Beacon Sunday Service: June 15, 2025

Let's all stand together and honor read for us Luke 9 11, 9 to 13. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it'll be open. But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, we'll give him a snake instead of a fish, or if his son asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. If then you, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Let's pray together. Father, we pray for your help to understand your great love for the lost. And I pray that that will inform everything else and cause us just to humble our hearts with gratitude and worship.

You are on your throne, and you sovereignly reign over all things, and we have you as our daddy. So I pray that you would help us to leave here just getting a taste of just what it means to be a child of God. And uh again, you are the center of our worship. You are why we gather. So I pray that you would speak, and that we would be just filled with just inexpressible joy. Lord, thank you for just adopting us as your children. We're forever indebted, and we're forever grateful. So we thank you, Father, for our time together, and pray this in Jesus' name. I'm gonna go ahead and take a seat. There was once a Civil War veteran by the name of William Jackson Smart. William Jackson Smart was born in Arkansas in 1842, and in 1863, he enlisted in the Union Army to fight in the civil war.

And after the war, he got married, had children, became a widower, then married a second time, had additional children, and then when his wife died during childbirth, would uh William Jackson Smart became a widower for the second time. And after the death of a second wife, he did not marry again, but committed to raising his 14 children alone, both his biological children and his stepchildren. And it appears he did a phenomenal job. One of his daughters, by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd, said in an interview with the Spokane Daily Chronicle. I remember everything about him. He was both father and mother to me and my brothers and sisters. And so Miss Dodd spoke very fondly and very highly of her father in that interview.

And it wasn't just this one daughter who held the sentiment. It was reported that all 14 of his children raved about their father. And this is in a time when fatherhood was not really that valued, just post-Civil War. According to the National Uh Women's History Alliance, this woman, Sonora Smart Dodd, was sitting in worship on Mother's Day in 1909. And she thought much of her father, who had done such a wonderful job of raising her and her siblings after their mother's death. And that year in the areas of around Spokane, she pushed to have a day of appreciation for fathers as well. And she petitioned the local YMCA, the local politicians, and the local churches to set aside a special day to honor fathers like hers.

And apparently she was very effective and pretty influential, and she got her way. So a year later, June 19th, 1910, there was a special day celebrating fathers all across Spokane, Washington. And then over the years, this tradition caught on in other cities and states. And in 1972, President Richard Nixon officially made the third Sunday of every June a nationally celebrated Father's Day. And so today, on this third Sunday of June, we gather both to worship our Heavenly Father and to remember and honor our earthly fathers as well. So there isn't too much else that is known about William Jackson Smart. It would have been awesome to have like a biography written about this man, but unfortunately, there's not much information outside of his being just a good father.

And what motivated this man? I'm not sure. We know very little about his faith or his church involvement. So it's hard to actually discern the root motivation behind his sacrifices and his tender care. But it does seem that he was an exemplary father.

So for sure, it seems he was an exemplary father. So according to the scriptures, an exemplary father does the following. First, from what is obvious from our Luke 11 passage today, as breadwinners, fathers provide for their families. And Christians and non-Christians would both agree with this. Fathers also provide refuge and protection for their children. Proverbs 14 26. Fathers also train up their children the ways they should go. And that's physically, financially, socially, emotionally, most importantly, spiritually, Proverbs 22 6. Godly fathers make godly decisions for the entire household. And you'll see this at the end of the book of Joshua when Joshua he makes a declaration about his family.

You see this in the saving of the Philippian jailer in Acts chapter 16, verse 31. When the whole household becomes saved. So these are all active ways a father serves as an exemplary leader of the home. But there are also ways in which fathers passively lead their children. Many things in life are caught rather than taught. And children are greatly influenced by what they catch as they observe the values and the examples of their fathers. My kids know that I love fishing. My kids know that I love the Dodgers and the Lakers. And they caught that.

So children are greatly influenced by the examples of their fathers and what they value. Good fathers walk in integrity. And the blessings there are priceless and not fully measurable. So I'm gonna read actually Proverbs chapter 20, verse 7. So pay attention, it's not on the screen. A righteous man who walks in his integrity. How blessed are his sons after him. Those are passive things. Psalm 10313 informs us that good fathers were also tender and compassionate toward their children. Exemplary fathers also demonstrate manliness, 1 Corinthians 16, 13. And lastly, exemplary fathers do nothing to injure and provoke their children to bitterness and anger. Ephesians 6, 4, Colossians 3 21. Bitterness and anger are aroused when the father's decisions and actions are more for the benefit of the father rather than for his children.

