The Prodigal Son - Summer Series pt. 3

I want to thank Scott for the recognition of the amazing graduation race. But the reality is that came together because of the mastermind of one.

Amy Lucas, America. We celebrate her, Amy, and the team of people I've learned to not take the credit when it belongs to someone else. So thank you, to her, to the team. Also, we just are excited about the fact that we just came off of a middle school camp week and we had 12 students from our church at camp.

It was incredible. I think all of them slept for about 8 hours when they got home. Hey, man. And Lindsay, who was with the students, and we celebrate her and her leadership. Amen. We thank God for them. I was able to go down and speak on Wednesday night and spend a few days there. But it was an incredible, incredible week.

And then our high schoolers leave tonight to head to camp or this afternoon to head to camp for a week. So we were sending about nine of our folks to that. Did you know that the word father is mentioned about a thousand times in the Old Testament, in the New that the word ABBA or Father or Daddy is one of the most used words in in scripture.

And so, as Scott said, I don't want to belabor it, but we celebrate those fathers who are in the room, those those fathers who have stepped up, those fathers who have done the things that God has called you to do. And some of those fathers are with us. Some of those fathers have gone home to be with the Lord.

But we just want to say we honor you. Amen. We honor you. We honor those that maybe you didn't biologically have a child, but you've been a father. You've been a father figure to someone maybe through a foster care, maybe through adoption. Maybe maybe you've been a coach or a mentor teacher. We we honor you. Amen. But here's the other reality that I've learned about Father's Day.

It is not always an easy day for everyone. And I get that. It's tough for a lot of different reasons. I lost my mom in 2006, and Mother's Day has never been the same since. And so we get it. We realize that maybe you lost your father and today sparks that grief. We want you to know we're praying for you.

Maybe your relationship with your father hasn't always been the best. May God provide comfort and healing in that situation. Maybe your father was in the home, but still very absent. Maybe he was never there at all. And so we lament with you. We want you to know that we see you and that we recognize that these days in our community can come with mixed emotions.

We stand with those who are celebrating and honoring fathers, and we sit with those who are grieving and dealing with their own disappointment and pain. The fact of the matter is these both can be equally true, the celebration and the honoring, but also the disappoint ment and the pain. And one does not diminish the other. Can I get an amen?

And so on Father's Day and every other day, there's no better place to turn than the Word of God to get exactly what we need, no matter where we sit on that spectrum today. So we want to turn our attention to the theme or to the subject of father's love. A father's love. Let's pray. Father, We know the flower fades, the grass withers.

But your word stands forever. Speaking to this moment. Move me in the background. May you be at the forefront that the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in that sight, Old Lord, my strength and my redeemer speak now. Give us all the courage to respond in obedience. We pray this all in the matchless name of Jesus.

Somebody shout, Amen. I was coming home from youth group one day and I found myself in the driveway. It was getting dark and there were some guys that walked by. We wrapped them up, you know, whatever, and they kept walking and come to find out there was something in the road down the street. And these guys let out a scream.

And it wasn't like a little bitty scream, but it was like a loud, like, terrifying scream. And that was for those who fell asleep already. And so we go down and we try to investigate, try to figure out what's going on and come to find out these guys are jumping in the road. And it is a massive snake.

I mean, it is not some little garden snake. Oh, no, baby. This is a copperhead. I mean, a you know, copperheads are nasty, vicious, poisonous snakes. And so I'm thinking to myself, I got to help. I got to figure something out. It's our room back to my garage and I get a can of gas and a two headed hoe garden utensil.

And so I take my can and my can against my two headed ho garden utensil. And I run out there and I get out there with the people and the people have started to congregate. I don't know if they call somebody takes somebody, but people around a snake and everybody got they flashlights on it. And I realized, what am I going to do with this?

I mean, what am I going to do? So I run back to my garage. I run back to my house and I get a lighter yo. And I think it's like, you know, Eddie Murphy on Delirious with Guts. And I go out there with my lighter, my can of gas. And so I start down the road and the snake with the gas, and then I get my lighter, yo, yo, and I jump out the road onto the grass on the sidewalk, and the snake jumps out of the road onto the grass and starts following me on the grass.

I jump back into the middle of the row, y'all, and just me and the snake. And this little boy said, Get him, Mr. Preacher, get him, and I'll take my two headed ho going to Tinsel and I come down and I missed and that snakes are a little bossy kid in the streets Yeah I think that little boy knew something.

He knew either I'm going to get that snake or that snake is about to get me. But somebody is about to get got. Come on. Same as the man. And so I come down, I guess like eight mile ya'll. I got one shot. I and I get him around the neck and he says and the same thing that happened there happened here.

There was a delayed response, a celebration that I did not die. And so the crowd disperses. I dispose of the snake. Thank God I didn't burn down my neighborhood. I get back to my porch and I'm sitting down on my porch and I'm thinking to myself, like, what just happened? And I have this moment. What I forgot to tell you is when I went back to the house the second time, as I looked out from my my front room, my office, and I thought to myself, I'm not Crocodile Dundee, I'm not a snake wrangler.

