Here we are at Father's Day. Being a father is a big responsibility. It is a heavy load. It is a heavy burden, as many of you know. I don't know how many of you remember Lucille Ball. Some of you are wondering what that's all about. For you younger folks, before there were emojis, there was Lucy. You guys are still thinking, you know, we're crazy. Hey, don't, you know, don't jump to conclusions too quickly. But she was a comedian. that many of us grew up with and You know, she was hilarious and there were a lot of things that I have no idea on her personal life I don't know if she was saved. She was born again or not, but But she did say this before she died it was kind of interesting Shortly before she died. She was doing an interview with Merv Griffin and And he asked her a very serious question. He said, Lucy, you've lived a long time on this earth, and you're a wise person. What's happened to our country? What's wrong with our children? Why are our families falling apart? What's missing? Lucille Ball answered without hesitation. She said this. She said, Papa's missing. She said, things are falling apart because Papa's gone. If Papa was here, he would fix it. So here you have potentially a lost woman who recognized an amazing truth. Just how important fathers are. And I know that not everyone here this morning is a father, and that's perfectly fine. If you're not a father, you have an earthly father. uh... or had an earthly father and at the very least you have a heavenly father who would certainly love for uh... uh... you know to meet you someday in heaven and if you're saved if you're born again he is certainly your your heavenly father if you're not if you've never been born again well your your father is is not god it's the bible says you are of your father the devil most of your father you'll do right hopefully your father is a lord jesus christ if not I hope that you will certainly think about that this morning as far as who is your father. That wasn't in the message. That's just free for all of you. So you can certainly take what's said here this morning and apply it to yourself in relationship to your earthly father or your heavenly father. In fact, that's kind of what inspired this this morning. It is nothing that you probably haven't heard before, but just something for all of us to remember and be reminded of. I just went through the Bible and I looked up all the places where the phrase Heavenly Father occurred. Heavenly Father. As it turns out, there are six of them. There are six times in the Bible where it says, Heavenly Father. Obviously, there are several other variations of that, but the actual phrase, Heavenly Father, occurs six times. And two of those are kind of in the same passage. So if you will, open your Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 6. I just want to take a look at some of these places. And what I want to look at is I want to look at simply the marks, the marks of a good father. The marks of a good father. So Matthew chapter 6, take a look down at verse 25, and it says this. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? Behold, the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add a cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for rainment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take there no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we come before you again. I just want to thank you for allowing us to be here on a Sunday morning. Lord, you're a great God. And today is a day that we celebrate Father's Day for our earthly fathers. But Lord, help us to remember that you are our Heavenly Father. And if we as earthly fathers would like a good example of what we should be like, Lord, we can always turn to you and look at your attributes, look at your traits, look at your mercies and your goodness. And Lord, then we can emulate those things. Help us to do that. Help us to draw closer to you as fathers. I pray that you'd be with each and every father here this morning. Father, each and every individual as well. We need you. We love you. You're a great God. We just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So, like I said, I titled the message this morning very simply, The Marks of a Good Father. And in the passage that we read, you'll see the first point, and that is simply this. A good father, ladies and gentlemen, a good father, as you would expect, provides. It says in In Matthew 26, your heavenly Father feedeth them. Down in verse 32 it says, your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. One of the things that dads, that you are responsible for, is obviously providing for your families. Amen? That's what you would expect. That would probably be one of the top things that you would think about on your list. It's certainly one of the top things that weighs heavy on a father's shoulders, on a father's heart, as he tries to raise a family and provide for his family. Now, we normally think of physical needs, food, shelter, clothes. And of course, that's what's being discussed in the passage. And those things are fundamentally necessary and critical, obviously. And if you're providing those things, praise the Lord, you've hit a measure of success in your family as far as what a father must do. But the reality is, and I'll keep talking about this, I know we've talked about it before, but the reality is, as fathers, you're really responsible for providing much more than just that. Amen? Dad, there are a lot of things that you need to provide for your family. And one