Alright, well good morning. It’s good to be with you. I told Rebecca we’d get an update hopefully by the end of the service on what happened to Gage and I’ll let you know and we’ll just continue to pray and think about him. I want to say a couple things before we get into the Word this morning. I don’t know if you saw the newsletter, but I always put the tithe and offering at the bottom there. Our tithe and offering, it just keeps going up and up and up. And I thought, I really have been thinking for months, man, we still rely on some people outside who are giving to us. And I asked Rebecca and she said, no, we’re not. There’s like one person that gives, but that’s it. And it’s not a ton. So thank you for giving and giving and giving. The Lord takes what may seem small and He blesses it. And I’ll say over the last year since I got here last October. Every time I was worried about money, the Lord would just drop money out of the sky, almost literally. And so just thank you for being obedient and giving to so much more than, you know, it is our church, but it’s the kingdom of God. And so thank you for being faithful and I’m grateful we’re building a church where we live with open hands and we see how God’s blessing that and sustaining us. So the other thing is, I said last week, I was going to talk about vision this week, but I had one of those weeks. They’re called Topsy-Turvy weeks, I think that’s what you call them. And so I’m actually next week, we’re going to talk about the budget and just some stuff for the future. So if you came excited for that, sorry, we’re not going to do that this morning. It’s not as exciting anyways, but numbers, they can be exciting. So we’re going to be in Luke’s gospel.
We’re going to be in Luke’s gospel. Luke’s gospel in the 15th chapter.
You turn with me to Luke’s gospel in the 15th chapter, verses 11 to verse 32.
Luke chapter 15, 11 to 32.
And Jesus said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of my 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 and reckless living. And 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 pause.
But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
I’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 standing, he said, I’m 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’m 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 and bring a ring and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf. Kill it and let us eat and celebrate.
For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. Now 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. Your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and he refused to go in. And his father came out and entreated him. But he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you and I have 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 had devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. And he said to him, My son, you were always with me and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad. For this your brother was dead and is alive.
He was lost and is found. Many, many years ago I read a book entitled The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. And I just walked into the bookstore. You can still walk into a bookstore. And I read this book.
And I’ve always loved it. And he says in his book, After reading the entire Gospel of Luke for the first time, a Post Valley girl said, Wow, like Jesus has this totally intense thing for ragamuffins. And he goes on to say, The beauty of the ragamuffin gospel lies in the insight it offers into Jesus. The essential tenderness of his heart, his way of looking at the world, his mode of relating to you and me. If you really want to understand a man, don’t just listen to what he says, but watch what he does.
And you know, ragamuffin means a person, usually a child who’s clothed in dirty old clothes. It’s just kind of something of a wandering soul. Just a very poor, without person. And you know, our stories in this room and every story of every Christian is different. Some of us have grown up. We grew up in Christian homes and kind of came to remember a time when we didn’t believe in Jesus. Some of us, we didn’t come to Christ until much later in life. Some of us maybe have much different stories and we were way off the deep end for a long time and it’s a miracle we’re alive, much less in Jesus. So all of our stories are different, but they all have this common thing. We are all in one way or another at some point in our life. We are a ragamuffin in our souls before God. We’re all dirty, wandering children with no place. And I want us to see in what is probably Jesus’ most famous parable, what does Jesus do? If it’s true that you know a man not just by what he says, but what he does, what has Jesus done in our ragamuffin wandering? That’s what I want us to see from this parable.
So it would be strange in any culture, but certainly in the Middle Eastern culture in which this story is happening, for a son to get his inheritance for his father dies. You just don’t do that. But this father, even especially as young as he is, it would have been strange for him to divvy out the inheritance of the older and the younger son. But this younger son, he demands it. He really wants it. And even though his inheritance would have been half or even a third of his older brothers, he’s got to have it now. Now he has everything good he could ever want in life with his father, and with his family present. But that’s not what he wants.
He demands to lead his own life his own way.
