SPEAKER_03: We hear them and Lord, I just pray that you would just be with us, God, and allow us, God, to see you fully.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, we love you.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus, we thank you, and we pray all of this, Lord, in your holy name.
SPEAKER_03: In Jesus' mighty name, the room says Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you all for being here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: What an incredible, beautiful day.
SPEAKER_01: So grateful that you all are here.
SPEAKER_01: It's a special day for a couple reasons.
SPEAKER_01: It's family worship day, so we got we got some extra kids in this room, and I love it.
SPEAKER_01: It is fantastic to have the the energy, even the noise.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I always say, I got a microphone, you don't, so I can be louder than you.
SPEAKER_01: Um but we are glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_01: And and men for bringing your families and leading your families here on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: We're so grateful for that.
SPEAKER_01: It's also a special morning because I get to share this time with my dad, um, who you'll hear from a little bit, or actually a lot bit here in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, you got a worship guide when you came in, so you can follow along on this.
SPEAKER_01: Um, also, you can open up your Bibles now to Luke 15.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be looking at one of the more familiar stories that we have in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so there are some stories in the Bible that are just really familiar, both to believers and non-believers.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the story of Adam and Eve, the story of Noah in the Ark, or Moses, or Jonah the Whale, David and Goliath, the story of the birth of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: These are very well-known stories.
SPEAKER_01: But arguably, the most well-known parable of the Bible is the parable of the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_01: Or some of your Bibles will say the parable of the lost son.
SPEAKER_01: Now, either way, these subheadings there that you have in your Bibles are somewhat misleading.
SPEAKER_01: They're somewhat a misnomer to really what the full story is.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before you go and start accusing me of heresy, realize this.
SPEAKER_01: The subheadings there are there in scripture, those were put there by interpreters.
SPEAKER_01: Those are not God breathed, right?
SPEAKER_01: So we're allowed to like question those.
SPEAKER_01: It's not heresy, you're fine.
SPEAKER_01: I checked, right?
SPEAKER_01: But but there's a reason that they're somewhat misleading because it says the parable of the prodigal son and the parable of the lost son.
SPEAKER_01: It makes the son singular.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, there are two sons in the story.
SPEAKER_01: Both of them are very, very lost.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: In fact, some biblical scholars and experts will say that the the parable of the prodigal son is as much about the older son as it is the younger son, if not more about the older son.
SPEAKER_01: So, really, what it should be in our Bibles, at least is the parable of the lost sons.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus makes it really clear as to who he's speaking to in this parable.
SPEAKER_01: And it says this in first verse of chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: We read this a few uh a couple weeks ago, but let's read it together.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 15, verse 1 says, Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But the Pharisees and teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with him.
SPEAKER_01: So did you catch the two groups mentioned?
SPEAKER_01: You have the sinners and the tax collectors, and you have your Pharisees and your teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking to the sinners and the tax collectors, the younger son, and he's speaking to the the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, the older son.
SPEAKER_01: So just for illustrative purposes, we're gonna we're gonna split our room into half.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So this side of the room, you're gonna be the young, you're gonna be the the sinners and the tax collectors.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when I look around, that that fits you guys pretty well.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: This side of the room, you're gonna be the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, right?
SPEAKER_01: And when I look around this side of the room, yep, it really fits that, right?
SPEAKER_01: And we're we're gonna look at, we're gonna look at the way that the two sons responded.
SPEAKER_01: But but before we get into that, I said there's a couple misnomers, misleadings with these subheadings.
SPEAKER_01: So one is that it makes the son pink singular, but it's known as the parable of the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_01: And the problem is with that word prodigal, because it actually means more than what we think it means.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Dad, explain to us what the word prodigal means.
SPEAKER_00: I think Timothy Keller kind of helps us understand the word prodigal because he's written a book entitled The Prodigal God.
SPEAKER_00: And when I saw that title, I was kind of confused because I've always thought of a prodigal as someone who's gone away, done some foolish things, and then come back.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that certainly doesn't apply to God.
