You’ll need:
- Runaway Bride
- A “lost” object for a staged search —anything you could pretend to miss will do
- A favorite worship song to sing as a group
- Note cards, envelopes, and pencils
Leave the Swine Behind
The story of the Prodigal Son has so many great lessons and themes in it, but certainly one of the primary themes is how we have a tendency to run away from the protection of God our Father. We chase popularity and money and power and all kinds of stuff hoping to find something better. And eventually we realize the new stuff stinks, and we long to go back home to Dad. Tonight’s discussion unpacks the stuff luring us away from God’s protection. It shows how pleasure fades to misery and what happens when we return to our Father. And of course it reveals our Father’s amazing forgiveness and how we can keep from running away again in the future.
The Opening Act:
I can remember a time when I was little and my family went to the Mall. I don’t remember where it was, but it was one of the malls that had 2 or 3 floors. I can remember wondering off from everyone to look in a toy store and a new toy that I wanted. The problem was, no one noticed that I took off. After a few minutes, I noticed that I was alone, and no one that I knew was around me. So I began franticly looking for my mom and brothers and sisters.
I can remember looking on each level of the mall, even walking along the middle part so that I could see a little bit into the other levels as well. Finally I can remember hearing my name called on the loud speaker, and soon after, I was found.
Have any of you ever had an experience when you found yourself lost someplace?
How many of you have seen the movie Runaway Bride? Well, in that movie, Maggie, played by Julia Roberts, is a serial runaway bride. Repeatedly she gets nervous or whatever, and she leaves her fiancé standing alone at the altar. This time she’s found the right guy in Ike, played by Richard Gere, and she actually makes it down the aisle. But then tragedy strikes again. Go ahead and watch this clip with me.
· Movie clip: Runaway Bride
Now, we are like this with God sometimes. We are not sure if we want to draw close to Him or to the other stuff in our lives. Jesus tells a great story many of you know about a guy who did the same thing. He left home for reasons he himself probably wasn’t sure of and got lost in a major way. If you have your Bible with you, go ahead and turn with me to Luke 15:11-24 and we will take a look at this passage. Luke 15:11-24 says, “1”
Now, you and I act like that Prodigal Son all the time, so we can probably learn a few things by looking at his story more closely this evening.
The Main Event:
1. God tells us, “Don’t be a sucker!”
We’re often like the son in the prodigal story. We’re suckers for experiences that seem, at first look, way more interesting. We foolishly believe that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. What kinds of things tend to lure people away from God?
I can remember when I was younger. I had a little beagle pup, and he loved to chase after things. I can remember taking him out to my Grandmother’s farm one time to go hunting with us. He saw something flash, and off he took. There was not stopping him, he saw something that he wanted and he chased after it no matter what the consequences might have been.
Well, to make a long story short, we searched and searched all day to find him, but he was nowhere to be found. I can remember having to leave and go home at the end of the day, wondering if my pup was going to make it through the night all by his self in a strange place.
The next day, we went out to Grandma’s and there was the pup curled up in a ball right where we had parked the truck the day before. In the heat o the moment that dog took off chasing himself right into being lost. As a little puppy, that dog must have felt afraid, lonely, and lost once it realized that it was alone at night. Finally, she found her way to the last place she had seen us.
Well, as we take a look at this story of the Prodigal Son, we see that he too took off chasing what he though was the greener grass on the other side of the fence. He was tired of living by his father’s rules. He was tired of following orders from someone else. He wanted to experience the greener grass. And so he took off, only to find himself in a real mess and wanting to go back home.
The son got everything he ran away to get: a life full of pleasure, no responsibility, and freedom from his father. We can imagine he had fun for a while, but things changed.
2. After we’ve run away, we eventually realize, “This stinks!”
After the son squandered away his money, he had to take a job feeding pigs. He had gotten so down in the dumps that he was actually jealous of what the pigs were eating. And as I said, eventually he realized that this stunk. What stunk about his situation?
Well, many things stunk about this situation. The pigs, having no food, no shelter, no love, no family just to name a few things.
Have any of you ever ordered anything from the Internet, a catalog, TV, or a story that turned out to be less than you expected?
I can remember a time that I was out to dinner at a good restaurant. I looked at the menu and decided that the lasagna looked amazing. Sure it was about $15 for one piece, but I looked so good and it filled the plate.
So I ordered it, only to be disappointed when I finally got served. I paid $15 for a piece of lasagna that was about the size of the one that is in a small TV dinner. When I looked at the picture in the menu and ordered based off of that, I was defiantly scammed!
I can remember another time that I saw a commercial for a cell phone plan, and when I went to get the phone, it wasn’t what the commercial had said. The commercial was conditional, and no one ever meets the conditions. Had I not checked into the plan further before I signed up, I would have been scammed there as well.
You know, when I found out that I had been scammed, I realized that I had made some major mistakes in choosing the things that I had chosen. And I am sure that the Prodigal Son was scammed into thinking life would be better away from his father. He ended up with something completely less than he’d expected.
