Micah Tomasella: All right, well, is this thing on? Can you guys hear me well? Good morning and happy Father's Day to all of you. My goodness, it's a tremendous blessing to be back. I've been here quite a few times, but it's been about a year. You guys are in such great hands with Mike and Sheila Carter. My goodness, Sheila's wonderful. Mike's a little rough around the edges, but once you get to know him, he's a decent guy. I'm thankful for y'all, and again, I'm thankful for this opportunity, and I'm just honored to stand here again today and to deliver God's Word It's always a blessing. It's always a treasure to be able to do that. For those of you who have not met me yet, and I haven't met you yet, I'm looking forward to that. My name is Micah Tomasella, and I serve as the Director of Advancement at Denison Ministries. Before my time at Denison Ministries, I served at a couple different churches. I was a youth pastor, a groups pastor, a connections pastor, so I know a little bit of what I'm doing right now, but forgive me, maybe I'm a little bit out of practice of coming up and preaching every Sunday.
Micah Tomasella: That's my family back there. Emily, can you hear me? Yeah, that's my family and my two daughters back there. Normally, I have a photo, but they're here, and there's glass, so you can just look back there and look at them. That's better than the photo, right? I love my wife very much. I love my two little girls very much. Olivia turns five next month, and Joanna just turned three. Being their dad, I don't know. It's the best thing I've ever been entrusted with, but it's also a daily reminder that I'm a work in progress. There are many, many people, and I'm going to point to this. There are many people in this room who are far down the road from me, who've raised kids, maybe have grandkids now, maybe have great grandkids now. There's some guys in here who aren't where I am yet, and this sermon is for everyone. Mom, dads, father figures, mother figures, kids. This sermon is for everybody, but you know what? Being a dad is a practice in patience. Before becoming a dad, I think that I had this idea of what kind of dad I would be. I didn't think I would always have the answers, but maybe I thought I would have the answers more than I feel like I do. Maybe I thought, I'm going to know exactly what to say. I'm going to, most of the time, be patient. I'm going to, most of the time respond in the right way. I don't know, maybe I do, but then you actually have kids and then you realize that you're, you still have conversations with them. You have conversations with them all the time. There's love, and quite a ways to go in your sanctification process. Yeah, there's still a few steps I got to take many, many years ahead of me, and then maybe I'll finally make it. No, I'm just kidding. That's the beauty of the journey, right? Is that there's always something new to grow in, something new to learn, a different way that God challenges you in your heart and in your life.
Micah Tomasella: And if we ever actually figured it out, I think we'd be a little bit bored. I'm thankful for the challenges, and I'm thankful for the greatest gift of being a father and being a husband.
Micah Tomasella: But one of the greatest gifts of being a dad is how much it's taught me about the heart of God, and that's what I want to focus on today. The more I love my daughters, the more amazed I am at no matter how much I love my kids, the Father's love, God's love, is infinitely greater than even that, because my love is imperfect, my love is tired, my love is distracted, and I don't always respond the way that I should, but the Heavenly Father does. And so all throughout Scripture, God reveals himself as Father, almost progressively from start to finish, culminating with sending his son Jesus as a father, sacrificing his own son. The death, burial, the resurrection of Jesus changes everything. We have a Father who has revealed himself as our Father, a Father who protects, a Father who provides, a Father who comforts, and a Father who guides. Yeah, God's good. He does a lot for us. And so I know Father's Day brings different emotions for people. For some, today is full of gratitude, it's full of joy, and it should be. For others, it's complicated. This day is full of pain, this day is full of loss, and I'm not going to give a bunch of caveats today. I'll just give this one. I understand that tension personally. I don't really think 10 years ago, if you told me that I would be delivering a sermon on Father's Day, that I would believe that person who told me that, that I would believe myself. My relationship with my father is quite complicated. I haven't seen him in a long time. My parents divorced when I was young, and when growing up, Father's Day was a tough day for me. It was a tough day for me because my relationship with my father was so frayed. And so this day has been complicated, but my goodness, I was thinking about when Dr. Turman asked me to come speak. I immediately was like, no tension, no hesitation. What a beautiful reminder that God gave me. Look what he did.
