Jesus Offers Hope - When You Hit Rock Bottom, Part 2

Hitting rock bottom.

Ever been there? Maybe you're there right now. If so, I want you to stay with me for the next 30 minutes because today's message is for you. If you or someone you know is struggling, I mean, you're really down. You are really struggling. Stay with me.

God has a word of hope and encouragement for you. He has a plan and you got to hear it. That's today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this daily discipleship program, motivating Christians to live like Christians.

I'm Dave Druey. Thanks for joining us as we continue Chip's series, Jesus Offers Hope, with a message for those of you who are going through a tough time right now. Maybe you've lost your job or your family is falling apart.

Whatever the situation is, you need some hope. So let's jump right in with part two of Chip's message when you hit rock bottom. Have your Bible turn now to Luke chapter 15. What exactly does this parable mean?

What can we learn from it? First, God deeply values irreligious immoral lost people. That was his point to the Pharisees. You look down your nose at these kind of people.

They hang out with me because they understand I love them. Second, God is actively drawing them to himself. There's an intensive search. The shepherd goes out for the sheep.

The woman cleans the house. He's making this point. The father was waiting and looking and longing. God is waiting, searching, looking and longing for irreligious people that don't have anything to do with him.

He's pursuing them. Next, heaven rejoices when one lost person repents. It's a very interesting root word in the New Testament for repent. It has the idea of a change of mind. A related root word means a change of mind related to an emotional feeling of feeling deeply sorry or sad about your behavior of hurting or rejecting someone else.

It's an idea of people have a complete turning. It meant to turn or to return each time something very specific returned back to and Jesus would teach that the kingdom of God, unless you repent, you'll perish. Before he left, he said this message of repentance will go to all nations. The book of Acts three different times will talk about this message of you must repent.

You must turn this radical from self to God as the hope of your life. We learn from the story that the value of that which is lost is exponentially increases with each story. Like a good storyteller, he starts out with something that's common and they would all nod, Oh, I'd go after a sheep.

And then he, and then he takes it to the next level and they would hear the story and all the women would say, Oh my, I would sweep all day. And then he says, this is what the father does. And by the way, the first two are things that every good Jewish person in that day would clearly understand and they would do.

And the last one is shocking. No father would be running after this son. No father would run in public. The father was the patriarch.

No father would ever, we'll learn in a minute, sell his estate and divide it. He's really making the point that you would do it for a sheep. You would do it for a coin, but their view of God was he's down on lost people.

He doesn't really care about lost people. Sinners need to be judged. The father in story number three represents God. The suit, the two sons depict immoral sinners in terms of the younger son, the people Jesus is hanging out with and the Pharisees are the older son. They do their duty, but their view of their duty before God is that they're slaves.

It's external. Notice finally that both sons are equally lost, but not equally aware of their lostness. See, the reason that Jesus spoke to those that were so far from him, they understood they had a need. And the reason that he was so harsh with the religious people is they thought they were okay.

They were self-righteous. Both the Pharisees and the younger son are sons that are lost and the point of this entire parable is to speak not just that lost people matter to God, but to speak to a group of religious people that are lost but don't know that they're lost and he's giving them a shocking perspective of what God the father is really like. Notice in verse 11, the son requests, I want mine now. Now, you need to understand is that in Jewish culture of the day, the eldest son would get twice 2X when it's divided. So however many brothers and sisters, he gets double. So you have two brothers, so the older brother is gonna get two thirds of the estate and this younger brother is gonna get one third.

If you wanted half the estate, they had lands with family names and your reputation was your land and the houses that you have and the cattle that you had and all your estate was vested in stuff. And so this son actually what he's saying is, I want mine now. And so what he's really communicating is, I wish you were dead. I wish you, because the only way you get to your estate is if your dad dies. And when he asked for it like this, he goes, you know what?

I wish you were dead. Now, this gets really shocking as he's telling this story because the average Pharisee or good Jew would be thinking, my son says, I want mine now. He would be out of the family, out on the streets, disinherited and out of here.

