God’s love is so unfathomable, we struggle to comprehend its extent. When Christ shed His blood on the cross, His aim was to replicate many ‘sons of God’ in His image. God sees you as His son or daughter, not a hired hand and this distinction is found in the epistles which speak of Christ as the first born of many brethren. We, the church are the brethren, which Christ ransomed for His Heavenly Fathers delight. Join Carl now for the first of a three-part series which studies the prodigal son, and his elder brother in light of their fathers benevolent love. Do you rightfully see yourself as a ‘son of God’ or a hired hand, working to gain God’s acceptance?…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast…(below)
Friend, we’re starting a new series today and it’s called From Servanthood to Sonship. Yes, we’re all servants of the Most High God, that is a truth, yet in the New Testament we need to gravitate towards sonship. We need to get out of the servanthood mindset and understand our identity in Christ and move into sonship, which has its own rights and privileges. And we’re going to study from the Gospels, in particular the Prodigal Son parable, which is very famous. But at the end of this and in future recordings, I’m going to ask you, which son do you relate to the most? The younger wasteful son or the older more religious son? And friend, this is going to be an exciting session. Join me now live.
And tonight we’re going to talk about servanthood to sonship, a very powerful message, a theme that is repeated often in the parables, in the Gospels, and it’s something we need to get a hold of, friend, because as we see ourselves, we’ll forge the method and belief that we do things, how we do things, how we see ourselves will impact how we do things and the way in which we do them and why we do them. And so, friend, if you can make that transition from an orphan to that spirit of adoption, knowing that your father is going to take care of every one of your needs, then there’s total freedom in that. Amen? Are you working for God or are you believing in Him? Some people had parents growing up, some had bad parents, some had good parents, some had abusive parents. But it’s almost like when we were first exposed to those authority figures we encountered in life, that impacted how we see our Heavenly Father.
Some people are still struggling to see God because of these issues they had growing up, and I would ask you to set that aside tonight, amen? And just ignore the thunder in the upper room, amen? On my recent travels to the land of ‘Roasted Raccoon,’ it never happened. This is what the Lord said to me, stop identifying with what you do. Instead, identify with what you wear. I don’t even understand that at first. It’s like, what are you talking about? I’m wearing sweatpants. What has this got to do with anything? He spoke to me, yes. The Lord does, He does speak to pastors once a year. Occasionally, maybe twice. When something big is happening, amen? So pay attention. Stop identifying with what you do. You say, well, who are you? Well, I’m an engineer. Well, who are you? I’m a dentist.
Who are you? I’m a doctor. So they automatically transition to what they do as their identity, right? Isn’t that what it is in life? Who are you? Well, I’m, you know, this, and I’m an accountant, and this, and that. Friend, we’re so programmed in the doing that we’ve missed the point. It’s about the believing, not the doing. Because no amount of doing is going to be good enough, right? And so it’s this transition from servanthood, which is focusing on the doing to get acceptance from God, and opening up to sonship or daughtership, and saying, Lord, I’m already good enough because you made me good enough, therefore I’m entitled to the good stuff, amen? Yes. If you have your Bibles, turn to Luke chapter 15, to a very famous parable. The prodigal son means wasteful, and most people gravitate towards the wasteful son, but there’s two sons in the story. We’re gonna focus on the other son as well. Let’s start in verse 11, 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 falls to me. And he divided unto them his living.” Question, is them plural or single? That means that when this young son asked for his inheritance, he gave the other son his inheritance as well. Now, many people skip over this. Now, he divided to two people. Hello, before the death. Hey, mom, can I have my inheritance? Oh, you cheeky so-and-so, you haven’t waited till I died yet. Hello? Who asks their parents for inheritance before they die? Does anybody do that? No, no. So, first of all, this son dishonored, amen? He dishonored his parents by asking for his inheritance before they died.
Okay, verse 13, “Not many days after, the younger son gathered together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine.” What is wrong with that picture, guys? To a Jew, feeding swine is the lowest of all positions, because it’s an unclean animal. And you’re supposed to stay away from the unclean, according to Leviticus. And so, this man was feeding swine. He had fallen to the lowest of the low. How many have been there in the world? It’s true, guys. If we go far into this world, we’re gonna get to some low places, amen? It’s true. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? So what did he start thinking? My dad has servants. I can go and work for this guy. So, what happened to this guy? Friend, sin devalued this man’s character so much that he was willing to work for what he already had, right? Many of us are going around trying to earn God’s acceptance. We’re trying to earn God’s favor by doing good works.
