Father to the Fatherless - Sunday 18th June

Hey there, this is Jen Wade, part of the core team here at Springs Church. We just want

to say thank you so much for joining us and listening to our podcast. We are praying that

it encourages you and it inspires you. And if you'd like to find out more about Springs

Church, please visit our website springschurch.co.uk. Here's today's message.

Yes you guys, let me just do some minor rearranging over here. Wonderful, there we go. Thanks

Matty, I'll keep that for me. I didn't receive a rosette this morning, but I did receive

a new t-shirt everyone. So there you go, 1 0 0. It is this one, yeah sorry, yeah, just

to be clear. Hello, welcome this afternoon. Hello sweetheart, you okay? This one's about

you. Yeah, hey. So we're part way through, we're actually through at middle of a, we

normally start doing series here at Springs. We enjoy doing series of messages and we're

actually in the middle of a point where we're not doing a series right now. Are you coming

up here? Hello. Do you want to say hello? No, no. And so this afternoon it is my privilege

to be able to speak to you on Father's Day. My name is Ben, for those of you who don't

know me, I'm one of the leaders here at Springs on my day to day job. You will find me in

the classroom at Blanfordmere Primary School over in Kingswinford. And I get to speak

to you this afternoon on the subject of Father's Day. Why am I in the classroom? Generally

it's teaching children, not always. So to introduce myself and my family, I've got my

beautiful wife Jen and our two kids Caleb is in Kids Church and you've already met

Evie this afternoon. So dads of the room, spiritual fathers in the room. I consider

many people in this room to be a spiritual father to me whether they know it or not.

Future fathers. Guys, I've done a bit of research into Father's Day and I think gents, we might

be in some trouble. Some research done in 2014, so I'll admit it's a little bit outdated.

It suggests that in terms of gift giving, Father's Day is 20th in the lists of holidays.

I can't think of 20 holidays. So Father's Day is 20th in the list. Does anyone want

to guess what would be first? Christmas, well done. Second in the poll, anyone want to guess

second? Mother's Day, yes well done. So gents, in case you were wondering, it's Jesus, mothers

and then we're down here somewhere. So just to set the tone this afternoon. I'm also very

aware of my own status within my family and Rich is going to show a little video to show

my status within our family. Yeah, that's real pain there guys. I'm laughing but really

I'm crying inside. It's real pain there. Today I am acutely aware as I bring this message

to you that Father's Day can actually be quite painful for some people and some family units

maybe. People in the room, maybe you come from all different sorts of places today.

Those who have lost their father, those who've had or have a great dad and some all sorts

of family compositions and there are far more qualified fathers in the room than I. There

are people that have been a dad a lot longer than I am. I am painfully aware I've got a

long way to go to being a perfect dad. So this afternoon you'll be glad to know it's

not a TED talk on how to be the perfect dad. In fact our daughter Evie this week actually

has managed to develop a fear of stairs after we took the stair gate off and then Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday she fell down the stairs. So we now, yeah that was stress to me. Ben,

if you say that people are going to think that she's fallen from the top to the bottom.

She didn't do that. She just fell down the final few a couple of times. Anyway, now she'll

just sit at the top of the stairs and shout until someone comes and collects her. I'm

also pretty sure that Caleb has developed a worrying addiction to Mario Kart over the

past few weeks and Nintendo Switch has definitely taken a battering over the past few weeks.

But then there are our real parenting worries as well. Sometimes I'm not there for my kids

when they need me. Sometimes I snap at them. Sometimes when it's hot and humid I just don't

want them around me at the moment. Sometimes I'm tired or distant. And so I'm aware this

afternoon that the quality of my own parenting doesn't dictate my ability to speak to you

this afternoon. It's the quality of the fatherhood that we have experienced from God. And so

this afternoon I want to talk to you about not my own parenting but Father God himself.

Sing to God. Sing in praise of his name. Extol him who rides on the clouds. Rejoice before

him. His name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless. A defender of widows. His God

in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. He leads out the prisoners with

singing. But the rebellious live in a sun scorched land. And that's from Psalm 68 verses

four to six. I'm going to bring up that scripture very, very soon to talk to you again. One

of my favorite theologians in the whole world, you can tell that you might have qualified

as a Christian if you have a favorite theologian. One of my favorite theologians, that's someone

who writes about the Bible and writes about things of God, is a man called A.W. Tozer.

