Elements: Father

It’s good to be here this morning… I’ve been anticipating and preparing this series for awhile now. Today we embark in a new series called, Elements. I’ve come to realize, and I mentioned it a couple weeks ago, but It’s no easy task to take all of our differences and uniquenesses and experiences and then, to bring them together to make a unique song of unified adoring worship to God. What I’ve learned over the years of pastoring..

was that Church gatherings have a tendency to be a mixture of people who are either new to the faith, or from another denomination of faith, or who are from the Nazarene/Wesleyan faith. We hear words like God the father, son and Holy Spirit. We hear about sin, we teach about grace. We know all these things are key words of our faith. But do we really understand why these truths are a part of the foundation of what we believe and how they interact with one another.

It’s kind of like… The periodic table…. The periodic table is a tabular arrangement of the chemical elements, ordered by their atomic number, electron configurations, and recurring chemical properties. The table becomes this useful tool for modern students and scientists because it helps predict the types of chemical reactions that are likely for an element. For instance H2O is known as the chemical compound of two hydrogens and one Oxygen and those two elements in that sequence creates water.

But if you add another oxygen element, and it becomes H2O2, it’s no longer water, but becomes hydrogen peroxide. So, one compound if drank sustains life and the other compound if drank can take life away. It’s the same principle to our faith. What we believe about our articles of faith as Nazarenes, when brought together and combined, can create this beautiful song of unified worship within the church which creates an envioemnt for Christ like unity, or it can cause division because we’re trying to add things that may go together but instead of leading us to life, it leads us to misunderstanding and death.

So, in this series, we will use the periodic table as a framework to take a deep dive into the foundational “elements” of our faith as a way to illustrate that we can predict the outcome when we place our faith in God! Today, we’re going to be looking at the first element of the trinity, God the Father. Let’s read some scriptures to help get us on track to understanding, God the Father.

The first is Deuteronomy 6:4-5 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. The second is Exodus 4:22-23 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’” The third Scripture, comes from dueteronly 1:29-31 29 Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.

30 The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” These are some of the EARLIEST writings we have that compare God as father. And we learn throughout the Old Testament that God does refer to himself as Father.

So, what? What does that mean for us? God the Father? What is a father and why does Scripture use this word to describe God? Well, what we learn from the Bible is that: In exodus 4 and Deuteronomy 1, we see that God the Father will protect his children. He has freed them from slavery, freed them from that which has held them back. They were oppressed, they were in bondage, and God never gave up, but helped them taste freedom.

In Deuteronomy 1:30-31 we see a God who has guided and protected them as they go through life, towards a good gift he has for them. God the Father has carried them through their troubles and he is guiding them towards a better, liberated life. And, in Deuteronomy 4, God the Father is teaches us how to live, like a father should. He, through Moses, is trying to teach them to trust in and love him–as he will guide and protect them.

These are things that Fathers do. Or as I would say, these were the things my mother had done for me! Our parents teach, protect and guide, trying to give their children the freedom from that which holds them back. That’s what good parents do. Good parents guide their children towards better lives, not forcing them one way or another, but showing them the way. Right? I mean hear the wisdom Solomon writes about parents in proverbs…

Proverbs 22:6 - “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Why? Why, as parents train our children in the way to go… well one reason is because of legacy. The father who is loving, and kind, and patient, guiding, and protecting wants to see their child grow so that they can be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

The truth is: We all want to be a part of something bigger than us. And one way a family can do that is by passing down a legacy to the next generation. These jewish people lived in a patriarchal society. and in this patriarchal society, The father would love, and protect, and teach and then pass on, or give forward his blessing to his children. Billy Graham once said: “The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.” John Wesley would go on to say: “...do not send your children to hell by leaving them your wealth.

Have pity on them!” I don’t think there is one person here who does not want a blessing from God? Right? For some, I think they would wish to come to church and have God the father just hand out blessing like Oprah. You get a blessing and you get a blessing and you get a blessing. What would you do with a blessing if you did get one? Now be honest because God knows your heart.

You can fool me and fool others… but you can’t fool God the Father… who knows your heart. Would you share it someone else while taking none of the credit? In Genesis 12:2, God speaking to Abraham and here’s what he tells him before Abraham leaves his earthly father and family to follow God the Father who wants to hand him a blessing and legacy… God the Father says: “I will make you into a great nation (That sounds great…), and I will bless you (ok..

it’s getting better…); I will make your name great (No way… that means people will know my name. I’m all in…), and you will be a blessing. (Wait a minute… what?) The living bibles says: 2 If you do (meaning leaving behind everything Abram had always known), I will cause you to become the father of a great nation; I will bless you and make your name famous, and you will be a blessing to many others.

