Father’s Day 2023
Father Figures Of God On Earth
Scripture: Exodus 3:13-14; 4:22-23; Second Samuel 7:13-14
On Father’s Day of 2022, I stood before you and delivered a message about men who I have had in my life as role-models. In that message, I focused on my uncle, Robert Wisener, my father’s brother. After he heard the message, he told me that it blessed him, and it was as if he got to listen to his own eulogy. I told him that I hope it would be a long time before his eulogy would have to be delivered. It wasn’t a long time though. He died five weeks later. The title of my message this morning is “Father Figures of God on Earth.” If you were to look up the definition of the term “father figure”, you would find this definition: “A father figure is usually an older man, normally one with power, authority, or strength, with whom one can identify on a deeply psychological level and who generates emotions generally felt towards one’s father. Despite the literal term ‘father figure’, the role of a father figure is not limited to the biological parent of a person (especially a child), but may be played by uncles, grandfathers, elder brothers, family friends, or others.” I want you to keep this in mind as you listen to this message this morning.
When God told Moses to go and bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses wanted to know how he should respond when the people asked him what God’s name was. Let’s read Exodus 3:13-14. It says, “(13) And Moses said to God, ‘Behold, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me,’ ‘What is His name?’ ‘What shall I say to them?’ (14) And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE;’ and He said, ‘You shall say this to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you!’” God told Moses to tell them that “I AM” sent him. God did not identify ‘Himself” as Father when He first told Moses to go, but in Exodus chapter four, the following is recorded: “(22) And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn. (23) And I say to you, let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, your firstborn.” (Exodus 4:22-23) This is the first time in Scripture that God identifies Himself as a father. When God made a covenant with David pertaining to Solomon, He identified Himself again as a Father. Second Samuel 7:13-14 records, “(13) He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (14) I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.” Today, God identifies Himself as a Father to those of us who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and we know this because Jesus spoke of Him as a Father. Also in Second Corinthians 6:18, God says, “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
When Jesus walked the earth He wanted us to know the God the Father through His actions. Jesus told His disciples in John chapter fourteen – “……I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (7) If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14:6-7) Jesus told His disciples that by knowing Him they knew His Father. Everything Jesus did, He did in the name of His Father to show us Who God is and how He wants to interact with us. So, Jesus was our “Father figure” example of who God is to us. Jesus showed us and He lived the life before us. Now this is important: after Jesus died the responsibility of showing the world Who God is shifted to us. Now we are the ones who must show the world why God is such a great Father.
I read an article this week about why Christianity is declining in America. The results were based on a nationwide survey of 19,000 Sunday church attendees from 112 Evangelical, Protestant and Catholic congregations in 13 states. The research comes as marriage rates have dropped 31 percent since 2000 and 61 percent since 1970, while less than half of all adults under 30 today grew up in a home with married parents. According to the study, individuals who regularly attend church are more likely to have fathers present in their lives. Additionally, the study confirms that “boys who grew up in homes with married parents are considerably more likely to attend church regularly as adults.” Now the study also brought out that the fathers who had that positive impact on their children were those who also attended Church regularly with their children. It is not uncommon to see a Church with more women in attendance than men, even if they are married. I was blessed to grow up in a Church where it was pretty much balanced. If the women were married, their husbands were present with them for the most part. And here is my point: it is a proven fact that good fathers have a positive and lasting impact on their children. And that impact includes opening the door for their acceptance of God as a good and loving father. A good father is literally a father figure of God here on earth and I have had several.
My first father figure of God here on earth was my birth father. You all have heard me talk about him and what he means to me, even though he has been in heaven for fifteen years. And you have heard me talk about his brother, my uncle Robert, who went to heaven last year. Again, he was another one who showed me God in how he interacted with me and the things he taught me. When I married Nikki, I received another father figure in the form of my father-in-law, James “Pop” McClure. Nikki’s father was one of the best father-in-laws that a person could have. He was always willing to teach, give advice, and stood ready to learn. He was always aware of where the boundaries were and he would apologize quickly if he thought he had overstepped when he was giving me advice. These men all knew each other as my Uncle Robert was one of the groomsmen in Pop’s wedding and Pop also bowled in the same league as my father. Also, all three of them worked together at one time at the local hospital. So when I came a calling on Nikki, Pop already knew who I was and based on watching me at the bowling alley, he had made up his mind that it was okay for me to call on his daughter (after he initially chased me off the porch a few years before when I attempted a visit.) I grew to love Pop as my own father and he said the same to me.
