A couple of months back, I reminisced; when years ago, our oldest son Brig was 4 or 5 years old, and I took him with me to a neighborhood park where I was meeting some friends to play basketball.
He was playing in the sand box next to the basketball court and walked over to the court and said “I love you daddy”. It was the most sincere and genuine expression of love I think I had ever heard, and the thought of it still moves me today.
There were 6 of us playing basketball ranging in ages from early to middle thirties, and almost in unison everyone stopped and were like “awe”.
This reminiscing got me to thinking, since we are made in His image according to Genesis 1:26, our Heavenly Father must love to hear us say “I love you Daddy”. He undoubtedly feels the same emotions I felt that day, when Brig said “I love you daddy”.
So, I began investigating if indeed God loves it when we say “I love you Daddy”, and what that looks like in words and action.
I also came to realize that we can’t be like the husband who, when chastised by his wife “you never tell me you love me”, replied “I told you I love when I married you, and you’ll be the first to know if anything changes!”
No, I believe we honor God by telling Him everyday “I love you Daddy”.
Just as we yearn to hear it from our loved ones, He yearns to hear it from us.
Sooo, how do we say “I love you Daddy” in our actions and words?
I am glad you asked.
Todays word is centered around Matthew 22:37
“Jesus said to them “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind”.
Before we get started, I must warn you, we are going to be covering quite a bit of ground today, so it may seem a little like scriptural gymnastics. If you are taking notes today, but sure your pen is full of ink. I might be a little bit like a hurricane with winds of 75 mph and gusts up to 110, so here we go!
We say “I love you Daddy” through:
Praise and Worship
Obedience
Surrender
Gratitude and Thanksgiving
Prayer
Love of Others
Spending time with Him
Love of His word
Putting Him first
I know that sounds like a lot to cover y’all but I assured Pastor Jeff I could get this done in the allotted two hours.
Who here ever had that teacher, who the only reason you paid attention in class, was because they might call on you during class and you didn’t want to look a fool by not knowing what was said?
Ok, I’m just sayin’ “pay attention”.
So, we are going to pull these all together in a way that I hope makes sense.
Let’s spend a few minutes with each of these.
PRAISE AND WORSHIP
Praise and worship is where it’s at y’all, and the others that I mentioned fall under praise and worship in how we say “I love you Daddy.”
Oftentimes when we hear the phrase “praise and worship”, we tend to confine that to, or relate it to, music. However, it is much more than that.
Now David wrote the handbook on Praise and Worship, when he wrote the Psalms. While I may use worship more often in todays’ message, I believe the two words are somewhat interchangeable, with subtle differences. It truly may boil down to semantics.
However, we clearly see in Psalm 138:2 that David saw a distinction in the two words when he wrote “I will worship toward your holy temple, and praise your name for your lovingkindness and your truth; for you have magnified your word above all your name.”
One meaning of praise is “to give approval of, or admiration”, while one meaning of worship is “to show reverence and adoration”.
I go through all of that, to illustrate that praise and worship is more than just music. This is not to diminish or minimize music, because many of you know that music has been an important part of my life.
We say “I love you Daddy” through praise and worship.
When we examine the first time the word “worship” is used in the bible, it is found in Genesis 22:5 and Abraham said to his young men “stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you.”
Now we all know where Abraham and Isaac were going, right?
Abraham was saying “I love you Daddy” by being obedient to God. We worship God by being obedient to Him.
-and just a side not to all you young ‘uns out there. You are saying “I love you” when you are obedient to God and your parents.
Here’s another scripture about obedience and showing our love to God.
“But if anyone obeys His word, (their)love of God is truly made complete in them”. That’s in 1 John 2:5.
We are worshipping God, and saying “I love you Daddy”, by obeying His word.
The word worship is found in the New Testament the first time in Matthew 2:2 “and they asked “where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.”
When looking at these two scriptures we come to understand that worship is about:
What we are prepared to relinquish, and what we give up at a personal cost.
John 3:23 wraps it up with a nice bow on top. “but the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in truth and spirit, for the Father is seeking such worship to Him”.
Psalms are full of verses about singing and dancing for the Lord. It’s obvious that this is how David said “I love you Daddy”.
Ok, here’s the toe steppin’ on part of the message. Not two steppin’ but toe steppin’. Although for some people, two-steppin’ and toe steppin’ are one and the same!
About the only reason a person won’t sing in worship is pride or self-consciousness. Worship is not about our comfort zone. It is about blessing God and He wants to hear us sing praises to Him.
I understand that you may think your singing is a bit like speaking in tongues, however; no one but God, can fully appreciate what is happening inside of you, so let her rip!
Having said that. Ty,(our worship leader) you can expect a joyous sound as everyone sings loud and proud during the closing music!
Another way we say “I love you Daddy” is by SPENDING TIME WITH HIM.
I can’t help but believe that in most child-parent relationships, the child learned how to love because the parent showed them love first.
Brigs’ love for me, was reflected in my love for Him.
This is why we understand
1 John 9:19 “We love Him because He first loved us”.
We can also show our love to putting Him first.
Matthew 6:33 says “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you”.
When we seek God first by starting our day with prayer, we are saying “I love you Daddy”.
About a month ago, Pastor Jeff took me to Ruths Chris Steak House for lunch. In fact, he said anyone who wants him to take you there should hit him up!
