Prodigal Son: A Win is a Win

Well Father God, we just want to say thank you for all that you have done for us and

all you continue to do and the Lord as we gather it is a wonderful thing to be reminded of

what it means to be saved and to have a relationship with you, to acknowledge

what Jesus did on the cross for us and the price that he paid for our sins is a

wonderful thing. God thank you for giving us that forgiveness for free. But Lord as

we sing the songs and we talk about your Holy Spirit coming on this place Lord it

is a such a wonderful gift to have the Holy Spirit. That while we get saved and

we come to know you in this moment we can testify that moment God we can be filled

with your Holy Spirit over and over and over again and God you can fill us to

the point where we are overflowing so that your spirit just pours out of us and only in

that moment when we are filled when your spirit is overflowing are we able to be

obedient. Only then are we able to live as Christ lived to love as Christ loved to

be an example a witness a minister of the gospel. So Lord as we sing that song we say

let your Holy Spirit come on this place come down on us Lord I pray that we

would truly understand what it is that we're asking for. That it's not just

about your spirit being present in this room and us having these tingly

feelings and to feel good when we walk out but God for us to be here this

morning and to be 100% vulnerable to be at a place and a spot in our life where

we're 100% ready say God I want to empty myself out of who I am and I want to

let your spirit come inside of me and fill me and empower me to be the man or

the woman that you've called me to be. That in these moments it's not just a

matter of learning some cool stuff or maybe hearing something we've never heard

but God this is your word and I want to accept it in my life and I want to live

by it and I want to obey it and I can't do that under my own strength because

everything about my flesh draws me away from you but everything about your spirit

draws me to you. So this morning I pray that you would Lord just open us up and

empty us out from ourselves and Lord just cry out for your Holy Spirit to fill

us to be the men and women that you've called us to be. Father we need you this

morning and Lord as we pray for this moment and this service and for the

reading of your word in a minute we also lift up our brothers and sisters who

aren't able to be here. For all of our shut-ins Lord I pray specifically for

Mr. Ted this morning just speaking with him last night Lord just hearing about

how bad he's felt how sick he is and God I just pray that you would touch his body

touch his mind his heart and Lord as you give him physical relief as we're

praying for God we also pray for a spiritual blessing as well. Lord you know

what he needs this morning and we pray that you would go and touch his body.

Well there's a lot of crazy stuff going on around the world. We pray for

everything happening in the Middle East and I know that we have a lot of

opinions and we have a lot of thoughts and a lot of questions but Lord you know

everything and so we pray that your will would be done. We pray that you would

work and move because we believe in our hearts that you know best and Father in

our lives and our choices and our walks with you we pray that you would help us

to do it well. We love you we thank you so much for this time and we ask all

this in Jesus precious and holy name and all God's people said amen you may

be seated. Well it's good to be back with you you'll notice this morning I'm

still like trying to get all the mess out I will be nasally I will cough I will

sniff but I feel great feel feel better than I felt in probably about three

weeks and you know many times I say on the way to church you know I just kind

of like sometimes some mornings you don't feel it and sometimes you're just

like well how's it today's gonna be I've been excited even on the way over here

this morning at about 7 a.m. I was super excited to be at church super excited to