So good fathers, being sacrificial fathers who prioritize the well-being of their children over their own, rarely embitter their kids. So now, this is not an exhaustive list, and there are a few other important things I'm going to touch upon as we look at Luke 11. But these are all things that we would all agree good fathers do or model. Right? So hopefully, whether you're a father or not, you're continuing to grow in all these areas, especially the men.

And Christian or not, we would all call William Jackson Smart and objectively good father. But we know that even the best earthly fathers like this man are sin-tainted, broken and weak. And I have no doubt that William Jackson Smart, too, was a sin tainted, corrupted human being. Why? Romans 3 23, since all have fallen short and sinned, sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So sin has done a lot of damage. And over the course of history, there have been many bad fathers. And unfortunately, fathers like William Jackson Smart are the exception and not the norm. In and around us today, we have many horrible examples of fathers, even those who would abandon their families for the preservation of self.

So for some, the word father is an endearing and a positive one. For others, the word father evokes very painful emotions and negative thoughts. Some, even in this room, may have had to survive their fathers. And now here's something that can be subjectively and subconsciously difficult to process and think through.

And that can confuse and obstruct and cause tension in our hearts.

God is referred to as a father 165 times in just the four gospel accounts alone. Again, this can be subjectively something difficult to correctly think through for those who have had objectively bad fathers.

So happy Father's Day, evil dads. Evil is the sin-tainted default setting. And in Luke 11, our passage for today, Jesus juxtaposes the heavenly father and evil earthly fathers together in one passage to communicate something very clearly and objectively about the heart of God. So we're gonna spend some time reflecting on the role of our earthly fathers, the good, the bad, the ugly, men, many for whom we are to be objectively thankful. And we are, after all, in the Bible, called to honor them. And through Luke 11, we're gonna see what the scripture also says about God's heart for us. So for context, let's look at the beginning of Luke chapter 11, verses 1 and 2. It reads, and it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples, and Jesus, he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallow be your name, your kingdom come.

So in the beginning of Luke chapter 11, Jesus' disciples ask him to teach them how to pray, and Luke the physician recorded the model prayer that we recognize as the what is this called? The Lord's Prayer. And this prayer is also recorded in the gospel according to Matthew. And Luke's version of the Lord's prayer begins with a simple address, Father. And Jesus exhorts his disciples in the following verses to pray to their father in heaven and to be persistent in praying to their father. Because God the Father is listening. And he goes on to say, God is neither like the buddy next door whom you have to pester, verse five, nor even like an evil father, who, though being evil, would still never give his child a scorpion or a snake to eat.

The disciples' heavenly father is a God who delights to answer the prayers of his children. He is a God who delights to give good gifts to his beloved children.

So let me read Luke 11, 9-13 again for you. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives.

And to him who knocks, it'll be opened. But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, we'll give him a snake instead of a fish. Or if his son asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So in this passage, Jesus uses the lesser to inform us of the greater. Okay? So this was an it it is a communicating, uh, a common communication tool. It's a teaching tool to use the lesser thing to inform us of the greater. And when this tool is used in the scriptures, you can typically find the words, how much more written in that passage. You guys can look at that with your eyes, right?

So Jesus uses the earthly father to teach us about God the heavenly father. And he does so because in just understanding an earthly father's heart for his children, we can glean exponentially much more of God's heart for his children. So Jesus gives the exhortation to ask, to seek, and to knock, and then he asks a series of rhetorical questions, which answer three very important questions that every disciple of Christ, every child of God, must reflect on at some point. And the answers are underlined there for you. First, who is it that believers are beseeching? The Father. Second, what is the heavenly father like? Well, he delights in his children and knows how to give good gifts to them. You see that in the text?

Third, what gift, what gift does the father most desire to give his children? Not house or wealth, but the gift of his very self and the person of the Holy Spirit. So the lesser to the greater. So in using earthly fathers as examples, Jesus teaches us about God. So we're gonna learn much about the greater by looking at the examples of the lesser. Okay? So for most of human history, for most cultures, fathers were the leaders of the family. Fathers were the breadwinners. Fathers set the tone for the culture of the home. And as such, the biblical understanding of the father was one in which the father was a primarily the one training, modeling, correcting, and equipping their children. Training, modeling, correcting, and equipping can be summed up with one word.

