The University of Hard Knocks
Robert A. Glass
Many of us have attended college, and some of us have various degrees. But there was a boy, whose collegiate journey can be a lesson for us all. The story of the Prodigal Son is well known, but if we examine through its stages we will see the four years of college as well.
Our story begins in Luke 15:11. This young man is now “mature” and the time has come for him to go “off to college”. Yes! He is entering the University of Hard Knocks as a fully matriculated FRESHMAN with ALL rights and privileges.
He said to his Dad, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. This boy didn’t KNOW it but he was asking for tuition money into the University of Hard Knocks.
In Verse 13, “And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country. He went off to college.
At college, he acted as a typical freshman would; he wasted his time in riotous parties. For a brief moment...he was a BIG man on campus. He had lots of friends, plenty of girls and he was having a GOOD TIME and a FUN, freshman year. BUT! His tuition ran out before his classes ended! His friends abandoned him and he was alone. (All in all, It was a downhill spiral only to get WORSE.
At the beginning of his sophomore year at the University of Hard Knocks, a huge FAMINE hit the campus and our HAPPY-GO-LUCKY freshman was now a LONELY, HUNGRY, friendless sophomore. The “tuition” money that was given to him by Dad had been squandered and lost. He was beyond POOR, He was BROKE!
Even though his tuition money was gone his laborious classes at the University of Hard Knocks continued. He found himself NOW as a junior and his next class was to be VERY laborious. Luke 15:15 “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. His junior level classes took him as LOW as a man could GO! To a Jew, a pig was an “unclean” animal. That meant, Touch NOT, Taste NOT and AVOID! But he not only had to be NEAR them, he had to FEED them! He is a “junior” now and has had nothing to eat his entire sophomore/junior years. This young man is hungry, REALLY hungry. I mean PIG FEED hungry! But, he couldn’t even get a mouthful of that!
NOW! He stands as a senior in the University of Hard Knocks. He has now LEARNED what he did NOT know. His EDUCATION has FINALLY ARRIVED! He has come to himself. Now as a “senior” he becomes wiser and more humble. He realizes what he had as a SON and realizes how far down he has fallen. SOMETIMES, a man has to fall down before he can get up! He reasons to himself How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! This man has now qualified for the PhD degree from the University of Hard Knocks.
He decides to exercise his new wisdom by using his humility. He says to himself, I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
This man’s journey of knowledge has led him full circle. He left his dad to enter college and now he is returning home a smarter and wiser man.
The son even gave a Valedictorian speech. “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
His father, otherwise known as the President of the University of Hard Knocks when his son was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. This father recognized his dirty, filthy, PIG feeding son and gives him an earned Doctorate degree. He forgave the son.
Where are we in the University of Hard Knocks? Are we freshmen, living in riotous living? Are we sophomores in the midst of a famine? Are we a junior feeding pigs or a senior who has realized the way back to the Father. There is a way BACK to the HEAVENLY Father for YOU!
Are you a Christian? You can become a Christian right now.
Believe that Jesus is the only Begotten Son of God? (John 8:24) “For if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
Repent of your past sins? Jesus said, “(Luke 13:3) “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Unless we repent, we perish. That is the consequence of SIN.
Confess that Jesus is the ONLY begotten Son of God? Jesus said in (Matt 10:32) “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. (33) But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Be baptized for the remission of sin, in the Name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost? (1 Peter 3:21) The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Perhaps you’re a PRODIGAL member of the Church and now you realize that you need to return to your HEAVENLY FATHER. Your life has not what God would have it to be. Anything from dust on your Bible to sin in your soul can keep you out of Heaven.
(James 5:16) “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (1 John 1:9) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
• Is there sin in your soul?
• NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!
The lesson is yours, The Invitation is YOURS,
Come Now as we stand and sing.