And that mentality, friend, will get you nowhere, because the kingdom works by faith, right? Faith in God is how things happen, and believing in his goodness. Verse 19, “I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.” Friend, whenever we sin as Christians, it can devalue us as well. Can a Christian sin? Yes, they can. First John 1:9 talks about it, right? You know the scripture, right? He had a hired servant mentality. Now that I’ve lost my sonship, I’m gonna move into servanthood to please my father. And that’s what we do when we sin. We get into works. Oh no, I’ve been bad last week. I did all this stuff. I’m gonna make up for it this week. Amen? Who’s been there? Because of the circumstances of life or rough times, the younger son lost his perspective of sonship and, like I said, began to view himself as a servant. And he tried to work for his inheritance instead of knowing who he was. Now, this is the heart of the father right now. When he was a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and in your sight and I’m no more worthy to be called your son. Right? So that worthiness aspect of now that I’ve sinned, I’m not worthy. And once again, that’s what sin does. It brings the sin consciousness in, the righteousness consciousness disappears, and I’ve lost my worthiness. But notice the heart of the father. He had compassion and ran. That is the heart of our father, amen? One who runs towards us even when we sin. He’s ready with open arms saying, hey, I’m ready to make relationship again, to bring you into fellowship no matter what has happened, praise God.
But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. Here it is. For my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Every one of us, friend, have experienced that because we were dead in trespasses and sins and we became born again into life, amen? All of us in this room at one point were prodigal sons. However, since then some of us have moved into the other son which was religious and we’re gonna go there. A parable is simply a story to reveal a spiritual lesson. In this case, the earthly father is a type of our heavenly father who is ever ready to meet us with open arms, amen? How many believe that there’s a father out there like that? Circumstances won’t teach us that, of course. We have to go to the Word of God. If we go by circumstances, there’s a lot of wounded people out there. The school of hard knocks are not going to draw you closer to God, right? Generally, they can put you away from him or draw you away from him.
In some instances, some people can be humbled by those circumstances. But we were all lost and found and God embraced us with open arms. Whoo! Hallelujah! Now, verse 25, “The elder son was in the field and he came and drew near to the house. He heard music. I don’t know why there’s a K on that. That’s old English. And dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked, what are these things? And he said to him, your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound. And this brother was angry and would not go in, therefore came his father out and entreated him.”
Why do you think he’s angry? He didn’t think his brother deserved it. It’s a good answer. Now, this guy has already received his inheritance, hasn’t he? He’s already had it in verse 11. And we’re gonna find out why that’s even more egregious in a minute. This son was jealous of his father’s attention, possibly. He didn’t think his brother deserved it. I agree with Cindy. Who is this guy? He goes off. He squanders his inheritance. He comes back and he expects to be forgiven. Not only that, they kill the fatted calf and they put the ring on the finger. Remember, Joseph had the same thing. He had the coat of many colors. He had a ring also put on his finger by Pharaoh. There’s a significance to that. This son’s jealousy arose. Why? Because he’s out working in the field every day, doing good works, and therefore he should be treated better, right? Mmm.
And verse 29, “he answered to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve you, neither transgressed I at any time your commandment. And you never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends, right? But as soon as this, the son was come, which he hath devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours.” Now, here’s the kicker. Did the other son ask for anything or not? No, he never asked, right? He assumed that because he was good and did good works and didn’t break any commandments, but he didn’t ask, that he would get what he wanted. Mmm. Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you will find, right? On the third one, someone’s gonna shout out. Knock and it will be opened.” And so there’s a mentality in Christianity that if we do the right stuff and if we work hard enough for God, unquote, we’re gonna get everything that we deserve from Him. Mmm. It’s not a works-based religion, friend. It’s based on faith in His goodness, amen? It’s faith in His goodness. That’s how we receive in the kingdom of God. And pride, in fact, is what stops us asking. Well, you know, I’m good enough. I don’t need that. You know, I’ve worked hard and so the pedestal starts to rise, right? I’ve worked hard and I’m good and I don’t make any mistakes and I have my bumper sticker and I have a King James and I put it in the right holster and I tithe and all these goodie checklists.
Some people think like that. Okay, I’m not saying anybody here does, but the elder son has made a religion out of his father’s goodness. But notice the father said, Son, you’re always with me and all that I have is yours. That’s the interchange of the father and the son. All that I have is yours at any moment. It’s the same with the Heavenly Father. If you have a need, you need to ask. You need to thank Him for it and He will provide whether you’ve been doing good works or not, right? Because it’s not about the works. So, the elder son was about doing and obeying the rules, but failed to realize his father’s love was unconditional, not performance-based or conditional. Friend, let’s pick it up again tomorrow. Until tomorrow, good night, God bless, and remember to spread the good news.
https://carljosephministries.com/podcast/psalm-5-vengeance-is-mine
https://www.cityblessing.org/prayerblog/the-dimension-of-sonship
Title: From Servanthood to Sonship: Part 1 (LIVE)
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