how much you love us and love them and those children, especially. They know that Jesus loves them. I thank you for the, the service that our, our teachers and our, and those that are in charge and those from whether it’s in a kitchen or it’s in a classroom, that they’re going to be having fun and that they’re giving up their valuable time to share the love of Jesus. Lord, I, my prayer is that you would transform lives this week, that you would make people different. You would affect hearts and you would draw people closer to you. Lord, we want to enlarge your kingdom and you’re really the one that does that. So just work this week, maybe like you’ve never worked before. Just have your hand on everything that happens at this sweet church. We give you all the honor and glory since you’re the only one that’s really deserving of it. We do it in the name that’s above every name, the awesome name of Jesus. All God’s people said, amen.

Okay. I hope you’re in Luke 15. This is probably, I’ve been doing this little series called, let me tell you a story. Jesus had a way of telling stories and a lot of times it’s, it’s amazing. It would come off a question or he’d hear something and respond, which is exactly what happens as we tell this story today. In Luke 15, as we see at the very beginning, Jesus is, is talking and a lot of commentators kind of feel that he’s actually having dinner with folks that you would look at and go, why is he having dinner with them? It was, it was sinners. It was folks that were the tax collectors. It was other sinners. It could have, there could have even been prostitutes there, but people that often had heard about this guy and heard that he was different. He spoke different. He, he handled people that were sinners different. They weren’t just outcasts. He welcomed them to hear his message. And also there were of course, the religious rulers who were there to check up on him. Why was he having? In fact, we see in 15 verses one and two, he says, now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near to him to listen to him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, just like a bunch of, you know, religious rulers sometimes, especially in Jesus’ day. This man receives sinners. He even, even eats with them. And you got to remember eating, even today is a time where when you invite someone to your table, it’s a special moment. You’re sharing a meal with them. You’re sharing time with them. You’re sharing a conversation with them. And you don’t just do that to anybody. You do that to folks that you want to be with. And you want to hear about what they have to say and what their day was like. The fact that Jesus was eating with these kind of folks said that he wanted, he was relating to them. A lot of people didn’t like it. So out of that came a series of stories. There’s a story of the lost sheep and then the lost coin. And then the one we’re going to talk about today, which is the lost son.

Being a grandparent is kind of a unique experience. All of you that are grandparents can, can identify with me because there’s always a story. About a week ago, Adam called me up. My son-in-law called me up and said, Mr. Al, I got another Maggie story for you. And so if you’re, you know, being a preacher, you’re always listening for Maggie stories because, I mean, that’s sermon stuff. And so that’s my daughter and my wife. They’ve been the blunt of a lot of that kind of thing.

And so he said what they were doing is apparently April was off somewhere and Maggie was home with her dad and she was watching TV. And, you know, I don’t know if you noticed lately, but there were some of those cartoons and some of those shows where they just get zoned in. It’s kind of like me watching the Georgia football game. You just kind of get zoned in. I mean, just she was, and she was locked in. I mean, you could have talked to her, called her name, whatever. She wasn’t going to answer you. And he realized, you know, maybe she needs to come off some of this stuff a little bit. And it was, it wasn’t a bad cartoon. It was, had a little rocket ship on it, a little scientific thing. They’d go different places and explore. And she just calls it the rocket.

So he shuts off the TV and she goes, looks at it and goes, “Daddy, rocket.” You know, and I mean, she’s almost pointing to the remote, rocket. He says, “No, honey, let’s do something. Let’s play. Let’s do—” “No, daddy, rocket.” And so finally he asked her this question. He says, “Honey, do you love you?” “Yeah.” “Daddy loves you.” And he says, “Do you trust daddy?” Makes me out of her mouth and goes, “No, rocket, rocket.”

April there that week, try something new. She’s got this little phrase now. She goes, “Let’s try again.” She’ll, they’ll be eating something and, and, and, she’ll just go, “No, no.” And she’ll back and go, “Try again.” You know, or she’ll just say something to you, “No, no, let’s back. Try again.” And the other day, they, Maggie, April looked at Maggie and said, “Okay, I want you, I want you to eat this. I want you to do this.” And Maggie looked at her and went, “Mommy, try again.”

Where do they get that? I mean, how do they, they’re always, I mean, they’re picking something up. I mean, they’re just as quick as they, they don’t miss anything. She’s three years old. Where do three-year-olds get, “Try again”? Yeah. I’m wondering these sons looked at their daddy and it was always, “Come on, dad, try again.”

