“Coming Home to God’s Grace”
Luke 15:11-32
Introduction:
Have you ever had one of those days were your kids are driving you beyond sanity. My daughter Megan is a very strong willed child. She is also very intelligent, and what is worse is the fact that she knows it. She is always pushing the very edges of her boundaries. She carefully considers our words and like a lawyer finds every loop hole to justify her actions. After about what seemed like the fifth time of asking her to clean her room and telling her it had to be done today, she says to me. When does the day end daddy, don’t I have until midnight. Does that mean I get to stay up late tonight and watch TV as long as I get my room clean?
I remember one day towering over her, just steaming with anger as it seemed all week long she was getting into trouble, pushing those boundaries. I had dished out every punishment I could think of, all to no effect. What could I do to this little girl to get her listen to me and obey? After all, what I really wanted was to protect her from harm and help her to grow up to be a good person.
And so I did the only thing I could do for someone who just kept messing up, who continued to fail, to disappoint me at every turn. I held Megan in my arms and said; “Megan, Megan, Megan; whatever am I going to do with you.” She replied, “I’m sorry daddy, Are you going to spank me again daddy, because I did bad.” “No Megan, I said; I’m going to give you grace.”
I held her tightly and let the anger melt into love for this little wayward girl.
A good parent places boundaries and sets up rules for their children because they love them and want to protect them from harm. A good parent disciplines their children in an effort to mold their lives to be better people. And a good parent extends grace when that child breaks that last straw.
Grace is unmerited favor, it is that love that is poured out to a child that deserves punishment.
Today we are going to continue talking about spirituality. More specifically how the acceptance of God’s grace allows us to have a deep walk with our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Turn with me to Luke 15:11ff as we look at the lives of two brothers and their response to their father’s grace.
I. Saved by Grace
A. Running Away from God
(Read Luke 15:11-16)
-The younger son got a third of the farm and the older son got two-thirds of the farm as was the custom.
-The younger son had wasted his inheritance on “wild living.”
-The famine made employment and food hard to get.
-So he hired himself out to a pig farmer, for the Jew the pig was an unclean animal and to even consider raising pigs was detestable in their eyes.
-The pods from the seeds of the carob tree were commonly used for pig food.
*Growing up as a kid in Kolona, Iowa we would feed the pigs while an Amish family babysitted us. My brother Matt and I would sneak over to the pigs and feed bucket after bucket of corn to the pigs. We figured as long as they kept eating, they must still be hungry. I remember trying some of that dry nasty corn and spitting it out. I told my brother, “Boy Matt, we need to get some more corn those pigs must really be hungry if they like eating this nasty stuff.”
B. Coming to our Senses
(Read Luke 15:17-20a)
-literally; “he came to himself”; he repented of his ways, he took a look at his life and didn’t like what he saw and was determined to make a change.
-v20 You know what; it not only talked about making a change, but he got up and did it.
*I meet so many people who say, I want to start coming to church, or I’ll be there Sunday; or Mike, I want to change my ways, I want to get rid of these bad habits, yet they give you every excuse in the book as to why they never change.
-Sometimes God has to take us down to rock bottom, before we will even look up and listen, or come to our senses.
-And so the young man went home to face his father, to take his lumps, to face the music. Time to eat some humble pie.
-Think how hard it is to swallow your pride, how hard it is for us to admit when we are wrong?
-But that is exactly what this young man did. He knew he had no right to return as the father’s son after wasting what his father gave him.
-He had been a poor steward of not only his wealth, but of his life as well.
C. The Road Home
(Read Luke 15:20b-24)
-I imagine every day this father looked out wishing, shedding tears for his lost son.
-The father didn’t great his son with, What are you doing back?, or it’s about time you got your act together, or so you come groveling back, no, there was not a single, “I told you so!” involved.
*Parenting is a hard job, especially when you have a prodigal son or daughter. I have talked with so many young people who want to fess-up, they want to come clean with their parents, yet they are scared to death the response they will get. It is hard to admit when your wrong or have messed up, especially when you are expecting that the person your baring your soul to is just waiting for a pound of flesh.
-Imagine that young man’s expectations of getting chewed out, only to be greeted by a father who loves him and welcomes him home with a party.
-You know that young man was truly sorry for what he had done, you know that he was truly ready to make a change in his life because he had dared to come home. Just think of the emotions that welled up in this young man as he stood ready to take his punishment and his father ran to him and embraced him.
-But dad, I messed up!, that’s okay son I still love you.
-But dad, I wasted all you gave me!, I will take care of you and provide for you.
-But dad, I don’t deserve to be your son!, I have restored you, you are my child.
-Folks that is what Grace is!!!!
II. Living by Grace
A. At Home but not all there
-Do you resent the new guys in the church, with their strange ways and new ideas?
-Do you feel like this is your church and they are outsiders invading your space?
-Do you resent the special treatment they get, the extra attention they get, the changes and money that is being spent to make them feel at home?
-Let us look at Luke 15:1-2 to see were this attitude comes from.
(Read Luke 15:1-2)
-Let’s face the truth, we all are sinners, yet when we hear that pronouncement we tend to wince a little or flinch.
-Why? Because we too have been victims of the Pharisees, we have been slapped in the face so many times with our own iniquities that we have become soured on religion or wonder if God’s grace is truly enough to save us.
