← Gull Lake Ministries
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It's good to be with you again. Let me tell you the schedule that I have planned, because they told me that I had you until 3pm that's not what we're gonna do. They actually said 12. We have time until 12, but we're not gonna do that. My plan is, I'm gonna. We got about 30 minutes of diving into the word of God, and then they say we have a Q and A. I don't really know what that means, but that'll be fun for you. And we're gonna do that for the next half hour around 11:30. My goal is to let you guys have a little bit of time before you go over to lunch, meet your kids. Does that work? All right. I can give you the whole. I mean, hour and 41 minutes we've got. I said we just go hang out at the beach. That could be good too. Now, as you know, hopefully you've already figured out I love script and I'll go ahead and tell you now, it's my knowledge and my understanding of my need of a savior is why I do what I do. The more you know your need of a savior, it'll just change your life, man. What is you think about United States of America? It's interesting over the last 20 years or so, sometimes I look at the United States and I go, man, is the patriotism kind of wavering a little bit? I think it's increased recently, which is wonderful. I'm so grateful for the freedoms that we have in this country. And then I start thinking about those things that are really strongly American. Okay, so help me out. What are some things that you just go, that's American. Baseball is definitely American. Wait, hang on. Let's camp out on baseball. I struggle with baseball. Did you know that there's only nine minutes on average of actual play time in a baseball game? Nine minutes. I was telling my son last night, he was watching one of the teams play. I was like, you're watching the same thing over and over. You watch this, right? Every single time. And then he does swings and misses, does it again. You watch him do the same thing, gets back in the bat. I love baseball, but it's just weird that we're fascinated with baseball. I'm sorry. It's weird. Another crazy American thing. What is it? I'm sorry. Oh, yeah, straight up. Barbecue, vinegar or sweet? Okay, that's good. You know. Jesus, that's good. What else? Self storage, Man. I absolutely love the fact that I'm going to tell you to get out. No, it Is true. Like, it's. Yeah, it's. It's kind of crazy. And we used to just say, hey, here's a place to put your stuff. And now they have AC and heating and what. Here's my notion on this. I'll probably get in trouble for it, but I don't really care. If you have that much stuff, sell some stuff. Even better. Just give it away. I have a rule. If I haven't used something or worn something in a year, it's gone. That's my rule. If I buy a new shirt, I require myself to give a shirt away because I don't need more of them. My kids will probably say, yeah, but you need some different ones. But that's okay. What else is strongly American? Fireworks. Let's go blow that finger off. But they're so good. It's so much fun. What else? Bald eagles. Yes. I'm sorry, what was this? Ranch dressing. Oh, we have lost our. We have lost our way as a nation. Ranch dressing. There are certain things that are crazy cultural for us, and I certainly see it all the time in my travels and what I do. And I just go, man, okay. Rock and roll. That would be another one to me. Right? I love the fact you go to the. Anybody go to the Philippines? I think I've been five times in the last two and a half years, and I gotta go back in a few months. And as I'm over there, they always listen, like, old. Like the 80s, and they think it's the best, and so do I. And it's so good. Oh, my. It's just fantastic. Last time I was there, I remember I'm sitting there in a. It's weird. You go to a. To go into Manila. I've got some pastor friends coming in. I'm like, guys, I'll take you anywhere you want to eat. And they go, TGI Friday. I'm like, I'm going to Manila, Philippines, eating a TGI Friday. And then Milli Vanilli comes on. Anybody remember Milli Vanilli? Yeah. Yeah. Horrible. Horrible. The reason I'm talking about all this is because that is Luke, chapter 15. Remember, I'm going to give you a quick summary of yesterday. Okay? So what's happening in the midst of all this is it's really about repentance. We're looking at Luke 15. You got three different lost things. Lost sheep, lost coin, and now lost son. And we looked at the younger son. And so many things that Jesus was speaking about to the religious leaders, to the Pharisees, and to the tax collectors and the sinners are all in on listening with this. You got to remember, it's also. He's coming up on the end of his life, walking to Jerusalem for the very last time. And he is speaking about so many things that culturally, they. It just is incredibly abrasive. He's talking about so many things that would make us. It's uncomfortable. He's, in a way, badmouthing watermelon while watching baseball, listening to rock and roll, watching fireworks in the distance. And he says, no. And we go. You see, when someone speaks about our cultural differences, when they address those. Actually, sometimes we tune them out. Well, then they don't know what they're talking about. We don't necessarily do that with scripture because most people don't know scripture well enough to do that, but we do it with culture. And so now here's Jesus, and he is going to be. He's going to be ruffling some feathers. That's what he does. And so he dives into this. So we're gonna be jumping into all that today. It's gonna be a lot of fun. First, you already know, we gotta do our memory verse, though. So let's jump into Ephesians, chapter 2, 8, 10. Let's stand as we call this out together. And I'll get us going, and then we'll go from there. So here we go. