Title: Rediscovered Joy / Luke 15:11-32
Contents
Central content: The core of Christianity is to find and rejoice in what has been lost.
1. Outline of the text
The purpose of the parable is to elucidate one clear truth. Chapter 15 introduces three parables of “the joy that was lost and found.” It is the content that God is pleased with what was lost and found.
Introduction
1. How many people have passed through our church over the past year? Thousands of people must have visited our church.
2. I was completely drenched in inertia. It is concluded that it usually passes by. I guess so. I think it's normal.
3. But God is looking for “one”. The Lord stays up all night and seeks until he is found And when you find it, you are happy
4. The text introduces the joy of an old father who found his son who had left home.
I. Everyone is like a foolish son (Explanation of the text).
A. They try to live according to their own stubbornness.
1. My father's arms felt uncomfortable. So I wanted to go out and live to my heart's content.
2. So he demanded that the property be distributed in advance.
3. However, it was not easy as expected. In the end, they were all robbed and left empty.
4. In the end, I had to look back at the house I left behind, feeling the freedom of life.
B. The son does not know the heart of his father.
1. I did not know how everything to eat, wear, and use was procured
2. My father's presence was felt only as an object of nagging.
3. I did not know the value of the fence of being a father.
C. What is lost and found is more precious.
1. The eldest son did not leave his father's arms.
2. No doubt the eldest son's attitude is exemplary.
3. But I did not know thanks. It was just obligatory.
4. He lived a meaningless life without knowing the difference between losing and finding.
II. Experience is the only shortcut to realizing the truth (the lesson of the text).
A. I knew the value as rain.
1. My father was not helpless. It was a necessary existence. However, it is a new fact that was not known before.
2. I didn't know that the house was so nice. It was never a boring place.
3. I knew the world as rain. However, it was a new experience that I would never have known if I had not run away from home.
B. I know what gratitude is.
1. Eating, wearing, living environment, everything is new. It was obviously the same as before, but the values have changed.
2. Now I have changed my mind. Thank you for everything. It was never a coincidence. I realized that it didn't happen automatically. I found this to be a real thank you.
C. Our figure.
1. Just as we went out without needing our father, we all left God's bosom and lived our lives as we wished. I knew I was going to achieve something, but I was left with nothing.
2. As a beggar in the end, all that is left is the wounds of sin. Because of sin, sickness came, hatred came, and division came. It was a miserable situation where I had to live in tension all the time.
3. So, I missed my father's house that I left behind. It was the only place to live. "I have no will, so I'm raising my hand"
III. Become a believer who experiences (applied).
A. Forced or formal, they do not realize the truth. Like the eldest son, he was nominally obedient and silent at home, but he did not know the truth.
B. Experience is medicine. A new experience is needed in Christ. Through experience, you will experience the robbery.
C. True gratitude is a natural phenomenon that comes from the forgiven one. Realize love and experience forgiveness. It is important to experience the various gifts, but it is really necessary to realize love and forgiveness.