And now we turn to the Word of God, which is the greatest blessing that we have. And so turn with me to Luke chapter 15 in your Bible. Luke chapter 15, I would say that we'd be back in our study of 1 Samuel tonight, but honestly, right now I'm not 100% sure. The Lord's kind of tugging in a couple different directions today, and so we'll be praying this afternoon about it. But for this morning, we're gonna be in Luke chapter 15. And for those of you who, prefer sitting in one place in scripture, you can certainly do that this morning with Luke 15, but we are going to be turning quite a bit in our Bibles, so you can use that as your home base and turn from there. But before we begin, As we consider the passage today, this is the passage that we'll be looking at and hopefully getting help from the Lord from today is the passage of the prodigal son. And it's probably a pretty familiar story to many, so don't just tune it out. There's much for us to glean from it. But as we consider it, I want you to keep in mind that though we can certainly draw correlations between the prodigal son and a lost man who doesn't know the Lord, this is the prodigal son. And so it would be not quite adequate or not quite appropriate to make those correlations. He's part of the family before, during, and after his time in the far country. He never stops being a son. And so that's important kind of to distinguish. A lot of times we'll hear preached in a bunch of different ways out of this passage, and that's fine, but contextually and accurately, this is a son of the father. And so if you're here today and you are a child of God, you've been born again, this is for you. If you're here today and you're lost, I hope you can glean something from it. I hope the Lord can use the words that are spoken from His Word to convict your heart and to show you your need of Him. But don't write this off as though you could never be prodigal just because you're a Christian. This prodigal son was a son before he was a prodigal son. And so I just wanted to preface with that. Now we'll pray and we'll dive in. Lord, we thank you for this day and for your word. Help me now as I seek to preach it in a way that glorifies you, Lord. Help me to do just that. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Luke chapter 15, we're going to take this piece by piece and we're going to go through this story from the Word of God. This story is a parable told by Christ, and so this is a story just made up by the Lord in order to teach a lesson, in order to teach a truth, and so he begins his parable in chapter 15 and verse number 11. And the Bible says, and he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. Now before we get into the entirety of the story, I'm tempted to read through the whole thing and then go back, but we just don't have time today. We're gonna take it piece by piece as we go. The first step in this story we see is the leaving of the father's house. And this young man, we assume his age because he's still at home, but this young man, he comes to his father and he demands of his father the portion of goods which falleth to him. Now we would commonly call that the inheritance. Now something that is worth noting out of this is really the arrogance of this young person going to his father and demanding his inheritance while his father is alive. When are you supposed to get an inheritance? When somebody is dead, when somebody has passed away. They leave to you an inheritance, but this son, he comes to him and says, hey, you might as well be dead to me, just give me your stuff. That's not a very good relationship. The word of God teaches and tells us several places how we ought to honor and obey and respect our parents. In Exodus chapter 20, verse 12, tells us that commandment of honor, thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the earth. Now, some of us have had mothers that have been pretty threatening. And it's, you know, you better listen, boy, or your days will not be long upon the earth. The Lord knew. He gave us a warning. He said, if you don't honor your father and your mother, you might not live as long as you would otherwise. And so we find that in Exodus chapter 12. We find Ephesians chapter 6 refers right back to it. The first commandment with promise says, honor thy father and thy mother. What's the promise? That you're going to live longer if you do that. Now, we joke at that, but it's true. The Word of God has never told one lie to us, and so if the Word of God says that if we honor our parents, we'll live longer on the earth, that's a promise from God. We ought to honor our parents. Now, going to your father while he's alive and saying, give me all your money that is supposed to be mine when you die, that's not really honoring your parents. It's this sense of immediate gratification. Have you ever heard that term? That's very indicative of our culture today. We want it now. I picture this person and I guess my carnal sides come through a little bit and I think of Willy Wonka. Right? The Chocolate Factory. And I forget the name, if it was Veruca or whatever it was, but that girl that wanted the Golden Goose. You know, I want it now. And there's like a whole song about how much of a horrible, awful brat she is and how she just wants anything she wants and wants it right now. And it was comical when it was written, I'm sure, as a script for the movie back in the day. But nowadays it's just, you know, every time you go to Walmart, I mean, you just walk around and there's kids just throwing fits and tantrums