Our Father

Good morning. How's everybody doing? It is such an encouragement to me to be here with you guys. It's always an encouragement when I get to come up and be here, but especially now. Because, what, this church is 11 years old, is that right? 10? 10 years old? And, man, I remember when Joseph and David came up and how much time I spent on the phone preaching courage and hope and faith to Joseph. And now this morning, you guys are preaching hope and courage and faith to me. To see what God has done in 10 years is amazing and sweet and incredibly encouraging as we look to take a very scary leap of faith ourselves. So, Dave, as I should have expected, cut out half of my introduction.

I would not have asked for money. No, I wouldn't. You're right. Some of you, man, the other thing about this is that some of you have been praying that we would do something like this for a long time and have been praying for our church plant before it was a twinkle in my eye, like some fathers have been praying for their daughters' husbands before maybe they were born. And so thank you guys. And some of you are, in fact, supporting us financially, and thank you so much for that. It means a lot to us. Ben and Megan are here with us this morning. If you guys don't know, if you've ever heard of a guy named Chip McGregory, Ben is the voice of Chip McGregory, and so you can go and talk to him after the service, kids, and maybe Chip will come out of him. So...

Today is Father's Day. I want to turn to the passage of scripture this morning that teaches us to address God as our Father. So turn with me to Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 9. Pray then in this way, our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would be with us this morning and that you would open the eyes of our hearts to see wonderful things in your word. I pray that you would give me faith as I preach and that you would lead us into truth, that you'd fill me with your Holy Spirit, that you'd convict us of sin, and that you would help us to walk in newness of life.

By your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, who is Jesus talking to here in this passage of Scripture? What's going on? How many of you have been doing like that same page summer challenge? Anybody? Do you know what I'm talking about? Nobody. Okay. I thought some people up here might be doing that. There are a bunch of people down in Bloomington that are doing that. We're all reading through, trying to read through the New Testament together this summer. And so this past week would have been... through the first several chapters of Matthew. So let me ask again, though, who is Jesus preaching to? What's going on at this point in this passage? If you turn back just a little bit earlier in the book of Matthew, say to Matthew chapter 3, what you see is that Jesus comes to John to be baptized. This is still at the very beginning before he set out in his public ministry.

And when he's baptized, the Spirit of God descends on him like a dove, and the Father says from heaven, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And then immediately in Matthew chapter 4, it says Jesus is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. He does battle with Satan, and then he begins to preach and call his very first disciples. And he starts to heal people. And then when you come to the end of Matthew chapter 4, it says this, And he went through all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread through all Assyria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them.

And great crowds came to him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. So when this sermon begins, who's there? This is the Sermon on the Mount. There are people from all over the place. There are probably a lot of Gentiles there. It's a mixed crowd of people. But this is the Sermon on the Mount. Throughout this sermon, I'm just going to set my Bible right here. If I need it, I can. Hopefully you remember this right there. Throughout this whole sermon, Jesus is getting down on his knees to preach to us, to teach us, as if he's talking to children. And when we come to the Lord's Prayer, it's Jesus stooping down to teach us how to pray. Which means what? If Jesus is going to teach us something, it means that we need to be taught, right? Be honest. Have you ever felt like you need to be taught to pray? Have you ever felt stupid?

Like you don't know how to pray? Were you ever that Christian in Bible study who showed up and you got called on to pray, you were a new Christian or whatever, and you were like, no, what? Now lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my, you know, some little perfunctory prayer that you maybe memorized at like dinner time. Have you ever been that kid at youth group who's... Most consistent prayer was, oh God, please don't let them call on me to pray. Can you feel that? Have you ever been that guy or that girl? Jesus knew his disciples needed to be taught to pray. So that means we shouldn't feel stupid if we feel like we need to be taught to pray. If we feel like we need help. In Luke, where we find the other version of the Lord's Prayer, it actually begins with the disciples coming to Jesus and saying, Lord, teach us to pray.

