Rediscovering the Father through Jesus – Healing 2024

Summary

---

Because of our personal experiences or wounds we struggle to see the Father for who He truly is and feel unable to approach Him as a child. Many of us struggle from the effects of this perceived Fatherlessness. However, Jesus came to show us the Father and reveals the nature and character of the Father through the story of the Prodigal Son. In this talk, Jake Khym delves into this profound parable to help you rediscover the Father through Jesus.

Thank you for watching and participating in this retreat!

Not Registered, yet? Don’t miss the rest of the talks! Register for the Pray More Retreat!

Downloads

---

Audio MP3

Click here to download the audio file.

Printable Study Guide PDF

Click here to download the printable study guide.

Printable Transcript PDF

Click here to download the transcript of the video presentation.

Reflective Study Guide Questions

---

“Without the presence of the merciful Father, we are delivered up to our faults, without any possible remedy. There would be no forgiveness of error or sin. No place for weakness, frailty, or failure, all of which are nonetheless a part of our lives. We would be, in a way, condemned to succeed at life…putting a terrible weight on our shoulders, an obligation to be superhuman, going from success to success without any possibility of failure. ”

Father Jacques Phillipe

1. How did you learn the concept of ‘Father’? What are the ways in which the Father-figures in your life shaped (for better or worse) your understanding of the Father?

2. What comes into your mind when you think about God the Father? Do you think this image is accurate?

3. How often do you turn back to the Father? Do you approach Him as a slave, orphan, or child?

4. What stands out to you about the behavior of the Father in the Prodigal Son? What is Jesus trying to tell you about His Father?

Text: Rediscovering the Father through Jesus

---

Hi, my name is Jake Khym, and I’m happy to be with you in this talk where we’re going to talk about rediscovering the Father through Jesus and how Jesus came to actually show us, the Father and the Father’s amazing. But let’s start with a prayer. 

Opening Prayer 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, And of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Jesus, we need you in this next little bit because you show us the Father, we pray for the grace to have eyes, to see what you see, to have a heart that receives what you have received. So Jesus, give us the grace to see the Father and to receive the Father. Holy Spirit I ask that you would bless and heal any spaces and places within us that have been hurt or wounded by a father, and that during this time, those places could be loved and restored. Jesus. In your name we pray, Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

A Moving Moment 

Well, I live on on property, and, one of the things that you realize when you live on property is that the chores are never done. So, there’s always something that I’m having to do outside. And one of the tools that I use outside is a power washer. And, you know, pretty fun. But there was this one time I was using, the power washer and everything was going great, everything was going fine, and then it slowly started to, you know, kind of putter out, and then it stopped. And then I realized, oh, you know, it’s ran out of gas. 

So, you know, went and got the gas, filled it back up again. And then when I tried to start it again after filling it back up, like the cord that you pull, it wouldn’t budge. And I’m sitting there just yanking on this cord and, you know, two or three times, like, oh, something, you know, let me see. And before you know it, my intensity level is going off the charts. Like I’m getting really upset by this whole thing, and my foot is on the power washer. Um, if I’m honest, the power washer may have done a couple somersaults. I don’t know how that happened, but, I got really irritated because, you know, when life is burdensome and you just want one thing to go right, and then it seems like that’s the time that all the things start going wrong. 

And I was furious, like power washer laying on its side kind of, and I’m sweating and I’m ramped up. And then my internal commentator says a couple things that just struck me really deep. Why does this always happen? And then the next one was, why is life so hard? And I think the Holy Spirit moved in my life in that moment because it was, I’ve said those things probably hundreds of times, but for some reason, I don’t know, I heard it, I heard actually what I was saying to myself, and I heard these powerful statements of like, why, why does, why does bad stuff always happen? And why is this so stinking hard? 

