The Fatherhood of God - Charles Leiter

Well, let's pray before
we look into the Word.

Our Father, we ask You

for Your Holy Spirit this evening -

the Spirit of faith and power

and love and of a sound mind.

We ask You that You would glorify Yourself

that we'd come away

with a little glimpse of who You are.

Help us, Lord.

We're not able to do that,

but we pray that You would do it;

that You'd take control.

We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, our text this evening

is found in Matthew 6:9.

Matthew 6:9,

and actually just the
first part of the verse.

"Pray then in this way,

'Our Father, who is in Heaven...'"

"Pray then in this way,

'Our Father, who is in Heaven...'"

As you know, these are the first words

of what's called "the Lord's Prayer."

Maybe a better name would be

the "model prayer" or the "pattern prayer"

because the Lord is giving us this prayer

as a pattern for our own praying.

And as for the larger context,

this prayer comes about in the middle

of what we know as the
Sermon on the Mount,

and this glorious passage of Scripture

that begins at the beginning of Matthew 5

and goes all the way
to the end of Matthew 7.

And at the end of this sermon,

Matthew makes this comment.

He says, "the result was that when Jesus

had finished these words,

the multitudes were
amazed at His teaching."

They were amazed at His teaching.

A couple of years ago there in Kirksville,

we spent some time considering

the amazing teachings
of the Lord Jesus Christ;

the radical teachings of Jesus.

And by the time we finished the series,

I basically had come to the conclusion

that everything the
Lord Jesus taught was radical.

It's amazing. I mean, think of it.

"It's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle

than for a rich man to enter
the Kingdom of Heaven."

What a shocking word
that was in that setting!

"Every idle word that a man shall speak,

he shall give account for it

in the day of judgment."

You know that has to be true.

God's not going to let
some things slip by,

but just think about that.

"That which is highly
esteemed among men..."

Think of that.

"...Highly esteemed among men

is an abomination in the sight of God."

"Unless a man is born again,

he can't see the Kingdom of Heaven."

You've got to be born two times.

Think of these things!

Just one after another!

"Don't think that I came to
bring peace on the earth.

I did not come to bring peace,

but a sword."

"Strive to enter at the narrow gate;

for many will seek

and will not be able."

"Before Abraham was born, I am."

"No one knows the Father except the Son,

and he to whom the
Son wills to reveal Him."

Think of this.

Jesus said nobody in the whole world

knows the Father except for Me,

and anybody that I
choose to reveal Him to.

Well, we could go on and on, couldn't we?

The wonderful, radical,

world-changing teachings of Jesus.

But tonight then, I'd like for
us to focus on one thing;

one of those teachings,

and that is the teaching of the Lord Jesus

concerning the fatherhood of God.

"Pray then in this way,

'Our Father, who is in Heaven..."

We can't imagine how radical

and earth-shaking these words were

in the day in which they were spoken.

The Jews had heard many times

of the fatherhood of God

in relation to the corporate
nation of Israel.

Just one example:

Hosea 11:1,

"When Israel was a youth,

I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called My son."

So there's the Father -

the Father of Israel His son

in a corporate sense.

And even on the individual level,

there were some passages,

like Isaiah 43:6, He says,

"Bring My sons from afar

and my daughters from
the ends of the earth."

So there were some things like that,

but when it came to the
matter of private prayer,

the Jews never addressed God

as "our Father."

In fact, those who have
done a thorough study

of the rabbinic writings

just in recent years,

say that no Jew ever
used the term "father"

as a direct address to God

until the 10th century A.D.

In other words, Christians had been saying

"our Father" for 1,000 years

before any Jew began to do that

as far as any records that we have.

They spoke of "the Father,"

but they never used the term "Father"

to address God in prayer.

Yet, Jesus did it repeatedly,

and He taught us to do it.

He said, "When you pray,

pray like this, 'Our Father in Heaven.'"

Beloved, if you are Christian,

God is your Father in a way

that far exceeds any fatherly relationship

that He had with the
corporate nation of Israel.

In fact, God is your Father

in the most intimate,
personal way imaginable.

You have been born of God.

