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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could find your seats and grab your song books. Let's turn in our hymnals to 232, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Song 232, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. 232, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 And so, you know, some people don't have a DVD player. So I would just ask like, hey, would you want one of these DVDs? Would you watch it? And if they're like, I don't have a DVD player, just say, hey, we'll just scan this QR code. And they don't have to give them a DVD necessarily unless they really want one. That way they can still go to the website, they can still watch the film for free. And you can even tell them, hey, if you want to share this with people, just show them that QR code and everything like that. Also, we got some nice shirts here with help Dylan designing. So sodomitedeception.com and then on the back, we've got Leviticus 2013 with a QR code. So this is for all the fathers out there. And you say, well, I'm not a father and I want one of those shirts. Well, this is where Romans 1 comes into play. This is your savior. If you can quote Romans 1, you get one of these shirts. So you say, man, I want one of those shirts. Now for anybody that doesn't want one, if you still quote Romans 1, we'll have a separate gift card or something like that for you. But these are pretty sweet. They're really nice, really comfortable and really excited. So wear that with, you know, discretion in mind. All right. But I think it's nice because it says sodomitedeception.com. A lot of people might not know what that is, but later you'll burn them. So OK. And we got lots of good stuff. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Let's go ahead and go to our third song. We're going to go to song 18. Song number 18. Again, that's song 18. Take the name of Jesus with you. Song 18. Also, we're going to have Coke floats in the evening service for all the fathers. So that's another reason to stick around. All right. Amen. Song number 18. Take the name of Jesus with you. Take the name of Jesus with you. Child of sorrow and of love. It will joy and comfort give you. Take it then where'er you go. Precious name, all how sweet. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. Precious name, all how sweet. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. Take the name of Jesus ever. As a shield from every square. If temptations round you gather. Breathe that holy name in prayer. Precious name, all how sweet. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. Precious name, all how sweet. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. Oh, the precious name of Jesus. How it thrills our soul with joy. When his loving arms receive us. When his songs our tongues employ. Precious name, all how sweet. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. Precious name, all how sweet. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. At the name of Jesus bowing. Falling cross right at his feet. King of kings and heaven will crown him. When our journey is complete. Precious name, all how sweet. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. Precious name, all how sweet. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. Hope of earth in joy of heaven. Matthew 6, the Bible reads, Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. For if we forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air! For they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall ye not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought of the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this day, Lord, in which we lift up fathers, and we just pray now that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit and help him to preach his sermon for us clearly, articulately, and with boldness. And also, Lord, I pray that you would help us to listen intently to the message this morning so we can take the lessons that are in this message and apply them to our Christian lives. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Look back where the Bible reads in verse number 9. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And what I want to take out of this verse here is this phrase that's found in the Bible, Our Father, Our Father. That's a very interesting wording that the Bible has there, but notice how Jesus Christ is describing God in heaven. He's describing the Father as Our Father, as something that's not just to Him specifically, but it's to all saved believers. It's to every single person that's saved. We have a Father in heaven, and He's Our Father. So the title of my sermon this morning is this, Our Father. Today is what people celebrate as Father's Day, and really, there's only one person I think of that deserves all that praise, and it's God the Father. It's Our Father that really deserves all that praise and that honor and that glory. Look at the Bible words. Go to Romans chapter 1. I just want to flip through a lot of passages real quick, and notice what the Bible is saying here because it's really interesting, this phrase. Look at Romans chapter 1, verse number 7. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, graced you in peace from God, Our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. So notice again it says it's Our Father. Go to 1 Corinthians. Just skip over to 1 Corinthians, and we're just going to kind of take a tour through the New Testament quickly. 1 Corinthians, look at chapter number 1, and look at verse number 1. The Bible reads, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother. Under the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you, and peace from God, Our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, he's reiterating. Hey, he's talking to the Romans. It's Our Father. He's talking to the 1 Corinthians. It's Our Father. Go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 1. Go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 1. When Jesus Christ is teaching his disciples how to pray, how does he address God? He addresses God as Our Father, which art in heaven. So again, he's saying that it's Our Father, making it possessive, making it personal, making it special. Look what it says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 2. Grace be to you, and peace from God, Our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Colossians for a second. Go to Colossians, chapter number 1. Colossians, chapter number 1. Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. And look at chapter number 1. Look at verse number 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God unto Mothius our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren Christ, which are at Colossae. Grace be unto you, and peace from God, Our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Ephesians, chapter number 1. Go to Ephesians, chapter number 1. I want to go backwards for a second and look at chapter 1 and look at verse number 1. The Bible says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you, and peace from God, Our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Now, this is a really powerful verse here in the Bible, and he's making it clear that God is our Father. And you say, well, how is He our Father? Well, we've been adopted as children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. So God wants us to be His children. God has adopted us to be His children. And we are His children. He's our Father. And so you say, well, I didn't have the best Father in the world. That doesn't matter, because you have a Father which is in heaven. And He loves you, and He wants to adopt you, and He wants to take you on as a child. And you know what? Being an adopted child doesn't make you second rate, because you know what? We're first rate in God's sight, even though we've been adopted by God, and He is our Father, and He's the most loving Father you could ever have. Go to 1 Thessalonians, chapter number 1. Go to 1 Thessalonians, chapter number 1, and look at verse number 1. The Bible says, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you, and peace. From God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor, of love and patience, of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. So notice again, he's just reiterating this fact of what? Our Father, God our Father. It just keeps hammering this point. Go to 2 Thessalonians, or go to verse 3, I'm sorry, chapter 3, and look at verse 11. Now God Himself, and notice this, and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you, and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another and toward all men, even as we do toward you. To the end, He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all saints. He says a couple