Hearing From The Father

Hearing from the Father

Joshua 24

Introduction- Good morning church!

I need to hear from my heavenly Father! Amen!

I need to know that I am not alone in the things that I go through!

I have come today expecting that my Father has something to say to me!

Not only do we need our time of prayer, but we need to sense God’s presence in our lives.

Prayer-

Turn to Joshua chapter 24, Joshua’s words that he spoke to the people of Israel about making a decision of wither they will be serving God or acting like the world in rebellion and spinning out of control.

Father’s day and Mothers Day are hard days for me to preach because they hold so many different emotions and thoughts when Fathers and Mothers are mentioned.

If we were to select a group of people and divide them into two groups, there would be a group of people that would share life changing encouraging messages of how their Father had impacted their life in a positive way. How that at different moments in their life that He lead to them to make good solid decisions that shaped who they are today.

On the other side, we would hear people who would share stories of how they felt abandoned and left to fend for themselves and that their Father was by no way a role model that they had hoped for.

Society today struggles with fathers taking the role of leading their families.

Many today would rather be their kid’s friend than their father with the responsibility of raising and mentoring a child.

For some of us, the decision was made early in our life that we did not want to be like our earthly father and that when we had kids we would do things different.

I have five grown kids and five grandchildren.

I am not about to stand up here and tell you how to have the perfect family and perfect grandkids. Because… our family has dysfunction just like everyone else.

It use to be that only some families (stone age 60’s, 70’s) were dysfunctional by not having a Father in the home, experiencing divorce, raised in a not ideal situation, but I am convinced that it is in every family today to some degree.

No one escapes the hurts and problems because of the world we live in.

I was raised in a good home but I had no father there ever. Thank God my grandfather and my uncle were very good male role models in my life.

My mother and father divorced when I was two and my mother was pregnant with my brother. I had no Father figure to look at and place as any kind of role model.

So I raised my kids in the beginning with no blueprint to go by.

I only met my father one time in my life and walked away from that meeting with my dad with no feelings good or bad because the man that sat in my living room when I was 19 years was a man I didn’t know, we just had the same last name.

That is not a unique story, it is the story of a lot of people.

Here is my point as we look at God’s word-

If you have a father that has been a blessing to you – you are a blessed person.

You have been given a gift that has kept on giving.

You have been set on a path and you have a role model that will and has shaped who you are today.

If you have not had that kind of father and it has been a struggle-

I want you to know that that does not have to define you and be the end of your story-

You have the ability to write your own story and ending because the relationship that is with your Heavenly Father does not have to be the same as with your earthly father.

Joshua brought news to the Israelites, he called the elders and leaders together and they presented themselves before God.

This is what the Lord said through Joshua - just because your ancestors worshiped other gods and have walked away from God doesn’t mean you have to do the same. (Repeat)

He points them to remember what God has done in the past for them and that He still desires to make a difference and still wants to be involved in their lives.

He reminds them they were in bondage in Egypt and God brought them out.

When their backs were up against the Red Sea and there was no way out that God provided a way out supernaturally.

When they cried out to God that He did not forsake them but heard their cry and responded.