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of grace. It's the word of God. You may be seated. So here we are, Luke, chapter 15. We're going to jump in. We're starting with verse 17 today. I've already given you a little bit of a summary. And he says this. This is the young guy. This is where we concluded yesterday. He's off a Jewish boy eating with pigs in a gentile land. And when he came to his senses. This is 17 through 20. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? And here I am, starving to death. I will set out, go back to my Father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And so he got up and he went to his father. This parable is certainly about repentance. It's also about the joy of the Father. He's going to come to his senses, and he's going to go, wait. My Father's servants have food to spare. Okay, wait, maybe I can go back home and you can imagine this conversation starting to play in his own mind. And again, yes, this parable we know deals with repentance. But repentance really begins when an individual starts to assess their own condition. And that can be physically. That can be spiritually, mentally, emotionally. And so now all of a sudden, this younger son, the prodigal son, right, he starts to evaluate his own condition, and he's going, wait, there's more than this. This isn't the way it's supposed to be. He's going to think about his father and his hired servants while he is there starving of hunger, man. The hired servants, we know those are day laborers. Those are people who are there working day in, day out. Many of the places I travel to, many of our pastors, they're day laborers. Church is done differently. Like, why do they do church this way? You start looking at so many things. I don't know if Ken is still present or not, but here's something that I would tell you. Oh, there you are. It's interesting because you mentioned the book When Helping Hurts. It's a great book. Go read it. I'll also tell you sometimes it needs to happen differently, because I will tell you now where we go, there's so many day laborers. I know families personally. I have friends that if they don't work, work that day, they don't feed the kids that night because they work for that day. That's what a day laborer is. And so then that goes into all kinds of struggles that we have as Americans of like, well, do we pay people? Do we not pay people? We shouldn't pay people. You're gonna be dependent upon you, right? And it's all these different struggles that you come into play. And yet here are day laborers who actually have more than enough, which shows the generosity of the father. He literally says, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough? And so, again, showing the generosity of the father, and you start thinking about what it is to be a day laborer. And he's going, wait, I need to go back to this. Just the generosity. It always reminds me of the time Jesus is in the Gospel of Matthew. It's leaving me right now in terms of chapter, I apologize. But Jesus, you remember where the day laborers came? And some are hired early morning and then some at 9, some at 12, some at 3. And he chooses to pay all of them the same because of why his generosity. Did you know many people Today we struggle with other people's generosity because one, the conviction it brings in our own selves if we're not generous. Also, we always believe. Anybody have employees that work for them? Let me tell you about anybody. Has anybody been an employee before or is one now? I'm both. Right. I lead the elders and also I submit to them. It's a weird thing to be a preacher today. All right, employees. Every employee I have, right? We have 60, 70 or whatever employees at one place at the church. And then people be the church and then we have people with a non profit that we have and then a couple of companies that my wife runs and I'm going, okay, we have all these employees and I start looking and evaluating all this and here's what I've learned. Every employee at some point thinks that they deserve more. Anybody learned this one before, I can literally show them, here's what it pays according to the region. This is what you produce. I'm going to pay you at the 90% rate and give you an extra week of PTO. And within six months, I promise you, they think they deserve more even if they're not producing what that salary requires. I feel like I'm venting right now a little bit. I'm sorry. And so we start to see the reality of even in Matthew with Jesus and he's going, miss, I'm going to pay them all his generosity and his kindness. We're going to be seeing such a beautiful picture of the generosity of our Heavenly Father. And so here comes this younger son and the reality is he has been broken when he came to his senses. Remember this from last night when he came to his senses. Friends, there is a difference between brokenness and embarrassment. Now, not with companies, but when I'm hiring for the church, one of the things that I like to do is I like to ask, I'd like to know how you have been broken. Not embarrassed, but broken. Embarrassed is man, I'm stinks that I got caught and people saw that brokenness leads to change. There's a difference. I think that this guy began as being embarrassed, ended as being broken and as a result we see change. How have you in your own life been broken? I know I've been broken in my own life and it's caused me to surrender so much. So we see this brokenness. He's like, I'm not going to just stay here and die. Verse 18. I'm going to get up, go to my father. I'm going to say to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. This is what he's got to be processing all this, right? Here's my plan. Just make me one of your hired men. He's going. Could this