Prodigal Problems

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. Well, good morning! So glad that you are tuning in. Isn't technology wonderful?

We can still gather together even when we're not able to meet in person. We still have the opportunity to gather together. Isn't that what the body of Christ is all about? We can come together even when we're far apart. So whether you're in your living room, whether you're on your phone in a coffee shop, maybe you're gathered for a watch party, whatever that is, it's great that we can connect today.

And God is with us, Jesus is connecting us, and the Spirit of God is with us today. Amen? Why don't we celebrate with us out there real quick. Just give God a hand clap and worship Him just for a second as we enter into His Word now. Amen.

So, I do want to share a few things about what's going on in the world before I enter into the message. But I know that many of you are on different sides of the aisle. Some of you are like, wow, this thing has really blown out of proportion. I can't believe it's got to this level. And others of you are like, I can't believe we hadn't responded even sooner.

But if we could all just take some time and just, you know, relax. I know there's a lot of fear. I know there's a lot of anxiety out there. But I want to say that I trust what our government is doing. I honor our government.

We pray for our government, our city government, our state government. And they have done an excellent job of containing this situation. And we want to honor them. Because the Bible tells us, God tells us, Jesus shows us that we are to honor and submit to the authorities. So, here's what I would say.

Just honor the things that the CDC put out. Wash your hands. If you're sick, try to stay out of public places. Stay home. Go to the doctor if you can.

Get some medicine. There's a lot of precautionary points that we need to do if we experience any kind of sickness. So, do honor those things. The second thing I'd like to say is, don't be fearful. 2 Timothy says, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.

In fact, God says, do not be dismayed, for I am with you. So, we have God. And if we feel any kind of anxiety and any kind of uncertainty, what do we do? We respond with prayer. I heard someone once say that anxiety is like the bat signal for prayer.

So, we go to God in prayer. We submit to Him. Prayer and supplication. Giving our needs. Making our needs known to God.

And what does He do? He comforts us in this time. So, don't be afraid. We are people of God. I do want to say, we are uncertain how long we'll be like this.

We'll be in front of a camera doing a streaming live. This might be weeks ahead of us. We just don't know. There's a lot of uncertainty how long this happens. But we still are aiming towards Easter.

And we're excited about the Easter month that's coming. We are still planning on launching in MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Arts. We're excited about that. We want to do a big opening there. We'll give you more information about that.

And we're planning on handing out some prayer cards this week. We, about, you know, thinking about the people that you're going to invite this Easter. Hopefully, we can get those out to you in the coming weeks. And get you started to think about and pray about those people that you want to invite on Easter Sunday. I also want to give a shout out to Spring Branch Community Church.

Who has allowed us to use their facility for this recording. So, amen for that. They opened their arms wide open. As soon as I asked, Pastor Heath said, Come on out. It's no problem.

Use as much time as you want. Even use our equipment if you need to. What an honor it is for them to be able to open their arms to us. Also, we are still in our Elevate 2020 campaign. Giving is open online.

Most of you give online anyway. Remember that 20% of those donations do go to Wade's Army. A non-profit organization that works with kids with childhood cancer. Families that have kids with childhood cancer. And donating to cancer research.

So, we really want to continue to give big. Some of you have been giving big to that. To the future of our church. Where we are going. Future facilities.

Future needs of our church. We got a big year this year. God is doing some amazing things. And we want to continue to give towards that. So, let's get started in what God has given me as we aim towards Easter.

We have been looking at the story of the prodigal son. This series is called Prodigal. And from the very beginning, we've had the heart for those who are far from God. As a church, we've been intentional about creating environments where people can connect with God. People far from God can connect with God.

That's been our heart. That's been our commission. That is the great commission. So, we have been in every way, in every form. We run this.

We run everything we do through the needle of, is this going to target? Is this needle going to target the unbeliever? Because we are intentional about that. So, that's why we're doing this series. To kind of look at the perspective of the prodigal son.

And different perspectives around the prodigal son. And as we see Jesus entering into this Easter season. This is an awesome opportunity to be thinking about those who are far away from God. We want to be thinking about how they think. We want to know what they know.

And we want to do everything we can to position ourselves to reach people who are far from God. So, I think it's good to come to the teachings of Jesus. He shares an incredible story about a lost son. We call it the prodigal son. And in this series, we're going to look at different perspectives.

