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The story of the Prodigal Son

The Point

Helping students identify and relate to the story of the Prodigal Son.

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This mini movie was a modern interpretation of a Bible story called,“The Prodigal Son.”

The word prodigal means: a person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way.

This is a story of being lost and then found, a story of selfishness, a story of grace.

This is a story that no matter who you are, what you’ve done, or what you’ve been through, you will be able to relate to.

This is how the story goes:

Luke 15:11-32 (PK Paraphrase)

The young son obviously didn't know how good he had it, so he said "Dad, give me my money."

It's like his dad was dead to him at that moment... inheritance is almost always given AFTER the death of a relative, but this kid asked for it up front...

Then he moved out and went far away... he quickly wasted all his money... and then disaster struck. There was a famine and the economy of the country had collapsed. So he had to work feeding pigs.. and the pigs ate better than he did!

Then finally, he got his head out of his rear-end... and remembered how good he had it back home.. So he went back home, intending to be a servant to his Father.

Dad could see him from a distance: the son he loved was home!

So he ran towards him and collapsed in joy onto his son. The son asked to be a servant, but dad wasn't gonna have that! He told his servants to get his boy some nice clothes and throw a party for him!

When big brother heard the news, he was jelly. He refused to enter the party, and when his dad tried to invite him in, all he could talk about was how much good he did and how terrible his brother was. It's not fair that he gets a party and I don't!

But dad is patient with him, and says "everything that I have is yours. But we had to celebrate, because your little brother is back safe in the arms of his father!

So this leads us to this question: who are you? Do you identify with the younger son? You’re just going about doing your own thing, living your own life for yourself. But you know you’re bankrupt. You know there’s more than what you’re experiencing, and the way you’re living, and it’s time to get back home.

Time to get back to God.

Or maybe you’re like the older brother. You call yourself a Christian.

You try to live the Christian life the best you can.

You know you don’t do it perfectly, but at least you try.

You haven’t strayed that far away from God, but you see some of your friends living it up, enjoying life with out consequence.

Maybe it makes you jealous. Here you are trying to do what’s right and everyone else is just doing whatever they want.

Or maybe some of you have friends who call themselves Christians but they live like they aren’t.

They come to church, but out there, there’s nothing different about them.

Or maybe that’s you.

So who do you identify with?

(Eyes closed/heads bowed.)

Elaborate on these points below:

If you identify with the younger brother, and you’ve maybe left God and have just been living selfishly for yourself, but you want to come back to Him, then raise your hand right now and let me pray for you.

(Have them raise their hand and pray for them.)

(Eyes still closed/heads still bowed.)

Maybe you’ve identified with the older brother, and you’ve just become angry with people and life. You try to do what’s right, but you see people not doing the same, and it upsets you.

Or, maybe you call yourself a Christian, and you live it out here at church, but out in your everyday life—you do what everyone else is doing. If any of those things describe you, then raise your hand right now and let me pray for you.

(Have them raise their hand and pray for them.)

(Eyes still closed/heads still bowed.)

There’s another group of you who I haven’t even mentioned yet.

You don’t feel like either of the brothers because you haven’t felt like you had a spiritual home yet.

You’ve just been living your life for yourself, not really giving much thought to God. Well you need to know that you belong to God. You are His child. He loves you and has a place for you.

He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for you so that you could have a place with Him in His house.

For you, it’s not home AGAIN, it’s just time to come home for the first time.

If that’s you, and you want to be in relationship with your spiritual Father who has a place for you, and you want to accept that for the first time, then raise your hand right now, and as a family let’s pray this prayer together, repeating after me...

(Have them raise their hand and repeat prayer after you.)