Two Ways To Be Lost, One Way To Be Found

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0:02God's grace is amazing if you all are enjoying God's grace today and wanting to praise God for his grace even more in order for grace to really be amazing we need to talk about lostness we need to talk about being lost needing to be found so show of hands who here has gotten lost before I think everybody has I don't see every hand so I guess you're just you know not ready to admit it But depending on what's happening, getting lost can merely be frustrating or it can be downright terrifying.

0:41I think we can all agree that something even worse than being lost is being lost and not knowing it. Then you're really in trouble. In high school, I drove down for the, my mom gave me permission for the first time to drive down to South Carolina and visit my dad in Greenville, South Carolina. i had been on this route a whole bunch of times so i knew what i was doing or so i thought i set off down the road and of course this is way before everybody has gps and smartphones and everything i head on down the road i'd been on the route a lot of times i it's easy really you get on 85 and you just keep on going and next thing you know you're you're you're there you're Greenville. So this was the first time by myself, and when I got to the start of 85, I missed it.

1:38I kept going on 95. Now, if you've driven both of these two routes before, you know how different the scenery is, right? On 85, when you go south of Richmond, south of Petersburg, it's very wooded, right? Pine trees shooting up either side of you for a long time. On 95, it opens up pretty quickly, and its fields around you for a long time, but I was blaring my music. I was drunk with the teenage freedom of being able to do something by myself. Not literally drunk, I hope you know what I mean. But I was drunk in my spirit on the freedom, blaring music, and I didn't notice anything. I just kept on trucking. I didn't know I was lost, and I thought I was going the right direction. But every mile down the road, if you think of the geography there, every mile down the road, the gap was getting wider between where I was and the route that I needed to be on. And I was in teenage bliss, ignorance, singing to the top of my lungs, the gap's getting wider and wider. I was lost and I didn't know it. Today's passage has important, amazing truths about us and about God. And the main thing here for us is about the different ways that we can get lost. So you need to pay attention to the Word and let the Spirit diagnose you. Bring things to the surface about how you tend to get lost and how you need to be found.

3:23Because there's lots of ways to be lost, but there's only one way to be found, right? for everyone. So turn with me to Luke 15. You probably know this parable. It's a wonderful passage, and I'm delighted to be in it with you guys this morning. This is God's word for us, his holy, powerful, perfect word. Let's come to it expectantly with lots of faith that he's going to work among us and in us. I'm going to read verses 1 and 2 and then skip to verse 11. That's what the bulletin has as well. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And he said, there was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father. Father, give me the share of the property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property in reckless living.

4:43And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country. who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. And no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father.

5:19And I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him.

5:56Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and he is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate.

6:15Now, his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look these many years I have served you and I never disobeyed your command yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends but when this son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes you killed the fattened calf for him and he said to him son you are always with me and all that is mine is yours.

7:25It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. Pray with me. Lord God, crack open our hearts. Find the places, the hard places where we need the softening grace that you have to give. Help us to see and to come to you in new ways today. Or maybe it's the same ways that we struggle with, Lord, but regardless, bring us to you. Life is found only in you. Call us away from ourselves and towards you and help us to find our true selves as we rest in you.

8:16Jesus, we love you, we depend on you, and we know that even now you are working by your spirit. Do that work today, and we pray this, Jesus, in your name. Two ways to be lost, one way to be found. This passage tells us that both the rebels and the respectable need to receive the Father's grace. Both the rebels and the respectable. Each of the three characters in this parable are important. I don't know about you, but my Bible has here the parable of the prodigal son as the heading.

8:57Now you know right that those headings are added by editors. Those are not original words from the manuscripts. And in this case, I think it's a bit misleading because all three characters are important in this parable. So we're going to look at them. Let's start with the two lost brothers. So two lost brothers. The younger brother is lost, but not just when he's in the far country. Now it starts before that. It starts at the very beginning of the story.

