WHAT KIND OF FATHER IS GOD? selected texts 6/15/03 This We Affirm EmN 2/23/14

Transcription

1 WHAT KIND OF FATHER IS GOD? BBC O selected texts 6/15/03 This We Affirm EmN 2/23/14 Goodmorning. I m so glad to be able to get here and worship with you today. What a week! Huh? We re on the front end of a series of messages we ve called This We Affirm / This We Believe and last Sunday pastor Abe spoke on the Trinity. And WOW, what a great message, Abe. It was deep, but it was so wonderfully instructive about how important it is for us to grow in our understanding of God. It reminded me in my Seminary days how much I just loved going to theology class... to learn more about this God that we love so much. I d love to do it again, but I want Abe to be professor - I ve never heard the challenge of the Trinity communicated better. Thanks Abe. Today, we re going to go to the third paragraph of our Affirmation of Faith to grow in our understanding of God the Father. But before we do, let me just say how important it is for us to let God define Himself. Romans 1 tells us about the disaster that results when humans invent what God should look like. And it wasn t just back then. How many times I ve heard people say, I could never believe in a God who would... however they finish the sentence. And there are lots of lies people believe about God, but listen. We don t invent truth... we discover truth. We don t define God, God describes who He is -1-

2 and God has spoken in the pages of the Bible. He s told us what He is like and it s an amazing and wonderful journey to study and discover the wonderful God that He is. So here s the third paragraph of our Affirmation of Faith. We believe in God, the Father, an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of each person, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. Now I wish I had time to preach that whole statement, but that would take a lifetime. So let me just today speak about God as Father, cause whether you know it or not, this is unique to Christianity. The religions with many gods have no concept of even a personal relational God. Muslims have 99 names for God, but father is not one of them - they don t related to Allah as father. The concept is certainly there in the Old Testament and in Jewish understanding, but Jesus - among all the Jewish concepts of God - lifted up the Fatherhood of God - relating to Him as Father and telling us to pray Our Father who art in heaven Some of us struggle with that cause our experience of father has been twisted and distorted by a dad who never knew how to be a father. And for some of us that word Father dredges up memories of a man who was nothing like God s goodness and kindness and grace and mercy. I once read Faith of the Fatherless a study of the 50 most famous atheists Sigmund Freud, Joseph Stalin, Madeline -2-

3 Murray O Hare, Dawkins, Hutchins. They had one thing in common. Every one of them hated their dad. Every one of them had a terrible relationship with their father. That s not an accident. People are often warped, shaped by ugly parental relationships. That s made it hard for some of us to connect with our creator who loves us so intensely. But we so want to help you to get to know your heavenly ABBA. What a great thing it is to be adopted into God s family and discover who God really is, cause how you understand God really determines your happiness in life. If you have a false view of God... and many of us do... we might have gotten it from the movies, from bad religious experiences, from our parents, from the schoolyard... if you get a misconception about what God s like it will put problems and pain in your life you were never intended to have. Some of us think GOD IS UNREASONABLE, that He put s unfair demands on your life... that He just enjoys making life tough... and is a God of cold rules and regulations. Some think GOD IS UNRELIABLE. And usually those of us who feel that way have been hurt by authority figures we trusted. I ve always been fascinated by this human quality that when people hurt us, we tend to not only blame the person, but we blame God. And some of us here today have never gotten beyond the resentment in our heart of blaming God for bad things that happened to us. A lot of us were crippled from understanding our Heavenly Father, -3-

