Studio RC - Known #1: The Father You've Been Looking For - Max IngramStudio RC - Known #1: The Father You've Been Looking For - Max Ingram
Studio RC
Pastor Max Ingram reflects on the parable of the lost son and relates it to addiction recovery, focusing on a father who runs toward his children. The conversation centres on replacing shame-based images of God with a picture of a loving parent who leaves the light on and invites you home.
33:25•6 Oct 2026
Known: The Loving Father and the Porch Light Left On
Episode Overview
- Recovery may involve healing from a distorted picture of God as angry, distant or impossible to please.
- The prodigal son’s bottom mirrors addiction, but change begins when he comes to his senses and remembers his father’s character.
- The father runs toward the son with compassion, restoring him with a robe, ring, sandals and a feast instead of punishment.
- Both the rebellious younger son and the resentful older son are distant from the father’s heart, showing that performance can be its own kind of running.
- Challenging shame-based ideas of God and seeing the father through Jesus can be a deep form of recovery, like coming home to a light left on.
“The father was looking for you before you started looking for him. The light is still on. Come home.”
You’ll hear the story of the younger son hitting a very relatable bottom: wild living, everything gone, desperate enough to eat pig food, and finally "coming to his senses." Max links this moment to that honest point in recovery when you stop saying "I’m fine" and admit, "I do have a drinking problem." What shifts things isn’t self-analysis, but remembering the character of the father – generous, compassionate, and better than the son ever realised when he was still at home.
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? Studio RC offers one answer by tying recovery directly to a different picture of God as a loving father. Pastor Max Ingram, who openly shares, "My name is Max and I am an alcoholic," talks through the famous parable of the lost son from Luke 15 and connects it to the experience of addiction and recovery.
A key thread is the idea that "the father was looking for you before you started looking for him." Max paints a vivid picture of a porch light left on at night, symbolising a home that’s still open and a heart that’s still waiting.
When the son is "still a long way off," the father runs to him, throws a robe around him, puts a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet – signs of full restoration rather than probation or punishment.
Max also points to the older brother, who stays home but thinks like an employee: "All these years I’ve been slaving for you." He suggests many in recovery might recognise both sons in themselves – rebellion and resentment, acting out and performing to earn love. Throughout, he invites you to question the God-image shaped by shame, harsh parents or bad church experiences and to let Jesus reshape it into that of a father who watches, runs, embraces and restores.
If you’ve ever wondered whether the light is still on for you spiritually, this episode might be a gentle nudge to ask: what kind of father do you really believe is waiting at the door?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.