This Man Receives Sinners - [Luke 15]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Who's your favorite storyteller?

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Who is your favorite storyteller? I'm sure there's a lot of different answers in this room, different names that have popped into your mind.

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For me as a kid, I loved Louis L 'Amour. Same plot line, same hero, same girl that he meets, but I just loved

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Louis L 'Amour. Some of you are more Tolkien fans, maybe the more sophisticated in the room, like Tolstoy.

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Or even the more sophisticated, maybe George Lucas. Everyone understands the power of stories.

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Sometimes stories are told for no reason, just for entertainment value, and you turn on the

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TV, sometimes there's no point. But oftentimes, and most of the time, stories are meant to communicate something.

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They're communicating a message, or a worldview, or a belief of the author.

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One storyteller said, the story from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding.

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There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.

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Another author said, stories are the most powerful form of human communication. And whoever popped into your mind when

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I asked that initial question, who's your favorite storyteller? One of my goals is that if you're asked that question later this afternoon, a different mind would pop into your head, and that's the

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Lord Jesus. We know Jesus is the Savior, we know He's the Judge, we know all these amazing truths about Jesus, and as you've been hearing week by week in Hebrews.

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But Jesus is an amazing storyteller. And I want to look at one story in Luke chapter 15, the prodigal son, to demonstrate this.

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And I have four questions today, four questions that I want to ask and answer about this story.

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The first question is this, who is telling the parable? Who is telling the parable? And of course,

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I just mentioned this, but this is a parable told by the Lord Jesus. And the book of Luke is written to put together an orderly account, something that's exact, something that has historical details brought in about Jesus, the

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Messiah, Jesus, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, to get you to believe and put your faith in Jesus.

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That's why the book of Luke was written. And the book of Luke starts with the birth of John the

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Baptist and Jesus, sort of parallel accounts, and then begins with Jesus' ministry, and Jesus announces that He's the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in His hometown of Nazareth, and then

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He goes and starts to establish His authority by doing all kinds of amazing things. He starts healing people,

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He starts casting out demons, He talks about the authority that He has to forgive sins. Throughout the book of Luke, Jesus is demonstrating

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He is the God become a man, the incarnate second person of the

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Trinity, who is the Messiah, the one who fulfills all the Old Testament prophecies. And everything

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Jesus does has to fit into the purpose of the book of Luke, which is to put together an orderly account so that you might know and be confident about who

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Jesus is. So, my first question is, who is Jesus, or who is telling the parable?

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And that's the Lord Jesus. And I'll tell you, I have four questions, and I know sometimes there's another preacher here that doesn't give you the amount of points so that he can just keep going, but I'll give you the four.

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I think I owe him a dollar or something. So my first question, who is telling the parable?

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The answer is Jesus. My second question is this, why is He telling the parable? Well, obviously, context is important.

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And in Luke 15, verse 1, you see the answer. Now, all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near to Him to listen to Him.

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Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

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Here we're given the reason why this parable is being told. And this is not the first time this has happened in Luke. In Luke, you've already had multiple encounters where the

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Pharisees and the scribes are the religious elite of their day are complaining that Jesus is spending time with sinners.

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They're complaining that Jesus is spending time with the outcasts of society. And these Pharisees, they are the religious conservatives of the day.

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They are, you know, they're the type, they believe in six day creation. They would stand on the inerrancy of scripture.

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Things that are not negative, things that are good things, but they were the keepers of God's kingdom.

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They viewed themselves as God's gift to mankind. But when

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Jesus comes down to earth, He doesn't spend all His time with them. He spends His time with the tax collectors and the worst of the worst, the dregs of society.

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Whoever you can think of, who's the worst person that you can think of in our society? That's the people that Jesus spends time with.

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And this offends the Pharisees. This makes them angry. So yet again, this is probably at least the third or fourth time in Luke when the tax, when the

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Pharisees are angry that Jesus is spending time with the tax collectors and the sinners. And he's already told them in chapter five that only the sick need a doctor, that the way that His kingdom is designed, that salvation is by grace means that Jesus is going to spend time with people who recognize

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God's grace. So my first question, who is telling the parable?

