FAITH CHURCH TEAM TO TRAVEL TO DROUGHT-STRICKEN KENYA FOR WATER PROJECT

NASHVILLE, TN – Faith Church commissioned its 5-person ‘Marich Water Team’ last Sunday as they prepare to make the 8,000+ mile journey this Friday, November 27, to travel to Nairobi, Kenya, Africa and then on to the small village of Marich for a 7-day mission to assist in the final installation of a water purification system for a 30 feet deep well the people of Marich recently dug by hand.

Marich Water Team departs for Kenya. Pictured left to right, Ran Batson, Brandon Anderson, Tina and Brian Riedel. (not pictured, George Garden.)

The project comes at a critical time as Kenya and eastern central Africa is in the grip of a devastating drought, which has brought massive crop failures resulting in what the United Nations World Food Program is calling a potentially “catastrophic” situation.

The trip is being celebrated as a powerful expression of Faith Church’s friendship and commitment to a local church congregation in Marich, Kenya.

In 2007, Faith Church pastor Jerry Hoek and his wife, Claire, traveled to western Kenya to meet and encourage several congregations in the Reformed Churches of East Africa and to explore how the two distant churches might partner together on various issues such as education, basic life-quality issues and spiritual growth.

While in Kenya, the Hoeks learned of the Marich community’s desperate need for clean water and the seeds were planted for this week’s mission trip. Since then, the drought conditions have elevated this need to one with potentially life and death ramifications. A local school in Kapenguria, which is near Marich and also supported by Faith Church, is reporting that 75% of the students there were recently infected with the H1N1 virus.

The team, comprised of George Garden, Brandon Anderson, Brian and Tina Riedel and Ran Batson, will help an existing group of local citizens in the village of Marich in the final installation of a water purification system and plan to return to the US on December 5.

Along with the installation of the system the Marich Water Team will also train and educate local leaders in system maintenance issues and basic health information regarding waterborne disease.

George Garden will be meeting with local government authorities regarding water quality and supply issues, while Dr. Brian Riedel and his wife, Tina, a registered nurse and both experienced foreign missionaries expect to offer health education to the local population.

Faith Church is honored and excited to send this team and asks for prayers for their work and safety as they extend the love of God and the hand of fellowship from Nashville to Marich.

Luke 15:25-32
“The Other Sin”
Pastor Jerry Hoek

Introduction:

Over the past year one of the things I’ve been emphasizing is discipleship so that we can become better and more faithful followers of Christ. So this morning I want to give a check-up quiz to see how we are doing.

For each of the following things, give yourself 5 points and we’ll tally it up in the end. Ready?

1) You read the Bible every day.
2) You pray every day for at least 15 minutes.
3) You attend Sunday School regularly.
4) You attend worship services at least 3 times a month.
5) You serve on a Ministry Team, 5 points for each team.
6) You belong to a small group for study and prayer; 5 points for each group.
7) And for 50 extra bonus points, you’re going to Kenya next week!

Ok, how did you do?

Welcome to the world of the older brother!

These are the kinds of things an older brother today would have been thinking as his father threw the party for the wild rebellious son who has just returned. He was doing all the right stuff that a good person should be doing. Yet we see today, as we conclude our study of the parable of the Prodigal Son that he too, in his own way, is rejecting the love and grace that his father has to offer.

If we are honest we may feel that the older brother has a point, but the point is not getting what we deserve. The point is that we get what we don’t ever deserve and that is God’s love and grace. Let’s read this story once more so we can see the amazing love and grace of this father. Read Luke 15:11-32.

I. The Older Brother
II. The Older Brother’s Problem
III. The Father’s Grace
IV. Our Need for Our Father’s Grace

I. Let’s first briefly look at The Older Brother in this story.

Now again realize that this story is not about the sons primarily. The prodigal son and the older brother play a very important role in the point that Jesus is making, but their role is only a part of the larger point. We have seen over and over that the story Jesus tells is primarily about the father’s great love.
The younger son had rebelled against his father and now has returned to his father. The father is thrilled to see him, accepts him as his son even though he did rebel against him. And the father orders a calf to be killed for there will be a celebration!

