Things my Daddy taught me (about God)
Jeremiah 18: 1-6
This past week I have spent some time thinking about growing up and the things that I learned from my Dad.
My daddy taught me some useful things, like knowing when to keep my mouth shut, knowing when to stand up for something that is important, how to tamp a post in so that it would be strong, how to fix my own car, and how to raise a good garden.
Now, all of those things are of some importance in getting along with each other and providing for ones self, but my daddy also taught me some things that were of greater importance. He taught me about God.
First and foremost, he taught me about respect. Actually it was a little deeper than respect. Respect is being polite even when it isn’t required, respect is saying yes sir and no maim, respect is not back-talking your mother, elders, or grand parents.
What my Dad taught me was reverence, a fear of him as well as God. I knew that if I were to show disrespect to my dad that there would be consequences.
He also taught me that I should show my heavenly father reverence and respect and if I show God disrespect that there would be more serious consequences.
You see consequences for poor conduct toward my elders only affects the physical world I live in. But poor conduct toward God is an entirely different matter
God’s word says in Galatians 6:7-8A Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; KJV
If we do not respect and reverence God, then there are eternal consequences. Our very souls are in jeopardy if we miss this.
But God also promises that if we invest in the spiritual then we will reap the spiritual benefits.
Galatians 6:8B-9 …but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. KJV
Dad also taught me honesty. I remember a time when we were visiting my uncle in Mississippi, I was about 12 or 13 at the time.
My uncle had a gun rack on the wall in the hallway and I noticed some .22 bullets carelessly spilled around in the bottom of the rack.
Since my uncle and cousin thought so little those bullets, I didn’t think that they would miss a few. When we left and were about 20 miles down the road, I took out my acquisitions and started admiring them.
My dad ask were I had gotten them, when I told him, the car turned around and back to my uncles we went.
I had to tell him what I had done, apologize, and then think about the whipping I was going to get for the next 2 hours as we drove home.
Not a good day for me, but a lesson well learned. God teaches us that we are to be honest and truthful in all our dealings. My dad taught me to be honest to a fault in all that I do and I have lived by that all my Christian life.
God’s word says in Exodus 20:15 Thou shalt not steal. If I didn’t have a good grasp of that commandment before that event, I did by the end of that day.
You see, if we think we can steal and get away with it, then the next thing you know we may think that there could be some sort of loop-hole that will allow us to steal our way into heaven.
It reminds me of the little boy who asked his friend if he thought he would get into heaven. His friend said he knew he would get into heaven because he had a plan.
He said, when I get to the pearly gates I will run in and out and in and out until God says “for heavens sake, get in or out” then I will walk in and stay in.
That may sound like a good plan from a child’s perspective, but it just won’t cut it with God.
My daddy taught me that there are absolutes in this world and the world to come. We live in an age that deals with every form of relativism and infinite shades of gray.
I knew that if I did certain things (things considered outside the realm of approved behavior) that there were absolutes that I would have to deal with.
God’s word teaches us that there are absolutes. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Yet the world says it is ok to slander your neighbor, it is ok to “take” what you “deserve” even if it isn’t technically yours, it is ok to be unfaithful to your spouse if you are no longer “in love” with them.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to like things black and white, cut and dried. Dealing with loopholes and technicalities fatigues me. And I know that God isn’t impressed when you try to reason you way out of sin.
You see, the most important thing my daddy taught me was what it meant to be saved. He preached it, he taught it, and he lived it.
As I have told you on several occasions, I grew up a preacher’s kid and I knew all the right church speech to use to fool people into thinking that I was something I was not.
For 20 years I fooled everyone that I felt needed to be fooled (I made no pretense about who I was when I was around my lost friends). But my Dad kept sending me these sermon outlines while I was on deployment in the Navy.
When you have been at sea for 4 months, you will read anything as long as it is new and one night after my shift I began to read one of these outlines.
As I read, the pastor began asking questions, qualifying questions as to the validity of your salvation. These questions hit me like a fist.
Perhaps I had managed to even fool myself, but I could not escape the reality of my answers, I was not saved, I had never been saved, and in fact, my life had been fruitless up to that point.
Under the powerful conviction of the Holy Spirit, I got out of my rack and knelt on the deck beside it and for the first time in my life I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life and I surrendered my will to His.
You see, my dad also taught me to recognize truth when I see it.
Realizing the truth of our spiritual condition can be painful for each of us, especially if we have deceived our selves into thinking that we have somehow managed to achieve some kind of spiritual loophole.
The truth is, there are no spiritual loopholes. There are no secret backdoors into heaven. God’s word is very specific when it comes to how to enter into heaven.
Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by me”.
If this is true (and it is), then how do I take advantage of this knowledge. How do I get to the Father through Jesus?
Well, we must first come to grips with some facts. The preeminent fact of the Bible is that God loves you. His word tells us this in
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. KJV
This fact is especially remarkable in light of the second fact, that is, that we have all fallen short of God’s plan for us in that we have sinned.
His word again is clear in Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
The literal translation of the Greek is that we have missed the mark. God’s word teaches us that when it comes to spiritual matters, we don’t measure up, we are found wanting.
Now you may say, hay, what’s the big deal, I live a good life, don’t break the law, I care for my wife and kids, I pay my taxes.
I never hurt anyone so I don’t see how a loving God could find grounds to sentence me to hell. Well, the truth is that God has done everything in His power to help you avoid hell.
