The Love of a Father

Welcome back on summer camp, both the one that I'd gone through and the one coming up.

Pardon me, I like to drink while I speak. Only water, though.

But in my speaking, especially at summer camp, I had classes, Christian living classes, and I gave a sermon towards the end of camp, and we had door meetings, and it seemed like over and over again, I kept making references to my wife Sue and our son Connor.

And I looked back, it just seemed like I was always using them as an example or an explanation of something. I said, boy, I'm talking about them a lot. Is it that I'm missing them so much? Well, I did miss them a lot while I was gone, but I thought, well, there's something more to it than just that, though. Marriage and family are tremendous learning devices that God built into the institution. He wants us to use them to help us learn about His plan and about His way of life.

Now, that shouldn't be a big surprise. It's not something I'm telling you you haven't heard. And I'll make a reference in Ephesians 5, verses 31 to 33. I'm going to have you turn to a lot of scriptures later, so I'll just quote this one, where it says, Paul is quoting from Genesis, where after creating the man and woman, God said, for this cause a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. And then Paul adds, I'm speaking... This is a mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the Church. So he says this whole thing of marriage is to help us to learn a lesson about Christ and the Church.

But there are other family relationships that also can help us to learn spiritual lessons. And I'm coming to see more and more how raising children does so. Being a parent is this marvelous way to learn about God and about God's love, the love of a father. For those who like titles, that's the title I chose for this, the love of a father. That's a love that I've been learning a lot about, obviously, in some ways embarrassing that it's taken me this long, although...

And there are different perspectives on that now. And next time I'm down here, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about my background and Sous. But I grew up mostly in a single-parent family. And my parents separated when I was very young. So in that sense, it was very easy for me to look at God and think of Him as my father. You know, it was, you know, of course He's my father. But interestingly enough, it's still... I didn't understand all that there was to that. And I'll explain that by telling a little story.

There's a man in the Columbus congregation who had children. He was a little bit older. And he explained something to me even before Sous and I were pregnant. He was talking about learning about God. And he said, When I had my little baby, I looked at that child and the way I felt about it, and I thought, is it possible that God loves this baby even more than I do? Yeah, I have to admit that's probably... He probably does. And then he said, I thought further and I realized, God loves me even that much.

And it just... He said, it made him think about God in a different way. And now that I... You know, I'll mention this. When he was telling me that, I understood. I was following. The meaning was clear. But it's interesting that now that I've had a son or have a son, I understand the feeling with much more depth.

And I see nods. Most of you here who aren't kids yourself, probably you've raised children. So this will be a reminder for you. But, you know, that feeling you have... I still remember the day Connor was born. I got to go to the nursery and they cleaned him up. And I was holding him in my arms. And he fell asleep for the first time since being born. And there's no way to put into words that feeling.

But a lot of you know that feeling. So today I want to talk about God. Who and what he is. And the fact that he feels that love for us. He feels the love of a father. For each one of us. Now, mainstream Christianity, you know, people out there in the world who want to understand the Bible, and follow it the best that they know in many cases, they have a tendency to think of the God of the Old Testament as this harsh and vengeful God.

Who had a lot of rules and was eager to punish people. And then, in contrast, Jesus came in the New Testament and overturned all of that. Brought love and mercy. And, you know, even though we don't see it that way, we can sometimes get caught up in that and think that way. You know, even the man that I was just speaking about, who told me about how he thought about his child, he said prior to that he intended to slip into thinking of God as sort of authoritarian and harsh.

Even though, intellectually, he knew better. You know, he said it was having his child that made him see God's love in a way he never had before. Now, one of the things I want to talk about is the fact that we know that it's not that the God of the Old Testament was this mean, harsh God. And Jesus came along and was nice. Because we know that it was actually Jesus who was the God in the Old Testament.

And I want to explore some of those scriptures today. But it was Jesus who spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He came down on Mount Sinai and thundered the Ten Commandments. And later he spoke to all the prophets. So let's turn to John 1. We're going to look at the very beginning of the story, John 1 and verse 1. And I'll mention if you've got to limber up the fingers, now is the time. Because I think I mentioned last time I was here, for young ministers it's always good to rely on the scriptures more than our own stories.

Although I still like to tell a lot of stories. It seems to be growing on me. But I want to, as I said, I don't want you to take my word for this.

Let's see what the Bible tells us about who and what God is. John 1 and verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. Now that's capitalized. That's a name. That's a person. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Okay, so in the beginning there's the Word, the Word was with God, the Word also was God. Now who is this Word? If we skip down to verse 14, John makes it very clear. He says, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

He's talking about Jesus Christ. He became flesh and dwelt with them. And for many of the people he's writing to and referring to himself, John says, We saw him, and he's the only one begotten of the Father. Here we're still saying there's the Word, also known as Jesus Christ, and there's the Father. Now let's move ahead to John chapter 5, and we'll read verse 37.

John 5, 37, we'll hear the words of Jesus himself.

