Honoring Our Perfect Father
Exodus 20:12
Good Morning to all of God’s People from the Voices Of Hope Evangelistic Team! It’s such a blessing to be able to worship with you today wherever you are! I thank God for the opportunity to serve Him and to share His message with the world through today’s technology!
Our Message today is titled “Honoring Our Perfect Father” and our scripture comes from the Old Testament Book of Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 12.
I want to begin today’s Message by wishing a Happy Father’s Day to all fathers! Do you know that the beginning of Father’s Day does not have its roots in Mother’s Day or a greeting card company? The celebration of Dad’s special day is credited to Mrs. John B. Dodd of Washington state, who first suggested the idea in 1909.
Mrs. Dodd’s father, William Smart, was widowed when his wife died in childbirth delivering her 6th child. Despite the obvious hardships, Mr. Smart proceeded to raise the newborn along with his other 5 children by himself. It wasn’t until Sonora Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. The original date chosen for Father’s Day was June 5th, Mr. Smart’s birthday but was postponed until June 19th, the third Sunday of June because Mrs. Dodd didn’t have enough time to prepare.
The idea spread quickly and cities across America began celebrating Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father’s Day, but it didn’t become official until 1966 when President Lynden Johnson signed a presidential proclamation that set aside the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day.
So today we honor our fathers. It is good we do this because in Exodus 12:20, God said: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
Let's pray:
Heavenly Father,
Today we give thanks for the fathers in our lives. We ask You to bless them for the many times they reflected the love, strength, generosity, wisdom and mercy that You exemplify in Your relationship with us, Your children.
We honor our fathers for putting our needs above their own convenience and comfort; for teaching us to show courage and determination in the face of adversity; for challenging us to move beyond self-limiting boundaries; for modeling the qualities that would turn us into responsible, principled, caring adults.
Fatherhood doesn’t come with a manual and reality teaches us that while some fathers excel in these attributes, not all our fathers do. Give them the grace to acknowledge and learn from their mistakes. Give us the grace to extend to them the same forgiveness that You offer us all. Help us to resist the urge to stay stuck in past bitterness; instead, to move forward with humility and peace of heart.
We ask Your blessing on those men who served as father figures in our lives when our biological fathers weren't able to do so: grandfathers and uncles, brothers and cousins, teachers, pastors and coaches and the women of our families. May the love and selflessness they showed us be returned to them in all their relationships, and help them to know that their influence has changed us for the better.
Give new and future fathers the wisdom, humility and guidance they need to raise happy and holy children, grounded in a love for You and other people - and remind these fathers that treating their wives with dignity, compassion and respect is one of the greatest gifts they can give their children.
We pray that our fathers who have passed into the next life, have been welcomed into Your loving embrace, and that our family will one be day be reunited in Your Heavenly Kingdom.
In Jesus' name I pray,
Amen
I’d like to share a poem with you titled “Strength of a Mountain,” whose author is unknown.
God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ... Dad
In his 1866 book, “The Godly Man’s Portrait,” Thomas Watson lists twenty-four points he discovered from the Bible that show what a godly man is.
• A man of knowledge.
• A man moved by faith.
• A man fired by love.
• A man like God.
• A man careful about the worship of God.
• A man who serves God and not men.
• A man who prizes Jesus Christ.
• A man who can weep.
• A man who loves the Word.
• A man who has the Spirit of God residing in him.
• A man of humility.
• A man of prayer.
• A man of sincerity.
• A heavenly man.
• A zealous man.
• A patient man.
• A thankful man.
• A man who loves the saints.
• A man who does not indulge himself in sin.
• A man who is good in his relationships.
• A man who does spiritual things in a spiritual manner.
• A man thoroughly trained in religion.
• A man who walks with God.
• A man who strives to be an instrument for making others godly.
I was blessed to have a godly Father who loved his family and provided well for us. He was a spiritual leader who took us to church, taught us about God and our need for salvation. He and Mom were an awesome team! They didn’t just “talk the talk,” they “walked the walk.” Dad lived his faith every day and was loved by family and friends. While he was alive, I really enjoyed the opportunity to have a day to celebrate him and I treasure those memories.
But others don’t have that same situation. For some it’s a hard thing to honor your father. You may not have even known him. He may be an absentee father. Others may have had abusive fathers. All of us had fathers that were less than perfect. But God says to honor them anyway and that command comes with a promise at the end: “so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
Now God’s command doesn't say we have to agree with our father on issues or accept the lifestyle he is living; but it does say we still have to honor him because of who and what he is to us, our earthly father.
While there is no such thing as a perfect human father, there is a perfect father. He is our Father in Heaven. He is the one that Jesus revealed to us as His Father. He is the one that Jesus taught us to refer to as Abba Father.
This morning I want us to turn our focus on Him and how we can honor our Heavenly Father. Fortunately for us, God has sent a perfect example in how His Son honored the Father.
