Participants: Mike Leno
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000043
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00:29 When you read the Bible,
00:31 do you discover the grace, the love, 00:35 and the forgiveness of God? 00:37 Or do you see more of the responsibility, 00:42 the duty, the accountability that we have to God? 00:47 Actually, both themes are in scripture, they're both there, 00:50 but I dare say that we generally read the Bible 00:55 through our own lenses. 00:57 We see what we want to see. 01:01 Actually, Jesus told a story of two brothers, 01:06 and they were opposites. 01:08 One was very responsible, he was accountable 01:12 to what he needed to do, he was diligent 01:17 in carrying out all of his duties, 01:19 his brother however was a little lax. 01:22 In fact, he quit his job on his fathers farm 01:27 and he went away for a while. 01:29 When he came back, the Bible says his father accepted him. 01:34 Now, if taken to extreme, 01:37 the good qualities of responsibility 01:41 and accountability, and diligence, 01:45 if taken to an extreme 01:49 can be called legalism, 01:51 but on the other side of the fence 01:54 is what we call permissiveness. 01:57 Legalism kills the spirit, but permissiveness kills 02:01 the spirit also. 02:03 Both rob us of the motivation to come to the Savior. 02:08 Legalism kills because we can never measure up 02:10 to our own standards, let alone God's. 02:13 Legalism causes us to either lord it over others 02:17 because we assume we're better than they are, 02:20 or it causes us to give up because it's no use 02:23 trying anyway. 02:24 Legalists are not just hard on others, 02:27 they are hard on themselves. 02:28 They ultimately burn out and lose their motivation 02:32 to love and believe. 02:35 But permissiveness kills because if it doesn't 02:38 matter what you think or do, everything becomes meaningless. 02:42 Nothing, not even God, makes any difference 02:45 in a universe where there are no value judgments. 02:48 There's an old saying: "If you stand for nothing," 02:51 "you'll fall for anything. " 02:53 The permissive must lie to himself, you see, 02:57 he would like to believe that he can live and let live, 03:00 and everything's going to be OK, but his actions, 03:03 like it or not, do affect people and they hurt people, 03:07 innocent people, so he must lie to himself. 03:12 He must life to himself that he can get drunk, 03:14 sleep around, spend money however he wants to 03:15 and he's not hurting anyone, 03:18 or the final lie, that he himself is not worth saving, 03:22 and so, nothing matters anyway. 03:26 And so Jesus told a story about a legalist and a permissive, 03:29 two brothers, 03:32 one was so good. 03:36 He was the good son, he was the elder brother, 03:40 he did everything right, 03:43 he performed his duties on his father's farm, 03:47 and he was always faithful. 03:49 His brother however, was a permissive, 03:52 and he was so bad, as good as his brother was, 03:55 he was worse... in the other direction. 04:01 He was so bad in fact that he decided that he wanted 04:07 his father's inheritance before his father ever died. 04:11 And as Jesus told the story, He depicted this prodigal son 04:16 as going to his father and saying: "Father, I want" 04:19 "my inheritance now, so that I can leave. " 04:26 What father wants his son to leave? 04:29 What motivation would this father have to give 04:32 the prodigal son his inheritance before he was supposed 04:38 to have it, so that he could leave the family, 04:40 but that, according to the story, is exactly 04:43 what the father did. 04:46 So, the prodigal went to a far country, and lived the kind 04:50 of life he always wanted to live, 04:53 one of debauchery, one of freedom, 04:57 and spending all the money he had. 05:00 The elder brother, meanwhile, was back at the farm, 05:03 doing what he had always done; 05:05 he was faithful, he did his jobs. 05:08 You know, we like legalists, especially when they work for us 05:12 We love legalists, let's face it, 05:13 legalists are good employees, 05:18 and we give a lot of rewards to legalists, 05:20 but in this story, the father is going out 05:22 to the side of the road everyday, yearning for his 05:25 prodigal son to come back. 05:28 He, apparently, at least according to the elder brother, 05:32 later, is taking his good son for granted. 