Father Figure
Scripture Reading: Luke 15:11-24
11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them
said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he
divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son
gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his
possessions with prodigal living. 14 But when he had spent all, there arose a
severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and
joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to
feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that
the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired
servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will
arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off,
his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and
kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven
and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on
him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the
fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was
dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
This is a passage that gets preached on quite a bit and with good reason. This
parable encompasses the heart of our Father in heaven. Unfortunately, some
people misunderstand the meaning of this and believe there are no consequences
for sin. It’s the belief that you can just go out and continue to sin without remorse
and keep coming back for forgiveness. But that’s not the point at all. God will not
be mocked. Whatever a man sows he will reap; there will be consequences for your
actions. Yeshua never tells us what the older brother does after his father speaks
with him. I’d like to think that he came into the party and welcomed his brother. Let’s
say this father has an important job to be done. And with this job comes honor and
prestige. He must choose one of his sons because it is too important to send just a
servant. Which son will the father trust with such an important task?
Luke 16:10-12
10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is
unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not
been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the
true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s,
who will give you what is your own?
Is it any surprise that soon after giving His disciples the prodigal son parable,
Yeshua tells them this? How you deal with what you are given will affect what you will
be trusted with in the future. This father from the parable has two sons and he
clearly loves them both but, make no mistake, it does not say that he trusts them
both the same. Unfortunately, there are many parents who have had to deal with a
child who has become addicted to drugs, and that child may come back home and
cry and apologize and promise to change. Those parents may accept that child
back with open arms. Now let’s say they come home one day and find that the child
has stolen and taken off again. How many times will this scenario happen before the
parents have to cut that child off; for his own benefit and for the sake of their other
children? It is important for us to recognize that YHWH is love and He is just and
righteous and so much more.
Genesis 3:17-19
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife,
and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not
eat of it’:
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
This is the same loving Father that accepts His children with open arms when they
repent turning away from their sin and seek His face. My son Cameron knows that
his father loves him dearly and he also knows that he will dole out the punishment
when it is required. He doesn’t have to separate the two characteristics. They
harmonize perfectly, as does our loving heavenly Father with our just and righteous
heavenly Father. The key is that we need to desire to know Him.
John 14:6-9
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.
7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now
on you know Him and have seen Him.”
8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so
long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen
the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Our Father has completely revealed Himself for those who will seek Him. He has
done so through His words, through His Son, through His works. He is right there for
any who choose to seek Him. But it’s not about showing up for a church service
once a week. That’s not it at all. And it’s not about trying to be righteous. That’s
not it either. But unfortunately, too many believers have recognized they are
sinners, come to the cross and then ended up joining the God Club and thinking it’s
about showing up for meetings, paying your dues, and trying to be good and end up
completely missing the point. We are not saved so we can become part of a club,
but so we can know Him and be known by Him.
If you had/have a great relationship with your earthly father, great! Look at the best
parts of that relationship and recognize that the one you should have with your
heavenly Father should be a million times better. If you don’t have a great
relationship with your earthly father, fine. Realize that your heavenly Father want to
be everything your earthly father wasn’t plus a million times more. Why do you think
the enemy comes against fathers so much? The relationships we either have or do
not have with the fathers we can see are so important in understanding the
relationship YHWH desires to have with each and every one of His children.
Now, here’s the point where I want to stop and compare the fall of man in the garden
the parable of the prodigal son. In both instances there is sin. Adam and Eve
sinned and the prodigal son sinned but they handled it differently. The first big
difference is that Adam and Eve hid from the Father while the prodigal son (after he’
s come to himself) goes to the father. The second important difference is that Adam
and Eve tried to cover up their sin. It says in Genesis 3 that they were naked so
they sewed fig leaves together to make coverings. Can you imagine what they were
thinking? They had been clothed in the righteousness of God and all His glory and
suddenly it was gone. What in the world were they thinking? Maybe God won’t
notice. Of course, after they saw each other they knew that He would notice.
Anything they used to try to cover themselves wouldn’t come close to God’s
shekinah glory. The prodigal son did not try to cover up what he had done. He had
been stupid and he knew it. He didn’t even try to candy-coat it.
The next very important difference in these two passages is that the prodigal son
came to his father humbly. He knew he was a sinner and was not worthy, in himself,
to be called a son. Adam and Eve, when they were caught, both tried to push the
blame onto someone or something else. They were not humble; they did not
acknowledge that they were sinners.
