I remember as a child consistently
being poked or pinched during the song service so that I would
actually sing out loud. And how things have changed when
I sit there and I have to remind myself when someone plays like
that saying, don't sing out loud, don't sing out loud. It just
means something different. If you would open your Bibles
to Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12. I just want to read the first
two verses of Hebrews chapter 12. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. The title of my message comes
from the end of verse one, a short phrase that says, let us run.
Let us run. This word run here can also mean
walk hastily, to move. It's not always just about the
speed, but it's a little more focused on the desire and the
direction. Now all of us are running. We're all going somewhere. We
all have a direction in which we're headed. We all have desires. We're all running somewhere,
and sometimes we know where we're going. Sometimes we think we
know where we're going, but oftentimes we have no idea where we're going.
Actually, what we do normally is we tend to run in the very
wrong direction. We run the wrong way and toward
the wrong things. In Isaiah it says, their feet
run to evil. Have you ever heard these questions
at some point in your life? What do you want to grow up and
be? What's your future look like? Where are you going to school?
What job do you want to have? Where do you see yourself in
five years? When are you going to get to retirement? All these
things that if you asked me before I studied this, I would have
given you the wrong answer. I would have told you things
if you asked me what I want to be when I grow up. I might have
said I wanted to be a superhero when I was young. I might have
said that I wanted to be a big sports star. I might have said
I wanted to be famous. Always going to church, I might
have said I want to be the king. It sounds really good in here
to be the king. I get to tell everybody what
to do. I get to do what I want. But
those aren't the right answers. The right answer is that we must
run to Christ. We must look to Him. That is
our goal. That's our direction. In Proverbs
it says, their feet be swift in running to mischief. This
is what we do. They cried with a loud voice.
They stopped their ears and ran upon with one accord. This is
what we do. When someone tries to give us
advice, we close our ears. We follow what we want to do,
our desires. And in Jude, it says, woe unto
them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily
for a reward. Look at the end of verse 1 there
in chapter 12. Let us run with patience. the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We must run to Christ. He's everything. Turn with me
to Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4. Look at verse 10 of Proverbs
chapter 4. Here, O my son, and receive my
sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught
thee in the way of wisdom, I have led thee in right paths. When
thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened, and when thou
runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction,
Let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life. It says here,
When thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble, take fast hold of
instruction. Keep her, for she is thy life."
The instructions of our Lord in this book are the key to our
life. If we follow what it says in
here, if we set our path, if we run in this direction, following
the words of this book, we won't stumble. We won't be corrected. The Lord takes care of us. He
has given us perfect instructions. In Philippians it says, "...holding
forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ,
that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain." If
we do anything but run to Christ, we will labor in vain. It will
be worthless to us. In 1 Peter 4 it says, wherein
they think it strange that you run not with them to the same
excess of riot and speak evil of you. The world will think
it strange if you don't run in the same direction as them. If
you are not looking at the things of this world and the things
of this flesh, the world will look at you and say, what in
the world are you doing? And if you have an experience
that I promise it will come, the world will speak evil of
you. The Lord told his disciples, it's not you, they hate me. So they hate you because you
follow me. The world doesn't hate us, they
hate the God that we love. And if you follow him, if you
run to him, the world will run the other way and you feel like
you'll be running headlong into everything. But we must run to
the Lord. Now this title, let us run, there's
two things I want to get from this. There's two meanings in
this title. The first is the way we would normally say this.
We don't say let us run to the store together. We say let's
run to the store together. We use this as a conjunction
and that's the way we say it. And so, in this passage, the
writer is telling the people he's writing to, he's saying,
let's run to the Lord. And that's what I want to say.
I want to repeat his exhortation to you. Let's run to Christ. We need to do this excitedly,
happily, just full of exhortation. There's a phrase that I hear
all the time. The last few years this has been
very popular, especially with young people. When they get excited
or something good's about to happen, they say, let's go! They
say, let's go! That's what we should be saying
every Sunday morning when we wake up. We shouldn't need the
alarm, yet I do. I should pop up and I should
run and wake up my kids and say, guys, we get to go worship the
Lord this morning. We get to go to church. The flesh
doesn't allow us to do it. How simple is it for us at midnight
to see a movie come on TV we like and for two hours in the
middle of the night we just sit there and watch it, so entertaining.
