100620 Our Fathers Told Us
Ps 78:1-7
Tim Franklin
Introduction:
· Fathers play a very important role in our lives as children and also as community; whether that community is family, church, or neighborhood. Fathers provide a unique touch to their children.
o A nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit told me what is essential for the lives of her scrawny infants, with IVs, monitors and tubes hooked up to their bodies. She advises fathers and mothers and grandparents - whoever can be a constant visitor: "For the next several weeks you are to come and visit every day. And when you come I want you to rub the baby’s arms and legs, head and stomach, with the tip of your finger. Use your hands. And as you touch, say over and over ‘I love you’, because the baby has to connect your voice with your touch. It will give strength and determination to live, because the baby will know, ‘I am loved’".
· Ps 78 provides this kind of picture. It is a Psalm of God’s kindness to us in the midst of our rebellion. But the start of the Psalm paints a picture of father who invest in their children with only a fathers touch and the words “I love you.” As we do this we connect our children with our God. They learn His touch, His voice, His love through us.
· What do we learn from Psalm 78?
1. Fathers Treasure Mysteries
A. The thing that gives a mystery its power is the possibility of discovery. God has put within men the desire discover. I grew up in that environment. I was encouraged to learn, to read, to explore. I got in trouble so many times over the exploring thing. Ie. Charging a 9 volt battery with two pocket knives and an outlet. Ie. New shoes and the command to not get them muddy. Ie. I was always taking things apart to see how they worked. Ie. My late father in law loved mind-bending puzzles; he loved to “tinker”. There is something in a heart of a man that he wants to know how things work. Ie. Good Eats on food network is a man’s cooking show. Why? Because it is about the science of how things cook.
B. The power of mystery.
i. Mysteries power comes in the place of possibility to discover. It draws men into it.
ii. Mysteries empower. When you know the secret of the mystery it empowers you. You now have something that others do not have. Ie. The secret weapon. The secret ingredient. Grandma’s secret recipe.
iii. Mystery gets its draw from the fact that someone knows and has concealed a thing. Creates curiosity.
a. Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. NKJV A king is a man of authority. A head of a nation. A possessor of knowledge that is not common to most men. They are mysterious in themselves.
b. The word matter in this passage is the Hebrew word--‘daabaar’: word(s)/sayings. In other words, God is concealing a matter within/with His words. And it is the glory of kings to search those words until he has understanding—or until he obtains that which God has hidden those words.
C. God has hidden mysteries in His Word. To those who seek out His word, when they find it they are empowered. They now possess knowledge that gives them life. They have discovered something about God that brings them back for more.
i. Matthew 13:11 He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. NKJV
ii. Ephesians 1:9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, NKJV
iii. 1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. NKJV
D. God declares in Ps. 78:2 I spoke in parable, dark sayings. Your fathers found them and now they have/are telling you.
2. Fathers Tell Generations
A. Father’s love telling the next generation.
i. Psalms 78:3-4 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. NKJV
ii. Young people you need to listen up.
a. Father’s love telling you what they know. They love telling you what they have discovered.
b. Ie. It doesn’t matter if it is about cars, cooking, or satellites. If you ask them they will tell you. Dads, your children want to know God. They will get to know God best through you—so get ready to tell them.
iii. Father’s you have to tell it in such a way that it makes the next generation seek out the answers—because that which they work for they will remember. Give them enough to tease their taste buds and cause them to look for more.
B. How does a father tell?
i. He tells the story. The story paints the picture and in the picture is the truth.
a. Ie. The dream about “the answer is in the picture.” Find the picture and know that the answer is in the picture. I found the picture but could find the answer. Then it occurred to me, ‘cut the picture out of the frame.’ When I did there were 5 books behind the painting in the picture. Three were highlighted. I was given enough information to get me looking, when I found the picture I really began to search.
b. The story imprints the manifested truth on the mind.
ii. He tells the truth or the principal.
a. The principle is God loves you.
b. The story is the death of Jesus on the cross.
C. The story itself is the teacher.
i. 1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. NKJV
ii. Learn from other failures and success.
iii. Ps 78 is basically a story of the people failing to get a testimony because of their own selfishness.
3. Fathers Acquire Testimonies
A. One preacher I recently said, “If you don’t have a testimony you haven’t done anything!” Another quote I read this week was, “Faith is daring the soul to go farther than it can see.”
i. Ie. Anyone can get in a boat and cross the sea but only Peter got out of the boat and walked. When he did he got a testimony. No one else in that story is mentioned for having walked on water. No one else in that boat was sharing with their grand kids how they walked on water. They could all talk about Peter because Peter believed, Peter trusted and Peter stepped out of the boat.
ii. Peter was understanding the mystery of the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The revelation knowledge that came to him, empowered him, encouraged him, took him into the realm of possibilities and won him a testimony.
B. Psalms 78:5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; NKJV
i. Fathers, God wants to establish a testimony in you. You have to give yourself to His Word because in it lie the mysteries of heaven.
ii. Fathers, God wants to establish a testimony in your children and your children’s children.
a. Vs. 6 the next generation and the children who would be.
b. This is what we call a legacy. Legacy-anything handed down from the past. Hebrew and middle eastern cultures are rich in this. Ie. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They think generationally. Islam has what they call the 100 year plan—they are thinking generationally.
C. A God filled testimony is full of life. Psalms 119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. NKJV
i. I can read stories about father Abraham and be empowered into the realm of possibilities simply by meditating on his testimony.
ii. God is not respecter of persons. If he did it for Abraham, he will do it for us.
Conclusion:
· Asaph in Ps. 78 is telling the story of a rebellious people and encouraging fathers to make:
o better choice
o build a better testimony
o and tell your children until they get it
o touch your children often with your God stories and tell them you love them. It will connect and they will make the connection.
· Invite fathers to Christ.
· Pray for all the fathers
o Start with great grand fathers
o Grandfathers
o Dads
o Any man desiring prayer.
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