Transcription
[Music] thank you. [Applause] [Music]
Our series has been called "Family Strong," and we finish tonight. And I pray that it has been a blessing. But more than just a blessing, I pray it's been a challenge to you and to your family. Whatever your family looks like, if it's just you serving God by yourself, if it's a nuclear family, if it's a blended family, I pray this series has been a challenge to you.
Some 50 years ago, the year was 1973, the month was April. A preacher from New York named David Wilkerson, the author of "The Cross and the Switchblade," he wrote a lesser-known book called "The Vision." And in that book, David Wilkerson recounted a literal vision that he saw of quote, "five tragic calamities coming upon the Earth." If you read that little book, it reads like today's headlines. Here are the five tragic calamities: economic confusion, drastic weather changes, a flood of filth, hatred of parents, persecution of Christians. I've read that little book more than once over the last five decades, and it's eerie to see how Wilkerson's vision has been fulfilled. It's eerie, but it's not at all surprising if you know what the Bible says about the last days.
The Apostle Paul gives us what I would call the micro view that will impact your family. This is where the rubber meets the road in your home and in your life, in your house. "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." That's the micro view of the end times.
But Jesus gave us the macro view. This is what's happening in the wider world today as we try to live for God in the 21st century. "For nation shall rise against nation," the Greek there is ethnos, "shall rise against ethnos, ethnicity, race, tribes, and and countries shall rise against each other. Kingdom against kingdom. There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are just the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."
I hope you notice the word "many" in those verses. Many will be offended, many will wax cold, many will do many things, but not all. In the worst days imaginable, in the most tumultuous times that you can perceive, there will be people who know their God. There will be people who serve their God. And God be in my witness, and God give me strength, I intend to be one of those people who endure unto the end.
Say, "What does that have to do with a series on the family?" Oh, my goodness, that's the environment your family is being raised in today. The war on marriage and the family has increased even since we began this series four weeks ago. It's an all-out assault from hell from every side. Hardly a day goes by when we don't see some new attack or debate, some new law or some new perversion perpetuated against those who bear the image of God. No, I realize you did not sign up for this war, but if you fail to fight back, you and your family will most certainly become casualties of the conflict.
I will say, at one final time in this series, you remember something: your family's spiritual destiny is your responsibility. This is a fight to the finish, and your home is in the crosshairs of hell. Only those who endure unto the end will be saved. Only those who know God will survive. This is no time for lukewarm spirituality or half-hearted commitment or even online Christianity. Only connecting with church from home may actually be the greatest enemy of your home in the last days.
If your child, teenager, or young adult is right now in public school or university, they are constantly being exposed to some of the most unproven, unsupported, unreasonable theories by some of the most unhealthy, unhappy, unhinged teachers you could ever imagine. Your children and young people are being continually bombarded by untried, unsafe, untrue assumptions. They are increasingly being attacked in our schools for even daring to raise simple, logical questions about this unfounded, unnatural, unthinkable agenda. And now they are being accused of discrimination, bullying, or even hate speech simply for stating the obvious, as though somehow biology had turned into bigotry.
Let me read you a verse: "So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Seems quite obvious to me, quite straightforward. And yet, just last month, a 16-year-old, grade 11 student at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ontario, was suspended, arrested, and ultimately barred from attending classes for the rest of the year, simply for expressing his religious objections to the school's bathroom policy. That policy allows males to use female bathrooms if they identify as transgender. Josh Alexander simply quoted scripture to state that there are only two genders, and this was considered bullying by the principal. The school board stated, "A trans person should not be required to use a separate washroom or change room just because others express discomfort or they have transphobic attitudes." And the Ontario Human Rights Code states that schools should give students access to the bathroom that corresponds with their lived gender identity. All of that, as though feelings have suddenly become facts, as though somehow biology has warped into bigotry. And don't fool yourself, that's our nation. It could happen to your student at their school. And before you say, "I don't have any young people at home, I'm done raising my kids," it could happen to you at your workplace. It could happen to you in your apartment building. It could happen.
There is a steady stream of educators and politicians, an endless parade of celebrities and sports figures, a constant diet of movies and media, all designed to gradually condition your children and the children of this church to believe the big lie that humans can casually experiment with sex, randomly manipulate their gender, or surgically mutilate their bodies without suffering lifelong consequences. If you can't recognize Satan behind this sinister agenda, you are asleep at the wheel. If you call yourself a Christian but you don't discern this demonic deception that has overtaken our culture, you're quite frankly delusional. This is hell's last ditch attempt to enslave God's creation in order to prevent their salvation, and your family is at stake.
