Signs You Are Heading to the Far Country

Luke chapter number fifteen. Stand out of respect to reading the word of God. Luke chapter number fifteen. I’ve got a message that has been on my heart for a couple of weeks now, and I’ve been chomping at the bits to preach this one here. I want to help you this morning. We’re going to focus a little bit more on the family this morning. Going to focus a little bit more directing towards a lot of these young people that are in here, but also a lot of adults as well. And so we’re going to focus on the home and and see some things, some truths that we can find here from the story that’s very familiar to you. But a lot of times we overlook some of the truths because of the familiarity. So here we find the story and the truth of the prodigal son in Luke chapter fifteen. Look at verse number eleven. We’ll read our text and then we’ll pray. Verse number eleven says, and he said, a certain man had two sons. 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. 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. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. 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, and he would have fain filled his belly with a husk that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. Here, Verse seventeen. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father. Have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. Here we have the truth of the prodigal son. But understand that the steps that he took to become prodigal, the steps that he took to get out of the home did not happen overnight. There was a process that was followed. There was progress that took place in his life. I’m going to preach you a message this morning entitled Signs that you’re headed to the far country. Signs that you’re headed to the far country. Let’s pray. Father, we love you. Lord, I’m burdened by our homes today. I know many times we strive to do right. Parents, Lord, have their children in church today and they’re striving to lead their families well. Lord, many times parents are working all day long. Children are left to themselves at the home, especially during the summertime left to their own devices and they have all these influences and the different things that they’re around and they become a part of pulling their hearts in multiple directions. Parents here in the room, the same thing. We may have prodigals as children. We may have prodigals in here as adults. This morning we have some that are headed to the far country right now. Their bodies are here in church, but their minds are millions of miles away. Their body is here, but their heart wants nothing to do with the things of God. And God, I pray that you teach us some things from your word. Help us to apply them to our lives. Help us Lord, as we strive to salvage some lives this morning. Show us some truths. Help us to take heed to the warning signs. We ask these things in your name we pray. Amen. You can go ahead and be seated. Everyone’s already gone to the restroom and done all those things. So let’s be seated during the duration of the message and let’s not distract anybody else around us. And you can hold it for an hour and a half during a football game or three hours or whatever it is. You can hold it here. And so we will be alright. We are not going to preach for the whole three hours, I promise. Maybe. No, I am just kidding. The prodigal though here he did not become a prodigal overnight. He showed signs in his life that he wanted to leave long before he ever left the home. He had some different things that we are going to look at here and understand this. Many parents make the mistake of thinking that just because their children are in church or just because their children are in the Christian school, that everything else is going to work itself out fine. You go out and you work your job and you provide for the home and you think just because you make sure that the environment for your kids to be in on a daily basis or on a weekend basis when they are in church, you think that that environment is okay. So you think your kids are going to turn out just fine. But the reality is there’s an environment outside the four walls of the church here. And there’s influences outside the four walls of the church here. And many our young people to be influenced by things on the outside. And many a times that directs the paths that they have for their lives. See, their body may be here, but many times their heart is far from being here. You say, well, how do you know that? I can tell by the faces of some that are here right now. We can tell by the disinterest that’s shown and by the lack of concern that’s shown in our lives. When you get onto your children, you can see it in the disdain that they have for you. When you begin to get onto them or chide them for. For things that they’ve done in their life or that just blank stare that they give you because they’re not interested in things that you’ve got to say. You know that you’ve got a child that’s headed to the far country. And here we understand some of our children, some of our young people here are headed to the far country. And right now some of your parents don’t even have a clue as to what your children are involved in. Don’t have a clue as to what’s influencing the lives and the minds of your young people. Because as a parent, you’ve checked out because you’ve gotten so busy with all the things in the world today. Now, I understand that you’ve got to make a living. I understand that we’ve got to provide and we’ve got to pay the bills and we’ve got to do all these different things to make sure that there’s food on the table, to make sure that the electricity is paid, to make sure that the mortgage is paid, to make sure that our children are provided for. But listen, don’t check out on your responsibility of being a parent while you’re trying to serve and get the things done to pay the bills. Here we’re going to look at a prodigal. We’re going to look at some steps that he took in his life. I believe there’s five steps that we see here. And these five steps are the same steps that are taking place in our lives. Many times there’s those that are headed to the far country. First thing I want you to notice in verses eleven and twelve, I want you to notice his attitude. Notice his attitude. It says, a certain man had two sons and it said. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me here. He didn’t ask for anything here. He didn’t come and beg his parents for something. No. He said, father, give this to me. He came demanding. He had an arrogant attitude. He had an attitude of pride. He had an attitude of entitlement in the home. Listen, you are either going to raise children who are going to be entitled brats or you are going to raise children who are going to be a help and a prophet to society one day. And the reality is we have some young people in here that operate as entitled little brats. Amen we have children here that go around demanding things of their parents. Father, give me. Mother, give me. This is mine. I did this. Listen, you didn’t work for anything that you’ve got today. You’re living in a house that’s paid for by your parents sacrifice by their blood, sweat and tears. You’re not the one that’s got the name on the mortgage. Amen. The children that are here, your name’s not on the bills. Your parents are the ones taking care of that. There ought to be no entitlement when that comes to that in your life. But the reality is you’re watching all these things on YouTube and all these influencers on social media and the mentality of the world owes me just because I’m alive today. Listen, the world doesn’t owe you anything. Everything that you have in life, you ought to have because you’ll work for it. By the way, that’s how your parents got the things that they’ve got. They’ve worked for it. Now, listen, I understand as a young married couple, my wife and I, yes, as a young married couple, we desired, as soon as we got