The Lost Son

Intro

Good morning church famliy I am so glad to be here with yall this morning. And thank you for giving me the oppertunity to come back and speak agin. It feels even more speical this time because it is homecoming. To me there is always something special about homecoming, and no before you ask it is not the food. It just makes get that feeling of remebering what jesus has done for us and to give him thanks for what he has done for us in the church. You know as I was preparing this sermon and trying to figure out what to preach, I asked my dad a qeustion. What do you normally preach about when it comes to homecoming and he said well there are multiple things I have used he said but the best advice I can give you is to preach on what homecoming means to you. So as soon as he said that I said well when I think about coming home in the bible I think about the prodical son. And thats what we are going to diving into today the story of the prodical son. Lets look at some information from Luke about Luke. Luke was a traveling companion and co-worker of Paul, traditionally regarded as the author of the Third gosepel and the book of acts. Luke depicts Jesus as the perfect man or the son of man. The purpose of Luke being written was to provide and accurate,orderly, and comperhensive account of Jesus life for his readers, particular the Gentile chirstians. Now lets read Luke 15:11-32.

The prodigal son

So we begin diving into this point I am going to explain the outline of this sermon. First we are going to look at the younger son who we call the prodigal son who left home. Then we are going to look at the older brother who stayed at home with his father and was there for his father. Then we are going to look at the father and break this down. Now lets look back at our scripture Luke 15:11-22 So before we begin lets look at what the word prodigal means. Prodigal means spending money or resources freely and recsklessly wastefully and extravagant. So we read in luke that the younger son was just tired of working and doing things around the house. So he asked his father for his inherdance now so he could go ahead and leave home. So the father respected his wishes and gave it to him. And this is were the word prodigal comes in he went and just blew all his money on sinful things. Okay so now I am going to pause in this part of the story. When I read this this week I thought about this is were jesus is kind of reffuring to the parable of the lost sheep. See The father in this story is God if you havent figured that out yet. And God says in the parable of the lost sheep we will leave the 99 to find the 1 lost sheep. In this story of the prodigal son the prodigal son is the lost sheep he is the one that God would leave the 99 to find the one. See the prodigal son is representing the chirstian that has followed God and now has lost there way. He knew his father loved him and he was greedy and he knew his father had money and so he took it and used it for sinful desires. And this is the same thing that satan dose to us. Satan knows your weak spots so he will try to use your weakness aginst you and try his best to make you fall. This son was like it looks so good I have to try it I dont care about the consequsence of my actions I just have to try it. He forgot everthing his father had taught him. See if you havent figured it out yet he is talking about us as chirstians. Sometimes there are people that just lose trust or hope in God and they just fall far from him and fall into satans grasp. But then God says you are never to far gone for me. And that is what the father dose at the end of this story. So now once the prodigal son has had enough he finally comes home. And he says “Father I have sinned aginst heaven and you I am no longer worthy to be called your son”. But then the father says no you have found your way home. You were lost and now you are found. This is representing when us as chirstians finally reconize we have sinned aginst God and we have pushed him away and now we have returned to him. And what dose he do he welcomes us back with open arms. He dosent judge he says I am glad you are home. So now moving on to our next point.

The oldest son

So now we have looked at the prodical son or what we have to been refuring to as the lost chirstian. So now lets look at the oldest son who is representing the faithful chirstian. Lets turn back to our scripture Luke 15:28-30. So as we see here in this bit of secriptrue that the oldest son was not happy at all. He was like father I have done everthing you have asked of me and more. And this other son of yours has left you and when he returns from doing sinful things you rejoyce that he is home. See I am going to be striat to the point. This is representing the chirstians who see the sinful people repent and have a testimony and then other people start telling it. And then some of the faithful chirstians start asking God why dont I get talked about I have been your servant for a long time I have done all you have asked of me and more. And you know what that is called it is jelousy, bitterness, and imature. See I call this a luke warm chirstian there are a few thing wrong with this situation. First I see they are focusing on works when they say jesus look what I have done this person has not done anything for you. You see this is the chirstian that jesus is going to say when this follower gets to heaven depart from me I never knew you. And I am going to pause the story right there. See Jesus dosent want you to earn your way to heaven. That has already been taking care of by the blood of Jesus Christ. All he wants from you is for you to repent of your sins and welcome him into your heart. And he wants you to worship him he wants you to spend time with him. He just wants a realtionship with you. Thats all he wants. When somone repents of there sin and starts a realtionship with christ we should be celabrating. Lets look at Luke 15:10. If the angles are rejoiceing over one sinner who repents we should be too. Because I dont think we know how important rpentance is. The bible says if you do not repent you will be cast into the lake of fire for enternity. And the human mind just can’t grip the meaning forever. Because ever were you look there is death. Even at some of the places you work. For example I work on a farm and every day you see death. every day you walk into the chicken houses and we do what you call walk chickens and some of yall are probably like what is that that means we walk down the chicken houses and pick the dead ones up. And back to the point I was making, its not even just death we see. Its the things we see that come to an end like tv shows, sports seasons, holidays, and many more. So we have programmed in our mind that there is always an end to everthing. And guess what that is the worlds mindset and we have to have a Godly mindset because your time on this earth will end but you will countinue to live, in two destinations either heaven or hell and you have to decide. And I know I just broke down alot but the jist of that is that the oldest son was a lukewarm christian and he did not rejoyce when his brother turned from sin like he was supposed to as a christian. So moving on to our next point.

The Father

Now I have been dying to get to this part. Lets look back at our scripture Luke 15:21-24 and 31-32. So in the beginng the son is like father I am not worthy to be called your son I have sinned greatly aginst you. And what dose the father do he says you have repented and turned of your sins and then through him a party because he found his way back home. So if you havent figured it out yet God is the father in this story. And this section of the story is representing when a chirstian has lost his way and then comes back home. Like it says in Luke 15:10, he had a party for his sons as like the angels do in heaven when one sinner repents. See the first thing the father didnt do is ask what he had done with that money, or what sins he had committed. The first thing he did is he ran off the porch with open arms and said welcome home. When you come back to Jesus he welcomes you back with open arms. He dosent condem you because when he died on the cross he died for the sins that he knew you were going to commit so once you repent and turn away from them you change as a person and start to have a realtinship with your father.

Closing

So in closing. We have covered what it looks like when you fall from God and come back. We have also looked at beign a lukewarm chirstian and how God looks at us as a sinner returning to him. So I hope what you take from this is what kind of Chirstian you want to be and how you will treat other sinners, that dont know jesus.