If there ever was a time you need to keep your family closely connected to the church, that time is now. If there ever was a time you need to keep your kids covered in prayer, that time is now. If there ever was a time you need to talk to your teenagers and tell them, "Feelings are not facts, and your temptation is not your identification," if there ever was a time you need to have those conversations, that time is now. If there ever was a time, adults, that you need to protect your mind and guard your heart, that time is now. If there ever was a time you and your family, your loved ones, and your friends need to be ready for the rapture of the church, that time is now.
The problem with life, with marriage, and with parenting is that we have all come equipped with a rear-view mirror, but what we don't come equipped with is a reverse gear. At some point, every one of us can look back over our lives and see what we should have done differently. But the problem with being human is we can't back up and actually do it differently. Our mistakes with friends, spouses, and children become a permanent part of our story, but worse, they become a permanent part of their story.
Most parents are so busy parenting that they never consider the direction they are actually going with their family. They unintentionally become reactive instead of proactive, and they never stop to consider some of the principles of life. Number one: Direction, not intention, determines your destination. You can intend to do well, you can intend to serve God, you can intend to train up your children in the way that they should go, but it's the actual direction you set day after day after day that determines your destination, not your good intentions. You know the old statement from hundreds of years ago: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." I don't think there's any parents in our church that intend for their children to backslide, or intend for their children to not love God, or intend for their children to not attend church. But see, it's not your intention for them that matters; it's the direction you're setting every week. So if you want your kids to someday bring up your grandkids in church, where are you when the church doors are open and we're having service or prayer meeting? Your direction, not your intention, determines your destination.
The apostolic movement is filled with parents who lived on the fringes of the church during their children's formative years, and now they live with a lifetime of regrets in their home. Faithfulness to church, obedience to scripture, adherence to standards of righteousness, and submission to spiritual leadership – those were all optional in their home. They never understood this principle: "More than we keep God's commandments, God's commandments keep us." You may not understand every word, chapter, and thee and thou of the Bible, but if you've got a pastor that preaches the word of God to you, let me tell you how you respond: "Pastor, I'm going to obey until I understand. I, I, I'm going to be committed before I get it all. I'm just going to follow what God has revealed in His word." More than we keep God's commandments, parents, God's commandments keep us. Don't teach your children how to skirt around God's commandments by them watching you skirt around God's commandments.
I know many of those parents have now repented and returned, but here's the problem: during their sojourn in that season of just non-commitment, their children became the casualties of their carnality. It's tragic. Other parents, they took the opposite extreme. They acted like the Pharisees of Jesus' day, keeping up appearances in public, at church, just to protect their family's reputation, but not realizing how much their children saw their hypocrisy in the home. They were so rigid in keeping religious rules that they irreparably damaged their relationship with their kids because they never stopped to realize a life principle: rules without relationship always create rebellion. You can force your children to be somewhere, to do a task, but you cannot force love to be in their heart. The human heart has to be open from inside, and you parents, you hold a key. If you can establish a relationship of love with them, and they see your relationship of love with God, that always has the best chance of succeeding. Because just keeping the rules, especially when you only keep the rules to protect your image, that always creates rebellion.
When a son or daughter walks away from their faith, Christian parents are understandably dismayed and distraught. But often, some of those same parents are unwitting accomplices in the undermining of their children's faith for one very simple reason: you cannot get away from this principle: what happens at home is more influential on your kids than what happens at church. You cannot get away from that. CCC only gets your kids for a handful of hours at best each week. It distresses me how easily we just kind of discard our obligation to be at the house of the Lord. I get it, there's a webcast, pastor. It's not the same. It's useful, it's helpful for shut-ins, but it's not the same. And you know who keeps telling us that? The shut-ins who wish to God their health would allow them to be here. And if you've got health and strength and youth, and especially if you've got a family, you owe it to your kids to make sure that they have a chance to be around the church. But at best, if you're here for everything we do, we only get your kids a handful of hours every week. You have them the rest of the time. So if your faith doesn't make a difference in your everyday life, your kids will eventually become disconnected from that faith, period, full stop, end of story.