Now all kinds of activity begins as preparations are made. Then, just as the meat was finished roasting, loud and joyous music would be played. This would announce to the whole village that there was going to be a great celebration and that everyone was invited. This would likely begin just as the workers would be coming home from working in the fields. The party has not yet begun even though the music is playing.

And it is at this point that the older brother comes home. When he comes he meets a servant, or more accurately one of the young boys gathered outside of the home, and asks what the occasion is. The verb for asking implies that he is asking a number of probing questions of the young boy. A son with a normal relationship to a father would simply go in and join the party, not linger outside filled with suspicion.
The boy explains the cause for celebration is the fact that his younger brother has returned home. The older brother, however, has a major problem with this, becomes angry and refuses to join the party.

II. What was The Older Brother’s Problem?

This son is doing more here than just pouting. When there was a banquet, the oldest son was to greet the guests and make sure that the feast went smoothly with the guests as far as their needs are concerned. By refusing to go in he is neglecting his duty as the oldest son.

Even more, he is publicly embarrassing and humiliating his father by refusing to go in. Even if he had a problem with how the younger son was received, he should still go in to the party and take up his grievances with the father later on. He should not be making a scene so publically in front of the father’s guests. Based on Eastern culture, this is almost as serious a break with the father as the younger son’s.

Notice also how the older son condemns himself as he describes his relationship with his father. “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you.” He doesn’t address his father as father but as a subordinate by saying, “Look!” He sees their relationship as “master-slave” rather than “father-son.”

He goes on to say that he never disobeyed his fathers orders. He always did all the work that was given him to do. This too is something that a slave would say rather than a son. Moreover, this is simply false since he has just greatly insulted his father!

Then he accuses his father of favoritism: “You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.” He doesn’t ask that his father throw a party for him with the family; he wants a party with his friends; he wants nothing more to do with his real family and disowns them in effect. What will make him joyous is not the return of this brother but a party with HIS friends.

Moreover, the charges against his brother are exaggerated. The older brother accuses the younger of being with prostitutes, but that was never said. He is trying to get his father to reject his younger brother by exaggerating his guilt.

The older son is operating on the basis of not the relationship, but works. He has done all the right things but now someone else gets the reward. He has done all the right things in his eyes, but it is still not enough to obtain the father’s favor.

Now we can understand the older brother’s problem to some extent because it doesn’t seem fair. The father is not only welcoming him home but there is a financial aspect to this. The younger son may again receive a third of the inheritance, but it is now greatly diminished. This may be cutting into the older brother’s share! And that doesn’t seem fair.

More than that, he has been doing all the right stuff by working hard in the fields. He’s been obeying his father to the letter of the law and now the rebel gets a party? But Jesus’ point again is that what matters is not what we do but what our relationship with God is.

The older son is a picture of what many Christians are like today. For many Christians, the Christian faith is not so much a relationship with God as a set of things that you should do and be. You should be a good, loving, caring and moral person. You should do good things, do work in the church, do the right things with your family. Christianity for many is working hard in the fields but feeling like a slave instead of a child.
And then because we have worked so hard and devoted our time and energy to our Lord and Master, Jesus, then He had better reward us accordingly. Tim Keller writes, “You can avoid Jesus as Savior by keeping all the moral laws. If you do that, then you have ‘rights.’ God owes you answered prayers, and a good life, and a ticket to heaven when you die. You don’t need a Savior who pardons you by free grace, for you are your own Savior.” We want to be in control of our lives and what happens to us.

Moreover, if the rewards are not forthcoming, then we feel that we have reason to complain. “Lord, what’s the deal? Haven’t I been involved in church programs and activities, haven’t I done all the right things?” “I’m doing all kinds of work and it doesn’t seem to matter.” There is rage and confusion for older brothers instead of joy when things doing go well.