That would be the perspective. The implications for the father are social and economic. He liquidates property. He liquidates his livestock.

It's a public embarrassment, both socially and economically. He appears like a fool. He's actually going to take a third of the estate, liquidate it, look like a fool in front of everyone and turn it into cash, give it to the kid and say, I'll see you later. People were shaking their heads. Then we have the father's unprecedented response.

And this is thunderously shocking to the listeners. When he didn't kick him out of the family and he says, if you need a season to reject me to wish that I was dead and not have me in your life and you want to go do something else, guess what? I'm going to let you do that, but I still love you. Do you see the picture he's painting of what God is like?

Any of us ever basically said, hey God, you know what? I'll think about you someday, some way when I'm done with doing my stuff and have rejected him and kind of wish he wouldn't mess with us. And you know what God does? His love doesn't change. If you want to go do some stuff that'll bring destruction to your life and cause you to hit rock bottom and go through pain that he never wants, you know what?

He'll allow you to do that, but it breaks his heart. Now you'll notice that the sun hits rock bottom. Literally he comes to his senses. And when you hit rock bottom, it means you're hopeless. Hopeless means that there's no expectation, there's no sign of a favorable outcome. That's when you're hopeless.

Nothing's going to work. When you're hopeless, you get despondent. You get low spirits. There's a sense of futility. No matter what I do, I'm stuck. I'm done.

Some of you feel that way tonight. And after that it produces despair and despair is the utter loss of hope and dejection. And ultimately you get desperate and implies you'll do something extreme. And I read a number of extreme stories in this last year of very famous people who were very successful, who took their own life because they got to the point where they were hopeless.

But before they took their life, they had a window of time. Each one of us have a window of time to come to our senses. And what happens when you come to your senses is you back up and you say, my hope was in that job, my hope was in that marriage, my hope was in that kid, my hope was in that looks, my hope was in my 401k. But when you come to your senses, you realize that doesn't have the power to fill me up.

That can't be my hope. And then he goes through and he thinks, okay, my brother is dad's son. He's got two thirds of the stuff.

Mine's gone. And then next to him are slaves and the slaves live in the home and actually they've got quarters and food and they're actually treated like family. And then there's hired guys, the hired men. They live on the outskirts and dad just hires them for day wages, but they have a place to stay and they have enough food to eat for one day, each day at a time. And he said, I've blown it. He owns his stuff. I'm going to go back and I know I can't be a son and I know I'm not even worthy of being a slave, but I could be one of the hired guys.

At least I would have a meal and I could sleep somewhere. And so the process goes something like that. The key words he says, I'm going to go back home.

So who repents the word means to turn around. I'm doing this with my life. My hope is in this.

I think this will fill me up. He stops, comes to a census and goes, I'm going to turn around and I'm going to go back to my father. God is going to ask some of you tonight to turn around and get your hope off of someone or something and turn around and come back to your father. It's called repentance. And then notice it's followed by a confession. I will say I've sinned against heaven and my father. He owns his stuff with his words out loud. I blew it.

I was wrong. I missed the mark. Third, in this case, he thinks he's going to make restitution because see in his mindset and that Jewish culture, I'll be a hired hand and I'll earn some money and little by little, maybe over time I can pay dad back and I can pay him back and I'm paying back and paying back and maybe someday I could be a slave and then maybe someday I could even be, well, it's pressing it, but maybe I could earn my way back into dad's favor. That was the Pharisees mentality of drawing close to God works, works, works, perform, perform, perform. I meet a lot of people that go through very difficult times and they lose a mate or they lose a job or they find themselves messing around a little and then it becomes an addiction and they'll want to talk to someone like me and we'll talk and then it's pretty much, well, I'm going to start going to church and then I'm going to read the Bible more often and you know what it is, I'm going to get right. I'm going to earn my way. Like God has these big scales in heaven and he's balancing and what he's going to learn is you can never earn your way back to the father.

