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Sunday Message | Be The Church | Pastor Jamey | Week 6 · Life Community Church

0:02
SPEAKER_00: Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.
0:19
SPEAKER_02: I can honestly say, like in 15 years, I don't know that I've ever done a two-part message from Luke 15.
0:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, and so uh there's no way I could have uh finished last week, and so I'm excited to finish this week.
0:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh I do want to say the next two weeks, I think this is important, especially for the people in the room that say you follow Jesus.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: You say, listen, I'm a disciple of Jesus, I'm following him, I'm desiring to follow him.
0:44
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm gonna just say this to you, and this is gonna probably uh this is probably gonna open a lot of conversations and emails.
0:50
SPEAKER_02: Let me remind you who to send that to, Jesse at lifeillinois.org.
0:55
SPEAKER_02: But I I do think it's super important uh for us as followers of Jesus to vote.
1:04
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:06
SPEAKER_02: At my age right now, and I know I've heard this my whole life, I'm about to sound uh like my parents.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Um at my age, like when I'm talking to other followers of Jesus and we're having conversations, and I find out you didn't vote, I end the conversation.
1:23
SPEAKER_02: You have one right to make a difference, and listen to me, hear me.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: If we're taking the attitude that my vote doesn't count in Southern Illinois, I wonder how many people we're not talking to because we've discounted them as well.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: How many people were going, like, what's the point?
1:41
SPEAKER_02: They've already rejected my invitation.
1:43
SPEAKER_02: What's the point?
1:44
SPEAKER_02: They've already not listened to my story.
1:46
SPEAKER_02: My God, I'm so glad people didn't do that with me.
1:49
SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad my mom didn't pray one time.
1:52
SPEAKER_02: God, would you save my son?
1:53
SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad she constantly went back faithfully over and over and over again and said, God, get a hold of my son.
2:02
SPEAKER_02: If we're a one and done, we're missing the whole point.
2:05
SPEAKER_02: And listen, Charlie Kirk said this: if Christians don't get involved in politics, politics will eliminate your right as a Christian.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: And listen, if you're not seeing that, get your head out of the sand and let's have a conversation.
2:21
SPEAKER_02: That is happening across our world.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: America as we knew it is over.
2:29
SPEAKER_02: Hear me for a moment.
2:31
SPEAKER_02: Stop saying like this is happening in other countries, and my American bubble is protected.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: No, you gotta fight for something right now.
2:42
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm I'm begging you, I'm pleading with you.
2:45
SPEAKER_02: The percentage in Illinois, like 38% of followers of Jesus, vote.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: That is horrible in math, and it's horrible in voting.
2:54
SPEAKER_02: 38% is failing.
2:56
SPEAKER_02: All right.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: We need to like, come on, come on, you gotta get out and do that.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, we love you.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: God, thank you for who you are.
3:05
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for what you're doing.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that you would be with us today.
3:10
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray, I do.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: I pray for our nation.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: I do it every single day.
3:14
SPEAKER_02: I do believe this is the greatest time to be alive.
3:17
SPEAKER_02: I do believe where there's darkness, there's evidence of light.
3:22
SPEAKER_02: And God, you've called us to walk in that light, to be a light, not for ourselves, not for our church, not for our family, but for the cause and the life of Jesus, the example of Jesus, who did not shy away from tough conversations.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: In fact, that's what Luke 15 is.
3:43
SPEAKER_02: It is a tough conversation with religious people.
3:47
SPEAKER_02: People who thought they knew, people who thought they understood, people who thought they knew the word.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: And then when Jesus showed up, it shook everything.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: God, I'm asking you to shake the American church.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm asking you, God, to reveal your truth to us.
4:07
SPEAKER_02: As hard as it might be to hear, God, we're asking for the truth.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: Not just truth hearers.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: We want to be truth seekers.
4:18
SPEAKER_02: God, help us in this.
4:19
SPEAKER_02: We need you in Jesus' name.
4:21
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
4:23
SPEAKER_02: No, most sermons in Luke 15 end with the younger, with the younger son.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: And it ends that way because I think the younger son gets a lot of attention.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: He gets a lot of attention because we can relate.
4:39
SPEAKER_02: We can relate to leaving home, we can relate to doing our own thing.
4:44
SPEAKER_02: We can relate to how he's lived because we know that person.
4:48
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe we are that person.
