Parables: The Lost Son

10.11.26 Mark Byerly : Good morning guys. How are you doing? we can turn to Luke chapter 15 this morning. Luke chapter 15. Slowly but surely fall is cooling us down. Some days it's more slow than sure. We're gonna start here in verse eleven. Luke 15, 11. And he said, There was a man who had two sons. 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. 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. And reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and he hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country. who sent him into his fields to feed pigs, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything. 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. I will arise and go to my father. And I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. 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. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. 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, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead. And is alive again. He was lost and is found. They began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 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. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him. But he answered his father, Look, these many years I've served you, I've never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. And he said to him, Son, you are always with me. All that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is now found. Lord Jesus, we ask you this morning, God, speak to us through your word. We ask, Father, that you would renew our mind, that you'd wash over us, Holy Spirit. God engage us in the direction of your kingdom and let us be fruitful and productive in Jesus' name. Everybody said. Amen. you know, this time of year, I don't know what it is. I think it's probably just, you know, the fall, the seasons, you know, the traditions kind of start up. And how many of you guys have have seen a Christmas carol? Have you guys ever seen a Christmas carol like a play or a My favorite my family's favorite version of that is a Muppet Christmas Carol. I like Gonzo, you know, he's doing his thing. I don't know much about the other Muppets stuff, but that one I like. And and the thing that sticks out, and I think I I love so much about it is is it is a a a beautiful story of change, of repentance, a changed heart. And the context. Of this parable, you know, so much we look at these parables, though these are three, there are three parables in this chapter, and we look at them and we see the father's heart as we should. The Lord is good and he's came to seek and save that which was lost. But the immediate context of this parable, this series, was because the Pharisees had noticed that groups of sinners. Lost ones, tax collectors, you know, they had started gathering around Jesus. They had started coming to him. And they and the Pharisees began to complain and gripe and begrudge this. And it's in that situation that Jesus tells three stories back to back. That's the context. To get a full picture here, let's just kind of paraphrase what Jesus lays out real quick. Number one, he says: any normal shepherd would leave his flock of 99 sheep in an open country to scour the countryside to find a sheep was lost. Any, go find me a shepherd that wouldn't do that. Number two, any normal woman who had 10 valuable coins would clean, she would turn her house upside down if she lost one. And number three, what would a father do if one of his two sons broke his family's legacy, ruined himself, but then returned broken and repentant? What would a normal father do? This is the sequence that Jesus tells these in. And it's in this telling that Jesus shares with us what's normal and what's not. You know, a lot of what Jesus shares in his parables, it teaches us what we should think of as normal, right? You know, you shouldn't build your house on the sand, you should build it on the Please build it on the rock. Don't do the other. Jesus kind of paints what's normal and what's expected. And he gives you an outlook about how things work in the kingdom. And it's here the same way, but here it's in a way that is in direct response to something that's happening in the moment. Pharisees are annoyed that. There this man has become popular with people who are godly. But he's surrounded by people who haven't yet been made right. They're annoyed. It's f it's frustrating to them. And there's three things I want to focus on today that Jesus points out with these parables. And I want to kind of unpack these. Number one, if you're taking notes, you probably want to write this down. Number one, heaven celebrates repentance. Heaven celebrates it. It's a big deal. Number two, souls are valuable. They're valuable. And number three, be careful. Pride, bitterness, jealousy, these things will make you unnaturally cold and ineffective as a believer. If you let these things take root in your life, they'll keep you from even the most basic and normal expressions of compassion. This is the big picture of what Jesus is pulling out. Let's we're kind of taking this in where we're gonna land is the lost son. But because Jesus treated these all in sequence, we're gonna kind of look at them together. Let's start with the lost, the lost sheep for a second. We have a man who has a sheep. And remember, you know, in our minds, we're thinking, okay, God, God has. He is being presented as the shepherd who goes and finds the lost sheep. And again, Jesus did come to seek and save that which was lost. But in the Greek, the man lost the sheep. You guys see this? God does not lose you. Right? He doesn't lose you. Jesus' point here is that a normal shepherd, what's normal, is that if something is dependent on you, If you're surrounded by people who are looking to you, who you should have something that they need, there should be care and concern taken on your part. That's normal. Everybody say normal. That's what's normal. It would be abnormal for a shepherd to be like, 97, 98, 99. well. Right? Who would would trust that guy. He's not gonna stay in business long, I can tell you that. Finding the lost is a big deal and it's worth celebrating because Jesus is a good shepherd. He's concerned