The Lost Son

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Morning, CCW.

I got greeted by one person.

Well, happy Fourth of July weekend.

I am elated to have a crowd here this size when I know the lake is calling most of you.

So praise the Lord that this place is pretty full.

But I'm thankful today for the celebration that we'll be looking at on Tuesday and the independence of our country.

I was sharing with our prayer team this morning.

I'm thankful that we can come together and worship in the name of our Lord with freedom today.

Can we give God a clap offering that we still have the freedom that we do in this country?

Before we get started, I do want to offer condolences and you be in prayer.

The Heather Hobson family and the passing of her mother.

There's a funeral this week.

So, Heather, we're praying for you and Ryan and Jeremiah, all the family, and just uh lifting you up.

But, anyways, turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

We are continuing our summer study and going to be looking at parables for the rest of uh the remainder of this series through the summer.

Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

A parable, as you open up there, is defined as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

There's over 30 recorded in the Gospels, and they're tied to Jesus' teaching in the New Testament.

Jesus is the master teacher of the parables, and he taught often with parables, word pictures, and questions.

I say that because there's a camp today that will say that preaching with stories is not their cup of tea, and they really don't like it.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like what's called a proper exegesis, which means you open up a passage and you dissect it scripture by scripture.

But I also use a lot of illustrations.

And if you don't like illustrations, I'm gonna say what I think should be said, you should take that up with Jesus.

Because he taught with it often, and I'm just trying to imitate my professor.

Y'all with me?

The meaning of this parable, though, can be traced in Luke chapter 15 to verse 2.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Luke 15, verse 2, I want you to see it.

Luke 15:2

And the Pharisees and the scribes complained, complainers always complaining, you can find them everywhere, saying, This man receives sinners and he eats with them.

So he spoke this parable to them.

It's a response to Jesus all the time eating with sinners, all the time with the tax collectors.

They didn't like that.

That wasn't their style.

And so he shares three parables to illustrate what?

To illustrate the Father's great love and yearning for the lost.

The prodigal son has been called the pearl and crown of all parables.

So we're gonna start off and try to hit a home run and see what we can do from here.

Y'all pray with me.

Father, we love you and we thank you for the picture of your great love for us in this story.

Lord, I pray that we can find ourselves in it and find you in it today.

Lord, I believe that there are prodigal sons in the room.

Lord, I believe there's prodigal daughters in the room.

I believe there's some that are in their 60s.

There's some that are 15.

And God, you've got a word for their heart today.

And God, I pray that you penetrate through any blockade, any force, anything, uh presupposition that they brought into these doors.

I pray that you can unpack all the luggage and baggage that people brought and get right to the heart.

Lord, bless us as we try to understand your story in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Look there at Luke chapter 15, verse 11 and 12.

Luke 15:11

We're gonna start off out of out of the gate and get running.

The first point this morning as we'll look at those verses is we see a jerk request.

Look at what it says, verse 11 and 12.

Then he said, A certain man had two sons.

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that fall to me.

So he divided them his livelihood.

The first thing we see is that jerk request.

The Greek word for jerk today is jerk.

And this is the feeling we get early and often from the prodigal in this story.

Now I hope the more that I walk with Jesus, the less jerk I am.

I hope that the more gentle I am, and the less about me and arrogant I am.

But what was it about the prodigal that made him have this jerk request?

It was the request letter A.

It's a scandalous request.

He says, Give me the portion of my inheritance.

Now it's pointed out that there are two brothers.

This is the younger.

The elder brother would get two-thirds of an inheritance, double, and and usually get it first.

The scandal seen by the religious is that the request is tied to the owner of the inheritance.

In other words, as long as the owner is living, you don't get the request.

So it's scandalous because, in effect, he was saying, why don't you just go ahead and die?

Or give me my inheritance.

Give me what's coming to me, give me my peace.

I want the money.

He would have had to think about how to present this question.

Weigh out the scandal, and the prodigal, in essence, says, I don't care.

The prodigal heart says, I want to get what is vested in my interests, and I don't care whose feelings it gets in the way of.

