Come Join the Party

This message was preached by Lasya V at Word of Grace Church on Feb 2nd 2020 . To listen to the audio please click here.to listen to the worship please click here.

COME JOIN THE PARTY

One of the most famous stories in the Bible is the story of the prodigal son. In Luke 15 Jesus tells them the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and then the parable of the prodigal son. So you know the story… the wayward son, takes the inheritance of the father while he is still alive. He spends it on reckless living and finally comes to himself and returns home with the hope that if he grovels enough, and expresses his grief over what he has done, maybe he can join his father’s servants. He comes expecting insults and anger, but at least he wouldn’t die. The father, of course, cuts him off midway in his apology and embraces him. And that’s where we pick up the story… from verse 22

“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.

The father restored us before we are cleaned up. We received righteousness, authority and the rights of a son simply by repenting and coming to the Father.

And bring the fattened calf and 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.

When you first came into the kingdom, how many of you felt celebrated by the Lord? And over time we begin to be faithful in the church, we read our Bible, we come from set up team, we help the poor, give our tithes… we begin to get a little less conspicuous.

 The father expects fruitfulness in your life. And this is where most of us are in this journey. So let’s pick up the story from verse 22:

"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, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"”

Luke 15:22-32 ESV

In the kingdom there is a pattern and it’s repeated about 6 times in the gospels alone that the last will be first and the first last. Have you ever experienced this in your workplace or your family, or church that someone who came after you, less deserving than you, gets promoted, gets recognized… So how do we handle our brother’s blessing? How do we keep our hearts from envy?

This is a year of intimacy and revelation the Bible says that it’s the pure in heart who will see God? So let’s get ready for that…

The Father’s response to the elder brother is key for us to understand how to overcome this envy that defiles our hearts, destroys our fruit and drives us away from the presence of God. But that is for another day. The father’s response is '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.' He comments on 3 things - the elder brother’s position, possession, and participation.

1. Position - Son, you’re always with me

1. The father reaffirms his sonship and reminds him who he is in that house.

1.  A king has both sons and servants in the same house. Do you know which one you are?

1. The son stays because of his name - he inherits the name of the father. But a servant stays for his gain. If you are here for the titles, the blessing, the sermon or worship, the gifts, etc… you are functioning as a servant in your own father's house. Yes, we serve God and our brothers and sisters. But we serve God because we are sons and daughters. We are not sons and daughters because of our service. You can never serve your way to sonship.

2. Another distinction between a son and a servant is that though they live in the same atmosphere, they have different access.

3. Action: Go to the brother / sister who offends you and because that is where you will discover intimacy with the father.

2. Possession - All that is mine is yours

1. The younger brother took his inheritance and wasted it. It’s not coming back. So everything that the father has now only belongs to the elder brother.

2. But when we have been faithful and working hard, it’s easy to think that we deserve something when we compare it with some others in the kingdom. But the truth is that it’s all by grace. We work hard by grace and receive the reward by grace.You deserve your wages, but you can never deserve your inheritance. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24

3. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:18 is we may comprehend “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

3. Action :

1. The local church is a physical manifestation of the house of God in your surroundings. So if you say I’m a son/ daughter of the kingdom of God, then be a son/ daughter at the local church. Commit yourself to it. OWN IT!

1. This hall belongs to you, these speakers, curtains, in fact, the very people on your right and left belong to you… so own it! Sign up for the setup team today.

2. Participation- It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive-

• The father expects us to be a part of the reconciliation - to share in his joy!
• The father saw his son while he was still a long way away because his eyes were looking for him. But his brother only noticed him when he was cleaned up and he was being celebrated with music and dancing. The elder son was not a part of the process of reconciliation. He did not share in the joy of the father.
• There is another elder brother in this book- the firstborn Son of God- Jesus Christ.  He was a part of the process of reconciling his father’s children. Yet he stepped down from his heavenly abode and lived a sinless life, proclaiming the kingdom of God, reconciling man back to their position as sons and daughters of God, died on the cross for the joy that was set before him, satisfying the wrath of God against sin, so that we now stand in His robes of righteousness and boldly enter the presence of God and call him ABBA Father!!!!