And A.W. Tozer around 100 years ago said this, what comes into our minds when we think about

God is the most important thing about us. So since God chose to call himself Father,

how does our earthly lens, our earthly image of our father, of our dad influence our image

of God? According to a census done in the US in 2019, one in five children live without

a dad in their lives. 21% of children have absent fathers in America. Children growing

up without a father in those environments are 47% more likely to be in poverty than

those with a present father and are 279% more likely to carry weapons and be involved in

drugs. So when we see God, what's our image of him I would ask you this afternoon? Do

we see a disciplinarian? Do we see a harsh, judgmental figure? Do we see God as maybe

distant, selfish or maybe even not there when we really need him? What has your earthly

image of your relationship with your father done to your relationship with God? Maybe

like me, you had or have a great relationship with your earthly dad, with your earthly father.

But without knowing, maybe that can influence your opinion on the fatherhood of God as well.

My dad is a wonderful dad, but I grew up with a great loving and caring dad who is wise,

he's always full of great advice. Don't worry, I wrote this in his card as well. And always

there for us when we were growing up. But when I was encountering God, we've got one

on the loose again. When I was encountering God for myself when I was a teenager, I personally

found it really difficult to connect with God as an all powerful, almighty being, because

that just wasn't the image I had of my dad. My dad was gentle and kind and patient. And

so I struggled to connect with that even though my earthly dad is absolutely incredible. Warped

by such confusion, how do we paint accurate biblical pictures of Father God's goodness

and his faithfulness? When we've been the victim to worldly pictures of fatherhood,

we have a harder time seeing God's promises to us. The Bible articulates the truth, but

in honesty, sometimes that is not an easy thing to believe. The story is true for our

family as well, for my family. For those of you who don't know, my wonderful wife, Jen,

who's just run off with Evie somewhere, she's going again. You may not be aware that Jen

has no relationship with her biological father, as we say in the family. Many years ago, Jen's

mom, Karen, was left with no choice but to leave an abusive relationship. Jen's had no

contact with her dad. Since Karen married Chris in 2001, we're eternally grateful that

he stepped up to the role of dad for her and the family. As far as we're concerned, he

is dad and he is the granddad to our kids. But when coming to faith, Jen always struggled

to connect with the idea that God was her father when her earthly father had been such

a disappointment. It was the phrase that I read from Psalm 68 that helped Jen connect

with God, connected with her soul. It took her faith to a new level. It said, a father

to the fatherless. She had a Holy Spirit revelation that God could fill the gap that was left

during her teen years. There was an ultimate father in heaven who cared for her more than

anything, who loved her more than anything and gave up his life so that she could connect

with him again. Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds,

rejoice before him. His name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless, a defender of

widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. He leads out the prisoners

with singing, but the rebellious live in a sun scorched land. A father to the fatherless.

How wonderful. You see folks, the Bible wasn't originally written in English. The Bible was

written in two languages, but predominantly when we read the Old Testament, we find that

Psalm 68 and the rest of the Old Testament was written in the ancient language of Hebrew,

the Hebrew people who traveled to Israel throughout the Old Testament. And the Old Testament is

their story, the story of these Hebrew people. The word father used here, father of the fatherless

in this language is Abai. And that means father in the most literal sense. It means the father

of an individual. It means a father who lovingly watches over, a figure of love and protection,

but it's ultimately quite a formal meaning of the word. I picture it like a bit like

a stiff British upper lip version of the word father. There, but maybe not intimately close.

Towards the end of the Old Testament, in the book of Jeremiah, we find an absolutely heartbreaking

verse. This really got to me when I was summing, when I was putting this together. And it sums

up just how badly things have gone wrong between us and God. It's in Jeremiah 3 verse 19 to

Jeremiah 3:19–20

20. I myself said, how gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant

land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation. I thought you would call me father

and not turn away from following me, but like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you

Israel have been unfaithful to me, declares the Lord. So the whole of this Old Testament

picture these Hebrew people and it leaves God heartbroken. That just stuck to me. I

thought, I thought you would call me father. Can you sense the disappointment in the tone?

God's people had turned away from him and there was a barrier of something that Christians

call sin. Sin is stuff of the world that God can't connect with. Things like lying or cheating,

God doesn't have a tolerance of those and so God can't connect with them. All this stuff

is just in the way. And it meant that father God could not be the close father that he

always wanted to be. I thought you would call me father. I thought you would call me father.

The story doesn't end there. The Jesus came to earth. Jesus came to give us life and the

Bible says life to its fullness. Jesus came to wash us clean, to make us new and to connect

us to father again. In fact, he came to redefine our image of father. Jesus actually used a

different word for father than ab or abai as you'd find in the Old Testament. In fact,

the New Testament was written in the language of Greek when it was written down a couple

of hundred years after the events or thousands of years, no, a hundred years after the events.

