okay welcome class we're in lesson three of the parables of jesus and uh really we're going to focus we talked about this in the first class that we were going to look at the parables there's different ways that you could study the parables but for our purposes we're going to break it into three and this is on your outline three categories grouping the parables that talk about the character of the king or the you know of god secondly the character of the church or the king's subjects what you know information about them and then the third is about the character of the kingdom some information about the actual kingdom so the way that we've broken them up i think it's a good way to again sort the parables there's like again there's many of them we're not it's not going to be exhausted this class looking at all of them but we will be looking at you know quite a few of them and again kind of looking at them together in terms of looking at a theme and again i just want to reiterate that a parable is a story that is it would be a familiar story to the hearers and the goal is to convey a spiritual truth so always keep that in mind the goal is to real the parable is not just to tell a story but a story that the listener could relate to easily because it would be familiar to them from their environment or you know what culture or whatever and that the purpose is to impart a spiritual truth that's always uh the goal of a parable so we're going to be looking at tonight the parable of we're going to start with the parable of the prodigal son and this is a this is a great parable um and it falls onto the if again looking at your outline the character of the king the character of god we're going to be looking at these parables will give us a fresh revelation about who god is and that's always exciting in terms of studying the word of god to come away with something fresh an impartation of something you haven't seen before um a deeper appreciation of who god is so tonight that's our focus or if the parables will study we'll be looking at the prodigal son the lost sheep and the lost coin and you know they're actually interestingly too they're they're grouped together in chapter 15. so one thing i want you to you know to think about this is a quote and i've heard uh you know pastor john um share this it's always it's always been a favorite quote of myself from reading a.w tauser which is what we think about god is the most important thing about us what we think about god is the most important thing about us how do we see god how you know how do we see his person who he is um what he loves what he hates what do we know about him but what we think about him how we know him really reveals who we are it really does um and again when we when we know god when we truly know him in terms of who he is you know our response to people is an imitation of that you know our goal as believers is from the time of the new birth to be transformed into the image of his dear son to be followers of christ and again jesus was the express image of the father meaning when we look at jesus in the gospel accounts we see exactly what god is like is like so again our response how we live is evidence really of how well we know god how do we interact with people what is our approach when we say you know we know you know i could speak this clearly you know our goal as christians is to walk in love to you know it's the simple simplicity to love god with all your heart your soul and your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself those are the two greatest commands so how how do we demonstrate how do we respond to people how we respond to people is also reflective you know it's a mutual thing they they feed off each other how we respond to god how we respond to people so again our goal as disciples is to imitate that character imitate the character of the king but first you have to know something fully know it to be able to imitate it so we're going to before we the first uh parable we're going to look at is the parable of the prodigal son but i just want to give you a lead in because i always like to set um what we're studying in the context of what was happening so again since we're in the gospel of luke starting in chapter 15 verse 1. it says that all the tax collectors and the sinners drew neared to him to hear him and the pharisees and the scribes complained saying this man receives sinners and eats with them so he spoke this parable to them saying so who's the audience interesting let's we're going to look at that his audience are the tax collectors now who were the tax collectors the tax collectors were typically um assigned jews who were assigned the the task of picking up the taxes from people from from getting them getting that and probably their pay was a percentage of what they collected the tax collectors were very despised by the jews because of that roman collection of money from them um was a hardship and the fact that they were cooperating with the romans you know they were considered um maybe on the par with the gentiles so the tax collectors were very much unliked very much unliked um and who are the sinners the sinners are just your everyday people you know they they're the people who um we call them the people of the land which was the vast majority of the people at the time that jesus is it comes to the earth and is speaking um but who do we also have here there's pharisees and the scribes now they're the ones with the religious those are the ones who um you know are very much into the strict observance of the law so this is like a mixed very interesting group a mixed group and you know uh that's always the way of jesus you know again it's it's it's radical he's not out to just win the approval of who's ever you know on the top he is always the ministry of the word is to all men and i can repeatedly say that because that is a really important principle for us to always keep in our mind that the gospel is for all men without exception and without any prioritizing but that level playing field