Our Loving Heavenly Father

God the Father

Psalm 145:1 NKJV

1 I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever.

Psalm 145:3 NKJV

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.

Psalm 145:8 NKJV

8 The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.

Isaiah describes the greatness of God’s love by telling us that it exceeds the love of a mother for her child. Is 49:15

Isaiah 49:15 NKJV

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you.

Snow Queen, a huge polar bear, gave birth to two small cubs. The mother let the cubs, after their eyes were open, from their snow den to the sea. Here she taught them how to catch fish, seal, and walrus.

Nearby, an icebreaker was frozen fast, locked in ice. One man, camouflaged in fur, decided to spear seal. Snow Queen saw only his back as he sat near a breathing hole. Thinking he was an animal, she and her cubs crawled on their stomachs, making a zigzag trail so as not to startle their prey.

Just as the bears were ready to pounce, a seal came by. As the man jumped up with his spear in the air, he saw the bears. Dropping his spear, he ran for his life over the ice to the ship. For days after that the men watched the bears through their telescope.

One day they killed a walrus for their dogs. Smelling the walrus blubber, the bears crept close. Taking their guns, the men climbed into a small boat to go after the bears. Snow Queen dived into the sea and swam with her cubs from one ice flow to another. But the cubs soon tired. Pushing them, urging them, Snow Queen finally covered them with her body as they rested on the ice.

At the sound of the enemy’s gun, she reared up on her hind legs and uttered a terrible growl. Then with a pitiful moan, down she came, covering her cubs with her strong arms. With her last bit of strength, she licked their little black noses and then gently pushed them into the water out of harm’s reach.

Wonderful mother love that didn’t forget her babies! “With untold love our God has loved us, and our love awakens toward Him as we comprehend something of the length and breadth and depth and height of that love that passeth knowledge” (EGW, Mount of Blessing, p.76)

Preview

Satan has succeeded in creating a distorted portrait of God in the minds of people. Many picture God to be like themselves-selfish, exacting, dictatorial, cruel, vengeful, slow to forgive , and quick to punish.

Because God’s character has been misunderstood and misinterpreted, Jesus came to this earth to show the world what God is like. His daily life is an example of rus to follow, so that we, too, can give the world a true picture of God’s character. By our lives, others will glorify God the Father.

2 Corinthians 4:6 NKJV

6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Does your face, your life, dispel the darkness of Stan’s lies about God? Do you shed the light of His glory, His goodness, mercy, and truth? Are you echoing the praise of God so that everyone you meet will understand a little better the greatness of His love? Do you love to speak of Hi s wondrous works for and in you?

These ideas go through my brain every morning on my way to work. Am I being the best representation of God I can be, will people see God in me today? Sadly I fall short so many times. We are held accountable for the image we project, but I praise God for His mercy and that if I am willing He will continue to perfect my character.

Points to Ponder

Does the Bible distinguish between God the Father and God the Son?

The Old Testament alludes to such distinction, but the New Testament speaks clearly of the Father and the Son. God sent the Son (Jn 3:16)

John 3:16 NKJV

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God the Son in the Creator (Heb 1:2, Jn 1:1-3, 14)

John 1:1–3 NKJV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

John 1:14 NKJV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Hebrews 1:2 NKJV

2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

Christ also lead Isreal out of Egypt: (1 Cor 10:4)

1 Corinthians 10:4 NLT

4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.

The Bible also speaks of the close relationship between the Father and the Son: (2 Cor 5:19)

2 Corinthians 5:19 NLT

19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

2. What beautiful picture did God Himself give to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7?

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

3. Do you see the blend of God’s mercy and forgiveness with His Justice?

The Old Testament is filled with promises of God’s forgiveness. (Micah 7:19)

Micah 7:19 NKJV

19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.

The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is 35,800 feet - or more than six and a half miles deep. If Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the world, were sunk into this deep area, more than a mile of sea water would cover it. Six miles down, the ocean pressure is six tons per square inch, or 600 times as great as it is at sea level.

God says He will put all of our sins a the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Six mile down is were are sins will be. Pretty much all gone wouldn’t you say? Our God is wonderfully forgiving and compassionate! There is no limit to God’s forgiving love.

Nuts & Bolts

Lets go to the Bible again and find out what it tells us of God Himself and how it describes Him to us.

1. God the Father is so great, so marvelous, and so infinite that our feeble minds cannot comprehend His glory.

Isaiah 55:8–9 NKJV

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Can we understand what it is to be without having any beginning or even more never having an ending. We understand we only have so much time on this earth. We may not like it, but it is our reality. The Bible tells us we can not understand the depth of his thought or comprehend his knowledge. He wants to guide and direct our lives, why do we have such a hard time letting Him do it? Our lives would be so much more rewarding if we would wait for His direction.

