Happy Father’s Day, dads! Did you all get pounced on in bed this morning? My boys each made me a card (that was very special); but Bethwyn went all out! She gave me my own rock. She painted it green, and she drew a smiley face on it, and gave it to me with a card. It couldn’t be more precious to me if it was a gold watch. What a sweetheart.
She’s three years old, and I’m already dreading the day she brings home a boy. I’m collecting one-liners that fathers have used to greet dates to try and get rid of them.
* One father said to a boy at the door, “So, you like my daughter?” To which he replied, “Oh yeah, she’s a real dreamboat!” So the father called out upstairs: “Dreamboat, your barnacle is here!”
* Another father opened the door and told the boy, “She won’t be moment, she’s just finishing her Tae Kwon Do lesson.”
* Another father said: “ I’m sorry, she’s not quite ready yet. She’s just trying on her wedding dress for the third time today.”
* My favourite ... A father answered the door and said to the young man: “I’m glad to meet you, Johnny, but I somehow pictured you with a telephone attached to your head!”
So, if any of you have any good one-liners for boys at the door, I only have about 14 or 15 years left to get those ready.
Let me tell you my favourite joke about fathers ... One day a woman made the mistake of leaving her baby daughter in her husband’s care while she was busy doing some work in another room. He immediately buried himself in his newspaper, and forgot all about the baby until he heard a series of thumps, followed by a horrendous cry. Instantly he knew that the baby had fallen down the stairs. He called out to his wife, “Honey! Come quick! Our little girl just took her first 24 steps!”
Dads! You’ve gotta love us, don’t you ladies?
TEXT: Matthew 6:9
These are some of the best known words in the Bible. If you asked the average person on the street to say the Lord’s Prayer, most could at least start it. “Our Father which art in heaven.” Many people can quote that, but they don’t really appear to appreciate the full import of the words they are saying ... “OUR FATHER in heaven”. What a tremendous thought. What an untold privilege to be able to address the mighty Maker of all things this way ... our FATHER.
There are scores of other places in the Bible also where God is described, and indeed describes Himself, in the terms of fatherhood.
Psalm 68:5 - “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God...”
Psalm 103:13 - “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;”
Isaiah 63:16 - “You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.”
Matthew 7:9-11 - Jesus said: “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
John 20:17 - After He rose from the dead, Jesus told Mary to go to His disciples and tell them he was alive and he said, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
The FATHERHOOD of God.
This is a picture of my dad. I have it framed and sat in my office and underneath it I have inscribed the words of Proverbs 17:6, which say: “... the glory of sons is their father.” I cherish this picture of my father; it reminds me of him constantly, and the wonderful person he is.
Likewise, there are pictures in the Bible that reveal something of God’s character.
This morning I’d like us to look at three pictures of fatherhood from the Bible which each show us an aspect of the great father heart of God. The first is found in Genesis chapter 22, the picture of ...
1. A WILLING Father
It’s the story of Abraham and his son Isaac.
Genesis 22:1-3.
Abraham was WILLING, in his love and devotion to God, to be obedient even in sacrificing his own son. This was the boy God had promised him, and he had waited years for his wife Sarah to conceive him. And yet, at the word from God, he took his son up Mount Moriah with Isaac carrying the wood for the fire of his own sacrifice.
Not only do we have a willing father here, but evidently a willing son also. It’s very doubtful he was a little boy - he was most likely a youth or young man - certainly strong enough to carry the wood up a mountain! But God had spoken to His father, and they went together willingly. And Abraham stood on that mountain, no doubt with his vision blurred by the tears streaming down his face, and he raised the knife to sacrifice his beloved son. And at the last possible moment, when God saw that he was obedient, the Angel of the Lord called to him to stop. “For now I know that you fear God.”
Those of us who are fathers here today can only marvel at this total obedience and faith. What a test!
God, likewise, is the willing father who, in His love and devotion to US, was prepared to give up His own son. His Son Jesus was willing to obedient and carry His own cross up on a mountainside - a hill called Calvary - to give His life in sacrifice.
However, whilst Abraham was given a reprieve - because it was a test - there was such no reprieve for God; it was no mere test! WE were in the balance. God went all the way and gave His son.
