Good morning on this Saturday, the 17th of April. It is a parents job to work themselves out of a job. By that I mean as our children grow and develop, they should become less and less dependent upon us. When they are born they are 100% dependent upon us and can literally do nothing for themselves. As they mature they become able to feed themselves, dress themselves, and overall do more and more to meet their own needs. When they become adults, they should be able to stand upon their own two feet, make intelligent decisions, provide for themselves, and face the vicissitudes of life; hence the old saying, "Wise sons make proud fathers." But it is an interesting fact that when it comes to our relationship with God our Father, we never outgrow our need for Him and His parenting of us. In John 15 where Jesus compares our relationship with the Lord as being like a vine to its branches, the issue illustrated is the importance of our continued dependence upon our Heavenly Father. We never outgrow our need for His role of parenting us, disciplining us, teaching us, strengthening us, overseeing us, directing us , etc. In fact the longer we live our Christian life the more we learn the importance of depending upon and yielding to Him in the various areas of our lives. Unlike our earthly parents who pass away from us, the Lord promises that He will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). In the Lord's Prayer our role of depending upon our Heavenly Father is laid out through these requests: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven, Give us this day our daily bread, Forgive us our debts and we forgive our debtors, and Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Thank God we have a loving, faithful Father who cares so much for us, He has numbered the very hairs on our head.
Tomorrow's sermon is the second in the series, The Master's Lessons For Living. I'll see you there.
Mel Brown