married, we desired to have a house and we desired to have multiple vehicles. We desired to have all these different fun things. But the reality is, listen, as a young married couple, we weren’t going to have everything that our grandparents and our parents had because it took them thirty, forty and fifty years to get those things. We have a mentality today in our society that you just do whatever you want to do and everything is going to take care of itself. That’s not a reality today. Amen. I need you to help. I need you to pay attention, notice. He said, father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me here. He had an entitled and arrogant mentality. Maybe it’s the mentality that a young person has where they come and they gripe and they complain as soon as you get home from work and they say, well, we never have anything this house. We never get to do this and we never get to do that. Or do you go to a store and I want, I want, I want. Listen, nobody cares what you want. That’s a reality in life. The fact is, your parents are working every opportunity they get. You got some adults in here that are working that should not be working medically, but they’re sacrificing for their children to be able to have better than what they had. Amen. You understand that the retirement age is getting later and later today. Have you understood that? Have you noticed that when you go to Walmart and you go to Lowe’s, you go to all these other places that the vast majority of the workers that are there are gray headed workers because the retirement age is getting later and later in life because the American dream is turning into the American nightmare. Amen. People have leveraged debt all the way up to their eyeballs and they can’t survive without having to work. And then you’ve got parents that have checked out. Now grandparents and great grandparents are raising grandchildren because parents aren’t stepping up and doing their responsibility. Here we have a young person, this younger son. He comes to his daddy and he says, father, give me. He says, I want this. I deserve this. Now notice here, this family, look at verse twelve. He says, give me the portion of goods that followed. To me he divided unto him as living. Verse thirteen says, and not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his subsistence with riotous living. Here, not only did he have an attitude of entitlement, but I want you to notice not just the attitude he had in verse twelve, but notice the animosity he has in verse thirteen. Notice here he was the younger brother, but he was going to make sure that his older brother didn’t get what he thought was coming to him. This is the animosity. He didn’t care about anybody else in the home. He just wanted to make sure he got what was his. The reality. He didn’t earn any of it here. He was hostile toward everybody. I could imagine the arrogance that he would have been walking around with in verse thirteen. The not many days the younger son gathered all together. I could imagine the sense of pride that he was walking around like he was big, like he was something. I remember the first time as a teenager I tried to balk at my dad. You understand, there’s a different generation of men that if a young person is going to act like a man, they’re going to treat you like a man. If you’re going to bow up to a grown man, that grown man is going to expect you to take whatever comes. Amen. Some of you know what I’m talking about. I remember as a young person trying to come of age and trying to be a man, me thinking I was hot stuff. My dad had a way of humbling me real quick. My grandpa had a way of humbling me real quick. Are you listening? Because there’s a generation of people that didn’t put up with that stuff. But then you got to listen. You’ve got a generation of young people today who are trying to run the home. And just because mom and dad may not be together or just because, because dad may be working multiple jobs and mom’s there, children try to run over mama here at the house and they try to get everything that they think that they deserve. The reality is, you understand, you don’t deserve anything at all here. He had some arrogance, he had some pride. He had some animosity toward his parents. By the way, if you don’t nip that pride and that arrogance in the bud, parents, when they are young people, if you don’t break them of the wheel before they turn the age of five, you’re going to have problems out of them when they’re fifteen. The reality is, listen. We spend more time breaking animals and training pets than we do training our children. Our children ought to deserve more of our attention and more of our discipline and more of our concern in life rather than letting somebody else teach them and train them. Mom and dad need to be taking care of training their kids. By the way, it’s mine and my wife’s responsibility to train our two children. It’s not grandparents responsibility. Amen. Now, do they reinforce the things that are taught in the home? Absolutely. Absolutely. But do you know there’s going to be some family that don’t reinforce that? And guess what? Some of those family, they don’t go around. Amen. You think what you want here. He was hostile toward his brother. He had a chip on his shoulder. He was hostile toward his daddy. He thought he learned something. But then notice it says he took his journey into a far country here, Brother Thoreau, the arrogance that he had to ask for all this stuff. And then at the first opportunity to get as far away from the influence of mom and dad and brother and family as he could. Notice what it says. It says he journeyed to a far country. He got as far away from the home as he could. He wanted no connection to the family unit. He had animosity built up. He had some hatred built up here. Maybe he had seen some things in his home that he didn’t agree with. Maybe he saw some things that he didn’t like by the way he did because the Bible says he went and he wasted his substance with riotous living. So evidently there was a way that he was taught in the home that he wasn’t allowed to do certain things. But he had some friends that had influenced him and he thought that that was the route he wanted to go. He thought he wanted to be around those kind of friends. He thought he wanted to have the loose living. He thought he wanted to go and sow his wild oats. He thought that he wanted to go and just enjoy life and do whatever he wanted to do. And the reality is, in order to do that, he had to journey to a far country because his parents had some standards and some convictions about their lives and they weren’t going to allow certain things in their home. You say, where do you get that out of this passage? Well, later on in verse seventeen, he comes to himself. He goes back home. Skip down to verse number twenty four. This is all in your Bible. Ok? I’m not making any of this stuff up here. He comes back to his father. The Bible says the father falls on his neck and kisses him. In verse twenty here, he begins to throw a party for the son coming back. But I want you to notice the statements that are made in verse twenty four. Look with me, it says, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. You realize those are terms that we use for salvation. You realize those are terms that we use for the doctrine that we believe. So here, listen. When he left his father’s house, when he had animosity towards his dad and towards his brother and towards the home unit, when he began to go to the far country, he began to live his life and do the things that he wanted to do when he began to participate in all the things that he thought were being withheld from him. Are you listening? When he left to go do that, he came to himself. He realized how good he had it in the home. He realized how good it really was to be under his father’s roof. He goes back to the father, and his father immediately meets him with the doctrines that they still believe. This is the reality. He