John says born, "not
of the will of the flesh

or the will of man, but born of God."

And he goes so far in 1 John,

he says, "God's seed remains in you."

We would have never said
something like that, but he says that.

"God's seed remains in you."

You've been born of God.

This fatherly relationship with God.

In another place, he says we've become -

Peter says, we've become

"partakers of the divine nature."

You're a child of God,

both by legal adoption

and by spiritual birth.

And from deep within you

comes welling up this elemental cry,

"Abba, Father."

Abba, Father.

An intimate, love relationship
with the God of the universe.

Beloved, this is a fatherhood

that's far deeper than
any human fatherhood.

It's the reality of which
the best earthly father

is only a shadow.

In fact, God created earthly fathers

so we'd have some idea

of what He's talking about when He says

He's our Father.

Sadly, many of you may have had fathers

that you have to try to forget about

in order to get a right concept of God.

But to the degree that
there's common grace -

I know myself and my home,

my father did not truly know the Lord,

but we went to church,

and he, in many ways,

gave me a glimpse of
what it is to be a father.

But all of those things are shadows.

God created earthly fatherhood

as the type of which He is the anti-type

or the true Father.

He is the only real Father

that any of us will ever have.

He's what fathers are supposed to be.

And the Lord Jesus says
this in Matthew 23:9,

"Do not call anyone on earth your father.

For one is your Father -
He who is in Heaven."

He's the real deal.

Those other fathers are shadows.

Hebrews 12:9, "We had fathers of our flesh

to discipline us, and we respected them.

Shall we not much rather be subject

to the Father of spirits and live?"

So the best earthly fathers

try to be on a human level

what really only God can be to us.

But Jesus not only taught
us to say, "Father," to God,

He taught us to say, "Our Father."

And this means, first of all,

He's my father on an
individual, personal level.

And we've said that.

But think of this,

in teaching this, He's teaching us

that we're part of a family;

that we've got brothers and sisters.

So there's true fatherhood -

the only real fatherhood that ever was.

And the real family -

true brothers and sisters on a level

that's never been in an earthly family.

Think of that.

And so we gather together as a family.

And we lift our voices
and say, "Our Father."

Our Father.

I mean, when we come to the place,

when all these little things

that our brother talked about this morning

that we separate over this and that,

when we come to the place

where all that falls away and we stand

in the presence of our Father,

we will feel a love for each other

that is unimaginable.

Brothers and sisters of the true Father.

Men from every tribe
and tongue and nation.

Think of that.

Wasn't that glorious to see

all those different languages?

And there's so many more -
there's thousands more.

All one in Christ.

All part of the same family.

All from the same Father.

All born from the same Father.

Indwelt by the same Spirit.

Well, God is our Father.

What else does Jesus say?

Not only our Father,

but He's our Father in Heaven.

In Heaven.

In other words, He's in a different realm

than we are.

He's the Creator.

We're the creature.

He's infinite.

We're finite.

You know, we use this word "infinite" -

we don't really have any idea

what that words means.

When I used to study math in college,

we would talk about

a particular function at a certain point -

it goes to infinity we'd say.

It goes to infinity.

And in your mind, you picture

this really, really, really large number

that looks like this...

it goes to infinity.

But you see, once you get to that number,

you're not any closer whatsoever

to getting to infinity

because there isn't any end to it.

And so you travel a million,
million, million miles

and you haven't gotten
any closer whatsoever

because there isn't any place -
you're never going to get there.

You don't get any closer.

Those are when you think in terms of space

or in terms of numbers,

but when we think in terms of God,

infinite - we don't even
know what that means.

But He's infinite.

So, how far have we come already?

Well, Jesus said pray like this:

"Our Father in Heaven."

What's it mean? It means that we are

in a love relationship,

an intimate family relationship with God,

and the God that we're
in this relationship with

is both personal and infinite.

He's our Father in Heaven.

Both personal and infinite.

And that's the foundation
and governing reality

of the Lord's prayer that follows after,

and all prayers,

and the whole Christian life;

that our Father is both
infinite and personal.

Charles Hodge pointed out many years ago

that the human mind left to itself

cannot come up with that.

