Father's Day 2023: Father Figures Of God On Earth

Father’s Day 2023

Father Figures Of God On Earth

Scripture: Exodus 3:13-14; 4:22-23; Second Samuel 7:13-14

On Father’s Day of 2022, I stood before you and delivered a message about men who I have had in my life as role-models. In that message, I focused on my uncle, Robert Wisener, my father’s brother. After he heard the message, he told me that it blessed him, and it was as if he got to listen to his own eulogy. I told him that I hope it would be a long time before his eulogy would have to be delivered. It wasn’t a long time though. He died five weeks later. The title of my message this morning is “Father Figures of God on Earth.” If you were to look up the definition of the term “father figure”, you would find this definition: “A father figure is usually an older man, normally one with power, authority, or strength, with whom one can identify on a deeply psychological level and who generates emotions generally felt towards one’s father. Despite the literal term ‘father figure’, the role of a father figure is not limited to the biological parent of a person (especially a child), but may be played by uncles, grandfathers, elder brothers, family friends, or others.” I want you to keep this in mind as you listen to this message this morning.

When God told Moses to go and bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses wanted to know how he should respond when the people asked him what God’s name was. Let’s read Exodus 3:13-14. It says, “(13) And Moses said to God, ‘Behold, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me,’ ‘What is His name?’ ‘What shall I say to them?’ (14) And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE;’ and He said, ‘You shall say this to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you!’” God told Moses to tell them that “I AM” sent him. God did not identify ‘Himself” as Father when He first told Moses to go, but in Exodus chapter four, the following is recorded: “(22) And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn. (23) And I say to you, let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, your firstborn.” (Exodus 4:22-23) This is the first time in Scripture that God identifies Himself as a father. When God made a covenant with David pertaining to Solomon, He identified Himself again as a Father. Second Samuel 7:13-14 records, “(13) He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (14) I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.” Today, God identifies Himself as a Father to those of us who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and we know this because Jesus spoke of Him as a Father. Also in Second Corinthians 6:18, God says, “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

When Jesus walked the earth He wanted us to know the God the Father through His actions. Jesus told His disciples in John chapter fourteen – “……I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (7) If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14:6-7) Jesus told His disciples that by knowing Him they knew His Father. Everything Jesus did, He did in the name of His Father to show us Who God is and how He wants to interact with us. So, Jesus was our “Father figure” example of who God is to us. Jesus showed us and He lived the life before us. Now this is important: after Jesus died the responsibility of showing the world Who God is shifted to us. Now we are the ones who must show the world why God is such a great Father.

I read an article this week about why Christianity is declining in America. The results were based on a nationwide survey of 19,000 Sunday church attendees from 112 Evangelical, Protestant and Catholic congregations in 13 states. The research comes as marriage rates have dropped 31 percent since 2000 and 61 percent since 1970, while less than half of all adults under 30 today grew up in a home with married parents. According to the study, individuals who regularly attend church are more likely to have fathers present in their lives. Additionally, the study confirms that “boys who grew up in homes with married parents are considerably more likely to attend church regularly as adults.” Now the study also brought out that the fathers who had that positive impact on their children were those who also attended Church regularly with their children. It is not uncommon to see a Church with more women in attendance than men, even if they are married. I was blessed to grow up in a Church where it was pretty much balanced. If the women were married, their husbands were present with them for the most part. And here is my point: it is a proven fact that good fathers have a positive and lasting impact on their children. And that impact includes opening the door for their acceptance of God as a good and loving father. A good father is literally a father figure of God here on earth and I have had several.