The Lost Son | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

praise the Lord everyone can we stand to our feet together so good to see everyone out on a Wednesday evening and so glad to be in the house of the Lord with you I thought there for about 25 minutes or so that I closed my eyes that went to heaven did that worship team not just bring us before the throne room of God tonight I know a lot of you a lot of you are wondering who in the world was that leading worship that his brother Kade Abbot he just graduated from eating in a Bible College and we're so glad to have him at least this week we're glad to have him here in Maryville put your hands together are you glad that brother cave is helping us lead worship it's not only a very talented singer but he is also very anointed and that's what we love around here amen I mean it's so good to see I see guests in the house tonight thank you for making this your place of worship on a Wednesday evening if you will turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 15 we're gonna go back to our a key verse for our series we are studying the pathway home in just a case you might have not been here last week let me just tell you about a little bit about the series that we're in it's not just going to be a Bible study alone but this is going to be a series on a step by step direction on a pathway that we're creating back to the father's house because everyone that desires a pathway home ought to receive a pathway home there is nobody under the sound of my voice whether here in the sanctuary or by the way of our online audience that if you find yourself in a place where you want to come back home let me tell you I'm just gonna come right out and tell you we want you back home we want you back in this place we want to see you sitting on these pews we want to see you restored back to where you once were because a lot of good people brother Hammonds have made bad decisions and found themselves spiritually in a far-off country how do they get home what path do they follow that's what this is all about Luke 15:24 says for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be merry once again for this my son was dead and is alive again why don't you put your Bibles down let's lift up our hands one more time before we're seated in this pray oldest word father we love you Oh Lord I'm so thankful for the Holy Ghost that has been in this place Lord from the first note that was played on the first instrument Lord all the way Lord God until we gave in the offering tonight Lord God there's been nothing but worship going up to the King of Kings into the Lord of lords Lord there's nothing but praise been going up to a god that loves us and cares for us and and we know Lord God that you're going to make a way where there seems to be no way we believe that this people launch it by way of the worldwide well they're gonna feel your spirit tonight they're gonna come to themselves are gonna wake up Oh God in the state that delivered and they're gonna say I've gotta go back home and I need to find my way Lord I pray that this word goes out and reaches a prodigal tonight in Jesus they come on if you believe it won't you come on shout amen oh and you may be seated in Jesus name last week we studied the parable of the lost sheep the wandering sheep we studied about the piece of silver that was misplaced that was hidden among the debris in the house we understand that the Sheep require a shepherd to come and rescue them the coin requires a light in a broom in order to be found both are lost they're misplaced but they have not lost their value if you're in the house tonight and you've done some wandering all you got to understand is you've not lost any value you're still who you've always been the truth is still real and although you might have lost a piece here and there you can still find the truth but tonight we begin to study the parable of the lost sons so if you will just keep your Bibles open in Luke chapter 15 we're going to start in verse 11 and here is the third in the final parable that Jesus tells back to back he said a certain man had two sons in the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me and the father divided unto them both sons his living in not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with a riotous living and when he had spent all then there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country that sent him into his fields to feed his swine one more verse in the prodigal The Lost would have fame filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him I want us as we study the lost son I want us to see a few things like I said keep your Bible open and watch follow along with me notice that nobody was sent after the son nobody was sent the father did not send the older brother to go find the younger brother he did not send servants the son was a first-degree offender he left because he wanted to leave and when somebody leaves because they desire to leave you don't send somebody effort you pray for them as the father did you sit at the house and you hope and you're long for the son to return but you don't send anybody after them now the wandering sheep you send somebody asked them to go find the sheep the lost coin you look you search for the lost coin but I want us to notice that nobody was sent after the lost son as pastor in his keynote as he began the series and he preached about the cities of refuge that were built for the second-degree offenders I want us to understand that with the lost son this was a first-degree offender and so as we begin to study the sea this young man we got to see people that are gonna come into our minds I well as I'm teaching this you're gonna