And so with all this freedom now that he has, and all this power in his wallet, he sets out for a distant, it says far, even it is a strange country. And in this strange country, he leads a strange life. A life that doesn’t look anything like the life his father had raised him from. To live, nor would his father approve of. This son wholeheartedly throws himself into a hedonistic, pleasure-filled extravaganza of doing whatever he wants, going whatever he wants, spending his money on whatever he wants. That’s why you get the popular title for this parable, the prodigal son. Prodigal just means reckless. It means wasteful. He just wasted everything good and valuable that his father had given him. And he had wasted it on temporal passing pleasure. Jesus makes it apparent he was not a man of moderation. It wasn’t like he just decided not to go to church sometimes. This man went all out in his pleasure-seeking. He spent everything.
But after squandering his wealth, squandering his father’s prosperity, squandering what his father had given, he finds himself staring face-to-face with a world he thought, could give him everything he wanted and needed. He found himself looking at a world that didn’t carry anything for him. And not only could the world not give him anything, here is the harsh reality that this son came to. The world that he thought he loved, really the only thing it could do was take from him. He’s gone from being a prodigal to a ragamuffin.
And it says that a severe famine comes over this land. Now, this would have been, really like, whoa, an R-rated movie to a Jew to hear. Because you know what Jesus says is that this man’s in a Gentile country and now he’s got to get a Gentile master. And what does this Gentile master tell this guy to do in the parable? Hey, you’ve got to take care of the pigs. And you know, pigs, they were ceremonially unclean. The law said you can’t touch the carcass of a pig. And so here he is, up shouldering with the pigs, taking care of him. And even if he wasn’t a Jew, taking care of a pig in this time period, was the most degrading thing you could have done. More than that, he’s so hungry, the famine’s so bad, and his master’s so heartless, he can’t even come across food that’s half as good as what the pigs are eating. It says nobody gave him anything. He wants to eat these pods. Something like a bean. It was a carrot of a pod. And it was just this bean almost. It was a commoner’s food. And he’s longing to eat just the most common food that these pigs are eating. He is at the bottom of the bottom. He is without.
So I think the first thing that Jesus is very clear to us about this morning is this. In our wandering, in our ragamuffin wandering, it must become apparent and plain to us, the world is not enough. The world is not enough. The greatest lie the world can tell you and I is this. It has something better to offer than what God has to offer. Which really, if you expose the lie, here’s what’s true. The world can’t offer you something better than what God has to offer you. It can’t even offer you something comparable to what God offers you. It can’t offer you even a cheap imitation. The world can only do this at the end of it all. Take. That’s what the world does. Whatever power you would get, whatever prestige you could get, let me tell you, somebody else somewhere is going to eventually discover they think somebody else is sharper than you and somebody’s got better ideas than you and they’re going to follow them. And by the way, power and prestige is no substitute for the humble servitude that Christ showed us in truly loving and knowing another person. Whatever sexual fantasies you could hope to make a reality for yourself, let me say those are passing and their pleasure is fleeting and it’s not even half as good as what God ordained sex to be in the context of a marriage where you truly love and know someone. All of that goes away. And all the money you could have, if you had all the money in the world and you could buy everything that you wanted, it would eventually rot and rust or get stolen or you know more likely in our 21st century context you’d get bored with it and some marketeer in internet land would say hey no, this is the next best thing that’s going to make you happy and you ought to spend your money and all you have on it. It’ll bring you elation. It’s all a lie. In other words, worldliness is this. Worldliness is the selfish, sinful exploitation of whatever good thing exists in God’s world. It is a connection to everything and everyone in a way that God never intended that produces a false happiness
that’s ever hollow and ever fading. David Wells, he wrote a book called God in the Wasteland and he says this about worldliness. He says worldliness is Pyrrhic. And Pyrrhic means this. It means you got what you wanted but it came at a cost. A cost so high it wasn’t worth it. It’s a reference to a battle in history. You won the battle but it cost you so many lives. It cost you so many resources and you’re winning. You lost. And that’s exactly, friends, what worldliness is. It goes away in one way or another and if it doesn’t go away, you know what happens? You go away. And you go six feet under. The world wasn’t created to satisfy you and you weren’t created to be satisfied by the world. In your exploiting of it, it will exploit and ruin you.
