Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Do Christians Call God "Father"? | Torah | Exodus 4:18-31

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

What does it mean when God says we're his children? Should we call him "father" when we pray? Is God similar to earthly fathers? In today's episode, Keith looks at the first time God ever calls someone his child in Exodus 4:18-31. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 4:18-31 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. My name is Keith Simon, and right now we're going through the Book of Exodus. If you're a sports fan, you're probably familiar with Ernie Johnson Jr. He's kind of at the top of his game as a sportscaster. He calls baseball games for TBS. He's the host of Inside the NBA on TNT. And he also calls some of the men's basketball games in the NCAA tournament.

Ernie Johnson is also a faithful Christian. He and his wife, Cheryl, have adopted children, one of whom has special needs, a boy named Michael. Cheryl met Michael when he was three years old in a Romanian orphanage. He had clubfoot and was unable to speak. Cheryl knew he didn't have much of a future. She called home to share her experience of meeting Michael with Ernie, and she wondered what would happen to this boy for the rest of his life. Ernie told Cheryl bring him home, and she did. Later, Michael was diagnosed with a particular kind of muscular dystrophy that causes all kinds of serious challenges. For much of his life, he was attached to a ventilator. He always used a wheelchair. His health care got very expensive, and it took a lot of effort to take

care of him. But Ernie and Cheryl, they never shrunk back from the challenges. They never resisted the responsibilities that Michael brought them. Ernie says this. Some people can be driven by going on mission trips, digging wells for kids who don't have water. Everybody's wired differently. This is one of the ways that we're wired. We have this heart for adoption is rooted in our faith, our Christian faith. We're instructed to care for orphans and widows. We don't want credit.

We don't want pets on the back. We're getting a heck of a lot more of it than they are. Adoption is a beautiful and powerful picture of God's love for us in Jesus. The first time that God's people are called His Child is in the passage that we're looking at today. Exodus chapter 4. Moses left Midian with his family and his father-in-law's blessing. He's headed back to Egypt with nothing other than God's promise that he's going to use him to deliver the Israelites from slavery. Here's what God says to Moses and Exodus 4.

He says, when you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says. Israel is my firstborn son. And I told you, let my son go so he may worship me. In the upcoming chapters, we're going to have time to talk about Pharaoh's heart and how both he and God hardened it. So in our time together today, I just want to think about what it means that God says that we are his child.

When you think about it, you realize that God is our king, he's our creator, our brother, provider, our protector, our defender. But the primary paradigm, God wants us to see our relationship with him is through that of a father and a child. When we see ourselves as God's son or God's daughter, it changes how we interact with him. I think that too many Christians think of God as if he was their employer, like I work for God and hopefully he pays me a fair wage for my services. In business, you develop relationships based on getting something from each other. The relationships are very transactional. In family, the basis is relationship, who I am to you. In business, the key issue is performance. Are you measuring up? Are you keeping up your end of the deal? In family, the key issue is commitment.

I am committed to you because of who you are. Think about it this way. There are two ways to live in a house. You can live in a house as a boarder or as a family member. And there are rules for both. If you're a boarder, then obviously you pay rent to the landlord. Your relationship can be friendly with the landlord, but never too personal because the terms in a business relationship are always conditional. If you violate the agreement, then you can be evicted. But of course, another way to live in the house is as a member of the family as a child

living with their parent. Now, this is completely different. It's not based on performance, but acceptance. You're not accepted because of what you do, but because you're a member of the family. It's the same way with God. You can either approach God as he's your landlord and you're a border living in his house, or he's your father and you're his child. You can approach God on the basis of business or family.

It's of massive significance that when Jesus teaches us to pray, he teaches us to call God our father. Jesus is trying to get across the point that at the very heart, heart of the gospel is being a child of God. Every Christian is a son or daughter of God. He's your father. Now, I know that some have said that in our culture, it's not wise to stress that God is our father. Their reasoning is that in a world of absent fathers and deadbeat dads and abusive fathers and workaholic fathers, people might not understand the great spiritual truth that God is our father. I think this is a bit silly, but not because I deny that there are a lot of poor fathers in the world. It's just that I think that even if we have a poor relationship with our father,

we all know what a good father is like. The truth is that we can learn from both positive and negative examples. I know what I have. When I was a young child, my father left me and my mom. He walked out and I don't remember him at all. I've never seen his picture. I've never talked to him. I've never received anything from him. I'm sure that if he were here right now, he would have a reason that he made the choices that he did. And I'm equally sure that as a father myself, I would have a hard time understanding his choices.

God is our perfect father. He wants to do good for us. My dad, to be frank, didn't want to do anything for me. But listen to what it means that God is your father. Because he's your father, he gives you good gifts. Jesus says in Matthew 7, If you then, 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?

James 1 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father. Everything good in your life comes to you from the hands of your heavenly father. He loves to give you good things. Some of us grew up with fathers that were harsh or uncaring. But God, our true father, is full of compassion. Psalm 103. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

For he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. God knows your strength and your weaknesses. He knows your concerns. He knows your worries. He knows your frailties. God has compassion on you. Some of you have fathers that are emotionally distinctions.

Your heavenly father is not distant. Your heavenly father loves you. 1 John 3, how great is the love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. God loves you. He lavishes his love on you. As a good human father cares for his child and is concerned about his child and anticipates the needs of his child. So our perfect heavenly father cares for us. God desires to bless us more than we desire to be blessed. He is a plan for us. He has a goal for us, and it is far greater than we can imagine. Maybe the greatest blessing, the greatest privilege of believing in Jesus is that the great

holy, almighty God is your Father. He brings all of his eternal wisdom, all of his eternal power that he used in creating the universe, all of his love that led him to sacrifice his own son for your sins. He brings all that to bear in your life for your good. your heavenly father he understands you he loves you he gives you good gifts and lastly he wants to spend time with you there's a famous picture from john f kennedy junior when he was president the picture was taken in 1963 which is the same year that he was assassinated it's a picture of the president sitting in the oval office at his desk and you see his son jfk junior who's just about

four or five, or at least that's what it looks like in the picture. And here the president is sitting at the desk, the most powerful desk in the world, doing his work as president of the United States. And there his son is at his feet playing. The president allowed his son into that office, allowed his son to be around him when he was at work because he wanted to spend time with his son. His son had access to him. The president loved his son. and wanted the best for him. He wanted to be with him. Your Heavenly Father wants to be with you.

You always have access to him. He's never too busy to listen to you. Take a moment right now and say, God, thank you for being my father. Thank you for caring about me. Thank you for loving me. Help me see that you are always for me, that you always want to do good for me.

God, you're my father. I'm your child. Amen. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more.

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