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[Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] go ahead and take your bibles this morning i'm going to turn this down a little bit here take your bibles and turn to back to luke chapter 15. thank you jesus let me get set up here luke chapter 15 on the prodigal son and actually today i'm kind of glad that um we have the crowd that we have today it's kind of a church family day because i'm gonna going to deal with a little bit of family business luke chapter 15. just to recap in case you were not here last week and even if you were we need to recap a little bit just to remind you of how this came about but not last week but the week before when i was uh praying about what to preach um last weekend last sunday on um was at work and the lord just spoke to me very very clearly and he said the prodigal son and i told you that story last week about that a couple of days went by and i kind of forgot because you know that still small voice of god sometimes is so subtle you know you can let it drift away if your mind's too busy on other things you know and so i kind of let it drift away and then i was praying again and uh up on a ladder or the lift or something i was praying and uh and the lord said um i said lord what do you want me to preach on sunday and he said the prodigal son again so i i knew the story and of course i think i know it pretty well but of course i always go back and meditate if god tells me something i go back to the story i meditate on it i look up the greek words in the new testament the hebrew words in the old testament i meditate and look at different things that that go with it and try to get what god's saying to me out of that even though i could almost
quote the whole thing by heart but i want to hear what god's saying and i knew the whole story you know the whole story is not just about the sun that comes home but there's this other sun you know that's got some issues and i mentioned that a little bit last week but um i had no idea that when god told me to preach that that literally some of this would be literally going on and that god always i think begins to it's let's just put it this way it's good to hear from god amen and it's good that um you know your pastor i promise you one thing that i dedicate myself to is not just preaching a sermon but hearing a message from god what he is saying for this day for this sunday or for whatever meeting it may be i really go after god for what he wants to say so i want you to know that i i don't ever try to preach a message or teach something out of reaction to a problem that has arisen it just this time seems to be a coincidence almost that god was doing it ahead of time because he was already going to start dealing with some issues now what i'm going to preach on today is what i ended last week when i started talking about the elder brother you know about how he was angry and we're going to go back and read through the story a little bit but how he was angry about some things and about his attitude and but what we're going to call this today i think is the elder brother syndrome the elder brother syndrome and i'm just going to say this at the outset of this i actually wrote this at the top of my page here when i wrote down the elder brother syndrome this is this is something that we need to be very careful and this is also a continuation of really what i've been into the last three weeks now is going to be kind of a series on um evangelism and how we respond to and witness and share the gospel with other people and and today is kind of going to be our attitude our attitude toward the lost and our attitude and judgment toward those who are newly come to jesus christians um christians can fall into one of two traps we either fall into the trap of being way too tolerant of everything or we fall into the trap of being way way too judgmental and harsh and the thing about christianity is finding that balance and finding that balance not just with a group of people where there's kind of a blanket thing for everybody but you actually have to find that balance for each individual person because people are at different places in their walk with god or in their journey toward god and that's why the bible says in proverbs chapter 11 verse 30 you can
just write this one down it says in proverbs 11 30 that he that when it's souls is wise i want to tell you that to truly win souls to jesus takes great wisdom from god okay because you cannot always depend on some formula or pattern to handle a sinner or a backslider or a lost person or a prodigal son or an elder brother they all are different they're all in different places they all have different issues and things going on inside their heart and there's no way that there is some blanket way to deal with everybody the same way okay um and you'll see that this father didn't deal with this situation the same way and we're going to look at where jesus didn't deal with some situations the same way but let me just explain this to you please do not let a spirit of superiority or pride come over you toward brothers or sisters in the in the the church or toward new people that have just come to jesus or toward the pastor maybe how he's handling different people different ways be very very careful that you don't move into this elder brother syndrome be very very careful because let me explain to you what what the another definition of the elder brother syndrome is i call it the pharisee spirit and listen all of us and i'm just going to say this at some point or another in our christian walk we have done this okay but this is this is how you get there and and i'm jumping ahead a little bit but this is how you get there before you know it let's say you repent let's say you're getting your life in order you're getting cleansed and you're getting some things that were wrong right and you start feeling pretty good about yourself and then all of a sudden you begin slightly moving from trusting the blood of jesus and the goodness of god and the righteousness of jesus and you start just trusting a little bit in your own abilities and that all of a sudden because you've straightened up a little bit you're a little bit better than so and so and then all of a sudden you think now that you've maybe been studying the bible for a little while and you get a little bible knowledge and all of a sudden you know how to better handle a situation than the pastor does and before you know it you've just elevated yourself up to judge jury and executioner and let me tell you something even if the pastor's wrong or even if the situation might need some tweaking you just moved into some dangerous areas
