SPEAKER_00: All right, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all hear me?
SPEAKER_00: Let me get this wire out the way.
SPEAKER_00: It is good to be here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of all over the place this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering why I'm wearing a work uniform, no, it's not some kind of sermon illustration.
SPEAKER_00: I uh it's not anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: I literally just came straight from work to be here.
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, I have to leave here and go back to work.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh, sad, ain't it?
SPEAKER_00: All y'all other fathers get to enjoy your day.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta I gotta go back to work.
SPEAKER_00: But it is good to be here anyway.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate the worship team, just a tremendous job this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Take your Bibles, turn to 1 Samuel chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: And uh anyway, I don't know if I said this or not yet, but happy Father's Day to all of our fathers.
SPEAKER_00: We are so thankful for you.
SPEAKER_00: We're glad that you're with us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and being that it's Father's Day, I want to give a I want to I want to put some special attention and focus and emphasis on the men this morning, all right?
SPEAKER_00: So I want to start by looking at great men, uh, great examples of some great men in history and in the past and in the present.
SPEAKER_00: And I got a few pictures.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see if y'all know who they are.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know this is?
SPEAKER_00: Who is it?
SPEAKER_00: John Wayne, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Duke, the man, the the stereotypical man of man's, right?
SPEAKER_00: John Wayne.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Muhammad Ali, the goat, right?
SPEAKER_00: The greatest.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, iconics, just a picture of strength.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's Sonny Liston on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, it's not good.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I wouldn't categorize him up there with uh the greatest men because he's laying down.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Old Chuck, God rest his soul, Chuck Norris.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody got any good Chuck Norris jokes?
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time for that.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta go back to work.
SPEAKER_00: Uh who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Maximus, somebody got it.
SPEAKER_00: Maximus Decimus Meridius, right?
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are like, who in the world?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to explain it.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know who this is, then just don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: Um Maximus Decimus Meridius.
SPEAKER_00: And then last but not least, we have Master Bomberin.
SPEAKER_00: Super bomberin.
SPEAKER_00: With his with his pipe wrench, his black coffee, his muscles, he's ready to take on the devil and I'm all in hell.
SPEAKER_00: That's back in that's back in your prime, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Ama, you can do some fun stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not a byron, right?
SPEAKER_00: But all joking aside, we see great men, and Pastor Bine is a great man, even though he doesn't really look like that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just leave that picture up there in the whole service.
SPEAKER_00: You wanna do that?
SPEAKER_00: But but there is a search, and there is a need for great men.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you can take it down.
SPEAKER_00: It's distracting me now.
SPEAKER_00: It's distracting me.
SPEAKER_00: There is a need for great men.
SPEAKER_00: And when I say men, I don't just mean what the world says is a man.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about real men, godly men, biblical men, men that lead, men that love, men that protect, men that provide.
SPEAKER_00: There's a great need in this world for men.
SPEAKER_00: And and and your families, our world, our country, society, our communities, and our churches need some men to step up and be men.
SPEAKER_00: Be real men.
SPEAKER_00: And look, when you look at a lot of the problems in the world today, most of them, if I'll probably almost say all of them, could be traced back to the absence of a real man.
SPEAKER_00: You look at, there's a lot of hurting women, exhausted women, lonely kids, and broken homes because of the absence of real men.
SPEAKER_00: And look, as the home goes, so does society, right?
SPEAKER_00: And as men, it's our responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: God has put that upon us to lead our families and to be the men that He's called us to be.
SPEAKER_00: There's a need, there's a quest, there's a search for real men.
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, is what is a real man?
SPEAKER_00: And before I answer that, and before we get into that, first I want to look at what a real man is not.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of masculine misconceptions in the world today, right?
SPEAKER_00: The world thinks they know what a man is, and and and the world tries to define manhood as something from one extreme to the next.
SPEAKER_00: But look, a man, what a man is not, it's not how physically strong you are, which is good for me.
SPEAKER_00: It's not how physically big and strong you look, which is also good for me.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how much you can bench press.
SPEAKER_00: Even though looking at Byron, he probably can put pack on a lot.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how great of an outdoorsman you are, even though those are great things, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how many animals you have hanging on your wall or how many fish you've caught.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about uh, you know, how many guns you own or how much hair is on your chest, or how thick you drink your coffee, all right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how much money you have or how many material things you own or how big your house is or your bank account is.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical manhood is not about muscles, money, success, or power.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: It's more than that.
