Not Him , Not Her

Luke 15: 29 -30 - But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ but when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

“I have been serving in this church for twenty years and the Pastor is not giving me a chance to preach, look at him/her, after only three years he/she is part of the church leadership”.

“I have been singing in the church choir for thirty years, this lady only joined the choir last year and she is already leading worship”

“He cannot be anointed, how can an ex-drug user be used of God?”

Are these statements familiar? The parable of the prodigal son helps us to learn some important lessons about the grace of God.

 The elder brother believes that, through his moral efforts and by following the rules, God owes him. But Jesus’ death on the cross teaches us that God doesn't owe us anything; instead, we owe God everything. Therefore, we should not look down on the poor and broken in our midst because we know that, apart from Christ, we are equally poor and broken.

Knowing what he did for us must drain us of our self-righteousness and our insecurity. We were so sinful he had to die for us. But we were so loved that he was glad to die for us. That takes away both the pride and the fear that makes us elder brothers.

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this wealth in vessels of earth, so that it may be seen that the power comes not from us but from God;

God will often choose and use unlikely vessels in our midst. After all, God is no respecter of persons. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts far greater than our thoughts.