SPEAKER_00: So why would Timothy Keller entitle his book The Prodigal God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you read the definition of prodigal, you'll understand.
SPEAKER_00: Prodigal primarily means being wastefully and recklessly extravagant with money or resources.
SPEAKER_00: It can also mean giving or producing something on a lavish, extremely generous scale.
SPEAKER_00: So that kind of applies to God, and certainly the other one applies to the younger son.
SPEAKER_00: What we also need to keep in mind is that Jesus came not only to redeem us, but he also came to expose us for who we are.
SPEAKER_00: And then to show us what we're to be in his own life.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, to reveal the Father to us.
SPEAKER_00: So the familiar parable of the prodigal son is not just about a wasteful and reckless son or a selfless, selfish and entitled son, but more particularly about a father who is recklessly extravagant and who gives lavishly with extreme generosity.
SPEAKER_00: As we'll see in this parable.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at, we're gonna look at the response of the two sons, the younger son, the older son.
SPEAKER_01: Then we're gonna compare, we're gonna juxtapose that with the response of the father.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at first the response, or really the rebellion of the younger son.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the rebellion of the younger son.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at Luke chapter 15, verses 11 and 12, where we read Jesus continued.
SPEAKER_00: There was a man who had two sons.
SPEAKER_00: The younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate.
SPEAKER_00: So he divided his property between them.
SPEAKER_00: I think we can see a couple of things in this younger son.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps two different kinds of people, or maybe two stages of people that we see there.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that the younger son says, Father, give me my share of the estate.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he was recognizing his father as the source of everything he wanted.
SPEAKER_00: And certainly there are many who would say, I believe in God, and I believe God is the source of blessings.
SPEAKER_00: But in demanding his share of the inheritance before his father died, this younger son was saying, essentially, Father, you're dead to me.
SPEAKER_00: So give me my portion of the inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I don't want you.
SPEAKER_00: I want my inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: How would Jesus have Jesus' audience have recognized this when they heard Jesus telling this parable?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think they would have heard it through a couple of different filters.
SPEAKER_00: I think they would have heard it through the culture that they lived in, but they also would have heard it through the law that was so familiar to them.
SPEAKER_00: And so when they heard this younger son say such a disrespectful thing, they immediately would have thought of the fifth of the Ten Commandments, which says, honor your father and your mother.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, this younger son was not honoring his father.
SPEAKER_00: And so they may have even expected the punishment of the law to be on this son, either public cursing, or maybe even being stoned to death.
SPEAKER_00: They also would have heard it through their culture.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, men back then were respected, were honored because they were the father, because they were men.
SPEAKER_00: And they would have expected the father to respond to their son, his son, by saying, I'm not dead yet, but you are no longer my son.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of my house.
SPEAKER_00: Now, since the father wasn't dead yet, the only way he could give his younger son that portion of the inheritance was to sell a third of his possessions.
SPEAKER_00: Because a third belongs to the youngest son, and two-thirds belongs to the oldest son.
SPEAKER_00: That was the the tradition then.
SPEAKER_00: And so the father would have had to sell off some of his field and some of his livestock in order to give his younger son his third.
SPEAKER_00: So how would you feel if one of your adult children came to you and said, give me my portion of the inheritance, and suddenly everything you had, your bank account, your investments, your retirement fund was reduced by a third all because of the selfish demand of a child.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about that.
SPEAKER_00: We can see a second kind of person, I think, in this younger son.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is the one who says, Father, I don't want you.
SPEAKER_00: I want what belongs to me, to the inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: I recognize you as my father, but I want what's mine.
SPEAKER_00: But the second kind of a person I think we can see, or maybe the second stage, is the person who has no belief in God, wants nothing to do with God, because look at what we see in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 13, it says, not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the son didn't want to have anything to do with the father.
SPEAKER_00: He distanced himself from the father.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way there are those who have no belief in God.
