Love of the Father
About this sermon
In “Love of the Father,” Pastor Dean Odle uses 1 John 2:15-17 to ask a searching question: not merely whether God loves us, but whether we love the Father enough to surrender our own will. Beginning with worship and reflections on fatherhood, he contrasts the Father’s faithfulness with the world’s lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. He argues that Christian identity must be expressed through an ongoing life of obedience, not a profession of faith detached from following Christ.
Chronological teaching outline
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The service opens with extended worship centered on God’s faithfulness, mercy, goodness, and fatherly care. Between songs, Odle reflects that earthly fathers may fail, but the heavenly Father remains faithful. The worship moves from gratitude into a desire for God’s presence and a prayer to follow Him rather than merely pursue blessings.
Odle welcomes the congregation and explains that he set aside a planned Enoch teaching. Recalling June 22, 1987, he describes rededicating himself, repenting, receiving the Holy Spirit, and deciding to do things God’s way. Mortality makes the central question urgent: what matters most before one’s life ends?
From 1 John 2:15-17, Odle argues that God’s universal love does not remove the human obligation to love and obey Him. He contrasts surrender to the Father with attachment to money, status, pleasure, and self-direction, and presents the rich young ruler as an example of a divided heart.
Odle applies John’s threefold description of worldliness to personal ambition and church culture. He warns that religious activity can itself become pride when it is performed to be seen and admired. Knowledge, influence, and ministry accomplishments are vanity if they displace wholehearted love for God.
The sermon challenges a profession of faith that is disconnected from obedience. Odle says the issue is not compiling isolated good works but knowing Christ, hearing Him, and following Him. He connects faithful fatherhood and family unity to surrendering personal plans to Scripture and the Holy Spirit’s direction.
Reading Isaiah 65:2, Odle describes rebellion as walking after one’s own thoughts. Personal desires, even apparently harmless plans, must be submitted to God. He recounts abandoning his youthful plans for sports, college, and a preferred career when he believed Christ called him to follow a different path.
Odle gives a direct warning against habitual pornography and urges listeners to treat sin as a deadly enemy. He rejects once-saved-always-saved teaching, discusses the wedding garment and Judas as examples in his argument, and distinguishes Christ’s imputed righteousness from the obedient life believers must choose to walk out. These are the preacher’s doctrinal interpretations.
Odle urges believers to abandon religious self-confidence and repeatedly ask God for understanding. He connects David’s prayer for opened eyes and Paul’s prayer for wisdom and revelation to practical decisions about marriage, work, education, and calling. He describes discernment as patient listening, testing, waiting, and seeking confirmation.
Returning to the word “doeth,” Odle emphasizes continuing obedience and argues that living faith becomes visible in action. Surrender may cost jobs, possessions, friendships, and family peace, but it also makes believers better fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. What fills the heart, he says, will naturally shape conversation.
Using the Mary and Martha account, Odle calls listeners to prioritize time with Christ over endless activity. He compares God’s love to a father who cannot choose the child’s response, then urges daily prayer, Scripture, repentance, the filling of the Spirit, and concrete obedience. The sermon closes with a warning against dying in sin, an appeal to the fear of the Lord, prayer, and a brief building update.
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Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
- 0:00:00
Thank [music] you, Jesus. Lord, we just worship you. We thank you, God, that [music] you are a good father. We thank you, Lord, that you're faithful. Thank you, Lord. [music] Thank you, Jesus. [music] you. I [singing] love you, [music] Lord, for your mercy never [singing] fails me. [music] And all my days I've been held in [singing] your hand. I wake up [music] until I [singing] lay my head. Oh, I will sing [music] of the [singing] goodness of God. Let's sing that again. Thank you, Lord. I love you, [singing] Lord, for your mercy [singing] never fails me. [music] And all my days [singing] I've been held in your [music] hand. From the moment [singing] that I wake up until I lay my head. [music] Oh, I will sing of the goodness [singing] of God. Cuz all my life you [singing] have been faithful. [music] And all my life [singing] you have been so [music] so good. With every [singing] breath that I am, oh I [singing and music] will sing of the goodness of God. [music] I love [singing] your voice. You have led [singing] me through the fire. In darkest [music] nights, you are close [singing] like no other. [music] I've known [singing] you as a father. I've known you as a friend. [singing and music] Oh, and I have lived in the goodness of God. [music and singing] Thank you, Lord. Cuz all my life you [singing] have been [music] faithful. You've been faithful. All my [singing] life you have been so [music] so good. With every breath that I [singing] am able, oh, I will sing of the goodness [singing] of God. Your goodness, [music and singing] your goodness is running after running after me.
