[0:00] When we look at a parable, we want to know what did the original audience hear when they were hearing this story? What did they think of the prodigal son, of the loving father, of the elder son? How would they have related with the rebel child?
[0:12] We have the publicans and we have the sinners. Would they have seen themselves in that rebel child? Will the Pharisees wake up and see themselves in the older brother? Will they think that the father is lenient?
[0:22] Will they despise him in the story because of the way that he acted? How would they have related and understood all the issues of it? There's a far country, there's a prodigal return, and there's a father's welcome we're going to look at.
[0:36] But I know that I read it to you and you know it, but I want to tell it to you just one more time. I want to tell it to you, and as you listen to it, you may say, I can tell that story better, and I hope you will.
[0:47] I'm going to give you a challenge and an encouragement this week. Tell the story of the prodigal, the somebody, this week. Many people that you're around don't know this wonderful story, and it's fascinating to them.
[1:00] Jesus speaks in such a way that it captivates the attention. It draws people in to consider where they would fit into that story. So a certain man has two sons, and the younger son comes to him, and he says, one day the portion that I would receive, which would be about a third of it, if he only has one brother who is the older, the older brother would get the larger portion.
[1:22] Thatcher says amen to that. The younger one says, I want a third of it, and I want it now. That's offensive to all of us. We understand that's offensive. But it's even more so in a farming culture where they build and the respect that should have been shown.
[1:38] This is highly insulting. This is highly shameful to the family. This isn't common practice that a person would just want to cash in on their family so early.
[1:48] But the younger one does it. Then we have some verses here that says he gets things in order, he gets things in place. Just picturing the father as he's watching the son do things around the family property and get everything together.
[2:02] What's very likely would happen is that he would sell this land to somebody, and that he would get the money now, and then the land wouldn't be given to the person until the father died.
[2:12] I don't know what he was doing in order, but the way that he lives out his life, as we see in the story, he needed, it seemed like he had some cash flow going on here, right? So very likely sold the land at a cheaper price than the value of it, because the land wouldn't go to the person until the father dies.
[2:29] So he takes what he has, and he goes out, and he lives in a Gentile area. He's out in an area that he shouldn't be later on. The brother says, my brother spent his money on harlots, so we know there's that, right?
[2:40] That's living. He's just living out on the party scene. He's just living it up. He's living with no care of what it reflects upon his family, no thoughts about serving a holy God.
[2:51] He's just living for the pleasures of this world. And as he does this, he gets to the point where he's running out of that cash, and on top of that, a famine came in the land.
[3:04] One of the things that he had control of, but a famine came in the land. The rain comes upon the righteous and the unrighteous, the just and the unjust, something that was affecting everybody.
[3:15] And as he was there, he became a servant to somebody that owned swine, that owned pigs, and he would be kind of like indentured to the person. I'm going to serve you, but I'll be able to live here.
[3:26] And he's just trying to survive to the point that he's looking at the slop that the pigs are eating and thinking, I would fill my belly with that because I have not had anything to eat.
[3:38] Then it comes this great phrase, then he came to himself. There's this realization. There's no need for this. My father's servants eat better than I do.
[3:49] I'm going to go to him. And we see here he's practicing a speech that he's going to give to his dad. He says, I'm going to go there, and I'm going to tell him, I'm not worthy to be your son anymore, but if I could just be one of your servants.
[4:02] And so I just picture this man walking and saying, I'm going to say this to my dad. And as he is walking, it says that the dad sees him coming from afar, and he runs and he greets his son, and he hugs him, and he kisses him.
[4:17] And here's this young man. The prodigal is starting to tell what he had rehearsed, and he tells him that. But the father jumps in and says, no, no, no. That's not what's going to happen.
[4:28] Bring a rope for my son. Bring a ring. I want people to know this is my son, a point of identity. And he takes him in. And then next week, we'll look at what follows with the conversation with the older son.
[4:41] But today, we're looking at that welcome that the father gave and the return that the prodigal has. And it's just absolutely such an incredible story. I'm sure you've been told that it wouldn't be common, they would say, for a Jewish man to run, and that was something that wasn't common.
[4:57] I always thought that was an interesting bit of history. Then I came about 40 years old, and I realized most of us don't run. It's awkward when any of us, I played baseball yesterday, and I was running like, this does not feel right, all right?
