The Decision Stage by Pastor Ed Young

 

“I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.”  He is already rehearsing what he is going to say to his father.  He is in the mud, he is in the mire and not only is he feeling bad, he is saying, “OK, I will set out, I will go back, I will say to my father that I have sinned.”  He didn’t offer excuses for why he did what he did.  He didn’t say, “The reason I did this was because I didn’t receive counseling as a teenager.”  He didn’t say, “The reason I did this was because I came from a dysfunctional family.”  He called sin what it was.  And then look at verse 20.  “So he got up and went to his father.”  Some of us here need to get up, out of that relationship.  We need to get up out of that business deal.  We need to get up and follow God and turn toward Him.

The delirious stage.  The destruction stage.  The decision stage.  As I look across this handsome congregation, I see some people who appear to be agreeing with that, who want God to be the Director of their lives, but if the truth were known, beneath the veneer, beneath the exterior, beneath the facade, most of us have on a No Fear shirt, and our arms are crossed defiantly.  We say, “I run this life.  You don’t understand, I run it.”  How can I challenge you to do something?  I am going to challenge you to uncross your arms, to open up your palms toward heaven and say, “God, have Your way in my life.”  Have you done that?  The prodigal did that.

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