10-30-2021 West Palm Beach 7th Day BAPTIST Pastor Garfield “The Time Is Now-Decide Charting Your Journey” Luke 15;11-24

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10-30-2021 West Palm Beach 7^th Day BAPTIST Pastor Garfield “The Time Is Now-Decide Charting Your Journey” Luke 15;11-24

 

When this service is ended, each of us must make a decision. We must decide whether the gospel is true. We were created by God or did we create ourselves. We must decide whether we want better for ourselves. We must decide if this is an experience worth repeating. Brothers and sisters, the time is now. Decide charting your journey.

Many times when we get up in the morning, we have many decisions to make. Have eggs or cereal? Marry them or not? In between that we make decisions about college, children, job and so on. To decide means to come to a conclusion about what you believe in. Resolution in your mind about a particular matter. Let us decide right now what we believe in as it is related to God. Charting your journey means you map out how you move, navigate moving from one place to another. In charting your course there is an issue of time that we keep in consideration. Make your decision. Your journey can be locational, relational or educational or financial or medical or social or spiritual. Your journey is about you not being satisfied with where you are. You are taking steps for your life to be different.

There are steps we need to take and a relational journey we need to go on as well as an educational journey. Are you sometimes feeling miserable or feeling unaccomplished sometimes? Do you feel dissatisfied sometimes when you think about your life? Brothers and sisters if you are thinking yes about any of these then I am inviting you to pack your bags and come with me because we are going on a journey. Brothers and sisters I want to say that having investigated this man Jesus Christ, having studied and lived close with Jesus, I want to say to you like the woman at the well said “Come and see a man who told me all things”. Come and see a man who you need to take with you on whatever journey you are going. The time is now.

Our text is in the Book of Luke which was written to one individual, Theopulus; but it was written for all of us to read and believe. The text in chapter 15 is about the parable of a lost son. When you think about your journey, there are some things that are critical for us to consider. Whether your journey is spiritual, whether your journey is educational. Whether your journey is financial and all the other “als” you can think about. Now brothers and sisters, when you think about your lives, many of us only think about death when we go to funerals. Are you really satisfied with where you are? We all can move toward the best life possible if we just follow the advice that we obtain from Luke in chapter 15. In charting your journey there are three things that I want to leave with you.

1.     Understand Your Starting Point:   If you are going to build something, your starting point is the raw material. If you are going to bake a cake, your starting point is the flour and eggs. If you are going to get more education, you starting point is the education that you already have.

2.     Be Clear About Your Destination:  Be clear about what you want to accomplish. Be clear about where you want to end up. There is no way you can have a destination to be a happily married man but you have 2 or 3 women. There is no way your destination to have good, healthy and productive children but you spend all your time at work and at play. There is no way you can want to be a successful student if your best friend is Netflix with TikTok being the 2^nd best friend. I’m not saying Netflix or TikTok is bad but there needs to be an understanding about where you want to be and you must have a plan that you do not betray.

In 1999 I decided I wanted a happy marriage. A part of that was having to go to church with my wife. I could have not gone to church but I am sure I would have been somebody else’s husband now. So you need to decide whether the wife you have or the husband you have, the education you have or the children you have, if that’s what you want. And if indeed it is what you want then you should act like it. If you want to be blessed by God, if you want to go to Heaven, if you want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ then indeed I am saying act like it! 

3.     Make A Plan For The Journey:  In our text this man said to his father that he was leaving him and wanted all that he had for him even though the father was not dead yet. Pretend you are dead and give me the money. The Bible didn’t put it that way but the father gave him his inheritance and the son went off. The Bible says he lived a riotous life. For those of you who don’t understand, he would spend his time in clubs, in bars and other place not best for him or us. The Bible says he also had friends and when the money was done, they all deserted him. He went to go live with some people and worked on their farm. The Bible says one day he was so hungry that he thought about eating the food of the pigs. Something must be wrong if you think about eating the food that is meant for pigs. The point is that he was living less than what God brought you on this earth to live. The text says that the son came to himself. Coming to yourself is reaching the point where you say “no man, something is wrong”. Others may have been telling you that you are going the wrong way but now you see it for yourself. In verse 17 he came to himself and thought about his father’s hired servants having food while here he is starving, perishing with hunger.

Have you ever thought that if you have a better relationship with your wife, a better relationship with your children, a better relationship your colleagues at work, then your life would be better off. You know something, have you ever thought about a relationship with God and how your life could be better off? I guarantee you this that if you accept Jesus Christ today, there is no guarantee you will be rich, no guarantee you change your car from a jalopy to a Benz, but I promise you that you will come into a peace of God that surpasses all understanding. I promise you that you will have the type of life that when you look in the mirror, you will like and enjoy what you see. You will understand that you were made by God and are in the likeness and image of God. The Son understood where he was, he was hungry. I want to remind you that from a spiritual perspective, many of us are hungry. The One who is the Bread of Life is Jesus. When you consume Him, you will never be hungry or thirsty again. Jesus told the woman at the well to draw from His well that will never run dry. Brothers and sisters, as you think about your starting point, are you comfortable with where you are? Are you comfortable with your wife, husband, children, education and bank account? It is time for a journey.

Being clear about his destination, the son said he would go back to his father. Some of us have fathers we need to mend our relationship with. One of those fathers is God Himself. Many of us need to get up from where we are, go to our maker and spend more time with God. After all, everything that you have was given to you by God. Even your actual breath was given to you by God. When you think about your destination, where you are and where you want to be, here are some questions. What are the benefits of the new place that you want to be? I want to be with my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I want Revelation 21 to be a reality and there is no more death or pain or sorrow for the former things are passed away and behold all things are new. Once I became a Christian, I had peace and contentment. When you accept Jesus Christ, you will get strong and be able to live and work as God intends for you to do.

I believe the destination God has planned for you is to live with Him. While we are waiting on that, we have earthly destinations that we must navigate. Husbands, one of your destinations is to please your wives. The way to do this is to be with her in church and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Children, to reach your destination of being your best self, put down that cell phone and spend more time with your academics. Children, one of your destinations is to honor your mother and father. Another question to ask yourself is why do you want a specific destination? Some of you want to better yourselves to help your family. Some want to better yourselves because your car needs repairs. Some of you have other motives and that’s okay as long as it does not take you away from what God wants you to be. Then there is a problem. Another question to ask is are there anymore alternatives or options? This son who is now thinking about his wretched ways, could have said he was going to his friend’s house. Or he could have said he was going to stay and eat from the pigs. Bad options but he had options. And he decided to go home to his father.

In verse 18 the son said he would arise and go to his father. He is making a plan. You can’t reach anywhere if you sit down on the couch doing the same thing. You cannot reach anywhere if your mindset had not changed on who you are. The text did not talk about the journey when he walked to his father. The journey the text speaks about is the relational journey. Maybe your journey is not so much about becoming anything. Maybe it is about un-becoming everything that is not really you. This is so you can become who you were meant to be in the first place. As the son walked home, he had to have humility and be thinking about dependency and forgiveness.

The text focuses on the idea of being transformed mentally where you humble yourselves and allow God to have His way. This is one of our biggest problems as individuals because some of us think we know everything and somehow we know nothing. And some of you could not care less. You must have a good attitude, have respect for others, have forgiveness, be able to reach out and have a genuine heart of love. Explore your purpose of life. Learn more about Jesus, believe that Jesus can save, surrender your life to Him and join with Jesus and other likeminded people. Brothers and sisters it is time for you to decide. If God is God, then serve Him. The ultimate decision is about that relationship with God. The time is now and we must decide. Begin to plan a course, a journey that you need to take. 

AMEN