SPEAKER_00: You're listening to this week's edition of the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is Adam and Eve having disappointed their heavenly father being locked out of the garden.
SPEAKER_01: And the separation from their father and the whole point from Genesis to Revelation has one thing.
SPEAKER_01: One message.
SPEAKER_01: It is the father.
SPEAKER_01: It's the restoration of the father's heart.
SPEAKER_01: For us, it's his children, and he took his most precious possession.
SPEAKER_00: At the road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on the road, visit the road.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I am uh very honored today to be able to give the word.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, let me say this: um, there's probably not a Sunday of the year that I would um prefer to give uh a message on.
SPEAKER_01: Father's Day for me is a very uh very special day, not just because I am a father, but um I just feel like that this is one of my life messages.
SPEAKER_01: And many of you who you know know that we have a worship school, a lot of uh what I share about uh worshiping God comes from this very subject, the subject of God and the heart that he has as our Father.
SPEAKER_01: But I will say this for many of you, when Father's Day comes around, it's not a pleasant day.
SPEAKER_01: I know that there are many people in this room, under the sound of my voice, that the issue of and the relationship maybe that you grew up with of your earthly father can cause kind of a whirlwind or a uh a roller coaster of emotions.
SPEAKER_01: Because how many know that this is true?
SPEAKER_01: That um God is our father and loves us very much.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand if you agree with that, believe it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We know that that's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, that's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're gonna talk about is the gospel, but in a little bit different form.
SPEAKER_01: But I know also that many of you dread this day.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe after this, even the event that you're gonna go to, a barbecue or something, and you walk into the house and you automatically know the tension that's there.
SPEAKER_01: You know that you're gonna see this family member and that family member.
SPEAKER_01: And have you ever walked into a room and you can just feel the tension?
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like you can cut it with a knife.
SPEAKER_01: It's just lingering there.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing, and I hope by the end of this message, perhaps you can have a little bit different perspective.
SPEAKER_01: So is it okay if I talk about the gospel this this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Is it okay with everybody?
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is all about the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: But if we were to look at the original state of the gospel, I'm gonna backpedal quite a bit, in fact, all the way to the beginning, and what I want to talk to you about the gospel is this a garden called paradise.
SPEAKER_01: And the garden that is called paradise was kind of its own ecosystem that we can whittle it down and say this is in its elementary form what the gospel is all about.
SPEAKER_01: And what is the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: What is this relationship that we have with God all about?
SPEAKER_01: It was a man and it was a woman in a garden called paradise with their father.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he used to walk in the cool of the day and he would talk to them, and he would commune with them, and he would teach them things.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, uh, not very long, you know, after Adam B was there, he had all the animals pass through and he named all the animals.
SPEAKER_01: Um think about the intellect that it took.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing about the gospel, and here's the thing about this elementary form of God's plan for humanity.
SPEAKER_01: God has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say God has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing Satan, always in response to God's plan, has a scheme.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought about this?
SPEAKER_01: Adam and Eve in the garden, did they have belly buttons or did they not?
SPEAKER_01: No, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think they did.
SPEAKER_01: Because they had no earthly father, who did they have instead?
SPEAKER_01: A heavenly father.
SPEAKER_01: So God's plan and the gospel in its most elementary form is this God wants, longs for, desires to be your father.
SPEAKER_01: But Satan also had a scheme, and here's what I believe that the scheme was.
SPEAKER_01: Here in the garden called Paradise, we have a tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: We have a tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: Think about this.
SPEAKER_01: Satan's scheme was we're going to get you to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and disobey God.
SPEAKER_01: And then at the same time that you're in this garden, this kind of ecosystem where God had placed them, you're going to disobey God, be separated from God, but then at the same time still have rights to the tree of life and eat of its fruit and live forever.
SPEAKER_01: And the devil would be in this garden with humanity stirring up nothing but chaos, and he would have a playground in which to just devise schemes and just ridicule and uh just have this playground of destruction forever.
SPEAKER_01: But God did something that Satan never dreamed that he would do.
SPEAKER_01: Whereas Adam and Eve were off over here hiding themselves with leaves, trying to cover up their sin, the same animals that Adam named.
SPEAKER_01: Think about this.
SPEAKER_01: There was no death whatsoever up until that point.