2. God is a covenant God - one who keeps His promises.

Joshua 23:15 NLT

15 But as surely as the Lord your God has given you the good things he promised, he will also bring disaster on you if you disobey him. He will completely destroy you from this good land he has given you.

Jeremiah 32:17 NKJV

17 ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.

Hebrews 10:23 NLT

23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.

I like that, God can be trusted to keep his promises. He never changes and He never fails. Our lives may not go in the direction we thought or that we wanted, but it will be for our best good, if we let Him keep His promises to us.

3. God is our refuge and strength

Psalm 18:2 NKJV

2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

David was all about strength wasn’t he. But he had to be, because their very lives depended on the strengths they could create. The walls around their cities, the strength of the armies that defended them and so on. Where does strength come from. You might say muscles and structures and the like, but unless we believe in these physical things they mean nothing. If we don’t have faith in them, we might as well not have them at all. Were did David get his strength? Look at the verse again. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my stronghold. If He is all these things, can He handle our affairs? He can and He will if.... we let Him and guide in our lives and take the reigns ourselves.

4. God is the Redeemer involved in all of our affairs.

Psalm 55:22 NLT

22 Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

Here is one of the promises we talked about. We will not fall from His presence. We will make it through to the end of this world and be able to stand in His presence in front of His throne. Let’s look at some of the other promises.

5. God is a God of goodness

Psalm 145:7 NKJV

They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness.

6. God is God of faithfulness and unconditional love.

Isaiah 41:10 NKJV

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

7. God is a God of both salvation and vengeance

Isaiah 35:4 NKJV

Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.”

or in the NET version it reads

Isaiah 35:4 NET

Tell those who panic, “Be strong! Do not fear! Look, your God comes to avenge! With divine retribution he comes to deliver you.”

8. God is our Father both by creation and redemption

Malachi 2:10 NLT

Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors?

Have you ever considered the lovely treetop gardens in the rain forests? From the ground up to about forty feet in the jungle, you seldom see flowers. But look heavenward!

High up, where there’s sunlight, God has planted a world of color in lovely air plants, or epiphytes. Many have short stems surrounded by a rosette of leaves that overlap to form watertight cups. Rainwater, dead leaves, flowers, and animal matter fall into these plant tanks. Broken down by microorganisms, they provide mineral nutrients that the plants absorb. Lovely orchids have swellings on the stems or at the bases of leaves, where they store water. Gazing upward at the graceful bouquets of greenery and colorful flowers of air plants brings convincing evidence that there’s nothing to hard for God. Sometimes more than thirty different species of magnificent air plants grow on a single large tree.

If such are the possibilities for plants, what great things await you if you grasp the inexhaustible supplies of heave, if you keep your focus on God and live in total dependence on you wonderful heavenly father.

You know what my wish is for my heavenly home is? I’ve always wanted a log home. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve thought there was nothing else better. I would like one now, but probably won’t happen. So I’m going to have a living tree house that will be just to my specifications. Of course I will have my mansion that Jesus has made for me in the new Jerusalem, but this will be my country home. The possibilities are endless, if we put our total dependence on our heavenly Father.

9. God is a giving God

God has created us free moral agents. In this He took a great risk, knowing that we could misuse that freedom. We did and as a result we sinned. To redeem us God gave us His Son. (John 3:16)

John 3:16 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Think of the pain God felt when He sent His Son to this sin-polluted planet as a helpless baby. How empty heaven was without the Son! He felt all the hatred heaped on His Son. Calvary gives us the clearest picture of the Father’s love. Separated by the horror of all the sins of the world, the Father suffered with Christ.

Words to Remeber

Ancient of Days: A description of God the Father

Extol: To praise, glorify, or extol.

Refuge: Safe place free from har.

The Difference Between

Vengeance: God’s judgement upon sinners, just and deserved - very different from how people act, who inflict injury, harm, and humiliation to get even.

Faithfulness: Only God is absolutely faithful and trustworthy. He can be trusted. He will never let us down. He keeps His promises.

Unfaithfulness: The nature of human beings is the opposite of being faithful. By themselves they cannot love God or others unconditionally. Nor are they absolutely trustworthy.

I Truly Believe

We have seen many verses this morning describing to us who God is and what He is like. Do we serve an awesome God or what. So let’s look at the next statements together and if in your heart, you agree with the concept of each, put a check mark beside them in your heart and don’t let anyone ever convince you to change them.

I have seen a little of how much God the Father loves me, and I choose to love Him in return.

I can see God’s love manifested in His Son, and I am stirred to action.

I am going to allow Him to change my motives for serving Him so that self will be forgotten. My greatest desire is to do His will.