The story is told of a man named Yussif, the Terrible Turk. Yussif was a 350-pound wrestling champion in Europe a couple of generations ago. After he won the European championship, he sailed to America to wrestle our champ, whose name was Strangler Lewis -- a little guy by comparison who weighed just a shade over 200 pounds. Although he wasn't very big, Strangler had a simple plan for defeating his opponents and it had never failed to work. He's put his massive arm around the neck of his opponent and cut off the oxygen. Many an opponent had passed out in the ring with Strangler Lewis.
The problem when he fought Yussif the Turk was that Yussif didn't have a neck. His body went from his head to his massive shoulders. Lewis could never get his hold and it wasn't long that the Turk flipped Lewis to the mat and pinned him. After winning the championship, the Turk demanded all five thousand dollars in gold. After he wrapped the championship belt around his vast waist, he stuffed the gold into the belt and boarded the next ship back to Europe. He was a success! He had captured America's glory and her gold!
He set sail on the SS Bourgogne. Halfway across the Atlantic, a storm struck and the ship began to sink. Yussif went over the side with his gold still strapped around his body. The added weight was too much for the Turk and he sank like an anvil before they could get him into a lifeboat. He was never seen again.
Maybe you think, "What a fool! He should have had a lot more sense than that!" But, the truth of the matter is, we all tend to grasp the things of this world and hold onto them even while we're sinking.
Luke 15.11-32
I. An Insulting Request
Maybe you heard about the Desert Storm soldier who while he was overseas received a Dear John letter from his girlfriend back home in the states. To add insult to injury, she wrote, "Will you please return my favorite photograph of myself-- I need it for my engagement picture in the local newspaper."
The poor guy was devastated, but all the soldiers came to his rescue. They went throughout the entire camp and collected pictures of all the guys’ girlfriends. They filled up an entire shoe box and sent it to the girl along with a note from the guy saying, "Please find your picture, and return the rest,---for the life of me, I can’t remember which one you were!!"
A. The Insult – “I wish you were dead.”
1. Exodus 20.12
2. First command with promise
B. The Response – the Inheritance
1. A Surprise
2. A Matter of Choice
Some wander away from God like sheep in wilderness
Some don’t realize they are away from God as coin on the floor
Some choose to go away as a disrespectful son
C. The Sale – Gathered all he had = Turned into cash
1. Sold his property to the community
2. Most likely to those who did not support the family
D. A Danger – the Community Knows
1. Tend to limit the story to 3 people
2. The Community is Insulted as the Family
3. Kezazah Ceremony – “Cut Off!”
An Application: Sometimes we ask for blessings from God for our own purposes and then go our own way; we ignore him/disrespect him – are we any different from the wasteful son?
James 4.1-3 – 1What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
II. An Indulgent Lifestyle
A. Prodigal = Wasteful
1. Riotous Living in Far Country (Gentiles/Pagans)
2. May have been immoral/may not
B. What do we do with the Gifts God Gives?
1. Rain & Sun -- 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5.43-45
2. Better than Resurrection – resurrection is to few/sun and rain to many
C. Self-Indulgent Lifestyles Usually Fall Apart
1. Runs out of money
2. Needs a job – Food/recoup losses to go home
The Good News is that God can reconstruct our lives when they fall apart:
A famous violinist once ordered a manufacturer to make for him the very best instrument his skilled fingers could produce. But when the violin was delivered, its tone did not please the sensitive artist. In indignation he smashed it.
The disheartened dealer tried to atone for his failure. Carefully gathering the broken pieces, he remade the violin and sent it back to the fastidious musician. This time the master was charmed with the tone, and was surprised to learn that the violin was the very one he had broken to bits.
"I have made it out of the fragments," revealed the proud manufacturer.
Likewise, God can take the fragments of the life shattered by sinful indulgence, and, putting its pieces together, He can produce in the regenerated soul sweet melodies.-By Ashely G. Emmer
III. An Insolent (Disrespectful) Plan (15.17-18)
The story is told that in the latter 1800’s, Alfred Lord Tennyson invited a Russian nobleman to his estate. And early one morning this nobleman took off with dogs & guns & servants to go hunting.
At mid-day he returned & Lord Tennyson asked him how he did. He answered, "Not very well. I shot two peasants." Lord Tennyson thought for a moment & then said, “No, we pronounce it with a ‘ph’ here. It is ‘pheasants.’ You shot two pheasants."
"No," the nobleman replied, "I shot two peasants. They were insolent towards me, so I shot them."
A. Self-Serving and Manipulative
[Give God extra money so he will bless us; give God some Ministry time so he will not be mad at us;
1. Wants to return to Father as HIRED Servant
2. NOT a Slave
B. There is no Indication of repentance Here
1. No: I am ashamed of what I have done; Sorry that I have hurt my father; I made a mistake
2. Like Pharaoh – Exodus 10.16
16Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.
[Apply: How often do we come to God to try and manipulate him for selfish reasons? We get ourselves into a jam and bargain with him; It is not really to honor him just to get something from him; Fire insurance
IV. An Incredible Display
A. The Humiliated Father Goes After His Lost Son
1. Humiliates Himself Again
2. Runs/Kisses/Restores the disrespectful son (later the older son)
B. The Happy Father Calls for Celebration
1. Public
2. He Found His Son
3. He restores the son’s place out of grace, not keeping the letter of the law – the son lost the money and should have returned only after regaining it
[Apply: Even though we may initially come to God to get something (even salvation), God says, “Come” – actually comes after us; “God loves you just as you are but too much to leave you that way.”
He endures our slights, our disrespect, our selfishness to develop our faith and our relationship with him.
This parable has no ending
• Aimed at his critics – (older brother in the story)
• Encourages sinners – Sheep/Coin/Son – he seeks each one and celebrates when each is found
• End of the story is being written by each one who hears – Lady or Tiger?
• He is still seeking via his church and great commission
We are not cast out – God wants each of us! Our failures are not final.
Charlie Lubin made great cheesecake. In fact it was so good he decided to open a cheesecake store, which he did on the north side of Chicago. It went so well that he opened a second store in South Chicago. That store did not do so well and eventually he lost both stores as a result. He sat in his room one night and while eating his cheesecake, thought "This is good cheesecake!" So he eventually opened his original store again. After a while he opened another store which did not do so well and he once again lost both stores.
A few months later, while eating his cheesecake he said to himself "This is good cheesecake!" And so he opened his original store again. But after opening a second store, he went bankrupt again. This happened a fourth time.
Months later, Charlie sat in his house eating his cheesecake and thought to himself again "This is good cheesecake!" And so he decided to open another store, only this time he would name his cheesecakes after his daughter, Sara Lee. It became the largest bakery in the world.(Illustrations, Stories and Quotes- Jim Burns and Greg Mckinnon)
Sometimes we need persistence and the right recipe