you're gonna think this mean names are gonna come into your mind of people that are no longer sitting on these pews that as they left they burned every Bridge they could burn it's sad to say when they left listen we look back over history and we start to read and start to study what it meant for this son to ask for his father's inheritance before his father passed away this was unheard of this was insult to society to that man who had raised two boys who had raised an elder son and his younger brother had raised them up in a home where they had no needs they had servants to do the work and they had sons who they were just there to reap the benefits of the service but we see a father and listen don't you believe that our father is a good father then our father is a great father there's no father like the father that we serve our God our Creator the father of all things of all living of everything created there's no God like our God pastor already said it there's none beside him he is alone in his greatness we call America a great nation amen a land of democracy now listen I'm well aware of the news and I know that we have faults within our nation I realize that oh god we have faults within our nation sickening falls within our nation I have wept even today as I've read the news and watched news clips and I've seen videos and I'm not going to get into this we might get into it in a later time but our nation we have so many faults but there are some good things that come out of America we have what are called rights that have been given to our citizens and even if the rights given don't produce the results that benefit the nation a great nation gives its citizens rights anyways let me give you an example the United States of America asks for all the citizens to self-quarantine Colvin 19 didn't know what to expect you know we look back now and week me like aw it was no big deal or this or that but at the time we didn't know what to expect that never happened before we had never been in this place before and so our nation asked its citizens to social distance to self quarantine so that we could control the spread of the virus however because of our Constitution rights and liberties there were some people who did not want to follow the request of the government to self quarantine and the virus spread where maybe it could have been contained I'm not going to get in whites and wrongs and what should have been done and what was done however in a communist or a socialist nation the same request was given by their government to self quarantine and not leave homes and I've got missionary friends and I've got I've got friends that live in four nations that are socialistic in our communists and they said it's kind of scary they said that people left their homes they would either disappear or they would get fined now if you look at the big picture I guarantee you that the virus did not spread in some of those nations the rate that it's spread maybe here in America where we had people that said you know what you cannot keep me in my home I've gotten rights I can leave my home when I want to leave my home if we're gonna have Church we're gonna have Church you can't stop me from having Church and again I'm not getting on one side or the other I'm staying oh I'm staying right in the middle cuz I see some of y'all give me some looks I'm saying I'm right in the middle all right I'm not saying one way or the other all I'm saying is this we believe we have a great nation because of our rights and although the communist and socialist nations controlled their people and the spread of the virus better than we control they here in America I'm still glad to be in America I'm still glad to be in the land of a free even though the rights that have been given us did not benefit the nation that we live in I'm still so glad tonight that I live in the United States of America like I said we've got so many folks so we've gotta fix so many faults so we've got to fix but I am so glad that we still live in the land of the free I'm so glad that our friends and neighbors didn't go missing when they walked out of their homes to go find some food because here we have two separate predicaments here we have a predicament where there's people that have rights and their skin their sickness in there's a spread of disease and we got another people who are in their homes and they are in captivity and there's no spread but they also have no rights I want you to know we serve a good father we serve a great father a father that gives his people his citizens his children's the right to make decisions for their own lives even when those decisions sometimes go against his word we serve a god you can look through and study this parable you will never see a father who in any way punished his son you know why he didn't punish this um when he came back you know I didn't take a rod to his son when he came back because his lifestyle and the choices that he made punished him the father allowed circumstances and situations to take the punishment he served his sentence in a far-off land we serve a Heavenly Father listen to me he does not reward disobedience but at the same time he allows the natural fate of disobedience so here we are tonight our Father our God our Lord our Savior has given us the right to make whatever decisions in life we want to make he gives us a clear path to follow and then he steps back and says now I want to see how you're gonna respond to the path so let's begin to look back in verse 11 and he said a certain man had two sons first 12 and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me and he divided it on them his living in order for the younger now the younger would get one-third of