Parable of the Prodigal Son-Younger Son

When the light comes on. Parable of the prodigal son, the

younger son, we need to say the quiet part out loud and that's

this. Sin is fun. Sin is fun. We don't call it sin because that

kind of take the fun out of it. So we relabel it, we clean it

up. We don't say to a friend, hey, let's go out Friday night and

we'll sin. It'll be fun. No, we call it something else, but that's

what it is. Or let's say sin appears to be fun, but it never ever

is in the long run. And that's what the story of the prodigal son

tells us, how sin deceives us. This is a story about two sons and

a father. We heard about the younger son, the scripture read so

well for us this morning. The younger son who wanted half of his

inheritance, he wanted to go out and have wild living and he took

it and went. The other son stayed home, but the other son was

also estranged from his father because he was just trying to follow

the rules of his religion or his structure and had no love for

the Father. And in his self righteousness over his resentment

for his younger brother, he was sinning as well. So whether it's

the sin from taking off in a wild life or the sin of self righteousness,

both separate us from God. We're restored to a holy God when

we have corrupted our lives with sin only because of the grace

of Christ, who gave the sacrifice on the cross so that we

could be clean, we could be forgiven, we could be brought back

into fellowship with God. It's not earned, it's not deserved. It's.

It's a gift of love from God to us. And so today we're going to

look at the younger son. Two weeks, we're going to look at the

older son and his sin and the father's forgiveness. Next week is

our global emphasis week. And so we're going to kind of take time

out in this story, talk about how our witness shows in the world.

But whether it's the younger son running from God or the older

brother living religion without love, or it's the wandering

sheep we talked about last week or the lost coin that's just

neglecting God, whatever the process, whatever the path, the result

of sin is the same. Now the younger brother's story is told in

us in great detail because it applies to all the paths of sin,

whichever one you pick. And, and Jesus essentially tells us that

what's anticipated to be a great adventure that's what the younger

son thought it was going to be. A great adventure is exposed

in the agony of sin to let us see clearly how painful life can

become when we follow the path of sin and get caught in that cycle.

This story shines a bright light on the examination of sin.

And the scripture talks often about the light shown on sin and

what it does to sin. Ephesians 5 reads like this, Take no part in

the worthless deeds of evil and darkness. Instead, rebuke and

expose him. It's shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly

people do in secret. But when the light shines on them, it becomes

clear how evil these things are. Jesus tells us the story in

detail because he's trying to protect us from the trap that the

devil wants to pull us into with sin. And so today we're going

to look at the nine bright lights that are shone on sin. When

we get trapped in that cycle, why do we get pulled into it? Why

do we sin? And then when we do sin, what happens every single time?

That's what the parable of the prodigal son tells us. Because there's

always a commonality to it of why it happens, and there's always

a commonality to it of the result. It's ugly every single time

when it's shown in the bright light. So first of all, the scripture

says sin always starts with justification. The younger son told

his father, I want my share of your estate now, before you die.

Well, in those days, they didn't have a bank account. They

had land, they had cattle, they had farms, they had whatever

it might be. So for a son who would take half of that inheritance,

if there were two sons, when he died, they'd have to split all

that down the middle. Well, that's a complex and difficult thing

to do. But the son says, I want my half now before you die.

Well, here's the problem. This father wasn't dying. You see, he

started with the justification, my father's gonna

die, so I'm gonna take it anyway, and just twisted that in

order to get his handle on a justification for why his sin was

okay. And when we wanna sin, we go into overdrive trying to find

a justification. They don't pay me enough on my job, so if I

take a little bit extra or I. I don't give them full effort, so

what? I deserve it. You know, I'm a person who just gets angry.

It's just who I am. It's just the nature. You don't want me to

express myself Authentically, you want me to hold back, huh? I've

had hard knocks, tough knocks in life, so if I cut a few corners,

what's it matter? I deserve it. I've binge drinking doesn't hurt

anybody but me. So what are you complaining about? I was raised

to fight for everything. And if you get hurt in the process, that's

too bad. Because you won't get ahead in the world if you don't fight.