05:36 He's giving him everything he always has, but he's 05:41 yearning for the son that he's lost. 05:44 And then Jesus said the prodigal son came to himself. 05:50 He had finally sunk so low in his life, he had spent 05:52 all of his money, all of his friends had left him, 05:55 that now he was feeding pigs for a living. 05:59 Even wanting to eat what the pigs themselves were eating 06:02 because he was so hungry. 06:04 And finally, when he came to himself, he realized that even 06:08 his father's servants faired better than he did. 06:11 So he thought to himself: "If I could just" 06:14 "run to my father" 06:16 "maybe he'll accept me back, at least I could... " 06:20 "... I could get on as one of the hired hands. " 06:23 And so, he goes back and the father is already 06:26 waiting for him, and we have this glorious reunion 06:29 of the prodigal son, who knows that he's not worthy 06:32 of the father's love, but the father who clothes him 06:36 with a new robe, kills the fatted calf, and has a party 06:40 for him, and said: "You are my son. " 06:44 And you would think that this wonderful story, 06:48 with the happy ending would mean that everybody 06:50 would live happily ever after. 06:53 But that's not the way that Jesus ends the story. 06:57 Let's read the end of the story in Luke 15:28-32 07:01 [text on screen] 07:50 The younger son wanted the good life and he got it, 07:52 but he found out the good life wasn't as good as he thought 07:57 it was, permissiveness has it's own natural consequences. 08:02 Legalism also has its natural consequences, but they are 08:06 a little more insidious. 08:08 See, the older son wanted to be rewarded for being 08:11 the good son and following the rules, now he wasn't 08:15 so mad that the father had mistreated him, 08:17 he's not complaining that the father had mistreated him, 08:19 he's complaining because the father is treating 08:22 the younger son too well, 08:26 and as a result, he loses faith with his father. 08:32 In this story, the father is the hero. 08:35 He is neither permissive, nor legalistic, 08:38 he doesn't try to dictate what his sons have to do, 08:41 but he doesn't protect his sons from the natural consequences 08:44 of sin, either. 08:46 He's constant in love, and he doesn't give the slightest hint 08:50 of reticence or resentment when his prodigal son returns, 08:55 he's just glad he came home, no lecture, no probation, 09:00 no payback. 09:03 I had a friend once, who gave up believing in God, 09:09 completely, 09:11 he had been the good son all of his life, 09:15 at least up until that point, always studying his Bible, 09:19 he was diligent in every way, you might say he was a bit 09:23 of a perfectionist. 09:25 He was always "on fire for God", 09:31 he became a colporteur for a while, 09:35 he was doing the work of the Lord, 09:39 and finally he came to the point where he 09:41 just couldn't do it anymore. 09:46 He told me one day, he said: "Mike, I just can't believe" 09:54 "that God is like that. " 09:59 And what he meant by that is that all of his perfection 10:03 hadn't gotten him the goal. 10:06 The goal was to be perfect, and he just couldn't make it, 10:11 and he was mad at God, so mad, that he refused to even 10:15 believe in God, because he didn't think God 10:17 had treated him fairly. 10:20 He felt that God had required something that was impossible, 10:24 and he had been the good son, he had tried to be good 10:28 all of his life. 10:31 You see, legalists are hard on themselves, 10:37 but they ultimately burn out too, they lose faith 10:40 with the father when they discover that all of their 10:43 good works hadn't gotten them anywhere. 10:46 It's especially irritating to them when they see someone else, 10:52 who has not been the good son, get the party. 10:58 Permissive people, are not the opposite of legalists. 11:02 Their problem is not that they are lazy, 11:04 where as the legalist is industrious. 11:07 Permissive people can be lazy or industrious, 11:10 depending on their goal, what they want. 11:13 The difference is, they don't think it matters to anyone. 11:16 Certainly not to themselves, but not even to God, 11:18 what they do, what they think. 11:22 They can live and let live, because they see life 11:24 as short and meaningless anyway. 11:27 Permissive people can be quite nice to be around actually, 11:30 they like people, they can be quite likeable, 11:33 but they don't love enough to go against the tide 11:37 of popular culture. 