SPEAKER_00: And a real man, a true man, a godly man is defined when you look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You want to see what real manhood is, real biblical manhood?
SPEAKER_00: You look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He is the greatest man that ever lived, right?
SPEAKER_00: He is the perfect man, he is the pinnacle of manhood, he is he is the epitome, he is the at the mountaintop of manhood.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is our ultimate standard of what being a man is.
SPEAKER_00: And that kind of goes against what this world says in every way.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at Jesus, you see that he is gentle yet strong, he is bold yet humble, he is tender yet tough.
SPEAKER_00: He is he shows us how to lead and he shows us how to love and he shows us how to live.
SPEAKER_00: He is the perfect picture of what being a man really is.
SPEAKER_00: And before I get too deep into this, talking about manhood, look, I don't want this to be where Mother's Day we come and we butter up all the mothers, and then man, Father's Day we come and we beat up on the men, all right?
SPEAKER_00: I want to go on record and say this in front of you all before we go any farther.
SPEAKER_00: We have some great men here at Lake Church.
SPEAKER_00: And we are thankful for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you are battling things in this world that we have never even faced yet, like up until this time.
SPEAKER_00: And there's so much, so much coming against you.
SPEAKER_00: And look, I'm in the fight with you, and it's it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: There's an attack on manhood, there's an attack on our families, there's an attack on our marriages, and and and God has called us as men to be the one to stand guard, to be the watchman, to be the one to protect.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, it's hard, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's what part of being a man is you got to do hard things.
SPEAKER_00: Leading is hard.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thankful for the men that we have here.
SPEAKER_00: And and if you have a great man in your life, a husband or a father, you should thank God for them.
SPEAKER_00: If they're trying their best, you should thank God for them.
SPEAKER_00: We're not perfect, believe me.
SPEAKER_00: We will fail and we will mess up, and we will, but if you have somebody that's trying to do their best to live like Jesus and to lead you and to love their family, then you should thank God for them.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thankful for the men here at Lake Church.
SPEAKER_00: You are doing a good job.
SPEAKER_00: Let's give all the men a hand this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You are doing a good job if you are trying to lead your family in this world that's just got spiritual warfare all around.
SPEAKER_00: So, but there is a need for a man.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says here, I want to read it and then we'll dive into the context here.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says in 1 Samuel chapter 13, verse number 14, but now your kingdom shall not continue.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord has commanded him to be the prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord sought out a man after his own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And look, we're not gonna get too deep into context here.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start a study on David, and it's gonna go for a while.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna get all the context y'all want, all right?
SPEAKER_00: But just quickly, most of you probably know here that Saul, King Saul, is leading the nation of Israel right now.
SPEAKER_00: And King Saul was, if you could pick out a king, you would pick King Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Like he was, the Bible describes him as head and shoulders above everyone else, all other men.
SPEAKER_00: He was tall, dark, and handsome, right?
SPEAKER_00: If he, if you were picking a king, he would be the first-round draft pick.
SPEAKER_00: He is, he was a he looked, he looked apart.
SPEAKER_00: But we know the story.
SPEAKER_00: Saul rebelled against God.
SPEAKER_00: He did not obey God, and God rejected Paul, uh Saul, and Saul's kingdom came to an end, and God said, I'm going to search out for a man after mine own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And who did he choose?
SPEAKER_00: David.
SPEAKER_00: David, a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: God was seeking a man, not just any man, but a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And David was just a little young kid, and he he did not look like a king.
SPEAKER_00: And look, isn't it funny that when the world looked at Saul, they saw a man, and they looked at David, they saw a boy, but God saw the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: When God looked at Saul, he saw a boy trapped in a man's body, which we have a lot of those these days.
SPEAKER_00: And when he looked at David, a little ruddy shepherd boy that just carried a sling around and protected his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone else saw a boy, but God saw a man.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that tells me?
SPEAKER_00: Manhood is a heart condition.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about what you see on the outside.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you can say amen right there.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the outside, it's not what the world sees, it's what God sees within.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what God saw when he looked in the looked at David?
SPEAKER_00: He saw a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: David was not a great man because he was great.
SPEAKER_00: He was a great man because he pursued the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: He surrendered his heart to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what made David great.
SPEAKER_00: He killed giants and he ruled kingdoms and he won battles, but what made David great was the heart that God saw.