Next God placed another man in my life who guided my military career for the entire time I was in the Air Force. His name was Walter McKinney and we called him by his nickname “Mac.” Our daughters called him, “Daddy Mac.” He held such an influence in my life that we asked him to be the god-father for our oldest daughter. Mac was compassionate, smart, a gifted orator and an old-time believer. He grew up in Church and we would laugh as we remembered some of the ways of the old folks. He went to heaven in in 1999 and I delivered his eulogy. It was hard because Mac was not old when he died and his death was unexpected. But to this day I still remember the advice that he gave me and the uncompromising support that he always had for me. He loved me like a father loved a son. The one thing that these four men had in common was their love for Christ. They loved God and they were not ashamed about it. And their love for God had nothing to do with what they could get from God or from people who knew they loved God.
As a pastor, I believe that all of us have the responsibility of being father figures of God here on earth, and I am not just talking about men. Any person, male or female, who participates in the leadership of a Christian Church must represent God. And, just to be clear, anyone who is a Christian, even if they are not in a leadership position, must be a father figure of God here on earth, because that is the only way the world is going to know who God is as a father. Since my birth, I have had nine pastors who I have been under. As I was preparing this message I thought about each of them and the example they put forth before the world. When I thought about how some of them lived, based on my observations, not hearsay, compared to what the Bible says, some of them did not and continue not to walk as father figures of God here on earth. Please understand, I am not being judgmental, but this assessment is based on what the Bible says about how we are to live, especially if we are in ministry and teaching others. I do have fond memories of my first pastor, Rev. Clifford D. (CD) Davis. He was my pastor when I was a child and baptized me. What made him a great pastor was his love for God. He was not the most educated man of the city when it came to Scripture, but he knew what God expected of Christians and he stood firm on what he knew. As far as I know, based on stories I have heard since being an adult, he never used the pulpit for personal gain nor did he ever mistreat the members of his congregation despite how they treated him. This cannot be said for some of the other pastors that I have been under. I wanted to mention Pastor Davis because he was an example for me of what it meant to be a pastor and actually care about your congregation.
This morning, I want to share with you five traits that you should see in Christian fathers, and all Christians who are walking as father figures of God on earth. And just to be clear, while you might not realize it, if you are a Christian, you are required to represent God here on earth, and therefore you are a father figure of God here on earth. If you are not exhibiting these traits in your walk then you need to have a discussion with God about your relationship with Him. If you are not seeing these traits exhibited in the father figures in your life, maybe it’s time to reconsider who you are allowing to influence you. So let’s begin with the first trait, Love.
Love: The first trait that we should see in our father figures of God here on earth is love. It is impossible to represent God without having this trait. First John 4:7-11 says, “(7) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (8) He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (9) In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (10) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” If you have someone in your life that is in the role of a father figure to you and they do not have this one trait, you will need to find someone else to look up to. You see, everything else that I share with you will be based on this initial trait, so if this is absent, the others will likely not exist either.
Patience: The next trait that you should see is patience. God loves us so much that He is patient with us. Consider what was recorded in Second Peter 3:9. I will be reading from the Amplified Bible. It says, “The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” Because of His love for us, God does not want anyone to perish in the lake of fire. So, He is being, as the Amplified describes, extraordinarily patient to give everyone the greatest opportunity to turn their lives around and be saved. Paul wrote Romans 2:4, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” God’s patience and goodness towards us leads to our repentance. He is giving us time to get it together because of His love for us. This type of patience is not seen in some father figures. When a child misbehaves and rebels against authority, many times fathers and father figures will become exasperated with them and write them off. There are many stories of fathers walking away from their rebellious children choosing to allow the child to learn “the hard way.” I understand this response because sometimes that is the only way a child will learn. But the problem comes when the child does learn and desires to return but the father does not allow it. Some fathers and father figures refuse to allow this to happen because they continue to be angry about what the child put them through. They refuse to believe that the child has changed and therefore refuse to forgive. This behavior brings us to the next trait – being willing to forgive.
Forgiveness: God desires to forgive and He patiently waits for us to repent and seek His forgiveness. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” God is a God who forgives. He will never hold it over His children’s head their mistakes when they truly repent and seek His forgiveness. Do you remember the story of the prodigal son? In Luke chapter fifteen beginning at the eleventh verse, Jesus tells the story. The son went to his father and asked him for his inheritance. He was impatient and was not willing to wait for the death of his father. His father gave him his inheritance and the son departed from his father’s house and went out and lived a life of partying. As long as he had money he had friends to party with. When his money ran out, so did his friends. When he found himself in need he took a job feeding someone else’s pigs. As he fed them he looked upon what he was feeding them and would have gladly eaten what they were eating.
