Jesus Is...Everlasting Father

If I were to ask you, "What is the biggest social issue facing our culture?", what would you say? Abortion? Women’s rights/sexual abuse? Healthcare? Refugee/Immigrant crisis?

In the most recent study done on the issue, 72.2% of Americans identified fatherlessness as the leading social concern in America. How could that be? Other social issues are surely more important, more relevant and more devastating. Fatherlessness cannot be a worse issue than these other ones. Right?

In How Now Shall We Live, Chuck Colson notes the disturbing realities that plague children who grow up without a father:

Children in single-parent families are five times more likely to be poor, and half the single mothers in the United States live below the poverty line. Children of divorce suffer intense grief, which often lasts for many years. Even as young adults, they are nearly twice as likely to require psychological help. Children from disrupted families have more academic and behavioral problems at school and are nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school. Girls in single-parent homes are at a much greater risk for precocious sexuality and are two and a half times more likely to have a child out of wedlock. Crime and substance abuse are strongly linked to fatherless households. Statistics show that 60 percent of rapists grew up in fatherless homes, as did 72 percent of adolescent murderers, and 70 percent of all long-term prison inmates. In fact, most of the social pathologies disrupting American life today can be traced to fatherlessness.

We live in an era suffering from fatherlessness. Since 1960, children growing up without their biological father has quadrupled from 8% to over 33%, representing 24.7 million children (fathers.com). And our culture feels the shock of this devastating plight.

--The vast majority of the pastoral counseling I do with young adults stems back to issues with their dads.

--Young sexually-involved women who are looking for the love and acceptance their father never gave them.

--Young sexually-charged men who are looking to make their dads proud by essentially becoming sexual predators to prove their manhood to their father.

--Men and women who are driven in unhealthy ways in their careers to hopefully earn daddy's approval.

--So many young couples who are clueless about marriage and parenting, because there simply was not a good, godly example modeled for them in their homes growing up.

Some of you know the pain of fatherlessness all too well.

--You had a father who contributed some DNA but was never around.

--You had a father but could not count on him. He was too busy with other things.

--You had a father who was there, but might as well have been gone.

-Emotionally distant.

-Plagued your home with alcoholism.

-Was steeped in workaholism and you took a back seat to a paycheck.

-Crushed you with criticism. No matter what you did it was not good enough.

Really, when it comes to this issue of fatherlessness, the best-case scenario anyone can have is this: you had a great, godly father...who is gone now, or will eventually be gone. If you live long enough, you will eventually know the pain of fatherlessness.

TS – as we are leading up to Christmas, we are looking at , this great prophecy from the OT about the identity of Jesus. Though this promise is normally associated with Christmas, it is not limited to being true only during one season of the year. It carries some good news for us today.

- 6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus will be called Everlasting Father. God is our Forever Father. Our dad who is always there.

Back to the pastoral counseling that I do. A large number of spiritual issues that people struggle with are caused by viewing God through the lens of their earthly father. Their earthly father was not great, and they hear that God is their Heavenly Father. Since their earthly father is their only frame of reference for what a father is like, they project that onto God.

-There are those who believe God is a harsh critic. The Cosmic Killjoy who is just waiting for me to mess up so that he can punish me. No matter what I do, I'm just not good enough for God. He will never accept me. How could he love someone like me?

-Could it be that God is not like that at all? But that model of fatherhood was modeled in your home growing up?

-There are also those who dismiss God as absent. He doesn't care. If he did, he would show up and do something about the mess I'm in. God is an absentee landlord...out doing who knows what, who knows where. All I know is that he is not here, right now, with me.

-Again, is it possible that you're not forming your view of God from Scripture, but from what you saw growing up?

-Perhaps your view of God is that he is someone to be pleased. So you work and work and work. Serving him to exhaustion. Another bible study. Another ministry opportunity. Go, go, go. Never resting. No grace, just work.

-Maybe you grew up in a graceless environment and now think the only way you can be good with God is to work for him.

Louie Giglio – “God is not the reflection of your earthly father; He is the perfection of your earthly father.”

TS - Since God is unlike our earthly fathers, what is he like? Even if you were blessed to have a great and godly dad, your Heavenly Father is so much more. In , in the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus focuses largely on the fatherhood of God and presents us with a character description of God, our Everlasting Father.

1.GOD IS PRESENT

- 6 “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. 2 When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. 3 But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 4 Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

"Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." That same refrain is repeated in v. 6 regarding prayer and v. 18 regarding fasting. He sees it all. He knows it all. He is always there. There is nothing hidden from him.