He says, and here he was talking to the Pharisees, and he often had confrontations with them, but he says, And the Father himself who sent me has testified of me. And he says, You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. He says, Who is he talking to while he's speaking to the Pharisees, but he meant you being people in general. You haven't seen the Father. You haven't heard him. Now they might be saying, Well, wait a minute. Our forefathers did hear him come down on Mount Sinai, but Jesus was saying, No, that wasn't the Father. And later on we'll see that it was somebody else. If you turn ahead in a couple more chapters, John chapter 8, we're going to read starting in verse 54.

Okay, Jesus, again, having it out with the Pharisees, Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I don't know him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Now your Father, your forefather, you should say, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and it was glad. This is Jesus's way of saying, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. In other words, it was me. I'm the one that met with him. You think of that time when Jesus, and we know now it was Jesus, and a couple of angels came and warned Abraham that they were going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abraham bargained with him. Will you destroy the city if there's 50 good people? No, I'll spare it for 50. Whittled it all the way down to 10. Abraham talked with God, and it was the one who was known as the Word. Now the Jews aren't quite catching that, and they said, well, you're not even 50 years old. You're going to tell me you've seen Abraham? They knew that that's what he meant. He wasn't speaking metaphorically. He said, you're a young guy. How could you have seen Abraham? He died centuries ago. And Jesus said, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. And in most of your translations, you'll see the I am written in all capital letters. This is a version of the name of God, where when God introduces himself to Moses and said, I am that I am. The tetragrammaton is used here, meaning the self-existent one, the eternal. And of course, they picked up stones to stone him, because they realized Jesus was telling them, I am God. And they thought that was blasphemy.

Now, I want to turn also to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 10 and verse 17.

Now, we don't think this, but some people might say, yeah, okay, John has all these scriptures we just read, but maybe John was a little bit off of his rocker. He didn't understand. Of course, we know John wasn't off of his rocker. He understood very clearly. And from what we understand, he was the last of the four gospel writers to write. So, let's see a couple other accounts to show and prove that what I'm saying is true. Luke 10 and verse 17 is after Jesus sent out 70 of his disciples by two, and he gave them power to heal and power over demons. And then they came back, and they were excited about what had happened. Then the 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them something interesting. He says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from the heaven. Jesus said, I saw it! Now, we don't know exactly when that happened, but presumably it was eons ago, before Adam was even created, and Jesus was there. He was the one that was God that saw Satan fall. One more we'll look at along this line. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians 10, we'll read verses 1 through 4. The Apostle Paul also understood this clearly, and he was explaining it to some who might not have, because they weren't. Well, actually, I wonder, the Corinthian church, some of them were Jewish in the Diaspora, and some were probably Greek and didn't know anything about the God of the Old Testament, but he wanted to make sure they knew who was there. Beginning in verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers, that's our forefathers, were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they all ate of the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Paul made it very clear, the God of the Old Testament was the one who became flesh. He had been the Word, now he became Jesus Christ. And I hope, I don't know if it's circulated around here. You hear, there are certain teachings that pop up every now and then, in what some like to call the Church of God community. There are various churches with different names, something Church of God, and we all believe a lot of the same thing, but every now and then someone will come in with a new teaching, and one of them that comes up every so often is that Jesus wasn't really God. Some people say Jesus, you know, he was born, and then later he became God, but he wasn't God before that. Well, we've just read a number of scriptures that I think very clearly disprove that. And also, there are some churches that believe that Jesus was created by the Father. I think that also is disputed by the scriptures we've just read. John 1, verse 1 said, In the beginning, the very beginning, there was the Word, and the Word was with God and was God. So Jesus has always been just as the Father has always been. And that's something we want to keep in mind. We love them both as God, and they've always been.

Interesting. We have this understanding, partly because the New Testament explains things more clearly. For thousands of years, many of the people God was working with didn't quite understand. They didn't understand the nature of God and the Godhead. That's partly because Jesus came partly to reveal the Father. Let's go back to John, John chapter 1, and we'll read verse 18.

A couple of scriptures here I want to read just to cement this point in our minds. This is part of that same passage that John was writing, introducing his gospel message. John 1, 18, it says, No one has seen God in any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. So obviously there, when he says, No one has seen God, it means God the Father. No one's seen him. But Jesus declared him.

Let's turn also to Matthew 11, verse 27.

Matthew 11 and verse 27, I'll remind you, why did Jesus, or we could ask the question, why did Jesus come to the earth the first time? You know, he was the Word, he became flesh, he came for, I think, three main reasons. We often think of the two. One, he came to be a sacrifice for sin. That's the overwhelming reason he came and paid the penalty for our sins. He also came to establish a church. You know, he said, on this rock, I'll build my church. And he gave the church a commission. But here in verse 27, there's something else that he did. Here Jesus says, By all things, or all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal him. So I said, the Son came to reveal the Father, to make it crystal clear, something that hadn't been known to very many people before. That is, that there was a Father and a Son. That there was the Word that was with God and was God. Now, after that, we start getting into some speculation. Why was it that way? You know, and there's some things God doesn't tell us, but why wasn't the Father very well known before this? Now, it wasn't unknown, or he wasn't unknown. And I'll just make a reference in Daniel 7, verse 13. There's a prophecy of Christ's resurrection, and it talks about the one like the Son of Man coming to the ancient of days. So there's the Son of Man in the ancient of days. It was clear that it was revealed to Daniel that there were those two. But for the most part, it wasn't known. Now, I suspect, and this is just dunkel speculation. Not in the Bible, but I don't think there's anything in the Bible. I certainly wouldn't say it if something in the Bible said it wasn't true. But I think it might have had something to do with the fact that Jesus, the Word, would be the one who would be the sacrifice for sin. It was planned. It said that he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It was planned for him to come and mix with humans and pay that penalty for sin. And it was planned that the Father would not be. The Father remained in heaven and was there to resurrect the Son. And so maybe the Father kept his distance, didn't get closely associated with sinful human beings. I don't know for certain, but that's a speculation, and that might be a reason.

