Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. All right. Luke 15, are we all there? All right, let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning again. We are grateful. We sure botched that last song, but what a wonderful message is in that song. And Lord, we thank you for that. Joyful noise is what you hear from hearts that desire to sing praise unto thee. So it's all good. Lord, I pray this morning that you would continue to minister to us and to help us. Lord, we need manna from on high that feeds our souls. We need you to speak to us, our hearts this morning. So Spirit of God, we pray from the pulpit to the pew, you will minister. Stand behind this pulpit, sit next to us, go up and down these aisles. But Lord, we're wasting our time if you don't minister to us this morning. And all you have to work with is dirt, animated dirt. I pray that you'd fill it with your spirit and your power. your passion, your words, and your wisdom, that you might be able to minister to us this morning, that you might be able to speak to our hearts and show us and fill a need that we may have. But help us this morning, Lord. We can't do anything without you. But wonderful things can be done through you. So please minister to us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right, Luke chapter 15, very familiar text. We're going to look at it from a bit of a different angle this morning, but starting at verse 11. It 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. When he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he 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 husk 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 I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose 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. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet. bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive evermore he was lost and is found and they began to be merry. Normally this is the message that's preached on Father's Day and the focus is on the prodigal son returning to the father with the emphasis on the forgiveness of the father and it's a great great story a great Great message. What we're going to do this morning is look at it a little bit differently. We're going to look at it from the focus on the son that left. And we're going to see why he left. What we're going to look at this morning are all the stages that he went through. And hopefully this will help us understand all that's involved in a sinner coming to Christ. And if you're not saved this morning, maybe you'll see yourself in one of these stages of where you may be. And if you are saved, it'll help you understand better why the people you love or the people you work with or the people you go to school with are refusing to trust Christ as their Savior. They don't listen to you. They don't seem to want anything to do with your God or your Bible or anything like that. There are stages that people go through when they're lost, and that's what we want to look at this morning. The first stage, the very first one, is the assumption that being lost is fun. That's the first stage. And the younger people fall for that one all the time, that being lost is fun. This young man, You might have seen the billboards. You might have listened to the commercials because the billboards will tell you that what a particular sin or a particular thing will bring you happiness. You never see on the billboards the person that was advocating that particular brand of alcohol worshipping at the porcelain altar on the Sunday morning after spending time on that Saturday night. You never see the commercials from the bars where the marriages are broken and Lives are ruined. You never see that part of it. You always fall for the devil's portrayal of what sin is. And sin is always portrayed as something enjoyable, something wonderful, and something fun. And so I believe this young man came to that point in his life where he thought, you know what? I'm going to get away from Dad. And I want to have some fun. So in Luke 15 and verse 12, the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of the goods that fall of me. Now, you need to understand this, that they did things a little bit differently in the Jewish world at that time than we do today. Today, somebody has to die. You have to be mentioned in their will before you get what they have decided to give you after their death in that day. When a young man reached a particular age, he could request his inheritance. And the oldest son, according to Deuteronomy 21, 17, the oldest son got two-thirds compared to the other son or the other sons. So the oldest son would get two-thirds of it. the next would get the third. And this young man understands that. The older son is satisfied with just inheriting the ranch, if you will. He knows he's going to get the ranch. He's going to get the farm. He's satisfied with that. The younger son wants what they refer to as the mobile or the fluid blessings or inheritance. Give me the money. Give me the money, I wanna fill my bags with the money I'm supposed to get, and I'm heading out. So that's the idea. The idea of giving young people their inheritance at that particular age, and they could legally request it. The dad, if he had evidence that this kid doesn't have enough sense to do anything with it, could legally deny it, and there would be a hearing to determine whether the son would get it or not. But for the sake of this parable, I'm gonna treat this parable a little more as a real story. But for the sake of this right here, the young man will legally take his inheritance. Again, the idea in that day was that if you give the children their inheritance when they become of age, that mom and dad are still alive to help them to deal with the inheritance so they don't do something stupid. But in this case, the young man gets out of there. Reg in his commentary, excuse me, Trench in his commentary said this, weary of restraint, panting for independence, unable longer to abide the check of a father's eye. This is man, typifies man, impatient of divine control, desiring to be independent of God, seeking to be his own master. Whereas your teenagers may say, man, I can't wait till I turn 18, right? I've talked to him. I've heard him say that. Oh, I can't wait till I turn 18, you know. And my response is, and then what? A lot of times it's