“Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.” And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
“‘But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to celebrate.
“‘Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.” But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” And he said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”’” [1]
“How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” This is the conversation that one wayward boy had with himself. He didn’t have this conversation until he came to himself; and he didn’t come to himself until he was sitting in a pigpen wishing he could eat some of the food that he fed to the swine. Until he was reduced to a state of utter desperation, this boy was self-satisfied, secure, and smug. He had never realised how he had traded his wealth for poverty, until he was reduced to absolute want.
Raised in relative luxury, the boy had never known what it was to be in need. Dining at his father’s table, he had never been hungry. Wearing clothing his father had provided, he had always dressed in clean clothing unmarked by the shameful stain that marked a descent into the filth of the sewer. Sleeping soundly in a warm bed each night, this boy had been secure in his father’s love and kept safe from the challenges of life.
Then came the awful day when he realised how far he had fallen. He took stock of his situation, and it was dire. He saw where he was and what he had become. He had defiantly ignored the stench of the pigpen, ignored the hunger than gnawed at him constantly, ignored the way in which erstwhile friends avoided him despite his having spent all he had while in their company. Those friends he thought he had bought proved to be no friends at all. The shock of realisation must have been dramatic for this man. When he came to himself, he had a conversation with himself.
Among those listening to the message I bring this day are people who are in need of having a conversation with themselves. Some who need this conversation profess Christ. Perhaps you do have faith in the Son of God, but you have begun to live as you once did when you were in the world. The manner in which you now live is indistinguishable from the lives of earth-dwellers who are under divine condemnation. You may be saved, but you don’t glorify your Father in Heaven and you disgrace the profession you make by the manner in which you live. You have no real friends. Those in the world don’t like you, but they are willing to use you for their own ends. And those who would be friends, your fellow saints, you have shoved away with your own hands.
Some who need to have this conversation with themselves profess to believe Christ, though there is little reason to suspect they were ever twice-born. You know that you have never come to yourself and you are living in the same filth in which you have always lived, when you allow yourself to honestly assess matters. The reason this is true is that you are unsaved and satisfied with pretending that you are a follower of the Christ. However, you are miserable, knowing that you have no faith in the Son of God and that you are thus under sentence of eternal condemnation. Neither are you able to enjoy the blessings of walking with the Saviour because in fact you cannot walk with Him!
Others who hear me at this hour need to have this conversation with themselves because they are lost and they know they are lost. We who know the grace of God plead with those individuals who are lost and who know they are lost. We tell them that God will receive them, forgiving them of their rebellion and bringing them into His Family. Our God is kind, and He receives all who come to Him in faith believing that He will receive them through the mercies of His Son Jesus, Who is the Christ.
ASSESSING HIS SITUATION — “When he came to himself…” [LUKE 15:17a]. Few things are more certain to catch our attention than finding ourselves in the pigpen. When we have poisoned every relationship, shut off every source of support and isolated ourselves from the comfort of those who love us, we will find ourselves in the pigpen of life. Among those living in this modern world, it has become distressingly easy to create a virtual world in which any of us can imagine that we are queen or king of our universe. We boast that we have a plethora of friends, but they exist only on Facebook or as followers on Twitter or as a video which can be casually viewed on Tik Tok. When our world caves in, as it inevitably must when we have shoved everyone who loves us far from us, those virtual friends will be exposed as mere ghosts—they don’t actually exist.
Just as the accolades are virtual, so support for us will be virtual when it is needed at last. Every commiseration and every statement of support is rendered meaningless since they exist only as electronic expressions that disappear when our phone’s battery dies. Ultimately, each of us who imagine that we can walk our own course without divine guidance is going to end up in the pigpen. We were created to know God, and if we are walking without His guidance we are moving inexorably toward a dark, dirty end where we are reduced to dining with the swine and wishing we were able to sit at the Father’s table for a hearty helping of genuine love and empowerment from His Spirit.
Let me speak pointedly to you who are saved, though the stench of the pigpen clings to your feet. I don’t need to convince you—you know how very difficult it is to attempt to live with one foot in the Faith and one foot in the world. I do not deny that the allure of the world is strong. Though you are trying to have the best of both worlds, you know that you are on a fool’s errand. The promise of free sex without consequences appeals to our flesh. We see the photoshopped and airbrushed pictures that promise what our life can be like, but we are never shown the end of those perfectly toned bodies.
