Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. This message is all about God's invitation through His Son Jesus Christ for you to come home.
Just come home. Welcome to A Call to the Nation. In Luke, chapter 15, Jesus tells the familiar prodigal son parable, how the youngest son took off to a distant land and squandered his father's inheritance. In this week's message, Carter will explain why the father accepted his son back home joyfully and why this story is so imperative for believers in Jesus Christ. Let's join Carter Conlon now with today's message, The Incredible Kindness of Jesus.
The incredible kindness of Jesus. And there's nowhere else that you see it probably more in a story than in Luke, chapter 15. Now here's the scene. It doesn't say whether it's in a house. It doesn't say whether it's in a field. We really don't know the exact location.
We can't even surmise on that. But the scripture says in chapter 15, verse 1 of the Gospel of Luke, all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to hear him. Isn't that interesting? And in verse 2, it says the Pharisees and the scribes complained saying this man receives sinners and eats with them.
So here's the crowd. You've got those that know that they're probably very distant from God, but they feel very comfortable in his presence. Then you have those who feel that they're very close to God and they feel very uncomfortable in his presence.
Isn't that interesting how that can happen? Those that strove hard in their religiousness. You know that Jesus is about to teach a parable where there were two sons and the one was a son who worked hard to gain his father's favor, I'm sure. But his religion was angry and it was joyless and he even testified to that at the end of this particular story. The other son was a younger son and at a certain point in chapter 15 and verse 11, he just said, I'm out of here. I just don't want to live my life like this.
I find it too rigid, too strict. I've often felt it was because of the older brother that the younger brother decided to leave the father's house. He might have said in his heart, well, this older brother of mine is going to inherit the house and if I have to live under his condemning ministry, which is what the Pharisees and scribes were, then I'm out of here.
I'd rather be a tax collector or a sinner than to live in this place. So the scripture says, Jesus told this story. A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. And he divided to them his livelihood.
And not many days after the younger son gathered everything together and journeyed into a far country. And there he wasted his possessions on prodigal living. And other translation basically says he wasted his inheritance on self-focus.
He focused on himself. He lost the heart of his father, forgot what his father's kingdom was all about. And it became all about me, myself, my future, my personal aggrandizement, whatever it was.
The whole thing became about me. So he took the life that his father had given him, the heritage, the title, the giftings maybe that were given to him, the resources to accomplish what his life was supposed to be. And he took it all and he went into a place that was far, far away from the heart of his father. I'm not sure he really knew how far away from his father he was going. I have no doubt that he continued to confess that, maybe to a few at least anyway, that he was his father's son, that he came from this house.
This was his background. Throughout history, quite often when a generation turns away from God, turns away from the purpose of God. I'm not just saying in their heart they don't think they've turned from God. But they turn from the purpose of God, which is ultimately about other people. And they gravitate to a gospel that now focuses on themselves. That's exactly what this prodigal son did. He turned away from what the real purpose of his life was.
He turned away from the heart of his father. And he crafted his own sense of well-being, his own sense of religion, perhaps. And in every generation, when the house of God has become legalistic and strict, which Pentecost in particular, and some other denominations as well, has a tendency to gravitate towards, where it all becomes about the length of clothing. It all becomes about outward appearance and church attendance and picking up your broom and doing your work and service for the house of God. And then suddenly the whole focus begins to shift and the house of God becomes a joyless place. And a lot of people, they don't want to go to hell, but they don't want to be there either. And if this is the way to heaven, they say, I'm just taking what I've got and I'm going to maybe find another way.
I'm going to find another purpose. And I've always believed that whenever you find rigidity coming into religion, you'll find another generation that have taken this inheritance of God and they've gone far, far away from the heart of God. And if we had a chance to really do a sociological study, I think we might see that happened to a great degree in America. You had a generation that turned from rigidity and they wanted freedom. They wanted to dance in the house of God. They wanted to express their faith, but nobody would let them move.
They wouldn't let them do anything. So they, they took their inheritance of life that's promised them through the son of God. And they went into a place where it was all just about me now. It was about my future. It was about my happiness. It was about my life.
It was, it was all just about me, myself and I. And they gravitated maybe to even churches that preach that way and talk about spiritual life as if that's all it's about as opposed to being left here for the sake of others who are headed into an eternal place without God and don't know it unless somebody pays the price in some cases to go and to tell them about it. And so he took his inheritance and he went into a place that was far, far away from his father and he, and he wasted his possessions. He, he had giftings. He had an inheritance, but he wasted it. He just used it for himself. Everything that was given him, it was no longer just speaking about things to come for the sake of others. It was all about things to come for the sake of himself as it is. But when he spent everything, in other words, he exhausted himself. And, and when you live for yourself, I tell you it's an exhaustive life. It eventually hits a wall. It eventually, AIDS catches up with everybody.
