Knowing God as Father (2)

Introduction:

According to a study from the U.S. Department of Justice, children from fatherless homes account for:

Suicide: 63 percent of youth suicides

Runaways: 90 percent of all homeless and runaway youths

Behavioral Disorders: 85 percent of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders

High School Dropouts: 71 percent of all high school dropouts

Juvenile Detention Rates: 70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions

Substance Abuse: 75 percent of adolescent patients in substance abuse centers

Aggression: 75 percent of rapists motivated by displaced anger

Just as it is important to have fathers in our homes, to help raise the next generation by protecting them, disciplining them, being a role model for them, and caring for their needs, it is even more important that we go through this life knowing God as our Father.

I think we all know and recognize the importance of Fathers in the lives of children.

With that being said, I want to speak to all the teenagers we have in here. You are stuck in service so I can speak to you.

If you have a father in your life that loves you and cares for you, know that you are very blessed.

Have respect for your father, honor your father, and obey your father because he does not have to love you, care for you, or protect you.

He does not have to do any of those things.

He made it his choice to raise you and care for you.

He made it his choice to do his very to do these things for you.

So, when your father or your mother asks you to do something, do it.

Do everything you can to obey them because they truly know whats best for you.

I know it might not seem like it but they do.

Your parents are a gift from heaven for you, sent by God to you, so if you live in disobedience to them, you are living in disobedience to God.

One day they won’t be around and you will miss them.

Last week we talked about the importance of knowing God, not just as creator and some great force in the sky, but knowing Him as Father.

The Bible teaches us that when we accept Jesus and are born-again, we are then adopted into God’s family.

This means that we are then God’s children.

We are not slaves of God or prisoners of someone who just gives us a big list of things to do and not to do.

We are God’s kids and He is our Father or Dad.

Some of us might have a hard time with this because we view our Father through a lens that our earthly father has created.

Would you agree that the Bible is 100% truth and God cannot lie.

This source of absolute truth tells us that our Father has a greater love for us that we can even imagine (Ephesians 3:18).

The Bible tells us that our Father will never leave us or forsake us.

The Bible teaches us that our Father will always protect us and supply for our needs.

The Bible teaches us that our Father is the creator of everything and owns it all.

Just like most earthly fathers, your Heavenly Father desires an intimate relationship with you.

He wants you to know Him as Father and He wants you to want to be with Him.

This intimate relationship that we can have with our Father will lead us into a life of obedience to Him.

“If you look up into His face and say, "Yes, Lord, whatever it costs," at that moment He'll flood your Life with His presence and power.” -Alan Redpath

He was a British Evangelist in the early 1900”s

“The man with a cross no longer controls his destiny; he lost control when he picked up his cross. That cross immediately became to him an all-absorbing interest, an overwhelming interference. No matter what he may desire to do, there is but one thing he can do; that is, move on toward the place of crucifixion.” - A. W. Tozer

When we can get to the point where we know God as Father we will live a life of obedience to Him, not out of obligation, but love.

Faith Outreach Family, what if we knew the Father so intimately that we lived a life of total surrender to Him because we wanted nothing more than to please the One who means more to us than any person or any temporal thing this world has to offer?

How differently would our life look like if we were so in love with our Father that everything we do, every decision we make, revolved around our desire to please Him because He means the world to us?

Galatians 3:26–4:7 NIV

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Point 2: Heirs of God

This is one of the greatest passages in scripture that explains our role as children of God and the rewards of having the One who is in control of everything, and owns it all, as our Father.

When we accept Jesus and are born-again we then adopted into God’s family and are clothed with Christ.

We now have a new identity in Jesus.

There is then no difference if we are male, female, Jew, or someone born not of Jewish decent.

We are now clothed with Christ and our identity is in Him.

Paul explains here that we are now heirs of God.

What does that mean?

In verse 29, Paul says that we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

What is the promise?

In Genesis 12:2-3 “2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

This promise made to Abraham is our promise too:

God’s protection: He will curse those who curse us.