The words were written in Greek but those wouldn't have been the words that people spoke

at the time. Jesus didn't speak in Greek. Jesus was alive during the Roman reign in Israel

2000 years ago. Jesus would have spoken in a language called Aramaic. When we look at

this we find some really beautiful things here. Jesus' word for father has actually

ultimately become more famous as a Swedish pop group than what it was originally used

for. Does anyone know what it is? Abba, well done. The Aramaic word that Jesus repeatedly

used for father was Abba. Now, Linz, I'm not going to ask you to come up and do your best

dancing queen impression although we did have a little Abba playing band practice earlier.

Thankfully, that hasn't made the cut. So why Abba? Why was this word Abba used by Jesus?

How did that come into language? Well, it was actually one of the first words taught

to young Jewish babies. It's a bit like when babies babble. And so the baby's first words

in that culture would have been Imma meaning mama and Abba meaning dada or daddy. And Jesus

didn't call God his father, his Abba like a distant overbearing father. He called him

daddy. Why? Daddy is deeply personal, deeply close, a relationship that nobody else can

recreate. Is it father or daddy who cuddles his children to sleep at night? Is it father

or daddy who reads the bedtime story? Is it father or daddy who jumps in the paddling

pool and makes a fool of himself just to make his kids laugh? Is it father or daddy who

comforts their children when they've fallen over and hurt their knee? Is it father or

daddy that cries with their children when they've messed up or they've been deeply

hurt or disappointed? Is it father or daddy who lovingly guides his children and steers

them on the right path? I reckon God's briefing to Jesus before he came to earth was, make

sure they call me father, not Abba, not overbearing distant father. Make sure they call me Abba.

Make sure they call me daddy. You see, it's really interesting because if you study all

the other Jewish literature that was created around the same time as Jesus was speaking,

nowhere in this devotional literature is the word Abba ever used as a way of addressing

God. And yet in Jesus' teaching, the word Abba was normal. It was the norm. Abba as

a translation actually appears, the Aramaic word changed into the Greek word because that's

what the New Testament was written in. It appears three times in the New Testament.

Romans 8 verses 15 to 16, the spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live

Romans 8:15–16

in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption into sonship.

And by him we cry, Abba, father. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we

are God's children. How wonderful. Galatians 4 verses 6 to 7 also uses this word. Because

Galatians 4:6–7

you are his sons, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls

out Abba, father. So we have this in our very soul. It says this wonderful in verse 7, you

are no longer a slave but God's child. And since you are his child, thanks mate, God

also made you an heir. Since you are his child, God also made you an heir. All because within

our spirit there is a cry of Abba, father. And then I absolutely, I was bowled over when

I found this verse. Mark 14 verses 35 to 36. Going a little farther, he, that means Jesus,

Mark 14:35–36

fell to the ground and prayed that if it was possible for the hour might pass from him.

Abba, father, he said, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Not what I

will, but what you will. On its own, that verse sounds a little bit odd. To give you

the context of this verse, these are the words that Jesus says the night before he is crucified.

Jesus is about to be taken to be crucified and brutally murdered despite doing nothing

wrong. Jesus took some disciples to a garden to go and pray because he felt like he needed

to connect with his Abba, father, with his dad. Jesus retreats by himself and in his

moment of desperation, his moment of despair, he says, Abba, father, everything is possible

for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will. In this moment,

Jesus is shouting out, dad, I can't do this. He's shouting out, dad, I need you. Dad, make

it stop. He's so aware of the pain and the suffering that he is about to experience that

he no longer cries out to father God. He no longer cries out to God Almighty. He cries

out, dad, make it stop. Jesus is trying to help you and me know a father who loves us

and will do us no harm. A father who will not beat us or abandon us, but will encircle

us in his arms and let us feel his love. A father who will not let you go. Jesus wants

to reintroduce you to his father, to your father, so that you might be whole spiritually

and emotionally. Reclaim your birthright this afternoon to know and enjoy the love of Abba,

father, as your father. The next time that's recorded in the Bible that Jesus would speak

to his father directly, Jesus didn't use the word Abba. The next time Jesus spoke to his

father was as he died on a cross for our sins. Mark 15 says this. At noon, darkness came

over the land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried

out in a loud voice, Elohi, Elohi, Lama sabachthi, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken

me? And verse 37 says this, with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. Jesus isn't crying

out daddy anymore. He's not crying out Abba, father, in this moment. He cried out Elohi,

meaning God. Why? Well, this was the moment that Jesus sacrificed himself for us. He took

everything that we've ever done, every sin we've ever committed and ever will commit,

and he nailed it onto him on the cross. He took our punishment, he took our pain, he

took the stuff that God could not connect with and he moved it aside, he destroyed it.

