May 2, 2025 • 17 mins
Check out the full interview from RJ on Delafe Testimonies Youtube Channel
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In this compelling episode of the Radio Coffee House, host Clint Armitage dives deep into the timeless parable of the Prodigal Son, weaving in the poignant testimony of RJ Hale Jr., a pastor at Life Song Church. RJ shares his own journey of straying from faith and the transformative moment that led him back to God, mirroring the biblical narrative of the wayward son.
As RJ recounts his experiences, he reflects on the numbness he felt while living a life far removed from his calling, illustrating the profound realization that drew him back to his Heavenly Father. His story serves as a powerful reminder of God’s unwavering love and willingness to restore us, no matter how far we may wander. Clint emphasizes RJ’s moment of clarity, where he recognized the joy of returning to a relationship with God, much like the Prodigal Son who, in his desperation, decided to come home.
Clint reads through the parable found in Luke, unpacking its layers and drawing parallels to RJ’s life. He invites listeners to consider their own paths and the moments when they may have strayed from God’s calling. This episode challenges us to confront our own decisions, urging us to listen to God’s guidance rather than our own intrusive thoughts that often lead us astray.
As the discussion unfolds, Clint encourages listeners to embrace humility and the importance of returning to God with open hearts. He highlights the joy and celebration that comes with repentance and the restoration of our relationship with the Father. This episode is a heartfelt invitation to reflect on our own journeys and to seek the loving embrace of God, who welcomes us back with open arms.
Tune in to this transformative episode of the Radio Coffee House to explore the depths of grace, the power of redemption, and the incredible love of a Father waiting to welcome His children home.
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🗣️ Quotes from RJ Hale Jr.
"When I walked up to that altar, I was expecting God to spank me... but all I felt was just an overwhelming love of God."
"The gift and callings of God are without repentance."
-----
🗣️ Quotes from Clint Armitage
"Are you contemplating about walking away from God? We can get caught up in our own thoughts."
"It's time to come back. Come back humbly and ask the Lord for mercy."
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Clint Armitage (00:01):
Welcome to another edition of the Radio Coffeeh House
show, where Jesus meets coffee meets talk
radio. And the next one starts right
now.
How's it going, everybody? Clint Armitage with the Radio Coffee House. Thanks for
coming back. Thanks for listening. And we've got another great show for you
today. And today we're going to be talking about the prodigal son.
(00:23):
We're going to be reading about the prodigal son. But there's a
story that I came across on an interview of
a guy by the name of Roy Hale Jr. But I guess he
goes by the name RJ. Anyways, he's a pastor of a
church called Life Song Church. And before this,
he gives his testimony about being the prodigal
son. And so let's listen to his
(00:43):
testimony about being the prodigal. And then we're going toa actually
read through the prodigal son story. And then
we're go goingna see if we can pick out some nuances and stuff like that.
So let's hear his testimony and then let's get into the
prodigal son story. Let's do this.
>> RJ Hale Jr. (01:01):
At this time of my life, when I was sinning and doing all these
see things, turning my back on God, I was
numb. Um, I didn't have any conviction. And that was probably
the scariest part for me because I went from being so close to the Holy
Spirit to where I feel like I grieved him so much, to
where now I couldn't even hear Him. And it was scary.
But I say all of that. It'the exciting
(01:22):
part. This is exactly where the Lord met me.
And it's exactly, um, where he chose to
really bring me back. And so I happened to go to a
church service on a weekend, uh, when I was
firefighting. And I went and on a Sunday I was sitting in the
back. And I'll never forget it. There's his pastor, his name
is Joey. And, uh, he was preaching at a
(01:42):
Psalms chapter one. And if you read Psalm
chapter one, uh, it says this and it goes, oh, the
joy of those who are righteous.
Oh, the joy of those who are the Lord's pretty much.
And he was preaching on it and it says, but the wicked,
the wicked, they hang out with other wicked people. They
sit with them, they stand, they talk. And then he was talking
(02:02):
about how aren't you, um,
missing your father? And he was talking
about. And I just remember as Pastor Joia, uh, as he
was praying, I was sitting in the back. And the best way
that I could describe it is I Just started missing God.
