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Fathers Day

Ephesians 4:30 “And higrieve not hkthe holy Spirit of God, lwhereby ye are sealed unto the day of mredemption." [1]

I.   Provocation

     A. Politics

     B. Power

II. Protection

     A. Personal

     B. Permanent

III.     Passage

     A. Perfect

     B. Pathway


 

Introduction:  We are at that special day when we celebrate and honor fathers and fatherhood.  We have been considering the working of the Holy Spirit these Sundays after the traditional Pentecost observance.  Just as with other aspects of being a Christian, if a father fails to allow the Holy Spirit in to guide his life then there will be a weak father in the family.

The text chosen for today might not only apply to fathers but the apostle Paul did address men in general.  Men are designed by God with certain built-in attributes that often differ from the nurturing attributes that women characteristically possess.  This is by no means saying that men have the right to lord over women.  What it does say is that men should love their wives by protecting them and providing for them.  When it is not a man’s desire to carry out the role of a husband and especially a father, the family will fall apart unless a very strong women can drop her role of nurturer and take on the role that a good father is supposed to be.

Today we will study the last paragraph of the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  In chapter five of that letter Paul spoke to the family.  He referred to us as children, which we most certainly are, when he warned of the things that God sees as abominable.

He gave women guidance to allow others to see them behave as Christians.  This chapter is one of many that people use to discount the Bible as outdated.  Society has moved away from the Bible.  God has not!  Paul actually spoke more harshly to men than to women as we are to love our wives as Jesus loves His bride, the church.  Finally Paul spoke to the offspring of parents and how they are to honor their parents and their God.

Is it OK that society as a whole discounts these teachings?  Since this is only for those who have decided to follow Jesus and therefore have the Holy Spirit to guide them, it is not for those who discount it.  If those outside the church want to scoff at the Bible it is to their undoing and not ours who truly are Christian.  We are to pray and steadfastly stay.

How can a man treat his wife in such a way that the family will see Jesus in him?  How can that same man be a supporting and providing father to his children and still find time to put his God and church in the forefront of his life?  How can a wife be a wife to a man and still is a woman who is a good example to her children by teaching them not to let others mistreat them?  How can children overcome the onslaught of anti-Christian rhetoric from their so-called friends by showing obedience to God and their parents?

The answer to all these questions is found in our focal verse today.  Years ago Rachael and I started praying in restaurants before we would begin to eat.  Now if I mess up there is always that insistence that I have done a wrong thing.  Recently it was the church clerk who pointed out my mess.  Someone asked once if it was embarrassing to know that people were watching when we openly pray in public.  Maybe it was in the beginning but it finally dawned on me; if anyone is offended I would rather offend anyone than offend God.  Let it be dear Lord let it be…

Scripture:  The scripture today is Ephesians 4:30.  Please stand if you can for God’s written word.

Prayer:  Please be seated.

Message:  To grieve according to the dictionary is to mourn, lament, sorrow, and other general feelings of emotional pain.  In today’s language it means a personal emotion and not necessarily an action that one person inflicts on another.

Paul was definitely not saying that to feel grief is a bad thing.  Jesus felt grief when He wept at the tomb of Lazarus.  To cause someone else to feel grief is definitely not a good thing.  This is the “grieve not” that Paul was writing about.

If someone by design or accident causes an unwanted emotion in someone else, you might say that the person has provoked the other person.  The hurt, anger, fear, disgust, or some other emotional feeling that they would have rather not gone through might be the result of another’s provocation.  It is a provocation that makes a person change the course that they would have otherwise taken.  It’s like flying along minding your own business when an F15 shows up on your left wing.  You are going to move from the heading you were on!  I promise you will!

To consider the other persons feelings and try to make them emotionally comfortable is just plain polite.  We have a system in this world of how to get along with each other.  Believe it or not that is called politics.  Look as the root of the word.  POLITe, POLITics.  We invented this system to allow us to get along so that others will not be provoked to anger and yet it is the thing that we love to argue about the most; maybe as much as we love to argue about religion.

When fathers provoke their children or children grieve their parents, politeness ends.  When we grieve the Holy Spirit we have blocked His ability to guide us.  His power to comfort is gone because we have decided to be comfortless.  When we make such a decision as fathers we disrupt the whole family structure.  When we as fathers decide to stand against attacks from the disruptive forces that would change our course of being Christian fathers those we love will learn through our steadfastness.  Let us be that rock upon which Jesus said that He would build His church.  We have that power within us when we allow The Holy Spirit in us.