be with you feeling good today and as we're talking about our sermon series

on the prodigal son today's title of the sermon is is a win is a win have you

ever heard that phrase before a win is a win not all wins are pretty and

sometimes they can be painful sometimes they can cost us but sometimes we just

need to be reminded that a win is a win and a win is a good thing any of you

been watching College World Series a couple baseball fans all right I love

baseball I've been making my wife suffer through this for the past few

weeks now I have not watched baseball in years and for whatever reason she'll

tell you I've had a relapse and we've been watching baseball for this whole

time the other night LSU is playing Arkansas okay and they're going to the

last in and Arkansas has the lead and Arkansas just really lets it go it

gets pretty ugly there's several bad decisions a couple bad plays and LSU

ends up pulling out and winning in the very last inning it wasn't pretty but

it wins the win right so if you're following along in College World

Series LSU played the first game of the finals of the three game series against

Coastal Carolina so we got a home team in the fight so you should be pulling

for Coastal Carolina because we're from Carolina I'm pulling for Coastal

Carolina but LSU and Coastal Carolina both looked really good last night LSU

pulled it out with a one-to-nothing win so LSU is one win away from being the

baseball national champions but the win that got them to where they are was

one of the ugliest things I've seen in a long time on a baseball field in one

inning a win is a win and a lot of times as Christians we have this idea of what

we want for our own lives our own spirituality and as you talk about the

prodigal son you're gonna see this from one of two ways you're gonna see

it from this personal thing with you and where you are and where your walk is

or you're gonna see this from a spectator like you're looking at

someone else and you have this desire for them or you're praying for them maybe

you're lifting them up and interceding on their behalf and you have this

desire for their life their relationship with God of this experience or moment

or come to Jesus meaning that you want them to have this very beautiful and

amazing and this great testimony but the truth is a lot of times it doesn't

happen that way sometimes we just need to be reminded that a win is a win and

when you read the story about the prodigal son this is very much a win is

a win story there's nothing pretty about this like it's actually kind of a

painful story to read and for a father or for any parent to try to see their

child suffer and go through what this young man ends up suffering and going

through would be one of the most excruciating things in the world so

read with me Luke 15 verses 11 to 32 will read through the whole parable

Luke 15:11–32

again and then we'll talk about it so to illustrate the point further Jesus told

him the story a man had two sons and he says they have two the younger son told

his father I want my share of your estate now before you die so his father

agreed to divide his wealth between his sons which son asked for it younger son

a few days later his younger this younger son packed all his belongings and

moved to a distant land and there he wasted all of his money in wild living

what he wasted on wild living PG version all right you'll see a little bit

more into it when his brother speaks at the end about this time the money ran

out a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve what's pretty

about this story he persuaded a local farmer to hire him and the man sent him

into his fields to feed the pigs the young man became so hungry that even the

pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him but no one gave him anything you

talk about the ugliness of this story this young man is starving so much that

the slops the leftovers the scraps the stuff that is starting to rot and smell

that's not and we're talking about a day and time when people didn't just throw

food out just because they didn't want it I mean it had gotten bad whenever they

started giving it to the pigs and this young man is looking at this food

they're feeding to the pigs and it begins to look good to him and even

while the pigs food looked good he couldn't eat it because it wasn't his

and he had nothing no one gave him anything when he finally came to his

senses he said to himself at home even the hard servants have food enough to

spare and here I'm dying of hunger I will go home to my father and say

father I have sinned against both heaven and you and I'm no longer worthy of

being called your son please take me on as a hard servant so he returned home to

his father and while he was still a long way off his father saw him coming

filled with love and compassion he ran to his son embraced him and kissed him

his son said to him father I've sinned against both heaven and you and I'm no

longer worthy of being called your son but his father said to the servants

quick bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him get a ring for his

finger sandals for his feet kill the calf that we've been fattening we must

celebrate with a feast for the son of mine was dead and has now returned to

life he was lost but now he has found so the party began and we always like

to focus on the good stuff right we always like to think about okay the

party the robe the ring everything's good meanwhile the older son was in the

field working when he returned home he heard music and dancing in the house and

he asked one of the servants what was going on your brother's back he was told

and your father is killed the fat and calf we are celebrating because of his

safe return the older brother was angry and wouldn't go in his father came out

and begged him but he replied all these years I've slaved for you and

never once refused to do a single thing you told me and in all that time you

never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends yet when this son

of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes you celebrate

by killing the fat and calf his father said to him look dear son you have

always stayed by me and everything I have is yours we had to celebrate this

happy day for your brother was dead and has come back to life he was lost but now

he has found so this morning as we talk about this this understanding especially

in our spiritual lives personally but also when it comes to other people that

you may be praying for and interceding for that there's a need for us to

identify a win just being a win and being satisfied sometimes with with the

win his point number one is things get worse before they get better and we

need to acknowledge that as believers sometimes things get worse before they

get better sometimes things need to get worse before they can get better so

whether it's in your personal life and you're making decisions sometimes we need

to have this come to Jesus moment where Jesus lets us experience the full

consequences of our sins well we really realize that hey what I'm doing and

what the decisions I'm making is so bad that I've put myself in this place and

sometimes things need to get worse so we can realize that before we'll go back

to the father and things can truly get better and if you're praying for someone

this morning and if you're lifting them up and you're interceding on their

behalf before the Lord sometimes we just need to be humble enough and say you

know what I'm praying for this person I'm lifting them up and things may need

to get worse before they're ever going to get better and that's difficult

because chances are if you love them if you're praying for them and you're

concerned about their spirituality chances are you love them you care

deeply for them you are highly invested in them and if things need to get

better or things need to get better chances are some there sometimes they're

gonna get worse this young man is blatantly breaking one to ten

commandments all right you can argue over theology and theologians and

opinions and all that stuff but there's no concern over this young man and the

good of his father I want my portion now before you die and the father gives

it to him he is not honoring his father or mother in this decision and you see

expanded on as he a few days later moves away to a distant land and if you

follow along in the Old Testament and you see the law and what God required of

the people of Israel there was this constant reminder that they needed to be

surrounded by God's own people and to be careful not to intermingle with

people from the land surrounding them so the young man moves to a foreign

land so he can live apart from God's law apart from God's people apart from

accountability and so he can participate in everything that the lands around them

