Luke 15:11- 32
I first want to say Happy Father’s Day to all of our Dad’s in the house today and also those who may be watching via Livestream. I want to thank all of the ladies of the church for the wonderful breakfast that you prepared for the dad’s this morning. It was such a blessing.
I will warn you, I don’t normally preach messages solely centered around Holidays. If the Lord leads that way, then I will but today is not really going to be one of those days.
Before I start this morning I want to make something clear, I am not preaching this today to add to the shame and guilt that someone may be enduring in the moment, I am preaching this today to help some people come their senses and realize that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them.
19 million people in America today were raised in a fatherless home. But even if you have no trace or sign of your earthly Father, you have a Heavenly Father who loves you beyond measure. You may be blessed this morning to still have your dad here with you, and believe me it is a blessing, cherish it…but even in the company of your daddy, you still have a Heavenly Father who loves you so much that he gave his only begotten son and whosever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
My daddy always used to say “I can’t control what my kids do when they are away from me, only how they act when they are in front of me.” I never understood what that meant until I started driving and got a little taste of “freedom” and the “real world”. Then I understood.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it doesn’t matter how spiritual you are, when you give way to temptation, it brings a friend named sin, and sin brings forth spiritual and sometimes physical death. We see this in James chapter 1
Sin begins with a desire on the inside.
You are not tempted with sin by God, you are tempted with sin because of the lust of your flesh and its DESIRES.
Sin starts with a desire and if action is put with the desire it will lead you to a place of brokenness and a place of emptiness.
It does not matter how spiritual a person is, when sin gets in the camp we are drawn away from the presence of the father and we will eventually find ourselves Wallering in a pig pin in a distant or far country. Empty, broken, and alone.
Isaiah said in chapter 59:2 that our iniquities have made a SEPARATION between us and God and our sin has hid his face from us and he will not hear.
The only thing a sin is good for is creating distance between us and the Father.
In Luke chapter 15 we see a Father who is undoubtedly wealthy. He has servants and he has jewelry, shoes, and nice clothing to spare; we will see that later in the scripture. However, we see where he has multiple children. One son who is loyal and one who is chasing a life that has deceived him greatly. One son is content in the Father’s house and the other is wanting to explore the “Far Country”.
So the son that is wanting to experience the “Far Country” and test the waters goes to his father and asks him for his inheritance.
an inheritance is something that is left for you when someone has passed away or given to a son when he finds a wife and moves to start his own family.
This son, was so prideful, so headstrong, and so eager to leave the father’s house that he goes and asks for this early.
The Bible does not tell us that this young man was a sinner. It doesn’t tell us that he was actively sinning, but somewhere in the confines of secrecy, he gave way to temptation that ultimately led him away from the presence of the father.
The far country was advertised and made to look better than the Fathers house. Sin was painting a pretty picture of what life would be like if he could just get out of the Fathers house.
No matter how pretty of a picture is paints, Sin will steal everything that matters to you.
It will make you think that you are leaving the presence of God to gain independence in freedom but once you become fascinated by sin, you will eventually be assassinated by sin and all of the sudden you have no independence or freedom, but you are bound and a slave to the thing to falsely promoted “freedom”.
So his father gives him his inheritance, and the Bible says that he WASTED his inheritance on ”riotous” living. Do not confuse that with righteous living because they are two totally different lifestyles and mindsets.
The word Riotous means Characterized by wild and uncontrolled behavior. It comes from the Middle English origin in the sense that it means “troublesome” but its root word is “riot”…
This son, has left his fathers house, he is now troublesome, he is uncontrollable in his actions and his thoughts, and now it has characterized him or in other words it has become a part if his identity. This is why we don’t know him by his name but just by “The Prodigal Son”.
The word “Prodigal” means “Reckless” meaning he had no boundaries. There was anything he wouldn’t try atleast once. There was no Remorse. He was living it up in the far country.
His father had given him his portion of the inheritance and now he has WASTED it.
An inheritance is not always something of monetary value. Sometimes an inheritance is a HERITAGE OR A LEGACY.
Sometimes it is not about what brings you riches in the physical but what sets you apart in the spiritual.
When Paul was writing Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:5 he told him that the faith that was in him (Timothy) was first found in his grandmother Lois and in his mother Eunice.
In other words, it was an inheritance that had been passed down from generation to generation.
Listen to me young people, you will roll your eyes in the moment when your mom and dad won’t let you miss church. You may get frustrated because they wont allow you to do some things that others are doing, hang around people that others are hanging around. It isn’t because they want to take the fun out of life, but they are protecting you from the effects of a sinful and reckless lifestyle.
Some of you in this house today have been given an inheritance. You have had parents and grandparents that has spent their lives on the altar of God so that you could have a heavenly inheritance. So that we would know the way of the Lord. So that it was be lived in front of us teaching us how to observe and acknowledge the presence of God.
