The Next Day

Introduction

One of the grand mysteries of the Bible that I’ve yet to figure out is why God takes the perfect message about his perfect son and puts it in imperfect hands like mine. I don’t understand that. But he does that and I I I’m so thankful he does. I love preaching and I love love being able to share things that I see in God’s word with each other. You know, I I announced Sunday that uh I recently retired from local work. I’m still preaching, but I’m just not going to be the local preacher anymore. And I ran across this story the other day about a preacher who retired, much like me.

He’d been preaching almost 50 years. And so he and his wife were boxing up his books like I have done recently and going through things in his office and noticed in the corner of his office there was a basket and there were four eggs and $3,000. He had never seen that before. He looked over his wife and says, “What is this?” She goes, “Oh, that’s mine. That’s mine.” She said, “Every time you preach a bad sermon, I put an egg in the basket.” And he looked and saw four eggs.

Four eggs in 50 years of preaches. That That’s just real good. He felt real good about himself. Where did $3,000 come from? Well, honey, every time I get a dozen eggs, I sell them. I kind of understand that feeling. This evening, I want to talk to you about one of the most difficult days we face. We dread this day. It happens all the time. It’s simply called the next day. off to a vacation. We get to sleep in. We’re having a good time. And then the vacation ends and it’s the next day.

Back to work, back to school, back to the routine, back to normal, off for the holidays and we get to do special things with the holiday. The family comes in, everything’s great, the food is awesome, and then the holiday ends and it is the next day. And that happens a lot even after a gospel meeting. We’ve come together every night this week. We’ve seen each other, but then the meeting ends and we go back to normal the next day. Part of our journey with the Lord and part of our understanding of how to walk with the Lord successfully is dealing with the concept of the next day.

And so this evening, I think no better place that really illustrates this better than the story of the prodal son. So if you got your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 15. And we’re going to talk about this. We have understood this, read this so many times when I teach on the parables. Uh it’s got to a point now where I ask people, “What is your favorite parable after the prodical son?” Because we all love this. We see ourselves in there. We have been the prodal.

There’s times we’ve been the older brother when we shouldn’t have been. We need to be like the father and sometimes that’s hard for us. Now, the context of this when we look at verse one and verse two is that the the the Pharisees had gathered together and they were complaining because Jesus was eating and receiving with the sinners. And so rather than saying yes, I do or no, I don’t, he gives us a series of parables. In many ways, this is one story with three points.

Was lost sheep, lost coin, and lost boys. And what we notice here as we look at this from a distance, we we see some progression here. We see we go from one out of a hundred sheep, one out 10 coins, one out two boys. And we also see the progression from going from an animal, a sheep, to coins to sons. Now, when I was just a young young preacher, one of my heroes was Robert Jackson. And I remember asking brother Jackson, “How many sermons do you have on the prodical son?”

And at the time, he said, “About 33.” And I said, “3?” Now, I’ve been preaching about 50 years. I can’t believe he only had 33 sermons. This is so rich and so beautiful and so wonderful. Let’s read it now. We’ve read it a zillion times, but let’s walk through it one more time. And our emphasis tonight is going to be on the next day. Luke f Luke 15 begin verse 11. And he said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.”

And he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country. And there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country and to begin to be in need. And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country and sent him out into the fields to feed the swine. Verse 16 says, “And he was longing to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him.

But when he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger. I will get up and go to my father and I will say to him, “Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men.” And he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to the father, the son said to him, “Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to the slaves, “Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s eat and be merry. This son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found.” And they began to be merry.

Now his older son was in the field. He came. He approached the house. He heard music and dancing. He summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things might be. And he said to him, “Your brother has come and your father has killed a fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.” But he became angry and was not willing to go in. His father came out and began intreating him. But he answered and said to his father, “Look, for many years, for all these years, I’ve been serving you and I’ve never neglected a command of yours.

And yet you’ve never given me a kid that I might be married with my friends. But when this son of yours came, he who has devoured your wealth with the harlots, you killed the fattened calf for him. And he said to him, “My child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.” But we had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead, has begun to live. He was lost, and he’s been found. We notice, of course, the emphasis of this chapter is about the grace of God.

It’s about how forgiving God is and how God is willing to accept us back. There’s nothing you do that can be so terrible, so wrong, so detrimental that God says no, not even you can come back. That this passage really shows us the focus of course is upon the decision of the prodal, the long walk back, the embrace of the father, the celebration, the grace and the forgiveness. And for the first time in a long time, the prodal felt loved. He felt accepted. He felt wanted and you can almost see him shaking his head in disbelief.