SPEAKER_01: Adam had never taken a piece of meat.
SPEAKER_01: He had never killed and tasted blood.
SPEAKER_01: All he had eaten was fruits, vegetables, and off the goods of the land.
SPEAKER_01: God comes along, his heavenly father comes along, takes an animal, and sacrifices to show him you sinned, you did evil, and are separated now, but I'm going to show you the way back.
SPEAKER_01: It causes, it's the only way for you to be to restore to relationship with me is by the shedding of innocent blood.
SPEAKER_01: We're not told what animal that God sacrificed to make a sacrifice for them, but I believe it was a lamb.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good possibility that it was.
SPEAKER_01: He takes off the leaves, off their uh attempt to cover themselves, puts on them the skin of the animal, covers them up properly, but then Satan did not see this one coming.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of keeping them in the garden to eat of the tree of life and just live in separation and in bewilderment, he takes and he posts two flaming swords with angels at the at the door of the uh the garden and says, You can no longer go here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I would really like to see those angels with the flaming sword.
SPEAKER_01: Someday I think we will.
SPEAKER_01: But he casts them out, and this is where the gospel begins.
SPEAKER_01: This is where the story of redemption really begins.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what it is we all need a father.
SPEAKER_01: Can we say that together?
SPEAKER_01: We all need a father.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't quite understand this message and its uh importance until about four years ago.
SPEAKER_01: About four years ago, I got a phone call, and my dad, who had been battling cancer, uh, went from bad to worse.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, he had had four bouts with cancer, uh, he beat three of them, and then uh on this fourth bout over the course of about 16 years went to his bones, and uh they basically said that uh that he it was getting close.
SPEAKER_01: He was he was not doing very well.
SPEAKER_01: He was a man of faith, he was a pastor for 54 years, raised three preachers, uh both my brothers are pastors.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a pastor, so I grew up in a ministry home.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing about my father I have heard him over the years tell stories about his father's demeanor.
SPEAKER_01: His father was an alcoholic for many years.
SPEAKER_01: He was very vicious, he was very degrading, to the point I've heard my father get up and preach sermons about this relationship, strained relationship that he had.
SPEAKER_01: And he said his dad would look at him and stick his finger in his nose and say, You are stupid and will never amount to anything.
SPEAKER_01: He said, To this day, he I would still get a chill up his spine as he thought about those remarks.
SPEAKER_01: And just he said, I've never felt so small and so insignificant and worthless in my life as when my dad told me those degrading things.
SPEAKER_01: He went on to say, oh, through the years, he said this, he said, I cannot remember a kind word my father ever spoke to me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, on his deathbed, just as his dad passed, his mom turned and looked at him and said, Did your dad ever tell you that he loved you?
SPEAKER_01: And my dad said, No, not one time has he ever spoke love to me.
SPEAKER_01: If you knew my father, though, if if if you had met him, you would say, Brian, how in the world did such a loving, such a righteous and holy man who loved his family, who preached the God, how is it that he ended up being such a loving man and came out from under this abusive situation?
SPEAKER_01: I was speaking at a church in uh the Dallas area, and I had a pastor friend.
SPEAKER_01: Um, this was about Father's Day four years ago.
SPEAKER_01: My dad had not passed yet.
SPEAKER_01: But we were on our way uh out to eat from the uh the service, and he told me this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Brian, he said, I heard your your dad is sick.
SPEAKER_01: He said, uh, my dad passed a few years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, the only way I can describe to you um how I felt when that time came, is he said, it was like I was standing in a in a big house, like my house, and whereas I always felt safe and secure in this house, it was as if the roof had been ripped off the house, and I was standing there naked and vulnerable and felt no covering and no protection.
SPEAKER_01: He said it was it was in an odd way, that's the only way I can describe when my dad passed from this life to the next.
SPEAKER_01: I have never felt so vulnerable and uncovered.
SPEAKER_01: He was a godly man as well.
SPEAKER_01: In August of that same year, I got a phone call, and my mom told uh all of us boys to go home because it was about that time.
SPEAKER_01: Um I already been prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Um I just really felt like the Lord was it was his appointed time.
SPEAKER_01: And um he had always prayed, had faith.
SPEAKER_01: But how many know that there is a moment, there is a date on the calendar with our name on it.
