A Parable Of The Incarnation Part 2

this familiar passage of Scripture of the prodigal son I think we're so familiar with it that at times we believe that there's nothing left to learn about it but upon closer closer investigation there was a whole lot of meat a whole lot of information in this passage that we would do well to pay attention to because the real prodigal in this story has yet to be revealed we are well acquainted and perhaps even feel some sympathy towards the son who left home he took his father's property turned it into cash and struck out for the bright lights and the broad avenues he became a spendthrift he wasted his money and the problem was not the waste of money as much as it was breaking his father's heart and he went into the far country he turned his back on his father he turned his back on his own people and they had what the Jews called a Kasasa service where they broke a glass jar before the family house or even in that bars presence to say to him you no longer have a family you no longer have a tradition you no longer have a history you no longer have a background because not only did you walk out on your father's love but you walked out on your own people and he goes to the far country and the Bible says after he spends everything there arises a famine in the land he begins to be in war and nobody gives him anything he joins himself to a citizen of the country who really does not want to be bothered with him so to get rid of him he gives him a job that no Orthodox Jew would even consider taking a jobs feeding swine and the Bible says that he is so hungry that he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine were eating then he came to himself and realized how much does my father's servants have to eat and despair and Here I am my father's son perishing with hunger I will arise and go to my father and said I have sinned against heaven and before thee and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me a higher servant but his scripture says while he was a great way off his father saw him ran to meet him covered him with kisses killed the fatted calf through the service go get my robe and put it on him bring the family ring and put it on his finger he's a son bring some shoes to put on his feet son's wear shoes slaves walk around barefoot but sons wear shoes put some shoes on his feet invite everybody to come to the party because my son was dead but he is alive he was lost and he is found and then they began to be merry the party started there's music that's dancing but that older boy is out in the field and he hears the music and the dancing now I want you to get this he's not out in the field working because they have servants the servants are doing the work he's out there supervising his father's servants he's out there overseeing his father's property he's not doing any sweat labor he's not doing any hard work he's just making sure that the servants stay in line when he hears music and dancing my brothers and sisters there are two reasons I believe that this boy the younger one stayed a long time in the far country the first reason is I believe he was afraid to face the village because in a small town everybody knows everybody else's business they know when you just got out of the penitentiary I've been knowing there's gonna be a party didn't know when somebody's pregnant then knowing that's gonna fight at somebody's house didn't open the police had to show up to break up some mess they know who's selling drugs everybody knows what's going on in a small town so he is afraid to go back to Eunice because he knows that everybody is going to be looking at him talking about what he's done where he's been and what he does not have man but I believe the main reason that bar didn't want to go home was because at home he would have to endure his older brothers scored because estrangement from his brother keeps him from fellowship with his father I wish I had a witness in estrangement from his brother keeps them from fellowship with his father and that way there are some people who would come back to church they would join many roles but there's an older brother in here that's an older sister in here there's a mean older family member who keeps them from fellowship with the father this boy comes home and the older boy hears music and dancing and he comes to the house and he calls one of the young servants out and says what's all this and the servant says your brother is back your brother has returned and we have killed the fatted calf listen to this because he have received him your father had to receive them safe and sound that word safe and sound in the text is the is the Hebrew word Shalom the father has received them in peace the father is not angry with him as a matter of fact the party is not really about the boy it's about celebrating the father's extravagant love he should have had that boy stole but he ran to meet him fell on his neck smothered him with kisses dressed him in a robe a ring and shoes and now we out here having a party and the Bible says the older son refuses to go in let me see if I can say something new to this text the older boy refuses to be the mediator in a village quarrel the two parties never make up directly to do so someone would have to lose faith which is in Hebrew culture unthinkable the father cannot lose faith because he would then lose his authority as the father the son cannot lose face because then he would be scorned forever from the community so