that's going to hurt no one but yourself and it's it's easy to do humility true humility always says no matter where you are in your christian walk no matter how holy you are no matter how pure no matter how good you're doing or how bad you're doing humility always says that i am no better than my brother or my sister next to me or that sinner that's struggling because i used to be that and the only reason i'm not that is because god loved me god drew me god opened my eyes god help me and yes i had some responsibility to respond to it but it was still god's grace and god's help and god's mercy and i needed the blood of jesus to wash me just like he or she needs the blood of jesus to wash them and the moment you start thinking that you sit in a higher spot than somebody else you are on your way down the tubes because god lifts up the humble and he begins to put down the prideful and let me say this it you it actually says god resists the proud do you know what the word resist means it means that god actually begins to fight against you if you listen you think the devil fighting against you is bad you do not want god almighty fighting against you he will win amen he will win the war you will be humbled either you humbling yourself or he will do it trust me you want to do it amen now let's read this story and i'm going to we're we're going to be dealing with the issue of repentance the issue of of true humility let me say this repentance even that's not mixed always with humility is not real repentance you're gonna see that in this story let's read the story again we're gonna recap a little bit y'all don't mind that do you this is very important you and you know why we need to get this down church is because i don't want us to end up being like a lot of other churches that have their little cliques that judge other people harshly when god's working on them and let me just share something with you there are things going on in people's lives that i know about that you don't know about okay i know details counseling things i can't divulge if you got a problem with the way that i might be handling somebody's situation please do one thing come to me and say nothing to nobody else not a thing because
you begin to sow things so division dissension strife and and what it ends up doing is hurting the people you talk to okay it's just real dangerous to start judging matters in which you don't have all the facts right very dangerous now granted we've all done it at one point another so we can all just say i've been guilty god forgive me help me not do this okay i'm not trying to beat anybody up in particular but i'm just saying god showed me that this prop there was a problem starting to creep in so we're just going to cut it off at the pass right we're not going to let it get any further all right here's the scriptures let's go back to the story and by the way this morning i again was asking god do you even want me to preach this and i got up from the computer and i prayed for quite some time last night and i was praying this morning and i got up from the computer and i said god i want preaches if you don't want me to there's something else you want me to move on to and he he said you didn't finish the you didn't finish the message i told you to preach last week i said yes sir we will finish all right luke 15 we're going to read the story again from let's read verse 1 though first then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners to hear him and the pharisees and the scribes murmured saying this man receiveth sinners and eats with them i'm going to stop right there and just let you know that this was the context that jesus started telling this story right he had the religious leaders basically the pastors and teachers and people of the church of that time criticizing jesus now let's just get that down jesus was perfect never sinned and yet you can always find people to criticize you and it doesn't matter how well you do things right but let's just see in that context the pharisees and the scribes are criticizing jesus because he's receiving sinners and basically they're they're complaining on how he's dealing with these sinners though jesus is dealing with these sinners the the best way he can to win them jesus said i have come to seek and to save that which is lost i would rather go after one sheep that's gone astray i'd rather see one sinner there's more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents more than the 99 that don't need it or think they don't and jesus's heart is always toward that lost person that sinner that backslider that prodigal he wants them okay now he loves the person has been sitting in church 20 years but there are some things he expects of them because they ought to know better okay and he will deal with the two very differently as you will see if you read the new testament especially the gospels
okay we're going to read the story though let's keep going i know i keep jumping all right verse 11 certain man had two sons the younger of them said unto his father father give me the portion of goods that falls unto me and he divided unto them is living and not many days after that the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous or unsaved living as we determined last week and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in one and he went and joined himself into a citizen of that country and he sent him into the fields to feed swine and he would faint and filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him and when he came to himself now you ought to underline these next few verses here it says and when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough to spare and i perish with hunger i will arise and go to my father and will say unto him i have sinned against heaven and before you and i am no more worthy to be called your son but make me as one of your hired servants and he arose and came to his father and when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion on him and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him and the son said father i have sinned against heaven and in your sight and no more worthy to be called your son but the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe with the best robe not a good robe the best robe bring forth the best robe put it on him put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring him to the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make mary for my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they begin to make merry now his elder brother or his elder son in the field as he came he drew nine to the house and he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said thy brother is come and my father has killed the fatted calf and because he has received him safe and sound and he was angry it would not go in therefore came his father out and entreated him and he answering said unto his father lo these many years do i serve thee neither transgressed i at any time thy commandment yeah right and you never gave me a kid that i might make merry with my father or my friends but as soon as this thy son was come which has devoured thy living with harlots you have killed for him the fatted calf and he said son you are ever with me all i have is yours it was me that we should make mary and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and is lost and is found now i know i read this last week but i wanted us to look at some things the elder the the prodigal the one who left was out there and and really this is the picture it's a picture perfect illustration from jesus of what real repentance is and this is why i said a minute ago that real repentance must always be mixed
with genuine humility and i'm going to give you a definition of humility in a minute that will really really uh let it get down in your mind your soul but this this brother when he first he comes to himself and he realizes you know what this life of sin this choice that i've made is not good it's destroying me so he says he comes to himself and realizes i'm out here perishing with hunger but even the servants in my father's house have enough to eat so logically he comes to a logical understanding of this lifestyle of sin is not really the best thing or the thing that i thought it was right and one of the definitions of the word repentance in the greek the greek word is metanoia and it literally means to change the mind to change the mind you don't think the same to think differently to reverse your situation to feel guilt and and to feel remorse for the decisions that you've made and to be willing to make a reformation or a change so that's that's the greek definition of repentance so this guy begins to change his thinking maybe he sees now why his father didn't want him to go out into that mean old world out there and live like the heathen and live like the devil he finds out that that road ends in destruction it ends in in the wasted life so he begins to come to himself so he realizes that so his the repentance on the inside of him and maybe nobody heard him say that or saw it but on the inside his heart is beginning to turn back to god back to the father and the next thing he says is what i will arise and i will go to my father and i will say oh boy here's the humility thing first of all i'll get up and i'll do what i need to do i will go to my father and i will say i am no more worthy to be called your son he didn't come demanding his place back his son he didn't come with an attitude you know what even though these servants are in here i'm still a son i deserve a better place than none of that he didn't come with any attitude he came back with true humility of heart and said even though i am a son i'm going to say to my father i'm not worthy to be called your son just put me working in a field for you because i don't deserve anything it wasn't with this attitude of i you owe me you have to do this for me i deserve this i'm better than those servants you get what i'm saying he came back i'm no more worthy to be called your son
and that's one of the things listen one of the things i learned myself when i went through my dark time and i learned one of the things is after i pastored and youth all those years and then went through the thing i went through with my divorce and then the people and then how that caused me to sink down and how i went into a very bad place and i sat there and i realized when when when god started dealing with me about where i let myself get to in just a lukewarm angry bitter with god bitter with people didn't want to go to church didn't want to be around christians and here i'd been a pastor so see we all we it don't matter who you are but i'll tell you one of the things that came out of that that god really broke me up that's all i mean almost i could say almost gone completely is when i pray and even though now i'm in probably one of the best places i've been in my life in a long long time probably since i was first saved those first five years i still know i'm no better than you are you are you i know i know better because at any moment i started thinking that i will be on my way down and end up back where i was do you know that sometimes i pray and sometimes i say god i do not deserve i do not deserve to even to be a pastor i don't deserve to stand up in front of you i shouldn't even be here because i know where my heart went i argued with him for some time that's why i sunk down deeper you know like jonah went down into the ship and he went down into the well you know they threw him in the ocean then he went down then he went just like he kept going down down down if you read that story right but i said lord i don't want to preach anymore i'm done with it you can find someone better than me you got to be you got to be humbled broken you want god to use you you want to fulfill your destiny you want to be the person god wants you to be the first steps admitting and keeping that i don't deserve anything from god i've sinned i've broken his heart i've hurt people i've been rebellious i've had hidden things in my life you know i've done terrible things i'm no better than anybody else prides is as bad as fornication