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The Lord Jesus. My second question, why is He telling the parable? It's because the

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Pharisees don't understand the kingdom of God. And really what this parable teaches us, what this passage teaches us is the basic principles about the kingdom of God.

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Who is fit for the kingdom? Who is fit for the kingdom of God? So let me read quickly, starting in Luke 15 verse one.

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Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near to him to listen to him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble saying, this man received sinners and eats with them.

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So he told them this parable saying, what man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it.

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When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep, which was lost.

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I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

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Or what woman, if she has 10 silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it.

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When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I have found the coin, which

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I had lost in the same way. I tell you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

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So these are the, these are two stories back to back, two parables that come before the parable of the prodigal son.

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And there's some similarities between these parables that I'm sure you can see. There's some connecting ideas and a lot of commentators talk about the fact that.

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The coin and the sheep and the son we're going to see are lost and then they're sought out and they're found.

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And then there's rejoicing. So there's this theme, lost, found, rejoice, lost, found, rejoice.

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And you see that in these first two stories, and I'm not going to, I'm not going to exposit these two parables, the first 10 verses.

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But you can see these principles lost, found, rejoice. And I think that brings us enough context to go into the parable.

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My third question, what is the parable? What is the parable itself? And this is where we're going to spend most of the time starting in verse 11.

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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 falls to me.

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So he divided his wealth between them. Now, what's happening here in our society, if somebody came and asked for their inheritance, that would be weird.

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That would be awkward. If I went to my dad and said, Hey, you know, I'd love to have my inheritance. Now, those cool things around the house, you know, can

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I take them back on the plane with me? It's just, it's just a weird thing to ask. You don't, you don't ask for your inheritance now.

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And this is not different in this Jewish society. This is not something that's normal thousands of years ago.

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This would have been just as awkward in that society. So when this son, this younger son, we see two sons here, but when this younger son asks for his inheritance, he's not asking some polite question saying,

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Oh, you know, would you just give me a bigger allowance? What this son is saying is

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I wish you were dead so I could have all your money. I wish you'd just die now because then at least

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I get the stuff. I don't really want to spend time with you. So at least I could have some cash that I could go and do the things that I want.

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This is not some normal thing. Sometimes when we read the Bible, we think, Oh, well maybe that's just some weird tradition they had back in those, those, that culture.

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But this is, this is just as awkward as it would be today. Probably even more offensive.

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This is, this is rebellion. This is the, this is another level of rebellion that you would say to your parents, even the most rebellious people

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I've met wouldn't tell their parents that they wish they were dead so they could have their money. And this is what this younger son is communicating to the father.

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Verse 13 and not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country.

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And there he squandered his estate with loose living. So what happened here?

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The father doesn't respond as most fathers would and say, you know, get out of my house. We don't know why, but for some reason, the father actually gives the inheritance to the son.

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And then verse 13 tells us what he does with it. He's not taking this inheritance so that he can invest in Bitcoin and whatever would be profitable today and give the money back to his dad because he doesn't think his dad's a wise supervisor.

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He doesn't have some secret, you know, good intention. The reason that he wants this money we see in verse 13 is that he can squander his estate with loose living.

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Later in the parable, we find out that there are prostitutes involved. This is the ancient equivalent of going to Vegas and blowing all your cash.

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The son says to his father, I wish you were dead so I could have all your money and do whatever I want with it so I can live it up.

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I can get drunk. I can sleep with as many women as possible. This is how deep and how far the younger son's rebellion goes.

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He has to figure out a way to gather everything together means he converts it into cash. He liquidates it.

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That's kind of the idea there in Greek. But he has to figure out a way to get money so that he can live the life that he wants to live.

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I think you also notice here as he went on a journey into a distant country. In this context, this this younger brother is a

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Jew and he's going into Gentile territory. We'll find out later in the parable.

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This is not some kind of, oh, I'm just going on a trip to Europe in this society. This this would have added to the rebellion that he leaves his

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Jewish homeland. He leaves his culture. He leaves God's chosen people to pursue his rebellion.

