Morris Gleiser: Luke chapter 15 tonight, please. Luke chapter 15. There are several passages in the scripture that, in my limited vocabulary, I call them classic passages.

You could argue every passage in every book and every section of the word of God is classic because it does point us to Jesus Christ. And I wouldn’t argue about any of those passages. But let me, let’s be fair.

There are some passages that you have heard, you’ve heard taught, you’ve taught yourself, you’ve heard proclaimed. They’ve jumped off the page of scriptures at you many times, such as John 3, 16. The whole chapter of John 3 is just one of those classic passages.

Psalm 23 would certainly be one of those. Genesis 1, Isaiah 6, and on and on I could go. The gospel writer Luke gives us a story here in Luke 15 that everybody in this room, whether you have been faithful to church for much of your life or if you’ve been a very casual attendee to church, you know this story.

I am so glad that Luke records it for us. None of the other three gospel writers records it. I’m thankful for it because we’ve heard it all of our life and it just seems like every single verse in this chapter says, Preach me!

Preach me! No, no, no, no, no, don’t do that next verse.

preach me forgive my cartoon brain that’s just the kind of the way I think this is a passage that honestly you I’ll do everything I can to to to bite my tongue not to stop and say let me explain something in this verse Jesus is our teacher here he’s the one who’s speaking to a group of people that have gathered around him and it’s a motley crew it’s a group of all sorts that sit in front of him and stand in front of him.

And I want you to get it again, would you? Look at verse one of Luke 15. Let’s see what the Lord says.

It says, then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. Don’t get mad at me. I got to stop.

Publicans were the worst crew. These Jews, the Orthodox people of the world, of the Hebrew, of the Hebrews, despised these Jewish people who had given themselves over to the Roman Empire to receive funds both for Rome and for themselves. These publicans, they were despised.

And look at them. They’re gathering, the fact the construction of the language tells you that they increased in number and they just increased getting closer and closer. They drew near unto him for to hear him.

Verse 2, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners and eats with them. Well, you better thank God he does because that includes you and me too. Jesus tells, I believe, one parable, though it has three parts.

The parable of the shepherd who loses the sheep, the lost sheep. The parable of the lost coin where the woman loses the lost coin. And now would you scoot down to verse 11, the parable of the lost son, the third part of the story.

He said a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country. And there wasted his substance with riotous living. Boy, so much could be said about that verse.

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.

When he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s, I love this phrase, have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said unto him, Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I’m no more worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand. Shoes on his feet. and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let’s eat and be merry.

For this my son was dead. He’s alive again. He was lost.

He’s found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field and as he came and drew night of the house, he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

He said unto him, Thy brother has come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. He was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him.

And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee. Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. Yet thou never gavest me a little goat, a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.

But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad.

For this, thy brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Lord, it is amazing to me how that you said so much with an economy of words that just jumps off the page.

Lord, help me not to muddy up what you were teaching. Help me to just be the delivery boy that you want me to be, need me to be, and help us to use our time effectively and wisely. These dear people have had a day that has probably been filled with laughter, family time, picnic with their church family, and they’re tired.

They’re busy. They’ve been going and going, and tomorrow’s knocking at their door. So would you please allow me to just say only what needs to be said, and may there be clarity of thought tonight, and may we hear from you.

Don’t let me get in the way of what you want to communicate. May it be obvious that you’ve met with us. We ask in our Savior’s name.

Amen. Would you like to have a nickel for every time you’ve ever heard this story told? I mean, think about it.

If you had a dollar bill for every time you’ve ever heard this particular story told, you college kids could pay all four years of your school bill. I mean, think about how many times we’ve heard it. talk to me tonight.

We call this the story of the what? Prodigal son. Now you do notice, I hope that you did, that the word prodigal, the term prodigal, never showed up in the text.

But it’s a good term for it. I think it’s the parable of the lost son, but I don’t think you do a disservice to call it the prodigal son. He did, he wasted his life in an exorbitant manner.

He wasted his substance, his life, with riotous living, no question about it. I heard this story when I was a little kid. Didn’t you?

If you went going to church, grew up in church, I heard it. Hey, can I bring up the flannel graph board again? I mean, I saw it on the flannel graph board.

I got to thinking about it just recently about the picture they showed us. It’s the craziest thing. I can remember what happened to me when I was a little boy.

