Welcome to Mercio Church. My name is Daniel. I'm the college pastor here.
So, yeah. I've stacked the audience in my favor. Um Now, we are right in the middle of something that we call City Project for our college ministry, and we have something called Summer Project for our high school students. It's a discipleship course this summer where they've taken time out of their summer to learn more about who God has called them to be, where God has called them to go, and how they can live life on mission. And it has been an incredible summer, and it really happens in large part to the generosity of the church and the people here at Mercy Hill.
And so, we're really grateful for you guys. We're grateful what God is going to do. We know we have future church leaders, we have future business leaders that love God and work in a way that honors Him. And so, I'm really grateful. I'm excited for Father's Day this weekend.
I'm excited for all the fathers in the room. I'm excited for myself. I'm sure that my two and three-year-old will do nothing but love and do exactly what I say on this Father's Day.
So, it's going to be absolutely incredible. Open your Bibles to Genesis chapter one. We're going to look at Genesis chapter 1. But as you go there, this is a reminder that Kids Week is here. Kids Week is right around the corner.
If you haven't signed up to serve, if you haven't signed your kids up to attend, do that. There is no better way, fathers. to show your children the value. The value of pouring into the next generation, then, for you to maybe take a day off work, or if you have a day to give, to go serve. To show your family it's a priority for you.
So I'm gonna encourage you to do that. You can go on our website, find out all those details. But we're gonna be in Genesis chapter one, looking at verses 26 and 27. I'm gonna read them, and then really tonight, My hope is this, and today, really, this is my goal. I'm going to set the stage and kind of reveal my hands from the beginning.
My goal is not to tell fathers how bad they're doing. You know, I know you guys, like me, have been to many a church service where Mother's Day is just gushing about how wonderful mothers are, and they are. Amen. And then Father's Day is, Father's, you are the worst. You need to step up.
That is not what this sermon is. The sermon is going to be different. And my prayer is that leaving Everyone in the room, whether you're a father, whether you're not, whether you aspire to be, whether you will ever be, whether you had a great father or one that maybe you wish would have been a little bit different. That today we can value fathers rightly, and we can honor the fathers amongst us, and we can live in such a way that the world would look at the fathers of Mercy Hill and say there is something tangibly different. About how they operate.
And that's my prayer.
So let's read Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 and 27. If you have a copy of scripture, follow along. If not, it'll be on the screen. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heaven, and over the livestock, and over all the earth.
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female. He created them. Like I mentioned, it's Father's Day, and I know that is probably not the typical Father's Day passage that people preach out of, but I promise you, it is something that is so vital. And I really think a.
Not full understanding and a lack of understanding about why this impacts fatherhood so much. is a lot of the reason that fatherhood is the way it is. I think understanding this in my life of a father of two young girls and a son on the way is helped me. And I'm learning all the areas I'm not. modeling fatherhood rightly.
And then all the areas I can grow. And so I'm excited. But this Father's Day has got me reflecting on a lot. It's got me reflecting on my father. I love my dad.
He's the hero of my life. He's the funniest dude I know. He is an awesome guy. He's one of the most likable guys I know. He was always coaching sports or umpiring sports or refereeing sports, running basketball leagues, running football leagues.
So I was in a gym 24-7. If you ever played upward and you see, like, who's that kid that's always there? That's the guy who runs the league as kids just in the gym 24-7. That was me. Even as a baby, running around in a diaper with a bottle with Coke in it.
That was my life. I'm from South Carolina. Amen. Praise God. All right.
But that was my life. And sports were just in my veins. And I grew up loving sports. And I grew up playing them and I played, I was lucky enough to play in college, it was incredible. I loved it.
But if you know something, if you've ever been on sports world, this is true in a lot of areas, but specifically sports, some coaches. They get real good at using colorful language. They get real good at saying things that, you know, my sweet southern mama named Tammy Thompson, amen, she does not like. And then praise the Lord for that. But I remember one time when I was in college, I was on something called the Scout Team.
If you don't know what the scout team means, it means you aren't good enough to play on the game day, so you are the picture for the starters. And at this point early in my career, I was on the scout team, and they read us the right act. They told us, hey, you are not the person playing this weekend. Do not get the people on the other side of the ball hurt. when you're trying to be a hero.
Don't do it. And so I took that as go have speed.
So we're going through plays and we're doing this stuff, and I'm going half speed. I'm being lackadaisical, doing all this stuff. And the coach on the other side, he comes up to me, and especially in football, coaches will get, I mean, they'll get right up in your grill. They got a face mask so they feel that they can get as close as humanly possible. And he's yelling every obscenity known to man.
He's making up words. I'm like, I don't think that's a thing. And he's saying it at me. He's talking about my great-grandmother. He's talking about my aunt's, sisters, cousin.
