March 13, 2016 A.D., by Pastor Ben Willis

To the Romans 3:21-31 [NLTse]

21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the Law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the Law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the Law.

29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t He also the God of the Gentiles? Of course He is. 30 There is only one God, and He makes people right with Himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. 31 Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the Law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the Law.

According to Luke 15:11-32

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both Heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both Heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

Sermon

Many of us have been reading the New Testament together here in 2016. The daily reading plan is listed in our weekly Bulletins and on the church’s website. We’re currently reading through Paul’s letter To the Romans.

As a part of this past Monday’s readings, Paul wrote that God has shown us a way to be made right with Him that doesn’t involve keeping all of His commandments. Paul writes that we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.

He says that although every human being has sinned, although we all deserve condemnation and death in our perfect God’s eyes, that God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. That God freed us from the penalty for our sins when He presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin on the cross. God makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus Christ.

If the Apostle Paul is right (and we believe he is, that the Holy Spirit of God used Paul to speak God’s very Word) then you and I no longer need to be forgiven our sins. We have been forgiven. We need to keep telling God and others we’re sorry when we continue to fall short, when we continue to realize that we’ve sinned. We strive to show God our love for Him by not sinning any more, but when the Holy Spirit shows us that we have, yes, we need to admit it and tell God we’re sorry, but our sins are forgiven. Jesus did the work. “It is finished!” He said from the cross. When our Abba-Father looks at you and me, when we’re trusting in Christ, He sees us absolutely flawless!

And yet you can often see many Christians wearing a starving sort of look: The face of those who’ve spent a lifetime striving to be the person they think they should be, chasing the approval of God and others, but never really feeling like they measure up. You can see those expressions on people who follow the rules, do everything leaders ask them to do, are seldom acknowledged for all their efforts, and who feel guilty when they slack on a diligent devotional life. The look betrays the deep recesses of their hearts: They can’t seem to outrun the gnawing ache that they aren’t good enough. When honest, such folks will admit the lie that drives so much of their life: God is disappointed with their performance, just like everyone else is, just like their parents, their teachers, their spouse, and their bosses were and are.

In working with people for a number of years, I’ve heard a lot of stories… and secrets. I’ve come to believe that behind the fronts and facades, that most people live with a sense of self-disdain. Of course, the details of the stories are different.

For some it’s what they’ve done or not done, for others it’s who they have or haven’t become, but the self-condemnation is almost always there. I don’t think most people really like what they see in those honest, vulnerable moments when they look at themselves in the mirror.

It makes sense. We live in a culture that defines our value by what we accomplish, what we own, and how we look. I’m struck with the awareness that for the first time in the history of human existence, the majority of our social contact comes in the form of someone telling us we are in need and so trying to sell us something. Is it just a coincidence that the basic message of the most dominant voice in our society is that we are in some way lacking?

I believe this self-disdain drives the many of addictions that affect almost everyone. Whether it’s drugs, food, porn, video games, or our phones, we are obsessed with finding new ways to disconnect from life.

O, to be significant!

O, to be loved!

I have similar wounds. I know all about the not-good-enough speech. With the Prodigal Son parable in mind, anybody here ever wonder what the father’s response might have been had his son gone “prodigal” again, and again, and again? Anybody here ever wondered what the rest of the kid’s life was like? Anybody here think that, because his father had been so reckless in his forgiveness, that the kid likely spent the rest of his life trying to prove he was now responsible and worthy of his dad’s crazy decision to lavish him with love despite his rebellion? Anybody here ever thought that, if the son ever chose to return to his life of excess that he would likely never be welcomed back home again.

Or would he?

For many Christians, forgiveness of sins means they have to immediately begin doing spiritual and moral activities. For many Christians, God’s gift of grace has to be repaid with their works. (I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do spiritual activities and direct our movements to pleasing God, but many Christians assume that God’s continued love is contingent upon their behavior, and they don’t want to risk doing something to make Him stop loving them.)

But God’s love for you is unconditional. God’s love for me is unconditional. Right here. Right now. He is not waiting for us to become as we should be. He loves you, He loves me, just as we are.

My friends: God is not mad at you! Jesus has paid for your sins. The Father aches for you to come home and crawl up into His arms of total acceptance and unconditional love and peaceful rest. Neither you nor I can wear out God’s love. There is nothing we can do to keep Him God from loving us.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I tell you that if the prodigal son had left again that he would have been welcomed back again, and again, and again. Of course, I tell you, if the prodigal son could receive the grace, love, and acceptance of his father, he would never want to leave!

Every advertisement, website, and infomercial these days seems to have a singular, simple solution to life’s problems, but I have continually found that a clear and deep knowing of God’s love for me has been the key remedy I needed to untangle many of the problems I faced. Whether it was resentments, guilt, relational conflict, obsessive or controlling behaviors, people pleasing, greed, lust, withdrawing, negative self-talk, anger, or trying to find my identity in what I did or in other people, these were all at least in part rooted in my desire and striving to be significant – to be loved.

Through the years since I have begun trusting God’s love for me, when I felt my actions didn’t measure up or I struggled with sin, I found myself greeting my failures with a gentle smile. I didn’t have to achieve or be perfect. I am loved. And contrary to what I have heard many others argue, the Father’s reckless grace has not made me complacent. Being accepted – just as I am – has motivated me to give and to love. The more and more I realize that I don’t have to strive, the more and more I find I want to.

God’s love is the central message of Christianity. Living the Kingdom life can only truly be born out of an active response to a deep knowing of one’s place as a much-loved daughter or son of the Author of Life. In Jesus Christ, you are accepted. In Jesus Christ, you are loved. In Jesus Christ, you are free to achieve and to fail. Jesus Christ has shown us that we do not have to prove that we are worthy of love and forgiveness: In Jesus Christ, we are worthy of love and forgiveness.

Justified, redeemed, atoned for: In the cross of Jesus Christ we have been made flawless.

So, come… If you are ready to accept the love of God today, I invite you to come up here, light a candle, and stand or kneel here at the steps, as you choose. If you are ready to lay down your strivings and your performing to prove yourself worthy, and are ready to receive that acceptance and worthiness that comes by faith, come…

We live in a culture that badgers us to keep our faith private, personal, “Keep it to yourself!” But the Lord Jesus calls us to make Him and our faith and trust in Him known to all those around us. “Whoever acknowledges Me publicly here on earth,” Jesus said, “I will also acknowledge before My Father in Heaven.” So, come: Personally and publicly. Come.

Come with the big or little bit love you have for Him. Come with your faith – great or small. Come with your questions not yet answered. (We all have them.) But come…

Of course, if your faith has been on cruise control and you’ve just been going through the motions of faith for a time, come: Recommit; re-consecrate; renew your vows, your promises to love Him, to follow Him, that wherever He leads you’ll go…

But, come…

The Praise Team is going to lead us in hymn #504, “He Touched Me”. And as they lead us, come: Come light a candle; and, whether standing or kneeling, come give your life a-fresh, a-new to Jesus Christ. Commit yourself to accept His label of “beloved”, of “precious”, of “son” or “daughter”, of “flawless” by claiming Him as your savior… Commit  yourself to follow Him obediently, lovingly, joyfully, always as your lord…