← ArchiveSunday, July 12, 2015DateJuly 12, 2015Speaker—TextLuke 15Passages in this sermonProverbs 14:141:01Luke 152:42Luke 193:551 John 136:37TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Thank you for putting your shoes on, thank you so much, amen, isn't she a blessing? Turn with me to Luke's Gospel, chapter 15. Luke's Gospel, chapter 15, backsliding is the topic, backsliding when you've drifted from God.0:30Now I want to ask you a question, I want you to be honest with me. This is confession time. How many of you have never backslidden? Is there a liar in the bunch? Not a one. Every one of us at some time, we have, somewhere along the way. But I want to give you some encouragement here today. I want to encourage you in the Word today.0:58Proverbs chapter 14, verse 14, kind of a launch. The backslider in his heart will have his own, have his fill of his own ways. But a good man will be satisfied with his. Message truth is only faith in Christ, only faith in Christ Jesus will lead to a change in your heart. As we sang earlier, create in me a clean heart, oh God. He will change in your heart.1:26It's by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus that we've been saved, and that's where the changes take place. Luke's Gospel, chapter 15. I want to give you some information prior to that. I want to kind of lead into that and give you the 10 steps to getting to that backslidden state. I want us to look at God's Word in a moment. But I want to kind of set you up and help us understand how we get there and the process that it takes place. Dwight Moody, the great pastor in Chicago, one of my favorite preachers of all time.1:55Dwight Moody was leading his own personal Sunday school class. He had a Sunday school class in his church, and he would lead that. And a young boy walked into the class of his Sunday school class, and he noticed his kid, and he found out that he walked a fairly long distance to get to his class. And Moody looked at him and said, son, why did you not attend a Sunday school class near your home? Why did you not do that? And the young man replied, and I thought it was very appropriate because I think this is what church should be about.2:25He said, because they love a young fella over here. He said, they love a young fella over here. That's why I came, is because I felt loved. Now, when we unpack Luke chapter 15, you'll get that statement in a moment. And I want you to kind of put that into your heart, because they love a young fella over here. Christ loved us because God demonstrated his love towards us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ loved us.2:54He died for us. God demonstrated that love, that he sent his own son. Indeed, the significance that Christ attracted sinners while the Pharisees in biblical days repelled them. Lost sinners came to Jesus Christ not because he catered to them or even compromised his message to them,3:15but because he cared for them, but because he cared for them, and he loved them. People are drawn to authenticity. They're drawn to loving authenticity, and that's what Jesus was. The Pharisees repelled that. They did not have that authenticity. They had a lot of rules and regulations, and a lot of it was nonsense. And the entire chapter of Luke chapter 15 could literally be summed up as three things, lost, found, and rejoice.3:45Even later, the book of Luke tells us in Luke 19 verse 10, the Son of Man had come to seek and save that which was lost. That was God's part of this enormous eternal plan. He had his plan. It was everything was intentional. Everything was relational.4:15Everything was relevant. The shepherd seeks the lost sheep. The woman in Luke 15, she seeks to find the lost coin. But also, there's man's part in all of this salvation plan. For the wayward son, as you'll notice in Luke 15 in a moment, was willingly to repent and to return home. I love what C.S. Lewis wrote. C.S. Lewis wrote it this way. Joy is the serious business of heaven. It is joy that you and I can share.4:43It is joy that you and I possess if we know that Christ Jesus is our Savior and our Lord. These three parables in Luke chapter 15 point us to the wonderful love of Christ Jesus. First of all, it points us to the sheep that was lost because of foolishness. Luke chapter 15, beginning with the first verse. Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbling saying, this man receives sinners, this man receives sinners, and he eats with them.5:10So, he told them this parable. Now, when there was a parable or an allegory that Christ was going to use, he always used that by the launching statement. This parable I tell you. He was saying, this is not factual. This is a story that I want to drive home. He says, and he goes on to say, this parable I tell you.5:38What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he's lost one of them, does not leave the ninety and ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.6:02Just so I could tell you that there will be more joy in heaven when one sinner who repents over the ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Now, I want you to notice there's some key lines in there. One, one. Our theme for this entire preaching year has been what?6:31A heart for one. So, I believe beyond a shadow of doubt that the angels in heaven, when one sinner, oh, when multiple people come to faith in Christ, multiple people come back to the fold, the whole angel, angelic choir just triumphantly begins to sing. But the angels rejoice when there's just one. And that's what he's trying to tell us. The sheep had to find that lost one. If he didn't, he had to pay for that sheep unless he could prove that it had been eaten by a predator, unless that he had proved that it died because of some disease.7:00The joy in one person, the person who does the finding, that's the person who enjoys the most joy is finding that one sheep. When someone that is lost and we assist them to coming to faith in Christ, I don't know about