HOW TO HONOR OUR HEAVENLY FATHER
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 18, 2023 under 2023 |
Bethany Bible Church Father’s Day Sermon Message; June 18, 2023 from Ephesians 4:25
Theme: We honor our heavenly Father’s love for us by how we receive what He has done for us.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:13-21).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; this is a passage that turns our attention to the greatest Father of all—God, our heavenly Father. And what’s more, it tells us something that we need to know on Father’s Day. It tells us the best way to honor Him for all He has done for us as our Father.
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Now; the apostle Peter wrote these words after having declared that—for those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ—God truly is our Father. In 1 Peter 1:3, he wrote;
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead … (1 Peter 1:3).
What a clear declaration! He has “begotten us again” through faith in Jesus’ cross. Whoever else should be honored as our father on earth, He is most assuredly our Father most of all. Jesus Himself even confirmed this to us. After He was raised from the dead, He made this declaration with respect to His disciples: “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God” (John 20:17). Through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross—and through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead—God the Father has caused us to be “born again”. He has now adopted us fully as His own sons and daughters. In Christ, we may now claim Him—in every sense—to be our Father.
And what’s more, the apostle Peter went on to explain to us how much our heavenly Father has now given us. He has poured infinite blessings upon us through Jesus. We’re told, in verses 4-9, that we have been begotten again
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls (vv. 4-9).
God the Father has not only begotten us through faith in His Son; but He has also given us the very inheritance of His Son, and has secured us for the eternal glory of His Son. And I hope you appreciate this, dear brothers and sisters. It may not have been—in the earthly sense—that we had ‘the most perfect father there ever was’ when we were growing up. But we do now!
And that brings us to this day—a day in which we show loving appreciation for our fathers. How do you and I respond to our heavenly Father? How do we show our gratitude to Him; and honor His fatherly love to us as we should? One of the great values of this morning’s passage is that it shows us how we should show our appreciation for the goodness He has poured out upon us in His Son Jesus.
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Now; have you ever gone back to think about some of the gifts you’ve given to your earthly father on Father’s Day? When I think back on some of my feeble attempts to honor my father, I suppose that some of the attempts were good. But some of them were … well … not so good. He was always gracious about them; but some of them now make me wonder what in the world I was thinking.
I suppose that a father always appreciates a gift of some kind on Father’s Day. But what do you give to God the Father—the greatest Father of them all? How do you adequately say ‘thank you’ to Him for washing you clean from all your sins by the blood of Jesus? How do you thank Him for saving you from eternal doom and giving you eternal life? How do you thank Him for adopting you and making you His own child? How do you thank Him for sharing with you the very inheritance of Jesus Himself—an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, and reserved in heaven for you?
Really, the only thing you and I can do to show Him our thanks to God our Father—the only ‘Father’s Day gift’ that would please Him—would be to gratefully receive what He has done for us. I think here of what it says in Psalm 116:12-14;
What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?
I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people (Psalm 116:12-14).
That’s the best way to thank God our Father for saving us—to simply and sincerely ‘take up’ what He has given us through Jesus His Son and commit ourselves to His grace toward us. And I suggest to you that that’s what we find in our passage—in 1 Peter 1:13-21. In it, the apostle Peter shows us that we best honor our heavenly Father’s love for us by how we receive what He has done for us.
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Now; I find in this passage five ways that we’re to honor our heavenly Father’s love toward us. And the first is found in verse 13. Peter writes; “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ …”
This teaches us that we honor our Father’s love for us by …
1. PLACING OUR HOPE WHOLEHEARTEDLY IN THE GLORIOUS FUTURE HE HAS FOR US.
Do you notice how this passage begins? Peter wrote “Therefore …”; and that points our attention back to the rich and glorious inheritance that the Father has for us in heaven. It’s “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time …” And we’re to live our lives in the bright hope of that sure and certain inheritance.
There are a couple of things we’re to do with respect to that hope. Peter tells us first to ‘gird up the loins’ of our minds. In ancient times, whenever someone was about to engage in strenuous work, they would tuck the lower portion of their outer garment up into their belt—so that their limbs could be free and unencumbered. And this was what we’re to do with respect to our thinking about the future inheritance that the Father has for us. To place our full hope in God’s future for us—while we’re living in this fallen world—is hard work. We must not be lazy in the way we think about it. The way we might translate Peter’s words today would be to say that we’re to ‘roll up our sleeves and get to work in our thinking’. We’re to study the Scriptures carefully; and grow to understand what it tells us as best we can. We’re to learn—and take to heart—what God the Father has revealed in the Scriptures, and what He has promised to us through Jesus His Son.
And second, Peter tells us to ‘be sober’. That means that we’re not to be dull-minded, but to keep clear-headed. We’re not to allow ourselves to become divided in our focus. We’re not to let ourselves become distracted from our hope by the things of this world or by the deceitfulness of sin. We’re not to have our thinking clouded by the lies of this world. We’re to keep our eyes open and remember that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion—seeking whom he may devour. We’re to keep watchful and alert; so that we don’t lose what God has given us, but gain the full blessing of our inheritance in Christ.
