Parables | The Prodigal Son

Parable of the Prodigal Son, insights, wisdom, and more. Tune in, learn, grow!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So hello and welcome back to SwordOur. I am your host podcasters sword
Warrior Elena Joseph. Here on thischannel, we explore faith related topics,
encourage one another on our spiritual journey, and inspire Kingdom warriors to sharpen their
swords through scripture and the full armorof God. Today we embark on a

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powerful episode exploring the wisdom of parables. These are kingdom analogies with profound spiritual
messages and meanings that have inspired believersworldwide. Over the next few episodes,
we'll dove into captivating stories, uncoveringkeys to understanding the Kingdom order an operation.

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Join me as we discover how parablescan guide us on our faith journeys,
equipping us to access God's promises throughfaith, application and prayer. Let's
sharpen our swords and dive in warriors. So, good morning, Good morning.

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It is Wednesday, and another episodeis right on the horizon. Today
we're talking about parables. It's acontinuation of the last episode on parables.
What is it? And perhaps Iwill share a parable or two in the
episode. So what are parables?Parables are stories with spiritual messages. Jesus

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often spoke his message and taught hisfollowers through parables, and these are analogies,
spiritual analogies with a message. Themost popular parable that I have mentioned
on the last episode is the parableof the Seed, or of the Sower,
more correctly parable of the Sower.If you have not had a chance

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to check it out, I highlyhighly encourage you to do so. Today
I will be presenting another parable thatis just as important, and I encourage
you to listen. I encourage youto tune into it. A lot of
times what we share is really notall there is about a parable. There

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is so much that you can youcan gather from a parable if you open
your spiritual eyes, if you openyour spiritual ears. The entire purpose of
the parable is for believers to hearthe message, to hear the spiritual message.

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And it actually was not for thosethat do not understand the message.
So it's not for the unbelievers,but for the believers. So I hope
you are encouraged through it by itand be blessed as a result. Again,
I'm Lena, the voice podcaster behindthe podcast Sword Study Hour or My

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Sword Room. However it is thatyou see fit and I'm here. I
am sharing different studies, different thoughts, faith topics, and so forth that
I think is going to be anencouragement to you as well as empowering boards

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of knowledge. So thank you forjoining me today, thank you for following
me, thank you for being mysupporter. I truly, truly appreciate you.
This is what we do at thestart of the journey. We hold
on, we continue to stay consistent, and who knows what's on the other

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side. Once again, let's getinto the next section and we'll talk about
an exparable that I have right hereat my table. So today I want

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to present to you a parable,the Lost Son or the Prodigal Son,
and it comes from Luke fifteen elevento thirty two. I highly encourage you
to go ahead and check it outon your own. It is a very
good parable, very good story.So in this story, the father has
two sons. Let's say the firstson is Sam and the other son is

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Billy. So one of the sonsthat he has is an obedient child.
He stays with the father, hedoes everything that the father wants him to.
He listens. And the other son, Billy, is more adventurous,
he is more curious, but alittle bit rebellious. So he is also

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looking for a little bit more thanwhat he has. Okay, So one
day the adventurous son, let's namehim Billy, comes to the father and
asks for his portion of inheritance.The father complies and sends his son on
the journey. He gives him hisportion or his inheritance, and sends him

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on his journey. Billy, theson splurges all that he has, all
the money that he has, allthe inheritance, all that he has,
he splurges it on wild living.He goes on and he parties, and
he drinks, and he hangs out, and he does everything that he could

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right and in the end he endsup in a pig pen, a desperate
place. He ends up in aplace where pigs are eating food, and
he's not even able to even eatthat food. He's desperate for survival.

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While he's in this pan, he'slaying down and perhaps perhaps reminiscing about the
old time, perhaps thinking about thegood times he had with his father,
perhaps thinking about the food. Perhapshe's thinking about the place that he was
at, and he realizes that heis in a good, bad place.

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He realizes that he is in adesperate place. He can't even eat food
right, And so he goes andhe's he's thinking, I will go back,
whatever happens, I will go back. I know that I'm so far

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gone. I know I've spent allmy money. I know I've spent my
fortune. But this place that I'mat is not good for me. So
I'm going to go back. Sohis desire is ignited, and he is
like, Okay, I'm going togo back. Whatever happens happens, and
so he sets out on the journey. But the Bible says, before the

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son even gets home, the fatheris already out there waiting for his son.
He knows that's not his first day. He's been on the porch waiting
for his son. He's been onthe porch waiting for the moment where his
son is going to realize that thathe needs to be back home. So
he's out there looking and here comeshis son. Here comes his son,

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and he's looking all reggedy and perhapsdoesn't smell good. And he's coming home,
and the father he doesn't look atwhat he looks like, he doesn't
smell what he smells like. Heembraces him and he says Welcome home,
my son, Welcome home, myson. And the son, perhaps at

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that moment, is just overwhelmed withtears, overwhelmed with joy that he sees
as his father, and perhaps hemisses his father. Perhaps he is tired
of all that he's been through,and perhaps he's just stressed out. And

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here he is in a in thefather's embrace, and he's home. Now.
He knows when he gets home,he knows that he's not going to
be in the same place. Heknows that he's possibly going to be a
servant's son because he took all thatwas his, all that belonged to him,

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he took it. And at thatmoment, the son doesn't care.
Billy doesn't care. Billy simply says, I'm going to go back, whatever
happens. And here he is,the father embraces him, The father sees
him, and he says, Ihave sinned against your father. I have

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sinned against your father. I didwhat I shouldn't have done. I left,
I did what I shouldn't have done. But here I am, and
I'm willing to serve you. I'mwilling to serve as one of your servants.
And the father is not even payingattention to his babbling. He's like,
what are you talking about? You'remy son, what are you talking

(09:18):
about? Are you really you reallythink I'm going to just just put you
as one of the servants. I'vebeen waiting for you. I've been waiting
for you on my porch all theseyears. I've been waiting for you.
Come back home, Come back home. And I can see the son rejoicing

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in his herd. I can seethe son being happy at that moment and
grateful, Like, how grateful ishe is he at that moment? How
grateful is he for such compassion,for such love from his father. So
when Jesus tells this story, hetells a story of the prodigal son that

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has been out there, a sonthat's that left his father's house, that
has left the church, that hasleft the building, that has left the
people, that has left the presenceof God, and is out there in
search of pleasures and entertainment and andall of those things of this world.

