A Father's Love

Today marks a special day. I love celebrating days that mark parenthood. I love being a parent. It is not an easy task but it is rewarding and important to me. Today is Father’s day. There is not as much emphasis on this day as it seems to be for Mother’s day but it is certainly something to celebrate with as much love and vigor as mother’s day.

I love my mom. And I love my dad. Girls seem to gravitate towards their dad. I should know I have two girls who are dad’s girls.

According to almanac.com, the first known Father’s Day service had taken place at the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South in Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908.

It was Grace Golden Clayton who had asked her pastor, Dr. R Thomas Webb, if a Sunday service could be held to honour fathers. Although it was the first service known to honour fathers, it was not widely promoted. It was only on June 19, 1910, which was the third Sunday in June, that it was observed. It came about only after Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd proposed to the Spokane Ministerial Association and the YMCA that they celebrate a “father’s day”.

The day is marked to honour fatherhood and paternal bonds, and to also highlight the influence that fathers have in a society.

So today we are happy to honor Father’s in our Service this morning and thankful for the level of influence you have in the lives of our children and society.

Stand strong and continue to be men of honor and stand for the things of God and keep that standard high in our families.

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I am happy that we recognize this day. The first four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship with God. The remaining six instruct us about our relationship with our fellow human beings. The first of these human-relationship commands reads,

Exodus 20:12 NIV

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

It is a command with a promise. It is good to honor your parents.

I believe doing these things brings a quality to your life.

We have a tendancy to fight authority or authortative figures in our lives. Whether it is God or our parents. We don’t like being told what to do, do we?

We want to be free, to do our own thing, no limitations, and free will.

I found a story that states our relationship with our Father’s well in a poem called Father.

4 Years: My daddy can do anything. 7 Years: My dad knows a lot, a whole lot. 8 Years: My father doesn’t quite know everything. 12 Years: Oh well, naturally Father doesn’t know everything. 14 Years: Father? Hopelessly old-fashioned. 21 Years: Oh that man is out of date. What did you expect? 25 Years: He knows a little bit about it, but not much. 30 Years: Must find out what Dad thinks about it. 35 Years: A little patience, let’s get Dad’s meaning first. 50 Years: What would Dad have thought about it? 60 Years: My dad knew literally everything. 65 Years: I wish I could talk it over with Dad once more. We are a society searching for a model father.

I have always seen my dad as protective, loving, supportive, a man who loves God, a person who loves to have fun and a person with high moral standard.

I am so proud of my dad.

Society has painted the picture of Father’s in a bad light but this morning we are going to look at a picture of a father that will certainly be a standard to live and love by.

One day Jesus told a story that is probably the most appreciated story in the entire Bible. It has come to be known as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11-32

Prayer for the power of God’s Word to speak to our hearts.

Teach Truth

The standard of truth gets compromised by opinions and slants of compromise that pollute Biblical ethics and morals.

Father’s need to teach truth and stand for truth. This example needs to be seen by children from infancy to old age.

The story of the prodigal was being told by Jesus to the Jews, he was telling this to people who knew the OT and were well versed in Mosaic Law. It is clear from this that both the men and women whom Jesus was speaking to knew parental responsibility to expose one’s children to the teachings of the Scriptures through both thought and action.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NLT

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

With these verses in mind we need to teach our children about the ways of God and realize the importance of this and especially in the context of today’s society our children need to know what we believe, where we stand and be able to know why we do. It is imperative and it is our responsibility as parents.

If I teach them one mode of conduct and live under a different mode myself, they will see the hypocrisy of it all. I must live under the teaching and the discipline of God, even as I endeavor to faithfully teach and discipline my children.

Respect for the Individual

No one has expressed the need for independance and for a hard work ethic to make it on his own in the world without relying on handout etc than my dad. Dad always worked hard to provide and wanted us to learn that we need to do the same.

In our text we see the lost son wanted his independence and his father did not deny him the ability to go out on his own. He even gave him his inheritance early to help set him up in that manner.

It was not unusual for a Jewish father to distribute his estate before he died if he wished to retire from the actual management of his business affairs. Under the law, there was a clear delineation of his financial responsibilities. The older son must get two-thirds and the younger son one-third. But there is a certain demanding attitude, is there not, on the part of this younger son? He is saying, “Life is too short for me to wait for you to die or to retire. I am going to get it anyway. Give it to me now. I’m bored. I want out!”

The father in our text could have said no to his son. But the father in this parable was willing to let his son go and give it a shot on his own. He realize his son was now of age to choose his way. He needed to let him go be an adult. Maybe the dad remembered what it was like to be in his son’s shoes wanting to get outfrom under his father and make his way in the world. This father had respect that his son was his own individual. To be created as humans means to have the freedom to obey or disobey. So without laying on a guilt trip for his choices, the father gave his son the part of the estate he would inherit and said goodbye to his boy.