that jesus came to share the good news of salvation with all men so again the tone is kind of set the tax collectors and the and the sinners are drawing near to him and you know in some of the translation it's like there you get that sense of anticipation they're drawing near to him they're one of the translations says i think it's the voice they're bending their ears to him like they really want to hear what he has to say who the tax collectors and the sinners and remember what we read about a parable we looked at that old testament prophecy from isaiah where it said you know that hearing that some would not hear um seeing someone would not see that the revelation of the truth of the gospel would be open to some again if they had that heart to draw near and close to others who did not have a heart to receive you know we talked about that good soil last week what is the criteria of how you receive from god it's the soil it's the heart that is the criteria so he has this mixed group of sinners and so-called you know religious folk the pharisees and the scribes so what does he say it's funny they say he goes this man receives sinners and eats with them so he spoke this parable to them so they're like a mixed group but here you have your religious people saying you know we don't want to mix with this trash basically you know you know they feel like they're the ones who should be ministered to and there's already you know they already have the wrong attitude so the people the sinner the tax collectors are drawing near to here whereas the pharisees and the scribes are drawing back in judgment how much are they going to hear obviously not much right um so now what we're going to do is i just want you to see again that context of when jesus is attacked by them he's basically i mean what they're basically saying is you know they're putting him down how are you receiving these sinners how could you eat with them um again they had all of their laws about you know not um you know even touching money was considered that's why they didn't like the tax collectors but the sinners or like you know these people are unclean so that you're contaminating yourself they're all about the outward cleanliness and not about the heart and again you can see they have no compassion these are the religious leaders the pharisees and the scribes they have no compassion on these people their god their religion is exclusive not inclusive the gospel that jesus is presenting to the world into mankind is an inclusive gospel this is the opposite clearly the opposite so um something to keep in mind again we're going to look at um one thing we'll see in this in these in the central character of each of these parables is each one of them is really representing the character of god when we look at the father in the parable of the of the lost son of the prodigal son that's god the father god the heart of god uh when we look at the woman who loses her uh who loses her coin that's the heart of god when we look at the shepherd who's going after his sheep that is the heart of god so all these parables all three are going to represent the heart of god so as we delve into them we want to get that revelation ourselves what is he saying what does jesus say he says no one knows the father except me and you know and vice versa the father knows me totally and he's here to express by his words and his person again the image of god so we'll start in verse 11 and it says and then he said this is jesus speaking in parable a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of good that false to me basically his inheritance so he divided to them his livelihood i'm just going to stop there i'm going to as we move along i might stop at different points just to emphasize something i want you to keep this in mind the son comes and says give me the portion of goods that falls to me basically my inheritance now this was unheard of and even if you think about it today if you knew someone who went to their parent and said you know what i really don't want to wait for you to die i want my inheritance now i actually know someone who did this in a family and uh it was i mean that's important that someone it's almost like what right do you have to do that inheritance is supposed to be claimed or um given to the person after the death of the person so it's almost like are you trying to hasten the death or what i mean the fact that he's asking really is he's or it's just in terms of the sun it just goes to show you know really how off-base he is just from the beginning give me the portion because that belongs to me now the father could have just like shut it all down there but he doesn't so what does the father do he divides to them his livelihood now who is them because he has two sons which we'll get into and not many days after the younger son gathered all together journeyed to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living so that's interesting it's a translation saying different thing like that um it's you know it could be you know cardinal living um promiscuous living i mean you get the idea prodigal means you're off off the uh off the radar you're off the office you know out there living in a way that is not godly is ungodly and it's interesting it says he gathered everything together meaning everything that was his inheritance and he journeys to a far country that assumption is almost like he's going to a gentile place a far country a place that's like of the world you know outside of the scope of godly community so that's where he's going and he goes off and he wastes the possessions with prodigal living and it gets then it says but when he had spent time when he had spent all excuse me meaning everything so he basically burns through his inheritance he's gotten he spent it all there arose a severe famine in the land okay so now he's burned through everything not only that now there's a famine meaning there is no food available what is he gonna do he began to be in want meaning he's now he has no money and there's a famine