I really just started to miss him. And
I started having, like, these flashbacks of, like, man, I
(02:23):
was called God. I loved you, had this sweet
presence with you, and now I've just blown it. I've become
wicked. I've become lukewarm. I don't even feel your
presence anymore. And I remember having these thoughts in
my head. And then I just felt like God was just drawing
me and just trying to pull me. And so the pastor
gave the altar call. And I remember I got up and I was
(02:43):
kind of sitting in the back. There was a bunch of people at the altar, and I was kind of
just standing in the back. And then the pastor comes, and he makes a
beeline to me, and he grabs me, and he goes, rj, how
are you doing? And I was like, o, it's going good,
fire. I'm totally lying. I'm all, firefighting is going good.
Everything, you know? And he goes, he'all, how you
doing? And I was like, um, I'm good. You know, I'm good,
Fire. And then he asked me a third time, and he said, rj, how are you
(03:05):
doing? And then I just broke down. I was
crying that moment, that day in that church for me, where
I finally was just like, what am I doing, God? And I came into my
senses. And the thing that rocks
me the most about this moment, and I tell people this all the
time, is that when I walked up to that
altar, I was, like, expecting God
to, like, spank me. I was expecting my
(03:27):
father to have, like, a lightning bolt,
right? Be like, rj, you idiot. Like, you knew better.
Like, God, how can you forgive me? You know? And
then I remember that, um, in
that moment when the pastor was praying for me, all I
felt was no punishment, no
anger. All I felt was just an
overwhelming love of God. And he
(03:50):
really was. He was like, my son, you were lost, but who cares
about that? You're found now. And what's so crazy about
God is. I mean, just that
week, I was probably screwing around with a girl who knows what I was
doing. Just that that week, I was probably drink and
partying, and it instantly. God forgave me.
And he didn't just forgive me. He reinstated me.
Reinstated me. He gave me my calling back and my purpose
(04:13):
back. And I doubted it. And I remember being like, God, are you
sure? And there's a verse in the Bible that says, the gift and callings
of God are without repentance, right? So right when I came
back, he for gab me, healed me, delivered me, gave Me a
calling. And I remember I happened to have a Bible in the
bathroom, and it was open. I didn't even, like, realize
where it was. And, uh, hon, honest to God
truth, I said, God, are you really restoring me? Do
(04:36):
you really want me to go into the ministry? Do I still have a calling?
And I happened to look down and it was in Jeremiah. And this
is what it said. It said, this is what the Lord says. And
I was like, wellh, that gets my attention. It says, if you
truly return to me, if you return to me, I will
restore you. And if you speak good words rather than
worthless words, I'll, um, make you my spokesman.
>> Clint Armitage (04:55):
Okay, so we just heard RJ Hale, Jr.
Talk about his prodigal son's story and how he
was called from a little kid. You know, in the whole interview, you can hear more.
But he was called from a little kid to be for
God. Like, God called him into the ministry when he was
young, and I guess he was in the ministry when he was younger,
but then he stepped away from the faith, got totally into the
(05:16):
world. And then God called him
back through a series of events, and then
he recognized that God was calling him finally. And
he said, I have to make a change. And he did make the change.
And then a whole bunch of stuff happened in his story. But you heard a
portion of it, how God go called him back, set up some
divine appointments, and then he actually came
back to the Lord. And now he's a pastor of Life Song
(05:38):
Church, which is really cool. So what I wanted to do is
actually go through the prodigal son story in the book of
Luke. It's the parable of the prodigal son. Now, it
starts in verse 11, and it goes through, I don't know, like verse
32 or something like that. But we're only going to read verse
11 through 24. So let's start reading and, uh,
let's see if we can pick it apart and see what it says. Here we
(05:59):
go. And he said there was a man who had two sons.
And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of
property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between
them. Not many days later, the younger son
gathered all he had and took a journey into a far
country. And there he squandered his property in
reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a
(06:20):
severe famine arose in that country, and he began
to be in need. So he went and hired himself
out to one of the citizens of that country who sent
him into the Fields to feed pigs. And he was longing
to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate.