Young women seem convinced that they will always be nineteen years old. For the brief years of their existence on this benighted planet, they have been trained to live for the moment, emphasising their youthful appearance rather than cultivating character. Young men seem unable to see that there is coming a day when arthritis will cripple the knees and the eyes will grow dim. Those strong bodies will no longer be defined by a sixpack when they remove their shirt—the abs will be more reminiscent of a keg. Our young people have been taught, and they have apparently absorbed the lesson—YOLO! Life takes a toll, and few are able to see what that toll will be, until the bill is presented.
Someone listening at this hour needs to have this conversation with themselves. You may say, “I’ve made a mess of my life. I had such high hopes and great ambitions, and I’ve squandered all that I possessed. Here I am, stuck in a pigpen with the hogs. These pigs stink, and I smell just like them.” But it doesn’t have to be that way! Take stock of your situation and be honest with yourself. If you’ve had enough of this stinking pigpen where you now exist, determine that you will quit squatting in the slop now!
Perhaps you at last realise that you have wandered away from your relationship with God. Oh, you say words and perhaps you even imagine that you are praying, but you know that your words rise no higher than the ceiling. What is worse, you know that your present choices do not honour God and you are disgracing His Name by how you now live. You recognise that your condition is almost indistinguishable from those who are without hope and without God in the world. You can never change your situation until you acknowledge where you are—and at this moment, you are in the pigpen.
Perhaps you know that though you are a child of the King, you are not serving Him. You are stuck in the pigpen with those who hate your Father, and your silence only encourages them to persist in their rebellion. In their estimate, you are just like them. Nothing you are doing distinguishes you from them, and though you detest their rebellion, your silence lends them comfort and support.
You fear that your condition resembles that of Lot. Recall how Peter speaks of the Lord’s rescue of Lot when he writes, “If [the Lord] rescued Lot, a righteous man who was greatly distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless people—for as long as that righteous man lived among them, day after day he was being tortured in his righteous soul by what he saw and heard in their lawless actions” [2 PETER 2:7-8 ISV].
There is no joy in your present situation. Superficially, everything looks good and you know you should be happy; but happiness is ephemeral for you. You know that happiness is an illusion, a will-‘o-the-wisp that always floats just out of reach. Your job gives you an income; and though it isn’t all that you could wish, it is enough to give you a measure of security. You’re setting aside money in your RSP and you even have money set aside in your TFSA, so the future looks somewhat secure. You plan trips away for your holiday each year and your mortgage is paid on time. Everything looks good, except for the fact that you no longer have a vibrant relationship with the Father. And in the quiet moments when you mind goes where you didn’t particularly want it to go, you are miserable because you know you are living for the moment, and the moment must end one day in death. Then, you will stand before the Father in abject shame.
Paul advised the Corinthian congregation to put a man out of the fellowship who was living for his own pleasure. It is worthwhile to note the rationale behind Paul’s advice to these Christians in Corinth. The assembly was told to “deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” [1 CORINTHIANS 5:5]. The discipline Paul expected the assembly to administer was to be administered with the view that the devil would batter the individual. Though your church may have been negligent in administering discipline, you are nevertheless being battered. You wish someone cared enough to hold you to account, even though you resist accountability when it is administered!
None of us enjoy discipline. Why do New Year resolutions to get physically fit seem to last only until we have to begin exercising? Isn’t it because we are unwilling to discipline our bodies? Why do so many Christians live lives that are substandard when compared to the expectation established in the Word? Isn’t it because it is easier to drift with the current than it is to go against the tide? Self-discipline is hard!
And if we think self-discipline is hard, how much harder is discipline when it is administered by another! That is especially true when the Master administers discipline. Recall what has been written in the Letter to Hebrew Christians. I am reading the passage from another Bible. In that passage of HEBREWS 12:5-11 NET BIBLE, we read, “Have you forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons?
‘My son, do not scorn the Lord’s discipline
or give up when he corrects you.’
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son he accepts.”
“Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you do not experience discipline, something all sons have shared in, then you are illegitimate and are not sons. Besides, we have experienced discipline from our earthly fathers and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life? For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness. Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness for those trained by it.” How true are those words, “All discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful.” And you can testify to the validity of that statement because you are living it. There is joy in the result of discipline, but there is no joy in discipline itself!
As a young lad growing up in my father’s house, I was disciplined less than I deserved, but enough to ensure that I would reconsider the wisdom of persisting in rebellion. Dad was a deacon—a deacon who read the Word of God and believed what it said! He was convinced of the veracity of the words of the wise which teach,
“Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.”
[PROVERBS 22:15]
My dad was convinced, and modern parental practise has proven, that the wisdom provided in the Proverbs is accurate. There, we read,
“The rod and reproof give wisdom,
but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.”
