My Favorite Story, July 5th, 2026

in the church and in the chapel, those elementary 56 kids, those of you that may even be joining us online this holiday weekend, thanks for being here. We're so glad to have everybody together today. If you're new to us, my name is Mark. I'm one of the teaching pastors here. If you're a guest with us or maybe you're just exploring faith, man, I want to give you a special welcome today. We're so glad that you're with us. The very best way to connect with us and take your next step here at Fellowship is to drop by the Connection Center after the service today. So let me encourage you to do that. We'd love to get to know you and help you take that step today. Well, this summer we are in a special series that we're calling My Favorite Story. We've asked each one of our pastors or some of our pastors to pick their favorite story or one of their favorite stories in the Bible and to teach that to the church. And so my favorite story, or at least one of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of the prodigal son that is found in Luke chapter 15. So let me encourage you, if you've got a Bible or a Bible app, however you like to maybe follow along, join me in Luke chapter 15 for my favorite story, the prodigal son. One of the greatest painters in the world is a guy named Rembrandt. And when he was in his early thirties, he painted a picture of this story about the prodigal son. I'll put it up here on the screen for you to see. And as you look at that painting, you can see that the prodigal son is having the time of his life, smiling, raising up a glass, rejoicing in the newfound freedom and excitement of the life that he now enjoys. Looks like maybe he's in a brothel there. What's interesting when you look at this picture is that Rembrandt actually painted his own face on the prodigal, which I think is a real powerful reminder to us. Because I think so often when we come to this story, we think this story about the prodigal son is for someone else. Maybe somebody we know that needs to listen to this story, to hear this story. But in reality, this is your story. This is my story. The reality is that we all are prodigals. We're all prodigals in need of God's grace and forgiveness, right? Every single one of us. We're the prodigal in this story. What's interesting is later on in his life, Rembrandt painted a second painting of this story. And the second painting is very different than the first. You can see it up here. With the second painting, you see the wayward son, the prodigal son kneeling there, contrite. But the emphasis in this painting is really

on the father. You see the mercy, the compassion, the love that the father is showing to his son who's finally come home. What's interesting about this, art experts argue that this might be Rembrandt's last painting that he did. It's his most famous painting about this particular story. But one of the interesting things is notice that he did not paint his face on this prodigal. And experts speculate that the reason he did that is he's inviting us into the story. He wants us to see ourselves as the prodigal. He wants us to see our own need for God's amazing love. Because the story of the prodigal son is really a story of love. the story of every human who's ever lived in human history. It's the story of our relationship with God. And I think sometimes when we come to this story in Luke 15, this parable, we assume that it's about the prodigal son, but it's actually about the father. He's the hero in this story. In fact, the father is mentioned 12 times in these verses that we're gonna look at here in just a moment. I think it's a powerful reminder to us that the story of the prodigal son is about the extravagant love that God has for us. That's what this story is about. I wanna stop here just for a moment. If you don't hear anything else that I say from this point forward, I want you to hear this. God has an extravagant love for you. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter what your past may be, God has a deep, wide, vast love for you and for me. And Jesus is going to tell this parable to show us the magnitude of God's love.

So let's look at this famous parable together. It's in Luke 15, verse 11, but before we read the story, let's get a little bit of context. I mean, why is Jesus even telling this parable in the first place? Look at the first two verses there in chapter 15. We're told this, it says, now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him, him being Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes, that's the religious leaders of the day, they're grumbling, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And so the religious leaders of the day, they're upset. They're angry because this holy man, Jesus, has the audacity to hang out with sinners, not just to hang out with them, but to fellowship with them, to even eat with them. And so Jesus is going to tell this parable to say to the religious leaders, to say to us, that they have grossly misunderstood the love of God. And so he's not gonna just tell one parable to show the magnitude of God's love, the extravagance of his love. He's actually gonna tell three parables. He talks about a lost coin. He talks about a lost sheep. And then the pinnacle story to drive home this point about just how incredible and vast and extravagant God's love really is,

he talks about a lost son, which is where we pick this parable up together starting in verse 11. And Jesus says this, and he said, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had, took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country. And he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise, go to my father, and I will say to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran, and embraced him, and kissed him.