11:40 They don't believe enough to act on their God given powers 11:42 of judgment, whereas the legalists may judge a person's 11:45 value on the basis of behavior, the permissive refuses 11:48 to judge even behavior by any objective standard. 11:53 Ultimately, however, the permissive 11:56 appears for what he really is, bankrupt and without 11:59 any substance of character. 12:04 Like the prodigal, he is reduced to poverty, 12:08 to poverty of the soul, and their highest service 12:12 is on the same level as feeding pigs. 12:16 It's a job, it benefits someone, but it's still a pig farm. 12:23 Whereas the legalist may judge a person's value 12:27 on behavior, 12:30 the permissive doesn't even believe that behavior 12:32 makes any difference to anyone. 12:37 Brennan Manning tells the story of going to an alcoholic 12:42 rehab center up in the hills, 12:45 secluded away from everyone. 12:48 During the course of his own rehabilitation 12:53 from his alcoholism 12:55 he said there was a member of the group named Max. 12:59 Now Max was a successful businessman 13:02 and on this particular day, it was Max's turn to be 13:04 in the hot seat. 13:06 Everyone was seated in kind of a "U" shaped pattern, 13:10 and the hot seat was in the center. 13:14 And the group started firing questions at Max. 13:17 Max was a successful man, and he was quite talented 13:22 at putting on a good front, and he could deflect almost 13:25 any question with a little bit of humor, 13:29 a little bit of bragging, he never let his guard down, 13:33 but they questioned him anyway: 13:35 "Max, how much do you drink?" Oh he'd minimize it: 13:37 "Just a little bit in the morning," 13:39 "just maybe a little bit during the afternoon. " 13:43 Then they'd dig into it a little bit deeper, and finally 13:49 the facilitator to the group, Sean Murphy-O'Connor, 13:54 dialed a phone number, 13:57 and the phone, as it turns out, 13:59 was hooked up to a little PA system right there 14:02 in the treatment room, in the therapy room, 14:07 so they could hear the conversation of both sides. 14:11 The therapist, Murphy-O'Connor, talked to a bartender 14:18 in Max's hometown. 14:20 And he said to the bartender: "Do you know Max?" 14:24 "Oh, sure I know Max, great guy!" 14:27 "Well, tell us a little bit, we're trying to explore" 14:30 "Max's drinking habits. " Well, it turned out he went by 14:33 the tavern everyday, he had 6 Martinis, 14:37 plus a few more drinks and left a good tip. 14:42 Well, Max was angry because he had been found out, 14:46 all of his minimizing had not gotten him anywhere, 14:50 but he gathered himself together, after a little fit 14:53 of temper, he said simply: "Gentlemen," 14:56 "we all guild the lily once in a while" 14:59 and pulled himself together, and was his own 15:01 composed self again. 15:06 "Max," said one of the members of the group, 15:09 "have you ever done something mean to your kids?" 15:12 "I know," he said "I've been a father for a long time" 15:15 "and I know how it goes sometimes. " 15:18 "Funny you should ask that" said Max. 15:20 "Why, I've got 2 boys, great boys, one of them is" 15:23 and he named the universities they were in, 15:25 and he told about how they had gone on a camping trip together, 15:28 and how he had such a great relationship with his kids. 15:32 The group wasn't buying it. 15:34 "Well Max, haven't you ever done anything," 15:38 "the slightest bit mean to any of your kids?" 15:42 "Well," Max said, "now that you mention it," 15:46 "I have a daughter, and something happened" 15:49 "last year around Christmas time," 15:52 "and I have kind of a heavy feeling about it. " 15:57 "Well Max, give us the details, come on, what happened?" 16:01 "No!", Max stiffened, he got defensive again, 16:03 "I told you, I don't remember exactly what happened," 16:06 "I just have this heavy feeling. " 16:08 Meanwhile, Sean Murphy-O'Connor was dialing Max's wife, 16:13 and pretty soon her voice could be heard filling the room. 16:19 "Ma'am, we're trying to find out a little bit" 16:21 "about your husbands drinking pattern, can you tell me" 16:24 "what happened with your daughter last Christmas?" 