Yet I can sleep for nine hours, wake up and come in here after
some caffeine and everything and in ten minutes I'm up here
just fading, can't pay attention. the flesh fights us, but we,
as often as possible, we must help each other and give this
exhortation. Let's run to Christ. That should
be everything in our life. Secondly, is if we say these
three words in a different way, it means something very different.
If I were to say, let us run, we have to ask the Lord help
us run. We must ask Him for the desire
to worship Him. We must ask Him for the knowledge
to know who He is. In Amos it says this, and listen
to this, And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the
north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to
seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. There will be people who will
run all over the earth forever looking for the Word of the Lord,
and they won't find it. We can't find Him. We can't run
to Him. We don't know where He is, who
He is, and we want to go the opposite direction. We want to
run to ourselves. So we must say to the Lord, give
us the ability to worship. Give us a love for Christ. Without
Him, at all. If He hadn't chosen us and put
the Spirit in us to know who He is, we would never care. We'd
be like so many people that we look at and think, how in the
world does that person not understand who they are and what they've
done? But we don't either. The Lord has to do that for us.
In Psalm 119 it says, I will run the way of his commandments
when thou shalt enlarge my heart. I'll run after you, Lord, when
you make my heart learn for you. The Song of Solomon says this,
draw me and we will run after you. What he's saying there,
he says, you pull me to you and I'll run to you. I can't come
to you unless you pull me to you. So this morning we're going
to look at just a couple stories and all the scriptures I'm going
to use in these stories all are examples where someone ran. Someone
ran. And I want us to see this. We
can get great examples of how we need to run to the Lord and
in the last one we'll see something even better about running. Turn
with me to Luke 19. Luke chapter 19. This is a Great story and one that we'd
love to teach our children and my kids love the song that comes
from this About this wee little man This story is of Zacchaeus in
Luke 19 starts in verse 1 and And it says, And Jesus entered
and passed through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named
Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was
rich. Notice first, it says, And Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. The Lord came to this place first.
Zacchaeus was just where he was. The Lord came to him. Verse 3,
And Zacchaeus sought to see Jesus, who he was, and could not for
the press, for all the people, because he was of little stature.
He couldn't see the Lord. He was standing on the ground
on his tiptoes, jumping, everything he could, he couldn't find Him.
He was too small. And he ran before and climbed up into a
sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. He thought,
there's no way I'm going to see him, so I'm going to run out
in front, I'll climb a tree and maybe I can see him there. Verse
5, And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, saw him,
and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for
today I must abide at thy house. Zacchaeus ran to see the Lord. But the Lord had come to him
first, and the Lord already knew who he was. None of us will ever
run to the Lord except for Him knowing us and bringing us to
Him. We don't run to see Him until He's already come to us.
Look at verse 6. And Zacchaeus made haste, came
down, and received Him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all
murmured, saying, that he was gone to be guest with a man that
is a sinner, If anyone thinks that the Lord Jesus Christ has
done something for you, their first thought is, why in the
world would he ever do anything for you? As all you are is a
sinner, I don't even want to be associated with you. Why would
he? Look at verse 8. And Zacchaeus stood and said
unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to
the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false
accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This
day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is
a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which is lost. The Lord came to Zacchaeus,
And you can tell here by the words Zacchaeus said, he didn't
know what he was talking about. The Lord comes to him and comes
into his house, and Zacchaeus is like, well, if I wrong somebody,
I make sure to make it right. And he doesn't understand this.
But the Lord tells him, anybody who runs to Christ, the Lord
says, the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which
was lost. The Lord came to save him. In
Mark 6, we see the story right before the loaves and the fish.
And the people saw them departing, saw the Lord and the disciples
leaving. And many knew him and ran afoot thither out of all
cities and out went them and came together unto him. All these
people, they just saw the Lord leaving and they just went running. I mean, I can see this scene,
all these people, the Lord was healing people and was teaching
them, and he was leaving, he was going to get on a boat. And
all of the people of all the towns around just started running. Everybody just left everything
they had, they quit work, they quit everything, everybody just
ran to it. And it says, and Jesus, when He came out, He saw much
people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were
as sheep, not having a shepherd, and He began to teach them many
things. These people all ran to the Lord
as He was leaving, and He saw them, and He was moved with compassion. When we run to the Lord, He is
moved with compassion. And he said, these people are
like sheep without a shepherd. They don't know where to go.
They have no one to lead them. And he began to teach them many,
many things about himself. Okay, turn with me to 1 Samuel.
