Check-Engine Light

Welcome

Well, good morning Lifepoint! If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan Osborn and I am the teaching pastor here at Lifepoint Worthington. I’m really really grateful that you’re here with us today.

New Guest Info

If you are a guest here...

Series Set-Up

We are in the middle of a series that we are calling, “Prodigals” looking at what is probably the most recognized of Jesus’ stories in the New Testament. And what we’ve been talking about is how all of us are somewhere in the process of leaving, longing for, or returning home.

And in retelling this story, we are looking at it each week from the perspective of one of the characters in the story.

So if you have a bible with you, meet me in Luke 15.

Introduction

And while you’re turning there...

Maybe it’s just me…but does anyone else every feel like is one long “problem solving” exercise? We’ve always got things going on - trying to keep the plates spinning. And it’s all usually pretty good stuff, right? Like we’ve got work and projects there, there’s home life with meal prep, keeping things somewhat organized…if you’ve got kids, there’s always stuff they’ve got going on…practices and games, homework, friends. All the things, right? And how you fit all this stuff together, that’s the exercise, right? Not to mention that by the time you finally figure out a good system, some variable changes that throughs the whole thing off!

And while we can push through and make it happen, I think for must of us, there is generally that one thing that just pushes things over the edge.

For me…it’s the thing that can make my blood boil and my stomach drop because everytime it happens, it takes time I don’t have and money I don’t want to spend to fix it.

The “check-engine” light.

It can be anything from a loose gas cap confusing the sensors to serious engine destroying malfunctions. You don’t know! All you see is that orange light on the dashboard…taunting you with all it’s devious ambiguity.

Pause

At the end of the day, the check engine light is actually a good thing, right? And I can be frustrated that the light is on…but it would be ridiculous just to be frusted that the light is on. Because, at the end of the day, the problem is not your check-engine light. It’s just your car telling you, “There is a problem you’re not aware of…there’s something else going on…and you need to look into it!”

Why am I telling you any of this?

Beause as we’re contining this story today, focing in on the older son, we’re gonna to see, in a sense, his check engine light come on…it’s one that we all will be very familiar with - but we’ll also see what happens as he refuses to get it looked at…and in many ways, what happens to us when we do the same thing.

So if you’re not there yet, open with me Luke 15. I’ll pray, and then we’ll get started.

Pray

The Story

Alight, let’s go ahead and get started.

Retell and Recap

Let me recap what we covered last week.

Jesus tells a story about a man who had two sons. The younger son goes to the father, requests his inheritence, gets it, and promptly leaves home.

He spends all his money on what any outside observer would say is an “unsavable lifestyle; (the language Jesus uses).”

But once he’s burned through all of it, a famine breaks out and the younger son hits rock bottom.

He can’t house himself. He can’t feed himself. He’s got nothing left but the crushing shame of realizing he’s wasted his life.

And then all of a sudden he has this “wake-up” moment. He comes to his senses. For the first time, he feels the weight of everything he’s done…how he’s betrayed his family, wasted life…

The one thing he can cling to is that maybe, just maybe, he could head back home and be hired on by his dad as one of the servants. For sure, he’s out of the family…that’s not in question. But at least he won’t starve.

So he heads back home…rehearsing the speech: “I’ve sinned against you…I’m no longer worthy to be your son…treat me as a hired servant...”

Only he finds as he’s approaching the house his father is there waiting for him…He runs, embraces his son…and throws a party saying, “This son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”

And what we saw last week is that Jesus tells this story to show how God, like the father, wants to find those who are far from Him! And Jesus intends for us to find ourselves in this story…there are ways that we are all like the younger son…the big idea was that we are all prone to wander…and yet, in the gospel, none of us is too far gone…no one is so lost that we cannot be found.

But, this is not where the story ends.

The Story of the Older Brother

Look with me starting at v. 25 (Luke 15:25-32).

Luke 15:25–32 ESV

“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 is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

As I look at the story, there’re a few things that jump out to me.

Intead of joining the celebration, the older brother is angry.

And it’s not because his brother’s back in town, he’s angry the father recieved him back into the family…in spite of everything that happened…all the damage that came from the youner brothers wandering off…with the older brother left to pick up the pieces…he’s angry that the father is throwing a party. How backwards is this, right?

He looks at his own life and says: “I’m the one who stayed!” “I’ve been here the whole time!” “I’ve done what you asked…I’ve been a model son…and he gets the party?! “I never got one.”

What’s going on here?

He’s questioning the father’s fairness. And it’s not just a curiousity…he’s angry about because it’s not fair.