4:50
SPEAKER_02: We understand if I say prodigal to you, someone comes into your mind.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yep, I used to be that.
4:56
SPEAKER_02: I was addicted, I was this, I was that.
4:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I know a sister who's that.
4:59
SPEAKER_02: We we know that, right?
5:01
SPEAKER_02: And then equally, there's the other brother, right?
5:04
SPEAKER_02: I don't know where you are in your family.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: Firstborn, secondborn, God's favorite right in the middle.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know where you're at.
5:13
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we know there's two, we know there's two sons, and we know they've lived different lives.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been a parent and you thought, like, I know that these kids came from the same people?
5:25
SPEAKER_02: How in the world are they so different?
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Right?
5:28
SPEAKER_02: We we we know that.
5:30
SPEAKER_02: And again, it stops.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: Remember who Jesus is talking to in Luke 15.
5:35
SPEAKER_02: You have a group of people who are loving what Jesus is saying.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: Invitation to follow him.
5:42
SPEAKER_02: They've never been invited to the party.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: They they were always on the outside.
5:46
SPEAKER_02: They were picked last playing kickball.
5:48
SPEAKER_02: Like they understood being on the outside.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: And then there's the people that knew better.
5:52
SPEAKER_02: They're the religious people, they're the leaders, they're the ones that know the Torah, they know the law, they know all these things.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: They know the law so well that they've added to the law.
6:02
SPEAKER_02: Like 600 plus laws that they've added to.
6:05
SPEAKER_02: Right?
6:06
SPEAKER_02: And they they cannot believe that Jesus is associating with people not like them.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: So these are the audiences.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: Room is split, junior high dance.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: Come on, somebody.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: Like one's on the left, who's here we are, and Jesus is talking to both, right?
6:24
SPEAKER_02: And he's again, we I love the preaching of the Prodogal Son, the son who ran away, wasted everything, finally came home.
6:30
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus didn't end the story with the younger brother.
6:35
SPEAKER_02: He actually ended it with the older brother.
6:38
SPEAKER_02: And I believe the older brother represents one of the greatest dangers facing the church in America.
6:46
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
6:47
SPEAKER_02: Because we have churches full of people who know how to behave in the Father's house, but have forgotten how to love like the Father.
6:57
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
6:58
SPEAKER_02: So first and foremost, the older brother was close to the Father, but he was far from his heart.
7:05
SPEAKER_02: Luke 19 is the passage I need you to memorize, 1910.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: It says, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save those that were lost.
7:16
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
7:16
SPEAKER_02: Everything Jesus did was about the lost.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: It's the reason he's eating with notorious sinners.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: Because he cared about lost people.
7:26
SPEAKER_02: He even said things like, Healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.
7:31
SPEAKER_02: He was consumed in everything he did about the lost.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: So much that the Bible says Jesus didn't just come for the lost, he seeks out the lost.
7:43
SPEAKER_02: Like that's who he is.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: He seeks the lost.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: And we know what is happening in this scripture up until this point, before Jesus finishes the story, it's almost like the religious people are pointing fingers at the notorious sinners.
8:03
SPEAKER_02: Like, see, he's talking about you guys.
8:06
SPEAKER_02: But then he ends with, he comes home.
8:08
SPEAKER_02: There's a celebration, there's a robe, there's sandals, there's a ring, there's restoration.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: And now they're kind of appalled.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: They're like, what in the world is happening?
8:17
SPEAKER_02: Right?
8:18
SPEAKER_02: And we read verse 25.
8:21
SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, so this is all happening.
8:23
SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working.
8:27
SPEAKER_02: When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house.
8:33
SPEAKER_02: And he asked one of the servants, What was going on?
8:35
SPEAKER_02: Your brother is back, he was told, and your father has killed the fattened calf.
8:41
SPEAKER_02: We are celebrating because of his safe return.
8:44
SPEAKER_02: The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: His father came out and begged him.
8:50
SPEAKER_02: Think about this.
8:51
SPEAKER_02: His brother was home, the family was celebrating, the family was being destroyed, and he was angry about it.
8:59
SPEAKER_02: Picture this for a moment.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: The father was celebrating what the brother was resenting.
9:06
SPEAKER_02: This is where I think the church needs to examine ourselves.
9:10
SPEAKER_02: We become more upset about someone's past than excited about their salvation.
9:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm more upset about how people used to live than the fact that they're getting saved or becoming saved.
