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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Andrew Carpenter

At the Door

I'm the Bible teacher chaplain at San Gabriel Academy just outside of LA.

I've been here in Southern California for about 5 years or so.

I guess at the end of the school year it'll be 5 years.

Originally I come from Madison, Tennessee.

That's where I was born and raised, but my family's actually from La Sierra.

My dad grew up here, Went to school at La Sierra.

He actually worked here at Loma Linda for a little bit before he couldn't take Southern California anymore.

And then when I finished my undergrad at Southern Adventist University, I got the call to come out to San Gabriel Academy.

I was sitting in traffic with my father as he was helping me move just outside of Rancho Cucamonga, sitting there as many of us have done many times, and stop and go.

It was about 110 degrees, And my dad was reminded why he left Southern California.

And you know, the first year or so here, I was kind of wondering that same thing.

You know, the weather is pretty nice, especially as you get closer to the coast, and I enjoy that.

And, you know, I call my parents sometimes, and they'd be like, oh, you know, it's 40 degrees and it's raining.

It's like, oh, are you going to go outside?

Because in Tennessee, when you get a day like that, you've got to go outside, because you only get a few of them.

Because you know what, it's going to be like this tomorrow.

And it's going to be like this the day after that.

So it is a blessing to live here in Southern California.

And I was once again reminded of that as I went home at Christmas.

And sometimes I think, oh, you know, maybe I want to go back to Tennessee and then I go back to Christmas and I sit in the rain for 10 days and then I come back and I land and I go straight to the beach.

Maybe I'll stay here for a little bit until the Lord calls me somewhere else.

But it's a blessing to be here in Southern California, and it's a blessing to be here at Advent Hope this morning.

And I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to look at God's Word together.

And the main passage that we're going to look at this morning comes from Luke 16.

But in order to understand Luke 16, we need to take a quick look at the previous chapter in Luke 15.

Now in my Bible, many of these words are in red letters.

Which means that this is Jesus who is talking.

And if you go to Luke 15, verse 1, it says, Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.

Verse 2, And the Pharisees and the scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

So they were a little upset that the pastor was preaching to sinners.

Verse 3, So He spoke this parable to them, saying..." And we know the parable, right?

And then He tells the parable of the lost coin.

And then he tells the parable of the prodigal son.

And these 3 are very interesting because I believe that they represent the experience of some of us in our lives.

Maybe unintentionally, maybe intentionally, but he was lost.

And even though the shepherd had 99 other, he still went after the lost.

You see, the shepherd still found value in that 1 lost sheep.

And so because that 1 lost sheep had value he went after in search of to find that lost sheep.

And then in the next parable we have the lost coin.

Yet the whole house is torn apart, everything is swept aside, even though there's 9 others, that 1 lost coin still has what?

So maybe there are some of us who are lost at home.

But the owner still finds value in the 1 that was lost.

And then we come to the next story, the story of the prodigal son, right?

And we have somebody who chose to deliberately walk away.

Insulted his father and his family, and said, I want nothing to do with you.

He chose to leave, yet when he returned, how was he received?

Because even though he had chose to leave, even though he deliberately said, I'm out of here, he still had what?

And this is what the Pharisees were having a hard time understanding.

And what Jesus is trying to show them in these 3 parables is that He values even the lost.

And so then we come to the next parable here, and it's the parable of the unjust steward.

So first of all, he says, here's the lost.

Then He says, I've given you something to do.

But are you being a good steward with what I have given you to do?

It says, Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous, Who will commit to your trust the true riches?

Verse 12, And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?

And we've read these verses many times before.

If you can't be trusted in the little, how can we be trusted in the great, right?

Jesus is saying, I've entrusted you as my people to value people, to take care of people, to be a blessing to people, to go after people who are lost regardless of the reason why.

Are you being a good steward with what I've given you?

Now see the problem is in verse 14 it says, now the Pharisees were lovers of what?

And if you go to the previous verse, verse 13, it says no servant can serve 2 masters, for either he will hate the 1 and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the 1 and despise the other.

You see, the problem with the nation at that time was they were not valuing what God valued.

They knew the law, but the problem was their application of that knowledge was wrong.

For you see, God had given them these things so that they could be a blessing to others.

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