When men start thinking about God,

and they start moving in the direction

of an infinite God,

they lose His personality.

And you see that in Eastern religion.

They talk about a god as a little-g god

that is another name for everything.

But the God of Hinduism for example

is not a personal God.

It's just another word. It's an "it."

A word for everything.

And some of you know about reincarnation.

You know that you're reborn,

you're reborn, you're on this wheel.

The idea is to get off of
the wheel of rebirth

and to blend back into the nothingness

of the impersonal.

Hindus don't want to be reborn;

they want to get off of that

and blend back into nothingness.

Why am I saying that?

Well, because there's
no place for a person

or for personality in Hinduism

because the god of Hinduism is impersonal.

In other words, it can't hear;

it can't speak.

It's less than we are.

And the Hindu idea of nirvana

is not at all like a
Christian idea of heaven.

It's a negation of personality;

not an affirmation of who you are.

And so, you know in Buddhism,

you have this saying,

"man enters the water
and leaves no ripple."

In Christianity, you have:
man enters the water

and leaves ripples that go on forever.

Because God is personal

as well as infinite.

But anyway, you go in that direction -

the mind of man has the infinite.

You go in the other direction,

you have the personal gods,
but they're not infinite.

Greek gods are like that.

This is popular in our day -

all these various "gods."

And they're a bunch of big men and women

fighting each other.

And they're nothing.

You see, you have personality,

but unless God is infinite,

He's just a big man who can't help you.

He's in the same predicament you're in.

But if you've got a God who exists -

I mean, we can imagine a fire that burns;

you keep putting logs on it.

We can't imagine a fire that
burns on its own forever.

These are some of the things
that we're talking about

when we talk about a self-existent,

infinite, personal God.

So, our God is both infinite and personal,

and with Him we have
answers to everything.

But, oh, what a hard time we have

holding on to both realities.

The mind of man wants to go one
way or the other constantly.

If we start seeing how great God is,

immediately we start thinking

what could He care
about my little problems.

And He gets more and more removed

from really entering in to our feelings

and our trials.

You start going the other way

and you really begin to realize

how much God cares,

and you start thinking of Him as little.

You know, He's torn with the
same problems you are,

and He can't figure out what to do,

and He's struggling with things.

You see this in false theology.

You see both directions all the time.

But God is both infinite and personal.

So, first of all, He's infinite.

He's in Heaven.

And that's absolutely foundational

to the whole Christian life,

and to every prayer
that the Christian prays.

"Thy kingdom come."

Well, God's infinite.

He's able to make His kingdom come.

John the Baptist said God's
able from these stones

to raise up children unto Abraham.

So, we got out and look at things

and say it's impossible -

what's God going to do?

Look at Islam.

I've read accounts in the last year or so

of people in Mecca having dreams

that led them to read the New Testament

and get converted.

I mean, God's able to do anything.

He's able to save,

no matter how obstinate

and impossible the sinner is.

God says to Ezekiel, "Son of man,"

you know, he went out and looked

at that valley of dry bones;

there were very many
and they were very dry.

And God says, "Son of man,
can these bones live?"

I remember, years ago,

I used to live in Lawrence, Kansas.

One time, I went to the natural
history museum there.

It was late in the day

and I think I was about
the only person in there.

I probably was the only person in there.

And I walked around in those hallways

with my footsteps echoing,

looking at those bones.

"Son of man, can these bones live?"

And you look at the bones

of those tar pits

and those saber-tooth tigers and all that,

and you look at them -
they're very dry

after thousands of years.

But God speaks and they
begin to come together.

You see, this is the foundation.

God's infinite power is the foundation

of our praying for the kingdom to come.

Nothing can stop Him

from bringing in His kingdom!

He's infinite in power!

He can do anything!

He can keep kings from sleeping at night

so they happen to pick
up a book and read it,

and that type of thing, you know?

He can save your child.

He can save the most impossible cases.

The devil will tell you,

"look, God's a God of the mountains,

but not the valleys."

"He can save so-and-so,
but this problem's different."

"You never hear about
anybody getting saved

with that kind or problem."

God hears that and He says,

"We'll see about that."