1 Samuel chapter 17. 1 Samuel chapter 17. Another very familiar story.
Verse 20 in 1 Samuel 17 says, ìAnd David rose up early in the
morning, and left the sheep with the keeper, and took and went,
as Jesse his father had commanded him. And he came to the trench,
as the host was going forth to the fight and shouted for the
battle. For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array,
army against army, and David left his carriage in the hand
of the keeper of the carriage and ran into the army and came
and saluted his brethren." David ran to the army. Now look at
verse 45. So in between these two, David
has come forward, and he got there and heard what Goliath
had said about his God, and David stepped up and said, no one's
going to say that about our God. And David volunteered to be the
champion. Verse 45, then said David to the Philistine, thou
comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield,
but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God
of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will
the Lord deliver thee into mine hand and I will smite thee and
take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of
the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air
and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may
know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle
is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. And it came
to pass when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet
David, that David hasted, he hurried, and ran toward the army
to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his
bag and took the fence of stone and slung it and smote the Philistine
in his forehead. Then the stone sunk into his
forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed
over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the
Philistine and slew him. But there was no sword in the
hand of David. Therefore, David ran. and stood
upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of
the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith.
And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they
fled. And the men of Israel and of
Judah rose, and shouted and pursued the Philistines." David here
went to defend his God. He went to defend the Lord. Now,
David didn't do this, or we don't do that, because the Lord needs
us. We do it because we love Him. We hear and we see things
about our Lord and it excites us. We love our Lord. That's what we do. My youngest
son, Henry, who just turned four, is very protective of his siblings. Not too long ago, I had his oldest
sister, and we were in the other room and we were fooling around
being silly and I picked her up over my shoulder and had her
upside down over my shoulder. And I walked into the room where
he was and said something like, I'm going to get Finley. And
Henry just dropped what he was doing, ran as fast as he could
over, put both hands on my legs and started pushing me the other
direction. And he said, no dad, don't do that to her. She's five
years older than him, so much stronger than him, and him and
I fool around all the time. He knows he has absolutely no
chance of stopping me. But that wasn't his purpose.
His purpose was, I love her and I want to defend her. That's
what we must do. We are no match for the enemies
of our God. We have no business standing
up to anyone or anything, but we do it because we love Him.
We defend Him in the truth because we love Him. And I'll come back
to that in a second. All of the people at this battle,
okay, all of them, Saul was king and he didn't win the battle.
Jonathan, his son, who became David's best friend, he didn't
win the battle. All of David's brothers who were
there didn't win the battle. They'd been in the army, were
older, bigger, stronger, more experienced than him. None of
them won the battle. The thousands and thousands of soldiers were
there. None of them won the battle. David won the battle. In this
thing that we all call a race, life is a race. Let me give you
guys a hint. I or you None of them, none of
us will win the race. It says in 1 Corinthians 9, Know
ye not that ye which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the
prize? So run that ye may obtain. It
says run the race to win the prize. But only there can be
one winner. David was the winner. All the
others didn't win, but in their champion, in David, they were
the victors. Israel won the battle because
of what David did. None of us will win the race. The Lord Jesus Christ won the
race. He's the one who's victorious.
He's the one winner. In Him, if we're in Him, we have
the victory. We have it in Him. The rest of
that passage in 1 Corinthians says, I therefore so run, not
as uncertainly. I don't run not knowing what
I'm running for. So fight I, not as one that beateth
the air. We must fight. We're not as if
a shadow box or one who acts like we're fighting. We must
fight. We defend our God. We love Him. Fight the good fight
of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. In
the bulletin this morning there was an article and it fits this
very well. When we say things such as run
to Christ and worship Him and fight the good fight as we see.