says, son, listen, you may have left and you may have gone another direction. You may have experienced some things out in the world, but when you’ve come back home, we’ve not changed what we believe. We’ve not changed the stand that we take. This is still my roof. This is still my rules. Now, listen, we have some children that are headed to the foreign country. And we have some children that are going to experience some things that because of their heart’s desire and because of their desire to get away from the home, and they’re going to go to the far country and they’re going to wreck their lives. They’re going to begin to ruin their lives. They’re going to come to themselves one day, Lord willing, they’ll come back to the home. But listen, mom and dad, you ought not change the things that you believe to be able to welcome them back into the house. You don’t change your standards and convictions just to welcome them back in. The reality is, if they’re going to come back and live in your home, they’re going to come and find something that has not changed. They’re going to come and find a mom and daddy who hadn’t changed their beliefs. Well, I want to have a relationship with little Junior. Well, listen, Little Junior is out living in sin. And even though he’s going to get right and get some things taken care of in his life, he’s not welcome back in the house. Amen. This is the way the father operated. And by the way, the younger son knew that. That’s why he stayed away for as long as he did. He stayed away because he knew that he could not come back to the father’s house and continue in those things. Now, did his father love him? Did his father embrace him when he came back? Absolutely. But his father told him up front, I haven’t changed. I still believe the things I’ve always believed. Listen, if you’re going to come back to the house, you’re still going to be in church come Sunday. Amen. We’re still going to do the things that we’re supposed. You’re still going to say, yes, ma’ am and no, sir, right? Yes, ma’, am. No, ma’, am, yes, sir, no, sir. You’re still going to say those. You’re still going to treat your mama with respect. You’re still going to follow the rules that we. You’re still going to have a curfew, even if you’re a grown man, if you’re living in my roof. This is what the daddy come back with. Are you understanding that? Here, I’m not making this stuff up. You can go back and study it yourself. Here. This young man, he had an attitude of rebellion. He had some animosity, had a chip on his shoulder. He gathered all the things together. He wanted to get away as fast as he could. You could say that he was spiteful, he was ungrateful, and he was tired of all the rules. So what did he do as soon as he got away? Notice not just his activities. Animosity. Notice less. Next number three, his activity. What did he do as soon as he got away from mom and dad, what did he do? The Bible says at the end of verse thirteen and there wasted his substance with righteous living. Here. As soon as he got away from the home, as soon as he got out from underneath the rules of mom and dad, what does he do? He goes and he wastes his substance. The Bible says with riotous lips. That means he went out and he partied. He went out and did all the things that mom and dad didn’t let him do. He said, man, mom and dad didn’t let me go to this place over here. I’m going to go try that out. Wow. What’s so bad about this over here? I’m missing out on all the fun. I’m missing out on all the joy. I’m missing out on all the parties. I’m missing out on all the cool stuff. And the reality is, when he had money, he had friends. Are you looking? Look here at your verse. Verse fourteen. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land and he began to be in want. The Bible doesn’t tell us how long he was in the far country. It took him many days to gather together his inheritance. They were a wealthy family. But it doesn’t tell us young people how long he was in the far country. It doesn’t tell us how long he was wasting his sevenths. It doesn’t tell us how long he was living it up in the world. It doesn’t tell us how long he was living the party lifestyle. But here, while he was Partying. He had friends while he was partying, he had a place to live. Are you listening? While he was partying, he had everybody around him. He had all the things he could want. But the Bible says when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. He began to be in want. Now he’s wasted everything. Now the world wasn’t as good as he thought it was. Brother Nick. Now he had gone out here and he realized, oh, maybe money doesn’t just grow on a tree. Maybe I’ve actually got to work for something. I’ve wasted every. I’ve spent everything Daddy gave me. Where’s the money bank now? Where’s the endless card now? Sorry you burnt that bridge when you left the home. You see that? He began to be in want. He had friends. He had everybody that came around him. Everybody knew that his home was a happening place. Everybody knew that’s where the party was going to be on the weekend. Everybody knew that you can go there. You can have the drinks, you can have the drugs. You can have all the different things that you wanted. Everything that you wanted, it was to your devices. I understand some of you young people, you’re thinking, when I get out of the house, I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this and I’m going to do that. My parents, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Some of you may have that mentality right now. I don’t know why my parents don’t let me do that. I don’t know why they don’t let me hang out with so and so. I don’t know why they don’t let me go there. I don’t know why I can’t do all my other friends get to and fill in the blank. That’s the mentality some of our young people have. I don’t understand all the rules. I don’t get why I can’t do this. You must hate me. No, I love you too much. Just smack you in the head right now. Amen. The reality is, no, your parents don’t hate you. Your parents love you. Your parents care for you. Are you listening? Your parents want what’s best for you. See? They see the friends that you have and the direction that you’re headed. They know the road that you’re going down. Are you listening? They see the friends that you have. They know the people that you’ve been hanging around. Girls, are you listening? They see the end result. Because you know what? They had friends like that when they were your age and they see where they’re at today. They had friends that chose a certain lifestyle and they’re headed down that way. And you may think it’s fun and you may think that it’s innocent, but there’s a reality. The Bible says a prudent man foreseeth evil and hideth himself. But the simple pass on and are punished. The reality is your parents have seen a lot more than you give them credit for. They’ve been down that road. They’ve been down that lane. They know where those friends are headed. Are you listening? They know what those friends are doing. This is why your parents give you a curfew. This is why your parents don’t let you search the Internet by yourself. Are you listening? It’s getting quiet in here. Some of your parents may not agree with this. This is the reality. Your children ought not to be online by themselves. There are things that are more accessible today than ever before. You say, well, I had the Internet when I was a kid. No you didn’t. The Internet was invented in the nineties and most of us were too poor to have it in our homes. It was dial up, not wireless. Now it’s everywhere you go. Most of us didn’t grow up with it in the home. We didn’t get Internet in our house until I was fifteen and sixteen years old. And at that it was dial up and it didn’t work fast. Today your children have phones that you have given them for some reason, and they have access unbridled to the Internet. They have access to some of these games, by the way. Pay attention to some of these games that