But one thing that is important, we do know the Bible clearly says there was God the Father and God the Son, or as we say, Jesus Christ.

But there's a danger, if we dwell on that too much, that we don't want to get in the mistake of thinking that we're what is called polytheists.

Polytheists are those who believe in more than one God. There are several gods. Back in ancient times, there were, you know, societies believed that there were gods around every corner, gods in almost every tree and every bush. Well, we don't believe that. The key to understanding the difference is to realize there's one God, one God that's a family, one God family with more than one member.

Now, I'll mention here, I've been saying God the Father, we didn't make up that phrase in the United Church of God, or previously the Worldwide Church of God. If you'll turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, 1 Corinthians chapter 8, and we'll read verse 6. If I take a pause, and then now sometimes it gets going pretty fast, it's hard to keep up with all those scriptures. 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 6, For there is yet one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. So I said, there's God the Father. We didn't make that up. The Apostle Paul wrote it down.

Now, we just looked at several scriptures saying that Jesus was God, and here it says there's one God the Father, and there's one Lord. Is it a contradiction? Some people who don't believe in Christianity say, Oh, the Bible's got all kinds of contradictions. That's why it's not true. But that's what's not true. The Bible doesn't contradict itself. Let's let Jesus Christ Himself explain it in John chapter 10. John chapter 10 and verse 30. And I'll say, I realize again, for many of you, this is more of a re... I'm not expounding brand new things that you've never heard before, but it's good for us to review this. And as I said, remember, if we're going to talk about God's love, it's good to realize what kind of God it is that we worship. You know, the fact that He is our Father, that's how we can have the love of a Father. John 10 and verse 30. Jesus says a very simple statement. I and my Father are one. I and my Father are one. And the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. And He said, I've done many good works. I've shown you from My Father. For which of those works are you stoning Me? And the Jews answered and said, for good work we don't stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you, being a man, make yourself God. And Jesus said, isn't it written in your law that I said you are Gods? So Jesus is getting to something that the Jews of His time couldn't understand. He said, I and my Father are one. And they said, well that means your God like the Father is God, so they're going to stone Him. And He said, no, no. The Bible says it uses the term, you are Gods. So I'm going to go to something else, but I want to point out something else. In John 10 verse 30, He said, I and my Father are one. Jesus didn't say, I and my Father and the Holy Ghost are one. He didn't bring in a third. Now we understand that the Bible does refer to the Holy Spirit. And the Old King James calls it the Holy Ghost. There is a Holy Spirit, that power in essence of God. But the Bible nowhere makes the case that it's a conscious being that's part of a Trinity. We don't teach the Trinity, but we do teach that God is a family. And that Jesus said, I and my Father are one. And while we're in John, let's turn ahead to John 17. And we'll read verse 21. Because He's not wanting to stop right there. John 17 verse 21, here is part of Christ's prayer on that last Passover. And He's talking about the men around Him. Matter of fact, I should say it's not just the men around Him. If we begin in verse 20, He makes it clear that He's praying for those beyond them, including us. Because in verse 20, He says, I do not pray for these alone, but for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may, or that they all may be one. That they all may be one, as you, Father, are in Me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, and that the world may believe that you sent Me. So Jesus now is extending this concept of unity.

He said, I and the Father are one, but then He talked to the Father and said, I pray that you'll let all of them be one.

This is because God and the Father, God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son, are a family, Father and Son.

In Ephesians 3 verse 14, I'll just mention that it says, it talks about the Father of whom the whole family is named.

The whole family.

It's interesting, why would you say that? Why would Paul have said that if it was just the two of them and it was closed? But the God family is not closed and limited to two or to a trinity, but rather, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 and verse 10. I'm not sure if you guys are quiet turners or...

I know I've heard a lot of ministers say, when you give a scripture, wait until you hear the pages stop rustling, because you don't want to get too far ahead. But some people are so quick, I didn't hear them rustle. Hebrews 2 and verse 10 says, Now here he's using different names, but the one for whom are all things and by whom are all things is the Father. That the captain of their salvation was Jesus Christ, but he also mentions bringing many sons to glory.

So the God family is not closed. There's going to be many sons. So many that we don't even...he doesn't say 30 sons or 12 sons and not limited to 12 apostles. It's many. And we don't know how many, but we do know who they are or somewhat. Let's turn to 1 John chapter 3.

1 John chapter 3, and we'll read the first couple scriptures.

I always get kind of excited when I start reading this because it's good to just be reminded of what is our relationship to the Father. If he has the love of a Father for us, there's a very good reason for that. He looks at us the same way I look at my son, Connor, sometimes.

