A Cause for Celebration (2)

A Cause for Celebration

Luke 15:32 ESV

32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

Focus on the good things in life

“Two friends were walking through the desert. At one stage in their journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything he wrote in the sand, ‘Today my best friend slapped me in the face.’

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to have a wash. The one who had been slapped got stuck in a mire and started drowning, but his friend saved him. After he had recovered from his shock, he wrote on a stone, ‘Today my best friend saved my life.’

The friend who slapped and saved his best friend asked him, ‘After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write in stone, why?’

The other friend replied, ‘When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.’”

3 Takeaways

1. Repent

2. Resentment

3. Restoration

Tweet-able moment

He can fix what is broken

Years ago Dr. Chadwick made the statement that there is a third son in the parable of the Prodigal Son. The younger son broke the Father’s heart, the elder son was out of fellowship, and the third Son is the One who uttered the parable. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the ideal Son without sin. He came to a far country, not to run away, but to do the will of His Father. He did not spend His life in riotous living but in sacrificial dying. He was not a Prodigal Son but a Prince of Peace who shed His blood for the sins of the world. He was not a wayward son but a willing sacrifice. He says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). Salvation comes to those who simply believe on His name.