Come Home to God
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Continueing series called Home for Christmas.
Home is a powerful word. We talked last week that it represents safety, security, a place where we are accepted, find comfort, forgiveness, acceptance…
I was talking to a friend who just lost his dad this year. We talked about seeing things that we think our dads would like…
When my dad died, we ended up selling the home I grew up in, where my brother and I would sneak into the living room on Christmas mornings to see our presents before mama and daddy would get up, the home we would ride our homemade go-carts around the house making a dirt track out of the yard, where we learned how to throw a baseball...
We do a lot to make our homes - home, but they are temporary.
Today as we talk about “Come Home for Christmas” we’re talking about something that is eternal. Come home for Christmas is about having a relational connection with the God who is eternal. It’s a picture of the closeness between you and God. That’s what coming home means. It means being close and connected to God. Maybe it’s for the first time or maybe it’s a reconnect.
You say, Why? BC life works better when you are connected to God. So no matter what your temporary situation is right now, you can come home.
Actually, I think most of us want to be close to God… even if it’s your first time here… even if you are on the outside of Christianity looking in… something draws you home.
Read story
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.
12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.
14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” ’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.
23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,
24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house,
26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on.
27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him,
29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.
30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.
32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’ ”
What the Prodigal Son tells us about God
What the Prodigal Son tells us about God
1. God is patient enough to not give up.
1. God is patient enough to not give up.
It breaks my heart when I hear people say, I’m too bad for God to forgive me. I’ve done too much. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. or I’ve walked away from hi so many times he doesn’t want me back… God is done with me.
Truth - He’s not done with you. God is always hoping you come back. Jesus is describing His father and he is saying that this father has not given up on his son.
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
Imagine. This father has been waiting, watching and hoping his son would return and suddenly, he sees his son walking up the road.
God is patiently waiting for you and I to return.
One of the reasons we struggle with this idea of patiently waiting is that we are not patient. When someone hurts us we give them a warning. If they hurt us again… we blow them off. We give up on them.
Parents - “How many times do I have to tell you? no right answer to that question.
What were you thinking? Of course we were not thinking… that’s why we did stupid stuff.
But God is patient with us and that is so unlike our human experience it’s mind blowing.
9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
He wants everyone to to repent. repent - turn around. Come home. He is patient and wants everyone to come home. God says welcome home.
When we see someone whose been gone a while, just say welcome back. It’s not important where they have been until they are ready to share it.
Did anyone see Forrest Gump? At the end of the movie Forest takes Forest Jr to the first day of school to the bus stop. He watches his son get on the bus. The best words in the whole movie were “I’ll be here when you get back.”
Some of us today need to see God in that way. You may feel distant and disconnected, but God will be there patiently waiting. You may not be a runaway like this boy in the story, but you are disconnected. God is patiently waiting.
2. God is passionate enough to show extreme love.
2. God is passionate enough to show extreme love.
Look at this verse…
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
This is the only place I have ever seen where God is depicted as running.
Culture - men wore long robes. For him to pull up his robe and run with his legs showing was unheard of… kind of like a dad running down the street in his boxers.
But this was extreme love. This dad did not care what people thought, he saw his boy coming home. He loved him regardless of the past. He threw his arms around him and kissed him. he just came out of a pig pen.
20 So 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.
Notice - there is no lecture. His absence of words says a lot. Extreme love doesn’t always need words.
We may sometimes question human love. Do you still love me… especially if you have a teenager. But we don’t ever have to wonder if God loves us.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made.
God made you and I and he loves us and he shows us he loves us.
3. God is forgiving enough to accept me.
3. God is forgiving enough to accept me.
I have run into so many people over my years that say, Before I come to God, I have to get my life together. I have to stop… and start…
That’s the same attitude this son had in this story.
21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
That may describe how someone here or someone you know feels. If “Im not worthy” describes you or someone you know and love, you are right. None of us are worthy. That’s what is so amazing about God’s love.
Even though we don’t deserve it, he shows us patience to change with extreme love to experience forgiveness that puts us on a new path. You may think, but Pastor Robert, you don’t know all I have done. You’re right, but you don’t know my past either. God doesn’t care what we have done, he is patiently showing his extreme love for us.
When you go fishing, you have to catch a fish before you clean it.
The son came home, then the father cleaned him up: let’s get him a robe, some sandels, a ring and let’s have a party - he is home.
God forgives you enough to accept you the way you are but He loves you too much to let you say that way. That’s where the change comes in. That’s the forgiveness that sets us on a new course. I know, this is tough to understand because we don’t forgive people like this. With his forgiveness we’re getting something better than we deserve.
You know what the boy deserved when he came home? He deserved a whipping. He deserved to be an outcast. In Mosaic Law he would even deserve death because he ridiculed his family by what he had done. And what did he get? He got a party.
