There are a lot of people, of course, very lost at the moment, very scared. It would be dismissive of us to dismiss their fears and to say, you're going to be fine. They don't feel fine. They need hope. They need to know love. They need to know the love of God in Christ Jesus. He under calamity, even in recent times, the whole world is focused on this coronavirus. But really, what are they really focused on? They're focused on their life and death. That's what they fear. They fear the unknown. They fear eternity, stepping into eternity and not knowing a shepherd who would hold their hand. I wonder, do we know that shepherd? Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we know, we know for those of us who are part of this church, We know what lost people can do. Come to King Jesus, who has been given all authority, who is with us to the end of the age, who is he now by his spirit, who hears our prayer. And so we pray that we would come. That we would hear Jesus words. in his own preaching in this parable, that we would respond by clinging to Christ, that we would repent and rejoice in Jesus name. Amen. Luke 15 is such a famous chapter. There's been books written about it. It's probably the most prolifically written about chapter in the Bible. In recent times, there's been so many books written about it, often with the same theme. It's not like we discover anything that's necessarily new about it. But what we do discover in it is a fresh God's love for the lost. That's what we discover. You don't have to be an expert or a commentator or a scholar to discover the new things here because it's all been written about. What you do need to be is lost. And at least realize that. So it's easy for us to come to Luke 15, perhaps even as Christians, and go, well, this is not about me, right? This is about those people over there. But I want you to see that Jesus gives these parables. He tells them to people who think that, who believe this is not for them. In fact, Jesus is very pointed today. It's like you turn up to church, and if Jesus was preaching, he would say, this is about you. That's how pointed, like he wants to say directly about you. Now, we already know that, don't we? This is for us. But we need to hear that again because it starts with the story of the lost. In our series in Luke, we've ended up here, this is where we are, this is where we land today, Luke 15, and for various reasons pastorally, we need this. Like you and I need this. We need to listen to Jesus. If we're going to really believe the gospel changes everything, if we're really going to believe we've been given grace, if we're really going to believe and live, believe and live like we show others grace, we need this. It starts, of course, verse one, and what I'm going to do this morning is I'm going to read a section and then I'm going to talk about it. It starts, verse one, with grumbling. Grumbling about Jesus' ministry. You think, who would grumble about Jesus' ministry? Of all the people, if you wanted to plant a church and start a church, I'd go to Jesus' church. I'd go to his group. But there are people that are grumbling about it. Luke 15, verse 1. Now the tax collectors and sinners rolled roaring near to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, oh, this man receives sinners and eats with them. You see who this is? This is the Pharisees, the scribes. Now, the scribes are also, Luke describes as the lawyers, in other words, the religious legalists. And these Pharisees, they belong to a small club but an influential club, These Pharisees, these scribes, see Jesus in His ministry, where Jesus has a whole bunch of people, tax collectors and sinners, all the people you don't like in your town, all the people you don't like in your city, and they're flocking to Jesus. In fact, the verb that is used indicates this was an ongoing thing, it was always happening. Not just like this day, but when people think Jesus ministry in that day, they think the sinners. Jesus is the Church, He's planted the Church of sinners. they're all flocking and so the religious legalists are grumbling, the Pharisees are grumbling. Why? Because the Pharisees love this game, it's called the comparison game, where they compare themselves to others all the time. In fact, that's how they build their platform of ministry, they build their platform upon comparison to others. Let me read, actually, a scholar has found a Pharisee's prayer from the day. This is not in the Bible, this is a common prayer that a Pharisee would pray. Let me read this to you. I thank you, Lord, my God, going well so far, isn't it? That's good, that's alright. I thank you, Lord, my God, that you have set my portion with those who sit in the sanctuary. In other words, those who come to church. He's thankful he gets to come to church. Going well so far. and not with those on street corners. I rise early and they rise early. I rise to attend the word of the Torah and they attend to futile things. I exert myself and they exert themselves. I exert myself and receive a reward and they exert themselves and receive no reward. I run and they run. I run to life in the world to come and they run to the pit of destruction. prayer sounds okay, doesn't it? It's me and it's them but that's the problem, isn't it? Because he sees his own goodness, his own righteousness. He cannot see his unrighteousness. The problem with the religious legalist is they are self-righteous. They can only see their own goodness. Look, you can tell this when you talk to someone. I don't think anyone today who even claims to be Christian, you know, you've met people like this perhaps, and heaven forbid it's been me, but I confess it right now if it has, and as it has been, we're all like this at some