I think there's somebody I mean, anybody that's more qualified to do this than me. But I went out there anyway, and I'll never forget I was sitting on my porch and God says something to me I'll never forget. He said, You were you were this close to running from what I built you to run towards and you were this close to running from what I built you to run towards.

Now I know his Father's Day, and we're going to talk about fathers. We're going to talk about the father. But I want to say to you, this message is for everybody, because there's there's leadership is what we're talking about. There's commitment there. We're talking about there. There's provision and their sacrifice that we're talking about today. There is forgiveness that we're talking about today.

And I think any of us and all of us can relate to this reality that sometimes we're running away from what we're built to run towards. So I want to turn our attention, if you don't mind, to a parable and scripture. It highlights are some things that have profound meaning. We find this father and we find two sons.

I think there's a great deal we can see in ourselves in these characters if we pay attention. Turn with me to Luke. Chapter 15 Luke. Chapter 15 will begin at the 11th verse and it says this and I'll be reading from the Nivi. It should appear on your screen. It says, Jesus continued, There was a man who had two sons, somebody sharp sons.

The younger one said to his father, Somebody shout, Father, father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had set off for a distant country. And there's wandered his wealth in wild living. Now this parable is written by Luke Luke's gospel. If you know it, he has this interest in talking about how Jesus fulfilled the historical kingdom of God that is found in the Old Testament.

Luke also announces Jesus as a rival of the kingdom as it was occurring in the year of the Lord's favor. We see that it looked for 18 and 19 and he uses language. Watch this. He uses a language in this that talks about or references the Jubilee, which is a time of forgiveness. It's a time of compassion. It's a time of recovering that which has been lost.

And interestingly, these themes, these three themes are found in the three parables in this particular chapter. Jesus, Jesus tells us about the lost sheep. He tells us about the last coin, and then he tells us about the lost son or the prodigal son. All three of these parables remind us that God has a great interest in helping to redeem lost beings, specifically lost people, somebody that lost people.

And as Jesus is telling us, this repair bill, I want to remind you that the word parable literally means to throw alongside of it means to throw alongside of something else. So parables were typically stories that told something practical or something in a real life way to the listener. So it was something they could understand in order to point to a deeper truth that they may not yet understand.

Now, remember also that parables stand for something that that they're not just historical accounts, that they're not they're not allegories where everything in the parable means something. But Jesus usually tells a parable to tell us about the nature of the kingdom of God. His parables, we're usually told at a moment of crisis where there was some kind of conflict.

It was they were often told to expose the heart of the listener. So the question becomes, what's the conflict like? What's what's the problem? What's the tension that causes Jesus to go into these three parables? Well, I'm glad you asked. Slide back up to Luke 15 verses one and two, and you'll see why Jesus is telling these three parables.

He says in verse one of Luke 15. Now somebody shout now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, Somebody shout. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Ah, now we see the conflict. Some religious leaders, some religious people are wondering why in the world is Jesus eating?

Why in the world is Jesus hanging out with sinners? They either believe that Jesus is willfully breaking the law or cultural traditions, or Jesus doesn't know any better. And to these religious leaders, these people called Pharisees said both of these were inexcusable. To them, it is almost as if they are saying he is eating with those people, he is eating with those sinners as if they were without sin.

Come on, Somebody say, hey, man, like like their stuff don't stink. Come on. Somebody that meant that maybe they were better than these. These people, their statement revealed their self-righteousness. It it revealed their self-centeredness. So Jesus follows up their accusation with these three parables, each of them. So how God feels about lost things and lost people that that helping loss people find freedom is far more important than their traditions, their rules, and their regulations.

We won't deal with the first two parables. They those are sermons within themselves. But we're going to turn our attention back to this third parable and this father with two sons. The first son is mentioned in the passage we read earlier. Now, remember in verse 11, this son comes to his father and said, Father, I want what is mine.

Now, technically, it wasn't actually his, yet his parents would normally have to be dead for all of his share to actually be given to him. Also a part of the son's inheritance. If the if the parents were still alive was to be used to take care of the parents and the rest of the family, but instead, instead, this son wanted his share for himself.

And when he got it, he bounced. When he got it, he was like, peace out. When he got it, he went out into the world. And the Bible says he wild out. He didn't say that, but he was wild it out. Come on, say, man. So the question becomes like, why would he do that? Why? Why would he do that?

Why do we allow why do we take what the father has given to us and misuse it and abuse it? Why is it good? What? So why would we do that? There's a term that I want to use, if you don't mind. It's not a scripture. I'm just gonna put it. Here is something called full blow. You know what?

I'm talking a verbal foul. Below is the fear of being left out fall. Below is the fear of being left out. I think all of us wrestle with this, if we're honest. The fear of being left out, it creates a sense of insecurity. It creates a sense of restlessness. It is actually what our culture, the media and marketing strategies thrive on.

They thrive on our full blown, our fear of being left out. It convinces us that we got to have the newest phone. It convinces us that we got to have the newest game, the newest car, the newest JS, the only Sandman, the newest, whatever. It plays off this idea. Watch this. It plays off this idea that we are not enough, that what we have is not enough.