And no one gave him anything. But when he came to
himself, he said, how many of my father's
(06:40):
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 it to on, father, I have
sinned against you and heaven. 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
(07:00):
father saw him and felt compassion and ran and
embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I have
sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer
worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his
servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on
him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and
bring the fattened calf and kill it. And let us eat and celebrate. For
(07:21):
this son of mine was dead and is alive
again. He was lost and is found.
And they began to celebrate. Uh, al right, we well ll stop there.
There's more to the story because the other brother gets a little jealous about
the father treating his younger son like this, like
taking him in without having a grudge or punishing him or
anything like that.
But we only need to talk about that first portion, because that's
(07:42):
where this guy was at. RJ Hale was at a point where he
felt like the prodigal son, where he was totally going
away from his calling. Uh, and just like in the story, in the
parable, same thing. So he has an inheritance from
his father. And obviously, this is a picture of us and
God and how some of us will walk
away from God, even though God has called us, we
(08:02):
know it. We've lived it. We know that God
is calling us. We know that God is for us. We know God is
with us. It's not like we didn't know. It's not like we're
totally unbelievers. It's as if we knew the Father from
when we were young, and we intentionally and
willfully wanted to go astray, just
like the prodigal son, Just like RJ Hale willfully
(08:22):
stepping away from the Lord and the path that he had
put you on, and it was a path that he had set before you. But
instead of walking down on that path, we walked down
another path. We walked down our own path. RJ
Haile firefighting Even though it's a good thing, right? Getting
A good job, like a firefighting job. But he did
not listen to the Lord. That was not his calling. So he was
(08:42):
in disobedience from the Lord. He walked away from
his calling that God had called him to. Is that similar
to what the situation you're in right now? Or
have you come back from that? Or are you contemplating about
doing it, about walking away from God? We can get caught up. And
I know I do this, too. I've done it many years of my life
where I put my needs
(09:03):
and my thoughts and my plans in front of God's
plan. And I know it sometimes. And then I willfully
don't do what I believe God told me to do.
Sometimes it's just me messing it up, you know, and
not making a good decision. But then there's other times where I'm
willfully going against what I
believe God has told me to do. It's like what
(09:23):
Paul says in Romans 7, in verse 15 through 20. Let
me. Let me read this. Paul says this. I do not understand
what I do. For what I want to do, I do not
do, but what I hate to do. And if I
do what I do not want to do, I agree
that the law is good as it is. It is no
longer I myself who do it, but it is
(09:43):
sin living in me. For I know that
good itself does not dwell in me, that is
in my sinful nature. For I have a desire to
do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want to do,
but the evil I do not want to do. This
I keep doing. Little bit of a tongue twister there, right? But
(10:03):
basically what Paul is saying is he's doing the things he
doesn't want to do, even though he knows he's not supposed to do
it. He's trying not to do it, but it doesn't matter. He still does
it. Why? Because it's not him. It's the sin that
lives inside him. That's why we want to do our own thing
and not God's thing. That's why we want to step off the path that
God has given us. Because we have this sin
(10:24):
in us. And we can't control the sin because
we're listening to it. And what do I mean by listening? Listening to the
sin? We're listening to ourselves. That's how we're listening to the
sin, by listening to ourselves. We have to start listening to
God because God will tell us what we need to do. The Holy
Spirit will lead us and help us make Good
decisions. If we follow him. The problem is
(10:44):
we don't follow the Lord. We don't follow the Holy
Spirit. What we follow is ourselves.
We follow our own thoughts. And Paul
is a giant of faith, and yet he
is still having problems with his fleshly
desires and with sin, because it's sin that lives in
him, like he says. So what we have to start doing is start
listening to God's words, listening to God's
(11:06):
lead, and following God's path. We
really have to step away. I mean, literally 100% we have
to step away from what we think. It doesn't matter
how good you think it is, it's not good.