in the land then he went and joined himself to a citizen of the country and he sent him into his field to feed swine so what does he do he gets a job essentially he goes he gets this is a person who's raising swine is not a jew because that was one of their um you know dietary laws not to have that mix so this is a gentile and we knew he was in a gentile land by that far away so he's with the gentile he joins himself to the to someone and the guy basically sends him to feed swine so now for him as a jew yours you know it's we're assuming this is coming from you know jewish but it doesn't really matter the point is if it's jewish it's that much worse than it's a swan if it's that if this the story of the prodigal is not you know referencing necessarily someone who's jewish it's still considered really below the station of anyone to be out there feeding pig unless you own the farm and uh basically he's in a very difficult situation he's lives the high life runs through all the money a famine comes so then work dries up economy the government everything just dries up during the family it's like a pandemic you know all of a sudden with limited resources everybody's like for themselves like i got to take care of my own um it's a hard place to be he's a stranger in this land um and it says here and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate but no one gave him anything like he couldn't even eat as well as the pigs how pathetic he goes from having a huge inheritance and a father who loves him and a home that's safe and secure and he goes out and at this point now after he's made some bad choices he's eating the swine's food not only that no i should let me backtrack they didn't even want to give him that so he's like in the worst of all possible shifts he can't even get is it the pots of the swine he wanted it but no one gave him anything meaning they didn't even you know the the person he's joining himself is like he doesn't want to feed him he's like here's your job you feed the swine he's not he's not even giving him the option that he would be the one um who would be able to actually eat that also that's again you get the image this is pathetic this guy is really um how long does this all take to happen it's hard to say was it a year was it six months was it longer it's hard to say that's not given to us in the parable but what happens is we have the series of events that occur again at this point he's in a he's in a bad situation now in verse 17 it says but when he came to himself that's a very important verse when he came to himself how do we come to ourselves i believe that's a move of god a move of the holy spirit you know we could be in a situation and then you have that aha moment like why am i sitting here feeding swine and they're eating better than me and that is basically the situation that he said why am i in this situation it's like he comes to himself and again i believe that was a work of god a work of the spirit of god um and basically he says he comes to himself it's like his eyes are opened and it says how many of my father's highest servants have bread enough and to spare and i perish with hunger he stops to stay he comes to himself and starts remembering who he is maybe not even fully remembering who he is he begins to remember his home and he starts reflecting and saying even the servants at my father's house were well taken care of he's again he's not even remembering who he was as the son he's remembering what the comfort of that home was like and that's where he wants to be and he's asking himself why am i in this situation so if he goes and he says you know i'm i'm dying of hunger i think basically he said at crossroads i'm either gonna die or i gotta i have to do something something has to happen so he goes i will arise and go to my father and i will say to him father i have sinned against heaven and before you and i am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your highest servants so what is he he here says i arise and i will say to my father basically he's talking about repentance he goes he prepares his script this is what i'm going to say how much this must have taken you can imagine him going out of town with all his money and going out like i'm living the high life now he's gonna have to come back in rags and come back having failed maybe being ridiculed but he thinks to himself it's either i'm gonna die or i have to do something drastic father i have sinned and what is beautiful about this he says i go to my father's father i have sinned against heaven and before you he recognizes his sin is not just against his father it's against god and that's all of our sin it's not just against the person that you um you know mistreat it's against god it's against both so he recognizes this he says you know what i've done the wrong thing i'm no longer worthy to be called your son he's saying you know what i i can't even claim to be a son that's what i'm saying he's not even looking that he's just saying i just want to be like one of your hired servants because you treat them so well which again is a reflection on the father that we can glean from this he's reflecting on the character of the father who's the father father takes care of the people in his household even those who aren't his sons right even those who are on the outside he cares about them he he's protective of that he goes make me like one of your hired servants so then he's got his script ready he's going okay so basically he arises and he come and came to his father but when he was still a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him this is absolutely radical absolutely radical in the tradition so even the story even though you know if we say a parable the definition is a common story it would be a common story to say that sons would run off um and leave home and mess up and come back that would be that's a story that occurs today that's that's something that that would always have been but what is not common which would not be typical to the audience