Return to Your Father with a Son's Language

Introduction

On November 16, 2025, Pastor Marc Rizzilio takes the floor before the congregation after being introduced by Pastor Chadrac. A former pastor and teacher with a doctorate, soon to retire, he is preparing to open a theological school in Le Havre in 2026. His message starts from a parable you know very well: the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. He builds on two verses from Malachi and puts before you a question that is simple but sharp: are you truly a son, a daughter to your heavenly Father, or just someone who lives in the house? The message keeps coming back to one point like a refrain: when you change your language, when you find again a son's language, everything changes in your relationship with God.

Outline of the message

1. The grace of having a father, and a Father

• The story begins with something you easily forget: "a man had two sons." It is a grace to have a father, even an imperfect one, and it is a grace to have a heavenly Father.
• Marc Rizzilio recalls a study done in a prison in the United States: whatever the race of the inmates, the recurring factor was the absence of the father. "When the father is not there, it opens the door to a lot of problems. When the Father is not present in the church, it opens doors that lead you far from the things of God."
• Malachi 4:6, the very last verse of the Old Testament, already announces this urgency: "he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction."
• Malachi 1:6 puts the question even more directly: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? [...] says the LORD of hosts." The failure of God's people came down to this: they no longer had that relationship of a son with his Father.

2. The son leaves because he was not a son in his heart

• The prodigal son does not leave from just anywhere: he leaves the father's house. And yet the problem is not with the father, he is a good father, whom the son will remember even from far away. The decision to leave had matured on the inside, while the son was still in the house.
• Marc Rizzilio dares the phrase: "It is not because you are in the house of God that you will stay there forever. You will not stay in the house of God if you are not a son according to God's character."
• It is not service that makes you a son. You can preach, do pastoral work, get involved in the field, without ever serving with the spirit of a son. "What makes the difference in all service is the mindset of a son."
• The true Jesus, the one you are called to follow, is a Son. He seeks the Father's glory, he submits to the Father, he does nothing without his approval. If you follow the historical Jesus, the one in the Bible, you become a son and daughter, not if you follow another jesus who only promises you great wealth or a place in the world.

3. A son's prayer, not a "give me" prayer

• What is striking in the parable is the request: "Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me." The father is not dead, and the son is already claiming his inheritance. The father becomes a calculating machine, a machine that gives.
• "I fear that today we see God as the one who gives, and gives. But do you see God wanting first that you be a son, a daughter?"
• Our prayers sometimes look like those of an employee coming to collect his paycheck after his work. Those are not a son's prayers. Marc Rizzilio says it plainly: "We miss out on many blessings because there is no prayer of a son or daughter in our hearts."
• Psalm 37:4 turns the logic around: "Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." First you delight yourself in God, then your prayer finds its rightful footing, and you see answers.

4. God's fatherhood: an authority accepted over your life

• In the Lord's Prayer, what stands out is the Father's authority that runs through it: "hallowed be your name, your will be done..." Recognizing God as Father means accepting his authority over your life.
• Solomon began his life well under this fatherhood (2 Samuel 7:12-14, "I will be to him a father") before drifting away, multiplying building projects that wore out the people, no longer listening to any counsel. His fall began when he refused God's fatherhood over his life.
• The fear of God (a word we no longer like today) remains "the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10). Wanting to soften its edges to make it gentler means missing what the Bible really says.
• We are shaped by whatever takes authority over our lives. If it is God's fatherhood, you will be shaped by it. If it is something else, like Joash, who served God as long as Jehoiada the priest was training him, then drifted after his death (2 Chronicles 24), you will take on the color of whatever truly reigns over you.

5. The language of the son who returns

• What changes everything in the parable is the moment the son "comes to himself" and prepares a sentence: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."
• "When this son returns home, he has the language of a son. What God wants to see in us is the language of a son."
• "Do you want things to change in your life this morning? Change your language." It is the language of grace, the one that pleases God, the one that opens the door to blessing.
• Marc Rizzilio closes with a conviction he carries for the congregation: "The most beautiful thing you can give God is a son's character within you. You can offer a beautiful service, be a great preacher, hold theological degrees, have the most beautiful church in the world. But if you are not truly a son, if you are not truly a daughter, it is worth nothing at all."

Key takeaways

• It is not your presence in the house of God that makes you a son, it is the attitude of your heart.
• Service, preaching, and theological degrees do not replace the character of a son that God is looking for in you.
• A son's prayer is not reduced to "give me": it first delights itself in the LORD.
• Recognizing God as Father means accepting his authority and his fatherhood over your life, both Solomon and Joash lost their way the moment they refused it.
• Returning to your Father begins with a change of language: the language of grace, that of the son who knows he is unworthy but loved.

Personal application

1. When you come to church, do you come as into a building or as into your Father's house? What would that concretely change for you if you entered as a son, as a daughter?
2. What do the depths of your prayers look like right now: requests to a provider, or the heart of a son who first seeks his Father's face?
3. Is there an area in your life where you refuse God's fatherhood (that is, his authority), the way Solomon refused it in the second half of his reign?
4. What influences shape your life today: your Father's word, or voices like the ones that led Rehoboam, Joash, or Ahab astray?
5. If you wrote your own sentence today as the son who returns ("Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you..."), what would it say? Can you say it before your Father before the day is over?

Verses cited

• Psalm 100 (LSG)
• Acts 2:29-33 (LSG)
• Luke 15:11-32 (LSG)
• Malachi 4:4-6 (LSG)
• Malachi 1:6 (LSG)
• Exodus 20:12, the fifth commandment (LSG)
• 2 Samuel 7:12-14 (LSG)
• Psalm 37:4 (LSG)
• Proverbs 9:10 (LSG)
• Matthew 6:9-13, the Lord's Prayer (LSG)
• 2 Chronicles 24, Joash and Jehoiada (LSG)

Frequently asked questions

What does it actually mean to "have a son's language"?

It is not just a form of words in prayer. It is what comes out of your heart when you become aware of who your Father is and who you are before him. The prodigal son, on his return, no longer demands anything: he acknowledges his fault, he no longer considers himself worthy, he entrusts himself entirely to his father. It is the language of grace, the one that pleases God and opens the door to blessing.

Why does Marc Rizzilio insist so much on the fatherhood of God?

Because it is the thread running through the whole Bible, right up to the last verse of the Old Testament (Malachi 4:6). Solomon fell when he refused this fatherhood. Joash drifted away as soon as Jehoiada, the one who raised him like a son, died. As long as God's fatherhood (his authority) is not welcomed into your life, your service, your preaching, your theological degrees will not reach their goal.

Is serving in the church enough to make me a son?

No. Marc Rizzilio is very clear: "It is not because you serve that you are a son. What makes the difference in all service is the mindset of a son." You can be in the Father's house like the elder son in the parable and yet not live like a son. The question is not "how much do you do for God?" but "in what spirit?"