Living A Reckless Life

12/7/25 A.M. Luke 15:11-20 “Living a Reckless Life”

I have a CRAZY STORY to tell you. You all who were here last week probably remember me telling you about a situation I had where I was really SCARED. I was faced with a VERY RECKLESS PERSON. For those of you who weren’t here, a couple of years ago I was on South 75 and a RECKLESS driver flew around me, lost control and slid sideways down the road while passing me. He hit the wall and bounced off and crossed all of the lanes to just smash into the other wall. He basically circled me doing 75 miles an hour sliding sideways. Thankfully, my car only got a little dent out of the deal but man I was SCARED!!!

Now here’s where I’m going with this. THIS IS CRAZY but this past Monday, on the way to preach a funeral in South Tulsa, I was driving down, once again, South 75, and a guy flies past us, and Rachel said, “Wow, what is he doing?” Silas and Abby looked up in time to see this guy LOSE CONTROL and slide sideways down the road passing a car, sliding across all the lanes of traffic and smashing against the wall. WOW!!! De Ja Vu!!! But what a TEACHING MOMENT!!! “Hey kids, when you drive like an IDIOT, when you live RECKLESSLY, that’s what happens!!!” Abby is 19 and Silas is 14 so this was GREAT for them to see. And I’m so thankful that this time we were spectators instead of joining in on the fun. And I sincerely hope no one was hurt, but the reason I brought this up is because so many people live a very RECKLESS LIFE.

Proverbs 14, Verse 16 tells us,

“A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.”

I don’t think that this Verse is telling us that a WISE MAN lives with a SPIRIT of FEAR. He doesn’t walk around SCARED all of the time. But I do think it is telling us that a WISE MAN is CAUTIOUS. He uses good JUDGMENT. He DEPARTS from EVIL. He doesn’t do STUPID THINGS. HE DOES NOT LIVE a RECKLESS LIFE!!!

Luke 15 is an interesting Chapter to me. In it Jesus gives not one or two but three PARABLES. And with each parable the message that Jesus is trying to give becomes LOUDER. In Verses 3-7 Jesus gives the parable of the SHEPHERD who is responsible for 100 sheep. So what happens? He loses one of them. Now most of us would say that’s understandable. Sheep are DUMB ANIMALS. They like to wander off. It would be hard to keep track of 100 sheep. Well, if you read the parable you’ll see that that this shepherd goes out and finds the one lost sheep. Hoorah!!! Good for him. He is a good, responsible, trustworthy shepherd.

In the second parable, found in Verses 8-10, a woman has 10 pieces of silver. 10 pieces of silver that DO NOT have a mind of their own. They are NOT in any way responsible for themselves. But yet this woman LOSES one of them. You know, maybe you think I’m being too hard on her but I think she was a little bit irresponsible.

She should have put them somewhere for safe keeping. Maybe in the COOKIE JAR or a place she would remember.

But she lost one of them and she couldn’t blame it on anyone else. It was her fault, unless she was married then it’s DEFINITELY her husband’s fault!!! “But all’s well that ends well RIGHT?” She lights a candle, she sweeps the house, and she DILIGENTLY SEEKS IT. And the COIN is found. Great. Wonderful. I bet her poor old husband was HAPPY.

But this third parable is what I want to bring my message on. A man had two sons. So let’s read Luke 15, Verses 11-20.

“And he said, A certain man had two sons:

12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!