SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: It is good to be in the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that as you have been worshiping the Lord this morning, that you really believe those words you're singing, that God's presence is the utmost and the highest desire of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because we can get bogged down, right?
SPEAKER_01: We can get so infatuated with the other uh competitors for our affection.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That we live in a contested world, a world full of idols.
SPEAKER_01: But there's only one true God.
SPEAKER_01: The one whom we serve, the one whom we love.
SPEAKER_01: That's supposed to have our affection.
SPEAKER_01: And so I pray that if your affection is dwindling, if your affection for him is on life support, I pray that you would just seek him this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Because he delights to dwell with us, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_01: He delights to dwell with us so much.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a little early.
SPEAKER_01: I don't mean to preach quite yet, but he delights to dwell with us so much that God became a man.
SPEAKER_01: And he's inviting you in to know him, to love him, to serve him.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we are continuing through our series, I pray that you would understand that the object of your affection, the object of your worship is Christ and Him alone.
SPEAKER_01: And so would you turn with me, please, to Ephesians 6, 1 through 4?
SPEAKER_01: We'll be in uh several different passages.
SPEAKER_01: I won't ask you to turn to all of them because they'll be right there on the screen as I read them.
SPEAKER_01: As we continue through our series, whole family, as we are designed to see families that are structured in such a way that give honor and praise to God.
SPEAKER_01: We want families that are healthy.
SPEAKER_01: And as you are turning there, if you got it, say, I got it.
SPEAKER_01: And as you are seeing these words, listen to them with me.
SPEAKER_01: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
SPEAKER_01: Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy a long life on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: But, fathers, do not exasperate your children.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Bow your head for a word of prayer with me, please.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you so much for your grace.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, God, that you have invited us into a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_01: That you delight to be with us, that you delight to dwell with us.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, you say you enthrone yourself on the praises of your people.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: God, I thank you for multiplied church.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for Forrest and his family and that they have uh ventured out to plant this church and to dream of what the Lord um could do right here in Frankfurt.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful that it wasn't just them, but you have called the people with them to serve Frankfurt, to see Frankfurt be occupied with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for church planting, we thank you for the church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we thank you for pastors who are still leading, serving, caring for people in the midst of difficult marriages, in the midst of uh depression and anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: But we ask right now that as we are sometimes weighed low because of the troubles and the circumstances of life, we pray that we will hear a word from you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: That God, you would hide me behind your hand that they might see you high and lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If we grow, if we grew up without a heart connection to our fathers, we'll battle a seemingly irresistible, irresistible inclination to be disconnected from our children.
SPEAKER_01: These words were pinned by Crawford Laritz about the struggle of fatherhood, especially for those who did not have a father.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on to say, I believe the greatest relational longing that a man has or woman has, I would argue, in the need for a heart connection with his or her father.
SPEAKER_01: When that connection is gone, whether it has been severed or was never established, it launches him or her into a passionate search for love, approval, and affirmation of a dad.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women sometimes end up searching in the wrong place to fill that gap.
SPEAKER_01: Gangs, ambivalent feelings about their manhood or womanhood, searching in the world to find any way they can fill that gap through sexual conquest, anger, insecurity.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Oh, he came to meddle today.
SPEAKER_01: He came to get in our business, uncertainty, the inability to establish wholesome relationships, and a host of other challenges batter emotional security of their lives without the heart connection with a father.
SPEAKER_01: You see, these words are gripping.
SPEAKER_01: They grip our hearts, don't they?
SPEAKER_01: They draw us in.
SPEAKER_01: But words such as these are best illustrated in story form.
SPEAKER_01: There was a boy who was born in South Georgia, the product of a relationship between a chocolate man and a white woman.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, both loved him dearly, but their love for one another did not materialize.
SPEAKER_01: There was constant fighting and bickering between the mother and father of this young boy from South Georgia, not knowing his parents were not fighting about finances or fighting about the child, you know, but fighting about their own insecurities about life.
SPEAKER_01: You see, that's what happens when we fight.
SPEAKER_01: We don't fight about the actual thing we're fighting about.
SPEAKER_01: We're fighting about our own insecurities.
SPEAKER_01: And what made matters worse is this young boy's father was abusive to his mother, verbally and physically.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, for quite some time, it seemed that this young boy's experience would be violence in a shattered home.
SPEAKER_01: The love between his mother and father still never materialized.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, still to this day, there was a great wound, a great scar that has not been quite repaired.
SPEAKER_01: Their relationship did not make it.
SPEAKER_01: Life could not feel any more hopeless or joyless.
