SPEAKER_02 0:00

Today is uh Today's gonna be a great day. Great day. We have uh a couple of guys that are gonna come and share the word of God. Um it's a tag team of three individuals that will be bringing the word of God to you today. And uh we're grateful for the word of God, aren't you today? Amen. So we'll have uh we'll have George come up right now, and he's gonna be our first speaker speaking on fatherhood. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Thank you, thank you. Uh good morning. What a blessed day it is, especially you know, when we consider it's Father's Day, right? Because first and foremost, we all have a father, we all share the same father, don't we? Yep. And and that's our our our Heavenly Father, right? Yep, and that makes us all siblings in that sense. If you if you've submitted and dedicated your life to the Lordship of Jesus, God the Father is your father, right? In that, we all are now family. And in your mind, I know it just broke out that whole sister sledge song, right? We are family, and and we really are. And so today, especially, we're minded to give our Father thanks for all he's done for us. And that really should be our perspective every day, right? Every day should be Father's Day as we consider God. And and really, what are we saying? It it's Father's Day is nothing more than a hallmark holiday, right? A day for a company to sell greeting cards. But in our heart, it needs to be something more. And when I say that, I mean, you know, to the children that we have, but even more so in the hearts of fathers, in the hearts of men, right? Because the reality is we all as men have a responsibility to invest, to sow into the children in our community. Nobody agrees with me. Thank you. Thank you. We all have that as a responsibility, and and and it in Ephesians chapter 6, it says in verse 4 fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline or the nurture. Okay, people have a hard time sometimes in our modern culture with the word discipline. That's really nurture. To bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Okay? We have that responsibility, fathers, men, to be that example of what a godly man is to our kids. Because the reality is, and and to take a little sidestep here, ladies, you're not exempt. Okay, just like guys, you're not exempt on Mother's Day. Right? Again, that those are just hallmark moments. Every day we are to be an example for the children that surround us, the children that God has given us into our community to train in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. By nurture, I mean providing for them what it is that they need. Okay? And we think of it, right? Because, you know, guys, the Bible says if a man doesn't work, he's worse than a dog, right? If he doesn't provide for his families, and our mind instantly goes to, guys, you need to be out there earning a living. Anybody? Yes? But it's more than that, isn't it? Fathers, there's more men, there's more to our responsibility. Ladies, there's more to our responsibility than bringing home the bacon. We can feed our children, give them a warm place to live, clothes and shoes. But if we're not investing in them and sowing into them the life of Jesus Christ, that's going to cause them to be overcomers in this world, which is wicked, desolate desolated. Is that the word? Desolate. Yeah, okay. I move cookies for a living. Um and it it's it's a it's a dark and dead world out there. Okay? We have the responsibility to point them to Jesus. And he says, don't provoke them to anger. And a sister verse to that is Colossians 3.21. It says, Fathers, fathers, don't provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Okay? So how do we avoid provoking our children to anger or instilling a discouragement in them? How do we do that? Well, that's a tall order, that's a big responsibility. So so simply think about, you know, what would happen if if if in our lives we have somebody that's unnecessarily harsh? Anybody here ever have someone in their life that their words are just harsh? Okay? What did that do to you? Maybe they maybe you were you knew that they loved you, but they were just hard. And and some of us that are older, we know that that the generation that raised us and the generation that raised them, that was pretty hard. Dads were kind of distant. They were out there, they provided, they went out, they earned a living, they brought, we had what we needed, but there was distance. Right? And and how many have ever heard this? You come home with a B on your math test, and you show it all proud of what you've accomplished. Yeah, why wasn't it an A? That's harsh, that's critical. That's not what we're to be. Now, that doesn't mean that in some way we're to be soft in the sense of permissive and allowing anything and everything. We need to hold a standard. Guys, we need to hold a standard of what it is to be excellent. Excellent doesn't mean to be culturally, physically perfect. It means to be excellent means, like what was found in Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that their