The Most Difficult Journey of All — Carter Conlon

Luke chapter 15 please in the New Testament. I want to speak to you this morning about the most difficult journey of all. Now some here today you think you're on a difficult journey and most likely there's great truth in that but I think there's a journey we're gonna see it in this story that might be more difficult than any other that you'll have to undertake and some of you this morning are on it right now.

Let's pray. Father I thank you God with all my heart for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now Holy Spirit if you don't come we waste our time. Lord you've got to quicken this word, you've got to cause hearts to burn, you've got to give me the power to speak it, you have to give me the authority.

Lord it all has to come from your hand. I stand only as a vessel in your hand. Lord I don't have anything unless you choose to give it to me. I'm asking Oh God for an anointing to unlock prison doors and to see people set free all through this sanctuary and through this annex.

I pray God not there not be a person left in distress today, a person without hope, anyone unsaved, anyone Oh God who'd not know the depths of your love. I thank you for this anointing. I thank you God that you will vanquish every enemy.

I give you praise and glory for this in Jesus mighty name. Luke chapter 15 beginning at verse 11, a story that Jesus had to tell. Republicans and sinners and Pharisees that were gathering around. 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. Not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country where he wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all 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 hard servants of my father's have bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him father I've sinned against heaven and before thee and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants.

The Goodness of the Father's House

Now the concept of home evokes memories in all of us. If I were to just speak of home and everything that home embodies today. Some memories are pleasant and some aren't. You can think of things that were or things that you wish had been.

Things that were pleasant things that were unpleasant to recall. Things that we would love to relive when we talk about home or wish with all our might that it had never happened. And I don't know really what get into the heart of this young boy but one day in the father's house and in the father's house he was aware of the goodness of his father because at the end of his journey it came back into his mind again.

And he knew his father was good but for a particular reason he said father I'm I've had it with this place. I'm tired of this of being here and I want what you have given me. I want what you provide for me.

Now that the goods that God gives to all people yourself myself included is life. First of all at 1725 Paul says he gives to all life and breath and all things. We are here today because God created us in his own image.

He gave us life. He gave us the power to reason. There are certain qualities that only come from God. God said in Genesis let us make men in our image and in our likeness. We have the capacity folks to make choices.

We can love or we can choose to hate. We can do right or do wrong. We can give or we can take for ourselves. And these are things that are not found in a free will choice anywhere but in human life. These are the goods.

We have the knowledge as it is of our father being good. Romans tells us Paul says that nature itself declares the glory of God and the majesty of God so that one day all men will stand before God and be without excuse.

Just observing the heavens as it is and the way things are throughout the world. All men if they and women if they had had an honest heart could have said God if you are there please reveal yourself to me.

And the Lord makes it very clear that he would have revealed himself. And we ask ourselves why knowing the goodness of his father did this boy want to leave? What is it today that causes so many young people to vacate the house of God?

I used to travel as a revivalist I guess of sorts years ago and the one thing that troubled me above all else is going into all these churches and many of them a history of revival. Many of them a great legacy in years gone by but now you look at the church and there's hardly a young face in the congregation.

I remember one time I was about to preach and the Lord just changed my topic right in the pulpit and I stood up there and I said where are your children? Where have they gone? Why are they no longer in the house of God?

What is it about the practice of this house that is causing these young ones to vacate the house of the Lord? Now I thank God with all my heart here at Times Square Church that really as I look out even this morning now this is the Sunday morning service so there's more of a broad base of all ages but three o 'clock on Sunday the median age is probably under 30 years of age.

I thank God for it with all my heart. Thank God that on Friday night 750 high schoolers now and young adults are coming out to a Friday evening service to have an encounter with God. I praise God. We have to ask ourselves the question why then did he want to leave?

The Older Brother and the Loss of Joy

Now I've always believed that it was because of his older brother. You see the father was good but the older brother was to be the inheritor of the house when the father was gone and the younger son looked at this older brother and the older brother when you look in the scriptures tells us that in verses 29 and 30 it tells us that he was a worker a hard worker that he was joyless and that he was angry when things didn't go his way those are the three adjectives that describe this older brother a hard worker remember Ephesus how hard they worked but they were losing their first love that he was joyless he said to his father when the his younger brother finally came home he said listen I've worked all these years and served all these hours in the field and you've never even given me a goat that I might have some form of merriment with my friends and he was angry because of the mercy of his father.

These are the characteristics of this older brother and I do believe that because he was about to inherit the house as it is the younger son looked and says I can't live here. Yeah I love my father but I can't live here.

And folks I can't help but think of all of the young people who have left the house of the Lord because of those who have inherited it those who work hard but have so little mercy. There's so little joy.