We see that promise in the next part of this verse.  Ye are sealed!  Truck drivers understand the idea of sealing the contents that they carry in the vessel that they are transporting.  Nobody and nothing can get to the contents within as long as that seal stays unbroken.  If the driver decides to break the seal the contents are not safe from others getting inside without the driver’s knowledge.  It is important that the seal stays intact.  How does the driver know to trust the seal?  By inspection and attention.  All it takes is a glance to see that the seal holds.  All it takes to realize that our seal which the Holy Spirit has sealed our protection from unrighteousness is prayer.

When we fathers discern the onslaught from those who would detour our journey through faith we must turn our hearts back to prayer and let His love overtake that which would distract us.  There is no closer relationship than the personal relationship that you have with the spirit within you.  If you as a Christian father decide to break the seal that protects your person there are other spirits of unrest that are always there on the outside trying to get in.  To say that this is the purpose for a father might be hard to hear yet that is what Jesus did for us.

When Jesus was baptized all three persons of the Godhead showed up.  Immediately Jesus was escorted into the wilderness by The Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil.  The devil is a deceptive beast that uses those things which seem rational and right.  He turns them into distractions to turn us from our righteousness so that others might be persuaded that nobody is safe from him.  He is wrong!

Jesus stood against the temptation by recalling the scriptures correctly.  Remember this; the devil has no power against God that God does not allow.  One day Satan will also be bound and sealed. Revelation 20:1 “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, ahaving the key of bthe bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on cthe dragon, dthat old serpent, which is ethe Devil, and fSatan, and gbound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into bthe bottomless pit, and shut him up, and hset a seal upon him, that dihe should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” [2]

Just as surely that the devil will be sealed, fathers who continue to trust The Holy Spirit, those fathers who follow Jesus, fathers who look toward our heavenly father to understand what a perfect fathers does, those fathers have a permanent personal seal on their redemption that they can trust to take them through their journey.

He promises us safe passage through this life into redemption.  Though the road might be rocky with obstacles often in the way His is the perfect pathway that we can trust.  On this Father’s Day let us never forget what the perfect father gave up for a time to seal us and then we can stand firm against that which Paul warned against in verses thirty-one through the end of chapter four.  “Let all nbitterness, and owrath, and oanger, and clamour, and opevil speaking, be put away from you, with all oqmalice: 32 And be ye rkind one to another, stenderhearted, rtforgiving one another, reven as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” [3]

Forgiving has nothing to do with forgetting.  To truly forgive is to truly let love guide you.  Otherwise the seal is in danger of being broken so that these other things might come in.

Prayer:

Invitation:  The role of father has not changed because God ordained that role in Himself.  Society has attempted to break the family by attacking from the top down.  Fathers continue to have the critical role of service to their families by leading through example.

We cannot make this journey alone.  Without the Holy Spirit we can do nothing, especially set a Godly example for our families.  Just as we can be provoked when we feel pushed away, The Holy Spirit is vulnerable to being grieved when a person fails to trust Him.

The invitation today is to set things right with Him.  Call on God to renew the relationship with The Holy Spirit so that He can guide you on to be that man who will take his family for the ride of their lives into eternity.  If you haven’t taken time this day to devote this day to whatever the Holy Spirit has for you then take this opportunity right now right here before you leave.  Happy Father’s Day.  Consider and respond as we sing…



h Isai. 63:10. Comp. Heb. 10:29.
i Ezek. 16:43 (Gk.). So Ps. 78:40. Isai. 7:13. See Gen 6:6.
h Isai. 63:10. Comp. Heb. 10:29.
k Ps. 51:11. 1 Thess. 5:19.
l So ch. 1:13. See John 6:27.
m See ch. 1:14.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Eph 4:30). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
a ch. 9:1. So ch. 1:18.
b ver. 3. See ch. 9:1. Comp. ver. 10.
c See ch. 12:3.
d See ch. 12:9.
e ver. 10.
f ver. 7. See ch. 2:9.
g So 2 Pet. 2:4. Jude 6. Comp. Tobit 8:3.
b ver. 3. See ch. 9:1. Comp. ver. 10.
h See Dan. 6:17.
d See ch. 12:9.
i Comp. ver. 8, 10.
[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Re 20). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
n So Col. 3:19.
o Col. 3:8 (Gk.).
o Col. 3:8 (Gk.).
o Col. 3:8 (Gk.).
p Matt. 15:19. Mark 7:22. 1 Tim. 6:4 in the Gk. So Tit. 3:2. Comp. James 4:11. 1 Pet. 2:1.
o Col. 3:8 (Gk.).
q See Rom. 1:29.
r Col. 3:12, 13.
s 1 Pet. 3:8 (Gk.).
r Col. 3:12, 13.
t See Matt. 6:14. Comp. 2 Cor. 2:10.
r Col. 3:12, 13.
[3] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Eph 4:31–32). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.