Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Hosts Pastors' Lee and Jim.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
When Sin Leads to Pig Pens and Grace Leads You Home
The parable of the prodigal son might be familiar, but have you truly grasped the audacity of both the son's request and the father's response? When a young man essentially tells his father "I wish you were dead" by demanding his inheritance early, he sets in motion a story that perfectly captures our own tendency to run from God's best plan for our lives.
Pastors Jim and Lee dive deep into Luke 15:11-24, unpacking this beloved parable verse by verse with personal insights and practical applications. They highlight how the son's journey mirrors our own spiritual wanderings – from the bold departure fueled by independence, through the inevitable rock bottom among the pigs, to the humbling return home. The hosts share their own experiences of being "prodigals" and connect this ancient story to our modern struggles with identity, purpose, and belonging.
The most powerful moment comes when examining the father's response – not just waiting passively, but actively watching the horizon and running (unbecoming for a dignified man in that culture) to embrace his filthy, pig-scented son before he could even finish his rehearsed apology. This extravagant welcome challenges our understanding of God's grace and forgiveness: "That's God chasing us down before we're cleaned up. If you're lost, all you got to do is take one step and then God's going to be sprinting towards you."
Whether you're currently knee-deep in your own "pig pen," slowly finding your way back home, or safely in the father's embrace, this episode offers hope and clarity for your spiritual journey. Listen now to discover why "The Father's love never runs out, even when our resources do." Ready to leave your far country behind? The celebration is waiting.
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week With your hosts, pastors Lee and Jim. It's time to inspire, uplift and dig deeper Beyond Sunday starts now. Hey, what's going on? Beyond Sunday crew Pastor Jim, here, alongside Pastor Lee, we are the pastors of Christ Family Outreach Church and I am ready to dig into the parable of the prodigal son. We're going to be reading from Luke 15, and this is a story that is a straight gut punch. Family fights ridiculous decisions, but it is going to be followed up by God's ridiculous love. We're going to be tearing it apart verse by verse, keeping it going, throwing in some laughs and giving you stuff to actually do with what we're reading. So I'm ready to roll. How about you, pastor Lee?
Speaker 2:Absolutely man, if the listeners could see me right now, you could testify to them. I have a smile on my face. Look over here and see it. See this, there's a smile. I'm just so happy about this parable man. It is one of my favorites and so, like I'm just, I'm just ready to roll.
Speaker 2:So Luke, chapter 15, 11 through 24. And Jesus said, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son had gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need.
Speaker 2:So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. And no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. Compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him and the son said to him father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate For this, my son, oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you this parable. I think I love it so much because it resonates so much with my own personal testimony, and I think not just my personal testimony. I've spoken to a lot of people who have gone and come back. Come on back. And so, if I can, I just want to kind of set the stage here real quick. If we look all the way back to verse 11, jesus is going to be talking to a mixed bag of people, right Crooks, some tax people, pharisees, who are on. They're all side eyeing Jesus because he's hanging out with these riffraff, and I love that he starts off with.
Speaker 1:There was this man who had two sons, like this dad with two boys. Well, that's God. And those sons, they're us, the whole hot mess of humanity. It's like Jesus is saying to everybody in the crowd listen up, because this one's going to hit close, and that resonates with me. You got that one sibling, and I don't know if anybody has a brother or sister, but for me I had brothers. I had an older brother, I had two younger brothers, but there was always that one sibling who was like yes, sir, I'm going to follow the rules, I'm going to do exactly what I'm told to do. But then there's that other one who's like halfway out the door you know what I'm talking about and that's really how Jesus is setting this whole thing up. And so the younger of them said to the father father, give me my share of the property that's coming to me. And he divided the property between them, like come on, I think that that young man, it's pretty bold to just walk up to his daddy and be like hey, I want half of what you got for me.
Speaker 1:Right now he's like Pop, I'm done, I just want you to hand me over my cut. And back then it wasn't uncommon to give part of the inheritance to your children while they were still living. But the way that this kid did it, it was kind of like spitting in his daddy's face and just walking out. But that dad, he did it anyway. And that's this picture of God's grace, right? He's going to let us do some stupidity, even when he knows that we're going to crash. I've pulled that move myself, thinking that I'm slick, and if my dad is listening, I'm telling you right now. He's going to remember how many times I told him that I was a grown man when I was 16 years old. I just wanted to do things my way. I was ready, but I think it's important to ask ourselves are we bolting away from God's?