Micah Tomasella: You know, oftentimes it's a matter of perspective, and maybe that's what I want to share with you guys before I really dive into the message and we get into the scripture, is I'm going to go ahead and get this off the top, right? Just go ahead and start with this. I think oftentimes it's a matter of attitude and perspective. Growing up, and I was a kid, I mean, of course I was sad because he wasn't around, whatever it might be, because there was tension and strain in the relationship. Of course, of course I was sad, but at the same time, you grow up and you recognize and you realize oftentimes when you pray, it's not necessarily because that means God's going to immediately change the circumstance, but what it does mean is it's an opportunity for our hearts and our attitude to change. That relationship with my father is still frayed, not fixed, it's still broken. Not beyond God's redemption, but it's still broken. So that circumstance hasn't necessarily changed, but I'm a dad now. I have beautiful kids of my own, but instead, when I think about Father's Day, I think about those two little blessings in there, but I also think about the men that God strategically placed in my life that only he could do, that only he could provide, his sovereignty in that way. So now what I think about is I think about I'm the grandson of a Southern Baptist minister who's 85 years old, his name's Jerry Boyd, and he still preaches from time to time from the pulpit. He gets a lot more angry than I do, and he bangs on this thing up here. Okay, but he's got so much love in his heart. He set a good example for me growing up of what it looked like to lead, love, and serve, and follow Jesus. I also had a mentor step into my life named Clark when I was 15 years old, and he started talking to me about things that nobody had talked to me about, and he started loving on me, and teaching me about Jesus, and teaching me how to be a father and husband long before I became a father and husband. Those are the things that I think about now. It's a matter of attitude. It's a matter of perspective. So what I would say is whatever circumstance you find yourself in today, you can wake up, you can say a prayer, you can turn on that gratitude switch, and you can say, I'm grateful because of X, Y, and Z. And you can be grateful, but then also acknowledge the heaviness on the other side that, hey, maybe this situation isn't what I want it to be, but you know what? The sun is shining, we're at the lake, and God is good. And ultimately, we all share the same one perfect heavenly father. All right, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. So there's many of us who are fathers, and we feel the way that we're being the weight of fatherhood. Am I doing enough? Am I leading well? Am I pointing my family towards Jesus? But the good news today is that Scripture doesn't point us to a bunch of perfect earthly fathers. Every single guy, every single woman in Scripture is a very fallen, fallible person other than Jesus, and we still learn from them, and we still see them choose the next right faithful step despite their imperfections or the mistakes that they make. But there aren't any perfect earthly fathers. It points us towards the perfect heavenly father.
Micah Tomasella: I believe that's on purpose. So the question I want to wrestle with today is simple. What does it mean to have a father who is on our side? What does that actually mean? We all have a very similar, the same inheritance we can all choose to grab hold of. We all have that same perfect heavenly father who is on our side. So what does that mean? So we're going to be in Psalm 124 today.
Micah Tomasella: All right, it was interesting that we just heard from Psalm 124. This is Psalm 122, but this is a Psalm of David, and it's known as a part of something called the Songs of Ascents, and these were songs God's people would sing as they traveled towards Jerusalem to worship, as they went on their journey. So David, when he's singing and when he's writing this, he's looking back over all of his battles, over all of his struggles and moments where it absolutely overwhelmed him, and his conclusion is not, look how strong we were. It's not, look how perfectly we handled everything. His conclusion is, if God had not been with us, we would not be here. That's the mindset I want to put us in today. You would not be sitting here today if God had not been with you, if God had not been fighting for you, even when you didn't want him to fight for you, even when there were moments where you didn't acknowledge his presence in your life. You know, one thing I like to say, and I didn't come up with it, is whether if you acknowledge God's presence and existence doesn't make it any less true. True. It's true. He's there. He's available. He's your father. Just grab a hold of it. So we're going to jump into Psalm 124, verses 1 through 8. I'm going to be reading from the ESV. So if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive. When their anger was kindled against us, then the flood would have swept us away. The torrent would have gone over us, then over us would have gone the raging waters. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as prey to their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. I'm going to pray. Father, thank you for this opportunity. I am, eternally so thankful and grateful to be able to share from your word today. Thank you for every single person in here. God, I just pray that you would bless their hearts, bless their lives. And I pray if we walk away with anything today, we would grow in more appreciation or maybe just grow in recognition that no matter what our circumstance is right now, maybe we've lost our fathers, maybe we've lost children, maybe we didn't get to have those kids that we wanted.
