Title: Father and Son / Luke 15:11-32
Content ** Father and Son (Luke 15:11-32) **
The text is very well known as the 'parable of the prodigal son'.
It is a story of a father's wide and great love and a strong love with his son who repents of his mistakes and returns.
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However, in this verse, the story of the father and the second son is mentioned well in the sermon, but the firstborn son, that is, the eldest son, is not mentioned well.
Today, I would like to pay attention to this eldest son, the eldest brother, which is overlooked in all sermons and quotations.
If we take a closer look at this eldest son's story, we soon discover something a little strange.
It is the older son's reaction that is so different from his father's.
A closer look at the text
1. The eldest son did not have the heart to wait for or think of his younger brother like his father.
From the text, we can see that this eldest son is not a quick-tempered and impulsive person like the younger son.
You can tell that he has a very calm and calm personality, as he jumps in and asks the servant without finding out what's going on despite the sound of wind and dancing in the house, and he also tells his father, 'I have served my father for many years and have not broken his orders. You can see that he is a kind and obedient type of person who is good at obedience.
However, despite this kind of personality, he does not show any signs of being happy about his brother's return, but rather complains and does not even try to enter the house.
This shows that this eldest son not only did not wait for his younger brother, but he did not always think of his younger brother as his father did.
In some ways, it is not mentioned in the text, but perhaps this eldest son was rather relieved and cool that the troublemaker was gone.
I was hoping that he would not come home at all, but he may have thought that another trouble would arise because the younger brother returned.
2. In any case, you can see that this eldest son not only did not wait for his younger brother, but also did not like his younger brother who returned.
3. Not only that, but you can see that he complains about his father's feast he held for his younger brother and doesn't even try to enter the house.
When his father dragged him in, he reluctantly entered the house.
If we look at his older brother's attitude, we may wonder why he can't be a generous older brother who warmly welcomes his younger brother who has returned from hardship and thinks that he is a bad person.
However, this hyung's attitude is the kind of attitude we can have if we do it wrong.
It is a mistake that we make easily and do not realize.
Here are some important lessons from this older brother's attitude:
1. First of all, from the eldest son who complains about his own merit, we have a sense of merit.
can be seen to make our faith sick.
In verse 29, 'I have served my father for many years and have not disobeyed his command,' this eldest son is complaining, claiming that he has done everything he has to do and that he is a son without blemish.
Why does my father not recognize me and treat me so well to that bad brother?
In this complaint, the eldest son is unable to accept his father's pain or his younger brother's difficulties because of his sense of merit.
This is a mistake we can easily make.
It is the heart that does not want to understand or forgive the mistakes of others simply because I did not do well.
If you have such a strong sense of merit, your heart for forgiveness and understanding will decrease.
If you do it wrong, it creates pride and makes your faith sick.
Ex) Immanuel Youth Retreat - When the troublemakers go down in the snow, no one catches them.
We must hold onto these brothers.
Only then will we be able to correct them and please God's heart.
This Sunday is a Sunday that expresses our heart to hold onto these brothers.
I hope that our members will not become the eldest sons who hurt the father's heart and fail to look back at our brothers who need to be looked after due to a sense of merit.
2. Also, forsake our religious selfishness from the selfishness of this eldest son.
You learn that you should.
This eldest son had no interest in his father's heart, nor his brother's pity.
He only cared about how he felt about himself.
'I have served my father for many years, and he has never disobeyed his command, but he never gave me a goat so that he and I could enjoy it as my friend...' By saying 'lo', this eldest son only cares about himself.
In the end, this eldest son was blinded by his selfishness, so he could not see properly.
That's right.
If we too are blinded by selfishness, our faith will become ill and eventually we will become spiritually blind.
We believe that our spiritual eyes should be opened so that we can lift our eyes to see our neighbors rather than ourselves, God rather than myself, and the brothers who are not by our side rather than ourselves.
Ex) Taxi driver - Hundreds of thousands of won in a wallet - A lot of money - I would not have made this mistake if I had only thought of the customer who felt sorry for him with his feet sagging more than he did.
We should know here that our spiritual eyes will one day become blind if we have selfish eyes that only look at me.
I hope that all of you will have a wider field of view and open your spiritual eyes to see many things.
I hope that this Sunday of all mobilization will be an opportunity to see why the brothers of faith who should be by my side are discouraged and what kind of quagmire they are in.
3. Finally, in the attitude of the eldest, we see that selfishness and a sense of merit quench love.
Not only does it make you dizzy, it robs you of joy, it makes you ugly, and in the end
You learn to kill yourself.
This eldest son was blinded by his selfishness and sense of merit, and he ruined his love for his younger brother, his filial piety toward his father, and even the joy of his happy father.
That's right.
A false sense of merit and selfishness will only make you ugly in the end.
Also, he becomes a cold and cold person who cannot get along with others, and eventually turns himself into a negative person and kills his true self in his dissatisfaction with complaints.
Dear saints,
Our members, like this firstborn son, should not make the mistake of not bothering or not paying attention to those whom we need to look after out of selfishness and a sense of merit.
Rather, we should wait, accept, and share joy and love with the heart of a father.
This full mobilization is not an annual church ceremonial event.
It's not like we're trying to show off our church.
I'm not trying to advertise blatantly.
We regret that we did not pay attention to them and regret that we did not look after them, even though they should be by our side.
I believe this is my heart and yours.
I believe this total mobilization will be the most valuable total mobilization that pleases God the most.
I wish you all the best.