You are invited to stop measuring your worth by your performance and start resting in the perfection God sees in you. Embrace the truth that His goodness, not your judgment, is what draws you home to Him. Walk forward with the confidence that you are fully loved and accepted.
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That the younger son got together all that he had, set off for a distant country, and there he "squandered his wealth" and while living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need. So, he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating but no 1 gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare and here I am starving to death.
I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like 1 of your hired servants. So, he got up and went to his father but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was Filled with compassion for him and was and and ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. The son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
Verse 22, but the father said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calve and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate for this son of mine was "dead and is alive again". He was lost and is found.
So, they begin to celebrate. Jesus has an answer
to the Pharisees accusations begins to reveal the nature of his father.
And he shares the story first of the lost sheep and we sang about it this morning. He leaves the 99 to find the 1 and he rejoices over 1 sinner that comes to *repentance* and then we see the parable of the lost coin where the woman loses a coin and searches everywhere to find it and she finally finds it and they have a party and the Bible says, I tell you there is rejoicing in the presence of angels of god over 1 sinner who repents. If you if you've been to church or not, you know this story that we just read as the story of the prodigal son, right? I mean, even if you've been to church or not, this is 1 of the most popular stories not only in the Bible but in all the world, in everything that was written. Charles Dickinson even said that this is the greatest story ever.
Written and this is Jesus speaking it. You know, but but I begin to to research and look at something and and Jesus never referred to this son as prodigal and I found that interesting. Nowhere in the story does Jesus ever referred to him as the prodigal? In fact, most of us, when we think about this prodigal son, we think about a son that was lost, rebellious, wayward, sinful, the "worst of the worst". Hey, I was even called a prodigal probably.
You know, I I've had people come to me. Man, would you just pray for my prodigal son? You know, you pray for my prodigal son? And we have this idea in our mind of the prodigal son but if you look up the word prodigal, it actually means exceedingly generous lavishly wasteful, and **Recklessly extravagant**. I wanna tell you out of the 3 main characters in the story that Jesus was telling, the young son, the older son, and the father, if there's a prodigal in this story, it's the father.
Come on. We need to call this story the prodigal *father* not the prodigal son, the the the father was recklessly recklessly exceedingly generous to his son that actually wanted the father dead. He actually granted his request to give him a third of the estate of his inheritance which was unheard of during that time. He divided his estate. He lavished his love on this undeserving boy.
He gave him the robe the ring, the sandals, he had a party, he killed the fattened calf, he was recklessly extravagantly generous to this son. If there is a prodigal in this story, the prodigal is the father.
Exceedingly generous Let's look, let's look a little deeper in the story and get a few nuggets of truth real quick.
There was a man who had 2 sons. The younger 1 said to his father, verse 11, father, give me my share of the state. So, he divided his property between them. You you have to understand the context of this. When in the Middle Eastern culture, this was unheard of.
See, it's a culture based on shame and honor and this was the most dishonorable thing that a son could do was to ask for his inheritance before the father was dead. He was actually saying, father, I wish you were dead. Now, in that middle Middle Eastern culture, in that time, the father probably would have slapped the son silly and then flogged him in public to to save the honor of the father and to save the honor of the family but what did the father do in this story? The father gave it to him. The father let him go.
And he went Not long after that, the younger son got together all that he had. He had to liquidate A third of the estate and he went and set off for a distant country, a distant country being a Gentile country and there he squandered his wealth with wild living. Jesus, you got to remember who he's talking to, the Pharisees. Here's this Jewish boy who dishonors his father, who goes to a foreign country, who squanders all of this wealth, a third of the estate of this rich noble man and the Pharisees, it's a picture. Jesus portrays in this son, this lost son is a portrayal and a depiction of the worst of the worst, the worst sinner.
And it says, after he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country. Now, a famine is not where you go to the grocery store and there's no bread and ramen noodles and milk and eggs because of a hurricane. Amen. Okay? Alright?
That's not a famine. See, we don't know anything about a famine today. In famines in the Old Testament, we even read about in Deuteronomy that it got so bad. The the the people would eat all the garbage and then when the garbage was gone, they would find the animals and they would kill every animal and eat every animal and then when the animals were gone, they would take off the sandals off their feet and eat their sandals and when the sandals were gone, they would even eat the childbirth, the afterbirth, and the children to remain alive. In Deuteronomy, we find the mother ate her own child.
Can you imagine? So, this this this son is is experiencing a famine. How many of you know that sin will take you a lot further than you wanna go and keep you there a lot longer than you wanna stay. He had squandered all of this. It's a picture of the worst sinner on Earth.
And now, there's a famine and he begins to be in need. So, he went and hired himself to a citizen who sent him out to feed the pigs. Now, he has squandered everything. Now, he's out with the pigs. This Jewish boy in the pigpen feeding the pigs and it said, he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating but no 1 gave him anything.