16:27 The phone line was silent for a while, 16:31 and there was crying on the other end of the line. 16:34 When Max's wife gathered herself together, she said: 16:38 "Last Christmas, Max took our daughter shopping. " 16:43 "She wanted a pair of special shoes," 16:46 "and he found them for her," 16:48 "gave her the money, and she hopped out of his truck," 16:51 "dashed into the store, bought them and came back," 16:54 "gave him a kiss, told him he was the greatest daddy" 16:57 "in all the world, he was feeling high, preening himself" 17:00 "like a peacock, he drove by the Cork and Bottle tavern," 17:03 "it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon," 17:04 "it was below 0 outside, it was bitterly cold," 17:07 "and so he left the truck running while he ran in" 17:09 "for a drink with his buddies. " 17:12 As coincidence would have it, he ran into 17:15 some old army buddies, and he didn't come out 17:18 until midnight, and he was drunk. 17:23 By then, the truck had stopped running, 17:27 the windows had frozen over. 17:32 Max and his wife had to take their poor daughter 17:35 to the emergency room. 17:39 Max's wife at this point, could hardly get the words out, 17:43 she was so broken up, 17:45 but finally it came out, that they had had to amputate 17:52 the right index finger and thumb from his daughters hand, 17:57 and she would be deaf for the rest of her life. 18:04 Max fell out of his chair 18:07 into an all fours position on the floor, and wept. 18:12 No, he didn't just weep, he cried, he screamed. 18:21 At the therapist's signal, all the other recovering 18:24 alcoholics vacated the room, and arranged themselves 18:28 on a little balcony overlooking the therapy room. 18:33 Sean Murphy-O'Connor walked over to the figure of Max, 18:37 still on all fours on the floor of the room, 18:40 still sobbing uncontrollably, 18:43 put his foot against his ribcage and knocked him over 18:46 onto his back. 18:48 "You complete slime" said the therapist. 18:53 "There's a window on your right and a door on your left," 18:55 "I don't care which one you use, but get out of here" 18:58 "as fast as you can, I am not running a treatment center" 19:00 "for liars. " 19:06 Later that evening, 19:10 Max asked for, and received permission to come back 19:15 into the group. 19:19 You see, 19:22 when we lie to ourselves about our condition, 19:27 it makes it impossible for God to reach us. 19:33 The worst thing about being in sin 19:39 is not that God has a hard time forgiving us, 19:43 He does that, 19:46 the worst thing about being in sin is what we 19:48 tell ourselves. 19:51 The legalist will say: "We've got to be perfect" 19:55 and when that's impossible, they can give up. 20:00 The permissive says: "It doesn't matter" 20:02 and they lie to themselves about their true condition, 20:05 that's why when Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son, 20:09 the prodigal had to sink so low that he came to himself. 20:13 He had to be honest with himself about what was really 20:16 going on in his life. 20:19 My friend, I don't know where you are in your life, 20:21 I don't know what your conditions are, 20:24 I don't know what circumstances you're living in. 20:27 Maybe you're like the elder brother, still on the farm 20:30 and trying to work for your salvation, or maybe you're 20:32 the prodigal a long ways from home. 20:37 Whichever one you are, it's time to come to yourself, 20:40 it's time for honesty, it's time to look in the mirror 20:44 and see what's really there, and not just you tell yourself 20:48 is there. 20:50 And that doesn't just go for someone who's down and out, 20:55 on the street, a drunk. 20:58 That goes for the rest of us who dress in suits, 21:01 and look nice on the outside, we need to look ourselves 21:05 in the mirror and see what's really there. 21:07 Quit lying to ourselves, it's so easy 21:09 to put on a good front, it's so easy to go to church, 21:14 dress up, clean up, look like a nice Christian. 21:18 On the inside you know you're a long ways from home. 21:21 Why is it so hard to come home? 21:27 You see, it doesn't matter whether you are the prodigal, 21:32 or whether you're the elder brother; 21:35 you're still away from God. 21:40 The prodigals and the permissives 21:45 have to lie to themselves in order to survive. 21:48 They lie that their behavior doesn't affect anyone, 21:51 or they lie that they are hopeless 21:55 and that God will not love them anymore, 21:57 that's just as much a lie as the lie that your behavior 22:02 doesn't matter. 