Matlock | 05/07/26 | Father God | Jonny Burton

Matlock 

Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/354059/episodes/19446768-matlock-05-07-26-father-god-jonny-burton.mp3

Jonny spoke about Father God and his characteristics.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Church in the Peak podcast. We hope you enjoy this message. For more information, visit churchinthepee.org. Or come and join us at ten AM every Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Father, thank you. Thank you for this man, Lord God. Thank you for the the Word and the Spirit within this man, Lord. And I pray, Lord God, that we will uh we will be uh experienced of the Word and the Spirit as He speaks this morning, Lord. I pray that the the word that He speaks will cut to the bone and marrow. And Lord that uh it it is it is good when we are challenged. And I pray, Lord God, that uh you will set us free as we hear what Johnny has to bring to us this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.

unknown 0:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Eighteen months ago, I started to look at um the Lord's Prayer in the Bible, and it's one of those passages of the Bible that lots of people will be familiar with. And um maybe hands together, eyes closed, um as our Saviour taught us, so we pray. Do those words ring a bell? And you sort of sit there with your like this and and recite the Lord's Prayer. And it's probably uh one of the most familiar bits of the Bible, known off by heart by lots of people, but I read the first two words and I got stuck. And I haven't moved on from those first two words in the last 18 months, if I'm honest. Because so uh amazing is the truth in that if we get the the fact that God is our Father, it changes everything. It radically changes the way we come to Him in prayer, it changes um who we see ourselves as children of God. And and so that's what we're gonna look at this morning. Do you want to move on to the on to the next slide for me, Matt? So this in fact um go back one. Let me let me uh before you read start reading that. Um before I start speaking, I just want to acknowledge that this is a this is not easy for everybody to hear. And it's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about it, is because me and Becca used to work um at do a youth club in Nottingham and experienced our eyes open to a whole world of um poverty and um injustice and absent fathers and the generational impacts that had upon the lives of children and young people. And for some of you this morning, me talking about God being a father, immediately you're gonna switch off because you think your exper your own experience of your father wasn't good. Or you can't see anything good that can be associated with father, and so you uh may for self-preservation and protection switch off from that truth that God is your father. But please come with me on this because I want to show you how God is that perfectly heavenly father, and regardless of how your father may have been absent, or your father may have been abusive or overbearing, or maybe it was present but abdicated his responsibilities and didn't give you the emotional warmth and love that you needed. Maybe you feel rejected and broken because of that, and that's not your fault, and that is something that we need to acknowledge and and work through with you together as a as a family. But um, what I want to talk about this morning is how God is our perfect heavenly father, and how He even if you've had a good experience of your earthly father, which uh some of us hopefully will have had, we still get things wrong, and earthly fathers are still imperfect, however good and godly they are, but God is perfect. And so these stats, this is um these are some of the news headlines that come up that Britain is suffering from a quiet but devastating epidemic, fatherlessness. 2.5 million children in the UK grown up without a father figure at home. One in five of all dependent children, and and it goes on, but essentially that absence of a father in the household is associated with poor education outcomes, higher risk of behavioural and emotional difficulties, likelihood of exclusion from school, involvement in criminal behaviour, long-term unemployment, and for boys particularly it has a massive impact. And so that's the context that I'm talking about this in, and I just from the outset acknowledge that this isn't easy because this is affects so many of us, but actually, more than ever, uh we have a a generation of young people that need to know the father heart of God. So that's where we're gonna go this morning. So on the next slide. This is the my first question for you this morning is what do you think about when someone asks you to think about God? What's the first thing that comes to your mind? It might be that about creator God, it might be about God being all-powerful, God being ruler, it might be you think about um God in Jesus, um, and and think about Jesus that we've just been singing about. But we can think about so many things when we think about um what who God is, but what I want to I want you to try and change your perspective this morning, because he is all of those things, he is creator, he is uh mighty, he is the sovereign one, he is over all things. But first and foremost, he is father, and so um when I say God, I want you to think father. I'm not gonna get involved in when I say God, you say father, um because um I'm not not very good at that, but when I say God, you think father, um, and that's where I want you to leave this place. If one thing sticks in your minds, when you see God, I want you to think father. Okay, so um in the Bible, um in the Gospels, Jesus' preferred choice of name referring to to God was Father. 