[5:08] So if I saw Thatcher from the other side of the parking lot and I ran to him, it would be something that would make me have to come outside of caring what any of you thought. It would have to just be something that was just expressing this so full of gratitude and emotion.
[5:24] I don't care what the neighbors are saying. The neighbors already judged me because my son left me and took everything. I don't care. This is my son, and I love him, and I'm going to welcome him.
[5:36] And in that love, we see the love of the Father towards us. And if you've seen it, you'll just never be the same. You'll never be the same if you've ever seen it or experienced it.
[5:47] So the far country is where he went to. The far country, it's not just that it's geographically far, but it's that it was referring to here the far away from the fellowship. Today, wherever you're not in fellowship with God in your life, that is a far country, and you don't belong there.
[6:03] Verse 13, And he took his journey into a far country, and there he wasted his substance with riotous living. I believe it was during COVID that Selah said, or Tinsley, one of them told, I believe it was Selah, we're in the house, and she said, Mom, I am homesick.
[6:20] And we're like, well, we've been in the home for a long time now. Why are you homesick? She says, no, I'm sick of being at home. You know, let's go somewhere. Let's do something. She's always wanting to go something. But some of you, you know what it's like to be homesick.
[6:33] You know what that feeling is of being in a far country. You know what it's like to be around, away from those people that you love. And you've got to say, as our missionaries do, that there'll be a homesickness that will be worth it because he is worthy.
[6:46] Or there's other times in your lives. But you also know in here, as a believer, that homesickness that you feel when your relationship is not right with your Father. When things are just not right, that longing that you have.
[7:01] And if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus, you don't realize it, but you're living in a perpetual homesickness. The desires that you have of your heart are never going to be filled with anything else in this world.
[7:12] And you may have never recognized it as that, but what you're missing is a relationship with our Creator. The publicans and sinners, they knew that they were far. In verse 1, it says, they drew near unto Him.
[7:24] They were speaking about they gathered around Him, but they were doing more than just gathering around Jesus. They were drawing near to Him. They should have been able to see themselves in that story.
[7:35] They were the people that says, I get it. I see that I am as that prodigal, that I've been living as a sinner, as a publican out there, that I've taken advantage of my own people, being the publicans, and as a sinner, I have no respect for the things of God.
[7:50] They should be able to see themselves in it. What are some of the things that we, as a prodigal, as an unbelieving person, or as a Christian that's living in a prodigal season of your life, where you're away from the Father, you'll see that a sinful state is always a state of constant discontentment.
[8:08] A sinful state is always a state of discontentment. The younger son said to the father, give me what is mine now. At the end of the chapter, he tells the older son, all that I have is yours, right?
[8:21] Because the younger had taken his inheritance. You can enjoy this. You can work on the farm. You can eat of it. You can eat at the table. Everything that you need is taken care of, but the younger one, the prodigal, said that's not enough.
[8:35] Luke 12, 15, it says, and he said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.
[8:47] That's what this prodigal did not recognize. His contentment, he said, I need to own, I need to have. It's not enough to share it with the family. I need to have something here.
[8:58] And that prodigal state is the state of discontentment. It's also a place that just has no hope. Verse 16, it says, he wanted to eat of the husk of the swine, and it says, and no man gave unto him.
[9:13] Do you think when he first got out to that far country that he was making friends left and right? Most certainly, right? He was cash positive. Everything's going good. He's the one that was able to buy things, but as things change, he gets to a point, and there was nobody.
[9:27] There was no hope. There was nobody that was concerned for him. There was nobody that was embracing him and kissing his neck and giving him a robe. He was completely just alone and so lonely.
[9:40] Sin promises freedom, but it brings slavery. Give me what I got. I'm going to go. This is freedom. But what did he find himself? He found himself a slave. Jesus warns in John 8, 34, Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commit a sin is the servant of sin.
[9:57] That's what this young man found. I'm going to go live my own life, do my own thing. I'm going to get away from the Father, all the accountability, but he found himself very quickly a servant. Same for us. When we find ourselves wanting to diss ourselves of our Father and to live our lives chasing after pleasure and something else, we're going to find ourselves servants to those things.
[10:17] I expect that you've heard this statement before. Pastor of the church, I want to, as a teenager, would say this. Sin always takes you further than you want to go.
[10:28] It costs you more than you want to pay and it keeps you longer than you want to stay. That's what happened to the prodigal. He played with something that became a master to him.
