Amen. Good to be in God's house today, amen? Alright, I thought I'd read you something this morning. By the way, Happy Father's Day. I was told to announce as well that Mount Hebron Baptist Church has a very special gift for each of the fathers and we were going to give it to you before the service But then we realized what happens when you give fathers a gift before the service, you can't get them to listen during the service. So we decided to give it to you after the service, amen? So you be sure to collect your gift if you're a father as you exit the building today. And praise the Lord for men who are willing to still stand up and act like fathers, amen? It's a very important role in our world today. Take your Bibles, if you would, and find the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter number 1. Before I get into my message or even read the text this morning while you're finding that, I want to read to you the origins of Father's Day. You probably have already heard this. If I know Pastor Grant as well as I think I do, he has probably already giving you this several times, but this maybe will help some of you. Maybe in the respect of Brother Paul Harvey, you can take this as maybe the rest of the story. You've learned the rest of the story. How's that sound? It says, the campaign to celebrate the nation's fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm, perhaps because, as one florist explained, fathers haven't the same sentimental appeal that mothers have. On July 5th, 1908, at West Virginia, a church sponsored the nation's first event explicitly in honor of fathers. A Sunday morning in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December's explosion at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monona. But it was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday. The next year, a Spokane, Washington woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother's Day for male parents. She went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers, and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful. Washington State celebrated the nation's first statewide Father's Day on July 19, 1910. Slowly, the holiday spread. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag and spokane when he passed a button in Washington, D.C., or when he pushed a button in Washington, D.C. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father's Day. However, many men continued to disdain the day. As one historian writes, they scoffed at the holiday's sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with the flowers and gift giving. Or they derided that the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products, often paid for by the father himself. During the 1920s and 1930s, a moment arose to scrap Mother's Day and Father's Day altogether in favor of a single holiday entitled Parents' Day. Every year on Mother's Day, pro-parents day groups rallied in New York, City Central's Park. A public reminder, said parents, day activists, or Parents' Day activists, and radio performer Robert Speer, that both parents should be loved and respected together. Paradoxically, however, the Depression derailed this effort to combine and decommercialize the holidays. Struggling retailers and advertisers rebuttaled their efforts to make Father's Day a second Christmas for men, promoting goods such as neckties, hats, socks, golf clubs, and other sporting goods, and greeting cards. When World War II began, advertisers began to argue that celebrating Father's Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, Father's Day may not have been a federal holiday, but it was a national institution. In 1972, in the middle of a hard-fought presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father's Day a federal holiday at last. And today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father's Day gifts. So now you know the rest of the story, right? Alright, 2 Timothy chapter 1. I struggled this week. Pastor Grant had asked me, and by the way, I hope that you pray for Pastor Grant as he is traveling and that God gives him a time of rest. I know it's been a busy month around here and he's been doing a lot and so praise the Lord that he can get away with his family. But as I was preparing to preach this message, I began to think about all of the men in the Bible and read several chapters of different men and trying to conclude the message that God would have me to preach this morning. I must tell you today, some of the hardest message to preach in a pulpit are messages that are around holidays, holiday messages, I guess you could say. Sometimes I wish we could just preach whatever God laid in our heart, which is exactly what I'm gonna do this morning, amen? But thank the Lord, it does have a bit of a theme that kinda goes along with Father's Day today. However, I'm glad that this crowd wasn't sitting in our Sunday school class this morning, because although I struggled for hours, Brother Anthony, developing this little outline that God has given me this morning. I think in about five minutes before Brother Anthony started teaching, he preached my entire message this morning. So I'm glad you're not here. And then I said, you know, every church, every message I was taught, every message, you know, you kind of, you need to have three points to your outline. Sometimes it's good to have some kind of a reading to go along with it, a poem or something like that. So I picked out the song, Faith of Our Fathers, as you women have already sung to us. So now