What the Father is Like

In John 14:9, Jesus told His followers, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” 

Now, God is Spirit, so we don’t have a physical image to look at to see what God is like, but Jesus, the second part of the Godhead, the Son of God, put on human flesh to display the characteristics, the mannerisms of God, the Father. He said that to see Him was to see the kind of Father that God is. So, to understand what God’s all about we can look at Jesus and the way He lived.

How did He approach people? The Word tells us He was full of grace and truth, John 1:14. God is full of grace and truth. He doesn’t sugar coat anything, but He isn’t harsh. He doesn’t throw His weight around just because He could. His nature is gracious. God isn’t interested in defining you by your failures but by the future that is yours in Christ. His focus is on our recovery. If you are a Child of God, you are in recovery. You are learning to recover God’s ideal for your life! What was broken by sin, becomes repaired through relationship with God and you begin to recover what God intended for you from the beginning. That’s worth shouting over right there, folks.

The fact that He is FULL of grace and truth means you don’t get grace one day, but no truth or truth on one day, but no grace. It means you don’t get partial truth, bits of the truth or shadows of the truth when you walk with God. It means that you don’t get truth without grace. It means truth and grace will both overflow into your life at the same time. The Truth helps us know what the path is supposed to look like. It gives us the target we are shooting for, and the grace takes the sting out of God’s discipline and empowers us to get back up when we fall. 

Both of these characteristics help shape us into fruitful children of God. Grace is God’s  unmerited favor. Grace is power to change. It is the opportunity for a new and fresh start every day. Both grace and truth flow from God’s perfect love. I John 4:8 tells us God is love. How do we see the love of God when we look at Jesus?

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17

We see the generous and sacrificial nature of God the Father in the giving of Jesus to be the propitiation, the payment, for our sins. Through His sinless life and sacrificial death on the Cross, He put himself through what we should have endured because of our sin. Why because of God’s deep love for us. Sin separates us from God, but Jesus, God incarnate, became the bridge between us and God the Father. In love, God literally took our place and the condemnation and judgment that should have been leveled against us was placed on Him.

That’s a pretty amazing love. It’s deep, personal and costly. Jesus not only laid down His life for us, but He offers us His life. He is willing to make His home in us and to express His life through our lives. It is so next level that it is mind blowing. II Corinthians 5:17 tells us that when we are in Christ, we are made new. Our sin is forgiven. We have a clean slate with God, and we have a new life in Christ. We are no longer floundering through this life alone, but we are partnered with Christ, and His victory is our victory! Hallelujah! Our life is His life, and His life is ours.

God the Father wants to champion your life. What good parent wouldn’t want to see their children succeed? Like a proud parent in the stands at an athletic event or in the crowd at the Spelling Bee or the Dance Recital, He wants to root for you.

I love God the Father’s support of Jesus at His baptism. Scripture says that when Jesus was baptized, the Heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him to anoint Him for ministry, and God the Father, loud and proud declared from Heaven, “This is my Son! That’s my boy! In Him, I am well-pleased.” Such affirmation from His loving Heavenly Father. What an atta boy God the Father gave Jesus, His Son, at the beginning of His earthly ministry. Do you know that kind of affirmation today? Can you say God is your champion and cheerleader?

What other characteristics describe the Father’s intentions towards us? Not only can we look at the way Jesus lived to see what the Father is like, but the entirety of Scripture gives witness to His works and ways toward us. Look with me at Psalm 103 as we unpack a few more of them.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! ² Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

No earthly organization or experience can compete with God’s benefit package. It is comprehensive care. It is support for our physical, emotional, relational and spiritual lives. The Psalmist says in Psalm 23 that the Lord is his shepherd and because of that, he didn’t lack in any way. In Philippians 4:19 Paul said that God would supply all of our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. They are inexhaustible resources.

Psalm 139 says that God watches over our coming and going. Nothing about our lives escapes His knowledge and attention. He is standing ready to aid us at every turn. He hears us when we call. Psalm 139:5 says that God “hems us in.” This means that we live protected, that we live surrounded by the presence of God. God is not just wherever we are, but He is already wherever we are going, and He is coming in behind us at the same time! Think of it as spiritual bubble wrap! God’s got us no matter what!

There are times when our children enjoyed a unique success or opportunity, and we may have let them think that it was all them, that their hard work and their drive paved the way, but parents, you know what I am talking about, there were many times that we were working things out for them, clearing the way for them, removing obstacles from them to ensure they succeeded.

I remember the days when I was able to run. It’s been a minute. 😉 We would hold on to our kids bicycle seat and walk beside them, but then they would want us to let go. We knew they weren’t ready, and it would be a disaster if we did. I remember holding on to the back of the seat and running as fast as my stubby legs would take me, all the while they were shouting, “Look at me, I’m riding all by myself.” They were laughing. I was sucking air. They didn’t know I was steadying them, propelling them forward and making sure they didn’t get out into traffic.

Any parent here guilty of stacking the deck while playing a game with your child because you wanted them to win? It’s so easy to do in Candyland. Not that I would personally know, but I imagine it is easy to do, and I would also imagine it would make the game go a lot quicker. 😉 Just sayin’. 

Listen, God is always stacking our deck. He is working things out for us that we might have thought were the result of our intellect and effort, but Brothers and Sisters, it is the favor of God on His children’s lives that opens doors that no man can shut! Who do you think got you that network? Who do you think got your work noticed? Who do you think caused someone to mention your name when there was talk of promotion? It’s part of the benefit package that comes with being a Child of God!

Back to Psalm 103: ³ who forgives all your iniquity (sin),

Listen, none of us deserves forgiveness. None of us could do enough to earn it. Every righteous thing we could accomplish would look like a smelly, dirty rag to God. That is what the Bible says in Isaiah 64:6. Your best effort, your most impressive moral act stinks to God. That is why we need forgiveness. It can’t be earned. It is a gift that must  simply be received.