Now, it doesn’t mean things are bad. Everything’s bad. I can’t touch anything. I can’t own anything. I can’t know. Everything’s bad. It doesn’t mean that. But here’s what it does mean. And this is important for you now as Christians to always keep, you know, working in our minds. We are not autonomous creatures. That’s what we want so bad. And David Wells talks about this in his book. We’re not autonomous creatures. We want autonomy. The problem is as sinful people in our autonomy, we don’t know how to, to interact with God’s good world in the way that pleases Him. So all we know how to do is abuse it. But in its abusing, it also abuses us back. It never satisfies. It always leaves us very, very empty. If you remember last week, we talked about Isaiah. And remember the prophet Isaiah? He had this horrible task given to him by God. He had to go and preach to God’s people and nobody was going to listen. Here’s your minute. This ministry, nobody’s going to listen. And remember, we looked at some of those passages and Isaiah made it very clear that you people are going to go into exile. And then that job, unfortunately, it fell to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah had to prophesy to the people while they were in exile. And he says, hey, you know why you’re here, don’t you? Because you didn’t obey God. You didn’t love God. You love the world. You love the things of the world. And he makes it very, very clear. I want you to see it in Jeremiah 2, verse 4. Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob and all the clans of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, what wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and went after worthlessness? And look, here it is. They went after worthlessness and in the process became worthless. Down in verse 11, has a nation changed its gods even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that. Which does not profit? God says, be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate, declares the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They had everything, but they gave it up for nothing. For nothing.
I think the inference you and I have to make is this, and I think John Owen says it best, I think I’ve quoted it before, you be killing sin or sin will be killing you. Friend, if you don’t resist the worldliness that is pulling at your soul, you know what? It’s going to have its way with you and it’s going to draw you away and kill you. I do believe a point of no return is possible. I think it’s possible, and in our modern context, I think we’re surprised, so blinded as we don’t take care about it. I think it’s possible to love the world so much, to get so comfortable here, that Jesus and God and church and heaven and hell, you just can’t hear those things anymore. You know, as much as you may believe in eternal security, if I’m in Christ and Christ is going to hold on to me, He says He’s with me to the end, never do the Scriptures say to you, eternal security in Christ is a reason for carelessness in Christ. You try to shut up, show me that. The Bible is just as clear, as much as it’s true, Christ will hold on to you. Friend, you must believe it says to you, watch out, be on guard, be alert, guard your heart, guard your mind. If you don’t, the Bible’s clear, you will be dragged away.
Paul says, what fruit were you getting at that time? When you were free from righteousness, what fruit did you get at that time? He says it only led to death.
Worldliness.
Worldliness.
It’s the promise of everything, but it is the delivery of nothing. I had a teacher that used to say, sin tastes good in your mouth, but it’ll sour in your belly. You know, and it’s true, and I think the opposite’s true. Godliness, sometimes it tastes a little bitter, but it produces the fruit of eternal life.
A 17th century clergyman once wrote, The world is now a greater enemy to the Christian than it was in apostolic times. It’s a greater enemy because it has greater power over the Christian by its favors, its riches, its honors, its rewards, and protection than it had by the fire and fury of its persecutors.
It is a more dangerous enemy. By having lost its appearance of enmity, its outward profession of Christianity makes it no longer considered as an enemy, and therefore the people are easily persuaded to resign themselves up to be governed and directed by it. Or in the words of John Wesley, anything that calls my love for Christ is the world.
Now, as I so often wish I could do, let me give you 10,000 rules about how to properly engage the world and we’ll all be square. It’s really difficult to do, right? I think there’s a tick in me. I always say, let’s just go live like Amish people and we’ll just live off the grid and we’ll be simple. But I don’t know that that honors the Lord. But I do want to say this, and I think I say it sometimes. We’ve got to be thinking Christians always, but certainly in the 21st century. You and I live in a time of unparalleled comfort. We live in a time of unparalleled, just quality of life is so high. And those things aren’t innately bad, but you know when you have so much comfort and so much ease in life all the time, you know what it does?
It comforts your soul at the same time and your soul starts to change what it really loves and what it really wants to live for. It makes you kind of languid. Like, I just want to stay here in my lazy boy. Oh, this lazy boy, it’s heated too, by the way. And I can see the world on my TV screen. And again, I’m not saying there’s not time for rest. I’m simply saying to you as wise Christians, be careful. The comforts of the world may end up being the very thing you live for.
