The Father’s Work

Greeting

Lighthouse, good morning! It’s so good to be here today with you all as we celebrate all of our Lighthouse Church Fathers. Can we give it up once more for all of our Lighthouse Dads?

Now, we are going to continue in our teaching through the book of Ephesians, but we’re going to leap over some chapters so that we can also honor this day and honor our fathers.

So let’s go to work…

Ephesians 5:25–28 (NIV)

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

The Father’s Work

Introduction

Before I get started with my message I want to talk about my Dad for a moment. My Dad worked for a company in San Diego that manufactured the Apache Helicopter. If you have never seen one I want to show you a picture for reference.

It is an Attack Helicopter and my brothers and I were fascinated with this helicopter!

We had toys of this helicopter at home. We watched videos that demonstrated the capacity of this helicopter. We were so proud of what our Dad did.

We’d ask kids, “what does your Dad do? Oh he’s a teacher? Yea, well my Dad builds attack helicopters!”

We were so proud of our father’s work. It was so meaningful to us.

His company, before they closed down and relocated their work force would have an annual open house and we couldn’t wait for it! We’d get to see this bad boy in person!

I can still remember eating those hot dogs on those hot summer open house Saturdays and seeing the manufacturing line and seeing my Dads office.

And today, all these years later, I can still remember taking so much pride in my Father’s work!

Decades would pass, and as I said a minute ago, the company closed and my Dad went to work for another company and when I was almost finishing my BA I started working for the same company that my Dad worked for.

This company didn’t make attack helicopters, but we did build training systems for the military.

Now I wasn’t just watching my father’s work, but I was working alongside my Dad, together with him.

Church, that is honestly a memory that I will carry with me forever. Walking through those halls and hearing people say, “Hey! You are Jim’s son.” And I would be so proud to let them know who I was.

Transition

I share that story because I see that here in our text.

On this Father’s Day, I want to show you here in this fifth chapter of Ephesians, how Paul is encouraging men to look at the work of their Heavenly Father. Watch how their Heavenly Father works, and work and live like that.

The Text

Paul uses a train of thought in Ephesians 5 verses 21 through 33.

He gives them instruction, and then he gives them the example, he gives them reason, and then he concludes his thought.

Here is the instruction that he gives to the Ephesian man:

Ephesians 5:25 (NIV)

Husbands, love your wives…

It’s straight forward. It’s direct. Paul grabs their attention.

Then Paul goes on to give us the example of what they love should look like.

Ephesians 5:25–27 (NIV)

… just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

And, in this thought, Paul gives us the Father’s Work.

It begins with how a man is to treat his wife, but in thought it also extends to his family.

And I want to use these verses for our application to the father’s in the room today.

To Make Her Holy

Father’s are to make their families Holy.

What does it mean to be Holy? Holy means set apart for a singular purpose. We are introduced to this idea of Holy in the Old Testament when the Lord would tell Moses to set apart certain things that were to be used only in the Tabernacle as part of their worship. These things were Holy. They were separate. They were not to be used for anything other than worship in the Tabernacle.

Later, in Deuteronomy, there is a recurring theme all throughout that book, and it was this, “Be Holy as He is Holy.”

This is a beautiful Old Testament foreshadowing of the New Testament - where as there were items, and instruments, that were to be set apart, it would ultimately be our lives that God would want to be set apart. God doesn’t want a Holy instrument to be used by an unholy person. What’s the purpose of that? No, God wants his creation to be Holy.

The Father’s work was to make His church Holy by dying a substitutionary death for them. Jesus died so that we would not have to. Jesus died to remove our offenses and to remove our shame. And when His death had accomplished that, he then gives us His righteousness, and now we are Holy. We are set apart.

And it is with that example in mind that Father’s are to make our wives and our children Holy.

Father’s are to communicate to their children that we are not like some of the other families in your school. We are not like some of the families down the street. We are a family that has been set apart to worship Jesus, to make Him known, and to bring renewal to our cities.

Now, every family is going to walk that out in their own way and in their own context, but the Father sets the foundation.

In Paul’s letter he is very clear as to what his expectation is to the Husband and to the Father.

