This audio is AI-narrated and may mispronounce some names and places.

Well howdy, friends. Thank you for being here today — I know your time is precious, and I don’t take it lightly that you’d spend some of it with me.

Today I want to talk to you about coming home. Not the kind of home with four walls and a roof — the kind with a Father waiting on the porch.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15. We’re going to read verses 11 through 32 — the story of the prodigal son. I call this one “The Road Home.”

Jesus is sitting with sinners, and the church folks are grumbling about it. So Jesus says, “You want to know what my Father is really like?” And He tells this story.

It starts like this, Luke 15:11:

“And he said, A certain man had two sons:”

That’s us. Two kinds of people, but one Father.

Then verse 12:

“And 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.”

Can we just sit with that a minute? That’s not “Dad, can I have my allowance?” That’s a son saying, “I want your stuff without you.” In that culture, you didn’t get inheritance until your father died. He’s basically saying, “I wish you were dead.”

And what does the Father do? He lets him go. He divides it. I think about that as a daddy myself — sometimes love has to let go, even when it knows it’s gonna hurt.

So here’s where we go with the story. The Bible says in verse 13:

“And 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.”

He goes to a far country. Vegas. He blows it. And then life gets real. Verse 14 and 15:

“And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.”

For a Jewish boy, you can’t get any lower than feeding pigs. Pigs were unclean. And it gets lower. Look at verse 16:

“And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.”

You ever been that broke? Where you’re looking at the dog food thinking, well? That’s where he is. Pig pen broke. Couch-cushion broke. And nobody’s helping him.

But I love what happens next. This is the turning point. Verse 17:

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”

He came to himself. He just woke up. He didn’t get super spiritual. He just remembered home. He remembered his father’s house was better.

And he rehearses this little speech, verse 18 and 19:

“I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”

See what he’s doing? He’s still thinking like an employee, not a son. “Just hire me. I’ll earn it back.” A lot of us talk to God like that. “God, if you get me out of this, I’ll do better.” But you know what, God will take that prayer if it gets you walking toward home.

And he does. He starts walking.

Verse 20:

“But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”

While he was yet a great way off. He didn’t even get to the driveway. How did his father see him a great way off? Because that father was watching every day. Every morning on the porch, looking down the road.

And he ran. Now, in that day, for an older man to run was shameful — he’d have to hike up his long robe, showing his bare legs, running down the road where anybody passing by could see him. Undignified. But he didn’t care about his dignity. He cared about his boy. I believe he was running to get to him first, before anybody else on that road could shame him.

He doesn’t let him give the speech. He just falls on his neck and kisses him. Pig smell and all.

The boy tries, verse 21:

“And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”

He doesn’t even get to the “make me a hired servant” part. The father cuts him off. Look what the father says, verses 22 and 23:

“But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:”

I want you to see that. Best robe to cover his shame. A ring — that’s authority, that’s family credit card, that says you’re a son again. Shoes — because slaves went barefoot, sons wear shoes.

He came home looking for a job, and the father gave him back his name. Verse 24 tells us why:

“For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”

That’s grace. But the story’s not over.

There’s an older brother out in the field. Verse 25:

“Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.”

He asks what’s going on, and they tell him in verse 27:

“Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.”

And he gets mad. Verse 28:

“And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.”

Don’t miss that. The father left the party to chase the younger son. Now he leaves the party again to chase the older son. Because you can be lost in a pig pen, and you can be lost in the field, doing everything right but with a bitter heart.

The older brother says, verse 29 and 30:

“Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.”

He’s keeping score. “I’ve been good, he’s been bad, and you reward him?”

And the father is so tender with him, verses 31 and 32:

“And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”

And that’s where Jesus stops. He doesn’t tell us if the older brother went in. I think He left it open on purpose, because He’s looking at us — will we come into the party?

So let me just talk to you, friend to friend.

If you’ve been far from God — you don’t have to clean yourself up first. Just start walking. Your Father saw you a great way off, and He’s already running.

If you’re home but you’ve been living like a hired servant, always trying to earn it — put that best robe on today. Put the ring back on. You’re not a worker begging for scraps. You’re a child at the table.

And if somebody in your life is trying to come home, don’t you be the one blocking the road. Throw the music on. Kill the fatted calf. Celebrate like your Father celebrated you.

Amen.

If this sermon spoke to you, there’s a Philippians 4:13 mug in the shop — coffee tastes better with a reminder you can hold in your hand.