that you've taken care of my entire message this morning, I think you're going to get out early today, amen? And so, praise the Lord for that. 2 Timothy 1, we're going to begin reading in verse number 1, and we'll read through verse number 7. As I was preparing this message, I began to think of the struggles and the good times and the not-so-good times that my wife and I have had through the years was we've had the opportunity to raise five children. It's a blessing to have almost all of my children here today. But I have learned through the years, and I'm still learning by the way, even though all of my children are married and out of the house, I am still learning how to be a good father. And I have learned that one of the most important things I think through the years that a man can do for his children is to become a godly father, a man of God that loves the Lord. It doesn't have to be an intelligent person or a very smart person, but a godly person indeed. And I tell you today, if we could learn to love the Lord and get acquainted with Him, how he can make such a difference in our lives today as fathers. The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse number 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers, day and night, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Let's go to the Lord with a word of prayer. Father, we are so thankful for the opportunity to be able to preach the word of God today. Father, I pray that you would help us as we try to rightly divide this morning. Lord, we recognize today that fathers, good godly fathers, good godly men are on a decline in our nation today. And Father, I pray God that you would help us, Lord, to be able to get across not my message, but your message. the importance of living so close to you and taking advantages of the power and the help that you afford us today. Lord, we love you and we thank you for all that you're going to do. In Jesus' precious name, amen and amen. If you're here today and you watch the news, If you've watched the news just this week, you probably see the importance, my friend, of people, men especially, living godly. I tell you, I don't think I've... I guess I was thinking back, you know, 10, 20 years ago, and I used to think, boy, how could it get any worse? But boy, you look at the decline, you see the news, you see the massacres that we've seen just this week in our churches, the police officers that are being killed, all of the violence and the crime and the things that are going on in this world today, and we can only relate it to one thing. Sin. Amen? Sin. And the only way to change that, listen, we can put all the advertisements on television we want, we can do all kinds of community events, we can do all those things we want, but if we don't bring people back to God, we've failed. It is our job to get the message out to the people. Amen? And I begin to think about that. I begin to think about the Apostle Paul as he was trying to say some things to young Timothy here. Although Paul was not Timothy's biological father, he referred to him as his son. He was a man that had some influence on him. He was a man that was able to mentor him and give him some encouragement and education along the way. And I think he said some things to him that were very important, things that you and I probably need to hear often, not just a few times, but often. If you had the privilege, and you're welcome to at any time that you would like, to come to my home, My wife, she's really good about putting little reminders and little stickers up on the mirrors in the refrigerator and places that we would see them all the time. There's little Bible verses hanging everywhere and they serve as just reminders. As you go throughout the day, all of a sudden your mind is brought back to some of those things that are quite important that we need to remember in our life. And I believe that the Apostle Paul, when he was writing to young Timothy right here, he was offering him some good reminders. And let me just give them to you. I want to give you three things very quickly. I hope that I won't keep you very long. And I know that it's always dangerous when a preacher says that, but I really truly mean it this morning. I want to give you three things. Number one, and I'll give these to you quickly in case you don't catch them as we're preaching. Number one, we need to have a reliance on God. I think Paul says this to young Timothy. Number two, we need to have a revealing of our call. And number three, I think we have to have a renewing of our faith. I think this needs to happen often. You know, I think sometimes, now listen to me, I think sometimes we view our faith like we view love. There was one time, you've heard this many times, a man was asked did he ever tell his wife that he loved her, and he said, well, I told her I loved her when I got married, when we got married, and he said, if anything changes, I'll let her know. And you know, there's a lot of people that really have that mentality spiritually, amen? We get saved and we say, okay, everything's all right. But the truth of the matter is, you know, there's a lot of teaching. I love to study the teachings of the Apostle Paul, and there's a lot of things that he reminds us in his Word, in the Word of God, over and over and over again. In fact, sometimes he even says, I bring these things, I'm bringing you to remembrance of these things. I want to remind you of these things. Why? Because, folks, I want you to understand something. Oftentimes, we need to be