Truths For The
Prodigal
Lesson #5
HOME, SWEET HOME!
Intro
1. Review last week’s lesson.
• A summation might be: “A fool and his money are soon partying.”
• One humorist said, “Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.” But we can
add, too, that so is experiencing sin first-hand over heeding
the wisdom of godly parents.
2. It is amazing how this story has impacted everything from art (the Rembrandt masterpiece) to countless hymns and gospel songs.
3. This story is so familiar, so be sure to remember...
The danger of familiarity is
the absence of attentiveness.
a) Just because we have heard the story so often does not mean we have gained
all of the truth there is to be gained from it.
b) Always pray when you have your devotions: “Lord, open my eyes to see the
truths that I have missed before
and help me always to apply your
principles to my heart,
regardless of how many times I’ve heard them.”
c) This is the Gospel of the Lost And Found:
#1. It was a sheep.
#2. It was a coin.
#3. It was a son...
...we all know how difficult it is to forgive someone who has
not lived up to our expectations or one who has taken
from us and given nothing back.
4. This story touches hearts because of the love and compassion of a father towards his son. It’s not a superficial, emotional experience, but it is understanding how a father can be deeply wronged by his own son and he still love him unconditionally.
5. Even though more is said about the prodigal than is said about the father, we can see that
the father is the focal point of the parable.
a) We have a son coming home today.
b) He is a man now... he left as a boy, thinking that life owed him a living, but he
returns today a man who understands the harder realities of life.
c) He is no longer playing The Blame Game for the mess in his life---
1) Not society’s fault...
2) Not his parents’ fault...
3) Not God’s fault...
d) He must have thought: “Repeat
after me: I am responsible for myself... I took
the money... I spend the money...
I wasted the
money... I am a fool.”
6. The prodigal son is returning home to serve the father WILLINGLY...
a) Not out of duty
b) Not for a reward
c) Not for a position
d) Not out of fear
e) He just wanted to come back home.
7. Let’s return to the narrative by reading Luke 15:20-24.
*******
I. WELCOME HOME!
A. Four Characteristics of a “Welcome-Home-Father:”
#1. Persistent hope
1. It seems that the father never gave up hope, never gave up that God would restore his wayward son.
2. You can see him persistently watching the nearby road and the
preparation of the fattened calf.
3. We don’t know how long he may have scanned the highway for
his son’s appearance, but it seems he is marked by his own
determination not to give up even in the face of incredible
odds.
Perhaps he had adopted the motto:
Press On;
Never Quit.
#2. Authentic Love
1. It amazes me to so often hear people tell of their growing up and
the absence of their father’s love.
Words like:
“My father just didn’t care
about me. He was indifferent
toward
us. I never knew that he cared. There was never any
show of affection.”
Or... “I grew up without a dad; my Mom
was there for me,
I never knew my dad’s presence or of his love.”
Even in a Christian dayschool, even in a fundamental, Bible-
believing church... we hear this far too many times.
2. This is not a picture of a father who just wanted to regain control over his son, but this is a dad who had compassion for his son.
3. The son’s speech begins in verse 21 and then before he can finish
what he so carefully rehearsed, the father buts-in in verse
22.
“But...”
The father interrupted him...in love.
Joseph Parker (1830-1902) was one of England’s most
popular preachers. Here is what he said about these verses
over 100 years ago:
“This is God’s way with the
sinner. He never lets us finish
our speech of penitence. We
struggle and sob on to about
a comma, or at the most a
semicolon, and then His great
love comes down and says, “That
will do; begin again; begin
at the cross!” Were I to talk
through many hours, even until
sunrise, I could say
no more than this, that a right state of
acceptance before God is a state
of self-abhorrence, self-
renunciation. So long as we
stand, God will not have
anything to do with us, because
He cannot. But when we
fall down at his feet; when we
feel our nothingness and own
it---it is then that he would put
all heaven into our hearts.”
4. It’s so easy to see the love of this father paralleling the love of
our heavenly Father, knowing He sacrifically gave the son
He loved so dearly to us... to undeserving me.... and to a
lost world.
#3. Genuine Enthusiasm
1. Do you think the father was surprised by the clothes his son
now wore?...had to be rags...had to smell like a pig pen.
Do you think he noticed the length of his hair and the disheveled look it must have been in?
Do you think the father noticed the dirt and dust on his son’s
face... or the sandals that were about to fall off of his feet?
2. No, the father simply ran to his boy in love and compassion and
grabbed him in a fatherly bear-hug and clutched him to his
bosom, realizing that God had brought his son home.
3. Illustration: A number of years ago, when my girls were
kindergarten age, I recall going through a rough time at RCA, dealing with some discipline problems. I have no idea today what the problems were, but I remember that they were weighing heavy on my heart. They consumed my day. I came home emotionally drained and recall Gwen having a pizza ordered for supper.