Daily bread?

Just think about these
requests in the Lord's prayer.

Daily bread? You need daily bread?
He's infinite in power.

He's able to bend heaven and earth

to get daily bread to you.

He's able to do far above

all we can ask or think.

He's able to make all grace abound to you

that always having all
sufficiency in everything

you may have an abundance
for every good work.

I remember Bob Jennings told me,

and Terri may have to correct
me on some of the details,

but one time, when they
didn't have any money,

and they're praying and need daily bread,

and as I recall, it was in the parking lot

of the grocery store.

They got out and he said
the wind was blowing

and it blew a dollar bill up to his feet.

Well, you can't buy much
food with a dollar bill,

but it's God saying,

"look, I can give you a windfall.

I can do anything.

I just want to remind you,

I'm in charge of this."

If we put together the testimonies

in this room tonight

of all the miraculous provisions,

I mean, it would be astounding.

I used to keep a book of that

until the book got full.

One thing after another where God

faithfully provides in ways
that we can't imagine.

Knowledge.

Francis Schaeffer used to say,

"There's no black hole back of God."

There's no hidden things
that He doesn't know.

He knows everything.

He's infinite.

Because He knows everything,

nothing's going to come
out of the darkness

and surprise Him and overthrow His plans.

Providence. We talked
about that last year.

He's able to control every insect,

every snowflake, everything,

every aspect because He's infinite!

Deliverance from sin?

God's infinite. He's able.

Beloved, do you believe this?

He's able to take the most helpless,

hopeless drunk or drug addict

and make them stand.

And Paul says stand he will,

for God is able to make him stand.

We used to sing that song,

"It's the grandest theme
in the earth or main,

our God is able to deliver thee."

Praying for some weak
and struggling brother?

God's infinite.

He's able to keep Him from falling

and present him faultless before
the presence of His glory

with exceeding joy.

Praying in relation to
the powers of darkness

pressing around?

Brother Dan told me that over there

where they're laboring,

you feel it, you feel it,

he's laboring under it all the time.

I didn't feel it because he's bearing it.

God's infinite.

Principalities and powers
are nothing to Him.

Greater is He who is in you -
how much greater?

Infinitely greater!

He's not just a little bit greater;

He's infinitely greater.

Jesus is dealing with a legion of demons.

He just says, "Go."

God is infinite.

We come to Him with reverence and awe

as the one who is infinitely exalted.

You know, even the Lord Jesus Himself

in John 17, He says, "O Righteous Father."

"Holy Father."

We're not talking about a flippant
attitude in this fatherhood.

He's the infinitely exalted One.

But at the same time, God is personal.

He's our Father.

The God who spoke the
universe into existence

is our Father.

At the present estimate,

how many stars do you think there are?

Ten thousand?

Well, I think all the
grade school kids here

know better than that.

How about ten thousand billion?

That's a lot.

How about ten thousand billion trillion?

That's how many at the present estimate.

It's probably more than that now.

It's been a couple
years since I read that.

So what's a trillion?

When you take a million of something,

and you take a million of those millions,

we can't even imagine that.

You've got a million;

and you've got a
million of those millions.

Now take a billion of them.

A billion of them.

And take ten thousand
of that billion trillion,

and the Bible says,

He calls them all by name.

Because of the greatness of His power,

not one of them's missing.

He calls them out

Now, think of this.

He's not calling them "one-billion-one,"

"one-billion-two," "one-billion-three."

You know what names are in the Bible?

They talk about some
characteristic of something.

He's got a unique name
for every one of those

ten thousand billion trillion stars!

And each name - mysterious names -

and names that go into what the character

of that star is.

And He's your Father.

What right do we have
to be so unbelieving?

It's pitiful, isn't it?

We can't lay hold of it.

We've got to ask our Father,

"Help. Help me. Help me to see."

"Help me to believe a little bit
of what You're able to do!"

Our God is a personal God.

Now, you theologians,

don't let philosophy
rob you of this reality.

Some of the things I've read

about God's supposed impassibility -

that is, His inability to experience

pain or emotion -

they're sheer philosophy,
and they fly in the face

of a thousand Bible verses.

