I want to share with you what God has been putting on my heart. This is what I have come out of and what I’ve been going through this past month or so. There’s a poem that I’d like to start with before we begin. The poem is called the Prodigal Son. The story has meant a lot to me in my life and has really grown to be my life’s verse. But listen here…
The Prodigal Son
by James Weldon Johnson
Young man—
Young man—
Your arm’s too short to box with God.
But Jesus spake in a parable, and he said:
A certain man had two sons.
Jesus didn’t give this man a name,
But his name is God Almighty.
And Jesus didn’t call these sons by name,
But ev’ry young man,
Ev’rywhere,
Is one of these two sons.
And the younger son said to his father,
He said: Father, divide up the property,
And give me my portion now.
And the father with tears in his eyes said: Son,
Don’t leave your father’s house.
But the boy was stubborn in his head,
And haughty in his heart,
And he took his share of his father’s goods,
And went into a far-off country.
There comes a time,
There comes a time
When ev’ry young man looks out from his father’s house,
Longing for that far-off country.
And the young man journeyed on his way,
And he said to himself as he travelled along:
This sure is an easy road,
Nothing like the rough furrows behind my father’s plow.
Young man—
Young man—
Smooth and easy is the road
That leads to hell and destruction.
Down grade all the way,
The further you travel, the faster you go.
No need to trudge and sweat and toil,
Just slip and slide and slip and slide
Till you bang up against hell’s iron gate.
And the younger son kept travelling along,
Till at night-time he came to a city.
And the city was bright in the night-time like day,
The streets all crowded with people,
Brass bands and string bands a-playing,
And ev’rywhere the young man turned
There was singing and laughing and dancing.
And he stopped a passer-by and he said:
Tell me what city is this?
And the passer-by laughed and said: Don’t you know?
This is Babylon, Babylon,
That great city of Babylon.
Come on, my friend, and go along with me.
And the young man joined the crowd.
Young man—
Young man—
You’re never lonesome in Babylon.
You can always join a crowd in Babylon.
Young man—
Young man—
You can never be alone in Babylon,
Alone with your Jesus in Babylon.
You can never find a place, a lonesome place,
A lonesome place to go down on your knees,
And talk with your God, in Babylon.
You’re always in a crowd in Babylon.
And the young man went with his new-found friend,
And bought himself some brand new clothes,
And he spent his days in the drinking dens,
Swallowing the fires of hell.
And he spent his nights in the gambling dens,
Throwing dice with the devil for his soul.
And he met up with the women of Babylon.
Oh, the women of Babylon!
Dressed in yellow and purple and scarlet,
Loaded with rings and earrings and bracelets,
Their lips like a honeycomb dripping with honey,
Perfumed and sweet-smelling like a jasmine flower;
And the jasmine smell of the Babylon women
Got in his nostrils and went to his head,
And he wasted his substance in riotous living,
In the evening, in the black and dark of night,
With the sweet-sinning women of Babylon.
And they stripped him of his money,
And they stripped him of his clothes,
And they left him broke and ragged
In the streets of Babylon.
Then the young man joined another crowd—
The beggars and lepers of Babylon.
And he went to feeding swine,
And he was hungrier than the hogs;
He got down on his belly in the mire and mud
And ate the husks with the hogs.
And not a hog was too low to turn up his nose
At the man in the mire of Babylon.
Then the young man came to himself—
He came to himself and said:
In my father’s house are many mansions,
Ev’ry servant in his house has bread to eat,
Ev’ry servant in his house has a place to sleep;
I will arise and go to my father.
And his father saw him afar off,
And he ran up the road to meet him.
He put clean clothes upon his back,
And a golden chain around his neck,
He made a feast and killed the fatted calf,
And invited the neighbors in.
Oh-o-oh, sinner,
When you’re mingling with the crowd in Babylon—
Drinking the wine of Babylon—
Running with the women of Babylon—
You forget about God, and you laugh at Death.