Last week, we looked at the perspective of the struggling believer. The wayward believer. We call that message prodigal parts. We looked at the parts of ourselves that perhaps have gone wayward or extreme in some area of our lives. Because all of us have had pieces of our lives that have gone extreme in some area.

Extravagant in some area. So, it's important for us to look at ourselves and make sure we are aligned with Jesus. Because holiness and righteousness is a very important thing in the eyes of God. So, we looked at that last week. And you can go back.

It's online. And you can catch up there. Next week, we're going to look at the perspective of the crowd. We see that the Pharisees were looking at Jesus. And they were murmuring among themselves.

Look at him hanging out with the sinners and the prostitutes. How dare he? And Jesus enters into this story for that specific reason. Because they were saying the things they were saying. So, we're going to look at it from that perspective.

They were millions and rich, but they don't have to acuerdo with the saints who bouldering heart whileât acabar with. They looked at them. Or they were just saying that in the moment they didn't ambiente him. Many people had told us that Adam above me that created theat bay of the caos. Looking at the prodigal son, what were the crowd thinking and saying probably at this moment.

This week we are looking at the prodigal son, the non-believer. We're going to focus on the non-believer and the idea of this particular message is to get our heads around how they think and what we should think about them as we see them come into our church, those who are far from God. You can call them a non-believer, you can call them an outsider, you can call them whatever, but those who are far from God. So I'm just going to roll through this passage real quick. We're going to look at, if you have your Bibles, turn to Luke 15 and we're going to start with chapter 11 and we're going to roll through 24.

So follow along with me because I think it's good for us to go through this part of the story just to kind of set everything in place. And it says, And he said, a man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me. So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later the younger son gathered everything together and went on a long journey into a distant country.

And there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in the country and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of the country and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swines were eating and no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses, underline that, when he came to his senses, because that's significantly important, he said, How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread?

And here I am dying with hunger. I will get up and go to my father. That's another big one. I will get up and go to my father and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and I have sinned against you and your sight. And I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me as one of your hired servants. So he got up and he came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him. And he ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to his father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his slaves, Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring a fattened calf, kill it and let's eat and let's celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and now he is found. He and they began to celebrate.

What an awesome ending to this part of the story. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak to us this morning. I pray that you would touch hearts, that you would touch life, that you would enlighten us to the truth of your gospel. This is a story that you shared, Jesus, that you intended for the reason of us understanding what it means to be a prodigal. And how we are to respond to the needs of those around us.

And how we are to align ourselves with your purposes and with your commission in your name. Amen. So as I look at this, I see the heart of the father. In fact, overly, this is the intention of this scripture. The heart of the father looking to the father in his heart for the loss.

And if we share the heart of Christ, we share the heart for the loss. So as we look at this, it's important for us to engage in what the unbeliever is thinking. To think about that. To see it from their perspective. And as I look at this story, there are three things I want to point out that perhaps can help us.

The first one is, they don't think they need God. They do not think they need God. Why would they think they need God? Look at Luke 15, verse 12. It says, Now you might not think much of this, but a birthright was a really big deal in that day.

It was a huge deal. No one would dare ask for the birthright of a father before the father was dead. It only happened at death. So, nowhere in the Jewish Torah would it even have hinted of anybody asking for something like that from a father of a family or a head of a family. In fact, one commentator said, To ask for a father's inheritance would equate to never being identified with that father or that family ever again.

And in that day, names were very significant. So, it's unbelievable that this young man would come to his father and ask for his inheritance. So, why would the unbeliever think this way? Why would he think this way? And how does that relate to the unbeliever even now?

If we see the father as God in this story and we see the prodigal as the one who is far from God, why would they even think this about God? I don't want to have anything to do with you. I don't think I need you, Lord. Well, one reason could be they had a bad experience with God. I think often the experiences that they've had in life with God, maybe they came from a religious background and they thought, well, you know, a Christian culture.

I don't really need that. I think I can do something better. I don't really need God. Maybe God didn't follow through with something that they prayed for. Their idea of God may have been their biological father.

Maybe he didn't represent a good father. So, when they think about God, they think about somebody who's far from God. Maybe they felt betrayed or hurt. Maybe even by the church itself, you know. Perhaps the church had done something wrong.

And honestly, a lot of that does come from the way that Christians act. And we'll talk a little bit more about that next week. But something from the past triggers something inside the person. Sometimes when I talk to unbelievers about the goodness of God or if I'm just having a discussion about God and my relationship with God, what I've noticed in most cases is it triggers a defensive act towards what I'm saying. It's almost like they become disturbed inside themselves when they're in this category.

