Sermon Tone Analysis

The Father Heart of God

 

Father’s Day - June 18

*Psalm 103:8-12*

 

 

*/Focus:/*/ God’s love for us takes into account our weaknesses./

Let’s get the difficult part over with first.

It’s Father’s Day and I’d like to share with you ten things you won’t here dad say today:

Number 10 – Well, how about that?

I’m lost!

Looks like we’ll have to stop and ask for directions.

Number 9 – You know sweetheart, at 13 you should be ready for unchaperoned car dates.

Number 8 – I’ve noticed that you and all your friends have a certain hostile attitude.

I like that.

Number 7 – Here’s a credit card and the keys to my new car.

GO CRAZY!

Number 6 – You want to play football?

Figure skating’s not good enough for you, son?

Number 5 – Your mother and I are going away for the weekend.

You might want to consider throwing a party.

Number 4 – Don’t you worry about that exam tomorrow.

You just talk to your friends on MSN as long as  you like.

Number 3 – You know how much your mother loves your tongue split, nose rings, and purple hair.

Number 2 – Your boyfriend wants to move in?

Sure!

You might as well share the same bedroom.

Number 1 – What do I want for Father’s Day? Aaahh – don’t worry about me.

It’s no big deal.

*Introduction: Unlikely Love*

Do you remember the pot-bellied pig craze of the 1980s?

People shelled out thousands of dollars to own one of these exotic house pets imported from Vietnam.

Their breeders claimed these mini-pigs were quite smart and would grow to a weight of only 40 pounds.

Well, they were half right.

The pigs were smart.

They could be trained to walk using leashes, do tricks, and use a litter box.

But they had a tendency to grow to about 150 pounds and could become quite aggressive.

What do people do with an unwanted pot-bellied pig?

Pig roasts are not the answer; their meat is tough, stringy, and marbled with fat.

Fortunately, Dale Riffle came to the rescue.

Someone had given Riffle one of these pigs, and he fell in love with it.

The pig, Rufus, never learned to use its litter box, and developed this craving for carpets and wallpaper and drywall.

Yet Riffle sold his suburban home, and he moved with Rufus to a five-acre farm in West Virginia.

Then he started taking in other unwanted pigs.

And before long, the guy was living, literally, in hog heaven.

There are currently 180 residents on his farm.

According to an article in /U.S. News & World Report/, they snooze on beds of pine shavings.

They wallow in mud puddles.

They soak in plastic swimming pools and listen to piped-in classical music.

They wait their turn for one of Dale Riffle’s belly rubs.

They socialize in age-graded affinity groups.

And they never need fear that one day they’ll become bacon or pork chops.

There’s actually a waiting list of unwanted pigs that are trying to get a hoof in the door at Riffle’s farm.

Dale Riffle told the reporter, “I think we’re all put on earth for some reason, and I guess pigs are my lot in life.”

How could anybody in his right mind fall so totally in love with pigs?

 

*I.

God’s Love for Sinful People*

I’ll tell you something even more amazing.

An infinite, perfectly holy, majestic, awesome God is passionately in love with insignificant, sinful, sometimes openly rebellious, frequently indifferent people.

God loves people like you and me.

In fact, God loves us so much that he wants to adopt us into his family.

And even beyond that, he wants us to call him “Father.”

That’s even beyond what Dale Riffle was willing to do!

The Bible never teaches that everybody becomes a child of God automatically.

We are adopted into his family.

Today we want to focus on dimensions of that grace.

We find this described in the verses of today’s text, Psalm 103:8–12.

Let’s read it now.

If you have your Bible with you, please turn to Psalm 103 and follow along as I read verses 8 through 12 from the New Living Translation:

/“The LORD is merciful and gracious; he is slow to get angry and full of unfailing love.

\\ He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever.

\\ He has not punished us for all our sins, nor does he deal with us as we deserve.

\\ For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

\\ He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west.

“/

When it comes to his love for sinful people, God’s got a long fuse, a short memory, a thick skin, and a big heart.

Let’s take a look at each of these.

A long fuse.

Verse 8 describes God’s patience with us: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love.”

He’s got a long fuse.

This is actually a quotation of something Moses had written some 500 years earlier.

Many other Bible writers quote this phrase, first recorded in Exodus 34.

While Moses was at the top of Mount Sinai conferring with God Almighty, the people were having a party.

These people whom God had just delivered from bondage in Egypt were expressing their gratitude to God by worshiping an idol of a golden calf made from discarded jewelry.

On top of that there were drunkenness and immorality.

The Scripture says that when God saw this he was angry.

God told Moses to step back.

He said, “Mo, I’m going to nuke these party animals.”

(That’s the Living Bible paraphrase.)

“I’ll start a new nation with you.

How about it?”

Moses fell on his face and appealed to God’s grace.

God agrees with Moses and withholds his righteous wrath.

He forgoes punishing these folks, but he adds, “I’m through with them.

I won’t destroy them, but I will no longer go with you, Moses.

You’re on your own.”

Once again Moses pleads with God to reconsider.

Once again, amazingly, God agrees.

He even promises to give Moses a new copy of the Ten Commandments.

You’ll recall from the story, Moses had shattered the original copy when he came down the mountain and found the people partying.

This is the only case we know of in the Bible where all Ten Commandments were broken simultaneously.

God takes Moses back to the top of Mount Sinai, and before he begins dictating these moral imperatives a second time, Exodus 34 says that God passed in front of Moses proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”

That’s the verse quoted by David in Psalm 103:8.

Yes, God gets angry.