pursuit of God is what caused them to stand out above all the rest. All the rest. They stood out head and shoulders above all the rest because of their commitment, their heart to God. Where did they learn that? Where are our kids gonna learn that? To to to be discouraged, to be provoked to anger, an inconsistency, an unpredictable character, an expectation. If our kids don't know what we expect and we're not consistent in it, we're provoking them to anger. Moms, dads, same thing. Right? And and what do I mean by that lack of consistency? Well, you know, we see it in in in in comedies and cartoons, right? I've I've I I've I've had all I can stands, and I can't stands no more. Do we parent to where you know we we allow things, we allow things, we allow things, it builds up in us. We're not saying anything, we're not bringing any accountability, we're not bringing any correction, any nurture, any admonition, and it hits us, and it, and and and all of a sudden the thermometer blows the top, and all the red liquid goes spewing out, and we explode and vomit vomit anger all over our children. I I I've done that. I've done that because I've tried to bring into the house my perspective of what's right and wrong in instead of God's perspective of what's right and wrong. And I've allowed and not spoken because it wasn't convenient for me or it wasn't comfortable. But guys, ladies, we have a responsibility to not provoke our children to not provoke our children in wrath and discourage them because we're not being consistent, we're not being predictable in what's expected, overly critical, constantly correcting and little encouragement. Do you find yourself doing that? First thing out of your mouth is the correction. Your kids are speaking to you, sharing things that are going on. And guys, this is a big one for us because what are we by nature? We are fixers. We're fixers, guys, right? We hear something and we want to solve it. And part of that is because it takes a long time to sit down and listen to everything building up. It's just easier. I know where this is going. Let me just give you the solution to it. So be quiet now and do what I told you. It's not governing like Jesus did, right? When he goes into the temple and he sees all those that have turned the house of God into a moneymaker, after he's done bringing the discipline, he gathers them all around and he begins to teach regarding the kingdom of God. He sat them all around and he taught them patiently and in love. So, again, we're not talking about being permissive and allowing just anything and allowing our kids to subscribe to what the world is. They're getting inundated all around. And not because we might not have some kids that are going to public school, but I guarantee they're still getting flooded with what the current affair of our world is. The moment they step outside of the door, they're inundated. The moment that television comes on, they're being flooded. The moment that that that radio comes on, there's an influence. Oh, all I listen to is K-Love. Okay, the moment that radio comes on, there's influence. Because not everything you're going to hear on K-Love is necessarily everything regarding Christianity and how we need to live it. Because there's all kinds of influences that are coming in everywhere. We need to weigh everything according to the Word of God, right? And as fathers, it's our responsibility. God gave us the responsibility to lead. And we're going to give an account for all of that. So I won't go too long, so everybody else has time.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Praise God. Hey, next up is Mike Shreve. He's going to come and share about fatherhood. Amen? Thank you, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Thank you. So what God put on my heart uh essentially I believe is a fairly decent follow-up, even with what George had shared. What I want to focus on is because again, a lot of our culture and a lot of us have had um none of us are direct descendants. Jesus is not our earthly father. So therefore, our fathers have fallen short and made mistakes and things like that. And especially in the Western culture, um, it's essentially such a uh phenomenon that if you look at the film industry, American movies, 60 to 75 percent of movies have some form of a father and child dynamic going on that's dysfunctional. I mean, the easiest one, of course, uh I'm dating myself maybe a little bit, but Star Wars is still a big phenomenon, and you have Darth Vader, Luke, I am your father, and all the anguish and everything like that. Then the whole thing flows from there, at least for the first. Well, anyway, however you count those episodes. But that's not the only one. You also can look at an Indiana Jones and The Last Crusader, the Royal Tenembaums, Field of Dreams, Interstellar. Again, there's not a lack of it. And the prevalence is driven by societal emphasis on paternal roles and the dramatic potential of parent-child conflicts. So, as Christians, where the enemy would really like to use that against us is when it comes to accepting