The Father You've Always Wanted

Hey, before we dive in today to God's Word, a very special week as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus. During this week, as you're praying about who to bring to church, let me just tell you what's coming up on the 23rd and the 24th on Tuesday and Wednesday. We're doing a separate, a candlelight Christmas Eve experience. If you came today to hear about the birth of Jesus, just come back Tuesday or Wednesday. We're gonna talk specifically about the birth of Jesus. And then next weekend, we're gonna have church on Sunday only. If you can imagine this weekend, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and we wanna give our volunteers and our team some time with their family. We'll be back, Chris, the 23rd, 24th, and then back next weekend for church. Are you ready for God's Word today? If you're ready, say, I'm ready. I'm ready. So imagine if we were sitting down, maybe we're having coffee together, maybe we're having lunch or whatever, and we're having a real intimate conversation, and we're past the small talk, and we're getting into some meaningful stuff. And maybe we're talking about our childhoods,

how we were raised. And imagine if I ask you to tell me about your father. What was your dad like? If I ask you to tell you about your father, chances are, before you answer, you might experience some deep and strong emotions. If I said, tell me about your dad, some of you would feel really strong, positive emotions. You might have this very real gratitude. And you'd think of a man that was really there for you and intimately involved in your life and loved you, wasn't perfect, but would listen to you and encourage you. And you think about a man that made you feel safe, made you feel seen, and even helped build your confidence. Others of you, if I said, hey, what was your dad like? Instead of having positive emotions, your chest might actually tighten. You might look away. Because thinking about your father, for some of you, it doesn't bring good feelings, but maybe it brings more painful feelings. If I said, tell me about your dad, tell me about your father, you'd probably feel some real emotion because nothing impacts you or shapes you quite like a father shapes you or impacts you. And that's why it's difficult whenever we talk about God the Father. Whenever we say God the Father, who He is, for some people, it can create

all different types of emotions because without even realizing it, your view of your earthly father often shapes your view of your heavenly one. And that's one of the reasons why the Old Testament prophecy that we're looking at is so important, so powerful, and for many people, so healing, because it speaks to one of your deepest needs. What's amazing to think about is that 700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah prophesied and said that God would send a son. And the prophet showed four different names of the son. And one of those names will actually help you experience the presence of God as a loving, personal, caring, present, and powerful, everlasting Father. So today, God, we call on you. And we ask that by the truth of your Word and the presence of your Spirit, that you would draw us, God, to know you in a very intimate, very real, and very powerful way as our everlasting Father. God, do a healing work in our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. And everybody said? Amen. Let's look at God's Word, Isaiah 9, verse 6. This is what the prophet said. Seven centuries before the birth of Christ,

Isaiah said this. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. And the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. One of the titles we see that Isaiah gave the son that would be born is that he'd be called everlasting father. Now, just like you might feel some emotion when you hear that, when the people of Judah heard this prophecy that he'd be called everlasting father, chances are that prophecy and that title would hit many people with very deep emotion. One of the reasons is that the kings were also called fathers. And the kings that the people knew during that day were inconsistent at best, insecure, and temporary. They didn't last. So whenever Isaiah said everlasting father, he wasn't just describing like a good father or a better father. He was describing a perfect and an everlasting father, which would have been shocking to the people of that day. In fact, in Hebrew, what he called him was this. He called him avi-ad, avi-ad. What does avi stand for? Avi means this. It means father or source

or the protector or the provider. Ad means everlasting, eternal, or forever. So the father that Isaiah is talking about is the eternal source of life. He is the protector that never dies. He is the provider that is always a good father who always loves you. And interestingly, Isaiah is pointing to the son, to Jesus. And Jesus later on said that he would actually show us the father. In John 14, nine, this is what Jesus said. He said, anyone who has seen me has seen the father. If you wanna know what father God is like, you look at what Jesus is like. And so that raises the question. If we worship God as everlasting father, what kind of father do we actually worship? And what I wanna do is I wanna take the two Hebrew words, the words avi-ad, and I wanna take how fathers were viewed in this Hebrew culture and show you today the very three specific qualities of God our father. The first quality is this. What kind of God the father do we worship? And the first one is this, that God is the father who stays. God is a father who stays. And I wanna slow it down right now because I know for many of you, this is really emotional

