Luke 15:11-32 • I Don't Deserve This

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

Well, I have loved this service.
Have you?
All these different voices and nationalities.
Did you love Indian music in our sanctuary?
I thought:  This is that little taste of heaven where you get every tribe, language, people, and nation participating in the worship of God.
This has been very special as we're thinking about this month of equipping ourselves for sharing the gospel with other people.
Now, to do that, we also want to think about that gospel from the perspective of scripture, so I'm going to ask that you look in your bibles at Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 15.
Here is one of the most loved parables of Jesus in the Bible, where a young man asked for his father's estate too soon and spends it too fast and still receives the love of his father.
Let's stand and we'll remind ourselves these words from Jesus.
I'm going to pick up right at verse 20 where the young man has come to his senses, and he's returning to his father's house.
Luke 15:20, speaking of the young man it says, "And he arose and came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let's 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," that is the servant, "said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.'
But he," that is the older brother, "was angry and refused to go in.
His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!'
And he," that is the father, "said to him, 'Son, you are 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.'"
Let's pray together.
>>> Father, thank You for the mercy of the gospel that teaches that those who have been in a far place can come home.
And those who sometimes do not appreciate the home still have a father who goes to them.
This is what You promise in Your Word and have made available through Jesus Christ.
Teach us of His grace this day.
Fill our tanks that we might fountain the grace You intend for us and this world.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
So, if I ask you what drives you crazy, what would you say?
The person who takes two parking spaces in the crowded lot?
[Laughter]
The person who leaves the dirty dishes in the office kitchen sink?
The person who squeezes the toothpaste from the middle?
[Laughter]
Is that too personal?
[Laughter]
The person who leaves their clothes on the bedroom floor?
Uh oh.
[Laughter]
Or, just to be a little more distant:  the neighbor whose dog always barks at midnight every night?
What makes you bang your head against the wall and want to spit?
[Laughter]
Different question:  What drives Jesus crazy?
Not that He's going to bang His head or spit.
I mean, Jesus doesn't vent that way.
You know what Jesus does when He vents?
He tells parables.
[Laughter]
One after another after another on the very same subject.
I mean, do you recognize in Luke 15 we get three parables on the same subject?
Lost things being found.
And you're supposed to celebrate at the end.
A lost sheep who, even though there's 99 safe in the fold, the shepherd goes after the lost one, and when he brings it back, he celebrates; a woman who's lost a coin and sweeps the whole house looking for it, and when she finds it, she celebrates; and then a lost son who, even though the father still has an older brother at home, when the lost son comes back, the father celebrates.
Jesus says it over and over again.
The point should be plain:  When the lost are found, we ought to celebrate.
Why does He keep telling that parable over and over again in one form or another?
Well, it's obvious from the very beginning of the chapter, verses 1 and 2.
"Now the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to hear him," that is Jesus.
"And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them.'"
Now, the scribes are the Sunday School lesson writers of the day, right?
They're writing down all the good stuff that you're supposed to follow.
And the Pharisees are the one who don't just write it down:  They do it.
These are the good people.
These are the ones in Sunday School every week.
They get the badges.
And Jesus isn't spending time with them.
He's spending time with sinners; that's really kind of dressed up English language for who's being described here.
This is the prostitutes and the drug addicts of the day.
These are the street scum.
And even worse, with the tax collectors.
These are Jews who are actually in the employ of Roman oppressors, taking tribute for the Romans from their own people and, by the way, skimming off a little bit for themselves at the same time.
Jesus is spending time with the scum and the skimmers and telling them the kingdom of God is for them.
And the good people of the church are kind of taking offense.
They are grumbling.
Now, wait a second:  They're in trouble, those street people, because of their own bad choices, their own decisions; they don't deserve the message of the kingdom of God.
And what causes Jesus to keep repeating the parables?
To vent a little bit of His struss--, frustrations to say, "Wait a second:  Who're we talking about here?
They don't deserve it?
You actually don't understand the kingdom until what every single one of you says is, 'I don't deserve it.'"
And these parables of Jesus, particularly the one of the lost son, is trying to help us understand that we can't fountain the grace of the message of the kingdom of God where God has made a way for people who don't deserve it until our own tanks are filled up with the message of grace, so that it just fountains from us.
And the way in which He helps us understand that message of grace is just, again, explaining to us:  What does grace mean?
Well, first, it simply means God provides love and forgiveness to those who do not deserve it.