actually worse i believe when the devil wasn't cast out of heaven for fornication or drunkenness pride i will do this i will ascend i'm going to lift myself up i want to be in this position nothing humility mixed with repentance made it real so when his father saw him his father now look at this before the sun it said anything the father already discerned and knew that repentance was real and by the time he got there and said it he already knew it something about these elders and these fathers in the lord they discern stuff a lot more than you think they know okay talk about that later but the father discerned it received him throws his party of course i didn't even give you the scriptures last week where the words dead and lost there mean he was completely lost eternally lost to salvation and man there was rejoicing genuine repentance mixed with humility in the heart of somebody even before they've done a whole lot of actions is going to go a lot further with god than a bunch of your list of righteous good deeds right now the elder brother the elder brother syndrome here the father is rejoicing here the angels in heaven are rejoicing because a a sinner and a and a backslider a prodigal has come home the angels in heaven are rejoicing the father's excited his son was dead as alive it's it's the most rejoicing thing in the kingdom of god for a sinner to turn from their sins and return to god it is in it is the most beautiful thing to god it's listen you want to know what's the precious gem to god the beauty to god besides the death of his son on the cross in the resurrection is to see a sinner repent to see a sinner and i don't care if they've been born again before or never have in their life to see someone really in their heart humble themselves and turn and give their heart the most precious thing in in the kingdom of god his brother though instead of being happy instead of understanding says he gets angry he gets angry won't go into the party he comes out and when he comes his father comes out to talk to him what does he say and this is this here's your list of pride right here in self-righteousness all right when you start hearing this
what he says verse 29 and answering he said to his father lo these many years do i serve you love these many years look at how long i've been serving you look at how long i've been serving there are people in this church that are going to be elevated and put in positions to do certain things that hadn't been in the lord as long as other people that's going to happen but humility and obedience is what does it it has nothing to do with how long you've been saved right these many years i said look at this now this right here i have to say is a lie he says neither have i transgressed any anytime your commandment now come on what you just said there homeboy is that i've been perfect in everything that you've asked me to do nope don't think so he had a high opinion of his of himself didn't he i'm sorry but solomon said there is no man that sinneth not so he was a little happy with his righteousness and had a little bit of a wrong idea about where he really was okay because his anger and his attitude toward his brother revealed that he wasn't righteous neither lo these many years neither i at any time and then of course you never gave me a kid to make mary with my friends the accusation of unfairness or having a double standard do you know that i've been accused of that lately the accusation of being unfair having a double standard well i guess everyone's entitled to their opinion but it's interesting that the elder brother here that was his attitude you have not been fair i've been more righteous than my younger brother why haven't you done this for me let me let me just get this into your head if that's in your heart at times i have been better than someone else why are they getting blessed with something you are in the sin of envy and jealousy
and have no idea what's about to come your way okay all right you never gave me let's read the last thing but as soon as this your son not my brother your son was come and has devoured which is devoured you're living with harlots you have killed the fatted calf oh boy he sure was quick to point out his brother's sin that had already been repented of let me just say this is there not a scripture it says that god looks on the heart god looks on the heart let me tell you something i know there are people that there aren't perfect people but i tell you what i would give i would give anything for a person i give more for a person that's got a humble heart that still has problems versus one that thinks they don't have any problems maybe have some areas of their life together the other person doesn't have what's prideful about it i'd rather have the one that's got the problems humble and how about that i think that's the way god is just from reading the bible a little bit i think that's how he is okay so he points out his brother's sin and of course his father has to say look you've been with me yeah you've been with me all you had to do was ask you know what he found out there all that i have is yours if you'd ever asked me you could have had it you wanted to party with your friends ask you have not because you asked not so what do you sell him there revealed his prayer life really wasn't that great either right fussing about something he really spend any time asking for how long and then some of this stuff how long have you prayed about it how long have you prayed about a situation before you opened your mouth against it how long have you prayed for somebody before you judged the situation you ain't spending any time in prayer for someone i don't think you have a lot of right to open your mouth i'm just being real and you know something and i'm just going to say this sometimes as a pastor i have to talk to certain people about problems that arise okay if i come to you and have to ask you a question or talk to you about a problem that's rising up i'm not trying to talk about someone behind their back because my motive
