Hope things are going well for all of you. This past week in Thailand has been great. God has grown me and used me in so many ways it is amazing. Below I have the gist of a sermon I preached today. It is far from perfect, but I hope you find it edifying to some extent.
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Approval vs. Acceptance
So often, we see the differences in the younger vs. the older son in Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal (or Lost) Son (Luke 15:11-32). These differences are quite apparent, but today I will focus on how similar the two sons are.
Most of us probably know the story very well. A father has two sons. The younger asks for his inheritance and receives it from his father. Soon after, the son goes to a far country and wastes the money, spending it all. A famine hits, the son starts to feed pigs, and becomes very hungry. So he decides to go back to his father, confess, and ask to be taken back – not as a son but as one of his father’s servants. As he approaches home, his father runs to meet him and kisses him. The son begins to confess, but his father interrupts his apology and orders a celebration for him. When the older son discovers what is going on, he becomes angry. Despite his father’s pleas, the older son complains that in years of faithful service, the father never celebrated like that for him. The parable ends with the father saying it is right to celebrate the younger son’s return, as he was lost but is now found.
In this parable, the brothers share a mindset of approval. The younger son feels a lack of approval from his father (vv. 19, 21), while the older brother feels he has (or should have) earned his father’s approval (vv. 29-30). Both sons act as if their father will or should treat them differently based upon what they do – that they can either earn or lose their father’s love.
In stark contrast to this, their father responds not with approval but with acceptance – he showers love and grace to both sons… regardless of their actions (younger, vv. 20, 22-24; and older, v. 31). The very definition of grace – “unmerited favor” – means it cannot be earned. “Earning” grace is impossible. Grace must be freely offered by one party and accepted by another.
For Christians, Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us that we are not saved by our “own doing” or “works” (approval), but rather by “grace” as a “gift of God” (acceptance). While approval has its place for Christians in our journey to become more like Christ through His working in us (2 Tim 2:15; Rom 8:29), we must not withhold love and acceptance from others (as the older son in the parable did). Instead, we are to show love and grace to all, as the father did in this parable. And just like the lost son, we are to come to our heavenly Father in repentance and restoration on a regular basis.
For those who have not yet accepted Christ as their Savior, there is the age-old question: “What must I do to have eternal life?” Perhaps the most common answer to this question is some variation of, “Be good.” Jesus is teaching the exact opposite of that in this parable. Jesus is saying, in effect, “Cry for help.” Simply trying to “be good” means that a person is trying to earn approval through their own actions. By contrast, when someone cries to God for help, they are recognizing their own helpless condition that only God Himself can fix. The Bible teaches that if you ask for God’s forgiveness of your sins, confess that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:9). Our Father in heaven loves us more that we can imagine. He welcomes us wherever we are, no matter what we have done in the past. Come to Him. He will accept you.
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God Bless you all! Thank you all for your support!
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