Sermon Tone Analysis

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*LIKE THE YOUNGER SON*

*/Finding Yourself /*

*/in /*

*/The Parable of the Prodigal Son/*

 

Luke 15

 

June 13:2010

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The Bible is all about life with God.

Think about that - the bible is all about *life with God.*

Most people study the bible one of two different ways.

·    information and knowledge about God

·    to find some formula that will solve the pressing need of the moment.

While these are two valid ways of studying scripture, they often fall short of doing what God really wants to happen - for us to experience life with Him.

You see, the bible is about how God has made this */"life with Him"/* possible.

In reflected meditation and study we discover the footprints of God in our daily existence.

Over the past month I have been reflecting on one of Jesus' most known parables, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

The way I have done this is using a very long and time-honor way thoughtful people have approached scripture throughout the ►ages called */lectio divina/*/, /which is the Latin for divine or spiritual reading.

It is basically a way of slowing down as we focus on a scripture passage to reflect and listen to what the Spirit reveals within us about our life with God in relation to the text.

It involves

 reading,

 pausing,

reflecting,

listening

and submitting

to the text,

 

allowing its message to flow into us rather than our just knowing and attempting to master it.

Have you ever considered yourself like the prodigal son.

I don’t think I have ever  really considered myself a prodigal son -- that is until this month -- as I spent devotional times several times a week breathing in this scripture and allowing the Holy Spirit to interpret this text with my life with God now.

So, this over the next three weeks I want to invite into my journey as I share what is being revealed to me.

 

►First, let me give you a little background.

The parable is really one of three found in succession in Luke, chapter 15.  *Turn there now in your Bibles.*

We discover that Jesus was attracting a crowd of tax collectors and other sinners and that the Pharisees - consider the most religious and righteous people of that day - and teachers of the law were criticizing Jesus for welcoming and eating with sinners.

►*Hold that in our mind - two groups of people around Jesus – those considered very religious and those considered very sinful people*.

You see, as we get into this story we see that Jesus addresses both group of people, */"sinners"/* and */"religious people,"/* –

 

Jesus tells three different stories to this small gathering of people

 

The first two stories, the lost sheep and the lost coin, reveal something unique about God.

Most people tend to think of religion as */"humanity's search for God."/*/ / We think of searching to find God.

*/"I have really been seeking God and finally found him."/*

Among other things, the first two stories reveal God is actually seeking us.

This is what makes Christianity different from all the other religions in the world.

Every other religion says that we can search for and find God if we try hard enough.

Only Christianity says, */no, God has come down into the world to seek and save us.

/* 

 

Salvation does not come by our searching for God or our doing certain things, like earning extra points in class or doing a lot of good things to earn brownie points for heaven.

*NO.*

Our salvation is an act of grace by God who left his heavenly throne to come searching for us.

We think we are searching for God, but in reality when we find Him, we discover that He has been available all along.

It's like we turn around and there He is - and has been all along.

He is reaching out to us, just waiting for us to open our eyes -to turn to Him - and when we discover him - it is not by our efforts -- it just we finally had eyes to see and a heart to respond to him.

This thought helps me to understand what Jesus said in *John 6:44* where Jesus says

 

►*John 6:44 (NIV)** - **No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

*

* *

►Or in* 1 John 4:10 (NIV)  -10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

*

* *

It's what John Newton expressed in his salvation experience when he wrote amazing grace.

►In the first verse we sing,

 

*/Amazing grace how sweet the sound /*

*/that saved a wretch like me/*

*/I once was lost, but now am found,/*

*/was blind but now I see./*

This morning I want to invite you to watch  and listen to how Jesus may have told this story.

This clip comes from the movie, /Jesus of Nazareth./

►*MOVIE CLIP*

How many people are focused upon in the story of the prodigal in this parable   - .

This morning I will focus on the younger son.

Next week I will focus on the older brother – and the following week, the father.

Now, I read this story many, many times, and 3 or 4 times a week before I feel asleep in the evening I would lie and meditate on this parable – I must have done this 20 or 25 times.

I began by thinking I had little if anything in common with the younger son… but the more I reflected – the more asked questions like, What do I have in common with the younger son – to my surprise I began finding some common themes in my life, similarities with the prodigal son in my life.

►*What the younger son asked from his father is the same thing I desire from God.  *

 

 What did the young son ask for?

He asked for his inheritance, his portion of what his father was going to give him.

Do we not desire the same thing?

I want my share of God’s inheritance.

I want all that God will give me.

Don’t you?  Don’t you want God’s blessing.

I found it interesting that the father granted his younger son’s request.

·    He did not lecture him.

·    He did not try to constrain him.

·    He didn’t try to persuade him not to leave home.

►*This reminded me that God gives us freedom to make our own decision.*

He does not have us on some puppet string.

He gives us freedom to remain in his presence or to leave his presence, to live with him or walk away from him.

I never really took noticed that after the younger son received his inheritance, he didn’t leave home immediately.

He stayed at home for a period of time – a few days.

And the thought came to me, when I receive a blessing from God, I remain with him, but it doesn’t take long for me want to do things my way.

Soon the son left the umbrella of his father’s home to strike out on his own.

The prodigal wanted what his father would give him and then the freedom to live the way he wanted to live.

Now, isn’t that like us?

We want our Heavenly Father’s blessings – but we choose to live life our way instead of His way?

I want what God provides but I want to live the way I choose to live.

►Here a picture symbol that came to me in thinking about this.

When the younger son was at home, he was under the umbrella of his father’s protection and love.

When he was at home, wherever he went,

·    He was under his father’s umbrella.

·    He was in fellowship with his father.

·    He was cared for by his father.

But when he chose to leave home, he was no longer under his father’s umbrella.

He left all that behind.

He was fully exposed to

·    the world,

·    the way of the world,

·    the choices of the world.

I want God’s blessings – but like the prodigal – I have tendencies to walk out from under that umbrellas and lose fellowship with my father.

My being outside out of fellowship with my father may not be as abrupt as the prodigal, but the effects are the same.