Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you, if you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. And today, in our time together, we are continuing in our series in the book of Luke, and we're actually going to be looking at a story that is very familiar. This is the story of the prodigal son. This may be familiar to you, this may not be familiar to you, but Charles Dickens, of course, an amazing American author, said of the prodigal son: it is the finest short story ever written.
That's what he said about the parable of the prodigal son. And so I've titled this message, The Eldest Brother. The eldest brother. As we look at these two brothers, in our text now in Luke chapter 15. Uh we're gonna see two Foolish brothers, two brothers that made bad decisions, and so the message title is the eldest brother, but you could subtitle it dumb and dumber, because I think that's what these two brothers.
really reflected.
So, Luke chapter 15, starting in verse 11. Let's read together. I'm reading out of the New King James Version. And then Jesus said, A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.
And so he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, But no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself, He said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and here I am perishing with hunger? I will arise and go back to my Father. And I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And so he arose and he came to his father.
But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him. he had compassion, and he ran to his son and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to the father, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the Father, he He said to his servants, Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put on a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it. Let us eat and be merry.
For this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Let's stop there. What a beautiful picture.
What a beautiful example, a story that Jesus shared that ultimately. That is what our Father in heaven is like. He is like the Father waiting for us to come home, looking for the prodigal. I want to break this message into three parts. I want to look at the brothers.
And so, the first brother, the first point that we're going to look at, number one, is the rebellious brother. This is the younger brother. He's the rebellious brother. And you know what? He was a punk.
This younger brother was a punk, wasn't he? Most younger siblings are. I'm a younger sibling, so I can say that, right? Younger siblings can be punks. They get away with more.
They say things that are crazy, right? They have that tendency.
Now, it's interesting to note that the younger brother here wasn't just asking the father for his weekly. Allowance. He wasn't just asking for his monthly allowance or an advance on his allowance or something like that. No, he said, I want my inheritance.
Well, son, you don't get your inheritance until I die, right? What he was asking for was literally for his father to divide his estate. Give me the portion of goods that falls to me. What the Sun was doing was rejecting the Father. He was rejecting the Father.
He was saying, I want your stuff. I want the stuff that you have, but I don't want you. Give me the things that are coming to me when you die. Give me the portion of goods that fall to me. You see, the relationship the son had with the father was a means to an end.
And now he was saying, you know, I'm going to live the way I wanna live. I'm gonna pursue the things that make me feel good. I'm not gonna follow your rules anymore. I'm gonna do what I wanna do, regardless of what you think. And so he rejects the father, he rebels.
and he pursues what makes him feel good.
Now This request, as Jesus was talking to his audience and sharing this story, this kind of thing would have been completely unheard of. In the first century, people would not have acknowledged their son's request, they wouldn't have taken an insult like that so casually.
Now, today, I think for most of us, that's just a normal Tuesday afternoon, right? Our kids ask you, Dad, I wish you were dead. Oh, great, thanks. Anyways, you want to go to Chick-fil-A? Like, great, thanks a lot, bud.
It may seem normal to us, or you know, oh, yeah, our kids are just, that's just how they are, they're spoiled, but in the first century, If they had done that. Um In Jesus' day, the Father would have driven the Son out with verbal and physical blows, and he would have disowned him for this type of disrespect. to even say something like that. But the father in this story, he doesn't do that. Instead, he honors the son's request.
And again, he divides to them his livelihood. And the word that livelihood is interpreted from, translated from, is bio, which of course, bio in the Greek, we get our word biology from, the study of life.
So it means his life. The Father divided his life to them. He divided everything. He had to sell his crops, his livestock, his possessions, and most significantly, his land. In order to answer the son's request.
Now, that land, these things that the father would have had. would have been things that he inherited from his father. And those things that his father had inherited from his father, and his father, and his father, and the status. And the land and the things that they had, the wealth that they had, would have been cultivated over many years very carefully, very conservatively. And so, this son coming in saying, Dad, forget all of that.
