IS THERE MORE TO LIFE THAN A GOOD TIME?
INTRO QUESTION
If you were told that $1,000,000 would be donated to a charity of your choice, on the condition that for one day you had the most fun you have ever had in your entire life. How would you spend the day?
READ LUKE 15:11-31
The Parable of the Lost Son
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
DISCUSS
1. As Jesus introduces this story, what is shocking or offensive about the younger son’s request?
2. How would you sum up the younger son’s view of ‘the good life’?
3. When the younger son comes to his senses, how does he expect to be treated by his father?
4. Given that Jesus is using the father as a metaphor for God, what does this story tell us about how God views those who have rejected him in pursuit of other things?
5. What does the inclusion of the older brother in this story warn us against?
6. Have you ever felt resentment at someone experiencing God’s grace despite not having worked as hard as you in some area?
Apply:
1. Where do you see evidence (in yourself or the world around you) of the belief that the most important thing in life is to have a good time?
2. Re-read verse 32. Do you find in yourself longing to celebrate and be glad at the prospect of those you know returning home to their father?
3. Who in your life is currently living life in pursuit of happiness/ a good time/ but is actually lost and in need of being found?
Pray for these people, any other prayer points and for the next two weeks of ‘more to life’ that we would see the lost found.
MISSION THINKING