Greatest Father in the Bible

Let's go to the sermon because it is quite detailed today that I want to go into because it's called The Greatest Father in the Entire Bible. Think for a minute. Who would be your choice? Because I bring that out because the list is very short. I mean, think about it. Think about all the fathers in the Scripture. A lot of problems there, a lot of family problems. Am I correct? Oh, yes. So the list is very small. My list is, of course, you have God the Father, which Jesus Christ is actually called Everlasting Father in Isaiah 9. But who would be? Who would be in your top three besides them? Anybody? Okay. Well, David had a lot of problems, didn't he? I wouldn't say he was a good father. Matter of fact, he might have been one of the worst. About father, he's a great man. King Abraham, he had a problem lying, didn't he? Matter of fact, it happened many times, and he passed it on to his son, who passed it on to his son. Am I correct? Not that I'm anywhere near there. Job? How about Joseph? Which Joseph? Of Mary. Very, yes. He would have to be top of my list, because God actually chose him. So of a million people that were there, he had to bend what? You're at the top. How about the other Joseph? We had a New Testament Joseph. How about the Old Testament Joseph? What about his sons? They were raised in a pagan land, but yet we know that God used them, and God chose his sons to carry on the blessings. Who said Noah? I would say Noah, wouldn't you? His sons, Shimon and Japeth, carried on, and if they were so terrible, I don't know that God would have allowed them on the boat. Right? And you may say, well, wait a minute. Didn't he get, have too much to drink later on? Yeah, but he was 600 and something years old. If I get to be that old, I hope I can drink a little extra. If I ever get to be over 600 years of age, I hope nobody will judge me. Who else? Somebody else have someone else? Nope, just about killed that list, then. As you can see, that list is very, very small. Who? Tara. Okay, you throw that, you throw me a Tara. I'll throw you a Caleb. Okay, think about Caleb and look at Caleb even when he was how old he was and how he was still taking care of his children and even his daughter and making sure they had land and everything. So, yes, but it's a very short list, which tells us what? Four thousand years and you got four or five of all the thousands of people listed in the Bible? Might make you think they do me. Don't they do you Norm? Yes.

But you've been a father and a grandfather, as we've had many fathers out here and grandfathers. And there is a responsibility. I covered that this morning in my sermon in Fort Lauderdale and how you may have had bad father, but God makes sure that you have a father you can connect with now. That's the best father could ever be. Even if you had a bad one, I had a good one, but not everybody had good ones. And I think that's so important that we recognize even today who put the father as the head of the household. That's not a hard one. You know, it's either Jesus or God. You can say one of the two and you get 90 percent of my questions right. So, God is the best you can hope for. I gave a sermon a while back, I think David has it up, up on Hestid. Hestid. Hestid. And if we understand Hestid, we understand God. And if you understand God, you understand the word Hestid. And the qualities for our spiritual father are endless. The amazing part is he's our father. He's my father, spiritual father. He's your spiritual father. So, I can't say, Ampe, that my spiritual father is smarter than your spiritual father, because they're all the same father. So, we get that. But I would like, I didn't give you this, David, because it just popped in my head from this morning. But I just want to read just one scripture. As God wants us to realize how close he is to us and how close we need to be to him. So, I'll read from the New Living Translation. I'll read. I won't have it up here, so I'll cover this, as David's probably going. What? Get out, get out of my screen. Psalm 103 verse 13 from the New Living Translation. I'll read it, since most of you do not have the New Living Translation. So, I'd like to read it to you. Just one short verse. It says, The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. Let me read that again. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. And as I mentioned that verse this morning, I even thought because the translation of that is not really correct. Because the Hebrew word for fear can also be translated revere. Because it says he's tender and compassionate and loving. Are you going to fear someone like that? No. Even as a child, you wouldn't fear someone like that. But you would, what? Revere. Hold them up. That's how God wants us. Because we're his children. And he made the father so that it could be a physical replacement for him in the world today. I think that's a beautiful, beautiful analogy.