SPEAKER_00: They don't recognize God as a source of anything, and so they distance themselves from God.
SPEAKER_00: Now the father has no idea where his son is going, but there's no doubt in his mind that where he's going and what he's going to do is not going to be good.
SPEAKER_00: But notice in the parable that the father says nothing to the son.
SPEAKER_00: No rebuke, no advice, no warning.
SPEAKER_00: He's been dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: So he simply watches his son walk away and disappear over the horizon.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the next word he fears he might hear is that his son has been murdered, robbed, and murdered.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe the father fears he'll never hear anything from his son again.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've heard people say, how can a a good God, a loving father condemn anyone to hell for eternity?
SPEAKER_00: Well, think about this.
SPEAKER_00: The father in the parable didn't condemn the younger son to a distant country.
SPEAKER_00: He simply let him go where he wanted to go.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, those who reject God don't want anything to do with him, God lets them go to where they want to be, apart from God.
SPEAKER_01: At some point, we we've all, in a sense, been the younger son.
SPEAKER_01: We all kind of chase what we want, thinking that that that thing will satisfy us or or or meet all of our needs, and then we wind up getting empty or being broken or being desperate.
SPEAKER_01: So we've all rebelled in that sense, but what about what about the older son?
SPEAKER_01: His response was different from the rebellion of the younger son.
SPEAKER_01: His response was entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: So let's let's talk about the entitlement of the older son.
SPEAKER_01: It says this, starting verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: The older son was in the field.
SPEAKER_01: When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
SPEAKER_01: So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.
SPEAKER_01: Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.
SPEAKER_01: The older brother became angry and refused to go in.
SPEAKER_01: He said to his father, Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.
SPEAKER_01: You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
SPEAKER_01: But when this son of yours, who has squandered your property with prostitutes, come home, you killed a fattened calf for him.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what we have to realize about the older son.
SPEAKER_01: He might have stayed in closer proximity to the father, but his heart was just as far from the heart of the father.
SPEAKER_01: His heart had become so hardened to the love of the father that he was just as distant as the younger son was.
SPEAKER_01: The older son had failed to recognize the true character, the true love, the true kindness of his father.
SPEAKER_01: The older son had no idea of not only the limitless wealth that the father had, but truly of his mercy and his grace and his love and his forgiveness and his kindness.
SPEAKER_01: You know, some of you you've heard me say this before, but I had never heard the term cultural Christianity until we moved here to the South.
SPEAKER_01: If I can be honest with you, I utterly despise this term.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Cultural Christianity, it's no Christianity at all.
SPEAKER_01: It is as far from Christianity as paganism is.
SPEAKER_01: We have relativism.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the the notion that all uh all roads lead to heaven or or all truths are your truths, that kind of nonsense.
SPEAKER_01: That the trend is moving west to east, I believe.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But but at the at the foundation of entitlement, uh, or at the foundation, I'm sorry, of cultural Christianity is entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's this whole thing of I don't really have to have a relationship with God, but somehow I'm still gonna get everything that he owes me.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the mentality of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_01: That's the attitude of the older son.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has a lot to say about the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, none of which is all that great.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read a few things.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 23 says, they, meaning the Pharisees and teachers of the law, tie up heavy, cumbersome loads of religious demands and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
SPEAKER_01: He also says this later on that chapter Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.
SPEAKER_01: You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
SPEAKER_01: He says this just a few verses later.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
SPEAKER_01: Blind Pharisee.
SPEAKER_01: First, clean the inside of the cup and dish, then the outside will also be clean.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus clearly had some real problems with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_01: That is to say that Jesus had a real problem with the attitude of the older son.
SPEAKER_01: He had a real problem with the entitlement of the older son.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I grew up, I grew up as a PK, which I'm very fortunate for.
SPEAKER_01: And and PKs, they can they can certainly have a stigma that's attached to them, right?
