The Prodigal Father - Pastor Stan Harvey

we send greetings to all of our church family church folks i'm so glad that you're connecting with us just one verse luke chapter 15 and verse number 11. and he simply says and he said a certain man had two sons a certain man had two sons amen i want to invite you to to pray with me and also to just keep your bibles open to this famous story or the particle sun but i haven't want to entitle my message today simply called the prodigal father the prodigal father let us pray father we thank you lord for this special day look god as we take a time out of the year on this day on this occasion to honor all of our fathers admittedly lord there are some whose fathers have already gone and some who have not had fathers in their lives or perhaps not had good experiences or good relationships with their fathers but today lord god we want to ask you for your blessings upon every single one of us we ask you for a special blessing upon our fathers of this church as you bless us but we acknowledge you as our heavenly father we ask you lord that you'd have your way within us today as we open our hearts give us a receptiveness lord give us a hunger a desire to know you more and more and that we would come into a walk in a deeper relationship with you so bless your servant bless your people as as you minister to us as you speak to us through your word in jesus name amen amen praise god god bless you amen well one time a little boy was asked to define father's day and he said father's day is just like mother's day only you don't have to spend as much on the present this is a wonderful occasion and i'm so blessed to be a father of two beautiful children and it is it is really one of the joys that god has gifted to us to be parents in general and at first it feels like we're all kind of speaking the same language in our household but when the children come along it becomes very clear that sometimes we speak to entirely different dialects in the interest of better transgenerational communication here are some key phrases and their translations when you hear your child saying i cannot finish my hamburger what he's really meaning to say is that your son has eaten enough or if your child says i can't finish my fish the meaning is that your daughter who does not like fish in the first place figures she's eaten enough to satisfy you and still get dessert or how about this one i can't finish my dessert meaning your child is definitely sick and should be taken to the doctors as soon as possible i didn't do it translation it has not been conclusively proven that i did do it well how about this one frankie smith is such a no-good rotten liar meaning expect a call from frankie's parents mom said it was okay the translation of that is i'm gonna ask mom as soon as you say yes dad can i have a dog that simply means your your son wants a dog dad can i have a boa constrictor that means your son wants a dog but figures asking for something really awful will put him in a better bargaining position i think that all parents can testify today and certainly dads can testify that their children they do speak a different language from us sometimes and it is important for us to remember and understand sometimes that we've got to read between the lines and there is no greater contrast of a generational conflict between a father and a son than the story that jesus gave to us for the younger son in this particular story this man had two sons with the younger son asking for his portion of his inheritance uh this is how the story starts this would have been to the listeners the people that were listening to jesus tell this story this would have been to them considered utterly scandalous since the inheritance is not usually given of course until the father had died this was or would have been would have been tantamount to a slap in the face of utter disrespect and and other betrayal if you will that that he expected his father to divide his living or his livelihood to give it to this young boy his younger son the greek word for living is bios in the greek which is where we get the word life from and so what what the younger son was essentially asking his father was for him to give to him a portion of his life there really wasn't supposed to be handed out until the father had died and he was saying that he didn't want to be living his life anymore with his father but what was more scandalous and what was more uh outright unbelievable is that the father actually gave him his request he gave him what he wanted this to the the listeners of jesus's time would have been absolutely bewildered and shocked that that if the son asked for that surely the father would have reacted differently i know how most of us maybe some of us dad would react and if somebody said that to us that this kind of slap in the face we would have certainly turned around and say to them how dare you say that to me how dare you ask for your inheritance that's not due until after my life is over who do you think you are that's what would have been expected of the father to the way to respond by the the listeners at that time of course was to to discipline this insolent child was to put him in his place was to show him whose boss and show him whose authority but but here's what what is so what is the prodigal about this and the word prodigal and we have we have often the bible writers or or the the bible publishers have tagged this section of jesus story as the story of the prodigal son but i think this is correctly place incorrectly placed rather it is not the prodigal son because the word prodigal means to be recklessly uh exuberant or reckless in your giving and it wasn't the the prodigal son that was reckless but if you read from the very outset of the story it is the father who was being recklessly uh generous and exuberant and kind and giving to the point where this young man didn't deserve it but yet here is the goodness of the