You can be seated. So I was drawn to the parable
of the prodigal son this past week. And as I was studying,
I'm grateful for this too, that I have the ability to go back
and look at so much of what Joe has done in the past in a lot
of different ways. We have access to so many of
his sermons, so many of his radio broadcasts, so many of his notes. He did surprisingly a pretty
good job of saving those things. wasn't the most organized guy.
But in those situations, he did a pretty good job. And then also
the perspectives columns, which was the weekly column that he
put in the Rock Valley Beat. And it's cool because I have
them in like a shared drive on Google. So I can like search
a word and it searches through all these documents for me. So
I knew I was kind of studying this portion of the scripture
and I thought, well, I wonder what Joe has done on this in the past.
So I typed in prodigal. And only one thing came up, surprisingly. I expected a lot more, and I
couldn't find anything specifically on this scripture. But what I did find was such
a blessing to me. And it does fit very well with
what I'm going to be preaching on today. So what I'm actually
going to do first is read the scripture that I found when I
looked up Joe's perspectives column. and then read what he
wrote. It's relatively short, but it's
great, and it's going to be a big part of what I end up talking
about today. So if you want to turn to Romans, we will go back
to Luke 15 that John read from, so if you want to mark that place.
But for now, go to Romans 8, verse 15. says, for you did not receive
a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received
the spirit of sonship or adoption. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself testifies
with our spirit that we are God's children. And that's what Joe
wrote this specific little excerpt on, and I'm just going to read
it to you. And keep in mind what we just read about how the Spirit
himself testifies to us, tells us that we are the children of
God. So he says, the news is glorious, and one no less glorious
than the Spirit of God must deliver it. By our natural birth, we
were made slaves to God. We came into this world with
the responsibility to serve God perfectly. Perfect service would
earn us a room and board in God's household, but nothing less. One failure, one fault, and all
is lost. Do and live, fail and die. That was our life as we came
into this world. But even though the master of
the house was under no obligation to be good and kind to his erring
slaves, he has lavished an unspeakable blessing on many of them. He
has adopted them. He, by the authority only he
can exercise, has assigned a new destiny to these blessed chosen. They shall no longer be slaves
under bondage, but will now be free sons and daughters. Their chains are removed. They
are moved from slaves' quarters to the master's house. They are
given the master's family name and a seat at the master's table.
What's more, and this must be the most blessed part, the master
becomes to them no longer master, but father. Such a blessing is so great that
we dare not presume to have it, apart from the testimony of God
Himself. We don't dare to say, Father, unless we have been told
that that is the case by Him. We dare not claim to be His children
unless it is He that tells us we are. And that is exactly what
God does. By His Spirit, He testifies to
our spirits that we are his children. He tells us this himself with
the authority of his own voice. How is this glorious testimony
heard? When the gospel is preached, the spirit testifies that we
are children by working in us to cry out, Abba, Father. Oh, troubled believer, and this
paragraph is so fantastic. both in the power of what it
means and in the fact that it is so, Joe. But it says, O troubled
believer, does it not seem a strange but wonderful thing to you that
when you feel least like God's child, you feel most compelled
to call him father? Like the prodigal son, you may
say, I have sinned against heaven and against you and am no longer
worthy to be called your son. But just like the prodigal, you
begin that confession with the word, father. Because the spirit
has testified to your spirit that you are his child, regardless
of how unworthy you feel. That truth is here. Joe goes on, is it not a strange
thing to hear from your own broken and guilty heart? How is it that
Father comes out of the voice of our hearts even when we stand
most in doubt that we are his children? It is of the spirit
of God that that works in us. O blessed witness of the Spirit
of God, that in a very midst of our unworthiness, he testifies
to our hearts that we are indeed the children of God by putting
in our hearts the word Father. So that was a blessing to me
when I read that. I mean, and it worked so well
with the parable of the prodigal son. For a long time, growing
up especially, I'm very familiar with the Prodigal Song. Very
well-known scripture, very well-known parable. But the idea, even just
the word prodigal, I didn't really understand what it meant. As
a child, just hearing the story, I had assumed that it meant chosen
or special, because he came back and was accepted. But prodigal
actually means lost or wasteful, which is much more accurate when
describing us. In our translation, it actually
says in the title of our scripture, it doesn't say the parable of
the prodigal son, it says the parable of the lost son. And
multiple times throughout, the father actually refers to the
fact that he was dead and is now alive. So the dead son, also
extremely accurate to where we stand when we're brought into
this world. As we were all after the fall
of Adam, we were lost, put under a law that we could not keep,
a requirement that we could not satisfy. As Joe said earlier,
we come into this world with the responsibility to serve God
perfectly. Perfect service would earn us
a room and board in God's household, but nothing less. One failure,
one fault, and all is lost. Do and live, or fail and die.
And it is our natural condition to actually lean into these things. Our sinful nature, our flesh,
is not only to sin, but to love sin. Despise the things of God,
naturally. It is only through the spirit
of God, that we can even become truly aware of our sinful nature.
