THE LOVING FATHER Luke 15:11-32 Father s Day -- June 16, Trinity United Methodist Church

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1 THE LOVING FATHER Luke 15:11-32 Father s Day -- June 16, Trinity United Methodist Church Our story from the Bible is about a Loving Father. It s a good passage for Father s Day. It s actually one of three stories in Luke 15 and each one talks about something that is lost, but eventually is found. In this chapter, we have the story of the lost sheep, the story of the lost coin, and then finally the story of the lost son. All three of these stores are really about people. So take the time to read the entire chapter, including all three stories if you want to learn about God s concern and compassion for lost people. The story I chose for today starts by saying, There was a man who had two sons. The youngest one said to the father, "Father give me my share of the estate." So he divided his property between them. This story is often called the story of the prodigal son. Prodigal means one given to reckless ways. However, it might more accurately be called the story of the two prodigal sons. On the other hand, I prefer to call it the story of the loving father. The wayward son is not the hero of the story, and therefore, he should not get top billing. Without question, the hero of the story is the father, and this is one of these stories that we should take personally. So in this parable God is the Father and we are his sons and daughters, and the Father s incredible actions in this story leave all the rest of us something to imitate on Father s Day. One thing for sure, this story of the Loving Father proves that children are not for the faint in heart. Children are deductible, but they are also taxing at times. There was a real callousness in the request of the younger son. He said, in effect, Give me now the part of the estate I will get when you are dead, and let me get out of this place. Can you imagine how we might have felt if one of our children had approached us in this way?

2 Surely, the father must have tried to talk his son out of this, but the Bible doesn t tell us that. What it does tell us is that the father divided his property and gave the younger son his inheritance. Can you imagine how hard that must have been for the father? It s so difficult for any parent to release their children and to allow them to learn through experience and mistakes. It s during those times that we wish that they were young children again so we could control their behavior and make their decisions for them. Maybe we sometimes feel that way with our adult children. So the father watched his young son walk down the road away from him. Some of us have stood right there with lumps in our throats, now wanting to let go but knowing we should, or maybe knowing we have no choice. In this case, the son went off to a distant country the Bible doesn t give the name of the country or the city it could have been Las Vegas or New York City or somewhere else and it says that he squandered his money in wild living. One of the things that I enjoy about the setting in which Bev and I are going to be living soon, is the opportunity to enjoy the wild life, but that is different than the kind that is described here. And then the wayward son became hungry, and it says he went and got a job feeding the pigs. And it says in verse 16 that he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating but no one gave him anything. This would have been a horrible situation for a young Jewish lad as pigs were considered to be the lowest of animals. The law said, Cursed is he who feeds swine. So the young man hit rock bottom. He went as low as he could go as a human being. He became a dredge to society the lowest of the lowest the bottom of the bird cage the last chapter of what s the use. However, in verse 17, we come across a beautiful line. I love the way Jesus puts this. It says there that the young man came to his senses he came to his senses.

3 The Bible tells us that a person is not really in their best state of mind when they are separated from their Father. I would say this is true for our earthly Father and especially our Heavenly Father. On the earthly end, this not easy for children today as 20 million children today in America are living in a family unit without a father. 40 % of children born today are born into a family where their father and mother are not married to each other. The good news is that our Heavenly Father is always with, and is consistently available to his children. Here it just tells us that the young man came to his senses. And we can imagine that he also experienced a change in heart. So now the young man decided to go home. And like so many of us who are going to face difficult situations he began to prepare and rehearse the speech that he was going to give to his father. He knew it had to be good if he had any hope of getting back onto his father s property. His speech is found in verse 18 and the heart of it contains a complete repentance, an expression of unworthiness and his desire to become one of his father s hired hands. And don t you hate it when you ve given so much thought to what you re going to say you have your speech ready and you never have a chance to get it out. He didn t. Because in the climax of the story, the father sees him coming, drops what he s doing, and he runs down the road to accept his son back with open arms, his heart flowing with forgiveness and love. Isn t that a moving story? Isn t that a powerful statement on a father s love? And what makes this so powerful is the real point of the story and that is our Heavenly Father deals with us exactly in the same way as the Father dealt with the son in the story. Sometimes we are caught red handed we fall hard and we find ourselves in the mud of circumstances that we have created. Later we come to God on

4 bended knee and heart repentance takes place next to our amazement, we see God standing there with open arms to receive us and take us back home. Wow!! Every one of us needs to have this experience since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Then something really good comes from this. The way God deals with us moves us to deal with our children in a similar manner. There is a tendency within many of us to want to prove that we are right even with our spouse and children. We love to be able to say, in one way or another I told you so. The father in our parable could have easily taken this approach. He knew that his son was headed for trouble. However, the I told you so approach doesn t lead to healthy relationships, and it prevents forgiveness. It s seldom significant to prove that we are right. It s more important to deal with our children the way God has dealt with us, taking our cue from the ultimate loving Father to learn how to serve up forgiveness and love, rather than hurt and resentment. Helen Evans wrote a piece entitled, The Kind of Dad to Buy." In it, she said, If I went shopping for a dad, here is what I would buy: 1. One who would always stop to answer a little boy s why. 2. One who would always speak kindly to a little girl or boy. 3. One who would give to others a bit of sunshine and joy. 4. I d pick a dad who followed the Bible s golden rule. 5. And went to church regularly and Sunday School. I d buy the very finest dad to place on our family tree. And then I d try to live like him, so he d be proud of me. In a world that is often upside down, it is important for our children and our children s children to have a life lived before them laced with consistency and integrity. God provides the best ingredients to enable that to happen. James Baldwin once said, Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

5 As parents and grandparents, we should never underestimate the influence that we provide by living a life according to God s standards rather than the world s standards. Even when they go astray, like the son in our story, this kind of life will bring them back to their senses and will ultimately bring them home. I would like to draw these thoughts together this morning by stressing the important role that prayer plays in this process. Max Lucado in his book, Walking with the Savior will help me in this task by allowing me to share his following comments: At no time underestimate the pondering of a Christian parent. At no time underestimate the power that comes when a parent pleads with God on behalf of a child. Who knows how many prayers are being answered right now because of the faithful pondering of a parent ten or twenty ago? God listens to thoughtful parents. Praying for our children is a noble task. If what we are doing, in this fastpaced society, is taking us away from prayer time for our children we re doing too much. There is nothing more precious than time that a parent spends struggling and pondering with God on behalf of a child. Bev and I can attest to this truth. There have been times when our kids have been going through what seemed like impossible situations, and we were heart broken and nothing seemed to be changing. However, we kept on praying, and we are convinced that prayer made all the difference. It seemed for years that nothing was happening, but in due time, there was joy in the morning. Let s align ourselves with other Christian parents and grandparents, and what a difference can be made in the life of the young people of this world. Let s be like the loving father.