The Prodigal Son- NLT
Luke 15:11-21
13 “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. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
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! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “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. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.[a]’
When God Ran- June 5, 2011-
(this was written originally to be spoken, not read)
I remember first coming up with this message back in March. I remember it well because we were camping and I had missed one of my favorite events at preschool- Doughnuts with Dad. I was looking at the pictures that Kim Little had taken of the day and thought about how I hated that I was not there. See on this day, our 3 and 4 year old’s Dad’s come to visit them at snack time at preschool. This is a huge treat for them, as most of their dads are working while they are at school. It made me think about how sweet it is when they turn the corner in the fellowship hall, see their dads sitting at the table, their little eyes light up and they start running…to give their dad a big hug! It is soooo sweet! Priceless. I thought about, too how special that relationship is, the relationship between a father and a child. Just this week, the sweetest thing happened. It was Thursday and we were here at the church. Billy got off work and met us here. Merritt saw him and he started running straight into his arms. When he got there, he said “Wub ouuu.” That was the first time he had said “I love you” unsolicited!
So, here we are, just a few short weeks shy of Father’s day and we are reading this scripture that we have all heard, most of us at least once a year during the month of June. Well, it really is a great story! So, let’s look at it a little more closely. First, I wanna talk a little about myself! J
If you have spoken with me in the past few months or if you are on FB, you have inevitably heard me talk about running. I started running earlier this year and yes! I consider myself a “Real Runner” whether I look like one or not! It was last October watching all the runners and walkers complete the M&M 5 k that I decided I would take on the challenge of actually running a 5k. This from someone who could not run a mile in high school! May 7, I did actually run my first official 5k race posting my personal best time of 33 minutes.
Hebrews 12:1 “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
2 Tim 4:7 “ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Gal 5:7 “You were running a good race, who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?”
*Just to name a few!
I talked about a few ways that running a race is like being a Christ follower---
1.
Gotta have the
right gear (shoes, Eph 6-belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shield of
faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit)
2.
You have to train for it
3.
Must get out of your comfort zone-BIG one!
4.
Running changes you-(become a new creation)
5.
We race to finish-eyes on the finish line!
Acts 20:24
“However, I consider my life nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and
complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying the
gospel of God’s grace.”
In this scripture, I kept coming up with this image of running into the arms of someone. Merritt into the arms of his Daddy, the preschool kids into the arms of their Dads as we celebrate Doughnuts with Dad. Kids do it so readily, what would it take to make us run into the arms of someone?
We know this story, the son asks for his inheritance, in effect actually implying that he wishes his dad were dead and disgracing the Father. He was the younger son even, making it worse, The dad gives him 1/3 of his possessions, as was the custom, the older son got 2/3. Then, watches him turn around and leave. How it would have broken his heart!!
The son proceeds to go out and squander his Father’s life savings, he goes to a distant country, falls into a famine and ends up with the degrading job of feeding pigs, no Jew would wish to do this job. At times, we are like this son, God grants our request and we have a lot of them… and then what do we do? We turn and walk away, until the next time we need something. Or we go our own way, we ignore the nagging in our heart that God wants more of us…he wants to be closer to us.
We sleep in on Sunday mornings instead of going to
church, we say No when we are asked to help with VBS…We don’t take our kids to
youth on Sunday night. I’m not trying to
condemn, I do it too. I sit on FB in the
evenings instead of reading my Bible, or I don’t go tell that person about God
because I’m too afraid of what they might say back.
But, just like this prodigal son---We remember the goodness of our father, That’s who God is right? Our preschoolers say their blessing and pray “God our Father, God our Father”. We pray, “ Our Father who art in heaven…”
The scripture says, “he came to his senses”. We come to our senses, too and we remember.
Psalm 77:11 “I will remember the deeds of the Lord, yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.”
God has performed miracles in every one of our lives or else we would not be here today.
The son remembers and comes to his senses. “I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me as your hired servant.” So he returned home to his Father.”
And what happened??? Here’s the left hook, as we say… If you have not heard anything I have said the past 15 minutes, you need to hear this part!!!
“While he was a long way off, his Father saw him coming! Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son!!! Can we picture that? Can we imagine that God has granted our request? We walk away, just as the son did, we take our own path. But, when we come to our senses and we go back. God has been there waiting!!! He’s been sitting by the window, wondering, Will this be the day that my son, my daughter comes home??? He does not make us cower up to him, groveling for forgiveness! NO! He runs to us with arms open wide and calls for a celebration!!!!
What would make us run to someone who has wronged us? What would make us run period? It’s not easy to set out on a 90 degree day and run 2, 3, 5, 10 miles. The lyrics of the song say:
And then He ran to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said,
“Son do you know I still love you?”
He caught me by surprise as He brought me to my knees
When God ran – I saw Him run to me
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said,
“Son do you know I still love you?”
He caught me by surprise as He brought me to my knees
When God ran – I saw Him run to me
BRIDGE:
I was so ashamed, all alone and so far away
But now I know He’s been waiting for this day
I was so ashamed, all alone and so far away
But now I know He’s been waiting for this day
Sometimes, when you’re out there running a race or just training for a race, you feel like that finish line keeps getting moved farther and farther away. Like you’re running and running and you’re getting nowhere. I feel that way sometimes with my relationship with God. I know some of the Youth feel that way too. Like they are doing all the right things, we’re coming to church, we’re praying, we’re reading the Bible but we just can’t feel closer to God.
Here’s the left hook we can take from this story, from this drama, from this message:
THE HARDER AND FASTER WE RUN FOR HIM, THE HARDER AND FASTER HE RUNS FOR US! He doesn’t just sit back, he sees us coming from a long way off and then HE RUNS!!!! We see that if we will turn back to God, we’ll find that he has been running the race with us, he was just waiting for us to stop and take notice.
In preparing for this message, I read that it was not customary for a Jewish man to run during this time period. I asked Mac about that and he gave me this:
For one thing, the Father’s workers could have killed him for having dishonored their Master, had he not ran to him. For two, showing this kind of compassion and love and forgiveness and vulnerability in front of his slaves, would have been seen as a sign of weakness-so it was a very BIG deal that the Father would have run to his Son like this!
We see in this story some of the attributes of God- he is merciful, gracious, just, giving, slow to anger, loving, mostly we see that he is FORGIVING!
Psalm 103:10-13
“He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the Earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him… (revere-to be in awe of). As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a Father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who stand in awe of him.”
God’s not like us. We find it hard to forget and to forgive. Or we may forgive but we can’t forget it. We guard our hearts, not wanting to be hurt again. God doesn’t do that. He shows us compassion and love and forgiveness. As I am running in this heat, I try to remember that as I am running toward him, he is running faster and harder toward me, just waiting for me to come to my senses and to develop an ever more personal relationship with him!!! We develop that ever more personal relationship with God by following the means of grace-WORSHIP and COMMUNION, PRAYER, AND STUDY OF SCRIPTURE that Pastor Mac teaches on.
In closing, as we are out there running our race, or living this Christian life, we should remember that when we get off course, God is just waiting by the window, watching for us to come back home so he can run out to embrace us, kiss us, and say “my son’s come home again, to wipe the tears from our eyes, and say “Do you know I still love you?”
THANK YOU!
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