about sheep. And that's why heaven celebrates repentance. Look at the lost coin for a second. Here we have a coin, and scholars think this is probably there's probably a little more going on here. How many of you guys have read this particular parable and you're like, I mean, she lost a quarter. Let's not get out of control, yeah. You know, like you're you're not trying to why is she throwing a party because she lost, you know, one little little coin here. And scholars think that this is probably talking about her bridal headdress. this was a practice that was done for for hundreds of years, all through the Levant. This is not just a Hebrew custom, but women would have coins. that and and valuables that they would be given and collect and it would serve as their dowry. And it was kind of a it would be kind of akin to you losing a a family heirloom or maybe the diamond out of your wedding ring. see. Now now you're w you're like, yeah, that house is it's getting turned upside down. This coin means something more than it's not just a coin. Guys follow me? And Jesus is saying, find me any normal woman who lost that big stone out of a ring that wouldn't take great pains to find it again. Course she would. Why? Because it's valuable. And most of the time it can't be bought again. You know, when Charity and I were first married, we decided to go to the beach. And how many of you guys like surf fishing? You like fishing from the from the shore? How many have actually caught fish from the shore every time you went? Thank God. I was about to feel very, very bad for myself. I've we've caught fish, but you know, sometimes if they're not running, they're not running, you know. So anyways, we we go out and and spot are running. These spot fish are running and and you know we put a double rigger on and we're throwing them out and we're pulling them in two at a time. I mean it is beautiful. It's it's a wonderful experience. We ate very well that night. But one of them, after you know, you you kind of get your bucket full, you start getting a little choosy, right? Like, because at first we're like, I I got something. You're reeling it in, you know, like taking pictures, and then, you know, after the sixth or seventh catch, you're kind of like, this one's a little small, you know. So you start throwing them back, and I I reach in, I grab the fish off the hook. And I throw it back out to the to the ocean. And as I release, time slows down. And I watch as my ring Summer salts. And it was at that moment that I knew our marriage was about to meet its first test. I kind of turned around, hand behind my back, and looked up at the beach just to see what kind of mood my wife was in. She she handled it very well. But anyways, we went to a to a to a beach shop and bought a five dollar ring that day. I wore that ring for the next 10 years. It's not the medal, it's the commitment. when something's valuable though you you'll try to take great pains to to recover it. And Jesus is he's sharing with people, he's trying to get them to see. He's trying to get to them to see that this is this is normal. It's normal to care. Don't you remember? That's what he's saying. Don't you remember? It don't you see it's normal? This is normal to celebrate this. In the lost sun, we see these ideas now brought right into your living room, into your family space. I want to look at the two boys in this parable: the young son and the older. First, the young son, he has a full character arc. And we see it, and it can be summed up in three things he says. You guys with me? If you've had kids, you may have heard something like this before. Number one, give me. Number two, I'm starving to death. Number three, Father, I'm not worthy. Full character art. Give me, I'm starving to death. Father, I'm not worthy. You know, there's a fail safe that's built right into life for making dumb decisions. Kind of like a check valve. God's just naturally put it into the world. And it's one word. It's called consequence. You know, Pastor Gary, you s he said, and we've quoted this a hundred times, if not a thousand, decisions have descendants. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta get that alliteration in there. The younger son blows his life up, he runs headlong into a whole wall of consequences. And if you've been there. You'll have to admire there's nothing. There's nothing like waking up and seeing in 4K the catastrophic reality you've created for yourself. If you've been there, you know what it's like. Jesus sums it up with this phrase He came to Himself. How many of you guys been there? You know what it's like. Do you know what it's like to not want to look in the mirror because you hate what you see? The decisions, the selfishness, the shame you've brought's all looking right back at you. Or how about this? To work your way down a list. Making phone call after phone call, apologizing to the people you've burned. And hearing the same disappointment. Every time. If you know what that feels like, I've got great news. Heaven celebrates repentance. It doesn't mean the process is not going to hurt. It probably should. Right? For those of us who have made that character arc, you wouldn't trade the pain and the repentance part of it because now you hate what you were. Right? You've seen forgiveness, you've accepted it, and you've moved on. You want to warn others. It's a process, but heaven celebrates repentance. You'll never be able to fix everything you've broken. But Proverbs has two beautiful verses of hope. This and I don't know if this is gonna be on the screen, but if you turn in your your Bible to Proverbs, chapter 28, 13, I'm just gonna give these two things. If you're walking through something like this right now, whether you're listening online or whether you're in this room, if you're walking through something like this, this is two good verses to keep in your back pocket. Proverbs twenty eight thirteen Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Confess it. Just go ahead and get it out. It can't do anything else to you. Proverbs 16 6. And this is probably something that you'll hear maybe more often on the weeks or years following some kind of major catastrophic, you know, blowing up of one's life. And that is what can