Good morning South Fellowship. Whoa, I am loud today. All right, cool. I have a louder voice than most people who come up here and talk. Yeah. It’s good to see you all this morning. I recognize we had a little bit of a debate this week, whether we would show that announcement video before the message or after the message and which location would erase your brain for those who really are concerned about that subject matter.

Are you going to be able to listen to the sermon or not? So I voted that you were, cause you guys are very self disciplined and you’re going to be able to tune into the scriptures today. And so we put it here. But I wanted you to be able to land at the end of the message and hear what God has for you and be able to linger with that towards the end.

Are you with me? All right. Hey, if you’re new or newish, my name’s Aaron Bjorklin. I’m one of the pastors here at South. And if that is you we actually have a place out in the lobby called the new here table. That’s just for you. It’s an opportunity for us to get to know you a little bit better. It’s an opportunity for you to get to know this church community a little bit more.

And I’d encourage you to go out there and check that out because here’s our passion here at this church family, our passion, our mission is to help people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus. So if you’re new around here and you’re considering making this your church, home.

We want to figure out if there’s anything we can do as a church family to come alongside you as you learn how to live in his way with his heart. Today we’re continuing our series through the prodigal son parable. And we’ve been doing a deep dive into this series. It’s a short story. It’s probably one of Jesus’s most famous stories that he taught in the entire scriptures and all of his teaching.

And we’re doing a deep dive. We’re going to spend three weeks inside of the story. And last week, Alex brought the first message, and then we’re continuing today. About a month ago, Alex approached me with his idea for how this series could play out. It was a natural coincidence. He was going on vacation.

He was preaching one week, then he had two weeks off where I was going to preach, and then Kevin Butcher was going to be preaching. And as he was meditating on the parable, he realized, There was a lot of alignment with some of the personalities of the characters in the parable with the preaching order And so he shared this idea with me and he said okay Aaron.

Here’s what here’s the plan here’s what I want to do. I will preach the first message in the series About the younger son, the character in the story who runs far away, makes a few mistakes and then comes back home and is embraced by the grace and the love and the mercy of the father.

And then the last week of the series, Kevin Butcher will come in and he will share about the heart of the father because if Kevin, if you haven’t seen him preach before, he embodies that heart of the father and he’s one of the best communicators that both Alex and I’ve ever heard on the subject of the heart of the father.

And so that made sense. And then he said, but Aaron, I want you to share the story of the elder brother. And I thought to myself, Wait a minute, what are you saying about me? What’s going on? You mean the character in the story who’s a big jerk and self righteous and who like shuns his father because his father showed grace and mercy towards another person?

That’s what’s going on. What are you trying to say about me, Alex? What’s going on here? And so I’m just joking. Alex had the reason he felt like I’d be positioned well to share this particular story is because he’s heard me say many times how I identify with the elder brother. And I’m realizing right now when I’m going to go to my next slide, I never actually grabbed the remote.

So I’m hoping the tech team back there can find the remote for me or just jump to the next slide. So here’s, if we could jump to the next slide, that’d be great. I have lived much of my life with elder brother issues. I have, this is the character in the story that I identify with the most. Thank you. Look at that, heroes.

Ah, so last week, Alex told us about the reality of how many of us start our journeys much more like the younger son in the story. But then as time goes on, we often convert into a little bit more of the elder brother. So this is the progression that Alex described last week. We oftentimes start like the younger son in the story, but we end up like the older.

Son and the story when we first encounter the grace of God. We’re off in the world and we’re exploring these different experiences, trying to find the good life, trying to find meaning and purpose in our life. And then we run into the gospel, into the goodness and the kindness of our father. And we were embraced by him.

It’s beautiful. It’s one of this most powerful moments in any believer’s life is when they first experienced the goodness and the kindness of their father. But as time goes on, We figure out the game. As time goes on, we go to church, and we start to, to figure out what’s expected of us in this new Christian culture.

