Praise God Because You Love Him

Praise God Because You Love Him

Revelation 19:1-7

Michael H. Koplitz

I think that one of the most challenging jobs out there is being a parent. If I were to rate the two parental jobs, being the mother or the father, I think being the mother has to be the toughest. I know as a father that I would never want Sandy’s job. I tried it on a few occasions and knew that I couldn’t handle it for long. The illogic that can occur from time to time combined with other interesting situations can cause any father to burst from frustration or break down in tears.

Why am I telling you this? Because there are times that, as parents, we have to protect our children in ways that our children don’t like. The simplest form of this is when my children were young and would have a cold. I worked for Warner-Lambert. Therefore, I had their cold products in the house. So when the colds arrived, I had plenty of children’s cough and cold medicines on hand.

Ok, Warner-Lambert’s cold medications never exactly tasted good, even the pediatric formulas. But I worked for that company, and I got the stuff cheap. You would be surprised how cheap I got some of that stuff. So if the child needed dextromethorphan, they got Warner-Lambert’s, period. I know it didn’t taste good, but it didn’t matter. They needed to take that awful stuff to feel better.

All of you parents, uncles, and aunts know about this situation. It is not just cough medicines. There are other things that we tell our kids not to do or tell them to do because it is in their best interest. Until they reach the age of 25 or so and realize that we really knew what we were talking about, they think that we are the biggest idiots in the world.

I remember being told as a 5-year old that I shouldn’t place my hands on the stovetop by my grandmother Julia because I would burn myself and then turning around and placing my hand on the hot burner, leaving a lot of skin behind. Makes you wonder who really was the idiot?

But my dear grandmother placed my hand on ice and told me how sorry she was that I did that. She should have told me how stupid I was not to listen to her. Right.

After a few of these experiences with my grandmother Julia I learned that she really knew what she was talking about and that I should listen to her. Until she died last year, I always spoke with her about the more significant decisions that I was facing. After all I learned that she had some outstanding and valuable experiences.

I loved my grandmother for the many things that she did for me. One of the most important things that I received from her was her love. Her willingness to help me and take the grief when I didn’t agree with her advice will always be in my heart. She was there time and time again whether or not I took her advice to heart and acted upon it.

Isn’t God like that? Sure God is. We pray and ask for guidance, and there are times that we do what God tells us, and there are times when we don’t. Come on, let’s be honest with each other.

God the Father told His begotten Son Jesus that He was going to suffer on a cross. Jesus knew that He had to follow His Father’s will in order to save you and me from the wrath that was to come. We remember the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus sweat blood because of the torment that was going through his mind. He wanted the cup to pass out of his hands and not to face the cross, but he also said that He would follow His Father’s will.

It is like the child who says alright, I will take the cough medicine if there is no other way to get rid of the cold, but this happens with great reluctance. God the Father knew that Jesus His Son had to go to the cross and die there so that the very fabric of the universe could be restored. It hurt God the Father to have to send His Son to that cross. But God knew that this had to be done.

Take a look at the cross over here. During Jesus’ day, this cross was a symbol of brutality and suffering. Death on the cross was not the way you wanted to die. It was painful, could take days, and was humiliating to the person on the cross. Being feed to the lions was a more human way to die than death on the cross. But Jesus was sent to the cross. Jesus took medicine to cure our sins. That medicine must have tasted pretty bad, but after some resistance, Jesus did it because He knew that His Father would not lead him into danger but rather would protect him.