I do? I'd like nobody will trust me now. Proverbs 16:6. By steadfast love and faithfulness. Iniquity is atoned for. And by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil. This is my advice for you. If you're walking through repentance and you're coming back, you're getting back in the right relationship with God. Pray this prayer. Father, I ask today that you make me faithful. And tomorrow, Father, I ask you today that you'll make me faithful. And the next day, Father, I ask you today that you'll make me faithful. Because one day you're going to wake up and you're going to realize the Lord has built with you years of faithfulness. He'll rewrite your legacy that way. The second part of this verse says, by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil. And to be honest, a lot of times that's what you need more of. The fear of the Lord it'll keep you from falling back into stuff you have no business in. Now, let's shift for a second. The older son. The older son, he hears, he gets angry, refuses to celebrate. And when the father comes looking for him, he lets dad have it. He lets him have it. How many of you guys have ever had a falling out with your parents where you just kinda I don't recommend it. He lets him have it. And the Greek here is it's it's so real, man. It is like He says, This son of yours Has devoured, he's catafagon. He's he's he's torn it up and he's scuffed it in his mouth and he's ate it all up. He devoured your livelihood. The thing that you that you actually had built up to live on, this son of yours has gobbled it all up like the cookie monster is what he's done. He's just that's what he did. And what did you do, Dad? What'd you do? I'll tell you what you did. You went out and you you're gonna feed him more. You've killed the fatted calf and now he's stuffing his fat face with it is what he's doing. Anybody ever been there? He's like, Wow, I've been here all these years. Been working and slavin'. You never threw me a party. The sad thing about this is the older son. Never repents. Terrible ends. Who did the father actually run after? Think about that guys. This is hard to hear as parents, you know, as parents you want to save your child from every bit of pain and unnecessary consequence you can. The son went out and the father let him go. He didn't run after him. The younger son went out and blew his life up. And father didn't wire him extra money. The world just happened to him. And it was because of that that that younger son came to himself. He found himself in the pain and the consequence of what he done. Father goes after the older son. Who did he plead with? Older son. He pleaded with him. The danger here, guys, is that we can be so confident. They were right. That we find ourselves on opposing sides of God's heart and his purpose. War so convinced. That we don't need anything. that we actually begin to look down on people that are walking in the reality that they do. Pretty soon you'll lack even the ability to have normal compassion. What's normal? If a man had a if he lost a sheep, he he'd go find it. If a woman lost her ring she'd she'd go find it. And she'd celebrate, she'd be excited when she got it back. The Older son, w how can you not see? He's he's broken. He's He's back. This is something worth celebrating. Jesus warns us about this in Matthew twenty-four, verse twelve. He says this he says that in the last days lawlessness will increase. And the love of many will grow cold. Some translations will say the love of most will grow cold. And you guys can feel it just like I probably can. If you're busy taking care of your family, raising your kids. Just trying to live for Jesus, pay your taxes, you know, be a good citizen. And then you see the tragedy that's just the washing machine of tragedies just constantly boiling over in the world. Little by little. If you're not careful, you see tragedy, and you're like, man. You did that yourself. I don't want to get involved. In revelation Jesus addresses the church of Ephesus. And he says, you've worked hard, you've tested what's real and fake. I mean, these are great accommodations from the Lord. You've endured even. But you left your first love. Now most of us won't we're used to looking at this passage as our first passionate love of Jesus. And and that's good. It's good if you're like not in love with Jesus, you need to be. But if you on if you dive into this a little bit, guys, and we just came through a study of Ephes Ephesians. Paul calls out what the Ephesian church was known for. It was their faith in God and their love for all the people in the church. That's that's that's what they've become famous for. Paul commends them in that, and it just kinda makes me wonder. Is Jesus actually saying the things that you did at first, remember how you loved people? Do you remember? Do you remember how you like cared about them? And how you were willing to give sacrificially? And how you were willing to stop your schedule to look for something that had gone wrong? And you like looked for my hand at work and people? You've you've left that. Why did you leave it? It's because, and Paul told them the things to do, and they did it, but along the way, They they they were looking at all of the things and guys I get it nobody in this room probably feels the the the draw to this and the and the like constant working this out than this guy right here. Get burned a few times. Meet a few charlatans. Send money to something and find out they were embezzling. That stuff's gonna happen more and more, guys. It is. We've got to protect the love that God has put in our hearts. And it expresses itself by looking and celebrating when people are getting close to the kingdom. You know? What did Jesus remind his disciples over and over? Love one another, that we would be known by our love. What if among all the work in recognizing and calling out evil, which is important by the way, that's biblical, and the struggle to remain pure and protecting what is good, you get stabbed just one too many times and you grow jaded and cold. I'm not suggesting that we go into the world pretending everything is rainbows and butterflies. It's not, and let me just say that's not faith, that's foolishness, and you'll probably get yourself and the ones who rely on you hurt. Don't do that. Jesus didn't. He said, I'm gonna send you out like sheep among wolves. All right? The world is dark, it is dangerous. However, You and I, we are the sons and daughters of God, and He has hidden a treasure. In these Broken, helpless little people. Walking around seeing other broken and helpless little people. And our job is to shine, guys. Ephesians four, thirty one through The next chapter falling through it says this. And it says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one. You hear the father talking to the older son? Forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. Be imitators of God as beloved children, as a beloved son. Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. I want to give you three andotes here to committing yourself to a life of being the older brother. Number one, remember. Remember where you were when Jesus found you. You remember? I do. Man, I needed him back. The father said to the son that he's with him always and we have Christ in his presence with us always. Everything he has, we have access to as sons and daughters. We're supposed to be doing this thing with him. Not getting jealous and sidelined and left out and bitter because we see someone else is coming home. Someone else, we need to slide down the table and make room. Heaven celebrates repentance. Number two, see people again. Stop and look again. The people you're working with, the people that you're walking by, the people that you're bumping shoulders with at the store, their souls. Jesus cares about him. Souls are valuable. Number three, forgive and look where God's working. Some of you have experienced betrayal after betrayal, maybe sometimes from the same person. And you would say, you know what? I'm fresh out of coats, actually. I'm fresh out of robes. I got no more rings left. I got I gave you the rings, you hawked them for your what you wanted. I'm all out. Number one, forgiveness is a requirement. You gotta forgive. Pastor Aaron shared this like beautifully a few weeks back. He was talking about forgiveness. And I'm not gonna get his words right, but it's a valid point that is good to walk this out in a practical way. And that is this: restoration is a two-way street. Not every part of restoration lands on you. You can't carry the whole thing. Forgiveness is what is required. You may have made mistakes in how you handled things in the past, trying to, you know, make things work, take the lesson, repent, get forgiveness, forgive yourself, move forward. But most importantly today, God can heal and he can restore your ability to have compassion. Like it's the first time. You can do it and you can become fully engaged in the Father's work, knowing That his gospel still saves, his blood still cleans. There's nothing wrong with the recipe. There's an old film and it's one of the ones that we kind of watch every every now and then. It's Ben Hur. Not the new one, the old one. The old one with the goat, Charlton Heston. Ten Commandments. It's a sl it's a that's a slug. Ben Hurd might be a little bit shorter. But Ben Hurd tells a beautiful story of forgiveness and redemption from a man who has been just ravaged by the empire. And as he's come with a finally a repentant heart, he's gonna let all this bitterness go. He tells his bride, he says this, he says, Almost the very hour he died, he's talking about Jesus. I heard him speak his forgiveness, and I felt his voice take the sword out of my hand. Guys, if you're like If you put yourself out one too many times or you've been stabbed in the back, I'm here to tell you the gospel's bigger. It can handle it. And the Lord will take that thing out of you and He'll turn you into someone with a warm heart. That's willing to reach out. And when you see the loss coming in, you're gonna be able to celebrate. Not in a jaded way, not in a well, we'll see. But Beautiful way. Before we stand, I just want to take a second right where you sit. And Just ask the Lord. If you need something from the Lord, like you, you know between you and the Lord what's going on in your heart. Maybe there's stuff you need to repent from, maybe there's stuff you need to fix. Maybe you just you just realize, you know what? I'm kind of virgin on cold. I'm kind of virgin on like I don't really care. Just take a second with the Lord. Ask him, Father, make me like you. Lord, I ask in the name of Jesus. Just like David said, that you would restore the joy of our salvation. God, even the concept of repentance and salvation, God, that you would restore that to your people as well. That we'd be able to celebrate with you. That we'd be able to journey with you. Mm-hmm. Just have you guys stand for a second and we're gonna close, but If you're willing for the Lord to use you, and guys, look, some some of this might hit heavy, but I tell you, I was talking with a friend the other day, and I said, you know, to be honest, I like most of the time, I don't feel like when I'm evangelizing. When I'm telling people about Jesus. It's actually the funnest thing in the world. if you If you want God to just move your heart into seeing more and to interacting more with the lost, if you'll just lift your hands, there's no pressure to be a part of this. Awesome. Lord Jesus, I ask right now, Father, you commanded us, you said, go in all the world, preach the good news. And these folks want to be empowered by your Spirit. Lord, I ask. for fresh vision. God, I ask for fresh hearts that'll be full of compassion and wisdom, Father. Lord, and I ask that you would make them fruitful, productive in the name of Jesus. Lord, I ask that you would gather souls to them. And for some of them, Lord, make it fun. Make it fun, man. Make them find the life in it. And if I just want to say something encouraging, some of you guys have been praying for folks for a long, long time. Keep going. Keep praying on that. While you're doing that, maybe just look around for where else God might be working. Okay? And Lord, I ask that you would make us fruitful in you in Jesus' name. Everybody said. Amen. Awesome. Guys, be a good son and daughter. We will see you next week.

Luke 15 · chapter mention Luke 15 · chapter mention Proverbs 28 · chapter mention Proverbs 16:6