A Rebel Comes Home

Introduction

It is indeed a blessing and a joy to be with you tonight as we for the next few moments open the scriptures and consider some of the unsearchable riches revealed to us in the in the Word of God. Appreciate the presence of all who are with us this evening. We’re just delighted. It’s just great to be with people who love the Lord and want to do that which is right. As Greg indicated in the announcements, the lesson this evening is going to be taken from the 15th chapter of the book of Luke. So if you have a Bible handy, and I know that there’s probably one in the pew in front of you, if you’ll take that out and study along with us this evening, we’re going to be dealing with something that I believe is going to be very relevant.

Not only at the time that the Lord would give the parable of the prodigal son, but it’s going to be very relevant for us tonight. I want to begin by looking at what Jesus said in the 15th chapter and in verse 24, as he sort of concludes the first part of the story. And Jesus finds the uh the man, the father of the parable, saying, This my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. I just have to tell you as we begin our study this evening that lost is a word that very often invokes in our mind feelings of fear and desperation. You know, we think of uh a child being lost at the mall. That’s something that any parent would just absolutely go uh, you know, berserk about, thinking that a child was lost.

Or perhaps it’s uh it’s an heirloom, something that’s very precious, a brooch or a ring. And we lose that. And it’s something that that just kind of causes us to become frustrated and fearful that we’ll never find it again. In this chapter, in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus tells three stories that deal with things that are lost. And this would not be unusual for Jesus, because after all, in Luke 19 and verse 10, the Bible tells us that Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost. So he’s going to talk about things that are lost, obviously, because this is his mission. He came to seek and to save the lost. Well, in the first story that Jesus tells in Luke 15, he tells about a man who is a shepherd and has a hundred sheep.

And he loses one of those sheep, and he leaves the ninety-nine safe, and he goes and searches and finds the sheep that is lost. And he brings it back and he rejoices with his neighbors over the fact that that lost thing, that sheep, is now found. It was lost, but now it’s found. And Jesus points out this is the way heaven responds. When the lost come to the Lord. There’s rejoicing by the angels in heaven. Then Jesus tells a story about a woman who had ten coins. And she loses one of those coins. Now, this is sort of a unique story because we wonder why do you spend all of the time she swept the house, she looked diligently to find that coin. Why wouldn’t you do that for a coin?

You know, many people seem to think that perhaps it was a coin that was being embedded in the headdress that a woman wore. I don’t know. But whatever the coin was, it was very valuable to this woman. And so she searches throughout the house until she finds the coin, and then she rejoices, her neighbors rejoice with her over finding that which was lost. It’s very precious to her. And Jesus again points out this is the response of heaven. When the lost come to the Lord. There’s rejoicing among the angels in heaven. Now I don’t know how many of us tonight can actually relate to losing a coin and spending a great deal of time searching for it. I don’t know how many of us can really relate to a shepherd losing a sheep.

But in the third story that Jesus tells, I believe each and every one of us can relate to that because Jesus is now going to deal with a family. And Jesus is going to point out that this family finds a man losing a son. They didn’t lose the son like the sheep or the coin. This son rebelled against his father and left home. And so this is something we can relate to. And I’ve got to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, the story of the prodigal son, I believe, while it has a specific New Testament setting, we can study it and learn from it and make a modern day application because in reality it deals with rebellious behavior. More specifically, it deals with the rebellious behavior of young people, as we’re going to see about this man’s youngest son.

I recognize.

Talk about children today, you talk about young people today who rebel against God and rebel against their family. It’s not politically correct to refer to them as lost. Remember verse 24. My son was lost. This rebellious son was lost, but now he’s found. It’s not politically correct to say that today. We look at rebellious young people today, and we want to say, well, you know, they’re just confused. Or we want to say, well, they’re just maladjusted. Or we want to say, well, they’re just immature. But listen to me, ladies and gentlemen. First Samuel chapter 15 and verse 23. He says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Rebellious behavior is sinful behavior. Let’s call things what they ought to be called. A young person that is rebellious against heaven and against the family values.

That young person that is rebellious is not confused, is not immature, that is not irresponsible. That young person is lost. And this is the story that Jesus is telling. He’s telling about a son that was lost, and that son finally comes home. That rebellious son makes his way back home. Now tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to give you the outline of this lesson before we get underway. I’m going to have five very brief points. And once these points are made, we’re going to close this sermon out and we’re going to try to live and make application to the things that we’ve heard. Point number one, the son comes to his father. Point number two, the son comes to a far country. Point number three, the son comes to be in need or in want.