Where were all his friends? That he had when he had money. Gone. No 1 there. So, not only is he feeding the pigs, he has become a pig.
But in 17, it says, when he came to his senses, in today's terms in theology, we call it metanoia. When he changed his way of thinking and repented. He said, how many of my fathers 's hired servants have food to spare and I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father. And I will say, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like 1 of your hired servants. A hired servant in that day wasn't even a servant of the house. They were the ones that sat in the middle of the village and waited for someone to come and offer them work and paid them the same day because they didn't even have enough money to be able to eat or to sustain themselves and this was the system that he would have to go back and he thought, I can't die here. Even my *father* has hired servants that have more than enough to eat and I wanna tell you today that what brought the son back to the father.
Goodness of god that leads someone to repentance. It's not judgment. It's not condemnation. It's not hellfire. It's the goodness of god and he remembers that my father is generous.
My father is compassionate. My father is full of love and my father is good. Yes. In that culture, he knew that if he went back, that he would be scorned. He would be mocked.
He would be ridiculed. In fact, in that culture, in the Middle Eastern culture, he would go back into the village and before he would even get to the father, the villagers would thorn him and mock him. Spit on him. Ridicule him, and maybe after a while, he would get to see the father but he knew that his father was good. Even though he had wasted everything, even though he had rebelled against him, even though he had walked the other way, even though he was in a pigpen now with the pig, he knew that his father was good and he got up, the Bible says.
And he did something. He went back anyway. He knew it was going to be hard but he went back anyway because the father was good and it was the goodness of god that led him back. True repentance will cause you to get up. It will cause cause you you to to move.
Move. Right. It will cause you to go and do something and have action. It's not just a thought and he rehearsed it all the way back, I'm sure. He rehearsed what he was going to say to his father.
*Father, I'm not, I offend against you and I offend against heaven*. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as a hired servant. So, I can repay you back what I lost. So, he got up and went to his father but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.
His father was looking. His father was looking for him to come back and he was filled with compassion for him. Compassion is is feeling the pain of his son. And he ran to his son and he threw his arms around him and he kissed him. This is unheard of.
Noble men in that culture wore robes down to their their legs. They considered their, if they uncovered their legs to be it for it to be undignified. It wasn't dignified for them to to it was it was an honor shame culture. It was very shameful. Not only to lift up your robe and to show your legs but to run.
Noble men didn't run-in that day and if you look up at the word in the Greek, it means to sprint. When he saw his son, this rebellious son, who had spent a third of the estate and rebelled against him and actually said, dad, I wish you were dead. The father saw him and pulled up his robe and ran to him. And embraced him and when a nobleman would embrace someone and the Bible says in the Greek, if you look it up, he kissed him over and over and over again. It was a sign of acceptance.
And everyone around was seeing the *father* that came to the son and hugged him and embraced him, didn't bring up his sin. But he accepted him just the way he was. He still smell like a pig. He still look like a pig. He was dirty.
He was thin from the famine. He was hungry. He was deaf. He was in desperation but *god, the father* came and embraced him and kissed him and accepted him. It's very important.
Let's look at the order and I'm gonna try to wrap this up pretty quick. In verse 20, and then 21. Then the son said to him, okay, the son has rehearsed this all the way home. Now, the father has come and and hugged him and I imagine the people looked and saw. Now, now the father in his shameful act of pulling up his robe and
running He was taking the shame off of the sun and putting it on himself. He took our shame
and then the son said, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer worthy to be called your son but but he had rehearsed something else. But the father cut him off before he said, make me a hired servant. The father wouldn't have it. He said, quick, get the robe, the best robe, and put
it on him. The robe was a symbol of his identity as a son.
He gave him the ring, the signet ring that they would dip in wax and he would execute documents in the name of the *father* and he gave him the authority of his house. Then, he put the sandals on his feet. He said, you're not gonna walk around barefooted like a hired servant. Only the hired servants in that day walked around bare footed. He said, put sandals on his feet.
And he not only robed him in *righteousness* and robed him in his real true identity. He not only gave him the ring, the signet ring symbolizing his authority in the kingdom, his authority in the house but he gave and put sandals on him on his feet symbolizing that he was **Restoring his dignity** and his self worth. He says, you are a son. You'll never be a hired servant. But you'll be my son.
I'm restoring you 100%. No restitution, only reconciliation. He did it quick. It was instantaneous. When he repented and turned and got up and went, he didn't run to god.
*God* ran to him. God is seeking those who turn their heart towards him. The only time in the Bible that god is depicted and shown as being in a hurry. We never think of god being in a hurry. We think he's he's a patient god.