I want to just kind of describe this sermon today and real quickly in a form of three acts and just tell this story. It’s, it’s, it’s probably the most popular story that Jesus said we’ve over the years, that Jesus told is probably the most familiar, you know, the prodigal son. But if you’ll just follow with me, because right after these Pharisees ask Jesus this question or make the statement, can you believe this guy actually eats with these kind of people? That this guy actually gives them value? That he spends His time with these folks? Can you believe that? And as Jesus heard this, He comes up with these stories. The third one’s to me the most amazing.

Verse 11, let’s follow with me. And He said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that fell to me.’ And so he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country. And there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now, when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in the country. And he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens 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 were eating. And no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread? But I am dying here with hunger. I will get up and go to my father and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men.”’ So he got up 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 his son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, quickly, bring out the best robe. Put it on him. Put a ring on his hand. Sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf. Kill it. And let us eat and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost, has been found. And they began to celebrate.

That’s act one. I want you just to imagine. Because I think we learned something here about sin. Number one, we find that sin is willful. This guy has to plan this. Now, first of all, you need to understand, you didn’t get anything until your parents died. Okay? The oldest son would get two-thirds. Say, well, with two sons, he would get two-thirds. And the other son would get a third. If there were more than that, say there were five kids. You know, each one would get like, you know, two-fifths. You know, basically, the oldest son would get two-fifths and the rest of them would get, or two-sixths, and one would get one-fifth. Or one-sixth. And basically, they would get a portion. But whatever the oldest son got, he always got double. And the reason he got double is because now he was responsible for the rest of the family. So that’s how it was going to be. But you had to die.

And so as people are hearing this story, I mean, they’re kind of inside going, who would say that to their dad? Who would have that kind of gall to sit there and tell their father, as far as I’m concerned, I want it now. I don’t want to wait until you die. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, you’re pretty much dead already. That’s the kind of concern I have for you. That kind of respect I have for you. Just give me what’s mine. What I want is this. I want what you have that will one day be mine. So just give it to me. I want your resources. I want whatever. Can you imagine having that kind of disrespect for your parents? And that’s exactly what he has. As far as he was concerned, his dad was already dead. That’s amazing.

And here’s the deal. Back in those days, you didn’t have a lot of money. You were rich in land. And probably a lot of you know that situation. You know, we have money. But what really is important around us, especially I’m thinking around Ravenel, is land. And so what this guy does is he goes and sells some of his property. And then he gives it to his son who probably hasn’t worked it, you know, hasn’t earned it. That’s what he, that’s what he wants. In fact, the Bible said, look at, and I caught this word this week for the very first time. So he divided his wealth between, listen to the next word, them. It wasn’t just the one son. He divides it up between the two of them. Now he probably looks at his older son and pretty much says, hey, look, everything else is going to be, I’m giving him his. Everything else is yours. Now until I die, I’m in charge. But everything else that I have is yours.

But this is willful. This young, this young son has planned this. I mean, he plans it, but it’s willful. Let me tell you what sin is. Sin’s always willful. You know, God has put in the human heart the fact that we willfully sin. We know when right from wrong. That was ingrained in us from the beginning. We are created in the image of God. And lost or saved, we know you see right from wrong. It’s been ingrained in us. He knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s willful.

Number one, sin will take everything you have. You know what he does here? The Bible says a couple days later, he takes everything in his home and he leaves. Not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey to a distant country. He ain’t planning on coming back. Dad, you can take this house. You can take our family. You can take everything else. And you can, you know, you can put it somewhere else. But I’m not coming back. I’m going on. I know better. Y’all have ever known that? Your children have done that? You ever know when everybody says, mom and dad, they’re idiots. You know, I always find it amazing that the smarter, you know, the older our children get, the smarter we get. You ever know some of that? I’ve heard a lot of things about young people. I’ve heard they’ve got potential, promise. Oh, look at the ability. They might be smart, but I’ve heard, especially with young people, I never, I don’t usually hear the word wisdom. They’re not wise. And that’s just because they haven’t experienced life. The longer they experience life, the smarter they’re going to get, but also the wiser they’re going to get. You’ve just got to experience life.

This guy apparently wasn’t very wise. She don’t take everything. It’ll be hard to come back from. Why? The Bible says here that he goes to a distant country. You ever notice when people want to get away from God? They take off. I mean, they get rid of, they want to get away from everything of God’s. I don’t want God in my life. I don’t want my father in my life. I don’t want anything in my life. I want to do it my way. It goes to a distant land.

I found out about the world and sin. It doesn’t give nothing back. Didn’t take long, but the Bible says he squanders everything he has. He loses it all. You know one reason casinos are in business? Oh, they’ll lose money at times. They’ll make a whole lot more than they lose. That’s why they’re in business. They don’t give back. Sin doesn’t give back. Why? Because it makes us lonely.

Look at the story of the young boy. The Bible says he spent everything when he has spent everything. He’s got nothing to bring back to the father if he wants to come home. Isn’t it interesting that a severe famine occurs in the country? What happens when there’s a famine? What happens when there is a recession in our country? What happens? Jobs dry up. Businesses dry up. He can’t find it.

You know what he hires himself out to do? He becomes a hired worker. You know what a hired worker is back in those days? It wasn’t just someone that worked for someone that, say, owned a farm. These were the guys that showed up at the gate the morning of hoping to have some work to do that day. The owner was never responsible for putting them up. The owner really probably wasn’t responsible for feeding them. He may have done that out of the goodness of his heart, but he wasn’t responsible for that.

So when you come in as a hired worker, either they go to the center of town and a whole bunch of guys and the guy goes, I’ll pick you, you, you, you, and you. And you hopefully get to work for that day and make a little bit of money. And that’s what he hires himself off to do. He’s lonely.

The Bible says something happens. He’s sent out to feed pigs and he apparently hasn’t eaten in a while because he’s looking at food he would never eat and say, you know, that looks pretty appetizing now.

Beth and I lived, our first three years of marriage were spent in Germany with the military. And I remember we found out pretty quick there’s, When you invited a German family to eat with you, there was one thing you didn’t serve at the table. Corn. You know why? It was pig food. You know, pigs eat corn. You didn’t even have corn macabre there. You didn’t have, I don’t care how much butter you soaked it in or whatever. You didn’t serve corn. Because they wouldn’t eat it. I mean, it would be an insult to them. Wait a minute, you invited us over to your home, and you’re serving us pig food?

I went online to find American foods that foreigners find disgusting. You know what? There were some food people. Processed cheese. That particular bright yellow and wholly unnatural looking thing called processed cheese. Apparently, it’s not the work of anything natural.

Biscuits and gravy. Now, I know there’s some of y’all that like biscuits and gravy. Someone in the foreigners said they decided one day to drown poor unsuspecting biscuits in half a pint of creamy sauce. How did these two seemingly uncorrelated food items converge to form this hybrid monstrosity?

Root beer and Dr. Pepper. I’m a root beer guy. Yeah. It said it tastes like Listerine. Why would someone want to drink mouthwash?

Jerky. Imagine when foreigners come over here and think of jerky. It tastes like plastic, and you may feel you are chewing at the bottom of a worn shoe.

Wonder bread. Highly processed bread that has a consistency of styrofoam.

Corn dogs. This is what a foreigner said. For some reason, I thought they would be sweet.

When I hit the sausage, I almost vomited. Jell-O. Imagine what Europeans think when they eat Jell-O. In France in particular, gelatin is seen as a packing material for meats. And then, of course, corn. He was willing to eat anything. He was. He was lonely.

And while he’s looking at this and getting ready to eat this, also something comes to his mind. He says, he comes, and I like the way the phrase, he comes to his senses. He said, how many of my father hired men? Not the guys that are salary, you know, got hourly salary or they’re there all the time. It’s the guys that they pick. He said, how many of my, even my hired guys that work for my dad? He says, they have more than enough bread, but I’m dying here with hunger.

And then it comes to him. Again, he comes to his senses. He said, I’m going to get up. I’m going to go. And I’m going to tell my dad this. Dad, I’ve sinned against heaven, and I’ve sinned against you. And I just want you to grab me as a hired hand. I’m not worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired guys. And so he gets up, and he decides to do that.

And this is act one. He goes from sick of home to homesick. He goes from, give me. Can you make me? I’m seeing him on the way. He’s probably rehearsing his speech. Man, I don’t want to mess this up, because I don’t want to go back to where I just came from. I don’t want, and the Bible says that from a long way off, his dad sees him. You know why his dad sees him? Because his dad’s looking for him.

And the Bible says his dad doesn’t wait, because I’m thinking, if we’re the world, what are we looking at? If we’re the world, we’re looking at. He’s going to get exactly what he deserves. They’re probably going to meet him, not at the door, but at the front gate. And they’re going to tell him, just turn his little behind around, and he can go off somewhere. Maybe he’s going to hear these words. Have you ever heard? You made your bed, now you lie in it.