Because if we're listening to ourselves, we're listening to sin. I don't
know if that confuses you or not, because if you think
like, no, what do you mean? I have good thoughts. Like, I want to do good things
(11:27):
for, for myself or for people. I want to do good
things for God. So how can everything I think
be bad? And this is how I can explain
it. If it's not God, it is
not good. I mean, that's the easiest way to explain
it. Now, it may be tough to comprehend, and
the tough part is stepping away from what we know are
(11:48):
our thoughts. That's the thing is discerning between
what is our thoughts, what do we want,
versus what is God's thoughts, and what does God
want? If we can start making decisions
daily and operate that way on a
daily basis, we're going to be able to live and
walk in the spirit and walk by
faith, and live by faith. Because think about it. Whenever
(12:10):
you make a decision, it's based on your own mind, your
logical thought, correct? And when it's things like
stuff you want to eat for dinner, yeah, that's not a big deal. But, uh, when
it's other decisions, even daily life decisions
that affect other things that are a little bit more important
than just what you're going to eat, you know, for dinner, you'll
notice that it'll be your thoughts that intrude,
(12:31):
even though God will even tell you, and you know it's God telling
you, but your thoughts will intrude into it. So.
Oh, no, that sounds too hard. I don't want to do that.
Hey, go feed the homeless. Go to that soup kitchen and
volunteer and talk to people over there. Spend time with, um, them. And
you're like, oh, no, man, I can't do that. Right.
That's your logical brain thinking. That's you
thinking. But remember, when we think like
(12:53):
that, we're thinking for ourselves and we're not thinking of
God the way God would do it and the way
God would want us to do it. So going
from a prodigal son situation and
actually looking at the sin within us, making
our decisions. Because if you look at the prodigal son, he
made his decision fleshly. He asked his father for
(13:13):
the inheritance and his father gave him the inheritance.
And then he made a decision to go blow
the inheritance. You know, that's
not the father's choice. You know, that's not the
father's path for the younger son. But
yet the younger son still did it. Why? Because
he was thinking his own way. He was taking
(13:33):
his thoughts and following his thoughts. Remember,
that's how sin works, right? It goes from a thought to
say a feeling to an action. And I'll talk about that three
step process in another episode. But the prodigal
son went through this same thing and he followed
his thoughts all the way through. And
then when he came to himself, like
(13:53):
he said, he came to his right mind is what basically
happened is because he started thinking about the way
his father would want him to make
decisions and what was his father want him to
do? His father wanted him to come back. And that's
what he started to consider, hey,
maybe I should go back. Because he figured
my father's servants, hired servants,
(14:16):
actually eat better than I'm eating now. I'm eating with the
pigs. I can do better just by going back and being a
servant for my father. But then when he went back
with a attitude of servitude, to go
back humbly, the way God wants people
to do it, to be humble about things,
he came back to his father humbly and the father said, no,
(14:37):
you're my son. Put a robe on him, put a ring on
him, let's go have a party, you know, later on it's fat in
the calf and have a party because my
son has come back to me. That's what the father
said. Where are you at with that? Where are you at
with the decisions you make? Do you make decisions
with God in mind? Meaning do you do what God
is telling you to do? Or do we have these intrusive
(14:59):
thoughts that come in and go, hey, no, I'd think this
is better. It's more logical to do it this way. God
doesn't work only on logic. God works
on his omnipotence, on his
omniscience. If we were to work with God on
that, our lives would be so much more
peaceful. We wouldn't make so many bad decisions,
and we'd be in a place of peace. So think about that
(15:22):
before you make any rash decisions, especially that'something
that's going to affect your life. Because I'MADE some bad
decisions with myself, with my family. I've
made some decisions that were selfish, that were all about me, and
they weren't decisions that God wanted me to make.
But yet I followed through, thinking I had the
best options, I had the most logical
outcomes, and then I end up ruining things.
(15:45):
So now I've learned, hey, whatever God says, even though it's
illogical in my eyes, in m my mind, but this
is what God is telling me to do. Go up to that person over
there, go drive to this state, go over here,
go over there, talk to that person, give this amount of money,
all these different things where I think, uh, that's not
logical, or that doesn't seem like a good
idea. That's me and my
(16:07):
intrusive thoughts. And that's how we're going to follow
along with the prodigal son, by listening to ourselves. So
let's stop listening to ourselves. Let's start listening to
God, following God's ways, following God's
plan, so that we can live in harmony,
in peace, in contentment with the
situation that we're in. Be like RJ Hale. He
(16:27):
found it. He came to himself and he said, I
miss my father. I gotta come back.