You ever been in a place like that where there's just a little joy. Everything is labor. It's come in son welcome to the house of God grab your broom and enjoy your Christian life. It's all about service it's all about work and it's all about rules.

And it's all about if you if you don't look like this if you don't keep this standard if you don't walk this certain way if you don't speak this way if you if you don't embrace as it is the image of what we think is godliness will push you to the sides of the temple and will keep you marginalized until you finally realize what holiness really is.

And this younger brother looked at his older brother and said I can't live there. And that's why so many young people are leaving the house of the Lord. We would like to we'd like to say well it's you know it's because of the media it's because of the airwaves that it's because of the testimony of all these ungodly things that are.

But they've always been there folks all throughout history in various forms. You just happen to have the media in our generation. No no no no if it's the house of God there's got to be something in our fellowship.

There's got to be something in our worship of God in our service to God. There's got to be something in us and you and me that makes this an attractive house for young people. He was in a hard place he loved his father.

But I can't live in your house dad. That's really what he was saying. I love you. I know you're good but I I can't. I can't live here. So give me my goods and let me go. And I think of all the young people who have been trained in the Lord they have they know the difference between right and wrong.

There's been a decency of the character of God embedded in their very nature and they take these goods. And just like this young man they head out down the road into a place of riotous living. The scripture says it actually means self-consumption into the land of self into the land of all.

I'm gonna live for myself. I'm gonna find out what's in this for me. I can't live in this narrow place. I can't live in this place where there's so little joy there's so little laughter there's so little reason to want to even stay there.

The Famine of Truth and the Descent into Sin

And he went out into this place and the tells us that suddenly one day he had spent all in other words all of the goodness that was in it was starting to leave. And folks you can leave the house of God a good person and start walking along.

You can go a long way on what you learn. But eventually the fallen nature in your heart and in mine will begin to take over and everything that you once had begins to drain out of your life until there's so very very little left.

And suddenly there was a famine. The scripture tells us in this particular land that he was in and he began to be in want. There was a famine folks like there's a famine in the days of Amos a famine of hearing the words of God.

And sad to say there's a encroaching famine. I believe throughout the world that we're living in today a famine for truth. A famine for where are we going. Why are we recreated. What is the purpose of life.

Where is the future taking us. Why am I here. Why should I care. How do I find meaning and purpose in my life. And there was a famine but he had spent his resources. There was so little left in him now and he began to be in want.

And the scripture says he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Now he went headlong now into this place that is far away from the heart of his father and in this place now he's a Jewish boy.

Now he's been trained in Judaic law and he knows that pigs as it is are the lowest form of life on the earth. That what he would know that. And now this boy that once lived in his father's house finds himself out in this place of selfishness.

And he's now feeding as it is the lowest forms of living. And he knows it and how it must have bothered him. He's giving his strength as it is. And that's exactly where you will go. When you walk away from the house of the Lord you will find yourself feeding the lowest form of your fallen nature.

And you'll be powerless to turn away from it powerless to change it. You don't want to do it as the Apostle Paul says. I know I shouldn't do these things and I don't want to do these things. But I don't know how to change.

I find myself encased in a body of death and I don't know how to get out of this. And that's exactly where this young boy must have been. What a tragedy to be feeding the very thing that you've been taught all your life is the lowest form.

I think of the young people in our generation who are and men and women created in the image of God and feasting now feeding the pornographers because you see they wouldn't have an industry if you didn't watch it.

And feeding just simply by virtue of the fact that you're paying fees for certain things that you watch and fill your mind with and buying books that should never have been written in the first place and in a sense enabling this low form of life to exist.

Because you are now out there feeding it. And the scripture says that he got so hungry that he would have filled his belly with the husks that the pigs swine did eat but no man gave to him. He got so hungry that he started to go lower not just enabling it but now wanting to participate in what it was eating.

I think of years ago here in New York City when at a parade some women were thrown to the ground and strangers began to assault them. And men who were there of every walk of life and from different states not even knowing one another joined in the fray.

Instead of helping these women who are terrorized joined in the fray you see because they were they have been feeding something. And now they were going to the lower part of where that feeding is going to lead people to.

The Bible speaks of an outbreak of lawlessness that is almost unimaginable in the last days of time a rebellion against God that will stagger the natural mind. And folks I don't think it's that far away.

I think people are out there now and they're not only just feeding this lower nature but they're now wanting to partake of it. What you set your eyes upon you will become what you think like. That's what you will do where you're focusing that's where you're going to turn eventually so many people commit horrendous crimes for example.

