“What a Dad”
By Parrish lee
June 17th,
2012
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notes in pdf format.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
Genesis 2:7 …and man became a living soul.
In preparing this message I thought,
“Let me use the examples of some of the great fathers in the Bible. I thought, “I’ll use Abraham,” and then I
thought of how he had not only Isaac, but also Ishmael, too, and, though
Abraham loved Ishmael, and Ishmael loved his father, I’m sure that they would
confess that their relationship was less than ideal. So I thought, hey, I’ll use Moses, and then I
remembered how he forgot the covenant of circumcision with his son, and so
Zipporah had to do that. “So, hey, what
about David?” and then that whole thing with Absolom and Amnon got in the way.
So, you know what conclusion I came
up with? It ain’t easy being a dad. It’s hard to live up to the standard when
your example is God Himself, but, as the Bible says, He gives us these things
by His Spirit. Now, that’s what I call a
Father—gives you the ultimate example to follow, and then gives you His Spirit
to help you to be successful in it.
Please don’t anyone think that I’m saying we don’t have good fathers
these days—I don’t have to look any further then this room to see men who are
standing in the gap and making up the hedge as examples and providers and
protectors. There were of course good
fathers back then, but my point is that our Heavenly father is the ultimate
Dad.
Isaiah 9:6 …The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace.
Wonderful—wonder, marvel.
Counselor—to advise,
consult, give counsel, counsel, purpose, devise, plan.
Mighty God—strong,
mighty (also sometimes translated as champion or chief).
Prince—…captain,
general, commander (military) chief, head, overseer (of other official classes)…
of
Peace—welfare,
health, prosperity, peace…
the
Everlasting—perpetuity,
for ever, continuing future, ancient (of past time)…
Father—to open up on
that a little more: In the Old Testament, the Father had two specific
responsibilities: to provide leadership, guidance and authority, to be a
provider for his family’s needs, and protector of his family. So they understood that God would guide them
and take care of them forever.
Some years ago at a Men’s Fellowship
meeting we did a, what you might call, exploration on a project called Wild at
Heart. We watched a video where there
were several guys in their twenties and thirties, and some in their fifties and
sixties, and they talked about what was handed down to them by their fathers
and to a man, they expressed how, either they were unable to measure up or
there were standards that they just couldn’t meet, or they also had to deal
with their dads having to deal with their own problems. They spent time together and afterwards, we,
as men, sat down at different tables and we went on to have our own
discussions. I learned three main things
from that: 1) Being a dad isn’t
necessarily easy, 2) A father’s love is very special, and 3) When the role of a
father is not filled, it can remain that way for a lifetime.
Usually your model for a father is
going by what you’ve seen your father do and usually children, when they get
older, specifically boys, as far as their father goes, had those that either
emulate what their father was doing, or try not to repeat a bad example. As I sat at the table and listened to several
brothers talk about issues, hurt feelings that maybe they had never voiced in
public, it just opened my eyes to the needs some of us need filled by our
Heavenly Father and how we should give those needs to Him.
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our Father…
1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us…
I want to say something about the
love of God: It’s unlike anything you have ever come in contact with. Before I got saved, I used to hear those
songs on the radio of this great love that people talk about, and I’d hear some
about, “How my man, he done me wrong,” or “Oh, how my girl, she done me wrong”—but
if there is any question, let me put that to rest right now: you don’t have to
worry about any of that with the great God our Savior. Some might say, I’ve got good love with my
husband, my wife, my family, my kids, my job, my comforts—to that I say, “Hallelujah!”
but God said to prove Him—out of all the loves you could know, there is none
greater than God’s love. I’m talking
about the God who makes a way out of no way, turns your frown upside down, and
changes the situation into a celebration.
Sidebar: On one of my fast days, while I was trying to
focus and concentrate on me and God, I got a couple of songs stuck in my
head. You ever try and spend time with
someone and the phone rings, or a song comes on the radio, or there’s a game
on, and when your attention is divided, they get offended? What about God when He wants to have some
time with us; how must He feel if we give in to everything else that comes
along. Sometimes we’ve just got to tell
everything else NO.
Romans 8:15 …ye have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Adoption
is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another, and, in so
doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original
parent or parents.
Matthew 6:9-13 …Our Father,
which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name…
Some years ago, a single mom took
her little boy to an old-fashioned altar to be prayed over. I don’t know what the prayer was, but it must
have been something like this: “Lord,
watch over this family, raise this child, and watch him through his life. When he makes mistakes, Lord, help him; when he
goes out and does things in the world, Lord, help him, and God bring him to you
and show him how good you can be. Bless
this mother, Lord, and her parents and her sister.” I say that because, as I look over my life,
there’s one thing that I can say for sure: God has been good to me. When I was in the second grade, a teacher
asked us to write about how our life was going to be, and I wrote that I would
be a scientist, that I would be married, and that I would make about $100 a
month, and somewhere along the line, I didn’t know where, I was going to find
God.
When I look back, and I see the times
that I was such a sinner, such a spiteful person, lost in pride, and I wasn’t
looking for God, He was in my thoughts.
I thought there was so much more fun in everything else. I blamed this person or that person, when I thought
I was right, when I didn’t want anybody’s correction. God kept me through all of that. When I decided to join the Navy, I couldn’t
tell anybody why I was going into the military; I just had this strong feeling
that I should. One night that changed my
life was when my best friend in the military asked me to go out clubbing with
him. I couldn’t tell you why, but I just
didn’t want to go, and chose instead, on a Friday evening, to go to school and
study. On that night, my friend got in a
car accident that, a few days later, took his life. Before he passed, while he was in the
hospital, I prayed to the god that I was accustomed to, that he would show his
power, that they would show all around that there was no god but Allah, and my
friend died.
That didn’t stop me from praying, in
fact, it only made me more determined to get closer to Allah. After several weeks of praying, Almighty God
spoke to me, and told me that I was praying to a god that could not save. I made up my mind at that moment to find the
God that could. Two and half years
later, He brought me to a little house on Hillside Avenue, and a young preacher
stepped up there to talk about the God that he knew. As God dealt with me, I told Him to make me
receive it, because I know that I am a stubborn, hard-hearted, selfish person
full of faults and failures; full of things that I just want to be done my
way. I got born again that same
night. That was several years ago, and
since then, my Heavenly father has been both a bridge and an answer to me, He’s
been a light in the dark place for me, He’s been my peace in the midst of the
storm, He has been my way when there was no way, He is my healing over
sickness, he is my strength when I am weak, and I bear witness right now, he
has been Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, and Everlasting Father, and my
Prince of Peace. Happy Father’s Day, Jesus
Sermon
notes by Pete Shepherd
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