Sermons
Our Father's Eyes
OUR FATHER’S EYES
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / June 18, 2017
With my father’s passing in May of 2004, I witnessed a phenomenon that I don’t quite know how to explain.
A cancer specialist visited my father the hospital in Ashtabula on the Sunday before he died.
He asked my father if he had ever been exposed to certain kinds of chemicals.
My dad worked in a chemical plant for most of his adult life, mostly as a supervisor.
He was assistant superintendent of the Cabot Titanium (tickle) plant for 25 or so years before his retirement.
The called it the “tickle” plant because it produced titanium chloride (TiCl).
My day was occasionally called upon to provide on-site supervision at the scenes of chemical spills or leakages.
On the Sunday before he died, he was fully alert and very coherent.
He spoke with the cancer specialist, spouting out the names of chemicals he’d been around.
Two days later, at the hospital’s hospice unit, he visited with his sister and brother-in-law, then he fell sleep and died.
The phenomenon that I am referring to took place about four or five days before his passing.
His eyes turned bright blue. One of the nurses kidded him about his beautiful BLUE eyes.
The thing is, my father didn’t have blue eyes. They were a kind of greenish grayish, but not bright blue.
In many ways my father’s eyes were, like many of us, somewhat non-descript.
Those of you who knew my pop, would have never walked away commenting on his eyes.
Eric Clapton wrote a song entitled, “My Father’s Eyes”.
He wrote the song in memory of his son Conor who died at the age of four, after falling out of their apartment window.
In 1985, Clapton told his biographer, “I never met my father. And I realized the closest
I ever came to looking into my father’s eyes was when I looked into my son’s eyes.”
It’s a rather sad song describing how Clapton longed to have known his father.
Gary Chapman wrote a song that was released in 1979 - - sung by Amy Grant who was only a teenager at the time.
In the genre of contemporary Christian music it rocketed to the top of the charts. It, too, was titled, “My Father’s Eyes”.
I may not be every mother’s dream for her little girl,
And my face may not grace the mind of everyone in the world.
But that’s all right, as long as I can have one wish I pray.
When people look inside my life, I want to hear them say,
SHE’S GOT HER FATHER’S EYES, HER FATHER’S EYES.
Eyes that find the good in things, when good is not around.
Eyes that find the source of help, when help just can’t be found.
Eyes full of compassion, seeing every pain; knowing what you’re going through and feeling it the same.
Just like my father’s eyes.
What a precious thought - - a child who has his or her father’s eyes.
They very thought of this might bring to you daddies simultaneously both joy and trepidation.
My aunt Barb said to me a while after my dad’s death: As long as you live, Bodie is still with us.
She’ll never know how much that statement has meant to me.
The thought that I can carry on where my father left off is a high honor for me. But it is also a tall order.
In Mt.6:22 Jesus says - - the eye is a light for the body. If you eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
In order for our children to yearn to have the eyes of their father, you fathers will need to set really good examples.
We’re not talking here about the color of their eyes or the health of their retinas in a literal sense.
The eyes of our fathers represent the hearts of our fathers.
So you dads must work diligently to show your children a GOOD HEART.
In his epistle to the church at Ephesus, Paul writes (Eph.1:18) - -
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling,
what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe.
Amy Grant’s song enumerates three aspects of a good heart.
(1) Eyes that find the good things
(2) Eyes that find the source of help
(3) Eyes full of compassion
One can’t dwell on these three strengths and not think about the heart of God.
The heart of God is shown to us in detail in the life of Jesus.
This point was emphasized by Randy Harris in last Wednesday’s Daring Faith episode (a study of John’s Gospel).
In Jn.12:45 Jesus declared, He who beholds Me beholds the One who sent me.
Jn.14:7 records a somewhat similar statement: If you have known Me, you would have know My Father also…
This statement apparently confused Philip (one of the twelve apostles). Note Jn.14:8f
Philip said to (Jesus), ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip?
He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?
Heb.1:3 underscores this truth - -
(Jesus) is the exact radiance of (the Father’s) glory and the exact representation of His nature…
Christian Fatherhood is a most serious undertaking.
This is a sobering question for every dad - - when your kids look into your eyes do they see THE FATHER (in all caps)?
All dads are flawed. No early father is perfect. We all know that.
But the preeminent goal of all of you Christian fathers is that you surely must give due diligence to reflecting Jesus.
In those three aspects delineated in Amy Grants lyrics we see Jesus.
Jesus had eyes that found the good things in people of all shapes & sizes; all backgrounds; all colors & nationalities.
Among the outcasts and the downtrodden Jesus saw good.
Jesus had a knack for looking for the good things, even in bad people.
Jesus was eager to help others find the source for help.
We’ve all seen that commercial when there’s a bank being robbed.
Bystanders look for help from a guy in a uniform who informs them that his job is just to detect a problem, not fix it.
Jesus was not just a problem-detective, He offers an answer (solution) to all of life’s problems.
He offers a way to cope by addressing the problem of our sinfulness and offering God’s mercy and grace.
Thirdly, more than any other character in history, Jesus also had eyes of compassion.
Every where you go in the gospels you see the compassion of Christ.
with children … with fishermen … with prostitutes … with tax collectors … with lepers … with blind men … with widows … with ones who were crippled … with a poor beggar … with broken-hearted parents … with the woman caught in adultery … with the prodigal son … with the elder brother … with the thief on the cross.
Nobody had a bigger and more compassion heart that our Lord Jesus.
There are a whole hosts of good Biblical qualities that children need to see in their fathers.
A deep love for The Word of God. - - being a truth seeker.
An ongoing desire to worship God - - possessing a profound reverence and awe for God.
A spirit of industry and an eager willingness to help the church grow.
An abiding love for his wife, the mother of his children.
If we listed them all, you dads were be truly overwhelmed.
So this morning, I want to just leave you with these three to focus upon.
(1) Eyes that find the good things
(2) Eyes the find the Source of help
(3) Eyes that are full of compassion
We’re not suggesting that you neglect all of the other directives laid out in Scripture, but for today and this week
and for weeks and months to come we want to exhort you to give your focused attention to these three.
I have a strong sense that if you dads will concentrate on these three and do so seriously and conscientiously,
these three will lead you to go even deeper into the mind of Christ and the heart of Jesus.
I am so very thankful that I can honestly testify that I saw these qualities in my father’s eyes.
It has blessed my life immensely.
Dads, if you can show these three things to your children, it will be a great blessing for them.
If your children can look into your eyes and see clearly this three-pronged vision, it will guide them all of their days.
This is at the center of God’s charge to you fathers (Eph.6:4) - -
Bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Ps.127:3 reminds us that children are a gift from the Lord.
May you resolve in word and deed to do your best to be a constant example.
May you work daily to handle “your precious gifts from God” with the utmost care.
Your children are watching you.
When they look into the eyes of their father, help them to see our Heavenly Father.
Heavenly Father,
Bless our earthly fathers.
Help them not to be faultfinders but to find good things in other people and circumstances/
Strengthen them so that they might enable their children (and others) to discover the eternal Source of Help.
Guide them as they seek to cultivate hearts of compassion - - develop within them the heart of Jesus.
Help us all to honor our fathers, not just on this special day, but on every day and in every way.
Embolden all of our fathers so that they might rise up and honor You with their lives and the lives of their children.
Through Christ, The Son of The Father, we pray. Amen