Micah Tomasella: Whatever the circumstance is, ultimately, you're a good father. It teaches us how to be good fathers, how to be good mothers, how to love and to God. I pray that we'd all be able to walk out here with more recognition and gratitude for who you are and what you've done and what you continue to do, Father. In your name, I pray. Amen. All right. So that phrase is what we're building around everything today. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, then blank. I challenge you to think about that for a moment here. If the Lord had not been on my side, if the Lord had not been fighting for me, if the Lord had not been present, then where would I be? What would you be? What would be happening? What circumstance would you find yourself in? I love David's honesty here because sometimes we make it through something difficult and then we rewrite the story because we don't necessarily want to relive that difficulty. We say things like, well, it wasn't actually that bad. Well, I knew it would work out or, yeah, that was tough, but I had it under control. But David, no, no, he doesn't do that. David looks back and he essentially says to us, well, it really was that bad. The waters really were that high. The situations were overwhelming. I didn't know what I was going to do. The battle was just too much, but God. David has admitted something, admitting something to us that most of us don't naturally like to admit, whether if it's consciously or subconsciously, I was not enough. David, the king of Israel, I was not enough. Micah, Tomasella, I was not and frequently am not enough, but God. My strength wasn't enough. My wisdom wasn't enough. My ability to control the outcome just wasn't enough to control the outcome, wasn't enough to change it, but God was, and my goodness, I need that reminder today, and I think that we all do because if you're anything like me, well, you like to control. You like to plan. plan. We like to know what's next, even when we're living on lake time. Maybe we like a little bit of a plan. Maybe we want to control a few things that we just can't really control. But following Jesus constantly reminds us that we were never created to carry everything ourselves. Strong faith is not looking at life and saying, I've got this. Strong faith says, no, I don't got this, but I know who does, and I got a pretty good relationship with him, and his name is Jesus. The confidence of the Christian life is not that the waters won't rise. The confidence is knowing that who's going to stand with us when they do rise. And isn't that the picture of what a good father is? A good father doesn't convince his children, you will get nowhere. I will get nowhere when my kids, I'm in this stage right now with nightmares and monsters under the bed. I get nowhere by convincing them that there's nothing scary out there. That doesn't teach them properly. That wouldn't be true. But a good father does say, when something scary happens, I'll clear the closet out. I'll clear the monsters from underneath the bed. I'll be there. You call, I'll be there. I'll be there, and I'll be there with you. Presence, I believe, changes everything. God's presence changes everything, but when you choose to be present with the people in your life, when you choose to share some of your time, your expertise, your knowledge, your wisdom, when we choose to put our phone down and look at the person across from us, uninhibited, I believe presence can change everything. I believe presence can change everything. And if you think about it in your own journey with Jesus, if you have a personal relationship with him, I believe it's his presence that changes so much. You know it when the presence comes upon you, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And Paul gives us this beautiful picture in 1 Thessalonians 2, 11 through 12. For you know now how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom. And into his own glory. And I'm sorry, I was raised Baptist, so I'm going to give you a three-point sermon today. I just know no other way. I apologize in advance. Number one, the Father, what does he do? He encourages us. What does that empower us to do? To encourage others. Number two, what does God do? What does the Father do? He comforts us. What does that empower us to do? It empowers us to comfort. Number three, the Father guides us. What does that empower you and me to do? It empowers us. To guide. But before, these are things we give away. These are things we receive from our Heavenly Father. We're not being asked to do something that hasn't already been done for us. Isn't that beautiful? That we serve a God, that we serve a Savior that doesn't just talk the talk, but he also walks the walk. Hey, you should love, you should sacrifice. Jesus died for you. Jesus died for me, right? He sacrificed first and then said, okay, yeah, you should sacrifice too. And oftentimes, our sacrifices pale in comparison to what the Son of God did for us on the cross. So number one, the Father encourages us, okay? So Paul says a Father encourages and comes alongside. To come alongside and encourage, the word is parakaleo. It means to come alongside and encourage. And I love that picture because encouragement is not always fixing the problem. And this is probably something all men in the room are going to do. It's not always fixing the problem. It's not always fixing the problem. Sometimes encouragement is simply reminding someone you're not alone. Isn't that exactly what Psalm 124 is showing us? The waters came, but God was there. The battle still came, but God was there. The uncertainty still came, but God was there. His presence changed the circumstance. It changed everything. So when my girls are scared, they're not usually looking for me to explain every detail of the situation. They just want to know, Dad, are you there? Are you there? Are you there? Are you there? Are you there? Are you there? Are you there? Are you you with me? If we're honest, I think we're a lot more like children, like my three and five-year-old than we even like to admit. God, do you see this? God, are you paying attention? God, are you still with me? The answer throughout scripture is yes. Yes, he is. John 16, 33. In this world, you'll have tribulation, but take heart, for I have overcome the world. Notice what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't say, you won't have trouble. He tells us that we will have trouble. In fact, in other parts of scripture, we're told you'll probably have more trouble if you choose to follow me, but he also tells us to take heart because he has overcome. Put it in the blank there. Whatever the struggle is, whatever the difficulty is, whatever the insecurity is, whatever your need is, put it in that blank. Jesus says, I have overcome that. I have overcome the world.