When he came to his senses, he realized that the servants of his father’s house were living better than he was in his current state. So he swallowed his pride and decided to go home. Now this father missed his son. This father, on a daily basis, went out and looked over the horizon hoping to one day see his son return. Then it happened. Let’s pick up the story at verse twenty of Luke chapter fifteen. “(20) And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. (21) And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ (22) ‘But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. (23) And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; (24) for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” (Luke 15:20-24)
When the father saw his son on the horizon, he did not wait for his son to approach him with his head hanging down in shame. No, he rose up and ran to meet his son. He embraced his son and held a great feast to welcome him home. He did this because the son he thought was lost and possibly dead had returned home. The father did not withhold his love for his son, nor did he hold his son’s mistake over his head. Jesus told this story to remind us that this is how God responds when we repent and come home to Him. He forgives us and He wipes our slate clean. But He also expects us to do the same for one another. Jesus taught us in Mark 11:25-26, “(25) And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. (26) But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” As God forgives us, we are to forgive others. If you have a father figure in your life that is representing God to you and they are not willing to forgive you and are holding your mistakes over your head, understand that they are not representing God and you might want to consider a change. Let’s look at another trait.
Faithfulness: Another trait that God has that we should be presenting to the world in our representation of Him is faithfulness. Deuteronomy 7:9 says, “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.” Also, Second Timothy 2:13 say, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” God is faithful; He keeps His word! God does not say He will do something one day and then says the opposite the next. When we read His word and understand His promises, His promises are not empty – they are fulfilled. Paul told Timothy that even when we are not faithful, God still is because that is who He is. If we were to apply this to the father figures representing God in our lives, that person would remain faithful even when those who they are looking after are not. Do you understand what this means? It means when others fail us, we remain faithful – we do not give up on them. As a father, we do not give up on our children when they fail us. We do not write them off because they refuse to follow our ways or our advice. We keep the door open for their return. Why? Because even when they are not faithful, we remain faithful to them because that is who we are in Christ.
Good. The last trait I want to mention is God’s goodness. God is good and He is good all the time. We sing songs about the goodness of God and we profess His goodness to others, but do we truly understand how we are to represent this goodness to others? Psalms 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” David also wrote in Psalms 31:19, “Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!” If you were to look up the word “good” in the dictionary you would find many definitions depending on how the word is used. But, I believe all of those definitions could be summed up in one word – God. All of the definitions of the word good carry the meaning of something pleasurable, not undesirable. It is always associated with something that is moral, upright, worthy, etc. A man once approached Jesus and called Him “good teacher” and Jesus responded, “….Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Mark 10:18) If God is the only one Who is good, how can we represent Him in our current state? The answer is grace. When we accepted Christ as our personal Savior, we were cleansed. That cleansing gave us the opportunity to be better through Christ than we ever were. So our being “good” is not about anything that rests within us as individuals, but how we allow Christ to operate through us. This means we yield ourselves to Him so that our desires are no longer out of alignment with His desires for us.
Father figures of God on earth. Fathers, let me talk specifically to you. We are to represent God to our children. To do that we have to be loving, patient, forgiving, faithful and good – and that is just to get us started on the right road. Paul told fathers, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4) Fathers, we provoke our kids to wrath when we do not hold up our end – when we are not being the fathers we are called to be. In the first verse of chapter six Paul wrote that children should obey their parents in the Lord so it is crucial that fathers help their children accomplish this. We cannot establish unreasonable demands on our children that they are unable to meet. No, we must nurture them as they grow so that they continue learning, openly and with joyful expectations. They should not grow up in constant fear of discipline when a standard is not met. This also applies to mothers. If you are the only godly influence in your child’s life, then everything rests with you. God understands your role and He will equip you to do what needs to be done for your child. Believe me when I say it is better that some fathers not have interactions with their children!
Fathers, are you walking as a father figure of God here on earth? If you are not, it is not too late to start. You can still have meaningful impact on the person’s life. You can still help the person navigate some of life’s most difficult moments. You can still be the one who encourages them when they get down or when they want to give us. You can still be the father figure that walks hand in hand with them as you walk hand in hand with God, your Father figure. Fathers, this is the awesome privilege and honor that we have received from our Father, the God of all creation.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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