because some of you had earthly fathers that didn't stay. Or maybe worse yet, he did stay and you wish he didn't. Wasn't kind necessarily. Or maybe he couldn't stay because he died. In Isaiah's day, the father role was so important because they lived in constant fear. If they lost their father, their whole world would change because even if they didn't like the guy, they needed him to survive. Without a father, it was very difficult to provide for your family. They didn't have social security. They didn't have any insurance. They didn't have any police protection. And so without the father role, you were very, very vulnerable. And so if a father left or died, the whole family's entire world changed in a moment. And so what Isaiah said is this father, your heavenly father, he's different. He doesn't die. He doesn't go away. He is the father who never ever leaves. In fact, the author to the Hebrews said this about God. God has said this. God said, never will I leave you and never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What have we learned?

We've learned that Jesus and the father are one. If you've seen Jesus, you've seen the father. And what I want you to do for just a moment is I want you to think about Jesus and I want you to think about all the specific moments that Jesus could have left. If he was anybody else, he would have left, but Jesus stayed. Think about all the times that Jesus stayed. When Thomas doubted him, Jesus didn't shame Thomas, but Jesus stayed. When the disciples panicked in the storm, Jesus stayed in the storm and even calmed the storm. Whenever Judas betrayed Jesus at the last supper, Jesus stayed at the table and continued to love his disciples. Whenever Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane and he knew what was coming and he cried out to the father, God, if there's any other way, may this cup of suffering be removed from me. And then he said, unless not what I want, God, but what you want. And Jesus stayed the course. And even on the cross, when the creation people mocked the creator, Jesus, God, in the flesh, and he looked up to heaven when God turned away and he became sin, and he said, "'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' And even at that moment,

when he could have called legions of angels down and wiped out every person there, he stayed on the cross and prayed, "'Father, forgive them, "'because they don't even know what they're doing.' And he said, "'It's finished.' And he breathed his last breath and gave his life to the Father." Jesus is God in the flesh who stayed. And what's to know, if you've never noticed it before, is that the same is true for you. When you are crying out to God, praying through the tears, your Father stayed. When you're overwhelmed with anxiety, he cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. He stayed. When you sinned against a holy God, and when you were ashamed of your own sin, he stayed and continued to love you. In the moment, maybe you didn't understand, you're like, God, why didn't you? And I believe that you could, and God, I don't know why this is going on. And maybe you were even mad at God. In that moment, he is the everlasting Father who stays. In a world where people will turn on you in a heartbeat,

cancel you at the moment of a mistake, we serve an everlasting Father who is not like conditional people. His love is constant for you and never changes. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. He is the everlasting Father who stays. The second quality we learn from God's Word is this, that God is the Father who forgives. Praise God. Do any of you have a lot to praise God for? Forgiveness. I'm telling you what, some of you ought to be a little louder than others because I don't know about you, but the grace of God is amazing. Grace of God is amazing. And the challenge is for some of you, it's really hard for you to see God the Father as a loving, forgiving Father, because maybe your earthly father was the exact opposite. Maybe you grew up in a home that didn't forgive what was wrong, but held grudges against those who did the wrong thing. And the tension isn't new because in Isaiah's day, forgiveness was not casual. If someone sinned, it always cost something, both biblically and culturally. For a sin to be forgiven, it required a price or there had to be a sacrifice.