9:26
SPEAKER_02: A person with a messy past walks into a church and instead of celebrating, we start evaluating.
9:34
SPEAKER_02: And what Jesus is addressing, he says, when a church starts reaching people who don't look, dress, vote, or live like longtime churchgoers, people are going to get uncomfortable.
9:47
SPEAKER_02: Someone might sit in your seat.
9:50
SPEAKER_02: Someone might take your parking spot.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: Listen, when we become more concerned about the people who might leave our church than the people who desperately need Jesus, we need to evaluate.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: See, in first century, who Jesus is writing to, this Jewish family, the firstborn son generally carried the greater responsibility.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: We know he received a double portion of the inheritance, which means when the son asked for it, the older brother got paid.
10:24
SPEAKER_02: It's not about money.
10:28
SPEAKER_02: This is about rights, obedience, even.
10:32
SPEAKER_02: And so we know this.
10:34
SPEAKER_02: And he could be expected.
10:36
SPEAKER_02: He was expected to help preserve the family's unity and honor.
10:42
SPEAKER_02: As I said last week, think about this.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: To give the younger brother his inheritance, he had to go sell off land.
10:48
SPEAKER_02: He had to go sell off cattle.
10:49
SPEAKER_02: He had to go do these things so that he could just could distribute to the younger son what was equally his.
10:56
SPEAKER_02: That means he had to go to people and say, I'm selling my land.
10:59
SPEAKER_02: Why are you doing that?
11:00
SPEAKER_02: My son wants it.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: Understand the humility that that would take.
11:05
SPEAKER_02: Understand the embarrassment of a family name.
11:08
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
11:08
SPEAKER_02: Understand all of these things.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: And yet, what we read, what is being talked about, what is so powerful about this is the older brother's failure to pursue reconciliation.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: This fits the larger message that Jesus was teaching.
11:24
SPEAKER_02: We know in Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories.
11:27
SPEAKER_02: The lost sheep, the shepherd, what?
11:28
SPEAKER_02: Goes searching for the one that was lost.
11:30
SPEAKER_02: We love that.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: 99 over here, one gets away, the shepherd goes and finds it, and there's great rejoicing when he finds it.
11:37
SPEAKER_02: Me, I'm like 99 out of 100 is not bad.
11:41
SPEAKER_02: I would have taken that all day, every day.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: Right?
11:46
SPEAKER_02: We hear also about the story of those lost coins.
11:49
SPEAKER_02: Other coins, but man, on pursuit, this woman's pursuing.
11:52
SPEAKER_02: And then we get to Luke 15, 11 through 32, and the older brother never goes searching.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: This is the importance of the story.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: The responsibility of the older son was to keep the unity.
12:09
SPEAKER_02: There's not one moment that he goes when his brother leaves and searches like the shepherd did and searches like the woman did.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: So what Jesus is addressing right now is a great thing that's going on in the American church.
12:26
SPEAKER_02: This is what he's addressing.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, listen, older brother, you never did what your responsibility required of you.
12:36
SPEAKER_02: I think we've become really good at waiting for lost people to show up.
12:42
SPEAKER_02: But we've forgotten that Jesus called us to go and make disciples.
12:47
SPEAKER_02: We expect people to come to our buildings.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: We expect them to find our services.
12:54
SPEAKER_02: We expect them to clean up their lives.
12:56
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus called us to go.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: In fact, Paul said this this way in 2 Corinthians, he says, All of this is a gift from God who brought us back to himself through Christ.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: Listen, you don't lack purpose, you lack drive, you lack effort.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: The purpose is written for you.
13:24
SPEAKER_02: My purpose is to reconcile people to the Father.
13:29
SPEAKER_02: You've put that in a location, you put in a job, it's wherever you go.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: So if you're called to Montana, you're called to Alabama, you're called to Florida, you're called to overseas, your job, your task is to reconcile people to him.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: For God was in Christ reconciling the world to no longer counting people's sins against him.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
13:54
SPEAKER_02: It's a question mark, you guys.
13:56
SPEAKER_02: The question mark is why, if God could save people at just a word, is he using us?
14:04
SPEAKER_02: I don't have an answer for that.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: I just know it's the vehicle that he wants to use, your story to tell people, to reconcile people.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: Not about you, not about us, not about how cool I am.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: I didn't save myself, you didn't save yourself.
14:18
SPEAKER_02: It's about pointing people back to the Father.
