Value of 1 (1440 × 810).jpg

The Value of 1 Part 3

Luke 15:11-32
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.
12 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.
13 “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/prodigal living.
14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
16 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.
17 “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!
18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “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.
21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.
22 “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.
23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,
24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house,
26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on.
27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him,
29 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.
30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.
32 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!’”

In this parable, Jesus describes lost

as a lost/prodigal . In each parable, He
the idea that soul, life, literally, person matters to God. If they matter to God, they should matter to us.

Prodigals aren’t

, but they are
and lost. A prodigal represents a person who has the love of a father but has their substance in
living.

Isaiah 53:6
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own…

Isaiah 50:5
The Sovereign LORD has spoken to me, and I have listened. I have not rebelled or turned away.

Our

are filled with
who have their way over God’s path.

James 4:17
Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

The shepherd

after the lost sheep. The woman for the lost coin, but a father
for the prodigals to come home. Jesus the prodigal, and He models
prayer.

Romans 8:34
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Hebrews 7:24-25
24 But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever.
25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

We pursue prodigals through prayer; we stand in the

interceding on their behalf, crying out for .

Ezekiel 22:23-31
23 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
24 “Son of man, say to her: ‘You [are] a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.’
25 “The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.
26 “Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known [the difference] between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
27 “Her princes in her midst [are] like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain.
28 “Her prophets plastered them with untempered [mortar,] seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD had not spoken.
29 “The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.
30 “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
31 “Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord GOD.

Matthew 26:28
“For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Hebrews 12:24
to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.