Father's Day 2023

PRAYER

Our heavenly Father, you are Father above all Fathers, thank you for all the blessings You shower on us, today as we celebrate the lives of all the fathers in our lives please protect and bless them in all that they do and strengthen their faith to look up to you in every situation that seems to overpower them. Thank you for their lives and may You be forever praised in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

ME:

Today is the Father’s Day Fishing Durby up at Star Lake. I remember one year Isaiah and I went fishing, he was about eight years old. He had his little spin caster and I had my Fly rod and gear. So we were fishing for a bit, he was casting , I was casting. Nothing on the lines. He casts again, I cast again, nothing on the lines. This goes on for maybe five minutes. Isaiah’s getting board, but I am into the chalange, the fish are rising just over there. One more cast, ok just about hooked that one. Cast again, bam I got one ! Isaiah I got one man, woohoo. No responce from Isaiah, I turn to see where he is, he is gone. I turn around, and there he is with my fish hook and line hooked in his cheak. I truly was a Fisher of Men as Jesus did say. So happy father’s day, here is a gift for all of you.

The Passion Translation (Chapter 8)

12 So then, beloved ones, the flesh has no claims on us at all, and we have no further obligation to live in obedience to it. 13 For when you live controlled by the flesh, you are about to die. But if the life of the Spirit puts to death the corrupt ways of the flesh, we then taste his abundant life.Sons and Daughters Destined for Glory14 The mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit. 15 And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!” 16 For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!”17 And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has. We will experience being co-glorified with him provided that we accept his sufferings as our own.

Thank you that we are no longer slaves to sin but are adopted into your family and can call you Abba, Daddy

WE:

Who of you are adopted ?

Who here has a Father ?

Who here knows that we are all God’s children thru Jesus Christ ?

I want to share something from my past with you. I was not adopted leaglly into the Fossen family. I was a foster child. I had been in a foster home since birth. At age six I strugled with fear after being taken away from the family that I thought I was born into. I still remember that day . I was full of fear, insecurity, wondering why I had this feeling of not being accepted . Does anyone love me ? .

Has anyone here struggled with fear or insecurity ?

We do not have to stay in fear.

This verse makes me think about

Our sinfull degenerate state without God in our lives.

I also think about the sate of our life after His adoption of us into His family.

I want to share about the use of adoption here.

First what is adoption?

ADOPTION (who wants to see ya) (huiothesia). A Greek phrase that describes the act of raising a child who is not biologically related.

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Adoption is the divine work wherein God declares believers to be his beloved sons and daughters and welcomes them into his eternal family.

DID YOU KNOW YOU ARE CHOSEN?

What Paul is saying, in this verse is the Spirit replaces fear with freedom in our relationship to God (15). This Paul attributes to the nature of the Spirit we received For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship or ‘of adoption’, ‘The term “adoption” may have a somewhat artificial sound in our ears; but in the Roman world of the first century AD an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive father to perpetuate his name and inherit his estate; he was not in the smallest degree inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary course of nature, and might well enjoy the father’s affection more fully and reproduce the father’s character more worthily.’ John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 232.

GOD:

I think God knew we would all struggle with fear and insecurity, but He gave us His answer to this in His word.

The verses we will look at today point us to the fact that God has restored our relationship to Him and that He is still our loving Father and we are His children whether we relize we are His or not.

And it shows us the need for repentance for being familiar with and not having intamitcy with Him.

Galatians 4:4-7 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, (this is what salvation is) so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

John 1:12–13 (LEB)

But as many as received him—to those who believe in his name—he gave to them authority to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a husband, but of God.

The Message of John (b. The Incredible Status Faith Offers)Here is your King!

Bruce Milne

Senior Minister of First Baptist Church, Vancouver

Bruce Milne, The Message of John: Here Is Your King!: With Study Guide, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 1–3.

The incredible status faith offers… He gave the right to become children of God (12). In a world where rank counted for everything, and the majority of the population were slaves without rights or freedoms (or any prospect of ever acquiring them), the gospel carried immense appeal as a message which promised to all people, irrespective of rank, nothing less than personal membership within the family circle of God. Nobodies were in a moment transformed into somebodies. Even today, with all our vaunted rights and freedoms, so many people suffer from a crippling lack of self-worth, not least within the Christian community. How relevant therefore is a gospel which tells us that as Christians we are nothing less than the personally valued, dearly loved children of God, irrespective of how others may see us or even of how we see ourselves.

2 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV)

18  and I will be a father to you,and you shall be sons and daughters to me,says the Lord Almighty.”

YOU:

Can you see that God desires to call us His sons and daughters?

Praise God that He does not leave us there wallowing in fear and sin but provides a way for us to have a relationship with Him that takes us out of fear into security.

We:

So today we celibrate Fathers. What would it look like as the Westgate Family realizing we are His chosen children ?

When I was eighteen I leaglly changed my last name to Fossen. And was adopted into the Fossen Clan as my dad would say. And without me knowing, my family thru a big supprize BBQ party for me. I remember that afternoon it was in August, outside in Georgelane park, in my home town of High River Alberta.

I realized at this time my Father took me aside and told me you are my son, I love you. He and Mom and my brothers and sisters love me and reafirmed that I was part of their family.He showed his love to me by providing a place to call home, clothes to wear, food in my belly. He showed me the importance of being intimate with God thru prayer and by reading the Bible. The importance of fellowship with others thru church on Sundays. He wasent perfect. He did not always have time for me alone, I was after all Henry the Eighth son.

So when we are adopted we are accepted. If we are adopted we have been legaly transfered from one family or situation into another family.

I close with this :

Because God is our Father, He desires an intamate relationship with us thru His Son Jesus Christ.

God restored His relationship that was broken by the sin of Adam, thru the death, burial and resurection fo Jesus.

If we have examples of good fathers in our lifes how could God be even better ?

W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Lk 11:9–13.

Because of God adopting us into His family thru Jesus we have all the privialages and rights as first born children. This replaces our old powerless, defeted life, with a powerful, purpose filled life. No longer seaking to fulfill our selfish desires but seeking to love and serve each other thru the power given to us by the Holy Spirit.