Replay of Advent: Jesus Comes with Valuable Gifts for Your Prodigal Journey, episode 45

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal, and also help and hope for your own life journey. Today, you will discover how Jesus will provide all you need in this prodigal journey. That's a pretty big deal, all you need, because He is Jehovah Jireh, and He provides all we need. I'd like, as you're listening to my sharing some of the ways Jesus comes to us and the gifts He gives us, to just ask Jesus, which will be most helpful to you as you travel through the wilderness with your prodigal?

0:52 Jot it down so you don't forget, and talk with God about it, and see what He says. During the season of Advent, we remember why Jesus came. A time that has been special to me, as each day the past few years I've been very intentional about reflecting on who and what and why Jesus came to earth. I have identified 28 treasures that Advent brings to us with the coming of Jesus, but I'm only going to briefly mention 20 of them, but I thought 28 might overwhelm you.

1:35 There are more than that though. So, here we go. One, we at Advent time are recognizing that our King is coming, and He says, prepare your hearts for the arrival of King Jesus by humbling ourselves before Him, expressing our needs. He desires to meet those needs. Second, try to comprehend what incarnation means. I think I did not know what incarnation meant really.

2:17 I knew that it was part of the Christmas story, and in Dallas where I grew up, there was a big church called the Church of the Incarnation, and I thought that was an unusual name. But then I learned what incarnation really means. It meant that Jesus became like us. He became an actual human. More than that, He came as a baby. He was willing to experience the entire human experience, and what an amazing thing that God would put Himself into that position, dependent, weak, needing others to care for Him.

3:04 But He became like us so that we could become like Him. Now, that's a pretty impossible thing to imagine as well. We are so far from the perfection and the love and the compassion and the power and the glory, all that Jesus brings and represents. But He says He came to be like us so that we had the possibility, the opportunity, the privilege to become like Him. So when you look at one of those nativity scenes, and I have about, I don't know, 40 of them, and you look at that little baby Jesus, it's not just, you know, I have a carved wooden one, actually several of those, and I have some plastic ones and some plaster ones and ceramics, but they're just something we made to remind us that that Jesus came to be like us so we could become like Him.

4:17 Three, do you find your wilderness journey to be kind of a scary place? Yeah, it could be scary, especially for me Friday nights were scary, because it's a dark time when you don't know what's going to happen. I do not like darkness very much, and I'm grateful that Jesus came as the light of the world. And in His coming, He says He's scattering the darkness. There was darkness in the beginning, and God made light, and that light is Jesus.

4:59 He shines so brightly, and therefore we can see. We don't stumble. We can follow the path that He has for us. He shows us the way to go. He's like a flashlight on our path, but He also illumines light to see where we go and light to understand who He is and what He's like. He is the light of the world. Jesus also comes as a good shepherd. He leads us in valleys and on mountains. He protects us from evil. He provides all needs.

5:45 Our son is a part-time farmer, and for a little while they tried to raise sheep. And yeah, they weren't real smart. That's what I always hear. They don't know what they're doing, and they need a shepherd to guide them, to lead them, to show them how to live and where to go. Even I think they eat pretty naturally. But my very favorite picture is pictures of the shepherd rescuing sheep that have fallen down in a canyon or something like that, and I've had several of those. But my really very favorite picture is I have a picture of our son, Josh, holding a newborn lamb in a tender, gentle way.

6:31 And the contrast to that person and what he used to be, trying to always be the tough guy, has just been a really beautiful, and I like that picture a lot. That shepherd comes to rescue us because we're not really wise enough a lot of times to make the right decisions or to end up in places that are good for us, like our prodigals do. And so he says, I'll take care of you. I'll show you where to go. I'll lead you to green pastures, to quiet streams. I'll provide everything that you need.

7:16 Jesus also, the fifth one, comes as the bread of life. He sustains. He provides. He gives meaning and purpose. He satisfies our deepest hungers. So during COVID, one of the things that happened in many homes is that people who are stuck at home started looking for things to do that meant something, and baking became one of the most popular things. And so everyone's making different kinds of breads and rolls and cakes and pies. And Jesus said, that's a good thing. You bake. You make bread.

8:00 Because I've taught you that I'm the bread of life and will satisfy your every hunger. I think it's good when we're understanding what Jesus is coming as, when we put it in the context of our everyday life, to understand that's why he's a light and that's why he's the bread. Living in prodigal wilderness creates great thirst in us, hunger and thirst. And Jesus comes as living water. The water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

8:44 I'm sure that in many places in the world right now where drought is eating up their whole livelihood because there's no water. And one of the things that people of God and others are doing is digging deep to find water, to bring water up in a well, to provide clean water, to cook, to clean, and to feed animals and to take care of crops. It's essential for life that we have water. And Jesus says, yeah, it's essential for your life to have the living water of Christ living in you.