He doesn’t hear any of that. The Bible says that his dad, and if you know anything about what they wore back then, his dad probably had a long robe on, would have to pull it up, and almost in a disgusting manner, run to meet his son. Can you imagine people watching the old man walk by, the master of the home run by, and they’re going, where’s he going? Well, he’s going to give him a piece of his mind. I want to be part of that. Let’s go with him. And probably headed down the road.

But he doesn’t do that. He gets there. And I can see the boy. He gets there, and all of a sudden, dad shows up. Dad meets him, and he’s probably getting ready to start his spiel. In fact, he does start his spiel. He says, Father, I’ll send you against heaven, and you say, I am no longer worthy to be your son. Make me as one of your hired men.

And then it’s like the father stops him. He doesn’t even get to finish what dad say to his servants and says, go get the best ring in the house. Get the best robe in the house. Get some sandals. His feet look pretty bloody, messed up. Let’s clean those things off. We’re going to have a party tonight. Not at all what he expects.

We find that the father’s patient. He’s present. I mean, he goes to where he’s at. He’s forgiving, and he’s generous. We’re going to party tonight, which brings us now to Act 2. They started the party. They got the band going. They went out and hired a band. Probably got the DJ in there. You know, and probably got a multi-band. Got a bunch of instruments. I mean, they probably paid a pretty penny for that, and they got all this going on.