Eventually the dreams don't materialize or they do and they, they turn out to be not what they promised that they were going to be. And there arose a severe famine. Can anybody debate with me that there is not a severe famine in America?
Can you hold to that position? There is a famine like I never thought I'd live to experience. A famine of civility, a famine of truth. People don't seem to even care what truth is anymore. It's just truth is not based on fact anymore. Truth is just based on what I think truth should be in our modern day society. It's, it's like living in a bizarre world.
It's, it perplexes the mind of anybody who, who is a believer in Christ and who wants a foundation of, of truth where there is a right, there is a wrong, there's a reality, there's an, there's an unreality. And he went and he, there was a severe famine and he began to be in want. And I, I wish I had time to read the prayer quest tonight that are on the tablet from people who are just so fed up being where they are. Christians, I'm tired of crying at night. I'm, I'm tired of, I'm tired of the addiction in my life. I'm tired of running from, from relationship to relationship. I'm, I'm tired of the alcohol. I'm tired of the, I'm tired of all the endless pursuit and going nowhere. There's a lot more people out there that are just saying, I'm just so tired. I'm just so tired.
I'm in want. And the scripture says in verse 15, he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to, to feed swine. It speaks to me of the kind of a person who just, he gets, he gets tired. He doesn't want to go back in a sense to what he left behind.
He doesn't see it as worth it at this time. So he, he, he garners a cause. He just, he finds himself out there cause driven, may have put it that way. A lot of our young people are cause driven, but they're not even sure what the cause is. Just a lot of slogans. Some have a marginal understanding of what it is that they're looking for.
What, what kind of a society are we looking for? And they're, they're just being driven by causes even though they're not quite sure what those causes are. And their, their presence is feeding something that they shouldn't be feeding. Their presence maybe is feeding anger and division.
This young boy was a Jewish boy. The last thing he should have been feeding through his life was swine because it is the most unclean thing to a child of God of that time. And here he is in a field and his presence is feeding it. In other words, allowing it to exist. And I, I speak now to young people who are in places you shouldn't be. And you're feeding things you shouldn't feed.
Your presence is feeding it. That's not what you're called to be. That's not what the father has destined for your life. It's what you are trying to do to fill a void in your heart that only God can fill in your life. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate or the pigs were eating and no one would give him anything.
It was a place that was so filled with selflessness even though it purported to be a place of compassion and love. Everything matters. You're going to notice today everything matters. Everybody's holding up a sign that this matters, that matters, this matters, that matters. Everybody's fighting over what really matters. I've never seen a sign ever one time that said Christians matter. Have you ever noticed that?
I've never seen that ever at any time. And I'm, I'm somewhat thankful for that because what's happening is that God is causing the world to reject you as a believer, as his son, as his daughter, as the one created in his image, as the one whom he has a plan for that's so much bigger than anything that you could ever imagine for your life. He's not allowing you to find satisfaction being in a place that you shouldn't be. And this, this young boy is out in this field and everything matters but him. It just seems like who cares about me? I'm, everything around me seems to matter but I don't matter. And you know the reality is that maybe he didn't really matter to the fallen society around him but he mattered to somebody whose eye was still on him. He mattered to the one who created him. He mattered to the one who loves him with an everlasting love who engraved him on the palm of his hands. He mattered to this wonderful father who seemingly had let him go into this place without resistance but had never left the front porch where he was watching and waiting for him to come home. I wish you could fully understand how much God loves you, how much he cares and how kind he is willing to be towards you. The Bible says, Jesus said in this story he's telling now to tax gatherers, sinners, Pharisees and Sadducees, they're all there. The religious are there, the non-religious are there, the people have abandoned the house of God of that time.
They're all there, they're all listening. And he said suddenly this young son, he came to himself. In other words, he just had an epiphany. The epiphany is simply this, what am I doing here? I'm created in the image of God. I'm created by God for the purposes of God. I'm created for something greater than what I'm doing.
He came to himself. My prayer is that there's somebody listening to this message, you will just simply come to yourself and just say, I'm not created to live here. I'm not created to do these things. And I'm not created to give my life holy to some cause that is short. It might be even a good cause, but it's short of what my life is called to be. It's short of what could be accomplished through my life. God can do something that's exceedingly above and beyond all that I can even ask or think. And he started to think about the people in his father's house that had bread enough to spare.