all happen? And the Pharisees and the scribes who are listening in, they're like, yeah, that's what he needs to do. He needs to go fall on his knees, and he needs to recognize that he needs to place himself on the mercy of his Father, repent of his sin. That's what he needs to do. So he's going to end up going back. 2024 says this, Luke 15, 2024, while he was still a long way off. So he's going back. He knows he needs to return while he is still a long way off. His father saw him, was filled with what? Compassion. Now, let me go ahead and tell you. Compassion in Greek deals with your intestines, your bowels. Like it's that deep inner. Like, oh, like, you know, if you don't do this, you like, right? So his Father looks at him with compassion. You need to understand the depth of that biblical word. It is so much greater than. And he saw him and felt sorry for him. It's not what that is. It's that scale at times, 72. It deals with your intestines. It's describing this. So he's still a long way off. His Father sees him filled with compassion. For he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the Father said to the servants, quick, bring the best robe. Put it on him. Put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate for this Son of fireworks and everything. Amen. For this son of mine was dead and was alive again. He was lost and is found. And so they began to what, celebrate. Now, this is when the Pharisees and the scribes, probably figuratively, but also physically, fall off their chair. Jesus has lost them. It's way beyond their own understanding. The Son is ready to come and to face the shame that he deserves. He wants restoration. He needs his Father. And he has hope of the goodness of his Father. But he doesn't know. You need to know if this. Can I tell you how this would normally play out? If somebody wanted restoration of this type, what they would do Is they would come and see the family. The father would never, because of the cultural, this is the baseball, firework, everything else thing, because of the culture, they would never actually go out and greet that son. What they would do is they would allow the son to come back and they would never come out and greet them and welcome them. And they would go out into this area, usually the center of the community of which they live, and they would sit there for sometimes days so that everybody knew that that's the guy who screwed up. That's culturally relevant. That's how they would be treated, right? So all of a sudden, here's a son, even if he's going back to see his father, to ask, hey, could I at least be treated as a hired servant? He's probably likely, more than likely expecting to sit out in view of the public for days so that he is put shame. It's a shame. And honor culture. That's the shame. And so he's expecting to go back and to sit there and to have everybody look at him and go, oh, that's that guy. The father would literally in the Middle east, refuse to meet with him, make him sit outside for days in public view so the whole town could bring the retribution upon him that he really deserved. That's what the son would expect. Here's what the father did. It says that the father, his intestines were all messed up, felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Now, the number one thing that a man does not do in that culture, remember, I should have dressed up today, worn the same stuff they would have worn because they had this big robe on, right? The number one thing that a man in that culture would not do is jack that robe up and run. It would bring disgrace upon him. It would lead to embarrassment and then brokenness, let's say it like that. And so not only is the son not needing to go and to really get the retribution that he deserves by sitting out in the public, but the father is running to him, hugging him and kissing him. It simply did not happen. And so you have to understand that it did not happen. There's certain things you just don't do. I've lived in the north for a long time now. I'll tell you two things that you guys in the north, if you're from the north, two things that you don't do that if you love Jesus, you would do. Drink more sweet tea and cheese grits. Does anybody eat grits? Yes. Everybody's like, what is it? It's just Ground corn, but it's good when you put all the butter and stuff in it. They just did not do that. I love this mentality because here's our culture, some friends. Our job is not to be culturally relevant. It's to be biblically relevant. We confuse the two. We confuse that type of thinking. Our job is to represent the word of God, because in our culture, if anybody acted in the way that the son acted, they would come back and we would give them a 448 page document of how they could finally earn favor possibly again, and this is how they have to pay it back. And then we would say, I told you we would care more about being right than righteous. But the picture that's being painted here is not that. The picture being painted is, here's his father in that culture, shame and honor. And rather than bringing shame, he runs out, runs. You don't do that. And grabs his son and kisses him. It is such a powerful, powerful lesson. This has shaped so much of the way that I tried to parent because I, deep inside, I had the I told you so mentality. I told you, listen, I told you if you do that, that's what's going to happen. You did it anyway. That's called being a dum dum. That's so deep in me. And so I work sometimes just to simply go, man, I know that that person is sitting there, my child, or whomever it may be, sitting there in pain. So I try sometimes so hard just to go and hug. And I think about Luke chapter 15. And even as I'm there and they may be in my arms crying, I'm still standing there inside going, oh, I