The problem is self-righteousness and that leads to all kinds of other issues and problems. It leads to feelings of being superior to others and when you feel superior it becomes very difficult to forgive others for doing things you would never do. It leads to attitudes of prejudice because good people only act a certain way and not like others.

And finally, we can end up being trapped in a performance type of Christianity. We try to live a good Christian life and try to do all the right things and it isn’t good enough.

In his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard tells of man by the name of Simeon Stylites who lived from 309 to 459 AD. He built a column six feet high in the Syrian desert and lived on it for some time. But he soon grew ashamed of its small height and found one sixty feet high, three feet across, with a railing to prevent him from falling off in his sleep.

Now with a warning to the potentially squeamish, listen to what Dallas Willard writes: “On this perch, Simeon lived uninterruptedly for 37 years, exposed to the rain, sun and cold. A ladder enabled disciples to take him food and remove his waste. He bound himself to the pillar by a rope; the rope became embedded in his flesh, which putrefied around it, and stank and teemed with worms. Simeon picked up the worms that fell from his sores and replaced them there, saying, ‘Eat what God has given you.’”

The problem is sixty feet isn’t enough; nothing is good enough! What we need to see is beautifully stated in the father’s response.

III Let’s look at The Father’s Grace.

Notice first of all that the father goes out to meet the older son in spite of the terrible offense to him. The father had every reason to be angry and cut the son off, just as he could have with the prodigal. But he goes out to him, just as he did with the prodigal son. He calls him his “child,” a term of dear compassion and tenderness as he accepts him as his son.

Not only that, notice that the father pleads with him to come in and join the party. The older son belongs there not because of the work he has done. He belongs there because he is the father’s son, his child.
Then the father explains the reasons for his actions with the younger son. First, the older son has not been forgotten. He still will receive all of his inheritance from the father’s estate. He still will receive all that has been promised to him.

But the father wants the older son to understand the basis of what he receives. It is not because he has been working so hard that he will be blessed. It is because he is the father’s son.
The same thing is true for the younger son. Based on what he did, he should have been made into a servant. But he is in fact a son and because of the father’s grace, he will be accepted and treated as one. The basis of the father’s actions is grace for the younger and older.

The point that Jesus is making is that both sons were rebellious. The younger was outward in his rebellion. He obviously rejected being a son, but he came back. The older son rebelled internally. He was hypocritical in that he lived with the father even though he didn’t feel like a son. Nevertheless, the father is willing to reach out in love and compassion to both. The younger gladly accepts the offer of grace and lives in it. What about the older?

Jesus deliberately leaves off the ending to this parable. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees who were obsessed with keeping the law. They were deeply religious people, but they had lost the relationship with their Father. Jesus is inviting them to come back and to live in God’s grace.

The same invitation comes to us today as well and we would do well to heed it. God has poured out his grace on us abundantly and so we should live for him in that grace. It’s not about what we do, but it’s all about the outrageous, prodigal grace God shows to us.

IV. Our Need for Our Father’s Grace

We tend to live by works not by grace with similar resulting problems. We work very hard at the Christian life. There is, after all, a lot of work that needs to be done. I’m not disputing that at all and it is important work. The problem comes when we work not out of love and devotion but because we feel we have to in order to be a Christian.

And what’s worse is that when that begins, then we have fallen into a trap that keeps getting tighter and tighter because our work is never good enough. We read the Bible and pray, but we should read the Bible and pray more. We get involved but we should really be doing more. And when we don’t do more or don’t do things better or perfectly, as God really wants them, then we feel guilty and we despair.

We may be as obedient as we can imagine, but it will never be enough. The story is told of a rather nominal church member had lived with the philosophy that his good works would be more than enough to get him into heaven. One night he dreamed of the final judgment and was standing behind Mother Teresa. The saintly nun was called to stand before the Lord and this presumptuous sinner overheard God say, “Teresa, I was really expecting a lot more out of you.” We cannot impress God with how obedient we are for we all fall short of what God requires.