[10:40] I remind you that we were all born prodigals. The prodigal walked away in verses 12 and 13. He took his things and he took his journey into a far country.
[10:52] Let me tell you where our prodigal story started. Romans 1.23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image like to corruptible man and the birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
[11:07] Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever.
[11:25] Mankind, we were born as prodigal children. We were born as prodigal sons. We had taken the one we should worship, but we have worshipped the creation.
[11:36] We have not valued the family farm. We have not valued the relationship with the Father. We have said, give us of this world what we can have and let me spend it upon my own desires. A shameless request and a shameless rebellion.
[11:49] No love for the Father. No love for the family. No desire for accountability. No love except for a love for self. And we have been as sheep who are now turned everyone to our own ways and we have gone astray.
[12:03] That is the state in which you were born in. It is the state in which most of the world lives in as people living in this prodigal rebellion. and we are now prone to wonder. You know, as believers, we have been justified.
[12:16] That means we have repented of our sins, trusted in Christ as our Savior, and God declares now that we are right on the basis of Christ's righteousness and His death in our place.
[12:26] Sacred Corinthians 5.19 says, not imputing their trespasses unto them, but as committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We have been justified by Jesus Christ.
[12:37] I was a prodigal child. I was a prodigal young man, but I put my faith and trust in Jesus and His death paid for my sins. I've been reconciled. It says that I now sit in heavenly places.
[12:50] That is where I've been placed positionally. We sing this song, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.
[13:06] The means of justification was the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for me. I've been justified. I've been reconciled. I now sit in heavenly places, but I'm prone to wonder to leave the God that I love.
[13:23] There's a confession that is ongoing in the life of a believer. 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[13:34] We've been declared justified, but we're called to confess our sins, and these are not two contradictory statements. God has declared us just. He forgives our future sins as well as our past sins and our present sins.
[13:48] And since our future lies before Him, He knows all of it. When I was justified, when I was forgiven of my sin, He saw my life from beginning to very end, and all my sins have been forgiven and I have been declared just.
[14:05] But we know that we've been justified of our past and present sins and our justification is the judicial grounds for our forgiveness of our future sins, which is to say that I know that my sins have been forgiven, but I know in my fellowship with Him that when I am living in sin, I need to confess my sins to Him and I need to say, Father, I thank You for the death of Your Son on the cross that paid for this sin.
[14:32] I come to Him in confession. Justification, the Bible teaches, comes once for all time, yet confessing sin and receiving forgiveness is ongoing until we are glorified and sin no longer remains.
[14:45] Romans 6, 9, Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death has no more dominion over us, and for that He died. He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth and He liveth unto God.
[14:57] He has died for us once, and we've been justified in that death and accepting Him. That's why here at this church, and it's become kind of common practice among some churches in America, that you might just get baptized again.
[15:13] Have you been away from the Lord and you want to come back to the Lord? We're having a baptism service and you can start fresh again. You can make a new commitment to Him.
[15:23] We say that's not what baptism is. Jesus Christ died once for my sins, and He is not dying again for my sins. His death paid for all my sins, and so when I've been scripturally baptized after salvation as a profession of my faith to a group of believers that I call my church family, I am not going to use baptism as something, as some kind of turning over a leaf.
[15:46] And in the same way, I am not asking for salvation when I come to the Father, but the grounds of my salvation, I say, thank you, Father. Your death, your son's death upon the cross has provided forgiveness of my sins.
[16:00] And so as we live our lives and we sin, we need to return to God in repentance and faith and seek His forgiveness. Yet we do so on the basis of Christ's work applied to us in our justification.
[16:11] Such an experience is not a new justification, but a renewed application of that justification and knowing this is the way we walk worthy of the fact in which He has died for us.
[16:25] And we should thank God for our limitations and the things that come into our lives. The man ran out of money, but not only did he run out of money, then a famine came into the land, which could have happened to anybody, and he was at the end of himself.
[16:40] Looking back on it, I imagine he wishes he would have ran out of money sooner. If he would have had limitless supplies, he would have continued in that state. But God brought him to a point where He says, to bring yourself where you're at.
[16:53] You know, rock bottom can be a wonderful place if it causes you to look up. If you come to an end of yourself and you say, I came to, as He said, I could go to my Father, the Father is calling this wondering Christian to come home.