So often in religion today, there's a lot of lip service. And let
me be very honest with you, we're full of it too. When I say things
and I get high and mighty and proud about the way I do something,
or want to give myself credit for anything I do, it's just
foolishness. It's just foolishness. And in
this article it says, God's people are motivated by grace. We do
not motivate God's people by guilt, fear of punishment, or
promise of reward. God's people are motivated by
love, gratitude, and grace. That's the reason we run. We
run to Him because we love Him. We run to Him because we're thankful
for Him. And we run to Him because of
His grace. It goes on to say, anything given
or done for the service of God that is performed out of a sense
of duty, because of fear, or in hope of reward, is an abomination
to God. It does us no good to do these
things we're talking about this morning if we're doing them so
that the world sees us. How many people do you know that
say things and do things, and I shouldn't even say it that
way, how many of us say things and do things that when I say
it or you say it, we think about the other person? You don't believe
that. Or you don't do that. We say
things for show. We say things we don't actually
believe. But in this circumstance, we must run to Christ. We must do it because we love
Him. And we'll only do it because He loves us. Alright, just a
couple more. Turn to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. John chapter 20, verse 1 says, The first day of
the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark,
unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the
sepulcher. Mary Magdalene is a wonderful
example and someone I would love to imitate in her desire to run
to the Lord Jesus Christ. With her sister, was cooking
and doing all that stuff, She went to the Lord and said, make
Mary help me. And he said, Mary's doing the
one thing needful. Mary's at my feet. And Mary constantly
does this. But in this situation, the Lord
has been crucified and has been buried in the tomb. And Mary
waited until she was allowed to go. The Sabbath ended, and
in the middle of the night, Mary got up and ran to see the Lord,
where He was. But when she got there, the stone
was rolling away. So in verse 2 it says, They have taken away the Lord
out of the sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him."
Mary ran to the Lord and he wasn't there. So I always thought she
ran to these men to tell them that he wasn't there. Mary ran
to these two guys because they were her best chance of finding
where he was. She wanted to know where he was.
So she went to them. So when she told them the stone
had rolled away and he wasn't there, verse 3, Peter therefore
went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulcher. So
they ran both together and the other disciple did outrun Peter
and came first to the sepulcher. So Mary ran to them and said,
ìHeís not there.î So then they all ran back to find him, to
see what was going on. And this is a little thing, but
I love it. In verse 4 it says, ìThey ran both together, and
the other disciple, which is John, did outrun Peter and came
first to the sepulcher.î Both of these men were desperate to
go see what was going on. Yet John did not slow down so
that he could get there at the same time as Peter. When we run
to the Lord, we need not look at the path of anyone around
us. If we focus on Him, just run
to Him. And if you're Peter, don't be
affected by someone running in front of you, gonna beat you
there. Just keep running. There's always gonna be a time,
and it constantly hits me to where I see someone else doing
things better than me. And I wish I had the faith that
person, I wish I had the genuine love that this person seems to
have. but I can't look at them, because if I look at them, I
stop looking at the Lord. We must focus on Him and run
to Him. Verse 5, John stooping down and
looking in saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then
come a Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher,
and seeth the linen clothes lie there. We must run to Christ. In verse 10, going on to verse
10, I'm sorry, look at verse, yeah, 10. Then the disciples
went away again unto their own home. They went there and he
wasn't there. So Peter and John turned around
and went home. And we'll look in verse 11, but
the lesson we learned from that is don't leave the Lord. Don't go back, don't leave until
you know where you're going. Look at verse 11, what happened?
But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. And she wept
and she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher. Mary didn't
go anywhere. She wanted to be where the Lord
was, and she didn't know where to go. Verse 12, And she saith,
Two angels in white sitting, and one at the head and the other
at the feet, where the body of Jesus hath lain. And they say
unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have
laid him. She just wants to know where her Lord is. She said,
they've taken Him and I don't know where it is. Look at verse
14. And when she thus said, she turned
herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing
him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne
him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take
him away. She says, If you know where he is, tell me. I'll do
whatever I need to do. Just tell me where he is. In
verse 16, Jesus said unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and
saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master. Mary ran to
Him and He wasn't there. She ran to someone to help her
find Him. And they came back and He wasn't
there. And Mary said, I'm not going anywhere until I find out
where He is. And when someone runs to the
Lord, this is what He does. He comes to her. He came to her
and said, Mary. He just said her name and immediately
she knew who He was. Our Lord comes to those who run
after Him. Verse 17, Jesus said unto her,
Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go
to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father,
and your Father, and to my God, and your God. So Mary Magdalene
came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that
he had spoken these things unto her. I like that it doesn't use
the word run in that situation. Mary ran everywhere she went
to find the Lord. But when she found him, she didn't
need to run anymore. She knew where he was. She followed
his beckoning. It will be wonderful the day
that comes to get to glory. But as long as we're still running
this race, Some of us have a long way to go, some of us have just
moments, we just don't know. And that's wonderful we don't
know, but as we run this race, we must use every ounce of energy
that we have. We must use every moment the
Lord gives us to push, to pull, to drag, to carry, to force,
to yank, whatever word you want to use, All of my family, my
friends, and anyone that will listen to run to Christ. If they ignore me, I must pray
to God for Him to make them listen. Then I'll tell them again. If
they run the wrong direction, which as we all have done so
often, then I'll pray to the Lord that He will turn them around.