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He takes the money and he gets as far away from home, far away from his family as possible.

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So what is the result of this living? What does this lead to? Verse 14. Now, when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country and he began to be impoverished.

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So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods of the swine we're eating and no one was giving anything to him.

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He didn't save any of his money. He didn't reserve any of it. Sin makes you stupid. He goes and spends all of his money with no thought for the future.

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He didn't, you know, have a thousand dollar emergency fund saved from Dave Ramsey. He blows it all with no thought.

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He's enticed by the lust of his flesh and led astray. And this leads to rock bottom for this, for this younger brother.

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He is so poor that he hires himself out to one of the citizens of that country.

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And as I mentioned earlier, this is not just a different country. He's working abroad. He's an expat. He hires himself out to a

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Gentile, someone who's unclean, someone who's not part of the people of God.

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Not only is he just a Gentile, but he's a Gentile pig farmer. And remember, in Jewish society, is it okay to eat or associate with pigs?

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They're unclean animals. He's going, he's forced to associate with something that is religiously unclean for him.

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The consequences of his sin lead him so far that he has to feed swine in the fields.

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He hires himself out to a Gentile and he is feeding the swine. This, this to the

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Jewish audience, to the Pharisees and the tax collectors listening, they would have understood the weight of this rebellion.

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This is not, this is not minor rebellion. This is, I go back on everything that I previously was a part of, and it leads to these massive consequences.

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They would have been shocked by these conditions that he's living in. And not only is he working.

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Not only is he just an employee of the pig farmer, but he is so poor. His sin has led to so many consequences that he wishes he could eat the pods that the swine were eating.

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I help with a high school ministry at my church back in Los Angeles. And I always think this would be a good like youth game.

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Eat the carob pods. They're like these little purple pods of food and they don't really have any texture taste.

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And it's really just food fit only for pigs. And he wishes he could fill himself with the pods that the swine were eating and no one was giving anything to him.

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Sin, sin has consequences. And I think I've seen this in my life.

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Many of us have seen this in our lives, the consequences of pursuing the flesh. There's consequences for action.

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There's consequences for sin. But how does he respond?

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I, I, I've been working in downtown Los Angeles and go down on skid row sometimes and you see a lot of homeless people and there are some people that are homeless and are there because they don't have anybody.

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But there are a lot of homeless people as studies and reports have shown that they want to be there.

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They want to be homeless. They enjoy that life. They don't care really that they've hit rock bottom if they have. And I think oftentimes people are too prideful to go back to their families or their friends and ask for help.

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But how does he respond? How does this younger brother respond? When he sees his sin and he sees the consequences of his sin and he sees what happened when he turns his back on everything that the father had taught him and given him.

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How does he respond? Verse 17. 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.

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I will get up and go to my father and we'll say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

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I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men.

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So he got up and came to his father. This younger brother, he's not too prideful to go back.

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This is the first positive thing we see. The first positive thing this younger brother has done is he actually recognizes his sin and he recognizes and remembers the goodness of his father.

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He wants to go back to his father. This is the first thing that we would want to emulate in this parable.

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He comes to his senses. He remembers he hits rock bottom. The Greek word for repentance is to change your mind.

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He changes his mind about the position that he's in and he wants to return and go back to the father and look at his confession.

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Look at what look at his plan. He hashes a plan of what he wants to say to his father. He comes up with an idea.

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Here's what I'm going to say to my father to be accepted. My father's men, they have enough to eat.

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I'm starving and here's my plan. Here's what I'm going to say to my father. I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

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My sin is not just against you. My sin is vertical and it's horizontal. He doesn't make excuses for his sin.

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He doesn't try to say this is only the result of chemical imbalances or this is the result of the situation that I was brought up in and it led to these things in my life.

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He says this is my sin. Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

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He recognizes his sin. He sees I'm a sinner. I deserve justice. I'm not even worthy to be called your son.

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I've lost the position that I formerly had. Treat me as one of your hired servants.

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So he got up and came to his father and this is not explicitly in the text, but I kind of imagine this younger brother going back to his father and mumbling to himself his plan, remembering, remembering father,

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I've sinned against heaven in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. Father, I've sinned against heaven in your sight.