point. But when you meet people, even Christians, that want to criticize every other ministry, they grumble about that ministry over there, they grumble about that church over there, they grumble about that church over there, they grumble about every other ministry, they grumble about every other Christian, and you NEVER hear them self-reflect. Never once hear them say, here's what I struggle with, here are my problems, here's what I'm sad about in my own life, here's where I see my church has got some things we could work on. If you never hear a Christian self-reflect on their own sin or their own church's problems, and every church has problems, folks, let's be honest, we've got problems. If you never hear someone self-reflect on their ministry or on their own sin, you've just met a self-righteous legalist. Jesus looks them in the eye and says, I've got a story for you. Notice, he's speaking to the Pharisees. These three parables are for them. They're for the self-righteous legalists who never self-reflect on their own sin and their own unrighteousness. All they can see is they're blinded by their self-righteousness. so he gives this parable to them, the first, the second and the third are all for them. The first one, we see, tells a story about what is lost outside the sheepfold, the second one is what's lost in the household and the third one combines everything together. It's kind of the climax, the climactic parable. But the first one, very straightforward, very simple, it's about a lost sheep, isn't it? Verses 3 to 7, verse 3. So, he told them this parable and What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave a ninety-nine in the open country, and go after one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays on his shoulders rejoicing, and when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me! for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so, I tell you, there'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. More joy over one. Jesus is very pointed He's heard their grumbling and so he says to them, he stops looking at the crowd of tax collectors and sinners that are with him and he turns to the Pharisees, I'm just going to use the white wall in case I'm not pointing at anyone here particularly, and he turns to them, right? And he turns to them and he says to them, what men of you? Like, which one of you? I'm talking to you now! Which one of you? If you perhaps had a hundred sheep and you lost one, would not leave the 99 to get one, like you even cared that much about sheep. Sheep in the ancient Near East were an important commodity, but like then and even now, there are other more important commodities, like coins which are coming in the next parable, but sheep, in a sense, are a disposable product. He says, what man of you, you would care enough for sheep? Well, here's a shepherd, he goes, he leaves 99 to go after 1. Now, I'm all for strategies and outcomes-based planning, right? But look at this, this is ridiculous as a strategy. To leave 99 without the shepherd, just sort of sitting there, and to go after 1? That's not a strategy, that's something else. It's compassion, it's love, it's extreme love. And then when he finds the lost sheep, calls everyone to rejoice, and Jesus' point is clear in verse seven. You think you're righteous? You don't think you need to repent like these folks over here, like everyone else here is repenting? See this, God in heaven has a heart for the lost. that overflows with joy in heaven over a terrible sinner who turns to God in repentance. Yes, they're terrible sinners, but as they turn to God in repentance, heaven explodes with a party. It's not just the angels are going, hey, that's pretty good. Let's all have a party, angels. No, why do the angels party in heaven? Because God is celebrating. Because God is the shepherd who says, hey, everyone, There is repentance. And so now we have rejoicing. We had a sermon last week on repentance, repent or you'll perish from Luke 13, and I said, and I'll say it again, I said it many times in this church, we often think repentance is this grudgery, this grudge, oh, I've got to repent. Every time you see repentance in the Bible, notice this, you track it very closely, join the dots, repentance, and the next is rejoicing. Repentance leads to rejoicing. Which is more important to God, do you think? Do you think your own righteousness is more important to God? See, sometimes as Christians, if you've been a Christian particularly for a while, or you grew up in a particular church tradition, we can easily assume, it may not be preached with explicit words, but we start assuming, we start believing that somehow, oh, it's been a while since I last sinned, or I kicked that particular habitual sin, it's been a while, and we start believing the lie that I'm righteous. I was never righteous. You are not righteous. you're a Christian, it is Christ's righteousness that you get. That's called grace, it's a gift and we are eternally not self-righteous but thankful, grateful. Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, which one is more real here? Like if you want to step into reality, which is more real? Your righteousness or your need of repentance? Jesus then moves on to the next parable pretty quickly because he says, I've spoken to you, or which one of you, but perhaps let's talk about women. of what woman, having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, this is verse 8, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, same words, rejoice with me for I found the coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. You can imagine this scene, this is common, isn't it? I grew up with my mum going through this crisis about once a week. I'm really hesitant to talk about my own family, and Amy, I think, is in kids' church, but look, there are these things called earrings, and they're really, like, they're lost all the time. Like, I don't know what it is about earrings, but earrings just, like, scurry to all sorts of places, and then you've got to turn the house upside down to find, you know what it's like. Coin, earring. Fellas, perhaps it's the remote control. It's that little tiny small thing that yet has large value. Common in a sense, ordinary as a story in a sense, but here's where it gets extraordinary. One coin, you see a footnote in your Bible that'll tell you, is probably a day's wages. So she's got 10 of them, 10 days wages. Well, in an ancient Near East economy, where you're trying to plan ahead, I guess we like to plan ahead three months. If I've got three months of savings or whatever else, 10 days is probably enough. It's a fair bit. But one coin, like one coin, one day's wage, she loses one coin. Here's where it gets extraordinary. She loses a coin. She does everything she can to find it. She gets that coin. What does she do next? Throws a party. How expensive are parties? She finds a coin. This is not a story of economic lost and found, in other words. It's not a story of economy, of like, wow, she got the, you know, the economy's back, it's stable again, the shares are rising, the market's okay, we were going into a bullish market, but now we're a bear market, whew, Australia avoided that one. It's not an economic story. It's a story of lost and found, so she throws an extravagant party and rejoices. And Jesus illustrating this joy says this, in other words, when a sinner repents, it is literally priceless. It's priceless. Has more value than you can imagine to God himself. To see the lost found. God who so loves the lost. Because of these two parables, it now sets us up. I tried to think of an illustration for this, and I like to think of a sport, I know we're not all into sport, and one of them is soccer, and I'm not into soccer, but Knox has played a bit of soccer this year, six-year-old soccer, which is, I don't know if it's really soccer or it's just, I don't know, here's a ball, have a free-for-all and try not to hurt each other for 40 minutes. They're in a net, it's all very safe. But the thing about soccer that I do know is this, and I guess it's kind of like tennis as well, I'm trying to talk to everyone in the room, talking to two of you, there's this thing where you need to set it up right, so it takes preparation. You can't just score a goal in soccer. It's not just a matter of, I got the ball, I'm going to score a goal. You need a team. Someone else sets it up. They put the ball in front of the net or they kick it over and then it's ready for the striker. So what Jesus has done in the first two parables, he set it up, right? He set it up because it's like, oh that's about sheep. Oh yeah, sheep are cute. Disposable. Coins. One day's wages. We're Pharisees, we're rich. Yeah, okay, I can see how, yeah. But he sets it up for the big hit, the big strike at the net. Here comes the ball and now comes the strike. Parable of two sons. It's the longer parable, it's the bigger one. It carries all the weight in this chapter. And Jesus says, I wanna tell you that, two sons. You know, our Bibles, our translators have something like the prodigal son, the parable of the prodigal son. You could probably ignore that entirely. You can see the title of this parable from the text. You don't need to be a scholar to work this out. The title is verse 11. a man had two sons. That's the title of the parable. This is a parable about two sons and the loving father. That's what it's about. A man had two sons and those two sons had a loving father. And we see the first son comes to his father. Now remember, this is an ancient Near East culture, right? Very patriarchal, very important. We respect dad and respect who he is, and I know my place. But the youngest son in Jesus' parable, and this is meant to, of course, as any movie or book does, it's meant to awaken your attention and go, wow, that's extraordinarily awful. Because the youngest son comes to his father and he says, give me the share that is coming to me. Highly unusual in ancient Near East culture. It's actually highly unusual even today. Back then, the father would have every expectation, every right to throw the son out on his ear and say, go back to the field, you arrogant son. And here is where it gets set up. Here is where it's so awful. What is that young son saying to his dad? He's effectively saying, Dad, I wish you were dead. And I wish I had all your stuff, your money. Can you, like, be dead now? And I'll get the inheritance. I can't wait. He's effectively saying to Dad, I don't really love you that much. I just want your stuff, and I'll scoot off, thanks. It's awful. And it gets more striking because our Bibles don't really show it there, but if you see in verse 12, Father, give me the share of the property that is coming to me and he divided his property between them. The two words property there, they're two different words. The first word property, it's just a word you could use for property. The second one is, when the father divides his property, the word property there is the Greek word bion or bios, it means life. In other words, the father was being asked to tear his life apart and give some of that to his son. Now, scholars will tell you of the day, usually older son gets two-thirds, younger son gets a third, or some sort of portion, but still a fair bit. His father has to get what he's got, rip it all up and give son to his son. It's literally tearing his life apart. We don't see the father's emotions at this point, but you can imagine, it's not just tearing him up socially