Pastor Joe Fuiten, June 15, 2003

 

            Lots has been said in recent years about the differences between men and women even to the point of suggesting we are from different planets.  According to recent article in MEN'S HEALTH magazine the typical man....

• will produce about 25 feet of hair in his lifetime but one in five will go bald in their 20's.
• retains about 60 percent of his body weight in water and will produce up to a half gallon of sweat daily.
• Even though man is not faster than any animal on earth, he can outrun any other species for long distances.
• He consumes 2,400 calories per day and his body is so efficient that if he ran on gasoline, he would get 900 miles per gallon.
• The typical male is married and would marry his spouse again.
• He cries about once a month, approximately one fourth as often as a woman and he usually tries to hide it.
• He eats his corn on the cob in circles rather than straight across-check that one out next time you serve that entre'!

 

In his book, Understanding the Man in Your Life, H. Norman Wright adds, "Men snore more...they fight more...they change their minds more often than women do...their blood is redder...their daylight vision is superior.....they have thicker skins and longer vocal chords. Their metabolic rate is higher...more of them are left-handed...they feel pain less than women.....They age earlier but wrinkle later....their immunity against disease is weaker...they talk about themselves less, but worry about themselves more." Dr. James Dobson says there is strong evidence indicating that even the "seat" of emotions in a man's brain is "wired" differently than in a woman's. So---men are different than women!

            To illustrate my point that we are different, if women were in charge of the world, all men would have to attend the following seminars:

• How to NOT Act Younger Than Your Children
• PMS - Learning When To Keep Your Mouth Shut
• Filling The Ice Trays 101
• Parenting-It Doesn't End with Conception
• Garbage-Getting It To The Curb
• The Remote Control-Overcoming Your Dependence

 

      And guys we have to admit that sometimes we deserve this kind of criticism. I heard of a 911 operator in Joliet, Illinois who received a frantic telephone call. A man was shouting on the phone, "My wife is trying to have a baby and the contractions are two minutes apart!" The 911 operator responded, "Is this her first child?" And the man responded, "NO, you idiot, this is her husband!" [1]

      We know that men and women are different.  You hear about it every day on TV, radio, and the media. In such a case, we wonder why God would choose to predominately identify himself in a masculine way.  You that have heard me preach for a long time know that I also believe that God has many feminine characteristics and is not ashamed to highlight those as well.  However, we must also acknowledge that while God is not a man, he has chosen masculine qualities as his primary identification to humans.

            We could choose many Scriptures that would lead us to the statement that God wants us to think of him as Father.  Two are very clear on this subject.  First, is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 (Page 685). "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

            The second Scripture is from the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:15-17 (Page 800).  “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs-- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

 

            In the Lord’s Prayer it is explicit.  Call God, Father.  Here in Paul it is only slightly less explicit.  “Abba” is an Aramaic word. In the Gemara[2] it states that slaves must not address the head of the family by this title. “Abba” is virtually a personal name and is reserved for the intimacy of family.  Greek-speaking Jews also used the Greek word pater, "father."   In Paul, we have the intimacy of the Aramaic combined with the relationship aspect of the Greeks.  We speak these two words together because we have the Spirit of sonship and are God’s children.

            The fatherhood of God must be critical to the whole enterprise because the devil has so consistently opposed it.  Going back into the most ancient times with the Sumerians, paganism has always proposed an alternative to God the father.  At virtually every point a female goddess of some sort is proposed. [3]  Their names change over the centuries but the role is always the same.  The goddess takes on some role or function of God.  In this particular coin, Artemis is shown with the word in Greek, Soteira or Savior.  The goddess is a demonic alternative to Jesus as Savior.

            The discussion about the fatherhood of God deserves more time than I am able to give it this morning, but I do want to highlight some possible reasons why God wants us to think of him as Father.

            Let me say one word about those who are up tight about gender issues.  That is so 90’s and old fashioned.  The new word is collaboration.  We are blessed by what other people bring to the team rather than competitive.  This discussion is not really about gender.  It is about what God is in our lives.  With that said, why does God want to be called Father?

            First, no man can be a father unless there is a mother. Even so, the father initiates life. In the same way, the Heavenly Father is the initiator of life.  We must properly respond to God in order for life to actually occur.  But, spiritual life begins when God draws us by the Holy Spirit.  He initiates the relationship.  We all have been invited to spiritual life by the Father, but we must willingly say yes. 

            Second, a father desires a family.  Anthropologists miss it here.  They tend to see men as not wanting a family.  In their view, men must be coerced into settling down with one woman and into a family.  I prefer to take my cues from God.  In our text in Romans, God’s Spirit is described as the Spirit of sonship.  The very thing that his Spirit produces is not just children but sonship.  In other translations it is called the Spirit of adoption, the voluntary process where a child is chosen to be in a family.  God’s spirit actively chooses children to be in the family.  He desires a family.  A family is very important to a father.  I tell my wife that she is the ballast in my ship.  She gives me stability in rough seas.  A wife and children have a positive effect upon a man and men intuitively know it and want it.  God has an adoptive father’s heart.  He chooses a family.  He even calls himself the “father to the fatherless.”

            Third, a father is a provider.  I am not proposing that a woman cannot be a provider.  Many women make more money than their husbands.  A least half the women are smarter than their husbands (and nearly all think they are), and some are even stronger and meaner than their husbands.  None-the-less, a father is a provider and God wants us to think of him in this way.  Jesus said to pray as our first request, “give us this day our daily bread.”  Our father provides our daily bread and he wants us to think of him in this way.

            This was one of the key teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.  He wanted them to know that the father watches over the flowers of the field and the birds of the air (and the humans in the city)!

            Fourth, a father is a protector.  This must be why, on the bell curve, men are far bigger and stronger than women.  Sheer muscle mass and strength suggest this.  We need protection so Jesus taught us to pray, “deliver us from the evil one.”  If I am being chased by evil, I want the biggest possible protector.  That would be God.  God says, “When evil comes your way, just think of me as your great big father in heaven.  I will take care of it.”  God calls himself the protector of widows and has his angels watching over the little children.

            Fifth, a father is available in the time of need.  When you are in trouble you want your father.  If a brother is born for adversity, then a father is certainly there when it gets worse than that.  When you need wisdom or help in solving some problem, you look for an experienced father.  This is what God wants to be for us.  In James 1:5 God puts out the invitation. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”  I like the fact that he is willing to offer his wisdom “without finding fault.”

            Almost certainly, every one of us needs a heavenly father at one of those five points today.  We need God to be a father to us.  Even fathers and grandfathers need a heavenly father.

 

 

 

 

Thought for the Day:  Mother’s Day has a record number of phone calls each year.  We all feel bad that fathers don’t get more credit.  Today I am happy to report that on Father’s Day there is also a telephone record set every year.  On this day there are more collect calls made than any other day of the year.  We may not be getting much credit, but we still do extend it.

 

HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Evangelical Response

I spent two days in Washington DC this week with about 200 American Evangelical Leaders.  We gathered to discuss what to do about the HIV crisis in Africa.  The President and Congress have passed an initiative for a $15 billion dollar, 5-year program that will be launched soon.  It includes a substantial portion for faith-based organizations.  This is something that I wanted to see and lobbied for.  I am thrilled to see the possibilities for partnership with the government on this.

I had my first visit to the White House.  We met with Karl Rove, the President’s political brain, along with a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and other leaders.  We were able to do some strategizing with Assemblies of God Charities about how to get the job done in Africa.

The President and the legislation have emphasized a three-part plan called ABC.  A is for Abstinence until marriage.  B is for being faithful to your spouse in marriage.  C is for condoms.  The breakthrough is that the Director for US AID, our government’s funding arm in Africa, said quite explicitly that it will be perfectly acceptable for groups to emphasize two out of three.  The director is a Christian lady who is a doctor and has served as a missionary in Africa.  That means our groups will be able to have programs that promote sexual abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in marriage.  Success in those two areas would solve the greatest part of Africa’s problem.  These kinds of programs can be run alongside our missions work without disrupting our regular missionary work.  We have 39,000 Assemblies of God churches in Africa.  In many areas we are the only thing that functions.  Our African church leaders are the natural ones to give leadership to this movement.

Pat and Suzanne Hurst and Nancy Valnes have written a curriculum for training Pastors and others to be HIV educators.  They have successfully done test runs.  They also have done some preliminary research that show progress.  There needs to be more research and writing done on the subject that some who are listening to this report could do.  There is an opportunity to save lives and to release millions of dollars into pre-Gospel work in Africa.

I know that AIDS in Africa is a long ways from Seattle.  On the other hand, there are already 13 million AIDS orphans in Africa and the consequences of not doing something are enormous.  Personally, I feel my five years on the Governor’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS plus chairing the Public Funding Assessment Committee for HIV/AIDS has given me an opportunity to prepare for this moment.

As we speak about Father’s Day today, I cannot help being reminded of those millions of orphans in Africa today who do not have a daddy because of HIV.

 

 

 

 

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