What we learn is that… Our heavenly father blesses us so that we might be a BLESSING to others. That truth flies in the face of our current Christianity in todays world. I used to laugh at the Israelites because, man they had horrible faith. It’s true. I would be like.. man, The red sea parted, Water from a rock, Fire by night and smoke by day. God’s presence would come down into the tabernacle…

but time after time the first generation that came out of slavery kept being rebellious… not only to Moses, making their spiritual leaders life absolutely exhausting and stressful .., but to God the father. Every step of the way, God was proving that he was with them and he’d take care of them. That he would protect them…. But YHWH and Moses were taking too long. So one time, Moses went up and was on the mountain for a little longer than the Israelites wanted him to be, so they got is brother Aaron to build a golden calf.

Can you imagine how weird it would be to create something with you’re own hands, and then worship it? Like hear what God’s word says about this in Isaiah 44 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.

Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” 20 Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” Even when God the Father freed them, and gave himself to them, and protected them, they got bored and restless. So, at the first chance they got, they went back to their old idolatrous ways they’d learned in captivity and built an idol..

and never thought to think… man, I’m worship something I have made with my own hands. The Father wanted them to have a blessing, but they made an idol instead… How many times have we done the same thing in our own life? When God wants to bless us, we take matters into our own hands and we create idols in our life. We create red elephants and blue donkeys hoping that one of them will save us from ourselves.

We create documents, and rights and amendments hoping they will provide security. We create traditions, that are good but over time hold people back from exploring faith. We create altars of worship around our families, and our weapons, and our finances, and our politics bringing them sacrifices and unending loyalty in hopes that those things might provide security and direction for our lives. Did you know, that the first few of the 10 commandments are dominated by warnings against idolatry.

And so, we might look at them and laugh… but the truth is, we’re no different. The truth is…. Anything in the world that successfully competes with our love for God is an idol. And the Bible tells us… to stay away from them. Turn with me to I John as I close and find with me chapter 5 and the last verse in this letter… verse 21 it says: 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

ESV Here in the NLT… it says: Dear Children, keep away from anything that might take GOd’s place in your heart. It’s odd that John would finish here…. What’s odd, is that He doesn’t speak of idols in the entire letter. Out of the blue comes this closing sentence with the very word idol that ordinarily means a statue of something that we use to replace God with. “Don’t give in to idols; keep yourselves from idols.” And I wondered..

why would he end this way? Here’s what I think… in chapter 2 verse 15, he write: 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Now, John may have truly meant to keep away from physical idols in our life, WHICH IS TRUE, but I also want to believe he’s saying, keep away from anything that competes against our love for God as an idol. the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life..is not a blessing or a legacy of the Father but is given to us from idolizing the world.” Think of it this way: God wants to give us blessings but our idols take them away.

In a world where God says he is enough, Idols always require more from us. Idols require our time. Idols require maintenance. Idols require endless sacrifice for their appeasement. And in return we get earthly comforts, we get immediate responses. We get satisfaction. And so many times we bring those expectations into church, while expecting the same immediate blessing. God, my kids gave me satisfaction. God, the money I made from my job gave me some nice comforts.

What are you able to give me? Many times I think we’re like a JG Wentworth commercial when we come into church… It’s my blessing and I want it now… Our blessings are meant for us to be inheritances. But also blessings we pass down to the next generation. Think of this… what we inherit as the ultimate enteral blessing in our life, is Jesus. And many of us is giving up that inheritance for worldly idols.

Galatians 4:6 touched my hear this week and I want to share it with you.… “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts, crying abba father… Aww… man… that’s so tender. Do you understand what’s being said here.. Because we are sons, and daughters of God the father…… because we are adopted through our faith in Jesus Christ and heirs to the kingdom. God blesses us with the Spirit of His son, so that our hearts would cry, Daddy…

that’s what abba father means… it means Daddy.. I love you. Does your heart cry ABBA FATHER when you worship? And if not.. could there be idols in your life that prevents you from this kind of relationship? I had one of the many hard father decisions to make this week. As our kids settle into school and begin journeying into sports and extra curricular activities. Chloe got a chance to begin practicing for basketball.

And her mother and I support her in it. This Tuesday they had a clinic to prepare for the upcoming season and the coach offered the middle schoolers to come on Wednesday nights to practice with the High schoolers. And I know from explreince what this kind of practice can do as an athlete… it can increase her awareness, her speed, her strength by practicing and scrimmaging with other girls who are taller and stronger than she is and.

Make her a far better player for this season… but we had a problem. It competed against Wednesday night church for our Family. Wednesday nights are teen nights for Twin Hills. Over the last few weeks we’ve been taking a fully loaded van of teens and children to Crossroads so that they too can worship and learn with those their age. And so, my daughter was a bit disappointed in hearing that we weren’t skipping church for basketball.

But guess what… her two friends that have been coming with us… who they both play basketball as well with Chloe and they both chose to give up basketball, to come to teens with Chloe. As parents, the truth is we want what’s best for our children. We want to protect, to guide and to teach them how to live just like God the father teach us… but as christian Fathers and Mothers, we also know what’s better, and that’s receiving the blessing of Jesus, so we can give the blessing of Jesus to others.

We’re called to share the blessing God gives… but you can only share Jesus if you have Jesus shared with you first, and he’s crying out Abba Father in your heart as you worship. *