Transcription
[Applause]
Luke chapter 15 is where I would like for you to open your Bibles today. Luke chapter 15. And I want to title this message today, "The Power of a Father's Love." How many know, how many you can be seated. How many you know how much God loves you? How many you know that? Let me try that again. How many y'all know how much God loves you?
"The Power of a Father's Love." Luke chapter 15 is a. Let me kind of set some background for this. Um, Jesus gives three parables in this 15th chapter of Luke, all dealing with something that's been lost. The first parable, he has the parable of the, the lost sheep. Where a Shepherd has a 100 sheep, he loses one, and he'll leave the 99 to go and find the one. Anybody here grateful that Jesus will leave all the others to come and find you when you get lost?
The second parable deals with the lost coin. There's a coin that's lost. A woman loses a coin in her house, and she searches and sweeps the house diligently until she finds it. It is again intended to convey the idea of how much God loves us, that he'll search all over till he finds us and deliver us and saves us.
The third parable is about the prodigal son, the lost son. It is a story about a father with two sons. And I, I want to just walk down through this story for with you for a few moments, and then I'm going to leave you alone.
Verse 11 says, "A certain man had two sons." Walk with me down through this story. "A certain man had two sons." And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." Let me stick a pen right there and stop for a second, because the mentality of this young man is so much like the mentality of a lot of young people today. They want to spend their parents' inheritance now. That must be y'all. That must be who this is. They wanted, he wanted the inheritance that was not due to him until his father died. He wanted it now. So he came to his father and asked for it. "Give me the portion of goods that falls to me."
And the father did an amazing thing. Without discussion or debate, he divided to them his livelihood. He took what he had earned and worked hard for and divided it between the two sons. I have to let my kids know right now, I ain't doing that. Come on, tell your neighbor, "I'm not doing that."
And not many days later, verse 13, "And not many days later, the youngest son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with riotous, prodigal, raggedy, jacked-up living." He took his inheritance and like all immature people, wasted his possessions. He, in fact, lived a loose life.
Verse 14 says, "When he had spent all." And that's what immature people do. They spend all with no regard that there is a future. This is how you tell the difference between a mature person and an immature person. One of the ways is that an immature person spends money like there is no tomorrow. Amen, Pastor? Okay, it's okay. I understand. I'm encouraging myself. An immature person has no thought about the fact that one day they might be unemployed. One day there might come a day where they will have nothing to draw upon.
So he had spent all. He had wasted all. And then there arose, verse 14, "a famine in that land, and he began to be in want." He went from having plenty to having nothing. He took his father's inheritance, that he took his father's livelihood, and wasted and spent it all. Lived a loose life, doing everything he wanted to do. Lived a raggedy life. Now he has nothing. And verse 14 says he's in want.
Verse 15 says, "He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine." He connected with somebody who gave him a job. And the job was feeding pigs. Gave him a low-down, no-good job. Now, I don't know about y'all. My parents had pigs. Let me back up. They had hogs. You city slicker folk don't know nothing about hogs. Let me back up. Y'all will eat the hogs. You don't know nothing about raising the hogs. They raised hogs. Dirty, sloppy, nasty, filthy hogs. And his job was to go down and feed the hogs. That was his job.
Verse 16 says something very interesting. "And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything." He got to a place where nobody was willing to help him. Let me tell you something. If you live your life ragged enough, long enough, disrespectfully enough, you'll reach a point where nobody will be willing to help you. He didn't help nobody, so nobody helped him.
This guy gave him a job. And let me tell you something. Look, this is what happened to this guy. His life was so jacked up and so ragged, he was so loose and so messed up in his living, that he, listen to this, he started considering doing something that in his normal state of living, he would have never considered. Verse 16 says, he considered eating the same food that the pigs ate. Now, you can live your life so raggedy and get down so low that you'll start considering doing things that you once thought you would never do in your life. You can fall so low, you can get so jacked up, so distorted in your view of life, that you can get to a place where you will start entertaining being with somebody that you would never consider being with.
Let me thank the 17 people who are identifying with what I'm saying. That's where he was. He was at a place where he started considering that he had nothing else. Maybe he eat the same food that the pigs ate. But verse 17 makes a shift. But, I love it when a "but" steps into the situation. Here's what we pray for every day. "He came to himself." Sir, how many know we're praying for you to come to yourself? How many of y'all got people who will come to themselves? You praying that they will come to themselves? Come to a place, come to a spot, come to a region, come to a place they will no longer live raggedy like they've been living. That's what we're praying.
'Cause some of you are living beneath what God intended for you to live. Some of you accepted some things that God never intended for you to accept. Some of you have lived your lives and are living your life in such a jacked-up way that we're praying that one day that you'll wake up and say, "My parents did not raise me to live my life like this. God did not intend for me to live my life like this." That's where some of you are. You a low-down, dirty, nasty. Look at your neighbor, say, "You nasty self. You nasty." You're living below the standard. You accepting has bread and meat dirt that God never intended to be your meal. You are hanging out with people that are beneath what your destiny is. You've accepted the pig and the hog stuff. Come to yourself. Wake up. Wake up.
