God's Provision

In Psalm 34:18, the Psalmist reminds us: “The LORD is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Moses poured out his heart to God in a strong lament? He had grown weary from the burden of leading God’s grumbling people. Moses voiced his complaint to God about God. And how did God respond? Did God give up on Moses? Did God walk away from Moses? Numbers 11:16-17 says: “The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.”

God gave Moses a plan to help him with his burden. Amazingly, God poured out His Spirit on some of the very same people who had been complaining about Moses. They very one causing Moses burden would be used to bring Moses relief!

God’s care for desperate people is consistent with his merciful and gracious character. "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and save those who are crushed in spirit." God had told Moses in Exodus 3:7: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying our because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.”



God is saying: “I see, I hear, I am concerned.” Sometimes we wonder if God really cares. Does God really hear our cry of despair? Moses thought the answer to those to questions were, NO! This was Moses complaint in Numbers 11:21-22: “But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”


There were millions of them in desert, and God said He provide a month’s supply of meat. And God response to Moses ought to be a powerful reminder to us. The Lord answered Moses in verse 23:, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”



When we are in trouble, it is easy to give in to despair. Our situation may seem hopeless and it may seem as though God has deserted us and is uncaring. But remember...God sees. God cares. God provides.

God asked Moses, and he asks us, "Is my arm to short to provide for you?’ There is only one right answer. "The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit." Our desert and barren situations are fertile ground to experience God’s miraculous provision.

The Land Between Part 2

Last week, I  introduce the idea of the Land Between. It is not an original idea, but I got it from the book entitled, The Land Between: Finding God In Difficult Transitions, by Jeff Manion.

For more than two hundred years the people of Israel had lived in Egypt along the fertile crescent area of the Nile River, which was a very fertile land. Egypt, at this time, was a unilateral world power. Eventually Israel grew and prospered so much that they became a threat to the Egyptians. Under a tyranical Pharaoh, they were subjected to a terrible form of slavery. Over the course of time, the Israelites cried out for deliverance and their cry was heard by the God they barely knew or remembered. God then made this promise in Exodus 3:8: “(I will) bring them up out of that land and into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

And God fulfilled his promise. Through a series of miraculous events, the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, water from a rock in the desert, and a host of other miracles, God led Israel OUT OF Egypt and forty years later INTO the Promised Land.

Between the out of and into is the place that Manion calls The Land Between. For Israel, the Land Between is a desert place. It is the Sinai Peninsula. It is a difficult place. It is where faith either grows or dies. It is in the Land Between that perhaps the most important, and certainly the biggest, part of the Exodus story is found.

Life is a passage between the past which has shaped us and the future we hope to construct and possess. Between the certainty of the past and the uncertainty of the future is the Land Between. It is a place of uncertainty, disruption and questioning. While there, we may experience heartache, pain, and struggles. But although it may be a spiritually dry place, it can also be fertile place where faith grows and flourishes.

Last week, we looked at the difference between the people's murmuring and Moses' lamenting. This week we are going to see three different things God did while they were in the Land Between: He provided; He disciplined; and He helped them grow!

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

If ever there were a champion lamenter, Jeremiah would have to be it. His life as a prophet was tough. His message wasn’t popular. Jeremiah went 23 years without one convert (Jeremiah 25:3). Think those numbers would look good on a report? There is a book in the Bible that is full of Jeremiah’s laments to the Lord. It is called Lamentations. Throughout this book, Jeremiah complains to God about how know one will accept or even appreciate his ministry. If you are depressed, Lamentations is not the book in the Bible to read. It is miserable from beginning to end – almost. Right in the middle of Lamentations, sandwiched between Jeremiah’s grief and sorrow, are these words from Lamentations 3:19-24: "I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.


Right in the middle of his Land Between, in the depths of his despair, Jeremiah is able to testify that God has not abandoned him.

Jeremiah understood that in lament, in the very act of voicing our trouble to God, we begin a conversation in which we have opened ourselves up to His care, mercy and provision.

Now's here's the really interesting thing about Moses' lamentation. Remember how Moses poured out his heart to God? The burden of leading God’s grumbling people was too heavy for him. So Moses complained to the Lord about his situation (Numbers 11:11-15)

What happened after Moses complained to God about his situation? Did God give up on Moses? Did God walk away? Numbers 11:16-17 gives us God's response to Moses' complaints: "The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone."

God was so gracious to Moses that He poured out his Spirit on some of the very same people who had been complaining about him, not to him. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Not only did Moses' lamentation bring relief to him, but it became a blessing to the very people Moses was lamenting about!

What an amazing illustration of how God's mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.

