The Waiting Father

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.