Approaching the Father, Lessons From The Lost Sons

Luke 15: 20 "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. (NLT)

This Fathers Day we could pick any number of Scriptures or Biblical stories to look at. We could exposit on Abraham, the Father of many nations or Jacob the great Patriarch. We could look at the many qualities that make God our Father in heaven; our Abba. Lost sometimes in the amidst the focus of God being our savior, redeemer, healer, provider and so much more, is the fact that He is our father as well.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, " Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8: 15-17 (NIV)

The Spirit we received from God is one of sonship. Remember even when Jesus was promising the disciples the deliverance of the Holy Spirit; here was how He explained it:

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14: 15-18 (NIV)

I will not leave you as orphans! God still makes that promise to us every day. We have a heavenly father who has adopted us into His family. We are God's children co-heirs with Christ! But the question this Fathers Day is how do we approach our Father? With what spirit do we choose to approach our Abba? For these answers, we turn to the story of the lost (prodigal) son. The key verse today shows us how our Father approaches us. God does not wait intemperately for us, tapping His foot angrily at our state of disobedience. He does not sit in judgment of us, waiting to give us a good solid "I told you so!" The world has done a good job of portraying God as some irate old man in the sky waiting to throw a lightning bolt at us while He screams for us to get off His lawn! The key verse however shows the true nature of God toward us. He is filled with love and compassion for us. He is willing to meet us where we are at, running toward the penitent heart. Our Father is a good dad. But how do we approach Him? Let's take a look at the three sons in this story yes there were three.

The first son is often referred to as the prodigal son because of how he lived his life in complete disobedience toward his father; lapping up all of the sin the world had to offer

"A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. Luke 15: 13 (NLT)

This lost son represents the rebellious spirit. How we all were in the world before we gave our lives to Christ. We lived in complete rebellion to the Father, our Creator. The distant land referred to here represents how far away from God we all were. Paul sums up the futility of this state:

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1Corinthians 2: 14 (NIV)

The land we lived in was so distant from God that the things of God were foolishness to us. That is how it is today for those in the world. That is why we should not become frustrated when the world behaves like the world and when seemingly they do not understand what we are trying to tell them. They do not understand because the very things we are saying are foolishness to them. The notion that there is a God in heaven who sent His only Son to die for our sins simply does not make sense to them.

But also note two other things from the verse that deal with the rebellious spirit in the story of the lost son. First of all, the Scripture say that he packed all of his belongings and moved to a distant land. This implies choice. This was a decision he made. No one else packed his bags for him. No one else moved him to another land in his sleep. These were conscious decisions he reached of his own free will. He knew the father yet he still chose to embrace the rebellious spirit. This is how it was for us when we were in the world and how it is for those in the world today. It is a conscious decision to reject the Father and to be the lost son. Jesus describes the day of His return:

"When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah's day. In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all. "And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business--eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building--until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be 'business as usual' right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Luke 17: 26-30 (NLT)

Business as usual right up until the end. The comparison made by Jesus to the days of Noah is very telling. You see Noah had neighbors and rabbinic tradition teaches that he warned his neighbors of the impending flood. He warned them over and over. It took Noah 100 years to build the boat and all that time he warned his neighbors. What we may not realize is that during this time it had never rained on the earth. So to Noah's neighbors the notion that there could be rain and a flood was pure foolishness to them...until the waters came and took them all away. They could not blame anyone else for their choices. They had been warned. The lost son could not blame anyone for his decisions to reject the Father. They were his choices. When we were in the world in the rebellious spirit to God that was also; our choice. The other point from the verse of the lost son is that it was indeed a waste. His choice was a waste. His living was a waste. His life was a waste. We can become overly enamored with this world and this life but James describes this life of ours as a mere vapor. When King Nebuchadnezzar ruled the land he obviously thought quite a bit about himself. But now he is a mere footnote in history that testifies to the eternal and matchless God. The lost son made a choice to waste his life. When we lived apart from God we were making a conscious choice to waste our life. But thankfully God our Father is always willing to run and meet us once we have turned our hearts back to Him!