my motive is i'm trying to help that person now there are people out there who go and talk about situations because their motive is to tear down a person okay and that's what paul would say he said you know he goes the things i'm trying to do when he's talked to the corinthians the things i'm trying to do is for your edification not your destruction that doesn't always mean that everything i have to talk about is pleasant but i know that my heart and i hope that you guys as you get to know me more and more discern that as a pastor i want to see you make it i want to see you grow i want to see you flourish anything that's dangerous that might be in your life i want to help you get it out i'm not i'd take no pleasure in having to rebuke you or correct you or discipline you or throw somebody out of the church i really take no pleasure in those things okay i really i'm gonna tell you my even my little my girls will tell you when they were little and i had my three rules and if those got broken it was automatic spanking no negotiation and that when they broke one of those rules and we had to go to the bedroom and get ready to have the discussion look at the bible tell them why they were getting a spanking and and go through the whole thing i would tell them i would rather not be doing this i'd rather us be playing the video game or the card game or whatever i really don't like being here we you know a lot of times they do it right before we're about to have a family time and be like do you think i want to do this no but jesus said i show them the bible proverbs if i don't if i don't spank you i don't love you that's simple and i'd show them that and say i love you you can't do this pow pow pow and then i'd hug him and we talk about it when we go back and we'd have a good time do you know that spankings got really rare in our house after a while but see i took no pleasure in them there's things that that as a pastor you have to do don't necessarily take pleasure in them but you have to do them okay and those of you that are going to be in leadership in this church and doing different things whether it be with youth or whether it be with as elders or praising worship team or children's ministry or whatever it may be you will see in any leadership position problems arise that you have to address and it's not always easy it's not as a balance and you're never going to please everybody and this and i'm not doing this to say that i hope to please everybody i won't always please everybody i know that and i'm not always going to do everything perfect i know that too but i'm just saying here's the thing our attitude toward the lost and the newly saved we've got to be very careful with because god's more concerned about their souls than he is about our feelings and our opinions okay all right let's read on now i'm going to give you let's just give you the definition this this definition of
humility i think you'll like this i gave you the definition of repentance metanoia the definition of humility or humbles humbleth himself is top and now this is what it means to make or bring low to bring into a humble condition to reduce to meager circumstances to assign a lower rank or place to a base to be ranked below others who are honored or rewarded without thinking you should be there or you are better to lower one's soul to bring down one's pride to have a modest opinion of oneself by always maintaining an attitude that i have sinned as well as others and do not deserve anything from god to behave in an unassuming manner did i go too fast i'm gonna do it again means to make or bring low to bring into a humble condition reduce to meager circumstances to assign a lower rank or place to and remember you can do this to yourself or god can do it right he that humbles himself you do this i do this or god will do it it's better if you do it it's better if i do it right humble enough but here's here's the one i'm going to read slowly i want you i want you to really write this one down to be ranked or to rank yourself below others who are honored or rewarded without thinking you should be there or that you are better to be ranked or to rank yourself below others who are honored or rewarded without thinking you should be there or you are better than they are the next part of that me is to lower one's soul in order to bring down one's pride the word soul means your mind your will and emotions what you thought you do it in your own mind to lower one soul in order to bring down one's pride
to lower one's soul in order to bring down one's pride to have a modest opinion of oneself this one's you need to this one right here to have a modest opinion of oneself by always maintaining an attitude that i have sinned as well as others and do not deserve anything from god this is kind of a combination of the strong greek dictionary and thayers and vines brought it kind of brought it all together you can look it up um humility now i want to show you something i want you to go with me go to luke chapter 19. i want you to see this this elder brother's attitude is what permeated the scribes and the pharisees and the sadducees this attitude was this elder brothers attitude was always looking and again really their heart motivation was not that they cared for the people they actually thought themselves above the people remember at one point when jesus healed uh the guy that was born blind and they said these people who don't know the law are cursed so they just put themselves up here since we know the scriptures we're above all these commoners down here right and what's interesting is that because of that pride the pride blinded them from seeing their own messiah that they had studied in the scriptures and should have recognized immediately even if their eyes had been opened a little bit to the prophet daniel they would have known that exactly 483 years had just passed since the foundation of the temple had been laid and daniel said that there would be 483 years and the messiah would appear it had been 483 years they should have known this is our messiah but the pride of their heart blinded them from it because they would not humble themselves and say guess what we might have studied the scriptures but we don't know everything that pride blinded them from seeing and and that pride now let me say this that pride that blind you will also be the same thing that turns you against god's anointed leaders jesus was perfect yet all they ever did was try to find