I just want my getting.

Now understand, the prodigal is not a picture of Christians rebelling.

I want you to know that.

It's a picture of lost acting like lost.

Now, I don't have a problem with lost people acting lost.

It's their plight, it's how we're born, it's born into a sin nature.

I have a problem when God presents to them the greatest gift on planet earth, and they stick up their hand to it, and they live in the prodigal, and they don't can they continue in that prodigal way.

It's not the way of Christianity, not the prodigal way.

Christianity is not scandalous, it seeks those who are.

How is it possible for someone to make this type of request, Pastor?

How did he make this request?

Well, the picture of the prodigal is a picture of entitlement.

And man, do we have an entitlement problem in society today?

Entitlement is this the belief that we inherently deserve privileges, special treatment, or the right to something.

Now, I want you to know this sin nature has always lent to that idea that we deserve.

Since you came out of your mama's womb, you started thinking, I deserve.

Satan played it to Adam and Eve, first thing in the garden.

You deserve to eat that fruit.

They're trying to hold you back.

Entitlement says, Give me that fruit.

Give me my inheritance, even though I haven't done one thing to receive it.

You know, Pastor Danny used to say this all the time: there are no free lunches.

Somebody has to pay.

And listen to me.

Generation Z, Ecclesiastes 3, 12, and 13 says something that's important for everybody to know.

If you feel entitled to deserving work, Ecclesiastes 3, 12 and 13 says is a gift from God.

Work is a gift.

The prodigal didn't want to wait.

He didn't want to work, he just wanted what he felt he deserved.

Everything outside of grace, church, hear me.

Everything outside of grace is earned.

You gotta work.

So you better love work.

Do you like money?

You better like to work.

I have had, church, and I have had not.

And I want to tell you today the truth.

Had was better.

Okay?

Had was just it was just better.

And I'm not saying I love money.

The Bible says the love of money is the root of evil.

But if you want money, you better learn to work.

The prodigal and the lost world would like to get the most with the least amount of effort.

Again, Jesus is giving a description based on the defense of how loving the Father was and how he looked at a world desperately in need of something that they could not ever earn.

The prodigal wanted his three P's.

Hear me a lot of weeks.

He wanted his pleasure, he wanted his power, and he wanted possessions.

And the world, by and large, that aren't inside of a building like this today, that is what you can live for.

That is the great empty hole in their chest.

That is all there is.

And when you build up to the end of your life, and at 95 years old, there's a big bank account, and then you've arrived to emptiness.

His father care was and is what the son actually needed, and it was the thing that he was pushing away to get out of, thinking he was running towards independence and freedom, but he was running himself toward prison.

It was a scandalous request, let it be, it was a selfish request.

Selfish.

To stay in our lostness when we've been provided with freedom is a selfish request.

The prodigal son to this point has been plagued by self.

Remember the story of Dr.

Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde?

There's a quote in it.

It says, In both of me, we fight each other and keep ourselves from being happy.

Jekyll creates a potion, becomes fully Edward Hyde and completely selfishness.

There's no more desire to do anything but serve himself, and feels like he has created something full and pure, but he's created full and pure selfishness.

Edward Hyde is tenfold more wicked.

Did you know that Jacqueline Hyde was inspired by a cabinet maker named Deacon Brody?

Deacon Brody was a respectable town counselor and very successful.

Brody's job gave him access to the keys of very wealthy people, famous people, and he made copies of those keys in order to rob them every night.

What he had was not enough.

Self, hear me, never, ever gets enough.

The self never has enough.

The selfish request is this.

Their favorite thing for the self is more.

I need more, and I need it now.

I need more because more is the only thing that keeps me high.

I don't care who it hurts.

I don't care about the emptiness.

I just need more.

Let me tell you, CCW, more has never filled anyone.

Not one time.

All more gets you is more, and it only leaves you wanting, guess what?

More.

Let me turn with me to James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

Talking about the selfish request.

And I want you to see in James 4 what it says about selfishness.

James 4, verses 1 through 3.