So that we can understand that there's someone even more powerful than our physical fathers. That there's someone even more loving and caring than our physical fathers. I had a great, loving, caring father. Not everyone does. But I also looked when I was a kid and I realized, wow, my dad's a big man. Yet he was only five foot ten. And when I was 13 years old, I grew to five foot ten. So when I was 13 years old, I was as tall as my father. A couple years, a year later, I was taller. I was six foot tall. But I still looked at him as a big man because I revered him. I didn't fear him. Now, when I was younger and he'd take off that belt, there was a little fear. But that was necessary in my training because I knew if I broke, if I did this and this, especially, I usually got a talking to. I don't know whether you used to get those talks. Later on, I would have taken the beating over the talks because he'd make you feel so bad because I let him down. But I think we, as followers of this, we have to come to the point that we have to go to God more than we probably want to. And I think he's happy about that. I think he has a smile on his face because even when I was older, had my own business, and I would go to my father and I would ask him a question that I had not understood. I saw the smile on his face. Why? Because experience had given him the answer and he was able to give it as a gift to me. And he's so delighted in that. And I saw that he loved that. And I sometimes, sad to say, but I would even go to him when I thought I knew the answer, but I wanted to see that smile on his face because he was getting older and I knew I wouldn't have him around forever. But I'm so thankful I have a higher power, a greater father that's around forever. And when I have some really spiritual, mental, physical, financial, emotional problems, I can go to somebody who has all the answers. He may not give them to me all at once, but he does give them to me. And I think that's the great thing about honoring fathers, that this nation will set aside tomorrow, because that is a great thing. We can even set it aside because we understand the correlation between this father and the father on earth. And I think that's a blessing that we do have. We understand we're fathers. As I performed a wedding a few weeks ago, almost a month ago now, I said it's a divine institution. From God. Well, so is the father. The father being the head of the house, it's a divine institution. And I think that's a beautiful thing. Sometimes, as Clive talked about, this education system is tearing that apart. It's distorting that, distorting the father and the mother. That incredible commandment. Honor your father and your mother. And the world's getting farther away from that. Well, I digress. Better stick to some bit of notes on here before I go off. So I want to give some scriptures that you've all read before today. I want to give a story because it is an incredible story. And most people, matter of fact, I've given Bible studies, multiple sermons on it, but I've never given this sermon like it is today. Because there's a story of two sons, but I don't want to talk about as much either son. I want to talk about the father. The title that most people know this story is of the prodigal son, but I'd like you to consider the real title, the loving, forgiving father. The loving, forgiving father, because that's the real story here that most people miss. That most people overlook because it's such a rich story.

Charles Dickens called it the greatest short story ever written. He should know something about writing, but it tells a story. So I want to go through that today in the time I have left because I want us to really look at the loving and forgiving father because Jesus taught told this story and whether it was a parable, whether it was a story, you have to realize by the time Christ gave that man had been on earth for 4,000 years. And even his parables, were they really just made up stories to teach a lesson? Or he had seen everyone who had ever lived. He had seen every son, every daughter, every father, every mother who ever lived. He saw their entire life. So is it possible that this story is a real life story and that he gave it because he was touched? Because Jesus Christ lost his stepfather, adopted father, appointed physical father at a pretty young age.

But he still had his spiritual father. And that's what I have. I lost my father 12, 13 years ago. I had my father-in-law, Mary's father, who lived to be 97. But we lost him a few years ago. But I have him. I have him. I have the father I can turn to and sometimes I'm embarrassed to go to him because of my behavior. Kind of like when my father used to call me in and say, uh, meet me in the living room. So I'm like, oh no, what did I do? I usually knew what I did, but I still wanted to think I didn't. But God is there for us in the best of times and the worst of times. And He never leave you nor forsake you. And that's a beautiful thing because you may even have people in this room because I've counseled various people all over who had fathers that left them. I talked to one today whose father left her when he was about five when she was about five. Because I said, Did you have a great father? She said, I did up until about five. And then you left. You left her. So let's go to the story if you will join me in Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15.

Verse 11, I'll be reading from the New King James Version. Then he said, Jesus Christ said, A certain man had two sons. This wasn't a certain man. This was the man that Christ was going to use to tell the story of what an incredible father we have. All the qualities, everything great that a man could possibly have, this is who Jesus Christ is teaching us about. As he's thinking of the qualities of his father up there, he probably even thought about the qualities of Joseph, his stepfather. Because of all the millions of men who lived on earth at the time, God chose Joseph of all those men. Wow! He had to be something. He had to be incredible. So let's look at the story as I'd like you to think as you read this about every time it mentions a father or a man, I want you to think of God. Because that's the story for us. This incredible, loving, and caring father that we have whenever we need him for whatever, however big, however small, he says he even knows our heart's desires. So let's go. Yeah. God had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, God, give me the portions of goods that fall to me. So the younger son just came in and here the father was rich. He had everything you could want. And you know, because Christ used him, that this father gave this son everything you could want in life. Maybe even to the point of being spoiled. But weren't we all spoiled? Or if we didn't, we acted like it.

Give me the portion of goods that fall to me. Why did he deserve it? He didn't deserve that, did he? He deserved everything his father would leave him at his father's death. Physical father. But here he was. Give me mine. Oh, as he used to say, what a rebellious little snot. What a rebellious young boy this was. But what did the father do? What does God do? Sometimes when we don't deserve it, what does he do? So God divided to them his livelihood. The father did to his son. But think about God. How many times have we gotten what we didn't deserve? I have had too many times. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, which would have been at that time at least it would have been a gentile country, that he was picturing this for them. So the story he's telling everyone, so they're thinking it's a gentile country. So at least 50 to 100 miles away. Because this guy's got he's got things to do. They do that? Oh, do I remember that 19 years of age, telling my dad, I've had enough of this farm. I didn't say that. I'm smarter than that. But I just thought, boy, I'm just not going to work myself to death on this farm anymore. I'm going to go. I'm going to move in town, tired of this country living. And I did. And it took me a year before I was broke, really broke. So I understand this prodigal living because that's what I did for a year. Didn't even come to church half the time in that year. Because I had things to do, man. Things were going on that I had missed all my life until I didn't miss them anymore. Some of you are smiling because you may have gone through the same thing. So let's see this young man. And there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living. Or as it says, wasteful, wasteful living. What did he get? Whatever young man wants. Wine, women, and song. He did just like, oh, let's party. I can't drink too much. I can't have too many women. I can't just, man, I'm strong. I can stay up. I can get three hours of sleep a night until you can't. Let's go on. But when he had spent all, just like I did, there arose a severe famine in that land. And he began to be in want. Why was he in want? Well, he didn't have any money, so his friends are saying, what? You quit buying, so we quit saying hello. But also, he's in a foreign country. And even if you're poor, and you have nothing to eat in the land of Israel or Judah at the time, they made sure for the poor, they didn't, you could go harvest the outsides of a field. So you would not starve to death. Not so! In a foreign land, a land that had all the women, wine, and song he wanted, that you thought you were missing. Verse 15, then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And that guy sent him in to his fields to feed the swine. Join, the actual Greek word there is actually glued. It's like gluing. So he glued himself. Why? The guy didn't want anything to do with him, but he knew he had to do something, so he glued himself, attached himself, I'll do anything, give me anything. Yeah, well, I got a bunch of pigs out here. You go, you go feed the pigs, because you usually put pigs way away from your house, because it isn't Chanel number five. Okay? I know because we raised pigs growing up, had a thousand head one time on our farm. That's a lot of pigs.

They smelled. My bus would go by, and everybody raised up their window when they came by our property, because it was bad. But when you're around it, you don't think anything about it.

