E04: The Fathers heart...a bruised Son
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0:00 Praise the Lord.
0:02 Once again, I want to thank God for an opportunity to be able to share with you the Word of God.
0:09 I want to thank God for this privilege that I get to share God's Word with you.
0:16 It's beautiful.
0:18 The Word of God is living.
0:21 The Word of God is active.
0:23 The Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword.
0:28 The Word of God pierces into the joints and the marrow of men.
0:35 I think that is why the Word of God brings healing to our bodies.
0:40 The Word of God goes down and divides soul and spirit.
0:47 The Bible says that the Word of God can tell the intents and the thoughts of men, what men are thinking, what their intentions are.
0:57 When you fill your life with the Word of God, God's Word will begin to bring revelation into your life.
1:04 And you begin to see people for who they are.
1:07 You begin to be able to make discernment and choices that are right because you filled your life with the Word of God.
1:15 And so I want to thank God for giving us His Word because.
1:19 Because His Word is life.
1:21 His Word is health.
1:23 His Word is light.
1:24 It is discernment.
1:26 And today we are going to be reading the Word of God.
1:29 I pray that the Holy Spirit will give us, each one of us, an understanding mind and will give us a heart that is soft and receptive to the Word of God, a fertile ground so that the Word of God, when it comes into our hearts as seed, it will grow and it will bring so much harvest that the lives of many will be saved and delivered in the name of Jesus Christ.
1:57 So today we are going to be doing something different.
1:59 We are not going to be reading a psalm.
2:02 We are going to be looking at the parable of the Prodigal Son.
2:08 And so we are going to be reading from the book of Luke, chapter 15, which will read from verse 11 all the way to verse 32.
2:18 So let us go through the reading and then we shall discuss it as we usually do.
2:24 So Luke chapter 15, verse 11.
2:28 And going forward it says, and he said, this is Jesus talking.
2:34 And he said, a certain man had two sons.
2:37 And the younger of them said, said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
2:48 And he divided unto him his living.
2:53 And not many days after, after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
3:11 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land.
3:18 And he began to be in want.
3:23 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.
3:29 And he sent him into the fields to feed swine.
3:35 And he would fain, and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him.
3:50 And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger.
4:05 I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
4:19 Make me as one of thy hired servants.
4:23 And he arose and came to his father.
4:26 But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
4:39 And the son said unto his father, father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and I am no more worthy to be called thy son.
4:50 But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him.
4:56 And put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fattened calf and kill it.
5:04 And let us eat and be merry.
5:07 For my son was dead and is alive again.
5:11 He was lost and is found.
5:15 And they began to marry.
5:19 Now his eldest son was in the field.
5:23 And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
5:29 And he called one to the he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
5:37 And he said unto him, thy brother, thy brother is calm, and thy father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him safe and sound.
5:49 And he was angry and would not go in.
5:54 Therefore came his father out and entreated him.
6:02 And he answering, said to his father, lo, these many years do I serve thee.
6:09 Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment.
6:15 And yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.
6:22 But as soon as this son, this thy son came but as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with hallots, thou hast killed for him the fattened calf.
6:38 And he said unto him, son, thou art.
6:42 Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.
6:46 It was fitting that we should make merry and be glad for this.
6:52 Thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.
6:59 Praise the Lord.
7:00 That is the end of our reading.
7:05 Let us take time and go through these.
7:09 This parable.
7:11 And I just want to go through bit by bit.
7:14 The Bible talks about a certain man had two sons.
7:18 And the younger of them said to his father.
7:22 Father, give me a portion of my.
7:26 Of the goods that fall to me so that I can divide.
7:30 So that he divided the living and he gave him that which belonged to him.
7:36 And the Bible talks about that not so many days from when he got this.
7:44 This inheritance he now decided to take off to a far country.
7:48 First of all, I want to talk about the.
7:51 The father's attitude.
7:52 The way the father decided that.
7:54 You know what?
7:56 Let me just give this.
7:57 You know, any other father would have said, I'm not going to give this boy this inheritance.
8:03 Because when I give him the inheritance, maybe he will spoil it or he'll try and advise him or something like that.
8:11 But this man, what he dec. Do is just to give him what he wanted.
8:16 And you know, many times God warns us, don't take this route, it might destroy you.
8:22 And for us, we refuse and say, no, this is what I want.
8:26 And most times, as I have walked with God almost 40 years of my life, I see sometimes when a person insists on their way, God also just lets them.
8:38 He says, it is okay, you go.
8:41 And this is what this man did.
8:43 He said, this boy has asked for an inheritance.
8:46 Let me give this boy his inheritance.
8:50 Number two, they say not, not many days after the young man gathered all together and took a journey to a far country.
9:02 When you talk about a far country, many times I think about far from wisdom.