Now, what's making that message plain in this account is just what happens in the life of the young man.
First, this younger brother provides deep insult to his father.
Do you remember what happens?
The young man goes to his father and says, "I'm ready for my share of the estate."
Now, what that in essence means is he is saying to his father, "I know that according to the laws of primogeniture in the land at that time that my older brother's supposed to get two-thirds of the estate; I'm supposed to get one-third:  I want my stuff now."
Now, maybe we understand that a little bit, but you must understand the depth of that push.
"I wish you were dead now," is the essence of what the younger brother is saying to his father.
"I want my stuff.
I want my room, my phone, my car, and my space."
Which means:  not you.
"I want my stuff, and I'm gone.
I'm outta here."
And all of that has to be not only deeply insulting but deeply hurtful.
"I don't care if it hurts, I want my stuff now."
And the notion that it does not matter to the younger brother here that it hurts his father is made all the more clear when you just remember the words that go by so quickly:  "He gathered up all he had of the divided property and went to the distant land."
For him to gather up all he had doesn't mean he's getting a cashier's check.
Right?
It doesn't mean that he's able to take his father's lands and herds.
In order for him to gather up his share of the estate, he has to liquidate his father's flocks, his father's property, and it's going to be done in this small town.
In our minds eye when we think of this father and the estate, we typically think in our terms and our culture.
This is a big plot of land with a plantation house somewhere out in the country.
No.
In Jewish times, everyone lived in the village.
That's where the groceries were.
You're not getting in your car and traveling 20 minutes to town, right?
You--, groceries are there, the water is there, and protection is there.
You live in the village:  You go out to the fields.
For the son to be liquidating property means everybody in the town knows:  The son is claiming his father's estate; the son has no respect for his father; and the son is about to go.
We know what it means, most of us, to live in a small town where everyone knows your business.
Garrison Keillor talks about it in Lake Wobegon.
Right?
He says, "In Lake Wobegon," that little imaginary town, he says, "you don't even have to use the turn signal on your car, because everybody knows where you're going."
[Laughter]
What if everybody knows your kid doesn't care?
What if everybody knows your kid wishes you were dead and does not care if it hurts you?
It would kill you.
The modern-day parable come to life is the Tunisian father who this past week went to Turkey to try to rescue his son from I.S.I.S.
And it was that very father who was killed in the bomb attack in Istanbul by bombs set by I.S.I.S.
What if your child does not care if it kills you?
You begin to get the sense of the deepness of the hurt and the insult.
It's not just deep insult.
You recognize, of course, there is distant immorality in the picture as well.
This young man abandons his family.
Verse 13 says, "He took a journey to a far country."
And in that far country, he didn't just abandon his family:  He abandons decency.
Verse 13 says, "He squandered his property on reckless living."
But by verse 30, you'll find his own brother's interpretation:  He squandered his property on prostitutes.
I don't know if they knew about sexual addiction in those days, but what you see was a family torn apart by the lust and the passions of a young man who gambles it all away maybe, in today's terms, or is addicted to immoral things or to the opioids that are plaguing our own community.
And his father just sees it happening, and the son doesn't care.
There is this abandonment of decency that is going on.
And with that abandonment of the family and the abandonment of decency, perhaps the father could take it, except the son is abandoning faith at the same time.
Many of you will know this account.
The young man actually wastes all his money.
And when it's gone, he begins to be in need.
But there's a famine in that distant country.
And, so, he begins to hire himself out to work.
But the place he begins to work is a pig farm.
For a Jew to work at a pig farm means I work among unclean animals, according to Jewish ceremonial law.
I'm abandoning my family's nurture.
I'm abandoning my family's faith.
I'm doing whatever I want, whatever I have to do to survive.
And he doesn't just tend pigs:  Ultimately, he begins to eat like a pig.
He begins to long for the food even that the pigs are eating.
But apparently he now smells like a pig, because you read also in the scriptures, "But no one gave him anything."
He is "anathema."
He stinks even in the far country that he's in and no one wants to deal with him.
He has abandoned everything.
And how that must hurt.
I think of a family that Kathy and I know also where the young man, addicted to gambling, is always going to make the big score.
And, so, he lives in a gambling community, and when his money runs out, to get more money, he sells himself.
And every now and then, he comes home to his family:  for rest, for respite, sometimes to take advantage of them.
And always there is this spring of new hope:  Maybe this time he'll change; maybe this time it will be different.
And then the addiction takes over again.