1. The Son Comes to His Father

Point number four, the son comes to himself, and point number five, the son comes back home. That’s going to be the journey of a rebel. That’s going to be the journey of this rebellious young man. And let’s trace his steps. And let’s examine what he does, and let’s see if we can see someone we might know, revealed to us in this story. It might be our son, it might be our grandson, it might be our daughter, it may be our niece, it may be someone that we know. So let’s open our Bibles and let’s go to point number one. This son came to his father. Beginning at verse 11, we read, then he said, that is Jesus, a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.

So he divided to them his livelihood. Now I’ll tell you, the reason I like to point out in this first point that this young man comes to his father is because in reality, every father and every mother loves for their children to communicate with them. We all love for our children to talk to us. You know, Sue and I have had an empty nest for many years. But one of the things that I missed so very much when our children left home, either to go to college or to be married, was the fact that I missed sitting down and talking to them. I just missed the communication that we had. And I’m certain that this father would have felt the same way. He desired for his sons to communicate with him.

But here was a son that came to his father, and he did not say to his father, Dad, I just need some advice. He didn’t say that. This son didn’t come to his father and say, Dad, I’ve got something I want you to help me work out. That’s not what he said. This son didn’t come to his father, and he didn’t say, You know, Dad, I just want to tell you how appreciative I am of the good life that you’ve given to me and my brother. And I just want to thank you and mom for all the sacrifices that you’ve made to give us the life that we have. That’s not what this boy said. This boy came to his father and in essence was saying to his dad, Dad, I can’t wait for you to die.

Go ahead and give me what you’re going to leave me. Go ahead and give me my inheritance now, because you know what? I’m going to leave home. And I can’t wait for you to die to receive the things that I’ve got coming to me. I want you to give them to me now. I want to tell you, my friends, that’s rebellion. Now I know I paraphrase that and I put that in our vernacular. But when he said, just divide the inheritance, or give me my inheritance, that is precisely what he’s saying. You know what I’m saying? I’m going to tell you. Now, chances are that young people today are not going to make a statement like that to their parents, although they some may feel that way.

It’s not going to be, it’s not going to be said that way. You know, very often today a young person that has a rebellious spirit, a rebellious attitude, says something to this effect. You know what? I, you know, I’m just tired of living by all of these rules, and I’m tired of all of this curfew, and I’m tired of you just standing over me like a hawk and watching me, and I’m tired of you selecting my friends, and I’m tired of you telling me what to do, and I’m tired of you telling me what to wear. And you know what? I’m out of here. I’m gone. When I get to be 18 years old, I’m booking out this door, and you won’t see me again. That’s rebellion.

Or it may be something to the effect that a young person would say to a parent, hey, listen, you know what? I didn’t ask to be born after all, you know. Like what John Clark said years ago. He said, Yeah, you know, a kid says to his father, Well, I didn’t ask to be born. He said, If mine says that to me, I’m going to say, No, you didn’t ask to be born. And had you asked, I would have said no. You know, very often this is this is, you know, you have the frustration there. This son says to his father, I’m leaving home. Dad, give me my inheritance, I’m leaving home. That, ladies and gentlemen, is rebellion. And we can’t cut it and slice it any other way than that.

Give me the inheritance that I’ve got coming to me. You see, I got to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, a rebel resents the older generation. A rebel resents, you know, the old ideas, and a rebel resents the old tradition, and a rebel resents the old archaic ways that he or she has been raised. And I want to do things that listen to me. Listen to me this evening. Mothers and fathers and sons and daughters, listen carefully to me. God will allow you to make decisions in your youth that will destroy you. He will not prevent it. God will not prevent you from making decisions that will destroy your health, that will destroy your finances, that will destroy your future and destroy your soul. I want to share with you something the Proverb writer records in Proverbs chapter 30.

He says in verse 11, there is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother. You know, the Bible says that children are to honor their father and mother, which is the first commandment of the promise, that it may be well with you and that you live long upon the earth. But the wise man, but the Proverb writer says, you know what? There’s a generation that doesn’t do this. He’s talking about rebellious behavior. They do not honor father and mother. They reject the ways that they’ve been raised. There’s a generation, verse 12, that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness, self-deceived, self-serving. He said, you know, there’s some people like that. And this boy that we’re reading about perhaps would fall into this description.

