For Fathers day we are going to talk about parental direction, forgiveness, strength and renewal and using your talents for others with eternal impacts. (All scripture is from The Message unless otherwise indicated)
It would be the motorcycle road trip to end all road trips! For months, Jack and his buddies planned their trip of a lifetime. Jack led the effort as the friends worked together to develop their route, including as many scenic vistas as possible. They negotiated food and lodging plans and everyone eagerly contributed ideas for predetermined stops along the way. With great anticipation and enthusiasm, the men began their road trip countdown!
On the very first day of the trip, a pounding rain threatened to dampen the motorcycle riders’ spirits. Refusing to let that happen, Jack grabbed his rain suit, and soon the group was geared up—they wouldn’t let a little shower sabotage their plans.
Then, just an hour into their trip of a lifetime, a massive traffic jam forced the bikers to revise their original route. It just so happened that their chosen detour led the guys onto a side road, gleaming with fresh oil. “And this is just the first day,” Jack sighed.
What a trip! Memorable? Yes! Filled with unforeseen challenges? Definitely!
Have your carefully designed plans ever gone haywire? It happens! Expensive car repairs. Hurtful family conflicts. An unanticipated company downsize. Failing health.
How, then, do we successfully navigate this road trip called life? God gave us the directions in 1 Peter 2:21.
This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.
This verse urges us to follow Jesus’ lead, but how is that even possible? Whenever we attempt to love our heavenly Father as Jesus did—with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength—we fail. Miserably.
When life takes an unexpected, negative turn, we question God’s kindness. We chafe under our Lord’s guidance, and we often question his direction. Follow in Jesus’ steps? How is that even possible?
Christ was forever thinking about and tending to the needs of others, while we are detoured by selfishness. Instead of following Christ’s lead, we choose to travel down a road pockmarked by self-centeredness, self-indulgence, and self-promotion.
Follow Jesus’ example? How is that even possible? He rejected bigotry, injustice, and violence, while we are too easily swayed by the pressures of our culture, looking for revenge rather than seeking forgiveness and peace.
God gives us all the direction we need, but our sinful nature knocks us off track. Following Jesus’ lead, walking in his steps, how is any of this possible?!
On our own, it’s simply not. But, God has made it possible in the cross of our Savior. Our heavenly Father has set into motion the ultimate plan to overcome all the hurt, the disappointment, and the mistakes we make in this world—it’s the plan of salvation.
From the very moment Jesus was born, he was on his way to the cross. And when he got there, he made the ultimate sacrifice for us. His resurrection three days later sealed our salvation. Now, when God looks at us, he can’t see the stain of our sins. Instead, God sees Jesus’ steady footsteps, Jesus’ selfless actions, and Jesus’ perfect love for the Father. (Romans 6:6–11.)
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life - no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive be brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you: God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.
Because of all Jesus did for us, we can live for God’s glory! We can follow God’s path and walk in God’s ways, resting in the forgiveness and peace Jesus has won for us. As Psalm 48:14 explains, “He will be our guide.” We can follow Christ’s example because God is with us on life’s journey. And Jesus isn’t just along for the ride, sleeping in the backseat as we drive. He’s out ahead of us, behind us, and beside us. In fact, he lives in us! (Read John 16:33)
The Father is with me. I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.
And Galatians 2:20...
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Relying on Christ, we can find joy even as we encounter life’s potholes, detours, and breakdowns. Regardless of life’s circumstances, we will arrive safely at the heavenly home Jesus is even now preparing for us.
Until then, our heavenly Father freely provides strength for life’s journey—the strength of Christ within us! With his protection and power, we go forward confidently, no matter what may happen on the road ahead.
Looking for help in the wrong places can cost any of us big time!
It all started in the Garden of Eden. Satan had a plan to trick God’s human creatures into trusting him, and it worked perfectly. Eve took the fruit and Adam followed suit. He looked to Eve, relying on her confidence in the serpent’s lie. Paradise was lost in the blink of an eye.
We see this same mistake repeated throughout the Bible. King David relied on his own clever tricks to fix his problems, going so far as to plan a murder to cover up his adultery. Judas trusted in the power of money and betrayed his Savior for thirty silver coins. The apostle Paul—who acted as the worst of the worst when he was still known as Saul—tried to find favor with God by murdering those who followed Jesus.
All of these men were looking for help, for a fix, for something to make their lives better. They trusted Satan’s lies and gave in to his temptations.
Where do you turn when you’re in trouble? When you’re in a tight spot and need wisdom, when you’re just tired of the dailyness of daily life, when you have a mess on your hands and can’t figure out how to leave it behind, where do you go for help? Where do you place your trust?
