Hope You'll Join Us

In this sermon, Grant Gardner explores Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, focusing on the radical compassion of the Father who restores both the wayward younger son and the prideful older brother. The message challenges listeners to examine their own hearts—whether they identify as “prodigals” or “older brothers”—and to recognize that true belonging in God’s family is a gift of grace, not something earned. Listeners are invited to lay down pride, embrace a new identity as sons and daughters, and join the joyful celebration of God’s redeeming love.

Transcript

Welcome everyone! We are excited that you are here with us today! My

name is Grant Gardner, I am the Middle School Minister here at SOCC.

And if that scares you a little bit, don’t worry, I’m not going to make any of

you drink soda through a sock or lick peanut butter out of someone’s

armpit. If you don’t understand that joke, youth ministry in the 90’s and

early 2000’s was a weird and crazy time. But, I am going to bring a little

taste of the Middle here this morning. Every week we start our service with

what we call Middle Memes.

(Middle Memes)

Now, what I’m actually here to do is conclude our 7 week series called

“Block Party” that focuses on all these different moments in the Gospel of

Luke that Jesus sits around a table and shares a celebration or meal with

people. So many of Jesus’ life changing teachings and powerful moments

happen around some type of dinner party. And throughout this series,

Shawn has been inviting our church to participate and host block parties in

our own neighborhoods. Last week Shawn taught that God has graciously

invited all of us to the table, and we cannot repay Him for it. What are we

going to do with that invitation? One of the challenges was to go and sharethat invitation with someone else, and so our hope is that for those of you

who were here, you were able to do that. But before we get into today’s

message, I just want to take some time to pray and center my own heart.

(Pray)

Disney has done some retellings of the famous middle eastern story of

Aladdin both through animation and through a live-action remake. Within

both of these stories the main character Aladdin encounters a Genie that is

forced to grant him 3 wishes. Through events in the story the genie reveals

that people always promise they will use one of their wishes to set him free,

but in the end their thirst for more power and greed always inevitably ends

with them using all 3 wishes for themselves. A fantasy story, but there’s a

deep truth to be realized within it. How often do we tend to want the gifts

and blessings of someone, just without the responsibilities or relationship? I

mean this is a rhetorical question, so you don’t have to expose yourself, but

how many of us would rather go rent or buy something you need for a

project rather than to just go ask a neighbor to borrow it because you don’t

feel like having a conversation. Or how often do we treat God like this?

Whenever we need or want something from God we’re all about being in

the Word and praying to Him, but when life is going great, well…let’s justsay life can get pretty busy. I mean we all know “friends” or family like this.

They only ever call you up when they need something. Today, we’re going

to be looking at a story told by Jesus today that has to do with this very

idea, and my goal today is to challenge all of us, myself included, to not see

God as a genie or a hospital call, but to see the blessing of an actual

relationship with Him. I want you to see the blessing of the Father’s love

towards you, and to stop comparing your story to others, but to see how

God has uniquely met all of you out on the road with His extraordinary

grace.

Jesus told many stories during His earthly ministry, and these stories are

often called parables. And the point of a parable is that they have a point.

There is a truth that the storyteller wants us to discover for ourselves.

Jesus doesn’t just invite us to hear this story, but to experience it. In every

parable or story Jesus tells, we are invited to examine our own hearts and

be changed. Jesus is the greatest storyteller of all time, but what is

recorded in our Holy Scripture isn’t just there to be a good story. Jesus is

inviting us into a change of heart and then a change of actions. So our text

today is found in Luke 15:11-32. Shoutout to Beth for reading part of this

passage at the beginning, but don’t worry, the story doesn’t end there. If

you’ve never heard this passage before, this story from Jesus is oftencalled the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but what we will be focusing on

today is not just this wayward son, but also two of the more overlooked

characters within Jesus’ parable: the father, and the older brother. The

prodigal son is one of the most powerful stories in scripture on God’s

redemptive love, but today, I want to acknowledge the true hero of the

story, the father. In fact, my father-in-law always says that a better suited

title for this parable could be the parable of “The Good Father.” As we read

this parable, there was a book that one of my mentors Josh Reynolds let

me borrow called Poet & Peasant by Kenneth E. Bailey, that was super

insightful into the context and the cultural significance of this parable itself.

This story was told by Jesus thousands of years ago to an audience that is

different to us in many ways, and when we read it purely through our

modern midwestern eyes, we can miss out on some things that really get to

the heart of what Jesus is trying to tell us. I believe this parable can be

understood simply and still teach us a great lesson, but I want to encourage

you to go a little deeper with me here today even if you’ve heard this story

a million times to see what the Lord wants to teach us here. So if you’re

interested in learning more or even seeing some of the deeper layers than

we don’t have time to get into today, I would encourage you to check out

his book. So to pick up the story where Beth left off, she read in verse 16:16He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating,

but no one gave him anything.

