Easter - Risen: Reclaiming the Father Heart of God - Risen - Reclaiming the Father Heart of God, Part 2

Today is Good Friday, and this weekend we'll celebrate Easter. The question I have for you is, why? Why do you celebrate Easter? What is it about this day, about what we celebrate and why, that really makes a difference?

That's what we'll explore today. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Druey, and Chip's our Bible teacher for this international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well, in this program, Chip wraps up our short series, Risen, Reclaiming the Father Heart of God. Now, before we begin, let me encourage you to use Chip's message notes while you listen. They'll help you get the most out of what you're about to hear.

Download them under the broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org, app listeners tap special offers. Well, with that, let's join Chip for part two of his talk as he continues unpacking the lessons we can learn from the parable of the prodigal son found in Luke chapter 15. Now, Jesus has given us quite a commentary because we tend to think of, well, those are the people that really need God.

You know, they're really far away from God and, you know, they're sex addicts and drug addicts and they're atheist and they hate God and they blaspheme and such are some of us or were. But Jesus is going to teach us that the older son is actually as lost and as far away from God. The rebellion of the younger son keeps him away from God, but the self-sufficiency and the works mentality. See, the young son, what? I want what my dad has. I just don't want my dad's authority. Notice the older son, his response is anger.

I won't go in. His reason, pride. I've never disobeyed you. His message, you owe me.

I've been slaving for you. His attitude, bitterness and resentful, his motives exposed. He's just like the younger son. He wants what the father has, but he doesn't want the father.

You know, there's interesting, no one went searching. These are people that are steeped in the Old Testament. The very early chapters of the Old Testament in Genesis are what? Cain and Abel. Aren't you your brother's keeper? The older son, the Pharisee, the religious person, the loving person, he should have been going out, hey kid, you know what? Dad's waiting, man.

We've got a family. This is not going to work. Don't go here. You're wasting your life. I love you. Dad loves you.

Come on back. But see, the Pharisees of the day, they didn't do that. They repelled irreligious people. Remember the reason he's telling this parable is because Jesus is hanging out with irreligious people. And he loves them and they feel comfortable around him. What do we learn from the elder brother that very good moral religious people can be as lost as the most immoral sinner? We learn that Jesus extends forgiveness to the older brother because the father goes out and he says, you got to come in.

Now, these Pharisees are plotting to kill Jesus and Jesus knows it and he's saying it's still not too late. The father is gracious with irreligious people and he's gracious with moral people who out of your goodness and your morality you keep God at a bay. And then there's some lessons about fatherhood that we learn from the entire story. And I have to tell you, I had to learn a lot about being a dad.

For some of you, the idea that, oh, God is father, you're sitting here going, yeah, it's just like my dad. And he was always around. He was caring and he was gentle. And I remember he read me stories.

But that's not many of you. My dad was a good dad. He was a World War II vet, Guam, Iwo Jima, Purple Heart, killed thousands of people, saw his buddies die. He was one of the few that made it out. He got deeply, deeply damaged.

They didn't do counseling then or any of that kind of stuff. So he came back. And the way you dealt with your pain then is that when you had those images come to your mind, he had nightmares until the last years of his life at 87. You had a couple beers and you felt better. It's sort of like that was good medication. And then five years later, you have like four beers and you feel better.

Eight or nine years later, you have eight or ten beers and you feel better. And by the time I was in junior high, he had about 15 beers before he got home from school. He was a teacher. And then by the time I got to high school, he missed supper.

I remember Saturday mornings, he and another guy would have two cases and they would each drink a case of beer and sit there all day. And he loved me and he was for me and cared about me. He was very functional. And somehow he could get up and go to work and handle it and was a good provider.

But he was just absent. I didn't hear him say, I love you. And the way some of you have this, you know, the way he loved me was if you get really good and you're successful, you'll be happy. And so he really pushed me in sports and pushed me in school. And so I got good in sports and I got good in school.

But no matter what I did, I never measured up. And then, this is a long story, but I married this very wonderful, beautiful woman who'd been through some great pain before she came to Christ. And part of that great pain involved two little boys. And so when I got married, I had this wonderful experience. I had two and a half days of honeymoon and I came back as a dad. And I had twin four-year-olds. And God told us to go get prepared for ministry and I was sure I was going to be a basketball coach. And I'd already been to grad school and nope, you're going to do this.