And how it hurts; how it tears them apart; how it hurts the family.
But right with this message of this distant immorality that's tearing apart this family, the message of the Scripture is of this determined love in the face of it.
It's love, first, with a record.
Verse 17, "When the young man came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!'"
For us as parents, it's a hard verse to read, because we recognize that here is this child caught up in rebellion or addiction or selfishness, whatever it is, but even in that, he's got this record in his mind of his father's character:  He even takes care of his servants better than this.
And whatever it is in his mind and heart of the nature of his family, he says, "That means I can come home.
There's still a place for me.
I can go back to that place, because I know the record of my family," which has to be so hard to express when our children, when those that we love, when those about us have turned on us, have turned their backs on what we believe, nonetheless say, "But they know there's a place here for them."
That's what the young man continues to believe.
And it's not just love with a record:  It is love with resolve.
Verse 20 is one of my favorite in all the Bible.
In verse 20, it simply says, "When the young man arose and came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him."
We don't recognize in our English translations, but that language of, "While he was still a long way off, while he was still far away," is exactly the same Greek word for when he was in the far country.
In other words, he is still distant from his father, and his father is running toward him.
None of the words of repentance have been said yet.
I mean, the father has his eyes on the horizon, and he sees his son.
And before the son says anything, the father is running toward him:  This is my heart for you.
He doesn't know what the son is going to say or do.
Is the son going to say, "I'm sorry"?
Is the son going to say, "I'll stay"?
Is the son just going to stray again?
He doesn't know.
But the father runs toward the child, knowing all of his weakness, all the insult, all the indecency, all the pain in the family, all the damage the child has done to himself, which may be the greatest hurt of all.
Nonetheless, the father runs to his child.
And for us in the family of God, all the more important to know that God is using this father to represent Himself in this parable.
This is My heart toward My children when they have run away from the family and they've run away from the faith:  Still My heart is for them.
The poet says it so beautifully:  "The shoes, the robe, the ring, all for him, unworthy son, but greater far the most amazing thing:  God ran to meet him."
We see God run.
Do you recognize the picture for a Jewish father that is now so humiliating to be expressed?
I mean, it's not like the father has on his track suit.
I mean, think of the ancient day.
A wealthy man in Jewish culture would be a heavy man, showing he had lots of good food.
And, so, he's heavy and he's fat, and he has robes that go down to his ankles and feet, touch the ground.
So, he's got to take his robe and kind of pull it up and stick it up into his belt.
And his knobby knees are showing.
And he begins to run.
And he sweats, and the face is flushed, and his beard's hanging out behind him.
And the necklace is banging on his chest, and his sandals are flopping on his feet.
It's humiliating.
And it represents God who in the person of His Son would come to humiliate Himself and sacrifice Himself for the sake of those who were in the far country.
And the son has said nothing yet:  no words of repentance, no words of I'm sorry.
That hasn't even happened yet, as the father runs to meet him.
And, yet, after the father runs, it's not just a resolve it--, resolved love:  It is, it's a rejoicing love that the son is home.
You know the words.
The father not only said, "Put on him the robe, not only put on the ring, not only put on the shoes," but, "Kill the fattened calf," this festal animal that's fattened up through the course of the year with lots of money and expense to be the one without blemish for the sacrifice in the temple, for the great feast.
Let's celebrate what costs so much for the sake that my son is home.
And part of that rejoicing is in evidence that the son, as he begins to speak to his father who's now hanging on him and embracing him, the son begins the speech that he's rehearsed.
"Father, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
I've sinned against God.
I've sinned against man.
Make me."
And he never gets the words out about, "Make me like one of your hired."
The father stops the words and simply says, "Let's celebrate."
He is back.
We are going to rejoice that this one is here, not because he deserves it:  because the lost has been found.
He was dead; he's alive again.
My son is back.
My child is here.
Let's celebrate.
What does that look like in our families?
I think of some friends of Kathy and mine who, as a couple, the wife once described to us the experience of her father who went to a train station to pick up a son who'd been in distant country, not just by geometry but by lifestyle.
And as that father went to the train station, was standing on the platform waiting for his son to get off the train, just by happenstance, one of his business associates came to meet another child who was standing there on the platform.
And the two fathers were standing there on the platform waiting for their children to get off the train.
And as they were watching, suddenly this one particular individual got off the train, you couldn't help but notice him:  large, overweight, flushed face, dark clothes, cape on his shoulders.