We don't know how to pray. Teach us to pray. We all need to be taught how to pray. And so I want to go through this prayer together, and I want to see, because it's Father's Day, what it teaches us about God, our Heavenly Father. The prayer begins with these words, Our Father in Heaven. And it's impossible to overstate the importance of that, especially when it comes to prayer. It's a really radical thing for Jesus to do. No other religion will teach you to call God Father. And now, this might be a little scandalous to you, but the Old Testament doesn't actually teach us to think of God or call on God as our Father. The Psalms are the prayer book of the people of God. How many times in the book of Psalms is God addressed as Father? How many times? Anybody know the answer to this question? Daniel says, maybe once. Okay, can you think of what time it...

that maybe is. No, no, it's not. Like as a father pitieth his children, right? But that's not actually addressing God as father. It's referring to God as a father. We don't see the patriarchs address God as father. We don't see the psalmist addressing God as father. Maybe that's never stood out to you before, but in the Sermon on the Mount alone, Jesus, So this is Jesus' big moment. This is his sermon. He's been baptized. He has been revealed as the Son by the Father. Now he's going to go and begin to teach and preach to his first disciples. And in the Sermon on the Mount alone, Jesus speaks of God as Father 16 times. 14 of those times, he calls God your Father. The other two times, he's talking about warning against judgment on hypocrites.

who aren't actually sons of God, and he says, my father. And the last time is in this passage where he refers to God as our father. Think about that for a minute. It took the coming of the son of God to reveal the fullness of the father. Father is not some abstract, distant name for God. Father is a personal and relational name. And so over and over and over throughout the entire Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching us that life and godliness is all about our relationship to the Father. Maybe that's never stood out to you before. I want it to stand out now. The Son is revealed from heaven by the Father at Jesus' baptism. This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. And then Jesus goes and he reveals the Father to us. This is my Father and yours. Listen, learn, and obey. Now let's go through it and see it.

for a minute here in the Sermon on the Mount. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open with me. I knew I would need it again. And turn and look. This is the Sermon on the Mount. Lots and lots of familiar passages of Scripture, and you may not know they're from the Sermon on the Mount, but that's where they're from. So have you heard Jesus say, you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world, this little light of mine? Why are you to be the salt and light of the world? What does it say at the beginning of the sermon? What was that? So that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven. Why are we supposed to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? What does Jesus say? That's a little bit later in chapter 5, towards the end. What does Jesus say? So that we may be sons of our Father who's in heaven.

why does that make us his sons it makes us his sons because he makes his son like the bright thing in the sky he makes his son rise he sends his reign on the just and the unjust alike on the evil and on the good so we're to be like him he does good to everyone whether they're evil or not we're to be like him why are we supposed to be perfect our heavenly father is perfect Into chapter 6, why are we not supposed to draw attention to ourselves or give to the poor, or when we give to the poor and when we pray? Because hypocrites need the praise of men. Sons live to please their father who sees what is done in secret. Why do we not have to heap up many words when we pray? Our father knows what we need before we ask him. So when we pray, how are we supposed to pray? Our father.

We need to not overcomplicate what it means to live by faith. It's actually really, really simple. It's really simple. It's living to please our Father in heaven, who sees us, who cares for us, who commands us, and whose commands for us are good. So we need to not overcomplicate prayer. It's really simple. Jesus doesn't overcomplicate it. He makes it simple. Prayer is just us little children, all of us. talking to our Father in heaven. Let's think about the whole first part of this prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What's that about? Father, your name is awesome, and it's holy, and your kingdom is awesome. Your commands and rules are right and good. I want your name to be honored. I want your kingdom to come. I want your will to be done. Please make it that way. In some ways, it's actually an awful lot.

Like little boys on a playground, have you ever been that kid? My dad can beat up your dad? I know Abbasara kids have never once said, my dad can beat up your dad. Have you ever had that kind of conversation? My dad is smarter than your dad. My dad can beat your dad at basketball. That's what my kids, the Abbasara kids say to my kids, my dad can beat up your dad. And then my kids say, well, my dad can beat your dad at basketball. And Joseph still isn't willing to buy it. He's shaking his head. My dad can throw a football farther than your dad. We're going to be on vacation together, but we're not. But when we are, Dave and I often have these football throwing contests, right? See who has the strongest arm. It's me. My dad says, well, my dad says, what is going on with all of that stuff? What is actually going on? Every kid wants their dad's name to be honored by their friends, right? That's what that's about. It's innate. It goes deep, deep down.

