Gtcotr/ss062721
God bless the faithful … they don’t often have it easy.
The treasure of God’s blessing on our life is found in the field of God’s will for our life.
Often when I offer thanks to God for the great meal I am about to enjoy in a comfortable restaurant with my family, I think of the men and women who are separated from their loved ones, standing on a border, protecting citizens, enduring the heat, the cold, the rain, the long nights, who are opening their MRE’s and trying to decide if their surprise ration for the day is worth warming up. God bless the faithful.
Let’s go to the Word of God together … to the Gospel of Luke.
Luke 15
25 "Now his older son was in the field…
Allow me to interrupt the reading for just a moment and consider that when God formed Adam, the scriptures tell us that God planted a garden in what was no doubt a formerly barren, empty, and unfruitful field.
Genesis 2:8 ¶ And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
There God placed the man, and He gave Adam instructions to cultivate and take care of the opportunity he had been given.
Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
God has a field of life into which He places each one of us, intending that we work it and keep it on His behalf. Not one person is without opportunity, and we all have potential to work the field of God’s choice for our lives. But potential is just potential. We can squander and waste even the greatest opportunities God gives. God’s field, but our choice.
Among Jesus’ many expressions of the Kingdom of God we find numerous parables concerning fields and vineyards pictured as opportunities God gives to His children to work for Him, so they won’t have to work for the world. As with Adam, God expects us to increase and be successful as we work for and with Him. He also wants us to remember that the field of our service and a measure of our increase actually belongs to Him.
Last Sunday the text for our Father’s Day message was taken from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, verses 11-24. We read about a father who had two sons. The younger son demanded his inheritance and when it was given him, he traveled to a foreign land and wasted it all on riotous living.
When the young son had squandered all his money, he hired himself out to a citizen of that foreign country who promptly sent the young man out into his fields to feed the swine. This otherwise rich young man almost starved to death until one day he finally came to himself.
Just a note here: One of the many truths revealed to us by the Holy Spirit in this account is the fact that: Each and every one of us is going to work in someone’s field. Either we work for a loving Father where everything ultimately belongs to us, or we work for a foreign slave master who will expect everything for himself and give us nothing in return.
Last
week we focused on the attributes of a godly Father. We didn’t take much time
on the younger son except to show how he finally came to himself …
·
He remembered
·
He repented
· He returned
Interesting to hear that this was the same basic message Jesus gave to the Apostle John for the Church at Ephesus in the Book of Revelation, chapter 2. We recently studied this passage together after 30 of us returned from visiting the City of Ephesus.
This morning we are going to turn our focus not on the father and not on the younger son who was wayward and returned to be forgiven of his loving Father, but rather on the older son who remained at home, faithfully working in his father’s field. This older son was Faithful and Frustrated.
Luke 15
25 "Now his older son
was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and
dancing.
26 "So he called one of
the servants and asked what these things meant.
27 "And he said to him,
’Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your
father has killed the fatted calf.’
28 "But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.”
The older son would not go into the house. Although he was in the family he was not in the house. We can be in the family and yet miss all that is in the house. We can be faithful and yet be frustrated; so frustrated that we don’t even want anything to do with family. We may love the father but be frustrated with family. We can be working tirelessly in the field and lose appreciation for whom, what, and why we are working. This older son was so frustrated would not even come into the house.
What
was in the house?
1.
There was Joy in the
house.
2.
There was Provision in
the house.
3. There was Restoration in the house.
So many times people who are in the family miss out on so much because they will not come into the house. They end up being angry and isolated not realizing the joy, provision, and relationship that is in the house. They are faithful but they are also frustrated.
Frustration often arises when a faithful servant or son loses their love for the lost and their joy for those who have been found. Some of the most faithful, such as Martha, (Luke 10:40ff), are so burdened with all that needs to be done or all that’s not being done they lose the joy of all that is being done.
As well, many of God’s faithful servants have their own opinions as to what the Father should do with the ones they consider to be less faithful. The older son had reasons why he was frustrated but he completely missed the greater picture and his part in making this repentance, return, and reunion possible. The faithful son kept the family strong so that the wayward son would have a place to return when he repented. No doubt the Father was so proud of his older son who had been faithfully working in his field.
Don’t be upset and refuse to participate in what heaven is happy about.
Luke 15
29 “So he answered and said
to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never
transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young
goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
30 ‘But as soon as this son
of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the
fatted calf for him.’
31 “And he said to him, ‘Son,
you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
32 ‘It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ”
It
is right that that we should be glad and excited when someone repents. All of
heaven rejoices more over one sinner that repents than over the 99 who need no
repentance. That was the message Jesus started with in Luke 15:7 before He gave
this account.
1.
God is depending on your faithfulness.
a.
And so are others
b.
The Father needs a house and the lost need a
home
c.
Faithfully and joyfully embrace the field of
God’s choice for your life.
2.
Everything the Father has is yours.
a.
Look around at how blessed and fortunate you
are
b.
As a faithful child that’s right with God, all
He has is yours
c.
God will not withhold any good thing from
those who are upright before Him. (Psalms 84:11)
3.
Don’t lose sight of the goal.
a.
Sorry … but it’s not always going to be about
you
b.
It may be about the lost or someone who needs
Jesus
c.
Rejoice and be happy when someone comes to
themselves, repents, and returns. Be faithful and not frustrated.
d.
Don’t be upset and refuse to participate in
what heaven is happy about. God bless the faithful … it’s not easy.
e.
Life is so much bigger than you and there is
so much joy in the Father’s house … come on in!
