A Father's Kiss (June 25, 2023)

In this passage from Luke 15, Jesus tells a parable about a lost son. The story begins with tax collectors and sinners coming to hear Jesus, which angers the Pharisees and scribes. Jesus then tells the parable of the lost son, who asks his father for his inheritance and squanders it all before returning home in desperation. The father sees him from afar and runs to embrace and forgive him, throwing a celebration for his return. The main message is about the father's love and forgiveness, and the importance of coming back to God even after straying. The passage also highlights the significance of fathers in our lives, and the need for compassion and acceptance. Amen. Chapter 15 of the Gospel of St. Luke. Our primary focus on the words of Christ will be an examination of his story, his parable concerning the lost son, but I want to start with verses 1 through 3 that we may appreciate the text in fuller context of the issue presented. So let me start with verses 1 through 3. Then drew near unto him all the tax collectors and sinners for to hear. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, and just to note, he talks about the lost sheep, he talks about the lost corn, and then we get to verses 11 through 24, which will be our primary focus today, and he talks about the lost son. So he spake this parable unto them, saying, going from verse 3 to 11 now, and he said, 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. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, there wasted his substance with rife with living. When he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have famed, have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many high servants of my father's have bred enough and to spare? And I perished with hunger. I will arrive and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am not worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight, and am no more worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fattest calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be married. This my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found, and they began to be married. On this morning, the message that I believe that we are led to share with this great family, the Ecclesia, in this hour, in this hour of the father's great revival, is simply a father's kiss. Let us pray. In the name of Christ Jesus, may now the word of God and the spirit of God move upon us, fill us, and penetrate our thoughts, our attitudes, our feelings, and our actions to find peace, joy, love, and wisdom in the Holy Ghost. Restore us, revive us, redeem us, and reveal unto us even more your perfect will, father. Reveal it unto us for our lives, for our lives to come into harmony with your perfect will. God, allow what has been said before, and written for our benefit, be spoken in this hour of your great revival, that we may practice what your son has preached. In Jesus' name, we declare it to be so. It is done. Amen. This morning, as we reflect upon the sayings of the Lord Jesus in chapter 15 of St. Luke, it begins with this brief narrative to afford us a full appreciation and a context that the wonderful counselor, when you read the first three verses, he is being condemned by the scribes and the Pharisees because of who he is hanging out with. He is not hanging out with the saints. He is not hanging out by faith folks. He is not hanging out with church folks. He is hanging out with those who are ostracized, if you will, from those who believe that they got it religiously going on. The scribes and the Pharisees who represent for us the religiously, the socially, the politically, the economically powerful group, group of men, of that they are murmuring against the Lord Jesus and the choice of his circle of friends. They murmur against those who he is seeking to fellowship with. In response to all of that, the Lord Jesus shares with those who are around him three stories, stories that include the lost sheep, the lost money, and here, the lost son. I'm sure that all of us can appreciate and can identify with Jesus Christ because we get tagged, if you will, because we decide to be in fellowship with those who are not fully appreciated by religious leadership. If you're feeling that way this morning, I just think that Luke 15 and the story about the lost son in particular will bring you into full appreciation that let them murmur and you continue to go get those who are lost. Continue to fellowship with those who are encouraging you to be better and not bitter. As the Lord Jesus shares with them this context of the lost sheep and the lost money and the lost son, the Lord Jesus is really attempting to show everyone the true essence of who God the Father is, and more importantly, his love for his dear children. For all the things that we may ascribe to God, he loves us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life. God loves us. And albeit as we are his children, the children of God by faith, the seed of Abraham, the seed of the Lord Jesus himself, we at times have been lost too. And God our Father is still searching for us during those times that we are lost. And he just simply wants us to come back home. Not just come back to a house, but to come back home and to be in relationship with us. I hope this morning that as God quickens us through his word and through his spirit that we will move from religion to relationship. From religion to relationship. In the text regarding the lost son, we see here a young man who had left home with what he believed he was entitled to. Entitlement is not anything new, y'all. Jesus talked about it in his day. This young man thought that he was entitled to an inheritance. And he goes and he squands it. But eventually, by the grace of God, he comes to himself. He comes to himself. He comes to himself and he acknowledges that, you know, I have sinned against heaven and before my daddy. And it's so bad that I'm not even worthy to be called, if you will, H.A. son. I'm