Prone to Wandering from God the Father (Luke 15:13-16)

We are prone to wandering from God the Father. Generally, when we have sin in our lives we want to be as far away from God as possible. We don’t wander physically like the son in the parable, but we do wonder spiritually. We don’t physically go to a far country, but we avoid praying, reading the Bible, attending church and fellowship. https://youtu.be/Bu4-vZmz4D0 We are prone to wandering from God the Father. When we have sin in our lives we avoid praying, reading the Bible, and attending church. Table of ContentsLesson One: God lets His children wander from Him.Lesson Two: Sometimes parents must let their children wander from them.Lesson Three: God has ways of bringing us back from wandering.Lesson Four: Slavery to God results in freedom. Family Worship Guide for Prone to Wandering from God the Father Directions: Read the verses and then answer the questions: Day 1: Luke 15:12, Jeremiah 2:2, Mark 10:21-23, John 6:66, Lamentations 3:27—Why did the son go to a far country? In what ways do we, spiritually speaking, go to a far country away from our Heavenly Father? Why do you think the father didn’t go after his son? What application does this have for us in our relationship with God and in our relationships with our own children? Day 2: Jeremiah 2:19, Luke 15:14-15—When we wander from our Heavenly Father how does He bring us back to Himself? How do our backslidings rebuke us? What does it mean that sin punishes the sinner? Provide some examples of what this looks like in your life or other people’s lives. Day 3: 2 Peter 2:19, John 8:34-36, Romans 6:18, Exodus 21:5-6, Matthew 6:24—How does sin make people slaves? What does it mean for people to be slaves to sin? How can people be freed from slavery to sin? Describe the process for people to become a willing slave of a master in the Old Testament? What application does this have for us as Christians? Sermon Notes The title of this morning’s sermon is, “Prone to Wandering from God the Father.” On Sunday mornings we’re working our way through Luke’s gospel verse by verse and we find ourselves at Luke 15:11. Please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word. Luke 15:11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 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. 13 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. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. You may be seated. Let’s pray. On Sunday mornings we have been working our way through Luke’s gospel verse by verse and have reached what is most commonly known as the parable of the prodigal son. We took a brief detour for a few weeks because of something I saw at the beginning of the parable that I thought was so important I wanted to elaborate on it by showing you a few other examples in Scripture. Let’s back up to the beginning of the parable to briefly review… Luke 15:11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 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. As we talked in our sermon on these verses, the son’s request was incredibly rude and disrespectful. The listeners in Jesus’s day would’ve expected the father to: Reject the son’s request Rebuke him for his disrespect Slap him across the face Remove him from the family Announce the son should be viewed as dead And then hold a funeral for him Instead, we read… Luke 15:12b And he divided his property between them. The only thing more outrageous than the son’s request was the father’s response. Jesus’s listeners would never believe a father would respond this way and give his immature, rebellious son his inheritance. No earthly father would do this, which begs the question: why did the father in this parable do this? The answer is the father in the parable doesn’t represent any earthly father. He represents God the Father: The father in the parable extends freedom that will be taken advantage of and used sinfully, like God the Father extends freedom that can be taken advantage of and used sinfully. The father in the parable gives the son what he wants – even to the son’s detriment – because he represents God the Father who might give us what we want to our detriment. And we looked at some other examples in Scripture of God giving people their will to their detriment: God let Moses take Aaron with him when he refused to go God gave the Israelites meat after they complained about the manna God let Balaam go with Balak after telling him no God let 2.5 tribes settle outside the Promised Land. God let Israel have an earthly king Now we will see how well – or I should say how poorly – it went for the son after the father gave him the inheritance. Look at the new verse for this morning, verse 13… Luke 15:13 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. Let me draw your attention to a few phrases in this verse… First, it says not many days later showing he didn’t waste much time. He probably took only long enough to get his plan together. Second, more than likely the inheritance included land and animals, such as cattle he couldn’t bring with him. One commentator wrote that the words gathered all indicate the son converted all of his inheritance into cash. Then he squandered it on reckless living. Other translations say wild living or prodigal living, which is where we get the most well-known title for the parable. The amplified Bible says reckless and immoral living. The Greek word for reckless, wild, or prodigal is asōtōs (pronounced uh-so-tose) and this is the only place it occurs in Scripture. It conveys the idea of an utterly debauched lifestyle. Based on verse 30, we know he wasted some of his money on harlots. Third, notice the words far country. It wasn’t enough to be out from under his father’s roof, he wanted to be as far away from him as possible. He even left Jewish territory for Gentile territory. We know this because he ended up with people who owned pigs. Jews wouldn’t have pigs anywhere near them. Something surprising about the father’s behavior is he doesn’t go after his son. He lets him go…and this brings us to lesson one… Lesson One: God lets His children wander from Him. Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where was this son’s heart even when he was home? Not with his father. The son treasured some other land, so that’s where his heart was. Jesus makes the point elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount that we can commit murder or adultery in our hearts without going through with it physically. Similarly, the son departed from his father in his heart before he made the journey physically. We talk about parents losing their children’s hearts…but it’s not always the parents’ faults. This father lost his son’s heart even though he was a great father. Generally, when we have sin in our lives, we want to be as far away from God as possible. We don’t physically go to a far country, but we can get far away from Him spiritually. What does this look like? We avoid praying, reading the Bible, attending church and Bible studies. I am not going to say that EVERY time people who regularly attend church stop going to church that it is because they have habitual sin in their lives and they want to be far from God. But I will say that SOMETIMES when people who regularly attend church stop going to church that it is because they have habitual sin in their lives and they want to be far from God. Please do me a favor and mark your spot in Luke 15 and turn to Jeremiah 2. It is the second prophet after the poetical books: Isaiah and then Jeremiah. Robert Robinson was a pastor. In 1757 at the age of 22 he wrote Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. The fourth stanza reads… Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. This chapter came to mind to me for two reasons as I was studying Luke 15. The first reason it came to mind is the Jews were a good example of the wandering described in the hymn. They were prone to leaving the God they loved like the son in the parable was prone to leaving the father he loved. Look at verse one… Jeremiah 2:1 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. God says they used to be willing to follow Him through the wilderness, in a land not sown. In ancient times people didn’t walk through wildernesses or head to places not sown with seed without a good prospect of reward because it was unattractive and dangerous. But the Jews were willing to do that when God led them. It reveals the trust they used to have when God led them out of Egypt. To me this seems gracious, because when I read Exodus and Numbers Israel looked like a bunch of rebellious complainers. Also notice He says the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride. They also used to love God and be zealous for Him. They were like a young bride with her husband. This was the time of their first love that Jesus talks about to the Church of Ephesus. An application for us might be that when we first get saved we’re on fire for the Lord,