WHAT GOD EXPECTS WHEN WE MESS UP?
LUKE 15:11-32
INTRODUCTION
Young Johnny was reared in a fine Christian home. When he was only nine years old, his father took him into his office one day and explained the gospel message of Jesus Christ to him, and young Johnny accepted Christ as his Savior. In the years immediately following his salvation, young Johnny felt God calling him into some type of Christian service. As his adolescent years approached, young Johnny felt the peer pressure and resulting temptations. Soon, he found himself overwhelmed by them, and he gave in to the pressure to smoke, drink and experiment with drugs. What started as a stable life suddenly became very tumultuous. His emotions began to rage, as his hormones went out of control. He felt the innate desire to escape. It was not that he had an unhappy life. He had a family that cared for him, and he had more than he needed, but still that need to escape seemed to always haunt him. Finally, he decided to act upon the urge. He returned home one day from school after his parents had left for work, loaded his car with things he thought he would need for his trip, and set out on an undirected journey. Several hours later, he found himself lost, hungry, cold and out of money. Suddenly, he came to himself. He was scared and concerned over what he had left behind. He reached out to a friend he had abandoned. In the mean time, his parents had alerted the police who began a search. Not attempting to hide from the authorities, young Johnny was soon found and taken to the police station to await his parent's arrival. When they arrived, young Johnny did not know quite what to expect. They were naturally angry yet concerned. In spite of their anger, they took young Johnny back home and restored him to his position as son. Just because he rebelled against them, they did not disown him. Young Johnny's anger and restlessness did not end with that episode. Throughout his teenage years, he continued to disappoint his parents by his actions, but they continued to love him. When in his early twenties, young Johnny again felt the call of God he had neglected during the previous years. He recommitted his life to God and accepted the call into full-time Christian ministry. Now not only had his earthly parents accepted him back into the fold but his heavenly Father as well.
Jesus tells a similar story, a story that is very familiar to most people. He tells of a father who had two sons. The younger son approached his father one day demanding his share of the inheritance. According to custom, the older son received two-thirds of the estate with the younger receiving one-third. It was quite unusual to divide the estate before the parent's death, but it was not illegal. It was done on rare occasions just as it is quite commonly done now before death.
After receiving his share, the younger son converted it into cash and set out for a far country. He, like young Johnny, must have felt the need to get away from his background; the need to escape. When in the distant country, the younger son squandered all his cash. He had many friends while he had money. He could show them a good time. But when his money was gone, so were his friends. In addition to the poverty he now found himself in, there was a severe famine in the land. Since there was little in the way of a "safety net" during this time, he soon found himself in need. So destitute was he that he hired himself out to a citizen of the country who in turn sent him to feed his pigs. Since the younger son was a Jew, this was the most reprehensible job he could ever have acquired. His destitution had driven him to this point. He had hit bottom. So hungry was he, that he desired to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. The carob tree of the area produced a pod used for fodder. The poor sometimes ate them.
Out of such dire striates, the young man came to his senses, just like young Johnny. The phrase literally means he came to himself or he repented. It was a turning point in his life. He thought of the family he had left where his father's servants had more than he now did. They had food to spare, and here he was starving to death. He decided to return home. His plan was to approach his father, tell him he had sinned against him and heaven, another term for God, and beg his father to restore him not as a son but as a servant. He knew he was no longer worthy to be called his father's son. Legally, he had no claim of sonship any more, and morally he was unfit to be a son. After formulating his plan, he left for home.
While still a good distance from home, his father saw him. Evidently, his father made a habit of looking down the long road for his son. He must have hoped and longed for his return. On this one day, out of many he spent looking, he saw him coming in the distance. The father was filled with compassion, ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him repeatedly. Like young Johnny's parents, the father came to him. His father's kissing him was the normal way men expressed sincere affection in this area of the world.
The son expressed his rehearsed speech of his unworthiness to be a son and of his desire that his father take him as a servant. It was as if the father did not even hear the speech. He called for his servants commanding them to bring the best robe, to put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet and to kill the fatted calf. A feast was about to ensue. His son was dead but was now alive. The robe was what a beloved child should be wearing. The ring suggested authority to act. Only those who were free wore shoes. Beef was a delicacy reserved for special occasions.
