Beacon Sunday Service: June 16th, 2024

Make sure to wish them a happy Father's Day.

All right, let's gather ourselves to our seeds. We're just so grateful for the earthly fathers that God has placed in our lives. But the truth is we have a perfect father in our God in our Lord. And it is Him that we come together today to worship and to give Him praise and thanks. And so let's recite together here. John chapter four, twenty-three to twenty-four. Um there's a response to this. It says, God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. And together, for such the Father seeks to worship him. Amen. May we do that this morning. May we come before our Heavenly Father and worship him in spirit and in truth.

A thousand stories of what they think you're like whisper of love, and you tell me that your pleasing that I'm never alone.

It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are, and I'm love by you.

It's who I am many searching for answers.

What we need before we say a word, you're a good father. It's who you are, it's who you are, to you are and I'm love by you.

It's who I am, it's who I am. You're a good father, it's who you are, to you are to you, and I'm love by you, it's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am. You are perfect, you are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. In all of your ways to you are perfect in all of your ways.

You are perfect in all of your ways. Toyota I can hardly speak peace, so unexplainable. I hardly think as you call me, deeper still as you call me, deeper still as you call me, deeper still into love. You're a good father, to you are to you are to you are and I'm love by you to I am to I am to I am you're a good father to you are to you are it's who you are and I'm love by you it's who I am too I am it's who I am you're a good father it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and I'm love by you it's who I am it's who I am it's who I am I once was lost in darkest night yet thought I knew the way the sin that cause joy and life had led me to love I had no hope that you would own a rebel to your will and if you have loved me first I would refuse as I ran but as I ran my hell bound ways indifferent to the cause you looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross.

And I beheld. God's love display. You suffered him. I praise you bore the wrath reserved for me. Now all I know is great. Hallelujah. All I have is Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life. Now, Lord, I will.

And live so all might see. The strength of your command could never come from. Oh Father, you ransom life in any way. And let my song never be okay.

Hallelujah. Jesus is my life. Hallelujah. All I have is Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life. Amen. Hallelujah. Jesus is our life. Now listen as we um Sarah's gonna in a moment just read for us the parable of the lost son. And we all know this uh verse pretty familiarly, but it speaks to God the Father's heart for his people that if we would just turn from our sin and turn to him, that he would joyfully take us back in his arms.

And so I just listen to this parable as she reads aloud, and you can fall along here.

So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

But no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? And here I am, starving to death.

Make me like one of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fat and calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

So they began to celebrate.

No joy, no hope, no love.

So a world of life.

And you held out your arms.

Such a dessert again, mercies from grace. Such a deserto me and celebrate the rebel now your child.

Good morning, everyone. Happy Father's Day to all of you out there. Um at this time, we're gonna have our confession of face, and as you know, it's just something that we do corporately to remind ourselves that it is something that we struggle with continuously, and in our sanctification in the process of we just turn our eyes to the Lord and confess that we struggle with sin. There are things that we continually struggle with, and we ask for the Lord to just cleanse us from those things so that we can move forward from them and no longer struggle with them in our life. So corporately, let us say, Eternal God, we confess that we have tried to hide from you in the darkness of our sin. We have lived for ourselves and apart from you.

We have turned from our neighbors and refuse to bear the burdens of others. We have ignored the pain of the world and pass by the hungry, poor, and oppressed. In your great mercy, forgive our sins and bring us back to the light. Soften our hearts so we can love, trust, and obey Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Please be seated. Let's not take a time of personal confession of sin to our Lord.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame.

Today's prayer topic is actually twofold. One, it's for our own fathers, um, just to pray over them. Whether you have a healthy relationship with your father or broken one, uh, pray for your father, pray for his knowledge of the Lord for his salvation if he's not saved. Um, but also for uh the Lord to show love and compassion and encouragement to him for the great job that he helped with in raising you as a child. The second prayer request is for our brother Micah, um Howard's brother, his friend, uh, who lost his wife recently. It's gotta be a tough day for him. Just pray over for him and his young son Nolan that he'll feel loved, uh encouraged and comforted today, and and it's what what's has to be a bit of a bittersweet day for him.

Uh so let's pray for both things.