Some of you know what it’s like to be a prodigal and you have experience that moment when you came to your senses, and now looking back your re thankful for a momma and a daddy that would not quit calling your name out to the Lord. You are thankful for a grandma and grandpa that passed down a Godly heritage.
Is there anyone in this room that is thankful that when you were in the pig pen, there was someone calling your name out to God!
I’m gonna go out on a limb tonight and say theres’s some prodigals in the room. Some of us have wasted our inheritance. The first chance we got, we walked away from what was instilled in us. We cashed the check, and wasted it on uncontrolled living.
Now, our life is being wrecked by sin because we like what appeared on our phone screen the first time and now in the privacy of our home we are being tempted by a sin that will eventually lead us to a far country.
We are talking filthy and communicating filthy and in the moment it seems like nothing major, but sin grows.
Listen, we can say that it’s no ones business regarding the beverages that is in our houses, but sin grows. Once you entertain the temptation, sin takes root and brings forth death.
Sin will bring a Departure.
- [ ] The Departure
This son left his Father and “joined” himself with another citizen. In other words, he went from one extreme to the other. He had it made at the father’s house. He went from being the son to now being the servant.
He went from being free to now being debted to a citizen. A slave to a citizen. We see where the inheritance is now completely gone. He has nothing left of what was passed down to him.
We see where his needs are no longer being fulfilled. He has no food to eat and now we see where his stomach is growling and the citizen he joined himself to is not as compassionate.
When he was at the fathers house, he sat down to a good meal every night, but now no one will give him anything to eat. No one is giving him a drink. He is forced to work but the wages he earns is being spent before he earns them because he has no means to buy resources and he’s so far in the hole that he can’t get out of it.
He is now DEPLETED.
I am preaching to someone in the house today who thought the grass was greener on the other side, but now you look back and you see “There’s no house, like the Father’s house”.
Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because underneath is the septic tank of deception.
you took the bait and now you are in the far country, a beggar, a slave to your riotous living, no spiritual food, no spiritual nourishment. Eating with the pigs…wondering how things could get better or if they ever will.
And then you remember…
In the Father’s house….even the servants have food to spare and here I am eating with the pigs. Here I am joined to a person who does not care about my well being or my nourishment.
I feel like talking to someone in the house today who is being entertained by the enemy and enticed by the lust of the flesh. God loves you enough to let you make your own choice. His desire is to save you from sin, to keep you from the consequence of sin.
God cares about your soul, but the enemy does not care about your well being.
The enemy will paint the perfect picture. He will deceive you and allow you to join yourself to him while he promises you everything you have ever wanted only to use you and abuse you until you are empty and depleted. Then you are left feeling like you don’t have a prayer to pray. Feeling like no one loves you. No one cares about you….
Even while this son was joined to a citizen of a far country, He never left the Fathers heart.
Every morning I can see in my mind this father, who would walk to the trail the son left on and pray that he would see him coming back home. Every night, I picture the father setting the table and preparing him a place.
Even when you were out in sin, God prepared you a place at the table of grace when he sent his son who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God. God knew that we would travel to the far country. That sometimes temptation would get the best of us and we would fall under the weight of sin, so he said, I have got to provide a way for the debt to be paid.
They are citizens to a citizen in a distant land, they owe a debt they can’t afford, and I have got to pay it for them. So Jesus, came and shed his innocent blood for the atonement of sin. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:22 “Without the shedding of blood is no remission.”
That word remission means “To cancel a debt”
Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.
We willingly left he fathers house, and earned the wages of our sin that we willingly committed…but God god in his grace and mercy showed his love toward us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us
While in the pigpen, the filth, the nastiness of the far country; the Holy Spirit brought to his remembrance the Father’s house. The joy that he had when he was at the father’s house.
How many in this house tonight are thankful that the spirit of God will meet with you in the pig pen to direct you back to the father’s house.
The Holy Spirit would remind him of the peace he knew when he was at the father’s house. The nourishment that he had while he was at the father’s house. The love that he was shown at the father’s house.
Sometimes you don’t realize the blessing of his presence until you make the choice to leave it.
However, even though you might have left the father’s presence, his presence has never left you.
It was not a coincidence that he came to himself. The change of heart did not occur in the father’s house, the change of heart occurred in the pig pen. There are people who will sit in a church service where the Holy Spirit is convicting them only to ignore him because they are not spiritually clean.
If you wait until you clean yourself up to come to Jesus, you never will.
We don’t come to Jesus to look clean, we come to Jesus to be clean.
- [ ] The Journey Back
So there he was in the filth of the pig pen and the spirit of God brings to his remembrance the father’s house. Watch this….AND HE CAME TO HIMSELF.
Some people don’t need to be condemned they just simply need to be reminded.