The story then continues as this:

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s

hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!18I will

set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned

against heaven and against you.19I am no longer worthy to be called your

son; make me like one of your hired servants.’20So he got up and went to

his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled

with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and

kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and

against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and

put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.23Bring the

fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.24For this son of

mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began

to celebrate.25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the

house, he heard music and dancing.26So he called one of the servants

and asked him what was going on.27‘Your brother has come,’ he replied,

‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe

and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father

went out and pleaded with him.29But he answered his father, ‘Look! All

these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet

you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my

friends.30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property

with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I

have is yours.32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother

of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

As we analyze this passage it’s important to understand to whom Jesus

is telling this parable. Who was the original audience?

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear

Jesus. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man

welcomes sinners and eats with them.”Luke 15:1-2

So we get these two kinds of categories of people who are in the

presence of Jesus. Tax collectors and sinners are one, and then Pharisees

and teachers of the law are another. And these Pharisees and teachers of

the law are muttering to themselves that Jesus would associate himself and

eat with such horrible sinners.

And before you become too harsh on them, you have to understand

Israel’s story. Up until this point, God had allowed Israel to be conquered

by other nations because of their great sin. All of the heartbreak and even

Israel’s current oppression from Rome had resulted from the people’s

failure to keep the laws that God had commanded them to keep. So the

Pharisees were born out of most likely a good desire to see God’s people

return to His Words and His laws. But what might’ve started out with good

intentions had spiraled into a people that oftentimes valued their position

and influence over their actual dedication to God. Because of their

dedication and intelligence, and overall wisdom, the Pharisees and

religious leaders of the law were often well respected and looked up to by

the general population.So we have these two groups that on the surface could not be any more

different. Horrible sinners and then the best of the best religious leaders.

And there’s an obvious division among them. The Pharisees despise these

horrible sinners. I mean after all, Israel’s downfall has resulted from the lack

of following God’s laws. If these people could just get their act together

then maybe God would rescue them from out of the hands of Rome and

deliver them back to their previous status as a great and prosperous nation.

How could Jesus be aligning Himself with these people? So Jesus tells 3

stories to address the situation at hand, and we’re going to be looking at

His final story today.

In the very opening verses of this parable we are introduced to this father

and his two sons. And from the very beginning, we see this situation that

would’ve been shocking to the original audience. The younger brother asks

his father for his share of the inheritance. Which might sound weird to us,

inheritance is something you get after someone dies, but it’s maybe not

that weird to us. But, to this audience and the culture of that time, this

would’ve been a horrible offense said by the son against his father. In his

book Poet & Peasant Bailey says that in all his time traveling the Middle

East and studying the culture, whenever he has asked someone would it

be okay for a son to ask this of his father, the answer has always beenemphatically “No!” When he asks why, they would say it would be like

telling your father you wish he was dead. Some people even said that the

father should beat his son for saying such a great offense. So it’s here

where we see our first offense of a son valuing the gifts or blessing of his

father, over the father himself. They didn’t have cell phones back then. The

son is not planning on staying in contact or relationship. He is only

interested in his father’s inheritance.

But let’s continue on with the passage to see more. The younger brother

then squanders this wealth in wild living, and then a severe famine hits the

land and he is in need. It’s at this point that we see the pride so clearly of

this younger son. Because at this moment, he could go back to his father’s

household and beg for forgiveness, but he instead hires himself out to a

citizen of that country. The word used there actually literally means “glued”

himself to a citizen of that country. And if you read the Old Testament pigs

were one of the animals deemed unclean by God. The Jewish people were

disgusted by pigs. I’ve heard historians describe how a Jew might’ve

viewed pigs is similar to how many of us would view a street rat or a

cockroach. And so this son is so desperate that he desires to eat what the

pigs eat. If Jesus was telling this story to us in our terms he might even say

he longed to fill his stomach with the scraps the cockroaches and rats ate.He was in a very bad place, but his pride was so much that instead of going

back home, he hired himself out to this random citizen to feed unclean

animals and basically starve. But in verse 17 Jesus tells us that he finally

came to his senses. The younger son begins making this apology speech

in his head and what he’s going to say to his father when he returns home.

And at the end of what he’s coming up with in verse 19 he comes up with

the proposal that he is not worthy to be called a son, and so he is going to

beg to be one of his father’s servants. And then we fast forward to see that

while he was still a long way off His father sees him and runs after him to

meet him. His father embraces him and kisses him. And then the son gives

his speech to the father in verse 21, but did you notice what he leaves out?