9:28 And he will fill us up with what we need for ourselves. But he's looking to do that for our prodigals as well. He's saying, come, come, have a drink of water. The seventh, I like this, Jesus comes as the yes, amen or amen, however you might say it, to all the promises of scripture. All those promises that you have claimed as you read the word of God for yourself and for your loved one, Jesus says yes.

10:13 Now, what I said before is true. The answers that he has will probably look different than what you had in mind. He's more creative, he knows more, and sometimes he changes the answer from what exactly we ask for to something better. But he's our savior, and he's faithful, and he's trustworthy, and he loves the word yes. Now, when you have a prodigal, you kind of get used to the word no, because you are saying no to things they want to do.

10:54 And when you ask them questions, they're saying no, they didn't do that, or no, they won't do that. They'll just do what you're saying when, you know, probably they're not telling the truth. But God says, I love yes, and he seeks to say yes to us as much as he can. And he asks us to learn to say yes in ways that encourage and lift up and draw in our prodigals. I know we can't say yes to everything, but maybe if we said yes more often, we would find they believe that we care, and we're not just trying to control them.

11:44 Jesus loves the word yes. Eighth, so does your life feel like a never-ending storm? Depending on where you live, you've had storms. I'm grateful that I've never lived where we had blizzards, but I've been through quite a few hurricanes in my life, and just plain rainstorms, drenching rain pouring down, and oh, yeah, earthquakes. They're another kind of storm. I lived in California a long time, too.

12:24 And in Texas, well, they have a lot of tornadoes. So, you know, there are storms everywhere, and so all of us have probably experienced some kind of serious, frightening, out-of-control, our control storm. And that's how it feels when you love a prodigal a lot of times. It's like life is a storm. You think this is never-ending. I think I'm going to drown. And there comes Jesus walking on water, saying, Peace be still, subduing the storms of our lives and raising us up so we don't drown and we don't go under.

13:10 So next time you're in a storm, think about Jesus coming to you and grabbing hold of you. And think about your prodigal in a bad place, a scary place, and Jesus is there and grabbing hold of them. Nine, you know, many prodigals have been adopted. And a lot of their prodigalness can come out of pain and loss and confusion and identity issues. Who am I?

13:50 And that's been our story with our son. Jesus says he comes as the firstborn of God, making possible my adoption and yours and your wanderers into the family of God. I am a child of God. I've been adopted. And that gives me a new identity. And that's what God's wooing our prodigals to himself, to help them understand that they can belong to the family of God and get a whole new identity. Ten, Jesus comes as a Redeemer, able and willing to purchase our freedom and forgiveness by his blood.

14:41 So we can be assured that we are forgiven. And he gives us the supernatural ability to forgive all the pain our loved one has caused us. He not only forgives us, but he then gives us what we need to be able to forgive as well. And I know you know that when you love a prodigal, there's lots to be forgiven. And he enables us to do that. Eleven, do you feel trapped? Never free from the burden of the care and concern of your prodigal.

15:26 Jesus comes to set us free from any slavery, slavery to sin, to selfishness, or to our fears and our insecurities and our overwhelming sense of we have no hope because of our prodigal. He says, no, I'm going to set you free. Twelfth one, have you grown weary caring about and for your loved ones? When they're living with you, it can be challenging because it's right in your face all the time.

16:10 But when they're not living with you, it's a different thing. It's a fear that you don't know where they are and what's happening and what's going to happen. And sometimes we feel like we give up. We don't see anything else we can do. Jesus comes as a servant, washing our very filthy feet, forgiving us, serving us. And then he says this really challenging thing. He says, you're to serve others as I have served you.

16:52 And so sometimes the care of our prodigals will call us to a harder place of serving that we really don't want to do. But Jesus says, I've done it and I can give you what you need to do it. Your prodigal may be truly poor and even destitute. Ours certainly has been. Jesus says he comes bringing good news to the poor, inviting them to his banquet and promising them the kingdom of God.

17:34 So as poor as you may be, and for some of us our prodigal has contributed greatly to that, how many times do you pay for rehab or get them out of jail or pay attorney's fees or get sued? Lots of things could happen. And he says, but they'll be invited to my banquet. I want them in the kingdom of God. We're at 14 here. We're getting close. Is your prodigal in jail or prison? Mine has been in jail and juvenile detention.

18:17 Is he enslaved to drugs and or alcohol? Ours has been. Jesus says he's coming bringing freedom and hope to prisoners and the oppressed or the controlled by those substances that they're using. He says, I'm going to set them free. And we can pray right along with him as he's on that journey to set them free. How many times have you asked God to open your prodigal's eyes, to see the stupidity of their choices, to discern what they are doing to themselves, and to recognize their true needs?