- 0:03:06
[music] Your [singing] goodness is running after running after me. With my life [singing] laid down, surrender it now. Give you everything. Your [singing and music] goodness is running after. It's running after me. [music] Thank you, Jesus. [singing] Cuz all my life you have been faithful. You've [singing] been faithful. And all my life you have been so [music] so good. And every breath that I am able, [music] oh I [singing] will sing of the goodness of God. Thank you, Jesus. [music] You know, not [singing] everybody has had a a wonderful father like Johnny said, but but Lord, [music and singing] you have been faithful. You've been a faithful father. And Lord, we can [music] look back on our life at all your faithfulness and your goodness. And Lord, we [singing and music] just praise you today, Lord. We thank you, God. We thank you, Lord, that you're a perfect father. [music] Let's sing that again. All my life [music] cuz all my [singing] life you have been faithful. [music] Yes, Lord. And all my life [singing] you have been so so good. With every breath that I [singing] am able. Oh, I will [music] sing of the goodness [singing] of God. [music] Oh, I will sing of the [singing] goodness of God. Oh, I will sing of the [music and singing] goodness of God. Thank you, Jesus. [music] Thank you, Lord. [music] Thank you. Thank you, Jesus. [music] Thank you. [music] Blessed be your holy name, Lord Jesus. Father in heaven, thank you Lord. [singing and music] Thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for your mercies [music] Lord. [music] Thank you, Jesus. [music] You know, I had a good dad in life. I I just thank God that that he allowed me to have [music] a a good dad.
- 0:06:15
And dad [singing] didn't tell me he loved me a whole lot, but he did. [music] But the one thing about my dad, I knew that he loved me. And that's the thing that we can know about our father in heaven. We can know that he loves us. [music] He cares for us. And the things that concern us [music] concern him because he loves us. He loves us. [music] [music] Thank you Jesus. [music] [music] Thank you, Lord. [music] Let's just honor the presence of the Lord here to today, this [music and singing] morning. Let's just honor the Lord this morning. He's worthy of our honor. [music] He's worthy of our praise. I think we're going to do our fourth [music] song next. [music] This song is has been special to [music] me over the years because the Lord has kind of brought this song back to my mind and he's brought it back and back [music] and it talks about being in his presence. The Lord [music] has taught me. He's taught me the importance of his presence. [music] It's important to seek the Lord and to seek his presence and his power. It's important [music] because that's what he wants. That's what he desires. He desires us. [music] Thank you, Jesus. And we just want to be with our father this morning. [music] You know, [music] sometimes I just wanted to I wanted to be with my dad. I just wanted to be with dad [music] a lot of times. Most of the time, all the time, I just want to be with my father because he [music] knows best and he loves us. just want to be with our father this morning. [music] And he's worthy of a day. Yes. Amen.
- 0:09:16
And he's worthy of our heart. [music] And he's worthy of any little bit of amount of praise that [music] we decide to give him. [music] [music] In and out of situations [music] took a [singing] war at me. [music] All [singing] day long I struggle [music] with answers that I [singing] need. But when I come into his [music and singing] presence, all [singing] my questions become clean. [music] [singing] And for that sacred [music] moment, [singing] [music] no doubt can interfere [music] in [singing] the praise [music] [singing] of Jehovah, [music] God [singing and music] Almighty. Mighty Prince of [music and singing] Peace, Trles, [singing] [music] Hearts [singing] are [music] in [singing] the praising. [music] all the [singing] kings. Through [music] his love, the Lord provides [music] a place for us [singing] to [music] a place to [singing] find the answers. in the hour [singing] of distress. [music] No, there's [music and singing] never any reason for you [singing] to give up in despair. [music] Just slip [singing] away and breathe [music] his name. He [singing] will surely meet you. There
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Read and search the complete transcriptThe overview attributes doctrinal interpretations and disputed assertions to Pastor Dean Odle. Inclusion does not constitute independent verification.