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And when he goes out in thisworld, he splurges, he has he
has a lot of fun. He'sout there enjoying himself. He's drinking,
having a good time with his worldlyfriends, and you know, he's doing
what he needs to be doing.But then at the end of the day,
those friends are no longer for him. They're only there for him when

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he parties, and they're only therefor him when when it's good times.
But when he is down low,when he is he is in his lonely
place, nobody is there to findhim. And so that moment the son
realizes all this is not worth it. All this just me, you know,
being out here by myself, lonely, isolated. It's not worth it.

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I'm gonna go back to my father'shouse. I'm gonna go back to
my people. I'm gonna go backto the place where I belong. And
perhaps you are that son. Perhapsyou're out there and you're searching, and
perhaps you're out there in the pigpen. Perhaps you're out there and maybe
you just left the house, likemaybe you just left the house and you're

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like, oh, I'm ready toparty, you know, I'm ready to
live this life. But there's nothingon the other side. There's just desperation
on the other side. There's destructionon the other side. And I've been
there myself. I can tell youfrom my own story that I've been there
myself. I have walked away fromChrist and I have left his house and
I have left his presence, andonly to find out that the Father was

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waiting for me with arms wide open. He was waiting for me with arms
wide open. He didn't look atmy situation, he didn't look at my
circumstance. He didn't ask questions.He simply embraced me and said, well,
come home, my daughter. Welcomehome, my son. I have
been waiting for you, and notonly that, I have prepared a table
of delight in your honor and yourpresence. It is out there waiting for

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you. And so if you're outthere and you're thinking, oh, I'm
just too embarrassed, you know I'mguilty. I'm condemned, like you know,
I don't know what my father's gonnado. Just come home, Just
come home. I remember encountering ahomeless man and the Lord has moved me

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to speak to him, and hesmelled bad, and oh, he didn't
look so good. But I didn'teven look at his clothes. I didn't
even smell him at that moment.I didn't care. I just simply spoke
to him the message of the father, and I said, you know the
father is waiting for you. He'swaiting for you with his arms wide open.

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Go back to your father. Andwhether it was a physical father that
I was talking about, or wasit a physical place, I don't know.
But what I know is that Isaw the tears of that man,
of that man that was looking atme. I didn't know how longer.
I didn't no longer see the homelessman. I didn't see the man in

(13:28):
the raggedy clothes. I didn't seethe I didn't even smell. I mean,
he did smell not so good,and it was very hot out and
I could have just been about myday, but I had compassion on him,
and he said, thank you,I'm going to go back. I
don't know what happened to him.I don't know where he is, but

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I just do know. I doknow that the father is waiting. The
father is waiting. Whether you're homelessout there, whether you're in a pig
pan, you splurge all you live, whatever it is, you're desperate and
you're out there and you're like,ah, I don't know if I should
go back. Ah, I don'tknow. I'm telling you, go back
to your father's house. Go backgo back to where you belong. The

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father has a table of the lightliteral table of delight waiting for you.
And that was my case. Butmy father has embraced me. He prepared
a table of the light in myhonor, and I'm still enjoying that table,
and not only that, I'm alsosharing that table with many hours fire
starterignite dot com. Is that table, that table of delight that he prepared

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in my honor, and I amactually sharing that same table with all that
I encounter with people that I encounteron a daily basis. So this story
is so deep for me. Thestory is so deep for me, and
perhaps it is deep for you.You perhaps realizing right now you're like,

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hey, that's me. That's me. Hey you're talking about me. I
have left my father's house. Ihave left God's presence. I exchange it
for pleasures and entertainment of this world. Or maybe you're dabbling like you're still
just you know, leaving. You'relike, oh, you know one little
bit of the world too, Butlisten, there's nothing out there. There's

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nothing out there. And it startslike that. It's small little things that
you do, you know, smalllittle things. It's not like a big
step. You know, it's notovernight. It's definitely a process. You
know, one day you're losing yourdesire to read the Word, and then
you're losing your desire to get togetherwith godly people, and you're looking for

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company that's not godly, and you'relooking to drink and you look into party,
looking to share course jokes and youknow, do things that they're not
pleasing in God's side. And that'sthe step. Once you make that choice,
you're making that step to get furtheraway from God's house, further away

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from God's presence. And I tellyou what, there's nothing like being in
the presence of God. There's nothinglike having his protection over you. There's
nothing like having his fortress over you. There's nothing like coming back to His
home, to his presence and beingin the presence of His people. There's

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nothing like it. So I justwanted to share this story. I didn't
know it was going to be thisdeep, but it is for me,
and it's a parable, it's ananalogy. It's a parable that Jesus told
his disciples, and this parable canbe told through your story, through my

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story, and people can come toChrist because of your story. So tell
your story. And on that note, you have a blessed day. Take
care. I don't know where I'mgoing to be presenting you on the next
episode, but thank you for beinghere and God bless you.