inheritance and the older would get two-thirds because the older his whole responsibility was to stay home and take care of mom and dad he would get 2/3 because it was his responsibility to make sure that the family name kept in that same place but it was the younger son that would get one-third of all the property his father probably had to sell some things some things that he was living on the father probably had to sell in order to give that son the possessions that he asked for it was inconsiderate it was insulting but his father chose to give it to him anyways an earthly father might have said no way I'm not giving you a penny if you want to leave there's the door anybody ever heard that but a Heavenly Father is willing to allow us to make our own decisions and choices some that will save us and some that will ruin us so here we go first 13 not many days hence the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there he wasted his substance with riotous living yeah not many days after you know I don't really think personally that the younger sons intention was to be wild and wasteful to be crazy and careless just like I don't think it is but their knowing when when somebody wins the lottery I don't think it's their desire to be poor or two years later I believe in his heart he thought to himself you know my father's doing a good job with the finances but I I think if I had control of the finances that are in my name I think I could do a much better job with these finances and Jesus never even said that the younger son was rebellious before he left the father's house I believe why here I believe that he was just a little restless follow me with this we got to beware of the restless spirit the restless spirit enjoys the father's possessions enjoys living a good life Howard becomes bored living under the father's sheltered lifestyle talking about restlessness it's obviously he was Restless and was looking for something more to life because a restless spirit will always keep you wishing you were the opposite of whatever you are one person is trying to gain weight because they're too thin another person is trying to lose weight because they're too thick and both are envious that the other one's going man I sure wish I could put down three Big Macs and and to supersize fries and in two large sweet teas and not gain a pound and that person is going man if I could just eat a burrito and gained four pounds like Erickson can one person is trying to make their white skin dark another person's trying to make their dark skin light well hallelujah one person wishes they were shorter because they feel too tall and another person feels like I wish that was just I don't care about seven four if I could just be a little bit taller you see a restless spirit causes you to always feel like somebody else has it better than you and somehow you've gotta you gotta find a way to fix something in your life that's probably on fix Hill I don't know if that's the word or not there's students oh my goodness I'm about to preach right in here there are students that are raised in the greatest Christian school did you hear the music department tonight students in our ways around the greatest music under the greatest senior pastor the greatest student pastor they're raised in the greatest church that people even dream of ever attending and you know what they're trying to look around to see what other people are doing what other people have if I could just leave here I could have a ministry if I could just get up if I could get out of these four walls I I could go and do something with my life well at the very same time we got we got a whole row of other students here that have been to Bible School graduated Bible schooling you know where they are they're right here they've come from the places a lot of them a couple of places y'all are trying to go but if we're not careful this spirit of restlessness can always make us but we're farsighted but we're not nearsighted we look far away we can see things clearly and say man I wish I could be like that brother Cade in praying that I be see I want to be a tenor singing in praise at IBC they get to travel from this church of that church of that church you know I talk I talk to the students this thing for the Dakota and they say their first ever thought church of America's where they want to come sing Oh interesting to me interesting how a spirit of restlessness can rise up in people now picking on the young people but that goes for all of us that goes for all of us middle-aged people - if I could just get - if I can just get to Nebraska or I can just get to South Carolina and get that job then I can really man I can make the money my family be content everybody oh come on wake up you got your kids in the best Christian school they can be why would you want to get all my a spirit of restlessness will turn into a runaway spirit a runaway listen you maybe see a runaway spirit is the attitude that life must be better somewhere else now listen don't judge me I had the perfect upbringing I was in the great month I don't even know if I ever heard my parents arguing I was a kid I don't remember them getting in a fight I mean I was in I had the best atmosphere when I was about 12 11 12 dad built us a new home I mean I we I had it made for especially for a whole missionary kid I had it made never wanted for anything as long as Salvation Army was open I had clothes I say this a lot that's cool now it wasn't cool back when I was 11 but honestly I joke about it but I'm serious I had a great home life I had a great upbringing parents raised us to love God weird church every time the doors open but somehow I still remember having thoughts of running away