Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. It is good to be here.
If you could please turn with me to Ephesians 5, we would like to read through our theme verse again together. I have to read it from my New American Standard Version, and I apologize that when I get to the portion of our theme topic, I might borrow from the New King James Version.
This is Ephesians 5. We will start in verse 15.
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Then, if you could please turn to 1 Timothy 1. We are just going to read beginning in verse 1.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, Who is our hope,
to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus in order that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,
nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.
Back to Ephesians, please, chapter 1 and verse 1.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.
Verse 5:
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.
Verse 22:
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so thankful to You this afternoon. We sense that Your presence is here in our midst. Lord, how great is our God.
Lord, we pray that as we open Your Word, You may make it alive to us—to the speaker and to those listening. Lord, we pray that the secret things You have hidden in Your Word, You would reveal them to us, so that we would see what is in Your heart.
We thank You, Lord, for Your faithfulness to us in providing nourishment for growth. Lord, we pray that we would grow for Your glory. Thank You, Lord. We lift You up. We worship You. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
So, brothers and sisters, my responsibility for this conference is to cover the life of a young man named Timothy. Timothy was young, inexperienced, and somewhat of an introvert. I can relate with him.
Before we begin sharing about Timothy’s life, it is worthwhile to share a little about the city of Ephesus, because Timothy’s story is very much linked to this city on the coast called Ephesus. This letter—I almost said book, Mac, but I meant letter—was written to the folks in Ephesus.
If you and I travelled to Ephesus several thousand years ago, say for a vacation, we would have found that the city was an incredible place. People coming east to west would stop there, and people coming west to east would stop there. Different languages and different cultures met there. It was a place where people shared ideas about life, philosophy, and purpose. People sailing through the area might stop because it was a port city.
If you and I were interested in sightseeing, we might have gone to one of the seven ancient wonders of the world: the temple of the goddess Artemis. We might have met a fellow named Demetrius. He was a silversmith, and he liked to make little figures of Artemis, much like someone might buy a small Statue of Liberty. Except Artemis was spooky, and not at all like Lady Liberty.
What we would have found was that this city was buzzing. It was alive. It was filled with young people and older people. It was a place of great culture and great teaching, and people were always asking questions about purpose and meaning.
It might have been that one day we came upon a small band of people named Christians. They were meeting together, and they were being ministered to by a man named Paul.
They were not only saved, but this group of Christians had a heart for knowing the deeper things of God. They were not happy simply having been saved out of this world. They wanted to know: Why were we saved? Why were we created? There must be a reason.
Why would a God of such greatness create such a complex and perfect world unto some purpose? It could not have happened by accident, and somehow man sinned, and the whole purpose was just that we would be forgiven. They knew there was something more, and they wanted to pursue that. They wanted to live their lives with meaning and purpose.
Paul ministered to them, and these brothers and sisters grew. They held in their hearts this treasure: there was something more.
But by the will of the Spirit, Paul at one point needed to leave. After he left, the brothers and sisters continued to have a fervent heart for the deeper things.
When Paul returned, in Acts 20, he landed in a place called Miletus, about sixty miles from Ephesus. The Ephesian elders loved Paul. They must have missed him so much. They travelled to meet him, and it was such a heartwarming reunion.
Then Paul told them, “You elders, you were appointed by the Holy Spirit to be overseers of the Lord’s flock, which He purchased by His own blood.” He commanded them, “Your responsibility is to protect the flock.”
He prophesied that wolves would come into their midst—not merely wolves, but savage wolves. Brothers and sisters, I have never brought my kids to a petting zoo with savage wolves in it. It is because the purpose of a savage wolf is to kill.
What it means is that the fellowship had life, and brothers and sisters, the enemy can sniff life from far away. The savage wolves came in to kill the life that was there.
Then Paul told them that deceivers would arise from among themselves. What deceivers long to do is pull us away from what is true. So we know that this fellowship had life, and it had truth. Brothers and sisters, we realize there was a treasure there.
Paul warned them earnestly: beware of the savage wolves, and beware of the deceivers.