Someone else can teach your kids the stories of the Bible, but only you can demonstrate up close what it looks like to let the teachings of the Bible shape your lifestyle. Only you. I feel the tension in the room, just like you do. But before we all jump off the high diving board of guilt for mistakes and failures of the past, I want to throw out a lifeline to some parents who've tried their hardest. Remember that kids sometimes do hurtful things for no apparent reason at all. Sometimes kids follow harmful desires even with a Christian upbringing. Sometimes kids succumb to peer pressure despite praying parents. They fall into temptation. They mess up. And then here's what happens. It always happens. You're wonderful, you're precious, but you are not unique. You're human. We all face similar things.
So young people fall into temptation, and then it happens every single time. After they fall into temptation, they look for justification in all kinds of false philosophies. You see somebody that messes up morally, and they know better because they were raised in church. Here's what you're going to see next: agnosticism, intellectualism, relativism, humanism, atheism, transgenderism, secularism, some kind of -ism. They're going to have to justify why they messed up. Sometimes it's as simple as they don't want to live a life of holiness, righteousness, and godliness, so they start trying to pick apart the Bible itself. Parents, it's not that you did something wrong; it's that they did something sinful. And in their generation, if you yield to temptation, you look for a justification. Here's what you've got to be smart enough to understand: it never changes, it's always true. People usually change their beliefs because they need to justify their behavior. That's always true. It's just such a human thing that if I want to do this, and it's sinful, I can figure out all kinds of rationalization just to be able to do it. You see wonderful young people that were so on fire for God, and they mess up somewhere we don't even know about it yet. Nobody knows. Maybe their parents don't even know. But all of a sudden, they've changed everything they believe. Why? They're trying to justify their behavior. Don't let that fool you. And parents, that's not your fault. They messed up. It wasn't you that messed up. Temptation is treacherous, the devil is dangerous.
And I come to this last part of this series to say one more time: we are at war. There is no guarantee that your children will always believe what you raised them to believe. No guarantee. What they choose to believe is quite frankly beyond your control. But what is in your control is your response and your reaction. Your best response is to live your life in such a way that your kids never doubt that you believe what you raised them to believe. They may not believe it right now. They may argue against it right now. They may mock it and malign it, criticize it and condemn it. But they need to know one thing for sure: this is your best response. You live in such a way that they know, in a world that questions everything, you believe this with all of your heart. You love this with all of your mind. You're committed to this with all of your strength. They need to know that because someday, if they ever come to their spiritual senses, they're not going to head back for this if they don't feel like you even believe this or you weren't even committed to this. They need to know that. That's your best response. It's not arguing with them about what they believe, but letting them know this is what you believe to the core of your being. That's your best response.
Your best reaction, if your kids come in, God forbid, they come in tomorrow, next month, next year, five years from now, and they say, "I'm done. I'm out of here. I don't like this. I'm not doing this anymore." Your best reaction is to say something along these lines: "Regardless of what you believe or don't believe, it doesn't change anything about our relationship. So if you think leaving your faith behind means leaving me behind, you're sadly mistaken." You need to tell them something: "I loved you when you were a baby in arms, before you had the capacity to believe anything. If I loved you before you believed anything at all, I still love you today, no matter what you believe and no matter how you behave. That love will never change." That, brothers and sisters, that moms and dads, that grandpas and grandmas, that is your best reaction.
If your child backslides, it will break your heart, but do not let it break your relationship. Always remember, always remember, while you're learning all those scriptures to prove doctrine and flatten people against the wall with your biblical expertise, while you're figuring out the finer points of prophecy until the rest of us are so tired we run when you come into the room, while you're figuring out ways to debate and argue about the Bible itself, and while you've got an opinion on everything from politics to media to Bible to preachers to churches, while you're getting that all set, just remember one little lesson I hope you don't overlook in the Bible. Remember how our heavenly Father responds to His prodigal children. Remember how He responded to some of us in this very room when we slammed the door, walked away, vacationed from God, headed into the world. Thank God we got back. But I'll tell you why we got back and how we got back: because our heavenly Father always responds to His prodigal children in the same way. He just puts out the welcome mat and waits. That's what He does every single time. He just puts out the welcome mat, and He waits. You have to make the choice. You have to turn around. You have to come on back. But when you get back, you're going to find a welcome mat, and you're going to find your heavenly Father waiting for you.
