The Father’s Love

Colton absolutely hit it out of the park the last two weeks, didn’t he? (can we give him a hand?) I mean Mic Jagger, customized t shirts… sorry, dad’s back now so probably won’t be as much fun.

Every once in a while Ben, our 11 year old, seems to be concerned with if we want to keep him around. Friday night he asked, Dad how much would you sell me for? Ben, not all the money in the world. Dad, what if you had to buy me? I would sell everything I have… Even the house? Yep. Dad, How about a kidney? Yes BEN I would sleep outside in a tent without a kidney. Now do you know how much I love you? Yea probably.

I waited until this week to write this sermon because I thought it would be important to listen to Colton’s preaching to decide how I need to build on or continue what he said, and just as sure as I went to start writing I’ll share with you the first thing God gave me. Whether anyone acts like the prodigal son or his brother kyle, or his sister karen, or his nephew robert, the message of the Father’s Love will always be the same.

This is the question I posed to God this week…

What do you want me to tell them about your love?

I mean how many of us would hate to have to answer this question about our spouse. Allison tell us all the ways you love Jonathan? Amber tell us about how romantic Colton is? Be alot of blushing I’m sure, or perhaps alot of dead air depending on which couple you asked. But this is what I got from God. Jonathan, tell them what you love about the way I love you. Will you allow me to attempt to do that this morning? I’d like to tell you what I love about the Father’s love as it pertains to the story we’ve been looking at over the last few weeks.

Let’s quickly summarize the story: (SInging) Here’s a story of a faithful father, who was bringing up two very different sons. No I won’t. But one left the house, messed things up, the other stayed home like a good boy, and then got irritated that we cheered for the one who returned. By week 3 of this series I trust you’ve got it, but we will still review a couple of verses along the way. Let’s start with Luke 15:17.

Luke 15:17–18 ““When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.”

Luke 15:25–27 ““Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’”

Here’s something I want to point out from these two passages. The Father was in the House. Can you repeat this after me, say.. HE’S IN THE HOUSE!

The Father’s Love is… CONSTANT

Constant… a basic definition… something or someone that is reliably present or available. How often have we desired a constant love? Reliable. Present. Available.

How many of you know that when they leave their socks on the floor, move your junk and don’t put it back where it belongs, or get this one, like little heathen they empty ice trays and don’t fill them back up. I’m telling you, it’s as close to an unpardonable sin as you can get. When they do this, especially when you are tired, and they’ve done it for the 100th time in a row, it’s your job as a parent to YELL at them. Pick up your socks, and for heaven’s sake stop walking off with the remote.

But there’s real stuff right?

They get in a car accident, they get dumped by “the love of their life”, someone tries to hurt them. They know dad’s there for them. Dad was always there for me… every car I wrecked, anytime someone had it out to me, the love of my life thing, well she’s here so never had to deal with that one.

People need a constant love.

It seems as though so many mistakes in this life have come from looking for love in all the wrong places. We use phrases like if you don’t love them someone else will. The home address of the father never changed. The son that left knew how to get back to where he had been. He didn’t have to earn back the right to be in the presence of the father, He simply had to make a choice to go there. How often have we felt in our human relationships that re-establishing love or presence required some sort of game that required making things up to the other person? Perhaps we ourselves have required others to pass some sort of relationship test to re-enter our lives. Can I tell you something I recognized this week in studying this text. Everything about the Father’s house and everything about the Father is Good. I mean I knew that, but I needed to be reminded

NOTHING… BUT… GOOD. You hear me say stuff like this all the time, if someone has painted a picture of God for you that is anything but good, as anything but loving, and forgiving, allow me to apologize on their behalf. He’s nothing but good church. Not just a judge and jury, or swift hand of justice, not the accountant of sins, He’s the God mercy. Think about what we see here in the story to describe God and His house.

Nothing but Good

It was a wealthy estate - When people plan an estate it is quite frequently a private matter. We’ve heard stories of people who leave behind a great fortune that we never knew had those kind of resources. You can know that God is sitting on a fortune of resources for us, and He can distribute them as He desires.

The Father’s house is large and rich enough to have servants. Not just servants, but servants who live so well that it is a desirable position in life. You don’t have to become a manager, vp, ceo, pastor, or ministry leader. When we become servants of God we live better than the most elevated in the world!

There’s music, dancing, food, fancy clothes, and jewelry! Now I’m not much of a jewelry wearer myself, but all of this reminds us that He’s a God of fun! I somewhat understand celebration songs like when we all get to heaven, but too often I’m afraid we have created some theory about God as though we were created to spend our entire lives struggling, with an expectation that we will all be ok with that, for an opportunity to enjoy the afterlife. To believe that all joy and fun is deferred to the afterlife paints a picture of a pretty sick and dictator like God that we don’t see in scriptures.

In the Father’s house…There is love!

When he saw the return of His son He was filled with compassion, there was hugging and kissing. You want to be like God, hug and kiss your children… even more so when they’ve failed.

There is instantaneous forgiveness! When the son came home there was no talk of consequences or lectures on how He knew best, because the love of God valued His relationship with His son over the loss of hard earned resources that were wasted by the son.

The church of America has sat on and is sitting on land, money, and savings accounts in the name of being stewards when every resource we have been given, has been given to garner new relationships for Jesus Christ. We had extra land, we sold it. We are going to build a youth wing to reach our next generation more. If God sees us bringing more people to Christ with it, He will replenish it.

In the Father’s House.. There is patience. Even when Kyle was indignant about the party. The father refers to his own possessions as theirs… How many of you grew up or live in a house where your mom or dad has a certain drink or food in the house that you aren’t supposed to eat?