father that he would give to him what he wants i believe this is a lesson for all of us brothers and sisters because the father is none other than the reflection of our heavenly father that he if whatever we ask of him whatever we desire of our own lives he will not withhold us he would not hold back he will let us live our own lives he's not going to step in and stop you from living a life of destruction he's not going to keep you from following your own desires and your own whim he's he's not going to put any roadblocks in your way to keep you uh from doing what you want to do but this father is so good that he gave humanity the greatest gift of all he gave us the gift of our free will that we can choose today to follow god we can choose to walk in his ways and to seek his face or we can choose to walk away from this awesome and powerful god the creator of all life that if we desire to go down the road of spiraling destruction he will allow us why because he will never force us he will not make us he will not hijack us and and help make us do what what he wants to do but he will allow us to do what we want to do and so i believe that even though it would have broken this father's heart yet he had to give him what he wanted he had every right to say no the father had every right to withhold from this young man but but out of his uh prodigal kind of love he gave to him what he wanted amen and so the story goes on in luke chapter 15 verse number 13 and not many days after the younger son gathered all together took his journey into a far country and there he wasted a substance with riotous living and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in the land and he began to be in want amen sin will take you often further than when you ever wanted to go i said sin will take you further than what where you wanted to go and he thought he would go and take all of his all of his inheritance all of the the money that was gifted to him that his father had worked for not not what he had worked for but what his father had worked for his livelihood is living his life and he spent it in enjoyment perhaps growing up in that household that that's all he ever wanted to experience what was to to enjoy the things and the pleasures of this world was to to do what he wanted to do to gain some independence to to follow and perhaps he'd grown up thinking that that if i can just get what i want if i can just obtain the things that i've i've wanted all my life then somehow i'm gonna find the life and the joy and that the experience of this world that my heart has been longing for well as the bible says when he had spent all there was a famine in the land there was there was emptiness and destitution there was a void and let me tell you that's what sin will do is sin looks pleasurable for a season and at the very heart of sin is this desire for self is this selfishness that if i can just get what i want i know i'm gonna be happy if i can just do this and that or the other if i could just obtain this and and experience that that somehow i'm gonna find the true meaning to life i'm gonna find the joy that that my heart has been aching for but sure as this famine came and the emptiness came i want you to know that that sin may be enjoyable and pleasurable for a season but the bible tells us that sin brings death that the wages of sin is death that ultimately will bring to naught it will bring you to destruction and it will take you further than where you want it to go i've come to tell you brothers and sisters that don't get don't get caught up in the glimmer because not everything the glimmers or glitters is gold it might look greener on the other side there might be a cry in your heart to say if i can just get this and if i can just have what i want but i want you to know that when you fall walk away from the grace of god and simply are motivated for selfish desires it will bring a famine it will bring death and emptiness it will bring a void and a darkness and an emptiness in your life and so he finds himself feeding with swine and the bible tells us that he had aligned himself with a citizen of that country he joined himself and the citizen of that country because he joined himself with that citizen the citizen of that country was not going to treat him well he was not going to oh reward him because you joined with me it says that he put him into feed with the swine in the fields he was so destitute and starving the bible says that he would have desired to fill his belly with the hus that the swine did eat can i tell you today brothers and sisters ladies and gentlemen that the key to happiness in life is not doing what you want it's not following the whims and and the desires of your flesh the the happiness the key to happiness in life is knowing the love of god in verse number 17 it says when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my fathers have bred enough to spare and i perish with hunger something something awoken him it says when he came to himself it's as if he he had lost his sense of self it's as if he was he was blinded it's as if he was he was in a blur he had lost the sense of his own identity let me tell you that that when you are living a life away from the grace of god and you're living engrossed and immersed in sin you're going to lose yourself you're not going to have a proper understanding you're not going to have a healthy self-perception you're going to be engrossed and intoxicated as a word with sin that you you see it feels like you've lost yourself you don't know who you are that's what sin does it destroys the very core of your identity it destroys the very core of who you are in your being when you don't know when you are engrossed in sin you don't really know who you are but the good news is for this young man is that he came to himself something awoke within him there was a voice in the deep of his conscience to say hang on a minute there's got to be more than this