SPEAKER_01: Not only was the young boy's relationship between his mother and father fractured and severed, but his relationship with his own father never seemed to reach what he dreamed it would reach.
SPEAKER_01: His father was in and out of his life.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, at times, uh, this young boy felt abandoned and not enough.
SPEAKER_01: This young boy journeyed through life with a craving for a deep connection with his father.
SPEAKER_01: But for most of his life, that deep connection was missing.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't have the language to describe what he was feeling or what he was experiencing.
SPEAKER_01: And times the only language he had to describe it was sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: The inconsistency of his father exposed insecurities in himself.
SPEAKER_01: He wrestled with questions about his identity.
SPEAKER_01: Was he enough?
SPEAKER_01: Was there something wrong with him?
SPEAKER_01: Was he the reason his parents could never turn the corner?
SPEAKER_01: Was he the reason for his father's abusive tendencies?
SPEAKER_01: At times, the anger his father was plagued with also plagued himself.
SPEAKER_01: He constantly felt he had to prove himself and outperform everyone because he just wanted affirmation from his father.
SPEAKER_01: He just wanted his father to see him.
SPEAKER_01: His father made a lot of promises that I'll come to this football game, a love that they both share together, but he seemed to never come to one.
SPEAKER_01: And so, as this young boy grew up, life came full circle.
SPEAKER_01: His mom married a man who loves Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You would think this story is about to turn the corner, but not quite.
SPEAKER_01: His stepdad is a great man, but there is still this longing for a deep connection with his father.
SPEAKER_01: As the story continues, this boy would encounter Jesus in the lowest moment of his life.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, his worst moment became his best moment.
SPEAKER_01: A father who probably immensely struggled with his own father's skill.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe his father struggled to believe that he ever had what it took to be a father.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: This young boy still doesn't know.
SPEAKER_01: Now time has gone by, and this young boy has become a man.
SPEAKER_01: A man who is married to a beautiful woman who cherishes and adores him.
SPEAKER_01: Not only is he married, but he is a girl dad.
SPEAKER_01: He has three beautiful girls who love him simply because he is their dad.
SPEAKER_01: But life has again come full circle because he has some of the same insecurities that his father has.
SPEAKER_01: At times I doubt I can be the father God calls me to be because I did not have the father I desire.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this is the trick Satan uses for every person who has experienced father issues.
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't know who's all in the room.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know everyone's story, but if I could guess, I'm sure the statistics would show that there are several people in here who have father issues.
SPEAKER_01: Rather that father was absent, was not there at all, or it was a father who was present physically, but was checked out emotionally and mentally.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I could have given you all the reasons why Satan wants fathers out of home.
SPEAKER_01: I could have given you all the statistics of how fatherhood is still a glaring issue in our nation.
SPEAKER_01: I could have given you all the statistics about broken homes and families and the likelihood if a father is not in the home and how like the likelihood of a person graduate uh goes down, the likelihood of someone going to college goes down.
SPEAKER_01: I could go on and on, but I felt a story would resonate better.
SPEAKER_01: I felt that if you could see the struggle of my life, if you could see the struggle of a father trying to be a father when he did not have one, perhaps you would see that there is room at the table for you too.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you would see that there is your desire, your ambition for a whole family is a good and holy and righteous desire.
SPEAKER_01: And before it was ever your desire, it was God's.
SPEAKER_01: That before you ever wanted a father to love you, to care for you, to cherish you, to nourish you, there was a father looking over the balcony of heaven who created you, who actually formed you and shaped you into uh your mother's womb.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he's still making you and shaping you, that his finger is still working out some things in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so, yes, this might be the story of many in this room, but as I get to the end of this sermon, you will find that there was a greater story.
SPEAKER_01: There is a greater narrative that God is writing.
SPEAKER_01: That though you have father issues, that does not have to be the end of your story today.
SPEAKER_01: That though you have broken families and broken homes, that does not have to be the end of your story.
SPEAKER_01: That God is writing a new narrative, He's transforming and shaping and moving and molding people as to what He desires them to be.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we survey the Bible, we read all types of commands and verses tailored to fathers or parenthood.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 22, 6 says, Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old, they will not turn from it.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 13 24 records, Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 4 9 adds, Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, or let them fade from your heart as long as you live.
SPEAKER_01: And here it is, teach them to your children and to their children after them.
SPEAKER_01: And then we find the capstone verse for fathers and parents in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And it's right there in Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to turn there, just take pictures so you can refer back later.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_01: These commandments I give you today are to be on your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: So they are supposed to be in us first, parents.
SPEAKER_01: We can't give what we do not possess.
SPEAKER_01: Come on now, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Impress them on your children.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road.