He can’t you can see him saying, “I don’t deserve all of this. You’ve done way too much.” There was music. There was dancing. There was a feast. There was a celebration. The prodal tasted the sweetness of his father’s forgiveness. No longer did he have to hold his head down. No longer was he uncomfortable to be around his father. No longer did he have to be reminded of the wrong that he had done. But the real test came the next day. What happens when the feast is eaten, the music stops, no one is dancing, and everyone’s gone home?

What happens the next day? Larry Osborne wrote a book called The Sticky Church. And in that book he says if the back door of the church is left wide open it doesn’t matter how many people are coaxed to come in the front door or the side door for that matter. Yet most churches give the back door scant attention. We’ve often become so focused on reaching people that we’ve forgotten the importance of keeping people. Our churches need to be stickier.

How do we keep people? Now when we think about the prodal we need to understand that some things had not changed. Even though he came home, he was still under his father’s authority. When he left, he it wasn’t so much that I’m a boy in the country and I want to see the bright lights of the city. He left because he did not like the lifestyle that his father lived. I’m tired of your rules. I’m tired of your lifestyle. I’m tired of your God. I’m tired of your religion.

I want no rules. I want to be on my own. When he comes back home, that doesn’t change. that didn’t say, “I’m so glad to have you back. I’m not going to have any more rules for you.” That didn’t happen. And so, some things had never changed. And he had to understand and appreciate that that he was still under the father’s rule. As a son, he had responsibilities. He wasn’t free to do whatever he felt like doing. The father’s rules were still enforced.

There were duties to be done. The father had not relieved the prodal of those things. The father had not changed. And secondly, he still had an obnoxious brother. The brother was glad to see him go and the brother hated that he came back and and the two were very different. There was no hugging when the prodal returned. The relationship stank before and it remained the same. Their strained and bitter relationship remained the same. And thirdly, he still had the taste of temptation.

Temptations don’t stop. We think about the gospel of Luke in chapter 4 when the devil was tempting Jesus. After the third temptation, it says when the devil had finished every temptation, he left him until an opportune time. He didn’t leave him period. He left him. But I’m coming back. I’m coming back when there’s a better time to come back. And so we see that once you’ve opened the door to the devil, he’ll keep banging and banging and banging on that door because it’s easier and easier to open it up.

1. He Had a Past to Live With

the story of Joseph Potters for his wife day in and day out she was tempting him and so we see this but oftent times in a crisis a famine in a far country will bring a person back but what happens when the famine ends what happens when the fog lifts what happens when the crisis passes what happens the next day and so I want to share with you four simple things I see here in this text that will help us with this. The first of all, we see that he had a past that he had to live with.

Now, can you imagine that next morning he wakes up in bed, not in the pig pin, not outside in the barn where he thought he’d be sleeping because that’s where servants sleep, but waking up in the house in his bed, looking at his hand, and there’s a big old ring on there. That’s not just a pretty ring. It’s the signant ring. It would be like giving somebody a stack of signed checks. The father trusts you. Draped over his bed would have been not just a robe, the best robe, most likely the father’s robe.

At the foot of the bed were some sandals. Servants never wore sandals. Sons wore sandals. And so he looked upon those things and and and you you see that. But he had a past to live with. And one of the things we see and appreciate with this is even though you’re forgiven, there remains consequences. You can say, “I am sorry, father. I I I ruined the family name. I lost the money.” But saying you’re sorry doesn’t bring the money back. There are consequences.

And consequences remain. There are choices with this. David committed sin with Basheba. God forgave him, but a child was born. Judas betrayed the Lord, tried to give the money back, and yet a Lord was crucified. And we see there are consequences that follow us. You may lose your license. You may lose a job. You may lose a friendship. You may lose a fellowship. You can be forgiven by God, but there remains consequences. And this was something he had to live with. He lost a big part of his father’s earnings by loose living and again you have to think about that also with this regard others will remember that you know whenever we tell this story it’s always the story of the prodal son if I told you this this evening I want you to open your Bible to the story of the repentant son love is maybe all over well what son are you talking about where in our Bible or I want I want you to story about the son who was forgiven.