In Matthew 26:41 Jesus says, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” And what you will learn in life is that avoiding temptation takes effort. God doesn’t promise us the easiest path in life, but He does guarantee us that it will be the best path, by far.
3. When we return, our Father runs to us yelling, “Welcome home!”
The Prodigal Son was hoping to work as a servant to pay back what he’d lost. But the father runs to him with open arms and welcomes him back as a son, not a servant.
I can remember when me and Nellie went to Myrtle Beach on vacation last summer. We were sitting just barely into the ocean, letting the waves come and crash in on us. I can remember one big wave hitting her, and she reached out and grabbed my hand. But when the wave went back out, it pulled her out, and in the process pulled off my wedding ring. As soon as I felt it come off, I shoved my hand down and we both began feeling around for it. We felt around for a few seconds, which seemed like a few hours, until we finally decided that too many other waves had come in. When I picked up my hand, the ring was on my finger.
When I had shoved my hand down to look for the ring, I must have shoved it perfect in order for the ring to go right back onto my hand. I can’t explain to you how excited and happy I was when I realized that we had found the ring, and that it was not out to sea.
Have any of you ever lost something, and then found it again? If so, how did that feel?
Well, it must have been a great feeling for the father in this parable when his son was found again. In the same way, God is always pleased when we come back to Him as well. Now, what would have happened if the son had been too scared to come home?
Well just remember that we are sometimes the same way with God. We forget how much God loves us and wants us to come back to Him when we stray. And because of that, we never experience the amazing homecoming celebration that God wants to throw for us.
In Luke 15:8-10 it says, “2”
That is what God’s word has to say about what happens when someone turns from their evil ways and comes back to the Father. It says that there’s actually a party in Heaven every time one person comes or comes back to God. You can never run so far from God that He doesn’t say, “Welcome home!” when you return. In fact, God runs to us with open arms, ready to forgive!
The Grand Finale:
As we begin to wrap things up, and go into our time of discussion, I want us all to take a moment of reflection. I am giving us all a few minutes of time to pray and identify some of the temptations that tend to sucker us away from God. Take this time to pray about what it is that God wants you to do in order to “leave the swine behind,” and come home to the Him. Since we are talking about going home, I am going to play a song by Chris Daughtry called, Home. So take this time to reflect and pray about being able to leave the sin behind you and come back home to the Father.
- Play CD: Chris Daughtry – Home
At this time, I want to take the time that we have left to discuss today’s lesson together:
Encore:
Get It?
· Why did the Prodigal Son leave home?
· Running from God doesn’t mean you actually run away from home. What does it mean?
· What range of emotions to you think the son experienced from the time he was leaving home, to the time he was being welcomed home by his father?
· How does the father’s reaction to the son returning home reflect God’s feelings about us?
· Does God expect us to live perfect lives? What does He want us to do when we mess up?
· What lie did the son believe about his new life in the distant land?
· The father freely gave his son his inheritance. This allowed the son to wander far away from home. How is this like the freedom God gives us?
· Obviously, it wasn’t the father’s fault the son ended up in the pigpen. Why do some people blame God for their circumstances?
· Jesus tells this story to show us how God the Father feels about forgiveness. What do we learn about God from this story?
· What does the story tell us about how God wants us to respond to sin in our lives?
What If? The Big Picture
· What do people today face that can lure you away from God?
· Which is easier—spending money or saving money? Being mean or being nice? Being lazy or being productive? In the same way which do you think is easier, following God or not following God? Explain your answer.
· Do you think most people choose to sin? Or are they fooled into it? Why?
· Share a time in your life when you strayed away from God’s commands, thinking it would be better, but it turned out worse.
· Since God says He will always forgive us, does that mean we’re free to be as bad as we want to be? Why or why not?
§ Romans 6:1-2 – “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?”
· Why is it so is easy to forget how forgiving God is?
So What? It’s Your Life
· How can we always remember to trust that God will react with forgiveness when we return?
· If you were to place yourself as the Prodigal Son in this story, where would you be right now:
- Exercising the freedom to leave?
- Checking out the party options?
- Feeding the swine?
- Thinking about returning home?
- Finding your way home?
- Resting in the arms of your Father?
· Does anyone have anything that they would like to add?
Well, if there is nothing else, I want to end with one last little excersise.
· Activity: Dear God
Dear God:
Pass out blank note cards and envelopes to everyone and invite them to write a note to God. Like a letter home from camp, this note should express their desire to come back to God and thank Him for welcoming them back with open arms. Seal and address the envelopes to God, addressed to heaven (and actually mail them as an act of commitment, but don’t put a return address on them, and the post office will of course throw them away?).
Now, I am going to close in a word of prayer, and since sometimes we don’t feel the arms of God around us, as you leave here, make sure that you hug a person or two, so that we can feel what its like to be welcomed back into the Father’s arms again.
Let’s Pray!
|
