Been
There & Done That
“You
Are Not The Only One To Have Done So!”
St.
Luke 15:11-14
Exodus
Ministries Copyright 2009
King
James Version Utilized
In the 21st century
church, you will quickly find that the congregants of today’s church are
farther along than our ancestors. I
venture to say without much resistance that many have heard, at one time or
another, the story of the prodigal son.
However as we look at this passage, you will find that it is actually
applicable to all of us. We all have a
little bit of prodigality within us. We
are free moral agents with the privilege of choice and any time one is left on
his or her own to make his or her own choice being human, self is his or her
first consideration. What self wants,
that is what self will strive to get at any cost, even if it means sacrificing
those most noble qualities of the better self and turning from those principles
of godliness taught by Jesus, the Church, and godly parents.
Like many today, the young man
in our text craved material things which was not wrong to do, but a coveting
and a craving for that which is material to the extent that every principle of
right is violated, always leads to one’s undoing. Therefore, with a high head and an arrogant
spirit, this young man demanded that his father give unto him his portion of
goods which rightfully belonged to him.
You see in those days, the parents had already divided their estates
among the generation following them. Notice
he asked the father to give me what you were going to give me anyway after you
die. He actually told his father to act
as if you are already dead and give me my money that you said is mine already. Don’t ask me any questions and I do not want
to hear what you have to say about saving or investing the funds. Just give me my money and let me go.
He did not care about the
people that actually cared about him. It
did not matter if his departure hurt his parents or his one and only
brother. Worldly goods, with a high
dollar value and a good time, as he thought, were all that interested him. His appetite craved sensual enjoyments and
make believe pleasures away from home, even beyond the old home training and
his religious home life. He was
interested in satisfying his own selfish notions and desires without any regard
to the counsel of his parents. He felt
he was right in all that he did so he asked for his inheritance now. Yet I will say this to you, staring up to admire
your own halo usually creates a pain in the neck.
He became bored with home
life. He wanted freedom. He wanted freedom from his father’s rules in
the house. He wanted freedom from being
identified with the famous family in the region. He wanted freedom from the neighbors and the
town dwellers that watched him grow up.
He wanted freedom from a brother older than he was and would inherit the
ruling authority from the father because the eldest child always took over
where the parents left off. He wanted
freedom from being one of Mr. Jones’s boys to being the man in charge. They
probably told him that he was not a baby tied to his mother’s apron
strings. Get what is yours now because
tomorrow is not promised to you. Don’t
be a coward man, go get it now! Your
father rides in a nice chariot and you should be in one too. Your father has servants and you should have
them too. Stop playing man, with all
that money; you can put this entire town under your feet. You can wine and dine with the upper
aristocrats if you have what is yours. You
could party all night long at the regular clubs and then venture into the VIP
lounge at the afterhours club with your type of inheritance that you told us
you would receive.
He left because the “They
Building” started an advertising campaign.
You know about the “they” building don’t you? They told me you were running around lying on
people. Who told you that? They told me that. Who are they?
I don’t really know them, but they told me about you. The “They Building” runs advertising
campaigns all the time on God’s people.
The building is operated by people that like to stir up and make up mess
about people. There is a “lying”
division. There is a “sabotage”
division. There is the “rumor mill.”
There is a “backstabbing” division. There is a “schism” division. Lastly, there is the “Doggone Shame”
division. You know how they talk to
you. It’s a doggone shame that he was
out there sneaking around with that deacon’s wife and he’s married too.
I can tell you that the “They
Building” did not advertise the
following information to the young man in our text. They did not tell him what it cost his father
to get to that position. They never told
him about his mother’s nursing him and teaching him the ways of
righteousness. No one told him of the
coldness, the treachery, the viciousness, and wickedness of the world in the
far country. They did not tell him that
the world will take advantage of him.
They did not tell him that the world will leave him beat down and dead
in a gutter somewhere if he was not careful.
They did not tell him that if he got locked up, only his mother and
father would come and check on him and get him out. Nobody told him that no one will love him
like his parents. They told him to get
your money man from the old man and go out and enjoy life.
Please understand that this
young man had never been anywhere. He
knew nothing about the underworld or anything about swindlers, the sly, the slick,
or the wicked. He knew nothing about
midnight rambling and all night gambling.
He knew nothing about false friends, prostitutes, pimps, or gangsters. He knew nothing about drinking and smoking
various narcotics. He only knew of a
good home life. He knew of rules that he
did not like.
These rules regulated the house
of the father. In the father’s house
there was love, oneness, peace, and security.
In his father’s house there was deep concern, goodly raiments, bread,
and oil in the cruse. There was meat to
eat, his bed, and his own room. He did not
want those things. That was boring! He wanted to experience the fast life. So he took his money and ran.
