Regard, Respect, Reflect on Our Heavenly Father

Well, good morning again, brethren. As I was waiting for the third stanza of that song, I need to hurriedly get up here and get myself ready. I always look to see how many verses are in this, you know, which song we're singing, and I didn't realize how quickly that one might conclude. Well, as we already mentioned, at least I guess perhaps we mentioned beforehand, this past Sunday, you know, many people here in the United States acknowledged a Father's Day.

And of course, that's an honorable annual observance that clearly supports the Fifth Commandment. And all of us know that, we're aware of that, and I hope that you were able to enjoy that day as well. We know in Deuteronomy and in Exodus we're told to honor our Father and our Mother. And to do so requires some effort. We have to be thinking about why. And in Matthew 6, Jesus gave in the model prayer an instruction to His disciples to pray in a certain way, or using not just the words, but somewhat of a pattern of a prayer to pray to our Father who art in heaven.

Now, that's what I want to focus on today. Whatever type of family we grew up in, and some of us grew up in incredibly stable and sound and loving and caring and very beneficial families. Some of us grew up in much less favorable circumstances. And so our outlook on a Father might vary. And yet, our outlook on our heavenly Father shouldn't vary. It is, even the reason why we come to services, why we come and not only get together with one another, but we come to worship our heavenly Father.

And so I want to talk about how we can truly worship and honor our heavenly Father today. That's, again, not a foreign topic, I would say. But certainly something that we can think about and benefit from, is studying the Word of God. And it's not only our words. It's our prayers. As Jesus was directing, you should pray to your Father in heaven. His disciples were asking, well, how are we supposed to pray? What are we supposed to pray about? And we have, obviously, an excellent outline there. But it starts with our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

See, why does he put that at the very beginning? Well, because that was absolutely a significant factor for not only Jesus, but for all of the disciples and for all of the people who make up the Church of God over the last 2,000 years and ultimately for all mankind. We're all going to become to where we relate to, have a relationship with our Heavenly Father, where we commune with our Heavenly Father, where we have, and this would be something to think about, what kind of rapport do I have with my Heavenly Father?

Because if it's not growing, if it's not being developed, well then I would encourage us that it should be. It should be improving. And we should, as many times in our prayers, we're often asking God for things. We're asking God for this or for that or for this need or that need or for healing or all the stuff that we need, and that's not wrong. We're supposed to do that. Let's see, as we share with the Father, we also need to know that the Father certainly wants to share with us some incredible things.

And so, it's not just our prayers, but it's our actions, it's our thoughts, it's even the intents of our heart that God is interested in talking about with us. Now, He reveals a lot of things in the Word of God, and we have to be willing to study those in order to know what they are. And yet, I want to be able to go over this today because I think it's important that we have a growing relationship with our Heavenly Father.

And so the title of the sermon today is Regard, Respect, and Reflect Our Heavenly Father. Now, I broke it down that way because that seems to make sense to me. First of all, how are we to regard our Heavenly Father? Well, I think it's fairly easy to see that we need to look at our Heavenly Father as our Creator and our life-giver. See, whenever we think about God, we can think about, you know, you don't see God, you don't directly hear God unless you hear His words or you see His actions through Jesus, and we're able to see God in many ways.

But see, even as Mr. Barnett commented, people today are being undermined by deception. They're being undermined where they don't recognize their Heavenly Father. They don't recognize their Creator and the One who gave them life. Here in Romans 1 you find a very poignant verse, actually. Romans 1, Paul makes a clear statement, and I'll just start in verse 19. Romans 1, verse 19, he says, What can be known about God is plain to men, to them, because God has shown it to them.

God reveals Himself everywhere. If we have eyes to see, if we have ears to hear, and of course I know you do. So we can see God, we know God, but here it says in verse 20, Ever since the creation of the world, his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things that He has made.

And so they, mankind, are without excuse, even though, unfortunately, there's a lot of disregard for the Creator God. And that, of course, is because of the hostile, carnal mind that everyone acquires growing up in this world. It says in verse 21, For though they knew God, they didn't honor God, Him as God, or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. See, that's Paul's description of what the world was like. That was Paul's description of himself. He realized he grew up in a Judaic system. He was very familiar with talking about God and the Old Testament as we would know it, the law, and teaching that and many of the traditions that he grew up with.

