I cannot stop thinking about last Sunday’s sermon (I’ve linked it at the bottom) It is most definitely worth a listen. Alan Graham is a fantastic guy living this “boots on the ground faith” that he so passionately talks about here. It’s inspiring.
He presented something that I had never really thought about before. I love that, when a familiar passage comes to life again when someone shows another narrative and perspective that’s going on,
The passage is Luke 15… The 3 famous parables about the lost.
The lost sheep
The lost coin
The lost son
This “thing” that I’ve not noticed until now until Alan spoke of it, is the fact that there is a difference between the lost son parable and the other 2.
The difference?
No one is looking for him.
Alan points out that the person who should have been looking for him had failed – that person was the elder brother.
It was his role and place in the story to go and find the younger brother. Had he been less self-centred and took a moment to engage with his father then he would have adopted the fathers heart for this lost son.
The fathers heart was broken – the one whom he loved had walked away. This brother, seeing this heartache should have been moved with compassion knowing how much the situation upset his elderly father. But he didn’t move.
The person who should have been looking dropped the ball. His own personal mission was more important than his fathers.
I was so challenged by this sermon in so many ways. Call it a realignment, a reminder of my purpose – a heart check that mine should be beating in time with my Heavenly Fathers heartbeat.
I don’t want to be the reason that a lost person isn’t found.
I don’t want to forget the value of people.
In a world that is forever degrading the value of human life in so many ways, I think our job as the church surely has to be reminding people of their worth and value.
In order to do that though, we need to value it. We need to see life and people as precious. We can only do that when we start seeing people from Gods perspective.I
think Alan throws some great insight into the attitude of “an elder brother”.
- Self centred
- Self righteous
- Completely insensitive
- Unwilling to go/move
This sermon though has challenged me on how precious very single life is – it should matter.
I don’t want to be an elder brother.
The only way that attitude is taken care of is to spend time in the extravagant love of a father who loves unconditionally. When we are full of that kind of love, we are changed, we have his heart, and are so full of a love that we can do nothing else but give it away.
This was a fab sermon. Go give it a listen
Eyes UP look OUT 