One of the greatest passages in all the Bible speaks to the ever-presence of God our Father. Listen to these words and feel your Father's presence in your life.

- 1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. 5 You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! 7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

There is nowhere to go. He is already there. The bible says God is close to the broken-hearted. The bible says that when we pray to 'Our Father who art in heaven,' he hears us. The bible says that absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. He is never absent. He is always available.

One of the most formative people in my high school years was a woman named Kathy. At church one week she told the youth group a story from her own high school years. She said that she loved music and found out that a band she loved was playing in her home town. However, they were going to be playing at a bar. Not just any bar, but a filthy one that no moral person ever need go to. She debated for so long about going and being present in that bar among all manner of immorality, just to hear that band. Her love of music won the day over her Christian convictions and she went. She said during the set, at a point where all the musicians were really getting riled up, one of them yelled into the room, "Jesus is here." She said at that moment she was terribly convicted that she was in that terrible place of the bar. She said this - "He was right. Jesus was there. And I had brought him."

Now, she told us that story to communicate to us the evils of alcohol and to guilt us into staying away from bars. A timely message for us high school students. But the message she communicated stuck with me and applies here. Jesus was indeed in that place and she had indeed brought him. Because he is always present in the life of the believer. Wherever we go, he is there. That is the beauty of the Christian faith. God is not some distant, unreachable deity. He is right here in the midst of everything.

2. GOD IS PROVIDER

- 5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. 7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!)

He knows what we need even before we ask. He takes care of us. This thread of thought is continued in chapter 6 and makes it way to these great verses on how we respond to our Providing Father.

- 25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. 34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

You know, kids who have loving, providing parents do not walk around their house wringing their hands, worrying about whether they'll have clothes to wear or food to eat. They trust that mom and dad are going to provide it. Now, they may harp on WHAT they are going to eat, but not IF they are going to eat. They may complain about WHAT they will wear, but not IF they will have clothes to put on.

Could it be that this is why Jesus told us to model the faith of a child? Because we have a loving, providing father, we are free from the concern of these things.

3. GOD IS PERFECT

- 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

While that may be a scary, overwhelming verse to think about, it does present a great truth for us...our Father is perfect. He does everything right. He makes no mistakes. He has no reason to apologize. Our Heavenly Father doesn't lose his temper. He doesn't hit. He doesn't overwhelm us with his anger or criticism. He doesn't care more about his career than us. He won't have an affair and leave our family. He won't ignore us, disengage and watch TV all day. He is perfect.

Eric Geiger – “Those of us who know Him know that He is forever and He is fatherly. He is from the beginning and He is everlasting. We won’t come home one day to discover that He is gone. He will never leave us or forsake us. He has chosen us. We have a place. He has not ignored us. He is not apathetic towards us. He is not a father who neglects you but He is a father who is perfect for you. He proudly acknowledges us as His own, defends us, provides for us, and cares for us. Unlike me, our everlasting Father is never tired or distracted. Our heavenly Father is always pursuing and He is always present. He never sleeps or slumbers.”

Your Father in heaven is perfect. And how is he perfect?

- 43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

He is perfect in his love. In his crazy, ridiculous love, he makes no mistakes. Perhaps that is no better seen than in the most famous story Jesus ever told.

There was a dad who had two sons. One son decided he didn't like being around dad anymore, so he asked for his inheritance early. A low, horrific thing to do...essentially telling his father that he wished he was already dead and was unwilling to wait. In an act of great mercy, the father gives his son his share of the inheritance and the son sets off for the distant country. There, he squanders his father's wealth. At the bar, with women, on unnecessary extravagance. And before he knows it, he's broke. All that his father had worked his entire life for was wasted on what amounted to nothing. And in a glorious twist, then the famine hits. The son ends up eating pig slop and decides to go home, tail between his legs. The father sees him from a distance and run to him. And here is this showdown...this awful conversation that has to take place as the son explains what happened.

Let me ask you this: what would your father have done in this moment?

-some of you would never have come home because the famine was better than your father.

-some of you wouldn't have had to worry about this conversation because dad would not have been there.

-for others, if dad were there, he wouldn't have been looking for you.

-for others, dad would have been armed and ready with abusive words, a belt, maybe a fist. He would have made you feel an inch tall with his harsh criticisms.

But here is what the perfect Father does...

- And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ 22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

Because of that we resonate with John's words:

- See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

Some of you have resisted or hesitated to come home to God because you didn't know how he'd respond to you. This is how he responds.

Conclusion

That can only happen through Jesus. He said in that he was the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one comes to the Father but through him.