listening to this is that a father would run to his son who has sinned against him first of all you know we we know the tradition like that at that time that the the the people in authority which this father was wore a long robe you know it would could be considered like undignified to be running you know that was not something you know that in their culture so you would expect maybe he looks and sees the sun that he would you would think just stand and wait and see what happens but that is not what happens in this parable this is what's radical about this this father as the son he's a great way off and i think that's really interesting he says while he was he rises his son he's a great way off but his father saw him and this tells me that the father was looking even though he let the sun go and this is how god is with us he gives us free will he let that sun go but he was looking he was looking for him his eyes i believe were on that road maybe the road i could picture it you know having gone to israel you know these law the road where you see nothing so you could see down the road if you think of a place like in the united states like out west you could be in montana you could be on a road and you could see for miles because there's no buildings there's not trees there's nothing that obstruction of vision so you can see like a long distance that's how i picture this he's a long way off so maybe he sees like a little little tiny figure in the distance but he's used to looking for his son but then this one day it happens the son is on the road returning home and he says and while he was still a great way off the father saw him and what he had compassion some different translations that's bible study you could do you could look up the wording it's like he was moved with compassion or he was exuberant about what he saw he had he saw him had compassion and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him again this is radical he didn't sit stand there and say all right explain yourself now if the father did that nobody would think he did anything wrong that would be common like if this was a scenario that maybe you were experiencing with a child all right come to me i want to make sure you repent i want to make sure you understand what happened um i want to know that you're going to make restitution and again if we were observers of that we would say oh that makes sense that makes logical sense this is not logical this is this parable is not logical at all it's not any kind of worldly thinking it is something so extraordinary so extravagant that the father expresses a love towards this son so he does not deserve it it can move you to tears just to think about this this son has insulted his father he has made a shame in their community to the treatment that he's given his father and the rejection of the father in his home but what does the father do he's looking for him he sees him he runs he takes the initiative before the son can even come and repeat his you know his little script the father is already on it he's already run to him he's he's restored him he's not asking any questions you know in the world they say wow you know he didn't show he didn't do the right thing he didn't show tough love for uh you know a son who's a sinner so that's what i said this is totally radical what jesus is teaching us about the love of god the grace of god towards us towards others you know sometimes we're good with the grace towards us but this is the grace towards someone else um it goes on to say he goes uh and the son said to the father he repeats you know he practiced he goes and the son said to him father i've sinned against heaven and in your sight i'm no longer worthy to be called your son he stops him the rest of it he was going to say just make me like a highest servant he basically repents to him although the father didn't require it to embrace him and to love him and to want to restore him but the son does repent he does know that and he goes but the father said to his servants he doesn't even he hears it he just cuts him off basically and goes moves on he says the father said to the servant bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fatigue that's nothing like a servant right he's he's elevating back to the position of a son by wearing sandals that was that would be something and also the ring on his hand um and be and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be married for this day my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and now he's found and they began to be married so what is the father's response again the father god's response to someone repenting joy not like well you know let me think about it if i can forgive you no it's immediate it's joyful it's exuberant he immediately enters into a rejoicing situation you know this was this was like a big thing he goes get get the calf we're going to have a party i'm going to cover this dishonor of my son so if he's doing this in his household you know the neighbors know what's going on right so they're probably saying themselves my god this is the son that treated him so poorly and what is he doing he's restoring him as a son and he's having a celebration wow that is a level of forgiveness that is beyond comprehension in the natural only in in god could we forgive like this and that's what this this parable is showing us this is the character of god and this is by association our expectation challenging right but i like what he says he goes my son was dead and is now alive he views it as if you know this is a resurrection he was dead to to me he left me he rejected me but now he's alive and he goes and again he was lost and then he begins to be married now this is the second part to this in just a few points you have this you know the parable on your outline and it says you know something to keep in mind about the prodigal son the first son he never got you know the father never lost his value he still loved him he kept him in his heart even though he he rejected him he never lost the love that