*below is pre-sermon manuscript not sermon transcript

Stingy with Atoms | Luke 15:31-32

 

Did you know that you are a billionaire?

Right now, you have about 7 billion billion billion in your account.

And next year you will make about 98% more of that 7 billion billion billion. 

That sounds pretty amazing, right?

Unfortunately, I’m not talking about cash or bitcoin or even Monopoly money – I’m talking about atoms. 

You have about 7 billion billion billion atoms in your body right now and over the course of the next 12 months your body will replace about 98% of those atoms. 

That’s a lot of atoms. 

Interestingly, atoms are mostly empty space. 

In fact, it has been estimated that if you removed the empty space from the atoms of all people you could fit the entire human race inside a sugar cube.

So, the earth would only need one lump, not two.

But why do atoms matter?

Because that’s what they are.

A project from Northwestern University notes it this way:

Northwestern University

Matter is anything that can be touched physically. Everything in the universe (except energy) is made of matter, and, so, everything in the universe is made of atoms.

So, atoms “matter” a lot. 

Everything is made up of atoms.

Now, the illustration I’m about to give is based on mathematical data that Dow found.

First, using my name and the word math in the same sentence is super scary.

Second, this is mathematical data that I researched from the World-wide Interweb and since we know that everything on the internet is true please take these things as absolute, real, scientific facts and etch them in a brick outside the Smithsonian Science Education Center.

A pint of blood has about 2.4 trillion red blood cells.

One red blood cell possibly has about 120 quadrillion atoms.

Imagine your bank told you that they wanted to transfer $16 from your account to a random new account holder to help them out with some fees.

You might not take too kindly to that, right?

But what if your doctor told you that he wanted to transfer 16 ounces of your blood to a random patient at the children’s hospital to help them out with their sickness.

You would be losing 2.4 trillion red blood cells made up of quadrillions of atoms – atoms that you will replace 98% of over the next 12 months. 

In other words, there are plenty of atoms to give. 

Here’s the thing:

There is a possibility that you might be stingy with atoms.

I’m not talking about the atoms that make up red blood cells.

I’m talking about spiritual atoms. 

What does that mean?

Let’s see if we can find out. 

Jesus was speaking to crowd of people one day and he told them a story about a son who went to his father and demanded his inheritance money early.

He took his money and moved a long way from home and started living a rich, extravagant, sinful life.

And his sin kept intensifying his foolishness and his stupidity and he quickly blew through money that should have lasted him a lifetime. 

Broke and desperate he limped back home hoping that maybe his father would at least give him a job working out on the farm with the other workers just so he could make enough money to go buy some food. 

But his father refused to do that. 

His father thought he would never see his foolish son again.

He thought he would never come home or that because of his wild, sinful life only his body would come back home. 

So, when the father saw his ignorant, arrogant younger son coming home he ran to welcome him!

His joy could not be contained!

But the father had another son. 

He didn’t run off, he stayed home. 

He was the moral, responsible child that helped with the family and helped with the family business. 

And when he got home from work that day and discovered that his ignorant, arrogant little brother was home and that his father was throwing a huge party to celebrate his return he did not run to welcome him home. 

His anger could not be contained. 

He sat out on the front porch in anger and pouted. 

His father left the party to come and plead with him to quit being angry and come in and enjoy the kindness of God in their family.

But he was even more snarky and rude and dishonoring to his father.

And how did his father respond to his rudeness?

Listen to Luke 15, verse 31:

31 And he said to him, “Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.”

The older son is embarrassing the family by sitting out on the porch and pouting in anger. 

He is dishonoring his father by rejecting his gracious request that he come inside to the party. 

He is being a rude, self-righteous, moral jerk.

And how does the father respond?

Does he say:

“Look, buddy, straighten up your attitude and get in here right now or I’ll rewrite the will and give everything to Cousin Eddie.”

No.

• He doesn’t criticize him
• He doesn’t bully him
• He doesn’t lecture him

He simply tells him the truth…in love.

• “Everything is still yours.”
• “All the money.”
• “All the land.”
• “I’m not abandoning you.”
• “I’m still here.”
• “I’m still your father.”

The father is having to reassure him that he won’t lose his stuff.

Isn’t that sad?

The father knows his son doesn’t care about that last part. 

He doesn’t really want a relationship with his father.

If he did, he wouldn’t be pouting on the porch.

