Listen to Brian’s story: “I was just 12 years old when my church planned a father-son campout. I was thrilled and could hardly wait to rush home and give my father all the info. I wanted so much to go on this adventure, and I was so proud when he said he’d go with me.

The Friday of the campout finally came, and I had all my gear out on the porch, ready to stuff it in his car the moment he arrived. We were all to meet at the school at 5 p.m. and car pool to the campground. But Dad didn’t get home from work until 7 p.m. I was frantic, but he explained that things had gone wrong at work and told me not to worry. We could still get up first thing in the morning and join the others. After all, we had a map. I was disappointed, of course, but decided to make the best of it.

First thing in the morning, I was up and had everything in his car while it was still getting light, all ready for us to catch up with my friends and their fathers at the campground.  Dad had said we’d leave around 7 a.m., and I was ready a half hour before that.  But he didn’t even come out of his room until 9 a.m.  When he saw me standing out front with the camping gear, he finally explained that he had a bad back and couldn’t sleep on the ground. He hoped I’d understand and that I’d be a ‘big boy’ about it … but could I please get my things out of his car, because he had several commitments he had to keep.

Just about the hardest thing I’ve ever done was to go to the car and take out my sleeping bag, cooking stove, pup tent, and supplies. And then, while I was putting my stuff away in the storage shed and he thought I couldn’t see, I watched my father carry his golf clubs out and throw them in his trunk and drive away to keep his ‘commitment.’ That’s when I realized my dad never meant to go with me to the campout.  I didn’t matter to him, but his golfing buddies did.”

Far too many men have become detached, distant and passive in the two most important areas of their life:  home and church. They no longer take the lead or show the imitative. They avoid responsibility. They run away from commitment and resist obligation; and they renege on the promises that they made to their wives, children, church and Lord.

This lack of manhood and fatherhood, this shrinking away of true men has hurt our families.  The effects of “fatherless homes” are devastating.  Check out the statistics on children who get into crime, drop out of school, exhibit behaviour disorders, abuse drugs, have teen pregnancies, and contemplate suicide… The majority are missing fathers.

The damage done in the church has been no less staggering.  Churches have become stagnant and decayed as men cower in the background; afraid to act, afraid to lead, afraid to accept responsibility, afraid to do the right thing.  Many times, this lack of male leadership has created a void that has been filled by the women of the church; who many times do more work, are more committed, see things through to the end, and know more about the Word of God.  Many times when a job needs to be done in church, men have said, “I don’t want to be in charge, but I’ll help.”  In other words, I don’t want to be a leader, I don’t want responsibility, I want a way out.  This is a serious problem today.  Men are too often missing from action.  They are shrinking away from their God-given responsibilities at home and at church.

Men, even those who don’t have their own children, have the responsibility to be fathers for the people God brings into their lives.  And if we are looking for an example, for guidance in how to be a man, how to be a father, there is no better example we can get than looking at our own loving, compassionate, heavenly Father.

I have a picture of my dad at home that reminds me of him, and his character.  I imagine many of you have pictures of your father at home too.  Likewise, in the Bible there are some pictures of our Father that reveal something of God’s character.  Let’s look at three portraits of fatherhood from the Bible which show us an aspect of the great father heart of God.

The first one is a picture of A WILLING FATHER.  It’s found in Genesis 22:1-3.  Abraham was WILLING, in his love and devotion to God, to be obedient even in sacrificing his own son! This was the boy God had promised him, and he had waited years for his wife Sarah to conceive him. And yet, at God’s command, he took his son up Mount Moriah with Isaac carrying the wood for the fire of his own sacrifice.

Not only do we have a willing father here, but evidently a willing son also. It’s very doubtful he was a little boy - he was most likely a youth or young man - strong enough to carry the wood up a mountain!  He went willingly. And Abraham stood on that mountain, no doubt with his vision blurred by the tears streaming down his face, and he raised the knife to sacrifice his beloved son. And at the last possible moment, when God saw that he was obedient, the Angel of the Lord called to him to stop. “For now I know that you fear God.”

Those of us who are fathers here today can only marvel at this total obedience and faith!  What a test! God, likewise, is the willing father who, in His love and devotion to us, was prepared to give up His own son. His Son Jesus was willing to be obedient and carry His own cross up on a mountainside - a hill called Calvary - to give His life in sacrifice!  However, while Abraham was given a reprieve - because it was a test - there was such no reprieve for God; it was no mere test! We were in the balance. God went all the way and gave His son!

He was willing to do what it took to provide for our eternal welfare.  Fathers, are you willing to do what it takes, to make the necessary sacrifice, to provide for your child’s eternal welfare?  Are you willing to spend the time with them?  Teaching them about God?  Being patient?  Loving?  Leading them to God?  Men, are you willing to do what it takes to lead this church?  To direct it to God?  To make the necessary sacrifice to follow God’s command?

The second portrait I’d like you to see is found in 2 Samuel 18. It’s the story of A WAILING FATHER.  This is when King David’s son Absalom had plotted treason against his own father.  He raised an army of discontents and sought to bring about a military coup to take his father’s throne. David’s loyal soldiers went out to stop them in battle. And they did, but in the fighting Absalom himself was killed. When the news was brought to David, he is heartbroken over the death of his son!  Now, Absalom had not been a faithful son. He rebelled against his father! He sought to overthrow his throne. But David remembered the little boy he had bounced on his knee, the youth he had watched grow before him into manhood. His flesh and blood. True fathers do not stop loving their children! David LOVED Absalom. At the news of his death, David’s heart was torn.  No matter what, he didn’t want to see harm come to Absalom.

Here is a picture of God. God takes NO delight in the destruction of the wicked. He loves us. We’ve turned our backs on God and gone our own way, and so many refuse to return, even after His willingness to give up His son for us - but God still remembers how it should have been. He knows the plans He had for us; the relationship He wanted with us. God’s father heart is broken by people who live without Him.

Our God is a holy God. There’s no fragment of sin in Him.  And He cannot condone sin. God loves you with a committed and everlasting love - a love more real and powerful than any other you have ever known – but his holy love doesn’t sweep sin under the rug.  He cannot deny his justice.  He will allow the people who rebel against Him and want nothing to do with Him receive the consequences of their willful disbelief. But He will do so with a breaking heart.

Yet God went to extraordinary lengths and worked extravagant plans so that people can be saved! God sent prophets to prepare the way, He fashioned history to prepare a time, and then sent His only Son to live and die so that us banished ones may not be expelled from Him. Having done all this, do you think He won’t be heartbroken when people keep going without Him, lost in sin? Don’t you think He is heartbroken when He sees men abandoning their posts and fathers abandoning their children?  It breaks His heart!  Fathers, have a wailing heart for your children.

The third picture is found in Luke 15. The story of THE WAITING FATHER. You remember this parable Jesus told.  The parable of the Prodigal Son – the Compassionate Father… This is another son who has walked away from his father’s house. Gone off in his own rebellious ways.  The waiting, compassionate father can’t wait to show his son that He loves Him and forgives Him.  His son needs his forgiveness.  His compassion.  His time.  His attention.  Whether he deserves it or not.  And that’s what the father does.

Fathers, men, your Father has had compassion on you, too.  He is waiting for you.  He loves you despite the mistakes you’ve made.  He loves you despite the times you have abandoned your roles as leaders in your home and church.  It’s not too late to come home.  It’s also not too late to step up and follow the portraits of fatherhood our perfect God gives us.  Imitate your heavenly Father.  Be strong for your family and children.  Give your lives for them.  Sacrifice for them.  Be patient with them.  Loving.  Compassionate. Willing to do what it takes.  And fathers, we can’t begin to tell you how thankful we are for you when you do that.

There’s a story about a father who touched his child’s life in an unexpected way. A young boy watched as his father walked into the living room. The boy noticed that his younger brother, John, began to cower slightly as his father entered. The older boy sensed that John had done something wrong. Then he saw from a distance what his brother had done. The younger boy had opened his father’s brand new hymnal and scribbled all over the first page with a pen.

Staring at their father fearfully, both brothers waited for John’s punishment. Their father picked up his prized hymnal, looked at it carefully and then sat down, without saying a word. Books were precious to him; he was a minister with a doctorate. For him, books were knowledge. What he did next was remarkable. Instead of punishing the boy, instead of scolding or yelling, his father took the pen from the little boy’s hand, and then wrote in the book himself alongside the scribbles that John had made. Here is what that father wrote: “John’s work, 1959, age 2. How many times have I looked into your beautiful face and into your warm, alert eyes looking up at me and thanked God for the one who has now scribbled in my new hymnal. You have made the book sacred, as have your brother and sister to so much of my life.”

“Wow,” thought the older brother, “This is punishment?” The author of the story, now an adult, goes on to say how that hymnal became a treasured family possession, how it was tangible proof that their parents loved them, how it taught the lesson that what really matters is people, not objects; patience, not judgment; love, not anger.  That is a portrait of our heavenly Father.  Men, let’s put that one up in our homes!   Amen.