And when they finally get under oath and they're standing in the witness box they say I never imagined I ever would have done something like this. It was the farthest thing from my mind. But it was a gradual slide.

And the story is always the same. You see this young man now he's so hungry he's so low now that he would have he was spiraling down that he found himself wanting to partake of this lower lower nature that was all around him but suddenly just hit a wall.

Coming to Himself and the Father's Pursuit

You see because he was a son of God he was raised by a good father he was made in the image of God and it's it's as if he could go only so far. And when he started to reach out to go that last step the scripture says strangely no man would give to him.

Now why wouldn't anybody give to him. Well why could he not just say looks and I want I want to eat some of that that that slough. I want to partake of that that refuse that is being fed this lower nature that is all around me.

And suddenly everyone seems to be happy with this boy in their midst. But when it comes to that point all of a sudden nobody will give it to him. I want to tell you what I believe is because it was a divine hand that was saying to Satan and every power of hell this far and no farther.

This far and no farther. This is my son this is my daughter. This one is created in my image this one was raised in my house. And I envision a day that we're now living in when God Almighty is going to bring his sons and daughters home to his house one more time.

I can see a day when young people from every walk of life yes they're going to look like they're a mess. They're gonna pins and needles stuck almost every place imaginable. Their hair will be every color under the Sun.

But you and I had better get prepared to rejoice you and I had better get prepared to dance. Because I want to tell you something when they come through the door of this house or any other church that has the name of Jesus Christ on it they have a Heavenly Father that has met them long long down the road and he's been walking with them all the way home.

Praise be to God. I don't know but you but I shall not be found in the shoes of the older brother with arms folded angry and judging everything around. Thanks be to God. I don't care what they look like as long as they come home into the house of God.

The Hardest Journey: Returning Home

This boy had been in a hard place. That hard place was leaving the father's house in the beginning. Then he got into a harder place and that's in the field feeding swine. But now he's in the hardest place of all.

And the hardest place of all was coming home. And it's hard for some of these young ones to come home because they don't look like we do. They don't. There's there's there have been some things that they've been doing.

There's there's a certain sense of death that has tried to grip them but because God is merciful he's not allowed it to happen. And he's bringing them home. And this boy the Bible says he was a long way off and he said I even in my father's house even the slaves the servants have a lot to eat.

And he said I'm perishing out here with hunger. And as distasteful as it was to him he got up and I don't think he was all enamored with coming home. I think he thought well I'm just gonna go home. And what's that prayer.

My brother always prayed. Oh yes. I'm unworthy. That's my brother's prayer. He thinks that's holy. He thinks it's holy to come into the prayer closet every day and just just declare his total complete unworthiness even though he slaves out in the field all day.

He's he's joyless. But he said at least that's what he prays. The father seems to accept that. So he gets up and he he gets this prayer mantra as it is. I'm unworthy make me a servant or a slave. Actually the original translation is probably closer to make me a slave and I feel he's saying make me like my brother.

It's it's at least it's better than being out here. And he gets up and starts heading home and the Bible says he was at a long way off. Amazing when all of a sudden his father saw him. Now he's so far off he can't even see the house.

And the very first thing he sees this figure coming running down the road. And suddenly it would dawn on him. That's my father. And he sees his father has left the house and his older brother is still out there.

His older brother is still sweating. His older brother is still joyless. But his father has left the house. And he sees this old man come running down the road as fast as those old feet could carry him.

And he watches him running towards him. And how this must have shocked him. I've made such a mess of the family name. I've lived out in a field with pigs. I've partaken of things that a son of God should not be part of.

But he sees this father coming towards him. And the Bible says the father fell on his neck and kissed him. How shocking it must have been. How confusing it must have been for this boy at this time. And then I can see the father just putting his arm around his son.

And the two of them start heading on their journey home back to the house and he doesn't know what to do. The father's not saying anything to him. He's not talking about the mess he made. He's not talking about his sin.

He's not talking about how badly he must have smelled. He's not saying anything about it. He's got his arm around his shoulder. He's walking him back into the house and the house is a long way off because the scripture says he was a long way off when his father met him.

I don't know how long this journey took. And the boy starts praying. Oh father I've sinned I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your servants. And there's no response. Father I've sinned I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me one of your servants. No response. They walk for another half hour. Father I've sinned I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your servants. And there's no response. And there's a reason the father's saying that's.

I'm not meeting you on that ground. I'm not meeting you there. I'm meeting you on the ground of redemption. I'm meeting you on the ground of mercy. I'm meeting you on the ground of covering. I'm meeting you in the place of empowerment.

