A Father’s Day
First and foremost, we want to give thanks to our Heavenly Father, one of the greatest Fathers of all. Although we will poke fun at our earthly fathers’ we at the same time will give honor to them and God.
A small boy said, "Father’s Day is just like Mother’s Day, only you don’t spend as much on the gift." And I say, "What gift?"
Mark Twain said, "When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant, I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man learned in 7 years."
A son wrote home to his dad. He said, "Dear Dad, please let me hear from you more often, even if it’s only in fives or tens."
Being a parent and a father can be an interesting and trying experience. Someone said, "Parents spend the first part of a child’s life urging them to talk and walk, and the rest of their childhood telling him to sit down and keep quiet."
These following questions can apply to all of us, but for this message I am asking the dads, have you ever had broken or shattered dreams? Have you ever wanted the best for someone, and they seem to be on a destructive path and not even desire your help? Have you ever been so entangled in a situation that you see no way out of that situation? That is how this father from our text must have felt, and I believe that our Heavenly Father must feel as He looks at us at times. What I am about to say maybe a tough thing for a father or parent to wrap their head around…sometimes we need to let our child get hurt before they will start to listen to us. That must be what this father in our scripture is doing, because I know for sure that is what God is doing.
I know that there is not one Father here that would not lie down his life for his children. That is the way that it is supposed to be. I also know that there is not one Father here that has not blown it, especially if your children are older. If you have blown it, or when you do screw it up, don’t beat yourself up because we are far from perfect, and honestly none of us fathers have gone through a course on being a father…it is a learn as you go kind of thing. Because of this there will be times that we wish we could change how we handled a situation.
Most of the time for Father’s Day we look at leadership qualities, look at being a role model, but I want to look at the Father of this Prodigal son and how he handled himself when things did not go according to his plan and his faith that he had for his son to return.
Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”
Luke 15:11-32
A parable is a simple story told by Jesus in the gospels to illustrate a spiritual truth. A Prodigal is someone that is wasteful or extravagant. This is an example of a person that was wasteful, made bad life choices, and had to come to their senses after the fun was over and all the so-called friends had departed. Anyone relate to that so far?
Our culture, in an attempt at finding itself, has slipped off a slippery slope. They have reached that slope because they believe they know better, that their culture has a better handle on things. Now I must admit that some of it is the fault of the parents, those that do not put an effort into raising their kids properly...what I mean by this is that they let their children govern themselves.
We have gone farther away from God, and most do not care. We have alienated ourselves from others by not letting anyone get too close. We have made ourselves so busy that we have no time to just breathe and refresh. This culture has gotten away from caring for others. I remember a time when my mother (she served as my dad because growing up I had no dad, as he was killed when I was 2), she would send me to checkup on a neighbor, or to take a dish of food to a neighbor. We seem to have gone away from love thy neighbor and more concerned with love thyself. We used to take pictures of others, now everyone takes selfies!
It is all about us! Doing whatever we can to get ourselves noticed on YouTube, tik-tock, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
From our scripture we can see this young boy starts thinking that his life at home was so bad that he must leave and do what he thinks is best...this is nothing new, it is still happening today. This Father had two sons, one was older and one younger.
The younger son decided that he had had enough and wanted to go find himself. (rebellion) He wanted what he felt his father owed him and he was going to take it and do what he wanted. His older son by choice had stayed and was working on the family farm and only became enraged after his father had given such a warm reception of his brothers return. One stayed and one strayed.
Today’s society looks at nothing as sin. It is a right for you to do as you please, wither it goes against God or family values, or moral values…if it makes me feel good, well that is fine, and no one can say anything against it. The church must be careful that we don’t fall into the same trap, whereby we start to grade sin…big sins and little sins…lies and white lies. We look at certain sins as acceptable, tolerable, and then some that we just cannot get past. I want you to know with the shootings that have been happening that this was not the wrath of God coming down on sinners. God did not cause these shooters to go into a place and gun down innocent lives. It was an evil demented act of hatred.
