Fusion Bible
Day 24
40 Days of Prayer
Locations & Times
Durant, OK, USA
Thursday 12:00 AM
DAY TWENTY-FOUR – Thursday, September 29
THE LOST OLDER BROTHER
Read: Luke 15:25-32
Jesus continued on with the story and described a father encouraging his older son to enter in, to partake of the banquet. Here is where the story ends and we are left on the edge of our seats wondering what happened to the older brother. Why did Jesus stop here? The real audience of this parable is not the irreligious, but in fact the religious, and they are facing the question: will they walk through the door? You see, Jesus did not tell this parable to warm our hearts, but to shatter our categories and self- righteousness.
Jesus redefines everything (sin and lost-ness).
Jesus is redefines everything we thought we knew about connecting to God. He is redefining sin, what it means to be lost and what it means to be saved.
Jesus redefines sin. Sin is not just breaking the rules, but putting yourself in the place of God the Savior.
Jesus condemns destructive self-centeredness.
Jesus condemns moralistic life.
Both brothers were wrong.
Both brothers were loved - and the father invites both into love and a feast.
Jesus does not divide the world into the moral “good guys” and the immoral “bad guys”. He shows us that everyone is dedicated to a project of self-salvation, to using God and others in order to get power and control for themselves.
This means that Jesus’s message, which is the “gospel”, is a completely different spirituality. The gospel of Jesus is not religion or irreligion, morality or immorality, moralism or relativism, conservatism or liberalism. Nor is it something halfway along a spectrum between two poles-it is something else altogether. In the gospel everyone is wrong, everyone is loved, and everyone is called to recognize this and change. - Timothy Keller
Again, the twist this week is that the parable is actually directed toward the religious - which is us. We may be at the door and yet not have passed through the door.
Pray: Father, thank You that You sent Your Son to seek and save the lost, especially me. Please reveal how I am like the older brother so that I can repent. I pray for our church that we might be a place where younger and older brothers are warmly welcomed. May everyone who enters our doors on Sunday or attends a D-Group feel they are accepted. No matter how they come, may we receive them with open arms. May they sense the Your love through us. This is why we exist.
THE LOST OLDER BROTHER
Read: Luke 15:25-32
Jesus continued on with the story and described a father encouraging his older son to enter in, to partake of the banquet. Here is where the story ends and we are left on the edge of our seats wondering what happened to the older brother. Why did Jesus stop here? The real audience of this parable is not the irreligious, but in fact the religious, and they are facing the question: will they walk through the door? You see, Jesus did not tell this parable to warm our hearts, but to shatter our categories and self- righteousness.
Jesus redefines everything (sin and lost-ness).
Jesus is redefines everything we thought we knew about connecting to God. He is redefining sin, what it means to be lost and what it means to be saved.
Jesus redefines sin. Sin is not just breaking the rules, but putting yourself in the place of God the Savior.
Jesus condemns destructive self-centeredness.
Jesus condemns moralistic life.
Both brothers were wrong.
Both brothers were loved - and the father invites both into love and a feast.
Jesus does not divide the world into the moral “good guys” and the immoral “bad guys”. He shows us that everyone is dedicated to a project of self-salvation, to using God and others in order to get power and control for themselves.
This means that Jesus’s message, which is the “gospel”, is a completely different spirituality. The gospel of Jesus is not religion or irreligion, morality or immorality, moralism or relativism, conservatism or liberalism. Nor is it something halfway along a spectrum between two poles-it is something else altogether. In the gospel everyone is wrong, everyone is loved, and everyone is called to recognize this and change. - Timothy Keller
Again, the twist this week is that the parable is actually directed toward the religious - which is us. We may be at the door and yet not have passed through the door.
Pray: Father, thank You that You sent Your Son to seek and save the lost, especially me. Please reveal how I am like the older brother so that I can repent. I pray for our church that we might be a place where younger and older brothers are warmly welcomed. May everyone who enters our doors on Sunday or attends a D-Group feel they are accepted. No matter how they come, may we receive them with open arms. May they sense the Your love through us. This is why we exist.