James 4:1–3

3.

Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure?

That war in your members, you lust and do not have.

You murder and covet and you cannot obtain.

You fight in war, yet you do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

See, James says it is the desire for pleasures.

That word desire in the King James Version is lust.

Your lust for more is what creates war.

The word lust is hedon, where we get today's English word for that Greek word hedonism, which is living by the pleasure principle.

The problem with the pleasure principle is our five senses have been corrupted by sin.

James said, your desire for pleasure, your desire for more puts you at war.

War puts you at more puts you at war.

God created us as humans to live in a relationship with others, and that means.

Anybody?

Sacrifice.

That means caring about somebody else's needs more than myself.

Anybody got kids today?

I learned for the first time in the world how to not be selfish once I had kids.

I told you before I've spent$70 at a movie that I didn't want to see.

It's an expensive nap.

I learned how to not be selfish once I had family.

But we were created for these relationships, and yet the prodigal son has this more monster.

And what is the more monster doing?

It's pushing him away from the relationships that he was tied to and taking him to relationships that he didn't know, trying to become popular and powerful and having possessions.

It's the more monster inside.

More puts you at war.

The more monster can't understand why everybody doesn't want what it wants, which is for your brother, your father, your mother, your sister, and everyone to get on board with a plan to help me get more.

A world of more monsters are at war for more.

That's where we are today, church.

By and large, in society, we have a bunch of more monsters who are told, listen, eat or be eaten.

Success is found at stomping past everybody else's needs.

You do what it takes to go get you more.

And that's where the prodigal son was at.

He wanted more.

Well, the second point this morning is this it's a jolting reality.

When he gets to the place where he thought he wanted to be, he has a jolting reality.

Have you ever been hit unexpectedly?

Boom, just hit with something.

I worked in teen ministry for a lot of years, and teenagers, boys, they're just physical and they want to kind of test you and push you.

I'm always getting sized up, right?

And um, teen boys always just, you know, and there's this one kid who for about three or four weeks, he's like, come on, come on, Pastor Rick, just wrestle with me.

You know, and I know better.

Like, you know, I've learned enough and lived enough.

He's wanting to tie up with me, and I can look at him and decide, okay, you know, I've lived long enough, I sort of understand who I can take and who I can't.

Okay.

And I knew I could take him.

But he sort of was hot-headed, and so I just avoided it.

Three weeks he kicked, he kept pushing about it, and I deny him, deny him, deny him.

The fourth week, he comes at me and he locks up with me.

He gets a hold of me, and I'm like, okay, here we are.

And so I wrestle him down and I gently get him to the ground.

Okay, so I'm done, and I'm like, and I said something kind.

I'm like, all right, I know how to just make this situation smoother.

And I'm like, man, you sure are strong.

And I start walking away.

He locks back up with me, and I'm like, so I'm just holding him, you know, and I'm and I'm waiting to see what he can do.

And he just can't overpower me.

So I get him down on the ground again.

Now, you gotta know this kid's been wrestling on the wrestling team for a couple years.

He's, you know, I'm not saying what happens is good, but he was very frustrated.

He pops up and I said, Man, you're strong.

I said, but let's we're done.

And I'm walking away.

Boom! I see stars.

This kid punched me right in my jaw.

I'm like, y'all, y'all ever seen the steam coming out of the train?

And I'm like, okay.

I said, you need to walk away.

And I walk away.

And yes, physically it hurt some, but I'm burning.

And I want to tell you, I've never I've never wanted to hurt any kid.

I've never wanted to hurt a kid.

I almost cried in that moment, not for pain, but I thought to myself, why in the world did this have to happen?

And I got thinking about that this week.

You know, Satan, the Bible says, is an advert adversary that's like a roaring lion.

He's seeking, and he's plotting, and he's planning, and he's waiting for just the right moment.

Boom! And you think that what's ahead of you is a good thing or is the thing that you want, and wait until the prodigal son gets exactly what it was that he was dreaming of.

And that's the way of sin.

It's a deception.