That maybe even having God in our lives is not enough. And that that our life is only complete when we get something else and we add that to our lives. It is a vicious cycle because before you know it, there's something else you need to have to. This. This son has below he he thinks his father and his family have been holding out on him and and he goes out into the world trying to find his own way by doing things his way.

Full blow will make us make rash decisions without even thinking them through. Full blown will have us throughout our standards and and overstep our boundaries for temporary pleasures. Full blow is dangerous if it is left unchecked. Yes, I said to our students last week we were talking about Sampson and his story and the warning and the tragedy in Sampson story that when we don't know our why, watch this.

When we don't know our why we live out of why not? That's right. That's right. That's right. Yes. Let me say it again. When we don't know our why we live out of why not? I mean, why not party all night? I mean, why not spend all my money on temporary pleasures? I mean, why not sleep around? I mean, why not?

I mean, why not put things in my body that could harm me? Why not disobey my parents? Why not steal a lie and cheat? Why not? I mean, why not mistreat this person? Why not be late to this important meeting? Why not overcommit and under-deliver? Why not when we don't know our why we live out of Why not?

All right. Now it is a similar struggle. Now, don't, don't, don't think about this. Our son in the parable too harshly, because I think if we're honest, we see ourselves in the son because not only that, but we see this in the beginning in the garden with Adam and Eve. It shows that the enemy tempted them. It is almost as if Satan was saying and trying to convince them that God was holding out on them, that He wasn't giving them all the information and that they had the right to do things their way.

It is the classic fear tactic of full blow. And I want you to think about the major problems that have occurred in your life that are self-inflicted. And I would argue that many, maybe not all, but most of them were probably because you and I, we also struggle with full blown fear of being left out when it really boils down to it like they're really three questions that revolve around who we are as as people.

The first question is who am I? Who am? This goes back to identity. The second question is where do I fit? That deals with our sense of belonging. And the third question is what difference can I make? And that has to do with purpose. Somebody is our purpose. Now, as a matter of fact, last week the altar was flooded by many of you because Pastor Ryan asked about this third question and you came to pray for clarity about that.

Why? Because, you know, your why is really important. Knowing who you really are is important. Having a place where you belong is important. Knowing that you are called to do something special is important. One of my mentors, her name is Kara Powell. She writes about this often and she talks about it this way. She says It is important that, you know these three things.

I don't have time to unpack it all. Maybe I'll do that another day. But if you understand identity, identity, you want to be able to say, I am enough because of Jesus. I'm not enough because of me. That's right. That's right. Right. Yeah. Come on with me. I'm not enough because of me. The Bible says your righteousness is as filthy rags.

I'm enough because of who I'm going. I got him. Like, the only way I can be anything is because of him. Then the second thing is this idea of belonging. I belong with God's people. I belong with the family of God. Where you fit, where you belong is with God's people. That's why you can't just be watching and listening to sermons and stuff online.

Now that has some benefit. I'm not saying you shouldn't. I'm just saying eventually you need to be connected to a family. You need to be connected to a community. You need people who hold you accountable, who are love you. And I know that's hard because church folk are church folk and sometimes church folk. Come on. How are you with me?

Sometimes hurtful has some issues because we need Jesus to. Sometimes we say stuff that we shouldn't say. Sometimes we do stuff we shouldn't do. But the reality is, yo family is the same way. You've got that crazy uncle. You got that? Come on. Same man. Like when you got to family. Everybody don't have it all together. We love each other.

We figure it out. The family of God is the same way. Don't get disconnected. You belong now. You may not belong in this local church family. There may be another family that you belong to. But we're all a part of the big C, the big C church. And we are one family. Y'all with me. Sense of belonging. But then the third thing is the sense of purpose.

I'm invited into God's greater unfolding story that God has both a upper story and a lower story, a macro story and a micro story. The macro stories of what God is doing for His people and for creation. The micro stories, what God is doing for you personally, or maybe what God is doing in our local church, that God has a purpose for it all.

You see, the Son had the basic problem that every human being does, and that is the same problem the Pharisees had. He was being self-centered and a little bit of self-righteous without the Holy Spirit guiding us. Typically it is all about us. It is all about what we want. He wanted his independence. He wanted his freedom, not realizing that our freedom comes when we are completely dependent on the father and we are interdependent on others.

When that son listen to me. When that son started to leave the house, I'm sure I'm sure he didn't say, I'm going to go out and wreck my life. I'm sorry to say that. I'm sure he didn't say I'm going to get tangled up in something I can't get out of. I'm sure he didn't say I'm going to go embarrass my family and break my parents trust.

I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. He didn't think that. I'm sure he didn't say that. But all of us can relate to this idea of when we think like we grow and we can do it on our own. I'm grow. I can do it. I'm okay. All right. All right. Going. I did get knocked up outside here going on.

The reality is like sometimes watch this. You would think that the father, because he loves this son, would not have given him his inheritance and would not have let him go because he knew what was going to happen to him. But sometimes the only way you can get it, some of us got heart is the only way you're going to get it is you got to hit a wall.