And again, we might be all over our Bible. We know him as the prodal, but he did not remain the prodal. But sometimes others won’t let us forget that. Rather than reckless and irresponsible, he became something that his father once again loved and was proud of. Story is told of a young man that had an anger problem and he would just say things he shouldn’t say and punch things and do things. And so his father took him out to the back fence and gave him a whole bucket of nails and says, “Every time you’re angry, son, pound a nail into this fence.”

Boy, he got home from school one day and he’s just pounding and pounding and pounding. Another day of school, he’s pounding and pounding. There’s all kinds of nails in that fence. So the father said one day now I want you to take out every single nail that you pounded into that fence and he removed them all but there was holes everywhere. You see others will remember and in our Bibles we remind ourselves in the book of Philippians chapter 3 where Paul says I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.

And how we do this is not to live with guilt, to know that we are forgiven and not to return to that life that we once lived because it was wrong. And to accept the father’s forgiveness. And I believe one of the hardest things of all is to forgive yourself. God forgives me. But sometimes we we we will not forgive ourselves. We keep punishing ourselves. I do not deserve to stand on this side of the pulpit ever again. I do not deserve to do this. I do not deserve to take the Lord’s supper.

2. He Had to Learn His New Identity

I do not deserve. And if God has forgiven you, you need to forgive yourself. Secondly, he had to learn his new identity. He came home saying, “Make me a servant.” But the father said, “No, you are a son.” And he would, would he still feel like a failure, like an outsider, like a loser, like he didn’t belong? But again, that’s the idea he had to see. Instead of a servant, he was a son. He was dead, but now he was alive. His father wanted him to sit at the table in the house and accept the new relationship he had.

Got your Bible? Turn with me to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 6. And notice the last verse, verse 18. 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 18. Here the Bible says as as he’s talking about this relationship we have through Christ. 2 Corinthians ⁠6:18, “And I will be a father to me to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Do you get that? You are a son of God. Now, you can’t walk on water. You can’t do miracles. You can’t raise the dead. But we’re talking about relationship. You are a daughter of heaven. That’s how God sees us.

But sometimes we say, “Well, no, no, no. That that goes to the elders. That goes to the preachers. I’m I’m just I’m just a regular person. I’m just a Christian. I’m stumbling and bumbling along.” That’s how God sees you. And so again, what he had to do was to accept this new relationship. And then I love this quotation I found. God isn’t only in big miracles in the Bible. He’s in a small mercies in your life, getting you home safely, calming your mind at the right moment, sending the right person to check on you.

3. He Had to Begin Building New Habits

Don’t overlook the little ways he’s been keeping you. How many times can we say that is so true that has happened to us over and over again. Number three, what’s happened here? He had to begin building new habits. Things had to be different. You see, no more reckless spending. No more wild living. No more think of just of yourself. No more living just for the moment. You see, coming home is a moment. Staying home is a lifestyle. I had a friend and he did this at the worst possible time.

We were at a gospel meeting and we were at a pitchin or potlook and we just eaten like hogs and he says, “Roger, I want to show you this app.” And this app, you put in here what you just ate and it says, “If every day is like today, a year from now, I will be like this.” And I said, “Well, thank you. after I ate. You put that in there. You know, if every day was like today, a year from now, I’ll probably be dead. You know, but what if what if every day was like today?

Would I worry less or would I worry more? What if every day was like today? Would I be more spiritual or would I be less spiritual? What if every day was like today? Would I be more thoughtful or would I be more selfish if every day was like today? And so some people are in a ditch spiritually and they have no idea how they got there. They have no idea because they’ve been thinking thoughts they shouldn’t have. They’ve been hanging around people they shouldn’t hang around. They’ve been doing things they shouldn’t been doing. And so for the prodal, if he’s going to make any changes, he has to begin building new habits.

You get this child who ran away. He comes back home. If things don’t change, he’s going to run away again. You get a couple who separated, their marriage isn’t going right. If they come back together, if there is no changes, they’re going to separate again. Something has to change. Older brother’s not changing, the father’s not changing, it had to be the prodigal. And so when the first thing he had to change, he had to change the way he thought.

Turn your Bibles if you will, to the book of Colossians. And Colossians is a great place to illustrate this. Colossians chapter 3. He left thinking only about himself. He thought he left only thinking about how miserable he was at home. How much pleasure was awaiting him and how all that he wanted to do. But when he came back home, he had to think again about his father. He had to think about home. He had to think about what it meant to be at home. So in Colossians chapter 3 beginning at verse 5 here he says therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality impurity passion evil desire greed which amounts to idolatry for it’s to account of these things that the wrath of God will come.