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against

you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’”

After experiencing the Father’s radical love the son no longer begs to be

a servant, but embraces the gift of being a son. You see, at that time when

someone desired to repent or make reparations, they would often bring a

gift or some sort of restitution offering. The son was completely broke and

so all he had left to offer was his service, and we don’t know why he

chooses to not offer this service after embracing his father, but I want topropose that perhaps this son understood that the father’s love was a gift

that he couldn’t earn. His status as a son and the father’s love were not

things that he could repay his father. All he could do is simply be amazed at

the father’s love and accept the gift. And from this moment, the father

doesn’t stop there; he puts the best robe on his son, presumably his own

robe and a ring on his finger, and he orders his servants to kill a fattened

calf in celebration. Now once again, there’s something we might miss as

modern audiences, but killing the fattened calf would’ve been a waste of a

lot of food if it’s just the family eating it. There were no freezers back then,

so that meat is going to need to be eaten or it’s going to spoil rather

quickly. Killing the fattened calf would’ve been cause for a neighborhood

type of celebration. Traditionally, music would begin playing as the meal is

being prepared to alert the surrounding people that a great feast and

celebration is about to take place. People would funnel in and out, and it

would be a great feast. This was a culture that is centered around the ideas

of family, community, and hospitality. It is also a culture that heavily deals

with honor and shame. If you were here last week, you would remember

that it was a great insult to a host to not attend such a celebration. So as

this party commences, we see our next great insult to the father. In verse

28 the older brother upon realizing the occasion for the feast refuses to goin. This would’ve been another very public insult to his father. If he

disagreed with his father in this manner, he should’ve attended the party,

done his responsibilities, and then argued with his father in private after the

matter. But instead, he chooses to very publicly shame his father. And the

expectation once again, would’ve been that the father shamed or beat his

son for such an insult, but instead, we see the father’s great character on

display. He goes out to meet his son, and he pleads with him to join the

party. When met with another devastating insult, the father reacts with

extraordinary love. But instead of being changed by this extraordinary love,

this son doubles down.

But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for

you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a

young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.30But when this son of

yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you

kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I

have is yours.32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother

of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

-Luke 15:29-32Do you notice his choice of words? Or lack thereof? He never calls him

father, he simply says you. He never calls his brother, his brother, he says

this son of yours. How does he refer to himself? He says I have been

slaving away for you. The older brother denies his own sonship to the

father. He compares himself to a slave. Although he has been in his

father’s household there is no relationship. He follows his father’s orders,

but he does so as a slave. He claims to never have disobeyed and yet, with

this very act he betrays his father’s love. And yet possibly his most

revealing words are in verse 29: “yet you never even gave me a young goat

to celebrate with my friends.” The son has lived with his father. The father

has invited a great celebration and feast for potentially the whole village.

Wouldn’t his friends and people be there? And then the father reassures

him that this son coming back doesn’t mean he will be losing out on his

inheritance if that’s what he’s worried about. But, you see, while these

things have been promised to the older son, he doesn’t have permission to

take them until after his father’s death. Bailey records this line of thinking as

follows:

Father: “All that I have is yours.”

Older Son: “Yes, but I don’t have the right of disposition. I own everything

but I still can’t slaughter a goat and have a feast with my friends.”Father: “Oh, I see, you also want me gone.”

And this is the very core problem of the parable, and it’s the core

problem of all of humanity. We want the blessings of God, just without God

in the picture. Paul Washer, a missionary and preacher says “Who doesn’t

want heaven? Everyone wants heaven. They just don’t want God to be

there when they get there.”

The very first sin, Adam and Eve are in paradise and in Genesis 3 the

serpent tells them that the fruit will make them like God. And even though

they live in absolute paradise and harmony with God, being in control

sounds just a little bit better doesn’t it? It’s the problem of both the brothers,

they both want the blessings of the father, just without the relationship to

the father himself. Although this son lived in close proximity to the father,

he knew his fathers commands, and although he did many of those

commands, he was choosing to not be anymore a son than his younger

brother. In fact, although he is clearly angry and holds bitterness in his

heart towards his younger brother, we can see in his heart that the older

son desires to do his own type of partying and wild living with his friends.