And the reason I think that this happens is because perhaps they are equating or directing it to something that happened in their past. And they think of God, they have an inaccurate view of God. Really, it comes down to an inaccurate view of God, of who God is. The character of God and a loving father. They think of him as the man upstairs who's just watching us and making sure that we stay in line and correct.

And he's ready to throw lightning bolts at us at any moment, at any time. Because he's that kind of father. He's angry with us. They see him as just this madman with a big white beard. And he's just...

They're not waiting to hurt us. That's how they see God. It's an inaccurate view of God. The second thing that probably distanced them from God is they don't really know Him. They've never been shared.

They've never had the good news shared with them. And so they've never had an opportunity to respond. And I think it's funny that sometimes we can be critical of a non-believer, of an outsider, of someone who's far from God, when they haven't even had an opportunity to experience the Gospel message because we haven't really shared the Gospel message with them. But see, here's the thing. The unbeliever has no conviction of the Holy Spirit.

As we talked about last week, outside of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there's not anything inside of them that is convicting them to do what's right. The Spirit is dead and the flesh is moving them. The soul of man is moving them towards the things of this world and all roads lead to what helps me. So why would we even think that they would respond in any way outside of the goodness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I mean, and what happens, the habit of Christians is we tend to condemn them and bring them down.

And I'm not saying they're going in a way where direction is not good for them. Of course it's not good for them because we know the hope that lies within us, amen? And we want to share that hope to the world, but the way we share the hope is often the wrong way we share the hope. And they often feel condemned and the good news isn't communicated and it steers them further from God. That's why they need the good news.

That's why the church is here. That's why we exist, so that people can know Christ. That Christ set the church out in the New Testament. When He left this world, in the book of Acts He says, Go and make disciples, go and make believers, go and make Christians, share my good news. Baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And how can they know if they haven't heard the gospel? Here's what Romans 10 says in verse 13, For everyone who calls on my name or the name of the Lord will be saved. Now then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. I was talking to a young man years ago that I was discipling. He was a new Christian and he had a lot of unbelieving friends. And I asked him all the time, Hey, you know, you've got some friends who don't know Christ.

Have you invited them to church? No. Have you shared your testimony? Well, no. Well, why haven't you?

Why haven't you shared your testimony? Why haven't you invited them to church? Well, I don't want to offend them because they don't like religion. They're against religion and they just see Christianity as religious. So my response to him was, Well, how do you know that?

You've never shared with them your testimony. You've never shared with them the good news. You've never even invited them to church. You've never had the guts to even step out in that boldness to share the gospel with them. And often that's how we are.

We can't expect people to know Jesus unless we share Jesus with others. We need to form gospel habits, gospel habits. Think about it. We're dealing with the coronavirus right now. Now, if I had the cure for the coronavirus and it was all approved and it was ready to go and ready to go out to everybody right now, what would I do?

I think I would sit on it for a while. I think I would hide it away. No, no, I wouldn't do that. I would get it out as soon as possible. I would get it to the people because there is a cure for the disease.

This world has a disease and we have the cure. Why would we hold on to the cure? We need to share the gospel of Christ. They just don't know. It really comes down to that.

They don't know. What also I think is real interesting is the father gave the birthright to him. Like the father didn't have to give the birthright to the son. There was no reason for him to do that. To me, this shows the character and love of the father.

God is not going to force his love on us. Amen. Relationship demands a two-way street. Now, God loves us and God is pulling for us and God is seeking us and searching us out. And he's always working.

He's always working around us. When we don't see him, when we don't feel him, as we sing all the time about, he's still working. But he loves us so much, he gives us the opportunity to choose him. To choose him. The second thing is they believe there's a better path.

There's just a better way, you know? When you look at the prodigal in verse 11, it says, And not many days later the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country. And there he squandered his estate with loose living, with prodigal living. Why would one decide to take the path opposite to God? Well, perhaps, for many reasons, the experiences that he had, maybe in his own family, or maybe...

Here's the deal. Let me just say it like this. The soul desires the things of the world. The soul of man goes after what feels good. If it feels good, do it.

But they don't realize and they don't know that the Father has so much more for them. He has bread available for him. Here's the thing. We're all on a spiritual journey. We're all taking steps towards something beyond ourselves.

Something of purpose. And what happens in the heart of the unbeliever is they are searching for something that's empty. Some type of spiritual emptiness. And they try to find God in all the wrong places. Every road is an attempt to find fulfillment.