Stop right there. Consider them dead. You don’t ever see somebody in your neighborhood walking a dead dog, do you? You don’t see anybody putting out food for a dead dog. You know what you and I do? We keep it on life support. We have IVs going in now. It’s not doing well. I’m getting a little bit farther away from my sins, but we keep it alive. Paul says, “Consider it dead. It’s over. No more,” he says. And so then he says, he says, “Is on account of these things the wrath of God will come.

In them you once walked and you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside. Anger. Why does he start with that word? He could have put that one about the fifth word down, couldn’t he? Anger. I have to deal with that one. Every time I get in the car, I think, how in the world did these people get a driver’s license? What in the world? And they’re always driving right in front of me, right behind me. And boy, it just pushes my limit. It pushes my limit.

I talk to my car all the time. My wife says, “You know that car is not going to answer you back.” I said, “I know, but I’m I’m talking to it. I’m talking to it.” Put aside anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with this evil practices. You see why he’s saying you’ve changed. You’re not just going to church. You’re not just being a little bit nicer. you’ve changed.

And so he says, you put on, verse 10, the new self is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him down here in verse 12. And so to those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiven each other. Whoever has a complaint against one another, just as the Lord also forgave you, so should you do. Keep your finger here.

Also, go with me to the book of 1 Corinthians, if you will. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We know the Paul describes biblical love. Now, the context of 1 Corinthians 13, 12, 13, and 14, Paul’s talking about spiritual gifts. Corinthian church is kind of messed up about those things. In the midst of this, he writes some things about love. Now, it’s not like Paul’s writing this and say, “Oh man, I forgot I got a wedding to do this Saturday. I better write something down here. Now, this has nothing to do with weddings.

Has everything to do with you and me, how we see each other, how we feel about each other, how we treat each other. And so, it says here in 1 Corinthians 13 begin verse four, love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous. Love does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take account of wrongs suffered. But what it does does not rejoice in righteousness, but rejoices with the truth.

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Look at this a second time. Every time you see the word love, put it in your name. Roger’s patient. Don’t start with that word. Why don’t you start with Roger’s love? I can handle that one. Can you say that? Your name is kind. You are not jealous. You do not brag. Read it a third time. Every time you see the word love, put in Jesus. Jesus is patient. Yeah, we can put all kinds of verses on that. Jesus is kind. Jesus is not jealous.

Jesus does not brag. Jesus is not arrogant. Jesus does not act unbecomingly. Jesus does not seek his own. Jesus is not provoked. Jesus did not take account of wrongs suffered. Jesus does not rejoice in righteousness but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things. Jesus believes all things. Jesus hopes all things. Jesus endures all things. Jesus never fails. You see that? And so when we think about this, when the prodal came home, he had to change his thinking.

He had stinking thinking when he left. He came back home and he had to change that. Secondly, he had to change his behavior because his behavior wasn’t right either. And he had to change that. He had to become what God wanted him to become. He had to do what God wanted him to do. Or in the book of second Peter chapter 2. Second Peter chapter 2. Notice this word that Peter uses here. Begin at verse 20. Second Peter chapter 2 and begin verse 20. here as Peter is talking about our walk with the Lord.

He says in 2 Peter ⁠2:20, “For if after they escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them.” Entangled is is a hunting word. It’s like trapping. You ever go fishing and you throw your line out there and nothing? You throw it again, nothing. You throw it again, nothing. So about that time, you’re either going to change your bait, move your boat, or you’re going to just go home.

What he’s saying here is Satan has a way of catching us. And so if if once we’ve escaped, we become entangled again and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn away from the holy commandments delivered to them. It’s happened according to the true proverb. A dog returns his own vomit. A s after washing returns to the wiring in the mire.

You know what’s worse than going to hell is being a Christian in hell. I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be up there. I’ve been baptized in Jesus Christ. But I got hooked up against Satan. I got tangled up in Satan. I fell away from Jesus Christ. I am a Christian, but I didn’t live like a Christian. And you’re going to be surrounded with people who say, “Well, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be up there.” Well, I acted like you. I talked like you. I walked with you. I hung around with you. That’s why I’m down here. And so, again, as we think about this concept here, he had to change his behavior.