In order to help them, Paul sent them a letter after he had left and had been imprisoned. This letter was the letter to the Ephesians. In it, he laid out all those things that had been in their hearts: purpose, meaning, direction, and all of the deeper things in God’s heart.
He laid them all out for them, and he empowered them with this letter: “Stay near to it.”
But unfortunately, over time, the enemy crept in, and danger came about. In 1 Timothy, and later in 2 Timothy, we realize there was a shift.
Initially, Paul referred to the church at Ephesus as a household of God. It was a family. There was life there. There was a Father’s presence there.
But after a while, it had morphed into a house—a great house. The great house was equipped with many teachings and vessels for honor and vessels for dishonor, but it became an organized meeting. Something of that life and truth had been lost.
Remember: in their midst were savage wolves and deceivers. These men knew what they were doing. Yet, in order to help them, Paul sent in a young man named Timothy.
Timothy, as I mentioned, was young, inexperienced, and shy. We could say Paul was a perfect Pharisee, but he may not have been a perfect human-resources man.
He was sending Timothy into the lion’s den—this quiet, introverted young man into the den with experienced, driven, purposeful people who were out to get the Lord’s flock.
Timothy was young, but he was not a fool. He knew that if he accepted this assignment, it would be the most difficult thing he would ever do.
Who was Timothy, and how did he grow up? Timothy came from a city called Lystra, near Derbe.
Timothy had a mother named Eunice, who had a sincere faith and a love for the Lord. He had a grandmother named Lois, who had the same.
We believe that Lois may have been saved when Paul first came through Lystra. Paul remembered, even in the last things he wrote, that at Antioch and at Lystra he suffered greatly for the sake of the Lord.
I think there was a band of people who saw this man, this Pharisee who could have had everything, yet chose a life of suffering for something greater. Lois must have seen this and said, “There is something in this man worth investigating.” Through that experience, somehow Lois was saved.
We do not know when, but Eunice married a Gentile man. At some point Eunice too was saved. Timothy grew up in this environment of genuine love and love for the Scriptures.
Imagine a young man like this going into the lion’s den. They could have said, “Paul we know. Paul came from the school of Gamaliel. Where do you come from?” He would have said, “I come from the school of Eunice—my mom.”
This was a young man who found himself out of his comfort zone. It pains me to talk about baseball today, but it was out of his wheelhouse. This was not where his skill set was.
But he also knew that the Lord Jesus held headship in his life. The question was: when the commandment came, might he obey?
Brothers and sisters, in these days the whole world is against us. It is an overt, forward attack, particularly upon young people. Here was a young man asked to leave everything that gave him comfort and security, and head out into a hostile world for the name of his Lord.
What can we learn from Timothy about redeeming the time?
If we met Timothy on another vacation two thousand years ago, no one would have said, “Here comes Timothy. He is the life of the party.” He was not that way.
It is interesting that the Lord would send someone like Timothy in as a representative for life. With our human eyes, when we think of life and vitality, we might think of someone who is the life of the party, always with the right thing to say at the right time.
Here was a young man who would not be that way, but the Lord sent him in to represent life and to hold on to life, because the enemy was making every effort to kill.
What was he armed with? We know Timothy co-authored several books with Paul, among them 2 Corinthians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon.
We do not know exactly how much input Timothy had. It is interesting: he was a co-author, but I could not find anything in the Bible that was a first-person voice from him. He was quiet in his spirit.
But he knew the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, Who cannot lie, wrote at the beginning of these letters that they were from Timothy and Paul. These words and books were real to him.
We also know that he loved the Old Testament Scriptures. They were alive in his heart. He was equipped with a love for the Scriptures and with the books he had written with Paul.
In Philippians, we learn something else about Timothy: he had a genuine concern for the house of God. That is to say, the family of God was not theoretical to Timothy.
He knew there was something precious about the family of God. It was not simply a gathering, a meeting place, or a membership club. He knew there was something special, and he had a genuine concern for them. So he went in. He was willing to go.
The Lord gave him three more things that were critical for him. He was heading into Ephesus, so the letter to the Ephesians would be foundational to ministry there. He needed to know this letter.
