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"We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ and this is true for anyone who believes no matter who we are"
-Romans 3:22 |
Sermon Archive
Loving God the Abba Father
For many of us, this relationship with Abba Father is a wonderful reality. But for some, the picture of Abba Father is difficult to grasp & even more difficult to experience. The difficulty has its roots in their experience with their earthly father. If our earthly father was absent (physically or emotionally), someone who made unrealistic demands upon them but was stingy in communicating love, then we tend to project those characteristics onto our heavenly Father. Those who had an abusive father often find it even harder to relate to God as a abba father.
The problems associated with projecting negative father images onto God have caused some to find it difficult to experience the love of God. This distorted view of God impacts ones ability to experience growth in love with the God whom Jesus revealed as our Abba. As we let the Spirit help us to know God as abba father, as we allow the Scripture to show us the gracious fatherhood of God, & as experience unconditional love from others, we will be able to experience healing of the hurt that lurks within us because of our relationship with our earthly father.
Question: In what ways has your relationship with your human father shaped your understanding of & relationship with God?
Now I thank God for my earthly father. I thank God for all the ways he was a good provider for our family & the way he faithfully loved my mom. I thank God for my father’s example of faith & service. In many ways, my earthly father reflected many of my heavenly father’s characteristics for which I am eternally grateful.
Yet God knows the ways in which my earthly father fell short & the ways I too, have fallen short in my fatherly roll with my kids. And God knows how much I have, & some of you have, shaped our knowledge of & expectations for our abba Father in light of our relationship with our earthly fathers.
Loving God the Abba Father
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, & all your soul, all your mind
& all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.
There are no commands more important than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (NCV)
When asked by some religious folks which commandment was the most important or greatest, Jesus cited two passages from the OT. The first, from Deut. 6:5, was a call to love God with all that we are. The second, from Lev 19:18, was a command to love our neighbors as ourselves.
We have focused on the second greatest commandment, sharing that one of the main ways we communicate our love for God is by loving people. But this morning I would like to focus on the Greatest Commandment: Loving God with our whole being. Loving God with our worship, with our prayer, with our thinking, with our actions, with our work, with our finances, with our time & talents.
We have focused on the second greatest commandment, sharing that one of the main ways we communicate our love for God is by loving people. But this morning I would like to focus on the Greatest Commandment: Loving God with our whole being. Loving God with our worship, with our prayer, with our thinking, with our actions, with our work, with our finances, with our time & talents.
It is a challenge for me is to Love God with me whole being. My love for God is sometimes erratic & inconsistent. Sometimes it is choked out by my love for myself or for the things of this world. At those times I ask for God’s forgiveness. And I ask for God’s Spirit to teach me & help me to grow in my love for my heavenly Father.
Question: When you think of loving God as your heavenly father, what images or ideas come to mind?
I want you to explore why, for some of us, it is a challenge to love God with our heart, soul, & mind. InRomans 8:15we read these words: “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
The truth is, if you have trusted in Jesus as Lord & Savior & received Him by personal invitation, you have been adopted into God’s family. You now have the privilege to call on God as your “Abba, Father.” Abbawas a word used by children for their father, something like “daddy” or “papa” today. But it was also a term of respect used by adult children for their fathers. Thus the word abbarichly expresses our relationship with God. We are dependent upon him like little children. We are free to run to him as children run to their daddies. We are also able to go to abba Father as adults & give him the highest respect & love.
Too often Christians put too much weight on the Abba Daddy aspect of God, encouraging our dependence upon God.
Too often Christians put too much weight on the Abba Daddy aspect of God, encouraging our dependence upon God.
But God is also Abba “Father”, calling us to live our lives for his glory. In truth, our Heavenly Father is both “Daddy” & “Father.” The more we grow in relationship with him, the more we will recognize the diverse ways in which he is a father to us.
Jesus spoke to God as his Father, using the term abba, & many expressed shock with this intimacy with God. This was something virtually unknown among religions of the ancient world, including Judaism. Yet, perhaps even more surprising, Jesus taught his followers to call God Father, inviting them into a close, personal relationship with the Heavenly Father.