9:13 A place where he's free to sin.
9:15 A place where there is freedom to sin.
9:18 A place where there is maybe no church member who will begin to judge you.
9:23 Maybe a place where there are no Christian brethren or Christian friends.
9:28 A far country, a place that is far away from wisdom, A place that is far away from cancer.
9:36 A place that is far away from light, away from judgment and criticism and correction.
9:43 Things which could have helped him to do, to not to make the mistakes that he did.
9:50 And he went into a far country and the Bible says he wasted his substance with riotous living.
9:58 You know, when you look at the word prodigal, most people think prodigal means like someone who has just gone and has been gone for so long and then has just suddenly returned.
10:08 But the word prodigal, I went to look at it and I discovered prodigal.
10:12 Prodigal doesn't even mean wanderer.
10:14 It means a person who is a squanderer, a person who is wasteful, a person who is extravagant.
10:21 He wasted his life in extravagant living, in riotous living, living in excesses, showing off.
10:31 This was the kind of person that we are talking about and the Bible says that when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine.
10:39 You know, when I was reading this scripture, I remember the words of Joseph when he was talking to the Pharaoh of Egypt.
10:45 And he said, you see, God has warned you in these two dreams.
10:49 Pharaoh had had two dreams.
10:51 One was of fat cows that were drinking from the Nile.
10:56 And then these three thin cows came and ate up those fat cows.
11:01 Then he dreamt about they had planted wheat which was growing so well.
11:06 It had.
11:07 It was really ripe for harvest.
11:09 And then these other wheat plants that came and ate up this, this, this.
11:14 These fat plants.
11:15 And he said, you see, God has given you one and the same dream.
11:19 There will be seven years of plenty, and there will be seven years of famine.
11:24 Usually what happens is the.
11:27 The years of plenty come before the years of famine.
11:30 And Joseph gave.
11:32 One of the reasons what why Pharaoh gave him a place of leadership is because he was wise.
11:37 When there are years of plenty, usually it is a time to store up.
11:41 It's a time to invest.
11:42 It's a time to like, to make, to multiply resources.
11:47 But this man whom we are reading about in.
11:50 In Luke chapter 15, for him, when the time of plenty came, he.
11:55 He thought about it as a time to spend, a time to eat the seed.
12:01 It should have been a time to keep planting and getting more and building maybe more storehouses.
12:06 But for him, he spent it in riotous living.
12:10 And the Bible says.
12:12 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land.
12:18 And he began to be in want.
12:21 The people who had been helping him were not there.
12:24 In fact, we're going to read in the next verses now that those people were no longer there.
12:28 He says he began to want to.
12:32 He began to be in want.
12:34 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.
12:39 And he spent.
12:40 And he sent him to the fields to feed swine.
12:43 You see, now this is a kind of person.
12:46 They have wasted so much of their resources.
12:48 And now instead of thinking maybe let me see what I can do to return home, there's they are the kind of people who say, I got myself into this, I'll get myself out of this.
13:03 So that they are.
13:04 The person is proud.
13:06 The person is not humble enough to come down and say, let me go and seek another way or let me go and humble myself and say, I have wasted everything.
13:14 I am sorry.
13:15 They are not even how many.
13:17 Let me go to my father.
13:18 Well, let me go like this time.
13:20 The Father is a representative of God.
13:23 They don't even want to come back to God and say, God, I'm sorry I wasted what you gave me and I am humbling myself and coming back to you like, no, no, no, I. I will seek out my own way.
13:35 The same way he sought out his own way when he had gotten what he wanted from the Father.
13:40 He's now looking for another way through a citizen of that far country.
13:45 And he's saying, no, let me look for help.
13:50 The Bible says he joined himself to a citizen of that country.
13:55 And the person he joined himself to was not a good person.
13:59 The person sent him to feed swine.
14:03 He sent him to feed swine.
14:07 The Bible talks about this kind of people.
14:10 In the Book of John, chapter 3, verse 20, Jesus Christ was talking to Nicodemus and he said, I'm going to read 20 and 21.
14:17 That for everyone that does evil, hates the light.
14:22 Neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be reproved, or his deeds should be displayed or exposed, or lest he be forced to change.
14:36 They hide.
14:36 They go to a far country.
14:38 They hide themselves from exposure.
14:41 They do crooked things, they live crooked in a crooked way.
14:45 Verse 21 says, But he that does truth comes to the light that his deeds may be manifested.
14:52 That they may be.
14:54 They may.
14:55 That they are wrought in.
14:57 They are wrought in God.
14:58 They are done in God.
15:00 That one may see that this person is of the light.
15:05 The Bible says in John, chapter 8, verse 34, John 8, 34, that Jesus answered them.
15:11 Verily, verily.
15:13 Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
15:17 This person has now become a slave to sin.