And the business associate leaned over to the father and kind of pointed to say, "Aren't you glad you're not welcoming that?"
[Laughter]
At which case, of course, the father ran to his son and put his arms around him and kissed him and welcomed "that."
If we're the church, we're always keeping our eyes on the horizon.
There's my child coming.
There's a child of God coming.
Bad choices, bad decisions:  Their responsibility, yes.
But the grace of God is for those who do not deserve it, not for those who do.
And when that is expressed in us, it changes things in our families, as hard as it may be on us because we see children and those that we love hurting themselves.
And still we are called to express the grace of God as best we know it to them.
What would it look like not in families but in communities?
Some of you may be aware that Chick-fil-A, if you know it for anything other than "Eat more chicken" signs put up by cows.
[Laughter]
Is an organization known for Christian ownership.
And the way they demonstrate that is they're not open on Sundays.
But there was a Sunday a few weeks ago at which Chick-fil-A's did stay open, Chick-fil-A's in Orlando after the massacre in the gay nightclub.
And those who were Christian in Chick-fil-A, owners and coworkers, stayed open on Sunday to prepare food for those who were waiting in the lines to donate blood for those who had been hurt in the massacre.
Now, some of you may read enough news to know that the gay community scorned and spurned that action by Chick-fil-A.
So should it had not have been done?
No, listen to me:  While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and ran to him and put his arms around him and kissed him.
Our heart is not for those who deserve it.
We do not say as God's people, "We show mercy, because people deserve it."
We recognize they don't deserve it, but neither did we.
The cross of Jesus Christ is for a purpose.
It is for providing for those who could not provide for themselves.
And the message of the gospel is always to be expressed in the church of Jesus Christ with the profound understanding that we are not waiting for people to measure up.
We are not waiting for people to get their lives all straight, not get it all fixed.
While they are still a long way off, we have the obligation, we have the privilege of saying, "Here is the fountain of grace from this place for you, because it's the fountain of grace from which we drank when we did not deserve it either."
What does it look like in our church to keep our eyes on the horizon, to always be looking for those who are in the far country and to minister, not because they deserve it, not because they've said our words, not because they've qualified, but simply because the mercy of God is intended for those who do not deserve it?
You know, we've listened to almost 20 years now to the words of Win Arn who say those who come into the church, if you're even here today, you can almost always say why it has happened, because 90 percent of the people who are in the church today are here because a friend or family member invited them.
It's not the great preaching.
It's not the wonderful evangelism campaign.
It's not the tract.
It's a friend or family member invited us and got us involved.
And now, because of the crosscurrents in our culture, we as Christians are often more and more unwilling to do that, because we think people will get angry; they'll get mad; they'll turn their back on us; they'll be upset with us for talking about our faith.
One of the more recent surveys that was done by Ed Stetzer of Lifeway surprised almost everyone when he said, "Listen, most Americans are willing to talk about their faith in a friendship relationship.
If your faith is important to you, your friends are willing, even wanting, to talk about it."
That was a surprise.
Now, he's just honest enough to say, "Now, that doesn't mean they necessarily want to go to church with you.
But if they're your friend and you're their friend, they want to c--:  What makes you tick?
What's going on in you?"
And so he began to ask people the question:  "What would you go with, with a Christian friend, if it wasn't to a worship service?"
And 47 percent of those who were surveyed said, "I would go to a church activity that was about improving neighborhoods."
So I think about the Adams Street Foundation here.
Why would we do that?
There are people who have been incarcerated; there are people who do not deserve our care.
Why would we do that?
Because we are seeking to gain a hearing for the gospel.
We minister to other people.
Forty-three percent of the American public said that they would be willing to go to a church activity that involved community service.
I think about like our M.O.P.S. program in which we have mother's of preschoolers coming to this church in great numbers.
Half of them are not part of this church.
When I think about Vacation Bible School:  Now, you and I know that lots of parents in this community use Vacation Bible School as summer daycare.
[Laughter]
I know that.
You know that.
Listen, we're not offering Vacation Bible School because people deserve it.
We know it costs us.
We are recognizing we are giving the gospel to those who do not deserve it, because we were like they.
We extend the gospel through Heartbeat Ministry, through adoption ministries, not because people deserve it:  Because we recognize this is an expression of the nature of grace.
That's what we're doing.
We're trying to win this hearing, get this understanding of the gospel.
