Father’s Day Sunday Service 2018: Our Father in Heaven Who Loves Us

2018 Father’s Day Sunday Service:

Our Father in Heaven Who Loves Us

Pastor Bruce A. Shields

House of Faith Church | www.PS127.org | www.TruthDigest.org

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SERMON INTRODUCTION

Happy Father’s Day, dads!

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE

Matthew 6:9
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

 

I. OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN WHO LOVES US

a. Some of the best known words from scripture

b. If you asked the random person from the street to say the Lord’s prayer, most probably could say it in part if not completely

                                                        i. “Our Father which art in heaven...”

c. Many can quote this, yet, as it is with most quotes, saying it, understanding it, and living it are all different things.

                                                                               i. Whenever someone tries to impress with scripture quotes, and it is obvious they lack any understanding of what they are quoting, it’s good to remind them who else can quote scripture, satan.

                                                                            ii. In fact, he could probably beat every single follower of Christ at Bible Trivia.

                                                                         iii. Quoting, saying it, understanding it and applying it are all different things.

                                                      iv. “Our Father in Heaven”, what an awesome thought!

                                                         v. What a privilege to be able to address the Creator of all things as “our Father”

                                                      vi. Throughout the scriptures there are many places where God describes Himself in the terms of Fatherhood.

 Psalm 68:5 - “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God...”

Psalm 103:13 - “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;”
Isaiah 63:16 - “You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.”

Matthew 7:9-11 - Jesus said: “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 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!”

John 20:17 - After He rose from the dead, Jesus told Mary to go to His disciples and tell them he was alive and he said, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

II.      THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD

a. The glory of sons is their father - Proverbs 17:6

                                                                 i. There are pictures in the Bible that reveal something of God’s character. This morning I’d like us to look at three pictures of fatherhood from the Bible.

                                                              ii. Each shows us an aspect of our great heavenly father.

                                                           iii. The first is found in Genesis 22, the picture of;

III.   A WILLING FATHER

a. The Story of Abraham and his son Isaac

                                                                 i. Abraham was WILLING, in his love and devotion to God, to be obedient even in sacrificing his own son. This was the boy God had promised him, and he had waited years for his wife Sarah to conceive him. And yet, at the word from God, he took his son up Mount Moriah with Isaac carrying the wood for the fire of his own sacrifice.

Not only do we have a willing father here, but evidently a willing son also. It’s very doubtful he was a little boy - he was most likely a youth or young man - certainly strong enough to carry the wood up a mountain! But he had spoken to his father, and they went together willingly. And Abraham stood on that mountain, no doubt with his vision blurred by the tears streaming down his face, and he raised the knife to sacrifice his beloved son. And at the last possible moment, when Abraham revealed (not to God who knows everything, but to himself) he was obedient, even unto death, the Angel of the Lord called to him to stop. “For now I know that you fear God.”

                                                              ii. Those of us who are fathers here today can only marvel at this total obedience and faith. What a test!

b. God, likewise, is the willing father

                                                                 i. in His love and devotion to US, was prepared to give up His own son. His Son Jesus was willing and obedient, and carried His own cross up on a mountainside - a hill called Calvary - to give His life in sacrifice.

However, while Abraham was given a reprieve - because it was a test - there was no such reprieve for Jesus; it was no mere test! WE were in the balance. God went all the way and gave His son.

                                                              ii.  You see Romans says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

c. Adam and Eve rebelled against God

                                                                 i. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God it cut the entire human race off from God. Right to this present day, man has continued in sin. And the Bible says that “the wages of (our) sin is death.”

                                                              ii. The wages of our sin is everlasting death.

When God gave up His only Son to death, He was dying in our place. Providing a substitute sacrifice, so that whoever believes in Him, trusting Him to be their Savior can be forgiven and come back into right relationship with God forever. Our heavenly Father was WILLING, in love and devotion, to give us His Son.

A WILLING Father. A father willing to die in place of his child.

                                                           iii. A WILLING father, a real man... unlike a lot of the men today who abandon their children.

1. Some father’s today abandon their children, leaving them to raise themselves.

2. Out of 27 of the deadliest mass shooters, 26 came from fatherless homes.

a. 63% of youth suicides

b. 90% of runaways

c. 85% behavioral disorders

d. 71% of high School Dropouts

e. 70% Juvenile Detention

f. 75% of Substance Abuse

3. In 2014 17.4 million children in the U.S. lived in fatherless

homes

4. In 2018 that number has grown nearly 4% to over 18 million!

5. In 10 years This number will be 21 million children, or more!

6. Why is the traditional biblical family so important?

a. I think the statistics are evidence of why God made us male and female, each with our own part and role to play in a family, that cannot fully be replaced or substituted

b. If fathers were not necessary, we would not see these statistics.

c. Just as I preached for the irreplaceable need for a mother in the home, I preach the same about the father.

d. 2 mothers will not work, two fathers are just as insufficient

e. There is a reason and purpose to God’s plan.