There’s a generation, verse 13. Oh, how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. I’m going to toss aside what mom and dad told me. I’m going to toss aside what I heard at church. I’m going to toss aside what the preacher and the elders have told me. I’m going to toss aside what the Bible class teacher. I know what I want. And what I want is to get out of here. Well, let me tell you tonight, if you choose to rebel, you have to suffer the consequences of your rebellion. Look at verse 17. And I know this is highly figurative language to illustrate that you will reap what you have sown. The eye that mocks his father and scorns obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out.

And the young eagles will eat it. We need to understand that we’re going to reap what we sow, and if we sow rebellious behavior, we shall reap the consequences of it. Let me tell you about a young man that I met a number of years ago by the name of Ben. I’d never heard of Ben until I was getting ready to hold a meeting in a small community. And I got a phone call before I went down to hold that meeting, and the man that was calling me said, J.R. said, has anybody told you about Ben yet? And I said, Absolutely not. I have no idea who you’re talking about. He said, Let me tell you about Ben, because in this gospel meeting, chances are you will meet Ben.

Well, I was preaching on Tuesday or Wednesday night of the meeting. I’d actually forgotten much about the phone call that had been given, that I’d received. And I was up preaching like this, and suddenly the doors to the foyer opened. And then walked Ben. We were well underway in our worship service, and Ben came walking in. And his shirt tail was out, and he was all disheveled, and his hair was a mess. He was about 32, 33 years old, early 30s, and he came walking down the aisle. And he was muttering something as he walked down the aisle. And he was holding his hands out toward me like this. And as he came down and he sat down in the front row, I could see that saliva was coming out of his mouth, and his collar to his shirt was wet, and I couldn’t understand a word that he was saying.

I had no idea what his appeal was. Finally, some of the brothers had to come and escort him to a room so we could continue. Ben, I had a chance to meet. Let me tell you about Ben. When Ben was about 14 or 15 years old, he and the boys that he ran with thought it was a neat thing to go down to the Ace Hardware store. And they would steal these cans of clear spray paint. And they would go out behind the gymnasium at the high school. And they’d take an old dirty ball sock and they’d fill that sock with that spray paint, and they’d begin to suck that paint down into their lungs. And as they would huff, they’d get high. And this was something that they did, and Ben had done this for years and years and years.

The eagles will eat out the eyes, the Bible tells us. And now Ben is in his was in his early 30s. I don’t know if he wanted a relationship with God. I don’t even know if he knew what that meant. But what I do know is he burned the cells out of his brain. And he couldn’t string a sentence together. This is what the Bible shows us will happen to those who rebel. The eagles will pluck it out, the Bible says. We’re going to suffer the consequences of our behavior. Here is a boy that says to his parents or says to his father, I’m gone. Give me the inheritance, I’m leaving home. I’m going to choose my own way. I’m going to do my own things.

I’m out of here. Just give me the inheritance that’s coming to me. Listen to me. Ecclesiastes 11 in verse 9 reminds young people to enjoy your youth. Rejoice in the days of your youth. You have a lot going for you. You have a lot at your fingertips. But know this. That for all of these things that you do and the choices that you make, God will bring you into judgment. We shall reap what we have sown. God says if you’re going to rebel, you will pay the price. I want to say two things. I want to say two things that I admire about this boy’s father in the story that Jesus tells. And I want to say that for the benefit of the parents who are here, who may be dealing with rebellious behavior at home.

The first thing that I admire about the father of this prodigal son is that this father was not willing. Listen to me, mothers and fathers. This father was not willing to amend his family values in order to keep a rebel at home. Listen to me. He didn’t tell his son, listen, son, don’t leave. Whatever you want to do, you can do right here. If you want to waste your money with prodigal living and you want to spend it on harlots, do it at home. Don’t leave. This father was not willing to amend his values to keep a rebel at home. Because he understood what a lot of us don’t understand. That when a young person rebels, they first do it here. It’s in the heart, it’s in the mind.

You know, verse 13, it said, uh verse 14, you know, said many days later, he left. We see he had already left in his mind, Dad, give me the inheritance that I’ve got coming. And mothers and fathers, you’ve got to understand something that all of the crying and the pleading and the begging that you do and all the incentives that you offer and all the compromises that you make will not change the mind of a rebel. And this father was not about to amend his values to keep that boy at home. Did he want him to stay? I’m certain that he did. Because he was looking for his return. But he wasn’t about to amend his voice. You know, I hear people. I’ve talked to Christian fathers.

