Good Father

 

The Good Father 

 

Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are 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!

• Now that’s quite unflattering and blunt!

 

Jesus is really, really blunt with the truth! 

• But it’s a serious spiritual matter, as we all are desperate for the Heavenly Father! 

There are 960 different names for God in the Bible. 

• Everything from Abba to El Elyon, Jehovah to Wonderful, Yeshua, Zur (rock).

• Jesus came to reveal one name for God – Father 

We project this need on our earthly fathers who cannot live up to the expectation.

• Earthly Fathers, compared to the Heavenly Father, may give good gifts, but Jesus shows us that, in all of their goodness, they are still evil by comparison. 

• We all have an emptiness for the heavenly father 

• Don’t place the expectation and desire for your heavenly father onto your earthly father. 

 

Let me give you an idea of the scale and metric Jesus is using to show the truth about how we may misplace our need for the heavenly father into our earthly father. 

• Example: The difference between a good earthly father and a bad earthly father is a millimeter or at a plank scale, but the difference between God and the best earthly father is infinite.

 

Jeremiah 17:5 “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.” 

Psalm 118:8  “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” 

 

Please get out of the Blame Game – I saw my father’s weaknesses in my teens, only to realize that I would make my own mistakes as a Father in life.

• Stop blaming them and start honoring them.

• Your parents are not perfect nor God; they are not your source, God is. 

• They are human beings, not perfect, but they grew up with you doing the best that they could for you. 

 

Ephesians 6:2Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3“that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life on the earth.”

The 10 Commandments don’t say Honor your father and mother if they act in a way you deem honorable. 

Someone once said, “A culture of honor is celebrating who a person is without stumbling over who they’re not.”  

All authority is established by God, but not all who hold authority act in a godly way. 

• Honoring your father is about respecting the role, not necessarily the behavior.

•  You honor your parents as unto the Lord.

Your Father and Mother were the Holy Spirit’s first decision in your life. 

• Your father was not perfect and couldn’t be. 

• Your heavenly Father is. 

I want to talk to you today about “The Good Father”. 

• Many of us were raised by loving fathers, and kind.

• They guided us and did their best to make sure that we had everything that we needed. 

But, no matter how good our father was, people are not perfect. 

• They make mistakes. 

The good news is that the Good Father, your Heavenly Father, has taken all this into account.

 

Psalm 68: “God will be a father to the fatherless”. 

 

1. In Joshua Chapter 5, the Israelites had just crossed the Jordan River. 

• They were camped outside the city of Jericho.

• This was the last obstacle between them and their Promised Land. 

• Their parents had wandered in the desert for 40 years. 

• They never did make it in, but God was about to fulfill his promise and take their children in.

 

But there was one last thing the men had to do. God told Joshua, “Take a knife and circumcise this new generation of Israelites”. 

• WHY? Because the Battle is Spiritual and is truly over, full consecration to the Lord and not with flesh and blood. 

• These men, this new generation, were in their 20s and 30s. 

• They were supposed to be circumcised when they were 8 days old 

  • By their fathers, 

  • But because their fathers didn’t do what they were supposed to, when they were supposed to, 

    • Now these grown men were having to be circumcised. 

    • Not by their fathers. Their fathers had passed. 

    • God told Joshua to do it.

And when you don’t get what you should have as a child, it can be much more painful to get as an adult. 

• But at 8 days old, you don’t remember it. 

• You cry for a little while, and then you’re done, 

• But these grown men were having to endure pain that could’ve been avoided if their fathers had carried out their responsibilities.

 

You may be dealing with things today that your father could’ve taken care of. 

• Or you could kneel before the heavenly Father and allow HIS SPIRIT TO HEAL YOU, DISCIPLINE AND DIRECT YOU NOW. 

 

These men were all circumcised; they had to go through pain because of what their fathers didn’t do. 

• But when they came to Jericho, the last obstacle, God didn’t tell them to go break through the walls, go jump over the walls, go. 

• God knew they were hurting. 

• He knew they were dealing with things they shouldn’t have had to deal with, things that weren’t their fault. 

  • He didn’t say, “Too bad, your parents should’ve obeyed me. 

  • Don’t get mad at me, blame them”. 

 

He told them, “All I want you to do is march around the walls one time and then rest. 

• Do it one time the next day, and then rest”.

 

On the seventh day, when they marched around, let out that shout, the walls came tumbling down. 

• They took the city, made it to the Promised Land.

 

God knows what you didn’t get, so you can GET… OVER… IT. 

• HIS SPIRIT WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU NEED FOR VICTORY!

 

There are battles you won’t have to fight, becuase of your Heavenly Father

Walls you won’t have to break down 

Because the Good Father is watching after you and has given His Spirit.

