FYWBTG#2: Awakening to Regret
Series Big Idea: Our universal longing for love, purpose, and meaning in life can only be fulfilled inside a relationship with
God; regardless of where you are on your journey, you can find your way back to God and awaken to living a life that matters!
This series will help us to see there is a universal pattern that awakens us to finding love, purpose, and meaning in life when
we find our way back to God.
Message Big Idea: Our attempts to find love, purpose, and meaning on our own lead to an endless cycle of longing and regret;
but if we decide to return to God, we’ll find we can always start over.
Scripture: Luke 15:11-24 “When he came to his senses...”—Luke 15:17
Takeaway: Aim of the talk is for people to come to the decision they need to change; they need to head in a new direction in
life. It’s never too late to start over.
Preparation: Read Chapters 7-9 in Finding Your Way Back to God by Dave and Jon Ferguson
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Pre-Message: The Luke 15:11-24 Scripture will be read or presented in its entirety prior to the message. For week 2, we’re
planning for this story to told through a hand-drawn, time-lapse animation video.
Introduction: Rumspringa
In the monumental Oscar-worthy but somehow-shunned epic comedy from 1996 entitled “Kingpin,” our
hero, played by Woody Harrelson, reaches out to an Amish youth, played by Randy Quaid, to convince
him to step out of the safety net of the Amish community he grew up in to experience the world outside
by running around with a group of professional bowlers and leading a life of debauchery. And while this
film was not based on a Shakespeare play nor turned into a Broadway musical, it does take parts of its
premise from a fascinating piece of Amish history.
How many of you have ever heard the word “Rumspringa?” Here, say it after me: Rumspringa.
(Rumspringa). Good. Rumspringa literally means “running around,” and it is a word used to describe the
Amish practice of allowing youth to “sow their wild oats” as it were.
Now not every Amish community does this, but the ones that do, allow this “freedom” for kids around 1416 years of age. This freedom grants these teenagers permission to leave the community, go out on the
weekends, and experiment with the world outside in whatever way they choose. It comes with an
understanding that when the youth come back, they have a choice to make:
 they can choose baptism within the local Amish church,
 or they can leave the community permanently, turn back on their family, and choose to live in the
world for good.
Now, as I look around today, I think I’m safe in saying that few, if any of us, are Amish. But that hasn’t
stopped us from engaging in some “Rumspringas” of our own, has it? We may have other names for it. We
call it…
 “Freshman Year” or
 “MTV Spring Break” or
 “Midlife-crisis-resulting-in-buying-a-Harley-without-asking-your-wife-springa.” 
And perhaps some of us are on a Rumspringa right now?
 We’ve been running around?
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 Experimenting a little here and there?
 And following Woody Harrelson to filthy bowling alleys?
So let me ask you: How’s that working for you?
Series Recap
We are in the second week of our series “Finding Your Way Back to God,” and if you’ve been around
COMMUNITY for a while, you know that we are all about helping people find their way back to God. It is
what makes our collective heart beat fast. Many of us have had first time experiences, right here in this
place, where we turned from everything in our past and decided to follow Jesus. But this series is not just
about choosing to follow Jesus for the first time because we know that finding our way back to God is an
ongoing journey.
It’s a relationship that has peaks and valleys…
 Time after time we find ourselves wandering away from home.
 Over and over, we turn our backs on God and our community in hopes of finding something more.
 Again and again, we find ourselves in a state of “Rumspringa.”
Finding your way back to God is a life-changing moment, for sure; but it’s also a life-growing process.
There are 5 Awakenings we are focusing on in our series, and these 5 Awakenings show up in the book by
Dave and Jon Ferguson upon which this series is based. If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, well, what
can I say except make sure you do that today!
Last week we talked about the first awakening: Awakening to Longing. This awakening is all about the
universal longings we have for love, purpose and meaning. It’s these longings that give us that restless
feeling that“ there’s got to be more” to this life. Unfortunately, too often, we take those God-given longings
and look to fulfill them apart from God.
We begin to chase stuff that we think will bring us the fulfillment we’re after – relationships, money, a
stellar career, pleasure. Sometimes this chase leads us to make decisions we never would have imagined
we’d make. And, inevitably, what we thought would bring fulfillment falls short. We find ourselves saying
something like, “Oh, I wish I could start over.” This is the second awakening: Awakening to Regret.
You ever been there? At a place in life where you wish you could start over? Wouldn’t it be great if we
could just have a do-over? Go back to that moment where we made that ridiculous decision, take it all
back, and begin again? I’ve been there. My guess is you’ve been too. Some of us are there right now.