I can’t remember last week for the most part, but I can remember things that happened to me when I was a little kid. And I can still remember the picture on the flannel graph board of the prodigal son. He took his money.

He walks in. He tells his dad, I want my independence. I want my inheritance.

I wish you were dead, but you’re not. So as if you were dead, give me my inheritance. I want my independence.

I want it immediately. He gets his inheritance. He evidently takes what he would have been given.

He turns it into cash funds, and he goes off into the far country. Jesus is telling this story. You’ve got to put yourself in that culture, And you can imagine these Pharisees, scribes, and other people listening to the story were listening with great intention.

I mean, this boy was a wicked-hearted, cold-blooded kid who said, I want my inheritance. And he goes off to the far country. Honestly, I can remember seeing the picture on the flannel graph board of this boy.

I can’t believe they showed us this as little children. Of this boy sitting at some table. There was gambling tools on the table.

There was a liquor bottle on the table there was a musical note behind his head which indicated that the music was irreverent and worldly and here’s the worst thing he had a woman sitting on his lap you don’t show that to little children all right that’s not good.

I guess we handled it I don’t know but I mean we watched it and they showed us the wickedness of the far country.

And we were told that story and they said oh boys and girls when you get away from God and you get away from the house of God and you get away from the word of God you get away from the people of God you’re going to go to the far country and you’re going to do things you never thought you’d ever do.

You know I’m grateful they told me that when I was a little kid I really I’m thankful for that teaching.

Then you become a teenager that’s my crowd that I’ve preached to about I don’t know 95 years now I mean I love teenagers and I you know as a teenager you begin to hear this story and it’s said with a little bit more volume, with a little bit more pounding in a pulpit, a raised fist and a raised foot, and said, young people, don’t go the way of the prodigal.

Spit going every which way as a guy’s preaching. When you do, you’re gonna go to the far country. And I can hear him say it.

That far country is this. You’re gonna go farther than you ever thought you would. You’ll wind up in liquor.

You’ll wind up in drug addiction. You’ll wind up in crime.

You’ll wind up in prison you’ll wind up in divorce you’ll wind up in a mist of a life I can remember sitting there as a teenager boy I’d say okay okay I got it.

You know something honestly I’m thankful for all that preaching I’m thankful for all that teaching I really am I’ve done a little bit of it myself through the years I’m glad for the warning because I’m sure that through the years when I heard the the temptation the tempter’s voice trying to get me to walk away from what I’d been told.

Somehow or another in the lingering part of my, the recesses of my brain, I got to thinking about the far country. And you’re going to do things you never thought you’d do. You become a, you become chained by sin.

You see his rebellion. You see then that beautiful repentance where he says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What have I done with my life?

He’s out of, he’s out of cash. I know I could point in any direction tonight and ask you to stand up and tell the story. Everybody in this room knows it for the most part, probably.

The kid winds up with no money, no cash. He winds up feeding hogs. Now you got to put yourself in that Jewish culture and remind yourself that when he, when Jesus said he was out there slopping the hogs, I mean, there were a bunch of Pharisees and, and, and these religious leaders and, and even any Jew was thinking that boy could not go any further.

You couldn’t go any lower than that. I mean, for a Jewish boy to be out with a swine? I mean, it just couldn’t get any lower than that.

How repulsive. He grabs some pod and breaks it open, squeezes out something just to be able to exist. And then he thinks, what am I doing?

My dad’s got slaves. He’s got servants. He’s got people that work for him on a daily basis that eat better than this.

I don’t deserve to be a son. You see, he’s hit rock bottom. He’s at the point where he realizes, I don’t deserve anything.

And he practices a three-point outline. Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and you. I’m no more worthy to be called your son.

Make me as one of your hired servants. And you can see maybe as he comes to town, maybe he crests the hill and he looks over and he sees the city where he grew up. I don’t know.

Come up with your own story. Maybe he sits down on the side of the road and he goes, am I ready for this? Am I ready for the looks of despisement from people in town?

People who maybe want to take my life and I don’t deserve anything. What have I done with my life? What have I done?

And all of a sudden, he hears the sound of feet pounding on the pavement, on the dusty road. And he looks up and here comes a man. An old man.

His beard, they all had beards. His beard, he’s running as fast as he can. The wind currents has caused his beard to turn sideways as he’s running down the road.