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No longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he's walking home, remembering the plan, the plan of what he's going to say to try to convince his father to let him back into the home.

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And he takes action and he goes back to his father. He got up and came to his father. Now, how do you think the father is going to respond?

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Many fathers here would receive their sons back. Surely, but so many times there's, there still has to be consequences for sin.

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There's supposed to be consequences for action. But how does the father respond? Keep reading in verse 20.

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But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.

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This is the idea. The father is waiting at the house ever since the son's been gone.

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The father is waiting, looking for his son to return. And every father knows the way that their son walks.

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They know the way that the physical movements of their children. And maybe he's looking over the horizon.

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Is that going to be my son? That's not his walk. That's not his gate.

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Is this going to be my son? Who is that coming over the horizon? And then one day the father looks up and he sees his son.

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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.

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It sounds almost like this is all one action. He sees him and he feels compassion for him.

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And he runs and embraces him and kisses him. The father runs out to the son to receive him.

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As soon as the son starts to return, just on the horizon of coming back into the household, the father runs to pursue.

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And just some more Middle Eastern context. This is an honor -shame society. These fathers are not supposed to run.

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They're not supposed to, you know, they have to pick up their little, they're not dresses, what are they called? Little skirt things and run.

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And it's shameful. They're supposed to strut and be dignified and walk around with composure.

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This is what the father does. But this father throws all of it to the wind as one pastor says, in a sense, despising the shame, runs to his son to greet him.

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He doesn't care about how he's going to look. He runs and pursues his son who's going to return.

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He's a long way off. The father runs out and the father feels compassion for him in his heart.

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Not resentment, compassion. And he embraces him and kissed him. The idea is he fell upon his neck.

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And this is not just an initial response. This is not, well, the son's back. So I love you. You're welcome back.

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And then let's talk about, you know, the five -step plan to get you fully restored. And the son,

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I'm sure, kind of unsure of how to respond to this, this, this gracious display from the father starts to repeat what he had planned to say.

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He, he, he takes his plan and puts it into action. Verse 21. And the son said to him, father,

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I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

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And he was going to say more. Remember, he's going to say, treat me as one of your hired servants.

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But in a way, he can't even finish. He can't even finish his confession. He can't even finish the, the, the plan that he had hatched to say, treat me as one of your hired servants, because the father has is interrupting him saying to his slaves quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him.

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A robe in this society. Many commentators talk about is a symbolizing status.

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The best robe was reserved for, for the person of honor in the household. And when he wants to say, father,

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I have no status. I am not worthy to be called your son. The father is interrupting saying, give him the best robe, the robe of status.

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And not only the robe, he says, he says, put a ring on his hand.

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This ring is the idea of authority, family authority. It would have been the authority in a sense of a son again, silencing the plan that he had, that he had hatched to be only a slave and not just a robe and not just a ring, but sandals on his feet.

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And many commentators talk about sandals symbolizing freedom because slaves weren't wearing sandals.

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Only the, the, the free men of the culture were wearing sandals. And so he wants to give this, this confession, which is good and, and, and honorable that he sinned against heaven in his sight.

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And he's no longer willing to be called your son, but we see the father's heart here that he gives him the best robe and puts it on him.

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He puts a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, status, authority, freedom given to the sinner.

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Not only that, he says, and let us, and bring the fattened calf, kill it and let us eat and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again.

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He was lost and has been found. That doesn't need much explanation.

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The father says, let's get the fattened calf reserved for the party. And let's take that and kill it for the son.

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My son has returned and they, and they begin to celebrate.

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It says, this is the, this is, this is really the opposite of what the son deserved.

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Even under old Testament law in Deuteronomy 21, if a son dishonored their parents, what would happen to them?

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They'd be stoned. It'd be a lot quieter sermon up here today because I wouldn't be here if he still did that.

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But that's, that's the consequences that are deserved. And the father in his lavish love receives the sinner back.

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And even if you haven't had your own personal story of rebellion outwardly, isn't this the story of all of us?

