A0333_The Fathers Gift
Date: 2nd September 2007 (Sunday AM) Ref: A0333
Place: Kambah P.S.
Title: The Fathers Gift
Text: & Luke 11:9-13
Illust: Today is Fathers Day, the day when we celebrate fathers. It is an important day – Because Fathers are important – Some statistics from a report by Bill Muhlenberg titled “The Facts of Fatherlessness”
In America 8.3% of married couples < poverty line compared to 47.1% of female headed households
Aus, 500 divorcess, children 5-8y.o - After separation 4 in 5 mothers; i.e. 80% dependent on Social Security
Monash Uni study showed that family break-up rather than unemployment is the major cause of the rise in poverty levels
I. The Fathers Heart
A. Importance of Fathers
i. For my illustration, I just read the economic benefits of fathers, but it goes much much deeper than that. – Fathers are important.
ii. This is what God intended. God formed Adam & breathed the breath of His life into Him, then God formed Eve out of Adam. – He gave them the command.
Genesis 1:27-28 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply;” (NKJV)
iii. This is why when the “experts” study these things time & again they come up with the results that children need both their mother & father. – Both have a role, both impart things to their children that the other can’t.
A Harvard Medical school expert who studied over 40 years of research on the question of parental absence and children’s well being said:
“What has been shown over and over again to contribute most to emotional development of the child is a close, warm, sustained and continuous relationship with both parents.”
B. God the Father
i. How does God want to be seen by you, how does God want to be perceived and how does He relate to us. – The Bible goes to great lengths to present God to us as our Father. Our Heavenly Father, the ultimate father, the perfect example of a Father.
Psalm 68:5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation. (NKJV)
ii. This is the picture Jesus presents when He teaches us to pray:
Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. (NKJV)
iii. Paul over & over we see in His epistles; Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians & Titus, that he commences them highlighting that God is our Father
Ephesians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (NKJV)
iv. God is our Father, He loves you with an everlasting love, He only wants the best for you & vs. 11-13 ~ You are a child of God.
1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. (NKJV)
II. The Fathers Gift
A. Foundation for life
i. Thinking about the responsibility of Fathers. An awesome and sobering responsibility: The Father’s job is to lay the foundation in their child’s life for their future involves putting things in them, bringing correction, giving them the necessary skills that will see them equipped to deal with the issues of life.
A Melbourne Uni study of 212 children found that fathers, even more than mothers, had a major beneficial influence on children in their first year of school. The study found that kids with regular father involvement were more cooperative, & self reliant in school than kids who did not have father involvement. The more regular involvement the father has with the child, the author said, the better the child does in the first year of schooling
ii. Father, your primary focus, your main task is to those who are your heirs, those who will receive from you their heritage. This is what God does for us:
Galatians 4:4-7 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (NKJV)
iii. Because of God’s Fatherly concern for you, this same responsibility to correct and equip you is taken on by Him:
God brings correction; when we are going astray, not following Him, walking in disobedience. – He is wanting to set you up for a future, destiny, blessing and eternal life.
2 Samuel 7:14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. (NKJV)
God wants to equip you & I – How are you equipped to come into your inheritance, to be able to live the life God intends for you
Luke 24:49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” (NKJV)
B. The Promise of the Father
i. The Promise of the Father this AM is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, It is this that He gives to enable & empower you to walk in His ways, to fulfil the destiny that He has for you.
ii. Jesus wanted the disciples to know that this was so important; they were not to move or do anything until they had received this empowering. – Remember they had seen Jesus alive, they knew He had been resurrected, they knew He was God, but Jesus said, don’t move, don’t go out into the world UNTIL – You are baptised in the Holy Spirit.
iii. This same promise of the father this same empowering is available to you this AM.
III. Ask The Father
A. The Good Gift
i. Need to understand that this is a gift, it is an enabling gift, it is a good gift.
ii. Not to be feared. God will never violate your will. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the God head does not possess you. He fills you with his power & presence.
Matthew 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (NKJV)
iii. Good fathers love to give good gifts to their children, in fact it is a responsibility to give gifts that will equip & help them in life – God as our good Father gives the best gifts.
iv. This is the crux of our text, & vs.11-12 –Of course you wouldn’t do these things
B. An Expectancy
i. You need an expectancy; the Father will give a good gift; the Holy Spirit - & vs.13
ii. Come expecting, cry out in faith to your Father, I need your baptism in the Holy Spirit, Please Abba Father fill me with your presence.
iii. Verses 9,10 & 13 specifically states that it is for “those who ask Him” – Ask, keep asking, tarry, wait; “until you are endued with power from on high.”