Our culture tells us how real men are supposed to behave. A few drinks or a few pills will take the edge off. A me-first attitude will smooth the way to a smart decision. It may not feel quite right at first but, after all, that’s just how men are supposed to behave. You may already know that fixes like these fall short. Sooner or later, everyone who tries them ends up sitting beside Adam, beside David, beside Paul—guilty as charged and facing unthinkable consequences.
The fact is that every man on this earth has fallen. Every one of us has at one time or another believed the lies of the devil, turned away from our only true Helper, and found ourselves stuck and sinking more deeply into the pit of sin. Every man—but One. Our Savior, Jesus Christ was born to be your fix, your one, true source of renewal and hope. Every step of his life was devoted to obeying our heavenly Father. (Read John 4:34.)
Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work that He started.”
Jesus never lost focus. He came to live a perfect life in our place, and that life ended as he hung on the cross, dying in payment for our sins. On Calvary’s cross, we find the one—the only—source of help we will ever need.
Jesus’ death and resurrection makes us right with God again. When we come to him with our sins, he forgives us and renews our spirits. His gifts of grace and mercy provide the strength we need to keep on walking through this life as his chosen people, his son and heirs.
They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Notice the power of that promise! Not might. Not maybe. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Minute by minute. Hour by hour. Day by day. Renewed strength is ours.
We will run—read Psalm 119:32.
We will walk and keep on walking—read Psalm 86:11.
And as we mount up on eagles’ wings, we join the psalmist, saying in confidence—read Psalm 18:2.
Fathers can be great at fixing stuff—children’s toys, dishwashers, lawnmowers. You name it, many dads can fix it! Well . . . almost. Of course, the fix-it powers of all dads have their limits.
But Jesus’ love and forgiveness have no bounds. His sacrifice on the cross covers every sin and fathers who depend on Jesus know that there is no better place, no other place, to find unending strength and constant renewal for life.
It reminds me of Dave as He took on a family of all ladies with teenagers and he continually forgave all the hurtful and emotionally driven actions we ladies do and still unconditionally loves, cares and directs, encourages and motivates us and the lives of the youth groups he led and the Bible College Students and the FB contacts. Being a father is more than physically creating them but nurturing and training them all of your lives. I am thankful that I had a father that did that but his patience and forgiveness was not always there. Thankfully He knew the Lord and was made complete and whole in the end!
We are not all the same though.
You all know that “variety is the spice of life.” But many, many times, variety is even more important than that. Imagine a symphony with 79 drums and one violin.
Imagine a baseball team with 24 pitchers and one catcher. Imagine the Air Force with 9,000 mechanics and one pilot.
Symphonies need timpani and violins. But they also need clarinets, trumpets, cellos, and a director!
Baseball teams need pitchers—lots of good ones. But left fielders with a great batting average are necessary, too.
The Air Force could not function without mechanics and pilots. Well, you get the idea.
Variety is the spice of life—and it’s much more, too. Variety matters in symphonies, team sports, and the military. It also matters in the church. Listen!
There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. 1 Corinthians 12:5
The apostle Paul wrote these words to the believers in the first-century city of Corinth. This church had problems here, problems there, problems everywhere. One of their main problems was a terrible disunity caused—surprisingly—by the spiritual gifts God had given them:
• Some of them felt inferior because God had chosen to gift them in one way, and not in another.
Here’s how Paul answered that. (Read 1 Corinthians 12:14–20.)
I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said “I’m not elegant like Hand, embelleshed with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where He wanted it.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “Your’re fired, your work has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way - the “lower” the part, the more basic, and, therefore, necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
• Others among the believers in Corinth felt superior because of the giftedness God had bestowed upon them. They said things like this to themselves, “We might be better off without so many of these ‘hangers on.’ Realistically now, why do we need ‘gifts of wisdom’? What even is that, anyway?”
Here’s how Paul responded. (Read 1 Corinthians 12:21–26.)
The way that God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part fourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
There are varieties of service among us here at Living Water Fellowship in the community of Lakewood Village. We thank God for this variety. We thank him, too, for his forgiveness in Christ’s cross, especially for those times when our thoughts, our words, or our actions have failed to promote unity, for those times when we have failed to thank our Lord Jesus for others here at Living Water Fellowship and for their service—whether that service is similar to ours or very different from it. Also think back of the other places you have served and the unity or disunity there.
There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. 1 Corinthians 12:5
We serve the same Lord, Paul reminds us. Jesus Christ, our Savior, is the true source of our unity. Some of us are pitchers, so to speak. Some are drummers. Some are mechanics. But we are all the children of God in Christ. We all serve the same Lord. We serve Jesus by serving his people.