We Have Lost Our Appetite

Numbers 11:4-6 says, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Don't miss that small little phrase that begins the third sentence of this passage..."We have lost our appetite". Why? "We never see anything but this manna!"

Having traveled through the wilderness for many, many days, the people of Israel fall prey to a common problem...selective memory. They begin to remember their days in Egypt. They remembered having meat to eat, free fried fish, and all the salad and fruit you could want. They remembered never having to worry about the variety of their meals.

But they forgot two very important things. First of all, they really didn't get "the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost...." It really came at a great cost...their freedom. They forgot their bondage. They forgot the hours of making bricks and laboring to build the massive Egyptian structures. They forgot the beatings and the executions. All they can remember is the food.

Like Israel, we tend to remember only the pleasant things, the good things. That why we fondly reminince about the good old days. Don't get me wrong. There were some good things in those days. But there was plenty that wasn't so good either. It is just our nature to remember the good over the bad. 

Secondly, they forgot that the very thing they are complaining about now, manna, was a free gift from God that, at one time, they were very grateful to receive it. It wasn't that manna was bad. It was just they had grown use to it. They received it everyday. If it were taken away, they would surely miss it, they were taking it for granted now, rather than seeing its blessing.

Isn't that how we treat God's grace. We all know that we would miss it if it wasn't there, don't we? We all know that we are dependent on it to survive spiritually. But because it is so freely given, because by its very definition, grace is, well, grace, we sometimes take it for granted that it is there.

The danger? As Israel demonstrates, when we take something freely given for granted, we tend to lose our appetite for it. When we have experienced a blessing for so long, we tend to feel like we're missing out on something else. "We never see anything but..." 

Isn't it true that what followed that but, "this manna", was more than enough. Isn't it true that manna in freedom, even in a wilderness, is better than meat in slavery?

But do we really believe that? Do we ever find that we have "lost our appetite" for God? Do we ever secretly wonder if there is something better that what we are always seeing?

As for me, manna in the desert beats meat in slavery anytime!

Murmur or Lament?

No sooner had the Israelites left slavery and bondage of Egypt, they began to complain. They complained about the lack of water. They complained about a lack of food. Then they complained about the lack of variety of food. Numbers 11:4-6 says, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” They complained about Moses and to Moses. They complained about the God they barely knew. In the Land Between, the Israelites became champion complainers.

Tomorrow, we are going to focus on the phrase "We have lost our appetite". Today, I want to drill down on the difference between murmuring and lamenting. The first puts us on dangerous footing with God; the second actually brings us face to face to God.

In the Land Between, the Israelites whined and complained to one another about how God had let them down. They gave in to discouragement. They did not complain to God. They complained about God.  And there is a big difference. The Bible calls murmuring. Murmuring is complaining about a situation to someone other than the person to whom you are murmuring. The New Testament word for this is gossip. And God rebukes the Israelites for their murmuring.

And the reality is, murmuring does no good! Usually the person we are murmuring to cannot do anything to change the situation. Our murmuring is usually just an attempt to divide and cause people to take our side!

By contrast, there is another form of complaint in the Bible that God seems to affirm. It is called a lament. If murmuring is complaining about God, lament is faith-filled complaining to God.
 Murmuring is gossiping about God; lament is a prayer of desperation to God. Murmuring is a hopeless cry of despair. Lament is a despairing prayer of hope.

There is a wonderful example of a godly lament in Numbers 11:11-15. The Israelites were complaining about manna. And then we are told that God was angry about the Israelites murmuring. Moses was at the end of his rope also. Moses asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

Sounds like Moses is complaining as well, doesn't it? The difference? In their murmuring the Israelites are complaining about God. In his lament Moses is praying to God. There is a huge distinction. Moses isn’t rejecting God. In bringing his questions and complaints, Moses has turned towards God, not away from him.

The Land Between

For more than two hundred years the people of Israel had lived in the fertile Nile delta of Egypt, led there by Jacob when seeking to survive a terrible worldwide famine. The Israelites hadn’t just survived, in many ways they had thrived with their numbers increasing exponentially, so much so that the Egyptians were fearful of the potential power they had. The Egyptian Pharaoh’s forced them into awful slavery, making bricks for Pharaoh’s many building projects. Eventually the Israelites cried out and their cry was heard by the God they barely knew or remembered.

Through a burning bush God called a man called Moses to lead his people out of slavery. God made this promise in Exodus 3:8: "(I will) bring them up out of that land and into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey."

