The scripture greeting for today is Luke 1511-32. And he said, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me, and he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, his severe famine arose in that country, and it began to be in need. So it went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs, and he was long to be fed with the pods of the pigs' aid, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, father, I have a sin against you, against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, treat me as one of your hired servants, and he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him, and the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, but the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and his alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant, and he said to him, your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back, safe, and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends, but when this son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him, and he said to him, son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this your brother was dead and his alive. He was lost and his found. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we need you. We need you to open our eyes. We need you to quiet our hearts. We need you to clear our minds that we might see and understand and hear your word. Lord, this is for most of us a very familiar story. The temptation would be to think that there really isn't much new for us to learn. But God, that's not the way your word works. It's active and alive. It's sharper than a double-edged sword. It truly penetrates deep into the soul. And so God, we ask through your spirit, that would happen now. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as we kick off the arts festival, we're also kicking off a series on the parables. We've been in the Psalms, kind of the song and story of the Bible. And we're going to continue that series for quite some time, going through a number of parables over the next many weeks, then some more time in the Psalms and then some more time in the parables through the summer. But this is one of the great parables. It comes following two others, the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin. And in each case, something that's very significant has been lost. The sheep, the coin, and now a son, really two sons. And that which has been lost has required an all-out search. And when doing the all-out search, that which was lost was found. And in each case, a celebration spoken of are taken place. I want you to think about this parable with a new set of eyes. It's very important for us, especially if we've grown up in the church, to constantly be asking God's spirit, to give us a new set of eyes, to understand, to help us to enter into the story. One of my favorite places to visit is a very beautiful but very dark place in our country's history. It's the battlefield of Gettysburg. Christine's father lives about 45 minutes from Gettysburg and each time we travel there, I try to go. It's interesting, though, the first time I went, I stayed about an hour. I simply drove through it, got the surroundings, and understood a little bit of the battle. The next time I went, her dad and I, well, we listened to Tom Brocar, somebody through the car audio, giving us a little bit of a tour of this massive battlefield. Well, the third time we went, we hired a guide. And we hired a guide to help us focus on one specific part of the battlefield. But my favorite time was when I went with my daughter. It was the last time I went. And there we're able to be kind of quiet and still, and soak it in, and let someone else see it for the first time. The danger for us as Christians is that we often approach Scripture the same way. That we don't enter into the story, we don't enter into the picture. Instead, we allow a tutor or a tour guide to walk us through it. And sometimes we spend about an hour, and other times we spend a little bit longer. But often we never enter into the story. Henry now, in a book called The Return of the Protocol Sun, speaks of the painting. The beautiful rumbrant painting of the Return of the Protocol Sun. He saw a poster of it and said, I have to see the original someday. And years later, he found himself in the Soviet Union. And there he was able, because of those who were there taking care of the beautiful museum gave him the privilege of setting a chair and staring at it. He did so for two days. And constantly he was interrupted by a tour guide walking through. And their people would look at it for just a few brief moments and then walk away. Someone scribbled notes, but not most, yet he was there contemplating, staring at it, seeking to understand exactly what it was that it said. See as Lewis speaking of criticism says this, the first demand any work of any art makes upon us is surrender. Look, listen, receive, get yourself out of the way. So I wonder this morning, when you hear the story of the Protocol Sun, are you looking? Are you listening? Are you receiving? Or are you simply treating me like a tour guide? You might find out some new nugget of truth about it, but you're not really staring into it. You're not entering into the story, wondering where you are and how it fits. The temptation for us as we grow in our faith is to become like those who simply want a tour guide, but we never enter in. I want that to change for you. I want it to change so that when you exit the doors of the sanctuary every week, you have an expectation of being transformed by God's Spirit and His Word. It's not enough simply to be excited that you belong to a church that's conservative. Who cares if you're not being transformed? I want you to leave with a sense of, this is changing my life in this morning. I believe the message will. I'm not even going to get to the older brother today. Pete is going to preach next week on that part of this text. I'm going to focus on the younger brother with this warning. Many of you who have come to faith no longer believe that you're the younger son. You simply align yourself with the older brother who's the Pharisee. Today I want you to pause and