Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the Sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, welcome to day four of what it means to be a godly dad. Today we're going to look at a very, very, very famous story that Jesus taught in Luke chapter 15. And the thing I want to look at is this. I don't really have time to dig into all the details, but we need to love our kids like our heavenly father has loved us. One of the most famous stories that Jesus ever tells, 189 times in the Gospels, Jesus refers to the Almighty Sovereign Judge as Heavenly Father. And nothing illustrates it like the story of the prodigal son. Tim Keller's famous for saying that it really should be called the prodigal God because prodigal means lavish, and the one that is demonstrating lavish grace and love is the Father. I'm just going to read it to us, and if I have time, share a couple of thoughts. Luke chapter 15, verse 11, the Bible says, And Jesus said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had, and he took a journey to a far country, and there he squandered his property and reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and he hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed by the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. You know, one of the things that you have to do as a godly dad is you can't always rescue your children from their own bad decisions. Listen, man, you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. And so I want you to see this. No one gave him anything. You are going to see that the dad constantly looks for his kids and welcomes him back with grace, but there he's not a helicopter dad. He doesn't solve all of his kids' problems, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and he came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion. All right, stop right there. This means that the dad has constantly been on the lookout for his kid. This means that the dad, though he would not rescue him from the consequences of his sin, he was looking and longing for him to return. And when he saw him, he did not feel anger. He felt compassion. And he ran to him and he embraced him and he kissed him. This would have been humiliating for a first century father. But the dad didn't care. The dad did not have to have things his way. The dad lowered himself, embarrassed himself, ran to his son, and filled up his face with kisses. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they begin to celebrate. Now, what I want you to see here is this dad leads with grace. There's no I told you so. There's no contract to sign. He leads with grace. I'm praying that we would be the kind of godly dads that lead with grace. Now, what you have to understand is now the older brother represents the Pharisee, the legalist, the religious one. And the dad is going to show the older son the same amount of grace. Verse 25. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and he asked what these things meant. And the older son, or the servant said to the older son, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back, saving sound. But he was angry and he refused to go in, and his father came out and entreated him. That means that the dad came out, left the party, embarrassed himself in front of the party, got on his hands and knees and begged his son to come in. Dads, think about this. Let's say you're at Thanksgiving and your high school son gets sideways with your CNN listening uncle or something like that, and your son goes storming off into the lip into his bedroom. It's like I can't take this. And you go in to get your son back to the Thanksgiving table. How do you go in? I know what my personality is. My personality is to go in finger pointing, chest beating, say, This is my house, you do what I say. I'm just here to tell you that's not how the father in this story treats the boy. He entreats him, he begs, he cries. But he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you and I have never disobeyed your command, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when his this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fat and calf for him. And the dad says, Son, you were always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and to be glad. For this brother of yours was dead and is now alive. He was lost and is now found. Dads, would the words celebration and gladness define your fatherhood? Because that is what defines God as our father. You see, love does not demand its own way. That's right. That reconciliation is more important than being right. To be a godly dad, we have to humble ourselves. We have to consistently, we have to consistently pursue our kids, to get down on our knees, to lead with love, grace, and relationship, not with positional authority, and it's because I said so. I pray that the grace of God would fill us in such a way that it would spill out onto our children.

Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.