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When the money runs out the friends are all gone. And the Bible says that this son finds
himself literally face down sleeping, passed out, in a pigpen. In verse 17 of this text,
we see this, the process begins. Say it with me, Scripture says:
When he came to his senses...
What do we see there? Changed mind. Something changed in him. When he came to his senses,
when he got to this point of saying, 'What have I done?' He came to his senses. And then
he goes through this debate of, 'Do I go home, do I not go home? What will he say to me?
I mean my Father loves me. My Father worked his whole life to provide this part of the
estate to me and then I went and in like a week squandered it all.' But then he made
the choice, and the Bible says:
So he got up and he went.
We see a changed mind that leads to him getting up, and some of you are living here. God's
breaking your heart, but you just haven't done anything with it yet. And the son begins
down the same path that took him to destruction, to misery.
Can you just imagine the rehearsal going on in this guy's mind? What is he going to say
to the father, what is the father going to say to him? And I suspect he had written off
his father even accepting him as his son. That ship had sailed, I'm sure, in his mind.
Why would he think otherwise? I mean, as parents, when our kids do something wrong don't we
say things like, Go to your room, leave my presence, or have you ever said this, I have,
Son, I can't even look at you right now. Why would the son think that the father wanted
anything to do with him when he had sinned so greatly?
Well folks, our God is much bigger than we are and His ways are higher than our ways,
and here's what you've got to hear; as the son went home, the Bible says one of the most
unbelievable phrases in the whole Scripture. It says:
While he was still far off his father saw him.
What does that mean? That means that day the father was standing at the mailbox looking
down the road asking himself, 'Is today the day that my son comes home?' And I suspect
he stood at that mailbox everyday prior. It's his son, 'Is today the day that my son comes
home?' And when he saw him, when God sees you saying, God, I'm done, I surrender, break
my heart for what breaks yours, God will do to you what the father did to his son. He
breaks out in an all-out sprint, doesn't even let the son make it to the driveway, the father
starts running down the road and the Bible says that he throws his arms around him and
he kisses his son's face! He says, 'My son is home! Bring the ring and put it on his
finger!'
That signifies, everything that I own, my son owns. Put the robe around him that says,
'You are not a slave and will never be, you are royalty, you are family, you are my son
and we are going to celebrate.' Because what was lost is now found.
You think you're a million miles from God, how could he want anything to do with you?
This story isn't about a fictitious son and a fictitious father, this story is about you
and about your Heavenly Father, and God wants you to know the moment you give up and you
turn to Him, he wants you to know what His response will be. There's no guess work. It's
all about relationship.
I have done some stupid things in my life and I've been given so much and I've squandered
so much. I know, if you've been with us for awhile you know my story. If you're new to
the church, you are going to probably be freaked out with what I'm about to tell you. Get over
it.
From the time I was eight to twenty-eight, I struggled with a *** addiction.
My Dad brought a Playboy in the house and it started a world of pain that I could never
escape. I was the best liar I knew for my whole life. I didn't know how not to lie.
Exaggerating about stuff, lying about stuff, lying to the people I love the most.
Twelve years ago, I was unfaithful to my wife, just caught up in a *** addiction and my
mind was messed up. The whole time, this whole time it was all worldly sorrow. I feel kind
of bad, but it was really more selfish; God, I don't want to deal with this, take this
from me, heal me of this struggle. And when God didn't, I got mad at Him and I was just
dying inside like many of you are right now. And then, one day God broke my heart and I
started to see my sin through His eyes, through something that separated me from the intimacy
that God wanted to have with me and the intimacy I was meant to have with my wife and my family.
Repentance restores relationships. You know, I could tell you what that was like from my
perspective, but the truth is my wife had a front-row seat and has for the last ten
years, to what Godly sorrow looks like. I would just assume you hear it from her.
Cindy Beall:
For years, I watched Chris go through this cycle of the struggle of his sin and he would
be sorry and he would make a small change and it wouldn't last. I remember thinking,
He's just mad, he got in trouble and he got busted. It was just a worldly sorrow, it wasn't
true repentance, it wasn't true willingness to change.
And then, something changed. I think he got to the place where he hated his sin, he realized
that it broke God's heart and I think he was willing to do something drastic to make a
change. I think God gave him a bigger picture that was bigger than himself.
So, he walks in our door over nine years ago and he gets brutally honest with me. And there's
this look on his face that I've never seen before and he starts crying and he's weeping
and he's completely broken, not only for what he's done to me and to our family, but for
what he's done to the heart of God. I remember thinking, This is it because I've never seen
this and this has got to be true repentance. And even in the midst of my pain, which was
really bad, it was refreshing for me to see that because I thought that I could maybe
stay with this man if he continues to walk in this path.
That was nine years ago. His change was literally overnight and he still walks in that brokenness
today with a repentant heart. I know the world will tell us that Godly sorrow and repentance
is weak, and we should steer clear of that and be strong, but that couldn't be farther
from the truth.
The truth is, that is where true strength begins, because it is in our weakness that
Christ is strong and I think that Chris learned that God's love and His kindness was still
there even in the midst of all of his sin. Even in the midst of our sin, that if we'll
be willing for God to do some heart surgery on us, that He can do the extraordinary, and
I think it's time that we let Him.
Chris Beall:
It's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance, it's the mercy and the grace that
makes the work of a repentance perfect, when you recognize what have I done with what He
has done for you. That was my deal and I'm still walking that place of brokenness today.
What is yours? I mean, I boldly ask that today as God's church, as His bride, that we repent
and we turn back to Him.