SPEAKER_00: He was a man that pursued the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, men, you will never be the man God has called you to be until you surrender your heart to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You will never be the man God has called you to be until you surrender your heart to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot stand as a man until you have first bowed before the king.
SPEAKER_00: And God is searching for men that He can make into His own image.
SPEAKER_00: That we don't have the ability to be the man that we that God has called us to be, but God can make us into that person.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to surrender your heart.
SPEAKER_00: To pursue the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And look, when we pursue the heart of God, you cannot be a man after God's own heart until you first know the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna get into studying David, the man David, but this morning I want us to look more at the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And you know there's one word that comes to mind mainly when we think about the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's you could probably you could probably say it, I believe.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with an L, it ends with an E, it's got four letters.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: When we look at the heart of God, what do we see?
SPEAKER_00: Love.
SPEAKER_00: If we're gonna be men that lead well, if we're gonna be men after God's own heart, then we have to be men that surrender our heart to God and follow God's heart and reflect the love of God's heart, because his character is love.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus chapter 34, you can, if you take notes, in Exodus chapter 34, God describes himself.
SPEAKER_00: He describes his character, he describes his heart, he describes his nature to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this in Exodus 34, verse 6, he says, The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is God speaking about himself, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and look at this, and abounding in steadfast what?
SPEAKER_00: Love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast what?
SPEAKER_00: Love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers of the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at the heart of God, you see a heart of love.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 John, John says this, 1 John 4, verse 7, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who does not love does not know God, because why?
SPEAKER_00: God is love.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that together.
SPEAKER_00: God is love.
SPEAKER_00: Love is not just something God does, it is who God is.
SPEAKER_00: His heart is love.
SPEAKER_00: And if we are gonna be men after his own heart, then we have to be men that reflect his love.
SPEAKER_00: So, fathers, I'm gonna give that to you real simple this morning.
SPEAKER_00: One main thing.
SPEAKER_00: Love your family.
SPEAKER_00: Like God loves us.
SPEAKER_00: That takes it to another level, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Because when we're called to love like God loves, you know, that brings us to two results.
SPEAKER_00: The first is we cannot do it without God.
SPEAKER_00: That's humbling.
SPEAKER_00: You can't love your family like God is calling you to love them.
SPEAKER_00: You can't love your family like God loves us without Him.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have the ability.
SPEAKER_00: And you know the second thing it brings us to is that it keeps us striving to love more.
SPEAKER_00: Because you will never reach His level of love.
SPEAKER_00: It will keep us abounding in love more and more.
SPEAKER_00: Fathers, husbands, men, leaders.
SPEAKER_00: The measure of a man is not by how much you bench press, not by how strong you are.
SPEAKER_00: The measure of a man is how well you love.
SPEAKER_00: How well you love.
SPEAKER_00: And everything else comes from that.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're called to be leaders and protectors and providers, but everything flows out of love.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, he says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this let it let all that you do be done in love.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be a man, you have to love well.
SPEAKER_00: God tells us in Ephesians 5, Paul says, love your wives like Christ loved the church, right?
SPEAKER_00: Love is the measure of a man.
SPEAKER_00: And we will all say we love, but is our love demonstrated?
SPEAKER_00: Is it revealed through our actions?
SPEAKER_00: What does true love look like?
SPEAKER_00: What does God's love look like?
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you four quick, four quick reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Check my time so I can go back to work, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Four quick, make them quick, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But if I if I extend this out, maybe I don't have to go back to work.
SPEAKER_00: So I might have to rethink about that.
SPEAKER_00: Let the Holy Spirit get in here and we might just have to stay.
SPEAKER_00: But four quick things.
SPEAKER_00: True love takes the initiative.
SPEAKER_00: God said, I'm seeking out a man after mine own heart.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: God went seeking.
SPEAKER_00: God took the initiative, God took the first step.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't go looking for God, God went looking for David.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't go looking for God.
SPEAKER_00: God came looking for you.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't get to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came down to you.
SPEAKER_00: We love him because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 4, verse number 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_00: It says, In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent, notice he is the one doing, taking action.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
SPEAKER_00: In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: God took the first step, and that's always how it works.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we have a relationship with God as our father?
SPEAKER_00: Because he initiated it.
SPEAKER_00: People say, Oh, did you find God?
SPEAKER_00: Look, we can't find him unless he's seeking us first.