It starts with a D. Do you guys know what that is? Discipline. Okay. And for us, it's not like a positive word, but discipline is actually a neutral word. It's actually more positive than negative. So first, fathers discipline their children in love. And that's one of the father's primary duties. The apostle Paul compared himself to a spiritual father when he wrote to the Thessalonian church. For thus 1 Thessalonians 2.11, just as you know how we were exhorting, encouraging, and bearing witness, that's all discipline, to each one of you as a father with his own children. So fathers discipline their children in love. Now, discipline doesn't always mean something negatively applied. Discipline also means to train up and equip.

It means to cheer on and encourage. My son Maddie is 10 years old. He ties his shoes well. For a long time, he didn't like shoes with laces. He only wanted to wear shoes with velcro staps straps. He hated tying his shoes, and that was torture for him. And he was unhappy when I made him practice tying the laces. He would be frustrated and he would whine. He would be unhappy, and there was one morning he even became angry that I forced this on him. So I disciplined him. And my discipline of my son in tying his shoes simply was in the form of not letting him quit. And I disciplined him through the use of high-pitched cheers and encouragements. Those are great bunny ears. Oh, that's awesome. That's a great loop.

So, yes, I forced him to learn how to tie his shoes. Now, not one of you would judge this action as a bad thing or as an act of cruelty. I'm assuming that 100% of you would approve of my decision to discipline him to be a good shoelace tieer. So I'm very proud to say he's 10 years old and can now tie his shoes well. Okay? Dad of the ear. Help by mommy. Imagine if my son was 19, and every time his shoes were un tied, he called for Becky or for me to come, tie them for him. Dad. Imagine that. You would not think, oh, how sweet. His parents love him so much. No, you quite the opposite. You would wonder how we could be so irresponsible. You would judge the failure in teaching him as a very unloving thing to do.

We are setting him up for disaster, and you would deem me a derelict father if I didn't train him in such basic things. So a good father will discipline his children by allowing them to go through challenges and struggles, age appropriate, to strengthen and to build them up for their good, even if the kid doesn't like it. Even if he kicks and screams and objects, even if he calls him names. Good fathers will put their children in situations of short-term unhappiness for the long term wholeness and happiness. Make sense? And discipline is an expression of love. Lesser to the greater. Our heavenly father is not a derelict father. He is lavish in love, but he will never spoil his children.

Lavish in love, but never spoil his children. So our heavenly father will also sovereignly ordain trials, struggles, and hardships, not as a punishment, but as a demonstration of his love. So he will allow his children seasons of hardship. One, to train up empathy.

And in light of eternity, nothing that we go through here on earth is out of God's control. And everything ordained in our lives, it's always for our good. Amen. So my son Maddie likely doesn't even remember our tear-filled shoelace tying sessions. There were like three of them.

At that time, he may have dramatically labeled these difficulties, these sessions as afflictions. But even those afflictions from our vantage point as adults, those were momentary and light. They're nothing. But ultimately they were for good.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So sometimes the discipline in our lives is strictly for training. God, our father's discipline is never punitive, meaning for the sake of punishment, it's always corrective. Amen. You can trust that. If you cannot figure out why some horrible thing has happened to you or is happening to you, then it is likely he is trying to build you up, not to punish you for having done something wrong. No father on this planet. Okay, okay, that's that's a little too broad. No normal father would put his child on timeout or give him some kind of meme.

Meme in Korean, it just means like whap, like a corporal punishment, okay? No father would put his child on timeout or give him a meme, and then tell him to guess, why did you get it? No, they would actually be very explicit and very clear, right? Because the goal is not pain, the goal is growth and understanding and correction. He would always explain the reason why the child is receiving discipline. So when hardships and struggles come, as we grow and mature, hopefully we find ourselves asking less and less things like this. Why is God punishing me? What did I do to deserve this? And as we grow and as we learn to trust in God's goodness, maybe we start asking questions like this, Father. What is it that you're trying to teach me through this?