a dumb look. Didn't think that far yet. Just can't wait to turn 18. I'm going to get away from mom and dad. I'll get away from, you know, them telling me what time I have to be in at night and tell me I don't have to do these chores and all that stuff. I'm going to turn 18 and get away from all that stuff. Oh, okay. What are you going to do? Well, I guess I'm going to have to get a job. You're going to have to get a job. And you know what? When you get a job, somebody's going to tell you what to do. In fact, they're going to tell you when you have to be there, how long you have to be there, what you have to wear while you're there. And you're going to put up with it because you're going to have to get an apartment. And you're going to have to pay rent. So you're going to have to have that job. And not only are you going to pay rent, but you're going to pay utilities. You've got to pay electric. You're going to have to pay gas in some parts of the country. You're going to have to pay for water and garbage pickup, maybe. And of course, if you're going to get to work, you have to have a car. So you're going to have to pay for a car. You're at least going to have to put gas in the car. And you're going to have to get insurance for that car and do the normal maintenance things of brakes and tires, et cetera. Yeah. So tell me again why you can't wait to be 18. I believe young men ought to get out and get on their own and when they're at the right age and make their own life form. But there's also a benefit of being with mom and dad for a while because they can really help you if you're willing to listen to them. But the reality is what does mom and dad know, right? At that age. Now look at verse 13 of Luke chapter 15. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country. So it'd be safe to assume that he had had that desire already in his heart. He didn't get the money and all of a sudden think, you know what, I could leave. Oh, no, no. He had the desire in his heart for a long time. I can't wait to get out of here. I can't wait to get rid of these restrictions and these limits. I want to get out, live my own life, do what I want to do. So not many days after. And he's heading out. And you know what he thinks? He thinks, man, this is going to be fun. I got all this money, nobody's telling me what to do, this is going to be great. In fact, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 25 would probably verify that. Hebrews 11, 25 in reference to Moses says, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin. Did I finish that verse? No, I didn't finish that verse. Neither did this young man. The pleasures of sin. Oh yeah, I'm gonna have me a good time. I'm gonna wallow in sin. And yet the scripture says the pleasure of sin for a season. You know, a lot of the young people graduate from high school. They decide to go to college. And I have nothing against that, as long as you know what you're going there for. I would be more prone to go to a community college or a vocational or technical college, where you actually learn what you need to learn, and you don't have to waste your time with the other junk. But anyway, there are a lot of young people that will go to college on a four-year scholarship or what have you. And the statement is, the saying is, that college is a four-year vacation between your mother and your wife. And that's what a lot of young people look at. 27%, these are the latest statistics, 27% go to college strictly to party. Strictly to party. Yet research shows that more than 80% of college students drink alcohol and almost half report binge drinking in the past two weeks. And virtually all college students experience the effects of college drinking. College is one of those places where you're away from your parents, there's little accountability, you have all this time, especially if you're smart. If you're smart enough to go to college, you probably don't have to spend a lot of time studying. A lot of the young people that go to college have good minds and therefore they get what they're being taught and it gives them time where they probably should be looking for a job to help pay for their college, have time to party. The pleasures of sin. which has a limited duration, is for a season. And in America, that season can be for years, because there are so many opportunities in America, so many venues that a young person could get themselves into, looking to please themselves, looking for pleasure, and not realizing what it's getting them into. I think about Esau, Esau and Jacob. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup He sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. Thinking at the time, this doesn't mean anything to me, I'm hungry right now, who cares about the future? Until he got to the future. And when he got to the future, he wept bitter tears for a stupid mistake that he made, but it couldn't be fixed. Pleasure of sin for a season. Aesop was a sixth century BC Greek poet. And he wrote an interesting fable one time about the fly and the honey. And he said, you know, you watch that fly. That fly gets the scent of that honey and begins to circle around that honey. Let's say somebody spills some of it. And so here's the fly flying around that honey. And it's smelling so good, and it's looking so good, and he gets closer and closer and closer. And finally, he goes right down in it. And that little tongue of his comes out, and he's lapping it up and lapping it up and lapping it up until he gets full. Now he says, you know what, I'm going to fly away. And he realizes, I can't get my foot out of the honey. I'm stuck. And he spreads his little wings and tries to fly as hard as he can, but he's stuck. You know what sin will do? Sin will get you stuck. It'll get you stuck. You start out, pleasures of sin. All of a sudden, not all of a sudden, after a while, you realize, I'm stuck in this. So number one. one of the stages of being lost. The first one is the assumption that sin is fun. Second assumption, he never planned on ending up in a pig pen. I don't think anybody plans on ending up where they end up in sin. Luke 15 and verse 13, it says, they're wasted as substance with riotous living. I don't think he ever planned that. I don't think he ever planned to take all that money from his daddy's and head out, and all of a sudden look into those money bags and say, you know