Father, we just lift up our fathers to you. Such great fathers here at the Beacon that are great examples of what uh godly men should be. Um we pray for um our fathers as well, um, just for blessing upon them, um, for to keep them healthy and and help them to feel loved and encouraged today. We pray for the broken relationships that those would be mended and woo and and and healed over, Father. We pray for the salvation of our fathers, Father. We pray for just um that that you would watch over them, that you would continually bless them uh and help them to feel celebrated today. We pray for the fathers that helped us bring in bring us to this world and and and have loved and raised us. We pray that you just um just uh bless them today.

We also pray, Father, for our brother Micah, who recently lost his wife, and we know that he has a young son, Nolan. Um today is just a day for encouragement for him as well, even in the midst of mourning. We pray that you show him love, you show him comfort, uh, and that you know that people and that he knows that people are caring for him and watching over him and praying for him, and that you most importantly love him and are lifting him up today. We thank you, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Uh, children, you're dismissed for Sunday school, please follow Teacher Tiffany out with uh teacher Abraham. Uh let's go over a few announcements at this time. Our park day is coming up in a couple of weeks, June 7th.

Uh a de uh an email with details will come out with just the address, uh specific location. Uh, but it's gonna be at Richard Rue uh Memorial Park in Stevenson Ranch. Uh we're gonna have a normal time of fellowship or uh worship at 1030. So please plan accordingly once you find out how long it's gonna take you to get there. Uh we're gonna worship fellowship and play games, eat some good food. Uh so please uh make sure that you uh put the put that in your calendars. And last but not least, we have our just offering options our Zell, Vemo, Cash and Check. I'm gonna welcome Pastor Madison to come bring us the word. Well, praise the Lord for an opportunity to preach the word again. Um, we've been in the book of James.

And since it's Father's Day, we're we're gonna be looking at at uh Luke 15. Um next week is communion again. And so what I'd like to do is next week, just Kenny, so you know what's ahead, um we want to look at at communion out of uh First Corinthians chapter 11. And then of course, then the picnic is coming up after that. Uh and at the picnic, um, I won't have the benefit of the screens so much. And so uh I'm uh I'm wanting to do something uh that we'll incorporate for your kids and you uh uh from from God's word that you can walk away from. And then we'll come back um, I think it'll be July 14th to the second part of James chapter 2. So we'll go from there. We want to look at lost and found today.

And I suppose it would uh it would seem kind of foolish. Um, but just to ask you the question, have you ever lost anything? Uh when we first got married, I kept saying to her, hey, hey, sweetheart, do you know where my keys are? Do you know I I'll just put it on the screen that way, you know. Everybody's lost their key or keys at some point. I used to say to her, I'll be glad when I get to heaven. I won't need any more keys. I'll just, you know, they'll be gone. And at one point, this this tells you how long ago it was. Uh, where she said, you can tell them you're grateful today, you don't need a key for your car, or it works right off your phone. So you just walk up on your phone and it it unlocks it all.

But at one point, she she said she spent so much time looking for my keys, because I I never I don't have any keys on me right now. And she would she bought one of those crazy uh things that you attach to your keys, and the way you found them was you whistled from a low pitch to a high pitch, and as it came up through some area, it would resonate with that little thing attached to your keys, and it would start to tweet. And I say, Oh, there they are, you know, and then you'd find them. But I it was kind of crazy. Other things that you might have lost tie into this. You ever lost data or data on your computer? You know, you go, oh no, I didn't save it, oh no. Or sometimes, especially in the past, uh, computers were pretty sensitive.

And when you walked up to them and you zapped them, it would actually destroy, you know, portions of it. And you'd go, oh no, I now I gotta start all over again. And I don't know how many times, because my my first computer was oh back in about 1977, and we'd type in uh email addresses and you'd have a whole list, and and for this camp in New York that I've been involved with for years, we had uh email address uh addresses across the United States, and so you had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of addresses, and the way that first computer worked is it had a cassette tape that kept track of all the data, so it was only the speed of the cassette tape that would go through, and somehow, because the programs were so new and so messed up, it would go bonkers, and then you'd have to start typing them all over again when you lose things, you know, eventually you you understand what what God's talking about when he knows that there are people who are lost, and so in Luke uh chapter 15, he starts out this way all the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him, and the Pharisees and scribes were complaining.

