SERIES: Father’s Day Sermon TITLE: There is a Tool for that in my Father’s Tool Box June 10, 2014
ME / WE / GOD / ME / YOU / GOD / YOU / WEMy father could fix it all. It seemed to me that he had a different tool for everything imaginable. He had a tool box and he also had a tool shed. I can remember when something would break around the house, he would go into his tool box looking for a specific tool and if he did not find what he was looking for there, he would go into his tool shed and come out with that tool that he needed to get the job done. I can remember my daddy saying on more than one occasion to me and to my little brother that every job requires a certain tool and your job is to know which tool will get you to accomplish what needs to be done.
That must be a father’s thing to say to their child: there is a tool for that; know what tool is required to get the job done.
I say that because I was reading my Bible this week in preparation for Father’s Day, and I heard in my heart a little small voice say to me “there is a tool for that” and I know that it was my Heavenly Father speaking to me. / Now that is an attention getter when my earthly Father and my Heavenly Father tell me the same thing: there is a tool for that.
So I want you to see if you hear that small voice in your heart saying “there is a tool for that” as we read that passage of Scripture together today. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
When I got to the term “thoroughly equipped” that is when I heard it- “there is a tool for that.” So the Father was telling me that Scripture is the right tool for every good work.
Now I know from personal experience that many times in my life, I haven’t use the right tool; I may tried to use a tool that I know is not the right one but I hoped it might work in this situation anyway. And what I discovered is that more often than not- I ended up breaking more than I fixed; and now, I have got a bigger mess than I had before. And I am left wondering: “Why didn’t I get the right tool before I even tried to tackle the problem?”
Maybe today, your life is your problem; it is all messed up. There are a whole bunch of / tools out there (the wrong ones) to try to force fix your situation. You know them: throw money at a situation and it will make it all better; deaden your senses to what you are feeling by drinking or drugging; this has become a very popular tool in recent years: go to the book store- secure a self-help program to fix your problem and then work the program. But listen, until you get the right tool, which is the Scripture, the Holy Word of God, you will end up with a bigger mess. Scripture is the right tool for good works. Turn your life around: you cannot do it without Scripture.
Now the devil, he is a pretty shrewd adversary because you know what he tries to tell me: “there is no tool out there that can help you.” You have really messed up your life and you are doomed. You have really messed up your life for good this time. You are stuck.
I went back to 2 Timothy 3:16-17 looked at it closely and discovered that there is no exception clause. There is no place that it works in all cases except…No, that tool works every time for teaching, rebuking, correction and training. No matter what I have / done, Scripture is the tool to correct the problem. Don’t believe the lie of the devil that there is no tool out there to help you. You and I need to know that there is a tool to fix any problem we are dealing with.
I discovered in my life, there are some pretty cheaply make tools out there in the market place. One year, I believe it was during Christmas time, I bought myself was a 120 piece racket set for $9.99. I was so proud of my investment in something mechanical. However, the first time I used the racket the insides of the racket came flying out as I turned the racket on something I was trying to fix.
So, I went back to the Scripture to see the quality of the tool that God is offering me to fix whatever is wrong with me and I discovered that that tool is of the highest quality- it is God-breathed. The God who is perfect got His Hands dirty and got personally involved in making the tool that is perfect. His breathe is all over it. When I am trying to fix my lawn mower, I am personally involved, my breathe is all over it. And God’s breathe is all over the Scripture. He was / personally involved in giving you and me the Scriptures. Therefore, it is not going to work a couple of times and then break on me. It will worth a lifetime.
So, this Scripture tells me there is a tool; God made it: it is of the highest of quality and it works every time. So, what pops into my head is: “How much is this tool going to cost me?”
Certainly, a tool of this quality has a price tag on it but as I read that Scripture back over again one more time I discovered that the cost was not transferred to me; it was absorbed by the maker of the tool. Someone had to pay for the tool- it was God and in particularly Jesus.
So dads listen up! The most important thing that you can teach your children whether it is a girl or a boy is that there is a tool for every job. And a key to life is finding the right tool for the right job. And the right tool so that you can live a life that is pleasing to God is the Holy Scriptures. Teach them that it is a high quality tool; that it may not have cost them anything but it cost Jesus everything. And in their life they will encounter an adversary who will try to tell them that tool doesn’t work-but don’t belief him.
PRINCIPLE: Know what tool is required to get the job done. And the tool for living my life is Scripture.
SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.