you, when you've led somebody to Jesus Christ, did it not get you jazzed?7:20I remember the first person I ever led to faith in Christ. I was so excited about that. It actually happened on the day I came to faith in Christ. When I was walking forward at First Baptist Church of Trustville, Alabama on Youth Sunday, I led our tight end to Christ. You said, wait a minute, you wasn't even a believer. No, I had already prayed the sinner's prayer in my heart, and I was walking forward, and he wanted to know what I was doing.7:50I said, I'm coming to announce that I am a believer in Jesus Christ, that he died for my sins, and I accepted him as my Savior and Lord. And here's what his response was. I want to do that as well. I said, well, come on, let's go. And I led Freddie to faith in Christ walking down the aisle at First Baptist Trustville when I was 17 years old. Now, I want you to know something. I was just as excited, but not near as excited as he was, not near as excited as the angels in heaven were.8:18And so that's what he's saying here. We should be about helping those to repent of their sin, helping them come to have that unbelievable, joyous time in their own heart. Also, the angels will also triumphantly sing when there's one sheep that is found. It also goes on in this parable of the coin that was lost, and it was lost because the carelessness of another.8:45Look, pick it up in verse 8. Or, he goes on to say, now remember, this is a parable. He goes on to say, or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house? Ladies, sweep the house.9:11I want y'all to sink that in a little bit. Sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.9:33He goes on and uses the sheep, the sheep that needs to be found, because in biblical days, they had to replace that. They had to pay for that sheep. If it had eaten by a predator, they didn't have to. So, if they just wandered off, that would mean they were carelessly taking care of the sheep. He goes on to say, not only that, he parallels that with one coming to faith in Christ,9:59as well as he does with a piece, a small coin, a denarii, so to speak. When they find that coin, she says, oh, we rejoice because I found that, say it with me, one coin. Church, let me tell you something. This parable speaks to us about us having a heart for one. Not only does he use the parable that, he uses the parable, the son that was lost because of self-centered lifestyle.10:24Now, I want you to buckle in, strap in, and stay close to this parable, because this helps us when we realize how bad we can get off base. In the North American church, it seems like we kind of drift in and out, thinking we can have it our own way and then run back to God. Let me tell you something, folks.10:54It is time for the New Testament church here and around the world to declare that Jesus is Lord and start surrendering to his Lordship each and every day. We want to drift back and forth. The son was lost because of self-centered lifestyle. It's all about me and mine. I want my stuff. He wanted his own way, his own way of living, and live his own way without careful instruction of a loving father.11:19I know that this is part of the parable of the prodigal son, but I believe that we're not renaming or rewriting scripture, but I think it's more appropriate when we understand it's not the parable of the prodigal son. It is the parable of the loving father. I want you to notice with me in verse 11. There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.11:49And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey to into a far land or far country. And there he squandered his property in reckless living. Verse 14. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine rose in that country, and he began to be in need.12:18So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger, and I will rise and go to my father,12:46and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I no longer am worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. In verse 20, he said, He arose and he came to his father. But while he was a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.13:15I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe. Put it on him. Put a ring on his hands, shoes on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate.13:44Church, let me tell you something. He wanted to live his own way. And the Spirit of God in this parable, in this parable, just united into his heart and brought him to his senses. The first two of these three parables help us understand what it means to be lost. While the cause is to be sad, yes, losing sheep and even money should make us unhappy. But to cause us a greater distress when a lost person is gone to live wayward lifestyle.14:13We should have more of a distressed heart. Yes, losing a sheep is one thing. Yes, losing some resources is another. But when someone dies without Jesus Christ should grieve our heart. You say, well, how does that happen? How does it happen? It happens every day. How does it happen? How do you know that they're not saved by his grace?14:43I don't know for certain. But you can tell by their lifestyle. You can tell by the way they live, the way they act. Lost, simply put, is something or someone out of place, out of service, and out of fellowship with God and his believers. That is simply put. There are few joys that match the joy of someone coming to faith in Christ or someone repenting of their sin and coming back to the fold with the rest of the believers.15:08When a lost person is found and saved by his grace, God begins to restore a divine image into that person through the power of the Holy Spirit. And one day that believer will indeed be like Christ. John Wesley said it best this way.15:37And I love Wesley, even though he founded the Methodist Church and many of those things that are happening in that faith right now are not what we would line up to be. But he said this, the conservative theologian, John Wesley