7 10 11 Attitude Series – Attitude of Restoration
Attitude Series – Attitude of Restoration
7 10 11 HT AM
Luke 15:14-24 NKJV / Joel 2:23-25 ESV
Last week we looked at a profile of the younger brother as we discovered the attitude of rebellion. Today we will look at the attitude of restoration through the eyes of the father.
Luke 15:14 NKJV
But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
Luke 15:15
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
Luke 15:16
And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
Luke 15:17
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
Luke 15:18
I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
Luke 15:19
and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
Luke 15:20
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
Luke 15:21
And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
Luke 15:22
“But the father said to his servants, ◙ ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
Luke 15:23
And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;
Luke 15:24
for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Question – Who needs restoration?
- Those who have wasted things
- Those who have made the wrong choices
- Those who have previously rejected the truth
- Those who have fallen or even ran away
Question – How will they be restored ?
Two tracks ;
- Their own efforts (vs.15 joined himself to another, went to work) Still convinced they can control things and work themselves out of the situation they are in.
- The fathers embrace (vs. 20 the embrace identifies him being brought back in – total openness and vulnerability between the son and the father)
Question – What does an attitude of Restoration look like?
Context – speaking here of the overall mindset you take toward others how have messed up, spent all or wasted things away.
Definition – Restoration is to return something to its former place of condition.
God the Father shows us the attitude of restoration –
Joel 2:23-25 ESV 23 “Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.24 “The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25 I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
Pulling for Joel and the book of Luke we see the attitude of restoration. Think of God restoring us and each of us restoring another; (Lords Prayer “forgive us in the same manner we forgive others)
An ATTITUDE OF RESTORATION;
- Reaches – the father saw him a great way off! Romans 5:6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
- Re-establishes – your identity (from the time he told the father he was dead in his eyes, the son had lost the identity of himself when he rejected the father.
- Returns – to equal or better status
- Removes – the barriers that have separated – lower the rungs on the ladder!
- Rejoices – with the journey back rather than dwell on the day they ran away. What really gets you excited in your Christian life?
We are the Body of Christ – we represent Him on the earth today and have been entrusted with RESTORATION.
2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!
2 Corinthians 5:17
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Corinthians 5:18
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
Bottom line – the attitude of Restoration comes from a heart of compassion – compassion is seeing you in another’s difficulty, sin or brokenness.
It was compassion that caused Jesus to weep over Jerusalem it was compassion that caused the father to restore the prodigal and it IS compassion today that causes God to look at each one of us with an ATTITUDE OF RESTORATION and GIVE US THE GIFT OF RESTORATION!
Ministry Time; today you either need to be restored or you are steward entrusted with the Heavenly gift of restoration to see others restored.