This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. We used to sing a hymn years ago. Uh Jesus, Jesus is a friend of sinners. Um I'd sing it, my voice is not that great, but it goes, Jesus is a friend of sinners, friend of sinners, friend of sinners, you know, and he didn't he wasn't, he's not asking us what what friendship he says does the the world will light have with darkness, but we are friendly with them, we don't look down on them because we were saved out of that. We understand what it's like, so we can be friendly towards them. Listen to me, I want to be very careful here. We are friends with them, but we don't have fellowship with them. Because what fellowship does light have with darkness?

So we can be friendly, and Jesus was friendly, but the Pharisees, who were the religious people, were upset. Oh, he's friends with sinners, and he welcomed sinners and eats with them. The text goes on. So Jesus told them this parable. Do you remember? Well, probably back in February when we were looking at the first time I told you, listen, here's how I'm going to preach. I'm going to, I'm going to, we're going to write through the word, but we're going to teach like Jesus did. He never taught without using what? Parables. And a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And I took it like this. I said the Greek word for parable is parabole. Remember that? And let me just slide it up here, so I'll just quickly review this.

Letter for letter, the prefix parah. I know you're going to remember this. The pie becomes our P. The alpha becomes our A. And I told you in the Greek alphabet, all their alphabetical characters are what we use in our English alphabet. I told you the first two letters of the Greek alphabet are alpha, beta. And so we put the two together, and we have our English word alphabet from the first two letters of their Greek. The next letter looks like R P, but it's the Greek letter row. Rho. So because it's the row, it becomes R letter R. And then, of course, we have the alpha again. Okay? So what letter is it going to make? We add these letters to it. And the word parallel comes from this Greek parabola.

So para is a prefix meaning beside. Beside. And when we do that, let me show you how we do that. We we draw a line here and we say, let's draw another line parallel to it. This other line is going to be right beside it. And so here, let me draw it this way. Railroad tracks. The tracks never never cross.

But they never cross. Those tracks are parallel. They're one right beside another. So when Jesus taught using parables, the second part of parabalay, balay is the second part, and it means to throw. We get our English word ball from it. B-A-L-L. What do you do with the ball? You throw it. So when you put the two words together, it means to throw beside. So what Jesus would do is he'd teach them about heaven. And then he'd throw right beside it, an earthly story. So they go, oh, oh, that's what he means. So a parable is an earthly story that is thrown beside a heavenly story to help us understand it. So let's go back. So Jesus taught them this parable. What man among you who has 100 sheep and loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it.

When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders. And coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep.

Then over 99 righteous people who don't think they need repentance. They think they're doing their righteous. And Jesus is saying, you know something? You're worried that I'm eating with these people, but there's more joy in heaven. There's no joy in heaven over you, but there's joy in heaven over these people when they repent. More joy than over you who think you don't need any repentance. Here's the main thrust of verses one through 24. I'm going to put verse 3 on the screen, uh, three and four, verse 8 on the screen, and verses 11 and 24. Look at the screen. Here's the focus. You have the lost sheep in verses 3 and 4. You have the lost coin in verse 8.

You have the lost son in verses 11 and 24. So you really kind of get in the gist of where he's headed. Now, here's what John Stott says about this. The three parables are like three musical instruments, which, although each makes a different type of sound, are nevertheless playing the same tune. I said to my wife, if the if the keyboard were closer and I wouldn't get off the internet screen, I'd walk over to the keyboard and I would play. You know what an octave is? Da ta ta ta ta ta ta da. Okay? That's an octave, eight notes. If you take those eight notes and just go, dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. That's the octave going down. If you just change that and give it some rhythm, it can sound like this.

I said I would walk over to the keyboard, I would play that, and then I would grab my trumpet and I say, let me play the same thing, and I would play that, and then maybe I would attempt to sing it with this uh this instrument. And I would say, different instruments, but the same tune. Got it? So Jesus is going to give them this kind of a focus. So let's go back to that text. You have the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. Now let me highlight the top two for a second, and say the first two parables highlight what God does to save us.

