The Prodigal Sons

Good morning Pleasant Valley Church or Christ! It’s good to be with you today. I’m grateful to have a chance to worship alongside you and to dive into the word with you.

Slide Intro

It’s neat to see a few faces I know, but I suspect many of you don’t know me. For those who don’t, my name is Lawson Campbell.

Currently, I work at Damascus Way Reentry Center, a faith based non-profit in Rochester, I serve there as the associate director and get to invest in men and share the gospel with them as they transition out of incarceration and journey into recovery.

Over the last few years, I’ve been pursuing a calling towards vocational ministry, and am attending classes at HIU. Through a connection with Crossroads Church Partners, I’ve been able to enroll in an advanced ministry program that has really acted as a springboard for my life, propelling me towards my goals. When Roger heard I was looking for some experience preaching, he reached out…and here I am! I’ve been attending Grace Church for many years, and am very familiar with the Langseth family.

I’m here today with my wife Sam and our 5 kiddos. We live in Spring Valley, just a bit south of here.

*Our son Caleb is about 3 months old now, he was born in April. SO it would have been about last December that my wife and I had the hosted a gender reveal party for the Caleb. We had not done this with our previous kids, and knowing this would be our last, we wanted to get our closest friends and family together to celebrate. It was a great party, with lots of laughs and excitement. After the party, my wife and I were both excited to share the news that we’d be having another boy, and so naturally we too to social media. Sam and I decided to post the same picture to Facebook as our profile picture. Over the next 24-48 hours (I don’t know the exact timeframe) but my wife had received 137 likes on her post, as well as 37 comments (and yes I know this because I counted)

Since we had posted the very same picture at the very same time, I expected to have a similar number of interactions on my post. Sadly, I discovered that I had only 1 comment and a mere 3 people had liked my post…1 of those being my wife after I had noticed this and complained about it and she felt sorry for me

Why would I tell you this story? *My dismayed reaction to this social media situation serves to illustrate just how deeply ingrained the nature of Transactional-ism is within our relationships.

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In our digital age, social media platforms like Facebook often encourage transactional behaviors

We see People seeking validation, affirmation and attention through likes, shares, and followers. We prioritize superficial interactions and validation from others over genuine relationships and meaningful connections. We measure worth based on the number of likes or followers we have, seeking validation from external sources rather than nurturing authentic relationships with others.

I had just enjoyed this celebration with some of my closest friends and family, and yet so quickly I found myself aggravated by the lack of attention my post had received. Worst of all, we can find ourselves approaching relationships with others expecting something out of them, like the relationship only matters if I can get something out of it.

*We are going to turn our gaze This morning at a recognizable text out of Luke 15. I’m confident many of you are familiar with the story of the prodigal son, but as we approach it this morning, I want us to look at it through this lens of transactional relationships by studying the actions of both the younger and older sons we find in Jesus’s story.

More importantly, I hope this helps us to understand God’s posture toward us by looking at the example of the father we see displayed. you can find this parable in Luke 15:11-32, please turn there as we read prepare to read

While you are turning…As we read the passage aloud, let me ask you to be listening closely to the actions each of our characters takes. Consider what prompts them to take these actions and pay special attention to their interactions with each other. Follow along as I read Let me read:

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11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. 13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.

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15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. 17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!

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18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’ 20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

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21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ 22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

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25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

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28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

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31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

Our Lord and Our God, I pray that as we look at these words of scripture, you would help us to understand how they apply to us. Lord, we recognize that in a world filled with transactional exchanges and fleeting pleasures, it's easy for us to lose sight of what truly matters. Help us to see beyond the superficial and embrace Your unconditional love. Grant us the wisdom to cultivate genuine connections with You and with one another, free from the constraints of transactional thinking. 

*If you have not yet picked up on this yet, I want us to approach this story today looking at the attitudes of earning and deserving that pop up. And if we actually stop and we look at the context of Jesus’s lesson, I think it will help us even more to understand why he tells this parable. If we back up to the beginning of this chapter, Luke 15, It says: 

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1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

Did you catch who Jesus’s audience was, and what prompted him to tell this parable of the lost son in the first place?

Slide 10 Advanced…

*Jesus is speaking to tax collectors and sinners when the Pharisees question and complain about the company Jesus kept. It seems that the main issue is who Jesus is choosing to associate himself with. 

In my work at Damascus Way, I work with men who are transitioning out of incarceration…meaning many have criminal histories…often, they have some pretty heinous crimes. We work with all types…and It’s no secret that our society looks at these men in a different light. At best they may be considered outcasts, and labeled “different” and at worst, they are sometimes viewed as subhuman. Even for the best of us, it can be hard for us to separate the person from their actions.

