Why a Prodigal: From God’s Perspective, episode 75 (rebroadcast)

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right

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here at When You Love a Prodigal, and also help and hope for your own life journey.

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Today is part two of why a prodigal, why did my child, my loved one, my friend, my spouse

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become a prodigal?

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From God's perspective, we're going to get some ideas.

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Last week, we talked about many realities that can contribute to a child, a dean, a young

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adult, even you or me, heading down a prodigal path, making destructive choices for our lives.

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As a child growing up, I always wanted my own way.

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My parents, my sisters, my friends all experienced the fallout of that if I did not get my own

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way.

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From the day I was born, I wanted my own way.

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I've been told that getting my own way pretty much determined the peace and happiness in

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our home.

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As a teenager, getting my own way included secretly seeing a forbidden boyfriend for

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most of a year and a few other things.

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Do you identify?

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Don't most of us want our own way?

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Why?

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Why do we want our own way?

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It started in the garden.

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Our God, the Creator, placed the first humans in a lush garden with all the provisions they

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would need, beauty all around, amazing creatures to enjoy, meaningful work to do, each other

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for delightful companionship, and freedom to live their own lives.

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He had just one requirement, don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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The serpent, who had led a rebellion against God, saw his chance to inflict great harm

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on the Creator.

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With clever craftiness, the devil suggested to Adam and Eve that God's prohibition was

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just meant to keep something good from them.

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They took the bait.

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Why shouldn't they have the knowledge of good and evil?

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Why would God deny them that?

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And ever since, we the people have been demanding our own way.

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We are rebellious in our hearts.

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Rebellion is basically opposition to authority.

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It always begins in the heart.

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Rebellion against God's authority was humanity's first sin as described in Genesis 3, and it

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continues to be our downfall.

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Our sinful natures do not want to bow to the authority of another, even God.

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We want to be our own bosses, and that rebellion in the human heart is the root of all sin

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as we learn in Romans 3, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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So we see that the root of rebellion is the true cause of prodigal waywardness.

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Now stop and think about that.

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All the things we talked about last week are true, and they contribute.

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But at the bottom, at the very root, is this innate nature in us that wants our own way.

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And it is no surprise that as we approach the return of our Lord, the battle for our

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hearts has intensified.

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My friend Tammy Winkleman, who has a prayer for Prodigal 7 ministry and Facebook page,

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sent me these thoughts when I asked, what are some things that are causing all the people

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going astray?

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She says, 1 Timothy 4-1 tells why this is happening.

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Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving

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heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

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In the King James version, it says seducing spirits, so deceiving and seducing spirits.

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And they're busy making sure that they get hold of as many as they can.

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Tammy goes on, I believe the God of this age, of the world that we live in, blinds especially

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young people, in the way he did in the Garden of Eden as he tricked Eve and Adam.

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He convinces them through lies mixed with just enough truth to make it believable.

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Second Corinthians 4 tells us about this.

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Satan tried it on the Son of God, you know.

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Didn't work there.

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Jesus didn't fall for it.

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But he does the same to all of us, the children of God.

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And here's something we know is true.

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The enemy is a liar.

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And our prodigals often believe those lies.

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Sometimes we do too.

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Here's some of the common lies, Tammy says, that she has heard people attribute in a sense.

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The lie that God never did anything for them.

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When the Lord doesn't answer the prayers that they want, when they want, they think, see,

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he's not going to do anything for me.

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The enemy is telling them that lie.

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Or the lie that God will do things for others.

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Look at the great life they have, but not for them.

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Or the very common lie, a little bit won't hurt.

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You could do this just a little, but that's the first step.

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And it often leads to a bigger step and much damage.

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Or then they might say, I deserve this.

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They have this.

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My friends are getting to do this.

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I deserve it too.

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Oh, there's even a lie that's very common for Satan.

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And that's that there is no God.

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That's just your imagination.

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That's something you've been taught.

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Or that if there is a God, he's certainly not the good God that you've been told about.

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See we have this enemy who's just saying lies to us all the time.

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In the natural, an enemy prays on the young and the weak.

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In the spiritual, Satan does the same thing.

