A Tough Decision // The Long Road Home, Part 3

Sometimes we get to a point in life where we have to admit to ourselves that we’ve taken a wrong turn. That’s not easy – and the decision to turn around – well, that’s harder still.

We’ve all had that experience of trying something, committing to it, believing in it, publicly promoting it, and then flop, we fall flat on our faces. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt! It’s not a nice feeling, is it? On the one hand there’s the public humiliation but even worse than that, is that deep loss inside of having wanted something, believed in it, committed to it emotionally and then failed. Sometimes we’re angry, other times we deny it, and then we just hope it’ll go away and nobody will notice. You can tell, can’t you, that I understand this pretty well? But when it comes to our life choices, sometimes we back the wrong horse and we let the failure linger on and on, and eat away at us. Because going back to what we know is right in the first place, well, that can be a long road home.

There’s something that’s fun and exciting about rebelling, about turning our backs on things and thumbing our nose at authority. Just recently we had a bit of fun in our Ministry, we redeveloped our website, www.christianityworks.com. And all of the developers, (the team there are in their early 20s), and if you go there, there’s a video image of me on the homepage. And during the development time before the whole thing went live, some of the developers put a little halo above my head! You know what I mean, it was fun, now not withstanding it was theologically correct because of course we all are saints in Christ Jesus! I had to tell him to take it off, you know a bit of disrespect but it was fun, you know we all had a good laugh.

And so there are times when it can be fun but if we go on and on, and on, and we rebel, and we turn against things, life gets unbalanced, and there are consequences. There are so many people who think, "well, I can have fun all the time, I can joke all the time, I can reject all the time, I can rebel all the time, I can do what I like." And as they try and pour gratification to themselves, as they try and chase that illusory oasis in the desert, what they discover is actually, it’s a mirage.

Actually as we try and pour things in, we find ourselves in a spiritual wilderness. Jesus knew that, Jesus told a story, it’s the story of the prodigal son, which we read yesterday and the day before, and we’re going to look at for the rest of this week. He told a story about this spiritual wilderness and what the road home looks like. Let’s pick up the story.

A man had a couple of sons, the younger of them said to his father, "Dad give me my share of the estate that I have coming to me" so the dad distributed the assets to them. Not long after the younger son gathered all the stuff that he had and traveled to a distant land where he squandered his estate in foolish living. After he’d spent everything, a severe famine struck the country and he had nothing. And then he went to work for one of the citizens of that land who sent him out to feed the pigs. He longed to fill himself with the carob pods that the pigs were eating but no one would give him any. When he finally came to his senses he said:

How many of my father’s servants have more than enough food and here I am dying of hunger. I know what I’ll do, I’ll get up and go to my father and say, ‘Father I’ve sinned against Heaven and against you, I’m not worthy to be called you son anymore, just make me one of your servants’. And so he got up and went to his father.

See it all begins with rebellion. It all begins with this illusion that we can spend our lives having fun and partying and doing what we want, and if it feels good do it. I mean morals are old-fashioned and, it has consequences, life isn’t like that. There is a reality to life; enjoyment is much deeper than partying and doing what feels good. It’s an interesting cycle. It begins with rebellion, we reject something, we reject God along with it and we all do that sometimes. And then we think we can kick up our heels and do what feels good. And people do drink and drugs, and they have attitudes that are against God, and they have mindsets that are strongholds against God, and "Ah! Sure, have an affair, the world’s saying it is ok." And yet there are consequences.

People go and have affairs and it hurts. There are divorces; there are kid’s lives that are often so deeply impacted by all of that stuff. And on the one hand people are saying, "No, no it’s alright, what if it feels good, go and do it." And yet this whole rebellion, kicking up our heels thing is linked to the consequences, but we deceive ourselves, we don’t connect the two at all. And that was the cycle for the prodigal son in that story.

Dad and the farm, and the work, and the brother, compared to parties and an exotic far off land. Well, which one do you think looked more appealing to the young man at the time? There were consequences, he had to get up and look at those pigs in the eye morning and night with hunger in his belly and all of a sudden, it wasn’t very hard to connect the two, the rebellion and the consequences.

That is when he came to his senses. That was the turning point. It was a pragmatic decision, this coming to his senses. He had choices: On the one hand he could stay here with porky the pig and starve, and look at this pig in the eye every morning and every night when he went out in the field to feed them the food. Or he could suffer the humiliation of going back home as a servant in his father’s household, and at least have some food in his stomach. That was the choice and he weighed them. Which one is more in my interest?

This wasn’t some altruistic decision to return to the fold and his father, and his family, and the honour, and no, no, no … this was a pragmatic self-interested decision. That when something like this, you know something, the choice that I have made is not working, my only other choice is to start on that long road back home again, albeit that I have low expectations, albeit that I’m going to go to my father and say, "Father I have sinned against Heaven and you and I’m not worthy to be your son, make me a servant just as long as I have enough food to eat."

So here we have God in one corner and us over here somewhere else. I don’t know what the shape and nature of your rebellion looks like. I know what the shape and nature of my rebellions look like over the years. As we live out rebellion in life, in this spiritual wilderness, just like this son was in a wilderness out there with the pigs, we’ve got to ask ourselves, is it working? Has the rebellion delivered what I expected it to deliver? Has it lived up to the expectations? What form has that rebellion taken? Or is it a bit like staring at Porky in the eye morning and night? It ain’t working!

There’s hunger in our bellies, there’s a loss and a sense of "something’s not working, something’s missing, I know Dad’s out there, I know there’s a road back." Is it time to make a pragmatic decision about that rebellion in your life? Is it time to say ‘it ain’t working!’ I’m far better off with Dad where the riches and the privileges, and the benefits, and the blessings of God in my life, because as long as I continue to rebel, I’m not going to experience those. Or, would I rather hang on in pride to my rebellion and spend the rest of my life feeding Porky the pig?

Benefit versus embarrassment, and often it’s the embarrassment that holds us back from coming to God. The price is humbling ourselves and then all the blessings of heaven can be poured out on us. I can’t make that decision for you, it’s not my job. It’s my job to present you with a choice. Your part is to look at rebellion if it happens in your life, and for you to make the choice between benefit and embarrassment.