SPEAKER_00: He took the first step, he made the first move.
SPEAKER_00: And you see that from Genesis to Revelation, you see, God is always as a father pursuing a relationship with us, with his creation.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve, they sinned in the garden and they went hiding.
SPEAKER_00: What did God do?
SPEAKER_00: He went looking for them, calling to them.
SPEAKER_00: And you see, all throughout the word of God, God's seeking and calling out the people.
SPEAKER_00: He's drawing Israel back.
SPEAKER_00: He's calling the people to repent.
SPEAKER_00: All the way from Genesis to Revelation, the last invitation in the Bible, let him that is thirsty come and drink.
SPEAKER_00: He is inviting us.
SPEAKER_00: He makes the first move.
SPEAKER_00: He takes the initiative.
SPEAKER_00: That's what love does.
SPEAKER_00: It does not wait, it takes the first move, makes the first move.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we as fathers and as leaders and as men are called to do when we love.
SPEAKER_00: We must take the initiative.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Christ died for the ungodly.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up, fix ourselves up, you know, and get to him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came for us when we could not get to him.
SPEAKER_00: And thank God that he did.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God that he took it upon himself to purposefully, intentionally pursue a relationship with us.
SPEAKER_00: And fathers, men, if we're gonna be men after God's own heart, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: We have to take it first step.
SPEAKER_00: To pursue our family.
SPEAKER_00: Pride and selfishness says I'm gonna wait for them just to come to me.
SPEAKER_00: Humility and love says I'm going to go to them and pursue their heart.
SPEAKER_00: Fathers, we have to constantly be pursuing the heart of our wife and the heart of our kids.
SPEAKER_00: We have to take the initiative.
SPEAKER_00: And I know, look, we're gonna fail and we're gonna get busy and we're gonna get distracted.
SPEAKER_00: But we constantly have to look at the love that the Father has for us and how he took the first step.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to pursue as the spiritual leader, it's our job to take the first step, to in to take the initiative.
SPEAKER_00: Because real love doesn't wait.
SPEAKER_00: It takes the first step.
SPEAKER_00: And you may be here and you may be at odds with your child or your son or your daughter or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying, I'm not saying you're wrong, or I'm not saying you're at fault, and I'm not saying to excuse the bad behavior or being an able or anything like that, but this is what I am saying.
SPEAKER_00: Never let your kids let me say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Never stop showing your kids that you love them.
SPEAKER_00: Always have that road, that bridge of love built between you and them.
SPEAKER_00: Because love takes the first step.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, I told you I was gonna be quick.
SPEAKER_00: True love is unconditional.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, verse 38 and 39.
SPEAKER_00: I love this verse.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For I'm sure, I'm persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor look, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, nothing can separate us.
SPEAKER_00: You from the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that comforting?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say nothing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what can separate you from the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about y'all, but I've given him countless reasons for him to stop loving me.
SPEAKER_00: I've been prideful.
SPEAKER_00: I've been selfish.
SPEAKER_00: I've been disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: I've sinned more times than I can count.
SPEAKER_00: I've given him reason after reason after reason to stop loving me, but listen, he has never loved me one ounce less than he ever has.
SPEAKER_00: Because his love is unconditional, it's perfect, it's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, God will never love you any less than he loves you right now.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: If we could grab hold of that, my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: God, some of y'all don't have anything to compare that to in your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's not hitting you like it should.
SPEAKER_00: God will never love you any less than he does right now.
SPEAKER_00: And he will never love you any more than he does right now.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he loves you with a perfect love.
SPEAKER_00: Love that never fails.
SPEAKER_00: He described it to Moses like this: it's a steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: I like that word steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: It means it's firm, it's faithful, and it's fixed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a love that's in place and it will not move.
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna fluctuate, it's not gonna diminish.
SPEAKER_00: It's a love that is fixed and faithful and it never changes.
SPEAKER_00: God loves us not based off of our actions, he loves us based off of his character, and his character never changes.
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: His love is unconditional, it's steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about y'all, but does anybody ever wake up and just have a bad day?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: And you like, maybe you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you know, so to speak, and you're just in a mood.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be elbowing your spouse in the ribs.
SPEAKER_00: You're just in a mood.
SPEAKER_00: And you in those days, I don't feel very loving.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't show my love.
SPEAKER_00: Now, my love for them may not change.
