028: Ken Pooley - What Makes You Feel Alive?

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post at the start of each week for you to listen with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to hear.

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   And now, let's hear more about this week's talk. Our talk this week is a suggestion that was given to us a little bit ago. It is an exhortation that was given by our brother Ken Pooley in 2018 at the Brisbane Conference in Australia. His exhortation is focused on chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke.

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   Specifically, he looks at the parable of the lost son. His overall theme is what makes you feel alive when we're going about our daily life. He looks at a lot of different examples of the things that we do that excite us. And by looking at that and realizing that no matter how enticing the world's temptations might be, none of them are truly as fulfilling or complete as what God offers to us.

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   He starts with the parable of the lost son and then eventually expands out and looks at all three parables in this chapter, almost looking at them as part of a bigger story about the different ways that we can wander or be lost both externally and internally while at the Ecclesia. I know it was really encouraging for me and a refreshing look at me because sometimes it can be easy if you lose sight of what you're looking for in the future with the coming kingdom, to see people that you're either friends with from school or from work and you're seeing things that they're doing that are objectively, they look really exciting to put that into perspective with what we've been promised and how much more exciting what is coming is than what this world has to offer.

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   As I said, this talk was a suggestion that was sent in to us. This person emailed it in and we really appreciate it. It was a great talk. We really, really enjoyed it and we're excited to share it with everyone. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to keep sending them in.

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   Thank you again, as always, for listening and for taking the time to enjoy. Sorry, this one is a little bit later than usual. It's been a busy week. But with that, we'll turn it over to our brother again, Pooley, for his exhortation, What Makes You Feel Alive, given in 2018 at the Brisbane Conference.

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   What makes you feel alive? Perhaps it's jumping out of planes, the adrenaline rush which is so common in many things we can do today. Or perhaps it's making ourselves good, look good, and the shopping that goes with that. Perhaps it's running and exercise.

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   Perhaps it's hearing something new and different like those that Paul spoke to on Mars Hill. Perhaps it's that love when we meet somebody whose company we really enjoy.

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   Perhaps we feel alive when we have kids or when the grandchildren come to visit. And we get fulfilment through them. Perhaps it's something that's more worrying, the addictions, alcohol, drugs and smoking. For some people, that makes them feel alive.

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    Perhaps it is music that makes you feel good inside. Or perhaps it's travel. A challenging job might be your way of being motivated and encouraged. What is it for you? What makes you feel alive? What makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning rather than turning over and grabbing another 10 minutes?

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    Does your faith in God make you feel alive? Or is your worship and service happening just out of a sense of responsibility? A feeling that this is what I should do. Have you become weary in doing good? It doesn't make you feel alive any longer. Do events like this make you feel specially alive?

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    But it's not the same when you're back home again. Let's think for a moment together this morning before we take bread and wine about this subject. We take bread and wine not to keep us alive physically. It's such a small amount of bread and a tiny sip of wine. But we take bread and wine to make us spiritually alive.

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    Let's think for a moment about that chapter we just read and particularly the younger son. Perhaps some of you connect with the younger son in that parable. We're going to spend some time in Luke 15 so if you want to turn to it that would be great. What this young man was looking for was something, something that would make him feel alive.

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    We're not told exactly what he was feeling but perhaps we can imagine for a moment what was going on in his heart and mind. Perhaps life on the family property was a little bit ho-hum. The internet speed was poor. It was a rural property after all and the games didn't work as well as he wanted them to.

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    And maybe his family's spiritual life was just a little stifling. Not enough excitement. All his friends were off doing their own thing. They were really alive. One was backpacking through South America. One visited a different music venue every night. One was tasting every type of craft beer that was on the market. One had moved in with his girlfriend.

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    One was on a university exchange program to Harvard. And then there was the older brother. His older brother was always on to him about this and that. Treat life seriously, young man. He said, grow up and take on your responsibilities with the family and in the ecclesia. And maybe it was the older brother who was partly the reason the younger one went away.

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    Whatever the exact reason that prompted this young man to make this request to his dad, he was looking to really live. And he chose the same things that so many in our society today choose. The party life, friends, wine, good music, and women. Normally, we would assume women. But of course, it was only the older brother who mentioned prostitutes.

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    And he wasn't exactly objective where his younger brother was concerned. The father gave what the son asked and off he went. And no doubt if you asked him every morning, well, perhaps if you asked him at lunchtime when the hangover was gone, do you feel alive? The answer would have come back a resounding yes.

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    This young brother felt alive. But the money ran out. Things were not so good. Was he really alive? He thought he'd been alive, but did he suddenly realise he was dead? Or does verse 17 there, when he came to himself, really suggest a much more gradual process, a slow recovery, a gradual realisation of where he really was.