You see the Bible says that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When Adam and Eve rebelled against God it cut the entire human race off from God. Right to this present day, man has continued in sin. And the Bible says that “the wages of (our) sin is death.” Everlasting death.
When God gave up His only Son to death, He was dying in our place. Providing a substitute sacrifice, so that whoever believes in Him, trusting Him to be their Saviour, can be forgiven and come back into right relationship with God forever. Our heavenly Father was WILLING, in love and devotion, to give us His Son.
A WILLING Father.
The second picture I’d like you to see is found in 2 Samuel chapter 18. It’s the story of ...
2. A WAILING Father
This is the story of when King David’s son Absolom had plotted treason against his own father. He raised an army of discontents and sought to bring about a military coup to take his father’s throne. David’s loyal soldiers, under General Joab’s command, went out to stop them in battle. And they did, and in the fighting Absolom himself was killed. And the news was brought to David.
Let’s read 2 Samuel 18:24-33. [Read].
Here is David heartbroken over the death of his son, Absolom.
Absolom had not been a faithful son. He dealt treacherously with his father! He sought to overthrow him from the throne.
But David perhaps remember the little boy he had bounced on his knee, the youth he had watched grow before him into manhood. It was his flesh and blood. True fathers do not stop loving their children. David LOVED Absolom. At the news of his death, David’s heart was torn.
Here is a picture of God. The God who takes NO delight in the destruction of the wicked. He loves us. We all have turned our back on God and gone our own way, and so many refuse to return, even after His willingness to give up His son for us - but God still remembers how it SHOULD have been / COULD have been. He knows the plans He had for us; the relationship He wanted with us. God’s heart is broken.
There’s a glimpse of this in Jesus’ words over Jerusalem. The refrain sounds very much like David’s words over Absolom: “O my son Absalom; my son, my son Absalom”. Jesus said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!” Israel would not receive Jesus, and in rejecting Him they were rejecting God.
Jesus heart was broken. God’s father heart is broken by people who live without Him.
Our God is a holy God. He cannot look on sin condoningly. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts. There is no fragment of sin in His perfect nature. God loves you with a committed and everlasting love - a love more real and powerful than any other you have ever known - but do not mistake that for some human sentimentality that would allow him to sweep our sin under the carpet and overlook it. He cannot deny Himself. God’s HOLINESS - His justice - mean that He WILL banish people to hell. The Bible is very clear about that. But He will not do so gladly, but mournfully. With a breaking heart. The wailing Father. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is“not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
2 Samuel 14:14 says “For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him.” God DEVISES MEANS - He goes to extraordinary lengths and works extravagant plans - so that people can be saved. God sent prophets to prepare the way, He fashioned history to prepare a time, and then “when the fulness of the time had come” he sent His only Son to live and die for us that we the banished ones may not be expelled from Him.
Having done all this, do you think He won’t be heartbroken when people keep going without Him, lost in sin? It breaks His heart.
A WAILING Father.
The third and final picture is found in Luke 15. The story of ...
3. The WAITING Father
You remember this very famous story that Jesus told.
[Tell story of the prodigal son ... “A man had two sons...”]
This is another son who has walked away from his father’s house. Gone off in his own rebellious ways.
The WAITING father is out in the fields - WAITING - LONGING - HOPING - LOOKING.
When the prodigal returns - even when he is still afar off - the father RUNS to embrace, welcome and restore him.
Take just ONE step toward God today, friend, and He will run to you with arms open wide to embrace, welcome and restore YOU. Give you a place in His household. Dress you in the privileges of sonship / daughterhood. He loves you! He’s a God of grace. He’s the WAITING Father.
CONCLUSION:
Bow your heads and close your eyes.
What’s your response to the waiting Father today? Will you come home? Will you cast yourself on His great mercy today, and say: “Father, I’ve sinned. I’m not worthy to be called your son. But I believe you willingly gave up your Son Jesus to die my death penalty. I believe you bankrupted heaven to keep me out of hell - to have me home. And I will not ignore that sacrifice. Forgive me.”
When God hears that simple prayer of trust in Jesus, you’re going to find the waiting Father will receive you. He’ll take you as His own son or daughter. And you’ll live with Him forever.
Amen.