I’ve talked to Christian fathers who tell me, you know what? I don’t want my daughter to become sexually active, but I want my daughters to be on birth control. You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re sending a mixed message here. Are you saying that you’re going to amend your values in order to keep a rebellious child at home? Well, I tell you what, I don’t want Junior out here driving and drinking, and if he’s going to drink, I want him to bring his beer home. This father was not that way. If you’re going to live riotous and you’re going to live rebellious, you’re going to have to do it outside of this home. This home has values. And I’m not amending the values to keep a rebellious child at home.

This is something that I admire about this father. But I’ll tell you something else I admire about him. I admire the fact that he was willing to let that boy suffer the consequences of his decision. Proverbs 13 and verse 15, the way of the unfaithful is hard. He let him go. He probably had the wherewithal to send a servant out after him and say, you know what? If my son spends all of his money and he finds himself in a tight place, why don’t you bail him out? That father was not about to do that. He’s going to let him stand and fall on his own. Did he worry about him? Absolutely. I’m certain that he cried, and I’m certain that he prayed for him, but he didn’t go and pick up after him.

2. The Son Comes to a Far Country

I admire that about this father. And I’m going to come back to that thought in a few minutes. Point number two. After he came to his father, he came to a far country. Now I want you to notice now as we turn again and look at our reading. In verse 13, and not many days after.

Look again if you’ve got a Bible open. Look again at verse 13. And if you can identify the name of the country to which this boy went, let me know it. Raise your hand. You see, it doesn’t tell us the name of the country. It didn’t say that the boy left home and he went over here to Athens, Greece. No. It didn’t say the boy left home and he went over to Alexandria, Egypt. No, it didn’t say that. It didn’t say that the boy left home and he went to Rome. No, it didn’t say that. It just simply says that the boy went into a far country. He came to a far country. Now, I tell you, I’ve always found that to be interesting. And one of the things that I come to conclude is, hey, you know what, ladies and gentlemen?

You don’t measure a far country on a map. You cannot geographically designate where a far country is. You see, you don’t have to go to Miami. You don’t have to go to Las Vegas. You don’t have to go to Los Angeles, California to be in a far country. You don’t have to go to Paris, France. You don’t have to go to Copenhagen to be in a far country. No. Because you see, it’s not measured geographically. A far country is measured in the distance one travels from God. That’s where a far country is. How far this young person has gone from God. You know, this is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 15 and verse 8. You know, they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

That person’s in a far country. And you know, I’m going to tell you. I’m going to tell you, mothers and fathers, listen to me. We have some of our young people that are in far countries, but they’re still at home. We have some of our young people that are in far countries that attend every service of the church. We have some of our young people that are in far countries that are able to memorize the books of the Bible, the apostles and the judges. They’re able to do all of these things, and yet they are in a far country. And this is going to manifest itself when they go off to college. Or it’ll manifest itself when they get a job and move on the other side of town.

Or it may manifest itself when they get married and move out of state. Suddenly we hear they’re not attending services. Suddenly we hear that they are an unbelief. Well, what’s the matter? Listen, they’ve been in a far country a long time. And we just haven’t seen the evidence of it. We haven’t read the body language. We’re not in tune with what their body is telling us.

You know, I tell people, it’s kind of interesting, you know. I’m standing up here, and if everybody’s looking this way, I got all these pairs of eyes looking on me, and you see me moving about. And you know what? What you forget is I’m looking back. I’m seeing you. I, you know, I I tell people I see those who are struggling with sleep, and I see those who are, you know, uh text messaging and all. I see all of that. I mean, I may miss some things. But I see all of that. And I’m telling you that to say that I witness very often in my association with young people, I witness body language. And that body language disturbs me because very often what that language is telling me, even though verbally they’re not saying anything.

What that language is telling me is, okay, preacher, you know, say on what you want to say, but really I’ve tuned you out. I am somewhere else. You know, when they’re shifting in their seat and uh, you know, they’re rolling their eyes, and many times in a Bible class, you you sort of see some of the young people that sit like just like they don’t have a backbone. You know, just kind of sit sitting in a just way down in a chair, and they’ll roll their eyes when you say something the Bible is not open. Are they at clash? Yes. Are they in worship service? Yes, because mom and dad want them to be there. But in reality, they are in a far country. Let’s read the body language.