14:22
SPEAKER_02: He said, This is our task.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: So we are Christ's ambassadors.
14:27
SPEAKER_02: God is making his appeal through us.
14:30
SPEAKER_02: We speak for Christ when we plead.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: Come back to God.
14:37
SPEAKER_02: See, the older brother wasn't upset because his father had lost something, he was upset because his father was giving grace to someone he thought didn't deserve it.
14:49
SPEAKER_02: Have we become a church that celebrates grace when we receive it?
14:56
SPEAKER_02: But question it when it's given to someone else.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: Questions are not threats, questions are for our evaluation.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: The older brother also confused obedience with relationship.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: This is dangerous.
15:13
SPEAKER_02: He says this in verse 29 All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing that you told me to.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: Listen to his language.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: I've slaved for you.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: He measured his relationship by performance.
15:44
SPEAKER_02: He believed his obedience should earn him special treatment.
15:49
SPEAKER_02: And this is the danger of us that follow Jesus.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: The danger of religious entitlement.
15:56
SPEAKER_02: Some people believe I've been here for 30 years.
16:02
SPEAKER_02: I've given faithfully, I've served, I've I've raised my family here, I've stayed away from things of the world.
16:09
SPEAKER_02: And those are wonderful, incredible expressions of our faith.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: But somewhere along the way, we started believing that God owes us something.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: God, you owe me?
16:25
SPEAKER_01: Do you not see what I've done?
16:28
SPEAKER_02: Do you not see how many times I've served?
16:33
SPEAKER_02: Listen, I think we carry an employee mindset when God's asking us to be an owner.
16:39
SPEAKER_02: There's a big difference.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: An owner says, No job is too small, an employee says, It's not my job, it's your job.
16:50
SPEAKER_02: I don't hire employees to be part of what we're doing.
16:53
SPEAKER_02: We hire owners.
16:55
SPEAKER_02: I don't care if you're the youth pastor, the kids pastor.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: If you're too big for a job, we don't need you here.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: If your title has caused you to be served, Jesus said, I didn't come to be served, I came to serve, to give my life as a ransom.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I believe we begin treating our obedience as leverage instead of worship.
17:19
SPEAKER_02: This is what's happening.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: The older brother was doing the right things with the wrong heart.
17:26
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus addressed this many times, speaking of the Israelites and speaking of these religious people.
17:32
SPEAKER_02: I mean, picture this for a moment.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: He looks right at the people to the right of him, the religious leaders who knew better, and he said, You honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: You can serve in the Father's house, you can sing songs about the Father, you can give your money to the Father's work, and still have a heart that looks nothing like the Father.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: That's what the older brother teaches us.
18:02
SPEAKER_02: He also teaches us that he cared more about fairness than forgiveness.
18:07
SPEAKER_02: Again, he replied, All these years I've slaved for you.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: I've done all these things.
18:13
SPEAKER_02: You never gave me one goat for feast with my friends.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: Hear that.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: Verse 30.
18:18
SPEAKER_02: Yet when the son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate him by killing the fattened calf.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: His brother returns after wasting his inheritance.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: The father kills, and essentially he says, something I agree with.
18:38
SPEAKER_02: It's not fair.
18:41
SPEAKER_02: Grace is not fair.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: That should be the number one thing every single one of us.
18:46
SPEAKER_02: And we don't want it to be fair.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: Because if grace is fair, we're all in a heap of trouble.
18:54
SPEAKER_02: It's not fair.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: It isn't.
18:57
SPEAKER_02: It's undeserved.
18:58
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't give us what we've earned, it gives us what we could never earn.
19:04
SPEAKER_02: Ephesians tells us that.
19:06
SPEAKER_02: It teaches about salvation comes through grace, through faith, not as a reward for good works.
19:11
SPEAKER_02: This is where we need to be careful.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: We can develop a culture where we want grace for our failures, but consequences for everyone else's.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: Be careful of that mindset where we excuse our pride while condemning someone else's addiction.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: Right?
19:27
SPEAKER_02: Where we overlook the gossip while criticizing someone's lifestyle.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: We minimize our unforgiveness while questioning someone else's repentance.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: This doesn't mean we ignore sins.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: Jesus never compromised truth, but Jesus also never used truth as an excuse to stop loving people.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: He didn't look at the woman caught in adultery and said, That's a pretty big one.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: You're out.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: He didn't.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: Just like he didn't look at Peter and say, You're out for your ignorance.