And the son said to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate. For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. Now, his older son was in the field, and as he came and died, drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come. Your father has killed the fattened calf because he's received him back safe and sound. But the older son was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years, I've served you, I've never disobeyed your command, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. And he said to him, son, you're always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother was dead, and as alive, he was lost, and he is found. Now, let's remember why Jesus is telling this parable, why he's telling this story in the first place. Because the religious leaders in Jesus' day are asking the question of Jesus, they're upset, why are you eating with sinners? And Jesus is wanting them to understand and to see the vastness of God's love, that the magnitude of God's love, that God is always looking, always looking for the lost, hoping that they will be found, that he has an unchanging love for his son. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at this story as you can tell there on your outline in four parts. And these four parts really parallel our own relationship with God. And the first part is this, the first part is that we have reckless sin. And remember what I said earlier, we're just like the prodigal. And look how the story of the prodigal starts, verse 13 again, it says, not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had, he took a journey into a faraway country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine came across in the country and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the field to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything. Verse 17, but when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I'll arise, go to my father and I'll say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. So the first thing this young son does, when he receives his early inheritance, he gathers it together and he leaves the house. He leaves the confines of his family. He left the restraints of his father. And what's interesting is he didn't just go to the next town where somebody might know him. We're told he went to a far away country where he could be anonymous. He went into the darkness where no one could see him do the things that he always wanted to do. He was like a sailor on shore leave with a pocketful of money. He had no restraint and he chased after sin with parties and excitement and freedom. Verse 13 really sums it up best. Jesus says it this way, he lived recklessly. Do you see that?

Circle that in your Bible. He lived recklessly. The truth is that we're all just like the prodigal. In that we are and have lived recklessly. All of us are prone to wander. We are quick to leave the God that we say that we love. And we have lived recklessly just like the prodigal. The prodigal. All of us are guilty of sin against our father. Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Later on, the apostle Paul adds color commentary to this idea that all of us are prodigal. and have lived recklessly when in Ephesians 2, he says it this way, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind whereby nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Maybe that's why Rembrandt painted his own face on the prodigal, is he realized in reality that he was a sinner like the prodigal and in need of God's grace. What's interesting is the reckless living of the prodigal eventually led him where all sin leads us to,

emptiness and brokenness. The money ran out, his friends left him, and this once promising young man was reduced to begging for food. His reckless sin took him to the worst place humanly possible for a Jewish person, and that was working with pigs. Pigs were considered to be unclean and defiled by the Jews, and this is where we find the prodigal, in a pigsty of his own doing, eating pig's food just to survive, wondering to himself, how in the world did I ever end up here? And hey, maybe that's you today. Maybe as you look at your marriage, that's been turned upside down because of the choices and decisions that you've made, and your marriage is in trouble today because of your own doing, or maybe it's the control that alcohol has on your life or drugs or pornography. Maybe there's a secret sin you've kept hidden, and it's got you trapped in darkness, and it's eating you alive in your own way. You feel stuck in the pigsty of your own reckless sin, wondering if there's any way out, and friends, the good news is that God has never stopped loving you, never stopped looking for you,

never stopped longing for you to return home. He loves you even in your sin. Romans 5, eight says it this way, but God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet still sinners, still trapped in our reckless living, Christ died for us. Man, God has never stopped loving you, never stopped pursuing you. All you have to do today is go back to the Father. As we're saying, run back to the Father. He's looking for you, he's hoping for you, he's longing for you to come home, to come home. Man, if you will go home, he will meet you with love and forgiveness, which leads us to the second part of the story. I love this part, because this is where our reckless sin meets God's relentless love. The second part is that God has a relentless love for us. Look at verse 20 again. Jesus says, and he arose and came to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Friends, this is one of the most profound verses in the whole Bible. Jesus, who is close to the Father, is sharing the heart of the Father with us. And he says that God takes off on a dead sprint

towards his wayward son. And when he gets to his wayward son, all he has is love and compassion for his son. He can't contain himself. He's like LeBron James on a fast break. He just takes off. And back in this day, It's undignified for a grown man. And think about just the practical part about wearing a robe to take off running. It was undignified. And Jesus is saying, the father didn't care. He doesn't care about the social norms of the day. What he cares is the son that he loves so much has finally come home. And that's God's heart for you. That's how much God loves you. Man, I got a taste of this back in 1994. I was at a house with a large group and we were watching the 1994 National Championship basketball game. It was Arkansas versus Duke. And the final buzzer went off and Arkansas won the game. And I'm gonna tell you, everybody in that house was undignified. We were running, we were picking each other up, we were crowd surfing. We couldn't believe it. There was so much excitement, enthusiasm,

and joy in that room. And that's the way God feels every single time a sinner finally comes home. Friend, what's keeping you from coming to the father today? He loves you. He's looking for you. He's waiting for you. His love for you is relentless. It will never change. No matter who you are, no matter what your background is, he's looking, he's waiting. All you have to do is to come home. And here's the thing, it's unbelievable when you finally do come home and you come back to the father, what he meets you with is forgiveness. And not just any kind of forgiveness, he meets us with endless forgiveness, endless forgiveness, which is really the third part of this story, that God has endless forgiveness for us. I love when the father finally gets to his son. And maybe you caught it the first time we read through it. It says, what does the father do when he finally gets to his son? It says he embraces and kisses him. Do you see that in verse 20? There's no punishment given out. There's no pokes in the chest.