Church, we can't do less than that. If God did that much for us, I don't care where they are, who they're friends with, who they're living with, who they're sinning with, what they believe or don't believe, how much they've argued with you, how hateful they've been toward you. Just put out the welcome mat and wait for them. Luke chapter 15, definitely by far above all others, Jesus' most famous parable. And He said, "A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living." And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey. Don't miss this, into a far country. Far away from home, far away from father, far away from his upbringing, far away from morality, far away from truth. And there in the far country, he wasted, what a waste, sin is. He wasted his substance with riotous living. It looked like freedom, but it was actually bondage. It looked like fun, but it ended up in sadness. It looked like gain, but it ended up being tragic loss.
And here it is: "And when he had spent all," and his friends said, "We're not bailing you out anymore." "There arose a mighty famine in that land." And this boy that had it all, thought he could do it all, thought he could be it all, he began to be in want. And that is where the story really isn't about the boy anymore. The story really is about the father at this point. Because no matter how much the boy wants to come home, no matter how repentant the boy is, no matter how much longing he has for father's house, if the father doesn't decide to put out the welcome mat, he's up the creek. He can't fix it. Aren't you grateful that we have a heavenly Father that when we messed up and fell down and failed miserably and turned away, He put out the welcome mat and He waited for us to come back? I just wish you'd let your appreciation out through your voice to the Lord for a moment. Some of you owe Him a great debt of appreciation. All of us owe Him a great debt of thanks and gratitude. He paid a great price for your soul. His hand reached further down than you could ever reach up.
Because Jesus is no longer here on this earth in physical form, and because God has designed His kingdom so that the church is the carrier of the Gospel, when the prodigal goes to the far country, there are responsibilities that rest on us and burdens that weigh on us. And the greatest thing you can do for your prodigal, and there are prodigals represented by families in this room right now, and by those who are watching online, the greatest thing you could ever do for your prodigal is to pray for them. There is nothing better. So many people spend so much energy arguing with their prodigal. The greatest thing you can do is pray for them.
And I want to talk to you for a few moments tonight, and I won't be much longer because I want to pray with you. I want to talk about praying for your prodigal, whoever they may be. We have such a hodgepodge of religion today that people are almost afraid to even admit they have a prodigal in their family, lest the prodigal will be offended at them. But you know in your heart of hearts that they are not where they should be. They are not what they once were. And you know that they're much more facing toward the world than facing toward Father. And so, if you have a prodigal in your life, let me entreat you and try to instruct you, perhaps, how to pray for your prodigal.
The first thing is to pray out of love, not out of anger or frustration. Pray out of love. Ask God to give you a heart for them like He has for them. When people slap the church in the face, throw the Bible on the floor, and all the other dramatics that they can do on their way out the door, it's awfully easy to get an attitude. It's awfully easy to get offended on God's behalf. Let me tell you something: God doesn't need your protection. God doesn't need you to defend Him. He's not worried about His honor being besmirched. He is the King of the Universe. So stop trying to puff yourself up like some kind of religious judge and speak and thunder for God toward that person. Pray for them out of love, not out of anger. It's easy when they hurt you and wounded you, when they spurned you and mocked you, when they did ill against you, it's easy to get frustrated, and it's easy for your prayers to take on a tone like, "God, hurt them. God, cause them to see that I'm right." That's not a prayer; that's just your ego talking. Pray for them out of love. "God, let me see them like You see them. Let me see how they're hurting. All I see is how I'm hurting. Let me see what they've lost. I only see what I've lost." Pray for them out of love.
Secondly, and this is very important, it seems counterintuitive. Pray for the grace to let go. So many people try to hold that person. I'm not talking about little kids that don't want to go to Sunday school; you bring them to Sunday school. I'm talking about young adults in your house that they fight with you and they argue, maybe they've just gone out on their own, and they're leaving your house was accompanied by leaving your church and your God. I know you want to run after them, but the Father in Jesus' story never did. I know you want to travel to the far country and shame them in front of their friends and coax them to come home and bribe them to turn around, but the Father in Jesus' story never did. Pray for the grace to let go. They are in God's hands, and God's hands respond to your prayers. So don't talk to them about your God until you make them angry. Talk to your God about them until you see Him move. Pray for the grace to let go.
And then, for some of you parents, you know this all too well. You may not have put it in these words, but during those endless weeks and months, and sometimes years, or even decades, you need to pray for endurance to intercede. Because intercession is not easy. Intercession takes its toll. Intercession is no fun. But you need to pray: "Jesus, I got to see my family saved, so I need You to help me here. Give me the endurance to pray, and the endurance to intercede, and the endurance to stand in the gap." It's okay to pray that way.
