The Prodigal and the Perfectionist - Receiving Grace, Part 2

I bet you've heard that expression, God helps those who help themselves. Can I tell you, absolutely nothing in the world could be farther from the truth. If you want to know why, stay with me.

That's today. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher on this international discipleship program, and I'm Dave Druey. I think it's safe to say we all know the sinking feeling of losing something valuable, and our rejoicing over the lost thing found is directly proportional to its value.

Our happiness over finding a lost shoe doesn't compare to the joy of rescuing a lost child. If you've ever struggled with feeling lost or unworthy, Chip continues his series, The Prodigal and the Perfectionist, describing God's joy over rescuing everyone who seeks his help. So let's join Chip for part two of his message, Receiving Grace, from Luke chapter 15. In the Jewish culture at the time, there was a bond servant. If you read through the Old Testament, this is someone who served a master, and there's such a love relationship. At some point in time, he says, I never want to not be your servant. And literally, they would go against a post, and they would take an awl, and they would drive a hole, and they'd put an earring, and that would mean he's a bond servant, a part of this family. And he just says, I'm a part of the family to be well taken care of, and I never want to be sold.

I never want to leave. Then there were other servants or slaves, and then there were hired workers. The bond servants would often live in the house. The hired workers would often live on the estate, the other servants, and then they were the casual workers.

And this is the word he's referring to. These were people, like if you go to a Walmart parking lot, if you go to a Target parking lot, and people that are looking for work, and they're just kind of hanging out hoping that, you know, hey, do you need some help today? That's what these people did. They got up every day. They lived in town, didn't have any regular work.

They were called hired help. And what goes through this guy's mind is his father is good and kind and generous, because he wouldn't have to do this, but he takes care of the bond servants. He takes care of the slaves on the estate, but these hired workers, all they really deserve is, hey, look, here's your paycheck, but no, no, no, no. They're treated like family.

They eat plenty. He takes care of them. He's now remembering what kind of man his father is, and he realizes at this point, and by the way, this is how a lot of us come to the father. It's called desperation. I mean, I'd love it if it was some great holy moment we said, you know what?

My life is so wonderful. I don't know if there really is a God, but I think out of the goodness and wonderfulness of my heart, I think I will pursue the God that is. In fact, the matter is we are high control people that tend to be very selfish by nature. We get it very naturally. You don't have to teach your kids to be selfish. You'd have to teach your kids to fight. You'd have to teach your kids to be greedy. And when they grow up, they become like us, where we do it in very sophisticated ways, where we can actually look nice and sweet and still be selfish and greedy.

Right? You guys don't like that too much, but it's true. And it's when we're desperate. It's when we realize, you know what? I can't make this marriage work. Or, you know what?

I've been to a lot of doctors, and this isn't going to go away. Or, you know, I've tried this job, this job, this job, and by now I thought I would be here, and I'm here. Or I'm struggling, and I'm discouraged, and I'm depressed, and I'm trying hard to have a positive attitude, and I'm listening to those self-help tapes, but it's just not working. You know, there's at some point where you find yourself next to a bed with one of your children in ICU, and you don't know if they're going to make it. And all of a sudden, the reality of what matters in life versus all the stuff and all the junk and all the pressure, and you cry out to God like never before.

And what's amazing is, instead of being sort of consistent and going, well, I noticed when things were going well, you weren't talking to me much. You meet a God whose arms are open, and that's what Jesus is trying to teach them. And so He decides that He's going to put a little speech together. He says, I'll go back home, so I'll return. And you might put in parentheses, repent. There's a partial repentance, but it's not full.

He still doesn't get it. There's a partial repentance. What He's repenting of is the consequences and realizing doing life His way doesn't work, so He's going to return.

This is a logical movement. Second, He goes, I will confess. So He's going to at least come clean, and there's a new self-awareness. Look, I fell short. I've sinned. I sinned against God. I sinned against you, Dad.

OK? But notice He's going, I will make restitution. See, His point is He's going to go back in that village, and He's going to say, I don't expect to live in the house as a son. I don't expect to be a bondservant.

I don't even expect to be one of those, you know, kind of slaves that are on the estate. What I want to do is I want to come back, and I'm going to live in town, and I'm going to come, and I'm going to start paying off my debt. I'm going to pay it. I'm going to pay it. I'm going to pay it until, you know, after a while, you know, we're going to get the balance sheet right, and maybe, just maybe, if I do real well, and, you know, maybe I can get into good graces again. That's His game plan.

In fact, it was absolutely consistent with the romantic teaching of the time. And then, finally, He says, I'll do it now. So He got up, and He went.

He got up, and He went. Now, the expectations and fears and perspective of what's going to happen from a Middle Eastern peasant village really gets pretty exciting at this point. And this is when we learn some really, really amazing things about God. So we pick up the text. He's come to His senses.