somebody has to act as a mediator to bring the father and the son together and brothers and sisters hear me the process of reconciliation always takes place through a third party this mediator is always selected on the basis of the strength of his relationship with the two quarreling entities the the mediator that the reconciler is always chosen based on his relationship between the two parties one which has been offended so this boy this older boys refusal is a clear indication of his broken relationship with his father because even if he can't stand his brother he needs to respect his father I wish I had my 7:30 cram so the text suggests that things are not as they ought to be with the brother and his brother and the brother and his father because the community is looking to the brother the older brother to mediate the quarrel as a matter of fact before that boy left home it was the community's hope that the older boy would have taken up the responsibility of even talking that barn out of leaving his father's house but even his refusal to talk his younger brother out of leaving shows that he's lost in this is very possible to be in the house and still be lost now we know the younger son by what he asks we know the father by what he does and we know the older son by what he does not do get this the grace of the father is not only amazing it's infuriating how can you receive this boy after how he embarrassed you so I wish I had somebody to help me how can you even kiss this boy when all he brings to the table is filthy rags how can you receive him how can you accept him when he's taken your money and wasted it here's what the brother says on prostitutes now that's not what the bar did but that's what the older brother said and the older brother said that because if he had had the opportunity come on talk back to me here you always judge others by what you would have done yourself and many of you older brothers are interested in not because you're so good but you're scared to go out well I wish I had some real sinners in here this morning because a real sinner in here this morning knows that there are times when you disappoint God but you can always find your way back home have a got a witness here I told the folks who were here at 7:30 God is like motel 6 he leave the light on for you he's always waiting for you to come back home because if you stayed long enough you gonna get tired of smoking though you're gonna get tired of getting drunk sooner or later you're gonna get tired of wasting your money sooner or later and after why are you gonna realize my father is rich and here perishing with this older brother is infuriated by the grace of God how dare you let him back in this house after how he's embarrassed you I dad you let him sit at the table with you after he has humiliated you I dare you showing off to your guests a please come back here with nothing and that's the way we feel about focal joint church we don't dress like we dress we don't talk like we talk we don't wear what we wear I wish I had a witness here we rushed him to the back of the church I wish I had two or three more witness and we sit full down in the front who look like they ought to be here but the truth is ain't none of us got no business being here because the grace of God is so amazing that he looks beyond my thoughts I see you older brother I know you're in here older brother yeah that's an older brothers that's some older sisters in here right now looking down on folk and talking bad about people because God let them in the church but who do you who are you to decide who God wants in the kingdom whosoever will that boy I want you to see this he asked us ever what's going on the service a man all this music and all this dancing all these cars out here all this liquor flowing and you want to know what's going on we've killed the fatted calf we were saving it for a special occasion but your brothers showed back up and your daddy said this is a special occasion and they kill the fatted calf barbeque for everybody and they began to be merry not everybody is glad when you get straightened out they want you messed up so you can depend on them that makes them feel better than you somebody ought to help me here that makes them feel superior to you because they always got to help you but the minute you start helping yourself everybody ain't glad about that haven't got a witness here chopped throat would like you to be down because it makes them feel good but how small do you have to be to put me down to make yourself look be that father's grease made the older boy angry now I want you to see the Incarnation again when that younger son showed up the father ran out to meet him that's God coming down to meet us on our level yes that's the Incarnation that's that's the gospel in a nutshell God came to where we were because we couldn't come up to where he was he became what I am that I might become what he is I all the debt I couldn't be so he came and paid a debt he didn't know he came down to where I was to pick me up to bring me up to where he is but for the second time in the same day the father comes down one more time twice in one day the father empties themselves to meet that boy at his selfish level the boy won't go in now now now you have to you have to be raised right to understand this passage if you were raised right when company comes to your house even if you're not staying you come in and speak I wish I had somebody who was raised like I was ringing you