Finding Your Way Back Home
April 20, 2025 || Luke 15
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Luke 15:1-2 [NIV]
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”
John 14:2-5 [NIV]
3 Ways We Choose.
1. My Way.
11 “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.
Luke 15:11-12 [NIV]
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.
Luke 15:17-20 [NIV]
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philippians 2:3-4 [NIV]
2. Their Way.
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!”
Luke 15:28-30 [NIV]
24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them.”
1 Samuel 15:24 [NIV]
25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.
Proverbs 29:25 [NIV]
11 Friends, this world is not your home, so don't make yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.
1 Peter 2:11 [MSG]
2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out…
Romans 12:2 [MSG]
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
Isaiah 55:8 [NIV]
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”
Luke 15:31 [NIV]
3. His Way.
22 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.”
Luke 15:22-23 [NIV]
19 You’re no longer wandering. This kingdom of faith is now your home. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all — irrespective of how we got here — in what He is building.
Ephesians 2:19 [MSG]