But he says, you know, I've not really been close to God until God brought me into a point to where my eyes would be open. But he says in talking about mankind in general, you know, it's impossible to miss that there's a Creator God when you look around and see what's going on. In Isaiah 45, I've got way too many scriptures written down here. Of course, this is a pretty easy topic to do that, I would guess, because there's way too much information in the Bible that reveals.

But what I'm wanting us to really focus on is our appreciation and our relationship with our Heavenly Father. That comes from seeking that. It comes from desiring that. And yet, as I mentioned here, we've got to regard God, our Heavenly Father. I say God because obviously it is God who is our Heavenly Father, and yet to think of God as our Heavenly Father. See, how is it that you approach God in prayer? You know, sometimes we use the name God, our Heavenly Father.

We use a lot of different words or names that could refer to God. And yet, we think of the Father as being almighty. We think of Him as being all-knowing, so He knows everything about my good or bad actions or attitudes, words or thoughts, or anything in my heart. He already knows that. He's always available, but we should also think of God as all-loving and all-merciful, because He is.

And He is desirous of His children being able to relate to Him in such an intimate way that they appreciate. Here in Isaiah 45, He says in verse 6, "...so that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make will and create woe. I, the Lord, do all these things." He says, I've made everything.

If we look down to verse 11, it says, "...the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the Maker, the Creator of Israel, will you question Me about My children or command Me concerning the work of My hands? I made the earth, and I created humankind upon it. It was My hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host." And down then in verse 18, "...for thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, He is God, who formed the earth and who made it, who established it, and He did not create it in chaos," or a chaos, He formed it to be inhabited.

See, God created this earth, He fashioned and shaped the earth that we live on and that we can look out and take a look at and we should meditate on the Creator God, what He has done in all of these things. You know, there's so much we can learn by just, in one of the Psalms says this, be still and know that I am God. See, that would be rather backwards from what the world promotes today.

The world promotes today, zit zit zit zit zit, going every which direction and being completely wrapped up in something all the time. I don't think that's terribly healthy. That might be productive, that might even be efficient, but that may not cause a relationship to grow with the Creator God who is our Heavenly Father. And so we don't, you know, we need to consider that. We need to think about that. Another part of regarding our Heavenly Father as our Creator is that the fear of God has got to be before our eyes.

So you read in Isaiah, or excuse me, Psalms 53, and you can read the same thing in Psalm 14 if you want, because it's very similar. But it says in Psalm 53 verse 1, fools say in their heart that there is no God.

We have that promoted in many places around the world and all the time in our news that people don't want to acknowledge there's a Creator God. Fools say in their heart there's no God. They're corrupt. They commit abominable acts. There is no one who does good. And God looks down from heaven on mankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. And yet they've all fallen away. They are all alike perverse. There is no one who does good. No, not one. Now this should cause you to perhaps remember what Romans 3 says, because Paul quotes this in Romans 3.

He shows that the way of peace people don't know. And in verse 4 here, have they no knowledge, these evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon God.

See, that's the world that we live in. And yet all of us have an incredible blessing of being able to draw close to our heavenly Father. The Father who is incredibly loving and kind toward us, but He does want us to call upon Him. He does want us to relate to Him not only in our prayers, but in our actions, in our thoughts.

We read a verse every year at the Feast of Deuteronomy 14.23 that we're there in order to what? Learn to fear God. Learn to rejoice before God. Learn to fear the Lord your God always. That's why fear of God is so important. I want us to look at Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1 says in verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And fools despise that. They despise wisdom and instruction. So we should have a proper fear of God. I thought about this in light of the fact that we often are afraid of many other things, and that's actually to our detriment.

But the fear of God leads to a productive outcome. It leads to abundant life. It leads to a respect for His law. But here in verse 7, the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. And if we drop down to verse 29, again in talking about this in the first chapter of Proverbs, verse 29, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

See, we need to choose to fear God, choose to have a respect for God. And even back in Genesis 22, when we take a look, Genesis 22, in regard to Abraham and his ultimate test of offering Isaac on an altar that he knew this can't be, or if it is, then God will have to resurrect him from the dead. But he was willing to do that, and I'm not going through this entire count. But in verse 12, well, let's back up to verse 11. The angel of the Lord called to him and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.