20:03
SPEAKER_02: He didn't.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: And John 1 tells us this.
20:07
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is full of grace and truth.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: Not grace without truth, not truth without grace, but both.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: Listen, hear me.
20:14
SPEAKER_02: If your version of following Jesus makes you more judgmental of sinners than compassionate towards them, you might be standing outside the party with the older brother.
20:35
SPEAKER_02: This is to me probably the most heartbreaking part of Luke 15.
20:39
SPEAKER_02: He said, The son of yours has come back.
20:45
SPEAKER_02: Notice what he didn't say.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say my brother came back.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: He said, This son of yours.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: He's so angry that he distances himself from his own family.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: But look at the father.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: We had to celebrate this happy day, verse 32.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: For your brother was dead and has come back to life.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: The father reminds, he's not just my son, he's your brother.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: When we stop seeing people as people Jesus died for, it's easy to start treating them as problems to manage.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: I begin categorizing people as the addicts, the divorced guy over there, the broken family.
21:34
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, over there.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: We categorize.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: Oh, he's struggling with this, or he used to be this, all these things.
21:41
SPEAKER_02: Listen to me.
21:41
SPEAKER_02: The church is not called to approve of every decision people make, but we're absolutely called to love people the way Jesus loved them.
21:55
SPEAKER_02: I think the moment we start seeing lost people as enemies instead of people who need Jesus.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: We've forgotten.
22:02
SPEAKER_02: We have forgotten why the father sent his son.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: Fifth thing.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: The older brother was outside while the father was celebrating inside.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: I think this is the part of the story that should shake every church.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: The younger brother had been far away in rebellion.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: The older brother had been nearby in obedience.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: Yet when the celebration began, the younger brother was inside, and the older brother was outside.
22:38
SPEAKER_01: One was lost in rebellion.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: The other was lost in self-righteousness.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: Did Jesus just categorize the people in the room?
22:56
SPEAKER_02: You notorious sinners have been rebellious.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: You, religious leaders, have been self-righteous.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: And you both miss the father's heart.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: Listen, here's what I need you to hear the most.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: The father went to both of them.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20, we see he runs.
23:25
SPEAKER_02: Verse 28, we see he leaves the party and comes outside.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: Both instances, in a natural sense, I don't know how I am as a father.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: There's part of me that sits on the front porch, and maybe I see my son in a distance, and I'm happy that he's home, but I don't know that I'm not the guy that's going, bro.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: You owe me some money.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: What do you got?
23:55
SPEAKER_01: Where's it at?
23:57
SPEAKER_01: Show me something of what you've done.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: But I know that you're weak.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: You smell like pig.
24:10
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: The flesh side of me goes, man, I don't know.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm happy he's there.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: But good lord.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: And then the other side, the son that didn't leave, and we're having a party.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: And I gotta be outside instead of celebrating, caressing.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: Body, I love ya.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: Come on in.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: The dad side of me is like, keep him outside.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: More food for me.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: What a baby! Yeah, we know.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: The father's heart is he goes to both.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: Showing what?
24:56
SPEAKER_02: You're not on sides.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: You're the same.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: I didn't treat you different, I treated you the same.
25:04
SPEAKER_02: I ran to you, I'm coming to you.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: This is what he wants.
25:07
SPEAKER_02: Both needed the father's grace.
25:11
SPEAKER_02: One needed it to come home, the other needed to come inside.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: And here's the uncomfortable question for us.
25:19
SPEAKER_02: What if the greatest obstacle to reaching lost people isn't always the world outside the church, but the attitude of the people inside of it?
25:31
SPEAKER_01: I know.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't fit the narrative.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't fit the narrative.
25:39
SPEAKER_01: That the world is crazy.
25:41
SPEAKER_02: We already agree on that.
25:43
SPEAKER_02: This is mind-blowing.
25:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna give you a mind-blowing fact.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: Sinners sin.
25:52
SPEAKER_01: We're judging what we see lost people doing on the news.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I could, I could never follow a governor like that.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: I could never follow a politician like that.
26:07
SPEAKER_02: Do you mean that sinning governor who has no understanding of Jesus?
26:11
SPEAKER_02: I'm not making an excuse for them, but if my heart is too criticized and it's not compassionate towards the lost, listen to me.
26:18
SPEAKER_02: I can't make a decision for him.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: But I can make a decision for what I'm gonna do with my heart towards him.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, why would our mission be different?