I’m not an anti-technology person. But I think you would be foolish to argue with me that technology doesn’t present some very real dangers for us as Christians in terms of worldliness. I have this imaginary conversation with the Apostle Paul sometimes. That’s weird, but I do it. I wonder what it would be like if I said to the Apostle Paul, hey, Paul, I’ve got this square piece of glass in my pocket, okay? And I can tell this piece of glass, this mirror, if you will, show me literally anything I want to see. Tell me anything I want to know no matter where I am on the face of the earth and it will do it. I wonder if Paul would say, oh, wow, that’s incredible. You should leverage that for the gospel. You know, people say things like that. Or I wonder if Paul would say, that’s really dangerous. I don’t know that you should have that thing in your pocket. And if you think I’m being some kind of kook about it, you know what I’m hearing more and more all the time? I’m hearing more and more stories about innocent parents that love the Lord and they are the ones that thought, oh, I never thought, I never thought that would happen to me. But they discover their very, very young children are getting exposed to hardcore pornography that they never thought they would see and it’s drastically changing and affecting those children. That’s not a rare story. That’s becoming commonplace. So I’m saying to you, worldliness, if you’re not guarding your head and your heart, it’s going to get you. And I don’t mean like the boogeyman is going to get you, so be scared. We have power in Christ. We have wisdom in the Spirit. So exercise those things so we keep ourselves, a holy people before the Lord. Your sinful inclination to autonomy is your greatest enemy. Don’t desire to be autonomous. Desire to live in the accountability of the local church. Desire to be open and exposed so that you don’t create these little corners where you live and nobody else can see them. It’s just the kind of life we have to live. We really want to fight for holiness. Holiness.
You know, a ragamuffin wandering,
I want you to consider something else with me. So this son, he comes to his senses, it says. And for the first time in his life, the son sees not just how poor his situation is. I think a lot of people see that. He recognizes for the first time how poor the state of his soul was.
It’s more than just recognizing he had done something wrong. He realizes he himself was wrong. One commentator notes, this is a Hebrew Aramaic expression for repented. This refers not only to a mental process that causes him to think more clearly about his situation, but also to a moral renewal involving repentance. And you can see the genuineness of his repentance in this. He says, I’m going to tell my dad first I’ve sinned against God. And that’s authentic repentance is when we see firstly our sin against God. Not someone else. He sees his sins against the divine Creator. He broke God’s law. So the son has this big, beautiful speech you know, planed out, right? And he’s got this big, beautiful speech and he’s going to make his case to his dad and hopefully his dad’s going to pity him. You know, not as a blood relative, but hopefully as just some kind of lowly servant.
But the last thing that the son could have expected happens.
The son discovers a father who had long been hoping to discover his son. And we know it because Jesus said the father was looking a long way off and he saw him and he had compassion. His heart broke. He had pity. He loved the son in the moment. You wonder how many times that father peered out his front door and looked a long way off to see if his son was coming home. And then you know what the father does? He throws off the social norms of ancient Middle Easternism. And he says, and keeping his propriety and his dignity. And he runs. He runs to his son down the road. Now again, this is appalling to a Jew listening to this story. Jesus is throwing out everything. And he runs. And it says that he embraces him, but the English translation there, it’s not that helpful. The Greek word is epipipto. Come here, Chase.
When I see Chase, usually Chase and I do this. We’ll do something like this. And you know what that means? That means, hey, man, I care about you and I’m glad to see you. But you know what epipipto means? It means he did a free fall on his son’s neck. That’s what it means. It means he ran up to his son and he threw his arms around his neck and he buried his face in his shoulders and he kissed him. This means I love you and I don’t want to let you go. It means I’m going to hold on to you forever. However, the father got his son back and this is true, Deepa.
That’s the difference.
