Luke 15:18
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
For years I have mentored people in the faith. I have always taken joy in teaching others, even long before I was saved, so mentoring kind of came naturally to me.
But not everyone is teachable.
Take pigs for instance.
• Headstrong
• Always sticking their big noses where THEY DON’T BELONG
• Never improve, they just keep snorting around the pig pen
• Bent on finding that next snack and feeding themselves
I have mentored a few people that remind me of those pigs.
• I would try to gently guide them into their callings
• Guide them away from things that negatively affect what God wanted them to do
• I would give them words from the Lord to encourage them and some WARNING WORDS, TOO, when the Lord was trying to help them avoid the pitfalls
• And then they would go off and do whatever they wanted to do
• However they wanted to do it
• It is like trying to potty train a toddler who is very stubborn.
• You teach them where to potty
• How to potty
• Why to potty
• And they still potty wherever they want to
• Like cutting their proverbial nose off to spite their face
I never could figure out why they wanted me to mentor them just to ignore everything I told them. I ALWAYS STOP MENTORING PEOPLE WHO ACT LIKE THAT.
I always loved the story of the Prodigal son. LUKE 15:11-12
• Because I was a little bit prodigal myself
• Determined to go do my own thing
• Even though it was to my harm to refuse to listen to wisdom from those trying to guide me into a happier life
• I wanted to do what I wanted to do
• I thought MY WAY was better
• I thought I knew everything
• It got my nowhere
The Prodigal Son wanted to go do HIS OWN THING, too.
• He didn’t want to wait for his father’s legacy, he wanted to take his inheritance and go party on it. He wanted immediate gratification. Immediate gratification doesn’t teach us self-restraint. It doesn’t teach us right living. Immediate gratification leads to sloppy living and a life of excess and indulgence.
• Maybe it was the controlling father
• Maybe it was working on the farm every day
• Maybe it was the pouty older brother. BUT HE LEFT HOME TO GO DO HIS OWN THING, his own way.
His father, loving his son, must have been so saddened that his son did not care enough to stay and help with the family business.
• To stay and be sure his father was taken care of in his old age.
• That, in spite of his good raising, his son cared only for the frivolous things in life.
• He had tried to raise him to have a longer viewpoint than that.
• He had provided a legacy for him, that he might have security long after his father was gone.
• That son was basically saying I WANT WHAT YOU CAN GIVE ME, BUT I DON’T WANT YOU
• Any parent knows that if you give a child too much, too soon, they will do the wrong thing with it.
• Because they are not sufficiently mature to know what to do with important things.
• That’s the whole reason we NEEDED parents to guide us.
But the PRODIGAL SON didn’t feel he needed any guidance. He knew his own way would work JUST FINE. LUKE 15:13
LUKE 15:14-17
• You know, there’s a protection when you stay near the Father. When you stay near home base.
• At home base, near the Father, someone cares if you are hungry.
• Someone cares if you have shelter, or if you become ill
• But when you’re just another rebellious son in a far country where no one knows you, you can end up in the pig pen. BECAUSE NO ONE CARES.
• You have left your Father’s house where you were loved and cared for.
• And every one of us has at some time been in rebellion to our loving Father, haven’t we.
• Rebellion, like any other sin, will always take us some place WE DON’T WANT TO BE
• It will always get us into a mess WE DIDN’T PLAN FOR OR EXPECT
But then the Prodigal remembered his father’s words, and he repented.
• He longed again for the comfort and security of the home fires.
• Of being cared for, of a LOVING FATHER
• LUKE 15:18-20a
• You will notice that when he repented, he did not just go “Wow, I wish I hadn’t done that, and THEN STAY THERE.
• No, true repentance ALWAYS INVOLVES A CHANGE OF DIRECTION.
• Realizing you are in the wrong place and continuing to go the wrong way is called STUPIDITY, not Repentance.
• REPENTANCE IS SAYING, WOW, I TOOK A WRONG TURN SOMEWHERE, LETS TURN AROUND AND GO THE RIGHT WAY!
• LUKE 15:20b-24
• The BEST part of the story is how a gracious and loving father who had MISSED HIS SON and WORRIED OVER HIS WELL-BEING ran to meet him and welcome him back into the fold.
• Of course the pouty older brother was still the pouty older brother, but the Prodigal was just glad to be home again.
• The pouty older brother was focused on performance. All he could see was his own good behavior. He failed to see the miraculous change in his brother’s heart and the delight in his father at his repentance, or the party would have been even more joyful. There’s always that ONE PERSON who stands back in bitterness and refuses to rejoice with everyone else.
