Sermon Central
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A Kiss That Changed A Prodigal Into A Preacher!
Contributed by Dr. Larry Petton on Mar 15, 2022 (message contributor)
The late Joe Bayly was a gentle, godly Christian leader. I once heard him tell how one of his sons rebelled back in the days of the hippie movement. He grew his hair long and moved into a communal flophouse. Late one night, Bayly received a call informing him that his son was being held at one of the Chicago police stations. He got out of bed, got dressed and went down to the station, but they had no record of his son being there. He made the rounds to several police stations before he realized that the call had been a prank.
Even though it was about 2 a.m. before he went home, Bayly went to the flophouse where his son was living. He went in (the door was always unlocked), stepped over several sleeping bodies strewn on the floor, and found his son asleep on his bed. He gently bent over and kissed his son on the cheek before he went home to bed.
When Bayly told the story, he said that his son was now a pastor and serving the Lord. Years later, the young man told his father, “Dad, do you know what turned me around?” Bayly said, “No, son.”
His son said, “It was that night you came into my room and kissed me. You thought that I was asleep, but I wasn’t. I thought, ‘If my dad loves me that much, to come all the way down here and kiss me, I need to get my life right with God.’”
Even if your children have hurt you through their rebellion, you are to show them God’s abundant love and mercy. Through your love, your children should be able to see that God “is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness” (Ps. 103:8).
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