WHO YOU ONCE WERE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE WHO YOU ARE (2 OF 6)
Scripture: II CORINTHIANS 5:17, LUKE 15:11-24
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Who You Once Were Doesn't Have to Be Who You Are (2 of 6)
Series: God's Design and Desires
Pastor Terry J. Hallock
Luke 15:11-24; 2 Corinthians 5:17
Luke 15 tells the story of someone created in the image of God who trashed that image through a series of childish choices. Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything."
Let's stop the story right there for a minute. Like the Prodigal you too may have squandered your divine inheritance on foolish choices. You too may have pursued the idols of pleasure and sensuality with reckless abandon believing you'd find contentment and fulfillment in them. Yet the high is gone, the good times are over, and you now find yourself so empty of hope you're trying to sustain your threadbare emotional and spiritual existence on the leftovers of life while the cancer of regret eats slowly away at what little of your spirit remains.
But the Prodigal's story may not be your story at all because you've never done one wild or reckless thing in your life. In fact, you've been the model of social decency and moral decorum. Yet, like the Prodigal, your spirit and soul are still starving to death, not because of what you've done but because of what you haven't done. All your life you've been told you would never amount to anything so you've never done anything. "You were born in the wrong circumstances to have any value" say the voices around you and so you've settl ...
Series: God's Design and Desires
Pastor Terry J. Hallock
Luke 15:11-24; 2 Corinthians 5:17
Luke 15 tells the story of someone created in the image of God who trashed that image through a series of childish choices. Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything."
Let's stop the story right there for a minute. Like the Prodigal you too may have squandered your divine inheritance on foolish choices. You too may have pursued the idols of pleasure and sensuality with reckless abandon believing you'd find contentment and fulfillment in them. Yet the high is gone, the good times are over, and you now find yourself so empty of hope you're trying to sustain your threadbare emotional and spiritual existence on the leftovers of life while the cancer of regret eats slowly away at what little of your spirit remains.
But the Prodigal's story may not be your story at all because you've never done one wild or reckless thing in your life. In fact, you've been the model of social decency and moral decorum. Yet, like the Prodigal, your spirit and soul are still starving to death, not because of what you've done but because of what you haven't done. All your life you've been told you would never amount to anything so you've never done anything. "You were born in the wrong circumstances to have any value" say the voices around you and so you've settl ...
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