Allen Jackson - The Prodigal Returns - Part 1
It's good to be with you again. We're working on this series that's centered in our nation and our heritage of faith. In this session we're gonna talk about the Prodigal's Return. Now, I think there's a mistake when we talk about the failures of Christianity in our nation, which is really the shortcomings of the church, our first response is to be defensive, maybe even to feel a bit of guilt or shame. I don't know that that's appropriate because the reality through Scripture, both in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and then in the New Testament, is the inconsistency of God's people, that's a normal part of the story. Well, it's a normal part of the history of the church, from the 1st century until today as well. So when we're in one of those seasons when the Spirit of God is stirring our hearts and calling us out of the world, back to an attitude of purity and holiness to serve God in a new way, I don't think we want to process it as a failure but a gift. The Spirit of God is stirring his people to a new response because he wants to take us to a new place. Now that's exciting. Get your Bible and a notepad, we wanna get our marching orders from the Lord.
The theme we're working on it has to do with America, and in this particular session, I want to speak to you about the Prodigal's Return, but I wanna start, I've been talking to you about "As American as apple pie" for a few weeks. We gave apple pies to all the kids last week. I think they're getting apple sauce today, more portable and less messy. We learn, we learn. But more integrated into our story as a nation than baseball or hot dogs or apple pie, and they're pretty well integrated, is the Christian faith. It's impossible to understand the emergence of this nation and what has happened to us as a people without understanding the involvement of the Christian faith.
We don't apologize for it, we're not a perfect nation, there are no perfect nations, nations are built out of people and a very close examination of any nation's story will show you the frailty that comes with the human condition. It's just that lately it's been, not just lately, for decades now, it's been fashionable to have a more destructive attitude towards our nation than one of recognizing what has made us strong, and the Christian faith is a part of our story. And if the Christians don't understand that and the Christians don't believe that, we will forfeit our future. I'm not confused, I don't believe God is American.
I don't think he favors the United States above other nations, he favors people who fear him, and what has brought the unique blessings of God is not our natural resources or our geographical location. It's not our ethnicity, because we're a nation of immigrants. We've come from the nations of the world, and there were a whole lot of different motivations that brought us here. What has attracted the blessings of God was the people amongst us that chose to honor him.
Now, that's true with the nations anywhere. So we ask God to bless America, we're not asking him to uniquely bless America. If you have a US citizenship, or whatever nation you're a citizen of, you have a responsibility to be salt and light in that place. In fact, we all carry dual citizenship. You're a citizen, I hope, of the eternal kingdom of God. If you're not, you're a citizen of the eternal kingdom of darkness, but you have citizenship in eternity and you'd better sort out which kingdom. And you better understand how you gain access to the kingdom of God, it's not by joining a church or being a part of the right denomination or reading the right translation of the Bible or it's not even about your beverage list.
It's about a person and his name is Jesus of Nazareth, and if you haven't chosen him as the Lord of your life and if you're not living as if he were Lord of your life, you are not a citizen of that kingdom. That's why the message of our faith is so important. But along with that eternal component that defines you, it's the primary defining component of your life. It's why I don't like hyphenated Christians. I'm not an American-Christian or a male Christian or a Southern Christian or any other distinguishing, I'm a Christ follower first and foremost. That is the introduction to who I am as a human being, and along with that we have citizenship to a nation.
And there's some allegiances, some rights, privileges, and responsibilities that come with that, but if we don't understand our story as a people we are very easily manipulated by people who would change our values. Because it's our godly values, they shaped our legal system, they shaped our educational system, of the first 108 universities founded our nation, 106 where uniquely Christian, including Harvard, the oldest of our universities. It's our story as a people, and I will not surrender that ground to people who intentionally want to diminish it or hide it, it's wrong, it's our heritage.
