How great is your faithfulness, our Lord! Thank you Worship Team for leading us a wonderful singing/praising to the Lord. So happy to know that today is Father’s Day! Awesome, Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers! Father’s Day is a special day, isn’t it? We not only have an earthly father, we all have a heavenly father who never ceases loving us. The earthly father is empowered to carry on our Heavenly Father’s blessings to the family. And today, Father’s Day, is a moment to recognize the fathers’ sacrificial love in the Lord for their children. Let’s read the following two verses:
Genesis 49:25-26a, “because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills.” This verse tells us that the father is given authorities from God to bless his children.
Another verse is from Psalm 103:13, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” This verse tells us the father gives his love to his children, and God, who is our heavenly Father, loves us, who are His children, even more.
Some of you may have a question, how did Father’s Day come from? Well, today, the first thing, Pastor would like to talk is about the history of Father’s Day. the first Father’s Day was celebrated in Washington state on June 19, 1910. A woman called Sonora Smart (Dodd) came up with the idea of honoring her father, William Smart, on his birthday. How special was Sonora’s dad? He was a veteran of the Civil War, and guess how many children he had? – after Sonora, Sonora’s mom gave birth to 5 boys! The challenge is when Sonora was 16, her mom died while giving birth to the sixth child. Without remarrying, He raised the six children by himself on their small farm in Washington. He worked as a father and a mother to raise all the six children. The children grew up, however, their father was exhausted and died. To show her appreciation for all the hard work and love William gave to her and her siblings, Sonora thought there should be a day to honor her dad and other dads like him. Not until in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson, designated the third Sunday in June, the birthday month of William Smart, as the official day to celebrate Father’s Day nation-wise in the United States.
God is our heavenly father, and He gave us an earthly father to raise us, love us and protect us on earth. God assumes that the father as His agents on earth should follow His instructions to love their children, so that the children can have a good image regarding our loving heavenly father, who is unseen to us. This is what the verse says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” And you know what, God entrusts to the fathers with the care of their own children, He also empower the father with the privilege to become the pipeline of His blessings to the family and the children. Pastor has a real story about a father called Bob Goff, to share with you.
Bob used to have a small kid 6-7 years old. His name Adam. One day the father Bob was driving a truck taking his son Adam out. This day Adam was very quiet and felt uncomfortable likely due to cold or flu. Bob wanted to cheer Adam up and he talked to his son, “Adam, I think we need to let President Bush know you are sick, let’s call President!” Adam hardly believed it, but his father started dialing the Whitehouse (202)456-1414, a lady answered the phone, “Whitehouse, how can I help?” Bob responded, “My son Adam is terribly sick now, we knew the President would want to know it. Could you transfer our call to him if he is busy then to the President’s scheduling assistant so that we can set an appointment to meet with President for Adam to tell him all about it?” after a short moment, the lady said “one moment please!” Now Adam was excited and sat upright on his seat. After a short hold, the phone was answered by another lady, “this is President Office!” The father explain to her the reason of calling. Waah, you know what? Adam got up from his seat and stood up, his eyes was full of anticipation and amazement. The lady expressed her sorry that the President was not available at this moment and then she turned the conversion to Adam, “hello Adam, I am so sorry to hear you are not feeling well, I will make sure to tell the President right away, is it OK with you?” then she continued, “Adam, can I ask you a question? – how are you feeling now?” Adam was totally engaged and replied, “I am feeling much better now!”
How exciting it is, dad helped to call the President to let the President know something about Adam’s need. So how important the role of a father is! Fathers are empowered with even more powerful ability and responsibility: talking to God, the creator of the universe, for your children, requesting blessings from God to your children! (202) 456-1414 is the number to call the Whitehouse, then what is the number to call God, our heavenly Father? And Who are eligible to call Him? Well, you know not everyone can call, though! Only the citizens of Heaven can call. Fathers, your call to God won’t go through operators, and won’t put on hold, it is the direct line via the Lord Jesus. But you will be checked: are you a heavenly citizen? you have been given a special privilege to pray for your children and to bless your children just like in the old testament Jacob, also called Israel, blessed his children. Let’s read verse Genesis 49:25-26a together once: “because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills.” Children, are you envy of receiving such blessings from your dad? And a father’s blessings to his children are great. They are greater than the blessings from the ancient mountain and the long existent hills, because they are from God, the everlasting and promising God! Fathers, if you haven’t received the salvation in Jesus, I am encouraging you that today is the right moment for you to receive Jesus as your personal Savior, and then congratulations, you become the citizen of heaven receiving the privilege of having eternal life and you have become the pipeline of God’s abundant blessings to your children and your family. Whenever your children are sad, or sick, you can say, “Son (Daughter), let me call our loving God!”
Well, pastor understood that some of you may not have an earthly father living with you and taking care of you, pastor would like to show my empathy to you, I know it is so sorrowful at this special occasion – Father’s Day! But don’t forget, you still have a heavenly Father, who is loving, powerful, and compassionate just like the verse Psalm 68:5 says, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”
No matter how bad you are experiencing in this world as though there is totally dark and no hope at all. Remember, God, your heavenly father loves you, and His love endures forever! You can pray to Him and talk to Him anytime and anywhere. As you know our heavenly father is a father of:
F – Faithful: Our heavenly father is faithful, He never breaks His promise
A – Almighty: Our heavenly father is almighty, who can do anything according His will.
T – Truthful: Our heavenly father never tells lies. We can fully trust in Him
H – Holy: Our heavenly father is holy and cannot allow any sins. He loves us but cannot tolerate any sins, therefore, He sent His only son Jesus to us to cleans our sins.
E – Eternal: Our heavenly father is eternal and has no ending. He is always there to love us.
R – Reachable: Our heavenly father is always there to listen to our prayers in Jesus. Just open your heart to pray and He will answer your prayer in His timing.
So, boys and girls, be rejoicing for we have a heavenly father who is faithful, almighty, truthful, holy, eternal and reachable!
Boys and girls and Parents, let’s bow our head and pray: “Heavenly Father, today is Father’s Day, thank you for reminding us to show love to our earthly father. Bless our father with good health and strength. I am especially praying for those fathers who haven’t accepted Jesus as their Savior, this is the most beautiful moment to open your heart to say, “Jesus, come to my heart and be my Lord of my life!” Congratulations you have become the citizen of Heaven. You have become the pipeline of God’s blessings to your children and your family. Dear God, thank you so much for being our heavenly father, you are faithful, almighty, truthful, holy, eternal and reachable. You are always listening to our prayer. Whenever we are sad, we just come to talk to you and you will answer our prayer and comfort us and strengthen us. And Your love never fails. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen!”