Summer Stories: The Lost Son

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Thanks for joining us for this week's Real Life Church Podcast. We'd love to know if God is using this ministry to bless you in some way. And if you'd like to share your story or get connected at Real Life Church, you can visit us online at livereallife.com.

**Brayden** (0:17)
You guys ready to get in God's word this morning? You get me this morning. Come on, you get me this morning. Mom and dad are enjoying their time camping. So, we're grateful they're getting rest. But we're going to jump into God's word this morning. If you have your Bible, you can go ahead and turn to Luke chapter 15 We're kicking off a new series today. How many of you enjoyed the James series, Faith with No Filter? Come on, it was one of my favorites. We're kicking off a new series today called Summer Stories. And over the next few weeks, we're going to look at some parables of Jesus and the stories that he would tell. And I love Jesus because he is the goat when it comes to storytelling. Like he is the greatest storyteller of all time, and he would communicate using parables and stories to teach on what the kingdom of heaven was like. But he would do it in a way that was relatable to the context of his audience in that time. And so we're going to jump into our first parable, kick it off week one of Summer Stories. We see Luke chapter 15 We're going to look at the Prodigal Son today. But for us to understand what is happening in the Prodigal Son, we have to understand what is happening in the first two stories of that chapter. So we have Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and the religious leaders. He's been teaching the tax collectors and what Luke would call the notorious sinners. And so these religious leaders and these Pharisees came to Jesus and was like, if you're the Messiah, why are you spending time with them? Like, why are you spending time with sinners like that? And so as Jesus does, he begins to tell them a few stories to help them understand God's kingdom. And so the first parable in Luke 15 is talking about a shepherd who had 100 sheep. A shepherd had 100 sheep and one of the sheep got lost. So he's got 99 left. How many of you know, some of us would focus on the 99 because only 1% was lost. And we would put all of our direction and our focus on the 99 But Jesus is trying to communicate something different. And so the shepherd goes, he finds the sheep that was lost, and he puts it on his shoulders, and he comes back and he says, hey, let's celebrate because what was lost is now found. But then Jesus realizes these dudes ain't getting it. And so aren't you grateful that when we don't understand, God simplifies it even more for us? So he goes from 100 minus one is 99 to go, he goes a woman had 10 coins, 10 silver coins, and she lost one of them. So he goes 100 minus one, now he's 10 minus one. So she's got nine coins left, she lost one. That's only a 10% loss. Again, it would be like 10%, that's nothing really. We'll focus on the nine. But he flips it right side up for these guys. And he says she goes and she'll flip the whole house upside down, looking for that one coin, and she finds that coin, and she's excited because what was lost is now found. And so we look at Luke 15 beginning in verse 11, because the Pharisees and the religious leaders still weren't getting it. So he simplifies it to a man who had two sons. And we'll go ahead and turn in your Bibles, Luke chapter 15, starting in verse 11 He says, to illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land. And there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked so good to him. But no one gave him anything. Verse 17, when he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, at home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. He says, I will go home to my father and say, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. Verse 20 says, so he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son. But his father said to the servants, quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet, and kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast. For the son of mine was dead, and he has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found, so the party begin. Now we read this in Luke chapter 15 about the prodigal son, and a lot of times we like to focus on the prodigal son, which is great. He's pretty much the main character of the story. But I want to look at a different perspective today, because what we have to understand is every prodigal son has a prodigal father. Every prodigal son has to have a prodigal father, and I believe God wants to reframe how you see and understand him as a heavenly father today. That some of us have accepted Jesus as our Lord and our Savior, but we haven't learned how to trust God as our heavenly father. Luke chapter 15, he's got two sons. The son looks across the table and says, Dad, I want my inheritance now. Some of you would be like, eat your broccoli. Don't say another word to me. So he says, give me my inheritance now, I want the share. So this would have been, in that time, a death sentence to this relationship between this father and this son. The son is communicating, Dad, I have no desire to do life with you anymore. You're as good as dead. I want nothing to do with you. I just want your stuff. And so what you have to understand is, in this context, he wasn't the oldest son, he was the youngest son, which means he was only entitled to a third of his dad to stay in possessions. So because Dad wasn't dead yet, Dad would have to go out to the field, he would look at all the livestock that he had, and he would have to divide it up for a third, and he would have to sell it off to be able to pay his son's inheritance. And then he would have to go out to the land that he's been working hard on for years of his life, and he would have to divide it up a third, and he would sell it off so that his son could get his inheritance. And this would, the whole community now is taking watch because when you liquidate a third of your possessions in your estate, everybody starts to take notice.