What? Pursued. Do you get that? Sheep don't know they're lost.

They just are out there. But the shepherd pursues them. If a sheep doesn't know it's lost, how much more a coin has no idea it's lost and doesn't even have a mind. But what does the woman do? She pursues it. That's exactly what God does for us. Luke 19, 10 says, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He's the one that does the pursuing.

That's why it's so wonderful to know that our salvation once we come to know Christ, it's so secure because he sought us and sought us and sought us. And when we respond, he says, I will never leave you. No, never forsake you. And John 10, 28, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hands. So he's saying, look, you were like the lost sheep. You were like the lost coin. And I pursued you. That's the first two. Let me give you the third one, the lost son, and the third parable, the word reveals what we do to get saved. Just like the foolish son, we must willfully respond to our Lord's pursuit of us. You get that. And if we don't respond, you know, if we don't call and if we don't believe and call on his name, you're not saved.

But if you respond to him, I mean, we go through the world like we're lost people. We we give ourselves over to whatever we want, just like the prodigal son. You ever wonder what the product, what prodigal means? You know, we call it the prodigal son. The word prodigal is never mentioned in scripture. So what happened is some pastor years ago has said, oh, this son was a was prodigal. And so then it got in the in the Bible, you know, named that section of the scripture, the prodigal son. I used to think it meant the wayward son. You know what it means? It means the extravagant, the one that just goes out there and just lavishes everything. And so what do you do with his money? He spent it all, and he just say, hey, let's go to parties and hey, let me buy this, and let me, and he just lavished whatever he wanted, he lavished on himself.

He became the prodigal son. He was just a foolish son. Evangelist, evangelism must teach us. I'm gonna give you three things that evangelism has to teach us, okay? First, is like sheep, we've gone astray. Nobody gets saved that doesn't realize they're lost. I don't need a savior if I know where I'm if I'm if I'm not lost, but if I'm lost and I'm on my way to hell, I need a savior. So, like sheep, we've gone astray. And you know what's interesting? If you read the 23rd Psalm, and I don't have it on the screen because I wasn't planning on mentioning it all. But you know, it's just the Lord popped in my mind right now. So let me just say this. You know what sheep do? David says, the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not be in want. You know, he leadeth me and he takes me to paths, you know, the green pastures. He leaves me beside still waters and stuff like that. Here's what happens to sheep. Listen to me carefully, okay? Sheep have no idea, no sense of direction. They're like some people that when they get in their car, they have no sense of direction. You know, which way's north? I don't know. But so sheep, what they do, they just eat and sleep and eat, graze. But when they're eating and grazing, they're not paying any attention to where they're going. They just have their heads down and just eating it, eating the grass all the way down to the ground. And once in a while they even bump into thorns and other sharp objects.

That's why when it gets to the end of Psalm 23, he says, Thou anointest my head with oil. Because what happens is he brings the sheep into the fold at night. They've had their heads down all day long. They're like some of us. We're working, we're just trying to earn money, and we're just going at it. We're not paying any attention to anything else, and our lives get marred and scarred and bludgeoned, cut during the day. And the Lord says, Ah, you're like my sheep. And I bring them into the sheepfold at night, and I look at their heads because they had their heads down all day. They haven't paid any attention to where they're going, and they've gotten into sin and they've gotten hurt, and I'm going to anoint their heads with oil.

So, like sheep, we've gone astray. Secondly, like the coin, we're helpless. Do you understand that picture? I mean, he's trying to set this picture before the Pharisees on how to get saved. And he's saying, Look, you've gone astray. Oh, look, you can't help yourself. Is there anything that a coin can do to help itself? Absolutely nothing. If wherever it is, it just lays there. He says, I want you to understand. That's how you are. You can't save yourselves. There's nothing you can do. All your righteousness is like a filthy rag. The third thing, like the lost son, we're foolish. Let me just highlight it here. We've gone astray. We're helpless, and we're foolish. And that's why we need a savior.