Hopefully that's what you're doing too, is coming back to the
Lord. Hopefully you're making a decision not to
leave the Lord in the first place. But if you did leave the Lord,
it's time to come back. Come back humbly and ask
the Lord for mercy. And he's gonna give it to you. Ask the
(16:48):
Lord for forgiveness, and he'snna give it to you. You have to
stop running away from the Lord and actually turn
and come towards him. Let him throw a robe on you.
Let him put a ring on you. A robe in a ring means
your royalty with God, your God's son, your God's
daughter. It's time. Thanks for
listening. My name is Clint Armitage. This is the Radio Coffee
(17:08):
House. And until next time, stay safe
and God bless.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Radio Coffeeh
Housee show, where we're all about Jesus, coffee
and radio. We'll see you next time.
Welcome to another edition of the Radio Coffeeh House
show, where Jesus meets coffee meets talk
radio. And the next one starts right
now.
How's it going, everybody? Clint Armitage with the Radio Coffee House. Thanks for
coming back. Thanks for listening. And we've got another great show for you
today. And today we're going to be talking about the prodigal son.
(00:23):
We're going to be reading about the prodigal son. But there's a
story that I came across on an interview of
a guy by the name of Roy Hale Jr. But I guess he
goes by the name RJ. Anyways, he's a pastor of a
church called Life Song Church. And before this,
he gives his testimony about being the prodigal
son. And so let's listen to his
(00:43):
testimony about being the prodigal. And then we're going toa actually
read through the prodigal son story. And then
we're go goingna see if we can pick out some nuances and stuff like that.
So let's hear his testimony and then let's get into the
prodigal son story. Let's do this.
>> RJ Hale Jr. (01:01):
At this time of my life, when I was sinning and doing all these
see things, turning my back on God, I was
numb. Um, I didn't have any conviction. And that was probably
the scariest part for me because I went from being so close to the Holy
Spirit to where I feel like I grieved him so much, to
where now I couldn't even hear Him. And it was scary.
But I say all of that. It'the exciting
(01:22):
part. This is exactly where the Lord met me.
And it's exactly, um, where he chose to
really bring me back. And so I happened to go to a
church service on a weekend, uh, when I was
firefighting. And I went and on a Sunday I was sitting in the
back. And I'll never forget it. There's his pastor, his name
is Joey. And, uh, he was preaching at a
(01:42):
Psalms chapter one. And if you read Psalm
chapter one, uh, it says this and it goes, oh, the
joy of those who are righteous.
Oh, the joy of those who are the Lord's pretty much.
And he was preaching on it and it says, but the wicked,
the wicked, they hang out with other wicked people. They
sit with them, they stand, they talk. And then he was talking
(02:02):
about how aren't you, um,
missing your father? And he was talking
about. And I just remember as Pastor Joia, uh, as he
was praying, I was sitting in the back. And the best way
that I could describe it is I Just started missing God.
I really just started to miss him. And
I started having, like, these flashbacks of, like, man, I
(02:23):
was called God. I loved you, had this sweet
presence with you, and now I've just blown it. I've become
wicked. I've become lukewarm. I don't even feel your
presence anymore. And I remember having these thoughts in
my head. And then I just felt like God was just drawing
me and just trying to pull me. And so the pastor
gave the altar call. And I remember I got up and I was
(02:43):
kind of sitting in the back. There was a bunch of people at the altar, and I was kind of
just standing in the back. And then the pastor comes, and he makes a
beeline to me, and he grabs me, and he goes, rj, how
are you doing? And I was like, o, it's going good,
fire. I'm totally lying. I'm all, firefighting is going good.
