HAPPY FATHER'S DAY -2013
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
SUNDAY, June 16, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
As our Fathers and men of God face the responsibilities of life in the midst of pressure, disappointments, battles and storms, I give you this message as a gift and pray the peace of God that passes all understanding will be your portion this Father’s Day and throughout all of your days.
Eph. 6:23: “Peace be to you, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Phil 1:2: “Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I wish to honor and salute all the wonderful fathers and Men of God in this church as well as those in the ministry whom God has used to “stand with this church”. Many have helped and befriended us in ways that are immeasurable along the way. However, it has been measured in Heaven and great shall be the reward of all God’s men!
We have extraordinary Men of God in this church! I give you the highest respect and honor and am honored to be called your Pastor. We serve one another as we serve Christ, “”Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.”
All honor goes first and foremost to Father God. It was very natural for me as a young child to come into relationship with the “Father” in the Trinity because of my wonderful earthly Father. At the age of five (5), I had a moment in time when I instantly knew the Heavenly Father.
My Father, Thomas A. Floyd, is in Heaven. He was the measure of every “good man”. I was never one to be boy-crazy. My Father raised the bar so high; none of them could ever measure up to that standard. Don loved my Father almost as much as I did; but I am afraid I may have held Daddy over his head as my measure of a man.
I want to honor the Father of my children, Donald H. Sissom, who I married 51-years ago today. Don Sissom excelled in the love and support of his children beyond any measure of man’s physical strength. He kept giving and going when my strength would fail me.
I want to honor my Son-in-love, Chris Bonaventure, who excels in responsibility, Love, a good provider, care, commitment to the happiness, well-being and discipline of my grand children. He is raising them in church in the admonition and nurture of the Lord.
There is a long list of Ministers of the Gospel who have and continue to befriend this church fellowship. However, there are five (5) who God used at the appointed time and some of them God continues to use. I wish to honor those Ministers:
- Rev. Dr. Bob Anderson
- Rev. Johnny Barham
- Rev. Stanley Rankin
- Rev. Wilbert Scott
- Rev. Roger Teale
This brings me to today’s message. I am paraphrasing from a message of George Warnock, a Father of the Faith, who though I never met him, spoke into my life by telephone, letter and through his many books. Brother Warnock is still living and will be 96-years young this year. I wish to honor him as a Father of the Faith today.
As most of you know, I feel the present “Fathering Movement” is a truth stretched too far out. All truth stretched too far out is heresy.
Brother Warnock in his book, Feed My Sheep, teaches balanced-truth of the Lamb-Shepherd and the “fathers” in God’s family.
Yes, we are Sons of God. However, “The purpose of all ministries that proceeds from the exalted Christ is to minister the Truth that the sheep of God’s pasture might come into direct, unhindered personal union with the Lord. Ministers of the New Covenant are not to be “mediators” as Moses was or as Jesus is. We are rather “servants” (Greek, “doulos” or “bond-slave”). Slaves have no right to call anything their own…not even the ministry that God gave them. We are “stewards” of God’s household (1 Cor. 4:1).”
We are to make disciples to follow Christ. We must have none of our own. God’s ministers are gardeners; those who plant the seed, or those who water the growing plant, or those who reap the harvest. We must not meddle with the seed, or with the growing plant. God is the real Husbandman and He it is that gives “the increase”. “’So then, neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters, but God that gives the increase.”
The “fathers” in God’s family are something like Joseph was to Jesus. He was given the responsibility of providing for the child Jesus until He came of age…but Joseph knew he was not really the Father. Paul likened himself to a father…to the Corinthians… to Timothy. But he did not meddle with their relationship with Christ. His purpose was that he might present the Church “as a chaste virgin…unto Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2).
So it is with the “shepherds”. There has been too much “possessiveness” among the shepherds concerning God’s sheep. We cannot rightfully say, “My sheep, “my flock”, “my church”. It is not something a minister can build. It is not something they can trade off with someone else. They cannot accept a pastorate that is offered to them, nor resign at will. It is not theirs to take, and it is not theirs to hand over. They simply move in the midst of God’s church as one of His ministers…coming to an assembly of God’s people and ministering as long as God indicates His will in the matter, and then moving on as God directs.
When Paul left Ephesus he had no other provision for them, but to commend them unto God, and to the Word of His Grace…and then he went on his way. No promise that he would take the matter up with headquarters at Antioch, and see that they got a pastor as soon as possible. The “Word of Grace” would be sufficient; and God would be faithful to send them time to time whatever apostle, or prophet, or evangelist, or pastor, or teacher…that they needed for further edification.
In the meantime the elders of the Church at Ephesus were charged to “feed the flock of God”---or literally to “shepherd” or “pastor” the flock. The people were not kept on “milk” the rest of their days as one pastor after another trades places with each other. They were thrown into the midst of the sea of life with the Grace of God as their only resource; and it was up to the people to “try” the ministries that came their way…some of whom would be looking for a pulpit, a church to “take-over”; to draw disciples after themselves; and to pull on the purse-strings of the congregation for their own ambitious agendas.
Was the Grace of God sufficient for them? Hear what Jesus had to say about the Church at Ephesus…perhaps 35 years later.
“I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how you cannot bear them which are evil; and you have tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and have found them liars; and have borne, and have patience, and for my name’s sake have labored, and have not fainted…(Rev. 2: 2-3).
Luke 6:44: ‘Every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns, men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.”
The fruit of the bramble bush is thorns.
Saul was not really God’s man. But Israel wanted an “instant” king…they were not prepared to wait for the king God had in mind…and God gave them their heart’s desire. Some might question why God gave Israel a king like Saul, when He knew that Saul would be a stubborn, rebellious king. But this is consistent with God’s ways. God always gives rulers as He sees fit, regardless of the choice of the people; and it is according to His righteous judgments.
