Lord, we thank you that you're a God of wonders. We thank you today that you created the universe and you displayed your power to us. But in doing that, you also had a plan for our salvation, that you would send your own son to die on us, die for us. Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for the fact that you know us and yet you still love us and that you have pursued us. And we're thankful we can come today and worship you and we give you our hearts, Lord, today. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, it's been a good weekend already. We had a men's breakfast yesterday, 180 plus men in this room with Bob Vernon, the former assistant chief of police at the LA Police Department. It was a great morning. A loft bill that was amazing, just putting all the pieces together. Thank you, men, ladies that are involved in that. And it's been a good weekend. And by the way, we have the Ladies Bible Study coming up. There are over 50 ladies signed up for that. So ladies, if you want to be part of that study that begins on Tuesday, sign up after the service today. That'd be great. We have a missions conference, a lot of great things. coming up here at Riverview. Well, I'm in a series entitled, Jesus, What's the Story? Studies in the Parables. And as you know, I mentioned last week that one-third of Jesus' recorded teaching is done in parables. Jesus was an amazing storyteller. Mark Twain was asked, who's the greatest storyteller of all time? His answer was Jesus Christ. Then he was asked, what's the greatest story of all time? His answer was the prodigal son. And you might think that it's just a simple story about a son that leaves his father and comes back and repents and the father loves him. But there's so much more in that parable. that we can glean as we read God's Word. It's typically called the prodigal son, this story, but a better word might be the wasteful son. Prodigal really means a wasteful son. It doesn't mean lost. It means that he wasted his time, his resources, and so he's this wasteful son. But he's also the lost son. If you look at Luke 15, and that's the passage we're going to be looking at today, there's a story about the lost sheep and the lost coin. Well, the theme follows, as Jesus talks about, this lost son. But really, I think the best name for this parable would be this, the loving father Really the focus of this story is the loving father and how he responds to this wasteful prodigal son. And the reality is, and what makes this parable so powerful, is that we are all the prodigals. We are the wasteful son. We are the wasteful person that rebelled against the Father. And the Father's loving response as this prodigal comes back ought to remind us of the day when we came to faith in Christ. The day that we put our trust in Jesus Christ and our eternities were changed. The greatest gift you've ever received in your life was when you returned to the Father. The bottom line of this story is this, God's love is amazing and His forgiveness astounding, even when our actions are an appalling affront against Him. God's love is amazing. His forgiveness, astounding. And we see this in a powerful way in this parable. I'd like you to turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15, as we talk about God's amazing love and how Jesus is driving home a point that was radically new to many of the people that were hearing this story. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one nearby. Page 874 in the Chair Bibles. I know we just watched it on the screen, but I'm going to read it again, right from Luke 15. And Jesus said, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Now right there we should stop. As you may know, when a son wants his property before his father dies, that's an insult, especially in the Jewish culture. In the Jewish culture, a son would help his father in his business until his father passed away. Then the Jewish son had the option of continuing in the father's business or doing something else. And most people believe, for example, when Jesus was 30, Joseph had passed away. Jesus had been helping his father, his stepfather, Joseph, in the carpentry business until his father passed away. And then he began his public ministry at the age of 30. Let's continue on. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property and reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. Verse 17, but, I love the buts of the Bible, right? But, when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son, but, There it is again. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put on a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. I think there's some amazing principles that we can see here from this parable. And here's the first one that I like to drive home. It's this. God in his love lets the prodigal go. God in his love lets the prodigal go. You might think, well, Mel, shouldn't the father have locked the son up in a closet and said, you're not leaving. You're not going to leave here. I'm your father. I'm going to control you. No he didn't. This son wanted out. He wanted out badly. He wanted to get away from the control of his father. He wanted freedom. and the Father let him go. To me that's an amazing insight into this parable about our walk with the Lord. That the Lord never forces us to be in a relationship with Him. He doesn't want us to be robots created to worship Him. He loves us too much to make us like that. And sometimes there are people who will walk away from the Lord and rebel against him. And God never forces himself upon those people. There's an amazing way in which God works. We talked about it a bit last week, how he is sovereignly involved in the salvation work that brings us to him. He's working