I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY

All week long I’ve been thinking about the phrase “Father Almighty” and trying to decide what it really means. It’s a fascinating question because the Apostles’ Creed seems to get to the entire nature of God into just two words—"Father Almighty.”

The builders of the Creed were telling us that if we comprehend the meaning of those two words, we will know who God is. The challenge is made greater because the phrase “Father Almighty” combines two words that don’t normally go together.

Father goes in one direction, and Almighty goes in another. One of the common Greek words for Father is Abba, a very intimate term that means something like, “Dear father” or “Papa.” We would use the word “Daddy” today.

The word “Almighty” in the Old Testament translates the Hebrew word shaddai, as in El Shaddai, “Almighty God.” That name for God first appears in Genesis 17 when God informs Abram (who is 99 years old) that a year later, his wife Sarai (her name was later changed to Sarah) will give birth to a son.

The very thought seems so absurd that Abram (whose name God changed to Abraham—"Father of Many Nations”) laughed out loud. The Lord guaranteed the promise with his name—El Shaddai, the Lord Almighty. If we go all the way to the last book of the Bible, we find the name “Almighty” appearing several times.

Revelation 1: 8 is a typical example: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’”

So you have two words put together in the Apostles’ Creed that summarize who God is—one is intimate and personal, the other speaks of his unlimited power. To call him “Daddy,” means that he is a personal God who cares about me and you. To call him “Almighty” means that he is able to do whatever needs to be done. There are no limits with him.

If you know me well, the issue of “father,” to me can be a difficult one. I never really knew my father well, only the broken down man who had suffered malaria and other weird diseases, as well as the horrors of fighting the Japanese in New Guinea and the Philippines  in World War 2. By the time I knew him he was a broken down alcoholic with lung cancer. I only have a few memories of him.

As a foster child I had a couple of “foster fathers” but none really seemed to be anything special in the way they treated me at least. It’s made it tough to be a dad myself and not knowing how best to just be there for Chylle sometimes.

But I’ve seen a lot of dads in action that I think are great so I’m still a dad in progress, with a teenager. I know that God as a father to me means that I know He will always love me, no matter what I do as long as I’m believing in Him and His Son.

I think I am on good biblical footing this morning if I say that parents stand in the place of God for their children. Parents are not God, but we learn something about God (for better or for worse) from our parents and our children.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he told them to start their prayers this way, “Our Father in heaven.” Jesus himself compared earthly fathers with our Heavenly Father. 

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7: 9-11).

It is a father’s joy and his duty and his honor to give to his children what they truly need. Fathers give good gifts to their children. I try to do that for Chylle and all the children I interact with.

But I am sinner, and my father was a sinner. I am not perfect, my father was not perfect. There is only one perfect Father—our Father in heaven. He will do all that an earthly father will do—and much more besides.

Let me offer one other passage for us to consider. This one comes from Malachi 1: 6 where God declares, “‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?’ says the Lord Almighty.”

This is one of the few places in the Bible where you find God as Father and God as Almighty in the same verse. Let me put these two concepts together so we can see them clearly: He is Almighty: He can do anything he wants to do. He is our Father: He will do what is necessary for our well-being. He is Almighty: He can! He is our Father: He will!

To call him the Father Almighty means that we can trust him in every circumstance because he will do whatever needs to be done to take care of us. Romans 8: 31-32 expresses this truth beautifully: 

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

What is the limit of the “all things” in verse 32? Answer: There is no limit.

Whatever we truly need, our Father will make sure that we have it because he is the “Father Almighty.” His name is El Shaddai—Almighty God.

Let me read Isaiah 40 and the wonderful promise that comes at the end of the chapter. As I read it, I want you to notice that the promise of strength for the weary is based squarely on who God is:

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”                                                                                         (Isaiah 40: 28-31).

I love those two questions at the beginning: “Do you not know? Have you not heard?” Isaiah is asking, “Don’t you know your own God?” I know who he is: He’s the Father Almighty. That’s the God I believe in.

When you know the Father Almighty, you have strength and courage to face the worst life can throw your way. You all know my health concerns and how difficult it is some days just to walk with my neuropathy, and all the medications and side effects I experience. Some of you here face some of the same issues. But I tell you this not to cry but to continue to celebrate my life.

God is in control, God is in charge of how everything turns out, God makes no mistakes, And God has our best interest at heart. I know cause He told me so … I will win no matter what happens to me.

I love being able to say this sentence: “I win no matter what.” Only a man who believes in the “Father Almighty” can talk like that.

There is another way to put it together:

Father means he is the God who cares for me.

Almighty means he can do whatever needs to be done for me.

This week as I thought about all this, I began to work on completing this sentence:

If I truly believed in God the Father Almighty, I would __________________.

How would you fill in that blank? I think I know my answer.

I would trust him more and I would complain less.

I would smile more and frown less.

I would stop trying to play God and I would let God be God in my life.

I would be quicker to forgive and slower to get angry.

I would risk more because I am secure in his love.

I would be quicker to share Christ and less worried about what others think of me.

I would say “Your will be done” and I would mean it because my Father is not my enemy.

I would pray more and pout less.

I would enjoy what I already have, knowing that if I truly needed something else, my Father in heaven would give it to me.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? This is our God—the Father Almighty. Put your trust in him. Amen.