There's no, I told you so. Here's the thing, there's no lectures. When my kids were teenagers, I would lecture them. Right? No condemning looks, no judgment. The father meets his wayward, sinful son with grace, mercy. And forgiveness. Unbelievable. And he does so in the form of hugs and kisses. See, the prodigal eventually turned away from his reckless living, and we call that repentance. That's what we call that. And he came to his father, and what he experienced was forgiveness. Forgiveness of sins is the only way into a relationship with God. You can't get into a relationship with God based on your own righteousness or good works. The only way to the father is through the path of forgiveness. And forgiveness is only found in Jesus. That's how you get to the father. It's through the forgiveness of sins, and that comes when you put your faith in Jesus. And the good news is that no matter who you are or what you've done or what your past may be,

or not be, there is always endless forgiveness with God. I love the words of the psalmist in Psalm 103, 12. He says it this way. Speaking about forgiveness, he says, as far as the east is from the west, so far does he, talking about the father, remove our transgressions from us. This is saying that if you were to somehow try to measure God's forgiveness, it's not like from here to Memphis, okay? That ain't it, thank goodness. No, it's immeasurable, it's endless, it's infinite. From God's perspective, as he looks out, it's as far as the east is from the west, as far as God removes our sins from us. And we can come to the Father over and over and over again and find forgiveness because His forgiveness is endless. It never ends. And what's remarkable is it doesn't stop there with God. He doesn't just forgive us, it's enough that He would forgive us, but God in His grace does even more. As he goes on here in this story to give us speechless restoration. See, the fourth and last part of the prodigal story is God gives us speechless restoration. Look at verse 21 through 24. It says, and the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate. I say speechless because I imagine this son showed up to his father with a speech. He says, I've sinned against you and I've sinned against heaven, and it's as if the father stopped him mid-sentence. He turns and tells his servants to go prepare for the arrival of his son. And I just have to believe that sin-stained, wayward son in that moment was speechless at the love and the grace and the forgiveness that he received from his father. But not just that, I have to believe the servants were speechless too. I mean, can you imagine this son who's gone out and squandered his life, wasted his life, and the father turns to the servants and says, go prepare all these things. Don't you know they were thinking to themselves, hey, this son doesn't deserve any of this. Well, what's he doing? But isn't that a great picture of God's grace to us? That God gives us everything in Christ

even though we don't deserve it? We don't deserve any of it. And how specifically does the father here restore the son? Well, it tells us here, the first thing he gives him is what? He gives him his best robe. You see that in verse 22? It says, bring the best robe. Doesn't say a robe, it says bring the best robe. Now, what I imagine happening here is that his son, the prodigal son is standing before the father. He's worn out. He has squandered his life, wasted his life. I would imagine he smells a little bit ripe. Keep in mind, he's been in a pigsty, literally. And the father brings his most beautiful, expensive robe that he has and he puts it over his son. Which, by the way, spiritually speaking is what happens to us when we come to faith in Jesus. He puts a beautiful robe, the father does, the robe of Christ over us. Second Corinthians 5.21 says it this way. For our sake, he, talking about the father, made him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. See, when we cross the line of faith, we receive the robe of righteousness from Christ. There we stand in our brokenness, in our sin. We too have squandered our life in sin. And we come to faith in Jesus and what we get

is we get the most unbelievable robe because we get all of his righteousness. But even more than that, in that moment, Jesus takes our filthy garments, our sin, upon himself. And at the cross he nails them to the cross and that's why we call that the great exchange Jesus takes on all of our sin and we get all of his righteousness. I Don't know about you, but that makes me almost speechless And we get the robe of righteousness Through Christ his righteousness not our own The father goes on though not just to give his son the best road He all we're also told that the father gives his son a ring Now ring was a sign of authority And Jesus has given us as his sons and daughters Authority in his kingdom Jesus is the king never Never lose sight of that. He's the king But as his sons and daughters We have authority in his kingdom Jesus talked about this in some of his last words in the Great Commission Matthew Chapter 28 Jesus said it this way all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me Behold I am with you to the end of the age With Jesus we get all the authority because we're co-heirs with him in his kingdom And by the way when Jesus comes again, and he establishes the new heaven and the new earth We will reign and rule with Jesus forever Fully realizing the authority that we have in Christ We've been given a new righteousness a new authority And then the father gives his son notice sandals or shoes Now that feels awfully insignificant to us But it makes sense when you realize that a hired servant probably would have been barefoot because He or she would not been able to afford shoes