and it would never happen without him, but he never forces us to believe in him. And my prayer would be that, There was a time in your life that you came to Christ willingly and you said, I need Jesus Christ because I've rebelled against God. And that you willingly humbled yourself and said, I can't make it on my own. There's no merit in me that deserves heaven. So therefore I must humble myself, like Jesus said, like a child. Now, you came willingly. You weren't coerced into that decision. No one forced you to make that decision, but you came joyfully because you were aware of your need and aware of your sin and realized the truth of God's word, that the penalty of sin is eternal separation from God, but the free gift of God is eternal life. See, God let the prodigal go. Why? Because he loved him too much to force him to stay as a son in his home. And that's what God does in this world. And I want to tell you today, all the death, all the illness, is all because ultimately man has rebelled against God. My heart attack, all because man's rebelled against God. All illness, all death, all sickness, The sin has entered into the world. Uh, my wife and I went down and saw Joe's and Kim's beautiful little baby, Steven and uh, Kim was holding the baby and it, it's a beautiful little baby, but there's obviously a defect in the chamber of the heart and they're going to try to correct that. All of that, all of that result against the result of man's rebellion, against God. And the best place for us to be is to be at the feet of Jesus saying, Lord, we want to come back into a right relationship with you. Because God's plan was that there would not be death, would not be illness, would not be sickness, but God doesn't force us to follow Him. See, God's will, there really are four types of God's will. The first is this, His sovereign will. Jesus was gonna die on the cross. Nothing was gonna stop that from happening. Why? Because it was God's sovereign will. Jesus will come back one day. How do we know that? Because it's God's sovereign will. He promised it. It will happen. Nothing will stop it. Here's another typical reference to God's will. It's God's revealed will. What's God's will for your life? Well, 98% of it is revealed right here in the Word of God. How you're to handle every situation in your life is revealed right here in the Bible, in God's Word. So God's revealed will is his word. It tells us how to live our lives. Here's the third one. God's individual will. We had a series a while back on how to find God's will for your life. That God has shaped you and molded you. Your personality, your abilities, your experiences have all shaped you and mold you into the very unique person that you are today. And that God's desire is that He would take the gifts and abilities that you have and that you would make a difference in the kingdom of God. That you'd be part of building this amazing kingdom that will last for all of eternity and have the joy of being a part of that. That's God's individual will for you, and all of us have different gifts and abilities, and we perform them in different ways. And the last one is this, God's permissive will. There are things that God allows to happen, and he obviously allowed the prodigal son to leave because God was going to use these experiences least in our lives, to shape us and mold us and teach us. And if we would but soften our heart, come back to God and be restored in that relationship with Him. Well, as you know, the prodigal son leaves the father and ends up in a pigpen, right? So I want to talk about the path to the pigpen this morning. Well, what brought this son to a pigpen? He was this son of a father, obviously a wealthy landowner, but he left that and squandered it. Well, here's the first thing. He acts selfishly. If you want to end up in a pigpen, here's a great way to do it. Act selfishly. We see what he does. He comes to his father and says, Father, verse 11, I'm sorry, verse 12, give me the share of the property that is coming to me. Dad, I want my stuff and I want it now. The father didn't know exactly what he intended to do, this young boy, this younger son, but he gave it to them. But the whole plan was for this son to squander his riches selfishly, to live his life pleasing himself. If you want to end up in a pig pen, that's the way to do it, is to live a selfish life, to put yourself on the throne of your life and say, I'm going to do what I want when I want it. And I'm going to pleasure myself. I'm going to please myself and do what I want to do. That's the way to end up in a pig pen. And that's exactly what this son does. He begins to think selfishly. Now, God calls us to a radically different lifestyle, right? To a lifestyle where we prefer others above ourselves. In Philippians 2, it says we're to think of others as more important than we are. Now, we all know from God's Word that no one in God's eyes is more important than another person. Every person has equal value in God's eyes. Now, you mean celebrities? They have the same value as a homeless person? Exactly, in God's eyes. There's an exact equivalence in God's eyes. Every person has equal value in God's eyes. But here's the amazing difference in the walk that Christ demands from us. We're to consider others as more important than ourselves. We're to think of others as more important than ourselves, and not to merely look out for our own interests, but the interests of others. Is that the pattern of your life? This week, when you think about what you did this week, think of some acts that you did for others that you knew you would not get anything back for. There wouldn't be any thank you coming back, necessarily. No one really would know, perhaps, of what you did, but