Word: Luke 15:11-24
A few moments ago we heard the story Jesus told of the Prodigal Son, and today I want us to focus in on
this particular section of the story:
“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! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I
have sinned against heaven and against you…’” (Luke 15:17-18)
There are two pieces of this story I want us to focus in on today…
The first: (Bold this phrase in above text) “When he came to his senses…”
And the second: (Bold this phrase in above text) “I will set out and go back to my father…”
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When he came to his senses, the son was experiencing this second awakening. The first was the longing
for something more - something we’ve all felt before, right? There has to be more to life than just eating
and working and watching Netflix and doing it all again the next day. There has to be purpose and meaning.
So the son sets out to a distant land and attempts to find that “something more,” but he winds up wasting
all of the inheritance he received from his father. He’s so broke, he can’t even buy himself a single plate of
food. This is where the second awakening comes, the Awakening to Regret.
There’s a turn in the story, right? He came to his senses… However long he was gone, whatever he did, he
finally woke up. Have you ever been there? At the tail end of a bad decision…your friends, family
members, spouse and co-workers have all been praying for you to come to your senses. Maybe they’ve
confronted you before, sat you down, explained in vivid detail how your life was spinning out of control,
but you didn’t want to hear any of it. Despite all the warnings from others, you didn’t see it.
Any of you remember the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? It stars John Candy and Steve Martin
who are on a disastrous road trip home for Thanksgiving. Late one night they hit the road, but something
just isn’t right. Check this out: (Video – “Going the Wrong Way!”)i
I love that movie.
But who knows, maybe on some level we’re a bit more like John Candy’s character than we like to admit;
we think we’re going the right way, and we think everyone else is crazy for thinking we’re going the
wrong way. But then, one day…you finally wake up. You come to your senses. You look behind at the
wreckage left in the wake of your bad decisions, and you are filled with regret.
This is such an important part of the story for all of us. We can’t find our way back to God until we come
to our senses and “wake up.” (Guy uses the phrase “wake up” a the end of the following video)
(Video – Guy Testimony Part 1)
Coming to our senses and acknowledging that our decisions have taken us to places we could’ve never
imagined is the first step towards a new life. Author Richard Rohr writes this:
You cannot heal what you do not acknowledge, and what you do not consciously acknowledge will
remain in control of you from within, festering and destroying you and those around you.
-Richard Rohr
Many of us know this truth all too well. Maybe today is a wake-up call for some of us; it’s time to
acknowledge our life is heading in a direction that’s a far cry from where we want it to be, but today, the
Rumspringa is over, and it’s time to come home…
That’s the 2nd piece we’ll focus on because the son didn’t just come to his senses, he made a decision to set
out and go back to his father. He made the decision to come home.
This 2nd piece is just as critical as the 1st. What the son did by going back to see his father is what some of
us call “repentance.” Have you ever heard that word?
Repentance gets a bad wrap sometimes because the church has done a pretty bad job of explaining what
it means. We only seem to hear the word “repent” in connection with our eternal destiny; and if we don’t
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do it, we’re going to be in that burning ring of fire. Repentance has been used as a scare tactic for
hundreds of years, but today, I’d like to set the story straight on what it means.
Take a look at these two words:
Metanoia (Greek): μετάνοια
Teshuvah (Hebrew): ‫תשובה‬
Metanoiaii is the Greek word for repent, and we find it throughout the New Testament in the Bible.
Teshuvahiii is the Hebrew word for repent, and we find it in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Let me show you what these two words mean in their original language:
Metanoia: “Changing one’s mind”
Teshuvah: “To return”
Are we following? So repentance means to change your thinking and to return from where you came.
When Jesus tells the story, he says the son finally came to his senses and decided to return to his father.
At COMMUNITY we say it like this: Finding your way back to God.
Can we hit the pause button for a second? What we’re talking about, I truly believe has the power to
change your life, but there’s something that gets in the way. We briefly mentioned it earlier, but let me go
back to it. I think it’s important enough for us to take a break and catch this significant piece.
We said today we’re going to focus on these two sections: (On Screen: Luke 15:17-18 with these two
phrases highlighted)
When he came to his senses…
And
I will set out and go back to my father…
My guess is a lot of us have come to our senses. We recognize the decisions we’ve made have led us to
places where we wake up with regret. Maybe they’re financial decisions, or relational ones, or they were
decisions we made in the moment that made us feel good even though we knew in the moment it was wrong,
and we’ve woken up to regret many, many times.
But we’ve never made it to this 2nd step… returning home. We want to change, we want to start over, we
want a re-do; but shame, guilt, and a healthy dose of fear stands in our way.
 Will they accept me?
 Will they take me in?
 Could God ever forgive someone like me?
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These are some of the questions running through our head. And so rather than returning home, we go
back to this never-ending “Sorry Cycle” (need simple graphic showing this cycle) of longing and regret,
longing and regret. Truth is, some of us have been stuck in this “Sorry Cycle” for years.
Here me on this: All that can change today! Our prayer is that you will find your way back to God. You’ve
already heard how the story ends, and we’ll dig into those details in the next few weeks, but we have a
loving father who cannot wait for us to return home.