And the reason we’re to keep our thinking clear in this way is so that we will rest our hope “fully” or “completely” or “totally” or “perfectly” upon the grace that is to be brought to us on the day when Jesus returns. There’s nothing that we can do to ‘earn’ our inheritance in Christ. It’s given to us fully by our Father as an act of grace. But the way we’re to show our thanks to Him for it is by placing our hope in it with all our being—and giving ourselves completely over to the joyful expectation of it.
I think that the apostle Paul gives us a great example of this. In Philippians 3, he wrote about how he had formerly tried to ‘earn’ God’s favor by his religious works. But in verses 7-11, he wrote;
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:7-11).
So; how do we honor our heavenly Father’s love on Father’s Day? As Peter shows us, it would be by praying something like this: “Father, thank You for giving me the promise of eternal glory in Your presence—and all the rich inheritance of Jesus—as a gift of Your grace. I not only now receive it; but I also ‘hope fully’ in it. I give up every other false hope, and trust myself completely to the glorious future You have for me in Jesus!”
That would be a gift we could give Him that would truly please Him.
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Another way that we should honor our heavenly Father’s love for us is told to us in verses 14-16. Peter wrote, “as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’”
This gives us another way we can show our thanks to Him; and that’s by …
2. IMITATING HIS PATTERN OF HOLY CONDUCT IN ALL AREAS OF LIFE.
When Peter wrote these words, he was quoting from the Old Testament—from Leviticus 19:1-2. That’s where we read;
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy’” (Leviticus 19:1-2).
When He spoke those words, God had just delivered the people of Israel from out of their bondage in Egypt. He made them into His own people. They were to now leave all of the sinful practices of the Egyptian people behind, and live as holy people … because their God is a holy God. And that’s what we’re to do also. Our heavenly Father—who has saved us and caused us to be ‘born again’ to a living hope in Christ—is holy. And as His children, we’re to be holy too.
Back in those old days—before He saved us—we were ‘ignorant’ in our thinking. Our minds were blinded by sin. Our understanding was darkened. We lived as people who didn’t know God at all. And now, we’re to no longer live in conformity to those former lusts that we gave ourselves over to in ignorance. Instead—just like obedient children—we’re to imitate our Father. In fact, we’re to imitate Him ‘in all our conduct’. We’re not to say, “I have my ‘religious’ life—and I give that to God. I’ll imitate Him in those areas. But there are other areas that are set aside for myself—not for Him.” Instead, we are to a wholehearted obedience to our Father in every area of life—in every relationship—in the pursuit of every goal—all of the time. As the Lord Jesus Himself said;
“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
So; if we want to truly honor our heavenly Father on Father’s Day, we should pray something like this: “Dear Father; thank You for adopting me to Yourself. And I know that You didn’t make me Your child in order for me to continue to live in the old ways—as if I’m still the devil’s plaything. As Your child, help me to increasingly imitate You in all Your ways—and in all areas of my life. Help me, as Your Child, to increasingly be holy as You are holy.”
That’s another gift that would please our Father greatly.
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Now; in verse 17, Peter went on to write; “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear …”
And so, here’s another way that we should show our thanks to Him; and that’s by …
3. CONDUCTING OURSELVES IN THIS WORLD WITH AN ATTITUDE OF ONGOING REVERENCE TOWARD HIM.
Peter tells us an important truth about our Father in heaven: He doesn’t show favoritism to any of His children. He judges them all fairly. This is not meant to be taken in the sense of eternal punishment, of course; because Jesus has already taken all of the punishment for our sins upon Himself on the cross. Rather, this is talking about a ‘fatherly’ kind of discipline. If any of His children are disobedient, He lovingly disciplines their disobedience in a just manner—not in order to harm them, but to correct them and lead them to increasing holiness.
And notice too that Peter tells us that it’s to this same disciplining “Father” that we habitually call out in our times of need. My earthly father treated me and my brothers that way. If we disobeyed him—if he told us to do something, but we didn’t do as he told us—then we were in real trouble the next time we asked something from him. We heard this speech from him a few times as we grew up: “Oh; you want something from me, do you? Well; it just so happens that I wanted something from you—but I didn’t get it from you. And if you don’t do what I told you to do, you’ll not only not get what you do want; but you’ll also get something you don’t want!”
That—you might say—put the ‘fear’ of our dad in us. It was partly a negative kind of fear; because we knew that he’d follow through on his promise. But it was also very much a positive and loving kind of fear; because it taught us to respect him and to conduct ourselves in a way that honored his authority. Think of what it says in Hebrews 12:9-11 about this. It’s very much to the point. It says;
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:9-11).
And so; here’s another way we should show our thanks to our heavenly Father. It’s when we seek to conduct ourselves throughout the time of our stay here on this earth in reverential respect for His authority over our lives. We should pray something like this: “Heavenly Father; I know that You are a just and holy God who will not tolerate sin and disobedience in the lives of any Your children. As Your child by faith, help me to have an attitude of holy respect and reverential fear toward You in every area of my life. Help me to remember that You are always watching me in love. Help me to always please You in all that You see … and never give You reason to have to withhold Your blessings from me.”
