Speed of Light 4 – FATHER OF LIGHTS
Pastor Troy Brewer, Burleson, TX
The believer in God’s gospel is justified by faith alone. But God’s gospel never concludes with justification.
- This process of changing the justified believer’s life-style into the saintly character of Christ Himself is called sanctification. Sanctification means to be set apart for a holy purpose.
- “SANCTIFICATION”
- We partner with God in changing our THINKING, FEELINGS & ACTIONS
God: The unchangeable God
- Jesus the rock
- He doesn’t change his behavior to match ours.
- James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
- The first thing we learn from this verse is that the father side of God is the giving side of God.
GOD THE GIVER
There is a beautiful scene near the end of “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” Irving Stone’s historical novel about Michelangelo. An ailing Pope Julius II visits the nearly completed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo has to help him up the last few rungs of the ladder. He looks above him at Michelangelo’s depiction of God, about to impart the gift of life to Adam. The pope had fought many wars in the name of the church. He has blood on his hands, and he isn’t even sure if his cause had been successful. But as he looks at Michelangelo’s picture of God, a smile comes to his cracked lips.
“Do you truly believe God is that benign?” the pope asks the artist.
Michelangelo: “Yes, Holy Father.”
Pope Julius: “I most ardently hope so, since I am going to be standing before him before long. If he is as you have painted him, then I shall be forgiven my sins.”
In Michelangelo’s painting, the pope saw an image of God unlike the one he had lived with his whole life. This God wasn’t killing life; he was giving life. This God was a giver, even in the face of his sins. Our God is a giver, even in the face of our complaints against him.
God is, in fact, the greatest of all givers.
- I’m not just talking about how God has given us the world.
- Psalm 115:16 – “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”
- Luke 11:13 – “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
How can we not love the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
- Romans 6:23 – “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Now when you get to trying to describe the gift that God has given us, you start getting into trouble . - 2 Corinthians 9:15 – Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
- The word indescribable is interesting because it doesn’t mean that there are no words. It means there are not enough words
- The reason this gift is indescribable is because we discover new things about the Lord every time we see Him and will continue to walk in newness of life for all eternity.
- James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
THE FATHER OF LIGHTS
LIGHT IS LIFE
John 8:12 – I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
THE FATHER OF LIGHTS
IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM AS FATHER, EVERYTHING HE GIVES YOU IS LIFE GIVING.
- He doesn’t change HIS behavior to mimic your behavior.
- He is your protection.
- He is your stability.
- He is your sanity.
- He is your refuge.
- He is there for you. No matter what changes His heart for you, who He is to you never changes.
- The amplified versions says, “Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse].”
1 John 3:1 – Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
- We can know the Heart of the Father.
- We can have the heart of the Father.
- The heart of the Father is for people:
- The Whole World in John 3:16
- The lost…people like us.
- 2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
- Not willing that any should perish (not just some people)
- No one is beyond the heart of God.
He is the Father who runs to his children.
- God searched for Adam in the Garden – Genesis 3:9
- He runs to his lost sons and daughters – Luke 15:20
- God is still seeking and saving the lost – Luke 19:10
- He is still running to you!
Jesus has the heart of the Father – John 1:14
- John 14:7 – If you have seen me you have seen the Father.
- “That’s my dad. That’s my father and when I see Jesus, I have seen the Father.”
- James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.