Come Back Time

Which son are you?

The Prodigal. Running hard from God, spending everything you've got, waking up hungry for something more.

The Older Brother. Slaving away, doing everything right, and still keeping score — offended that grace doesn't seem fair.

Or maybe you're somewhere in between, not sure which one hits closer to home.

In this message, Pastor Jason unpacks the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15) and shows us three people we'll always find in church — and in ourselves. There's the son who wants the Father's blessing without His authority. There's the Father who runs — undignified, unashamed — to bring His child home. And there's the brother who's been standing right next to grace the whole time, wondering why he never felt it.

Wherever you're starting from, it's Come Back Time. Come find out which son you are — and what the Father's been waiting to give you all along.

Visit us at Generations Cowboy Church for more info about our church or find ways you can support what God is doing at GCC!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:26

I'm going to take a jump out of our series that we were in. Today is a standalone message. And so I know I'm throwing you guys for a little bit of a curveball. You can go to Luke 15 in just a minute. But this sermon is entitled, This is Comeback Time. Hey, if you guys did not know this, I've got great news. This Sunday is the final Sunday for the rest of the year where football will not be on television. Come on, praise God. I am ready. I don't care if it's preseason at this point. I'm ready to see. I'll even watch the Cowboys if I have to, just to see a little bit of football on TV, man. Come on. I'm ready for it. And to me, it's comeback time for my Kansas City Chiefs. Any Chiefs fan in the house, let's go. Come on. Everybody's already talking smack about Mahomes and how he's washed from that ACL injury. I ain't scared. It's comeback time, baby. Like, bring it on. Consider us the underdogs. This is the comeback story that we're hoping for. Like that we can come back to something great that we were before. If not, we'll just make fun of everybody else, right? I mean, one way or the other here. Comeback stories are so amazing to me that the idea of a comeback is not just coming from behind when you're losing, but it's returning to a place where you once were, returning to a place that you know you should be. And for whatever reason, it seems like one of the things that people seem to be coming back to right now is faith in Jesus. People seem to be really interested in that conversation. It seems to be a piece where maybe people who never had a relationship with Jesus are coming to him for the first time. Maybe there are people who once had a relationship, but they got away and they're coming back to church again and finding a renewed relationship with Jesus. Maybe there were some people that just checked the boxes religiously. Like I attended church, I did a few things, like I'm a good Christian, but more than checking boxes, they're finally beginning to grow and actually have a relationship with Him. And so today I want to take a look at a story in Luke 15. It's known as the prodigal son, but the reality is that story is so much bigger than just one son. And I think that's the story that most people preach on today. But I want us to take a look because for me, when people come to this church, I want you to understand you're going to encounter three types of people when you come to this church. And we are all somewhere on this spectrum, and sometimes we move and shake. And why is this conversation so important? Because I think setting expectations are crucial. And so as people come to this church, I need you to understand what you're going to find at Generations Cowboy Church is imperfect people being pursued by a perfect God. And those imperfect people are pursuing Jesus together. And I don't know about you, but that's good news. Like if you came here hoping to find somebody who had it all together and never gets it wrong, you should go find another church right now. But let me just warn you that when you go to it, you're going to mess it all up if you find it. Because none of us are perfect. None of us are ever going to have it all together. And to me, I love this story of the prodigal son because it sets the page for the three types of people that we should have an encounter with in the church. Luke 15, starting in verse 11. I'm going to read through here in different parts so you can hang out and follow along if you want to. But this is Jesus talking to illustrate, illustrate the point further. Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. And a few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money on wild living. This is probably part of the story, if we've ever heard the prodigal that we know of, the story of this younger son. And the story of this younger son is really important for us to get because we have to understand the cultural context of what this younger son was doing. I mean, imagine in today's world, your father is still alive, and you're like, hey, I want part of my inheritance now. It would feel a bit of an insult now, and it was even more of an insult in that culture for that father to be asked that. And so as people come to this church, I need you to understand that you're going to run into some people that are just like this younger son. And that's okay. You're going to run into some people that maybe thought they wanted a relationship with Jesus, but they're just not quite sure. You're going to run into some people who want what you give them more than they value you as a person. That somewhere on this faith journey, there are some people that just aren't quite ready yet to fully surrender their life to Jesus. And there are some people at times that value what a church can give them more than what they can bring to a church when they come into community with a church. And it's part of the culture and the world that we live in, that there's so many people that come to church asking, What's in it for me? But the beauty of a church isn't when we show up and say, What's in it for me? The beauty of a church is when we show up and say, Man, how can I serve somebody else here? And that's what I love is we see so many people not just showing up here to say, What's in this thing for me, but showing up to say, How can I be a part of what God is doing here and be a blessing to somebody else? And so somewhere over time you will run into people like the younger son. Why? Because a lot of people want to reject living under God's authority. The son wanted the independence, but he also wanted the father's blessing. You ever run into somebody like that? Maybe you're raising a teenager. They want the independence, but they still want you to give them some money. They want the independence, but I want you to keep paying for the insurance and the cell phone and the car and my vehicle. Right? All the parents in here that have teenagers say, Come on. That's right. You know. And you're gonna run into some people like that here. They want the independence, they don't want to submit to the authority in their life. And that's okay. We want to be a space where people like that can be. But we have to understand that if we want the blessing of God, it comes with submitting to God. And the work of God's grace in my life doesn't happen just because I want his blessing, it happens as I surrender. You can't walk in God's blessing if you aren't willing to submit to his authority. And so we'll always make space for the younger son who may just want something from this church instead of giving back to this church, because our hope is somewhere along the way the grace of this message will soften their heart and lead them to this next place. Starting in verse 14, if you want to read along. About that time his money ran out. Imagine that. A great famine swept over the land and he began to starve. And he persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him in the fields to feed pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding, the pigs, looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. And when he finally came to his senses, that's an important line in scripture, if you want to highlight or underline it. When he finally came to his senses, sometimes God has to let us get into a place where he can do some work in our life so we can come to our senses. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, At home, even the hired servants have enough food to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, Father, I've sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. Why would we make room for people in the church that may just want to use us for what they can get from it? Because my hope is somewhere along the way, they'll come to their senses. That the Holy Spirit would do a work in our lives to bring us all to a place where we would recognize, hey, I can keep trying to do this my way, or I could come to my senses and start doing it God's way. And that was the beauty of the younger son in this moment, that there was a conviction that was working in his life. There was a place where he finally admitted, I've got this wrong and I've sinned, and I need to just come back to my father and see if he would let me back in. That there's this place where acknowledging sin and repenting is a key piece to salvation. And so in today's world, I talk about this all the time here. I'm going to be uncomfortably real and I'm going to share the truth of God with the love and grace of God because we have to share truth so that sin can be exposed, so that we can repent and come back to God. That is a gift from God. So I'll just say that one more time. Conviction is a gift from God. And everybody said, When you feel convicted, don't be afraid of that. Embrace it. The scariest place you and I could ever be is to not feel the conviction of God for the things that we're doing. If you're like, man, I don't know the last time I was convicted. That should be a yellow flag. That should raise something inside of you. Because conviction is God's gift of grace and love to remind us we're heading in a direction that's not good for us and we should come back to the Father. And so we'll always make space for people, maybe that are here for the wrong reasons, because our hope is somewhere along the way the Holy Spirit will do a work that we can't do, and he'll bring people to their senses and lead them back to his grace and salvation. And I love the picture in this moment because the reality is the grace in this moment was somebody was running away from the Father and felt like they could come back. That in this journey and in this story, he begins to realize I'm out of money, I've reached my end, and I need the Father again in my life. So let