Join himself. And so he went to go feed by the pigs. Well, the way this is telling the story, he's not brought into the house at night. You go out and you take care of the pigs out there. You stay out there with them. This is what his life had come to. This young man who had everything, who had a father that just wanted him to have the best things in life. This is what happened now. Reality. What had he become? Like a slave. Like a slave taking care of the nastiest, filthiest animal that could be, that you could have to feed. Now, let's look. Verse 16. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, but no one, and no one gave him anything. So this pods, tough, carapods that the pigs ate because it's cheap and it's a filler and it's like, and they would just eat it. You could throw anything out. Remember, if you grew up at that time, you had slot buckets for pigs. If you had pigs, you had a slot bucket, and you just kept a five-gallon bucket, and you just threw everything in there. The old food, whatever nasty stuff you had, whatever. You just throw it in a bucket of water, and then you would take it out, and you would throw it then to the pigs, and they would just, they would just eat it like like it was Chateau Brion. This is what he was now delegated to, and he would have eaten that slop. So if you ever saw one of those buckets, he would have eaten it, because he knew he was dying. He was literally starving to death. Where did his mind go? Home. Home. Home to a place where there was a father who cared for him, because what kind of life did he have in front of him? Anybody? A short one. A short one. He was going to die, because he couldn't find enough pig slop to eat, to stay alive.

You ever been desperate before? I think all of us have at one time in our life. We've all been desperate. And you know, I had to cry out to God and ask him for forgiveness because of what I had become.

But he forgave me, just like this father in this story. Let's go on. Verse 17. But when he did what? Came to himself. What do I remember that moment? I remember that moment. Came to himself. He said, How many of my father's hired servants have bred enough and to spare and I perish with hunger? Dad had food that all the servants had all they could eat and then seconds or thirds if they want them. And I'm dying.

Who was the father back home wishing? Just come home. What does God want from us? What does he want from this world? He says, Come home. Come home. Come back.

Not enough for saying, Yes, dear. But we have that opportunity every single day when we fall away. When we do things that upset our father. And he said, I perish with hunger. So he knows he's dying. And all he can think about is his father's home. I want to go home. I want to go home. Say, there's nothing worse than being homesick. I've never been homesick. Because I always had home to come to. Verse 18, he says, I will arise and go to my father. We need to arise sometimes and say, I'm going back to God. And I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. That's all God wants to hear. That's all. He is such a loving. What is a loving and forgiving God? Hestit is his way of life. He has mercy, showing mercy. It's all he wants. And so few people want to give it to him. Oh, they may have problems, but do they want to go home? Oh, God, get me out of this. If you do, I'll never have another drink. Oh, God, help me. Father, I have sinned against heaven before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Worthy to be called your son. Make me, make me like one of your hired servants. Isn't that an incredible word? You remember what the old word was? Give me. And what does he say now? Make me, make me, make me just like one of the hired servants. They're not starving to death. As a matter of fact, I look at their life now. I wish I could just have that. I'm dying, Father. What have I done? What have I done to you? What have I done to myself? And now he knows how loving and forgiving and caring his father was. Sometimes he takes it.

So what was he doing? What was he saying? It's very simple. This young man who is dying, he is practicing. He is practicing talking to his father. This is what he's going to say to his father. He has to practice because this is his only shot. If he's not accepted, he goes back home. If he's able to make it back home, if he's able to go there and his father don't accept him, he's dead.

He has to do, he has to make sure he says the right words. He has to make sure that the father will help him. So verse 20, and he arose and came to his father. He headed back home. He had no choice. Maybe his father would still love him after the way he treated him, after wasting his money. But it says, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him. God sees us, brother. Our spiritual father sees us, sees us in this state. Except here, this father, he saw him as his boy would have walked. Was it 50 miles? Was it 100 miles? Whatever it was, he didn't look the same. He was emaciated. Skin and bones. Barely had any clothes on. Didn't have any shoes on. He had to sell them so he could just get something to eat. And yet, as he heads home, he's practicing, Father, I have sinned against you, Father, Father. Truly repentant. That's all God wants. And yet it says the father who pictures God here saw him, saw him from a distance. And what did he do? His father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Ah, my son, my son! He ran. The only place in the Bible you will ever see were someone pictures and that God ran. God ran. Why? Because he loves his son so much. He runs. But how did he know? What did he say? He saw him from a distance. He saw him far off. He may have seen him two miles away. And as he got closer, he realized, that's my son. I'll know that shape. He's a smaller, skinnier. But I know him. What does God say to us? I know you. Oh, oh, Psalm 139. Hmm? Fearfully and wonderfully made, he knows us. Look at this. This is him. And God says, oh, if you're coming my way, I'll meet you. I'll meet you. I love you that much. Wow. What a father we have, brethren. And then in verse 21, and the son said to him, and you'll, I mean, here this pig-smelling, skinny, sweaty, disgusting, probably didn't have a bath in months. Where would you get one? And the father is clean. Up-capped man did what? He didn't care. He fell, grabbed him, kissed him, having that smell of pig.