15:20 A slave has become addicted to sin.
15:25 So he's not thinking of returning to the Father.
15:27 He's thinking of, let me go further to the world.
15:31 Joined himself to a citizen of that country.
15:34 He got caught hamstrung by sin, and he went to now feed swine, like the things that were forbidden in his Father's country.
15:46 That's what he went to do.
15:48 And verse 16 says, he would fain have filled him his belly or he would have wanted to feed himself with the husks of the swine, the ones that the swine were eating.
16:02 And the Bible says clearly here that and no man gave unto him.
16:07 Can you imagine?
16:09 He had spent on people.
16:10 But those people he spent on were not present to now come and give unto him after he had spent on them.
16:22 And I think this is a portion of caution, wisdom.
16:27 He had reached a place of desperation, a place of starvation.
16:31 But none of those he went to waste his life with were willing to come back and help him.
16:37 Then the Bible says in verse 17 that when he came to himself, I just want to thank God that sometimes when we are stubborn and we just walk and go our way, situations, difficulties are put in place to bring us back to God.
16:55 In fact, it reminds me of that scripture that God talks about when he says that a son that God chastises those that he calls his children.
17:09 But a child who is not chastised is an illegitimate child.
17:15 You get that many times the sufferings or the challenges or the trials that we go through are like a wake up call or a red flag that is supposed to open our eyes to return to the Father.
17:32 And the Bible says it is this hunger, it is this desperation, it is this starvation that helped this man to come back to himself.
17:41 And I pray in the name of Jesus that many of us who are believing God for loved ones who have been estranged or those who have walked away from God, or those who are yet to come to God, that God will bring desperate situation to bring the person back to himself.
18:00 I know it's not an easy prayer to pray.
18:04 And sometimes you feel like, how can I pray that for someone that I really, really love?
18:10 But you know, when people are in this riotous living, it is very hard for them to hear the voice of God or the call of God on their lives.
18:20 But it is this desperation, this starvation that made this guy come back to himself in.
18:25 This is Jesus talking.
18:26 This is just telling this story.
18:28 In verse 17, he says, and when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's, of my father, okay, like say of my Father's house have bred enough to spare and I perish with hunger.
18:47 He says, in fact, me, I'm willing to be a servant of my Father because I have been in my Father's house and I've seen how he's treated his servants.
18:58 And those servants, they have never gone hungry.
19:01 In fact, they always have bread to spare.
19:04 And for me, I look at it as the house of God, God the Father, those who serve God.
19:09 There is no one really on earth who is ever free.
19:14 There is no one.
19:15 Free people are either a slave to sin and to the powers of darkness, or they are slaves of God.
19:23 And whoever is a slave of God is actually the one who is truly free.
19:28 Let me just read to you some scriptures here.
19:31 In Romans, chapter six, verse six and seven, and then also verse 17 to 18, they say, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin or be slaves to sin.
19:57 For he that is dead is free from sin, that we may not henceforth serve sin.
20:07 Now verse 17 and 18 says, But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which has delivered you.
20:22 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
20:29 O servants that do right.
20:32 So there were people where servants of sin, Romans 6, 6, 7, have now become servants of righteousness.
20:41 Romans 6, 17, 18.
20:45 And so I just want to encourage you to give your heart to God, who is the one who is a servant who gives.
20:56 Who makes you a servant of righteousness.
21:00 He makes you a servant of righteousness.
21:03 Because no one is truly free in this world.
21:08 There is no one truly free except the one who has given his heart, who has given his heart to God.
21:17 That one is a person who is truly free.
21:21 I'm sorry for that noise.
21:23 Sorry about that.
21:25 That is the one who is truly free.
21:28 And so let us just continue a bit and read.
21:32 He said to himself, he said to himself, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?
21:44 Verse 18 says, I will arise and go to my father.
21:49 I will arise and go to my father.
21:52 Before you go even to the church, back to the church, before you go, go to that fellowship group, before you go to your friends, it's important that you go back to God.
22:02 Go back to the Father and talk to him.
22:05 And he said, I'll go back to my father, and I will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I am no more worthy to be called your son.
22:18 Make me as one of thy hired servants.
22:25 Misery helps us see clearly.
22:29 It helps us see wisdom.
22:31 It helps us get light.
22:34 They used to say there was a saying that used to go like this, that.
22:38 That prosperity makes monsters.
22:45 And I think it is misery makes men like prosperity makes, can blind you.
22:54 And you go on and do make foolish decisions.
23:00 You can see it in the life of.
23:01 I remember the life of David when he had now become king and then he was in charge.
23:07 And then he had all this wealth and all this authority.
23:10 And then he decided, no, let me go and get Bathsheba, the wife of the Hittite Uriah.