i wasn't designed there's some place better i wasn't designed to wallow with the pigs but there's a place that's better for me than where i am right now oh can i talk to somebody right now maybe you're listening to this and you find your life you were lost you were undone you don't know where you're headed you're confused and in the dark i've got a word from the lord for you today that there is a house and there's a place that you can go to where you are accepted there's a place that you belong you don't belong in the sins of this world you don't belong wallowing in addiction you don't belong in the life consumed by depression and emptiness and the sins that god has got you bound there's a place where you do belong where you can find who you are where you are accepted where you are loved with god it's in the heart of the father it's in the very bosom of your heavenly father who desires to bring you home and if you can hear my voice today and if you can come to yourself and awaken your conscience to the reality of a god oh you can there's always hope for your situation there's a way out there's a way out of the darkness there's a path that you can walk oh praise the name of the lord hallelujah if you're hearing this why don't you clap your hands wherever you are and begin to thank the father that when you were lost and said maybe maybe you've been born again already but think back from where the father brought you out of and there was a voice inside of you that woke you up out of your stupor and brought you back into the loving embrace of your father oh let's lift up our hands wherever we are and give him praise and thank him oh praise the name of the lord glory to god glory to god hallelujah and so he came to himself and he began to to realize that there's got to be something better than this than the life that i'm living there's got to be somewhere better than this than where i am living and so he begins to to sort of negotiate in his own mind what he can begin to do you know i this this what i'll do i'll get up and i'll go to my father's house because going to the father's house is always going up but going to the world is always going down following the the the impulses of your flesh is always going down he says i'm gonna rise go to my father verse number 18 and i will say unto him father he begins to to negotiate in his mind father i've sinned against heaven and before you and i'm no longer worthy to be called your son he he realizes what he's done with his life he understands the depravity and the sin that he is engaged in and we all understand that every every person knows the sin that they're engaged in he says i'm not worthy to be called your son make me he says as one of your hired servants so he he's got that already sorted in his mind this is what he's going to do i'm going to work my way back into the father's house i'm going to work i'm going to do all that i can because again that's that's the mentality that we have that's that human nature that somehow we want to pay for what we've done we want to work our way towards acceptance we want to work our way towards worth and our sense of value it's what we do and so the story goes as he as he heads back to the father's house and there there's this beautiful picture and and again i'm not necessarily emphasizing this kind of this very emotional scene in verse number 20 and when his father when he came to his father but when he was a great way off the bible says when he was a long way off his father saw him and again let me let me just sort of make an inference right here to say that that how in the world would the father see somebody so far away in such a great way off don't don't discount some of the details in the story but he was so far away it just simply tells us that would show us that the father was out every day perhaps he was there standing on his veranda with one of those telescopes that was projected towards the horizon every day perhaps he was waiting for his younger son to return because he saw him from a great way off and he recognized the silhouette of his son yes he looked destitute yes he had lost some weight he didn't have his normal clothes that he had on when he left he was wearing perhaps just rags and he looked terrible but when the father saw him he knew without a shadow of a doubt even though he couldn't quite make out the details of his features on his face he would recognize that silhouette of his beloved son anywhere from any distance and he didn't stay back in the veranda which some of us dads would have done we would have sat there with our arms folded and and we would have looked over and her here comes that no good son that one that slapped me in the face that demanded can you believe that the audacity of this boy demanded of me his inheritance and i'm not even dead that the money that i worked for the portion that i gave my life for i'm gonna give this little boy a piece of my mind i'm gonna tell him and and i'm gonna you know when he did that when the younger son had actually asked for it in his inheritance culturally the father was obligated to take that boy to the gates of the city of the village and get the community to come out and stone him for such a rude and disrespectful gesture to request that but he didn't do that and he didn't condemn him he didn't point a finger oh but when he saw him afar a long way off the bible says that the father when he saw him he had compassion and he ran to him he didn't and again again don't don't miss this detail in the story to run in that day and age would have been somewhat embarrassing it was uncouth it was lacking etiquette because if those men had to run they would have had to pick up their robes and show their legs and you never show the nakedness of your legs but he had to pick up his robe and begin to run which was uh uncouth unacceptable culturally inappropriate but yet there was something in the heart of this father that he couldn't help himself but