“Lost and Found”
Luke 15: 11-31
The boss of a large company was having some problems with one of his computers and he needed to call one of his employees one evening at home. He dialed the number and he was greeted with a child’s voice speaking very softly. The boss said, is your daddy home? He whispered yes. He said well may I talk to him. He said, no you can’t. He says well is your mother home? He said yes. He says well can I talk to her. He said no. Well knowing that it was unlikely that the little boy was home alone the man decided he would just leave a message who should be there watching him. He says is there anyone else there besides you? He says yes there is. There is a policeman. Now he’s wondering what a cop is doing there so he says may I speak to the policeman. He says no he’s busy. He say’s he’s busy talking to my mama and daddy and to the fireman. Now he’s really concerned. Then he hears what sounds like a helicopter over the phone so he asks what is that noise I hear? He says well it is a helicopter. So he’s says well what is going on there. The little boy says well they just landed the helicopter. He says well what are they doing there? He says with a slight giggle, they are all looking for me.
We have 3 stories told here-they are really one parable-3 stories-one central truth. Lost things matter to God and because of that God spends a lot of time looking for his people. Now to understand this story you’ve got to start with the first two verses.
Verses 1-2. Can you fell the tension in those 2 verses? There are a variety of titles that were given to Jesus while He was on earth. He was the door, the light of the world, the alpha and omega, the way but there in this passage we would call him the friend of sinners. The pharisee and the teachers of the law were saying this as an insult but Jesus probably took it as a compliment.
Now in the first story a farmer has 100 sheep and one gets lost. Jesus shows us how a farmer leaves the 99 and goes on a search and rescue mission for the one. In the 2nd story a widow loses one if her coins and turns te house upside down to find it. And when the lost son returns home the father throws a big party and what do they do-they rejoice. There are a lot of things we could point out about these 3 stories but there is really one common thread. Whenever the lost are found the father rejoices. Verse 6-the farmer calls his friends together and he says rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep. In verse 9 the widow says rejoice with me I have found my lost coin. And when te lost son returns home the father throws a big party and what do they do-they rejoice.
Luke 15:7 Now let’s focus on the younger son. Verses 11-12. He wants his inheritance and he wants it while his father is still alive. In the middle east this was the same as saying Dad I’m eager for you to die. Normally in this situation a father would kick his son out of the house for such a request. But instead the father gives it to him. He takes the money, leaves home and goes to a place the Bible calls a “distant country.” There he spends his money down to the last penny. Then a famine comes and so not having any cash and being so far away from home he meets a farmer who offers him work but the only work he can get is feeding the pigs/slopping the hogs.
Now before we go any further let’s analyze here what happened to the younger son. How did he get from a life of wealth to living a life in pigpen? I see 5 steps.
1. He was selfish. His fall/demise began with a single, selfish act. He said I want my money and I want it now. All he could see were dollar signs..show me the money. I want out of here.
2. He acted in haste. The Bible says that when he got his money he took off to a distant country. Now when we hear that phrase we shouldn’t think of somewhere thousands of miles away. Do you know where the far country is? It is one step out of God’s will. It is not a matter of geography, it is a matter of a broken relationship with God.
3. He wasted everything. The word prodigal actually means to waste. So when he left he never intended to come back home. How do we know that? Because he took all the money with him. He left nothing behind.
4. He separated himself from every relationship that mattered. Left his father, his brother, all his family and all his friends.
5. He made a long string of bad decisions. That’s the way sin works. One bad decision leads to another. First you tell a lie and then you have to tell another one to cover up the first ne. If we fail to confess our sin then it just leads to more sin. You start making bad decisions and once you make 2 or 3 it gets easier! And pretty soon you’re about 15 bad decisions down the road and at that point it seems easier to just keep going in the wrong direction.
Notice what happens in verse 14. There was a famine in the distant country. That’s what happens when we leave God. There will always be a famine. It all looks good, plenty of opportunity, it may even fell good but sin ha it’s consequences and soon the money runs out, the music stops and suddenly you’re broke...you’ve lost everything. The one who had it all has now lost it all. The one who came from a good, solid family now sleeps in a pig pen. He has hit rock bottom. But you know rock bottom is not such a bad place to hit. If you are falling down, down, down in your Christian life there has to be something that stops us. We have to reach the end of our rope before we start thinking about going back home.
