Reimagining the Father

Welcome

Well, good morning Lifepoint! If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan Osborn and I am the teaching pastor here at Lifepoint Worthington. I’m really really grateful that you’re here with us today.

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Series Set-Up

We are in the middle of a series that we are calling, “Prodigals” looking at what is probably the most recognized of Jesus’ stories in the New Testament. And what we’ve been talking about is how all of us are somewhere in the process of leaving, longing for, or returning home.

And in retelling this story, we are looking at it each week from the perspective of one of the characters in the story.

So if you have a bible with you, meet me in Luke 15.

Introduction

And while you’re turning there...

I’m sure there was a larger strategy in place to prepare students for this, but fourth grade was the first year I really remember getting homework on a regular basis and having to turn it in the next day. If you know me, details have never really been my strong suit…so I struggled to remember to complete my assignments. You’d get a warning slip. A second warning slip…and finally, a “Late Slip”…and that one needed to be singed by your parents.

I remember the slip vividly…it was pink and it had a little “clipart” homework image with a crying face on it. And I knew I was in trouble with this one. So I did the only thing that made sense to me.

I took the slip home…and signed my mom’s name on it.

And as best I could…in the rudimentary cursive I could do…I boldly signed Katy Osborn on the form.

Which would have been fine…except my mom’s name is Kathy…and she worked at the school…knew my teacher…and was already told that I got slip.

And the next day…first thing in the morning, I turn the slip in…and about five minutes later, the teacher calls me out of the room for a “chat”…asks me about the signature...for some reason, my excuse of, “My mom signed it, she was just in a hurry and probably spelled her name wrong...” was not super convincing.

In that moment, I was caught and I knew it.

Do you know that feeling…like all at once, your heart is racing…your knees are weak…stomach drops…that caught feeling?

I remember having to sit there, the rest of the day, knowing I would get home and have tell my dad. Playing over and over again in my mind what that conversation was going to be like [EXPAND]

I can laugh about it now…but there is something so palpable about that day.

You can feel it, too! We all know what’s like to be caught…we all know what it’s like to dread a conversation because we can imagine exactly how it’ll play out.

Actually, take a moment from your own life…the “I’ve been caught” moment…or even a “What if I get caught moment...”

And I want you to hold on to that this morning…that feeling…and all the dynamics that come with

Because, I think if we’re honest, everything we’re afraid in the “I’m caught moment....” this is how we often imagine my relationship with God.

That he totters somewhere between disappointment and anger with me…and I can’t always tell which one it is, but it’s there. And I know I’m not alone in that…in fact, I think this is exactly why Jesus is telling this story in the first place! Because he knows there is something about being human that hits us when we’ve messed up. Call it guilt…call it shame…whatever it is…it’s that same feeling of being caught…and you know you need to fess up…and you know what that conversations gonna be like!

And in so many ways, in this story, Jesus is inviting us to imagine this moment…this conversation with the one who knows you’re guilty…you’re caught...

What’s that like?

Well, if you’re not there yet, open with me to Luke 15. I’ll pray, and we’ll get started.

PRAY

The Father Loves

Alright, let’s go ahead and get started.

Recap

You’ll remember, Jesus is telling a story about a man who had two sons.

Week one, we talked about the younger son who decides he’s done with the family, demands his inheritance and wanders off to live his best life somewhere else…only to find rock bottom. But when he comes back home, he’s shocked to discover his father welcoming him back.

The big idea was that like the younger brother, there is something inside us all that makes us prone to wander.

Week two…last week…we talked about the older brother…he’s the one who stayed. And every external detail of his life told us he was the good one, right? He did what the father asked. He stayed when the other left. He picked up the slack! But when his younger brother was welcomed home with a party, he was angry.

We said it was like watching his check-engine light come on. See, for him, his anger was the check-engine light that should have said, “there’s something else going on here!” But instead of doing any diagnostic work, he ignore the check-engine light and stays angry…and actually chooses to stay lost without even realizing it!

The big idea was that, in the same way, we ALL have check-engine lights that come on in our own lives…and they point to to some deeper issue “under the hood” of our lives, even if everything else on the surface looks good! They are usually our emotions and we ignore them to our peril.