SPEAKER_01: God only knows the appointed time, and I believe this was the moment for my father.
SPEAKER_01: So we all gathered round, and uh before long he had breathed his last, we uh cried.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and everything that that pastor told me about standing in that house and being uncovered, I felt in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it was a weird time because actually, when my dad passed, we had to get on a plane, all three, all our entire family, 18 of us, come over here to Colorado.
SPEAKER_01: We actually had a wedding to attend in Pueblo, and my nephew and niece-in-law got married, and you can imagine just how difficult it was a week after my dad passed, having to be at the dance and at this joyous occasion, and man, I I didn't even know how to respond.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we were all just like basket cases almost.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was just such a whirlwind of emotions, and I didn't even know how to feel.
SPEAKER_01: But one morning I got up early, it's about 4:30, 5 in the morning, sun was just coming up over the horizon, and I got in my rental car and I began to drive, and I found this overlook, and it was a beautiful scene, and I pulled up and I just had this moment with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, God, I said, I don't know how to feel.
SPEAKER_01: I said, My hero is gone.
SPEAKER_01: I have never felt so vulnerable and so uncovered.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Lord spoke to me.
SPEAKER_01: My heavenly father spoke to me as clear as day, and he said, This he said, Brian, you've heard the story of your father and his dad.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Who do you think fathered your father?
SPEAKER_01: And I'd never thought about it before.
SPEAKER_01: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is Adam and Eve having disappointed their heavenly father, being locked out of the garden, and the separation from their father, and the whole point from Genesis to Revelation has one theme, one message.
SPEAKER_01: It is a father in heaven longing to be with his children.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: It's the restoration of the Father's heart for us as his children.
SPEAKER_01: And he took his most precious possession.
SPEAKER_01: What did it take?
SPEAKER_01: What did it cost him?
SPEAKER_01: It was God, our Father, making the sacrifice and saying, I'm gonna give my most precious son and send him to die a murderer's death so that I can be with my children again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting there in the car looking at this beautiful scene, and the Lord says, Who was your father's daddy?
SPEAKER_01: Who do you think took care of him when his father was so ruthless and so mean?
SPEAKER_01: He said, I've been there for your father.
SPEAKER_01: And then he said something I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Brian, from this day forward, just as I was your dad's father, I will be yours now.
SPEAKER_01: And everything shifted.
SPEAKER_01: Everything in my life shifted at that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Because we talk about Jesus and we talk about the Holy Spirit, and we talk about the moving of the Spirit, and God's presence come.
SPEAKER_01: You know who we're talking about most of the time?
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the cross, we're talking about his son, we're talking about the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: When you start talking about the Father, people tense up.
SPEAKER_01: People get real nervous about this relationship of a father.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of times we look back at our earthly father experience and we say, it wasn't very good.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know how I don't even know how to come at God as a father to me.
SPEAKER_01: Because all I've known is betrayal, all I've known is degrading and abuse, and all I've known is just, and maybe you had a good father.
SPEAKER_01: But I know that across this room, many of us, this is a tough day.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna give you six points, and these are traits of a good father.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this verse, John 14, it says this don't let your heart be troubled.
SPEAKER_01: Trust in God and trust also in me.
SPEAKER_01: There is more than enough room in my father's home.
SPEAKER_01: If this were not so, I would have told you, and I am going to prepare a place for you.
SPEAKER_01: When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
SPEAKER_01: And you know the way is where I'm going.
SPEAKER_01: No, we do not know, Lord, Thomas said.
SPEAKER_01: We have no idea where you're going.
SPEAKER_01: So how can we know the way?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus told them, I am the way.
SPEAKER_01: I am the truth and the life.
SPEAKER_01: No one comes to who?
SPEAKER_01: The Father.
SPEAKER_01: What's the point?
SPEAKER_01: What is the whole point of this thing?
SPEAKER_01: What are we here to do?
SPEAKER_01: I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life.
SPEAKER_01: The only way to get to the Father is by me.
SPEAKER_01: If you had known me, you would know who my father is.
SPEAKER_01: From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
SPEAKER_01: Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and we'll be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus replied, Have I been with you?
SPEAKER_01: Let me stop right here.
SPEAKER_01: This message is just as relevant right now in this moment of fatherlessness in this nation and across the world than it ever has been.
