Fathering

When you think of your earthly father or your husband, what do you think of? When you think of your heavenly father, what do you think of? In both cases, do you think of a loving, kind being who always has your best interests at heart? The Hebrew word for father is spelled...some spell it AB, some spell it AB. It is a memetic, imitative word taken from the first and simplest sound off of an infant's lips. A baby begins, we call it ku-ing, say, ab-ab-ab-ab, that kind of thing. It's the first word in Strong's Concordance, A-V, or A-B, A-V.

The Greek word is very similar to it as far as meaning. The Greek word for father is pater, P-A-T-E-R. In both Biblical Hebrew and Greek, father is used in several different ways as begetter, progenitor, of an individual as a head of a household or ancestral family, as founder of a nation, as founder of a class or profession, as protector, the source of something, and a term of respect.

So the first word off of a child's lips, ab-ab-ab, oftentimes becomes da-da-da, and then eventually ma-ma-ma. And listen to this. The University of California psychologist Nicholas Christenfeld found that infants tend to resemble their fathers at birth.

In a study he conducted, participants picked the correct mom of an infant from photographs 30% of the time, but picked the correct dad 50% of the time. One hypothesis is that nature encourages paternal, that is, father, investment by having the infant to resemble the father.

Eventually, however, the resemblance to the father, thankfully, is quickly outgrown.

But those first few weeks, oftentimes, as this study says, 50%, they identified the father correctly.

God is love. We're familiar with 1 John 4, 8, which says, God is love. 1 John 4, 16, which says, God is love.

We could say that God equals love. God is love. That is His state of being. And the love of God is to keep His commandments.

And the Word of God is a light unto our path.

And John 6, 63 says, the words I speak, they are a spirit in their lives. So we could say that God equals love, equals law, equals light, equals life.

And as a doer, as we heard on Pentecost, He is first and foremost a Creator, physical and spiritual.

And from God as a Creator, in the spiritual sense, He is the one who begets us with His Spirit.

As we shall see, Christ plays a role in it. Let's notice these Scriptures with regard to Father. We'll begin in Isaiah, in Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63, in verse 6. There are two verses here, one in Isaiah 63 and one in Isaiah 64. We want to read.

In Isaiah 63, verse 8, note 16, I reverse them. It's Isaiah 63, 16.

Doubtless you art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, you, O Eternal, art our Father, our Redeemer.

Your name is from everlasting. Then you look over at Isaiah 64, verse 8. But now, O Eternal, you art our Father, we are the clay, and you are Potter, and we are all the work of your hand.

Though God is a Creator, He creates through Jesus Christ, He begets with Jesus Christ playing a role in it. But now let's look at Ephesians chapter 3. In Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, we notice here more about what it states about the Father.

In Ephesians 3 and verse 14, Ephesians 3, 14, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus said, Pray after this manner, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So there's no deeper, closer, respectful relationship that can exist than Father-Son or Father-Daughter. So look at Romans chapter 8, verse 15.

Of course, many people say that Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic, and Aramaic was derived from the Hebrew. It's a form of Hebrew. And in this verse, in Romans 8, 15, instead of the Father being Peter, it is Abba. See, Abba comes from the A-V or the A-B, Abba, Father. So in Romans 8 and verse 15, we'll see this term in Aramaic. For we have not received the spirit of bondage to fear, but we have received the spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. There are very few relationships that can exceed that of the Father and a Son.

The Father and a Daughter. God in Christ first loved us, and so in like manner we as parents are the ones that teach our children how to love. Look at 1 John 4 and verse 10. 1 John 4, 10. And so we're basically going to follow here today the parallels of God and Christ and their relationship to us, paralleling what we should be doing as parents in our relationship to our sons and daughters. So in 1 John 4 and verse 10, Herein is love, not that we love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propituation for our sins. He went in our stead. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So He went in our stead and He paid the penalty for us. Herein is love, not that we love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propituation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. So God the Father and Jesus Christ set the example with regard to love, not only in the family unit, but also in the extended family as well. They are, that is God and Jesus Christ, are unconditionally givers of themselves. And we're going to quote now John 3 16, which everybody in here can quote, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. Then we want to look at Romans. Turn back to Romans again in chapter 5, and we'll see this love that initially is unconditional. Now I say initially, because God does expect a return from us. But initially, the plan of salvation is totally gracious. We had nothing to do with the plan of salvation. God and the Word planned out the plan of salvation before time began.

