The Condition of the Heart

Dr. Stanley traces the downward spiral sin leads us on when we believe Satan’s lies and ignore God’s Word. But no matter how dark sin may make our lives, God is willing and able to forgive—just like the father in the parable. Learn how simple repentance restores right relationship.

God is saying to you today:
“Don’t give up. I know you’ve been under so much pressure. I know you’ve felt overwhelmed. You are so close to your breakthrough. My word is final, so get up and stand in faith. It’s not over.”

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Welcome home, Parable of the prodigal with part one, the condition of the heart, the condition of your heart determines the direction of your life.
I don’t know what direction you’re walking in right now, but the condition of your heart, I’m not talking about the physical heart, your spirit determines the direction of your life.
If you’re walking in the right direction, good walking in the wrong direction, it’s gonna be fatal.
Very important that you walk in the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ, you may have other ideas, most people do, but eventually you’re going to discover whatever God teaches in his word is the way it is not the way some people think it is.
It’s the way that he is in this particular passage of scripture.
Jesus has really described how all of us are.
All of us will find their way at some point in this passage of scripture because we’re either I sinner living in sin like this young man or we have an unforgiving spirit like his brother, or we have a wonderful forgiving spirit like the father.
The story of the prodigal son has all of us in it somewhere.
And that’s what I want us to talk about in this particular passage.
So I want us to read part of this 15th chapter of the Luke.
And if you’ll turn there for a moment, Jesus was telling the Pharisees, talking to the Pharisees and telling them some stories here, giving him some illustrations and he talked about uh the sheep that gone astray.
He talked about the lost coin and then he came to the sun.
And uh this is probably one of the most memorable stories Jesus ever told.
One of the most effective and all of us fit in this chapter one way or the other.
And so today, I want us to look at the son and the scripture says in this 15th chapter beginning in verse 11, and Jesus said a man had two sons, the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.
So he divided his wealth between them.
Not many days later, the youngest 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 he began to be impoverished.
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country and he sent him into the fields to feed swine.
He would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swan were eating and no one was giving him anything.
But when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father’s hired men have more than enough to eat.
And I’m dying here with hunger. I will get up, I’ll go to my father.
And I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight no longer worthy to be called your son.
Make me one of your hired servants. So he got up, came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him felt compassion for him, ran and embraced him and kissed him.
And 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 his slaves quickly bring out the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand and send us on his feet.
Bring the fatted calf, we get her to have a big party. I love that. That’s what happened.
So I want you to see something here. The word of God is true from Genesis to revelation.
And when God gives us a very clear picture of something he wants us to understand.
This is the way it is not the way you think it is. This is the way it is.
And this young man’s life is a perfect example of where most people are living today or want to live.
I want you to ask yourself the question. Where am I headed?
If the condition of my heart determines the direction of my life, where am I walking? Where am I headed?
So I want us to think about it.
First of all, I want us to look at step number one, which is the desire he had in his heart.
And so after a while, he decided, I don’t wanna live here no more like this.
I want to enjoy life like other people enjoying life.
And so he went to his father and he said, I’d like you to give me my part of your estate that’s coming to me and just let me do what I think I would like to do and thinking in his heart, listen, if my dad did this, well, you ought to see me.
And so his father didn’t argue with him because he knew how absolutely determined he was to have his way.
And so the scripture says that his father divided uh the state and um he divided it between him and his brother.
And so not many days later, what happened?
The scripture says he made a decision and he made a decision to live his life, his way where he wanted to live.
That’s always a step in the wrong direction.
If you forget that the condition of your heart will determine the direction of your life.
And many people make a decision in life and they don’t realize that that decision is just here.
It’s what happens after the decision and the devil, whether you believe him or not, he’s real.
The devil is very careful to make you believe that your choice minus God is the beginning of real life.
And so this young man decided he’d leave home.
And I can imagine, as he decided to do it that um he probably put on his best and uh said, I wanna look good where we’re going.
So the scripture says he made a decision and he departed and he went to the far country.
That’s the King James version into a far country. So the question comes, is this, where is the far country?
A foreign country is wherever you choose to go outside the will of God.