To truly know better only happens through the Spirit of God. Otherwise,
we embrace everything about our natural sinful flesh. In our nature, we are this reckless
son. We are the wasteful son. We are
the lost son. We are not only sinful and rebellious
by nature, but we love these things by nature. Just as the lost son did, if
you turn back to Luke chapter 15. I have 14 written down about
10 times, but it's 15 and it's verse 13. Not long after that, the younger
son got together all he had and set off for a distant country
and there squandered his wealth in wild living. He leaned into
that kind of living, leaned head on into the things of this world.
Says squandering all he had in the most sinful ways possible.
It doesn't get very detailed here. It says wild living a little
bit later when his brother is upset. He mentions prostitutes. The idea is that he was living
about as poorly as you possibly could as far as our human standards
are concerned. And this is a common thing in
the Bible. Many of the men of God throughout the Old Testament
and the New Testament are guilty of some of the worst sins that
we as men can think of. Murder, incest, prostitutes,
drunkenness, common, and not common for the average Joe. We're talking about Noah, David,
Paul, Jacob. I mean, David, a man after God's
own heart, was guilty of murder and cheating on his wife. And
Jacob, we all know what kind of scoundrel he was. Paul. This
is to show us and continuously remind us that we have nothing
to offer. Even Paul, the author of some
of my favorite aspects of this book, much of the New Testament. I mean, we know before the road
to Damascus, he was Saul of Tarsus. He was the prosecutor of the
church. He hated Christ and anyone that
preached in his name. He considered himself, after
all of this, the chief of sinners. And I wouldn't blame him for
feeling that way. But did that keep him from going to his father? No. And that's the same idea
with the prodigal son. He lived as wild as you can imagine. He squandered everything he had.
He brought shame into his family name. And yet, somehow, he decided
he could go back. Now that's, I mean, if anyone
could ever feel like they've gone too far, well, Paul would
be a great example of someone that would feel like he's gone
too far. He literally went after Christians and wanted them dead.
Noah, David, Jacob, the same is true for this lost son. It
says in verse 17, It says, "'When he came to his senses, he said,
"'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, "'and
here I am starving to death. "'I will set out and go back
to my father and say to him, "'Father, I have sinned against
heaven and against you. "'I am no longer worthy to be
called your son. "'Make me like one of your hired
men.'" So that he got up and went to his father. Now back
then, this type of behavior would have been not only a stain on
the son, it would have been a stain on the entire family. more so
even now than today. Now a son goes off and acts crazy,
does things that are publicly shameful. Most people will look
at that son and think there's something wrong with him. They
might think, man, he probably wasn't raised great. But it doesn't
equal the way things were back then. Back then you would literally
bring shame on your family name. So for him, to expect his father
to even want to talk to him again, let alone to be able to welcome
him back home, even as a slave, is an expectation that he shouldn't
have. as a man, as flesh is concerned,
as our sinful, regular human nature is concerned, that is
not something, a decision you would naturally come to. You
wouldn't think, you know what, I can go back to my father, and
I bet he'll let me back in the house. He would know better,
because that's not gonna happen. It goes back to what we read
earlier, in that the spirit talks to our spirit, testifies to our
spirit that we are children of God. It's beyond our understanding. Because if we only looked at
ourselves, we would never have the confidence to call ourselves
children of God. But by the Spirit of God, we
know it's true. Same for this lost man, this
lost son. The Spirit had worked in him
to know, I can go home. It didn't make sense. not to
our limited understanding. So which means, and even at the
beginning of this, it says, when he came to his senses, that's
the spirit of God. We can't come to our senses on
our own because the senses of this world would have told us
the opposite. You can't go home. But when he, I mean, they would
have told him he could never return home, but even with the
spirit of God, that is when he had the thought and the understanding
that he could go home. But even then, it's still mixed
with what we deal with on a regular basis here in this world. He
could go home, but I'm gonna just ask if I can possibly live
in the slaves' quarters. because even that would be so
much better than what I'm doing now. At that point, he was completely
out of all of his money. He was taking care of pigs, wishing
he could eat the pigs' food. He was in a bad spot. So to him,
he thought, well, I can go home and I'll just ask to be a slave.
I'll be a slave to my own dad, which would mean he would no
longer be considered a son, but at least he would be a part of
the household, even in the slaves' quarters. That's the condition
of, actually if you go to Luke 15, 19. It says, I am no longer worthy to
be called your son. Make me like one of your hired
men. So he got up and went to his father. Now the spirit is
continuously working in God's people to bring us home. But
the flesh continuously accuses us of being far too sinful to
go home. to ever think that you could
be welcomed by God himself. And if we're only looking at
ourselves, that's the only logical thing to come to. The only logical place to end is that there's
no way I could go approach God and expect to be welcomed. Because
I have done nothing to deserve that. I have only done the opposite. but the Spirit put in his heart
to go home, and he thinks, maybe I'll go home, but I'll just ask
to be a servant. I don't even deserve that, but because of
the Spirit, I will go. And this reminds me, again, of
what Joe had written earlier. It says, oh troubled believer,
does it not seem strange but a wonderful thing that when you
feel least like God's child, you feel most compelled to call
him father? And I wouldn't even use the word
comfortable there to call him father, but compelled. You're in a position where you've
got nowhere else to go and you call out to your father. Just
like the prodigal son, you may say, I have sinned against heaven
and against you and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
But just like the prodigal, you begin your confession with the
word father. You don't feel worthy to come
to him. It's the mixture of knowing what
the Spirit has put on your heart, but also knowing who you are.
