SUNDAY, June 21, 2009                                                       READ: 2 Samuel 7: 1 16; Psalm 103: 1 – 22; Malachi 4: 6                                                                                                        

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY 2009

MEMORIZE: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”         Malachi 4: 5, 6

Being a father is an awesome responsibility. It is hardly the dignified position which it once was. It is therefore very appropriate for the efforts to celebrate Father’s Day is made. A friend of mine sent a greeting to me which include these words: “By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who already thinks he is wrong.” Being father and fathering have never been easy.

With the exception of Adam, Eve and Jesus of Nazareth, every human being who has come upon this earth has had a father. Each of us, your father included, has been infected by Adam’s sin, with the tendency which makes us fall short of God’s original intent and to go off and do our own thing. Ever since Adam actually acted in disobedience to God’s command, and went astray, every human being has gone astray. God promised, when He spoke to the serpent (cf. Genesis 3: 15), to send one, the seed of the woman, to provide redemption and life, and bring us back to Him. God has been showing us that each of us is an object of His grace (cf. Ephesians 2: 7). Not one of us has been able to live a life good enough to qualify us to be considered good enough in God’s eyes, to get us into His Heaven. Throughout the pages of the Scriptures, God has been holding up the lives of men who were fathers, showing that each one of them failed, just like Adam did. It seems as if fathers fail more, and so, must rely on God’s grace to succeed. Human fathers are sinners, yet we are to model God’s fathering to our offspring. We fail God often, but can discover, like Abram did, that God is not finished with us yet. I fail my own children so often, and I know that it is by God’s grace that they manage to find any delight in me.

Here in our text, 2 Samuel 7: 1 – 16 and Psalm 103: 13, Malachi 4: 6, we are able to see how God, the Father, has committed Himself to let human fathers be His servants in the lives of their children, and associates Himself with them. In 2 Samuel 7: 12 – 14, we see how God, in speaking to David about his son who was going to succeed him as king of Israel, used the occasion to make a veiled reference to His Son, who would come into the world through the line of David. In v. 14, God said He would be His Father (cf. Ephesians 3: 14). In Psalm 103: 13, God is associated with human fathers in their fathering of their children. As Father, God: a). regards those who fear Him with pity. He knows our weakness; b). disciplines His children whom He loves (cf. Hebrews 12: 3 – 9); c) will not abandon His children. These are the three core responsibilities of fathering, knowing who we are, we are: 1). to help of children to face the realities of life as it is; 2). to train them in the way that they should go (cf. Deuteronomy 6: 1-9; Proverbs 22: 6); 3). to hang in there with our offspring, no matter how difficult it becomes for us. Do not give up on being there for them. The devil hates it when fathers remain involved, so, he bring everything he can get fathers to become absent and uninvolved. In Malachi 4: 6, God has indicated to us that He is not finished with fathers and fathering.

Most of us fathers have messed up badly. On this Fathers’ Day, we ought to come to realize that God is not finished with us yet and fall on our faces before Him. We can, and ought to recommit ourselves to God and to the task which He has given to us. It is never too late to do the right thing. Turn to God today and have a blessed Fathers’ Day 2009!

PRAY:LORD, God Almighty, You are the God and Father of our LORD, Jesus Christ. You are our Father in Heaven. On this day that we honor our human fathers, I want to affirm my faith in You. Thank You for giving me a father. Thank You for the forgiveness of sins. Thank You for eternal life. I bless You, in Jesus’ strong name. Amen.