Luke 15:8-13

God’s love is limitless, but we live in a time when love is almost unrecognizable. If we don’t know the love of God, we’ll try to create a love, and attempt to build our own paradise.

That today this morning would be something awesome because what you gave us on this day in history when you delivered it shocked.
Not only that world, it continues to shock the world today. So Lord let us not miss it.
Let us sit up, let us open up our eyes, let our, let’s fill our lungs with air and our hearts beating with blood that we might be careful what and how we hear this parable.
We prayed in Jesus name and all God’s people said, amen.
Listen, I, I turned in your bibles if you would to Luke’s Gospel 15.
Uh I’m going to be the nice guy this morning and let you sit where you’re sitting because if I had it my way, you would all have to get up, come up front, get real close.
I would leave this podium and get right up front and, and walk around up here that’s in my heart.
Ok? That’s me. The intensity of this and the, the message that Jesus is sending regarding these parables that he’s been teaching.
There’s three of them specifically regarding uh Luke 15 that speaks of something being lost and then found and it speaks to us as we know about the Lord’s love for us and dedication to us.
But it is vitally important to me that we not have a sermon today.
That is what I guess would say. A normal sermon.
This has got to be a heart searching evaluation of who and what we are.
You may say today. Well, I’m not a Christian.
You need to listen to what Jesus says today because it’s eternal truth, what he says and what’s recorded in the Bible will someday judge your life today.
You might say, well, I am a Christian.
Then we want to look at our own lives in light of what Jesus is teaching to us and we want to be asking ourselves, Lord, is there anything else you want me to do?
Is there anything else you want me to know? Is there anything else you want me to experience?
And I walk with you? And then maybe this morning you’re a Christian, but you’re far from God.
That is the very reason why these parables have been put together.
You all remember the setting, Jesus moving southward and he’s speaking these parables and as he’s speaking out and teaching and calling the people to a greater walk with him, the Pharisees are listening, the scribes and the lawyers of the word they’re there.
But there’s a whole host of people just like you and I just come in run of the mill people who are very interested in what Jesus is saying and what Jesus is doing and the stage of our scriptures verses 8 to 13 this morning.
But the whole thing is set around what happens in chapter 15 verses 1 to 3.
Look at it there again, just by way of review, then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him, Jesus to hear him and the Pharisees and scribes complaints saying this man receives sin and eats with them.
And so he spoke this parable to them saying, and last time we were together, he spoke to them, this parable about the lost lamb.
Remember the lamb that was lost, wandered away from the rest of the fold.
Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees which one of you would not leave your herd of 99 and go after that little one and get him back.
And the picture was a warm hearted parable to us about how God sent his son from heaven.
And if you were the only one who have ever lived on this planet, or if you would have been the only one who’s ever sinned on this planet, Jesus still would have come leaving the 99 as it were to come and get you or to get me.
And then he speaks a parable which we don’t need to spend much time on.
But I want you to look at it with me.
Look at verse eight, it ties both these external parables together in verse eight.
He says, or what woman he builds upon the lost lamb.
And now he says this or what woman, ladies jot it down.
The word here means a woman engaged to be married. This is very significant. What woman?
Well, she’s a woman engaged to be married. Having 10 silver coins get this.
She didn’t have 10 silver coins in her purse. She had 10 silver coins.
And what I would say is a, uh a, a necklace, take a necklace that’s two, that’s too tight for your head to get off and you get it right up to your forehead.
You can’t get it off. That’s, that’s the necklace.
It’s around the front of your head and there are 10 little coins on it.
You see, what’s that all about a woman who was engaged in the, during the time of Jesus would wear this headband, this jewelry and it would have 10 coins signifying that she is engaged.
She’s been promised she is owned by a lover and that lover is going to become her husband and everybody who saw her and she proudly wore it declared back off.
She belongs to someone she’s owned. She is a spouse to a man she had this on.
Now you see the value of it. 10 silver coins.
If she loses one coin does not, she light a lamp and sweep the house and search for it carefully until she finds it.
And when she has found it.
She calls her friends and neighbors together saying rejoice with me for, I have found the peace which was lost.
Do you girls get the, yeah, I guess it would be equivalent to today where your diamond falls out of your engagement ring.
Right. I guess that’s important. That’s important to me because I would have bought it.
But, um, I guess, you know, that’s a big deal and that she’s got that same feeling that you’re thinking right now.
Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents the value of one person.
I’m sick and tired of this world putting down people and the value of people.