of the things that just pops into mind, especially nowadays, is protection. Amen? Protection. I mean, in today's world, protection is even more critical. Hey, listen, there are so many forces out there trying to steal your kids. Amen? Trying to steal their innocence, trying to steal their hearts, trying to steal their minds, trying to steal their virtue, trying to steal their morals, trying to steal their relationship with you, trying to steal their relationship with their God. Right? And dads, you're a very active part in helping temper that. You're a necessary part in watching over that and providing that protection that your family needs. I hope that is something that sticks in your head, something that you think about 24-7. If you think about it, our country just, we'll just talk politically for a second. Our country is basically kind of split, that's roughly half and half. All right? Somewhere around that. So you know what that means. That means you've got a 50% chance of somebody coming along for one of your sons or daughters that is, from what you're seeing going on in the news today, completely incompatible with where we stand. So right off the bat, you've got a 50-50% chance of things going wrong. You need to offer a certain measure of protection with that. You need to offer a certain measure of oversight and help. Why? Because the decisions and the choices and everything that people make, listen, they have long-term consequences. And dads, dads, you're responsible for providing those things. Hey, listen, doesn't the Lord Jesus Christ look out for and protect you in a spiritual sense? Doesn't God watch over us and protect us and help us? And when he sees us heading towards some trouble, doesn't God try to intercede? And he sends prophets, he sends preachers, he'll prick your conscience. He'll do all kinds of things to try to get your attention. Why? Because God knows that, you know, that you need protection just like our children need protection. Just like our wives need protection. Just like we need to be protecting one another. Hey, we live in a time where, you know, as a father we have to kind of up the ante a little bit. Because things are pretty crazy out there. And, you know, dads may have been able to get by in the past by going to work and providing for the household. While that wasn't ideal, you know, the protection that was offered through a hands-off approach doesn't necessarily work as well as it used to. There weren't as many forces out there to try to get at your kids. Just sending them to school nowadays, if they, and I know most of you don't, praise the Lord for that, but if they go to a public school, just sending them to a public school, you've gotta be on your toes and protect them for things they learn in the public school. It's a crazy world we live in. And that, fathers, that responsibility lays on our shoulders. Right? And remember, you need to be involved in your children's lives. No longer are we living in a society where dads can step back and just provide financially, and they provide a house, and they provide a food, and all those things. Like I said, they're great, but it's too easy for the children to slip through the cracks and fall into some pretty tumultuous things out there because there's not an extra level of protection. Right? As fathers, listen, we need to be aware of that. And kids, you guys, you look at this and you see that protection, and sometimes it doesn't look all that great to you, and I apologize for that, and that's too bad. All I can say is, hey, please try to get used to it. And then when you have your own children, then you can decide what level of protection you need to provide. Because by then, you'll have seen a lot more things. And you'll realize just how necessary it is. Now fathers, remember this. Please remember this. Protection is not isolationism. Right? I mean, you know, you can't protect somebody by locking them in a closet and keeping them there until they're 35. As much as you might like to on occasion. Alright, that's not a reality either, but you do have to provide that protection. I'll tell you another thing you need to provide, you need to provide security and strength. Folks, you are, dads, you are the epitome of the security and the strength, not only for your wife, but for your children in the house. That's the role of a father. That is what our responsibility is. That's what the Lord puts you in that position to be. You are the strength. You are the security. You are that, you know, you are, and we'll talk about this in a second, you're the thing that kind of holds it together, or you should be. You're responsible for being that strength and that security. And that involves not only, like we talked about, the physical things and the physical support, but it involves emotional support. You're going to need that, right? Dad, you're going to need to make that connection with your kids. You're going to need to be able to talk with them. You're going to need to have that emotional support structure there. Why? Because I promise you it'll be needed along the way. Right? It'll be needed at times when you don't think about it. But that is a critical piece of what a father does. He provides for security and strength. There's an article out there that talks about what a daughter needs from dads. I thought this was very interesting. And I've talked about this before, and I'll mention it again, and I'm sure we'll talk about it again. Why? Because a lot of you out there have daughters. And you need to