You want to go on like that. You go on like that, but I'm not meeting you there. God says The devil will try to tell you you're unworthy. He will try to tell you this is how you got to pray. This is what holiness is all about.

But God says you pray it every morning pray it all day if you want, but I'm not meeting you. I'm not talking to you on that ground because that's not what I do. That's not where I am. That's not how I feel in my heart towards you.

I am your father. You were created in the image of God. And so the boy is walking with his father. I don't know how many times he must have repeated this prayer and then finally the father's lips begin to move.

Finally the son must have thought well now he's gonna start we're getting closer now. And so my brother's gonna meet me. So now at least he's got to talk to me about my sin or something he's got to at least chastise me talk to me about what I should or shouldn't have done and The very first thing out of the father's mouth as soon as he gets close to the house.

Robe, Ring, and Authority

Where the servants can hear him he claps his hands and says bring the finest robe. That is in the house and put it on my son. The finest robe not just any robe the finest robe the one that's reserved for royalty for special guests.

The one that we keep for that special occasion bring the finest robe and put it on my son. Praise be to God. The finest robe in the house of God is the blood of Jesus Christ the cleansing blood. God says bring the finest robe in the house bring the finest robe and put it on my son.

You can see the servants coming and putting this robe that is reserved for only the most special of royalty and guests and putting it Covering him covering the smell covering the stain covering all that he had done covering all the wrong.

Covering him. He's not coming in as a slave. He's walking into the house as a son of God. He's walking in fully covered fully forgiven. That's what the cross is all about. That's what you've got to know this morning.

The cross is not Something that God did so he could judicially forgive you and then sit back on a throne and point his finger at your mistakes. The cross is God's mercy to pour his wrath on his own son.

That's so that you might be covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Praise be to God. Now the son must be overwhelmed. He's covered. He's coming down the carp the pathways. It is not as a slave but as royalty fully received by his father fully Enabled to walk in clean into the house and now the father speaks again bring the ring and put it on his hand.

This must have stunned this boy beyond measure. The ring as in Roman times was a Symbol of authority for example a Roman ruler if he wanted to make a law or a decree and of course he found it in Judaism as well.

He would take the ring of the highest authority. He would press and seal the document with the insignia of that ring and that made it law and he's saying put the Righteousness of the house upon my son and now put a ring of authority upon his hand.

Praise be to God. Jesus said I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means Hurt you he said every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

You will condemn it. This is your heritage. You have a cleanness. We call it a righteousness and God says I gave you the cleanness and nobody has a right to call you unclean once I have cleansed You when I have received you you are received when I have covered you.

You are covered and I give you power not as a slave but as a son. And then he gives a third commandment. He says now bring out the shoes and put them on his feet. And the symbolism of that is that son you and I have a journey to undertake together now.

You didn't know anything about me. You judged me by the older brother. You didn't know who I was. But now, you know, my kingdom is all about mercy and we have it. We have so many places we need to go.

Mercy as a Testimony to the World

Can you see that boy going back into the fields? Can you see him going back into the land of selfishness in the days ahead saying listen? I've got to tell you about my father. I've got to tell you the message my life was.

I've got to tell you how far I was from everything that I was created to be. But I've got to tell you what happened to me on the road one day. I walked into Times Square Church. It was June 2008. I walked into the church and Suddenly in the midst of it all there was this vision of God that was open to me and I began to understand That God is good and his mercy endures forever.

He covered my sin and not only did he cover my sin, but he gave me authority over powers of evil and darkness. He unlocked prison doors and set my mind free. He gave me a new heart. He gave me a new spirit.

He gave me a new mind. He gave me a new life. He put things inside of me that I've never known were there before. He gave me words. He gave me power to tread on everything that it once treaded upon me.

And it was all done through the mercy of God. The mercy of my father has rewritten my life. Praise be to God. We're about to have in this facility a teen challenge conference this week now. It's not Times Square Church doing it.

It's the organization teen challenge. But there is the very epitome of everything God's given me to speak on this morning. We're hundreds and perhaps thousands of people whose lives have been irrevocably changed by the mercy of God.

Praise be to God. That's the testimony of God. That's the glory of God. That's the purpose of God. That's where the life of God is found. That's where the church becomes the church again when we open our doors and say come you lame.

Do you halt you maimed you blind. Come without money come without price? Come and find what we have found. Come and find cleansing. Come and find hope. Come and find life in this house. Where God is good and his mercy endures forever then the father says Come into the house son.

Joy in Heaven Over One Repentant Sinner

He says strike up the band. I Don't know if you've ever seen a Jewish celebration I have in Jerusalem. But I can picture this father that is that it wouldn't for his son. And now I see him dancing. Because that's what a Jewish celebration is all about.