consider. Maybe you're more like the younger son than you realize and I'm going to do it using three points. And here they are, just a quick billboard. First one is this, wishing God was dead. Sounds pretty happy, doesn't it? Wishing God was dead. The second one is coming to our senses in this third one is surprised by His joy. Having that framework, I'm going to take us into this story that Jesus told. So here we are, Luke 15, verse 11, Jesus said there was a man who had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. Let's stop here for a moment. What does this mean? In order to understand a parable, you have to understand how those who were present would understand all that was being spoken of. A man named Kenneth Bailey went into the Middle East, studied hundreds and hundreds of peasant cultures, reading the parables to them, asking if they would help explain culturally what this would have meant back then and now, and it was often very similar. But one very important thing to realize about this parable is that when the son said to his father, give me my inheritance, what the son was saying is, I wish you were dead. I wish you were dead. Now parents often experience looks from their children that simply say that. Sometimes parents will hear a child scream, I hate you. And they may for a moment, but not necessarily really. Sometimes they do. But when a child in this culture would have said to the father, I want my inheritance. He was saying, I wish you were dead. If you were dead, I would have what would rightly be mine. So those listening to Jesus would have been stunned and silenced by the beginning of the story. No son did that. He interviewed hundreds of people only twice. Did anyone in any of those communities say they've ever heard of such a request? Because the son would know that if he made that request, he would be beaten, definitely by the father and likely by many in the community. I wish you were dead. But the second thing that happens would have amazed the listeners as well. The father gives him the inheritance. They would have been speechless. How could he have done that? That no man would do that. So here they are, lowered into this story as Jesus speaks. I wish you were dead. What was the young man ultimately saying? I don't want to be under your authority. I don't want to live the life you've planned for me. I don't want to be like you. I want what you have that you can give me that I might live the life I want to live. One more time. I want what you have that I might live the life I want to live. So the father gives it to him. And this story tells us that he squandered it in reckless living. I want you dead. I don't want a relationship. Sounds a lot like Romans 1. Just listen as I read. Paul says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and sort of created things rather than the creator who has forever praised. They became fools, just like this young man. He wanted no relationship with God. And God, like the prodigal's father, gives him what he wants. Is that not our world? It's not that the way our world sees God, a deep hatred of God. But I want you to be careful. One of the ways you'll recognize that you're no longer entering into the story of Scripture is if you're constantly talking about the world and the culture. Or you're constantly talking about theology, but never really taking it from your head into your heart, where it'll exit through your hands and feet. If you simply are constantly discussing doctrine or constantly constructing the critical culture that we live in, you might not be entering the story of the gospel. So I want to ask you to enter this story with this question. Where is it in your life right now that you wish God was dead? I could probably say a man right now and you would get a beautiful point this morning. Where in your life have you essentially said no God, not there. That door can't be open to you. No trespassing. I'm not letting you in. Where in your life have you practically acted as if God was dead? Is it your finances? Even as we go through this critical time, are you letting God have what is rightfully his? Do you see it that way? Are you still clean to it as if it's yours? What about something that has just made you so bitter for so long? You know you should forgive, but you just can't. Is God dead to you in that area of your life? What about with your own children? And the dreams you have for your children, are they really God's dreams or are they your own? Have you considered where you should send them to school or where you shouldn't? What is your dream and is it God's dream? What about your fears and anxieties and addictions? Is there any area of your life where you have said, I wish God was dead or practically you're living as if he is? If you can't think of anything right now, then come next week because you're the older brother. It didn't take me long to hear God's spirit say, Mark, you still act as if I'm dead there. You don't want. You don't want me there. Brothers and sisters, we have a lot of the younger brothers still in us where essentially we say to God, give me what I want that I might live the way I want to live. We wish God was dead. But listen to what happens. The sun squanders his wealth and finds himself in a place that he never imagined. He had a dream. He had a hunger. The hunger led him to a place like Vegas or New Orleans or LA or New York City or who knows where. And he lived that way. But he couldn't in his foolish eyes see the famine that was coming and when the famine came really a grace of hunger, he simply was devastated. He had nothing to eat, but the pride was present so he couldn't go back to his daddy. So he hires himself out to his daddy's friend. And there he longs the passage says to eat the food or the pods that pigs eat. Can you imagine that? Imagine that you have your inheritance. You spend it all on luxury, fine dining, all kinds of sin. And now you're living in a farm with a pig or pigs and you look at their food and you want it and you're starving. He's coming to his senses, my second point. But how does he come to his senses? It's the spirit of God at work. And you hear it in the dialogue that he has, look at verse 