A Father's Heart Series

A Father’s Heart

Opening Illustration: Skit Guys – Things Dad’s Don’t say! 2 parts

Happy Father’s Day!

Introduction:

Today is Father’s Day – a day to recognize and honor our Father’s – this means our spiritual fathers, adopted fathers, step fathers, father figures and of course our biological fathers. This day for some is a time of rejoicing and for others a time of sorrow or grief. Why? For some they will think of their fathers who have passed on from this life to the next. So, the heart ache that they are not here with you sinks in again. Others will think back to the pain and hurt their fathers unleashed on them as children and that hurt will resurface in their wounded hearts and minds on Fathers Day. Some will hurt because their father where absent from their lives and their fatherlessness childhood impacted them traumatically. So, Father’s Day brings a variety of mixed emotions for different people.

So today I want to address a father’s heart!

Thesis: A Father’s heart has the power to bring renewal to those who need to be refreshed from the trials of life and pressures of life. A Father’s heart can also bring trauma, pain and loss to people. Jesus had a deep connection to God the Father and it was a strength and boost for what He faced. Jesus came to reveal God the Fathers heart to this broken world and reveal to us God the Father wants a personal relationship with us.

When I use the term “A Father’s Heart” – I think of three types of Father’s Hearts which impact children and people today:

1. The heart of God the Father!

2. The wicked heart of the Father of Lies!

3. The heart of a natural father!

These three types of hearts have impacted billions of people I the world today either negatively or positively. Let’s look at each one.

1. The heart of God the Father.

Jesus references Father God over a 100 times in The Gospel of John.

His relationship with God the Father is portrayed by John as intimate and personal – John also makes note that Jesus’ whole mission was to reveal to a broken world the Heart of The Father – everything He did, the miracles, the forgiveness, the teachings revealed Father God’s heart to a lonely world filled with evil.

Listen to these few passages from John – Jesus closest friend and disciple.

Scripture Texts:

John 8:54-56: “Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.””

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https://www.bible.com/111/jhn.8.54-56.niv

John 10:25-30:

“Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.””

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https://www.bible.com/111/jhn.10.25-30.niv

John 15:9-15:

““As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

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https://www.bible.com/111/jhn.15.9-15.niv

John 15:20-25:

“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’”