LOST AND FOUND – PART 3 (THE LOST SON): PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE, 5TH FEBRUARY, 2023.
SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)
TOPIC: LOST AND FOUND – PART 3 (THE LOST SON)
DATE: 5TH FEBRUARY 2023
BIBLE TEXT: LUKE 15:11-14 (NKJV)
Let us rise up together as we make our “DECLARATION OF GATHERING” in this “YEAR OF GATHERING”.
Are you ready? Say with me:
I Proclaim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The Lord is the Shepherd of my Soul, my Shelter by Day, my Light by Night.
In His Name, we Plough our fields, by His Spirit we gather the Harvest, in His Light we seek and find.
In this Year of Gathering, the Lord of the Harvest has commanded: Launch Out into the Deep. At His Words, we cast our Nets, we gather in Souls and Substance for God’s Kingdom.
The Lord is our Reward; in this Season I received God’s Portion set aside for me: Full Measure, Pressed down, Shaking together and running over.
Nothing is Lost and Nothing is wasted in Jesus Name – Amen!
This Parable carries a Similar Message as “The Parable of The Lost Sheep” that we did in the Part 1 of this Series!
I have been teaching from Luke 15; and I have been talking on “LOST AND FOUND”.
We’ve talked about the Lost Sheep and we’ve talked about the Lost Coin.
And today we are looking at “THE LOST SON”.
I am going to deal with “The Lost Son” this week and next week because I can’t do all of it in one week. It is far more detailed than the other ones.
… Although I said this was going to be a Three-Part Message; it’s going to end up being a Four-Part Message.
So, we are talking about “The Lost Son” and we go to Luke 15:11-14 (NKJV).
11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons.
12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.
13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
This Gentleman is normally called “The Prodigal Son.” And the word ‘Prodigal’ simply means “Wasteful” – The one who wastes.
I want you to remember what Prompted Jesus to talk about these Three (3) Parables.
Jesus was teaching, the Pharisees and Scribes came to Him and said: Lord, we have a Problem with You, “You receive Sinners and You eat with them.”
In other words, “when they come to You, You receive them; and when they invite You, You go to them.”
They had a Problem with Jesus on that, because the Pharisees were People who were commiited to Separation of what they called “Holy from the Unholy”.
And if they felt that you were not a Holy Person, they would never visit you.
If you lived in those days, most of you would never have a visit from the Pharisees; because they would have looked at you and say that even your smile is not Holy, your hair cut is not Holy, your shoes are not Holy!
And so, they were very Particular about the Life of the People – They came to Jesus complaining, and Jesus is now responding.
And in answering the question of, “why He receives Sinners and why He goes to them?” He tells them three (3) Parables – The Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Lost Coin; and now, the Parable of the Lost Son.
There is something very unique about this Parable I want us to Note before I go on to talk about it.
In the earlier Parables – The Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin: after they were found, Jesus added a Notation.
After the Parable He would say, “There is Joy in Heaven over one Sinner who repents.”
He said it after the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and the Parable of the Lost Coin.
However, in this Parable of the Lost Son, Jesus did not use that Phrase.
When He concluded the Parable, He didn’t day, There is Joy in Heaven over one Sinner who repents.”
And of course, when you look at the Parable, it feels like the Boy who went out was a Sinner.
So, why didn’t Jesus say the same thing He said about the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin?
Because Jesus is talking about two (2) kinds of Lost People.
And the clue you will get is that He starts by talking about a Father and His son.
So, the first two (2) Parables – of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin talked about Sinners, Unbelievers, People who are in the world.
But this one talks about Christians who backslide – People who are with the Father, who know the Father, who know God, who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour; and return back into the world.
So, this is what this Parable is talking about.
It is not talking about the New Person who comes to know Jesus Christ as Lord. It’s talking about the Person who already knows the Lord, knows the Father: He is a son or daughter of the Father, but falls away into sin.
So, I want you to have that in Mind as we look at this Parable of the Lost Son.
… And the Ladies, you are also included in the Lost Son. Alright!
There are two (2) main aspect of this Parable: The Going away and the Return.
This week I will just focus on the ‘Going Away.’
- What took the Boy away?
- And how he ended up when he went away?
Next week I will talk about how he returned to the Father.
So, let’s look at the Going away from the Father.
- How did it start?
- How can a son who lives with the Father go away?
WHAT WENT WRONG?
- Self Centeredness:
And the first thing you Note that went wrong is that the son was Self Centered.
Remember, when I was talking about the things that take People away from God, I talked about self Centeredness as one of them.