It seems to me that those worlds announce in a message that if we’re not in some unified group, if we’re not some unified world order, then we don’t have any value.
I want you to know God does not think that way God thinks you and you by yourself have absolute value and worth so much that he says, you know what it’s like, it’s like a woman engaged.
She knocks her wedding uh diamond off of her engagement ring or the woman who’s got the band across her head with the 10 coins that the 10 coins announces that she’s owned by her love.
If she loses one, the announcement is not made clear, it’s not there. Jesus is saying that’s how much worth.
You have to God and the drive home.
There’s this amazing and awesome announcement found in verses 11 to 13 when I say found in verses 11 to 13, this parable is too big, too valuable.
There’s too much here for us to tackle in one service.
We’re gonna break this up in a series regarding the parable, the famous parable of the prodigal son.
Look at it verse 11. Then he said, here’s the crowning parable.
A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father give me the portion of goods that falls to me.
So he divided them to his divided to them his livelihood.
And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a foreign country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
Stop right there church. That’s all we can tackle today because it’s just too much.
It speaks too much to us. The title of the message this morning is entitled this Christian come home.
No, I would love if the Bible said and he had a younger son whose name was Christian because the father is going to announce, come on home.
I want you to come back these parables over the course of these weeks together, announces for the Christian to come back.
Or maybe somebody today feels their senses. You’re too far from God. God will never love you.
God will never save you. God will never give you hope God won’t wash away your guilt.
The Bible says Christian come home or Christian to be come home.
There’s no one outside the saving power of God.
So the first thing I want you to realize and verses 11 and 12 is Christian come home.
All has been provided for. Will you mark that down? This is great.
When it says here, a certain man had two sons, the younger of them said to his father, father give me the portion of goods that falls to me.
So he divided to them, his livelihood circle. The word livelihood.
It means that the father did an accounting of all that he owned.
He wanted to have an inventory of all that he had.
The Bible suggests that he was possibly a rich man.
Now in the Jewish culture, the oldest son, we’re talking about the youngest one here.
But the oldest son who will show up in the next few weeks, the older son always got the bulk of the inheritance.
Two thirds of the inheritance would go to the the first born son, the second born son would get one third of it.
That’s true in that culture. But keep this in mind very important Christian come home. Why?
Because all has been provided and this is an absolutely wonderful thing.
Church drop this down before we get into these other considerations. It is a remarkable thing.
In fact, first John 48 teaches this regarding God’s remarkable love.
It says that He who does not know God does not love God.
Because first of all, listen, that God is love.
This is an attribute, a quality of God that God is love.
So you can’t say that God doesn’t love you because He is love and God loves His creation.
So when we talk about provision, it’s very important that we keep that in the back of our minds.
There’s three things by introduction. I want you to be thinking of the Bible says about God that He is self existent.
We, we know that we can write the definition down but we don’t comprehend it. God is self existent.
Do you guys remember when Jesus said um I am every time he used the words in Greek ego.
A when he said I am the bread of life. Uh I am the living water ego.
The word I am is exactly in Greek that the word uh in Hebrew shows up with Moses on the mountain.
When Moses says, OK, I’m gonna go back down to the Children of Israel.
I’m gonna tell them you sent me. But who do I say sent me?
And when of the Lord say you tell them I am that I am sent you. What is that?
From the Hebrew to the Greek? From the Greek to the Hebrew. It’s a title reserved only for God.
Someone might say, well, Jesus never said that he was God. You’re wrong on many many accounts.
But this one is the greatest of all when Jesus said, I am, remember in the garden when they came to arrest them, they say we’re seeking Jesus and he said, I am and they fell down.
Remember that the announcement that he’s the and that what, that’s what the name means.
Self existing one, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Father as one or the self existent. God.
Never having a beginning, never having an ending.
And then the Bible says this about God, about our Lord and Savior.
It says this, that He’s eternal, that he’s eternal. He never had a beginning.
He never had an, he’ll never have an ending. And then the Bible also teaches that he’s infinite.
There’s not a starting place or an end place regarding God.
Now, why is that important to where we’re going?
Because the Bible tells us clearly in this parable, God is speaking to us to consider that He has provided all God has provided his love, which is self existent because God is love.
It’s him that his love is eternal because God is eternal.
His love is infinite because his person is infinite. Isn’t that awesome to think love can run out.
You know, we stand up here with weddings and we say until death do we part and that’s the vow and that’s what God holds them to.
But tragically in life, when we get our eyes off of our spouse or off of God and onto somebody else, love begins to wane, or love begins to die.