And when I started to pay attention to those, I realized that there was some more there. It feels like something that I call the, the triple threat. Like when these three things are going on and they’re all in there together, it’s bad. And these things going on in my heart, and it’s like, number one, I feel totally alone and there’s nobody here to help me and I don’t know what to do. And then number three, but I have to get it right. And I don’t know why I feel like that, but those three things together, I’m all alone. I don’t know what to do. Those are kind of one, or sorry, I’m all alone. I don’t know what to do and I have to get it right. Like, those are rough when they’re all in combination and together. That’s what I was feeling in that moment. 

Just Relieve the Pressure

And it was rough. It was, it was strong, it was powerful. And the one that felt the worst was I felt alone because I was, I was sitting out there, this thing’s broken. I don’t know how to fix it. And it feels like the only way that it’s going to get better is I have to like, I don’t know, do a classic, you know, men struggle with this. I don’t know if this is the same for women, but I think it is maybe in different ways, but you feel like, oh, I’ve got to go and talk to some other man who’s got it all figured out and he’s going to be the one to show me how, because I’m a total loser, you know, like, yeah, we can be pretty hard on ourselves as men, but, so what did I do? Instead of asking somebody, I went to YouTube, it’s the next best thing to having a friend or anybody, you just type in, you know, like YouTube, like power washer won’t start. 

So I did a little YouTubing and I come and I watch this video, and when I’m watching the video, the guy in the video goes, is your power washer not starting? You know? I’m like, yeah, dude, it’s not starting. And he’s like out there and looking all cool and masculine, and he goes, and maybe by this time you’ve thrown your power washer across the yard. And I was like, where is this guy like filming me? Uh, yeah. So now I’m really intrigued. And he goes, it’s pretty easy, son. That’s a weird thing to say on YouTube. And then he goes, just relieve the pressure. And it like, hit me. It’s pretty easy, son. Just relieve the pressure. And what did he mean? Literally why this whole thing wasn’t starting was because with pressure washers, I still don’t totally understand them, but apparently when they turn off and the water’s still going and, and the, you know, it was shooting out of the nozzle pressure’s there, and you have to relieve that pressure before the engine will start again. 

A Fatherlessness Experience 

And so all I had to do is take the handle, squeeze it, and this huge like, plume of water came out and all the pressure was gone, and then it started right up and son relieved the pressure. And so I sat with that for a little bit and I came to a realization, this stuff, this whole dynamic that I was experiencing, it was about fatherlessness. See, I’m all alone, I don’t know what to do, and I have to get it right. That’s a fatherless comment. 

Listen to this quote from Father Jacques Philippe. He says, he’s talking about the prodigal son story. And then he is saying, imagine we removed the prodigal father from the story. Imagine the father wasn’t there. And then he goes on to say this, we would be in a way, condemned to succeed at life, something that would really be terrible. It would mean putting a terrible weight on our shoulders, an obligation to be superhuman, going from success to success without any possibility of failure. When we remove the father from the story, we are condemned to succeed, and there’s no possibility of failure. In other words, the pressure gets really, really high. I think so much that’s going on in life right now for you and for me, and the struggle and the difficulty that we encounter comes back to us feeling fatherless. And see, we know in the reality of the gospel that we’re not fatherless, but for some reason we believe that we are or that we have to be good enough before we can approach Him, or all the kinds of various things that go on. 

And so listen to this quote from A.W. Tozer he’s a Protestant pastor from back in the mid hundreds, the yeah, middle of the hundreds that I just really love. He says this, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” So what comes into your mind when you think about God the Father? Another way to ask the same question is, how did you learn Father? And it’s not hard to answer the question through father figures. That’s how we all learned the Father. And the unfortunate part is, many of us haven’t had perfect fathers and some of us have had great fathers, but you know the dilemma, they’re not even God the Father. 

Four Reasons for Incarnation

And so we’ve all suffered from an imperfect image of the Father. And one of the reactions that we all have to not trusting or knowing that the Father will be there for us, that it’s safe to have room to fail and grow and be loved, is that we try to do it all on our own. And that increases the pressure dramatically. And you know what’s amazing is that Jesus is pretty clear about why He came. The catechism gives us four reasons for the incarnation. If you want to read about this, go to paragraphs and following, and the catechism. And there’s four reasons for the incarnation. Number one, Jesus came to reconcile us with God, God the Father. Number two, to show us God’s love. Number three, to be our model for holiness. And number four, to make us partakers of divine nature. 