be reminded. And you need to remember. It is said that a daughter's sense of self-worth and confidence is linked directly to her relationship with her dad. A lot of truth in that. What he thinks about her and how he expresses his affection is a central source of her perceived value as a human being. It affects her femininity and teaches her how to relate to boys and men. In other words, gentlemen, your daughters learn from you. Right? Your daughters learn from you. You're talking to the lady that says, your relationship with your father was a critical, initial interaction with the masculine gender. Hey, what little girl, when they're little, doesn't look up and say, I wanna marry daddy? As it should be. Why? Because he is the strength, he is the power, he's the provider, and she looks up and she admires that, and that father loves that child, and that child knows that the father loves the child, and well, of course, yeah, daddy's the best one, and who else is there in the world? Man, that's a great stage, isn't it? It's so easy when it's at that stage, right? Then they find out there's other boys out there, and that's just... What are we talking about? We're talking about, you know, a father's responsibility is to provide, not just food and raiment. But the Lord Jesus Christ provided those things to you also. Didn't He send you the Comforter? Isn't the Holy Ghost there to comfort you? Right? In all troubles and trials and circumstances that you go through. Hey, the Lord provides those things for us. We just have to remember it's our responsibility to provide them to our family. Our sons need it. Our daughters need it especially. But our sons need it too. Again, as a father, you know, one of the marks of a good father is he's a good provider. Not just physical things, but emotional, spiritual things. He's a good provider. Men, your sons look to you. They seek your approval like your daughters seek your approval. How good are you at showing it? How good are you at telling them? How good are you at patting them on the back and giving them a, hey, well done, you did great. Hey, that's the support that they need from you, right? You and I look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we all look at this, we all love this Bible verse, oh, I can't wait till I get there, and the Lord says, well done, thou good and faithful servant. We look for the same thing, right? Okay, remember that. Hey, if you wanna hear well done, thou good and faithful servant from your heavenly Father, why not pass along some well-done the good and faithful servants to your earthly children try it with your wife more often see how that works out promise you will go well what are we talking about we're talking about uh... marks of a of a good father mark of a good father is he's a uh... he's a provider you know, he needs to provide protection, security, strength. The father is the one, folks, that provides the tone. He sets the tone for the home. Right? Your children watch you, your wife watch you, your attitude, your demeanor, your, you know, how easy you lose your temper, all of those things combined, and you literally set the tone for your home. If you're an obstinate, stubborn old geezer, I promise you your home life is not going to be very peaceful and calm. Because everybody's going to wind up adopting those traits. If you're an open, loving, heavenly father, like your heavenly father is, you know what? You'll find there's much more peace, much more joy, much more contentment in the home. Why? Because you as a father set the tone. You provide the overall protection and the tone for your house. Being a father's not an easy thing when it comes to this earth. God knows how to do it well. He does it perfectly, right? And when you look at God, I mean, one of the things that first comes to mind is how God provides for us all the things we need. physically, emotionally, right? God takes care of us that way. And we ought to learn from that as fathers and then take care of our children in that way. Why? Because they need it. I'll tell you another thing, another thing that is a mark of a good father. Not only does a good father provide, but I tell you what, a good father understands. A good father understands. He understands what's inside of you. In Matthew chapter 15, you can look it up if you want, but in Matthew chapter 15, the scribes and the Pharisees came to the Lord Jesus Christ, and of course they were complaining about the disciples, and they said, hey, hey, hey, your disciples don't wash their hands before they eat. And that was a big breach of Mosaic Law etiquette. Right? Hey, they don't wash their hands before they eat. And they had a theoretically, supposedly a good complaint. But you know the Lord as our Heavenly Father looked past that thing and He began to look a little deeper into what was going on. Right? He began to look. He understood some things that were going on in the hearts of those people that were complaining. He called the multitude and he said, Hear and understand, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man. Then came the disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard that saying? Of course they were. But he answered and said, every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both of them shall fall into the ditch. You know what the Lord Jesus Christ is our Heavenly Father? You know what he, you know, a mark of the Lord Jesus Christ is he looked at that scenario and he set that scenario up and he understood exactly what was important