Today, as we’re finishing up, we’re looking at the story from the perspective of the father.

Why Is Jesus telling this story?

But to fully understand this story, we have know why Jesus is telling this story in the first place? What’s he trying to get across.

So Jesus launches into this intricate story that we’ve been exploring…with a whole bunch of nuance in the younger brother’s life…the older brother’s life…finding ourselves just like them…Jesus has done all of this so that he can invite us into this moment of reimagining what our Heavenly Father is like. He’s inviting us to imagine this conversation with him…much like I was imagining the impending conversation with MY dad…a conversation with the one who KNOWS I’m guilty....

But if the perspectives of the brothers tells us that we are more lost than we imagine…the perspective of the Father tells us we more loved than we could hope!

Aspects of God’s Fatherly Love

And I think as we work through the details of the Father’s story, there are at least three aspects of God’s fatherly love that Jesus is putting front and center…all to say, “If you want to know what your heavenly father is like…if you want to know what He thinks of you…don’t think of some distant and removed deity who’s uninterested in the affairs of human beings…don’t think of a some no-name corporate leadership board or a egotistical dictator…if you want to know what the God is like…and what He thinks of you…you must imagine a father…a father who loves his children, both the lost and found.

So in the time we have left, I want to look at these aspects of God’s fatherly love and talk a bit about what they mean for us today.

A Letting Go Love

Here’s the first one…and it’s probably the hardest one for us to fully understand.

God’s Fatherly love for us is a “Letting-Go” kind of love. It’s a “letting go” kind of love.

And we see this right at the beginning of the story. Look with me at v. 12 and the conversation with younger brother.

Luke 15:12 ESV

And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.

We’ve said this before. It’s hard to overstate how insulting the son’s request is. This is him saying, “I want nothing to do with you.” “You’re dead to me.” Give me what’s coming to me.

Now in this cultural moment, any father who had a shred of dignity would have immediately punished that son…he may have even been disowned - so that he actually got part of what he wanted, just without the inheritance. He would have been left on his own, and rejected from his family.

But in this story, how does the father respond?

There’s no argument…there’s no push back. He simply gives the son what he asks for.

That’s actually kind of a wild thought, isn’t it?

And it’s not because he doesn’t care about his son…the rest of the story makes it abundantly clear the he deeply loves his son and grieves the fact that he’s leaving.

It means He’s not forcing a relationship on his son. He doesn’t force a relationship on any of us...

He’s actually allowing him to do exactly what he wants to do.

And we can try and fit this into a larger theological grid…and get caught up in a conversation about God’s sovereignty, his power…we can get into the weeds on our doctrine of salvation and how it works…how the Holy Spirit affects our wills and desires. But as Jesus tells this story, there is something really open-ended here about the fatherly love of God…who, out of His fatherly love lets him go…lets us god....and allows us to choose something other than a relationship him.

Even as a parent to young kids, there is a sense in which I think both Courtney and I are recognizing we can’t force our kids to love us. I mean, I can barely get my son to finish his dinner!

You see, I think what this means for us all here…whatever you feel about God…He is a Father who deeply desires a genuine relationship with you! But for it to be genuine requires the possibility that it’s rejected.

And that does not mean it’s an indifferent love. He’s not sitting back saying, “Hey, it’s you’re choice! Makes no difference to me. Make you’re on bed, but you gotta sleep in it.” No, he’s not indifferent. Again, the rest of the story makes that clear…

Close your eyes…

But let me ask you this…as you imagine the Father (which is what Jesus is trying to get us to do)…do you see him as indifferent to you? Do you imagine him as distant…not really concerned with what’s going in your life? Or do you see him as Jesus talks about him here - with a deep desire for genuine true relationship?

The Father has a letting go kind of love.

A Patient Love

Here’s the second aspect of God’s Fatherly love. The Father has a patient love.

Look with me at v. 17 (Luke 15:17-20)

Luke 15:17–20 (ESV)

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion...