Let’s be attuned to the needs of these young people. This young man went to a far country. I’ll tell you, if I could in some kind of way designate what this far country was like, or perhaps what this young man was looking for in a far country, or what many young people are looking for in a far country. It would be freedom. It would be the freedom to make their own choices, the freedom to make their own decisions, the freedom to come and go at the time they want to come and go, to do the things they want to do without having to answer to anybody. And very often I try to remind young people, you know, that’s an impossibility. There is no such place on planet Earth that will allow you the liberty of making all your own choices without answering to somebody.

There isn’t any place on planet Earth that’s going to allow you to make all of your decisions without there being some restrictions and some laws that you’re going to have to adhere to. Not at all.

And I go up to the top of that building and I look down. I’m on just on the very top of the building and I’m looking down on the street. And I make this decision. I say, well, you know what, J.R.

I think you ought to just reject this idea of gravity. And I say, well, you know, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m tired of living under the restrictions of the law of gravity. I see these birds and I see all of these fowls of the air, they’re flying from here to there. You know what? I’m no longer going to live by the law of gravity, and I step off that building. What’s going to happen to me? Now the engineer is going to tell me how far off how fast I fall. I don’t know. But I tell you what I’ll eventually do is I’ll hit the ground and they’ll come and say, Y’all see this crazy man jump right off his building. Because you cannot defy the laws of gravity without destroying yourself.

You cannot destroy, you cannot disregard the laws of sanitation without suffering the consequences, medically speaking. And you cannot reject the laws of God without suffering the consequences of rejecting those laws. We don’t break the laws of God. We break ourselves upon rejection of those laws. I want to read something to you, and I know the context of this.

But I’m going to read a verse and I’m going to make an application that I hope all of us can vividly see. Verse 19 of 2 Peter 2 says, While they promise them liberty, that’s freedom. They themselves are slaves of corruption or depravity. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also is he brought into bondage. When I was a boy growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, near the Ohio River. My family would go down to the Ohio River, and some of our uncles and cousins had what we called camps down there. Well, really, what that was was just a house that was built near the river, often many times on stilts of some sort to avoid flooding. And the old people would go down and play horseshoes and peanut and the young kids like myself, we’d go down and we’d swim in the river.

And just play in the cane break and other things like that. Well, I told many people here I wasn’t raised by Christian parents. I don’t say that with any degree of pride. I say that with shame. But I want to tell you something about my childhood. When we would go down to my uncle’s camps on the river. All the old folks would have their beer over here in coolers. And then they’d have little coolers over here for the children, and we had soft drinks in there. And very often we’d have these orange crush bottles that at that time were brown, same color as beer bottles, maybe even a little darker. Well, my sister and I and some of our cousins, we we would uh we would sneak around and we’d steal some beer out of the old people’s coolers.

And we’d take these orange crust bottles and we’d pour the orange crust out and rinse them out, and we’d pour beer in those bottles, and we thought it was the neatest and the coolest thing to just walk around right in front of the adults. Just drinking that beer. Well, let me tell you something. The Bible says that it promises liberty, but it will bring you into bondage. Let me fast forward. That was funny when we were 12 and 13 and 14 years old. But I want to fast forward. That had a different effect upon my sister. My baby sister, who was two years younger than I, she became an alcoholic. My sister spent all of her adult life consuming alcohol. Did this start when we were children?

You betcha it started when we were children. Did we have the liberty to do that? Oh, we were free. But I’m telling you, sis became in bondage and slave to that. I can remember the time that she had developed cirrhosis of the liver. And I was living near Nashville, Tennessee. And I finally found out where she was in the hospital. We had lost touch with Sis over the years, and I found out when she was in the hospital, and Sue and I drove up to Hardin County Hospital in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. And after she was able to get out of the hospital, I took her down to Kingston Springs, Tennessee, and I got her enrolled in a rehab center so that baby sis could dry out. I’m telling you, it’s not funny anymore.

And it’s not cool anymore. It’s bondage. Paul says you don’t know slavery until sin reigns in your mortal body, Romans 6 and verse 12. And I’m standing there by my sister. She’s sitting in a wheelchair getting ready to be admitted into this rehab center. And a lady sitting across from her asked her, said, Mrs. Kennedy, that was her married name, Mrs. Kennedy, what is it that you drink? Sis looked up at me and that sheepish look on her face, like she was ashamed to say in front of me, and she turned and spoke to that woman, and she said, To be honest with you, lady, I drink anything I can get my hands on. That includes rubbing alcohol. This is what the far country offers. There’s no such thing as freedom.

