Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus! Our Father in heaven, what a wonderful God You are, You are a good God; You are a faithful Father; in our unfaithfulness Lord, You remain faithful, Father thank You.
We thank You Lord for this day; we thank You Lord for the privilege that we have that You are here with us already this morning; we thank You Lord for the message You’re already passing across to us; we thank You for the message You’ve ministered to us this morning; we thank You oh Lord because Your arms are open to receive us and bring us back home, glory be to Your name forever more.
Father Lord God of heaven, we ask that You will speak to us, give us understanding and in the name of Jesus, this word will not stand against any of us in judgment in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You blessed Redeemer, for in
Jesus marvelous name we have prayed. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
Good morning brethren, you’re welcome to the house of God, the Lord bless you all in Jesus name. Praise the Lord! I would like to appreciate our father in the Lord, (Pastor in charge of Province) for this privilege that I have to stand here,
thank you daddy.
I also would like to say thank you to the drama group, this was a very short notice I gave to them to put this together and within two – three days this has been done, Sister Bukky, thank you and your team, God bless you in Jesus name.
I also want to point us to the choir, did you see the demonstration this morning? Praise the Lord! But to my mind, I see the choir doing a valedictory service for the choir director, that’s their mind but God bless you in the name of Jesus; brother Yinka, thank you for your service, God bless you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Luke 15: 11-24 (I may not be able to read everything because that drama has already taken care of that) and it says, 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. 13And 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.
14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land: and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his
belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And 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!
18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee: 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And 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. 21And 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.
22But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes at his feet. 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry. 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry”. Praise the Lord!
I will title this message, very short exhortation, “Come Back Home”; God is saying to somebody, perhaps He’s saying to all of us, come back home, praise the Lord! Building up on the drama, we’ll take a deeper look at that passage in five different heads; we’ll look at the beginning, we’ll look at the period of boom, we’ll look at the hard times – the challenging times, we’ll look at the restoration – coming back and divine mercy; by the grace of God; I hope I’ll be able to cover this in this period.
Now talking about the beginning, if you look at that passage from Luke 15: 11 & 12; we just heard that the man had two sons, nothing was said about the son, so that gives me this feeling that they had a humbled beginning, they had a gradual take off in life, there was not anything other than just being humble, but one day he asked his father for his inheritance, wherever this was coming from; the father was still alive and you want to eat your inheritance while your father is still alive, this was an unusual request but the father obliged him; his request may have been born out of peer pressure – young man, my friends are going to London, I want to go too, please give me money for ticket or to travel; oh, my friend’s father has just bought a car for him or built a house for him, I want my own too; and it may even be the son there may even be the older ones – my friend has just bought the latest Range Rover, I must buy my own too, peer pressure, then he’d go to the father and say give me that which belongs to me.
Brethren, whatever it is, I believe that this father yielded to pressure from the son, it wasn’t the pleasure of the father, it wasn’t the intention of the father to give him inheritance at that time to go, but the father gave to him. Romans 12:2 tells us about the will of God: it can be acceptable will and it can be a perfect will of God; acceptable being permissive or permissible will; what I see happened here was a permissive will, since the son put a lot of pressure on the father, father said okay, take and go; but brethren, we must not always have our way because sometimes those things that we want to have at all costs, is that the perfect will of God for us?
We saw it happen to this young man and it happened elsewhere in 1st Samuel 8: 4-22; one day the children of Israel got up and said to Samuel, give us kings like other nations, we want to be like other nations; Samuel went to God and said see, they have rejected me, they want a king. God said no, it’s not you they rejected, it’s Me, give them the king but tell them first the consequence.
He told them, they said no, whatever it is you say, we want a king of our own; they got Saul but we know how it all ended. When it is not God’s perfect will, sometimes it does not end well – most times actually, it does not end well. The key lesson here brethren is that there’s nothing wrong in having great aspirations, but whatever it is, please let us remember to align it with the will of God for our lives; when we put pressure to get things that maybe they will still come later, maybe they are not even meant to be and then we step into those things, it doesn’t always end well as we see for this young man.
