Good morning. I'm uncomfortable wearing a T-shirt on Sunday morning. I'm just going to own it while I'm up here.
I've never done this before, but you know what, Camp Canaan deserves it. We have been working hard to make sure the camp is prepared. We've got the right people in the right places.
We've got our snack crew, we've got our arts and crafts, we've got this director guy who thinks he knows what he's doing. We've got all these things in places just to make sure this year we have a great time out there teaching our children about Jesus and the lessons that he taught us while he was here on this earth. And I'll tell you what, we've got a lot of people working behind the scenes to make sure it's success.
So everyone that's involved with camp was encouraged to wear their Camp Canaan t-shirt this morning to worship. A couple of people didn't do it anyway. That's fine.
I did it to be an example to you. Again, I'm uncomfortable not wearing a suit jacket, but here we are opening the Word of God together this morning and worship to Him. We are going to go to the Book of Luke, Chapter 15 together, and examine one of the parables that we will be going and teaching our children this week in Camp Canaan.
Luke. What? Hey, there's a toddler time going on right now.
If you are age two to four, go enjoy your time together learning about God's Word. I'm going to forget every single week. I was given this symbol.
I'm like, time out for what? For what? Time out.
Quit talking about Luke 15.
Toddler time, okay, two to four year olds. Get out of here. We love you, but get out.
All right, Luke 15. In this particular chapter of Luke, you have three different parables that are given about the idea of being lost. At one time or another, all of us could be said in a spiritual way that we are lost.
And these three stories, these three parables, show us what being lost and being found is all about. The word parable comes from the Greek word parabolos. We get the idea of a cast or throw alongside of being the literal rendition of that Greek word.
And so you have a story that's cast alongside of, if you will, a spiritual truth behind it. And by, if you understand the simple story, then you may understand that deeper spiritual principle. So we're examining parables.
In Luke 15, one through seven, you have a parable or a throw along, throw alongside of the idea of what it means to be a sheep, and one of them is lost. You have 99 that are present where they should be, and one who is lost. The shepherd goes out and finds that one lost little sheep, and when he recovers it, they rejoice.
And in verse seven of Luke 15, just so I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, and over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. And so the idea of gaining just one soul back through repentance is a thing that we should rejoice about. We then have verses eight through 10, a parable of a lost coin.
If you have 10 coins and you lose one, you search the entire house, top to bottom, under all the beds and all the drawers and all the dressers, and you find this one lost coin, and then you can rejoice. Then verse 10 of Luke 15, just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. And then we transition in verse 11 to the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son.
Now, I was thinking about this story, this parable this week, because I listened to a guy named Dave Ramsey. If you know Dave Ramsey, you know he's all about money, financial advice. He has these little clips of his podcast that he puts on YouTube.
And I'm in the car. I don't feel like music, don't feel like a really deep podcast. I'll just turn on some funny calls he gets on the radio and the internet show and listen to people's stories and their situations and just say, well, I'm just glad I'm not that person.
It's what happens in my mind. And there's a lady who called in this week, and she's like, well, I have my will done, and we are fairly wealthy. And I just want to get your advice about this.
I got an 18-year-old son, and he's a senior in high school, and he just ran away from home, and is living with another family, and he won't text us, he won't call us, he won't talk to us. And the question that she had was, do I take him out of the will? I just thought that was an interesting dilemma.
Your son ran away from the house, and you're calling Dave Ramsey in Nashville, Tennessee to ask him, do I cut my son out of the will? That seems to be a low priority at this stage, right? Hey, get ready for Camp Canaan, folks.
We're ready, we're prepped. All right, so that was an interesting call, but the whole time that she's talking about this situation, this dilemma that she's in about her son who ran away from home, and asking about the will and financial matters, the story of The Prodigal Son just kept coming to the back of my mind. Like, that's the priority is your son, not the idea of a will.
But who am I? I'm not Dave Ramsey. Let's go to Luke 15 and read this story, because we're going to find ourselves in this story one way or another.