When he ran, he went to a place
where he could act a total fool and not bring embarrassment to his family. He went out to experience life from both
perspectives. He wanted to experience
the good and the bad, but got caught up in the glamour and glitz of the
bad. I want you to understand that all
that glitters is not gold or silver. He
was out there for a while, and all of a sudden he began to realize that there
was nothing coming in to replace what was going out.
People with this type of
attitude are hell bent on pleasing themselves.
Pleading with them will not stop them and counseling won’t stop
them. Praying for them where they can
hear you irritate them. Telling them
about Jesus makes them angry. Telling
them that God loves them falls on deaf ears and asking them to go to church
calls for an argument. Seeing their
friends die from an overdose does not bother them. Seeing their friends shot down like a rabid
dog in the street does not affect them at all.
Watching others go to jail does not disturb them. Seeing others fill untimely graves from
prostitution, gang banging, and hustling doesn’t affect their mentality at
all. I tell you again, some will stop at
nothing till all is gone.
There are people who will stop
at nothing until they have spent all.
All of their money, all of their clothes, all of their family, all of
their house with all of the furniture in it is spent. Some will not stop until they have spent all
of their employment, all of their mind, all of their body, all of their health and
strength, all of their manhood or womanhood, all of their ambition, all of
their energy, and all of their reputation. All of their God-given talents, all
of their capabilities, and all of their beauty and charm are spent. We have all been there and done that at one
time or another. You are not the only
one who has done it. There is more to
life than things. There is more to hand
over to God than a warped mind and a wrecked body when you leave this side of
Glory. Don’t spend all and then act like
you are the only one. Things like this
happen when you go out too fast. After
he spent all he had, after all was gone, after the worldly love was gone, he
found himself in a mess.
When all is gone, popularity
vanishes, friends leave you, wild parties are not yours to enjoy anymore. When all is spent, there are no helping hands
extended, no frequent visitors, no friendly smiles to behold and no cordial
welcomes, and no kind words to hear. When
all is spent, the one icon in the community becomes a bum and the once praised
becomes scorned. When all is spent, life
becomes a nightmare, buddies run away, and their voices can no longer be
heard. When all is spent, the body
suffers hunger and eviction notices appear on the door. When all is spent a flophouse becomes home
and the trash can will become the dining table.
No one states, “I am glad to see you.”, when all is spent.
Just like the young man in our
text, we have people out there just like him.
He went too far too fast and he spent too much. He lived too fast and stayed too long. He spent it all and was in want and no man
gave him anything. Want always follows
waste brothers and sisters. So he hired
himself out to a farmer whose only job for him was to feed swine and he would
have gladly fed himself with the husk they ate.
He sat by the hog-pen, hungry,
ragged, dirty, penniless, friendless, homeless and alone. He sat there and shed tears of repent for his
mistakes. He left home rich and now he
was poor. He had money and now he was
broke. He had clothes and now he was
naked. He sat there helpless and almost
hopeless. He thought about his waywardness, his wandering from home, his own
misery, and his own sad plight which he brought on himself. No one told him to leave he just got upset
and hot headed and departed. Just like a
lot of us. Many had been that way before
him, and so he was not the only one.
He then came to himself and
started the long journey home to his father’s house. He was ragged, but he went home. He was broke, but he went home. He was hungry, but he went home. He was physically weak, but he went
home. He was ashamed to see his friends,
but he went home.
The bible says that when the
father saw him afar off, he recognized him.
He ran and hugged and kissed him.
The father knew he had learned his lesson so he forgave him and brought
him back into the family. He dressed him
in the finest robe. Now in those days,
these robes had a hood to cover the head so that you could not recognize the
dignitary until they had passed safely into the council chambers of the
government. So the father covered the
son so that he could pass on through to the party. You know about a covering don’t you?
I stand here today to let you
know, that you do not have to keep things from those of us that love you. We already know what you are going through,
have been through, or will soon go through because we have been there and done
that. We know better, that is why we are
in the Father’s house under the covering of the Son. We have seen what the world will do and have
had some of it done to us. So we like
you have come back home to the Father’s house.
Why? Because as a wayward son or
daughter, we found that we got to have Jesus because we just can’t make it by
ourselves. We have been there and done
that.
You see those of us that are
former Prodigal Sons and Daughters know that in the Father’s house you will
find…Comfort in your crisis; Help in your helplessness; Peace in your
perplexities; Joy in your sorrow; Glory in your grief; Light in your darkest
hour; Victory in your battles; Blessings in your burdens; Trust in your
turmoil; Inspiration in your discouragements; Security from your enemies;
Deliverance in your defeats; Cover for your mistakes; Wisdom for sound
decisions…
You need to decide what you
really want to do for God and how you will represent him in your life. There are a lot of presentations of God but
very few representations of God in the daily lives of people. We who are the
seasoned mature saints of the most high and ever loving creator God, have “Been
There and Done That and we want to let you know that, You Are Not The Only One
To Have Done So.”
"THERIGHTREVRHINO" D.MIN.