He's saying everything you could possibly imagine. You know, and I'm like a deer in headlights. But you also learn that there's something beyond those words. You're trying to figure out: okay, what is he mad about? This is what it was.
He was so frustrated. He was like, You are the only picture they are going to get before they go see the real thing. You are the only look they're going to get. There's not another better look. They're going from you to the real thing.
And if you don't do what you ought to do, they're going to have a bad view when the game time comes. Fatherhood's the exact same way.
Now what the Bible is telling us is this, in our lives, We don't get any other example of God the Father other than the Father's in our life, both physically and spiritually. That the fathers of mercy hill. Listen, this should be a burden and a joy. That for the young people, for the kids in your home, and the other children, and the brothers and sisters in Christ around you, there is no other picture. that they can tangibly see.
of the fatherhood of God other than you. And I'm not going to do what my college coach did. But I am tonight going to say, let's see what should that picture look like. How should we be an example? How should we father our children in such a way that people look at our lives and say, okay, that is a broken, flawed, messed up picture, but a picture nonetheless of how God the Father feels towards me.
Because so many people I'd imagine listening to this and hearing this tonight and hearing this today. You could probably point out a lot of ways that your father, or you've seen fathers, or you know fathers around you, or spiritual fathers, whatever. They have done this poorly. But hopefully you've seen some ways that it's been done well. And my prayer tonight.
Is that by the end of it, all of us. If you're a father in the room, you would repent of the places that you have not done this well. You would take the charge to do it better. But also, you'd look around at the fathers in your life. And maybe you would understand their shortcomings and give them grace.
But you would also be so grateful. for the ways that they took steps in this. And how they lived. I was talking to some other people on our staff about what it means to be a husband and a father, and they were talking about gifts. And one of them was saying that their husband for his birthday, they were like, What do you want?
And he was like, I don't know, I don't really need anything. And I was like, just say thank you. Just be grateful for a moment and you're probably good. and you're probably good. And so maybe coming out of this, what your step is to tell your father.
or to tell a father in your life or a spiritual father, thank you. For what he's done to bring you and shine and show the love of God in your life. And so I'm excited to read Genesis 1. And what we just saw was this, that we were created in the image of God. And that is the starting place for all this.
And we're going to see how that plays out in fatherhood today.
So the big idea, if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. A father's primary calling is to give his family a picture of of God the Father. And that extends beyond your home. If you're like, well, you know, I either don't have children, or my children aren't in my home anymore, or maybe one day I want them, or I don't know what it looks like. But what I'm telling you is this.
whether the church family or your actual family fathers are meant to be that picture. And so why would I choose Genesis 1? Why would Genesis 1 be where we're going to look? I think Christians, a lot of times, we have a bad habit. Of keeping really good, profound theological truths in a box where they're meant to be much more broad.
For instance, when we talk about the Imago Day, We talk about how horrible things like abortion is. and how important adoption is, and how bad racism is. And how bad these things are because of the image of God on people. And that's true. We usually talk about things why missions is so important: that we should go to the ends of the earth because God's image is on those people, and Christ has died for them, and some of them have no access to the gospel, and that's 100% true.
That the reality that people bear God's image is just pushed us to do that. But we kind of stop there a lot of times. But what I want us to see today is that it goes way beyond that. That the fact that you were created in the image of God And the believers in them, the fact that you have been saved by grace. That you are meant to carry out God's image in your home, that you're meant to carry out God's image in this church.
That we're meant to see that in other people. and praise when we see it and call them up to it. And for me, repent of when I don't do it. And so today what I want us to see is what kind of Father is God? How does he treat us?
Because I could sit here and I could give you a lot of tips. I could tell you, you know, when you get home and you pull in the driveway, breathe 10 seconds before you go in. You know? Or to the take a deep breath, count to 10, let it out, and all your problems will go away. That junk don't work forever.
Because if your kids are anything like mine, they're gonna ask the same question 744 times, and it's gonna get old. But what I do think can actually make us the fathers that we're meant to be and make us honor and respect and love fathers rightly is when we catch a glimpse of the greater father. And we realize how he treats us. and how he fathers us. And then live out of the overflow.
of that. And so that's what I want us to see. This theme continues in the New Testament. In Ephesians 5, Paul says, Be imitators of God as beloved children. He's saying, The way that you live out your Christian life is an imitation because you are a child of God, you were created in God's image.
We're told to imitate him. It's not a suggestion. It's a command. And it doesn't say imitate him when you're talking about this area, this area. It is a general truth of all of life.