It makes you think if you can just if you just get that, oh, if you just get that affirmation from her, if you just get that, then you will have arrived, and sin comes unexpectedly this jolt.

If you read in Hebrews, we don't have time to turn there, but in Hebrews 11, 25, it says this that the pleasure of sin can be enjoyed for a season.

Letter A is that, that the pleasure of sin is real.

The pleasure of sin is real.

He packed it all up, the prodigal son, and he took his money.

I want you to read verse 13 through 16 with me.

Look at what happens.

His father divides him his livelihood, and not many days after the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, underline those words, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want.

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

So we see the picture here.

He gathers his money, packs it all up, he goes to a place called Far Country.

Far country equals independence, right?

If I can just get one day, Pastor, you don't understand my parents, you don't understand my situation.

If I can just get to far country, if I just get elevated to vice president position, if I can just get noticed by city council, if I can just get somewhere else that I'm not, if I can get to far country, I can gain independence.

The far country for the prodigal could be better defined as Sin City.

You can grow up in a good home, I want to tell you, and get to far country.

You can have a godly father and a godly mother and get to far country.

You can go to church and be in church and be in far country.

For two years in my testimony as a teenager, oh, I was in as far country as far country could be.

I knew the right things, I understood the right things, but I walked away from my relationship with God.

I knew the Lord.

I was a saved person.

I had given my life, surrendered, but in my teen years, I started looking at the three Ps and I started desiring something else and felt as this was really my words.

I've grown up in Christian house, I've grown up in Christian school.

I deserve the right to be like everyone else.

I deserve to have that inheritance.

I'm entitled to what the world is enjoying, so I'm gonna get it.

And boy, did I.

And for two years, I walked away from God, I walked away from that relationship, and I went to far country.

Y'all, I went to church camp to kiss girls.

Teens here want to know why Pastor Rick has a rule of boys and girls can't sit together on the church van, church bus, because I kissed a lot of girls on the church bus.

I confess, Lord.

I was I was right around the truth, but still in far country.

I'm thankful to tell you today, church, that I'm a prodigal son who came home.

The reality of that scripture is sin can be enjoyed for a season.

It doesn't say that sin is good for a season.

A lot of people will quote that and say, sin is good for a season.

No, it says sin can be enjoyed for a season.

So a person who wants to do evil can enjoy their evil for a season.

It doesn't say sin is good for a season.

Let me explain the season.

Students, a vaping high can last for a year.

For up to two hours.

Three hours for marijuana.

A drunken buzz can last six hours.

That's a season.

Being dressed half naked on social media, Instagram, TikTok can last for as long as your five thumbs come scrolling through and you get that like and you get that high for a season until the season crashes, and then what you gotta do is you gotta do more back to what he wanted.

He gotta do more to get that high again.

You've got to do more of the same, not the same amount, you've got to do more to get the same effect.

So it's enjoyed for moments, but let me tell you what it does.

It continually empties you, leaving you in need of more.

And church, every person here under my breath was created with a Jesus-sized hole in this heart that can only be fulfilled by one thing.

It's not any other high.

And let me tell you, it's the greatest high on planet earth.

It's going to be the greatest high of all eternity, Jesus Christ.

And for some people, you got it right now, and it's the greatest high.

You can't get down off of it.

Let me tell you, you've already got more, and there is no more.

It's there.

Praise God that you've been filled with it, but the pleasure of sin.

Let me tell you, it's real.

And people have been drawn to it.

They've been drawn back to it.

People have been in sobriety and pulled back out.

I'm not saying those, listen, I'm not making light of any of that.

Those things are hard and difficult, and people go through really hard phases trying to just wean themselves free.

But it's only Jesus Christ that fills that heart.

The pleasure of sin is real, let her be.

The price of sin is required.

The prodigal thought he was going towards freedom, independence, out of my father's house.

But what it cost him, the irony, is his freedom.

He thought to himself, if I just had this money, I'll have the chance to do whatever it is that I want.

I can do anything I want if I just have money.

The inner struggle is this struggle of the will.

You see, prodigal, the word means wasteful.

