Undo (Oct 5)

Let's begin by reading the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Luke 15:11-32

11 And 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 falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20 And he arose, and came 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. 21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him. 29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

How many times have you ever done something and wished that you could “undo” it? Or, perhaps, you look back on something that you did or a decision that you made many years ago and wished that you could “undo” that and do something differently or make a different decision. When the younger of the sons decided to “cash out” early and ran off to enjoy his inheritance while he was still young, it probably seemed like a great idea. Even while the parties were still going on, I'm sure if someone had said to him that he had made a bad decision, he would have had a heard time listening to them. When he was sitting in the pig pen wishing he could eat the pigs' food, he probably thought that he had done some really dumb things and wished he could “undo” it all and try again. Sometimes in life, we get second chances. Sometimes we have the opportunity to fix things. Other times, though, we don't have such luck. For example, once you say something, you can't take it back. You can apologize all over the place and people may forgive you, but those words have still been spoken. Some things can be undone, but other things just seem like too big a mess. Things can seem to be beyond hope. If you do your homework in pencil and make a mistake, you can erase it and do it over. If you do it in permanent ink, there's no undoing it.

I recently heard someone say that God is the only one that can undo all of the mess that you've made of your life. You've made some of life's decisions on your own and even though it seemed like what you wanted at the time, down the road you realized that you really messed things up. You did some things for your own benefit and then look around and see that you hurt someone else. You made some other impulse decision that seemed the best at the time without considering all of the ramifications and consequences and now you realize that it was not best. You sit in my class week after week and you sit through church week after week and you get a good idea of what kind of life God has designed for the Christian. Then you look at your life and there are some things that don't line up. There are some things that just aren't right. Maybe you have tried to fix them. You've tried to make things better or different and they just got more messed up. You wish some things in life had a big “undo” button on them and you could just make everything right. You could make everything righteous, pure, and holy...

Wait! That's something that God will do if you'll just quit trying on your own or going your own way and come home. Finally that son realized that he needed to go home to his father. I guess he didn't really think that his father would forgive him completely, but he figured that he was at least merciful enough to let him be a worker and even that was better than the mess that he had made of his life. He underestimated his father. The man saw him coming from afar and ran to meet him and bring him back into the home as his son—right where he belonged. He restored all that was lost and gave him the fullness of what it meant to be a son in that house.

Folks, if you'll just look around you and see the slop that you're in and realize that you just can't please God when you're continuing to live with that bit of rebellion against God in your heart—or that desire to do your own thing—or that person or thing that is more important to you than God—or that evil spot in your heart against another person, and get up and decide to come home, God will be there to meet you with His loving arms stretched out to receive you as His child. He will heal those things that are not right and He will give you a new heart. He will rejoice, because one of His children that was lost is now found.