Speaker 2:plan. Yeah, that's a great point, man. You know the parable of the prodigal son. This means a lot to me as well, Pastor Jim. The word prodigal means wasteful and recklessly extravagant, you know? Here's the issue, right? The younger son is having here it is. He wanted to get away in order to live. Recklessly, he wanted to have it his own way, so he left his father and his brother and the home. He left the family business.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we can think, simply by leaving everything, that everything is going to be okay, that the grass is greener always on the other side of the road or the other side of the fence, right. But the fact is, we just need to work things out and receive the joy that God has for us in this particular moment of our lives. We cannot miss what God has for us in the right now because we're too busy trying to look ahead to what we want to have take place in the tomorrow. I once read the following statement a man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do just as he likes. Right, Think about that. A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do just as he likes. Oftentimes when we found ourselves in a large mess, if we're honest with ourselves, we can look back and see that we got ourselves into that mess simply because we did as we wanted to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and now this guy's living large. He grabs his dad's money, he's hightailing it to the big city and he blows it all on. What Bad wine, worse decisions, right? He's having this reckless living, like you said, Pastor Lee, and I think that's Bible code for a full-on train wreck. We've all got that in our life, though that far country, that either we're chasing the money, we're chasing drama, or we're just zoning out and we kind of find ourselves drifting away. But you know, I think it was important.
Speaker 1:When I was studying this, I wanted to start naming things in my own life that were dragging me away from God and I began to just pray that I would ditch those things. And so this kid, he's off the rails and he's partying like it's the end of the world. But the reality is about to smack him because in verse 14, it says that he spent everything and then a severe famine hit Like bam. So now the cash is gone, the famine rolls in, he's broke, he's hungry and he's just looking around like uh-oh, he's burned out. He's burned all the paycheck on a lottery ticket that now is no longer available to him to even buy bread. Life has gotten so far away just knocking him down that he's just running rogue, and I think that we can apply it to our life in this way. If we're in a dry spell, right, maybe God's saying hey, why don't you turn around and look back at me? You know what is this mess teaching him, or what does our mess teach us about God?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, the man thought he had everything he needed. The young man, he became comfortable. The problem was, the same stuff that bought him comfort, the same stuff that bought him peace and joy, eventually runs out. Yeah, so much of what people try to fill their lives with today runs out as well. But here's the good news God never runs out. And if you're taking notes, just write that one down God never runs out. Amen, his supply. You can write this down God's supply is everlasting.
Speaker 2:Our stuff should not determine our joy level, because at any moment that same stuff could leave and that would mean, if we attach our joy to it, that our joy is going to have to go out the window with it. But again, the good news is this God's joy never runs out. So, whether you have stuff or not, whether you are successful at an endeavor or not, whether your plan fails or not, whether you get what you wanted or not, god's joy never fails. I'm reminded of Philippians, chapter 4, 11 through 12, and Paul writes this. For I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in that verse it talks about being low, and that's exactly where this young man finds himself at rock bottom. He's a Jewish dude slopping with pigs. That'd be like being an all-American barbecue champion and you've been limited down to flipping tofu burgers right, it'd be just straight. Humiliation is where he found himself. He's at the worst gig knee-deep in pig slop. And here's the truth about that. That's what sin does. It drags us to places that we swear we will never go. When we're on top, yeah, you know, but you end up being stuck in a pig pen of your own making.
Speaker 1:Get real with God this week and stop sugarcoating everything that you've been running away from. Verse 16 says that he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. Man, he's drooling over pig food like moldy corn cobs and nobody even gives a rip about him. So he goes and he chases all of these things and when all the money runs out, all of a sudden he becomes invisible. He's alone, and that's a far country that no one should ever find themselves in. It's all glitter but no substance. If you feel forgotten, I want you to hear this. God's got his eyes on you and I want you to write down this If you're starving for peace or purpose, ask God to fill it, because the pig pen's brutal.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I love that brother. The pig pen is brutal. That's a t-shirt in the making, right there, the pig pen is brutal. That's a t-shirt in the making, right there, the pig pen is brutal. The young man thought by moving away he's going to go find himself. How many people like run away from home because they're going to go find themselves? Or how many people maybe don't run away but they just leave home because they're like you know what? This is my year, this is my season in life to go find myself. Or I'm going off to find myself, or I'm going to leave church and I'm going to go find myself and maybe I'll come back, maybe I won't.