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And This sort of encapsulated how the Pharisees looked at these groups of tax collectors and sinners who were hanging out with Jesus.

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So In response to their contempt, Jesus tells not 1, not 2, but actually 3 parables about lost items, concluding with the one we just read.  As we begin looking at each of our characters, I hope we start to understand what Jesus was trying to get these Pharisees to realize. I believe the self-righteousness they displayed can easily pop up in our own lives. They viewed themselves better than others because of their actions. This self-righteousness can lead right into those transactional relationships

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*Let’s start by looking at our younger son in the story. The younger son approaches his father requesting his share of his inheritance early. This would have been a highly unusual request. The younger son was sending a clear signal about how he felt towards his father. In no uncertain terms, he’s essentially telling his dad that he wished he was dead.

While Jesus does not tell us what the prior relationship between this man and his son was like, but doesn’t seem hard to figure out that the younger son really only viewed the father as a means to an end. He only wanted what he could get from him, not desiring any sort of deep or intimate relationship with his father. Do you see the transactional relationship at play here?

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He wants something, and once he has what he wants, once he’s completed his transaction, he’s satisfied, and he moves as far away as he can

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*We don’t know what may have gone through his mind at this point, but it seems he thought living however he wanted, making his own decisions, would lead him to a fulfilled life. Verse 13 tells us “There he wasted all his money in wild living”.

What is he doing? He is exchanging his money for experiences, for items, for who knows what, all in search of fulfillment. Do you know what that sounds like to me? Like a transaction! For a short time, all of these transactions may have led him to some level of happiness, but the younger son quickly begins to realize that he cannot sustain that lifestyle.

* As he spirals out of control, he finds himself at rock bottom.

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To make ends meet, he takes a job tending pigs. Now I’m guessing tending Pigs doesn’t sound like a very glamorous job for most of us but this little detail actually clues us in that this is much worse than we even think.

Remember Jesus is speaking to a primarily Jewish audience, and to them pork was seen as unclean. By tending pigs This younger son would have been labeled unclean in the very same way a tax collector or prostitute would have been viewed as unclean by the pharisees. Which remember, is exactly what prompted Jesus to tell this parable! I think it becomes clear at this point who the younger brother is representing in this story

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*The younger son eventually comes to his senses and realizes…. maybe dad can bail me out of this. He has been humbled…but is it possible the younger son is still only approaching his father to get something he desires? Even in his most desperate state, as he returns home, he does so with a transactional sort of mindset. If I work for my father…. maybe I will receive something in return.

I might suggest as this son returns home, he is not doing so desiring to be with his father, but desiring what his father can offer him. I wonder if you’ve ever related to the younger son. Seeing God as a means to an end, viewing him as someone who can be bargained with to get something you want?

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There’s also another character in this story. When the older son is 1st introduced to us in Verse 25, He’s out in the fields working.

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The older son may appear at first to be the more reasonable and responsible of the 2 brothers in our parable. The older son has remained by his father’s side, continuing to work hard to manage the family’s business. He appears loyal and obedient to the father.

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In verse 29 he would even say “All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to” – Wow, that’s some dedication.

Can you see though, how much like the younger son, the older son falls into the same trap of a transactional approach? He takes an almost accusatory approach to his father in verses 29 and 30.

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The danger in this transactional approach is that we begin to focus so much on what we do and doing more of whatever that thing is. If the younger brother is an example of the tax collectors and sinners, then the older brother is an example of the Pharisees, and their self-righteousness.

While they believed they were doing what God wanted to them to do, they were actually missing the point! This highlights a real danger for those of us who are deeply ingrained in church life! In his book “With” author Skye Jethani compares this older son to many of us who have grown up in the church.

We become obsessed with the mission of God, carrying out the work of God, and all of the things that we do for God. In all of this “doing” we miss that our great joy, the good news of the Gospel is more about our being.

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Luke 10:38-42 says this: "Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving.

Martha is busy with serving and preparations while Mary sits at Jesus' feet, listening to his teaching.

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Jesus's message here is not necessarily about devaluing service or action but about prioritizing the relationship with him above all else. If our motive for our work is to earn a right standing, to boast in our accomplishments, or to earn God’s favor and blessing…then we’ve fallen into the transactional trap!