Today you’ve got the strength of a bull in your neck
And the strength of a bear in your arms,
But some o’ these days, some o’ these days,
You’ll have a hand-to-hand struggle with bony Death,
And Death is bound to win.
Young man, come away from Babylon,
That hell-border city of Babylon.
Leave the dancing and gambling of Babylon,
The wine and whiskey of Babylon,
The hot-mouthed women of Babylon;
Fall down on your knees,
And say in your heart:
I will arise and go to my Father.
At some point in your life we have all come to this point where Satan gets the absolute best of us. We find ourselves in a place we never thought we would be, in the realization that we are depraved and are in desperate need of Him. But take notice to what the poem says, each of us is one of these sons. Please turn to Luke 15. (read Luke 15).
Each one of us is or has been one of these two sons. The first son who left his Father’s home and the bitter son back home. We closely look at the passage and find that the prodigal son was the kid who may have grown up in all the right circles, been to all the Sunday school lessons and got saved at every vbs. But despite all of this, he leaves. Just as God is a God of believing we have our own choices, he allows us to leave. Luke 15:11-16. We go into sin and yes it tastes good for a season. You go into it, everything is fun and games, then one day you realize that all of these things that you are giving to the world, you are not getting back. Until you are left with nothing. We find ourselves unrecognizable. But we have our Father, who recognizes us from afar. Who runs out to us, kisses us, puts the best clothing on us even though we smell and look rotten and smell like pigs. He welcomes us back with open arms. When Jesus is telling these parables, he is among the tax collectors and the people back then would just see as scum. But, in a sense, they were all prodigals. You see, in today’s world we have those sons. We have the Good old boys turned to drugs, alcohol, fortification, homosexuality, or whatever. But we see those come to the point when they can’t get any lower and they find themselves with the pigs. They then say in their hearts, “I will arise and go to my Father”.
On the other hand we have the second son. You see we not only have the prodigal, but we also have the faithful – the prodigal son’s brother. He comes to the point where He thinks that he should reap some of his sewing. Why should little brother receive blessing when he has gone off, squandered his inheritance, pretty much spit on the family name by defiling it in the big city. Why should he get the party, the fatted calf, the attention, when I’ve been doing my father’s will all this time? I’ve never once went against you and you haven’t given to me as much as a single goat. Where’s my celebration? My brother, Your son, has defiled your name! He stood in the church saying Lord, He went to the Christian concerts and sang Lord, He went to the food drives in Your name and still made ruin of your image by doing these things! Tell me Father why! This doesn’t make sense! Has my labor been in vain? And the Father responds Son, you are always with me. All that I have will be yours. That which was lost is now found.
Don’t be bitter when sinners sin. Don’t get worked up if a lost individual tries to mock you and/or defile your name. That’s just it, their lost. Some of us have family member who were involved in some addiction or sexual impurity. Some of us our dads ran off when we were young. Maybe mom just wasn’t there. Sometimes we wish that they were dead we get so angry. But we see the Lord work in their lives and suddenly, on one fateful Sunday, they get saved. Maybe they were the person that gets saved every revival or conference. But it is not right that we get defensive or skeptical. We have to trust that God has done something great. You can fool others about bitterness but you can’t fool your heart.
Who knows, maybe it’s yourself. You can’t forgive yourself for what you’ve done. Instead of surrendering it you harbor your sin against yourself because you don’t think you even should be forgiven. In this you become both sons. The first son, the part of you that seeks redemption, and the second son, the part of you that won’t let it die. That won’t open it’s hands enough to let it go. You can’t fool God. Prov. 14:10 - The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.
So I guess what I’m trying to so through this is, forgive. Don’t be bitter. Don’t believe the lies that we hear so much from the world and from the devil. My first phrase when I was a kid still applies today. “Repent you sinner”. Repent and forgive. Confess and be forgiven.
