I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’ Luke 15:18-19
Have you ever accidentally driven the wrong way on a one-way street? Sometimes these one-way streets can sneak up on us, and before we know it, we are driving in the opposite direction than we are supposed to drive. There is one thing we can know for certain about one-way streets. They lead us in one direction. Whether that direction is north, south, east, or west, we can be sure that that street is leading us toward one specific destination when we are on a one-way street. As we think about having peace with God, like a one-way street, we can be sure that sin takes us toward one destination that leads us to destruction.
We are looking at the story Jesus told of two sons this week that is found in Luke 15. In this story, a man has two sons. In a complete act of offensiveness towards his father, the younger son asked his dad for his inheritance early and left home, probably expecting never to return. He went off, and the Bible says that he "wasted all his money in wild living" (verse 13). Eventually, his money ran out, and a famine came. This was not a good situation. He was starving. Eventually, the son convinced a farmer to let him work for him, and he ended up feeding his pigs. Desperate for food, this son found himself wanting to eat the food that was designated for the pigs. You remember what pigs eat, right? They eat slop, and whatever scraps are left over from their owners. If you and I saw the food this son fed the pigs, we would be disgusted, yet it looked good to this starving son. Eventually, the younger son "came to his senses" and decided to go home back to his father and beg to be one of his servants.
This son's rebellion against his father left him nowhere good. He was poor and starving. This is the direction that all sin leads us: toward destruction. It always takes us to places we never intended. Sin may seem exciting and enticing, but it is ultimately destructive. It's time that we, like this younger son in Luke 15, "come to our senses" and turn to Jesus and away from any sin that may be knocking on our door.
Spend some time thinking about the truth that sin leads us straight towards destruction. Pull out a notebook or journal and write about how you have seen this to be true in your own life. Then, think about any current sin in your life. Confess it to God and think about how it, too, is leading to destruction. Ask God to help you repent and turn away from any sin in your life and lead you on the path that leads to life, not destruction.
Luke 15:13-19 (NLT)
“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”
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