9:29father give me the share of property that is coming to me now in our day and time this would be outrageously insulting basically like saying dad i wish you were dead but this was not actually unheard of in the ancient near east there actually were rules in jewish communities about how a father would do this very thing the problem was not asking for his inheritance the problem was the heart behind it within days he gathered his things and left he runs away from home he wants to do his own thing he's tired of following somebody else he's tired of somebody else's rules somebody else's expectations he wants liberation he trusts himself and he disregards his father that's the younger brother he trusts himself i i've got this dad i don't i don't want you or need you anymore except to ask for his money now that is in all of us if we're being honest we want the stuff that god can give us but we don't want the relationship sometimes lord have mercy we want his blessings his gifts but not his wisdom not his guidance now away from home he indulges every desire he's ever had like we all probably would if we were in this these shoes every impulse anything he's ever wanted to do anything he's ever held back from he did it soon the money is gone a famine comes and he takes a job feeding pigs for jews you may know this pigs were ceremonially unclean swine herding was the most disgraceful job possible for a Jew. It's the lowest of the low. No Jew would accept that job unless he is, he absolutely had no other choice. But it gets even worse because he gets so hungry, he daydreams

11:47about being one of those pigs. Getting down and eating what they're eating. He can't get any lower. The people listening to Jesus are shocked as they hear this. His self-reliance, his disregard of a father it has led to his downfall in every way there's no possible lower point that he can get to now here's the here's the curveball it is easy to see that the younger brother is lost but the real shock of the parable is that the older brother is lost too he has been home this whole time but when his little brother comes back something that's been hidden inside of him comes out. He's angry. He's so angry that he won't go in.

12:46He won't even greet his brother. He won't even call him his brother. Did you see that? This son of yours. And then he gives the father peace of his mind. Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command. Now that sentence is revealing. He sees the party and he can only think, well, what about me? Look at how good I've been. I've been serving you. Slaving for you is another way to translate that. Aren't you going to honor me for that? Where's my honor? Where's my celebration? Why do you think I was doing everything I was doing, Dad? This is another young man who trusts in himself. He trusts his clean living, his obedience. He sees himself as the perfect son, deserving some reward.

13:53And look how quickly he accuses the father when he's given a chance. His words turn to venom so quickly. You never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. Now, this may be the saddest part of the whole story, the older brother's words to the father. He's saying, Dad, you've been holding out on me this whole time. The entire time he's been home, the older brother has not been relating to his father as a father, but as some kind of horrible boss, as a stingy tyrant. That's been the relationship in the older brother's mind the whole time. He's been living like a slave, obeying so he can earn something and bitter when he doesn't think that he's gotten what he deserves. He's resentful. Now, his father is aghast at this.

15:03He might have thought, son, is this how you really feel? Perhaps through tears, he reminds his son of the truth. Son, you were always with me, and all that is mine is yours. Being at home with the father is an incredible gift, but it didn't mean anything to the older son he had a relationship he had access he could have asked the father any day for what he wanted or needed but instead he kept silent and he felt like i can earn it instead i can just work hard enough and earn it i don't need to ask for it i want to earn it just like the younger brother the older brother has relied on himself and disregarded the father they're the same self-reliant and disregarding the father, just in different ways. And it's led the older brother to a different type of downfall, right? He's not feeding pigs, but he is self-absorbed. He's bitter about everything.

16:16He's scorning the one that is standing out there pleading with him. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a phrase in the Fellowship of the Ring. You might have seen this on a bumper sticker sometime. it says not all who wander are lost well this parable in this parable jesus offers us a parallel truth not all who stay are found not all who stay are found that's why this parable is so important these two brothers show us two very different ways to be lost the immoral way to be lost and the moral way to be lost. We get lost searching for fulfillment by gratifying our desires and following our impulses. And we get lost by trying to clean up our own behavior, trying to get good enough, where we finally, on our own merits, can walk into the Father's presence and say, God, now accept me. Where's my party? Two ways to be lost. Both are saying, God, I don't really need you. I'm good on my own. Now, here's why this is so important, because the moral way to be lost happens a lot to quote-unquote religious people. That's why Jesus is telling this parable to Pharisees. That's why I put verses 1 and 2 in your bulletin, and that's why we read it. We got to keep in mind this, all of these parables are being told to the Pharisees because they grumbled about grace towards sinners. I don't know if you noticed this, but when you compare it to the lost sheep and the lost coin there's no older brother in those parables. This whole thing has been a setup for Jesus to look right at the Pharisees and say you're lost too and he's looking at us today. If you have these tendencies in yourself

18:32to boast in yourself to create your own self-righteousness Jesus is looking you in the eye, and he's saying, that's lostness too. When you know how God says to live and then begin doing it, it can become so easy to be convinced that your own works have earned God's approval. It happens all the time. The moral version of lostness is dangerous because it's subtle. It's respectable. We are often blind to it, and we often get praised for it. That's what the Pharisees, that's what was happening to them. People love, they love the greetings that they were getting. And their lostness just gets worse and worse. They get more and more convinced. Yeah, I did it. I did it. I thank you that I'm not like other people. A performance mentality will always be revealed eventually. Now, sometimes it shows up when life gets really hard. And we think that thought, it's similar to what the older brother said out loud to the father. We think something like, when life gets hard, we think something like this, God, how could you do this to me when I've done so much for you? But it really shows up in how we treat other people.