My prayer today is that you take joy in your service and in the unique ways God has gifted you to serve. May the Holy Spirit work more and more unity among us as we continue to serve—each uniquely, but all of us united in our Savior.
And finally what impact are you making in the lives of others. Are you using those gifts for His Purposes?
We all like to receive things. We like to receive presents; we like to get compliments. We wait with anticipation for the UPS truck to arrive, bringing that important package.
Today, though, I want you to think for a moment about things you give. Maybe you give advice. Maybe you give reassuring hugs. Maybe you’re one of those people who has a knack for giving just the perfect gift. Some of you may give physical comfort to others as you work in the health-care field. Others of you know just when and how to give a kind word to someone who needs it.
Throughout our lives, we give and receive. We give and receive gifts at holidays. We give and receive love from friends and family. We give the right-of-way at an intersection and receive a friendly wave. Every day we give and we receive.
The apostle Paul also received and gave. In Philippians 1:3, Paul writes this: “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.” You see, the believers in the Philippian church had shown great generosity to Paul—when he was with them, when he was away serving at other churches, and when he was in prison, too. Paul received gifts from the Philippians, and he gave thanks to God for the faithful believers in Philippi.
Today, like Paul, we here at Living Water Fellowship have received your gifts of service, and now we give thanks to God for you, our volunteers. You have given generously to us. You have given of your time and your talents in service to our Lord in this place. You have answered God’s call to offer yourself humbly so that the Gospel message of our Savior may be heard.
Paul recognized that the Lord had created a generous, humble spirit of service in the believers at Philippi. And the Lord has done the same in you!
It is that same triune God who created you and who gives you everything you have, including your talents and abilities. Everything you have—even your willingness to serve—comes to you as a blessing from God.
Sometimes we are tempted to ignore or deny that. We consider our time our own. We make excuses rather than using opportunities to serve others. Or we serve, hoping others will notice and admire the deep sacrifices we are making. Sinful pride and selfishness sometimes get in the way of a humble and willing focus on meeting the needs of others. But because Jesus lived, died, and rose victorious over our sins, over our selfishness, and over our pride, God will not and does not hold these sins against us. Instead, he forgives them. He has given us the gift of eternal life in Jesus. That life starts now and extends into all eternity.
Our Savior’s love for us is, likewise, eternal and it eternally impacts our lives. The Holy Spirit enables us to treasure this eternal love and then freely offer ourselves and our service in love to others. That service makes an eternal difference. Your service makes an eternal difference!
You may not always remember that. Some days, you may feel tired or discouraged or under-appreciated. Some days, you may have second (and third and even fourth!) thoughts about serving. You may grow impatient, hoping to see some evidence that your service matters—right here, right now. But that doesn’t always happen.
Even so, our Lord has promised that our service does matter. Our lives do make that difference. He says, “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it” (Isaiah 55:11).
You see, the God who made an eternal difference for you in Jesus is the same God who promises that your efforts and time and energy given in service to the Gospel are never in vain. His purposes will be accomplished. Even when you feel weak and ineffective, sometimes especially then, God is with you, working in you and through you.
By his grace, you make an eternal difference. Whether you work behind the scenes or out in front, people see Jesus in you.
While we give all kinds of things—advice, hugs, comfort, and care—today, especially, we give thanks. We give thanks to you for serving here among us. And we give thanks to God, who gives you time, talent, and the willingness to serve so that the Gospel may be heard and Jesus’ love may be experienced.
So when you’ve had a tough day or are questioning your capabilities or are wondering what kind of impact your service even makes, I encourage you to simply rest in your Savior’s love. Remember that he went to the cross and overcame the grave so that you can spend eternity with him. Jesus has made an eternal difference in your life and has promised that your service will make an eternal difference in the lives of others.
Please accept this tool as a reminder of all this—and as a token of our love and appreciation, too! Let it remind you of the gifts God has given you and of our gratitude that you use those gifts as you serve together with us here at Living Water Fellowship.
Today we honor all of the fathers and father figures who travel with us along life’s highway. We are genuinely thankful for everything you do for us! We know you are not perfect, nor are we. Instead, we are all perfectly forgiven in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Our prayer for you is that you follow Christ’s lead—that you remain in his Word, confidently trust in Jesus, and keep on encouraging one another to follow that lead as well—in our families, our church, and our community. As you leave today, remember to contact those that have influenced you in your Journey with our Lord and Savior.
Savior. our families, our church, and our community. As you leave today, remember to contact those that have influenced you in your Journey with our Lord and Savior.