Notes | June 20, 2021

Today's Message:  Come Home | Sean Patterson

We're in a message series called, the father complex. Stay caught up on this series by following the message series playlist on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrEv__Oj59Qfcq22h42-ERyJejpikgV4c

Luke 15:11-32 | The Story Of Two Lost Boys:

• What it means to be separated from the Father.
  
• What it means to sin.
  
• What it means to be saved. 
  

“To ask for the inheritance while the father was still alive was to wish him dead... Such a statement would not go over well even today, and in a society stressing obedience to one’s father it would be a serious act of rebellion for which the father could have beaten him or worse.” - Bible Background Commentary

“The father divided his ‘life’ between them.”

Lessons For Parents Of Prodigals:

1. Sometimes you have to let people go completely in order to have them back fully.
2. Your children’s decisions are not always a reflection of your parenting.

Robe: my righteousness, royalty, identity, position restored.
Ring: my authority, power.
Sandals: practical needs, comforts, he is not a slave or a servant. He is a son with all the entitlements.
Calf: a sacrifice for sin.
Feast: heaven.

How to know if you are an older brother type:

1. You often compare your goodness to other people’s badness. 
2. You find it very difficult to celebrate the blessings in other people’s lives, particularly when it’s the blessing you want.

This story gives us a clear picture of two sons who are lost. Two sons who in their own ways were completely separated from the father. 

The older son was lost, it was not in spite of his goodness, but because of it. 

​Way we attempt to fulfill our self-salvation project:

1. Self-discovery 
2. Moral conformity

Religious people obey God to get things. Gospel people obey God to get God. 

“The main thing between us and God is not our sins as much as our damnable good works”  - John Gerstner 

What We Need:

1. The initiating love of the Father. 
2. You must be humbled by and responsive to what it cost to bring you home. 

​We don’t just need someone to go out to a distant land to find us, we need someone to come from heaven to earth. We don’t need an older brother to bring us back into God’s family at the cost of his wallet or land, but at the cost of his life.