For many of us, this relationship with Abba Father is a wonderful reality. But for some, the picture of Abba Father is difficult to grasp & even more difficult to experience. The difficulty has its roots in their experience with their earthly father. If our earthly father was absent (physically or emotionally), someone who made unrealistic demands upon them but was stingy in communicating love, then we tend to project those characteristics onto our heavenly Father. Those who had an abusive father often find it even harder to relate to God as a abba father.
The problems associated with projecting negative father images onto God have caused some to find it difficult to experience the love of God. This distorted view of God impacts ones ability to experience growth in love with the God whom Jesus revealed as our Abba. As we let the Spirit help us to know God as abba father, as we allow the Scripture to show us the gracious fatherhood of God, & as experience unconditional love from others, we will be able to experience healing of the hurt that lurks within us because of our relationship with our earthly father.
Question: In what ways has your relationship with your human father shaped your understanding of & relationship with God?
Let me offer an example from my own life.
My earthly father was & is a good man. But as boy & in my teenage years, most of my memories of my dad had to do with work. Now I know memories can be distorted, but I have no memory of my father, during those years, ever telling me that he loved me or was proud of me or the work that I did.
For years, my experience with my heavenly Father was much like my experience with my earthly father. I knew that God in fact loved me. The Bible stated it. Christ demonstrated it. I believed it in my head. But I rarely experienced God’s love for me in a way that touched my heart. Like my natural father, God loved me in fact, but not in expression.
As God has enabled me to work through the father’s love for me issue, with the help of others, & I have grown in my ability to experience the of love of my Heavenly Father. God’s love, which was once was experienced primarily in my head, now is being experienced more & more in my heart.
As God has enabled me to work through the father’s love for me issue, with the help of others, & I have grown in my ability to experience the of love of my Heavenly Father. God’s love, which was once was experienced primarily in my head, now is being experienced more & more in my heart.
Now I thank God for my earthly father. I thank God for all the ways he was a good provider for our family & the way he faithfully loved my mom. I thank God for my father’s example of faith & service. In many ways, my earthly father reflected many of my heavenly father’s characteristics for which I am eternally grateful.
Yet God knows the ways in which my earthly father fell short & the ways I too, have fallen short in my fatherly roll with my kids. And God knows how much I have, & some of you have, shaped our knowledge of & expectations for our abba Father in light of our relationship with our earthly fathers.
Caution: In sharing my story, I do not want to give the impression that knowing the love of God is really a matter of good parenting. Rom. 5:5:“God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” When we take the impact of parenting too so far we obscure the main & amazing truth that knowing the love of God experientially is the sovereign, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.
Now back to Jesus words where he said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, & all your soul, all your mind & all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. There are no commands more important than these.”
Since the “greatest commandment” is to love God, it is not surprising that there are many great benefits promised to those who do.
“All things work together for good for those who love God”(Rom 8:28).
“No eye has seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love him”(1 Cor. 2:9)
In closing l want share with you what the Apostle John said about loving God. I John 4:19: “We love, because He first loved us” & “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us”. Loving God is simply not possible for us until we first experience His love for us. God loved us first! God reached out to us before we knew how to reach out to him. God’s grace comes first! It’s called God’s prevenient grace. It precedes all human decision & action. God took the initiative to love us so we could love him in return!
How? I John 4:10: “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us & sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (NLT) He loved us by sending Jesus to die for us! God took the initiative, by loving us first. It’s a love that sacrifices, as Jesus gives His very life for those He loves. The responsibility you have is to receive God’s love. Then, & only then will you will be able to learn how to love God in return & love others.
There is an old gospel song that kept coming to my mind as I prepared this message:
The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.
And reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.
Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above, Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure The saints’ and angels’ song.
It shall forevermore endure The saints’ and angels’ song.
Question for reflection: Have you experienced the joy of a loving relationship with Abba Father?
Prayer: God help us to grow in our love for you. Where we still have wounds left over from our earthly fathers, I ask that You would bring healing. Help us to reflect Your love to our children. I know this journey can be difficult & how much we fail in this. So I ask for His wisdom, patience, & strength. I pray in the name of Jesus, who invited us to prayer –“Our Father who art in heaven……..