We learn how to act like good little Christians. And for many of us, we start to struggle with elder brother issues. And I don’t know if that resonates with you, but that very much resonates in my soul and how I’ve lived much of my life. The joke’s on Alex, because today I’m just gonna tell all these, I’m gonna preach this from the perspective of why the elder brother is the best character in the entire story, and why we should all want to be just like him.

I’m just joking. I don’t think I could do that. But, there’s gonna be some heavy words for this elder brother, but also some encouragement as we move forward. If you weren’t here last week I’d encourage you to go back and listen to Alex’s message because last week he shared the story from the perspective of the younger brother, and he did so in such a way that was really beautiful and powerful.

He shared another story alongside it, and I won’t give you all of the punchline, but let me tell you, if I’m honest, I’m my face might have been leaking just a little bit as he shared the story. So I encourage you to go back and listen to last week. But if that’s you, if you’ve lived a life, now if that’s not you, maybe you’re coming in here, this is the first time you’ve encountered the story, and this is fresh and new to you, and we haven’t even gotten into the body of the story yet, but it might be fresh, hot off the presses in your soul, and you’ve experienced God’s grace, and that’s great.

But today, you can sit along the sidelines, and for some of us who’ve been following Jesus for much of our lives, we’re gonna be going into and exploring some of that dissonance in our souls, And I encourage you to just watch us squirm a little bit if that’s not you. Because maybe this is the question that we have.

Where is the free flow of grace that I had, that I once felt? Has anyone ever asked that question? You don’t have to raise your hand. Maybe you encountered God’s kindness and His grace and it was overwhelming to you and you couldn’t do anything but talk about it. It’s the only thing you wanted to communicate with anyone about.

You experienced God’s kindness, and that’s all you wanted. And grace was just flooding your soul. But then as time’s gone on, it’s like grace got so familiar that it was just like that thing in the corner that’s always been there. So where is the free flow of grace that I once felt? Or maybe you could put it this way.

What does grace, why does grace sometimes feel more distant now than it did back then?

In addition to feeling a little bit seen too closely by Alex when he asked me to preach this message, I also had another experience. This story is so familiar. Alex pointed out that out last week. It’s so familiar that many of us have already heard the story of the prodigal son. Even if you haven’t been in the church, you might’ve heard this story.

It’s so familiar that it’s sometimes hard to shake it off, take off the dust and feel it again. And so don’t get me wrong, but that’s a little bit how I felt. Don’t this story. Don’t get me wrong is really important to me. It’s actually played a significant part in my life, but when Alex asked me to preach it, I was okay, yeah, that story again, I’m ashamed to admit it, but that’s a little bit of how I felt.

It was like when I first took this job full time, I asked an amazing member here at South who’s a piano teacher to teach me how to play piano. Because I had this dream of being able to lead worship with both guitar and with piano. And I started these lessons with a little bit of enthusiasm, but it became abundantly clear really quickly, that I didn’t have the discipline or the follow through to actually learn piano.

Because here’s the deal. It is very difficult to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the piano when you’re capable of playing Goodness of God on the guitar. Like I just couldn’t, it just, I couldn’t get myself to play Mary Had a Little Lamb for a half an hour for all of my rehearsals. And maybe this story is a little bit like that for me.

Part of the reason I felt disillusioned by the story or not excited about the story is I feel like it’s already had its work in me. I feel like this story has already done its work in me. And so I said, yes, I’ll preach the message because maybe it hasn’t had that same effect in someone else’s life because I’ve already been transformed, but maybe someone else hasn’t.

See, I have elder brother issues. I have some serious elder brother issues. As I entered into this passage and started to meditate on it over the last two weeks, I discovered how unbelievably wrong I was. As I dip my toes back into this famous story that I’ve heard a thousand times, I started to hear the voice of my father saying, Aaron, I have answers for you today for prayers that you’ve been praying for several years.

I started to stare myself in the face and learn, I have still so much to learn. What I didn’t realize is this story was way more than Mary had a little lamb. This story was Mary had a little lamb and all of its basics, and it was the goodness of God for my soul. And so this story has reawakened for me and my contention for us this morning.

is that this story is a deep well with plenty and plenty of living water for us to dip our buckets seeking his goodness into. And we can pull it out time and time again. But before we lower our buckets into the story itself, I just would like to pray because another confession for you. Lots of confessions today.