"When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant."' Luke 15: 17-19 (NLT)

Here is son number two, who approaches the Father with a spirit of contrite humility. This is how our heart should always be before our Father. He did not have to run and meet us. He did not have to forgive us. Sometimes unfortunately we forget the pig trough we were living in during the rebellion after we have come back home. The Apostle Paul always said that he was the least of the Apostles because he once persecuted the church. Paul never forgot where God found him. We should never as well. Now I am sure some are saying this is the same son! No it is not:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2Corinthians 5: 17 (NIV)

The lost son was transformed beloved. He was a new creation; the old rebellious spirit was gone replaced with a contrite heart and a humble spirit. Remember we too once were living in the mire of this world. Starving for the relationship with our Father. We too had been told about God and about Jesus only to think the words were foolishness. We had to have our moment of coming to our senses before we can go from the rebellious spirit to the humble spirit. It is incredibly humbling for man to say the words I have sinned." We fancy ourselves as good people in the world. We give to charity. We help the homeless. We serve humanity. But it is all a façade because we are measuring ourselves against other humans. Against people who are equally lost. When the light of God shines into our lives and we realize how rebellious we truly are and that we are not even worth being a servant to God THAT is when the Father runs to meet us. Once we realize that we are not worthy of being His son is when the spirit of sonship born into us.

And that brings us to the third son. The one who is not talked about as much. He was the son who stayed with His Father when the other son abandoned Him. He worked his Father's land and did whatever was asked of him. But in the end, his spirit was not right:

"The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, 'All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!' Luke 15: 28-30 (NLT)

Look, from a worldly perspective this son is absolutely right, no? Why should the son who made all of the bad choices be celebrated? Why should he be rewarded? But aren't we glad today that God does not reward us according to our iniquities?

he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. Psalm 103: 10 (NIV)

This third son approached the Father with a religious spirit. We know the spirit. Someone who has spent his time close with the Father without actually knowing Him. Someone who served the Father, worked His lands, but deep in his heart it appears to be more out of a sense of obligation than love. The religious spirit starts to work in the logic and thinking of the world into his relationship with God. Look at how the spirit of religiosity destroys the true relationship. The son refers to his time with the Father as "slaving for Him." We too can start to begrudge the time we spend in ministry activities and start to make it about us instead of about Him. We can confuse our tithing as beneficent sacrifice on our part instead of being obedient to God. We can start to think that we are somehow doing a favor to the church by merely attending. Essentially, the religious spirit takes the things of God and makes them about itself. It is a self-centered spirit. The same spirit can infect churches as the focus shifts from God to the preaching or from God to the awesome choir. It is a dangerous spirit because it comes on us unknowingly. We can start out on fire for God but somewhere amidst the drudgery of life we can start to evaluate things in relation to ourselves and how everything affects our lives instead of in relation to God and how everything affects the kingdom. The bad news is that the religious spirit is just as lost as the rebellious spirit. Neither of them has true relationship with God. Jesus says in the end there will be many who will have cast out demons and performed miracles in His name but He will say to them that He never knew them. Those are the people who have religion but no relationship. They are modern day Pharisees. They look the part. They speak the part. But in the end they have no part in Him.

The good news however is the Father will still run toward the penitent heart that was mired in the religious spirit as well. God is a God of another chance, not just a second chance. Wherever this devotional finds you this Fathers Day remember that if you are dealing with the rebellious spirit or even the religious spirit turn back to your Father and He will meet you where you are at. He will have a feast for you. He will comfort you. He has never forgotten you. And if you find yourself with the humble spirit hold tight to it. Don't let the world or religiosity creep back into it. Remember where God your Father had to reach to find you. By doing so, you will never have to go back there again.

Reverend Anthony Wade June 17, 2011