and screaming, I want it now. And there's people that are not children anymore, but they're getting up there, you know, they're getting older and getting older, and they're still the same way. You know, just give it to me now. I want it now. I want it right away. And there's no patience. There's no none of that. It's just, I want it right now. And this man, he is severing relationships that have been there for, we presume, his whole life. He's leaving his father's house, and we don't know much about the situation here. It's just a, it's a parable again. And so, but what is given is essentially a man who is leaving the family that has loved him, cared for him, and provided for him his whole life, and he's going off to do his own thing. Whenever somebody begins to sever ties with those that are a godly and a good influence on them, you know that trouble is coming. You know there's something brewing inside them that is not good. When you have a Christian with a group of friends and they got their Christian friends and their work friends and all of a sudden their Christian friends are seeing them less and less and less, that's a bad sign. There's something going on. They're heading to the far country. They're heading out into sin. Now, the far country we read of in, we'll read verse 13 again and verse 14 of chapter 15, and it meant not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. When he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want. Now, Hebrews 11.25 warns us that there are pleasures in sin for a season, that sin is pleasurable to our flesh, to our desires. Sin is appealing to us. That's why temptation is so hard to survive sometimes, because sin is pleasurable for a season. And this man, he had all that he ever wanted for a season. He had a time when he could just live however he wanted. That word riotous, he wasn't flipping cop cars and burning them. He wasn't, you know, going and doing those things. Riotous living means he was living above his means. He was living an opulent lifestyle, a lifestyle of just the highest class. He was living above and beyond. And you can only sustain that for so long when you're living off of someone else's hard work. He was living off of his father's income. He was living off of his father's work, and he had a set amount of money given to him, and he decided, I'm just gonna go live it up. He lives it up, and that riotous living, that overabundant living, it only lasts for a little while, and it doesn't do him any good. Turn with me to two places in your Bible, 2 Thessalonians 3 and Ezekiel 16. 2 Thessalonians 3 and Ezekiel 16. 2 Thessalonians 3 and Ezekiel 16. Everybody there? Getting there? All right, I know that's opposite directions I'm sending you. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse number 10, the Bible says, for even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. If that was actually how it worked, like you could not eat unless you did work, there'd be a whole lot of people working that weren't working yesterday because, boy, we like our food, right? If we couldn't eat if we didn't work, if that's actually how it worked in this country today, we'd have a lot more workers because, you know, not only do we need to eat, we as Americans, we love to eat. We've got, it's amazing to me, last time I was back home in Michigan driving through town, it's not a nice town where I'm from. Jackson, Michigan is, Not great. And it's, you know, it's not a huge town, but it's a decent size. But I'll tell you what, there are so many restaurants. There are so many food places. And if you notice, even the lowest of low income neighborhoods and the highest of high income neighborhoods, what do they have in common? They all have an overabundance of options of food. Right? They got like 15 different Chinese restaurants, 10 different Rexican restaurants, some Italian restaurants, some American restaurants, whatever that is. And they've got everything you could ever want for food. Now, that's a blessing. That's a wonderful thing. I'm glad we can go and go to places like, you know, what's a good one? Golden Corral. You know, go shovel your face full and fill the duffel bag and take it home. And, you know, I'm happy about all that, being an American. It's amazing how if people had to actually work for their food, it might be different. Now, neither should he eat, verse 11, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. Now, back to Ezekiel chapter number 11. 16, Ezekiel chapter 16. The reason we're looking at these verses is because this man had want of nothing. He had all this money, he had all this substance, and he wasted it away with his riotous living because he just didn't pay attention. The bank account was going down, down, down. He didn't care. He wasn't working for his own substance. He just had this big pile of money that he was burning through, and it's not good for you. It's not good for you to have that overabundance and not need to work. The first thing God did before sin ever entered into the picture, before Satan ever tempted Eve, before Eve ever existed, God put man to work. So it's good for us spiritually to be busy about some kind of work, because when we don't, well, that's when temptation comes in, that's when the devil comes in, that's when our idle hands go and do things they ought not do. Ezekiel chapter 16, verse number, let's see here, verse number 49. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Now, hold on now, we know at least some of the iniquity of Sodom from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. We know that homosexuality was rampant there, we understand that, it's very clear from the story, but that's not their only sin. That's not the only thing they did wrong. You don't get to that point without taking other steps to get to that point. That's not the starting point of sin for a city. So what does it say? Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as I saw good. So he says they had iniquity, and under iniquity, he lists fullness of bread as iniquity, abundance of idleness. I'm just gonna take a lazy day, right? Well, if you have more lazy days than not lazy days, then you're a lazy person. And the Bible doesn't say we ought to be a lazy person. We ought not be idle. Look to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Those ants, man, they're, They're annoyingly persistent. We had some in our kitchen yesterday, and it was one of those things where you go without them for so long, you forget they're a problem. And then there's something, you know, left out or whatever, and you just look at that, and you're like, wow, that's just crawling, crawling with those little baby ants. And I'm a nice person, so I grabbed him and I thought, well, I'm just gonna drown him in the sink. Turn the water as hot as it can go and drown those guys. And I mean, I'm spraying them, I'm trying to drown them, and these little guys, they just keep running, they keep climbing, they keep trying to get away. I'm like, will you just die already? They're persistent little guys. Now, if you feel bad for the ants, then that's your issue. I'm sorry. God said have dominion over everything. I was practicing my God-given dominion over the ants yesterday, and I don't think I got them all. But the idea today in our culture is do as little work as humanly possible to get by, and then just have fun. Right? Like that's what's promoted in our culture today as Americans is just do only work if it makes you happy. If your work doesn't make you happy, you're in the wrong work. Okay, I understand the concept. If you can find a job that makes you happy while you do it, praise God, that's great. But that's not a requirement given by God. Do you think Adam really enjoyed working by the sweat of his brow to till the land and have food after the fall? Probably wasn't his favorite thing to do. Probably was a little harder than just tending the garden God had already made where they could just pluck fruit and eat it all day long. But he had to do it because that's how God set this thing up. We're supposed to work in order to eat. And so to have all this abundance invites this riotous living. This riotous living, as we can see, leads to destruction. And we always, you know, we make the assumption that he had some friends that he made in the far country, right? It's not said in the statement, but Proverbs chapter 14 verse 20 and Proverbs chapter 19 verse four speak about how those that have wealth, they have friends. The poor man doesn't. I'm obviously paraphrasing there, but the Book of Proverbs multiple times teaches us that the wealth brings in friends. Now a lot of times those friends that are brought in by wealth, they're not going to be the godliest friends that you have. They're not going to be friends that are encouraging you to live for God and live holy and live right. They're going to be encouraging you to do whatever they want to do so they can have you pay for them, right? That's not the kind of person you want around you. So this man, he goes off and he wastes himself and he rides his living. And I would just make a comparison here. When Jonah was running away from God, when he was running away from his heavenly father, he was told to go to Nineveh. And when he got to the docks to flee from God and God's will, what was waiting at the docks? A boat going exactly the opposite direction, as far as you could go. Whenever you do decide, I'm gonna turn my back on God and run into sin and run into the far country and run into the arms of the world, there's gonna be somebody or something waiting there to help you. The devil's smart like that. He's not going to let that opportunity go by. You step out of your faith and you say, I'm going to turn my back on God. I'm going to turn my back on church. I'm going to skip church this week. I'm going to skip the youth group. I'm going to skip the college group. I'm going to skip the Bible study. I'm going to skip the outreach. I'm going to skip all these things. And I'm just going to go do something I want to do that's not uplifting, that's not edifying, that's not godly. Maybe not even necessarily a horrible sin, but I'm going to turn my back a little bit on God and a little bit towards myself and towards the world. There's going to be somebody that will encourage you in that. There's always going to be somebody that will encourage you to sin and encourage you to stay away from church, encourage you to stay away from godly influences in your life. The wasted potential here is enormous, and I don't just mean the money. I don't mean the substance that he wasted in his righteous living. I mean himself. As a youth pastor for over a decade, I saw young people who came up through Michelle's three to five year old class and came up into the youth group and came through the youth group and you can see from a young age, you can say, you know what, some of them you just look at and you're like, man, they got potential. And some of them you look at and you go, well, the Lord can use anybody, right? And I was definitely in the second category. Nobody saw much potential in