SPEAKER_00: I love them just as much as, but I don't show them love like I should.
SPEAKER_00: I don't love my wife like I should.
SPEAKER_00: I don't love my kids like I should.
SPEAKER_00: I woke up on the wrong side of the day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a bed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm grumpy, I'm having a bad day.
SPEAKER_00: I got things going on, but you know what's great?
SPEAKER_00: God never wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: He never sleeps, for one thing, and I'm pretty sure he probably don't have a bed.
SPEAKER_00: He's his he's never in a bad mood.
SPEAKER_00: He never changes, he never has an off day.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you just as much today as he ever will for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And that's something that we can praise him for.
SPEAKER_00: That in a world where love fades and diminishes and fluctuates, his love is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: His love never fails.
SPEAKER_00: It never changes.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I love about this?
SPEAKER_00: It's his acceptance of us is based on our identity, not our accomplishments.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know when Jesus was baptized, what the Father said about his son, about Jesus, he said, This is my son in whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: This is my son whom I love in whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: That was the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He never preached a sermon, he never healed the sick, he never performed a miracle, he never uh he did not go to the cross yet.
SPEAKER_00: This was before Jesus did anything.
SPEAKER_00: And the father said, I'm pleased with him and I love him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the same thing he does for you.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you not because of what you've done, he loves you because of who you are, and you are his child, you are his son, you are his daughter, and he will always love you as his own.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't love us because we are good, he loves us because we are his.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: And he always he always shows us that he loves us.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just say it.
SPEAKER_00: You have those people in your life that it drives me crazy when people say, You know I love you, do I?
SPEAKER_00: I ain't seen you.
SPEAKER_00: Hadn't heard from you.
SPEAKER_00: I went through a dark time, you wasn't there.
SPEAKER_00: How do I know you love?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're telling me.
SPEAKER_00: Words are cheap.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm thankful God doesn't just say he loves us in his word.
SPEAKER_00: He shows us he loves us.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his son to the cross to die for us.
SPEAKER_00: And every single day he gives us breath, he gives us the spirit to walk in this love.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us so much that we take for granted every day he pours out his love upon us.
SPEAKER_00: His love is unconditional.
SPEAKER_00: And fathers, listen, one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is the confidence and security that they never have to earn your love.
SPEAKER_00: And children, you should never take that for granted because some people don't have that.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a father and you've you don't doubt that they love you, you should be thankful for that.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe some of you here in this message, and maybe Father's Day in general is hard because you haven't experienced the Father's love like you should in an ideal situation.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to just let you know this morning that God loves you as your heavenly father.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you with a perfect love, a love that never fails.
SPEAKER_00: He is your father.
SPEAKER_00: And his love is unconditional.
SPEAKER_00: A love that has to be earned is not the father's kind of love.
SPEAKER_00: And we should not make our children feel like they have to earn our love.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be, you they shouldn't have to be good enough for you to love them.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to try you know, you don't have to try to be who they you want them to be for them to love.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have to love the things you love for you to love them.
SPEAKER_00: God has made us unique, made us different, and we should love them for who they are because they are our children.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, love.
SPEAKER_00: True love is selfless.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's hot in here, if it's just me, or if it's these lights.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure, but I'm about to I'm sweating.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's this uniform.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta get this thing off.
SPEAKER_00: True love is selfless.
SPEAKER_00: David, talking about David.
SPEAKER_00: What was David before he was a king?
SPEAKER_00: A shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And a shepherd was one of the most selfless, humble positions, right?
SPEAKER_00: He was selfless.
SPEAKER_00: It was a selfless love.
SPEAKER_00: And God's love for us, Jesus is our great shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: It's a selfless love.
SPEAKER_00: Where the shepherd gives his life for the sheep, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's how God loves us.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we see the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing about selfless love.
SPEAKER_00: Selfless love gives its sacrifices and it serves.
SPEAKER_00: It gives its sacrifices and it serves.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what you see when you look at God's love, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, greater man, greater love hath no man than this, and a man lay down his life for his friends.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his life.
SPEAKER_00: John 15, 13.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, right?
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5, 8, he demonstrated his love toward us.
SPEAKER_00: And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: He sacrificed, he gave his life.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but it's Christ that lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I live in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_00: He loved me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_00: True love is selfless.
SPEAKER_00: Real love always gives, gives time, gives energy, gives attention, gives forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Gives yourself to those that love.
