The Prodigal Son

THE PRODIGAL SON

TEXT: LUKE 15:11-32

INTRODUCTION

Mary was a well known girl in her high school. She was one of the prettiest girls and one of the most talented. She was involved in everything, from church to drama to basketball. She was captain of the J.V. cheerleader team and was voted most likely to succeed. She received a full scholarship to go to MTSU for her academic standing. Her first year there was a great success. She was popular because of her great looks and well liked by the teachers for her brilliant mind. Unlike many college students she attended church regularly for every service and was active in the Christian Student center.

The second year was a little more difficult. She meet a great girl by the name of Sue. Sue and Mary spent a lot of time together studying and socializing. Through Sue, Mary met Adam who was a great guy. He was also on scholarship for the swim team. Adam and Mary began to date and formed a strong relation in the coming months. Adam was not a Christian but had no problems going to church with her every week.

But Adam had a little party bug in him. He started taking her to some of the local parties but Mary would abstain from any actions that she considered sinful. Then slow she began to except certain actions. Mary slowly started to become like the world. Then one day her parents received a call that no parent ever wants. Mary was pregnant.

She felt awful. She could not even believe that she had fallen so far from her morals and ethics. She begged her parents to let her come home because she needed some comfort and to get away from Adam who was a negative influence on her. He parents let her come home to her old room and begin to support her through this time.

A few months passed and everyone in her church knew the story. Mary was back to church and went forward. She was showing and a few ladies in the congregation wanted to throw her a baby shower. This caused a huge controversy in the church. There were two sides to the debate.

One side was totally against the idea. This child that was coming was the result of sin. How could the church support this? How could the church have a shower for a mother to be out of wedlock. They stated that if they did this other girls might be tempted to get pregnant. There was no way these ladies felt that the church should help this girl through this time. Sin is sin they said.

On the other hand the ladies that wanted to have the shower had their point of view. They said she repented of her sin and we should accept her back into the church. The action was sinful but the baby is not sin. How dare we make the child pay for the sin of the mother” This girl needs all the help she can get and are we going to turn a blind eye to her. We need to let this girl know that we still love her and are here for her during this stressful time in her life. We are the church, we have to help.

Finally, this debate turned into a full fledged warfare in the congregation. Everyone had their opinions on what the church should do. There was becoming an open division in the church concerning this matter. So the elders had to step in to decide what the congregation was going to do. Was the shower on or off?

THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL SON

The elders did not know what to do. They met for hours without any idea of what the Biblical answer would be. Finally, one of the elders said “we have to look at the parable of the prodigal son.” “This will give us the answers.” But each elder looked at the parable from a different perspective. One looked at it through the eyes of the son. Another looked at the story through the eyes of the brother. And finally another looked at it through the eyes of the father.

The mindset of the son.

He was young and confident. He was really to lunch out on his own and take the world. He had to find himself. So he went to his father to ask him for his inheritance. The father gave it to him. The son knew he would because it was his for the taking. He needed to explore the world on his own and discover things for himself.

The son was enjoying live and living it up. He was spending his money on drugs and women. He was buying items he did not need. The son did not know what he was doing, he was not mature enough to know the consequences of his actions. He was still naïve about the ways of the world.