After the party was over, and he had wasted, squandered all his inheritance, what was left?

You know, it's freedom to have a plate of food every night.

We don't think about it until we don't have a plate of food.

And then you know what?

You get tied up.

When he got away from his father's house and he had spent all that he had, and he had all the crab legs and he had sushi and he had all the good life for about three weeks, three days.

I don't know, the party was over.

Freedom wasn't so free anymore.

He couldn't eat food, he couldn't even sleep in a bed.

Not too many people think about the freedom they have to sleep in their cushiony bed until they go to someone else's house as a visitor and they go, ooh, stiff after that night.

You know, the guest bedroom.

I don't know what we're doing.

The guest bedroom should have the best bed.

You know what I'm saying?

Christians, come on.

You got the cot for the night.

Air mattress.

Don't you air mattress somebody, they'll die.

Reason cause of death.

65-year-old air mattress.

I won't go on an air mattress.

I'll sleep on your couch or your chair.

I don't want that cricket back.

So after the party was over, he's empty.

He looked around and he said, Hey, hey, guys, but guys, there was no friend to be found.

He burned through sin's resources and he found himself empty in far country.

This was supposed to give me freedom.

John 8 32 says, It is the truth that shall set you free.

Somebody need to look that boy in the eyes and say, This ain't all that good, is it?

The Bible says in Galatians that we were given liberty to stand wherewith Christ hath set us free.

This heart that gets tied up in all kinds of worldly pursuits and goes after those pursuits, and the world tells you, Go, go, go, and this heart is only fulfilled in one pursuit.

Look down at verse 14 and 15.

But when he spent all, if it could get any worse, there arose a severe famine in the land and began to be in want.

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine.

A famine strikes the land.

If it ain't as bad as it can get, I've lost my friends, I got nothing to eat, and now I can't even go into a garden and steal some food.

There's a famine striking the land.

Made me think about 2020.

Nothing could have really readied the world.

I was about a week of not seeing people.

Y'all, I was about a week, and I'm like, I'm not gonna make it.

People, we were driving up in people's driveway, talking through a window half a mile away, like, hey, can we just see you?

Air high five.

Right?

Not even with free government money, it didn't make it better.

All that did was give me more money for a puzzle.

Not even good at puzzles.

I found that out.

Heather got to do all the edges.

I do the things with words.

If it says Coca-Cola in real big letters, I can do it.

The prodigal son needed much more than an inheritance.

It was more than money.

Rock bottom is when you're in such a jam that you want to eat, like the prodigal son.

He went and worked with a guy, a pig farmer, and he said, You can work with these pigs.

And the prodigal son got down and he got looking at the pigs over there eating in their trough, and he got jealous of the pigs.

He said, Ooh, they look like they're filling their bellies.

And he was hearing another growl from his stomach.

I want you to understand this.

To a Jewish audience, this would have maybe been the most degrading part of the story they were hearing.

For a man to be next to an unclean beast, a pig, groveling for pig food.

Y'all, Uncle D, Darren Hyde over here.

He makes some uh fantastic smoked meats.

And uh one Sunday, Heather and Renee had the nerve to judge Jason and myself like it was our fault.

For what you ask, they threw away some perfectly good smoked meat in the trash can.

And we're over there looking at it, observing.

I I had someone with me, so it wasn't like I went into this myself, but yes, we were pulling food right out of the trash can, eating it.

Now, before you judge me, okay, don't be too quick.

Number one, have you ever had Darren smoked meat?

Let me ask you that question.

And number two, it was still sitting on top of the fool and hadn't touched any other trash.

Some of y'all had me judge disgusting.

I'm not coming back to this church.

I'm not ashamed.

Are you ashamed, Jason?

I'm not ashamed, tell you what.

But that statement would have made Jewish audience's stomach roll.

He didn't want to eat with the pig slop.

Well, right when Jesus has him on the hook of this story talking about how bad it was, how bad the lost situation is, he turns to the majestic side of this story, and that's where we're gonna end with.

I want you to look at verse 17.

