It's a gift to be here, if I can echo that idea earlier. It's a gift that Sean entrusts me with you. It's a gift that Sean and I don't preach anything alike anymore. And I know he comes at you like a fire hydrant. And frankly, compared to so much of the preaching, I think that's really enriching and you're blessed. I'm just going to bring you a cool cup of water and hope the Holy Spirit lets you enjoy it. OK. And I kind of have to be here today. because he entrusts me with some of the insider information. I'm sure you've all heard it, that being bivocational wears him out, and I say, so take a sabbatical. Oh, how could I ever do that? Well, just get guest preachers. Okay, Dave Tagg, you're it. Okay, Sean. All right, well, I began in 2 Corinthians chapter one where it says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort look there's a trite silly reason to hear the truth today that I'm going to share and it's because it's Father's Day but the more sound every day of the year reason to hear the truth I'm going to share are that God is changeless. And his fatherhood, his fatherliness to his children is a part of his identity. So the fatherhood of God is a very interesting subject. Here is a concordance. Jerry was already taking a look at it. In case you didn't know, because our electronic databases and Bible apps right there on your smartphones are doing away with these big printings. But for the new American Standard English version, this book has every word of the Bible in order. And just studying a book like this, turning the pages might sound boring, but you come across some really interesting issues. The word covenant is not used that often, but the idea covenant is really pervasive throughout scripture. So it doesn't take a lot of multiple uses to be a significant word. Something like the word father is used over 2000 times, but as you can imagine, it's because God's unfolding story from beginning to end is through people and families. And there's a lot of fathers in the Bible who beget a lot of sons who beget, okay. Interestingly, father is only used of God about seven times in the Old Testament. But then after the Gospels, it's over 160 times. And you go, wow, something must have happened there. So I'm going to try to explain to you what happened in the New Testament because it is Father's Day and it's just a great Sunday to be reminded of what a great heavenly Father we have. So if you're ready to see what happened between the Old Testament and the New Testament, then please turn to Matthew 7. You heard a double reading of this. I don't know if I should feel guilt for reading it again or just slap myself and say it's the Word of God. It's okay to read it three times in one day. So we're in Matthew 7, the Sermon on the Mount, verse 7. where from the very lips of our Savior Jesus, he says, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it shall be opened. These verses, I know, at least this morning, are very familiar, and maybe there's still something a little strange to these two in particular. They're familiar, I hope. I'm talking to Bereans this morning. But interestingly in English, if you take the A of ask and the S for seek and the K of knock, they make a really convenient English acronym, ask. You've all seen that before? So it's a great aid to memory when you wonder, what should I pray about? Well, you should be asking, you should be seeking, you should be knocking. They also ring familiar because real effort seems to be encouraged in our relationship with the Father. We're to be Whether these are three separate acts or they kind of consecutively work off of one another, we're to be diligent asking, we're to be diligent seeking, we're to be diligently knocking. And whether these efforts build on each other or they're three separate ones, Jesus is definitely encouraging us to do something. But what is that something? We heard all the earlier verses of Matthew 7. And in context, Jesus has only been discussing how we judge others. And that's a big issue. And then verse six, where the subject seems to turn to discretion, which is maybe a form of judgment, maybe they're related, but how we're to treat others and really decide who the others are. I mean, who are the dogs you would not throw your pearls before? So is Jesus telling us these two mighty subjects require a lot of intercession with the heavenly father? Well, we get our answer if we keep reading. So verses 9, 10, and 11. And then Jesus, the master storyteller, just takes us into regular human life. What man is there among you when his son shall ask him for a loaf, would give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he, the father, will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your father who is in heaven give what is good to what is good to those who ask him well Jesus wants us praying to our father who is in heaven now this was pretty radical to the Jews who probably made up most the audience And Jesus left some very stark teaching on the table that we dare not skip over. So we're gonna get to this aspect of God being a father. But fathers in this world know something of giving a gift to their children. Is every father here? Do you still have kids around? But you remember giving them something that they needed, maybe even wanted, Maybe they even thanked you and appreciated your effort. Okay, Jesus is pointing this out, that we understand the giving process even though we're evil and we try to give something good. So Jesus is pointing out something really important here. How much more, he asks, Shall the Heavenly Father, who is not evil, give what is good to those who ask? So, we have some implications of this short, small text I want to work through. Jesus tells the Jewish crowd there is a Father in heaven, and people can be sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father. Now, I know this is Christianity 101, but this is really worth remembering. Because it could be your willingness to pray depends entirely upon how you view God. Is he a stern judge? There are scriptures that say yes. Is he holy? There are many scriptures that say yes. Is he demanding? Yes. But Jesus is telling us, know him as a father. And sadly, he wants to be a heavenly father to us more than we sometimes want to be devoted children to him. But look what this loving father really has done for us as his children. I go over to Romans 8, beginning in 14. For all of you are being led by the Spirit of God. These are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father, some people translate it Daddy. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So the great part of getting to know God better is you really get to know yourself better. And if you get to know God as Father, the Heavenly Father, we are to understand ourselves as his children, as his sons and his daughters. But we are sons by adoption through the Spirit's work in us, all because somewhere in eternity past, the one God in three persons made some agreement with themselves all right we're going to create man and woman in our image we're going to let them fill the earth and we're going to relate to them as a father and as a son and as a Holy Spirit that was a really big decision and this is what happened between Testaments the begotten Son was given to the world. God truly has his Son, Jesus Christ, and he has us because we've been adopted. Because you know what happened with Adam and Eve, right? They went a different way than God had planned, but God deals with all circumstances. He wasn't shocked. But we're reminded in Colossians 1 of something people don't like to be reminded of. Colossians 1.12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints and light for, this is what we're reminded of, he delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin." People don't like being reminded that we are inherently evil. And Jesus said it right there in the Sermon on the Mount. Man who is inherently evil, that included you and I, you know. We don't like hearing it no more than the Jews were told by Jesus that they were not children of Abraham. That so shocked them, they tried to stone him right there and eventually they killed him. They didn't like that truth. But it's therefore a really important point here to make that Christians obviously share a lot with mankind. We cannot be elitist because we have a relationship with the Heavenly Father. We can't be exclusionary to others because of something God has graciously done in our lives. We need to be sharing that grace with others. Yes? And I would sum it up this way. We share a sinful nature and a heritage back with all humanity back to Adam and Eve. Agreed? And we would have done what Adam and Eve had done if we were in their shoes. But we don't share a brotherhood with all humanity unless God has adopted us into his family. God is not a loving father to everyone, though he is loving to everyone and a father to many of them. Do you hear the difference? And I'm not trying to be exclusionary, But unless you've been adopted into God's family by the work of the Holy Spirit, it's not something we do, then there is a difference. But it's a difference that should mean something to us and therefore we go out and share it with others that God is inviting them as well. I'm gonna borrow from some great hymns because this idea of God being Father is, you'll know the hymn and I won't be singing it up here, I'm just gonna quote one of the lines. Great father of glory, pure father of light, thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight. All praise we would render, oh, help us to see. Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee. Do you want to know this one God in three persons better? Then come to his word. And I just brought a bunch of books to encourage you today. Maybe pick up this old classic. Do you know it was written in 1973? but it really helps you to get to know God. And there's a really rich chapter in here about being the sons of God, being his children. And I'm even gonna quote from it later. All right, that's one big implication of this passage. Number two, we children of God have an eternal hope in God the Father, and it's not just one in this lifetime, it's one that really lasts for eternity. I read from the Gospel of John, probably another familiar passage. In my Father's house, Jesus says, are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. How big of an impact does it make on your Christian life that you don't just have a hope for eternity? Jesus is already preparing a place for you for eternity. I know we deal with a lot of disappointment in this life, but are you ever encouraged by just looking forward? Not 10, 20 years, but look forward 100. Look forward 10,000. Do you know where you're gonna be? You can, with some great assurance from even the Holy Spirit. How loving of God the Father is it to not just supply our needs here and now, but to take care of eternity as well. If this has ever seeped down into your heart, then perhaps you've heard something else John said. Over in 1 John, where he says, and now little children, and he's just saying that as a very old man, Abide in Him, Jesus, so that when He appears, which we just heard about, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God. That's just coming back to the truth today. And such we are. For this reason the world does not know us because it does not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be fully in that day. We know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope, this eternal hope, fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure. So my encouragement to you, if you know God as your Father, you are His child, trying to be like Him in this world, well just sell out. I know, is it a marathon or is it a sprint? It's both. Sell out, be zealous, and don't lose heart. Now, why would I encourage this? Because there is the way that life seems to appear to each of us, though I think most of us are old enough to know that sometimes we don't perceive life correctly. But what we see, it's pretty rancid at times, isn't it? The details of life are rough. There is a way we think life should be. So what are you going to do when the two don't line up? Let's say you've faithfully prayed, you've asked, you've sought, you've knocked, maybe for a family relative to be saved, and all they do is keep learning the consequences of their sin. Let's say they die and go to the grave, and for all you know, God did not answer your prayer. How do you handle that? Book two. Yeah, of course, read the Bible. But some people write on subjects that are really pertinent, and all they're doing is putting a lot of scripture in a book and organize it in a way that's really easy to understand. This book's going on 30 years old. I don't know why authors' names are bigger than titles, but down here, Disappointment with God by Philip Yancey. Anyway, I highly recommend it. I'm going to read one quote from one page. A guy had been driving his family. A drunk driver crossed the center line, crashed into them. I think eventually lost the daughter to all her injuries. The wife was never the same. He was never the same. And this man says, I've learned to see beyond the physical reality in this world to the spiritual reality. We tend to think life should be fair because God is fair. But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life by expecting constant good health, for example, then I set myself up for a