And I'm going to show you the way. I talk bad about them because

they talk bad about me. I mean, what goes wrong comes around,

right? See, justification is always the foundational platform

for sin every single time. So sin starts with the justification

we see from the story. Secondly, we see from the story that

sin always puts immediate gratification first. So his father

agreed to divide his wealth between his two sons. Again, the

father's wealth was not cash. So this was really difficult to do.

And so the immediate gratification of the younger son,

everybody has to adjust to his selfishness. The father has to divide

up this property and possessions that he's built up over

the years, probably that he inherited part of it. The older brother

has to give up part of his. The employees all have to change

or many of them get laid off or what it may be. You see, sin always

abuses others. Sin always abuses people that God loves and

God created. Probably the most raw example of sin is sexual assault

and abuse, cyber bullying. That's raw. It is so pitifully selfish.

Get your happiness for three minutes and put somebody else's life

in turmoil forever. And that's what happens. It's the lowest of

the low. So whatever the immediate gratification is, that's

kind of what it really comes out to be because people get trampled

in the process. Jesus said, what you do to the least of these,

you do to me. And when your gratification and your quest for

immediate gratification start to trample on people, it is sin every

single time. Well, thirdly, the story tells us that sin always

takes root in our emotions. Scripture then says a few days later,

this younger son packed all of his belongings. He wasn't going to

wait around. I mean, he got the money, he gonna go. So God created

us with emotions. And you see that emotion expressed in this younger

son who's ready to go, he's not waiting. Emotions in our lives

are barometers. You know, barometer measures air pressure.

This weekend I was going nuts with my sinuses. The air pressure

was changing. It measures the air pressure. Emotions do the same

Thing, they measure the pressure of our lives. Now, some

emotions are happy and some are sad. And sad emotions are not

bad because all emotions have a purpose. You see, Jesus got lonely.

Jesus got frustrated. Jesus cried. So this emotion of the moment

in the quest for immediate gratification is what pushed this

son to. To make a stupid decision to leave a place of stability

and love and comfort and protection and security and just

head out into the world. And that's what he did. Emotions of inadequacy

lead to jealousy. And that's what happened in the older brother.

We'll see in the story in two weeks. The jealousy and the rage

began to build in him. Emotions of loneliness need to lead

to pride. I can do it on my own. I don't need anybody else. I'm

strong. I'm going to do this. I'm going to be determined. Emotions

from demands, the weight of responsibility. We got too much.

I can't stand it anymore. I've got to do something. Emotions from

boredom. I just. This is too boring. I gotta do something that's

more exciting. The sameness of it is too much. They all lead to

a loss of control. Those emotions, even if bad. We'd rather

have the control. The younger son would rather have the control

of his future, even if it was a bad future compared to what he

had. We're willing to risk everything for control. You see,

all these different emotions all get rooted in the sin. And if

we will slow down enough when we're tempted to sin, to stop and

understand what emotion is driving that desire right that moment,

we can especially do much better dealing with the temptations

that come into our lives. Get the emotion out of any decision before

you make it. That's just a good rule of life and a good rule

of leadership and a good rule of organization, good rule of family.

Get the emotion out before you make it. But especially when it comes

to sin, get the emotion out before you move forward. Because

the younger son didn't do that. And he's headed down a tough

path. So then we see forth sin always seeks freedom, Scripture says.

And then he moved to a distant land. Now, travel in those days was

a huge risk. You didn't just go get on a plane or a bus or whatever

like you do now. It was a big deal. It was very dangerous. And

so he not only was going to a place where maybe he didn't speak

the language, maybe the culture and the customs were different,

but also he was leaving behind stability. He. He was leaving behind

the reputation of his family. He was leaving behind his ability

to influence his surroundings. He was willing to go in all that

because he was seeking freedom. Leaving God's care is almost

always a search for freedom, and there's a huge risk to it. But

off we go into the dark to find freedom. Scripture says this

about the dark. Night is the time for sleep and the time when

people get drunk. But let us who live in the light think clearly,

protected by the armor of faith and love. Then in John, all

who do evil things hate the light and. And refuse to go near

it for fear their sins will be exposed. You know, a really good

test to see if you're being drawn into sin are the things you'll

do at night that you won't do during the day. If so, that's a sign

of caution. And be careful and be slow to move that direction. Even

though he was headed into the darkness, the Father let him go.

