Mirrors & Windows: The Parables Of Jesus — Luke 15:11-32

[Music] reality yeah and he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me and he divided under them his living and not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would feign have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him and when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my fathers have bred enough and despair and i perish with hunger i will arise and go to my father and will say unto him father i have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants and he arose and came to his father but when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him and the son said unto him father i have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son but the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and he began to be merry now his eldest son was in the field and as he came and drew nigh to the house he heard music and dancing and he called one of the serpents and asked what these things meant and he said unto him thy brother is come and thy father had killed the fatted calf because he hath received him safe and sound and he was angry and would not go in therefore came his father out and entreated him and he answered answering him said to his father lo these many years do i serve thee neither transgress i at any time thy commandment and yet thou never gave his mere kid that i might make merry with my friends but as soon as this thy son was come which has devoured thy living with harness thou has killed for him the fatted calf and he said unto him son thou art ever with me and all that i have is thine it was meat that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found thank you you may have your seats the grass withers and the flower that are fadeth away but the word of our god shall stand forever i want to begin a series of sermons this morning entitled mirrors and windows the parables of jesus mirrors and windows the parables of jesus the parables of jesus are mirrors through which we see ourselves and windows by which we see god jesus had a a peculiar way of of making things that were common to the people he put him in a story in order to get his point across the the parables were always occasioned by a question asked or a situation that arose and jesus used the common everyday things that people could easily relate to to turn him into a story to make a point the parables are not allegories although they have been allegorized they are not allegories they are they are stories because jesus was a master storyteller or he could put the common everyday things into a story to make a point and the story he tells is a parable in three stories and one parable in three movements some some publicans and sinners tax collectors and sinners that gathered to hear him teach and the scribes and the pharisees were put off by that because jesus not only kept company with tax collectors and sinners but he sat down to table fellowship he invited them into his life he he sat down and enjoyed a meal with them and the scribes and pharisees could not believe that a teacher of the law could be comfortable with common people with with tax collectors with senate republicans sinners people who were the lowest of the low found their way to jesus and jesus did not despise them jesus did not criticize them jesus did not uh shut them out jesus made them welcome in his presence they were glad to be with him and he was glad to be with them and the scribes and pharisees could not believe that so jesus tells a story to draw them in a mirror in which they could see themselves and a window through which they could see god he tells them a parable in three movements and one parable with three stories he tells them about a lost sheep a lost coin and a lost son one sheep is missing from the 100 and he leaves 99 in the sheep pen to go and look for that one lost sheep and then this woman has 10 coins that belonged in a dowry or in some jewelry perhaps and she lost one of those coins and she turned the house upside down looking for that one coin and when she found it she called all her friends to come and celebrate and when that man found his one sheep he didn't even let the sheep walk home he put it on his shoulder brought it back to the sheep pen called all the other shepherds and they celebrated that one sheep had come back to the fold and then he tells this story starting in verse number 11 about a man who has two sons and there is really some question as to who is really prodigal in this story because we have given prodigality a wrong connotation there's really some question as to who is the real prodigal in this story because the word prodigal means recklessly extravagant it means to go overboard reckless in extravagance to be to be uh way out there in extravagance and and we look at the text this morning and all three in the text are recklessly extravagant uh but but i want you to notice something both of these boys are lost one is lost in the fall country and one is lost in the house uh you don't have to be in the club to be lost or you don't have to be on dope to be lost you can come to church and be lost you can have a large print bible and be lost you can preach the gospel and be lost sing in the choir be a deacon and be lost you can be an usher and a greeter and be lost because lostness is not about a geographical location it's about a spiritual condition walk with me around the text this younger son says to the father give me the portion of goods that falls to me now i want you to see that this boy in in jewish culture in jewish custom and life what this boy is actually saying to his father is give me what i would get if you were dead and so he's saying to his father while he is alive i wish you were dead so i could get my stuff now the father has no obligation to give him anything but the father loves him enough to give him the freedom to take his journey knowing that outside his physical presence that