SPEAKER_01: If I'm being honest, I've known lots of PKs in my life, and they're mostly fine.
SPEAKER_01: But it just takes a few to kind of create a stigma.
SPEAKER_01: So in that regard, my older brother, he took on that role of the wayward PK.
SPEAKER_01: And in in his high school and early college years, uh Zach wandered far away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And even though he was my older brother, he played the role of the younger son, the younger rebellious son, while I sat comfortably at home in my role as the entitled older son.
SPEAKER_01: And when I was about 17 or so, um, Zach and a couple of his buddies, they had taken a road trip, they ended up north up in San Francisco.
SPEAKER_01: Long story, but they ended up being, he he ended up getting lost for about 36 hours.
SPEAKER_01: And and when his friends called uh the house, obviously, and and they they they said that he was missing, of course it sent my parents into incredible panic, right?
SPEAKER_01: But my response was completely different.
SPEAKER_01: I'm ashamed to say it, but when I heard that that he was missing, my very first thought was, okay, they took one of his buddies' cars.
SPEAKER_01: His truck is at home, so I just got my brother's truck.
SPEAKER_01: Pathetic.
SPEAKER_01: That was that was my first thought.
SPEAKER_01: And and and I remember, I remember even the the next day, um, my dad had had gone up um north to to help kind of look for Zach, and um unfortunately he was found, which which really for him ended up being being an incredible turning point as it relates to his faith.
SPEAKER_01: But but that afternoon, people were coming over initially to pray with and and to comfort my mom, but then when the news spread that he had been found, they were coming over and celebrating and rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember at a certain point being being so annoyed and angered by this that I went outside, I went in the driveway, and I started playing basketball.
SPEAKER_01: I I didn't want to be around the grieving or the rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: I I wanted I wanted nothing to do with it.
SPEAKER_01: I I couldn't understand how this was a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: In my mind, him being gone was good, him being found was bad.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow, in my wicked, evil mind, I had attributed the thought of my brother being found as being bad.
SPEAKER_01: I I couldn't I couldn't wrap my mind around how there would be love and concern for someone who had who had made my life pretty miserable for a few years.
SPEAKER_01: Fortunately, though, my parents were still filled with the love and the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: That they were able to welcome home their lost son.
SPEAKER_01: And I suppose, I I'm sure I didn't think of it at the time, but in some envious or greedy way, I had become comfortable being the you know the good older son, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: And I will say, my parents, they've done an incredible job of always demonstrating love to us equally.
SPEAKER_01: There was never a favorite with us brothers, or now with our wives or kids, although we all know that my wife Jen is their favorite.
SPEAKER_01: Um right, Lenice?
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: I would say this, it came for for me, it was about 10 months later, right?
SPEAKER_01: From from after after Zach was found, about 10 months later, for me to realize just how cancerous and my disdain towards my brother was, and how it was hindering me from having the encounter and knowing the love of God that I so desperately needed and wanted to have.
SPEAKER_01: I was I was blinded by that, by by my own entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: My my prideful, entitled attitude was just as bad, was just as wicked, was just as evil as the rebellious, the rebellion of the younger son.
SPEAKER_01: We look back at the text and we see how the older brother he hears about the party, he's walking towards it, and then he becomes angry.
SPEAKER_01: It says the older brother became angry and refused to go in.
SPEAKER_01: The older brother had himself, the older son had himself a pity party.
SPEAKER_01: I liken this to when I went out to shoot hoops in the driveway.
SPEAKER_01: I I didn't want to, I guess in my mind, I don't know, I was angry that God had given him an opportunity for redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Because somehow I would have been worthy of God's grace, but not him.
SPEAKER_01: This entitlement leads to judgmentalness.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that so clearly in the response of the older son.
SPEAKER_01: So we've looked at the response of the younger son, we've looked at the response of the older son, but now let's consider the response of the father.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, really the the pursuit of the father.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the father let the younger son go, but we also see the father pursuing both of his sons.