something on him all they did was try to criticize you shouldn't heal on the sabbath day why do your disciples pluck the corn and eat it on the sabbath day why do your disciples not eat uh eat without washing their hands and transgress the tradition of the elders why are you healing a man on the sabbath day why are you casting out a demon and healing this woman on the sabbath day right to me one of the funniest arguments in the scriptures this is hilarious to me jesus stands and this is john 7 jesus stands up in the temple basically says i'm the living water i mean he's telling them i'm the christ if there's any confusion here right he's telling them this right and it says there was a division among the people some of them believed that he was and some of them believed that he wasn't and and they're having this disc and so the pharisees go back and even with gamal who was one they're sitting there arguing and they say look he's from galilee he's from nazareth the scripture says that out of galilee or out of nazareth no prophets coming the messiah is not coming he says the scripture said he comes out of bethlehem oh really have any of you geniuses doctors of the law ever walked up to jesus and said by the way master where were you born you know what jesus would have said bethlehem and might have even given him a little explanation yes my mother and stepfather had to go there because thereof the tribe of judah and descendants of king david oh nobody asked these guys who thought they knew the scriptures saying that no prophet would come out of galilee actually there is scriptures it says that in the region of galilee a great light would come speaking of the messiah they missed that one thought they knew it that's the thing about people who think they know everything they don't theologians there there are theologians who have more degrees behind their name that should be allowed and they're some of the blindest people i've ever met to just basic things i'm not against education it's a good thing but don't become an educated fool right professing themselves to be wise they become fools is what romans says 19 luke 19 let's go there real quick just want you to see this
zacchaeus that little man wee little man you know that little song they sang who knows this crazy little song let's read it verse one and jesus entered and passed through jericho and behold there was a man named zacchaeus which was the chief among the publicans and he was rich now let's just put this way the tax collectors of that day were worse than the ones of this day they were far more crooked they extorted people i mean that's why they were all rich i mean they took far more than than what caesar required okay all right and they were hated by everybody it says behold the man was zacchaeus was a chief among the public he was a chief tax collector and he was rich and he though one day he sought to see jesus who he was and he could not for the press because he was little of stature and he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was to pass that way and when jesus came to that place he looked up and saw him and said unto him zacchaeus make haste and come down for today i must abide at your house now zacchaeus may have been a sinner and he may have been a chief one but something in zacchaeus's heart i want to see jesus i want to who is he who is this man the holy spirit was stirring this man's heart man this is precious because god's starting to do work but look at what happens the church world the pharisees spirit the elder brother spirit whatever you want to call it is what they do verse 6 says he made haste and he came down and received him joyfully and when they saw it they all murmured saying that he was gone to be the guest of a man that is a sinner oh boy we got the church folks fussing that jesus is going to dinner with the chief center in town but already his heart is changing see jesus knows what's going on in this guy's heart that's why he went to eat with him you know what i'm saying they had no concept and really didn't care they cared about their opinions and their judgments not about zacchaeus but jesus cared about zacchaeus and verse 8 and zacchaeus stood as they were eating dinner and zacchaeus said unto the lord now look at this behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have taken anything from any man by false accusation i restore him fourfold and jesus said unto him now look at this this day is salvation come to this house for as much as he is also a son of abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost now let me ask you something had zacchaeus done anything he just promised to do
all he did was say i'm going to give half my goods to the poor i'm going to go find anybody i've wronged and taken anything by false accusation i'm going to make it right but before he does anything toward re toward putting his repentance into action now granted he needs to put his repentance into action but before he did anything jesus said today salvations come to this house right now it's done he is the son or daughter of abraham and he said that because he knew the critics would not understand the work of true repentance and humility that took place in his heart before he ever got to work it out in his actions this is something that we've got to discern when sharing with people and preaching to people and witnessing to people and new converts they might not get it all worked out immediately but if you perceive and you discern in that their heart has truly turned to the lord and it's headed in the right direction we don't need to crush that little flower with demanding you be like everybody instantly right do you see that here let's just take a another story we won't turn to it how many of you would consider king david a mature believer okay we know he was man after god's own heart actually i believe david lived in a reality a revelation of the new covenant for 33 years even while under the old covenant i'll get into that one day and prove that to you okay otherwise god would have had to kill him because david had the ark in his backyard with no veil one man touches it before and dies you know what i'm saying there was a revelation david had about the priesthood of melchizedek and well we'll get in that that's a fun that's a fun little thing but i believe david david even experienced the reality of the new testament before it got here abraham did the bible says melchizedek appeared to jesus and they had communion and melchizedek basically it says in hebrews melchizedek was without beginning of life without father or mother without beginning of life or end of days he was known as the king of righteousness of the king of peace who is melchizedek exactly he's jesus it's a manifestation of jesus in the old covenant as the high priest and it says in the bible that the that melchizedek sat down with abraham and gave bread and wine in the old covenant in in the law they didn't do bread and wine like that and the bible says john in the gospel of john jesus said that the gospel was preached to abraham and that abraham saw my day abraham knew jesus that's why he's the father of faith he