The heart of our Heavenly Father is to forgive us. He wants us to understand that we are sinners in need of a Savior SO THAT we can be forgiven. He wants us to understand that sin separates us from Him. What is the point of having a loving, gracious and powerful Heavenly Father if we continue to do the things that separate us from Him and the benefits He has to offer? Why live cut off from the Father’s benefits? Why turn our back on God? Why go our own way when His ways will take us further than we could ever get on our own? Psalm 103:4 is going to say in a minute that our Heavenly Father redeems our lives from the pit. Why would we need pulled out of the pit if our way was profitable? I mean!

Going on in Psalm 103: who heals all your diseases,

Now look, we can get hung up on the reality that not everyone is healed, but we can’t try to make that somehow equate to God not caring or conclude that He isn’t able to heal. He can and He does heal when it fulfills His purposes. Just this week, while we were in our Wednesday 11:00 a.m. prayer meeting, God put a healing on Mary Beth Norman after she was prayed for. That is the only way I can explain it. He put a healing on her. She felt it. She had not been able to get up off the floor without assistance for over a year due to very bad knees, and during prayer, she felt a healing touch from God. She dropped to the floor and stood back up without effort, and I’m here to tell you she sort of danced during the rest of the prayer time! God touched her. She was liberated and it put a pep in her step!

I have had Divine healing miracles. Twice, God touched me in my sleep. Injuries that were ongoing aches were healed in my sleep so that I couldn’t take any credit for my healing. God wanted me to know it was all Him. At different times, members of my family have been healed as a direct answer to prayer. A lady I prayed for about five years ago in MI, well up in years, with stage four cancer, after having been given a short time to live, is alive and well and is currently one of our online viewers! Hey Dorothy! I have seen countless healings in my 18+ years here at Teays Valley Church of God.

If you know you are the recipient of a Divine physical miracle, if you know that God delivered you from physical affliction because you experienced His touch or because you had doctors tell you they couldn’t explain what happened to you, but you are all of the sudden well, stand to your feet! Can we praise God for the living witnesses to His healing power?

Physical healing is awesome, but there is a deeper kind of healing that we all need. It is the healing of our souls. Salvation is step one, but after that, we can experience all kinds of healing as we learn to grow in Him and trust Him and rely on Him. He can heal our inner emotional scars, undoing the damage the world and Satan have inflicted on us. There is no limit to His healing power. I need a Heavenly Father who can heal me body, mind and spirit.

⁴ who redeems your life from the pit,

Anyone here been brought low by life? Anyone here found yourself in a pit of your own making? God doesn’t stand over our pit and call down to us, “I told you so! You should have known better! Shame on you. Now you can just stay there!” No. He lifts us out of the pit. He gives us a hand up. He cleans us off. He points us in the right direction. He causes the pit to become a steppingstone toward the future He has for us. Our Heavenly Father is so creative and powerful that He can take all the broken pieces of our lives and cause them to become a blessing.  

Psalm 40:1-3 ¹I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.² He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. ³ He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

These are real, heartfelt expressions from David. He had hit rock bottom and instead of it killing him, instead of checking out of life, instead of quitting, he went from the bottom of the pit to blessed, and his worship reflected what God had done for him. This is the Heavenly Father we are talking about. He can cause all things to work together for our good, Romans 8:28.

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, ⁵ who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

It’s as if God places His favor right on top of our heads. He satisfies our every longing with His presence and the things He provides for us.

⁶ The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.⁹ He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.

God is working things out. Trust Him. Be patient with Him. He is surely patient with us. Yes, the Bible recounts times He exhibits His anger, but it is only after mercy upon mercy upon mercy is shown. He always leads with love. God doesn’t throw our past failures up in our faces. He doesn’t have an angry disposition towards us.

¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

Friends, we could have an entire praise and worship service just thanking God for not doing to us what He could have had every right to do to us. He doesn’t treat us as our sins dictate He should. Instead, He pours His love out on us. I think we typically come to services to praise the Lord for all He has done for us, and that is wonderful and is the right thing to do, but how about we say “Thank You” and “Bless You” and “Praise You God” for what You haven’t done to us. He hasn’t treated us according to our sin.

¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

God doesn’t hold grudges against His children who confess their sins to Him. You can tell Him anything and without fear. You don’t have to worry how it will burn you down the road. He already knows it all anyway, but He invites us to come and to come clean so that we can put our past to rest. Friends, God has a long fuse, a short memory and thick skin, and He is crazy about you.

Here is the climax of our text: ¹³ As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. ¹⁴ For he knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.

Here is what I have decided. I want to live in such a way that I take full advantage of the benefits of being a Child of God. I don’t want to pretend to be Ok when I am not. I don’t want to put on a brave face when I need healed. I don’t want to worry about something I need when I could simply go to God and ask for Him to supply it. I don’t want to try to sweep sin under the rug when He offers to remove it from me. I don’t want to be dragged down, burdened down by the cares of life when God says He will do the heavy lifting. I don’t want to stay in a pit when I was created by God with potential for palace life.

What about God’s love, forgiveness, protection, healing, provision, compassion and offer for an eternal home in Heaven are a turn off to you? I can’t think of one good reason to choose life apart from Him.

Verse 17 of Psalm 103 says, “But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him.”

Have you encountered the steadfast love of the Heavenly Father? Are you experiencing the full measure of the Father’s love in your life? Jesus has shown us what the Father is like. The words of Scripture through David’s experience and so many other people’s experiences reveal God’s heart toward us. But don’t just take Jesus’ word for it or David’s word for it, but experience the love of your perfect Heavenly Father for yourself. You can know for yourself what the Father is like.