(Christian) “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread” – DT Niles

Friends, I want to give you more than just encouragement today.  I want to share with you my own life and experience in the hopes that in doing so, you would feel greater freedom to pursue joy in the Lord.  I’m 36 years old, and as best as I can tell, I have been a Christian for closing in on 30 years now.  God was gracious and merciful to save me at a young age, but that salvation did not cause me to instantly be turned into a beacon of righteousness.  Quite the contrary, my life has been marked by sin, broken promises to God and to others, and periods of my life where you would have had to strain to see any resemblance of Christ in me.  Even for those who would look outwardly at my life and see good things, that only means that I had become a good liar, because apart from Christ, there is nothing good in me.  When I have turned from Christ and fallen to sin, sometimes for extended periods of time, I found myself in places I never would have thought I’d be.  I have been the prodigal son of Luke 15 more times than I can count.

Why do I share all of this?  Because Christianity is not about where we are at a moment in time, but where our hope is found.  In the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, there is a turning point for the younger brother in verse 17-21 that says “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!”  I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

Three observations – First – “He came to himself” is incredibly important.  Amidst suffering, amidst trials, amidst sin it is the grace and mercy of God to sinners that they see their desperate situation and need for God.  If you can go on sinning against God and he does not blow your world up to bring you to an end of yourself, that should give you great concern as to whether you belong to God at all.

Second – The prodigal never ceased to be a son.  The love of the father was always with him, even as he left and pursued pleasure in the world.  The father hurt because he knew the pain the son was headed for by leaving Him, but had compassion for Him always.

Lastly – the son knew where to go for bread, and went after it.

In 30 years as a Christian, in my own life, I can say that the greatest evidence of salvation/the Spirit of God in someone is what their reaction is to suffering, trials, and devastation from sin.  Do they run to God, or do they run from Him?  Where does someone turn to when they have lost all hope?  Although I would spare everyone the suffering and baggage of death, loss, poverty, brokenness/destruction from sin – and could easily turn here to encourage hard fought spiritual disciplines / accountability, I will save that for another message.  I will say there is greater hope in me for those who turn to God amidst those things, than for those who never experienced those things, and/or have never been desperate for God.  Looking back on my life, I hate my sin, I hate many of the decisions I’ve made, and people I’ve hurt along the way.  For the sake of others I would wish I could go back, but for the sake of my own soul, I count those things as blessings for the sake of knowing the depth of my condition as a sinner before a righteous and holy God.  Paul says is this way in Philippians 3 – “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Christian, Jesus is the bread of life.  Everything else is loss; it is nothing, and will never satisfy the longings of your soul.  As one beggar to another, as God gives you grace to see your sinful/broken state, how desperate your need for Him is right now, and how great a love He has for you, run to Him – pursue Him like a desperate beggar daily.  Ask Him to satisfy your heart’s cravings, and you will find Him to be more than enough.

Grace and Peace,

Adam