Instead we need to have God’s grace flowing abundantly in our lives every day. We need to understand that grace is not just a term that we find in the Bible, but a reality that we should experience in every part of every day. God ‘s grace should be a reality when you are taking care of your children. God’s grace should be a reality when you are working in your job. God’s grace should be a reality when you are making demands on yourself that no one else would expect from you.

Grace is something that should enable us to look at ourselves honestly but through God’s eyes. We aren’t perfect, but God already knows that and He accepts us anyway because of Jesus. We aren’t going to be able to do all the things that Christians are supposed to do, but that’s O.K. because God accepts us because of Jesus.

We aren’t going to be perfect spouses, parents, workers, bosses, children, whatever you are. God knows this too, but He accepts us anyway if we accept his gift of grace in Jesus. God’s grace says to us, “You will fall, but get up and keep on trying; I accept you because of Jesus, not because of what you are doing.” God’s grace says, “I know that you are sinners. That’s why Jesus came.”

We often say we believe God’s grace but sometimes find it hard to live in it in our daily lives. My mother came from the old school of math. Many years ago, we were talking about balancing the checkbook and I said how nice it is to have a calculator to do this job. She said that she uses a calculator as well but then said, “I still figure it out on paper after I’m done just to make sure the calculator did it right.” The calculator is nice to have, but she doesn’t really rely on it. It’s not as good as doing it yourself.

“It’s nice to have our Father’s grace but I had better do all the good stuff just to make sure.” It’s at that point that we have to hear our Father say, “Stop it now. Stop all the stuff that you think is making me happy and trying to earn my favor.” “I sent Jesus to take care of all of that and now you are my restored and dearly loved child.” “Come into the party and live a joyous love with me.”

Luke 15:20 “A Father Who Runs”

Introduction:
There are some things that dignified people just don’t do. For example, in April this year President Obama had an audience with the Queen of England. Everything for such a meeting is carefully choreographed for there are certain things you must do and also things you must never do when you meet the queen. The meeting is filled with all the proper protocols.
Now imagine as President Obama and the First Lady walk into this room, instead of waiting for them to walk to her and greet her, she stands up, runs to them and gives them both a high five! That would be on the evening news that night and on YouTube forever! That is just not something the Queen of England does. It is not fitting nor proper for a person of such a stature to do something like that.
Today, as we continue our study of the parable of the Prodigal Son, we look more closely at the actions of the father. He does things that Jesus’ listeners would have been surprised by. He does things that are totally unexpected and wonderfully reassuring to his lost and now returning son. In this we see a picture of our own heavenly Father and how He responds to us as well as lost and beloved children of Him. Read Luke 15:11-20.

I. The Community Setting
II. The Father’s Actions
III. Our Father’s Compassion

The Community Setting
It’s important at this point to understand more about the physical setting of this story. I always used to picture this father and family living on a farm similar to the one I grew up on. There is a house and other buildings like a barn and the like, all of which are near the house. Then the fields would be surrounding the buildings or the farm yard. So until recently, I pictured the son walking down this road when the father saw him from a distance and ran down the road to meet him. The two then walked back to the farm yard and had the welcome home party in the farm yard.
However, a landowner such as the father, would not live way out on his farm away from the village. He would live in the village itself. The area around the village would have the fields of the various farmers, but all the people would be living together in the small town.
And that fact adds to the complexity of the son’s return. The father knows his son will have to walk through all the town’s people in order to get home. He will have endure the scorn, the ridicule, the judgmental looks as he slinks back home. The father is very aware of this and does something extraordinary to protect his son from this scene.