People want fulfillment. But reckless living leads to a life of ruin. A reckless life always leads to ruin. So we see the prodigal son becoming deplete, dying in a low place. Luke 7.

13 says this. And Jesus says this. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction. And many will enter through it. Those are serious words from God, Jesus Christ.

And Satan from the very beginning convinced Eve that the path of the knowledge of good and evil and the fruit was much better. He's duked us. He's convinced us. And we fall for it. It's pleasing to the eye.

It's the pride of life. It's pleasing to the flesh. We often go that way. We are drawn in that direction. And in verse 14 it says, And he began to be impoverished.

It always leads to ruin. It only leaves to ruin. It always leads to ruin. It only leaves. This is the purpose of life, So he went and hired himself out to the citizens of the country.

Isn't that what often happens in the life of people in this world? They get so far beyond where they need to be. They go so dark and so deep that they begin to sell themselves out. Not only are they spiritually deplete, not only are they impoverished, but they sell themselves away. And he sent him into the field to feed swine.

And here's what it says, And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating. And no one was giving anything to him. There's two paths. All paths lead outside of God to ruin. But the path to God is everlasting life.

In verse 19, he goes on to say, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Which brings me to my third point. Why does the unbeliever, what's the struggle for the unbeliever? Is that they feel unworthy. And this is after he came to his senses.

Sometimes unbelievers come to their senses and they have a connection with God. The person far from God starts coming to this place where they realize, they're realizing, that there is something beyond themselves. That there is a God. But they feel so unworthy that they don't take steps forward. Why would they do that?

Well, perhaps they feel unaccepted. They've never been accepted before. Why would I be accepted now? My father never loved me. Why would a God love me?

I've always been an outsider. Why would I be an insider with God at this point? Perhaps they're fearful. Perhaps they're afraid of what God might think of them if they reveal their sins to God. Perhaps they're fearful of what people will say about them if they come before the church or come to church or they're engaged in an environment like the church.

They're fearful. I had someone call me one time the night before our church service that was so fearful. So fearful of coming to church the next day because they were concerned about what people would think. I think people would know me at the church. People in this community know me.

And I've done so badly in this life. I've done bad things, pastor. I've done awful things. And I don't know. I'm just struggling whether I should come to church or not.

And of course, I'm like, look, this is a judgment free zone. You can come to church. You can be a part of our fellowship. And we just pray for you. And I want you to know that there is no fear in our house because we are in God's house.

And we can lay everything on the table. Some people just feel unforgivable. The things I've done are way too bad, pastor. Way, way, way too bad. You don't understand where I've come from.

There was a popular rock band I used to listen to back in the 90s, Blind Melon. And there was a song called Holy Man. It says, Holy man, you don't understand. The scars on me, they run much deeper. And so many people feel like that.

They feel like their scars are so deep. There's no way a God would ever accept them. There's no way a God would ever allow them into his family. There's no way a loving father would love somebody as dark as I've been. But isn't that the point?

The point of the gospel? Of course we are unworthy. Of course we are far from God. Of course we need a savior. That's the point of the cross.

And people go to church their entire lives and never hear about this very same thing that the cross is the way to God. It's not the things that we have done or what we're doing or what we're going to do. It has nothing to do with any of that but the worthiness of Christ who came to this earth and gave his life for the unworthy. That's what he died for. That's why we are a church.

That's why we exist because we realize that outside of ourselves we could not have a relationship with God. Isn't that the very reason why we are unworthy? It's okay to not be okay. It's okay to be unworthy. Because nothing is too far from God's saving grace.

So he came to his senses. What I find very interesting about this coming to his senses is often when people are at their lowest, they see their clearest. When they're at the lowest state they could possibly be in their life, often we start to see God more clearly. And that may be the reason why someone may come to a place of desperation, tragedy, financial ruin, heartbreak, betrayal. But everybody is longing for purpose even if someone has everything in life.

Maybe they have the house, the car, the family, the job, vacations, travel, everything they could possibly have on this earth. It always comes back. Without God there is a sense of emptiness in their hearts. Those who have everything seem to be unfulfilled outside of God. It may take a place of desperation to bring people to the cross and it often does.

And we see that in this story. He was at a place of desperation. But the good news is God pursues us. God's kindness pursues us. Did you know that?

Romans 2-4 says, Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn us from our sin? The kindness of God leads us to repentance. And God is always working to win his people to him. He came to us, right? We didn't have to go to him.