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Whether we grew up in this church and some people can testify to my depravity more than others. Maybe you could ask

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Mrs. Lievich, we could do a Q and a after, but no matter who we are, we're sinners and we need a savior.

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And this is the father. This is the response of God to us. Isn't that good news?

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Lost, found, rejoice, lost, found, rejoice, lost, found, rejoice.

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You can see the symmetry here in this passage. And this is so often where we stop when we think of the parable of the prodigal son.

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And yes, the son was lost. And yes, he was found. And yes, there's rejoicing, but not everybody's rejoicing.

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Keep reading in verse 25. Now his older son was in the field. And when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.

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And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. 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.

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The older son, he's out in the field. He's doing exactly what he should be doing. He's taking care of his father's investment of his father's property.

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He's right where he should be. And he starts to hear a party going on and he summons one of the servants.

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And I kind of wonder if maybe the servant, you know, the server was probably excited. He's like, okay, I get to be the one to tell the older brother, your younger brother's back.

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He was, it's like he was dead and he's been found and we've killed the fattened calf. The slave summarizes this good news.

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But what does this older brother do? Does he, does he join the party? But he became angry and was not willing to go in.

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And his father came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, look, for so many years,

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I have been serving or slaving for you. And I have never neglected a command of yours.

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And yet you have never given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.

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You can hear the anger and the resentment of this older son. And he distances himself from the family.

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You can see he doesn't, he doesn't call his father, father as, as the other people in the parable have done.

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He says, look, I've been slaving for you. And then when this son of yours, not my brother, but when this son of yours came, you killed the fattened calf for him.

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This older brother is so angry. He recounts the son and what the younger brother and what he's done and the, and the prostitutes.

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And he, he says, he, he's so self -righteous. He says, I've never neglected a command. I've been slaving for you.

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And I think it's interesting. You see here, the same Greek word for slaving.

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Is used when the father said, when this other son says, treat me as one of your hired slaves or servants, the younger brother who squandered his inheritance.

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He wants to come back to the father. And what does he say? I'm going to come back to the father and I'm going to be a slave.

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And the father cuts him off before he can try to become a slave, before he can try to enter an arrangement with the father, where he can better himself, where he can clean himself up, where he can earn the status that he had lost.

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And the older brother is thinking this the whole time. I am maintaining the status that I have by what

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I'm doing. I've never neglected a command. Both of these sons struggle with the same heart problem that so many of us struggle with.

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Just a legal view of God that we relate to God based on our performance and what we do.

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Because everything else in life is based on performance. Whether it be sales goals.

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If you don't understand the law, sales goals are helpful. Sales goals or human relationships or test taking what you put in, you get out.

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But this is not how the kingdom of God works. And the father shows the younger son that, and he wants to show the older son that here.

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And you even see the father is so amazing here because even to this legalistic son. Imagine if one of your sons said, like, you know, you come and you're basically,

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I'm dumping the trash. And so I like, can I still be a son this week? Since I did all these chores. It's just like, well, it's just a weird question.

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It's a weird attitude to have towards your father. But even the father here, he responds so graciously, even to this legalism.

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And he said to him, son, you have always been with me. And all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live and was lost and has been found.

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Verse 31, the son, he's always been with him. He has everything by virtue of him being a son.

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He didn't need a slave for it. You've always had everything because you're my son. We relate to God based on who we are in Christ, not the things that we do.

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But the Pharisees don't understand that. So fourth question, what is the purpose of the parable?

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Why is Jesus telling this parable? And on the face of it,

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Jesus is telling the parable because the Pharisees don't know how to rejoice that the sinners are repenting.

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The Pharisees, they're angry, they're mad. They're just like the older brother. They all are the older brother in the story.

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They don't understand how the kingdom of God works. And so when they see grace extended to sinners, they become angry and jealous.

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And so I think it applies that we can ask ourselves, what do we do when we see the grace of God?

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How do we respond when the dregs of society, if they were to walk into the back door of the church, maybe a transgender person, whatever the worst you can think of,

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I think that has an application. But really what Jesus is really trying to teach here, the purpose of this parable is this, who is fit for the kingdom of God?

