|
|
Back to Sermons Index Back to Home Page 7th September 2008 AMThis sermon was preached by Pastor Colin at Nyabing Church on Fathers Day 2008 GOD OUR HEAVENLY FATHER - Pastor Colin Meadows Micah 6:1-8, Jeremiah 9:23-24 Fathers Day 2008: Advertising would like us to believe that on Fathers’ Day morning all over Australia, small children were bursting into bedrooms and pouncing on the beds of unsuspecting parents. In their hands, they were clutching beautifully wrapped gifts such as an orbital sander or pressure cleaner from Bunnings. Yet reality may be quite different. Fathers in Australia have shifted from their role as the central pillar and provider in a two-parent family, complete with its 2.6 children and a dog. Men today in fact are often confused about their roles and where they fit in to family life. Some 20% of Aussie children, for instance, live in single parent families & by 2020 the figure will be closer to one in three. In 5% of births in Australia at the moment, the father’s name is not even noted on the birth certificate. In Queensland, there is a lobby seeking to change Father’s Day to Fathering Day. In the US, 70% of boys in reform schools come from fatherless homes. It has become more difficult in the area of what card to have for the day. The range of cards for Fathers Day from Hallmark now includes ones that have written ‘like a father’ verses inside for those men who have acted like fathers to children, but don’t claim the biological bond. That range has sold out for the past 3 years. In the US they are selling cards with the caption ‘I miss more than ever, Daddy, now that it’s Father’s Day’. The ‘Hire a Hubby’ franchise is a handymen service with the motto ‘Why marry one when you can hire one’. In Japan is a company now provides ‘stand in family members’, including fathers. These people go to a home and act as either parents or brothers and sisters to those there at special times. There is a waiting list for the services of this company, which are very expensive. The whole area of fatherhood is under great stress. We thus need a strong understanding of the role of fathers in our communities in order to correct this situation. Let us look to God’s Word and in particular to God as our heavenly Father and see what we can learn. God is our Heavenly Father: I am the father of two sons. In my own search after understanding of the true nature of being a father, I have found it very helpful to look to God as our Heavenly Father. He is the model from whom we can draw understanding as we seek to comprehend what it means to be a father. Deut 32:6 “…Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you.” Isaiah 64:8 “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Yes, as children of God, we look to God as our heavenly father. No matter what our human circumstances might be concerning our earthly father, we need to think about our heavenly father, the one to whom we are able to pray… Matt 6:9 “Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name... “ What does this word ‘father’ mean in a Biblical sense? The basic understanding of the word father in the bible is that of one who nourishes, upholds and protects. God has done that to his children of faith down through the years and he continues to do so today. We see these truths encapsulated in our reading from Jeremiah. Jer 9:24 “…I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.” This verse I feel holds together the three aspects of fatherhood that I will explore now. Our Heavenly Father nourishes for He is kind: We thus first to explore the kindness of God. The word kindness, or ‘hesed’ in Hebrew, occurs 245 times in the OT and has no direct equivalent in English. It could be translated ‘mercy’ or ‘devotion’ for it speaks of the outward manifestation of compassionate pity for a person in need and the adequacy of the resources of God to meet such a need. It speaks of redemption, preservation, of keeping the covenant of love established long ago. It could further be translated as ‘loyalty’ or ‘binding to a course of action’. God has thus committed himself totally to his people. It speaks of ‘love that will not let me go’, referring to God’s passionate concern for our well being, his steadfast love and unfailing devotion. Kindness is a deep commitment that reaches far beyond what is expected. It is thus the special word used to describe the covenant love relationship that God the Father has with his own children. God is rich in such kindness, Paul reminds us in Eph 2:4. God sees our need and he longs to meet that need. He sees our brokenness, our loneliness, our hurts and he longs to reach out to us in our pain. He wishes to pour out his kindness on us as the helpless ones. We are all needy people. God our Father wishes to meet that need through his presence in our lives. He is rich in mercy and such help is only a prayer away. Then as we receive his love and mercy so we can pass it on. As fathers, we too need to be men of mercy and kindness, firstly to our own families and then to those around us. We need in God’s strength to reflect the loving character of God to other people through our lives, protecting the weak, supporting the fearful, encouraging the helpless. Our Heavenly Father upholds for He is Righteous: He is the God who is faithful and true, the God of integrity. To be righteous means to live in an upright manner, to be straight and true. He is the God who is consistent with his own nature and promises. Our God is upright in all his dealings with humanity. That is how he lives. This is where humanity has struggled down through the ages for we are not righteous. How can we live lives that are righteous and upright when we are not like that? Rom 1:17 “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Christ is the source of our righteousness. It is by faith that we can live a righteous life and so reflect the life of righteousness of our Father in heaven. Accept what Jesus had done for us by faith. Then we can uphold others. Yes, our heavenly father upholds for he is righteous. Our Heavenly Father protects for He is just: This is a further aspect to the character of God that is explained here. God in other words is fair! God is not only kind and righteous but he dispenses justice on the earth. Here this speaks of God pronouncing fair and careful judgment and sentencing. Because God as our father is righteous, then his is able to dispense justice. In the words of one child, this means that God never has to say ‘Oops!’ He always acts in character and he asks us to live the same way. It is vitally important that we remember this for we live in a world that often is often violent and unfair, apparently lacking in justice. The same was true for Jeremiah’s times. How did he hold on and continue to trust God? Because he knew that this life was not the end. There would be a future time when final justice would be revealed. There is coming a day of reckoning, a day when God will pronounce his verdict. His hand of justice is being held back only by his hand of mercy, as he longs for people to repent and turn to him. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in his writings. 2 Cor 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” God our Father is the God of justice and his justice is only being restrained in these days by his hand of mercy. We see the meeting of the three truths of kindness, righteousness and justice at the cross. The cross is the ultimate reminder of the righteousness of God where his kindness clashed with his justice. He acted against the unrighteous but in his mercy sent his son to take the punishment due to us all. His justice was satisfied through the death of Christ. We now need to accept this by faith. Let’s live as Godly Fathers: When we thus combine these truths together about God our Father we begin to grow in our understanding of who he is and what he desires in our lives, especially as we seek to be godly fathers. As the God of mercy and compassion, he is seeking out the helpless, people like you and me who daily need his strength and guidance. He looks to us in return to be people of mercy towards others, especially towards our children, reflecting his nature. Let’s be gentle, aware of their weakness and fragility, remembering our own fragility when we were their age. He is the God of righteousness, always acting in a way that is consistent with his character He is the God of justice, and he will one day call his world to give an account. He thus calls us to live lives that are accountable for one day we will need to give an account to him. He is turn asks us to do the same, to live as true children of the king, to live as Jesus lived. Living in this manner is not confined just to fathers but is for us all. Micah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Let us all, whether man or woman, seek to live in that way, bringing honour to our Lord day by day. I was at a memorial service for an elderly man several years ago. Family members rose and said wonderful words but the eulogy that touched me the most was that of the last person who spoke. She explained that she had come to Australia in the 1970’s as a Vietnamese boat person and was cared for by the man and his wife. For three years they looked after her and he became her father. She said that this loving godly man had shown her what God was like and as a result she had become a Christian. That, my friends, is the essence of true fatherhood. Let us live in such a way that others can see something of God in our lives.
|