Text: Luke 15
Application:
We had a guest speaker in church yesterday. He spoke on the three parables of the 'missing items' in Luke 15. Before he began, however, he talked about why Jesus taught in parables. 3 months ago, Pastor Barris spoke on the prodigal son and also mentioned why Jesus spoke in parables.
We are like the Pharisees; we try to control our environment to suite our needs.
We also have a distorted image of God because of our view of our parents and our view of God as a cosmic rule enforcer. We need to let go of our baggage to view the REAL God. To help us, Jesus taught in parables.
The three parables, lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son, have increasing value. The sheep was 1 in 100, and the shepherd went looking for it. The coin was 1 in 10, and the woman kept searching. The son was 1 of 2, and was flesh and blood. The father never gave up hope. He RAN to his son when he was still a long way off.
These three parables teach us that God will do ANYTHING short of invading our freedom to find us and bring us back again.
Think of how much you rejoice when you find your missing keys or wallet. Now imagine how much heaven rejoices when a lost soul is found.
He showed a copy of a painting. Rembrandt: The Prodigal Son. Since “they” say a picture is worth 1000 words, I’m not going to comment; I’ll just post the photo and let you draw your own conclusions.
Application:
We had a guest speaker in church yesterday. He spoke on the three parables of the 'missing items' in Luke 15. Before he began, however, he talked about why Jesus taught in parables. 3 months ago, Pastor Barris spoke on the prodigal son and also mentioned why Jesus spoke in parables.
We are like the Pharisees; we try to control our environment to suite our needs.
We also have a distorted image of God because of our view of our parents and our view of God as a cosmic rule enforcer. We need to let go of our baggage to view the REAL God. To help us, Jesus taught in parables.
The three parables, lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son, have increasing value. The sheep was 1 in 100, and the shepherd went looking for it. The coin was 1 in 10, and the woman kept searching. The son was 1 of 2, and was flesh and blood. The father never gave up hope. He RAN to his son when he was still a long way off.
These three parables teach us that God will do ANYTHING short of invading our freedom to find us and bring us back again.
Think of how much you rejoice when you find your missing keys or wallet. Now imagine how much heaven rejoices when a lost soul is found.
He showed a copy of a painting. Rembrandt: The Prodigal Son. Since “they” say a picture is worth 1000 words, I’m not going to comment; I’ll just post the photo and let you draw your own conclusions.
Key Verse:
The key verse this week doesn’t come from the text of the lesson. It comes from the scripture reading prior to the sermon.
Romans 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
This spoke to both Josh and me. We both feel like we have a tendency to let the fear of the unknown creep into our lives. We need to remember, however, that we are children of God and He will uphold us and take us and lead us through the tough times. We won’t be abandoned and left alone in Egypt; No! We will be led through to the Promised Land and bask in the riches of God and his mercy and grace.
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