When he was reminded, his identity came back to him. Pride was destroyed. Now he is wanting to journey back to the father’s house, not to be his son, but to be his servant. He doesn’t want his position in the lineage to be restored, he just wants to be in the proximity of the father.
If you journey there, you must Journey back.
See we think that just because we have come to ourselves that God should pick us up from the pig pen and immediately clothe us and sit us at the table in the fathers house. He can….but he knows that you learn more when you have to make the journey back.
This young man was rehearsing what he was going to say when he was journeying back. I’ll go to my father’s house. I’ll beg him to be a servant….He wanted his speech to be right and he wanted the father to understand where he was coming from..
Listen to me…God cares more about your journey back than he does your rehearsal prayer.
He doesn’t care what you did when you were in the far country…He’s just glad you are home and safe from harm. To some this don’t mean much. Just like Jesus leaving the 99 to find the 1…but it means a whole lot more when you are the 1 that he left the 99 to find.
Get out of the pig pen and run back to the father…he is awaiting your arrival!
He starts to journey back to the Fathers house and i can imagine that the closer he gets the more nervous he is. He hasn’t saw his father in some time. What if he doesn’t recognize him and turns him away. He’s malnourished, he’s lost a lot of weight….or what if the Father is angry at him and what if he shames him for not coming back wealthy but rather empty….
I can imagine there’s some people having the same conversation in the house right now. After everything i have done, how do I know that he will accept me? How do I know that he will not turn me away?
Because Revelation 22:17 says “Whosoever will, let him come; and let him take the water of life freely.”
Because Romans 10:13 says “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”
Because John 3:16 says “That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten son and whosoever believes in hill shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Can I take it further…
Romans 5:8 says that God Commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ Died for us!
In other words….while you were rehearsing…he was waiting.
While you were contemplating turning back, he was drawing you closer. Is there anybody in the house who is thankful that the father exceeded your expectation…
- [ ] The Arrival
I can picture in my mind a grey hair dad who is going through his evening routine and returning to the trail that the prodigal left on just to look as he probably did everyday.
He tops the hill of the home-place and his nerves are picking up. What if….what iff…what if? His head is looking at the ground because of the guilt and shame that is weighing heavy on his heart and on his mind.
The father see’s him and recognizes him while he was a distance away. He didn’t wait for him to get there, no, he took off running…
The son is still walking down the trail and he happened to look upon and here comes his father….Running to greet him. He no longer had a reason to be nervous or fearful, his father was embracing him.
If you want to know the direction God is running in, look in the direction of the prodigal.
He ran to him, and greeted him as if he never left his presence. I believe that this is what it looks like when God casts our sins as far as the east is to the west. While the father hugged him the prodigal was trying to spit out the words that he rehearsed. “I…I have sinned against you”….”I…I…Just want to be a servant”…..
The prodigal was too busy apologizing but the Father had already forgotten.
God has already forgotten what you are saying disqualifies you.
He gets to his father and his father makes the call…the call for a robe, the call for shoes, the call for a ring, and the call to kill the fatted calf. It was not a time to be angry and question, it was a time to celebrate because he once was lost but now he is found. Friend this is the definition of amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was blind but now I see.
Why did he ask for the robe, the shoes, and the ring?
A. The robe represented the restoration of his position.
The son came back and longed to be nothing more than a hired hand but the father RESTORED his position.
B. The ring symbolized the authority of the Father.
The Father symbolized that would not only have his position restored but he would have authority.
C. The Shoes represented dignity.
Servants did not have shoes, only those who were a full member of the family. So the Father was reinstating his son’s lost dignity.
He ordered all of these because he did not want shame to be his name.
Before anyone could see his ribs from the malnourishment, and the dirtiness of the pig pen, he clothed him. Before anyone commented on his social status and how he wasted his living, he put a ring on him. Before anyone commented on the treacherous journey he travelled, he put shoes on his feet.
When you come back to the father’s house, he will not only remove you from the far country but he will remove the far country from you.
It might be where you pitched a tent for some time, but it is not your placement or assignment. You might have joined yourself to a citizen of the far country but let me remind you 1st Corinthians 6:20 says that we were BOUGHT with a price.
We were purchased by the blood, so it does not matter if the enemy “thinks” his owns us…his assumption is not our life sentence. We were bought. Purchased. In other words, Jesus holds the deed to our life and it doesn’t matter how far we venture away from the fold, he still saw something worth dying for in us.
God’s desire is not for you to eat with the pigs but his desire is for you to pull your seat back up to his table. He refuses to call you anything but son or daughter. Get out of the pig pen, leave the far country, and come back to the father’s house.
When the prodigal got back home and the prepared the fatted calf, the fatted calf is something that is only feasted on when there is celebration for someone’s long-awaited return. So what this tells me, is the father started having the calf fed, the moment his son left because he knew someday he would come back.