he began to run to that sun amen can i tell you it's not the sun that was the prodigal but it was the father who was a reckless in his in his generosity was reckless in his kindness that he ran to him and he embraced him and he loved him yes with all of the oh the smell of the swine still upon him with his nakedness and the smell of the afternoon of the sun there was a beating down upon this boy oh this picture of this loving father that he would fall upon his neck and he kissed him oh praise the name of the lord if you get nothing else from this message just remember i want you to picture the the love of this father who's filled with compassion your god is in love with you he loves you and has a compassion over your life that if he could show you physically he would run to you despite our sin despite our failures despite our mistakes despite all of the life that we have lived i want you to know that god loves you he comes to you he wants to embrace you and kiss you oh hallelujah thank you jesus thank you god this is what is the prodigal is that the father gave to him what's what most of us would absolutely consider undeserving of this son and he said to him the son said to the father i have sinned against heaven and in your sight and i think those are the right words and i'm not worthy not worthy no more worthy to be called your son the father said to his servants watch this he said bring forth the best robe to cover his nakedness put it on him and put the ring of his hand on his hand in the shoes on his feet again i i don't have time to unpack this in detail that the three things that the father put upon him he he clothed him with his robe and again he was the son would have most likely have been naked uh considering the standards of that day that he wouldn't have had many much clothes on and nakedness always equates to shame in the bible and when you come to god what we try to do sometimes is we try to hide our shame and and we try to work over our shame we work so hard so that we don't have to deal with shame anymore but can i tell you that when you come to god you are covered when you come to him he he covers you with a robe that your sin and that your shame is no longer visible to anyone to anybody oh can i tell you that's what happens when we come to jesus and we repent of our sins and we receive his forgiveness by virtue of being baptized in jesus name and his our sins are washed away galatians chapter 3 verse number 27 tells us for as many of you as have been baptized into christ have put on amen that means you put it on like a robe you put on christ that there's no longer any shame that regardless of what you did in the past when you get in the waters of baptism all of those sins are removed they are remitted and never to be remembered by god again but you are now covered and your shame is gone you are covered by the blood and by jesus himself oh praise the name of the lord that's what he was trying to tell them to his son his son thought let me let me work my way to to the house let me pay my way because of what i've done and the father says immediately no immediately put the robe upon him and cover his shame there's no more shame any longer and then he gives him the ring the ring represents of course the sonship that he he brings him not not as a as a slave he he takes him in not to make him a servant if you will but immediately to make him a son that you are my son that goes to show here's why the father is if you will reckless in his extravagance of his love is because we think we can work our way to his acceptance and that somehow we can inch our way to some level of being a part of him but the extravagance of god's love says no immediately when you come to god immediately you become my child you become my son that's why i believe in the old testament father is mentioned referred to god attributed to god about only about 10 times but when you come into the new testament when jesus begins to teach and to speak he refers to god as father 160 times what is jesus trying to tell us what is jesus trying to convey what he's trying to convey is that god came to this world and robed in flesh to reconcile a lost humanity not so that he can create a nation of slaves but so that he can bring us into a relationship with him you see you've got to understand brothers and sisters that this younger son walked away from the father because of his selfishness but he was lost but he found his way home into the very heart of god because this god does not he what he wants is a relationship with his people it's a relationship with his children of course the the sandals on his feet he says put shoes on him he was barefoot he gives him a robe to cover his shame he gives him a ring to establish his relationship that he put sandals on his feet to once again give him purpose give him value to give him direction your feet is where wherever your feet are pointed that's where you're going to go i think there's a simple principle a simple philosophy in christianity if you you want to end up in the right place you got to make sure your feet are pointed in the right direction in the right direction is towards god and so the father was so delighted that his son had come back that he not only did he give him these things but he said kill the fatted calf in verse number 27. and let's have a party because he has received him son safe and sound and and he wanted him to to to know he want and again when you when you have the fatted calf when you kill the fatted calf that that's usually reserved for only absolutely special occasions and usually the entire the entire community is invited to the celebration the fatted calf is the most valuable piece of livestock that any farmer would have and that was worth a lot of money but what this father did in his rejoicing he said kill the fatted calf and what because my son who was lost is now found he was dead but he's alive and god the father began to get happy and i'm