How Freedom Leaves You Empty

The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of this state.' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants 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 servants, so he got up and went to his father.' But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him, he ran to his son through his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fat and calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.' For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, so he began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing, so he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fat and calf because

he has him back safe and sound.' The older brother became angry and refused to go in, so his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look, all these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a goat so I could celebrate with my friends.' But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fat and calf for him. My son, the father said, 'You are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.' Let's pray. Holy Spirit, come. Would I pray over all of the people in this room right now? I pray that whatever you need to speak through us, that our hearts and our minds will be open to it, Lord. Would I pray for Robert as he speaks for us today, that you'll speak through him and give him the right words to say, Lord. In your name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Okay. We give Emma a round of applause. I love her. That's my daughter. I'm so grateful for students that are growing up in our church that love Jesus, and I'm grateful for our church. I'm grateful for this community that's walking alongside thousands of kids and students and raising them up in the faith.

As we dive into the passage today, there's something we say often at Sun Valley, and I want to say it, and I hope in my prayer is that this would really sink in for us today. And it's this, that our problem is not that we don't love God enough. Our problem is we don't realize how much he loves us. One of the most profound truths in all the years that I've studied Scripture, and when I was Emma's age, Emma's sophomore at Perry High School, when I was Emma's age is around the time I started really seriously studying God's Word, trying to understand this picture that is revealed of who God is and who we are, and so in almost three decades of studying the Bible, here's the most profound truth that I have learned in all of that time of study, in all of the research and all of the digging into the passages and conversations and reading books by theologians, here's the most profound truth that I've discovered in all of those years. And it's a truth that I understood when I was a little. This I know, where the Bible tells me so. If you're like, "Robert, really? That's the most profound, amazing, deep truth that you've discovered." My answer is yes. That Jesus loves me. And Jesus loves you. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter what's been done to you, he loves you. And the older I get, the more I study God's Word, the more that that reality begins to wash over me, and the more I begin to understand it, the more it transforms me from the inside out. And so my hope for you today is we study this parable. This story that Jesus tells is that you and I would begin to understand this love that God has for us. And the reality is, if you and I really want to know who God is, here's what we do. We look at Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

He's God in the flesh. We look at Jesus, and we also listen to what Jesus taught us about who God is. Not only did he demonstrate God's heart and God's love, he taught us about it, including in this parable that we're studying. And it's found, if you have your Bible, you can open it up to Luke chapter 15. It's found in Luke chapter 15. And I want to give you the context for this parable that we're studying. Starting in verse 1 of chapter 15, it says, "Now tax collectors and sinners," that title sinners, you might go, "Aren't everybody sinners?" Yes, they are all sinners, but this title was like, these are the obvious sinners. Like there are some sinners that you're like, maybe they're a sinner, but it's not so obvious. These ones, in this day and time, everybody knew they had a reputation. The tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, which means people who are nothing like Jesus actually liked Jesus, they wanted to be around him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, these are the super religious, that if you looked at them, you'd go, "Man, they must have it all figured out. They must have it all together." But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, the uber religious, muttered this man welcomed sinners and eats with them. Then Jesus told them, the super religious, this parable, and he actually is going to give them three different parables kind of back to back to back. And here's what a parable is. A parable is a simple story that makes a profound point, and Jesus often would take these really complex ideas, these complex concepts, and he would simplify it down, and he would just give this simple little story, and in that simple little story, he would reveal things about who God is, about who we are. And so he starts, he gives this parable, and he talks about there's this shepherd who has a hundred sheep, and one of the sheep goes missing. And so what does the shepherd do? He leaves behind the 99, he goes searching for the one, and when he finds it, he gathers