And so begins one of the most amazing stories in the whole bible – the story of the Exodus, where God liberates a group of illiterate slaves from the bondage of the superpower of the ancient world. Miracle after miracle frees and then sustains them. Ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven and water from a rock. God leads Israel OUT OF Egypt and INTO the Promised Land. But between the “out of” and “in to” is the Land Between. It is in the Land Between that perhaps the most important part of the story is found. Certainly it is the place where the biggest part of the story occurs.

It is in the Land Between where we need the greatest amount of faith. I once saw a diagram similar to the one below in a book by Chuck Swindoll. I think it perfectly illustrates the land between.

We don't need a lot of faith before the trial begins (obviously it hasn't started yet). And we don't need a lot of faith for the trial ends (it's over). We need faith during the trial; while we are in the wilderness; while we are in the Land Between.


For Israel the Land Between was a physical location. It was the Sinai Peninsula. It was then and is now a desolate place of limited vegetation and even less fresh water. It was a wilderness. It is a desert. And it would be their home for forty years.

As the Israelites journey OUT FROM the lush fertile home of their past IN TO the lush fertile home of their future, they pass through the wilderness, a desert, the Land Between.

But the Land Between was also more than a physical location. It was also the place of uncertainty, of testing, and of desperation. It was the place where faith was discovered and lost.Through forty years of wilderness wanderings the Israelites discovered that the Land Between is the place where faith can thrive, but also the place where faith can dry up and die.

A “Land Between” times can be be very disruptive. We can find ourselves in the land between suddenly, without any warning. We come into work one day and our boss says, “I’m so sorry, but we have to downsize.” We come home one day and our partner shocks us with the words, “I’m sorry, but I don’t love you anymore. I'm leaving” We sit in the doctor’s office and he says to us, “I’m afraid I have bad news.”

The Land Between is the place where everything that is normal is interrupted. In the Land Between we experience acute uncertainty and disruption; where life is not as it once was and where the future is in question. It is a hard place, a dry place a desert place. The Land Between, that space where we feel lost or lonely or deeply hurt, can also be fertile ground for our spiritual transformation and for God’s grace to be revealed in magnificent ways.

For Israel, the Land Between became a place of complaint, provision, discipline and growth. This week,  we are going to focus in on the first characteristic, complaint. Next week, we will look at the other three.

The Father's Heart

Luke 15:17-20 tells us: “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

Now be honest. Wouldn’t you expect verse 20  say, “His father saw him and was filled with what?” If you didn’t know the story, you would expect him to say “anger”, wouldn’t you? Verse 21 continues: “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’”

You see, the Prodigal is making the same mistake that the older brother is making. He thinks his behavior is what makes him acceptable to the Father. He things his performance can make him a part of the Father’s house again. But here’s one of the great truths of the parable. You can know more earn the Father’s grace than you can throw yourself a surprise party. They both come from the Father.

Verses 22-23 continue, “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick!...” Wait a minute...not quick. Don't you think we would have a few questions? I think so. We would want to know if he had really changed, wouldn’t you? We would want to know if he was back for good. W might be tempted to suggest that our friend wait a few weeks. It would feel too early for a party, don’t you think? It would be if you were focused on the boy’s past behavior. But that is not the father's heart.

The Father says, “Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” And that brings us to the Father’s desire.

The Feast of the Father

Pastor Craig Barnes tells a very personal story. He says, “[My father] left us when I was sixteen, and once he left, he never stopped running. Every time we tried to find him, he would only leave and disappear again. He died alone in a raggedy trailer park somewhere in the middle of Florida. A neighboring pastor, who did not know him, spent two days trying to find his family even though he did not know our names. My dad missed all of the important events in his sons' lives: graduations, weddings, birth of children, our two ordinations, and both of our Ph.D. ceremonies. He missed all of it. I prayed and prayed that he would return to us. I used to yearn for the day that he would show up in a congregation where I was preaching. My longing was for him to come through the line at the end of worship, take my hand and say, 'Good job, son' But he never came."

The story we have been studying for the past five weeks is a story, not about a father who didn’t come, but a God who ran to His prodigal son.

This story is the result of a group of people gathering around to listen to Jesus. Luke tells us in Luke 15:1-2: “Now the tax collectors and 'sinners' were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"

The tax gatherers and the sinners loved to gather around and listen to Jesus. Andy Stanley wrote, in his book, The Grace of God, the ones who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus. Then in verse two, we are told that the Pharisees and teachers of the law gathered around again began to murmur among themselves. People who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus. And Jesus liked people who were nothing like him. So out of their murmuring, Jesus tells these stories that reveal the heart of God.