As it says in 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, Jesus Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. So this plan of salvation is ancient in that sense, and it is totally gracious in that sense, and gracious being divine favor. We had nothing to do. It is totally unmarried. The fact that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world is a gracious act. But God does expect us to return through obedience. Let's go to Romans 5, verse 6 to begin with. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. He died for all of humankind. Every person who has ever lived, every person who ever will live, and that was a gracious action.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God committed his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So here is this unconditional, gracious love that the Father and the Son have given to us through the plan of salvation. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. So Jesus Christ lives in us, God the Father lives in us, through the Spirit of God. And we are expected then to bear fruit, the fruits of the Spirit. And of course you can quench that Spirit. We have that command in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 21, that says, Quench not the Spirit. So the unconditional love is extended to us through divine grace. Jesus gave his life so we could, upon repentance, faith in the sacrifice of Christ, be reconciled to the Father and receive the Holy Spirit. Our children learn how to love from us, from the parents. And to a large degree, children, unless they learn differently, will love in the same way that Father and Mother love them. So once again, we ask the question, when you think of your heavenly or physical Father, what do you think of? Do you view Him negatively with a sense of guilt, because you feel that you never quite measure up? Do you view God as if He's never pleased with you, and thus you don't really feel close to God? Of course, there is something that is called a guilt complex, and we can be free from the guilt complex. Let's look at 1 John. I don't have this in my notes, but it pops into my head at the present time. In 1 John 3, I believe it is. Look at 1 John 3. Verse 18. We'll start there and read into this.

See, there is a way to be free of any kind of guilt through obedience to God. My little children, this is 1 John 3.18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, nor in deed, and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemn us, in other words, if we have guilt, God is greater than our heart. He knows it, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. See, confidence toward God where we have this boldness, and there is not something gnawing, aching in the background, and it is holding us back. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. To some degree, we do view our Heavenly Father as we view our physical Father, or view our physical Father unless we have learned to grow beyond that, and to understand far more. As we've already noted, a Father has to do with begetting, loving, teaching. Our physical Fathers beget us, and our Heavenly Father begets us as well. So you know that your physical Father begets you to physical life. But did you discern from Him that He loved you, and always had your best interests at heart, and taught you how to live your life? Of course, even if that is not the case, you can learn. And so many people use their home life the way they were reared as an excuse to keep on whatever it is that they need to overcome. God ordained marriage and family so we could see in a concrete way what He is doing on a spiritual plane. The Father's position is absolutely essential. It is essential in our spiritual life. It is essential in our physical life. Let's look at John 15.26. In John 15.26, we'll see that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and Christ plays a role in that, as we shall see. We'll read 14.26 after 15.26.

In John 15.26, when the Comforter is come, in John 14.26, which we'll read in a moment, it says, the Comforter is the Holy Spirit. The Comforter is masculine in the Greek, parakletos. Therefore, the referent pronouns are as He and Him. We usually say it because the Holy Spirit is neuter. But when the Comforter or the Holy Spirit is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth which proceeds from the Father, it shall testify of Me. And you look at John 14.26, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, it shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever things I have said unto you. Now, you look up at verse 23, and you'll see that earlier, Jesus had said that both He and the Father would make His or their abode in us. Verse 23, Jesus answered and said unto them, If a man loved Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode in him.

The Father is the one that draws us. John 644 says, No man can come to Me that is to Christ, except the Father draw him. Look at James 1, verse 17. James 1 and verse 17.

In James 1, verse 17, we see here that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no wearableness, neither shadow of turning. Every good gift, every perfect gift of His own will begets He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits unto His creation.