boy has failed already but he loves him enough listen to me parents he loves him enough to let him go we owe our children roots of responsibility and wings of independence let me say that one more time we owe our children roots of responsibility teach them everything they need to know to make it in life and then wings of independence once they get a certain age get out out o-u-t out it's too many grown people in here you want your stuff scram he gave that boy the freedom to take his journey and the boy takes his father's inheritance and he liquidates it in the cash puts it in his pocket heads to the bright lights and the far country and it's not long before the bible says he lost it all i want you i want you to i want you to walk with me around the text when he had spent all there was a famine in the land this boy takes his father's inheritance and he goes into the far country and he wastes his father's goods on riotous living this is a prodigal waste a prodigal waste he's recklessly extravagant in waste but but you you don't just waste money you can waste potential i wish i had a witness here you can waste intelligence you can waste blessings you can waste the goodness of god you can waste favor of god on your life you will waste your life in foolish pursuits and wake up and be 65 years old and won't know how you got there because you've wasted your substance on things that are not gonna last that long you've wasted your youth on in foolish pursuits trying to look good that's going to last just so long pretty soon you won't be able to cover up those wrinkles pretty soon you're not going to be able to tuck all that stuff in pretty soon everything that you count on to make you you is going to fail you and if you have wasted your life in things that are foolish that's prodigality yes sir he wasted his life he wasted his goods he was prodigal in his waist and as happens in those kinds of situations the tide turns when all the money is gone all the friends are gone when you can't set up the house with drinks nobody knows who you are uh when you can no longer let them ride in your car everybody is gone no gas money uh no no no partying uh no good timing because they were good timing on you but once all your stuff is gone all the folk you thought were your friends will be gone as well prodigal waste and then as it happens the tide turns life shifts on him and he when he has nothing left he hires himself to a man to feed swine no self-respecting orthodox jewish boy would ever be caught dead by anything as unclean as a hog but when you hit rock bottom when you wasted your substance when you wasted your potential when you wasted god's goodness on your life you'll find yourself getting ready to do what you thought you'd never do and the bible says he would have eaten food that hogs were going to eat but then he came to himself that word came to himself is a lively word that word he came to himself means he stopped being insane and listen if you have walked away from god and if you are wasting your life and god's been good to you and you are wasting your life on worthless pursuits you insane god has shown you good god has shown you mercy god has shown you favor and then you point your finger in god's face and say i'ma live the way i want to live that's insanity listen when you get in a hole stop digging somebody's gonna get me on the way to luby's when you get in a hole stop digging stop listen the party's over stop digging oh the the goodness that you had you've ruined now it's time for you to come to your senses there are some things that you just get too old for someone ought to help me preach there are some things that don't make sense after you cross a certain threshold it just it just doesn't become you to be a fool in your 60s foolishness is when you're a teenager and when you're in your 20s but but when life starts to start shifting on you then you need to shift your priorities he's prodigal in his waist he comes to himself and then he realizes what he left behind and he says how many of my father's servants are throwing away food how many of my father's slaves are throwing away food and here i am my father's son perishing from hunger i know what i'm gonna do if you'll have me back i will arise and go to my father because listen he thinks about it because here's what he thinks about in jewish life when that boy disrespected his daddy by leaving his daddy was under jewish obligation to have what was called a cutting off service his daddy was supposed to have a funeral for that boy and invite everybody in the town to come to that boy's funeral while he was still alive because to disrespect his father by asking him for his goods the father was obligated to cut him off he should have had a funeral while he was still living and he said if my daddy hadn't had my funeral yet if my daddy hadn't cut me off yet i would go back to my daddy's house and say i've sinned against heaven and against thee and i'm no longer worthy to be called your son just hire me out as a day laborer just just just pick me up at home depot no fica no social security uh no unemployment benefits just just make me a day laborer no no health insurance just hire me when you need me because i've disrespected you so if you haven't buried me yet make me a hard servant he gets up from that big pin sloppy and dirty filthy from his prodigality but unbeknownst to the boy his daddy has kept the light on for his dad has kept his bedroom just like he left his dad has not moved his place setting off the table his daddy has never given up looking for him because before he went to bed every night he looked down the road to see if that boy had come to his senses one day he sees the boy coming to his senses and the boy is headed down the road but the daddy sees him before he sees the daddy and the father the bible says does what no self-respecting male head of household jewish elder would ever consider doing he ran publicly that was undignified