What does it really mean when a son asks for his inheritance? Words to help you grasp the real truth in the prodigal son. You have to understand that in the Middle Eastern culture, but particularly at the time of Jesus, it would be unthinkable for a boy to come to his father and ask for part of his estate. Because when the child is asking for that part of the estate, he's basically saying, Father, I wish you were dead. Welcome to Leading the Way Audio with Pastor and the author of the newly released book, God's Final Call, Dr. Michael Youssef.
It's not uncommon to hear stories of young adults raised in wealthy families just wasting away a trust fund or an inheritance on wild living. And in Luke chapter 15, Jesus recounts a similar situation. In his teaching, Jesus uses the scene to reveal God's heart toward the lost. It's a parable of Jesus that's often called the prodigal son. Hey, keep in mind that Leading the Way is listener supported, meaning that Dr. Youssef and his leadership team rely on the prayers and generosity of those blessed by Leading the Way and Dr. Youssef, and they want to see even more lives impacted for eternity. So stand with Dr. Youssef through your prayers, through ordering encouraging resources, and through generous giving.
The place to begin, ltw.org. More on that later right now, though, a message called God's Exemplary Pursuit, taking you into the truth found in the prodigal son. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to tell us and reveal to us what God the Father is like. He said, God is a Father to everyone who would come and take the Son as the Savior of the life. He's the Father. And the story that we call the prodigal son is all about the Father. It's about the heart of the Father. It is about the character of the Father. It is about the loving characteristics of the Father. And Jesus wanted us to know what His Father with whom He coexisted before the creation of the universe. He wanted us to know what His Father is like, so He tells us this story. He wanted us to comprehend and take in deep into our hearts, deep into our minds, what the Father is like, what the nature of the all-powerful and the almighty God whom we call our Heavenly Father is like. And so He begins the story by saying there was a Father.
And this is the focus. Please listen carefully. Whether you and I have had or do have good fathers or not so good fathers, that's beside the point. Whether you and I have had harsh fathers or kind fathers, that's beside the issue.
Whether you and I have had or have adorable fathers or abusive fathers, that's beside the issue. Jesus wants us to know what God the Father is like. Jesus is saying that this is what the Father in heaven is like. And therefore, listen to me, any and every sound teaching and preaching and thinking must begin with the Father. It must begin with the Father. It must start with the Father. It must focus on the Father.
Why? Because when God the Father is my primary focus, it is your primary focus. Me and my needs, you and your needs are going to be met in His glory and in His riches.
The word in Hebrew, Abba, is such a rich word, is such a powerful word, a word that is so filled with emotions. It's so comprehensive that I am personally convinced that we will never comprehend it completely until we see our Heavenly Father in heaven face to face. And that is why it was so important for Jesus to let you and me and every subsequent generation from His time on to know what His Father is like. There was such a distorted image of the Father even in His time that He is trying to set the record straight. And He wants us to know how God feels when one of His children willfully and deliberately goes his or her own way. He wants us to know how God the Father feels when one of His children lives through their lives as if God the Father doesn't exist. He wants us to know how He feels when one of His children take all of the blessings and all of the resources from the hand of the Father and they totally ignore Him. He wants us to know how the Father feels when one of His children does not even think of coming to Him unless they become desperate and they really need something.
When His children live their lives indifferent toward Him. And that's what He tells us in the example of the younger boy in the story. But we also see how the Father feels when some of His children live a life that's on the surface focused on the rituals, tradition. They may even go to church. They may even sing in the choir.
They are in the house. But their heart is in the far country as we see in the story of the older boy because his heart was in the far country. This is the third in the series of messages the God who pursues us. And we saw first the story of the lost sheep. Then we saw the story of the lost coin or the engagement ring as I explained to you what the coin is all about. And here He tells us about the story of two lost sons. Just like the sheep and the coin. One son was lost in the far country.
The other son was lost right in the home. But there's something very, very, very, very, very, how many verys are these? Very important.
I don't want you to miss. And it is this. When the sheep wandered in the wilderness in foolishness, the shepherd went after him and did not rest until he carried him on his shoulder and brought him all the way home. And when the woman lost her and got part of her engagement ring, that coin that was in the simdhi that she wore at her engagement. When she lost that coin as a result of negligence, as a result of carelessness, she searched diligently until she found the lost coin.
But here in this story when the son deliberately and willfully and premeditatedly left home, the father waited for him in the house. I'm going to say some more about that. But it's very important for you to get that. It's very, very important.