The only way you're going to get it is you got to hit rock bottom, because some of us, the way we're wired, we won't listen until we're at that place. So fortunate I was like that. I was going to get it. So I was out in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one of the pastors invited us to go out and do some boating with him.

Now, I'm not a boater. Come on. Same as I'm not I'm not a well, you know, I was new to the area. My family was new to the area. So we were like, you know, we're trying to build relationships because we are part of a family. Right? He invited us. We're going to go. So we took the kids, we went out.

We went to this place called Green Lake and Pastor Mike had this amazing rainbow, and he started like getting the kids out of the little tubes. And so the kids were on the tubes, you know, saying it was right behind the boat having a good time. And I was like, hey, pastor, my like, you know, I want to have some fun, too.

Like, you got a you got a too big enough for me. He blows up this thing called a mega bowl. He throws it behind the boat. And, you know, I get in that mega bowl and I'm out there to You don't see it. And I'm waving at other people on the show. We all poop around here. You don't see it.

We didn't get it. I ain't never been to him before. And all of a sudden, Pastor Mike makes a turn. I'm like, What are you trying to for that To start flying through the air and my legs are flailing, leg arms are flailing, I'm flying, I'm screaming like a little child. I, I crashed down into the water. I'm like, What just happened?

And I'm looking up at Pastor Mike and I'm like, Quit playing, man. Stop playing. And Pastor Mike's got this, like, vein bulging out his forehead. He looks upset. He looks, man, and he gives that little rainbow everything is got. And I'm thinking to myself, please, please, please, please pass the mike. Don't turn, don't turn out there. And Pastor Mike makes a car and I can feel it coming.

Jamar I'm flying through the air in arms, flailing, legs flailing. I can't hold on anymore. My white knuckles are let go. I crash down into the water. I'm taking in water with you. Do you see what I forgot to tell Pastor Mike was? I could kind of swim. And when you can kind of swim, you used a swimming pool.

Come on, save me. You don't him up. And when you in a pool, you can kind of swim the goal is just get to the edge, you know, just under water, above water, get to the edge. But when you went to lake that is five miles wide and three miles long, the edge is a long way. And I'm just I'm just going down in the water.

I'm a come back to the store in a second. But like, I jumped in. I was zealous. I was excited. I wanted to copy what other people was doing. I want to have fun, too. I wanted to enjoy my time a little bit more. And so I asked for something without counting the costs. I asked for something without thinking it through, not realizing it could have cost me my life.

Oh, is anybody get where I'm going? See, the reality is sometimes we're like this sun. So like, let's keep reading in verse 14. Watch what it says. It says, After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his friends to feed pigs.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. Wait a minute. You mean the same dude who had a bunch of money that was partying? Everybody. You know, I'm buying your drinks. I got your drinks, I got your wings. Always saying, Hey, man, I got you know, I'm like, He's putting up now.

He now nobody I know, nobody can give me a salad right? We got, you know, chicken nuggets right here. I mean, I mean, the two cheeseburgers is really cheap at McDonald's. You know, I'm saying nobody, nobody. This son spends everything he has, and now he's broke, busted and disgusted. They were there were very few jobs that were despised by a Jew as much as caring for pigs.

Jews weren't even supposed to be close to them. They were unclean. But here's something I want to pass along that I think is true. We are blessed with boundaries, and if we don't honor our boundaries, then we become burdens. Let me say that again. We are blessed with boundaries. If we don't learn to honor our boundaries, we eventually become burdens.

Burdens on our family, burdens on institutions, burdens on society. You see, our perceived freedom sometimes seems so cool, it seems so fun. But if it is self-centered, it will always lead to sin. And when sitcoms, it always paints this beautiful picture of what you can do, this freedom. But you got to understand God's freedom always will have boundaries.

We see that even in the garden, the place of ultimate freedom also had boundaries. Those boundaries aren't merely to prevent us from doing something we would like to do. They are actually there to protect us. And when we toss away our boundaries and gods protection, we may have to deal with some unsavory consequences of our disobedience. He thought he was going to be free, but now he's somebody else's slave.

He lost his freedom and he is clearly lost. Now, if the story ended there, it would be tragic. But watch what it says over 17 when he came to his senses. Oh, thank you, Jesus. When he I'm going to say that again when he came to his sins. There's somebody out there right now that Lord, if if you had not come to your senses like he when he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare and here I am starving to death.

I will set out and go back to my who? I will go back to my who. I will go back to my home and say to him, Father, I have sinned. Watch this against heaven and against you. Wow. Verse 19. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. So he got up.

Oh, I wish I had some on a Hammond organ right now. He got up to something. I said he got up, he got up and went to his father. Now he remembers his father's provision. He remembers his father's protection. He remembers his father's sacrifice. What he is so sure about, what he does not know, about what he's not sure about right now is will the father forgive him?

He's not sure about his father's love. Is his father's love enough to restore him? Is his father's love enough to redeem him? And let me get back to that lake story. So I'm going down in the water. God, Linda, I'm taking in water. I'm gurgling. Well, you know how it is when you almost at that point, you know, I'm saying, anybody ever been there like you about to drown?