SPEAKER_00: Let's back up a little bit now to verse 17 through 20 to see the pursuit of the father for the younger son.
SPEAKER_00: So reading from verse 17, when the younger son came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired men have food to spare?
SPEAKER_00: And here I am starving.
SPEAKER_00: I'll sit out.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go back to my father and say to him, Father, I've sinned.
SPEAKER_00: Against heaven and against you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
SPEAKER_00: Make me like one of your hired men.
SPEAKER_00: So he got up and went to his father.
SPEAKER_00: But I want us to pay particular attention to the rest of this passage in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.
SPEAKER_00: He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.
SPEAKER_00: So I we don't know how far off the son was.
SPEAKER_00: It says he was a long way off.
SPEAKER_00: But my question is, how did the father see him while he was still a long way off?
SPEAKER_00: And I wondered if maybe the father saw him in his faith.
SPEAKER_00: In his mind's eye, in his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you pray that way.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're praying for something and you have a picture in your mind of what you want it to be.
SPEAKER_00: And that picture somehow provides a focus for your prayer, a focus for your faith.
SPEAKER_00: This father never gave up loving his son, never gave up hoping for his son's return.
SPEAKER_00: And so perhaps even while he was still a long way off, the father saw it in his mind and prayed that way.
SPEAKER_00: But when the son finally did appear, the father runs to him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just stopping right there and thinking again about what Jesus' audience is hearing and feeling.
SPEAKER_00: Because by now I'm thinking that Jesus' audience has completely dismissed this father as a fool.
SPEAKER_00: They're as disgusted with him as they are mad at the younger son.
SPEAKER_00: No man would ever run for any reason.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Ben has shared with us before that this is the only time in Scripture we ever see God running, the father running.
SPEAKER_00: But when the father saw his son, he was so overjoyed with love and relief and answered prayer that he ran to his son.
SPEAKER_00: And it makes me think that, you know, the moment that we turn to God, the moment that we come to our senses and we repent and turn to God, he's right there.
SPEAKER_00: He's right there.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have to run to us, and we don't have to cover a distance to get to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's right there, as if he's run to us.
SPEAKER_00: And then this father, this prodigal father, was filled not with bitterness, not with resentment, not with unforgiveness, but with compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And he throws his arms around his son and kisses him.
SPEAKER_00: And don't forget where the son has been.
SPEAKER_00: He's been with pigs.
SPEAKER_00: He's been feeding the pigs.
SPEAKER_00: He's ragged and dirty and filthy and stinky, but the father doesn't care.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've even wondered if the father's the if the son has been gone so long that he's unrecognizable.
SPEAKER_00: But a father recognizes his son.
SPEAKER_00: And he embraces his son and kisses him.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, we don't have to clean ourselves up before we come to God.
SPEAKER_00: God receives us the moment we turn to him, regardless of where we've been.
SPEAKER_00: So the father pursued the younger son.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see that he pursued the older son as well.
SPEAKER_01: So the older son is he's he's outside the party, having having himself a little pity party.
SPEAKER_01: So his father went out and pleaded with him.
SPEAKER_01: The father does the same thing as he does with the younger son.
SPEAKER_01: He moves towards his son.
SPEAKER_01: And he's pursuing now the heart of his son.
SPEAKER_01: The father demonstrates reconciliation in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: Before the father is going to correct or exhort his son, he is going to seek to understand his son.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we oftentimes struggle in conflict.
SPEAKER_01: We oftentimes struggle to seek understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Something gets said, it can feel accusatory, so we can become defensive, and now we're just waiting for some kind of pause to where we can respond in some offensive kind of way.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: The older son is accusing really the father some pretty egregious character flaws.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, look what look what the older son says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
SPEAKER_01: But when this son of yours, who has squandered your property with prostitutes, come home, you kill the fattened calf for him.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the the son is having a pretty accusatory tone here.
