April 03rd, 2016

     There are three very important lessons I learned from the parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke chapter 15:
1.  You are so much more than where you are now and what you are doing with your life.
2. Everyone will not be happy about your comeback
​3.  God's grace is enough

    SNAPSHOT:  The prodigal son is a parable about a father who had two sons.  One of his sons came and requested his half of the inheritance, squandered it with reckless and riotous living.   After he spent all he had, there came a famine in the land and this son found himself working where he would feed the pigs.  At one point, he become so hungry and desperate, he began to eat what the pigs were eating.
     This brings us to our first point.  "You are so much more than where you are now and what you are doing with your life."   Even if you are not a "prodigal son,"  this still applies to you.   After the son found himself eating what the pigs ate and no one was giving him anything, the bible say in verse 17 "He came to himself."  That means, he had a sudden realization or that he came to his senses.  He said to himself, and I paraphrase, "My father has servants who are living better than I am right not. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me."   Okay, so here's my point.   I invite you to take an inventory of your life, your relationships, your family situation, your finances, and your job or academic status and realize that there is so much more for you.  You are sons and daughters of the King and heirs to the throne.   So ask yourself, "Why am I living like this when my father is the King and the ruler of everything?"   I need you to come to yourself and realize EVERYTHING that you ARE.   Whether or not you are living like royalty doesn't change the fact that you are a child of the King. 
     Secondly, knowing that everyone will not be happy about your comeback is half the battle.  The one thing that keeps most prodigals from coming home is that fact that they afraid of how everyone will react to them when if and when then come home.   The older brother was livid and incensed at his father's audacity to celebrate his brother who went out, spent his inheritance, and made a spectacle of himself.   In fact, he was so angry, "...he would not go in.  Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him." Luke 15:28  Here's my point:  If you want for a consensus from the masses for you to come home, you'll probably never return.   The Prodigal Son first came to his senses then said to himself "I will arise" Luke 15:18, then "he arose" Luke 15:20.   So if you are having are coming to your senses right now, then make up in your mind that you will arise--then ARISE.   No, everyone will not be happy for your return, but God is waiting for you.  He has been anticipating your return.   
     Finally,  God's grace is enough.  This is the most exciting point for me!   God's grace is more than enough.  "But when he was still a ways off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him."   Luke 15:20.   This let's me know that his father [not the masses] was anticipating his return.  There was not wait time in verse 20 between when he arose and when his father saw him.   As soon as he arose, his father saw him and embraced him.  Unlike us, God does not how us accountable for our since once surrender our lives to Christ.   God, the father, is the single most important factor in your return and he is excited about you coming home.