up all his friends, he gathers up all of his neighbors, and he says, "Rejoice with me. I found my last sheep." And then Jesus says, there's actually more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than 99 who don't need repentance. Only one sinner who repents, one sinner who turns their heart back to God is not actually statistically interesting. If you're a statistician, you're like, "Okay, one out of a hundred," that's not that interesting, but in God's economy, he's very interested in the one. Just last week, we celebrated baptisms, and every time we have baptisms at Sun Valley, we have hundreds of people who get baptized, and here's what I love is I get to know some of these stories, and each and every one of these numbers that we celebrate, each one of those numbers has a name, and every name has a story, and every single story matters to God. One is not statistically interesting, but in God's economy, he's interested in the one. He cares immensely for the one. Then Jesus tells another parable, "There's this woman," and she has these 10 silver coins, and she loses one of them. So what does she do? It's a lamp. She sweeps the house, and she searches everywhere until she finds the one coin, and then what does she do? She invites her friends and her neighbors over, and she says, "Rejoice with me." I had lost this one coin, and now I've found it. Do you see the theme here? Jesus is painting this picture. And then he's gonna tell this parable and he's gonna catch everybody by surprise. 'Cause he's actually gonna talk about two lost sons, two sons who are alienated from the father, an older brother and a younger brother.

Now, quick survey, everybody in the room, I want you to think about your birth order. So in the room, we have some that are like the oldest. In fact, if you are the oldest sibling in your family, would you just raise a hand to all locations? Raise a hand if you're the oldest sibling. Yup, very responsible. I'm gonna stereotype a little bit 'cause it saves time. You're very responsible. You probably get things done. You know, if somebody asks you to do something, you say, yes, it's gonna happen. Now I wanna know where all the youngest at. Raise your hand if you are the youngest sibling. Yup, life of the party, you know how to have fun. Yeah, I see you all locations all over the place. I grew up, youngest sibling, I get it. And if you're a middle child, nobody cares. Sorry. Yeah, I know, it's a hard life, isn't it? My wife hates it when I make that joke. By the way, I've been making that joke for decades. If somebody's a middle child, they started raising their hand. Did you just give them a side hug right now, right where they're at? 'Cause they need it. Did you just acknowledge 'em, yeah. We see you middle children. True story, a few years ago, 23 and me,

my sibling reaches out and says, hey, we have another relative and been doing some digging and it turns out I have two siblings I didn't know that I had. Didn't grow up with them and their younger siblings. So for years, I've been making this joke about middle children and it turns out I am a middle child. And so this is a reminder, be careful about who you make jokes about 'cause that might be you one day. And my wife, again, hates that joke, but now it gets us where we're going. We are talking about an older brother and a younger brother. It's a parable of two sons in Luke 15. And in this parable, you have the entirety of the gospel. Tim Keller writes this, which by the way, gospel means good news. It's the good news, it's the foundation of our faith. And regarding the gospel, Tim Keller, who's now with Jesus, he writes this. One of the signs that you may not grasp the unique radical nature of the gospel is that you are certain that you do. The gospel is unlike anything else in all of the world. Every other faith on the planet is religion. It's advice. Here are the things you and I must do to work our way to God. The gospel means good news. It's something you and I don't work for.

It's something you and I don't earn. It's something that God graciously offers through the work that he's done. And so what should strike us about this parable as we dig into it is what would have struck the original hears. There would have been shock at the behavior of this younger brother who asks for his inheritance, but there would be even more shock at the reaction of the father. See, in this day and time, here's how inheritance worked. If you had a patriarch of the family, the father, when he passed away, the oldest son would get a double portion of the inheritance. And then however many other sons, the rest of that inheritance would be divided amongst them. So if you had a father who had two sons, the oldest son would get two thirds of the estate after the father died. And the younger brother, the younger son, would get one third. So what happens, this younger son says, "Dad, I want my inheritance now." Verse 11, Jesus starts off. There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, "Father, give me my share of the estate." Which in saying that, here's what that son is saying. We might miss it now, but in the context in which this is being spoken, in the context of this time period, what the son is saying is, "Dad, I wish you were dead.

I wish you were dead. I just want the inheritance. Give me my portion now." And here's the crazy part. So he divided his property between them. [BLANK_AUDIO] he should have been disowned right there in that moment, but the father, and this is the first shock that everybody would be hearing, the father honors this heartless request from his youngest son. And he didn't just give away a third of what he had, he actually gave it all. When it says he divided his property between them, the language that this is originally written in, it's not he divided the property between him, father, and youngest son. He actually divides the property between his two sons. That he gives his youngest son, one third, he gives his oldest son, two thirds, even though he's still alive. He hands it over, he gives ownership, transfers it to both of his sons. What Jesus is revealing to us is a generous God who is recklessly generous, even in spite of our actions, even in spite of our wicked hearts, God remains generous. There's a word for that, and that word is grace. Jesus is revealing that God who spoke the universe

