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 th...