me let me put it this way maybe some of you have been running from God. Maybe some of you have somebody in your family, in your circle of friends that's been running from God. The greatest gift God might give that person is to let them reach the end of themselves so they can be reminded how much they need Him. And that's probably the hardest part, especially for some of us that are parents, right? We want to rescue our kids. We want to protect them from those moments. But the reality is that maybe the greatest gift of God's grace in that person's life might be to give them exactly what they think they want, so that they'll realize there's nothing at the bottom of that well, and they'll choose a different well, the one that Jesus has dug for them. And that is God's gift, and that is God's grace as well at work. And that's the place we find the son in this moment. Like he's ready to come back to the Father. And that is the first person that we see that we may run into at this church is people that may be running from God, that may be playing games with God. But our hope is we'll make space where they can encounter him here and experience the life he wants. Which leads us to the second person that we encounter. Verse 20, he said, So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming, filled with love and compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. And his son said to him, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But his father said to the servants, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him, get a ring for his finger, sandals for his feet, and kill the calf that we've been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast. Praise God, they're gonna eat some beef. Amen. Anybody raise cows in here? Kill the calf. Yes, they kill the pig, didn't kill the chicken, kill the calf. We're gonna eat some beef. I love it. And so we must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and is now returned to life. He was lost, but now he's found. So the party began. So here we run into the second character in the story. Somebody here that I hope you run into, but if you understand the culture in that day, it was an honor-shame culture. And so you have to catch the significance of what's happening here when the father runs out to the son. If you didn't understand this, men in that culture didn't run because it would be a disgrace because they would have to lift their robe and expose themselves to be able to run. And so this was a no-no. The father wouldn't have been the one that would have run. In fact, in this culture, what typically would have happened to a son who took their inheritance before it was time and lost it all and came back, people in the town would have cut that son off before he ever got home. And they would have ran him out of town and told him he had no place there. And maybe sometimes you ran into people in church like that. Like you're trying to get back to God and you just run into that wrong person that says, What are you doing here? Anybody? I've had some of those moments. I hope you never have one of those moments here. And so the fact that the father disgraced himself and made sure he ran to that son before anybody else could run him off to welcome him in is a picture of how much the father loves you and I. It's this picture that he would be willing to say, I'm going to bear the shame that you should be bearing right now. You are the one that did something disgraceful. You asked for your inheritance. You chose your way instead of my way. And I should cut you off and run you out. But instead, I'm going to run out there and disgrace myself and embrace you before anybody else can get rid of you. And that is my heart that somewhere along the way, as you come into this church, somewhere you run into some people that look like this father that will just love you for who you are, that would embrace you before you could ever feel shame, and that would be willing to welcome you in and be part of this family. That is the heart of God for us. That is the heart that Jesus showed to us. It sounds a lot like Jesus. If you don't know the story of when he hung on the cross, it wasn't very dignified. In fact, most of the pictures you and I have seen don't do justice to what that moment was like. He was beaten beyond recognition. He probably didn't have any clothes on. And he was hanging like that publicly in front of everybody. A disgrace of all disgraces. And he said, I'll do that for you so that you don't have to carry the disgrace and the discomfort for your sins so that you can be free. I'll take that for you. And that's the heart that he wants for us. That's the part for us where we're always going to create a space to try to be like the father here, that no matter who you are, no matter what's going on in your life, no matter how you feel like you need to run away from this place, my hope is every time you come into this place, you would come in here and feel loved and valued for who you are. Yeah, but you don't know my story. I don't need to know your story. He does. And he died for you. And if he loves you that much, I'm gonna love you that much too. Yeah, but there's some other people that kind of look at me judgmental. Cool, they don't matter anyway, all right? Look past them and come be a part of what he wants to do. Which kind of leads us to the third son. And really, if you understand this story, actually, I think this son was really the point of the whole story. And most of us make the prodigal the point of the whole story. But meanwhile, starting in verse 25, he says, This the older son was in the fields working, and when he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house. And he asked one of your one of the servants what was going on. Your brother is back, he was told, and your father has killed the fatted calf. And we're celebrating because of his safe return. The older brother was angry. He wasn't excited, his brother was back. He was actually angry and he wouldn't go in. And so his father came out and begged him, but he replied, All these years I've slayed for you. I've never once refused to do a single thing you told me to do. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours, notice it's not his brother. You guys have some of those family members? Yeah, mom and dad, your daughter. Wait, that's your sister. Uh-uh, that's your daughter. That son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, and you celebrate by killing the fatted calf. His father said to him, Look, dear son, you've always stayed by me. Everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, but now he's found. And then, strangely enough, the story just ends there. And so the third person that you may encounter here at times is somebody that's kind of like this older son. And to be honest with you, the older son makes me a little bit uncomfortable because I can see myself being the older son sometimes, if I'm just honest. And maybe you've ran into somebody that's like that as well. See, the older son saw the father as transactional. He still missed what it was like to have a relationship with a father. He didn't say, Dad, as your son, I've worked with you. He said, I slaved for you. Like he didn't see himself as a son. He still saw himself as somebody who had to slave for his father, and he still saw the father as somebody that was transactional. He wasn't trying to have a relationship with him, he was trying to earn something. And so many times we might run into people who feel the same way that I have to perform and be a certain way for God to welcome me in. The reality is you'll run into somebody that's like the older son because he wants the blessing more than the father's heart. Like it's interesting to me that he's not excited that his brother came back, but he's angry. And in fact, he's not just angry, like, why didn't you give me a party? Like he he's not just upset, he wanted the blessing as well. And because he didn't get what he wanted, he decided to get mad and throw his sucker in the dirt. He wanted the party, he wanted to celebrate. In fact, what many people would say is this doesn't sound very fair. I got a news flash for you. God is not fair, and that's good news. Because if he was fair, none of us would be here right now. Because fair would be we all deserve to die. Fair would be there's not anybody here that deserved Jesus dying on the cross for them. So if you're trying to make God fair and you're trying to hope people in his church will act with fairness, that's not a biblical trait that God calls us to because it's not a biblical trait of who God is. It has nothing to do with what's fair. And the good news of the gospel reminds us we don't want fair. And so he dishonors his father just like the younger son. He refuses to serve, he refuses to celebrate, he refuses to come into the party. And again, in a culture that is shame and honor, if you did not do what the father wanted, he was dishonoring his father. The older son, maybe you're gonna run into some people like this, lives out of hurt and offense. There's a big catchphrase in today's world, man. Church hurt. I'm not saying it's not real, I'm not saying it's not happened, but the reality is this son was missing out on what God wanted to do because he was so hurt and offended that he couldn't look past that moment. And so if hurt and offense is separating you from the Father, then who does church hurt and offense come from? Not God. From the enemy. And he's been using it for a long time to separate people from the father. And so let me just say this in the most loving way possible. Listen, if you have been in church before and somebody has hurt you, I'm sorry. But the greatest gift I could give you is this it's time to heal and move past your hurt and offense. Because it's gonna separate you from the father and what he wants to do. There are some people I get new to church, and you've been hurt and offended, and man, I will fight to protect you. But there are some people that's been in church 20, 30, 40, 60 years and they're still hurt and offended. It's it's time to grow up, it's time to grow past that hurt, and it's time to let the Lord heal your heart so you can move forward. And that's the greatest gift I could offer you in that moment. You're like, that doesn't feel very kind. Well, because the enemy is going to use hurt and offense to keep you imprisoned and away from the father. And so somewhere we have to heal. Somewhere we have to move past the hurt and the offense. Somewhere we have to mature past it. And I recognize some people don't like that message. Some people may get offended by that and they may leave. Like, my goal isn't to keep people from leaving. My goal is to lead people towards healing. And the ones that want it will go, and the ones that don't won't. And for the reality, for some