he had for him um and again the focus here is not just to be on you know in the parable about how miserable it was for the prodigal son when he went through but also think about the loss to the father why is he so happy why is he so rejoicing because he experienced a loss this the loss of his son you know was it was a um just it devastated him i believe that so again what happened don't just think about this this is how the son suffered the father suffered by this situation he didn't just say well i'll forget about him put him out of my mind and then you know that's how i'm gonna have to live no he allowed his heart to continue to be vulnerable to that son so that when his eyes were going to that road and he finally sees him he's overcome with joy this has been his heart's desire he doesn't want to accept that he's separated from him he wants to restore him and bring him back to his sonship no questions asked he's not asking any questions here either that's like amazing no questions asked he's going to restore him um something also to keep in mind too you know the father is seeking the son and why he we see that the son takes responsibility and as he confesses um he's able to be brought home and restored and you know again keep that in mind we mentioned this that the father kind of breaks normal protocol by rushing out to the sun so this is not a normal kind of uh scenario this is again something that there's a lesson this the the the uh example would be familiar of having a prodigal son but the response the spiritual truth that we're going to direct from this is very different that the god the heart of god we're seeing something different we're seeing a truth that the scripture that jesus is trying to teach about the grace the exuberant and extravagant love of the father that's exactly what he's trying to um to indicate here um again there's no questions or condemnation from the father he's just seeking to forgive him he gives him unconditional forgiveness um and again i think that's like you know so amazing when you think about it even for you know for um you know for all of us you know when you think about forgiving someone i you know i always think about you know i had a situation recently and to be extremely offended i'll just put it that way and i stopped momentarily as i was like sucking in my breath to be able to like say something back um of the situation and you know the scripture which we all know this first corinthians 15 love is patient love is kind love this is my hardest part i don't know about you love holds no record of wrongdoing there's more to it but sometimes that may be the thing that you need to hear you know i'm not going to hold a record of this love holds no record and when i look here at this parable the father holds no record of wrongdoing it's something to aspire to but it's something we can do by the power of the holy spirit in us can't do it on our own we cannot i cannot but by the power of the spirit of god i can tap into that if i desire to grow in the image of jesus christ and to demonstrate the character of god i can tap into those those things that i need in the situation where how do i use the word in this situation in that situation where i wanted to like come back i stopped love holds no record of wrongdoing i'm not going anywhere i'm going to be patient i'm going to be kind and i'm going to put this behind me instead of keeping that in your mind keeping that in terms of holding it to bring it to the forefront and a future date like what the father could have done he said you know let me remind you what you did you know you took you insulted me you took your inheritance you shamed me in the front of the community does he do any of that does he hold that record of wrongdoing no love is patient love is kind love holds no record of wrongdoing so we see that that consistency in the word of god i think that's really neat um now we're going to move let's move on to the to the other side you know just to move along this is because this is really the parable is really about the heart of god if we would rename it i would say this should be the parable of the heart of god of the father but we're going to be seeing we see the different personalities here so now it's interesting we said okay the father to go back to this uh scenario the father is setting up you know the feast and he wants to rejoice because that's how he feels this is it it's not like a scheduled event like this is something that's spontaneous he's excited he's happy he just he's just moved to rejoicing move to rejoicing by seeing his son restored now in verse 25 it says now his older son was in the field field sometimes is a reference to the world interesting and as he came engineered to the sun he heard music and dancing so he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and the servant said to him your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound your father has killed the fatted calf but he was angry and would not go and go in therefore his father came out and pleaded with him so he answered and said to his father lo these many years i have been serving you i never transgressed your commandments at any time and yet you never gave me a young goat that i might make merry with my friends but as soon as this son of yours came he doesn't say my brother the son of yours who has devoured your livelihood with harlots you killed the fatted cat for him let's stop here here's another prodigal this son may be the son and again if you think from a worldly perspective you'd say oh you know i feel bad for that son he's right he's always done the right thing he's been with the father he didn't ask for his inheritance but you know what he is just as far away from the heart of the father as the prodigal son he's just the dutiful religious son whose heart is just as far away how do i say that because first of all he goes to say you know he doesn't even go directly to the father he goes to the servant and says like what's happening and he explains to him and it says here he was