[17:07] He is calling you to come home. The Father is waiting for the prodigal. William Calpler wrote a hymn that says, Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord?
[17:18] Where is the so refreshing view of Jesus and His Word? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, how sweet their memories still, but they have left an aching void the world could never fill.
[17:33] Christians, do you feel that today? Have you felt that aching void that only a relationship with your Father is going to provide for you? And when you feel that, when you feel that homesickness and when you feel like I'm not made for this, that the world's got to be different, thank the God of heaven that you're not continuing to live as a prodigal, that He is calling you home.
[17:54] So the prodigals return. We pay close attention to this story because it teaches us so much about repentance, which is what He has been calling everybody that had ears to hear to listen to.
[18:06] That's how the end of chapter 14 ended. Those that have ears to hear, listen to this. And this is what He's calling them to. Repentance, without it there would be no forgiveness of sins.
[18:17] Acts 11, 18, that God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. There is no salvation without repentance. David said, blessed is whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins is covered.
[18:31] We are blessed people to be able to receive forgiveness of our sins. We are blessed Christians to be able to repent of our sins and come back to the Father. David explains at a time in his life where he said that when I kept silent, Psalm 32, 3, when I kept silent, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the days long.
[18:54] He was expressing what it was like when he was not repenting and coming back. When he was living in sin, he was not confessing, but he was remaining silent. That is a wonderful place to be.
[19:05] It is no place to stay, but it is a wonderful place to recognize that you are at, to come to yourself. And that is what he did. He came to himself and now he is going to come home.
[19:16] And we see here that the prodigal became aware of a sinful state. In verse 17, he came to himself and this is what he came to. It says in verse number 18, he came to himself and this is what he realized.
[19:29] I am going to go back and I am going to say this, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. The prodigal recognized that his sin was not just against this earthly family, but that his sin was against the God of heaven.
[19:44] And that's the realization that he came to. He realized that it was more than just discomfort. He didn't just say, this isn't comfortable. I'd like to be in a better home. He said, I am a sinner here.
[19:56] The prodigal will wake up that he is being self-deceived. James 1.22 says, be doers of the word and not hearers only. It's on the back of our church sign as you leave.
[20:07] But the next thing that it says, because those that are not doers of the word but they're hearers only, it says, deceiving your own selves. The prodigal realized that he had been deceiving his own self and he woke up up to that reality.
[20:21] My life should just be lived for me. What I do doesn't really matter. Just give me my money. I'm going to do my own thing. Everything's going to be fine. But then he woke up to the moment that not only was this not what he was created to do, but he woke up to the fact that he was sinning against his father.
[20:37] And so, it would be woken up to it. The law of God is to wake us up in our sinful state. People would come to Jesus and he would say, I want to follow you. I want to have my faith in you.
[20:48] And he would say, well, don't break the commandments. Don't commit adultery. Don't kill. Don't steal. Don't bear false witness. And some of them would have the audacity to say, hey, I'm good. I don't do any of those things. Jesus was trying to help them wake up from their self-deception that they are.
[21:02] Later on, he will tell them, well, you say you don't kill, but whoever has a brother that has hatred for a brother or anger, he is one who is also living. It's a heart matter.
[21:15] I like this story here. Picture a train moving along a track on which there are many stations. Murder is the station at the end of a line called conflict. Most people will never go near that station, but all of us have traveled somewhere on this line.
[21:32] And that's what Jesus would tell them. So you haven't murdered. No, you haven't done this. But have you ever even got on the train in this where you've had hatred toward your brother? He was trying to wake them up.
[21:43] You need a savior. You are not sinless. Wake up. The prodigal has sorrow for a sin. I am no more worthy to be called thy son. Which means he had a proper understanding of the weight and the direction of his sin.
[21:57] It says he acknowledged, as David said, I acknowledge that my sin is before you, Lord. His sin was before the Father. David also in Psalm 51, this great prayer of confession as he is praying, he says it's against you and you alone that I have sinned.
[22:14] The story of the prodigal, he realized that he had sinned against his heavenly Father and also to his earthly Father. And that leads him to this confession. I confess that I have sin.
[22:25] No excuses, no shifting the blame, a sincere confession of wrong without any exception, which David says in Psalm 32, 5, I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid.
[22:38] I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. That is the opposite of what David was saying earlier when he said, I am in my silence. We mean when I wasn't confessing, I felt it in my bones.