What do you want me to do? He was at a point where he was about to offer Isaac. And yet in verse 12, he said, Don't lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you've not withheld your son, your only son from me. Now, of course, that was a monumental test in Abraham's life. But see, what it shows that God would recognize about Abraham because he had a big plan for Abraham going forward and for his children, says, Now I know that you have a proper fear of God.

And of course, in connection with seeing God as our creator and life giver, we have to follow the example of Jesus because, you know, he came from the Father. He had always existed as the eternal word with the great God. And yet he was willing to come to the earth. He was willing to take on a human form. And here in John 14, he describes being a human being. Being a human being was a unique experience for Jesus Christ. He was here in what was a more limited form, or perhaps at least it was a human form.

And yet he was God. He was the Son of God. He was a perfect example in relationship with the Father. But here in John 14, verse 28, he was telling his disciples, as he was about to be offered as a sacrifice for sin, You heard me say that I'm going away and then I'm going to come back to you. So he had told them that many times. But if you love me, you would rejoice that I'm going to the Father because the Father is greater than I am. Was Jesus as the Son of God in submission to the Father who was greater than he was?

Well, clearly he would later resume a role at the right hand of God. And yet here he says the Father is greater than I am. And now I have told you this because before it occurs so that when it does, you can believe. You can have the same type of relationship that I have with my great Father. And he says I will no longer talk much with you because the ruler of this world is coming and he has no power over me.

But I do as the Father has commanded me in verse 31. See, I follow through on the plan that we have put together long ago. I'm obedient, I'm responsive, I'm in submission to the Father. He says I do as the Father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father. I love the Father. See, that's what the example is that Jesus gives.

And so if we're going to regard our heavenly Father as our Creator and as our life-giver, well then we're going to recognize He is the Creator. We're going to grow in a fear of God, a proper awe of God, and we're going to be in submission as Jesus was to His Heavenly Father. Now the second thing I mentioned was not only regarding God in a proper way but in respecting our Heavenly Father. How is it that we respect our Heavenly Father? Well, 1 John 2, 1 John 2, tells us how it is that we respond to God.

If we recognize Him as our Father, as our loving, caring, merciful, compassionate Heavenly Father, then we want to be honoring Him with obedience. Here in 1 John 2, starting in verse 3, it says, Now by this we may be sure that we know Him if we obey His commandments. And whoever says I've come to know Him and yet doesn't obey His commandments is a liar and in such a person the truth does not exist. See, that's quite an indictment of many people who would like to be saying that they know God and yet they don't obey God.

They don't show God that type of respect because acknowledging Him as the life-giver and as the law-giver is what we have come to believe. You know, we have come not just to believe that and know that, but we live that out of responsiveness to God. And here in verse 5, whoever obeys His word truly in this person, the love of God has reached perfection. And by this we may be sure that we are in Him and whoever says I abide in Him ought to walk just as He walked. And so clearly, one of the ways we're going to show respect to our Heavenly Father is to obey and to respond to Him in a way where we show that respect.

And see, how much is respect broken down in this world today? In our country today. How much is respect being undermined and actually being destroyed? And actually so much chaos and so much confusion created to where people become even more and more, even those who want to rejoice in having a show of respect, whether it's for God or whether it's just for other civil authorities, then they're dismissed.

They're set aside. And that's, I mean, they're in a sense dismissed and they are trying to be overruled. That's horrendous. It's certainly not respecting our Heavenly Father. Another thing that's going to be an emphasis in our relationship with our Heavenly Father is to be thankful. And of course, you know, you could use all kind of verses for this, but in Matthew 11, you see Jesus talking about His disciples and He's telling them, you know, you really have access to some special information. You've been, it's made known to you the mysteries or the secrets of the kingdom of God. And He said, you know, many people in the past have wanted to know some of this and yet you actually do.

And here in Matthew 11, in verse 25, it says, at that time Jesus said, I praise you or I thank you. I thank you, Father, Lord, of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent or intelligent and have you have revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will or such was pleasing in Your sight. See, any time we can't think of something to pray about, we can think of something to be thankful for. We need to be focused enough to be able to do that, to think of something to be thankful for.