And I can remember one Sunday morning, a young lady, young lady walked down the aisle and uh told me what was going on in her life.
And I had preached on this particular passage.
And uh she said, pastor I’ve been in a far country, I’ve been living in a foreign country.
Listen, you can live in a foreign country and never leave your house.
You’re living without God in your life. You’re living in a foreign country.
I remember the same uh message that a young fellow walked down the aisle.
And he said to me last night, I slept with my girlfriend this morning.
Uh we woke up, I turned on the television and there you were.
And he said, I knew I cannot lie here a moment longer.
I got up and he said she wanted to know where you going. And he said, you won’t understand.
So he got dressed, came to church, got saved that morning, walked down the aisle.
He said, I wanna be saved today because I’ve been in the far country anywhere.
You’re living outside the will of God for your lives of our country.
It can be a block away or it can be 1000 miles away.
It’s the condition of your heart that determines where you are and what’s going on in your life.
So the scripture says he packed his duds and left.
He was going to live life for the first time, the way he wanted to live, that’s always Satan’s life.
Listen, Satan’s always pointing to something you don’t have and simply saying to you if you had that or if you had her or if you had him or if you live there, if you were here, if you drove that, if you could live in that kind of house, always, if you this that and the other, that’s not the issue.
Satan always paints pictures watch this that he knows, gets your attention.
That’s the county paints and he, with the picture comes the assurance you could have it.
If you just do what he said, if you just follow him, you could have whatever you want, you can live wherever you live, drive whatever you drive, have who or whatever it might be.
And so just follow him, that’s the downward steps away from Almighty God. And that’s the way it works.
And so the scripture says he departed and naturally what he was thinking of what a fantastic time he was gonna have.
He had half of his father’s estate, so plenty of money.
And secondly, he didn’t have to give an account to anybody. That’s one of the devil’s lies.
You don’t have to give an account to anybody.
Listen, you have to give an account to God 24 hours a day, whether you are 24 or whether you’re 100 and four.
You do not have the privilege of living without accountability.
You may live without accountability on this earth uh to parents and so forth.
But you’re accountable to God, it is a, it is appointed unto man wants to die.
And after this, the judgment because we’re all accountable.
So he left, he had lots of big dreams and his departure uh was awesome for him because this was the beginning of a new life.
How many people have made that mistake?
I’m gonna live for the first time, the way I wanna live, nobody’s gonna be telling me what I can do, what I can’t do.
I can buy what I want, go where I want and have who I want.
That’s the devil’s, that’s always his approach.
That is if you’ll serve me, the devil says, just watch what I’ll do.
The only problem with that line is this, he only tells you the first part, there’s always a second part to the message he doesn’t tell.
And Satan painted this awesome picture for him of deception.
And um so he left and so he had a wonderful time.
He thought and so the scripture is very evident that God doesn’t leave out anything in the Bible.
So how did he spend this money?
And he was spending his money, partying, drinking, carousing have what he thought was a good time.
Watch this. Satan always blinds your mind to the effects and the nature of sin and its consequences at the moment, eventually you’re gonna see it, but at the moment, he blinds the consequences right now.
You feel good. You look good, you have it all and so everything is fine.
That’s the devil’s line. You’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna meet beautiful women.
You can drink all you want. Drink. Look how much money you’ve got.
Satan never says how much money are you gonna have when I get through with you?
He doesn’t say how, how, how you gonna feel, feeling.
So immoral and partying and drinking and carousing and sleeping around with other women. Then how are you gonna feel?
Well, but you see, that’s the devil’s way of catching so many evil living in sin, disobeying God and having plenty for the moment.
But that doesn’t last because you see it’s a downward step.
And so he lived uh like he wanted to live for a while.
But after a while, the script says, um he began to wander a little bit because listen, you can’t have with so much sex, so much drink so much carousing so many different kinds of friends and the same thing over and over and over again that he began to wander around and think, oh, you know, what am I gonna do now?
And uh what’s next and so forth? And uh, he began to be a little dissatisfied.
Sin always brings you to a point of total dissatisfaction. You can’t be satisfied with sin.