I’ve read through this story over and over again and this last line in v. 20 keeps jumping out at me.

The younger brother is staggering back home…rehearsing his speech about how he’s not worthy to be a son...

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion...”

Think about it…this son has rejected Him in the most insulting way possible, walked away from family…their way of life…and any kind of relationship with them…he’s wasted all the inheritance, throwing it all away.

The father has every right to do the same thing…to move on and be done with him.

And yet…here he is patiently waiting for his son.

Why?

Because what he’s never lost is that deep desire for a genuine relationship with his child…a desire that requires the possibility he will be rejected, but a desire that outlives the rejection!

And friends, again, Jesus’ point here is to say that this is what our heavenly father is like…that his love is a fatherly love…a patient love as he waits for his children…desiring them to return to him.

And this is all over the scriptures, isn’t it?

This is what all of the Old Testament prophets are talking about when they call God’s people to repent. Which is beautiful word that I think gets horribly misused to day. See, we tend to think of the word belonging on a sandwhich board “Repent…the End is Near.”

But actually, it’s a word that means, “Turn around!” It means “Do a ‘180’”...“Return to me!” And friends, this is the desire God has for each and every one of us. A call to repentance, is not a call to stop doing bad things…it’s voice of your Heavenly Father who says to you, Come Home…because I want you Home!

You know, I think there is a way we envision a relationship with God that tells us we need to put on a show for him; that we need to at least try and give him the impression that we’ve got our act together.

But as Jesus talks about the father here, he’s talking about a father who knows what the son’s done. He talks about a father who can see the full impact of the son’s life decisions…it’s a father who knows his son is guilty and that by any measure has essentially earned what’s happened…and yet God is a father who is outrageously patient!

2 Peter 3:9 says it this way:

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

He’s not waiting for you pretend like you only kind of need Him…He is there patiently waiting for you to come home

Close your eyes...

Let me ask you this…as you imagine your heavenly father…as you imagine that conversation with him…what’s the look on his face? Is He frustrated that you’ve wandered off? Is he annoyed that you’ve done it again? Or do you see one who Jesus talks about…that even while you are a long way off…he sees you because He’s looking for you…has compassion…and is patient with you?

A Pursuing Love

And here’s the third aspect of God’s fatherly love. The Father has a pursuing love.

You’ll remember from last week, that as the Father welcomes home the younger brother, throwing a party for him to celebrate the fact that he’s returned home, the older brother hears about it and is not happy.

Look with me at v. 28 (Luke 15:28)

Luke 15:28 ESV

But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him,

His father came out to him.

Think about it like this. The older brother has his own issues…he’s upset, he’s angry about what’s going on and he’s the one whose choosing to stay outside - and not return home. The father has every right to let him be. The father has every right let him stay angry and leave him out there.

And yet…the Father comes to him. The father pursues the son…the father seeks out the son!

He entreats him to come and join the celebration…he pleads with him to come home. He doesn’t force him to do it…there’s no power play here…and actually, the story ends with the father giving the older brother the choice to stay out in the field or return home…that’s still his letting - go love.

But in telling us that the father pursues the older brother, Jesus wants us that the father actually wants the older brother! He wants him to come home. He wants him to join in. He pursues because he desires relationship. And in all of this, Jesus is inviting us to reimagine God as our father who pursues. Who comes after us. With the invitation to come back home.

You see, the father knows all the flaws of the older brother…just like he knows all the flaws and failures of the younger brother. But His fatherly love is a pursuing love and in his pursuit, he wants the older brother to know that he is wanted.

Jesus wants us to reimagine our heavenly father - to see that in His eyes, we are wanted…we are worth being pursued.

We are worth being pursed by the one we’ve rejected. We are worth being pursued by the one we’re angry with. We are worth being pursued because he is a loving father who desires relationship with his children…and while he loves us enough to let us choose to walk away, he is also one who is more patient than we deserve…more pursuing than we know…and while we are more lost than we recognize, our Heavenly father loves us more than we hope.

The Father Forgives

Prayer - Response Time

Receieving the Father’s Invitation to come back home.

Communion as Joining the Celebration