He's got His speech already. So He went to His Father, verse 20, and while He was still a long way off, and you might circle these key words, His Father saw Him and was filled with compassion and He ran to His Son, and He threw His arms around Him, and He kissed Him. Now, again, you need to understand, if this would have happened in this day, from this village, from this mindset, here's how it's supposed to work. Here's how it always works. This picture is crazy. This picture has never, ever happened before. It's never going to happen.

This is a crazy, crazy, crazy picture. The Son is gone. The Father never goes looking for Him. He has already declared before the village. In fact, they had a special ceremony when a kid would go through this.

It was called the Serachah, and it was a ceremony. They would take a stone. My Son is dead. And the village would come together and say, He is unworthy. He doesn't represent our village anymore.

There's a much bigger communal mindset of these kind of people. And so, hey, this is kind of people. And so, hey, He's done. He can't come back here.

There's no room for Him. He's dead. That would be the typical response of a father. Now, if He did come back with His tail between His legs, as He is, here's what He would expect. First of all, the young boys in the village, kind of preteens and teenagers, would heckle and mock, and they would throw dirt and throw stones at Him. If His father didn't get there before the elders of the village, the elders could rightfully, because of the disgrace on His father and the disgrace of the village, they could have stoned Him. That's what He deserved. And so the reason He didn't, like, get up and just go immediately was He was afraid.

So He had to get really, really, really hungry, like, you know what? I don't have a good option. I don't even have a bad option.

But this is my only option. So I'm gonna go and I'm gonna hope maybe my dad will be gracious and I can be a hired hand. And do you understand what Jesus, do you understand the picture He's making of God the Father? See, because this younger son is the prostitutes and the tax collectors. This younger son is all of us, all of us apart from the work of Christ. All of us selfish, whether we're sophisticated or not.

All of our immorality, all of our greed, all of our stuff, all of our my way, I want mine, I want it now, mindset. And here's the picture of God. First of all, He saw Him from a long way off. That meant every single day He must have gone looking. The second thing He says, He's motivated. It says He's filled with compassion.

The word is splotchna. Literally, it's your gut or your intestines. In Jewish culture, they didn't, the seat, they thought it was down in your gut because, you know, when something emotional happens, you know how something happens down deep, you know, in your stomach and it kind of moves?

They thought that the real heart of emotions was down in here. And it means to be deeply moved, to be deeply moved, to be emotionally touched. And so He's looking and He cares and He has this heart.

And instead of rejecting or He's dead to me, He sees Him and then He does the unthinkable. He runs. Literally, the word is He sprinted or He raced. And He would have had a robe, so He would have lifted up His robe and run. A man, 25 and older, never ran in a Jewish village.

Children run. A man would never show his ankles or his knees. It would be absolutely shameful.

Culturally unacceptable. The father doesn't care what anybody thinks. So He runs. And then when He runs, He throws His arms around Him and He embraces Him.

The kid can't get through the speech. And then the word for kissing, He kisses Him repeatedly. There's a sense of that which was precious. It's a picture of a little girl lost in the woods and all of us have fanned out for two and a half days and we don't think she can live. And the rangers and those helicopters, everyone's been looking.

And someone finds her and they pick her up and the cameras are there and they take this little girl and her mom and dad see the little girl and she's alive. That's what's happening here. And the Pharisees are going, what? See, He's just redefined the Father heart of God for them. And He's just redefined the Father heart of God for us. That's how God feels about you when you're far away. It's how God feels about me. That's how God feels about people that are living together. That's how God feels about people that are living together. It's how God feels about people with sexual and porn addictions. That's how God feels about alcoholic and prescription addictions. That's how God feels about people that are skimming and doing things at work that are illegal. That's how God feels about moms and dads that are involved in affairs on the side. That's how God feels about people that have left their kids and done some really stupid and painful things. That's how God feels about all of us. It's grace. It's something in Him that compels Him to love you.

It's not something in you or me that compels Him to love us. It's His goodness. It's His grace. It's His generosity. It's mind-boggling, isn't it? And when you see it culturally, you can understand why in the world these Pharisees are. Well, notice the story goes on. So the Son goes from a partial repentance, right?

He's come back. He said the right words. But see, the Son always thought of sin like the Pharisees and like most of us. Sin is breaking a rule. The word sin means missing the mark. Literally, it's to fall short of the glory of God.

It's used in ancient literature of someone shooting a bow and it falling short of the target. The word transgression, also translated sin, is there's a line. Do not cross the line. I transgress. I cross the line. I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway. But what people tend to think of sin is don't break the rules. And so the Pharisees were really good at keeping the rules. Sin always is primarily not an issue about rules.

