Being a Prodigal

Luke 15:11-32

Most of the time when we think of the term prodigal, we think of a saved person who has quit living for God and is living a like the rest of the world. It is easy to see how that definition would get used based on what happens to younger son in our passage. But when we look at the definition of the word prodigal, we see it has a little different meaning.

Prodigal – Given to extravagant expenditures; expending money or other things without necessity; profuse, lavish, wasteful, not frugal or economical; [American Dictionary of the English Language; Noah Webster 1828]

In this lesson we will focus on the term wasteful, because the passage says that the younger son wasted his substance with riotous living. If prodigal means waster or wasteful, then there are many people that are not living like the lost yet could still be considered a prodigal. To understand some of the things that we waste even when trying to serve God we will look at the word substance and how it is used in the Bible.

1)  Things that have life (Genesis 7:4,23 ; Psalm 139:15)

2)  Possessions, things built, made or given (Genesis 12:5 ; 13:6 ; Job 1:3,10)

3)  Faith (Hebrews 11:1)

The question that we must ask ourselves is, are we wasting the above things or are we doing all that we can to use what God has given us for his glory? Let us look at the following verses when considering this question.

1)  Everything comes from God (Deuteronomy 33:11)

• Just as the younger son was given what the father had earned, we must realize that everything we have come from God.

2)  We should honor the Lord with our substance (Proverbs 3:9)

• We have more to our substance than money and we should honor God first above all else.

3)  There is better substance for us in heaven than here on this earth (Hebrews 10:34)

• We may consider it a sacrifice down here to honor God first with our substance but we must consider what is being gained in Heaven.