So we see clearly here that He, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, that Jesus Christ plays a role in it. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of His own will, He has begotten us. God is bringing many sons and daughters to glory in His family. That's one of the great goals, of course, of the spiritual creation. But it's not, we are in a stage of developing Holy Righteous Character, being born, eventually born into the family of God. God intended and commanded fathers to be the head of the wife and the children. Now we want to go to 1 Corinthians 11. We'll see this very clearly. of the God-ordained family structure. The God-ordained family structure has been under attack now for almost 100 years, in a very dramatic way, to a large degree, as we will mention later. It began shortly after World War II. World War II turned the Western world upside down, with many of its customs and traditions no longer held sacred. In 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 1, Be you followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. So it gives it somewhat in the reverse hierarchical structure. So to go from top to bottom, it would be God, Christ, man, and then the wife.

And then it begins to talk about various aspects of how you can identify who is who kind of thing, which has been forgotten, but we're not pursuing that right now. But we do see the structure, but since World War II, as we mentioned, especially with the advent of television, I remember the first time that I saw a television. It was somewhere around, I'm guessing, 50-51 at Western Auto in Laurel, Mississippi. It was just basically a white screen sort of flickering around. And amazingly, by 1954, we had a television in our house, which amazed me. And I was watching every Sunday the Chicago Bears. I don't know why they chose Chicago Bears, but it was the Chicago Bears every Sunday on television, 1954, 46 and 17. So I'll tell you how long ago that was, 61 or so years ago or more. So with the advent of mass media, electronic media, mass circulation of newsprint, fathers have, in many of these cases, the sitcoms, the comic strips, been characterized as bumbling idiots, as in Dagwood and Beloundey. The fathers portrayed as somewhat mentally deranged, not able to manage his own affairs, let alone take care of a wife and family, sort of pictured as some kind of Anglo-Saxon Celtic caveman. He is viewed as someone to be pitted, to be tolerated. Really, they're saying if it were not for fathers, the world would really be a pretty nice place to live in. We've got to nurse these fathers along. You're led to believe that he's out of touch with a modern world. He hasn't really been enlightened, and he needs to be enlightened, but in the meantime, we're going to carry on.

He just doesn't seem to understand that the world belongs to women and children. Male and female are equal, and of course, they are. They have the same potential. God is not a respecter of persons, and he's not a respecter of gender, in the sense that we all have the same God-ordained potential. But he assigned a role to fathers, he assigned a role to mothers, he assigned a role to male and to female.

One dad won a door prize drawing, and he called his five children together and asked them to help decide which one of them should get the prize. Who is the most obedient, he asked. Who never talks back to his mother. Who does everything she says.

And the children answered in unison, You do, dad, you get the prize.

One wise senior adult who was celebrating his 50th anniversary was asked the secret of their long marriage. He replied, I learned a long time ago, you can't be right, or you can be right, or you can be happy. Take your choice. David Chansey writes, most dads understand that the best gift they can give their children is to love their mother. But some are slow to catch on. A husband and wife were attending a marriage seminar dealing with communication, and the instructor asked the husbands, What is your wife's favorite flower?

The well-meaning husband who wanted to show that he was really tuned in to her, leaned over his wife, gently stroked her arm and said, It's Pillsbury, isn't it?

So many husbands and fathers are so out of it, no wonder they're viewed the way they are.

We see a world in which people are running to and fro, wringing their hands, wondering what to do about the behavior that now terrifies the world.

Much of the confusion, unrest, lawlessness, fear and terror stems from the fact that the fathers are not fulfilling their roles. The family is crumbling, is falling apart. Today, the terrorists are not just found in ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Hamas or Hezbollah. Oftentimes, they are family members. Sadly, we witnessed such terrorist attacks this week.

Not so long ago, the story broke, this was a few years ago, of a young mother who loaded her two beautiful young daughters, ages 2 and 4, and drove out to an isolated area, shot them, then went and turned herself into the sheriff. There was another one who put the children in the trunk of the car and drove it off into the lake. I guess she pushed it off. I wonder if this man, Hodgkin's son, who shot the Republican congressman or the mother that we just noted, had ever been properly fathered.