So to everyone here I say, God has a plan for you; there is a perfect will of God that fits with His plan for your life, any other thing that we do is a deviation from the plan of God and once it’s not in the plan of God, it will not be what God wants, praise the Lord!
The second one is the period of boom: Luke 15:3, the Bible says and not many days after, he gathered everything and left; overnight he became rich; overnight he became wealthy; overnight he had so much that all he could think of was let me go and paint the town red, praise the Lord! The boy became wealthy all of a sudden; he became an overnight celebrity; but as good as breakthrough may be, there’s also a responsibility that is tied to a higher level.
The boy had wealth, he had everything but the question is was he prepared for that level of wealth? Was he able to manage it? He was not ready after all because we saw the result; he was only an accident waiting to happen and the accident indeed happened in his life. He went to another country, he mixed with the natives of that country, he wasted the resources and one day he realized nothing was left and as it is with life, those who he called friends immediately shoved him out, you are on your own; may you not be on your own in the mighty name of Jesus.
Proverbs 1: 32 tell us, “For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them”. God will not give you prosperity that will destroy you in the mighty name of Jesus. Galatians 4: 1-2 tells us that as long as a child who is a heir to a certain inheritance is still a child, he requires trusties, he requires guidance until he comes of age or to a time when the father says oh give it to him; why do they do this? To ensure that that people grow maturely to own what is supposed to be an inheritance.
I know a lot of people these days would say I don’t want my children to suffer the way I suffered, so we spoil them silly with all sorts of things, anything they ask for; daddy, I want to go with my friend to the – I need 10,000; are you sure that is enough? Please take 50,000; take care of yourself oh, if you need more please call me, you hear; please driver, make sure he doesn’t hurt himself; daddy, I want to travel in the summer first class, you can afford it yes, must he fly first class? Parents, we don’t necessarily have to give the children all that they ask for even if we have them because there’s a place of training.
There’s a Yoruba saying that says, ‘omo o j’iya, o l’ohun ni experience, tani tisha e?’; I’ll translate it, a child who has not gone through the ups and downs of life and wakes up one day and say I’m a man, I’m ready to face life, who taught him? Where did he gain experience from other than from going through it. So we say oh, we don’t want them to suffer, if you don’t want them to suffer like you did, don’t forget that the suffering that you had was part of what God used to shape you to become who you are, let them be and let God shape them to be who God wants them to be; let us teach them that life is not all about abundance; life is not all about materiality; let us teach them about delay gratification, you may have it, it is yours, but wait until the right time before you consume it; it is not all about consumption; it’s not all about taking it all today; let us tell them that there’s a concept called hard work, diligence and integrity; let them earn it, tell them there’s something called compassion for those who do not have; instead of wasting it all, there are people languishing, can you just think about those and give to them?
We must consciously prepare these children; the next generation, we must prepare them for that which we want to hand over, otherwise, because there is no vacuum in nature, it will transit to other people from their hands as we saw it for the young man. And for the youths in the house, yes some people may even be eyeing and saying when is daddy going, ah, daddy is living too long oh; chill, wait for your time, wait patiently, God has a plan for you, don’t try to be like other people, every human being is unique; God has formed you to be who you are, not like another person, so don’t look at somebody is doing this I would like to be the same; who does God want you to be? Seek knowledge.
A lot of youths today, the only thing that you can use to irritate them is to say come and learn, come and study; all they want to do is dance; all they want to do is go to party; all they want to do – I believe those youths are not here. Seek knowledge, when you have knowledge you have power; when you have knowledge you are positioned, ready to take over that which father or whoever is ready to give onto you or life is able to give to you. There is a bright tomorrow for you youths, you must envision it and look forward to it and walk into it, praise the Lord!
Now, the key lesson here for this second nugget is that God has a good plan for everyone; for the children, earn it, walk into it; for the parents, don’t over pamper, we don’t necessarily have to give everything they ask for; don’t seek shortcuts, don’t make other people miserable in order for you to live big. There’s a place of favor, I know; someone is saying must I struggle, what if I find favor; that is God’s prerogative, you labor first, let God add favor, praise God!