And so he found himself wondering, then he found himself warning that is, um, you know, these things don’t satisfy me.
Now, what, what’s happening? I’ve had all of this I want and all that I dreamed of and something’s missing every once in a while.
He probably would think, you know, back home, those wonderful meals my mom cooked.
I had my dad, I could ask questions about my mom.
She was always there, but then he would brush that aside and think about that.
Well, I gotta get over that.
So another drink or another woman and he could forget it for a little while until his want became stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger.
Now, watch this. Here’s the problem. Satan never tells you what’s coming.
He always wants you to think of today, how you feel today, what you have or what you can’t have, but he’s not, he doesn’t tell you about the times that are coming because he wants to destroy you.
And so all of a sudden he finds himself getting lower and lower on his resources and finally he hasn’t got any money at all.
And what about his friends?
There are a lot of people who make you think that, that you’re a friend.
As long as you have something to give, you don’t have anything to give.
It’s amazing how they just evaporate right in front of you or, or, or what happened to.
So and so, well, uh he got busy. What, what about this person? What about that?
And so here he was, he had all the drink he could want, he had all the women he could want, had all the pleasure he could think of.
And now he didn’t plan on something. He didn’t plan on the famine that suddenly came to the land.
Watch this. You can’t plan on the devil’s traps.
You can’t, you may think you can, but you can’t, he’s gonna be there sooner or later and he’s going to take you down in one way or the other.
I think of it. How many broken homes and how many, how many broken lives and how many broken bodies?
Because people listen to the lie of the devil. You’ll be ok. You’ll be all right. What does he say?
You’re an exception that that happened, that that won’t happen to you. Yes, it will.
And the next thing you know, the scripture says he began to be in want and as he was, he finally had to hire himself.
I don’t know who he hired himself out to first. But finally he end up in the lowest place.
He could end up as a Jewish boy, as a young Jewish man.
He ended up, we would say in our time slapping hogs, but they were eating pods, they were hogs eating pods.
And here he is in a hog pen, feeding the hogs the pods, what else?
And, and he had to think, how did I get in this place?
I had it all and now I don’t have anything.
And it got even worse that there was such little food in the hog pen.
He had to race the hogs to get to the next pod unless they eat that. And he had nothing.
That’s a long ways from having everything, wonderful father, wonderful mother, wonderful lifestyle, having everything, wonderful, family, feeling, loved, taken care of, everything was fine.
Now, look at him, many people have lived this story.
In fact, you know, some of them, I know some of them, I know a few that I’ve tried to tell them what was happening and they didn’t listen because you see the devil.
He, he is a master and closing your ears to the truth. Well, he’s the pastor.
He’s your Christian friend. What, what, what, what does he know about you?
And oftentimes when you try to tell somebody, I need, I need to share with you what’s happening.
I, I see something happening in your life. You don’t listen, you stay out of my business.
And when I think about this young man in the hog fan, what he began to think about, I had it all.
I had everything I thought I wanted. I got everything I wanted to get.
And then where did he get me?
It got me at the lowest point of my life, my clothes are gone. My dignity is gone.
My sense of self worth is gone. I don’t have anything. I’m starving to death.
And here’s what a false dream planted in his heart caused him to end up in a hog.
Now, listen carefully. All the hog pens weren’t destroyed a few 1000 years ago. They’re all pence today.
Wherever you’re living without God in your life, it may look like it’s good.
You may have everything you want.
But if you are spiritually without God, you’re still in a hog pen.
And as long as you listen to the devil.
As long as you refuse to surrender your life to God, it’s just gonna get worse and worse and worse.
So I would simply ask you this. Where are you in this downward track?
You started out with everything, but where are you now?
Are you satisfied where you are now? No.
Do you know how to get out of this? No.
Well, I wanna show you how I wanna tell you how, no matter how deep you are, how distant you are from God.
I wanna remind you this, that God hasn’t stopped loving you.
You may be unfit to be hugged, unfit to be kissed.
You may be unfit for anything in your eyes, but God still loves you.
And so it’s just a matter of making a decision.
He’s at the bottom rung of the ladder.
All his friends are gone, all this money is gone, all of his self, dignity is gone. Everything’s gone.