Perhaps they were. I don't know. We can always choose to rebel. We can always choose to do our own thing. Dr. Albert Siegel, professor of psychology at Stanford University, wrote in the Stanford Observer, that's the campus newspaper, quoting now, When it comes to rearing children, every society is only 20 years away from barbarianism. Twenty years is all we have to accomplish the task of civilizing the infants who are born into our midst each year. They know nothing of our language, our culture, our religion, our values, our customs, or our interpersonal relations.

The infant is totally ignorant about communism, fascism, democracy, civil liberties, the rights of the minority, as contrasted with the prerogatives of the majority, respect, decency, decency, customs, conventions, and manners.

The barbarian must be tamed if civilization is to survive, in the way that things are going, even if there were no more world wars. I wonder if we would survive. One comedian noted recently that most of the crimes of violence occur in the family, so he said, So don't lock your doors, you may need to escape in a hurry. We're in the midst of what may be called a perfect storm for destruction of the family and society.

Let's look at Proverbs 30, verse 11. Proverbs 30, verse 11. As I said in the Canadian Ministerial Conference, and I was assigned this topic by Mr. Wasilcoth, the one who was the office manager there. I guess you call him Director of the Canadian Work. Future of the Church. And I said, you know, I'm no prophet, but I can, from the Scriptures, we can glean several things. And to a large degree, the future of the Church will reside in the future of the family and the Church. If that God-ordained structure is preserved, and we're able to retain our youth, then the future is much brighter than would be otherwise.

But in Proverbs 30, verse 11, we see this prophecy. There is a generation that curses their father and does not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet not wash from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men. So we see those characteristics of all of these things in these various generations extend in our society today. Now, the 2 Timothy 3 that we're oftentimes so familiar with, it's like reading the newspaper of the day or watching the news on television.

In 2 Timothy 3, these things are before us and have been for the past few decades. But we see the continual crumbling of the family structure and the blurring of the roles of father and mother, and even the blurring of genders. Now, one of the old-line main conservative institutions of this nation, the Southern Baptist Association, has now adopted the gender-inclusive language in the translation of the Bible. 2 Timothy 3, there's no all so that in the last days perilous time shall come. And then it begins to describe all the various behaviors that will be extant, where men should be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, obedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection.

So you learn natural affection to a large degree in the family structure. If there is not some kind of perversion that has taken place, there is a natural love that a mother has for a child. She carries that child in her own body for nine months, and the father is there if he's doing the right thing.

And he's part and parcel of it. Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God.

And of course, Satan knows how to trap virtually every generation through the glamour and glitz that he can present, and he's able to sell death as opposed to life. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such, turn away. The world desperately needs men who will exercise true fatherhood and manhood. In the first part of the sermon, we saw several examples of God the Father and Jesus Christ in leadership roles that are first and foremost spiritual. To provide spiritual leadership, you must be a great communicator. You must communicate. God is so concerned about communicating with us that he sent the Word, the One who interfaced so much with Israel during the time of the Old Testament. He sent the Word to communicate with us. Regarding being open and honest, notice what Jesus states in John 15. Let's look at John 15. The Gospel of John, Chapter 15. In John 15, verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another. This is Jesus speaking, As I have loved you, as I have loved you, how much did he love us? He loved us so much that he was willing to give his life for us. Great a love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his Lord does, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, ordained you, that you should go forth and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, and whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, that he may give it to you. So communication is a sacrifice. Christ said that everything that the Father had revealed to him to reveal to us, he had told us. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. In Hebrews 13 we see this about sacrifice. In 1 Peter chapter 2 we're told that we should offer up spiritual sacrifices, and one of the greatest spiritual sacrifices we can offer up is our communication. Our communication with our heavenly Father, our communication with our family, our communication with the brethren and the world at large. In Hebrews chapter 13, verse 13, let us go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. We carry Jesus out to Golgotha. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So to provide the kind of spiritual leadership we need to, we have to communicate. There is more than one way to lay down your life. So we want to look now at Ephesians chapter 5. Here we see, in a sense, here's the sacrifice of communicating. Now we want to look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22. In Ephesians 5, 22, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, we read that from 1 Corinthians 11, 2 and 3. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands, and everything, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. How did he give himself for it? Great a love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. So we are called to serve in sacrificial love. Romans 12, 1 says, become you therefore living sacrifices. Now dead sacrifices, you can give your life for one person, or maybe many people once.

