Thursday 6/20/13 The Prodigal Son

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another great day and thanks for watching over all of us and for watching over me.  Thanks for forgiving me of my many sins, and Lord, please forgive my sins of this day.  Please, Lord, visit those people we are referring to as Prodigal or lost sons and daughters and please, Lord, walk with them and help them to meet people along the way that will turn them around and have them coming running back to You.  Here now is our list as of right now.

Please watch over Matthew, Sean, Rita, Rhonda, Jeff, Sarah, Dan, Daniel,  Christine, Ellen, Todd, Sherry, Mark, Kyle, Brandon, Lexi, Holmes, Becky, Jenny, Danielle, Aleks, Greg, Kory, Jelena, Jadeline, Arden, Holden.  Thanks, dear Father, and now, dear Lord, bless me, please, with Thursday's message, which I know I am a day behind on, and then dispatch it, please.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, right to the message today as you see I am running a day late getting it out.  Again, we work on the story of the Prodigal Son, and of course Daughters are included also.

Today, as I have done before, I confess I was a prodigal son.  What is your story, were you raised up in the Lord and did a walk-about?  No shame in it, the shame would be if you never came back home to Jesus.  Let's get going on the message.

Thursday June 20, 2013 (Last Day of Spring) - The Prodigal Son, Day Three.

Luke 15:17 - "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men 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 men.'  20 So he got up and went to his father."  (NIV)

The above words were Jesus being quoted, brothers and sisters.

So what do we see going on today?  To me, the number two son, the prodigal son we have been talking about, reached the lowest point in his life and now he finds it is time to go back to his father.  To me this is his first step in his coming back to his father, or as in the story it is the sinner's first step in coming back to Jesus.  I can't help but wonder how many people came to God either as a prodigal son or daughter, one who was raised up in the way of the Lord, or one coming the very first time.  And they are coming from a place in their life where it seems like all else has failed.  That was, folks, how it was with me.  I was raised up in the Lord, I drifted, and even though I would go to church now and then, I was not yet "Born Again".  I did not give it all up for Jesus and start growing in Him.  Then it happened, my second marriage went down the drain when my ex took off.  I thought the world came to an end.  It really had me down, down to the point I did not care about anything, not even myself.  Friends tried to help, I was sent to a shrink, who was worse off than me.  Then a pastor told me to get hold of myself, do something good for myself and start walking with the Lord.  I can remember one day getting on my knees and asking God to watch over me and turn me around.  And God did not fail, He was there all along, I just needed to call out and ask Him into my life.  That was over 33 years ago, but I can remember it.  I was on my way back, but I had to get face down, face down in the pigpen so to speak, when I called out ... HELP ME, JESUS, HELP ME.  The bells must have been ringing in heaven that day, for my mamma and dad got to see their little Danny turn and start heading toward home.  On my way back, and I can relate to it best as trying to go up a sliding board by running up the slide part.  As kids we would do that, run up, fall and slide back down some, and keep trying until you made the top.  That is the way it is today for a lot of folks.  Have I made it to the top?  NO, NOT YET, but I keep working at it.  I keep going up the slide and then sometimes I slip a tad, but I get right back up, pray to be forgiven, and get going toward Jesus again.  Jesus is my Savior and I am His son and I am proud of the fact that I am "Born Again" and pray that I would never slip and stumble, but I do know I have a loving Lord waiting to catch me.  He loves me, He loves me and I LOVE HIM.  He is number one in my life, ahead of all else.  He is at the top of that sliding board and I am going toward Him.  One thing about my climb now is as I go up that board, I want to have others in tow, I want to bring others to His feet.  I know a few of you on this line who have stories sort of like mine, some who were even going to church, one woman I now really well, everyone thought things were great, yet she was abused.  She knew the Lord then, but still had to take a setback to get going again and God walked her through it.  God is good, there is only one that never sinned, and that was Jesus, all the rest of us, all of us, are just sinners, saved by grace.  Yes, I was a prodigal son, and now I walk with Jesus.  Next lesson we find out how the father reacted when the lost son came home.

Now go forth and share your blessings.  I love ya.  Pass that on, please.

Pastor Dan