what, there's nothing left. I don't think he ever planned that. Nobody plans that. You know, Luke 15's an interesting chapter. It's the lost chapter, because you have a lost sheep, you have a lost coin, and a lost son. It's the lost chapter. The sheep gets lost because of preoccupation. The sheep gets preoccupied with something. That's why sheep get lost. He's eating away in the grass and what have you, and the flock heads this way, and he's just preoccupied with filling his belly up with that good grass. The next thing he knows, he's away from the flock. And America is full of sinful preoccupations. Well, you can fall into preoccupations so quick. Good things can become a preoccupation. Some of you guys have the work ethic. I appreciate that. But you better be careful that that work doesn't become the preoccupation and start taking away from church. Some people have other preoccupations. It may be a hobby. I have nothing against hobbies. But if your hobby becomes a preoccupation that takes you away from the things of God, then it's a problem. This sheep was lost because it got preoccupied and stuff and got away from the flock. The coin was lost due to someone's negligence. someone's negligence. Back when we used to work in the inner city of Tulane, in fact, we first started going down there in this building on Adams and 13th Street, and we had a bus route, and we decided we were gonna do Sunday school. And we made the mistake of thinking that you can do Sunday school in the inner city in the morning. So we ran our bus through the housing projects in the morning, and we hardly got anybody. And we were driving through there one Sunday morning, and we recognized one of our kids just wandering around in the downtown area. Her name was Janita. And so I pulled the bus away, opened the door, I said, Janita, what are you doing? She said, I'm just wandering around. Does your mom know you're around here? Well, my mom hasn't been home for three days. Oh, would you like to come to Sunday school? Sure. Mom hadn't been home for three days. Mom would get her check at the first of the month and then you don't see mom for a while. That's inner city life, housing projects. Some people are lost because of negligence of somebody else. But in this case, this son is lost because of miscalculation. He never starts out to waste his substance with riotous living and end up in a pig pen. He didn't start out that way, didn't plan that. Nobody starts out with the idea of being an addict. Nobody starts out with the idea of spending the majority of their life in prison. Nobody starts out with a plan of dying of some incurable disease like AIDS. No one plans to make their home at the rescue mission or underneath an overpass. No one plans on standing on a corner with a cardboard sign to make a living. We don't start out planning it that way. But we think, I'm just going to get in a little bit of sin here and a little bit there, and we absolutely miscalculate. And the next thing we know, as Ravi Zacharias, I've mentioned him before, and it's sad that he blew it. But he said one time, and this is a great quote, sin will take you farther than you want to go. And the Cathedral Quartet, by the way, did a song based on that. They added a little bit to it. But it goes, sin will take you farther than you want to go, slowly but wholly taking control. Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay. Sin will cost you far more than you want to pay. And it's interesting that the irony is that nobody knows that better now than Ravi Zacharias, who is in heaven. But nobody learned that lesson better than he did. Sin took him farther than he wanted to go. We never imagine that we're going to go that route. We never plan on ending up in the pig pen. Thirdly, It's easy to be lost. For most, it's an easy thing to be lost. Luke 15, verse 13, it says, gathered all together and took his journey into a far country. He didn't have to look where the road went. It was there. He didn't have to get out his GPS and try to put some coordinates in there and what have you and say, how do I get to the far country? The road was there. He had no problem with that. Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, very familiar text. It says, enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at. Wasn't hard to find the road to the far country. And the Broadway is like the modern day interstate. There's so many entrance ramps. If you wanna go that route there, you can get on it in a number of places. And this young man found how easy it was to take the wrong road. and head into the far country. Ephesians chapter two verse two says this, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. The course of this world, the broad way, the route that takes you to the far country. And it's a course that always takes you away from Jesus Christ. Well, it may take you to religion, but it takes you away from Jesus Christ. And for many that take that course, bad things happen automatically. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 21 says this, evil pursueth sinners, but the righteous good shall be repaid. Evil pursueth sinners. Well, I wish our young people would understand that. You think you're just going in that direction. You think you're just going to go this way and nothing's going to happen. You'll get out of it in time. And you don't realize that you're being chased. Evil pursueth sinners. And can I help you with that? It'll catch up with you. It'll catch up with you. Proverbs chapter three verse 33 says this, the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the just. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked. Now we all go through stuff. We all go through stuff, and when it's a Christian going through something, my choice of thought is that they're going through a test or trial. It could be chastisement. But my choice of thought is testing and trial. But have you ever wondered why some lost people, some lost families, seem to go through some really tough stuff? It's almost as if they are cursed. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked. I'll give you a famous family that went through a lot of stuff, and that's the Kennedy family. I mean the old man was a bootlegger and he was connected with the mafia and he got his son John connected with the mafia. That's documented, there's no doubt about that. And Teddy, Teddy killed a woman and was able to get away with it. And Bobby, Bobby was a good guy. Bobby was pursuing the mafia. It was this irony when you study the Kennedys. The old man is promoting the mafia, and Bobby's trying to prosecute them. Well, what happened? Bobby's assassinated. John is assassinated. Teddy should be in jail, should have been in jail. What about John Kennedy's son, John Kennedy Jr.? ? dies in an airplane crash. What in the world is going on with that family? The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked. Now, if you're a Christian, if you were raised in a Christian family, a Christian home, and you decide, like many do, turn their back on their Christian raising and their family, their parents, turn their back on all of that stuff and say, I'm going to go live my own way. Listen, if that person was saved, it's not going to be easy for them to do that. Lester Roloff used to talk about God's holy hound dogs. Because when it comes to a child of God turning their back on Jesus Christ and going off on their own way, God has these holy hound dogs that will chase them down and will not let them get away with it. He'll catch up with them sooner or later. So it's not quite as easy to someone that's saved or been raised under a biblical influence. So here's this young man. He thinks there's pleasure in sin. He doesn't think he's gonna go as far as other people would think he was gonna go. He knows it's easy for him to take this route. And the sad thing is he is absolutely blind to his fate. Luke chapter 15, look at verse 13. He said, gathered all together and took his journey into a far country. Listen to me, there's no place farther than when you walk away from the Lord. There's no place far, so where's the far country? Any direction, 360 degrees, any direction that has you walking away from Jesus Christ. That's the far country. The Amish, the Amish youth have what's called, I think I'm pronouncing this correctly, rumspringa. which for some, normally at the age of 16, some between 17 and 21, depends which sect of the Amish you're talking about. But rumspringa is the idea of letting a youth go, letting them leave the community, and having them make the choice on whether they want to come back and be baptized as an Amish person in the community or to simply leave the community once and for all. We've talked to pastors on occasion in Pennsylvania. He said it's hilarious when the Amish kids do that because it is so obvious what they are. It's so obvious what they're going through. They've left the community, but they still look Amish. They try to put on different clothes, but they're still... Everybody looks at them and says, there's the Amish. And the world doesn't take them in. The world laughs at them. And the Christians pity them, but there they are. And, you know, they think they're doing something great, and they think they're finding out what they've been missing all their lives. And some of them continue on in that way. Some of them come back. This young man decides he's going to take the trip into the foreign country. And it's all very different. If you've ever been to a foreign land, it's different. We've been to Greece a couple times, been to Poland, been to Scotland, England. It's different. The culture is different. The language, depending where you go, is different. The dress is different. The morality is different. The religion is different. The far country is a foreign land and everything is different. And you know what's interesting? When you're in a foreign country, you always look for something that reminds you of home. For some reason, that makes you feel better. We've been in Greece, in Thessaloniki, Greece, and you walk by the Aegean Sea, they've got a nice port area by the Aegean, and you walk down this road, and lo and behold, there's Starbucks right there. That makes you feel like you're at home. There's a Starbucks, I think we found one in Poland also. You find a Starbucks, man, you feel like you're at home. You find a McDonald's, we went to a McDonald's in Warsaw, made you feel like you're at home, you know. There's always some way to relate back to home, because you're in a far country. And things are different. And for this young man, he has left what he's had under his daddy, and he is finding things are very different. He doesn't understand it. He doesn't understand everything that's going on. And he doesn't understand the fate that he's about to come into. He is like a spiritual zombie. Proverbs 4 verse 19 says, the way of the wicked is as darkness they know not at what they stumble. Now here's a young man that's left home and he's walking now in darkness, spiritual darkness. And it's all different. And there's a lot of stuff over there for him to trip over and to stumble over. And he, needless to say, finds enough for the trip over. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 4, it says, Whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. You wonder why the people you're trying to witness to have such a hard time with you? Because they're absolutely blind. They're blind. You know, don't get upset with people, lost people, when they ridicule. Don't get upset with lost people when they seem to ignore you or they don't want anything to do with you. They're blind, they just don't see what's going on. The God of this world has blinded their minds and all we can do is give them light and hope and pray that the light enters through the darkness and begins to make them think. I remember hearing our assistant pastor years and years and years ago. talk about, and I've never found the story. He talked about the old evangelist Bob Harrington. Some of you remember Bob Harrington, a chaplain of Bourbon Street. He was quite an individual. He's home with the Lord now. But either he or somebody he knew told a story of driving on a old bridge. I don't think it was him, and I don't know exactly what lake it was. But somebody was driving on an old wooden bridge, over a lake at night and it was raining. It had been raining for three days. This is in Louisiana somewhere. And the water was rising. And he's driving along and he looks ahead and he sees the headlights of vehicles coming toward him. That would be normal. And then they disappear. There's no off-ramp here. Maybe their alternator went out. And he sees another set of lights coming. Same thing. Disappears. And another. So he's getting