are doing and if you read scripture you see constantly throughout the nation of

Israel they are constantly affected negatively and drugged down by the

people and the nations around them the sin and the idol worship was constantly

affecting them they were constantly at war and battling other people so when

he's not one of them he's an outsider they'll put up with him for a little

while because he's he's bringing the money in he's spending money he's putting

on a good show he's making a good party but eventually it all comes

crashing down and even whenever he's feeding the pigs he persuaded a farmer

to hire him on he's feeding the pigs even the farmer wouldn't give him part

of the pig food there was no concern for this man whatsoever and as we said

last week God did not create this world for sin to thrive in the flourish God

did not create this world so that when we separate ourselves from him when we

chase our own paths and we deviate away from his plan his purpose it was not

designed for you to flourish it was not designed for those choices to flourish

or for anyone else in this world to flourish apart from God everything about

creation has been designed so that whenever we join with God things are

better things are exactly the way that God intended them to be one of the

things I love about the Old Testament it can be very boring sometimes it can

be very hard to understand sometimes one of my favorite things to read in

scripture is all the stuff from Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy

which sometimes can be really difficult to read and then you look at all the

laws and all the things that God wanted the people of Israel to do and you're

just like why what in the world is God thinking whenever he's like tells these

people do this and don't do this and do this and don't do this and do this

and don't do this and as we keep going and we advance in science and we

advance in in medical stuff and we advance in biology and all these things

that we keep advancing in and we know more and more about what we continue to

find is everything that God asked the people of Israel to do we're finding

that there's some sort of benefit to this for the people who do them okay so

everything that we do for God not only has a spiritual benefit to it because it

does when we're obedient to God there is a spiritual eternal benefit to that but

it also has a physical benefit that God doesn't ask you to do anything to punish

you or to make you less or to diminish you in any way but in fact God calls you

to him to be obedient so that he can help you flourish both physically and

spiritually now we're a little short-sighted sometimes right and

sometimes we think we know what we want sometimes we think we know best

and sometimes we think we know what's going to be the best for us in the long

run and we make decisions off of that but so many times God calls us to

sacrifice to cut away things so we can benefit so much more and what happens is

when we choose our own paths when we deviate away from God we set ourselves

up to travel down these roads and these paths in our life that end up being a

lot rougher and a lot harder than what we ever thought they would be and many

times they come to these dead ends and we realize where I'm going leads to

nowhere this past week I did a job for Brandon and me and Anthony was driving a

dump truck with this piece of equipment hauling behind it and we go down in

downtown Spartanburg and we thought we were just gonna take off and turn back

around and come back venture back over to 221 and we go under this like eight

foot big huge railroad bridge I didn't know we was gonna be able to get

under and we get down there and we're dead in and we have to turn this big huge

thing around and it was pretty tough I was like man I wish he'd have told me

that you can't do that before we went down there it's a very eye-opening

experience when you get to somewhere and and you realize I can't go any

further because a lot of times even the process of turning around to try to go

back the way you came can be extremely difficult and God has designed

it in this world for you and I to come to these realizations their life that

the path I'm choosing is not necessarily the best path for my life that his path

in his way and his laws and his rewards are so much better than anything we

could ever imagine or fathom or dream for our own life and sometimes things

need to get better worse before they get better in Proverbs 14 verse 12

Proverbs 14:12

Solomon wrote there's a path before each person that seems right but it ends in

death guys the younger you are the more you need to pay attention to this even

if you're old you still need to pay attention to this because sometimes when

we get older we think we're a little more wise than what we really are but

as we proceed through this life there's gonna be many things that we have the

options of partaking in the options of participating in the options of

experiencing and everything that you look at and all these options and these

choices that you're gonna have in life they may not necessarily be sinful you

may look at this and think well there's nothing wrong with this the Bible

doesn't talk anything about the Bible doesn't specifically say this is a sin

and I remind you this morning that we as people have an amazing ability to take

anything and to make it sinful whether it be hobbies whether it be material

things whether it be relationships we have the ability to take anything good and

pervert it and make it simple and so as we walk through this life we have to be

very careful that we are purposefully choosing God in his path in his ways

because there's a path before every one of us that looks great you might have a

plan you might have this whole thing drawn up in your life you you you may

not see or understand necessarily how this is simple but this comes to the

point in our lives we need to be humble it's a missive to God and say

God I don't know speak to me tell me whether or not this is right or wrong

because there's a path before us all it seems right but it leads to death

because if it doesn't lead to God it leads to death anything that deviates

away from God leads to death both physical and eternal but God gives us

physical life and he gives us eternal life in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verse