26:35
SPEAKER_01: Why would Jesus say, okay, let's abort mission?
26:41
SPEAKER_02: Because we live in America and we're comfortable and we don't really face persecution.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: You being unfriended on Facebook is not persecution.
26:53
SPEAKER_01: I think the people in Nigeria might disagree with you.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: And listen to me.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: We can criticize it all day long.
27:04
SPEAKER_02: You can say you live in the greatest nation, and you should, because we do.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: You can be grateful and thankful that you live here, but if it does not motivate us to move, then we've missed the gospel.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: We've missed it.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: Here's three questions.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be on the screen.
27:20
SPEAKER_02: These are three questions for Live Community Church.
27:23
SPEAKER_02: I can't speak for others.
27:24
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna just talk about us.
27:25
SPEAKER_02: Are we more concerned about keeping comfortable Christians happy or helping lost people find Jesus?
27:32
SPEAKER_02: Hear me.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: This is a question, they're not threats.
27:35
SPEAKER_02: They're important questions for us to answer, answer.
27:39
SPEAKER_02: We have to disciple believers.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: I believe that.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: We must disciple believers, but it cannot be at the cost of abandoning the mission to reach the lost.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: It cannot be.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: This cannot be all there is.
27:59
SPEAKER_02: This eight to nine time frame that we have cannot be all that there is.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: I know you think this might be all that we do.
28:11
SPEAKER_02: I beg of you, as someone who's not gonna get up here and read my schedule to you, I can promise you it's not.
28:18
unknown: Okay?
28:18
SPEAKER_02: And I need you to trust me in that.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: Because I think we've put so much ownership as the American church, and I've been a part of it.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: Hear me.
28:28
SPEAKER_02: It's not your problem, it's not my problem, it's an us problem.
28:34
SPEAKER_02: That we get so consumed by who we're discipling inside that I think we forget the outside.
28:41
SPEAKER_02: Hear me.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: Jesus had a hundred thirty nine encounters with people.
28:48
SPEAKER_02: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
28:50
SPEAKER_02: 133 of them were outside the temple.
28:55
SPEAKER_02: That means on six occasions, Jesus dealt with people inside the temple.
29:01
SPEAKER_02: 133 times Jesus went outside the temple and met people where they were.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: That's the mission.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: The mission is not to bring people to church on Sunday mornings.
29:17
SPEAKER_01: It's an overflow, it's a conversation, not the goal.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: It did not say reconcile people back to life community church.
29:29
SPEAKER_02: Now, because you've shared their story and they're reconciled to the Father, they are looking for a church, and you might want to include ours.
29:38
SPEAKER_02: But there's a good possibility that you might go, hey, you live in Arnold.
29:42
SPEAKER_01: I also know of a good church here.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't have to be here.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: I know.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: That shocks a lot of you.
29:51
SPEAKER_01: Second question.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Do we celebrate repentance as loudly as we criticize sin?
30:00
SPEAKER_01: Hear me.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: Big C church does not do this well.
30:09
SPEAKER_01: We don't celebrate.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Because I believe we take the approach.
30:16
SPEAKER_02: Let's give them some time to see if this really hit.
30:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know they raised their hand.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: I know they stood up.
30:27
SPEAKER_02: Let's just give it a season where we see if what was thrown against the wall actually sticks.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: I know, we would never say it out loud.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: But I think it's the attitude.
30:42
SPEAKER_02: It's definitely the attitude when you see someone who's in the spotlight come to Jesus.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: Well, I don't know.
30:49
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that's really right.
30:52
SPEAKER_02: I know what he used to sing about.
30:58
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to remember when Jesus asked us to be a lawyer or a judge.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty sure in Acts he asked us to be a witness.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: And I think the confusion happens where we think we're the judge.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: Like they're gonna stand before us.
31:19
SPEAKER_02: Thank God they won't.
31:23
SPEAKER_02: Or we think we're the lawyer arguing against them on whether it was actually real.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: Let's see if this is legit.
31:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna tell you, I went to church for a year and a half because of a girl.
31:36
SPEAKER_02: And my youth pastor took the approach.
31:38
SPEAKER_02: I don't care, you're here.
31:43
SPEAKER_02: And then the girl was gone.
31:45
SPEAKER_02: And I was still there, still seeking.