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When you give a little place to the devil, when you accept a little bit of a lie, then

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it's a lot easier for him to come back with a bigger lie and a bigger challenge that you'll

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fall for.

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Slowly, he moves in, takes over and bit by bit, he's built a stronghold around your life,

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where he can control you.

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You thought you were getting away from control, you could say.

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So the enemy is doing his best to be in control.

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So we see how many of our loved ones reared in loving homes and with the knowledge of

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God's love and of salvation through Christ's death and the gift of life, great abundant

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life as well as eternal life, they can still fall prey to the evil one.

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But let's stop a minute and be honest, it can happen to us too.

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We also like our own way.

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In reality, we are all prodigals.

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Okay, I must say that again.

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We are all prodigals.

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In fact, we're told in Isaiah 53, we all, every single one of us like sheep, have gone

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astray.

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Each of us has turned to our own way.

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There are those words right there, our own way.

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And the Lord has laid on him Jesus, the iniquity of us all to pay the price for our choosing

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our own way.

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Let me tell you some of my story.

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Maybe it's similar to you.

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I told you I always wanted my own way.

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When I met Jesus, it's like I signed a contract with him, at least in my mind.

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Jesus said on that night many years ago to me, if you say yes to me, I will forgive your

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sins and show you my better way for your life.

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My response, you have a better way for my life than I do.

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He said yes.

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And so I said I choose your way.

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And I thought it was settled.

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From now on, it would be God's way, not mine.

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Until the next morning, when things did not go my way, I resisted and my new Lord whispered,

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Judy, my way is better.

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Jesus stepped into my life to set me free from my own way.

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He plucked me out of a wrong crowd of friends.

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He grew love in my heart for my sister that I always fought with.

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He helped me to be more obedient to my parents.

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He put compassion in my heart and changed me in a lot of other ways.

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That was the beginning of understanding what a prodigal I was, even though I didn't even

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know that word yet.

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And I was just beginning to understand that my demanding my way had a lot to do with Jesus

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dying on the cross.

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Who knew?

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Jesus died on the cross because I demanded my own way.

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The Lord loved me so deeply that He was willing to pay the price for my rebellion and wanting

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my own way to set me free from my prodigalness.

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I am so grateful.

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But I am still a prodigal.

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God did wonderful work in my life to show me how to love unconditionally, to give mercy,

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to extend amazing grace, to never give up, to pray without ceasing for this Son He had

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sent me.

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Because you see, that's where I learned how prodigal I was and how much God could do to

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bring healing.

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One of my son's greatest gifts to me, and there were many, was to open my eyes to the

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many ways I was still a prodigal.

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No, my sins, my choosing my own way, were not so public or so grievous or so bad to

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anyone watching.

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I could hide it pretty well.

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Or even to me.

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I wasn't doing the bad things.

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But I could recognize the complaining, the judging, the whining as the same old thing,

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wanting my own way.

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Yet living day after day in the flooding love of God for our Son, immersed in His mercy,

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astonished at His grace, my eyes and my heart and my mind increasingly comprehended my own

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prodigalness and that, though more polite than my sons, it was still in affront to God's

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holiness, His perfection and His sacrifice for me.

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And now, I know I won't outgrow my prodigalness until I see Jesus face to face, but I bow

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in gratitude that He keeps working, gently loosening my grip on my way, whispering reminders

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to let go.

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Trust me, Judy, rest in my grace.

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Believe that your love will not fail and to believe that you have a better way than I

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do.

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I'm getting there.

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How about you?

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Do you understand first that this is a spiritual battle and that, though your son might not

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be as bad or destructive as your loved ones, you are also a prodigal, that in many ways

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you are probably demanding your own way?

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Can you open your hands and your heart to choose God's way day by day, even moment by

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moment?

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If you can, you may be surprised.

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Not only will you find new freedom and peace and joy in your life, but your prodigal will

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be watching and they may make the same decision.

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No, his or her choices are not your fault, but your choices may help that wanderer choose

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a better path.

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Next week, we will look at the realities of the spiritual battle that's going on all around

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us and the impact that that has on your prodigal as well as on you.

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God bless you.