angry and would not go in so now here's the father wanting to rejoice and restore the son he calls him this is your son he's angry with the father he's angry with the love of god he's angry that the father would love the son so where is he coming from he's far from the heart of his father he does not demonstrate the character of his father he is far he may be in the house but he is far from having the benefits of living in the house interesting he goes on and says you know i did everything right i really followed the note of a transgression i kept doing the commandments but you didn't give me anything so this is the son who's serving not out of love but out of responsibility and out of getting something so he does not demonstrate just like the prodigal didn't demonstrate that love towards the father this son is not demonstrating the love but meanwhile he's in the house and interestingly you know he goes and he he's basically criticizing his father what right does he have to do that first of all him not going into the festival or the feast that the father is throwing is an insult to the father his absence is an insult or a judgment on the father like that i'm not in agreement with this so i'm not going again that pridefulness who is like you know who does this son this the other son the other you know he's called the older son who does he think he is that he has a right to judge what the father has made a decision about so he shows a total lack of respect towards the father um again he's just as prodigal he's just as far away from the heart of god as the prodigal son um and here now we have the father saying and he said to him son you're always with me and all that i have is yours it's like i didn't withhold anything from you everything i have is yours it was right that we should make mary and be glad but your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is now found so what do we see here with the father how does he respond to the son first of all i mean to me he is just so disrespectful to that father and he's serving him for what he can get not for the heart not for the love of the father basically he's nothing like his father he may have been living in the house he may have been you know maybe he's you know he's got maybe he looks like him from inheritance genetics he is nothing his heart is nothing like the heart of his father's he is nothing he is isolated by his self-righteousness he is self-righteous he's looking to say i did all the right he went and who does he sound like he sounds like a pharisee the religious that came so you remember back to the beginning of 15 he's jesus is preaching this message to the tax collector the sinner and the pharisees inscribed so here's where he's like if you look beneath it the prodigal really represents the sinner and the tax collectors those people who know that they're you know they don't have it together but this son thinks he has it together yet he is so far from the heart of god so it's interesting his audience that we read about in the beginning of luke we see him coming back in minute and he's giving the parable is really addressing each of the audiences by looking at the two sons looking at the two responses again the son is more like a pharisee he's not like his father not at all again he's actually rejecting fellowship with the father he could be in the house but he's not even enjoying what he has that's what the father is saying he goes basically everything i have is yours like it's you really you try to say it's your problem that you don't know how to receive or enjoy it that's your problem and you know what sometimes religion can do that we go through the motions we do all the right things and then we get mad and things don't work out like well i did this i did that like you know i'm not being you know no if you're not coming from a pure heart this is with the radicalness the good news the gospel is not religion you know religion is a safe place to go so that you can go through the motions and have a self-satisfied feeling you know that's not what this is about this is about emulating the heart of the father now it's it's funny at the end you don't see what happens he doesn't say what happens to the son we know that the son who was a sinner the prodigal is restored and brought back into relationship and intimacy you know the hugging and the kissing it's intimacy this son stands off he doesn't want that so the pharisee even though he was in the home i'm holding a pharisee but you know the other son the older son basically he's cut off and isolated and doesn't really have relationship with the father his self-righteousness is the obstacle to his enjoying his relationship and you know again that's something for us to keep in mind how much are we enjoying the love of god ourselves how much are we enjoying the fact that he has graced towards us forgives us cares for us wants us to prosper be in good health um be by our side as we go through the challenges of the world have that kind of relationship that we can stop in any moment just press into him and know he loves us and wants to fellowship with us that's what this is all about that's what this uh this um parable is really focusing on it's the love of god and showing two sons both far away but only one we see drawing back and why does he draw back because he recognizes himself as being having sinned that repentance that open-heartedness to say i messed up now this son thinks he's doing everything right there's nothing he doesn't see what's the reason for him to repent because he thinks he does everything right what he's doing wrong is that he's not opening his heart and again we always see that throughout scripture you know god does not just want your obedience he wants your heart not just your works not just you know again the heart is what he's always desiring so this is a great parallel um you know uh we want to imitate god i mean i look at this and i can meditate on this and i have been because i was sharing the situation i had like how the father you know even