There's no getting around it folks. It's very lively. It's wonderful to see it. I was at a Jewish wedding one time in Jerusalem and it I was stood in the doorway just amazed at the pure and exuberant joy of that celebration.

Praise be to God night. I can hear the Jewish music. Starting to play and I see the father starting to dance in the middle of the room and the son is standing inside the door. And he's stunned. He's empowered.

He is a journey. He's cleansed and The joy of the Lord now is becoming his strength. He sees the joy in his father and begins to understand. It's been my father's work all along to give me life. It's been the father's work to cleanse me the father's work that I might know his heart and the joy.

He sees the joy this incredible joy in the father's house over him. Over him and it's all over him. The fatted calf is killed there that that meal that they they save for royalty. He's got the garment of royalty.

He's got the ring of authority. He's got the shoes of an ambassador of the house and there's a party a massive party going on. People are shouting and dancing and clapping and singing and he's standing there saying it's all because of me.

Doesn't the Bible say there's joy in the presence of the angels of heaven over one sinner that repents there's joy. Did you know this morning that you can cause a party in heaven before noon today? You can cause the angels to begin to rejoice.

Did you know today. That there are instruments most likely that we've never seen before and right now. They're tuning the strings and right now they're getting all tuned up and ready to go just because of you.

Just because of you because somewhere somebody is going to understand. This is a kingdom of mercy. It's all mercy. It started in mercy. It progresses in mercy. It continues in mercy. It will finish in mercy.

It's all mercy. It's all goodness. It's all the glory of God being revealed in the hearts of men. Praise be to God. Maybe at home. Maybe nobody ever threw a party for you. Maybe you never had a birthday party.

Maybe the sound of music makes you sick, but I'm telling you there's a party in heaven about to break out over you. Then you say today. Well, surely there I must have a part in all of this. What must I do?

I must have to do something. It can't be that easy. I can't just walk on this road and have it all done to me. What do I do? Well here let me give it put it to you simply don't do this to God. Don't put your hands out and say no.

Wait a minute now. It can't be that easy. No, you can't put that coat on me. Don't do that to God put your hands down and let him put that coat of righteousness on you. So many people think that's holy.

Oh, no, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. No, I'm not worthy and They put their hands out and push the father way and push the servants away. You might even be hearing this and pushing me away right now.

But I tell you in God's name put your hands down. Let Christ put that coat of righteousness on you. Let your sin be covered. Let your sin be forgiven. I Don't have to tell you to turn away from sin if you're like this boy.

He's already on the way home already wanting to come back already sick of the way. He's been living. That's all that God requires is an honest heart saying Lord. I'm tired of this. I don't even understand your house, but I'm heading back to it.

Accepting Mercy and Walking in Faith

You say what else can I do what else is my part? Well, you can't have a ring put on your finger with your fist closed. You got to forgive God. You got to forgive your older brother. You got to forgive everybody that wronged you and open your hands and praise to God.

That's when God can slip the ring on your finger when you lift your hands and begin to praise and you can see he's got The coat on oh, he's overwhelmed and all of a sudden they come and they slip that ring of authority on his hand.

Praise be to God praise be to God praise be to God. What else do I do? Well, the other thing I can see is lift your foot and let them put the shoes on it. Proverbs 3 5 says trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Don't lead on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. All you can do is lift your foot and say well wherever you want to send me. I'm gonna go. I've got a cleanness.

I've got authority. I'm going I'm going to talk about the mercy of my father. Praise be to God. The message is mercy folks. It never has been anything but mercy. It's mercy mercy mercy mercy mercy. Praise be to God.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I Want to give an altar call this morning for every prodigal son and daughter. They can hear my voice in the annex overflow rooms in the sanctuary in the balcony. You've been walking away from God.

You've been afraid to come back. You don't even know what you're coming back to. But today something of heaven has been open to you and I want to challenge you. Don't you let any voice of the devil stop you from coming back to your heavenly father?

Don't you let the enemy rob you of this incredible life that God wants to give you and it is an incredible life. It's the life of the most incredible glory and power and grace that you will ever know on this side of eternity.

There's no life that will ever match it. I don't it doesn't matter what you've gone to or how deep you've fallen. Corrie ten Boom said there's no pit so deep. There's no night so dark that God is not deeper still.

That he can't reach down and pull you out. There's nothing that's gripped your mind that Christ can't set you free from. There's no Words that have been spoken over, you know curse of anybody that told you you're stupid.

You'll never amount to anything or any of these other things that have authority over you when God touches you. Praise be to God. He says I'll make you a new creation. The old things in your life will pass away and all things will become new.