of us, we're gonna run into religious people just like this son. They're gonna try to heap weights of religious action on you to perform to belong. They're gonna pile expectations on you to be perfect, to never be human, and to live up to their expectations. All the while they're putting a weight that's gonna crush you that they can't carry themselves. You're like, how do you know? Because I'm a pastor, and everybody likes to put me up on this pedestal. And everybody likes to expect me and my wife and my kids when they were at home to be perfect all the time. To never have a bad day, to never have an off day, to always smile, to always be friendly. Not even me. Because that's not the weight of the father. That's the weight of the religious son. The fuller picture of the father's heart to me is wild because the son was trying to perform for something he already had. The son said, I've slaved for you to earn something. And God says, I have all I have is yours already. He was trying to earn something God was already given him. And I think for some of us, you're gonna run into some people like the older son in the church. And why would we make space for them? Because the father made space for the older son too. And he didn't cast him out. It says he went out to the older son as well. And he brought him in. Because whether somebody acts the way you want or they don't act the way you want doesn't determine their value, the father does. And so we're gonna make room for the younger son who may be sinning and running away from God. And we're gonna make room for the older son who may be performing some religious actions right, but still not have God's heart. Why? Because the father pursued both of them. And so you're gonna run into three types of people here. You're gonna run into some prodigals who are running away from God. That's my hope. Somewhere along the way, I had somebody once at a church, they they an older lady, she had set her purse down and she went to pick it up, and she said, Pastor, I just I'm a little nervous to leave my purse here. Have you seen some of those people that are sitting over there? And I was like, Yeah, aren't you glad they're here? I am. Like, I hope there's some places that we have and some spaces where people come to our church that make us just a little bit nervous and uncomfortable. Why? Because that's who Jesus went after. We're not gonna have a room full of perfect people. I hope we have a room full of broken people that are learning how to find Jesus and experience him. And if that makes you a little uncomfortable, we're not gonna be the church for you. Because I'm always gonna welcome them and make space for them. Because that's who God pursued, that's who the Father pursued. We're gonna make room for them. Why? Because our hope is somewhere the Holy Spirit will work in their hearts, soften their lives, and they'll be ready to come back. That they'll be ready to leave their foolishness behind and to pursue him. But you're gonna run into some religious brothers and sisters here too, just being honest. They're gonna look at you a little bit judgmental. It's okay, just walk right by them. Keep going. It'd be okay. They're gonna wish you would dress a little bit different or act a little bit different or do something a little bit different. It's okay. Their opinion doesn't matter, God's does. And they're on a journey too. They just think they can perform their way into fighting the Father, and they're gonna have to reach the end of that and realize they need his grace too. And we'll make room for them. Why? Because God made room for those people too. That's who the father pursued was both sons. The ones who performed and the ones who didn't, the ones who tried to make some good decisions and the ones who made some terrible ones. That there's always space here. And I hope somewhere along the way you run into some people like the Father. People that are running to meet you instead of running to reject you. I hope that you run into some people who make you feel loved and valued the moment you walk into this place. I hope that you find this place a safe space where wherever you're at, you can always have a moment to experience Jesus. And if anybody ever, hear me, I'll say this publicly. So when I have the awkward conversation, it doesn't quite feel as awkward. If anybody ever makes you feel unwelcome here, you come tell me. And I'll take care of it. Gladly. I'll have to try to act like I don't enjoy it. Just being honest. I hope you run into some people like the father here. Those are the three kinds of people you're gonna run into in this church. And we're gonna make room for all of them because the father did. We're gonna pursue all of them because the father did. And this story ends in an interesting way. There's no conclusion to Jesus' story. Like to me, this is interesting because as Jesus is telling his story, you think he would tell us what the point of that story was. But he didn't. He didn't say, hey, this is about the prodigal coming back. He didn't say, hey, this is about the older son. He didn't say, hey, this was about the father and the way he reacted. He just told the story and then left the cliffhanger hanging. And I'm here to tell you that I think Jesus did that on purpose, not by accident. I don't think somebody missed a detail in that story. I think Jesus did it on purpose. Because I think what he's trying to do is to invite