Like Jesus’. Actual words from John chapter six is, “I’ve come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me” who sent him his father. John , nine says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” And so what we’re getting in Jesus is an image of the Father. And so if a lot of the struggles in life have to do with fatherlessness, which I’m pretty confident that they do, and yet we didn’t learn Father well, or we have a lot of false images of Father, what do we do? We go to Jesus and He is trying to show us the Father. And there’s one place in particular that I think he shows us the Father exceptionally well and with a lot of clarity, and we all know it. It’s the story of the prodigal son. 

Jesus Reveals His Father

And what’s interesting about the story is that I think sometimes we emphasize the wrong person, right? A lot of the attention is on the Son and the, the center of the story is really the Father. And what the Father does and is doing, that’s what’s radical about it. You know, they call it the prodigal son. They should call it the prodigal father, because prodigal means like radical wild, like out of this world, kind of incredible. and the prodigal son did do some out of this world. Incredibly bad stuff, okay? Yeah, that’s true. But the centerpiece of the whole story, the point that Jesus is making is he’s trying to reveal his father. And Jesus is the one saying the story. It’s beautiful. So let’s dive into the story for a second. I’m going to skip right by all the, Hey, give me the money, I’m out of here. And you waste it all. You know, if we look at our lives, we know that story very, very well. Just, you know, watch the news or think the last time you went to confession, that’s, that’s part of our story. But the verses that I think we don’t integrate enough or that we haven’t integrated to the depth that the gospel is inviting us to is the reality of who the father is. And so there’s where I want to spend some time reflecting, and my hope is that our hearts are stirred so that we can actually go and maybe spend some time in prayer and be with Him. 

So it’s from the gospel of Luke chapter 15, and I want to pick up in verse So Luke chapter  15, verse 20 And so this verse says, “So he set off and went to his father.” This is the whole turning point in the whole story. But I just want to pause there, because what the son is doing here is exactly what I’m inviting us to do, is to turn and face the Father to go back to the Father. This we could argue is the most important thing we do in life is after what comes to our mind when we think about the Father, like Tozer said, what do we do based on that? And if we have a false image of God, if we have an image of God the Father, that is an accurate, it can lead to us not setting off and going back to the Father. This is the crux of the story is do we ever turn and go back to the Father? 

Because that reveals what we believe about Him. And do we set off to be with him when it’s bad and when it’s good, like right here is the crux of the story. How do we respond to the image in our mind of the Father? And so what we hear in the Son is that he starts to think about his father and, and he says things like, the slaves that were back home had it better to than me. I’ll just go back and try to be one of them. What he’s saying is that I’m just assuming that my father is not going to let me in, and I should just try to be a slave. They’ve got it better than I do. And isn’t that often how we approach God? You know, I think there’s two primary ways we approach God the Father. One is as a slave, where the only way we relate to Him is if we do exactly what He says perfectly, because He’s a tyrant. And that’s the only way we would ever be welcome into His company. 

And yet the scripture say, while we were still sinners, Jesus came for us, slave. I think that’s one of the false ways that we relate to God. And I think the other one is an orphan. I think we relate to God often as if He isn’t there or we don’t actually have a father. That’s what an orphan is, someone who doesn’t have parents. And if you don’t have parents, we’re just left to ourselves and everyone else becomes competition. They become a threat to our security. And it becomes really difficult to love because there’s no one around to take care of us, slaves and orphans. That’s not the gospel. Jesus literally says, I’ve come to set you free. That’s what slaves need. And he says, I will not leave you orphaned. Neither one of those are the gospel. And I think we do that because we have a wrong image of the Father. And maybe you’ve set off to see the Father so many times, and I don’t know how that journey’s gone, but I want to pick up with the prodigal son and hopefully let us get a glimpse again of who the prodigal father actually is. 