And then he had to change his relationship with his father. What kept him home was not the robe, was not the food, was not the ring, but it was the father. It meant trusting the father. It meant enjoying the father’s company. It meant talking and listening to the father. It meant staying where the father was. And so, as John 15:E4 says, abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.

4. He Had to Face Old Battles Once Again

And then finally, as we think about this, he had to face old battles once again. His older brother was angry and unforgiving, refused to acknowledge the relationship. Coming home to his father meant his brother was there. Not everyone you meet is going to be as forgiving as God is. The writer Philip Yansy who recently got all kinds of trouble but he wrote this story about this woman who came to his office and she was so addicted to drugs that she was prostituting out her own four-year-old daughter for drug money.

As a trying to think about what to tell this woman, he says, “Have you thought about going to church?” and she said, “Church, I’m already feeling bad about myself. They will only make me feel worse.” What a shame it is. How many people out there would love to come back in? They’re not fearing God. They’re fearing us. The staires, the looks, the size, the wonder what he did this time, and all those comments. Not everyone’s going to forgive you like God. But you got to keep going. Not everyone’s going to give you a second chance like God does.

Not everyone really cares about that. But what you have to do is you got to remain humble. And what you have to do is you got to stay patient. And what you have to do is remain faithful to God through all these things. If you’re in a far country, you’ve got to come home. And we have to realize that we don’t want to run without God because there’s no hope without God. But we don’t want to run ahead of God because we won’t be with him. We don’t want to run behind God.

Conclusion

The issue is to stay right beside God today, tomorrow, and forever, the next day. It’s a lesson we need to think about. It’s a lesson elders need to think about. How do we keep people going? It’s a lesson preachers think about. How do we keep people committed? How do we light the fire so people will come? So easy to get people baptized, but then they don’t stay. That does very, very little good. Well, you’re right here in the land of Disney, and there’s a story about a family who went to Disney for the very first time, and they entered the gate with a throng of people, and there was the mighty Cinderella Castle before them.

And the little 5-year-old just up there looking at that, just wow. just standing there looking at that. And the mother said, “Come on, let’s go.” And he said, “You mean there’s more. We need to realize there is more. There’s more in our relationship with God. If you’re not close to God’s people, you need to be. You need these people. You need these people to help you. If you’re young, you need these people to help advise you and help you make your uh decisions in life. When you’re old and lonely, you need these people when you’re middle.

got all these kids. As I said the other day, when I see my four kids, it’s like they’re backpacking across America. They come in here with all these bags and all this stuff, you know, but they need encouragement. They need help. They need to let people know, I’m glad you’re here. We need each other. We need God. And sometimes we have bad days. Sometimes we realize, I said some things I shouldn’t have said. I had some attitudes at work or school.

Shouldn’t have had shouldn’t have had said some things I shouldn’t have said. Jesus say, “Well, I can’t do it. I’m going to quit.” But there’s always that next day. God’s willing to give you a second chance. God’s willing to say, “You can do better.” Look at these people of God. They’re doing the same thing you’re doing. They’re trying their best. And they’ve got Jesus Christ with them. And that’s the answer. And so day after day after day after day until someday, as we talked the other day about that door of death.

Someday we’ll go through that door of death and there won’t be another day. Every day will be the same. We’ll be with the Lord. All this stuff will be over. And so the goal is not to say how many degrees or how many letters I can get after my name, how much money can I amass, how many cars can I get, all this stuff like that. That’s not what life’s about. It’s about when I go through that door, I want to be with Jesus and I want to be with him forever.

That’s what it’s all about. So this evening, we can help you. You never been baptized. That’s where it starts. Got to come home to God. Got to realize the reason why I’m with pigs because I chose that. Reason why I messed up stuff is because it was my choices. It wasn’t following the Bible to put me there. It was my choices. my way doesn’t work, maybe it’s time to try his way. And I start doing that and I’m listening and I’m believing and I’m changing and I’m getting baptized.

And then I’m walking with Jesus. I’m walking so close I could touch him. I’m walking so close. He’s right there. When he stops, I stop. When he turns left, I turn left. When he goes right, I go right. When he goes straight, I go straight. And I I’m not going to argue with Jesus. Why? Because he is the one He’s the one that let me come home. He is the one that says, “No, you’re not sleeping in the barn tonight. I want you at the table with me.” If you’re subjecting