not worthy to be called Dillion's son. But mom and daddy would just, if you could just receive me as a hired servant, would just let me wash the car, cut the grass, trim the hedges. I'll take that. I'll take that. I'm sure that many of us who are on this call can reflect upon our own experiences, whether or not as a parent or as a child. But we have, in particular from, say, a child perspective, we have our own experiences of sin and shame. Okay. It's kind of interesting to say that because we see a lot of people in 2023 who can have sin and they have no shame about it. And then we want to bless them as being woke. I remember when we used to be woke in the 60s and the 70s and 80s and there was sin and shame. And at least if you were doing something that you had no business doing that was outside of God's perfect will, you would shame about it. How far we have come in this country. But as we reflect upon our own experiences of sin and shame, of being destitute and broken, very much like the lost son, but by the grace of God, we came to ourselves and we came home. The Spirit of God quickened within us an attitude of revelation and repentance. And suddenly we knew that even if we came back home at a lower status, if I came back as just a servant and not necessarily as a son or as a daughter, I would even do better. I'd do better to come back at a lower level, at a lower status. But let me just get back home. Maybe we experienced that in a manner of speaking with our own parents. And more importantly, maybe we have been fortunate to experience that, if you will, with our Heavenly Father. And I thank God this morning. I thank God for a spiritual scholarship, President Humphrey. A Life Gets Better scholarship, if you will, that brought us back home so we could be better and not bitter. Thank God for a Life Gets Scholarship that was paid for us, purchased by the blood of Jesus, so we will be better and not bitter. Often when I've heard or when I have read the text that is presented unto us today as relates to the lost son, it was with a primary focus on the lost younger son or the disgruntled older brother. But today I pray that we will not focus on the negativity that's often associated with the lost son or with the older brother. I pray that today we will just focus on this message of a father's compassion, a father's forgiveness, a father's love, a father's kiss. And I mean no disrespect to the great matriarchs that are on this call. And I simply use the word father, but feel free to say mother and let it be made known that when I say father, I'm talking about mamas too. As we reflect on that word, however, in particular this word that's associated with a father, I'm mindful, I'm mindful that, you know, mama's baby is sometimes daddy's maybe. And that there are many in our world, in our communities that they don't have the direct benefit of even knowing who their biological father is. In so many communities, there are young men who are living an experience of not just that daddy ain't around. They don't even know who daddy is. And if we talked perhaps to the biological father, he doesn't even know who his daddy is. And so many of us who are on this call right now, man, we have been afforded grace and peace multiplied because for most of us, we at least know who our daddies are. I don't think that there's any question about that. And we need to give God praise right there because we had a father. We didn't have a biological father. Thank God we had a surrogate father. There is a disconnect that we too often ignore in the body of Christ. And we must be sensitive to this as we are called upon as the body of Christ to engage in this ministry of reconciliation. And in this ministry, we must be sensitive that even when we say the Lord's prayer and we start the prayer with our father, that look, many in our communities, they can't even connect with that because they don't even know who their old daddy is. Think about that. Our earthly fathers are supposed to be our first glimpse of the heavenly father. But if daddy is missing, if he's missing in action, it is so easy and it's so often the case that the devil can use situational awareness because daddy ain't around to impart doubt and discontent in the minds of a young woman, in the minds of a young man. A discontent and doubt that destroys at times this blessed relationship that we can have to our heavenly father. It's a real thing. We need to be sensitive about that. And I'm praying that even as we're speaking on this subject, my prayer is that the father will continue to draw children back to their fathers and fathers being drawn back to their children in God's blessed peace. Family, it is even more difficult to pray our father. When your daddy is the source of your pain. It's difficult. This is the psychology of it. It's difficult for us to encourage people who don't have daddies that are there in a very positive, loving way. It's hard to get them to connect with our father who are in heaven. When their own daddies have failed to be the patriarchs and the priests and the prophets and the protectors and the providers that our father has called men to be in his perfect will. I know that we are a Sunday removed from Father's Day, but I'm so glad for the men who are on the line. And the many men that I know who have stood their ground and planted their knees. They stood their ground and they have planted their knees. The men who have grabbed their Bibles before they have grabbed their guns. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, men. Thank you, brothers. And certainly a belated Happy Father's Day. Thank you for hanging in there, fighting the good fight to love your brides and to nurture your sons and your daughters. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Every day should be Mother's Day and Father's Day. And we celebrate the matriarchs and patriarchs for what you do in the body of Christ. As reflected, hallelujah, on the text. The Lord Jesus, he shares a story about a father who we should seek to emulate. As parents, we should emulate the father who is presented here because the father that Christ Jesus is describing is the one that shows us the true love, the true essence of our heavenly father. And what he does for us and what he means to us. And we can always come back home to him. I want to make three points and not hold you longer than I already have. The first significant point that I believe that we should carry away from what God has given us in our spiritual growth is that even before the lost son gets close enough to knock on the door, before he gets close enough to ring the doorbell, if you will, his father saw him afar off. If you look at verse 20, it says this again, and he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. This verse, it is a revelation that the father with hope against hope, hope against hope, the father kept the push light on for his son. Although we see here the son who has disassociated himself with his family and has ceased to be in contact with his dad, there ain't no email, there ain't no text, there's no phone calls, but the father keeps the porch light on for his son. In my Christological mind, I believe that the father was praying, maybe like Job, praying early in the morning for his lost son. He's praying, Lord, just bring him home, bring him back to God, protecting God from danger seen and unseen. And as I'm thinking about the father here in Luke 15, it just reminds me of the saints on Tuesday nights and Tuesday mornings, those were the prayer days. That's where warfare would be going on on Tuesday mornings and Tuesday nights. And so many times the saints are repeating themselves and how they continue to repeat the same prayer, but they're praying for their children. Hallelujah, they're praying for them. And I believe those prayers are still being heard and God is blessing us even now. And I remember Deacon Munya, he comes to mind and Deacon Munya was a tall man and Deacon Munya was Haitian and it's very seldom I can understand what Deacon Munya was saying, hallelujah, but he was about six feet, seven, I mean tall man. And he would get up in testimony service and he would talk about, Lord, shake him, shake him, shake him, Lord, shake him, hallelujah, hallelujah. He's praying for not only his daughters, but he's praying for his grandchildren, I believe, and testifying that through his petitions that God, I know you're going to shake him, hallelujah. And I thank God for the prayers of the righteous, the righteous man and the righteous woman who avail much, the righteous father, the righteous mother. Those who continue to seek the Lord with grasped penance and bended knees, ah, to connect with the heavenly father, to see about their children and their grandchildren. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, hallelujah, hallelujah. Sometimes that transcends more than money, it's the prayers of a good man, a good woman, hallelujah, that leaves an inheritance, the intangible things that we also need to combat against the wiles of the devil, hallelujah. I thank God for praying mothers and fathers, hallelujah, for calling out to a now God in a not now generation and he's saying, God, sing unto him, speak to our children. God, spare our children. God, heal our children. God, save our children from themselves and from sin and shame. God, save our children from the pain, hallelujah, of a hostile world. We got to keep praying and we got to keep having the porch light on even now. My second point, hallelujah, takes me again to verse 20. It's amazing here, let's look at what the father does as opposed to what he don't do. Verse 20 shows us that the father saw his son. The father had compassion for his son. The father ran to his son. The father embraces his son and the father kisses his son. Whatever happened in the past, no matter what had happened, no matter how much time had gone by, no matter that there had been no letters, no phone calls, if you will, no text, no email, no matter that his son had squandered all that he had given unto him. No matter that the father had actually liquidated assets to pour into his son and possibly knew that he was going to waste it all, but he did so because he loved him. No matter that he's looking at his son now, he's smelling him. He's been with the swine, so he's looking at him. He's probably emaciated and he's smelling him and despite all of what he sees, what he smells, we see here the affirmation of a loving father that regardless of what has happened, he is still my son. Regardless of what my children do, your children do, they are still ours and we all we got. I love what the father doesn't do. Hallelujah. He doesn't chastise his son. He doesn't say to him, I told you so. He doesn't say that's what you get. He doesn't say, see if you had listened to me boy, this wouldn't happen. Regardless of having sinned against heaven and having sinned against his own father, the father still sees him as his son. I'm so glad that our father, that he is still Elroy, he is still the God, the father that sees us. He sees us when we are jacked up, when we have done things that have created a miserable state. Because of our own mistakes, because of our own willful ignorance, because we have been defiant to what he has told us to do. Thank God for Elroy who sees us and he looks beyond our faults to minister to every one of our needs. Thank God for the amazing grace and compassion that comes from a father. That's why we call out to him, dear daddy. It resonates with us. And as he is, so we should be in this world, especially to our children. My third point, and it's very interesting to me that as you study the text, the father here is a man of wealth, he's a man of power in the story. And based on the cultural nuances, men of wealth and respect, they don't run to nobody. They don't run to nobody. When you've got power and wealth, you set up the meeting to come see me. Men and women of power and wealth don't set up meetings with other people unless it's quid pro quo. But