me, but I remember my junior church teacher, the woman who witnessed me stab a kid in the hand with a fork and do a whole bunch of other horrible things that I did at that age, she went to my parents, I think it was after the stabbing incident, and told them that I was gonna be a Baptist preacher one day. Apparently, that's foreshadowing. If you're stabbing people with utensils, you're gonna be a preacher. But she saw something in me and she thought that the Lord could use it. And I remember over years with youth ministry, sometimes you'd see somebody and you're like, man, if God could just get a hold of their heart, if they just stopped running from God and running from church and running from the things of the Lord, he could really use them. You look at this prodigal son, this is a man that had potential. And whenever you turn your back on God and you embrace the world and you embrace the sinful lifestyle, you lose things that you can't get back. Not just time, sometimes innocence. Sometimes many other things. You can lose things you can't get back and you can do things you'll never get out of your mind. It scars you and it hurts your future potential. He had no thought for the future. Of course, this man wastes his substance. He's broke. He has to get a job feeding the pigs to survive and then boom, famine. It's like, well, just pouring it on. It is biblical to plan ahead, to store up. We know we ought to live by faith, but the Bible says in Proverbs 13, 22, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. So this man is, riots his living and wasted potential, no thought for the future, instant gratification. Nowadays, you know, we got overnight shipping and that's not fast enough. Right? We are so spoiled. I'm so guilty of this. We wanted to buy an air conditioning unit for an area of our house for our puppy business and all that. And it was like, oh, the fastest shipping is like a week? Like, that's ridiculous. I thought it'd be like Prime, you know, be here tomorrow. But, like, it's an AC unit. It's not like, you know, a shovel. Like, it's a big thing coming on a freight truck. And we called them, you know, like, hey, when are you going to deliver? You're supposed to be here today. When are you going to be here? I got a schedule around you coming. And we get so used to these things. Man, the popcorn takes three minutes to pop. What's wrong with the popcorn? Is there something wrong with the microwave? I mean, this Hot Pocket should be done already. And then it's going to be lava when you bite it anyways. So it's just. Just how it is. We want instant gratification. We want it now. We want it right away. We want to spend, spend, spend, so we'll be happy, right? That's promoted all around us today. The consumerism, the idea that, you know, if you'll just get this, you'll be happy. If you'll just have that, you'll be happy. It's different for everybody, but everybody has something where some ad can target you and say, and trick you into thinking, if I just buy that one more thing, I'll be happier. So. The culture definitely doesn't want us to think about what life after death, doesn't want us to think ahead like that. Thankfully though, if we turn back to Luke chapter 15, the parable isn't just about a man who goes away. His prodigal son returns. He comes to himself. He gets back in a right frame of mind. Verse number 14, when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land and began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. Now, this coming to himself does not happen if what happened in the verse before does not happen. Verse 14, he began to be in want. As long as someone who is away from God, away from the church, away from a right relationship with the Lord, as long as they're just enjoying sin and having a good old time, if they don't ever come to a place where they're suffering or they're in need of something, they're probably not gonna come back. Sorry to say that. Now we can pray for them and God can work a miracle in their life and they can come back. It doesn't have to go a certain way. But the mistake that so many people make, especially parents, is when their child is off in the world, they'll help them out. They'll give them a little help because, well, I don't want them to struggle. I don't want them to get in debt. I don't want them to this. I don't want them. They'll help them out. And that help, though it's coming out of a good place and good intentions, it's keeping them in the far country. We like to, you know, we like to draw a parallel to a situation we hope to never find our own selves in. So, you know, we think, well, drug addict. If I had a family member who was a drug addict, I would cut him off. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't help him because that would be enabling. And you're right. You're right. But it's not just drug addiction that people can be in the far country doing. People can be turning away from God and living for the world, living for themselves, and in a position where, according to this parable, you ought not be helping them, and yet people just, they keep the money line going. They keep the help coming. Now, I understand the desire as a parent to help your child, but the greatest help this young man ever got was to be in want. Because that want, that hunger in his belly is what turned him and made him come to himself and realize, wait a second, things were better at home. It was better before I came here. It was better before I wasted my substance with riots as a living. It was better in my father's house. As