Sermon Tone Analysis
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Presuppositions
Presuppositions are ideas hidden in your head that you think are true and assume that everyone will agree.
This morning we are listening to the Word of God, the Holy Bible, which God has given to us to instruct us, guide us, comfort us, and encourage us.
I could make the presuppose that as I speak, everyone is highly interested in hearing the Word of God.
That might or might not be true.
Some of you may be so overcome with life’s issues, that your stresses and worries are choking out the word of God.
I presuppose when I speak that God is working in everyone who is listening.
He is working to make you willing and to give you the strength and ability to do what he calls you to do.
That is a foundational presupposition I bring into the pulpit with me.
God is working…
We also have presuppositions about what a father is.
We have learned what a father is from our own parent.
In some cases you have had a great father and your picture of fatherhood is shaped by that experience.
In other cases, your father was not a good father.
Your definition of what a father should be might be expresses in negatives.
“A good father doesn’t…”.
You function as a father with these presuppositions.
The Bible has some presuppositions about what a father is like.
These characteristics are not taught, they are assumed.
Writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the psalmist in Psalm 103:13 spells them out.
Assumption: Fathers are compassionate
“As a father shows compassion…”.
This phrase makes the assumption that fathers are compassionate people toward their children.
If there is one mark of a Christian father, of a Biblically centered father, it is that father is compassionate towards their children.
Johnny Cash sang a popular song written by Shel Silverstein.
His father named him Sue and then left him.
For years Sue was angry at his father, forced to fight because of his feminine name.
He went looking for his father, found him in a bar, and was so full of anger he tried to kill him.
His father was tough and they fought hard.
The father said to Sue, “I named you that because I knew you would either need to be tough or you would die.”
The last verse of the song gives Sue’s reaction.
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son
And I came away with a different point of view
And I think about him, now and then
Every time I try and every time I win
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George, anything but Sue.
The presupposition was that boys need to grow up to be tough men.
One wonders if this imaginary person had a different name if the same would have been true.
One also wonders why this imaginary person didn’t give himself a nickname of Bill, George, or John to avoid the inevitable confrontations.
One thing missing in this is any assumption that a father should be compassionate.
If one thinks that making a boy tough and mean so they can survive in this world is compassionate, then you are missing the mark.
The Bible assumes that fathers will be compassionate toward their children.
The Bible is so certain that a mark of compassion is a hallmark of a father, that it uses this picture to reveal to us a compassionate God.
Our children are not born real smart.
They also have an assumption, a presupposition.
Our children believe that God is like their father.
You can say that you never taught them that, that you don’t live up to that standard, but it is true.
A young child walked by my office with his father and said, “That is where God works…”.
In a case of mistaken identity, he identified me with God.
Years ago, I worked overnight in a home for abused children.
I was instructed not to mention God as a father because these children had fathers who beat them, burnt them, abused them and demeaned them.
Even the mention of that word, father, might send them off on an emotional tirade.
You will find people in this church whose overall opinion of their own fathers is low.
Either they were over-critical, absent, or abusive in some way.
When a father does not show compassion, one lesson learned by the children is that God will be hard on them if they mess up.
They will not understand grace.
They will not see the balance unless it is there.
A Christian, for them, will be someone who always does what is right.
If that person messes up, God will get them.
And they will take what they learned from you about how to be a father and apply it with your grandchildren.
Fathers, when you show compassion to your children, you show them God.
This is why I entitled the message, “The telescopic father.”
They see God through you!
The unknown God is brought close when they see Christ in you.
A key element in your ability to show compassion is mentioned in verse 14.
The reason for the Lord’s compassion mirrors the reason for your compassion.
Our children are but dust…
God has wonderfully rearranged the dust into a moving, talking, food eating wonder.
Our children, however wonderful they may be, are not perfect.
They start off knowing nothing and are learning every day.
They have deficiencies of knowledge.
They start off weak and gain in strength.
They will never be absolutely strong.
There will always be physical limitations.
They are born with a general lack of awareness of God.
As their intellect grows, their understanding of God, of right and wrong grows as well.
But they will never fully get it.
How do I know?
Because neither you nor I have ever fully gotten it.
Some father’s do not accept the natural limitations of their children.
If they don’t know something, they call them stupid.
If they tire or struggle lifting something, they are yelled at and berated for lacking strength.
When they do something wrong, they are put down as idiots or severely punished.
The Bible is all for discipline.
But one of the major traits of a father is that a father, like God, should be compassionate.
They should recognize that their children are naturally weak and give them a break.
Assumption: Compassion is given to those who show respect
The second presupposition is that compassion will be given to those who show respect.
The word “compassion” is used to describe two people of different standing.
“This root refers to deep love (usually of a “superior” for an “inferior”) rooted in some “natural” bond.”
[1] Leonard J. Coppes, “2146 רָחַם,” ed.
R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 841.
The parents are the “superior.”
The “inferior” are the children.
Parents are superior in that they are responsible for raising the children, the children are not responsible for raising the parents.
Children are to obey their parents, parents are not to obey their children.
In order for this to work, there needs to be an element of fear, an element of respect.
Does God have compassion on everyone?
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