He wouldn’t be dishonoring his dad.

By his words and his actions his only concern is that his dad is going to get all lovey-dovey-mushy and take some of the money or the land or the other stuff that belongs to him and give it to that no-good little brother of his.

• He refused to show love to his wayward brother
• He refused to show love to his faithful father

What does that say about him?

1 John 4:8

The one who does not love does not know God…

But what if this whole thing with his little brother was a flash in the pan?

What if it wasn’t for real?

Well, based on the culture, at the very least that seems unlikely.

It was emotionally and physically dangerous for him to come back home. 

• His father could have shown tough love and locked him out
• His friends could have done the same thing
• The people in town could have stoned him to death

So, a deceptive show to squeeze back in and squeeze some more money out of the old man seems unlikely.

But even if it was phony, what would the older brother really lose?

Geoff Thomas

If God gives his grace to a wretched wicked sinner who repents it doesn’t mean that there is an atom less for you.

If you have 120 quadrillion atoms in one red blood cell, how many atoms do you think God has access to?

Remember what the father kindly and patiently and graciously tells his older son:

“Everything I have is yours!”

Everything!

He will lose nothing by his younger brother being welcomed back into the family!

The math here is unbelievable – the older brother gets everything and loses nothing!

And yet, what is he doing?

Pouting on the front porch because his daddy didn’t give him and his friends a goat for their Super Bowl party!

Samuel Trevor Francis was a merchant in England in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s, and he wrote a fantastic hymn.

These are the words to the first verse:

Samuel Trevor Francis

O the deep,

deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured,

boundless, free,
rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me.

Vast and unmeasured means there is plenty of room in heaven for lost people who have never been to church.

Vast and unmeasured means there is plenty of room in heaven for lost people who are in church every Sunday.

Everything that God has can be yours.

How?

1 Peter 2:24

…and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Jesus Christ was perfect and innocent.

No one else who has ever lived or will ever live will be perfect and innocent.

That means that only Jesus qualifies as a substitute for sin.

It might sound noble for someone to offer to pay some fine or fee that you might have, but if their check bounces or their credit card is declined then they disqualify themselves as your helper.

It might sound noble for someone to offer to serve a 30-day jail sentence for you until they check-in at the jail and there is an outstanding warrant for them.

They would then be disqualified from helping you and both of you would end up in jail.

There was no way that Jesus could ever be disqualified!

He was and is and will forever be perfect!

That’s why only Jesus qualified to pay the penalty of your sin. 

That’s why no one else can save you or rescue you or make you right with God!

Only Jesus. 

He bore our sins in his own body on the cross!

Why?

So that we might die to sin and what was that second part?

So that we might live!

• Not so that we might complain
• Not so that we might criticize
• Not so that we might worry
• Not so that we might be afraid
• Not so that we might be greedy
• Not so that we pout on the front porch

Jesus bore our sin in his body so that we might bear in our body a deep desire to live in and enjoy a right relationship with God.

And that right relationship comes from Jesus and only Jesus.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the folks at Ephesus:

Ephesians 3:14-15

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

Ephesians 3:16

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

Ephesians 3:17-18

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints

Ephesians 3:18-19

what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

All the fullness of God!

All of it!

All of it is found in and through Jesus Christ!

All of the fullness of God is found in Jesus!

That’s why we keep making such a big deal out of Jesus.

Geoff Thomas

God says to every Christian, “Everything I have is yours because my Son, Jesus Christ has purchased it all for you.”

Now, don’t take these next comments completely out of context.

There are times to pursue fairness and justice. 

There are moments we need to be wise and discerning and strive to be good stewards and not taken advantage of. 

But if we have all the fullness of God in Jesus Christ, do we really need to sit in the lobby of the bank screaming at the teller if someone accidently gets $16 of our money for fees?

If we have all the fullness of God in Jesus Christ, do we really need to fight and argue and throw hot dog wrappers at fans of our rival team?

If we have all the fullness of God in Jesus Christ, do we really need to yell at the florist in the hall before our wedding because we ordered blush roses and they brought bashful roses instead?

If we have all the fullness of God in Jesus Christ, do we really need to sit at the dinner table and refuse to eat our dinner because we wanted green beans instead of broccoli?

If we have all the fullness of God in Jesus Christ, do we really need to sit out on the front porch and pout because daddy didn’t give you and your friends a goat for your super bowl party, but he gave your wild, sinful, little brother a huge barbecue?