Everything, you know? And he goes, he'all, how you
doing? And I was like, um, I'm good. You know, I'm good,
Fire. And then he asked me a third time, and he said, rj, how are you
(03:05):
doing? And then I just broke down. I was
crying that moment, that day in that church for me, where
I finally was just like, what am I doing, God? And I came into my
senses. And the thing that rocks
me the most about this moment, and I tell people this all the
time, is that when I walked up to that
altar, I was, like, expecting God
to, like, spank me. I was expecting my
(03:27):
father to have, like, a lightning bolt,
right? Be like, rj, you idiot. Like, you knew better.
Like, God, how can you forgive me? You know? And
then I remember that, um, in
that moment when the pastor was praying for me, all I
felt was no punishment, no
anger. All I felt was just an
overwhelming love of God. And he
(03:50):
really was. He was like, my son, you were lost, but who cares
about that? You're found now. And what's so crazy about
God is. I mean, just that
week, I was probably screwing around with a girl who knows what I was
doing. Just that that week, I was probably drink and
partying, and it instantly. God forgave me.
And he didn't just forgive me. He reinstated me.
Reinstated me. He gave me my calling back and my purpose
(04:13):
back. And I doubted it. And I remember being like, God, are you
sure? And there's a verse in the Bible that says, the gift and callings
of God are without repentance, right? So right when I came
back, he for gab me, healed me, delivered me, gave Me a
calling. And I remember I happened to have a Bible in the
bathroom, and it was open. I didn't even, like, realize
where it was. And, uh, hon, honest to God
truth, I said, God, are you really restoring me? Do
(04:36):
you really want me to go into the ministry? Do I still have a calling?
And I happened to look down and it was in Jeremiah. And this
is what it said. It said, this is what the Lord says. And
I was like, wellh, that gets my attention. It says, if you
truly return to me, if you return to me, I will
restore you. And if you speak good words rather than
worthless words, I'll, um, make you my spokesman.
>> Clint Armitage (04:55):
Okay, so we just heard RJ Hale, Jr.
Talk about his prodigal son's story and how he
was called from a little kid. You know, in the whole interview, you can hear more.
But he was called from a little kid to be for
God. Like, God called him into the ministry when he was
young, and I guess he was in the ministry when he was younger,
but then he stepped away from the faith, got totally into the
(05:16):
world. And then God called him
back through a series of events, and then
he recognized that God was calling him finally. And
he said, I have to make a change. And he did make the change.
And then a whole bunch of stuff happened in his story. But you heard a
portion of it, how God go called him back, set up some
divine appointments, and then he actually came
back to the Lord. And now he's a pastor of Life Song
(05:38):
Church, which is really cool. So what I wanted to do is
actually go through the prodigal son story in the book of
Luke. It's the parable of the prodigal son. Now, it
starts in verse 11, and it goes through, I don't know, like verse
32 or something like that. But we're only going to read verse
11 through 24. So let's start reading and, uh,
let's see if we can pick it apart and see what it says. Here we
(05:59):
go. And he said there was a man who had two sons.
And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of
property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between
them. Not many days later, the younger son
gathered all he had and took a journey into a far
country. And there he squandered his property in
reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a
(06:20):
severe famine arose in that country, and he began
to be in need. So he went and hired himself
out to one of the citizens of that country who sent
him into the Fields to feed pigs. And he was longing
to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate.
And no one gave him anything. But when he came to
himself, he said, how many of my father's
(06:40):
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 it to on, father, I have
sinned against you and heaven. 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
(07:00):
father saw him and felt compassion and ran and
embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I have
sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer
worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his
servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on
him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and
bring the fattened calf and kill it. And let us eat and celebrate. For
(07:21):
this son of mine was dead and is alive
again. He was lost and is found.
And they began to celebrate. Uh, al right, we well ll stop there.
There's more to the story because the other brother gets a little jealous about
the father treating his younger son like this, like
taking him in without having a grudge or punishing him or
anything like that.
