have your Bibles, I'd love for you to join me in Luke chapter 15. All of Scripture is instructive. I know that is the case. There are some moments within Scripture, some segments of Scripture, that are very personally instructive to us, and this is one of them. This passage of scripture that we'll work through this morning is undoubtedly familiar to you, even to those who don't attend church. They know the story of the prodigal son. But the reality for us as believers, for those that are even seekers, is it is Jesus, not just some teacher, not merely a prophet, the only begotten Son of God, God in the flesh, who is revealing to us the heart of the Father towards us. This is how God feels about you. Oftentimes we'll say God loves. God is love and God so loved the world. This is one of the segments of scripture that allows us to put a handle on that. That helps us to understand that not only shapes our view of how God sees us, but it shapes our perspective on how we see the world around us. You may recall as we've been working through this study, that in Luke chapter 15, Jesus is responding to an onslaught of attack from the Pharisees and the scribes. To address their murmurings and their complainings, he has told three stories, or will tell three, we're in the third. He spoke of the lost sheep, he told the story of the lost coin, and now he's gonna tell the parable of the prodigal son. In just a few chapters, Luke chapter 19, after Jesus leaves the home of Zacchaeus, he will tell us in summation the whole purpose for his ministry, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. It's a revelation of the amazing grace of God that Jesus is a seeking Savior. And here in Luke chapter 15 and verse 11, though you and I know it to be the story of the prodigal son, it is actually in fact titled by Jesus as a story of two sons. Note verse 11, and he said a certain man had two sons. And then Jesus will tell this story of which we are familiar, and it's stunning teaching. It's amazing revelation from Jesus, telling us about these two sons. Now, I've already addressed it. These parables that Jesus is teaching are in direct address to the murmuring of the Pharisees and the scribes. The self-righteous, the elite, Individuals who judged everybody else's spirituality and morality and capacity to either make it into heaven or fall short. In fact, back in verse 1, the Bible tells us, then drew near unto him, that is Jesus, they come right into his presence, all the publicans and sinners were to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. Murmurs is an onomatopoetic word. You can't say it twice, just once, try hard. Which means there was some grousing, there was some grumbling that came from the back of the crowd. They were looking at Jesus, they were seeing the publicans and sinners around him, and they were making decisions and judgments about him. They murmured because he had the audacity to say that he was from God, but if he were actually from God, he would never be surrounded by such riffraff. Jesus clearly is aware, not only of their murmuring, it was audible, he knows their inner monologue, and he knows every one of their private thoughts. So Jesus responds to those private thoughts with these parables. But they were disturbed greatly. They thought it outrageous that Jesus would receive sinners and that he would eat with them. He's approving them publicly. I found this very interesting as we looked at that word receive. It helped us to understand a little. It's more than simply allowing them into his presence. It communicates that he was embracing them. He was drawing them in. But I did a little bit of a word study and I feel like this helps to amplify our awareness of God's love for us. That word receiveth, as Luke uses it six times in his writing, really tells us about the heart of God. For as Luke uses that word receive, he's communicating to eagerly wait, to have an expectation to look for. How many of you look forward to the holiday season? All right. How many of you are just miserable human beings? Right? When the holiday season arrives, we have some awareness that company will probably come. Oftentimes in the olden days when people loved their families. They would long for family members or relatives to show up at their house. I can remember when I was a child looking forward to the arrival of my grandparents. When my grandparents came to the house, it meant I was going to be spoiled. It meant I was going to be less accountable, and I was gonna get into less trouble, and I was gonna eat sweets. That's what it meant. And I would wait eagerly for my grandparents to arrive. Now in the olden days when I was growing up, we would have to largely estimate when we would show up. You knew that Cincinnati to Northern Virginia was probably nine hours. You were just guessing. You had no clue. Could have been a highway shutdown. Could have taken you 12. No clue. Couldn't stop on the side of the road and call. We didn't even have phones back then. But I do remember going out onto the front porch and waiting, and I could see up the hill of the road that we lived on, and I knew what car they would drive, and I'd wait eagerly to see that car. And when I saw that car, I would get up and I would have an outward representation of my inward anticipation. It was excitement. What Luke is telling us is instructive about God's heart towards you and I. It's not just some word within the scripture. This amplifies our comprehension of the love of God. He uses this word. Listen to when he uses it. Back in Luke 2, that's the Christmas story. Again, the holidays are coming. In the midst of the Christmas story, little baby Jesus is going to the temple. And we read this in Luke 2, 25. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. That phrase, waiting for the consolation of Israel, here is Simeon waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. He's desperate, he's eagerly anticipating the Messiah's arrival and he gets to see him. Same account, just a little bit later in verse 38, Anna the prophetess is there and she, coming in that instance, gave thanks. Gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. It's the same word, looked for. Jesus is gonna tell a story about men waiting for the return of the bridegroom. He says this in Luke 12 and verse 36, and ye yourselves like unto me that wait for their Lord. When he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Now, this isn't just a word study to bore you to death, which Summit has clearly done that for, and apologies. Unless you have a life insurance policy gifted to the church, in which case, we need it. It's amplifying our understanding. It's helping us to engage greater comprehension of how God feels about us. Jesus is telling this story and he's under attack from the Pharisees and scribes and they're murmuring because Jesus is actually eagerly awaiting publicans and sinners. He's waiting for their headlights to turn into his driveway. He's desperate for them to come toward his door. He's waiting for them, and when they arrive, he's ready to open the door. That's what Jesus is telling us about the heart of God towards us. It sets up this whole scene for us. The story of these two sons. Now, we know the one as the prodigal son. He's the bad guy who does good, right? And then there's the elder son, who is clearly the big jerk in the whole story. You say, actually, he's the righteous one. Actually, not so much. Both sons are lost. Both sons desecrate the father's love. Both sons are distant. One leaves physically, the other's distant and absent spiritually. Both of the sons actually need to be found. But Jesus begins this story and everyone's listening, the publicans, the sinners, the Pharisees, the scribes, and he starts in verse 12 telling us about the younger son and the request that he made. Listen in. 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 quick history. The older son merited the biggest inheritance. In fact, legally, he could flat out receive twice as much as any of the other children. Even this request. Though in bad taste is not really illegal, you could ask for your inheritance before your parents were dead. Doesn't always work, I've tried it. But the intonation of this story is not that this guy's got a business endeavor that he wants to tackle, so he's looking for his inheritance. There's coldness in his request. In other words, he is saying to his father, I wish you were already dead. I just want what's coming to me. I simply want to run away and get out of this. Did any of you run away as a child? I mean like run away as a child. Like as a little child, you'd put a backpack on and head out. You'd go down the street about three houses and then turn and go home. Anybody do that? Anyone? I'm still trying to run away. My parents moved to Charlotte. They find me. This young man is running away. He's asking for his inheritance here and now, verse 13. And not many days after, Jesus said, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. Now, riotous living for the younger sounds fun. At 48, it sounds awful. I don't have any riotous living left in me. That literally means wild living. Abandoned living. Reckless living. I don't even want to be near it. I don't want him to be my neighbors either. No riotous around me. He wasted his substance in riotous living. And for a season, his life was great. For a moment in time, running from the accountability of the Father's presence feels good. The young man is saying, in effect, I'm tired of waiting for you to die. I'm tired of living within this structure. I'm tired of being accountable to your morals. I'm tired of living under your rules. I want out of here. So far he wants to go. The Bible says, according to Jesus' story, he went to the far country. What I know to be true is the far country does not really need to be a destination far geographically. He had already left in heart and mind. Away he goes. In fact, even when he gathered everything together, what's communicated to us is that he cashed out all of his inheritance. He turned it liquid, and he went away, and he wasted all of his substance in riotous living, clearly never expecting to see the Father again. Now, all of these Pharisees are listening into this story, all these scribes. They've heard Jesus tell the story of the lost sheep, but they don't really like shepherds, because a shepherd couldn't even come into the temple courtyard. He was considered unclean. They wouldn't even shake his hand. In the second story that Jesus told, he was so audacious that the hero of a story is a woman. Can you imagine a Pharisee and a scribe thinking heroically of a woman in the story? But now, they kind of have their figure. It's the father. And in their minds, they're murmuring because they don't really pay attention to teaching anyways because they're master teachers themselves. And they're saying, I know exactly what I'd do to that boy who ran away. I'd hold a funeral for him. And they would. If you were a rebellious child, if you were in the situation of this young man, it was not uncommon. In fact, it was expected that you would hold a funeral for that son. In effect, if you want your inheritance and I'm dead to you, then I say that you are dead to me. You have dishonored me. I believe that's how far, culturally speaking, Jesus conveying this story, everybody assumes it has gone. There's a clue to that. In fact, in verse 24 later, the father will say, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be married. The young son, the prodigal son, makes a request. He wants everything that's coming to him. He turns it liquid, he runs away, and he wastes it all. His request leads to his misery. Listen in on verse 14. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. 