And I see my family like, speed off and I'm like, they're not going to get back to me in time, you know, I'm saying. And I'm taking in water and all of a sudden I hear some say, be steel. I forgot I had a life jacket on y'all. I started rising to the top. And all I can say was, Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. So I'm sitting on top of the water, and all of a sudden I hear the boat come back. Looking good. Good, good, good, good, good, good. Group of Mylar. Your eyebrows is a joke. And I'll never forget what guy said to me. He says, I got you, I got, I got you. My heart is racing.

My adrenaline is probably about to shoot through my feet. Right? And God says, I got you. This grown man, terrified, stepped out and did something he probably should have done almost cost him his life. And God's grace is sufficient. He says, I got you. And they threw another tube out there. I grabbed that tube and they start pulling me.

And I see this little smirk on Pastor Mike's face like, I got to breath. I got him. Like, if I could just and I see this look on my family's face, it is a look of terror and comfort. You almost die. But I'm glad you did. And I think I think that's what's happening in this text. I think that's what you almost but you did yesterday.

Everybody in here, I wish I had time that you almost. But I'm glad you did. Oh, can I talk to somebody over you? Like, where were you really? If you could testify about what God did in your life, you almost. But I'm so glad you did. Like, what will it take y'all? What will it take for us to come to our senses?

What will it take for us to admit we are wrong? What will it take for us to turn back to the father? What will it take for us to be steel and know that he is God? Like sometimes we got to hit a wall, sometimes we got to hit rock bottom. Sometimes we will need to repent and admit that we need help.

Now the question becomes, has this father gone? Respond. We know what the son is now saying. Oh, I love this because, like, this is better than any soap opera. I mean, I know you got The Young and the Restless. I know you got the Bold and the Beautiful. I know you got the Days of Our Lives and General Hospital.

And I know, I know, but. But they don't have nothing on this. I mean. I mean, Maury Povich. I mean, announcing who the daddy is. He got nothing on this. You get your popcorn, sit back and watch. What is this father going to do? I mean, Willie, Willie punishing Willie. Willie, tell him I told you so. I mean, when he gets to the door of the house, Willie slammed the door in his face.

Well, is his father going to do like? Now, I want to remind you why Jesus is telling this parable. It is for people who can only see sin and other people's lives and they can't see it in their own. He is trying to teach them about how God seeks out the loss, how this father loves Son. So here we go.

Watch what it says in verse 20. We're going to see the answer to our question. But while he the son, while he the son was still a long way off, his father saw him. In other words, he was looking for him. His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son. He threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But I love what verse 22 says. But somebody shout. But, but. The father said to his servant, He's not even talking to the son yet. He says, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, bring the fat and calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. Weep at the party. Come on, say in somebody. Verse 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost. It is found. So they began to work. Now, this is the kind of stuff that makes you fall in love with God.

This is the kind of stuff that makes you fall in love with the Father. I love the way the song Fear says. It says like a tidal wave crashing over me, rushing in to meet me here. Your love is fierce like a hurricane Then I can't escape tearing through the atmosphere. Your love is fierce. Or maybe you can relate to another song.

This is how he loves, he says. And he is jealous. For me, love's like a hurricane. I am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind and when all of a sudden I am unaware of the afflictions eclipsed by glory. And I realize just how beautiful you are and your affections are for me. And oh, how he loves us so oh, how he loves oh, when the sun.

When the sun was on his way home. We see one of the most beautiful pictures of a father's love. It is a picture of the father's pursuit of us. In spite of us, I'm reminded of the passage that says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. He didn't wait for us to get it all together.

He came after us like this father did. This is good news. Such you might say. This is good news. This is good news. This is good news. Aren't you glad he came after you? Aren't you glad that he's still chasing after you today? All you have to do is turn to him right now. I don't care what kind of pigsty you've been in.

I don't care how hungry you've been for the world. Now all you have to do is know that he has been waiting for you. And he will come after you if you will just turn to him. Now, watch this. This is interesting because many historians make a big deal about this Jewish father running. Now, you may be wondering, like, what's the big deal?

Because in Jesus's day, an adult Jewish man didn't normally run. Aristotle once said that for an adult man to run was not a sign of dignity. A gentleman does not run. But this father somebody say this Father. Oh, this father who saw his son coming home, he forgot all the rules in this parable. He forgot about all the tradition in this parable, and he could care less about his dignity and what others thought about him.

All he wanted to do was welcome his son home. He was lost. And now he's found he was dead. But now he's alive. Oh, makes me think about Marvin Sapp song that says You saw the best in me when everyone else around me could only see the worst in me. You. You saw the best. And I don't want to get to that.

Look, he's the best. The best, the best. Because God sees the best in you. I know other the Falcons. They can only see the worst thing. You think they can only complain and irritate you by. But just talking about what you do wrong. But I want to tell you about a father that sees the best in you. He wants to call out the best in you.

He wants to tap into the best o the best. Now, you made me wondering. Now what's the significance of these things that his father gives to his son? The things that the father asks the service to go get. Let me just give you a skinny version, a quick version of what these things mean. Well, the robe the robe is a symbol of his status.