When the older son returned from his work in the field, he wondered at the feasting and excitement he witnessed. He called one of the servants to find out the reason. He was told of his younger brother's return and that a feast was being given to celebrate. Instead of rejoicing over his younger brother's return, the older brother was angry. He objected to his father, telling him of how he had worked for him all these years and he had never treated him this way. The younger son, who had squandered his father's belongings, was not being treated as the older brother thought he should be treated. Jesus was of course challenging the religious leaders who rejected him to see the older brother's behavior as representative of their own.
The prodigal son and young Johnny have much in common. They both messed up. They abandoned their family, but they also have in common that they were both accepted back by their family.
The Bible makes it very plain that every individual has messed up, but the mess up is more serious that we might imagine. God calls the mess up sin. This sin is more than just a mere mistake on our part. It is rebellion against God. We are entangled, even chained, by this rebellion. Ever since Adam willingly rebelled against God by eating fruit from the tree God had commanded him not to, each individual has possessed this sin nature. We too mess up when we go looking in strange places for what we already have. Both the prodigal and young Johnny went looking in strange places yet had to return home to find what they left looking for. Left to ourselves, we will rebel against God. We would never come to him unless he came to us first just as the prodigal's father did. Since we are in this enormous mess, what does God expect of us? What are we to do?
I. HE EXPECTS US TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
To rectify their mess, both young Johnny and the prodigal son had to take responsibility for their actions. The Bible says the prodigal came to himself. He came to his senses. He repented of his error and chose to go in a different direction. Had he never taken the responsibility, his father may have never found him.
We too, must take responsibility for the mess we are in. The Bible commands us to repent of our wickedness. It commands Christians to confess their sins to God. If there is ever a message we need to hear in our society, it is the need to take responsibility.
All around us are examples of those failing to take responsibility for their actions. Men impregnate girls and then leave them to fend for themselves and in the process place the burden on taxpayers to pay for the child they should pay for. Parents abandon or abuse the children God gave them because their attention turns to immoral behavior, drugs and alcohol. Children blame their bad behavior on being raised in a bad environment. Students blame the teachers, the laity blames the pastor, employees blame employers, citizens blame the government, and on the game goes. My response to my high school students who used to play this game was to give them the title of a song on the Eagles latest composition: "Get Over It."
We are responsible to God. In an age when the message is to escape our responsibility, we need to hear this. He is the ultimate one we must answer to. On the judgment day, we will give an account to him.
II. HE EXPECTS US TO RECEIVE HIS FORGIVENESS
The prodigal son did this. His father, in spite of all the younger son had done to make him angry, chose to forgive his son for his actions. The son accepted that forgiveness and was restored to his position as son, not as servant as he requested. The son had to receive his forgiveness for that relationship to be restored.
God desires to solve our sin problem and can because of the work Christ did on Calvary. The price has been paid for our sins. Our responsibility is to accept the forgiveness of Christ. The only way our relationship with him can be restored is by doing this.
III. HE EXPECTS US TO REPENT
The prodigal son came to himself. This involves the idea of repentance. The resulting actions show the genuiness of his repentance. Not only was he sorry for his actions, but he decided to do something to rectify them. He returned to his father. He went back in the direction he had come from. He left his life of debauchery and wickedness. His actions demonstrate the idea behind repentance. It carries the idea of going in a different direction. This is illustrated very well.
We too must repent if we are to find favor with God. He commands us to repent of our sins and to follow him. We cannot follow him unless we repent. In our fallen state of sin, we are moving away from God, but we must move back toward God. This we cannot do without repentance.
IV. HE EXPECTS US TO MOVE ON
The prodigal son, just as young Johnny, moved on with his life. They did not wallow in their sorrow of past sins and failures, of which there were many, but got on with their life. When God forgives us of our sins, he expects us to move on with our life. We cannot wallow in the mire of regret, for if we do we will never go forward. If God says he forgives, we must believe it. While we are products of our past, we should not be prisoners of our past.
CONCLUSION
The story is told of a boy who was having a hard time remembering where he left things. He decided to write himself a note before he went to sleep identifying where everything was. It went something like this: "Your shoes are under the bed; your clothes are on the chair; your cap is hanging in the closet; your money, your knife, and your baseball cards are on the bureau; and you are in the bed." In the morning, he found everything precisely as the note indicated, with one exception. When he looked in the bed, he was not there. He could not find himself.
Like the prodigal son and young Johnny, we must find ourselves. This involves taking responsibility for our actions, accepting God's forgiveness for our sins, repenting of our sins and, once we have done that, moving on with our lives.
