Sermon Tone Analysis

The other day I was looking for my social security card.

I was fairly certain that I had put it in a safe that we have.

The first things that I came across was a big stack of cards?

I am not sure when or why I put them in the safe, but many of them looked like they had not been opened.

So, I started going through them.

They had been opened but through the years they resealed themselves.

I assume there was enough moisture even in New Mexico to reseal the envelopes.

Interesting enough.

I found several old Father’s day cards.

I bought a couple just for sentimental value and I brought one that was one of the first Father’s day cards I received.

It was received before Rachel was born.

I got a kick out of it and also thought of Nick when I saw it, because if the Lord spares he will soon have a little one of his own.

Here it is.

I always seem to struggle with what to speak about, it is my desire to speak about things that will be honoring to God, that He would want me speak about and that I hope will be fruitful for you.

As soon as I found out I was going to be speaking today I started praying asking for a topic.

A natural topic for this week would be fatherhood.

I started looking at different fathers in the Bible.

Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, David, Solomon and others.

Each of them had good and bad characteristics that we can learn from.

The more I looked at these men, the less I was inclined to speak about them.

I expect at a different time they will be a good topic.

Last time I spoke it was on God’s instruction manual, “the Bible” and I spoke from .

This time I locked onto the Topic of Gods Characteristics as our Heavenly Father.

It seems to me, that it is a good for us to study and learn about God.

Let’s look at the ultimate Father and some of his characteristics.

For comparison, bad fathers have all sorts of character defects.

In a way, these can apply to all of us, not just fathers.

The biggest defect, is that they love themselves more than they love others or their children.

Likely all the others are a result of this.

But bad fathers,

abandon their children; financially, physically, emotionally or a combo of all three.

They make promises they don't keep.

They can be abusive.

They may refuse to work, or they work too much.

They don't attend their children’s school, sports or music events.

They tell their child that they wish they had never been born.

They physically abuse the child.

They emotionally abuse the child.

They abuse drugs and/or alcohol.

Bad fathers come in many forms, but they all put their own needs and desires first.

These bad characteristics are the opposite of the Characteristics of God the Father.

I hope this message will be valuable to both Christians and non-Christians and I hope that through it, we will see the Love of God the Father and if you are not part of his family you will desire to become part of His family.

We become God’s children through faith, then using our “Instruction Manual” (Gods Word the Bible) We are taught to imitate our heavenly Father in our daily living.

Let’s start at the beginning.

God the Creator

God created us.

,

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God is a Provider

He provides for us.

And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

God is a disciplinarian

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;

3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,

You are cursed more than all cattle,

And more than every beast of the field;

On your belly you shall go,

And you shall eat dust

All the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her Seed;

He shall bruise your head,

And you shall bruise His heel.”

16 To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;

In pain you shall bring forth children;

Your desire shall be for your husband,

And he shall rule over you.”

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake;

In toil you shall eat of it

All the days of your life.

18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,

And you shall eat the herb of the field.

19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread

Till you return to the ground,