December 27, 2023 • 12 mins
Are you a prodigal? A lost sheep? I was. I still am in so many ways.
Join me today as I talk about the parable of the Prodigal Son and three big takeaways for our sobriety.
God longs to have us come home. Our hearts want us to come home. Listen in to the story that both breaks my heart and makes it full of joy at the same time.
Verses today:
Luke 15: 11-32
Thanks so much for listening in today!
New episodes drop every Wednesday. Subscribe wherever you listen to yours so you don't miss a thing!
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Visit our website at Holy Recovery at https://holyrecovery.com
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See you next time!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Recovered Christian, the podcast
for believers who want to breakthe chains of addiction and
live a recovered life.
Join host Suzanne Bloomer eachweek as she shares her personal
journey of recovery, providesencouragement for yours and
takes a deep dive into thescriptures.
God wrote a book, and the Bibleis full of hope, wisdom and
(00:21):
practical applications for allof us.
So whether you're just startingon the road to sobriety or are
hoping to take the first step,this podcast is for you.
Tune in each week for abiblical shot of courage and
let's recover your life, onedevotion at a time.
Now here's Suzanne with Today'sShow.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hi and welcome to the Recovered Christian.
This is Suzanne, and I'm sohappy you're listening today.
I talked recently about thelost sheep and how heaven
rejoices when one who hasstrayed returns.
Today I want to visit the storyof the prodigal son.
You probably know it.
It's definitely one of the mostwell-known parables in the
Bible, so let's read it and thenwe're going to go over some
(01:03):
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 fatherI want my share of your estate
now, before you die.
So his father agreed to dividehis wealth between his sons.
A few days later, this youngerson packed all his belongings
(01:27):
and moved to a distant land, andthere he wasted all his money
in wild living.
About the time his money ranout, a great famine swept over
the land and he began to starve.
He persuaded a local farmer tohire him and the man sent him
into his fields to feed the pigs.
The young man became so hungrythat even the pods he was
feeding the pigs looked good tohim, but no one gave him
(01:50):
anything.
When he finally came to hissenses.
He said to himself At home,even the hired servants have
food enough to spare, and here Iam dying of hunger.
I will go home to my father andsay, father, I have sinned
against both heaven and you andI am no longer worthy of being
called your son.
Please take me on as a hiredservant.
So he returned home to hisfather and while he was still a
(02:13):
long way off, his father saw himcoming.
Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced
him and kissed him.
His son said Father, I havesinned against both heaven and
you and I am no longer worthy ofbeing called your son.
But his father said to theservants Quick, bring the finest
robe in the house and put it onhim, get a ring for his finger
and sandals for his feet andkill the calf we have been
(02:35):
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 inthe fields working.
When he returned home, he heardmusic and dancing in the house
and he asked one of the servantswhat was going on.
Your brother is back, he wastold, and your father has killed
(02:57):
the fattened calf.
We are celebrating because ofhis safe return.
The older brother was angry andwouldn't go in.
His father came out and beggedhim.
But he replied All these yearsI've slaved for you and never
once refused to do a singlething you told me to, and in all
that time you never gave meeven one young goat for a feast
with my friends.
Yet when the son of yours comesback, after squandering your
(03:18):
money on prostitutes, youcelebrate by killing the
fattened calf.
His father said to him Look,dear son, you have always stayed
by me and everything I have isyours.
We had to celebrate this happyday, for your brother was dead
and has come back to life.
He was lost, but now he isfound.
How our father rejoices when wecome home to him.
(03:40):
This parable teaches us so muchabout 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 thegifts the father gave me,
wasting times on things unworthyand turning my back on him in
(04:01):
so many ways.
I always went to church,oftentimes with a hangover, but
I went, I volunteered.
I tied, I did all the Christianthings, but my heart was not
devoted to him.
He wasn't first in my life.
I was breaking the mostimportant commandment you must
not have any other gods beforeme.
And I did.
(04:22):
At the time I didn't think ofit 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 didnot I had packed all my
belongings into my suitcase ofwine and wasted my time and
inheritance in the foreign landof addiction.