This next one is so extremely, extremely important. Pray for hunger and pray for homesickness. Or you could just put it that way, this way: pray for famine in that far country. Pray for their friends to forsake them. Pray for their job to turn upside down. Pray for their cushy, comfortable life to fall apart. You say, "I thought you said we're supposed to love them." That is love. Because as long as they're out there, they're not saved. As long as they're in sin, they're not ready for the coming of the Lord. So it's okay to pray that life turns upside down. Pray that they'll get hungry for Father's house and for Father's food and for family. Pray that they'll get homesick for the presence of God. Pray for that. Don't ever help somebody become comfortable in the far country. I don't think I'll get much of a response. I'm not talking about vocal response; I'm just talking about you probably might not like this. It's the worst thing in the world to help your backslider or your prodigal get comfortable in the world. I'm not talking about love, not talking about being kind, not talking about shunning them or ostracizing them. But for heaven's sake, if they've got substance abuse problems, stop giving them money. Please, for their sake and your sake and God's sake, stop giving them the tools to destroy their life. I know those decisions are hard. I know they will tell you, "You hate me." But you don't hate them; you love them. Don't help somebody become comfortable in the far country. Pray that they get hungry and pray that they get homesick. You say, "You're mean." No, I'm desperate for a generation of prodigals to come back to God before the rapture of the church. I'm not mean; I'm compassionate. I'm not angry. And some of them are represented by precious parents and grandparents and people in this room. So I'm not singling anybody out.
I'd like everybody in this room to lift up your hands and your voice and just pray for prodigals for a minute. We're going to get through this, and we'll pray at the end, but I just feel a quickening right now. We're not praying that it would be comfortable; we're praying that they would be convicted. We're not praying that they have all kinds of success; we're praying actually that they have all kinds of frustration so they'll realize the most important thing in their life is not their job, their career, their fun, their relationships; it's their relationship with God. That's what we're praying. Oh, my goodness. Ah. So, oh, say, "Pastor Raymond, you don't understand. I prayed for years for them." That's why you need to pray for endurance to intercede. "God, just give me one more burst of endurance because we've got to get them back in church before the coming of the Lord." Oh, oh, oh, oh. [Music] Don't let go of that. Hang on to that.
I want to give you a couple more things that will inform your praying, I hope, and then we're going to pray again at the end of service. So don't let go of that. Hang on to that. Pray for repentance and restoration. Pray that they'll sense that they've got to somehow turn their life around. That is repentance. Would you stop being offended because somebody doesn't repent like you repented 30, 40, 50 years ago? You may have cried half the night. You may have shaken under the power of God. But with all respect and love and honor, that is not repentance. That was your response when your heart was repenting. Just because somebody else comes to this altar and stands here without moving a muscle and without having any big emotional reaction, if they make a choice to turn away from their sin, they've repented just as much as somebody who cried all night long. So pray for repentance, whatever it looks like for them. It's got to be a choice to turn around and head back for Father's house. Pray for repentance. And please pray for this restoration. Some of us, we shouldn't be who we are. We shouldn't have what we have. We shouldn't do what we do because there were years or months or weeks or seasons when we just weren't doing right. But God restored to us the years that the locusts had eaten, and the cankerworm, and the palmerworm had chewed up, and He restored it to us. So don't you be stingy with the grace of God when God wasn't stingy with you. Restore Him, God. When they get back to church, we're going to love them. We're going to hug on them. We're going to have meals with them. And we're going to have conversations with them. And hey, we're going to sit with them, and we're going to just make sure they feel restored, fully restored. But that restoration has to start in their heart. And so pray that they'll have a sense that God is merciful and that He wants to restore them. Pray for repentance and restoration.