Brothers and sisters, this letter is so precious. It speaks of purpose in a way that goes from the mountaintop all the way down to the ground floor.
If you have not read it, go home and read it through in one sitting. Look from the mountaintop to daily wearing the armor of God, and see that there is a purpose from the beginning.
Timothy went in armed with this letter. In Ephesians 5, he was reminded, as were all the brothers and sisters: “Redeem the time. The days are evil. Be not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
He was being reminded by the Holy Spirit that his days were numbered. Time, brothers and sisters, is such an interesting commodity. We can have a day when we gather more or gather less. We might need more human resources or fewer human resources for a project. But as time passes, it is never recoverable.
When the Bible tells us to redeem the time, it means today. Today is the only chance we have to live today, because tomorrow it will be gone.
When we are young, we think there is an endless number of todays. Then the older brothers and sisters look back and wish they had more days. Some of us in the middle know the days are numbered, but we still think we have time.
But brothers and sisters, we are being reminded today: live for the Lord Jesus today, because today is not going to come again.
“Redeem the time, because the days are evil.” It could very well have read, “The years are evil,” but to give context to the idea of time, it says, “The days are evil.” So live today for the Lord Jesus.
Then he was reminded, “Be not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Why this second half?
When we understand the will of the Lord, it gives us a beacon, a light, as to where we are going. Many days, if we are honest, we do not really feel we know where we are going. But the will of the Lord gives us a beacon, a light, where we know that the Lord is leading.
I enjoy history. If you were to ask General Eisenhower in the 1940s, “What are we doing going into Europe?” he could have said, “We are going to eliminate the enemy from the occupied territories. We are going to surround them, crush them, and defeat them.”
But if we asked a twenty-two-year-old lieutenant on D-Day, storming Normandy, “What is your purpose for today?” he would say, “I have to get these twenty young men up over that hill and take that gun, and I hope they do not get killed.”
Sometimes we feel that if we have too big a vision, it is not applicable to today. But I guarantee you that in every American who stormed into France on those days, there was some sense of the overall purpose, even though the purpose for that day was really that hill.
Brothers and sisters, redeem the time. The days are evil. Be not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Timothy had to redeem the time. He was going into hostile territory, not knowing what he was doing, but with a light in his heart: there is a purpose. As it was written in Ephesians, there is a purpose for the ages, and I am going to live for that purpose.
When the Lord Jesus was twelve years old, He was left behind in Jerusalem. When His mother and father came back and found Him, they were nervous and anxious. The Lord Jesus said to them, “Did you not know that I had to be about My Father’s affairs?”
The Lord Jesus was a Son, and a Son who was an heir. He knew there was a business, an intention, in His Father’s heart.
I think Timothy also knew there was an intention in his Father’s heart, and that life was worth living for the fulfillment of that intention.
The family of God is composed of sons—male sons and female sons—or, if I could say it this way, heirs.
The family of God is composed of heirs. No matter what age we are, nor how long we have followed the Lord Jesus, there is an inheritance for us.
The question is: in our hearts, have we grasped what it is to be sons in the family of God? Timothy was going to go in as a son.
In Ephesians, before there is mention of the purpose and meaning that is such a part of the letter, verse 5 of chapter 1 begins with a foundational truth that helps us understand everything in the rest of the letter: You are sons.
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.
When young Timothy was studying Ephesians as he was going in, the first thing he read was, “I need to understand that I am a son, an heir, and I must never lose that as my perspective.”
The family of God is composed only of sons and daughters. We have this joke that there is no such thing as a heavenly grandfather. We have all heard that joke. It is to say there are only sons.
We are brothers and sisters. There are no cousins. We are all together, first-degree relatives in the family of God.
Timothy had a sense of this family from Ephesians, 1 Timothy, and 2 Timothy. By the Lord’s grace, today we share about what it means to be sons, and tomorrow we will share about what it means to be brothers.
Last year at our conference, our brother shared about the Bema seat. The Bema seat is mentioned in 2 Corinthians. It is an elevated platform, the judgment seat of Christ, where every believer will eventually come.