It's part of the whole picture. But in order to comprehend how miserable an act that this young boy has committed, in order to just get it and really comprehend the depth of the hurtful feelings on the part of the father, you have to understand that in the Middle Eastern culture, but particularly at the time of Jesus, it would be unthinkable for a boy to come to his father and ask for part of his estate. It will be unthinkable. Because when the child is asking for that part of the estate, he's basically saying, whether he articulated or not, whether he verbalized it or not, he's basically saying, father, I wish you were dead. Hurry up and die, so I can get my hand on the estate. Can you imagine how hurtful that is?
Can you imagine how painful that is? Oh, but listen. Think about how many people, how many people who may never entertain the thought that they wish that God in heaven be dead. They may never articulate the thought that they wish the heavenly father was dead. They will never say it. They will never think it.
And yet, they live their lives as if God is dead. You say, Michael, wait a minute. This is too strong. This is too harsh. What do you mean?
I never do that. Well, when you go home, I want you to look at your calendar and find out exactly how much of your calendar does God occupy. Check your checkbook. Find out how much of that God occupies and he gives you everything to begin with. Go and list your priorities in life and find out where does God fit in in your priorities of life. People are living as if God is dead. You say, but that's different.
Not at all. Subconsciously, so many people take all of the resources and all of the blessings and all of the good things that come from the hand of God and they spin it on themselves. But there's something else here that I don't want you to miss. You need to understand. To see the reaction of the Pharisees and the scribes to whom Jesus was speaking. I mean, they must have absolutely had shocked faces. They must have had their mouths open and their eyes wide open because they could not believe what they just heard. Let me explain it in context. If a kid back then came to his father and said, give me the part of your state that I would have inherited when you die. You know about the only thing that this kid is going to see?
With the back of the hands. I got a few of those. But we thought it was normal. Never thought anything about it. I never one time got it. I didn't think I deserved it.
When people talk about how discipline warps your personality, I tell people, I say that warped certain part of my anatomy, but not my personality. And these people who were listening to Jesus at the time were absolutely mesmerized. They would say, huh? Are you kidding us? The father did what? Are you for real? Is that really true?
But it gets more hilarious than that. According to the Old Testament laws of inheritance that you find in Deuteronomy 21, 17, the older boy inherits two-thirds of the estate. And the younger boy would have inherited one-third, not half-half. Because it was understood, and if you read on in the book of Deuteronomy, the older boy was expected to take care of his widowed mother and run the family business. And so he would have inherited two-thirds according to the word of God, according to the law of God.
But that's after the father dies, not before. Listen to me. What Jesus is deliberately doing here was to impress upon them and upon us how incredibly, how awesomely, how unbelievably, how indescribably, how inexhaustibly the love of God is. And the patience of God, Paul said to the Romans, is supposed to constantly bring us to the point that God has been so patient with me, I better turn my life over to Him. Not to say, oh well, you know, God obviously doesn't care. I can run around, I can do whatever I want to do, and God doesn't care. No, no, no, no.
His love and His patience is long and deep because He wants His patience and His love to draw you and woo to Him. That's why. Someone here is running away with all of God's blessings and living in the far country. You know who you are.
I don't. Only you know. And you're totally oblivious to the broken heart of the Father who's waiting for you. He's waiting for you. Come home to the loving arms of the Father.
And you can do that today. Someone here today may have somebody in their life that is so blinded with self that they cannot see the pain that they're causing you. Let them go. Let them go. Do you have someone who has betrayed you and falsely accused you when you've done nothing but love that person? Let them go.
Why? Because often, most often, it is only in the far country will they come to their senses. Those who are blinded with selfishness will only come to their senses when they become so desperate. What is your far country?
What is your far country? Is it an unwholesome relationship? Is it a misplaced priority? Is it blind desire for accumulating for the sake of accumulating? Is it worry and anxiety and fear? Is it inability to trust God with your life? To trust God with your family? To trust God with your future? To trust God with your business? To trust God and you want to take things into your own hands?
What is your far country? But remember this. The Father may just let you keep on going and keep on going to your heart's content. But he's hurting as he's waiting. And he's waiting and he waits patiently.
But don't take that patience for granted and commit the sin of presumption. The Father in this story, of course, he could have tried to stop the boy. I know people who try to stop and they would have probably cried and said, son, what are you doing? No, no, he didn't. He just let him go. Obviously, he could afford a private detective and send him to find out where the boy every step of his way and report back to him. He didn't. He could have sent one of his servants and he'd just be there to be available to help.
No, no, no, no. Because that way the boy will never come to his senses. Some of you may be in a place where the Father was. Your heart is broken in two over someone in your life.
And you're going through your own private Gethsemane right now. Your pillows are stained with tears and you're hurting so much that you can't hurt anymore. Please, please listen to the voice of the Father saying to you, I know what you're going through. I experience that pain when one of my children is living for self. Please understand that I experience that same pain when one of my children insists on going his or her own way. Please understand that I experience that same pain when one of my children lives unfaithfully to me.