And so in a family, if a child sinned publicly, that would shame the family. And specifically, the father would feel shamed whenever a child sinned. So imagine a kid steals something or breaks some kind of law. Well, the father would be rightly embarrassed because the son shamed the family's name, but what would a loving father do? A loving father would go and take his hard-earned money and purchase a goat or a lamb and then go in public and sacrifice the lamb that he bought. Why? Because he wasn't ignoring the sin of the son. He actually paid the price for the sin and the father publicly absorbed the shame. That's what Jesus did for us. That's what Jesus did for me. When I sinned, when I stole, when I lied, when I shamed the father's name, Jesus paid for my sin. He absorbed my shame. Isaiah prophesied that Jesus, the Lamb of God, would do this. Scripture says this, that Jesus, one day, that he would be pierced for our transgressions, for mine, pierced for yours, that he was crushed for our iniquities, that the punishment that brought us peace was on him. him and by the stripes, by his wounds, by the beating that he took, we're forgiven.

We're made whole. We are healed. That's what Jesus did for us. And that's why this kind of everlasting father is different from any kind of earthly father. Micah even asked the question in Micah 7, 18. He said, who is a God like you? You're the God who pardons sin and forgives the transgression. God, you do not stay angry forever, but you're a God that delights to show mercy. That's who our God is. He absorbs the shame. He pays the price and he delights to show mercy. And the problem is some of you, you may believe this up here, but you haven't believed it here. And the reason I know you don't believe it here is because you don't show it in the life that you live. Today, I'm terrified that there are too many people that have a head knowledge of God, but not a heart relationship with a father who is always good, always present, always loving and forgives graciously. Because if we did, we would love like we do. We would have a different type of love. Instead of being hateful and judgmental and arrogant and spiritually proud and better than others and looking down and condemning and judgmental,

we would be overwhelmed with grace. And people would know us as the church, the body of Christ, as those who are the most loving and are the most kind and are the most generous and are the most grace-filled because we've received the most grace. And this is where it gets complicated because some of you, you believe God loves you, but you don't really believe that He's forgiven you. You still carry the guilt and you still feel the shame of what you said, of what you did, of what you're doing and nobody knows about, the thoughts in your head, the hurt that you've caused. And what I want you to understand, I want you to feel and I want you to believe is that God does not forgive you reluctantly. He forgives quickly and He forgives completely. He covers our sins. He covers our shame. He doesn't hold what you did against you. Isaiah 43, God says, "'I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions "'for my own sake and remembers your sin no more.'" He separates your sin as far as the East is from the West. Your slate is clean. That's how good our Father's love is. For unto us, a son would be born and the government would be on his shoulders and he'd be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

and Everlasting Father. God is the Father who stays and God is the Father who forgives. And God, number three, is the Father who runs toward you. He's the Father who runs toward you. Now you may say, that's kind of a odd point. I didn't see that one coming. This would have been shocking then, maybe even is for some of you now because you expect the exact opposite. In other words, if you do something wrong, you wrong somebody, and instead of receiving grace and love, we live in a place where people pull away. Oh, you did that, so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll forgive you, but I'm gonna forgive you way over here. Don't you ever do that again and don't you expect any Christmas gift from me. You're not on my Christmas card list anymore. Jesus tells a story in Luke 15 that shatters every assumption that you might have based on an earthly father and projecting onto a heavenly father. He says there was a father who had two sons. And one of the sons wanted his share of what his dad had early, give me my inheritance. And he took the inheritance and he went off and the Bible says he squandered it in wild living. Translated in the modern day, he bought a truck he couldn't afford, got a tattoo he regretted,

and bought everybody drinks at the bar even though they didn't know his name. He blew it all, he lost it all. He gambled it away, he partied it all away. And he woke up, like some of you feel right now, scared. What am I gonna do? I got nowhere to go, I've got. no family that loves me. He was broke, he was hungry, he was scared. He thought, oh man, my dad, even his servants, they've got a place to stay and they've got food. Maybe I can go back and just like, maybe my dad will treat me like a slave. Maybe then I can at least eat. And you can imagine the emotions he might have felt having to go back home to his father going, I took what you worked for and I lost it, I blew it. It's all gone. He would have been afraid, like maybe his dad might hit him. Maybe his dad might shame him. Maybe his dad might say, you know, I'll feed you, but I disown you, you're not my son. You can imagine the shame. Like, you know, dad, you're a well-known figure in the community and I completely embarrassed you. You can imagine the regret that he would have felt as he completely embarrassed the father. And he's decided, I'm gonna come home and just hope that he doesn't yell at me. I hope that he gives me a place to stay.