189 times in the four Gospels alone, Jesus referred to God as Father, far more than any other term or distinction, distinction or characteristic Jesus used to describe him. And when we think about Paul and his letters, they were full of um addressing um to God as our father as well. So when we think about um who God is, he is all of those other things, but I believe that he is all of those things in the context of being a father. So as we read the um saw the Lord's Prayer upon the screen, and that the context of that is in the in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus is addressing crowds of people, predominantly Jewish um believers, or not believers at the time, but Jewish crowds. And for him to um to say it to get them to pray or to model to them, to encourage them to pray our Father was completely countercultural. Because in that culture, they didn't they didn't even like to write the name of God down, they didn't like to say the name of God out loud, such was their reverence and fear and how much they revered the name of God. So to call God Father was bla was seen as blasphemy when Jesus said that, let alone him encouraging them to call God their father. But Jesus went further than that, didn't he? He said that no one has seen if anyone has seen him, they've seen the Father, that he is the only way to the Father, and that he is one with the Father, that Jesus was God. And but if Jesus encourages us therefore to call God our Father, then we need to take note of that. So if we move on to the next slide, um this verse in 1 John, uh sorry, John 1, 12 to 13. Uh yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or nor of human husband's will, but born of God. And the next one is 1 John 3 1. See what love, great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. Just dwell on that for a moment. So we have been brought into the family of God. We've been called children of God, and in that first verse, it's very clear that it's not because of um anything that we've done, it's not through decision of man, but we are born of God. This is God initiating, God bringing us into that relationship, and that he lavishes his love upon us. This is not him being um these and we're I think as I was reading those verses, one of the things that that immediately struck me was that there's no mistake. You know, sometimes people there'll be maybe even people here who feel that they were um an accident or a mistake that their parents never intended to have another child, but then they came along, and maybe you've even been told that, and maybe that sits with you and affects you. But it's clear there is that it's not of by human decision or a husband's will, but you're born of God, you are his treasured possession, he delights in you, you are born of God. There are no mistakes. So, this idea of being children of God is presented to us throughout the Bible, throughout the New Testament, and Jesus encourages us to call God our Father. And when we think about how perfect Jesus was, we might think it's quite reasonable for Jesus to call God Father, He was perfect, without blemish, without fault, he never sinned. For him to come to God as as a as and call him Father, you think, yeah, he can get away with that. But for us, if you know what I've done, how on earth can I come? But I'm gonna look at a passage in Ephesians, which is um maybe a bit small on the screen, but I'm gonna read it through to you because and just let this wash over you because if we get the truth within this, it will change everything. This is our identity, this is what he's done for us, and this is how he has brought us into the family of God. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace which is freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with good pleasure. Sorry, with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times reached their fulfillment, to bring unity to all things under heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we who were the first to put our hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guarantee in our inheritance, until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. Wow. Whole books and thesis have been written on that passage, and I'm not gonna expand on that today, other than I'm gonna the phrase in verse five, He predestined us for adoption to sonship. I've just got stuck on that over the last 18 months because it blows my mind. In our society, we see adoption as something sometimes that happens when things go wrong. Maybe there's been family tragedy, and children have been orphaned and they are adopted. Maybe it's because of difficult family circumstances, and a child can't stay with a family, and those children are fostered and adopted. It often has a bit of a negative association with that, doesn't it? But adopted by complete strangers