you did it as a selfless act. See, I think those are the acts that God values most highly. You don't necessarily receive the praise of men because you're acting selflessly. There are so many people here in this church that do things behind the scenes that no one knows about. They're at home preparing a lesson for the children downstairs or getting passports ready for our missions conference to add to our enjoyment in that conference. You don't see all the hours that go behind that. They're doing it not for us necessarily first and foremost, but they're doing it all for him, right? All for him. Lord, I'm doing this for you. And God loves those acts in our lives when we do that. So this prodigal son acts selfishly. Here's the next thing. He makes huge changes quickly. He takes what he has and he cashes it all in. Whatever he has, he cash sells the animals that his father had given him and takes it all in cash. And he moves to a far off country. And the sense in the text is he does it all quickly. Now, I would challenge you, if you're making huge changes in your life, pray about it. Bring it to God. Gather around you the counsel of many wise believers. Don't make huge changes in your life quickly. That's what this prodigal son does. Without the counsel of anyone else, he caches it all in and moves to a far-off country. Here's the next thing. He isolates himself unwisely. He moves to a far-off country away from everyone that knew him. away from his family, away from his friends, and he isolates himself. If you want to end up in a pig pen, isolate yourself unwisely. And I've seen it happen again and again. People who isolate themselves from the church and people that love them, or family members, people that love them and want the best for them, and they isolate themselves from others. So God's created the church. There is no plan B. The best decision we can make is to connect in the church and to connect with others. And every person in the church is an imperfect, sinful being. But we're to connect with them and strengthen one another and not to isolate ourselves unwisely. This young man goes to a far-off country. Here's the next thing. He wastes his resources and opportunities foolishly. He had all this cash. He could have started his own business and provided for his kids and his family like his father did, but he didn't. He wasted the opportunities that he had and the resources that he had. And for us, the question needs to be asked, how about you today? Every day is a gift from God. Every day is an opportunity to make an impact for all of eternity. The resources God has given you are resources that can be used to make an impact for God. Please don't use the time, or the talents, or the treasures God has given you selfishly, unwisely, or foolishly, like this prodigal does. He wastes it on wine, women, and song. He wastes it all. He squanders it. Now you need to understand that the audience was a Jewish audience. And as they heard this parable, the anger level of the audience would begin to build. In fact, I put together the angerometer, a little anger scale that shows you the anger of the audience as Jesus tells the story. He's trying to teach them a lesson right through this parable, a story with a spiritual meaning. So, first of all, the son wanted his inheritance early. I'm sure the Jewish audience who heard that thought, what a disrespectful, cruel son who had disgraced his father like that. How disgraceful for a son to want his inheritance early. The anger in the crowd already, aha, man, if I had stones, I would stone that son. The anger was already high, but it gets worse, right? He goes and disgraces his father by selling all that his father had. You can imagine in the local market, hey, here's all my father's belongings. I'm selling it, I'm cashing out. I can't stand to be with my father. I'm leaving home. He disgraces his father. The anger only continues to build in the audience that's hearing it. He cashed in his assets, selling all that he had. He traveled to a Gentile country. You mean for this Jewish boy, Israel wasn't good enough? He couldn't cash in his assets and just move to another place in Israel? He had to move to a Gentile country? The anger only builds, and that's exactly what Jesus wants to have happen. Then he wasted the resources of his father, all that his father had worked for, that he gave to the son. The son wastes it, all the years of hard work. The son wastes it, squanders it foolishly. The anger only builds. He was hired by a Gentile boss. Oh, how could a Jewish son put himself under a Gentile, under the authority of a Gentile? anger is only building, and then it gets worse. He gets a job feeding what kind of animals? Pigs, exactly. He took an unclean job. He's feeding pigs. Every Jewish boy knows there's one animal you stay away from. There's one animal you do not associate with. It's a pig. But he takes a job feeding pigs. It got even worse than that. He longed for the unclean food of the pigs. He wanted to eat the pods that the pigs left. Oh, he was so hungry. And the anger of this crowd was at a peak. Oh man, this son, he's so rebellious. He's so foolish. We're so angry at this Jewish young man. But Jesus tells the story and continues. the road to restoration is a powerful one. He starts to think rightly, right? When you see the word, but, but he, I love this word, this phrase, he came to himself, right? He came to himself. He started to think rightly. What am I doing here? Why am I living my life like this? And that's really one of the best steps, the best places for a person to be. Why am I living my life apart from God? Why am I believing that all of this that I see around me is the result of some accident that happened billions of years ago? Why am I living my life for myself when it only leads to a dead end? He started to think rightly. He started to come to himself and realized that his hired, father's hired sermons have more than enough bread. This is the next thing he does. He takes responsibility, right? I love what he says in verse 18. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, father, you really messed me up by the way you disciplined me as a baby. Is that what he says? You were way too strict for me, dad, when you didn't give me that iPod when I wanted it. Hey dad, that was ridiculous for you to give me a curfew and not allow me to go out and party with my friends. That really messed up my thinking dad. It's all your fault. Is that what he says? No. It takes responsibility. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. It's a great place to be. That is a fantastic place to be. I take responsibility for my actions. I will not blame anyone else. I'll not blame society. I'll not blame culture. I'll not blame my circumstances. I won't blame my parents. I won't blame my siblings. I take responsibility. I have sinned. That's a word that we don't like in our culture. Dr. Carl Menninger years ago wrote a book called, Whatever Happened to Sin? And the tendency in our culture to shift the blame on everybody else. We can do that as believers at times as well. We can shift the blame on others. We need to take responsibility for our sins and realize that we have the ability to respond to correct that situation. This prodigal son takes responsibility. Here's the next thing. He turns from his pride, this pride that thought, man, I have the world at my feet. I've got all this cash. I'm going to have the best life in the world apart from my father. He turns from his pride and says, I'm not worthy to be called your son. Hire me as one of your servants, dad. He's practicing this speech for his dad. Turns from his pride, humbles himself. And then here's the last, but probably the most important part. It's this, following through. Following through. Hey, I'm sinning against God. I'm in rebellion against Him. I know I need to change, and God, I'm sorry. Now follow through. Now take the steps that need to be taken to make yourself right with God and the people around you. Many people say, oh man, I need to get rid of this thing in my life. I need to stop doing this in my life. Then take the steps to do it. No matter how hard they are, no matter how difficult they are, take the steps to do it. The words we speak. the anger and wrath that we sometimes manifest in our lives towards others because they somehow wronged us and now I have a right to slam them. No. Follow through. It's up to you. take responsibility. Like this son, he now takes steps towards his father, and probably every step he's wondering, how will my father receive me as I'm walking back to my dad in pig clothes, and I'm just dirty from head to foot? He's got this speech, but will he even welcome me back? But he's taking that walk one step at a time, one step at a time, follow through, follow through. Now, I'm not sure what the issue is in your life today, but the lesson here today, take that one step at a time, whatever you're struggling with, whatever your addiction is, whatever your problem is, whatever your sin is, Take the steps that need to be taken. Why? Because you want to glorify God in your life. You want to make sure that nothing is diminishing the brightness of your life, that you can have an impact for God, that nothing is in between your fellowship between you and God that's causing that fellowship that seems so distant and far away. Follow through. Follow through. Then here's the next thing we see in the text. And verse 20, as he rose and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. I love this. God in his love is always ready for our return. He's always ready. The father saw the son from a distance. From a distance. The implication is, He was looking for His Son to come back. He was waiting for His Son to come back. And He was ready for the return of His Son. That's the great news of the Gospel. There is no sin that we have committed that is too big for God's grace to overcome. There's no place that God is calling us to live or to do in the Kingdom of God that He doesn't also give us the grace and power to sustain us in that. He's ready for our return. He is ready for our return. He saw His Son from a distance. and was ready for his son's return. I love that about our God. You know, there's a story in Buddhism very similar to the prodigal son. It's a story about a son who rebels against his dad and comes back to his father. The big difference in the Buddhist story is this, that the son has to earn his way back into the father's graces. He starts off as a slave, but now he must earn his way back to being a son with his father. That's not the parable here. That's not the principle. It's being driven home so powerfully. Here's the next principle we see in this text. God in His love runs to embrace us as we return. And the word return here really for me means repent. I'm leaving this garbage. I'm turning. That's the Greek word metanoia. I'm turning 180 degrees and I'm pursuing God. I'm walking to the Father and the Father runs and embraces us. Now it's the only time in God's Word where God is pictured as running. Important people don't run, do they? You don't see the President of the United States running to a meeting, I'm late, I gotta get to this meeting, running to get there. Important people don't run. But the picture here that causes this angry crowd, the anger was directed at this son, who was a prodigal son. The picture here is God the Father, and they knew what Jesus was saying. God the Father throws off all pomp, all pretense, and