And he's wondering, is the dad gonna yell at him? Is he gonna punish him? Is he gonna point the finger at him and say, you're no longer this and disown him? And then Jesus tells us the most shocking part of the story. Luke 15, verse 20 tells us this. But while the son was still a long way off, he was just starting to come home. His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. And the father ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him. It is almost impossible to describe how this first century Jewish audience would have heard Jesus when he says that the father ran toward the son, that their mouths would have dropped wide open. Because in this culture, dignified men didn't run. It would have been too embarrassing. I mean, you can imagine the vision, a first century Jewish patriarch with a robe, walking slowly with dignity. I am a first century Jewish patriarch with a robe who walks with confidence and slow. Running was for servants, running was for children, running was for slaves. You can imagine for that guy to run, he'd have to hike his robe up, show his hairy legs, would that be embarrassing, and run across town like this. They just didn't do it.

It was not a thing. No dignified person would run. And to run toward the rebellious son, to run before the son who had shamed the father, to be undignified, to embarrass yourself, to run toward the one who had hurt the family name, why, why did the father run? Was it because he loved his son? Of course. Was it because he wanted to forgive the son? Absolutely. But many scholars believe there was a deeper reason that many people don't think about. Why did the father run? Because he wanted to get to his son first. Because when his son came back, he'd been living with pigs, and he looked like the world, and he looked like sin, and he looked like he was ashamed. And what did the father do? The father put his best robe on the son, and the father wanted to cover the son's shame. Why, why did the father run toward the son? Not just to love him, not just to forgive him, but to restore him publicly before any other voice could define his son. The father ran toward the shame. The father ran toward the son that broke the father's heart. Why? Because that's the nature of the father

who wanted to love, wanted to forgive, wanted to protect, and wanted to redeem his son that broke the father's heart. That is God, the everlasting father. That's how good our God is. And here's what's crazy. I've been doing this for a long time, and the emotion I can see in some of your eyes, I'm not gonna look at you right, I'm gonna look at the camera right now. I'm not gonna look at you because you don't think I'm looking at you. But I could tell you right now, I can almost point it out here. Good dad, bad dad, good dad, bad dad. I can see it in your eyes. It's like you just, it emotes off of you. Because so much. of what happened with the earthly dad that was good, bad, there, not there, trustworthy or full of it and broke your heart, it shapes who you are. And so often we project that on our heavenly father and that's not fair to our heavenly father. And I wanna tell you why and I want you to hear this, I want you to feel this and I want it maybe to even be a little part of the healing and the truth is this, your earthly father was never designed to carry what only your heavenly father can.

Your earthly father, even if he's a great dad, he was never ever meant to carry what only your heavenly father can. At his best, your earthly dad could only reflect the love of your heavenly father but he could never replace him. He could never replace him. And I'll tell you a little bit about a story that when my dad reflected the love of God to me. My childhood, I grew up in the 70s, best era for childhood ever, it was the best of the best of the best of the best. No seat belts, go play, come home at dark, find your way. It was so much fun. Every kid wanted to come to my house. My mom and dad, they were fun, they were fun. My mom made sugar everything, everything. Cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, beignets, I don't know, I've never, if I see beignets on a menu today, I order them, I don't eat them but I order them, I look at them, I think about my mom. Beignets, I mean, it was the best food ever. Everyone would come over and play at my house, my mom made the best food ever. My dad would take this, if you can imagine, there was one of those lawn chairs with a long, what do you call it, pillow thing? Fluffy thing, lawn chair thing. A cushion. And my friends would go out in the backyard,