often, sometimes extended family members, but often complete strangers. But those who are fostered, those who are foster and adopt children are amazing. And we should do all we can as a church to support those families because giving vulnerable children a secure and loving home to grow up in is an amazing gift, isn't it? But in the Roman world, adoption had a completely different meaning. And in the Roman world, fathers would it says fathers would choose to adopt one or more of their slaves or servants. Perhaps if they didn't have a son to pass on their inheritance to, perhaps they didn't trust their son. So they don't get on with their son, they don't trust him to carry on their family line, their business, their inheritance. So they pick one of their slaves who has been under their authority and they choose to adopt them. The profound truth of Roman adoption was that the adoptee was taken out of his previous state and placed in a new relationship of son to his new father. His old debts are cancelled, and in effect, the adoptee started a new life as part of a new family, from slave to son. And so, as Paul writes about how we are brought out of slavery and how we've been adopted and brought into the freedom of the children of God, the concepts exist, it's that sense of we're being brought out of slavery and we're brought into a privileged position and we get an inheritance. All the father's riches, all the father's wealth, and all the blessings that come with it are bestowed upon that slave, upon that person that has no stake or claim to that inheritance. And the word in that phrase predestined to his adoption as sonship, it applies to daughters as well. It's culturally written as sonship because of that fact, the inheritance went to the firstborn son. And so that's why it refers to that because it's showing that it's that blessing that that inheritance is passed on to sons and daughters. But if you're a daughter here, you're included too. J.I. Packer, who was an amazing theologian, wrote a book called Knowing God. And if you haven't read it, then I recommend it. But if um you move on to the next slide for me, this um this is challenging. Have a read of this. Let me read it to you. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers, the whole outlook of his life, it means he does not understand Christian very Christianity very well at all. That challenged me. He goes on on the next next slide. So justification is this us being declared legally right. And as Jesus dies on the cross, he takes away our sin, and we are declared legally righteous. So it's it's instantaneous, irreversible, divine declaration of righteousness. So that's good news. That despite our sin, Jesus has taken it, and we've got his perfect righteousness, and we are declared righteous. That's justification. So that is that is amazing news. But Jarapaca goes on to say that it's adoption. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship. He establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection, and generosity are the heart of the revelation. To be right with God, the judge, justification is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father, adoption is greater. It's described as the pinnacle of our salvation. So this doctrine of adoption as sons and daughters is this is the pinnacle. We were saved not just to have our sin taken away and to be forgiven and to feel free from that. But we were saved for something. We were saved for a glorious, intimate relationship with God our Father, as sons and daughters, with an inheritance, an eternity where we will dote on him forever, where we will be caught up in the glory of him forever. That is the pinnacle of our salvation, adoption as sons and daughters. So adoption is for him, it's through him, and it's to him. So I'm not going to dwell on this too much, but just to say that in that passage in Ephesians, it talks about how he predestined us to adoption. This is not something we have earned, it's not something we can stake any claim on. This is all of him. That in love he predestined us, he chose us. So before the world was created, before you'd lived out even one of your days, God had predestined you to be adopted as his son or daughter. Before the creation of the world, he knew exactly where you would be right now. He knows your thoughts, he knows your actions, he knows everything you do, say, and think. He predestined you in love to be adopted as his son or daughter before creation. Nothing you can do can undo that. Nothing you can do can add to that. It's not about what we've done, it's about what he's done, and that he's chosen to place his affection upon us. He's chosen to set us free, justify us, and adopt us into his family. It's from him. But there's a real assurance in that as well because it's not something that can be taken away. Because he predestined it in eternity past. It is set out forevermore. It's not like sometimes with foster placements or adoption, it breaks down and those children go somewhere else. This is secure and eternal, not fragile or uncertain, and there's such liberty in that when we understand that we are children of God brought into his family, and he's not going to get fed up with us. He's not going to banish us or um, yeah, alienate. We're not gonna be alienate, alienated. It