ARE YOU A PRODIGAL

This message is for those who lost their way after coming to Christ.  It’s important for us that you find your way back because He is the source of Life. You need to get back to that peace and strength of God. Understand that there is nothing that you can or can not do to make God love you more or less. You must come like you are.

God didn’t leave you, you left God. But He is still there where you left Him; you can return to His loving arms. All it takes is that you have to make a choice.

• Walking with God is knowing things in life will still happen, but you have the ability to handle it.
• You will not be tempted above what you can handle

Let us look at the heart of God:

• GALATIANS 5: 17 “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever^[a]you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
• This scripture makes it clear that there is a battle we are in between Spirit and flesh.
• A part of us wants to react to the flesh, and another part of us wants to do the right things in the Spirit.
• You are not good enough, you are not a failure. It is your flesh battling you when you do what you do. Still, you have a choice to make. Will you listen to the flesh and it’s desires or the Spirit?

These days we find that the churches look too much like the world, and no wonder God’s children go astray. It is vitally important to be part of an on fire Christian community/family in order for us to stand strong in this world. A Sheep on his own is an easy target. Family can help and protect each other in Christ.

• MATTHEW 11: 28 – 29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
• While we need other important things such as food, clothes, work, and growth opportunities, God first wants to give you something supernatural that you can’t get from the other things and this world. First He wants to restore you from within, and from there it will have a ripple effect to the outside and more visible parts of your life.
• God wants you to REACT and come to Him. Give your burdens to Him, He wants to give you rest in Him.
• LUKE  15: 11 – 32 The Parable of the Lost Son

• Within this parable, we see that the son went his own way with the goodness of his father’s blessings. Like we all have done. Yet in the end he ended up knowing his only answer to life now is to humbly return to his father.
• Like the son, we need to get to the end of ourselves.
• The biggest part of this life-changing possibility is when you change your mind.
• Like the father in the parable, God is waiting to meet on our return to Him.

God doesn’t want to punish us or is bitter towards us. His heart is only loving. He sees that the trouble that we went through that brought us back to Him is already a punishment of its own. God just wants to clean you up and start taking care of you again in the way He knows is good for you, but you need to return to Him.