DAY #3: December 8, 2010

Happy Birthday to my wife, Sharon. The most beautiful, amazing, caring, selfless woman of God in the world. I celebrate her life today! I love her with all my heart.

What does this story of the Prodigal son mean to me? How can I come home?
Since it was Jesus’ story about how to come home let’s just follow the steps of the son.

#1. Come to your senses.

Verse 17 “When he came to his senses.” My father’s hired help eats better than me and has a better life than me. He came to his senses. In the New Century version it says, “When he realized what he was doing.” This first point is the wake up call. For some of us it’s the “Ah-ahh! That’s what I need to do.” Sometimes it’s surrounded by pain and it’s not the “Ah-ahh!” it’s the “Oh, no!” A wake up call.

I love to preach – it is what God created me to do. But many times, I've got to be honest with you, it is painful. WHY? Because I’ve got to work the message out in my own life first. To preach with integrity, God's word must filter through my life and soul before I bring the message to COV.

When I think about the lost son – the prodigal and I think, I’m not this runaway. I’m not out there in this distant land. I don’t go to Vegas and blow my money and live an immoral lifestyle. But the truth of the matter is that I AM an occasional drifter. I know as a pastor I’m supposed to be a professional Christian. And I love God. Don’t question that. But I drift occasionally. I don’t consciously wake up in the morning and say, “Ok, today I’m going to drift.” But there are times when I just don’t pay attention to God. And I allow my soul to starve. It just happens. There are times when my times with God go unattended. And my spiritual life goes shallow.

Then God gets a hold of me somehow – through a worship song, through the tenderness of my wife, through one of my children and boom it’s like - Pedlowe get you head in the game – snap out of it man.

Romans 13:11 says “Another reason for right living, for coming to your senses, is you know how late it is. Time is running out. Wake up. Don’t miss out on that closeness you can have with God.” You can come home and be intimate with Him.

The second thing the prodigal did that we need to do…
#2. Come clean about your sin!

The prodigal says, “I’m going to say ‘Father, I have sinned.’” That’s coming clean. This is where you expose to God your sin and ask for forgiveness that you know He’ll give. You admit who you are and what you have done.

It saddens me that I meet a lot of people that are more concerned with getting caught than getting help. Come clean. The Bible is so clear about this. Proverbs 20:8 says, “People who cover over their sins will not prosper. But if they confess and forsake them they will receive mercy.” It is healthy to daily examine tour life and ask God to make you aware of any sin in your life. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Psalms 139:23-24 (ASV)says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting."

Would you pray that to God today? I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!

DAY #2: December 7, 2010

WHAT ELSE CAN WE LEARN ABOUT GOD THIS CHRISTMAS FROM THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL SON?

#2. The other thing we learn about this story that Jesus told is that God is passionate enough to show extreme love.

This story is probably my most favorite story of all the Bible. And my favorite verse in my favorite story is Luke 15:20 “The father saw him a long way away and he ran to his son.” Notice the phrase “he ran”.

It’s the only time in the Bible where God is pictured as running. What makes this even more interesting is that in this culture, during this day, men wore robes. So running in a robe, like a long dress, is difficult… from what I’ve been told. For him to pull that robe up and run with his bare legs showing in that culture was unheard of. It would be like a dad today running down the street in his underwear or something like that. It was just unheard of. But this was extreme love. This dad didn’t care. (Much like you who are dads who wear colored socks with short pants and loafers. You don’t care what other people think of you! Or you don’t have somebody in your life who loves you enough to tell you how idiotic you look!)

Why did he run? Because he was passionate enough to go to extremes to say to his son he loved him regardless of his past. Then it says in verse 20 he threw his arms around him and he kissed him. This is extreme love. He just came out of a pigpen. He throws his arms around him and kisses him.

And notice there is no lecture. He doesn’t say anything about the boy’s past. And in the absence of words he says a lot. In the absence of words he says everything. God communicates in silence. Those of you waiting for God to talk to you before you change, that he’s going to talk to you verbally or He’s going to match up some clouds for you or double your bank account and that type of thing. God speaks in silence. One of the things that I’ve learned is I never have to question whether God loves me or not. In not saying anything, He says everything.