Speaker 2:This young man he moves away thinking that he's got everything he'll ever need. I'm going to go find myself. The truth is, rather than find himself, pastor Jim, he only lost himself. He thought he's going to move away and be successful. The truth is sin, as you mentioned earlier. That's his problem here. Sin only brings about his failure. So many people run from the calling God has placed on their lives simply because they still have stuff they want to do in their lives.
Speaker 2:This young man finally comes to himself and realizes the position he's placed himself in and it's nobody's fault but his own, and he recognizes that. He takes ownership of that. The Bible says he comes to himself and then he does what he needs to do to make it right. He goes back home. That takes humility. He's got to humble himself. So one thing that can stop us from living in victory as Christians is a lack of humility. Maybe we don't want to recognize our way was the wrong way. Maybe we don't want to recognize and admit that we've made a mistake. It doesn't feel good when we figure out that we've wasted time, we've wasted effort, we've wasted resources. So listen to this there's nothing wrong at all with recognizing your failures and surrendering to God's will for your life. I want to encourage the listeners in that Maybe there is something going on right now in your life where you simply need to let go and just let God Almighty take over and if that's the case, simply surrender it over to God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love how he snaps out of it. He snaps out of it by remembering home. And you preached this last Sunday about remembering your first love. And so when I was reading through this, as I was studying through this, I thought about that and I was like man, you know what's got to flip in my own life to get right with God Remembering my first love? And that's what he did. He said, man, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? So he remembers home.
Speaker 1:And then, in verse 18, he says I'm going to arise and I'm going to go back home. I'm heading back to my father and I'm going to tell him that I've sinned against him, I've sinned against heaven. And so now he's not just wishing, he's beginning to move. He says, father, I've sinned against heaven and I've sinned before you. Now he's not just wishing, he's moving. That speech sinned against heaven and before you. It shows that he knows he blew it, not just with his dad, but with God, he's beginning to own it. So then, once he owns it, he shifts to humility.
Speaker 1:Verse 19,. He says I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. See, he's no longer playing any games. He's wrecked. He doesn't think that he's worthy of son status, so he's just aiming for the mailroom at this point. But he's heading home, and that's faith, even if it's shaky. Once you realize what you've done, if you feel like trash, don't go and hide. Go to God and say I'm a mess, but I'm right here and we can do it today. Verse 20 says that he went and he arose and he went home to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And this is the part of the text that just kills me. He's stumbling home, he's smelling like a barn and his dad is already just hauling it towards him. That's God chasing us down before we're cleaned up. So if you're lost, all you got to do is take one step and then God's going to be sprinting towards you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, we've all been there before, haven't we? When we realize just how low we've fallen. But thank God, he loves us. The Bible says even when we're faithless, he remains faithful. So thank God that his love is steadfast. As we mentioned in last week's episode, you know God pursues us. Thank God for that. Here we see this beautiful imagery of this dad running out to meet this son, who's also running towards him. Thank God that the love of our Heavenly Father is fixed. It is directed on us and it is firm in the purpose of God for us. Thank God for that. Let's pray.
Speaker 2:Father, we thank you so much that every one of us, at some point in time in our lives, we have turned to a degree that has not pleased you, and we are so thankful that, even though we've turned, you have always welcomed us every single time back home into your arms. The Scripture teaches that you put a robe on that son and the father asked for a ring to be put on his son, and what that is showing is is that the father has re-established this son back into his family as though he never left. And what a beautiful picture that is, that, as we come back home to be with our Heavenly Father. You accept us as though we never ever left, and we thank you for the lessons that we learned through all of that. We love you, we praise you, we honor you. Today, for this is the day that you, Lord, almighty God, have made, it's our job to rejoice and go be glad in it. In Jesus' name and blood, everybody, friends, said together amen and amen. We'll see you next time on Beyond Sunday.