SPEAKER_01: When you lie down and when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
SPEAKER_01: Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
SPEAKER_01: For those who, this is the old school, this is the old testament, right?
SPEAKER_01: But in other words, houses are to be occupied by the worship of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point.
SPEAKER_01: That our homes are to be the place where God is worshiped, where God is adored.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're a father or even a mother in the house, these verses may frighten you.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm honest, they frighten me.
SPEAKER_01: Not because I do not think these verses are robbing me or you of joy, but because in fact they do the opposite, right?
SPEAKER_01: They don't rob us of joy.
SPEAKER_01: They heeding the word of God brings joy that no one can choke out, that no person can chill away.
SPEAKER_01: But they are frightening because I find within myself an insufficiency to follow the ways of God.
SPEAKER_01: That I search within me, within my own strength, within my own might.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have what it takes.
SPEAKER_01: Can you relate to this?
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel the tension that someone would feel when they hear these words read to them?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine with me the difficulty you would experience knowing that wait a minute, this is what God calls us to.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't have what it takes within and of myself.
SPEAKER_01: That's bad news, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: That's a miserable place for us to be, but God doesn't leave us there.
SPEAKER_01: But you gotta wait till I get till we get there.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta you gotta sit in that struggle for a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna ease the tension quite yet.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to still journey together.
SPEAKER_01: Over the past few weeks, you have been discussing what a whole family looks like.
SPEAKER_01: You've you have been wrestling through what a healthy family is.
SPEAKER_01: If we're honest, all of us desire to be a part of one.
SPEAKER_01: We desire to see our families filled with joy, love, peace, kindness, self-control, you know, the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's the least we could have as Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We desire to see our homes centered on Jesus and guided by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: All of these things are good and noble desires.
SPEAKER_01: But but at least I hope that's your desire this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that this is your longing.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to venture out to say that it is, because you wouldn't be here today if that wasn't your desire.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that you're sitting in this house, in this room, in this one moment in history, it tells myself that you want your life to be a little different.
SPEAKER_01: That you don't want to live like everyone else does.
SPEAKER_01: That there was a resemblance of fright, a resemblance of struggle to see your family be what God wants it to be.
SPEAKER_01: But if it is not your desire, I pray in this moment that your desire will be altered by Jesus right now, that you would have an encounter with him, that you would understand the benefit in a healthy family.
SPEAKER_01: But some of you asking, what does a healthy family look like?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_01: Let's turn our attention to Ephesians 6, 1 through 4 again.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is writing this letter to the church at Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is a diverse community made up of Jews and Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: God has made a community that used to not exist in this city.
SPEAKER_01: And now they have a covenant with him, they have been joined to him.
SPEAKER_01: But the world around them are false worshipers.
SPEAKER_01: But God has made them true worshipers.
SPEAKER_01: And so God says, now there was a different way that you have to live.
SPEAKER_01: That now that you have encountered Jesus, you have this new identity.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 1 says they have been chosen.
SPEAKER_01: Paul goes on to say that not only have they been chosen, but they have been adopted into God's family.
SPEAKER_01: And they have been redeemed, and all of their sins have been canceled.
SPEAKER_01: I know we live in canceled culture.
SPEAKER_01: God does not counsel us, he counsels our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm so thankful for that.
SPEAKER_01: That he does not counsel you and I, but he counsels our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And they've now been accepted by God.
SPEAKER_01: They have favor with the one who created them.
SPEAKER_01: They have been invited into God's plan for the world to restore all things in and through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So from chapters one through three, Paul discusses that they have new life in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But from chapters four to six, he discusses how that new life in Christ should now impact how they live.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the primary ways their new life in Christ should impact the way that they live is in their house.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Children, obey your parents, for this is right.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it might go well with you and that you may live a long life on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Fathers, do not exasperate your children.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have time to unpack all of this.
SPEAKER_01: But what is clear is that this is what a healthy family looks like.
SPEAKER_01: This is a family that is spirit-filled.
SPEAKER_01: This is a family who honors Jesus, who honors the triune God.
SPEAKER_01: Children are honoring their parents through obedience to their parents.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the parents in the house say, Yes, please.
SPEAKER_01: Not the second time, but the first time, right?
SPEAKER_01: We've heard that.
SPEAKER_01: That we want our children to obey.
SPEAKER_01: Obedience is what God requires of us.
SPEAKER_01: We think, oh, now that I'm in Christ, I've been saved, I'm free, I'm sanctified.
SPEAKER_01: No, yes, but God requires you to obey Him.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just you have to walk in step with what He has for you.