"He came to himself." [Applause] When he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare?" He said, "My father has people who are his workers who are living better than me, and I'm perishing with hunger."
Verse 18: "I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." This joker came to himself. How do you know? 'Cause he, here's how you know when you come to yourself. He came to himself. We know he came to himself 'cause he recognized he needed to repent before God and before the people who he had hurt. You know a person has not come to themselves and has not waken up yet when they still don't see nothing, nothing wrong with the sin that they're doing. Y'all can't handle the truth.
This guy recognized that he, he had hurt heaven and he had hurt his father. And he came to his father with the right attitude. He said, "I just need a job." He says, "I'm no longer worthy to be your son. Call your son. Just make me like one of your hired hands. Just give me a job."
Verse 20: "And he arose and came to his father." That's what God's waiting for you to get up and come back to your father. But here's what caught my eye. "But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him." [Applause]
I, I want to point out a couple things. Here's, here's what I want to point out. I want to point out a couple things. I want to point out that his father saw him. And that, that's an important thing. And, and listen, his father saw him while he was still, yeah, a great way off. Follow me, 'cause I, I get a couple things from this point. Here's the first thing I get from it: is that some of you are a great way off from God. Your life is raggedy and jacked up. You're a great way off. You're living nasty lives. You're living disreputable lives. You're doing nasty things. You're doing ungodly things. You are stealing and robbing and lying and cussing and whoring and sleeping and drugging and drinking and what else y'all [Applause] doing? You're doing some disrespectful things. But the father loves you so much that even though you're still way out there, he still sees you. You can't hide from him. You can't run from him. You can't make the room too dark that he can't see you. You can't get on a plane and fly so far he can't see you. You can't drive far away. You can't get on a train and get away. You can't get on the highway and get away. I don't care how far you go, he still sees you. "While he was still a great way off, his father saw him."
Wait a minute. Don't shout yet. I think the fact of a father seeing their child is an important thing. Can I drop this bird down to you? To you fathers, about your kids. Your kids need you to see them at their moments of shining. Yes, sir. Here, here's what's important. This man is on his way back home, home. And his father sees him when he's making the right choice, doing the right thing. I, I think fathers need to make whatever sacrifices they need to make in order to see their kids when their kids are doing their thing. I told, when I became the pastor of this church, I got six kids. And when I became the pastor of this church, I told the leadership, "I'm not going to be at every meeting. I'm not, I can't make everything. I got kids." And I want the kids to know that their father, father loves them. And I want to see them do their thing. They only got one father. And I need to be at their games, at their affairs, when they get awards, I need to be there. So they didn't always want me there, 'cause I'm, you know, I'm in there, you know, at the games, "Put my son in the game, put my son in the game." They needed to know that their father was in the stands cheering them on, rooting for them. That's the most important thing you can do for a child. When I was growing up, I don't remember my father attending the events. I don't remember. I can't recall. But I can tell you how grateful I am that every Sunday I now see my father on the front row, cheering his son. [Music]
His father saw him. And the Bible says his father, and, by the way, anyway, his father had compassion on him. His father saw him come home. By the way, let me go ahead and say, I was going to say it. Let me say it. The boy coming back home. I'm trying to raise my kids so they won't come back home. I'm trying to teach them now. I'm trying to teach them that you have to live within the parameters of your income. I'm trying to teach them that they have to learn how to put some aside for a rainy day. I'm trying to teach them 'cause I don't want, 'cause, you know, when kids come home, they be backing up U-Haul trailers to the door. They, they be coming back with kids. I don't want them to come back home. Amen. I just thought I would throw that out there. Just, just raise them up so they won't come back home.
But this young man comes back home. His father saw him. And then the father had compassion on him. Verse 20 said, "He saw him while he was still a great way off and had compassion." Verse 20, "and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." The father had compassion. So, so number one, the father saw him. Number two, the father had compassion. Here's what a child needs from his father. He needs compassion. It's easy to condemn a child when they do wrong. It's easy to talk bad about them. But what a child needs is somebody who's compassionate, who's understanding. See, what bothers me are people who get old and forget that they were once young. Yeah. Remember that you was out there at one point. You was drinking and drugging and sleeping around and doing crazy things. You was tapping everything you could tap. Every opportunity that you had. Don't nobody want you now. That's the only reason why you didn't change. Y'all can't handle the truth. Can you handle the truth? Have compassion on our kids. You know what I discovered about our kids? And it breaks my heart. That they're being exposed to things at much younger ages than what I was being exposed to when I was their age. They're being tempted in ways that's, that's way beyond my human comprehension as a 10, 12, 13, 14, 15-year-old child. No wonder they can't accomplish anything in this world. We need to have compassion. It is the, you know what I discovered? It is the love of God that leads men to repentance. It is the fact that God loved you and woke you up this morning, even though you didn't deserve to be awakened. Oh, I wish I had an amen. I wish I had some people who could recognize and understand that God loves you, has jacked up and as raggedy as you are, he loves you. He has compassion on you. The fact that you are here today is evidence of the compassion of God upon you. Yeah. Yeah. Compassion.
