father_god_happy_fathers_day

The speaker discusses the importance of understanding God as the father. They highlight the failures of the world's perception of fatherhood and emphasize the need to evaluate fatherhood based on biblical principles. They criticize the modern definition of fatherhood and the reliance on psychology instead of scripture. The speaker discusses the absence, disengagement, and passivity of fathers in today's society. They also mention the importance of taking responsibility as a father and reference the biblical example of God the Father affirming Jesus as His beloved Son. The speaker encourages repentance and aligning fatherhood with biblical principles. This is the word of the Lord You are doing the works your father did They said to him We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father even God Jesus said to them If God were your father you would love me for I came from God and I am here I came not of my own accord, but he sent me Why do you not understand what I say it is because you cannot bear to hear my word You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him When he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies But because I tell the truth you do not believe me Which one of you convicts me of sin if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God. Here's the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God This is the word of the Lord and father may we hear and receive your word now May we understand the glory and promise of your fatherhood in our lives May we be moved and changed shaken transformed redeemed found holy in you And may we desire to be fathers Like you are May those who we influence we cover we love and we pray for in ministry in our own homes in our own lives Know that you are working in and through us Father may the words of my own mouth and the meditations of my own heart be acceptable to you as you are my rock and my Redeemer Thank you father for who you are and what you do Again we pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus the Christ as you're grateful adopted children Amen, please be seated. So this morning as I prepared this message Looking at the good news the bad news and the promises of God. I'm hoping that you will understand the truth about God Who he is as the father? His goodness and his perfection as the father I pray that you understand the world's blindness and ignorance and even contempt of God as father and the lies that are perpetuated because of this blindness and ignorance and contempt for God throughout the world We're going to also look at the ideal of the application of what is true about God and his word And we're going to look at the ideal versus the caricature of such an application and in all this We're going to be reminded that the gospel is good news indeed for the fatherless there is always a need for repentance and room for improvement for us as fathers and There is a promise that God maintains for all of his children Whether they have a father here on earth or not, and indeed we say thank you and praise God that this is true now in Understanding all of this and where we're going to go today It is true indeed that our world is filled with fathers Because it is a world created by God the father Fatherhood lies at the center of all things and because the father created the world the world Reflects the reality that God is our father Sadly and what we know to be true is that but because the world is and has been obedient to God our first father Fell into sin and rebellion That father being Adam So it is that the world Has also been filled with false information about fatherhood We have a father of all good things But there is also a father that we just read about and he is the father of lies We are warned we are to understand that this is true and This means that we must start this morning's message with understanding the failures of the world and what God has done to take corrective action I'm going to give you a little bit of what psychology today and what American site of the American Psychiatric and Psychological Associations both say about fatherhood in our time The modern-day father comes in various forms today's father is no longer always the traditional married breadwinner and disciplinarian in the family He can be single or married Externally employed or a stay-at-home father. He can be gay or straight adoptive or a step-parent and a more capable than and a more than capable caregiver to children of various types Psychological research across families from all ethnic backgrounds suggests that father's affection and increased family involvement Help promote children's social and emotional development Now there are some truths in that statement Well, we have to understand that 125 to 130 years now into the progressive movement in the United States of America the information the data what is being impressed upon us what is the Lexicon of our language in today's world all comes from psychology There is no biblical reference point for what we just read None None There is no paradigm for receiving God the Father in the Bible and saying this is what's true This is our plumb line The Word of God what God has to say and then we will start evaluating fatherhood That doesn't exist anymore We evaluate based on how people feel The even the the best research on fatherhood now taken in the last 20 to 30 years All of it is assessing people in our day and time apart from who Jesus is How has fatherhood worked out for you for me for everyone in the world? apart from Jesus Christ and Then we can see the cost and benefit analysis of fatherhood based on the world's a evaluation of outcomes Have you grown up to be a productive person? Has have your children grown up to be a productive person? We don't ask Has your child come up in the fear and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ? And is going to promise to be Generationally impacting the world for the cause of Christ these standard that God gives for all men in the Bible Is that they become? Followers of Jesus Christ. That's the standard That's what God cares about. Do you know me? Do you follow me? I don't care if you can earn a million dollars I don't care if your kids grow up seemingly well-adjusted. There are a whole lot of earthly well-adjusted people in hell you This is the problem and it's a massive problem And it's because the world is so