Acts 5:39 “39 But if their purpose is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.””

Come on church, if God is for us who can be against us?

God’s provision: God will bless us and those who bless us. We will be a blessing to others and we have the eternal promise of being part of a kingdom that has no end.

We are on the winning team!!!

We might not see all that was promised to us on this side of eternity, but we get to look forward to that.

If I have a family member that puts me down as a beneficiary for their earthly possessions, I receive everything when they pass away.

Their land and possessions get turned over to me when they pass away.

With the death of Jesus on the cross, Paul tells us in Galatians that we are are heir of God.

Our Father owns it all should why should we fear.

We are now highly favored and part of a royal family.

That’s exciting.

Point 2: Living in obedience to God

The intimate relationship we have with God to know Him as Father will lead us into a life of obedience to Him.

Just because we know Him as Father does not mean we do what we want, but what He wants.

Chapter 4:3, says that we used to live under the basic principles of the world, but Jesus redeemed us.

I love the fact that God redeemed us from the ways of the world and adopted us into His family as His children, but that means now that we play by His rules.

We can’t have the pleasures that flow from God and live the way the world does.

We can’t expect to be adopted into God’s family and play by the rules of the world.

What was important to the world is not important to God’s way of living.

What is important to the world is money, fame, self-fulfillment, and freedom.

What is important to God is caring for the helpless, caring for widows and orphans, loving your neighbor as yourself, and striving to be the contact point between Heaven and earth.

When we truly understand this new relationship that we have with God, knowing Him as Father, we will be more concerned about pleasing Him because of our love for Him rather than just because we are afraid of going to hell.

Our boys want nothing more that to please me and impress me.

They always are saying, “Dad, watch me hit this ball. Did you see how far it went?”

“Dad, did you see me do that?”

They want nothing more than to impress me by the things I do.

I try to tell them that I love them so much and will always be proud of them.

They want nothing more than to know that I am proud of them and that I love them.

What really makes me proud of them is when they ACTUALLY do something nice for the other.

They are brothers and are super competitive and seem to fight with each other so much.

So, I absolutely love when they do something nice to the other not even knowing that I saw it.

These kind of things bring more of a smile to my face than them hitting a home run or scoring a touchdown.

It so much moves my heart to see or hear of the boys doing something nice for each other or someone else.

I love Lexi so much, but she can be very stubborn at times.

I might be out running around meeting with people, at a meeting, or here at the church, and when I get out of the car and begin walking in the house I hope that she is waiting for me to greet me when I walk in.

Most of the times she is playing and I might walk over to her to pick her up and she instantly begins to say, in her 3 year-old-voice, “Leave me alone”.

I can pick her up and force her to hug me, but when she intentionally runs to me and wraps her little arms around me it melts my heart.

At that time, she decides on her own to love me and it does just completely melts my heart.

This is exactly how our Father feels about us.

He loves us so much.

Our Father feels the same way about us.

When He sees us lending a hand to someone else or doing something for someone in need, not to get praise from it, but because we feel for the person, we get His attention.

Jesus said, in Matthew 25:40, “Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me.”

When we know God as Father, our desire will be to do His will on this earth and not ours.

Paul says in Philippians 2, “Do things for others in humility considering others better than yourself. Your attitude should be like that of Jesus who humbled Himself and became obedient even to death—death on the cross.”

Jesus was fully God but also fully man.

He was tempted just as we are and had feelings just like we do.

He struggled with the fact that He knew that He was about to die a horrible death.

Just as Jesus said to the disciples, “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

During Jesus’ final hours on this earth, we read of His prayer to the Father saying, Mark 14:36 “36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Jesus knew the Father in this intimate way which drove Him to obey Him even to the point of death.

The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him.

He had such an intimate relationship with the Father that He wanted nothing more than to carry out His will to the point that it was joyful for Him to even experience death if that’s what had to be done.

Jesus knew that eternity with the Father far outweighed the pleasures of this world that would soon perish.

Church, the more time that we spend with God the more our desire will be to be about His will and His plan.