That's so sad.
(04:44):
I feel so sad for that girl andI'm so grateful that she that I
came home to my father, whowelcomed me with a celebration
and lavished me with forgiveness.
So what are some takeaways fromthis parable that we can apply
to our lives in recovery?
Well, first, god loves us.
He's willing to forgive us ifwe repent.
(05:06):
Acts 3, verse 19, tells us toRepent of your sins and turn to
God so that your sins may bewiped away.
Repent, that an amazing thought.
God wipes our slates clean whenwe come to Him with a truly
repentant heart.
I know we all still try to lugaround 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
(05:29):
and forgiven us our past.
Let Him have it.
Pry your fingers off one by oneand give all that to God.
You don't need it anymore.
When we truly repent, we arewashed white as snow.
In John 8, we find the story ofthe woman who committed adultery
and was about to be stoned.
Her accusers attempt to getJesus to condone their actions.
(05:50):
He tells them that the one whohas never sinned can throw the
first stone.
One by one, the accusers leave.
And what does Jesus tell thewoman?
It's one of the most importantverses in the Bible, in my
opinion.
He says go and sin no more.
God wipes our slates clean.
But Jesus makes it clear wecan't just go out and keep
sinning.
(06:11):
When your heart is trulychanged, when the Holy Spirit
fills it and you lay down yourlife to God's will, you won't
want to keep repeating the samesins.
The Holy Spirit will convictyou and hopefully you will
listen.
Does that mean we will neversin?
Of course not.
The only human who was sinlesswas Jesus himself.
But we will be aware of oursins in a way that we weren't
(06:32):
before.
We repent, we stop sinning andwe are washed clean.
That's just so great.
Second, god is patient andmerciful with us, even when we
don't deserve it.
I love the verses in Exodus 34,6-7.
Moses is on the mountainreceiving the second set of
commandments after he broke thefirst at an anger because the
(06:53):
people got tired of waiting forhim and made a golden calf.
But that's another story foranother episode.
The Lord came down on a cloudand stands there with him.
Can you imagine Moses had suchan intimate relationship with
the Father, even after killingit?
In Egyptian, god loves to usebroken people.
The Lord calls out his name.
(07:13):
Yahweh passes in front of Mosesand says this Yahweh the Lord,
the God of compassion and mercy,I am slow to anger and filled
with unfailing love andfaithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to athousand generations.
I forgive iniquity, rebellionand sin, but I do not excuse the
(07:35):
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 ofeverything he gives us and does
for us.
He does it because we are hischildren and he loves us.
He wants good things for us but, like he says here, he does not
excuse the guilty.
(07:56):
We have to do our part Keep hiscommandments, love one another,
don't blaspheme him, and do ourbest to be like his son, jesus.
We won't be perfect, and he'sknown that since the Garden of
Eden.
But we can try.
We can try and we can repentwhen we mess up and we can ask
for forgiveness.
If we do that, he will lavishunfailing love on us, and I want
(08:19):
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 wayyou were.
You won't want to let him down.
It's been the most amazingthing that's happened to me in
my whole life and I don't wantto let him down.
When he first delivered me outof the pit of addiction, I told
(08:42):
my husband I'll do whatever Godwants me to do, except speak
publicly about my addiction.
I don't want to have that bethe focus of my life and
honestly, I didn't want to do it.
But God right.
So here I am, speaking publiclyabout my addiction.
It became clear to me that thisis what he wanted me to do.
So now I am.
(09:03):
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'senough.
I just don't want to let himdown.
And third, god in all of theheaven rejoices when we come
home.
Our world today is full ofunhappy wanderers.
(09:26):
We are stumbling aroundcreating our own religions and
our own gods, misinterpretingthe Bible, trying to fill the
holes in our hearts that only hecan fill.
And there is God waitingpatiently on the front porch of
heaven, with the light on, justwaiting for us to come home.
He's waiting to see us walkingdown the road.
