Afternoon Session at Christ Hold Fast Dallas

Donavon Riley-The Lost Sheep & Coin-Luke 15:1-10

There's Facebook You and the True You.

All of Scripture is about Jesus. 

There's God's truth and then there's our truth.

How bad do you have to be separated from the sinners? (i.e. tax collectors) They were the worst of the worst. Not only did Jesus spend time with tax collectors but he also ate with them.  

In Luke's gospel, who you sit with is who you want to be identified with.

Lost sheep & Lost coin-When they find what was lost, they celebrate. When Jesus tells parables of grace, what Jesus says is what causes people to crucify him.

We treat parables as if they are snapshots.  How many times .....? What if the answer is there is never a time that the Shepherd does not seek the lost sheep? 

Everything that comes to you from God is gift. You cannot earn it. You don't deserve it.

How we react to grace resembles story of Hosea and Gomer?

Caleb Keith-The Prodigal Son-Luke 15:11-32

This is the father story to end all father stories.

Inheritance-younger son asks for what "is owed" him, son is asking for his dad to die, he wants to be free, Father makes his sons who were co-heirs into co-owners

In a pursuit of freedom, the younger son destroys his inheritance and himself. Our pursuit of freedom can lead to sin and forgetting God's way is best.

Younger son's repentance is received before he ever reaches his dad.

The party-complete undeserved grace, a radical love, only out of unconditional love of the Father 

The older son incorrectly assumes that what he has was earned by him rather than a gift of inheritance

Chad Bird-The Wicked Tenants-Matthew 21:33-46

You are forgiven, you are loved, you are a child of God. Not just abstract idea, but a reality in our lives.

We have done a disservice to the parables by naming them. Why? We direct our thoughts and interpretation based on what it is named.

When it comes to the parables, it is not about a moral.  It is about Christ and what it teaches us about him.

 

As we interpret this parable, we need to return to the OT. See Isaiah 5:1-7.

All throughout Israel's history, in Jesus' day, and in the church today, there is an assault on the gospel.

The greatest danger to religious insiders is not moral failure but righteous success.

God says, "All I want you to do is realize that no more needs to be done.  It is finished"

We don't get to decide who is in or who is out.  It's not our church, but Christ's church.

When God begins something, it always seems it is going to fail.  The way God works is contrary to what we expect. He works in hidden ways. 

When we think God is the farthest away from us, He is actually closest to us. When we think we are growing so much in righteousness, we are on His top 10 list, then we are probably the farthest from Him.