He said, but I perish with hunger. Maybe he started to think about some of the old folks that he'd seen in the house of God in his early years that he thought were so off the wall. The ones that would get up and clap their hands and hoot and holler and do a Jericho march around. I know a lot of young people were so embarrassed by that when they'd see their parents and the older folks doing that, especially teenagers. They would just be so embarrassed to bring their friends to the house of God, just afraid that sisters so-and-so was going to get up and do her thing or brothers so-and-so or the preachers going to get all excited and dance all over the platform. And suddenly there's this memory that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.
Whatever they had, they seemed to be satisfied with it. And I'm perishing with hunger out here. So it's almost as if he begrudgingly, at least in the beginning, gets up and says, well, I'm going to go home. And even if being under the ministry of my brother is bad, at least it's not as bad as it is out here. And he gets up and he's trying to figure out, what is it that I'm supposed to say? How is it that I'm supposed to be received back into the fellowship as it is? And he comes to the conclusion, maybe that was his experience, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.
And that one statement, the first statement that comes out of his mouth is very telling. It's to sin against heaven means in his heart, he's saying, I've lost my eternal reward. You know, you have promised that we're going to rule and reign with you. You promised Lord that there are giftings that are going to be rewards given out. And when we get into your presence and but sinning against heaven, that means that I've lost my place. I've lost my eternal reward. So that means my future, my eternal future is jeopardized because of what I've done. And I've sinned before you, which means my present is also marred, means you'll never look at me the same again. It means you'll always be looking at me askance, Father, you'll always be wondering when I'm going to leave again. You'll always be thinking the back of your mind about what I did to the family name and the disgrace I made and the waste I propagated by taking the things that you've given me and just using them on myself. And a sense of shame came into his heart and he said, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
Make me one of your hired servants. So in other words, to come back to you, Father, to come back to your house means I'm going to be living in perpetual shame for the rest of my life. You know, a lot of people who have wandered away from the kingdom of God feel that way about themselves. I'd come back, but I've already blown it. I've blown my my eternal inheritance.
I've blown the favor of God, God's favor. He'll never trust me again because of what I've done with my life. And I'm destined in a sense for a life of shame. I don't want to share my testimony. I don't want to be the one to get up in church and say what my life has been because everyone else has this glorious victory story and mine is just such a disaster and a disgrace. And I would be ashamed to open my mouth. So I'll just sit there and I'll just hang my head and I'll take up my broom like my brother and I'll just work for the favor of God.
The scripture says he rose and he came to his father, but when he was still a long way off, you see, he couldn't see his father. And some of you today, you're listening to me and you're a long way off. In your heart, you said, I just want to go back. Some are just so drug addicted you can hardly hear me. You can hardly think.
There's a man just listening. I can sense in my heart that you're barely sober, but at least you're still listening and you're a long way off. And in your heart, maybe the tears are even starting into your eyes now. And you said, I just want to get up and I just want to go home.
I'm tired of living like this. I want to go back to, or maybe even find something I never knew about my father before. And when he was a great way off, it says his father saw him. He didn't see his father. His father saw him. You might not have a clear view of God, but God has a clear view of you. And it said his father had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
I don't know if there's a greater demonstration. Now this means it's written in red in my Bible because it's spoken directly by the mouth of Jesus. He is now conveying the heart of God. He is telling the people who are listening why God sent him into this world because God was running after those who even marginally could get up and start heading back to him again.
His father ran, fell on his neck and kissed him. Can you imagine what this boy felt like as he looked down the road and from a distance he sees this older man come running towards him. And in the beginning he's not sure, is he coming at me in anger? Is he coming and telling me don't come near my house.
Get away from here after the disgrace you've made. Why is he running towards me? And as he gets closer and closer and closer, there would be these doubts. There would be this war. And I'm telling you there's some to come back to God that you're going to have to fight through this war. You have to fight through these thoughts that you've blown your inheritance and God's found his favor with you and you will always be in a position of shame in the sight of the father. And how shocked he must have been when suddenly his father falls on his neck and kisses him.
Now this boy has been in a field with pigs. It is the most abhorrent thing to a Jewish person. His father's Jewish.
He's Jewish. Now, in other words, when the father embraced him, he took the smell of that son upon himself. In other words, I'm not ashamed of you son. And when Jesus Christ went to the cross and he opened his arms wide with those nails through his hands and through his feet, he took the smell of your sin and my sin upon himself.