Genesis 3:11-13
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the
tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave
me of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The prodigal son didn’t blame anyone. He could have tried. ‘The women seduced
me.’ ‘My so-called friends used me.’ But he didn’t say any of that. 1 John 1:8 tells
us, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
This describes Adam and Eve. They acted as if they had no sin and in doing so
they deceived themselves. It showed that they had no truth in them. Do you
remember who else in the Bible has no truth in them?
John 8:44 - You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you
want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from
his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
So you can see that they had become like their new father, the devil. Now, lets look
at the differences in each father’s response. In Adam and Eve’s situation, the
Father told them that they were cursed and cast them away from His presence.
While the prodigal son’s father had compassion on him, fell on his neck and kissed
him. He had his best robe put on him, a ring on his hand, sandals on his feet; had
the fatted calf killed and made merry rejoicing. A bit of a different reaction, huh?
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That sounds more like the prodigal son. He had confessed his sin and his father
was faithful and just and forgave his sin and put him back in right standing as his
son, not just a servant. You see, the fathers’ responses were different because the
children’s came to each father differently.
That’s what I want you to take away from here today; that we are to always strive to
seek His face. Jesus tells us that those who seek Him will find Him (Matthew 7:7-8).
Satan’s first deception in the garden was a big one, when he successfully tempted
Eve then Adam to do that which they knew the Father had forbidden. However, the
second deception may have had an even higher price. He deceived them that their
best course was to hide themselves from His presence in the garden. He still uses
this same deception today. How many people stay away from the things of God
because of their sin? How long did we run from God and remain in our sin?
Let us recognize our sin and go to the Father both humble and repentant; no
excuses! Let us never lose sight of the fact that it is our relationship with our
heavenly Father that is the point. Everything else can be like icing on a cake.
When I worked at a restaurant when I was younger, we had these fake rubber cakes
that we would sit next to the real cake slices. We don’t want to be like that fake
rubber cake that might look tasty but really has nothing worthwhile underneath. Let
us treasure our relationship with Him above all else and build everything else upon
that solid foundation.
Additional scripture:
Isaiah 55:6-7
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: August 10, 2008
Scripture Reading: Luke 15:11-24
11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them
said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he
divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son
gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his
possessions with prodigal living. 14 But when he had spent all, there arose a
severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and
joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to
feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that
the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired
servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will
arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off,
his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and
kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven
and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on
him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the
fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was
dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
This is a passage that gets preached on quite a bit and with good reason. This
parable encompasses the heart of our Father in heaven. Unfortunately, some
people misunderstand the meaning of this and believe there are no consequences
for sin. It’s the belief that you can just go out and continue to sin without remorse
and keep coming back for forgiveness. But that’s not the point at all. God will not
be mocked. Whatever a man sows he will reap; there will be consequences for your
actions. Yeshua never tells us what the older brother does after his father speaks
with him. I’d like to think that he came into the party and welcomed his brother. Let’s
say this father has an important job to be done. And with this job comes honor and
prestige. He must choose one of his sons because it is too important to send just a
servant. Which son will the father trust with such an important task?
Luke 16:10-12
10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is
unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not
been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the
true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s,
who will give you what is your own?
Is it any surprise that soon after giving His disciples the prodigal son parable,
Yeshua tells them this? How you deal with what you are given will affect what you will
be trusted with in the future. This father from the parable has two sons and he
clearly loves them both but, make no mistake, it does not say that he trusts them
both the same. Unfortunately, there are many parents who have had to deal with a
child who has become addicted to drugs, and that child may come back home and
cry and apologize and promise to change. Those parents may accept that child
back with open arms. Now let’s say they come home one day and find that the child
has stolen and taken off again. How many times will this scenario happen before the
parents have to cut that child off; for his own benefit and for the sake of their other
children? It is important for us to recognize that YHWH is love and He is just and
righteous and so much more.
Genesis 3:17-19
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife,
and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not
eat of it’:
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
This is the same loving Father that accepts His children with open arms when they
repent turning away from their sin and seek His face. My son Cameron knows that
his father loves him dearly and he also knows that he will dole out the punishment
when it is required. He doesn’t have to separate the two characteristics. They
harmonize perfectly, as does our loving heavenly Father with our just and righteous
heavenly Father. The key is that we need to desire to know Him.