The third of these stories begins with a father and two sons. Jesus understood birth order long before modern child psychology began to talk about it. The older brother is a behaver. He did everything right. He tried to find fulfillment in life by obeying all the rules. The younger brother is a misbehaver. He wants to find fulfillment by sowing his wild oats, by searching for everything fun and living life to its fullest.

But the reality of this story told by Jesus, is that the story isn’t really about a rebellious younger son, or a self-righteous older son. It is really a story about the Father. The rebellion of the younger son, resulting in it’s ultimate degradation of the pigpen didn’t shock the Pharisees and teachers. Sin always has a gotcha. And the religious people of Jesus’ day understood this. They were shocked that the prodigal ended up in the pigpen. The self-righteous behavior of the older brother, didn’t really shock the tax gatherers and sinners. For decades they have felt the condemnation and judgment of angry, bitter, religious people. You know some of them, don’t you? The tax collectors and sinners weren’t surprised that the older brother acted like this.

But the actions of the Father shocked both groups. This week, we are going to drill-down on the actions of the Father and see what Jesus is telling us about our Heavenly Father.

The Cost of Reconciliation

Verses 29-31 states: “But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!‘ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

What did it cost to bring the younger brother home? At first glance, it seems not to have cost anything. There is no punishment, he is just taken in. The father opens his arms, puts new clothes on him, and that’s that. It’s free.

However, this is a great mistake. The reconciliation is free to the younger brother. But it is very costly for someone else. The elder brother is furious with the father for receiving his younger brother back into the family. He alludes to it when he says, “you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But... you kill the fattened calf for him!” The elder brother is angry because of the cost of this reconciliation.

Remember, the father had given the younger brother his entire legal part of the 
inheritance. And it was all spent, all gone. Yet now the father is restoring him into the family. He has already put a robe on him, and  given him a ring, which was probably the signet ring with which family members ratified contracts. The younger brother’s fair share of the wealth is all gone, but now he is back, and every robe, ring, fatted calf is coming out of someone else’s pocket.

Everything the father has, now is legally the elder brother’s. He is the only heir of all the father has left. So every robe, every ring, every fattened calf, every cent of the father’s, is ultimately the elder brother’s. When the father says to the elder brother, “everything I have is yours”  in verse 31, he is speaking the literal truth.

So the salvation of the younger son is not free after all. It has already been extremely expensive. Look at the feast. The father cannot forgive the younger brother, except at the expense of the elder brother. He is the one who must bear the cost of the reconciliation. Forgiveness is not free. It always costs someone something.

The True Elder Brother

At 1.25 pm on the 28th of April, 1988 a Boeing 737 jet, Flight 243, operated by Aloha Airlines took off from Hilo International Airport in Hawaii. The plane had undertaken a remarkable 89,090 take offs and landings. This was its 89,091 take-off.

The plane was carrying 90 passengers and 5 crew and quickly climbed to an altitude of 24,000 feet. 23 minutes after take- off there was an explosive noise in the roof of the fuselage which lead to a catastrophic explosion and decompression of the cabin that ripped away much of the roof in the front section of the plane. Miraculously and with great skill the pilots of the plane were able to land plane 10 minutes later in Maui. 65 passengers were injured and one flight attendant lost her life.

The picture with this blog was taken shortly after the plan landed. Air crash investigators immediately began their work. The cause of the catastrophic explosion was traced to metal fatigue caused by corrosion. There was a failure of the adhesive used to seal joins in the aluminum sheets of the fuselage that allowed water to seep in.

One small crack. One small crack in a plane that no one could see lead to a catastrophic failure. Everything looked good on the outside. There was no reason to doubt the plane’s air worthiness; it all looked good.

Jesus told a story of a Father and two sons. The ‘bad son’ – the younger son – rebels against his father and squanders a third of the family fortune on wild living in a far country. All the while his older brother stays home, faithfully sticking by dad and working hard. He is the good son. But after his younger brother returns, and after his Father welcomes him back with open arms into the family – the cracks that were always there start to appear and a catastrophic explosion eventuates.

In our study this week we are going to explore an often missed twist that Jesus tells in the story. The drill-down point of this story is this: "Reconciliation and salvation always costs someone something." As we will see this week, salvation really isn't free...it was very costly to the true older brother.

Appreciating God's Grace

How do we keep from giving in to the rebellion of the Prodigal or the self-righteousness of the Older Brother. Let me close this week's study by giving you two suggestions.

First, remember the uniqueness of the Gospel message. It is a resignation of our own attempts to find fulfillment in the far country or in our obedient behavior. Either attempt will leave us empty and lost. The uniqueness of grace is that we can never find our God-ordained destiny through either journey. The world will leave us empty. Self-righteousness will leave us deceived. Neither leads to fulfillment. Only the grace of  God can lead us to our destiny.