9 But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.
OK, let’s get to the So What? Shows a lot about God, but what does this mean to me?
What does it mean to me?
What does it mean to me?
Since it was Jesus’ story about how to come home and how to get close, let’s just follow the steps of the son. What did the son do?
1. You Come to your senses.
1. You Come to your senses.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
17 When he realized what he was doing, he thought, ‘All of my father’s servants have plenty of food. But I am here, almost dying with hunger.
This was his wake up call. It’s an ah-ahh moment. This is a wake up call. Sometimes, it’s surrounded by oain and it’s an Oh, no moment.
The first step to change is coming to our senses.
Most of us are not runaways like this kid. We may be more like the older son. We can be jealous. Why does he get this, and I don’t? Why does God bless them and not me? We can even be inconvenienced when we get crowded here.
When we feel like that, we are like the older brother… PL full, no coffee or donuts left when you arrived… Let the lost be found and come home.
In what ways do you need to come to your senses? Don’t put it off, time is running out...
11 This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
Come home to the Lord.
Next,
2. You Come clean.
2. You Come clean.
18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
That’s coming clean. This is where you expose to God your sin and ask for forgiveness that you know He’ll give. It’s not only to expose your sin to God and ask for forgiveness but I would encourage you to express it to somebody else for accountability. Expose it for forgiveness. Then express it to a friend for accountability. A lot of us like the first part. I can confess. Great. Know the next step is express it to a friend.
Why, because all of us in here sin. We have that in common. We all mess up. Then we hide just like Adam and Eve did. And you isolate yourself and move into being alone. You may have people around you, but you are alone because you are hiding.
It’s sad that most people are concerned with getting caught or exposed instead of getting help.
13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
Come to your senses. Come clean. Share in the context of a safe small group or a Christian friend for some accountability and help.
Next…
3. You Come home.
3. You Come home.
18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
Remember he wants everyone to repent… to turn around and come home.
What does coming home mean to you?
Maybe coming home for you means you have never ever entered into a relationship with God. You might know a lot about God. You might have been at church for along time, many years. But you’ve never come home to Him and let Him throw His arms around you and kiss you and embrace you and throw a party. You know a lot about God. You just don’t know God. Or maybe you’ve just been invited to check God out
Card - Committing your life to Christ?
Maybe you have done this already, but you have wandered some. You are just disconnected.
Card - Check I am renewing my commitment.
Maybe you are already a believer and you are connected to God. What is your action step?
Check off Others on CC. Your action step is to point people home to God.
In Bulletins, we put 4 invite cards in there for you to give someone. Why don’t you point some people hwere next week so they find out about this God that you love, whose forgiven you and with whom you ave a relationship with.
Runaways can always come home.
12 Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.
Next...
4. Come celebrate.
4. Come celebrate.
Celebration is the result of being connected with God. When we are connected with God it gives birth to a celebration in heaven. the celebration we have in Christ when we connect rises above the pain of our circumstances to a place of JOY.
Celebrate these three things: Coming to Your Senses. Coming Clean. Coming Home.
I can usually see whose not connect real well. They say they are Christians, but there is no joy in their life… no smile on their face. Sometimes we want to say, if you believe all this stuff about God, inform your face.
The coming home Jesus is telling us about in this story ...
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
The robe and the ring and the sandals were symbols that he belonged to the father. They enhanced the celebration.
I know we have people who have a lot of pain in their lives, but one of the results of being connected with Christ is life works better when we are connected.
When we celebrate… throw a party, we don’t do it alone. We throw a party with those who loves us and with whom we love and like. When we come home to God, we have a family and friends like no other place.
Best of all, we become friends with God.
11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Friends of God. That’s what we become. That’s what it means to come home to God.
Hide and Seek - played when kids not as adults… at least not for fun
always someone who hides so well you can’t find them… or don’t want to. You would give up and do something else and they would eventually show up saying it’s supposed to be hide and seek not hide and give up.
Man with cancer… doctor… he knew the struggle and did not want to put his family through it, so he hid it until he died. Family was hurt and angry that he did not trust their strength and love enough to let them walk through it with him. They did not get to say good-bye.
It would have been good for him to be found.
Hide and seek grown up style is not fun… not good. YOU may want to hide and be found at the same time. It can be confusing. You wonder what people would think… you don’t want to be a burden.
Hide and seek is not good.
Our youth used to play a game called sardines. The person who is it goes and hides and everyone looks for them. Whoever finds the person then hides with them, until everyone is hiding together.
Thats somewhat of a picture of the church. We come here every Sunday and enjoy the company mixed with truth and encouragement.
At the end of Hide and Seek, someone yells, come on in, it’s a new game. So I say to you who have hidden too well, get found. Come on in it’s a new game.
The prodigal son came home. The older brother came inside the house. God wants to have as relationship with you not just this Christmas but every day. Its a new game… get found.