I don't care about anything that your great-grandfathers did and whatever else. I just want their stuff. Give me what is coming to me so I can waste it all on this foolish way of living. In those days, land is what gave you your status, your social standing in a community. In many cultures, land is a central part of a family's identity.
If you've watched Yellowstone, you already know that, right?
So the father tears his life apart, his community standing, his wealth, his influence. And again, the people listening to this story would have never imagined a father responding to an insult like this. But Jesus is painting a picture of a different kind of Father. He's painting a picture of a father who has an enduring love despite rejection. We can be like that too.
We can be like that too. We can reject our Father in heaven and only want the gifts that he gives to us, right? God, give me good health. Bless me. Give me money.
Give me this. Give me that. Kill my enemy, right? Like, give me all this stuff. These are the things that I want.
But, God, I don't really care what you want from me. Here's what I want from you. What do you want from me? I'm going to ignore that. Forget that.
I'm good. I'm going to move on. We can do the same thing. We want His protection, His blessing. We want the hope of heaven.
We want the gift. but not the giver of the gifts. God gives to us the greatest blessings in our life. The greatest blessings, and so often we reject him and pursue the gift instead. That is the default setting.
of every human. That's our flesh. That's our pride. And you know, the problem with the prodigal son. The younger brother is not that he wanted too much or that he wanted these things, it's that he was willing to settle for less than what the father actually wanted for him.
See, he wanted to have a fun time, a quick thing, but the father knew that if he gave this stuff to the son, it was going to be gone like that. The father wanted something greater for him. And the same is true with our father in heaven. He wants something greater for us, but we want something inferior. That is the default setting of every human heart, our flesh, our pride.
We want the Father's stuff, but we don't want him breathing down our neck. We want to live the way that we want to live. This is really my story. I was a prodigal. For those of you that don't know, I was born and raised in the church.
Kind of an understatement. My dad is Pastor Greg Laurie, the pastor who founded this church. I grew up on the grounds around here. I played hide and seek, probably in every single row of these seats that you're sitting in, right? And I grew up around here.
And I was very fortunate. I had a wonderful childhood. My mom and dad loved me. They loved each other. They loved the Lord.
My brother was around. He was 11 years older. He was kind of more like an uncle in some ways than a brother. He would beat me up and humiliate me, but then also strongly defend me in front of other people. If I was getting bullied, he'd go and bully the bullies.
He was a good older brother. But as I grew up, you know, people Would ask me the question, Oh, Jonathan, are you going to grow up one day and be a pastor like your dad? Are you going to grow up one day and become a preacher like your dad?
Well, here I am, so I guess they were right.
Okay. But I didn't really want that, if I'm honest. I didn't want that. And in fact, I didn't want it so much that I ran from it. And I decided that the best way to run away from that was to do the most predictable cliche thing for a pastor kid to do.
And that was to go and become a prodigal. Awesome. Yeah, real original, Jonathan. And so I ran from that. You know, there was a pressure.
You know, I did have people tell me, you know, Jonathan, I expect more from you because of who your father is. That doesn't weigh well on a kid, right? Putting those expectations based on who their family is. They were right. I was probably being a complete idiot and Sunday school or whatever else, and I deserve that kind of comment.
They're just a volunteer. But, you know, those kind of comments, I took them to heart. And so as I became a teenager, I ran. I ran from that. I became a prodigal.
I ran and went into drugs and alcohol and partying. And I just tried to make a name for myself, tried to have my identity be the crazy party. Guy and whatever else, so cringe. And I found myself actually to be quite miserable because things went zero to 60 really quick. I went from casually smoking weed and using drugs casually with friends and drinking when I was 16 years old, 17 years old.
And in a matter of six months, I was using drugs every day, multiple times a day, with friends or by myself. I didn't really care. I just wanted to get high. I just wanted to numb myself and get drunk and whatever else. It was really miserable.
I found myself in a place where I was addicted. And as this went on from 17 to 22 years old. I lived this way, and I lived a double life. I would still come to church on Sunday morning. I was a total hypocrite.