Because way back at the house, he saw some boy sitting on the side of the road and he grabs a servant and he says, isn’t that my son? He’d been looking for him. He takes off running down that road.

I don’t know about you, I don’t ever get tired thinking about this story. It’s a beautiful picture of conversion. Someone coming to Christ.

He’s coming to the Lord. His repentance led to an incredible reception. The Bible says that his father grabbed him, he hugs him, and he kisses him.

Now we read the word he kissed him. Get the idea from by reading that, he may just kind of planted one right on his forehead. No, my friend.

The truth is he was all over that boy. He was all over him. I mean, with the hog smell and all.

I mean, he was just kissing and loving on him. And the boy says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Dad, dad, dad.

Father, I don’t deserve to be your son. Just make me. And he can’t even get his whole three-point outline out.

And the father turns around because some servant’s been trailing him. And he says, hey, go home and get the best robe and bring it to him. And we’ve got to get some shoes on his feet because he’s going to walk with me.

And he’s going to walk for me and get a ring to put on his finger so he can represent me. By the way, get someone to kill the fat calf that we got down out there in the pasture because we’re going to have a time tonight. You could have stood and told that story.

What a remarkable story. Someone may say, well, wait a minute, preacher. Isn’t that also a story of someone who gets away from the Lord and comes back to him?

Sure, sure. The application’s there. But would you help me tonight?

Look at verse 11 again, would you? Jesus starts off this portion of the parable and he said, a certain man had, help me out tonight, how many sons? Two.

As a little boy, I always heard about the boy in the far country. And I’m glad I heard it. As a teenager, I heard the warnings of the prodigal lifestyle.

Glad I heard it. But for the life of me, I never heard anybody ever say anything about the other boy. And for years of my life, I just thought it was just kind of add on.

Why is it there? I don’t know anything about this other brother. I’m going to tell you something.

You could actually argue tonight that the real purpose behind telling this story that Jesus tells is to get to the other brother. Jesus is speaking about the boy who never left home. And on the surface, friends, on the surface, he looks real good.

I mean, he didn’t bring reproach on the family name. The truth is he didn’t go in and demand his inheritance. Truth is he never left home.

Truth is he worked because he came in from the fields. I think work is good. Hard work is good for every one of us.

He worked. He had a good work ethic. He worked for dad.

Nobody looked at him and said, oh, that boy, he’s breaking his father’s heart. No. He evidently had friends.

He referenced them by his statement to his father later on. He said, I never had a feast like this. I never had a party with my friends.

You know, on the surface, he looks very good. The problem is this. You can look good and not be godly.

And Jesus is talking about a boy who was geographically close, physically, geographically close to the father, but he wasn’t any closer to the father than the boy that was in the far country. Because he didn’t understand the heartbeat of the Father. Something was missing in this guy’s life.

The truth is, most of us in this room tonight could talk about our conversion and rejoice as we heard music honoring Christ tonight, that Jesus came into our life and changed our life. The fact of the matter is, forgive me, this boy who never left home is representative of that crowd of Pharisees and religious people that gathered around Jesus. And they evidently didn’t even recognize it.

If they did, they didn’t want to admit it. And let me start with me tonight. I’m pointing the finger at me first, dear friend.

There’s a little bit of this Pharisee in every one of us. I asked the Lord to help me tonight to be a friend. I don’t want to be unkind.

You’re weary, and I know that you’ve come to this service, but I’m just the delivery boy, okay? There’s a little bit of this Pharisee nature that creeps up in every one of us. I’m convinced as we read through this story, these Pharisees evidently never saw that Jesus was talking about them.

If they did, they didn’t recognize it. They didn’t admit it. You say, preacher, I don’t get it.

What did the boy who stayed home, what did he do that was so bad? What was in his life? That’s a fair question.

Would you look at verse 25 and let’s pick it up. It says in verse 25, Now his elder son was in the field. Now, I find it interesting nobody went out to the field to tell the older brother, Hey, your brother’s come home.

Now I’m reading between the print on the paper here, but you almost get the sense that maybe everybody knew how he’s going to respond. I don’t know. And as he came and drew night of the house, he heard music and dancing.

I’m telling you, they were celebrating big time. And he called one of the servants and he asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, thy brother is come.

Thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound. Verse 28. And he was angry and he would not go in.

I’ll stop right there. Can I tell you that the brother who never left home, the brother who was still working for his dad, the brother who looked good on the surface had a problem with a spirit on the inward part. He didn’t practice the outward expression of sinful behavior that his younger brother practiced before the eyes of mankind.

But he had a hidden sin. He had a lifestyle of sin that began on the inside that so quickly finds its way into everybody in this room. You say, what was it?

Number one, he was explosively ungrateful. He had an explosive temper. I don’t want to take a long time here tonight, so let me just cut to the chase.

When things don’t go your way what comes out of you if I took a cup of water tonight and put it up here on this pulpit and I begin to shake this pulpit it can be shaken here a little bit shaken shook moved if I begin to move this pulpit with violence and everything what’s in that cup is going to come overflowing out correct.

Well when your life gets disturbed what comes out of you what comes out of me when things don’t go according to the way in which I want them to go.

What comes out this boy did not like this in fact I think he possibly thought this day was going to happen and he explodes he was angry and he would not go in are you an angry person.

The fact is a lot of times we don’t know that we’re angry so maybe the fair question is if those who know you best and maybe even love you the most, if I asked them about you, would they say, yeah, they have a temper.

You can mark it down, students. Things may not go your way this school year. Let me rephrase that.

Things at times will not go your way. Truth is, all of us in this room tonight can recognize that there have been times in our life when things have not gone away the way we wanted them to go. And what do we do?

Well, let me ask you, are you an explosively angry person? I’m just telling you tonight. The Bible says, stop grieving the Holy Spirit of God, Ephesians 4.

Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. It’s not a question of whether or not you’re saved. You’ve been sealed by the Holy Spirit.

You can’t lose your salvation. You can’t lose the Holy Spirit, but you can grieve Him. And it says, stop grieving.

Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God. You say, how do I grieve Him? Well, the previous verse says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but let it be that which is good to the use of edifying.

The verse afterwards says, and let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Did you know that being an angry person can become contagious? Other people will pick it up.

The writer of Proverbs, Solomon said, Make no friendship with an angry man, lest thou learn his ways. You may have grown up in an environment in which people express themselves with anger. And it’s been a real disturbing test for you through life.

Folks, I’m just putting it down here where we all live. I’m talking about something that will affect your home, your marriage. You may be faithful in church.

You may not be living the life of the prodigal. You may be involved in teaching. You may be involved in music.

You may be involved in some area of the ministry around here. You may be active. I mean, give me a break.

You’re here on Monday night. Thank you for that. But behind closed doors at home, do you sometimes get angry?

How about in traffic? I’m speaking from personal experience, but I live on the highway. People do not know how to drive.

I wish I could teach every one of them how to drive. I’m not an expert. It’s easy to get angry.

You say, could you go back and preach about alcohol? I don’t have a problem with that. Yeah, I know.

Don’t start. But do you have an issue with your temper? He was explosively ungrateful.

Somebody has said, speak when you’re angry and you’ll make your best speech. you’ll ever regret. Somebody else said that being an angry person is temporary insanity.

I mean, how many of us in this room have times in our life said something and afterwards said, oh, did I say that? Oh, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I, where did that come from?

It’s like temporary insanity. We’re just out of control. I’m talking about this will affect your marriage.

It’ll affect your ministry. It’ll affect the raising of your children. You don’t raise kids with an angry temper.

You don’t raise children by bullying them. Jesus never bullied you. God the Father never bullied you.

We don’t bully our kids to submissiveness. You don’t raise kids with anger. You don’t live in such a way to get your wife off your back, to get your husband to do what you want him to do.

Let me ask you, are you an approachable person? Students in college, there are going to be times somebody’s going to need to approach you about something they see in your life. It’s a part of the pruning and improving process of these years of helping you get focused on Christ-likeness.

The truth is you need to be an approachable person. And you don’t need to be one where, again, Paul told the church in Ephesus, at all bitterness and wrath. What’s wrath?

It’s that inner brooding and stewing and steaming. You may look calm on the outside, but on the inside, you’re about to, you’re about to blow a gasket. And then he uses the word anger, which is the outward expression of that, which has been steaming up on the inside.

And the word clamor is the word yelling. Two people get in a discussion. You know what I mean by discussion?