your kids are playing, these apps that they’ve got on their phone. You realize there is a lawsuit going on right now about a popular, one of the most popular kid games in the world today, Roblox. Have you heard of it? Some of your kids play. You realize there are child predators, sex maniacs that are on there targeting little children. And you let your children play that game with unbridled access. Are you listening? You let your children do these different things and you have no idea who they’re talking to. Listen, we’ve got Internet in our home. We’ve got a PlayStation five in our home. Our son plays games online with his friends, but there are specific people that he’s allowed to play with. Are you listening? There are family members he’s not allowed to play with because they have friends that they play with that we don’t know who they are, we don’t know what their parents Allow. We don’t know how they talk. We don’t know what they do. We don’t know what they believe. They’re not going to have an influence in my child’s life. Are you listening? It’s my responsibility to protect my kid. It’s your responsibility as a parent to protect your kid. You realize pornography is more accessible today than ever before and children have access to this. There are things little children see at the age of four, five and six years old that most parents would be shocked at. Are you listening? This is a reality. But my kid has a cell phone. I trust them. You’re a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Amen. I trust my kid. I don’t trust my kid at all. Why? Because he’s a sinner just like I am. I don’t trust myself either. Amen. I’ve got a wife. I’ve got accountability. We’ve got things set up in place in our lives for accountability. I just don’t agree with that. You ought to trust each other. We do trust each other. We don’t trust the world. We don’t trust the flesh and we don’t trust the devil here. His activity. He had no values in life. He wasted his substance with riotous living. He had no concept where things came from. He had no moral construct in his life. He had no value. He had no morals. He had no boundaries whatsoever in the flesh. If it feels good, I’m going to go and do it. I want to try this, so I’m going to go do it. I have the money for it. Why can’t I do it? The reality is he didn’t have the money for it. The reality is his mom and dad didn’t let him do certain things in the home because they knew it was detrimental. By the way. Listen, there’s a little sidebar and a caveat here. The young child ended up going to the far country because mom and dad did not spend time teaching their children why they were withholding certain things from them. Now, there are times. Listen, I’m not going to sit and explain myself to a five year old. I agree with that one hundred percent. Brother Brandon says we don’t negotiate with terrorists in this house. Amen. I agree with that one hundred percent. I’m going to sit in there and negotiate with my kid about what they’re going to do and what they’re not going to do. We’re not going to sit. Listen, I’ve got a family member that he’ll sit and negotiate about the food that he’s going to eat. I’m not going to sit and negotiate with some kid about what he’s going to eat. He’s going to eat the food that I give him or he’s going to starve. Amen. It is what it is. The reality is here this kid went and wasted his substance with riotous living because he had a mom and dad. Listen, that put restrictions on him. But they never taught him the whys behind the what’s of what they believed. Listen, I believe we ought to teach our kids all the different things that we believe we ought to tell them what we believe. We ought to put restrictions in their life. But listen, as they grow older, in order for them not to build up animosity, in order for them not to build up bitterness and hatred in their hearts and lives, we’ve got to teach them why we do the things that we do. But also, also we can’t have the double standards either. The reality is we’ve got to teach them why we do what we do. But we’ve got to show them, by the way that we live, why it’s important we do it that way. Because more is caught than taught. See, the reality is, were it not for double standards, some people wouldn’t have any standards at all. Should have wore your boots today. Amen. Here he wasted his substance with riotous living. He had spent it all and there was a famine. He began to be in want. Here we see his attitude, his animosity. Notice his activity. Fourthly, I want you to notice his associations or his acquaintances. Notice Verse fifteen, it says. And he went, joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Here he had gotten to bottom, to the bottom of the barrel, but he had not hit rock bottom yet. Some of you know what I mean when I say that here it had gotten bad in his life, but it had not gotten bad enough for him to actually admit what he did wrong. It was bad and he knew that he needed to fix something. But it was not bad enough for him to get over himself so that he can get help. Here he had gone to someone, joined himself to a citizen of that country. Of what country? The far country where he was at the place that was godless. The place that was away from his family, the place that let him do whatever he wanted to do. But then he began to realize money doesn’t grow on trees and I can’t just do whatever I want. I’ve actually got to work for things. I’ve got to earn things in life. The Bible says that this person sent him into the fields to feed the swine. What did he do? He joined himself to somebody. He got associated with somebody that didn’t show him that he was the problem, but rather tried to go around the problem. Here, I’ve got this written down. This is a reality here. You understand that rebels join themselves to other rebels. Children who are rebellious. You know what they do? They find the other kids that are rebellious by the way they’re not wearing neon flashing lights. It’s evident in the way they walk. It’s evident in the way they talk. It’s evident in the attitude they have toward their parents and any kind of authority here. It’s amazing how you’ll have young people that are in the church or in the youth group or you have young people that are in the Christian school and they have a certain mentality about them. And then you have someone that’s brought in and they’re a rebel. They’re immediately going to sniff out their kind and they’re going to immediately yoke up with those other rebels. You say, why don’t they hang out with me? Maybe it’s because you’re a little too spiritual young person. Maybe it’s because you’re not interested in the worldly things they’re interested in. By the way, you ought to take that as a badge of honor. Praise God. They don’t want to be your friend. Don’t take that as a sock in the mouth. Take that as a badge of honor. You are protecting yourself from a ruined lifestyle. We’re going to go to church camp here. You know, brother throw. I’ve been to many church camps in the first two days. Every single time you can spot the rebellious crowd because they’re always hanging out together. But you can also spot the spiritual crowd. You know who they are because their spirit bears witness with somebody else’s spirit. And their spirits yoke up and link together. And the spiritual crowd finds a spiritual crowd. The rebellious crowd over here finds the rebellious crowd. Going to have some young people go to church camp this week, kids. What kind of crowd are you going to find? What kind of crowd are you going to find? Who are you going to yoke up with while you’re there? Hey, are you listening to me? Pay attention. Who are you going to yoke up with while you’re there? Because the friends that you find that are there are going to be a reflection of the attitude that you have in your heart every single time. The reality is we’ve got to sniff this stuff out. You see, you will, you are, or you will soon become exactly what you hang around with. Brother