And I want to say to you this morning, how often do we have such a very limited so-so view of the love of God when He’s running down the street and He’s ready to fall on our neck and He’s ready to hug us and kiss us and we’re just wondering, I hope this God will just put up with me. Maybe He’ll just let me clean His shoes. That’s not what happens. That’s not what happens at all. So, friends, we must know in our wondering the world is not enough, but we must know secondly, the love and compassion of the Father is more than enough. It’s more than enough. We’re reminded in Jesus’ parable that the love of God runs so much deeper than we can know. And you know, I said, and it’s true, Jeremiah had to say to the people, hey, all you people, you know why you’re in this horrible situation? Because you messed up and you sinned and you loved the world and this is why you’re here. But the same God says to the same people through the same prophet in Jeremiah 31, verse 18, I have heard Ephraim grieving. And Ephraim is just another way to talk about Israel. I have heard Ephraim grieving. And this is what Israel says to God. You’ve disciplined me. And I was disciplined like an untrained, bring me back that I may be restored for you are the Lord my God. For after I had turned away, I relented and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh. I was ashamed and I was confounded because I bore the disgrace of my youth.
And here’s what God says back in verse 20. Is Ephraim my dear son? Here’s what God would say about those wicked people. Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak, I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore, my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.
Friends, however lavish the Father is in this parable, oh, how the love of God runs so much deeper for us. And you know how we know it? Because we see the cross of Christ and we see that God slaughtered the perfect Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. The cross of Christ is the proof of proofs that God loves us and has compassion for sinners and His love and His grace and His goodness. It is more than enough. In the place of our self-induced slavery, He raises us up not to be gatekeepers,
but to be sons, to be daughters, not just in His home, but to have a place at His table right next to Him. You want to sit right next to Him? You want to be Your Father because He’s calling for you. He’s longing for you to do it this morning.
When we come to God with true contrition and true repentance, God cannot help but forgive fully and restore fully. And I want to make it clear, this is not a story about an enabler. This is not a story about a dad who says to his son, hey, you keep screwing up and you keep wasting everything and I’ll just pretend you’re not doing it and I’ll just keep giving you more money when you’re out. That’s not what the story’s about. The story’s about a father who loves to restore when the son is truly repentant. That’s what it’s about. It’s about God saying to us, when you turn to my son Jesus and you see in my son Jesus alone freedom, when you see in my son Jesus sonship alone, oh, how I’ll embrace you when you come through Christ alone, when you truly come to me alone. When Peter preached at Pentecost, it says in verse 37 in Acts chapter 2, now when they had heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles and hear the strain in their voice, brothers, what shall we do? What shall we do? And Peter says, repent. It’s the only thing to do.
And God has run to us. When we were a long way off, God ran to us. You know how He ran to us? He sent Jesus to be in our midst and to tell us about a Father who loves us. Who would love us so much that He would give up His perfect, pure, precious son Jesus to die. The psalmist says in Psalm chapter 16 verse 5, the Lord is my chosen portion in my cup. You hold my lot. And I love this in verse 6. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance because of what God did.
The xanthophobia, is the fear of the color yellow.
Turrophobia, is the fear of cheese.
Hylophobia, is the fear of trees.
Omphophobia, is the fear of belly buttons.
And ombrophobia, is the fear of rain.
And I found one, papaphobia, is the fear of the Pope. And there was another one about fear of clowns. Clowns may be a legitimate fear. But what our fear, phobias, phobias are irrational fears, aren’t they?
It induces you to live in what is a false reality. And let me say to you, friends, I think so often as believers, we choose to live in this phobia that God could change. That somehow the God who is the God of this passage who runs us, what if He changes? What if I sin too much? What if this? What if that? And friends, what we need to do is let this passage break through all of our fears, all the walls that we, we build up. And remember, God does not change. God is unendingly and deeply a God who loves us. And we can’t fathom that. And God doesn’t even ask you to fathom it. He just asks you to believe it and live in the joy of it like the sun coming home.
I fear we may think in this room, you know, this parable, it’s good news for that sinner. You know, he grew up in an unchristian home and he heard the gospel and he got saved. That’s good news for him. But could God really still have a robe and a ring for me? Because I’ve been a Christian for a while. And I think there’s other Christians out there. They’re doing it better. And I’ve had different sin struggles and different seasons. And I don’t know. God’s probably wore out on me. But don’t do that. You know what the Bible teaches? It teaches if you come to Christ alone, Christ will own you. Christ will love you. If you come with true contrition, true repentance, John says, Jesus Christ the righteous stands as the propitiation of your sins. He stands as your advocate. That wasn’t a one-time thing. Those aren’t credits that you can run up. That’s not a one-time thing. That’s not a one-time thing. When we come in repentance and we lead a lifestyle of repentance, friend, let me always say to you, the Father will always take you back in and He’s going to sit you right next to Himself.