This next one may be one of the most important prayers. Pray for the elder brother. Pray for the people that are already in the church. I am not a church basher. I love the church. I have invested my entire life in the church, both positionally and officially and personally and spiritually. I am invested in the church. I have no criticism of God's church. I'm like Pilate when he looked at Jesus: "I find no fault in the church." But I do know that church people, some of them, can be the most critical, judgmental people that you'd ever want to meet. And when somebody comes back to God, and they take those first feeble, faltering, fragile steps toward God, there are people who try to police that and instruct that and correct that and make sure they know that if you come back, you're going to have to toe the line, and you've got to live like we live, and you've got to do what we do. And would you stop it, in Jesus' name? That is none of your business. God can work on their hearts, and God can teach them through His Spirit. [Applause] Keep your tongue off of people that God is trying to restore. God shouldn't have to work in spite of His church to have a harvest of backsliders. You got one job. Surely we can get it right. Love them. That's it. And if you want to add a second job because you've got extra time, love them and pray for them. I don't care that they're not part of your family. I don't care that you don't know their name. I don't care that they did something to somebody that's related to you. I don't care if they make a fragile, feeble, faltering step toward God. That's a win for the kingdom of God any day of the year. Welcome them and love them and pray for them. Pray for your church that this church will be a safe place. I'm not talking about that stupid political agenda where everybody's safe because we welcome all kinds of sin. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about true safety, that it's safe to come here and love God when you're not perfect. That it's safe to come here and love God when you don't have it all figured out. When it's safe to come here and not even have a clue about what the Bible's really about. Where it's safe to come here and you haven't got all your eyes dotted and your t's crossed on holiness standards and lifestyle convictions. But it's safe here because God's church is doing what God called them to do. They're reaching for sinners. If we preach and teach and sing and pray about people, about reaching people that have never known God, surely we can preach and teach and sing and pray for people that used to know God and want to get back to God. Go. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Pray for the elder brother. Pray for the church. Pray for this church that will be that kind of church where people that don't get it and don't do it yet and don't understand it at all can come here. People that live lifestyles that offend you and scare you, they can come in here and be loved by this church until God transforms their heart. Pray for the elder brother. Pray for the people that are already on Father's property, that they'll love people that are still coming this way. I'm sorry.
And finally, pray for yourself. Because it could be, especially if you're a parent, that you did something. I'm not saying you did everything wrong. Don't put words in my mouth. But you could have done something that hurt them. You say, "I don't remember saying any words to them that would have offended them." Maybe you didn't say words that you should have said. Maybe you never told them how much you loved them. I don't know what went on in your house. I'm not trying to criticize your house. I'm just saying that somewhere, and you're praying for them, pray for you and say, "God, if there's a place that You need to change my heart, please do it, because I want him back. Jesus, if there's a place I need to go and ask them for forgiveness, please make me man or woman enough to do that. Please change me." Because here's what we're after, brothers and sisters. "This one moment: And he arose, and came back to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." And the son who'd gotten so deep in sin, so messed up in his lifestyle, he said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight: and I, I can't come back. They won't love me anymore. They won't welcome me anymore. They have no use for me at your house. I'm not worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Don't you listen to that. You listen to me. Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and put shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf. We're not saving that up for some special feast day; we're going to use it today because today is a feast day, today is a party, today is a celebration. Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry." Why would you go to all that waste and all that bother? Well, you don't understand, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, but he is found."
I speak that over some family here tonight. I speak that over some parents that have agonized and interceded tonight. I speak that over some grand barons that are afraid that your gray head is going to go down to your grave without seeing your grandchildren back in church. I speak to you and I say, "There's coming a day. This my son was dead, but he's alive again. He was lost, but today he is found." [Applause]
The devil hasn't counted on the God factor in your home. The God factor at work in your family. You may not be able to convince your wayward child, but my God can change them. Always remember, if you don't remember anything else from tonight, or even anything else from this series, just remember how our heavenly Father responds to His prodigal children. And then you know what you do? While you're praying, while you're hoping, while you're loving, just put out the welcome mat and wait. Don't get frustrated. Don't get angry. Don't give up. Don't lose hope. Put out that welcome mat. Be ready for God to move in an instant, and you wait for God to come through. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." And the old songwriter wrote, "Teach me, Lord, teach me, Lord, to wait."
I have one more thing to say, not to you, but to you. Before we pray, if you are a prodigal and you're watching this service online, or you're later watching this message online, and you got all the way to here, all the way to the end, I may not know you or your city or the church you used to attend, but I know God, and God wants you back. The welcome mat is out. The church is waiting for you. You are welcome here. We want you. We love you. We're praying for you. Come on home. Come on home. Come on back. Come on home. Come on back.
Okay, church, it's time to pray. Leap to your feet. Lift your hands in the air, and don't waste a moment. Lift up your voice, and let's pray for our prodigals one more time. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. [Music] [Applause] [Music]
Can you get to the altar without stopping your prayer? Can you pray all the way up the aisles? Can you come, church, crowd into this altar and let's pray together? Don't stop praying. Pray every step. Pray all the way up the aisle. Pray into the altar. Oh, oh. Let those see. No, no, don't, don't stop your praying. Keep praying. I'm not trying to distract you here. When you get here, lift up your hands again. Lift up your voice again. Pray for them. Uh.