Everlasting Father
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Good morning church! if you have your Bibles this morning I would like to invite you to take those out and open them to Isaiah 9. We are looking at Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming Messiah. We are looking at this Messiahs names.
Last week we began by looking at the first name given to this coming Messiah, which was wonderful counselor. We learned that not only is Jesus the only child ever born to fulfill this prophecy 100% fully, He is also the only one qualified to be called wonderful counselor.
Names are important because to know the names of God or His Son is to know who Gods nature!
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Everlasting Father
Is where we going to dive into today, now we are going to come back to Mighty God so don’t think I am skipping that one.
EVERLASTING FATHER
If there was ever anything we needed in our relationship to God that we needed it would be the closeness of a father. Now some of you had great dads and your memories of your dad were fond and they were cherished but for many of you you did not have a great relationship with your dad and some of the greatest pain in your life comes from his presence being lacking in your life.
Maybe he was never there maybe he abandoned you when you were very little maybe he just wasn’t there or maybe it wasn’t even his fault maybe he died early in one of those pivotal moments when you really felt like you needed him there.
Or maybe he was physically present but he wasn’t really there if you know what I mean and he was always to be busy for you and he never really payed that much attention to you, or he always seemed to be so dissapointed in you, or maybe how he always seemed to be so angry towards you.
Or maybe you never really just felt any connection to him, maybe its just when you call home he immediately calls for your mother bc he doesnt know how to have a meanignful conversation with you.
Or maybe he was abusive, you know there are alot of people who were physically or emotionally abused by their fathers. For whatever reasons there is alot of pain that is brought up when you think about them so when I say to you that Jesus wants to be your everlasting Father if your honest that doesnt do alot for you.
There is a man named Jonathan Edwards who wrote an article for the Gospel Coalition which dealt with the difficulty in learning that God was his father simply bc of the difficulty he had with his father.
“I was 25 years old before I could say the word father while praying, bc of the kind of relationship or lack thereof that I had with my dad. Father did not just roll off my tongue the way it did for many of my Christian friends HOW COULD I COME TO GOD WITHOUT FEAR, WHEN EVER I GREW UP SCARED TO GO HOME BC DAD WAS THERE, HOW COULD I UNDERSTAND GODS LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS WHEN DAD LEFT TOWN BC HE LOVED SOMEONE MORE THAN ME, HOW CAN GOD BE A MIGHTY FORTRESS OF PROTECTION WHENEVER DAD HIT INSTEAD OF HUGGED?”
Unfortunately this is the experience of many people in our world. It ends up having a powerful shaping influence on your understanding of God.
A sociologist was quoted as saying that “studies conclusively showed that the quality of the childs relationship to the father is the single most important factor in whether the child adopts the faith of the parents.”
Eric Mataxes points out that all of the atheists in the last 50 + years all your famous athiest freud, Neizce, hume, russell all of them had one thing in common, they all had am absentee father or a father in which they had a very traumatic relationship wit, a father who was abusive or neglectful
freud himself said: “Nothing is more common for a young person to lose faith in God when they lose respect for his father.,”
Beyond our faith our relationships with our dads can be shaping influence on how we deal with life. Statistics prove that 90% of highschool dropouts come from fatherless homes.
75% of teenagers in substance abuse centers are from fatherless homes.
“Almost every social ill faced by Americas children is related to fatherlessness.”
1 california study showed that 98% of its discipline issues were caused by emotionally damaged young boys whose common characteristic was father loss.
What I wanna fo this morning is show you 4 different wounds caused by the relationship with your father and show you how Jesus came to heal those and how Jesus can be known as our Heavenly father.
Now I realize this may be difficult for many of you to walk through and it might bring up some painful memories. But my point is not to drudge up painful memories or beat up your dad, it is meant to point you to the goodness of Jesus and the salvation he extends to you.
But I am going to be using some illustrations from a book called father factor how your relationship at home can influence your career, I am only using this for anchor points bc this helps us better understand the beauty of Jesus as everlasting father.
Its kind of wierd to call Jesus everlasting father isnt it?
since the Bible clearly teaches us that Jesus is the second member of the trinity and usually called Gods son. but now here in this passage the Son is called the Father.
This does not mean He is not the son, or that he switched his place with the father some how. It only means that Jesus in his relationship to us would be like the father that we have always longed for.
this is not his position in the trinity but the kind of relationship he would have with us and the wound he would address.