22:09 The parable of the prodigal son 22:16 suggests that those who are the furthest from home 22:23 may be the one's that have been there the whole time. 22:29 Notice the reaction of the elder brother at the end of the story. 22:35 Which one, the prodigal, or the elder brother 22:40 is closest to his father at the end of the story? 22:46 The elder brother won't even go into the party. 22:53 All throughout Jesus' ministry 22:57 He was hardest on those who were supposed to know better. 23:04 Is salvation easy or is it hard? 23:08 And if we were to follow Jesus around during His ministry 23:11 and ask Him that question, 23:14 He would probably not answer us directly, instead He would 23:17 show us things and we would watch Him 23:20 as He healed the sick, 23:23 as he cleansed lepers, 23:26 as he forgave prostitutes, 23:31 and we would say: "This is magnificent. " 23:33 "Jesus is so easy on those who don't have anything. " 23:38 "He's easy on those who are sick and ready to die. " 23:41 "He's easy on those who are blind and need to be healed. " 23:46 "He's easy on those who are caught in sin" 23:50 "and have prostituted themselves in order to find fulfillment. " 23:56 But if we would follow Him a little further, we would see 23:59 how He treats the Pharisees, 24:02 the rich young rulers, those who 24:08 thought they had it all together, those who, 24:11 like the elder brother, had been home all along 24:16 are actually the furthest away from the Father. 24:23 My friends, 24:25 how do you know if you're close to God or not? 24:30 The answer to that question doesn't really matter, 24:33 the important thing is you can come now. 24:36 Wherever you are, the decision can be made right now, 24:40 you need not remain a moment longer away from home. 24:43 Whether you're the elder brother type, who has been 24:46 home all along, but find yourself estranged 24:49 from the Father and His system of love and mercy 24:52 that you don't understand, or if you've been the permissive 24:54 prodigal and you've sunk to depths 24:57 that you never thought imaginable. 25:02 It doesn't matter where you are, you can come now. 25:06 One time, Dwight L. Moody was preaching to a large audience 25:10 in his Chicago tabernacle 25:14 on the subject "What shall I do then, with Jesus" 25:16 "which is called the Christ?" The message made a profound 25:19 impression on his audience. 25:24 At the close of the meeting Moody says: 25:27 "I wish you would all think about this question. " 25:30 "Think it over during the week, and come back next Sunday" 25:33 "with your decision. " 25:35 Ira Sankey was Dwight L Moody's musician, 25:40 and he knew at that moment that Moody had made a mistake. 25:44 He had made a mistake because instead of asking 25:47 for a decision right then, he had put it off 25:50 and told people to go home, 25:52 and put it off. 25:56 So he arose, and began to sing 26:00 "Today the Savior calls for refuge fly" 26:03 "The storm of justice falls, And death is nigh. " 26:07 "Today the Savior calls", but the hymn was never finished 26:13 but was cut short by the loud clanging of bells, 26:15 the blast of whistles and the noise and roar 26:18 of fire engines, the Great Chicago Fire had begun, 26:22 and the tabernacle was one of the thousands of buildings 26:26 in Chicago that was reduced to ashes. 26:31 The appointed decision time that Moody had given his audience 26:35 never came. 26:39 My friends, 26:43 you will never have a better time 26:48 to decide to come to Christ then you have right now. 26:54 I know that sounds hard to believe, 26:58 there is never going to be a better time 27:01 then right now. 27:03 You say "but I don't know everything, I don't know" 27:05 "the Bible like I should, I don't have" 27:08 "the depth of theology I should have learned," 27:11 "I don't know all the stories of Christ. " 27:13 That's Ok, you make a decision on what you already know. 27:19 And what you know, is that Christ wants you in His family, 27:24 in His kingdom right now, as you are. 27:28 If the father can accept the prodigal 27:32 who still smelled like pigs, 27:37 then our Heavenly Father will accept everyone, 27:41 no matter what condition they are in. 27:45 The condition for eternal life is not that you have to get 27:48 cleaned up before you come to the Father, 27:51 the only condition of salvation is that you come, 27:56 however you come, just come. 28:00 [Music for Credits] |
Revised 2014-12-17