And I think that’s a question we can all resonate with, isn’t it? I mean this story is a metaphor of our relationship with God…how often have we had the same kinds of questions about God’s fairness to us, right? [EXPAND]

After all, this is the point of Jesus’ story…He wants us to find ourselves in it…and while there are ways in which we are all like the younger son who wanders, there are also ways in which we are like the older son. And clearly the older son’s got some issues: the problem is they are much harder to recognize.

Think of it this way. The younger son got up and wandered away. He rejected his family. He rejected his faith. And however long it took, eventually, he this awakening and came back home. It’s all front and center…obvious.

But for this older brother, all the external details of life tell us he’s the model son. From the outside, he’s got everything put together and he’s doing “it” right. You know what I mean?

All we really see is this moment [SNAP] when the “check engine” light comes on.

He’s angry. He’s jealous and frustrated.

It’s the only clue we get that something much deeper…something much harder to spot…is going on.

And friends, this is what make our “older-brother-ness / older-sister-ness” so much more insidious. Beacuse we can hide it. We can pretend it’s not there. We can have the check engine light pop on, and choose to keep driving because no one else really sees it.

And here’s what’s a stake: we don’t know how the older brother’s story ends.

It’s not an accident that it’s an unfished story with the older brother. What we do know is that as it ends, he’s stuck out in the field…he’s not at “home.” And he will stay out in the field, just as a lost as the younger brother was…only he’s oblivious to it.

And in the same way, we can end up like the older-brother. Unaware we’ve actually wandered off. Quietly frustrated in our relationship with God…angry…disappointed…oblivious to the fact that we may be in the most spiritually dangerous spot of our lives.

We’ve got a check-engine light on…and sure, we can choose to ignore it…we can keep driving…and our “car” wil continue to work...until it doesn’t…and something breaks.

So here’s my question: how do we recognize our own “check-engine” lights? Because we can’t do anything about them until we recognize them, right?

Our Emotions are Often our Check-Engine

It’s subtle…and they will look a little bit different for all of us. Author Pete Scazzero, in his book Emotionally Healthy Discipleship says it this way:

"Anger, depression, and fears often function as the “check-engine” lights to slow us down, informing us that something is not right on the inside of the engine of our lives.”

In other words, it’s our emotions.

The problem we encounter, espeically in the church, is that so often, our emotions, particularly the negative ones, have been treated as problems and almost never talked about as pointers. We talk about (I often talk about) anger as a problem in my life - a sin pattern that I want to break out of…but I almost never talk about is as a pointer to a much deeper issue.

And I think we actually intuitively understand this even though we don’t always connect the dots for what this practically means. Like if I want to stop being angry at my kids…the solution is not simply “stop being angry.” That doesn’t work! It’s not until you really look what why you’re angry…your anger is not just a problem, it’s a pointer to the deeper problem! It’s the check-engine light.

And when them comes on, that’s supposed to be trigger that says, “There’s something else going on here.”

What’s Your Check-Engine Light?

So, What you’re check-engine light? You can have more than one. But we all have them.

Comparison

One of mine is anger…another one is comparison.

If I’m being really honest…it’s one I’m strating to recognize more and more in my life. And here’s how it works for me. I get jealous about church stuff. And for the most part, I can look around and can celebrate what God is doing in other churches - and see other people who are “successful” and have NO problem with it at all - unless that pastors about my age…in my season of life.

Then it’s a real short road to, “why does he have that big of a church?”

And my inner older-brother starts to wake up.

Because it really is odd that more people go to his church…I mean I am better teacher than him…I’ve listened to those sermons…they’re reall not that good. I’m not sure why he gets invited to speak at the conference…he’s just repackaging someone else’s ideas…I could do the same thing if I wasn’t so busy actually doing ministry…he’s got all that staff do other things…must be nice, must be real nice to be him.

And at somepoint along the way, God gets caught up in it…becuase I eventually want why he’s not treating me the same way! Am I not being faithful? Am I not putting in the work? You know? What am I missing?!

But you see, while it all starts with check engine light of “comparison,” that’s not the real issue. It’s pointing to the real issue.

Let me give you another one.

Disappointment

Disappointment. We all feel it. Everyone is disappointed by something. But just like with comparison or any other check-engine light, we usually think of disappointment as a problem to solve, not a pointer to a deeper issue.

I was meeting with a group of pastors one time during a really dark season of my life and one of them said, “Burnout is rarely the result of a one big event, but of a thousand un-named dissapointments.” And then he challenged us to go and list out everything we’d been dissapointed by over the last two years.

And I had no shortage of things to list. Some of you would be right there with me.