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    And perhaps some of us here today feel that we want to really live. Are you only here because you feel you should be here? Are you only here because your friends are here? Are you only here because it's really hard to say no to mum and dad? Or are you only here because you don't want to upset grandma?

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    Perhaps you have even asked for your share of the inheritance, but mum and dad said no. I cannot understand why. And if this is you, think about this parable. Because if you can learn the lesson of that young man by reading and meditating on it, you'll save a lot of heartache for yourself, for your loved ones.

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    But most of all, to God and Jesus. Yes, some of us might have a direct connection to that young man, but for some of us, the connection is a little less obvious, perhaps. A more tenuous connection. Few of us can really say that that we have never strayed, never wandered from that narrow path into what one writer called the selfish paths of our natural inheritance.

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    Every one of us here today has used the portion of goods, the share of property that falls to us for our own pleasure. And sometimes we have been wasteful, prodigal in that use. We may be torn in life. We may not want to walk away from our faith. That we don't want to do, but we want the best of both worlds.

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    We don't see why we can't enjoy life the way our friends do, without chucking with religion totally. A bit of party culture is fine. After all, Saturday night can be a great night, and I can still get up in time for Sunday school. No one knows but me that I've perfected the art of sleeping through the exhort with my eyes open.

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    And in case you think I'm talking just about young people, I'm not. Because every age group has its compromises. Of course, the party culture changes somewhat as we get older. In midlife, often the craving for peace and quiet kicks in, and the glitz and glamour of a weekend away shines brightly. God doesn't really expect us to remember him every week, surely, we start to say to ourselves.

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    And it's the responsibility for kids and for work fades. The grey nomad era kicks in. The trip around Australia or the overseas travel. And we look to feel alive with knick-knacks from every country on the globe. A new experience, a different culture, different food. It makes us feel more alive.

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    It's something every one of us must consider in our lives. A senior brother bitterly complained to me about the exorbitant registration fee for the last conference in Sydney, under $100 for a full week of spiritual activity. In the very next breath, he told me about the concert he attended the night before, and the tickets were only $250 a head.

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    And he couldn't see the irony. So, are we connected to that young man indirectly? Because we feel as if our life doesn't excite us enough. We want something more than just what we've been doing. Something different. Something to make us feel alive. But there's really a clear choice, Jesus said. And that younger son was forced to face that clear choice because of his particular circumstances.

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    And some of us might have two in our lives. But for others, we've got by without a cataclysmic event. But it's still the need for a very clear decision. In the parable, the father saw the son's situation so starkly, didn't he? So clearly, my son was dead and is alive again. Think about the fundamental message in those few words.

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    Dead, alive again. You can't be half alive. You're either alive or you're dead. We have to ask ourselves that question today and this week. Am I alive today? It's a very basic, fundamental question, but it's also a binary question. It requires a yes or a no. And for me, I guess I'm probably like you.

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    I'd like 10 options. Okay, this is the survey that my bank continues to keep sending me. It's flashing away there. It gives me 10 options. And we're so accustomed in our society to a spectrum of choices. But for this question, this fundamental question, there are not 10 options. Am I alive today? No slightly better than average option.

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    Just a single text box. Yes or no. Are we totally with God or are we keeping our options open? And as we think about whether we are alive, the parable gives another exhortation too that perhaps some of us need today. Why does everyone call this the parable of the prodigal son? Of course, some of you will immediately say, well, I use a modern version.

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    I call it the parable of the lost son. Same difference. In the context, this parable is not about the lost son, the prodigal son, at all. Yes, there's a wonderful lesson from that younger son in this parable for us today. But I don't believe we should call it the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the lost son for two massive reasons.

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    Firstly, why did Jesus give that parable? Let's look again at verse one and two. Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. There were some who were very critical of those who Jesus mixed with.

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    Are we afraid of mixing with certain people? We don't want some people in our ecclesia. We prefer they not attend for some reason. Perhaps we'd rather they went to some other ecclesia. We don't want to have them over to our place for dinner. That's the context of this parable here. And notice how the chapter plays out.

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    It starts with Jesus speaking about the parable of the lost sheep and the word sow is used. And later on in the chapter as Jesus moves into the parable of the lost coin, he uses the word or and then finally when he talks about the parable which I will call the parable of the lost son because otherwise you won't know what I'm talking about.

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    Then he said, in fact some have suggested that there are not in fact three parables here but one parable in three phases and that's interesting to think about. In what sense is that younger son an answer to the question that was posed? This man receives sinners and eats with them. How is the younger son relevant to that?

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    And really answering the scribes and Pharisees. We need to remember too that this is a parable not a real story. And if the parable was actually about the younger son Jesus would have stopped at verse 24. The parable would have worked fine, the point had been made, in fact there would have been no distraction of the older brother to take away from the message that Jesus was trying to give.

