DADDY GOD
Daddy God
Father’s Day With Great Joy
Sunday, June 15, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
This week I had a dream about today’s Father’s Day Church Service
Dream: “Sandra and I were on our way to church. It was Father’s Day. The path to our church was hidden and could not be seen from the main road. The path was covered with an awning of oak trees. There were so many cars along the path to the church we would have to walk a long way.
I was driving and let Sandra out so she would not have so far to walk. I then discovered a short-cut that was not visible to the eye from the path where all the cars were parked.
Job 28: “There is a path which no fowl knows and which the vulture’s eye has not seen; the lion’s whelps have not trodden it, and the fierce lion passed by it.”
Our service was at the top of a flight of stairs. The steps were slightly slanted and I was carefully watching my step, but my feet were flying over the steps barely touching.
I was carrying in my hand a copy of the book, “Dad Time” by Max Lucado.
At the top of the stairs, I saw the people of our church. Sandra, the musicians and Deacons were all preparing for church. The room was filled with great joy, expectation, supernatural light and the glory cloud (End of Dream).
Could it be the great joy, expectation, brilliant light and glory cloud was the presence of our Father God anticipating, “Dad Time”? That today we will remember to honor our earthly fathers, but we will also remember that the Father is also our Daddy God. That Father God has great joy because of His children.
Proverbs 23:24: “The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.”
I believe the dream represented Daddy God’s great joy in his children. The long line of cars represented his many children who were celebrating Daddy’s love today; being at the top of the stairs means “going up in the Spirit”.
This month we have been meeting downstairs in the Willow Room to be good stewards. The Country Club made the upstairs ball room available to us today at no extra cost. I didn’t know when I had the dream that we were going to be at the top of the stairs.
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”
This week I posted a mini-message of a “moment of truth” that hit me while I was talking to Daddy God.
For some months now our church has been stabilizing from an unexpected and abrupt move instigated by the Federal Government. As a Pastor, I have many areas of responsibility that require my attention. However, my primary focus has been to “guard” the precious “Presence and Anointing” which graces and blesses our church gatherings. Through the history of the church, Satan tries to destroy the “Presence and Anointing” of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not to mention trying to “wear out the saints”.
Well, Satan took a pretty strong shot at us this year. The moment of truth hit me that “we have come through”. We will soon hit our mid-year marker of the promise that the Lord will again establish our congregation in a permanent location. The “Presence and Anointing” of the Lord is stronger and more powerful than ever.
Do I see that location? No! However, I know my Daddy God! He promised, not once, but multiple times through multiple witnesses. My Daddy God does not trifle with his children! He does not play games with his children! He would not send us on a wild goose chase unless He had a purpose for our good and nor for our harm.
Did he test our hearts during this trial of our faith? Yes! Was our pride wounded that we were so callously cast out of our church? Yes! Were we hurt? Yes! Did we deserve better? Yes! But we kept our eyes on Jesus Christ knowing with an absolute fact that we were being sent “not knowing whither we were going”. This is the walk of faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
So as we gather unto Jesus this Father’s Day, our great joy is to bless our Father who loves us so much that he trusted us to “take this walk” and regardless of the outcome, for me we have guarded the “Presence and Anointing” of the Lord. Where we meet is no longer an issue for me, it is the Lord’s Presence that matters. It is gathering with those who love God and love One Another. It is receiving our friends and co-laborers into our koinonia wherever we gather.
Father God is testing the hearts of many during this season to prepare us to receive a greater outpouring of His Glory. I believe that is why in my dream, the line of cars was so long “going to the church”. These are the “overcomers” who have “come through”; having their hearts tested that with their whole heart their joy and gladness is in Father God.
Proverbs 14:26: “Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress; and for their children it will be a refuge.”
When our children were young, Shanna was the most adventuresome. At two, she sees a swimming pool and runs and jumps in it. At four, she pulls the pretty yellow emergency-fire handle in the department store. She runs for the escalator trying to go down and up escalator. At ten she takes off miles across a lake with our precious five year old Kelly in a mini-speed boat.
In each one of these incidents and (there are more) both her father and I had no other thought except to rescue our children…for those minutes when the care of our children was out of our control, every ounce of energy had one goal---to save our children.
No price is too high for a parent to pay to redeem his child. No energy is too great. No effort too demanding. A parent will go to any length to save and
find his or her own.
So will God!
I am going to borrow a story from Max’s book, “Dad Time”:
“I’ll Always Be There For You”
The 1989 Armenian earthquake needed only four minutes to flatten the nation and kill thirty thousand people. Moments after the deadly tremor ceased, a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived, he saw that the building had been leveled. Looking at the mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he had made to his child: “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.” Driven by his own promise, he found the area closest to his son’s room and began to pull back the rocks. Other parents arrive and began sobbing for their children.
“It’s too late,” they told the man. “You know they are dead. “You can’t help.” Even a police officer encouraged him to give up.
But the father refused. For eight hours, then sixteen, then thirty-two, thirty-six hours he dug. His hands were raw and his energy gone, but he refused to quit. Finally after thirty-eight wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He called his boy’s name, ‘Arman! Arman!’ And a voice answered him, “Dad it’s me!” Then the boy added these priceless words, “I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. Because you promised, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.”
God places children in a special place. “One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch them and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. When Jesus saw what was happening, he was displeased when he saw what was happening. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them” (Mark 10: 13-16).
Matthew 18: 1-6: “The disciples asked Jesus, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus called a little child unto him and set in the midst of them. “Verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receives me. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it would be better for him that a millstone was hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea….’”
Today I honor all Godly fathers, fathers in the Church, My Father, my children’s Father, and I honor my Daddy God as a little child, and I delight to come to Him this Father’s Day with great joy of his goodness to me, not for what he does, which is wonderful, but because he loves me.
Matthew 7:11: “If you though you are evil , know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.”
Colossians 2:3 “In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
We will serve communion.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – quote from “Dad Time” by: Max Lucado – dream about church was given to Pastor Carolyn Sissom, 6/11/14.