come in and and make saluted a shion's hug and kiss and sew and soul and she gonna kiss you in the mouth and she's big and she's gonna hold you tight and you don't want that perfume on you all day long but it's disrespectful for your old people to be in the house and you know they're there pass through the house and don't speak but this boy is so insulting that he won't even go in he publicly embarrasses his father if you were raised right you never publicly embarrass your parents I'm talking about if you were raised right because wherever you act a fool they get right with you me somebody who was raised like I was ready if you're hacking the food and the choir they don't we tell churches over big go up there and get with you have a got a witness if you were acting a fool at the school they'd go to your classroom sit on in there while your teacher is teaching and say come here I need two three more believers here if an old person told them you did something you better not see you didn't do it because they would whip you for what you did and then you call me so-and-so allowed see the reason your children so messed up is because you ain't raising them right you oughta make them come in the house and say yes ma'am how are you doing if somebody gives you something say thank you I appreciate it when you're raised right it you never publicly disgrace your parents this boy publicly embarrass his father he knows that the guests are there for a party the father has made elaborate preparations he knows the guests have been invited but he refuses to go in and in self-emptying love the father comes out that's that's that's that's God again not only will God come for the one who left home who's lost but God will come out for the one who stayed home who's still loans never gonna witness here he lets his mercy fall on the just and the unjust his Sun shines on the good folk as well as the new good folk just like no good folk out in the street need salvation that's a no good folk at the church will need salvation because I mean people go to Linda Grove every Sunday some judgmental people come to Linda Grove every Sunday some hypocritical greedy selfish self-centered ugly acting people come to church every Sunday and God cares for you too the gospel salvation is for everybody everybody's lost chemical witness there is none righteous you know oh not even one God change for everybody how long you've been in the church if you don't know Jesus Christ you know you can be preaching and be lost you can be an auxilary leader and be lost you can have a big Bible and be lost call scripture be lost well guaro got a name tag as an usher serve as a deacon minister in children's church work in the nursery but if you don't know Jesus Christ you're just as lost as that man in the crack house and boy listen I believe the older boys sin was even worse than the sin of that younger boy because the younger boy broke his father's heart but that was in the family and what happens in Vegas stays and me I wish I had some noisy now if you were raised right in a proper black family whatever happens in your house and your mama will tell you in the mid don't you go out of my house with my business talk back to me if you can I mean it would be a knock-down drag-out fight and we get in the car and drive to church like nothing happened because what happened in a family stayed in the family but this older boy embarrass his father publicly he said publicly to his father I'm not going in now I want you to see the crowd in the house nervously anticipating the punishment to this older boy because just like the younger boy could have been stoned that boy embarrassing his father could have been a stony and the father could have invited the guests who were at the barbecue to come out there and help them stone that boy so they are on the edge of their seats to see what the punishment is for this boy who has recklessly humiliated his old father the father rises from his seat of authority and comes down goes outside and says son Edward son in the text is my baby honey my sweet boy why are you acting like that everything I have is your but before the father could even lavish his affection on the boy look at again his disrespect he doesn't even say oh my father which is a token of high respect he says no these many years his dad comes out and that boy immediately starts fussing in his father's face now if you were raised right even if you didn't like what they said or what they did with their money you had sense enough to shut your mouth somebody ought to help me here but there's a whole lot of things that my mother and my father did that in my mind I said I don't appreciate that that's what I said to myself I wish I had somebody who was raised right that's what I said in my mind if I was a grown man in my own house and my daddy came in my house to tell me to put a shirt on in my mind I said this is my house tell me what to do I walk naked if I want that's what I said to myself but I wouldn't put a shirt on because of my reverence for my father I wish I had somebody to help me hear my mother in the house shut up I don't want to hear another word not in my mind I said I'm bro I talk loud as I want to myself because of my reverence for my elder but this boy starts fussing in his father's presence he says these many years I've never got not a place I've always been discreet I've always been loyal I've always been watch this righteous and you've not even given me a goat let alone a fatted calf but