and what wasn't important when it came to those things. Right? He didn't try to put on the disciples things that were far beyond what was reasonably important. He looked at them and he said, hey, listen, it's far more important what comes out of your heart than whether you wash your hands before you eat dinner or not. Now, kids, I'm not saying you shouldn't wash your hands before you eat dinner. I'm going to get in trouble with the moms. But when it comes to the character of your children, when it comes to the, you know, raising up children, when it comes to being a father and looking out for what's important, hey, aren't you much more concerned about what's in your child's heart than rather they wash their hands for dinner? I mean, you know, sorry, maybe I'll regret this on Mother's Day, but let moms take care of the wash your hands for dinner thing. The Lord looked at that thing and he understood, he knew exactly what was inside of those people. Hey listen, fathers, you're gonna need to understand what's going on inside of your child's heart. There's a responsibility to learn that and to figure it out. There's a responsibility to... Every father should know what's going on inside of you, his child. They say, how should he know that? How should he know what's inside of you? Well, probably because you're more like him than you think you are. All he's got to do is look at himself and figure out, well, at least half of me is there. And kids, as much as you don't like to think this, the reality is you're much more like your dad than you think. Of course your dad should understand you. You say, oh, my dad doesn't understand me. Oh, yeah, a lot better than what you think. Or he should. Now guys, it takes a little bit of effort. It takes a little bit of work. You gotta go out of your comfort zone a little bit to learn some things along the way, but you should understand. Understand your kids. I know it's Shakespeare, but Shakespeare said this, a wise father knows his child. I mean, that's pretty good advice. Right? Now kids, this is where you can help, right? Because the reality is most parents struggle to understand at least some aspect of you. They try, but they're not like our Heavenly Father. Lord Jesus Christ knows everything. He understands perfectly, right? But kids, your parents, you know, they try. This is where you, like I said, you can help and, you know, you can actually help with that dialogue. A lot of older folks were raised in an era where dads were kind of hands-off. Mom took care of the kids. You can't do that anymore. Unfortunately, that was their example because that's how their father raised them. And it went generation after generation while they acted like their father acted. But we're in a world that's a little bit different now. You can't afford to do that. Dads need to be more involved. You need to be concerned with your child's heart, with their mind, with their emotions, with their desires, with their goals, with their fears. You need to understand how and why and what they think. Say, well, how am I supposed to know all that? Hey, have you ever tried asking them? You'd be surprised. I seem to recall a verse somewhere that I ran across, you have not because ye ask not. A lot of strength, a lot of power in just simply asking. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. Father, understanding, having an understanding of the father is critical. Right? It's knowing what your kids are facing at each stage of their life. And preparing them for each stage of their life. Because they're going to face it with or without your help. it's understanding someone and being able to uh... you know to set your hopes goals and dreams for them aside well at least long enough to learn what their hopes goals and dreams are you gotta understand what what makes them tick i'm not saying your hopes and goals and dreams for them are bad they may be great and they may actually be better but you know you ought to at least understand where your kids' hearts are at. Understanding someone is not, you know, not looking at things the way you see them, but how they see them. I'm not even saying they are right. But you ought to at least understand what they think and how they think. Amen? Lord Jesus Christ looked at men and he understood men. In John 2 he said, Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men. And he needeth not that any should testify of man, for what? For he knew what was in man. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Father, looks down at us, and you know what? He's got it all figured out. He knows right where we're at. He knows when we start to get off track. He understands the workings of our hearts. He understands when we're trying to do right. He understands when we're afraid of something. He understands when we are tempted by something. He understands every aspect of our humanity. That's part of what makes Him such a great Father. He actually understands everything about us why do you think he needed to come down and live as a man so he could say legitimately yes I understand being in the flesh yes and he went through everything you and I went through only he was without sin amen That's something we'll never achieve until, you know, the rapture. When we get out of here and the Lord gives us a new body and actually reconciles everything that needs to be reconciled, that'll be great. But until then, you know, we're not at that level yet. But still, the mark of a good father is somebody that understands. Amen? Another mark of a good