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    But Jesus didn't stop at verse 24. He didn't add in the elder son as a postscript, a PS for the parable. The elder son is an inherent part of this story. Just as the start of it makes clear, a certain man had two sons, the parable begins. And so we must focus on the three characters, the three main characters that come out in this parable of Jesus.

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    The younger son of course we've already talked about, a son who needed to learn important lessons of life the hard way. The son who needed to learn what being alive was really all about. But then of course there was the father of the parable. And we see a God who loves to forgive.

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    A God who is willing to hand over the inheritance to his son before it is really time. Would you do that? I know I wouldn't. God allowing his child to take a dangerous and scary path in the hope that this might bring him to his senses. A God who is out scanning the horizons for the glimmer of repentance from one of his children.

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    And a God who when repentance happened did not even allow the son to finish the speech that he had in his mind. Have you ever noticed the difference between what the son planned to say and what the father let him say? And the difference between those two things is something from which we can learn so much.

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    There was no sitting in the back corner as a second class citizen for this younger son. There was no gradual entry back into the family. No request for proof of his repentance over an extended period of time. Immediate, absolute, the ring, the garment, the sandals, immediate reinstatement into his former position in the family.

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    And what a question that poses to each of us. Do we practice this attitude in our life or do we stand aloof, critical in direct opposition to the father's feelings and wishes? We see so clearly here in this parable. and the elder son, a son who could not bring himself to forgive his younger brother.

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    And if we're honest in our heart of hearts, many of us can connect with that older son. Do you feel, as I've felt sometimes, that we have borne the heat and burden of the day, perhaps we sympathise with this older son, because the younger son's behaviour did impact on him. What was the father going to do now with the inheritance?

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    That which remained, was it going to be divided again? Was the older son going to get it all or was he going to lose part of what was rightfully his?

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    And returning to the fundamental question that we've been thinking about today, was this older brother alive or was he too dead? The older son was not lost in the same way as the younger son, but he was nevertheless lost. He still had so much to learn from his father. He disgraced his father by refusing to join the father's feast, but as with the younger son, the father went out to meet him.

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    Such is the love of the father in this parable that shows us what our God is really like. The older son had served, yes, and he claimed to have given all for the father, but there in those words that he spoke, we can see the true state, what was really going on inside of his heart and in his mind.

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    He comes to the complaint that he had not been given a party, that he might have a good time. And what that complaint shows is a secret sympathy with his brother's sinfulness. He had stayed at home, but his innermost desire was very similar to that of his younger brother. He also wanted to enjoy life away from the father with his friends.

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    father's father's goods more than the father, neither truly loved the father for himself. There's a contrast here, isn't there? The younger son did wrong, yes, but he recognised at last that he had sinned. The older son, though, outwardly correct, was wrong in his heart, and he did not know it. One son had openly gone astray, the other unconsciously admitted that in his secret desires he was really no better.

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    And the picture, the picture is a stark one of what brother John Carter calls forbidding, unlovely, self-righteous, and unwittingly self-condemning professors of a legal religion. The older son claimed to be at home with the father, but was in reality a stranger to who the father really was. And if we think for a moment of those words of the Lord's prayer, forgive our sins, we pray, as we forgive those who sin against us, we see that the eldest son was actually heading for death.

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    He was unwilling, perhaps unable, to forgive his brother. And that Jesus shows us in this prayer, has consequences. Forgiveness is critical. Sometimes people say that God's grace is unconditional, but it is not. It is absolutely conditional on us forgiving, conditional on our free and full forgiveness of one another. father. And that is a very scary thought for all of us.

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    So was the eldest son dead? If he had died at that moment, what state was he in before the father? father? There are other reasons, of course, too, that we don't have time to go into today, but we can look alive and well in our spiritual journey, but actually can be dead. We see it in Revelation when Jesus said those words, a name they had, the Ecclesia at Sardis, a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

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    They basked in their reputation, but, Jesus says, and we are left to think carefully, long and hard about what was going on amongst that group of believers. believers. And then a little later on, that substantial challenge to the Laodiceans, I would that you were cold or hot, Jesus said. Have you wondered what he really meant by those words?

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    Are you alive or dead today? Are you cold or hot? You've got to be one or the other, Jesus says. You can't be in the middle. And as we return to this parable, we wonder what happened to the elder son. We're told about the younger one, but not about the elder. We hope and pray that he learnt the lesson and became truly alive in Christ.

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    But we are left wondering. So please don't call it anymore the parable of the prodigal son. if you must name it, call it perhaps the parable of the lost sons, or perhaps the parable of the living, of the forgiving father. And if you need to choose one character, call it the parable of the elder son, because that I think what it is more about.