THE NEVER SATISFIED DAD
This is the dad that no matter what you did never seemed to be proud of you.
There are people I have come in contact with many times who are driven by this need to make thier fathers proud. ONe particular friend of mine told me that all he ever wanted was to hear his father tell him he was proud of him.
Now this guy was smart he had like a 4.0 GPA and he has more degrees than a thermometer. But he never heard the words from his dad I am proud of you son.
What was crazy though is on graduation day do you know what he was dreaming about?
He told me he wasn’t dreaming about walking across the stage and hearing the crowd cheers for all these academic honors I got I was dreaming about walking down off the stage, and I had this kind of mental dream or vision in my head as I walked down the stage and I would see my dad and he would be pushing his way through the crowd and have tears cominng down his face and he would shake my hand and hug me and say son today I am very proud of you.
He said on gradutation day it all started happening just the way I envisioned it, graduation was over and I was coming down and there comes my dad pushing his way through the crowd and when he got up to me it wasn’t to tell me he was proud of me it was to say hey your mamma and I gotta get out of here the traffic is going to be terrible and thats all he said.
He was absolutely crushed
Listen to me fathers WHAT YOU SAY TO YOUR CHILDREN AND HOW YOU SAY IT TO THEM MATTERS!!
It will affect the entirety of thier lives!
For kids who grow up in this kind of hoime proving themselves to others becomes the dominating theme of thier lives, and they carry this right into thier relationship with God.
So no matter what you do you have this hidden doubt that sits in the pit of your stomach and you think HAVE I DONE ENOUGH TO PLEASE GOD?
Or will God be happier with me if I were a better Christian or witness or wife or mom or dad, you constantly compare yourself to others and your like yeah I bet if I were like him or her then God woud be happy with me.
BUT GOD COULD NOT BE ANYMORE HAPPY WITH YOU THAN HE IS RIGHT NOW!
YOU ARE PRECIOUS IN THE EYES OF GOD Isaiah tells us in chapter 43 that God pays more attention to us than a mother thinks of her new born infant.
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
Mothers is it possible for you to forget your newborn child?
Its almost like Isaiah has to move from fatherhood into mother hodd bc in general mothers are more attentive to thier children than fathers are.
Amy was meticulous in how she noticed things about our kids she would say things like this one is gonna need braces and this one is gonna need glasses and I am thinking how could you possibly know that but now very child has glasses and they needed them.
Unfortunately for me they will probably also need braces Lord help me.
She was just so aware of little things I never noticed.
What Isaiah is saying is that it is possible that even a mom could forget but God is more intune with you He is more connected with you than the most love stricken mother there is.
Jesus tells us in the gospel of Matthew that not a single hair falls from our head without His knowledge.
Listen to me thats some kind of love if he knows the hairs that falls from your head now.
That is how much attention your Heavenly father pays to you and how in love He is with you, ONe of my favorite psalms is whenever David just revels in the love that God has for him..
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
In other words when I was just called a fetus I was known as a person to you and you knew exactly who I was and in your book were written every single day formed for me before there was one of them you planned my life out1
SUCH KNOWLEDGE IS TOO WONDERFUL FOR ME!
DO YOU WANNA BE SPECIAL TO SOMEONE?
DO YOU LONG TO BE PRECIOUS TO SOMEONE?
Your special and precious to GOd do you yearn to matter YOU MATTER TO THE GOD OF HEAVEN!
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH AND OFTEN GOD THINKS ABOUT YOU?
Before anyone ever knew you He fashioned you and He formed you and He laid out days for you.
There has never been a single day of your life when He wasn’t there with you do you have any idea how valuable you are to Him YOU COST GOD HIS ONE AND ONLY SON!!! AND IT PLEASED HIM TO CRUSH HIM IN ORDER TO HAVE YOU!!
He would go through Hell itself to be able to redeem you so that you could be with him forever and that love is deeper and greater and better than any love that you failed to get from your father!
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
I have never seen any father sing over thier children, but God is so crazy about you this is what God the father is!
Let me say this
IF YOU WANNA BE A GODLY FATHER BE CRAZY ABOUT YOUR KIDS AND LET THEM KNOW THAT
Some of the best advice I ever got was from an older pastor He said let me tell you the mistake your going to make as a parent he said your going to be first to your kids a pastor and second a dad.