seriously like like dad told me to clean my room and I didn't want to clean my room I wanted to go outside play ball with my friends and I remember oh I remember cuz he we I wasn't allowed to watch TV but somehow I had seen a film on a monitor that had that had this pole in this kid had all his belongings and put it in like a towel and tied it to the pole and he had it over his shoulder and honest to god brother chase I'm ashamed to say it but I had one of those in my closet I had a pole with this thing on the end that had like a change of shirt and I got only knows maybe a toothbrush or something in it and I really I had plans of running I never ran away but I had plans of running away because there's a spirit no matter how good you have it there's always this spirit of life must be better somewhere else life must be better in a far-off country I've got it made here in the father's house I've got everything I need I've got food on the table I got bread I've got service servants to do all the dirty work I've got the father's table I've got a father who loves me who has a mercy in kind his grace or it's everlasting his goodness as kindness I've got everything right here in the father's house but somehow that far-off country must have it a little bit better and so here we have this young man who goes and takes a journey to a far-off country what was he looking for I don't know drugs alcohol women perversion debauchery I don't know if he's looking for that or that stuff just found him because maybe he had enough money and maybe he set himself up to find those things I don't know I don't know because you know it's a parable and all that stuff is not really written all we understand is that he lived a riotous lifestyle and we understand that the wages of sin will always be death we can look at people living a righteous life style and we can tell them listen listen close right here you just think you're having fun anybody ever said that to people anybody anybody said that about me maybe you're not maybe we don't say to people but maybe we like like say like they just think they're having fun people are living righteously they did you just think well here's the fact the fact is sin is fun to the flesh so when they're out there and they're living in the high-rise and the penthouse level in the penthouse suite when they're living their lifestyle the riotous living they are having fun don't fool yourself they're having a good time however just because we understand as the people of God that there's only pleasure of sin for a season and so we see we see them and listen the first thing people do man they get out of this church and the first thing they do is they get on social media and all my goodness on their Facebook pages they post every picture of them having fun they've got a smile every picture they're at the gym half dressed showing off that new muscular body tell it I like that they're showing themselves they got a beer in one hand and they're at the pool and they're just having the time of their life riotous living but the problem with riotous living is riotous living ends as I begin I want to read this to you because this is this is really cool right here as I began to study for this series and I'm working on a book called the pathway home I've downloaded every book on my Apple books that I can find has anything to do with prodigal and there's one book that I downloaded called the prodigal z' perspective the prodigal perspective it's written by Bob Stein camp he's a Christian author and it's an autobiography about Bob who left his wife of many years for another woman it became a prodigal spouse it's an amazing story how God got ahold of him he returned back home his wife remarried him in their marriage today is a miraculously restored marriage it's an awesome book and what I love about this book is it tells the the perspective of the prodigal because a lot of times I wonder I see you on Facebook I see you on Instagram I see all your happy pictures I see that your just do it all some and your kids are doing awesome and you got bumper stickers talking about house and your kids are I see that but I just want to really know what is a product or really thinking and so if you will I just want to read a little bit of chapter one from this book chapter one what he doesn't he in each chapter and get this book it's a great book each chapter he asked the question and for the rest of the chapter he answers the question so his first question was when did you first think about going home he writes was that when I was driving away from our home with my possession my possessions crammed in the old blue Dodge in route to a motel 20 miles away my sobbing wife could not see it nor could you but the pull home word for a prodigal spouse becomes stronger with each trip we make to our vehicle removing our possessions from the home where they should be nevertheless like a determined swimmer working against the tide we push on was that when I witnessed an accident on the same trip to the motel traffic was the light on Stirling Road and no one else was was really around and nobody had stopped and so I pulled over to render aid was that when the victim asked me to call his wife and I realized that I wouldn't even have a wife to call was it when the investigating officer asked for my address and I had to big alcohol out the motels business card was it a week later when I received a thank-you card from his wife of the recovering victim was it my first thought about going home was it well it was it later that same day when I called the female co-worker with whom I had become too close and discovered that she had other plans for the night was it when I ate alone was it when I tossed and turned