And so now, you know, within a couple of years, we had a third little one. And I'm thinking, man alive, I don't have a clue about how to be a dad. And whether you like it or not, you parent the way you were parented.

Or you realize I never want to parent the way I parented and do the exact opposite. And so I'd written a thesis once and it was really hard and they're really long. Some of you have been through grad school. And so my next thesis that I had to write, I thought I'm going to write it on something I desperately need, how to be a father. And if you've ever been to grad school, what you know is make the title of your thesis as long as possible, right?

Because you want to eliminate all the stuff you're not going to talk about so you get it down to just a few little things. So my thesis was the role and responsibility of the father of teaching values in the family. So what's a father to be? What's a father to do? And the long story of it was I went through every passage in the Bible about a father or parenting.

And I looked at, you know, the first five books and the wisdom literature and the gospels and the prophets. And then I just asked two questions. What's his role? What's he to be? And what's his responsibility? What's he to do? And I got all that really clear.

And the Bible was really clear. A father is to lead. He's to model the kind of life for his kids. A father is to provide. You take care of people emotionally, spiritually, financially. And a father is to protect. And boy, you protect your family. And then a father helps give purpose and alignment and you're the biggest cheerleader of helping them become what they're designed to be.

That's what a dad does. And because of my background in the social sciences, I thought, well, I wonder, that's what the Bible says. But I thought that other thesis was all about values. And so I looked at all the social science literature and I wanted to find out, is there a unique role of the father in a kid's self-esteem or self-identity, his sexual development and his moral development?

And there's certain things, as you study, this has sort of been my whole world of, you know, educational psychology and how people grow and think and all that. And so there's certain things a woman does in the life of a child that a man doesn't do that's very unique. A man and a woman have equal impact in terms of a child's self-esteem, how they feel about themselves, self-identity. But the father has a very much stronger influence on the sexual identity and the moral development of a child. Little boys, for reasons I don't understand, understand what it means to be a man and be masculine from their dad. And little girls understand what it means to be feminine by the way they're treated by their father and nurtured in a non-sexual way and esteemed. And the moral development of what's right and what's wrong that goes from ideas to something within that they buy into, the father has this unique power in his life and nurture to develop it.

And it's God's plan. Every single person in this room has been deeply, deeply impacted positively and probably negatively by your father or like a father. In fact, if you look at another set of research, the top 10 most problematic issues in all of the world are related to a father absent family.

Direct correlation, drug addiction, imprisonment, juvenile delinquency, future divorce. See, when people don't have a dad, when they don't have a clear picture of a dad, difficult things happen. And so Jesus wants you to understand and what he gave to me was, I'll be your father. I'll love you.

And it's not based on your performance. I'll protect you, I'll provide for you, I'll help you discover your purpose, I've got a plan for you. What he wanted people to know is he's not a higher power, he's not some set of principles, he's not some rotating sense of what happens life after life. He's not an angry God, he's your heavenly father. When he wanted people to learn how to pray, what did he teach them? When you pray, say, our father. And he used an intimate word, it wasn't like father, it was Abba. It's the word of little children climbing into the lap of their father. That's who God is.

And I can tell you, you can know the what of Easter. God became a man, perfect life, died upon a cross, rose from the dead, paid for our sins, and never get the why. He wants to be your father. He wants to guide your life, he wants to love you.

There's four or five implications. And notice the first one in terms of what Jesus tells us about God is that you are exceedingly precious to God our father. He brought you in this room to just remind you of that.

You, not someone else. And by the way, it's not you are precious to him when you're doing good, or you're precious to him if you come to him. You are precious to him, that's the story. The wayward younger son mattered to God. The religious goody two shoes who was actually jerks, mattered to God.

To both of them the father said, come in, come in. Second, our willful rebellion keeps us from experiencing the father's love and provision. And just a quick word here, I don't come from a Christian background. And there's some of you that people have been talking to you about Jesus. And down deep in your heart you just feel like God just couldn't.

I would never want to come clean with where I've been. And there's stuff in your past and stuff in your history and you just feel like you don't measure up. And God wants you to know you don't have to measure up. It's grace, it's a gift. He wants to, it's not do this, this, this and this, start coming to church, start reading the Bible, clean up your life, stop cussing, quit drinking quite so much.