It’s the same thing as argument when you’re unsaved, but Christians, it’s called a discussion. And they get in a discussion and one of them begins to lift their voice and the other person says, don’t yell at me. I’m not yelling!

Veins popping out of their neck, you know. Sometimes you can’t even hear yourself. All bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking, that’s fault finding and blasphemous speaking about other people.

Be put away from you with all malice. What’s malice? It’s wishing other people would get hurt.

And we’ll contribute to it with our own mouth. We won’t commit homicide, but we often commit verbicide. Explosively ungrateful.

Ungrateful, yes. Go back and look at something here, would you? Notice what this older brother said.

Look at verse 29. And he answering said to his father, Lo, that word lo is the word look. Look!

What an irreverent, rude way to talk to your dad. Look, these many years do I serve thee. Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment, and yet you never even gave me a little goat, a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.

Look at his dad’s response in verse 31. And he said unto him, son, by the way, that word son is a very tender term. He’s not all over the boy with anger.

Tenderly, he says, son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It’s as if he’s standing there under the barn, standing outside the house, and he says, son, look around. All of this is available to you.

All that I have is here for you. And you’re upset because I’m doing something for your brother who’s come home. You’re upset because somebody else is getting something and you don’t seem to understand what I’ve done for you.

Again, let me just cut to the chase. Let me start with me. This kid was not only explosive, he was explosively ungrateful.

What does that mean? All right, here it is. He was a complainer.

He was a griper. You say, no, Brother Morris, I don’t think that’s true. Yes, it is.

Go back to verse one. Get the context. Then drew near unto Jesus, all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.

Here it comes. And the Pharisees and scribes, look at the word, murmured. The Pharisees and scribes murmured.

Now if someone in this room tonight says, what does that word mean? Just listen to it. Murmur.

It kind of, it just explains itself. Murmur. It’s one of those parts of speech that I never could say on a, I don’t know, harmony.

It’s just a word that says what it is, murmur. What is it? It means these Pharisees and scribes were standing around saying, can you get over this Jesus spending time with this riffraff, this bunch of sinful people?

Well, he doesn’t have any character to him. He doesn’t have any decency to him. And Jesus said, all right, boys, let me tell you a story.

There was a father who had two sons. And you can spot that guy’s sins. You can see it clearly, but you can’t seem to see that the other brother, who had the same kind of wickedness in the presence of the father, he had a sinful behavior of murmuring.

He was ungrateful. He didn’t seem to recognize what he had. We get upset with our country many times because it has an entitlement mentality holding out its hand to the United States government says, you know, pay me and meet my needs.

We get upset with that. Many of us live with an entitlement mentality. It’s not so much toward government.

It’s just toward the spirit of, I want people to do things my way. We can’t seem to understand what good we’ve got going for us, and we become ungrateful. God’s people have no business complaining.

Is your name written in heaven? Then rejoice. You say, I’m a preacher.

You don’t know what I’m under. No, I don’t. No, I don’t.

I just know this. I and you both deserve to go to hell. I don’t deserve any of God’s goodness and his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness, his pardon in my life, his justification as we heard sung about a moment ago.

I have no business complaining. None. It’s easy to gripe.

It’s easy to find fault. You know, we gripe about weather. Somewhere this summer, maybe you said, man, it sure is hot.

Well, enjoy it. Because one of these days you’ll be saying, I’m freezing to death. Sure is rainy.

I sure can’t stand it when it’s rainy. Or like today, you could say, sure is perfect. I hate it when the weather’s perfect around here.

Gripe about traffic. I can’t even get out. I can’t get out into the room.

Where’d these people come from? Same place you came from. Home, schools, restaurants, work.

Do they have more right to the highway than you? It’s easy to gripe. Gripe about, a lady gripes about her husband who gets stuck in traffic and he can’t help it and he’s a little late for supper and the supper’s gotten cold.

Husband gripes about the wife who doesn’t have supper ready when he walks in the door. Husband gets mad at the wife, excuse me, the husband gets mad at the wife for getting on to him about hanging up his clothes. A wife gets to griping about him never hanging up his clothes.

And they both start griping about the kids not keeping their room clean. Now, should the husband hang up his clothes? Sure.

Should the kid clean up his room? Sure. But don’t gripe.