normally we go to people who we think can bless us. But we see here a father who even in the context of a son who is returning home, who has in large respect been disrespectful to him, has sinned against him, sinned against their daddy. That's not how he was raised. We see all of that, and this son is coming back home. It was considered an embarrassment. It was socially incorrect for the father to run to this son, especially to a son who has come back home in disgrace. But again, the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is showing us in the story of how fathers are to bring up their children in the nurture and in the admonition of the Lord. I'm reminded of my Aunt Ma. That's my Ma's best friend. She didn't have a sister, but she had Aunt Ma. Aunt Ma was her best friend. I remember Aunt Ma told me, she said, she said, boy, love will make you stupid. Love will make you stupid. I'm sure that as Jesus is telling this story, that in terms of the scribes and Pharisees and maybe others who were sinners and the tax collectors, that here they culturally could identify with the fact that it is stupid for the father to run to a son that has come back home broke and no doubt dusty and stinky. He's broke, he's dusty, he's stinking, but the father is running to him and looking stupid. He's looking stupid. But the father runs to embrace him, to receive him home. And this morning we should see in this that our heavenly father had his son to run downstairs. That's why we can see him as the latter. And Jesus is running downstairs. And he came to earth to save us and to redeem us that we may be reconciled to the father as his dear sons and daughters. He is moving us from religion of the Old Testament to a relationship that has been cut by the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm sure that the cross, hallelujah, the cross for some was thought to be a curse and the cross for some was thought to be stupid. It was foolishness. But love, hallelujah, love, love actually shown, hallelujah, love actually demonstrated, love actually exhibited, appears to be stupid. Yes it is. And love appears to be stupid to those who don't love. I hope you're hearing this with me, family. Love actually shown especially to our own children. It appears to be stupid to people, hallelujah, who don't love. But I told you before and I tell you now, if it ain't love, it ain't God because our father is love. Love yourself. Love your spouse. Love your children. Love those around you. Love your neighbor like you love yourself. Matter of fact, Jesus would preach it in this gospel and he would say that it's about greater love, hallelujah, no greater love than this. But a man to lay down his life for his friend, he told his disciples, hallelujah, men shall know that you are my disciples. Because of the love that you have one for another. I know that the good news, hallelujah, of Jesus Christ sounds stupid to some, it looks stupid to some. But this morning I am so glad that I'm not ashamed of the gospel, hallelujah, for it is the power of God. It is the power of love unto salvation. In Psalm 85 and 10, the writer gave us a glimpse of the cross. He showed to us, if you will, a father's kiss. And in Psalm 85 and 10, there's a prophecy here that says mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. And I'm so glad this morning that the father's kiss, the kiss that says, welcome home, son, welcome home, daughter, it met upon the cross. Hallelujah, it met upon the cross. A father's kiss. Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we now have come to ourselves. We acknowledge and confess our sins against you, against our parents, against our own bodies, and against each other. We pray, God, right now that you will make it manifest in our minds and our thoughts that you have. Cleanse us. Remove the stench. Remove the guilt. Remove the sin. Remove the shame. We arise now. We come boldly before the throne of grace. We come back to you. We come back to you. Hallelujah. We say thank you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you that you have met us beyond halfway through your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you that heaven came down to earth. Hallelujah. Thank you that you were in Christ, Father. You were in the Son. Hallelujah. Reconciling us back to yourself. And you came all the way down. Hallelujah. You came down from heaven to earth. We are grateful that you showed us, oh, an amazing love. You poured out love that looked stupid to some. But you showed us your love through Christ Jesus anyway. Thank you, God, for having another thought. And some would believe that it's stupid. Thank you, God, for having another thought. And you expressed through the prophet Jeremiah, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you. Send the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. Thank you, God, for an expected end. An expected end, God, that transitions us to a more blessed and graceful beginning. El Roya, you see us and you have thoughts of peace. El Roya, you see us and have thoughts of healing. El Roya, you see us and have thoughts of redemption and thoughts of your love for us. And with the Father's kiss, you have chosen the stupid things of the world to confound the wise. With the Father's kiss, you have chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. With the Father's kiss, you have chosen the base things of the world, the things which are despised. And yes, those things which are not to bring to nullify those things which are that no flesh shall glory in your presence. Thank you, God, for showing us how to be better parents to our own children. Better grandparents to our grandchildren. Those sons and daughters, those grandsons and granddaughters that are returning home. Thank you, God, for the glory that has been revealed in us, for us, to us, and through us that nullifies the past. And brings us into the dawn of a new era and a better day. In Christ Jesus' name, we give you thanks and we give you glory. Amen.