SPEAKER_01: He said this.
SPEAKER_01: You've been in church your whole life and didn't haven't discovered the whole point of it all?
SPEAKER_01: Have you been here all this time and yet you still do not know who I am?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
SPEAKER_01: So why are you asking me to show them to you?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is me?
SPEAKER_01: The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does this work through me.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, I just ask you right now, the remainder of this message, would you help a revelation to come?
SPEAKER_01: That perhaps people in this room that have been serving God their whole life, like me, grew up in a pastor's home, was around church all the time, didn't discover the whole reason for it all.
SPEAKER_01: God, would you help it to come alive?
SPEAKER_01: Would you help us to connect with you, to maybe meet you for the first time, and the goodness, this good, good father that you are and how much you love us.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Traits of a good father, these are just six things.
SPEAKER_01: You can jot these down if you want, or just listen.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, a good father is around and not absent.
SPEAKER_01: A good father is around and not absent.
SPEAKER_01: And then I put in parentheses in presence or in mind.
SPEAKER_01: When I first got married, I was quite the workaholic.
SPEAKER_01: I was in ministry on staff at my father's church, um, working 70, 80 hours for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Um, very out of balance.
SPEAKER_01: I learned really quick that that wasn't gonna fly with my wife.
SPEAKER_01: She would meet me.
SPEAKER_01: At the door, and I'd walk in, and she would come over and she would grab me by the shoulders and she would shake me and she would say, Are you gonna be home tonight?
SPEAKER_01: It's like I'm here right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm home.
SPEAKER_01: And then she'd grab me and shake me again.
SPEAKER_01: She'd said, Are you gonna be home tonight?
SPEAKER_01: And I realized what she was talking about.
SPEAKER_01: That it is very possible to live under the same roof, but actually be absent.
SPEAKER_01: To not be present.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing about our Heavenly Father and us Fathers, we need to grow in this.
SPEAKER_01: Learn how to shut it off.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that I'm driving in my car?
SPEAKER_01: It takes me three seconds.
SPEAKER_01: I'm driving in my car, turn on a song or not turn on a song, but I all of a sudden will take and turn my attention.
SPEAKER_01: God, I need you.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I I love you.
SPEAKER_01: I just turn my heart towards you.
SPEAKER_01: And in the very moment that I that I focus my attention on him, he's he it's not like he has to go, you know, kind of come in from some distant place.
SPEAKER_01: No, he comes, he's right there, he leans right in.
SPEAKER_01: Our father is constantly, constantly waiting, longing.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I wonder sometimes if he longs to be with us, and we literally ignore him.
SPEAKER_01: If he look, can you imagine if he has things that he wants to show you about himself, if he has things that he wants to unveil to you, but the only reason that we miss it is because we're not engaged.
SPEAKER_01: This is the good father that we have.
SPEAKER_01: He's constantly there, he's constantly in tune, he's constantly available.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, a good father speaks and leads his children.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it says, John 10, verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: It says, My sheep hear my voice.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, can we say this verse together?
SPEAKER_01: Say it together.
SPEAKER_01: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
SPEAKER_01: You know that there are whole slews of people that I've talked to that that would say, I don't think I've ever actually heard God's voice.
SPEAKER_01: I used to think that sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Like, is that really God speaking to me?
SPEAKER_01: And then I began to discover that if you will give him your this this is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Draw nigh unto me, and I will draw nigh unto you.
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: Who is it that draws nigh first?
SPEAKER_01: Draw nigh unto me, and when we incline our ear to hear his voice, he will come and he will meet with us and he will speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: And we can learn, literally, when God speaks to me, he spoke to me this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I woke up, and the first thing he said to me was, the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon you, and I've anointed you to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he told me this morning.
SPEAKER_01: My heavenly Father, just as clear as day.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's like picking up the phone.
SPEAKER_01: My wife doesn't have to say, Hey, it's me.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's her.
SPEAKER_01: I know her voice.
SPEAKER_01: I recognize her voice, and that's how the voice of our father should be.
SPEAKER_01: Number three is this a good father disciplines his children in love.
SPEAKER_01: A good father disciplines his children in love.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this verse, Hebrews 12.
SPEAKER_01: And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_01: My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, or lose heart when he rebukes you.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastises everyone he receives as a son.