into existence is a God of amazing grace. The younger son took his money and he ran, chasing after pleasure to satisfy the longings of his soul. So the question is, what is the son looking for when he takes his inheritance from his father and he sets off to a distant country? Here's what he was looking for. He was looking for love. In fact, love, it's actually the deepest longing of our soul, every single one of us. The deepest longing that we have, the deepest need that we have is to be fully known and still fully loved. We were created for a loving relationship with God. Our souls were meant for that. And so this younger brother, he's searching for love going, maybe I can go and I can just take it out in a distant country. I can go fill this longing of my heart. He's looking for love. He's also looking for joy. And when I say he's looking for joy, he's not looking for superficial happiness. He's looking for the thing we're all looking for. We're all longing for this deep. Soul level joy that in spite of our circumstances, in spite of different things that may be going on in our life difficulties, that there is a joy that nobody can take from us,

a deep, satisfying joy. We're searching for blessing all throughout the Bible. You have individuals that are searching for blessings from God trying to be blessed. In this moment, we have a younger brother who's maybe sad that his older brother's getting a double blessing after his father dies. There's a lot of comparison that goes on in all of us deep down. We want to experience blessing. We want to be able to say we are blessed by God. We're all searching for purpose. To know why are we here? Why was I created to have the answer to life's biggest questions? What is my purpose in this life? And ultimately what we're searching for and what this younger brother is searching for is belonging. To have a place where they can be who they are and be loved right as they are, not as they should be. And here's the reality of all these things that this younger brother, this son is looking for. It's the same thing we all look for. It's the same thing that we all chase after. And here's what we learn in the Bible. See God is the God of love. In fact, it's the very nature of who he is. He's the God of joy, the fruit of the spirit is love. Joy, peace. He's the giver of all things that every good gift

ultimately comes from God. He's the God who blesses. He's the God who created us on purpose with purpose. And he is the God who says, "I welcome you into my family." In fact, the picture you have in the Bible in the very first chapters is the Garden of Eden. God creates Adam and Eve, and he creates them to be in relationship with one another, but in relationship with him in the Garden of Eden. And what do they do? In the place that they experience perfect love, perfect joy, deep soul level, joy, all the blessings of all that God has created, purpose and belonging, what do they do? They turn and they run away. They rebel against all of that. They reject all that God is offering to try and find that somewhere else. This world is full of lies that say, "Hey, you know what? you have to chase after pleasure, you have to go to a distant land, leave your home and maybe you'll find these things. These lies were the lies that were spoken in the garden. It's the same lies that are spoken today. It's the same thing that caused Adam and Eve to rebel, to run away from that which they actually were created for. It's that same believing of these lies that causes this younger son, this younger brother,

to run away from home, to head off to a distant country. It's the same thing that causes me to turn my back, to chase after things that I know won't satisfy my soul. See, here's the reality. We know how the story ends. We've seen it all around us. We've seen it in our own lives yet we continue to repeat it. Why is that our problem is not that we don't love God enough. Our problem is we don't realize how much he loves us. The younger brother hits what's called rock bottom in recovery. Rock bottom is when everything falls apart, he's miserable, he's starving, he's feeding the pigs, realizing the pigs are eating better than he is. And it's at rock bottom that for many of us, we experienced the same thing. It's at rock bottom that he comes to his senses. Verse 17, when he came to his senses, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants "have food to spare?" And here I am starving to death. The prerequisite for receiving God's grace in your life and what Jesus is teaching in this parable, the prerequisite for receiving God's grace in your life is to know that you need it. Pretty simple. For some, they don't need it until they hit rock bottom. Some of us, we didn't hit rock bottom but we were headed that direction and we were able to see,