Just like the pharisees viewed themselves in a better light than the tax collectors and sinners, just like our culture today views themselves in a better light than criminals, just like Martha viewed herself as more productive than Mary, so to the older brother has a feeling of superiority to the younger brother. In Matthew 7: Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…

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and goes on to say 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you.”

Have you thought about this before? Don’t miss the point here! Those people being cast away…these are people who recognized Jesus as Lord, people who did mighty works in his name and people who were on mission for him. These aren’t worldly people with no knowledge of God, or people who have rejected and walked away from him.

They are people who thought they were all about the mission. They are “older brothers” who have “slaved many years” and yet Jesus says these haunting words “I never knew you” … I never experienced relationship with you. You may have been near me, but you weren’t with me!

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The older son is an example for us that proximity does not equal intimacy. Don’t mistake being near God for knowing God.

So how do the actions of the Father contrast the transactional attitudes of his sons? Remember how I asked us to pay special attention to the interaction between the characters in our story? This is why! The way the father responds to both of his children brings to light so much about our father and the way he interacts with us. 

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We see right from the beginning of this story that the father is willing to grant the requests of his children. Even though the request of the younger son is a disrespect to the father, he allows him to make his choice and to find his own way.

Take an especially close look at the actions of the Father as the younger son returns home. The father meets his son in his condition.

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He’s watching for him, noticing him while he still a long way off. He doesn’t wait for the son to get home, clean himself up, make his full confession, and then act. The father initiates! Take note of the order here. In verse 21, the son offers his repentance and remorse, but it’s prior to this in verse 20 we see the father “Filled with love and compassion” and running to meet to son.

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The Father isn’t thinking “What can I get out of this?” He’s overjoyed his son has returned to be with him. If you’ve ever thought you need to clean your life up before you can seek God, before you can start a relationship with him, this is proof that’s not the case. God is always right there waiting for you with open arms.

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Likewise, when the Older brother is pouting and refusing to join the celebration, it’s the father that goes out to meet him. The previous two parables in Luke 15 highlighted a similar point…God is searching, and when the lost are found, it is worth celebrating.

Have you ever considered yourself to be the lost items in these parables? Do you realize how much God celebrates when you are found in him? The father spares no expense in planning an elaborate celebration, and so too this shows our immense value to God. Not based on what we’ve done, will do, or try to earn. It’s simply because of who we are.

This story turns our human ideas of transactions and earnings upside down. The Gospel does not offer us a pay scale to climb to earn God's love. It is a radical message of free grace - while we were still sinners, still distant, still self-righteously trying to find our own way, Christ came for us.

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Skye Jethani says, “The Gospel is not how people get to heaven, it’s how people get to God.” The Gospel is good news not because it means we can go to heaven when we die (it does mean that…) but because it opens us to a relationship with the God of the universe. And better yet, we don't have to strive and serve to be made sons and daughters. We are already His beloved children! Our actions flow from that identity, not to gain it. Like the Father, God eagerly watches and waits, celebrating when one of His lost ones returns home. 

As we conclude, let's reflect on the heart of this parable. It's not simply a story about two sons who made mistakes, but an invitation for us about a father whose love transcends our human notions of earning, and transactionalism.

God's love for us isn't based on what we do or don't do. He will never love you less than he does in the very moment, nor will he ever love you less than he does in this moment. It's not about being the rebellious younger son or the dutiful older son. It's about recognizing that in both cases, we need the father's love and grace.

So, here are few questions for us to ponder this week:

How do you see your relationship with God? Is it transactional, based on what you can do for Him or get from Him? Or is it relational, based on His unconditional love for you?

In what ways might you be acting like the younger son, seeking fulfillment apart from God? Or perhaps you're more like the older son, doing all the right things but missing the joy of simply being in the father’s presence?

How can you move from a transactional mindset to truly embracing your identity as God's beloved child?

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Remember, the father in our story didn't wait for his sons to get their act together. He ran to meet them where they were. In the same way, God eagerly awaits to embrace you, regardless of where you are in your journey.

The good news of the Gospel is this: through Christ's sacrifice, the need for a transaction has already been completed. We don't need to earn God's love - we simply need to accept it and live in it.

This week, I challenge you to set aside time each day to simply be with God. Not to do something for Him or ask something of Him, but to simply just abide with him. Whether it's through prayer, reading Scripture, quiet reflection, or another method, find what brings you into that intimate space with your Heavenly Father, and carve out time for it

Maybe you are here today never having experienced that deep intimate relationship with God. If that’s you, know that the invitation is open. The celebration is ready, and you are welcomed with open arms.

Lets Pray