Jesus is going to teach them it's about grace. It's about a father that you can't comprehend that loves you the way he loves you. And then notice finally he says, I will do it now. So he got up and he went. Now notice in verse 20, the father's response, the father was not at home wondering someday, somehow if he'll come. The father was out looking when he was still a long way off. The father saw him and then notice the words. He ran and he was filled with compassion and the boy does what he should do.

He, you know, he started with his speech, you know, okay, I know what was wrong. I'm going to repent father and his father interrupts him. Quick, stop, hold up. You're not going to make restitution.

You're not going to earn your way back. You have no idea what the father is like and out of a heart that is beyond what we can grasp, he says, here's what I want you to do. Quick, get the best robe. Literally, it's the robe of the first.

Guess who that is? That's the dads. The best robe in that house belongs to the dad. Second, get the ring.

Put the ring on his finger, a sign of authority. Get the sandals. Slaves go barefooted.

Sons, they've got sandals. And by the way, there was a fatted calf. It's like Kobe beef in the day. Literally, it would be put in a stall. It would never go out and it was grain fed. And they would just, I mean, they would make it overeat, overeat, overeat.

And they would save it for a community wide, I mean, big bash. And so the father kills the fatted calf, invites everyone in the community that thinks he's a fool. And then there's music and there's dancing.

And this person who came thinking, if I could just be a hired hand and I've blown it and I'm feeding pigs and I wish I could eat what the pigs are eating and I'm hitting rock bottom. When he turned, when he confessed and when he came, his father said, you're my son. And it's not about what you can do. It's about who I am and how I feel about you and how much I love you. And I want to receive you to myself. And the message very simply is there is hope for you.

Jesus didn't just tell this story someday, some way for some other group. This is, there's hope. Whatever you're going through, whatever loss, whatever hurt, there's hope. Second, it's never too late.

You can be 76, 96. You can be through two, three, four marriages. You can be through four rehabs already.

It's never too late. And the message is failure is never final. There is a father who is waiting and watching and longing to forgive you and to cleanse you and to restore you and to empower you and to give you a second chance to give you a clean slate, to put you on a new path. And then as a son or a daughter, place you in a new family where when cancer knocks at the door or maybe you lose your job or you got an addiction that you can't get out of by yourself, this new family will come around you and love you and help you. Now, by the way, there's initiative here and there's honesty here.

There's no messing around. The son repents. He turns his back on his former life and he receives the gift of the father's love. Jesus offers hope to people that hit rock bottom. Have no idea where you're at, what's going on in your life, but I can tell you on the authority of scripture, if you have never repented and ask him to forgive you and be your father, that's his will for you. And if you have someday, someway, actually maybe in a camp or maybe years ago prayed a prayer and the truth would be, you know, you didn't really know exactly what it meant to quote, ask Jesus into your life or forgive you and you prayed a prayer somewhere, somehow, but the fact is nothing changed. There's a great probability that you never repented.

You never understood. It's not about just intellectually agreeing about what Christ did in his death and resurrection. There must be a turning from and embracing a radical step I'm gonna follow and laying hold of the gift that God gave you. Before we go on in today's program, I want to ask you what went through your mind as you heard the words that I spoke in the last 60 seconds when I said maybe you've never repented, lay hold of the gift. Is God speaking to you? Could it be that on this day at this time exactly where you're at, that God has my voice connected to your ear so he could lay hold of your heart and forgive you and cleanse you, make you his son or make you his daughter?

The next step is yours. Christ has died for you in your place. Christ has risen from the dead to prove that it's true. He wants you to turn from your sin right now, right where you're at. It's a decision of the heart and invite him to come into your life to put your trust in him and him alone for eternal life. And so right now, if you don't know how to do it, here's a prayer that you can pray with me. And if you can't say it out loud because of where you are, that's okay.

If you can't stop and pull the car over, that's okay. God knows your heart. But right now, you can say, Dear Father, today I admit to you that I've sinned and I've offended you. I've done things that I know are wrong and violate a holy God.

