The heart of God the Father is more gracious and compassionate than we can imagine. To illustrate this truth and to correct the self-righteous grumbling of the Pharisees over Christ's friendship with sinners, He told a series of three parables about lost things: a sheep, a coin, and a son. In the third parable, Jesus masterfully crafts a storyline that amazes sinners and scandalizes the self-righteous.

The younger son dishonors his father by recklessly squandering his portion of the inheritance and the family's livelihood. He dishonors his Jewish heritage and violates the law of Moses by his immoral and profane lifestyle. He reaches a point where he is starving to death, tending pigs, and longing for home. He comes to his senses and heads home in the hope that his father would hire him on as a common laborer. He knows he's no longer worthy to be called a son.

Remarkably, the father welcomes him with open arms and tender heart. The father throws a lavish celebration because the lost son, who has been as good as dead, has been found. The father is a beautiful picture of God in Heaven.

Truth is we're all in need of God's compassion and restorative grace. There is not one of us who has walked the straight and narrow perfectly. Every one of us has abandoned God the Father in acts of treasonous rebellion. But for those who turn to Him, there is not only forgiveness, there is a robe from His closet, a ring from His treasure, and celabratory feast to be enjoyed. God the Father rejoices over His children who come home.

Most of us enter marriage with the hope and expectation that life with our spouse will be better than ever. But then life happens and our hopes are diminished and our expectations are deflated. It’s not that we expected every day to be a fairytale experience, we just never expected love to be so challenging and marriage to be such hard work. And why is it sometimes so painful and disappointing that we want to walk away?

In the beginning it wasn’t this way. In the beginning God created one man and one woman in His image and joined them together in such a holy and intimate union that they were “one flesh.” They were created to exercise dominion side by side and bring the earth under their wise and perfect care. Together they were tasked by God to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth with more image-bearers. Perfect people in a perfect world enjoying a perfect relationship with God.

When Adam and Even rebelled against the Lord and ate the forbidden fruit, the holy union was damaged. Sin brought pain to both of them as producers. Sin alienated them from God and from one another. Now Eve’s desires would be contrary to Adam’s and Adam’s desire would be to rule over her. The divinely created partners were now competing for control and prominence. The marriage was in crisis and they needed a rescuer.

Jesus Christ is that rescuer. By His perfect life and substitutionary death He not only saves us from sins, but also our marriages. He renews us in love and reorients us from competitors to partners living for Him. Men who once ruled their wives in tyranny now love them as Christ loves the Church. Women who once set themselves in opposition to their husbands now submit in a powerful portrayal of the Church’s submission to Christ. It’s a miraculous “new birth” for marriages and a totally different mission from what many of us imagined when we said “I do.” From the beginning of history to the end of the age marriage was designed by God to proclaim truth about Him.

As we’ve been learning through the “Love One Another Series,” sacrificial love is what marks a community of faith like our church. But Ephesians 5:25-32 shows us that sacrifice “now finds a more specific application in the husband’s role in contributing to marital harmony” (Andrew Lincoln). While superheroes and cowboys in white hats might tend to think of taking a bullet as an example of laying down their lives, very few wives think of a husband giving up himself for her in that way. Giving up our lives as husbands is best demonstrated in the little daily sacrifices that show a tangible, personal love for our wives.

This kind of love is desperately needed in our world. The world’s concept of love is self-centered and self-fulfilling. It asks, “What can I get out of it?” And for many people, when they cease to get something out of their marriage they close it down, much like we close down bank accounts. And we shop elsewhere.

Christ calls husbands to sacrificing, sanctifying, and strengthening love. A christian husband's love for his wife needs to show a Christ-like, cross-revealing love. Marriage is not ultimately about a man and a woman coming together in matrimony, but is designed by God to reveal the mystery of Christ's eternal union for the Church.

Why can’t we all just get along? Why is conflict so prevalent in most areas of our lives? Even with those we love most and would consider closest, friction can be the norm. And it feels like we are never on the exact same page for very long.

The Bible gives a very simple answer: Pride. Proverbs 13:10 says, “Only by pride comes contention.”

So when Paul pleads for Christian people, who are so prone to conflict, to think the same things, love the same things, be fully aligned, and of one mind, he’s actually asking for something big. How is this kind of unity possible in any human relationship, let alone relationships that involve tens and maybe hundreds of other people?

The answer is simple too: Humility. We must learn to “count others more significant than ourselves.”

This approach to life takes careful thought. It is counter-intuitive. But when we learn to lower our own perceived value and raise the value of others, something amazing happens. We stop chasing recognition and engaging in constant conflict. We really care for others. We reflect Jesus, God brings the kind of deep unity we desire, and ultimately it is glorious.

Our society places great value on personal autonomy and freedom. Some believe that it is one of the ultimate personal values. We fight for it, defend it, and make every effort to preserve it. And while personal freedom is a great privilege, it sometimes becomes a sovereign idol commanding and governing the ambitions and motives of our hearts. Like all idols, personal autonomy is a cruel master. It breeds an ugly self-centeredness that manifests itself in self-righteousness, self-promotion, and self-protection. Inevitably the idol of autonomy leads us into isolation, damages the dearest of relationships, and destroys our souls.The abuse and misuse of personal freedom is proof that God never intended us to worship at the altar of autonomy.

Jesus Christ is the only good and trustworthy Sovereign. As we learn to submit to Him, we also find that He teaches us to submit to one another, arranging our lives so as to esteem others as more important than ourselves and to eagerly serve the best interests of others. Biblical submission does not mean becoming another person's doormat, but rather following the example and teaching of Jesus Christ who said, "I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." As Christ's people, we stand ready to submit ourselves one to another, renouncing our autonomous will for the benefit and blessing of others. We do so that Jesus Christ might be reverenced in all His glory as our Creator, Redeemer, and King.