Interestingly, 33 percent of the people in the American public, 36 percent of the people in the American public said they would come if you invited them to an athletic or exercise program sponsored by the church.
I don't know if Splashdown counts.
[Laughter]
But I think of volleyball with the Y.A.M.S.
I think of how the Christian Center was begun a generation ago with somebody who understood that.
I--, if we ever build sports fields on this expansive land that the Lord has given us, why would we spend so much for people who are not already part of us?
It doesn't benefit us.
Because we want the gospel to reach the people who do not deserve it, like us.
And our orientation is always to understand that God is not waiting for people to measure up, to qualify:  that the church is the fatherness of God moving forward for the sake of His people.
As long as they're on the horizon, we're moving toward them.
If God puts them in our eyesight, we move toward them.
Now, listen, I know you expected me to say that before I began.
What's hard for us to understand is that this young brother is not the only one in this account.
You know, there's another brother in the account.
Do you remember him, the older brother?
And he's objecting to the party that's being thrown for the lost brother who's being found.
And you and I automatically think:  I am glad I'm not like him.
[Laughter]
I think Jesus actually tells the parable to convict us that we're a lot like the older brother.
And we don't even recognize it.
And so there are hints here to make us recognize ourselves:  that whenever we say, "They don't deserve the gospel," we've implied we do.
[Laughter]
And, therefore, we seem to be saying, "The blood of Jesus isn't really necessary for us."
But nobody would actually say that.
Nobody would actually be so bold to say, "I don't really need the work of Jesus Christ."
So what are the signs that something deep down in there is actly--, actually echoing that attitude?
The older brother, of course, begrudges the grace toward his undeserving younger brother.
The grudge:  Well, that's verse 28.
The older brother simply gets angry that there is a party.
And the complaint:  "Grace is not fair.
What do you mean that my brother is getting a party?
He's spent all the money on prostitutes.
He's wasted his life.
He's wasted your money.
And now he's back.
And, by the way, Dad, I've been good, and you never threw a party for me.
You know?
I went to Sunday School.
I followed your instruction.
I've been going to Cub game for decades."
[Laughter]
"And you never threw a party for me."
By the way, it is the year to go to a Cub game.
[Laughter]
He recognizes that he is diminished by showing grace to those who do not deserve it.
"Because I've done all this stuff and you're saying it apparently does not matter so much to you that I'm better than he is."
Beyond that, it costs the brother.
We're not in Jewish ancient culture, and so we don't recognize all that it means for the father to throw this feast with the fattened calf for his son.
It means that son is now back in the family.
And it doesn't just mean that there's been a cost for this calf to be sacrificed now for the party.
If that other brother is now back in the family, the property's got to be subdivided again.
And the older brother is counting the cost.
If we actually extend grace to those who do not deserve it, that's going to cost me something.
And he doesn't like that.
And, so, he begrudges the grace.
If you will, you know, we need another version of the Ronettes:  "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to," you know?
[Laughter]
It's his party and I'll whine if I want to.
That's what he's doing.
But in essence, it's far worse than that.
What the older brother does not understand is by objecting to the party for those who do not deserve it that he's actually done everything the prodigal son did as well.
Do you recognize it?
If he's really saying, "Dad, what are you doing dividing the estate again?"
He's actually saying to his father, "I want your stuff.
I want all your stuff that's remaining."
It's the same cry as the younger brother.
And as he waits outside not joining the party so that his dad ultimately has to come out to speak to him with everybody watching, he's also saying, "I don't care if it hurts you that I don't go to the party."
And if we think of there some sort of distant immorality going at the same time, think what this older brother's actually saying:  "My dad's heart and values are to care for my brother and to welcome him back into the family, but I'm rejecting my father's heart; I'm rejecting my father's values."
It's the same thing the younger brother did.
And it's meant to kind of draw us up short and kind of go you know what?
If you don't think that you're a younger brother, you probably are an older brother.
But if you are an older brother, you are automatically a prodigal, because you are not celebrating what God has given His son to allow to happen:  the great grace that claims those who do not deserve it.
What God is ultimately doing is going out even to this son.
Do you recognize that though?
Verse 28:  The son is angry; he refuses to go in.
"But his father came out and entreated him."
It's the same movement of the father.
As the father ran to the prodigal, he's now coming out to the one who thinks he qualifies for the grace.
In both cases, the father is saying, "I have to provide for you what you cannot provide for yourself."
And that's the message of the gospel I want us to hear over and over again:  that what this older brother is ultimately having to see is:  I don't deserve this either.