*I have worked with children that have been constantly told that they are stupid by their parents, to the point that they believe it to be a permanent condition that rules their lives. They won’t believe that if they study and work hard at school that their grades will improve, because they are “stupid”.
-Maybe you have bought into the lie or been brow beaten so much as to believe that you are less then nothing, and that there is no way God can redeem or even truly love you.
-So often when we read the story of the prodigal son, we forget about the older son, and the fact that he was lost as well.
(Read Luke 15:25-30)
-It is interesting that the attitude of the older son is just what we would have expected from the father.
-Some how we feel that we must earn our father’s love.
*I remember growing up how I worked so hard to be that straight ‘A’ student to the point that if I didn’t make those grades or be that success then my parents would stop loving me. I think a lot of young people feel that way, whether about grades, sports, or extra-ciricular activities. Sometimes we, in our quest for the fountain of youth, try to relive our lives through our children. And whether we realize it or not our love becomes dependant upon their performance and not who they are.
B. All I have is already yours
(Read Luke 15:31-32)
-The older son withholds grace from his brother, because he himself has not realized the grace that his father has extended to him.
-For the older son, performance was the only way to earn his father’s love, at least so he believed.
*You and I both know that an adoption is not something we earn; it’s something we receive. To be adopted into a family is not a feat one achieves, but rather a gift one accepts. The parents are the active ones. Adoption agencies don’t train children to recruit parents; they seek parents to adopt children. The parents make the call and fill out the papers and endure the interviews and pay the fee and wait the wait. Can you imagine prospective parents saying, "We’d like to adopt Johnny, but first we want to know a few things. Does he have a house to live in? Does he have money for tuition? Does he have a ride to school every morning and clothes to wear every day? Can he prepare his own meals and mend his own clothes?" No agency would stand for such talk. Its representative would lift her hand and say, "Wait a minute. You don’t understand. You don’t adopt Johnny because of what he has; you adopt him because of what he needs. He needs a home." The same is true with God. He doesn’t adopt us because of what we have. He doesn’t give us his name because of our wit or wallet or good attitude....Think carefully about this. If we can’t earn our adoption by our stellar performance, can we lose it through our poor performance?
-The truth was that the older son’s father loved him irregardless of his actions.
-This grace does not give us a license to sin.
-It is more about the motive then the action. Someone who truly loves God will naturally want to show that love through action and obedience, but they will still continue to mess up. However, they will also know that God loves them and will forgive them.
*Just as my two youngest girls keep peeing on the floor, I and my wife keep cleaning up the messes hoping that one day they will be potty trained. They don’t do it on purpose, sometimes they just can’t help it, they get distracted or forget. They really want to be big girls and so they continue to try and as a good parent I bare with them, as they grow to maturity.
III. An Invitation to be at Home with the Father
-God invites us all to come home. To accept his grace and live life in that grace.
A. Grace is visible when you appreciate what you have.
-We can’t appreciate our walk with God and grow spiritually until we accept his grace.
-You may be a Christian, but you have not allowed God’s grace to reign in your life.
-You may still be living in guilt or trying to earn your way to heaven.
-That kind of attitude keeps you from walking with God.
*On military exercises I spent days in the mud, sleeping on the rock hard ground, taking quick wash cloth baths in icy cold water. But when I got home, boy, the wife never looked so good, the hot shower was such a blessing, and my old mattress was simply paradise.
“Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.” Ecc. 5:10
-Be content with what God is given you and you will see His grace in your life.
B. Grace is visible when we take time to enjoy life.
-The older son was too busy working with his father to spend time with his father.
-Learn to enjoy life with your family; being a Christian is fun.
-But don’t leave God out of your fun and if Jesus wouldn’t enjoy what your doing, then maybe your having the wrong kind of fun.
-God wants us to enjoy what he has created, to enjoy richly the life he has given, not to just sit on the couch waiting to die. I am not talking about wild living, but about simply living the life God gives you.
-As a Christian you shouldn’t be living on pins and needles waiting for the next time God slaps your hand.
-People don’t realize the fun and fulfillment that comes when we serve God through our lives by serving others.
C. Grace is visible when we extend it to others
-We see God’s grace in action when we extend that grace that God has given toward others.
-God is just waiting to open the flood gates into this church. Are you ready?
-We are going to see a lot of strange people come to Park Church of Christ with a lot of strange ideas. Some of those people will be a little rough around the edges. Some of those people may experience God a little different from the way we are use to. They may raise their hands or shout praise God, all Biblical. They may do things a bit different.
-The question is are you willing to give them the grace it takes to win them to the Lord or will you be like the older brother, like the Pharisees.
-In order to teach the truth of scripture and reach a right understanding of God’s Word, we must first learn to love and become a friend, then they will listen to what we have to say. We must not compromise God’s Word to win the lost, but extend grace and forgiveness as they come to understand His truth.
For some of us we don’t have a close relationship with God, because we are too busy trying to earn our sonship. And others of us don’t even give God a chance, because we don’t feel worthy of his love or too afraid to come to grips with they way in which we are living our lives. If we want a close walk with God we have to come to our senses and return home to him. We have to be willing to accept his grace, then undeserved kindness and forgiveness that God extends to those who would be his children.
We will grow spiritually in our walk with Christ as we learn to except and give grace, God’s undeserved kindness.
