Sunday Message – Today Jesus 102 8/10/06

<Luke 15:11-32>
MY PRODIGAL SON HAS COME BACK

Read <Luke 15:11-35>

v16 Very often, we have also become like the prodigal son, thus we will face the
same situation as him. However, if we are faced with such similar situations,
it comes from the love of God and it is His discipline for us
v20 Our Father in Heaven has compassion on us everyday

• Very often, our sufferings are a result of our disbelief towards God
• In fact, the elder son need not feel frustrated because everything that
belongs to his father is his. Although he stayed at home, he never really had
joy there. Therefore, he was in agony when he saw how his father treated his
brother well.
• All the prodigal son needs to do when he faces problem while travelling
outside, is to go back to his father. However, he did not do so because his was
ashamed to go home. And thus, he continued to suffer outside.
• No matter what and how our situations are like, we must live our lives by
holding on to God’s compassion and love
• God did not create us so that we can present something to Him. God created
everything for us because of His love for us

1. God is great love

• God is great love. However, we will not be able to enjoy God if we fail to
see this truth.
• All things are created from God’s great love. We can see it when our eyes
are opened.
• God creates man after He had created everything else. Thus, God:
1) Has prepared everything for us
• Our belief is blind if we fail to see that God has prepared everything for
us
• God’s creations are abundant, and “wasteful”. God had created such
large varieties of flowers, animals, birds, etc. Although we only need to
have the Sun, God also created so many stars for us in order to express
His thoughts to us
• It is because of God’s love for us that His creations are so abundant
and wasteful
• The human body is already a display of God’s love and image
• The most beautiful picture we can have is the smile on a person’s face.
Though animals will smile at times, their smiles can never be compared
to the human’s smile. On the other hand, the sorrowful face of a person
is the ugliest
• The spiritual realm can be displayed from a person’s life. A life
transformed by God transcends time. It has the power to influence the
lives of others even after they have passed on or even several years
later
• A person’s life is complete and is really special
 • Although God has prepared everything for us, the best thing that He
has prepared for us is the salvation through Jesus Christ. This is God’s
greatest love

2) Welcomes us
• God’s spirit has already entered our lives. Therefore, we have already
acquired God’s life and His spirit dwells in us
• We are able to understand God’s word, receive unlimited strength and
God’s wisdom because of the Holy Spirit in us.
• We do not live for the sake of eating, drinking and marrying only.
Animals do that but we are not animals.
• Even if a person only eats, drinks and be merry all his life, he can at
most do it for 70-80yrs. However, what God has given us is eternal and
limitless
• Therefore, God will definitely reveal Himself to us as long as we are
willing to seek Him

3) Will not force us to do something

• God will not force us to do something because of His love for us
• Just like the father in the verses we read today; the father will not bind
the younger son up just because he wanted to have his share of the
estate and leave the house. On the contrary, the father must have
blessed the son and sent him off. However, that’s not the end. The
father was also waiting for his son to come home.
• God knows that it is futile to force a person to do something when the
person is still in love with the world
• Even if we were to force somebody to come back, that person will still
go off someday. His coming and going will make him receive more
accusations and he will never want to come back eventually
• Thus, God will allow us to do what we want when we are still not ready
to turn back to Him. However, He will be waiting for us continually
• God’s compassion for us is limitless if we really are willing to turn back
to Him with an upright heart. A person will follow the Lord all his life
after he had seen God’s compassion

2. All the sufferings of the believers

• Why are believers still living in agony or suffering when the love of God for
His children are limitless?
• Why did the younger son from today’s scripture want to leave the house?
• The likely reason is that he found it boring and had no freedom at home.
He felt that the life outside would be better and more beautiful.
• Although believers know that the word of God is good, they just cannot
follow God. Therefore, they tend to feel bored, and restricted. This is why
believers will follow the world
• They have not seen the difference between Gospel and Religion
1) Indulgent
 • A person who has been born again must discover that it is far more
joyful, and is able to enjoy more freedom and bliss as he lives his life in
God
• To ‘live in God’ means to ‘live in God’s love’
• A person will walk the path of this world because he/she has
misunderstood the love of God
• Do we have joy or peace at work or when we live?
• If we do not have joy at work, it means we have not gone to work with
the Lord. Therefore, we are not able to get God’s help
• Very often, we only want to follow the God or path that we have
created in our thoughts
• Do we go to church out of obligation? Or do we go to church because
we realised that this is the only place that will enable us to live our
lives?
• Are we clean only when we are in the church and as soon as we step
out of the church, we will want to follow the world?
• What is being cleansed?
• The critical factor for cleanliness is whether we have always placed
God in front of us, just like King David
• Do we see the support and joy of God on us?
• We are not clean if we go to the church without seeing the love of God
• However, we are clean even if we go to complicated places but we are
we always able to see that God loves us. Of course, God’s spirit will
convict our hearts, telling us where we should go more and where we
should reduce our visits to “unhealthy” places
• Being clean means being able to discover the love of God <Romans
12:1-2>
• Being clean means we can be freed in the presence of God <Gal 2:20,
John 8:32>
• We should always discover how God loves us <2Corintians 3:16>
• The reason why the younger son leaves home is because his
relationship with his father has broken
• Our nature will make us rely on ourselves, naturally