cannot be revoked. There's a legal aspect to that adoption in Roman culture that that slave brought into the family is then legally the heir. It doesn't matter then what he does, it's legally the heir. All that that the father owns goes to him. But it's through him as well. We think about a gift, we think about the value of that gift. It's dependent upon how much it costs to the giver and how worthy the recipient is. It cost him everything at a point when we were dead in our sin. His grace is vast. So worthy is he and it cost him everything. Jesus died that we might be adopted into his family because we were given Jesus' perfect record. When we were dead in our sins, he bestowed upon us such grace. It's through through Jesus, and it's to him. The goal of our adoption is to bring glory to him, that we might be in glorious fellowship with one another, that brothers and sisters together, and that we would worship him and we would give him all the glory, and that he would be praised. He joyfully chose you, he paid an unimaginable price for you, and he gives you an unrivaled inheritance, and he gives you the Holy Spirit as a deposit guarantee in that inheritance, as we just read in Ephesians. But as I've talked about that adoption and what that is, sometimes that we can struggle to get that into our head and into our heart, and we might hear that and think, oh yeah, that's good, and then we go out of this place, and then that's it. He gives us his Holy Spirit to apply that to our hearts so that it becomes heart knowledge rather than just head knowledge. And have you heard the phrase, do you know it in your knowher? I want you to know this in your knowher. I want you to know deep inside that this is who you are this morning. And that's not for me to do, that's not for me to convince you by my poor arguments and poor speaking in front of people. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and He gives us the Holy Spirit as a deposit guarantee in our inheritance, and by that spirit we cry out, Abba Father, the Spirit works within us to know, help us to know deep within us who we are. The whole Trinity is involved in that adoption process. God's Predestined you, Jesus won you, and the Holy Spirit applies it to you and reminds you, and He is that inheritance. So in Galatians 4, we read. But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of the Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out Abba Father, so that you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are a child, God has also made you an heir. Wow. See, when Jesus teaches the disciples to pray, our Father, the word is not Father, like we might think, of a authoritarian, distant father who we don't want to get on the wrong side of. It's the word for daddy or papa. And sometimes Florence, when she when we're doing things together, she'll call me Dada. And it it makes my heart leap. It's one of those things because it's that affection of the child to the Father. That's how we can know God. That is how we're meant to know God. That's how we're meant to relate to Him. And if you don't feel that, the Holy Spirit can apply the truth of your salvation to your heart to help you to know that, for you to know that in your knower. And in Romans, it echoes the same thought. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are child are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so you don't live in fear again, but rather the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we might also share in his glory. So the spirit is freely available. This isn't something that we have to be a high-level Christian to get. This is available to us. You know, actually, um the spirit is at work in you already if you are putting your trust in Jesus. I saw a book the other day, it was like, Where's Wally? But it said it said find Jesus. And I was like, No, it's it's all wrong because actually we sometimes think that we're looking for Jesus, but actually the truth is that you weren't you're never looking for him. He he's been searched, he's pursued you relentlessly. You were dead in your sin. You weren't looking for him, he awakened the spirit within you, opened your eyes and your ears to hear the gospel and to see with your own eyes and believe. Even your faith and putting your trust in him is a gift of God. Jesus pursues us relentlessly. And when we get that, and when we have the Spirit at work in us, and we know the glorious freedom that comes because we're no longer slaves, we're sons and daughters, we're heirs. So whatever is going on in this life, whatever you might be facing right now, these are momentary trials and troubles. And we have an eternal weight of glory. We have an eternal destiny where there will be no more tears, shame, sadness, crying. And so the spirit comes. And have you ever experienced the spirit where you just feel overwhelmed with the love of the Father? When you feel love drunk, you almost you feel so loved by the Father you don't quite know what to do with yourself. If you haven't, that can be your experience this morning. Because that is what the Spirit does. He testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and then we cry out, Abba Father, it's that heart's cry that comes out. And so I'm gonna end with a bit about what sort of father