Griping’s a sin. You say, yeah, but I don’t drink. Good, don’t start.

But do you gripe? I don’t take illicit drugs. I don’t live in immorality and pornography.

Good, don’t go there. But do you have a problem with complaining? You say, I’m about to, just if you keep preaching on this sermon, I will.

It’s easy. It’s easy. You know, the truth is, in our first world culture here, best thing in the world for you to do and for me to do is to go to some third world country and realize how much I really have to be grateful for.

No business complaining. I was a youth pastor for 20 years. Wow, 20 years.

I started when I was three. and so that’s when I was so young. And teenagers have taught me far more than I probably ever taught them.

I love teenagers. I preach at teen camps in the summertime and I’m telling you, I have a great time with them and most of the time, teenagers have the time of their life no matter what you’re doing. I can have some great activity and everybody’s involved.

Yeah! There’d always be a couple of kids off the side saying, I don’t like this game. Why not?

I don’t know. I just don’t like it. Well, look at those 80 other kids over there having the time of their life.

Well, they’re dumb. I don’t know what their problem is. I just don’t like this game.

I’m not going to play. And you can’t make me. On the inside, I’m saying, yes, I can.

You know, but then I fall in the same category. Pull up to a big, take a busload of kids up to, you know, some fast food place. Why do we do that?

I don’t know. We pull up some McDonald’s and there’s some kid on the bus saying, I hate McDonald’s. What’s wrong with McDonald’s?

I just don’t like it. Well, what do you like? Burger King.

Ooh. Like there’s a world of difference between those two places. So the next month at the end of the youth activity, we pull up to a Burger King to try to satisfy the kid who wanted to go.

Same kid. I don’t like Burger King. I thought you liked it.

That was last month. I don’t like it anymore. Where’d those kids learn to gripe?

Uh-oh. You say, well, they were born with a griping nature. Yeah, and they went to grad school at home.

They learned from the experts. People gripe about, I don’t know, long-winded preachers. They gripe about one thing after another, and it’s easy in that environment just to easily find fault.

God’s people ought to be people who genuinely are loving life regardless of the storm that’s around them. Do you walk around with some silly pasted-on grin? No!

That’d be ridiculous. You don’t have a car wreck and get out and go, That was fun. No.

But you don’t live a life that is filled with this spirit of complaining, griping, fault finding. More and more I could say, but time just is getting away. See, the brother who never left home had no reason to complain.

He had no reason to lose his temper, and yet he did. I’m going to stop right there. there’s something else in our passage.

Not only was he explosively ungrateful, he was expressively unforgiving. You say, what do you mean? Go back to our story.

Look at what he did.

He says to his father in verse 30, but as soon as this, thy son, notice what he says to his dad, as soon as your son was come, and then he says and by the way dad in case you have forgotten he’s devoured thy living with harlots.

Now that’s interesting how did he know that how does he know what the brother did did did he go out to the far country to see what the brother was doing or was he thinking that’s what I would do I don’t know.

He goes by the way dad don’t forget he’s he’s wasted what you gave him with harlots and you kill for him the fatted calf but notice the main thing he calls him your son Look what the dad says there in verse 32.

It was meat. That word means fitting and proper. It was fitting and proper.

It was meat that we should make merry and be glad. Look what he says. For this, thy brother was dead, is alive again.

He was lost and he’s been found. The brother says, dad, don’t forget what? Your son, your son.

He didn’t want to call him his brother. It was his dad who had to remind him, that’s your brother that we’re celebrating in there. Did you know the whole story of the prodigal coming back home?

Let me tell you something. It’s a beautiful picture of the gospel and the grace of God. And it reminds us that there is no one that’s without hope.

There is no one so far gone they can’t be saved. There’s no one so far that they can’t come in repentance, make something right with God. It’s a beautiful story of God’s grace.

And the father, here is this brother who’s living in the presence of the ultimate forgiver. Not a real word, but you get the point. The ultimate one who can forgive, he’s living with him, but he hasn’t caught his heart.

He doesn’t know his heart. He goes, your son, which came home, you throw a big feast for him. He goes, that’s not just my son in there.

That’s your brother. So again, let me just get to the point. Dear friends, I don’t know of anything that will destroy a joyful church as much as a bitter spirit.