So he's setting it up for the Pharisees and scribes, and saying, Look, here's how I view you. You're like lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son. So here's Luke 15, verses 11 to 24 that Sarah read to us. Okay. I would often think, and what's the focus? Most of the time when you open up a Bible, it's the prodigal what? It's the prodigal son. You think this whole passage is about the son? But look at the passage on the screen, and what do you begin to see? A man, his father, father, my father, my father, father, his father, his father, father, and the father. You know, the father's a pretty significant character in this in this text. And so let me give you the sermon in a sense, okay? Earthly fathers should be like our heavenly father.

Now, earthly fathers are gonna fail. And you know something?

When we fail as fathers, it allows our children, because we can tell them, you know, your heavenly father will never fail you. You know, dad's gonna make mistakes, dad's gonna sin, dad's gonna fail, but you can always trust your heavenly father. So that passage, this passage is gonna focus on the heavenly father, and I want to give you three qualities that you see in this dad, in the lost son and his dad, three qualities that we need to have in our lives. Okay. First one is this, he was giving.

Luke 15, verses 11 and 12. He also said, a man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me. So what did the father do? He distributed the assets to them. Now, if you were older, uh, I would I'll say it to you now, but if you were older, I say, are you willing to give your assets right now to your kids? If you had kids, some of you don't have kids yet. If you had kids, I'd say, are you willing to give your all your assets to your kids? I mean, think about it. When do we give? When do we distribute assets? Let me just drop it on the screen this way. When do we, when are assets distributed? When you die. So what was this son saying to his dad?

I wish you were dead. Because then I'd get it all.

No, you think, oh, the kids don't know. They want they wouldn't handle it properly. Um as people get older, you know what they do? Their assets sometimes become uh almost bargaining chips. They're fine. Sometimes they're there's their assets become bargaining chips. They put you in their will, but if you don't treat them correctly, what do they say? That's what I'm gonna take you out of my will if you don't. You know, they use the almost the same on the opposite side that the young guy used on the on this side. That money became the reason. They think I can't give them the money now, because if I give them the money now, and I and I need it, where am I gonna go? They don't know.

This guy, he distributed it to them. He said, hey, it's just money. It's God's gonna provide.

Now, what you're giving them is something more valuable than money. You're giving them an inheritance of faith. You're sharing with them how to how to turn to Christ. You're sharing with them what it's like to be a giver. Because you're giving to them today. And don't use it as a manipulation. Hey, if you do this, mom and dad will get you that. You know, just use it, you know, when they need things. Hey, yeah. When they ask for things, and sometimes you may have to say to them, you know, everything in me wants to give you what you want right now, but you're not ready for that. I'll give you an example. Another thing that just popped into my mind. My son, when he was younger, wanted to have, you know, little toy guns.

And I said to him, Doug, I can't, I can't do that right now. I he was probably seven or eight. And I said, because I don't want you thinking that you can run around and you know, point it at people and and pretend you're shooting them. I I said I want you to reach a point in your life where you know guns are not toys. And so we went through probably a year, and I I forget what I did with him to have him demonstrate to me that he knew it wasn't a toy. Um at that point, I said, Yeah, I if I ever see you pointing this at anybody and pretending, I guess it was a dartboard that had some you know, darts that you shot with a handgun. But I was teaching him, he wanted it earlier, but I didn't give it to him that soon.

But once he learned that guns weren't toys, guess, you know, when he said, Dad, uh, I want to be a police officer. You know, I thought he's got it, because guns aren't toys, but they're there to protect people and to make uh people protect other people from really bad people. The text in Deuteronomy says it this way, because his son had disobeyed. His son had taken all the money, went out and spent it wherever he wanted. Deuteronomy chapter 21 says it this way. When it comes to an inheritance, the dad is not to show favoritism. He must acknowledge that, and it almost sounds like he's gonna, hey, wait a minute, there is favoritism in the firstborn. He he must, verse 17, he must acknowledge the firstborn by giving him two shares of his estate, for he is the first fruit of his virility.

