DUDE PERFECT
DUDE PERFECT
Father’s Day – June 19, 2016, the Year of Our Lord
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
I always learn from my children and grandchildren about the “world/kosmos” in which they have been planted and are growing up---some good and some not so good. This week, Colin gave me my sermon title.
“Granny have you heard of the Dude Perfect men?” “No!”
“Well Granny everyone has heard of them. They are really neat Christian men from Texas.” “Colin you just gave me my sermon title for my Father’s Day Message.”
On my return, I researched this Christian Men’s ministry on Google. There they are with a really neat message of the journey of growing up in the “world/kosmos” of their generation and their choice to serve and love Christ with their lives.
I want to borrow their ministry/business name, “Dude Perfect” to honor the fathers and men of our Church Fellowship. We are blessed with a group of men who are honorable as fathers, husbands, and stewards to this Church. Each of you made a choice to honor the Lord Jesus with your lives.
When men are honored in the Old Testament as men of God, the Hebrew word, “iysh” is used. This means a champion, good-, great, mighty man of high degree, a steward, one who is worthy.”
“Steward” – “one who protects and is responsible for something considered worth caring for and persevering.”
It is Amazing Love that enters a man’s heart to support a wife, children, home, and church. This is the heart of love of Father God. This heart of God can only come through the love of Christ.
Let us consider what kind of love is the Father’s love: His love is eternal. He loved us from before the foundation of the world. Before we ever existed or had done any thing good, he thought of us, loved us and delighted in us.
Every earthly father would delight to see their sons and daughters grow into their image: good men, residentially, financially and emotionally independent able to make their own way in life, good husbands and fathers. Men who fear God and live clean lives before God and man.
As we know from our journey, we did not “arrive” to that place without a few stumbles along the way. Actually none of us have actually “arrived” anywhere.
Proverbs 24:16: “A just man falls seven times, and rises up again…”
Just as our Heavenly Father did not give up on us when we stumble and fall, neither does our earthly Father give up on his children when they stumble and fall. We certainly don’t enable our children by rescuing them, but we are there to continue giving our love as they “rise up again.” When they have “overcome”, they will be able to stand squarely on their own two feet in the face of adversity and temptation.
It is written in Heb. 1:3: “Jesus has been appointed heir of all things…who being in the brightness of His (God’s) glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power…sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Not only did Father God delight in the Son, but his love and delight is in the sons of men. Prov. 8:30-31: “…I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him…and my delights were with the sons of men.”
God is called the Father
1. of the stars, the heavenly luminaries, because he is their creator, upholder, ruler
2. of all rational and intelligent beings, whether angels or men, because he is their creator, preserver, guardian and protector
1. of spiritual beings and of all men
3. of Christians, as those who through Christ have been exalted to a specially close and intimate relationship with God, and who no longer dread him as a stern judge of sinners, but revere him as their reconciled and loving Father
4. the Father of Jesus Christ, as one whom God has united to himself in the closest bond of love and intimacy, made acquainted with his purposes, appointed to explain and carry out among men the plan of salvation, and made to share also in his own divine nature
1. by Jesus Christ himself
2. by the apostles
This Amazing Love has been deposited into the fathers of this church and the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
I have spoken often of the covenant the Lord initiated with me concerning families. I will continue to speak of it often for as I continue to declare it, the angels will continue to perform it.
“Carolyn if you will answer the call to start a church, your family will follow you. If you do not, they will go the other way. All those who help you, their families will also be saved.”
That is not only a mandate upon my life and this ministry, but it is a covenant initiated by Father God. I have not backed-up or slacked-up; nor will He.
Consider what kind of love is the Father’s love!!!
It was from eternity that the Father purposed in his heart to bring us to eternal happiness. If you had the ability to assure your children of eternal happiness, you would give all you have for such a blessing. An awareness of this loving, eternal purpose of the Father cannot but bring our souls to the lowest depths of a humble, holy reverence and to rejoice before God with trembling.
The love of the Father is freely given to us. He loves us because he wanted to love us. Each of us fell in love with our children when they were born. Our heavenly father’s amazing love is exponentially magnified beyond anything you or I are capable of feeling.
The love of the Father is unchangeable. Though we change every day, yet his love does not change. When our children challenge us and the world around them, we may fall out-of-like with them and their actions, but we never fall out-of-love with them. We had to correct them with discipline. Because we know our battles and life challenges made us stronger, we have the wisdom to know this is how our children will become strong is to take their own risks, then fight their own battles.
The love of Father God is the same. If we lived a sheltered life in a bubble---free of stress, challenges, temptations, etc., we would all be spoiled and worthless humans continually looking to be carried around on a silver platter. Every man in this church knows the challenges before your son or daughter that you will have to train them to overcome.
Heb. 12:6-11: “For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and scourges (that means a horsewhip) every son whom He receives. If you endure discipline, God deals with you as sons; for what son is he whom the father does not discipline. If you are not disciplined, then you are not sons. We have a father of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them respect; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a few days after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who receive.”