Says, thank God for this verse.

It says, but when he came to himself, look at your neighbor and says, he came to himself.

But when he came to himself, I don't know if he shook his head, I don't know really what happened.

It says he came to himself.

Every man is on a journey here, church, to repentance road.

For some it's a short walk.

Might happen when you're young.

For some, it's a long, hard journey down repentance road.

You might be in your 60s, 70s.

Some may never make it this side of eternity, but I want you to know the Bible says one day every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

We're all on a journey of repentance road, but let me let you into this letter A, the Son's Long Lane.

The prodigal son had a moment of clarity.

It says, when he came to himself, when he came to himself, he was hungry.

By the way, when I'm hungry, I'm the opposite.

I don't get clarity, I get irrational, right?

He was hungry.

He was humiliated, and finally, thank God he was homesick.

He came to himself.

He said, What am I doing?

He said, What am I doing?

He said, My father's servants live better than this.

Let's read it.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants, verse 17, have bread enough to spare, and I'm perishing with hunger?

I'll arise and go to my father, and I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.

And he began to have this hope that there was a possibility if he got back home and confessed his sin before his father, he could ask for a role.

Not a son.

I don't belong in the family anymore after what I've done.

He recognized his sin.

He said, I'm not it, it's not even right for me to go back and ask that.

But I'll go back and just ask, beg, if I can be like one of the hired servants, if I can farm, if I can do some of the work for my father, because all of his servants eat bread.

He recognizes his sin and he's ready to confess.

Romans 3 23, church says, For all have sinned.

Everybody here, the best person you know, the best pastor you know, the best person on the planet, for all have sinned.

We all have this plight.

Some people here are gonna leave and not recognize it.

You were born and you have this plight.

And the Bible says Romans 6 23, for the wages, the payment for that sin is death.

There is a death day coming.

For some of you, you need to realize this.

It's coming.

It's appointed for man wants to die, and after this, the judgment, it's coming.

We all have a death day.

The prodigal said, I'm recognizing my sin plate, and I'm just gonna go back to my father.

If I get the opportunity, I'm gonna confess to him my sorrow for my sin.

You have to name your sin and turn from your sin.

He was heading this road, walking this way, this direction, party, and it's all over.

And he comes to himself and says, I gotta go down repentance road.

It's a different road.

It's not the same path, it's not the same things, it's not the same life.

It's a change.

And so he changed and he said, I'm going this way, and it doesn't matter what I become.

If I just get before my Father and He allows my confession, I will have done all I need to do.

I know He'll give me bread.

He went down that long lane.

Says, I'm not even worthy to be family, but I'm hopeful for mercy and grace.

He's walking home, he's ashamed, he's lonely, he's hungry, he's disgusted.

I don't know if you've ever seen this movie, The Greatest Showman.

I've got a picture that's gonna pop up of a lyric.

There's a song on The Greatest Showman called From Now On.

And I want to read this to you.

Uh From Now On, this man thinks that if he can just become something in life, then everyone will worship him.

And he gets to this point, and he says, I drank champagne with kings and queens.

Politicians praise my name.

But those are someone else's dreams, pitfalls of the man I became.

For years and years I chased their cheers at the crazy speed of always needing more.

But when I stop and I see you here, look around, I remember who all this is for.

And he said, My declaration, from now on, these eyes will not be blinded by the lights.

From now on, what's waited till tomorrow starts tonight.

And let this promise in me start like an anthem in my heart from now on.

And then there's this little bridge that says, and we will come back home.

We will come back home, we will come back home again.

You were born and you're living this life homesick for Eden.

You're homesick for Jesus.

That hole in your heart is pulling you all of your life.

And I love what the story of this movie is that I'm done with that.

I chased it, I'm done from now on.

I'm heading down this road.

Read verse 20 and 21 with me.

And he arose and came to his father.

But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

We see letter B, the picture of the father's lavish love.

I want to read to you verse 22.

But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robes and put it on, and put a ring on his hand, the sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry, for my son was dead and is alive again.

But go back up there.