The church must embrace the fact that lives were lost, and that God grieves at the loss of life. Those people’s lives mattered to God. You cannot evangelize and antagonize at the same time. We better sit ourselves down and realize that our sin is no better or worse than someone else’s. WE ALL NEED JESUS!
As much as most see this parable about the change in the boy’s life and his return to his father, there is another side of this story of a father that never gave up hope that his son would return and had already decided what and how he would act when that day came. Let’s go back to this parable.
The boy decides that he will leave and demands his portion of the family estate; the younger son gets 1/3 and the older son 2/3. but here is where we may miss the point of the younger son asking...what he is saying is that he wishes his father were dead, because that is when they really get the money of the estate.
He wasted his money on a wild lifestyle to the point there is nothing left and there is famine in the land and this man has gone from plenty to need. He has gone from many friends because of having money to no friends because he is flat broke, to the broke broke.
It is at his point of need that he remembers that what he had at home was not so bad and that even the servants of his father lived better than what he was at that time. It is at our lowest point that God does his best work. Wither we are the son or daughter that needs to return, or we are the parents of children that have gone astray. God does his best when we are at the lowest. He does more at those times because we open ourselves up to believing that God can do the impossible and that while we see nothing, we know God can and will be working.
This boy was a Jew feeding pigs! You cannot get much lower than that! And to desire to eat what the pigs were eating was another slap in the face. A couple of things happen at that point in our lives. We come to our senses! (Verse 17) during our rebellion, we lose track of the truth. He came to his senses. This unnamed son had to come to the point of his life that he was not satisfied with where he was at...he was as we might say, at the bottom of the barrel with nowhere to look but up.
This kid was broken! He had lost everything. Home, relationship, his money all gone. His family and his father were now looking better than they ever did. Lack of resources and the need for food, he first tries to fix this himself. He gets a job that is subpar of what he had at home and the distant owner could not have cared less for his immediate needs only that he fed his pigs.
He had this ah ha moment that brought him back to his senses and he reacted, he changed course and returned home. I don’t know where you are at this morning, but I know that at some point you need to have an Aha moment, that moment that you know what needs to be done and you are willing to do it. This young man knew that it would be better to go back to the father and take second best because the chart he had coursed was not working. To this boy's surprise the return was not what he planned for, as He did not even have time to recite his speech about just letting him live like the servants live. What an example of God’s love! Arms open and embracing us to be a part of the family again when we have gone astray. Therefore, we cannot grade sin. Sin is sin. God wishes for all his children to come home. He desires to restore what rebellion has stolen. What happened in all the shootings was not God’ wrath, it grieved his heart for the loss of lives and family members grieving over loved ones. Be careful what you say in God’s name! Be careful when you speak for God because He is a loving God and desires to see us return to Him. He doesn’t condone sin, and we have to stand on God’s word, but He opens doors, and He keeps the porch light on so we have an opportunity to come back home and be embraced by a loving God.
Think about this-Our Heavenly Father is not on the throne with a hammer ready to beat His children over the head. He is drawing us to Himself, and we need to be willing to respond. Although he did not know this, that wayward child must have an open door to be able to be welcomed back into the family, the same way that our heavenly Father is waiting his children to come back to Him. There is a consequence for disobedience, but that is not God’s desire, He will give every opportunity for us to “come to our senses.”
I do not know where you are at this morning, but I know that our heavenly Father who has not made the mistakes we have is wanting us to come to Him this morning, wither we have made mistakes as a parent, or as a wayward child that just needs to come back to Him, He is waiting with open arms for you. Will you come back this morning to the Father?
This parable celebrates a father hopefully and patiently watching for his child’s return and embracing him when he returns. It reflects the boundless mercy and love of God and His refusal to limit His love on time or circumstance. If we have breath left in our body, He offers life! He is waiting for you to come back! This society, what would it look like if all the wayward children would return. What celebrations will happen this weekend? This world needs Jesus! This world needs to turn around and return to the Father that desires His best for their lives. It begins with you- He already has made his desire known, what are you going to do with it?