But your ids dont need a pastor they need a dad.
I said what do you mean?
He said a pastor is always in thier life telling them whats wrong with them and how to fix it a dad is just real exzcited about who they are.
A pastor is someone who lays out a spiritual progress plan, and then is always trying to get them to the next stage of the spiritual progress plan and a dad is someone who is at thier games beaming with pride and yelling thier head off.
The single greatest factor in whether or not your child adopts the faith is the quality of your relationship with them not the quantity of what you teach them.
Religious instruction is important but the quality of the relationship between the child and the dad is even more important than what you teach them
Be crazy about your kids
2. The time bomb dad
This is the kind of dad you never know what to expect from him.
If he has had a bad day at work then the smallest thing sets him off maybe drugs and alcahol magnify that. Maybe once or more you got hurt verbally physically
You never really learn to love this kind of dad bc its hard to love someone who you are terrified of.
An incredible number of anxiety disorders are seen in this type of scnario, the sociologist says kids who grow up like this they become control freaks bc you see when thier dads explode their lives crashed and so now they try to control everything in thier lives to keep that from happening again.
In counseling that is called hypervigilence
Its like PTSD you went through some sort of trauma and now your always on the look out to ensure it never happens again.
Poulter the writer of the book I mentioned compares it to the response America had after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Scared that another incident is going to happen.
This is why people have a hard time trusting God and leaving things in His hands bc how can you trust that He will actually take care of you what happens if hes in a bad mood what if He gets mad and punishes you just like your Earthly dad you need to figure out what you gotta do to cintain him to stay on His good and when something goes wrong you wonder well what did I do wrong whats he mad at now
But YOU HEAVENLY FATHER COULD NOT BE MORE OPPOSITE OF THE TIME BOMB DAD
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
You can see this in the story of the prodigal son
Yes your Heavenly Father will discipline you and will allow things to happen to you but listen to me it is never done in anger for those of us who are His children
For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees,
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
NOTHING IS DONE TO PAY ME BACK FOR SIN ALL MY SIN WAS PUT ON THE BACK OF JESUS SO ALL THAT COMES TO ME IS THE LOVINGKINDNESS OF THE FATHER AND HE IS WORKING EVERYTHING TOGETHER FOR MY GOOD
IF YOU ARE GODS CHILD NOT ONE THING HAS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU OR WILL EVER HAPPEN TO YOU THAT GOD DOES NOT INTEND FOR GOOD
Hwo would your perspective of your life change if you actually believed this?
What would happen if you looked back over your life and knew that there was absolutely not one thing that had ever happened to you that God has not meant for good!
That not one thing that is happening in the present will happen to you that god does not mean for good, and not one thing will happen in your future that He does not intend for good.
That is the assurance you have with the Heavenly father bc He is the opposite of the time bomb dad He took the anger that we deserved to give us the tenderness and love we did not deserve.
For some of you this means your going to have to stop viewing your heavenly father through the lense of your Earthly dad and your going to need to start viewing your earthly father through the lens of your Heavenly dad.
God is the real father He is the one we are created for our earthly parents are only stewards of the life which the Heavenly father gives us.
Our earthly parents are supposed to be the training wheels that teach us about our heavenly father.
For many of you you have to reverse the order you gotta stop viewing your Heavenly father through the lens of your earthly one.You need to start evaluating your earthly father through the lens of your heavenly one.
He is the real father He is the one your created for and heres whats gonna happen, when you do that not only are you going to become healthy and your gonna heal. But your also going to develope the ability to love and forgive your earthly father for how he failed you.
bc your going to realize that even though he failed that does not define your worth bc you have a God who loves you and is extremely focused on you.
You are the apple of His eye.
Those hurts dont have to be devastating in your life bc the love and acceptance that you longed for from your earthly dad wasnt really the love and eacceptance that you longed for.
YOu subconciously were longing for that fromyour creator the one who made you and bought you and you then begin to realize He is the best dad you will ever have.
3. THE EMOTIONALLY DISTANT DAD
This was the dad who was stable and consistent he never abandoned you or abused you he just never expressed his emotion to you. He never made you feel special or that he was proud of you.
the author said this father and style made up 50% of families between 1940 and 1980 called the leave it to beaver dad.
Dads in this time didnt really know they were supposed to be emotionally involved with thier kids.
They though it was their job to teach manliness and toughness and if they expressed love for thier sons then they would be teaching them to be soft and weak.
