The Point of No Return

Intro

Any baseball fans in the building? We got the world Series coming up so its an exciting time to be a ball fan. Boston Red Sox vs the LA dodgers, two excellent teams that are about to slug it out. I grew up playing baseball. I love it. I think that there is a reason that it is called “America’s great past time.” Now, there is inevitably a shift from when your younger to when you grow older playing this game. You may start out as a centerfielder but eventually shift to shortstop when your younger. You may pitch, because your the coach’s son and he’s playing favorites until everyone realizes that you can’t get the ball to the plate. But me, I played one position my entire life. I was a catcher. From tee ball through high school, that was my spot. I didn’t want to play anything else. So I was a catcher.

English Standard Version Chapter 15

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 mthe share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided nhis 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 oreckless 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 to2 one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he pwas longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 “But qwhen he rcame 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, sI have sinned against theaven and before you. 19 uI 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 vran and wembraced him and xkissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. uI am no longer worthy to be called your son.’3 22 But the father said to his servants,4 ‘Bring quickly ythe best robe, and put it on him, and put za ring on his hand, and ashoes on his feet. 23 And bring bthe fattened calf and kill it, and clet us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son dwas dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might ecelebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, fwho has devoured gyour property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, hyou are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting eto celebrate and be glad, for this your brother iwas dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

Now the thing about being a catcher is that your back behind home plate, rolling around in the dirt, and you can’t help but get messy back there. However, when I was in high school, my coach would make anyone with a dirty uniform run after a practice or a game, but there is one problem, my uniform was stained that way. No matter how much I washed it, the stains wouldn’t come out. So one night I decided I had had enough of running so I soaked my pants in a bucket of straight bleach over night. And if you are like me at that age you don’t know laundry 101 and that bleach weakens fabric.

So the next day I get dressed and head to the ball field. Im behind the plate, warming up my pitcher, and then we get ready for the first pitch. I get down in my crouch and get ready to give my pitcher the signal. He steps up to the rubber and looks for his sign and immediately backs off and just starts cracking up.

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 mthe share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided nhis 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 oreckless 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 to2 one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he pwas longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

I try to hurry him along and tell him to pick up the pace and he just tells me, “look down.” Guys I had split my pants from knee all the way up my leg and I was just bearing all for the world to see, because guess what, bleach weakens fabric.

But all of this happened because my clothes were dirty and I could not for the life of me get clean. You know, as silly as this might seem I do think that we maybe get to that point on a personal level. Have you ever felt like you were unclean? That your life is a mess and no matter what you do, nothing seems to solve the problem?

Keep that in mind as we open up to starting in verse 11.

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.

25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

m

Have you ever felt like you were just too bad off? Not worth saving? In so many ways that was this son right here. To start he said, “you know what, why don’t you just give me my inheritance now.” You know when you get an inheritance right? When someone dies. So here you have this man who looks his father dead in the eye and says I wish you were dead, go ahead and give me what I’m due. Jesus says that he squandered it all on “reckless living,” and would go one to explain that that he was drinking, partying, spending money on prostitutes, not exactly a model citizen.

n ver. 30;

Guys, you might not be struggling in the same way as this guy did, but I bet if your honest with yourself that you can find a way to relate. Your friends are running around on the weekend and you decide to join along and get drunk. We live in a day and age where we have things like cell phones and have a world of information in our pockets, and guess what the primary use for a smartphone is… pornography. You really can insert whatever into that blank guys. I know that I have hit that point a couple times throughout my life. Where I relate all too well to this prodigal son, feeling as if I deserve to be rolling around with the pigs like it says here. I feel dirty. I feel stained. I feel hopeless. I bet that if your honest with yourself that you relate to this guy better than you think and you begin to be “in need” like it says here in verse 14.

o [; ; ]

We see here in the son’s response when he “came to himself” that he felt like he had gone beyond that point of no return. He says I’ll go to him and see if he’ll hire me as a hired hand, no longer like his son but maybe he’ll let me work for a living.

2 Greek joined himself to

But guys please catch this, even when we feel most hopeless, please take these words to heart when we read about the father’s response…

p [ch. 16:21]

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.

q []

Did you hear that? Does that make you feel amazing? This son was expecting a cold response from his dad but when the father caught sight of him he chased him down! Gave him a hug! Threw him a party!

r []

Guys, whether you have faithfully followed Jesus for many years or are a new christian, Jesus rejoices when when you return to his loving embrace. You are never too bad, you are never too fallen, you are never too dirty to be pursued and welcomed by Jesus.

s [

That is exactly what Jesus did. A perfect and holy God saw you in your sin, in all your mess and chased you down to wrap his arms around you and call you his. Is that your God? Notice at the beginning of this parable that the father gave the son his inheritance. He let him run off. You might be in that spot right now where you feel distant from God. You might not know Jesus as your savior. But there are some of you in this room here tonight where God has you in his sights and he is running you down, not to condemn you, but to save you. You cannot out-run God’s love. You are never too far off from that.

t ;

Now there is perhaps another way to hear this parable. If you rewind a bit...

u [ch. 7:6, 7]

v []

w ;

x

u [See ver. 19 above]

3 Some manuscripts add treat me as one of your hired servants

4 Or bondservants

y

z ; ;

a

b []

c [ch. 12:19]

d ver. 32; [; ; ; ]

e ver. 23

f

g ver. 12

h

e [See ver. 29 above]

i ver. 24

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .