3-26-2022 West Palm Beach 7th Day BAPTIST Minister Jennifer D. “Inventory In The Pig Pen” Luke 15;11-24, Matthew 6;33, Ephesians 2;3, John 6;35

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3-26-2022 West Palm Beach 7^th Day BAPTIST Minister Jennifer D. “Inventory In The Pig Pen” Luke 15;11-24, Matthew 6;33, Ephesians 2;3, John 6;35

 

 

We should always give God thanks in anticipation of what He is going to do for us. God is always going to make a way. The pig pen is where you are right now at this point in your life. A pig pen is the place where they keep the pigs, feed the pigs and where the pigs wallow in the mud. For each of us we are at different points in our lives. We are all on a journey and are at different points and our pig pen is where we really don’t want to be. So we have to do something to get out of the pig pen.

The word “inventory” is something business people are familiar with. A business whether big or small, has to always do inventory. They have to know where everything is and the amount of all they have. It is something they have to do because if you don’t know what you have, you cannot move forward. Self-reflection is a self-inventory of your accomplishments in the day or the week. We are on a journey in life and we must reflect on it. From the day you were born you started that journey. That journey goes on until the day they put you six feet under. While we are on this journey we have to take our self-inventory. We reflect on our accomplishments, where we are going and at what point we are at as we move along in this journey. Sometimes we have to make changes on the journey. Sometimes we are going along and we think everything is fine. Then we sit down and make a self-reflection. Say this doesn’t look right and we need to do some changes. We then can move on to build whatever we discover in the process. You can’t build until you take inventory. The scripture tell us that you don’t start building a house until you know how much money you have. Take inventory first.    

In our text there are three things that come out to us about this younger son.

1.     This Young Man Thought Only of Goods Instead of God:  This younger son thought on all the goods/wealth his father had. He took mental pictures many times of how many sheep, camel and goats his father had. He figured out how much he would get because his father only had two kids. He decided he wanted his money now and came up with a plan to go to his father to get his share of the estate. The father decided to honor his younger son’s request and gave him the money. The son then goes off into a far country with the money. Why did the son go off into a far country? He didn’t want his father to see what he was planning to do. Now as a young man he is going to live it up because at home there were rules and regulations. His father was a godly man and his sons had to go to church and do things the right way. Now in a far country, the young man is saying “yeah freedom, here I come”. He had a good time with the money and lots of friends. When you have money you always have lots of friends to have a good time with. The son was focused on the goods/money and not God. 

Jesus says in Matthew 6;33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things will be added unto you.”  When we do our self-reflections / inventory, we must not think we need goods over the Lord God. The Lord has a prescription for a good life. He said seek me first, come to me, work with me, serve me and do what I require. When you do that, the Lord will give you everything you need and want. The great car, the great job and etc. because you are following His, God’s guidance. We don’t need to know how the Lord is going to do it; we don’t need to know that. We only need to know that following God’s prescription will have God putting everything into place. We will be able to give testimony that we sought the Lord first. Then we did what He required of us and served Him. And He just brought everything into place for us.

 

2.     The Son Was Only Thinking of His Flesh:   He was thinking “man I’m going to have a party”. He wasn’t thinking of his future but was thinking of right now satisfaction and what he could do for himself. He wanted to do things that would make him happy because at home he had to do what they told him to do and follow rules. When the son went to this far country to do his own thing, he squandered his money. We all know what happens when you don’t have any money. You don’t have any friends. They all disappear, he was left alone by himself.

Any time we do our self-reflection, the natural thing is to follow it up with action. The son’s action was surrounding self; the I, the me and about the material things. Easy come, easy go. He wasted his wealth with unrighteous living in the far country. He wanted to get far from his father’s control. That was his problem, he thought his dad was controlling him. Sometimes when we do that self-reflection, we feel that way too. The Holy Spirit is talking to us and the Lord is trying to guide us. But then we figure, Nah that is a boring life, I don’t want to do that. I want to do my own thing and take my own life in control. The son’s flesh took over and too often we listen to the flesh instead of God. In Ephesians 2;3 it says all of us have followed the desires of the flesh. When we do this, we are going to have problems and be deserving of the wrath of God.

 

3.     Verse 17- In The Pig Pen the Son Faces the Facts:   The son thinks of how his father’s servants have food to spare and he is starving to death. Sometimes we find ourselves in the pig pen and we wonder how we got there.  Remember the pig pen is really where you don’t want to be. The pig pen is where you are lonely and with no friends. The pig pen is where all the problems come down on you. Here is where he comes to his senses and realized he was on the wrong path. When you hit the pig pen, that’s when you realize you are going in the wrong direction and reality sets in. The son decided to go home and ask his father for forgiveness. If his father didn’t want him as a son, then he would be a servant because anything was better than the pig pen.   

The questions for us today are have you been looking in the wrong place for joy and peace? Do you feel empty and hungry? Do you feel something is missing but you can’t quite put your hand on it? Are you pretending to be happy because you can’t face the facts of your life? Take a lesson from this young man’s life and have an inventory time in the pig pen. The son went to his father and while he was still a long way off, the father ran to him and threw his arms around him. The son knew that if he went home his father would forgive him. Now we are here transposing the earthly father to our Heavenly Father, the Lord God Almighty. If you have wandered away from the Father and now you are in the pig pen, you can do like the son did and go back home. Our Heavenly Father is just waiting for us to come back and He will throw His arms around us and forgive us. You can build back your relationship with your Heavenly Father. In John 6;35 Jesus said “I am the Bread of Life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst”.

 

AMEN