BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT

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 21^st 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.