SPEAKER_01: Endure suffering as discipline.
SPEAKER_01: God is treating you as sons.
SPEAKER_01: For what son is not disciplined by his father?
SPEAKER_01: So here's the question How long has it been since you have allowed your heavenly father to discipline you?
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I teach in the school of worship and have taught all over the world, really, is David's heart cry that I believe was what set him apart and made him a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_01: He made this statement Search me, O God, and know my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine a man, like in a police car when they search you or frisk you, making himself vulnerable and putting himself up on the wall and saying, Okay, God, come here, search me.
SPEAKER_01: What is there that's evil in me that I don't see?
SPEAKER_01: Have you done that?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever actually trusted your heavenly father enough to say, here I am, wide open?
SPEAKER_01: There's times that there's times that I like to pray that prayer, and then there's other times that I'm afraid to pray that prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what the scripture says.
SPEAKER_01: Do we really think that it's out of hatred or your misfortune?
SPEAKER_01: Or he's leading you somewhere that's bad?
SPEAKER_01: Or do we trust our Heavenly Father that He is leading us somewhere that is good, that He wants the best for us, that when we hear His voice and we ask Him to search us and we ask Him to discipline us and we ask Him to change us, that He's gonna do it for our own good and for the good of our family and our future generations, even.
SPEAKER_01: He only speaks the truth in love.
SPEAKER_01: And that's that's been the problem in the church, hasn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We've either had one or the other.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says to speak the truth in love that you may grow up.
SPEAKER_01: Be mature.
SPEAKER_01: We've either had people speak the truth, but there's no love in it.
SPEAKER_01: Just stop doing that.
SPEAKER_01: Or we've had people that love you but don't tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Like people that should never be behind a microphone singing.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever seen American Idol?
SPEAKER_01: And some of those people who come in and their mama has told them how great they are.
SPEAKER_01: They've never been spoken the truth.
SPEAKER_01: They've just been loved.
SPEAKER_01: That's all.
SPEAKER_01: And Simon will just, I mean, just completely mortify him.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what we need.
SPEAKER_01: We need to incline our ear to hear his voice and so that he can change us and tell us the truth, what we need, so that we can turn from our wicked ways that we all have.
SPEAKER_01: Number four, God the Father loves at all times.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna hit a whole lot on this, but let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord appears to us in the past saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say, everlasting love.
SPEAKER_01: It's an everlasting love.
SPEAKER_01: I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's let's take that just a step further.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it says I am the Lord and I change not.
SPEAKER_01: When I began to understand God's incredible love for me, I I because I'm such a knucklehead, and because I have a hard time grasping things and I'm hard-headed, I have to ask the Lord his help for his help.
SPEAKER_01: So I was at the foot of my bed and I just told the Lord, I said, God, how much do you love me?
SPEAKER_01: Teach me to understand your love.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I really want to get it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sitting there and my mind wandered, and all of a sudden I was thinking about when I was 18 years old, and my friends took the preacher's kid out to get drunk, and they gave me these things called shots that I had never had in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I took one shot, I took three shots, I took over 12 shots.
SPEAKER_01: You guys have never done that though, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01: About shot number six, I don't remember anything, except that my friends told me they took me to the to my house, threw me on my bed in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_01: I rolled over, barfed all over my room.
SPEAKER_01: My mom woke up, I mean, woke up the next morning and had to shake me awake, and I was just about, I mean, still out of it.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm there.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, how much do you love me?
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm thinking, why did I let my mind wander again?
SPEAKER_01: You know, in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, forgive me for thinking about that.
SPEAKER_01: I said, no, seriously, how much do you love me?
SPEAKER_01: And then I thought about a day uh and a couple years back that I had fasted for 40 days.
SPEAKER_01: That's a long time not to eat.
SPEAKER_01: And if there was ever a time that me and God were tight, I mean, we were like, I was, I was there, I was as righteous as could be, was on day 40 of that fast, and then God said something that absolutely shocked me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Brian, don't you realize I loved you the same on both those days?
SPEAKER_01: Day 40 of your fast and when you were lying in your own filth.
SPEAKER_01: He said, My love for you never changed, but your perception of my love changed because of your performance.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What if my love supersedes all of that?
SPEAKER_01: And I have made a decision, I have chosen you to love you.
