The Lord's Prayer as a Blueprint for Fathers

Lord brothers and sisters and I wanted to read for today Psalm 103:13. As a father pies his children, so the Lord pies those who fear him. You know, and a a good father, he feels for his kids when they hurt, when he hurts, and he's quick to show compassion instead of holding their failures over them. And that's the picture God uses for how he feels about us. The tenderness a father has for his children is just a small glimpse of God's heart towards you. But notice who that compassion rests on. Those who fear him. It says, "Fearing God isn't being scared of him, but it's having such deep respect for who he is that we honor we honor him with how we live." And that's the same respect a child has for a father he loves, not running from him, but trusting him and wanting to please him. So today, we honor the fathers among us, and we also draw close to the father whose love we receive when we walk in reverence before him. So with that being said, brothers and sisters, let's stand up and pray for the service. Lord God, we thank you for this beautiful morning you've given us today, Lord. And also for this Father's Day, Lord, we thank you for the fathers we have in our lives, Lord. And also, Lord, for our heavenly father who never leaves us, who's always there for us, Lord, we thank you for sending your only begotten son to die on the cross for our sins, Lord. Thank you for everything, Jesus. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. And for our first song, we'll be singing How Deep The Father's Love. How [music and singing] deep the Father's love for us. [music] How vast [singing] beyond all measure [music] that [singing] he should give his only [music and singing] son to make [music] a wretched reure. [music] Pray the pain [singing] of searing [music] loss. The [singing] father [music] turns his face away [singing] as moons which [music] mar [singing] the chosen one. Bring many [singing] sons to gloryy. [music] Behold [singing] the man upon a cross. My sin [music] upon [singing] his shoulders. Ashamed [music and singing] I hear my mocking voice. all [singing] out among the scoffers. [music and singing] It was my sin that held [singing and music] him there until it [singing] was unclish. [music] His dying [music] breath [singing] has brought me life. [music] I know [singing] that it is finished. [singing] I will not boast [singing and music] in any, no gifts, no [music and singing] power, no wisdom. But I will boast [music and singing] in Jesus Christ. his [music and singing] death and resurrection. Why [music and singing] should I gain from his reward? [music and singing] I cannot [singing] give it an [music] answer, but this I [music and singing] know with all my heart. His wounds [singing] have paid my [music] ransom. Why [music] should I [singing] gain from his reward? I [music] cannot give [singing] an answer, [music] but [singing] this I know with all my [music] heart. His [singing] wounds have [music] paid my rest. [singing] And for our second [music] song, we'll be singing Bless the Lord, oh my soul. [music] Bless the Lord, [music and singing] oh my soul. Oh my soul, worship his [singing] holy name. [music] Sing like never [singing] before. Oh [music] my soul, I'll worship [singing] your holy name. [music] The [singing] sun comes [music] up. It's a new day [singing] dawning. It's time to sing [music] your song [singing] again. [music] Whatever may pass and whatever lies [music and singing] before me, let me be seen when the [music and singing] evening comes. Bless the [singing] Lord, oh my soul, oh [music] my soul, worship [singing] his holy name. [music] Sing like never before. Oh [singing and music] my soul, I'll worship your holy [singing] name. You're rich in love and you're slow to [singing] anger. Your [music] name is great and your heart is kind. For all [singing] your goodness I will [music] keep on singing. 10,000 reasons for [singing] my heart to find. Bless the [music and singing] Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul, worship [music and singing] his holy name. Sing like [music and singing] never before. Oh my [singing] soul, I'll worship [music] your only name. And on [music and singing] that day when my strength is failing, [music] the [singing] end draws near and my time has come. [music] Still [singing] my soul will sing your praise unending [music] 10,000 [singing] years and then forever more. [music] Bless the Lord, [singing] oh my soul. Oh [music] my soul, worship his holy name. Sing like [singing and music] never before. Oh my soul, I'll worship your [music and singing] holy name. Bless the [singing] Lord, oh my soul, [music] oh my soul. Worship his [music] holy [singing] name. Sing like never [singing] before, oh my [music] soul, I'll worship your [singing] holy name. [music] Praise God. Praise the Lord, brothers and sisters, for this morning that God has given us today that we can all come here and worship his name and praise his name. And happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. It is a very hard thing to raise up kids that they grow up in the house of the Lord and it's a huge blessing once they do. So, uh, may the Lord give you guys strength to do that. And also, uh, I'll be doing our Bible reading for this morning. That's going to be in Psalms, uh, 45, page 809. Psalms 45, page 809. And it says here, "My heart is overflowing with a good theme. I recite my composition concerning the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You are a fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your thigh, oh mighty one, with your glory and your majesty, and in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. And your right hand shall teach you awesome things. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. The peoples fall under you. Your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. All your garments are scented with mirror and allows and cassia out of the ivory places palaces by which they have made you glad. King's daughters are among your honorable woman. At your right hand stands the queen in gold from of fur. Listen, oh daughter, consider and incline your ear. Forget your own people also and your father's house. So the king will greatly desire your beauty because he is your lord. worship him and the daughter of Ty will come with a gift. The rich among the people will seek your favor. The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace. Her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the king in robes of many colors. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you with gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought. They shall enter the king's palace. Instead of your fathers shall be your sons whom you shall make princes in all the earth. I'll make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore, the people shall praise you forever and ever. Praise God. And now we'll have our brother Daniel sing a song for us. And then right after that, we're going to have Tim come up here, say a couple announcements, and also say a sermon for us this morning. God bless. Praise God. Praise God, brothers and sisters. So, I just wanted to sing this, you know, because um I sang this a few times already, but I, you know, I want everyone to hear it because it's very comforting words, you know, in good and and hard times. um you know and I want to congratulate all the fathers out there and grandfathers today. So may God bless you guys. But I'll be singing this song today. [music] [music] Why should I feel discouraged? [singing and music] And why does the shadows [music] come? [singing] And [music] why should [singing] my heart feel lonely [music] for long [music] in heaven [singing] and home? When [singing and music] Jesus is my portion, [music] [singing] my constant friend is he. [music] [singing] His eye is on [singing and music] the sparrow. And I know he [singing] watches me. [music] His [singing] eyes is on [music] the spare way. And I [music and singing] know he watches me. [music] So I'll sing [music] because I'm happy [music and singing] and I'll sing because I'm free. [music] [singing] His eye his eyes is on the sparrow. [music] And I know he [music] watches me. Oh, I'll [music] sing because [singing] I'm happy [music] and I'll sing because [singing] I'm free. [music] His eye, his eye [singing and music] is on the SP. And I [music] know he [singing] watches me and I know [singing] he watches [music] me. Praise God. Praise God. Church, I just want to also congratulate all the fathers with happy father's day. And uh before we're going to go into the message, let's take uh two minutes to meet and greet each other and then we'll begin music. Let's take these two minutes. [music] Sorry. I don't know. I think let's see. Okay, we'll just take a few seconds. Everybody, please take your seats. Let's open up to uh Matthew chapter 6 and uh the Bibles in the pews will be 1396. 1396. The Bibles in the pews and we are going to be looking over verses 9 through13. The Lord's Prayer is actually a blueprint of how fathers all over the all over the world should live and should father their homes. It's interesting because I really never thought about this this place in the Bible as a lesson for fathers. But it's if we want a blessed home, the Lord's Prayer is a way we can test if we're doing things right. The Father's role is to protect, to provide, and to love. That's the father's role. But more importantly, the father's role is to is to uh proclaim or to show the children the image of the father in heaven. And in this world, we don't see much of that. We don't see the fathers showing an image of the heavenly father. And we can see by the broken homes and the broken world. But the father was put to provide, to protect, and to love his home. There's a reason why God put the fathers ahead of the house. And I'm going to kind of make this um this example of of the role of a father. Imagine this. Somebody puts you as a manager in a company and you get excited. You're a manager of the company. But you being a manager represent also the company. You represent the boss of that company. And when something happens on your watch that's good or that's bad, you are responsible, not necessarily the employee. If something bad happens on your watch, the boss does not go to the regular employee. He goes to the manager and asks, "Why did such and such happen? You didn't overlook the situation. You didn't put things in order. You didn't organize certain things in place." And we as fathers are those managers that God put in our homes. That's why God says, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not the God of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel." And we actually see also how the father he answers for even the wife in the story of Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve sinned, God didn't go to Eve and say, "Eve, why did you take the bite?" God came on earth and he says, "Adam, where are you? He's looking for Adam. And then of course the blame game begins. But God calls Adam, where are you? The father is the pillar of strength in homes. And the father, he is responsible for how he runs the family. And there are families where the mother takes the reigns or um takes the authority. There's families like that too. But guess what