that that was shameful for an old male head of household to run to meet somebody who's disrespected him the daddy runs because my boy is coming home and the daddy is ready to embrace him and the boy starts to rehearse his pigpen speech and it is daddy i've sinned against heaven and against thee and i'm no longer worthy to be called your son but before he could get to the higher servant part the daddy grabs him and and hugs him and falls on his neck and kisses his filth kisses his dirty neck his hair hasn't been washed in weeks his clothes hasn't been cleaned in weeks he's filthy but the daddy doesn't care about that he falls on his neck and he kisses him and here in so doing here's what the father does the community if the daddy didn't have a funeral for the boy the community was under obligation if the boy came back to stone him but the father falls on his neck covering his body not only with kisses but with his own body so that if they started stoning they'd have to hit him first he falls on his neck covers him with kisses does not let him talk nothing but no hide servant mess he tells his servant go get my robe and put it on him get my ring my signet family ring and put it on him go get some shoes to put on him because servants walk around barefooted sons walk around with shoes i got you you got shoes all god's children got shoes why don't you what is my bar doing with no shoes on go get some shoes and put it on him because my son was dead but he's alive again he was lost and it's found the bible says to kill the fatted calf barbecue smoke was everywhere they were playing jay-z's music snoop dogg they were dancing they were doing the electric slide they were really having a good time and the father said he's dead but he's alive again and they began to be married but that older boy don't don't don't be too hard on him because the parable is a mirror through which you can see yourself how do you feel when somebody who's messed up and been away from the family a long time spent all their money you don't ever hear from them and here you are you at every mother's day every easter every christmas every thanksgiving you at the table you've never disrespected you never even said lie in your parents presence and this negro doesn't been in jail he doesn't stole the microwave he didn't broke in somebody's house been divorced eight times got children all over town and then he come back home and your mama says let's have a party what's on your mind how do you feel about that that's that's the mirror that the parable is putting before us i i can't witness for you i can only be a witness for myself i'd be mad about that and i've been mad about that because there's been some people in my family you know how we do you get out of jail and they barbecue talk back to me if you can big a big sign welcome home phuket and here you didn't been to college got your degree i wish i had a witness here you got a job you got a good house you got a good reputation they don't do none of that for you but jojo just got out the joint and come back home all shaved and pretty and now he's a muslim got a little beanie on and they're having a party that boy said whoa whoa whoa hold on what's all this the servant says your brother is home and your daddy is throwing a party and the brother the bible says read it would not go in but the father comes out and for that father to come out to speak to this disrespectful ungrateful son is also unheard of in jewish custody because for this daddy to have to lower himself to come and invite this bar in is a disgrace and he comes out and he says your brother's home and we're having a good time he was lost and he's found and listen to what the older brother says he said in all these years i've been around here working serving i've done everything you've ever told me to do i've never spent your money on prostitutes now when you read the scripture the scripture never says that the boy spent his money on prostitutes the scripture says he spent his money on riotous living what his older brother is saying is if i had the chance to be in the far country that's what i would be doing listen whenever somebody's judging somebody they're always judging by what they would do if they had an opportunity they're just spiritual because they're in church but just give them enough time just give them enough opportunity and what they've been wanting to do is really going to come out this bar says he's wasted all your money and on prostitutes and i've never disobeyed you and you've never thrown me a party could it be that he never asked for one you didn't have a party because you didn't ask for it you have not because your ass not the dj was here all the time the fatted calf was here all the time all the vats of wine was here all the time anytime you wanted to invite your friends you had an opportunity you wait for your brother to get back home to be forgiven for you to be angry and the scripture ends that passage open-ended we don't know until this morning if that boy ever went into the party because jesus leaves the question open so that you can ask yourself would you have gone in so which one are you the boy in the far country lost or the boy in the house lost i'm through but the story is not about the bar who left home or the boy who stayed home the story is about the father's love he loved the lost one who was gone and he loved the lost one who stayed because the one who was gone was lost the one who stayed was lost but the love of the father is the only constant in this story he loved that boy until he could come back to his senses and then he loved that boy who stayed home who lost his mind by standing in his daddy's face to disrespect him you you have it right there in front of you and you never ask for it and the father says everything i have is yours [Music] is

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Id: KkAO0wk7bZI

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Wed May 26 2021