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Fruitful - Day Three Bible Lesson - Goodness & Faithfulness

Teen/Adult Bible Lesson

PDF version of this lesson: Fruitful 032 Bible Day Three Older.pdf

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God never gives up on us.

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The faithfulness of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease.
Lamentations 3:22

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Jesus told a story about a father and his two sons. Some call it the Story of the Prodigal Son. ‘Prodigal’ means ‘wasteful’, but we don’t use the word ‘prodigal’ in English much anymore. The story isn’t just about the foolish son who wasted all of his money, though. It’s also about the other son who was angry when his brother came home. Most of all, though, it’s about their father. The father in this story shows us what God is like. Maybe the best name for this story is: The Good Father.

The Good Father

Luke 15:11-32 (ERV)

Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Give me now the part of your property that I am supposed to receive someday.’ So the father divided his wealth between his two sons.

“A few days later the younger son gathered up all that he had and left. He traveled far away to another country, and there he wasted his money living like a fool. After he spent everything he had, there was a terrible famine throughout the country. He was hungry and needed money. So he went and got a job with one of the people who lived there. The man sent him into the fields to feed pigs. He was so hungry that he wanted to eat the food the pigs were eating. But no one gave him anything.

“The son realized that he had been very foolish. He thought, ‘All my father’s hired workers have plenty of food. But here I am, almost dead because I have nothing to eat. I will leave and go to my father. I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But let me be like one of your hired workers.’ So he left and went to his father.

“While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him coming and felt sorry for him. So he ran to him and hugged and kissed him. The son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Hurry! Bring the best clothes and put them on him. Also, put a ring on his finger and good sandals on his feet. And bring our best calf and kill it so that we can celebrate with plenty to eat. My son was dead, but now he is alive again! He was lost, but now he is found!’ So they began to have a party.

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Are we ever like the wasteful son in this story?

Do we ever ignore the good things that God has for us and go looking for things that we think are more important?

Do you think God is like the father in this story? In what ways?

What did the father in the story do when he saw his misbehaving, messed up, poor, sad kid walking on the road towards home?

He ran to him! He kissed him! He welcomed him! He threw a party!

Have you ever had a parent run to you like that? Maybe you were playing outside and fell off your bike or something, and your parent came running. Maybe you met your parent at the airport or train station after they had been somewhere far away, and you ran to hug each other because you missed each other so much.

Do you think that the father in the story thought about his wandering son every day while he was gone? Do you think he prayed for his son? Do you think he still loved his son, even though his son had been very rude to him and had left his family to have fun and waste money?

This story shows us what real goodness and faithfulness look like. God loves us so much, even though we like to chase after useless, temporary things that can never satisfy us. He waits for us and rejoices when we come home to Him, even when we’ve made a lot of mistakes.

You might think that you’ve done things in your life that would cause God to give up on you. That’s impossible! There’s nothing the wasteful son in the story could do to make his Father stop waiting for him and loving him, and there’s nothing you could do that could make God stop waiting for you and loving you!

The good news about God’s love, goodness, and faithfulness is even better news when we understand that the Holy Spirit helps us to be good and faithful. The goodness and faithfulness of God will be seen in our lives when we are living in the Spirit. Other people will wonder how we are so good and faithful when many people are more like the wasteful son. The fruit of goodness and faithfulness they see in our lives will show them that we are followers of God, and that He is the best example of goodness and faithfulness there is!