The vision of Legacy Church is to be a D6-Church, energizing and equipping people to love God with all their Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength. To learn more about Legacy Church, go to legacychurchga.com
"What is God really like? How can I know Him? In this series we'll explore the character of God and what it means to have a personal relationship with Him - to know Him and be known by Him."
Many of Jesus parables begin with the phrase the kingdom of heaven is like and then he tells a story to teach about the kingdom two of the shortest parables are about a hidden treasure in a field and a really expensive pearl in both instances the man sells everything they have in order to get what they've just found. Thrifting has become really popular in our culture and what are the reasons it's so popular is because if you know what you're looking for you can find something of great value and nobody else knows it. But, it makes me wonder do we understand the value of what we have in the kingdom of heaven? See i think we have a problem. Some of us were searching for the wrong thing. Things that won't really satisfy us. For others of us we don't really understand the value of what we have. We try to fit spirituality in with everything else in our life and it just competes for our attention. But, the message of Jesus and up these parables is that when it comes to following him and living in the kingdom it's all or nothing.
In Luke 15 Jesus tells three salvation parables one about a lost sheep one about a lost coin and one about a lost son the parable of the lost son a father and his two sons and his younger son comes to him and asks for his inheritance early this is a big no no in this culture essentially it's as if the younger son is coming to his father and saying father I wish you were dead but he gets his inheritance goes off and lives the good life squanders everything finally hits rock bottom and in that moment comes to his senses and comes back to the father begging for just even the lowest place in the family but his father welcomes him back and not only Welcomes him back into the family actually throws a party of all parties because what is lost is now found our Heavenly Father is the father in this parable and we see just how valuable what was lost is to him now I have two young sons myself and they're probably a bit younger than the sons that we read about in this parable but if I were to lose one of my sons it would wreck me see that's how the father views us if I were to lose one of my sons I wouldn't say well I've got the others and then we'll just go with him. No, God's love for us is seen in what is lost in the parable.
In the parable The Wicked Tenet Jesus tells a story about a landowner who builds a Vineyard and then rinse it out to some farmers and moves to another place this was actually a very common occurrence in Israel now most of us can't relate to farming but we can relate to an owner tenet relationship where the owner entrusts the care of their property to the tenet and problems arise when the tenet does not take good care of the property or tries to take ownership of what is not rightfully theirs you see, God as the owner has given us the kingdom to be responsible tenets or stewards of meaning all that we have all that we are our time and talents and especially the message of Jesus God has given us these things to produce fruit in our lives in the end we will all face judgment and judgment is not to be taken lightly as this parable shows us but before judgment God's patience is seen in abundance you see just hours after he would speak this parable Jesus would go to the cross and die for those that would believe so his offer of salvation is for you and me right now so the message of this parable is come to him now he's waiting for you.
In the Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke about a third of Jesus's words are in parables short stories that convey an important truth Jesus was a master storyteller and he would take everyday examples from life to teach people about the kingdom of God examples from work and family culture and even economics and in only a few of those parables does he provide an explanation one of them is the parable of the Sower after the Prodigal Son this is maybe the most well-known of Jesus parables. The context of the parable is a farmer goes out to sow seed and some of the seed falls on the path some seed falls on the rocky ground some seed falls among the thorns and finally some seed falls on good soil four different types of seed with four different types of results have you ever known someone who was on fire for God for a short time and then just kind of drifted away or someone who just collapsed under the stress and strain of life or maybe someone who had a solid relationship with Jesus and when you looked closely at their life you knew they were the real deal when it came to their faith the truth is that all of us will respond to Jesus at some point and in some way and that's what the parable the Sower is all about the reality is it's the life that's built on the good soil that will last so the question is which soil are you?
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