Why did Jesus cry out saying that God had abandoned him? Why my God, have you forsaken

me? In that moment, Jesus felt the full weight of what life without God would be. He felt

our sin and he felt our shame. In fact, the Bible says he didn't just feel it, he bore

it and he took it. In that moment, our understanding of father God is made whole through his son.

Our understanding of Abba father is made whole through the son, Jesus. 1 Peter 2 verse 24

1 Peter 2:24

says this, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to

sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. In that moment, God

couldn't even look at his own son because he looked like our sin. He looked like the

stuff that he couldn't connect with. He looked like everything that God stood against. He

looked like a person who couldn't connect with his father. And then Jesus died, verse

37 says. But I am so grateful for verse 38. Mark 15 verse 38 says, the second that Jesus

Mark 15:38

breathed his last, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. But hang

on a minute, Jesus wasn't in the temple. Jesus was on a hill outside of town nailed

to a cross. How can a temple that's miles away in the middle of Jerusalem, how can a

curtain tear there the moment that Jesus died? See in the Old Testament, the presence of

God was hidden behind this curtain and only certain people were allowed to enter. The

second that Jesus died, father God, daddy God, dad was able to reconnect with his people

again. No longer was he the distant father of the Old Testament who was struggling to

connect with his people. He was dad all over again. Daddy, able to pick us up when we fall.

Dad, able to hold us when we cry. Dad, able to celebrate our successes, shower us with

gifts. Dad, who's here to hold our hand when anxiety cripples us. And dad, who's here to

pick us up and carry us when we're too scared to move. Dad, ready to die for us, time and

time again. You see, we only experience the fullness of abba father through the sacrifice

of his son. Only through the son can we have a full understanding of abba dad, father God.

John 14, verse six to 10 says this, Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth and the

life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my

father as well. From now on you do know him and you have seen him. And Philip, who was

one of the disciples said, Lord, show us the father and that you will be enough for us.

Jesus answered, don't you know me Philip? Even after I have been among you for such

a long time, anyone who has seen the father, anyone who has seen me has seen the father.

How can you say show us the father? Don't you believe I am in the father and the father

is in me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. Rather it is the

father living in me who is doing his work. I love verse six there. It says, I am the

way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you really

know me, you will know my father as well. If you really know me, you will know my father

as well. The fullness of father God, the fullness of dad is known within the sacrifice of the

son. How wonderful. I am going to pray a couple of prayers shortly and Pete and the band

are going to lead us in some response to God. Maybe you feel right now that in your heart

you just want to sing out a song to him. Thank him for who he is as a good, good father.

Before I do that, it would be remiss of me to not give you an opportunity to get to know

this father yourself. This father God is available for you right now. And maybe you have never

connected with him before. Maybe you are sitting here thinking, gosh, I want to know this guy

a bit more. I want to know father God. I want to know Jesus. I want to explore this thing

called faith if I can. The good news is this afternoon you absolutely can. I am going to

pray a prayer for you right now. If this is for you, I would love you to say this in your

heart. And then at the end, after I finish the prayer, I would ask everyone to keep their

heads still bowed. And if this prayer is for you and if you have said it in your heart,

you can look up at me and I will be able to come and see you later on and maybe give you

a Bible and have a little bit of a chat. This is for people who are going to connect with

God for the very first time. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the things that you have done

in my life that I didn't even know about. Lord, thank you that you love me. Thank you

that you are my Abba Father. Not distant, not judgmental, not overbearing, but you are

my dad and you are the best dad I could ever hope for. Lord, please as I ask you now, please

come into my life. I am sorry that I have done things that may be against you. I am

sorry that I have done things that I didn't even know were against you. Lord, please come

and help me with that. Please come and live in my heart and come and save me. In your

name. Amen. And as we keep our heads just bowed for a second, if you said that prayer

in your heart this afternoon, I would want you to do a really, really brave thing and

just look up and make eye contact with me. That would be absolutely wonderful. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Lord. For the rest of us, Lord, I just pray that we would set in our

hearts Father God again. Our good Father who loves us, who gave his Son up for us. Whoever

comes to the Father comes through me, Jesus said. Lord, we put you first in our lives

again. We refuse to let our images, our thoughts of earthly fatherhood be put on top of our

image of you. Lord, we cast that away and we have an image of you in our minds as our

dad, as daddy. Lord, we love you. In your name. Amen.

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God bless.