hurrying to cro close but there's another part to the story that we often miss and that there was two sons it wasn't just the younger son there was also the elder son and tradition shows that the older the older child would often get a double portion of the inheritance and so when the younger son asked for his portion he only got one-third two-thirds was reserved for the older son and so it's a little wonder that the older son didn't want to want to lose that inheritance that he had the double portion and when he came back from the field the bible says in verse 25 as he came he draw nearer after a day out in the field working hard as he had always done he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked them verse number 26 and asked what these things meant and he said unto him your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf and because he has received him safe and sound and and watch what happens in verse number 28 he says and he was angry and he would not go in and so the father came out and entreated him and he answered said to his father load these many years i have served you i've not transgressed i haven't sinned at any time your commandments and yet you never gave me a kid you didn't even give me a goat and now you killed the fatted calf you didn't even give me a goat and i'm not the one that squandered all of the inheritance i'm not the one that acted irresponsibly and treated you so disrespectfully and as soon as your son comes he notice his words he didn't say he didn't say as soon as my brother comes as your son you know kind of blaming the son and kind of dis disengaging himself and disconnecting himself from his brother as soon as your son was come he's devoured your living with harlots you killed him for and you killed for him the fatted calf no notice the attitude of this young man he doesn't he's not even happy that his lost brother has come back he's upset that his father is it's throwing a party to his son to his younger brother and i can and here here's the deal brothers and sisters i can relate to this young boy this older son i can relate to him i can relate to the fact that that i've done good i've done well and i've been doing good for so long and yet somehow you you bless some of these other folks and and some people can just come into your family into the house after a life of sin and and they're happy and they're blessed and and you're you're happy about that i can relate to this older brother and why wouldn't he be upset he stayed home he worked hard he did good he never backslid but let me tell you this older brother is no different from the younger son and that he was more concerned about the father's stuff than he was about the father's heart you see the younger son and the older son they both wanted the same things they just went about it a different way the younger son wanted his stuff but he wanted it so he could leave he he did it for selfish reason the older son wanted his stuff and the way that he would get his stuff was to do good was to follow the rules was to stick around and in his not maybe not so much selfishness but more specifically self-righteousness he thought he deserved far more and what's amazing about this is the father the younger older brother stayed outside i'm not going in that house i'm not going to party he became resentful the father still went and went out to him the father left the party to go to reach out to this old boy and to tell him and explain to him about his son he said son you were ever with me all that i have is yours it was meat it was appropriate that we should make mary be glad for your brother was dead and now he's alive he was lost and now he's found can can i remind you the the two of the parables that jesus gave before this was the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin it was a story about lostness the younger son was lost because he walked away from the grace of the father from the father's love but this older boy like the coin was lost but he was lost in the house the woman that lost the coin she lost it in the house could it be that we can be in the house could it be that we're doing what we're supposed to do we're serving god we're following commandment but we miss the very heart of the matter and that is the heart of the father he was faithful yes he was he was entitled the older brother he became because of what i did i earned my way to this i deserve this they both demanded something for themselves although slightly different but they both missed what it was all about they missed the fact that what the father was concerned about it wasn't money it wasn't stuff it was all that time it was what was in the heart of the father this prodigal reckless extravagance of love that can never be earned you can earn his love his love is so awesome it is gifted and whether you're outside away from the grace of god or maybe even in the house of god and you you you work hard and you're faithful thank god for our faithful people but i'm talking to the church right now and remind you that we're not entitled to anything we could be like this older brother and say it's not fair how come they got that role how come they got that position and we forget that what delights the heart of god is seeing a lost soul seeing a lost person come back to the father that's what the parable of the of the the good shepherd is about the the lost sheep one lost sheep he leaves the 99 again who nobody would do that that that would be crazy it doesn't make any sense it doesn't make any kind of logical or managerial sense to leave the 99 to the point where you could you would expose them to further theft where more could get lost where wolves can come in and you just count the loss of that one lost sheep and you just protect the rest of the 99 don't leave them unguarded but what jesus was trying to reveal to us such is the heart of god for the soul of even just one person that he would leave the night doesn't make