The Lost Son
Pastor Erickson teaches from Luke 15 on the lost son, showing how a restless spirit led the younger son to a far country where he wasted far more than money. He calls the church to keep praying for prodigals, invites those who have wandered to come back to the Father's house, and warns everyone not to think they could never fall.
The message in 6 points
A pathway back to the Father's house
He returns to the key verse of the series, Luke 15:24, and says everyone who wants a way home should have one. After the lost sheep and the lost coin, he reminds those who have wandered that they have not lost their value.
48:06Nobody was sent after the son
Reading Luke 15:11 to 16, he notes that unlike the sheep and the coin, nobody was sent to find the younger son. He left because he wanted to leave, so the father prayed, waited and longed for him to return.
52:10A good Father lets us choose
The father gave the insulting request for the inheritance anyway. God gives His children the right to make their own choices, and while He does not reward disobedience, He lets its natural results do the punishing.
1:00:20Beware the restless spirit
He believes the son was restless before he was rebellious. A restless spirit always thinks someone else has it better, and it grows into a runaway spirit, which he admits he felt even as a boy in a good home.
1:04:06Riotous living runs out
Sin is fun to the flesh, but only for a season. He reads from the story of a man who left his family and thought about home again and again, and urges the church never to stop praying for prodigals who only look happy.
1:12:11He wasted his substance
Leaving the Father's house costs more than money: integrity, testimony and good name. Then the famine comes, and the son ends up feeding swine and doing what he swore he never would. He closes by inviting prodigals home and warning that the fastest way to fall is to think you never could.
1:21:40
In his words
“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.”
“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.”
“Money can be regained, possessions can be regained, but it's a whole lot more difficult to regain the rest of your substance.”
Taken word for word from the video, with punctuation added.
Scripture
He reads
Luke 15:24
24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
King James Version.
Luke 15:11-16
11And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
King James Version.
The Pathway Home series
Message 2 of 4 on this channel.
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