At the Bema seat, we will receive a reward based on what we have or have not done. Our brother shared it this way: this is the family judgment. It is all within the family.
At the Bema seat, we realize there is in fact a family purpose and a family responsibility. In order for us to redeem the time, we need to know: What is the family purpose, and what are the family responsibilities?
What does it mean to be a son? Please remember: sons and daughters. I will use the term sons as a substitute term, but the term also connotes inheritance and responsibility.
We are all directly related to our Father.
We remember when the Lord Jesus brought Peter, James, and John to the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah were also on the mount. Peter was so starstruck that he said, “Let us build three altars: one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for You, Lord.”
The heavenly Father could not handle it anymore. The glory—the Shekinah cloud—came down and covered Moses and Elijah, removing them, and only the Lord Jesus was left.
Then God said, “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him.”
What we see is that the term son is the highest honor. There is no comparison. He could not say it of Moses. He could not say it of Elijah, no matter how faithful they were. At that point in time, only the Lord Jesus could carry this title: Son.
The Pharisees were so against Him because He made Himself out to be a Son, and that meant He made Himself equal with the Father. To be a son means that I hold this special place with my Father and that, in terms of priority and authority, we are joined together.
The term son is a huge thing, and it was the Lord’s intention that we all might be sons.
But in Adam, we cast down our sonship. We decided that this was not for us.
We remember Esau. He was the firstborn, and when he came back from the hunt he was so famished that his brother was cooking a pot of stew. He said, “I would like some of that stew, and I am willing to give you my sonship—my firstborn priority—for that cup of soup.”
In the heart of man, the value of being sons was lost, and we cast it down.
When we cast down the value of sonship, the family purpose can no longer be appreciated. We needed to be adopted back as sons so that the family purpose might be revealed again to us.
How was this going to be? For generations, from father to son after Esau, we were only sons of the flesh. We had no hope.
From father to son, we inherited the sinful nature. Every boy born to a human father had no heavenly sonship.
But we thank the Lord: on that great day, a baby was born to us. He did not have a human father, and so this curse of sin was broken.
This boy grew up—our Lord Jesus—and He was a marvelous Person. People were drawn to Him.
On that great day, He was crucified for our sake. He lived a sinless life. When He was crucified, this life of a Son that had been stored up in Him—essentially trapped in Him because it had nowhere else to land—was shed abroad to all of us.
When He was bruised, broken, and pierced for our sake, His life was released to us. When we accepted Him as our Savior, the life of the Son came back into our hearts.
For all of us, we again could understand what it was to be a son in the house of our Father. Praise the Lord.
He had to do it this way, so that all of us could be drawn back to our Father as sons.
On the third day, when He rose again, Mary found Him. Mary was so excited to see Him that she hugged Him and would not let Him go. Finally, He had to say to her, “Mary, you have to let go of Me.”
Then He said to her, “Go tell My brothers that I go to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”
For the first time, He could say, “Go to My brothers,” and it was real. “Tell them that I go to My Father and your Father.” There was now a direct connection that had never before existed, but had always been in the heart of God from the very beginning.
He did it. He is a great God, and He made it again that we might be sons.
And if sons, heirs. He began to reveal to us the secret things that had been from eternity past. I love it in Ephesians: if you look in the margin, the purpose of the ages.
These deep things sometimes need to be explained in a way we can understand. Honestly, when I used to try to read Ephesians 1, it was hard to read sometimes. But the Lord takes it and makes it understandable to us.
He gave us parables of what it might mean to be sons. I think these were helpful to Timothy, and I think they will be helpful to us.
The first parable we would like to reflect upon is the parable of the vineyard, found in Luke 20:9.
The Lord told a story about a vineyard owned by a master. He rented the vineyard to workers to work the land. When there was a crop, by definition, part of the crop would be given back to the master.
When harvest time came, the master sent his slave to collect. When the workers saw the servant coming, they decided together in their hearts, “We are not going to give the master anything.” They took the servant, beat him, and sent him back with nothing.