He's a long suffering. He, I, I, you know, I I but in the the only story in the Bible, *god*'s in a hurry, man. He sees his son coming. Is he, it brings him joy, unspeakable, and full of glory to see 1 sinner repent and turn to him and he's there to run to him and to embrace him and to kiss him.
Hallelujah to the lord and he said, bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So, they begin to celebrate.
This fattened calf weighed approximately 500 pounds feed fed between 2 and 300 people. And they had a party.
Man, I I wanna I wanna tell you today that you know, *god* loves you and just like god loved this, the father loved his son, God loves you. Regardless of what you do. But because of who you are this morning. If you're in Christ, you are his son. What what just thrills my soul in this relationship that I've had with the lord and him delivering me and setting me free and and doing the work he's done in my life.
Man, is I know that I can run to him. Regardless of how difficult it may be, I can run to him and actually, when I turn to him, guess what happens? He runs to me. He runs to me and he embraces me and he accepts me and he counsels me and he encourages me and he loves me. This is the god we serve.
Do you see him this way? Does, how does he see you? He loves you like that. If he loved the worst of the worst and he came and embraced him, don't you know that he loves you today? Don't you know that he cares about you and has a plan for you?
Man, god is a loving *father* and has a plan for each and every 1 of us. You know, the older son came and got angry because the older son was a picture of the religious of the day and Jesus was was showing the older son to be the 1 that was still trusting in his works to earn god's favor And Jesus was showing the religious that it's not about your works. It's about my love for you. When they had the celebration, listen to this, and I will be done. It wasn't in honor of the son.
It was in honor of the father. Who took the shame, who took the attention off the son, and brought the shame into himself. And the the party that they had was in honor of the love of the father. It's the love of the father that brings us to him. It's the love of the father that helps us in our life deal with everyday situations.
It's the love of the father that helps me to be a good father to my child. It's love of the father that helps me to do what god's called me to do. It's nothing that I have done, but it's what he has done for me. I'm not trusting in what I've done, but what he has done for me. My trust is in him.
His love is good enough for me to sustain me, to give me favor and blessing and hope and forgiveness and mercy and help in times of trouble. It's because of what he's done for me, not in what I do, not in a list of **"do's and don'ts"** but because he loves me. And I want you to know this morning that he loves you in that way. And if you haven't seen god in this way and you said, man, I just I gotta is this okay if I jump down like that? Man, I still feel like mad.
I've got to I gotta live just right and man, I got to
do everything just right and if I don't, sometimes I still see god as a father who's kinda keeping up with my wrongs and cursing me when I do bad and and then I might do good for a little bit and then he blesses me but but he curses me again because I'm not doing all the way what I should be doing and you see god and you think god sees you that way. He does not see you that way.
It's good. If you're
in Christ, you know what he sees?
Check this out. He sees perfection. That's who you really are. If you're in Christ, you're righteous. You're
holy.
The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians-5:21, look it up. He who knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him. You know, if you're in Christ, he doesn't look and see your failures. If you're seeing him as a demanding task master, then you'll live in fear. If you see him as a harsh judge, then you'll live in hopelessness because you'll never measure up.
But if you see him as a loving *father* and you know when he looks at you that he sees you as his child, we are the children of god in Christ. And you know what? If we can know that he sees us that way, then it'll help us to run to him in any situation that I might face in my life. I'm gonna run to him because he loves me, and he's a good, good, good father. Lord, we thank you that you are a good, good, good father.
It is your goodness that brought the son home. It is your generosity and your *compassion* that came to his mind. And, Lord, I just pray this morning that as we walk through this life and we deal with the difficulties that this life brings, that we would always remember that you are a good, good *father*. Lord, help us to have a clear picture of how you see us this morning because it's gonna impact how we see you and how we face you. You know, the Bible says I'm gonna share 1 more scripture with you.
It says, we have boldness to enter the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, by a "new and living way", which he has consecrated for us that is through the veil, his flesh. He has made a way in Christ for us to have relationship and fellowship with the father. And I want you to know that he loves you today. He knows right where you are, and he wants to be your father. Turn to him and he'll run to you.
Amen. Amen. Praise the lord.
Thank you, Matt. Would you guys give give a hand? Something that he said in the beginning that, you know, and he showed all throughout is how we think God sees us is how we see him, and then how we respond to him throughout life. And so I I just wanna do something. Would everybody please stand?
We sang **reckless love**. Oh, the overwhelming, never ending reckless love of God. And you saw it in the *father* who it would seem in that culture recklessly picked up, carried the shame of his son, so everybody instead of looking at the shameful son looked at the shame of the father. Right? It was reckless for him to do that in the same way the way that God loved us when sending his son to the God, the son of God became a man.
God in the flesh lived the perfect life and died in our place. That's reckless and that's his goodness towards you and that's amazing.
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