God as our Heavenly Father and receiving our Heavenly Father's love. Because to the extent that, again, all dads have fallen short. My dad has fallen short, I've fallen short of Nathan. It's just the reality of life. But yet, God has called us to receive his love. So I want to share five aspects and back to Muslim scriptures where we can hopefully, again, there could be probably a series built on speaking on how to receive healing and deliverance from the relational aspects and the impacts and everything like that, generational curses, all those things. But that's not the timer point right now, but I do want to relay these five points. God has intimate knowledge and keen interest in you. Doesn't matter how much your dad neglected you, doesn't matter how much you know everything that George talked about, everything that we probably know by personal experience, that does not equate to God. God has an intimate knowledge and keen interest in you from the moment you were born from before you were born. Psalm 139, verses 1 through 3. Actually, the whole chapter is good, but time constraints. Psalm 139, 1 to 3. O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You knew, you know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down are acquainted, and you are acquainted with all my ways. Again, God knows us intimately. He's keenly interested in what's going on in our everyday life. Secondly, we've been adopted. Romans 8, verses 14 to 16. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, daughters of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by whom we cry, Abba Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And it's been said before from this pulpit, the cultural significance of what Paul is writing there in Romans, the way that adoption worked in that time, adoption wasn't um wasn't taken as lightly or wasn't taken um as flippantly, I guess, maybe, as we might think about it. For a Roman citizen, if he adopts someone, he could actually disown a biological son, but he could never disown an adopted son or daughter. It was taken very seriously. So again, that that aspect of adoption, that's how God is looking at adopting us. He's not going to turn away, he's not going to say, nope, nope, that's too far, crossed too many lines. We are permanently as believers, as born-again, blood bought through the death of Christ, believers, we are permanently adopted into his family. And accordingly, you know, God certainly is uh able to bring to our attention in a loving way, as George talked about, you know, to raise up the child in the way they should go. God can certainly bring conviction and discipline into our lives. Third point: God is father to the fatherless. This is from Psalm 68, 4 to 6. Sing to God, sing praises to his name, lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts, his name is the Lord. Exalt before him. Father to the fatherless, protector of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home. He leads out prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. I'd like to read the same passage from this is from the Passion Translation, just puts a little bit of a different uh emphasis to it. Let them sing their celebration songs for the coming of the cloud rider, whose name is Yahweh. To the fatherless, he is a father. To the widow, he is a champion friend. The lonely he makes part of his family. The prisoner he leads into prosperity until they sing for joy. This is our holy God, his holy place. But for the rebels there is heartache and despair. Fourth point, God's a flawless provider of ultimate good gifts. And this I'm drawing from Matthew 7, 9 through eleven. I'm going to read from the New American translation. Or what man is there among you who his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? And I just want to point out a couple things to this. That's if you look at when he says it, will he will they ask for a loaf, will they give him a stone? If you go to uh any of the like tops, wegmans, anything like that, the artisan bread, and that's not going to wonder, you know, the square rectangular loaf, but the artisan bread that's round, could a stone could appear as a loaf of bread. Fish have scales, snake have scales. So what I see as the deeper thing here is that God's not going to set something before you as a deception. The enemy would love to do that. So there needs to be prayer and discernment, but yet we can trust that God is the author of all good things and he has good gifts for his children. I can't tell you the number of times where I've found myself getting anxious about something, something that I'm uncertain about, something that I've misplaced that's very valuable. There's been a couple of times where this is my official wedding band, but there's been a couple of times where I've been like, oh boy, am I gonna need to get a replacement? And you know, things like that. So anyway, there's just been so many times where, and I've learned it's one thing to read about the faithfulness of God, it's one thing to read about the sovereignty of God. But again, as we go through