-
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.