And he delights to answer that prayer. It'll ultimately be for your good and for the glory of God. We see this in the blind man whom Jesus heals. His disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he would be born blind. Jesus answered, Neither this parent this man nor his parents sinned. Now, of course, they sinned, but that was not the cause of the blindness. You guys following that? Okay. But this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him. Now this man in heaven is probably not caring at all that he spent the early part of his life blind. That affliction was momentary in life. He probably has all but forgotten it. Sometimes when correction is needed, there is a corrective meme that needs to be applied.

The Greek word for the Korean word meme is mastigoi, which is often translated in English as scourging, or as uh the LSB translated as flogging. Those sound harsh, right? I scourged Maddie today. I flogged him. That sounds like really harsh, but it literally is just like wap. It's a it's it's a memory, right? And usually that has a child's correction in mind. And the scriptures say that the flogging that a father gives to his son is usually the evidence of the father's love. So I'm gonna give you a slightly longer passage, but it's important because it teaches us a lot of things about the greater. Okay, so I want to read Hebrews 12, 6 to 11. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he flogs every son whom he receives.

Now you understand why I give you that. Okay, because if you read that, you'd be like, wait a minute. It's like it's it's short circuits, right? And it is for discipline that you endure, because God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we all had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our, and there's a permanence in this word, benefit, so that we may share in his holiness.

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. So our earthly fathers, sin tainted and flawed, disciplined us, as it verse 10, as seemed best to them.

Earthly fathers can at times be temperamental and careless. But God's discipline is always perfect and exact, and for the purpose of our growth in holiness. God doesn't discipline in anger. Amen.

God the Father disciplines his children in love. Proverbs 3.12 also teaches us that reproof from God springs forth from his delight in his children. Hopefully you see that in Proverbs 3.12. Secondly, fathers delight in their children and want to give them the best of everything. Proverbs 3 12. We see that expressed not only in discipline, but we see it expressed in the giving of good things. The beginning of Luke chapter 13 or 11, 13 reads, if you then, being evil, know how to get gifts to your children, how much more? Okay. So for the first uh three years of the twins' lives, uh, we lived in Korea. And on the days when I wasn't traveling abroad, I would typically come home a little bit before six.

And in our apartment in Korea, we didn't use metal keys. We had number keypads to open up our doors. And every day around six, as soon as I'd flip up the cover of the keypad, the twins would hear that, and then I would hear them running toward the door. So happy that I was home. So the sound of their footsteps, the sound of them squealing and running to the door, was my favorite part of every day. So my steps would quicken actually from my walk from the elevator to our apartment door, and I looked forward precisely every day to that moment. I'd open the door, walk in, and they just they were running. There's two of them, so it's a lot of fun. I'm hugging them, I would kiss them, and then I would roll around with them on the floor, and I would begin to play with them with whatever toy they brought me.

And they would always bring me a toy. It's like a little dog, right? So they were, they would just bring me stuff, I would play with them. I delighted in this.

But I don't care what kind of trouble they caused her. I didn't care that they made a mess.

Now, of course, I corrected those things. And sometimes Becky would come home and say, they need to admit real bad. Like what? I just go. But their messes, their mistakes, their sins, did not change my delight in them. I corrected them, but it never changed my delight. And oftentimes, how was my delight as a father expressed? And it's usually more dads than moms. But I would often want to get them gifts that would delight those whom I delighted in. So whenever I would go to EMart, which is kind of like Korea's version of Target, even if I went by myself, you know where I would go? Toy section. There were so many things that I would go to EMAR for in the toy section that I wanted to buy for them.

There were so many things that I wanted to give to them. And of course, there were many toys that I wanted to give them, but that weren't age appropriate, but that I was planning to give them when they were a little older. That's my heart. That is my heart. I delight in my kids. In my heart, I want to buy them everything. Everything. But of course, in my wallet, and then if I in my marriage relationship, you don't do that kind of stuff, right? You get in trouble. And of course, in my wisdom, I knew not to go overboard. But in my heart, I wanted to give them the world. Also what really delights my heart? When I see them getting along with each other. That brings me so much satisfaction as a father.

When I see them quietly playing together, they often play house. Their husband and wife don't theologically read into that. But I love it. I love it when they get along. Psalm 133.1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. That delights God. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. So it truly is a good and pleasant thing that I believe greatly delights our father's heart when he sees us loving one another. So when my twins were little, whenever it was time to give them milk or give them some kind of a snack, for some reason, I mean, no one told me to do this, or I didn't read it in a book, but I would give one of the twins both of the bottles and tell him or her to take the other one to the sibling.

