Father’s Day Sermon Message 2025

-Daddy’s DNA Brandon Lake

Gal 3:26 NLT For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Luke 15 18-31 NLT 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.

What is your approach to God going to be?

A servant or a son/daughter?

John 8:35-36 NIV Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The motivation of a child is love. The motivation of a servant is fear.

Psalm 103:10-13 NIV

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him

The mindset of a Servant: Task-Oriented

The mindset of a servant: reward-focused

Luke 15:29 NLT but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.

Legalism always leads to the same dead end: a lack of joy, a critical spirit, and an inability to be transparent.

Gal 4:5-7 NLT God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.[b] 6 And because we[c] are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”[d] 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.[e] And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

The acceptance of the Father

The Robe symbolizes life.

The second thing the robe symbolizes is possession

The Ring - is a picture of restored authority.

The Sandals- a symbol of the son’s restored position. He was received back not as a servant but as a son

The fatted calf- “Bring the fatted calf here!” He wanted it slaughtered at the very spot in the road where he embraced his son, in the pouring out of the calf’s blood marked a restoration- a life was being given so that from the blood-drenched dust a new life might emerge for his son.

What’s true about you?

You are given a robe of righteousness, life, and inheritance

You have been given the ring of authority and dominion

You have been given the sandals of honor

Welcome home son. Welcome home daughter

1 Peter 1:23 NIV For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God..

Our position as a child of God does not come through doing, it comes through birth.