II. The Father’s Actions are highlighted in Jesus’ story.
The father sees his son while still a long way off. He is likely out in his fields working the land at this point. But while working, he’s looking up, hoping and praying for this son to make his way back home. He doesn’t know if his son will come back home or not, but he is still watching and hoping.
Can you imagine the feelings that must have surged through that father when he saw his son? He really had no idea if that son would be coming back at all! There was a really good chance that the son would die in that distant land! But the father has been looking, waiting, hoping and then he is there!
In the years following my father’s death 24 years ago, I would have very vivid dreams about him. I would have dreams where he would be very much alive and doing the things that he used to do. I remember waking up from those dreams with a mixture of sadness and happiness. It was sad because it was another reminder that my dad was indeed dead. But it was comforting as well in that I had a taste of seeing him again, even if it was only in a dream. This father must have blinked, rubbed his eyes and then felt his heart soar as he saw his son, frail and weakened, but still very much alive walking home.
And then Jesus says that this father had compassion on his son. Some fathers would be angry toward the son or the feelings of betrayal would be hard to overcome. They might be glad to see their son, but inside they would also want some measure of punishment. Moreover, the whole small town dynamic now comes into play here as well. This betrayal and abandonment has not just been a family issue. This has been something the whole small town would have known and been scandalized by.
Some of you have lived in a small town and know how fast the word of something spreads. You know how the gossip spreads and how vicious it can be. This father knows that the son will have to enter the village and run the gauntlet of humiliation on the part of the other villagers.
And so this father runs out to his son! Quite simply, fathers in that day didn’t run. New Testament scholar Kenneth Bailey who is an expert on this parable, observes, “An Oriental nobleman with flowing robes never runs anywhere. To do so would be humiliating.”
This attitude continues to this day in the middle east. A pastor friend of Bailey was not accepted as a pastor of a particular church in the middle east because the elders saw that he walked down the street too fast. So you have to picture Jesus’ listeners hearing this and thinking, “Not a chance!! Fathers don’t do that! That is so completely out of character for a father to do!”
Yet this father runs out to his son. Why? He shows his love and compassion by running out to him. However, he also runs out so that he can return with him and go through the village with his son. He will not allow his son to go through the abuse and humiliation by himself.
But before that happens, the father throws his arms around him and kisses him. Kenneth Bailey envisions this occurring on the edge of the town. In so doing, the father makes a public demonstration of his love for his son in front of everyone. This father will not heap on shame and judgment but love and compassion.
There is also something very significant about this very public kiss. The son, as he approaches his father, would likely be kneeling in front of him and would likely kiss his father’s hand, or more likely his feet. This father doesn’t allow this and by kissing his son first, prevents him from subjecting himself to kissing his father’s feet. The word for kissing here means that the father kissed him again and again.
The father’s kiss is a sign of reconciliation and forgiveness. In a first century community, if there had been a serious quarrel, part of the ceremony of reconciliation is a public kiss by the men who were involved in the quarrel. This father is stating in this kiss that there is reconciliation even before the son says anything!
That must have been an overwhelming thing for the younger son to have happen to him. Steve Brown tells of a Catholic priest who experienced such forgiveness and reconciliation. Rev. Thomas Quinlin is a 71 year old chain smoker who seems to go out of his way to offend people through his unconventional actions. He once rode a police motorcycle down the center of his church during a Palm Sunday procession to make a point. He hates the trappings of power and God was using his offbeat ways in a powerful way. Six years ago, he was arrested for drunken driving. He went to his church and confessed, telling them that he would leave willingly. But instead they said, “We don’t want you to leave; we want you to change.” A newspaper reporter summarized it powerfully when he said, “Those dear folks loved him into sobriety.”
Can you imagine how overwhelming that must have felt to that priest to be loved and accepted like that? That is just a hint of the picture of forgiveness and acceptance that this father gives his son.