23:17 And then when Uriah, when she got pregnant, he said, no, if Uriah can just go and sleep with her, we'll say, the child is for Uriah.
23:24 But Uriah refused to go to the.
23:26 To sleep with his wife.
23:28 Then he said, this man is too stubborn.
23:30 You put him at the front line, let them kill him.
23:33 And then they got rid of Uriah.
23:35 And then he thought, I've got rid of the problem.
23:37 Then he said, when the girl, when the ladies days of mourning were over, I said, you now come and stay with me.
23:43 And he thought he would do that because he has power, he has authority to do this.
23:48 You can see it even in the life of Solomon.
23:51 He just made very foolish decisions.
23:56 By the end of his reign, the next king who came after him, the kingdom was divided.
24:01 If the father left him, Israel and Judah to reign over.
24:05 By the time the whole thing was over, the canality, the indulgence, the excesses he was involved in the, the kingdom had been divided and he actually lost 10 of the 12 tribes.
24:21 He was only now ruling over two tribes.
24:24 So there is a way in which misery or suffering or challenges bring wisdom and understanding to people.
24:31 And I pray that God will help us not to learn from mistakes, but learn from the mistakes of others so that we don't commit those mistakes and we don't have to go through the misery that they had to go through to learn from, from those mistakes.
24:46 So he says, I am going to my father's house.
24:48 Me, I'm going to tell my father that I have sinned.
24:51 He was now coming to a place of humility.
24:53 This means I had brought him to a place of humility.
24:55 He's humbling himself.
24:57 He's saying, I've sinned against seven, I've sinned against you.
25:00 I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
25:02 Make me one of your servants.
25:05 He's willing to serve.
25:06 And I was telling what, reading and saying, moving from being a servant to sin, to becoming a servant to of righteousness.
25:15 Let me just continue.
25:17 Verse 20 says, and he arose.
25:19 He did not just think it, he even put action into it.
25:24 He arose and came to his father.
25:27 The Bible says that when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
25:40 This is the heart of God.
25:42 Honestly, this is how God works.
25:44 God is not, you know, many people, because of the way their parents have treated them, they think that they will come to the Father God and he will say, hey, so you have also come back this time.
25:55 Okay, so you thought you would survive on your own.
26:01 You, you thought you and, and, and what brings you this time around?
26:05 What do you want me to do for you?
26:07 This, this, you know that, that kind of attitude.
26:10 But that's not how God operates.
26:12 Jesus is untelling this story.
26:13 I keep remind done telling this story.
26:16 Now this, this father has compassion.
26:19 He says he saw him a long way off.
26:22 Anytime you turn your heart towards God, God sees it.
26:25 And God's compassion comes towards you.
26:29 And God runs to meet you.
26:31 As you make one step towards him, he runs towards you.
26:34 This is the Father, heart of God.
26:36 Verse 21.
26:37 The Son said, now he is now going to do his speech.
26:41 Remember that speech he had said he was coming up with?
26:45 He says, and the sun said to the Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, and I'm not worthy to be called your son.
26:51 Before he could reach the part of make me your servant.
26:54 The Bible says the Father interrupted him.
26:57 The Bible says in verse 22.
26:58 But the Father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fattened calf and kill it.
27:12 And let us eat and be merry.
27:14 For my son was dead, but now he's alive again.
27:19 He was lost and he is found.
27:22 And they began to be merry.
27:24 And I just want to bring up a scripture in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 to 3, where they talk about you.
27:33 You could have said, how was he dead?
27:36 He was there in a far country, but he was not dead.
27:39 But you know sin or the lifestyle of sin brings death.
27:43 The Bible talks about that.
27:45 People who are given to the flesh end up in the place of death.
27:51 People who are ruled by the flesh, they end up in a place of death.
27:57 Their souls die.
27:58 People who are ruled by the Spirit of God are alive to God.
28:01 Let me, let me just read.
28:03 Let's just read through Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 1 to 3.
28:06 This is what Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 to 3 says.
28:09 It says, and yeah, and ye hath he quickened or made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin.
28:18 That means being in trespasses and sin is an automatic death sentence.
28:23 So he says, and you who you hath he made alive or has he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin?
28:33 Where in time past you walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation, or among whom we lived, the people we shared a lifestyle with, or the people we shared a way of living with, or the people we shared we had a similar conduct with.
29:05 So among also, among whom also we all had our conversation in time passed in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
29:22 And we are by nature children of wrath.
29:25 Even as others we.
29:29 We were like that.
29:30 When he says, my son was dead, this is what he means.
29:33 The boy was living a riotous life.
29:35 Was living a life that completely cut away from God.
29:39 And now we are going to look at the response of the older son.
29:50 I will look at the response of the older son.
29:52 That is from verse 25.
29:55 The older son is angry.