father is somebody that puts on constraints. uh... the lord had a servant uh... a lord had a servant that owed him money and that servant couldn't pay you probably remember the story in uh... matthew chapter eighteen that servant couldn't pay and uh... and the servant begged you know hey would you please have mercy on me in the lord said to that service that you know what i'll forgive your debt And that same servant that had the debt forgiven went out and he had a fellow servant that owed him money and instead of forgiving his debt, which was significantly smaller than what he owed, he actually brought the law down on that person, took him to court and had that person thrown in jail. And the Lord looked at that original servant and said, what on earth are you doing here? I treated you with kindness and mercy and goodness, and you're gonna treat somebody else like that? And of course, he turned the thing around, and, you know, and it says, so likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you. Hey, the Lord looked at that servant, and you know what he said? He said, hey, listen, I am not gonna put up with you operating outside of a certain set of parameters, constraints, reins. Bounds. You know what a good father has to do at some level? A good father at some level has to say, there's a line right there that we don't cross. In this case, that Lord in Matthew 18 was saying, hey, I treated you with kindness and mercy. You had better treat your fellow man with kindness and mercy. Right? A good father has got to at some level look down at his children and at some level he's got to set bounds. Why? Because not everything is good. Not everything is grand. You know, you got a four-year-old little kid, and you take him to the store, and you found out they stole a piece of candy. Well, hey, that's a boundary. That's a line. Oh, no, no, no, no. We don't do that. You're going to walk back in there, and you're going to give it back to the guy at the checkout register, and you're going to apologize. You can cry all you want. You're going back in there. Why? Because we don't cross that line. Now, you and your own family have to decide where your lines are at, but a good father, somewhere along the line, has got a boundary. The Lord Jesus Christ looks at us, and he puts us down here on this earth, and he saved us from our sins, and he made us into the sons of God, he redeemed us, he justified us, right? He was our propitiation, and with that, you know what? He gives us liberty. But you gotta admit, there are certain bounds where he says, hey guys, you know, stay away from this. It's not good for you. And as a father, you look at that and you know, those bounds aren't there just because you wanna make life miserable for the individual. They're there for a reason. They're actually there to help. They're actually there to keep you out of some trouble that you may not be ready for yet. You may grow up and maybe later on the Lord takes some of those boundaries away and everything may be grand. But maybe for a certain time, that's not a good boundary. You may wind up getting yourself into some trouble because the Lord, you know, the Lord didn't necessarily put those boundaries on you. And later on, the Lord go, you know what, when he was younger, that wasn't a good experience for him. I don't want him messing with that anymore. Those boundaries may show up later in life. Doesn't really matter. The point is all the same. The point is, hey, you know what the mark of a good father is? The mark of a good father is he looks at his children and he goes, hey, I want my child in this realm right here. I don't want him over there. And the Lord looked at that servant who he had forgiven, a great debt. And he said, oh, you're not even gonna forgive one of your fellow servants a minor debt? What do you think you're doing? I'm not having that. You want me to be that merciful to you? Hey, I expect for you to learn how to be merciful to other people around you. Right? And so the Lord put some constraints on there. Hey, you want God to show you mercy? Hey, try showing mercy to other people. You want God to have grace with you? Try having grace with other people. You'd be surprised how well that works. And if you ever stop having grace with other people, don't be surprised if the Lord maybe steps back a little bit on the grace from you. I'm not talking about salvation. I'm just talking about the practical things of life. What are we talking about? The mark of a good father is somebody that does set some boundaries, right? Some constraints. I'll tell you another thing that a good father does, and you know this as well as I do, a good father cares. It says in Luke 11, if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? You know what a good father knows how to do? A good father knows how to care for his children. A good father puts all these things into practice, and he looks at all these aspects over him, and he cares about him, and that good father provides good things for his children, and that good father wants good things for his children. Why? Because he cares. He cares greatly. The love of a father is an amazing thing. Gentlemen, the love that you have for your children is a powerful thing, and when you're able to show that you care for your children, it makes a tremendous impact on their life, just like when God shows that he loves you, it makes a tremendous impact on your life. You know as well as I do, some of the darkest hours you've had in your Christian life is when you're not sure if God