Look at your Heavenly Father…. look at your Father’s Work. That’s what I want you to do.

The same way that He loved and gave himself to his bride, the church, I want you to love and give yourself to your family.

There is a growing trend in our cultural moment of delayed adolescence. Man are not wanting to grow up, mature, move out of the house, get a job, get married, and raise a family. They want to continue playing online video games against 12 year olds boys. Young men don’t want to get a license or buy transportation.

And one of the reasons for this delayed adolescence is because boys never become men. Boys think only about themselves, but men think of others.

So we need father’s that are not only giving themselves to make their families holy and set apart, but they need to make sure that their sons are seeing them.

More is caught than is taught.

The Washing of the Word

Father’s are to cleanse their wives and their children through the washing of the word.

I believe most of us have an idea of what it means to cleanse, but here is the definition so that we are all believing the same thing:

“a process or period of time during which a person attempts to rid the body of substances regarded as toxic or unhealthy”

Men we live in a world that is becoming increasingly toxic, and it is increasingly becoming unhealthy for the family.

Fathers don’t allow toxicity to enter the family. Fathers are not going to allow the health of their families to fall apart. Father’s are going to contend for that which is good and that which is healthy.

And I love that Paul gives us the framework for this, he says it is through the washing of the word.

Now, I want to insert my own commentary here into the text, if that is OK.

I believe that in order for a Father to have the authority to rid a family of toxicity and rid a family of anything that is unhealthy, they need to first rid themselves of anything that is unhealthy.

How do we do that? Through the word of God.

One of our desires at Lighthouse Church is to be a church that is high on the literal interpretation and application of the word of God. We want to read it in context, we want to carefully handle the word, and we will not abuse the word. We will only say what the scriptures say.

Why?

Because it takes the whole bible to make a whole man.

As the word washes us and it cleanses us, we are able to bring our best self to our families.

The Bible gives us wisdom in these areas:

relationships, life style, finances, investments, mental health, physical health, our thoughts, leading a family, leading ourselves, and so much more.

God in his infinite wisdom not only gave us a revelation of who He is through His word to us printed on paper, but it will give you wisdom in every area of your life.

And your responsibility is to be a man of the word in order to then impart the word to your family.

This is how we cleanse our family with the word. This is how we rid our families from the toxicity and the unhealthy ways of the world.

Our families need a Father that is fully alive in Christ and is active in the redemption of his sons and daughters.

(Conclusion) The Radiant Church

Now Paul writes that as Christ has done this for his bride, he now presents his bride as a radiant church.

In our application, I believe that as a Father commits to this work he will present his family as honourable and worthy of esteem.

But is it that simple? A Father commits to the work, and when he commits to the work his family will all follow along and everything will be perfect?

I believe we all know that a man’s best effort will still not yield perfect results. And Father’s perhaps you’ve felt this way in your own life.

So let me lead you to one last passage of scripture today that I believe is fitting, and yet isn’t spoken of enough in many churches.

Ephesians 6:1–4 (NIV)

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—“so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

You see, the Father’s Work absent from the honor of his children will produce limited results.

As I shared with you before I started this message, I couldn’t wait to see my Father’s Work! I wanted to see my Father’s desk. I wanted to see the assembly line. I wanted to go and touch the very things that my Dad was helping to build.

There was an honor that I had for my Father’s work.

And in the same way, we honor our earthly Father’s as we see them doing the Father’s work.

You may not have the perfect Father, but if you see him trying honor that!

If your Dad is working hard to create a moment for the family, honor that!

When you see your Dad come home from work, and you know that he’s left so much of his energy there honor him as he walks through that door.

A Godly man is trying to do the work that He saw his heavenly father do, and our honor to our Father will give him the ability to present to the world a radiant family, just as Christ presented to himself a radiant church.

To the wives who are here, let me just also add one more piece of wisdom on how you can honor your husband. Every criticism that you give your husband metastasizes, and affirmation you give your husband multiplies.

When you are critical to your husband your words will metastasize like a cancer spreading throughout his mind and his soul. But when you affirm who he is in God, and you affirm the areas in which he is trying to follow his Father, he will multiply and grow into a stronger and wiser husband.

Call