But we only need to talk about that first portion, because that's
(07:42):
where this guy was at. RJ Hale was at a point where he
felt like the prodigal son, where he was totally going
away from his calling. Uh, and just like in the story, in the
parable, same thing. So he has an inheritance from
his father. And obviously, this is a picture of us and
God and how some of us will walk
away from God, even though God has called us, we
(08:02):
know it. We've lived it. We know that God
is calling us. We know that God is for us. We know God is
with us. It's not like we didn't know. It's not like we're
totally unbelievers. It's as if we knew the Father from
when we were young, and we intentionally and
willfully wanted to go astray, just
like the prodigal son, Just like RJ Hale willfully
(08:22):
stepping away from the Lord and the path that he had
put you on, and it was a path that he had set before you. But
instead of walking down on that path, we walked down
another path. We walked down our own path. RJ
Haile firefighting Even though it's a good thing, right? Getting
A good job, like a firefighting job. But he did
not listen to the Lord. That was not his calling. So he was
(08:42):
in disobedience from the Lord. He walked away from
his calling that God had called him to. Is that similar
to what the situation you're in right now? Or
have you come back from that? Or are you contemplating about
doing it, about walking away from God? We can get caught up. And
I know I do this, too. I've done it many years of my life
where I put my needs
(09:03):
and my thoughts and my plans in front of God's
plan. And I know it sometimes. And then I willfully
don't do what I believe God told me to do.
Sometimes it's just me messing it up, you know, and
not making a good decision. But then there's other times where I'm
willfully going against what I
believe God has told me to do. It's like what
(09:23):
Paul says in Romans 7, in verse 15 through 20. Let
me. Let me read this. Paul says this. I do not understand
what I do. For what I want to do, I do not
do, but what I hate to do. And if I
do what I do not want to do, I agree
that the law is good as it is. It is no
longer I myself who do it, but it is
(09:43):
sin living in me. For I know that
good itself does not dwell in me, that is
in my sinful nature. For I have a desire to
do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want to do,
but the evil I do not want to do. This
I keep doing. Little bit of a tongue twister there, right? But
(10:03):
basically what Paul is saying is he's doing the things he
doesn't want to do, even though he knows he's not supposed to do
it. He's trying not to do it, but it doesn't matter. He still does
it. Why? Because it's not him. It's the sin that
lives inside him. That's why we want to do our own thing
and not God's thing. That's why we want to step off the path that
God has given us. Because we have this sin
(10:24):
in us. And we can't control the sin because
we're listening to it. And what do I mean by listening? Listening to the
sin? We're listening to ourselves. That's how we're listening to the
sin, by listening to ourselves. We have to start listening to
God because God will tell us what we need to do. The Holy
Spirit will lead us and help us make Good
decisions. If we follow him. The problem is
(10:44):
we don't follow the Lord. We don't follow the Holy
Spirit. What we follow is ourselves.
We follow our own thoughts. And Paul
is a giant of faith, and yet he
is still having problems with his fleshly
desires and with sin, because it's sin that lives in
him, like he says. So what we have to start doing is start
listening to God's words, listening to God's
(11:06):
lead, and following God's path. We
really have to step away. I mean, literally 100% we have
to step away from what we think. It doesn't matter
how good you think it is, it's not good.
Because if we're listening to ourselves, we're listening to sin. I don't
know if that confuses you or not, because if you think
like, no, what do you mean? I have good thoughts. Like, I want to do good things
(11:27):
for, for myself or for people. I want to do good
things for God. So how can everything I think
be bad? And this is how I can explain
it. If it's not God, it is
not good. I mean, that's the easiest way to explain
it. Now, it may be tough to comprehend, and
the tough part is stepping away from what we know are
(11:48):
our thoughts. That's the thing is discerning between
what is our thoughts, what do we want,
versus what is God's thoughts, and what does God
want? If we can start making decisions
daily and operate that way on a
daily basis, we're going to be able to live and
walk in the spirit and walk by
faith, and live by faith. Because think about it. Whenever
(12:10):
you make a decision, it's based on your own mind, your
logical thought, correct? And when it's things like
stuff you want to eat for dinner, yeah, that's not a big deal. But, uh, when
it's other decisions, even daily life decisions
that affect other things that are a little bit more important
than just what you're going to eat, you know, for dinner, you'll
notice that it'll be your thoughts that intrude,
(12:31):
even though God will even tell you, and you know it's God telling
you, but your thoughts will intrude into it. So.
Oh, no, that sounds too hard. I don't want to do that.