A worker is very different from a son. A worker receives a wage, and we do what we do because there is some benefit to us. If that benefit were removed, we would no longer serve in that capacity.
We remember the story of the hired hand. If we were a hired hand and a bear were coming at us, we would think about our fourteen dollars per hour, the sheep we do not own, and the bear coming to maul us. At some point, we would decide, “You know what? This is not worth it,” and we would run away.
It is the same with the workers. We work because we are getting paid. Workers can never understand the purpose of the ages. It is not for workers.
The father sent another servant, then a second, and then a third. They did the same to each one.
At that point, the master says, “What shall I do?” He had several choices. One was that he might send the destroyers. He had strong men in his employment who had the capacity to destroy, and it would have been very reasonable to send them in.
But the master thought of another plan, and it is just like him to think this way. He said, “I am going to send my son. Maybe they will respect him.”
So he sent the son. The son went into a hostile land where people hated his father. He went to deliver his father’s message, and he was not paid.
The workers saw him and said, “This is the heir. If we take him down, we will collect the inheritance.” So they killed him.
Of course, the father then sent in the destroyers and took down the workers.
What type of a story is this? It tells us the heart of a son.
A son—an heir—obeys his father. He loves his father, understands that the Father has a purpose, and is willing to live for the fulfillment of his father’s purpose today.
When his father gave him the command, “Go,” he went.
When my sons were doing their daily chores recently, one had to clean out the dishwasher and another had to pick up after the dog. I felt so sorry for them. I turned to my wife and said, “You know what? I should give them an allowance for this.”
My wife said, “Are you crazy? They are sons. This is the family responsibility. You do not pay someone for the family responsibility.” She was totally right.
The story is simply this: there is a family responsibility, brothers and sisters. Are we willing to live for that family responsibility?
It is a real responsibility, and it is tangible. Every child of God wakes up every morning, and there is a responsibility for that day. No one is skipped.
But in these days, brothers and sisters, we do not ask anymore. We wake up and we do not know. There are plenty of the world’s responsibilities, but for today there is a family responsibility.
This son was sent out to fulfill the family responsibility.
This parable is obviously about our eldest Brother, the Firstborn, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is about the Lord Jesus. But it still shows us what our Father thinks in His heart about His Son, and how He longs to put upon His sons and daughters the responsibility of the kingdom.
He is longing for this. But where are we? Are we willing? Are we searching? Do we have a heart to obey?
This perfect Son—our Lord—was courageous, obedient, faithful, and true to His responsibility. Might we be like Him?
On the other hand, we think of the hired hands, the workers. Do we work as workers in the field of God? Is that our purpose—that we work because God blesses us, or because there is some worldly return for what we do?
That is the life of a worker. When the return stops, the difficulty comes, or the bear comes to destroy, we will run.
Timothy needed to learn this: it is important for us to go in as sons. Every arming, every support, and every empowerment comes to sons.
When we take this step of faith, the Lord empowers us as sons for the next step. He is always faithful.
I have to share a story from when I was growing up. I was in high school, about seventeen years old, and Dana was teaching us.
I had friends, but I did not have many good friends. Dana was relentless. He said, “I want you to think about your best friend who is not a believer.”
Of course, I thought about my best friend. I knew who he was right away, but I tried not to think about him. I knew what Dana was going to say.
Our brother said, “You have to go home and tell him the gospel.” I thought, “Oh no, I am not going to do it.”
I came home and wrestled with the Lord. I was seventeen years old, and I said, “Lord, I do not know if I can do this.”
Finally, I gathered the courage, picked up the phone, and called him. He said, “Hey, what’s up? How’s it going?”—all the things seventeen-year-old boys say to one another.
Then the Holy Spirit—I do not know what happened—I said, “You know, am I your friend?” There was a pause on the other end, and he said, “Yes.”
I said, “If I were a good friend, and I had the most precious thing in the world, and I did not give it to you, I do not think I would be a very good friend.”
He was very kind. He said, “Okay.” I proceeded, in my best seventeen-year-old adolescent-boy way, to tell him the gospel as best I could.
