ASH WEDNESDAY 2010

FEBRUARY 17

“BREAKTHROUGH TWENTY-TEN: ENOUGH’S ENOUGH”

Luke 15:11-24

     You would have thought that this one girl back in the late 1950’s from Art Linkletter’s show, Kids Say the Darndest Things, had read the parable of the Prodigal Son.  Linkletter asked her: “What’s the most important thing in a girl’s life?”  The girl replied, “Make-up and men.”  Linkletter flipped the coin over and asked, “What’s most important in a man’s life?”  The girl answered, “Money, money, money and Marilyn Monroe.”

In continuing our look at Breakthrough Twenty-Ten and adding on to the message last Sunday of the Prodigal Son who took his money and ran after his own version of Marilyn Monroe, I thought that on this Ash Wednesday we would reflect upon the breakthrough power that comes when a person finally says,

“Enough’s Enough.”

     For you see, the Prodigal Son is not just a model of wasteful living and the pig-sty living the it brings.  He is also the poster child for us when it comes to this whole idea of breakthrough and when it comes to the ingredients that are critical if a person wants to break out of the pig-sty, breakthrough the barriers, and get back home to the Lord. 

     If you don’t know the ingredients, you not going to get the breakthrough results that your soul is actually yearning for.  And since the focus of Ash Wednesday has been repentance and turning back to God since it was first celebrated back in the 8th century, there really is no better time to talk about these ingredients for a breakthrough when a person finally says, “Enough’s enough.”  For when a person gets to the point where they can finally say from their heart, something’s going to happen.  There’s going to be a breakthrough.  There’s going to be a homecoming.

     It’s a little like another child who told Art Linkletter on his show that she wanted to be a nurse.  When Linkletter asked her why she wanted to be a nurse, she said, “So I can mix up stuff for people.”  Linkletter questioned her on her nursing knowledge by then asking, “So what would you mix up for me if I had a tummy ache?”  The girl thought for a moment and concluded, “A bottle of milk of magnesia and a bottle of castor oil ought to do something.”

RECIEPE FOR AN “ENOUGH’S ENOUGH” BREAKTHROUGH

1. Revelation

“He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.  But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have break enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!’” (Luke 15:16-17.)

     Just as “Necessity is the Mother of Invention,” so also is “Revelation the Mother of Motivation.”

     People will never be motivated to breakthrough from their pig-sty lifestyles and cry, “Enough’s enough,” unless there is enough revelation.  Until the younger son wasted away all his money, there wasn’t enough motivation for him to return home to his father. Until the younger son had fallen under the curse of feeding pigs and being so hungry that he would have gladly eaten the vegetable pods in the pig slop, there wasn’t enough motivation for him to return home to his father.  In one of the many Jewish laws in the time of Jesus, there was one that stated: “Cursed is he who feeds swine.” 

     Where there is revelation, there you will find a key ingredient for “something” to happen.  And that “something” is the cry of “Enough’s enough” that motivates one to repent and consider returning home to the father.

     If the truth be known, whether we’re talking about the times when people tried to wake you up and help you to see that you were living under a curse with your piggish, wasteful lifestyle or whether it’s someone you’ve been witnessing to, breakthrough comes with revelation.  Sometimes people are not ready to get out of the pig-sty because there hasn’t been enough revelation to tip the scale and cause the motivation.

2. Motivation

“’I will get up 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 like one of your hired hands.’  So he set off and went to his father.” (Luke 15:18-20a.)

     This prodigal son could have had all the revelation in the world that would convince him that it was time to repent and return home, but without motivation – getting up and setting off to his father.

     There are two main reasons among many that keep people from being motivated to breakthrough to a deeper, more joyful, free, and close relationship with the Father, no matter how much revelation is stuck under their noses.

     The first is their sense of unworthiness like we talked about last Sunday and which the young son spoke about in this mental discourse he held in his own head.  People can have volumes upon volumes of reasons why they should repent, revelations as to why it’s bad for you to live in a pig-sty of sin and cursedness, and testimonials from those who have repented and came back to the Lord, and they’ll still stay in the pig-sty because they are mentally and spiritually poisoned by a sense of unworthiness.  It is this spirit that we need to pray off of people and caste off ourselves.

     The second reason why people with revelation may still lack the ingredient of motivation is fear of what the outcome will be if they really did get up and head back to the father.  In biblical times, the Law of Moses stated that a rebellious son was to be stoned to death. This young man knew that if he risked going home, he didn’t just risk being rejected by his father.  He risked being stoned to death with his older brother, no doubt, being the first one to pick up the stone to clobber him.  (We’ll get to this older son the last Sunday in this month.)

     Fear can dissolve one’s motivation as quickly as sugar in a hot cup of tea.  Even if there is a ton of revelation, an ounce of fear can keep a person in the pig-sty of sin, living under the curse, as much as they might hate it.

     An “Enough’s Enough” breakthrough does not just happen through a revelation of the mind. It happens through the movement of the feet….movement away from unworthiness to worthiness and a movement away from fear to courage.

3. Destination

“So he set off and went to his father” (Luke 15:20a.)

     There will be no motivation without the presence of revelation.  There will be no liberation without the presence of motivation.  And there will be no breakthrough without pointing yourself the direction of the right destination.

     The word “destination” comes from the Latin word destinatio.  It literally means “settlement, appointment, to fasten down, secure.”

     When the prodigal son cried, “Enough’s enough!” and with enough revelation had enough motivation, he had liberation…he left the pig-sty, didn’t he.

      However the second half of the sentence is the critical one: “and went to his father.” 

     True breakthroughs come as we settled on and fastened down the right destination in life.  You see, the prodigal son’s destination when he liberated himself from the pig-sty wasn’t to head back into some other kind of material satisfaction, religious belief, or fleshly desire.  He nailed down the right destination – his father.

     You may have been one of those who got enough revelation and found enough motivation to leave your particular pig-sty, cursed life, but in looking back you have seen that you still chose the wrong destination until you came back to the Father.  Right?  Your destination was some self-help book, some New Age religious belief, or just trying to be a better person, but it still didn’t work, did it, until you chose the Cross.

     Real, spiritual breakthrough demands more than the right ingredient of revelation and realizing that make-up and men, money and Marilyn Monroe just won’t cut it.  It demands more than simply the ingredient of motivation, as important as it is.  Even liberation is not enough if it just leads you from one pig-sty to another.

     No, breaking through to a deeper, richer, more joyful, more meaningful, more worshipful, more amazing relationship with God our Father demands choosing, fastening down, securing, nailing down, and settling on the right destination. 

     And there is no other destination that can bring authentic breakthrough than coming home to the Father through the Cross of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

     Which is what Ash Wednesday is all about….repenting and coming back home to the Father who, as we saw on Sunday, February 7th, knew us before we were born and who wants that relationship to carry after we die.

     So here’s my “Enough’s Enough” formula, the Prodigal Son ingredients, the Ash Wednesday recipe, for Breakthrough:

There will be no motivation without revelation. 

There will be no liberation without motivation.

There will be no real breakthrough without liberation.

And there will be no breakthrough without the right destination.

     For you, Breakthrough Twenty-Ten can happen tonight as you come to the right destination – the Cross of Christ and the Table of the Lord where were receive forgiveness and God’s amazing grace.  And then, let your destination be the receiving of the ashes, which remind you that because you have come home to the Father, the grave will not hold you.