Gtcotr/ss100525
Things to remember this week:
- · The Field Trip for KELC Children, Nakuru
- · The Women’s Sunday School Class next Sunday @ 9:30am
- · Water Baptism Sunday @ 10:30am, October 19th – 30 people
- · “Every Drop Counts” Drinking Water Initiative in Wamba, Kenya
Have you noticed? There is a great revival currently taking place in the United States and in nation after nation all over the world. Teenagers, young families, middle-aged couples and older men and women are turning to the Bible and to Church for answers and the result is, they are inviting Jesus Christ to come into their hearts and save their souls.
It is evident we live in a broken world with broken hearts, broken homes, broken promises and broken governments all around us. The love of many had waxed cold and the light of hope had almost gone out … but God! God in His infinite mercy … God who poured out His unfailing love at the Cross … God who offers forgiveness and salvation to lost and hurting sinners, almighty God stirred the heavens once again and sent a fresh wind of His Holy Spirit to wrap His loving arms around this broken world.
God so loved the world … even the wicked … He has an unbroken hope.
Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die…?”
Seeing everything God has seen man capable of in the past, I don’t understand how or why He still has hope for the sinner … but He does. Jesus tried to explain how heaven feels when He was talking to a group of tax collectors and sinners, along with the Pharisees and the scribes who were complaining about Him spending His time with those they considered to be undesirables.
Let’s read about it in:
Luke 15 NKJV
7 “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Have you ever considered what makes heaven happy? You do!
10 “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Jesus explains …
11 ¶ Then He said: “A certain man had two sons.
12 “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.
13 “And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
14 “But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
15 “Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
The New Living Translation says: “But when he came to his senses …”
This young man finally stopped to think and applied simple logic to what he saw. The simplest answers are often the best answers. He just took a good look at himself and the situation around him.
Changing his mind and changing his direction was going to take some humility and a lot of courage on his part. However his personal situation was not going to get any better on its own.
Nothing changes until something changes. Yesterday’s bus is going to bring you right back to where you are today. Most often it’s not the things around you that need to change … it’s you! There is no such thing as a greener grass fix or a geographical cure.
Let’s continue …
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18 ‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
19 “and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
This is the very thing we are seeing around the nation and the world today. Ten’s of thousands are turning and coming to Christ and the Church or coming back to Christ and the Church. We are in the greatest revival of my lifetime thus far. Genuine repentance and acceptance. Unbroken hope!
As soon as he turned … God, the Father, ran to meet him …
21 “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
The prodigal son had a good plan, but it required follow through. He had to work the plan. In order for a plan to work … you’ve got to work the plan.
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
23 ‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;
24 ‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
The Father saw it for what it was. He didn’t say, “You hurt me!” “Are you sure you’re not going to do it again?” “Where’s my money?” The Father wasn’t worried about what others would think … his boy was home!
25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
This was a good son, not a bad son. He was a good son but hurt and disappointed. He was a good son but maybe not as good a brother …
26 “So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
27 “And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.
Now how can a person get mad about someone coming to their senses? Even if he wasn’t happy with his brother and didn’t trust him, at least he could have been happy for his father. His father was a good father. The older son should have looked past his personal pain and preferences and looked at the parent. God is happy when His children repent … how about you?
The older brother may not have had any hope or maybe he had broken hope … but the father was getting everything for which he had hoped. His boy was alive and well and had come home a changed man. The father was thankful for the first step.
If you can’t be happy for yourself … at least be happy for someone else.
29 “So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
30 ‘But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
32 ‘It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ”
Like the prophet prophesied:
Ezekiel 18: 32 “For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!”
Turn and live!
Have you noticed the Holy Spirit nudging you and others around you to get closer to God? The safest place is always beside our Father God. Any other place is at best, second best.
Let’s be like the angels and be happy for all the good things to come and for all the prayer answered instead of seeing all the bad and hurtful things of the past.
Conclusion:
- · The Father didn’t let time destroy His hope.
- · God looks to the horizon, waiting to embrace the repentant.
- · We should be conscious and considerate of the Father’s love and celebrate along with Him and the angels in heaven.