willing to listen to the father of lies Not even knowing that that's what they're doing In The lexicon again of our language today, you don't even hear people talking from a paradigm where they say I believe in the God of the Bible first and foremost and From there. I'm going to start to evaluate everything that I see receive and put out into the world That is not the paradigm of this world. And so we are warned And what it looks like To be a father of lies what it looks like To be a father in accordance with the world standards what it looks like to be a father Without Evaluating us in accordance with scripture is to be a failure in modernity We have all experienced or at least many of you likely have experienced a failed father That is a tragedy It is a tragedy. It is the tragedy of our generation Is the wreckage that we're trying to clean up right now The father is absent The father is disengaged Passive Silent and androgynous No need to be masculine There's no need to be Manly Anybody can father children in accordance with the world And we see this and we I diagnose this way because of where we're going to go in Matthew And we're going to see what is good and right and true the best example of fatherhood Brothers if this does not apply, please let it fly But understand that these five things These five criterion for evaluating and being a father of the world a father of lies a Failure in modernity. It's just commonplace Amongst many men in our culture. They're absent rather than present When they're present they're disengaged If they're engaged they're engaged passively Their manhoods already been stripped away They're acquiescing To an equality of role that's not given to us by God in the Bible They defer To the one who rarely wears the pants in the family Of course we kid about this stuff and In each individual couple the dynamics vary and so we're not drawing a really Firm line here right now But the reality is myself included we can be silly about this a little bit Now my wife is one really in charge But I know today and what my wife and I have been through in this world and even in our Christianity That's a bad joke It's a bad joke I Wear the pants in our family my wife's wears the dress and she looks lovely doing it and what we mean by that Is that ultimate responsibility? For raising up our children ultimate responsibility and Who's gonna answer to God for my family is not my wife And all you got to do is go back to the garden to recognize that It was not Eve Who was solely at fault It was her absent disengaged Passive husband who sat back and watched her eat and speak to the devil Without saying a word He remained silent He did not take up the mantle that God had given him And Then he blamed God he blamed his wife and took no responsibility The complete antithesis of what it means to be a father That's the bad news If it doesn't apply let it fly once again to the degree it applies. We get to repent and recognize What God would have us do and be and how we recognize that in the New Testament we see The very first moment in the Bible in the New Testament where God actually speaks This is the very first time God the Father is quoted in the New Testament, and this is what he says and this is how he's engaged In Matthew 3 beginning in verse 16 and when Jesus was baptized Immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him and Behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased You can see corresponding cross-reference verses there and Isaiah 11 to and in Mark and in Luke as well. You might want to take those down There are great reference points, but here we see something absolutely beautiful We see God the Father presenting himself verbally Experientially to his son and to the world in every way opposite of what we just looked at We most of you know the episode the facts of the episode anyway Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized He received a baptism of repentance and John protested Jesus, but Jesus insisted he needed to identify with the sins of his people from every from the very beginning of his ministry and As he comes out of the water the heavens open up and he saw the Spirit of God In the form of a dove And he came to rest upon Jesus and Then a voice which had to be scary as all get out if we were there The voice of God from heaven concerning his son And gives us a glorious vision of what fatherhood is like the essence of fatherhood Here we see God Almighty making himself known Making himself available Affirming his son with word and deed giving of himself to his son and Ensuring that his son would understand he is with him forever He was not absent he was present And he is ever present always present Omnisciously present God is your father and my father and he is present He is not present passively He is there pronouncing a blessing giving joy and confirmation and affirmation to his son loudly clearly and boldly So the whole world knows that's my boy That's my son He belongs to me And how will you know he belongs to me because here I put my identity into him through my Holy Spirit Of course, this is for people to see and recognize. This is not what is It's not the the breaking up of the Trinity in real life This is simply to exemplify for us to see what it's like to come to know God What God does He becomes present a Quickly engages assuredly engages tells the world he is engaged with his son Jesus sees the Spirit of God descending upon him dad's with me dad's right here He's not passive he's Attending to Jesus. He's coming out of the water Not ascending to God God is descending to him through the Spirit He doesn't do so In a way Like people tend to do Come home Daddy's home Daddy's home and wants to watch the game daddy's home wants to play a game Daddy's home and needs a timeout daddy's home and just leave me alone Daddy's home And he becomes engaged quickly with his children Or child God engages Jesus right there And he does so loudly and clearly in a voice not in a grunt Not in a poo-poo Sort of way This is my beloved son. He identifies him. He says who he is. This is my beloved son Hey kids dad needs a beer. Hey kids. Hold on. I want to watch the game. That's not what's happening You He's present and he's affirming my child my children You are my beloved children Talk to me speak to me tell me about your day I'm going to tell you how I am affirming and blessing and ministering to