is he then? Because as earthly fathers, we get things wrong, don't we? And I've reflected on my own experience as a dad and to three children, and over the last 12 years, there's been lots of things I've got wrong. But this is the sort of father that we have. So if you go back to the one before that. Sorry, one after that. Next one, that one. So I'm gonna run through these. So he's a father who is present. So when I first started work as uh I was working as a GP in Nottingham, as a GP um partner, and um we had uh Isabel and I worked a lot, and it's probably my deepest regret is that I worked too much, that I wasn't present when I should have been. And I justified it to myself by saying that I was providing for my family, that I was doing enough, I was doing enough to allow Becca to be at home full-time so she didn't have to work. But actually, she sacrificed her career to do that. And that's but that's how I justified it to myself. I got so caught up in pleasing other people that I miss things, I miss sports days, I miss productions. But there's there is no condemnation actually. There's grace for us as as fathers and and mothers who've who've miss those things. But a few years ago I had an injury to my back, and that meant that almost forced into not working as much. And actually, I think that's God's way of making me change, if I look at that actually, because I still work a lot and I'm still working trying to free up more time. But we moved from Nottingham, I got a different job, and now I'm there in the mornings to help get them ready for school, and I'm there at bedtime. But because years literally went by where I would leave on a Thursday, um a Monday morning, and I wouldn't see them until Thursday. I was going home every day, but they were already in bed, and then they were still in bed when I left. And I I don't know if you can relate to that, those regrets that you have as parents, but you know, God is not like that. He is a father who is always present. He never misses a sports day. And he would win the father's race, by the way. He's a God who is present, he's a God who comforts. Says in John 14, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe in me also. My father's house has many rooms. If it were not so, would I not have told you I'm going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place that I am going. What greater comfort is there than knowing we are heaven-bound, that that is our inheritance that he has won for us, that we are going to be with him forever in heaven. And the the freedom, the liberty that comes from knowing that brings comfort. But also that's not to downplay the things that we go through in this life, which are hard. And he comforts us in those moments as well, by his spirit, and also through his church. I was just saying to Marion before we started, what an amazing experience it was when I had my back operation at the church. People I'd never knew came to drop meals off at our house and and protected us as a family, helped us. That is how one of the ways God brings comfort to us. We have a father who comforts. We have a father who gives and provides. In Luke 11, it talks about asking for things. Um it says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. If you then, though you were evil, know how to good gifts give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? That always makes me laugh because in my house children don't eat anything. Um it doesn't matter what you put in front of them, they won't eat it. And actually, Barney would be much happier with a snake or a scorpion than any food. But God is he gives good gifts to us, he provides for us. Tells us in Matthew 6, do not be anxious, and do not worry about your life, what you'll eat or drink, about your body, what you will wear. And he uses the illustration of talks about the birds of the air and the beauty of the plants. And I I spend a lot of time outdoors marvelling at the creation and just how all these families of animals exist. God's sustaining all things and he is providing for those. And actually, he talks in that passage in Matthew. So, how much more valuable to him are you than those sparrows? Your heavenly father knows what you need before he asks him. He is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord, he provides. And one of the things that I think about a lot is um this concept of love languages. And love languages is about how we feel love and the things that people do or say, or how we feel loved by other people, and how we show love. And sometimes those things are mismatched, so how I feel most loved doesn't always match up with how other people like to show their love. And so we have it helps to understand those things. And these love languages are the words of affirmation, physical touch, gifts, acts of service, and time. And I know for my own children that Florence words of affirmation matter to her. She loves to be encouraged and told that she's doing doing things well. For Barney, he loves physical touch, he loves to um he snuggles up to you and he likes to cuddle and he likes you to rub his back, he likes you to be physically present with him. And Isabel doesn't really care less about that. Isabel likes gifts, and if and if you haven't brought anything, she'll just walk off. So that's that's