DON’T SELL THE FARM

By Johnny Campbell

A Baptist Preacher — Non-Charismatic

Luke 15:11-20:

11 And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

I am so glad the way the story ends:

The Prodigal Son coming home to the Father.

Many times I read the story, and being a Father myself, I can imagine how the Father must have felt to see his rebellious son come back to the farm. There has been a bunch of prodigals who have come home, and I thank GOD for it. Many have come home with souvenirs of a far country like:

• You might come back with a new baby and do not know the Daddy
• You could come home ten years later and come down with a bad cough. It is later discovered that when you were in the far country you contacted the AIDS virus.

There have been a lot of people that has fell out of Church. When they “left the farm,” there used to be a hot bed, a place of merriment, and praising the LORD. But since they have been gone, some of you pastors, that are nothing more than hirelings, have sold the farm through compromise. You pastors have said, “We are not going to preach today, we are going to sing it instead.”

What if the story had been like this: say the prodigal son comes down the road from the hog pen wanting to go back to the farm. There is no Father to meet him, then in the last curve before he gets to the house, the prodigal looks and sees a new white fence, new shutters on the house, but does not hear any music or making merry.

He knocks on the front door and a man he has never seen before, says, “Can I help you?”

The Prodigal replies “Yes, I am looking for my Father.”

The man says, “I am sorry, the farm has been sold.”

In the last twenty years I know churches that used to be hot beds for Revivals are now sold out.

Now when the Prodigals get ready to come home, the farms have been sold.

PREACHER, IF YOU SELL THE FARM

1. WHERE ARE THE SINNERS GOING TO REPENT AT?

I know you can be saved anywhere, but there is a divine mystery that draws sinners, that you can not get at the Masonic Temple, a mosque, or the papa in Rome.

2. THE FARM IS WHERE SHEEP GET REST

HE is tired and he is muddy and his best friends, the hogs squealed on him. Boy, you can get rest at the House of GOD.

3. THE FARM IS WHERE SERVANTS GET SENT OUT

You do not see young Preachers going out anymore. I wish that these guys that call themselves missionaries, that are really “Moochinaries” would never be sent out.

4. IF YOU SELL THE FARM, WHERE IS THE SAINTS GOING TO RAISE THEIR FAMILIES?

You can use your own thoughts here.

It was at the farm, after I got saved where I got my taters plowed. I like to go back to the spot I was saved in.