A Glimpse of the Prodigal Father

So now in verse , “But while he was still a far away off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.” I know you’ve heard this before, but uh, let us hear it again as if it’s the first time holding all of our faults and failures and sin and brokenness, the things we think will never change or never get better while we, “While we are still far away off, the Father is, sees us and is filled with compassion.” Jesus is revealing his father. He sees us right as we are, and He’s filled with compassion. This isn’t just a nice idea. This is the reality of one of the greatest stories that has ever been told by the greatest feet to ever touch this planet, by the greatest heart to ever love God Himself. Jesus, the son of the living God. These are His words to us. He sees us and He’s filled with compassion. And then verse 20 , this is all verse 20 , verse 2 2words “he ran,” the Father runs. 

Now based upon what our image of the Father is, if he’s running and we don’t know him, to be compassionate and kind and merciful. This is a horrifying experience. It’s a horror movie, somebody that is mean and cruel and awful running at you. That’s terrible. It sounds awful, but if it’s someone coming to us who’s filled with compassion and longs for us to have what we’ve lost, it’s incredible. I love this quote from Aristotle. Aristotle says, “Great men never run in public” because it’s too below them. It’s, it’s not what a dignified man does, because they have to hike up their tunic and just give it. And we see Jesus in his words and in his words, representing the Father, them setting aside, putting aside all dignity that they deserve to run to us. 

This is the reality of the gospel. I know you’ve maybe heard this a thousand times and right now your heart may be all of a sudden just kind of like goes numb because of this story. And I pray that you would with me renounce that This over familiarity, we feel with the truth of God’s love and mercy, that we would renounce this familiarity and that we would say, Jesus, come and let me see the Father as you see him. Let me receive what you have. And in the midst of everything that I’ve done, let me receive you running for me. And then when he arrives, verse again, Jesus says, “And he put his arms around him and kissed him.” Ugh. It is one of the hardest things to feel worthy of being hugged and kissed when you’ve done something so wrong. And yet Jesus is saying, this is my heart and it is the heart of my Father. We run to you and embrace you and kiss you. Did, did you realize that God wants to be perfectly affectionate With You, particularly in our faults and failings? It sounds crazy. It is crazy, that’s what makes it prodigal. But it’s true. You can’t make this story up. I mean, it’s ridiculous, it’s prodigal. But this is Jesus’s story to us. 

And the son in verse 21, we’ve moved on from the most amazing verse, verse 20 , Luke 15,  20. Now we’re in verse 21 and, and the son does what so many of us would do. He’s like, he just tries to say something to make it better because he’s probably so embarrassed. And, and in verse , he says, then the son said to him, “Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.” Like he does the speech like he’s prepared. He’s trying to make it okay for his father. And he’s already missed that He ran to him. He saw him a long way off, that he’s hugged him and that he’s kissed him. Isn’t it amazing to think that we don’t actually need to give Jesus a speech, he just wants us to receive his love and his father’s love, and that’s what he’s showing us here. And in verse to “But the father said to his slaves, quickly bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandal on his feet and get the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate.” It’s too good to be true. 

And yet this is Jesus’ heart for us, revealing the Father, I love you, I am for you, My mercy never ends. And the invitation is for us to turn back to him and to see the father’s love for us, and to receive his restoration of our hearts and these gifts that symbolize the restoration of our dignity, of our identity, of our calling, of our anointing. It’s an amazing story. And I think the question is, will we let the Father be Who He actually is, and set aside, renounce, purify, turn away from false images and let Jesus’s words of who the father is simply be true? Will we trust Him? Let’s pray. 

Closing Prayer

Father, you are so good and kind, gracious and merciful, slow to anger right now. Father, I pray that you would touch our hearts and restore false images of fatherhood and speak your words to us that are truth and life. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. God bless you. 

About Jake Khym 

---