SPEAKER_01: And and and and the father could easily respond back, but but the father doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: The father doesn't doesn't become defensive and and and match kind of his son's pettiness.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he allows his son to express himself and then he seeks to understand.
SPEAKER_01: There's a tremendous principle here that the father demonstrates.
SPEAKER_01: It's this principle of understanding.
SPEAKER_01: We have to listen to what it says in 1 Peter chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: It says this husbands, live in an understanding way, showing honor to your wife.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The Father, Jesus practices what he preaches.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus is the bridegroom and we are the bride, the father is demonstrating this pursuit of his son's heart, first to understand him and then and then to reconcile himself back to his son's heart and lead him in truth, which we're gonna see in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: So we see how the father pursued the younger son and how the father pursues the older son.
SPEAKER_01: But now let's look at the love of the father.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the love of the father over both of his sons.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that it's hard to love some people?
SPEAKER_00: Even our own children.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, if you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you?
SPEAKER_00: Even sinners love those who love you.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's when it's hard to love that real love can be shown.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that in the love of the father in this parable.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing stopped the father from loving his younger son, no matter what he's done, no matter how he's treated the father.
SPEAKER_00: The father never gave up hoping, never gave up praying, never gave up waiting for his son.
SPEAKER_00: And I've wondered, I wonder how long the father had to wait before the son finally came back.
SPEAKER_00: So I just began to kind of think through various uh stages or steps.
SPEAKER_00: The father waited long enough for the son to go to a distant country on foot.
SPEAKER_00: He waited for the son to blow through his entire inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: He waited for his son to lose any friends that he might have acquired through his sudden wealth.
SPEAKER_00: He waited for his son to become so desperate that he was willing to feed pigs, even eat pigs' food.
SPEAKER_00: The father waited for his son to finally come to the place where he came to his senses and developed a plan to go back to his father.
SPEAKER_00: And the father waited for his son to come from a distant land back home on foot.
SPEAKER_00: The father waited because he loved his son, and because his love was patient, because his love kept no record of wrongs, because his love always protected, always trusted, always hoped, always persevered.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God's love never fails for the younger son or for the older son.
SPEAKER_01: So let's think about the party that is that's being thrown.
SPEAKER_01: This would have been quite the shindig.
SPEAKER_01: There was quite a commotion happening.
SPEAKER_01: The older son notices that nobody's around as he's working.
SPEAKER_01: And as he's getting closer to the house, it says when he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
SPEAKER_01: So there would have been there would have been a lot of people at this party.
SPEAKER_01: There would have been a lot of people in that room.
SPEAKER_01: It would have been probably somewhat chaotic.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, the reality is that the younger son and the father, they would have been the stars of the show.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they they would have been the center of the party.
SPEAKER_01: They would have been the people that everyone was crowding around to see and to talk to and you know, get take their selfies with and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: That was, it was very busy for them.
SPEAKER_01: But but the father notices that someone is missing.
SPEAKER_01: There's everyone else is there.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone else is there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is the biggest party they've ever seen.
SPEAKER_01: His younger son is there, but there's someone not there.
SPEAKER_01: And and we see that the father pursues his son by going out after he recognizes that his son, who he desires to have, there is not there.
SPEAKER_01: And and then the father says this to his older son.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You are always with me.
SPEAKER_01: You are always with me.
SPEAKER_01: Everything I have is yours, but you are always with me.
SPEAKER_01: Even though the older son had removed his heart for his father, the father had not removed his heart for his son.
SPEAKER_01: The father was saying, I've I have never ever hardened my heart towards you.
SPEAKER_01: You've been as close to me as the day you were born.
SPEAKER_01: The father, he could sense the incompleteness in the room.
SPEAKER_01: And the father, listen, the one, the one with the wealth, the one with the power, the one with the status, humbles himself and walks out and pleads with his son.
SPEAKER_01: There's a couple principles that we need to be mindful of here.
SPEAKER_01: Out of the father's love, and you can write this down, out of the father's love, the father restored the identity of the younger rebellious son.