We see in the story. You see, God allows us freedom even when we

want to reject his love, because he loves us that much. Now,

can you imagine for a minute today you said to your parents, I'm

taking half the money of this family. I'm taking half of this.

I'm going to essentially destroy you. But I want my part.

I'm going to go do it. I. I'm going out. I'm going to live how

I want. I won't be in touch, and I'm going someplace else. What

would they say? A lot of parents would say, well, don't ever

come home again. If you make this step, you're done. I'm going

to disown you. I don't want anything to do with you if you're

going to reject our family that much. But the father and the

prodigal son doesn't end the relationship. The father just waits

and watches for him to come home. You know, periodically, I get

calls from parents whose son or daughter is having real trouble,

really headed down a bad path of sin. And they want to ask me what

to do. And my advice is always the same. No matter what, don't break

the relationship. Doesn't matter what they do, don't break

the relationship. If the relationship stays, there's always

a chance they'll come home. But if you break it, they won't come

back. That's what the father did. He didn't break the relationship.

He let him go. And then we see sin always envisions an idealistic

future. And he moved to a distant land and there wasted all

his money on wild living. I'm sure it looked great. There's an

anticipation and sin of perfection. This is going to be incredible.

I'm going to live on the edge of excitement. It's going to be an

adrenaline rush. You know, people are addicted to adrenaline.

If you're one of them, be careful because that's a real thing.

There's assumption we can keep control in our future, and so we

have this anticipation. It's all going to work out great. I can

handle this. And people headed into sin only look that far at the

idealized future. But there's always, always a shattering of that

perfection. When sin gets played out in contests we can't win,

sin always wins. Sin never delivers what it promises, ever.

It promises fun, it promises freedom, it promises independence,

it promises a bright shiny future. And it never, ever delivers.

That's what the prodigal son found out. So sin always has his

its consequences. About this time, the money ran out. Well, the

money's always going to run out. Sin will always hurt you, because

if that's your bank account, there's a limited supply. If your

bank account is in Christ and in his redemption, his grace, it's

an unlimited supply. You see, God's not wanting to restrict us.

He's trying to protect us, to keep us from sinning. And we all

get tempted into sin, so nobody's immune from that. Remember

when you were growing up, probably at your house, Was at my

house, your parents put childproof locks on everything. We

had so many. We had locks on everything. I put pads under the

dining room table so they wouldn't hit their head when they

crawled under there and all this stuff. We protected everything,

but we weren't trying to keep them out of stock stuff. We're trying

to keep them out of things they were curious about. We're trying

to protect them from things we knew would hurt them. Parents can

see the consequences. God can see the consequences of the sin we

think is going to be ideal and wonderful. Because there are arbitrary

laws in the design of the world. And God designed it certain

ways. And when those laws are broken, it doesn't matter what your

opinion is. There are consequences to that. Take the law

of gravity. You may like it. It doesn't change anything. Jump

out of that balcony, you're going to break a leg. It's going

to happen because of gravity. You can't stop that. Well, there

are also laws of God's spiritual design, and there are always

consequences when those are broken as well. Now, God will always

forgive, but the damage of sin remains even in forgiveness. And

the damage of sin can absolutely be horrible. As the story

tells us now, the Bible doesn't list every possible sin,

doesn't have cyberbullying in there. That's a horrible one, lots

of others, doesn't have any, doesn't list every sin, but it does

list a bunch of them. So Galatians says the sins of the flesh

are obvious, which is kind of an interesting way to put it. Are

obvious. Sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful

pleasures, idolatry, demonic activities, hostility, quarreling,

jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, division, rebellion,

envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kind kinds of

sins. Scripture is not bashful to call out sin because God knows

there will always be a crash when we sin. Sin is fun, right? Until

the consequences show up. And the consequences always show up.

