THE PRODIGAL’S FATHER
We are thankful for all of our fathers.
Question: Do you know what day of the year that there are the most phone calls made???…… Mothers day.
On mothers day everyone wants to call home.
By contrast - What do you thinks happens on Father’s Day? The most collect Calls.
Dads often have to stand aside for everyone else.
We should have promoted Father’s Day in the bulletin, but the dads got bumped for the promotion of Vacation Bible School next week. Dads don’t mind.
Dad’s like to be needed. We will have a gift for all of our fathers given at the close of the service.
It is true that fathers like to give rather than to receive. If they are not giving they are fixing. Anything that is broken around the house. Mothers will fix meals, patch up a skinned knee or elbow, but Dads like it most when they can fix a lawnmower, a weed eater, a disposal, or a squeaky door. Dads are expected to be reliable no matter what’s going on around the house.
A good father loves his place in the home…
Dads still live in the day when it was said,
“Men are men, and women are proud of it.”
Obviously men are nothing like women, and so I have a countdown of the Top Ten Reasons – Why it’s good to be a Man:
10. Grilling hamburgers and hot dogs, and eating on paper plates is “fine dining”.
9. Shaving on the weekends is always an option.
8. If your buddy forgets to invite you to a social gathering, you thank him and he becomes your best friend.
7. You can drop by to see a friend without bringing a little gift.
6. If another guy shows up at the same party in the same outfit, you now have something in common.
5. You only need one wallet, one pair of shoes, one color for your shirts…whether it is before or after Labor Day.
4. There is always a game on somewhere that has to be watched.
3. Your hunting buddies never have to compliment you on the way your hair looks.
2. If something mechanical doesn’t work, you can bash it with a hammer and throw it out in the yard.
And the number one reason that it is Good to be a Man is:
1. You can manicure your own nails with a pocketknife.
Ladies – men are mysterious: “Why is it that a man would rather have another tool to add to all the other tools he already has out in the garage?”
Because Dads relate to tools. They are just like their tools. They just seem to just stay out in the garage and wait there in case someone might need them.
The women are expecting me to preach you guys, so…
In our text today, we have the story of a dad and his two sons. It is a parable told by Jesus that describes family relationships and how family members act.
Listen closely and try to find your place in this story…
Text: Luke 15:11 – 32 (NIV)
There are some who may look at their life right now and realize that at one time we moved out on our own (out on our own) to make our own mistakes. And then again – there are others that never seemed to move away and may have turned out just like their father. Good and bad…
There are some of us who are Dad’s and we are doing the best we know how. In our scripture, the father gave his younger son, everything he asked for. The father gladly handed over his share of what would one day be his inheritance.
So true…Dad’s do want to give their kids the things they want. They want their children to be happy. Dad’s will let you make a mistake and hope you will learn from it.
Dad’s will often love you through your pain and suffering, while many times never saying a word. They suffer with their children silently.
I have noticed that earthly fathers are often like our heavenly Father.
It is only normal that most of us use our own fathers as a guide on what we believe God is like.
If your father was distant or not there you probably feel that God is the same way.
As well, some of us have a real fear of our fathers.
We fear punishment and rejection. A father is sometimes considered to be an overbearing ogre’.
Some of us are not sure what Dad thinks of us… what little we know about our father is what our mother will tell us,
”Wait until your daddy Gets Home!”
Dad seems to be the ultimate punishment machine.
Always disappointed with our behavior and ready to punish us severely…
We have asked,
“How will I ever live up to my father’s expectation?”
Maybe the problem is that we can’t be good enough. Perhaps it was grades, or friends and or bad choices in your life that you were judged harshly. And you just can’t see how you can ever hope to satisfy your father.
Unfortunately and all too often - we place our personal view of our earthly fathers on God. We take the human traits that we know about our dad’s - GOOD or BAD think GOD is the same.
Well, I am grateful to say it doesn’t have to be like this. In our scripture we see this dad, give over 1 third of the family estate to the young man and let him go away and live whatever life he wanted to live. ( FREE WILL)
We all have this same option with our heavenly Father.
And sometimes that is what earthly dad’s end up doing. In our story the son comes running back home, but only when the money runs out. Foolish children have to be completely down and out before they will come to Father God.
Some have only seen Father God as a last resort to bail us out of our own mistakes.
Nevertheless, the father is looking down the road, almost as if he expected or longed for the son to come home. And when it happens, he meets him down the road. And is happy to see him and accept him back.
Your heavenly Father is saying to you,
“If you will draw nigh unto Me, I will draw night unto you.” In other words, “I will meet you half way(whenever you decide to come home.”
The Prodigal Son is completely forgiven the very instant his father sees his penitent heart and willingness to come home. Instinctively the father knew that his wayward son was not coming back for more money, but for forgiveness and restitution.
I know of more than one father that has accepted their children back home in this way. This is exactly how our heavenly Father wants us to come to Him…humble and broken and in need of His favor, mercy and grace…
I don’t know if I can come anywhere close to being like Father God in this story.
God is so willing to forgive and to take any of us into His home.
I have seen children grow up and if they make some big mistakes in their lives the father is tempted to say,
“I TOLD you SO! But you wouldn’t listen to Me!”
They make it hard for their children to come home after they make a big mistake.
Some dads are likely to choose a favorite child, and may say, “Why can’t you be like your brother?”
We can easily see that the “older son” was not happy with his father’s decision to take back his younger brother (vs. 25 – 30).
Verse 30 – the older son disowns His younger brother with “this son of yours…”
Oftentimes the earthly dad finds it easy to make a comparison between his children. He will say,
“Why can’t you be like your brother?”
He will use one against the other to try to make them feel guilty, but all it will do is create more anger.
And when this happens, the whole family picks up on this, except a judgmental father…
A prejudice dad can often be the reason for sibling rivalry.
But even the kids that do stay at home can have problems with dad. Perhaps we kept them from becoming independent.
We shelter them and do not prepare them for the real world, maybe we were over protective. Over protection from the problems of Life can be just as big a problem for our children, because they are not ready for the world.
(I have met more and more young fathers that have never been taught how to be a handyman around the house.)
I think maybe God wants us to be like the father in the story. That is, able to accept the wayward child home like nothing happened, and able to beg the other brother to accept the one he sees as “no-good”.
In your heart you want to be like the father in this story, to be a perfect dad. But you know you are human.
What is the difference between God and yourself?
In this parable we see a father that has a divine love.
We see a father full of mercy and grace…
Close:
What is it that a dad wants for father’s day?
How about a special Tie?
A good father never expects anything but for his children to forgive him and love him.
They want their children to be safe.
They want their cars to be running and their homes to be comfortable for their grandchildren.
Good fathers want to help their children when they have needs. Godly fathers desire to be wise, to make the right decisions for their children.
Our heavenly father wants this for all fathers. He has the wisdom to let us learn the hard way, and the love to welcome us back anytime we goof up no matter how bad.
Jesus has told us a parable of His own Father…
God is God, and God is the perfect father. When we go off to a far country, never expecting to return He waits, Not patiently but anxiously for our return.
What an earthly father wants is to be the same as he sees in his heavenly father. They would love to be perfect, but most know they aren’t.
Give your father a hug today…a phone call…buy him dinner…tell him you love him.
Both your earthly father and your heavenly Father are expecting a phone call from all their children.
Maybe just to say,
“Thanks Father…for waiting for me to come home…”