The job didn’t play out the way you thought it would. Your marriage is not where you hoped it would be. You thought you’d be farther along by now. You thought you’d have more figured out...

The list goes on and we can be more and more specific.

But when you start to think of disappoint not as a problem but a pointer…as a check engine light...

After all, what does it even mean to be disappointed?

It’s actually a very interesting word - it comes from French and it originally meant to be appointed to or removed from a position of power - like the king. We still use it today when someone is appointed to a position…to be disappointed is to be removed from that position.

So in some sense, we are disappointed when there is something in our lives that we have first appointed … that we have first enthroned…that was never ment to take that position in our lives. And in your inner older-brother starts to wake up as your disappointment makes way for entitlement…that you actually do deserve the thing that’s been taken away…that you actually have earned it…that you actually need it.

You see, the point is that feeling of disappointed is really supposed to be check-engine light that points to the fact that you have entroned something in your life that was never meant to occupy that position.

If you want to diagnos this check engine light…take some time this week to do the same thing I did…write out everything you’ve been disappointed by over the last couple of years. And you will see your inner-older brother wake up and start to justify exactly why you have every right to be upset. Watch your inner older-brother make way for you to move on, but keep you perpetually disappointed…all the more because it’s not fair that these things didn’t work out the way they were “supposed” to.

Other Check Engine Lights

And we could add to this list, right? Fears…Anxiety…Hurt…bitterness...

Our emotions are the check-engine lights for our souls. And the inner older-brother…older-sister in us all will do whatever it can to keep us angry…anxious…hurt…jealous…disappointed.

Because at the end of the day, what the older brother - the older sister fixates on in our lives is the same thing he fixates on in this story: that the Father has not been fair.

In my anger, it’s not fair that I got that I’m getting a different outcome. In comparing myself to others, it’s not fair that they are more successful. In my disappointment, it’s not fair that I had to give THAT up.

Ignoring the Check-Engine Light

Of course, like we’ve said all along, you can just ignore the check engine light on your car. And it will still work. Right up to the moment it doesn’t.

And I think, in the story, this is what the older brother is doing. He’s ignoring the check engine light. He’s angry and instead of seeing it as pointer to a deeper problem, he sees it as the problem. And the solution is for him to get what he thinks he deserves and for the younger brother to get what he deserves...

In his mind, he’s gone about life the right way…he’s played by the rules and so it’s time for the father to pay up.

The issue is - the equation he’s been using all along is off.

It’s been: I stayed + I Did = I Get

After all, it’s only “fair.”

When that’s his equation…when that’s OUR equation…it keeps him and us perpetually stuck on the outside…unable to join the party…blind to the fact that we’re missing out!

You might experience it this way: as long as you are conviced like the older the brother, that God owes you, you will never be able to believe or enjoy the fact that God forgives you.

Gospel

You see, the older brother had the wrong equation. He really thought it wasn’t fair the way the father treated the younger brother. The mistake he made is that he thought he wanted father to be fair…what he actually needed was father to be forgiving.

And this, is the point that Jesus has ultimately been building to with the older brother…that just like him, we often believe we want God to be fair to us…after all, thats why we’re angry…why we’re dissapointed…why we’re jealous...not realizing that all the check engine lights in our own lives are actually telling us that the problems we have are much worse than we thought.

That in so many way, even when it looks like we’re living the good life and doing it right…on the inside, in our heart of hearts, things are much darker than anyone else realizes. All of us are far more broken than we’d like to admit…in fact, we are all far more broken that we even recognize! This is part of why the innerolder bother is so powerful, is because like the older brother, we are often far more blind to our brokenness than we realize!

And if God were to be fair like we think we want him to be…if he were to actually give us what we deserve…it would not at all be what we’re hoping for.

In fact, the full arch of the biblical story makes it clear that if there’s anything we’ve earned in our brokenness, in our sin, it’s judgement…if there’s anything we’ve earned…it’s to be rejected by our Heavenly Father whom we have failed.

And yet the story of Gospel tells us that there is another brother…one who was perfectly obedient to ALL of what Father had commanded of us…lived the perfect life we should have but failed to live. But this brother, instead of saying, “Father give me what I deserve,” says, “Father give me what THEY deserve.” And this brother, Jesus, got exactly what we deserved, dying the death we should have died for our failure to live the way we’ve been created to live…all so that by faith in Him…we would find our Father who is not fair…He’s forgiving…He’s one who welcomes us back home…younger brother, younger sister, old brother older sister. All of us are welcomed home with Him through faith.

Today is that day.

Next Steps Baptism.