He says, That's something. He said, And when it says, Now, I put a note in here just to mention, there are some people that still would bring up in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 and 5. I'll just refer to that. It's what's called the Hallel. And the first giving of what Jesus called the first and the great commandment, where it says, And then the second commandment that's added to it is, Some people say, Well, yeah, it says one God, and we've discussed that, the one God family. Another interesting thing is if you look at Deuteronomy translating from the Hebrew, it could also be translated as, When God first introduced himself to the children of Israel, Remember, they were living in that society where others around them worshipped all kinds of things that they called God. And they built idols. Just this morning, I was reading part of Isaiah because we're going to go there shortly. But I love where God is talking about the other societies where it says, They cut down a tree, and they cut part of it, and they carve it, and they make it into this idol. And the rest of the wood, they burn in the fire to get warm. And it never occurs to them saying, I just burnt this part of the tree up, and this part I'm going to fall down and worship and say, Your God saved me. Those people thought everything could be a God. But God said, no, there's only one God. But He didn't mean only one singular individual, but one God family. Now, I'll mention this because, as a matter of fact, I think after I spoke last time, someone said, Feel free to keep making references to Mr. Armstrong. And we have a heritage there. When he introduced this concept, he liked to use his own name, and I thought, Well, it's pretty cool. I can do that now because I've got a son. But I could say, OK, there is one Dunkel family here. I'm Dunkel, and my son, Connor, is also Dunkel. And he and I, together with Sue, and we can't leave her out because she's the most important part, are one Dunkel family. It's that way with, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, one family.

Now, we can still wonder, why did God do it that way? Sometimes I think, well, because I had to put Sue in there, and I don't... She's not here to give me dirty looks, that she's downstairs. She's probably giving dirty looks to the television. But I don't want to mean to say I had to put her in there, but did you ever wonder, OK, there's a father and son, how did we get women in this? And we can speculate, but if you look in Genesis 1, verse 27, matter of fact, let's go there. Instead of me presuming that I'm going to quote it properly, let's just read it. There's something, as we're analyzing the nature of God, this is something, again, another slight speculation on my part, but I think it's true. Genesis 1, verse 27, So God created man, and where it says, this one should be mankind. God created mankind in his own image, and the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So male and female both created in the image of God. And that's interesting, because we think about the father and the son, we use the male pronouns, and we think of them as men, but God clearly says in other places, I'm not a man, don't compare me to a man, I'm God. So he's not male in the sense that us men here are male, and he's not female. But to represent himself, he created male and female. And in looking at the differences, I've noticed over the years there are some differences. But I think God took some of his traits and made them a little more predominant in females. And some of his traits he made a little more predominant in the males. Now, they're all his traits. He made us in his image. But I think he separated them out and made some of us more like him in some ways, men more like him in some ways and women more like him in other ways. And then I say, well, why in the world did you do that? Whenever Sue and I are having a disagreement, which almost never happens, but why did you do that? I think he did it to help us to learn to love one another, to see that we need to be together to be complete. We're most like God when we're unified, when we have the aspects that he put in males and females and brought us together, and we have to learn to love one another and to trust and rely on one another. Once again, that's a little speculation. The Bible doesn't specifically say that, but we do know it says that he made male and female in his image. And he wants us to love one another like he loves us. He loves us with the love of a father. Now, I wonder how many of you, and think back, as I said, I'm seeing more white heads. And it's scary to think, but I'll mention this. I'll probably, if I think of it, I'll mention it when I come back. I'm planning on the next Sabbath, after we've moved, giving my sort of icebreaker and tell my life story. But I still remember that when I first started speaking in church, because I'd been teaching college-level classes for a while. I said, well, you're already a teacher. It's no big deal to get up and speak. I said, yeah, but when I go into a college classroom, they're all younger than me, and they don't know near as much as I do about the material.

When I come into church, most of them have been studying God's Word longer than I've been alive. You know, who am I to teach them anything?

Oh, now I was talking to the hoary head. So I said, why did I get on that story? But it's because some of you were, it's a long time since you were a little kid, but I'll bet some of you have had this discussion, where you got into one of those discussions about, my dad is bigger than your dad. Or, in my neighborhood, it was my dad can beat up your dad.

Now, I wonder, partly, this is human nature. We all want to be attached to the biggest and the best, the strongest. But I think, perhaps, God built into children a natural tendency to honor their fathers and their parents. Let's turn to Proverbs 17.

Proverbs 17, verse 6. Interesting, and of course Solomon, the wisest man ever, wrote this down.

Now, easy for us to relate to the first part, where he says, Children's children are the crown of old men. Most of us in this room are closer to being grandparents than being little children. So we can understand that, but it also says, the glory of children is their father.

The glory of children is their father. I think children can glory in their father. That's why they want to say, my dad's bigger than your dad. They looked at their kids and it means so much to them. And I think Connor does that to me sometimes, and maybe it's my imagination. I went in this morning and he was up and he looked at me and he gave me that big smile. It used to be the toothless smile, but now the teeth are starting to come out. But now, sometimes I'll pick him up and you do this in the air with him, and he just smiles and giggles and he just loves it.