Please understand that I experience the same pain when one of my children deny me before man. But let me hasten and hurry up to tell you about the Father's reaction when his wayward boy came home. That's my favorite part of the story. It really is. And I pray there will be until I see Jesus face to face.
It is my favorite part. When a boy finally comes to the point of nowhere else to turn. You have to ask the question, why does it have to get to this point? Our stubborn nature.
Our stubborn nature. That we have to get so desperate before we turn to God. And finally, this boy comes to his senses and the Father said to him, you stupid, foolish boy. You caused me all this worry and pain. Listen my boy, you have to earn my forgiveness. You have to work for your keep.
You have to grovel and prove that you really mean it. Is that what the Father said? Is that what the Father said? But listen, that's exactly, exactly what the listeners to Jesus would have done if they were in that situation.
It's exactly what they've done. That's part of the custom of the day. That's part of that culture. The boy would have sat outside of the house for about a week and as the passersby, mock him, make fun of him and as the passersby, humiliate him as they go by and say nasty things. And when after the villagers have had their fun and making fun of the boy, and when the Father feels that the boy is sufficiently humiliated, then he would take him home and have him come inside.
Ah, but that's not what happened. Because that's not how the Heavenly Father works. That's not how the Heavenly Father responds. And that's what he's trying to impress on in their heads. It says the Father ran.
You know, when you say, well isn't that sweet, isn't that wonderful, isn't that nice? But you've got to understand my beloved friends, you've got to understand there's a deeper meaning in this. This is huge when you understand that in the Middle East culture, particularly in the days of Jesus, men never, never, never, never run. They don't run. Only the servants and the slaves and those who are running from the law will run.
A dignified man, a dignified father is the one in this story. Never, never run. And that is why this is a big part of the story. It's a huge part of the story. Running is a form of humiliation.
Running is a form of degradation. Can you see the cross here? Can you see the cross here? Where the Father humiliated himself in the Son as he hung on that cross in order that he might die for everyone who would come to him and ask for his forgiveness. What does the Father in Heaven do when a person repents of their sin and come and ask for his forgiveness?
When they come under conviction and say, Lord, forgive me. What does the Father do? Oh, he embraces him as a form of acceptance.
He kisses him as a form of reconciliation. He washes them and cleans them as an assurance of total forgiveness. He puts on his own robe on him because he had no robe of his own. The boy had no robe of righteousness and you and I did not have any robes of righteousness, not a single good deed that would have made us acceptable to God the Father and that is why the Lord Jesus Christ had to put his robe of righteousness on us to be accepted to the Father.
That's what he does. We give God praise if you want to give him praise. Some of you here might be in the far country where you respond. You've never received Jesus Christ as the Savior of your life and the Lord of your life and you've never really felt his warm embrace. You never understood what it is to be free of guilt and sin. Today you can come home.
You can come home. You've been far away from the security and the peace that only the Father can give. Today you can come home and you can say Father and you know what just like the father of the boy, the boy didn't really finish. He prepared his speech and you know that in the story. He prepared his speech but he never got to finish it.
He never got to finish the speech. He said Father I have sinned and the Father said that's enough and the Father will embrace you and the Father will tenderly forgive you and the Father will bring you home. He will place a robe of Jesus' righteousness and then he will call you a daughter and a son and he'll adopt you and once you're adopted in his family there is no leaving. Jesus said those whom the Father has given me I lose none. See it's not up to you.
It's up to him and he's holding you on those strong arms. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for the program known across six continents as Leading the Way. Listen by way of your radio or online or with the Leading the Way app or by subscribing to the podcast. Learn about all of these opportunities at ltw.org. Now if today's message has reminded you of your distance from God and maybe it's prompted a desire to return to the Heavenly Father, talk with someone today. A pastor or a counselor can be reached at ltw.org. My name is Ron Nelson.
I'm calling from Ontario, Canada. Dr. Youssef has been tremendous. He has just given me such encouragement through his messages, his absolute boldness and clarity to deliver the gospel message. Dr. Youssef, thank you so much, you know, for being so faithful to the cause of Christ and I am so thankful that I have committed myself in what way I can to support your ministry.
You're a blessing. Your ministry of outreach does a tremendous job, both domestic and abroad. Thank you so much again, how you have remained faithful in all the parts of the world that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you so much, Dr. Youssef. May your ministry continue to be blessed, be emboldened with the power of the Holy Spirit, and I will continue to listen and be encouraged.
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The churches of Revelation departed from God's truth and they serve as a warning for us today. Join us for a Leading the Way as Dr. Michael Youssef unpacks God's final call to the church of our time. Do make it a point to listen right here next time for more Leading the Way audio. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org.
