luke 15

When I was a student at bible collage I had the opportunity to do an exchange year at Moody Bible institute in Chicago. In the States. 

This was a great year spending time studying in a fantastic city and meeting lots of interesting people. 

During holiday times, you were not allowed to remain on campus without paying lots of extra money. 

Fortunately I had relatives in Iowa about 250 miles away. 

So at Christmas and Easter and other holidays I would travel across to spend time with my aunt and uncle. 

Sometimes I would take the greyhound bus. 

This was a little bit sketchy as it stoped at a number of prisons on the way and picked up prisoners who were being released… and the behaviour on the bus was sometimes questionable. 

This was the cheap option. 

The other option was a little more expensive. 

I would take the Amtrak train. This was a lot more fun. I would ride the California Zephyr for a few stops. 

And I would always get talking to interesting people, like people from the amish community or hippies and all sorts of others… 

But I recently learned something about the greyhound bus network that I though was really great. 

They set up something called the “Home Free Project” 

This provides a free bus ticket to anyone between the ages of 12-21 who has run away from home. 

The young people call this specialist number… and they have trained people who make contact with the family. 

They get a plan in place, provide help for the family and the young person. 

And then they get them back home safely. Free of charge. 

Since this project started in 1995 they have managed to help 16,000 families reunite. 

I thought that was wonderful. 

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We have just read Jesus parable about a father and his two sons. 

Due to time, we will spend the our time thinking about the younger son. 

It’s quiet a gripping story isn’t it? it’s one of my favourite parables. 

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We have a son who comes to his father and pretty much says, “I wish you were dead” - 

He says give me my share of the inheritance now. 

You can imagine that father pleading with his son to stay… but with tears in his eyes he gives the son the money that he would receive upon his death. 

And off that son goes… He goes to a far off land to live the life of Riley.

He lives a hedonistic life, flashing the cash. Wasting the money on extravagance and “wild living”. 

All seems to be going well for him. - Until it wasn’t... 

A famine hit. The cost of living went through the roof. 

His money was going down and down and down… 

But the cost to live was going up and up and up… 

In the end he was left with nothing. 

He had to get some work… and the only job he could get was feeding pigs.

Now to the jewish audience listening to Jesus this would be shocking… 

There are few jobs worse than this… pigs were seen as unclean, and to be avoided at all costs. 

He had sunk to new lows.. here was this son… tending to the pigs. 

His stomach was rumbling… he was so hungry that the slops that the pigs were eating seems appealing to him. 

He had hit an all time low. 

In that moment of desperation he begins to think of his father…. 

He thinks about how kind his father is to the servants. They are well fed and cared for… They have more than enough. 

And here he was starving to death… At rock bottom he realised he had made a mistake.

So he begins to think… 

i’v blown it as my fathers son. But if I go back and apologise to him… then maybe he would take me back as one of his servants.

This seemed like it would be worth a shot… so he makes the long journey home…. 

On his travels… no doubt this son was going over and over in his head what exactly he would say to his father. 

He probably practices his speech out loud as he walks. 

“I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.”

Meanwhile… back home the father has been longing for his son. 

He has been watching and waiting for his return. Eagerly anticipating the return of his beloved son. 

And one day the father looks out and sees his son in the distance. 

He is filled with compassion and love for his son and he runs out the door. 

He runs all the way to his lad and he hugs him, and holds him and kisses him. 

The son says to his father … 

’Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But the father cuts him off… the son doesn’t get to finish his well rehearsed speech. 

The father is full of excitement. He shouts to his servants: 

Quick... bring the best clothes for him to wear. Get him some clean shoes. 

Tonight we are having a party… invite the guests… fire up the bbq, slaughter the fattened calf… were having steak tonight. 

Why?

“For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ 

So they began to celebrate.”

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A very moving story… 

Jesus is teaching us that we are all just like this lost son…

And God is like the father. 

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Some of you would have had a wonderful dad who was kind and loving. God is like that only so much better. 

Some of you might have had a difficult or complex relationship with your father. That’s not the kind of father God is. 

He’s perfect, full of love and kindness. 

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The story teaches us that we have all treated God in a shocking way… we have taken his good gifts and ignored him and lived in rebellion. 

We have wandered away from him… far away. 

At first this seems pleasurable… it feels like freedom…

But eventually we reach that point of desperation… Sitting on the floor of a pig stye… Hopeless… in darkness and shame. 

But the boy remembered his father. 

He remembered his fathers great love and kindness… he realised how foolish he had been. He realised he was sinful and wrong… 

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Each of us have have rejected God by how we live. 

The question is do we remain in the pigsty in the darkness and without hope… 

————

The son begins to head home. While the son was still a long way off… the father sees him and runs towards him. 

That’s God’s attitude towards us. 

He runs to meet us. He is quick to forgive. 

He doesn’t make us grovel and beg… He forgives us and welcomes us as his family. As his long lost children…

While we were still a long way off… he comes to us….

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I wonder if there are some people here that feel lost… you feel guilt and shame… 

You have tried to find happiness and contentment in so many places… but nothing quite satisfies… 

You feel so far away from God…. 

Maybe it’s time to return home….

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I started off by talking about that wonderful program that greyhound buses have been running… 

“the home free project”

Making it possible for children and young people to be reunited with there families. 

God has made that possible for us. 

Although we have blown it, and failed time after time. 

God in his great love for us did something about this. 

He sent his one and only son into the world for us, to rescue us and to bring us back to God the father. 

The most famous verse in the bible is found in the gospel of John, chapter 3 verse 16: 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus lived a perfect life of obedience to God. He never failed or went astray. He never sinned or rebelled. 

He lived that perfect life for us… 

And he went on to die on the cross… on the cross Jesus takes the sins of his people. 

He takes that upon himself, and he bears the judgment of God on our behalf. 

That means if you trust in Jesus you are forgiven for your sin. 

3 days later Jesus rose from the dead, defeating death… 

That means we can have assurance that when we die, he will raise us from the dead to live with him for all eternity in the new creations… 

“The home free project” is brilliant.

But Jesus makes it possible for us to be reunited with God our father. This is amazing. 

This is a free gift for us… Because Jesus paid it all. He paid the great cost. 

You are loved by God… He calls you to come home.

You don’t need to live in the darkness and shame of the pigsty… He invites you to share in all the riches of his kingdom.

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This week at holiday at home we have looked at some of the evidence for Jesus. And we have seen that it is undeniable. 

We have also heard some of the teaching of Jesus… about the wonderful love of God and the offer of forgiveness and eternal life. 

The question we are all left with is… what will we do about this information? 

Will we trust in Jesus and be forgiven of our sin, and be welcomed into the family of God. 

Or will we reject him? 

I know that sounds blunt, but the reality is there is no middle ground…. 

God in his kindness has made a way for us to return to him… He calls on you to put your trust in Jesus. 

If you have any questions about this… or you feel the weight of what I have been saying… I would love to chat to you after our service. 

Let’s pray: 

Lord God we thank you for this wonderful picture of your great love for us. We thank you that you invite us home…. That while we were still far from you, you come running to meet us. 

We thank you that you have made this possible by sending your own son the Lord Jesus Christ into the darkness, to find us and to rescue us. 

In Jesus name 

Amen