He has the rights of the firstborn. I would say to you, he wasn't showing favoritism because the firstborn's responsibility in the Old Testament was to take care of the parents and the rest of the family, or if anything happened to the parents to take care of the family. And so God is saying, okay, here's how you're gonna, I'm gonna give you the extra responsibility, and I'm gonna give you the funds to care for that, but here's what's happened with the inheritance. Luke 15, son, he said to him, You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

You can say that to your kids, can't you? Your wife, your kids, you and your wife can say, everything we have is yours. It's going to be yours. It's the Lord's. But I'm going to pass it on to you so you can be good stewards. You need to be able to say that now. And you can say to them, right now, to your kids, everything we have is yours. And someday, you'll have it all. But I'm going to teach you in the meantime how to use it in ways that will glorify God. Because, what do I say? Earthly fathers should be like our heavenly father. And here are the qualities. The first, he's giving. Everything I have is yours. And when the son asked for it, he thought, okay, and you know, the son is an adult at that point because he could take off and go on his own.

He's going to trust him because he's giving. But the second picture that you see in here, it ought to be easy to remember. He was giving, and he was forgiving. Got it? He was willing to forgive. You know, sometimes, especially those of you who have little kids, it's not hard to forgive them. I tell you, when parents have a hard time to start to forgive, is when they start to get in that late teenage years, and they become rebellious, or they start to go their own way. And maybe they do something that you think, how could you do that? And we know parents in our society that are not forgiving.

They've looked at their kids and they've said, You're dead to me. You ever heard people use that phrase? You're dead to me. Because if I let's say a young Jewish man, trust Christ as his Savior, and he comes from a Jewish believing Jewish family. They would say to him, You're dead to me.

The text says it this way. I'll get up, the son. He's already wasted all the money. He's already feeding the pigs. I'll get up, go to my father and say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven, and in your sight, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. He's saying, I've sinned. And the dad is willing to do what? Forgive. Anytime anybody says, Will you forgive me? Do you remember Luke 17 what it says? How many times do I have to forgive? Seven times. You know? How many times, Lord? He said, every time, even if the guy comes back in the same day and does the same thing again, and then comes to you later and says, Will you forgive me? What's what's God's word say? Forgive him. Even if he does it multiple times a day.

You know, my tendency. I'd say, if somebody came back and they kept doing the same thing, I'd say, I don't, I don't know if you know, I don't know if you know what repentance is all about. I don't know if you understand, you know what you're asking. You're asking me to forgive you so that you're planning on not doing it again. But you keep doing it. But not this father. This father, he's willing, his son says, We I've sinned against heaven, and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father told his slaves, quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Immediate.

If let's give this some time. Well, let me see you prove. I know dads that have done that. You know. Hey, you've done this before. Let's see if let's see you prove yourself this time. Then we'll talk about it. Ephesians 4.32. This is a verse that we had our children learn when they were little. They learned that of King James. And so I when I quote it, where's it come from? King James Version. Be kind, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you, Ephesians 4.32. And they would, I I when I uh was pastoring in church uh for 10 years in Indiana, I had a uh a radio broadcast. And when uh our son Doug was uh about four years of age, I I had him come and sit with me on the radio broadcast.

And I said, I have my son here today, and and I said, I I want him to share some verses. And I we have video videos of him doing this kind of thing. And you know how little kids are. Be kind, tender, hard, and his head's bouncing away, you know, and how kids do be kind, tender, hard, forgiving one another, even at God, for Christ's sake, I've forgotten you. You know, and I thought, uh, let me just say that again so that you understand what he said. And what was interesting to me, one gal that had trusted Christ. She'd come to our church. I'd I'd done a wedding ceremony, and she and her uh her boyfriend at that time had been at the wedding, and so they came and wanted to meet with me. She came from a strong Roman Catholic family.

They would have the Monsignor, that's the really head priest there. They'd have the Monsenior every Sunday at their house and have dinner together. They were they want to be really committed. Now they had three daughters. The one daughter came to our church, and she trusted Christ. And she's she's so thrilled about you know, trusting Christ, and her dad was ballistic over it. He said, and her boyfriend brought her a Bible and gave it to her for Christmas. She came down the next morning, her Bible's gone. She said, Dad, where's my Bible? He said, I threw it in the fireplace. I burned it. I hadn't. But that's how upset he was that she had trusted Christ. At one point he said, you know, and so he started listening to my radio broadcasts, which on Sunday mornings, and he, of course, heard Doug, our son, when he's four.