After supper Kathleen complained of feeling sick as Gwen
was giving her a bath. I sat working on school work at the kitchen table, somewhat tuning out Gwen putting the girls to bed. While Gwen was in Christine’s room I heard this sound that every parent knows...it comes from way down low in one’s stomach and gushes out of the throat.
I got up quickly and ran to Kathleen’s bedroom and there
she sat with pizza all over her clean pajamas, all over her clean white sheets, all over her clean face.
But what grabbed my attention was the fear in her face---she felt awful and the violence of her nausea frightened her. Immediately, when I entered the room I saw that fear in her face and she called out loudly, “DADDY!” And she had her arms extended towards me and wanted me to hold her.
Now, what do you think I did as her father? I could have
reasoned with her, “Now, Kathleen, think about this for a minute. You just threw-up pizza all over the bed and you, and holding you right at this moment just doesn’t make much sense to me. We don’t both need to get pizza all over us.”
No way. I ran to her bed and grabbed her up in my arms and held her to me as she cried. It’s the simple love of a father for his child.
4. This prodigal’s father ran to greet his son, losing all his dignity, and threw his arms around him... and welcomed him home.
The father was just glad, over-joyed to see his son come home.
#4. Freedom From Bitterness
1. How many wronged people--- real or imagined-- do you know
you have grown bitter over the years?
2. Did you notice what the father did not say?
“I told you so.”
or... “I guess you can imagine how much I’ve worried about you... Do you have any idea what you have cost me?... You’ve made these days far too long for a father you say that you love.”
3. Didn’t the father have a RIGHT to rebuke his son?
Isn’t rebuke Biblical?
Yes, and there’s a right and wrong time for LOVING rebuke. (see I Thess. 5:14)
Loving confrontations are right between friends and between loved ones.
But this son came home,
repenting:
“I have sinned...”
4. We must not forget how hard those words are to say.
5. Bitterness can pollute a family relationship. We know the older
brother was full of bitterness.
But it’s the father that has the right to be bitter...and he is
bitter-free!
6. Bitterness always leads to anger...prolonged anger. Bitterness is
something that must be DECIDED to be put away by those
who would walk in the Spirit. (see Eph. 4:31, Jas. 3:14)
7. I Peter 3:8-9...
Finally, be ye all of one mind,
having compassion one of another,
love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous;
Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing:
but contrariwise blessing;
knowing that ye are thereunto called,
that ye should inherit a blessing.
*******
II. STARTING OVER
A. The Search For Freedom
1. Freedom---independence---was what the young prodigal son was looking for when he left home.
Instead of finding freedom, he found what so many find in running away from home---slavery. Everyone serves someone or something. Eventually, they learn the same lesson as the prodigal...
Without the Father
life is empty and meaningless.
2. But when he returned home, he found true freedom....exactly what he had been searching for all along... he had just been too blind to see it.
3. Illustration: Often times in working with young people in their teen years, we see this desire in some to get out from under their parents’ control, away from home, on their own. Some parents fearing the loss of their children’s love, give them too much freedom and they have already left home in their
hearts, although they may still be living with their parents.
Recently we had a graduate return to see us with a long pony tail and an earring in his ear. He had been away for two years, still searching for “himself.” It was sad to see him in such a pitiful condition, still not aware that he wasn’t as free from restraints as he imagined he was.
Others have gotten out from their parents’ control the first year of college and thrown all restraints to the wind. The ones in state colleges seem to have the hardest time. Many fall prey to the party-life and begin drinking and living immorally.
All of this is a part of the search for freedom, BUT it is not just a natural part of growing up, but it is a rebellious heart lived out in sin. God is not pleased and parents are deeply hurt and embarrassed in most cases.
3. Did you notice all the honor the son received when he came home?
#1. He received a robe of honor (remind you of Joseph?), and this was
an incredible honor for him.
In quick succession, still more evidences of honor were presented.
#2. Next was a ring of beauty and quality, a symbol of authority as he now would represent his father.
#3. Then came the sandals---servants never wore them---only free men.
#4. A fattened calf was prepared for a meal in his honor. A joyful
occasion demanded a celebration.
B. And The Point Is?
The PAST could be wiped away, offenses forgiven,
and sin removed from the books!
1. It was as if he had never left home...that’s being forgiven in full.
2. There is a Heavenly Father that is waiting for us to come home...
...waiting for us to realize how far we have strayed from what
we once were reaching for.
3. Our father offers us a full pardon and full restoration with a redirection
away from the temporal pleasures of the world to the eternal ones
with Him.
*******
Conclusion:
1. Once you realize you are not worth to be a son, the Father makes you one!
2. Don’t try to grasp it all at once...
Just run home today and fall into His waiting arms.