But what God is asking of us is that we give our lives continually as living sacrifices. So physical fathers must communicate their love, care and concern, and tell their wives and children they love them in word and deed. It's easy to say I love you. It's a bit more difficult to follow through with the deeds. Research shows that two of the principal ways whereby love is perceived is through spoken word, I love you, and touchy. A pat on the back, a little hug, a little bodily contact in the sense of a hug or a pat. But perhaps the number one way whereby love is perceived is through the amount of time that is spent with a person. If we take the example of God the Father and Jesus Christ, they are with us 24-7. God the Father and Christ are ever present with us. They will never leave us, and they will never forsake us. Of course, we can forsake them, and many do. One person wrote, Dad's know that love is spelled T-I-M-E. One corporate executive who said his five-year-old daughter was the most important part of his life, realized that he usually went to work before she got up in the morning, often returned at night after she had gone to bed. So to spend more time with her, he took her to the office on Saturday morning. After looking around the office, she asked, Daddy, is this where you live?

Anais Ninh. Anais Ninh was a, I guess you would call her a French philosopher, way back, writes, Love never dies of a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds. It dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings. I would submit today the most masculine activity in this life is to become spiritually mature.

Then I would say that the second greatest masculine activity is fathering, not in the sense of begetting. Anybody can beget and then not take responsibility. But fathering, being a real father. So many people in this world have never been fathered and nurtured.

Many of the behaviors that we see extend in society today are the result and stem from youngsters who are in search of a father. They never had one. Studies show that we tend to father in the same way that we are fathered, but we can learn God's way. We don't have to be fathered or serve as fathers in the same way that we were fathered. It is very difficult to do, but we can grow beyond the way we were fathered. The sad reality is that they're showing contempt for never having been fathered, that is, children who are rebellious.

So they become a living advertisement of perpetuating the vicious no-fathering cycle. It was generation after generation after generation, and those who are caught up in such behavior are opposing themselves. Turn to 2 Timothy 2, verse 25. Please, 2 Timothy 2, 25. I gave forums at the college along these lines about opposing yourself, because if you think that you are really causing other people trouble, well, you are causing them trouble.

You may be causing your father and mother to stay up at night worrying about you. You may be causing a lot of damage to other people. But when all is said and done, you are opposing yourself and causing damage to yourself if you want to stray from what father and mother should be teaching you. So look at 2 Timothy 2, verse 25. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. So call rebellion, doing your own thing. When all is said and done, it is against yourself.

Oh yes, you may hurt a lot of people along the way. But when all is said and done, you will be called into account, and you are opposing yourself. Most excuse themselves and blame someone else or something for their behavior since they have never been taught discipline and responsibility. Fathers must discipline their children and teach them responsibility. Fathers should establish rules and the discipline for breaking the rules. Look at Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, verse 6.

We know what our Heavenly Father does by reading this. Should we do any less? Hebrews 12, verse 6. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son that He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is He whom the Father chastens not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers? That is, everybody has needed discipline, structure, at times correction, or even punishment along the way. If you be without it, whereof all are partakers?

Then you are illegitimate and not sons. So the Father chastens every son that He loves. Now look at Ephesians. It seems like we're going to Ephesians often today. In Ephesians 6, in two or three verses here, we see an all-inclusiveness, I guess you could say, of what we need to be doing. Ephesians 6, verse 1. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth, and you fathers provoke not your children to wrath.

But bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We want to focus on the word nurture. The word nurture, and this is from Strong's Concordance. The whole training and education of children, which relates to the cultivation of mind and morals, and employs for this purpose now commands and admonitions, reproof and punishment. It also includes the training and care of the body. Whatever is needed to cultivate the inner person by correcting mistakes and curbing passions, instruction which aims at increasing virtue, chastisement, chastening with which God visits men for their infractions, as we have read from Hebrews 12.

I'm going to read now a quote from Pat Riley. Pat Riley used to be coach of the Lakers when they won so many world championships with the shack when Kobe Bryant, he writes, We can safely conclude that any level of leadership established for any purpose that does not clearly articulate the mission, the goals, the objectives, the core covenant, the expected behavioral outcomes, the administrative and operational strategies necessary for desired results, coupled with disciplinary action, if the core covenant is violated, it is doomed for failure.