This is a Self Centered Child.
How do we know?
He only saw what he could get from his father, and he asked for what was his. Isn’t it amazing that the Wealth belonged to the father; the inheritance was for the father.
But he said, “Father, give me what is mine.” He only saw what he could get from his Father. And that is where he started going wrong.
This is where everything started going wrong. He was fixated on himself.
His Language is similar to many in our Generation today.
Sometimes in the Church, Christians – we want what is ‘ours’ and we want it now!
We say things like, “I can’t wait any longer.” And all that we are looking for is for something that God would give us now.
I believe that God is a Good God, God blesses, Pprospers and heals His Children.
But if all your Christian Life is based on what you can get from God, you are in danger of doing what this Gentleman did. Because if all you do is, “Lord bless me, favour me, increase me, heal me, prosper me…”
If that is all your Christian Life is about, then you are in danger.
Because that is what this Gentleman is doing – He is only looking not to serve the Father, but to take what the Father has, for himself.
Sometimes I feel that Christianity, especially (I can’t speak for other Countries) in our Country, has become like that. All our Prayer is: Lord, bless me, increase me, destroy my enemies. Everything is “me, my, I”.
Every time we go before the Lord, we are asking for something for ourselves.
Is that how your Christian Life is?
Every time you start Praying you are talking about yourself and what you want from God. And yes, God wants you to have it!
The interesting thing about this Father is that, He didn’t refuse giving the son’s Portion to him.
He didn’t say, “No, I will not give it to you.” He said, of that’s what you want, that is it!
If all the Relationship you are going to have with me is for my inheritance – Have things but never have me. Because sometimes we have things that God give us, but we never have Him. And that’s the trouble with this man: he is Self Centered, Self Conceded.
I. And as much as God wants us to have things, our Christian Life should not be about things;*
II. As much as God wants to Prosper you, your Christian Life should not be about Prosperity;
III. As much as God wants you to be the Head and not the Tail, your Christian Life should not always be, “Lord I want to be the Head, Lord Promote me, increase me.”
Yes, He wants you to have it, but our Christian Life is beyond that.
So, the first Problem we have with this guy is that he wants something for himself, he wants Nothing to do with the father.
You know a lot of Christians, of you would give them Miracles without God, they would take Miracles without God.
If you put Breakthrough and God on the table, they will pick Breakthrough and leave God; because we are so fixated on Gifts and not the Giver of the Gifts.
If our Christian Life starts on that Premise,we are going to get into Prodigal Living.
So, that’s why we see this guy – Self Centeredness.
That’s the Problem: “Give me, give me, give me?”
… From Self Centeredness comes the next step:
- Separation:
The Passage says, “… He journeyed to a far Country.”
He separated from the father – He received from Him, but separated from Him.
He received from God, but turned away from God.
*It’s amazing where a lot of us have taken our Christianity – We go for Prayer Meetings, All-Night Meetings not because we love God.
For all of us who go for Prayer Meetings and Pray very long: have you ever considered why you are doing it? Is it really because you want to be in the Presence of God or you want something from Him?
The moment this Gentleman got what he wanted, he separated from his father.
I mean, you would have thought he would say, “Okay father, give me what is mine” – He gets what is his, stays with the father and starts using the father’s Gift (next door) to grow.
So, you see that the real reason why he wanted something for himself was because he hated to be in the Presence of the father – He didn’t want his father, he didn’t want to be accountable, he didn’t want his father’s correction, his father’s direction or his father to say “don’t do that!” All he wants is, “Bless me and I don’t want you again.”
And there are many Christians like that – “Bless me and I don’t want You to interfere in my Life.”
“He journeyed far away from his father.”
Usually, this is the first step that many People take when they turn away from God – They separate themselves, they disconnect.
Sometimes, they stop coming to Church.
When they are broke they are in Church, they are in the Meetings, they are Praying in every Prayer Meeting. The day the so called Breakthrough comes, now they have a lot of excuse not to be in Church.
You see the Separation happening; and the Separation is happening because their heart was for themselves. Once they get what they want, God is out of the Picture.
Sometimes People do that – They stop going to Church. Sometimes they go to another Church no one knows them. Now they can sin freely, because nobody knows them! They take a girlfriend and go to another Church.
Sometimes they will say, “well, you know I don’t want to go to Church again. I just want something Private.”
I have seen lot of People – They hire Private Pastors and Prophets, “Come and do Bible Study in our house, all I want is just love God. I don’t want to go to Church.”
