Photo by Vladislav Babienko on Unsplash

You may listen to this message on my Anchor podcast Moving K.O.R.E. WORD by clicking on the link here:  Episode 10

In the last message, Vacation to Shore Up Well-being, we learn that taking time away from the world and spending time with JESUS benefits us exponentially…  It is needed to care for ourselves so that we move toward loving GOD and loving others as we are renewed, restored, and refreshed…  I did not write last weekend as I’m resting up before going back to teaching students very soon…

I will focus this message on Luke 15:11-32 that reveals the compassion GOD the FATHER has on HIS child after leaving a close relationship with HIM and all his needs provided for to waste all that he had been given to the world until realizing the empty void found and experiencing overwhelming shame.  Have you come to the end of yourself and remember how much life was profoundly different with GOD in it and just how much HE meant to you?  It’s easy to do.  You walk away from home.  You spend all you have in the so called “living for the fun of it.”  You’re trying to grow up and experience how to interact with the world.  You take risky chances to “live it up” and eventually come to a dead end where you fall apart.  This often happens to those transitioning to becoming an adult.  You may be stunned to find yourself in such a place of remorse and destitution.  If you don’t know GOD’s greater love in and through HIS SON JESUS, you’re unaware that HE will help you in your time of need.  If you do know GOD, you may be hesitant and ashamed of returning to HIM or don’t know how to do so in the mess you find yourself in.

Let me share with you that you’re not alone!  Before I accepted JESUS as LORD of my life, I experienced being shy, depressed, unsure, lost, and broken.  My life improved in a relationship with JESUS with positive self-esteem and new found care and love for others.  I went to church and fellowshipped with other believers.  However, when I went away to the university, I didn’t go to a new church or join a Christian group on campus.  I studied, watched rated R movies, listened to new age music, drank too much alcohol, and went to dance clubs.  Everything I was involved in left GOD out of the picture.  It went on for 3 years and by the time graduation was nearing I wasn’t eating right and all that I experienced before Christ was magnified 100 fold in being withdrawn, suicidal, fearful, utterly lost, severely wounded, and broken into more pieces than before.  It led to my suicide attempt of taking my own life.

The Parable of the Lost Son

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.  Luke 15:11-12

In the parable of the Lost Son, the younger son is eager to get all that is his without proper maturation of self-control and a purpose/vision for his future.  It is common for a new believer to be changed by JESUS positively, but then take the new found life and use it on ones own pleasure to his/her detriment.

Once I left church and contact with other believers behind, I spent my time on my own pleasures that the world offers and I suffered for it.  Spending your life on what feels good in the moment and trying to grow up without GOD will lead to despair and regret.  Then questions of how to get back to HIM may occur.

For unbelievers, it may very well be the wasting of their life on pleasures and disillusionment of what the world offers that leads them to a relationship with JESUS for receiving forgiveness, new life, and a purpose and vision missing prior to.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.  Luke 15:13-16

A person often gets the notion to participate in new things and new ways that leads to losing something valuable about oneself.  It may very well lead to doing life in unpleasant situations.  Many are prone to wild living and if done over a long period of time leads to desperation.

I got to a point in my life that I felt I needed to mature more and I took on a few jobs while being a full time student.  One of them was working as a busser at the university commons/food court.  It got so bad when I wasn’t eating that I desired to eat the left over food on the tables from fellow students.  I wouldn’t do so, yet it had got that bad for me.

A person may spend all they have been given spiritually, not just monetarily.  There is drinking alcohol in getting drunk ongoing, experimenting with drugs until there’s addiction, and being promiscuous in having sex apart from marriage.  These are ways of abusing oneself that hurts the body and grieves the Holy Spirit.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

 

¹³ Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Romans 13:13

 

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18

 

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Galatians 5:19-21

 

³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.  Luke 21:34

 

¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,  Ephesians 5:18

These verses reveal to us that in doing such things we are harmed, we are alarmed, and we are warned.  The WORD of GOD helps us see where we have strayed to point out our sin so that we can confess our sin to be forgiven, repent and turn back to HIM for reconciliation, and allow HIM to heal and restore our lives from prodigal living…  The good news is that HE wants us to return to HIM…

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’   Luke 15:17-19

This is so important if you find yourself in despair and desperate for help.  You can choose to have a right mind, turn toward GOD the FATHER, go to HIM in humble repentance, and let HIM accept you back with love, compassion, forgiveness, and restoration.  GOD longs for you!!  Return home to HIS provision and be reconciled in right relationship.