31:49
SPEAKER_02: Something changed in my heart.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: If he would have said, Man, you're only here because of this girl, it might have done something inside of me, but he didn't.
31:59
SPEAKER_02: And then I'm sitting as a junior at an FCA meeting and I'm posed with a question.
32:05
SPEAKER_02: And that question rocks me.
32:08
SPEAKER_02: It rocks me by someone who was not living in the United States of America.
32:13
SPEAKER_02: She was a missionary kid who did not live here, but her parents had moved back.
32:18
SPEAKER_02: First time in the States, she'd seen the world that I'd never seen.
32:22
SPEAKER_02: And she said to me, Listen, I could be wrong about this, but in the end, if I am wrong, what did I lose?
32:28
SPEAKER_02: But I could be right.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: What did you lose?
32:32
SPEAKER_02: And it rocks me.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: Now the end of the story is the girl who got me to church, I end up marrying her.
32:41
SPEAKER_02: It's almost been 30 years.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: We've stayed together.
32:45
SPEAKER_02: Our parents have both been married over a hundred years together.
32:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:51
SPEAKER_02: 50 and 56, 106 to be exact.
32:55
SPEAKER_02: We've seen examples, all that.
32:57
SPEAKER_02: So if we take the approach of like, I don't know, if if he's here for the right reasons.
33:05
SPEAKER_02: Jesus going, you might need to change the question.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: Because if heaven rejoices when one sinner repents, shouldn't we?
33:17
SPEAKER_02: We build a church that looks like the father's house, or one that reflects the older brother's preferences.
33:25
SPEAKER_02: This is tough.
33:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, picture this as I close.
33:29
SPEAKER_02: I'm closing.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: Imagine the scene.
33:31
SPEAKER_02: Music is playing, people are laughing, the father is celebrating, the younger brother is overwhelmed by grace.
33:40
SPEAKER_02: And outside stands the older brother, hands crossed, angry, convinced he's right.
33:50
SPEAKER_02: When the father comes out, he doesn't stop loving the older brother, he doesn't disown him, he pleads with him.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: But we never hear the older brother's response.
34:05
SPEAKER_02: Jesus ends the parable by looking to the right, going, So, what are you guys gonna do with this information?
34:14
SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna do with this?
34:17
SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna allow your pride to keep your arms like this?
34:22
SPEAKER_02: How dare you throw a party for someone who did that?
34:26
SPEAKER_02: Or are you gonna go?
34:28
SPEAKER_02: I need the same grace.
34:30
SPEAKER_02: Like the invite, the question, I don't think is to the notorious sinners.
34:37
SPEAKER_02: I believe they're weeping.
34:38
SPEAKER_02: I believe they're going, God's grace, he threw a party for us.
34:44
SPEAKER_02: I don't think they need it convinced.
34:47
SPEAKER_02: It was the group to the right.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: This is not how I would have done it.
34:54
SPEAKER_02: I would have picked a different song.
35:00
SPEAKER_02: Cannot believe that person sat in my seat.
35:08
SPEAKER_02: I believe Jesus leaves the question hanging because he was inviting the religious people to answer it.
35:16
SPEAKER_02: And the same question confronts us today.
35:20
SPEAKER_02: We cannot become so comfortable with church that we lose our compassion for the lost.
35:25
SPEAKER_02: We cannot love our preferences more than people.
35:28
SPEAKER_02: We cannot preach grace on Sunday without withholding it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
35:40
SPEAKER_02: God, I'm asking for your help today.
35:44
SPEAKER_02: Because God, my flesh, my flesh wants to say, you people, my flesh wants to say the people who sin differently than me shouldn't deserve the same grace.
36:01
SPEAKER_02: But I'm reminded of what Max Lucato said.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: When speaking about Jeffrey Dahmer and the horrific things that he had done.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: And he said, I'm not appalled that Jeffrey Dahmer got saved.
36:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm not appalled that Jeffrey Dahmer was leading Bible studies in prison.
36:23
SPEAKER_02: I'm appalled that the grace that he was extended is the same grace extended to me.
36:30
SPEAKER_02: God help us.
36:32
SPEAKER_02: Break us.
36:34
SPEAKER_02: God, break our hearts for the people around us who do not know you.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: God, may we be so overwhelmed, so compassionate.
36:49
SPEAKER_02: God, that lives would be transformed.
36:52
SPEAKER_02: In the mighty name of Jesus.
36:55
SPEAKER_02: Amen.