The Father Heart Of God

Fathers Day Sermon - The Father Heart of God

A young father to be was pacing back and forth, wringing his hands in the hospital corridor while his wife was in labor.

He was tied up in knots of fear and anxiety...and beads of perspiration dropping from his brow revealed the agony of his suffering.

Finally, at 4:00 a.m. a nurse popped out of a door and said, "Well, sir, you have a little girl."

He dropped his hands, became limp, and said, "Oh how I thank God its a girl. She'll never have to go through the awful agony I've had to go through tonight."

Fathers. Fathering. The Fathered. The Fatherless. God our Father.

When you spend much time at all in the Bible, pretty quickly you encounter the idea of fatherhood, particularly the Fatherhood of God.

For some that’s a good thing. It opens doors to really understanding who God is and who we are.

For others, it’s something we can trip over and struggle with. Fatherhood as it relates to God is one thing. As it relates to humans, it’s a mixed thing. Some of us have been hurt by our fathers.

Some of our fathers truly failed us - sometimes profoundly. Some of our fathers never figured much out in life, so they were a problem to themselves and, unavoidably, a problem to their children.

For all of us, fatherhood is something that God wants to redeem in our lives. Like every area of human existence, fatherhood needs to be redeemed.

My parents had 4 kids. They meant to have 3, but then there was an ‘Oops!’. I am the ‘Oops!’, I’m proud to say.

I’m proud to say it because human ‘Ooopses’ are God’s on-purposes, God’s “that’s how the person I wanted to be here got heres-ses”. I’m sounding a bit like a Tolkien character. Let’s move on.

Our understanding of the Fatherhood of God needs to be strengthened because, I believe, it is the key to all of our relationships.

Now today we do really want to honour those who have served their families well as fathers.

It is an honourable calling, a difficult calling. It is tough to balance the demands of fatherhood.

Those include, normally, being a good husband, being an attentive parent, working to support the family, along with the mother being a source of emotional strength.

Along with mother, sowing good spiritual seed in your children's lives.

It is not a job for the squeamish. it is not a job for anyone who tends to cut and run when the going gets tough.

But it is an incredibly rewarding thing to do, to be a father. To love your children.

Now there is no such thing as a perfect human father.

But there is a perfect father. He is our father in Heaven. He is the one that Jesus revealed to us as his father.

He is the one that Jesus taught us to refer to as Abba Father. Jesus wants us to draw near. Jesus reveals the heart of the father to us.

And the Heart of our Father in Heaven is truly good. Truly beautiful. That is why many of us so deeply long for others to come to know God through Jesus Christ.

We have personally experienced such extraordinary kindness and goodness from our father in Heaven. We have the indescribable reality of his peace in our lives.

Have you ever tried to describe the peace that God gives you? I've tried so many ways. In songs, and sermons, 1 to 1. It's one of those things that has to be experienced in order to really understand.

And so we long for those who we love, we long for those who we know and truly care for to come to the knowledge of God. And we know that Jesus reveals the heart of God. Jesus reveals the Father heart of God.

And what is that heart like? What is the heart of God? How does God love? How does God love you?

The Bible gives us amazing insights into God's love.

The passage that was just read a few minutes ago by Sharon highlights a number of ways in which God loves us.

Today were going to hear some different voices, some friends of mine who you will know if you attend church at the mission.

Both of these fathers deeply love their children. both of these fathers also love God. and both of these fathers have insights into the character of God.

First we are going to hear about patience.

There other words that are used in English that are synonyms to patience. Long suffering is a good one. that describes patience which endures a lot of waiting, and endures that waiting in pain, longing for the best for one's child.