Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “So He Got up and Went to His Father.” When Jesus was doing His earthly ministry, He was even close to sinners who were distanced and avoided by people. In the Scripture today, when the Pharisees and the teachers of the law saw that the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, they muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus taught them by telling them a parable. This is a story about a son who left his father. There was a man who had two sons. The younger son inherited wealth even though his father was alive and set off for a distant country. Luke 15:13-16 says, “"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. He went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” The younger son left for a distant country to live without his father’s interference. He thought that he would be happy if there was no meddling from his father. However, his life without his father ended up with a sinful, dissipated life of starvation that could not fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. Nowadays, many people also think that if they live on their own without God, it would be satisfying. But all those who leave God end up with a weary and miserable life. Since Adam left God, all people have to live a tiring life that has to make ends meet by toiling and by the sweat of the brow. The life of the younger son who left his father, clearly shows the reality of human beings who left God since Adam. Job 14:1 says, "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Ecclesiastes 2:23 says, “All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.” When we leave Father God in heaven and sin against Him and are on the verge of starving to death, we have to determine to return to Him. When we are depressed and full of pain due to our sin against Father God in heaven, we realize that we should return to Him. Luke 15:18-19 says, “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.” Here repentance is referred to as to return to God. Repentance means coming back to God. Hosea 6:1 says, "Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.” Joel 2:13 says, “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” The Bible says that our Father God is gracious. If people repent and go before this gracious and merciful God, He will bandage all our wounds and heal them all. Repentance is available only through suffering. The younger son came to his senses only after all his possessions were lost and he was on the verge of starvation. He suffered from extreme hunger and a hard life and then was reminded of his father’s house where even his father's hired men had food to spare. “How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” When we leave God and follow the wrong path, God sends suffering to make us turn around. Let me illustrate, when a fire breaks out in a barn people try to pull their cow from the barn but the cow tends to resist due to fear. I was raised in the country so I know it. When a barn was on fire and filled with smoke, cows usually stepped back and refused to come out. Then we had to turn over their manger. If their manger turned over, they came out of the barn. As long as their manger stayed intact, they would not come out. Therefore, when we leave God and go astray. He will make us turn around through hardship and suffering. In other words, if we become hungry and naked and suffer like cows without mangers, only then can we repent and come to Him. As long as we are fed well, wear well, and prosperous, we won’t return to God. When we pull our cows from the barn, they resist while being fearful, but if we turn over their manger first, they will come out on their own. It is the same with us. If we become someone with nowhere to go, we will say, “Father, I stretch my hands to Thee. Please save me! I don’t have a manger.” We come to repent! Therefore, a manger can be a means to make us seek God. Suffering makes us seek God earnestly. When we are satisfied and peaceful, we tend to forget about Him. However, when hardship confronts us, we come to realize how helpless we are and finally begin to seek God. When Jesus’ disciples crossed the lake of Galilee, a furious storm came up on the lake, so they became terrified and sought Jesus who was sleeping. Matthew 8:25 says, “The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We're going to drown!’" It is the same with us; when we face a furious storm of life, we attend the early morning prayer meeting and all night prayer meeting and even go up to the prayer mountain and fast and pray saying, “Lord, save me. I am going to die!” while seeking God desperately. When there is a furious storm in our lives, we must believe in God’s love. Lamentation 3:32-33 says, “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.” God brings affliction or grief to us because it benefits us! When we have to pass through affliction, we become humble and broken and changed and come before God. We can find our humble and broken life reflected in the circumstances of the younger son in this parable. He turned into a humble and broken person while passing through many afflictions. Therefore, he was determined to return to his father with a humble mind that he would not insist on his sonship any more but only seek to be one of his father’s hired men. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” When we come before God with our humble and broken hearts and minds, He will take pity on us and pour out His grace on us. So the younger son got up and went to his father. Actually, his father waited for his son to come back every day. Luke 15:20 says, “So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” The father knew well that if his younger son returned, he would be mocked by his town people. Therefore, he ran to his son first of all! So even before his younger son finished saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.” he threw his arms around him and kissed him. This is God’s love! 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Romans Chapter 5 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: when we were still powerless, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Therefore, you should know that you are so much loved by God. Isaiah 55:6-7 says, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” Isaiah 44:22 say, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." The father put the best robe on his returned son, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. He killed the fattened calf and had a feast for him. The father completely restored his son’s status. Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." How amazing, the Lord God rejoices over us so much! Isaiah 30:18 says, “Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.” While he was in the field until late and then came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. He knew that his father really rejoiced over his younger brother’s safe return so he became enraged. Luke 15:29-30 says, “But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'” Then his father went out and pleaded with him. Luke 15:31-32 says, " 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' " Let us read together John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Hallelujah! Whosoever believes in Jesus and returns to God will be accepted by Him and become a child of God. Through these words of God, we can realize that God promises that when we repent and return to Him after we deserted Him and ended up with defeat and despair in life, He will make us renewed. Even today God is seeking you now. “Repent and come to Me!” God is seeking us. When we reach out our hands to God, He will throw his arms around us and kiss us and love us.