3. The Son Comes to Be in Need

There’s nothing but bondage that lies there and awaits us there. And this young man is going to recognize that in the course of our study. He comes to a far country. Now we see, ladies and gentlemen, he comes to be in need. Let’s pick up our reading at verse 14 of Luke chapter 15. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land. And he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate. And no one gave him anything.

I’m going to tell a story about their father, my son. When my son Duane was about 15 years old, and we’re living in Hendersonville, Tennessee, he got a job at an apartment complex cleaning up, emptying trash, you know, kind of cleaning out the pool and so forth and so on. He’s making pretty good money for a 15 year old at that time. And so Duane began to save his money, and not necessarily because he wanted to, because I wanted to. And so he began to save his money. And there was a guy at church by the name of Joe who had a 1972 red Volkswagen beetle that he wanted to sell. And my son Duane fell in love with that little red Volkswagen beetle. Dad, I want to buy that.

I said, son, you don’t need a Volkswagen. Oh, Dad, Dad, brother, I want, please let me buy that Volkswagen. Brother Joe has given me a great deal on that. Please let me buy that Volkswagen. I said, son, you don’t want to buy that Volkswagen. Now, you might have Volkswagen, that’s okay. Have nothing against Volkswagen, but I tell my son to this day when he’s about to make a bad decision, I said, son, you’re fixing to buy another Volkswagen. And he knows exactly what I’m talking about. But he ended up buying that Volkswagen. We let him buy that Volkswagen. Later on, when he was able to get his license, and uh he had enough money to pay his insurance and the whole thing. Why, you know, school started, and and uh he was playing basketball at school, and so you know that phone was ringing off the wall.

And I mean, kids were calling all the time, Duane, let’s go here, let’s go there. Kids were coming over. And sometimes when he would come home from school, well, I told Sue, I said, I didn’t know you’d get that many kids in a Volkswagen. And they’d come over and they’d play basketball, and then after they play basketball, they’d run up to Dairy Queen. And all of this time I began to notice a pattern. Son, you’re not having any homework. Don’t you don’t they give homework anymore? Oh, I didn’t have any homework. I got it at school, and you know, everything, Dad, I got it under control. Listen, if the kid ever tells you he’s got it under control, and you buy that, hmm, well, I I worry about you.

But anyway, I told him, I said, Well, I tell you what, son, if you bring home a bad grade, you know, that’s back before you could get on the computer. I love this. I love technology. You can get on a computer now and find out what a kid’s doing in school. Isn’t that great? You couldn’t do it at that time. You had to wait till the grade card come out, you know. And then the report guy, I told Dwayne, I said, son, I said, if you get a bad grade on your report card, I said, you’re going to park that Volkswagen. I come in from the office one day and he’s sitting at the kitchen table, and he looked like he’d lost his best friend in the world because he was getting ready to.

I said, Boy, what in the world is the matter with you? And he handed me his report card in one hand and the car keys in the other. And I parked that Volkswagen. For it may have been two grading periods. I don’t really remember. But the thing that I do remember is you know what? That phone wasn’t ringing anymore. Kids were not coming around anymore. Because they didn’t have a ride home from school, and he didn’t have a ride to Dairy Queen. Their reason for being there, even though he didn’t realize it at the time, was parked in the driveway. Now, if you can understand that story that I just told you, you can understand what we’re looking at here. This boy spent all of his inheritance, and the reason that those people had for caring about him was gone.

And this boy was in need, and nobody was giving him anything. And I’m going to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, you know, this is the way the world operates. The far country looks good until the money runs out, and then the so called friends are gone. How many times does parents hear from their children? Oh, but you don’t understand, Dad. He’s my friend. No, he’s not. Oh, but you don’t understand, Mom. We’re good friends. No, you’re not. They don’t really care about you. In many instances, all they’re doing is using you. And when the bottom falls out of your life, they will not be there for you. Only your parents will be there for you. You take, you take this. You know, it may be that somebody will introduce a young person to drugs.

And oh, this is neat, and oh, they’re my friends, and they’ve given me these, and they’re selling me these real cheap and everything. Oh, we’re just the best of friends. But I’ll tell you what, if you get busted, they will not appear with you in court. They’ll not pay for your lawyer. They don’t care. They got from you what they want. You know where to buy the liquor, you know where to buy the beer, and every community, every kid who wants to know knows where the bootleggers are and knows where he can get it. And I’ll tell you what, if you buy it, it’s not the cool thing because if you go out here on the highway and you wrap your car around a telephone pole, they’re not going to be there to pay the doctor bills.