As I’ve been preparing this message, I’ve been running right into that elder brother in me. And I’ve been working, and I’ve been working, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to assemble this message and find the right illustrations because it is so important to me. And even as I’m sitting there and singing songs, I’m saying, God, why can’t I just rest in you as my good father?

And so I need him today. Let’s pray. Father, you are good. Just like we sang, you are good.

And whether we are here feeling really good about our week, we did all, we checked all the Christian boxes that we were supposed to check. We even showed up to church today or whether for me, I worked hard enough and I focused enough and I read enough books or not. You’re good. And so today as a good father, we come to you expecting you to be good.

And so would you do your good work in us today, we pray. Amen. Amen. So last week, Alex spent some time talk, teaching us about the nature of parables. This story is a parable. A parable is a short fictional story designed to teach truth in a way that changes us from the inside out. This idea is fascinating.

It’s so fascinating that we actually, Oh I could put in my own words. It’s this. A parable is a short fictional story designed to mess with us. It’s designed to get into our system and make us ask questions that we wouldn’t otherwise ask. It’s maybe more powerful than just explicitly stating a truth.

It forces you to linger for a moment. It’s so fascinating that actually Alex spent time teaching last week on it. But then this last Thursday, we recorded a Red Couch Theology podcast episode where we went On a deep dive in the nature of story, in the nature of parables and how powerful they are.

It was such a, now I’m a little biased because I was part of the conversation, but it was such a fascinating conversation that I had with Alex about this. I learned so much about the power and the significance of stories. I really wish I could bring it all out for you today, but I don’t have time for that.

So I’d encourage you to go back, listen to that episode and see why Jesus used parables so often when he taught. It’s fascinating. But because this is a parable, we can right off the bat sort of know the rules of the system because biblical narrative or parables parable is a biblical narrative form follows some interesting structures, and it follows different literary rules than we’re used to here in the modern West.

Parchment. And papyrus was very expensive. So an ancient narrator had to use different tools to communicate ideas. In modern narrative, it’s very common for us to hear page upon pages and pages describing the physical appearance, the facial features, the emotional features of the main characters.

Or to spend deep many pages describing the inner working and the thought process of many characters. to paint pictures of the vivid scenery of the scene of the situation. But that’s not what an ancient author would do because it just took too much parchment to do that. And so Hebrew narrative is like narrative concentrate.

They would pack it full of small, tiny literary devices to help you unleash all of that same detail with your imagination with small literary devices. One of the ways they do that is by the use of paper. of the quantity of words given to various different subjects. And so an ancient narrator would highlight, it was like their way of saying if I give more words to it, that’s pretty wasteful normally.

And so if there’s lots of words there, pay attention because that part of the story is really important. They use structure to do that. And I’m going to explore this morning through this story because Jesus is the master teacher and he leverages all these tools To slip one over on these religious leaders that he’s talking to and to draw them in and to capture them with a punchline that they are not expecting.

So let me explain what I mean. But before we do that, I just want to rewind. If you have your Bible with you, we’re in Luke chapter 15 and I’d encourage you to open to that section there. But let’s paint a picture of where Jesus is teaching this story. We learned a little bit about this last week. Luke chapter 15 verses 1 through 3.

It goes like this. Now the tax collectors and the sinners were all gathered around. All right, so picture that. We have tax collectors and sinners. Sinners and then tax collectors in that day. If you you may know already or not it’s fine. Tax collectors are like sinners squared, right? So they’re the worst of the sinners in some sense.

Now that all the really bad people, morally evil people, are gathered around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners, and he eats with them. He eats with them. So this is the picture. You have these sinners, Trying to listen to Jesus teaching and then these religious leaders coming around judging Jesus for an even eating with them because eating with them was almost on the same level as saying, I condone their behavior in that world.

