God Is Daddy (father) by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Bible Hope Is a Blueprint

Hope and anticipation are not the same thing. Anticipation is a wish for something good to happen. Expectation is something you know will happen — you are simply waiting for its arrival.

Romans 15:4 — "All scriptures written beforehand were written for our learning, that through patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope." That hope is not vague optimism. It is a blueprint of possibilities. The scriptures show us what has happened, explain what we are currently experiencing, and reveal what awaits us.

Bible hope is Jesus — because he died and rose again, and his resurrection is the template for what awaits every believer. He has happened, he is happening, and he will happen. That is living hope.

If you don't have a correct expectation, God is going to seem like he is constantly disappointing you.

When you buy something from Amazon, you are not anticipating it — you are expecting it. You know what was ordered and you are waiting for delivery. That is Biblical expectation: prophetic in nature, rooted in what you have heard.

John 5:46–47 — Jesus said, "Had you believed Moses, you would have believed me — for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, you will not believe my words." There is a very high chance that a person can live an entire life and never hear from God, because they have not believed the written word. Access to what God speaks comes through believing what God has written.

God's Will Is Revelation Before Experience

There is a Matthew 16 before there is a Matthew 17. In chapter 16, Jesus asks, "Who do you say I am?" If you confess him as the Son of God, then in chapter 17, the Father's voice confirms it from heaven. If you don't believe chapter 16, you won't hear the voice in chapter 17. Revelation precedes experience.

Tracing Fatherhood in Scripture

Jesus had to come and show us the Father — because there is no ideal father in all of scripture.

• Adam — passive leadership. Silent when he should have spoken. Genesis 3.
• Noah — righteous before the flood, reckless after it.
• Abraham — created unnecessary conflict through impatience. No need for Ishmael.
• Lot — absent from his home. He was sitting at the gate of Sodom when angels arrived — not inside with his family. His wife had built her entire life there because he never led her out of it. Genesis 19:1.
• Isaac — led by favoritism. His children knew one was preferred.
• David — mighty in battle, weak in parenting.
• Manoah (Samson's father) — desired the son but did not discipline him. The same mistake many church leaders make: when gifted people are found, they are treated as untouchable. When they fall, rather than being received and corrected, they are pushed out. God is not looking at the giftings. He is looking at the soul.

The stats on fatherless homes are alarming — 80% of rapists grew up without a father, 85% of youth in prison had absent fathers, children from fatherless homes are five times more likely to die by suicide. This is not just a social observation. It is a spiritual crisis.

It is easy to have children. It is very hard for children to have fathers.

Jesus: The Revelation of the Father

John 14:6 — "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." This is not merely the way to heaven. It is the way to the Father. A specific revelation — because all through scripture, fatherhood is deficient.

John 17:23 — Jesus prayed: "You have loved them as you have loved me." God loves believers with the exact same love with which he loves Jesus. That is not a metaphor.

God fathered Jesus so well that they were intimate. Jesus could say, "I only do what I see my Father do." The question for every father is the same: are your children intimate with you? Do they know you love them? It is not for the father to say yes — it is for the children to answer.

John 14:8 — Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it will be sufficient for us." That is the cry of humanity.

Show us fathers, and we will be fine.

If the home you grew up in was dysfunctional, if you saw many of those traits in this teaching — God has now established himself as the Father. If you commit yourself to fellowship with him, he will change your life and make you like him.

Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you for revealing yourself as our Father. We receive your fatherhood over our lives. Make us like you — intimate with you, loved by you, led by you. In Jesus' name. Amen.