But as far as you not deserving to go there, remember earlier that I spoke about absolutes, remember I mentioned one of the 10 commandments, thou shalt not bear false witness.
How many of you in this room have ever lied? If you have lied, then you have sinned. We know that all have sinned from what we just read in Ro 3:23.
So what are the consequences of sin, well, the Bible says we earn something; there is a wage to be paid. This is the third fact according to Romans 6:23 …the wages of sin [is] death; KJV
Now if the story ended there, we would all be in very big trouble. You see, our sin debt is more than we can pay.
It would be similar to someone suddenly giving you a bill for a trillion dollars and telling you that it must be paid in 30 days (a trillion is a thousand billion). It just can’t be done.
So what do we do? Well, thankfully, Romans 6:23 doesn’t end there. The full verse reads; For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. KJV
You say, Greg, that’s good news, so tell me the special prayer I have to pray or the process I have to go through to lay claim to this gift.
Well, its not that complicated. You see, there is nothing you can do to earn this gift. The very definition of Grace is God’s unmerited favor and God revealed His favor toward us when he allowed His son to die for our sins.
Again, His word is very specific, He teaches us in Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. KJV
You see, your only part in this process is faith; faith that He is God, faith that Jesus is His son, faith that Christ raised from the dead, faith that He is able to save you, and faith that you can have a relationship with Him.
According to the Bible, without faith it is impossible to please God. Receiving salvation is not a process or a specific prayer or some kind of incantation, it is a personal relationship with Jesus.
Romans 10:9 states
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. KJV
If you are relying on anything other than a personal relationship with Jesus to get you into heaven, then you will be in for quite a shock when you arrive in heaven and have your first meeting with Him.
I firmly believe that the Day of Judgment will be a terrible day for many church members and even some clergy. No amount of religiosity or church attendance or good works will get you into heaven.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:20-23 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. KJV
The eternal destiny of your soul is no trifling matter. On the contrary, it is the most important issue that faces you today. If you do not know for certain the state of your soul, then you are in grave peril.
The Bible warns us “how shall we escape if we neglect so grate a salvation”. How indeed, the fact is that there is no escape. Some day you will confess that Jesus is Lord.
If you confess Him as your Lord in this lifetime, then your life will be transformed and your eternal soul will be saved from hell. But, if you make that confession at the Great White Throne of judgment, then it is too late.
God’s word is clear, “every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord”.
There is one thing that my dad tried to teach me but never could, that was humility. It took God to humble my hard and selfish heart. I wanted to have my life my way, but that is contrary to a surrendered will.
Even in the Old Testament God required humility. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. KJV
He also teaches us humility in the New Testament. James 4:6 & 10
6 … Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble…10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. KJV
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If He requires humility in the past, then He requires it in the present and the future.
Is there a rock of resistance in your life? If you have ever watched a potter turning clay on the wheel, then you know how fascinating that process can be.
An experienced craftsman can toss a glob of clay onto the wheel and then at the touch of his hand a beautiful vessel emerges from the formless clay.
When God sent Jeremiah to the potters house to watch him make a vessel, he watched with fascination just as you or I would today. But as he watched, the clay began to wobble and shape itself and then fly apart.
You see, when a potter makes a vessel on the wheel, he must have the purest clay. If there are any impurities in it, then when his finger touches the rock or the impurity, the clay begins to shape itself and the vessel is ruined.
This is not unlike us when God tries to shape us into the vessel he wants to sanctify for His work. As long as there are rocks of resistance in our lives, then He is unable to make us into that vessel.
However, there is good news. According to I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. KJV
So when the clay of our lives flies apart on God’s wheel, he doesn’t just throw away the clay, no, he fishes around until He finds the impurity, the rock, and removes that, then just as he did in the days of Jeremiah, He makes a new vessel better that the first.
My daddy was able to teach me many things, to be honest, courteous, and faithful. He also taught me about God, but it took a personal relationship with Jesus to teach me salvation and humility.
So let me ask you today, are you humble before God. Have you truly surrendered your will to His or are there rocks of resistance floating around in your life, rocks that are on a collision course with His will.
Some rocks are deal breakers, such as unbelief and pride. Others are hindrances to God using you to the fullest of His intent for your life.
Maybe your rock of resistance is a habit you have been struggling with. No truer statement has been said than this, we are creatures of habit.
What is your habit that keeps you from fully experiencing God. What besetting sin is it that robs you of His full blessing. Is it a lying tongue or a wagging tongue.
Is it a physical habit such as tobacco or alcohol or pornography? Or maybe it is something a little harder to nail down like an addiction to prescription drugs.
Maybe it is a mental habit, yes we have mental habits too. Something like a hyper critical spirit, we always look for the bad, or a negative spirit, or we quietly suffer from unbelief or weak faith.
Listen, there is good news today, God loves you. That out weighs the fact that we are sinners and that the wages of that sin is death, but only if you accept that love.
There is one other thing my daddy taught me and that is to jump on a good deal when I see one. Listen folks, you will never find a better deal that this.
God came to this world as a man, lived a sinless life, died to pay your sin debt, and gave you the right to become adopted children of the King.
The Bible says that when He gives us this adoption that it will cause us to call out to God as Abba, Father.
Jesus said, I stand at the door and knock. He wants to come into your life and make you new again. Don’t waste another day, become a child of the King and make this your best Fathers Day of all time.
Let us pray…