And when it comes to something like, yeah, well, my dad says, well, my dad says, what's that about? That's just a son or a daughter saying, I want my father's kingdom to rule in this situation. His commands are good. My father's will is what ought to be done here and now. Every little boy on the playground is a believer in his daddy. He's out to spread the rule and the reign of his daddy, to expand his father's kingdom, to show the world he has the best dad. That's how we're supposed to relate to God the Father. And that's what actually, that's all the first half of this prayer actually is. It's that same impulse that goes deep down. My Father, my Heavenly Father, is the King of everything. Don't you dare disrespect His name. This is what my Father says should be done in this situation. He's made a rule about it. His rules are good. You should submit to them. Our Father in Heaven.

hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven which is to say perfectly now i know some of us have had bad dads in this room abusive dads absent dads maybe you've never really had the dad that inspired that kind of playground loyalty maybe you are always a little annoyed and jealous of the kid who did on a paper over your pain but if you are in christ It doesn't matter what your dad was like. You have a father in heaven who loves you, who adopted you into his family, who's promised to provide for you and care for you, to forgive you when you sin, when you fail, when you fall short, to lead and to protect you. And I think a lot of learning and relearning to pray is just learning and relearning that. It's less about praying and more about learning to walk.

with and know and live in communion with God, our Heavenly Father. That's why Romans says that we know we are his sons. When our hearts cry out, Abba, Father. So then the second half of the prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. God's a Father who provides all our needs and who cares for us. It's the kind of thing that we forget all the time. Something that we need to be taught. I went to the doctor's office not long ago. meeting with this, not Dr. Spade, he was meeting with a specialist. And he was telling me about this pastor he had, like in high school, who had this huge impact on him. And he told me this story that stuck with him for years. And he's an old guy in his 60s. And he told me this story that stuck with him. One day after church or something, I think it was after church, he'd lost his keys. And this pastor stopped and prayed that he would find his keys.

Which he eventually did. And he said, until that moment, he had no idea, never really registered or clicked with him, that God could care about something like his lost keys. That God would care about his lost keys. That it wasn't silly or impious to think God might care about my lost keys and I should pray. But because this pastor he respected just took a minute, didn't hesitate to think, God cares about your keys, let's pray. changed the way that he looked at God. God cares about your lost keys. He cares about your daily bread. Dave mentioned about our house troubles, so let me just open that up to you a little bit. Not too long ago, I was down in Evansville with my family house hunting, and we'd had this amazing time of seeing the Lord at work, and our fundraising was coming in, and we listed our house on the market.

And in 24 hours, we get 10 showings and three offers, all at or above list. And we accept an offer, and we fly down to Evansville, and we meet with the realtor. And then what happens? The very first day out, looking at houses, we see nothing we like that's in our price range. And I am so depressed and discouraged, demoralized. And so we're like... at my parents house at night and I'm just thoroughly depressed and discouraged I know it's really stupid I know objectively I look at everything God's done to bring us to this point right and it's just like one day the very first day of house hunting and now I'm like ready to like think that God doesn't want us to find a place you know so stupid so I you know we're going to pray with the kids before bed and I just start talking to them about it and I talk to them about how They've all each gone through this phase. I throw my kids around a lot, probably a lot more than many of you would be comfortable with. And they've all gone through this stage around three or four years old where suddenly, you know, I toss them up onto my shoulder and they suddenly, like, they're afraid, right? And I've never dropped them. I'm not going to drop them. But suddenly they're afraid. They have no reason not to trust me, but it's just this, like, visceral response. And now that most...

Actually, all of them are through that. They can look at it and laugh at themselves. Maybe explain to them, I'm still just like that. You know, God has carried us faithfully, never dropped us once to this point. And here I am, one discouraging day. And I'm ready to mistrust him, to be afraid, to be angry. Silly, right? So the very next day, we go out. And we see a bunch of houses in our price range that we like. We put an offer on one, and it's accepted by 10 a.m. the next day. God provides. Okay, now flash forward to the end of, that was the end of May. Flash forward to this past week. All of this stuff has happened. Our buyers are dragging their feet since the inspection. I'm driving down to Presbytery. I get a call from my realtor. They've sent a mutual release. Our house down in Evansville is contingent on sale.

everything's falling apart on me again. So for about 20 to 30 minutes, everybody's quiet as we make the best time on our trip, because I'm driving, and I'm flying. I'm going through all the emotions, and I don't care, and I don't want anybody to talk to me. And so it's like Stephen Baker and Lucas and Jody Killingsworth, and they're all just like, we're going to give him his space. And I'm like, I don't... Man, it was sinful how fast I was going. It was awful. 20 minutes, and then I pull off on an exit and calm down and pray and talk to realtors and get myself under control and get back on the road. And then here we are. And what am I tempted to believe? I'm tempted to believe suddenly.