fathers, you are going to answer for that. So if the mother takes the reigns, make sure the rules and everything in the house you agree with because you're going to answer for that. And I'm not just talking about fathers right now. I'm also talking about the future fathers which are young men and not women but but young and old medium uh aged men who their future is ahead of them and who once will become fathers and this is also a message for you. Not sure if we fathers know this, but it's not even our mother's or our wives job, the mother's job to raise the kids. It's actually our job to raise the kids. And we see that in Ephesians 6:4. Uh we don't need to open that up, but I have it here. Ephesians 6:4 it says, "And you fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." So God puts the fathers to raise their children. And yes, the mother is there to help. She's there to fill in the gap when the father is gone. She's there to to help out to raise the children, but the father, he has a duty to raise them in the fear of the Lord. And like example, in my family, I work I work full-time in ministry full-time. And so I asked my wife, "Honey, can you please help me to before our night prayer to read the Bible?" Or sometimes we sing songs on YouTube. We'll turn on songs with lyrics and we'll sing them before prayer because sometimes I'm so tired I'm just like, "Let's pray." But then my wife whoops out the Bible and I'm like, "Oh yeah, thank you for reminding me." She's there to help, but I set the rules because I want my kids to grow up to be good citizens of the country and also of heaven. Therefore, when we open up to Matthew chapter 6 verse 9 through13, I'm like, how is this not the blueprint of a good father that we can all learn from? And this is the Lord's Prayer. I'm going to read it and then we're going to dissect it. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Hallowed also refers to holy, sacred, honored, and highly respected. Our heavenly father expects ultimate honor and respect from each one of us. And this is that a father should take to his family where our kids we expect them to honor and respect us. Yes, we worship God because he's our creator. Without him, we are nothing. We are just dirt. We came from dirt and he made us someone. But if we carry the image of the heavenly fathers into our homes, we fathers have to teach to honor and to respect us. And I know this might sound kind of weird because it's like, well, I mean, it's it sounds not natural, but it is. Our heavenly father, he requires respect and honor and we should require that in our homes too. What happens when kids start to dishonor and the father doesn't do nothing? Then the respect to authority is broken. And if a person cannot respect their father and mother then they will not be able to respect the authority in the country in the in the world and even God. That's why we fathers have to pull that out from our kids and teach them to respect and to honor us. Next one, verse 10. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Your kingdom come, your will be done. When we see this, we know that God's dwelling place is his kingdom. That's where he sits on his throne. That's his area. Our kingdom, our dwelling pl place is our homes. That's our kingdom. That's our dwelling place. Your will be done. God sets the rules. He sets the laws in his kingdom how he wants it run. And we fathers have to set rules in our homes how we want it to run. Not the mother, not the child, not the daughter, not the son. We set the rules. And how God sets his rules and his laws is to build up his children is to have harmony among each other. Is to love each other is to respect each other. It's to keep us from trouble. Those are the rules and the laws that God sets for his kingdom. And we as fathers have to set the same laws, the same rules. Yes, it's not written in the Bible that kids be home by 11 p.m. But that's the rule that a father should set. Because why why is that rule so important? Because after 11, a single man, a single woman full of energy, they can get themselves into trouble. So if a father wants peace in his house, if he wants to keep his children from trouble, he sets that rule. What's another rule that fathers set? The time you date is when you're ready to get married. That's another rules that that a father should set. Because when a child is growing up and knowing that I'm still too young, their focus is not on dating. Their focus is building their life, their career, building their uh relationships, hanging out with their friends, building a future, building a relationship with God. But when a child from a young age already has the parents allow and like surprisingly I see that in a lot of homes where the parents they allowed their little 10 nyear-olds to date already and then they wonder why the son at 16 years old is already a father. They wonder why why is my daughter pregnant in junior high? Because the father didn't set the right rules in the house. And guess who will answer for that? The father. There was a time in in elementary school when uh some some girl came up to me and she's like, "Hey, my friend Sarah really likes you. Um, can you date her?" And I'm in elementary school. I don't even know what dating is. Uh, my parents never taught me dating, the word dating. And I'm like, "Sure." So, I'm in fifth grade and I'm I go like at lunch, sit with my friends, and this Sarah girl is sitting next to me, and I'm like, "What is she doing?" I go hang out, play soccer with my friends, and she's chasing me around. I'm like, "What is she doing?" Then the next day her friend comes. Sarah wants to break up. And I'm like, "Okay." You