No, we really don’t.

Verse #2 – Samuel Trevor Francis

Underneath me,

all around me,
is the current of Thy love;
leading onward,

leading homeward
to my glorious rest above.

If you are a Christian, by the presence and the pressing of the Holy Spirit, your only gear is onward and homeward.

If you are a Christian, there is absolutely no value for you or to you to ever pout about anything ever!

Why?

About 600 years before Jesus was born, there was a prophet named Habakkuk who lived during a time when his country experienced war and conflict and hardship.

This is what he wrote:

Habakkuk 3:17

Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food,

Habakkuk 3:17-18

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

This scene is not impossible to imagine:

“Joseph, it’s time for us to make dinner for our family, so, go get us some figs.”

“There are no figs, mom.”

“Then go get us some grapes off of the vine.”

“There are no grapes.”

“Then go get us some olives off the tree.”

“There are no olives.”

“Then go get some wheat from the fields for bread.”

“There is no wheat.”

“Then go get one of our lambs so we can fix a lamb stew for dinner.”

“There are no more lambs. Everything is gone, mom. The invaders have taken it all or destroyed it all. We have nothing.”

Someone might say:

“Wait a minute – I thought you just said in God we have everything, and we lose nothing.”

Listen to that last part from Habakkuk again:

Habakkuk 3:18

Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

What he’s saying is this:

“If I have salvation in God, I have everything I need, because if I lose my food, I won’t lose my soul, and I can’t take food with me, but my soul will never die, so if my soul has the salvation of God then I’m good because God cannot and will not forsake me because Jesus bore my sins in his own body and I’ve been redeemed – how I love to proclaim it – redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!”

If you are a Christian, you have all the fullness of God in Jesus Christ and because you have that you lose nothing because if you have all the fullness of God you have everything your heart and soul longs for and needs the most.

Does having the fullness of God in Jesus Christ mean we will never pout?

No.

But I hope that if we can get these truths from God into our minds then in those moments when we are sitting on the porch pouting because we are not getting our way, we can say:

“Self, you have all the fullness of God – so, stop pouting!”

And instead of pouting we would consider that we have been redeemed and we would be quick to do what the father did.

Listen to verse 32:

32 “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.”

• “Son, I have to rejoice that your brother is not lost and dead!”
• “I have to because its who I am!”
• “I celebrate and rejoice when the lost are found!
• “I have to!”
• “I’m compelled to!”
• “I can’t stop!”
• “It gives me that much joy!”

Remember, Jesus is talking to a crowd that had a lot of long-time church members out there.

And he’s telling them:

“God is not stingy with joy!”

“God hurts and aches and longs that dead, lost rebels would turn from their sin and turn to Jesus and live!”

“And when they do, it is impossible for God to restrain his joy because joy is who he is!”

How about our character?

We aren’t perfect, but would anyone in our lives even be tempted to say that joy is who we are?

I love how the father doesn’t let the older son try to get out of the family:

“This brother of yours was dead, but now he is starting to live!”

“He was dead in his sin off in some far land, but now by grace he has been saved and he has been made truly alive!”

I also love how Jesus makes this a cliff-hanger.

Does the older brother finally leave the porch and go inside and honor his father and give his brother a bear hug?

Does the little brother stay true and faithful to his family?

We don’t know. 

And based on the audience, Jesus didn’t finish this story on purpose. 

With grace and mercy, his non-ending is a way of tenderly saying to me and to you:

So, what are you going to do?

• Are you going to keep pouting in anger?
• Are you going to keep pouting in arrogance?
• Are you going to keep pouting in apathy?

John MacArthur offers some thought-provoking possible endings for the prodigal story:

#1 – John MacArthur

The son, seeing his father’s love, compassion, and grace; came to his senses about his wicked heart, was humbled, repented and reconciled.

#2 – John MacArthur

And the older son fell on his knees before his father saying, “I repent for my loveless cold service, my pride and selfishness.” 

#3 – John MacArthur

And the older son being outraged at his father, picked up a piece of wood and beat him to death in front of everyone.

John MacArthur

That’s the ending the Pharisees wrote. That’s the cross. And that’s what they did just a few months after this.

For weeks we have looked intently at the younger son and the father and the older son.

So, how are you going to respond to the prodigal story?

Dow Welsh | August 26, 2018 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

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