Micah Tomasella: So, our confidence is not found in avoiding the battle. Our confidence is found in the one who fights for us and is always there. And so, as dads, what a beautiful reminder and a convicting reminder. Our families do not need us to be perfect. Whatever stage of life you find yourself in, the goal is not to be perfect. The goal is not to be perfect. The goal is not to be perfect.
Micah Tomasella: not perfection, and I know that we know that consciously, but I have a tendency to beat myself up. I forgot this. I didn't react properly there, so I hold myself to a perfect standard sometimes. I struggle to give myself the grace that God's already given me, and I struggle to give myself the grace that maybe even I'm more willing to extend to others sometimes, right? And so we all know consciously, guys, here that, no, of course I'm not perfect. I'm not called to be perfect, but how's your self-talk? How's that going? Do you hold yourself to a perfect standard, to a perfect accountability? Again, I am not encouraging us to just let it fly. Yeah, you know what? God's good. He's perfect. He's faithful. I'm not. Great. I'm just saying, extend yourself the grace that you've already been given. Cut yourself some slack sometimes, and so our kids, our grandkids, those we mentor, do not need us to have every answer. They need us to point them to the one God.
Micah Tomasella: Who does? All right, my second point here, the Father, what does He do? He comforts us. True strength and tenderness are not opposites, but the second thing that Paul shows us here is comfort, and I think this is important because I think we often misunderstand strength. We think, we sometimes think strength means not struggling, never needing help, never admitting weakness. That's not what we see in Jesus. The strongest person who ever walked the earth, I would also argue, was the most compassionate who ever walked the earth. Jesus stopped for hurting people. Jesus wept with grieving people. Jesus noticed people that no one else noticed. In fact, everyone else ignored, and so true strength and tenderness are not opposites. I think that we can hold both of those together. Actually, godly strength, I believe, creates the necessary room for that tenderness that I've talked about. Again, I'm just going to keep talking about my own experience here. I've learned with my girls, sometimes, I've learned with my girls, I've learned with my girls, my first instinct, really, I've learned with all my girls, with my wife and with my kids. I got to practice this before we ever even had kids. My first intention, my first inclination is, what's the problem and how do we solve it? What's wrong? What happened? All right, here's the answer. It doesn't always work that way. Sometimes, they don't need me to fix anything.
Micah Tomasella: Sometimes, they just need me to sit, just sit there, nod my head, hold their hand, talk to them, remind them that they're loved, and what a beautiful picture of our heavenly father that that is. Psalm 124, verse 6 says, God, see, he's a rescuer, a father who moves towards his children, a father who doesn't slink back, hang back, and wait for us to do all of it. He moves toward us. Maybe someone needs that reminder today. I sure do. God has not forgotten you. God has not abandoned you. You might not understand the season you're walking through, but you might not have the answer just yet. But the father is with you. The waters may rise, but no matter how high those waters rise, that does not have the final word. God does. Number three, the father, well, he guides us. A good father walks with us. He leads us. He guides us. So, a loving father does not simply leave his children where they are. A good father walks with them and teaches them and prepares them. So, a loving father does not simply leave his children where they are. A good what is ahead, and that is a long process. That is not done in one sitting, one conversation, one moment. That looks like showing up over and over and over again, and you prove it. That's what our Heavenly Father does for us, and that's what we have the opportunity to do, as He did it first. And isn't that exactly what God does? Like I said, He does not just rescue us from the waters in Psalm 124 and then leave us on our own. No, we get to take it, and I get to have a third point to this sermon and say, He guides us. The same Father who saves us is the Father who leads us, who guides us. I think about the story of Paul and Onesimus. I know we don't talk about Onesimus very much, do we? Paul and Onesimus in the book of Philemon. We don't preach out of the book of Philemon very often, right? But I'm just going to give you a quick synopsis. Onesimus had a complicated story. He had a broken past, things he probably regretted, but Jesus changed his life. He changed his life. He changed his life. He changed his life. He changed his life. He changed his identity, and Paul used him for that. Paul doesn't define him by who he used to be. He points him towards who he is becoming, and that is what God does for us. He sees beyond our past. He sees beyond our circumstances. He sees beyond our mistakes. I want to say this specifically to those who are a little bit further down the road than I am. Your assignment's not over. Your wisdom matters. Your faithfulness matters. Your presence matters. Your prayers matter. The generation behind you, the generations behind you, need you. Need you to be active. Need you to be engaged. Not to have the right answers. Not to do it perfectly, but to be faithful. There's a lot of wisdom to glean from the life that's been lived. Don't tuck your tail. Don't say it's over for me. Don't hide out in the house. Get out there. Remember, you still have an impact to make.