a very weird feeling. And so he stops his car, and he gets his flashlight out, and he begins to walk. And he walks just a little bit, looking at the bridge, and all of a sudden there's no bridge there anymore. That water had risen and washed out a large section of that bridge, and these cars that were coming had no idea. And they just hit that and right into that water. So what did he do? He got in his car, backed it up, and did this with it, turned it sideways, then got his flashlight out and did this to warn anybody coming, you can't go, the bridge is out. You know, our responsibility for these folks that wander these streets and live in these houses around here, the people you work with, you know what our responsibility is to them? To stand there with the flashlight. and say, you don't want to come this way. You don't want to go this way. Turn around because there's a disaster waiting for you. Here's this young man, blinded, walking in darkness, heading right into a disaster. Nobody's there to warn him. Nobody's there to tell him. And he heads right into it. And the next thing he knows, he's lost all of his money. He has no way to make a living and he's in trouble. The sad thing is, number five, the sad thing is he couldn't be forced to admit it. Lost people cannot be forced to admit that they're lost. They have to come to that realization. We can't force people to acknowledge the fact that they're lost and on their way to hell. If we could, we got just the guy here that could do that. Slam him up against a wall a few times, are you lost? I'm lost. But we can't do it that way. Now Peter Cartwright did some things like that, the old evangelist. But people have to come to that realization on their own. You couldn't have told this kid, even after he had wasted all of his substance with riotous living, you couldn't have told him at any time, hey, you think you made a mistake? That wouldn't have dawned on him yet. But you know what we can do for people? We can give people who are lost and in darkness a spiritual slap in the face. We can do that. I mean, you think about this, when Jesus, and Jesus' treatment of the religious leaders was much more severe than the average person, because the religious leaders should have known better. And on one occasion, John chapter eight, Jesus said to these religious leaders, you have your father, the devil, and the lust of your father, he will do. Just like that. trying to wake them up, trying to get them to realize their mistake. In Matthew 23, over and over and over again, you foolish people, generation of vipers, hypocrites. In fact, Matthew 23, verse 33, he said, you serpents, you generation of vipers, how shall you escape the damnation of hell? And they're still having a hard time getting it. Stephen preaching in Acts chapter 7 to the Sanhedrin, basically the nation's last chance to get right about Jesus Christ. They refused. And he said this, he said, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do you. And they didn't get it. Sometimes people can get it and sometimes they don't. I believe in iconoclastic preaching. Say, what in the world is iconoclastic preaching? An iconoclast is one that breaks idols. So I like to break idols. I don't have a problem with that. Preaching one year in Memphis, Tennessee on Beale Street, this guy was talking to me and we were talking back and forth and he was ridiculing Christians because we believe in God and we believe in creation. And I said, what do you believe in? He looked at me with serious eyes. He said, evolution. You know what I did? I did this. And one of the guys with us said, man, when you did that, that guy looked shocked. He didn't know what to do and what to say. And I said, don't let me get this straight. We're nuts because we believe that there was a God with a personality and omniscience and omnipotence and what have you that created everything. And you believe that we all came from a rock. And he looked at me and said, no, that's not what we believe. I said, tell me what you believe. Well, there was this pool, and this pool was full of minerals. Where did the minerals come from? Well, when the rain washed over the rock. Yeah, you believe we came from a rock. I don't have a problem tearing other false religions down, I really don't. We tore the Jehovah Witnesses apart a little bit this morning, I don't have a problem with that. Tore the Roman Catholics apart a little bit, I have no problem with that. Because sometimes, People need a rude awakening. You know, preaching on the street for years, I had three subjects that I concentrated on. One was the law, and we talked about this, I think, last week. Sin is the transgression of the law. And you say, preacher, you know, the lost people don't really understand a lot, and they don't understand a lot. I'm not gonna get into deep theology with lost people. They don't get that. But there's something they understand. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. They get that. A fellow said one time, it's not the stuff in the Bible I don't understand that bothers me. It's the stuff that I do understand. They understand thou shalt not. They understand what sin is. They get that. So it's always good to preach the law to people. I also like to preach about death. There's a point when a man wants to die, and after that, the judgment. So why would you do that? Ecclesiastes chapter seven, you don't have to turn there, but you probably should write it down somewhere. Ecclesiastes seven, starting at verse two, says this. Listen, it's better to go to the house of mourning, funeral home, than to go to the house of feasting, the party. Why? For that is the end of all men. And you know what this world wants to avoid? The thought of an ending. They think about their life and their goals, but they never realize that there's coming a day when their life is going to end. And the scriptures say there's but one step between me and death. Our life is but a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow. I've challenged people. The obituary columns in every newspaper adds new names every day. You prove to me your name's not going to be in there tomorrow. I say, preacher, that's rough. I'm trying to wake people up. For that is the end of all men. The living will lay it to his heart. Verse three, sorrow is better than laughter. For by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. For