Eating With Pigs
"Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything." -Jesus (Luke 15.11-16)
I heard one time that the Devil tempts you to follow him using quick-fix things that appear to meet immediate needs. As your changing lifestyle begins to separate you from more and more people who love and support you, you become even more desperate for what it is the Devil has used to hook you. Eventually, you end up alone, exhausted, and devastated; for the Devil leads you out into the distant country and then abandons you there.
You see a similar principle at work in the story Jesus told above. The young man wanted independence, popularity, and belonging. The quick-fix was to declare his father dead to him, liquidate and take half of his family's wealth, go far away from the people to whom he belonged and believed in the same things he does/did, and then buy new friends.
At Pepperdine this last May, we heard a father describe his experience with his prodigal son. Mark Swan is a lawyer in Salt Lake City and a deacon at the Southside Church of Christ there. His son, David, was hooked on many kinds of drugs but was fortunate to have a father who could send him to an intense rehab program to get him off of them. I only caught the tail end of the discussion, but Peggy, Dave and Wendy (as well as the rest of the class) were deeply moved by what they heard. David described in detail how he betrayed his parent's trust, hid his drug use, and lived among pigs. They also spoke of guilt, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Their story so impressed us that we've invited them up here to speak on July 29th. We will have a get together at my house the Saturday evening before. They'll teach the Sunday morning Bible class (they want to talk to the kids privately), then speak to us during the sermon time. We'll have a meal afterwards, then questions and answers.
Shawn