It's from theologians thinking too long

about God's infinity.

If you do that, you can't
hang on to His personality.

But they say, look, God's impassible.

He can't be touched with emotion.

Well, let me read a little bit to you.

"Grieve not the Spirit of God."

Don't make Him sad.

That's what the word grieve means.

You can look it up and look
at all the other verses.

"As a bridegroom rejoices over the bride,

so your God will rejoice over you."

How many of you have
ever been to a wedding?

You think there's any emotion there?

You look at the groom

and the bride comes through -

we don't believe this!

The infinite God -

He says, "I'll rejoice over you

like a groom rejoices over the bride."

Isn't it amazing?

"He will exult over you with joy.

He will be quiet in His love.

He will rejoice over you
with shouts of joy."

That sounds like some emotion to me.

"God so loved the world,

that He gave His only Son."

He delivered Him up.

And we can't comprehend this,

but we know this, it cost God greatly

to crush His Son.

That's a revelation.

God revealed that to us.

Think of Abraham

and that offering up of Isaac.

He says, "take now your son,

your only son, whom you love."

What's He saying to us?

He's getting across
that what Abraham felt,

there's something, somehow

connection with Him sacrificing His Son.

Beloved, God is not
some philosophical "X,"

He's our Father.

"'Wherefore come out from among them

and be ye separate,' saith the Lord,

'and touch not the unclean thing,

and I will receive you.'"
I'll welcome you.

"'And I will be a Father to you,

and you shall be My sons and daughters,'

saith the Lord Almighty."

You see it?

Your Father in Heaven.

He's almighty, and here He says,

"You'll be My sons and daughters."

He treats the ladies -
"You're My daughters."

And to the men, He says, "You're My sons."

Think of that. Isn't that special?

This God that we're talking about.

Well, what are some of the implications

of the fact that God is
our Father in Heaven?

I've got nine of these.

And most of them come from the Gospels.

Some come from other places

where they're a little clearer.

But some of the implications -

and this will be the rest of the message.

The first implication -

I believe the most profound implication -

and I hope that I'll be able somewhat

to get it across.

What's it mean that God is my Father?

It means that I have a lap to climb into.

I have Someone - you have
Someone to hold you.

You have a Father.

You have a home. You belong.

Think of the terrible state of those

who have no heavenly Father.

You're flying in a plane at night

over some unknown city,

looking down in the darkness

on thousands and thousands

of little specks of light,

and every one of them is a house.

Unknown names.

In those little specks
of light are people.

Unknown people.

Thousands of them.

Tens of thousands of them.

Millions of them.

And then you realize, you're one of those

little, unknown...

I'm talking about a person without God.

The feeling that you have.

Pascal said it like this,

"When I consider the
short duration of my life,

swallowed up in the eternity

before and after..."

He's talking about our
smallness in relation to time.

"...When I consider the
small space which I fill,

or even can see engulfed in the infinite

immensity of spaces of
which I know nothing

and which know nothing of me.

I'm terrified.

And I wonder that I'm here

rather than there."

Have you ever thought about it?

"I'm here rather than there,

for there's no reason why
here rather than there,

or now rather than then."

He says I think about
that - I'm terrified.

You see, without God,

man is an orphan in a vast, cold,

very uncaring universe

that doesn't even know he exists.

And when you look out on those

millions of stars in the darkness,

if you have no heavenly Father,

you are nothing.

You are a nothing.

And there's a terrible sense

of insignificance and aloneness.

I'll quote Pascal again. He says,

"The eternal silence of those
infinite spaces alarms me."

But when you realize that your Father

made all those stars,

it's different, isn't it.

And, that He's both infinite and personal.

And He really does love you.

Everything changes. You belong.

You're accepted.

And at the very root of all reality,

you have a home.

You have a place to go.

I remember one time
I was in a strange city,

and I was already a Christian,

but it came over me -

this sense of aloneness and smallness.

It's terrifying.

And then it came into my heart,

"I will receive you.

I will be a Father to you."

And as soon as you have that,

the infinite God is my Father!

And everything's going to be alright.

He's with me.

You have a place to go.