There may even be part of him that is jealous that his younger brother was

just bold enough to do what he always wanted to do. And I think most of us,when we read or hear this story, we don’t often like to connect ourselves to

the older brother. If someone came into the church and wanted to repent

and turn to Jesus, I would wager to say that most of us would say that we

would celebrate that as a good thing. But what about when that person

dresses a certain way? What about when that person does good for a little

bit, but then backslides into their old habits and they want a 3rd or a 4th

chance? What about when everyone starts talking about that person and

their incredible story and how many hearts they are changing for Jesus with

their testimony and they no longer talk much about all the work you do to

serve the church? Or you might not feel jealousy or resentment, but when

you hear the story of the prodigal son, it makes you feel like all you have is

this boring story of going to church every Sunday, and never really straying

too far from God. Maybe, you found yourself wishing before that you had

some big life crisis in which you ran away from God and lived wildly only to

come back to Him, just so that you could have a story. It’s a common thing

I see in youth ministry a lot among students. Wishing we had someone

else’s testimony. But can I just speak to those people for a moment if that is

you? The older brother, if he chooses to go back into that house with his

father, has every bit of a testimony as his younger brother. And if you need

help for what it looks like it goes something like this. “Although I never leftmy father’s household, and I would try my best to do his commands, I was

only going through the motions. My relationship to my dad was nothing

more than transactional and secretly I was wishing I could go off party in a

distant land. I appeared like I was a son, but in reality I was acting as a

slave. When I saw his love for my brother it angered me, because I felt like

I had never experienced that kind of love myself living with him all these

years. But then I realized, I didn’t really love my dad. I had just been doing

things to appear like a good son. I didn’t realize that all this time I had been

distant to him, but in the midst of that, and even in my pride, he met me

outside even after I insulted him, and he welcomed me in as a true son with

extraordinary love.”

If you feel like you’ve done enough to earn God’s grace, then you are

sorely mistaken and I invite you to embrace humility. If you can’t see where

God has extraordinarily loved you and met you outside, then I’m afraid

you’re still outside the party looking in. And maybe you don’t feel like you

have a story to tell because you still haven’t accepted the fathers invitation

to come inside. This invitation is every bit as good for the older brother as it

is for the younger brother. The father does not order his son to join the

party, he pleads with him. The father is pleading with his son to put down

the mantle of being a servant and to start seeing himself as a son. It’s whathis younger brother had to do. It’s a gift, and it cannot be earned. The

greatest barrier to both of these sons’ relationships to their father is pride.

The younger son lays down his pride and accepts the gift of relationship to

his father, and in doing so there is a great celebration of joy. But for the

older brother Jesus masterfully leaves the end of the story with a

cliffhanger. Will he lay down his pride and choose to go in? Or will he walk

away forsaking his father’s great love? I don’t know what every single

person in this room is carrying at this moment. For many of you, there are

some very heavy burdens on your soul that are weighing on you. For some

of you, you may feel like the younger brother. You have lived a life apart

from God. You were the life of the party, but as every party ended and you

went home you were left with deep scars and emotional wounds. You were

left starving for meaning in this world, but no matter what you tried whether

it be relationships or success, or pleasure, nothing left you satisfied. And

now you find yourself here in a place of just utter brokenness. Maybe

because of the things done to you or even the things you’ve done that

you’re ashamed of. If that’s you, then there’s a seat at the table. You don’t

have to clean up your act before you come to Jesus, you just have to set

out towards Him with a heart of humility, and He will meet you on the road,

embrace you with unfathomable love, and clothe you with a new identity.You do not deserve to be called His son or daughter, but He calls you one

anyway.

Or maybe for others of you, you have been here a long time. You come

to church every Sunday, you’re in a Bible study, you serve in the church

and the community. You do all the things, and yet God feels so distant. And

you might look around at some of these other people that have lived such

openly sinful lives and they come to Jesus and they just seem so alive and

on fire for Him now, and you long to feel that feeling too. But the father

doesn’t just want a slave, He wants a son or a daughter. All of those things

are good and will bring you great joy and life, but only when you start doing

them out of appreciation of God, not out of obligation. Will you put down

your pride and admit that you need Jesus every bit as much as the people

you are seeking to help do? This is my story. I get up here and I preach

about Jesus and His love, and then just last week I yelled at my wife in

front of a group of people, totally embarrassing her, and ruining my witness

because I felt like she wasn’t giving enough effort in pickleball. And that’s

just one example from last week. I am not Jesus, and I need Him every bit

as much if not more than you do. Without Jesus, I am nothing more than a

hopeless hypocrite, but with Him, I am a son of the Most High God. Without

Him, I would never be able to stand on this stage with any type of honestyand sincerity, but with Him all I need to do is point to the way, the truth, and

the life.

“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who

believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23for all have

sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his

grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

-Romans 3:22-24

Romans 8:37-39 NIV

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who

loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels

nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither

height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate

us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Is God the father in your life or just a genie in a bottle that you rub

whenever you need something? Jesus stands at the door knocking, will you

let Him in? Will you accept this great invitation of love and adoption into His

family? Will you join the celebration of all those redeemed by His grace? Or

will you continue to stand outside the party with anger and bitterness inyour heart? One choice leads to life and celebration, the other leads to

starvation and eventually death. What will you choose? To join the party?

Or to stay outside? There is no other option.