cares or not. Somebody wrote a song about it, does Jesus care? Some of the darkest hours, some of the biggest trials and troubles are when you think you're in a place in your Christian life and you think maybe God doesn't care about me after all. Maybe I've gone too far, maybe I've messed up too bad, maybe I've made mistakes that he just can't overlook and maybe God doesn't really care. That's the worst time in a Christian's life. Almost everybody faces it at some level. Hopefully you don't stay there too long. Hopefully it's fleeing and you get in your Bible and you realize, yes, Jesus Christ does care. Yes, He does love you. Yes, He does care about you. And yes, He is going to try to pick you up out of the muck and the mire, even after you've made some terrible mistake. One of the things that children need is they need to know their father cares. No matter what. No matter what. Someone once said this, a father's tears and fears are unseen. His love is unexpressed. I hope that's not the case, but bear with me in the past. But his care and protection remains as a pillar of strength throughout our lives. You know, just like in the Christian life, sometimes you get down, you get in a situation where things are going bad and you begin to think maybe in your mind God doesn't care. Rough time. Hey, same thing can happen with your earthly father. You can get yourself in a jam, you can get yourself in a place where you're not sure, oh no, what's... I think dad's so mad at me he'll never talk to me again. I'm sure my dad would hate my guts if he ever found out this. I promise you that's not the case. How do I know? Well, because I know the mark of a good father. I know the mark of a good father. A good father cares. Now I understand sometimes on earth some of you may have had fathers that weren't necessarily full of all these good marks. And I'm sorry for that. It shouldn't be. Sometimes you're right. Sometimes you struggle with an earthly father. But understanding what the marks of a good father should be hopefully will help you in life not to become like your father if he was that way. And fathers, if you're struggling in any of these areas, hey listen, these marks are things that are gonna help you to be a good father. He cares. He cares. Strives to give good things to his children. Why? Because he cares about them. John 15 says, as the Father hath loved me, that's Jesus Christ talking, so have I loved you. Jesus Christ said this, he said, you know what? I've loved you like my father loved me. Now that's something. That's something. I wonder how that process is gonna play out for your grandchildren. Think about that for a minute. How you love your children. is gonna play out in how they love their, your grandchildren. Wouldn't it be nice to have your grandchildren said, you know, your grandchildren to have the same perspective. My dad loved me like his dad loved him. Because in reality, that's what we're doing as fathers. We're setting the example, we're teaching our children how to love their children. And if you were in an unfortunate circumstance where that cycle there didn't go as great as it should have, you know what? Hopefully you're saved now. Now you're a Christian. Now you're walking with the Lord. Alright, make this the first generation that changes it to the right cycle. Amen? Like I said, I know in the past there, you know, my father and the generations before that, I don't remember, I've told you this before, I don't remember my father telling me, I love you. I remember as a teenager going out of my way, you know, because my parents were divorced and I didn't see him very often, and I remember going out of my way as a teenager and young adult to tell my dad, hey, I love you. And I think the best I got out of him for a long time was, yeah, me too. But I knew he did, but they just weren't good at saying it. They weren't that good at expressing it. It was something they had a very difficult time with. You know, you look at the men of that generation and before him, that was just, it was, you know, I don't think they were aware just how critical that was. Well, guess what? We change it. You say, how do you know that's the right thing to do? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ certainly told us that he loved us. Why wouldn't that be a good example for our, you know, our conduct with our family? The mark of a good father is he cares. A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she'll never outgrow your heart. As it should be. Amen? and finally the uh... the last the last uh... point which happens to be chronologically the first time the phrase heavenly father shows up in the bible is in matthew six matthew chapter six fourteen a good father forgives for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you i save this one for last because i want it's the one i want you to walk away remembering the most Dads, the mark of a good father is a good father forgives. And that's gonna be put to the test sometimes. Sometimes you're gonna be at a place where the transgressions and the reproach and the sin become so great, you're gonna be tempted to think that you can't forgive. Don't ever fall into that trap. Don't ever fall into that trap. The Lord Jesus Christ is long-suffering. He's patient. His mercy endureth forever. Amen? You talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, and dads, you're gonna have to forgive your children like the Lord has forgiven you. Somewhere along the way, You're going to need to have that. Or you're going