And he said, I ought to go and kidnap his son. Then he'd know what I feel like when I've lost my daughter. And so if for us, we couldn't even let our kids play out in the front yard. Because we thought, okay, if somebody comes by and kidnaps him. Listen, be kind, compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. What do we need to do? Ah, here's a father that's setting an example. He was the qualities, he was giving. He was forgiving, and he was what? Loving. You know, dads have this idea somehow that they're the they're the disciplinarians. Mom's the kind of the cuddly loving one, but dad, you know, my that's not the that's not the biblical pattern.

And what's interesting, um my mother, when my brother and I would get into difficulty, she'd say, wait until your dad gets home. And then you're gonna, you know, and and I think, oh man, and when dad came home, you know, I I wasn't so excited to see him that day. And and I would say to you, you know, we we wanted our we wanted our kids to know how to express love, you know, how to how to hold hands or how to hug, or how to spend time uh with one another, uh to give them kisses to share with them, but a lot of dads, remember we when we talked about uh the love language a few weeks back, and how uh some people's love languages are talking and some are touch, and some are notes and some are gifts, and some are acts of service, but your kids learn from you that language, and now Father's Day, are they gonna learn how to forgive?

How to give, how to love? Here's what the text says. So here's the picture. The guy is his out of money, he's been feeding pigs, by the way. Keep in mind, what don't Jewish people eat? Ham, pork, things that are made from pigs, and so here's a Jewish boy, and when he runs out of money, what did they give him to do as a job? To feed the pigs.

So he got up, went to his father, but while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with that love, that compassion. And the dad ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. You know, it's interesting. We have a lot of families in our church uh up in Palmdale, and one of the guys that we know uh doesn't express his love. He I think I mentioned to you one time, I uh some guys, I I gave this guy a hug one time, and he he bristled right up. And you're hugging me. Don't say what do you want you hugging me? And so then he has kids, and he was never never hugging his kids, never kissing on his kids, never, and one of his children just graduated from high school, and when they came to a celebration with the kids, and they brought the parents up as well to celebrate, he was the only dad that kissed his daughter.

He's the only guy that would never do it, usually, and yet what are we teaching our our people? We don't you don't demonstrate love? You're not willing to hold hands. This guy's gonna demonstrate it. And he ran off. He ran off to him.

He kissed him. And Deuteronomy 21, when it talks about the inheritance and things like that, it says this: if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn't listen to them even after they discipline him, his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city and to the gate of his hometown. So now, when's the last time you brought your kids to anybody, we had eight elders on our church. That doesn't include our pastors, but eight elders.

And we'll have dinner together. You and your wife and the kids.

High school on down the little kids. And I said, you know something? I I want to thank you, kids that I have the privilege to work with your dad as an elder. And I want you to know that you, as kids, can end his eldership at any time. And I said, here's what God's word says that an elder must rule his house well. And if children who believe.

Anytime you have something you need, I want to be there for you. And the kids, you know, really were amazing. It doesn't end here in Deuteronomy. Listen to what goes on next in Deuteronomy 21. They're supposed to bring him to the gate, the father and mother, verse 19, his father and mother must take hold of this rebellious son. Bring him to the elders of the city, to the gate of his hometown. They will say to the elders of his city, this son of our of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He's a glutton and a drunkard. That's what this prodigal son became. Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

But listen to me.

What'd the father do? He ran to him.

And had wasted all the money. They had talked, they'd prayed. But he said, I need to get to my son before they get to my son. Because they know the command. What are they to do? They're to stone my son to death. And I gave him the money willingly. I was giving. And I I love him, and I'm forgiving. And he, I can't imagine watching some guy in a robe running down the path, and people are going, you know, the people on the way are watching him, and he's on his way. Because he's going to get there and he's going to forgive him. Stone him to death. Oh no, I need to get there first. I need to stop what they want to do so that they don't end up stoning him.