I would still come to church Sunday morning, and I would lie to my friends at church on Sunday morning about. Where I was the night before, and I would lie to my friends that I was parting with that night, what I would be doing the next morning. And I found I was living with one foot in each world. And that's a miserable place to be. I had too much of the church to be happy in the world, and too much of the world.
to be happy in the church. And so I decided that I was gonna Break free from this. I was going to quit this lifestyle. I wasn't going to do this anymore. And so I began to try and quit.
And I'd be driving home after partying. I'd have a Ziploc bag of drugs sitting on my passenger seat with pills and weed and whatever else that I could get my hands on. And after partying, two o'clock in the morning, three o'clock in the morning, I'd roll my window down and I'd take that Ziploc bag and I'd say, I'm done with this. And I'd frisbee that thing out the window as far as I could, right? And I go to bed feeling pretty good about myself.
Oh, yeah, I'm going to have a fresh start tomorrow. Everything's going to be okay.
Well, you know what happened. I woke up the next morning and I'd retrace my footsteps. Whoa, what freeway was I on again? And I'd go back and I'd find that Ziploc bag. I can't tell you how many times I went back and I found it.
I went digging through the dumpster. I went diving through the trash, driving on the side of the freeway, trying to look for that. Baggie of drugs, and I bring it back into my life. Wet, run over, gross. I was addicted.
I was miserable. And I was lying to everybody. But there was one person that I was... More transparent with, I was more honest with, not completely, but a lot more than others. And that was my older brother, Christopher.
You see, Christopher, he also was a prodigal for many years. He had a total prodigal season. But at this point in his life, he had repented. He was walking with the Lord. He was married.
He had a little girl. He had another little girl on the way. He was hosting Bible studies in his home, and he really loved me and he was trying to reach me. And we were driving home from church one day, and we were just having the conversation about what an idiot I was. That was a topic that he liked to hit on.
And so he asked me. You know, Jonathan, you know, you're an idiot. He really did say this. He's like, you're an idiot. You keep saying that you want to, you know, get right with God, but then you don't take any steps to actually do it.
And you've had wake-up calls and close calls with, you know, being arrested and DUIs, whatever else. And you've had friends OD and just kind of was going through all this stuff. I'm like, yeah, right. And then he said something to me that really stuck in my mind. It hit my heart.
He said, what's it going to take? What's it going to take for you? What's it gonna take for you to get your life right with God, to give your life to Christ, to give this. Lifestyle up. And I honestly didn't know what to say, but it was a really good question, and it resonated with me.
And I thought about it over the next week. And Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008, I was at a friend's house, and we were partying and using drugs, and I was coming down, and I was laid out on his couch, and I was just like in that place of, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? I don't even do the things I want to do, and I'm doing the things I don't want to do. And then Christopher's question kind of came back into my mind, which I had been thinking about over the last week, and I thought, you know.
Today is the day. I'm done. And so I decided that next morning I was going to call my brother and get in touch with him and ask him to help me get free from this lifestyle. And so I woke up the next morning. I had to go to work, and I was at work, and my boss came in to see me and said, Jonathan, I need to take you home.
Oh shoot, what? Why? I thought I was going to have an intervention, right? And so we're driving home. And we pull up in front of my house and I realize something was very wrong.
And a bunch of people from the church that I recognized from Harvest were in front of our house, a bunch of cars there. And then I looked and I saw my dad in front of our house in the grass, collapse and drop to his knees, and he was crying. I've seen my dad cry a handful of times for sure, but he is not a guy that cries very often, so I knew something was very wrong. I got out of the car and I started to cross the street. I was stopped in the middle of the street by a pastor, and he said, Jonathan.
Christopher was on his way to church. and he was killed in a car accident. And I never got to have that conversation with my brother. And in that moment, It felt like I was completely hollow, like my heart got ripped out of my chest, my stomach was gone, just a wild feeling. And I just began to realize and think about how the one person that really knew me for who I was and loved me.
and cared about me was gone from this world. And I just became so sad and devastated, and I was in shock. As I was just processing all of these things. Christopher's question popped back into my head. What's it going to take?