He's glorying in my strength. And for all he knows, I'm the most powerful being in the universe. Now, pretty soon he's going to be a teenager and he'll know that I don't know anything at all. So I'm hoping to put that, delay that a little bit. But while we're focusing on God's love for us as a father, it's worthwhile to consider how great he is. And I want to turn to that for a bit, because our dad truly is bigger than all other dads. You know, our Heavenly Father is the biggest, most greatest of all.

We don't just worship some idea of goodness. We worship the God who made everything. And here's where I do want to go to Isaiah 44. Now, I'm just going to read one scripture in Isaiah right now, but later we're going to come back to this area. So if you have a free marker, you might want to put it in here for when we come back.

But Isaiah 44 and verse 24... And like I said, this is one of my favorite parts of scripture, because here in Isaiah around this section, God starts speaking in first person. And he starts saying, I'm the God who does this or that. And, you know, when God wants to reveal himself and who and what he is to people, it becomes very impressive.

So here in verse 24, Thus says the Eternal your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb, says, I am the Eternal who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, doesn't need any help, who spreads abroad the earth by myself. That's the God who we worship. He made the heavy, spread it out by his power, and put out the earth.

He didn't need any help to do it. And I think that's astounding. Now, there's a slideshow I've seen, and I don't have it to reproduce, but I know a fellow up in Columbus used it as a basis for a sermonette a couple years ago, and you might have seen this where it shows the different planets in relation to their size, and some of you are nodding your heads.

It's astounding to put that in perspective, so I thought verbally maybe I can describe some of that, because as Sue and I were getting to come down here, I pulled out my map of Ohio, just to make sure I had the right route, which you wondered. All you had to do was take route 23 down. But, you know, I had to get over a little bit off of there. But, you know, you look at a map of Ohio even. Portsmouth is a bit bigger than a dot, and if you get the whole U.S., we're a dot. But if you walk across it, it seems like a lot more than a dot to us, right?

But then, think, you know... Well, I was thinking also, I remember when Mr. Smith and I drove out to visit Camp Pinecrest a month or two ago, if you drive across Illinois, you start thinking, boy, this country's big! Those corn fields go on and on and on, and parts of Ohio can seem that way. But on a map of the country, it's only a dot.

Whereas, if you get the globe out, you find that most of our planet is water. All those corn fields get lost in the water, so our planet seems really, really big, and then you look out in the solar system. Our biggest planet, Jupiter, can hold more than a thousand Earths. About 1,300 Earths can fit inside. And remember, we're just a little dot on that Earth.

And now Jupiter's our biggest planet. But if you compare it to the Sun, you can put a thousand Jupiters inside the Sun. It's that much bigger. Which, if I'm doing my math right, that means about a million Earths could fit inside the Sun. And on those million Earths, remember, our town is only a little dot. How big are we? But as big as the Sun is, put a million of our planets in there, it's only average size, maybe on the smallest size.

Compared to some stars, it doesn't matter if you made our Sun like the size of a pea, there are some stars that would be as big as a basketball next to it. But remember, that pea has a million of our planets in it, and we're a dot on each one of those.

Maybe I need to keep going? Well, go one more, because, okay, if you think of our galaxy, that star that's the size of a basketball, throw that out in the Pacific Ocean. And that's that star in the vastness of the Milky Way. And there's billions of other galaxies out there. I mean, it goes so far, we can't even comprehend. It just keeps going and going. And our God made it all. Go to Jeremiah 32.

How big is our God?

Jeremiah 32 here, Jeremiah is talking to God. And he says, Ah, Lord God, behold, you have made the heavens, all that vastness of it with all those stars. You have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.

That's how big he is. He made all that. Nothing is too hard for him. Well, how did he do it?

And that's, I've got to say, I don't know. How in the world did he do all that? But we have scientists studying and trying to figure out exactly how all this is put together. And they know that all matter, all the physical stuff we touch is made up of these tiny little particles. You get down to certain elements, and then they're made up of what are called atoms. And an atom is, well, it's so small, it's in relation, once again, say that star that's compared to a basketball, full of, you know, with the sun next to it as a pea, and all those million planets within it, well, the atom would be the size of the earth next to one... I just realized, I was going to say the atom would be the size of an earth next to a basketball. If you guys can follow that, then... But you get the point. It's really, really tiny. And now we've learned that an atom consists of, you know, that little... It's a center part called a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons, and electrons spinning around it. And the ratio is about the same as the sun to the planets. That much distance. Which means, wow, that tiny... everything's made out of these atoms, and it's mostly made up of empty space. You know, it's these electrons whirling around a nucleus that's so far away that if you blew it up the size of the solar system, you know how much space there is between us and the sun. There's a lot of nothingness. Now, can that be? Can most of what we think of as solid be nothing? And then, I've read... for some reason, I think it seems a lot of people that study history also like to study physics. Someone told me it's because they like to figure out how things work, or how things got the way they are. You know, I've read some of these books, and there are physicists who purport what they call the string theory of matter. The string theory says that even all these subatomic particles getting down to the smallest things are made up of strings of vibrating energy. The strings of vibrating energy, which means actually nothing tangible at all. Made out of nothingness. And that seems odd. Let's turn to the book of Hebrews 11. Because we're just now coming to that, and it turns out in the Bible, though, there's something that sort of says that, or Paul wrote it long time ago. Hebrews 11 and verse 3.