It's about relationship. The younger son, when he repented, I broke the rules. Here's the consequences. I got to go back. Okay, I'm going to say my speech. Got it right. Verbalize what's right.

I'm going to work my way back. See, his idea was, oh, he's still in control. Oh, I'm going to love God my way on my terms, how I think. And he got through half of the speech, and he got overwhelmed, I think, with emotion. He knew he should be getting dirt and stones from the kids.

He knew the elders could come and stone him, although it was legal, but rarely practiced. And instead he's being received. It's the kindness of God that leads to repentance. And now his heart changes.

And you know, he could have had one of those, oh, hey, false humility. Oh, no, dad. No, dad.

Hey, you know what? I blew it. I'm a real man, and you know, I blew it.

And I took the third of the estate. I'll just be a hired man. I'll just go.

I'll be in the city. I'll work my way back. And it's so often when people get desperate, they cry out to God, and that's the attitude. And it's God's grace. And it's God's grace. There is nothing you can do to earn your way to God.

There's nothing you can do to earn your way back to God. And so notice, let's look at what grace looks like. What does the father actually do? Notice he says, quick, and he says it to the servants, because the servants are, I got news for you. The servants are, he's dead to us. You messed over our master. And so the first person he does, he says to the servants, quick, get the best robe. And they're thinking, the best one, that's yours.

Go get it. So now, instead of being an outcast, the servants know, hey, we're taking him to the house, and we're putting the father's robe on him. He's going to be treated well, because we can't shame him if the father's taking the shame. It's not just a robe. The robe is one of honor. Second, put a ring on his finger. This is a signet ring. And the way you did finances, you didn't have a black American Express card.

You didn't have a Capital One back then, okay? The way you did business, there would be a signet ring that would be your family signet ring. The kid is blown off a third of their wealth and their estate and mortgaged their future, and the father goes, you're back in with authority to even do finances. He should be whipped an inch of his life. Put sandals on his feet.

Slaves go barefooted. A son has sandals. He's a son.

I trust him. The fatted calf, literally, it's a grain-fed calf. This is Kobe beef time. Little feast, you might get a little goat. Bigger feast, you might get a little lamb, maybe even a sheep. Big feast, beef.

And don't miss this. The feast is not for the kid. The feast is the father's. It's his joy. It's his joy.

My son was lost and my son has been found. It's the marriage supper of the lamb. It's what those of you who know Christ personally will experience. It's the father's party. And there's a celebration. And the whole town shows up. I mean, word spreads. I mean, in a village like this, bing, bing, bing, bing, everybody knows what's going on. Word spreads like crazy. The father's response is shocking, scandalous, and completely unexpected as he takes the shame his son deserves.

It's scandalous. The Pharisees have never heard a story like this in their lives. The disciples have never, as long as they've been with Jesus, they've never, ever pictured God in this way. This is long before it was written, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever would believe in him shouldn't perish but have eternal, everlasting life. This is before Titus would write, not by works of righteousness which you have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And so what he's done is he's redefined for the Pharisees, and he's modeled these tax collectors and sinners are younger sons. And Jesus has modeled the father's love. I'm going after him, and I eat with him, and I accept them, and I love them.

Is their behavior and the breaking of the rules acceptable? No, but they matter, and they're not going to know by me sticking my nose and thinking I'm better and being separate from them Pharisees. So that's why I'm doing what I'm doing because God loves lost people, and lost people come in all kind of shapes and sizes, and some are religious, and some are not, and some are desperate, and some are the, you know, the prostitutes or the people that are working in the clubs, and some are the squeaky clean business upstanding totally in control.

I got my stuff together. I don't need God. Selfish, greedy, high control, far from God's sinners. And Jesus says, I'm looking for you. My arms are open. I want to put the robe of righteousness of my son. I want you to trade your sin for the robe of righteousness of my son. I want to make you a son or a daughter. You'll never work your way toward me, and there's going to be a party in heaven, but I want you, are you ready?

I want you to come into my home. Colossians 2 talks about my heart being Christ's home. Allow Christ to take up residence and feel at home.

It's never too late. That's what Jesus is teaching. There's always hope.

I don't care where you're at. I don't care when you think about the person who's farthest from God, and you don't think there's any hope, and you stopped praying for them about five years ago because they are so out of it, and there's always hope because God longs to forgive. He longs to restore, not because that person deserves it or you deserve it or I deserve it.

It's because he's good. I don't get it. Remember, when I started this series, I said grace is the most important word in the Bible. Grace is what separates what scripture teaches about the God of the Bible from every religion, every system, every belief on the face of the earth.