crashing disappointment. Anyway, the book is loaded with Going through, he literally went to Colorado, spent two weeks just reading through the scripture to understand this issue beginning to end. And then the last third of the book's all about the book of Job. Yeah. So, God's grace is so good, we begin to take it for granted. And when life goes sideways, don't blame God for a lack of grace and don't lose heart. Learn to deal with disappointments. I quote from another hymn, be thou my wisdom and thou my true word. I ever with thee and thou with me Lord. Thou my great father, I thy true son. Thou in me dwelling and I with thee one. As he explains late in the book from the book of Job, We can't ask, where is God when it hurts or I'm suffering? It's where is my faith when I'm suffering, when there's disappointment, when I'm hurting? Because that's really the issue Job had to deal with. Where is he gonna put his faith? All right, and then thirdly, does God the Father expect his children to behave? No, no, no, you've all heard it said, You've probably been told, you know, you say you're a Christian, but you act like the devil. Well, okay, we have some inconsistencies in our lives. I get it. But Peter, and remember, one of the disciples who never really behaved quite right, but God kept working with him. That's why he's so encouraging to me. From 1 Peter 1 verse 14, as obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. And if you address as father, the one who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth." Peter learned it. Yeah, we're here. We're to be serving the Lord. It doesn't always go our way, even here in America. But that's okay. We have this eternal hope. We can still do what's right. So be like your heavenly father. Don't conform to your old ways. Be reverent before God always, which really, in a sense, brings us full circle. So it's really easy to talk to the dads today. It's Father's Day. And if you're gonna be like your father, he really sets an example, right? So provide for your family, your wife, your children. Somehow shepherd their souls. guide them in their moral decisions, and of course, share the gospel with them and with others. For all the ladies, for all the daughters, wives, we're still to be like our father. Well, what is that like? We look at his son, there's the perfect picture of what the father is, right? And how do we do that? Well, here's a little alarming aspect. This whole fatherhood of God, the best I can tell, it's just a metaphorical title given to our God. but it's an important one, but he's not a... He didn't have children in heaven somewhere, right? I mean, it's just a metaphorical important title. He is God and he has attributes, true characteristics where if he doesn't have that characteristic, it's not him. He's holy, he's loving, he's just. So have you ever read about the attributes of God? Here's a very thin, paperback that I give to seventh graders every Christmas. And we try to read through it, because I think it really opens their eyes. There are 21 chapters, 19 chapters covering 17 different attributes. And I rarely recommend daily devotionals. But this one, it might even have been from Sean. He unloads a lot of books on me that I don't think he wants. But this one, the 12 months follow 12, 13, 14, sometimes he does two in a month, attributes. So every month you're reading about an attribute on a daily basis. So I really enjoyed this as a devotional. So let me borrow from a more contemporary Christian song, maybe you'll know it. Again, I'm not singing. Second stanza of the song says, I've seen many searching for answers far and wide, but I know we're all searching for answers only you provide, because you know just what we need before we say a word. You're a good, good father. It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are, and I'm loved by you. It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am. So to really come full circle, we've been in Matthew, and the whole passage that talked about having a father in heaven really wants us to be people who pray. So we are to believe in prayer. Christians, can I get one amen there? And I think we're encouraged when you really consider your God as a loving father who wants to hear from you. The God of the universe listens and responds in his wise ways, they're not always as fast as we might want, to such prayers. He does this as a loving father. And then to go all the way back to the first book, J.I. Packer says this about our Heavenly Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship, and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. It's Father's Day. I know it could be trite and silly to just talk about God as Father on Father's Day, but it's really supposed to affect us all year long. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, help us not to take your grace for granted. It is a treat. No matter what kind of earthly father we've had, and I know there's been no perfect earthly father, I trust that anybody here whose father was far from you, their example was even torturous and evil, that they have found you as the Heavenly Father and even forgiven their earthly father. But help us not to take grace for granted, to have you ministering to us as a loving father who knows how to provide, protect, to really give good guidance on how we should live because you are so wise. Help us never to lose sight of this truth. that you want to be that father. We see that you have one true son who has led the way for the rest of us to be adopted as sons and daughters. He is our big brother in this family of faith. And we are so thankful for that gift that if you did nothing else in our life, but atone for our sins through the life of your true son, then we should be Grateful in this life and eternally satisfied with you face to face. So help this truth to be real all year long. In Jesus' good name we pray, amen. All right, please stand with diaphragms ready. Booming out, number 86. Great is thy faithfulness. Y'all ready? I really need you ready if I'm up here leading. Okay. Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not Thy compassions, they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies come. ♪ All I have needed Thy hand hath provided ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me ♪ ♪ Summer and winter and springtime and harvest ♪ ♪ Sun, moon, and star ♪ join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence, Strength for today and right hope for tomorrow. Blessings on mine with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Let's end with a quick benediction from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope, by grace comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. Amen.