The waiting Father
Luke 15
1 Peter 2:9
Good morning everyone
If you would turn to Luke 15 we are going to look at a parable spoken by Jesus himself.
In this parable of three separate situations something is lost and something is found.
The lost sheep
The lost coin
The lost son.
In the first, Jesus says suppose that a shepherd has 100 sheep and one gets lost and cannot be found. He leaves the 99 and finds the lost one and joyfully puts the sheep on his shoulders and goes back to the 99. He tells his friends of his joy in that the lost one was found.
In the second parable, a woman has 10 coins and she loses one. Does she not go after the one lost and not think that hey I have nine other ones? She finds the coin and tells her friends that she has found the one that was lost.
The third one is the one we will spend some time with- a father has two sons and the youngest is rebellious and leaves the home.
Luke 15:11-20 read from bible
Prayer-
On Father‘s day, most of the time the message given is about what kind of father you had or didn’t have. This is important stuff, I don’t take that lightly but this morning I want us to look at the father that was forced by decisions that the wayward son made to watch his son leave the house without knowing what his future was going to be.
Maybe some of you are there this morning.
This son for whatever reason gets a wild hair and decides that he does not want to live under the authority and protection of his father.
They could have had a falling out or he could have just decided to leave because he wanted to explore his options.
Customary was to give his oldest son 2/3 and the second son gets 1/3 of the value of what the father had. Usually given at the death of the father.
The youngest son takes off with his 1/3 and goes and blows it on lustful living and he squandered his inheritance. Every last penny!
He run out of money and food and probably friends because when you have money to throw around you can always find people that call you friends.
In desperation, he goes to work feeding pigs which for a Jew was probable the lowest of jobs you could get. He got so desperate that he himself was wanting to eat the food of the pigs because he had gotten to such a low spot.
Scripture says (17)
“When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death.”
Don’t rush through this!- he is talking to himself. He is having a ah… ha moment.
When he came to his senses, he realized that what he thought was terrible was not as terrible as what he has now found out to be his reality of life.
He makes a comparison that even the workers of his father have it better than what he is going through right now.
Even if the father does not restore him to what he had and who he was is better than where he finds himself now!
He rehearses the lines he will tell his father- “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.”
After rehearsing- he got up from where he was and went back to his father!
Listen dad, mom, grandparent, husband, wife, aunt, uncle, brother, sister- whoever is waiting on someone to come back listen to what happens here in the heart of the son and the father- it is the miracle of reconciliation.
We do not know what God is doing and we do not know what he has to do to reach the heart of the wayward person!
That father was blindsided with a rebellious child that wanted out, probably said some things that cut right to the heart of the father- a rejection of what was for the grand allusion of what they want! They have it all figured out what they think is going to happen when they get their wings. When they get to be their own boss and nobody has a right to tell them what to do. They have this expectation that the father should just give him his inheritance now before he even would die because of selfish thoughts and selfish gain. Give me what is not rightfully mine yet because I cannot wait for it to come to me in the right way.
Sin for a moment is fun but it comes with a price that you weren’t expecting to have to pay.
It will cost you everything and give you nothing in return.
All those friends that hung with him because he had money had now left him because he had nothing more to offer them and it wasn’t a relationship, it was greed, selfishness, and sin that drew them to him until you have nothing left and they moved on to something or someone else who could supply their need.
We see that the Lord had been working in the son’s life- at his lowest point is when he came to his senses- he realized what he had was what he needed. But dad! Mom! Anyone who is waiting on God to bring a wayward person back into the fold. You have to see what the father did.
The Father had to turn his son loose
The father after many arguments and discussions with no repentance and remorse had to turn his son loose to do what his wayward heart was going to do.
He had to trust the lord to take care of him when he could not.
He had to let go and let God!
It is the hardest thing a person has to do is release a loved one in the invisible hands of God and pray that through the trials and situation and circumstances that they will have a coming to their senses moment!
Trusting That God would keep him safe and from harm.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”
If faith can be seen, it is not faith.
Faith we have in the Lord to work in other people’s life is always unseen until it is seen.
We do not know what the Lord is doing until it manifests itself.
That father did not see all the things that his son had to go through- praise the Lord for that !
He knew that his son was on a destructive path and he has turned his son over for the Lord to do what is needed.
Each setback, each betrayal, each time someone let them down, the Lord used that to being the wayward son back to reality and to his senses.
How many prayers went up by that father that the Lord would protect and keep him safe?
How many times did the Lord have to comfort the dad as he had emotional roller coaster imagining what his son was facing and he had no control over what he could do about it?
How many times do you think the father had a conversation and talking to himself how he was going to tell his son how hurt he was and that he could not bear it anymore and the Lord had to speak into the fathers life and say that you have put him into my hands so trust me to do what is needed?
How many times do you think they both wanted to give up- the father who lost hope and the son who realized he was a mess and had no idea how he could fix it until he humbly came back to decide that he would go to the father and make it right- even if he did not get the position that he had before- even a worker in his father house was better than the dirt of sin and in the world without the father.
The Father waited on the Lord to do what he could not do
(20) “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father, said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatten calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.”
That father did not give up on that child!
Robe- distinction
Ring- authority
Sandals-position-slaves had no shoes…family wore sandals.
He had to go about his day- he had to work, he had to maintain his house and raise his other children but he kept an eye on the horizon.
He was looking for him to come back!
He had not given up hope just because he could not see what God was doing, he just knew God was doing something and he was looking so he did not want to miss it.
The forgiving love of the father symbolized and shows us the mercy and love of the heavenly father.
The oldest son who now rebels because the wayward son comes home to celebration is the attitude of the Pharisees and givers of the law who hated Jesus.
The Christians life begins with conversion to Christ- it has two sides.
It has the human side of receiving Christ as savior.
The divine side is the supernatural intervention of God into our lives.
When we are believers who have received that supernatural intervention of God into our lives, we must by faith believe that the one who has gone wayward will have the same supernatural intervention that we had. We were once dead in sin and then made alive in Christ because of what He has done in our lives.
1 Peter 2:9- “Show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”
Some of us before conversion, we thought we knew everything about Christianity…and we choose foolishly to decline His invitation.
After conversion, we see how ignorant we really were. We see how we were in darkness and he called us out into the light of God!
By waiting patiently and by faith, we are wanting to have the Lord do for them what He has done for us!
1 Peter text was God doing for Israel what they could not do for themselves- however great the exodus of Israel from bondage and slavery, the spiritual exodus from bondage is greater!
Darkness blinds and keeps us from the light of God until the light of God breaks through that darkness and sets us free!
There is a divine call and a human response- God reaches for that wayward person and draws them to himself. They respond after realizing that they need a savior. “When he came to his senses”
The grateful opening of their heart to Jesus!” Show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”
It is not just light- it is His Marvelous light that will change them forever!
The light that turns them around and gets them going into the opposite direction than the sin they were going in.
The Father has to welcome a wayward son
He had to turn his loved one loose so the Lord could work
He had to not give up on Him
He has to welcome him back home
“Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
Any of you who has kids knows that you try to be fair but some need more attention than others.
If you had two sons and one was drowning and needed you to throw a rope, you wouldn’t think twice of who you throw the rope too, it would be the one in need.
The older brother, who is a whole nother problem had his father’s blessing, it was the younger son who was lost and needing the rescue from God.
Close-
Those who have been brought out of the darkness and into God’s light cannot forget that at one time we were the one that someone was praying for God to get a hold of-
we have to do what w know to do and trust the Lord with them and be ready to respond when he does something supernatural- that Father was ready and expecting his son to return and he was ready to love him up.
Prayer-
