I don’t know about you – but I spent years wandering in the wilderness because I felt that I wasn’t good enough for God.  And so I spent years on missing out on His love and His joy.  What a waste!

This week on the program we've been talking about receiving and living in the joy of God. A joy that people look for in all sorts of weird and wonderful places but a joy that only ever comes from God Himself and maybe, just maybe you've been listening in and hearing about the joy that God wants to bring into your life and thinking to yourself, "Well, I hear what you're saying and maybe God would want to put joy in your life but I don't think He'd ever do that for me." And if you thought that, you wouldn't be on your own.

I'll tell you why I think that is, because the joy of God seems to be so wondrous and so perfect that, (sigh) it's almost too good to be true, nothing could be that good and anyhow, I've spent so much of my life wanting to find this joy that you're talking about, trying this and trying that but I've never found it. Maybe God’s joy is just like, well another mirage along my journey in this joyless desert of mine.

There's one story in the Bible that I come back to again and again and again and I guess it's because I see myself in that story. So if you've heard me talk about the prodigal son before humour me because it's such a beautiful story that, well it just won't hurt you or me to journey down that path again just one more time. I don't normally do this on this program but I'm going to read you this story.

It's a parable that Jesus told to explain to us what God’s like when it comes to blessing someone, well like me perhaps and like you. When we know that we have absolutely no right to expect His blessing. It's a story that over and over again has spoken into my heart the reality that, well God does mean to bless me and you with His joy. Let's have a read, it comes from Luke’s gospel; Matthew, Mark, Luke, the third book in the New Testament, Luke’s gospel chapter 15 beginning at verse 11:

Jesus said, "There was a man and he had a couple of sons. The younger son said to his Dad, "Dad, give me my cut of the estate." So Dad divided his property between them. Not long after that his younger son got all that he had and set off for a distant country and there he squandered his wealth in wild living.

After he had spent everything there was a really big famine in that country and he was really in need so he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He was so hungry he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating but no-one gave him anything. Then he came to his senses and he said to himself, 'how many of my Dads hired men have food enough to spare and here I am starving to death. This is what I'm going to do, I'm going to set out and go back to my father and say to him 'Dad, I have sinned against heaven and against you and I'm just not worthy to be called your son. Just make me one of your hired servants.'

So he got up and he went to his father but while he was still a long way off his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him and ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him and the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm just not worthy to be called your son anymore," but the father said to his servants, "Quick bring the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and listen, go and get that fatted calf and kill it because we're going to have a feast and we're going to celebrate because this son of mine who was dead is alive again, he was lost and now he's found." So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile the older son was out in the field and when he came near the house he heard the music and the dancing so he called one of the servants over and said, "What's going on?" And the servant said, "Your brothers come" he replied, "And your fathers killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound." And the older brother got really angry and refused to go in. So his Dad came out and pleaded with him but he said to his Dad, "Look, all these years I've been slaving away for you, I never disobeyed you and yet you never gave me even a goat to celebrate with my friends but when this son of yours, who squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home you kill a fattened calf for him." And the Dad said, "Son, you're always with me and everything I have is yours but we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and he's alive again, he was lost and now he's found.

Now when we're sitting on the outside looking in on the grace of God and His love and His joy that He wants to lavish on us it's a bit, it's a bit like this prodigal son sitting out there amongst the pig swill. We kind of know from a distance about the goodness of God but we have incredibly low expectations of Him and why shouldn't we? We don't deserve anything from Him and yet the best decision that the prodigal son ever made in his life was to come to his senses and set out on that road home, all be it with low expectations.

As he was travelling along that long road his stomach must have been tied in a knot, he must have rehearsed that speech over and over again and then, then he discovered something he didn't expect. Dad was already out there waiting out by the letter box craning his neck to see a little bit further down the road. Would his son be coming home today? Dad raced down and threw his arms around the lad, there was no lecture, there was no punishment, there was no condemnation and Dad commanded his servants, "Quick quick bring a robe, get a ring, get some sandals." And then the most outrageous thing of all, a party.

What was Dad doing? Dad was lavishing his joy on his son. It was so rational, it was so unfair, the son had done such wrong and the reaction of the faithful son, the older son, well it was pretty much on the money in that respect but Jesus told this story to explain to us what God is like and God, according to this story by Jesus, compulsively wants to share His joy with us. Listen to the explanation that Dad gave to the faithful son at the end of that story, he said:

"My son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours," But listen to this, "But we had to celebrate."

You see, it was a compulsion in the heart of the father, we had to celebrate, we had to be glad because your brother is back with us again.

God just wants to lavish his joy on us, just like the father did on his son in that story even though the son didn't deserve it. And we can sit here amongst the pig swill and we may well have a low expectation of God, that's okay, that doesn't faze Him. The best thing we could ever do is, like that prodigal son, come to our senses and set out on that long road back to Him with those low expectations.

But I'll tell you something; hold onto your hat because that Dad in that story is exactly what God is like, straight from the horses mouth. And when we turn back to Him, He lavishes His joy on us, He pours His spirit into us and loves us and rejoices in us and party's with us and fills us with a joy unspeakable. He can't help it, it's who He is, He loves you, He loves me so much, it's just who He is.