SPEAKER_01: So children are to honor their parents through that obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason they are to honor their parents through this obedience is because it is right.
SPEAKER_01: It's right in essence.
SPEAKER_01: It's not saying, like, oh, if you do this, like, oh, then there's a reward.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's saying you just need to do it because it is the good thing to do, it is the honorable, it is the just thing to do before God, and it honors him.
SPEAKER_01: I tell my daughters all the time, you don't have to like that God has put mom and I in authority, but God is trying to teach you what authority is and that it's valuable, that it is good for you.
SPEAKER_01: And the motivation to honor your parents is that you've been given the promise.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna live a long life.
SPEAKER_01: I tell my daughter that I say, honey, you want to live a long life?
SPEAKER_01: Well, do what I tell you to do then, right?
SPEAKER_01: So we understand that there was a promise given in the Old Testament, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you honor your father and your mother, we know if you've heard any of the Ten Commandments or if the Ten Commandments is new to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01: You honor your father and your mother.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do, you will live a long life.
SPEAKER_01: Life.
SPEAKER_01: Your life will be better to obey than to disobey.
SPEAKER_01: But he says the emphasis in this passage is on fathers, but it also can imply parents as well.
SPEAKER_01: But for the moment, I want to address the fathers in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Paul tells you fathers are not to provoke their children to anger.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we are to train our children through loving discipline and teach them the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We're to teach them the ways of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul says there seems to be this inclination instead of teaching and training in a loving and honorable and caring way, we tend to pendulum swing to provoking.
SPEAKER_01: But what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to provoke?
SPEAKER_01: The language or the image used here is an overbearing disciplinarian.
SPEAKER_01: It is a father who overcorrects.
SPEAKER_01: That at every point in turn, your child can't do nothing right.
SPEAKER_01: It is constantly correcting, constantly disciplined, discipline, discipline, discipline to the point of frustrating your kid.
SPEAKER_01: That, dare I say, they don't want to be around you.
SPEAKER_01: And we can tell by their behavior.
SPEAKER_01: They should not run from us.
SPEAKER_01: But they should run to us even when they do wrong.
SPEAKER_01: But could it be that because we're so disciplinarians, I gotta make sure they obey, I gotta make sure they obey.
SPEAKER_01: That our children don't even want to relate to us.
SPEAKER_01: And if you really want to know if that's you, just when you get home, it's gonna take some courage.
SPEAKER_01: Ask your wife, do you think I'm an over-disciplinarian?
SPEAKER_01: Do you think I overcorrect our children?
SPEAKER_01: And if your kids are to the age where they can answer, ask them.
SPEAKER_01: You know, kids will tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I don't say this because I don't think we have what it takes to be the fathers or even the parents that God wants for us.
SPEAKER_01: But I say this because provoking is a real thing.
SPEAKER_01: And how do we provoke?
SPEAKER_01: Here's several ways if you're taking notes.
SPEAKER_01: We provoke our children by refusing to listen to them.
SPEAKER_01: Not only by over-discipline, but refusing to listen to them.
SPEAKER_01: That one touched me.
SPEAKER_01: We provoke our children by making promises we can't keep.
SPEAKER_01: We provoke our children by being hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: You know, saying one thing but doing another.
SPEAKER_01: Lastly, we provoke our children by our absence.
SPEAKER_01: And oh, this is the one that is felt the most in the room.
SPEAKER_01: It's absence.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by absence is we all know the feeling of absence.
SPEAKER_01: We all know the feeling of abandonment.
SPEAKER_01: We all know that feeling where someone's not there.
SPEAKER_01: All of us know that.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have been in that place.
SPEAKER_01: There is two types of absence, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's absence of by means of physically not being there, physically being present.
SPEAKER_01: They're not in the room, they're not in the house.
SPEAKER_01: But there is also the absence by being physically present while being emotionally and mentally disconnected.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to argue today that this one is the most damaging.
SPEAKER_01: When your father or your mother is in the house, but they're actually not really in the house.
SPEAKER_01: That you can see them, that you can touch them, but they're not there.
SPEAKER_01: Is that some of our houses today?
SPEAKER_01: That our children can see us, that know we're there, but they also know we're not there.
SPEAKER_01: That we're at the job even when we come home.
SPEAKER_01: I can't answer that question, but what I can say is some of us have experienced that in our life, and we're just simply doing what we've been taught.
SPEAKER_01: So much of our insecurities as fathers, as parents, or adults in general is because of the absence of our fathers in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: This is Satan's trick.
SPEAKER_01: This is why he wants fathers out of the home.
SPEAKER_01: He does not want our families to be whole.
