Lost at Home: Learning the Father's Heart

The reality of home had moved. Rules and position and being correct had replaced a feeling of appreciating the presence and love of the father. A move from the father's priorities to the older brother's priorities. And the father so beautifully and gently reminded him, my son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. [00:52:31] (45 seconds)  #CelebrateLostFound

He said, this family isn't mine. This is a son of yours, not a brother of mine. The older brother was lost at home, door of hope. He didn't have to go anywhere. He didn't need to leave to another land, lose his money, sit in the squalor of pigs. He'd already gone to these depths right there at home. He was sitting in his goodness, following all the rules that the family and culture and work had for him, and he appeared that he did it with diligence, and he was lost. [00:45:36] (37 seconds)  #LostAtHome

Door of hope online, when we are on a journey with Jesus, we are also learning on the road, learning about God's heart, learning about Jesus and his kingdom, learning about the grace and presence of the holy spirit. Just like the disciples, we walk with him and learn with him. Keep walking with him, listening, learning, responding to his invitations to come inside, and responding to his invitation to celebrate with him when the lost have come home. [00:53:16] (45 seconds)  #WalkWithJesus

How will you respond to the lost son returning? Will it be with celebration, or will it be with a sense of resentment, a little foot stomping, a little turning away. Perhaps today, you are responding with the heart of the lost son returning home, and you are welcome, and we celebrate with you. Perhaps today you're responding with the heart of the father, the heart of God filled with love and celebration for the lost who return. [00:54:01] (37 seconds)  #ChooseCelebration

Can you hear the older brother attitude in the Pharisees here? They're muttering. What did the Pharisees value? Rules, one tenth of all kitchen herbs. Position, being looked up to. Being seen, praying on street corners. Rightness, doing life correctly to the letter of the law. You see, this parable was a mirror held up for the Pharisees, and it wasn't pretty. They were lost at home. [00:46:59] (41 seconds)  #PrideVsGrace

not only has the older brother dishonored the father by throwing a little tantrum outside, making the father come out to get him in front of all the onlookers, doing a foot stomp and complaining about not even having a little goat when the other brother got the fattened calf. But by saying, this son of yours, he divorces himself from the family. He did exactly what the younger brother did by leaving. [00:45:05] (31 seconds)  #SelfExile

This is possible, door hope. As we walk with Jesus along the road, we become more like him. Christ likeness grows in us and increases, and so too can the desire to love the lost that return home. So too can the desire to love the older brother, the older sister who's feeling a bit resentful and bitter and disconnected at the moment. Our hearts can grow for all of these characters in the parable of parables. [00:54:38] (36 seconds)  #GrowChristlikeness

I wonder, when you have read the parable, do you always see yourself as the lost child? Returning home, being embraced and restored, eating a meal, getting the ring and the robe, at least in Western settings like ours, we normally do, because we are the main character, are we not? It's a funny thing about reading scripture. We often make ourselves the main character in the story. [00:50:56] (30 seconds)  #MainCharacterSyndrome