 

He’s designed a plan for a wounded man, a wounded woman, to still take the city.

• For someone who’s been through hurts, abuse, dysfunction, to still accomplish dreams, to still have great relationships, to still live a blessed, fulfilled life.

 

If we’re honest, we’ve all been wounded in some way. 

• People do us wrong, 

• Sometimes, even good people may not give us what we need. 

• Don’t get discouraged, God has a plan. 

 

Don’t live with a victim mentality. 

 

Romans 8:37 We are more than conquerors through the Father who loves us. 

 

II. In Genesis 21, there’s a young man named Ishmael. = GOD HEARS!

• He’s the child of Father Abraham. 

• There was probably no better father in History than Father Abraham. 

• Father Abraham had Ishmael out of wedlock with his maid Hagar. 

• God promised Abraham and Sarah a baby, but they got in a hurry, tried to help God out, and Ishmael was born. 

• But he wasn’t the promised child. 

 

This caused all kinds of strife and division. 

• Sarah was mad at Abraham. 

• She started treating Hagar badly. 

• Abraham was trying to keep both women happy, and you know that’s impossible.

 

Year after year went by with all this dysfunction. 

• Sarah finally had her baby. Isaac, the promised child, was born. 

• When she had this child, she realized she didn’t need Hagar anymore, and she didn’t want Ishmael around. 

• Every time she saw Ishmael, he reminded her of Abraham’s mistake. 

• Ishmael had to pay the price!

 

Sarah told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. 

• He wasn’t going to do it until the Lord came to him and said, “Listen to your wife and do it”. 

 

I can imagine Ishmael was outside, playing with his brother Isaac,

•  Then Abraham came over, said, “Ishmael, come with me. You and your mother are going on a trip”. 

• Ishmael was confused, thinking, “That’s strange”. 

• Abraham sent them out into the desert with a loaf of bread and a bottle of water.

 

Now, Abraham was a wealthy man.

•  He could’ve sent them out with animals, with a large food supply, with help so they could make it at least to the next city, 

• But he sent them out basically with a sandwich and a bottle of water. 

 

Put yourself in Ishmael’s shoes. 

• He didn’t do anything wrong. 

• He didn’t choose to be born into this dysfunctional family. 

 

Stay encouraged, the Good Father sees what’s happening. 

• God is a God of justice. 

• It’s not how you start that matters; it’s how you finish. 

 

And the odds may be against you, but the Most High FATHER GOD is for you.

 

Ishmael went out into the desert, abandoned, confused, and rejected. 

• The man he had known, his father, the man who had taken care of him, provided for him, suddenly turned on him, said,

•  “I don’t want you in my life anymore”. 

• Ran out of food, ran out of water. 

• They were about to die, and Hagar sent Ishmael over by himself. 

• She didn’t want to see him starve to death.

 

If this were the end of the story, we could try to justify it by saying, “Well, he was Abraham’s mistake. 

• He wasn’t the promised child”. 

• The Scripture says, “God heard the cries of Ishmael.”

• Not the cries of his mom, not the cries of Abraham, God heard the cries of this young man born into dysfunction.

 

With all kinds of things that he had no control over, what did God say? “Too bad, Ishmael. 

• You got the wrong family. 

• You came one child too soon, just accept it”. 

• God had a plan for this young man. 

• He said, “Ishmael, I’m going to bring out of you a great nation”. 

• Even though he wasn’t the promised child,

 

LORD, PLEASE OPEN MY EYES!

In Genesis 21:14, we see where Abraham gave Hagar to Ishmael a bottle of water, but God showed Hagar a well of water…

 

Conclusion: The least human being can give us is a bottle of water.

• God does not give a bottle of water miracle and help like Abraham did to Hagar for Ishmael. 

• God’s pattern is wells of water! 

 

God did not give Hagar just any well; He showed her the well. 

• What if she were too blind to see what Abba was showing her?

• The worst thing that can happen to us is focusing on the lack of what people have given us and missing or not seeing what Abba has prepared for us…

 

If Ishmael were standing here today, he would tell you, “You may have had bad breaks, but don’t live with a victim mentality”. DON’T MISS YOUR WELL!

 

Everyone we meet has two fathers. Everyone. 

• They have a biological father and a spiritual father. 

• Biblically, their spiritual father is either God or Satan. 

  • The Pharisees incorrectly thought they were children of God, and said to Jesus, “The only Father we have is God himself” (John 8:41). 

  • Jesus refuted them, saying, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23).

  • And “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44a).

 

Don’t be religious with your Heavenly Father, be in relationship with your Heavenly Father!