5 there's a verse that talks about handing people over to Satan for the

destruction of their flesh so that the Spirit may be saved on the day of the

Lord and we need to understand that God is not nearly as concerned about the

physical as he is the spiritual he created the physical he cares about

your physical body he's given us lots of things to help benefit our physical

bodies and our physical lives but he's much more concerned about the

spiritual because the spiritual is eternal and God will hand us over to our

sins and the destruction of our sins so that our flesh may be destroyed but our

spirit may be saved so when you look at this whether it's personal and you're

deciding whether or not you're gonna follow the Lord or whether you're

interceding on someone that you love very much we need to understand that

sometimes things will get worse before they get better and especially if

you're interceding on somebody's behalf and you love them and you care

about them are you willing to say God I want them to be right with you so much

that I'm willing to put them in your hands and trust you to speak to them and

leave them back to you I can't imagine how difficult it would have been for

this father if he would have saw his son sitting in the pig pens desiring the

food the rotten stuff that these pigs were eating knowing that he had all the

food in the world that he could just give to his son but his son would let

him help him and as someone who that you may love very much and you may care

about them very much are you willing to say God I want this this child the spouse

this friend this co-worker I want this person to know you because it's more

important for them to know you spiritually and to live eternally than it

is for you to protect them physically or for us to try to guard them and

protect them and keep them from the consequences of the choices are making

God I'm gonna put them in your hands extremely difficult extremely painful and

an extreme amount of pain that it would that it would cause as you step back and

you put your faith in God and trust in him to carry this thing out the way

that it needs to be done so that he can bring these people back to you but

we see God doing this as he turns the Sun loose to follow his path and

experience the choices that he makes and have to deal with those point number two

as we talk about this we just need to remember that people are naturally

selfish even with God you know there is something in every human being that we

have a little bit of self-preservation this is something that we all fight we

all have to fight this in our lives of this desire to put ourselves first so

that we preserve our wants or our needs or whatever it may be that we're

willing to take from others so that make sure that we're being met and we do

this with God too and this young man when you look at the story you know he

this is not ideal you know we talk about a win being a win this young man

never says you know I really did my dad wrong I really blew like all the money

that he saved up all the time he spent working everything he did for him my

grandfather you know I really did them wrong man I can't imagine how I made him

feel he never has this idea of saying I'm sorry for what I did to you you

know you look at this young man and he starts rehearsing this speech father I've

sinned against both heaven and you let me come home and be your hired servant

because he says even the hired servants have plenty of food to eat it's a

self-preservation choice you know at glance it doesn't seem like there's a

genuine form of repentance here the young man is literally staring at rotten

food and he's wanting to take the pigs food and they have it for himself but he

can't it's always like well I'll just go home because the servants have better

than what I have and sometimes as we talk about a win being a win you know

someone may not respond exactly the way you think they should your attitude in

your heart may not be exactly where you think it should be in these moments but

we need to be reminded that the understanding of coming back to our

father for whatever reason is good and beneficial and we should celebrate over

those things you know when I first got saved when I gave my life to Christ it

was not because I woke up one day and I realized all of a sudden how amazing

God was and how much I loved him and how much I owed him and I didn't fully

understand what Jesus did on the cross for me like that didn't it didn't

compute at that time but I can tell you what did happen I said about three rows

back and I can remember feeling extremely convicted I began to

understand that there was sin in my life and I began to understand that there was

this place called heaven and hell and as I began to contemplate that the weight

became crushing and I remember understanding that at some point I've

got to deal with this I've got to get to the point where I'm not going to hell

anymore and my decision to follow Christ and ask Jesus into my heart was not

because I love Jesus I'm sad to say that's not the reason why I gave my

heart to Christ I gave my heart to Christ and asked him to forgive me of my sins

because I was afraid of going to hell and I wanted to go to heaven it was an

eternal self-preservation choice and it wasn't pretty in fact I didn't tell

anybody about it for a while I didn't know how to verbalize it didn't know

how to talk about it didn't really even have this great testimony you know a

lot of times people say well you know my testimony is not very strong and

and we you know you hear about all these other people and the amazing things that