It's a battle. It's an internal fight that we
deal with until we lose this flash. It makes me think of Peter. After he had denied Christ three
times, after Christ told him he was going to deny him three
times, and he said, absolutely, I would never do such a thing.
And then he did. And then after he denied him
three times, Christ came to him and said, do you love me, Peter?
And he asked him that three times, and Peter knew full well why
he was asking him three times. Because he knew he had sinned
three times. It feels blasphemous sometimes
for us to even make such a lofty statement as to say that I love
God. No one felt that more than Peter
at that time. The guilt. The unworthiness. But yet, in every response, yes,
Lord, I love you. Yes, Lord, I love you. He had
no confidence in himself. If he was looking at himself
at that point, there was no way he would be able to say that,
but it was because of the Spirit. And then that final response
is my favorite one because I just feel so connected to it. It wasn't, Peter, do you love
me? I don't know. I want to love
you, but I'm so disgusted with myself. That sounds almost honorable. But it's not the answer he gave.
It was, Lord, you know all things. And you know that I love you.
That is the Spirit of God. The flesh, the accuser, would
have stopped Peter in his tracks and said, there's no way you
can possibly say after what you've done that you love God. But the
Spirit has that in our hearts, beyond what we have done. His doubt would have outweighed
his confidence in himself, but through the Spirit we don't have
confidence in ourselves. Our confidence is in the completed,
finished, perfected work of Jesus Christ. We are promised all the
blessings that Jesus deserves. So in that moment, Peter's doubt
was overcome by the Spirit and the confidence that he had in
Christ. And he said, Lord, He probably was thinking, I can
barely get myself to say this, but you know I love you. You
are why I love you. You are how I love you. My love
for you, my faith in you is a gift from you. I only love you because
you have made me to love you. And because you have done it,
it can't be undone. That's where the confidence is. Just like this prodigal son. Again in 19, it says, I am no
longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your
hired men. So he got up and went to his
father. But while he was still long away, Long way off, his
father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran
to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. He didn't
even get a chance to ask to be a servant. He was seen from far away and
run to and embraced and kissed and welcomed in a way that only
a father can. The son goes in with his guilt,
expecting to grovel. Father, I have sinned against
you. I am no longer worthy of being called your son. And the
father is only concerned with celebrating the salvation of
his child. He isn't concerned with his sins
of his past. Hebrews 8, 12 says, their sins
and their wickedness I will remember no more. And this is a perfect
example of it. He can't even come and say, Father,
these are all the things I've done. I am so sorry. Can you please let me be a servant? He doesn't even get those words
past his lips because those sins are gone. Their sins and their wickedness
I will remember no more because they are gone. They are paid
for by the blood of Christ. In one way, we have it so much
better than this prodigal son did. We live in an enlightened
time. We have this book. We have this parable to show
us the truth of what Christ has done for us. And because of what
Christ has done, we are shown that our sins will be remembered
no more. We can come to the Father, not
hoping for a place among the servants. We, the lost son, can
come home crying, Father, Abba. Not because of what we have done.
That would push us to do the opposite. But because of what
Christ has done, because he paid for our sins, he took what we
deserved, gave us his righteousness, and gave us everything that he
deserves. And Christ deserves everything. We come home running, crying,
Father, Abba, And Abba, as Joe has mentioned multiple times,
when you actually define that, it's a little bit different than
father. It's more of a loving term, similar to daddy. And that's exactly how we come
running home to him. We were the lost son. As the
father says, we were dead and now alive. and we can come home
running to him and he'll run right back, celebrating, giving
us the robe and the ring and the shoes that Christ deserves
because Christ has paid for our sins. The way that a child falls
into the arms of his father knowing that they are loved and welcomed
and protected no matter what they have done. all to the glory
of Christ. In closing, I want to go back
one more time and read this last paragraph that Joe wrote, just
because it sums this up perfectly. It says, O troubled believer,
does it not seem strange but wonderful thing that you, when
you feel least like God's child, feel most compelled to call Him
Father? Like the prodigal son, you may
say, I have sinned against heaven and against you and am no longer
worthy to be called your son. But just like the prodigal, you
begin your confession with the word Father. Dear Lord, we thank you so much
for this morning. We thank you for every morning.
We thank you for each other. We thank you for the special
relationship we have with each other, that you are what binds
us. We thank you for this prodigal
son parable that shows what a wonderful truth that you've put in place
and created and finished and perfected. And we are just simply
blessed to be the subject of your love. that we can come home,
call you Father. Help us to understand what a
blessing that is, to be able to call you our Father, our God. Keep this on our hearts, Lord,
as we go back into the world. Keep this truth in our minds. We thank you, Lord, so much for
everything you've done for us. We thank you, Jesus, for everything
you are. We pray this in your name. Amen. You guys want to come up? Start
handing out the bread?