God doesn't actually love me. God's not preparing the way for us. Somehow this housing situation is beyond him. Or worse, that he set it up for us to fail, right? All these dumb things that you're tempted to believe. I've been working toward this church plant for the past year and a half. I sat on my bed on Friday night in existential despair about whether or not God's even calling us to do this because of this dumb house situation. I know objectively that's stupid. And I'm not trying to get you all wrapped up in my problems, okay? This is just what we do. This is what we do. God provides for us all the time, every day. Here we all are. We're here. And yet one little dumb thing happens, and we think the world's crashing in, crashing down on us. God is my father in heaven. My house situation, it's not a problem for him.

A little later in this same sermon, Jesus tells us not to worry or to be anxious over food or drink or clothing. Why? This is Jesus getting down on his knees to talk to us. Why? Look at the birds. Look at the little birds. Look at the flowers in the field. Your heavenly Father feeds them and clothes them and takes care of them. Will your Father? Not much more take care of you. The Gentiles seek after those things. Your father knows what you need. And he loves you. You're worth much more than birds. I don't know what things you're going through. What things that are tempted to make you faithless. To believe that God doesn't care. But if you belong to the son, you belong to the father. Again, a little later in the same sermon, Jesus says that famous.

Quote, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. Why can you count on that? How can Jesus say that? Well, when your son asks you for bread, you don't give him a stone. When they ask for fish, you don't give them a snake. And you're evil. Your father in heaven is not. How much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? We can believe God doesn't care. We can believe God doesn't see. We can go so far as to believe that God is out to get us. We all feel that way lots of times, don't we? I felt that a little bit on Friday, that God was somehow setting me up to fail. So, Friday night, what do I do? Well, I shoot a message to Ben and ask him to pray for me. I shoot a message to Joseph Bailey. Actually, the first thing I did is I shoot a message to Joseph Bailey. And Joseph has a one-word response, and that response is pray.

And then I shoot a message to Ben and say, pray for me. And Joseph, of course, had many more words. It all came back to, hey, life is hard. And we have to live by faith. And there's no way to go plant a church without trusting God like you never have before. So you're not planting a church. But you are trying to live by faith, I hope. It's Father's Day. How many of you stepped out by faith and became fathers? How many of you much more likely bumbled? forward and blind ignorance and found out that you were, oh crap, a father and had to figure that out and say, oh man, I need faith. I need help. Fatherhood is hard. I have seven kids. It stretched our faith at times to the breaking point. Fatherhood is hard. Some of you have wanted desperately to become fathers and God has said no. And it stretched your faith to the breaking point.

Fatherhood is hard. What do you do? And you learn from the father. You ask your father for what you need. You ask for your daily bread. Little kids have no problem asking mommy and daddy for food when they're hungry. True? True? This row of kids, I don't think anybody in this row over here, I know there are other kids scattered around, but Kanan, you ever had trouble asking for food? You have had trouble asking for food. When? Okay. But when you don't think you've had enough and you're hungry, do you have trouble asking? Okay. A hungry kid has no problem asking for food. It's just what you do, right? It's what you do. So when you're hungry, when you have something you need, when you don't know what to do, when you feel like you can't bear it, what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to be like that child. You turn to your father who cares for you, and you ask him. You don't be afraid. He's not going to give you a snake or a stone.

And that's just our material needs, isn't it? The prayer continues. Jesus teaches us to ask our Father, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Y'all got debts? You got sins? You have things that go deep down? Things that are way back in your past? Things that you think you can't breathe to another living soul? Take heart. We have a Father who is ready to forgive us all our debts and sins. Why would Jesus teach us to pray and ask for forgiveness if God were not ready to give us forgiveness? He stands ready to forgive everyone who comes to him. And that, here's the thing I think about our sins. You remember how Jesus says, come, learn from me, take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. We're all out here with red in our ledger, with sins that weigh us down.