This is the scene. And then Jesus tells three parables back to back. The first parable is about a lost and found sheep. followed by a celebration. The second parable is about a lost and found coin followed by a celebration. And then our story today, the parable of the prodigal son is about a lost and found son followed with a celebration.

But the intriguing thing about the way Jesus tells these stories is he’s setting up a pattern so that he can catch them off guard with a few different things because. Ironically, Jesus gives the majority of his time to the younger brother in the story. It’s his way of saying, pay attention here.

Look here. Look over here, younger brother. He gives these religious leaders. Now remember, they’re his target audience. The religious leaders are his target audience. You would think he would spend more time talking directly to them. But instead, he says, look at this younger son. He gives him an opportunity to empathize with the tax collectors and sinners.

He talks about the inner workings of the younger brother. He talks about this younger brother who’s trying to find hope, trying to find meaning, goes away, finds hope. runs out, gets stabbed in the back by his friends and left. He’s hungry. He’s full of shame. And by the end of that section of the younger brother story, maybe some of the tax collectors or maybe some of the religious leaders are starting to feel some of the empathy that they should feel for this younger brother.

But in addition to that, he’s smashing that emotion, empathy, With an emotion of vengeance and justice, because he’s also telling a story of a son who’s been extremely foolish, extremely disrespectful to his father. He has done almost everything in the book that a son should not do to shame his father and do the wrong thing.

He runs away to a foreign country. far away country. He goes from a good town to a bad town. He goes and he squandered his wealth on all this stuff. That’s what we learned about last week. And by the end of that section, there’s like this, I hope he gets what’s coming to him, right? So yes, he’s in a bad place, but he deserves it.

And this is the expectation that Jesus is setting up. It’s like these, the moment when the villain gets what’s coming to them, it’s the wicked witch of the West. When she gets water thrown on her, it’s Biff Tannin and back to the future, when he goes from being the bully to be to being bullied by the end of the movie, it’s scar.

When he shuns his posse tr of hyenas. And eventually it’s the hyenas that take out scar. It’s. Inigo Montoya, when he finally finds the six fingered man who killed his father and challenges him to a duel. And there’s like this feeling of sweet justice. This is how these religious leaders are feeling about this younger son.

But then we read, starting in verse 22, we read this. It says,

But the father said to his servants, quick. Bring the robe and put it on him, the younger son, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate for the son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.

It’s an unexpected twist. There isn’t sweet justice. There’s grace. He’s been building. He’s used this literary device to build the tension. This is what they have expect is justice. And instead, they see grace because grace is where the father is. But there’s another twist in the story. There’s another twist in the story because see, Jesus started with two other parables, right?

He started with two other parables. These parables followed this pattern. A lost item of value, fervent search, celebration. And the lesson is God celebrates just like that when we are, when we return. And then he tells another story of a lost item of value, fervent search, celebration. God celebrates just like that when we return.

And then the first part of this narrative starts there, but the twist is this. In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus adds another movement. He places the religious leaders into the story through the elder brother. Read it with me, starting in verse 25. It says, Meanwhile, the older son was in the field.

It’s right after the scene where the younger son is in the field. is embraced with grace. When he came near to the house, he heard the music and the dancing. So he called to one of the servants and he asked him, what was going on? And they said, your brother has come. He’s he replied, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has him back safe and sound.

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So the father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father. Look at all these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders yet. You never gave me even a goat so that I could celebrate with notice, not the father, but with my friends.

But when this son of yours who has squandered your property, With prostitutes comes home, you kill the fatted calf for him. You can sense that just the feeling of injustice that this older brother feels, this disillusionment, this confusion, what is going on?

But once again, Jesus has masterfully built into the story, this comparison and contrast between the two brothers. In his great commentary, Klein Snodgrass points this out. Both sons were in a field. The younger son in 15, the older son in 25. Both sons, neither is given anything, food or a party. Verse 16 for the younger, verse 29 for the older.

Both are feeling like slaves. Verse 19 for the younger, verse 29 for the older. One goes and one refuses to go in. End. Verse 20 and verses 28. But notice this. The father goes to both the father goes to both. See here’s the truth. And what Jesus is trying to communicate to his audience of religious self righteous people is this.