you through my spirit. I'm protecting you I'm guiding you. I love to hear about your day. I love to hear about what happened with you and your mother Whom I love dearly I'm engaged. You're engaged God's engaged With his children he's engaged with his bride We cannot afford the I would say this man that the most egregious most annoying most bothersome thing as a pastor as a man who loves Jesus Is to watch men be passive It is like the it's an assault on the senses Who stole your stones? How did you happen to become a eunuch Where was it that you lost the battle That you can no longer stand for what and who is good and right and true Where do you go to war anymore? Where do you tell your children you're fighting for what is true How tired we are How ineffective we are Passive men are the destruction of the church period Passive men are the destruction of the church Men are to be proactive men don't need to get permission to serve Christ and to give out his gospel As we Look at God and the ways in which he Engages with his son It's easy to say these things It's easy to be macho To say some of these things in such a way that we become a caricature But again, I want you to see what God has done see how he's showing the first words This is who he says he is as the father. He speaks out He makes loud and clear his presence known to everybody including his son. He says something very affirming to his son. I Am well pleased I Love you. I Care about you. I Want you to know I am present and If you think if I think that somehow What the world is saying about what is true about? fathers in any way Can come up aside and be a part of what God's Word is saying. We're going to miss this privilege this office this gift from God From the very beginning and we're going to be malformed We think about Women's rights and we think about the whole movement of women's equality and if you think that a woman Can give a bear hug and an affirming statement to your children the way you can You got it twisted There is nothing That will compare with a father's affirmation It's just different Existentially Experientially you all know it You get a hug from your dad. You get a hug from your mom. It's different You get a tear wiped away from your cheek by your mom You get a pat on the tush from your papa suck it up and drive on it's different Not better It's different It's attending to something that God has given to you and your family and your children They need both Once we start comparing the way the world does in the without a framework that has any Christendom in it We can make it sound like it's survivable even doable even we can get by without this thing called biblical fatherhood But if you look at the research that's out there and the ways that Humanity and cultures have been formed and malformed and then become disastrously broken and taken out of the world You can draw lines and see what happened to the men of that culture Pick a culture that's died out do a little bit of research on your own. What happens to men? We're seeing it in this culture, obviously We have a standard and when anytime anybody says something whether you're taking classes on child development or you're Seeing a therapist or whatever your engagement out there is in the world You and I need to ask by what standard are you speaking to me by what standard are you providing counsel? By what standard are you providing encouragement by what standard are you applying wisdom by what standard? Do you know the Word of God No, but I have some good information I've gained it from Jung and Freud and modern psychology Did they know God Do they care about what God's Word has to say? The church does not or at least should not preach and instruct the body of Christ based on the felt needs of human beings Your felt need Is superfluous my felt need is superfluous when it comes to listening to the Word of God Your felt need is not God's concern Every moment of every day He knows what you need We've been instructed that he knows what you need and what I need and he promises to deliver Exactly what we need when we need it We are image bearers and ambassadors of our King Means we sacrifice That means we put away what we think we need based on the feelings we have We go now I have to evaluate my feelings are my feelings in line with what the Word of God says Well, my feelings might not be because my thinking is not in line with the Word of God because my thinking precedes my feelings It's the way it works we feel a Certain way because we think a certain way first. So are we thinking in terms of the standard that God has given us? We can evaluate our feelings once we know that we're thinking in right terms Are we thinking by the standard of God the world certainly isn't all that being said? We talk about what it looks like to be a godly man a godly father They talk about what's going on in this culture. It is very important for us to understand from the scriptures That we can overplay this hand in silly ways And here's what I mean in 1st Corinthians beginning of verse 4 being in chapter 4 14 The Apostle Paul writes this I Do not write these things to make you ashamed but to admonish you as my beloved children For though you have countless guides in Christ you do not have many fathers For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I Urge you then be imitators of me That is why I sent you Timothy my beloved and faithful child in the Lord to remind you of my ways in Christ as I Teach them everywhere in every church I've come here Paul says to Take the pulse of the church and see what the church would like to do and see the ways that which in which we can Please the world and invite them in and be seeker sensitive So that they come to church and get exactly what they want and feel good about themselves In fact the church is here to serve you That's a lie from the pit of hell and there are churches that will gladly boast of this My call the call of the pastor as imperfect as I am Is to tell you what God's Word says to follow God's Word and The best that I can to say be like me and as much as I follow Christ Not let's attend to our felt needs and see what's popular out there and see how we can get more people To be happy about Jesus To call Jesus their homeboy God is a father. He's a good father. He's a mighty father. He's a towing the line father It gives us grace, but does exactly what he says. He's going to