I know how this is gonna end. I see where this story is going. I need God's grace. I was talking to one of our pastors who leads a lot of our recovery ministry at the church. We have a thing called celebrate recovery and we were talking about this. He said, "For some people, rock bottom, "it's a deep, deep bottom." They gotta get to the end of their rope. That was his story. He tried taking his own life. He hit the very rock bottom. And he said, "For some people, it's a shallow bottom." They just have a moment that there's a wake-up call, a conversation, a realization, and they turn and they receive God's grace and they begin the journey of transformation and allow the gospel to transform their hearts. If you're here and you're like, "You know what? "I think I've hit rock bottom "or I think I'm headed that direction "and I feel stuck and I need help." You can go to cr.sv.cc, that stands for celebrate recovery. And across our campuses, we have different celebrate recoveries that meet at different times. You can show up and here's what you're gonna find. You're gonna find it's a judgment-free zone. People are gonna be full of the grace

that God has for you. And they're gonna walk alongside you and you're gonna go, "Here's what I'm dealing with." And they're gonna go, "Yep, I've dealt with that too." And they will help you. If you're ready to receive help. For this younger brother, he's ready to receive help. He knows that he needs help. He's hit this rock bottom and he devises a plan and he actually rehearses a speech that he's gonna give his father. Verse 20, "So he got up and went to his father, "but while he was still a long way off, "his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. "He ran to his son, through his arms around him, "and kissed him. "Once again, the story would have shocked the Pharisees, "the religious leaders. "Fathers don't run. "Kids run in this day and time. "Young men, young women, they may run, "but fathers don't run. "That's undignified. "And yet Jesus tells a story, the father runs. "What is he doing? "He's revealing God's heart to us. "I wonder how long the dad's been scanning the horizon, "looking for his lost son. "He says he was filled with compassion. "That word compassion means with suffering.

"Passion means suffering. "He was filled with compassion, meaning he was filled "with suffering. "The father suffers when his son wishes him dead. "The father suffers when he divides, it's not the common word that typically would have been used for property. He uses the word bios. Think biology. Think life. Jesus is saying this dad, this father, gives his life, his livelihood to his sons. He suffers when he gives all of that up because of his love for his two sons. He suffers when he doesn't force his love upon his younger son. He allows him to go. He suffers the loss of that relationship that's been broken by his son's rebellion. He suffers the knowledge that wherever his son is, it's not going well. That everything that his soul had been longing for, everything that he wanted to experience, the love, the joy, the blessing, the purpose, the belonging, he knows that as he ran away, he ran from all of that. He suffers under that knowledge and how long is he looking at the horizon, waiting for his son to return home. He suffers the humiliation of running, being undignified to a dishonorable son. A third shock for these Pharisees, these religious leaders who were listening to Jesus tell this parable, "Where is the speech?" The chastisement, the scolding, "Where is it?" Surely they're waiting for this father to share a piece of his mind with his son, and it doesn't happen. We have three drivers in our house. You just saw my daughter a moment ago, and I have two older sons, and they're all driving now. I just want to tell you, if you are raising adults, raising adults is not for the faint at heart. It was back in February when I got a phone call that my son had been in a car accident. I found out where it was. I jumped in my car. I immediately went there, and as I pulled up, the police had closed off the road. My heart sank. As I walked up, I could see the damage. His car was completely totaled. Once I confirmed he was okay, then I went into teaching pastor mode. I went into teaching pastor mode son. What lessons did we learn here? Let's talk about what safe driving is, and let's understand, "Hey, if you're making a U-turn, here's how you need to do that," and started just laying into, "Here's all the things that you did wrong," and I began to coach him. After we talked to the police officers, the police were amazing. They had the car towed. I got my son. We got everything out of his car, and I drove him home.

As I pulled into the driveway, my wife was standing there. My son got out of the car, and he walked up to her, and she had tears in her eyes, and she just hugged him, and they just hugged each other, and they just cried there in the driveway. And the Holy Spirit just tapped me on the shoulder in that moment, and I went, "Oh, that's what I was supposed to do." I wasn't supposed to give the speech. I was supposed to just embrace my son. God's working on me. He's teaching me. Two months later, almost to the day, my wife and I are in bed. I get a phone call, wakes me up. My other son has been in a car accident. Raising adults is not for the faint at heart, and so we get up, we get dressed, we go to the place where the accident happened, the police have the road closed off the entire intersection. It's closed. Both vehicles totaled. And this time I remembered, I walked up to my son, and I just hugged him. I'm glad you're okay. And then I scolded him. I'm just kidding. I'm learning what it means to be a gracious, loving father. And Jesus would have shocked everybody, but there was no speech. He just hugs his son, and then comes another shock, verse 22. But the father said to his and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. He doesn't even wait for the apology. He doesn't wait for an explanation. He skips right past that and he restores his son's position in the household. He honors the dishonorable. It is a scandalous grace that these original hearers would have been shocked at. How could a father behave in such a way? And then comes another shock, verse 23. He says, bring the fatten calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, so they began to celebrate. No speech.