life and we encounter those situations, I've learned that I need to stop myself right away and simply pray, God, this did not catch you off guard. You know about the situation. Help me to be at peace knowing that you love me, that you're in control, that you have good things for me, and help me to, you know, whatever, be able to tackle this project, be able to get the finances, be able to find the thing, whatever it is. But again, we need to, as we grow in our relationship with the Lord, and it's a process, I am still growing in God. It's a process, but we need to allow ourselves to receive the fresh love revelation that God always desires to bring good gifts to us. And at times there there might be a it might be a little bit of work to it. You know, I I just pick on Daryl a little bit. For those who have been in Steel City for quite a while, you will know that Daryl is not as big as he used to be. He he's lost how many, like from three years ago. 115 pounds. Now he is much healthier now than he was then. And that's like, you know, that that's a blessing, but yet that wasn't taken lightly, that wasn't taken easily. That took a lot of self-discipline and a lot of faithfulness on Daryl's part. And so it's not the best analogy, but hopefully you can see where I'm going with that. There's times where God will call us to show a good and better thing, but it might require some investment on our part. It might recall for some sacrifice on our part. When we first started tithing, there was times where it's like, okay, I don't know where, but I'm going to trust you at your word, and I'm going to give the first fruits. I'm going to give the tithe. That's a that's an easy one that at least came to my mind as, again, an example. The last one, number five. I'm drawing from Luke 15, 20. Many of you, I'm sure, are familiar with the account of the prodigal son, or depending on how you want to translate, prodigal could be prodigal father, because prodigal can mean lavish. Whether it's lavish living or lavish redemption. Anyway, 15 verse 20. And he, the father, arose, and or sorry, he, the son, arose, came to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Our heavenly father's heart is always towards us for reconciliation. Again, we all we all fall short, we all drop the ball. But with each of these things, my goal this Father's Day is hopefully to, for us, myself, to be encouraged. That God knows us intimately and keenly. We've been adopted. He's the father to the fatherless, he provides good gifts, and he is always there to pick us up when we stumble and fall. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Praise God. We have some men and women that can preach and teach the word of God. Amen? And we give we give glory to God for that. Father's Day has always been tough for me. Because of, and you might experience this too, unresolved issues and problems that you've had with your dad that might not have been settled, right? I remember uh my dad, we were dealing with his money, and I was in charge, he put me in charge of his money, go figure. And uh I sided with my other uh siblings about what we should do with his m money, and uh my father talked to me and said, Um, I'm so disappointed in you, Dan. I'm so disappointed. Have you ever had dads tell you that they're they're disappointed in you? It's crushing, isn't it? Because you know that you love them, you want the best for them. Disappointment is the tool of the enemy that wants to distort the wonder and the awesomeness of who God is in our lives. And that that really hurt me. So I sat down and I wrote a seven-page letter to my father on how I was disappointed in him. Seven pages. It just gushed out. I was like, wow, that is incredible. There's stuff in our hearts, friends, that needs to gush out. Amen. Needs to gush out. And I brought the letter to him, and my father said, Dan, I read your letter. Let's just leave it at that. That's the that's the that's the kind of dad I had. Okay? Let's just leave it at that. Okay, dad. Everything's cool, everything's, you know, unresolved issues. Unresolved issues. And now I have my my family, and what the enemy does to me, he brings up errors, things that I haven't done with my family, things that I could have done, I could have trained up my my family in a better way, I could have more family devotions, I could have done this, I could have done that, I should have done that, I would have done that, the coulda, the shoulda's, and the would'das, the enemy uses against us to destroy us. Amen? And he wants to he wants to give all these unresolved issues. He wants to bring resolution to them by giving them to Christ and saying, God, I might have failed you. I might have been weak. I might not have done what you've told me to do. I ask for your forgiveness and I confess my sin to you now. And this is a new day. Amen. This is a new time. This is a new revelation of who God is. And that's the that's the beauty of serving serving the Lord. I just want to bring up this verse from 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 11 to 14. It says