In my moms last years, she had a hard time talking. When I had not seen her in a while, she didn't recognize me. But there were times she would remember – and her whole body is in her face, she’s trying to communicate, and she can’t. Her lips begin to quiver and then tears come. As she begins to cry I know enough about my mom. We had a great relationship when I was growing up. I love my mom very much and I know she loves me. Those tears communicate, “Michael Patrick Pedlowe, if I could jump out of this decaying body every neuron in my soul wants to hug you and love you and tell you I’m proud of you.” I don’t need the words to know what’s going on. Extreme love – that’s the kind of love that God has for us!

God is waiting for you. He's waiting to throw His arms around you and welcome you home. Don't delay. Come home home to him today.

I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!

DAY #1: December 6, 2010

As we close out 2010, I'd like to share about Christmas. Over the next few days, I'd like to share some thoughts about the prodigal son. Not your typical Christmas message I know. The reason I wanted to preach about the prodigal son and include his story at Christmas is two fold;

1)The Prodigals story is my story, and my guess is it is probably many of your’s as well. God has taken so many of us who have blown and redeemed us – restored us. I want to look at his story again to remember where it is He saved from and to remember our primary job as Christians is to help others discover His love, His redemptive power, His restoration for themselves.

2) At the core of the story – is the truth that you can always come home. It is never to late to come home to God’s love.The word “home” is a very powerful word. I was reminded of its power a few years ago as Sharon , the kids and I went to visit my mom. About four years earlier we put my mom in a care facility because of her progressive battle with Alzheimer's.

We talked about Christmas -we sang Christmas songs, and throughout the day, I was reminded that the next time my mom would really get to celebrate Christmas would be in her new home in heaven. I miss my mom and all the wonderful memories we had. But there is a profound sense of peace – knowing that we will celebrate again together in heaven – our real home!

Let’s read the story of the prodigal son. Read Luke 15:11-32

Jesus tells this story and in doing so He’s trying to paint a picture of the character of God. Two things about God’s character that I think it’s important for us to understand as we talk about coming home to God.

#1. God is patient enough to not give up.
This story tells us that God is patient enough to not give up. It breaks my heart to hear people say, “I’m so messed up! God doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. You don’t know how many times I’ve walked away from God. So many times I can’t even count. God is done with me.”

God is never done with you – even if you think you’re done with God. He will never give up on you. That is hard for us to grasp, because we give up on people, and we in our puny little brains think well, God must be the same way. Wrong!


Luke 15: 20 says,“…While he (the son) was still a long way off, his father saw him…” What is the picture of God’s character here? He is waiting – patiently for our return to Him. As a father, I pray it never happens – that any of our kids walk away from the Lord or that there ever is a break in our relationship. But, I know it can happen. I’ve seen it countless times in other ministry families. As a father, I guarantee there would not be a day that goes by that I wouldn’t be hoping, waiting, praying that this would be the day my child would return. That’s what is happening here. The father saw him, because he was looking for him scanning the horizon – praying – Lord turn my sons heart toward home.

The Bible says this in 2 Peter 3 “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Notice the word “everyone”. He wants everyone to come to repentance. What does “repentance” mean? Repentance is kind of a churchy, theological word that simply means this: Turn around. Do a 180. Come home. He is patient. He wants everybody to come home.

Do you remember the movie Forest Gump? At the end of the movie Forest takes Forest Jr. to the first day of school to the bus stop. He watches his son get on the bus. The best words in the whole movie were “I’ll be here when you get back.”

Some of us today need to see God in that light. You’re in a distant land or you’ve disconnected and you need to see God, that He’ll be there. He’s waiting patiently. Some of you aren’t runaways but you’ve jumped on a short bus ride called Disconnect. He’s not going to give up on you. Come home to Him today. Don't delay.

I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!

DAY #7: December 5, 2010

Romans 8:28 says - “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” That’s a great promise, a promise you can build your life on. It is saying that in all situations, in every circumstance of life, God can bring good out of it. It says that God always has our best at heart – ALWAYS! Our job – trust God and believe. Folks that's called faith.

This morning, we’re going to look at Abraham. He was a guy who knew about Romans 8:28, even though it was written thousands of years after he died. He knew in his bones that God had his best at heart, and that God would never burn him.

