Come Home

Good morning! My name is Matt Martinez and I am the pastor here at Renovation Church Shoreview.

There was a news story that came out this past week that Toys R’ Us is opening something like 120 new stores in the US for the holiday season. They’re back! An interesting part of this story is that one of the biggest reasons they can open all these stores is not because there is a high demand for toys from young children. It is because adults in their 30s and 40s are buying toys.

I don’t think it’s wrong to have some toys that bring back great memories from your childhood. But when these adults were asked why they were buying all these toys, many of them said that it was because of the state of the world. They just wanted to go back to a time when things were simpler, when things were safe, when things seemed to make more sense. In a way, they wanted to go back home. They wanted to go to a place of stability, peace, or comfort.

What kinds of people, or things, or achievements, or vices do you use to try and help bring yourself stability, one moment of peace, to take the edge off, to make you feel like you are not lost anymore?

Those things will not bring the sustaining peace or lasting comfort that you need in an uncertain world. But there is a place, or rather a person, that you can come to that will actually give you what you have been searching for all along.

If you have a Bible with you today, please turn to Luke 15:11-32. If you don't have a Bible, grab the one under your chair and turn to page 714 where you will find our passage. You are welcome to take that Bible home with you. It's our gift to you.

Our passage today is a story Jesus told to a crowd that had gathered to listen to him. All kinds of people were in that crowd: men, women, children, rich, poor, guilty, prideful, people looking for what to do next, people who were lost. Morally good people and morally bad people.

Jesus had a way of attracting all of them. He healed the sick, provided for people, taught them, loved them, and spent time with them. He spoke in a way that they had never experienced before. They felt convicted and accepted, they were provided for and challenged. People were drawn to Jesus, even the worst of people felt like they belonged with Jesus. This was a different kind of God than anything they had experienced, and many had expectations of what he would give to them, what he could do for them. What kind of person, or king or God he should be.

So with all these different people, attitudes, and experiences around him, Jesus told them a parable, or a story. Let's read it together. Luke 15, starting at the small number 11, page 714.

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

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! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 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.

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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For 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. 26 So 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. 29 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. 30 But 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. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

In a world that feels uncertain. If you find yourself in a place searching for comfort in all the wrong places. Jesus reminds us in this story that…

You have a loving Father in God.

Our passage opens with a father of two sons. We know this father is loving by what happens right away in verses 11-12. We read about the younger son of the father demanding his inheritance.

Normally a son received his inheritance when his father died. It wasn't unheard of for a father to give it early, but a son demanding it would have been very disrespectful.

In that culture, the younger son would have received one third, and the older son two thirds of the inheritance. This inheritance wasn’t cash, a Venmo transfer, or a corporate card. The family's wealth was in land and animals, so to give his son his share, the father would have to sell off part of his land. The father would take a loss in status, influence, and wealth in order to do this.

It would have been normal, even expected, for a father to kick a son out and disown him for a request like this. Instead, the father does what his son asks. He may even know full well that his son will run off and squander it… and yet, he gave.

Some of you here don't have a good relationship with your father. To hear that God is a loving father may feel almost impossible to imagine, maybe too good to be true. But you need to hear this.

God is a loving father. God desires to be a loving father to you. God has gone and will go to great lengths to love you, and you'll see just how great those lengths are as we keep going through this story today.

The story started with the father, and it will end with the father. But in the middle is a tale of two sons. These sons embody certain characteristics of people and their approach to life. While you may find yourself drawn to one brother or another, I often find that people shift back and forth between the two brothers and how they approach life. Sometimes we are indulgent and selfish and pursue pleasure. Other times, we are moralistic, legalistic and believe that our performance should give us what we deserve.

No matter where you fall on the spectrum, Jesus in this story wants us to know a few things. The first is…

You have a home in God.

I heard this fictional story about a little boy who played every day in a park underneath a statue of a Civil War soldier: General Grant on horseback.

During that time, the boy’s father got a great job and a better home in a new city. So they needed to move away.

The day before they moved, the boy went to the park to say goodbye to his friends and to the statue he loved. He stood underneath the statue, crying, and said, “Goodbye, General Grant, and goodbye to whoever that is on your back. I will miss you.”

The boy was already missing his old home before he had even left it. He didn’t yet know that the new home he was moving into would be better.

And I think there is something about that story that helps us understand these two brothers.

The younger brother thinks, “If I can get what I want, I’ll be happy.”

The older brother thinks, “If I do everything right, I’ll get what I want.”

Their selfishness and performance reveal that both brothers believe they have found something better than their father and his home.

Their choices leave them separated from the father, from community, from stability, and love and comfort. They are lost- one finally realizes it, the other doesn’t know it.