It says, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Okay, God made all the worlds, and so that the things which are seen were made of things which are not visible. Or the old King James says, the things that are seen were made of things that cannot be seen. God made all this physical stuff out of stuff not only we can't see, but some physicists would say doesn't even exist.

Perhaps he made it out of his own energy. He created it and brought it into being from nothingness. That's just astounding to me. But that's our God. That's how great he is. And with all this vast universe that he created and controls, he still cares about each one of us. He knows each one of our names. When we pray to him, he's still listening. He's not distracted by what's going on in Arcturus and Polaris and all those other stars named that end in is.

Let's consider also the nature of light. I've always been amazed by that because light is something we rely on. It's around us. We can see things. We can't exist without it. But we wonder, what is it really? Let's turn to Isaiah 45. And I'll tell you some of the things I've looked in because, of course, scientists have studied that. We're going to read Isaiah 45 and verse 7.

But in studying it, some scientists have come up with two competing theories as to what light is. One theory says it consists of tiny, tiny particles called photons. And they do these experiments that show that light fits this theory that it's made up of these tiny particles. Then other scientists say no light is made up of electromagnetic waves, so it's pure energy. And they do experiments that show light fits that. But they don't... it seems like light is both. It's both tiny particles and it's electromagnetic...

Electromagnetic waves. But it can't be both. It's got to be something. But whatever it is, in Isaiah 45 verse 7, God's here speaking in first person, it says, I form the light and create darkness. Whatever it is, God made it. And he made it so it works. And he made it so we can see it. That's one of the astounding things when scientists start studying the human body. And I'm not even getting into that today. But the human eye is one of the most complex, amazing things that there is. And God made it. He made it so it works. Let's turn, Isaiah 45, look at verse 11. Thus says the Eternal, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, you command me. I've made the earth and created man on it. I, my hands, imagine God saying this, I did it with these hands stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts I commanded. That's our God. That's how big he is. Let's skip ahead to chapter 46. Isaiah 46, we'll read verses 9 and 10.

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times the things are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. That's God saying, what I purpose to do, it's going to get done. Nothing's going to get in my way. And of course, there's no higher power that controls God. And that's something I used to ponder. Every now and then, for some reason, I like to think of these abstract thoughts. But do you ever wonder when you say, God determines what's good and what's bad, what's right and what's wrong? And I thought, well, does God have to always do what's right? Because if so, then there must be a higher power than God deciding what's right and wrong. And I said, well, that can't be right. I'm speculating again. When I talk about the nature of God in the universe, I tend to get off on that.

And then I realize, well, no, there can't be a higher power making God do what's always right. And I look back at all these scriptures about how God created the universe. Well, of course, He created the universe. And God says, I'm good. God is loved. So when He created the universe, everything that corresponds to God and the way He is, is good by definition. And anything that runs counter to the way God is, is bad by definition.

In other words, He didn't have to decide what's good and bad, just God is good. Good is defined by what God is. And some of you older people are saying, well, how long did it take you to figure that out, dunker? We've known this for years. I understand. Remember, I'm younger than a lot of you. But I like to put it in words now and then. Goodness is what God is. And anything that's not with God, then isn't good. He didn't have to decide what's good and evil. It just is, because He made everything that is. And it's not going to change. And that's something I do want to focus on. You can write this down. Malachi 3, verse 6, is where God says, I am God, I do not change, therefore you're not destroyed. God doesn't change, and therefore the rules governing the universe don't change. That's because He can't change. He can't stop being God. So it's not an arbitrary system. He didn't sit down and say, this is good and wrong, and this is right and wrong, or this is good and evil, and maybe I'll change my mind later, because it doesn't work that way. Therefore we know what's good will always be good, and what's wrong will always be wrong. So the law of cause and effect will always be there. Which is why the wages of sin is death. He can't just waive that. He can't say, well, for you, no death. Because He doesn't change, He couldn't compromise what He is. But He's also so great and so good that He devised a plan to pay the penalty. Because He is God and can't change, the penalty has to be paid. But He devised a plan for sin to be paid, because He wanted us to have that opportunity for life.

Because He loves us. He loves us with the love of a Father. Let's focus in back on that where we started. In John 3 and verse 16.

John 3 verse 16. Now this is a scripture not only we in the church, in the United Church of God know, but a lot of people all over know, because it's probably the most popular scripture in the Bible. Not for bad reason. We've tended to stay away from some things that sound kind of Protestant-y, because we want to distinguish ourselves, but we don't want to separate ourselves from what this says.

John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That's the love of a Father. He so loved us, He gave His only begotten Son.

Now the Greek word here for loved is agapeo, which is from the Greek agape, which is love. And I know most of you have been around long enough that you know there are three Greek words that are translated as love in the Bible. The first two are pretty easy. You know, eros is that physical love between a man and a woman. That's not hard to come by. Philadelphia, brotherly love, that companion ability, that affection, that respect that we have. But it's agape that's the pure, totally unselfish love. That's the love of God. And what those of us that are fathers strive for, because the love of a Father doesn't quite attain to the love of God the Father.

