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

Why is it so hard to let it go? Matt 18:21-35

Why is it so hard to let it go?

August 19, 2012
Matthew 18:21-35

Introduction

• Have you ever had someone who really hurt you?
• Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before.
• But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident. "Don't you remember it?" her friend asked. "No," came Barton's reply, "I distinctly remember forgetting it." - Luis Palau, Experiencing God's Forgiveness, Multnomah Press, 1985.
• Some things we can take in our stride, are relatively easy to deal with
• Other things that happen go deeper, to the core of our being
• Sometimes we find it hard to let it go
• I use that phrase, letting it go, because as Christians we know the standard is that we must forgive
• If asked if we have forgiven so and so, we will say yes, I have forgiven them
• But then we often add, but I will never forget what he did to me
• It is this aspect of letting it go, that I want to discuss this morning

Reading

• Matthew 18:21-35

Why the parable?

• Peter wanted to have a standard as to how often he should forgive a particular brother
• How many of us have people who repeatedly hurt us in the same manner
• One we can forgive. The second time is harder, the third time we are thinking, this person doesn’t really care, and we start to build a scorecard for this person
• Peter was thinking he had it covered, if he forgave his brother 7 times
• Jesus’ response is that it is way more, astronomically more
• Seventy times seven, is 490 times
• There are few people whom I have had to forgive so many times
• Jesus intentionally gave an huge number, because he doesn’t want us to keep a scorecard

Forgiveness is a state of mind

• We sometimes think that forgiveness is an action that we take
• And yes, it is an action
• But things have to go beyond just the words, I forgive you
• Forgiveness comes from the heart
• What things stand in the way of forgiveness
• 1. Entitlement
  • we may feel that it would be unfair if this person were to get away with murder, hopefully not literally
  • we are entitled to have a peaceful copacetic life, including our relationship with this person(means agreeable, all right, alright, satisfactory, ducky, fine, good, hunky-dory, jake [slang], OK (or okay), palatable
  • we may feel because he said or did something hurtful, I am entitled to his asking for forgiveness
  • but forgiveness is a state of heart (verse 35)
  • We are not entitled to anything except separation from God
  • It is by grace alone, that we may be forgiven
  • We can’t earn it, it is God’s free gift, through Jesus
• 2. Pride
  • pride comes from having an exalted view of ourselves
  • pride was Satan’s downfall
  • he got an idea that he was stronger and better than God
  • But God set him right in that idea, he knows God is in charge, and Jesus said even the demons believe and tremble!
  • When we have a big head, thinking we know it all, and we have it right, and the other person has it wrong, that’s the time to dial down our attitude
  • Col 3:12-15
  • We have been called to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient
  • Let peace reign in our hearts!
• 3. Our desire to get even
  • “The mother ran into the bedroom when she heard her seven-year-old son scream. She found his two-year-old sister pulling his hair.
  • She gently released the little girl’s grip and said comfortingly to the boy, "There, there. She didn’t mean it. She doesn’t know that hurts." He nodded his acknowledgement, and she left the room.
  • As she started down the hall the little girl screamed. Rushing back in, she asked, "What happened?"
  • The little boy replied, "She knows now." - [source: www.preachingtoday.com]
  • We by nature want to get even
  • But Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:38-39 to turn the other cheek.
  • This means we do not retaliate in kind
  • Rom 12:17-21 – Instead, bless your enemy, overcome evil by doing good to him
• 4. Forgetting how much God has forgiven us
  • Sometimes we forget the depths from which we have come, and now think of ourselves a better than the other
  • When we forget what Jesus has done for us, we may find it hard to forgive another
  • We can become blasé about our relationship with Jesus
  • God no longer is vibrant and alive in our life
  • We take our own forgiveness for granted, and so don’t see a need to forgive someone else, as we ourselves have been forgiven.
  • This servant in Matthew 18, forgot where he had come from
  • He did not recognize that he previously was in a worse state than his friend
  • And so he exacts vengeance, and wants his pound of flesh
  • Jesus’ big point was, if we don’t forgive the other person, from our heart, he won’t forgive us.
  • Matt 6:14-15 – if we don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive us

Conclusion

• General Oglethorpe once said to John Wesley, "I never forgive and I never forget." To which Wesley replied, "Then, Sir, I hope you never sin." - Unknown.
• Are we someone who finds it hard to forgive?
• We need to learn to forgive completely, from the heart
• Sometimes it is hard to squeeze the words out
• But until we forgive from the heart, we are still under judgment
• Let peace be in your family
• Let peace reign in your relationships
• Let peace be in this house.