4 - A FATHER TO YOU - “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? FOR WE ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD. As God has said: (1) “I will live with them and walk among them, and (2) I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and (3) I will receive you.” And, (4) “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.””
??2 Corinthians? ?6?:?16?-?18? ?NIV??
How many of you here today have or had a father? Good. Just checking. How many of you have been a father at least once? How many of you have experienced GOD being a FATHER to you? Because our God is a promise-making and a promise-keeping God and He has promised I WILL BE A FATHER TO YOU. But are you letting HIM FATHER YOU?
Some men have fathered children they never end up caring about. Some men have fathered children and have never been given the chance to be a father to those children. Some men have fathered and had the great opportunity to be a representative of God to their children in loving them, providing for them, guiding them, enjoying them, and discipling them.
I have a distinct memory on one occasion needing disciplined by my father. It was on a Sunday. I needed the spanking I received. I remember crying it out in my room on my bed, and then when I came back out my dad was sitting on our recliner and I felt compelled to go and sit …on my dad’s lap. He accepted me, wrapped his arms around me and held me close. And he said over me, “Even though I discipline you, you still want to be near me.” As if he was discovering something himself.
In Hebrews 12:5-7, …5have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6For the Lord disciplines the one He agape-loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” 7Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
These words come from Proverbs 3:11-12 are repeated from the Beginning of the bible to the end:
Deuteronomy 8:5 - So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
Psalm 94:12 - Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD, and teach from Your law,
Psalm 119:75 - I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
Proverbs 3:11-12 - My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD, and do not loathe His rebuke; for the LORD disciplines the one He loves, as does a father the son in whom he delights.
Lamentations 3:39 - Why should any mortal man complain when punished for his sins?
Revelation 3:19 - Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.
Many people today watch as their children make bad decisions over and over again because the children never accepted the discipline they were given. They never accepted the boundaries and adapted their actions, they never stayed on the right side of the LINE and listened to where they were to stand. INSIDE the line you do well to stay, OUTSIDE the line are consequences. If you cross that THAT line, the consequences are meant to NOT be pleasant, to not be what you like. It is intended to be that way so you learn to NOT cross that LINE!
I am just going to be straight with you, our American society today HATES discipline. Not only do they NOT want boundaries LINES drawn, they want to inflict punishment on those who make them.
Mark Lowry, singer and comedian who traveled with the Gaither Vocal Band for quite some time, shared that when he grew up and went to school, if he ever got in trouble at school, his parents had a 2 for 1 deal that happened. If he got in trouble at school, he’d get in trouble at home. Which also meant if he got a whack at school, he’d get one at home.
Times have changed, but not ALL for the better. And while there are other methods than corporal punishment, DISCIPLINE and PUNISHMENT are still needed to make a society healthy and what it should be. CONSEQUENCES that are unpleasant and even PAINFUL should NOT be softened. We have undisciplined people making the rules thinking they are helping but are actually in the long run hurting people and our community.
The truth is here that our God will be a perfect Father to those he calls his own–and to those he calls his own, He disciplines.
GOD does not discipline like a Grandfather. Some people chose to see God in non-biblical ways, and make Him into a fluffy lapped grandpa who never disciplines the kids, gives them cookies, smiles at them all the time even when they do evil things, and he just smiles and gives them whatever they want and all the cookies they desire.
“Well, GOD would never want me to NOT be happy. GOD knows my heart, and he just wants me to be happy and to enjoy (this sinful) lifestyle I have chosen, HE understands. Certainly he wants me have what I want and HE will be OKAY with it.
That is NOT at all what Chaplain Garth preached about last week. God has promised, I WILL BE A FATHER TO YOU. Who do we know for a fact God was a Father to? Jesus! And JESUS ate a lot of cookies, right? Jesus ate them ALL the time, his entire life, because Lord knows HE NEVER SUFFERED! God knows, JESUS WAS ALWAYS HAPPY and JESUS ALWAYS GOT WHAT HE WANTED.
Is that true? I think Jesus was God’s favorite son. How did God treat his favorite? NOT AT ALL THE WAY WE AMERICANS THINK IT SHOULD BE!
Did you ever stop to think about how much money you pay for COMFORT? How much you spend to be comfortable? COMFORT FOOD, COMFORT SHOPPING, COMFORT TEMPERATURES, we spend a lot of money on our COMFORT. While necessities come with a price, so does following Christ.
“Following Christ is not one’s golden ticket to a white-picket -fence American dream. It’s an invitation to take up a cross and to DIE.” Die to YOUR OWN plans and take upon yourself God’s plans! C. S. Lewis writes, “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity”
It’s easy to find basic happiness and comfort, but living the Christian life and being part of a church community requires making sacrifices that feel uncomfortable at times but ultimately help us to become more like Jesus, more peace, more joy, more love, more of the kind of tribulation that is NOT wasted but spent for eternal purposes. It’s a trade-off that’s always worth it. BUT WE NEED A FATHER TO GUIDE US.