And so like I mentioned. Mother's Day is how great mothers are a lot of time, and Father's Day is where fathers mess up. But there's nothing worse. And I'm sure some of you guys, you've had bosses or you've had teachers who will constantly tell you how bad and how wrongly you're doing things. And then you ask them, okay, what do I need to do?
And they're like, you'll figure it out. Anybody ever been so frustrated that you're told you're doing the wrong thing over and over again, but you're never told how to do it rightly? Pastors and preachers, sometimes we can be the worst of it. We can sit up here and say, you're doing this wrong. You need to be better.
Go. And we never tell people how to live differently. And so, my hope today is that fathers in the room, we would see a better picture. We would see what God does and how He acts towards us and how He treats us, all of us. And it would see fatherhood rightly in that.
And we'd apply it to every area of our lives. And so, what I want us to see is this: I want to see five characteristics of the fatherhood of God. This is not exhaustive. This is not every single characteristic or every single way that God walks as a father in life, but this is what I'm really hoping. I'm hoping we can have the maturity because I'd have not done this for so long in my life.
It was: if the pastor says it, that's all I would do. But wisdom is taking knowledge and applying it rightly to other areas of life.
So, my hope is as you're spending time in God's word, as you're in community group, as you're reading the word on your own, and you see God do things toward his people, you can begin to say, okay, that wasn't mentioned in the sermon, but God is that way towards me, so maybe I ought to be that way towards others. Because why? We were created in the image of God. And here's a little bit of how the gospel is redeeming this: that we were created in God's image, but sin into the world, and it marred that. And what salvation is, it all goes back to Genesis 1.
What salvation is, is Christ saving us to make us go back and become rightly who God created us to be. And so, when it comes to the image of God and fatherhood, your salvation is the only thing that can ever allow you to be that type of Imago-De Father. A father who parents, a father who is a husband, a father who lives and disciples other spiritual children in the church. The only way you can do that is when the gospel is so deeply rooted in your soul that when you read scripture and you see God do something, you say, as you have done to me, I will do to others. And that's what I want us to see today.
I want us to get it. That when you go home and read and you read a different passage of scripture, that it would just be like, God is that way. I need to be that way. And you're like, man, that's not revolutionary. That's like Bible 101.
I know. You've heard it said here a lot, and we're going to keep saying it: that you don't grow beyond the gospel, you just grow deeper into it. Forever and ever. And so we need to see that today.
So we're going to see. Five characteristics of the Father of God, and I'm going to go pretty quickly, even though I talk fast, I'm probably going to go faster than I should.
So if you got your pins, put them things in four-wheel drive and let's roll. Number one, God is present with us. He is present with us. Right after this in Genesis chapter 1. It's one of the coolest things in all the Bible.
It's never said of us again until the end of scripture. That God is dwelling with them. What does it say that He does for Adam and Eve? He walks with them in the cool of the morning. Think about that.
I know some of you guys are nighttime Bible readers. I'm not. I think it's better to live on it than sleep on it. That's just me.
So I do it in the mornings a little bit. And usually it's my wife getting up, convicting me to go read the Bible. But sometimes it's a little crisp in the morning. What would it be like in the morning? Think about this.
How awesome would your time in the Word be if God walked with you and you felt Him walk with you in the cool of the morning? I'll have to read scripture. That was the reality. that Adam and Eve experienced. Over a dozen times in the Bible, nearing probably over 20, I genuinely tried to go look all these up.
One of the most common phrases that God tells his people when there's any type of harsh reality in front of them, when there's any type of setback, he says, Fear not, for I will be with you. That is the encouragement that he gives. And if it goes even further, after we've been saved, what does Jesus say in Matthew 28?
Something we all repeat time and time again, the Great Commission. He says, Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that commanded you. And. I will give you all the skill and all the knowledge and all the wisdom and all the talent to do it. No, right?
Just what I do in kids? No, no, Mr. Daniel, that's not good. That's how you teach kids, right? No, what does he say?
God could have given us anything. He could have given us, he could have said, you're all going to be the best teachers in the world. He could have said, you're all going to be the smartest humans in the world. You're going to know all the Bible. Man, I know so many people who don't share the gospel, but they don't feel like they're smart enough.
God could have promised you all wisdom and all knowledge, but he doesn't. What does Jesus say? And lo, I will be with you. you even to the end of the age. Why does he say that?
Because there's no about smarts, there's no about gift, there's no amount of provision in your life that would ever be better than him being present with you. There is nothing more that the Father could ever do for you than be with you. And if you're hearing that and be like, yeah, him being with me would be good, but him giving me a little bit more talent would have been better, you're wrong. You're wrong. God walking with you is the greatest thing that He could ever do for you.
It's better than if gift He could ever give you. You know, we sing songs like, God, if you never did anything more than what you've done, that'd be true. If God never did anything more than dwell with us, which is what He'll do in the end, that is enough. Because he is present with us. And so, father's in the room, what you need to see.
