Our Father In Heaven

Spiritual Gifts Series

Father’s Day – Our Father in Heaven Who Loves Us

Rev. Bruce A. Shields

First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan

www.TawasBaptist.org

Our Father in Heaven Who Loves Us

PRAYER

Happy Father’s Day, dads!

Did you all get pounced on in bed this morning?

Trent made a card for me that was nice. It had a tie on the front and a coupon for a free car wash on the inside.

The card said “I love you dad, you’re the best. Happy Father’s Day”

Rebekah let me rock her for a minute without trying to get up and run. That was sweet. She’s always on the run.

She’s not even two years old, and I’m already dreading the day she brings home a boy.

After a few years of daughters bringing home dates, I find that it’s nearly impossible for a father to approve of any of them.

I think daughters shouldn’t be allowed to date until they are 40.

I’ve been practicing one-liners to greet dates to try and get rid of them.

* “So, you like my daughter?” To which he will reply, “Oh yeah, she’s a real dreamboat!” So I’ll call out upstairs: “Dreamboat, your barnacle is here!”

* Maybe when I answer the door I’ll be all out of breath and say, sorry I didn’t hear you knocking, I was just finishing my Tae Kwon Do lesson.”

* “I’m sorry; she’s not quite ready yet. She’s just trying on her wedding dress for the third time today.”

That would scare most men away.

So, if any of you have any good one-liners for boys at the door, I only have about 14 or 15 years left to get those ready.

Let me tell you my favorite joke about fathers...

One day a woman made the mistake of leaving her baby daughter in her husband’s care while she was busy doing some work in another room. He immediately buried himself in his newspaper, and forgot all about the baby until he heard a series of thumps, followed by a horrendous cry. Instantly he knew that the baby had fallen down the stairs. He called out to his wife, “Honey! Come quick! Our little girl just took her first 24 steps!”

Scripture Reading Matthew 6:9

These are some of the best known words in the Bible.

If you asked the average person on the street to say the Lord’s Prayer, most could at least start it.

“Our Father which art in heaven.”

Many people can quote that, but they don’t really appear to appreciate the full importance of the words they are saying...

“OUR FATHER in heaven”.

What a tremendous thought.

What an untold privilege to be able to address the mighty Maker of all things this way ... our FATHER.

There are many other places in the Bible also where God is described, and indeed describes Himself, in the terms of fatherhood.

Psalm 68:5 - “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God...”

Psalm 103:13 - “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;”

Isaiah 63:16 - “You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.”

Matthew 7:9-11 - Jesus said: “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, 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!”

John 20:17 - After He rose from the dead, Jesus told Mary to go to His disciples and tell them he was alive and he said, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD

Proverbs 17:6 - “... the glory of sons is their father.”

There are pictures in the Bible that reveal something of God’s character.

This morning I’d like us to look at three pictures of fatherhood from the Bible.

Each shows us an aspect of our great heavenly father.

The first is found in Genesis chapter 22, the picture of ...

AWILLING FATHER

It’s the story of Abraham and his son Isaac.

Genesis 22:1-3.

Abraham was WILLING, in his love and devotion to God, to be obedient even in sacrificing his own son. This was the boy God had promised him, and he had waited years for his wife Sarah to conceive him. And yet, at the word from God, he took his son up Mount Moriah with Isaac carrying the wood for the fire of his own sacrifice.

Not only do we have a willing father here, but evidently a willing son also. It’s very doubtful he was a little boy - he was most likely a youth or young man - certainly strong enough to carry the wood up a mountain! But God had spoken to His father, and they went together willingly. And Abraham stood on that mountain, no doubt with his vision blurred by the tears streaming down his face, and he raised the knife to sacrifice his beloved son. And at the last possible moment, when God saw that he was obedient, the Angel of the Lord called to him to stop. “For now I know that you fear God.”