4 cause we resent our Earthly Father. He abandoned us or misused us or mistreated us and it can cripple our relationship with God. Others think GOD IS UNCONCERNED. They believe in God, but say God s got bigger things to worry about than me. He s too busy for me. It s like that old Bette Midler song, God is watching us from a distance. Out there aloof. And if you think He doesn t care you re not going to try to get to know Him. Some think God is UNPLEASABLE. That no matter how you try, it ll never be good enough for Him. If you get B s you should have had A s... if you got A s it should have been A+s. Where did we get that idea. It s cause we had parents - for whom it was never good enough. You know Jesus came and the Bible says, He came to show us what God is really like. In fact Jesus himself said, what you see in me... that s what God the Father is really like. Most of us really love and respect what we see in Jesus, even if we re confused about Father God. And Jesus explodes all these stereotypes about God. He taught us to pray, Our Father in heaven. God is a Heavenly Father. But that was a radical idea in Jesus day. In all the Old Testament, written across 2000 years of Jewish religion only 7 times is God referred to as Father. They saw Him as Ruler - King - Transcendent Majesty who rides upon the clouds. The great Power of the Universe. But Jesus told us - this Great and Powerful God wants to be known as -4-

5 Father. Just in the chapter where Jesus gives us the Lord s Prayer - in that 1 chapter alone he calls God Father 7 times. In the Gospels Jesus talks about God as Father over 150 times. It was His major theme. So today, I want you to open your mind and take all the thoughts you might have had about God and set them aside for to consider what THE BIBLE tells us about God. What s he really like? What kind of Father is God? First the Bible says GOD IS A CARING FATHER. It says, He s compassionate, loving, gracious and He Cares about you. Psalm 104. As a Father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who honor Him. Remember when Jesus and the apostles were crossing the sea of galilee and Jesus falls asleep in the stern of the boat. All of a sudden there s a huge storm. The waves start rising, rain pouring down, thundering lightening and the wind in their face, keeps pushing them back. Every stroke of their oars forward, the wind pushes them back 4 strokes. And Jesus sleeps right through it all. And the disciples finally shake Jesus to wake him up and say, Lord don t you care that we re dying? We re going to perish. Don t you care? That s the big question, isn t it? Does God care about my problems? Does God care about the things I go through?... the stress I feel, the worries I have; Does He care. And until you know the answer to that, you won t trust Him. But YES God cares about you. So much. The Bible says it over and over. One place is 1 Peter 5:7 where it says you can -5-

6 cast some of your worry on Him... no that s not what it says... You can cast your spiritual sounding problems on Him... No that s not it... It says cast all your anxiety on him (all your worry, all your struggles, (circle ALL)all your needs - financial, physical social spiritual, relational, mental, spiritual) because He cares for you. God cares about your house payments. He cares about your kids rebellion. He cares about medical bills. He cares about your struggle in school. He cares about that guy who doesn t like you. He cares about your dreams and hopes and ambitions. You have a Heavenly Father who cares about every issue of your life, big or small. The Bible says God cares so much, he even knows how many hairs there are on your head. For some of us that s a big deal, for others it s a smaller issue every day. He cares. And so the Bible says, so don t worry saying, what shall we eat? What shall we wear?. Your heavenly Father knows you need these things. I m a caring Father, God says, so you don t need to worry. Whenever you start to worry in life, it s a warning sign that you ve started to doubt God s love for you. That s what worry is. Doubting that God is in control and that God cares. I d better worry, cause God can t handle this one. This one s too big for Him, or God won t want to deal with this one; I m going to have to work this out cause He doesn t care. Not too many months back I had a fellow in my office so full of depression, so worried about the stuff in his life. He told me all about his worry and then said, I guess my problem is that I just don t love God enough. I said to him. You missed the -6-

7 point. It s not that you don t love Him enough... you just don t know how much God loves you. He loves you... & cares for you. The Bible also tells us that God is a CONSISTENT FATHER. You can count on Him. He won t let you down. Always dependable, entirely consistent. James 1:17 says every good and perfect gift is from the Father who does not change like shifting shadows. Now the truth is that earthly fathers are unpredictable. Some are incredibly unpredictable. I ve talked to many teens who feel like, I never know what to expect from dad. It changes so much from day to day depending on his mood. One day he ignores me, the next he screams at me. One day he s a good guy, the next he s a tough guy. I don t know what to expect. Inconsistent fathers produce insecure kids. But that s NOT God. God is not moody. He never has a bad day and that s good news. What if God woke up tomorrow and said, I feel a little grouchy. Who can I zap today? We d all be in a world of hurt. The good news is that God is constantly consistent. "Even if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself. God s character is consistency, and he cannot be other than He is. I m so glad that on days when I m down, God is still up. When I m struggling, God is still victorious. He doesn t change. Mal. 3:6 is a verse worth memorizing and sticking down in your heart. One of the greatest causes of resentment and rebellion in kids is broken promises. You find a rebel kid and usually you find a Dad who broke big, important promises. Some of you remember -7-