Both sons were living in a faraway country. Both sons have the exact same motivation for their lifestyle. Can you believe it? For the younger son, here’s what’s going on in his mind. The younger son is trying to find the good life. He is trying to find the good life, and so his theory that he puts to the test is that out there in the world the good life exists, and it’s not here.

So I’m going to go and explore, I’m going to explore prostitution and parties and whatever it is that he does in the far country, right? And then he finds that is not where the good life is located. And so he says that ship has sailed. The best thing I could possibly hope for is like a moderate life.

That’s not full of intense suffering. So he goes back to the father and what does he find? He finds the good life. He finds the good life by the brace of the father. But guess what? The older son has the exact motive, same motivation. He wants the good life. His theory about the good life is the good life comes when you work really hard in the field and you impress your dad because you never disobey.

And you do, and you work, and you show up to church, and you try and put a smiley face on, and you try and do the right thing, and you show up, and you show up, and you show up, and then maybe, just maybe, the Father will smile down on you, and that will be the good life. But he doesn’t find the good life.

Because here’s how, that’s not how grace works. That’s not how favor works. By definition, grace is this. Grace means unmerited or unearned favor. So if you have to earn it, it isn’t grace. Let me say that again. If you have to earn it, it is not grace.

Reminds me of Ephesians two verses eight and nine, which says this, oops, that’s the wrong one. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says this, For it is by grace you’ve been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. Here’s the interesting, insidious, and very confusing part of an older brother kind of attitude.

The older brother thinks that grace and favor from his father will feel even better if he earns it than if it’s free. That’s a very subtle thing in the human soul. See, I want to get kudos for things. I don’t want to just get stuff from the father that isn’t earned. That doesn’t feel as satisfying.

I want the reward. Just like maybe there’s this joke about young people who get rewards for participation awards, right? That participation reward, that kid knows it’s not quite the same as getting first place. You know what I mean? We want to earn first place. This is the attitude of the elder brother.

I’m going to work. I’m going to work. I’m going to work. I don’t just want unmerited favor. I just don’t want grace. Actually. I want to earn favor.

It’s the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. You can’t earn grace by definition. So here’s the question. Where’s the free flow of grace that I once felt? It probably disappeared when you tried to start earning it. It probably disappeared in your soul when you cracked the code and you tried to start earning that grace.

It’s here. Listen. If you forget everything else I say, remember this grace flows through our relationship with the father, not our efforts to earn it. Grace flows. The free flow of grace comes through relationship with a good father, not by our efforts to earn it. Both children have a theory.

Where’s the good life? One thinks it’s in the far country, doesn’t find it, comes home, he finds the good life. The other is in the field, is trying to find the good life. He doesn’t find it because his father is on the road looking out for the son. Grace is where the father is. Grace is where the father is.

So the first time I encountered this idea, was at Moody Bible Institute, because I told you already that I have elder brother issues, right? I was right here, this is the Sweeting Center at Moody Bible Institute, and I was literally right here by this tree. I remember it so distinctly, and I was going through my mental checklist of spiritual amazingness, right?

And it wasn’t because, it wasn’t actually that I thought I was amazing, it was actually that I was trying to be amazing. And I was walking down the path, and I was quasi praying, quasi journaling in my own head. Saying, alright, I’m working really hard in school, check. I’m at a bible college, check.

I don’t do drugs. I don’t smoke. I’m not sleeping around. I’m married. I’m trying to be a good husband. I’m trying to be a good husband. Okay. How am I doing on that one? Okay. I spent, I did took her for date this time and then I didn’t do it there and I Was grumpy with her that week. So my half check, I don’t know.

Does that count God? Does a half check count? And then I was going through, I’ve got this sin of pride in me. I’ve got fears. I’ve got lust in me. So not check there. But I’m working on those. I plan on finishing those check boxes by the end of my Bible college career. And so here’s what I’m doing.

