HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

I will love to talk firstly about the younger son. As we continue from yesterday my brothers and sisters I want you to pay close attention to the word as I try to unfold this story. Many of you have read this portion of scripture over and over, but this morning let us look at it in another light.

The younger son trades in his relationship with his father and his brother for the chance of freedom. He should only have received his share of the father’s wealth when his dad died. But he wants the money more than he wants his dad and so he dares to tell him in effect: “I really can’t see myself waiting for any longer for my money, Dad” / “I wish you were already dead so that I could have your money Dad”.

So when his surely broken-hearted father coughs up the inheritance in advance … the young man gathers his goods and chattels together and heads off to a distant country and blows it all in what is called wild living. The KJV says he “wasted his substance in riotous living.” He had a rip-roaring party is what he did. He parties like a “rock-star”. He had all the magnetic friends coming for a taste of free living.

He is self-centred … he is foolish … he is irresponsible … he is a sinner, for sure. But he is also so much like us, isn’t he? Maybe more so than we wish to admit. Oh, how we sometimes get swell-headed over a little tax return, thinking we have it all. But where is God in all this fanfare? Sinners just like the younger son.

Don’t we sometimes love the good gifts of God more than we love the God who gives them? Don’t we sometimes want our pleasures now, unwilling to wait for God’s timing? Don’t we sometimes use the resources and abilities God gives us in ways that are not pleasing to God? Don’t we sometimes trade in our relationships with others? How many families aren’t unnecessarily broken and bleeding because Dad’s career was more important than the family … or because Mom spent more time at church activities than with her children … or because I cannot forgive you for what you said to me five years ago? Precious relationships traded in because our careers or interests or pride is more important to us than those relationships which should be most precious of all? It is your time to look into your life and see what the scripture is teaching this morning. What will you give up in exchange for some worldly friendship?

I guess there may just be some of that younger son in all of us after all. God bless.