They’re not going to be there to pick up the pieces. It’s going to be mom and dad who are there to pick up the pieces. Because they got from you what you want. Tobacco? You want to use tobacco? I tell you what, if you can develop oral cancer or lung cancer, I guarantee you, R.J. Reynolds will not chip in a dime for your health care. Because they got from you what they want. This is the world. This is how the world operates. Oh, falling in love. You know, I tell you what, I love you, and you love me, and nobody has ever loved like this. And well, I know what the Bible says about keeping oneself pure until we’re married, but our love is different. Nobody’s ever loved like this.

And so we give in and we surrender our virginity to somebody. And you know what? After that happens, what then occurs. You know what occurs very often. When one of my grandsons was born, his lungs had not fully developed, and they put him in intensive care, the neonatal intensive care of Riley Hospital in Indianapolis. And I was down to visit him one day, and my daughter was standing there, and she said, Dad, do you see that girl standing down there by that bassinet? And I looked down, about three or four children, and there was a young girl down there, about 17 years old. She’d had a relationship with a man that was about 21, who promised her the moon so long as she surrendered her virginity to him, and she did.

And he promised, I’m going to love you. She said, But I’m pregnant. He said, I’ll stand by you and that child, and we’ll make a family. And when that child was born, it suffers from Down syndrome, and he looked down at that child and he said to that girl who he told I love you. He said, I’m out of here. I can’t handle this. And now there she was. This is the world. This is how the world operates. We need to understand that. And this boy was needing things, and nobody was giving him anything. You see, it’s a foolish son, the Proverb writer says in Proverbs 10 and verse 1. That brings grief to his mother. It’s his mother who’s the others are just laughing, and it’s just glad it’s not them.

4. He Came to Himself

He came to be in need. Now there’s going to be a turning point. This boy is now going to come to himself. Verse 17, but when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and despair? And I perish with hunger. Ah. I will arise and go to my father. And will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. I want you to look again at verse 17. At the first sentence in verse 17. And when he came to himself. Now, if I were to ask you, why did this young man come to himself? I wonder what your answer would be.

Why did he come to himself? Oh, we might answer, well, J.R., it’s because, man, he got about as low as a guy could go. He was out of money. He was out of hope. He was feeding pigs. And man, that’s not kosher for a Jewish boy. And I tell you, you can’t get any lower than that. He got about as low as he could go. And when you get as low as you can go, you’ll come to yourself. Really? Is that the answer? That’s not the answer. That’s not the answer. That’s not why the boy came to himself. Was he low? Yeah, he was low. Was he feeding pigs? You bet you is feeding pigs. But that’s not why he came to himself. Fellow many years ago who was a recovering alcoholic brought my attention to something I have never forgotten.

He asked me the question, he said, G.R., why did the prodigal son come to himself? And that was the answer that I gave. He got as low as he could go. And when you’re flat on your back, there’s only one way to go, and that’s up. He said, Well, you look at the last part of verse 16. That’ll give you the cue. That’s the key of why he came to himself. And no one gave him anything. So long as you enable, so long as you surrender to the needs of someone who is in rebellion, they will never come to themselves. So long as you enable a drunk, he’ll never sober up. So long as you enable a fornicator, he’ll never stop his fornicating. So long as you enable a drug addict, he’ll never, he’ll never get off drugs.

This boy came to himself for the very reason that his father was not there to pick up after him. And his friends had turned their back on him. And this became a turning point in this boy’s life. He said, You know what? I don’t have to live this way anymore. I can go on. When soon I obeyed the gospel many, many years ago. We were involved with a congregation in Louisville, Kentucky that had a great deal of good singers there, song leaders and singers. And there was one young girl, she was in high school at the time we obeyed the gospel. She had a high soprano voice. And when they would sing these these psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that would sort of feature a soprano, you could hear her voice just reverberate over throughout the congregation.

Beautiful. Her father was a deacon in the church there, and her family, a good, godly family. The world recognized the musical ability of this girl. And she received a scholarship to a prestigious college in the Northeast. A full music scholarship for vocals. And off she went. I remember we had a we had a potluck for her, and everybody was kind of, you know, bidding her Godspeed on her trip up there, and uh, found a little small group that was she was able to meet with and worship, and everything was going fine. You listen back before email, back before cell phones. You did a lot of communication by letter writing, mailing halt, the letters. Well, you know, pretty soon the letters stopped. And the phone calls stopped.

