IN THE WORD DAILY
with Brother Rick
Luke 15: 17- 20
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.
V- 18 I will arise and go to
my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and
before thee,
V- 19 And am no more worthy
to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
V- 20 And he arose, and came
to his father. 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.
The story of the prodigal son
has to be one of the greatest examples of the love of God in the scriptures. We
could spend an entire month teaching and drawing applicable lessons from this
text. First, we must establish the context of the story. The son who asked for
his inheritance and desired to go out into the world, was a son while he was at
home, he was a son while he was in the world, and he was a son when he came
home. He was a covenant son not a converted son. The story certainly can be
used to teach God's love for sinners and how he brought us out of the world and
saved us. This prodigal son is in the same text as the parable of the man who
had one hundred sheep and one was lost. The owner left the ninety nine and
searched for the one. It also is in the same text as the woman who had ten
coins and lost one. She worked diligently to find it and when she did she
rejoiced. All three parables describe a God who loves his own, and desires to
keep them close to him. And when they lose their way; and they will. He is
there to catch them and restore them. Isaiah 55: 7 says, “Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto
the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon.”
Let's look at three things
this morning, First, we see the Backsliding in his heart. If we are in
fellowship with God, there should never be a time when we want to leave the
Father's house, our desire is to be in the Father's house. Friend, if you have
a desire to leave God and go back to the world, you are in a mess. Your eyes
are blinded and you are walking in darkness. You say, can this happen to
Christians, OH YEAH!!! happens every day. How many Christians do you think will
be at the Jason Aldean concert coming up? That's right, I know all about that
fornicating adulterer who is coming soon to a town near you. Why would someone
who serves a holy God want to fellowship with the world and its system? It's Backsliding
in the heart. They will take a night off from holiness, waste some of their
substance with riotous living, maybe have a drink or two, nothing harmful. Then
when the Spirit is grieved, they will find themselves in a spiritual
famine. They will eat with the pigs for
a while, and when they have had all of the world they want, they realize that
the world cannot provide what the Father has supplied.
Secondly, we see the Battle
Lastly, we see the Beauty
of the Heavenly. The first thought of the father was not to reprimand the
boy. He did not rebuke him for spending his inheritance. He did not chastise
him for embarrassing the family. He did not ground him for a month and make him
sleep in the barn. The father ran to him and kissed him and welcomed him home.
Thank God he welcomes us home, when we come to ourselves. Isaiah 61: 3 says, “To
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD,
that he might be glorified.” Our heavenly Father is a God of
restoration.
God is standing in the road
looking, waiting and asking,
“Won't you come home?”