John 14:6-9
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.
7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now
on you know Him and have seen Him.”
8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so
long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen
the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Our Father has completely revealed Himself for those who will seek Him. He has
done so through His words, through His Son, through His works. He is right there for
any who choose to seek Him. But it’s not about showing up for a church service
once a week. That’s not it at all. And it’s not about trying to be righteous. That’s
not it either. But unfortunately, too many believers have recognized they are
sinners, come to the cross and then ended up joining the God Club and thinking it’s
about showing up for meetings, paying your dues, and trying to be good and end up
completely missing the point. We are not saved so we can become part of a club,
but so we can know Him and be known by Him.
If you had/have a great relationship with your earthly father, great! Look at the best
parts of that relationship and recognize that the one you should have with your
heavenly Father should be a million times better. If you don’t have a great
relationship with your earthly father, fine. Realize that your heavenly Father want to
be everything your earthly father wasn’t plus a million times more. Why do you think
the enemy comes against fathers so much? The relationships we either have or do
not have with the fathers we can see are so important in understanding the
relationship YHWH desires to have with each and every one of His children.
Now, here’s the point where I want to stop and compare the fall of man in the garden
the parable of the prodigal son. In both instances there is sin. Adam and Eve
sinned and the prodigal son sinned but they handled it differently. The first big
difference is that Adam and Eve hid from the Father while the prodigal son (after he’
s come to himself) goes to the father. The second important difference is that Adam
and Eve tried to cover up their sin. It says in Genesis 3 that they were naked so
they sewed fig leaves together to make coverings. Can you imagine what they were
thinking? They had been clothed in the righteousness of God and all His glory and
suddenly it was gone. What in the world were they thinking? Maybe God won’t
notice. Of course, after they saw each other they knew that He would notice.
Anything they used to try to cover themselves wouldn’t come close to God’s
shekinah glory. The prodigal son did not try to cover up what he had done. He had
been stupid and he knew it. He didn’t even try to candy-coat it.
The next very important difference in these two passages is that the prodigal son
came to his father humbly. He knew he was a sinner and was not worthy, in himself,
to be called a son. Adam and Eve, when they were caught, both tried to push the
blame onto someone or something else. They were not humble; they did not
acknowledge that they were sinners.
Genesis 3:11-13
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the
tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave
me of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The prodigal son didn’t blame anyone. He could have tried. ‘The women seduced
me.’ ‘My so-called friends used me.’ But he didn’t say any of that. 1 John 1:8 tells
us, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
This describes Adam and Eve. They acted as if they had no sin and in doing so
they deceived themselves. It showed that they had no truth in them. Do you
remember who else in the Bible has no truth in them?
John 8:44 - You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you
want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from
his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
So you can see that they had become like their new father, the devil. Now, lets look
at the differences in each father’s response. In Adam and Eve’s situation, the
Father told them that they were cursed and cast them away from His presence.
While the prodigal son’s father had compassion on him, fell on his neck and kissed
him. He had his best robe put on him, a ring on his hand, sandals on his feet; had
the fatted calf killed and made merry rejoicing. A bit of a different reaction, huh?
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That sounds more like the prodigal son. He had confessed his sin and his father
was faithful and just and forgave his sin and put him back in right standing as his
son, not just a servant. You see, the fathers’ responses were different because the
children’s came to each father differently.
That’s what I want you to take away from here today; that we are to always strive to
seek His face. Jesus tells us that those who seek Him will find Him (Matthew 7:7-8).
Satan’s first deception in the garden was a big one, when he successfully tempted
Eve then Adam to do that which they knew the Father had forbidden. However, the
second deception may have had an even higher price. He deceived them that their
best course was to hide themselves from His presence in the garden. He still uses
this same deception today. How many people stay away from the things of God
because of their sin? How long did we run from God and remain in our sin?
Let us recognize our sin and go to the Father both humble and repentant; no
excuses! Let us never lose sight of the fact that it is our relationship with our
heavenly Father that is the point. Everything else can be like icing on a cake.
When I worked at a restaurant when I was younger, we had these fake rubber cakes
that we would sit next to the real cake slices. We don’t want to be like that fake
rubber cake that might look tasty but really has nothing worthwhile underneath. Let
us treasure our relationship with Him above all else and build everything else upon
that solid foundation.
Additional scripture:
Isaiah 55:6-7
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: August 10, 2008