Is that as a father The greatest gift you can give to your family isn't something you provide. It's you. It's you. It's the greatest gift. There is no schooling, there's no money, there's no car, there's no phone, there's no experience, there's no anything like that.
You can take them to the best theme park, you can take them to Disney World 700 times. I did all the beach trips, I did all those things. When I think back to my father, it is the moments in the car where he said something and it was a funny joke, and it was time with him. And so, Father's in me, let me ask you this question. And this is not meant as like perfect.
Obviously, nobody's doing it perfect, but the question I want to get in your head is. is the main thing you provide for your family yourself. Is that it? And you're like, well, man, that seems pretty simple. It is simple.
But for a lot of people, it ain't easy because why? You're tired. You're tired. You're exhausted. Work is hard.
Life is hard. I understand that. But the problem is we think Because we do XYZ, that ought to be enough. And the reality is, being with them is enough.
So then, whatever is left, we can do XYZ. We got to get that flipped around. That's how God is a father towards us. And so it's not this guilt-ridden thing. It's as I have experienced the grace of God in his presence with me, therefore I will parent and I will father spiritually in my children in my home, the children in the church.
I will father them in that exact same pattern. That is what we see. We want to save the best for our kids. We don't want to give our best at work and give the leftovers to our children. Think about this.
In the beginning, when you read those first chapters of Genesis, he creates the world, he creates vegetation, he creates sea life, he creates all these things. And never once does it say God swim with the fish. I never wanted to say he was looking at his blueprints and saying, that is a really good job, God. You'd really trust it. But the moment he creates humanity, he says he walked with them.
in the cool of the morning. because you understand that was the most important thing. was being with his children.
So that's the first thing we see. The second thing we see is this, is that God fights for us. That he fights for us. He's not some God who is seeing us go through life saying, hey kid, you're on your own. God is described as a defender multiple times.
Most of us have seen things like the Prince of Egypt. Classic movie if you've never seen it. Bad Fatherhood. No, I'm just saying that's okay. No, Prince of Egypt's incredible movie.
Incredible, you need to go see it. But it talks about the story of the Exodus. And what do we see? God is defending his people, even when they go out and they doubt him. He has a pillar of fire and a cloud.
He has all these things protecting them. He makes a way for them. He swallows up the Egyptians in the sea. He defends them. Why does he do this?
So let me go back to even to go further. If you look at Exodus 14, it's one of the coolest passages in all the Bible. It's one of the best passages. He says, and I quote, the Lord will fight for you. You need only be silent.
I feel like I've said that to my kids before. Hey, I'll do it. Just please, for the love of everything. Just no more questions, right? I'm like, God, I get that one, brother.
I get it. They're just yapping. I understand. No, but that's what he says. That's what he says.
He goes, you don't have to do anything. God will fight on your behalf. Just be silent and trust him. Fathers, does your family, do your children, Men in the church, do the people that you disciple, if you're not discipling anybody, if every time I say men in the church, people are other young people in the church, other people you're discipling, if you're like, I ain't got nobody. It's a problem.
All right, here we go. If you're talking to other people, if they looked at your life, would they say, man, he fights for me? That he cares for me, that he goes to war for me. But why does God do this? Why is this a reality?
Because God understands there's a fight going on. There's a fight for our soul. Peter says this in 1 Peter. He says, abstain from the passions and flesh. And the sin, which does what?
Which wages war against your soul. There's a war going on. And so God is fighting back that war. The problem is A lot of times, and I've seen it in my life, I've seen it in other fathers, and I've even talked to these people, they're like, oh man, it's not that big a deal. A lot of people and a lot of us think there's not a war going on for the soul of every single person in this room and every single person out there and every person in your life and in your home.
There is a war going on. And so what you need to understand is this, is that you'll only ever fight for someone. when you know they're in a fight. When you know they're in a fight, that's the only time you'll ever fight for them. What does that mean?
I hear fathers say this all the time and I know it's true and I genuinely believe Every single father, spiritually, and the kids in your home, whatever. I think every man here at Mercio, and probably most of the women. When they say, I would die for my kids. Where I would die for them. I think if a gunman broke into my house, I don't think there's many men here at Mercy Hill that would not jump in front of that bullet for the sake of their kids and their family.
I have no doubt about that. But the reason we say that is because it's very clear: there's a war, there's a moment, there's a fight going on. But let me ask you this. Do you understand that every single time your teenager takes their phone to their bedroom at night, there's a war going on? And they will lose.