He sent himself in the form of a man. God sent his son to the world. God so loved the world that he gave his son that whosoever would call on the name of the Lord would be saved. Believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. God has always been working and always will be working to reach the believer.

And we should share in that heart. I love how Psalm 139 puts it. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there.

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. He is there. He is there ready to receive the repentant person. He is always working. Let me just say this.

If you are not a follower of Christ, can I tell you that God loves you so much? That he's pursuing you with his love. He's intentionally hurting for you and pursuing you with everything. He is. And for the church, God is continually creating ways for us to reach those who are desperate to be saved.

God is putting us in positions to share the heart of him so that we can reach people, create opportunities so that others can know God. Did you know that he's doing that in the church? That's why we're here. So that we can make disciples, make believers, lead them down in spiritual life to hope. So, let me end by saying this.

What happens in the heart of the unbeliever? In this story it shows us exactly what's going on. First of all they realize that they realize Luke 15 17 but when he came to his senses he said how many of my father's hired man have more than enough bread but I am dying here of hunger and that place of desperation and that place of desperation that person that God has placed in your life that is desperate you may not even see it you may not even know it that person is in your life you're in a place of desperation and they're coming to their senses if you're out there today if you're watching this and you're somebody who's in a place of desperation and you start feeling that spark in your heart guess what that's God pursuing you that's the Holy Spirit pursuing you leading you to something came to his senses here's what Jesus said in John 6 35 I am the bread of life whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never go thirsty he was in a place of hunger but can I tell you that that God you will never go thirsty you will never go hungry spiritually you will be fulfilled in every way no matter what you go through no matter what you face that you can be an overcomer because he has everything available for you at the cross at the cross the second thing is repentance repent Luke 15 18 says I will get up and go to my father he says I will get up and go to my father that's an action statement he says I will get up he made a decision not only did he realize he says I'm going to get up and I'm going to go to my father and I will say to him father I have sinned against heaven and sinned in your sight here's what repentance is it's really just a turning from what what you once did a turning from the path you once did a turning from the path you were on to the path of life and God turning to God it's an activity it starts with realization and then an activity that moves out from there and then he returns he returns the father and what I love about the father is that he treats him like he's never left his home maybe you've left maybe you've never went home whatever place you're in God is there ready for you to come home I love how verse 20 says so he got up and he came to his father but while he was still a long way away while he was still a long way off his father saw him felt compassion for him and he didn't stand there and wait for him to come he ran out to him and he embraced him and not only did he embrace him he kissed him he was so excited to see his son and what and leading up to this story we hear Jesus teaching the disciples and teaching the group of people he tells them this he says I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance that there is a party in heaven just like there is a party here in this story when the son returns home let's let's go out and and and and and roast the fatted calf and let's have a party and let's celebrate God's waiting for you he's ready to celebrate and if that's you if that's you realize repent and come home come home to the father he's waiting for you he's waiting for you perhaps you're feeling that right now as you're as you're watching your phone as you're sitting at a cafe as you're sitting in your room if you're gathered with your family on the couch to to listen to this message or maybe you're listening to it during the week because you didn't have a chance to hear it this Sunday maybe you're feeling that draw right now repent and return home if that's you I want you just to pray this with me really quick there's no magic in the prayer it's just calling on the name of the Lord it says whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved if you would just reach out to God with your heart with your hands with whatever you have at this moment at this moment and release it to him and say Lord father I know you love me and I know you're pursuing me I feel it in my heart I feel it in my life so I I know that I'm a sinner I know that I have been far from you I repent Lord forgive me of my sins forgive me of my shortcomings forgive me of the things that I've I've done Lord that have drawn me far away from you I'm ready to come home I believe that you are the Son of God that you died on the cross for my sin so that I can have a way to return home to you so today I make that walk towards you I receive you as my Lord and Savior and King and I walk with you from this day forth in your name amen if you prayed that prayer praise God there's a party happening in heaven today amen can y'all can y'all give a hand clap of praise for the people who gave their lives to Jesus amen and you can connect with our church you can connect online you can message us through Facebook whatever you have to do get connected and we want to take you down the route to the next steps so we love you everyone we love you family we love you the new people and the people have been with us for a while hopefully we'll be back together soon to meet in person for now though we are together in our hearts we are the body of Christ wherever wherever we are so today just just be encouraged stay strong do not fear for your God is with you God bless you have a great rest of your week and we'll see you next Sunday we'll see you next Sunday