And today I change my mind. I turn from my sin and running my own life and I ask you to forgive me based on Jesus' work on the cross and his resurrection. I ask you to come into my life right now. Make me your son. Make me your daughter.

Fill me with your spirit right now. And Lord, I want to follow you all the days of my life. If you prayed with me right now, right then, can I encourage you as fast as you can, do two things.

Number one, call someone and tell them, I just made the biggest decision of my life. You know, the most committed Christian that you might happen to know. A second, go on the website, livingontheedge.org, and there's a section there that says, Resources for New Believers. And I've got some information, it's absolutely free, that will help you begin this new relationship with Jesus Christ. We are now brothers.

We are now brother and sisters. And I want to help you grow in your new relationship with Christ. This weekend, pray very diligently and say, God, will you lead me to a Bible teaching church where I can get connected, plugged in, and begin to grow. God bless you. Now if you just prayed with Chip, we'd love to put a free resource in your hands.

It's called Starting Out Right, and it's absolutely free. This resource will help you gain a clear biblical understanding of what it means to put your faith in Jesus. And that's our whole mission here at Living on the Edge, helping Christians really live like Christians. So let us help you get started in your faith journey. And you can request this resource by calling 888-333-6003 or visiting livingonttheedge.org, then clicking on the New Believers button.

That's livingonttheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Well Chip, you gave us a lot to think about and process today. I know a lot of people use journals to write down what they're thinking, even their prayers sometimes. Is journaling something you do or found helpful? You know, I do journal, and I don't want to make anyone feel guilty like only spiritual people journal.

I know people that don't journal, but I will tell you that it has been one of the most foundational spiritual disciplines in my life, especially for those of us that happen to be verbal processors. Some of us don't really know what we think until we say it. And I think we all have a power or a level of denial about reality that is far deeper than most of us ever imagined. That we really think we're doing okay and the words we say is really what's really going on. And what I found was when I write out thoughts or even write out prayers or I often will start, this is how I feel today, or this is what I'm struggling with today, or God, I really want to thank you for this today, is I find when I start writing, I've actually had times where I've written things down and I look at it and I think, that's not true.

Ingram, I can't believe that you're actually lying. I mean, what do you think, someone's going to read this someday and think you're spiritual? And what I found is by writing it down, it stares back at me and it really helps me be honest.

And I think the other thing is that we tend to think that however we're doing emotionally is reality. So sometimes I'm a pretty up person, yeah, rah, I love God, things are great. And other times I get really, really down, even depressed and I can feel like, wow, you know, my life's a mess, you know, I'm a terrible dad, I'm a terrible pastor, you know, no one loves me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And you know, starting that pity party. Well, what I have is these journals where I get to see the mountains and the peaks and the valleys and the mountain, the peaks, and then I read the Psalms and I realize, you know, I'm not alone, this is normal, ups and downs are normal. And then what I have is this track record of many years actually in my case that God has been faithful and as I journal, it allows me to see where He's really working in my life and not get too fixated on how I happen to feel any certain day. So I think journaling will really help and we have a tool that I think will be great help for you.

Thanks, Chip. We do have a great resource designed to help you develop the practice of journaling. It's a beautiful compact notebook. Now, this tool is full of meaningful scripture verses, popular lyrics to hymns, and insightful quotes from influential Christian leaders.

There's also plenty of space for your notes and personal journaling. Our hope is that this resource will help you spend more intentional time with God in prayer. And if you like this journal, get a few more to pass on to friends.

They're a perfect gift for any occasion. To order your prayer journal, just visit livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or livingontheedge.org.

App listeners tap special offers. Well, let me take just a second and thank the generous people who make monthly donations to support the ministry of Living on the Edge. Your faithful gifts help us inspire Christians to live like Christians. Every gift makes a huge difference. Now, if you haven't partnered with us yet, would you prayerfully consider joining the Living on the Edge team, make a one-time gift, or set up a recurring donation by going to livingontheedge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003. Our website again is livingontheedge.org and our phone number is 888-333-6003. And know we're blessed by whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.