love them so much, but they need to know what they did wrong. Do you see this? Anybody else? Do you relate to this at all? Or are you like, no, I'm a saint. We would do so well to learn more from this parable. And the Pharisees and the religious leaders there in shock, he kissed them, remember? Okay, so if you don't, if you haven't picked up on it yet, we're the prodigal Son and the Father is our Heavenly Father. And what you're seeing is a picture of his eagerness to love you. Isn't that beautiful? Hugs them, kisses them. Friends, did you know, I learned a long time ago that a broken relationship cannot be fixed with money. It's fixed with the heart. All of this is starting to play out. Pharisees didn't get it. They didn't understand it. The reconciliation that's being spoken of and then you come down to verse 22. He says, but the father said to his servants, I love the response. I love the response. It doesn't stop with, I can't believe you're here. I can imagine the tears, right? I can imagine the joy of the father. He's hugging his son and kissing. And then. It doesn't stop there. Here's what he then does. But the father said to his servants, it was never in his mind, by the way. It was. I do not believe it was ever in the mind of the father to immediately make him as one of his servants. But yet that's what the son was desiring. Could I at least be that? The father said to the servants, bring quickly the best robe. What? Put it on him. Put a ring on his hand. So a ring would signify that he is one of mine and in position. So just for the son to hear that, he's probably not even hearing other things. Cause he's getting lost in the fact I'm back in the family. Like, I process it like this. I've got four kids. If one of my kids say, I want my inheritance, I'd be like, fine. And I would give them their $12 and they would leave, and then they would come back. And I'm like, would I admitly just say, you're back in? Think about what that means for the rest of the family. The other. You remember, he's got a brother that's tonight. He's going, wait, you sold everything off to give him his inheritance? And now he's back in. What happened to my cut? Ooh, man. Put a ring on his hand. Shoes on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and let us celebrate. This son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And so they began to celebrate. It's gorgeous. Get the best robe. Put the ring on the finger. For the people listening, this was just. It would have stunned them. And today we would probably. I'm just being honest with you about myself. I would probably be listening to this and then tell him why the father is wrong for treating him that way. Dude, he's not going to learn his lesson, man. He's got to learn his lesson. What's the message? The grace and the mercy of God triumphs over sin even in its very worst day. Grace always wins. This shows undeserved forgiveness, undeserved salvation, undeserved respect. And the son was lavished with love. I think the question is, we just kind of process Some of this, as we wrap up, is this, how is it, what is it that we need to be learning from the Heavenly Father? Some of you struggle to receive that same grace and mercy because you're so hard on yourself. I've led a lot of parenting conferences type thing, and, man, you know, I've got four kids now, five. And I would tell you, every kid you do have parent with the same biblical principles, but they're all different and unique. I have one kid, if I took a switch out the size of an oak tree, he would giggle. I have another kid that when they were young, if I did that to them, they're crumbling to the ground. You know what I'm talking about? And some of you are that person. And you're so hard on yourself. You're actually the one that won't even go back to the father because you're so embarrassed or broken or you're the one who doesn't think that you're deserving of the grace and the mercy because you're so hard on yourself. But yet the Heavenly Father is saying, come here, I want to give you a giant bear hug. Some of you need to learn from the Heavenly Father and go, man, I need to care. I keep using this on purpose. I need to care more about being righteous than being right, Because that's determining how you end up loving and caring for other people. Some of you need to hear this story and go, man, I have a wayward child. And they can return. God can redeem Chapel Point people. There's only like five of you, but God can redeem anyone from anything. Praise be to him. I imagine the hug, right? Imagine seeing my. I think he's in shock. I want to reenact it, and then I'll close this in prayer. Here's the son walking reluctantly. Don't tell me. He's like, oh, this is going to be awesome. That's not happening. He's reluctantly walking, and then all of a sudden, the father is the one sprinting to him. Do I think it's that commercial and then they both start doing this thing? No, I think he was truly engulfed with that bear hug from his father and a kiss on the cheek, and he was so overwhelmed. I can only imagine breaking down in that moment. My encouragement to you is to receive the love. It's beautiful. Amen. God, I praise you. I worship you. I thank you for such powerful love in our life. Some of these friends need to fully recognize that your mercy and your grace is right at their feet. God, let them pick it up. Let them recognize the passion that you have for them. Let them be overwhelmed by you like today. Let each of them, with all the struggles that they may be walking through and the hardship and wayward children or mental just struggles that they may be having or anxiety, it doesn't matter what it is, God, let them be overwhelmed by a heavenly father that runs up to them and gives them a giant bear hug. In Christ's name, amen.