the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. People need to wake up. Some people, it's a shock. You know, you're gonna die someday. Don't say that. Well, is it true or isn't it? You're gonna die someday. Where are you gonna go? And then there's such a thing as Pascal's Wager. He was a philosopher and a thinker during the mid 1600s and very simple, very simple logical thought here. If you're right and I'm wrong, I've lost nothing. Oh, and maybe I've missed out on a few of the so-called pleasures of life and the luxuries of life. But if you're right and I'm wrong, I've lost nothing. If I'm right and you're wrong, you've lost everything, including you're going to burn in hell. That helps people sometimes to think, you know? Oh, you Christians. Okay. If you're right, I'm living a great life. If I'm right, you're going to die and burn in hell for eternity. Do you want to take that risk? And then, judgment. Oh, it's always good to preach about the great white throne judgment. So sometimes we can't force people to admit their loss. We can't force people to repent. No one could have told this young man, even after he had lost everything, no one could have told him, you know, you've been living wrong, you made a mistake. But we can help people to think. All right, number six. He's taken this route, thought he was gonna have fun. It was an easy road to get on. Never planned on wasting his substance and riotous living. Didn't realize the complications that's gonna come from this, because sin always complicates stuff. Couldn't tell him he's wrong. Number six, stage six is he has lost control of the situation. He has gotten to the point where he has lost control of the situation, and it gets worse. Let me rephrase that. It's quite possible that God is taking control of the situation. So what makes you say that? Look at verse 14 of Luke 15. Verse 14, and when he had spent all There arose a mighty famine in the land and he began to be in want. How did that coincidentally happen to happen? Just by coincidence, after he lost everything, not before, but after he had lost everything, suddenly there's a famine in the land and he is in want. Why do you think there was a famine in the land? Because I think there was an old man sitting on his porch that was praying every day, Lord bring him back, Lord bring him back, bring him back. And God said, okay, I'm gonna work on that. And puts a famine in the land. So he's in want, the scripture says. The borrower is servant to the lender. He's lost control. He has experienced at this point now humiliation. Vulnerability, fear, may even be contemplating suicide. And then look at verse 16. This is so enlightening. Look at verse 16. Look at the phrase, and no man gave unto him. No man gave unto him. If somebody would have given unto him, you think he'd have come back to Danny? And maybe that's the problem with welfare. Maybe that's the problem with these organizations that said, we need to feed the poor, we need to feed these poor homeless people. Maybe you just need to let them alone and maybe they might come to themselves and realize, boy, this was a stupid choice I made. No man gave in to him. And so now this Broadway that he got on a while back, that was easy to get on, broad as a way, wide as a gate, he's now finding out it's leading him to destruction. And I believe I've told you before, you get on the Broadway, it always diminishes itself. And now you know where he is? This lane just closed, that lane just closed. You see all the signs, you know, where they got the arrows pointing this way. The lanes are closing. And all of a sudden he is on a narrow path that is descending that he cannot get off. Straight is the gate, narrow is the way. Those of us who have trusted Christ as our Savior have gone the straight gate. And what have we found? It gets wider and wider and wider. That's a wonderful thing about being a Christian. Yes, I'm going to come to Christ. I'm going to go through the straight gate, the narrow way. I'm going to go that way. And as you live your life as a Christian for a while, you realize, you know what? This thing is getting better and better and gooder and gooder and gooder. Yeah. You remember why you left? I'm going to have a good time. I'm going to do what I want to do. Trench again in his commentary says this, God when his service no longer appears a perfect freedom and man promises himself something far better elsewhere, allows him to make the trial and he shall discover if need be by saddest proof that to depart from him is not to throw off the yoke, but to exchange a light yoke for a heavy one, and one gracious master for a thousand imperious tyrants and lords." Boy, what a truth that is. He said, I'm going to get away from mom and dad. I'm going to turn my back on God. Somebody is going to run your life. Somebody will end up running your life. No man is free unless you're free in Christ. I'm the servant of Christ, that's my freedom. If I walk away from him, somebody is gonna control my life. I'm gonna be the servant to somebody. And it won't be as good as him. Young people, again, you all need to understand that. You need to get that. You're gonna serve somebody. Best thing to do is serve the best master, the most gracious master that there is, who has the lightest yoke for anyone to put on. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. But you don't want that, so I'm gonna go my own way. Well, the Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. The way of the transgressor is hard. And then in verse 15. He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, which is exactly the last place any Jewish boy would want to be. Is it possible that God has put him in the best possible position to get right with God? You know, God cannot make anybody get saved, and we make that mistake in prayer all the time. Lord, please save so-and-so. Lord, please save so-and-so. And I think the Lord knows what we mean, but God cannot violate anybody's free will. He can't make somebody get saved. Our prayer should be, Lord, bring them as far as they possibly can where they'll be the most willing they've ever been in their life to trust Christ. God cannot violate the free will, but He sure can make a person willing. And that's what we need to pray. Make them willing, Lord. Make them willing. And then the seventh stage is the good one. Look at Luke chapter 15, look at verse 17. He comes to himself. There's nobody there to tell him because he doesn't need anybody there to tell him. He finally gets it. Luke 15 verse 17, and when he came to himself, He admits his condition. And notice what he says in verse 18. Father, I have sinned. Now this is so important. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. If all he would have said was, Father, I have sinned against thee, he would have missed it. Because the issue with getting right with God is getting right with Him. I remember Dr. Brooke at Toledo Bible College talking about preaching at the Detroit City Rescue Mission. Here's some guy comes up, clean-cut, distinguished-looking individual, middle-aged. He's bawling his eyes out. And so he goes up to him and says, well, what are you doing up here? He said, I want my family back. I've messed up. He became an alcoholic. He was a surgeon. He couldn't do it anymore because he was shaking too much. He said, I want God to give me my family back, and my children back, and my wife back, and all that stuff. And he never mentioned anything about sin. And Brother Brooks said, go back in your seat. When you're ready to get right with God, you let me know. All he wanted was to get back what he had lost. The fact of the matter is, for a person to get right with God, he's got to confess his sin that he sinned against God. Our sin is against God, number one. And then secondly, those that we've offended. This kid gets it right. And so the Holy Spirit's been working on him. John 16 and verse 8 says, speaking of the Holy Spirit, when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment. God is working, had been working on him to bring him back. I remember reading about St. Patrick of Ireland and He lived in England at the time. His daddy was a deacon in a church. He was raised in the church, but he lived in England at the time when, I think it was 4th century, 3rd or 4th century AD. And the Romans were controlling it for that period of time. And then they had so many problems in Rome that they had to pull all their troops back in. And so basically they left England. They said, you're on your own. And as a result, there were people running from Ireland that were making slaves or catching people making slaves. So they'd go to the coast of England in their ships and they would capture people that they see there and take them in their ships and take them back to Ireland and make a slave out of them. And that's what happened to Patrick. And Patrick later in his confessions, one of his confessions, he says this, he saw that as God chastening him. He said, that's why that happened. I was a young man that had turned my back on God, and I'm out trying to live on my own, and God chastened me by having them catch me and make a shepherd out of him, if you will. He said, we deserved what we got. And so at the age of 16, he was carried over to a foreign land. He said, we deserved what we got. You know what that is? That's the Holy Spirit convicting. When the Holy Spirit is convicting a person, they won't have a problem admitting, you know what, I'm getting what I deserve. I'm getting what I deserve. And he knew where he should be. Verses 17 and 18 would be with the father. And he knew the path back was acknowledging his sin against God and against his father. And he knew humility in verse 19. And then he made a decision because if you're ever going to do anything in life for God, you have to make a decision. He made a decision in verse 20 and he arose. He got the heart right, but he said, I still have to do something. I've got to stand up and I've got to go back. And he arose, he took action. You know, we deal with people that are in one of these stages and We pray that eventually they'll come to themselves and realize their need for Christ. But really, there are some signs that people are coming to themselves in our day and age. There are some signals, and you need to be aware of these. I'll give you one of them. If you're working with somebody that's not saved, you've witnessed to them, what have you, and it just doesn't seem to be getting where, and all of a sudden they begin to ask you questions about spiritual things. That's a sign right there that God is working in their heart. They start coming to church. Oh, they don't make a profession, but they start coming to church. And they begin to show an interest in the Bible. And they start listening to Christian radio or Christian TV or something. And they like to be around Christians. They like to come to different fellowships. They like that. All of those are signals that that individual is coming to themselves and beginning to realize their need for Christ. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. Don't ever criticize anybody that's lost just when they come to church. And just sit there, you know. Why don't they get saved? Why don't they go forward? Give them time. Right now they are in the process of coming to themselves and eventually they'll come to Christ. And then the last thing, the next to last thing, restoration. Luke chapter 15, verse 20, he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. Where was daddy if he saw him a great way off? Sitting on the front porch. Or maybe he sat a chair up there right alongside the road and every day he's just sitting there. And this day, his heart will leap inside of his chest. This young man, he arose and came to his father, but when he was a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Note the verb saw, ran, fell, kissed, the noun compassion. This was the greatest day in the father's life. And it's a great day in the Heavenly Father's life when a sinner comes to know Christ as their Savior. The Bible says, likewise in heaven, or likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over 99 just persons that need no repentance. You know, when a person comes to Christ, God goes crazy. If there's ever a shouting in heaven, it's the Father doing it every time a sinner comes to Christ. And one of the greatest of human emotions is the joy of forgiveness and restoration. And this young man is receiving forgiveness and he's gonna be restored and his daddy has forgiven him and his daddy's excited. This is a great time for this young man. But may I add this, there's one more thing we need to understand. Luke 15 and verse 12, remember how this started out? And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that