A Father's Blessing

Message

A FATHER’S BLESSING. Ephesians 3:14-4:3

Today is Father’s Day, a day we celebrate fathers and their impact on their children and families. So I decided to look at some Fathers in the bible and what better place to start than the beginning with Adam who had many sons and daughters. As we know, his first son was Cain and second son was Abel. In Genesis 4:8 we read, “Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.” 

Maybe starting with Adam wasn’t the best idea, so I decided to move to the next major father figure in the bible. In Genesis 6:9-10 we read, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

We all know the story, they all get on the boat, survive the flood and live happily ever after, right. Not exactly. Sometime after the flood Noah got drunk and Canaan, Ham’s son, was cursed.

So let's move on to the next father, Abram or Abraham as we know him. We know his sons Ishmael and Isaac. Well their descendants are still fighting today, so again maybe not a good example. 

How about Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob? Jacob tricked Isaac into getting Esau’s birthright blessing. Well then what about Jacob, he had 12 sons, surely one must have turned out alright! Yeah, but the other 11 wanted to kill him and even sold him into slavery.

As we get to the end of Genesis though we find something interesting. Jacob is at the end of his life. Joseph and his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim go to see Jacob. After some brief conversation, we read in Genesis 48:15-16, “Then [Jacob] blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,

the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

the Angel who has delivered me from all harm —may he bless these boys.

May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,

and may they increase greatly on the earth.”

 

It is at this point that I realized that the book of Genesis emphasizes the blessing of a father to his sons. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all gave formal blessings to their children—and, in Jacob’s case, to some grandchildren. Receiving a blessing from one’s father was a high honor, and losing a blessing was tantamount to a curse.

An Old Testament blessing of a father to his sons included words of encouragement, details regarding each son’s inheritance, and prophetic words concerning the future.

That is what I want to focus on today: the blessings of a father. 

Being a father means forming and nurturing another human being. Today we’re exploring a powerful tool to do that. It is the Blessing. A Father’s blessing is speaking the word of God over their child.

There are many great blessings in the Bible, one that jumps out at me is from Proverbs 3: “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge God, and God will make straight your paths.”  (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Who doesn’t want that for their child? Above all else: Trust God and let your feet be led in God’s paths.

In Scripture, a blessing is the greatest gift a parent can give their child. It defines who that child will be when they grow up. In the 49th chapter of Genesis, it says, “The blessings of your parents are mighty beyond the blessings of the eternal mountains,  the bounties of the everlasting hills.”  (Genesis 49:26)

People of courage, faith and integrity don’t just come out of nowhere. The Apostle Paul was like a father to the church in Ephesus. When he writes to them, he says, “I pray, according to the riches of God’s glory, that God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the Holy Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love…” (Ephesians 3:16-17)

Do you hear the power of that prayer? Can you imagine what a difference it could make in our children and grandchildren’s lives if every night as they drift off to sleep, they feel our hand upon their head, and they hear our voice praying that God would strengthen them, that God would dwell within them, that God would fill them beyond all fullness with the love of Christ.

This isn’t a prayer we say just once and call it good. Some blessings take time to take root. 

“I pray that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the Holy Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love…”    (Ephesians 3:16-17)

Rooted and grounded in love. All it needs is our faithfulness; when we remember we can bless life, we can repair the world. We can nurture their heart, and the depth of their spirit.

This isn’t a prayer that they’ll understand right off. The fruit of a growing soul doesn't appear all at once. This is a prayer that sinks into them, waters their spirit, grows inside of them: a prayer that they will understand in time as it forms their very character and expectation of life.

Can we imagine what a difference it would make in our children, our step-children, our grandchildren’s lives to know that we love them enough to pray for them like that. Not praying that she would just be a good little girl, but that she would be filled with the power and love of God.

Not praying that he will just do well in school, but that he will come to know the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that he may be filled with all the fullness of God.

That’s expansive and powerful. A prayer worth molding your life around. A prayer faithfully reinforced every day and every night. That is a prayer of blessing. That is what Genesis claims is mightier than the eternal mountains, more bountiful than the everlasting hills. It’s your blessing.

In Scripture, the blessing is usually spoken aloud as the parent’s hands are on the head of their child. This is not the time for subtlety, saying, “oh, they’ll pick up my faith from my actions”. No, we say the words out loud, clearly, powerfully, so they can hear every syllable.

And we don’t say it from across the room. No, a blessing is a profoundly intimate, physical type of prayer. We lay our whole hand on the child’s head- both hands- gentle, firm, strong. This is an action of incredible authority. Put your hand on someone’s head, and it says “I have power over you.” It is not an insignificant gesture. It is a gesture of power, and we don’t do it unless we’re doing it appropriately, to strengthen, to bless.

Holding our children and grandchildren, the words we speak are a vision, a glimpse of what God is creating inside them. A woman of courage and compassion. A man of integrity and hope. God’s children and God’s people, formed by our continual prayer of blessing.

Listen to Paul’s blessing again, and as I say it, try to imagine one person you’d like to pray it for: I pray… by riches of God’s glory…  that God will strengthen you… in your inner being… that Christ may dwell in your heart… as you are being rooted… and grounded… in love.     (Ephesians 3:16-17)

This prayer in Ephesians ends with these words:“Now to God, who by the power at work within us, is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Far more abundantly than all we can ask or imagine… Amen. And what Amen means- it’s a Hebrew word that means, let it be or may it be so.

May our desires be wide and true and faithful enough to be worth praying. May our blessings extend beyond even our own understanding. And may our own souls be broadened in the speaking, in the nurturing, in the creation of the world through the blessing of another person.

Let us pray

Dear Heavenly father, may we truely be a blessing to not only our children today, but to all those that we come into contact with this week. May Christ dwell in our hearts. In the Name of the One whose blessing will never let us go. Amen.

Angels are Among Us

Click here for audio message of – Genesis 18:1-8 and 19:1-3

In our Scripture reading this morning we continue our look at Angels. Often when we hear people talk about angels we think of the winged creatures flying around in the heavens, watching over us, or doing whatever it is that they do. Rarely do we envision angels looking like people.

However, we see in both of these instances angels appearing in human form to deliver a message. The angels that appear to Abraham had feet that needed washed so Abraham has some water brought to them so they can clean up.

The angels must have looked tired and hungry, because Abraham invites them to rest under a tree while he has a meal prepared for them. Abraham actually prepares quiet a feast and as I have said before food preparation was no quick and easy task in those days, so apparently these angels can eat.

It is also obvious from the Scripture that Abraham and Sarah, later on, are talking to these angels in their normal language. So far, these angels seem pretty much like normal humans. In fact, they are so much like humans that, that is exactly what Abraham thinks they are. We of course know that two of these men were angels and the third was the Lord.

After the angels and the Lord were finished talking to Abraham and Sarah, the two angels went to Sodom to meet and talk with Lot and actually announce judgment on the city and save Lot and his family from the destruction that was coming to the city.

These angels meet up with Lot at the city gate. Lot invites them to his house for some food and typical hospitality. The town gets word of these visitors and heads over to Lot’s house to essentially rape them. They bang on Lot’s door.

Lot goes out to try and calm the crowd down and get them to disperse and leave his visitors alone. In fact, Lot being the righteous person that he was, tells the crowd they can have at his daughters instead! The crowd refuses and presses in on Lot presumably going to attack and rape him now as well.

But the angels who were in the house opened the door, pulled Lot inside, and closed the door. I envision this happening in like a split second. The angels moved at the speed of light we would say and nobody realized what happened.

But then the people start banging on the door still trying to get at these mysterious guests of Lot. The angels now strike the crowd with blindness, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to get into the house. The Scripture says “they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.” These people wouldn’t give up. They wanted these visitors for their desires.

That is what unrepentant sin does do you. You have the lust and desire to sin and can think of nothing else. That is what this city was like and that is why the angels were there. To announce God’s judgment upon the city and to get Lot out of there.

The angels continue their conversation with Lot and tell him and his family to get out of the city the next day. The next morning the angels urge Lot to get him and his family moving. But Lot was not in any rush.

The angels knew they were there to protect Lot and they knew what they had to do. So the angels literally grabbed Lot, his wife, and their two daughters and drug them out of the city to safety. Of course, we know the story continues with Lot’s wife looking back and turning into a pillar of salt. But that isn’t the end of it, Lot’s two daughters decide to have children with their father to continue the family line. This city has corrupted this family indeed.

So here we see the power of angels. They can appear and act like humans, but they are not humans. People do not turn into angels when they die. Angels have supernatural power from God to do certain things as needed.

Lot thought he was protecting these visitors by offering his daughters to satisfy the desires of the crowd. In reality, the angels protected Lot and his family. Angels have the power to not only take care of us, but they can take care of themselves too.

That doesn’t however leave us off the hook. We are to treat people with hospitality because you never know when one of them may actually be an angel sent from God to help us. Often times God will use angels to protect us. We may not realize it, but angels are among us today.

We can see that God uses angels to rescue the righteous, to show mercy to those whom He wishes to show mercy. But He also uses angels to punish the wicked. We must also keep in mind that direct contact with angels is rare.

We should never try to initiate contact or summon them as you see in TV shows. In fact, in many of the biblical accounts of angels, the angel starts by saying, “Do not be afraid.” So I suppose some angels must be pretty scary looking or at least have a scary presence about them.

But we must, as bible believing Christians, believe in their existence and be aware of their presence and their possible intervention in our lives. Angels can appear like normal human beings to us and we may not even realize it.

I have read of several possible angelic encounters and I can’t say for sure if it was an angel at work or not, only God knows for sure. But I do know the things that have happened in my life and you know the things that have happened in your life.

Think back to those situations in your life where you needed help, a time of critical danger, a near car wreck or other disaster, or whatever.

No doubt there where things that happened to you that you still to this day cannot explain. Or maybe there were people that seemed to appear at just the right time and you never knew who they were, but they helped you out.

Did God send His angels to protect you? I don’t know. But let us make no mistake about it, God still uses angels today for His purposes.

We should be encouraged and strengthened in knowing this. Angels are watching over us in order to serve the Lord so that we may carry out the will of God in our lives. We should always be grateful of the mercy and love that God showers us with and uses angels to protect us.

Closing Prayer
Lord, we thank you for creating angels to watch over us and act as Your mighty servants. We are also open to Your intervention in our life. Keep us open to Your will so that we may serve You this week.

Keep Your angels close to us so that we may serve You more faithfully.

AMEN.

The Rainbow Covenant

Genesis 9: 8-17
Length: 22:46

This is a message given on March 22, 2009 at the Homer City United Methodist Church for the Indiana District Lay School - Advanced Lay Speaking Class.

We don’t hear much preaching on the Old Testament these days, but it is part of God’s Word and it is important to read and understand it. There is a lot of imagery and “types” of Christ depicted throughout the Old Testament. We need to remember that the message of the Old Testament prophets point to Jesus. They preached a message of repentance, as did John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles. It is the same message we need to preach today.

Our scripture reading this morning picks up right after the flood. Of course, we know in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, then man, then they ate the apple and oh boy. Down hill from there. Sin entered the world and man became evil and corrupt.

But this man Noah, however, was a righteous man. Not by his works, but because he believed in God as Creator, and Savior from his sin. He found grace in God, because he humbled himself. So, God told Noah to build an Ark.

It is interesting, as we know, only the people and animals that were on the Ark survived the flood. There was only one way to be saved from the flood. Sounds like our situation today, doesn’t it? There is only one way of salvation for us too.

Anyways, even though it had never rained before, Noah obeyed God and built the ark. The rains started, the heavens broke loose and for forty days and forty nights there was rain. Eventually, the water subsides and Noah sends the dove out and when it doesn’t return Noah knew it was about time to head out of the ark and back onto the earth.

Noah exits the ark, sees the devastation and destruction all around him and the first thing he does is…..build an alter to worship God. Picking up in chapter 9 verses 1-7 we see God instructing Noah. God tells Noah to be fruitful and multiply, rule the earth, eat meat, but not the blood (this simply means to eat dead animals not living ones), and to establish capital punishment for taking another man’s life.

Now, in verses 8-17, God is again speaking to Noah and is telling him what He will do. God establishes His covenant with Noah, God gives them the sign, and then summarizes the covenant with them.

What is the covenant?
God promised Noah that he will never destroy the earth by water or a flood again. See, before the flood, from what I understand there was never any rain. The earth had some type of vapor barrier or canopy. Now I don’t know all the details of what this canopy was like, some say it was a layer of ice, all I know is what scripture says and it calls it an expanse. Gen 1:7 “And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.”

At any rate, this barrier in the sky apparently minimized the harmful effects of the sun and had some type of tropical like effect on the world. This is partially why people lived to be almost 1,000 years old and animals were able to live a long time and grow very large. There was no need for rain, the hydrological cycle worked differently.

But at the flood, the people of earth saw rain for the first time. Noah saw rain for the first time. And it was a massive, destructive force. So if someone were to ask Noah what he thought of rain as soon as he got off the ark, he would probably have flipped out and shouted “Rain? Where?, Everyone, back on the boat.”

So, no doubt he didn’t like it. He saw the death, devastation, and destruction it caused. Rain was no good to Noah, but as we know rain is a vital part of our life today. So God makes this covenant with Noah telling him the world will not be destroyed by rain again. So there was no need to fear rain.

Now, usually, when we think of a covenant, we think of an agreement between two parties. The Untied States agrees to not point its missiles at Russia as long as Russia agrees not to point their missiles at us. Each side gets something.

God’s covenant, however, with Noah is different. It is completely one sided. God does not say if you do this, I will do this. God simply says, “I will not destroy the earth by water again” This is a covenant for the blessing of man from the mercy of God. For man’s life from the grace of God. It is an unconditional unilateral covenant from God.

Isn’t that wonderful? But Who is this covenant with?
Obviously, Noah and his family, but it extends to all generations of Noah. Remember, during the flood, everything was destroyed except for the things on the Ark. Which included Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives. That is a total of 8 people. God’s covenant extends to them, but also to their offspring, which includes us today.

Notice though, God did not limit His covenant to just us. He also included all of the animals in the world too. What an awesome God. It is also interesting to note this is a universal covenant, meaning everybody is included.

How do we know He will keep his covenant? God says he will put his bow in the sky so that he will remember His covenant with the world. Notice it says bow. This is because God is viewed as a warrior. That isn’t a image we normally think of today is it? But it is true, look at Exodus 15:3, it says “The LORD is a warrior, The LORD is His name.” (Moses and sons of Israel sang)

A bow is a weapon as in a bow and arrow. The people of biblical times would see this bow in the sky and know that God has hung up his weapon. Today, we call it a rainbow and it occurs when light is refracted (bent because of a change in speed or direction) through moisture in the atmosphere.

When people look at a rainbow they may think of many things. Like wow, look at the pretty colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Or maybe they run to find the little lepricon and pot of gold at the end of it. Or maybe they think of homosexuals using it as the symbol of their perversions.

We as Christians really should be looking at it and saying thanks be to God for His covenant with us. God says He gives us this sign so that He remembers His covenant with us. But, God doesn’t need the rainbow to remind him of His covenant. He puts that rainbow in the sky, so that we know He still remembers His covenant with us. It is a sign of mercy, grace, peace, and love from God. Every time you look at a rainbow you can see God’s grace, even though humanity deserves God’s wrath and judgment.

Finally, God’s covenant is an everlasting covenant, meaning He will never destroy the world by flood again. Sure it is going to rain and storm in places and they will be destroyed by water and storm damage, but He will not destroy the world by flood again. Yes, He is going to destroy the world in the future, but not by flood or water. Yes, the polar ice-caps will melt, but that will not be the ultimate cause of destruction to the world.

How is the earthy going to be destroyed?
2 Peter 3:10-11 (day of the Lord)
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

Rev 20:9 (Satanic Rebellion Crushed)
9And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

Rev 21:1
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

Sadly, as we know, the flood did not eradicate sin from this world. In fact, just a few verses after this covenant, Noah planted a vineyard and got drunk and naked. Ham, Noah’s son, saw this and had either a sinful thought or possibly actions.

Sin was still there after the flood and is still here today. God is going to destroy this world again and the unrepentant sinners who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their life will be judged.

So what is the point of all this?

Well think about it, which came first, the flood or the rainbow covenant? The flood, right? Why did God send the flood? Because of the evil, sinfulness of the people. God sent his Holy wrath upon the earth, for vengeance and judgment of their sins. Why? Because of His perfect righteousness and holiness.

The rainbow covenant, shows and reminds us of God’s love, His mercy, His grace, His peace, and His patience.

God is indeed a God of love, but make no mistake He is a God of wrath. His judgment will one day again be poured out on this earth, by fire. Knowing this, shouldn’t we be living holy and godly lives?

If you haven’t been living the life God wants you to live, take the time today to repent, change your life and live your life to God’s glory.

Let the rainbow remind you of not only God’s love, but His wrath as well.

Closing prayer:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time spent in your Word today. We thank you for your Word, and that it has been so well preserved over these many years. We thank you for your Holiness and perfect dealings with us. We thank you for your covenant with us. Help us to see not only your love as we look at the rainbow, but also the righteous judgment you deal to evil. We thank you most of all for sending your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay for our sins. It is in His name we give thanks and is due all honor and glory, now and forever. AMEN.