The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Good morning,

My name is Matt,

and I'd like to take a few minutes

to talk about the story we just heard.

This story is often referred to as ‘The Parable of the Prodigal Son’.

It's a common story in many ways,

and one that you may have heard before.

Maybe you know someone who left home

and tried to figure life out on their own.

When I was 21 I flew from London England,

where I lived,

to Los Angeles, California.

I know my parents weren’t overly happy about it,

but I just had to go.

And like the story I spent a lot of money,

and I got into a bit of trouble.

But eventually,

Like the son in the story

I had to come home.

In our story,

or what the Bible calls ‘a parable’,

the son asks for his inheritance early.

And Jesus tells us he spent his inheritance

living a ‘reckless’ life,

a mad,

crazy life that knew no bounds.

He lived the life he desired.

The way he wanted too,

away from the safety

and the goodness of his family.

And when he has nothing left,

filled with shame

he returned home to his father.

He had nowhere else to go.

No one else to turn to.

But what happened next was staggering.

Instead of being greeted with contempt,

as one who had wasted their life,

he was greeted with open arms.

And although he disrespected his father,

he was welcomed home,

without shame,

and without punishment.

All the time he’d been away,

living his own life,

with his back turned to his family,

his father had been waiting,

watching,

longing for him to return.

And before the son had even reached home,

while he was still a long way off,

the Bible tells us,

his father saw him

and had compassion on him.

Even though he’d disappointed his father,

even though he had gone his own way,

his father still loved him,

and welcomed him back.

Instead of anger,

the son received love.

And instead of punishment,

he received forgiveness.

And this can be the same for you and I.

When I was pretty young,

but old enough to know better,

I had a similar experience of  disappointing my father

My family was renovating our home

and I’d heard that at some point

they were going to tear down the garage

and build a new one.

So I took it upon myself to help.

I thought to myself

“Let's get things started.”

So one afternoon I took a hammer

and smashed all the windows in the garage to pieces.

That did not go down well!

I found out that my parents

were not planning on tearing down the garage for months,

And needles to say,

my father didn’t welcome me with open arms,

at least not for a few days.

All the windows had to be replaced.

And my pocket-money

was drastically reduced for months

I knew what I was doing was wrong,

and for a while it was fun

smashing the windows

The Bible tells us that we have all,

sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3: 23

And that word ‘sinned’

can be thought of

as living life our way,

instead of living for God.

Like the prodigal son

we too have sinned,

we’ve gone our own way,

we’ve loved our life in rebellion to God,

we’ve assumed our way is better than God’s way.

And yet at some point in our lives,

deep down,

we all long to come home.

We hear the Father drawing us back,

calling us to himself.

And although it can seem scary to come home to God,

He is not there to punish us,

but to love us,

to forgive us.

With arms are open wide,

ready to greet us,

ready to welcome us home.

To acknowledge we have gone astray,

is our first step back towards God,

back into His presence.

And we are never too young,

or too old,

to say we are sorry

and run back into the arms of the one who loves us.

This is good news,

really good news!

However the Bible has more to say.

In the book of Romans,

The apostle Paul tells us,

…the wages of sin is death,

Romans 6:23

Going our own way,

living our life separate from God

comes with a price.

A price which needs to be paid for.

But before we get too concerned

there is even more good news.

In fact,

this is the best news you will ever hear.

In 1 John 4 we read,

This is love:

not that we loved God,

but that he loved us

and sent his Son

as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:10

The word 'atoning’ isn’t something we tend to use in general conversation,

It's not the sort of word you’d hear someone say in Safeway

when you’re buying the weekly groceries.

What John is saying here is that

Jesus took our sins upon himself.

He paid the debt we own.

He was crucified on a Roman cross,

in our place,

for the sin we’d committed.

We can live our whole lives trying to pay off the debt,

living a so called ‘good life’,

or we can come to Jesus,

and trust in His finished work on our behalf.

All of us were once like the prodigal son.

Living life for ourselves,

going our own way.

Maybe you are still living this way.

But the Father stands at the door,

calling you back.

And although it may seem far off,

forgiveness is but a breath away.

We only need to call out to God

and He will forgive.

1 John tells us,

If we confess our sins,

He is faithful

and righteous to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

What is stopping you from coming to the Father today?

What is stopping you from trusting in the finished work of Jesus?

You simply need to acknowledge you have gone astray,

and believe that Jesus died for you,

and then ask for forgiveness.

You don’t have to wait until your life is straightened out,

or you're somehow a better person.

Jesus died for us,

just as we are,

with all our problems,

with all our sins.

If you’ve never trusted in Jesus for your forgiveness,

today is the day.

Let us close in pray together.