8. THE UNRELENTING SWORD

8. THE UNRELENTING SWORD

2 Samuel 18:31-33

PRINCIPALS FROM THE PRODIGAL (Luke 15:11-32)

1. We can ask inappropriately of God in areas of both matters of time and motive. God is the Father, and we are His children; and often the prodigal. Something will be ours, but it’s just not the right time to receive it. Sometimes, God wants to give us things, but we have the wrong motive for asking.

2. God can sometimes give us what we demand even though it is not in our best interest. There is one of two responses that we are going to get if it is something that is not in our best interest.

A. James 4:3 – no.

B. Psalm 81:10-12 – yes - with the wrong motive on your end.

3. We are often tempted to turn our backs on how God has raised us in favor of that which seems new and liberated. That is exactly what the prodigal did (Isaiah 1:2).

4. The same lack of wisdom that causes us to ask inappropriately can also cause us to act in appropriately.

Luke 15:13 – the word “wild” in the Greek means “prodigal.” The antonym means sound mind, moderately, and self-control. The prodigal became the opposite of everything that was self-control, restrained, and everything that was thinking with a sound mind.

Proverbs 25:28 – this verse tells us that the prodigal is about to get in trouble. He has allowed himself to be given over to wild living. The wall was for fortification, and when you cause part of the wall to be broken down; you allow the enemy to come pounding in those chariots within those city walls. The enemy cannot get inside, but he can play havoc all around our lives.

5. Having everything we crave could ultimately usher us into emptiness (Luke 15:14). If we were to get everything we asked of God, everything we craved in the entire world, we would be so empty. There fell a famine on the land and the prodigal ended up completely empty.

Psalm 106:15 – God says “If you wait, I have something better.” God teaches us to be very careful in what we are asking for. God’s “no” is to get us to another “yes.”

6. We must never confuse lack of discipline for liberation. It never equals liberation. When we are given over to a lack of self-control; it is when we are overtaken by the bondage of the very thing that we thought would set us free.

Psalm 119:45, 32 – We are completely free walking in God’s precepts, or His commands. Freedom is in the lines, or restraints of God’s Word.

7. Sometimes we are not willing to look higher until we can get much lower.

Luke 15:15-16 – this is the low.

2 Samuel 14:13-14 – God says “When you leave me; when you become the prodigal, I want you to know something that you can count on – I am going to devise plans to bring you back. Sometimes He will allow us to go to the absolute lowest to get us to look up, and bring us home. God is obligated by His great love for us. If we refuse, He will allow us to get to the point of the very lowest degree to bring us home.

8. We must return to God with responsibility and humility. He came back taking responsibility for his sin.

Luke 15:21 – the son said to his father “Take me back as a servant; let me live in the fortress of your safety, in the shadow of your wing – that is humility.

9. We must waste no time when we are compelled to return. When we first begin receiving the draw of the Holy Spirit, and we know we can’t get any lower; when we first begin to have open eyes to the call back home, we must waste no time; pick up and move quickly. If we linger the enemy is waiting right there for us.

2 Peter 2:17-19 – we are never more vulnerable than the time that we are first trying to escape from the enemy’s clutches. That is when we need to get to the safety of other believers as quickly as we can, under the umbrella of God.

10. God the Father never stops watching for His wandering child to come home.

Luke 15:20 – To see in the Greek also means to know. Several times in the Old Testament, God is described as walking (Genesis 3:8; Deuteronomy). In the book of Revelation, Christ walks among the lampstands. The only time God is ever portrayed as running, is when He runs to meet the prodigal who has glanced His way back home. This is mercy in action!

11. We cannot begin to estimate our value to God

Luke 15:22-24 – God would have no part of that servant business; you are my son and have come home.

1 Peter 2:4 – we are precious to Him. God yearns for the prodigal to come home; He yearns for the heart of His child.