The One Who Stayed | Pastor Marcus St.Julien

Devotional

Day 1: The Candle That Says "I Still Believe"

A single flame in the window doesn’t light the house or guide planes home, but it declares stubborn hope. Like military families keeping vigil for loved ones, faith often looks like maintaining a small, persistent light when logic says to quit. This flame isn’t about practicality—it’s a rebellion against despair. It’s choosing to believe in homecomings even when the road feels endless. The father in Jesus’ story kept his porch light on, refusing to let the darkness of distance rewrite his love. What candles are you keeping lit? [00:18]

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”
(Luke 15:20, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been tempted to extinguish hope? What small act today could keep your “candle” burning?

Day 2: Repentance in the Pigpen’s Mud

God doesn’t wait for sanitized confessions. The prodigal son’s turning point came not in a temple but in a hog pen, his hands sticky with slop. Redemption often starts in the mess—the liquor store parking lot, the shame-filled bedroom, the secret scroll of regrets. Heaven’s mercy isn’t limited by geography. The Father sprints to meet us in our filth, not after we’ve hosed off. Grace doesn’t require a shower first. [06:38]

“When he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!’”
(Luke 15:17, ESV)

Reflection: What “pigpen” have you avoided bringing to God? How might His love surprise you there?

Day 3: Sandals for Sons, Not Servants

The father didn’t just clothe his returning son—he gave him shoes. Servants went barefoot; family wore sandals. Forgiveness isn’t a demotion to probationary status. God doesn’t make us beg for a lower chair at the table. The ring, robe, and sandals scream, “You belong here.” No penance, no probation—just a party. Our rehearsed apologies get cut off by grace. [12:02]

“Bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”
(Luke 15:23-24, ESV)

Reflection: Where are you still acting like a hired servant instead of a healed child?

Day 4: The Brother Who Stopped Watching

The older son stopped scanning the horizon for his brother. He traded expectation for efficiency, worship for work. Resentment grows when we mistake the Father’s house for a corporation. He knew about the prostitutes but not the party—he’d filed his brother’s sins without fighting for his salvation. The fields will always demand more; the porch always offers more. [17:29]

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.”
(Luke 15:25, ESV)

Reflection: Who have you stopped watching for? How has productivity numbed your compassion?

Day 5: “This Son of Yours” and the Tantrum of Entitlement

The older brother’s rage wasn’t about justice—it was the crackle of a heart that forgot its adoption. He called inheritance “slavery” and brotherhood “yours.” Entitlement turns gifts into grievances. The Father leaves the party twice—for both sons—because love chases the furious as fiercely as the fallen. New beginnings aren’t limited; bitterness just builds smaller tables. [27:55]

“He answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you… yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.’”
(Luke 15:29, ESV)

Reflection: Where has comparison or entitlement dimmed your joy? What would celebrating others cost—and free—in you?

Sermon Summary

A candle in a military family’s window does not heat the house, light the whole room, or guide anybody home. That candle says one thing: somebody in this house still believes they are coming back. Luke 15 carries that same kind of hope, but Jesus aims it at religious people who cannot understand why sinners keep getting close to Him. Religion without a right heart posture cannot get anybody into the Father’s good graces.

The younger son pictures entitlement at full volume. His inheritance never belonged to him, yet he takes it, runs far from home, burns through it in sin, and lands in a pigpen eating slop. Sin makes slop taste like filet mignon when somebody has gotten so delulu that mud starts looking like a spa. The pigpen becomes the turning point because the son comes to his senses there, not in a church service or a luxury hotel. God meets children in the deepest mess because a good Father always knows where His child is.

The younger son rehearses a speech built around “please,” not “I need,” “I want,” or “I deserve.” Repentance kills entitlement, and the son returns ready to apply for a servant job. The father interrupts the groveling with a robe, a ring, and sandals, because servants do not get sandals, family does. The father does not demand a shower before the robe or a background check before the celebration. The father receives the son home and deals with whatever came back with him.