Here Jesus is thanking the Father for the way He has chosen to work out a plan, for the way He has chosen to deal with some today and with others later on. You know, He knows what He's doing. He's in charge of this creation. He's not going to be undermined by the devil.

He's not going to be overtaken by the hostility or the violence. He's already dealt with that over and over again. You know, He will succeed, but see, that's our Heavenly Father. That's the one that we relate to. And of course, we want to seek the will of God as well. And that's another way that we, not my will, but your will be done.

That's what Jesus said. But you see other places where we're supposed to seek the will of God. And I was talking with Mrs. Ish the other day, and she's not able to really follow much of a discussion. I can read Psalms to her, which I try to do, and I can pray with her, but she will repeat. She repeats a lot of stuff, some of it not as clear as others, but some of it, I want to do God's will.

She's afraid of not doing God's will. Well, you don't need to worry about that. At your point, you're doing God's will. You're awaiting His intervention, whatever that is. And we don't know what and when and how, but you're doing God's will. You don't need to be worried. And yet I'm afraid she is worried.

She's worried as many times, if you're not able to and somewhat addled by other things that surely she's been given. It's hard to do. But if we regard God as our Creator, regard our Heavenly Father as our Creator, if we respect Him through obedience and gratitude, well then our relationship with our Heavenly Father is going to be expanding. It's going to be growing. It's going to be more satisfying. It's going to be more productive. And so, you know, those two things I think are extremely important for us to think about. And then finally, the third thing I wanted to put in this message is simply that we are to reflect our Heavenly Father.

See, that's what Jesus did when He was here on earth. He was clearly the Son of God. He was the pioneer of our salvation. He was the example that we would follow. Let's take a look here at Hebrews chapter 1. We read this the other day, but didn't focus so much on it. But in the book of Hebrews, you find in Hebrews chapter 1, it says in verse 1, long ago, God spoke to our ancestors. And so, I believe Paul, who probably wrote this book, he was saying to a number of people who had an Israelite Jewish background, long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets.

See, who were the prophets? Well, there were some former prophets and there were some later prophets, and some of them you can read pretty easily here in the book.

The latter part of the book of the Old Testament, the books of the Old Testament, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Daniel was clearly a prophet, and then Jose and Joel and Amos all the way up to Malachi. Let's say some of the former prophets were Samuel.

Well, clearly David was a prophet. You read the Psalms, you read all kinds of stuff that was going to happen in the life of Jesus Christ and ultimately going to happen not only in His first coming, but when He returns, when He establishes the Kingdom of God. You can't read Psalm 92 to 100 and not know this is talking about the returning King. So this is prophetic, and David is even called a prophet in Acts, so I'm not saying something that I think is not accurate. He was a king, yes, and he wrote many of what we read there in the book of Psalms. He wrote many songs, but he was also a prophet, and he prophesied of many things. But here in verse 1, long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets. For these latter days He has spoken to us by His Son, by a Son whom He has appointed heir of all things and through whom He also created the worlds. See, now the Father and the Son are both creators. They are both life givers. They are both law givers. But see, the Son says, look to the Father, look to my heavenly Father because that's good for you. That's good for you as the children of God to relate and actually to obey the Fifth Commandment to honor your Father, your spiritual Father, and to recognize your spiritual mother, which He says is the church, that we can be nurtured in the womb of the church and that we can relate to our heavenly Father in a way that, you know, causes a stronger rapport with the Father, causes us to be stronger as children.

It goes on in talking about this Son in verse 3. He is a reflection of God's glory and the exact image or imprint of God's very being, and He sustains all things by His powerful Word. See, that's the example that Jesus set. Of course, Paul was writing about the Son of God, the one who had come to the earth, the one who had lived and died as a sacrifice for sin. He even went ahead to say when he had made purification for sin, he sat down at the right hand of majesty on high. Far superior to all the angelic beings there and all of the defective angelic beings, including Lucifer. See, he was greater. And my point is simply that he reflected the Father. He was an example, an incredible example of what it is to reflect the Father.

See, I didn't write it down, but there is a verse that says Jesus said, if you've seen me, then you've seen the Father. It's got to be in John 13, 14, 15, 16. Somewhere there right before He would be taken and betrayed and crucified, but He was told His disciples, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And they were kind of wondering about that, but why was that? Well, because He is a perfect reflection.