(09:46):
He's waiting to hear us say Ihave sinned against both heaven
and you, forgive me.
He's waiting to throw hisfinest robe on us, clothe us,
feed us and throw the biggestparty heaven has ever seen to
welcome us home, for we weredead and have come back to life.
We were lost and now we arefound.
(10:07):
Why do we waste so much timeout there in the wilderness when
we could just come home and sitwith God on the front porch,
the God who created the universeand everything in it, who
created the heavens and the seaand every creature that walks
the earth, that God knows yourname.
He has numbered the hairs onyour head, he has amazing plans
(10:27):
for you and he's waiting on thefront porch for you to come home
.
Come home, it's more than justgetting sober.
Coming home is opening yourheart to him and surrendering
your life to his will.
Thy will be done.
We say it in the Lord's prayerall the time.
Thy will not mine Coming homeis putting him first Before our
(10:50):
addiction, our spouse, our jobs,ourselves.
Coming home is letting go andletting God and staying that way
.
Coming home is comfort andsafety and eternal life.
Why would we want to beanywhere else?
Let's pray, father.
You told us you arecompassionate and merciful and
(11:12):
slow to anger.
Thank you for all of thosethings, because we need them.
Please watch over everyprodigal wandering out in the
wilderness, lost, afraid andhurting.
Help, guide them home to you.
Give them a longing for you, athirst that only can be quenched
by laying down their life toyou.
Be their North Star, be mine,in Jesus' name, amen.
(11:37):
I was that prodigal son.
I still am sometimes, but Ikeep coming home to sit with God
on the front porch and let himtake care of me.
I hope you'll join me.
He's waiting for us.
We aren't worthy, we don'tdeserve it, but he's there,
waiting, ready to celebrate ourhomecoming with every good thing
(11:57):
.
Let's not keep him waiting toolong.
I'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the
Recovered Christian with SuzanneBloomer.
If you're enjoying the show,please rate, subscribe and leave
a review wherever you listen topodcasts.
Community and support are soimportant in recovery.
We'd love you to join ourFacebook group, the Recovered
Christian, where you canfellowship with believers
walking the same road, or visitour website at
(12:25):
TheRecoveredChristiancom.
Links to both are in the shownotes.
Once again, thanks forlistening and we hope you'll
join us again on the RecoveredChristian.
Welcome to the Recovered Christian, the podcast
for believers who want to breakthe chains of addiction and
live a recovered life.
Join host Suzanne Bloomer eachweek as she shares her personal
journey of recovery, providesencouragement for yours and
takes a deep dive into thescriptures.
God wrote a book, and the Bibleis full of hope, wisdom and
(00:21):
practical applications for allof us.
So whether you're just startingon the road to sobriety or are
hoping to take the first step,this podcast is for you.
Tune in each week for abiblical shot of courage and
let's recover your life, onedevotion at a time.
Now here's Suzanne with Today'sShow.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hi and welcome to the Recovered Christian.
This is Suzanne, and I'm sohappy you're listening today.
I talked recently about thelost sheep and how heaven
rejoices when one who hasstrayed returns.
Today I want to visit the storyof the prodigal son.
You probably know it.
It's definitely one of the mostwell-known parables in the
Bible, so let's read it and thenwe're going to go over some
(01:03):
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 fatherI want my share of your estate
now, before you die.
So his father agreed to dividehis wealth between his sons.
A few days later, this youngerson packed all his belongings
(01:27):
and moved to a distant land, andthere he wasted all his money
in wild living.
About the time his money ranout, a great famine swept over
the land and he began to starve.
He persuaded a local farmer tohire him and the man sent him
into his fields to feed the pigs.
The young man became so hungrythat even the pods he was
feeding the pigs looked good tohim, but no one gave him
(01:50):
anything.
When he finally came to hissenses.
He said to himself At home,even the hired servants have
food enough to spare, and here Iam dying of hunger.
I will go home to my father andsay, father, I have sinned
against both heaven and you andI am no longer worthy of being
called your son.
Please take me on as a hiredservant.