SPEAKER_00: To those that you love.
SPEAKER_00: And probably one of the greatest pictures of selfless love, other than Jesus laying his life down on the cross, was when at the Last Supper, the night before Jesus died, around these disciples that were arguing about who was greatest.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Jesus did?
SPEAKER_00: He got a wash bucket, he got a rag, he got an apron, and the creator knelt down and washed the feet of his creation.
SPEAKER_00: What a picture of selfless love.
SPEAKER_00: The king of the universe washed the nasty, disgusting feet of mankind.
SPEAKER_00: Selfless love.
SPEAKER_00: And if Jesus would do that for them and he did that for us, who are we to have selfish love?
SPEAKER_00: Which is not real love at all, right?
SPEAKER_00: True love is selfless.
SPEAKER_00: It gives, it sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: And men, sometimes we think of sacrificing as in, you know, the ultimate sacrifice of dying for our families.
SPEAKER_00: But most of us men, we're not going to be called in this world to die for our families.
SPEAKER_00: Probably most of us won't.
SPEAKER_00: But God has called you to live for your families.
SPEAKER_00: And selfless love isn't about the big spectacle and the big moment.
SPEAKER_00: It's about the ordinary, every day, dying to yourself and loving your family in ordinary ways.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do it today because today's Father's Day, right?
SPEAKER_00: You get a break today.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't got to wash your dishes and do all that today.
SPEAKER_00: But but every other day, it's not Father's Day, we are called to serve our families, right?
SPEAKER_00: True love serves, it gives, it sacrifices, it lays down in an everyday way our life to demonstrate love.
SPEAKER_00: Because love isn't measured by what you say, it's demonstrated by what you are willing to sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Are you sacrificing for your family?
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, lastly, we'll close with this true love is everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: True love is everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: I love this verse in John 13, 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, he's about to go to the cross, to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this last phrase.
SPEAKER_00: He loved them to the what?
SPEAKER_00: End.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just skip over that like it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved to the end.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to think about what was going on, and he still loved them.
SPEAKER_00: His love did not fail through rejection and through abandonment.
SPEAKER_00: They left.
SPEAKER_00: They abandoned him.
SPEAKER_00: His love didn't fail through denial and through betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't fail through the agonizing pain of the cross when he died all alone.
SPEAKER_00: His love continued to the end because love, true love, never fails.
SPEAKER_00: Love goes all of the way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never stopped loving them.
SPEAKER_00: God's never stopped loving us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved them up to the cross and then beyond the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible tells us that God loves us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jeremiah 31, the Lord appeared to him from afar away.
SPEAKER_00: I have loved you with an everlasting love.
SPEAKER_00: His love is everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: You know, love is one of the very few things that's going to continue out through all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Faith will end when we see him in sight, right?
SPEAKER_00: Hope will end when we get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: All these things will end, but love will go on for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: The love that God has for you is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And church, men, fathers, husbands, the greatest legacy you leave behind is not your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your money, it's not your land.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest inheritance you can leave for your family is not wealth, it's love.
SPEAKER_00: Look, you can pile up a bunch of money and give it to your kids, they'll probably blow it on something.
SPEAKER_00: You can try to give them land, they'll probably kids will fight over it.
SPEAKER_00: You can try to give them possessions and it'll rust out and they might sell it.
SPEAKER_00: But the greatest thing you can leave with your kids, the greatest legacy you can leave is that they knew that you loved them to the end.
SPEAKER_00: My kids might not get much material things.
SPEAKER_00: Might get a broken down Toyota tundra and a few old guitars.
SPEAKER_00: But I hope when we get to the end of this thing, they can say that our dad left us a legacy of love.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the most important thing?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of legacy are you leaving?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of legacy are you leaving, father?
SPEAKER_00: You say maybe, maybe you're here and you say, Well, I failed, I've messed up, I'm uh, you know, I've done too much wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the Bible says about love?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 4 8, it says love, I love this, covers a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_00: You may have, you admit, you may have been a complete failure up to this point as a father, as a man, as a husband, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But if you start today in loving them as much as you can with the ability that God has given you, listen, love covers a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_00: God is not looking for perfect men.
SPEAKER_00: David wasn't perfect, right?
SPEAKER_00: But he was a man after God's own heart because he reflected the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: He surrendered his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we can have our worship team come forward.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to give a, I want us, I want to have a quick test, men, on how we measure up.