and economically, it's tearing him up inside, emotionally. And it's an agony that he bears the cost of himself. But this young son thinks he's free as a bird now, or free as a fish who's jumped out of the fishbowl. Now, of course, you've seen the illustration before. How free is a fish that jumps out of the fishbowl of home and onto the desk? How free is that? But he thinks he's free. And so he scoots off and spends all he has recklessly. A famine goes to that region and he goes to the lowest of the lows. And especially in Jewish culture, in Jesus' story, he is now a hired hand feeding pigs. And if you know Jewish culture and tradition around pigs, this is an awful place to be. The Pharisees would be just cringing, just like, it's like someone's got their nails on the chalkboard and going, down the chalkboard. This is like awful level. But he's even worse in a situation because he's hungry enough to eat the pig food. And in verse 16, we see no one came to his care. No one came to his help. In contrast to who? In contrast to his father, who gave him everything. His father had already given him everything. Everything he did not deserve. Everything he said to the father, I don't care if you're not in my life anymore. I just want your gifts. I don't want the giver. I want the gifts. And he took what he was given and went. And now no one cares for him. But verse 17, he comes to his senses and remembers there is someone who does care. There is someone who's always cared. And he remembers his father's care. So he comes up with a plan. Here's his plan as he's chewing the pig food. Instead of perishing, I will repent. This is Luke 13, isn't it? I'm not going to perish. I'm not going to perish. I'm going to repent. So secondly, what does he do? He plans out a speech he's going to give to his father. And since he said that, you know, father, you're dead to me, effectively, he plans to go back and act like he's dead to his father. He plans to go back, not as a son, but as a servant, and earn his way back into the favor of the family. I've got it worked out. I'm going to go by works-based righteousness. I'm going to work my way towards the Father's love. He'll love me again because I'm going to work for it. Does not every sinner who repents start to think this way a little bit? If I just repent enough, use the right words, show that I've cleaned up my life in an instant, I'll never do it again, God will love me. That's his plan. It's not a very good one. But at least it starts somewhere. And that somewhere is this, in amongst his plan, which is not going to work that way, he's got this, I need to go to my father right now. Right now. the younger son goes. And as he goes, verse 20, as he's on his way, he's still a long way off, his father sees. What does it show us? The father's been looking. Although his son has been dead to him, it seems like he was dead, this is the language the father uses later, he's still looking for his son to return and he sees and with compassion he runs, which is highly unusual in an ancient Near East culture. I'm 42, middle-aged. If we were to have, for some reason, a reforming running race, just today, for fun, have a morning tea. If we were to say, let's have a running race, are we going to say, how about all the middle-aged men have a race? Well, one, we don't want to. I speak on behalf of them. And two, it's just not pretty. No offense to other middle-aged men here. Middle-aged men, and for him, in a patriarchal society, it's not a pretty thing to run, it's not the done thing to do. But that's what he does out of love. Girds his loins, picks up his clothes, and he runs toward his son. He runs, embraces him, literally falls on his neck, kisses him. And his younger son starts his speech. And as he starts his speech, the father interrupts him and says, hey servants, bring the best of everything. The best robe, the best ring, the best shoes. Bring the fattened calf. We're going to feast and celebrate and party. The father's words take over the son's words. The son tries to work his way back into the family and the father says, you're already here. And I love you. I embrace you. You are welcomed. For his son, he says, was dead, but now he's alive. It's the language of resurrection. He was lost and now is found. And they all celebrate the son's repentance. Except one. See where this younger son thought he would be happy. And this is a tale of two sons. He actually ended up being miserable, didn't he? Ended up being miserable. But now repentance leads to happiness. Repentance leads to rejoicing. But there's another son, and he's not rejoicing. He's out in the field doing the right thing, been doing it every day for a while now, doing the right thing, obeying, and he hears a party. He comes in from his works, hears the party because his brother has been received back safe and sound, verse 27, and instead of celebrating too, he's angry. See, the older son, unlike the other son, the younger son, he does not come to himself. And notice, he doesn't come to himself, but his father goes to him. His father is the one that goes to him. And the older son has, in a similar way, a rehearsed speech as well. It's like he's been working in the field this whole time with a speech ready for such time as this. When the younger brother returns and he thought this might happen, his speech is ready. You see his speech, here it is, he's had it ready for some time as he's plowing, he's been saying it in his heart over and over again, I'm ready to tell my dad this, tell him what it really has been like. And he says, he says in verse 29, But he answered his father, look, doesn't even say father, he says, look you, look, these many years I've served you and I've never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours comes, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. That's my speech. dad and when he says this son of yours he's mocking his father who has just said my son the oldest son thinks he is justified in his anger don't we all you get angry about something i'm justified in my anger but listen carefully church Self-justification, and the word justification is the same word as righteousness in the Bible. Self-justification equals self-righteousness. Who is Jesus telling this parable to? Those who are self-justifying, those who are self-righteous. The older brother had obeyed, but what come of it? All his obedience. What does his obedience come to? Grumbling that his father welcomes sinners and eats with them. How awful. Do you see who the older brother is in this parable? It's anyone who is self-righteousness, looks at others and says, well, I'm not like that sinner over there. The older brother had obeyed, but here's where it gets worse for him. He loses everything. He loses out on rejoicing. He loses out on feasting with the family because he's self-righteous. But his father keeps coming to him in love, we see in verse 31. And he said to him, son, you were always with me and all that is mine is yours. Because literally that's true, isn't it? He had divided up his property. A third goes to the younger one. You get the two thirds. All I have is already given it to you. I've given you everything. Verse 32, it was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this your brother, your brother. was dead and now is alive. He was lost and is found. Son, do you know who this is? He's your brother. The father is so gracious. The older son is the one that says, this your son, and the father has to point out and say, he's your brother. Your brother was dead. Now he's alive. He was lost. He's now found. Now, Jesus' parable doesn't include the oldest son's response at this point, does it? It just stops right there. Why? That is the point, I think, because we are to fill in the blank. Will we repent if we've been a sinner who sought freedom out of the fishbowl only to find we have misery? Will we repent, truly repent and rejoice, knowing that the Father has already given us everything? Or for others of us, will we repent of our self-righteousness? There are two sons here. One is the S's, one is the sinner and one of the self-righteous. Both need to repent. That's the point. Fill in the blank. What will you do? See, the story starts and ends with two sons, but most of all, it starts and ends with a loving father. The Father is unique in the parable. He is the first person named and he is the last person to speak. And this Father in this parable, we can see by now who this is. A parable is an illustrative story with a point. The point is, this is God. This illustrates God. This is what God is like. God loves the lost. You want to know what God's like in His character? Look to Jesus. Jesus loves the lost. And this is the story of the loving father who, forgiving his lost son, and still goes to love the unloving son. He loves both. It's so easy for us as a church to go, yeah, at least we're not like those Pharisees. You've got to be careful doing that, because we play that same comparison game. At least I'm not like them, because they did that thing that I'm really angry about. Be careful, because that self-justification equals self-righteousness. The tragedy of the older son is this. His father comes to him and says, come with me, son. I give you everything, or he have. Would you celebrate with us? Here's the tragedy. The tragedy is this, he says to his father, nah, I'm all good, thanks. Literally, I'm good. He's not, I'm good, I won't celebrate. That's the tragedy. The tragedy is the older son is actually lost. He's lost and wants to stay lost in his self-righteousness. His own goodness keeps him out of his father's grace. His own goodness, his own self-righteousness will not allow him to say, yes, father, you have given me everything. I celebrate that. Let me celebrate. You keep giving everything to other lost sons too. The father welcomes sinners and eats with them and treats his son. And that older son says, nah, I'm all good, which is actually worse than admitting he's bad. It's actually worse. So if you admit you're bad and need repenting to rejoice, that is what God is looking for. That is what Jesus came for. But to say, I don't need to do that. That is a dangerous place to live. Self-righteousness kills relationship with God and it leaves you lost and on the outside. And the unloving son, here's the other tragedy about it. He was supposed to love the lost. See, what does sin do to us? What has sin done to us in the beginning? Think of the first two brothers. The first two brothers after the fall, Cain and Abel. Cain does not love Abel. He does the opposite. He sins, which is the opposite of love. Sin is the opposite of love. And he goes out to strike him and kills him. And then famously in that scene, God says, where's your brother? And he says, I'm not my brother's keeper. Actually, you are. Actually, you are. Humanity is made to love their neighbor, their brother. You are your brother's keeper. And this is what the unloving son is saying. I don't care about my brother. I'm my brother's keeper. I don't care about him. He was supposed to. It should have been him going to the foreign country and looking for his brother. The Pharisees are that brother. They're the ones who are supposed to be as the religious leaders, the leaders of God's people at that time. They're supposed to look out for the lost. They're supposed to look for the sinners. They're supposed to invite them to their dinners and their tables and their banquets. That's what they're supposed to be doing. The