What's it going to take? And so I went up to my room and I took all my drugs and alcohol and pornography and I just laid it out on the foot of my bed. And I got on my knees and I prayed. I said, God. I've proven to you and to myself that I can't quit this on my own.
I need you to not only take away the addiction, but the desire as well, because I want to numb myself right now more than anything. And I took all those drugs, all that stuff, and I put it in a paper bag and I gave it to a friend. I said, get rid of this for me, and don't tell me where you put it. And I want to tell you that that was 17 years, 18 years, this July 24th, and it's been 18 years that God has delivered me. But he has restored me.
And then he's given me a new purpose and he's made me a new creation.
Now listen, I'll be the first one to tell you, I am far from perfect. I am still a work in progress, as we all are. The process of sanctification is not complete in my life yet. But God, he started that work in my life. And today, I have the hope of heaven.
I have the hope I'll see my brother again. I have restored relationships. Shortly after, I made that profession of faith. I reconnected with a friend from junior high that we knew each other, Brittany, and we ended up getting married 16 months later. And together we have three children: Riley, Allie, and our youngest son, Christopher, who I named after my brother.
And most importantly, I have peace with God. I have a relationship with God. And I want to tell you today: if you're here and that story relates to you and you're not in a relationship with God, listen, I want to tell you: if God can do that for me, He can do that for you. If he can do it for me, he can do it for anybody, I'm telling you. I was jaded.
I had a hard heart, but God got my attention. God loves you, and He's calling you home today as well. And this is what happened with the prodigal son. He hit rock bottom. Right?
It says a famine came into the land and things got really difficult. And all his money ran out, and his friends ran out with the money. That's what you call fair weather friends. Those weren't real friends. And after this young man ran his family name through the gutter and spending his money on wild living and prostitutes.
That famine came in, and for the first time in his life, probably, he was hungry and he didn't have a way to satisfy his hunger. And so he went and found a job working for a guy feeding pigs. That's not a very good job for a young Jewish boy to go do, not exactly kosher, right? And he was feeding the pigs, and he was so hungry that the food, the pigs, the slop they were eating, the garbage they were eating actually became attracted to him. About to put the food to his mouth, that slop to his mouth.
And it says he came to himself. He came to himself. I love that phrase. He came to himself. He snapped out of it.
He became aware in that moment just how depraved he had become. And he came up with a plan to ask his dad to hire him as a ranch hand. And so he comes up with this little speech. I love this. He says, oh, I know what I'll say.
I'll say, Father, I've sinned against heaven and you. And I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Could you just make me one of your servants? And you can imagine as he's making his way home, he's just repeating that little speech to himself over and over and over, just working, okay, this is what I'll say. And if he says this, maybe I'll say this, right?
But it says that while he was a long way off, the Father saw him. The father saw him a long way off, that familiar silhouette. The silhouette of his son, that he loved more than his land, that he loved more than his reputation, that he loved more than anything, he saw his son and he ran to him and he met him and he kissed him over and over and over. That's what the Greek actually implies: not just one kiss, but he embraced him and kissed him over and over. You know, the love that your mother showed you at her best, that drop everything, I love you no matter what, I don't care what you've done, you are still my son, kind of love.
This is what came running down the road to that prodigal son. But it doesn't stop there. The Father gives the Son some very specific gifts. The first thing that he gives to the son is a robe. He gives him a robe.
He says, Go and get the best robe. This would have been the father's robe. Go and give him the best robe and put it on him. He doesn't tell the son to go clean up for his son. You stink.
Before I give you a hug and a kiss and embrace you and give you any clothing to put on, you know, your tattered stuff that you're wearing, you know. Go clean yourself up, take a shower, and we're gonna have a serious conversation about consequences, right? No, he doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. He takes the best robe and he puts it on his son, showing that there is full restoration here.
He covered the son with his own honor. And this is what God does with us. We don't clean our lives up and then come to God, he cleans up our lives when we come to him.