this, but as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Previous verses, it was talking about worldly temptations, the love of money, false teaching, deception. Flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness, fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of eternal life to which you were called, and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. In these verses, God gives us things that we run to, that we run from, and things that we run after. Amen. There are things in our lives that we need to flee, and there are things in our lives that we need to pursue. Flee means to run rapidly away from a source of danger. Me and my son, we were out in the forest and we saw a mountain lion. And we figured, hey, let's go say hello. All right. City boys that we were. So I grabbed a little stick and said, Come on, son. And then we're going after this mountain lion, and it just dawned on me, wait a minute. Big claws, teeth, might be hungry. I'm gonna have to throw Zach at them and then run, you know. So that would never, ever be a good thing. And uh and we do that sometimes with uh things of the world, don't we? Right? Things of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. We just we we we run to them and we think that we're gonna enjoy the thing and it bites us and it destroys us. The Bible says we need to flee. We need to run away from some things because of the inherent danger of these things to our lives, our spiritual life, our physical life, our mental life, our emotional life, but the life of our family as well, dads. Amen. We need to flee. Man of God. You consider yourself a man of God, all you men. If you notice up here, we have uh some nice cups to give to you. Man of God with this verse, 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 11. Man of God was an Old Testament title given to Moses, Elijah, David, to describe someone who was devoted to God, belonging to God, a life separated from the temporal, separated from earthly greed, separated from self-centeredness, separated from selfishness, separated unto the gospel, separated unto God, separated away from the world. Amen? We are men of God. And then this word pursue implies intense, rapid running to catch something. Rapid running to catch something. Isn't that nice? There's things in your lives today, men of God, dads, that you need to flee from. You need to say, you know what, I've been toying with this mountain lion a little bit too much. I need to get back to the lodge and be safe. There are things that we need to pursue. We need to run after with our heart. We need to follow hard after God. We need to get determination and diligence and say, you know what? I'm following hard after God. Well uh come hell or high water. I'm gonna live for God with all of my heart, all of my might. I'm gonna make the decision today, on Father's Day, that it is a final decision that I'm gonna serve Christ with everything that I that I have, everything that I am, because he gave everything that he was, amen, on the cross for us, and we give him praise today. We give him praise. Six virtues, men, ladies, you can go after these virtues too. Kids, here it is righteousness. Aren't you glad today that we have peace with God? We've been justified, amen. We've been declared righteous. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might be the righteousness of God. Now, when you come into the presence of God, God doesn't look at your self-righteousness. God doesn't look at what you've done religiously in your past, God doesn't look at anything other than your life is in Christ. If you are in Christ, you are welcomed into the presence of God. Amen. Lots of times we show up with our self-righteousness, and our self-righteousness is filthy rags in the sight of God. Do you know what those rags really mean? They were dipped in dung and feces, and these are the things that we bring to God. That's what God looks at when we serve Him with self-righteousness, arrogance, and pride. God forgive us. Amen? God forgive us. Righteousness. God has given us righteousness. He works in us what to will and to do of his good pleasure, and now we work it out. Amen? We work it out. And here's how we work it out by right choiceness, right? The righteousness of God has come into us, and now we have the ability of making proper right choices because of his Holy Spirit, the truth of God's word as we live it out and we and we declare the praises of God, the truth of God, the righteousness of God, right living and acting in accordance with God's standards. Amen? Ah, the righteousness of God in Christ. Now we have this ability to choose what is right, the ability to discern the wisdom of God and the righteousness of God, the sanctification of God. And then the second virtue is godliness, which is God-likeness, created in the image of God. Before you knew Christ, tainted, stained, but now we are the very image-bearers, the character and nature of God we reveal to a lost and dying world, and they say, I want that, I miss that, I don't have that. I need God in my life. Amen. Godliness, deep