Says verse 20, and he arose and came to his fire.

But when he was still a great way off, it says he was still a good ways off.

That means the father, come on, church, picture the story.

He was still a far ways off.

That means the father was checking, he was looking, and he said, wait, wait a second.

He said, That that looks like him.

He was checking on and he was coming to the door, and he yelled, Baby, it's him.

He's come home.

He said, Grab the robe, grab the ring.

Somebody better put a calf on the fire.

My boys come home.

It says he's seen him from afar off.

A good ways off.

There's a song that depicts this moment that was put out, I think, in the 90s.

And this is what the song lyrics says.

The song is entitled When God Ran.

It says, And he ran to me, and he took me in his arms, held my head to his chest.

He said, My sons, come home again.

He looked at my face and wiped the tears from my eyes with forgiveness in his voice.

He said, Son, and the song says, and he called me son.

Do you know that I still love you?

And it caught me by surprise and brought me to my knees when God ran.

I thought we'd share a little bit of the song with you today.

And then he ran to me.

Um just a few weeks after everything started, we got to walk in the dog at nights, and we were walking one night, and Wyatt came walking past us, um, or he came on this scooter thing.

I can't, it's called a ripstick.

We're walking down, and we're we're heading down across my lane and down this other road, and this big steep hill is past us, and I see him going, and he's just you've got a wiggle for this thing to go, and I see him, and in a moment as a father, I had to check.

Your moms have this all the time.

You have it sometimes without them even being there.

You just go, oh, I had a feeling.

And I watched him, and I wish that in that moment I would have screamed at him, I would have yelled at him, I had the thought, stop.

I had the thought, this isn't gonna be good.

I had all of these thoughts in that moment, but as a father, my mouth didn't open and say the words, and I don't know why, but why it goes on past on this ripstick, and he's going down this steep hill, and I'm watching, I'm like, oh no.

And I'm watching, watching, watching, and he hits a manhole, and I'm telling you, I don't know how fast that it was a very steep hill.

And I'm gonna say 15 miles an hour, maybe faster.

Just no helmet, no nothing.

He's going down this thing, hits the thing, and he catapults in the air, and I'm like, oh, he's coming, and I'm watching everything fall apart in front of my eyes.

My kid is cartwheeling through the air, and he smashes down his head to the concrete.

And a week or two before that, I had torn my hamstring, so I couldn't even run to my child.

Um I'm seeing it, he's making noise.

My daughter's with me, my other son's with me.

We got the dog.

I finally get down to him, and he will not open his eyes, and he's crying, and there's blood, and I'm like trying to pick him up, and I'm gonna walk him back, and I can't.

I physically can't get him in my arms, and he is like limp there, and I'm like, what are we gonna do?

Weston, in the meantime, I don't know if he's five, six, however old he was at the time, he runs back home in the dark.

I've lost the baby, and I cannot on the phone.

We're just barely away from the house, and I can't explain to Heather where we even are for her to get down there.

I'm like, we're over by the, and and she's like, what is happening?

I'm like, I can't even speak.

We get him back to the house.

We finally get the ambulance call.

He has not opened his eyes whatsoever.

And he's asked me while he's laying down there.

Dad, he says this a few times through the night.

He says, Daddy, he said, Am I gonna die?

You know, if you've never had this kind of feeling in your life, let me tell you.

One of the scariest and worst feelings.

So we get there, the ambulance, they come, and I'm telling you, this makes you want to hurt somebody.

They get in there, they're checking him, and they say, It's probably better for him to stay here.

We don't want him to get mixed up, possibly getting COVID.

I'm like, he has cracked his skull on the pavement.

He has not opened his eyes.

What are we talking about here?

We're trying to keep him free from a virus.

They wouldn't take him.

So there I am, and I'm like 15 minutes.

I call, thank God.

We have a pediatrician in the church, and she said, You better get him down to the urgent care.

I'm trying to get him through the house.

I'm carrying him.

I've hit his legs on doors.

I get over to the car.