SPEAKER_01: He does not want the generations to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: He wants homes to be destroyed, to be severed, to be ripped apart because of the heritage of faith will not be passed down to our children.
SPEAKER_01: You can look all over the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That's why God says, Hey, make a memorial.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So you can tell your kids about what God did.
SPEAKER_01: But if the father is not there, we sure can't tell God, tell the children about what God did because the father is not there to do so.
SPEAKER_01: And then the grandfather is not there to do so.
SPEAKER_01: But you see, we cannot allow our fathers the way they've treated us to dictate how we relate to our kids.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot allow our trauma of absence to diminish our pursuit of a healthy family.
SPEAKER_01: Fathers, we cannot even allow our father issues to diminish our pursuit of godly fatherhood.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot use that as an excuse this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Even though it's real, we cannot just say, Well, I didn't have a father, so that means God's not talking to me.
SPEAKER_01: My father did not measure up, so that means God has no standards for me.
SPEAKER_01: We can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: God will not allow that.
SPEAKER_01: That though we've been wounded, though we have been hurt by the absence of real, healthy families in our life, God is saying, I can restore that.
SPEAKER_01: I can redeem that if you would just give it to me, if you would just walk with me.
SPEAKER_01: Fathers, will you pursue godly fatherhood?
SPEAKER_01: Will you set the example for your house?
SPEAKER_01: As Joshua said, as for me and my house, we're gonna do what?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care about what they do over there.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Daddy, they do that.
SPEAKER_01: I uh that ain't my house.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not worried about what uh Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
SPEAKER_01: and Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Jones do over there, but in this house, in these okay to take that stand.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay to be that radical about it.
SPEAKER_01: Because fathers, we have been entrusted with a high and holy call to reflect God the Father to our children.
SPEAKER_01: That we have been entrusted with a high and holy call to reflect God the Father to our children.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm bringing this thing home.
SPEAKER_01: And if you know, I'm gonna really bring it home.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father is unlike any earthly father in the world.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father is loving and intentional, he is inviting and welcoming to all of his children.
SPEAKER_01: He only desires good for his children and ensures their body is protected.
SPEAKER_01: He is for their flourishing and prioritizes intimacy with his children.
SPEAKER_01: His father is the father that all of humanity needs.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father who teaches absent fathers how to be present.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father who heals the wounds of every person who experienced wounds from an earthly father.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father who can retain any family's story.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father who restores fractured relationships.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father who empowers any father to be the father that he never had.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father who is the father to the fatherless, as Psalm 68 said.
SPEAKER_01: Because of this father, fathers, you can be the father you desire to have.
SPEAKER_01: Because of this, Father, the fatherless can receive and experience the love of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, because I remember a long, long time ago that as John 6 3 16 says, that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall have not eternal, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: I see God, Jesus into the world.
SPEAKER_00: The Father looked at the Son and said, I know you didn't do anything wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I know you don't deserve to die.
SPEAKER_00: I know you are perfect in all your ways.
SPEAKER_00: I know you are going to have to leave glory.
SPEAKER_01: But I have sons and daughters who are lost and need to be found.
SPEAKER_01: I have people who are paralyzed by fatherlessness.
SPEAKER_01: They are people who need to experience the love of the triune God.
SPEAKER_01: The son looks at the Father and says, I'll do it, Father.
SPEAKER_01: I'll go.
SPEAKER_01: I'll leave the glory of heaven and go to the ghetto of earth.
SPEAKER_01: And they passed him from judgment hall to judgment hall.
SPEAKER_01: And they beat my Jesus with a cat of nine too.
SPEAKER_01: And they put a crown of thorns on his head.
SPEAKER_01: And they put nails in his hands.
SPEAKER_01: And they put nails in his feet.
SPEAKER_01: And on that cross, they lifted him up for all the world to see.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So we would not be recipients of God's justice, but rather we would be recipients of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: So we would have access to God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And it is because of this gospel that the fatherless can receive a father.
SPEAKER_01: It is because of this gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Fathers can be fathers, even if they didn't have one.
SPEAKER_01: It is because of this gospel that your families can be whole.
SPEAKER_01: It is because of this gospel that multiplied church can be filled with healthy, Jesus centered families.
SPEAKER_01: And so I came here with glad tidings and good news for you.
SPEAKER_01: That though you didn't have a father, that though your father failed you, that though your father didn't measure up, that though your father didn't meet the standard, there was a father in heaven that measures up, that meets every standard, that heals every broken heart, that cherishes every children, that delights in us, that sings over us, and so you have all that you have to be the father that you never have.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.