things here that's really cool the way it's worded. He says, now God Himself and our Father. So what's another title for just God? Our Father. Isn't that a really cool title that we get to have when we're calling the greatest being of the universe, I mean the Creator of everything, the God of gods, has not just got the title God, He's got the title our Father. And you know, it's kind of special whenever you can talk about your Father in such a way, when you can look up to your Father in such a way and say, hey, that person that's got great recognition, or this person that's got great prestige, he's my Father. Isn't that nice to be able to look up? I mean, obviously it's perverted family, but you know, Hunter Biden gets to use this all the time. He says, look, my dad's the President. Meaning what? He's holding a position of high office, of high praise. Now obviously it's probably illegitimate, but here's the thing. We actually have a legitimate King of kings, Lord of lords, God of gods, at the top of the top. And you know what you can call him? Our Father. He's our Father. And the Bible makes it clear that he wants us to specifically call him that. In verse 13, when it says in holiness before God, it says this phrase, even our Father. The word even means specifically. So he's saying God is specifically our Father. That's who God is. Look at, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 now. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, flip the page, and look at verse 1. I mean, the Bible is just hammering this point that God is our Father. God is our Father. So if you would, to Philemon, go to Philemon for a second, and we're going to go back to 1 Timothy. Philemon chapter 1, look at verse 3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Go backwards to 1 Timothy chapter number 1. 1 Timothy chapter number 1. And look at chapter 1 verse 1. Our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. And so, just to kind of start off, I just wanted to show you there's so many different places in the Bible where God is clearly defined as our Father, making it personal, making it special. Go if you would to Matthew chapter number 23. Go to Matthew chapter number 23. That also does a lot of things. It gives us unity. Because not only is it my Father, it's our Father. We all have this same commonality. We're all the same family. We have brothers and sisters in Christ today. And we have one Father. And that's why you have this ultimate blasphemy that a lot of churches will do today where they'll put a person in power, spiritually, and they'll call him Father. It's called the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church today will get up and they will call their person in charge, Father so-and-so. Father this, Father that. They call the Pope, you know, their Father. They call all of the church leaders and the people that are in positions of power as a Father. But this is a wicked, ungodly title that no man is supposed to have because we're all brothers and sisters in Christ and we have a Father. And the only person that should be called our Father is God the Father. Look what it says in Matthew 23, verse number 9. And call no man your Father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven. So notice there's a special title given to God. What is it? Our Father. So how blasphemous is it for a whole church to be gathered together and say, oh, the guy on stage, that's our Father, Father John, or Father so-and-so, or Father whatever. No, we have one Father and it's God the Father. And He is our Father. That's it. Now obviously this is a spiritual verse here. Obviously it's okay if you go home and you call your literal Father, Father. Okay, this is my Father or whatever. But it's saying from a spiritual perspective, no one is allowed to have the title Father except for God the Father. And again, because you don't want to say something that's not true. Someone who is a spiritual person, they're not your spiritual Father. Okay, now the Bible does give an analogy with the Apostle Paul and his son. He calls him his son and we understand that the Apostle Paul plays like a father figure role in his life. But what would be wrong is for Timothy to look back at Paul and be like, this is my Father. No, there's only one Father and that's God the Father. That's it. They both have the same Father. And so we have to make sure that we understand who our Father is. It's God the Father. Go to John 3.16 for a second. Go to John chapter number 3, verse number 16. And I have four quick points that I want to go over this morning about our Father. But what makes our Father special? You know, a lot of people on Father's Day, one thing that you could do is you could praise your Father. You could glorify your Father. You could tell him why he's special. You could tell him what you appreciate about him and basically let him know your feelings for him. And here's one of the things that we should appreciate about our Father is that he loves us. That he loves us. Look at John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You know, a lot of times when we talk about the Word of God and we talk about the Gospel, we really emphasize Jesus Christ. And there's nothing wrong with emphasizing Jesus Christ. But we have to realize that John 3.16 is emphasizing the love of God the Father. It's emphasizing the love that our Father has towards us that he was willing to sacrifice the only begotten Son that he had in order to give all of us life. In order to adopt us. In order to bring us back into reconciliation and relationship with him. The picture of love that we have from our Father. Our Father loves us. God the Father loves us. And you know, maybe you had a physical father that didn't love you as much or didn't appreciate you that much. But here's the thing. God the Father can't love you enough. Our Father loves us so much he paid the ultimate price by sacrificing his only begotten Son. And there's no greater price that he could have paid. There's no greater sacrifice he could have made. It was an ultimate picture of love. Go to 1 John chapter number 4. Go to 1 John chapter number 4. The Bible makes it clear that this is very special. And this is something that we should appreciate about our Father is that he loves us. Isn't it great to have a father that loves you? You know, a father that doesn't love you can be frustrating. It can be disappointing. It can be grievous. It can be very sad. But the thing is, no matter what physical father we have, we all have the same spiritual father. And he loves us infinitely. More than any physical father ever could. It says in 1 John chapter number 4, look at verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten Son in the world that we might live through him. So the Bible says, you know what makes love really obvious? The word manifest means to make something obvious, clear, reveal something. He's saying the greatest picture of love or the way to make love so obvious is what God did for us by sending his Son. That's the ultimate picture of love. And I will submit to you to this today, without God, we wouldn't know what love is. You say, well, what is love? It's God. What is the picture of love? It's God sacrificing his Son. There's nothing more loving than what God did. It's the ultimate picture of love. And this world today, they love to go around and pretend like they, oh, love wins. And they love to champion the idea of love. But here's the thing, they actually, if they don't get saved, they're rejecting the greatest picture of love there actually is. And people who are not saved don't even really know what love is. And if we look to the world today and they try to show us what love looks like, you know what they all end up doing? They all end up trying to just emulate God. What is the greatest movies of all time? It's a picture of someone having, as far as love is concerned, right? I'm not saying like a thriller or whatever. I'm saying like a love story. Whenever Hollywood or whenever the world tries to make the ultimate love story, what do they do? They have someone sacrificing, right? Sacrificing something really special or precious to them to illustrate love. And you say, where did they learn that from God? But they can't dream up, you can't dream up something more loving than what God did with Jesus Christ. There's nothing more loving, period. And they try to pretend like, oh, I'm more loving because I would just let everyone into heaven. Well, that's not loving. That just means you're unholy and unjust and you're wicked if you're just going to let everybody into heaven automatically. No, God is both holy and just and He's love all at the same time. He did the most loving things He could possibly do. And when we look at the greatest picture of love, it comes from God. It comes from the