Actually it was my treat, and it was Lunchables from Dollar General.
Somehow, he coerced a confession out of me, in telling him that my prayer life wasn’t where it should be. He mentored me about this and helped me get back on track.
But 5 years ago, I resolved to be “prayed up”. I’m not sure what led up to that decision, but it may have had something to do with the fact that I didn’t want my pastor to call on me to pray, and my not being mentally and spiritually prepared to pray. I became very intentional in my prayer time and within a short while, I told my pastor I would be ready to pray anytime he called on me.
I took to heart Luke 6:45 “from out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
I began to fill my heart with thanksgiving and gratitude, and it manifested itself in my prayers.
When we give thanks and show gratitude, we are humbling ourselves before God and saying “I love you Daddy”.
A couple of other noteworthy mentions about spending time with God through prayer.
In Matthew 6:9-12 Jesus teaches us how to pray
And in
Romans 8:26 Paul tells us we don’t know what we ought to pray, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, in our prayers.
Let’s look at saying “I love you Daddy” through Love of His Word.
1 John 5:3 says “for this is love for God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome”.
In John 14:21 we are told:
“He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me”.
If we say we love Him, then the least we can do is keep His commandments. After all, these instructions in themselves, show His love for us!
As parents we give our children guidelines and rules because we love them and want the best for them. Such is the same in Gods commandments.
I remember years ago when I was 14-15 years old, my mom decided she was going to allow me to buy a dirt bike. We went to the motorcycle shop and put my dream dirt bike on layaway. Yes, a motorcycle on layaway! Shortly after that, we went to our weekend place where we hunted and fished.
Picture this, now this hunting and fishing place had a clubhouse and a swimming pool. This was back in the 70’s y’all, and this type of setup was unheard of for middle class America, but there we were.
Anyway, my mom and stepfather went fishing on the river and they told my stepbrother and me, not to go swimming while they were gone.
Guess what we did? That’s right.
As punishment for my disobedience, my mom forbade me to get a motorcycle. At that time there would have been no way you could have convinced me, my mom was saying “I love you”. But she was.
Through the years as a teenager and now as a parent, when I hear of a young persons’ drowning, I just shudder.
We say “I love you Daddy” by Love of His Word, through obedience.
Another way we say “I love you Daddy” is by showing Love of and to Others.
1 John 3:17
“but whoever has the worlds goods, and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”.
About a year and a half ago, I underwent open heart surgery. People showed their love of God to me and my family in so many ways.
• Through prayer.
• Through trying to visit me during covid and offering to help in any way,
• And through food. Goodness the food!
Hebrews 13:16 “and do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased”.
Do you recall earlier when I mentioned that worship is about what we are prepared to relinquish and what we give up at a personal cost? These sacrifices are pleasing to our Lord.
1 John is packed with teaching us how to say “I love you Daddy”, but 1 John 4:7 may be the most powerful teaching.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God”.
It’s my contention that we cannot love God and others to the fullest extent, without being born again, and this very well may be what 1 John 4:7 is saying.
Next, let’s look at John 21:15-17
When my wife and kids hear me say “Do you luuv me?”, they know I’m about to ask them to do something for me. In fact, oftentimes they will just reply indignantly “what do you want?”
I can’t help but wonder when God asks “do you love me”, when we break His commandments or go against His will, that we are in essence saying “what do you want?”
But Jesus didn’t want anything from Peter when He asked Him “do you luuv me?” But instead, He wanted Peter to love others by showing them how to love God.
It dawned on me this week that perhaps the reason Jesus asked Peter 3 times “do you love me”, was because Peter denied Jesus 3 times before the Crucifixion. Peter denied Jesus 3 times, but our ever gracious savior was giving Peter the chance to prove he was a changed man.
Before the Crucifixion, Peter said he loved Jesus, but his actions in denying Christ didn’t prove that. But after the Crucifixion Peter said “I love you Daddy” and became the foundation and a builder of Christ’s church.
So a quick recap of saying “I love you Daddy”.
We do it through:
praise and worship
obedience
Gratitude and thanksgiving
Prayer
Showing love to others
Loving His word
And by
Putting Him first
I began todays message by stating it is centered around Matthew 22:37
“Jesus said to them “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind”.
These are some of the ways we do just that!
Some of y’all thought I forgot to talk about surrendering. C’mon admit it!
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not a big surrenderer.
Those who are close to me know that I am highly competitive, and surrendering is not in my DNA.
But, another way we say “I love you Daddy”, is by surrendering to Him.
Up until now, yet, I haven’t been a big “hand raiser or lifting up my hands” kinda guy. Unless of course if someone asks “who wants seconds?”
But this week, I realized my competitiveness extends even to God. My hesitancy at lifting my hands to Him, reflects my refusal to yield to God. Am I so prideful that I think I can compete with God or even want to?
Here are some other words for surrender:
Give in
Yield
Submit
In Mark 8:34-35 Jesus said to them…”whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”.
Jesus is saying “surrender to me, yield to self”.
Matthew 11:28 Jesus said “come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.
Jesus is saying surrender, give in; you can’t do this by yourself.
The ultimate surrender or act of submission is seen in Mark 14:36
And Jesus said “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup from me, nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will”.
In other words “I love you Daddy”.
Is today the day you raise the white flag and surrender to God and say “I love you Daddy?”
Pastor Jeff, will you close us out?