The ruler that God gives may be the kind they want, or the kind they need, or the kind they deserve…according to God’s judgment in the matter. Now Saul was the kind of king the people wanted (and as it turned out, he was the kind they deserved)… and there was an immediate response from the people when they saw the man that Samuel had anointed, “God save the king”!
We can always rest assured that God’s plan is only delayed, not frustrated, by human failure. Even that so called “delay” ---God uses to be part of the plan. For it is in the hour of apparent futility and frustration that God behind the scenes is making very diligent preparation for the new thing that He has planned to bring forth.
God doesn’t wait until man has failed to prepare for that failure. God is even then preparing a people to stand in the gap in the day of sudden calamity.
Out of the fields of Bethlehem there was a young lad by the name of David, shepherding sheep. He was the one that God had in mind for the shepherding of Israel, but he was hardly ready for it yet. Nor was Israel ready. They were happy with Saul. But God knew that Saul would not walk in His ways, and He must prepare a man to shepherd His people when Saul’s kingdom would come to naught.
Samuel mourned over Saul, but God sent him to Bethlehem to anoint a new king from the family of Jesse. David wasn’t even considered to be eligible; and they didn’t bother inviting him to the coronation feast. When they went looking for him, he was easy to find. (He wasn’t out chasing donkeys---pun intended, like Saul…but he was tending sheep when God called him.) He was a good shepherd, and his sheep were close to his heart. He would risk his life to save them from the lion or the bear. He would call his own sheep by name, for they were close to his heart; and they knew his voice, and would follow. “And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him; for this is he” (1 Sam. 16:12).
The true shepherds over God’s heritage are sheep before they become shepherds, and after they become shepherds they are still sheep. And so David, anointed to be the shepherd of Israel, must learn the way of a sheep. He had to undergo some hard discipline, in order that he might qualify as a shepherd of God’s flock. He had to learn to take on the heart of a sheep. He must learn patience. He must know what it is like to come under the wrath of an angry king, and be chased as a lamb running away from a ravenous wolf.
God requires that his shepherds have the heart of a sheep. David, therefore, had to become a sheep in order that he might be a true shepherd of Israel in the days to come. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” he was to sing in later years.
This is all part of the process that God’s chosen ones have to go through in order to bring forth the lamb nature that God desires them to have. For it is the lamb that reigns with Christ on the throne, and therefore a shepherd has no preeminence above a sheep. If we are “shepherds” in this life, we are still the sheep of the “Chief Shepherd,” and our place in God will be determined as to how well we have been “examples of the flock.” If, on the other hand, we are “sheep” in this life, then as those qualities of meekness, and forbearance, and patience and gentleness have been developed…so do we become heirs of the Kingdom of God; for; for “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”.
Let the sheep, therefore, take their place as the “sheep of His pasture” learn obedience by the things which they suffer, learn submission one to another, and to shepherds that are over them in the Lord, obeying always as they hear the voice of the Shepherd.
For if they find grace in this realm, their portion in God is no less than that of apostles and prophets. And let the shepherds, whose calling is greater in this life…recognize that with the greater calling there has been laid upon them a greater responsibility; and the task of “learning obedience” without which they shall not be accounted worthy to be shepherd-kings of the everlasting Kingdom)…their task of learning obedience is more difficult for them than it is for the sheep, by reason of the temptation of their office.
For fathers of families, leaders in churches and shepherds of the flock, we have this comfort, “The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shell feed (or shepherd) them.”
We all have the comfort of our Heavenly Father who loves us even more than the love of our earthly fathers and more than you fathers love your children. For this reason, I am able to trust my children to Father God because I know He loves them more than I ever could. Though Don and I gave them all we had both with love, time, and provision.
We press on as we hear and obey the voice of the Chief Shepherd as he speaks to us. “My people come up higher! Fear not to ascend the unknown pathways that lead to higher heights in God, as long as you hear the Shepherd calling.
Each of us know in our own heart where we are in Christ on our journey. If others have found sufficient pasture on the Eastern banks of the Jordan, like the tribes of Reuben and Gad and Manasseh…then the call to move forward and upward into the hills and mountains is not for them. It seems burdensome to them. But to those who have heard the call to come up higher, it is different. You are not content in your present habitation. You know in your own selves there is a deep cry within to move higher into the heavenly realms in Christ, even into perfect union with the Father. Therefore you cannot find rest in any doctrine or any teaching that would discourage you from discovering Father in your own inheritance.
Poem by George Warnock:
Just content to be a son
With no ambition to succeed
In realms of earth, and have no need
Of popularity’s acclaim,
Or purchase for myself a name
In serving Christ; for He must be
The Lord throughout eternity,
To see His face and hear His voice,
And do His bidding is my choice,
Just content to be a son,
A son of God without a home,
To stay, or go, or wait, or roam,
Hither and yon without a plan,
Led of the Spirit, not of man,
I’ll have no monument of praise,
But I’ll have peace in God’s own ways;
And though I tread this earthly sod,
I’ll walk with Him, I live in God.
Just content to be a son,
Misunderstood, and yet I know
The path I take shall overflow
With life abundant and with grace,
I only need to run the race
With patience, waiting seeing Him,
Hearing the still small voice within,
If others want the earth to quake,
I’ll hear His voice when I awake.
Just content to be a son,
No words today…but what He says;
No work to do...but what He does;
No fear or worry, anxious care,
I live with Him, His yoke I share,
No name to make. He writes His own
Upon the heart’s pure glistening stone;
No life to live, I lay it down
I’ll share His cross…and live again.
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Scripture from K.J.V.
I entered into the labors of George Warnock, “Feed My Sheep”. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Brother Warnock. Poem, Just Content to Be a Son, by George Warnock.