So he gives him his robe. The next thing that the father gives to him is a ring.
Now, this wasn't just like a little mood ring that you get out of like a vending machine. This was a very important ring. It would have been a signet ring, meaning that the son not only had the righteousness, the clothing of the father, but also full restoration of identity and authority. The signet ring would have meant that he could have made decisions on behalf of the father, press that little thing into the wax seal, buy things, sell things, make decisions. The Father gave him full restoration.
Put that ring on his hand. He was not a servant, he wasn't a hired hand, he was a son. The next thing the father gives to him is he calls and says, put some sandals on his feet. The son was barefoot. Throughout history, Um slaves usually don't have shoes.
They don't have shoes. They're not picture of shoes. They don't wear shoes. Shoes were reserved for people that had authority. And so the father immediately says, This is not a slave.
This is not a servant. This is a son. Go and put sandals on his feet. But it doesn't just mean that. It also means the father wanted to prepare him and equip him for the road ahead and the journey ahead.
So he gives the son shoes, puts them on his feet, and equips him. And then the last thing, the fourth thing, my favorite, is the feast. You know, a lot of us have learned over the years the hard way that our bad decisions don't just affect us. It affects the people we love, our parents, our families, our children, the people that we work with, even. Decisions have consequences.
Our bad choices affect the people around us. Reputations can be earned because of the decisions of one child. Rumors can start, gossip spreads, and people, you better believe, would have heard for sure about the behavior of this younger brother. Going into a far-off land, spending his money on a prostitute, wasting all of the family's money on wild living. You know that those rumors came back into town, and people were talking, gossiping, and slandering.
And so the father says, let's have a feast. Go and kill the fatted calf. For this, my son was dead, and he is alive again. Having a feast would have been the father's way of very publicly addressing all of those rumors and all of those questions about the son standing. And this statement says it all: This, my son, was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. The father wanted everyone to know, he is still my son. No matter what he has done, I love him and he's part of my family.
Now, we'd love to put a bow on this and say they lived happily ever after. And this is how it ends. But Jesus continues the story, and he tells us of another brother. This is why you could call the story not just the parable of the prodigal son, but the parable of the prodigal sons, plural, because the older brother is a prodigal as well, but a different kind. Let's read about him in verse 25.
Jesus continues.
Now, his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And so he called one of the servants and asked him what these things meant. And he said to him, Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. But he was angry and would not go in.
Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. And so he said to his father, You know, all these years I've been serving you. I've never sinned against you or broken your commandment at any time, and yet you never even gave me a young goat that I may be merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with prostitutes. You killed the fatted calf for him.
And so the father said to him, Son, You are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost. and is now found. Hmm. Just when you thought everything was going well, right, the older brother comes into the story.
And we see the elder brother, the one who has always done everything right, always been loyal, always been obedient, always behaved himself, and he's furious. He's furious, he's angry, he refuses to go into the party, right? We see that the older brother, there's a contrast, the older brother and the younger brother. They both wanted the same thing. They wanted the father's stuff.
They wanted the father's stuff. They wanted their inheritance. They wanted the father's stuff without the father's heart, though. The younger brother takes his inheritance and rebels and runs. The older brother, he stays and obeys, but only as a means to an end.
And we see the father again demonstrate his love. It isn't just the younger brother he runs out to, it's also the older brother he pursues as well. He goes out to him in the field. Yeah. Excuse me.
He pursues both sons because Both sons are lost. They're both lost. One son is lost in his rebellion. And the other is lost in his self-righteousness. and his performance.
And this is ultimately a picture of religion. But the father loves them both enough to disgrace himself to go out to them and to meet them. This is the biggest party the father had probably ever thrown. He had invited everybody in the community. Everybody would have known about it.
And they would have known that this other son was outside the party, refusing to come in, throwing a temper tantrum. That brings us to number two: the religious brother. This is the older brother, the religious brother. He's a picture of religion. One son tried to control the father by living a bad life, the younger brother.