knew jesus before jesus ever came it's a powerful little study you can do there and that david experienced that later on there was only two people that experienced that abraham and david but we say david's a mature believer well david we know did something terrible did actually he did several things but when he killed when he took bathsheba and committed adultery and she got pregnant and he decided to try to cover it up but uriah was an honorable man and he had to kill have uriah killed how long did god give david before he sent the prophet and judgment god gave david nine months to confess it to share not just with god what he'd done but to share with the community what he'd done to get open to get real and let me tell you it's dangerous to hide stuff matter of fact i got a message coming soon called the secret life of lives of american christians it's dangerous to hide stuff one thing we can be sure of as believers we call ourselves a believer said this back in numbers be sure of one thing be sure your sins will find you out first they're going to find you then they're going to find your family then they're going to find everything else god gave david nine months david did not confess it did not come clean was still trying to cover it up here comes nathan the prophet the child's born nathan the prophet steps forward and says david you're the man this is what you've done the child will die i believe the child may have lived had david come clean if god gave david nine months shouldn't we give people a little space to get some things right with god i'm sorry but we can't demand everything instantaneous god will give people some space in the book of revelation he gave jezebel that prophetess who was in fornication and leading people she said i gave her space to repent i gave her a time period to get those things right she didn't god sets those time periods not us so your opinions and your judgments on what people should do in what amount of time be careful just be careful because you don't know right are you looking at them long term where they're going to end up with how you deal with them are you just trying to be a pharisee that's my point
we can all slip into this pharisee spirit so jesus goes to this zacchaeus house salvation comes just the attitude of the heart salvation comes that day last passage luke 7. checking our attitude toward sinners and newly converted people and people that are just getting things their heart back with god we're going to close with this because we've been going for a little while this is it luke 7. i want you to see jesus went to somebody else's house to eat went to a man called simon the pharisees house let's read this verse 36 and one of the pharisees desired him that he would eat with him and he went to the pharisees house and sat down to meet and behold a woman in the city which was a sinner when she knew that jesus sat at me in the pharisees house brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with the tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment now when the pharisee which had bitten him saw this he spake now listen this within himself saying this man if he were a prophet would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him for she is a sinner oh this attitude attitudes attitudes attitudes instead of thinking maybe this man who's healing the blind and raising the dead might know something i don't know just a little bit of humility a little bit no none pharisee spirit always looking for something to find fault with so jesus says simon i love it he didn't even say it out loud and yet he gets rebuked about it simon i have somewhat to say unto you he said master say on he said there was a certain creditor which had two debtors the one owed 500 pence and the other 50 and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both tell me therefore which of them will love him most and simon answered and said i suppose he that to whom was forgave the most and he said you has right you have rightly judged and he turned to the woman and said unto simon see thou this woman i entered into your house and you gave me no water for my feet but she has washed my feet with tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head you gave me no kiss but this woman says the time i came in has not ceased to kiss my feet my head with oil you did not anoint but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment wherefore i say under her sins which are many are forgiven
for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little now i want to stop right there for a second because this pharisee in his heart was convinced he loved god more than this center woman remember being convinced of your gone goodness dangerous right but he was convinced what a slap in the face to have jesus say no simon buddy boy she loves me more than you do she loves god more than you do does god look at things the same way we look at them no no no no no let's finish this story and he said unto her that verse 48 thy sins are forgiven now let's just stop right there thy sins are forgiven jesus declared this about this woman before she left and look look what it says when she left of course they start bickering about who can forgive sins but look at verse 50 and he said to the woman thy faith has saved thee go in peace so boom he tells her you're forgiven we don't know where she just come from what she had done maybe she was mary magdalene who was the next thing said that some woman that he cast seven devils out of i don't know maybe it was maybe it wasn't but the bottom line here is look at the attitude jesus is in two people's houses one's got an attitude of judgment that god it and doesn't understand that god is dealing with this woman and doing a great work in her heart and that it's none of their pardon my friends none of their business i was going to say something else but none of their business what he was doing in her he was doing a work leave it alone but instead simon had his own judgments and opinion and turned his judgments not just toward the woman but against jesus if he were a prophet he wouldn't let this woman touch him oh god so jesus goes to his house he gets a rebuke and a slap in the face but the humble heart over here zacchaeus gets the word today salvation has come before he's done any work do you see my point be careful yes we have to deal with sinners sin and we have to preach that they have to give it up and come to jesus okay that's the message when they start coming to jesus and when they come yes they're going to leave some things there's things they're not going to understand and we work with them on those things