[22:52] But here David says, I acknowledge it, I'm not hiding it, and I'm confessing it. What did the prodigal do? He says, I'm going to admit that I have sinned against God. No excuses, no hiding it, no justification, I have just sinned.
[23:08] And he accepts the consequences that are there for him. In a true confession, you accept the consequences for your action. You see it with the prodigal when he comes back and he says, I have no right to be called your son.
[23:21] But where we would also see it in the Bible, a great picture of repentance would come with the man that was on the cross. We don't know what side, but there's a man that's on the cross beside Jesus. And he says, at verse 41 of Luke 23, it says, And we indeed justly, for we received the due reward of our deeds.
[23:40] But this man had done nothing amiss. The man on the cross knew, I'm getting what I deserve. I have done wrong and I deserve this. And Jesus answered and he said, Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt thou be with me in paradise.
[23:56] True repentance will bring a confession in our lives. That confession will be one that says, regardless of the consequences, I must confess. And a true confession does not demand forgiveness.
[24:09] I am no more worthy to be called your son. We have so many great stories that help us see what repentance and confession looks like. We have two brothers in the Bible, Jacob and Esau.
[24:21] Jacob is knowing that he's going to see Esau after he had done wrong against him. And as Jacob is getting to the point that he is going to see Esau, he divides out his property among two different groups because he just knew that Esau should not forgive him.
[24:37] But he was still going to go to Esau and to say, I need your forgiveness. I have done wrong. And he was surprised by the grace of his brother that came to him.
[24:49] The Bible teaches in 1st and 2nd Corinthians that there's a type of repentance that is a worldly or fleshly repentance. Paul writes a very heavy letter with many tears to them.
[25:00] He says, in 2nd Corinthians 7, to him, For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. See, this worldly grief is essentially a self-pity that we've lost favor inside of people, we've lost respect, that we've been exposed to things that are hard.
[25:20] But a godly grief occurs when we consider that the sin in question has dishonored God. Take note of that, people. The prodigal didn't just say, I want to change where I sleep tonight.
[25:31] He said, I want to change my relationship with the Father. I have sinned. And there's many people that in self-pity say, I want to do better. Life could be better for me.
[25:42] But that is a worldly sorrow. Until you get into your place, that sin that's besetting you as a Christian, until you recognize the weight of it and that you want it out of your life so greatly that you come to a place of confession where regardless of the consequences, you make no excuses of it, you will never truly be repenting of that sin.
[26:04] The prodigal change of heart leads to a change of action. He didn't just stay there. He didn't just think about it. Verse 20, And He arose and He came to His Father.
[26:16] And this is seen in the life of all believers. It's impossible to place your faith in Christ without first changing your mind about sin and about who Jesus is and what He has done.
[26:27] And a changed mind or perspective is of no value if it isn't accompanied by a change of direction, a change of life, and a change of action. I have a new king that reigns in my heart.
[26:37] With God's commands, I now desire to practice them. What God forbids, I desire to avoid because my coming to myself and my repentance has changed my view of this life.
[26:48] Remember, we saw that in Zacchaeus. One man said, sell everything you had. He said, I can never do that. Zacchaeus says, I'm going to follow you, Jesus. And whatever it was, he repaid people. He did what was needed because he treasured his relationship with Christ over anything in this world.
[27:04] And the prodigal will develop a hate for his sin when he comes to himself. Bible tells us that we should hate every false way. Romans 6 tells us that the fruit that we once had that we thought was so great we would now be ashamed of it.
[27:19] Romans 6, 21, because we realized the way of death. That moment that he had where he was living it up and thinking, man, this is something I'm real proud of. Look at me. I have all this money. I'm living this. He now looks back on that prodigal and he says, I take no joy in that.
[27:33] I've heard some of you men cry when you begin to share your testimony and you tell about your prodigal time and you do it in such an appropriate manner where you just say, I was away from the Lord. You don't glorify that sin.
[27:45] You're not bragging about the time that you lived as a prodigal. But when you look back on it, you don't find anything to boast in. You just thank God that he gave you that opportunity to come home. Then I end with this.
[27:56] But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe. The father welcomes him. Jesus is teaching that to publicans and sinners and anybody that has ears in that day or in this day.