And in Acts 2, we probably got the outside of the house again. Except this time, the older brother’s coming up, and he hears the music. And the animation of the Bible is this. Nobody told him about the party. He comes on, and it’s already started. And he’s wondering, what’s with the music? Verse 25, the older son’s in the field. And when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He summons one of the servants and begins acquiring what things could be. And the servant says to him, “Your brother’s coming. Your father’s killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound.” And you would think that the older brother would go, “The family’s back together. The band’s back together.” Don’t do that. But he became angry and was not willing to go in. Who comes out to meet him? We got prodigal number two. “Go on in there. I don’t care what my daddy did. I’m not giving honor to that young whippersnapper. I’m not giving that younger brother of mine. I’m not doing that.” The Bible says that dad comes out to meet the older son. Don’t miss this. And does the same. He entreats him to come in. The Bible, the word entreat here in the original language has been he pleads with you. Will you come in? Here’s how, when the older son hit him, look what he says. “Look, for so many years I’ve been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours. And yet you have never given me a…” Basically, look at all I’ve done. I’ve done everything you wanted. I was the good son. I stuck around. When that boy took off with basically what was yours, I stuck. I stayed here. I did double work. I did his job too. What about… And dad, let me tell you something. You never celebrated me sticking around. Look, I didn’t even get a… You gave him the fatted calf? You gave him the best of what we had? I didn’t even get a goat. Are you serious? I didn’t get a goat. I couldn’t even celebrate with my friends. You know how he celebrated? He took your money and he went and he spent them on… Gambling, he spent them on prostitutes, dad. And you’re going to welcome him like that? Can you imagine? I’m thinking these tax collectors are listening to this story. They’re kind of going, “Man, how can we get a party like that? I mean, I look what we’ve done. Can we get a party like that?” It’s almost like Jesus is going, “Yeah, you can get a party like that.” “Well, what do we got to do? Do I got to go do a bunch of stuff?” No. But they’re hearing. Look what all this guy did. Look what he gets. But the Bible says he comes to his senses. This little boy learned, this young boy learned this. Sin will take you farther than you want to go. It’ll cost you more than you want to pay. It’ll keep you longer than you want to stay. See, our relationship becomes right when we come to our senses. Let me tell you something. Sociologists and psychologists have come to this. Here’s what they think. That basically one reason we have trouble in this world is because we can’t get horizontal relationships right. You know what the Bible says? It says you get the vertical relationships right, the horizontal relationships will take care of themselves. This older son’s looking at dad going, “I’ve got my pride.” You know what the Bible says God says about pride? That He hates it. Pride cometh before the fall. And we see the expressions of the father. Look at the picture of the father. It’s the undignified run. Then let the boy finish his speech. We see the expression of his father’s love, ring, robe, sandals, party. He could have said, “You made your bed, now lie in it again.” I don’t need, you know, he could have repeated the words back to that his son probably said to him. “I don’t need you. Don’t mess with me and I won’t mess with you. I’ll call you when I need you.” It’s just staying at arm’s distance. But he saw him, he ran to him, he kissed him, and then he had compassion. And he’s trying to explain this to the older son. The older son, “I don’t want no part of that.” In fact, the older son’s looking at him going, “You know what? You said everything. Remember, you divided this among us. You said that everything that you had was going to be mine one day. As far as I’m concerned, you know that ring he put on his finger? That’s mine. You know that robe he put on his back? That’s mine. You know those sandals? Whose closet did you get those out? Those are probably mine. You know that fatted calf comes out of my inheritance?” The father looks at him and says, verse 20, and he said to him, “All that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead, has now begun to live, and was lost and has been found. And the curtain comes down on act two. And you go, well, did the family ever get together? Did the older son and the younger son make up and all of a sudden get up with dad? I mean, how does that come together? Did it ever come together? Comes up on act three. All of a sudden we get a picture of what the older son should have been. You know who’s standing in the center stage? See, Jesus is the perfect picture of what the older son should have been. See, one of the jobs of the older son when that young boy left was this. You go after him and you find out where and you bring him back home. Tell him he’s loved. See, one of the jobs of the older son in those days was you help dad take care of the family. And his job was to go get the older boy. He never did. Who leaves the father come to get the center? Jesus does. And shares all of His resources with the younger boy, with the center? Jesus does. Who gives up His rewards? Jesus. Who is always honoring the father no matter what? Jesus is. Who rejoices when a lost son or daughter is found? Jesus is. All of a sudden, at the end of this story, we get a whole different picture. You know, it’s interesting. We get an end to when we’re about the lost sheep. They find the sheep. And the Bible says in that story, it says, and when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. And then He tells another story about a lost coin. You know what? They find the lost coin. And what happens there? Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin, which I had lost. And the same way, I’ll tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. That happens here, except by the father. And all of a sudden, the prodigal changes from the young boy to the older brother. He goes, who asked the first question in verse 1 of the chapter? Who makes the statement? It’s the religious rulers who pretty much said, how can this guy eat with these folks? How can He talk, give them any kind of dignity, respect? How can He do that to them? Doesn’t He know that’s sin in itself? Jesus is sitting there saying, even when one of these come, we’re rejoicing in heaven. This story really doesn’t end. And sometimes I wonder if it’s a picture of the church. I want to share a story that just bothers me to no end. It’s a true story. And the reason I know it is because it comes from one of my closest friends who’s a pastor. About a little over a year ago, he went to another church, another location. And he was going there. In fact, he was leaving the church he was leaving. And he was actually taking a drop of pay. And it was a smaller crowd. And he was going there. But he just felt God was leading him there. The Sunday before he gets there, they’re having the service. Interim pastor is preaching. And right before the interim pastor starts to preach, a lady in the church goes, pastor, can I ask a question? And he’s just kind of thinking, I guess. And she goes, I got a question about the budget. Why did they take this much money out? Who’s in charge of this? And she starts asking some questions. Well, the chairman of Deacons, who was her husband, wasn’t there. He was out. It’s a rural community. He was out chasing cows that had gotten out of his barn that day. And all of a sudden, he gets a phone call. And it’s from his wife, who’s in the church service. And he goes, hey, there’s someone here. You know, they’re accusing me and your daughter of stealing money from the church. Well, now, he gets mad. He gets in the truck. He’s heading back. You can imagine what’s going through his mind as he’s running back to just the middle of the church. Now, part of the problem, I’m thinking, Interim pastor could have stopped this woman. He could have just stopped it and just said, you know, it’s a valid question. But why don’t we wait until the end of the service to answer that? And then we’ll just take care of it then. Right now, let’s just kind of go on with worship. We can do that.

And now you’ve got fussing and fighting going on where the husband comes in. And he just got his normally. He was packing, which is hard for me to believe. But he had a gun. And they got nose to nose. And all of a sudden, this fight goes on. And all of a sudden, half the church leaves. This is the week before my buddy was going to get to the church. And part of the people that left were on the search committee. True story. I’m telling you, you can’t make this stuff up in ministry.

And so he went to them. And he said, “Wait a minute now. Time out. Do you believe that I’m God’s man for God’s church? It’s this place.” And they said, “Well, yeah, of course.” “Are you sure? I mean, I’m supposed to be here. And I’m supposed to help lead this church.” He goes, “Yeah, absolutely.” “And why are you leaving?” “Well, they’re still in the church. Going back today, leave.” He goes, “I don’t start till. I said, don’t come till next week.”