The older son tried to control the father by living a very good life. And what Jesus was doing here was very masterfully painting a picture of the two audiences that were present at this parable that he was sharing with them. Remember who Jesus was speaking to. It says in verses 1 and 2 of Luke 15. And then all the tax collectors, that was the underbelly of society, the outcasts, the rejects, then all the tax collectors and the sinners.
drew near to Jesus to hear him. And then the second audience in verse 2, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. The Pharisees and the scribes, the religious leaders, they were the older brother in the story. They were the condescending, legalistic, nitpicking, critical older brother who didn't have the father's heart. Like the brother in the story was complaining, they were complaining about Jesus ministering to the tax collectors and sinners.
They would have said, You know, this man Jesus, he considers himself to be a rabbi, some kind of spiritual authority. Look who he is keeping company with: tax collectors, sinners, gross people. You see the religious leaders They were very intentional about their appearances. About how they kept things up. They looked so good on the outside.
Jesus said, You know, on the outside, you're whitewashed tomb, but on the inside, you're full of dead men's bones. Like, this is not a picture of God's heart. And so these men, they were very intentional about the appearances they kept up, even to the point where, if they were walking through a crowded little marketplace, The robes that they would have worn had fringes on the ends of them. They would have actually girded them up and wrapped them up and kind of walked through so that the edges of their clothing wouldn't even touch a sinner, wouldn't touch a woman, wouldn't touch a Gentile. That's how much they wanted to make sure everybody knew they were so much holier than everybody else.
But the fact is, they were unclean. They were elitists. They were holier than thou, condescending, legalistic. They were hypocrites. And by ignoring God's heart for sinners and outcasts, like the tax collectors and the sinners Jesus was preaching to, they, like the older brother, rejected the heart of the Father.
They rejected the heart of God. And worst of all, they actually claimed to represent God. And so they told people, oh, yeah, we represent God, we tell you who God is, but they actually. didn't know God's heart at all. Parents, this is why it's so important that we show God's character to our kids.
A lot of times, kids will base their view of God based on what kind of parents they had, right? Are you a legalist? Are you constantly nitpicking your kids? Are you constantly telling them they're not good enough, acting like everything is always wrong?
Okay, well, they're probably gonna have a tweaked view of God, thinking He's out to get them, thinking that it's all about performance. That's not good. Or maybe you're uncaring, right? You're not disciplinary. You don't discipline your kids.
You don't chasten them. You let them get away with everything. They speak disrespectfully to you, to your wife, to their grandparents, to their teachers. You don't correct them when they lie to you. When they start underage drinking, you just let it slide.
Oh, it's not that big of a deal. You give them unrestricted access when they're little kids on their devices and their iPads to the internet and apps and people. Guess what? You're messing up. You're blown it as a parent if you're doing that.
Listen, we are called to be stewards of our children. We're called to be stewards. They do not belong to us, but we are to raise them in a way that honors God and ultimately sets them up for spiritual success. Listen, if you've messed up as a parent, join the club. We've all messed up.
We all look back, oh man, I wish I didn't do that. I wish I didn't introduce this. That's okay. But the goal is to continue to be better. Recognize those things that you've fallen short and ask God to give you the strength.
Even ask your kids, if necessary, to forgive you. And move on and lead them to the Lord. That's the most important thing we can do as parents: to lead them to Jesus, set them up for spiritual success. Jesus said. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save those who are lost.
So, again, the two brothers, they're a picture of the two types of people in the audience: rebellious. Versus religious. The younger brother disobeyed the father to get what he wanted, and he came to the father with humility and repentance. The older brother obeyed the father to get what he wanted, but he came to the father in pride and arrogance and anger. Though he was obedient to the father, he did not have the father's heart.
The religious leaders didn't care about God's heart. They only cared about how it benefited them. We see throughout the pages of Scripture, God cares for the outsider. He cares for the people that are the underbelly of society, those that are sinners, even the pagans and idolatrous people. Think of the story of Jonah.