Because the Father’s love is fixed and unchangeable, he shows us infinite patience and forbearance. If his love was not unchangeable, we would perish. (11 Peter 3:9)
We must believe this in order to receive the love of the Father. We receive this love by Faith. We must believe that God loves us, that his heart is filled with love toward us and accept his word for it. We will never experience the sweetness of his love until we receive it. We must, then, continually remind ourselves that God loves us and embraces us with his free eternal love.
By his Word, he presents Himself to us as a Father who loves us. Embrace him by faith and let your heart be filled with his love. Set your heart to receive his love and let your heart be bound with the cords of this love.
If our child comes to us murmuring, complaining, listing all of their woes, and pouting, we won’t feel like blessing them. The Word says if we delight to do His will, He will delight in us. We won’t delight in a rebellious, murmuring, complaining child. The child will be disciplined until they can demonstrate a better attitude.
Let the love of the Father stir you to love him also. Then you will walk in the light of God’s face and have Holy Communion with Him all day long. Do not treat him unkindly when he deals so kindly with you. Do not show ingratitude to him who is your loving heavenly Father.
I had an interesting “light bulb experience” with the Lord on my trip to Baton Rouge this week. It is my custom when I travel alone to spend all of that time in communion with the Lord in prayer and listening. This time (the first time ever) I turned on talk radio to catch up on some news. By the time I arrived at the Louisiana state line, I was exhausted. My first thought was “these trips are starting to take their toll on me.” I turned off the radio. Immediately the oppression lifted and as I initiated my prayer life, the car filled with the Lord’s presence.
Consider that it is the greatest desire of God the Father that you should have loving fellowship with him. The time in my car was His time. It has always been that way and it will now always be that way. His greatest desire is for us to receive him into our soul as one full of love, tenderness and kindness to us-ward.
God is good, gracious, tender, loving and kind. There is nothing more acceptable to the Father than for us to keep our hearts filled with him as the eternal source of all the rich graces which flows out to the sinner in the blood of Jesus.
The more we see of God’s love, the more we shall delight in him. All we learn of God will only frighten us away from him if we do not see him as loving and merciful to us. But if our hearts are taken up with the Father’s love as the chief delight of his nature, it cannot help but choose to be overpowered, conquered and embraced by him.
This, if anything, will arouse our desire to make our eternal home with God. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will? Let us set our thoughts on the eternal love of the Father and our hearts will be aroused to delight in him. Sit down in this delightful spring of living water and we will find that our lines have fallen in pleasant places. The streams of life will be sweet and delightful. Those who ran from God will not be able, even for a second, to keep at any distance from him.
Because of the precious Holy Spirit, we are able to experience the love of God through spiritual sense and experience. However, this is first received only by faith. The foundation of our knowing that God loves us is our receiving it by faith. “We have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love.” (1 Jn. 4:16).
“Herein is love,” says the Holy Spirit, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us” (1 Jn. 4:10-11). God loves us when there is nothing in us to deserve his love or cause him to love us.
What honor then, have all the saints, to stand with boldness in the presence of the Father and there to enjoy his love! What a blessing the Queen of Sheba announced on the servants of Solomon who stood before him and heard his wisdom. How much more blessed are we who stand continually before the God of Solomon, hearing his wisdom and enjoying his love! While others have their fellowship with Satan and with their own lusts, Christians have sweet communion with the Father for ever.
This is our safe haven to retreat to when we suffer the scorn, reproaches, scandals and misrepresentations of the world. “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." If I am hated in the world, I will go where I know I am loved. Though all others hate me, yet my Father is tender and full of compassion. I will go to him and find happiness in him. I have honor and love with the Father whose kindness is better than life itself. In Father’s love is every thing I desire. There I find the sweetness of all his infinite mercies.’
Who can condemn or criticize you if God loves you and approves of you. Criticism and condemnation have no power to affect your joy and happiness. Let the world think as they please, but Christians have intimate, spiritual, heavenly joys, because our fellowship is a fellowship of love with the Father. We keep company with the Father of glory.
Shall sin and lust dwell in those thoughts which receive from and give out love to the Father? Holiness is required in his presence for ever. An unclean spirit cannot draw near to God. An unholy heart cannot abide with God. A lewd person will not desire to hold fellowship with one who is pure. Will a man with vain and foolish thoughts hold communion and dwell with the most holy God?
Thinking much of the Father’s love is a powerful motive to holiness and leads the soul into holiness. Walking with God is a not a matter of outward appearance, but of an inward reality.
I salute the Dude’s Perfect in our Church Fellowship as Men of God who are seeking the Lord not only for your personal love relationship with Father God, but for your families, communities, and the world.
I thank God for the wonderful men and fathers who the Lord has sent to this fellowship to hold up my hands; but more important the Lord’s hands as we continue on our journey.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
www.eastgateministries.com
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of John Owen (1616-1683) – Communion with God. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Brother Owen.