It is probably his father's robe because he asked for the best one. Oh, yeah. With me. Oh, come here. Come here, Joy. Give me joy. Like, what you don't understand is what the father does sometimes. I know. I know. You don't feel like you can wear the father stuff. Like he talks about putting on righteousness, but sometimes the father.

I know it's a little sweaty, but. But sometimes you got to. You got to let the father put on his robe. You got the father his rights, not yours, but his right. Because, see, sometimes when you put on his stuff, it feels like a put. All right. Oh, my God. Well, come on, love your enemies. Yes. Pray for those who, despite.

Oh, let's see. What you got to learn to do is you can grow into it, but you never really fill it out. Right. But thank God he puts his righteousness on you. He gives his robe to his son and says, When people look at you, they see me now. Oh, oh, they don't. They don't see the big star.

They don't see you going out in riotous living. They don't see you going out doing your own thing. They don't see you when they look at you. Now they see me. Is anybody getting it? Thank you, Joy. Thank you. You take it back with that. I'm hot. Now. The second thing you got to understand, it's not just about the robe, but there's a second thing.

There's this ring. The ring was a signet ring that gave the son the right to do family business. Yeah. Oh, the third thing, the shoes are the sandals you got. Understand? They distinguish him from servants who usually don't have shoes, who usually don't have sandals. It reminded people that this son was still a part of the family, that even though he had made some bad choices.

And here's got to understand by this fat calf, why are they now out there doing a barbecue? Now, you got to understand, in Jewish culture, in this particular time, they didn't usually eat meat. It was not it was not usually a part of their diet. Typically, they would only eat meat. Usually when there was some type of celebration or there was some type of religious ritual.

And so this this father is basically saying this son coming home is so significant that I need to get the whole community together to celebrate. We're not just going to celebrate as my family. We going to celebrate as a community. And I'm willing to make a sacrifice to put it out there that my son is now home. So what this tells me is that God doesn't just provide for us practically, but God will also provide for us spiritually that God does not just provide for us theoretically, but God will provide for us socially and emotionally.

Because you got to understand, it's probably embarrassing for this son to come home. I mean, people hate to see him over there in the corner. He back and I knew he was coming back. Look at him. So this father cares so much about the son. He's not just caring for him spiritually. He's not just caring for him. Theoretically.

He's caring for him socially. And he's saying, My son has been restored, my son has been redeemed. If I can restore my son, if I can forgive my son, why can't you? Right. Oh, it was your stuff he took. It was your inheritance. He took. It was mine. And so if I can restore him, why can't you notice what the son said?

He first came to a decision, and then he came to a confession. He said, I've sinned. Wolf, probably the three hardest words for us to say are like, I'm sorry, I was wrong. I have sinned. Hey, man, I was wrong. I'm sorry. I'm saying. But those three words come out of his mouth because often we make excuses about our sin.

But this this son doesn't do that. Like he's he doesn't have the luxury of doing that anymore. Like, that's why some of us, we hit the wall like we come back, run into Jesus so hard because we know what it's like out there. And it's like, first John 189 says this If if we claim to be without saying we ourselves and the truth is not in us, if we confess our sins, he is faithful, unjust, and will forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

But answered in his confession and repentance is critical and confess. Sin has a way of putting a chokehold on our soul. Is has a way of creating spiritual blindness. He says he has sinned against heaven and his father. He confesses to God. He confesses to his father. His father restores him. That's the good news. We almost done. Yeah, that's that's the good news.

But here, here's where the story takes a little bit of a turn, because you would think that the parable is over you. You would think that, you know, you've got the barbecue going, everybody celebrating Jesus, which would end the parable, but he doesn't. The lost son has come home. The father has restored this son and everybody is celebrating.

Well, almost everybody. Let's read on in verse 25, it says, Meanwhile, the older son was in the field when he came near the house. He heard music and dancing. So he called one of the service and asked him what is going on? Your brother has come home, he replied, And your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

Verse 28. The older brother became angry and refused to go in, so his father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father. Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. You yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. Mm. Oh, but when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you feel that?

How does he know he's squandering a prostitute? That's what. How does he know that? Nobody said how he spent the money. But somehow the son knows. You kill the fattened calf for him. My son, The father said You are always with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found now. For a long time I thought there was only one lost son in this story. But if we're honest, they're actually two lost sons. I thought the bulk of the story was told to illuminate or or to illuminate like this. This first son's wow live and to explain why Jesus is eating with these centers and tax collectors and and how Jesus and the Father feel about loss people.

But but the more I study the story and who Jesus is specifically telling these parables to, I think it's easy to miss that the second son's lawlessness is as equally important for the Pharisees and for us to see this second son also as follow. This second son also has the fear of being left out, but he has it for all the wrong reasons and different reasons.

Yes, some of us are lost because we go after the things of the world and we go hard after a while living like the first son. But don't get it twisted. That is not the only way to be lost. It is possible to be lost and living in fear. While you're in the father's house. Wait a minute. How is that even possible?

Another way of saying it is we can be lost while going to church and doing church stuff. Oh, who am I talking to? Like we can be lawyers going to church and doing church stuff. Go see, we can fall in love with church. We can fall in love with the music. We can fall in love with the speaking.