And that is exactly what happened to the prodigal. As one man put it who was a recovering alcoholic, when I finally hit rock bottom I was happy to find that the rock was solid. So he begins to change. 5 words tell his story.
First there was an awakening. Verse 17 says that he came to his senses. Now what was it that brought him to his senses? I would like to think that he realized the depth of his sin, I would like to think that he realized what a terrible thing he had done. But the truth is, he was hungry. And his hunger got his attention. Now here is a truth we need to get hold of. People often turn to the Lord simply because they have nowhere else to go. They need a hot meal, they need a place to stay. What that means is this: when you are praying for a believer who has gone to the distant country, ask God to make them hungry. Pray for their money to run out. Pray that God will make them so miserable that sin no longer looks inviting. Pray for an awakening.
2nd, there was repentance. He said to himself in verse 18, I will go back to my father. Repentance is what happens when you’ve been going in the wrong direction and finally you say I’ve gone this way long enough, I’m going to go back in the other direction.
3rd, there was honesty. Notice what he says in verse 18 “ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. Here is how you can know if someone is truly serious about changing their lifestyle: it is when they stop making excuses for their behavior. H e could have found a thousand excuses but he just said I have sinned.
4th there was humility. While he is still in the pigpen, he mentally rehearses what he will say his father in verse 19. “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. That’s humility!
5th there was Resolution. Look at the first part of verse 20: “so he got up and went to his father. He didn’t delay. He went back home. We have to focus in the father here for a moment because he clearly a picture of what our heavenly father is like. The young man had to be asking himself some questions as he made his journey back home. Like...what’s my father going to say? Will he take me back? He had taken his father’s fortune that he no doubt worked a long time for and now he has wasted it all. His father as a result had probably lost his reputation in the community. But the worst pain was the simple fact that the father had lost his son. After all those years of holding his son, praying for him, teaching him the lesson of life now his dreams are shattered and his father is left with only pain and sadness. So he has to wonder, what will my father say? Verse 20 says that while he was still a long way of, his father saw him. He probably wondered how long his son would stay away. Night after night he waited, day after day he watched for his son. Then it happened. One day, late in the afternoon he saw a figure in the distance, probably a bit hesitant, walking toward him. The father put all pride aside and ran out to meet him, embraced him and kissed him. In that one moment every question the son had was answered. Every doubt he had about his father’s love was resolved.
Philip Yancey tells the story of a prodigal daughter who grows up in a small town in Michigan. Fed up with her old fashioned parents who don’t like her nose ring, the music she listens to, the length of her skirts, she runs away. She ends up in Detroit where she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen. The man with the big car - she calls him "Boss" - recognizes that since she’s underage, men would pay a premium for her. So she goes to work for him. Things are good for a while. Life is good. But she gets sick for a few days, and it amazes her how quickly the boss turns mean. Before she knows it, she’’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She earns very little and all the money goes to support her drug habit. One night while sleeping outside, she began to feel less like a woman of the world and more like a little girl. She begins to cry. "God, why did I leave. My dog back home eats better than I do now." She knows that more than anything in the world, she wants to go home. Three straight calls home get three straight connections with the answering machine. Finally she leaves a message. "Mom, dad, its me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, and it’ll get there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, I’ll understand." During the seven hour bus ride, she’s preparing a speech for her father. And when the bus comes to a stop in the small town where she was raised, the driver announces the fifteen-minute stop. Fifteen minutes to decide her life. She walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect. But not one of the thousand scenes that have played out in her mind prepares her for what she sees. There in the bus terminal stands a group of forty brothers and sisters and great-aunts and uncles and cousins and a grandmother and a great-grandmother to boot. They’re all wearing goofy party hats and blowing noise-makers, and taped across the entire wall of the terminal is a large banner that reads - Welcome Home!