The third nugget is (about going back to that story) that there was a hard time, there was a challenging time; Luke 15:14 – 16; he spent all and then famine started in the land and he began to be in want; nobody wanted to take him, no; all of those who benefited from him, they couldn’t even spare anything with him; it was so bad he wanted to eat out of the food of swine. He had a head start in life; he had resources but he wasted it’; God does not like wastage, we know the parable of the talents; He gave one, five; He gave one, two; He gave one, one; five and two used it well; one said I will hide it, God rebuked him for hiding it.
Everyone has one talent, one resource or the other that you can use to an advantage; God does not like wastages, please use whatever it is that God has given into your hands and God will prosper you therein in the mighty name of Jesus.
When this young man had nothing left, his friends deserted him; don’t let us forget that in life, people only hobnob around you when there’s value, the moment there appears to be no more value, one by one, one after the other, you will see them filter out; may you not be desolate in the mighty name of Jesus; may you not get to a point where you will no longer be relevant in the mighty name of Jesus; because Yoruba also will say, ‘owo epo l’araye n ba ni la, won n ba ni l’awo ejo’; I will translate that also, when it is sweet, when it is honey, you’ll see a lot of people around you; the moment there is blood, people will scatter, you’ll be alone; may you not be alone in the mighty name of Jesus.
But there are people here, we will say okay the young man mismanaged resources, but there are people who truly did the right things but circumstances also brought them into hardship; for this set of people, the Lord says I should encourage you, Psalms 34: 19, the Bible says many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord God delivered them from it all; the Lord Almighty will come through for you; He will deliver in the mighty name of Jesus.
And to even make it more difficult, there are people who genuinely walked into the trouble, Isaiah 49:25 says even the captive of the mighty shall be delivered; if there’s any such person here, you did the wrong things like The Prodigal Son, you wasted resources, you were the reason for your own problems, it is not the end of story, it is not the end of life, the Lord Almighty will deliver you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Many families are going through challenging times, please don’t give up on God because God is not going to give up on you. Many countries of the world including our nation, our own dear nation is going through tough times, I don’t know if there’s ever been a tougher time than this as much as I know in this country, but this is not going to be the end in the mighty name of Jesus; the Lord Almighty will come through for us in the name of Jesus; because Jeremiah 32: 27, the Bible says I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me? There’s nothing too hard for God; so it does not matter what is the source of your challenge (and we’ll get to it soon), the moment you can put God in the equation, it’s only a matter of time, it will turn round.
That prodigal son went through tough times, it was as if he was going to die in his problem, but one day God opened his eyes and he found his way back home and then all the rest of his story was celebrated. The Lord will open somebody’s eyes this morning, He will lead us to what we need to do and we’ll find our way back to solution in the mighty name of Jesus.
Point number four is restoration or the coming back home: Luke 15: 17-19, the boy came to himself one day; he said what am I doing here? Wait a minute, why should I continue to be in this trouble, there is a way out to go back to my father, ask for forgiveness, let him take me as one of his servants, at least I’ll be assured of food, praise the living Jesus!
See brethren, it is difficult to take certain decisions particularly when things are not going well, and there is this nature for human beings that when things are not trending well in the same thing that you’re doing, you want to continue doing it and hoping that one day there will be way out of it, you can’t continue to dig the hole and expect that you will come out, you need to find a way to get out of the hole.
I gave an example sometime not too long ago; I was trying to locate a certain place, I knew the place in a way so I thought I would get it but I missed the way, I continued going; I knew that I had missed the way but I continued going hoping that I’d find a way that would link to that place, I continued going; when it got to a point, I said no, there’s no way here I need to go back, trace my steps until I got to a point where I realized oh okay, this is the point, then I turned there.
It’s like that with many things in life; when things are no longer trending well, when challenges and difficulties are everywhere, nothing seem to be working, it is time to sit down, take stock and take the hard decision. Sometimes brethren, the way forward is to come back; you don’t always have to take the steps forward especially when it is in the wrong direction, so let us get to a point like the prodigal son to be able to say I come back, I retrace my steps so that I can go in the right direction, and the Lord Almighty will order ourselves in the mighty name of Jesus.