That’s yet another gift that would please Him.
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Now; when it comes to reverentially ‘fearing’ our Father in every area of our lives, it’s never to be from out of a slavish or cringing attitude. The next thing Peter mentions gives us the reason why we’re to confidently and joyfully reverence and respect Him. In verses 18-19, Peter wrote; “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” It’s because we know how much our heavenly Father cherishes us.
And so; here’s another way that we should show our thanks to our Father; and that’s by …
4. UNDERSTANDING AND EMBRACING THE HIGH VALUE HE HAS PLACED UPON US.
God the Father—as Peter tells us—has ‘redeemed’ us from out of the ‘aimless conduct’ that we gained from following the bad examples of the past. That means that He paid the ‘ransom price’ to buy us out of our bondage to sin and to set us free for Himself. And it wasn’t at the cost of any “corruptible” earthly thing that He paid the price for us. Silver and gold are usually considered the most treasured standards by which we estimate the value of earthly things. But compared to the price that God the Father actually paid for us, even silver and gold are ‘corruptible’ things. Any value they have is temporal; and they will inevitably fade away. Instead, God the Father bought us for Himself with the highest price that could ever be paid and that will never lose its value—and that is with the precious blood of His own Son Jesus.
At a point in time in history, the Second Person of the Trinity—God the Son—came to our rescue. He willingly left heavenly glory, took full human nature to Himself, was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, and lived the sinless life on earth for us that we could not live. There was no sin in Him at all; and so, He was able to shed His blood for us on the cross in order to fully pay the death penalty of our sins for us. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And the heavenly Father was the one who sent Him to do this for us! The Father gave that which is most precious in all the universe to Himself—the blood of His own beloved Son—in order to redeem us for Himself.
You know, dear church family; as a pastor, I always try to keep that in mind. When I serve you, I recognize that I’m not just serving ‘anyone’. I am serving that which is the most precious thing in the universe—the called-out people that God the Father paid the highest price imaginable to have to Himself. In Acts 20:28, the apostle Paul once told a group of pastors;
“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).
And if we want to honor our heavenly Father on this day, then one of the ways we should do so is by knowing—and wholeheartedly embracing—the high value that He has placed on us. We should pray something like this: “Father in heaven; thank You that—when I was lost in sin, and completely unworthy of Your grace—You loved me so much that You paid the price of the blood of Your own sinless Son to redeem me! Thank You for being willing to pay such a great price for my salvation. Help me, then, to value myself and my salvation as much as You do!”
To appreciate and accept the value He has placed on us would honor Him greatly!
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Now; in all of these things, it’s plain that we can’t do anything in our own power to ‘pay our Father’ back for His goodness to us. We can’t do anything to earn His fatherly love. In all of these things, it’s really all a matter of showing our thanks to Him by sincerely ‘taking up the cup of salvation’, and receiving wholeheartedly what He has freely given us.
And that leads us to one more way that we can show our thanks to our heavenly Father and honor His love for us. I’d say that it’s the most important one of all; because all of the other ways we show thanks to Him come from this one thing. We really could spend the whole morning talking about this one thing alone. In verses 20-21, the apostle Peter points to Jesus—the sinless Lamb of God—and says, “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
This truly is the most important way we should honor God our Father. It’s by …
5. ABIDING CONFIDENTLY BEFORE HIM ONLY THROUGH HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.
Long ago in history—in fact, long before the world was ever created—God the Father foreordained that His Son would pay the ransom price for our sins. And at the right time in history, He came for us and died on the cross for us. He has been manifested to us—not only by actually coming and doing for us what the Father foreordained for Him to do, but also by being declared in the preaching of the gospel. He has accomplished everything for us on the cross. And by raising Jesus from the dead, God the Father has proven that He is completely satisfied with His sacrifice for us. He ascended to the Father in heavenly glory; and now sits at the Father’s right hand for us—interceding for us—awaiting the Father’s command to come back for us and take us to Himself forever.
Our faith and our hope in God the Father is only in and through Jesus Christ—and nothing else. And as it says in Hebrews 4:14-16;
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).
And so; how do we truly honor our heavenly Father? How do we truly show our gratitude to Him? It’s by placing our faith in the cross of Jesus Christ, and seeking our favor before the Father in Jesus alone. It’s by confidently approaching the Father as 100% accepted in His sight on the basis of what He has done for us in Jesus.
That would be the most pleasing to Him of all. In fact, we cannot receive anything from Him, or do anything for Him, or please Him in any other way than through His Son Jesus Christ.
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So then, dear brothers and sisters; on this Father’s Day, let’s honor our heavenly Father by giving to Him what will please Him most—placing our hope in the future He has for us; imitating Him in His holiness in all our conduct; going through life in this world with an ongoing attitude of reverence toward Him; knowing and embracing the immeasurably high value He has placed on us; and abiding confidently before Him only through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Let’s honor our heavenly Father by how we receive what He Himself has done for us!
AE