You have a home.
You have a lap.

You've found the ground of your existence

and it's not some cold,
abstract principle;

it's the lap of a loving
heavenly Father.

Surely the opposite of that

is part of what hell is.

You remember Jesus talks
about outer darkness

and weeping and gnashing of teeth.

You look inside, there's warmth,

there's a family, there's a home,

there's rejoicing, there's Abraham

and Isaac and Jacob coming;

people coming from the east and west

and reclining.

And you're outside. They're in there.

They have a Father.

And you're outside in the darkness.

No family.

No Father.

Well, I think the most fundamental meaning

of having God as our Father,

and that is we've found
our reason for living.

We've found the meaning of existence.

But the second thing,

that God is my Father means

that I never need to be afraid

because God cares for me

in a personal and intimate way.

Matthew 10:29-30,

"Are not two sparrows sold for a cent?

And yet, not one of them will fall

to the ground apart from your Father,

but the very hairs of your head

are all numbered."

Jesus says, "Don't fear
them that kill the body."

The One who names every star

has numbered the hairs on your head.

He cares that much about you.

And you know, it's not the idea

just that God knows how
many hairs are on your head,

He knew how many
hairs were on Hitler's head.

That's not the point.

But that He's that concerned about you.

That concerned,

that not one sparrow
can fall to the ground.

You say, how do I know I won't

fall to the ground and get killed?

You don't know, but you do know this,

it's not going to happen
without your Father

being right there

controlling the whole thing.

The context of these verses in Matthew 10

is persecution, but it
applies to every area

where we might be tempted to fear.

God won't just let
anything "happen" to us.

He cares for me in a
personal and intimate way.

Not one of those little birds

can fall to the ground
apart from your Father.

But the third thing

that the fatherhood of God means to me:

the fact that God is my Father

means He will provide for me.

Now, we know these things.

Matthew 6:26-33.

"Look at the birds of the air,

that they do not sow,

neither do they reap,

nor gather into barns,

yet your Heavenly Father feeds them."

So there's the food thing.

"Are you not worth much more than they?"

He goes on, "Why are you
anxious about clothing?"

So now He's dealing with that.

"Observe how the lilies of the field grow.

They do not toil, nor do they spin,

yet I say that even
Solomon in all his glory

did not clothe himself like one of these,

but if God so arrays
the grass of the field,

which is alive today and tomorrow
is thrown into the furnace,

will He not much more do so for you,

O men of little faith?

Do not be anxious then, saying,

what shall we eat?
Or, what shall we drink?

Or with what shall we clothe ourselves?

For all these things the
Gentiles eagerly seek,

for your Heavenly Father knows

that you need all these things."

So God is my Father.

He'll feed me. He'll clothe me.

He'll provide for me.

What right do I have to be anxious?

I'm not telling you
anything you don't know,

but beloved, how much
have we entered into this?

Can you imagine a life
where you don't have

any anxiety at all about
any of that stuff

because you know God is going to

take care of it all?

That He's infinite in power?

That's what Jesus is talking about.

He's talking about freedom from fear

of somebody killing you.

He's talking about freedom from fear

of not having food or
clothing or provision.

Just to be totally free.

Look, my Father owns everything.

He spoke the universe into existence

and all those stars.

I don't have anything possible

that could happen to me.

A little bird can't fall to the ground.

Think of this.

The fact that God is my Father,

it means that I don't have
to use vain repetitions

like the Gentiles do.

He says your Father knows

that you need those things

before you ask.

Number four: the fact
that God is my Father

means that I can trust Him implicitly.

Now listen to this,

"What man is there among you

when his son shall ask him for a loaf

will give him a stone?

Or if he shall ask for a fish,

he will not give him a snake, will he?

If you then, being evil..."

Now fathers - the best fathers -

compared to the Heavenly Father are evil.

They come so far short of what He is,

but even we know how to give good gifts

to our children.

"How much more shall your Heavenly Father

give what is good to those who ask Him?"

Why would the Lord give this teaching?

Well, because the devil
is always telling us -

you know the word "devil"
(diabolos) means slanderer.