fall to me. And he divided unto them his living. Verse 31, the father's talking to the elder brother who's having a problem with this. He sees the fatted calf being butchered. He sees all the excitement about his stupid brother that took everything his father had and walked away and blew it all. He's having a problem with it. Can you understand why? But look what Daddy says. He said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. All that I have is thine, Son. He doesn't have anything but a new robe and a ring on his finger and some new shoes and a good meal that he hasn't had in a long time. Other than that, that's all he has. preacher I thought you said he was forgiven and restored he was he's still his father's son he's been forgiven by his father his father's overjoyed and seeing him there but he lost his inheritance and he's never ever ever going to get it back Let's understand something very quickly. Young people, listen to me. You turn your back on God. You do something stupid like this, young man, and you waste all your substance with riotous living, and you end up in a pig pen, and you decide to get right, and you say, I'm gonna come back. I'm gonna come back to God. I'm gonna go back to church. I'm gonna start living right again. That's great. But it'll never, ever be the same. It'll never, ever, ever be the same. The relationships will be altered forever. This father, who loves this boy for returning, will always remember the day that he walked away. And he'll remember the day he returned with nothing. His older brother will always remember the stupid thing his little brother did. And every time he sees that little brother working with the hired hands, working with the servants, because the only way he's gonna make money now is by working with the servants and working with the hired hands. Maybe he'll work himself up to be a foreman, maybe he'll work himself up to be a manager, but that's how he's gonna make his money, working like that. And the older brother, every time he sees that, he thinks, you stupid kid. You stupid kid. And if this older brother has boys and he's raising his boys, I guarantee you, when his boys say, Danny, how come our uncle has to work like that and you don't? He'll tell them the story. And he'll tell his boys, don't ever do anything as stupid as your uncle did. Relationships will never be the same. Well, preacher, I don't get it. I mean, if he was forgiven, everything should be okay. You know, David committed a sin with Bathsheba, and he was forgiven. But Nathan said, you know, because you did this thing, the sword will never depart from your house. And that baby Bathsheba is pregnant with, it's going to die. And you've got a daughter by the name of Tamar. She's going to be raped by her brother. And your other son Absalom is going to kill that son for doing it. And Absalom, your son, is going to rebel against you. And it's going to be very, very difficult. All these things are going to happen to you, David, because you did that. But you're forgiven. You rob a bank. You go into a bank. You've got a gun. And you rob them. And you're not two blocks down the road and the police have you. And you ask God to forgive you. You ask the judge to forgive you. And what's going to happen? Oh, that's, go free. No, you're going to do your time. Five to seven in Ohio for armed robbery. You're going to do your time, but you're forgiven. God forgave you and the state of Arizona, Ohio, wherever you are, will forgive you after you do your five to seven. You'll be forgiven, but you're going to pay. And we turn our backs on God. We're going to go our own way. We're going to do our own thing. You're going to pay. One way or the other, whether you stay out in the world or whether you come back to God, you're gonna pay. It'll never, ever, ever be the same. So what are you trying to say? I'm trying to say this. Don't be as stupid as this prodigal son. Young person, the grass is never greener on the other side. Preacher, you don't know what my parents are like. They always put these rules and regulations. Enjoy those rules and regulations. Enjoy it. Because if you walk away from that, it could be a whole lot worse, a whole lot worse. So here's this young man. He had the assumption that being lost is fun, and it was for a while. He never planned on ending up in a pig pen, but he did. Oh, and it was easy to be lost. And he was blind to where he was going. Nobody could tell him he was wrong at the time. But then he lost control of the situation. Fortunately he had a praying daddy that invoked the spirit of God to deal with him about his sin. And eventually he'll come to himself, eventually he'll be restored, but it'll never ever be the same again. I hope that helps you understand why lost people do what they do. Every lost person is going through that stage, one of those stages. Young people, I hope you understand what a terrible, terrible disaster you can make of your life if you walk away from Jesus Christ and you walk away from your family. What a terrible, terrible, terrible disaster you're going to have. I was talking to somebody this week about why people just can't live with Jesus Christ and live for Jesus Christ and avoid the mess that they get themselves into. How in the world can anybody think they can live this life without Jesus Christ beyond me? And that's a true statement. There's evidence all over. for the misery of a life without Jesus Christ. And there's evidence all over of the joy and the blessing of following Christ. Please don't make a stupid decision like this young man did. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this example, this parable, this story. You truly are a wonderful God. And I'm not sure, Lord, why people can't see that, other than the fact they're blind. But you're a wonderful God and a wonderful Savior. And Lord, I can only pray that you would help us to shine a very bright light into the darkness, that maybe some of these people would realize their need for you. Lord, help us to be the witnesses we should be. And Lord, I pray if anybody's in here this morning that's lost, help them to realize the worst thing in the world, other than dying and going to hell, the worst thing in this life, is trying to live without Jesus Christ. So we're gonna speak to some hearts this morning. With heads bowed and eyes closed, the altars open.