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Luke 15:11-32 (20b) Fathers Day occurs each year on the 3rd Sunday in June. But did you know that the idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began right here in Having been raised by her father after her mother died, Friday’s Breakpoint from Charles Coulson began with these words: “Stop the presses. Some new research has been released, with shocking results. Here's the conclusion the researchers came to: ‘Dads make a difference in a child's life’." David Blankenhorn, who serves as founding chairman of the National Fatherhood Initiative writes: “Fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation. It is the leading cause of declining child well-being in our society. It is also the engine driving our most urgent social problems, from crime to adolescent pregnancy to child sexual abuse to domestic violence against women.” So what does a pastor speak about on Father’s Day, when so many in our society are growing up without their fathers, who have been abandoned by their father, or who have had fathers who were abusive, or who feel more pain than pleasure when they think about their father? I want to remind each of you today of a Father Who loves you, who cares deeply about you, who models fatherhood for us in a way that no earthly father can. I want to remind you of your Good Father, your Heavenly Father. When Jesus’ disciples one day asked Him to teach them to pray as John the Baptist had taught his disciples, Jesus started with two simple words: When you pray, say “Our Father”. The concept of God as our Heavenly Father is not totally absent from the O.T., but it is rare. In Jeremiah 3:19-20 God says “I myself said, “‘How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of God’s desire was that they would see Him as “Father”, but they did not. In Psalm 68:5 David calls God A Father to the fatherless, a Defender of widows. And Isaiah, in 63:16 says You, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from of old is Your name. But it was not until Jesus came that the understanding of God as our Heavenly Father really came into focus. Jesus called God His Father, but He also taught us to call God our Father. I want us to look at 3 passages from the Bible this morning that talk about God as our Father, and see some things that these verses say. And here are the three main things we will see today: God your Father loves you. God your Father has good gifts for you. God your Father disciplines you. GOD YOUR FATHER LOVES YOU. Turn with me in your Bible to Luke 15 (page 740). Jesus was often criticized by religious people. On this occasion He had been criticized for welcoming and eating with people whom the religious people called “sinners”. It was a teachable moment, and Jesus uses it to help people understand God’s attitude toward people who are spiritually lost. And the verses we are about to read are the last in a series of 3 stories Jesus told to illustrate His point. (Read Luke 15:11-32) The two things that stood out to me here are that this father loved his son enough to let him go, but he also loved him enough to welcome him back. God loves you enough that He will not stand in the way of your rejecting Him if you so choose. If you choose to go your own way, to reject what your Heavenly Father knows is best for you, he loves you so much that He will not impose His will on you. He will let you go. But the whole time you are away from Him, He still loves you. He does not love what you are doing, but He loves you. And He usually will not interfere with your experiencing the consequences of your wrong choices. Don’t blame God for the pain you experience as a result of your sinning. He is under no obligation of removing the painful consequences of your rebellious choices. He will let you end up in the pig pen if that’s where your choices lead you. But He loves you even there. But notice the father’s attitude toward the son when he returned: he went running to him, embraced him and kissed him, welcoming him back without ragging on him. It’s important for us to note that the son came back repentant. I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. He did not come back demanding that the father reinstate him. He had been humbled, and was in fact only asking to be one of his father’s hired hands. That repentance and humility were key factors in this story. The father’s love would have still been there without them, but his warm embrace and restoration were a response to the son’s change of heart. Another part of the story is the father’s love for the son who had stayed home, but who was angry. The Prodigal’s son’s return did not please him at all, and he was angry that his father would welcome him back. But the father loved the elder brother as well as the prodigal brother. God your Father loves you unconditionally. Never forget that. And we can let His love for us be an example to us of how we are to relate to our children, both the ones who stay home and behave, and the ones who rebel and go off to do their own thing. We are to love them unconditionally. GOD YOUR FATHER HAS GOOD GIFTS FOR YOU. Turn with me to Matthew 7 (page 685). This is part of what has been called “The Sermon On The Mount”. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 are spoken to people gathered on a hillside near the Read Matthew 7:7-11. I hear some today talking about “Consumer Christianity”, where we are Christians for what we can get out of it. God becomes our servant instead of we being His servants. And that certainly is a danger today. But we cannot dismiss the promises God makes to us that He will bless us as we meet His conditions for those blessings. How many of us got saved because we wanted to go to heaven instead of going to hell? Is that selfish? God wants us in heaven instead of in hell for all eternity. He talks about rewards that will be ours in heaven, and rewards that will be ours as we serve Him here on earth. Yes, He needs to be central in our lives, but when He is, He has promised to bless us. Don’t miss that. If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Here are 3 of the good gifts that God wants to give you. Your Father wants to give you forgiveness of your sins. You cannot earn forgiveness; it can only come as a gift. You simply acknowledge your sins to Him, and His promise is that He will forgive you. No penance, no purgatory, no payment. Because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you can be totally forgiven as you turn from your sins, acknowledging them to Him. Your Father wants to give you peace. Jesus said Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled & do not be afraid. Jn. 14:27. Repeatedly He said Go in peace. He said Peace be with you. He said “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jn.16:33 Acts Your Father wants to give you hope. When your spouse dies, or your marriage dies, where do you go for hope? When the doctor tells you that you have cancer, where do you go for hope? When life turns upside down on you, where do you go for hope? As I have walked with people through the death of their spouse, or the death of their marriage, or the death of a child, or even through their own dying process, so many have said to me: “Pastor, I don’t know what I would do if I did not have the Lord.” Without the Lord, where do you go for hope? Despite what those running for President say, I’m not so optimistic about Psa. 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. Psa. 43:5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Romans Ask for and receive good gifts today from your Heavenly Father: the forgiveness of your sins, peace in your heart, hope as you face the future. GOD YOUR FATHER DISCIPLINES YOU. Turn with me to Hebrews 12. We enjoy our Father’s love; we enjoy our Father’s gifts; but we usually do not enjoy our Father’s discipline. Yet His discipline flows out of His love for us, and is in reality a good gift. Read Hebrews 12:5-13. It’s for our good v.10 says. It’s so we may share His holiness v.10 also says. It produces in us a harvest of righteousness and peace v.11 says. Painful? Yes! But it is the pain of a surgeon’s knife cutting out cancer, not the pain of an assailant’s knife trying to do us harm. It happened during the earthquake that struck In the muddled chaos a distressed father bolted through the winding streets leading to the school where his son had gone earlier that morning. The man could not stop thinking about the promise he had given his son many times. "No matter what happens, Armand, I'll always be there." He reached the site where his son's school had been but saw only a hill of rubble. He just stood there at first fighting back tears...and then took off stumbling over debris running toward the east corner where he knew his son's classroom had been. With nothing but bare hands he started digging, desperately pulling bricks and pieces of wall plaster. One of the bystanders said, "Forget it, mister, they're all dead." He looked up and replied, "You can criticize me or you can help lift these bricks" but only a few pitched in, and most of them gave up once their muscles began to ache. But the man couldn't stop thinking about his son, so he kept digging and digging...for hours and hours. 12 hours went by..... 18 hours..... 24 hours..... 36 hours......... and finally into the 38th hour he heard a muffled groan from under a piece of wallboard. The man grabbed the board, pulled it back and cried, "Armand!" and from the darkness came a slight, shaking voice, "Papa?" Other weak voices began calling out as the young survivors stirred beneath the still un-cleared rubble. Gasps and shouts of bewildered relief came from the few onlookers and parents who remained. They found 14 of the 33 students still alive. When Armand finally emerged he tried to help dig until all his surviving classmates were out. Everybody standing there heard him as he turned to his friends and said, "See, I told you my father would not forget us." Dr. Scott Hahn recounts this story in his book A Father Who Keeps His Promises. He concludes with this sentence: "That's the kind of faith we need, because that's the kind of Father we have." Your Heavenly Father loves you; your Heavenly Father has good gifts for you; your Heavenly Father will discipline you so that you can share His holiness and peace. He is your GOOD Father. PRAY |