Happy Father's Day!!!

My Earthly Dad! (Maybe not the best pic)

I happen to like Father's Day. I think it meshes with the Bible to have days dedicated to honoring fathers and mothers (Eph. 6.1-3). This seems appropriate. I even think it has the ability to teach great theology, not just that human fathers deserve honor, but that This Certain Other Father really deserves honor. After all, if we will honor our earthly fathers, how much more should we honor our Heavenly Father Who created, sustains, provides for us, encourages us, loves us, forgives us, heals us, saves us, listens to us, cares about us, strengthens us, calls us, sends us, among other things like sending Jesus to die for us, HIS OWN SON, and the Holy Spirit, TO LIVE IN US! Yeah, I think Father's Day is a great idea, because it helps point us towards some men who deserve honor because of the Father's grace on them His sons, but towards the Heavenly Father Who DESERVES HONOR. So, we Christians should honor our Father in Heaven first, our father on earth second, and fathers on earth in general. It's true, by honoring our fathers on earth, we set a precedent for honoring fathers, of which God the Father is the Prototype. By honoring fathers, we train ourselves individually and as a community (this is why churches should celebrate it) to honor fathers, our fathers, and the Father. So, this is my call to do that. This means we pastors should (if we preached a Mother's Day sermon) preach a Father's Day sermon, one that celebrates fathers and honors them.

But some of you who read this may not have a earthly father, and some of you may not have God as your Heavenly Father, but at least the last half can change. God wants to be your Heavenly Father. And He will be a better dad than you could have ever had. There is no compare. He will be the Father you never had, even if you had a dad. He is the Perfect Dad, so even if He blessed you with a good dad, you've never had a dad like God, a dad who perfect and never bad. Yet, others of you may have had bad dads, and there is little worse, and others may have had no dad--for you, God wants to be the Dad you never had, that is He wants to be your Real and Forever Dad! You probably are not so sure how to feel about that, but I'll tell you from the inside, He is the Best Dad ever, I even call Him Daddy! He loves so powerfully that He gave His Only Son to die for everyone who will trust Him to be their God and Dad, so that He could be our Perfect Dad (John 3.16). But He also loves so powerfully that whoever trust in His Son He pours His Holy Spirit into so that we feel loved and loved and loved!

So if you will just trust that God is Your Heavenly Dad, Who sent His Only Son to die in your place for your mistakes and for breaking His rules (He is still a dad, after all, so there had to be a punishment), and if you trust that He will send His Holy Spirit into you and make you feel so loved its crazy, and if you commit to showing that He is your dad by living by the rules of His House, then BOOM! You're part of the Family, Bro/Sis!

If you just became a part of the family for the first time, please let me know, so I can show you around the house, introduce you to some of the rest of the family, and teach you the groundrules for the family! Love ya, new bro/sis!

AND TO MY HEAVENLY FATHER, BECAUSE OF HIS GRACE and LOVE and PLAN...
YOU ROCK, ABBA!!! I LOVE YOU!!! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

And to my earthly father, who's a great dad and always says he loves me,
Thanks, Dad! I love you! !!Happy Father's Day!!