Because sometimes we have the smell of pig on us, of unclean living that we've done. And God said, just come back. I don't care what you smell like. You're mine. You're mine. This is that incredible story. And so we come down.

And the son said in verse 21, said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight am no longer worthy be called your son. He remembered it. Because he probably said it over and over and over again on his trip back. And how many of us have said, God, please, please forgive me.

Verse 22. But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe. Put it on him. He didn't say, go give him a shower. Bring out the best robe. It's like the best. As a matter of fact, at that time when this was it, there was a special robe that men who were well to do well off, they would wear this robe. You might even say almost like a tuxedo today, but it was a robe that people only wore. The head of households only wore at weddings and at holy days. They were special. He said, bring that out and put it on this pig smelling son of mine. He wanted to show how much he cared. Love was still there. He does that to us. Then he said, and put a ring on his hand. A ring? Yeah, it's a signet ring. It's a ring that people had money they would have. And that signet ring would have their crest or whatever on it, and they could go and buy things and they would press that down. And it showed that they had the money to buy whatever. He said, put that ring on him. He's my son. Wow! Can you imagine? For one thing, it wouldn't fit because it's almost down the bone, skin and bone. But it was on. Can you imagine how his hand shook? Just thinking, I'm home again. I'm home with dad. My dad, my father. I'm going to live. Wow! And then it says, and sandals on his feet. Why did he need to put sandals on his feet? He didn't have any. He had to put sandals on his feet. Can you imagine walking five miles with no sandals? Can you imagine walking a mile barefoot? How about 50 miles? The hot sun. Maybe he had gotten calluses for living with the pigs so long because he would have given those sandals up really fast.

Verse 23, and then his father, you know what God says, he says, bring the fatted kaffir. Bring the best. My son's come home again. Bring it out. I want a feast. Can you imagine the feast that God has when, well, it says the joy of the Lord when one sinner repents. It's the angels see God's joy. That's what this is. This is about that time and how loving and forgiving the father is. And bring the fatted kaffir and kill it and let us eat and we'll be married. The past is done. It's done. Sorrow done. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and now is found and they begin to be married. And you imagine celebration God has up in heaven with his angels. Look at, he's back. She's back. She's back with us. She's come home. That's how much he cares. You think you had a great father who loved you and cared for you? You have no idea how much greater love God has for us than even the greatest of your physical fathers. Because what did John say? God is love. It defines him. Defines his greatest qualities. For God so loved the world he's willing for his son to die. Let's finish this up. I have 12 minutes. Verse 25. Now his older son was in the field and he came and drew near to the house. He heard music and dancing so he called one of his servants and asked, What do these things mean? Huh, the one who had stayed. Remember the son, the other son who stayed with dad? And you remember what would happen when he divided his goods? You remember what the oldest son always got?

He got two thirds and the younger son would have got a third. He had two thirds. He had and he said all of his stuff. He didn't go blow it. Is this talking about the Pharisees? The Jews? He'd be talking about a lot of things because God's the God to everyone, the Father to everyone.