Jesus tells us what it will cost to follow him: our choice for the COMFORT kind of life we want. We GROW by leaving our COMFORT zones and entering into the challenges and DIScomforts of a life FOR A LIFE OF FAITH.
WHEN we EMBRACE THIS TRUTH and press into it there is a JOY that comes from dying to ourselves and living for God, –WHEN YOU LOVE GOD HE GIVES YOU SECRETS TO LIFE. And WHEN YOU LOVE YOUR neighbor even when it means giving things up and giving things away, when it means being in a state of DISCOMFORT and sitting or standing for a while. GOD WILL GIVE YOU SECRETS FOR LIVING THE REAL LIFE!
HAVE we forgotten the words of our heavenly Father through the prophet Isaiah? COMFORT YE! COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE! The coming of the promised one, the Messiah, HE WILL take away the sins of the world so that HE might bring you into the family of God through the discipline and correction of the LORD.
After all, those who follow Jesus are called DISCIPLINED ONES or Disciples. Was JESUS trying to show us that life was EASY, and meant to be lived in comfort? Meant to work hard, raise lots of money so you can retire and live a life of EASE? Is that what Jesus did? Where in the Bible do you read anything like that?
I LOVE to see those older than me always giving their LIVES to be together, to working together as a church family and as a church body, SACRIFICING their WEDNESDAYS, FRIDAYS, and SATURDAYS to be together and do things like SERVE at a FOOD PANTRY, SING at a nursing home and care facility, getting MESSY for GOD cutting and throwing some fish into batter or into some hot oil, and taking communion on a SUNDAY afternoon to some shut ins when they could be home watching the tube, drinking champagne, enjoying the COMFORT life they believe they’ve EARNED for themselves … Deceived into thinking JESUS did everything just for them to live a life here in comfort.
But the Christian life doesn’t SHINE when things are going easy, but when things get difficult.
Does your life look any different than those who DON’T go to church? Does your life look different not because you are blessed, but because you’ve grown through some tough times relying on God? Because of personal loss not gain?
Why do bad things happen to good people? There is this story in John chapter 9 that blows my mind and it is as applicable today as the day it happened.
1As Jesus and his disciples were going along [as life was just happening and things were going good, and the disciples were with Jesus high-fiving each other all day, every day because they got to be with Jesus] , JESUS saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
A fair question. Listen there are many things in life we ask WHY ME, LORD? Why me? What have I done to deserve this? We ask that question because we want to go BACK, back to our comfort. We pray and pray and pray for God to heal us or make things better ALL THE WHILE MISSING that there may be something greater in what we are going through that can serve HIM, OURSELVES, OR OTHERS BETTER by going THROUGH what we are in and allowing GOD to FATHER US rather than GRANDFATHER US through.
WHY ME? WHY ME? WHY WHY WHY? So how did Jesus answer?
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” It wasn’t due to SIN that brought about THIS so-called BAD.
There are things we deserve because we were just plain dumb, have done stupid things and suffered the consequences from it and rightfully so, and been a FOOL with time, money, words, actions and had to pay the price for. We shouldn’t cry about that.
There are things we don’t deserve that have happened TO US simply because we belong to the human race and LIFE HAPPENS and bad things happen to good people, but WHY? WHY ME? Jesus didn’t stop there. He said “this happened so that the WORKS OF GOD might be displayed in him.”
I don’t want you to miss this! Jesus knows GOD IS A FATHER and not just any old kind of father, but the VERY BEST and he wants to be a FATHER to who? ALL? TO this BLIND MAN? Does God want to be a Father to Him? And that’s the message not only to the blind man, but to the disciples who are about ready to witness a miracle, and also to you and me!
But that’s the kicker isn’t it? We still want comfort and when we don’t get it we complain and ask the question, Well if I don’t have healing in my life, relief from this situation I MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING WRONG TO DESERVE IT! And these comments and questions KEEP US BLIND from the TRUTH!
GOD MUST HATE ME! Have you ever said that LIE before? Out loud? Did you tell your spouse that is why bad things are happening to him or her? GOD MUST REALLY HATE YOU TODAY. Not helpful. Not helpful at all.
For example, you have a family over here that doesn’t go to church, doesn’t know God, doesn’t believe in God YET where they have a child who has leukemia. And you take a family over here that DOES go to church, and DOES know God, and DOES pray and believe in Him who has a child that has leukemia.
Will those two homes handle the situation differently? Not if they both are seeking COMFORT. Jesus said while he was in the world, HE was the light of the world. But he is no longer here, so where is the light of the world now?
And that is what I want to leave you with today.
Closing song: I HAVE DECIDED TO FOLLOW JESUS. As you sing, let the song be your testimony that you are going to seek to allow God to Father you. Following Jesus IS a walk of being Fathered by God. Have you made that choice yet? Will you be His son? His daughter? Why do bad things happen to me? Because I am a child of God. Not because I deserve it, but because I am chosen to show HIS light in a dark world for them to see their way to the Father.