but i can tell you this much you're going to get yourself in a whole lot more trouble with god you may not be doing the same thing they were doing but if you start judging them and trying to have opinions that you don't know about on things you don't really know about you're getting yourself in dangerous situation i'm just going to be frank i will have a lot more patience on a new believer or or even a prodigal that's just coming home they may not be all cleaned up just yet but i'm going to have a lot more patience with them than i'm going to have with the elder brother syndrome and with the simon the pharisee syndrome because it's just the reason that a lot of them won't go to church right patience patience and love and if you guys ever get the idea which i don't know where you get it from that i'm going to be soft on the sin issue you have just heard from the devil on that one all right at times am i going to be patient and loving with people that are struggling with some things yes am i going to deal differently with the one that's been saved a month versus the one that's been saved 10 15 20 years oh you better believe it you can call it unfair you can call it a double standard you can call it whatever you want you can go down to the first church of the pharisee for all i care i'm serious we just gonna have to find the balance and i'm just not gonna i'm not gonna tolerate it nor should i all right primarily the primary thing that we've got to do is love right what's the first thing it says about love love is patient kind i'm going to preach strong when i'm up here and especially when we have i know people come that are when they're visitors and i know that they're lost or they're not where they need to be and i may end up preaching i mean you know preach hell hot and sin terrible but if i see the hint just discern or perceive the hint that god is working in them and turning them i'm not going to go beat them up get what i'm saying let god work it took several weeks for me and then after that i remember after i i gave my life back to the lord you know i
cussed worse than a sailor okay it was like breathing for me all right and after i was born again and rededicated my life and repented and got the pornography out and the drugs out and the pre-marital sex out i still cussing didn't want to leave i was trying but it was still flying and i'm talking about everything i'm not talking about just a few mild ones i mean it was just like natural i mean i just every other word was and i was trying but it wasn't it wasn't there yet it took me about a month and you have to understand also that that i would really had a change in my life now had somebody come up to me screaming and yelling at me and telling me i wasn't saved because i said the f word how would that have helped me you know what i'm saying it wouldn't help and you know and i came out of you know i would fight pretty much at the drop of a hat i'm not i'm not joking you tell you smart enough to mean you were usually picking yourself up off the ground and going what happened and i remember about a month after my step brother got smart with me and actually stuck his finger in my face oh that would have got you in the hospital back in that when the way i lived before and man i lost it now here i'm a month rededicated lost it we were both working in the same restaurant and we were in the he was in the bar having lunch i said you are going to step outside with me right now or i'm going to whip you all over this place and i didn't use those nice words and of course he was a wise individual and did not step outside and stayed behind the bar and i was on the other side of the ball and i didn't feel like going to jail that day so i didn't snatch him up in the bar and but i remember after that going back to work and then i remember getting home now if anybody has seen any you know the guy that led me back to anybody had seen that they'd be like oh god what is he doing but you know what nobody had to say anything to me god used that incident to humble me and i went to my stepbrother and i apologized and the moment that humility came in cussing started falling off of me and that anger started falling off of me and that that some of that old stuff but again it took weeks into this thing new believers people newly returned home and not everything's not going to be cleaned up immediately but you know what we got to patiently love them and help
them get there not tolerate stuff i'm not saying that but help them get there and this has got to be our attitude is we begin to go out witness and you're going to you're going to see kevin's been able to see me witness to some people out out on the street out on the job and you can give both strong deal with the issues and both show them the love of jesus you gotta you gotta show them both both sides and so this is what i'm i'm giving you today prepare your heart and your attitude toward the lost and newly converted and prodigals that are just coming home they still got the pig slop on them and give us a little time to get it off okay before you start getting turning into simon the pharisee on me all right because i promise you if it was you and maybe the one you're pointing your finger at i guarantee you you criticizing the patience i might be having with with him if it was flipped around you would want the same patience right let's pray father in heaven we thank you lord for your word for the truth and i pray god that you just forgive us all lord me included for judgments that were not good for opinions that should have been not even in my heart i pray that you'll begin to deal with all of your people in this church lord so that we won't become the elder brother so that we won't become simon the pharisee so we won't become sowers of division but lord that we can be instruments of healing instruments of restoration instruments of souls helping souls grow in their faith father we love you we praise you we bless you we thank you jesus name amen i want you to take that word i know it was a little longer than normal i want you to take that word i want you to really meditate on it that it not be just one mess one more message on one more sunday this is kind of going to set us and prepare us because i believe god's going to bring a lot of people in this next year in these next two years a lot of new people coming out of a lot of weird wild stuff as johnny carson used to say weird wild stuff and it's going to take some time sometimes to deal with us right