he'd take the cushion and he'd hide behind it and we'd run toward him and we'd jump in the cushion and he would wallop us and we'd fly across the yard. That's what we did in the 70s. This was before lawsuits back when life was fun. And we would just run into him and he'd just nail us and everyone loved to come to my house, it was so much fun. What they didn't know is my dad was an alcoholic. And if you grew up in an alcoholic home, it complicated things. My childhood was great, I got into high school and my relationship with my dad was not great. I was a young preacher, 23 or 24 years of age, speaking at a little Baptist church to a little crowd, felt very safe to me and I opened up and talked about my dad and what I said about him was not kind at all. Five, six, seven years later, my dad got saved by Jesus, healed, transformed, set free. And our relationship over time healed and it was so much better. Little did I ever know that somewhere, somehow, someone would get the cassette tape from there and maybe 15 years later, sent it to my dad and he listened to what I said about him. And he called me, he said, son, I heard what you said about me. Like, what, what? And he told me, I was like, I mean, I had nowhere to hide. What I said was not kind. So I said, I'm sorry.

I meant it at the time. I don't mean it now. You're different, I'm different. And I was just, I said, will you forgive me? And he took his really long breath, really long silence. He said, well, it hurt me pretty bad. But I suppose I hurt you pretty bad. And I suppose I hurt a lot of people pretty bad. And I suppose I hurt a lot of people pretty bad. And he goes, gross. Good Lord has forgiven me of a lot. You've forgiven me of a lot. So I reckon I'll forgive you on this one. That's the last time he mentioned it. He couldn't replace God, but in that moment, he reflected the forgiveness of God. No matter what your dad was like, good, bad, there, not there, your heavenly father is different. He is out of you, he is everlasting, he is loving. I want you to think about this, that in the story of the prodigal son, when did the father see the son? The text says this, I love it. The text says, while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him. When the son was a long way off. In other words, guess what? You know what the father was doing probably? He's watching for him, he's waiting.

He's probably waiting the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that, hoping, hey, maybe today's the day my son's gonna come home. The father was waiting. for the son in the same way that the father is waiting for some of you, waiting for you, hoping, believing, today'd be the day that you come home. And I want you to see it and I want you to feel it. I want you to see it, I want you to feel it. The son left and the father stayed. The son repented and the father forgave. And the son turned away from his sin and the father ran toward the son. And that is our everlasting father. That is our everlasting father. And so for those of you who feel like you've gone too far or done too much or find it hard to believe in a God that loves you or that you can trust him or give your life to him, what I want you to understand is that your everlasting father is not running from you when you sin against him, but he's running toward you. He's running toward you and not to shame you, but to embrace you and not to condemn you, but to restore you and to love you and never to push you away. But he wants to pull you close when you draw near to him, he draws near to you. Why? Because, let me tell you about my eternal everlasting father. He is the father who never leaves and never forsakes you. He's the father who stays. He is the God who forgives graciously and completely and does not hold your sin against you, he's the father who forgives. And he is the father who runs towards you, who's hoping you come home, because that's how good he is. He is the everlasting father. God, we pray today for true healing, for true salvation, that you do what only you can do. As you're praying today at all of our churches, those of you online, those of you that are Christians, you've committed your life to Jesus, you are an actively devoted follower of Jesus, and you actually need something from God, your father. I want to give you a moment to just, maybe in a moment, lift your hand to him and we're gonna pray. You might need a miracle from your heavenly father. You might need provision from your heavenly father. You might need comfort from your heavenly father. Even this talk may be painful to you, you need his presence from your heavenly father. Some of you, you need to know that he

forgives you, that he will never leave you, never forsake you. Today, for those of you that are followers of Jesus and you, you need the presence, the power, the comfort, the goodness, the grace, the provision, the miracle from your heavenly father, you need something from him. He's here, he loves you, he wants to bless you, he wants you to experience his presence. You need a touch, a miracle, the presence, the power of your heavenly father. Would you lift up your hands right now, just all around the room. Hands going up all over the place. Online, you can just say, I need, I need the presence of my father. You can put exactly what it is, I need a miracle from my father, I need provision from my father. God, we thank you that you are a very good, loving father. Who loves to give good gifts to your children, you're a father that blesses your children. God, we ask for miracles in the name of Jesus. We ask for provision in the name of Jesus. God, we ask for healing in bodies. God, we ask for healing in relationships. God, we ask for restoration. God, we know that at this time of the year, Christmas is a magnifier. It magnifies the good and it magnifies the pain. And so we look to you, God, we cast our anxiety on you. We pray, God, that you're the God of all comfort, that would comfort us to the power of your Holy Spirit. God, as our loving father, we look to you, we thank you that you provide exactly what we need and we trust you today. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, again, if we could like sit down, like I talked about earlier, and we're talking about your earthly father, if I transitioned it to your heavenly father and said, how are you, where do you stand with him? How are you with the heavenly father? Some of you, you don't know where you stand. You literally don't. I don't know, I'm trying, maybe, I'm not sure. Others of you, you know where you stand and you'd say, I'm not right with him, like very directly. Let me tell you about him again. He is a good, loving, heavenly father who wanted to show you what he's like by sending his son, Jesus. For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, Jesus, that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. When you look at Jesus, you see the father who Jesus come for. Not for the righteous, he came for the sinners. Not for the healthy, he came for the sick. Not for the perfect, he came for the broken. and He came for you. And maybe there are those of you, the Father is longing and hoping that today is the day that you come back to Him,

that you come home to Him, that you say that you need Him, that you want Him. He is a God that longs to give you His love, longs to reveal Himself to you. So what do you do? Just like the Son, you confess your need, you confess your sin, and watch as the Father forgives you, redeems you and makes you new today at all of our churches. Those who say, I need His grace. I wanna be right with Him. I know I've sinned against Him. I feel ashamed. When you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Guess what? You're not watching by accident, you're not here by accident. You're here because God loves you. He's reaching out to you. And today is the day of your salvation. And all of our churches, you say, I need His grace. Today, I step away from my sin. I give my life to you. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now, all of our churches, and say, yes, I surrender Jesus. I give you my life. Up there, both of you, God bless you guys.

Right back over here, praise God for you. And over here as well, all. Right over there, God bless you. Come on. Others today say, yes, Jesus, I surrender. Be the Lord of my life. I wanna know you. Online, just type in the comment section, I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. And today at all of our churches, would you just take a moment and pray with those around you? Pray, Heavenly Father, I wanna know you as the Father who loves, the Father who stays, the Father who forgives, and the Father pursuing me. Forgive all of my sins. Be my Savior, the Lord of my life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I could know you and serve you. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Church, can you worship a good God? Worship, give praise today. Hey, it's Pastor Craig and Amy Groeschel with Life.Church. And if you just made the decision

to give your life to Christ, this is the most important and life-changing decision that you'll ever make. And all of heaven is celebrating right now because of your decision and we're celebrating with you too. That's right. And we want you to know that God sees you. He's with you and He loves you. He has a purpose for your life. And incarceration, it doesn't define you. It doesn't confine you because you are free in Christ. You are new in Him. Chains have been broken today. And so as a follower of Jesus, God wants us to be on this journey together. And I want you to know you don't have to do this alone. And that's why we, as your church family, we're here for you and we want to help you grow in your faith and find your next steps. So first of all, just keep joining us for church every single week and worshiping through the Pando app. We're so thankful that you're here. When we draw close to God, He draws near to us. And so I would also encourage you, read God's word if it's available to you. And as you do, just start to pray and invite God into every single aspect of your life. And then if you feel led, you might even share your decision with somebody else.

There might be a family member or a friend and they're going to want to hear your story and your spiritual journey. We'd love to hear it as well. And you can send us a letter if you'd like to. The address is on your screen and our team will write back to you and help you grow in your faith with Jesus. And so we'd love to mail you some content about who Jesus is and help you grow in your relationship with Him now that you've chosen to follow Jesus. That's right. And God's plan for your life, it's greater than anything that you could ever imagine. In fact, Ephesians 3.20 says, God is able to do abundantly more than we could ask or imagine. Trust Him with your whole life. You will see Him work in ways you have never thought possible. Congratulations on this decision. We are your family and you're part of the family of God.