though he was hurt by the sun i think this is what we could probably relate to sometimes people especially people who are close to us may hurt us and we want to pull back and protect ourselves what do i see the father doing here he pushes past that and embraces with the love of god he releases the power of love that's our challenge you know the word says we have the love of god shed abroad in our heart i repeat that scripture every day to equip me for the people i'm going to be coming in contact with the love of god has been shut aboard my heart so whatever situation i find myself in i believe by faith that the love of god will flow out of me to that person and it looks different in different situations you know we don't always know what that looks like it's something to be spirit-led um so again i think hopefully you got a lot out of this prodigal son the next one it's actually in the same chapter and that's the product that's the story of the lost sheep and that's um we're going to start in verse uh actually luke we started we read the first few verses we're gonna pick it up in verse four it says and what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it and when he's found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for i have found my sheep which was lost i say to you likewise there shall be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance now this this scripture i think is uh you know again you know when you think of it just in logical i thought of this you know before reading this as you know as by the spirit of god is like okay so he's got 99 is he on his own does he have backup if he's watching 99 and one goes away i don't know that i'd go after that one i'd say let me press logic says preserve the group keep those you know that that that actually you know keep the group so that you're not you know again you have 100 sheep one goes away i'd rather not leave those sheep to the wolves or whatever predators are out there but this is again about the extravagant love of god this parable is similar in that it's showing the shepherd he's he sounds just like the father in the prodigal son he's rejoicing over that lost sheep that was brought back he's done everything to go out and reach and and reclaim that sun and then in terms of in chapter 15 and verse 8 and it says again this goes on another parable oh what woman having her silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it and when she has them she calls the friends and neighbors together saying rejoice with me for i have found the peace which i lost likewise i say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels of god over one sinner who repents again that theme of rejoicing over the person who's brought back and restored and this is a challenge to us do we have that joy over people being restored being saved that's the challenge here too to say enter into that joy that's something to say like you could assess yourself and say yeah you know what uh maybe not maybe this is something i need to open my heart to to have more of that joy that the father is demonstrating you know our goal you know um is to imitate the character of god and to imitate jesus as the express image of the father what is the what did he show in these all these situations all three are rejoicing over someone else being restored it's very unselfish if i'm focusing i'm not focusing on how am i being blessed or how am i being taken care of i'm focusing on someone else and saying i am so excited about this person being restored being blessed it's again it's the heart of the father and again we did we talked about this in the beginning you know of the evidence that we know god is how we respond to people how we respond to people demonstrates how close to the character of god we are so that's our challenge how are we imitating him there's a lot to be found in here in terms of um that imitation of of uh the character of god in the in the character in the prodigal son parable and also in the parable of the lost coin and also in the parable of the lost sheep we have you know all all those three are very have a similar theme and again we said tonight we were going to look at how the parables show us the character of god and clearly we can see that um again basically just in summary what we see in this this group of three parables we see and it's it's very convenient that there are all three of them are together in luke we see god grieving we see him seeking we see him finding and we see him rejoicing over one individual that he's about that one person which again that's something for us to meditate on here sometimes you know we have to stop and really think you know god loves me like this this is how he feels about me he would grieve over the loss of me he seeks me he finds me he rejoices when i'm restored this gives us like a fresh revelation of the character of god and his love and again reaffirmed in here that in heaven that there's joy over the return of someone who's lost what is god saying to us you do the same if heaven is rejoicing in the restoration of one person one soul and maybe you had a hand in it and that's even the greatest thing to be about your father's business you've helped to restore someone we want to be with the heavens rejoicing ourselves too rejoicing in that person you know being saved okay so we're going to again this is this lesson in lesson three was about looking at the character of god and i hope you that my goal with this is that you get a revelation about how extravagant god's love is he runs out to seek you he doesn't ask you to explain yourself he reads your heart of repentance and brings you into restoration so this is a an excellent um these are excellent parables for you to meditate on just to meditate on the love of god so we're just going to end father we just thank you father that you are that father you are that shepherd you are the one who seeks and finds us and brings restoration not judging us but asking us to judge ourselves and be restored in every situation in jesus name amen