Pharisees are like Jonah. You know Jonah? We preached with Jonah last year, the year before. Jonah. Jonah gets angry at God's grace. chapter 4. He gets angry at God's grace. Jonah has anger, self-righteous issues going on. Jonah is the world's worst missionary because he goes to tell people about God and then gets angry when they repent. The Pharisees are just like Jonah. They're the older brother who will not love the lost like God loves the lost. And do you see how God does that? You see the real father in this? God, our father, what does he do? He sends out the real loving son, the one who is our brother, the one who is the son of man, the one who comes, the one who comes into the world born of a woman. Born into this world, the father sends the real and better loving son. And what does that loving son do? Out of love, he goes and searches for his wayward brothers and sisters. He goes into the world on a rescue mission. Jesus, in chapter 19, which we'll see in a few weeks, says this about his mission. Here is why he came. Chapter 19, verse 10, for the son of man came to seek and save the lost. It is Jesus who comes as the better older brother where Cain did not want to be his brother's keeper and when rather able to die, Jesus comes as his brother's keeper to die. To die instead. To die on a cross for all the times we've said to our father, yeah, you gave me everything God, but I'm going to take that and squander it because that means freedom for me. He dies for that sin. The older brother comes and he lays his life down also for the self righteous who are blinded by their own self justification. He dies for that sin. The great thing about the gospel accounts is, and we often miss this, but I want us to focus on this just for at least five seconds. Here is where it really gets wonderful. There are Pharisees. at this time when Jesus is on earth to repent and believe and rejoice. There are Pharisees who you will meet in heaven who are rejoicing and say, I was a Pharisee. I was self-righteous. In fact, one of them, most famously, his name is Paul. You may have read some of his works in the Bible, New Testament. He says in Philippians, I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. But the fact that God loves the lost melted my heart, blew me away. The gospel changes everything, even Pharisees, even self-righteous people. That's why this parable was told, isn't it? Self-righteousness makes you miserable. for you hold on to your own goodness and therefore you can't grasp God's goodness and grace. Self-righteousness means you hold on to self-pity. And so if something happens to you, you walk around in this self-pity form of misery and a burden of bitterness you hold towards others and even to God who loves the lost. But look, self-righteous people, look at how gracious God is with the self-righteous. What does he do? He comes out of the party to call you in. To rejoice with Him. You're lost too. But now you can repent and rejoice too. And if you thought freedom was your way, freedom from God, and you found it's just a life of misery. Today is your day. Turn to God. Repent and rejoice. Celebrate. And for us as a church, this is where we finish. This is where we land. The title of this sermon is God's love for the lost. If we are going to be anything like Jesus, we will also love the lost too. That means just a couple of things. Firstly, we ought to be careful if we grumble about other sinners. We've been given grace, we've been given everything. Let's not grumble about other sinners. And here's a great tip. After hearing Jesus' words, let's pray for them instead. Let's pray for them, be they sinners or self-righteous, that they would hear the gospel and it would change them inside out. Let's speak with them with love and love them and invite them to our dinner table, to our homes, to our feasting as a church on a Sunday. And if it comes to it for the next little while, if we can't have this, to our homes in such a way that we would love the loss too. And it means it will celebrate with them. It means we'll love them because we know the love of the father who sent his son for us to let's pray with thankfulness. Our father in heaven, we do pray with thankfulness. We read from Isaiah 25 verse nine, it will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him. that He might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him. Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation. We're asking that this would be true of us today. Father, where we have been tempted to compare ourselves to others, we ask, cast that out of us. Where we have been tempted to self-righteousness, self-justification, self-pity, Where we have been tempted to that, help us to hear, like those first hearers, this message from Jesus, that God comes for the lost and that includes self-righteous people too. We repent now. By your grace, we repent of our self-righteousness and turn to Jesus, knowing that it's only His righteousness we are clothed with, His amazing grace that saves us and shapes us and continues to clothe us, giving us everything we have, especially eternal life, salvation, feasting forever. Father, we pray for those who were the lost sons and daughters this morning, who have sought to live their lives of freedom or self-discovery or pave their own path away from you, wishing you were dead, wishing you were not in their life. Father, we pray as they come to their senses now, that they would repent and rejoice in Jesus, knowing they will only ever find happiness in Him. Father, we pray in this pivotal moment that the good news of Jesus, the grace of God, and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would save, would change us, everything. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.