I'm trying to, you know, I get him in, and we get almost to the clock tower to get down the road, and he said, Daddy, will you pray for me?

All my soul.

I never spoke in tongues, but I thought I did then.

I was speaking every name of God, Jehovah, Rafa, Jehovah, Shalom, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jibre, Jehovah.

And I said, I just, God, please, you'll do anything.

You will do anything, parent.

I got him to the emergency room.

He hasn't opened his eyes.

He's my stomach's feeling sick, dad.

And he's asked me again before we got out, Dad, am I gonna die?

Not answering this question, just praying.

Pick him up, get him in a wheelchair.

We get in there, he still hasn't opened his eyes.

I'm signing him in.

They're trying to ask me what's happened, and I'm trying to explain.

They're giving me COVID questions.

I'm like, get my boy in somebody's chair.

I just want him okay.

All I want is for my son to be okay.

And we're sitting there and I'm signing stuff in.

They're about to take him in.

And why goes, Dad, Dad, I feel sick.

He jumps up out of the wheelchair.

I didn't know he had any function.

He hadn't moved a body, a limb, anything.

He jumps up out of the wheelchair and I'm like, whoa.

He runs, slides across the hallway into a doorway that goes into another room, and there's a trash can, and he vomits in a trash can, and I'm like, Woo! My boy can move! I'm pumped.

You didn't have to lie from that point on.

I was better.

He got up.

He could function.

No, listen, he could have got anything he wanted that night, that week.

We took him home.

He had had a concussion.

We were driving around after that in COVID.

We made him wear a batting helmet.

It was awesome.

Went to go to Starbucks and why it's in the back seat with a batting helmet.

Listen, you don't know what it's like until that child you love is in a place of pain and you just want to help him.

Can I tell you, church?

With heads bowed and eyes closed, the Father saw us choosing that road, that long, deep road, like Wyatt chose.

He saw you and saw me choosing the prodigal road.

It was sinful and it was dangerous.

And let me tell you, church, hear me, that road leads all the way to hell.

And you can choose it.

But Jesus will do anything for you not to take it.

In fact, he gave everything.

He gave his scarred, bruised, battered body so that you wouldn't have to have any of the pain.

He doesn't want you in judgment.

He doesn't want you in fire.

When the Father saw us choosing that sinful blight, he said, Jesus, go stop him.

Go save him.

And he loves us so much.

John 3.16 said it, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

So, church, hear me today.

There are people in this room that are prodigals.

And you haven't chosen the right road.

Jesus died so that you would choose that right road.

I don't care if you're in here and you're 15 or you're 65.

Jesus is the answer for you today.

He loves you so much.

Man, I got an earthly love for my child, and I'd have done anything.

My love is flawed by selfishness.

Jesus had no flaw.

He loves you purely.

He doesn't care that you're where you are right now, that you've wasted whatever it is.

He says, just come home.

And he's looking out on the porch and he's looking for you.

And he's he's coming around.

He said, Maybe this is the day.

Just come home.

Nothing else is gonna do it.

It's only him.

So if you're here and you've heard me, the invitation is clear.

I'm gonna ask you guys to stand to your feet.

If you're here and you say, Pastor, the reality of my life is this.

I have not come home.

And I know that I need to.

I know by the Holy Spirit of God that's pounding in my chest right now that I need to.

I want to tell you today, you can pray this prayer.

It's not the prayer of the fact of the matter is if you're thinking that there's maybe some churning, maybe some changing happening in your heart already, but the prayer semen's what the work of the Holy Spirit's doing, maybe been doing, been doing for years for some.

Been pulling and tugging and asking and pulling, and you know it, but you haven't received it and surrendered your will.

Today you can do that.

Pray with me if you would like to do that, if you want to surrender today, saying, I'm giving it all up, it's yours.

You can pray saying, Dear Lord, I know that I walked away.

I know that I've chosen sin.

But I want to come home to you.

I believe that Jesus died on that cross for me, that he was buried and rose again for me.

I've tried everything else.

I want to put my faith and trust in you.

I want to make you the Lord of my life from this point forward.

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