SPEAKER_01: I first loved you before you even knew what love was.
SPEAKER_01: That is the Father's love.
SPEAKER_01: It says, I change not.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, a God, a good father chose you to be in his house.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning you have refrigerator rights.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that my son never asked me permission to go get whatever he wants out of the refrigerator?
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he'll go stand in front of the refrigerator and look for the 15th time at the same items and for something to eat, and he just doesn't even ask.
SPEAKER_01: He just helps himself, and he's eating us out of house and home.
SPEAKER_01: He's 19 and he eats constantly, and I love it.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: I love to provide for his needs.
SPEAKER_01: Why do we live as orphans in a house that belongs to us?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that we live live so far below how he actually feels about us?
SPEAKER_01: But we just think we're so unworthy.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, because of his sacrifice, he has paid the price for us to have every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Live like it.
SPEAKER_01: Live like the price that he's paid for you to live.
SPEAKER_01: I could give you a bunch of scriptures on that.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just read one.
SPEAKER_01: For he chose us to be in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
SPEAKER_01: You guys learning anything today?
SPEAKER_01: It's okay?
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Number six, my final point is this a good father gives good gifts to his children.
SPEAKER_01: Gives good gifts to his kids.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Luke 5, 53 says.
SPEAKER_01: Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a scorpion?
SPEAKER_01: If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say more.
SPEAKER_01: How much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him?
SPEAKER_01: Rick was born in 1962 to Dick and Judy Hoyt.
SPEAKER_01: As a result of oxygen deprivation to Rick's brain at the time of his birth, Rick was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy.
SPEAKER_01: Dick and Judy were advised to institutionalize Rick because there was no chance of him ever recovering, and little hope for Rick to live a normal life.
SPEAKER_01: This was just the beginning of Dick and Judy's quest for Rick's inclusion in community, sports, education, and one day, the workplace.
SPEAKER_01: Dick and Judy realized that though Rick couldn't speak or walk, he was quite astute and his eyes would follow them around the room.
SPEAKER_01: They fought to integrate Rick into the public school system, pushing administrators to see beyond Rick's physical limitations.
SPEAKER_01: Dick and Judy would take Rick sledding and swimming and even taught him the alphabet and basic words like any other child.
SPEAKER_01: After providing concrete evidence of Rick's intellect and ability to learn like everyone else, Dick and Judy needed to find a way to help Rick communicate for himself.
SPEAKER_01: So with$5,000 in 1972, a skilled group of engineers from Tufts University developed an interactive computer for Rick.
SPEAKER_01: This computer consisted of a cursor being used to highlight every letter of the alphabet.
SPEAKER_01: Once the letter Rick wanted was highlighted, he would be able to select it with a tap against the headpiece on his wheelchair.
SPEAKER_01: When the computer was originally first brought home, Rick surprised everyone by not saying hello mom or hello dad.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he said, Go Bruins.
SPEAKER_01: He was quite aware that they were in the Stanley Cup and was cheering for them that season.
SPEAKER_01: It was clear from that moment on that Rick loved sports like everyone else.
SPEAKER_01: In 1975, at the age of 13, Rick was finally admitted into public school.
SPEAKER_01: After high school, Rick attended Boston University and he graduated with a degree in special education in 1993.
SPEAKER_01: Dick retired in 1995 as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard after serving his country for 37 years.
SPEAKER_01: In the spring of 1977, Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident.
SPEAKER_01: Far from a long-distance runner, Dick agreed to train and also to push Rick in his wheelchair, and they finished all five miles, coming in next to last.
SPEAKER_01: That night, for the first time, Rick told his father, When I'm running with you, it's the first time I don't feel handicapped.
SPEAKER_01: Rick was asked in an interview.
SPEAKER_01: He was asked the question, he said, if you could give your father one thing, what would you give him?
SPEAKER_01: Rick responded, he said, the thing I'd most like is that just once my dad could sit in the chair and I could push him during the race.
SPEAKER_01: I have taught worship for 20 years.
SPEAKER_01: I am not sure that I have heard a better definition of what worship is than that.
SPEAKER_01: Us coming before God and saying, I see who you are and your great love, and I wish that I could give back.
SPEAKER_01: I wish that I could just honor you and serve you and love you and spend my life for you and the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road.