If you remember, God gave Abraham a promise that he’d have a baby who’d become a great nation which later became the nation of Israel. But Abraham had to wait one hundred years for that baby. That’s a long time to wait. I can’t wait one week very well. We are talking about 5200 weeks of waiting. That’s faith!

One of the most difficult things in life is to sit in God’s waiting room. God's waiting room is when there’s something beyond your control that you can’t speed up – an answer to prayer, a miracle, a change in a situation – you want it to change but it is totally out of your control and you have to wait on God.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 “God does everything just right and on time but people can never completely understand what He’s doing.” Boy, is that the truth! We don’t know always what God is doing and we don’t know when He’s going to do it. What do you do while you’re waiting on God?

The first phase of faith is when God gives you a Dream – an idea, an ambition, a goal. God gives you a dream. And at age 75 God gave Abraham a dream. He said, I’m going to make you into a great nation. But that’s just the start.

Phase two is a Decision. A decision is when you decide to act on that dream. A dream without a decision is worthless. And every dream of God has a risk to it. It has a part where you have to take a step of faith. Abraham had to leave his existing homeland and go to a place he never knew, where he had never heard of, never been there. So he took a risk. When God gives you a dream and says, “This is what I want to do with your life.”, there’s going to come a point when you have to make the decision to say, “OK, God, I’m going to go after Your dream for my life, not my own dream.

Phase three is Delay. A dream is never fulfilled instantly. When God gives you an idea of what He wants to do with your life and when He actually fulfills it there is always a time gap because He wants to grow you. He wants to build you up. Eleven years after God gave Abraham his dream Abraham still didn’t have a child. When he was 86 it says, “But Sarah still had not borne any children.” What’s happened in those eleven years? The answer is nothing. He’s just waiting on God. He’s tempted to doubt, tempted to despair, tempted to take detours. But he doesn’t – he just waits. That’s faith!

Then comes along phase four and that is Difficulty. God not only lets you wait for a while but while you wait He lets you have some problems. Isn’t that fun? So you go through the stage of difficulty where things go from bad to really bad to worse to impossible. And notice that at the age 99 Abraham still did not have a son. He’s 99, his wife Sarah is 89. What’s worse is that God changed Abraham’s name. His name originally was Abram and God changed his name to Abraham which means “Father of a great nation.”

Imagine this: He walks into a 7-11 and the guy says, “What’s your name?” Father of a great nation. “Oh? How many kids do you have?” None. “How old are you?” 99. That’s kind of embarrassing. It’s a test of his faith.

But eventually God fulfills the dream and at age 100 and his wife is ninety, they have a miracle baby. And they name him Isaac which means “laughter”. Because they laughed at the thought. Any woman who really believed God and ninety and told she was pregnant would have cried. But Sarah laughs and God laughs and Abraham laughs and Isaac is named Laughter.

But then comes the most difficult phase of all. Dead end. At Dead end God allows your dream to seemingly die. Abraham was asked to give up the miracle child. God says I want you to sacrifice him back to Me. Get this: Abraham waits a hundred years and has a baby. He starts to grow up then God says, “By the way, now I want you to give him back to Me.

Abraham may have been thinking, “What kind of God is this? Is this a cruel joke? He’s asking me to sacrifice the very dream child that was promised to me.” And he feels pretty hopeless.

How do you know when you’re at a dead end? You feel hopeless. Some of you are at a dead end in your marriage right now. Some of you are at a dead end in getting married. Some of you are at a dead end when you look at your budget, when you look at your career, when you look at your friendships. Some of you are at a physical dead end and your health is falling apart. When you’re at this stage you start to doubt God's wisdom and love and say, “Why is this happening to me?”

Congratulations! God is getting you ready. He is preparing you for the final phase of faith which is Deliverance. The greater the dead end, the more hopeless the situation, the greater the deliverance is going to be, the more of a miracle it’s going to be. You’ll say, “Wow! That was God! Only God could have done that.” So God is getting you ready for a miracle, the miracle of deliverance.