Repentance. That is the hallmark of true salvation. It’s a proof you don’t want to place at the world’s table only with Christ and with His Father. Are we leading lifestyles of repentance? It’s not a one-time thing. It’s a life. It’s a life.
Lastly, I want us to consider this.
In our wondering if we’re convinced that the world is not enough and the love of God is more than enough for us, here’s the third thing we’re going to have to believe. And it’s this. The love of God is more than enough for anyone. For anyone.
You know, this older brother comes home. And there’s a party going on. And he’s probably wondering, uh-oh, it’s for me. Right? He’s got to be wondering, why else would a party be going on? But he comes in and goes to the servant. He’s like, what’s all the noise about? What’s going on? And the servant says, oh, your brother’s back. Your father, it says, received him. And the word means recovered him. Like, he’s recovered him. He’s gotten back. He was lost and he’s back. And the older brother is disgusted by the father’s rejoicing. He’s disgusted by the father’s rejoicing. of this, isn’t he? He took the black sheep back in. And the reason the older brother, the reason he gives for being angry is really strange, isn’t it? Because the brother says in his response, you know, I did all this stuff for you and I did this and I did this. So I transactionally did all this good stuff for you, so you should love me back. The brother has no clue about the nature of true love because the nature of true love is undeserved. The nature of true love is it chooses to love though it doesn’t have to. The older brother has no idea about love. He thought he could earn love by working hard enough for it. And he goes on to compare, right? I’ve done all this and that other brother, that son of yours, he’s spent it all on prostitutes. And he really doesn’t compare. He damns his brother. He does not deserve. I do deserve. So you see what the older brother has missed. He hasn’t just missed the depth of the love of the Father. He’s also missed its width.
Let me say to us this morning, and I believe that this third point is one of the hardest things in the Christian life to really believe and get yourself around, and it’s this. If we have yet to see the sins of our brothers and sisters in the cross of Christ, we have yet to see the cross at all.
If we have yet to see the sins of our enemies in the cross of Christ, we have yet to see the cross at all. The love of God is not just deep for you. It goes deep and wide for all people, especially the unlovable, unworthy ones. And you know what? If we love the love of God, we’re going to love people, especially the people who are difficult to love, who have messed up a thousand times, and we’re going to rejoice when we hear they’ve turned back. We’re going to rejoice, and long before they do, we’re going to be praying that they do come back. It’s a great poison, pride is, to assert yourself over someone else and think for some reason there’s some quality in you. Why? Oh, just why you deserve to know God. Oh, just why they couldn’t do it. Oh, just why that couldn’t be real. Friends, that’s the Pharisees. The Pharisees says, look at us, look how we’ve earned it, look how we’ve kept it. And Jesus says, y’all don’t even know nothing about God. You don’t know nothing about love. Friends, that’s the poison of the Pharisees to scoff at a ragamuffin coming home. Because here’s the reality. Dead is dead. Right? Dead is dead. You don’t go to a funeral and such and such. We’re here and there somewhat dead. Dead is dead. Friends, we were all spiritually dead, but I want you to see what Peter says. Peter says in 1 Peter 4, verse 6, For this is why the gospel was preached, even to those who were dead, though judged in the flesh the way people are, we all die in the body, yet the gospel was preached that they might live in the Spirit the way God does. We’re all dead in the flesh, but the gospel was preached so we all might live in the Spirit the way God does.
The only response is, wow, God called in someone else. And I’m chief of sinners. How amazing. God’s still in the business of saving people. Friend, lower yourself down. In your lowering, you’ll be lifted up. But in your raising up of yourself, you’ll be cast down. That’s what will happen.
The poison of self-righteousness goes beyond infecting who we think should be in the family of God, and it goes on into how we treat others who are already in the family of God. Let me tell you something. Your closest Christian friends, the people in this room, very likely are going to sin. Surprise, surprise. Surprise. That sin, very likely it’s going to hurt you. Someone in this room may fall into some great egregious sin for a season. Are you going to be the brother who says, hi, look at you? Or are you going to be the father that says, hey, just repent. Come back. Come back. God’s love is that great. It’s that deep. It’s that wide.