We can fall in love with the people and not fall in love with the God who created all of it. And so we then do is we find another community, more people. And because we've fallen in love with the church stuff, but not the God of the church, we can be lost in the presence of other believers. And we have this temptation that's like the Pharisees when we are here we like.

Because when you get there, when you fall in love with with the stuff of God and the stuff of church, what you have a tendency to do is we start to point out other people's faults instead of looking at our own heart. It is our way of saying, at least I'm not that bad. Are you with me? I know I'm in there now.

Y'all got real quiet because for a long time in my life, I was the first son. But for the last 20 something years of my life, I've had to struggle to deal with the temptation of being the second son. Because, no, I'm not doing the while living anymore. No, I'm not out there well and out. But I can be real cynical.

I can be real skeptical. I can be. Y'all hear what I'm saying? I can. I can be talking. What they doing over there? Are you with me? Well, because we got to deal with that second son spirit. I hear what I'm saying. Because what happens sometimes it can be danger is to be in this place. We have full access to the father's love, but we don't fully grasp it.

Or we forget how much we need him When we see other people struggling and we are as disconnected as the first son, we just have a churchy facade to cover it up. So Jesus basically gives the Pharisees a warning. I'm almost denial of being like the second son. And you may be asking like, what does this look like today in our lives?

Maybe, maybe God is giving you and me a warning today. If we fall into this category, maybe God wants to bring conviction to this spirit of cynicism and skepticism. Here's some examples of the symptoms or some of the spirit of the older brother. We struggle to celebrate what God is doing in someone else. If it doesn't include us, it may.

But we can find what's wrong with him. But we rarely talk about what's right with him. We fall in. We fall in love with rules and positions instead of relationships. We want to win arguments more than we want to win hearts. We use God to run from God. This is when we create spiritual activity for God and we ignore important underlying issues that God may want to change in our lives.

We do things in God's name that He never asked us to do. So. Well, you know, I heard from the Lord. Now, did you did you really know, like have you have you processed that? Have you gone through a discernment process with people who who can affirm that they sense that this has got to. Oh, no, no, no, no.

We we we use God to run from God. We divide our lives into sacred and secular compartments when the reality is everything is sacred, everything your work, how you treat your family, how you treat that person at the restaurant later today, what you say about the person in traffic, all of us sacred. It's not all my whole life in my love life.

I know it's all sacred. We we do for God. Instead of being with God, we think it's about duty and we forget our identity in him, we spiritual as a way, conflict and an effort to create true peace. Jesus constantly disrupted any false sense of peace. He taught us how to engage conflict in a way that brings life, truth and hope.

He's giving us an example in this passage. He didn't run away from it. He engages it. We live without limits now, Jesus model being bold and courageous. But he also had healthy boundaries. He stole away to pray. He didn't heal everybody. Once we crossed the limits, God says, for us, we get in trouble. A life without limits forgets one huge principle.

He is God and I am not. We feel we need to defend the church or God at the expense of loving people like God doesn't need you to defend him. He can defend himself like a lot of the stuff you see on on media outlets and social media, like people trying to defend like, you know, you know, now you can stand up for true, but you don't have to defend God.

He can defend himself or with me. But sometimes we get so excited about those kind of things because it gives us a sense of identity and it gives us a sense of power and it gives us a sense of of, of, of, of how people look at us when the reality is, no, you you don't need to do that.

God can do that for himself. And then the last one is the one that we see in this text. We Judge other people's spiritual journey is we must remember what the Pharisees forgot in these two verses. We are all in need of God's grace. The lock. The Father loves both these sons. Both of them. The Father loves the Pharisees.

Jesus is trying to help him and the Father loves you. This is I want to end. So I was in Ghana, West Africa, and I was there. I was a staff at Guilford College here in Greensborough, and they sent me to Ghana to we had a study abroad program that we sent. I think at that time we had eight students there and typically the staff member from the college or the professor from the college would go over either before or with the students when they arrived or they would come at the end.

And so this particular trip, I went at the end. And typically what you would do is you would kind of thank the university, University of Cape Coast and you would take the families that hosted them and people that gave them internships and all kind of stuff. So so I'm there thanking people. And I've been I think I told you this, I've been cut my hair since I was in middle school and, you know, like I'm getting on the plane and I ain't never been to Ghana before.

And I didn't realize, like in some countries the voltage is different. Emmanuel's I love you have been to another country and the voltage like the voltage in Ghana, is higher when you plug something in the wall than it is here and what you need when you go to another country and the voltage is higher, you need a converter.

I didn't have a converter. And so I plug my clippers into the wall thinking I'll cut my hair and they start smoking. Not good, not good, I'm good. And so I'm you know, I couldn't cut my hair, you know, And I used to cut my hair like every three or four days. I can't cut my hair. And then I see a guy by the name of Kobi, and he comes over and he's like, God is fresh, like face.

I'm saying like, I mean, he's got this fresh cut. And I'm like, It could be like, like, where'd you get your haircut? He was like, Man, we're going to Kumasi. Where I'm from, there's this guy there that can cut your hair. And I'm like, Oh, thank you, Jesus, because I'm starting to look like a wooly mammoth, yelling Sandman.