That because all their friends have the latest smartphone and they have every access to every app. that every time they're on everything. Do you understand that there is a war going on for their soul? And the problem is, it's not that many men and fathers that we don't want to fight the war, we don't think there's a war going on. We don't think there's a battle to fight.
And so we begin to lack and slack as a father, not because we don't want to do it, but because we're ignorant to it. And so, we need to see why it's so important to go back to how God fathers us, is we need to be able to see where the war is going on. It happens every single summer for our City Project students. It's one of the ways, like, if Daniel, how do you walk this out as a pastor over college students? Every single summer, I see.
Parents, well-meaning parents, talk their children out of spending a summer being discipled into who God has made them to be. Because their parent is not comfortable with them.
Well, I don't know. I want to see you. I'm afraid, this, that, and the other. And you're like, do you not think that is a war for their soul going on? And it is.
We have to understand that people and everyone is trying to grab at our hearts, and as fathers, as spiritual, as men. Even laser, this is how it plays out. It could play out in motherhood, but today we're talking about fatherhood. You've had your day. All right?
This is about fathers. But the way this plays out is that fathers. Go to war. Do you see the fight going on around your children? If you don't open Instagram for 12 seconds, ask them to see their phone, go to their explore page, click the little circle with the little play, and scroll up for 10 seconds.
It'll look like MTV in 2006. Not good. If you don't know that reference, praise God. You had a great family. All right.
But the point. It's been you have to understand that there's a war going on, and we are called to step into it. Number three is this. is that God disciplines us. That he disciplines us.
This is something that we don't love necessarily. It's one of the few times we are okay doing something and not okay receiving that same thing from God. There are not many parents in here who are like, yeah, you know, you don't really need to discipline your kids. My kids came out obeying every single thing I just said. If yours did, praise the Lord, mine did the opposite.
Mine got your double dose. All right, mine did the opposite. I love my children, but they love not listening to me. That's their favorite pastime. They think it's a game, genuinely.
They laugh, they run out and laugh and say, they plug their ears. It's fun. Pray for me.
Okay, but. But Hebrews 12 tells us that God is disciplining us for our good. And it tells us to endure that thing. It tells us to endure it because He's treating us as sons. Why does he do this?
It's because he's making us into something. It's part of our sanctification. God is helping us become in practice who he's already declared us to be in truth. It's called sanctification. It's a big word for the Bible for meaning that.
That when you were saved, God made you righteous. He made you right with God. But in practice, you and I both struggle to live into that identity. But that discipline is God's way of saying, hey, you stepped out of line here. You need to get back in.
And it feels bad to us sometimes. It feels restrictive to us sometimes. But the truth is, it's saving us. I tell people it's a lot like gravity. If you think about gravity, it's like, it's just holding me down.
Right, but nobody says that because, like, yeah, did we just float off and we float off into oblivion? That's the exact same thing your life would be like if God didn't discipline us. That we would just go off and we would die and we would flounder. But the reality is his restrictions are good. They help us grow and they help us learn.
And what I think happens is, we think, well, if I just tell my kids the right thing to do. Right, I just tell my kids the right thing to do, that will happen, but God does not do that. God does not just tell us what is right in knowledge. He shows us what is right in practice. He is creating us to be like him.
He's not creating us and shaping us into becoming what he thinks is right. He's shaping us to become who he is. Think about what Jesus said when he's here when they asked him, Jesus, why don't you do X, Y, Z? And he said, I am about my Father's work. That the children are being shaped into the habits of the Father.
And so many times, we do the complete opposite of that. How many of y'all ever heard someone say, Do as I say, not as I do. Anybody ever heard that? That is the opposite of biblical fatherhood. Because biblical fatherhood, the truth is this.
Is that you don't reproduce what you know, you reproduce who you are. You reproduce who you are. And so, why is this discipline such a big deal? Where is God disciplining you? Is God teaching you to have more control over your tongue, fathers in the room?
Is he teaching you to be more patient, more reserved, more kind? Is he teaching you to lead spiritually, to go and tell your kids, hey, we're gonna read the Bible as a family. We're gonna read one short story as a family. Are you bringing children into that so that when you discipline them, you say, hey, God is disciplining dad that same way, and it's good. And we can accept that and we can be grateful for that.
Because the problem is, so many times I'm like, well, I want my kids to do XYZ. And then, if I looked at my life, you'd be like, Brother Daniel, you don't do XYZ. And so, what are the chances of my kids being much more holy than I am in a way that I am not? It's very unlikely. But, man, grace of God, sometimes that happens, and I'm grateful that God overcomes my sin.
But as a father, what I need to do is look at God and say, How has God been towards me? How is He shaping me? Why is He shaping me that way? He is not doing it arbitrarily. He is doing it because that is who he is.
He's a God who loves the nations. He's a God who loves the lost and wants to bring them in.