Does anyone remember the first “red letter” words of the Bible? The very first words of Jesus recorded in the Bible? Let’s turn to Luke 2: 41-49. The story is familiar. The parents take the child to the temple, and when the feast is finished, they leave Jerusalem to go back home. On the way, they realize that the boy Jesus is not with them, so they go back and search for Him. They finally find Him in the temple “sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.”
They get annoyed with Jesus and ask Him why he did such a thing. Then comes the profound answer from Jesus, who is just twelve years old at that time. He says (reading from the NKJV) Luke 2:49 “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Other translations put it as “Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” The original Greek version uses an expression which could be translated as House, or business or Father’s matters or Things. I like the NJKV translation here. “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” This one sentence sums up Jesus’ mission, the whole purpose of His coming to this earth. To complete His Father’s business.
So, let’s think about this a little bit. What is His Father’s business that Jesus is talking about? The business of salvation, the business of bringing His people back in communion with him, the business of bridging the gap that has been created between the creator and the creation, the business of defeating Satan’s schemes, the business of rectifying the fall, the business of paying for all mankind’s sins once for all. Even when Jesus faced the most daunting task of His business, He prayed “Not my will, but thine be done.”
How about us? Whose business are we doing? Perhaps we’ve become too caught up in doing our own business, doing what we want to do. Perhaps we believe it is not our duty to participate in His business. Perhaps we think He does not need our help. Perhaps we think we are in the wrong place, wrong job, wrong neighborhood, to do His business. Perhaps we think we lack the right skills to do His business.
But the fact is that Jesus has already achieved the major portion of what is required to be done. All that the Father is asking us to do is make Jesus known to people. He’s not asking us to go on to the cross, He’s not asking us to bear everyone else’s sins. He’s just asking us to be the light and salt of the earth. He’s just asking us to “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:12). He's just asking us to be imitators of Christ.
We have a promise-keeping Father in Heaven. How are we going to honor Him this Father’s Day? How will we do His business? Will we be vessels through which God brings blessings to others, shows kindness to others, expresses mercy and goodness to others, helping to transform their future?
What is our response going to be? Not that our Heavenly Father will love us or care for us any less if we do nothing about His business. Not that He will give up on us. We have a Dad who will always be there for us.
May we, by our actions, model what it means to love God, to serve Him, to honor Him and to obey Him in all things.
John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Jesus cried out from the cross: “It is finished!”
Jesus has provided the gift of salvation to us which gives us not only hope for today, but hope for eternity.
1 John 5:13 tells us: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
If you have that hope in Jesus, won't you share it with others!
If you don't have that hope, it can be yours now.
In Romans 10:9, we are told that “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, invite Him into your life right now. Accept His free gift of salvation today.
For those who have known God but walked away from His call on your life to do your own thing, or who have been wounded and are now angry with Him, or who feel like you can’t come back to Him because of the depth of your sin; when we turn back to Jesus in repentance, when we ask for forgiveness, intending to live a godly life again, God’s mercy reaches out to us with a message of love. God is a God of mercy, of redemption, of restoration and of renewal. Just come by faith to the throne of grace to receive it. He is waiting for you with open arms. Repent all over again and get back to fulfilling God’s plan in and through your life.
God has promised us multiple times that He will never leave us nor forsake us so I’ll close with a story that illustrates this so well.
It’s a fascinating story that comes out of the 1989 earthquake which almost flattened Armenia. This deadly tremor killed over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. In the midst of all the confusion of the earthquake, a father rushed to his son’s school. When he arrived there, he discovered the building was flat as a pancake.
Standing there looking at what was left of the school, the father remembered a promise he made to his son, "No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!" Tears began to fill his eyes. It looked like a hopeless situation, but he could not take his mind off his promise.
Remembering that his son’s classroom was in the back right corner of the building, the father rushed there and started digging through the rubble. As he was digging other grieving parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying: "My son! "My daughter!" They tried to pull him off what was left of the school saying: "It’s too late!" "They’re dead!" "You can’t help!" "Go home!" Even a police officer and a fire-fighter told him he should go home. To everyone who tried to stop him he said, "Are you going to help me now?" They did not answer him and he continued digging for his son stone by stone.
He needed to know for himself: "Is my boy alive or is he dead?" This man dug for eight hours and then twelve and then twenty-four and then thirty-six. Finally in the thirty-eighth hour, as he pulled back a boulder, he heard his son’s voice. He screamed his son’s name, "ARMAND!" and a voice answered him, "Dad? It’s me, Dad!" Then the boy added these priceless words, "I told the other kids not to worry. I told ’em that if you were alive, you’d save me and when you saved me, they’d be saved. You promised that, Dad. ’No matter what,’ you said, ’I’ll always be there for you!’ And here you are Dad. You kept your promise!"
May God bless you abundantly beyond your expectations. In Jesus’ name, Amen