Roberto, I don’t know much, but I’ve come to find this to be true. I’ve never found a turkey hanging out with an eagle. Have you ever thought about that? You have one that soars above everything. We’re talking about the eagle. Then you have the other. Who is the dumbest creature in the world? The turkey. You know why they don’t associate with each other? Because they don’t have anything in common. They don’t have anything in common. You’ll find that both of them can be categorized as a bird of prey. But a turkey got no chance. But the reality is. List young people. You need to watch out who your friends are. Parents. You need to watch who your friends are hanging out or your children are hanging out with. You need to know who your children are friends with. You say, I don’t know my kid. They’re going over to this person. I don’t know who they are. I’ve never met their parents. It seems like they’ve got a good kid. Listen, you are insane to let your child go to someone’s house and you don’t know who the parents are. Especially in the society we live in today. The things that are going on in the homes today. So many children are being abused and it happens because parents aren’t involved in their children’s decisions. By the way, while I lived at home, my parents had veto power over decisions that I made as a young person. Why? Because it was still their home. They paid the bills, I didn’t. They had veto power. Listen, as a teenager, I had a television in my room. But you know what? My kids don’t have tv’s in their room. That was one of the. Listen, I’ll say this as kindly as I can. That was one of the worst mistakes my parents ever made was putting televisions in every single room in the house. Because it destroyed any kind of family time that we had. Are you listening? We would go and we would eat supper in our rooms while we watched our TV and played our games. I lived in my bedroom sometimes as a teenager and I only. And I had a detached bathroom. I only came out to get more food or drink. If I had a mini fridge, I would have never left my room. A mini fridge in a microwave, I would have never left. I Would have been a hermit. I would have lived in there. You know what I’m talking about, right? Got the food. I got the food. I got the drink. I got this. I’m good. Could live for days for like thirty minutes. But okay, here we see his associations. What did he do? He wasted his substance with riotous living. What kind of friends did he have? Well, let me tell you, he didn’t have Bible study group, okay? Riotous living does not include church attendance here. He had friends that were going out and they were drinking and they were partying. They were loose living. They were doing all the things that the flesh said they could do here. He wasted his substance, by the way. He didn’t just waste his money. He wasted his moral, any kind of morals that he had. He wasted his virtue. He lost his purity. He wasted his youth. Are you listening? Because he would not listen to mom and dad. He wasted his youth running around with friends that were going to lead him into a far country away from God. He wasted his youth. We don’t know how long he was in the far country. He was there long enough to waste everything. By the way, everything didn’t get wasted overnight. Didn’t you waste it overnight? I understand prices are going up and things cost money. Yeah, yeah, but he didn’t waste it overnight. I understand you can save two thousand dollars. You can go to Branson for a weekend and spend all that money in two days. Yeah, I know how that goes. Praise the Lord. But he didn’t waste it all overnight. Here. This was a continual pattern in his life where he had friends and he had substance. He had all these different things. He had all this party lifestyle. He wasted every bit of it here. Understand that your children are being influenced by all these different things. You ought to keep a tab on who is in your child’s phone. If your child has a phone, you do what you want to do as a parent. If your child has a phone, you ought to have access to that phone. There ought not be a passcode that you don’t know. There ought not be a password that you are not aware of. If there is, I’d break the thing. But here. By the way, that goes for spouses, too. My wife has every password to everything I have. There’s no secrets. Amen. There’s not any extra bank accounts where she doesn’t know there’s transactions being made. Are you listening? That’s how affairs start. Are you listening? There’s not extra cell phones out there anywhere. There’s not extra accounts? No, no. She Knows everything here. You as parents. By the way, my son’s saying Amen because he agrees. He knows it’s true. Amen. We need some support there. You as a man leading your home, there ought to be some support there. You ought to know that’s true for you too. We got a generation of young people who are raising kids, Brother Nick. But they’re more interested in being their friends than they are being their parents. God didn’t call me to be my kid’s friend. You take that how you want to. God didn’t call me to be their friend. Listen, I am their parent. I’m my son’s father. I’m my daughter’s father. My wife is my son’s mother, her daughter’s mother. When they graduate and they move out of the house, then we can talk about a friendship. Are you listening? But right now we’re mom and dad. Right now we make the rules. We can build a friendship later. Got too many parents trying to be their friend. I want my kids to love. Listen, if you give your kids boundaries and you give them rules and you show them how to apply those things in their life, they’re going to love you and they’re going to respect you. We got too many parents wanting a relationship and they’re seeking to live relationships they didn’t get to have as a kid vicariously through their kids. You got kids that don’t want to play sports and their parents have got them involved in sports and all these different things. Kids aren’t interested in any of that stuff. What are they doing? Parents are living their lives vicariously through their kids. I didn’t get to do that as a kid. Well, listen, it didn’t hurt you any. You’re fine. If your kid doesn’t want to do it’s fine. They’ll be alright. They don’t have to go and hit a ball and play travel basketball in order to be successful in life. Well, it teaches them things, you know, Being faithful to Sunday school and church teaches you some things too. Reading the Bible teaches you. Having a schedule in your life teaches you some character too. All these things teach you things in life. Giving them chores and responsibility in the home teaches you character in life. Teaches you how to hold a job down. They don’t have to have sports to teach them. Listen, I love sports. I love sports. My kids played sports. There were times where we had them try things. If they didn’t like it after the first year of trying it, then we didn’t put them back in it. But they had to finish the first year. And we let them play sports. We let them do different things. We let them try different things and enjoy that stuff. We let them be kids. But listen, my kids aren’t going to be professional athletes. I was telling brother Jeff this earlier today. My kids aren’t going to be professional athletes. They’re not going to go and make millions of dollars signing a contract with the NBA or the NFL. It’s not going to happen. Hey, bud. By the way, neither is your kid. As a matter of fact, less. Less. I heard a statistic just the other day. Less than ten percent of athletes actually sign a contract. Kids who play sports their whole lives, kids who go to college for this, kids who are playing in amateur league sports, quote, unquote, semi professionals. Forty five years old and you still don’t have a job. Now here we’ve got to raise our children for the glory of God. Our children have access to different things. They have friends they meet online, they exchange information and phone numbers with people they’ve never met, and