This is crazy radical stuff. It's an invitation for relationship for lost sons and daughters to come and be at home with God, and then you know what? He serves his father in his home, not because he oughta, gotta, shoulda, but he realizes he's loved, and he can trust his father. Anybody here need a father like that that would forgive your sins, come take up residence by his spirit in your life, put his arm around you, walk with you all the rest of the days of your life, and make a promise absolutely based on what Jesus did on the cross, that he wants to be with you forever and ever and ever called eternal life. I'm gonna pray in just a second.

If you've never, it's receiving a gift. It's empty hands of faith. I believe Jesus died for me and rose from the dead. Come into my life. I'm gonna receive this free gift and begin to walk with you. For a great many of you that that's already true, what's one person who comes to mind that you just don't think God could ever reach? And then I'd like you to pray for him, okay? Before we do anything else, I want to give you the exact same opportunity that I gave the people in the room when I taught this message. It was to personally receive Christ to come to a father that loves you. And as I said, you need to recognize that you fall short, that you've sinned against a holy God.

You need to be like that younger son who's come to his senses and realize there's no way I can work my way into my father's goodwill, but he loves me and he's for me and I need to accept the gift. It's called grace. If you've never received the gift of eternal life, of your sins forgiven, and of the Holy Spirit coming into your life to give you a brand new life in Christ, I encourage you to do that right now. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, stop at least in your mind. Ask Christ right now, Lord Jesus, I confess to you that I have sinned, that I've done things wrong, that I'm not perfect, that I deserve to be punished. But I believe and trust right now that Jesus' death on the cross paid for all my sin and that he rose from the dead to prove it's true. And I place my faith in him and him alone and ask you, come into my life right now. Forgive me. Make me your son.

Make me your daughter. And Lord, thank you right now for what you've done. I receive it by faith. And I want you to know that God heard your cry.

It's not the words that you say. You know the intent of your heart. And the most important thing you can do is tell the greatest Christian you know today. Text him, call him, and then find a Bible teaching church that you can be a part of as soon as possible. Open a Bible and then go to the website. We have some information for those of you that prayed to receive Christ that's easy to find.

We want to help you grow. And I just have to tell you, I was in my living room just a few weeks ago with a man who told me, I heard your voice on the radio. I prayed with you. I almost had to pull off the road because I was crying so hard. And then he told me about the last two years of his life. It is nothing short of miraculous.

And here's what I know. God wants that for you. God does want that for you. If you just prayed with Chip, I hope you'll take a minute and call us at 888-333-6003. We'd love to talk with you and get a free resource in your hands specifically designed to help you get started outright on your new journey of faith. That same resource is available on our website, livingontheedge.org. Just click the New Believers tab at the bottom of our homepage.

Best of all, it's absolutely free. We just want to say welcome to the family. Chip, before we wrap up this program, I know there's lots of men's groups starting to meet together again as we head into summertime. You have a great resource for dads that'll grab their attention and be helpful. It's a new book called Portrait of a Father, How to Be the Dad Your Child Needs. Would you take just a second and tell us about it?

Absolutely. In fact, one of the things I've done with fellow pastors but with men and men's groups is I've taken this material and I've walked with them through it. And together we said, hey, how do we be this kind of dad to our kids? Well, just recently we took all this material and we made it a small, I mean, bite-sized book that can be read in, I don't know, a little over an hour. This is the kind of book that you get two or three guys or a men's group and you say, hey, let's take the next two or three weeks.

We'll read this little book and let's share how we're doing. In fact, the research is absolutely clear. Contrary to everything our culture is saying, the role of the father in the family is absolutely the greatest determiner in how your kids turn out morally, the kind of trouble they get in or don't get in, how they do educationally, how they relate to other men and women. Your role as a dad is a shaper. It's so critical. It's so important.

And here's what I know. Many of us never had that dad who modeled for us what it meant to be a Christian father. It was so hard to learn how to be a dad, but as I learned and as I got some other guys around me to help me learn, my kids are different today. They came out completely different because God showed me what he expected of me and how he would give me the power and the grace to be that kind of dad. Perfect.

No way. But I made progress. That's what I want for you. And in fact, we so want you to do it with others. We discounted it so that you can buy 2, 5, 10, 20 copies and get it to a lot of people to help them too. And as Chip just said, we've discounted this resource so you can get as many as you need, whether it's a couple or for your whole church. We hope this book will encourage every dad to be the leader God has called them to be. Again, to get your hands on Chip's new book, Portrait of a Father, before Father's Day, go to livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. As we close, I want to thank each of you who's making this program possible through your generous giving. 100% of your gifts are going directly to the ministry to help Christians really live like Christians. Now, if you found Chip's teaching helpful, but you're not yet on the team, would you consider doing that today? To donate, just go to livingontheedge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003. And let me thank you in advance for whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, until next time, for everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.