Won’t stand in the way of consequances

This young man had money and he had servants. He was used to the good life. The father could have followed his son and had him watched to protect him. Keeping an eye on him and having someone report back on his sons status, making sure his son did not squander his fortune. But that was not what he did.

At the first site of trouble or homesickness that dad could have scouped his son up and brought him back home. But again that was not the case.

This dad did not stay in the way of consequences. He is not in the business of premature rescue. As much as I am sure his heart was worried and broken that his son left and likely knew that he would squander the money. He did not step in. He let him go.

I ask you this is this the kind of parent you are?

Are we willing to teach and model?

Do we respect the autonomy of our children as they get older?

Are we willing to let our kids walk away from us no longer nurtered and controlled by us? But free to live in a tough hard world unprotected?

We need to teach our children the best we can and believe that the things we have taught them will go with them as they grow up and go out on their own.

With a big hug and perhaps a few tears, we are prepared to send them off to seek their own fortune, to face whatever may be the consequences-positive, negative, or in between.

Have a love that refuses to give up

Most of us have a breaking point. We can deal with only so much nonsense. We are patient to a point. We cannot force our kids to show us honor. At the same time I pity the son or daughter that has a parent who has given up on them.

We are called to faithfulness, the same faithfulness that is modeled in this parable. Imagine how things would have changed if the father took the attitude “Ok that’s the way my son wants it, I will go along with it, he’s entitled to do so. But he better not come back here again. I am done with him”.

Instead we see this dad carry out a different way. He did not chase after his son. But misses him daily, breaking his heart over that fact.

It is important to learn to live with brokenness.

John 16:33 NIV

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

None of us are free from trouble. We are called to continue to do what God has called us to do, while at the same time scan the horizon hoping to be reunited with that rebel.

We may have caused some of the rebellion. Maybe we need to reach out and apologize and say I love you, I want to make things right.

My favorite part of this parable is verse 20.

Luke 15:20 NLT

“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

Picture it, the father is working the field, and he was constantly scanning the horizon, hoping that today may be the day his boy returns. His was a love that refused to give up.

Be forgiving

What would be your reaction? If you were in this father’s shoes?

Would you say I told you so? Or:

would you allow your love to explode within you?

The father in this parable avoids the vindictive attitude and allows his love to explode within him and show compassion. He runs and embraces his son, and kisses him.

The son is speechless and has a carefully planned as peech that he was prepared to spill when he sees his dad.

Luke 15:18 NIV

I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

The father does not even give a second thought to the words or things he could hold against his boy. He is not interested in saying I told you so, instead he is so overwhelmed with joy that floods through his system. He can do nothing but rejoice.

Be Celebratory

He does not even give his son a chance to ask to be a servant. He calls for the best robe.

In the Hebrew tradition, that robe stands for honor. He calls for a ring. The ring stands for authority. If a man gave another his signet ring, it was the same as giving him power of attorney. He calls for shoes. The shoes stand for a son as opposed to a slave. The children of the family wore shoes. Often the slaves didn’t.

Luke 15:24 NIV

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Do you celebrate those you love? Would you be hesitant in how big of a deal you would make here? Would your son need to be home for a certain period of time before you would trust him again? Would he need to earn back trust?

This example teaches such unconditional celebratory love.

Be willing to live with Ambiguity

We don’t know how this parable ends but it does show the father’s response to his other son.

The other son had no interest in celebrating the return of his brother.

Jesus had a very interesting way of bringing this story to a conclusion. It ends with the father’s response to the elder brother’s sneering accusation that there had never been a party for him but that this no-good brother who had devoured the father’s hard-earned money with harlots ends up getting the fatted calf killed in his honor.

The response of the father?

He acknowledges the faithfulness of the older brother. He makes no demands for performance on the younger brother. Life goes on.

None of us knows the future, do we? Being a father, being a mother has no sealed and signed guarantees. We are called to live with the ambiguity which is built into relationships. The model father accepts this as a fact of life and moves on, faithfully doing and being what God has called him to do and be, no matter what the significant others in his life choose to do and be.

Conclusion:

Our final reward isn’t the privilege of sitting back and saying, “Wasn’t I a good father?” Granted, we’ll have some joys that come from the hoped-for friendship with our children. But the final reward will be when the real model father, God himself, looks us in the eye and says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into your eternal rest.”

Remember that the model is God. You and I are not God. We are not perfect. The key is that I am willing to say, “I am sorry,” when I am wrong. The key is that I am willing to stand by the children God has given to me when they are wrong. Let’s not forget the part that we play and honor the blessings we have been given. Let’s make the most of every opportunity we have to nuture those relationships and point our children to the model father. While in the same way modelling our love and devotion to Him in every way we can.