The vices of money, sex, power, and identity can take us physically away from the church and from God. But we also have to be aware that our good behavior, our performance, or projecting a certain kind of image can take us just as far away from God, even if we are physically going to church and claim to follow God.

The pursuit of things other than God will only lead you away from home- away from love, peace, stability. God has a home waiting for you- come home.

But for those who feel too lost to find their way back:

The Father is actively looking for you.

And this is where Jesus gives us hope in this story. Look at what happens in verses 20 and 28.

“But while the son was a long way off, the father saw him and ran to him.” And then, speaking to the older brother in verse 28: “While the older brother was outside, the father went out to him.”

The younger son is lost in his rebellion and hits the very bottom of life. He is so low and desperate he hopes that even though he has insulted and hurt his father, maybe he could go back home and just be a servant in his fathers house.

The older son is lost in his bitterness and will not come into the home.

Here's the good news of this story: the father doesn't wait for either son to figure it out. Neither one could sin enough or be bitter enough, or forget about God enough. Both sons could not get lost enough. The father and his love was always reaching out towards them. The father goes first.

Perhaps you feel like your sin is too great for you to ever come home to God and be loved. The late Pastor Tim Keller wrote, “The younger brother knew that in his father's house there was food to spare, but he didn't realize there was also grace to spare.”

There is grace and forgiveness and redemption waiting for you.

No matter where you find yourself in this uncertain world, no matter what you have done or experienced…

Come Home to the Father

Now, a story like this raises a question. How can a holy God welcome us home like this? Look at what it cost the father: the land he had to sell, the shame he had to endure, the robe and the ring and the feast he gave away.

How could God welcome us after all we have done?

The father's love and forgiveness does not depend on what either son has done or not done. The father’s grace does not depend on if they have lived up to expectations or if they have disappointed him. The father’s love depends on who the father is.

Perhaps you've heard the story of a young man who had sinned greatly and, like the prodigal son, had moved far from home. For many months he followed the path of sin wherever it led. He broke every one of the Ten Commandments. Not one time did he write home. His parents didn't know if he was dead or alive.

Then the day came when he realized what a fool he'd been. Wanting to be forgiven, he wrote to his father: "Dad, if you'll take me back, I'm ready to come home, but I'm afraid you won't let me. I'll be on the train next Tuesday. If you're willing to forgive me, when the train passes by the house, tie a piece of white cloth on the oak tree in the front yard. When I see the white cloth, I'll know you'll take me back. If I don't see it, I'll stay on the train and keep going."

His father wrote back, "Come home, Son. I'll be waiting for you." But the son didn't believe him.

When Tuesday came, he boarded the train, filled with fear, wondering what his father would do. As the train drew near, he turned to the man beside him. "I can't bear to look out the window. When we go by the white house around the next curve, tell me if you see a piece of white cloth in the oak tree." He put his head down and waited.

When the train passed the house, he lifted his head. "Mister, what did you see? Was there a piece of white cloth in the tree?"

And the man said, "I didn't see a tree. It was completely covered with white cloth."

That is your Father. When sinners sincerely turn to God and come home, he is more than ready to receive them with forgiveness, love, compassion, and grace, and with the full rights of children. He never stops grieving over the ones who are lost, and he never stops waiting for them to return.

Whoever you are today, whether you're far from home or you've been in the house your whole life and never really known the Father, God is inviting you home.

Gospel invitation

God paid the ultimate price for sin. He sent his Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for our sins. Everything the father offers in this story, the forgiveness, the restoration, the place at the table, was paid for.

Jesus says it twice in this passage: "dead and now alive. Lost and now found" That is the message of the gospel. Jesus died and rose again, and God's grace makes a way for life in dead places in our own lives.

Grace is always available. But we have to receive it, and that begins with repentance. Repentance simply means turning from our old ways and following Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It's what the younger son did when he came to his senses and headed home. It means admitting where you're lost, believing that Jesus died for you and rose again, and following him as Lord of your life. When you do that, you are saved. You are forgiven, and you are restored into the family.

I want to invite you to make that decision today. Gospel Invitation.

As everyone still has their eyes closed, for those of you standing up, you just made the most important decision of your life, and I believe that requires some more information…

And we want to get you some more resources and next steps so you know what to do next (this is so important)…

…so I want the ___ of you, to walk over to that door TOGETHER on your left where my friends are waving. You won’t walk there alone. There are many others standing with you, and our follow-up team is going to walk out at the same time with you

And then, for just a couple of minutes, I am going to give you some extremely important resources & next steps to get you started on the most important journey of your life (and then you can come back in the service).

You can start walking.