SPEAKER_00: The measure of a man comes down to love, right?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at, uh you don't have to turn there, but 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter.
SPEAKER_00: What does love look like?
SPEAKER_00: Do I have that on there?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 13?
SPEAKER_00: It says, love is patient and kind.
SPEAKER_00: Love does not envy or boast.
SPEAKER_00: It's not arrogant or rude.
SPEAKER_00: It does not, listen, insist on its own way.
SPEAKER_00: It's not irritable or resentful.
SPEAKER_00: It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Love bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things, and love never ends.
SPEAKER_00: I just read a book recently that talks about this.
SPEAKER_00: And you know the great challenge that it gave in that book?
SPEAKER_00: It said, put your name every place the word love is.
SPEAKER_00: Cut me off in traffic.
SPEAKER_00: Jared does not insist on his own way.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask Brittany sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Jared doesn't get irritable or resentful.
SPEAKER_00: How are we doing, y'all?
SPEAKER_00: Not good, are we?
SPEAKER_00: Jared does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Jared bears all things.
SPEAKER_00: He believes all things, he hopes all things.
SPEAKER_00: Jared endures all things.
SPEAKER_00: Jared, his love never ends.
SPEAKER_00: I want this all to come back to this.
SPEAKER_00: None of us men measure up to the love that God has called us to love our families with.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a sermon where you are screwing it up and you need to do better, all right?
SPEAKER_00: This is a sermon that says if you surrender your heart to Jesus, he gives you the supernatural ability to love your families as he's called you to love them.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You can't love them the way God has called you in your own strength.
SPEAKER_00: It is too high of a standard.
SPEAKER_00: You look at Jesus, his love is perfect, it's faithful, it's unconditional, it's too high of a standard.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care how great of a person you are, none of us have that ability.
SPEAKER_00: But when we surrender our heart to Jesus, he gives us the ability to love as he's called us to love.
SPEAKER_00: And the great promise that he has given us in Romans 5, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, and hope does not put us to shame because look here, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
SPEAKER_00: How do we love?
SPEAKER_00: We surrender our life to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit invades our hearts and gives us the ability to love.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say that, oh, I just can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: No, you can't do it, but the Holy Spirit can do it through you.
SPEAKER_00: You can't love.
SPEAKER_00: God can love through you if you surrender your heart to Him.
SPEAKER_00: If you seek to be a man after God's own heart, look.
SPEAKER_00: First thing you have to do is surrender to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Acknowledge that you need him, give him your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then every day surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Bow to the King and ask him to give you the ability to love.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God is still searching for a man, a man after his own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if what he sees when he looks at us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's all bow our heads, close our eyes this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And I want the Lord to do some heart business in you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to ask yourself, what does he see when he looks at me?
SPEAKER_00: Am I a man after his own heart?
SPEAKER_00: Truly, am I surrendering my heart to him?
SPEAKER_00: Am I reflecting his love?
SPEAKER_00: Am I revealing the 1 Corinthians 13 type of love?
SPEAKER_00: Your families need you, your wife needs you, your kids need you, this world needs you, this church needs you.
SPEAKER_00: Men, it's time to step up.
SPEAKER_00: Act like men.
SPEAKER_00: Let everything be done in love.
SPEAKER_00: Pour your life into the hands of the king and give him complete control.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, he will do in your life what you never could have done in your own.
SPEAKER_00: You can reflect the love of Jesus to your family.
SPEAKER_00: God sought out a man after his own heart, he's still seeking today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here this morning and you haven't surrendered your heart to Jesus, we're gonna have a time of imitation, a time where we would love to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: You can come up front and I'll pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: You can just start walking back to the back and we'll meet you in that council room back there.
SPEAKER_00: Men, women, this goes for you too.
SPEAKER_00: If God is working in your heart and you need someone to pray for you, pray with you, you need to make that decision to give your heart to Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: We would love to walk alongside of you in that and pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna pray this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sing, and let's all stand to our feet.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your love, love that we can't comprehend, the love that we can't fathom.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that every man in here this morning, Lord, will not be discouraged, but will be challenged and encouraged that if we simply bow our knee to Jesus and surrender our heart to Him, He gives us the supernatural ability to love the way you've called us.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray you would work that truth, that promise in our heart this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Help us as men to step up and lead and love our families the way you've called us to.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: As we sing in our prayers.