And we're all trying to find a way to cope with it, to wipe it out, to cover it up, to ignore it, to hide it from ourselves. Because we all know deep down at the end of the day we're going to have to face God. What a sweet thing to learn that God stands ready to actually forgive everyone who comes to him. Forgiveness is free. Which is not to say that it's not costly. It will cost you your life. It will cost you your precious pet sins. And it will cost you your grudges. Jesus says so right here. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. No one gets to come to the Father for forgiveness with anything in his hands. No righteousness to present. No grudges that I'm clinging to. You don't get to hold on to any of it. You come with open hands. And there's much more to be said about that. But we're running short on time. And the next part of this prayer is going to do some more work for me.

in that direction. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We have a Father who is ready to lead and protect us from ourselves, from the world, from the devil. Now, I want to give an illustration at this point. How many of you kids or parents maybe think back to when you were kids yourselves? How many of you have ever been in a really big, fun, cool place? Or a place that feels big and fun when you're a little kid like Chuck E. Cheese and you realize later that it's actually not that big or cool or fun. It could be the county fair. It could be the mall. It could be a big city that you visited, maybe on vacation. I remember doing the walk in Boston, the Freedom Trail as a kid, and it's just tourists and people everywhere.

Or it could be a place that's like a maze if you've ever been to like City Museum in St. Louis. Go ahead for a minute and put yourself there. Imagine what that place was like. For me, it's the Fall Festival in Evansville. It's a big, huge, hundreds and thousands of people, don't think county fair, think state fair kind of environment. Food booths and rides and games and literally hundreds of thousands of people. When you go to a place like that as a kid, It's big and it's thrilling and it's a little bit scary, right? There's so much to do. There's so many things to want. No kid there has any problem. Daddy, can I have cotton candy? Daddy, can I have, you know, tickets? Daddy, can I go on the ride? Daddy, can you win me that prize? Daddy can. Daddy can. Mommy can. Mommy will. Please, Mom. Right? It's also really easy to wander off and get lost, especially if you've got a fistful of tickets in your hand.

Because you're just a little guy and people are calling to you and there's lights and there are games and there's stuff. And there are all these adults around that are so much bigger than you and it's hard to see. I remember that kind of tension as a kid of wanting to go off and do my own thing and also being terrified of doing that sort of thing. Like, if I do, how will I ever find my dad again? When am I actually big enough to go off on my own? What if I get lost? Do my friends get to go off on their own? Then maybe I should be able to get to go off on my own.

Or if you remember the first couple of times you were allowed to go off on your own and do that sort of thing, and that feeling in the pit of your stomach that's like equal parts exhilaration, like I'm a big kid now, and also I'm scared out of my mind. Have you ever been the kid that goes off and gets lost? Or gets lost by accident? I have a couple kids who are space cadets. One of them wandered off in the city museum, just sort of. And then you get that call on the cell phone. And you don't even know because you've got seven kids that you've lost a kid until the cell phone call comes from somebody there who's like, we have your lost kid. Oh, which one? Hang on a second. Let me figure this out real quick. Have you ever been that kid on purpose who just decided, I'm going to go off, I'm going to do my own thing, I'm going to take advantage of the chaos around me. I'm going to lead myself through this mess. I'm going to let myself be led along by the lights and the sounds and all the things that are pulling on my heart.

Maybe you've had fun for a while. You got sucked into looking at all the cool stuff. And you looked up and you were lost and you were alone. And you were desperate for a friendly face. And then one way or another, by God's grace, mom or dad finds you. Or somebody comes along who helps you. You're back with your parents whose job is not just to provide for you but to protect you. You're back in the world of safety. How do you feel? You're sorry. You know that you need to be forgiven and you need to be assured. that Daddy still loves you, and he does. And that doesn't mean that Daddy may not still have some hard things to say to you, right? But what's the thing that you want to do from that moment on? Deep down, what happens inside of you? Deep down is that urge that I am going to hold Dad's hand for the rest of my time here. If I'm little enough, I want Daddy to carry me. And if I'm big enough, I'm suppressing that urge because I'm too cool for that, but also I'm not letting Dad.

out of my sight because that is not happening again. We're so much like kids at a carnival. The world's flashing its bright lights around us. The devil's calling to us. Our sinful desires are in league with it all. And like a child, it's what can I have? What can I get? How can I get away? As Christians, none of that really goes away for us. We have the Holy Spirit. We have a Father who loves us, but our sins often get the better of us. So it's, Father, provide for me. Give us this day our daily bread. Father, forgive me my debts. Father, lead me not into temptation. Protect me. That's how Jesus is teaching us to pray here. I was talking to Ben about this passage, and he was telling me the most encouraging thing about it was just that Jesus teaches us, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, that he tells us to pray that way. Because what it teaches us is that God wants to...