And so we arrived to Kumasi, and I'm looking for the barber and I'm in the house, and the barber comes in, he shows up, man, and he got this little bitty bag. I, I don't like looking around the back line, and they must have small clippers here and they must be battery operated. I'm saying we go outside. He's like, I want to cut your hair in here.

We'll cut your hair outside. We go out to the courtyard and there are people all around the courtyard. I'm like, What are they doing here? And there's this chair in the middle of the courtyard with a bucket of water. And I'm thinking, clippers, water don't go together. But you don't, you know, you don't want to embarrass your host.

And so I'm like walking home like this. This be good. So I sit down and the guy opens his bag, the first thing he pulls out of the bag I was good with. It was a comb fly. Okay. Second thing he pulls out is a razor blade and he takes the water pistol one on my hands. Let's massage my hair.

Okay? And you can hear the crowd. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. I'm like, in my spirit. I'm like, Hey, hey. And this brother starts razor blade and all these guys, and I'm like, Oh, my God, my. Please don't let a fly fly on my nose ahead. He cuts my hair in, like 15 minutes, and then he gets to that last part brother's where he's got to do my line and I'm terrified because you can't get a haircut When I come on, let the brother say, Man, look, America, he's a geek.

Give me that. And he looks at me. Sam, finish. Just give me a minute. Miranda. I get the Mumbai. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. And the crowd starts clapping everything. Now I'm partially clapping because it's a really good haircut, but I'm also clapping because I'm not dying and there's not blistering. And I'm going to say they start clapping everything they out.

Now, here's the point of story. You can stand worship team, come join me. This is important story. I mean, people are leaving. I go back to the house, the barber comes back in the house with me and I thank him for the haircut. You know, I'm like, man, I appreciate you. I don't look like the wooly mammoth anymore, you know?

And then I ask the question that you you thinking, you know, how long you've been cut, and we're just a razor and a comb. He's like, Oh, what you need to know is I have something else in the bag. And He pulls out this knife that looks like a Rambo knife. He said, I almost used this, but I thought I might scare you, man.

My knees got weak. And then I asked him the other question. You think, Oh, well, while those people don't out there, Kobe was like, Man, I swam. I'm sorry. I said, Kobe's things climbing Kwame. He says to me, This guy, we just had an earthquake. It destroyed his barber shop, destroyed his line of business. He hasn't been able to recover.

But I knew if you would let him cut your hair as an American in Ghana and people saw it, his business would shoot through the roof. Wow. I thought the haircut was about me, but it wasn't. I thought me forgetting my or not knowing that there's a need for inverter or converter. I thought that was my my issue.

Oh, no, God. Had a bigger plan. And that's what I want to tell you about your life and what you've been going through. You sometimes think it's about you. And I know I've been there too, but it's not. There's always something bigger. I thought that this parable was just for the Pharisees. It's not for us over 2000 years later.

So I want to make a call really for two of people I know we all have follow, but I want you to be thinking about like, who which side do you identify most with in the story? Can you see and accept the father's love, or will you continue to live in fear? What does your next step of faith?

What does it actually look like? Some of us, that first son, that's us right now, and we've run away from the father. We've tried to do it our way and it ain't working. Will you come to your senses today? Man? This first calls for people simply saying whether your son or daughter out there, The father is saying, come home.

And so we just want to make this space a place where you can return to the father. I'm just going to ask our elders or deacons or our ministers here, one church, just get in position if you feel like you need to make that decision today to come home. I just want you to come like some of us, we should be running to the altar.

I remember when it was me, my hands got all sweaty. My heart started to race because I knew it was time but everything. And. And he said, No, I'll wait. I'll wait. But I want to say to the father says, Come home. I don't care how wild it's been. I don't care how turned up it's been. The father says, Come home.

Hopefully, Hopefully it doesn't kill you. But sometimes you have these kinds of moments where there's a warning that says, Come on. So if you know my story, I, I have been home with my dad's church and I heard God so clearly that Sunday, so clearly say, come home. I came back to Greensborough. I was in a relationship. She was real cute and I didn't want to give her up.

Nah, nah, I'll wait. I ran head on into a truck. My truck flipped over, landed in the median. It went over Avenue right in front of Sam's. I didn't even have a seatbelt on, y'all. And God said, Come home that day. I wept in the car. The rain began to come down. I was 22 years old. I've never been the same since.

Don't. Don't allow tragedy to be what convinces you to come home. You can make the decision without drama. You can make the decision today without trouble. He is extending that invitation to that first son, that first daughter come home. Or maybe you're the second son. And if you're honest, you've been a little cynical, maybe even a little hypocritical.

And it's easy for you to look at other people saying and not deal with your own. The second call is for you. And I know these are too hard calls because there's a part of you that wants to step out. But this other part is going to say, what did they go? Thank? But I want you to remember what this father did.

He did not care about how it looked like a lack of dignity. He did not care what people thought about him pursuing his son. I want you to know God is extending this invitation to you. Come home, admit that you need help. Admit that you've been going in the wrong direction. Right now.