So he returned home to hisfather and while he was still a
(02:13):
long way off, his father saw himcoming.
Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced
him and kissed him.
His son said Father, I havesinned against both heaven and
you and I am no longer worthy ofbeing called your son.
But his father said to theservants Quick, bring the finest
robe in the house and put it onhim, get a ring for his finger
and sandals for his feet andkill the calf we have been
(02:35):
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 inthe fields working.
When he returned home, he heardmusic and dancing in the house
and he asked one of the servantswhat was going on.
Your brother is back, he wastold, and your father has killed
(02:57):
the fattened calf.
We are celebrating because ofhis safe return.
The older brother was angry andwouldn't go in.
His father came out and beggedhim.
But he replied All these yearsI've slaved for you and never
once refused to do a singlething you told me to, and in all
that time you never gave meeven one young goat for a feast
with my friends.
Yet when the son of yours comesback, after squandering your
(03:18):
money on prostitutes, youcelebrate by killing the
fattened calf.
His father said to him Look,dear son, you have always stayed
by me and everything I have isyours.
We had to celebrate this happyday, for your brother was dead
and has come back to life.
He was lost, but now he isfound.
How our father rejoices when wecome home to him.
(03:40):
This parable teaches us so muchabout 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 thegifts the father gave me,
wasting times on things unworthyand turning my back on him in
(04:01):
so many ways.
I always went to church,oftentimes with a hangover, but
I went, I volunteered.
I tied, I did all the Christianthings, but my heart was not
devoted to him.
He wasn't first in my life.
I was breaking the mostimportant commandment you must
not have any other gods beforeme.
And I did.
(04:22):
At the time I didn't think ofit 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 didnot I had packed all my
belongings into my suitcase ofwine and wasted my time and
inheritance in the foreign landof addiction.
That's so sad.
(04:44):
I feel so sad for that girl andI'm so grateful that she that I
came home to my father, whowelcomed me with a celebration
and lavished me with forgiveness.
So what are some takeaways fromthis parable that we can apply
to our lives in recovery?
Well, first, god loves us.
He's willing to forgive us ifwe repent.
(05:06):
Acts 3, verse 19, tells us toRepent of your sins and turn to
God so that your sins may bewiped away.
Repent, that an amazing thought.
God wipes our slates clean whenwe come to Him with a truly
repentant heart.
I know we all still try to lugaround 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
(05:29):
and forgiven us our past.
Let Him have it.
Pry your fingers off one by oneand give all that to God.
You don't need it anymore.
When we truly repent, we arewashed white as snow.
In John 8, we find the story ofthe woman who committed adultery
and was about to be stoned.
Her accusers attempt to getJesus to condone their actions.
(05:50):
He tells them that the one whohas never sinned can throw the
first stone.
One by one, the accusers leave.
And what does Jesus tell thewoman?
It's one of the most importantverses in the Bible, in my
opinion.
He says go and sin no more.
God wipes our slates clean.
But Jesus makes it clear wecan't just go out and keep
sinning.
(06:11):
When your heart is trulychanged, when the Holy Spirit
fills it and you lay down yourlife to God's will, you won't
want to keep repeating the samesins.
The Holy Spirit will convictyou and hopefully you will
listen.
Does that mean we will neversin?
Of course not.
The only human who was sinlesswas Jesus himself.
But we will be aware of oursins in a way that we weren't
(06:32):
before.
We repent, we stop sinning andwe are washed clean.
That's just so great.
Second, god is patient andmerciful with us, even when we
don't deserve it.
I love the verses in Exodus 34,6-7.
Moses is on the mountainreceiving the second set of
commandments after he broke thefirst at an anger because the
(06:53):
people got tired of waiting forhim and made a golden calf.
But that's another story foranother episode.
The Lord came down on a cloudand stands there with him.
Can you imagine Moses had suchan intimate relationship with
the Father, even after killingit?
In Egyptian, god loves to usebroken people.
The Lord calls out his name.