attempting to fall asleep alone in a strange place did I consider going home the next morning when the thought of where I was living in the family I had rejected hit me like a dull thud as I awoke did I think about home while I was searching for the least wrinkled white shirt since I had no iron did I first think about going home the day when was something happened at work and my first reaction was to call Charlene and and share with her until I realized that less than 24 hours before I had told her there would be no more Charlene did I think about going home that day at lunch when the female co-worker reminded me how different we were and that we we had no long-term future together did I think about going home that evening when I exited i-95 and headed from my motel where a darkened room awaited me instead of continuing on north to a home where dinner was in the oven and where a loving and faithful wife and three kids could be found he says yes my friend I thought about going home at each of these times and I suspect many more than I cannot recall these examples were all in the first 24 hours of a two-year plus journey of separation and divorce through a far country got to read it and the more I read about this prodigal spouse pastor it reminds me of prodigal have left the house of God it reminds me of prodigal that have left the fathers housed as I read and I begin to think oh my god you can't tell me that every time they passed by this church every time something pops up on their Facebook that our services align every time they see another photo come up another video come across you can't tell me something deep inside of them is not yearning to go back home I want you to know I've said it before to the audience of Facebook to the audience of the World Wide Web please understand we want you to come back home you don't have to put on some kind of front like you're happy while you're linen listen when your fun runs out come back home tell somebody shut up open up aha we got a whole jar in our prayer room filled with names of people who you gotta believe every single day they think about why did I leave why am i living in this state why don't I just go home but the author said it like a swimmer trying to swim against the tide they just keep on going in the direction they're going you may be seated but listen this is what I don't want to happen and I believe it's a trick of the devil because the trick of the devil would mock to make us believe that they're having so much fun that their life is so good the devil would want us to think why would I even pray for them that's that's a trick right there I would pray for my son to come back to church of a man he's he's making more money he's ever made you see that new Porsche he just bought you see how hid the extravagant lifestyle he's living and the devil wants to try to get us to stop praying for our prodigal loved ones in thinking that they're having so much fun but I rebuke the spirit of the runaway repeat the spirit of the prodigal that says I've got everything in control I've got my mind made up I'm going in the direction I want to go I don't believe you're headed in the direction you want to go it's up front it's all afoot you may be seated I'm not gonna be anywhere come close to getting done with this but I want to go to solve it further I want you to notice what the end of verse 13 says it says and there wasted his substance with riotous living it does not say he wasted his money while living righteously it says he wasted his substance because you lose a whole lot more than just finances when you leave the father's house it wasn't just money it wasn't the he just ran out of a money that was in his pocket brother lawless that's not what this was about it's that he wasted he didn't lose it anyways he wasted his substance you're gonna lose your integrity you're gonna lose your self-esteem you're gonna lose self-respect you're gonna lose your testimony you're gonna lose your good name in the community you're gonna lose your reputation within the church there's so much more to lose and waste than just money listen money can be regained possessions can be regained but it's a whole lot more difficult to regain the rest of your substance we had spin all Oh watch this when he had spent all in verse 14 there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want isn't it interesting that as soon as he had wasted and spent everything all of a sudden then a family comes to town because when you finally run out of substance then comes the famine when you've had enough substance to get back home when you had enough gas money to get back home you weren't paying attention because you were living righteously you were wasting stuff you were wasting your father's inheritance but as soon as you run out of funds as soon as the gas money dries up or the sudden the famine comes the land we get too busy oh god help us not get so busy in life that we don't see the obvious signs of the famine families have obvious signs man it stops raining things start to dry up and die there's water shortages then there's food shortages all kinds of time to get out of that country and go back home but somehow someway when you're living in the penthouse of the Grand Hyatt you don't notice the little things going on down with the little people down below when you're living it up and you're you're bringing in the best wine called room service getting the best wine brought up you don't you know watching you don't you don't pay attention to those things that are and that's why that's why the guy finds himself in a pigsty with a bunch of pigs that's why the guy finds himself well let's look at it in verse 15 it says he joined himself to a citizen