Our Father Which Art In Heaven
(adapted from Zondervan 2008 Pastors Annual Outline)
Introduce Father’s Day
Play Youtube Video Clip : Cat’s in the Craddle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJueyvhFrSA
"Comment on the role of Father’s in the lives of thier children and what is really important!"
Scripture: “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your iname. ” (Matt. 6:9).
Introduction
It is difficult for some people to love God because they have been deprived of an earthly father whom they could love sincerely and steadfastly.
The right kind of father can be a child’s best teacher about God. A good father is a happy combination of strength and tenderness, righteousness and mercy. The wrong kind of father can cripple a child’s emotional and spiritual well-being. Today I want to lead you to a better understanding and a deeper appreciation of the heavenly Father.
Jesus came to reveal God to man. “8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? lHe who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.” (John 14:8–11).
In the Gospels God is spoken of as “Father” more than 150 times (e.g., Jesus said, “I and my Father are one” [John 10:30]). This name was in the first recorded boyhood utterance of Jesus: “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). This name was in his last dying cry: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
Of course God confirmed and affirmed this relationship when Jesus was baptized and on the mount of transfiguration when He declared “This is my beloved Son.”
People had thought of God and his followers in a number of different ways: a Shepherd and his sheep, a Potter and his clay, a Creator and his creatures, a King and his subjects, a Judge and violators of the law.
Jesus came to give us new truth about God so that we might walk lovingly in his way and so that we might have abundant life here and now.
Jesus taught his disciples—and all believers—to think of God as a heavenly Father.
Jesus did not consider all people to be the children of God (cf. John 8:44 - You are of your father the devil…). He taught that in the miracle of the new birth, the spiritual birth, the birth from above, a new relationship was established with God that was much closer than that which exists between a Creator and the creatures of his world. This new relationship is tender, affectionate, and glorious. It is a relationship which describes God as the Heavenly Father of all those who have been “born of the Spirit” or “born again.”
I. God is a perfectly wise and consistent heavenly Father.
A.In contrast to even the best of earthly fathers, the heavenly Father perfectly knows our deepest needs even before we could request his blessings in prayer (Matt.6:8) For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
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1. He looks upon our needs with purposes of love and compassion.
2.He is more eager to meet these deep needs than we are to have them met. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matt. 7:11).
B. The heavenly Father always acts toward us in a manner consistent with our highest good. In the very beginning, the Evil One put doubt in the mind of Eve, the mother of us all, concerning the goodness of God. “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4–5).
1. The heavenly Father prohibits only that which is destructive.
2. The heavenly Father challenges us to do that which is truly constructive and beneficial.
3. The heavenly Father disciplines us for our good (Heb. 12:5–12).
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
4. The heavenly Father punishes only when he is forced to do so. He dare not condone that which is destructive. When we continue toward moral perversity or disobedience, he will manifest his displeasure in a manner that may cause us to think that he is angry with us.
As Fathers it is often our role to carry out discipline in the family, but do our children understand first that we are acting our of love and compassion for them?
That we are wanting only what is good for them and that we would never deprive them of anything that would be of benefit or blessing? Do we actively look for ways to bless our children even when they are not expecting it?
Do they also know that we do not have a double standard? That the same principles we govern them by also are the governing principles of our own life first? That there is consistency in governance of life and family.
II. God is a gracious and providing Father.
A. God is gracious and loving.
1. He does not need to be bribed.
2. We cannot merit his grace and love.
Do our children feel secure and loved. Do they feel loved even when they fail, or do not do what is right? Are we gracious with them, providing them room to grow and learn?
B. The heavenly Father provides the necessities for moral and spiritual health and happiness. He is more interested in the fruits of life than he is with mere leaves and roots.
C. We need to trust implicitly in the providing Father who feeds the sparrows and clothes the lilies.
1. He has given us the Bible for nourishment.
2. He has given us prayer for communion and fellowship.
3. He has given us the Holy Spirit for guidance.
4. He has given us a needy world in which to work.
5. He has promised that if we seek first “HIS” kingdom then “all these things” shall be added unto us.
6. He has promised that “… there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother 3or wife or children or 4lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. Mark 10:29
D. At the end of the road, he has provided a house with many rooms (John 14:1–3).
As Fathers we often understand “it is our responsibility to provide for our family. But it goes much farther then providing a roof over their head, clothing, food and education. We must also provide for the spiritual needs of our family. As father we are the spiritual head of the home and priest of the family. Do you children see you as a “Spiritual Man.” Do you lead and ecourage them by example and action to have spiritual principles guiding their life?
Do our children perceive that our ultimate goal in life is not only that they succeed but that one day they to will be together with us in that “great home” that God has prepared for us?
III. God is a restrained and suffering heavenly Father.
A. God has placed some restraints on his own power by giving people the privilege of choice. He did not desire the worship of robots. – As fathers do we try and make our children be the way we want them to be, or do we allow room for them to choose and be what they are created to be?
B. The heavenly Father suffers as only infinite love can suffer when his children persist in ways that will bring tragedy.
Allowing our children to choose means being willing to not only allow them to choose but also suffering the pain when they suffer from wrong choices
IV. God is a merciful and forgiving heavenly Father.
A. The parable of the prodigal son presents an indescribably beautiful picture of the waiting Father.
B. The psalmist grasped this truth. “As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. ” (Ps. 103:13–14).
1. Without money and without price.
2. Without pomp, ceremony, or ritual, the wayward son returned to the merciful and forgiving father.
Do our children know by our actions and attitudes that they can mess up an still come home, and be loved. That you as as their father is the one person in life who will never turn his back on them, rather will always look for them to come home and welcome them with loving merciful arms.
V. God is a saving and keeping heavenly Father.
A. John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
B. John 10:27–30.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.”
C. Romans 5:8.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
D. 1 John 3:1.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
Conclusion:
On this Father’s Day, it would be wise for every father to have a genuine faith in and a loving relationship to the heavenly Father. If you are still outside the family of God, then receive Jesus Christ into your heart that you might become a child of God by faith.
Perhaps the greatest gift you can give your child is to be a father who will help your child understand and relate to the heavenly Father. The earthly father should be a tangible earthly representation of the heavenly Father.
You can be one of God’s dear children. You can be a member of his loving family. You can have access to the heavenly home at the end of the way if you will let Christ be at home in your heart and life in the here and now.