For many people that moment of drawing a line in the sand and putting a stake in the ground is baptism.
It’s when we publicly say, “I’m coming home.” And over the years we’ve seen thousands of people get
baptized. In two weeks, on March 22nd we’re gonna give you an opportunity to do just that.
 It doesn’t mean you have it all figured out,
 Doesn’t mean you won’t wander away again, but it does mean you’re coming home and home is
where you want to stay.
Last week we introduced you to something called Pascal’s wager, and it’s sort of a bet we’re challenging
everyone to place with God…a bet that He’s real and He loves you.
Today we want to challenge every single person in the room to pray this prayer:
“God, if you are real, make yourself real to me. Awaken in me the possibility that with you I could
start over again.”
Can we all just sort of whisper that prayer quietly together?
“God, if you are real, make yourself real to me. Awaken in me the possibility that with you I could
start over again.”
(Video – Guy Testimony Part 2)
You don’t have to live in the “Sorry Cycle” cycle of longing and regret anymore. Allow the 2nd awakening
to lead you back home.
The story of the Prodigal Son is your story, it’s my story, it’s our story. I want to close today by reading
you a retelling of the story by author Philip Yancey. Hear in this version an invitation from God himself
whispering, “Come home.” Today can be the day you come to your senses. Today can be the day you
decide to return. Come home.
Conclusion
Music underscore from “Coming Home part II” by Skylar Grey begins. Teaching Pastor tells the story:
Her name was Christa, and she grew up on a small cherry farm in Traverse City, Michigan. She was a wild
child who dismissed her parents as old-fashioned because of how they responded to her piercings and
tattoos. One night Christa and her parents had a huge fight. At the end of it, she slammed the door and
said, “I hate you,” then acted on a plan she had been rehearsing for months in her mind. She ran away to
the big city of Detroit.
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Within a few hours of arriving in Detroit, she met a man who seemed warm and nice. He drove the most
expensive car she’d ever seen, and he was willing to take her in. This nice man taught her a few things
that would make her valuable on the streets, and because Christa was young, she brought in top dollar for
her services. As time went on, and as she got a little older, she wasn’t bringing in top dollar anymore, and
so she was thrown out on the street, with no money and a drug habit to support.
Vocalist sings “Coming Home part II” by Skylar Grey, the first verse and chorus:
And the blood will dry
underneath my nails
and the wind will rise up
to fill my sails
so you can doubt
and you can hate
but I know, no matter what it takes
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
tell the world I'm coming home
let the rain wash away
all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits
and they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
tell the world I'm coming...
Music returns to instrumental vamp, and Teaching Pastor continues the story:
One night she thought back to those sunny spring days when she would be lying beneath the cherry trees.
Realizing that renting her body on the streets of Detroit was no way to live, she decided she would head
north, maybe move to Canada and start over. On her way north, she figured, she’d try something that she
thought had no chance of actually working. She mustered up enough courage to give her parents a call. No
one answered, but she left a message telling them she was going to be passing through Traverse City on
her way to Canada. If they wanted to see her, she would be at the bus station around midnight. After
hanging up, she thought leaving the message was a stupid thing to do because odds were they were
happier now that she was gone.
As the bus headed north, she could see the signs saying the bus was getting closer to Traverse City. She
ran through the possible scenarios in her mind: nobody there to meet her; someone there, but only to
shame her and condemn her. Finally the bus arrived in Traverse City, and she heard the bus driver say,
“Fifteen minutes at this stop, fifteen minutes.”
Vocalist sings “Coming Home part II” by Skylar Grey, the second verse and chorus:
Still far away
from where I belong
but it's always darkest
before the dawn
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so you can doubt
and you can hate
but I know, no matter what it takes
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
tell the world I'm coming home
let the rain wash away
all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits
and they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
tell the world I'm coming...
Music returns to instrumental vamp, and Teaching Pastor continues the story:
All her mental rehearsing didn’t prepare her for what she found when she stepped off the bus. At
midnight in this small-town bus depot, she walked found dozens of familiar faces belonging to aunts,
uncles, cousins, and grandparents, all wearing silly party hats. A huge banner hanging from the walls said,
“WELCOME HOME, CHRISTA!!!” Her dad broke through the crowd and ran up to her, and as she tried to
explain herself, he wrapped his arms around her, making it clear that all he really cared about was that
his daughter was home.
Vocalist concludes “Coming Home part II” by Skylar Grey, the last chorus:
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
tell the world I'm coming home
let the rain wash away
all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits
and they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
tell the world I'm coming... home
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_akwHYMdbsM
How to pronounce “Metanoia”: \ˌme-tə-ˈnȯ i-ə\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W6ovd0jGVM
iii How to pronounce “Teshuvah”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0glREl25408
ii
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