So, guess what? I should be a man who loves the lost, and I should parent children who love the lost. I should not begrudge them. He is a God who loves those that are on the outside. He loves the outcast.
So I should be a man who loves the outcast, and my children should be kids who love the outcast. They shouldn't want to just keep everything in, they should look outward for those who are on the fringes. Do you understand what I'm saying? Fathers, it's not just what we think is right, it's what we live.
So, are you accepting the reproof? Are you accepting the discipline and the correction of God?
So that you can parent your children, so you can lead spiritually. Those of you who are community group leaders. If you're a group leader, if you're leading a summer study this year. Do you see your role as a leader in that group to continue God's discipline in the life of those that He's entrusted to your care? If not, we're missing what it means to be a father made in the image of God.
And that's what he says. That's what he lays out time and time again. That's number three is that God disciplines us. Number four. is that God is patient with us.
He is patient with us. He's steadfast. He's faithful. He's compassionate towards us. And this is a hard one for me, I'm gonna be honest with you.
Again, I mentioned I have a three-year-old and two-year-old. This is something that I always thought I was a patient person. Maybe some of you guys did. Then I had children, and I realized I'm probably the least patient person in the world. Same question 71 times.
Right? Anybody got a kid? Are we there yet, kid? Anybody? My kid.
My kids are we there yet, kid? On a four-mile drive, 17, are we there yet? That's what we get. Anybody got a kid who, when what they're looking for is right below them and you say it's right below you, they spin around and can't find it. Anybody got that kid?
I got that kid. That's me. That's my kid. I love them, love them to death. The not listening, my child, when you tell her something, she's in the habit of pretending she can't hear.
So she'll go, what? And she'll like keep her eyes away from you and she'll pretend she can't hear. That's my kid. It's very funny in a moment. It's very hard not to laugh.
Any parent been in there? Anybody, please, I just need, I need some sort of understanding that I'm not horrible, okay? Anybody struggle not to laugh at your kids when doing something wrong?
Okay, good. Praise the Lord. We're all messed up. Praise God. Okay.
But. How this plays out is it goes from funny and then I feel it boiling up. You feel that frustration. You feel all, you're like, I'm gonna, every morning, I have times where I'm like, God, I'm gonna be so patient today. And I step outside and my kids, you know, poopy diaper on the ground, dragging around, and it's gone.
It's completely gone. It's completely gone in a moment. And so that's what happens time and time again. And I look at God and I read scripture. And I was reading this past week.
I was reading some scripture. I'm like, man, God has says time and time again that he is patient. He is steadfast. He's abounding in steadfast love, even to the 10th generation. And I'm like, I can't even do it to one generation.
How can he do it forever and ever? And then I get convicted. And I started to think, man, where does this play out in scripture as I'm preparing this sermon? I'm like, oh man, it's in places like Romans 3. Can we start having this question?
How patient is God? Romans 3 tells us that in divine forbearance, in his divine patience, he passed over the sins of Adam. Adam deserved death. He passed over the sins of Abraham. Abraham deserved death.
Isaac, Jacob, all of them. David, a man after God's own heart, is what scripture tells us. Look at all the horrible things. God passed over, he was patient in those sins so that in Christ, he could be the just God and the justifier of the ungodly. He was patient in all those things.
So when I look, I'm like, God, when can I lose my patience with these kids? It's like you saying to me, when have I ever lost patience with you? And I get to sit there and then repent and tell my kids, I'm sorry for losing my temper. And my kids are more gracious than me. Like, it's okay, Dad.
I'm like, no, God has been patient with me. I need to be more patient with you. And they don't get it. They don't understand. But hopefully over a lifetime, they understand that God has been patient with my dad, and my dad has been patient with me, and that is how God feels towards me.
That is how God feels towards me. And that's what we need to see. We see it well. and the prodigal son. You know, you see, imagine this.
You guys, many of you are familiar with the story. Many of you may not be, but the story of a father whose son asks for his inheritance before he dies, basically saying, I wish you were dead. I wish I just had it. And he goes and spoils it all. And rightfully so, I would imagine the Father would have a right to be angry.
He would have a right to be frustrated. But when the sun returns after realizing That the people, the servants in his father's house were eating better than him after he wanted this pig slop. The father comes back, and the father probably still would have been a good father to say, Yeah, you got to work a little bit to get back in my good graces. He still would have been very gracious. But what does he do?
He has been long suffering. And when the son returns, he goes and he treats him as if he had never left. Why? Because that's how Gatray does. God is long-suffering.
He is patient. He is compassionate to us. He extends that to us. Who in this room, and I do want you to raise this, not rhetorical, who in this room thinks that you don't deserve as much patience as you have received from God? Who thinks God has given you more patience than you deserve?