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 husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. How many of you have ever felt an urge to say amen in a service? That is about what I expected. It's cool. Again, you gotta say something worth amening, I get it. It's Pastor Appreciation Month though. throw one out there. Oh, thank you. That one kind of felt cheap, you know? Felt like I asked for it. But I want you to grasp this. If ever there was a moment in Jesus' preaching and teaching that one of the Pharisees was in the back going, amen, it was this moment. Because the young son, who had desecrated and dishonored the father, finds himself penniless and out there serving the swine and no one's around to help him. And the Pharisees and the scribes are back there saying, amen to that. That's how it ought to be. Of course, that's what he should have. No help whatsoever, out feeding the pigs and the swine. But Jesus reveals something to us. I find this so interesting. There hasn't been a day that you and I, as one of the Lord's children, as His sheep, have made it easy for Him to be our shepherd. We're prone to wander. We pursue the flesh. We imagine that it will give us freedom, that it intonates happiness. But in fact, it's always servitude. For this boy, he was not anymore in a relationship father to son and serving within that loving bond. He now is out serving slave to master in a pig pen. So we can simply summarize and understand when our mind imagines that we can get away from scripture and these moorings of righteousness and truth, and in doing so, satiate our fleshly and carnal desires and ambition, it means happiness and freedom. In fact, what it means is though you are out from under this authority, you will find yourself in servitude to something or someone else. One wrote so clearly, I found it interesting. He said, it may be drugs, maybe alcohol. Maybe it's illicit sex, maybe it's an employer, maybe it's a spouse, maybe it's a sport, maybe it's a hobby. The attachment might be crude or it might be refined, but when we find ourselves unattached from accountability to God, we will inevitably be attached or accountable or in servitude to another. And this alien attachment, he concluded, will send us to the swine troughs. To imagine that getting to pursue and satiate my desires actually means happiness and freedom, away from the foundation, or what we might perceive as the bondage of scripture, is a foolish thought. For the truth, the Bible says, actually makes us free. The young man made a request that he could have everything that was coming to him. He cashed out, he went and wasted it all, and he finds himself in abject misery. A famine is on the land, he has not a penny more, he has nothing to eat, and this young man of Jewish heritage has to take a job. This young man, who's basically from a royal caste home, is now working out in the fields. How shameful, how awful. It is here in this moment that Jesus turns a corner. He begins to pivot the story and all of the Pharisees and scribes who earlier were amening now begin to have quizzical looks on their faces as the young son repents, verse 17. 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. Now get this, his motivation is not just that he's looking at the pigs and knows they have it better than him, He's not just looking down at his clothes and recognizing what I once have, I have completely surrendered. When I once lived in finery, I now smell like pig slop. When I once ate sumptuously, I'm now looking and envying the pig's slop. He also is motivated by the goodness and the generosity of his father. It's a two-pronged realization. He comes to his senses in this moment. The Bible says he came to himself, which means up to this point, he has not really quote unquote been himself. There's been a sin-induced insanity that has taken over. And now in this moment, recognizing his situation, he wakes up and asks, in effect, what in the world am I doing here? These pigs have it better than I do. One pastor said, remorse for his rebellion did not move him. Regret for his sinfulness didn't rattle his conscience. The humiliation of tending swine did not trigger his Jewish heritage. It was the realization that pigs were enjoying a superior lifestyle to his own which sparked a moment of clarity. And that awakes him to the truth. And with his awakened conscience, he has a change of heart. Every now and again, we need to be reminded of the wretchedness of sin. And to be quite honest, we need to be reminded, and hopefully it's only in story form, of how empty a sinful life actually is. And to pursue carnal ambition and to be controlled by our flesh actually ends in the swine trough. It is very illustrative from Jesus to be reminded of this truth, to hopefully avoid that pursuit and that end. But if we have gone to that end, and if we find ourself in that place, when we recognize where we are and how sullied we have become, and we're reminded of the generosity of our Father, there is hope. And we find it in verse 18. Here's the young man saying, I will arise. and go to my father and will say to 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. He's practicing his speech. And in verse 20, he arose and came to his father. Now what I would like, and I know Jesus is telling this story, and it's a pretty short story, so it's only taking a few moments, but I would have loved to have been a part of the inner monologue of one of the Pharisees. Is the Pharisee now hearing this, portion of the story their imagination is running wild and everything they've ever been taught is Rising up within them and they're thinking to themselves. I'll tell you what will happen when that boy gets back to the village He is undoubtedly gonna be stoned Well, they've already had the funeral for this young man. Who does he think he is trying to walk back into the village that he was raised in? Who does he think he is trying to come back and access the generosity and the presence and the relationship of his father? Certainly this is a futile effort indeed. And then Jesus arrives at the second part of verse 20. And the Pharisees, if they were quietly murmuring at this point, they'd probably explode with anger. 