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"God the Father Carries You" Luke 11:1-11; Deuteronomy 33:12

by Clancy Nixon

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

June 17, 2007 Fathers' Day

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

Happy Fathers' Day to all you dads out there, and to all the rest of us, since we all

have fathers. Today is a day we remember our earthly fathers, giving thanks for all the

good they were and are to us. It's also a day to remember that God is your heavenly

Father, who loves you better than your earthly father ever could.

I read in the Washington Post yesterday an article about how hard it is for dads to

admit to their children that they don't know the answer to a child's question on a museum

visit. If my own Dad did not know the answer to something, he'd make something up!

When I was growing up, my family would go to Fenwick Island, Delaware, where there

is some sticky black tar in the sand. I'd ask him, "Dad, why is there tar in the sand?"

He'd get this serious look in his eye, and he's day, real solemnly, "Portuguese Oil

Tankers." It was as if all the tar in all the sand in the world was due to Portuguese oil

tankers! When I was little, I thought he knew everything, so I believed him. When I

became an older teenager, and I thought he knew nothing, I thought he was just making

this up, like he did many things. I thought you'd enjoy this video about ten things you'll

never hear your dad say....

We love you dads! Makes you wonder what Jesus was up to when he told us that

God is our Father, doesn't it?

The tile of my message today is "God the Father carries you." J.I. Packer, in his

classic book Knowing God, says that "everything that Christ taught us that makes the

New Testament new and better than the Old, everything distinctly Christian as opposed to

what is Jewish, is summed up in the idea of the Fatherhood of God." In the Old

Testament, God revealed himself to Moses as Yahweh, or Jehovah the great I AM.

Yahweh means literally I AM THAT I AM. This name signifies that God is the eternally

self-existent One, the sovereign creator of all. This name was too holy for the Hebrews to

pronounce, so it was written in the Bible without vowels, so that no one would presume

to pronounce it. This name of God conveys his holiness. The basic idea of holiness is

separate, great, pure, and apart. A Holy God is difficult and dangerous to approach, so we

need to be very humble, keep our place and our distance. The Temple of Solomon was

designed with the idea of increasing holiness toward the center of the Temple. There was

a court for Gentiles, who could get no closer. Then there was a place only priests could

go, the Holy Place. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple,

and then only once a year. His fellow priests would tie a rope around his ankle, in case he

was overcome with the Holy presence of God, and had to be dragged out. The idea was

that you had to be more and more holy in order to get closer and closer to God.

In the New Testament, Packer reminds us that the emphasis is different. God is no

less holy in the New Testament, and we are to be no less humble. What is new is that

Jesus tells us that God is now to be addressed as Father. Since Jesus' death and

resurrection, when the veil in the temple was torn in two, the way has been made open for

everyone who believes to enter the Holy of Holies, to the presence of God. We can now

all get up close to God in relationship, as close as with our earthly father. God your father

carries you. In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus tells us to pray to "Our Father in heaven." Father

is God's new covenant Name, which represents his character, and the New Covenant is a

family covenant. Christians are his children, his adopted sons and daughters the very

heirs of Father God. "The stress in the New Testament is not on the difficulty and danger

of approaching God, but rather on the boldness and confidence with which we can

approach him." (Packer) Ephesians 3:2 says, "Through faith in Christ we may approach

God with freedom and confidence." Hebrews 10:19-22 says, "Since we have confidence

to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus... let us draw near to God ..." When

God is your Father, you can approach him without fear, because you know that he will

carry you. Jesus called God not only Father, but Abba, which is the familiar form of the

Aramaic word Father. This is the word a small child would call his father, because it is

easy to pronounce. The child would crawl into his daddy's lap and say, "Abba."

While Father's Day is a joy for many, for many others it is a mixed bag. For

some of us, our fathers have died, and we miss them. Many of us have conflicted

relationships with our fathers or our children, and so Father's Day may bring up for you

feelings of grief or anger or guilt. Many of us had distant fathers. Some of us never

received our father's blessing that we so desperately desired. For some people, their

image of father has been so distorted by the wounding they received at the hands of their

fathers that they have a difficult time calling God `Father' at all. Father God understands

all of that, and he desires to heal those wounds, and to give you his blessing. This

blessing is not for everything you do, but for who you are you are His if you are born

again. If you have any of these needs, I want to encourage you to receive personal prayer

from a prayer minister along the left aisle either right after the sermon and during the

time of worship in song, or during our time of holy communion. I'll be glad to give you a

father's blessing at any time just ask me.

When Jesus tells us in Luke 11 to pray to our Father who gives us good gifts,

Jesus wants us to know that our God is like a perfect father. I had the gift of a father who

loved me. At his best, my earthly father gave me a glimpse of my heavenly Father. He

was far from perfect, but he carried me in many ways. He was a generous father, and he

provided me many advantages in life, particularly in education and in travel. If I had a

crucial need, he was there to carry me to it or through it. I knew what it was to be able to

call my father any time, and ask his advice. He was a lawyer, a soldier, and a friend. My

Dad died this last December at age 83, and I honor him today. I want to encourage you

to honor your father today. If he is still alive, call him or visit him and tell him you love

him. Tell him some way that he blessed you. Tell a story about your father to your

family today. Tell about the good things he is or was, so your children will know

something of their heritage, of how your father carried you.

It is our privilege as sons and daughters to come to Father God, knowing that his

shoulders are broad enough to carry us. I love this Scripture from Deuteronomy 33:12 -

"About Benjamin he said: "Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields

him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders." On the screen

you've been seeing a picture of my father carrying me on his shoulders. I still remember

with joy the sensation of riding on his shoulders, up impossibly high on his 6'3" frame!

It was scary, but I was secure that I would not fall off, because he held my feet. From

that height, I could see over crowds, I could see so far! In this picture, I see myself as

Benjamin, the beloved son of Jacob, son of the Father, who rests between his shoulders. I

believe that God desires each of us to see God in that way, to come to understand the

times God has carried us like a father. The times we could see what was ahead only

because we rested on his shoulders. The times we were frightened, but still secure in

knowing that God was holding us with his watchful eye, securing us through his steady

hand.

Today we honor the Lutyk family. The Lutyks have been missionaries among

you. Yes, missionaries. They picked up stakes for this mission. They moved their family

from Burke to Ashburn to help start this church. Missionaries do whatever it takes. No

matter the job, they jump in. Where music was needed at any time, like for Alpha, they

did music. When set-up and tear down was needed, they did that. When we needed

someone to run our youth ministry, they led that ministry. Where a shoulder was needed

to cry on, they provided it. When we needed a new leader for Women's ministry, Nora

stepped up to the plate. They have been founding fathers and mothers to us here. They

have set our DNA of musical worship to be joyous and wholehearted. I'll have more to

say about the whole family at the announcement time, but for now, I'd like to honor

Chris, the big daddy of the family. Chris has led us into the presence of God so faithfully

as our Minister of Music. He has been a father in God to many of us here, including

Amir and Jeremy. He has many spiritual sons and daughters. The Apostle Paul said in 1

Corinthians 4:15 "Though you have many teachers in Christ, you do not have many

fathers...." Chris, you have been a spiritual father to this family of God at CHS. We

honor you and your family today. Would you give a word to us in parting?...

God the Father carries you. Let him carry you once again as we worship Him in

song.