long as the people in the father's house keep sending aid packages to the people in the far country, they're not coming back. Super popular point there, I know, but it is what it is. If a man, and then the people, you know, you liken this to a person in church. If a man is in church and the only other, for any other reason than the fact that he loves the Lord and wants to be there, he's going to be gone soon. No help from his righteous lifestyle when the money's gone. He finds himself so low that he's willing to eat pig slop and yet no one helps him, no one aids him. How low he had to get. Now it's amazing to me how proud we can be with nothing to show for it. I've done a lot of ministry in prisons and jails up in Michigan and there's kind of a love hate thing. The greatest part of that ministry was often the fact that so many of the men in those prisons and jails and so many of the ladies there, they realized that they were at the bottom. They realized that they needed help and they wanted to hear from God. They wanted to get right. They wanted to have somebody show them the way. That's a blessing. That's great, but there were always some who I remember this one guy in particular, I was at one of the Jackson County jails and it was one of those jails where you go in and you got to cross the whole courtyard by yourself with no guards to get to where you're going to be preaching and there's nobody in there with you. And so you're just kind of trusting that all these prisoners are nice guys. And I remember this guy afterwards essentially trying to bribe me to get a message to somebody for him, because he was a millionaire on the outside, and he had it all on the outside, but he was on the inside, and he wasn't always gonna be on the inside. He just had this whole life story about all the cars he had, and all the women he had, and all the stuff he had, and I guarantee it was all fiction. But he was so proud of this life that he had that landed him in jail. And from the sound of it, he wasn't ever getting out, but he was so proud of what he had done. Like, where's that pride gonna get you? There are people who will leave a good church, leave a good family, leave a good home, and go off and destroy their lives, and make a mess of their testimony, and they won't ever repent and get right because they're just too proud. Because in order to repent, you've got to do what the prodigal son did, and you've got to realize, I messed up. I have sinned against heaven and against my father. I'm no longer worthy to be called his son. Now in the beginning of the story, he says, dad, you might as well be dead to me. Give me the money that you owe me when you die, I'm going. But now, now that he's come to the end of himself, He comes to his father in a different way. He comes with humility. We'll see that in just a moment. God hates pride. Proverbs 6 tells us that. It's listed in the things that God hates. Of course, Proverbs 16, verse 18 to 19, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. There's a reason our culture teaches us from pretty much the womb to be proud of ourselves and to trust in ourselves. And anyone tell us what we can or cannot do, don't let anyone define you, don't let anyone disrespect you, don't let anybody disapprove of your lifestyle. The devil knows that if he can make people proud, he'll keep them to himself. If he can make a Christian, especially a Christian young person, think that, well, I'm better than all those other lost people and I can just, that pride, that self-righteousness is gonna keep you away from God, away from a right relationship with God. If he can get a young person out of their godly home and out of their church and into the far country, well, then he can keep them there with pride. Because, well, if you go back, what will they think? I've seen young people come to the altar and profess to be saved, to get saved after everybody thought they were for 10 years. We had a girl in our youth group, it was the assistant pastor's daughter. She got born again at age 18 and just told the whole church, I was afraid for so long because I had made a profession of faith when I was younger and it was just always, what will people think when I come and do it again? Pride really keeps people from getting right with God because we're so concerned with, well, what will everybody think? Or we're so concerned with, well, I don't want to admit I did anything wrong. But we get to the good stuff. Coming back to the father's house, verse number 18. Romans verse number 19, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy servants. And he rose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. That's quite a welcome. But this man here, he gives us a real showing of what repentance really looks like. Turn with me one more place, James chapter four. James chapter four, this will be the last place I have you turn this morning. Look with me, starting with verse number six. But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will, what? Draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. And we like that last verse. We like verse 10, right? Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. But what does that humbling look like? It looks like cleanse your hand, ye sinners, purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. That's repentance. That's humbling yourself. That's getting to the point where you say, God's right, I'm wrong, and I am sorry for how wrong I've been. And you turn from your sin and you have a change in your mind and a change in your heart and a change in your outlook to where you don't want to live that way anymore. You don't want to do that anymore. You don't want to rebel against God anymore. And so you turn to God and you say, I'm not worth anything, but will you have me anyways? I'm not worthy to be called your son, but will you let me be your servant? That's a good example of true repentance. And in verse 21, the son said, and father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. It's not just, hey, dad, I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? Can I have some food? It's real repentance. You can see the difference. And if you've been around very long and you've had a relationship where somebody has been dependent on you at all, you know Unless you're very, very gullible, you know whether they're being genuine with you or not. Are they there because they're sorry, or are they there because they need something? Right? We figure that out, especially as parents. You know, I've had our kids, you know, they're two to eight years old, and boy, that's a fun time. But there's been plenty of times when they've come to me and apologized for something they did. And I can, you can just tell that was real. That was genuine. A lot of times those ones, it's not even prompted. It's just, they just come to me. I'm so sorry. And I know that it's real. Sometimes it's, sorry, dad. Now, are they sorry? Maybe. Not very genuine seeming though. Especially if they say it and then go and do exactly what they weren't supposed to do anyways. So, This idea of, you know, I can just live for myself. I'm a Christian, God will forgive me anyways. I'll just live for myself and say sorry every now and then. That's not what we see here. We see somebody coming to the end of himself and realizing that he's no longer, not even worthy to be called the son. Can I just be a servant? But thankfully, the father doesn't see it that way. Back in Luke chapter 15, we'll finish up with this. Luke chapter 15 and verse number 20, well verse number 21. And the son said unto him, give father I have sinned against heaven and thy sight, no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Now isn't it interesting, the father runs to the son and goes down and starts kissing on him and loving on him before the son ever said a word. He hadn't said sorry yet. He hadn't asked forgiveness. He hadn't said, I'm not worthy to be called thy son. He could have been coming home to say, hey dad, I spent it all, can I have some more? But the dad saw he was coming home and that was the dad's response. The father's response was to run to him and to shower him in love. And can you imagine, that probably just made him feel even guiltier. for the sin that he had done, for the wrong that he had done, because here my father is, loving on me, hugging on me, kissing on me, welcoming me home, and all I've done to him, and all I've done with what he gave me. I'm so thankful that our heavenly father doesn't treat us the way we deserve to be treated. Thank God. First of all, we wouldn't ever get saved in the first place. We wouldn't have made it out of the Garden of Eden. But he gives more grace. This father, he puts the robe on, puts the ring on, puts the shoes on, kills the fatted calf. We're gonna be merry. We're gonna have a good old time. You're not gonna be a servant. You're my son. And then, I think it's interesting to remember this is a parable. Jesus is teaching a point here. If you look back to the very last verse before the parable begins, the parable begins in verse 11, but what did Jesus say in verse 10? Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Now I know we're not correlating this prodigal son with a sinner who needs repentance, but what a picture we see. The Lord Jesus Christ is teaching here and he says, when one sinner repents and becomes a child of God, there's joy in heaven. And then he goes into the parable of, oh hey, and when the son goes into the far country, when he comes back and repents and gets right again, guess what, there's joy again. There's gladness again, there's rejoicing again, there's merriment again. It's nothing about, but you did this, but you did that, that's all gone. And when the brother comes and tries to bring it up, says this your son, I've been here all this time, I haven't messed up, and here this son of yours, he's wasted everything on harlots and all this righteous living, and what does the father do? He defends the prodigal son. And it's just like us. If you're a child of God, that in some way, in some shape, in some form, you've at some point turned your back on God a little bit. You've been prodigal. If you don't think you have, then you maybe forgot some things in your life. Maybe you forgot some things God wanted of you that you didn't give him. Maybe you forgot some things that God wanted you to stop that you didn't stop. Whatever it may be, none of us have perfectly followed the will of God. None of us has perfectly always 100% been the golden child of God. We've all had our prodigal moments. But when somebody accuses a child of God before God, you know what he does? He defends us. The Lord Jesus Christ Bible says that he ever liveth to make intercession for us. The devil's called the accuser of the brethren. Going before God and accusing us, and guess what? He doesn't have to make anything up. He can accuse us of everything and all the crimes he lays against us, they're probably true. I have lied. I have had this happen in my life. I have done this in my life. I have made this decision. I have had that thought. He doesn't