and The father is communicating something here by giving his son shoes. He is saying my son's not a hired servant This is my son. This is a statement about identity and Of course when we come to faith in Jesus, we're given a new identity 2nd Corinthians 5 17 talks about this says if anyone is in Christ He is a new creation behold the old has gone and what happens? The new has come we're made into a new creation a new creation Given a new identity Are we gonna still need to are we still gonna sin? Yes. Are we gonna still need to confess sin? Yes but we have a a new identity in Christ and And now the Holy Spirit is in us and the Holy Spirit is working to to change and mold us Over time so that we are becoming more and more like Jesus in our attitudes and our actions I Don't know about you, but that makes me speechless We have a new righteousness a new authority a new identity and then last Says that the father killed the fatted calf. Do you see that? This is incredible because we don't just see speechless restoration here we see a speechless relationship How many of you have maybe been to a fancy restaurant that was farm-to-table anybody Guess I'm the only one. Okay They exist out there This is the original farm-to-table Because the father is taking his son from the pig farm and bringing him to his table So if you want to think about it using today's language, this is the og Okay And now the son has fellowship with the father

Intimacy with the father they're in relationship together and there's intimacy there. There's closeness there and So not only is there a new righteousness a new identity, but now there's a new relationship And that's what the father wants to have with you He wants to be close to you. He wants you to know him. He wants to spend time with you And so I ask you again what's keeping you from coming to the father What's keeping you from running back to the father The truth of it is, all of us in here are prodigals, small ways or big ways, it doesn't really matter, but we're all prodigals. All of us in one way or another need to come back to the Father this morning. The truth and the reality is that some of you out there, you find yourself in a far away land. You've drifted far from God. Like the prodigal, you grew up with the Father. You grew up in the church, maybe even went to Bible college, but over time you've drifted and your heart is far from God, far from the Father, and the invitation today is to come home. The Father loves you, he's waiting, he's inviting you. Others of you in here, you're trapped in your own reckless living. The reality is that you've set a course out there and you are pursuing a life, and you sit here today and you feel empty, you feel lonely, and you know that the life you're pursuing is a dead end, and the Father is inviting you to come home, to know his love, to experience his forgiveness, and he can help you put the broken pieces of your life back together. Only the Father can do that. He has the power to do that. Listen, others of you, you sit here today and the truth is you're in a pigsty of your own doing. It's your choices, your decisions that have you in life right where you are today, and you know that, but those decisions and choices don't have to define your life.

You can come back to the Father today and find grace and forgiveness and hope. Come to the Father. Maybe you're lonely. Maybe you're broken. Maybe you're trapped in an addiction. The invitation is the same for all of us, is to come home to the Father, and listen, this is just one prodigal talking to another prodigal. We all got to come home today. Some of us in small ways and other ways, big ways, but we all need to come home to the Father. I'm going to invite you today, friend, listen, if you need to talk to someone, someone to pray with you and encourage you in some way, you don't know what your next step is or even how to find your way to the Father, myself and some other pastors will be available in the Connection Center. We'd love to talk with you about that, help you take that step. Listen, years ago as a prodigal, I had to take that step myself. What I found was love and forgiveness and grace and mercy, and you can too. Here in a moment, after I pray, we're going to sing a song. I'm glad we're singing this song. The title of the song is The Prodigal. Guess what? This is your song. This is the song of your life. It's the song of my life. Let's sing it with gusto because the great part of this song is the grace and the mercy and the forgiveness that can be found in Jesus for every prodigal, including you, including me. Let's pray together. Father, one thing I know in a room like this, because I know it in my own life, in small ways and even in some big ways, many of us find ourselves today far from you.

Maybe it doesn't look like that on the outside, but on the inside, at the heart, where it really matters, we've run away from you. The invitation in this parable, in this story, is to come home, to come back to you, to run to the Father. In this moment, we do just that. We lay before you our sin. We lay before you our lives, and we run back to you. We give you all of ourselves, all of our life, and we know that. Oh, if we come back to you, what we will be met with is love, compassion, grace, forgiveness. And Lord, that even you can restore the broken parts of our life. You can redeem that. There are some today who have never come home to the Father. Listen, friend, if that's you today, I wanna invite you to do that in this moment. The Father loves you. He's inviting you. He wants to extend forgiveness to you. Would you open up your heart and life to Jesus? Jesus is the only one where you can find the forgiveness of your sins. He's the only one that can put the pieces of your life together. Would you just say, Father, I need Jesus. Jesus, I need you. Would you be the forgiver of my sins? Would you be the leader of my life?

I need you. Would you do that in faith today, friend? Listen, we all need to run back to the Father. Let's do that together today. In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks again for listening to the Word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com slash contact. Have a great week.