how we but it's understanding those love languages. You know, our father is the master of love linguistics. He is he he is the God is love and he understands all these things, and so here's a father who affirms my dad, my own dad is brilliant, and I stand up here so thankful for a godly father who is a godly husband to my mum, and I've got so much to be thankful for. He's always encouraged me, he's never pressured me to do anything, to be anyone or do anything. He's always been there relentlessly on the football pitch side, rain or shine, caked in mud, taking me to and from places, sacrificially loving me. But he never really told me when I was growing up that he loved me. And I always used to think that I knew he loved me because of what he did, but I never heard him say it. And because my love language is words of affirmation, that hurt me more than I think I realized. And got to preparing my wedding speech, and as well as saying how amazing Becca was and all of that, uh there's a bit where you sort of thank your parents for all they did, and I I just felt it was important that I needed to tell my dad how much I loved him, and so in that wedding speech, I broke down and told my dad just how much I loved him, and that changed something in our relationship because he now tells me repeatedly how much he loves me. But you know, it shouldn't have had to be that way. But that's not our earthly fathers aren't perfect, I'm not perfect, but we have a heavenly father who is, and whatever your love language is, whatever you need, he meets that need, he affirms, he never gets things wrong. He speaks love and affection over us. You are described as his treasure possession, his masterpiece, precious, fearfully and wonderfully made, and we have the work of the Holy Spirit that reminds us of all truth and witnesses within our spirit that we are children of God. So we have that experience of the affirmation of the Father by the Spirit as well. Not only does he affirm us, he rejoices over us. We see in Zephaniah, it talks about him rejoicing over us with singing. And we see in the in the prodigal son story how the father um just embraces the son and and celebrates the son's return, throwing out a party for him. Have you ever, um at Christmas, have you ever received those letters from families who um talk about how amazing their their children are? And mainly from what I would call the posh families. Um we used to get these letters and it would say, Edmund has just circumnavigated the globe single single-handedly, Esmeralda's just become first in the Olympics in dress large at the age of 14, or Marmaduke has just um sold all his toys, sold all his toys and used the process to set up a food bank at his local school. And he was only four. Those sorts of letters that you see and and my dad said one year, he said, I'm gonna write, I'm gonna do one of these letters, and we all begged him not to. But you know what, he the letter, I I wish I could find it. Unfortunately I couldn't, but he produced this letter that celebrated all that we were doing. And more than that, he just commented on our character, our personalities, and our interests. He was so proud of us, however minimal our achievements had been, relatively. And he was so thrilled to boast about us and to to put that in writing. And, you know, that is how our heavenly father rejoices over you. He celebrates you, he boasts about you. You are his treasure possession, and he takes delight in you. So every night before I go to bed, um I'll go and check the kids are asleep, um, because we need to, because they often don't go to sleep. And I go in their room, and it one of the most um amazing things is going into their room and seeing the sleep, they're so peaceful, and just sitting there and just marvel at what an amazing blessing they are. Mainly because they're asleep at that point, not making any noise, but but yeah. But um it is he he dotes on you, he sees you, and he delights in you. And he's a father who protects. When I was eight, we went to Northumberland as a family, and we went over to the Farn Islands and got on a little boat and um arrived onto this beautiful picturesque island going to see the puffins, and then we got out of the boat, and all of a sudden, um we were being dive bombed by all these Arctic terns that were trying to come and protect their ground nesting um babies. And um my I've got I've got three siblings, so there's my mum and dad, and then the four kids, and my dad got his coat, and um he surrounded us all four children underneath his coat, and um he had a a lunchbox and he was batting away these terns that were dive bombing, and um we came away completely unscathed. My dad had peck marks all over his head, but he he came he he took that for us. And then I read in Psalm 91: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will save the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowlers' snare and the deadly from deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and your rampart. He's a God, Father who protects, and he's a father who keeps his promises. I know many will have had broken promises made. Fathers who promised to turn up, or fathers who promised to get things for you, and those things never came through. God, our father is not a flaky father. He's