His Arms Are Open

Introduction

Today we are beginning a brief series about second chances.

I am calling it “Thankful for Second Chances.”

Today we will examine the parable of the Prodigal Son.

Last year we looked at the older brother but today we will examine the younger and what this beautiful parable means for us, especially to those who have wandered or to those who think they are too terrible for the Lord to want.

Philip Yancey retells this story in a vivid way in a story titled “The Runaway.”

In this story he tells of a girl who was raised on an orchard and left for the big city.

She gets in with some high rollers and is living the high life for a spell until she gets ill and is cast out on the street to only be able to turn a few tricks a night to pay for the drugs.

She comes to her senses and phones home to get the answering machine.

She leaves a message that she wants to come home and would be on the next bus in.

She runs many scenarios through her head and none are that her family will want her back, especially after all she has done.

Well, she arrives in her hometown at the bus station and not only was her dad and mother there, but forty of her family members were.

Her dad breaks through the crowd and she begins to apologize and all he does is hush her and tell her that they had no time for apologies as they had a party and banquet to get home to.

This is the love of the father for that of his own children.

But this love pales in comparison to that which our heavenly father will give us and has given us.

I want you today to think deeply about this amazing love the Father has for you.

He sent Christ to die for you and me and to rise again so we could have everlasting life with Him.

If He did this, do you think that the things you have done as one outside Christ will stop that love?

Do you think that the mistakes and failures you have done as a believer will stop that love?

God loves you more than you will ever know and this parable will explain that to you and help you find that amazing grace and love of God that He has for you because His Arms Are Open to you now.

Luke 15:11–24 ESV

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 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. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “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! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 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. 21 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.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Explanation

This parable is a description of the Father’s grace and love. In this parable we see the younger son taking his 1/3 inheritance early.

This was counter to what the Jewish culture would have stood for.

They had in their writings a warning against taking your share of inheritance too early was to risk falling into the need of another’s care.

We see this with the younger son when he had to work slopping hogs.

This was against Jewish cleanliness culture because a pig is unclean to Jews.

This Son did the unthinkable and abused the amazing grace of the Father.

He was the son of his father and was even when he wandered but he abused the grace of the father.

We may do the same in this life by going wayward and acting like the rest of the world.

We may be a child of God but we are abusing His grace by being out there in the far country wanting to have things that are rubbish to the Lord.

They are rubbish to us too because all they do is make us hungry, dirty, and long for home.

Just as we are about to see in this text, if we have wandered and are hungry, dirty, and longing for home, we can return and not only will the father take you back but He will give you great blessings.

Wayward, Hungry, and Filthy

In verses 11-16 we see the waywardness of the son and what this brings about.

He said he wanted his share of wealth so he could go and live.

He wanted the world.

He felt he could be something great in the world outside his father’s control.

He wanted to go and be something because he was unhappy with the blessings he had.

He left the best for “the better.”

But the strange thing is, he squandered everything.

The boy had no control.

He blew every dime he had on wild living and was left destitute.

He was out on his own making it on his own.

Which is exactly what happens to us when we decide we can make it on our own.

We can’t.

We will falter and fail just as the prodigal son did.

He left with a goodly inheritance and had plenty but he went wild in sin.

Like Charles Swindoll once said about sin, it is like when you have been on a diet and doing well.

Then you see some Oreo cookies and decide to have just one.

You open the bag and say well one more won’t hurt.

Then the next thing you know you wake up in the morning in a haze with two packages of Oreo’s empty beside you and a half gallon of ice cream too.

Once you take the sniff, or taste of sin, you will be neck deep before you even realize it.

This is what happened to this man.

He went wild and was in the slop with the hogs, living a filthy existence not because the work was that but because the work was unclean to a Jew.

But not only that but he was hungry.

Verse 16 tells us he was longing to be fed with the pods the pigs ate.

This man was hungry for two reasons

1) There was a famine in the land, he had no money to but food with, and no one would give him anything.

That is the physical reasons but the second reason is even deeper.

2) He sought filling from the world and the empty world will only leave you empty inside.

If wealth and good times and fancy clothes and cars were enough to make you happy, then why are so many that have all that so unhappy?

They are because they are full in every way a person could desire to be physically, but empty spiritually.

This is what was wrong with the prodigal and may be what is wrong with you.

Maybe you are full on the outside but empty on the inside.

If so remember there is hope because...