Secondly, remember the vulnerability of Jesus. Verses 1, 2 of Luke 15 tells us that the whole reason this story is told is because of the muttering of the Pharisees over Jesus having fellowship with people they considered to be unacceptable. They are Jesus' mortal enemies. They are out to, and eventually will, crucify Him. Yet, when Jesus tells of the Father going out to plead with the older brother to come in and celebrate, He is showing His remarkable love for even the Pharisees. For in essence, He is telling them, "I am here to plead with you...come in and enjoy the Father's celebration!" Even though they want to kill Him, He is reaching out in love to them.


This love toward His enemies made Him vulnerable and cost Him his life. On the cross, instead of cursing His enemies, He lovingly took the penalty of their sins on Himself.  Knowing what He has done for us will rid us of our self-righteousness. We were so sinful He had to die for us. But we were so loved that He was glad to die for us. That takes away both the pride and the fear that makes us elder brothers.

Signs of an Older-Brother Spirit

The older brother reveals his heart when he speaks after the Father welcomes the Prodigal home. In Luke 15:29-30, Jesus tells us that the older brother said, “But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” This passage reveals five things about an older-brother spirit.

But before we look at them, let me give you a warning. For those of us who try to follow Christ faithfully. It is easy to slip into the older-brother mindset. In fact, it is our default mode. When we begin to lose our passion for the Father, and begin to become more passionate about the Father's things, one or all of those five attitudes will surface.

1. A deep anger. Verse 28 says that "he became angry". Elder brothers believe their faithfulness should manipulate God's hand into giving His blessings to them. And if it doesn’t happen, they get angry.  
2. A joyless and mechanical obedience.  Verse 29 reveals the heart of the older brother when he said to the Father, “I’ve been slaving for you.” Older brothers find obedience a joyless, mechanical, slavery.
3. A coldness to younger brother-types. In verse 30, the older son does not even “own” his brother. He refers to him as "this son of yours". Christians who pride themselves on their doctrinal and moral purity, often feel superiority to those who have different views.
4. A lack of assurance of the father’s love. He doubted the Father's love when he said in verse 29, "You never killed a fatted calf for me!" Every time something goes wrong for older brothers, they wonder if it’s a punishment. They often wonder if they've repented deeply enough. prayers asking for things, but not sense his love.
5. An unforgiving, judgmental spirit. It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel as though you are beyond doing that vile of a sin. The older brother thought he would never be like the Prodigal, but the irony was, he was guilty of the same rebelliousness and motivated but the same sinful desires.

A Broader Perspective of Lostness

In Luke 15:28, Jesus said: “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.” Surely the older brother knew that this was one of the best day's that his Father had experienced in years. The son who had been lost had come home. The older brother had to know this was a day of celebration.

Yet he refused to go into the biggest feast his father has ever put on. His refusal was a deliberate act of disrespect. In actuality, His attitude is no different that that of the prodigal when he left home. He is says, “I won’t be part of this family. I refuse to respect your headship of it.”

When we refuse to participate in the Father's celebration; when we refuse to participate in honoring the Father's headship, when we refuse to participate in worship of the Father, we demonstrate the same righteous lostness as the older brother.

The father, according to Jesus, had to “go out” to plead with him. Just as he went out to bring his alienated younger son into the family, he is now going out to try to bring the older brother into the house.

Jesus is expanding the religious concept of lostness. He is letting us know that the older son is lost as the younger son had been. In the end, the Prodigal, comes home and is saved. But the older son, refuses to go in. In fact, there is no record that he ever went in. He remained lost.

What is it that is keeping the elder brother out? Verse 29 tells us it’s because: “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed....” There is a telling phrase in this verse...I've been slaving for you. The rule-keeping son didn't serve the Father faithfully during the absence of the Prodigal out of loving obedience to His Father. He considered it slavery!

The younger brother wanted the father’s things, but not the father. So he left home. He broke the moral rules. But the older brother also wanted the same control of his Father's possessions. While the Prodigal got control by taking his stuff and running away; the elder brother got control by staying home and being very good. He felt that now he has the right to tell the father what to do with his possessions because he had obeyed him perfectly.

There are two ways to be your own Savior and Lord. One is by breaking all the laws and being bad. One is by keeping all the laws and being good. If I can be so good that God has to answer my prayer and give me His things, I reduce Jesus to being my Rewarder. But I don't just need a Rewarder. I need a Savior.

The difference between religion and Christianity is that the religion obeys to get control over God, and things from God, but the Christianity obeys just to love and please and draw closer to God.