That’s human love. It’s frail. It’s, it’s very erratic but not God’s love for you.
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series. Just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching once again, here’s Pastor Jack, that’s human love.
It’s frail. It’s very erratic but not God’s love for you.
It is self existent, it is eternal, it’s infinite. Which now all that has been provided.
This is the message that this young boy and every one of us needs to understand.
Verses 11 and 12, his love has never been limited toward you.
And I Christian, the announcement that when the father hears about his son wanting to leave and the request his father give me the portion of my goods, the goods that falls to me.
So he without protest, the father divides up the livelihood that he had acquired over his life.
Now, I don’t know about you, but emotionally those of you are parents.
If your kid were to come to you and say, hey, you know, give me 1000 bucks, I don’t know about you, but I would say get out of here no way.
And you would say that for a lot of reasons, maybe it’s because you don’t have 1000 bucks to give them.
That’s a good reason. But emotionally, you may not want to give it to him because it could ruin his life.
There’s a lot of reasons why you may not give it to him.
But understand this, that God’s love toward you and I is unlimited and just you hearing me say that you go oh ho hum, whatever.
Move on to the next point. And that is the tragedy. That’s why I said earlier.
I wish all of us could just get real close right now together and talk about these things because you and I, I don’t care who you and I are today, we’re guilty of something and it is swallowing the definition and the weak pathetic interpretation of what love is according to the world.
The world doesn’t know love. Very few Christians know love when we see it, we almost don’t recognize it.
We don’t understand it when we see jesus’ life portrayed and lived out in the Bible.
We scratch our heads and say, wow, that’s great. That’s cool.
But we don’t understand the depth of God’s love for us that God provided all Christian.
So come back home because number one thing is this, it is wonderful to behold that His love toward you is not limited.
The story of this son who is about to leave. The father’s love is not limited to him.
Don’t you think that a father in a setting is what we’re reading?
Don’t you think he can read between the lines and see what his son is thinking.
This son didn’t just wake up one day and after having swallowed stupid pills and says, you know, I’m gonna go, I gotta go, I gotta run away from home.
Give me all my money. The announcement is that God is announcing and this father knew in the parable of his great love for his son.
He doesn’t fight, he doesn’t kick the father begins to prepare to give what the son is due and emotionally, I disagree with that.
You don’t want to stretch a parable too far. You can mess it up.
This is not saying that God will overlook our sin and never judge us regarding our sinfulness, even as a Christian.
That’s not what it means. It doesn’t mean that God is soft on sin.
That doesn’t mean that you go home and give your little spoiled bread, everything he wants.
That’s not what it means either, but the attributes of God’s love are amazing.
The Bible says in Romans five verse five, the love of God has been poured out amazing, poured out in great volume upon our hearts and within our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
So this, this boy says, the young man note this question he asked, it’s pretty benign on the surface but not good in the original language.
Father give me the portion of good that falls to me. This is exactly what he’s asking.
I want what I want when I want it and I want it.
Now you said what makes you say that Jack?
Because the wording of this when he said, father give me what’s falling to me. It literally means this.
Let’s pretend dad you’re dead.
I want what I’ll get when you die, every heart of every parent who’s experienced.
This can kind of almost cringe when the younger boy or it doesn’t matter if it’s the older boy or the daughter comes up and says, listen, let’s pretend I’ve had enough of this relationship.
I’m out of here. Let’s pretend you’re dead. Give me what’s mine?
Have you ever heard or seen such things? We see it every day in our culture.
When is he going to kick the bucket so I can quit my job and get all his money?
Oh brother, I got to tell you this is not in my notes, but I’m telling you, I’m going to say something and I hope it causes a riot.
Come on. I hope it causes a riot.
I have a firm biblical belief and it may sound radical to you.
But I want you to know I can back it up with scripture from Genesis to revelation.
If you have kids and they are godless and want nothing to do with your God who has blessed you in your life.
I could not be an obedient to the word of God.
Leave that kid a penny that belongs to God because I am supposed to be stewardship over what God has given me.
And if a kid says, give me what I wish you were dead, give me what’s owed to me so I can get out of this house.
You know what? Not a nothing why?
Because even though I might be dying, I might have cancer and I’m checking out it doesn’t mean that all of a sudden with all of the stuff that God has asked me to be faithful with all my life from being a dollar or a million dollars.
I’m supposed to be faithful with it.
And at the end of my course, do you think God would say now give it to your Godless rebellious son who will, who will hook it away on girls or drink it down?
