Canton South Church of the Nazarene - Weekly Guide 12/14/08
He will be Called: Everlasting Father
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
Welcome: we're glad you have joined us for worship today. I believe God has something special for you and I want you to set aside all other things going on and focus on him and maybe you might leave here a transformed person. You might leave the person you want to be, with a better image of God.
EARTHLY FATHER A FATHER WHO IS NEVER SATISFIED A
FATHER WHO IS ALWAYS ANGRY A FATHER WHO IS SELDOM THERE
As we get started I invite for you to take your worship folder out and look at your GPS. On the way there you might see a friendship in registration card. Please ?ll these out. Regular Attendees it is just as important for you to ?ll this out each week. Guest we just want to be able to make contact with you. So please ?ll these out and you can place them in the offering plate. If you have a prayer need please put it on there. I take these seriously and use them during the week to pray for each person not just needs. The GPS is another tool we use. On the back you will ?nd a small group idea. If you do not have a small group or are interested see Pastor Jimmy.
Small groups are great. On the front side you will see sermon note. Write down how god is speaking to you today. Do this so you can remember it when you leave. It is great to be here today. I am glad to see each of you here. We are a special time of year of waiting for Christ to be born. I have to say who here has felt rushed during December. I have but this year I have taken great strides to just wait and celebrate Advent. Kristi was telling me how close Christmas is coming and I manlike it seems like a long way off. So my experiment to make Christmas more meaningful seems to be working. And so I say to you today happy advent! But in this special time we are in a teaching series on his name will be called. This is really cool stuff. This one verse in the book of Isaiah we have been looking at it for the past couple of weeks. Pastor Jimmy told us about God as the wonderful counselor. You know the only thing he would tell me is he tried to make an illustration out of cows I am not sure what that is about. But we learned that Jesus' name would be wonderful counselor, and last week, we had Hunter and hunter talked about calling God names, and one name for Jesus is mighty God. I really appreciated hunter's perspective on calling god names and how we can limit God by doing that. And that is one reason in our passage we have 4 names given to describe who Jesus is. Now remember we read Isaiah through our Christian ?lter. And we assign Jesus this role we know that this is who Isaiah was talking about. And I will not go into the deep exegesis about Isaiah and whom he is writing too and all those things that go on. But through our Christian ?lter we see that is who Isaiah was pointing to and today we get to learn about Jesus as the everlasting father. I must admit this is a difficult one. And it is difficult for the reasons hunter talked about last week. When we label God as something we limit him. I want you to know I had a great father, but he had his down falls too. If I were to view the everlasting father through the ?lter of my earthly father God would be limited and I would not get a real good picture of God. For some people this is more difficult than others.
I know People who father left them, viewing god as father is not a pleasant thing and people whose father was tragically ripped from them by death viewing God as father would be hard and people who were abused have a hard time ever seeing God as father. But Jesus is our everlasting father. Now I have this friend and she became a people pleaser because of her father. Her father and this is teaching point one so you may want to write this down. Her father was never satis?ed. So she started at an early age trying to please him and do things. She ?nally realized at her college graduation that we would never be satis?ed. You see she was the ?rst in her family to go to college she almost had a 4.0 she had this dream that after graduation she would see here family and her father would be leading them and he would say. I am so proud of you. The day came and she almost had a 4.0, just like her dream she was looking in the crowd and saw her father leading the family. And when he got there he said well I guess were done with this let go. She was crushed. All her pleasing would never satisfy her father. And if she looks at God in that same way she would not get a good picture of God. Another friend told me that his father was always angry teaching point two and one day he ?nally asked him why. You see my friend had accepted Christ and became a Christ follower living a transformed life. His father knew this. So one day they had the opportunity to talk and he asks why. His father then told about how his father beat him, he told about all these things that happened in his life. Horrible things. He told about how he was called one day and his mother had been murdered by her boyfriend and then he turned the gun on himself. My friend's day said if your god so loves where was he. And the anger distorted his view of God. My friend really did not know what to say. I have already mentioned the absentee father and maybe that was the father some of you had. You see all these things keep us from seeing the true everlasting father and they hinder us and if we could for just a moment set aside what and how we think about fathers and learn about what a father is real like our lives could be transformed. If you can relate to any of these and this is just three speci?c ones I am sure there are other if you can relate and these earthly father lenses are keeping you from the everlasting father I am going to ask as hard as this is set them aside for just a few moment and learn about the everlasting father and I promise if you really set aside those earthly father things you like will be transformed.