have to make anything up. I've committed crimes against God. But when I'm accused because I'm his son, because I'm his child, he defends me. That's a blessing. The father's rejoicing and defense of the prodigal today to me is a help because we're saddened whenever someone turns prodigal. We look at somebody and we say, man, what wasted potential. They're wasting years of their life. They're wasting so much that they could be using for God. They're hurting themselves and they don't even know it. And we just pray and we beg God, Lord, get a hold of their hearts and we try to witness them and we try to get them back in a relationship with God. And praise God, sometimes that happens. They'll turn back to God. An example of this would be Brother Hazel's word, our missionary in Kenya. He got saved at a young age and then for years, he just turned his back on God. just turn his back on God and live in however he wanted to live. But God didn't give up on him. God didn't turn his back on him and the moment that he turned back to God and tried to get back right with God, the Lord did exactly what the father and the prodigal son story did. He just blessed him and showered him with love with the people around him and the church people welcomed him back as if he'd never been gone and prayed with him and prayed for him and now he's on the mission field in Kenya. And it's just one of those things where you just never know, you can't give up on the prodigal. Now you don't support them in their sin, you don't support them in the fall country, but you pray for them and you encourage them to come back and thank God when somebody does, when you finally get to the end of your rope and say, Lord, I know I've been wrong in this area of my life, I know I've been committing sin against you, I'm done with it, I want to live for you, I want to serve you, will you forgive me? "'Will you welcome me back as a child "'that I should be for you?' "'Psalm 86, 5, the Bible says, "'For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive, "'and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.'" We have times as human beings when we're just not ready to forgive, right? You've been wronged, you've been hurt, and you're upset, and rightfully so, and you just need a moment. Like, I know I should forgive you, but I'm just not there yet. the Lord is always ready to forgive. And the prodigal son, I don't know where you are in your spiritual walk today. You may have everybody fueled. You may be living in the far country 99% of the time, but for this hour in church on Sunday morning, well, here I am, I'm a child of the Father. I don't know your heart, but God does, and you do. You know whether you are where you ought to be in the relationship with God or whether you're not. You know whether your living is more like this prodigal son or before or after his time in the far country. But thankfully, wherever you may find yourself, God is plenteous in mercy and he is ready to forgive. And you can restore a right walk with God the moment that you want to because he's always ready for that and always encouraging you for that. And the people of God will encourage you in it too. So this morning, I hope you're right with God. I hope you have a great relationship with your heavenly father. But if you don't, it can be mended the moment you want it to be. If you're willing to let go of the pride, realize that you are in the pigpen and that you need the Lord. Lord, I'm no longer worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hybrid servants. But no, he will love on you and he will lift you up. Bible says we'll humble ourselves, he'll lift us up. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, I know it's a longer message this morning, but Lord, I pray that something said from your word would be a help to us, Lord. I know it was a help to me to prepare it, to be reminded that you are ready to forgive, to be reminded of what it takes sometimes for somebody to get out of the far country and out of their, their wrong living. Lord, it's not our support that they need, it's our prayers. It's our encouragement to get right with you, Lord. And God, I pray that people Lord, as there's so many of us that struggle with so many things that were not right with you, Lord, and I pray, please help us to not allow it to get so bad that we have to get so low like the prodigal son did in order to turn to you. Lord, help us to turn to you as soon as we realize that we're not where we ought to be. Help us to ask forgiveness as soon as we realize that we are not doing what we ought to be doing for you. Lord, help us to trust in your promise to love us, trust in your promise to forgive us. And Lord, help us to take that step today, Lord. If there's somebody here today that does not know you as their savior, Lord, I pray you please make yourself real to them. Lord, help them to understand their need of you, Lord. And for those who are here that know you as their savior, but Lord, maybe they're contemplating taking a little less time for you and a little more time for themselves and cutting you out and bringing the world in more, Lord, help them to see this story in your word as a warning and a promise, Lord, that we ought not stray from you, but Lord, for those who do and those who have, Lord, you'll always take us back. If we come to you in true repentance, Lord, I pray, please just make your word real to us this morning. We love you in Jesus name we pray, amen. As the piano begins to play, the altar is always open. I don't know what your need may be.