No, no. In fact, I believe I can argue from scripture. I would be judged by God for doing that.
And you might say, oh my goodness, that’s terrible. Don’t you believe that blood is thicker than water?
Of course, I believe blood is thicker than water. There’s only something greater than that.
And that is the spirits thicker than blood. My obedience to God is more important.
Now, if you’re a rebellious son sitting in here this morning, you want to leave right about now.
But if you get up and go, we’ll all know that you’re the rebellious son.
This is a very serious thing and I know it sounds radical.
But man, I’m telling you, it’s biblical and that has nothing to do with this Bible study today.
It’s not where I was going. I’m breaking it down. Brother.
The Bible says in Proverbs 22 15, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.
Mom and dad, you all know that right? Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.
Kids are like that. We’ve all work. Look, we’ve all been like that or we’re still like that.
But he wants pleasure. He wants his happiness. He wants his fun. He wants it right now.
And every being, every human being, by the way, keep this in mind has something I believe put within us by God to pursue heaven.
Every human being created in the image of God, everyone, every human being is created in the image of God has been placed, I believe within them.
A pursuit of heaven. And he said, what makes you say that?
Because listen, you and I and your neighbors and every human being will attempt to pursue heaven or their definition of heaven.
They’re trying to go find the fountain of life or what’s it called? The fountain of youth?
They’ll go after something that is so great, so beyond so outrageously out there that is their pot of gold.
Are you with me? Where does it come from? It comes from God having placed eternity in our hearts.
Now you may be pursue pursuing winning the lottery for, you’re going to be severely disappointed, especially clearly from the statistics if you win it, 74% of the people who win lotteries nationwide are wind up being alcoholics, drug addicts and their homes are broken up.
Did you know that man is not intended to pursue money as his utopia, man is fallen from God and wants an awesome, wonderful meaningful life.
And when you don’t have God, what do you do?
You, you get all this stuff, you get the girls, you get the glory, you get the whatever, whatever it is.
And you say now do I have meaning now? Have I found heaven? Think about it.
This young man is saying I’ve had enough of his home. I’m out of here.
I’m going to do what I want to do when I want to do it and how I want to do it, but I need your money, dad to do it.
It’s amazing. Secondly, under verse 12, understand this. It’s not only God’s love that He’s provided, but God.
God has provided his plan. The younger son said to the father, give me the portion that falls to me.
It has been reserved for me. It is my right to have it. They, they were Jewish.
So this guy in the parable uh knows what his rights are.
Jesus is making that very clear in the parable.
God has a plan note, the parodies the world’s got a plan. God has a plan.
You and I are in the middle. We make choices, we make decisions. Jesus is saying, listen.
And by the way, remember who he’s speaking to? Don’t miss this.
He’s speaking to the ripe, ripe, the cribs, the scribes and Pharisees. He’s speaking to them.
And in the line of these parables, he’s really announcing, hey, scribes, Pharisees calm down.
All these remember verses 12 and three. All these sinners and tax collectors. Let me tell you a story.
God is the father. He’s in heaven. These sinners and tax collectors, they’re like this young rebellious son.
Later on in the next few weeks, you’ll see that Jesus will equate the scribes and Pharisees to the older son who has stayed at home.
Both of them are far from God.
By the way, one guy takes off running and one guy sits in the house and grumbles and gripes about everything.
They’re both far from God. Jesus is saying, scribes and Pharisees. He just grumble and gripe about everything.
And then these guys, they run, run away from home and they need to get called back into the kingdom.
That’s what’s going on. It’s amazing. God has a plan.
Pastor and bible teacher, Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called Christian.
Come home. Part one. Thanks for being here today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Everybody. Pastor Jack here.
I’m not sure if you’ve heard about the Real Life Network, but I think that if you check it out, you’re going to wind up loving it.
It’s something that we launch so that we are actually cancel free.
It’s 100% video streaming on a platform that is just like Netflix or Hulu, except it’s all Christian and conservative content and it’s 100% free.
We’ve assembled some of the best Christian teachers, leaders, entertainers all in one place.
How do you, you simply go to real life network dot com and you’re part of the family, just simply go there, follow the prompt and you’ll be blessed.
I’m telling you right now. The Real Life Network is the best thing coming at you now with conservative strong, safe biblical theology and excellent character building content, real life network dot com.
Listen, it’s all free. That’s real life network dot com. Register for free today.
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you.
Our listeners visit us at Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio.
Wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word, we’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.