I mean, how many lines is that? One, two, three, four, five lines. Fourteen points, single space. I mean, that captures so much. It's in essence an enlargement of Ephesians 6 and verse 4. Riles rules. Thoughts or ideas are the precursors of actions. God's thoughts are ever toward us.

Look at Psalm 139. Once again, thoughts or ideas are the precursors of action. The old sow a thought, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap an action, sow an action, reap character. In Psalm 139 and verse 17. This is very encouraging, but it's also very sobering at the same time. Maybe I'll get there. Psalm 139 verse 17. 139 verse 17. How precious are your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the psalm of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. So, if God is our example, Christ states in Matthew 10, 28, 29. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground unless God is aware of it. The hair on our head is numbered, so we can ask ourselves. Are you aware of your family? You know, I have seen children sit by parents, sit by them, and the parents never look at them the whole time of the church service. It's as if they did not exist. Are you aware of your family? Do you know where they are? Do you supervise them? In Proverbs 23, 7, it says, As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So do you. Do I plan for action of being a good father? One of the local television stations at 10 p.m., somewhere after 10, will say, It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are? God always knows where we are. He always knows. He knows what we are thinking, what we are doing, and more importantly, what we are becoming. Are we becoming more like him in Christ?

God is not afraid to express his emotions. He does not present a phony facade of primitive emotions. Can we rise above the animalistic agug and truly express our emotions as appropriate? The shortest verse in the Bible, one of the most powerful verses in the Bible, is Jesus wept, John 11.35. The Psalms are filled with words of comfort, praise, and encouragement for us. Read the Psalms. God has spoken the great words of life and hope to us, and fathers should do the same. One of the names of God is El Shaddai. El Shaddai means providing spiritually and physically, nurturing, nourishing. So ask yourself, do you lead your family spiritually? Do you provide for their spiritual needs? Do you lead the family in Bible study? Do you lead the way in spiritual activities? Do you think that 1 Timothy 5.8 only applies to the physical, where it says, if a man provide not for his own household, he is worse than an infidel and has denied the faith? I would say spiritual needs are really more important. We can talk about the providence of God. God is looking out for our best interests years in advance. We know the story of Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, winding up in prison and eventually promoted to be second in the land in the nation of Egypt, which was perhaps the mightiest nation on earth at that time. He winds up in Egypt, and his brothers come down for grain, and they're really afraid. And Joseph says, look, I'm your brother. Don't be afraid. You didn't send me here. God sent me here, so that I might serve as one who is a progenitor. That is, the continuation of the nation of Israel. Because of all those great prophecies back in Genesis, earlier in the book, and then later too. So he winds up in Egypt to preserve posterity. We can think of the example of the prodigal son, where the prodigal son demanded he get his inheritance. Let's turn to Luke. So he gets his inheritance, and he goes out, and he wastes it very quickly. A famine comes on the land. He winds up feeding the pigs, and able to scavenge a little bit from the pig-slop, to keep himself alive. And so he finally comes to his senses, 1 Luke 15, verse 18, and he says, I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his Father. But when he was yet a great way off, his Father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Verse 24, for his son that was dead is alive again. He was lost, he is found, and they began to be merry. The prodigal son exercised judgment, mercy, and faith, said I have sinned. I will arise and go to my Father and ask for forgiveness. And the Father joyfully extended mercy. Mercy glories against judgment. See, the judgment is made, and if we all got judgment, we would get death. But thanks to God's mercy, we can live through repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Christ, and he is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness. Therefore mercy glories against judgment. God is long suffering, never gives up on us until we give up on him. God and Christ have promised never to leave us or forsake us. So when we face our Maker, we all want to hear the words, Well done, you good and faithful servant. And turn back to chapter 12 and verse 31. Jesus is the one speaking here. I would encourage you to read all of chapter 12. Here's what we want to hear. We want to be there. Luke 12, 32. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's great pleasure to give you the kingdom.