Meeting Report Feb 18, 2007 Sunday Morning:
 

Taken from Luke 15, Bro Dale Rude brought a message title “The Prodigal Who Stayed at Home.”  When referring to the story of the prodigal son, usually we think of the younger brother who squandered his fortune and went into the world – into deep, open sin.  Yet, there was another prodigal in that story.  The older brother.  At first glance, it appears that he is the ideal son, obeying all the rules, keeping the commandments of His father and faithfully working around “His Father’s House.”  Yet beneath all the good works, there lies an impure heart.  His sins weren’t outward deeds that everyone could see.  They were inward, sins of the heart (or sinful attitudes) that were hidden from view.  Spiritual heart problems will eventually manifest themselves; they don’t stay hidden forever.  At some place, at some time, what is on the inside will come out.  We see this happen when the younger son returns home and the older brother “blows up” at his father over the party given in the younger brother’s honor.  Here we see the older brother displaying sins of anger, pride, jealousy, bitterness, and self-pity.  Although he was doing all the right activities, his heart was far from pure.  Just like this older brother, many people today hang around the church, doing all the right things, priding themselves that they aren’t like those sinners out there. All the while inwardly they have sinful attitudes working on them, making them out of touch with their fellow Christians and God.  They too need to “turn their heart towards home” and come back to the Father.   

Let’s all be careful to not only watch the way we live, but the attitudes we posses so that we can be pure before God, inside and out.