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NORTH PINE BAPTIST CHURCH
Sunday 7th September 2025 – Father’s Day
Luke 15:11-32
“God Is A Father”
Here we are on another Father’s Day.
Dad’s, on this day do you feel like you have an important calling?
Do you feel important?
Because Father’s Day is a day of mixed emotions isn’t it.
On one side we celebrate all that is good about fathers.
The ones who are great with kids.
The hard-working and great providers.
The ones who can mow lawns and clean toilets.
The number one Dads in their own family.
Then there is another “father” reality.
The absent father reality
… literally absent because they don’t live with the family.
… or absent because they are at work all the time.
… or absent because, even when they are home, they are un-engaged.
The abusive father reality
... might even be worse than the father who is absent.
… living with a father that, no matter what you do, you can never seem to win.
There is the father reality of the very loved father who is no longer with us.
… the father who passed away.
… the father who left but really didn’t want to.
There is also the father reality of men wanting to be fathers but can’t
… it might be because they are still single.
… or they are unable to have children.
… or they are not allowed to see their children
Father’s Day is a mixed bag of emotions. And in the middle of these emotions is the reality that there are a whole heap of fathers here today who sit heavy with the weight of fatherhood.
We wake up knowing what we need to do … we go to bed knowing we have missed the mark.
As fathers we know we have strength to protect our families … yet even the very best of our strength has not been enough to protect our family.
As fathers we get the #1 Dad cups from our children … yet we feel less than #1
Sometimes it is hard to believe as a father that we are important.
So today I want to remind us of the biblical importance of being called a father.
But this isn’t just a sermon for fathers.
To the married men here … you’re seeking to understand what is foundational to being a godly father.
To the single men who want to be fathers … you’re listening to learn what the Bible tells you about the sort of man you should seek to be.
To the married women here … you’re wanting to learn ways to encourage your husband in his calling as a father.
To the single women who are looking for a future husband and father … you’re looking for the biblical characteristics of the man you should be looking for.
There is also a group here who I would call “spiritual fathers”. You may have children of your own, or not. You may be married, or you may be single. A “spiritual father” is someone who speaks into the life a younger person in a godly father-like manner. This sermon is also just as much for you.
So, as we focus on the biblical importance of fathers there is something for all of us this morning.
So, fathers, how important are you?
• There are fathers who, when their children come with an A on their report card, will say, “why didn’t you get an A plus.”
• There is the father who is looking for something, and blaming everyone that they have taken it, only to find it was in the right place the whole time. But then he never says sorry to anyone.
• There are the fathers who – when they are out in public are so nice and charming. But who are distant and demanding and emotionally destructive.
I can give you a hundred stories. Plenty that are much worse than these. People who have shared about the way they were treated by their father. Then those same people at some point are confronted by the Bible. And in the Bible they read about God who is a heavenly Father.
And the testimony of these people as they talk about their own father is, “I struggled with that”.
I struggled with the idea that God is a heavenly Father because of what my own father did to me.
Some people overcome that struggle.
And some don’t.
There are people I know who want nothing to do with faith, and the Bible and Jesus because their experience from their own father is so wounding they have come to the conclusion that … “because God is a Father … I want nothing to do with Him”.
Men – fathers – you have an important biblical calling.
Why?
Because, like you, God is a Father.
God is a Father.
When Jesus teaches us to pray He says:-
9 This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name’. (Matthew 6:9)
When Jesus tells us about our relationship to the heavenly deity He says:-
32 “Whoever acknowledges Me before others, I will also acknowledge before My Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32)
Again
27 No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. (Matthew 11:27)
God is a Father. He is our heavenly Father. And He is an amazing Father with a gracious Father-heart.
We read about the heart of our Father in Luke 15:11-32.
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “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! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“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.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
That is a parable about the father-heart of God.
Men – fathers – you have an important biblical calling.
Why?
Because, like you, God is a Father.
And, whether you like it or not …
Whether you accept the calling or not …
People will form their understanding of father-heart of God on the basis of the experience they have had
… from their own fathers.
… from other spiritual fathers.
So, as fathers, we look at this passage and ask ourselves “What does this teach us about the Father-heart of God?”
Our Loving Father allows us to live ungodly lives.
- Give me inheritance … I wish you were dead.
- Run off to a distant country … no-one is going to tell me how to live.
The boy’s life is in ruins. The Father knew it was going to happen. But the Father doesn’t chase after the Son … instead the Father allows the consequences of the actions to unfold.
That is our heavenly Father allowing us to make choices … no matter how much it hurts.
Our Loving Father constantly keeps a look-out for our return.
- Vs.20 while a long way off the father saw him and ran.
- Father not at home getting angry … ungrateful, took my money, hope he stuffed up.
- Each day looking … will he come … when is he coming?
- Look at the response when the son comes home … compassion, hugs and kisses.
The Father would have been so hurt. Yet his attitude is one of care and forgiveness.
A Father who constantly watches for the lost.
Our Loving Father gives us the full inheritance even when we have failed.
- Not allowed to have slave status.
- Robe and Ring … he will get the inheritance again.
- Fattened Calf … let everyone know he is a VIP.
The son deserves nothing, the Father gives him everything.
It becomes the transforming act in the life of the son.
Acceptance and grace no matter what.
Our Loving Father protects us from the grace-killers.