God did in their life and you know it's like I was a sinner I most certainly was

a sinner I had plenty of sin in my life but compared to some of my friends and

other people I hung out with and things they were doing I'd never been

to jail I'd never done drugs I never drank never used tobacco products you

know like from the outside looking in I was a pretty well-to-do kid but I

had all the stuff in my heart that was sin and separated me from God and made

me black through and through just like anyone else and when I came to God and I

gave my heart to him it was not pretty but it was right in that moment the way

that God was speaking to me and revealing to me I understood I needed to

come to him for what I couldn't provide for myself and that was peace and

freedom and salvation eternal life through time the love of Christ and the

appreciation of what he did on the cross for me and the feeling of the Holy

Spirit and the desire to serve him and the willingness to sacrifice for him all

those things came in time but they most certainly were not there on day one

that makes sense but a win is a win and for you sitting here this morning

whether it's you personally you may not feel everything that everyone else is

talking about you may not understand what everyone else is talking about or

understand everything I'm talking about but there's something in your heart

where you know it's like I need to give my life to Christ I don't

understand I don't know why but I just know I need to and we need to be

obedient in that and for you who are praying for other people and you're

interceding on other people's behalf you may have this mindset of man I just

hope one day they come back or they get saved or they you know God

miraculously does this thing and it's gonna be beautiful it's gonna be this

great celebration and the truth is as chances are it's not gonna be this

like miraculous great celebration moment that God's gonna do stuff and

God's gonna bring them back and they may not say everything you want them to say

the person that you're praying for may have hurt you in ways that you could

never explain and they may never come back and say man I'm sorry for what I

did to you because this son doesn't say it he never says daddy I'm sorry for

what I did to you he just says I've sinned against heaven and you let me be

a hired servant he did his little rehearsed speech it was selfish

ambition self-preservation but make no mistake about it that sometimes God

allows us to get to places where we make choices and we choose God and we

choose to repent based off of the understanding that what I'm doing is

not working and I need to do something different and so a win is a win they may

not say or do everything you the way that you think they should but trust and

believe in God that God is working and moving in their lives and put it in his

hands and point number three is is that even if they don't do everything you

think they should if they don't have the right attitude they don't have the

right understanding point number three is God doesn't care in this story the

father in this story he is God and what's amazing is you look as the son is

returning home there are four things that the father does before the son ever has

an opportunity to speak the son he speaks eventually but the father runs to

him he meets him on the road the father embraced him and the father kissed him

before the son ever spoke a word it didn't matter why the son was home it

didn't matter what brought him there it didn't matter how bad he smelled what he

was dressed in what he had been doing none of that matter the father did not

care the father was ecstatic that the son just came home so that he could

shower him with his love and his protection and his providence for him

and a lot of times as believers you know we have this attitude of the older

brother which we'll talk a little bit more about next week but we have a

hard time accepting I wonder if they're really genuine I wonder if they're if

they really mean this they truly understand what they've done or how

they've heard us or how they've heard our family or blah blah blah but the

truth is is that it's not about us if we're interceding for someone for their

spiritual welfare it has nothing to do with what they've done with us or how

they've heard us or someone else it's all about whether or not they're going

to come back and give their lives and surrender to God because if they reach

that point then everything else will work itself out in time but the father

did not care the father was very much ready to receive his son and we can't be

tempted to say well you know since God welcomed him back and didn't really

let him speak it's like do you did the son really have to say it like do we

really have to can fit do we really have to say what we're sorry for or how

we've made a mistake and I say absolutely yes because in the parable the

son says it the father welcomed him the father kissed him the father met him on

the way but the son still said what he had rehearsed to say it may not have

been exactly what he should have said but he said it I want to challenge you

this morning as believers there needs to be something in us as believers to where

we verbally express what God is doing in our hearts and lives we need to say it

out loud as long as it's here it'll never become reality until it is

expressed for other people to see and to hear and you know this there are

things in your life I'm sure you've had thoughts before you're like man if

somebody knew what I thought just then they'd bury me under the jail you ever

have that moment where it's like you got something on your mind you feel a

certain way and you know like justified or not it's not right and you can't say

it out loud or you shouldn't say it out loud but when it comes to your

relationship with your heavenly father when it comes to the person that you're

praying for there needs to be a moment where you verbally express what's

going on I truly believe every Christian at some point in time should say what God

