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Welcome back to the Daily Blade. Again, this is Jay Reisner, lead pastor at Faith Bible Church

in Edmund, Oklahoma. And we're at the end of the week, almost all the way through

the story of the lost son, and I hope you've hung with me. And I've read very little of the actual

text as I've done these devotional. So I'm finally going to read from this

parable. Let's read Luke 15, verse 28 through 32. The setting is a party being thrown for the lost son.

But he, the older brother, became angry and was not willing to go in. And his father came out

and began pleading with him.

But he answered and said to his father, look, for so many years I've been serving you,

and I have never neglected a command of yours, and yet you have never given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours comes home, who has

devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fatted

calf for him. And he said to him, son, you have always been with me. And all that is mine is

yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has began to live

and was lost and has been found.

So from the closing verses of this parable, I want to bring forth three properties of this older brother character.

He stands out as the only miserable person in all of these parables in Luke 15, and we have to ask why. And the answer is, because he's eaten up

with resentment. First, he resents his life of service. Did you notice that he speaks to his, how he

speaks to his father? He says, look. Now, it doesn't matter what culture or what time you're living in.

When you're ticked off at someone, you tear into them by saying, hey, look, look, for many years I've been serving you.

Does that sound like a son who loves his father? Is that a son who delights in working for and

with his dad? Absolutely not. I've been serving you. Little brother chose not to serve you, and now you're rewarding him. Where's my reward? Where's my party? Dad tries to respond, saying, but you've been with me this whole time. But the older son doesn't care about his dad. His mentality is good sons serve. Good sons go out to the fields every day.

They do the work and they don't complain.

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