SPEAKER_01: The father's love restored the identity of the younger rebellious son.
SPEAKER_01: The father's love restored the heart of the older entitled son.
SPEAKER_01: He restored both the identity and he restored both the heart of his sons out of the father's love.
SPEAKER_01: We see how the father perfectly pursues his children, how the father perfectly loves his children.
SPEAKER_01: But now let's finally consider this the prodigality, the extravagance of the father.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look and see how he demonstrates this prodigality first with his younger son.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as Pastor Ben says, the father is restoring the identity of the younger son.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that in verses 22 through 24.
SPEAKER_00: Where we read, The Father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.
SPEAKER_00: Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
SPEAKER_00: Bring the fattened calf and kill it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's have a feast and celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: For this son of mine was dead and is alive again.
SPEAKER_00: He was lost and is found.
SPEAKER_00: So they began to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: We read that the Father, first of all, places a robe on his younger son, covering up the filthy, dirty, stinky rags in the same way that when we come to the Lord, he clothes us with his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: In spite of all of our sin, in spite of what we've done, he covers that stink of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: The younger son is given a ring.
SPEAKER_00: What's the significance of the ring?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the ring probably was the family ring, representing the family's name, the family's authority.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way God gives us his Holy Spirit, we're sealed with his Holy Spirit, giving us his name and his authority.
SPEAKER_00: The younger son was given sandals to cover his bruised, bleeding, and weary feet.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way that God gives us the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ to give us rest from our weary wandering.
SPEAKER_00: And the fattened calf killed for the younger son nourished his starved body.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is what feeds our soul and our spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And the celebration that that welcomed the younger son home to family and friends is like the celebration we realize when we become a part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've been a part of several churches, and every church, including this one, has become our family.
SPEAKER_00: These are our friends.
SPEAKER_00: This is where all of our connections are.
SPEAKER_00: You're family to us.
SPEAKER_00: You don't realize family like you do when you become a part of the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: So God restored our identity, even as the father in the parable restored the identity of the younger son.
SPEAKER_01: So once again, let's just consider the state of the older son.
SPEAKER_01: Before we look at the prodigality of the father for the older son, let's let's remind ourselves where this older son is.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's he's in this very pious, self-righteous Pharisee kind of state.
SPEAKER_01: He said to his father, look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat, so I could celebrate with my friends.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, celebrate what?
SPEAKER_01: That your dad's got money?
SPEAKER_01: Like we're supposed to celebrate that you're gonna have whatever you want because of your daddy's money?
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on to say, but when this son of yours who has squandered your property with these prostitutes, come home, you you go and you kill the fattened calf for him.
SPEAKER_01: Notice he doesn't say this brother of mine, he's saying this son of yours.
SPEAKER_01: His heart is so distant from his family.
SPEAKER_01: He has hardened his heart so much from the love of his family.
SPEAKER_01: And and and he is he is seeing his his father almost essentially the same way that the younger son did for just his property, just his stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, can you imagine how you would respond if you were the father?
SPEAKER_01: I can.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: My response would be something more like you entitled little brat.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you you see me for my stuff in the same way that your younger brother saw me for your st for my stuff, right?
SPEAKER_01: Your younger brother saw me as the ATM, you see me as your IRA.
SPEAKER_01: I'm nothing more to you than just than just property and inheritance and the goods that you're gonna get from me.
SPEAKER_01: That would be my response.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not the response of the father.
SPEAKER_01: The father responds by saying, first of all, my son.
SPEAKER_01: Drawing his son back to him.
SPEAKER_01: But then he demonstrates his extravagant prodigality to him by saying, This everything I have is yours.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, the the older son couldn't even really comprehend what this means.
SPEAKER_01: Couldn't even begin to imagine what it means when the father says, Everything I have is yours.
SPEAKER_01: Look what it says in Psalms 24.
SPEAKER_01: God says, The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.