Longing Leads to Repentance

In verses 17-20a we read that the prodigal came to his senses and said he would return to his father.

We read that he said his father’s servants have more than enough bread to eat.

Get that, the father’s servants have more than plenty to eat and live.

These are servants who had nothing compared to the son.

Just think, as a child of God you have more than anyone in the world regardless what they have.

As we drift in thought for what another has remember that the Lord has given you more than enough to live and be His right where you are.

So, before you make the leap to run from the Father to the world, remember even the servants have enough to eat with Him.

But the son realized again what was good and right.

He decided to leave the world that he had thought he would love so much.

He decided to return to the father.

He had fear the father would not take him back.

He did because he planned to say, Luke 15:18–19 “18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”

He was set to return and be nothing more than a hireling to his father.

But when he returned he was embraced into the loving arms of the Father.

I want to tell you today that the Father our Heavenly Father will not turn away from you.

He will not put as nothing more than a servant in His house.

He has more grace and love than this earthly father had for his son.

Our Heavenly Father is standing with arms open for you right now.

It does not matter how dirty you are.

It does not matter if the dirty from last night still clings to you He will wash you clean.

You are not to bad for Him He is standing calling you and saying I am here.

“No you alone are not worthy to be my son, but my Son has made it where you are worthy.”

Stop fighting the good and beautiful with Him and return if you have strayed.

Come to Him now through Jesus the Son if you have never came before.

He is waiting for you with arms open and wants you now.

Come to Him all who are weary and heavy laden and He will give you rest.

Come to Him, leave the dirty world behind and come to Him as you are, He will clean you up and change you.

Come home or come to the Home because it is...

Where Life and Filling is Found

In verses 22-24 we see the father saying to the son “shut it up, you are my son. Bring the fattened calf, get the best robe, and let us celebrate for you are home.”

He further says that “this is my son that was dead and is now alive.”

Life and filling that surpasses even this amazing acceptance and banquet await you with the Lord.

He will fill you up in ways you would not believe.

He will give you peace where there is anxiety.

He will give you calm where there is fear.

He will give you strength where there is weakness.

He will give you inner healing where there is death and destruction.

In the world where you may be at is nothing but death and pain.

Yes, it may seem cool for a minute, like the son thought or that farm girl thought, but it will cast you out and leave you for dead.

The worldly ways are death and destruction, but in the Father’s house is life and filling.

Maybe you are in sin now and fear that you have gone too far.

Never think that because you are alive and thinking. God is for you He sent Christ for you.

Just because this empty and harsh world sets up terms for probation where you have to earn your rights back, the Father forgives instantly and restores instantly.

But for this to happen you must come back or into where life and filling is found.

If you stay in the dark and emptiness of the darkness outside, you will remain hungry and dead.

There is a door before you, a door of belief or repentance.

You must walk through that door because Christ has it open and is waiting for you.

He did the work all you do is accept that work and it is yours.

There is a second chance for all who have wandered.

You can be restored and have life with the Lord again.

He is yours and He is waiting for you to come home so He can bestow the wonderful robe on you and fill you to the full.

Will you come to Him?

Conclusion

So maybe you have left the amazing flock of the Lord.

Maybe you have had pleasure and joy for a time and now everything has become awful.

Maybe you are thinking that your return is impossible.

Maybe you think God does not want a wretch like you.Maybe you are thinking that you are getting what you deserve.

Maybe you just want to be back in His arms even if it is to receive a whipping because a whipping from God is much better than what you have been going through.

I am telling you now that the Lord is waiting on you with open arms and with a banquet.

Like this amazing song from Sovereign Grace Music titled ‘All I Have is Christ’

Just remember that the Father is waiting for you because Jesus paid it all

I once was lost in darkest night Yet thought I knew the way The sin that promised joy and life Had led me to the grave I had no hope that You would own A rebel to Your will And if You had not loved me first I would refuse You still But as I ran my hell-bound race Indifferent to the cost You looked upon my helpless state And led me to the cross And I beheld God's love displayed You suffered in my place You bore the wrath reserved for me Now all I know is grace Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone And live so all might see The strength to follow Your commands Could never come from me Oh Father, use my ransomed life In any way You choose And let my song forever be My only boast is You Hallelujah! All I have is Christ Hallelujah! Jesus is my life Hallelujah! All i have is Christ Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

(All I Have is Christ, Sovereign Grace Music).