You're in here somewhere and I'm in here somewhere. Verse 11, and he, Jesus, said, there was a man who had two sons. 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. This younger son has the gumption. Is that a word you use in Georgia?
Okay, good. All right, same language. He has the gumption to walk over his dad and say, Hey, give me the one third that I'm owed.
I know my older brother, who's the heir, gets two thirds of the inheritance, but give me my one third inheritance now. And the father gives in to his request and gives him one third of the wealth that would be his when the father passes away. Verse 13, 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 in reckless living. Well, I'm glad I've never blown a paycheck on reckless living before. I'm sure you've never done that either, right?
He's using the wealth that his father gave him, that he worked so hard for, no doubt, and he wasted it in reckless or riotous living. Verse 14, when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and he hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
Now, one nuance here that you may pick up on, and you may not, is that Jesus is a Jew. He's Jewish by heritage. And so he's talking to people who are likely Jewish.
From their culture, swine or pigs are unclean animals. And so it kind of multiplies the embarrassment and the shame that the younger son is feeling here in this dilemma because, first of all, he's asking his father to give him a third of the inheritance. And he goes out, and it seems like in a very short time, he wastes all those resources that his father gave to him.
And now he's working for a man who's a foreigner, so probably not Jewish, in taking care of pigs, these unclean animals. In verse 16, it got so desperate for him. Here's how Jesus describes his living conditions.
Verse 16, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. Now, I've been hungry before, but I've never been so hungry. I look at hogs food and say, you know what, I wish I had some of that.
But that was the younger son's living conditions. In verse 17, everything changes. Verse 17 is my favorite verse of this entire parable, because I can relate to this particular moment.
Verse 17, but when he came to himself. So unique phraseology. It's not when he lo behold, opened his ears and his eyes.
It's not that. It's the phrase when he came to himself, meaning he was having almost a disassociation with what he was choosing to do. And now he realized all of a sudden, what am I doing?
Have you ever had a moment where you just began going down a certain course of life and you get down that path and then you just wake up to the reality of where you are? If you can't relate to that, then good on you. But I can.
I've had moments in my life where I'm like, what, how did I end up here? I just made these little decisions that led me down this path. And then all of a sudden you're like, how did I get here?
What is going on? When he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants, very polite way to say it, slaves, have more than enough bread, but I'm dying here with hunger. I am starving to death, but my father's household servants are eating well.
I will arise, I will 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 slaves, your hired servants.
That's the speech he wants to tell his dad. He's preparing all this beforehand. No doubt he is shameful.
He's anxious. He's worried about being received back into his own household. He's got this whole speech prepared, written down the back of his hand, I'm sure.
He is ready to go back and humble himself, fall prostrate on the ground, and then just be able to say, Father, I'm so sorry. I made a mistake. I want to come back home just as a slave.
It's all that I want. Verse 20, he arose. He came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion. He ran and embraced him and kissed him. Now, in this parable, we have this dynamic where all these individuals and these circumstances represent something else.
It shouldn't shock you that the father here in this particular parable is a representation of God the Father, God the Father. This is the only time in Scripture that we find the idea of God doing a physical action like this. It's very unique in Scripture.
Here, God sees him a long way off. He feels compassion, and God runs to his son. He embraces him, and he kisses him.
The son is looking at his hand, or he wrote with that ballpoint pen his speech. Verse 21, The son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. He's halfway through the speech.
I am no longer worthy to be called your son. And you know what he wants to say, where his heart is, where his sentiment is. But, verse 22, the father said to his servant, bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, bring the fatted calf, kill it, let us eat, and let us celebrate.
He can't even get through the speech because the father cuts him off and says, no, you're back home now. We have a party to throw. Because you were away, and I was worried sick about you, and now you're back home.
That's all that matters right now.
Verse 24. Why is the father so joyous? Because this my son was dead, and is alive again.
He was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate. Now folks, I know I've been here for that younger son was.