they hide behind a keyboard. They play themselves off as being a child that’s their age, but in reality, they’re talking to some grown man living in the basement of his mother. You have to be mindful of these youtubers and influencers your children are watching, listening to. By the way, let’s go ahead and say this. This is free. When you leave the home and you come back, you ought to have a phone check in with your kids. And what I mean by that is you ought to go through their history and the things they’ve been doing. Because you may say, my kids don’t get on YouTube. And when you’re gone, while the cat’s away, the mice will play. And while you’re gone, the things that your children are doing and the things that they are involved in you don’t know about because you trust your kid too much. Listen, I love you, but sometimes our children go to the far country because we give them the access tools. They head to the far country because we showed them the path, because we gave them the access. Unfiltered, unadulterated. And then we throw our hands up in the airbone throw. And we wonder, why did my kid turn out this way? Well, let’s go back and look. What did you give them access to? And then we wonder why they did that. As a parent, you still have the final say as to who your children can and can’t be friends with. They don’t always need an explanation. And by the way, no is A complete sentence. You is understood to be the subject and no is the verb. Children need direction, correction, and affection. And listen, if we don’t tell our children that we love them, they’re going to fall for the first person that does. Listen, daddies, if you don’t tell your daughter that you love them and you don’t show them how to love their mother and you don’t show them those things and tell them those things, they’re going to chase the first guy that shows them any kind of interest. There are times my wife and I will go through town and we’ll do different things and we talk with different folks and meet different folks, and it’s almost like it’s down to a science. I’ll tell my wife. Girl’s got daddy issues. Just chasing guy after guy after guy. She didn’t have a man in her life that showed her any kind of care and concern, didn’t show her any kind of love. And so now she’s chasing that love everywhere she can find it. And she thinks the only way that she can show any kind of love is. Is in the physical way. Then you got guys out here manipulating every bit of that. As soon as somebody shows them any interest, they fumble all over themselves and don’t know what to do. I teach our children how to have conversations with people, man. Listen, we’ve got grown adults who sit across the table who text each other all the time and don’t have a real conversation. Hey, what’s going. Check your phone. I sent you something like three feet away. Talk to me now. What’s going on here? I don’t want to say it out loud. Well, let’s go to the room and have a conversation, man. Here we find his associations. His associations were those who were not interested in the things that he was taught and trained in. Notice none of his associations asked him what his daddy thought about any of it. None of his associations pointed him back to his father. As a matter of fact, when he got down in verse number fifteen and he had gotten to the bottom of his barrel, he had not hit rock bottom yet, but he got to the bottom of his barrel. Nobody in his life recommended that he go back to his home. Nobody recommended he go back and talk to his parents. You know why? Nobody cared about him. But he had also surrounded himself with a bunch of rebels who would have not given that advice because they would not be caught dead going back to their home. They would not be caught dead admitting that they were wrong here. Notice lastly, his attitude, his animosity his activity, his associations. Lastly his antics. Here he joined himself to a country verse fifteen. And sent him into his fields to feed the swine. Look at verse sixteen. This blows my mind. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read this passage, brother Nick. And this verse always blows my mind. He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him. This is where he hits rock bottom. Listen, these were his antics. He had tried absolutely everything he could before he would ever admit that he was wrong. Even to the point he was willing to eat Hogslop. Now, some of you kids ain’t got a clue what I’m talking about, bro. Throw and I, we have a privilege of hunting out in Wilburton on three thousand six hundred acres. The guy who owns the land is a hog farmer. Have you ever been to a hog farm? It’s the most rancid smell. It’s right up there with a chicken farm. Any of you ever been to a chicken farm? You smelled the chicken coops on days where they have all the vents open and they’re cleaning those things out. Lord help us all. It’s worse than a boys locker room. It’s horrible. Listen, I went to college and I was in a boys dorm. I thought I smelled everything until I smelled a chicken coop. Lord help us all. Guys, how your cabin is going to smell by the end of the week when you don’t clean your clothes and put your shoes out and all that stuff. Yeah, take that times ten. It’s the reality. Hogslop. This is what they would do. They would take all the leftover goods, leftover food, whatever it was. There are some folks that still even do this. They take all the leftovers and they throw it down into like a five gallon bucket and they’ll pour water into it and slop it all around. That’s why it’s called hog slop. Mix it all around and then they just throw it out there for them to wallow in. It said if fain would have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat the word husk, that would be the rind of a corn on the cob. That would be what you shucked off the corn, the husks, all the stuff that be that would be thrown away. He was willing to go and to eat that to get some kind of nourishment. He’s laying down with the pigs now. Listen, I’ve eaten a lot of weird stuff as a teenager. I ate grasshoppers and a bunch of other things just because people paid me money for it. I ate a lot of weird stuff, but never have I ever wanted to eat Hogslop. I’ve seen Hogslope. I was never interested in that stuff. You couldn’t pay me. We had a thing at church camp growing up, and we called it the mystery malt. Do you remember the mystery malt? We would do crazy time at the end of the night before. We would go to the dorms and it would be a challenge. We always did it once a week. And we ran a church camp. We did it once a week. It was always. When was it Thursday? No, it was Wednesday night. After everything was over, it was Wednesday night. And you would go and grab leftovers out of the camp refrigerator. Stuff that was just there. Just random things. Lettuce, cabbage, whatever. Spinach. You’d find whatever you could find and throw random stuff in there. Sometimes we threw a jalapeno in there. And sometimes we’d would pour pickle juice and throw sour cream and just all nasty stuff. You hear that? Sour cream, nasty. Pour milk in there, pour soda in there, all kinds of stuff into a blender. And they would blend it up. And this stuff listen would be brown, dark green. It would be nasty. It was a mystery malt. And we’d pour these into cups. And we had a boys versus girls competition. And we’d do challenges in whichever team, whichever person finished their cup. And you had to drink it all. And then, of course, turn it upside down to finish it all. That team would win like fifty thousand points. And they’d all go towards kids with good nuts. I went to a lot of church camps, and I was involved in a lot of those things. I would never participate in that because that was just nasty. I saw what went in those things. Now, brother Nick, that’s what I think of when we talk about the hog slop. Whatever you could find just blended and thrown together. But he had gotten to a point. Listen. He did not want to admit that he was wrong. This