Every single person. But the parents in the room, how many of you still find it hard to be patient with your children? Every single one of us. Why? It's because we are being sanctified into understanding more and more the patience God has bestowed upon us.
That if we rightly understood how much grace and patience He extended towards us, it would not be hard to be that way towards our children. But my issue is, as much as I think I get it, I'm a pastor. I don't got to know these things. Right? I got to know all this stuff.
I still struggle in my heart to really grasp how patient God has been with me. How much grace he's extended to me. How many times I've deserved divine retribution, and he has said, It has been laid on Christ. And for every time that has been true. And I can point.
to that. And that is really what the point of this is, is that before you are ever called to be patient, God was patient with you. That before you were ever called to be patient, he was patient with you. And that's what you need to see. And so as we move to a close.
Those four things. Leading into the fifth one. And those four, they kind of are all really important things, but the foundation for them, this last point I want us to see. You know, that first one is that God is present with us, and the second one, that God fights for us, and the third, that God disciplines us, and the fourth, that God is patient with us. But this last one is this.
Is that God demonstrates, I'm sorry, God gives Himself up for us. Romans 5:8 tells us that God demonstrates his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ dies for us. They didn't wait. He didn't wait for us to get it all together. That he lays down his life in order to make us and who we can never become on our own.
That he lays down his life. to help us become the people. that the Father of all would see fit to give up everything to have you. To make you into the person. That he wants you to be.
How can God's presence change us? Why does God fight for us? Why is God disciplining us? Why is God patient? Why is He so patient with us?
Because He gave Himself up. All those things find their rest in the fact that He sacrificed Himself for us. And so, fathers, how can we be more patient? How can we discipline well? How can we fight for our children?
How can we be more present with our children when we understand more and more that he gave himself up for us? And then in response, we give ourselves up for our family. If you leave today saying, I'm just gonna out sacrifice every other father for sake of my family. I promise you, we would all be better fathers tomorrow. We would all be better fathers.
If we would realize that because of what Christ has done, That we can lay down our lives. To join God in this work. Think about this. I want to give you some type of like theological thought really quick. I did a wedding this weekend.
And this past weekend. And what I said was: you know, I talked about Isaiah 53 and the saving work that Christ did. And it applies to everything in life, and it really applies to parenting and fatherhood. Then Isaiah 53, this is what the gospel tells us. And many of you, when I start saying it, you'll know it, but maybe at the end, you don't know that as well.
But it says that he was pierced for our transgressions. That he was crushed for our iniquities. That the chastisement, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds, we are healed. Amen?
But it continues on a few verses later in verse 10 of Isaiah 53. And it says this phrase that is kind of confounding to us. It says it pleased God to crush him. It pleased God to crush him. What does that mean?
It means that somehow God found satisfaction. Over the saving work of Christ, that God found pleasure in sacrificing Himself for the sake of bringing you back in and making you who you were always meant to be. That the God of the universe Saul laying his life down for you. As a worthy thing. to make you who he wanted you to be.
And so where does that go into fatherhood? we get the opportunity of joining God in his saving work. Does it please you to lay your life down for your family? Think about this: God has saved you, He may have saved some of your children. One day, He may save some of your children.
And that in this moment, you get the chance to join God. You get the chance to look back at the cross and say, Jesus, what you purchased in blood, I get the joy of laying my life down to see that come about every single day in the life of my children. In the life of the children that God entrusted to my care, the people in my group. The other brothers and sisters beside me. I can sacrifice of myself to help them become in reality who you have declared them to be.
That is an amazing thing. That he was a broken man like me, and he would give me two beautiful children. And say, Daniel, you get to participate with me. In laying down your life. To make them who I purchased them to be.
The work is already done. You get to join me in that saving act. And that is not something to be taken lightly. It should move us. Fathers in the room, men in the room, people who want to become fathers, people who maybe women, you want to get married, ladies, you want to get married, and you want your husband to be a good father.
If we're never moved. By the type of father that God is towards us, it will be very hard for us to ever be the type of father we ought to be. If we are not blown away. By the saving act of grace. that God has done in giving himself up for us.
it will be very hard for us to be the fathers that we ought to be. You know, there's a story that many pastors have said, but it's a very good picture of the gospel and really that fatherhood. It's the story of an ancient king. who had a kingdom, and he realized that his treasury had been stolen from. And that he decreed that whoever, whenever the thief would be caught, they would get 20 lashes.
And then, after a while, that no one found, and he said, okay, we're gonna really up the manhunt, and we're gonna say the punishment is 40 lashes, which basically is a death sentence. Because you're going to believe in all this stuff.