8 what it felt like when Dad broke his word to you... some of you remember this week, breaking your promise to your kids. The good news is Romans 11:29 God will never go back on his promises. Ps 49:10 My God is changeless in his love for me. Listen, some of you grew up with a father who was far from perfect. Some of you had Dads who were absent or abusive, and there s some real hurt there. I ve talked to many who struggle to develop a relationship with their Heavenly Father or even to want to meet Him in the first place... but I ve learned a truth over the years that you need. The truth is that the more imperfect your earthly father is the more difficult it is to see the kind of relationship that God wants to have with you. But here s the REST of that truth. The more imperfect your earthly father was, the more important God thinks it is to show you His deep love for you and the more it will bless you and thrill you to have in God the father you never had. Trust God to be the Father your father never was... Let God pour such love into your life that you never knew was possible. You can pray right now... Father, help me to see You as the Father I never had... God I was disappointed by my father on earth. Help me to see You as a God who will never disappoint me... I never knew my earthly father, but help me God to hunger to know You and to be known by You. I was hurt (maybe deeply hurt) by my earthly father. Help me see that You are my healer and protector. God I was ignored by my earthly father... Help me to know that I have your -8-

9 constant attention... God I never met my earthly father s expectations. Flood over me with your Grace so that I know you value me in spite of my failings and want me to be free from the rejection I felt. See, God is the right kind of Father... One who Really Cares and One who is Consistent. Not only that, but God is a CLOSE FATHER. He s available all the time... there when you need him... not far off or distant. Acts 17:27 says.god did this so that people would reach out for Him and find Him since He is not far from each of us. God wants you to find Him... to Know him...to have a tight, close relationship with Him. Maybe you grew up with an absentee father who was never home, never around. Or maybe he was there but so self absorbed that you couldn t get close. Three Good News Truths about God. 1) HE S NEVER TOO BUSY FOR ME. Your parents may be too busy for you. You may be too busy for your kids, but God is never too busy for you. When you pray, God never says, Not now, talk to me later. He s never too preoccupied. He never turns away. 2) GOD S LOVES TO MEET YOUR NEEDS. Matthew 7:11 says If you as a sinner 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. You know I hate to admit this. But I m selfish a lot of the times. I m self-centered. I think about my needs first. But still I love to give to my kids. I just love to help Kim with her car troubles. I just love to talk to Jennie and tell her how proud I am of her. And I have a feeling that my grandkids are going to be very -9-

10 spoiled from grandpa. And with my own mixed motives, if I love to give to them, How much more does the perfect Father - the never self-centered Father want to meet your needs. YA! Here s the other thing 3) GOD IS SYMPATHETIC TO MY PAIN. When I come to God with my hurt... when I come to him with my tough week or when people let me down or criticize or misunderstand, God doesn t say. Buck up little camper, get over it! Put that smile on your face! You know, I d just bet that today, in the middle of this crowd someone has a broken heart. Someone feels crushed in spirit. Somebody had the wind kicked out of them this week. And you can turn to God who loves to meet your need and love you through it. He listens when you tell him how much it hurts and then He pours in His love. You know, the word Jesus used for father in Aramaic is the word Abba. Abba is not an Swedish rock group. (If you laughed at that, I know your age.) Abba is the first word that every Middle Eastern child learns. It means daddy pappa, dadda, abba. If you ve been to the middle east or Israel, little Arab kids run around all the time. Abba, Abba. Abba. Daddy - it s the ultimate term of endearment, closeness, family. You know my kids - Jennie turns 43 in May. Kim is 38 this year, but still nothing is sweeter to my ears than when I pick up the phone and hear Hi daddy. You know, if I were to come home when my kids were in High School and Kim were to come up to me -10-