III. What I want us to remember this morning is this picture of Our Father’s Compassion to us.
This is not just a story about a loving and forgiving father, but a picture of God who ran to us in our sin. If you are a believer, God saw you as you struggled with the sins and problems in your life. He was watching as you tried one thing after another trying to find the happiness that you so eagerly were seeking after, but not really finding it. He was watching you as you sank lower in the mud in that distant land trying to find happiness. We know from other passages in the Bible that the Holy Spirit worked in your heart and helped you to realize that whatever you were doing wasn’t working out for you. He was waiting for you to come to your senses so that you could go home.
And once we recognized our sin God ran to us. He was so glad that you wanted to come home and have that relationship and peace with God. He wrapped His arms around us and welcomed us home.
But there is one element that this story doesn’t cover that becomes very clear in the rest of the Bible. God welcomes us home, throws aside our feeble attempts to fix things and points us Jesus. He points us to Jesus, our true older brother and tells us, “I’m glad you are home.” “You cannot repay or fix all the problems you caused.” “But I have the plan that will fix it” and He points to Jesus on the cross. Our older brother, Jesus, wrapped his arms around us and suffered the punishment and ordeals we should have suffered as a consequence of our sinful rebellion.
That is what we celebrate today in communion. We will gather around the table, celebrate the dinner of fellowship with our Father against whom we sinned and rebelled. And we will be reminded that it was through Jesus’ bruised and broken body that we can have this restored relationship with our Father. It is through Christ’s spilled blood that we can sit here and enjoy the feast of reconciliation and forgiveness with our heavenly Father. In our story, it is not the fattened calf that is killed but our older brother, Jesus.
And remember that we are so utterly undeserving of this gift. Steve Brown writes, “If you’re a Christian and can take communion, can worship and be involved in ministry without wondering why in the world God would forgive, love, and save you, you simply have not understood the gospel.” We don’t deserve to be here, but God welcomes us, wraps us up in His arms and tells us that the body and blood of Christ was given so that we can be in His loving arms. Today as we eat and drink, let’s truly give thanks to God for the amazing blessing and gift that our Lord is to us.
However, this picture of God running to us and wrapping his arms around us continues to be true for us in all of our struggles and trials in life as well. God is not a distant ruler in heaven who doesn’t care what happens to His people. He is not removed from our pains and struggles, nor does He watch at a safe distance from heaven as we weep tears of sadness, anger or frustration. God is not saying, “Well, you deserve this because you’ve been disobedient.”
God continues to run to us now and wraps his arms around us in compassion. God gathers us in His arms and tells us that He knows our pain, our frustration, our sorrow. He knows how hard it is or how hard it has been because He has been watching us every step of the way.
God wraps His arms around us, comforts us and tells us that while things may seem to be upside down or backwards, He is in control. God has all things in His all-powerful hands and is very much the King and Ruler of all. He looks us in the eyes and tells us that He loves us and that all things – all things – will work out for good for those who love Him. Life may have many pains, hardships and trials, but we can always be confident that our God, our Father loves us deeply and will always, always hold us and never let us go.
Gordon Balfour tells of a time when he was when he was a young boy in public school, his father worked part time as a driver and guard for Brinks Armored Car Service. Once, when his shift was ending early, he and the other guards stopped the truck at the school yard to give him a lift home. Balfour came out of school and there in the parking lot was the shiny grey armored car, complete with gun-ports and bullet-proof glass. Gathered in a circle around it were all the 3rd grade boys, gawking at this mysterious vehicle. Balfour pushed his way through the circle, went up to the truck and climbed up inside the cab. As he did, the other pupils stared and held their breath at his boldness, but his dad was in the cab, and he knew that he was welcome.
He comments, “Even though I could boldly approach the truck, I knew that any disrespectfulness on my part would not be tolerated by my father. And here is the beautiful balance. I could come respectfully, knowing that my father had standards that were to be obeyed. But at the same time I could come boldly, for he was my father and he loved me.”
Today we can boldly approach God’s throne and know that He has everything, the world’s treasures and the world’s pain, in His hands and He will never let us go. Let’s gather around the table to celebrate God’s grace and ongoing goodness and fellowship in our lives.