Father Knows Best

4/29/07

 

 

(The following was used with a PowerPoint presentation, the asterisks indicate slide changes.)

 

*Picture of Robert Young, the cast of “Father Knows Best.”

 

Let’s play a little trivia……what are their names?

 

*The listing of the names of each one.

 

*(Title) “Our Heavenly Father Really Does Know What’s Best!”

 

We do have the absolute perfect Father!  Jesus Christ has made Him known.

 

*Mat. 11:27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

 

*Jo. 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among

 

*you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

 

*Our relationship with Jesus Christ is to be one of complete total surrender and trust.

 

The purpose of this message is to show that God’s will for our life is perfect.  Our relationship with Jesus is not based on God fulfilling our desires, but our surrender to His purpose and will for our life.

 

*Jo. 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

 

Jesus means what He says, the question is…do we really believe Him and trust Him?

 

*The battle lines are drawn between the flesh and the spirit!

 

There is my definition of abundant life and then there is God’s!

 

This is no small challenge!

 

*Pr. 30:7 “Two things I ask of you, O LORD;

do not refuse me before I die:

⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;

give me neither poverty nor riches,

but give me only my daily bread.

⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you

and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’

Or I may become poor and steal,

and so dishonor the name of my God.

 

This is the statement of a man who believes in the will of God!

 

*What touches the heart of God so deeply is when we admit that we don’t know what is best for us--but He does!

 

My Heavenly Father does know what is best for me!

 

*Rom. 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

How is His will defined?

 

*….his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

Another question--how do we come to the place that we honestly believe that?  Convinced that His will is good, pleasing and perfect?

 

*…by the renewing of your mind

 

*(Blank) The apostle Paul was convinced that whatever God wanted, it had to better that anything Paul could want!

 

*Acts 21:10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. ¹¹Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

¹²When we heard this, we and the

 

*people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” ¹⁴When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

 

Paul never questioned God’s will for his life!

 

*What God does with others is not our business, allowing Him to work His will in us is our business!

 

*Jo. 21:17 Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” ¹⁹Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

 

*²⁰ Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) ²¹When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

²² Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”

 

*²³ Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

 

*Regardless of what it might look like, God’s will is always better than our idea of how things should go!

 

*Deut. 3:23 At that time I pleaded with the LORD: ²⁴“O Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? ²⁵Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.”

²⁶But because of you the LORD was

 

*angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. ²⁷Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.

 

Was God being unfair?

 

Do you remember what He was angry about?

 

*Num. 20:8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

⁹So Moses took the staff from the LORD’S presence, just as he commanded him. ¹⁰He and Aaron

 

*gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” ¹¹Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

¹²But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in

 

*me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

 

Was God too hard on Moses?  No.  As a matter of fact He was quite gracious!

 

Let’s go back and look at something…..

 

*Deut. 3:27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.

 

Did you catch it?

 

*Deut. 3:27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.

 

*Mat. 17:1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ²There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. ³Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

 

I don’t think Moses got a bad deal!

 

*How deep is your trust in Jesus?

 

*Do delays, setbacks, disappointments, hurts, and unexplainable events cause you to doubt that God is in control?

 

*Here’s the test….

 

*Rom. 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 

*There are three parts of this verse that you have to embrace, if you do, victory is yours, if you don’t, you will continue struggling!

 

Part one….

 

*Rom. 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 

Do you love Jesus more than anything else?

 

Is Jesus more important to you than anything else in your life?

 

Part two….

 

*Rom. 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 

Are you allowing His purpose to be done in your life or are you still pursuing your purpose?

 

Part three….

 

*Rom. 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 

If you love Him and you desire His purpose to be done in your life, then you need to be convinced that God is using everything in your life for the good!

 

*(Blank)

 

*Is. 38:1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

 

Was this unfair?  Was God testing Hezekiah to see if he had enough faith to believe for healing?  Was God asking Hezekiah to do something that was bad?

 

As you probably know, Hezekiah didn’t like the idea, he turned his face to the wall and cried out to God to extend his life….

 

*Is. 38:2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ³“Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: ⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah,

 

*‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.

 

God not only healed Hezekiah, but to show him that he would do it, He performed quite a miracle!

 

*Is. 38:7 “‘This is the LORD’S sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: ⁸I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

 

*The question is….  Should Hezekiah listened to the Lord and put his house in order?

 

Yes, he should have!

 

Here was the first problem….

 

*2 Chr. 32:31 But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.

 

He failed the test!

 

*Is. 39:1 At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. ²Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his

 

*palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”

“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”

⁴The prophet asked, “What did they see

 

*in your palace?”

“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: ⁶The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be

 

*carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. ⁷And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

 

*⁸ “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

 

*The second problem was worse than the first!

 

*How many years did God extend Hezekiah’s life?

 

*15.

 

*2 Ki. 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ²He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. ³He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal

 

*and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. ⁴He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my Name.” ⁵In both courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts. ⁶He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery

 

*and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

 

*2 Ki. 21:10 The LORD said through his servants the prophets: ¹¹“Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols.

 

*2 Ki. 21:16 Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end—besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the LORD.

 

*Yes, Hezekiah should have put his house in order when God told him to!

 

Rom. 12:1,2 from the NIV and the Message Bible….

 

*Rom. 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

*Rom. 12:1 (Message Bible) So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.