00:00Hello everyone, it's a blessing to be here with you all. My name is William Chambers.
00:03Today we get to look in the Word and I am excited. Let us dive in.
00:08If I had a title for today's message, I would call it
00:11The Hog Pen That Changed Everything.
00:16Oh goodness. Each and every one of us, every person has a hog pen moment.
00:26A moment where reality breaks through your pride.
00:31A moment where you can see clearly what you have messed up and you can see clearly that you're going
00:36in the wrong direction.
00:39Sometimes it happens after a financial collapse, after a broken relationship, after addiction, loneliness, a divorce, or a type of
00:47failure.
00:48Today we're going to look at the prodigal son story.
00:51The prodigal son discovered that the far country that he ran off to took him further than he expected,
01:01costed him more than he expected, and left him emptier than he ever expected.
01:08However, the same road that led away from the father became the road back home to the father.
01:16Let me give a little background and then we'll read.
01:18We're talking about the prodigal son story.
01:20A little background on this story.
01:22There was a son that asked his father for his inheritance early because he wanted to go to a faraway
01:29country.
01:29He wanted basically to live apart from the authority of his father.
01:34So he went there and he spent absolutely everything he had.
01:38And he became poor and he went to go eat with the pigs because that's all the food that he
01:45could find.
01:46But he came to himself.
01:48And if we're going to read about him coming to himself, the Bible says,
01:51And when he came to himself, he said,
01:53How many higher servants of my father have bread enough and to spare?
01:58And I perish with hunger.
02:00I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him,
02:04Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee.
02:08This prodigal son is eating in the hog pen.
02:12And he comes to an awakening experience.
02:16The Bible says he came unto himself.
02:20This prodigal had lost clarity due to his life of sin.
02:25Sin has a way of separating us from reality.
02:29Have you ever been separated from reality due to what you were doing?
02:32You've seen things just distorted.
02:34Oh, Lord, help us.
02:36Before his rebellion, he could think clearly.
02:38But pride, lust, independence, self-will all have a way of clouding our judgment.
02:49I am a victim of having cloudy judgment.
02:52Praise be unto God.
02:53Rebellion had carried him away from who he truly was.
02:58Have you ever committed some sin?
03:00And then you came to yourself and you was like,
03:03What in the world did I do that for?
03:06Well, that's what this prodigal son, he was carried away from who he truly was.
03:12Sometimes God has to allow us to enter into the hog pen, to eat with the hogs.
03:19Sometimes God allows every false support to collapse.
03:23All his pleasure was gone.
03:25All his money was gone.
03:27All his friends was gone.
03:29Every false support was gone.
03:31So he could finally see clearly.
03:34He could finally do a reality check and have clarity on who the father actually was.
03:43The prodigal son did an assessment.
03:45He said,
03:46How many higher servants of my father have bread enough to spare?
03:51He could find his mind.
03:53He came to himself and he could do an assessment now.
03:55He now could compare the father's goodness with the misery that he had experienced in the far country.
04:02They just took him for everything he had and left him in a hog pen.
04:06Ah, he said that even the lowest servants are living better than I was living in rebellion.
04:14I'm in the rebellion.
04:15Look at me.
04:16Ah, but in the father's house.
04:18Oh, you ought to stay next to the father.
04:21Ah, help us today, God.
04:23I don't want to go off into sin because there's misery in sin.
04:26Distance from the father brought problems and unnecessary suffering.
04:31Have you ever experienced some unnecessary suffering because you were distant from the father?
04:37You were off in some stuff you shouldn't have been in.
04:40You left the father.
04:41Now you're suffering.
04:42Mmm, that's what this prodigal son did.
04:45Rebellion had once made his life seem restrictive and undesirable.
04:50I don't want to live this life.
04:52I want to go into rebellion because this life is just too undesirable.
04:56There's too many rules.
04:57I want to do whatever I want to do.
04:59But after the prodigal son has suffered, now he sees the value of the father.
05:05Mmm, you ought to thank God for your hog pen.
05:08I can see the value of the father because I was off in the hog pen.
05:13Oh, I was suffering and it was miserable in the hog pen of sin.
05:17But in that, thank God for your hog pen because it showed you the value.
05:22Now I see the value of the father.
05:24There is abundance with the father.
05:26There is a lot of pleasure and joy with the father compared to this hog pen experience that I'm experiencing.
05:33Now this prodigal son, he has a clear mind and he can make a clear decision.
05:40He says, I will arise and go to the father.
05:44Men and women of God and men and women that are not of God.
05:48Let's get up out of sin and go unto the father.
05:52The word arise means I'm leaving this place of defeat.
05:57This is a place of defeat and misery.
06:00This is a place of suffering.
06:02Oh, it was so much better when I was in communion with God.
06:07I'm leaving this place of defeat.
06:09So he got up from the place where sin had left him.
06:13Oh, Lord.
06:15Oh, thank God for your hog pen.
06:17Thank God for God giving me because it's at the hog pen that you come to yourself and say, I
06:23got to get up from this place.
06:24I got to get out of this situation.
06:27This situation ain't for me.
06:28It's better with the father.
06:30He got up from the place where sin had left him.
06:34Sin had left him empty.
06:36Sin had left him confused.
06:38Sin had left him in a miserable situation.
06:40But he said, I'm getting up from this place.
06:43He didn't stay there.
06:44Oh, restoration begins when a person stops delaying.
06:49Stop delaying and start moving towards the father.
06:52Get out of that situation.
06:53Start moving towards the father.
06:55The father is good.
06:56No matter how far you've fallen, you haven't fallen too far.
07:00Get back on the road.
07:02Every step that you take is a step away from destruction.
07:06I'm stepping away from destruction.
07:08Oh, I'm trying to stay.
07:08And when you get to the father's house, stay there.
07:12There ain't nothing in these streets for you.
07:15There's nothing out there for you.
07:17Oh, stay in the safe spot.
07:20Stay in the hedge.
07:22Oh, Lord, help.
07:23Quit going out clubbing and hanging out and sipping and tipping and away from your wife.
07:30No, no, no, no.
07:31Stay where the safety is.
07:33Oh, stay in the house of God.
07:35Stay where the pastor's at.
07:37Oh, Lord, help us.
07:39Stay in the house of God.
07:40Due to the hog pen, this prodigal son made a decision.
07:44I'm going to stop sitting in failure and I'm going to stand up in faith and go in the direction
07:51of the father.
07:52I'm going a different direction.
07:54See, his situation hasn't changed yet.
07:57But his heart and his mind had already changed.
08:00Oh, Lord, my heart, once my heart and my mind changed, then my situation will follow after.
08:07I'm going to make moves towards God.
08:10I pray that we would all make moves towards God.
08:14Even after everything this prodigal had done, he had spent everything the father had gave him.
08:20He had disrespected the father, saying, I want to leave before you die.
08:24Give me my inheritance.
08:25Give me my stuff.
08:26He had disrespected the father, left and spent everything.
08:29But the father was still reachable.
08:33No matter how far you go, the father is still reachable.
08:40Oh, help us, God.
08:42You ought to thank God for your hog pen experience because your hog pen experience has the ability to change
08:49everything.
08:50God wants to use that hog pen to get you in your right mind.
08:55That hog pen, that misery is just some suffering to get you in your right mind so you make your
09:01steps back to the father.
09:03Help us, God.
09:04He's not too far away.
09:05No matter what you've done, help us, oh, God, to come near unto you.
09:08In Jesus name, we pray and say amen.
09:16Amen.