(07:13):
Yahweh passes in front of Mosesand says this Yahweh the Lord,
the God of compassion and mercy,I am slow to anger and filled
with unfailing love andfaithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to athousand generations.
I forgive iniquity, rebellionand sin, but I do not excuse the
(07:35):
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 ofeverything he gives us and does
for us.
He does it because we are hischildren and he loves us.
He wants good things for us but, like he says here, he does not
excuse the guilty.
(07:56):
We have to do our part Keep hiscommandments, love one another,
don't blaspheme him, and do ourbest to be like his son, jesus.
We won't be perfect, and he'sknown that since the Garden of
Eden.
But we can try.
We can try and we can repentwhen we mess up and we can ask
for forgiveness.
If we do that, he will lavishunfailing love on us, and I want
(08:19):
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 wayyou were.
You won't want to let him down.
It's been the most amazingthing that's happened to me in
my whole life and I don't wantto let him down.
When he first delivered me outof the pit of addiction, I told
(08:42):
my husband I'll do whatever Godwants me to do, except speak
publicly about my addiction.
I don't want to have that bethe focus of my life and
honestly, I didn't want to do it.
But God right.
So here I am, speaking publiclyabout my addiction.
It became clear to me that thisis what he wanted me to do.
So now I am.
(09:03):
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'senough.
I just don't want to let himdown.
And third, god in all of theheaven rejoices when we come
home.
Our world today is full ofunhappy wanderers.
(09:26):
We are stumbling aroundcreating our own religions and
our own gods, misinterpretingthe Bible, trying to fill the
holes in our hearts that only hecan fill.
And there is God waitingpatiently on the front porch of
heaven, with the light on, justwaiting for us to come home.
He's waiting to see us walkingdown the road.
(09:46):
He's waiting to hear us say Ihave sinned against both heaven
and you, forgive me.
He's waiting to throw hisfinest robe on us, clothe us,
feed us and throw the biggestparty heaven has ever seen to
welcome us home, for we weredead and have come back to life.
We were lost and now we arefound.
(10:07):
Why do we waste so much timeout there in the wilderness when
we could just come home and sitwith God on the front porch,
the God who created the universeand everything in it, who
created the heavens and the seaand every creature that walks
the earth, that God knows yourname.
He has numbered the hairs onyour head, he has amazing plans
(10:27):
for you and he's waiting on thefront porch for you to come home
.
Come home, it's more than justgetting sober.
Coming home is opening yourheart to him and surrendering
your life to his will.
Thy will be done.
We say it in the Lord's prayerall the time.
Thy will not mine Coming homeis putting him first Before our
(10:50):
addiction, our spouse, our jobs,ourselves.
Coming home is letting go andletting God and staying that way
.
Coming home is comfort andsafety and eternal life.
Why would we want to beanywhere else?
Let's pray, father.
You told us you arecompassionate and merciful and
(11:12):
slow to anger.
Thank you for all of thosethings, because we need them.
Please watch over everyprodigal wandering out in the
wilderness, lost, afraid andhurting.
Help, guide them home to you.
Give them a longing for you, athirst that only can be quenched
by laying down their life toyou.
Be their North Star, be mine,in Jesus' name, amen.
(11:37):
I was that prodigal son.
I still am sometimes, but Ikeep coming home to sit with God
on the front porch and let himtake care of me.
I hope you'll join me.
He's waiting for us.
We aren't worthy, we don'tdeserve it, but he's there,
waiting, ready to celebrate ourhomecoming with every good thing
(11:57):
.
Let's not keep him waiting toolong.
I'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the
Recovered Christian with SuzanneBloomer.
If you're enjoying the show,please rate, subscribe and leave
a review wherever you listen topodcasts.
Community and support are soimportant in recovery.
We'd love you to join ourFacebook group, the Recovered
Christian, where you canfellowship with believers
walking the same road, or visitour website at
(12:25):
TheRecoveredChristiancom.
Links to both are in the shownotes.
Once again, thanks forlistening and we hope you'll
join us again on the RecoveredChristian.
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