………there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
11 And he said, A certain man had two sons:
12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
17 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!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
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.
21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
32 It was meet (to come face to face, to come together as an assembly for a common purpose) that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
Intro: The right to choose. The whole cycle of life is told here in this story that Jesus told. It has been named, “The Prodigal Son.” Most remember the son took all of his inheritance that his father had provided for him, left his home and family and went on his way to a more pleasurable and desirable lifestyle.
He took his journey not knowing where he was going but it was far away from the Father’s house. Not knowing that his journey would take him farther than he really wanted to go.
Here in this tale is the story of every person, of our right of free choice and what those choices can do to us and other people. Long before Jesus told of this story, God re-created the earth for the second time. He created a beautiful and bountiful garden. In the mist He planted two trees, one called the “tree of good and evil” and the other the “tree of life.” God knew that when He formed man from the dust of the earth that He would put in him the right to choose who he would serve giving all mankind the right to choose, this is called a free will mind. A person has that state of mind all the days of his life.
Some day in our lifetime we will have a chance to prove for ourselves whether it is better in “Father’s House” or better in the “far country” of our self-will. In the exercise of “free will” lies all the potential of heartbreak, all the tragedy, all the conquest, all the glory, and all the story of our lifetime.
There were two sons in this story. I believe that both may have been visited with the right to choose. I believe that both were tormented by the same spirit. I believe that both were pressured to make a decision. Now the problem is not the situation they were in but how they coped with it. One brother put more value on his responsibility as a son, though entitled to the equal amount of inheritance as the other son. While one considered the joy of and security of being in the Father’s house, the other son dreamed of a Fantasyland that did not and does not exist even today. The concept of, “If only I had something different then I’d be happy, my life would be filled with Joy.”
1. The Inalienable Right:
No one can deny us our right of choice in the matter that affect our ultimate happiness or misery whichever lifestyle we choose to live. The younger son in this story demanded the right early in life. He couldn’t wait to cut loose from family restraints. He either didn’t want to work or he had become weary with working, he wasn’t prepared to earn it he just said give it to me and right now. Human nature has changed very little since that time.
This young man may have been brilliant, but he had no sense of accountability, because he had not come to grips with three basic questions of life: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? He just wanted to get away from the bondage that he saw himself in. He just wanted to get away from responsibility, from accountability. He just wanted to get from under his father’s thumb. (Reason for marriages that happen to soon) He didn’t know where he was going but he was in a hurry to get there. He thought the world offered so much to see, all kinds of things to do. Happiness was there for the taking. He may have thought, “If I can just get away from these restraints that are holding me back, then I could do my own thing I wouldn’t have to answer to anyone, I’d be free.”
There is a guarantee that will come home to all that are self-willed. When you walk the self-will road without regard for others, you’ll be in “want” before you get all the way to the end of that road.
It won’t take long to burn up the fruits of a self-will mind. The road that enticed you and inspired you to walk away from the Father’s house guarantees that you’ll be in want before you get all the way to the end.
With each step that puts more distance between you and the Father’s house, something will begin to gnaw at your insides a burning sensation that burns your stomach like acid. The further the distance from the father house, the more intense the burning. The satin sheet you may lie on will not bring you rest nor sooth the burning. The satin pillows you cry on won’t hold the tears of loneliness that wash your face each night as you see visions of the father’s house.
You started out in good condition, you felt good, you looked good, your mind made up, with your head up, putting one foot before the other with no regard to God saying that He will guide the footsteps of a righteous man. But it’s Satan that guides the footsteps of the unrighteous man.
While on the journey traveling down the road of “self-will,” it doesn’t take long for the head to begin to sag, the eye lids to droop and you can’t see as clearly as you once did. The fun and laughter begin to fade, the degree of excitement shrinks, and the thrill of the night life is not there anymore. Those friends of joy can’t be found as your journey now takes you round and round. The dance floor is no longer bring you steps, turns and sways of excitement. The booze must be weaker because it takes more and more to get the same affect so we seek for something stronger that will eject you higher and higher. The downward fall gets faster the ground we once stood on gets slicker, so slick that we cannot stand up and there is no one to lift you up and steady your decline. But come morning a glimmer of a light. As the bottom of the pig pen get closer and closer. Then what seem like just a bad dream you have the same mentality of a hog’s brain. (Hog brains and scrambled eggs are a great dish but not to be used as a guide in life)
The fruits of self-will have become wrinkled and pitted and is now prematurely beginning to fall from the branches only to lay on the ground and rot. The once sweet smell of juice and wine has become stagnant, and the nauseating spell of decay is over whelming and turns your stomach to a taste of bitterness. Now the burning that would not be quenched has now turned into what seem like the flames of hell itself.
On this road that you made sure that you had the right to choose, the one of your own “Free Will” does not have a “U Turn” lane. You feel the flames of Hell long before you get there. The emptiness of anxiety and loneliness attach you. The voices from Hell scream out, there is no way back and hopelessness begins to consume you.
The term, “Self-will” infers that there is only one person involved, but there are many that are affected by a “self-will” person. Mom, Dad, brothers and sister, your children your neighbors, the folks you work with. Your church family and all those that know you. But as long as there is a “Far Country” there will be self-will people that insist on making the trip.
This story is universal and has been repeated many times on many stages with many actors. Long before Jesus told the story of this impulsive young man, the Bible says Esau had this same spirit.
The Bible doesn’t discuss the value of the inheritance that came to the young man there is no way we could imagine its price. But it does tell us enough that we can pretty well guess the value of the bowl of soup that Esau traded for his birthright. In a moment of fleshly appetite, he asks himself, “What profit shall this birthright do me?”
The immediate demands of his taste buds and the growling of his stomach were more important to him than his soul, his mind, or his conscience, the blessings of his father, not to mention his future.
Esau was a cunning hunter but the hunt he had just came from produced no meat. Esau said to his brother Jacob, feed me with some of that soup never mind the price, just give it to me. So, he sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. Not worth much but at that time it was priceless to Esau.
When Esau came to himself and realize what he had done, he wasn’t willing to let it go and wanted it back. But Esau lost more than he ever regained. He made an eternal decision based on a temporary situation.
But when the young man’s fantasy of an imaginary fantasyland turned to a nightmare on a deserted island filled with pigs and slop, he began to talk to himself. That glimmer of light that was just a flickered a few days before now has turned into a beam illuminating the joys that were tucked deep within his mind. And the Bible says, “He shook himself” and he turned his face toward home. He made that “U Turn” and found his way into his father’s arms.
I think what the son didn’t know was that all the time the Father was working behind the scene. The table the father prepared was far above and beyond what the best of servant could ever hope far.
There aren’t words in any professor’s vocabulary that could come close to describing the joy the excitement of having a child raised from the dead. The Bible doesn’t express the words or excitement of the parents whose child was raised from the dead, but I know that this father was far more excited than any other because he had been expecting the resurrection for a long time. “My son was dead but is alive again”