It’s just he and the hawks. I wonder who you fellow shipping with?
Are they people sort of in the same condition you are.
Listen to what happened to Him.
The scripture says when he came to his senses, many people need to come to their senses because the Holy watches the Holy Spirit of God will work on you, work on, you, work on, you, work on you and remind you of, of God’s offer of love.
His offer of His presence, His power and whatever you need. In life, he’s gonna provide, he has the offer.
The scripture says, when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my fathers hired men?
Have more than enough bread. But I’m dying here with hunger now. It could stop right there.
That’s how many people are. They drank every night, they corrals every day.
They’ve lost this job, that job, the other job. And they’re living in sin.
And the truth is they may be smiling on their face, but they’re hurting so deep in their heart.
Their hearts are torn apart, too embarrassed to go home.
Maybe they have no home, maybe they’ve hurt themselves so badly. They can’t go home.
And so what they have to say is what can I do?
Well, listen to what the scripture says.
He says at that low state, I will get up and go to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven in your sight.
The perfect solution. Listen, that’s always the right thing to do that is he came to his senses and my prayer for you is this whoever you are, wherever you’re listening from, whatever your situation circumstances, you may be as low as the product killer.
You may be lower than that. But you are not hopelessly helplessly lost.
If you will listen to what I’m about to say because God’s love for you has not ceased.
He’s willing knowing what you’ve done with your life, what you are doing with your life.
You may be 21 years of age and already messed it up so badly.
You may be so embarrassed at 18 years old. You can’t even go back home.
You may have left your family. You have living a double life.
But I want to tell you this, you’re not gonna be happy. You’re not gonna find any peace. No joy.
You can’t make enough money. You can’t have a big enough idea about yourself.
You can’t have enough status to keep you afloat because the spirit of God is gonna work in your heart and convict you of sin.
And if you keep listening, I’ll tell you what you can do. You can change all of that.
If you’ll remember this, the Heavenly Father loves you in spite of all your sin, all your disobedience, all your drunkenness, all your sexuality, all these things that you’ve done in your life.
He’s still listening. If you’re willing to ask him to forgive you of your sin, don’t try to justify it.
God, I’ve sinned against you just like this boy.
I’m, I’m gonna get up and say, I’m going to my father and say I have sinned against heaven and before you no more worthy to be called your son.
Are you willing to say that to God? Are you willing to say to Him?
Lord, I’ve been sinning against you. I’ve turned away from you. I’ve known it wasn’t right.
I’ve, I’ve had just turned a deaf hair to the gospel.
I’m asking you today to forgive me of my sin. I’m not making any promises. I’m just surrendering God.
I’m surrendering my life to you. I’m asking you to save me, forgive me, cleanse me.
I’m asking you to do what you said in the Bible.
That is the right my name in the lamb’s book of Life. I yield my life to you.
Thanking you for the forgiveness of my sin. And God, I want to be a new person starting right now.
Yeah, I know that was fast, but you got the message and all you have to do if you can’t remember anything but Lord, you heard what he said.
That’s what I believe. I I that’s, that’s what I’m, that’s what I’m feeling. Lord.
He’ll change your life seated right where you are right now.
No matter where you are, you may be seated here or 10,000 miles away.
God will forgive you. He’ll cleanse you. He’ll straighten up your life.
He’ll make you a new person. Are you willing to receive him as your savior and your Lord?
What a wonderful simple story for his father received him.
And the scripture says in the most beautiful way, he got up and came to his father.
And while he was still a long ways off, his father saw him never forgotten him.
He must have looked a whole lot different than when he left. He saw him. Felt compassion for him.
His father took off running, ran, didn’t wait for confession. I did. I did. This is an awesome scene.
Ran, hugged him, kissed him and says, the son said to him, father, he started confessing his sins.
His dad is hugging him all the time, forgiving him and promise him.
Here’s what I’m gonna do. You’re totally forgiven.
And to show you, we, we have the best ring, the best sandals. You know what?
That’s a simple story, but it’s the truth of the way God, the way God sees things, he’ll save you from the mess you’ve made of your life.
If you let him.