19:09 Jesus comes giving sight to the blind. He says he will open our physical eyes, but more importantly, opens our spiritual eyes. And he does it for us. Sometimes that means he's going to open our eyes to look at our prodigal in a new way, in a way that he's looking at them. But he's also going to be working on them. And he might bring somebody into their life who helps to open their eyes. Or when my son was almost killed in an accident and yeah, long story of course, but the car caught on fire.

19:49 It was a truck. It was a wake-up call for him that he needed to make better decisions about what he was doing. Jesus says, I come giving sight to the blind. We see it throughout the New Testament, how he healed the blindness of many people. And he says, I'll do that for your prodigal. I will give them new eyes to see the realities of life. The 16th one, I have a friend who always prayed that God would heal her loved one in every way that she needed healing.

20:30 That's what Jesus does. He comes healing. He is Jehovah Rapha, our healer. And what does he heal? Well, he heals our bodies. I know he doesn't always. It happens later when they make it to heaven. But he heals our hearts. He can heal broken hearts. He heals our minds where we just think wrongly about things. And that's certainly true for our prodigals. He heals our emotions. He heals our pasts. And he heals our relationships. And he can do that for our relationship with our prodigals.

21:12 He is eager to do that for our wayward children, our wayward family members, our wayward friends. He wants to bring total healing. Jesus says that he comes seeking the lost, those who know they are lost and those who don't. And chapter 15 of Luke is a beautiful picture of a lost coin and a woman who got her family and friends to help her search for this important, valuable coin.

21:52 And also, I'm not remembering the second thing, but then the lost sheep and the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes and climbs down the canyon wall, kind of, to rescue that lost sheep. Jesus rescued us, too. And so when Jesus says that he comes seeking the lost, he's demonstrated that by what? Oh, by coming to earth and becoming a human being, to be like us, and then dying for us.

22:33 And again, he can help us look at our prodigals with new eyes, with his eyes, and see even as he was seeking the lost for all these decades, all these centuries, actually since he started, created the world, he's seeking our loved ones as well. And he wants often to do it through us. Jesus comes as the resurrection and the life, triumphing over death and the grave now and forever.

23:13 And he says he raises us up with him. He offers us eternal life, to live with the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and all of us who believe. And he gives us abundant life today on this earth, as well as the eternal life that he's beckoning us to. He says he is not willing for any to perish. We're almost done, 19. Jesus comes as Messiah, Savior, Emmanuel, which means God with us, saving us from sin and from ourselves, reconciling us to God.

24:01 He is God with us, promising, desiring to be with us all the time. He is living with us and is in us, so that on Christmas Day we can shout, Hallelujah! The King has come. He humbly, because Jesus came ever so humbly, he humbly awaits his crowning, not with a physical crown, but in our hearts, and says, make him daily King of our lives.

24:44 That's what happens in Advent and a few other things that you didn't know. It had so much to offer us. What incredible Christmas gifts we receive when we wait and welcome the Savior Jesus. So as we draw near to the birthday of our Savior, may we recognize that he comes to us in the place of our deepest need. And if I really stop to think about Christmas and what it means, I am so in awe of our God.

25:25 He loved me and you and your prodigal so much he was willing to be incarnate, to become a human being. He so desired to be with us, you and me, our prodigals, that he named his son, Jesus, Emmanuel. God with us. Jesus lived among us. He healed. He taught. He modeled love and compassion. And he died for us. And gratefully he rose again. Advent is truly just the beginning.

26:05 And we only truly experience Christmas when we receive his gift to us and we crown him as King in our hearts. I hope you jotted down a few of these wonderful gifts or even just one that we received because Jesus came that was especially meaningful or helpful to you. Pick one to start with. Ask God to show you how Jesus is providing for you and your loved one with that special gift that Jesus has given. Maybe it's living water and maybe it's freedom and maybe it's rest.

26:48 Let me pray for you, for all of us. Father, thank you for sending your son Jesus to become like us, to live on earth, to suffer and to die for us, to know and understand the pain we experience, the deep challenges from our prodigals, to bring freedom, forgiveness, healing, hope, abundant life. Open our eyes to see the gifts Jesus has given us. May each of us receive those gifts with joy and gratitude as we see you do a beautiful work in us and in those we love.

27:31 In Jesus' name. Next week, we're taking a break so I can have some time with our family. I'm going to Bozeman, Montana for Christmas with my five grandchildren and their parents. Of course, if you really need some encouragement over the holidays, and all the previous episodes of our podcast are available to you. We will have a great new episode to kick off the new year. It's called My Top 10 Life Lessons, airing on January 4th.

28:14 And they will be helpful to you, especially as you walk with a prodigal. May you have a joyful celebration of the birth of Jesus.