He honors the dishonorable and then he celebrates. What is he doing? Jesus is teaching us. God is not who you think he is. Our problem is not that we don't love God enough. Our problem is we do not realize how much he loves us. And here's the beautiful thing for you and for me. Home, it's actually way closer than we think. You're not so far gone that God can't rescue you right now. God loves you when you and I have run from God. His love, His mercy, and His grace has just followed right behind us. This is the kind of reckless, radical grace that Jesus is describing in this parable. That the son doesn't just represent these sinners that are around Jesus. He actually represents all of humanity. That all of humanity has run from God. That all of us have rebelled against God. And the voice of God is this soft and gentle whisper calling out to us. And any time you and I, we doubt the love of God. And we listen to the voices that tell us to chase love another place. What we're doing is we're running from home. These voices around us that deny that love is a free gift, that we have to earn it. That's what the religious are doing. But then we have to go seize it for ourselves. That's what the rebellious do.

Every time we believe the lies, we lose faith in that soft, gentle whisper, we leave home. So what do we do? If we've turned our back on that soft, gentle whisper of this God who loves us, what do we do? We return to the Father. Come to our senses. And we might rehearse some great speech that we're going to give him, but he doesn't care about that. He cares about you. He cares about the one. There's more grace in God than there is sin in you. And he loves you no matter who you are, no matter what you have done. He loves you just as you are, not as you should be, none of us are as we should be. He has a purpose, he has a plan for your life. He wants to welcome you into this loving relationship that he's had for you since the beginning of time. You see, God exists outside of time. God has a balcony view of time and sin. God is everywhere and he's also every when and when God, before he even formed the earth, he knew you and he loved you. He knew every sin that you would ever commit. That means the sins that you've committed in the past and the sins that you will commit in the future. He knit you together in your mother's womb. He loves you with this scandalous grace.

This reckless love, he loves you. And he's offered his life as a payment when Jesus went to the cross. He paid the debt of your sin as a substitution in your place. And he knew all of your sin past, present, future. And he chose even in spite of all of that to give his life as payment for your sin. And he invites you to come home. He invites you to restore this relationship that you were created for. (eerie music) We often refer to this as the prodigal son talking about that younger brother. It means to spend until you have nothing left. And you can actually apply that word to the Father, who's recklessly extravagant, who spends everything until he has nothing left. Jesus, he's the better prodigal son. He didn't leave home in rebellion. No, Jesus left heaven, his home, for a broken world full of prodigals. To rescue us. And he spent all that he had, extravagantly, until he gave his very last breath on the cross. And the soldiers pierced the side of Jesus and blood and water flowed out. He poured out everything. Why? Because he loves you. After this incredible prodigal act extravagant, spending all that he had, a Holy Spirit raised him from the dead, opening a way home for all of us prodigals. All of us who have run from the love of God, he's provided a way for us to be restored in a relationship with him. And after Jesus conquered death and he appeared to his disciples into many

before he ascended to heaven. When he ascended to heaven, the Father welcomed home the Son. He's the better prodigal. The Father gave him the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus, no other name, it's at the name of Jesus, that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. No other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. And right now he prepares a feast, a wedding feast for all of us who would turn back to the Father. And so if you're here and you've never surrendered to the love of Jesus, let me tell you home is so much closer than you think. And I want to invite you right now to surrender your life to him. Would you pray with me? And if you would, in a posture of receiving, maybe be willing to open up your palms. And for all of us, even if you've already surrendered your life to Jesus, maybe right now just in an act of returning in your own heart and mind, you would speak these words. You don't have to say I'm out loud, just your own heart and mind. Let's surrender to him, come Holy Spirit. God, we know that we've all run from home in different ways. I've rebelled. God, thank you for your extravagant love, your reckless grace. Jesus, thank you for paying the debt of my sin. And at a great cost, you welcome me back into the family of God. I surrender my life to you. Jesus, you are Lord. Thank you for conquering death on my behalf. I pray that you would lead me from this day forward. God, that you would lead all of us. That we may walk and experience your amazing grace for prodigals like us. God, we love you.

And it's in the mighty, powerful name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.