You know, get off your prescription drugs, quit logging onto the internet, you know, quit cheating on your taxes, I mean the list goes on and on and on, right? And then God will love you. That's a picture, but that's not the God of the Bible. His is, I love you, just come home and you know what, I'm going to do something inside of you. And see, part of why we do really stupid stuff down deep that violates our own conscience is that we're looking for significance and security and the whole of not being deeply loved just for who we are. And God says, you know, I start feeling that, you know, your morality changes, but it doesn't change as some list of rules.

It changes out of a relationship because you love someone. The third observation is that the father is daily waiting for you to come home. Would you shut down these like five words, God is not down on me.

And if you're counting, that's six words. God is not down on me. You don't maybe verbalize that, but unconsciously, you know why a lot of Christians don't pray very much?

Who wants to pray to someone who's down on you? You don't measure up. You're not doing what you should. You're lusting privately. You've got a problem over here. You made some bad decisions here. You feel like a failure over here.

Your family's rejected you over here. And you just feel like I don't measure up. So who wants to go before a holy God and be reminded you don't measure up? What did Jesus do and what was the response of the father to a young son who absolutely did not measure up?

A robe, a ring, sandals, a celebration. See, you know what Christianity has become? It's become so warped, it's nothing more than moralism. Be nice, be a good person, follow some rules, do good unto others. You can do all that and completely miss the point of why Jesus came and what he offers. He came to give you eternal life, not eternal rules. He came that you would be connected to the father and he would fill the deepest needs of your heart and life and that you would be loved and he would transform you and he would live inside of you and he would begin to live his life out through you and actually cause you to be an agent or a conduit of grace and love.

So you would care about other people. Who knows how to help people who've been through a couple abortions and except a woman who's been there, who's been through a couple marriages, someone who's been there or someone who's been a drug addict or a sex addict and say, look, I was lost but I'm found. You know what, this is the father. It's the love of God that causes people to turn and change.

We've got a world, we've got all these religious people thinking that all the bad people are out there. That's not the God of the Bible. And fourth, our arrogant self-reliance keeps us from experiencing the father's love and provision. And this is the older son.

And by the way, here's the danger, you've got to be careful. The younger son knows he's lost. The older son has no clue. The most dangerous place to be in the world is to be a religious Christian or just a religious person because you've come up with your own idea of what God is like and you've made your own little system and basically you always find people that are doing a little bit less than you and you say, I'm good, I don't need God's help, I will be my own savior. And for Christians, the characteristics of older sons are life is duty and obligation. You think God owes you a good life. You down deep feel guilty because you don't measure up and you know, I ought to be doing this and I should be doing that. You feel pressured. Right living, you think God is going to make things right if you do right.

There's this quid pro quo. I do this, I do this, I do this, you've got to give me a good family, a good marriage. And then you get really angry at God when life doesn't go your way.

In relationship to others, older brothers feel superior, they're critical, they're prejudiced, they're judgmental, they're legalistic, they champion justice not mercy and they repel irreligious people. And by the way, you can be religious in your own little religion. And most people, religiously I ask them, I hang out with lots of different people.

Oh yeah, I came from Iran or I came here, Saudi Arabia, here's where I came, here's where I came. The great majority of all the Muslims are not radical at all. And they're no more Muslim than most Christians are Christian or Jews or Buddhists or Hindus. It's cultural. Cultural Jew, cultural Baptist, cultural Catholic and basically here's the mix.

No one really practices any of those things but it's your culture. And when anyone would question like, what is God like, who are you to tell me? And so you eclectically say, I kind of like this part of that group and this part of that religion, this part of that religion, this part of that religion. And I was on the plane with a guy just the other day, really neat guy. We had a great conversation and he pulled out his iPad and it was all in Jewish and I still can remember a little Hebrew. And so he kind of did the prayers and I said, so are you Jewish? He goes, yeah.

I said, are you Orthodox? He goes, no. I said, what are you doing? He goes, man, this prayer says God will bless you if you do this prayer.

So we talked for an hour on the plane. I said, so what do you do? He goes, well, I keep the Sabbath but all the other stuff I'm not into. And you know what, I just appreciate his honesty. I meet Muslims all the time. Do you pray five times a day?