this Yosa what's the words not my brother your son has wasted your money on prostitutes and that's not what the boy did that's what the older brother would have done but he judges him by his desires he decided he just didn't have the opportunity your son has wasted your money on prostitutes you killed the fatted calf and you never gave me a kid I miss he had an opportunity to throw a barbecue has he been home all this time he could have been dancing he could have had music his father never once told him that he couldn't his father never once told him no music no dancing coming here before the Sun Goes Down the father has given him every opportunity to do what he wanted to do but he's angry with the younger boy because at least the younger boy had the ingenuity to leave home he had the courage to go out and at least try to make it on his own again this was wrong with our community we raised our daughters and loved our sons she acquired you got right there we raise our girls and love our sons we tell our daughters get you an education get your own job make your own money put you some money off a side if you get married and they're gonna act right you can take care of yourself and every woman in here right now got some private stash of money somewhere in her maiden name and her sister's name in a chicken in the deep freezer in a box of shoes up in the cabinet come on say man if you can because your mother raised you to get you a private stash and put it somewhere for a rainy day act like y'all so saved and sanctified filled with the Holy Ghost we raise our daughters to go and make it on their own but we let our boys stay in the house until he's on Social Security we love our boys and then if he finally gets a woman to marry he's looking for a woman who's gonna treat him like his mother did am i doing all right he's trying to find somebody to mother him because until you untie emotionally from your mother's apron strings you're not ready to take care of a woman I told the crowd who was here 7:30 I was asked my opinion what I was going to preach about this Sunday morning because some of the members thought I was gonna talk about this Trayvon Martin situation and I said to them I'm not ready to talk about that now because I can't put nice words down on paper to say how I feel about that situation I'm I'm emotionally I'm not ready to deal with that because I cannot say anything nice about that situation now I have a theological or bent on that situation but I'm not ready to put it down yet because I can't say it without using words that I shouldn't use but an aside from that is that the voter registration rolls or whether they get the jury pool from and you can't complain about the jury selection if you get a jury summons and lines say your mama died and you can't serve or nobody's able to pick up ray-ray from daycare or you got to go to the nail shop or go to their hand shop and so you don't show up for jury duty but when something goes wrong you want to complain but you sure can't complain if you don't vote you wanna change the laws don't monster down to 88 monster the polls and vote you're not even a citizen of this country if you don't have your name on the voter registration roll I don't want to get too deep in it because I'm my pressure go get all high but when there is privilege without responsibility when you get stuff too fast that you're not ready to handle you have no appreciation for you have become the witness here that bar should have joined his father in the party but he was mad because he could not accept the fact that his brother had returned and the father who loves him he really loves him because he could have had that boy killed but he comes down he comes out of the house leaves the seat of authority listen to what the father does he humiliates himself by leaving a house full of guests to go out to talk to a little pouting boy now that's beneath that father's dignity that's beneath that father's respect but out of love for him he leaves his seat of authority to go down there and the Bible says entreat him the father goes out there to get on that boys level to beg him to come in how humiliating that this old man has to go out to a bar he's raised to a boy who's going to inherit everything he owns because the bar owns nothing the father has everything and the bar is going to get everything that the farmer has because the younger boy has already spent his inheritance so all that's left is going to the older boy but he's probably mad because the dad has spent a lot of money on that party and that's coming out of his inheritance it must have been one of my family members in that in that story and the daddy says boy don't act like that son don't feel that way it was good for us it was meat for us to have a party he's right for us to celebrate because your brother my son was dead and he's alive he was lost and his final but but the story leaves us with an anti-climax Naza that's a rim that's a tear that's a suspension in the story because we never find out if that older boy went in the story ends in mid paragraphs because we never know if that boy decides to go in and I think God left that story that way because the decision to come in is yours

Channel: lillygrovembc

Views: 9,271

Rating: 4.9633026 out of 5

Keywords: Reverend Terry Anderson Pastor Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church Houston Texas

Id: GAAvydZ_PHY

Length: 37min 19sec (2239 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 25 2014