said, the church has nothing to do but to save souls. Now, just let that sink in. We don't talk about saving souls anymore, do we? That's not 21st century terminology, is it? He's a soul winner. No, we don't talk about that.16:08We capsules something other, different type of language. But he says the church has nothing to do but save souls. Therefore, spend and be spent in this work. Now, while I agree completely with what Dr. Wesley said in his statements, I do think there is an equally or greater purpose than the New Testament church. That is leading those that are saved by his grace to be fully devoted followers of Christ.16:35I think we should have a 3D mentality, three-dimensional mentality. We must discover and help people discover who God is. I mean, we should point them to an environment where they can find who Christ is, whether it's singing the hymns of the faith or the latest, greatest chorus that's been written by Chris Tomlin or anybody like that. Folks, let me tell you something.17:04It's not about the stylistic of the music. It's about the message of the music. Amen? Why did David Crowder, his first three albums were all hymns of the faith? Hey, Crowder's got a beard down to here and hair out to here. He looks like Jerry Garcia with Christ in his life. If you don't know who Jerry Garcia is, I'll tell you later. But anyway, I want you to know something, folks. It's not about the style of the music or the style of the preaching. It is about the message of God that changes people's lives.17:33So we must, as a New Testament church, point them to discover who God is in their life. That leads us to this third part. The second part of the three-dimensional approach to ministry. To be developed as a fully devoted follower of Christ. Michael Capps pastors up in Raleigh, North Carolina. One of our great young pastors in our denomination. He said, evangelism is not dependent on the method, but clearly, clearly on the message.18:00So we must help people discover what the message of Christ is. Wherever, however, and through any means possible, present the message of Christ. Secondly, we must have that development mentality. We must create environments that help people develop as a fully devoted follower of Christ. That means we're going to have to do some things that are going to be a little bit different.18:28To reach the 21st century, the next generation, they're not going to be accustomed to just saying, I'm only going to do Sunday morning. I might want to do something on Tuesday night. I have to work on Sunday. What are you providing for me to help me develop? So, folks, let me tell you, hence life groups could meet throughout the entire week. We must be creative when it comes to developing fully devoted Christ followers. I love what Robert Coleman wrote in the Master Plan for Evangelism.18:57He says this, disciples are made. They're not born. You don't be born as a disciple. You're born as a sinner separated from the love of God. Yes, those beautiful little infants that are back in our nursery back there right now. They were born sinners separated from the love. I know they're cute, and you're sitting there saying, you're talking about my child. It's a pagan, but it's a pretty pagan.19:27And our responsibility is when we, they come into this world immediately, even before speaking truth through the skin, helping that child understand, discover who God is. And when they come here on this campus or any life group that meets off this campus, that we help them grow, become more like Christ. Disciples are made, not born.19:56You can be born a Baptist and still bust hell wide open. And I know that there's going to be some that do just that. They're going to go straight to hell with their Southern Baptist card in their hand because they've never truly invited Jesus Christ into their life. That's sad. We've got to create environments to discover who God is. We've got to help people develop as a fully devoted follower of Christ. Now, here's what we do as Baptists. We club them on the head, drag them down the aisle, give them a box of cards, put their name on the roll,20:26and then we want to send them on mission. There's nothing wrong with that. We need to help them grow into that, though. So the third leg of the three-dimensional approach to ministry is that we not only discover, help people discover who God is, develop as a fully devoted follower of Christ, but we must deploy them, deploy them on mission. Deploy them on mission.20:56IMB President Dr. David Platt said the stakes are high, the gospel is good, the church is central, the opportunities are limitless. The time is, say it with me, now. The time is now. Many of us in this room, I'm just going to be straight with you, okay? Can I say that? I think I have been since day one, so I'm just going to reiterate my straightness to you. Many of us in this room need to be deployed.21:26Many of you have been saturated. You're just oozing with development. You're just oozing developments all over the pews and on the floor. You just got so much development. You come in deeper life, and you're just oozing with development. But many of you in this room have never decided to be deployed for service. You said, I'm getting mine. I'm enjoying mine.21:55It's all about more. I am growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Well, let me tell you something. When you're growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ, the deployment says go. Thursday night, the last week of our trip in Honduras, my son got up and spoke. I didn't ask him. He just said, I got a word. He gets up and reads Matthew's Gospel 28, and he gets to those last words of those departing words of our Lord on the mouth of transfiguration. And he said, here it is, guys.22:23You've been on thinking. You're on mission in Honduras. We're glad. Thank you for coming, hanging out with us. Hope you enjoyed this experience. We loved having you here in our work. And in Honduras, we are so thrilled