The Parable of the Prodigal Son: Come Home To God

Welcome to the Recovered Christian, the podcast for believers who want to break the chains of addiction and live a recovered life. Join host Suzanne Bloomer each week as she shares her personal journey of recovery, provides encouragement for yours and takes a deep dive into the scriptures. God wrote a book, and the Bible is full of hope, wisdom and practical applications for all of us. So whether you're just starting on the road to sobriety or are hoping to take the first step, this podcast is for you. Tune in each week for a biblical shot of courage and let's recover your life, one devotion at a time. Now here's Suzanne with Today's Show.

Hi and welcome to the Recovered Christian. This is Suzanne, and I'm so happy you're listening today. I talked recently about the lost sheep and how heaven rejoices when one who has strayed returns. Today I want to visit the story of the prodigal son. You probably know it. It's definitely one of the most well-known parables in the Bible, so let's read it and then we're going to go over some lessons we can learn from it. This is from Luke, chapter 15, verses 11 to 32. To illustrate the point further, jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father I want my share of your estate now, before you die. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. When he finally came to his senses. He said to himself At home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, father, I have sinned against both heaven and you and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. So he returned home to his father and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. But his father said to the servants Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him, get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet and kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for the son of mine was dead and now has returned to life. He was lost, but now is found, so the party began. Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house and he asked one of the servants what was going on. Your brother is back, he was told, and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return. The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him. But he replied All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to, and in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when the son of yours comes back, after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf. His father said to him Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, but now he is found. How our father rejoices when we come home to him. This parable teaches us so much about God's character and how he loves us. It's a story full of mistakes, shame, redemption, forgiveness and love. I have been that lost son. I spent years squandering the gifts the father gave me, wasting times on things unworthy and turning my back on him in so many ways. I always went to church, oftentimes with a hangover, but I went, I volunteered. I tied, I did all the Christian things, but my heart was not devoted to him. He wasn't first in my life. I was breaking the most important commandment you must not have any other gods before me. And I did. At the time I didn't think of it that way, but now I see it very clearly. My addiction was my God, whether I wanted it there or not In most times I definitely did not I had packed all my belongings into my suitcase of wine and wasted my time and inheritance in the foreign land of addiction. That's so sad. I feel so sad for that girl and I'm so grateful that she that I came home to my father, who welcomed me with a celebration and lavished me with forgiveness. So what are some takeaways from this parable that we can apply to our lives in recovery? Well, first, god loves us. He's willing to forgive us if we repent. Acts 3, verse 19, tells us to Repent of your sins and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped away. Repent, that an amazing thought. God wipes our slates clean when we come to Him with a truly repentant heart. I know we all still try to lug around that bundle of shame and regret, but we don't need to. God has taken that from us, lifted it right out of our hands and forgiven us our past. Let Him have it. Pry your fingers off one by one and give all that to God. You don't need it anymore. When we truly repent, we are washed white as snow. In John 8, we find the story of the woman who committed adultery and was about to be stoned. Her accusers attempt to get Jesus to condone their actions. He tells them that the one who has never sinned can throw the first stone. One by one, the accusers leave. And what does Jesus tell the woman? It's one of the most important verses in the Bible, in my opinion. He says go and sin no more. God wipes our slates clean. But Jesus makes it clear we can't just go out and keep sinning. When your heart is truly changed, when the Holy Spirit fills it and you lay down your life to God's will, you won't want to keep repeating the same sins. The Holy Spirit will convict you and hopefully you will listen. Does that mean we will never sin? Of course not. The only human who was sinless was Jesus himself. But we will be aware of our sins in a way that we weren't before. We repent, we stop sinning and we are washed clean. That's just so great. Second, god is patient and merciful with us, even when we don't deserve it. I love the verses in Exodus 34, 6-7. Moses is on the mountain receiving the second set of commandments after he broke the first at an anger because the people got tired of waiting for him and made a golden calf. But that's another story for another episode. The Lord came down on a cloud and stands there with him. Can you imagine Moses had such an intimate relationship with the Father, even after killing it? In Egyptian, god loves to use broken people. The Lord calls out his name. Yahweh passes in front of Moses and says this Yahweh the Lord, the God of compassion and mercy, I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty. None of us deserve God's love. We fail him over and over again, but he loves us anyways. We can never be worthy of everything he gives us and does for us. He does it because we are his children and he loves us. He wants good things for us but, like he says here, he does not excuse the guilty. We have to do our part Keep his commandments, love one another, don't blaspheme him, and do our best to be like his son, jesus. We won't be perfect, and he's known that since the Garden of Eden. But we can try. We can try and we can repent when we mess up and we can ask for forgiveness. If we do that, he will lavish unfailing love on us, and I want that love. I need it. Once you experience it for real, once you see what God will do with your life, if you let him, you will never want to sin again. You won't go back to the way you were. You won't want to let him down. It's been the most amazing thing that's happened to me in my whole life and I don't want to let him down. When he first delivered me out of the pit of addiction, I told my husband I'll do whatever God wants me to do, except speak publicly about my addiction. I don't want to have that be the focus of my life and honestly, I didn't want to do it. But God right. So here I am, speaking publicly about my addiction. It became clear to me that this is what he wanted me to do. So now I am. I know nothing about podcasting, I really don't enjoy social media, but he said do it. And so I'm doing it. I don't know if anyone likes it, I don't know if it's helpful, and that's okay. I'm being obedient and that's enough. I just don't want to let him down. And third, god in all of the heaven rejoices when we come home. Our world today is full of unhappy wanderers. We are stumbling around creating our own religions and our own gods, misinterpreting the Bible, trying to fill the holes in our hearts that only he can fill. And there is God waiting patiently on the front porch of heaven, with the light on, just waiting for us to come home. He's waiting to see us walking down the road. He's waiting to hear us say I have sinned against both heaven and you, forgive me. He's waiting to throw his finest robe on us, clothe us, feed us and throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen to welcome us home, for we were dead and have come back to life. We were lost and now we are found. Why do we waste so much time out there in the wilderness when we could just come home and sit with God on the front porch, the God who created the universe and everything in it, who created the heavens and the sea and every creature that walks the earth, that God knows your name. He has numbered the hairs on your head, he has amazing plans for you and he's waiting on the front porch for you to come home. Come home, it's more than just getting sober. Coming home is opening your heart to him and surrendering your life to his will. Thy will be done. We say it in the Lord's prayer all the time. Thy will not mine Coming home is putting him first Before our addiction, our spouse, our jobs, ourselves. Coming home is letting go and letting God and staying that way. Coming home is comfort and safety and eternal life. Why would we want to be anywhere else? Let's pray, father. You told us you are compassionate and merciful and slow to anger. Thank you for all of those things, because we need them. Please watch over every prodigal wandering out in the wilderness, lost, afraid and hurting. Help, guide them home to you. Give them a longing for you, a thirst that only can be quenched by laying down their life to you. Be their North Star, be mine, in Jesus' name, amen. I was that prodigal son. I still am sometimes, but I keep coming home to sit with God on the front porch and let him take care of me. I hope you'll join me. He's waiting for us. We aren't worthy, we don't deserve it, but he's there, waiting, ready to celebrate our homecoming with every good thing. Let's not keep him waiting too long. I'll see you next time.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Recovered Christian with Suzanne Bloomer. If you're enjoying the show, please rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Community and support are so important in recovery. We'd love you to join our Facebook group, the Recovered Christian, where you can fellowship with believers walking the same road, or visit our website at TheRecoveredChristiancom. Links to both are in the show notes. Once again, thanks for listening and we hope you'll join us again on the Recovered Christian.