Micah Tomasella: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, 15, I will gladly, well, most gladly, spend and be spent for your souls. That's a crazy verse. Paul, I will with joyfulness and gladness spend and be spent for your souls. A life following Jesus does not mean to preserve myself, to make sure I make it out. I'm not unscathed to make sure that I'm as comfortable as possible. It's a life spent pouring out for others. And I think that a lot of us can look back on our own experience and relate to that, right? In those moments where maybe things are good, maybe I'm in a rhythm, maybe I'm on a roll, maybe I'm sticking to my routine, but oftentimes I feel the most joy when I'm getting a little bit outside of my comfort zone, being a little bit more generous with my time. My talent, my efforts, my treasure, getting involved in something that's a little bit scary, a little bit difficult. That's oftentimes when I feel closer to God than even those moments where I feel really comfortable. And that, I believe, is the heart of fatherhood. It's the heart of discipleship. And ultimately, that's the heart of Jesus. So today, before we leave with another honey-do list or list of things to do, let's remember who God is. Christianity isn't first about what we accomplish for God. It's about what God has done for us. So Psalm 124, I keep coming back to it. If it had not been for the Lord, if it had not been for the Lord, then blank. Where would we be? Where would you be? Where would I be if not for his grace, if not for his patience, if not for his forgiveness, if not for Jesus? Where would I be? Where would you be? Just think about that for a second. The cross is the ultimate example of the Father being on your side, being on our side. That's what it represents. Jesus stepped into the battle that we could not win. He carried the weight of sin we could never carry. He defeated the enemy that we had no chance of defeating. And because of him, we can then say our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and who made earth. One day, my prayer, is that my girls won't say something like, well, I'd rather them say, my dad was not perfect, because that's true, but he was always pointing me to Jesus. We didn't always say the right things, but we did the right things. I can say a prayer with them at night. I can do a little devotional with them. But what is my life reflecting? Am I about this whole Jesus thing? Am I living as if Jesus has actually changed my life? I believe that that's the best way that an impact can be made on your life. No, I mentioned my father, but I can't mention my father without mentioning my mother. That's the way that my mother lived her life. The legacy of faith that she has given me of quietly and in a hardworking way serving Jesus faithfully, that taught me more about what it looks like to follow Jesus than any sermon I ever heard. It was the way that she was and consistently sacrificed for me and those around her. That taught me more about Jesus than the greatest sermon I have ever heard. So again, the goal is not perfection, it's faithfulness. So dads, grandfathers, father figures, let's keep encouraging. Let's keep comforting. Let's keep guiding, not because we're perfect, but because we know the one who is. And for every person here today. You have a father who is on your side. The waters may rise. The waters have risen and then will rise again. The storms have come and they will come again. The circumstances have changed. They will change again. But one day we'll look back and say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, but he was, he is, and he always will be. So before we pray and I wrap up, I just want to take a moment specifically for the fathers, the grandfathers, the father figures, and the father figures in the room. God is asking you to be faithful. One next faithful step after another. Your presence matters. Your prayers matter. The small conversations matter. The moments that no one else sees really matter. They really do. So whether you have little kids running around your house like I do, adult children with families of their own, and now you've got grandkids, maybe even have great grandkids, or people in your life that you've been given the opportunity to encourage and guide, that assignment is still assigned. It's still there and it matters. My prayer for all of us is that we would reflect the heart of our Heavenly Father, that we would be people who encourage, people who comfort, and people who guide others towards Jesus. Not perfectly, but faithfully. Not in just one moment of having the right thing to say, but over time your presence matters and it makes a tremendous difference.
Micah Tomasella: Let's pray. God, thank you so much that you are Father. You're not just Creator. You're not just God. You are Father. Not only creating us, but gifting us for a special and unique purpose. Wanting to walk with us and talk with us and remind us that we belong to you. But even more importantly, God, your word also says that when we struggle to believe, you will help us. You will help us. You will help us. You will help us. Help us in our unbelief. How cool is that? God, you take every measure possible. I just pray that we would grab hold of it. I pray over all fathers, grandfathers, father figures in the room. Give them wisdom. Give them patience. Give them courage. Give them compassion. And most importantly, I pray that they would reflect the Father, the perfect Father, who has loved them all this time. May we allow you to continue to serve as our ultimate example. If not for you, Lord, we would be lost. But because of Jesus, we're rescued. It's in your precious name I pray. Amen. Y'all enjoy your day.