Now, I understand that patriotism is a little bit out of style. Not for me, I love this country. It's not perfect, it's not without its flaws, but I've traveled enough, folks, there's no place else like it. We have an amazing new road in front of our church. Have you seen that? Wow. I'm telling you, I don't take that for granted, I appreciate TDOT. I do, you heard it right out of my lips, don't just complain about the roads when they bug you, thank God for the beautiful roads we have to drive on. We are such a blessed people, we have hospitals and healthcare and schools and education and medicines available for our children, we have more freedoms and liberties than any people have ever known. Doesn't mean it's all right or we get it all right, but folks, we are uniquely blessed.
Now, we've got to wake up. There are people manipulating you with parts of the truth hoping they can orchestrate your compliance based upon misrepresenting reality. But it starts with your allegiance to God. Patriotism is a little out of style, it's as out of style as being godly or holy or righteous or pure, because they know they can't move you off your patriotism unless they can move you off of your faith.
Now, again, I'm not trying to wrap the Gospel in the flag. Save yourself the effort, don't send me the note, I'm not confused, this isn't crude nationalism. But I'm telling you, the blessings that have come to us because of a biblical worldview that has shaped us, the privileges and rights and freedoms that have come to children in our nation, the privileges and rights in childrens that have come to women, the rights and privileges that have come to minorities amongst us.
I remember what Dr. King said, that he had a dream of the day when we will be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin. That emerged from a biblical worldview. His faith changed our nation, and your faith can change our nation. It's far more powerful than ideologies. I understand love of country's no longer chic, it's okay with me. It's okay with me. We've watched all sorts of things happening trying to diminish our nation and our freedoms and liberties. We've watched law enforcement be derided while angry mobs destroying property around them chant, "Defund the police," and the angry mobs bringing destruction are celebrated and the police are denigrated. It's wrong, it's wrong. They're not perfect, no group of people is perfect.
Tragically, the FBI and the Justice Department seem to become partisan political operatives, but we'll pray, that can change. We've got to come back to our values. Governments don't keep us free, God does. Liberty and freedom and justice don't come from political parties or from founding documents, they come from the hand of God, and God's people have to understand that. And we have to boldly and unapologetically and persistently and lovingly be willing to be advocates for Jesus of Nazareth as Lord, Christ and King. That's who we are, it's what we've been called to do, it's more important than anything else on our to-do list. I've been a bit.. amused is not the right word... bewildered. Superman is undergoing a change.
Have you noticed? He was recently announced to be bisexual. Even Superman's not as American as apple pie and baseball anymore. But you know, to implement a change like that in the public sphere, a worldview has to be modified. You couldn't have made that announcement at one point because the worldview that occupied our culture, the dominant worldview was a Judeo-Christian worldview. If they can diminish that, they can push any number of ideas across the plate that don't come from that worldview. Are you paying attention? Superman's motto, apparently, is even evolving.
For decades, I wasn't a comic book person, but I know Superman, for decades, the comic book hero was committed to, "Truth, justice, and the American way". You've heard that too. Well, they've reportedly change that, true. The now-Superman stands for, "Truth, justice, and a better tomorrow". Even our cartoon heroes don't wanna represent American values anymore. I object. I had this image, and I don't know, I don't think we're aware of the degree to which ungodliness and ungodly ideas cascade upon us day in and day out, week in and week out, month after month. It happens to the point that I think we become sensory, just unaware of what's happening, it becomes internalized, it's just normal.
Ungodliness is normal, immorality is normal, greed is normal, covetous is normal, all sorts of, it just cascades. Have you ever stood under a waterfall? I don't mean Niagara Falls, you wouldn't survive that. It doesn't have to be Niagara Falls, if you stand, I have in multiple places, if you stand under a waterfall and that water is cascading over you, it almost totally occupies your sensory awareness. You can't really hear anything but the water, can't see much beyond the water because it's filling your field to view. Your sense, you're absorbed in the water, the temperature, I mean, it just completely.
Well, I have that image that we're in a waterfall of wickedness, it just washes over us, and so we lose our orientation with relation to the kingdom of God. The hope I have is the people of God. So the beginning of this little discussion, and this isn't about being critical of the church or condemning of the church, I don't want you to leave feeling oppressed, I want you to understand the enormous value you hold, the potential for a better future for our children and grandchildren and the families around us and for our nation and for those people who are oppressed and those people who are desperate for help. The hope comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it doesn't come from the halls of Congress. And to the degree that the halls of Congress are influenced by the truth of God, we will continue to be a nation of liberty and freedom. To the extent that we push them out of there and they increase, the waterfall of wickedness will become increasingly oppressed.