Then finally, number three. I'm, I'm finished. I'm almost closing. Bringing my plane in for landing. I know y'all are tired. I'm rushing through it. Oh, this is the 12:00 service, ain't it? Let me go ahead and take my time and preach like I want to. His father saw him. His father had compassion. And in verses 22 and 23, the father dressed him. Somebody say, "Dressed him."
But the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand, yeah, sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry." He dressed him. He said to the servants, "Bring out the best robe." Y'all know what a robe is? A robe covers. Yeah. If you would have come to my house in the wee hours of the morning and knocked on the door, I'm not sleeping in the bed with a suit on. If I want to answer the door, if I answer the door, I'm going to grab a robe and put it on and cover myself. Man, don't want to let you see my six-pack that I got going on right here. A father covers. A father hides the inadequacies of a child. Covers it up. He's not exposing it to the world. He's, he covers it. His father said, "Let me cover him up. I'm not here to expose him and make him look bad and embarrass him and shame him in front of all of the people that are here. Let me, let me cover him." Somebody better be glad that God covered you. Thank you, Lord. Somebody better shout that he didn't pull the cover off of you, but he covered your raggedness. He covered, he hid your stuff. He hid your mess. He covered you. He covered him.
Then he gave him a ring. Somebody say, "Ring." Ring. A ring means identification. It connects you with. It's, it's a connection point. I have a ring on my finger. There's a ring. There's a ring on my finger that means that identifies me as being taken. That says to all the single ladies, all the single ladies, all the single ladies, you can't have me. I know you want me, but you can't have me. I'm taken. I belong to Trina Jenkins. I am her man. This identifies me as taken. I am [Applause] taken. So stop lusting after me, all you single ladies.
This father put a ring on his son's finger to say that I'm still willing, in spite of all that he's done and all that he's been and all of the shame that he's brought, I'm still willing to call him my son. W. Somebody better be glad up in this camp that our father, in spite of all that you've done and everywhere that you've been, he is still willing to call you his child. I wish I had somebody that didn't mind giving God praise that he covered you and identifies with you. [Music] Hallelujah.
Put a robe on him. Put a ring on him. Put some shoes on his feet. He dressed them up by giving him shoes. The shoes symbolize direction for his life. There was a point in this young man's life when he wasn't listening to the guidance of his father. But now he's at a place where he's willing to put the slippers on. He's willing to put the sandals on. He's willing to walk in the path that his father is now willing to take. Some of you young people have messed up your life 'cause you won't listen to the direction of your parents. I think I told you last week, your parents are not trying to kill you. They're not trying to spoil your fun. They're simply trying to save you from making the same, same mistakes that they have made. And now, after having wasted all of his money and been out in the streets, having messed up his life, he's now willing to put the shoes on that his father is offering him. Let me close this dynamic message. Y'all supposed to say Amen right there, but too late.
The father killed the fatted calf. The fattened calf. The calf that had been fed extra for the day of the party. He reached out and said, "Get the fattest calf there is. We about to throw a big party 'cause my son who was dead is now alive." He was willing to invest of his most treasured resource in his son. You need to know that God has invested the best that he has for your life. You, Lord, when he gave his son Jesus to die. There ain't nobody else to choose. He didn't send an angel to die for you. He didn't pick some prophet. He chose His only begotten son to die for you.
Now, here's all I know, and I'm finished. All I know, and I know this, is that somewhere in this building, maybe even on the internet, there's some people right now sitting in this building, watching this broadcast, who have, who are still a great way off. God told me to tell you, he sees you, and he's waiting for you to come home. What blessed me about this father is, I believe every day he must have gotten up 'cause while his son was great, still a great way off, he still saw him. I believe every day he got up and said to himself, "Maybe today my son might come back home. Maybe today. Maybe today." And I got, I believe every day he got up, he looked out over the hill, rising, and saying, "Maybe today he'll come home." And on that day, he looked out and he saw that figure coming over the horizon, headed home. And right now, the God of the universe is waiting with his arms stretched out wide, saying, "Maybe you'll come home."
Today's dynamic message from Pastor Jenkins is one that has the power to change your life, but it can only do so if you have a heart and soul that belong to Jesus Christ. Perhaps you want to be able to make such a claim, but you don't know how. It's simple. You just have to confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and rose again with all power. Your sins are now forgiven, and you're part of the family of God. Welcome.
Maybe you're already saved and in need of a church home, one that will nurture your growth and development as a Christian. Or perhaps you were once in fellowship with God but have since drifted away and are ready to return to your first love. Whatever the case, we'd love to have you become a part of the First Baptist Family. Simply contact us at 307-736-000 or visit our website at www.fbcglenarden.org for more information on any one of our four convenience services or our 100-plus ministries designed to meet your most intimate needs. First Baptist Church of Glenarden, where God is developing dynamic disciples. [Music]