Introduction:
Today is Father’s Day and I like to wish a “Happy Father’s Day” to all our dads. Father’s Day is a special day to honor and appreciate fathers. This special day did not become a national holiday until 1972, when President Richard Nixon signed the congressional resolution permanently establishing the 3rd Sunday in June as Father’s Day.
Harry C. Meek is also given credit for the idea of Father’s Day. Mr. Meek, as president of a Lions Club in Chicago, gave speeches to various clubs in the United States about the need to honor fathers he was building upon the work of Mrs. Sonora Dodd. In appreciation for his work, the Lions Clubs of America presented him with a gold watch, with the inscription “Originator of Father’s Day” on his birthday, June 20, 1920.

Fathers, I can say without a doubt that being a good father & a good husband is the most challenging responsibility we can ever face. If you’re like most men you want to be a good father even those you may have had a poor or harmful experience with their own father.
Getting to know God as “Our Father” is the key and it requires we understand He is a loving, caring, correcting, and comforting Father. We begin this message with point number…

I. Addressing God as “Our Father”.

1. The word father invokes different images for everyone. To some it brings the picture of love, laughter, respect, and acceptance. Unfortunately, others associate the term father with fear, rejection, and disappointment. That is why it is so important to take your understanding of your heavenly Father from the scriptures and not from your experiences. God is our model of a father in the truest sense of the word. This is why our Lord would have us address him as our father. We can and should address God as our father being mindful of… child / father relationship. Calling God “Father” aids us in understanding He is knowable and approachable.
Romans 8:15
2. Our heavenly Father was willing to pay the price in order to save you. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? – Romans 8:32
Your heavenly Father is always ready to meet your needs. Your heavenly Father loves you so much that He is willing to discipline you to bring you to Christian maturity (Heb.12: 5-10).

3. Even when you rebel against Him and reject His love, your Father continues to do what is best for you (Rom. 5:8). He does not make His love for you conditional upon your love for Him. He loves you even when you are not loving Him (1 John 4:19). This is what a father is like biblically. If this has not been your experience, it can be now. There is One who has adopted you and who wants to love you in a way you have never experienced. Take comfort and strength from Him—your heavenly Father. He has made you His heirs, yes… I Peter 1:4

4. He has made you His heirs and reserves a home for you in heaven. We cannot comprehend all that is ours as fellow heirs with Christ. The knowledge that we will share Christ’s inheritance with Him absolutely should astound us! Left to our own, we could not begin to understand all that we received once we became children of our Heavenly Father. Perhaps you did not have a loving father.

5. If you were simply declared an heir and then left on own, you could not begin to use your inheritance. But the Father has given you His Spirit to serve as your Guide and Teacher. The Holy Spirit will lead you to the promises, power and resources that became available when God adopted you into His family. Take time to meditate on the wonderful promises of God that are avail¬able to you. Let the Holy Spirit convince you of the reality that you are, indeed, a child of the Father and a fellow heir of Christ. We address him as Dad, not King, or Master or Sir…

II. God’s address “who art in Heaven”

1) Calling God “Father” helps us comprehend the concept that He is knowable, loving and approachable, but the phrase “in heaven” reminds us of who He is and who we are. God is holy and sinless, but we’re not. Although we can have an intimate rela¬tionship with our heavenly Father, we should never approach Him with arrogance or presumption.

Our Heavenly Father is everywhere, including in us. If I go up into the third heaven, He is there. If I go down into hell (SHEOL, which means the grave), He is there. If I go to the depths of the sea, He is there (Psalm 139:8-9). God dwells in the third heaven, but He is close enough to hear my every prayer. This truth is beyond human comprehension, but remembering God’s omnipresence should bring awe and reverence to our relationship with Him as father. God’s address reminds us He is everywhere, and …

2. God’s address reminds us He can do anything.

a) Because God can be everywhere, His power is unlimited. How many places can you be in at once? Only one! Have you ever needed to be in several places at once but couldn’t? Why? because you don’t have the power to be in more than one place at a time. However, God is not only everywhere at once; He created everywhere that is.

b) The phrase in heaven reminds us our heavenly Father is not just an ideal version of earthly fathers but a Father who can do anything. When we pray Our Father which art in heaven, we should have the same awe of God as Isaiah, who writes of God: (Isaiah 40:26b). Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that [he is] strong in power; not one faileth.

c) God not only has all the hairs on our heads numbered; He also calls each star by name and keeps every one of them in place. This is incredible when we consider “our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains more than 100 billion stars and that tens of millions of galaxies are known to exist, so the total number of stars in the universe exceeds a billion billion” (Grolier In¬ternational Encyclopedia, Vol. 18, Pg. 221). Using God’s address puts power in our prayers because it reminds us He is everywhere, can do anything, and …

3. God’s address reminds us He is different from us.

1. The phrase “in heaven” reminds us God is holy or set apart from all sin. Because God is different from us, remind us… For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

2. God never acts in a selfish or unloving way, but we do. Our father is never in a hurry, but we are. God is more concerned with our character than our comfort, but we are not.
Austin L Sorensen, once said “A Child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something of God in his father. We would do well to emulate Him for our children sake.
Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers. Proverbs 17:6

God is sinless, and we are not, but His love transcends the difference. Since we are sinful, we cannot reach heaven on our own, so in His love God brings heaven to us. This means when we acknowledge our spiritual poverty and come to God as spiritual beggars, confessing our sin and trusting in Christ for the for¬giveness of our sins, we enter the kingdom of heaven. God’s ad¬dress becomes our eternal address. / Gospel / This truth is explain in Ephesians 2:14-19

4. God’s address reminds us He is worthy of praise.

1. God sits on His throne in heaven (Psalm 103:19). But what is His throne in heaven like? Almost the entire fourth chapter of Revelation describes God’s majesty in His throne room in heaven. God’s throne symbolizes His absolute authority and power. Revelation 4:3b reveal God’s throne to us. The rainbow completely encircles the throne, creating an awesome display of transparent colors. It is like an emerald in appearance, meaning it has a dominant green color. The majesty around God’s throne is enhanced with lightning’s and thundering and voices. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal … (Rev. 4:5-6).

2. There is also a vast host around the throne praising Him (Rev. 4:11). Jesus wants us to remember our Father is in heaven, not sit¬ting in a rocking chair, but on an awesome, dazzling throne. We are to keep in mind our heavenly Father is the majestic Creator and Ruler of the universe, who is in heaven surrounded by indescribable majesty and glory.

Conclusion:

J. Wilbur Chapman often told of the testimony given by a certain man in one of his meetings:
“I got off at the Pennsylvania depot as a tramp, and for a year I begged on the streets for a living. One day I touched a man on the shoulder and said, “Hey, mister, can you give me a dime?” As soon as I saw his face I was shocked to see that it was my own father. I said, “Father, Father, do you know me?” Throwing his arms around me and with tears in his eyes, he said, “Oh my son, at last I’ve found you! I’ve found you. You want a dime? Everything I have is yours.” Think of it. I was a tramp. I stood begging my own father for ten cents, when for 18 years he had been looking for me to give me all that he had.”
What a wonderful illustration of the way God longs to treat us, if we will only let Him.