Bible. He teaches us what it looks like to love. And so as fathers in the room, if you say, hey, I want to be a loving father like God the Father, learn what love is like. Love is sacrifice. Love is giving of yourself. Love is being willing to lay down the things that are most precious to you in order to benefit those that are under you. You know, it's not loving to be selfish. It's not loving to honor and glorify and praise yourself. God basically sacrifices only begotten son. He gives His son all the honor. He gives His son all the glory. But we see the ultimate picture that God paid. The price that He paid for us is by having to, you know, cause His son to go through that pain and suffering and torture. I mean, most parents in this room, they would realize that if their child has any kind of danger, they would put their life on the line. They would put their life at risk. I mean, you know, if my child's in the street, I'm going to run out in front of that car. You know, you may try to take a bullet for your son. And so more grievous would be to have your child suffer. So watch your son go through something so horrendous and so horrific and actually have to forsake your own son and have to turn your back on your own son and go through all of this pain and this suffering and this woe. But why did he do it? Why would God do all these things? Because, you know, the atheists today, they'll blaspheme God and they'll say, oh, He's so mega-maliacal or whatever. He's so evil. He's so, you know, vindictive. And why is He punishing His son? And why is He doing all this evil? But here's the thing. He did all of that out of one motivating factor, love. Because that was the only way. The only way for God to be both holy, just, and loving at the same time is the cross. It's what He did through Jesus Christ. That sin had to be paid for. And God is too holy and too righteous to have a relationship with sin. He had to have it paid for. He had to have it atoned for. And the only way we can stand before God is by the righteousness of His son, Jesus Christ. And so looking at us, He said, okay, why could... think about it. He could have thrown all of us in hell and just started over if He wanted and just kept His son. But He looked at His son and He looked at us and He said, you know what? I would rather my son go through the most excruciating pain imaginable just so I can be reconciled to some of you. To some of my creation. That's how much He really loves us. That's how much He really cares about us, that He's willing to sacrifice Jesus. I mean, you asked me, if someone came in this room and said, all right, I'm going to put a bullet in everyone's head in this room or your son. Y'all don't have very good odds, I'm just going to be honest. And I mean, I feel like I love you guys, but obviously not anywhere close. And I have more than one kid. I mean, if you're talking about my only son, my only begotten son that's done nothing wrong. I mean, this is a picture of God the Father. His son's done nothing wrong. He's perfect. He always is the light. And he has to decide if he's going to... And again, it's not even just a bullet in the head. It's torture. It's the worst suffering. He had to bear the sins of the whole world is what he's asking his son to do. He's asking his son to be clothed with mortality and to go down into the earth and to hunger and to suffer. And not just the physical pain, the shame and embarrassment that Jesus had to go through of His own creation rejecting Him, of His own creation spitting in His face. Can you imagine what visceral reaction you would have if some guy walked up to your son and just hawked a loogie in your son's face? And started mocking your son and started punching your son in the face and being like, you can't do nothing about it. I mean, you would want to tear that guy in half. I mean, this is the love that God has towards us. It's a love that nobody else could ever show. It's a love that nobody else has. Real love is by God the Our Father. And we learn what love is like from God. Those that don't know God, those that don't read the Bible, those that are not saved, they have no idea what true love really is. What true love really looks like. And this love, when we understand and get a deeper grasp of who Our Father is, it can help us love in the same way. It can help us decide how to appreciate one another and decide how to appreciate our children and our families more. And we should be motivated to love our children. The love that God has towards us, we should look at that example and say, wow, I have a lot of room where I could love more. I should be willing to love people more and do more in my life. Look what He says in verse 10. Here in His love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Why did God give us such an example of love? Obviously to save us, obviously to sanctify us, but even just to give us an example so that we could know what it's like to love, too. You throw away the Bible, you throw away the word of God, people would have no idea what love is. I mean, the world today is so selfish, it's so self-involved. The Bible warns in the last days men shall be lovers of their own selves, and that's what we see today. We don't see sacrificial people. And the people that go around pontificating that they're sacrificial, who are those? Our politicians. Don't they go around? The police officers. Yet it's funny, when I go and I knock on everybody's door, you know an example of somebody I use that people don't trust in? A police officer. And they all get it. They're not like, what do you mean? I trust all cops. It's like, no. He's not a true public servant, is he? And again, I'm not saying every cop's a bad person, but I'm just saying if that's our example of what love really looks like, people are going to be way off. If they look at our politicians as people that are loving, they're going to be way off. What politician is anywhere close to sacrificial like God? Oh, you know, the picture of love is these Hollywood celebrities that marry a new spouse every single week. Where's that love? There's no sacrifice in their life. It's all about me. It's all about what I can do. Oh, what about our, you know, celebrities? The famous athletes. That's a picture of love of what? Loving themselves, loving a trophy more than their family, loving a trophy more than their wife, like Tiger Woods. That guy doesn't love anything but himself. And look, he's been destroyed now. He like fell off a clip or something and broke his body or whatever. I don't even know if he'll play golf again. What kind of a sad, pathetic existence do you have when you live your whole life for golf and then you can't even play anymore? That sucks. You know, it happens to a lot of football players. They go through high school, they go through college, and they have a college-ending injury, a career-ending injury, and they don't even make it into the pros, and now they have nothing. And then what do they do? They get hooked on drugs or something, and they just live a sad, pathetic existence for the rest of their life. Look, the world doesn't really know what love is because it's absent without the Bible. Love is from God. God is love. That's the ultimate picture of love that we have today. And when we go out, we preach the love of God. People get mad at us sometimes. You know what? It's the best picture of love is what Jesus Christ did for us when we go out and we preach the gospel. And we're also supposed to have that love not just to the unsaved but even to the saved. From brothers and sisters in Christ, a sacrificial love. And I love the way the Bible words this because he says very clearly, verse 10, and here it is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. And I think sometimes people in this room, they think, well, I would love to love the people in this room that love me, but that's not the love that God had towards us. God loved us when we didn't love him. Think about that. You can love somebody in this room that doesn't love you back. You can be kind to someone that doesn't show kindness to you. And here's the thing, our Father loved the whole world even when it didn't care about him. And he still loves us and he still does good unto us. The Bible says he reigns on the just and on the unjust. Why? Because God is love. There's nothing more loving than God. Look what it says in verse number 12. No man has seen God at any time if we love one another. God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen him to testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldest in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love, for we love him because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hated his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? The Bible also illustrates that if we want to reciprocate God's