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Years ago, Heidi took a job as a 911 dispatch operator and she also was an EMT. She took many first aid classes and was thoroughly trained in CPR. One day, she had taken her daughter to the mall and wanted to just spend the day with her and make special memories with her. They went from store to store trying on clothes, shoes and looking at purses and jewelry and just having a great time.

As they were walking through the mall, they saw a huge crowd gathered around a still body lying on the floor. Heidi runs through the crown, yelling, “Everybody back! I know CPR!” As she hops down on her knees beside the body, she felt a pair of strong hands on her shoulders. “Leave me alone! I am going to do CPR.”

The policeman said, “Ma’am, this guy just stole a bunch of jewelry from JCPenney and we are trying to arrest him, but thanks anyway.”

Sometimes things are not as they seem. I love it when I am reading the bible and the Holy Spirit points out something that that I had never caught before, even though I have read or heard that scripture many times in the past.

I have several verses from our text today. A story that is going to be familiar to many of you, and I would like to think of it from a different perspective. And I would like for you to look at it from a different perspective. So, for those of you that will, I would like for you to get up and change seats. Move to a different part of the sanctuary. Move up 4-5 rows. Just get out of your norm. And Go!

Ok let’s read Luke 15:11-32.

Most of the time when I read this passage, I think about how this Lost Son and I, have a lot in common with each other. I never disowned my parents, but I did break their hearts. I did do things that hurt my relationship with them. But I don’t want to focus on that side of the story. I want to focus on the side of the story of the parents.

Let’s take a look at how our lives, whether we have children or not, can and should be persuasive to others around us.

How can we all have Parental type Persuasion in the lives of those around us? Some of these we may not like. But if we are going to be imitators of God, we better do them. Point #1

1. We do it with patience.

Luke 15:11

Luke 15:28-31

One thing that do not do well is patience. Now, sometimes it is easy, but sometimes, people are selfish and I really don’t like them very much.

As many of you know, I drive a school bus. I drive a route in the morning and one in the evening. I, also, will drive for field trips and the occasional sporting event.

During my morning route, I am usually the first bus back to the school for student drop off and my kids love it. If, by chance, we end up behind another bus, the kids will make comments and they are disappointed that we are not first. When we get to the school, typically around 7:21, the students have to wait until we have been given the “OK” to unload. Most of the students on my bus will stand up for the whole 9 minutes waiting to be released and they all want to be first.

“Bus driver, they cut in front of me.” Many of them as soon as I stop, get up very quickly trying to get as close to the front as possible.

I do have one student, that is always the last one off. He walks the bus and makes sure that no one fell asleep or left anything behind. I never asked him to do it. He did it on his own to help out. Awesome bus rider! I wanted to thank him and I asked him what kind of candy bar he liked. He told me and got him a huge one. I took it to school for him to have at school and he shared it with his classmates.

I think about this dad and the hurt that he must have felt, when in all reality, the son said, “You’re dead to me. Give me my inheritance now.” The dad didn’t argue or make a scene. He did what the son wanted and gave him his freedom to do whatever he wanted. God does the same for us. Obviously, this story is about God giving us freewill and the patience that He has with us to reject Him. The bible tells us that we have all rejected God, because all have sinned and fallen short. But God has patience and waits for us to come back if we so choose.

That’s hard for us sometimes, because we want things our way, right now. We expect people to treat us perfectly and when they don’t, we don’t have patience for them any longer. Which leads us into point 2. If we are to be like God in our Parental Persuasion..

2. We do it with optimistic expectation.

Luke 15:20

On Wednesday, we are going to have a visioning…church future…where do we go from here…. meeting. I am asking you to pray. I am asking you to be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Maybe this journey will take us to new heights. Maybe it will expand us out of our comfort zone. Maybe it will inspire us to be in an optimistic expectation of what God wants to do with us.

There can be a lot of reservations when it comes to things we are unsure about. The fear of failure. The fear of rejection. The fear of misunderstanding where God is leading us. The fear of it actually working and I am going to have to get on board and do something.

Do you know who likes to discourage us? Satan. Can you imagine the thoughts of the mom and dad in this story of the lost son? Can you? I am sure the mom was pacing the floor, telling the husband to go look for their son. “You need to go and see that he is okay.’ And the dad being a good father, probably wanted to go look. I mean God has an eye on us all the time, but He waits for our return.

I can imagine this father sitting on a stool looking out the window, up the path to the house, day after day, just waiting and hoping for the son to come home. We know that he didn’t give up on his son, because when the son was still a long way off, the father ran to him. The day that he had hoped and prayed for finally coming true.

When things don’t go our way, with our family or friends, when they do us wrong and put distance between us, either physical distance or emotional distance. What do we do? Do we write it off as hopeless or do we pray for that person waiting with optimistic expectation of something great to happen? Are we hopeful of a miracle or do we just believe that it is a waste of our time? If we are going to be like the Father, we better be waiting for a reunion…. And when that happens how should we respond? Point 3 tells us….

3. We do it with festive forgiveness.

Luke 15:20-24

Luke 15:6-7

Luke 15:9-10

As we reflect on all three of our points this morning, I see something and maybe you do also. Let’s restate them…

• We do it with patience

• We do it with optimistic expectation.

• We do it with festive forgiveness

If we are truly going to have the godly Parental Persuasion, then we have to be like God, right? You can’t look like the world, act like the world, think like the world and be like God.

And when well look at all the aspects of God waiting, do we do those. When someone “sins” against us, do we have patience? When someone sins against us do we wait with optimistic expectation or do we think, “If they come back, they come back. If not, it is on them.” I guess the strangest one for us would be the festive forgiveness.

When someone is doing something wrong in our eyes or to us, family, friend or foe, we tend to put our guard up. We tend to go into self-preservation mode and when or IF they come back, we stay in that mode. WOW. What kind of God would you be serving if He forgave the way that you forgive?

The Jesus said there is more rejoicing over one that there is more rejoicing over one sinner that repents than 99 that do not need to. We like to celebrate for those with those that do us good. We don’t like to celebrate when someone does us wrong and asks for forgiveness. We put up a wall. We shouldn’t do that. Reluctant forgiveness is not forgiveness.

Parental Persuasion