protect us from temptation. He wants to. He wants to deliver us from evil. He wants to help us overcome the sin in our lives. He wants to lead us into paths of righteousness. We don't have to do it on our own. We don't have to muscle up. God's not a father telling us to figure this out on our own. We don't have to find our own path to offering God the obedience he requires of us. Some of you get wrapped up in that kind of problem. You feel just like I was. On Friday night, you feel this way about your sin. You can't do it. And probably God doesn't want to help. And you got to figure out how to do it on your own. And maybe he's just set you up to fail. That is not God the Father. That is not what he is like. That is a lie. And it's a lie you need to repent of believing. God sent his son, not just to make it possible for you to be reconciled.

to him through his death, burial, and resurrection, which he did, not just to give you the Holy Spirit so you can walk in newness of life, but also that the same Son who came and bled and died and suffered and gave you all of those good things could get down on his knees and say, don't think of God that way. Come to him and pray like this. When you feel tempted, when you're despairing over your sin, when you have a need, pray to your Father and ask him. Is that what you want? When we sin and we're convicted of our sin, we're like that kid at the carnival who's run off and he's gotten into trouble. We know we're wrong, but there are some of us that don't really care about the dangers of our sin and who want to get lost, who want to sin. Is that you? If that's you, you need to beware, because the Son of God wants to please his Father. The children of God want to please their Father.

That's why Jesus teaches us to pray for God to deliver us from evil. It reminds us that the whole attitude of our hearts must be changed altogether. We must want to please God, to walk in godliness and newness of life. We must want to be free from sin. So these are my exhortations today. Pray to God as your father. Come to him as your father. Learn to speak to him as a child speaks to his father. Pray the whole Lord's Prayer. Like a child would talk to his father, his heavenly father, who's holy and who is to be feared, and who is his father who loves and cares for and provides for him, who protects him, who keeps him safe, who gave up his own son to adopt him into his family and rescue him from sin and the world and the devil. Now, as I close, I want to give a word to fathers because it's Father's Day. Fathers, have you been paying close attention this morning to what your heavenly father is like?

Have you been strengthened and encouraged and comforted by the kindness and goodness of your Father in heaven who provides for you, who protects you, who forgives your sins, who's patient with you and your weakness, who gets down on his knees to hear your prayers and to teach you, to listen to you when you pray? Your Father in heaven who cares about the car keys and your daily bread. How are you doing, dads? Are your kids growing up in homes where they recognize your father in heaven when they see you? How do you, this morning, need to grow to be more like him? It starts with seeing him as he is, which I hope we've done some of today. It continues with you walking with him and learning from his example, imitating him. Be perfect, fathers, as your father in heaven is perfect. And fail at it, often and hard. And repent at it.

often and hard, but strive to be like the Father, for your children's sake, for your wives' sake. Wives, God has made you to be a helper to your husband, not his critic or his cheerleader, but his helper. And husbands need you if they're going to be good fathers. We need your encouragement. We need your affirmation. We need your exhortations. We need your corrections. And we need your forgiveness. I know when you married your husband, you had grand ideas of who he is and what married life would be like and what kind of a father he would be, and he has failed, and so have you. We're all just stumbling forward. I hope you have the faith to see humility and repentance and a goodwill to grow in godliness as enough, and I hope you see your own sense. Fathers need the help of their wives. Otherwise, God would never have made Eve.

There would be no coming together. There would be no need. If you want your husband to not need you, you're living in the wrong kind of world. So don't despise your husband for needing you. Get to work and help. Sons, daughters, kids, you've got a job too. Learning to be a good father yourself someday or mother starts with learning to be a good son or daughter. And being a good son or daughter who honors their father helps your father. Did you know that? It's not on you if you have a bad dad. I'm not saying that. Daddy sins, though, even against you. And God will hold him to account for his sins. You must love and honor your mother and father, and you must remember that that's the first command with a promise, so that it will go well with you and you'll live long in the land. We live in a world that's on fire right now. Why is it on fire? At the end of the day, it's because there's a world of fatherless men and women out there.

Who are raging against God the Father. But you have fathers. You have fathers in your homes. You have fathers in this church. And you have a father who is in heaven. And you can show the father to the world. Because the son has revealed him to you. So come to your heavenly father today. Confess your sins. Grab his hand. Get down on your knees and ask him to honor his name. To bring his kingdom. To establish his good will. to provide for your daily bread, to forgive you your debts as you have forgiven your debtors, to lead you not into temptation, but to deliver you from evil. And then get back up on your feet and get to work, because there's a lot of work to do. Let's pray.