Ultimately, I wanted them to learn how to share. So sometimes, said twin would successfully deliver the milk. Sometimes not. They would get distracted. I would do the same thing with snacks. With milk, this sharing was kind of easy. Snacks posed a bit more of a challenge. One time I gave Maddie two cookies and told him to give one to Karis. He ran with it. And you know what he did? He put both cookies in his mouth. Karis proceeded to scream at the injustice. And as she screamed and as she cried, she wasn't looking at her brother. You know who she was looking at? Me. Because I caused this injustice. And because I did nothing to stop Maddie from committing this horrible evil, she was pissed. She was wronged, and I didn't seem to care that she there was this great injustice.

Now, as a father, I could intervene, snatch the cookie from Maddie, give him a meme, and then give the cookie to Karis, maybe give her two of them. But I don't want my kids to share out of compulsion or fear of punishment. I want them to share from the heart. So at times I even waited at the expense of the unfairness, one of my kids would feel at the moment, God would give me wisdom to wait. So a lot of times people go, like, why is there poverty? Why are there rich people? Similar thought.

One day I was sitting at the kitchen table with Maddie. He asked me for a tangerine. So I didn't think much of it. So I went into the fridge, I peeled it for him, and I just gave him the whole thing. I didn't ask him to do anything with it. I wasn't actually, to be honest, I wasn't really paying attention because I was actually on my phone at the moment. I remember this vividly. But right away, without being told to do so, he took the tangerine, broke it in half, ran to Karis, who was playing with the doll in the corner, and he gave her the other half. And I was like, I win! I was so elated. I was so happy. Because without even being told to do so, something in him told him, I have a tangerine, let me break it and let me give the other half to my sister.

So in the same way, God desires for his children to love one another. And he gives them ample opportunity to express their love and their forgiveness to one another. If God is so good and he is all powerful, why do you think he allows sometimes for the unjust things to happen in this world? Good thoughts to think through. So lesson one, fathers discipline their children in love. Lesson two, fathers delight in their children and want to give them the best of everything. And third, fathers desire to see the best of themselves in their children. Luke 11, 11 to 13. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, we'll give him a snake instead of a fish, or if his son asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.

This is an absurdity, right? The lesser, even the lesser won't do silly things like that. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. And he bypassed the needs altogether. Giving good gifts to the children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Now, even selfish and evil fathers desire to give their children good things. They want to give their children things that will benefit them. But the greatest things that a father can give to his kids are not objects. It is not a house. It is not money, it is not a good education. Right. The best thing I can give to my son, I can give to my daughter is my heart. The best gift a father can give to his children is himself.

And you guys all understand this. A young child might not understand this, but as a child gets older, what happens? He starts to value his father's love over his father's gifts. I mean, sometimes it goes the other way, where like a rich person just gives a kid's gifts, but no love, and it really messes up everything, right? I appreciate and understand my father more now than when I was 15. When I was a kid, I appreciated or didn't appreciate my father for what he could give me, or what he did or did not give me. Now I appreciate and value him just because he's my father. And if you think about this, this is both a strange, but an obvious conclusion to the passage. The disciples who asked Jesus to teach them how to pray at this time, they didn't have an understanding of who or what the Holy Spirit was.

Ask, seek, knock, and your father in heaven, who is good, who is a keeper of promises and covenants, he will give you the Holy Spirit. So the disciples, when they're hearing this, they're anticipating the restoration of power. They're expecting to get their land back. They were looking for the overthrow of the Roman Empire. But God gives them the Holy Spirit. The best thing that God can give to you and me is not health and wealth, comfort, riches, fame, but rather a relationship with him and a knowledge of his heart. But some of us who are spiritual toddlers, we still want the stuff. Some of us who are spiritually impetuous teens would prefer health and wealth and comfort and riches. How mature are you in your faith?

Here's a way to gauge your maturity. Is your relationship with God a means or is it a goal? If you want to use God to bless your life, the pagans seek after those kinds of God. Spiritual toddlers and babies, that's all they know. But as a person matures in the faith, they want to celebrate and know the giver and not just his gifts. So as we mature in our faith, we grow to delight more and more in the relationship with our heavenly father than in the things that we can get from him. Amen? So here's an obstruction to this illustration. We have many evil fathers in the world. And even the best of fathers are sinners because even the best of men are men at best, right? So if you're to ask me, do you love your kids?