• He had squandered his inheritance, so he came home a poorer man, but A WISER ONE.
• He had learned his Father’s way really was THE BEST WAY. THE ONLY WAY FOR HIM.
• The Bible says in PROV. 8:11 that WISDOM IS BETTER THAN RUBIES.
• PROV. 10:21 says FOOL DIE FOR LACK OF WISDOM.
• If the Prodigal Son had stayed in the pig pen, he would have eventually died for lack of wisdom.
• If you turn two people loose in the woods with nothing and one is wise and one is foolish, guess what? The wise one will survive and the foolish one will die for lack of wisdom.
• And so will WE.
• If we turn from our Father’s way, thinking OUR WAY IS BETTER, NOT HAVING THE FORESIGHT TO REALIZE THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN THE PLEASURES OF RIGHT NOW, WE WILL DIE, TOO
• I used to live for the moment, just to enjoy the next party. Just trying to enjoy life. I had been through so much trauma and so much hardship, I really just wanted to be carefree and have fun for awhile. But fun was a bad choice when I should have been about my responsibilities, and choosing fun over responsibility can have life-long consequences, can’t it?
• All it got me was a bad reputation and a lotta regrets, yall.
• An interesting character in this story is the pouty older brother. He THOUGHT he was doing everything his father’s way and he resented that the younger brother, who had not done everything his father’s way, was being welcomed with open arms.
• WHY WASN’T HE BEING PUNISHED FOR BREAKING THE RULES???!!!
• WHAT IS THERE TO CELEBRATE ABOUT THIS GRIMY, SKINNY, STINKY BROTHER WHO CAME CRAWLING BACK???
• How many of us have ALSO LOOKED DOWN ON SOMEONE MIRED IN SIN who ran to our Father with a repentant heart?
• HAVE YOU EVER FELT THAT SCORNFUL GAZE AND THE JUDGMENT OF SOMEONE WHO ACTED A LITTLE MORE PERFECT THAN YOU DID, WHEN YOU TRIED TO CHANGE DIRECTIONS?
• That scornful gaze is exactly what keeps a lot of people from running to Jesus.
• You know, and I didn’t plan to preach this, you can participate in as many evangelizing programs as you want to and pat yourself on the back but let me tell you something
• AND I LIVED THIS.
• If you don’t welcome the worn down, weary, dirty sinners when they come through the doors of your church, you’re no better than the pouty older brother. IN FACT YOU ARE HIM.
• If you can’t be liked the loving father and run to them and welcome them, then you need to go back home until you can repent of your own pridefulness and thinking you are better. We have ALL sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!
• PRIDE IS FAR MORE DETESTABLE to the Lord than pig pen living with wild women.
• PROV 22:9 LISTS 7 SINS THAT ARE AN ABOMINATION TO GOD. A PROUD LOOK is NUMBER ONE ON THE LIST
• God will require an answer from you if you are the one with the proud look looking down on those who have been in sin – and THIS INCLUDES THOSE WHO ARE CHRISTIAN WHO FALL INTO SIN.
• Do you think you’re so high and mighty you can’t still be tempted???
• The Lord will allow you to be tempted to show you that you ARE NOT ABOVE THAT if you persist in thinking you are.
• I’m talking to somebody here
• Judgments are about to hit – they will likely hit the U.S. first, but they will affect EVERY NATION even by us being hit, and
• WHEN THEY DO, sinners are going to fill the churches because the fear of God is going to be poured out and YOU BETTER BE READY to embrace the sinners running out of the pig pen because
• IF YOU STAND THERE POUTING LOOKING DOWN ON THEM, GOD WILL ARRANGE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES TO WALK A MILE IN THEIR MOCASSINS AND YOU WON’T LIKE IT.
• I’m here to tell you that HE WILL HOLD US RESPONSIBLE FOR HOW WE TREAT HIS CHILDREN AS THEY ARE RUNNING TO HIM.
• The Prodigal Son acted unwisely.
• He was a MESS when he ran back to his father. He was
• Broke
• Starving
• Stinking
• Miserable
• He had addiction problems
• Loose morals
And his older brother looked down his nose like “WELL!!!”
• Here I’ve been ALL THIS TIME doing EVERYTHING RIGHT…
• But was he?
• What wasn’t he doing right?
• THERE WAS NO LOVE or COMPASSION IN HIM.
• THERE WAS ONLY JUDGMENT.
Did you ever think about the gifts the father gave his returning son?
• He gave him a ring. A ring wasn’t just jewelry back in those days, a ring was a SYMBOL OF AUTHORITY. Rings were used as signatures – it was like having a stamp of someone’s signature.