EVERLASTING FATHER OUR EVERLASTING FATHER IS COMPASSIONATE "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love." Psalm 103:8 'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will ?nd rest for your souls.'Matthew 11:28-29
Because our everlasting father he is compassionate. Point one under everlasting father compassionate. Listen to this verse write down Psalm 103:8. Listen to this. The lord. I am going to ask this question don't raise your hands, but who wants a father like that. I think we all can raise our hands. Compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. You see people with an anger ?lter just see oh god was always punishing those people in the bible. But really he was slow to anger and he loved them and wanted the best for them. Jesus in Matthew 11:28-29 says. When life has you beaten down when you can't go on look, look, Jesus our everlasting father will give you rest. I have to say if nothing else realizes the compassion our everlasting father has for you. Realize Jesus wants to give you rest from all the hardships of life. Realize that you don't have to do it alone it is not all on your shoulders. Jesus wants to carry you burdens. For those of you who are parents you will get this more and still I think everyone can understand this. I am going to tell you a story. You might ?inch. When we lived in Michigan so this is like wow, 17 years ago. My brother worked on this bike and got it ?xed the chain kept falling off. Well he took it for a test ride. He wanted to check to see if the chain was tight enough reached
down and you can just guess what happened ran his ?ngers through the sprocket. I am in the backyard and I hear this screaming. My other brother comes running, my dad goes running after him and carried my brother into the house. And he is just screaming and freaking out. My dad never let go of him and was like it is ok, still holding him cleaned his hand up and despite the blood and the pain his hand was ?ne, but you see I saw my dad holding him and not letting go and calming him. You see these verses are like that when we come screaming and yelling and we are all bloodied up and broken hurt, God our everlasting father is there holding us telling us calm down it is going to be ok and does not let go of us. My friends that is what compassion really is.
OUR EVERLASTING FATHER IS CARING.
'For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' Jeremiah 29:11
you could also call it deep seated caring. Our next point is our everlasting father is caring. Jeremiah
29:11 says. God does not want to harm us God does not want to make life hard. He has plans to prosper you know what does prosper mean. God has a hope and a future for you even when you don't. Our everlasting father cares about you. He is caring. He wants more for you than you even want for yourself. It is true it is right here in the bible. Are your selling yourself short? Has anyone ever told you, you are not good enough smart enough or capable enough. Hey it does not matter because our everlasting father cares for you and has a plan to prosper you and gives you a hope and a future. He cares so much for you that our everlasting father believes in you more than you believe in yourself. He is our ultimate supporter. When you are hurting he cares, when you are in need he cares. His plan for you is not misery. When I was in college this lady came a spoke at chapel and I was like what did she just say. I could not believe it. she was like God caused me to be divorced, and god caused this and god caused that and all these bad things in my life were weaving me and one day I found out that when you ?ipped the thing over you see a beautiful tapestry that god had woven. I know what she was trying to say but she was really messed up god did not cause any of those bad things to happen. No matter the plan God would not harm you. He may allow you to be tested to build your strength in him. But she had it wrong and if bet if I were able to talk with her she had a bad image of god because of her father she projected her father onto God. I am glad that one day she was set free and could see that her life was not the mess she thought it was and she could still do great things and God had those things laid out for her, but my heart was saddened when I heard her say god caused her harm. God loves you guy and he wants you to live transform lives that re?ect the love he has for us.
OUR EVERLASTING FATHER IS ALWAYS THERE "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5
and I want to tell you this point three. Our everlasting father is always there. Hebrews god says, never will I leave you never will I forsake you. I am telling you, you can walk away from God but god does not walk away from you. he loves you that much. No matter what you do god is there welcoming you back into his arms. His arms of compassion, his arms of caring, his arms are always there. My friends' dad I told you about. Today he is a Christ follower. I really don't know how. I mean if you knew the horrible things he was living with the anger, the disappointment, the hurt. And just wanted to know where god was. That was all because he was seeing God as a earthly father and not a everlasting heavenly father. Somehow he was able to set all that aside and see God for who he is. if you have strayed, if you have judged god based on what your earthly father experiences were. I ask you today. Set aside all that other stuff and realize god is right here waiting for you. His name will be called everlasting father because we need a father who is compassionate, caring, and always
There. Even when life does not make sense God is there helping you along. I am telling you, you won't be sorry. Your life will be transformed and you know the great part is your relationship with him will be better, and your relationship with other people will be better. Maybe you want some more time to think about this or maybe you are having trouble letting go and putting aside this image that keeps you from seeing god the way you need to see him. God is always there for you no matter what no matter what happens. But don't put it off. Let him start healing you today right now.
Life Group Questions
1. In what ways have you projected the image of your earthly father onto your Everlasting Father?
2. If so, has that hindered your relationship with Jesus in any way?
3. How is your Everlasting Father different than your earthly father?
4. How does seeing God more clearly affect your relationship with Him?