do what he says. He's going to do it and as imitators of Christ as imitators of God as imitators of Paul as imitators of our pastors as much as they may fail We want to see the strength and the courage of God and what is good and right and true This does not mean that we're going to be overly masculine We're not going to focus on fatherhood with gimmicks We're not going to talk about this in ways that are Patently, you know physically machismo machismo sort of, you know tough guy terms Those are funny things that we can talk about in ways in which we can demonstrate our masculinity, but they're farcical They're silly for the most part You either have I mean we're going to go shoot guns and that's going to be fun We are going to also Proclaim the name of the Lord and we're going to do some affirming of who God is as we hang out but oftentimes when men hang out and when men Want to do godly things be godly men It's either just the machismo stuff or it's like this drum circle kumbaya men go out into the mountains and open up their kimonos and get real And we're not talking about either of those things It's just silliness, but all of you know that there's a chuckle because it's real it's true There's such silliness. How can we get the men? How do we get men to be authentic to be real Get them to preach the gospel of their kids Train them up in the way that they should go Give them some catechism Let them know what's important Be enthusiastic about what God's Word has to say share the impact of God's Word on your children Share the impact of God's Word on your life Be honest You Talk about the ways in which God's Word is serving you serving your family blessing you It's okay for us to have feelings it's okay for us to talk about those things I'm not saying we're not going to do any of those things I'm just saying there's a time and a place and what's real is who God is and the hard Reality is that when we are seeing who God is we are seeing what God proclaims about his nature and his character Again myself included we all sin and fall short of the glory of God This is not light work This is serious And there are ways in which we are Dead serious, and I'm not giving you not give you guys a hard time. I mean I am giving you guys a hard time I want it. I want to just point something out and it's silliness. Don't worry. I'm not taking it personal, but we see some people wearing sports affiliated shirts today and Great you love the Giants. I love the Dodgers. I mean that's not the thing right We can demonstrate more love and desire and passion for a sports team For our motorcycles For the things that we're really cool with then we actually do for Jesus You can't do that with a shirt. So I'm not telling you everybody has to get a Jesus shirt or something That's silly right, but I just want us to be honest with ourselves About how easy it is For us to to sort of veer into these less serious realities. We we want to see what's funny We want to know what's current and contemporary we're willing to talk about music We're willing to talk about movies. We're willing to talk about books. We're willing to talk about politicians Are we willing to engage the reality of who Jesus is in our lives? And why our lives are sideways Or why I don't see the power of Christ in my life Why I don't believe today and why my kids have gone this way instead of this way Can I be honest can you be honest About the years where you were doing great with your kids and in the years that you kind of man You got so serious with work. You just sort of Now let my wife do all of it. I forgot I Let it go. I Got lazy. I got tired it happens But we don't say anything. No one's gonna encourage. You know, it's gonna bring you back No one's gonna remind you of what is good and right and true Now all of us We can Flagellate ourselves we can Say we've blown it But the reality is That we have really good news We have really good news for those who are fathers For those who don't have fathers for those whose fathers have been a waste of space for those whose fathers Were absent We have good news And it is the good news of the gospel And this good news of the gospel means that every single one of us Can repent Every single one of us can improve Every single one of us can hold each other accountable in different ways Every single one of us can offer grace and mercy and say thank you and get it more right than wrong Here is the promise of good news For those of us who haven't had good fathers or any fathers at all. You have a father I have a father and he loves us dearly and in Romans 8 15 for you Did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Papa Daddy father Such a it's such a Rich phrase that we do we don't just call him father in a totally somber and sobering way And we do that But this word Abba Papa It is literally sitting on Papa's lap sort of embracing Kindness and gentleness and joy and pleasure and having a good man able to say. I love you, son I love you daughter You're forgiven you can trust me I'm here for you we get to say that we just say it because we know it's true and So many of us Because we don't sit and wait and sit still and know that he is God our father when the work of Paul the words of Paul say we fall back into slavery of and the fear of This fear it's just not a Fear of spiders a phobia of You know speaking in public This this slavery that Paul is referring to in this falling back into fear. It is a fear of man It's a fear where we run back to what is familiar We run back to our homies we run back to our old life We run back to all kinds of things we run backwards To instead of going into this brave new God-strengthening Nestle it's necessary to have a spirit go be bold in Christ For his sake to stand for your sake that he knows that you can know he's in you instead of doing that We fall back into what's easy Because we're afraid If I go say Abba father If I say daddy Me as a grown man, I love my papa That's weak At least it can appear weak to people out there It can appear soft It can appear as if we don't have the backbone that we need to have we are totally reliant Is it not scary to be completely reliant upon God it is scary To be completely reliant upon God to know you're going to stand for what is good and right and true and sometimes you may stand Alone, but you're not going to do that in the spirit of fear You're going to do that because you have a