But it's important when we talk about love that we remember God is love. Matter of fact, it's John 4, verse 8.

No, it's 1 John 4, verse 8. You know, I looked at this earlier and said, I need to... I'm going to do it right now.

Because I'm going to give the sermon at the campout. 1 John 4, verse 8. Now I'll say it right the next time.

I thought, if somebody's listening to this later on the website, they're going to say, what in the world is he talking about? I'll be writing on his notes.

He who does not love doesn't know God, for God is love. Just as good and evil are determined by what God is, love is just determined by what God is, because he is love.

It's not that he has to love or he forces himself, he just is love.

So the love that God has for us is the agape. It's the purest, most unselfish, most outgoing form of love there is.

And that's the type of love that inspires Christ's sacrifice, the love of a heavenly Father. Now, if you're like me, especially when you're younger, you can almost take that for granted. You know, all of our lives we've known Christ gave his life for us. And so we sort of take it for granted. Of course he did. That's what God does. And it's nice to know we can't always count on God always being willing to pay that price.

But sometimes I thought I might not appreciate it as much as I should because, of course, like I said, that's what God does. He can't not do that.

So I want to share a story of a human Father making a sacrifice for his Son.

And then show, sort of, to equate that to God and how much greater God the Father's sacrifice was.

Now, the person I'm going to talk about was 19th century abolitionist John Brown. I don't know if you're familiar. You might have seen the pictures of the crazy beard. People in Columbus are tired of hearing about him because I've studied his life a lot as a historian and actually did some portrayals of Brown where I'd have to let my beard grow long.

You know, he's known in history as an abolitionist, one who wanted to end slavery, also known as a fanatic. A lot of historians teach that he was nuts, that he was off his rocker. He was a little fanatical. Some people call him a terrorist. He was behind the cold-blooded killing of some people who supported slavery.

But there's a story about him most people don't know when he was younger. And it's a story that he didn't write down, but his oldest son did. So this story is told from the perspective of John Brown, Jr.

He says, when John Brown, the abolitionist, was a younger man, he worked as a tanner.

So he got leather, and he worked it into leather.

He got cowhide and turned it into leather. I know he didn't turn leather into leather.

Anyways, his sons would follow in his business. When they were younger, he taught them how. So John, Jr. was a very energetic, somewhat rambunctious young man. So at about 12, 13 years old, he starts working in the tanning house. But he wasn't always a very diligent worker. He liked to slip away whenever he could and go out and play. And he was known sometimes to not be so truthful dealing with his parents. And John was getting a little exasperated. He'd make his son read the Bible and tried to teach him right and wrong. But John, Jr. still was getting into trouble. So John, Sr., decided at one point, took John aside and said, Okay, we're going to try something new to help you learn about doing right and not doing wrong. I'm going to start keeping an account book. Okay, I've got this book. I'm going to keep a record. When you do something naughty, it's going to go in and you'll start earning punishment. Now, you can mitigate that by doing good things. So if you do more good than bad, you can take away punishment. But eventually, the penalty is going to be paid. And so John, Jr. agrees to that and they carry on. Days go by, then weeks. But at one point, John, the father, comes up to John, the son. I didn't realize I didn't use that when I was working on this. And he said, Okay, son, your account is hopelessly overdrawn. We've got to have a settlement. You've got too much punishment. So I said, Come on, we're going to go to the tanning house. They go away from the house where they live in to the factory. They go into the upper room, just the two of them, sits them down on a stack of cowhide, and they go through every entry in the book. Now, remember when you did this? I want to make sure this is accurate. You did do this. Yes, yes, Daddy, I did. And they go through every account to show that, okay, you agree the punishment is just. And by the time they get to the end of the accounting, John, Jr. is in tears. And he admits, Yes, I did these things. I deserve the punishment. Now, John, the father, calculates it to where, okay, you owe me 20 lashes with the switch. And, of course, he's got the nice little supple switch off the tree. Son, he has him bend over the cowhide, and we're going to give him 20 lashes. Bend over grits. They only go one, two, three. They go up seven. And then they stop. Waiting for the next one. Finally, John, Jr., he looks around, and he sees his father taking off his shirt.

What are you doing? So, son, the penalty still has to be paid. I'm going to take the remaining lashes for you. He hands the son the switch. And then John, the father, bends over. He says, okay, lay him on. I'm going to take your penalty. And he says, John, Jr. was absolutely terrified, he writes. But he was also terrified not to obey. So, hits him lightly. He says, no, harder.

This penalty has to be paid. And he lashes him until the remaining 20 lashes have been done. And there's blood trickling down his waist. It's interesting now, and John, Jr. says, father never spoke of this incident again. And John, Jr., by the way, wrote of this later when he was an adult. Telling someone about what life was like with his father. His father had become famous and had been executed already. But he said, my behavior dramatically improved from that day forward.

So suddenly, seeing the penalty and letting someone else have to pay it, that got into his head. Now, we think John Brown, the father in this case, it's obvious to us he was emulating Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ took a penalty that we all have earned, and he paid it for us. That's not hard for us to understand. At least for me, I think that's a noble thing for a father to do.