And unforgiveness has done more damage. Unforgiveness has done more damage to churches and to marriages and to relationships than immorality has. An unforgiving spirit is something that comes over every single one of us because we’re people who want justice.

C.S. Lewis said, everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have to be the one to forgive somebody. We want to be forgiven, but it’s not always easy to forgive somebody.

To forgive somebody says, I refused. Listen, I refuse to make you pay me back. I release you of your debt.

Does that mean that in the eyes of God, they’re going to be released? Doesn’t mean that at all. You know why some people cling to an unforgiving spirit towards somebody?

Because they’re afraid that if I forgive, then that means what you did was right. Doesn’t mean that at all. If I forgive, it means that I’m saying that you didn’t do anything wrong.

It doesn’t mean that at all. What it means is this. You know something?

I’m not going to walk around with a bitter spirit. I’m not going to walk around with a grudge in my heart towards you. I’m just going to release you to the Lord.

And I’m going to turn, because it was the Lord who says, vengeance is mine. I will repay. Bitterness says, I’m going to make you pay.

some people live under the same roof they’re married but they’re not enjoying their marriage they’re just enduring their marriage because they become a web of unforgivenesses most necessary ingredient for healthy relationships I said the most necessary ingredient for healthy relationships and friendships is to forgive Because people are going to let you down. People are going to break your heart. Forgiveness is a decision.

It’s not a feeling. Forgiveness says this is what’s right and I’m going to do it whether my emotions want to or not. May I say, in many cases, it’s a process.

It takes time. You may have to remind yourself periodically, okay, okay, okay, I forgave that person. I can’t dwell on that.

to forgive somebody is to be obedient to the Lord let all bitterness be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another how can I do that? he says let me explain it even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. You say, preacher, I don’t cuss.

Good, don’t start. But is there somebody tonight, they hurt you. They’ve hurt somebody near and dear to you.

They’ve abused you. Maybe it happened multiple years ago. In the back of your mind, you have nursed those feelings of anger and unforgiveness and you’ve rehearsed them in your mind.

And sometimes the very mention of somebody’s name brings it all back up to the surface. You say, Morris, you have any idea what this is all about? Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. I know what it is to have to deal with this whole issue of being wronged by somebody. and having to say, okay, Gleiser, you got a choice to make.

You either obey God and forgive and walk away and leave people with God or you’re going to live with a hateful spirit of bitterness and you’re going to do everything you can to make sure they know that you are angry. There are people who’ve hurt me. There are people who’ve hurt my family.

There are people who have verbally attacked me.

Why am I saying that just to tell you that this guy has had to come to the point in my life where honestly I’ve had to say Lord I’m going to upload I’ve tried to talk to them and they don’t want to talk I’m going to upload forgiveness and as soon as they want to download it it’s there.

I’m telling you I am not going to walk around with an angry bitter spirit I can’t because of all that I’ve been forgiven.

You say but preacher if I don’t let them know No.

May I say to you that if there’s a place, an opportunity, scripturally the Bible tells you to go to somebody if you and a brother have problems with one another. But you go with a tender heart. You go with a spirit of forgiveness not to get your pound of flesh.

And all that is within you live peaceably with all men. For all that is within you live peaceably with all men as much as lieth in you. Live at peace with people.

Now maybe there’s not a person in this room tonight who struggles with what I’m talking about. Okay, good, but you will. Because you and I cannot live life without being wronged or hurt by somebody somewhere along the way.

I’m convinced that everybody in this room has been wronged at one time or another. You’ve been hurt by somebody along the trail of life and you will be again. So what do you do?

You give grace. You say, how do I do that? Well, remind yourself of how much you’ve been forgiven.

Remind yourself of how you were forgiven at the cross of Calvary. You say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. I didn’t get forgiveness until I asked for forgiveness.

You were judiciously forgiven at the cross of Calvary. The transaction was completed when you saw what Jesus did for you. When he said, it is finished, he was saying to Morris Gleiser, your sins are paid for.

It’s taken care of. It’s all been taken care of. And when it became aware to me, when I became aware of what Christ did for me and he paid my debt to a holy God, I said, oh, I want that pardon.

I want that. And oh, I praise you for what you’ve done for me. So how do I practice this in my own life?

You give people forgiveness whether they’ve asked for it or not. You say, but no, wait a minute. Something’s wrong about that.