20:04This quiet sense of superiority, this never-ending critical spirit, this defensiveness when criticism comes our way what type of behavior what category of sin would you be bothered to see god forgive okay i want you to think about that what type of what particular type of sin do you think is so heinous that if you saw god forgive it you would be appalled you'd be revolted you'd almost be offended i want you to picture a person like that at the party the center of the party robe on his or her back ring on his or her finger sandals on their feet being celebrated and embraced by the father because they have repented now that resentful frustrated feeling inside you as you imagine that that's the part of you that still believes that it's your goodness compared to that other person's goodness that makes you acceptable to God. That's the part to zero in on with the Spirit and say, Lord, help me.

21:22Help me, Lord, right now. Drive that away. Well, here's the good news, is that both of these lost brothers have one gracious Father. Let's look at what the Father does for them, okay? Because he is here among us right now working, okay? The first thing is this, the gracious Father goes out. He goes out. Verse 20, as the younger brother nears home, the father sees him, and he has compassion. Not anger, not frustration, compassion. He's been looking for his son. He's been scanning the horizon every day, and he finally sees him, and then he takes off like a shot. Now this would be undignified for a patriarch of a family to do this. He would have had to take all of his big robes and tuck them in so that he could take off running but he doesn't care he doesn't care about appearances or protocol he just cares for his son who's come home finally and the father also goes out to the older son goes out to him too verse 28 the party has begun but someone he loves is not there. So he goes out. He leaves the party to go and speak to him. Now, we talked last week about how God is the seeker of the lost. I hope you're still amazed by this. He goes out for the rebels who live foolishly, who want nothing to do with him, who only indulge themselves and wind up in really bad situations. And he goes out for the respectable, who try to be perfect, who are entitled and resentful who are full of themselves. Hallelujah, indeed. He goes out for both the rebels and the respectable. He goes out because he knows that both types of people are exhausted. Rebelling

23:44is exhausting because the world never fills us, never nourishes us, never strengthens us. It uses us and spits us out. But trying to be good enough to earn God's approval is also exhausting. Anybody here ever felt that? It's exhausting to try to earn your own righteousness. The list is never finished. There's always more to do. You look back and the things that you did, you didn't do all that well. That's what living under the law does. It exhausts us.

24:17the father is calling us come out from under the law come live by grace receive what i have to offer you and this is what he does the father restores he restores in this world we find that our that our our past and our wrongdoing they are hard to escape when i was a teenager sometimes my friends we would whisper about if you did something really bad, it would go on your permanent record. We didn't know what that record was, where it was kept, who wrote it down, but we felt pretty sure it was there. And we didn't want anything on our permanent record. Did you hear about so-and-so? That's going to go on his permanent record. But listen, God's forgiveness is different. It means restoration. It means that record is why it's clean. Look at this. The younger son knows that he's blown it, right? He's prepared to plead with his father to not just be a hired servant, not to be household staff, certainly not to be a son, but merely make me a day laborer. Can I just come in and do some things and get some money and then leave but the father's like no no that's not good enough verse 22 he gives him a robe the robe is a symbol of honor it covers over his shame he gives him a ring the ring indicates authority i've got a role in the household now the father's given it to me and the sandals convey wealth. Only members of the household would wear sandals on their feet. He was so hungry, he didn't know where his food was coming from. He doesn't have to wonder anymore where his next meal is coming from. He's going to be provided for.

26:35He has been completely restored. Completely. He's not a second class citizen on the estate. He's back. He's a son again. hallelujah meanwhile the older brother he is still lost the father wants him to come to his senses just like the the younger brother did he wants him to come inside and live differently now you'll notice that jesus leaves the parable unfinished he doesn't say what happens to the older brother he does this because he wants all of us to reflect on these things. Whether you're a Christian or not, I want to offer you three ways to respond to this parable. Three ways, whether you are a believer in Christ or not. Three ways to respond to this parable. The first one is this, examine your heart. Examine your heart. Author and teacher Jen Wilkin wrote this, if we focus on our actions without addressing our hearts, we may end up merely as better behaved lovers of self. A Pharisee, in other words.

28:00If we focus on our actions without addressing our hearts, we may end up merely as better behaved lovers of self. If you just look at your outward actions, you can get to the point where you're thinking, I think I'm actually doing pretty good about God's laws and about his commandments. Plenty of times my outward behavior looks pretty good to me, but my motives are bad. When the Spirit shows us our hearts, we see the muck and we can only respond like the younger brother did. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. He know he didn't deserve anything. He has no claim. He has no bargaining chip. He saw the truth and he admitted it. I'm lost. When I was trucking down the road, thought I was on the way to see my dad, but getting further and further away with every mile.