see, at at such a young age, I didn't even know what it was. It was strange to me because because my life reflected around my friends, my me being a kid because my father set in a rule in the house that I didn't even know about be that there's no dating until you're ready to get married. And yes, at times you do break rules, but then there's consequences. So no dating at fifth grade please [clears throat] your kingdom come your will be done. You see God's will we say your will be done not our will. So we teach our kids not their will be done in our house but my will because as the father I should be looking over my children my my wife my home to make sure there's peace and harmony because when there is no rules set when a child can stay up all night then trouble comes into the house. When a child can date at a younger age, they're not even, you know, mature, then trouble comes into the home. When a child does get provoked by the the father um and how we see that like so many times right now, the father introduces the child to alcohol. The father introduces the child to drugs. It's like what? He should be the protector. Then guess what? Brokenness comes into the home. Pain comes into the home. Suffering, heartache comes into the home. The home is broken. And when there's many broken homes, it makes a broken nation. That's why God, he's so he's so adamant that we say, "Your will be done." Because he knows what's good for us as our heavenly father. Give us this day our daily bread. The father, he's the provider of the household. He's the one who makes sure that the kids are fed, that they have shelter, and that they have peace in the house. He provides the daily needs. He's the provider. And yes, there are times where the mother will have to work, but it's not to replace the father. It should never be to replace the father. So those fathers that are just sitting around the house and raising their children while the mother is working, that's not biblical. The father's responsibility duty is to be the provider for the family. And yes, like I said, like especially right now, times times are tough, things are expensive, and the mother has to go to work. But that's to compliment the family, not to replace. And also if the father makes you know to to provide and the mother goes work then it's more for her shopping not to pay the bills you uh like sometimes I hear which shocks me I hear at times where the the the husband tells me yeah me and my wife we split our bills I tell her those are your bills you have to pay and these are my bills. I'm like, what? No, no, no, no, no. Those are all your bills. You are the provider. But if you are lacking to pay those bills because you are working a full-time job, you're not sitting around, then yes, your wife, she can compliment you and help you out. So a father that doesn't work but the mother does is also an unstable household. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Over here we see that our heavenly father he's asking for peace. He's asking for forgiveness for love in his family. And we also as fathers and future fathers our goal is to make sure that among our children there is peace and love. So when we do see our kids or the the husband and spouse get into an argument, the father's job, the husband's job is to make sure that there's peace. And sometimes even it could be I know the the wives would say, "Oh, that's not true." But sometimes even if it's not your fault and you see that tensions are just growing in your household, the father has to take that step and ask for forgiveness to bring peace into that house because we are responsible that our house has love, has forgiveness and has harmony. and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And this is the last point. But do not deliver us, but and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And like I said earlier, I hear and I heard the fathers would introduce their kids to certain sins. They would tempt them to sin. But our job as fathers is the opposite. Is to teach our kids how to flee from sin, how to overcome temptation. And when and if we in our lives are the one leading them into temptation, our heavenly father, he will ask from us and we will bear the consequences but deliver us from the evil one. What could be those things that are evil in our homes? What are those things that that we need to deliver our home from evil one and evil things? We as fathers have to overlook our our children's friends. If we see a bad apple, we are the ones who set the boundaries. That relationship has to be gone. We set the boundaries and at least in my household um I did [clears throat] have friends that that were not godly and my parents said that relationship needs to go and you have to listen and there's times you don't listen and then you get yourself into trouble. What other things could be evil in our homes that the father has to overlook is when our children are on their phones, on their computers, on their TVs. What are they watching? What evil things, what sins are they putting in their mind that could go into their heart? Deliver us from the evil one, f from the enemy who try who's trying to destroy our families. And he's attacking our children from from every angle. And we as fathers and mothers have to also look what are we watching? What are we letting into our homes? Is it evil or is it good? It's our duty and responsibility as fathers to protect, to provide, and to bear the image of our of our heavenly fathers in our homes. If we did not bear that image, we still have time to improve. We still have time to change. We still can go and apologize to our kids who we hurt or led them