• Action: ask yourself which elder brother you will be? There are people in your life who are lost sons and daughters of God and the father is longing for them! You and I have the opportunity through Christ to reconcile them to the father. So go to them today!

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org. 

The heart of the Father| Colin D

This message was preached  by Colin D'cruz at Word of Grace Church on June 18th, 2017. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here.

We know we have a heavenly Father when we are in Christ. We want to pattern our lives according to the Godly Father.

Q. What is a heavenly Father like? Luke 15 contains 3 parables which speaks about what the Father is like.

1.      Parable of the lost sheep:   ““What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 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 that was lost.’”

Q. Have you ever lost something and then find it?

Jesus was saying, in verse 7- “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”

Here we see the Father’s heart. God is rejoicing even when one person turn to him.

It is important when we read the Bible that we understand the context. Why is Jesus sharing these parables. In verse 1- “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.” these sinners were outcasts in those times. The Pharisees and Scribes kept the law scrupulously. They memorised the first 5 books of the Bible. They did everything according to the law. They could only walk so much on the Sabbath, if you walk further, it is work. In Israel there is a Shabath lift where you don’t even press a button.

Tax collectors were not like our Income Tax officers. Rome governed most of the known world. They built roads because they sent soldiers to any part of the empire on these roads. They paid for these soldiers by taxing the people. They appointed Tax Collectors for this purpose who taxed the people more than they were supposed to, and pocketed the next. The Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with these kind of people. Sinners, were maimed and with physical deformities because they were physically deformed. Other type of sinners were prostitutes and people who did jobs no one else wants to do.

Jesus was eating with people like this. In India we have this situation with caste system. Jesus broke down all barriers. He preached to them, ate with them and went to their homes. He explains the Father’s heart to the people who were questioning this behaviour of his. He repeats in verse 10- “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” God is looking for people who will repent.

2.      Parable of the lost coin: “Or what woman, having ten silver coins,[a] if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.””

3.      Parable of the prodigal son: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’” What is he asking for? His inheritance before the Father dies. It is insulting, saying you don’t matter, just give me what I will get when you die. The son got the inheritance- which was land, cattle, etc. Then, this son sold everything and leaves his father’s house. He squanders it on  wild living.

a.      The son was doing a wrong thing- sometimes, God can let us continue in our wrongdoing for our season till we come to the end of ourselves. The Israelites kept worshipping idols. The heart was sinful. God let them continue in their sin till they were taken captive by the Assyrians and Babylonians where they were surrounded with idolatry. So if you notice in the New Testament the 4 gospels have no mention of idolatry. They had come to an end of themselves and threw idolatry out. 

b.      The Trajectory of sin: In verse 14, after he spent everything, there was a severe famine. He spent everything irresponsibly. “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 pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.” He had great privileges in his Father’s house. To the Jews, pigs are unclean and to say they have to feed pigs is disgusting. He is willing not just to feed the pigs, but to eat what they were eating.

This is a picture of the trajectory of sin. Any sin we indulge will lead us to the rock bottom. But the good news is coming. There is a point in time when we come to our senses. We ask ourselves, what am I doing?

c.      Repentance: “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father.” This is the act of repentance. That we turn from our sin and turn to our Father.

d.      Father’s response- if your son behaved this way, how long would you lecture him? The heart of the Father is this- “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” Even though the son turned away, the Father’s eyes looked out for him. He doesn’t say, “Let him come here and I’ll talk to him”. It is not respectable to run for the patriarch. But he was overcome with joy. He can’t wait. At this point, the Pharisees would have freaked out.

e.      Restoration: Verse 22-23 “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 us eat and celebrate” They were restoring his position and celebrating his return.

This is the heart of the father. We could be like the Pharisees wanting to judge them and deal with them. But the Father heart of God doesn’t only accept the son as a servant, but restores him as a son. Forgiveness is free but it cost the Father a great deal. Let us receive the heart of the Father- that is, forgiveness to the worst sinner. We are here to seek and save the lost. It is going to be messy, but restoration is the heart of the Father. The Pharisees did not understand the behaviour of Jesus, but he was simply displaying the Father heart of God.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.