The Father Loves You! - John 14:23

The Father Loves You!

August 26, 2012
John 14:23

Introduction

• David Simmons, who used to be a cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys, tells about his childhood home. His father, a military man, was extremely demanding, rarely saying a kind word, always pushing him with harsh criticism to do better. When Dave was a little boy, his dad gave him a bicycle, unassembled, with the command that he put it together. After Dave struggled to the point of tears with the difficult instructions and many parts, his father said, "I knew you couldn't do it." Then he assembled it for him. When Dave played football in high school, his father was unrelenting in his criticisms. "Most boys got butterflies in the stomach before the game; I got them afterwards. Facing my father was more stressful than facing any opposing team." By the time he entered college, Dave hated his father and his harsh discipline. He chose to play football at the University of Georgia because its campus was further from home than any school that offered him a scholarship.
• Despite the hateful feelings he had for his father, Dave began to build a bridge to his dad. Christ had come into his life during college years, and it was God's love that made him turn to his father. During visits home he stimulated conversation with him and listened with interest to what his father had to say. He learned for the first time what his grandfather had been like--a tough lumberjack known for his quick temper. Once he destroyed a pickup truck with a sledgehammer because it wouldn't start, and he often beat his son. This new awareness affected Dave dramatically. "Knowing about my father's upbringing not only made me more sympathetic for him, but it helped me see that, under the circumstances, he might have done much worse. By the time he died, I can honestly say we were friends." - Charles Sell, Unfinished Business, Multnomah, 1989, p. 171ff.
• I wonder how many of us have similar stories to tell.
• I know I do
• The experience we had with our physical dad often impacts the relationship we have with our heavenly dad
• It can cause us to have a picture of the Father which is remote, distant, maybe even unapproachable.
• Jesus seems so much closer
• Today we are going to take a look at how the Father loves us

The Father pursues us

• John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him …”
• This means that for us to accept Jesus, for us to receive healing and transformation from him, means that the Father first initiated this relationship
• 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us”
• The Father initiates our love relationship with God.
• Sometimes we think that it was our choice, and yes, it was our choice to accept God’s love for us
• But the desire to accept God’s love, in itself comes from God
• Romans 2:4 “… the goodness of God leads you to repentance” KJV
• The NIV says “God’s kindness leads you to repentance”
• What does this mean in practical terms?
• The Father cares so much about us that he overwhelms us with his love
• I think overwhelming is the only word to describe God’s love for us
• His love blows me away, it is incomprehensible to me
• He is involved in our life from A to Z, he watches over us, he waits for the perfect time to introduce his Son to us
• We have messed up so much, so often that you would think he would have given up on us long ago
• But he doesn’t give up, he pursues us unrelentingly
• He waits for the perfect moment to invite us to have a relationship with him
• Often it is when we or others have brought us to the deepest point of our lives
• Then he sends someone to show us the love of God, and introduces us to Jesus
• It is the Father’s love that draws us to him
• Hosea 11:4 “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.”
• This is figurative language, but it gives a picture of a Father who is sensitive, loving, doing good, restoring what has been broken by the pains of life, coming down to our level to nurture us like a little child

The Father is close

• In the Old Testament we often read about the way the Holy Spirit would affect people
• The words used are often “the Spirit of the Lord came upon them” or “the Spirit of God rested upon them”
• In Psalm 139 we recognize that God is omni-present – he is everywhere
• Psalm 139:7-10 “Where can I go from your Spirit …”
• But in the New Testament, the Father becomes incredibly close to us
• John 14:10 – Jesus and the Father are one, inseparable, while still retaining their personal identity
• John 14:23 – if we love Jesus, we will live the way he taught, and we will become like him
• The Father and Jesus will then come and make their home with us
• They are Spirit, and they dwell in that part of us which is spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
• How close is that! The Father loves us so much that he comes to dwell right inside us!
• It’s like a little child snuggling up close to us as a parent. Some of my most precious memories have been when my grand-daughter Kelilah nestled up close to me on the couch, when my other grand-daughter Jenna placed her hand in mine as we went for a walk when she was little
• The Father gets so close to us that nothing can separate us
• The Father loves us so much!

Conclusion

• This Father who loves us so much, sent Jesus, with whom he was one, to come as a human baby, and ultimately die so that we could be forgiven and have a close relationship with him
• This father desires to be close to everyone of us
• There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.” On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. - Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, p. 13.

Ministry

• If you would like prayer today to restore the closeness of the relationship with your heavenly Father as he desires for you, please come forward for prayer.
• Or if you have other things for which you would like prayer, please feel free to come forward as well