Everybody readin this devotional today – God is going to take you through these six phases of faith many, many times in your life. Then He’ll do it again and then He’ll do it again to keep you growing in your faith. My question to you - will you cooperate?

I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE! (hope to see you in worship this morning)

DAY #6: December 4, 2010

HOW ELSE CAN YOU FINISH YOUR LIFE OF FAITH WELL?
#3. Resist all discouragement

I know there are some of you who are discouraged. About your health, about your finances, about your marriage. You may be discouraged about your children or your desire to get married, or your desire to have children or your desire to change jobs. You may be discouraged about your finances, a personal problem. Whatever you’re discouraged about I'm sorry. But as your pastor I need to be honest with you and tell you something. It’s your choice.

You are discouraged because you are choosing to be discouraged and that is your choice. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head. Nobody is forcing you to feel discouraged. Discouragement is always a choice just like any other attitude. If you’re feeling down, if you feel like quitting, if you feel like giving up it is because you’re choosing to think discouraged thoughts.

You don’t have to. In fact, the Bible says don’t do that. It says to do the opposite. It says fight the discouragement. Resist the discouragement. Move against in. Discouragement is Satan’s favorite tool in making you ineffective. If he can get you discouraged, you’re locked up. Forget it! You’re history.

How many of you get tired of doing what is right? Why? Because it is easier to do what is wrong. If doing what is wrong was hard, nobody would do it. It is easier to be undisciplined than disciplined. It is always easier to lie than to tell the truth. It is easier to be selfish than it is to be unselfish.

When you’re doing the right thing and you don’t see the immediate reward , the immediate results, sometimes it's easy to get discouraged What do you do when you do the right thing for weeks, months, even years and nothing happens. Do you have a pity party and invite yourself? Do you start complaining? Do you start griping? Do you start saying, “Forget it! I'm going to give up. This isn’t worth it.”

The Bible says resist that discouragement. Folks, I’d be lying to you if I gave you the impression you could do this on your own – you can’t. I can’t. You have to plug into God’s power. Anybody who memorized Ephesians 3:20 knows this.

You may be in a situation right now where you’re thinking, “I can’t take it anymore! I’ve had it. I'm at the quitting point. I'm ready to throw in the towel. I'm at the end of my rope. I'm ready to give up. I can’t take it anymore.”

But you can. You can if you will you renew yourself every day. If you’re going to last over the long haul you must figure out how to recharge yourself - both physically and spiritually.

FIRST, you’ve got to learn daily physical renewal. Psalm 127:2 in the Living Bible says, “God wants His loved ones to get their proper rest.” Many of you are violating that. You know, the first part of this verse says, “It is stupid for you to get up so early and stay up so late for God wants His loved ones (His children) to get their proper rest.”

Discouragment is a by product of being drained physically. Vince Lombardi said “Fatigue makes cowards of all of us.” When you’re tired you get discouraged. What’s the answer? REST! SLEEP!

The SECOND, you need daily spiritual renewal. 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, “This is why we never give up. Our spirits are being renewed every day.” How does that happen? The way you get spiritual renewal is by spending time with God. The secret of persistence, the secret of endurance, the secret of finishing what you start is spending time with God every day.

Hebrews 12:2 says “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross!” Jesus had to face something far worse than you’re facing yet He didn’t give up. Why? He knew the reason and He knew the rewards. When you plug into His power you will have the power of persistence.

You need more than your own power to make it in life. You need God’s power. You need Jesus’ power. You need to depend on Him. You need to rely on Him. You need to trust in Him. That’s called faith.

My hope as your pastor is at the end of your life you will be able to stand before God in heaven and say to Him what the apostle Paul was able to say at the end of his life. “I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” That is my prayer, my desire, my wish for you. I pray we all will FINSH WELL!

I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!

DAY #5: December 3, 2010

Do you want to finish your life of faith well?? The second thing you and I have to do is: #2. Remember the reward.

Remember the reward that God has out there in front of us. You cannot run the race well without an eye on the finish line. If you’re going to finish well in life you have to remind yourself why we do what we do. Otherwise you’re going to end up thinking, “Why even make the effort?”