about that. But let me tell you something. You are now entering into the mission field when you get on the plane, go back to Atlanta. When you go back to Texas. When you go back to Alabama. And he looked at me, he says, Dad, this is not the mission field. The mission field is when we get back home. How appropriate a 24-year-old non-theological train gets up and says, we are now on mission.22:50The time is now. Our country, our people need for us to step out. You don't have to go to Dominican. You don't have to go to Honduras. You don't have to go to Russia. You don't have to go to Iraq. You can go on mission right down the street from your house. It is time for us to be deployed. Amen. As for another message, that was just kind of free.23:18I want to give you a couple of thoughts here this morning. Many people are sorry. They are so deeply sorry for what they do. You know that? They're sorry. But sometimes they're not sorry enough to quit doing it. They are really deeply sorry. They want to. The difference between remorsefulness and repentant heart. Remorsefulness is sorry for the past, but doesn't want to change for the future. Repentance is sorry for the past and makes the changes in their own personal life so that23:47they don't repeat the past in the future. I want to give you the 10-step process quickly, and I know I'm running close on time, so buckle up. We're going to get 10 steps. You're going to write fast. 10-step process, and it's all in Luke's gospel, chapter 15, beginning with the 11th verse. Step one, rebellion against the Father. Not your earthly Father, but the heavenly Father. If you're a Christ follower in this room, most of us in this room, if we'll be honest, we24:17have rebelled against the Father. Look with me in verse 11 and 12. A certain man had two sons. I'm reading the New American Standard Version this time. The two younger of them said to him, Father, give me what the share of the estate falls to me. He divided his wealth between them. He divided it between the two sons, and he gave it to the one, and the one says, I want mine. I want what's mine.24:46He began that rebellion. Rebellion starts when you start thinking with a rebellious heart. That's when it's not actually stepping out into rebellion. It's not stepping over into the pigsty. It's when we start thinking in rebellion. So, rebellion against the Father. Number two step, rejection of the Father's presence. Verse 13. And not many days later, the younger gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant land. Now, he wasn't just going on a trip.25:16He wasn't going to the beach to hang out. He wasn't going to the mountains to go ski. He just was getting away from the Father's instructions. When we rebel against the Father, rejection of the Father's presence, we don't want to be around the Father or the things of God or the people of God. Rebellion, went to a distant land, and there he squandered his estate with loose living.25:42I mean, he just, he got out there and partied until there was nothing left on his debit card. It's gone. All his resources were gone. So, rebellion against the Father, rejection of the Father's presence. Number three in the step process, the 10-step process of backsliding, removal of the Father's provisions. Pick it up in verse 14. Now, when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that land, and he began26:11to be in need. So, rebellion happens, rejection happens, and then removal of the Father's provisions step us closer to that realigning of wrong fellowship. So, when we don't have the people of God around us, who are we going to hang out with? Those that are not the people of God. We align ourselves with wrong fellowship. Verse 15, and he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country.26:41Don't think that that citizen may not have tried somewhere along the way. We don't know. This is a parable, remember? But he attached himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed the swine. Here's a guy who had everything, and now he's feeding the swine. Feed the swine. Pick it up, verse 16. And he was losing, he was longing for his stomach. He was hungry with the pods that the swine, so they were eating, and no one was giving him27:08anything. So, he aligned himself with wrong fellowship. Listen to me. Students, especially when you get away from the things of God, and you align yourself with the people that are not of God, the things of God are going to destroy you. They will not feed you. They will not satisfy you. It will be like the pods that the swine ate. So, we need to see the process of realignment with wrong fellowship.27:38But then, thank God, step five comes into play. In this particular parable, realization of his true condition occurs. Verse 17, but when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I'm dying here of hunger. I'm dying of hunger. I find it quite interesting that many in the church today, not just here, but around the28:08globe, they do not realize just how lost we've become. We've got it pretty good here in North America, don't we? We sit here under the banner of freedom, worship in spirit and truth with no tyranny, more than likely no terrorism's coming our way this morning. We got security out there to take care of them.28:38Barney Five and somebody else out there. I don't know who it is. But I love those men. They're serving out there, standing a post while you can come in here and worship. We've got it pretty good here, do we not? We've got it pretty good. And so sometimes we don't realize how anemic and apathetic we can come until we get to the point of starvation.29:07And many of us have multiple copies of God's Word and multiple Beth Moore editions. We've got multiple Phyllis Survivor. We've got all these Bible studies and all this stuff, life Bible studies out the wazoo. And my goodness gracious, we still are just feeding and feeding. But we only realize how apathetic we've gotten. We just kind of do status quo. Realization