And so they have this Man of God (So called) that they can control. Who can see the right Visions for them. Who never sees anything wrong about them. He tells them, “It shall be well with you; you will Prosper, your enemies will be defeated.”
Aren’t they suspicious that these hired Prophets (who are working for wages) have all been engineered for salary?
You’ve hired him, what do you want him to say? “That you are wrong?
You have that Young boy come, and every Vision he sees is Good for you. And they are the ones who see all your enemies; because they know you are a Paranoid Person – Your head is not correct. So, they are twisting your head.
Separation!
And that is what is happening to our young friend here (the Prodigal son).
Sometimes People who are separated from God act like, now they have a a deeper understanding of Scriptures.
They become cynical, they question everything about God; everything about the Bible.
They talk down on all Pastors. They don’t believe any Pastor again.
They talk down on all Christians: They say, Christians are all hypocrites.
They talk down on all Churches.
You know what they are doing? They just want to be alone!
It has nothing to do with Spirituality, because true Spirituality would connect you to God; connect you to His Word and to His People.
If you think you know so much and you are so Spiritually deep; and you are disconnected from God and His People, and His House. Check your Spirituality – You are separating from God, His People; you are now giving excuses.
And I know the Prodigal son was saying the same thing: “My Father’s is boring, He wants to control my Destiny.” So he went out!
… There is a Separation, and I hope you are not there!
- Spending:
And from Separation comes the next step – Spending or Squandering.
He used up all that his father gave him. He left home rich.
The father had invested so much into him. He started using what the father had given to him without replenishing what he was spending.
They are the Christians who attend Church – Start from Children Church, you learn so much; start from Youth Church, you learn so much. And you sit in Church and hear all the Sermons. So you are so full.
And then one day, you say, “I’ll just stay at home, I believe I can Worship God with my Whole Hjeart.”
… You are going to squander everything you have learnt over the last Thirty (30) years of your Life.
And yes, you can quote Scriptures. And you can do all the things that you can do, based on what has been invested into you. That’s where this guy (The Prodigal son) is.
I. The first part of Spending is very exciting – That is when you can afford so spend. It is the fun Phase of spending.
Prodigal Living can be very exciting at Phase one.
When you start sinning, Prodigal Living is very fun – Got a good boyfriend, it’s going to be fun. A good girlfriend, it’s going to be fun. You started doing drugs, it’s going to be fun.
That’s the Spending stage!
And everything feels “this is a Good Life! This is what my Father has been denying me.”
These days a lot of Christians raised in the Church, raised in the House of God; who have learned so much from God, somehow feel that they have to start drinking (so they go ahead). And now they are learning wine tastes: “This is from France, and this was cultivated Grapes on a Mountain and this is from that! And now they are smoking cigarettes.
You look at them and you just feel like, “Woow, they have arrived!” But all they do is, they are spending: and when you start spending, you Pay People to be with you.
Phase 1 seems fun – The fun side.
II. But there is a Phase 2 – When the fun wears away and things start Changing.
That is what happened to the Prodigal son – He spent everything, he spent his Relationship with his father, spent the father’s money, spent the father’s inheritance – blew it all.
Spending is going to lead to Scarcity.
- Scarcity:
Scarcity is when you become a Slave to degenerated Life.
Now you are imprisoned, you can’t get out again.
He has finished spending his father’s money.
What the father had given him over a Lifetime is gone in a short Period of time. Now there is Scarcity. Everything is gone!
You know, when you started to do the drugs and you said you were ‘high’. And now you are a drug addict, it’s no longer High, it’s Low!
Your whole Life is miserable. You are twitching, you can’t get your whole Life free: what used to be fun has now imprisoned you.
When you started drinking, you said “Oh, that is nice. That is why Pastor is always Preaching we shouldn’t drink but this is a Good Life! He does not want us to have a Good Life.”
You squandered and squandered; now you are a drunkard.
You took that girl and you thought you could get rid of her, now you are stuck. And she has Pictures of you (Laugher)! She has your Conversations, she has recorded everything on Phone.
Listen, it is a Digital World and anybody who thinks, “I will not leave a footprint” you are joking! You have footprints: and one day accountability will come.
So, here you are, you can’t get rid of the girl, you are stuck. It is no longer fun! Now you are running away, you are hiding. Now you are going for Prayer Meetings, Praying “Oh God, let her die.”
For some People, we treat God as if He is some Machine – He doesn’t have Intelligence. “I have gone to mess up my Life Lord, now kill the girl so my Secret will not come out.”