2) Being accused
• Everything will be alright as long as a person returns home after
realising his mistakes. However, he may refuse to go home because of
shamefulness
• Shamefulness will make us not want to go back to God, as we are
weak. In other words, we are being accused
• A father will love and show his concern more on a child who is ill than a
healthy child
• We will not receive grace if we are ashamed to face God
• We are God’s children <Romans 8:15>
 • All the problems in our lives will start to appear when we are not able
to see God or the relationship with God is broken
• A natural person will definitely be accused. Thus, God gives us the
method to resolve this. It is by “cleansing”
• God wanted the Israelites to be cleansed when He asked them to enter
the Tabernacle and to give their offerings. We cannot go to God without
cleansing
• In fact, it is Satan and not God who accuses us. Satan accuses us so
that we will be afraid of God
• Therefore, we must hold on to the five offerings, follow the High Priest,
Jesus Christ into the Tabernacle and get cleansed
• Problems will appear when we fear God
• Who are the cleansed ones?
• They are not those who have never sinned but those who know that
they must be cleansed after they have sinned
• They are also not those who will never become weak or fall but those
who know how to stand up and get cleansed when they had fallen

3) Accuse others
• It is very easy for us to look at the weaknesses of others and accuse
them
• We always look at the rights and wrongs of a person
• Although the elder son stayed at home, he never really had joy. Thus,
he could not help but to get angry when he saw how his father treated
the prodigal son. He must have felt unjustified that his brother who had
done wrong was rewarded but he who did right was not given the same
treatment
• Problems arise when we think that we are righteous
• We always think that we are righteous too. Thus, sometimes we will tell
ourselves, “fortunately, it is he who did that and not me”
• In other words, we are often accusing others
• We might say that “no, I neither love others nor judge others”.
However, as long as we are competitive, we are already judging others.
• What is your first reaction when you see the weakness of a person?
• If your reaction is to think of a way to help or protect that person, then
you have the correct belief of Christ
• In <Genesis 3>, Adam had quarrelled with Eve because both of them
were trying to find faults of each others
• We should speak the truth in love. However, we must always wait for
others
• When we read today’s verses, our concern is not on, whether or not
the elder son accused his younger brother. Our concern should be to
find out why the elder son cannot have joy or a beloved heart even
though he is always by the side of his father

3． Go home today → restore love and God’s perfect will

 1) Am I living in the love of God?
• God’s preparation of everything for us is a display of His love
• We must discover the evidence that God loves us
• In fact, God’s love is always surrounding us

2) No matter what we do, it would be most joyful and free if we do it in the

Lord
• We will become indulgent and leave if we fail to see this truth
• We must always learn to see this truth
• We are pressurised at work not because of the busy schedule but
because we are not doing our work in God. Thus, we hold on too tightly
to our work
• If we do our work in the Lord, it is God’s present for us when we are
being scolded even though we’d put in our best effort. As such, we can
rejoice under such circumstances.
• We suffer when we do what we want using our own efforts or live our
own lives

3) Resolve the accusation

• Accusation must be cleansed. Otherwise, the problems will be spread
to those around us
• If we feel that we cannot do anything, at least have the desire to pray.
Give our offerings for ourselves and our family. We and our family will
receive peace if we can do this often

4) We must renew ourselves always

• After we have known so much about the truth, we should never use the
truth we know to judge or accuse others
• God will cover our weaknesses if we are able to cover the weaknesses
of others

Sharing and Prayer Topic

From this week’s message, I already discovered: In the past, I totally
misunderstood my Father in Heaven and saw the congregation in a
wrong light. Those were the result of Satan’s accusations on us for the
mistakes and sins that we had made and commented. Today, our Father
in Heaven has shown us the eternal, unconditional and unlimited great
love of God on us, through the Cross of Jesus Christ. He has also given
us the formulae to cleanse ourselves from all that is ungodly, by using
the precious blood of Christ and allowing us to stand before Him
without any fears. He has also commanded us to love one and other…
1. Am I able to stand before God without any fear at all now? What or
where is the evidence that enables me to stand before God without
fear? Or do I have some accusations in my heart and mind that will
bring about God’s discipline? How to resolve this?
2. Do I often experience this in my life: I am able to see the joy,
comfort, healing and gifts of God whenever I am determined to turn
and go to Him. Share among your SSG members, some obvious
evidence for this?
3. Currently, is there anyone whom I always accuse or judge? How can I
transform the accusation and judgemental feelings into compassion,
embracement, intercession and blessings? At the same time, think of
ways on how I can bless and help them practically?