So he called one of his servants and said, What do these things mean? In 27 he said, Your brother has come and because he has received him, Your father has killed the fatted calf. It's a party. We're going to eat well. As a matter of fact, they only killed the fatted calf. According to there was on festival days and weddings because there was actually calves they would keep up to be able to kill and they fed. And this tender you might know him as veal. And so it was a prime piece of meat. So he took the best. But what was the other son? God's other son. He was angry and he would not go in. Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him. What? Oh, I don't like the other son. Look what he did. Everything and the father did what? He came out. He came out to meet the son who had the problem. Ask God sometimes to meet you. You think he's going to turn you down? Not if he loves you. And this father loved both of his sons.

So he answered and said to his father, lo, these many years I have been serving you. I have never transgressed your commandment. Oh, boy. I have never transgressed your commandment at what? At any time. You talk about self-righteous? You had two different sons, two different sons, two different attitudes. But what did you have? The same loving, forgiving father who loves them both. One as much as the other. And he can forgive them.

He said, I never transgressed your commandments at any time. And yet you never gave me a young goat that I may marry with my friends, which sometimes makes me question, how many friends do you really have with that attitude? But as soon as this son of yours, wouldn't this son of yours, wouldn't even call your brother? How cold, how hostile, how unforgiving this one is. But as soon as this son of yours came who devoured your livelihood with harlots, she did. Was the father complaining? No. No. How about you? Well, what about this person? I don't know why you keep him around in church.

Why don't you just get rid of him? I've had people, ministers tell me that. They didn't understand. They didn't have the love of God. I said, no, I got this. I still have it. Verse 31. And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours, forgiving no matter who it is. God is that forgiving and loving father. It was all right that we should make Mary and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost, and now he's found. God's a great one. God is a great one when you talk about finding people, finding them at the very bottom, finding them at the bottom, finding them when they think there's no other hope.

I have this as I wrap this story up, I can't forget. I had just moved here. So that's been 13 years ago. And Mary and I went out somewhere for dinner, and we were standing near watching a football game as we were getting ready to leave, or waiting on a table. I don't remember what it was. And there was a sports bar, and this guy was playing, and I started this conversation with this young man, young black man. Well, he was in his 30s or 40s. And we started talking and everything, and then come to find out, he told me, yeah, I played for Stanford University when John Elway was a rookie or whatever. And he starts talking, and we swapped stories and everything. And I told him something, and we chatted just a little bit. And then all of a sudden he got teary-eyed, and he just, he walked away. And I told Mary, I said, something's wrong. So I didn't tell him. I was a minister. I didn't do any of that. We just talked sports. But all of a sudden, something just came over. And so I followed him out, which was not a smart thing to do in Fort Lauderdale in the parking lot. But I just, I felt that need. And I went there, and as he got in his car, as he went to get in his car, which was a Porsche or some really expensive car, I said, what's wrong? And he said, he just got, oh, shook up. He said, oh, my wife left me today. He said, I came out here to get drunk, so I could take the gun that's in my car and kill myself. He was a doctor, but he thought he lost it all. So I said, forget the gun. You need real help. I said, I'm a minister of God. God says, no, it's not your time. He'll tell you his time. I said, yield down with me and pray. And we prayed in that parking lot. Tears just rolling down this guy's he gets up and he grabs me and hugs me more than Stan Bromberg does. He puts me in a bear hug. And it's like, he said, there is hope. I said, yes, there is hope because God loves you. He saw you play every football game. He saw you become studied so hard in Stanford, you became a doctor and he sees you now and he knows you have a life even without your wife because he has a purpose for you. And what did what's a Hippocratic oath? You will do no harm. And that means to yourself because it's just sitting about you. It's about you helping other people and God needs you to help them. That to me was incredible story. Well, as long along with this one, Mary remembers it because I I didn't know it was a new minister, but I knew what this book says. And it's our job, whether you're a minister or not, to help help those find that there is a father above who can help. There is a father who wants all of us. He says it to be in his kingdom, to spend eternity with us. So remember the words Abba, father, it means daddy, it means Papa, it means I love you. It's a term of endearment and father is obedience. It's loving and forgiving. See, that's our dad. That's our dad. Happy Father's Day!