And it wasn't easy probably, getting switched and have blood coming off your back. But we'd be willing to do that, to teach our son a lesson. I think if it ever came down to it with me and Connor, I hope that I would be willing to do that. I'm not real eager right now, and of course he's too young to know what I'm talking about.

But how easy would it be, I think for me, if I know, say, when Connor's grown. Because I think John Brown, the father, had a father of his own. His dad was named Owen. I'm not sure if Owen ever learned about this incident. Maybe he did, and would he look and say, well, John, that was a good thing for you to take your son's punishment.

But I wonder if John told him, dad, I'm going to take this punishment not for my son John, but for these other people who are troublemakers. People out there, and they're still rebellious. They're not sorry at all that they've caused all this trouble, but I'm going to step up and take their punishment. How much would Owen be willing to say, yeah, John, you should go do that? Most fathers would tell their son, no, don't go pay the penalty for those people. Let them...they earned it. They've sinned. And you know where I'm getting at? It's God the Father willingly gave his son Jesus Christ for us, and not when we were repentant, but when we're still sinning.

All of us were still set in our ways, going the wrong track. And I don't want to run people down who are off... because a lot of people, if you're not called to repentance, you don't realize what you're doing. But God said still, they don't know what they're doing, but they're doing it. They're rebellious. But God the Father gave up Jesus Christ. Let him step in and take that penalty. That's what the Father did.

He forced himself to look away while his only begotten son was sacrificed for us. And he did it not because he didn't love Jesus Christ so much, but because he does love us so much. And I think, does God the Father love you? Yes. He loves you and he loves me with the love of a Father. Let's turn to Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29 will read verses 11 through 13. I was kind of surprised. I know many of you see the telecast on Sunday mornings. I had already written this up and I saw Steve Myers as quoting my scripture. Of course, it's been in the Bible all along, so it's not a big surprise.

But I thought maybe it's a good thing if I'm thinking like him. But Jeremiah 29 verse 11 said, For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Eternal, Thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

This isn't a vengeful God. This isn't a God who is kind of mean or harsh. This is the loving Father who is willing to let his firstborn son die so that we could become his sons. Because he wanted us to have a hope. He has peaceful, good thoughts towards us.

Let's also turn to Isaiah 49.

Isaiah 49, we'll begin in verse 14.

We'll see that God loves us not only with the love of a Father, but with THE Father, a perfect Father. Isaiah 49 verse 14, But Zion says, The Eternal has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. And he says, yeah, can a woman forget her nursing child? And I think of that, because I'm married to a woman who has a nursing child. No, you can't. And he says, But surely they may forget. A human could forget. But he says, Yet I will not forget. God says, I will never forget. My love surpasses even that of a human father or mother. We'll never forget.

And with that, I think I want to turn to Luke 11. This is the last place I was going to turn. I told you, sometimes I have a lot of Scriptures, and this is one of those days. Luke 11, beginning in verse 9, this is what we call the Ask, Seek, Knock section of Scripture, which is one I always find very comforting, because Ask, Seek, Knock, it says, Ask and you'll be given, Seek and you'll find, reminding us that God wants to give good things to us. But sometimes we overlook the Why. Why does he want us to have good things? Why does he make himself so accessible?

In the beginning of verse 9, he says, So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock, and it will be open to you for everyone who Ask receives. He who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be open.

I love the illustration he gives afterwards. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will you give him a stone? Of course not. Or if he asks you for a fish, will you give him a serpent instead of a fish? No. Your son comes to you and says, I'm hungry, can we have some fish? You don't give him a snake. Now, I like to point out some fathers might give him a fishing pole and say, yeah, we're going to teach you how to get your own fish.

Or if he asks you an egg, will you give him a scorpion? He says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them who ask? You know, even though we're human and we're evil in that sense, we're corrupt, but he built it into us to want to give good things to our children. We want to provide for them, to help them.

And once again, I say having a son, I realize that more now than ever. Sue and I look at Connor and we want to make sure he has all the things that he needs. I think when I was younger, my mom told me when I grew up, she said, my goal for you was to always make sure you had everything that you needed and several of the things that you wanted that you didn't necessarily need. And I think that for Connor, I want to give him good gifts. Well, how much more does the Heavenly Father, our Father, want to give us good things? Including the best thing. I like it. He says, the Holy Spirit. God wants to give us His own essence. He wants to give us Himself. That's the love of a Father, the love that He has for us.

Now, I said from the beginning that becoming a Father has helped me to see these things. And I also said that I noticed I was referring to Sue and Connor a lot in my speaking. So, unfortunately, that's something you'll have to hear a fair bit about over the next months and years. But I think God designed it that way all along. The Bible shows us that God is a family and that it consists of God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ, but also of a great many children not yet born. But conceived, many begotten who are going to be born. And that's astounding when you think that the Father we're looking to is the one who made this vast whole universe. And we could seem tiny and insignificant. Sometimes it's good to think of which polysyllabic words you want to throw in. But we could seem like nothing to God, and yet we're not nothing. We're something to Him. He's that great and He is that loving because He's our Father and for us He has the love of a Father.