any sense but there's something in the heart of the shepherd there's something in the heart of the father that he is compelled to reach even just the one loss because of the value of one that's why i thank god that we live in a society that would go to extreme lengths to save one once all if there's somebody dying a whole ambulance would come they'd get the paramedics the doctors they would use up all the equipment that they have all of the training that they have they would use up all the money it doesn't matter what the the cost is they're gonna do whatever they can to save one soul that's what this is all about brothers and sisters or what about that that platoon of soldiers who when they come back from the mission they realize one of their brothers is still out there no man left behind they're gonna go back no it doesn't make any sense boys we're already safe let's go let's protect our lives no we're not leaving here until we go back for that one brother for that one soldier why because one soul is worth it all that's the heart of the the prodigal father it's exuberant it's reckless it doesn't make any sense to us we are you know we ought to be earning we ought to be working towards no the heart of the father says i love you with a reckless kind of abandoner with a scandalous kind of grace that you could never earn oh but your father loves you your father would go to the ends of the earth to bring you and to save you all you've got to do and look into the heart of the father hallelujah i've got to stop [Music] we don't deserve yes it's unfair but if it was if we really wanted fairness we'd all be dropping dead right now because none of us deserve heaven we all deserve hell but jesus out of his great love reaches out to us don't become entitled don't be lost either by wandering or be lost in the house because you miss the heart of the father that's why if you're listening to this and maybe you've heard this message a thousand times there's some folks in church sometimes they say well i've heard that before can you preach something else oh but if there's one soul in the church that repents of their sins the bible says there's joy in the presence of his angels don't miss the heart of the father i know it might be the same old message i know you'll hear that we'll sing some of the same old songs but but don't get so so enraptured don't get so enamored by what you deserve and what you work for and how to get that position and i don't get that role don't lose the heart of the father father's heart is about love for his people for the lost he says you he said to the older boy you've had me all this time you've been with me all this time everything i have is already yours but he was more interested in the stuff than he was in the heart of the father i've got to stop there's so much that i could say but i want you to know we serve a god who is what seems to be and i don't i say that in a very respectful way and reckless in his extravagant love towards his people oh he loves you that's why he jesus started referring to god often throughout the scriptures father father why not because he's trying to in assert authority but because he's trying to help us realize that it's about relationship it's about our connection with him would you pray right now all over this place there you wherever you are watching joining in maybe you're with your dad today i wonder if you could pray with him today but perhaps if you're by yourself simply reach out to your heavenly father he says i didn't come to to create some kind of point system for you to earn your stuff but i came to know you and you to know me and to peer into the very heart of this gracious compassionate and loving god i'm going to pray and then we're going to sing a song and i want us to to make this time of an altar call and just letting god giving him this time for the next few minutes is a time for him and our hearts to be filled father right now we come before you we pray for those perhaps that are watching and listening to this who have strayed who have walked away who have followed their own selfish whims and desires who have been self-centered lord and that's all of us lord god we're asking you lord as we come back to you we come back with a desire lord not for for a role not for money not for blessing but for you to know you to have you in our lives to know that god it's not the inheritance it's not the portion though that that is our reward it is the relationship that we have with our father with you we're asking you this day let god that you'd help us or perhaps we're like the the older brother who's been here who's been faithful who's been attending who's been serving lord and yet somehow we too can go after the wrong things that we could use our sense of self-righteousness to feel like we are entitled to feel like we are owed lord we are old nothing but our reward lord help us to know is what we have all this time is you and so today i pray lord god that we would give our heart that we would allow you to pour into us your spirit the lord god you would cause us to as we give our hearts to you that you would cover us with a cloak a robe of forgiveness that you would cover our shame and our sin that if we've not been baptized we would make that decision today and that together lord as your people we would come to you as our father of love of a relationship in jesus name i wonder if you could join with us for a few minutes as we sing let's pray together hallelujah make an altar in your home make an altar in your house in jesus [Music] grace glorious grace grace glorious grace at the cross you called it finished grace wonderful grace [Music] wonderful grace all of us [Music] your grace [Music] covered [Music]

Channel: POSydney

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Keywords: sermon, Sydney, pentecostal, POS, Australia, worship

Id: jDAWyVe_4uo

Length: 46min 6sec (2766 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021