Communauté et discipulat

Pray for Healing and Restoration (Luk. 15:11~32)

2014.07.27Rev. Eddie Byun

Pastors who have failed or feel like failures need the church to pray for their healing and restoration. Like the prodigal son, they can return to the Father, who runs to embrace them, restores their identity as His children, and redeems even their failures.

Pastors need prayer for healing and restoration

The preacher explains that after a series on praying for pastors, one more gift remains: praying for their healing and restoration. He describes pastors who feel like failures, who are discouraged and burnt out, and who compare their small churches with large ones. He notes that many pastors struggle with discouragement and depression weekly, if not daily. He connects their situation to the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, which he says holds many parallels with the lives of pastors, pastors' kids, and church families.

The son's rebellion ends in rock bottom (11-16)

The younger son asks his father for his inheritance and leaves for a distant country to live as he pleases. The preacher says God does not force us to love Him, because true love is a choice that involves freedom. The son squanders everything in reckless living, and when a famine comes he is reduced to feeding pigs, which was shameful for a Jew. No one helps him, and he is left alone with the consequences of his sin and selfishness.

Coming to himself and turning back (17-19)

When the son comes to his senses, he sees that even his father's hired servants have enough bread while he is perishing with hunger. He decides to return and confess that he has sinned against heaven and against his father. The preacher calls this the turning point and a picture of repentance, which means a change of mind about sin and desire that changes the direction of one's life. Repentance is grounded not in what we have done but in trusting the mercy and goodness of God.

The Father runs to embrace his son (20-24)

While the son is still far off, the father sees him and runs to him, because he has been waiting day after day since his son left. The preacher says that when we take one step back toward God, He will run the rest of the way with compassion. The father gives the son a robe, a ring, and shoes, which signify that he is restored to his rightful place as a son. The preacher contrasts this with shame, which says not only that we failed but that we are failures, and he says the gospel reminds us of whose we are.

Redemption and the celebration of grace (25-32)

The older son, who never left home, is angry at the celebration and refuses to join it, and he speaks of his brother with contempt. The father answers that the brother who was dead is alive again and was lost and is found. The preacher says the older son lived like a slave even though he stayed at home, and that many of us also fail to celebrate grace because we still feel we must earn God's favor. He concludes that God can redeem all that we have been through, and that when one sinner repents, God throws a party in heaven.

Apply to Life

  • Let us pray that pastors would return to the Father by knowing His heart toward them.
  • Let us pray that fathers would come home, both physically and emotionally, to their children.
  • Let us pray for prodigal children and prodigal parents to return home and for healing to begin.
  • Let us believe that the Father runs to us when we take even one step back toward Him.
  • Let us live as beloved children rather than slaves and celebrate the gift of grace.

This summary was made automatically from the sermon's captions and may differ from the sermon.

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