Now, whether your sin is wandering like the lost sheep last

week, or it's neglecting God like the lost coin parable, or it's

self righteousness like the older brother, or it's sins of the

flesh like the younger brother, they always have consequences,

every single time. But we don't see that part. We only see

that idealized future of what it's going to be. Well, the story

goes on that sin always intensifies life's challenges. About

this time, his money ran out. About the time his money ran out,

a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve. Hard

knocks of life. Come famines come, jobs get lost, stock markets

crash, houses catch on fire, medical trauma comes, family members

die. And in the hard knocks of life, if you're living in a life

of sin, your options get narrowed. That intensifies the hard

knocks. Let's say you're 40 years old, got a couple teenagers,

wonderful family, everything's good. Father, mother, die in a car

crash, you get the news, you're devastated, you go home, you're

overwhelmed, and you forgot to hide your second phone like you normally

hide it from your spouse and she found it and saw the affair you're

having. At that moment, you need family more than anything. And

at that moment, you just destroyed your own. You see, the

younger son painted himself into a corner where he didn't have

many options. That's the nature of sin. It limits life. It

doesn't expand life as it promises that it will, because sin

then always convinces us, even at that point, that we can fix it

on our own. Scripture says he persuaded a local farmer to hire

him and the man sent him to the fields to feed the pigs. The

young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding

the pigs looked Good to him. A big part of sinful nature is never

wanting to admit we were wrong. And so we come up with another

plan. Okay, I'll feed the pigs. Now, feeding the pigs in those

days was the lowest of the low. Jobs. Pigs were unclean. It

was a horrible thing. But he had plan B. Plan B doesn't work.

This is like plan A. It starts with justification. It's built on

emotion. Okay, this is going to be great. I'm going to keep my

freedom. It envisions an idealized future, and it never, ever

works. I have seen so many people in my life spend their whole

life spinning from plan A to plan B to plan C all the way through

the Alphabet, looking for anything other than doing it God's

way. And their life is wasted in a cycle of sin that continues

to deceive them to believe that the next alternative is finally

gonna fix it. And no, it's not, because that's not how God designed

the world. Sin always convinces us we can fix it on our

own. But then the scripture tells us last sin always makes us

face reality. And 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 hungry. I will go home to my Father.

It is sad, sad, sad that so many people have to hit bottom before

they're willing to admit they were wrong and head back up. If we

create a life of sinfulness, we will eventually face reality,

the hard choice between our way and God's way. We can try another

plan on our own, but it's not going to work better than the last

five plans on our own. Or we can go home. Go home, say, I'm sorry.

Repentance, restore the relationship, come back into fellowship

with the Father. If the Son knew how it would end, he never would

have started. And that's why Jesus tells the story in such detail,

so we will see how it ends every single time. Pastor Adrian

Rogers used to have some wonderful ways of summarizing big

ideas. And he said this, which has often been quoted, I love it

says, sin will take you farther than you want to go. It will

keep you there longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you

more than you want to pay. That's why Jesus tells this story,

to show us how it ends. Because sin will take you farther

than you want to go, and it's going to keep you there longer than

you wanted to stay. And it's going to cost you a whole lot more

than you were expecting to pay. So he tells this story for us

to see that. And he also tells the story to see how great the Father's

love is. And in two weeks, when we look at the second part of

the story, that's what we're going to see. You see, the story

of the prodigal son is really a love letter to us from Jesus. He's

saying, please trust me and don't go there, because I know what's

there. And I don't want to see your life crushed under the weight

of sin. But here's the good news, the bottom line good news going

home is easier than every sinner thinks it will be. Every time.

Let's say together our benediction. No eye is seen, no ear

is heard, no mind is conceived. What God has prepared

to those who love him. God bless.