dad who's holding you up right there To stand for him to be an ambassador of his to be his kid to trust that he's your dad You're gonna do what is good and right and true more often than not You're gonna tell your buddies you're gonna tell your boss You're gonna tell the people that don't know Jesus miss me with your worldly garbage. I stand for Christ and my dad. I Stand for what is true I'm not going to be enslaved by this garbage I Know it's garbage because I have a dad who says this in love He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ According to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved He's got me. I'm taking care of he adopted me. I didn't even ask for his permission. He said you're mine Thank you Lord, that is good news Once we recognize this good news We can be grateful and thankful and enjoy God's glory, but here's how you can know You can know If you're a recipient of this good news There is scripture all over that will affirm this for you, but here's one from Malachi 4 or 5 this is a promise To the Jewish people in the Old Testament about what it's going to look like when you come to know Jesus Behold I Will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes And 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 You can know First of all Your heart as a father is turned back to your children back to your assigned ministry That's what you're called to do and your father is turned to you, you know, you have a father in heaven as well This is the Spirit of God you you've been given a heart that is repentant it turns That wants God wants God's way in your life wants God's way with your children wants God's way with your wife wants God's way with the people that you interact with You can know whether or not your your affections are for God and his things His glory, you know, do you want the affections of God? You want godly affections? What's your day-to-day? What do you prefer? Where's the emphasis in your life, what do you want? Do you have a preference If you've been given the Spirit If you've heard the message of John and believe the message of John About the message of Christ and you believe the gospel Believers in that gospel turn They turn Before they Experience utter destruction and they know that utter destruction Is available It's possible And in the lowliness of this life and the Grip of certain types of sin and the difficulties of this life There are moments when you go now if I don't stop now I'm gonna die If this doesn't end right now My kids are never going to know Jesus This doesn't end right now, I'm done for if you have that sense You can turn This world's going to hell I See it and I'm not doing anything about it. I'm not saying anything about it and I'm just gonna get mine Now I know if I do that, I know the result is utter destruction You say that you see that you hear that you sense that you turn That's God's grace that's God's mercy That's every day that we have that we've been given an opportunity every day that we're alive to repent and to turn a Christian father is a father whose heart has turned he is repentant turned submitted to the Lord And like Christ we know who our father is and we surrender to his will thereby Intentional to bear his image What a great privilege in calling this is Brothers, I I love being a dad is my aside from being a husband. It's actually Different. I love my wife dearly that that is an exchange where we are failing and succeeding Based on God's grace and we we we love each other dearly and we have difficult times and it's a different kind of thing It's wonderful She knows way too much about me for me to be her hero She has way too much about she knows my failures my kids man They know my failures, but they know my repentance as well and they see Something that I I don't even hardly see it myself sometimes and it's beautiful. I Can't believe it with the gift that God's given me Some of you guys know this some of you guys know what you're missing when I talk about this Some of you understand the weight of this There's just nothing like knowing that the eyes that are looking at you God has given those eyes to look at you for you to be their impression of who God is Little Skyla Little Elijah They're looking at their dads and they're getting a foreshadowing of God Let's make a shake in our boots Those are the youngest among us But your kids right now if they're grown Can they look at you can you look at them Do you know That this is your opportunity When they're getting married or when they're going to whatever their situation is, whatever your situation is You are the emblematic gift Example for them of what God is supposed to look like here on earth You're being loving and sacrificial You're being present and wise You're sharing the joy of Jesus Christ you're giving warnings and They know when they look at you when they come to visit when you talk on the phone Whatever the case may be you're about to give them Jesus And they don't want to talk to you because they're tired and you love them so much You're not going to let him not call you you'll call them You'll leave them the message You'll text them the message I'm not going to let you get away with this, you know better you're my kid and I am going to tell you what God wants for you Whether you're three or thirty Whether you're thirty or sixty This is a gift And it's a joy And it's difficult And you tell on yourself And you know where you're at and I know where I'm at There is nothing like being a dad Especially when we know our dad Our dad doesn't want to be mad at me there's no desire to punish me He's not interested in payback He's not interested in spanking me. He saw that what I just did. I got my own spanking I've had the consequences for my sin. I played it out He wants to lift me up Remind me he loves me remind you he loves you As we think about this as we marinate on this as we observe who God is when I ask the worship team to come forward As We think about fatherhood and the opportunity to repent as we think about fatherhood And maybe the realities that that we've experienced we haven't had a dad We don't trust God the way we ought because our dads were either absent or horrible or whatever Wherever you find yourself today This is an opportunity to renew your relationship with God This is an opportunity to embrace The renewal of the covenant that God has made with you to be your dad