                                                            iv. The second picture I’d like you to see is found in 2 Samuel 18. It’s the story of ...

IV.   A WAILING FATHER

a. The Story of King David’s son Absalom

                                         i. This is the story of when King David’s son Absalom had plotted treason against his own father. He raised an army and sought to bring about a military coup to take his father’s throne.

                                      ii. David’s loyal soldiers, under General Joab’s command, went out to stop them in battle. And they did, and in the fighting Absalom himself was killed. And the news was brought to David.

b. 2 Samuel 18:24-33

                                         i.  Here is David heartbroken over the death of his son, Absalom.

Absalom had not been a faithful son. He dealt treacherously with his father! He sought to overthrow him from the throne.

But David perhaps remembers the little boy he had bounced on his knee, the youth he had watched grow before him into manhood. Parents always seeing their children as children, no matter their age.

                                         ii. It was his flesh and blood. True fathers do not stop loving their children. David LOVED Absalom. At the news of his death, David’s heart was torn.

Here is a picture of God, the God who takes NO delight in the destruction of the wicked.

                                      iii. He loves us. We all have turned our back on God and gone our own way, and so many refuse to return, even after His willingness to give up His son for us - but God still remembers how it SHOULD have been / COULD have been. He knows the plans He had for us; the relationship He wanted with us. God’s heart is broken.

There’s a glimpse of this in Jesus’ words over Jerusalem.

                                       iv. The refrain sounds very much like David’s words over Absalom: “O my son Absalom; my son, my son Absalom”.

                                          v. Jesus said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!” Israel would not receive Jesus, and in rejecting Him they were rejecting God.

Jesus heart was broken. God our heavenly father’s heart is broken by people who live without Him.

Our God is a holy God. He cannot look on sin condoningly.

                                          vi. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts. There is no fragment of sin in His perfect nature. God loves you with a committed and everlasting love - a love more real and powerful than any other you have ever known - but do not mistake that God will sweep our sin under the carpet and overlook it.

                                       vii. He cannot deny Himself. God’s HOLINESS - His justice - means that He WILL banish people to hell, because although His love us unwavering, so is His righteousness!

                                       viii. The Bible is very clear about that.

                                             ix. But He will not do so gladly, but mournfully, with a breaking heart.

c. Not Willing that ANY should perish

                                                  i.  2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

1. It IS NOT God’s Will that any should perish

2 Samuel 14:14 says “For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him.”

                                               ii. God DEVISES MEANS - He goes to extraordinary lengths and works extravagant plans - so that people can be saved.

1. No one will end up in hell by accident...they will have to work for it in life.

                                            iii. God sent prophets to prepare the way, He fashioned history to prepare a time, and then “when the fullness of the time had come”

                                                iv. He sent His only Son to live and die for us that we the banished ones may not be expelled from Him.

                                                v. Having done all this, do you think He won’t be heartbroken when people keep going without Him, lost in sin? It breaks His heart.

A WAILING Father.

                                                vi. The third and final picture is found in Luke 15. The story of ...

V.                   A WAITING FATHER

You remember this very famous story that Jesus told.

[The story of the prodigal son ... “A man had two sons...”]

This is another son who has walked away from his father’s house.

a. Gone off on his own rebellious ways.

The WAITING father is out in the fields - WAITING - LONGING - HOPING - LOOKING.

When the prodigal returns - even when he is still afar off - the father RUNS to embrace, welcome and restore him.

Take just ONE step toward God today, and He will run to you with arms open wide to embrace, welcome and restore YOU.

Give you a place in His household.

Dress you in the privileges of son ship / daughterhood.

He loves you! He’s a God of grace. He’s the WAITING Father.

CONCLUSION – OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN LOVES US

What’s your response to the waiting Father today?

Will you come home?

Will you cast yourself on His great mercy today, and say: “Father, I’ve sinned. I’m not worthy to be called your son. But I believe you willingly gave up your Son Jesus to die my death penalty. I believe you gave all in heaven to keep me out of hell - to have me home. And I will not ignore that sacrifice. Forgive me.”

When God hears that simple prayer of trust in Jesus, you’re going to find the waiting Father will receive you.

He’ll take you as His own son or daughter. And you’ll live with Him forever.

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