into temptation. We still can can make things can can make things right in our household no matter how old our child is. But for the children, I want to tell you one thing what the Bible expects from you to honor your father and your mother. The fifth commandment to honor your father and your mother. It doesn't matter even if you get married. You have your own family. You set your own rules now at home. But when you come into the house of your father, you abide by his rules. You don't push your rules. It's his kingdom. It's his dwelling. Just like you don't want people to push their rules in your homes, you don't push your rules on your parents. You abide by them. You honor them. And you respect them. And by doing this, the love of the heavenly father will be on your lives. Let's pray. Amen. Lord God, we thank you for this time, God, that we could study your word, Lord God, and that we could see, God, how the Lord's Prayer is a blueprint of how we fathers ought to live, ought to follow, ought to raise our families in, Lord God. And Lord God, if we ever question, Lord, are we doing things right? May May you guide us to that prayer. May we test our our father's skills or or how we are raising by this blueprint. Lord God, may you bless each father here and the future fathers in this place that we we bear the image of you and we reflect it in our homes in Jesus name. Amen. And for our last song, we'll be singing Jesus paid it all. [music] I [singing] hear the Savior say, "Thy strength [music and singing] indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. [singing] Find in me thine all in all. Jesus [music] paid it all. [singing] All to him [music] I own. Sin had left a crimson stain. He [music] washed [singing] it white as stone. For nothing good am I, where [singing] by thy grace [music] to claim, I will wash [singing] my garments white in the blood of Calvar's [music] lamb. Jesus made it all. All [music and singing] to him my own. Sin [music] had left a crimson stain. He washed [singing] it white as snow. Or thou [singing] indeed I find. Thy [music] power and thine alone [singing] can change [music] the leper spots and melt [singing] the [music] heart of stone. Jesus made it [music] all. All to [singing] him my own. Sin [music] had left a [singing] crimson stain. He washed [music] it white as snow. Jesus made it all. [music] All to [singing] him by own. Sin [music] had left a crimson stain. He washed [singing] him white as snow. Praise God. Okay. Praise God. Church, our service has come to the end and just a few announcements. So, this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. we're going to be prepping our gym uh the outside to in a few weeks to get it painted. So, we will need help. Um, I'll get a lift, rent a lift so we can take and remove a lot of the stuff on the gym and then it can be painted. And also, uh, we will need help to, uh, pressure washer the paint that is kind of already falling off. So, that will be at 2 p.m. this Saturday. We're asking for help, so please come. And also there are things that need to be cleaned and organized in the kitchen and the two rooms in the gym. So [clears throat] if if everybody can come that would be great. Um this Tuesday our evangelism class is cancelled because we are cooking at the shelter. So whoever wants to cook this week, please let me know. We will meet up at 300 p.m. over there. Uh, usually we met up at 2, but but we get things done early and then we don't know what to do for the other hour. So, this time we'll just meet there at 300 p.m. And um, if you would be willing to to help out is for sure a blessing. Everybody who's done it saying that, "Wow, I want to do it more. This is awesome. They enjoy it. So, we would love for you to come and help. Uh, next week we're going to have a topic. It's an interesting one, but it's more towards um well, obviously it's going to be driven towards the the single the the youth, the uh the single men and women. It's going to be about dating. How to um date to a blessed marriage. So, we're going to have some guests and uh that will be next week the topic. So, invite your friends. Anybody who is thinking of dating or in the process of dating, invite them. Um and this topic will be expanded to make sure that when people do already get married, they didn't make a bunch of mistakes before. [clears throat] Um so, that's going to be the topic for next week. Um, and yeah, and just our weekly services. Uh, Tuesday's Bible reading 8:30 a.m. at the Cafana Coffee Shop off of State Street. I absolutely invite everyone. Um, it's it's really fun. It's not really a Bible study. It's more like a discussion and we have a good time there. Um, and also Bible study with prayer on Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. and then Sundays at 9:00 a.m. service. Does anybody have any needs or any thankfulnesses? If not, let's pray. Lord God, we thank you God for this time, God, that we could just learn your word, Lord God, and just help all fathers and bless all fathers, Lord God, to carry that image of you into our homes, Lord God. Lord God, also teach us, Lord God, teach us and help us to fulfill all those things you want us to fulfill, Lord God, and to raise our children, Lord, to love you, God. Lord, bless our church, Lord God. May may you guide us in your spirit like throughout the wei, God. May we remember your goodness, Lord God, and what you do for us every day. How you are our perfect heavenly father who always provides and never lets us down, Lord God. May your name be praised and glorified. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For your kingdom, your power, and glory forever are yours.