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sure he is the original artist, but his is the version I know. The song is titled
“What You Would Not Do for Love.” Now that sounds like a strange title, but
those of us who have even been infatuated – much less head-over-heels in love
fall in love. We start doing weird stuff, things we would never do in our right
mind. I remember a Star Trek: Voyager where one of the characters describes
the first blush of love as a sickness. She recites the symptoms like a litany from
a flyer on the flu. Elevated body temperature, flushed skin, dilation of the
It refocuses our attention, changes our values, alters our desires and dreams. In
a very real sense, love makes a new person out of us. Try as we might to be the
same old person we were before we became smitten, it just doesn’t work out that
way.
In the song by Bobby Caldwell he sings, “My friends wonder what is wrong
with/ Cause I’m in a daze from your love you see/ I came back to let you know/
Got a thing for you and I can’t let go…. Although I only want the best, it’s true/ I
can’t believe the things I do for you./ What you won’t do, you do for love/ You’ve
tried everything and you won’t give up./ In my world there is only you/ Made me
Have you ever been there? You just can’t believe the things you do for a
person – the changes you go through just to see his or her smile? Boy, I have –
thankfully Rachel likes weirdoes and screwballs, so all the changes in me were
for the better, but they were changes I never thought I would make nonetheless.
And if that were the only time we had a major shift in our values and
thinking, that would be enough. But then, another one of life’s big moments
come along. You become a parent and once again, everything changes. All the
rules change once kids come on to the scene – nothing is ever the same after
that.
I remember when Abby was first born, I was a mite overwhelmed by the
enormity of it all. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I had no idea about what I was
doing. I tried to think about what my mom and dad did, but I was the youngest,
so I never watched them deal with an infant. I began to wonder how they dealt
with the responsibility. Here was this little human life, and God was asking, “I
want you to help me shape this one into a useful vessel.” I was terrified! Sure,
fatherhood had been tried by billions before me, but this was my first at bat and I
felt like I was holding the wrong end of the bat and facing the backstop! What if I
and a library of self-help books to straighten out what I had twisted? Becoming
comfortable in the skin of fatherhood did not even seem like a remote possibility.
think, with more questions than answers. You can read everything available and
still face situations as a parent for which you have no clue on a regular basis.
Parenting is not easy, whether you are a mother or father, doesn’t matter. It is
tough. But there is something about being a father that is unique. I realize the
same can be said of being a mother as well, but this isn’t mother’s day. It is
Father’s Day, so this morning I want to talk specifically to the fathers, but also
more generally to everyone, so don’t check out just because you’re not a father.
came across a site that listed the benefits of having and being father. Listen to
show that the decline of our youth culture correlates perfectly to the increase of
father absenteeism and single parent homes? What does a father do that makes
him such an important part of the family unit – really an indispensable part?
I think part of the answer finds it root in the Fatherhood of God. When I
look at this morning’s text, I find three principles of fatherhood that can be easily
understood and with some effort applied in our own lives as fathers. For those
who are not fathers, these principles are still applicable – they are universal in
scope, but particularly challenging for fathers. We can learn much from the
Fatherhood of God.
The first principle I find is that God supplies security for his children by
providing them with an identity. Now that sounds very cerebral, but it is actually
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does
not know us is that it did not know him.1
Notice two things about John’s statement here. The first is that he seems
sort of fuzzy, esoteric, abstract idea of love. John’s animation comes from a
realization – a concrete reality of being loved by God. I have to ask – when was
the last time you stopped in your tracks and said, “Wow! God loves me!” How
long has it been since the reality of God’s love has hit you like a ton of bricks? If
the answer to that question leaves us a little uncomfortable – or worse yet, a little
bored – maybe we ought take a hard look at our relationship with God.
Now, what is it that John sees or understands that makes him so certain of
God’s love and its enormity? “…That we should be called the children of
God!” Back about a year ago, my neighbor’s uncle was caught in bad auto
crash that burned over 60% of his body. The uncle recently died as a result of
complications. Jim and I talk about a lot of things, but rarely about extended
1 All Scripture texts taken from The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
family. But the day after the accident I knew to ask Jim about whether anyone in
his family had been injured in a car accident recently. How? Was it some sort of
I read about the accident in the paper and recognized that the victim shared a
last name with my neighbor. I identified the accident victim with my neighbor
When our children are born, if our name is Smith, we don’t name them
Vander Lay – although in West Michigan we might be tempted to so that your kid
fits in. No, our last name is given to them. Why? To identify them with us.
Before our children distinguish themselves in any other way, we set them apart
from every other child in the maternity ward by giving them our name. We
In a very real sense, that is what God does when he calls us; he provides
children, the ones born to him who carry his name like a banner. He identifies us
with himself, so we can be certain of his love for us – because God would never
deny himself. We can sing with the psalmist in Psalm 27:10, “Though my
mother and father forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” We can be that
certain of God’s love, we can be excited about God’s love because he has made
importance of fathers is embodying the values and character you want in your
children.
A strange dog once came to a preacher’s house, and his three sons soon
became quite fond of it. It so happened that there were three white hairs in the
animal’s tail. One day an advertisement was seen in the newspaper about a lost
dog which fitted that description perfectly. “In the presence of my three boys,”
said the minister, “we carefully separated the three white hairs and removed
them.” The real owner discovered where the straying canine had found a home
and came to claim him. The dog showed every sign of recognition, so the man
Quickly the minister spoke up, “Didn’t you say the dog would be known by
three white hairs in its tail?” The owner, unable to find the identifying feature, was
forced to leave. The minister said later, “we kept the dog, but I lost my three boys
for Christ.” His sons no longer had confidence in what their father professed. He
The apostle John, in writing to followers of Christ who were having some
proclaiming a false one, wanted to clarify for his readers who they should be
listening to and hanging out with. Like we might do with our daughters in
2Tan, Paul Lee, Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations, (Garland, Texas: Bible Communications,
Inc.) 1996.
teaching them to date the right sort of men or pick the right sort of friends, John
It’s all in the love, he says. God is love, he is the source, the well-spring of
love. He is more than love; he is the source of love, the originator, the Grand
Master of Love. Love finds its genesis in the heart of God. Just as goodness,
holiness, justice and even life find their origination in God. God is love because
Essentially, John is telling his readers that if you want to know who a child
belongs to watch what he does because the adage “The apple doesn’t fall far
from the tree” is more than just an old-wives tale. Look at vv. 7-8 of chapter 4.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone
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who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love
Fathers, this should bring us up cold in our tracks. When we realize that
what we are imprinting on our children is not so much what we say, but what we
do …. Oh man, is that a scary thought. What has your children seen in you that
has become etched upon their heart and soul? What habits, what behaviors,
what values have you passed on – possibly without even meaning to?
The other day Abby was walking through the house and suddenly
exclaimed, “Dag-nabbit!” This caught my ear because few people in the world
say, “Dag-nabbit!” I am one of those few. I never sat down with Abby and taught
her when and how to say it. She knew by watching me. Now, the real question
is will she learn anything of value by watching me. O Lord, I pray so.
The final principle of fatherhood I see arising from our passage is that a
father’s love holds nothing in reserve. Look with me at vv. 9-10 of chapter 4.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son
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into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for
our sins.”
time, budgeting our minutes like they were our last hand-full of pennies 2 days
hold some back in reserve for our own purposes. We are taught that this is wise.
If that is wisdom, then fathers ought to be fools. Let me ask you, what did
our Heavenly Father hold in reserve? What did he hold back for himself?
Nothing. He gave everything – including his one and only Son to secure our
adoption as children. He held nothing back, but went all out to ensure his
children were provided for. I am struck that in Ephesians 5, husbands are called
to give their lives for their wives, even as Christ gave up his life for the church. I
am confident that God intended for men to do that for more than just their wives –
that his father would do anything – give up anything – for the child, knows he is
loved and valued. He understands that he is worth something because the father
One of the things that Rachel always wanted me to do for her is sing. And
I have tried – love will make you do things you otherwise would not do. Quite
frankly, I am too reserved to sing publicly – to perform. But then came my girls.
Suddenly, I find myself singing to them all the time. I put aside my
embarrassment, I put aside my own ego and fear of being laughed at, and I sing.
I sing at home, I sing in the car, I sing in the store, I sing in the hospital, wherever
would not do. Why? Because that’s what fathers do. They hold nothing in
reserve in providing security, identity, and setting an example for their children to
follow.
Father’s let us love our families with the same love that our Heavenly
Father has loved us. Let us hold nothing back, willing to give up everything so
that our children know who they are and show to whom they belong by the things
they do.