love, the Bible says we love him because he first loved us. Then we illustrate that love by loving one another. People that have no love for the brethren, people that have no love for the saved Christian, they don't love God. The Bible makes it crystal clear. You want to know the people that love God the most are the people that love Christians the most. If you love people in this room that don't love you back and you try to be as friendly and kind and loving to all the people that you know that are saved, that is a picture of someone that loves God. The person that is always bitter and angry and has no love for his brothers and sisters in Christ, this person does not love God. How can you not love your brother and sister in Christ when our example is God loving the unsaved? I mean if God can love the unsaved, how much more than can we love the saved? And if God loved us when we don't deserve it, don't look at loving someone when they deserve it. I think a lot of people want to love people when they deserve it. And really, think about your own children. I know you have a personal bias towards them, but let's just be honest for a moment. Do they really deserve our love? I mean what do they do? They came out of the womb screaming and crying. I mean they damaged the wife's body, right? The mother had to go through an excruciating nine months of all kinds of pain and suffering. Then it was delivered. Then the child just screams and cries and demands food, demands love, demands attention. It's very selfish, right? I mean are you going to really tell me that children deserve it? That's why people that are not the mother, not the father, virtually have no love for that child. You take them to don't care, you take them to the foster area, you take them to whatever. They look at children as what? As a burden. And you say why? Because they are a burden. Because it is difficult to love. It is hard. Now obviously God puts inside a father and a mother this natural desire to love your children, to do good under your children. I get that. But you know what? It's effort. It takes energy to love your children because you know what? They don't deserve it. You give them everything and they don't thank you. They don't appreciate you. They don't do everything that you tell them. They don't follow your rules. They're rebellious. Yet, you know what? Parents still love their children. And you children, you know what you should do? You should appreciate your dads more. You should obey your fathers more. And not just your physical father, even your heavenly father. Who constantly does good unto us. I mean, can I really look at God and be like, yeah, I deserve the things that I have. I don't deserve anything. I deserve way worse than I have today. I mean, if we understood how much we really sin, we would be blown away by how much God still loves us. It's like how has God not rained down fire and brimstone on us too? It's because of how merciful and kind and gracious and loving our father is unto us. And you say, well, why do you appreciate God the father? Because how much he loves us. How much he loves us. And you know, he's demonstrated what love is to us so that we can understand how to love. We can love him back. We can love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can love the unsaved. And we can even love our children today. And you say, through what example? Through God's example. You know, a lot of times people are limited in their understanding of love, who their physical father is. They have an unloving father. They have a parent figure in their life that's not very kind or not very appreciative of their children. Doesn't take care of them. And so that's their perception of love. But we need to renew our mind with who God the father is and have that perspective of what love looks like. And that's how we're supposed to love people. Not how the people in our life loved us, but how God loves us. Not what people have done unto us, but what God does as our example. Go to Proverbs chapter number three. Go to Proverbs chapter number three. Say, why do you appreciate our father, Pastor Shelley? It's because he loves us. And really, obviously, every point emanates from love. But let's have a couple more specific examples of what the Bible says about love and what that looks like and what a loving father will do. Proverbs chapter number three. This is the second point of why we should appreciate our father. Proverbs chapter three. Look at verse number 11. The Bible reads, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth. And so the second reason why we should appreciate our father is because he disciplines us. Because he corrects us. Because he disciplines us. And that discipline is a loving discipline. And the Bible says this is a picture of love. I mean, the Bible says he that spares this rod hated his son is what the Bible says. And so a picture of love is one that will discipline, correct, and instruct his child, and help his child to do that which is right. Help his child to have knowledge, to have wisdom, to have strength, to be temperate, to do everything that's right. I mean, God's commandments don't make you a worse person. They make you a better person. And, you know, there's this phrase out there that we need to bring back. Father knows best. Father knows best. You know, Hollywood in this world has done its best to attack that phrase and try to make it seem like every TV show and every sitcom and every movie that mom knows best. But let me tell you something. Father knows best. And, you know, really knows best is our father, God the father. He knows best. Every instruction, every rule, every commandment he gives us is always going to be the best thing for our life. And instead of arguing, instead of rebelling, instead of trying to figure out how to do something, you know, and be more smart than God, have more intelligence than God, we need you to submit to his wisdom, submit to his knowledge, submit to his instruction, and appreciate the discipline and correction he gives us. You know, when you read the Bible, you should feel disciplined. You should feel corrected. You should feel chastised. You know, when you're doing something wrong and a scripture comes to mind from the Holy Ghost, it's that gentle, loving correction that God wants to give us to help us to realize what we need to do. You know, when you come to a church and you have a man of God get up and preach the word of God to you, whether that be a pastor or just brother so and so, and he's preaching the word of God and you feel a little bit of a sting, that's God's loving discipline. God can use people in your life to bring discipline into your life. And you know what, you should appreciate your father who disciplines you. Go to Hebrews chapter number 12. Go to Hebrews chapter number 12 and you say, well, my father here on the earth disciplines me a lot. Sounds like you have a good father because I guarantee you need more. We all deserve more discipline than we got. I mean, no one got like, well, I got double discipline for all of my transgressions. No, you didn't. You probably didn't even get half. You probably didn't even get a quarter. You know, if my parents knew everything I did that was wrong, I'd have been spanked like every hour, you know, or less. I mean, it would have been so often, you know, the reality is, you know, your physical father isn't God. He's not omniscient. He's not everywhere. He doesn't know everything. So he can only discipline you on the things that he observes and notices. You know what, you should appreciate that discipline and realize it's because he loves you and he wants you to be a good son. He wants you to be a productive member of society and he wants what's best for you. Hebrews chapter 12 to verse 5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chasteneth us after their own pleasure. But he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemed to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So what the Bible is teaching here, and it's making very clear, is that while physical discipline is never going to be something that you enjoy in the moment. And that's the point. The point is to not enjoy it. The point is to feel pain. The point is to be afflicted. The point is that you don't like what's happening, otherwise it's not discipline. But it's saying while in the moment it's grievous, afterward you end up looking back and you realize, wow, I needed that. Wow, that was beneficial for me. Wow, that helped me out. That made me a better person. It helped me not make worse decisions or to ruin my life. And so it's interesting how you can take something that's negative on the onset or at the beginning, and then it can be a blessing in the end. It can be something that God can use to help us understand something. What is that that we