If their love is in this world, if they look to other things,
I'll pray to Him by whatever means He opens their eyes to
see the one true beauty that is our Lord Jesus Christ. We
must do everything we can to everyone to show that we are
running and we love the Lord Jesus Christ. As a kid, for all
of my life, my parents and my grandparents did everything they
could to show me and make it important to me to see that they
were going to go to church. And that's probably the most
obvious example that I can give you of an illustration or a way
that we can run to the Lord, going to hear His Word preached.
That's the easiest way for us who don't know anything to go
hear someone tell us about the Lord. But they spent my whole
life telling me those things and showing me that by example.
And at some point it finally sank in. I don't know if it was
because I was tired of fighting against it that I realized I
needed to go. I don't know if it was because
I saw how much they always consistently did it. And I thought, well I
guess I need to do it too. I don't know if it was because
I saw how much they loved going. And eventually I understood it
was important to them. And that rubbed off on me. Whatever
the reason was, the Lord eventually gave me that same desire. But
as an example there, we must do everything we can to show
everyone around us we are going to go worship our Lord. Now we
can't do that without Him. But it's so important because
I have so many examples I've heard from someone saying to
me, well the first time I went over there was because so-and-so
kept telling me about it. They told me over and over again.
And I'd say, why don't we go do something tomorrow night?
And they'd say, I can't. I've got to go to church. It's Wednesday or it's Tuesday.
And they said, I just finally had to go hear what they were
listening to. And then they were sitting there for the next 30
years. We must be an example. so that others can see that we're
just running to Christ. He's the one thing needful. Okay,
turn to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5 gives us an example
in someone that takes away all our excuses. Look at Mark chapter
5, verse 1. And seeing the multitudes, he
went up into a mountain, the Lord did, and when he was set,
his disciples came unto him. I'm sorry, I'm in Matthew. Mark
chapter 5. And they came over into the other
side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he
was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs
a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the
tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because
that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and
the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken
in pieces, neither could any man tame him. And always, night
and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting
himself with stones. And verse 6, but when he saw
Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him. If this man can run, can't
we all run? Psalm 18 says, For by thee I
have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over
a wall. In the Lord we can run through
anything, we can get over anything, and we can come to Him. Look
at verse 7. And this man cried with a loud
voice and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son
of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, that thou
torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out
of the man, thou unclean spirit. This man ran to the Lord, this
man that everyone knew as just a lunatic, as a crazy man. They would almost say he's not
even a human, the way he acted and behaved. Yet, the moment
the Lord came, he ran, and the Lord immediately said, come out
of him, thou unclean spirit. The Lord took care of him. In
Proverbs, it says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth unto it,
and it is safe. No matter what we're going through,
no matter what situation we're in, as this man, if we run to
our Lord, He is the strong tower. He is the place that we have
our safety. That's our Lord. If you want
to be safe, we use that word a lot, you must be in the Lord.
That's the only place of safety. Anything, we stand behind a wall
or in a house with locks on the doors, and how often does that
help us? We must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our only
place of safety. Now, let's turn to the last one
in Luke 15. This is my favorite one by far
in Luke chapter 15. This story is a great compilation of all the
things that we've said about us running to the Lord. And I've
said it over and over again, about we can't run unless He
makes us to run. He has to pull us, or even us
to move. He has to draw us. All these
scriptures that we see. Because it's important we say
these things, because in religion today, saying something like,
let's run to Christ, is so often construed as if it's a work we're
doing, or we're going part way, or we're doing something. And
that's just absurd. The Lord comes to us. And so
look at Luke 15, in verse 11, it says, And he said, A certain
man had two sons. And the younger of them said
to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth
to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days
after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey
into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous
living. And when he had spent all there,
there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be
in want. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields
to feed swine. And he would fain have filled
his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man
gave unto him. And when he came to himself,
he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
and to spare, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to
my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son. Make me as one of thy hired servants."
This young man is a great illustration of who we are. We have been provided
for and taken care of and one day we come to the place and
we say, you know what, I want you to give me everything that's
mine. Even though he didn't deserve it or he didn't even earn it
or anything. It was just his by birthright and he took it all
and he just went out and just just did whatever he wanted,
riotous living. It's not bad enough that he lost
everything he was given, but he did so in such sinful manners.
But he did all these things, and he came to this place where
he was working for a man, he was looking at pigs, and the
pigs are eating husks, and he thinks to himself, these pigs
are better off than I am. I've got nothing to show, I've
got no food, I can't take care of myself, I've got nothing.