God called Jonah, a prophet in Israel, to go and preach all the way in Nineveh and go and tell them that God wanted to spare them, but they needed to repent. And Jonah ran from that. He hated the Ninevites. He didn't want anything to do with them, but God had a heart for them. Look at Rahab the prostitute, a Canaanite woman that was a prostitute, an immoral woman.
They were guilty of worshiping false gods and sacrificing to Baal. These were not people you wanted to be associated with. In fact, God judged the Canaanites big time. But God spared Rahab because she had a heart for him. He went out of his way to reach her.
Throughout Scripture, we see that God goes after these types of people, but the religious leaders did not care because they only wanted to use their religion to benefit themselves, just to advance themselves. They didn't care that God wanted to add more members into the family. They just wanted to benefit themselves. That's it. And so that's why, when Jesus came, like the loving Father, receiving sinful people and forgiving them.
They knew this was bad for business, this was bad for the status quo, and so they crucified him. But what they didn't realize was that in crucifying Jesus, they were actually fulfilling the very story that Jesus had just told them. Because there is actually a third brother in this parable. The eldest brother in this parable that we can miss if we're not careful. And he's hiding in plain sight.
Think with me for a moment about what the younger brother needed, right? The father in his heart was broken. He wanted his younger brother, his younger son rather, to come home. But nobody went and got him. Was this not the job of an older brother?
Is this not the kind of thing that an older brother should have done? Hey, I love my dad, and so I'm going to go pursue him. Like I loved my daughter, I care about the things that she cares about.
So I drove down the street with a flashlight looking for a rat at 11 o'clock at night, right? The older brother should have been going and trying to accomplish the father's heart. Bring that prodigal son back home. He didn't just need forgiveness. He needed someone to go and get him.
Someone to enter that far country, to find him in that pigsty, to put him in a headlock. It knocks some sense into him. And pay whatever it costs to bring him home. The older brother should have done that, but he was too lost in his own pride and arrogance, right? And his own self-righteousness.
So who? Who then can we think of leaves the safety of their home? and travels to a far country to find the ones who were lost. Who pays the debt that couldn't be paid? Who becomes the very embodiment of our sin so that we could be clothed in righteousness?
There's only one answer, and it's point number three. Lastly, the redemptive brother. The redemptive brother. Romans 8:29 says, For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Yes, in this scripture, Paul compares Jesus to an older brother.
That is what the youngest brother needed. That is what the prodigal needs. Jesus is the third brother. He is the one who left the comfort of heaven and came to earth to seek and to save the lost. And I want to tell you, he is calling your name today.
He is looking for you. He loves you. I don't know what kind of father or mother you had growing up. I don't know if you had an older brother that looked out for you like I did. But I do know that God is a father that will never let you down.
And Jesus is like that older brother who moves heaven and earth so you can come home. And he loves you. And he has a plan for your life. The way Jesus did that wasn't with a flashlight, it was on a cross. He made a way when there was no way.
He took on the very embodiment of sin. He became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. On the cross, Jesus was stripped of everything so we could be clothed in a robe that we didn't earn. On the cross, Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This was the only moment in all of Scripture where Jesus didn't call God Father.
Why? Because he was being treated as the prodigal that you and I are, so that we could be welcomed home as sons and daughters. He took your rebellion. He took your rejection. He took your religion and everything that stood between us and the Father and absorbed it on that cross.
And on the third day, Just like Louis came home unexpectedly, on the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead. He rose again from the dead. And by doing that, he proves that he has the power over death. That is the gospel. That is what Jesus has done for you.
And so, in closing, I wanna ask you. the question that my brother asked me over 17 years ago. What's it gonna take? What's it going to take for you to give your life to Christ? You know, some of you probably are here and you got drugged here by your mom.
It's Mother's Day. I guess I'll come to church, mom. You know, the best thing you could do, not just for your mom, not just for the people that care about you, but for yourself. is to give your life to God. It is to turn from that sin, to turn from your rebellion, to turn from your prodigal days, and come and live with Him and know His heart and follow His pathway for your life.
It's the best thing that you could do.