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. Now, next week we're actually gonna look at the loving father, so we don't have to get through the rest of the story. I know people do math and their heads are like, we still got the dad and the older son, this is not good. It's three sermons, chill out, you made it. You're literally almost there. The father saw him. Now, again, you have to enter into the moment. You have to be in the culture. You can't just let it be a story you already know or words on a page. The Pharisee is thinking to themselves, oh, the father saw him. Oh. The elders at the gate, they saw him. Here come the stones now. But then Jesus says, no, the father saw him and ran. People of that stature did not run within that culture, but this man is denigrating himself for a filthy animal child. This man is dishonoring himself for a wretched piece of human filth. running to Him. And when He gets to Him, He doesn't pick up a stone and throw it at Him, but rather He has compassion on Him, and He embraces Him, and He kisses Him, and all of the Pharisees and Scribes think, that's it! Enough of this! If there wasn't heresy before, there's heresy now! There's no way that's how God looks! That's somebody covered in filth and slop. And Jesus cuts through all of it and says, I know how heaven works. Happens to be my home. I actually just left there to be here. And I'm going back there after I'm done here. And I'm telling you, I know how God works. And when he uses that word that he received, I already amplified it with a word study. He's waiting. Like waiting for company, he's eagerly anticipating your headlights to swing into his driveway, and when they do, he busts out of the house, he wraps his arm around you, he embraces you, he brings you in and says, your presents are under the tree, and they're still yours. And the Pharisees are aghast at this reality. This young son who practiced his speech when he walked toward the village, no doubt his eyes are downcast. He's had to practice the speech and he even recognizes the reality. He says to his dad, just make me one of your hired servants. I recognize I'll never be one of your sons again. I recognize that I've blown it to such a degree that I'll never get in the family, but if you could just see fit to pay me like an indentured servant, at least I could eat. At least that would be better than the slop of this far land. And can you imagine I can? Stepping into the driveway and seeing your dad run off the porch, I guarantee you this, I would not be thinking, here comes a hug. And here comes an embrace. I assure you I wouldn't be thinking, here comes a kiss. And thank God. Thank God. Here comes dad down through the village. Right past all the elders at the gate who are just now beginning to realize who this young man is. ready to execute judgment, knowing that they can stone him. And here the father embraces this filthy, dirty scoundrel who literally smells. He embraces all the shame of the son. And if you're gonna try to cast down eyes of shame and condescension on the boy, you're gonna have to look through the father to do it. And if you're gonna pick up a stone and try to rain down judgment on the son, well you're gonna have to hit and go through the father to get it done. Because he's there to take the shame and he's there to take the stones. And he walks the boy back through the village to the house, and that child, who utterly left and completely rejected, is back under protection of a loving father. And you have to let this rain down on you. Jesus is saying, by the way, this isn't just a story, this is how God loves you. Not just humanity, I mean you, with your story, and your past, and your weakness, and your sin, He loves you. And sometimes we feel so sullied, and so dirty, and so cheap, so sold out, that we just think, it's not really for me. No, it is for you. It's not just for those that were raised in it, it's not just for those who look the part, it's for you. That's what Jesus is saying, just come home. Just turn the headlights into the driveway. He will love you. He will forgive you. There is grace there for you. That's the good news of the gospel. How awful it is to see the wretchedness of our sin. How wonderful it is to see the generosity of a loving father. This is Jesus sharing the gospel. Every publican and sinner was hanging their head in the first part of the story while the Pharisees and the scribes were amening. By the end of this story, the publicans and sinners begin to pick their chins up and you can probably see a tear or two streaming down their face while the Pharisees in the back are now aghast and hanging their heads because God turns religion on its ear. It's a relationship with Jesus. If you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior, I'm not selling you something that the Baptists have figured out. I'm telling you a Bible truth, God loves you. In spite of your sin, he sent his only begotten son, Jesus, born of a virgin, lived without sin, and willingly died on the cross to take your shame and to pay your death penalty. And if you will simply put your faith and trust in him for salvation, he will save you. Yes, you. I don't care what you've done. It's for you. And then I'll simply say this, believer, if you have wandered in sin, thinking it offered some freedom, only finding it led to the swine trough, come home. He can clean you up. I say to you, believer who looks at a lost world that seems to be more polarized and more different and more dark and more wicked every passing month, I say to you, you better see the lost world like God does. Because we sometimes think to ourselves, yeah, well, God's gonna throw a rock at you, when really God's desperately waiting for them to turn his direction. And we're the agent, we're the ambassador, we're the declarers of the truth and love of God to this lost world. Does your heart match his? Would you bow your heads with me just for a moment? Thanks for listening this week to the Graceway Baptist Church podcast. For more information about our church and our ministries, head on over to our website at gracewaycharlotte.org. We are a church located in South Charlotte. We are growing and our ministries are doing big things for Christ. If you're looking for a way to get plugged into what we're doing, email us at info at gracewaycharlotte.org. Also, stay in the loop with everything happening by following us on Facebook and Instagram. Our handle is GracewayCharlotte. Thanks again for listening to the Graceway Charlotte podcast. We'll see you next week.