And we have to think, well, are we a perfect reflection? I'm not a perfect reflection of the Father. Too many flaws, too many sins, too many difficulties that I struggle with, but that's my desire. That's what I want. That's what it says we're supposed to do here in Philippians chapter 2.

And of course, Philippians 2 is perhaps one of the most wonderful chapters you can read, and as far as learning what Jesus was willing to do and how He was willing to come to the earth, how He was willing to subject Himself to being human. And yet He did that for us. He did that for our benefit. And ultimately, in verse 9, therefore God, Philippians 2, 9, therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name, and that is the name of Jesus. At the name of Jesus, every knee is going to bend, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. To the glory of the Father is, you know, when we truly relate to Jesus Christ as our Savior and look to our creator God as our Heavenly Father, then we're doing that to the glory of God the Father. And down in verse 14, Paul in this book continues to say, don't do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, the children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. That's where we are today. That's the biblical description of the rulership of the Prince of the Power of the Air. That's where we are. But it says, but it says, as the children of God, you should reflect the Father. Reflect our Heavenly Father, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.

That's what He wants for us. That's what others might not think were much of a star.

Most of us would not feel like much of a star, I would guess.

And yet, incredibly, the Creator God says that's His desire. That's His intent. That's what He wants. If we have that close relationship with our Heavenly Father, well then, we're trying to reflect the way He is, the love that He has, and the guidance that He wants to give us and wants to give ultimately everyone, but, as we all know, in order to get there, what does He require? He requires us to repent.

You go back through the New Testament and you see Jesus says, Repent and believe the Gospel. Repent, or you will perish.

And Peter says in Acts, Repent and be baptized. Do something about it. Obey the Father.

And so, there's a lot of things that go into a relationship with God, but we certainly want to look to our Creator as our Heavenly Father.

So, you are to shine like stars in the world, and it is by your holding fast to the Word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

But even if I'm poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and offering of your faith, I'm glad and I rejoice with all of you. And in the same way, also, you must be glad and rejoice with me. That's what Paul was telling them. He says, you have every reason to rejoice. You have every reason to be glad. You who are shining with the help of the Father as stars in the world.

Now, that's why, of course, we read in John about Jesus saying, I'm the light of the world, and you're to be the children of light. Here in John 12, John 12, he was talking to his disciples, and in verse 35, Jesus said to them, John 12, 35, the light is with you for just a little while longer. I'm going to be gone.

But walk while you have the light so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in darkness, you don't know where you're going. That's again another description of the crooked and perverse world that we live in. But while you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become the children of light. That's how we can fulfill an impossible, on our own, an impossible mission. Because we look to the Son of God to provide us the light and be able to reflect our Heavenly Father, and it's why Jesus would say in Matthew 5, we've read through this here in the past year or so, going through the book of Matthew.

But in Matthew 5 verse 14, he says, you are the light of the world.

You should be the light of the world. If we're going to be stars standing out in the darkness in this world, then we're going to need to reflect not just our own nature, but the Father's nature. We're going to reflect what the Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Father, desires for us.

But he says, you are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it under a bushel basket, but it puts it on a lampstand, gives light to all of those in the house. See, that's the type of reflecting the Heavenly Father God wants us to do.

So that, in verse 16, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Now, at least at this time, they're going to see our good works. And perhaps ultimately, they will give glory to the Father in heaven, because that is everyone's potential. They have the potential of developing a relationship with our Heavenly Father that is genuine, that is true, that is based on the Word of God, that is based on His drawing them and converting them. That's what we're in the process of doing. So, as we last week perhaps thought about a physical parent, and I know that many of us would have parents who are deceased. Certainly I do. My wife does. Our fathers are, have died, I mean, some decades ago, actually. And I would say for many of us that would be the case, although, you know, if our Father is alive, then we ought to give them respect and honor. We ought to give them the type of love and support that we can. Sometimes it's not really even received sometimes.

And yet, as we worship and honor our Heavenly Father, that is an incredible blessing, an incredible honor. And in doing that, we must regard our Heavenly Father as our Creator.

We must respect our Heavenly Father by obedience and by giving thanks, and we should reflect our Heavenly Father as lights shining out in a darkened world.

That's why I titled this, Regard and Respect and Reflect Our Heavenly Father.