In the middle of it, I heard a click. These were corded phones then. I hung up my phone and did not know what to do. This was my best friend.
Part of me thought, “Lord, I entrusted this to You. How could this happen?” I walked out in a daze, and thank God Brother Hosea and Sister Eli were at my house. I began to cry.
Brother Hosea was trying to comfort me, and I did not know what was happening. It was so surreal.
Then Sister Ellen came in and said, “You know, he is on the line.”
I went back out and picked up the phone. My friend said, “I am sorry. I tripped over my cord and the thing got unplugged.”
Then I began to realize, as a young man, “Whoa, there is an enemy, and he is against this.”
I went on and told him the whole gospel again, as best I could. He said, “Well, tomorrow why do I not come over, and we will talk about what we discussed?”
The next day, I had some CDs borrowed from the library that I had to return. We used to rent CDs from the library and dub them onto tapes. I think that was illegal, so do not do it. Nobody would do that anymore anyway; I do not even have the capacity to do it anymore.
He said, “Why do I not come pick you up, and we can talk more about what we talked about yesterday?” That day I drove to the bookstore, bought him a Bible, and had his name engraved on it.
He came to pick me up. I got into his car, put the CDs on top of the Bible, and again I started to get nervous. This is one of my great struggles.
In the middle of the drive, I remember thinking to the Lord, “I am not going to do it.” I decided I would take the Bible, tuck it in the seat, return the CDs, and not give it to him.
At that very moment, he took a hard right turn. We were seventeen—we drove terribly. The CDs flew off the Bible and crashed against the door with a loud noise.
My friend looked over at me, then looked down, and I was sitting there holding a Bible. I could not even say it was mine, because it had a name on the front.
I will tell you something, brothers and sisters: this is real. I remember it so vividly. It was the Holy Spirit empowering the fragile, feeble heart of a young man who was willing to take a step of faith.
To my dying day, I will remember what the Lord did, because He is faithful to His purpose.
If you are a young brother or sister trying to figure out your purpose, take a step of faith. Go as a son. Step out for His name.
What we will find is that He is more than faithful. He will fill you up, and you will never forget it for the rest of your life.
Sons do not go out on their own. The full power and full authority of the Father go with them. But we need to be willing to go out into hostile territory, bearing His name, bearing His message, and representing Him.
The second parable is Matthew 21. It speaks of two sons.
The father came to them and told them, “You have an assignment for today. I want you to go out and work in the vineyard.”
One son said to his father, “I will do it,” and later decided, “I am not going to do it.” The second son said, “I am not going to do it,” but later he did it because he regretted what he said.
The question is: which of these two had the heart of a son?
Paul was reminding Timothy as he went into Ephesus, “Hold on to the things you have had: a love for the Scriptures, a sincere faith, and a genuine concern for the house of God.”
This parable speaks of sincerity. Being a son starts in our heart, on the inside.
Many of us have heard the calling of the Lord and said, “Lord, I am not going to do it. I cannot do that. It is not how I am wired.”
But when we realize we are sons, are willing to go, and step out in faith, there is a sincere faith that allows us to keep going. We should never hide from the Lord where we are struggling or where we are nervous.
Every one of us, every day, the Lord will give us a purpose. That is what He did with these two boys. He gave them a purpose for today.
It was like that twenty-two-year-old lieutenant: “Your purpose for today is to storm that hill.”
In the long light of eternity, we know He has a purpose. But if we are willing, every morning when we wake up and bow to Him with sincerity, the Lord will give us a purpose for today.
If two of my brothers and sisters are in high school or college, wake up tomorrow and ask the Lord, “Lord, what is my purpose for today?” The Lord will give you a responsibility.
Sometimes these purposes for the day are very private. In fact, they are always given in private, to our heart. But there is often a public manifestation of it: to call somebody, a friend, a brother or sister; to help someone in need; or to serve in some way in the fellowship.
Every day there is a purpose for the sons of God. No days without purpose. This purpose saves us. It reminds us who we are.