That’s what David thought he could do: “I have gone to mess up my Life, now I’ll kill Uriah.”
This is a Christian, Born Again – He went astray. Scarcity and he became a Slave.
And if you read how the Bible describes a Slave’s Life; from Luke 15:14 it says: But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that Land, and he began to be in want.
… That means, events conspired against him: he is broke and there is famine.
So, there is a Global Economic crisis but you were already broke before the Global Economic crisis comes. Now, you are in want.
… Sometimes, events can conspire against you.
Luke 15:15-16 says: Then he went and joined himself to a Citizen of that Country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
He spent all, there is famine, he has now gone to join himself to a depraved farmer. His best buddy now is a Pig Farmer.
Your best friend now is a degenerated man! You used to have Good friends; now look at your friends, look at the People you hang around with!
You’ve left your father’s house, now look at your friends – Drug addicts, Drunkards, Womanizers, Gamblers; those are the People you’ve joined with. And you really think you have a Good Life?
For those who say, “I don’t trust Church People” now whom do you trust? Pig Farmers!
Whom do you trust again?
You say: “I know Church is full of hypocrites; these Pastors are all hypocrites”.
But the Pig Farmer is a nice guy! You like the Pig Farmer better.
“The worst of a Child of God is better than the best of Sinners.”
The Church is not Perfect: Church – People make mistakes and they will do things that will hurt you; but the best out there cannot be anywhere near the worst in the Church.
Because if for Nothing, they hear the Word of God every time. And the Holy Spirit convicts them every time. And people would correct them – There will be redemption.
But he joined himself to a Pig Farmer! And the Bible says that he wanted to eat the food of the pigs.
He has moved from eating the best food in his father’s house to eating Pig food.
But the saddest part is that the Passage says, “now no one gave him anything.” They threw him away!
You know, sometimes People who are down would bring you down and mock you. They would say, “you were the ones in those days going to Church; now you see where you are.”
All they want is to testify Negatively about you – You used to make them feel bad, now you are down to their Level.
Don’t ever think that everybody who is trying to encourage your in Life, wants the best for you. Most of them just want Companionship in their sinful Life. They don’t want you to judge them again. They don’t want your Life to condemn them.
You are the only one who says, “My wife, my wife!” They want you to stop doing that! While you say, “Sweetheart, I am going for a meeting, now I am with this Person.” They say, Haaa!
They want you to be a liar like them. They want you to live a Secret Life like them so they will pull you back. And when you hit rock bottom everybody leaves you. “Nobody gave him anything!”
Let me tell you this: “The Christian Life is not a Perfect Life; but it is the Best Life among all the Options available.”
… It is the Best among all the options – It is the Best!
Going to Church is the Best Option you have!
Where are you supposed to go? Which one is better – going to watch football? Where is better?
Where would you go to and have what you hear in Church always? Worshipping, Music, dancing, hearing the Word of God, being encouraged, being guided, being exalted. Where are you going to get that?
You can watch Manchester United and all you want. They would not encourage you. They would not lift you up. Rather they are going to lose their Games and you would be depressed (laughter)!
You would be so depressed and you’ll wonder: why am I watching these People?
You are Paying for your depression! And weeks after weeks, they buy Players, it doesn’t work!
All I am saying is, your Best Life is with God; It is with God’s People in the House of the Lord – In the House of your Father.
“Your Best Life is with God, with God’s People, in God’s House.”
That’s your Best Life! It’s not Perfect, but it is the Best!
And this guy found out that he hit rock bottom.
The Question is, “What is he going to do now that he has hit rock bottom?”
… And next week we are going to find out what to do when you have hit the rock bottom and you have messed up your Life!
What would you do after that? Because there is a way back to the father; and the father still wants you back to Himself.
Let us Pray!
CLOSING PRAYER
Heavenly Father, as we listen to your Word, we are reminded of ourselves that sometimes we can be Selfish, Self Centered, seek our own and never seek You.
Sometimes we can be so bored with Life with You that we want to go on experiment with another Life.
But today Lord, help us to know that Your House is the Best Place to be; Knowing You is the Best thing; staying with Your People is the Best Place.
And keep us Lord, to fix our Hearts on You; fix our Minds on You; to settle on You and desire You more than the things You give to us.
We know you bless us with Good Things, and You fill our mouths with Good Things and You Prosper us.
But help us never to put our eyes on the things You give us; but to always fix our eyes on You – The Giver of everything that we have.
And help us Lord, like the Psalmist, “to dwell in the House of the Lord for ever!”
In Jesus’ Name – Amen and Amen!
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