Some of you might be here and you're like, Jonathan, I am not like you. I didn't drink, I didn't do drugs, I didn't party. Listen, I'm pretty upright, I've got a college education, I'm married, I have kids, I'm doing pretty well in life. You know, I have a nice car and a nice home. Hey, that's great, but you're missing the most important thing.
A relationship with God. What's going to happen when you die? What's going to happen when you face eternity? God's going to ask you: what did you do with my son? What decision did you make?
Did you reject him? Did you receive the gift that he offered to you? The gift of eternal life, the gift of forgiveness. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you.
for each and every person that are here now. Lord, we thank you that you found us in that far country, that wreckage, that pixty. You ran to us. Others of us, you found us in the field, faithful and clean on the outside, but cold and far from you. on the inside.
God, you meet us where we are at. You give us exactly what we need. We don't deserve it. But you run to us. We thank you, Lord.
Thank you for sending Jesus to rescue us from our sin. He is our Savior. He is that loving. Self-sacrificing older brother. the many here never got to have.
Lord, we know that there are some here that are still prodigals. They may still be a long way off in a sense, living wildly, pursuing their own sinful urges. Or maybe they're buttoned up and again, highly educated, calculated, clean. But they're far from you. Lord, would you help them to come home today as well?
Help them to believe at this very moment. wherever they are. I pray for every person listening. And now our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying. How many would here would say, yeah, that's me.
I'm ready to come home. I'm ready to come back to God. I'm ready to give up my prodigal living. And have a relationship with Jesus and receive that forgiveness that He offers. If that's you, wherever you are, would you raise your hand up?
And I wanna lead you into prayer. Yeah, you heard me right. Wherever you are, raise your hand up, and I want to lead you in a prayer. God bless you. God bless you.
Anybody else? Raise your hand up high where I can see it. God bless you. And you. You may be watching from Harvest Orange County or on a screen somewhere, and I can't see you.
That's okay. The Lord sees you, and this is ultimately what matters most. This is between you and God. What's it gonna take? What's it going to take?
What wake-up call do you need? For God to send to you to get your attention. He loves you. He loves you. When are you going to come to yourself and realize that living with your Father in heaven is far better than anything you could ever do for yourself?
Some of you have been looking for life in the wrong places, and pleasure, and relationship, and success, and religion. And like millions before you, you've realized there's nothing there. And if you're honest, you'll admit that you've said to yourself, there has to be something more.
Well, you're exactly right. You see, Jesus, he said, I came to give life and life more abundantly. A relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the best way to live your life, is the most fulfilling and peaceful, and you can have it today. It's time to come home. And so, if you want to receive Jesus Christ today, wherever you are, I'm going to ask now that you stand up, that you stand up, and I want to lead you in a prayer.
If you raise your hand, stand up. If you raise your hand, or even if you did not, stand up, and we'll pray together. Amen. This is between you and God. Jesus says, If you acknowledge me before people, I will acknowledge you before the Father and the angels in heaven.
What are you waiting for? Stand up. Stand up. God bless you. God bless you.
Anyone else? Stand up. Some of you raise your hand and you're not standing. I don't know why you would do that, but listen. God loves you.
And you need to make a public stand today. This could be the moment that you've been waiting for. Don't put it off. You don't know what tomorrow holds. You don't know how long it's going to be before you face God.
You could live to a ripe old age, or you could. Die today. You could die tomorrow. We don't know what's going to happen. Get right with God now.
Stand up. And we'll pray together. God bless you. God bless you. Anybody else?
All right. For those of you that are standing, I'm just going to ask that you would pray this prayer out loud after me. Meet it in your heart. This is you talking to God, your Father in heaven, who loves you and is waiting for you to come home. He sees your silhouette and he wants to run to you.
Pray this now, dear God. I know that I'm a sinner. But I know that Jesus is the Savior. Who died for my sin. And I turn from that sin.
From this moment forward. God, would you forgive me? Would you restore me? Would you heal me? Father, would you make me a new creation?
from the inside out. I choose to follow you. from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God. Yep.