In God’s house everything is free game!

There is partying!

Luke 15:23 “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.”

The Father’s Love is… PLANNING PARTIES (Activity)

I love to party! and I of course don’t mean like a rockstar. I love a good party! And guess what? Most parties I attend are not in my honor. You can throw a party in honor of whomever or whatever you like, if there is going to be a fatted calf or white cake with buttercream frosting and no sprinkles, are we clear, no sprinkles… I’m there! But really.

Do you know that He is planning parties not just for the other side of this life but in the very near future for you?

I love this about God. Time and time again when I wasn’t sure what the future held, God was planning a party for me.

He was planning the party of Allison for me. He was planning the party of Wesley, Luke, and Ben for me. He was planning the party of finishing my education. He was planning the party of Capital City Church for me. He was planning the party of a great round of golf, that steak that was cooked just right, that perfect summer day at the pool. He was planning the party of the next person that we were going to help find Jesus!

And the really cool thing is when you are part of the body, even when the party isn’t for you, if you are in community, you get a piece of cake too!

The Father’s Love is...Prodigal

While many refer to this story we’ve been discussing the last few weeks as the prodigal son, which is an appropriate title, we often think that prodigal means wayward or sinful. But a dictionary entry of the word prodigal offers up two definitions of the adjective prodigal. Number 1. Recklessly extravagant and Number 2. Having spent everything. So the prodigal son is a fair title to the story in that the son who wandered off spent everything he had with reckless extravagance. But catch this, this morning, the only thing more prodigal than the sin of the son was the love of the father. >repeated…The only thing more prodigal than the sin of the son was the love of the father. We could call the father a prodigal in that he spent all the love that he had with reckless extravagance to receive his son back into his home.

Luke 15:22–23 ““But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.”

ROBES RINGS AND ROAST BEAST. That’s a prodigal response to what the world would label a good for nothing, lazy, wasteful punk kid.

Though the son returned empty handed he brought his father the gift of a broken and contrite spirit. Notice how the father didn’t even respond to his confession of sin but instead just began the party. The Father is saying, “I’m not going to wait until you’ve paid off your debt; I’m not going to wait until you’ve shamelessly groveled. You are not going to earn your way back into the family. I am simply going to take you back. I will cover your nakedness, and your rags with my own robes of honor and distinction. Church, too often when people sin against us we have barriers they have to cross to be restored BUT GOD’s RESPONSE to our confession is ALWAYS celebration. >repeat… God’s response to our confession is ALWAYS celebration, and ours should be the same. If you relate more to the lost son returning today you may think that God has nothing for you, but you can know that we serve a God that loves to make beauty out of the ashes. Even after the son had wasted the inheritance, the father still had more to give, and he ALWAYS has more to give. The prodigal God is ready to spend everything that he has and recklessly pour extravagant love out on you. You see, We OVERestimate what the world has to offer, but the greater mistake is that we always UNDERESTIMATE God’s forgiveness and His goodness. We will find the father waiting, and we as the church should always portray the father’s sense of love in waiting for others.

The voice of the enemy feeds us the legalistic lies that in our sin and shame we shouldn’t receive what God has for us. When it comes to what I love about a prodigal God, who doesn’t love that when I couldn’t earn it or deserve it, He still blesses me with great extravagance!

INVITE TEAM

I’m going to invite the team and I think this morning there are two appropriate responses to this series, and I can’t imagine how all of us don’t fit into one of these two categories.

You have wandered off and called to return home

You are living in the house and called to watch for the wanderer

It may be that we have wandered so far we are not sure where to turn. Know that as soon as you turn your Father comes to meet you. God welcomes you with open heart and open arms. Say to yourself, allowing each word to have impact: I will arise and go to my Father and say I have sinned before heaven and before you and am not worthy... Then let God accept you into his Presence and surround you in his love. Rest in the peace, in the power and in the presence of God who is Almighty. Let God renew, refresh, and restore you. When you have no power in yourself, know that all power belongs to God.

Now for those called to watch for the wanderer. Which is all of us in the house.

We need to be ok with the fact that there is still some mud on their clothes from a pigpen experience. They want to do something for God but they are worried how others in the church will view them, the older brother if you will. I think Cap City is actually pretty good at this, but never want us to lose that type of compassion. I want us to continue to run to people that still have some proverbial mud on their clothes.

Not tolerate, not accept, but whole heartedly run to, embrace, and encourage them… Jesus didn’t have time for the pride of the religious instead he longed for the return of the wayward sinner. If we don’t show the love of the father, the lost son will run somewhere else, it’s not even that they will, they already ARE running somewhere else. The other brother was put off by the fact that the Father accepted the son back into the house, but we don’t get to decide who is part of the father’s house, only the father does.

STAND

Crowns down, no matter where in story, pride has to go, love more, forgive more, apologize more, lay your crowns down at His feet.

Each day make a homecoming and return to your God. This turning may begin with a confession of sin and repentance, and Church as we see them returning home let’s not forget what we said earlier. Confession should always be met not with condemnation but celebration

If you are here today and you know that you are lost and you really are wondering if God’s plan for your life is best, you can know this... that God’s worst is better than Satan’s best, or we could say the world’s best. Take a step this morning and you will find the father running.

Accept the love of the father 1 John 3:1 says “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! Regardless of the picture of a father you have had in this life. YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD.

Be the love of the father And if you are living in His presence the call is to show the father’s love more and more.

PRAYER

POST RESPONSE

GRADS, glad you’re here, we want to keep being here for you

Love you dad… At end thom barker, dad, father, I love you. Thanks for doing what you did, so I can do what I do.