So I want to start with this notion of the Prodigal's Return. I suspect you know the parable of the prodigal son. But before we look at the parable, we have to address the awkward truth: we are far from God. Oh, I know we sit in churches, but we'd have tolerated immorality and ungodliness and wickedness and all sorts of things that we understand are really not great but in the nature of this waterfall that's been cascading over us we've lost our balance. "Oh, it's not that bad," or, "It's been a part of our story and we survived," and we think saying I'm sorry or a quick prayer of repentance somehow remediates the ungodliness in the season of wickedness in our life because we seem to have survived it.
We're totally unaware of what's been forfeited, we're totally unaware. What if King David had not trusted God when the lion and the bear came out to take a sheep from his father's flock? The Israelites would've been speaking whatever the Philistines spoke. It took one young man that was willing to have a heart towards God that set him apart, he had a heart for God. We're gonna have to be willing to become those people. We've wanted to have a heart for the world with just enough of God in us that we didn't go south, but I don't mean the Gulf. Come on now. I'm not trying to accuse us, but if we can't get an orientation, if we can't get an accurate diagnosis, we can't get a pathway to being healthier. And we don't want to recalibrate.
You know, we're in the business of recalibrating everything now, what optimal body weight is. We've gained a lot of weight, so let's recalibrate that, we think fluffy is better. We'll recalibrate how much exercise we need, we'll recalibrate what reading standards, we'll just recalibrate it 'cause it's awkward to look. But folks, God hasn't changed his standard. The awkward truth is we are far from God. Those of us in the church, we know of him, we have a rich heritage of faith, we've enjoyed the blessings of God, yet we have wandered from the truth and imagined we could secure our future apart from God's direction. So we could quibble about subtleties around faith, how long the service lasted, how good the parking was, if the worship style suited me, if they read from the right translation of the Bible.
Now, I appreciate personal preference but to imagine that those are primary criteria for defining your faith is nonsense, it's apostasy. We've negotiated away the divinity of Jesus, the Virgin birth, his redemptive work, his death, burial and resurrection. We've been willing to negotiate away miracles or the authority of Scripture as a rule of faith and practice in our lives, but we will fight you over worship style. Come on. That's been the world we've lived in, I've lived in it. In an expression of great mercy, I believe God is stirring our hearts. We don't want to ignore his mercy or respond with defensiveness. I don't want to be defensive, I don't want you to be, I want us to say, "Lord, if there's any degree that could be true in me, help me with that. God, if there's any way, if that's possible".
If you went to the doctor and he said, "You know, it's a high degree of impossibility that you have malignancy," you wouldn't go, "Ah, bother". No, no, "If that's in me, what can I do? I don't want that in me". I'd rather respond early, I would rather deal with it at the very beginning. I don't want it to gain any momentum. I certainly don't want it to occupy any more space and it has right now. So we want to respond to God, not defensively, but we want to respond in humility and say, "Lord, help me to realign my life. Whatever realignment is necessary, I want to be pleasing to you, I want to bring joy to you. I don't want to see how close I can get to evil, I wanna see how close I can get to you".
We've had the wrong attitude, folks. We would argue that whatever our favorite exposure to ungodliness is isn't that destructive. I understand the temptation, after all, we're standing in a waterfall, but I want us to step out of the waterfall and stand under the righteous reign of the Holy Spirit, huh? It's going to take a change. Isaiah chapter 1, in verse 18... this is not a new thing, we're not the first generation, we're not the first nation, it's not the first time in our nation's history. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 18, "Come now," God said, "Let us reason together. Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; and though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you're willing and obedient, you'll eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you'll be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord have spoken".