And then about here, it was like the spirit of God just interrupted me, just like the father does with the younger son. He interrupts his speech of forgiveness and he says, Aaron, what happens if you finish your list and you don’t know me? Do you win? And I was just floored. I was just floored.

Because there was a very good chance that I was going to complete my checklist and I didn’t know or frankly care all that much about my father. All I wanted was to make sure that my list was complete. That was the first encounter that I had with this story. The second encounter there’s many been along the way, but the second encounter happened very recently, like I said.

It’s been happening over the last several years. I’ve been praying some prayers. I’ve been wrestling with God about how I interact with him. I’ve been trying to figure out why he feels distant to me in some ways. And so I’ve been wrestling with that. And then, like I said I was assigned this passage and then I thought it was not for me.

I thought it was for you guys because you guys haven’t learned it yet. And I have, but then I entered this story and I realized that this story was an answer to prayer for me. I realized one of the things I’ve noticed is that I’m still trying to earn. So let me explain.

My wife is God’s favorite. Sorry, that role is already taken, so I can’t be his favorite. You hear that? My wife is God’s favorite. I can’t be. I can’t be. So I joke with her about this because she prays for things and just gets them. She prays for things that sometimes I don’t think we as a family deserve.

A great example of this happened in the last three weeks. A great example of this is I had overspent on our budget multiple times in in the previous few months. And so she came to me and she just said, Hey, I’d love to get this this vitamin that’s been really helping my stomach. I was like, Oh, that’s so expensive.

I just don’t think we can. So she went and she just said, Lord, yeah. Aaron told us we overspent. Will you provide? And. Sure enough, I got a check from our insurance company for an unknown reason for the exact amount that she’d asked for. And this kind of thing happens all the time. And so I always tease her that she’s my favorite.

But then I was walking along the road one morning and I was wrestling with God. Do I feel distant from you? Why? And then it dawned on me, why can’t I pray prayers like she does? Because I only pray prayers that I think I deserve to receive an answer for with a resounding yes. I have to earn it before I pray it.

I have to feel like I did a good enough job before I even would consider it. So if I overspend, I will never pray a prayer that I should get something that I don’t deserve. I overspent. That was foolish. Father doesn’t give fools extra little 100 check from the insurance company. I felt like this. And it’s realized that I have so many areas of my life that I’m still living like the elder brother and I do not take advantage.

Notice what takes place here. The father responds to his son. He says, my son, verse 31, I don’t think I have it on the screens, but my son, the father said, you. always with me. You’ve always been with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and it’s alive again.

He was lost and is found. I wasn’t taking advantage of the presence of my father. So let me give you a few tips on how to recover from being an elder brother. Because I’ve walked this path a lot in my life. Here’s a few tips, and then we’ll close. Pray like a child who knows their father’s good. This is one of the lessons that I’m learning.

When I was walking along the path, I don’t know if I deserve this, Lord, but you’re a good dad. And you love me. And I don’t think my checklist is great right now. And none of those things is bad. Working in the field is bad. Don’t. But I’m just gonna come to you as a good father and I’m gonna say, here’s what’s going on in my heart.

I’m worried about this. I’m worried about that. I’m an idiot. I need some help. And I’m trying to pray prayers like that through some gritted teeth because I don’t know how to pray like that. Here’s another tip. Celebrations most often begin on the roadways home because that is where the father is waiting for the lost.

So if some of the joy in your faith is waned. Maybe you’re not on the roadway. You’re in the field. Maybe it’s been a long time since you’ve seen someone first experience the love and embrace of the father. So find ways to be on the roadway rather than in the field, slaving away, trying to look good to your father, serving the field funds, the party.

It doesn’t earn us an invitation. So remember being in the fields, There’s nothing wrong with working hard and serving and volunteering in the church or elsewhere. There’s nothing wrong with trying to be holy. That’s fine. The only thing wrong with it is it cannot earn you an invitation to the party.

The invitation was sent out when he embraced you with grace. What it can do is it can underwrite the party. It can fund the party. And then that labor doesn’t feel like slavery. It actually feels like participation with your good father. You could say, dad, we’re going to throw this great party at South Fellowship Church for the lost.