This will require us to shed certain unnecessary weights; for some people, for example you are heavily in debt but you have assets that have little or no value to you, why are you keeping those? Can you offload them and settle the debt so that you will be free. For example, things are not working, you know it, people are telling you get out of it but you say it will happen one day; I’m not saying don’t have faith, I’m saying let us be realistic.
And it is the same with our walk with God; you are on a journey, you realize that you are no longer with God and say one day I will get there, you will not get there that way, the only way to get there is to come back to where you missed it and go back to Him, praise the living Jesus!
Before I go to the fifth point, taking this decision sometimes will put a burden on us; like the young man, he would have thought when I get home, those who used to be servants under me, now all of us will be servants; you would think about the shame, hey, what would they say? How would they eye me? But leave all those things, prayerfully go through the decision and the action step that we need to take and let us do what is right, and God will back us up in the mighty name of Jesus.
Number five is the divine mercy: Luke 15: 20-24, the Bible tells us, if it was some father, as soon as they saw that boy, what are you doing here? You get out of here; please, don’t let him into this compound again; what are you doing again, I’ve settled you; but what did the father do? The father saw him from afar – the song I wanted us to play, the highlight there, the boy was walking towards home but the father ran towards him, divine mercy.
Brethren, even as we try to retrace our steps, we will find mercy in the mighty name of Jesus; we will find favor in the mighty name of Jesus. The boy was hoping to become a servant, the father said no, you wouldn’t be a servant, I will restore you as though nothing happened. There’s restoration waiting for someone here in the mighty name of Jesus.
What a way to welcome him back home, it’s nothing short of divine mercy and we shall receive it in the name of Jesus.
So now the characters in that story: that father is our God, He is ever willing; that boy is any of us that have gone off track and the devil is telling us, if you go back home, how would they look at you? What would they say about you? Forget whatever anybody else would say, it is all between you and God. As a matter of fact, the father was already waiting for him; God is waiting for us to come back and this morning, a number of us will go back in the name of Jesus.
We need to go back to the basics; we need to go back to where we missed it; there are a few categories of people that need to go back; nations have to go back, like our nation Nigeria, has to go back, where did we miss it? Families have to go back; individuals have to go back to the basics.
In this story, I see three categories of individuals; focus may be on one only,
which is the boy, he came back but there are other two who still needed to come back; one, the citizens of that city, those who were frolicking with him, going nightclub and doing all sorts of things, obviously they were not saved people, they were people who ultimately will also end up not well.
If a tick is sucking the blood of a dog and one day the dog dies, the tick will die also; so ultimately what happened to the boy will happen to them, so they need to come back, so anyone who is not in Christ needs to come back.
Who else needed to come back in that story? The brother of that boy was with the father; like a Christian, he’s still coming to Sunday school, he’s still coming to church every Sunday, he doesn’t miss services, he prays every time but he harbors hatred in his heart; he saw his brother who was lost, instead of being excited, he was annoyed and angry like Jonah; Jonah said God, I knew that you would forgive the people of Nineveh, that’s why I didn’t want to go, why did you worry my life?
Many of us are like that; we are Christians yes, but we still have little flies that we need to take care of in our lives; every one of us needs to come back to God this morning and the Lord will help us; His arms are open and waiting to receive us as we come back in the mighty name of Jesus.
I said earlier that nations have to come back, let me take this time to touch on nations particularly our Nigeria because a few days ago we celebrated independence; there was a time of boom in this nation, what did we do with the boom like the prodigal son? We wasted it; there was the oil boom, there were all sorts of boom, we wasted it and what’s happening to us now? Just like the prodigal son, challenges, difficult times and we continue to go in that difficult time and continue to go in the same path, what do we need to do? Come back, where did we miss it? Come back to the basics; come back to God and the Lord Almighty will receive us in the mighty name of Jesus.