[PROVERBS 29:15].
I learned something valuable from those times when my father was forced to apply “the rod and reproof.” My dad would hand me his pocket knife and tell me to go cut an elm switch. It was the ultimate torture—not only would I be switched, but I had to bring the instrument with which my justly deserved punishment was administered. An elm switch was cut from the shoots of an elm tree. Very early in life, I became a connoisseur of elm switches. If the one selected was too large, it would bruise. Too small, and the switch would cut the skin and smart for a long time.
On one occasion, I looked over about every elm shoot in the yard, taking an unusual amount of time to find just the right switch so that it wouldn’t hurt as much. After a considerable period of weighing all the alternatives, I came back into the house with my hands behind my back. Dad asked if I had a switch. I never looked up, but shyly offered, “I couldn’t find one, Dad; but I have a rock if you want to throw it at me.” He was laughing so hard that I escaped my richly deserved punishment—that time. Resorting to deflection never worked again, but it did work that one time.
There is something else that I learned from those times when I was switched. Dad would hold my hand so that I couldn’t run. I simply had to endure the stinging switch. I did learn, however, that if I moved close to my father as he administered the punishment which I had brought upon myself, the stinging switch could not hurt nearly so much. If I tried to pull away, the switch was able to find me and sting as it was meant to do. Move closer to my dad as he administered the punishment, and the punishment was endurable. Try to pull away, and the punishment would sting.
Something like that is true in the discipline that our Father in Heaven administers. Try to pull away, and the discipline hurts. Move toward Him and the pain is lessened and the punishment, which we undoubtedly deserve, is quickly finished. The purpose of God’s punishment of His children is to correct their disobedience, drawing them closer to Him. God disciplines His child to bring that child back into the loving relationship which we long for and which is intended for us. When you are disciplined, and each of us will be disciplined at some time, turn to the Father and run to His arms. His purpose is to deliver your soul from death. Try to pull away, and the discipline you will have to endure will last longer still.
DETERMINING A COURSE OF ACTION — “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants’” [LUKE 15:18-19]. I suggest that this young man in our text exhibits genuine humility at this point. Confronting his own arrogance, admitting that he was the source of his sorrow—these were massive steps for that young man.
There had been no humility when he demanded his inheritance from his father; there was only arrogance. He had been so focused on fulfilling his personal desires that he was unable to look ahead to where his choices would lead. He had jettisoned relationships that were based on love for the transience of attention, and the attention of those who have no love for us is soon focused elsewhere. Now, with the stench of the pigpen wafting about his head and permeating his clothing so that it was impossible to distinguish between himself and the hogs, the young man at last indicates that he is prepared to be a servant rather than attempt to claim the position of a son, a position that he had rejected because he wanted to become the master of his own fate. At last, the young man recognises the grace and kindness he had despised so that he could feel as if he was a big man. That’s the problem with our feelings—they are soon thrown to the ground as reality asserts itself.
The debate was finished for this young man. He has a conversation with his three favourite people—me, myself, and I—speaking with genuine and sincere determination. “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say…” There is no equivocation, no weighing alternative scenarios; this young man is certain that he must act immediately. The weight of what shall come in the future weighs on him. He must act now!
There are people listening at this time who need to have a similar conversation. You made choices that have brought you nothing that you anticipated. Those friends who urged you to take control of your life, who promised to stand with you, have proven to be less reliable than you could ever have imagined they would be. They demonstrated that they had only one interest, and that was to promote themselves at your expense. They demonstrated that they would use you to fulfil their own desires. You know that when you have been used up, there will nothing left to make them want to hang around you. The world is full of people who ran from the Father’s house to show that they had what it takes to make themselves feel fulfilled. They may have money, they may have acquired lots of things, but they paid a price that none of us can afford. They spent relationships and are left feeling empty despite all their acquisitions.
The young woman who divested herself of modesty and sold her character to give momentary pleasure to some man will soon be used up with no one to care. When that young man has sold his character to fund the pleasure of erstwhile friends, he will discover too late that they don’t have time for him. The older man, or the older woman, who failed to build relationships with those who love them, and all to gain a sense of security will find that those who once loved them are too busy to be concerned any longer. We need to consider the teaching of our Master, Who has taught us, “The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries than the people of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal homes” [LUKE 16:8b-9 NET BIBLE]. Notice that we are to prepare for when money and possessions fail. Look to the eternal!