I had it good. And I decided that I would have the gumption to go out and make decisions about my life despite God trying to give me instructions about the best thing for me and my circumstances. And I go out and I try to make these decisions and live life the way that I want to.
And then one day I wake up and I realize how in the world did I end up here? This is not working out for me at all. If I just go back to my father, maybe I can just sign on and have my needs met by being a servant of him.
And then when you go back home, you're full of shame, anxiety, disappointment, and you try to humbly come before God, your Father in heaven, and say, I know where I've been. I've been away. I just want to come back home.
And sometimes in our own minds, we may think that God's disappointed in us and maybe doesn't like us anymore, or maybe we don't deserve to even call him our Father in heaven. This story tells me that Jesus, the Son of God, describes God the Father. When you want to come back home, no matter where you've been, He runs to meet you.
And He embraces you. And He kisses you. And He wants to celebrate you, no matter where you came from.
Because you were dead, but now you're alive. You were lost, but where are you now? You're found.
That's how God describes us wanting to come back home, folks. And if that's not reason to come together, to worship Him, to thank Him for His marvelous grace, I can't think of a better reason than that right there. But, folks, the story continues.
I said you're going to find yourself in this story. Maybe you can't relate to the father that well. Maybe you can't relate to the younger son that well.
But maybe one other character that you might be able to relate to. Let's keep reading. Verse 25 Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
He said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fetid calf, because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. I'm not going in there to celebrate my younger brother, who took a third of the money away and wasted it in his riotous living.
That's no reason to celebrate the brother things. His father came out and entreated him. So the father ran to embrace the lost son that was now found, and then he even left the party to go talk to the older son.
What's going on with you? We're in here celebrating. Why are you out here by yourself?
He answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you, I have never disobeyed your command. Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son came, now, I used to not really understand what that sentiment was.
I used to be like, why do you say it that way? Sometimes when I get home after being at the office or running errands.
And my poor wife has been with the kids all day, I'll walk in the door from the garage, and I'll put my bag down, and what do you think I hear sometimes?
Oh, so now I totally get. Verse 30.
Verse 31, he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this your brother, not my son, your brother was dead, and he is found alive. He was lost, and he is found.
Son, I know you never disobeyed me. I know you've been here in this house taking care of our business. I'm sorry you feel that way about your brother, my son, but he's home now, where he needs to be.
All that I have is yours anyway. Celebrate, because he's back home. Now, if you look at the beginning of this chapter, you have the parable of the lost sheep.
You have 99 that never left home, where they're supposed to be. That shepherd goes out there and finds that one that is lost and brings him back home, and they celebrate. And then here's the illustration, verse 7, just so when that lost sheep was brought home, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and over the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.
Get my son out of here.
And then, you have verses 8, 9, and 10. You have 10 coins. You lose one, you search the whole house, you find it, you call your friends to come and celebrate and rejoice with you.
Why? Here's the application, verse 10. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
There's no verse like that at the end of The Prodigal Son parable. But it's definitely there. The meaning is implied.
There is heaven and there is rejoicing in heaven over the angels when one sinner who is lost, out there, starving, comes back home. And folks, there is a warning for all of us who've never left home, who are in the Father's house now. When we see someone wanting to come back home, to give him grace, give him mercy, and to celebrate with him because he was lost and he is home.
The Father is waiting to run to you if you are away from home this morning. If you're out there and you've woken up and you said, how in the world did I end up here? The Father's waiting for you to run back home.
He wants to embrace you, he wants to forgive you, he wants to celebrate with you. He's been looking for you for a long time, maybe. If you have a need to respond this morning to come back home, the Father is waiting, and your brothers and sisters are waiting.
Or maybe that you've been home this whole time and you've forgotten some important things about your spiritual life and you want to respond for prayers of hope of encouragement, your church family is here for you this morning. If you have a need to respond to the Lord's invitation, please come forward or see one of our elders at the doors as we stand and we sing.