unfailingly faithful. And he keeps his promises. He keeps his promises to provide for us, to never leave us, never abandon us, never forsake us. And he fills us with hope that it doesn't disappoint us. And then the final one is the father who embraces. And we're sort of running out of time, but just to say, in that part in that story of the prodigal son, the the the son has basically wished the dad dead and he's asked for his inheritance early, and he's gone away and he's squandered it, and he's been eating with the pigs because he had nothing else to eat, and he come, he decides to come back to his father. And the father in that story is uh demonstrates God the Father, and Jesus is the son who's actually telling the story. But the father in the story is watching and waiting for the son, he's never forgotten him. When he sees him, he's straining his vision, he sees him, and the father is the running father. He runs, however undignified, down to embrace his son. He's an embracing father. Porky, smelly, dirty, all of those things that should have made him unclean to the father. The father embraces and he gives him a robe, a robe of righteousness that Jesus, the older son, has given to us. In that justification that we talked about, Jesus has given us his perfect spotless righteousness that we've been justified freely by his grace. He's given us a robe of righteousness. He's a celebrating father. He fattens the fattened calf is killed. He rejoices, extravagant outpouring of his joy about his son. He's a forgiving father. So he tells him to um his son tries to remove his sandals, but his father makes him put them back on. And that the thing about that is that you know in the Old Testament when Moses has to remove his his shoes, sandals because he's on holy ground, and in getting him to put his sandals back on, that's saying that actually there is no more sin or shame. Your sin and shame has been removed. You've been made right with God. No longer do you need to make yourselves right to approach the holy God. You can put your sandals back on because you have been made right and forgiven. And he's the empowering father. He puts the ring on his finger, which is the father's seal, the father's seal of approval, authority within the family, that inheritance. So as we come to an end, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would come and witness with our spirits that we are children of God. That when I say God, you would think Father. And coming back to where we started, I said there were the first two words of the Lord's Prayer. The first word is our, our Father. And actually, we don't do this alone. This isn't a prayer that we say individually. We're a family. We do this. And so if you're here and your um your experience of your earthly father or your family in general has meant that you are alone or you feel um isolated. That this is a prayer to bring you into this. We we've we are a family, we are brothers and sisters together, co-heirs with Christ, aren't we? And the verse that I look up to all the time up there on the wall, it says, He sets the lonely in families. The verse before that says, a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. A father, um, God sets the lonely in families. So that's that's what he does. If you're feeling lonely this morning, he can bring you into the family. So I'd like us to, um, if we've got time to worship and sing the father's how great deep the father's love again. But just a few groups of people I felt God wanted to minister to, and that was I mean, if you need to go and get your children, then please do, but come back and let let us pray for you. A word for fathers who feel they've fallen short. Perhaps you need to tell your children that you love them today. And I believe that God wants to set you free, because there is no condemnation now. He is the perfect Heavenly Father and we are fallible. But he can bring restoration. So for those who have been wronged, that's not me downplaying what you've experienced. If you've experienced abuse and wrongdoing and hurt, I pray for you that you would be healed and restored and know your perfect Heavenly Father. For those who feel unwanted or feel like they were a mistake, I feel God wants to come to you and and say, No. You are not you were born of God, not of the will of man. You were born of God, and that you are He chose you in Him before creation. You are not an accident. And if you're here and you don't know Him, finally, the idea of God as Father might seem alien to you. I pray for revelation that Jesus would reveal Himself to you, that you are dead in your sin, actually. But but you can be brought into that glorious relationship with the Father too. Because of Jesus' sacrifice. So if any of those things apply to you, then please do come and respond. And we'd love to pray with you. We've got a whole ministry team now for Sunday mornings to work through some of those things. But let's not leave this place without um asking the Holy Spirit to come and witness within our spirits that we are children of God. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

It's uh something really special. And uh that those invitations to respond, we should take really seriously. So as as we watch it, we go back to work. We'll do things slightly differently today.