get the benefit of? Or how do we get something good out of this? Well, notice what it says. It says that we're partakers of His holiness. In verse number 10 at the end, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now, thinking about this phrase is a very interesting phrase. Why does God punish us when you think about it? Or why does someone punish you? It's because you're not meeting a certain threshold of right. You're not meeting a certain threshold of righteousness or holiness or doing good. And you say, well, what's that standard? It's essentially the standard of the person who's exercising the punishment, okay? Whoever's punishing you has deemed you as being a transgressor or in violation of what? Their standard of righteousness, their standard of holiness. And so the reality is, whenever they punish you, what are they trying to do? They're trying to help you get to their standard of holiness, their standard of righteousness. And so when God is punishing us and disciplining us, what is He wanting us to do? He's wanting us to go to His standard of righteousness, His standard of holiness. But if God had no holiness, this is hypothetically speaking, if God had no righteousness, then He wouldn't be able to discipline us. But because He is perfectly holy, because He is perfectly righteous, He has the ability to help us come to His standard of holiness and righteousness. Therefore, our fathers in this earth, they're not perfect. They don't have perfect holiness. They don't have perfect righteousness. So here's the thing. Their correction, their discipline is going to be lacking in some ways. Because bringing them up to your standard is not the same standard as God's standard. And let me say it this way. Men that have a very low level of holiness and righteousness are going to very seldom punish their children. And you say, why? Because they don't have any standard to bring them up to. When you don't have a high standard, when you don't have a high level of holiness, when you don't have a high level of righteousness, how are you then going to discipline your children according to your standard? You can't. So ends up, the guys that have the most permissive lives, the least amount of holiness, the least amount of righteousness, you know what they end up doing? They end up disciplining their children the least. And the people that have the highest levels of holiness, the highest standards, the highest set measures of righteousness, you know what they end up doing? Is they end up punishing their children more. But you know what? That increased level of punishment you should be appreciative of because it brings you to a higher standard of holiness and righteousness. We get to be partakers of His holiness and partakers of His righteousness. Why? Because He disciplines us. It's a privilege. You know, being corrected is a privilege. That's why people want to go to what? The most prestigious law school. The most prestigious medical school. And what makes them prestigious? They have a high standard, right? They have a high level of academia where you have to meet to their quality and to their proficiency. And if you don't, what do they do? They tell you you failed or they give you some kind of correction or you don't get a degree or whatever. And so what are they trying to do? They're trying to bring you up to their standard. And colleges have what? Different levels of accreditation based on what? Their standards. And where if there's just a school where you just pay a hundred bucks and they just give you a degree, you're not brought up to a very high standard, are you? And so here's the reality. God has the highest standard. And He's trying to bring us up to that kind of a standard. And this should be a motivation for all the fathers in the room to say, you know what? I need to be a good example. I need to try and be like God the Father. I need to have holiness and righteousness in my life so that I will what? Discipline my children and bring them up to a high standard of holiness and righteousness. That's the example that God gives us. And we should appreciate that discipline. We should appreciate that correction. We should appreciate what God is doing for us. And notice what He said in verse 10. But He for our profit. The correction is to profit us. Now He's saying obviously a parent, if their kid's screaming and acting out, you punish them and it's a mutual profit. You profit from the fact that they stop screaming. You profit from the fact that they start obeying. But the child's also profiting. God doesn't need that. God's already arrived. God's already at the highest level of holiness and righteousness or whatever. So Him, whenever He punishes us and corrects us, it's only for our benefit. It's only for our profit in that sense. And He's just trying to make us better and we should not be so adversarial or we should not despise or be weary of God's correction. We should embrace it as much as possible. We should try to get as much correction and as much discipline from God as we possibly can. You say, what does that look like? I don't know, going to church, reading your Bible, listening to sermons, singing the hymns. Whatever you can do that's spiritual, you should do it as much as possible and you should appreciate the correction that God is offering you. You know, there's a lot of people in this world that would love to go to a church where they could be screamed at every single week. But they go to a church where they're just pat on the back and they try to give them a weak gospel every single week. And they don't like that and you say, why? Because they're not growing. What do people say? I'm not growing. I'm not getting any smarter. I'm not getting any knowledge. I'm not getting any information. They want to be corrected. They want to be disciplined. They want to get right. You know, I have people come to my preaching class and they ask me, they're like, hey, how can I improve? What can I do better? Why? Because they want that. People that have the right attitude, they desire correction. They don't despise it. They don't look at it as a negative thing. But you know who despises correction today? This world. Go to Romans chapter number one. You know, despises their parents, this world today. And you know, we have this stupid month where the world tries to promote the most prideful people on the planet. The most wicked, disgusting, filthy people on the planet today. They're sodomites. And there's a certain attribute. It's not a coincidence how the Bible describes all of their attributes. You know, they hate their fathers. The LGBTQ, let me make it clear, fags, lesbians, dykes, whatever you want to call them. Queers. What else can we call them? All of those, you know, the lesbian, bi, queer, whatever you want to call it. Not normal, brute beasts, filthy, dogs. That's how the Bible describes them. These people hate their parents. They hate their father. And they also hate God the Father. They hate all of them. And you say, well, how could you say that? I know a sodomite and he loves God. No, he doesn't. He can lie to you. But remember, what was one of the manifestations of the fact that you love God? You love Christians. You know who hates Christians more than anybody on this planet? Sodomites. Man, do they hate them. Man, do they despise them. And look what the Bible says in verse 25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause, God gave them up into vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. And so God, you know, he doesn't really lovingly chastise and discipline these people. He lovingly chastises and disciplines the saved. He said very clearly in Hebrews chapter number 12, if they don't have the chastisement, they're bastards. God doesn't go around and just lovingly disciplining these people. All he does is turns off a switch in their brain called normal. Whatever the normal connector was in their brain, God disconnects it. Natural, normal, loving, just human. I mean, he just breaks that connection. They become a brute beast. They become unnatural. They become vile. And then they're just left off to just get worse and worse and worse. He says, hey, you don't want to think about me? Fine. I'll just cut the cord. I'll just snip the cord and you'll never want to believe in me. You'll never have anything to do with me. And notice what are the attributes of these people. Verse number 30 says backbiters, haters of God. Notice they hate their father. They hate God the Father. And he's not their father because they haven't believed in Jesus Christ. But they hate our father. They hate the creator. They hate the one that gave them an existence. They hated the person that would have been their father, that wanted to be their father, that wanted to adopt them, that was willing to love them, but they rejected him. They