And he's constantly slandering God to man,

and he'll tell you that the
kind of Father you have,

that if you ask Him for an egg,

He'll give you a scorpion.

The devil tells you that.

Constantly.

He'll tell you God's a liar.

"You shall not surely die."

He tells you God's holding out on you.

God knows that if you eat that,
you'll have something good.

He'll tell you that the good land

that God is giving you

devours its inhabitants.

If you go in there, it will eat you up.

All those slanders about
the character of God.

I've shared a lot more examples of this

in talking about our
adversary the slanderer,

but there's so many of them.

I was thinking before

when I was preparing this,

I was thinking of how many
young people there are here.

So you girls, you're praying, and you say,

"Lord, I want You to choose
a husband for me."

Or you guys, you're praying,

"Lord, I want to put it in Your hands.

I want You to choose my wife."

And the devil's right there saying,

"Don't do that!

God will give you the
ugliest girl imaginable.

Or, if you do that,

you won't even get married at all.

He won't even give you a wife.

You've got to take
this in your own hands."

See, it all goes back to:

do I have a Father?

Do I have a loving Heavenly
Father who can do anything?

A.W. Tozer was telling
his congregation one day

about how he had put his little daughter

into God's hands

just for whatever God would have for her,

and a woman came up after the sermon.

She said, "Aren't you afraid to do that?"

Think of what kind of God

the devil tells us we have.

You know, that he's an "evil" type God.

I can trust Him implicitly.

That's what Jesus is saying.

He's saying you will never come

as a child of your Heavenly Father

and say, "Father, will
You give me an egg?"

and He says, "I will, son,
now close your eyes

and put out your hand,"

and He drops a scorpion into it.

He'll never do that.

He'll give good things to
those who ask Him.

Number five: the fact
that God is my Father

means that I never need to make

an outward show of goodness.

God is able to keep track
of everything in secret

and reward me in ways

that no man ever could.

Oh, that we could lay hold of this.

"Beware of practicing your righteousness

before men to be noticed by them,

otherwise you have no reward

with your Father who is in Heaven."

And He goes through three things.

"When you give alms,

do not sound a trumpet."

You want your alms to be in secret.

Don't let your left hand know

what your right hand's doing.

"And your Father who sees in secret

will repay you."

When you pray, don't
be like these hypocrites.

They stand out in the open.

They want to be seen by men.

Go into your inner room,

and shut the door,

and pray to your Father

who is in secret.

That's where God is.

You say, God's so far away;

I can't find God. Where is He?

Well, He's in secret.

"And your Father who sees in secret

will repay you."

And then He talks about fasting -

not to put on a gloomy face

to be seen fasting by men.

"When you fast, anoint your head

and wash your face,

so that you may not
be seen fasting by men,

but by your Father who is in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret

will repay you."

Think of this:

I don't have to put on a show to men.

It doesn't matter what men think anyway.

God knows. He sees everything in secret.

Every bit of it He knows.

And He said I'm not going
to let you miss out.

Just as I was preparing
this, I'm thinking,

Lord, over and over You're saying

He will reward you; He will reward you.

If you fast, if you pray, if you give

in the presence of your Father,

He'll reward you.

We can be sure He will.

He keeps perfect records.

He sees everything in secret

because He's infinite.

And He will reward.

Number six: the fact that God is my Father

means that I have a perfect example

to pattern my life after.

I've got a Father worthy of
emulating in every way.

"You've heard that it was said

you shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy,

but I say unto you,
love your enemies

and pray for those who persecute you,

in order that you may be sons

of your Father who is in Heaven.

For He causes His sun to rise

on the evil and the good,

and sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous."

I like that.

It's like a little kid has an orange ball.

God has His sun. "That's My sun."

God causes His sun to shine.

He causes His sun to shine on this earth.

And He sends rain on the righteous

and the unrighteous.

He says, "if you love those who love you,

what reward have you?

Do not even the tax gatherers do the same?

And if you greet your brothers only,

what do you do more than others?

Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Therefore, you are to be perfect

as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

We know how young sons
want to imitate their fathers.

Well, here's a Father worthy of imitation

in every way.

And the Lord Jesus looks
at what's happening

in the world around us.