[28:08] Anybody in this room, anybody listening online, the father welcomed the prodigal home. Through Jesus Christ dying on the cross, we can find our way home.
[28:19] Jesus' death on the cross is the father welcoming the prodigal back. So do you ever feel homesick or like you don't really fit anywhere? Like you're missing something or someone?
[28:32] The theme of losing your home and going to exile, this is central throughout the Bible. It starts in Genesis with Adam and Eve that were expelled from their original home and the garden. The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt and they will learn again and again about being displaced and longing for home.
[28:48] The parable of the prodigal son is the tale of two brothers who lost their way. One left his home to explore his own destiny and ended up in debt and in sin with no community around him.
[29:00] The other one stayed home but ended up rejecting his closest family. And the parable reveals something very important that there's always a way back.
[29:12] There's always a way back. So I call on you today, come home. Believer, come home. If you're not a believer, come home for the first time. Repent of your sin and recognize that he loves you.
[29:25] Don't worry about the story. Don't worry about how you got into that position. Don't worry about justifying your actions. Wherever you're at in that far country, come to yourself and recognize that you can come to the Father.
[29:38] And what does he want to hear from you? Father, I have sinned against you and you alone. That's what's a prayer of repentance. God runs to welcome us home the way that he ran to meet us is through Jesus.
[29:51] I'll end with the story. There's so many prodigal stories that could be told so many different ways. But there's a story of a lady named Maria who had a daughter named Christina. She was raising Christina after her husband had died.
[30:05] Christina grew up in a home. They didn't have much money. She knew that as soon as her daughter Christina would get old enough that she would probably leave home. And that's certainly what she did. She saved up her money, took everything that she had and she left.
[30:19] This poor mother that was heartbroken for her daughter. Took the little bit of money she had. She would go to a place and she would scan copies of a picture. And the picture was just a picture of herself as a mom posting this picture for her daughter around town.
[30:36] One night, leaving a hotel very late, life had caught up with Christina. Now she'd rather sleep at her cot in her mom's house than the scores of bed that she had been in in that big city.
[30:46] And she exited a hotel. She looked up and saw a picture of her mother. She took it down off the wall only to find a note on the back of it and her mother's handwriting that simply said, Christina, wherever you are and whatever you've done, it doesn't matter.
[31:01] I love you. Come home. If you're not a believer for the day, would you come to know the Heavenly Father that loves you? And believer, don't live in this season of being a prodigal.
[31:14] This world has nothing for you. It will be laughing at you by the end of this chapter. It will be laughing at you at the end of this season in your life.
[31:24] Maybe for a moment you believe you have your sin mastered, but before you know it, you will become the servant of that sin and you need to come to a place of repentance. Today, as we look at the cross, I can tell all of you, come home.
[31:38] All ye who are weary, come home. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this beautiful story. Lord, not a short story like writers and authors have written before, but an expression of your love for us.
[31:52] Lord, we are so overwhelmed. How many times, Lord, I've had to make that journey back home in my Christian life. And every time, Lord, I found you welcome.
[32:03] Father, I pray right now for the believers in this room that are dealing with the sin in their lives that have never got to a place of a true repentance where they've never come to recognize that their sin is against you and you alone and come to you with a confession, not making excuses, regardless of what the consequences, but is coming to you with a heart of repentance because they desire to come home.
[32:30] Lord, they're homesick. And then, Lord, we always pray for those that are listening that are unbelieving, that know that who may not believe that you love them. I pray that, Lord, now the Holy Spirit as it works in their lives that they would respond.
[32:44] Every head bowed, and every eye closed, and the piano begins to play. Let me speak to you today. I don't know your story, but if you don't believe that Jesus loves you, if you don't believe that the Father loves you, look to Jesus.
[32:57] If you don't believe that the Father would let you home because of the prodigal life that you've lived, stop looking at your life and look to the cross. The cross is the Father calling you home.
[33:09] He loves you. He died for you. And on His time in earth, He shared this story so that you would hear it today to know that you could come home.
[33:21] And believer, look at this story of repentance. You're fighting sin in a worldly sorrow kind of way, and you're going to remain there. Look, think at the example of the prodigal, where I come to a place of true repentance, of confession, regardless of consequence.
[33:39] That may be something that is an action you need to take today, a place at the altar, a conversation that needs to have, but don't live away from this Father that loves you so much.
[33:51] Do business with Him today. Speak to Him.