is where the far country leads. Notice these are his antics. He tried everything in his power. He didn’t want to admit he was wrong. Are you listening? Some of you may be in here thinking, you got kids like that right now. They’ll go around the bush and they will do everything they can before they ever admit they were wrong doing something. Be careful. You might have a kid headed to the far country. These are the antics. He tried everything he could before he admitted he was wrong. Why? Because admitting that he was wrong would also admit that mom and dad were right. Are you listening? And to admit that they were right means that I would have been better off staying where I was instead of doing my own thing, realizing that he had made a bad decision. But notice what verse seventeen says here. He was going to fill his belly with the husks the swine did eat. Nobody gave unto him. By the way, you can go to the world, but when your money runs out, ain’t nobody going to feel sorry for you. The world ain’t going to help you. The world is not. The world is there to see what they can get for me and for mine. And when you’re out of luck, tough luck. That’s the way the world operates. Verse seventeen, it says, and when he came to himself. This is the most important part of this story, Brother Roberto. He came to himself. He said, how many hired servants of my father’s have bread? Enough despair. Not only do they have enough bread, they got leftovers. And what does he say? And I perish with hunger. This is where he hits rock bottom. This is where he realizes, what am I doing? I’ve wasted my life. By the way, when he gets back home. Listen to this. I’m almost done. When he gets back home, he doesn’t get another inheritance. He already wasted that one. Are you listening? He was welcomed back to the home, but he had already wasted everything that he was going to get later on. There was nothing else to draw from. He can come back home and he can be a part of the family and he can work out in the field just like everybody else works. But I’m sorry, but you ain’t got an inheritance because you’ve already wasted it. By the way, young people, when you go to the world and you waste your purity and you waste your youth and you waste all the dreams and the hopes that your parents have for you. When you waste that, it’s gone. You can’t get it back. You talk to some of the parents in this room. One of the biggest regrets that many of the parents have is that they didn’t save themselves for the ones that they’re married to right now. Are you listening? Because you can’t get your purity back. That’s something. Once you’ve lost it, it’s gone. This is why your parents have the rules they have. This is why your parents don’t want you touching the opposite sex. Amen. This is why you can’t go around hugging each other. This is why you don’t go around holding hands. That’s why you don’t go around kissing. That’s why you don’t do all this stuff. Why? Because they’re trying to protect you. Because when you have something to give to your spouse one day at the wedding altar. And you can come together and be married as virgins. And wholly give yourself to one another. That’s a gift you can give your spouse. That is unmatched. Knowing they’re the only person I’ve ever been with. There’s a peace, by the way. Throw. Throw. Not every prodigal comes to themselves and returns home. Because not every prodigal is willing to admit they were wrong. Now, listen. Listen, you kid. You’re in church today, but where are you going to be at in ten years? You see, the only difference between now and ten years from now. The only difference in your life. Are going to be the people you meet and the books you read. Are you listening? Most people don’t move outside of fifty miles of where they were raised. Most people. That’s a statistic. You can look it up. The vast majority of people don’t live outside of fifty miles from where they were raised. So they have a life that they’re used to. They have a life that they’re a part of. But what’s different? The friends they have, the books they’ve read. What books ought I read? I’m glad you asked. There’s sixty six of them found right here in the bind of this one. It’s the best book you can read in life. You ought to read it every year. You ought to read it every day. But you ought to read through it at least every year. Amen. But not every prodigal comes home. Not every prodigal comes to themselves. Because they don’t want to admit that they were wrong. Because in order for me to go back, I’ve got to ask for forgiveness. And in pride and arrogance, we won’t do that. By the way, this is a month that’s been set aside to recognize pride. You know why this prodigal went the way he did? Because of his pride. Pride will lead you to the far country. Here, this kid. Let me give you some advice, girls. Are you listening? This boy tried everything he could before he admitted he was wrong. There gonna come a day. Are you listening? There gonna come a day. Some of you girls are you gonna meet a guy. And he’s gonna have every excuse in the book down to a pack. He’s called a con artist. Gonna have every excuse for why that job did him wrong. Why he can’t keep a job here, why he can’t keep a job there, why he’s the victim in all these different situations. And because you’re naive and innocent, he’s going to have you convinced that everybody’s done him wrong. The reality is he’s a bum. He’s waiting to find somebody who’s dumb enough to listen to him gripe and complain his whole life so he can survive on the support that she gives. We’ve all met guys like that. But then, guys, you may find a girl who has the same mentality, wants to blame everybody else for why she is the way she is gonna blame everybody else for the decisions that she’s made. Well, my daddy didn’t do that, my mama didn’t do that. They were never there. Okay, I understand. Those are realities. But teenagers, as you’re making decisions and becoming a young adult, by the way, Father’s Day is coming up. Have you ever noticed girls naturally become young ladies? They naturally become women. But you understand, boys don’t naturally become men. They’ve got to be made into men. And the only way they can be made into a man is by another man. You ever noticed that? I was telling my wife that the other day. It’s pretty interesting. Girls naturally grow to become a woman. But boys, if they’re not ever trained to be a man, we’ll talk about it in a couple weeks. They’re still going to be a little toddler trapped in an adult body, throwing their little temper tantrums. And being a baby, we’ll get to that on Father’s Day. But listen, we got some young people headed to the far country and some of you parents, listen, I love you and I want to help you. But some of you, it may not faze you because you’re already in the far country, too. We got to protect our young people. We’ve got to show them how to live for God, be mindful of who they’re around and the people that are influencing them for the decisions they’re making. We got a room full of young people who in the next six years are going to be moving out of your house some more because it may not pass a few grades, but some less. And that’s a reality. Stand with me with heads bowed, with eyes closed. We got some signs that we’re headed to the far country. I want to know. I wonder how many in here are headed to the far country today. I wonder how many young people with heads bowed, with eyes closed. I wonder how many young people hadn’t paid a lick of attention because you got your head rested on your shoulders of your parents. Because you’re sleeping during church. I wonder how many of you young people are headed to the far country. And you don’t care because nobody’s going to tell you any different. This message for you this morning. There’s a way that seemeth right unto a man, the Bible says, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Let’s pray. Father, we love youe. We thank youk for the truths of the Word of God. Help us.