No, you want Christ’s likeness. You give people judicial forgiveness. May I say to you, relationally, it will be better when they ask for forgiveness.

And you can come to that point. And you can say to them, oh, I pardoned you. I forgave you.

I let it go a long time ago. And you forgive without carrying a grudge. Give God time to rule and bring justice in somebody else’s life.

You say, but what if, what if? No, no, no. Trust him.

It’s a matter of trust. When I forgive somebody, don’t forget this. When I forgive somebody, I am saying this.

I trust you. I’m obeying you. And I’ll tell you something else when I forgive somebody.

You know what it does? It releases two people from prison. That person and me.

And I’m not walking around with anger in my spirit. This boy who never left home had a real problem with his brother. I occasionally get asked, Morris, have you ever seen a glimpse of revival?

Yes. I wish I could tell you countless of times, but it’s a small number. But there have been some times when I’ve seen a real breakthrough from God of revival.

And frequently it has included a bitter spirit being released and forgiveness being granted to other people. It is an issue that will hinder a family, a church family, a Christian college, an individual believer. It’ll hinder you from having the feast that the father said, come on inside.

We’re having a great time and I want you to be a part of it. But the brother said, I just can’t let it go. So you live in misery.

The greatest joy, the greatest peace comes in being a forgiving individual. I preached at a camp. I preached at a teen camp there several times.

I’ll never forget on Monday night, after the Monday night service, I was making my way back to my truck to go back to my room. It was dark outside. Campers were scurrying about moving, going back to their cabins.

And a counselor girl, a college-age girl came up to me, and she had her campers with her. And she just said, she says, we’re sure glad you’re here this week. And I looked back and I said, hey, I’m so glad you’re all here.

Thank you for being here. And the counselor girl said, she said, you remember me? Well, I hate it when someone says that because I’m thinking, oh, okay, where did we see each other, you know?

And I looked at her and I said, well, have we met before? And then all of a sudden I took a look at her and I said, yeah, I remember you. And here’s the thought I had.

You are a counselor? You say, why? Because of the conversation I had had with her three years earlier.

And she smiled at me and she said, I bet you thought I’d never be a counselor, did you? I tried to avoid her statement and I said, well, you having a good summer, you know? She said, I couldn’t wait for you to get here.

She said, do you remember our conversation three summers ago? I said, yeah, I remember. What had happened three summers earlier when she was a teenage camper?

She was a girl who was so filled with raging anger and bitterness toward a situation back in her hometown. I’ll give no more details than that. But she said as she sat with me and talked with me, she pounded a table, folks.

This girl was no bigger than a minute. She pounded the table and she said, I can never forgive those people. I listened to her.

And all I needed to do was to take her back to the cross of Calvary. I told her every lie she ever told, every angry word she’s ever expressed, every deceitful portion of her life, every sinful thought, every unkind word that’s ever come out of her mouth, Every sin she’s committed was forgiven at the cross of Calvary. She told me she was a believer and I said, you’ve been forgiven much.

And Jesus commands us to forgive those along the journey of our life who’ve done us wrong. And I said, you think on that. I prayed.

I got up and walked away. In my mind, I thought, she’s so full of anger, I don’t think she’s ever going to recover. And here we were three years later.

There she is with a group of kids around her smiling saying, I thought you thought I’d never be a counselor, did you? And I said, well, tell me about it. And she said, I couldn’t wait to see you again to tell you.

I couldn’t get away from the cross and what Jesus Christ had done for me. And she said, I’ve been dying to tell you. I let all that stuff go.

You’re just going to have to take my word for this, dear friends. It is the truth. That girl smiled the entire week, whether she was playing a musical instrument, as the counselors would sing, or whether she sang in a choir or an ensemble, or whether she was out running and running around with her campers playing some game, no matter where she was, even as I was preaching, she sat out there with a twinkle in her eye and a glow to her countenance.

She had a shining face. She was literally enjoying the feast when she got rid of her anger and learned to forgive. The brother who never left home was explosively unthankful.

Maybe tonight you’ve got an issue with being full of raging anger. Maybe you’ve got a griping tongue. Maybe that’s as far as it goes for you.

You just find it easy to find fault. Or maybe tonight there’s somebody you need to release to the Lord. I appreciate your patience.

Would you bow your heads with me for prayer?