I will say, absolutely. If you were to ask me, do I love my kids more than I love myself? I'm not going to give you the Hollywood answer, the storybook answer. I'm going to say probably no. If I had to defend my kids with my life, if I had to even give my life for my kids, I am pretty sure that I would. But if you were to ask me, do you love your children more than you love yourself? I would actually answer, I really don't know. Because I love me a lot. I am selfish. And there are times, even though I love my children, there are times my parenting is affected negatively because of my selfishness. When I haven't slept well, or when I am grumpy, or when I am stressed, my attitude toward my kids can be negative.

When I am under a lot of different pressures, I can be a bad dad. I can say no to family, yes to church things. When there are difficulties in my marriage, let's say I am upset or Becky's upset, my kids are going to be affected. So that's why we have to work at not being upset long. Right. Sometimes in moments of weakness, if I look at the years of parenting that I've I've passed through, I've disciplined them so that they'll stop being annoying rather than shepherding them for their good. And sometimes I will confess I've reacted to them being loud and obnoxious rather than shepherding their hearts. That's me. But even as a self-centered, selfish, weak, sinful father, I will not deliberately give my kids things that are harmful for them.

My love for my kids is broken and imperfect, but I imperfectly do love them with all my heart, and I delight in them supremely. Now, for you fathers, there's like three of us in here, four of us. You love your kids.

And love is imperfect, it's a struggle. But you love your kids. I love my kids. Somewhere in my 30 plus years of ministry, something changed in my relationship with God. And I think it was a realization that God loves me and delights in me more than I love or delight in my kids. It was radical. God loves you more than you love your kids. Think about this. God loves you more than you could ever love your kids. And his love is perfect. He is never in a bad mood. Psalm 1214. He's actually never tired. He doesn't sleep. He's never sleep deprived. He is never in disagreement with himself.

He never reacts.

And he's a God who delights in you more than you could ever delight in your own children. If you've been adopted into the family of God, your father loves you with a fierce, relentless, passionate love. So let that truth sink in.

More than you could ever love your kids. Because once that truth sinks in, the next time you pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your heart's passion is going to beat something different. Sunday worship will be different. It'll be special because it's just time with dad. My kids are looking forward to the end of June to the July 3rd. Don't bother us that week because we're taking a family staycation. We're going to go to a soccer game, we're going to doctor game, museums. They're very excited about this. They're very excited to spend time with dad and mom. Well, leave the mom out. It's Father's Day. Okay. They're super excited. Sunday worship should feel like that. Like it's time with Daddy.

So happy Father's Day. Ultimately, we're gathered today because of our Heavenly Father, and He's our guest of honor here. He's the reason we're gathered. And as we reflect on God's goodness, and as we grow in delight for Him, may that overflow into our love and affection for our earthly fathers as well. You may not have had a William Jackson Smart as your father as a father in this life.

But you do have a heavenly father who knows you, who knows how many hairs you have on your head.

The deepest thoughts.

And one day, you're gonna see him face to face. And what a joy that will be for him.

And may it serve as an exhortation to all of us. Proverbs 23, 22 to 25. The lesser to the greater. Listen to your father who begot you. Do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy truth. Do not sell it. Get wisdom and discipline and understanding. And you know where you get your truth from? Dad. The father, verse 24, of the righteous will greatly rejoice. And he who begets a wise son will delight in him, will be glad in him. So let your father and your mother be glad and let her rejoice. Who gave birth to you? Let us think of both the lesser and the greater in this. And may that cause us to have great affection for all our fathers. Amen. Let's pray together.

We pray, Lord, our Father, that you would teach us your heart. So many of our problems. Actually, most of our problems are rooted in the fact that we don't know you. That we're not grateful. So I pray simply for your blessing over this church to be made known. That we would know your heart. And that you would cause us, as we learn more and more about you, that we would delight in you in the way that you delight in us. So we thank you, Lord, for our time together and for this reminder. We thank you for a lot of these lesser examples. Ultimately, I pray that they would always point us to the perfect and the greatest example, which is you, our Heavenly Father. So we thank you, Lord, for our time together.

We love you and pray this in Jesus' name.