sits in on this young man in the parable.29:35His true condition takes place. And it leads him, and I hope it leads us all to this point. It did me this week in study, to repentance in his heart. Pick it up in verse 18 and 19. I will get up. I'll go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven, and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired hands. Repentance leads to a change in one's attitude first.30:06That leads to a change in his actions second. When we truly repent, it begins in our heart and our mind first, and then our actions follow. Here's what happens. I hear this happening all across America, not just at Bethel. It happens in every church. Repentance happens in our heart. Oh, the Lord's forgiven me. But nobody else notices. Let me tell you something, folks.30:37God never called a silent disciple. He didn't call us to sit silently. Oh, I know some of you Bible scholars are going to jump on this. Well, pastor, you know the word says, be still and know that thou art God. Absolutely. That's quiet time. That's where you're finding God's will for your life. Absolutely. I get that. But he called every one of us that are proclaiming as Christ followers to publicly pronounce what he has done privately in our lives.30:58Repentance in our hearts. That's the action. The attitude follows the repentance. It moves us to step seven. And I move quickly. Returning to his father. This ought to make a Presbyterian shout. Hallelujah. And he says he got up and he came to his father.31:28In verse 20, our repentance occurs within our heart and a public movement must take place. God never, as I said it, called a silent disciple. Returning to the father moves us to step eight. Reconciliation with the father. Yes, every one of these is going to start with an R, by the way. Reconciliation. Reconciliation with the father.31:56But while he was a far off, a way, a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Remember when we received the forgiveness of the father? Think with me. Back however long that was, when you received Christ Jesus and that forgiveness took place, and we felt that unbelievable experience in our hearts,32:23it's as if the father in heaven was leaning across the split rail fence, and he was looking down and says, yes, I'm giving you this forgiveness. I saw a portrait of this particular verse right here. A friend of mine has it in his study, and it's a father with his foot up on a split rail fence, and he's looking, and he could see way off in the distance of that portrait, a man coming toward him.32:50That is the portrait of this parable. The father is looking. He is agazing. That's exactly what Jesus is saying here today. He says, please confess your sin. I will reconcile myself with you. And you with me. But while he was a way off, he felt compassion. The father did. He ran to him and embraced him and kissed him.33:17The father ran to him and embraced and kissed him. Leads us to step nine. Restoration of the son's privileges. Folks, when we repent, it's a win-win situation. When we repent, we win, and the angel's in heaven, and God himself wins. You know who loses? Satan. He's going to lose anyway, so why not let him enjoy it now?33:46Amen? Reconciliation leads us to restoration of the son's privileges. Verse 21 and 22 says, Then the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to the slaves, quickly, not just when you get time. Quickly bring out the best robe, not the worst one, not the second best, not the hand-me-down,34:12but bring me the best robe. Put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Folks, restoration of the son's privileges when the robing and the sandals and the ring are significant of God saying to you, let me put the robe of righteousness on you when you return.34:34Brings us to step 10, and this makes us all want to shout. Step 10, rejoicing in the Father's house. Verse 23 and 24, And bring that fatted calf, kill it, let us eat and be merry, for this son of mine was dead34:56and has now come to life again. He was lost and has been found. And they began to be merry. Our English version says they began to celebrate. Church, it's time for us to quit wallowing in the pods, in the pig pen, where the swine live out.35:23It's time for us to celebrate. Every one of us in this room have need to come to this altar today. We have need to come to this altar and fall on our face before God and say, God, I've sinned against you, against heaven, and you. And God, I come today.35:53I want to reconcile myself with you. I want to repent. I want to come to you. And then, and then only then, that true rejoicing can take place. Maybe you and I, maybe here in this room you've wandered afar off. Maybe you've gone to the pig pen. Maybe you've traveled in a distant land. Maybe you've even tasted the swine or the pig, the pods that the swine would eat.36:20Maybe you've lived in some terrible scenarios. Maybe today, this is that moment that you need to realize the good news of Jesus Christ. And 1 John 1, 9, if you'll confess with your mouth, he's faithful and just to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. He can't save you but one time. But he can reclaim you day in and day out.36:48Let me just tell you something. Every morning, this old preacher gets up and I say, today, Lord, I recommit my life to live totally for you. I start a brand new day every day recommitting my life. You say, Dan, why do you do that? Did you do something in your sleep? I said, I don't know, but I'm going to get covered for you. Amen? Recommit my life to live for you. To lift high the banner. To be creating environments for people to discover who God is.37:16To spend my life developing next generation leaders and motivating them and empowering them to be developed and deploy here and around the globe. So I'm begging you today, church, let's today be like that servant. Let's return home. Let's return to the Father today. Let's pray.37:46Let's pray.More sermons on Luke →