hate him. And notice the same attribute goes to their physical parents in the same verse. It says, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. Now it's no shock then that on Father's Day, there's all these LGBT activists trying to what? Attack Father's Day. And trying to go against Father's Day and say, you know what, we should call it Special Persons Day instead. What does that even mean? Special Persons? You know, that's really an attack on God the Father, too. Because the Bible says, honor thy father and thy mother. And that goes to God the Father, too. And we're supposed to love him and appreciate him. And what kind of a sick, disgusting, selfish person can't have any love back to the father and mother that brought them in this world? I mean, barring the fact that your parents are a reprobate, I mean, you should love them, period. And I mean, even the reprobate, you can still just appreciate the fact they gave you an existence. I'm not saying you have a great relationship with them, necessarily. I would stay away from that person. But you know what? You could still be as respectful as possible to that person. I mean, this person brought you into existence. Yeah, what is the LGBT? They hate their parents. They want to kill their parents. They despise their parents today. And they'll even have this, they want to change Father's Day into a feminist holiday saying men should be advocates for women on Father's Day. Like, what in the world? You know, but the Bible also makes it clear that we have one father, not two dads. Gross. It's disgusting. One of these disgusting, filthy sodomites had that on their poster whenever they protest, I think, Pastor Mena's church or whatever, that Jesus had two dads. How blasphemous. How wicked. How sick. These people are disgusting. Joseph was not Jesus' father. He's the son of God. God was his father. And when he prays, he prays to his father, which is in heaven. And he says, I must be about my father's business, which is God the Father. Go, if you would, to Genesis chapter number 22. Go to Genesis chapter 22. But today, we need to appreciate our physical fathers, and we need to appreciate God the Father. There's no excuse. You know, these people are disgusting and filthy. Don't listen to what the world thinks. Don't get on their bandwagon. Don't change it to special person's day. No. Now, if you don't want to celebrate a particular holiday that the world celebrates, that's your own prerogative. But don't try to attack and twist and pervert what God has set up, fathers and mothers, and change into special persons. They're not special. They're vile is what they are. They're wicked. Look what it says in Genesis 22, verse number 8. This is the third reason that we should appreciate our father. It says, And Abraham said, My son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering, so they went both of them together. God not only loves us, God not only disciplines us, He also provides for us. You know, it's interesting, when it comes to our salvation, God did everything. He provided Himself a lamb, didn't He? He provided Himself the sacrifice. He did it all. He didn't look at us and say, Well, what are you going to do to get saved? He's just like, I did it all. Just accept it. Please get saved. He's the perfect provider. You know, a loving father provides for his family. He doesn't look at his family to provide for him. You know, I don't look at my little baby and think like, Are you going to do your part? Are you going to pay for the meal? Are you picking up the check? No. Dad just picks up the check. Dad just provides for everything. Dad is the one that's paying the bill. Go if you would to Matthew chapter 6. Go back to our beginning passage, Matthew chapter number 6. You know what I love about this is that our Father in Heaven, you know what? He picks up the tab. He picks up the tab for salvation. He picks up the tab not only just on our spiritual salvation, but you know what? On our daily lives. And this is one that's really hard for us to trust in, and it's really hard for us to really believe sometimes. But the Bible makes it crystal clear that your father, just as much as a little child, should trust his dad for everything. We're supposed to trust God for everything. We're supposed to trust our Father in Heaven for everything. Now look what it says in verse 25. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life. What ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on, is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment. Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather in a barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought cannot one cube it under stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field which today is, and tomorrow is cast in the oven, shall ye not much more clothe you? O ye of little faith! Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient in the days the evil thereof. Notice we're not supposed to worry about all of the physical necessities that we have. You know we're supposed to be focused on? God. You know we're supposed to be focused on our Father. You know we're supposed to be focused on His business. Jesus Christ did not go around in His ministry worried about where He was going to sleep. He didn't worry about what He was going to eat. He didn't worry about what clothes He was going to wear. You know it was on the primary thought of Jesus Christ doing His Father's business, the work that He had for Him to do. First was God. He put God first in every area of His life, and then He put everything else second, a distant second. Now look, this is not saying that you don't work hard and go to the job and go to the store and buy food. What He's saying is this. After you've done everything you can to provide for the things you need, then you need to immediately stop worrying about it. And your primary focus needs to be God. Your primary goal in life is God. Your primary thought is seeking Him and His righteousness, getting as righteous as you possibly can, loving the Lord as much as you possibly can. You know, what sense would it make if I go home today and my little kids, who are very little right now, they look at me and they say, Dad, what are we going to do? How are we going to pay the water bill this month? I'm going to pay it. No, I'm so worried, Dad. I better figure out what to do about the water bill and how the grass is going to get cut and how the trash is going to be taken out and what are we going to have for dinner. They don't need to worry about those things. You know what they need to do? Just be my children. You know what they need to do? Worry about learning how to read and learning how to take care of themselves, wash themselves, all the things that they need to do for them. But they don't need to worry about other stuff. I got it. You say, well, how much worrying is your children going to help pay the bills? Zero. It's only going to make it worse. It's only going to make it frustrating to me, right? But we as God's children, don't we often we stress and we worry and we're so anxious about how God is going to provide all those things for us rather than just trusting. Rather than just saying, you know what? I'm going to put God first in my life. I'm going to put him at the forefront of everything that I do and then I'm just going to let him take care of my clothing, my food, where I'm going to live, what I'm going to do, all the things that I need. That's what I really appreciate about our Father is that if you truly say, you know what? Nuts to all that other stuff. I'm just going to look focus on him right now that all those things end up taking care of themselves. All those things, just somehow they get taken care of. They all get somehow all the bills get paid somehow. You're still here. You still have. I don't see anyone naked this morning. Praise the Lord. None of you look like you missed a meal recently. Okay. Praise the Lord. I mean, it's not like we're really in bad shape here and worrying about it and stressing about it and being anxious about it isn't going to help. No, I want my children to just be comfortable just living their life and not worrying about those things and that's how we're supposed to live. You know, God didn't put us on this earth to just stress. You know, people get so stressed out about this stuff. You know, they're like preppers. I'm just being honest. Preppers. They're so worried. They've got like 18 backup generators and they've got a bunker and they've got like 18 years, 25 years of storeable food from Alex, you know, or whatever. What is it? 25 years? I mean, they've got everything. They're so worried. They're biting their nails. They've got all these extra reserves. They've got all these things. They're just so afraid of the future that they're not living today. They're