Again, this is not new, it's not us, it's not unique to us, what hubris. Yes, we've wandered, but we're not the first generation to do so, we're not the first nation to do so, it's not the first time in our history it's happened. Will this generation to have the courage to choose God? It's a very important question. Are you willing to be different for Jesus? Are you willing to take your strength and all the tools and resources that God has given you and be a bold ambassador for Jesus? Or are we gonna continue to capitulate to the world? It's a very important question.
Luke chapter 15 is the story of the prodigal son. I think you know the story. Young man came to his father and said, "I want my inheritance now," and the father, in an amazing display of wisdom and grace, said, "Okay". The young man took it, he left, and then he spent all that had been entrusted to him in wickedness, riotous living. Think you get the picture. And when his money was gone, all his new friends were gone, and he found himself doing about the most humiliating thing a young Jewish man could do. He was surviving by feeding the pigs and eating the slop, and he finally came to himself.
That's where we pick it up in your notes, it's Luke 15:17, "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and I'm starving to death! I'll set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I've sinned against heaven and you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went out to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, was filled with compassion for him".
I want you to circle that little word, "Compassion," we're gonna come back to it in a moment. "Father saw him and was filled with compassion," not anger, not frustration, compassion. And, "He ran to his son, and he threw his arms around him and he kissed him. The son said, 'Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you.'" Think of all the things he could have said, "My counselor said I grew up in a broken family, a dysfunctional family, and it's perfectly understandable why I left. If you had been a better father, I would have never left to begin with. If my brother had been more understanding, I would have never left". It's a cultural problem. "I was looking for a culture with a history that wasn't as oppressive and so I left," think of all the things he could have said, and there could have been some truth in all of those things.
But he said, "'I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. This son of mine was dead, and he's alive again.'" It's a new birth, it's a new birth. We all need a new birth. Folks, you can't outrun corruption. You keep fruit in the refrigerator to try to slow down the rate of decay, but the refrigerator doesn't stop it. We've turned our churches into great refrigerators, right? We want to change the temperature for a little while so the decay and the corruption doesn't show up.
We don't need to just retard the corruption, we need a new birth. We've gotta become new creatures, the power of the blood of Jesus. The father restored him. So the good news is prodigal's return, it's a story of Scripture, it's a story throughout the Hebrew Bible, it's a story throughout the New Testament, it's a story throughout the church from the 1st century until today, and it's the story of our nation. Again, the question is what about this generation, what will we be known for? We'll be known for great technological advances. Will we be known for the internet and the dissemination of information in unprecedented ways? Or will we be known for a moving of the Spirit of God that changed the heart of a generation?
The outcome isn't clear. In fact, there's more clarity than I would like, but it's not going in a good direction. But because I believe in the power of God and the grace of God and the restoring mercy of God, I believe if God's people will choose him, we will see him restore us, exactly what he promised to Isaiah. He said, "Come, let's reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, you can be as white as new wool".
I wonder if you'd be willing to pray a prayer of repentance with me. I brought you a prayer, it's not the end of the service, you can't leave. I'm gonna give you a couple of prayers today. Your prayers make so much difference, I want to encourage you to pray and not with just me in this moment but to pray them throughout the day, for the week ahead and perhaps beyond if the Lord makes it real to you. Prayers change us, prayers change us. You know what it is, you've had negative words change you, critical words impact you, judgmental words impact you, you've had good words, encouraging words give you strength and renewal and hope.
So don't be so stubborn and skeptical to think that your words don't have spiritual authority. We've lived with that stubborn skepticism for too long. It's time for the church to believe that God's authority in your mouth will make a difference. We've been playing at church. I assure you, the devil isn't playing. He intends to destroy humanity, in totality if not for the grace of God. We are the salt and light in the midst of the darkness. I brought you a prayer. Why don't we stand together? We can read it together, it's in your notes, they'll put it on the screens. If you're online, you can download it. Let's read it together:
O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We've been wicked and have rebelled; we've turned away from your commands and laws. We've not listen to your direction. Now, O Lord our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servants. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your people. Give ear and hear; open our eyes and see the desolation of our day. We do not make request because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, do not delay, because your people bear your name, amen.