And that important line at the beginning of verse 17 says, and
when he came to himself, something happened. Something came in his
mind and he realized who he was. And he thought, this is just
awful, what have I done? And then he said to himself,
I will go home. He said, my father's servants
are better off than I am. And he says, I'll go home to
my father, and I'll tell him that I've sinned against him,
I realize what I've done, I'm awful, and maybe, just maybe,
he will take me in as one of his servants. And anybody who's
had their eyes open, just a glimpse of who they are, has been in
this place. They realized that they had been
taken care of, and all they did was just waste everything the
Lord had given them. The Lord had chose them, had
done all this stuff for them, and they just didn't see it,
didn't understand it, didn't want any part of it. And what
happens to all of us is we think we've gone somewhere. We've spent
our whole lives running, and what happens is we end up, in
verse 20 it says, "...and he arose and came to his father."
So he went home. We run our whole lives and what
happens is we end up realizing that we just ran a big circle.
We've gone nowhere. We're exactly back where we started. When he went to his father and
rebelled against him, where was he? In the exact place he stood
now, after all that he had done and all that he had wasted and
all the sin that he'd committed. He came back to that place and
he realized, I've got nothing. So, excuse me, Our paths just
simply take us nowhere. And look in verse 20. And he
arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on
his neck and kissed him. this young man, and many of us
have been in moments like this where we get to a place where
he's made this decision to do this. He's swallowed his pride,
he's realized who he is, and he's come back home. But he can't
make it all the way. He's gotten all the way there,
and he gets to where his family is, and I imagine he's probably
standing there thinking, what am I going to say? Like this
isn't going to work. He's going to throw me out so
fast. But when he got there, his father saw him, had compassion,
and ran to him. The Lord Jesus Christ runs and
gets us. He has compassion on us. This
young man never went anywhere. He did all this stuff and never
got anything. But His Father came and ran to
Him. This is who we are. This is our
story. We spend a life full of sin and
shame and everything. Yet, the Lord Jesus Christ runs
to us. And keep going. Verse 21, And
the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
He pleads. He says, I'm awful. I don't deserve
anything. And what does his father do?
His father interrupts him. stops him from his fretting,
his worrying, all that stuff, and his father says, Bring forth
the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand and
shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf
and kill it and let us eat and let us be merry. The Lord comes
to us, takes us, grabs us, brings us into Him and says, No more
talk about what you've done. No more talk about your sin.
No more talk about anything. Get my robe. Put my robe of righteousness
on you. You have my purity. I paid the
debt. You don't need to talk about
this other stuff because I paid the sin debt for you. You don't
have it anymore. Then he says get the ring. Get
the signet of my royalty. That I'm the king and you are
my heir. You have everything that's mine.
You are my child, my son, and you have everything that I have."
And then he put shoes on his feet, and they killed the fatted
calf, and they had this huge celebration. All of this is to
honor this son coming back. To think that this son deserved
any of that. In Romans 9 it says, So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. In this great feast, do you think
anyone was sitting around talking positively about this boy? All
the talk would have been about this father and what he did.
And that's what glory is. We all will be standing together,
looking at him and saying things like, can you believe that he
gave his righteousness to us? Can you believe that He calls
us His child? Can you believe that we're His
heir? Can you believe that He does
all of this for us, that He feeds us? And we just look at Him and
He's just wonderful. That's all we'll do, is we will
look at our Lord and think of how amazing He is. Give Him glory
and praise and celebrate what amazing things He's done for
us. And we have this moment where we get to worship Him and we
just don't realize the privilege it is. And it's not our fault. The sinful flesh just keeps us
from really having any grasp of it. But one day, when our
eyes are opened, when our hearts are opened and this sinful flesh
falls away, The chance to worship our God, any moment to look at
Him and to thank Him and to glorify Him and give Him all the glory
is so great that nothing else will ever come to our mind that's
worth doing. Ever. Once we get in that place
and that moment, our lives will just be celebrating, wondering
how in the world did the Lord do this for me? We just celebrate
Him. And in closing, let me read our
text to us one more time. Wherefore seeing, we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. We have
so many people that we see that are witnesses to what our Lord's
done. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which do
us so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God." Let us look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's sitting in glory at the
right hand on the throne, on the throne, and one day we'll
truly be able to worship Him. But in the meantime, let's run
to the Lord. Let's worship Him.