is doing in their life whether you testify about how God saved you or what

God is currently doing in your life that is a necessity for us as believers

because it doesn't really come to reality until we express it verbally

because seeing the look on people's faces when you say something says

everything right I'm a verbal audible thinker I do this will hand I do this

with the staff I you know and I'll say don't judge me on this like like just

tell me what you think about this is what I'm thinking because I need to know

whether or not this is really stupid or this is like somewhat plausible most of

time it's stupid and I can see it from the looks on their faces for us as

believers a lot of times when we say things people's look and their response

to you will say everything for instance if you say something spiritual if you

talk about how God saved you to somebody who's not a believer or doesn't feel

you everything you need to know for somebody who generally genuinely loves

the Lord and who is very concerned about your spiritual life if you tell them

something God's doing in your life they will celebrate with you more than anyone

else in the world they'll be as happy as you are about saying it out loud

brings it to reality in first John chapter 1 verse 9 it says but if we

1 John 1:9

confess our sins to him he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to

cleanse us from all wickedness this young man returns home he may not say

exactly what we think he should say he may not fully acknowledge like the

extent of what he's done or how he's hurt or all that he's cost this family

because now that he's come home he's bringing strife in the family now the

brother's mad as soon as he gets home it's the issue is still going you

remember last week we talked about how sin brings about hard con or hard

situations and circumstances it's not over his choices are still following him

even though he's returned and he's come home and the father is welcoming him in

they're still dealing with the baggage of his decisions but we have to

remember that a wins a win just because you give your heart and life to

Christ does not mean that the baggage is gonna be over like that or the person

that you're praying for interceding for that you love so much and you want to

see them brought to Christ does not mean the baggage is gonna be gone like that

but remember that the father who is God was excited that the son came home he

was excited to see him he embraced him he welcomed him in he identified him as a

son by putting the robe on him by putting the ring on him and he threw the party

because he was ecstatic that the son who was lost has now been found it didn't

happen the way it should have happened it didn't happen this ideal beautiful way

but God was excited that we returned that's the story we'll read a passage to

you from Zephaniah chapter 3 before we end the day it says for the Lord your God

Zephaniah 3 · chapter mention

is living among you he is a mighty Savior he will take delight in you with

gladness with his love he will calm all your fears he will rejoice over you with

joyful songs and in verse 18 it changes to where God is speaking in quotations I

will gather you who mourn for the appointed festivals you will be disgraced

no more and I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you I will save

the weak and helpless ones I will bring together those who were chased away I

will give glory and fame to my former exiles wherever they have been mocked

and shamed on that day I will gather you together and bring you home again I

will give you a good name a name of distinction among all the nations of the

earth as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes I the Lord have spoken

and as you look at the Lord speaking to the people of Israel a people that he

has chose to punish and sin and exile because of their sins because they

deviated away from him and his laws and he punished them he says look I want to

bring you back I want you to come home I want to restore you and not only do I

want to restore you from what you were before I want to make you even better

than what you were before and so if you're sitting here this morning and

you're the person who's deviated away and life has not turned out how you

wanted it to turn out and your decisions and your choices and the consequences have

not been what you thought they would be and life hasn't been pretty I just want

to remind you a win's a win that you have a Heavenly Father who's willing to

accept you back and bring you back in not to just be a hired servant but to

be a part of his family even though you may have squandered everything and

thrown it all away God still wants to bring us back to be a part of his family

not just a servant if or anybody that you're praying for anybody that you're

interceding on their behalf for know that God loves them God cares for them

and it may get worse before it gets better but if we entrust them to God we

can believe and have faith one day that God will bring them home because that's

exactly where he wants them to be let's pray father thank you so much for the

opportunity to be here today to read your word Lord to just contemplate the

amount of love and effort and all the many things that you've given us Lord

is just unthinkable of all you've gone through to make sure that we could

return back to you and Lord there's many paths that we have before our lives

many choices but the path to you is the one that we need so Lord I pray that

you would lead us back to you Lord bring us home bring us into your arms

bring us into your care bring us into your comfort and Lord I pray that in

time not only us but the other people we're praying for as well other people

we want to see brought to you that they would not only come to you because

life stinks or it hasn't turned out the way they thought it should but they'll

come back to you and when they fully realize how much you truly love us and

all that you've done for us and all that you're absolutely worthy of Jesus we

love you and we thank you so much and we ask it all in your precious and holy

name amen