- Older son … so angry stays outside.
- I have been so good, he is so bad.
- I deserve to be elevated above him, not the other way around.
- I am so much better, treat him according to what he has done.
That is how the brother reacts. And it is a danger because he is saying what we all think. How can you treat people like this when they have done such a terrible thing?
A Father who puts grace-killers into place by reminding them of His definition of acceptance.
Through the love of the Father we are not defined by our past.
And we should not allow others to define us by our past.
The Father sees us as a new creation in Christ.
That is how Fathers are called to act.
Men – fathers – you have an important biblical calling.
Why?
Because, like you, God is a Father.
And the way you live as a father will be formative in the way people understand who God is as Father.
And that is where the challenge comes … doesn’t it.
Because we know how easy it is to fail as a father.
To walk with bravado all the while having the questions.
To feel like you are not enough.
I’m not going to make a list of how fathers feel like a failure – most of us already have the list.
As we wrestle with this list
… and wrestle with the challenges of our calling.
… what we want to do in this moment is look towards Jesus – and what Jesus did in some of the most difficult times of his life.
The first moment is to picture a garden in Gethsemane. Jesus has asked His disciples to pray. Then
39 Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:39
The second moment takes place when Jesus is on the cross. He has been beaten and mocked. He has been forsaken by God. Then we get these last words of Jesus before His death.
46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” When He had said this, He breathed His last.
Luke 23:46
Jesus is sinless. Jesus lived in complete obedience.
Yet, in some of the most challenging and difficult times in His life – when does Jesus go? He goes to His Father.
Earlier in the passion week Jesus speaks honesty about His situation.
27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
John 12:27-28
Father, help Me. Father, strengthen Me. Father, be that place of eternal hope.
Jesus is sinless.
Yet when He was overwhelmed, and needed strength.
When He was faced with challenges and life situations far beyond anything we would ever need to go through.
When He was troubled.
Where did Jesus go? Jesus went to His heavenly Father.
Men – fathers – do you want to be a father who fulfils your important biblical calling?
You can do that by looking to Jesus and seeking to live as Jesus did.
To be men who … in all situations … keep going to your heavenly Father.
Knowing in our lives that we have a Heavenly Father who is very aware of all our short-comings and sins.
And instead of covering up, or hiding, or making excuses, or blaming others.
We take responsibility … and say honestly … like the son in the parable “I not worthy.”
We don’t have to be fathers who gets it all right all the time … we can’t anyway.
We want to be fathers who can say, “I got it wrong” … and I need my Heavenly Father.
I need to know the Father as Jesus knows Him. I need to acknowledge Jesus who will acknowledge me before the Father.
That father … that is a father who is fulfilling their biblical calling.
Especially when that same father looks with love and acceptance towards the children who got it wrong as well.
That is also how we fulfil our important calling. We have experienced the grace-life and so we life the grace-life. We seek to live like the father in the parable who is constantly keeping a look-out for his son.
The son deserves nothing, the Father gives him everything.
Acceptance and grace no matter what.
It becomes the transforming act in the life of the son.
You don’t have to be the perfect father to be able to do that.
All you need to do is take the grace that God the Father has shown to you, and keep showing that same grace to the children and spiritual children that God places in our lives.
One more … fathers … one more way to fulfill your important calling. Be the father that isn’t a grace-killer.
Where you define the people around you by their past.
Where you don’t allow brokenness and mistakes to be forgotten.
Where you stand on that notion that somehow, because you have been around longer, you deserve more.
Not in this parable, but on plenty of other occasions, Jesus said, “The last will be first”.
Grace-killers push the last out of the way.
The father who is seeking to fulfil his important calling will never do that.
Men – fathers – you have an important biblical calling.
Like you, God is a Father.
And the way you live as a father is formative for those who are confronted by the truth that God is also a father.
It is what all of us who are fathers should strive for … and for those who are unmarried … and those of us who are spiritual fathers … this is the man of God you want to be.
It is what all who are married women should be encouraging your husband towards … and a character that you any single woman would want in their future husband.
So men … fathers … my brothers in Christ … is that who you want to be?
The man who is drawing people closer to their Heavenly Father because you are a man who is a grace relationship with your heavenly Father. Is that you? Or are you a bit lost at the moment?
My grand-father was a very stubborn man.
After my grand-parents retired they travelled all over Australia in a Hiace campervan.
My grand-father was constantly getting lost, but he would hate, and get angry, if my grand-mother told him that they were going the wrong way.
So on one trip in rural NSW she didn’t say anything.
She knew that he wasn’t sure where was going but she didn’t say anything.
They travelled over 400km in the wrong direction before he was willing to admit to my grandmother that they were lost and he needed so help.
So men … fathers … my brothers in Christ … are you a bit lost, or a lot lost when it comes to being the father who is fulfilling the important calling of biblical fatherhood?
Maybe you’re only a little lost. Maybe you feel as lost as the son on the pig pen
If that is where we are all we need to do is suck in our pride and say to God your Father – I’m lost … and I need help.
Because here is what I know about our Heavenly Father. For every one of his lost sons. He keeps looking down that road waiting for us.
So that he can shower us with the blessings … shower us with all his Fatherly love.
The Fatherly Heart of God – that is the reason He sent His own Son.
So that we can be the men of God He is calling is to be.
All we need to do … is ask.
Prayer