So the question I have for you is this, as men, how are you doing in your giving? In your forgiving, and in your loving. Because that's where your kids will learn. If you have sons, that's where your sons are going to learn how to treat their wives. And I hope that maybe God has graciously given you a father, an earthly father, who is giving, forgiving, and loving. But if not, that you can break that cycle. And so in your family, when your kids talk about you, if you didn't have a father that was this way, you can be a father who sets this example.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, oh, thank you that you're a good good father. We sang that today. And you really have been, and you are a good, good father. It's who you are. It's who you are. And we pray today, Father, that you would speak to our hearts, that we would become good, good fathers. While your heads are bowed, while your eyes are closed. Can you say, I want to give you two applications today. If you're here and you're like that prodigal son, and you're lost.

And you have to respond. You have to turn towards him. You have to ask him into your life today. And if you're here today as the father of that prodigal, then today I'm going to ask you if you would say, dear Lord, dear Lord, I pray that you would teach me how to be giving, how to be forgiving, how to be loving. So my kids would learn how to be a godly father. Father, would you lay your hands on the men of this congregation that they indeed can follow your example? And so, Father, today we would pray just as the song is in the background, just as I am, I come.

Make me what you want me to be. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. And just acknowledge our heavenly father's love for us, that we can turn to him, that we can place all our cares on him because he loves us so much. So let's rise and sing together of his deep love for us.

How deep the father's love for us beyond that he should give his own to make a wretched treasure. How great the pain of seeing us the father turn his face away as those wish my chosen one bring me a sons to God behold the man the man upon the cross by sing upon his shoulder ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers It was my sin that held him there until it was a complished dying breath has brought me life I know that it is not boast I will not boast in no use no power no wisdom but I will burn Jesus Christ his death and resurrection Why should I gain from his reward I can not give an answer but this I know with all my heart his words have made my son why should I gain from his reward I cannot give an answer but this I know with all my heart his wounds have paid my son our dad's here in just a moment um my wife is uh here today and she when I finished the sermon she said take sit back here and I went back next to her and and she said June is a five Sunday month next Sunday is not communion and so that I guess we'll get back into James chapter two next Sunday so I'll just jump on that and make that correction now but uh I'm gonna ask that the dad come up to the front and we want to pray for them but can I ask you to do this?

I'm gonna ask the dad to have their children come up and stand with them. Okay so the dads and the children with them and the rest of you can be seated. I don't want you to have to stand all that time. Yeah, yeah, why don't we turn the lights on?

And what I'm gonna also ask Jean, can you do me a favor as well? Um we'll get a picture of each one of the dads with their kids, you know, before they are before they take out of out of here today. But what a great opportunity. Uh dads we didn't do anything to you know we we couldn't make it happen. God made it happen. And there are guys in the world today that would love to be dads and that it didn't happen. So the gifts that you have right here are gifts from God. And so we're gonna ask God's blessing on them. And then Tiffany do you gonna get pictures too? Okay. Why don't you get right up here so you can get good ones okay let's ask God's blessing on their lives okay let's pray and if the kids make noise that's not a problem okay let's pray heavenly father what a joy it is I want to lay hands on Howard and I want to pray Father that you would minister to him that you would protect him uh as a police officer may he be what Romans 13 says a minister of God in that position.

Use him in the life of his kids lay your hand on him I pray father I pray for Stephen and I thank you for the way you're using him with others and the leadership of this church. Father we're praying that today you would bless and use his life for your glory with his kids we pray for him in his new job that you would use him in wonderful ways in that setting and then Father I thank you for Phil I thank you for the what what you've done in having him be one of the leaders here and giving him uh the children that you have thank you for what you have done in using him in my life and Father I pray that you would bless as he uh moves into the future that he'll be this godly dad for his kids and then father I want to pray for Albert thank you for um his uh leading in the singing at times here thank you for the new job that you've given him uh protect him uh in his uh law enforcement capacity at LAX thank you father that you gave him that job now I pray father uh as he works uh nights and is away from the kids at times that you'll really lay his life down he'd lay his life down for his kids that you lay your hand on him and use him for your glory in Jesus' name is there anything that you want oh go ahead wait leave the lights on oh okay Tiffany come on up front where they can see you're now okay okay I guess we couldn't quite communicate because then it wouldn't be a surprise and so there uh um thank you for praying for the fathers for us also uh but we want to present some gifts to the dads as well as a small um token of our appreciation for being such godly examples to our families and to our brothers um this is for