of that country and that citizen sent him into his fields to feed swine now listen Jesus I want to put this in context Jesus is talking to a bunch of religious zealots a bunch of religious leaders a bunch of righteous people the Jewish faith despise swine that's the lowest the dirtiest of the dirty they don't they sure don't eat them they don't touch them they sure won't feed them they don't farm them they have nothing to do with pigs nothing to do with unclean swine and here we have this boy who leaves the father's house and now he finds himself doing the very thing that he told himself he would never do I'll tell you what I don't care how bad it gets I'll never do that I don't care how bad life gets I I'll tell you right now I'll never do those things I can look out of the father's house and look and see a bunch of unsaved Gentiles as they're messing and eating pigs and eat unclean things and carrying on and man those things smell those things stink those things are that they're they're putrid in every way I tell you I'll never do that think I'm gonna pick up a cigarette think I'd ever try drugs are you kidding me shooting up using on needle using somebody else's needle oh come on I would never do that sexual immorality I'm Way too smart for that I'll never do those kind of things and here he is surrounded by the very thing that he said he would never do in the Bible said that he would have filled his stomach I've got to get done he would have filled his stomach with a husk of corn that the pigs ran even he said he would have what he saying is he was doing that that's what he was doing when a corn husk begins to look like a candy bar you've got issues when you look at swine slop and it begins I look like mashed potatoes and gravy and you're like you know what I might just have a little bit of that you've got issues because you begin to do stuff that you would have never done at the others house but here you find yourself in a place in a state and you're like oh my god I have no other choice because the Bible says that nobody would even give to him I can't make enough money to eat he goes and finds his friends that he gave him and he gave him all kinds of money and man I don't know if they were gambling what the hell they were do with all that money but he he loaded them up with chips and whatever you doing gambling don't even think about that but he did whatever he did with that those people looked at him like he was crazy and here he is and next week he's gonna come to himself next week listen I'm just gonna give you a little preview next week because let me tell you something there's gonna come a time there's gonna come a moment when every person that finds himself sitting in a pig sty and slop with torn Hustle run who's gonna come in time but they're gonna have to cover themselves and realize listener I'm done but I wish somebody would praise God I wish a former prodigal a former particle they was brought out of sin back in the house of God I wish you just God give that place like you haven't given him place tonight as of yet I wish you just praise and say oka yeah I thank you Lord that I came to myself and I realize that this was not the role that I wanted to live I realize this was not what I wanted to be this was not the lifestyle come on placer come on this film I'll let you go I'm gonna let you go with this place and for a minute we don't even need music I just want to hear I want to hear some former prodigal son I want to hear you in my own ears I want people watching my way a webcast I want prodigal so look at you and say if they can come home then I can come home if they can find their way back then I can find my way back oh shut up oh come up a hot tub oh ho there is a pop way there is a pathway for your home but you gotta be willing to take the path home you've gotta be willing to say I will take the path hold come on for one more minute let's just praise and shove it up oh haha mash is gonna come in this business for one more minute I just want you to give God glory in this place for every prodigal for every one of you there was lost in your now fell come on call somebody Amazing Grace how sweet the sound it's saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found I was blind but now I see one more time clap your hands and give God praise oh you know what this is not only good for the prodigal tonight this is good for us so that we can determine I don't ever want to be a prodigal I don't ever want to be a prodigal i I don't ever want to be a prodigal I don't want ever you know once your way to become a prodigal is to think you could never be one so as a the best that the fastest way to fall is to think you can't let him that fake he's stand take heed lest he falls and God just soon listen Satan would just soon take an 18 year old he's no respecter person he'll use a he'll uses different temptation to an 18 year old but I Got News for you he'll go to the hospital room of an 88 year old and try to get them to doubt whether God cares about them or not then I don't want to be a product oh I don't want to wake up one day in the peak peanut I don't want to wake up one day I don't want to be a prodigal brother Kade he's gonna sing a song I asked him because an old song says take me back take me back take me back to the place where I once received you and as we sing that song if there's any of you setting in sections 1 & 6 or any of you sitting in any section it would like to go ahead and dismiss yourself so that you would be among among the crowd you're being very cautious I want you to feel free tonight to go ahead and dismiss yourself right now but as okay come and just take us a few times through that song take me back let's sing it with me