“My Relationship with My Father”
By Brother Kenneth Ray
June 19th,
2011
Click here to download printable sermon
notes in pdf format.
There are
two
things that you can expect from your relationship with your father: Joy, and pain. The circumstances of life
determine which one
you will get. There
are no perfect parents—I’m
still waiting on that. Sometimes
your
dad needs your forgiveness. What
really
makes you isn’t necessarily your relationship with your natural father,
but
your relationship with your Spiritual Father.
My relationship with my Father influences how I act.
John
14:15
If
ye love Me, keep My commandments.
You
notice that
He did not say, “If you like Me,” or “If you are
interested in Me.”
John
14:21
He
that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me
He
is going to
be there, with you. He
will be the
compass for your life, if you let Him.
He’s talking here about your relationship with your
Heavenly
Father. Many people
know of Him,
not so many actually know Him, though.
John
15:12
This
is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
You
don’t have
to question His love; He loves you.
You
may think to yourself, “If He loves me, then why am I going through
these
things?” He wants you to depend on Him, and in hard times we do depend
more on
God. Sometimes we
stop loving Him the
way we’re supposed to. There
are two
things that we must deal with: 1)
Feelings, and 2) Facts. Sometimes
when
we try to explain Scripture to people, they let their feelings get in
the
way. “You mean to
tell me that…” No,
I’m not telling you that; the Bible says
that. They try to
put it on you instead
of on God. Feelings
are real, and when I
say real, I don’t mean like a reality program.
There’s not much real about a reality program.
The real
question we need to ask ourselves is, “How is my relationship with my
Father?”
Isaiah
1:18
Come now, and let us reason
together, saith the LORD
Notice
that He
is asking that we reason together with Him, not
with, say, two other
people in the church. God
is just and
righteous, and, I could be mistaken, but I don’t believe that the Bible
ever
says that He is fair. How
many people
have ever dated? How
many have ever
dated long distance? Would
you say that
a long-distance relationship is better?
No, it’s not, is it?
It’s better
to be in the presence of the one you care about.
It’s the same with God; you can come into His
presence, or you can try to skirt around Him.
Don’t stand in the yard and throw rocks at His
window; knock on the
door, and talk with Him one on one.
If
He knocks on your door, he wants you to open it.
He wants to relieve you and comfort you. He’s not the texting type. He doesn’t want to charge
you eighty dollars
an hour to lie on a comfortable couch and talk to Him.
He is honest, and you can be honest with
Him. He doesn’t
gossip; you don’t have
to worry about telling Him something and then the next day everybody
knows
about it.
There’s a
funny
thing about us as human beings: We
need
the answer to the three-letter question, “Why?”
Some people, when I ask them to do something, they
just go off and do
it, and I have to stop them and explain how I want it done. Some people ask more
questions than I really
want to answer. Generally,
it’s easier
to do what needs doing if you understand why it needs to be done.
Psalms
16:11 Thou
wilt show me the path of
life: in Thy
presence is fullness of joy...
He’s
not going
to give us a big green arrow to show us where we should go. Still, we can bounce
things off of Him. When
we need guidance, He gave us the Holy
Spirit to guide us. He
can’t lead us
astray. What’s in
His presence?
Pleasures forevermore; no abuse. He
provides, protects, and nurtures.
He
will not mislead you. He
gives you
drive, motivation. Sometimes
that’s
fear, and sometimes that’s joy.
I should be
working on that relationship. We
can ask
the hard questions and He’ll tell us which way to go.
Our actions affect others.
Our actions reflect on us.
Our actions reflect on what Father we
have. My mom used
to worry that people
would look at me, and question her.
If
you’re not acting right, then people will look at you and say, “Oh, and
you’re
a Christian?”
God provides help
to us and to the Fatherless.
Psalms
10:14 …Thou
art a helper of the
fatherless.
James
1:27
visit the fatherless and
widows in their affliction
You
can go to
church, and not have a relationship with God.
You can have a relationship with God, but then
decide to take ‘time off’
from it. These are
the times that we
say, “I know.” “Why
are you by
yourself? The Bible
says to go two by
two.” “I know.” “The Bible says, ‘Pray
without
ceasing.’” “I know.” King Saul, King David, and
King Solomon: when
they were in God’s presence, they made
wise decisions. When
they were absent
from God’s presence, not just them, but the whole kingdom suffered. Now David repented, and he
was restored. Saul
and Solomon were stubborn. What
you do affects other people. You
want victory, not defeat. No
one needs to be Fatherless.
Romans
5:8-10
…while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us…
God
committed
His love unto us. We
are saved by His
life. God has
already paid the adoption
fee.
Galatians
4:6 …God
hath sent forth the Spirit
of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father.
The
Holy Ghost
is a translator; He speaks everyone’s language.
He can communicate with you, and understand you, no
matter what your
culture. He has the
power to hold you
there.
We come
back to
the choice we have to make: Which
Father
do you want to be like? Which
Father do
you want others to see in you?
Sermon
notes by Pete Shepherd
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