planning for 25 years. You don't even know if you're going to be alive 25 years from now. You know, start worrying about serving God today rather than worrying about you being physically alive 25 years from now. You don't even know if that's going to happen. And you say, well, I don't know how to plan for the rest of my life. Here it is. Just take one step towards Christ every moment of your life and don't worry about the rest. You say, well, I'm nervous about my kids or I'm nervous about whatever. You know what? Just train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old he will not depart from it. You know, we're supposed to just put our faith in what God says. Hey, if I put God first in my life, all the other stuff is going to take care of itself. You know what you should be afraid of is deciding not to put God first in your life and waking up 20, 30 years from now and realizing, wow, everything's screwed up. I can't go back and fix it now. I wish I had been going. You know, if you don't take your kids to church by the time they turn 18, you know, you're not going to see them in church. You don't treat you don't teach your kids how to read and write. They're not going to magically learn those things. You don't teach your kid out of love. You don't teach your kid how to get saved. You don't teach your kid how to do these things. You know, eventually your life's going to fast forward way quicker than you thought. And you're going to look back and you can say, oh, wow. You know, life goes by like a speeding train. I mean, it's just it's quick. Instead of worrying about that, you should worry about now and you should worry about serving God now and seeking him first and putting him first in your life. Go to second Corinthians chapter one, go to second Corinthians chapter one. Last thing that I really appreciate about God the Father is this, that he comforts us, that he comforts us. And again, all these stem from love. He loves us. He disciplines us. He provides for us. He comforts us. Look what it says in Second Corinthians chapter one, verse number two. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. And I have a lot of other verses we could look at, but here's the thing, the Bible says that when we're cast down, you know, when we're... What does cast down mean? When we're miserable. We're gloomy. We're depressed. When we go through troubles and struggles. God wants to comfort us in that situation. God wants to help us and bless us. And you know, the Bible shows us lots of different ways, but some of the ways that God blesses us or comforts us is by sending someone in our life. You know, you could be the answer to someone's prayer of being a comfort unto someone. A person to come and a shoulder to cry on, a person to love you, a person to renew you. And what is really comfort? Comfort is strength and hope. Strength and hope. And you know what? No matter who you are, where you're at, what you find yourself in, God can still have hope for you because you can still serve God. You can still have things to look for. You can still have, you know, a child, a friend, a church member, the lost. You can still have someone to motivate you to have strength for tomorrow. To realize there's someone out there that needs you. There's someone out there that needs you to be strong. And you know what? God gives us all kinds of hope knowing that eventually we're going to live with Him, eventually we're never going to have pain, eventually we're never going to have suffering, eventually we're going to rule and inherit the earth with Christ. I mean, isn't that pretty comforting to know? No matter what you go through, no matter what struggles, how about the fact that no matter what body aches, pains, or things you lose, you're going to get them back? I mean, that's comforting to know that you'll eventually get it back. I mean, if you lost a bunch of money, but someone comes back and says, you're going to get all back later anyways, you're like, okay, sweet. You know, that's kind of, it's like, oh, that's nice. No matter what you lose in this life, God's going to give you a hundredfold in the next. That's a pretty good promise. And we go through a lot of tribulation as Christians, as those who love the Lord, and you may lose personal relationships here, but you gain a hundred spiritually. You may lose houses here, but you get a hundredfold spiritually. And everything's bigger in Texas, so we're going to get a hundred times bigger. I mean, that's going to be great. It's a good thing you came here so you get a hundred times investment, you know? But when I think about it, you know, my little toddler, James, he'll hurt himself or he'll get his feelings hurt or something. And he's screaming and crying and whining. And sometimes, like, he'll come towards me or my wife and we'll extend our hand. Like, we're like, hey, we'll, you know, hold you or whatever. And he kind of throws an extra little fit where he's just like, and he doesn't want it. And he doesn't want it. But the thing is, is eventually, you know, if you kind of just, you leave him alone, then you realize, you know what, all I'm doing is hurting myself. And then he comes to us, and then we hold him and he settles down. And it's like, sometimes I think that we don't realize, like, you know, God's extending a hand to us, God's wanting to comfort us, but we're kind of like, eh, I just want to be mad, eh, I just want to be depressed, eh, I just want to be gloomy. It's like people just want to have a bad emotion or state. They want to be depressed in their life. They want to be sad. They want to be gloomy about all the horrible things they've gone through instead of just embracing God's comfort. And you say, what do these people look like? They're sad every day. They're depressed every day. And look, you can be upset about a lot of stuff. Go to Romans, chapter 14. Go to Romans, chapter 14. I only have a few verses left I want to look at. You can be upset every single day. It's super easy. There's more than enough stuff to be mad about, if you want to. I mean, the world, the news, the economy, just your own personal woes, relationship issues that you've had, things that people have done wrong to you. I mean, I guarantee that your wife would come up with a big list of things you've done wrong, guys. Just guessing, all right? That was a joke, by the way, all right? I'm sure both parties, your spouse, your parents, your children, everybody, you could dream up all kinds of horrible things, bad things that have happened. I guarantee you could make a list of all kinds of people that you've lost in your life, people that have died, people that have gone through horrible pains, woes that you have, issues that you've had. And it's easy to get focused on all the negative. And so you just live your life in this constant depression, this constant just you're frustrated and mad at everything. You're depressed about everything. You know what I love about our God, our Father? He's always there just extending a hand. It's like James doesn't have to run around screaming and upset all day. As soon as he comes to me and my wife, we're going to hold him and he's going to get over it right away. And it's like you can get over any sadness, any depression. Look, if Job can lose all of his children, all of his money and all of his health and still be comforted by God, you can. No one in this room is anywhere close to the pain that he's gone through, the suffering and the loss that he went through. And you can live your life like Job's wife or like Job. And you say, well, which one's which? Well, one's embracing the comfort that God has in extending towards them and the other one's focused on the past. The other one's focused on the problems that they have. And you know what I appreciate about God is no matter where you're at emotionally, he's still ready. I mean, even though James doesn't deserve it necessarily, even though he's throwing an extra fit, I'm still there ready to hold him. And God's still there ready to comfort you in all of your tribulation, no matter what you're going through. The Bible says draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to you. And so when we think about this Father's Day, I just have one last thought that's just kind of to give you something to think about or to chew on. The Bible makes it clear that when it comes to celebrations, there is no hard and fast rule. Let me show you a few verses. Look at verse number five. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth the Lord. For he giveth God thanks, and he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. So in the context here, he's talking about how some people would refuse to eat certain foods and some people embrace certain foods. And he's saying, hey, the guy that's saying I should eat this because God is blessing me with this food, great. And the guy that's saying, oh, God wants me to abstain from this, so I'm going to do that to honor God, great. As long as whatever you're doing, you're trying to please God, fine. If you say, hey, I want to praise God the Father on Father's Day because he's our Father. I mean, it makes perfect sense to say, hey, if we're going to celebrate someone today, why not celebrate God the Father, right? But if someone's like, I don't want to celebrate this holiday because I think the world made it up and I don't want to be secular, and so I'm going to not honor that because I don't want to be displeasing to God, then do whatever you want. It's just saying at least if God's at the forefront of your mind, at least if your motivation is because you're trying to be honoring to God. Like some people won't celebrate certain holidays because they think it's too pagan or something, you know. And the Bible calls them weak in the faith, okay. But here's the thing, I'm not supposed to get mad at that person for not doing that. If they're in their heart trying to honor God, go for it. And the person that says, hey, this day is special to God, let it be special to them and to God, okay. But I'll say this, if you never have a special day for the people you care about, don't expect to receive the same. You know, this is for me. If I never celebrated another birthday or all the Father's Day events or whatever, it really wouldn't bother me personally, okay. It's not like I think like, oh man, I have to have a special birthday. But the hypocrisy of it would sometimes rub people the wrong way, right. Like if we're not going to celebrate birthdays, then don't hold me accountable for not celebrating yours, right. Like what if I came up to one of you and I said, where were you on my birthday? Why didn't you give me a gift? What are you going to think in your mind? What did you do for me on my birthday, right? You're like, okay. So it kind of is weird if you're expecting someone to do something for you that you're not doing for them, right. It's just kind of a weird expectation if you have nothing special for them. And so here's the thing. You guys out there, if you want your wife to treat you special, but then you never make anything special for her, that's kind of weird, right. If you want her to make your day special, make her day special. And it's nice that Mother's Day is before Father's Day. So you can make that real special. Now, me personally, I still have zero, I try to have zero expectations. If my wife has the best Mother's Day in the world and I have nothing on Father's Day, I'm going to move on and have, it doesn't matter to me. We should have zero expectations. What I am saying is this. If you really want to receive special treatment, you kind of have to dole out special treatment, don't you? Okay. And so think about it this way. When it comes to God the Father, if you don't make anything special to Him, if you're not honoring Him in any kind of way, then why do you expect Him to give you special treatment, Him to give you special favor, Him to do things for you? That's pretty hypocritical, isn't it? And so it makes sense to me that, hey, on a day where we're honoring people, I should honor God the Father and I should draw nigh unto Him so that He can draw near unto me, so that we can have a special relationship, so that I can have special treatment from God. Look, I want special treatment from God. I want favor. I want blessing. I want intimacy. And you know, when you read in the Bible, some guys get away with a lot more than others. You're thinking like, how did David basically not get judged as harshly as Saul? But here's the thing. You know, aren't some of the guys that do a lot of bad things and make a lot of mistakes, aren't they making God special, though, in their lives in a lot of ways? It doesn't seem like God's giving them special favor and special blessing and special mercy and special grace in all kinds of different areas of their life. And you say, well, how can I make, you know, God special in my life? Here's a start. How about go to church? People that don't set apart a day, you know, I love the fact that we have Sunday to just basically sanctify and separate and say, hey, this is a day that's about God. I'm going to devote my Sunday to God. And then, hey, on top of that, how about Wednesdays, too? And then, you know, you should expect that the people that are putting God in their life first and the people that are making God special in their lives are going to get more special treatment than the people that are not. And to me, it's weird to have a day that you're going to celebrate and honor other people and you don't want to do that to God. Like if you want to have a good relationship with someone, you need to make them special. You need to honor them. You need to glorify them. You need to appreciate them. And you know what? I want to have a special relationship with God the Father. I want to have a good relationship with our Father. And here's the thing. Let's relate this to your Father. If you want to have a good relationship with your Father, make Him feel special. Honor Him. Call Him. Appreciate Him. Talk to Him. Make Him feel special. Because when you don't, you're not going to have a very good relationship. All of our earthly relationships, this makes perfect sense. The people that you have a best relationship with, you make feel the most special. The people that you don't ever make feel special, you're not going to have a good relationship with them. Hey men, you feel like you don't get special treatment for your wife? Let me ask you this question. How often are you making your wife feel special? How often are you doing good things in your wife and setting apart time and doing things for her? Don't expect to just get all this special treatment, favor, and blessing when you're doing nothing. When you're not reciprocating, when you're not, you know, you're going to reap what you sow. And the Bible makes it clear, Jesus is knocking at the door and if you let Him in, He wants to sup with you. You know, I want to open my Bible. I want to go to church. I want to sing praise to Him. I want to go out and preach to God. I want to do these things so I can draw closer to God. And I want to make Him special in my life so that He'll give me special favor. You know, I believe with my whole heart that the problems I have or the sins that I commit or the things that I do, God is going to give me more mercy and grace in my life when I'm making Him more special than if I'm not. And I see people that, you know, they just kind of don't really have God in a special place in their life. They have a lot of other things in their life. And you know what? Sometimes it seems like I'm just, this is my personal anecdote, I'm just saying the people that are kind of half in, half out of church seem to have the worst things happen to them. In comparison to the people that are just dedicating their life and their energy and their time to serving the Lord, a lot of times they seem to have more blessing, more favor. And I'm just saying anecdotally and generally. Obviously there's always exceptions to both of those things. But I'm telling you what, I want to make God feel special so that He can then in turn give me favor and blessing and I can have an intimate relationship with our Father. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Word of God and for giving us the picture of love by sending Your Son. I pray that this Father's Day that we would not forget who our real Father is, God the Father, and that we would honor You and that we would appreciate all the things You do for us, all the love, all the discipline, all the things You provide for us, and all the comfort You bestow upon us. I pray that we would not neglect the relationship that we have with You, that we would share and cherish the relationship we have with You, that we would make it more special in our lives, and that we would realize that we're going to reap what we sow. And I pray that You would just bless us and give us special favor and that all the things that we do would be in the honor of Your Son. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for our last song we'll go to 377, Rescue the Perishing. 377, Rescue the Perishing. 377, Rescue the Perishing. 377, Rescue the Perishing. Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, feelings lie buried that we can't restore. Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, cords that are broken, a vibrant sword. Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Rescue the Perishing, duty demands it, strength for Thy labor the Lord will provide. Should we win them, tell the poor wonder a Savior has died. Rescue the Perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. God bless you, you are dismissed.