runs and embraces the prodigal son. Isn't that a great picture? that God the Father, the most powerful being in the universe, runs and embraces us when we return to Him. The word here in the parable, kiss, really means this. It's in the Greek tense that says, He just kept on kissing him, kissing him much. Kissed him again and again. It's a lavish kind of love that He showers upon the Son. A lavish love. That's the kind of love that God has for you and for me. That's the kind of love that we should rejoice in every day. That's what He does for the Son. In fact, we see here that the Son doesn't even get the full speech out. It says in verse 21, Father, I've sinned against heaven before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your Son. I didn't even get the part about just treat me as a hired servant. But the Father said, bring quickly the best robe. His love is a lavish one. Let's look at that. God, in His amazing love, fully restores us. You know, when he left, he said, Father, this prodigal son said, Father, give me! A request that showed his rebellion against his father. When he comes back, it's, Father, make me one of your hired servants. His attitude has totally changed, because he's been down that dead-end path, and he sees that it doesn't work, and he realizes any relationship with his father is better off than where he's at now. Father, make me one of your hired servants. It's all I deserve. It's all I deserve, God. The father's astounding reaction, let's go through it real quickly. He gives him a kiss, the sign of forgiveness. He keeps on kissing him much as he welcomes his son back. The best robe, a sign of honor. This is my son. I'm restoring this young man. He's my son. He gives him the best robe, a sign of honor. He gives him a ring. Probably the family insignia on it, a sign of authority. I'm restoring the authority of this rebellious son. Do you know you have authority in the name of Jesus Christ today to do the work of God? That you have God's power behind you? Here's the next thing. Sandals, a sign of freedom. Only slaves went barefoot, but sons had shoes. Bring him his sandals. He's my son. He's my son. And then a feast. A joyful welcome reserved for special occasions. He just so happened, the father did, to have a fattened calf. What do you think he was fattening that calf for? I believe he was fattening that calf for the day in his heart that he hoped that his son would return. Bring that fattened calf. You know why we've been fattening for a special occasion? Well, this is it. There's no doubt in my mind, this is the occasion. And I love what the Word of God says, that when one person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, the angels rejoice. There's a celebration going on because of the lavish love of our Father. And I'm sure by now the audience was so angry with this son, their jaws had dropped to the ground as they realized that Jesus was saying that God not only runs and embraces the sinner who returns, but there is a celebration that goes on. Because my son or daughter that was lost is now found. My son or daughter that was dead is now alive. And my prayer would be as we leave this place today, that we would rejoice in the amazing love of God, that no matter how bad circumstances are here, we know that we have a Father who loves us, and this is but a cheap waiting room, that one day we move beyond the struggles of this life to a place that the Father has prepared for us, because all that the Father has is ours. We are co-inheritors with Christ, the Bible says. So what's our response as we close? What's our response? It's this, come now. If you have not come to faith in Jesus Christ, now's the time, like the prodigal, to say, I need to get right with my dad, my heavenly father, the one who created me. Step two would be this, come home. come back into that right relationship with your Father. Leave the stuff of this world. Realize that all that the world has to offer apart from God is a dead end. And I will rejoice in the lavish love of my Father who made me and created me and be a part of building His kingdom. And every time I look at a tree and every time I look at the sky and the stars in the sky, I'm reminded of this awesome God. who created the universe, yet loved me enough to throw off all pretense and run to me and embrace me. Wow. Amazing. And then the third would be, come clean. And what I mean by that is, Father, I've sinned against you. Doesn't mean you have to change fully when you come to faith in Christ. Doesn't mean you have to make all these different changes before you come to Christ the way you are, and He changes you. But you admit that you've fallen short of God's story. There's some of the people that are going to do our donuts right now. You always think that somebody, I said something that offended them, right? Did I say something? Come clean. Come to the Father now. Let's pray together. Lord, we wanna come before you today and just, we're reminded of the time that we, as that prodigal came back to you and made a decision to place their faith and trust in you, Lord. And we're reminded of the moment when we made that decision, Lord, I pray that we would leave this place just rejoicing in the lavish love of the father. What we love you today. You've changed our lives. And Lord, as we walk through this life and experience trials in our life, Lord, we pray that we would remember you walk with us. And if there's someone here today, Father, that does not know you, is not right with you, that today would be the day when they would come to me or another elder or another pastor to say, I need to get right with the Lord. I need to get right. Lord, we love you today and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.