We remember Elijah. When Elijah had failed and was running around in circles because Jezebel was chasing him, he ran to the mountain and came down before the Lord. The Lord said, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
Elijah went into his monologue three times. Finally, when the Lord restored him, how did He restore him? The Lord said to him, essentially, “Rise up and serve Me again.”
To be called to rise up for the Lord’s purposes again restores us. It gives us a purpose to go on. It does not allow us to wallow in self-pity or the difficulty of our circumstances.
The Lord knows those things. He comes alongside us. When we are ready, He says, “Are you ready?” “Lord, I am ready.” “This is your purpose for today.”
Thank the Lord for a daily purpose, for family responsibility, and for family purpose. Everything is unto Him.
May we see Him in this way every day, daily.
I remember after 9/11. This was much more real to you brothers and sisters than it was to this left-coast guy. But I remember after it happened, all of us in the whole country felt empty. We asked, “What is going on?”
This is not a political statement at all, but I remember when the president went to Congress. At the very end, he said, “America, you have your marching orders. Let’s roll.”
At that point, it was as though the whole country was restored because we realized there was purpose.
There is a far greater family purpose for us every day. Every day that is lost is an opportunity lost to take part in that purpose—to live a life of fulfilled meaning.
At the end of the day, when we go to bed, we can realize something happened today for the glory of the Lord Jesus. This is a wonderful thing.
Go home and ask the Lord when you wake up, “What is the family purpose for today, and how can I be about the family business?” This is a huge thing, brothers and sisters.
The last parable speaks of family responsibility and family purpose, but it also speaks of the love of the family.
The last statement about the church at Ephesus was, “You have left your first love.” I do not know what happened to Timothy. I know he got everything in order and there was good order, but at some point along the line—and it inevitably happens when we go from a household to a great house—love is lost.
There was a father who had two sons. We know this story. One son asked for half of his inheritance, left, and wasted it on prostitutes.
The father, every day, watched the horizon. The servants knew where the robe was, and they knew where the ring was. The father waited to see when that little head would break the horizon, waiting for him to come home.
He would not have it that someone would tell him, “Your son came home.” He wanted to be the first one to see it, and he was going to be the first one to run to him and welcome him home.
What it tells us is that there is a family love like no other.
Have you wandered off? Have we wandered off? Brothers and sisters, come home.
The love does not change.
No matter how much we see, how much purpose we have been given, or how much responsibility falls on a group of brothers and sisters, at the bottom of everything is the love of God.
We cannot lose the love of the Father. We are sons of a God Who loves us.
When the younger son came back, the older son heard what was happening and became upset. The fatted calf had been killed.
The older son had followed all his father’s rules. He was a good son. He was faithful to the responsibility and faithful to the purpose. In fact, I would suggest that he understood the purpose more than the other son.
But somehow, in his heart, he had hardened to the love of God. He said, “You would not even give me a young goat to celebrate with my friends. Now this son of yours, who has wasted all your money, has come back and you have killed the fattened calf for him.”
Nothing the older brother said was untrue. “This son of yours has come back.” But the Father’s response was very special.
If you could please turn to Luke 15. We will end with this.
We will start in verse 30.
But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with harlots, you killed the fattened calf for him.
Those are the accusing words of the older brother.
And he said to him, “My child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.
But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.”
Listen to this, brothers and sisters. When I remembered the story, I thought the father said, “This son of mine was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.” But what he said was, “This brother of yours.”
He was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.
What it tells us is that we are all sons, heirs of the Most High God. But it also means there is an independent, unique, true relationship that is realized in the heavens: brothers.
We are brothers. “This brother of yours has begun to live again.”
In the going on of the family of God, we are all sons of the Most High God. But because of the life we share, we are brothers and sisters.
By the Lord’s grace, tomorrow evening we will share about the purpose of God in light of brothers and sisters.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we worship You. We thank You. Lord, we pray that You would take these words and make them alive to us. Those things You want us to remember, Lord, may You plant them in our hearts.
Lord, we pray that You would continue to be glorified and that Your name would be lifted up among all Your people, so that there would be no other. Lord, have the highest place among Your people this weekend. We worship You in Jesus’ name. Amen.