Everything you have done, everything you will do, everything you are doing, he took it upon himself. And all he asks you to do is just get up and with whatever amount of strength you have, you start making your way back to me again. I see you.
I know where you are. And you might just be staggering towards me, but I will come running towards you. I will embrace you.
I will cover you. And this boy would have known that his father had just taken his uncleanness upon himself because he would be unclean by his association with things that were in advance to the Jewish culture at that time. And he would know that his father had taken the smell and the reality of his uncleanness upon himself. And not only that, but kissed him, embraced him, loved him.
It would have been a shocking moment. I don't think the boy knew how to deal with this because he started with his prayer again. He said, father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father doesn't respond to him.
He doesn't answer him, doesn't agree with him. The first thing the father does is clap his hands as I see it and says, bring out the best robe and put it on him. A robe that is reserved for royalty, a robe that is reserved for an honored guest in the father's house and in the kingdom of God, the cleanest robe that is available to anyone who comes to God is the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. And he said, put the robe on him. And when that robe was put on him, he was completely covered. He now no longer looked like somebody who just climbed out of a pigsty. He now had the robe of royalty on him. He was now an honored guest in the father's house, not a guest actually, he was a son. And then he said, put the ring on his hand, the ring of authority, the ring that the father gave to those who were the most trusted in his house.
I want you to hear me on this. He would have been so shocked. Not only did the ring have power, it had the power of the father's seal. In other words, whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. He put the ring of authority on. So when that son put the seal of that ring on anything, it had the weight and power of the father and his whole house behind it. Incredible, incredible that the father would give this boy this ring because it was only given to those that were trusted. You remember he thought my father will forever be looking at me with a sideways glance, never trusting me again. And suddenly before he has a chance to even prove his worth, he's now covered and trusted in the sight of his father.
I'm talking to you about this incredible kindness of God through Jesus Christ, his son. And then on top of all of that, he says, put sandals on his feet. Now that's an interesting concept because usually an encounter with God, if you look at the encounter that Moses had, that Joshua had with God, for example, the command is always take your shoes off of your feet. In other words, God said to Joshua and Moses, I don't want your strength. I don't want your plans.
I don't want you injecting your ideas into my kingdom. I want you to humbly walk before me and do what I tell you to do. But now you see the father has a son who's been broken. The son now knows what he is without his father. He understands grace. He understands the kindness of God, the mercy of God.
He says, now put his shoes on because he's not going to fight with me. He's not going to bring his own ideas into this kingdom, but I'm going to send him on a journey now where he's going to be actually doing what his life is supposed to do. He's going to be telling other people about the kindness of his father. Isn't it amazing?
It's not going to be about 10 steps to this and seven steps to that and all the rest of this stuff. Maybe that the older brother was just so proud of the formulas that he'd come up with for God's kingdom. This boy's message was, you just got to know my father. You just got to meet my father. My life was a mess. I had ruined everything, but I came home.
He ran to me, he kissed me, covered me, empowered me, and he invited me to tell others about him. You just simply have to know who my father is. And that is what this message is all about. It's about God's invitation through his son, Jesus Christ, for you to come home. It's no more difficult than that. And don't make it difficult.
Just come home. Your life might be a mess, but your message will be about mercy. Your message will be about the kindness of God. You know, generally speaking, that's why new believers have a tendency to win more people to Christ than older believers. Because the new believer knows it's all mercy.
The older believer starts to feel they've had a little bit to do with their redemption, and they lose the message in the long run. But oh God, I can see it in my spirit. I can see people just getting up. I see you half drunk in your living room. I can see you actually in, you're in a kitchen. Your chairs are plastic if you wonder who I'm talking to in your kitchen. And you are about to get up and come home to God.
Your life will never be the same again. You don't have to know all the Greek and the Hebrew of the Bible. You don't have to be a theologian. You just have to say, you just got to know my father. I want to tell you what he did in my life. He's transformed me. He met me when I was in my deepest mess and confusion. Covered me, empowered me, and invited me to tell you who he is. Will you come home with me?
I want to introduce you to my father. Don't make it difficult. Don't try to add things to it.
Don't try to formulize it. You died for me, Jesus, on a cross. You paid the price for my wrong doing, which the Bible calls sin. You invited me to a place where you could cover my wrong doing. You could give me the power to live a new life. And you could give me a message and make my life what it was supposed to be when you formed me in my mother's womb. And so my message to you from the heart of God is come home.
Just get up and come home. Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. You can count on a powerful message each week on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-25 22:43:14 / 2024-01-25 22:53:51 / 11