each one of us to evaluate ourselves and say, hey, where am I at in this story? I think he didn't end it with one clear conclusion because there's a lot of ways we could learn something from this story. I think the heart of Jesus in this moment is that he's trying to get to a space where people can come back to him. And if people are going to come back to him, then we have to set some expectations and realize people aren't going to perform the way I want them to as they're coming back to Jesus. And that's okay. We have to make space for everybody to come and experience Him. And so to me, the question I would ask you is which one are you in this story? If you had to be honest in this moment, are you the younger son, the prodigal that's running from God? Like you just you want to live your way and do your thing. If that's you, I hope Jesus lets you have all that you think you want so that you can reach the end of yourself and realize how much you need Him. That's my hope. My hope would be that today you would hear this message and you would feel the conviction of Jesus in your life to actually come back to the Father instead of keep running down that road. But wherever you're at, there's always a seat for you in this room. You don't have to perform perfect. You don't have to have it all together to be a part of this family. Maybe some of you are like the older son, the religious son. You feel like I'm slaving away, I'm checking boxes. But the reality is for some of us, maybe grace is offensive because it offends our sense of religious fairness. Why would God throw a party for the son who ran away but didn't throw a party for the one who was doing everything he was supposed to the whole time? And you've let a past hurt, you've let a past offense, a past experience in a church somewhere else jade and shade everything else you do in following Jesus. And maybe it's time to let go of that, ask Jesus to heal you so you can grow and mature into what the Father wants to do in your life. My hope is maybe for some of us, we'll ask, man, will I allow being the son of the Father, shape my heart to become more like my heavenly father? I think for some of us, the reality is we don't know how to be a son, we just know how to be a slave. Maybe because we had parents that were still trying to learn how to parents, we felt like we had to perform to earn the love and value from our parents. When the story of the father is you had his love and value the whole time. And so as we stand all across this place, I'm gonna get ready to conclude. I know everybody's hungry. I can smell the burgers cooking. Here's my hope. My hope is that if you're running from God today, he would do a work in your life and bring you back to him. My hope is if you have somebody in your life that you love and care for that's running away from God, my hope and prayer is that God would get a hold of their hearts and minds in whatever way he can to bring them back to him. And sometimes the best thing you can do is pray and let God do that work. And I just I want to take a moment to ask this one question. Maybe you're running from God today, and today you're like, man, I know that I need to come back to him. I need to surrender my life to him. I've never really done it, I've been living my way. It's time to live his way. If that's you, and you're like, today I want to surrender to him, would you just slip your hand up so we could pray with you? I see your hands. I see your hands. Can we all just join together in this prayer out loud? There's something about our ears hearing by faith what we're declaring. And so, can we just pray this prayer together? Say, dear Jesus, I need you to come into my life to forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you. Help me live for you, help me love you. In Jesus' name, amen. People say, Man, is it really that easy? It really is. If you mean it. The goal is repentance, the goal is submission, the goal is surrendering. And if that's what you were doing in this moment, then I believe that in this moment you've experienced eternal life in a brand new way. Maybe for some of us, we we need to recognize that, hey man, there's some areas where I just need to be better at showing some grace. Maybe there's some of us we're control freaks, and we think we can just control outcomes to make somebody come back to Christ. You can't. The more you try to control those outcomes, the further you drive that person away from Christ. Because I don't know if you figured this out yet. You and I make a terrible Holy Spirit. Yeah, but you just you don't know. I I know. Ask any spouse that tries to be the Holy Spirit for their spouse. I can tell you it never works good in your marriage. I'm a whole lot better off when the Holy Spirit shows me what I need to change instead of my wife pointing it out to me all the time. And vice versa. I've learned I try to point out the things that she's got wrong, but when the Holy Spirit does it, change happens a whole lot faster. Some of us we need to surrender control. We need to give the God room to do the work that He can only do. And my hope is wherever you're at, wherever role you're coming from, that you would always recognize there's going to be three people here. They may not meet your expectations, but God's pursuing them. And we're gonna pursue them, and we're gonna make space for love and grace for everybody that comes through these doors. Amen. Come on.