The phrase “this son of mine” sets up the plot twist. The older brother stands on the same property, in the same family, but with a completely different posture. The father watches from the porch while the older brother stays busy in the field. The older brother stops watching, stops walking in, stops wanting, and stops welcoming.

The older brother gets close enough to hear the music but has to ask a servant what is happening in his own father’s house. Church work becomes a substitute for being part of the church when activity matters more than people coming home. Anger itself is not the sin, but refusing to go through the door leaves the older brother outside the party. The father leaves the celebration twice because the Father always ends up outside looking for children.

The older brother calls freedom slavery while standing inside his inheritance. His complaint reveals that he has access but no hunger, and he has never asked for what he claims he was denied. His words, “this son of yours,” write his own brother out of the family. Bitterness keeps a file on people it says it has forgiven, but freedom lets God give new beginnings without treating another person’s restoration like a threat.

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Key Takeaways

1. Repentance begins when entitlement dies. The younger son’s “please” exposes a heart that has finally stopped negotiating with the Father. Repentance is not a demand for restored comfort, position, or control. Repentance returns empty-handed and discovers that the Father’s mercy restores identity before performance can prove anything. [08:17]
2. The Father meets children in pigpens. The pigpen does not disqualify the runaway son from being found by God. God does not wait for a cleaned-up version of a person before drawing near. The deepest mess can become the place where somebody finally comes to their senses and turns toward home. [06:38]
3. Busy church work can hide distance. The older brother remains on the property, yet his work slowly replaces his watchfulness for his brother. Activity can become a way to avoid love, expectation, and participation in what God is doing. A person can be near the house while becoming unfamiliar with the Father’s heart inside it. [17:57]
4. Bitterness turns brothers into strangers. The older brother’s phrase, “this son of yours,” reveals how resentment rewrites family relationships. Bitterness does not merely remember a wound, it keeps building a case and filling in details. Freedom begins when another person’s restoration no longer feels like a threat to somebody else’s inheritance.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:18] - The Candle of Hope
[01:54] - The One Who Stayed
[02:15] - Religious Hearts and Sinners Near Jesus
[03:10] - The Prodigal’s Entitlement
[05:00] - The Pigpen and Coming to His Senses
[07:55] - Please Instead of Entitlement
[09:07] - The Father Runs to His Son
[12:02] - Robe, Ring, and Sandals
[15:15] - The Plot Twist: The Older Brother
[17:09] - Stopping Watchfulness
[20:26] - Refusing to Walk Into the Party
[22:12] - Losing Hunger and Desire
[27:14] - Refusing to Welcome the Brother
[33:16] - Bitterness Can Waste an Inheritance

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Luke 15:11–32

11. And he said, “There was a man who had two sons.
12. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.
13. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
14. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
15. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
16. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. [03:10]

17. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
18. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
19. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ [07:55]

20. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
21. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22. But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
23. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
24. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. [15:15]

25. “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
27. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ [17:09]

28. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him,
29. but

Sermon Clips

28s

#FatherAlwaysSearching

“catch what the father does. Verse 20. Right? The father runs out for the son who's been gone, who was in the pigpen. And watch what verse 28 happened. The father walks out of the party for the other son. The father left his own party twice. Why? Because the father always ends up outside looking for children.”

37s

#BringAsYouAre

“All of the time, our mind has been wasted on finding a shower before we get home. They never said wash them before we robe him. The scripture never said scrub him before we save him. The scripture never said run his background to make sure that he didn't bring nothing home. Because the real home says, whatever you bring with you, I'll deal with. That's a good father. Right? So”

30s

#RepentanceInTheMud

“The turning point of the whole chapter that we're seeing right now is the moment that he came to his senses. Note where he came to his senses, not in a church, not in a tent revival, not in a prayer service, not in a prophetic line, not on no call center where he had to pay $5 to get an anointing, not from no Peter pop off miracle spring water. He found his healing and his repentance in the middle of mud.”

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The One Who Stayed | Pastor Marcus St.Julien | MOTIV8 Church