Are you kidding me? But what happens? Well, you know, when we go home to visit, I put the scarf on. And if you've ever traveled in the Middle East, all the ladies come with the scarf on and then they get on the plane, right?

Scarfs come off, designer jeans, coach bag, Gucci. Here's what you need to understand. You can be as lost as a religious, moral, good person and as far from God as people in the ditch in Vegas. Because you've created your own God. You've decided. I mean, what gives you the right? Where were you in all eternity?

When did you create the galaxies? When did you say, oh, I like this, you know, the meditation part of Buddhism is great and the golden rule from Christianity is good. And, you know, I like the discipline of part of a little Islam here and Jewish Sabbath.

Man, I think that fits and hey, I think I'll be behind because you can be anything. And you talk to people and here's what you get. I don't have any need. I'm self-sufficient.

You know what self-sufficiency is? Arrogance. And so the elder brothers didn't realize they're lost. So they can hear the Christmas story. They can hear the Easter story.

They can hear about Jesus and here's the, that's good for you. Be a nice person. Be a little bit more moral.

Hope things go well. I have my set of rules. I have decided what I believe and why. I'm existential. I'm intellectually elite.

I'm more sophisticated than that. And we kind of deny all of time and history and don't realize that Jesus came to say, I'm not saying car and you have 35 or 50 or 100 different pictures come to your mind. I'm saying God. And when I say God the Father, I'm offering eternal life.

And eternal life is to know personally, relationally, the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. And who doesn't need a father? Would you let me love you? You're not signing up for a world view. You're not signing up for a set of principles.

You're not signing up for a formula. You're coming home. In fact, the very last observation from this passage is that Jesus made a way for all who would come to Him to have God as their Father.

But you have to come. He made a way. He died upon the cross. And whether it's blatant sins or arrogant sins or subtle sins, you have a heavenly Father that invites you and loves you. You know, when you think of this and think of what Jesus was talking about and the Pharisees are here and the young sons here and all the shepherds are going, Oh, I get it.

And the women with the coin, they get it. And what could keep people when they really understand that they're deeply loved from embracing that love? I mean, for some of us in this room, I mean, for me, I still remember what is it that could keep us from... I mean, this is like completely different than any world view, any religion. This is grace.

This is a gift. This is life. And it's demonstrated and there's a resurrection and there's historical proof.

And what could keep us from coming home? And I read a story that reminded me of why. True story.

It happened a number of years ago. True story of two people. One is David Thomas and the other is Rachel.

It's in Wales. And David Thomas had a neighbor named Rachel and they were both 32 years old. And at 32, they were engaged and about to be married and they had a lover's quarrel. It had been a very big lover's quarrel. And so they both went home that night and were alienated. And late into the night, David felt like, I really blew it.

I'm going to own my part of it. And he went and he wrote a love letter to Rachel and said, I'm really sorry. I want to ask you to forgive me for my part of the quarrel. He wrote, put it in an envelope and he went the next morning and he stuck it under the door. And for the next 42 years, every single day, he wrote a different love note, put it and stuck it under the door. 42 years.

I don't know if he just got old thinking, I'm not sure this is working. It took him 42 years to figure it out, whether he got up the courage. So two people are living side by side. They have loved each other deeply. They deeply behind it really want to be together.

But for 42 years, living side by side, note, note, note, note. After 42 years, he gets the courage, knocks on the door. Rachel opens the door. Their eyes meet. He says, will you marry me? And Rachel says, yes.

And it was in the paper. They're inviting people at 74 years old. They're both being married for the first time. You know what that's a picture of? That's a picture of a lot of people where God is here and you are here.

And he's been slipping notes, slipping notes, slipping notes, slipping notes. I love you. I love you. I love you.

And you're saying wait or me. I don't know. And it's pride. What kept Rachel? It was well, you know what? He owned his part.

But until he does this, until he does that. And inside, she knew. You know what Jesus is doing today? Behold, I knock at the door of your heart. If any man or any woman would open the door, I will come in and live with you and you with me. I will lead you. I will protect you. I will forgive you. I will be your God and you'll be my son. You'll be my daughter. And it's not just a spiritual decision or a moment.