SPEAKER_01: Or in Psalm 50, it says, I don't need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens, for all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
SPEAKER_01: This older son, along with the rest of us, we can't even begin to comprehend the limitless and vast wealth that is belongs to our father.
SPEAKER_01: And then when he says, Everything I have is yours, I mean, what does that even mean?
SPEAKER_01: How can we wrap our minds around that?
SPEAKER_01: What the father is saying here when he says, We had to celebrate.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't I had to celebrate, it wasn't you need to celebrate.
SPEAKER_01: We had to celebrate.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the greatest inheritance, the greatest joy is seeing the lost be found, seeing the dead come to life.
SPEAKER_01: That's the greatest joy.
SPEAKER_01: I liken it to where Jesus says this in Luke 10, as the disciples have come back from ministering and they're excited and they're saying, Man, even demons submit to us in your name.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says this: He says, Don't rejoice that the spirit submit to you.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's the greatest joy.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest joy that this older son could know was not the stuff he was going to get, it was the heart of his father.
SPEAKER_01: That was the true wealth that was being offered, that was being afforded to this younger son.
SPEAKER_01: The father is saying to the older son, You want your inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: I'm right here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm your inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the thing that you need.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the one that you need more than anything else.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we when we consider this parable in our own lives, some of us in the room, we are we are the younger son.
SPEAKER_01: We are the one who is who has walked and wandered far from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We've known about him.
SPEAKER_01: The truth was offered to us, but we we squandered that truth, we squandered that wealth, we want to do it on our own.
SPEAKER_01: And we come up empty, we come up broken, we come up desperate, but the Bible says a broken heart and a contrite spirit, Lord, you won't deny.
SPEAKER_01: And all all you have to do, all you have to do is turn and just face Jesus, just face the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And as we said, it's the only time we ever see God in a hurry.
SPEAKER_01: Every other time in Scripture, it's wait, wait on God, wait patiently.
SPEAKER_01: But when God's welcoming home a lost son or daughter, it's immediate.
SPEAKER_01: He runs.
SPEAKER_01: But then others of us in the room have become hardened to pursuing even a relationship with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we're not necessarily as entitled as we might see from this older son, but we haven't been conscious or cognizant of pursuing the heart of the father.
SPEAKER_01: And so we we do feel distant.
SPEAKER_01: We find ourselves distanced from the father.
SPEAKER_01: And what we need to do is the same thing that the younger rebellious son had to do.
SPEAKER_01: We need to turn towards the father and let him draw near to us, let him instill his heart back into us.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray over us right now, and then we're gonna respond together.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, Father, thank you for your perfect pursuit, your passionate love, your extravagant prodigality that you demonstrate to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: None of us are worthy of it.
SPEAKER_01: God, all of us, all of us smell like pigs.
SPEAKER_01: We aren't worthy of your love, we aren't worthy of your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, Father, it doesn't it doesn't seem to just bother you for even one millisecond.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to welcome home that that lost son or daughter when they show true brokenness, true contriteness.
SPEAKER_01: We we've we've gotten so caught up in in the religious ordeals, the traditions.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we come here once a week or we're on special events, and and every once in a while we'll read the verse of the day.
SPEAKER_01: But God, we really haven't pursued a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_01: And then, Father, things happen in this world or things happen to people and we can't make sense of it, we can't understand.
SPEAKER_01: We start blaming you, we start accusing you.
SPEAKER_01: God, help us to return back to you.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to know your heart, Father.
SPEAKER_01: God, you are you are worthy of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: You are worthy of us turning and facing you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to know that.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna ask you to stand right now.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna we're gonna respond.
SPEAKER_01: If, man, if there's any way that we can pray with you, if you are that younger son and you need to come to the Father, come forth.
SPEAKER_01: Let us let us pray with you, let us pray over you.
SPEAKER_01: If you have that hardness in your heart, you need a softness, let us pray with you, let's pray over you, let's respond to our worthy Father this morning.