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    Jesus' target was not the wayward. His real target for this parable was religious people who think they are doing all that the Lord requires. That is what the parable is really about. And we're reminded in today's New Testament reading what Jesus said, that he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

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    This parable is for those who are having trouble forgiving. And if this is us, we're in the ranks of the dead. Perhaps Jesus knew that sitting here in this hall in 2018, there may be some who need that exhortation to forgiveness, to a correct understanding of the real forgiveness that this parable brings to us.

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    Sometimes as a brotherhood, we don't do forgiveness well. A dear sister in our meeting said to me, some Christadelphians say they believe our statement of faith, but they don't believe in the judgment at the coming of Jesus. they think they need to do the job for the Lord now.

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    Is there a problem with judgment itself? Absolutely not. The problem with judgment often for us is who we judge. We like to spend all our time judging others and no time judging ourselves. But if we're examining ourselves, then judgment is great. It's what our Lord wants us to do continually. But Jesus spoke this parable to those who were looking at scants at him, not because of what he was doing, not because of what he was saying, but because of who he was doing and saying it with.

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    And when we start to judge those around us on who they mix with or how they dress or what music they like or what personality type they have, we're on very dangerous ground. It is not our job to do God's job.

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    And of course, this is not just a problem for us today. The oldest son in the parable showed an attitude that so permeated the nation of Israel at the time, so much a part of their culture that even the disciples were infected by it. And we can see so much evidence of this in the exchanges they had with their Lord.

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    Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind? And then John, that wonderful disciple, master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We forbade him because he does not follow with us. And Jesus replied, do not forbid him for he who is not against us is on our side.

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    And James, with John now, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Tough words. And Jesus said, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of. Can I use perhaps a little license to paraphrase this topic? Jesus did not come to make them dead, but to make them alive in him.

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    And this must be our goal too. God is the parable of the wheat and the tares and those words that Jesus spoke to those around him. Are we so busy ripping the tares out we forget the words that Jesus spoke?

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    There were those who did not even want the little children to come to him. Others were worried about the publicans and sinners, the wine bibbers or the poor. But Jesus was different.

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    Are we different too? Are we leaving the 99 sheep safe in the ecclesia and heading out into the hills, up steep ravines, crossing dangerous cliffs, over ragged mountain ranges to try and get back the one who is lost? Are we putting aside the day-to-day activities of life to stop and sweep every small nook and cranny to find that single lost coin?

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    in such a beautiful way the Lord contrasts the shepherd of the first parable, the woman of the second and the father of the third with the eldest son. The one whose job it should have been to go out looking for the younger son, but instead was annoyed with the father that he should see fit to forgive him for what was such a flagrant disregard of all that is right and proper.

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    What an incredible lesson of being dead and being alive again. Every ecclesia, every community of believers will have its lost sons and daughters. some will leave for a time and want to return later. Some will actually be there physically but will have left inside because they are with the younger son. And some always there week after week, perhaps in prominent roles but who in their hearts are dead, their attitude harsh and unforgiving.

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    They hold grudges, perhaps unconsciously against the father for what they think they have sacrificed and they show their resentment to him in an unforgiving spirit. This will lead to death and not life. death. Yes, yes, there are younger sons among us and older sons too. But do you know what? For many of us, perhaps all of us, there are times when we were the younger and other periods when we are the older.

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    And how often can we say to ourselves that we are so truly alive in Christ that when we look at this parable, we don't connect with the younger son and we don't connect with the older son because we connect with the father in the parable. are we alive today? We are truly alive when we love one another.

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    If we don't love our brother, John says, we abide in death. And as we take bread now, brothers and sisters, we think of the prodigal father in that parable. Prodigal not because he was looking for personal fulfillment or selfishness, but extravagant in his love. Wasteful, the elder son thought in his forgiveness. And we think of our God our God who so loved the world that he gave his only son.

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    He sent his son and then stood back and allowed this intelligent, caring, compassionate, empathetic, loving, and patient man be criticized as the leaders did in Luke 15 and to later see him cruelly tortured and crucified there on the cross. and we remember too now the son, our true elder brother as he gave his life, surrounded as he was by those who did not believe him, by some who truly hated him, by others who were afraid and others unsure, but he asked for their forgiveness on the cross.

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    And this son asks each of us to be alive, really alive in him. is that you just listened to, visit our show page at anchor.fm slash gct. We want to encourage everyone to share their thoughts from the talk this week on Facebook or Instagram, where we are at Good Christadelphian Talks, or on Twitter, where we are at gct underscore podcast.

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    If you know of a great talk, we want to know about it too. Send a suggestion to goodchristadelphiantalks at gmail.com or message us on any of our social media platforms. Thank you for listening. God bless and talk to you next week.