In fact, look at your notes. This is what Jesus said when he was walking on the earth. Come to me, all of you that are burdened or heavy laden, stressed out, pressured. And I will give you rest. I mean, has anyone kind of come to the conclusion that how you're doing life really isn't working? And then he goes on to say, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

In other words, it's a picture of two oxen. And Jesus is here and he goes, this isn't about some little religious experience. Hook up with me and let's do life together. Learn from me. I'll teach you how to do relationships. I'll teach you how to forgive. I'll teach you how to handle your money. I'll teach you how to have joy. I'll teach you everything because I'm all knowing and I'm all powerful and I'll not just be with you. I'll live in you and I'll give rest to your souls. And by the way, you don't have to get uptight. I'm gentle. I'm lowly.

I'm not an oppressive taskmaster. I'm going to put my arm around you and we're going to go through this together. That's the offer and the why of Easter. Before we go on today, I want to stop with you very personally, very privately and ask you, where are you at? Where do you see yourself in this passage? Are you that younger son that's been far away from God and you feel like there's nothing you could do to ever measure up, that God would reject you?

Or are you that older son that has been trying so hard and you're religious or you're at least very moral and you feel like, I don't really need God? Today is a special moment in your life and I have no idea how many more of these you'll get. But the special moment of today is that the God that created all that there is and made you sent his son to die in your place to pay for your sin and he wants to offer you an amazing, really unfathomable gift of eternal life.

That gift comes in the person of Jesus Christ and Easter is about not just his death, paying for your sin, but Easter is about the proof and the declaration of his victory over sin and death and Satan and saying to you, I love you. Will you let me be your father? And so wherever you are, whatever you're doing, as is appropriate, I'd like you to turn your heart and mind and turn to your heavenly father and say, God, I want to recognize where I am and I fall short of being perfect. I'm not the man or the woman.

I'm not the student that I know I want to be. The Bible calls that sin and I want to ask you right now in the name of Jesus to forgive me and to cleanse me and to come into my life. Make me your son.

Make me your daughter. Today I believe your death paid for my sin and today I believe you rose from the dead. Will you help me follow you now in Jesus name?

As you prayed that with me in your heart, God intervened in your life on this day to forgive you and to save you and place his spirit in you. Now find the greatest Christian you know, the best church that teaches the Bible, open the Bible to the Gospel of John and start your journey of walking with him. You can go to our website and there's some resources there that will help you as a new believer and we want you to know congratulations and welcome to the family of God. If you prayed with Chip, we'd love to put a 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. You can request this resource by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting livingontheedge.org, then clicking on the New Believers button.

That's livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Well Chip, before we share this Easter message, we heard from your wife Teresa who talked about our innate value to God through her series, Precious in His Sight. Well talk for a minute, if you would, about the connection between our identity in Christ and Easter.

Dave, I just have to tell you, I think there's an amazing segue. As a new Christian, one of the very first verses that I memorized was 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. If any man or if any woman is in Christ, you're a new creation.

The old things pass away. Behold, all things become new. And you know, so often I think we are good at telling the story of Easter, right?

You know, awesome, fully man, fully God. God the Son died in our place, was buried, rose again the third day, and He's ascended into heaven. And we get that picture, but what we forget is it's so that we have new life. We have a brand new identity. We're a brand new person. And I think we spend an awful lot of time talking about the story and the facts that is so important, but we forget it's the birthing of an absolutely new person. And that's really what being precious in His sight is all about.

And so I'm thrilled that we can offer this book and these affirmation cards during this season where we're really celebrating. Jesus died for you. You died with Him. You rose with Him. You're a new person with a new identity.

Now the question is, how do you live that out? Thanks, Chip. Well, I can't encourage you enough to get Teresa's new book, Precious in His Sight, and a set of her affirmation cards that we've bundled together. And if you haven't thought of it already, these resources would make great Mother's Day gifts for any of the women in your life. So be sure to place your order by April 29th to receive this bundle in time. For all the details, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap Special Offers. You know, a great way to stay engaged and connected to Chip and Living on the Edge is with the Chip Ingram app. You'll get free access to all of Chip's recent messages, his message notes, and much more. Not only that, but it couldn't be easier to call or email directly from the app. Well, until next time, this is Dave Drouy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.