reminded. We need to remember. We need to go back and rethink some things once in a while. And as Brother Anthony spoke to us in Sunday school this morning, we've got to have some vision, amen? We've got to have some goals out there, some goals that we're trying to reach. Listen, the Christian life was never intended to be the kind of life that was just here, and whatever comes, comes, amen? No, God intended for the Christian life to be a very structured life. Amen. That's why he gave us the Word of God. It's a Bible full of principles and direction and help that you and I can take and apply to our lives. And oh, how to make such a difference. The Apostle Paul, I believe told some things to young Timothy that were important. And here he said, in verse number seven, he says, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. I kind of like that this morning. You see, he's drawing his attention back to God. Listen, young Timothy, I want you to remember something. God needs to always be important to you. You're probably going to meet a young lady someday, You're probably going to get caught up in your life at some point, but don't ever let God, don't ever let the importance of God end up back in the shadows. Always keep him number one. Always keep him on the forefront. Always be concerned about what your Christian life is like and where are you going. Amen. And I believe that's what he was saying. He said, listen, God did not give us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind. You see, he gave us the spirit of power for a reason, amen? And let me just give you a few things that I wrote down that I think will help you this morning. He gave us the power to be able to live in the will of God. I believe that. Some people might ask, how do you get there? Let me show you just a few things. Turn to Galatians chapter 2, if you would, verse number 17. Galatians chapter 2 and verse number 17. The Bible says, But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. He says, for I build again the things which I destroyed, or for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. He says, for through the law am dead to the law, but I, that I might live unto God. And he says in verse 20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Now I want you to understand something, my friends. A lot of people say, you know, living the Christian life is hard. But the truth of the matter is, God has given us the power to do so. And that power is Him dying to self and letting Him live through us. Amen? He came into us to overcome us, so it is our responsibility to allow Him to live through us, so that the people out there, they don't see us, they see Him through us. Amen? And so He gives us the power to live. He gives us the power to walk, to live a life for Him. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. share a couple scriptures with you this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter number 5. The Bible says in verse number 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to all that he hath done, whether it be good or whether it be bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciousness. For we commend not ourselves again to you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may be somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God. It is for your cause. I tell you today, Paul said, for we walk by faith and not by sight. You know, Paul made it very clear. As far as I'm concerned, I just assume go on and be with God in heaven. That's where my desire is. But right now, God has me here. And I want you to understand something this morning. God has every one of us right here for a reason. Can I say dads? God has you here for a reason. Man, can you just imagine the responsibility, dads, that you and I have of making sure that our young men and women grow up being aimed toward the things of God. Amen? We have that responsibility on our shoulders, making sure that when the churches open that they come, making sure that they're understanding the Word of God, making sure that they're learning a little bit about Christ, making sure that the things they bring home from school line up with the Word of God. I tell you, I could go on and on and on. See, dads, we have that responsibility. The power to profess. In 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse number 12, in 1 Timothy 6 and verse number 12, the Bible says, the Bible says that Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of eternal life, whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." Now I'll tell you, it's a great thing to be willing to be verbal about your faith. I tell you, we need to do that more often. I think one of the most important things that you and I need to learn how to do, and I don't do it well, and I'm sure many of you can say the same thing, is to witness and give people the gospel. I mean, we have a mandate as Christians to do that. But I'll tell you, you can live as a witness with your life. And one of the most important tools that you have in your life, if you don't get anything else I say this morning, get this. this little tool right here that you've got. I want you to understand, moms and dads, I want you to understand that people hear what comes out of here. Isn't that hard? People hear what is being said. Our little children, you may not think that they always hear what you're saying, but trust me, they've got ears like If you're a hunter, you'll understand what ears like a coyote is like. Amen? They've got eyes like a turkey. Amen? They