I failed to do this quickly.  I resorted to questioning my relationship with GOD, wondering if HE still loved and cared for me, and continued to walk further away from HIM.  Don’t make the same mistake that leads to further depression and a suicide attempt.

When you’re running from GOD in the opposite direction, HE will discipline HIS children.  You may be wondering if GOD even loves you because the situation is difficult and what you feel is harsh.  GOD wants you to turn around and return to HIM -not go further away.

¹¹ My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,
and do not resent his rebuke,
¹² because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
as a father the son he delights in. Proverbs 3:11-12

 GOD disciplines us for our good.  HE disciplines us because HE ultimately loves us enough to keep us from more harm to ourselves than is necessary to turn our lives around for the better.

²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.  Luke 15:20

What is GOD the FATHER’s response if we will just return to HIM? JESUS tells us here that the FATHER runs to you full of compassion to embrace you fully…  How encouraging and awesome is that!!

²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  Luke 15:21

If you have run from GOD in any way, you will feel similar to no longer being worthy to be called a son or daughter.  HE welcomes you knowing how you feel even so.  HE wants you to be honest about your mistakes and regret.  The good news is HE doesn’t leave you wallowing in self-pity.

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.  Luke 15:22-24

GOD the FATHER will put a robe upon you spiritually.  A robe represents royalty and a covering over the shame you once knew welcoming you back as HIS child.  HE puts a ring on your finger.  A signet ring also represents being a part of the family.  It may also indicate authority and responsibility given.  You are not considered just a servant.  HE puts sandals on your feet.  The younger son may have worn out his old sandals or chose to take them off for indicating his commitment to being a servant in going barefoot.  However, GOD the FATHER wants you to know you’re not just a servant, but HIS child.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”  Luke 15:25-32

GOD the FATHER rejoices with a son or daughter who returns to HIM.  HE reveals that it is a cause for celebration.

There may be a family member or another believer that is jealous of you coming back home to GOD.  They may not initially understand why you’re welcomed and rejoiced over.  They only think of the wrong living that was done.  Forgiveness from GOD is easier for HIM to do than it is for another person to do.  Let GOD work on that persons heart as you choose to love GOD and others so much more now than before because you’ve been forgiven much…  Let’s look at a woman who turned to JESUS and showed HIM love.  HIS response is to forgive her many sins… There are those who question JESUS’ response to her because she is a sinner.  JESUS loves while others judge.

Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

³⁶ When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

⁴⁰ Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

⁴¹ “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,^[c] and the other fifty. ⁴² Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

⁴³ Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

⁴⁴ Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

  Luke 7:36-50

When we turn to JESUS in repentance we are forgiven by HIM…  We love much when we’re forgiven much.  If you have lived a prodigal life and then return to GOD, all that was wasted until in dire straits, all the guilt that transpired, all the shame that is acquired, and all that has left you tired and broken may be forgiven by HIM and your very life reconciled into right relationship as a chosen son or daughter once again…  JESUS redeems you and GOD the FATHER values you as HIS treasure…

The Lost Son:

• lost his inheritance
• lost his independence
• lost his identity

When the Lost Son Returned to the FATHER, he:

• regained acceptance through compassion and continuance of relationship
• regained evidence of family identity through covering and connection
• regained dependence in being cared for through celebration and commitment

If you are far off, return to GOD the FATHER in humility and repentance…  HE will receive you again as HIS child…

If you are wanting a relationship with GOD, needing to ask GOD for forgiveness for the way you’re living, you may do so, repent (turn away from your sin) ,and ask JESUS to come into your heart to live a new life…

If you want to get in touch, do so here:  Connect

If you have questions, want to share what GOD is doing in your life, or need prayer -do so here:  Share Your Life

If you want to join K.O.R.E. ministry, do so here:  Get Involved

Remember:  JESUS loves you…