17. But when he came to himself, when he fully began to be aware of who he was, he said to himself, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. He's dying. The foolish things in his life have brought him to a place of absolute despair. He begins to cry to the Lord in his trouble, much like Psalm 107, doesn't he? And he begins to go down a path of repentance. But as he goes, he begins to put together this list of things he must say, verse 18, I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. That's a beautiful prayer. That's a beautiful statement of repentance. He had sinned against his father. He had sinned against heaven. Verse 19, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. My identity is severed because of what I've done. I'm not worthy of you anymore. So he puts these thoughts together. In verse 20 says, he arose and he came to his father. But here's where everything changes. He wished his father was dead. He has come to his senses. And now he's about to be surprised by his father's joy. What he's about to experience is what's so glorious about the story. It's what's so amazing about the gospel. It's why people come to hear the good news of Jesus Christ because it's real. But this is bigger and bolder and more beautiful than you've ever seen. I promise you. So he walks and as he walks towards home, he knows what's likely to happen. His father will be stern. A mob will gather outside likely to beat him. That's the culture. But he knows that's his identity and he begins to walk. Can you hear him? Can you see him? Can you enter into the story? Can you see yourself? He's probably cleaning himself up the best he can. He probably went by someplace of water to cleanse himself a bit. And he rehearses and rehearses that which he's going to say. But when he gets close, something happens, something beyond anything he could ever have imagined. He sees in the distance a man running at him. And the man running at him is an old man. An old man do not run. It's not very mature. It's not wise. It's culturally unacceptable. But there he sees this man running towards him and it's his father. Tell him to understand that. I want to show you something. I'm not an old man. But I'm wearing a robe. And if I begin to run through the sanctuary, it looks somewhat foolish and silly, doesn't it? Here I go. Now imagine if I had tucked this robe into my undergarments. And that's what you saw because that's what he was wearing. And that's what he did. He ran towards his son because he knew that a mob was gathering. News had already broken that his son was returning home. And as he would see it, the mob would gather around his son forming a gauntlet. And as they formed a gauntlet, they would beat his son. So he's the first one there. Luke tells us through Jesus' story that he grabbed his son and he began to kiss him. It's either a very intimate kiss, which is the female Greek, which is probably not what it is, or it means many, many kisses. So the son cleaned up the best he can, ready to rehearse, seized his father, embraced him and began to kiss him all over his dirty, big, filthy face. And everybody is stunned. This isn't supposed to happen. Luke was supposed to be a beating, and the father is protecting his son. And then the father goes on and says, bring the best robe, which was his robe, his ceremonial robe. The robe he would wear only on great occasions. And he says, bring a ring, it's a signet ring, and put it on his hand. What did it mean? It meant that his son was now trusted. Most parents say to their children when their children have felt there's going to be a season of time where I can no longer trust you. That's not what this father's saying, give him my ring. I trust him. He then says to the servants, put sandals on his feet, and what does that mean? That you must recognize he is your master. He's not a coworker, he's not a hired servant, he's my son, and you are to submit to him. Nobody, nobody could have dreamed that story up, especially his son. And then the father says one more thing. He says to his servants, kill the fattened calf, normally if the family was going to gather in celebration it would be a goat or a sheep because of the size. So the fact that he's killing the calf means that he's inviting the community, those who were gathering in the mob to come and celebrate, but celebrate what? Celebrate that which was dead. My son, now alive, resurrection joy, and soon the smell and the sound of a feast would take place, and everyone would continue to be speechless. Where are you in the story? Where is it in your life that you wish God were dead? This week I pray that you will think about that question. And then I pray that you will pray about that question and ask God's spirit to stir in you that you might know what it is or what things are present in your life where you simply have said I wish God were dead, and then I pray that you would have an expectant joy seeing the love the father has for you. What did he do? Well, he did die in sending his son. God sent his son to die. Jesus, that we might not go through that gauntlet, that we might be covered in his robe, read Isaiah 61, that we might have him in no of his affection. For some of you, there's something in your life that has kept you from seeing this intense affectionate, unbelievably powerful pursuit of God towards you. He loves you just like this father loved his son. And you and I wish him dead and he still comes. That's the gospel. That's the story. Enter into it. Don't just listen to a tour guide, enter in. Father in heaven, that story your son told about your love for us is amazing. And sadly, even as John, John charged our kids, we forget, we forget it's that powerful and that intimate and that beautiful. So would you be so gracious to us to show mercy once again, to lift our eyes up that we might know of the resurrection joy that is so clearly presented in this passage. God, I pray for those in our body even now who feel so distant and so numb towards that kind of love. Would you pour out your grace on a dry and cold heart? Would you make us all flamed with passion for you, receiving the love that you have given us in Christ? We pray in Jesus' name, amen.