We live in a society that measures an individual’s worth by the amount of money amassed. No one should be surprised since we worship money. Truly, politicians want more money so they can enrich themselves and spend more of what they grab from the people in order to ensure they are re-elected. Celebrities imagine that they are above the requirements they insist must be imposed on the little people, because money… Tragically, money is of limited value in securing that which is of eternal worth. Money can buy a prostitute, but it cannot buy love. Money can buy a house, but it cannot make that house a home. Money can buy a doctor, but money cannot buy health. Money can buy a fine automobile, but it cannot carry you to genuine joy. And at the last, that fine automobile will serve only to transport a few impoverished souls to the cemetery to witness your carcass as it is lowered into the ground.
As an aside of some significance, one can be quite religious and yet be worshippers of money. Isn’t it interesting to read the biblical assessment of the Pharisees, recognised as the evangelicals, or even the fundamentalists, of the ancient Jewish world. The people didn’t despise the Pharisees; they looked up to them as the arbiters of religious precision. These religious paragons lived what they believed. They were scrupulous in tithing, meticulous in reciting the appropriate prayers, icily precise in adhering to every facet of the Law. They could dissect a law thirty different ways and never whet their knife. They could recite all six hundred thirteen positive commands without missing one!
Jesus had just told a parable of a manager who was about to be sacked because he was crooked. This shrewd man arranged it so that the creditors of those that owed his boss money would discount their bills. He did this so that he would be seen in a favourable light by those who were indebted to his boss.
Having delivered this parable, Jesus provided this assessment of the parable He had just told. “The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you haven’t been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? And if you haven’t been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” [LUKE 16:10-13 NET BIBLE].
Here is the point that I want you to grab hold of. The biblical assessment of these “evangelicals” was, “The Pharisees (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed Him” [LUKE 16:14 NET BIBLE]. Then, Jesus delivered this stinging rebuke because of their rejection of the inconvenient truth He had just spoken: “You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight” [LUKE 16:15 NET BIBLE].
People are trained to worship at the shrine of possessions; in doing this, they condemn themselves to a lifetime of grief. If possessions don’t fulfil our lives, perhaps we will find fulfilment in popularity. Speaking with the step-brother of Elvis Presley on one occasion, I was told that this far-famed star was known to say on multiple occasions, “I’m so damned lonely I could die.” If popularity is somehow insufficient to satisfy the soul, perhaps power will fill the void that. But those who wield power are frequently known to be miserable despite their power. Position does not fill the void that yawns in the soul of an individual. Nothing provided by this dying world can give satisfaction.
Augustine is correct when he writes, “Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite. And Thee would man praise; man, but a particle of Thy creation; man, that bears about him his mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness that Thou resistest the proud: yet would man praise Thee; he, but a particle of Thy creation. Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.” [2]
Isn’t it time for you to come to yourself? Isn’t it time to take stock of what is happening in your life? Perhaps you are walking a path that continually leads you farther and farther from home. Stop! Turn around and return to the safety and comfort of the Father’s house! Some have resisted placing their lives in the fellowship of a sound, Bible preaching assembly. Why do you continue to refuse to do what you know is right? Don’t delay any longer to openly declare your allegiance to that fellowship where the Spirit of Christ has led you. Above all else, tell the Father that He is right, that you have sinned and that you are tired of your sinful way. Glorify Him.
When you at last grow tired of the pigpen, determine a course of action that will change your situation. That course of action, if it is to succeed, will lead you directly to the cross of Christ. You will find yourself kneeling before Him to ask Him to restore you. For all who are tired of the pigpen, listen to the Word of God. The Apostle of Love has taught us, “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” [1 JOHN 1:9]. The only action that can succeed is to cast yourself on the mercy of God Who loves you and Who waits to receive you.
EXPECTATION VERSUS REALITY — “[The young man] arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to celebrate’” [LUKE 15:20-24].
The hope or this young man was that he would be able to secure a place as a bond servant in his father’s house. He knew he deserved no better than that, but slavery would beat what he was now experiencing. If he could only return home, he was hopeful that his father would feed him and give him a clean place to stay. Though he would be only a bond servant, he would be safe. The reality of what he found with was far different.
We know that almost any condition has to be better than sleeping in the muck and smelling like a pig. Yet, we question whether we can handle the sneering looks those Christians will give us and the cutting remarks that will surely accompany their looks that register their disapproval, their disgust with who we are. However, what we will meet among the people of God is vastly different from what we imagine. Christians do not use repentance as an opportunity to degrade the individual who is returning from the pigpen. That is the way the world will respond to those who turn from what they have been doing; but followers of Christ respond with love, with acceptance, with genuine humility because they rejoice in the effective work of the Spirit of God in the penitent’s heart.