reverence and devotion to God that affects every part of your life, your words, your attitudes, your thoughts. I ask for repentance. Amen? And I confess my sin before Him. We're authentic before God, and we say, God, forgive me of my sin. Forgive me of those things that are unresolved in my heart. As I lay them before you, I give you my heart. Godliness, God-likeness. Isn't it a wonder that you can live like God on this planet? Amen? Character and nature of God, because the same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, people, now dwells in you. What do you think about that, Barbara? It's amazing. Amen. Amen. Very Spirit of God that raised Christ from the dead. We sang it today. How we are raised to new life because of Christ's resurrection power. And then faith. Faith. Now I went with Bruce Dominese to see someone in the hospital, and I drove in his car. Bruce is an old guy. I might have said to myself, can this guy drive a car? Right? Right? Every time we get into a Bruce, you did great. You drove me there, you drove me back, no problems whatsoever. Every time we get on a plane, every time we step into somebody's car, every time we get on an elevator, there's a sense of faith that we put in all of these things. Amen? Faith is trusting God and remaining entirely loyal to Him. It's opening the door and it's getting in the car of God's grace and love and wisdom and letting him drive. Amen? Let him drive, friends. Let him drive. Have the faith in God. So what are you trusting God for today? Do you have faith that God is going to see you through? Do you have faith that God is going to answer you? Do you have faith that God is going to supply the finances that you need and the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart to resolve these issues of life that we live with day in and day out as he brings resolution to us by letting us know that he received all of these things and he forgives us. We confess our sins before him and we live in this wonder of faith in God, trusting every promise. Do you know that every promise that God has for you, he says yes. And what do we say? Amen. So be it. Every promise that we read in the Word of God, we say, God, so be it. Just like Mary, who heard this craziness about the Holy Spirit coming upon her, and will the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Savior of the world, will be birthed from her. And what did she say? She said, Amen. And she said, Let it be to me according to your word. Man, if we can have that, men, if we can have that women, if we can have that children, if we can have that church, that same attitude, whatever it says in the word of God, let it be to me what God says in his word. Amen. And then there's uh love. Love. Now the Barry White kind of love is wonderful. Love. But this love that God is talking about is this agape love where we love people that we shouldn't love naturally because of the hurt, because of the offense, because of the words, because of the humiliation, because of the embarrassment. Amen. We can't love people like that in and of ourselves because our love falls short. But when we love them with the love of the Lord, amen. The love of the Lord that sheds in our hearts. And we do this by understanding the ministry of the love of God, that God has loved you so much in all of your insufficiencies, all of your inadequacies. Every time you fail, he still loves you. And we we we relish in this wonderful love. And out of us, as the Bible says, flows rivers of living water, the Holy Spirit ministering this love to other people. Is there somebody that you need forgiveness today? Do you need to forgive someone? Is there a breach in relationship that you have to go to someone and say, listen, before I lay my gift on the altar and praise my Lord, I gotta make it right with somebody. Amen? Love covers a multitude of sins. And this is the beautiful revelation of Jesus Christ. Is when we have all these things going around in our minds about the past, all of a sudden the great, wonderful, extravagant, slanderous love of God falls on us, redeems us, restores us, renews us. Amen. And it is wonderful, the love of God. Then the steadfastness. This is talking about patience. You've seen the little story about the turtle and the hare. The turtle gets sidetracked a lot, and not the turtle, the hare is running around, thinks he's winning the race. The turtle just keeps walking. That's gotta be us, amen? Steadfast, persevering, where we just keep trusting in the name of the Lord. The ability to endure hardships and not give up under pressure, realizing that everything that God is doing in our hearts and lives, He's taking care of the unresolution and bringing the solution, which is Jesus. Amen? Jesus. The sixth characteristic man of God is gentleness. A meek, humble, mild mannered spirit that rests under the control of the Holy Spirit. And it is hard for men because we want to fight back. We want to stand up for ourselves. Right? We defend ourselves. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is this wonderful power and authority under control. Amen? And this is a beautiful illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ. How he could have called down twelve legions of angels, but he was meek. Power and authority under control. He knew he had to set his face as a flint to the cross. The cross was his mission. The cross was his mission. We need the gentleness of the Lord in our heart and life. Amen. Here's some verses to close. Joshua 24, 15. It's on your spiritual formation sheet. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Amen. We will serve the Lord. Nudge your family member. Yea. Did you hear that? Me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So a father sets the spiritual direction of his home with conviction and truth. And God help us. Amen. Fathers, we need the help of the Lord. Amen? To stand true to the conviction and truth of God's word. Proverbs 20, verse 7. The righteous who walks in his integrity, blessed are his children after him. A father's love for God, God's character, honesty, and faith bless his children long after the moments of his life. Amen. The heritage of the Lord. Ephesians 6, 4. George spoke on this really, really well today. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. One of the clearest biblical verses directly addressed to fathers, calling them to lead with wisdom, patience, and godly instruction. Discipline is hard, isn't it? But it is so so needed. Psalms 103 13. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. Fatherhood reflects God's own heart with tenderness and compassion and the wonder of steadfast patience. And this isn't this the quest of every father and mother, that their child might know Christ, might have them as Lord and Savior, so that when they die, they'll see Jesus face to face. Amen. That's our cry of a father's heart. It's a cry of a mother's heart that children will be found in Christ, their lives hidden in Christ in God. And then Proverbs 22, 6. Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it. A father's love for God, love for his children, his influence, guidance, his long-term investment in his children will not be in vain. Amen. There will be fruit. Praise God. And you might have some children right now that might not have accepted Christ as their savior. They might have accepted Christ as their savior when they were younger, but maybe they have fallen away, living in a backslidden state. Guess what? As long as there's breath in their lungs, amen, there's hope that they'll turn back to Christ. And that's our cry. That's our cry of our heart. Amen? Cry of our heart that our children come into this wonderful relationship of knowing the love of God, experiencing the forgiveness of sins, walking in the potential and purpose that God has formed for them since time began. That's our cry. And men, we're ready for the task. Amen? I want you to put your unresolved solutions at the foot of the cross and allow the solution, the problem solver, the caretaker, Jesus Christ, to forgive you of your sins of the past and start a new day. Amen? Living for Jesus Christ with our family, showing the truth of God's word and the love of God. Fathers, we give you honor. We give you honor today because of all that you do. And we bless you today. And today we make a pact with the fathers and all the men in this place that we will be men of God. Amen? Men of God, following after righteousness, following after godliness, walking in faith, loving the way we should with the love of the Lord, a steadfast patience that keeps on moving, amen. Running the race, and a gentleness that enables the power of the Holy Spirit to minister to our families in grace and truth. And this is our cry, this is our prayer. And we give you all the glory, Lord. Lord, we thank you for all the men in this place on Father's Day. We thank you, Lord, for allowing them to be here today. And we thank you, Lord, that God, you love them. God, you have a plan for them. God, in all of their weaknesses and all of their trials, there's forgiveness, there's power, there's authority, there's the wonder of the truth of God preached, taught, lived out in every family represented here today. We pray for our families, Lord. Pray that you bind us together. We know it's the enemy's task, the enemy's strategy to tear apart the family. With all the opinions and arguments and speculations from hell itself, we know that there's a father, we know that there's a mother, we know that there's children. This makes up a family, Lord. We pray every right now protection over every family represented here. We pray for a new work of the Holy Spirit in our children, oh God. That they'll come to know you. They'll fall on their face and say, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is my Savior. They'll experience the washing and the cleansing of the Holy Spirit as they realize the forgiveness of sins, amen. And the holiness that you have for each child. We give you praise. And Lord, we're gonna close out this Father's Day singing on how we can stand in your love. Amen. Stand in your love. Amen. Every father, you ready?