hear and they see the things that you and I are saying and doing. Amen? And the truth of the matter is, God gives us the power to live, do, and say all the right things. All we have to do is try. Amen? Let me move this right along. He gives us the power to preach in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We see in verse number 21, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, in verse number 21, the Bible says, The Bible says, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now you might say, preacher, I'm not a preacher. But I would disagree with that. Everybody is a preacher. Amen? Everybody has the ability to proclaim the message. Now you may not be called as a preacher, but you can preach. Amen? And we need to do that well. And so God gave us the spirit of power. He also gave us the spirit of love. I tell you, love is such an important thing. The Bible teaches us in 1 John chapter 4 and verse number 7 that love is of God. The Bible also teaches us in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19 that we love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. Those are very simple elementary verses that you and I probably know by heart. And they're important, but do we practice them? Do we put them into practice? I'll tell you, we as Christians, we need to learn to love some things. You know what makes us dedicated? Our love for the things that we're dedicated to. You show me a man that's dedicated to his work, that seems like he's so caught up in it, pretty good chance he loves his work. Pretty good chance he enjoys what he's doing. Pretty good chance he's pouring his whole heart and soul into it. And that's exactly what we need to do with our love for the Lord Jesus Christ, our love for our life in God. We need to love it. Nehemiah. Turn to Nehemiah if you would. Turn to Nehemiah. I want you to see something. I think I may have showed you this before in a previous message. Nehemiah was praying. And he was there at Jerusalem. He was trying to rebuild the walls. He was trying to put forth a concerted effort with the people. And man, he was experiencing all kinds of ridicule. I mean, people were laughing at him and ridiculing them and teasing them and telling them that they can't do it. And I'll tell you, one of the greatest tools that Satan will ever use against you as a Christian is he will try to convince you that you can't be one. But you can, and you can continue to be. Nehemiah, amongst all this ridicule, in Nehemiah 4, in verse number 4, he began to pray. And as he began to pray, he said this. He said, "'Hear, O our God, for we are despised.'" He says, "...and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity. And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee. For they have provoked thee to anger before the builders." But you know what Nehemiah did? I really love verse number six. He said, "...so we build." He said, so built we the wall and all the wall was joined together and the half thereof for the people had a mind to work. They had a mind to work. Man, I tell you what, Nehemiah went in there with the blessing of the king and with the blessing of God, and he began a work that seemed impossible to the world, but God got behind that. And man, what great things God accomplished because he was willing to go out there and do what God had laid on his heart, and he loved doing it. He loved that work. We've got to love the work. We've got to love the brethren. We've got to love each other. 1 Peter 2, we won't turn there this morning, but it teaches us that we need to learn to love each other, love the brethren. We may not agree with everything each other does, but we've got to love each other. Amen? Man, we got to shake each other's hands and hug each other's necks and let each other know that we love each other. But, you know, we may not always know what each person is going through, but I'll tell you, you can sure encourage somebody by hugging their neck and telling them that you love them. Amen? Love them and show them that you love them. And then love the sinner. Can I say to you today, we'll never reach one person for Christ until we first start loving them. I've seen people try to go about winning people to Christ in a very harsh, unrealistic way and they don't get very much accomplished. But when you begin to love people and they see the true love in your heart for them and the desire for you to be introduced to the Christ that changed your life, that makes a difference. Love the sinner. Love the sinner. We have to do that. And then the Bible says, young Timothy got this instruction from the Apostle Paul. He said, you need the spirit of a sound mind. And boy, how that is so true in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, if you would turn there once again. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse number 6. He says, He said, therefore, let us not sleep as do others. He says, but let us watch and be sober. Let us have a clear way of thinking. Let's be ready for the work that God has called us to do. Let's be ready for this Christian life that God wants us to live. And then in 1 Timothy 1, in verse, or 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse number 13, just part of our text, he says, "...hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." Hold fast the form of sound words and so we need to have a sound mind. Secondly, first we have a reliance on God, secondly we need to have a revealing of our call. You say, preacher, I'm not called. But that's not true. Everybody is called. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Ephesians, chapter number 4. Galatians and then Ephesians, chapter number 4. Ephesians, chapter number 4. The Bible says, Start with verse number seven, but unto every one of you, one of us, is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, that is it, but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He says, he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things. And look at verse number 11. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. And that list really could go on and on and on. I mean, everybody has a calling to do something. You have a calling. A lot of times we look at the pastor and we say, man, that pastor is doing a great job in the church. Yes, it's probably a pretty good chance it's because he was called to do so. Amen? He has not only the backing and the support of the people because they see that he's doing a good job, but he has God behind him. Amen? Because God called him to do that. and he's living his call. He's doing the thing that God laid on his heart to do. And I'll tell you, if we don't learn what God, we can be a most miserable people if we're not doing what God has called us to do. I think preachers, I think people need to find out what God has called them to do and do that thing well. It doesn't matter what it is. My friend, I want to tell you something. You may be the janitor of the church, and Brother Grant may be the pastor of the church, but I've got news for you. If you're doing what God has called you to do and doing it well, you are no less than Pastor Grant in the church, amen? You are doing what God has called you to do. Oh, how we need good teachers, amen? I believe there's probably people sitting in these pews today that God has been calling them. They've heard this on their heart more than one time. And God so wants to use them, but we've got to be willing to let Him use us, amen? Everybody has a calling, and we need to get busy about that calling. And my time is gone, but let me give you this last point real quickly. Number three, a renewing of our faith. Now you say, now why does there need to be a renewing of our faith? Because we sometimes, and more often than not, we become a little bit lazy in our lives, don't we? Would you say that there has been a time in your life that you've not been on fire for God as much as another time in your life? I know I can say that. You see, it's important for us to experience a renewing often. I remember a young man in my dad's church one time when I was a little boy. And I remember God got a hold of his heart and he was in the back of the church and the invitation was given and that man got out of his pew and ran to the front of the church. I mean, he was under such conviction. I've never seen anybody respond to an invitation quite like that. And oh, how God... And by the way, he was a saved man. He just knew that God needed to change his heart a little bit. And he was willing. And this is where we find David in Psalm 51, and I'm finished. In Psalm 51, I want to just read a few things to you. I have so much I could give you this morning. Psalm 51, David said this. Nathan had come in and told him about His sin, David finally recognized it was him that was doing the sinning, and he had gotten so far away from God, and he began to pray, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. He said, wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. And he said this, and this is where we need to come to, my friends. He says, for I acknowledge my transgressions. You know, sometimes we get up in the morning and we look in the mirror and we see ourselves. But I want to tell you something, my friends. Sometimes we need to look into the Word of God and see ourselves. And then we need to come to the place where we're man enough to admit or woman enough to admit Well, I need to make some changes. God help me, for I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Look at verse 5, he says, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Look down in verse number 10, he says, He says, created me, God, a clean heart. There's so much doctrine in this portion of Scripture, I wish I had time to spend an hour here. He says, cast me not away, verse 11, from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Verse number 12, restore unto me. Boy, this is where I wish some Christians could find themselves today. Sometimes even myself. You know, how many times have you walked into a church and everybody's walking around all worn out and poochie-lipped and not on fire for God at all. That's just the best way I can say it. And I'll tell you, lacking joy in their life. I'll tell you, we need to be a people that is full of joy. Christians need to be joyful people. How can you earnestly expect somebody to see the Christ that you love through an unjoyful life? Think of that. How can you expect that? Live a joyful life for God. Renew your faith. You see, David didn't lose his salvation. He said, restore unto me the joy of my salvation to God. Amen? He knew he had lost something. Amen? And I'll tell you today, I believe we live in a world where a lot of people have really lost the joy they have for their God. Amen? And I hope today that we can find it once again. Father, we are so thankful for your love and mercy, for the opportunity to be here today. May your will be done during this time of invitation, and if there be one here that needs to know you're a Savior, God, I pray that you would deal with that heart. In Jesus' precious name, amen.