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It is those who recognize their sin and put their faith and hope in Jesus Christ.

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They recognize the goodness of God and return and trust in him. And even though in this parable, it's almost a little softer, it's like, well, the

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Pharisees, you could argue if you were just looking at this parable are still sons, but they don't know how to rejoice yet because it says at the end, son, all that is mine is yours.

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But in Luke 14, the people who were invited to the banquet and another parable of Jesus that don't come, the people who are self -righteous, they will not eat at the banquet.

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The message of Jesus is, if you are trusting in your own righteousness, if you're trusting in your own performance, you're trusting in anything about yourself, if you have any confidence in your flesh and not in the gospel of Jesus Christ, there's no hope for you.

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Yes, he's trying to teach us how to rejoice. Yes, he's trying to teach us how to rejoice when the grace of God is displayed to sinners.

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But really Jesus is teaching us. He's showing us the kingdom of God that Jesus, God incarnate,

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God, the son takes on humanity, lives a perfect life on this earth, dies on the cross and comes back from the dead on the third day, the risen savior.

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And he accomplishes it all for us as our representative. Jesus was born in a manger, lived a perfect life under the law.

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Everything that I've done, everything that I've done that's sinful and evil,

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Jesus accomplished perfectly. He perfectly obeyed his parents. He perfectly worked hard as a carpenter.

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He perfectly worshiped God in the temple. Jesus did everything perfectly his entire life and he did it for each one of us as our representative so that God can receive us when we come to him, recognize our sin, recognize the goodness of God and put our faith in his promises.

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He can receive us and it will give us every spiritual blessing in Christ. That's the good news of the gospel and that's what

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Jesus is trying to communicate to you here. So, I know we've been going through Hebrews week by week talking about the character of Jesus.

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Are you a Pharisee? If you were to die and stand before God right now, what would you point to for acceptance with God?

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It's not the status. It's not the attendance of a Bible teaching church. It's not the belief in the tenets of Christianity or the morality and ethics of Christianity that saves, that justifies.

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It's faith alone in Jesus Christ. It's to receive him as the number one way saving faith is described in the

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New Testament. To rest on Jesus Christ, to lean on him, to roll onto him and his heart towards us is freely welcome.

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Or maybe you're here today and for some reason you're here and you're a prodigal. And even if you think that the things of this life will satisfy you now or if you got more of them, they would satisfy you.

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You will eventually, by God's grace, be led to the carob pods of this world.

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And you also need to come home and trust in Jesus. And then this teaches us about, for us

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Christians here today, we don't stand before God based on our righteousness. For all of us struggling in our sanctification in the last week, we think of our sins, we come into church and we feel guilty.

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We should feel guilty, but we should own our guilt and bring it to the cross. And the father's heart towards us is as soon as we return full forgiveness, full acceptance with God.

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And that's good news too. If we're in trials, if we're suffering, if we don't know how long we're going to be on this earth, there's good news because God accepts us in Jesus Christ.

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And there's no way that anyone here trusting in Jesus Christ could be more accepted by God.

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The Pharisees complained, they said, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

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The good news today is the same thing. This man receives sinners and eats with them.

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Let's pray. Dear heavenly father,

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I just thank you so much for this morning and for the truth of your word, that even though everything in us, our flesh and Satan and the world is telling us that you are mean spirited and you only have rules and laws for us, but your word tells us something different, that you are a gracious father, that you didn't spare your own son for us, but you delivered him up.

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And so you're going to give us every good thing. Father, I thank you so much that we have a message of forgiveness in Christ.

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I think it'd be impossible to come up and preach a message other than that, because we all know that we're sinners and we need your son.

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So I thank you for that. I thank you for this church. I pray that each one of us would be more confident in our standing before you.

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And that would just drive us to want to serve you, to want to tell this message to others, to want to live holy lives that are pleasing to you.

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We want that father. So by the power of your Holy spirit, help us and sanctify us and give us opportunities this week where we can proclaim this good news and that we would remember who you are.

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Thank you so much, father, for all that you've done for us in Jesus name, amen. or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.