Scripture Reference

Luke 15:11-17 KJV — And he said, A certain man had two sons: 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. 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. 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. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 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.

Introduction

Title: “Signs You Are Heading to the Far Country” — preached by Dr. Terry LeQuieu.

The parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is familiar to many of us, but familiarity can dull the sharp warnings the Lord intends to give. Dr. LeQuieu stresses that becoming a “prodigal” is a process, not an instant event. The boy’s leaving came after patterns of attitude, animosity, activity, associations, and antics. These are signs parents and young adults should heed. This sermon aims to call young people to self-examination and parents to intentional discipleship, all rooted in the KJV truth.

I’m going to preach you a message this morning entitled Signs that you’re headed to the far country.

Outline

Attitude: The Arrogant Ask
1. Demanding language — “Father, give me” reveals entitlement (Luke 15:12). An entitled attitude assumes rights without responsibility. Parents must teach gratitude and work ethic.
2. Root of pride — Pride distances the heart from home and from God. Pride makes excuses rather than repenting.
3. Practical steps — Require work at home, teach stewardship, model sacrificial labor. Children must understand the cost of provision.
Animosity: The Angry Divide
1. Hostility toward home and siblings — The younger son’s departure carried spite; he did not care for others’ welfare (Luke 15:13).
2. Failure to communicate the why — Rules without reasons breed resentment. Parents should explain convictions and the gospel motivations behind them.
3. Discipline and love together — Firm boundaries plus affection prevent bitterness; “more is caught than taught.”
Activity: The Riotous Living
1. Wasting of substance — The son squandered his inheritance on pleasures (Luke 15:13-14). Sin often begins with seemingly small choices and becomes a pattern.
2. Temporary community of pleasure — The world offers friends and parties while money lasts; famine exposes the illusion.
3. Guardrails — Limit unsupervised access to devices, monitor spending and entertainment, teach content discernment (Psalm 101:3; Proverbs 22:6).
Associations: The Rebellious Company
1. Yoking with rebels — People become like whom they frequent (1 Corinthians 15:33). The prodigal “joined himself to a citizen” of the far country (Luke 15:15).
2. Friendship as destiny — Friends shape desires, choices, and life-direction. Spot spiritual likeness at camps, youth events, and school.
3. Parental vigilance — Know your children’s friends and their families; reasonable boundaries about who they may visit and where they go protect souls.
Antics: The Rock-Bottom Choices
1. Hitting the hogs — The son would have eaten swine husks when he came to himself — a vivid picture of rock bottom (Luke 15:16-17).
2. Stubborn refusal to repent — He tried everything before admitting wrong. Pride delays return to the Father.
3. The gospel break — God’s chastening may bring repentance; the prodigal’s coming to himself is the turning point (Luke 15:17).
Family Responses: Grace with Holy Boundaries
1. Receive repentant sinners — The father welcomed the prodigal home with forgiveness and restoration (Luke 15:20-24).
2. Keep convictions — Do not abandon biblical standards to make wayward children comfortable in sin; welcome them back without lowering truth.
3. Work and restoration — The prodigal returned to the work of the household, not to a renewed inheritance (Luke 15:19). Restoration often includes repentance, re-training, and rebuilding trust.

Summary

Dr. LeQuieu outlines five progressive signs that point toward the “far country”: attitude (entitlement), animosity (bitterness), activity (riotous living), associations (rebellious friends), and antics (rock-bottom choices). Each sign moves the heart farther from the Father and closer to ruin. Yet the gospel remains central: some return when they come to themselves and repent; others do not. Parents are called to be diligent disciplers — teaching, protecting, and loving — while maintaining biblical convictions. Young adults are called to self-examine, repent of pride, and choose God-honoring friends and activities.

We got some signs that we’re headed to the far country. I want to know. I wonder how many in here are headed to the far country today.

Application for the Week

The sermon is practical. Here are clear, Gospel-centered steps both parents and young adults can take this week to respond to these warnings.

Self-Check Your Heart
1. Young adults: spend time alone with the KJV Bible this week — read Luke 15 slowly and ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart (Psalm 139:23-24).
2. Ask: Do I display entitlement, animosity, or bitterness? Confess specific sins and repent.
Review Your Associations
1. Make a list of your five closest friends. Pray over each name and examine how they influence you spiritually.
2. If someone consistently draws you from the Lord, seek accountability and distance as needed (1 Corinthians 15:33).
Implement Digital Guardrails
1. Parents: review device rules — set passwords you control, check histories weekly, and install age-appropriate content filters.
2. Young adults: commit to healthy digital habits — limit ungodly content and replace screen time with Scripture and godly fellowship.
Introduce or Re-institute Family Rhythms
1. Begin at least one family devotional this week — read a short passage from the Bible, pray, and discuss application for 10–15 minutes each night.
2. Reinstate household responsibilities: chores, curfew, or a family meeting to discuss expectations with love and explanation.
Accountability and Restoration Steps
1. If you identify as one beginning to drift: find a mature believer (pastor, parent, mentor) and ask them to meet with you this week for counsel and accountability.
2. If you’re a parent with a prodigal: pray for courage to keep convictions and the humility to show Gospel grace — arrange a loving conversation offering restoration tied to repentance and clear terms.
Memory and Prayer
1. Memorize Luke 15:17–18 this week: “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. I will arise and go to my father.”
2. Pray daily for those you named in #2, asking God to draw the prodigal home (Romans 10:1).

Make these practical steps specific: pick days and times for family devotional, set the digital rules tonight, and set a meeting with a trusted mentor this week. The Lord uses small, faithful steps to prevent souls from walking to the far country — and to bring them home when they wander.

For encouragement: read Luke 15 all this week and meditate on the Father’s heart. No one is beyond His reach, but pride must be broken, and repentance must come. May God grant humility, discipline, and a hunger for His Word.