2nd chronicles 7:14 says if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and will turn from my wicked ways: I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land; God is willing, God is ready, God is waiting, the question is are we ready to go back?
What must we do to go back? First, we must go back to our first love, we must go back to God and like I pointed out, there are three categories, I believe many of us or if not all of us fall into one of these three categories this morning, we need to go back to our first love, we must restore trust in our societies, can you be trusted?
Once upon a time in this nation, you can trust anyone, you can leave something anywhere and come back to see it but today you dare not try it, even when you are there they take it, how much more when you are not there, and when you say it’s the nation, who makes up the nation? Is it not every one of us? We must come back, praise God!
We must seek the good of others; today what do we see, to take the place of somebody by crushing them; you don’t necessarily have to crush them to take that place, there’s enough room for expansion, praise God! We don’t necessarily need to bring people down.
Number four: as children of God who know God, we should stop seeking after signs, after miracles, those things will come normally, we should seek after God and when you seek after God, when you long for God, everything that needs to happen to you God will make it happen; we all need to go back brethren, even in families we need to go back; the order in families has been turned upside down, you don’t even know in some places who is the father or who is the mother, you don’t even know who is the head of the home, is it the son or is it the daughter, we must come back brethren, we must reorder things so that things can work again; we need to come back home.
There is this song many years ago that says we need to come back; if you are traveling and you don’t know where you are going, you have to find your way back; that is exactly the point where we find ourselves today as individuals, as families and as a nation and the Lord Almighty will help us in the mighty name of Jesus.
The first action point in coming back as I said earlier is come back to your first love. For the prodigal son who was like a backslider, he was with the father and he left, he needed to come back, but for the other people who never knew God and who think they are enjoying life, there’s no enjoyment in those things you call life, you need to also come back; and then for the ministers, for the workers, for the pastors who with one eye are looking and saying is this truly a Christian? Who are you to judge? We need to all come back to God; the Lord Almighty will help us in the mighty name of Jesus.
I want to make an invitation this morning, in the three categories if we have people that need to come back to God, we need to come back home; when the Prodigal Son came back to the father, there was a turnaround in his fortune and his life was fulfilled; the Lord wants to give us the fullness of life according to His plan; His arms are open, He is waiting for us, the question is would you come back to Him?
If you are here this morning like those who never knew God and you want to come to Him, raise up your hands; you want to come to the Lord Almighty, you want to come back home, the home you never knew, you want to come to it and then be under the management of the Lord Almighty, wave those hands.
Now like the prodigal son, he used to be in the house of the father but the cares of this world took him out of home, but one day he realized he was in the wrong place and he came back; if you are here this morning, yes you were saved once upon a time but you went away, you went AWOL, you went off track, the Father’s arms are open, He wants you to come back.
You are here in the house, you used to be on the side of God but you want to come back, just wave your hands we’ll pray with you.
And like the brother of the prodigal son, you are spirit filled and tongue talking, everybody looks at you and say this is a Christian but you know that there are little flies to kill, you also need to come back. Please let us all rise up brethren, let’s begin to give thanks to God, thank You, thank You Lord, thank You for this opportunity, thank You for Your arms are open and waiting for me, thank You oh Lord, thank You because while I’m still dragging, I’m still wondering if I should take that decision or not, You are already running towards me; thank You Father; Father, I bless Your holy name in the name of Jesus. Thank You because I’m alive to hear this, glory be to Your name forever more in the mighty name of Jesus.
So we are going to pray and say Father, in whatever way that I have veered off the track, Lord I surrender unto You this morning, please restore me Lord; in any way and every way that I veered off the track, Father please restore me in the mighty name of Jesus; thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
The Prodigal Son started well, in between he went into challenges but from the account he ended well; brethren, it does not matter what it is that you are going through now, in the mighty name of Jesus you will end well; in the name of Jesus you will finish well. So you are going to pray and say Father, irrespective of my situation and circumstances now, by Your grace I will finish well; by Your grace I will end well in the mighty name of Jesus. I will end well by Your grace, I will finish well in the mighty name of Jesus.