28:57I did eventually realize I was lost. It finally sunk in. Wait a minute. This is not where I should be. But I wasn't found yet. I had to pull off the road. I had to find a gas station. I had to get change and find a pay phone, I had to call my dad. And I had to admit to him the truth. I'm lost. I don't even know where I am. And over the phone, he said, well, tell me what it looks like. He could figure out where I was. And he said, this is what you do to get back on track.

29:40I had to call. I had to stop. It wasn't just that I realized I was lost. I had to go to my dad and say will you help me bring me home god is always ready to take that call always ready to take that call this is the bedrock the foundation of our life with christ our relationship with him repentance from sin and faith in christ we don't ever leave that repentance from sin and faith in Christ, repentance from sin and faith in Christ. It's the foundation. And from that point forward, we need to relate to God as a father. Now, let me ask you, how do you relate to God?

30:28Are you like the younger son sometimes, before he was found, that is? Do you keep your distance, living on your own, wanting the blessing from God, but not the relationship. Be honest. Do you view God as an ATM? I don't know about you, I don't have a relationship with an ATM. I just ask it for money. Or maybe you're like the older son, thinking that God owes you something because, you know what, you've just been working so hard.

31:07Is God a stingy boss to you? A tyrant? Maybe like me, you have younger brother moments and older brother moments. It just depends on the day. You're all over the map. God wants a relationship with us, one in which we joyfully depend on him like a child does towards his father. That's why the father puts the robe and the ring and the sandals on the younger son, and that's why he tells the older, son, you're always with me. All that I have is yours.

31:44the father's love is not earned it is freely given and it's freely received we need to relate to him as a father not as a boss not as an atm now the last one is this watch your reaction to others this is this is where the rubber meets the road sometimes remember this is what happened to the older brother he didn't know what was going on with him the father might not have known what was going on with him. Nobody in the household knew that the older brother was living this way until the younger brother came home and a party started. That's when this all comes to the surface. Teddy Roosevelt said, comparison is the thief of joy. And that's right. The older brother is not happy. How you respond when other people receive God's grace is very telling. When you get jealous or angry because someone gets the praise you think you deserve, or when someone gets the forgiveness that you think they don't deserve, pay attention. It's a moment to pay attention to. Take that as the spirit revealing your heart to you. And you know what you do at that point? You go back to the first application point. Examine your heart. Relate to God as a father. Then pay attention to how you respond to others. When you see it again, go back. This happened to me literally this week.

33:20I was in a group and someone was saying something and somebody else in the group gave them a really meaningful compliment but it was a compliment that I really wanted my immediate thought this is this is the truth my immediate thought was you think he's that way what about me I was the older brother right then somebody else is getting celebrated and I'm like what if you think he if you think he's like that why don't you get a load of me i knew it was i i i saw it and i was like what oh man and i i that was a right there that that was a moment to just repent of that ask god to put me back in a place where i was relating to him as a father i mean all of this happen in a moment but if we constantly ignore those things or when we worse when we entertain them and we tell ourselves that we're right we go on a bad path but God wants us to take another path when we see those things pay attention to them just come back in to the father that's all it takes come back to the father and say I did it again I was trying to boast in myself I got jealous, bitter. Lord, remind me that I'm yours. I'm always with you and all that you have is mine. I don't have to worry about that. When we're resting in what God has done, we celebrate more and we compare less. And I don't know about you, but that sounds like freedom to me.

35:16We celebrate more and we compare less. We see grace and we think, you know what, that's what I receive two. Hallelujah that you got it. Living by grace frees us to welcome in found people because we know that we're just like them. It frees us to join the party that God is throwing for everyone who comes to him. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the work that you've done, for speaking this parable, for revealing our hearts to us. Lord, we all have times in which we want to be like the older brother, and we live like the older brother, content in ourselves, boasting in ourselves, and Lord, there are times that we wander away like the younger brother.

36:09Would you lead us to repent of both types of lostness and come back to you as our Father? Jesus, we thank you that it's because of your work that you have made us, by faith alone, you've made us adopted children, with a robe on our back, a ring on our finger, and sandals on our feet. Lord, we boast and we rejoice in your salvation, in your grace, and we ask for grace to be multiplied in our hearts as we walk by faith and relate to you as our Father.

36:49Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen.