Praise God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth

God the Father at the Creation of Man from the Sistine Chapel by Micheangelo

We live in a broken world.  We are a broken people.  If we had the time, most of us could name many times where we have failed, where we have missed the mark. After all, we are imperfect and fallen creatures. We make mistakes as humans and we don’t measure up to each other’s standards.

Ah, but the One we serve IS perfect!  There is only One who is able to meet that need. There is only one perfect Being that is more than we can ask for or imagine. He is perfect in every way and is the model for how all our relationships should be. That person is God our Father in heaven.

God has become our Father in heaven through Jesus Christ. In the first chapter of Ephesians we discover three deep truths about our relationship with our heavenly Father.
First: Our Father in heaven has adopted us as his very own children.
Second: Our Father in heaven is a trustworthy Father.
Third: Our Father in Heaven deserves our praise.
Our first point: Our Father in heaven has adopted us as his very own children.

 In Ephesians 1:5 “we read that he predestined us to be adopted as his sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

We have a spiritual Father. God in heaven is our spiritual Father who has adopted us as his children.
This is good news. God through the grace of his son Jesus Christ has adopted us as his children. This means that before Christ came into the world we were all illegitimate children in a spiritual sense. We belonged to the powers of darkness.

In fact we could say that the Devil was our spiritual father. We belonged to the kingdom of darkness. We were all deserving of death because of the fall of humankind when Adam and Eve sinned. Christ changed all that when he died on the cross. He died so that we could be reconciled to God. He did what Adam was not able to do. He was obedient to God’s will for his life. Christ fulfilled all righteousness so that we would not have to. Now when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God adopts us as his children. We no longer belong to the devil. We are baptized into Christ and share in all his blessings.

That is a pretty amazing thought if you really think about it.  The God who made the universe out of nothing and who continues to rule that universe has time in his busy schedule to be our God and Father. There is a personal element to our relationship with God. God does not just create the universe and then simply watch from a distance to see what is going to happen. He does not just wind it up like a clock and then let it run on its own and have nothing to do with it. God is intimately involved with his creation and he is intimately involved with his children here on earth as well. 

You see, the God who created the universe is my God and Father because of Christ his Son. I tis all because of Jesus!

In the Apostle's Creed we confess “I believe in God the Father almighty creator of heaven and earth,” and behind that line is the underlying meaning that this powerful and mighty God has adopted us as his very own children.

Like Jesus we too can call God our "Abba" Father which is a personal term of endearment in Hebrew that children use to call their fathers. It is the equivalent to a child calling their father daddy. God is our daddy in heaven. When we confess that together as brothers and sisters we join together as the family of God declaring that we belong to our Father in heaven. We are his children and we can take great comfort from that.

Our second point: Our Father in heaven is a trustworthy Father.

We must nurture a strong trust in God, and we must believe that God is sovereign over all things in our lives, which includes whatever adversity that comes across our path. It was this kind of unwavering faith that convicted people like Martin Luther and John Calvin to stand up for the truth that we are saved by grace alone. They trusted their heavenly Father enough to die for what they believed in. They had the assurance that, no matter what happened, their lives were in God’s hands.
When reciting the Apostles’ Creed the early reformers associated an element of trust when they expressed their belief in God the Father. In their confession they were suggesting that our Father in heaven is a trustworthy Father.

We are God’s children, through Christ, and we do not have to fear. The opposite of trust is fear. In Paul’s letters to the Romans, he writes in chapter 8:15, “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.” Fear can restrict us as God’s children from truly becoming what God has intended us to be. God does not want his child to become a slave to fear. Fear restricts. It inhibits. It does not enable us to experience the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. God desires that his children are confident and sure of our faith and trust in him.

The third point: Our Father in heaven deserves our Praise. The mission for us as God’s adopted children is to praise him. In verse 11 of our passage we read, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will….” Then in the following verses we discover the purpose: “In order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession - to the praise of his glory.”

Our purpose is to praise and glorify God. We see that word praise four times in this passage from Ephesians. In verses three, six, twelve and fourteen. Our Father in heaven has adopted us as his children and our initial response is one of praise. We are put on this earth to glorify God. God deserves our praise. After all, not one of us deserves the kindness that God has given to us. No one deserves to be adopted by God as his children. It is not a right or privilege. It is only God’s power and grace that is the reason we have become his children. It is because God has shown us his incredible kindness towards us by sending his own Son Jesus Christ to die in our place for the sins of the whole world. 

God is a Father who is faithful to his children. In fact his desire is that we flourish as his children. He is the kind of Father that turns to good whatever adversity comes our way in this world. God is a Father who is faithful to his word and promises. If he says it, he will do it.

God is faithful even when his children are unfaithful. That is the assurance of salvation. God’s grace is unconditional. We cannot earn it. It is freely given even though we do not deserve it. Our Father in heaven will continue to be faithful to his covenant promises even when his children break theirs. Our Father in heaven deserves our praise.

We have a perfect Father in heaven. God loves each and every one of his children unconditionally. He has adopted us into his family because of his son Jesus Christ. God desires that we come to him for all of our needs. Our Father in heaven is trustworthy. As His children we can have confidence that God desires for us to flourish. He longs to live in relationship with us through His Word and Spirit. He has given us the ability to know Him better through his Word. Our Father in heaven has revealed a way to know him. We can discover the deep truths about God from Scripture. We can trust Him to supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory.

As you spend time in God’s Word, take time to praise him for the spiritual insight that he gives to you.  We have many reasons to praise him because God has become our Father in heaven through Jesus Christ.  May God help us to become the children he intended us to be. Amen. Amen.