11 and say, Oh thou most holy procreator of the Anderson clan. Thou who so sovereignly bestows our allowance upon us. We beseech thee for a bountiful blessing of cash and thy merciful benevolence to use the car. I d be going what?? Hello?? God doesn t want you to talk to Him like that. Come knowing He loves you like you are. Come knowing He wants to be close. Come and crawl up in his lap and say Abba, here s my problem... Abba, here s my hurt. Papa Here s my need... Here s what happened this week. Heart to heart. Just daughter to daddy... son to daddy. Cause He s close. More than that, GOD IS A COMPETENT FATHER. Nothing is beyond his ability. Nothing is beyond his resources. God is just about the opposite of most human fathers in my generation. I think we had an epidemic of incompetent fathers. Guys who may know how to play a great game of golf or run a million dollar business or build a great technical piece of machinery, but were lousy as fathers. I m so impressed with some of the dads I see today. I wish I were half the dad my son-in-law is to my grandkids. There weren t a lot of great dads in my generation. I heard two kids bragging on the school yard. One can said, My dad can beat up your dad. The other kid goes, Big deal, so can my mom! But nobody can beat up your Heavenly Father. Nobody can take Him and He does everything well. Especially being a Father. He does that well. And Luke 1:37 says, nothing is impossible with God. -11-

12 Remember when you were growing up, you thought Dad could do just about anything? I loved those days when my kids were 4 and 5. They thought I could fix the weather. They thought I was superman! I liked those days when they lived in that delusion. Yea I m a little out of touch with reality. But your Heavenly Father He CAN do anything! God is able to do far more than we could ever dare to ask or even dream of - infinitely beyond our highest prayers or desires or thoughts or hopes. God says, think of your biggest dream. I can top that. Think of the biggest problem - your biggest nightmare. I can solve that. The biggest hurt you ve ever known. God says, I can heal that. I m your heavenly father and I m CLOSE and CARING and CONSISTENT and I m COMPETENT and if you ll trust me... if you ll do life MY way, things will go a whole lot better in your life. So the next logical question is this, Is Everyone a child of God? Well, if you mean did God create everybody? Yes. If you mean, does God love everybody? Absolutely. Does God have a plan for every person who is born on this planet? Absolutely! God is the Father of everyone in that sense. But it takes more than birth to be a father, doesn t it? It takes a relationship. Some of you were birthed by men you never met. They were your father by creation, but they were not your father by relationship. And God says, I created everyone, but not everyone is my child... some... most in fact the Bible says are out of relationship with God. And the Bible says, you re not in the family of God until you receive His invitation to come home. -12-

13 Look what Jesus said in John 14 I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my father as well. That s Jesus saying, I came to earth to show you the Father, so you could get to know Him through me. Galatians 3:26. We are children of god through being religious? No that s not what it says. We are children of god by going to church? By being a good person? No We are children of god through faith in Jesus Christ The only way into God s family is through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, in human terms there are two ways you can get into a family. You can be born into it or be adopted into it. In Bible terms, there is only one way - because our self-centered-sin has broken our relationship with God, the only way is to be adopted - spiritually RE-BORN. 1 Peter 1:3 God has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are not members of Gods own family. Ephesians 1:5 God s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. He did this cause He (really) wanted to. Not because we deserve it...cause we don t because he wanted to. Adopted - being Born Again. John 1:12 to those who believed on Him and received him, He gave them the right to become children of God. You say, I believe in God.. I believe in Jesus. Congratulations, you re half way there cause it says, you must believe and receive. I believe - Trust Him. I receive Him as my Savior and Lord and say God you call the shots in my life. You be my savior. You be my life director. You be the manager of my life. Lord, You re in charge from here on out. And so today, I want to encourage you to let this wonderful God - the only REAL Father, be YOUR Father. So let s pray. -13-