Mom and dad were concerned about it. They call up to the college and they say, well, she has withdrawn from school. What? What happened? Where’d she go? She was raised in an atmosphere just like this. She dropped out of school. We sent the preacher up. We took up money, sent the preacher up there to try to find her. Well, what’s happened to her? We didn’t know. We never could at that time find her. But I’ll tell you what we found out later. We found out later that somebody, some of her good friends at this secular college, had introduced her to drugs that evolved into heroin use. And all of the money and savings that she had went to support her heroine habit. Pretty soon she couldn’t support her heroine habit anymore because she’d run out of funds, and so she sold the only thing that she had to sell, and that was her body.

She’d become a street walker, a prostitute, a hooker. A young girl raised in the church. Godly parents. One day, one day she was getting ready to go out and walk the streets. She had a pim that had beaten her and forced her to have an abortion when the birth control devices failed. She was going out and she got to thinking, just like this prodigal son did. She got to thinking about home. And she decided, I’m going to go home. I don’t know if mom and dad will have me, but I’m going back home. I can’t live this way anymore. She looked older than her years. She looked haggard. She was beaten down. She took off the outfit that she had, she was going to walk the streets in, and she put on the only decent clothes that she had.

Put some things in a brown grocery sack, and she called a cab. And when the cabbie got here and blew his horn, she went out to meet him, and the cabbie could see that she’d been crying and that she looked a mess. He wanted to know what her story was as he took her to the bus station. And she shared that story with him. And he went in with her at the bus station. He charged her no fare. He went in with her at the bus station out of his own pocket. He bought her a one way ticket to Louisville, Kentucky. And she came home. And thank God she came home. And thank God her parents received her at home. Now, not all prodigals have a happy ending.

This boy said, I’m going home. I don’t have to live this way anymore. You know, the two prodigals revealed in the Bible, one in the Old Testament, one in the new. One in the New Testament came home, the one in the old died. When the temple Dagan fell down around him. Samson. Statistics show 50% of our rebels died in a far country. This boy said, I’m not going to do that. I’m coming home. And I tell you, this is what this is what young people need, ladies and gentlemen. They don’t need for us to enable them in their sin. They don’t need for us to enable them in their rebellion. They don’t need for us to build bigger and better pig pens in the far country.

5. My Son Has Come Home

Young people who are rebelling or rebelling against God need redemption and regeneration and the blood of Christ. They need to know of the quality of life that’s found in Christ and the rancid life that’s found in the world. That’s what young people need. This boy said, I’m going home. He came to himself and he said, This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to go tell my father that I’m not worthy to be his son. And this is exactly what he did. And now the journey is complete. Verse 20. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. I want you to just look at the love and the warmth and the festivity that’s experienced. Now I’m not talking about the older brother. That’s another story in and of itself. But my son was dead, but he’s alive. My son was lost, but now he’s found. The journey is over. My son has come home. And I want you to notice what he confessed.

He confessed, I have sinned. He didn’t say, you know what? Everybody makes their mistakes. I have sinned. He didn’t say, Dad, I’m no different than my older brother. He’s just a hypocrite. You don’t know about. No, I have sinned. He didn’t say, Dad, you know what? If you’d have been a better father to me. No. He said, I have sinned. And don’t you notice something the father didn’t say. The father didn’t look at that boy and he didn’t say to that son, he said, son, how dare you? How dare you show your face around here? Don’t you realize the shame that you’ve brought upon your mother? Don’t you realize the shame that you brought upon this family? You have drug our name through the mud. No, he didn’t.

Conclusion

He said, Come on home, son. My son was dead, and now my son is alive, and they begin to be merry. I’m going to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, this is a homecoming. And this is a homecoming that we can enjoy when we decide that we’re going to leave the far country of sin. And we’re going to decide to come to the Father. You see, it’s like the psalm that we sometimes sing about. God is calling the prodigal home. Rebellion is its own reward. Alienation from your family, an alienation from God. We can leave the valley of sin, and we can leave the valley of hurt and disappointment. And we can come home to the Father. God is calling the prodigal home. If I have described you tonight, if you’re estranged from your family and estranged from God, please reconcile tonight.

You’re reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and you’re willing to repent of your sins and confess Christ as the Son of God and be baptized in water for the remission of your sins. You can come home to the Father. If you’re an erring Christian, please come home. The Father is waiting for your return. If you’re subject to the invitation, we urge you to come right now. Together we stand as we sing.