So he got there. And he’s working with them. And they’re just working through this. And it’s just depressing. So he says, “Look, we need to make rest. Let’s make some amends.” And so he tells them this. “You know what we did? We need to go and apologize. Whatever we did, we just say, hey, somebody’s got to drop the rope on one end. It’s so tight. Somebody’s got to. We’ll just go to their house.”

And these folks actually went out and knocked on doors. And when they answered, they go, “What are you doing here?” “I don’t know. I’m sorry for what I did. And we just want you to come. Would you come back?” “No, I ain’t coming back. I’ll tell you when I’ll come back. I’ll come back when you’re gone. I mean, when you die, I’ll just come back.”

Now, we wonder something. Times why people don’t want to come to church or get involved with the church or Christian community, and Jesus is sitting there saying until we got to come to a place where we love each other and we come together as family and rejoice when people come to Jesus, and when we love each other and rejoice. And I’m not saying that’s here. I’m just saying this is something how people sometimes view the church in general.

See, my thing is these these tax collectors are looking at this and they’re saying, “Can I get part of? Can I get into there?” And some folks are going, “No, no, no, they ain’t gonna happen.” Or we got people in our own family we’re kind of going, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.” And the deal is it all comes down to making it right with the Father. You can you make it right with the Father? Can you get this relationship right? You get this relationship right and you start to become more like Jesus, and you start rejoicing with each other and rejoicing when lost people come to Jesus. This relationship gets a whole lot better.

Twice in the shape Jesus shows us how to do it. He left heaven because He loves you. He left heaven because He loved everybody in your family and in your community, in your world that you live. He loves them that He left heaven in the throne room and everything that’s up there, and He becomes human like us because He loves us. He’s in there saying we need to become more like Jesus. When they see you act and love and speak, that’s what I want to be around.

Not so much about the young prodigal at the end as it is about the older prodigal who knows better. What is it this morning that we have to change? What is it this morning that we just need to say, you know what, I’m gonna drop the rope somewhere and I’m just gonna say, man, I love you, come on back, let’s go do let’s do whatever we need to do. I’m gonna serve with you. I’m gonna grow with you. I want to be more like Jesus. People in our families, people in our neighborhoods, guys put you there for a reason.

Let’s pray. Well, sometimes I don’t understand why we do what we do, but we sure are. Sometimes we can be more human than we think, even less like you know when we get things right with the Father, everything works out when we act.

More like the older son should have acted. Like you do things tend to work more out when we go into the world and we show you, boy, you make a difference, and you get to show us in the front. Then we have a party, and we have what it’s supposed to be. Then when you say, “Do you trust me?” it’s not, “Nope.” “Yes, Daddy, trust you, Lord. What do we need to do today, this morning, to trust you? Help us. We need to make the decision we need. Maybe there’s some folks here like the younger son, realize, ‘I just need to come to the Father.’ Maybe there’s some of us, maybe like the, like we’re the older brother, we just need to sit there and say, ‘Glad he’s home, glad the family’s back together.’ Whatever we need to do, help us to do it. Your Son’s name we pray. Amen.”

Donnie, we’re gonna close this morning with number 305, “I’ve Decided to Follow Jesus.” So if you stand, we’ll sing.

Something for me this week, every night this week or during the day, maybe you got some free time, just, just kind of bow your head a little bit. Don’t do it while you’re driving, but bow your head and just pray for Vacation Bible School, okay? Just lift it up, lift up Caroline and those that are running it, and the teachers, most importantly those kids, that they will see Jesus in a whole new light. That’s, that’s the big deal. And I’m going to pray in just a moment and close this out, but here’s what I want you to do when I’m done. I want you to look at someone next to you and just make this statement: “Thanks for being my brother in Christ,” or “Thanks for being my sister in Christ,” as we go out together as a family, okay? So let’s, we’ll do that. Let’s go to the Lord and pray.

Father, thank you, thank you for Vacation Bible School, Lord. I look forward to this week. What neat is it going to be? I know a lot of people put a lot of work. It’s going to be exhausting by the time we get to Friday with some tired people in Sauldam Baptist Church. That’s okay, good cause. Again, Father, help us to be what we need to be for you, that when people see us, we’ll see you, that we’ll see them, and Lord, if they, if we can kind of be used to kind of point them in your direction, that we’ll rejoice. So give us opportunities even this week to make a difference for you, and we ask this in the name above every name, the awesome name of Jesus. And all God’s people said, “Amen.” Okay.