We’re going to throw it this weekend and the next weekend, and we’re going to throw it again and again. It becomes exciting to serve in the field rather than painful. And so then I asked this question, this final question is the younger brother better off than the older brother? And the answer is maybe, and here’s why.

Part of this series we’ve been was inspired by Rembrandt’s painting and by Henry Nowen’s book about this painting. This is the painting of the prodigal son, but I want you to notice something here. This is a representation of the older brother. And this is a representation of the younger. Which child is closest to the father?

There’s this strange dissonance. Even the bystanders feel closer to the father than this elder brother. He looks a lot like the father. He’s got a red cloak. He’s got a beard. He’s trying to play the part, right? But he is relationally distant from the father.

One more note for us as we conclude. I’ve challenged us as elder brother, if you have an elder brother spirit in you, to embrace that relationship with the father. But I also want to invite you in to the party. Imagine if you were to enter into this party. So in Hebrew narrative, one of the other things that takes place is to an author in Hebrew narrative, we’ll use what’s called a chiasm.

A chiasm is a way that the narrator can point you in a direction and help your mind think about the structure. So it’s like this idea one, I, and then B idea two. Then C, main point, and then a reflection of idea two, so a repetition of idea two, reflection of idea one. So it’s like this out and in pattern.

What’s taking place in this story is there’s two chiasms taking place. The first is The younger brother is a chiasm where the brother follows this pattern and it shows the structure to, to highlight what’s important. And the turning point for the younger brother is when he comes to his senses and he decides to set out back home.

But then the second chiasm is incomplete. And I just love that because guess what’s supposed to be at the end of the second chiasm. It’s supposed to be the party. It’s supposed to be the invitation to the celebration. And so Jesus, in his telling of this parable to these religious leaders who are standing around saying, why these tax collectors, these sinners, I can’t believe he’s eating with them.

The entire structure of this parable is an invitation to the elder brother and to each one of us to come in. So how are you gonna finish the story? Will you go in? It’s a cliffhanger ending. Notice that with me. We don’t know. Jesus just cuts off the story at the end. He pleads with him.

Will you come in? We had to celebrate. He was lost and he’s found. And then it’s as if Jesus steps back and says, What you gonna do? Finish the chiasm. Finish the chiasm church. Will you come in? I’m gonna invite the worship team up. And I went way too long, but we’re going to linger here for a moment anyway.

And I’d like to also invite the prayer team to get ready to come,

because we’re going to process this a little bit together. We’re going to process this through this song, and I’m going to invite you to try and lay aside some of those older brother tendencies, and remember that it is, that grace flows through our relationship with the Father, not through the efforts to earn it.

And if that’s something you struggle with, if you haven’t felt the goodness of His grace in a long time, or at least you haven’t felt it as deeply and profoundly as you did once, I’d encourage you to come and receive some prayer. And if there’s a little bit of fear in you, that people might see that I’m not in this amazing spot, that too is an elder brother spirit, by the way.

What’s the worst that could happen? You start to feel his grace again? Be prayed for. Cry out to him. Say, Father, these prayer warriors can come alongside you and say, Lord, would you restore the joy of my salvation? I want to feel the unhindered, unfettered goodness of God washing over me every single day.

Please, waken that in me. Reawaken that in me. We’re going to sing this song, and I just encourage you to process that as we sing this song. Would you stand with me? We’re going to sing, and this song just says, it focuses on that relationship with the Father, and I’d encourage you to come in and pray. We’re going to linger here for a little bit longer.

Hang with me. It’s going to be fine. Feel free to come to be prayed for. If you didn’t get one of these cards last week, I’d encourage you to pick one up. It’s the picture of the prodigal son that you see on the screens. And on the back it says, I have been the younger brother, is the blank that you could fill in.

And I’ve been the older brother. And next week we’re going to learn what we’re called to be. But right now I invite you to. To break the dam that is preventing the goodness and the grace of God from washing into your life like you long for. Let’s sing. Let’s pray.