to ruin your children. You're going to ruin your children. Somewhere along the way, you're going to need to sit down and have that heart to heart or that cry or that whatever it is you need to have where the two of you sit down and things become very real and very open. And when you look at that child of yours and after they've made a transgression and you say, you know what, honey? It's all right. I've done worse. Yeah. Because chances are you have. Hey, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, one of his greatest attributes, one of his greatest attributes is his forgiveness. He died on the cross to save us from sin. The Lord Jesus Christ took upon Him, on that cross, He took on the sins of the whole world. He took on Himself the sins of the whole world, all of mankind, for the 6,000 plus years of its existence so far. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken every single sin that's ever been committed on His shoulders because He cared for us, because He loved us. He went down to hell and deposited those sins there. Somehow or another He paid an eternity in hell in that three day time period. He paid the price. He suffered the punishment for those sins. That's why when we trust Him as our Savior, our sins are paid for. Not because we're great Christians. Not because we lived a good life. Not because we took communion, not because we got baptized, not because we joined the church, not because we gave money to the church, not because we helped old ladies across the street. Our sins are forgiven because we put our faith and trust in what Jesus Christ did on the cross. And we trusted him to pay the price for us. It's called grace. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Hey, there's nothing you could do to pay for your own sin. How are you going to do that? But you can trust somebody who will pay for it. When Jesus Christ hung there on the cross, he took the payment of every sin that was ever committed, and he laid that upon himself, and he shed his blood to pay for that sin. And then he descended into the lower parts of the earth, into hell, and he paid for it. And when a person realizes that, when they realize, hey, it's not me, it's the Lord, And they turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, God, I've sinned. I have no hope. I have no hope of ever getting to heaven unless you take away my sin because I've committed way too many. Amen. But I'm going to trust you. Amen? Amen. I'm going to put my faith and trust in you by grace. Lord, would you please save me? That thief on the cross. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. He didn't have a chance to help an old lady across the street. And I would be especially appreciative of that particular generous act with my wife. But he didn't have time to do anything. All he had time to do was put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Amen? The marks of a good father. A good father provides, hey, not just physical necessities, which we should, but emotional, spiritual. Hey, your kid is a whole kid. You need to provide for the whole package. A good father understands, understands your hearts, understand what's going on, understand what's important, what's not important. A good father understands what their children are going through and what they're struggling with. Why? Because you struggled with the same stuff. You had the same temptations, you had the same, you struggled with the same things. Just like our Heavenly Father knows what we struggled with, He struggled with the same things. He wasn't at all points tempted like we were. Only He was without sin. We didn't do that great of a job with it either. But He understands. A good Father understands. A good Father constrains. There are some boundaries He sets. A good Father cares. And a good Father forgives. Amen? I hope that each and every one of you fathers here this morning would take that to heart and realize, hey, that's what I need to be for my kids. And I hope every one of you Christians out there realize, hey, that's what your Heavenly Father is for you. Amen? And if you're not saved here this morning, if you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith, hey, listen, you need to get saved because look at what all He did for you. Wouldn't it be a shame to miss out on all of that because you had a better idea. I hope you're saved here this morning. If you're not, please, please talk to somebody and ask. There's plenty of people here who would love to sit down with the Bible and open it up and answer any questions you might have. But today is kind of focused on fathers. Fathers, I hope you take this charge. Marks of a good father. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father, we thank you again. for an opportunity to be here on a Sunday morning and just open up the Bible and to take a look at some of the places where you were called our Heavenly Father. And to just kind of take a look at some of the traits that were associated with those places. And Father, that's what we looked at this morning and realized, Lord, you are a great Father. I pray that you'd help us men that are fathers to be to get as close as we can to that example. For these young men that maybe they're not fathers yet, but will be one day, Father, I pray that this would be instilled in their hearts and in their minds and that this would be their goal as they get to the place when they become fathers. Lord, we love you. Pray that you'd help us in this regard. We ask these things now in Jesus' name. Amen.