When we come to the Lord’s Table, we participate with Christ and one another in a significant moment of personal fellowship. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:16 “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” While the cup doesn’t turn to actual blood or the bread to the actual body, there is a genuine participation in spiritual realities. We are saying as one body, “Jesus Christ is ours and we are His!” How sacred and holy is the Lord’s Table!

We are also pledging a partnership in Christ for the gospel. Jesus Christ brings us together and in Him, the many become one. Pretty amazing isn’t it? That means it is important for us not only to affirm our faith in Jesus, but to separate from anything that defiles us and makes us impure. Paul also wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:28–29, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” The Lord’s Table causes us to consider the condition of our hearts. We cannot regard sin lightly and honor the Lord at His Table.

Finally, we anticipate a future kingdom with Christ at the Lord’s Table. 1 Corinthians 11:26 reminds us, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Because Jesus died and rose again, we know that we too have victory over sin and the promise of eternal life. Even Jesus awaits that great day, for He promised the disciples, “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 11:29). That’s amazing! The Lord of Heaven and Earth is practicing a kind of self-imposed fast until His beloved Bride, the Church, arrives in heaven. O, how this Savior loves and longs to be with us! This is part of our joy as we come to His Table and part of the motivation to live purely until we see Him. Praise Jesus for His Table!

Today we’re taking a break from the “One Another” series and taking a brief journey into the mountain range of God’s majesty. Peter uses the term “majesty” in our morning’s text to describe both the visible glory of Jesus Christ as He was transfigured on the mountain before Peter, James, and John and also as a title for God the Father, The Majestic Glory.

The majesty of God has reference to His greatness and the wonder He inspires in those who encounter Him in His glory. Such an experience and first-hand knowledge is life changing. For Job it brought him to a place of deep humility and profound worship. For Isaiah it became the single greatest motivation for his years of hard and challenging ministry. For Peter, James, and John, seeing the unveiled majesty of Christ was overwhelming.

Theologian John Murray wrote: “The deeper [a believer’s] apprehension of the majesty of God, the greater the intensity of his love to God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the more conscious will he be of the gravity of the sin that remains and the more poignant will be his detestation of it … Was this not the effect in all the people of God as they came into closer proximity to the revelation of God’s holiness?”

We tend to think of ourselves as being pretty great. Our ideas, our plans, our dreams and ambitions often run unchecked because we live as if we are the center of the universe. God reveals Himself to us as the majestic Creator and Redeemer. He calls us to submit our lives completely to Him. The irony is that in our submission to Him we actually gain the greatest blessing, while our refusal to submit to Him leads us to ruin and destruction. The Majestic God must be worshiped and served by all of His creation and that includes people like us.

May our apprehension of the majesty of God deepen our understanding of His greatness and inspire us to humble, faithful, fervent service. Only God, the Majestic Glory, is worthy of our submission and service.

How do we deal with pain in the church? Not misery delivered by some outside party, but self-inflicted wounds from other members of the body - like irritating habits, unintended hurts, or intentional sin against us.

The natural human instincts of fight or flight are not God’s answers to internal pain. Neither is self-effort to fix other people’s tormenting behaviors. Instead God calls us to a new way of living – to “bearing with one another” and to “forgiving one another” (Colossians 3:12-13).

Bearing with one another (i.e. patiently enduring) is an underdeveloped muscle in the Christian body. But each member of the Godhead marvelously models this quality by “bearing with us” in our own salvation and spiritual growth. And by God’s grace we too can learn a new way of living – a way of loving endurance together, even when it hurts.

God has issued a divine summons to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. It is a summons of salvation to freedom. We’re free from the guilt of sin, free from the slavery of our flesh, free from pursuing a righteousness that comes by the Law, and free to do all the Holy Spirit leads us into. But freedom doesn’t mean that we can now do whatever we want to do. We’re never free to sin.

Paul says plainly in Galatians 5:13-15 that our freedom should never be used as an occasion for self-centered or worldly living. Rather, this newfound freedom in Christ is intended to be a platform for loving service to others. Imagine that! We’ve been set free in order that we might now choose to make ourselves servants and slaves to one another. Happily and humbly we look for ways that we can do good for and bless one another. We guard our hearts and tongues against the kind of biting and devouring that ultimately destroys one another.

The church is not comprised of perfect people, but it is made up of servants who are free to love one another. Let’s continue asking God to grow us into a unified body of believers whose love for one another is exactly what Jesus called and commanded. By this will all people know that you are my disciples if you love one another (John 13:34).

Throughout history culture after culture and person after person has created gods and idols in a failing attempt to meet the variety of needs and situations people face on a daily basis. Our culture has its gods and idols too. We may think ourselves to be a little more sophisticated than civilizations that put their faith in sun and moon gods or wooden and stone idols, but we still pursue things like security and acceptance away from Jesus Christ. Anything we look to more than we look to Christ is, in actuality, a god or an idol.

But God has a better way for us. Everything we could ever need or want is found in Him alone. He is the one true God. And part of His design is to bring people together into one body and then gift us by His Spirit so that as we serve and love one another through the variety of gifts, we experience a bountiful good our hearts long for.

Because God values and honors each of us, we in turn care for one another and share life together. Even those people that others might deem to be weaker or an embarrassment, Christ values. And so do we. Our individual sorrows and joys become the shared experiences in the body of Christ. Even the honors we receive or the disappointments we experience become those of the entire church. Everything we need we find in Christ and through the Spirit's work in us. What a privilege to be members of His body!