I note with wry amusement the repeated news stories of people who questioned the wisdom of participating in a worldwide experiment of injecting a foreign material into the body in a futile attempt to halt a manufactured virus. When such doubters contracted the dreadful disease, the headlines screamed out the news that another antivaxxer had contracted CoVid. Those publishing the stories appeared almost gleeful. “See, that’ll teach those ignorant people that didn’t act as we demanded!” Far too many of us secretly—and often, not so secretly—are overjoyed when another pitiful drug addict overdoses on a street drug such as fentanyl. The response of those schooled in the wisdom of this world rejoice in the humiliation of those who erred from the prevailing social standard. Those who attempt to turn back from a lifestyle that is at last seen as self-destructive are often ridiculed for having ever strayed from the accepted path.
This should never be the case among the people of God. If we act in that fashion, we are revealing a spirit that is more at home with this dying world than it is with the God who sent His Son to die for sinful people. When Jesus was relating this story of the young man who turned from his father to pursue his own path to oblivion, he also told a parable of a shepherd.
Here is that parable. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost’” [LUKE 15:4-6].
As Jesus told that parable, there is little question but that everyone who heard Him speak was nodding their head. They could see how important it had to be to be joyful about recovering a lost sheep. Then, Jesus appended the unexpected point, saying, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” [LUKE 15:7]. Did you get that? All Heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents. The halls of the blessed realm reverberates with shouts of joy, with wild exuberance because the sinner turns from his pursuit of death to step into the light.
Jesus wasn’t finished with instructing those who heard Him as He continued with another story of a woman who lost part of her dowry. Jesus then related another parable. “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” [LUKE 15:8-10]. Again, those about Jesus were no doubt in agreement with what He was saying. Of course, a woman who found what had been lost from her dowry would be overjoyed. That lost coin represented security, a hedge against a husband who might reject her, turning her out into the cold, cruel world.
If those listening had paused to examine what they had agreed to as Jesus spoke, they would have realised that He was drawing them in to agreement with the concept that things can be important. Things—a sheep or a coin—are treated as an extension of our person. Things take on an importance that goes far beyond the intrinsic value of that thing. But, though we readily see the value of things, we are more obdurate in our estimate concerning people. People are disposable in this world! We’ll grieve over lost “things,” and experience no pain in the loss of people or relationships.
I’ve spoken to those who are in that degrading position of knowing that they are in the pigpen. No one has to tell you how dreadful things have become—you know! Here is a poetic presentation of what can take place for you.
Had it all one day
Threw it all away
Took my leave with no goodbye
Bought some company
Bragged how we were free
Laughed and looked death in the eye
Even far away
In a foreign place
Where the hunger gnawed my soul
Still my heart would long
For love’s old sweet song
And a fire when the nights were cold
There’s a road somewhere
There’s an open door
There's a hill where the green grass grows
There’s a family feast
Where there's joy and peace
Goin’ back to a place called Hope
Fickle friends are gone
Wasted years are long
And regret can bring you low
But there’s a swift embrace
There's amazing grace
There’s a place where lost sons go
There’s a road somewhere
There’s an open door
There’s a hill where the green grass grows
There’s a family feast
Where there’s joy and peace
Goin’ back to a place called Hope
Goin’ back to a place called Hope [3]
The message calls you to come home. Whether you are born from above and have wandered from the Father’s House, or whether you are one who never knew the Father’s love, but you wish you did, we call you to come home. You who are twice-born may have chosen for the moment to share life with the pigs in the pigpen. However, you have a home, though you have forsaken that home and fled because you imagined you could be in control of your own life. At last, you have discovered that you has no control over your life. Fed up with being fed the slop the world calls freedom, you now say, “Enough! I’m going back home! I have a Father, and I am certain my Father will receive me when I turn around.” And when you come home, the people of God will rejoice and you will find a place among those who love God and who are loved by Him.
Coming to yourself, decide today that it is better to return to the Father than to continue on a course that leads only to destruction and ruin. A pigpen is no place for you; it is better to have a home to go to than it is to be left without from the love of the Father, spending a lifetime separated from His love and from His eager acceptance. Come home, now. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo, The Confessions of St. Augustine, E. B. Pusey (trans.) (Logos Research Systems, Inc., Oak Harbor, WA 1996)
[3] Gloria L. Gaither, Silvey Jeffrey Sean, Wm. J. Gaither, “Place Called Hope,”