I turned away from my father.
I didn't feel that he had to provide all that he did.
I'm objecting to the party.
I don't want these people around me."
And anytime that happens, we become the very ones who are objecting to the values of our Father in heaven.
And still He keeps coming to us, week after week, week after week, week after week with the message of the gospel.
How great and gracious is our Father.
How do we hear that?
I recognize it's hard at times.
And I've thought:  How do I just tell you as a church what it means to be filled up with grace, so that we actually begin to fountain it?
And I don't know how to do that better than to tell you my own progress in the gospel from a hard place.
I think, as I look back on my own life as a young pastor, having come from a troubled and very difficult home, that one of the reasons I went into the church even as a pastor was finding some respite from my own family's struggles and tensions.
And what I did not recognize was how much of my early ministry was just saying to people, "You need to fix broken behavior to fix broken lives."
And so much of my message, my language was:  Straighten up, fly right, do better, and that's what will fix your broken lives.
Now, I'm not saying there's nothing to that message, but it ultimately crushed me as a pastor to say, "I simply want you to do better."
Well, how much does a holy God actually require before He's satisfied?
I want you to straighten up, particularly about taking the gospel to other people.
Now, I know if I'm supposed to witness that means I'm supposed to find people who don't know the Lord, and I always feel guilty that I haven't done enough of that.
And a little bit angry that they are out there requiring me to do that:  the broken, disaffected, don't deserve it people that I got to witness to.
[Laughter]
Don't you sometimes feel that way?
What changes us?
I think when I was broken by that message, recognizing I can never do enough to satisfy God in my work and then began to recognize but the Father kept coming out to me, kept ministering to me, it began to fill up my heart with grace in a way that I never perceived.
And, for the first time in my life, lost people were not the way that I gained credit with God by witnessing to them:  I truly profoundly, in ways I cannot fully express to you, began to love lost people.
They're just like me.
They don't deserve it.
I don't deserve it.
We are brothers and sisters needing a Savior.
And when that began to change Kathy and me, it changed things that we didn't even know were in our hearts.
I recognized we began to delight to see our children reach out to troubled children, not just the popular kids:  to the troubled kids.
It scared us sometimes.
But we delighted.
We shouted for joy.
This is a party.
Our kids are reaching out to those who don't deserve it.
They understand the gospel, our kids.
We began to delight to move into a neighborhood where there were lots of gay business and shop owners, so that they became our friends.
And, for the sake of Christ, we just felt like:  Isn't this great?
We can begin to minister to people out of those that we, for those that we love out of love for Christ.
And it's not somehow making us more acceptable to God:  This is just what we love to do, tell people about the Lord and how He helps them.
I think of another shop owner, a young man who owned a restaurant, and his own family background and difficulties meant that he hated dads and he hated white people.
And in his restaurant, there were all kinds of signs up about black power.
And we just began to go to that restaurant, encouraged our children to go.
We loved the food.
And over time developed a relationship with that young man, so that one day, I mean, we just wanted to say, "Let's party."
Do you know just what happened?
That young man came to Kathy and he said, pointing to the posters on the wall, he said, "Miss Kathy," he said, "do these posters offend you about black power?
Because I don't want to hurt my white mama."
And we said, "Let's have a party here."
Let's rejoice.
This is the gospel at work.
This is not somehow doing something weird or strange or putting people in awkward circumstances.
It is saying, "I didn't deserve the grace of God, and He showered it upon me.
He gave me this wonderful message of His love in Christ Jesus.
And now I want that to fountain upon you."
What we do in these next several weeks is just going to be to fill up our tank with the grace of God, because I know that when we are filled with that grace, it will fountain from us to our delight for the party that God is throwing for lost people in our homes, in our families, in our neighborhoods, at our workplace that God is calling us to reach for Jesus' sake.
Let's stand and sing.
And as we do, think of what God is doing in your heart and life, those that He is bringing to your life to tell the message of God's grace.
>>> Father, so work in us, I pray, that You would so fill us with grace that our hearts would become fountains of the glory that's to be found in Christ Jesus, not because somehow You're calling us more meritory.
It's not earning with You some sort of more approval.
You've already given Your grace to me, who does not deserve it.
And when that fills me up, what a delight to share with someone else that Jesus is calling to Himself.
Put our eyes on the horizons of our lives for the lost people who are coming home.
And help us, Father, to tell them of the Father who runs toward them.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.