The “why?” behind what you do determine shows how long you’re going to last in what you do. If the “why?” is immediate gratification, you’re going to last for five minutes. The only “why” behind what we do that makes us last all the way through life, through some of the tough things you have to face in life is the eternal reward that awaits us in Heaven.

So when you feel like giving up, when you feel like you’re not going to make it, sometimes the only thing that will get you through is to say to yourself “My faith will be rewarded.” In fact, that is so important I am going to ask you to write it down. My faith will be reward – I have to keep on. I can’t quit. I can’t give up!

1 Corinthians 9:25-26 in the Living Bible says “To win the contest you must deny yourself many things that would keep you from doing your best. We do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. A heavenly reward, personally rewarded by God.”

Think about this: if you’re having a tough day at work about the middle of the day what happens? You start thinking about the way you’re going to reward yourself on the way home. If you’re having a tough week you think at least there’s the weekend. I'm going to do something different on the weekend. If you’re having a tough year you start thinking, "At least I’ve got vacation coming soon.”

What do you do when you’re having a tough life? What do you do when the weekend isn’t long enough to help you make it through, there’s no vacation good enough to give you hope in life? There are many times in life when the only strength that’s big enough to help you make it through to know you can finish well, to encourage you in tough times is knowing that God has a reward that is out there for us personally given to us.

We look at ourselves sometimes and think, “Why can’t I get motivated today?” Sometimes the reason is you need a higher motivation. The next paycheck, the next business opportunity is not enough to motivate you any more. You need the motivation that can come only from the reward that God will give as we are faithful to Him. Not external motivation or internal motivation but the eternal motivation that keeps you going forever.

Galatians 6:9 says “Let us not get tired of doing what is right for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.” Could any of you use this verse in your life? ABSOLUTELY! That’s a verse you can build your life on! That's a verse that help you keep on keeping on.

I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!

DAY #4: December 2, 2010

Hebrews 12:1 says, “We have around us many people (talking about these lives in the Bible) whose lives tell us what faith means so let us run the race that is before us and never give up.”

I love that verse! You know why? It tells us that life is like a race, like a marathon. It’s not a sprint. So, stay in the race until the end – keep on keeping on. Endure, persevere – Unfortunately very few people finish the race of life well. We get discouraged, we get distracted, we get hurt, we get sidelined and very few people actually make it to the end of life finishing well. We give up. And we end our lives with unrealized dreams and unfulfilled potential.

We leave a lot of things in life unfinished. We start something and get tired, bored, distracted, whatever then we move to something else. Our lives are strewn with rubble of unfinished projects, unfulfilled commitments, unkept promises. Because we get discouraged.

If you’ve been discouraged over any issue in your life you’ve picked a good couple of days to read these devotionals because we’re going to look at how to finish what you start even when you feel like giving up. The Bible tells us there are four things you need to do if you want to finish the race of life well. The first thing is this:

#1. Remove any distractions.
Remove any distractions that keep you from running the race of life that God meant you to run. The rest of Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.” He says remove anything that gets in the way, that keeps you from running your race.

What could distract you from your life mission? What could distract you from the purpose you were put on this earth to fulfill?

I thought about that and came up with a few things. One, trying to be like other people will distract you. Another thing is making wealth the primary goal of your life. If wealth is the primary goal of your life obviously God’s purpose is not the primary goal and you are being distracted. Habits can distract you from finishing the race. The wrong kind of friends can distract you from what God put you on earth to do. Television. Good things can distract you. The Bible says remove those things.

I have found as I have worked with people over the years, the biggest distraction of all is our past. Our past keeps us from finishing the race. It loads you down. You continue to hold on to hurts from way back and you refuse to forgive and you keep on beating yourself up over some bad decision you made a while back. That’s a distraction.

Guess what? The apostle Paul had a lot of regrets. He had a lot to regret. Before he became a believer in Jesus Christ, he was a religious terrorist. He went around killing people who were Christians. But notice what he says in Philippians 3:14“Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead I strain to reach the end of the race.” He says I'm not going to let the things in my past keep me stuck.

You need to do that too. To be persistent in life, to finish what you start, you’ve got to focus on the future not worry and regret and guilt on the past. You’ve got to let go of grudges against other people. You’ve got to let go of guilt and you’ve got to let go of grief.

I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!