There are 3 things that every child needs to hear from his or her father:
I love you
I am proud of you
You are really good at....
But you never heard those and that left you with this deep desire to prove yourself so that you could hear that from somebody.
“My father has never seen me play a football or baseball game not a single one, can you imagine here I am Bo Jackson and one of the so called premier athletes in the country, and after the game I am sitting in the locker room and I’m looking around at my teamates many of whom didn’t even play, and envying the ones whose dad had come into the locker room to talk to them and take them out after the game.
I never experienced that and I always wanted to”
YOur Heavenly father is so emotionally connected to you that again you think of the prodigal son and you think about the fathert whose son has wandered away.
The father stands looking and longing for his son to come home.
(JOb)
This father cannot even do his job bc he is so emotionally attached to his kids
Do you know that is how God loves you and hown focused he is on you?
Does that not amaze you?
(WHAT KIND OF LOVE IS THIS!!)
(cross)
BUT HE CANNOT BE HAPPY WITHOUT ME!
Dads maybe the most significant thing you can do for your kids is just be emotionally connected to them.
4. THe absent father
This is the dad who was never there many homes today dont have fathers in them.
Kids often think this is a personal rejection they think they arent good enough for dad to stay, they may never say it but I can assure you it is in thier mind.
This often manifests itself as a backround sadness
You know if you hear a soundtrack and it is playing in the backround you expect certain things if you play funny music you think something funny is about to happen, if you play dramatic music you expect something suspenseful to happen, if you play happy music it is usually a scene in a movie when something happy is happening.
Well for these kids in the back of thier minds they have this soundtrack playing. Always expecting something bad to happen, always waiting for the shoe to drop always expecting to fail or be alone.
Sadness and fear begins to express itself as anger for many fatherless boys in the absence of a father figure who could demonstrate to them what real masculinity is, they turn to some other way to prove thier masculinity
Sports, IQ, career work ethic
All of these kids grow up seeking the approval of thier father figure but many of them if they dont get it try to find their masculinity elsewhere.
Maybe gang activity, being rebellious
There are many different ways that they try to “be manly” one author said
“Fatherless men often gravitate towards aggresive heroes like violent action heroes or violent rap stars bc these guys represented a masculinity they never saw in thier fathers, now its not really masculinity at all but they think it is.
This is what they do when they dont have dads who get down on the floor and wreslted with them and showed them strength under control, to show them that you can use strength to protect and defend instead of dominate and be a bully.
Because they have never seen that they use thier strength to dominate others.
They become overachievers always trying to be the best and be the man that their dad never was trying to prove themselves so they can recieve from others that they never got from the one person they needed it from.
Thier dad
Girls do the same thing
they struggle with selfworth and beauty sometimes in the absence of a fathers love they crave the attention from a man they never got from thier dad and they become willing to do whatever they need to do to get it.
90% of women in the adult film industry were abused by thier fathers or someone else as a child. Doesn’t that break your heart?
Someone who was supposed to protect them and care for them instead broke them in a way most of us will never understand.
Many of us come from a place where there was a massive wound left their by our father what I hope you will see is that Jesus could not be more opposite than a absentee father instead actually He says
Hebrews 13:5
“I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU”
He didnt leave you when you mocked him, He didnt leave you when you sinned willingly, He didnt leave you when you judged someone else, He didnt leave you when you stole that thing you never told anyone about, He didnt leave you when you were trapped by lust, He didnt leave you when FILL IN THE BLANK
No this father wouldn’t be happy until you return to Him until you come home, and He would willingly give His life so that He could take you back home.
YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER SHOWED YOU HOW MUCH YOU MEAN TO HIM
BECAUSE HE WAS WILLING TO GIVE THE CROWN JEWEL OF HEAVEN HIS ONE AND ONLY SON JUST TO HAVE YOU
DONT JUDGE YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER BY YOUR EARTHLY ONE, EVALUATE YOUR EARTHLY FATHER BY YOUR HEAVENLY ONE.
SOme of you may have lost your father and he was great and you are wounded but that is why I lvoe this word Isiah uses EVERLASTING
We have a Father that never leaves never fails, never dissapoints and never dies.
HE wants to care for you and he sees right where you are and desires to bring healing to you.
there is only one way to know Him and it is through JEsus CHrist.
LEt’s PRay