• He gave him a robe. Jacob also gave Joseph a robe of many colors. Pharaoh gave Joseph a robe when he promoted him. A robe was a signal that person was BEING HONORED, that they WERE LOVED.
• He gave him sandals. This was a sign that the prodigal son WAS NO LONGER A SERVANT, BUT A SON.
• SERVANTS DID NOT WEAR SANDALS IN THOSE DAYS.
• He killed the fatted calf – HE FED HIS SON WHO HAD just returned from a land of famine. And he fed him the very best he had, just like our Lord feeds us His best.
• He celebrated to show his JOY at his son’s safe return to him.
• All the way there, the prodigal son was just hoping he could work as a servant for his father, but his father showed him he didn’t want to give him a JOB, he wanted to give him A PLACE, A POSITION, A PROMOTION – HE WAS NOW A SON AGAIN!! A place of HONOR and RECOGNITION and SECURITY!
• When the pouty older brother threw his tantrum, his father turned to him and said YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN WITH ME – in other words, You have this relationship with me, too! I LOVE YOU, TOO!
• The Father wasn’t concerned about the Pouty Brother’s years of service, he was talking about RELATIONSHIP.
• The Lord is not looking at your service, and He doesn’t want you looking at it, either. He WANTS A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU!
• Though the Prodigal son had just returned from living in the Pig Pen, it was the pouty older brother the REAL STENCH was coming from
• What I want you to take away from this message is that
• BEING PIG HEADED and trying to do everything your own way WILL ALWAYS LAND YOU IN THE PIG PEN.
• The Lord gives us people to lead us, guide us and mentor us for a reason, and its to help us COME OUT OF AND AVOID THE PIG PEN
• Every person I have mentored who kept doing everything THEIR WAY ended up back in the pig pen. They ended up back in sin, and full of pride – a combination of BOTH BROTHERS
• The Lord does NOT want us looking down on and judging those who are running out of the pig pen who come to the church stinking of sin.
• He wants us to embrace them and welcome them, and we WILL answer to Him if we don’t. It’s our JOB.
• Remember the scripture about removing the beam from your own eye before you try to remove someone else’s. This is a protective scripture. It protects you from Satan’s trap of keeping you from seeing your own sin by always showing you someone else’s. The only place we need to be fault finding is in our MIRRORS, yall. I’m just sayin’. It is YOUR SINS you will answer for at judgment, NOT SOMEONE ELSE’S. I love what one preacher calls this beam – NOT THE EYE-BEAM, BUT THE I BEAM. ME ME ME ME ME
• LORD, I THANK YOU FOR THE INTEGRITY OF YOUR WORD. WE LOVE ALL THE WISDOM WE GET when we live RIGHT according to YOUR WORD.
• PLEASE EXAMINE OUR HEARTS, LORD, AND IF THERE IS ANY OF THE POUTY OLDER BROTHER IN US, WE PRAY YOU WOULD SHOW IT TO US AND HELP US TO MOVE BACK INTO RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU, LORD.
• HELP US TO EMBRACE THOSE RUNNING OUT OF THE PIG PEN TRYING TO FIND YOU, LORD. LET US MAKE IT OUR PERSONAL GOAL TO GREET AND HUG ON AND SPEAK TO EVERY SINGLE VISITOR AT OUR CHURCHES, LORD. HELP US TO BE THAT WARM, FRIENDLY FACE THEY LOOK FOR WHEN THEY COME IN, AND HELP US TO MAKE THEM WELCOME TO COME BACK EVERY WEEK SO THEY CAN FULLY RETURN TO YOU, LORD.
• If you persist in doing what the Lord has told you not to do, He is obligated to chasten you. If you’re into that, that’s your business, but I will tell you I have been chastened and it is my LEAST FAVORITE THING.
• Years ago, I was praying for someone who was VERY highly anointed, who had GREAT PROMISE in ministry, who had ignored the words the Lord gave me for her, who had gone right back into the pig pen she came out of, and the Lord spoke something to me I never forgot.
• WHENEVER A CHILD REFUSES TO COME AWAY FROM THE FIRE, ONLY THE FIRE CAN TEACH THEM WHAT THEY NEED TO LEARN.
• God’s wisdom is there to keep us safe from the fire, but if you refuse to listen to it, the fire is exactly where you will end up.
• So if you want to be taught by fire, go ahead and keep being pig headed, because that is exactly where that will lead you.
• But if you would prefer to try the way of wisdom, if you are tired of pigpen living, make your way down to the altar right now and we will love on you and embrace you and help you find your way out of that pigpen right now…