He says, look, your Father's being kind

to these ungrateful and evil men.

You imitate Him.

"Love your enemies.

Do good and lend

expecting nothing in return,

and your reward will be great,

and you will be sons of the Most High,

for He Himself is kind

to ungrateful and evil men.

Be merciful,

just as your Father is merciful."

Number seven:

(Is this good hermeneutics,
Jesse, to have nine points?)

The fact that God is my Father means

that He loves me too much

to leave me without discipline.

Isn't that something?

Hebrews 12, "You have forgotten

the exhortation which is
addressed to you as sons.

My son, do not regard lightly
the discipline of the Lord,

nor faint when you are reproved by Him.

For those whom the Lord loves,

He disciplines and He scourges every son

whom He receives.

It is for discipline that you endure;

God deals with you as with sons.

For what son is there whom his
father does not discipline?

He disciplines us for our good,

that we may share His holiness.

All discipline for the moment

seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.

Yet to those who have been trained by it

afterwards it yields the
peaceful fruit of righteousness."

Proverbs 3:12, "For whom
the Lord loves, He reproves,

even as a father the son
in whom he delights."

So, God loves me too much to
leave me without discipline.

That doesn't mean that every
hard thing that happens to us

is a punishment for sin.

Sometimes a trainer will
have a runner carry weights -

something like that -

he's not punishing him;
he's disciplining him,

preparing him; making him stronger.

God does that too.

Number eight: The fact
that God is my Father

means that His attitude toward me

is one of kindness and compassion;

not harshness and rejection.

How many people are going around

thinking that God is carrying this club

waiting for them to slip up

so that He can smash them?

Jesus talks about this even in conversion.

He says (Luke 15), "While he
was still a long way off,

his father saw him and felt compassion

and ran and embraced him and kissed him."

He's telling us what God is like

in His attitude toward us.

Psalm 103:13-14,

"Just as a father has
compassion on his children,

so the Lord has compassion
on those who fear Him,

for He Himself knows our frame;

He is mindful that we are but dust."

Think of what a wonderful thing that is!

When I'm going through a trial,

God knows our frame.

He has compassion on us.

He's mindful.

My Father understands.

He knows my frame.

His attitude's one of compassion.

He's so patient. He's so merciful.

He's not a harsh taskmaster.

Malachi 3:17, "'They shall be Mine,'

says the Lord of Hosts,

'On the day when I make
up My own possession,

and I will have compassion on them

as a man has compassion
on his own son who serves him.'"

Last one.

And I truly am sorry to
have so many points.

The fact that God is my Father means

that He delights to
give me an inheritance.

You may feel ever so weak and afraid

you may not even make it to heaven.

Satan may tell you that
God doesn't want you

to make it to heaven.

And that He's against you.

That isn't true.

Jesus said, "It's not
the will of your Father

who is in Heaven that
one of these little ones..."

He's talking about believers.

"...That one of these
little ones should perish."

And none of them will. Not one.

Right after Jesus tells us
to seek first the kingdom,

He immediately assures us,

"Fear not, little flock,

your Father has chosen gladly
to give you the Kingdom."

And according to the Lord Jesus,

there's a day coming when the righteous

will shine forth like the sun

in the kingdom of their Father.

Well, there's so much
more that could be said.

So much hinges on this love relationship

between Father and son
or Father and daughter.

When our love for the Father

is really strong and clear,

immediately we think about His name,

wanting His name to be glorified.

Immediately we think about wanting

His kingdom to be advanced.

You don't have to say,

well, I've got to remember now

to be concerned about the name of God.

It just happens automatically

when you're full of love for Him.

And it happens automatically

that when you pray for your daily bread,

it's in connection with wanting
His kingdom to come,

not just selfish.

And wanting to have victory over sin;

wanting forgiveness for sin,

and deliverance from sin

is not so you'll feel
better about yourself.

But so that you can what?

So that you can let your light so shine

that men will see your good works

and glorify your Father

who is in Heaven.

Well, Jesus said when you pray,

say, "Our Father in Heaven."

May God help us to believe
and lay hold of these things.

Amen.