Hey, go feed the homeless. Go to that soup kitchen and
volunteer and talk to people over there. Spend time with, um, them. And
you're like, oh, no, man, I can't do that. Right.
That's your logical brain thinking. That's you
thinking. But remember, when we think like
(12:53):
that, we're thinking for ourselves and we're not thinking of
God the way God would do it and the way
God would want us to do it. So going
from a prodigal son situation and
actually looking at the sin within us, making
our decisions. Because if you look at the prodigal son, he
made his decision fleshly. He asked his father for
(13:13):
the inheritance and his father gave him the inheritance.
And then he made a decision to go blow
the inheritance. You know, that's
not the father's choice. You know, that's not the
father's path for the younger son. But
yet the younger son still did it. Why? Because
he was thinking his own way. He was taking
(13:33):
his thoughts and following his thoughts. Remember,
that's how sin works, right? It goes from a thought to
say a feeling to an action. And I'll talk about that three
step process in another episode. But the prodigal
son went through this same thing and he followed
his thoughts all the way through. And
then when he came to himself, like
(13:53):
he said, he came to his right mind is what basically
happened is because he started thinking about the way
his father would want him to make
decisions and what was his father want him to
do? His father wanted him to come back. And that's
what he started to consider, hey,
maybe I should go back. Because he figured
my father's servants, hired servants,
(14:16):
actually eat better than I'm eating now. I'm eating with the
pigs. I can do better just by going back and being a
servant for my father. But then when he went back
with a attitude of servitude, to go
back humbly, the way God wants people
to do it, to be humble about things,
he came back to his father humbly and the father said, no,
(14:37):
you're my son. Put a robe on him, put a ring on
him, let's go have a party, you know, later on it's fat in
the calf and have a party because my
son has come back to me. That's what the father
said. Where are you at with that? Where are you at
with the decisions you make? Do you make decisions
with God in mind? Meaning do you do what God
is telling you to do? Or do we have these intrusive
(14:59):
thoughts that come in and go, hey, no, I'd think this
is better. It's more logical to do it this way. God
doesn't work only on logic. God works
on his omnipotence, on his
omniscience. If we were to work with God on
that, our lives would be so much more
peaceful. We wouldn't make so many bad decisions,
and we'd be in a place of peace. So think about that
(15:22):
before you make any rash decisions, especially that'something
that's going to affect your life. Because I'MADE some bad
decisions with myself, with my family. I've
made some decisions that were selfish, that were all about me, and
they weren't decisions that God wanted me to make.
But yet I followed through, thinking I had the
best options, I had the most logical
outcomes, and then I end up ruining things.
(15:45):
So now I've learned, hey, whatever God says, even though it's
illogical in my eyes, in m my mind, but this
is what God is telling me to do. Go up to that person over
there, go drive to this state, go over here,
go over there, talk to that person, give this amount of money,
all these different things where I think, uh, that's not
logical, or that doesn't seem like a good
idea. That's me and my
(16:07):
intrusive thoughts. And that's how we're going to follow
along with the prodigal son, by listening to ourselves. So
let's stop listening to ourselves. Let's start listening to
God, following God's ways, following God's
plan, so that we can live in harmony,
in peace, in contentment with the
situation that we're in. Be like RJ Hale. He
(16:27):
found it. He came to himself and he said, I
miss my father. I gotta come back.
Hopefully that's what you're doing too, is coming back to the
Lord. Hopefully you're making a decision not to
leave the Lord in the first place. But if you did leave the Lord,
it's time to come back. Come back humbly and ask
the Lord for mercy. And he's gonna give it to you. Ask the
(16:48):
Lord for forgiveness, and he'snna give it to you. You have to
stop running away from the Lord and actually turn
and come towards him. Let him throw a robe on you.
Let him put a ring on you. A robe in a ring means
your royalty with God, your God's son, your God's
daughter. It's time. Thanks for
listening. My name is Clint Armitage. This is the Radio Coffee
(17:08):
House. And until next time, stay safe
and God bless.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Radio Coffeeh
Housee show, where we're all about Jesus, coffee
and radio. We'll see you next time.
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