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III. A Lost Child
Now, here's the third story. Look at verse 13. We read that a man had two
sons and the younger one thought that he knew better than his father did
so he just took off. Gathered all he had, traveled to a distant country.
There he  squandered his property in desolate and reckless living. What
does lost mean? It means to be a long way from the Father. It means to be
a great distance from God's purpose.
Heart priority of a
parent
There is nothing that I won't do for my kids. I
remember one weekend when Jonathan was just a little kid. He was sitting
here in the front row in worship. There is always a cordless microphone on
the seat with us as a back-up. So it was on the seat and Jonathan, being a
little kid, picked it up. He didn't know it was on, so he just sat there
tapping it on his legs back and forth during worship. I looked over out of
the corner of my eye and I wondered why those people weren't doing
anything with my kid. I'm doing something important! I'm connecting people
to God and I was hearing this mic banging in my ear constantly. This went
on for about five minutes and finally I just said, "Will someone take
the mic away from my kid!" So all of sudden he looked shocked and
dropped the mic. He's embarrassed. My kid is kind of a quiet, sensitive
kid. He ran out the door. All of a sudden I realized what I had done. So I
said, 'Folks, you deal with this, I've got to go take care of my son.' I
dropped my mic and chased my son out of the church! He was sitting out on
the curb crying. I went over and sat down next to him. And I said, "
Jonathan, Dad blew it. I'm sorry that I did that." I don't know what
you all were doing inside. It was the middle of the sermon. But I'll do
anything for my kids. You say, Mike, a thousand people were in there
depending on you and you went out there for the one? No question!
 Look at
verse 20. Here is the amazing thing about the priority of God. This kid
finally becomes convinced that out there on your own, a long way from the
purpose of God, is not the best place to be. He thinks maybe he had better
try to find his way back to the father. In verse 20 it says that he set
off and went in the direction of his father. Notice this part. "While
he was still a long way off . . ." He was trying to find some kind of
spiritual direction back, but while he was still a long way off his father
saw him, was filled with compassion, and he ran after him! Threw his arms
around him! This kid, a good Jewish boy, had gotten so far off base that
he had gotten into the pig business. Slopping the hogs. Feeding the pigs
is a no-no for a good Jewish boy. Then he began to eat the pig's food.
This kid, with a Jewish daddy, has pig slop all over him. He was covered
with it, but this Jewish dad's not even thinking about his son being
covered with pig stuff. This God is hugging him and kissing him.
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