I don’t listen to hip-hop. I can’t even dance.
At all. When Jessica’s prom, oh, she knows it. I went to Jessica’s prom with her, and they’re out there dancing. She tries to talk me into going to dance out there, and I’m just like, oh, this is awful. I don’t even know what to do with myself. I don’t have any funk in my body. But you’ve probably, you know, you’ve kept up with, you know, the story about Kanye West. And if you don’t know who Kanye West is, he’s a superstar rap artist and top of the world, right? On top of the world. And he’s made a profession of faith in the last few months. And he’s, having these services, and people are showing up, and they’re singing songs about Jesus. And he has a solid pastor come and preach the actual gospel. And you know what my first inclination is? It’s to go, mmm, mmm. He’s just trying to get more money. He’s just having a little experience, and he’s going to get over it, and he’s going to go back. You know, how wicked is that of me? Like, I need to repent of that. You know who’s worse than Kanye West? The Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul. And Paul says, I’m achieving sinners, right? And what do you think it was like? Ananias, when God came to Ananias, he says, hey, I want you to go to the street called Straight, and in the house of a man named Judas, there’s going to be Paul. He’s like, that Paul? That Paul. And Ananias goes and puts his hands on him. He says, brother, Saul, receive your sight.
God does that kind of radical stuff. And you know what? He doesn’t do it around the kind of people who doubt it. I don’t want to do that. I want to live like God’s grace and love are that radical. Don’t you? I want to pray like that for those kind of people. I want to evangelize. I want to evangelize that kind of way. I want to hope that way. God isn’t a God of the so-so love. He does so much more than we can imagine. We believe it, and we’re excited about how God will call in the worst of sinners. Friends, I need humility. I need to remember my lowest state. This Gospel message, it’s good news for me, the chief of sinners. And that’s the kind of church we must be and become by God’s grace.
Friends, it doesn’t mean we pass over sin.
But it means we love to tell people about how the Lord Jesus Christ has already dealt with their sin. How there’s hope. How there’s forgiveness. How there’s life for anyone who will come to Christ alone and find freedom and find sonship.
Friends, in our ragamuffin wandering,
it must be apparent the world’s not enough.
God’s grace is more than enough. And it’s more than enough for anyone. And you know what’s happening if we believe those things and are wondering? It means we’ve heard the call of Jesus to follow Him, and we are. Because following Jesus is living in God’s grace. Following Jesus is walking away from the world. Following Jesus means I can truly love my enemy. Following Jesus means I’ve experienced and I want to live in and I want to show this radical, generous love of the Son and of the Father. That’s what we’ve got to be convinced of if we’re going to be a church. That’s what providence must be about.
This gospel covers our ragamuffin wardrobe with the robe and the ring of heaven. And it is truly God’s amazing grace. It’s God’s amazing grace.
Father, this morning we…
We just live in the shadows of who You are. And Lord, what we need is just the rush of Your Spirit to fill our hearts and our minds with the grace of God that is only seen and known in Christ. Lord, that we would live in the power of the cross that’s already set us free from our sin, that’s already clothed us in our shame, that’s equipped us to live holy lives, that’s equipped us to help others know this Christ. Lord, we just want Your glory to fall down. We want to know You. We want to know the power of Your resurrection. We don’t want to just be Christians. We don’t want to just play religion. We want to know Jesus. We want to follow Jesus. God, I’m just praying You would work that in our hearts. Work that in our lives.
Lord, I pray for us this morning, those of us who have been believers for so long who think, oh, my relationship with God’s stale and God’s putting up with me. Oh, would You just remind us of how You’re just running towards us and You just desire to restore us. We can’t wear out Your patience. We can’t wear out Your grace.
Oh, God, I just pray for just a revival in our heart. I pray for just a revival in our church, a revival in our times about what it means to know Jesus.
So, Lord, we just want to worship You.
We’ll just celebrate not who we are or what we’ve done, but just who You are and what You’ve done. What You’ve done alone.
Just pray that in Jesus’ name. Amen.