Well, eventually they find out who the thief was, and it was the king's very own daughter. And this king was known for being a very loving and a very just king. And so people wondered. Is he going to be that very loving king and let his daughter go but be unjust? Or is he going to be that very just king and be very unloving?
That's what they, this kind of pit that he was in.
So he goes away and he finally comes back and he says. They have been found guilty of sin. Justice must be carried out. And so the next day, his daughter is brought to this whipping post, and she is shackled to the post, and the man comes and rips her shirt open from the back. And he lifts the whip up.
And as he begins to about hit that first lash, the king steps up and cries, stop. And so everybody expects that he says, I can't take it. Let her go. But remember, he is loving and he is just.
So, what the king does is the king takes his shirt off and he gets down on his knees behind his daughter and he wraps himself around his daughter and he goes, begin. And the king takes all forty lashes. And the king dies. And what they do at the end, they unhook the daughter and she goes free. That is what God the Father has done for you.
And fathers, when you have children in this life, when you're leading a group of high school, when you're in a kid's classroom on Sunday, you get the chance to spiritually wrap your arms around them and tell the enemy and tell the world, begin. Because you will lay down your life to make them become who Christ has allowed them to be. And I know even saying that, myself, I can think about the times I have not done that. I can think about times my dad didn't do that. And I'm sure if I look at you and say, hey, where have you dropped the ball?
You could list off a million. Wives. If you looked around and said, hey, where has your husband dropped the ball? You could list off a million. But the beautiful gospel is this.
It's the same gospel that saved you when you were saved. It's the same gospel that continues to lavish grace upon you right now. And you can look and say, God, I have not been the Father that you have been towards me. But let it not be true. Let it not be true any longer.
I turn from the ways that I did not lay my life down for my family in response to you. And I want to do it today. Because this is the point. is that fathers lay down their lives to see their family flourish.
So did you? They lay down their lives to see their family flourish. That's what God does for us. He gave up his life to allow us to flourish in the way that he designed us to. He gave up his life to help you become the man, the woman, the beloved child.
He wrapped his arm around you at Calvary. And when he was carried off and was placed in a tomb, He said, you can go free. And he looks at the fathers in her room and he says, Be a picture of that to a lost and dying world. When your kids go off to college, when your kids get married, and people say, Oh, yeah, my father was so selfish, they can look back and say, My father gave his life for me every day. Even the times he failed, he repented.
Even in times you didn't do it well. Or maybe today you got 10 year olds and you haven't done it a single time up to this point. They're like, I don't know, I just remember around when I was 10 years old, my dad just started really laying down his life for me. Let it be a moment. And you get to talk to them.
About how it's a response to what God has done for you.
So, our application is this. is bear God's image as a father. It's very simple, it's very clear. Because what you ought to do, every physical person in this room. Your goal ought to be become more and more in practice who God has declared you to be in truth.
It is not something, it is not learn more, it is not act better, it is not doing, it is be overwhelmed by the gospel, it is pray scripture back to God, it is remember who God has called you to be. God does not need to be reminded who He is. He does not be reminded of what type of father he is. God is not listening to this sermon saying, Oh, yeah, I am patient with you guys. He's not doing that.
This is for us because we forget. He does not forget, we forget. And so, today, like today, on a day like today, we need to remember. What kind of father that God has been towards us?
So I want to apply it and just say this. One, if you're an unbeliever in the room. If you remember your father, And maybe you've never believed that God has been this way towards you for the first time, or maybe you have, and you just have not lived this out. Men repentance. It may be a first-time belief that Christ has died on your behalf and offers you new life in his death and resurrection.
Or maybe it's a repentance and it's saying, Christ, I do trust you, but I have been living in my own strength and not remembering what you've done for me. You need to repent. You need to confess to your family. You need to confess to your friends. Or you fought or you failed.
That's one side. The next side is this to other people. Man, are you grateful? For the fathers in your life. Are you grateful?
For the men. Maybe your biological father? Maybe not, maybe your biological father is not someone that maybe you should be grateful for. But there are other men in your life. who you look at when I say these things, I'm like, man, they have been patient with me.
You're like, I. I can think of a man that's been very, very, very patient with me when he shouldn't have. Do they know? Have you expressed gratitude for the people God has put in your life that have walked this out for you? Because you are not here.
You are not saved because you are better than everybody. You are not saved because of the things you've done. You don't have the lives that you have. You don't have the people in your life. You have the people in your life that you have because God has chosen to lavish grace upon you and me.
That is why. And so we ought to be grateful for it. And the last thing I want to say is this. My takeaway and I wrote this down and I was like I should probably say this in a sermon is my goal from now until next Father's Day. is I want to catch as many fathers as I can.
being those type of Imago Day fathers and letting them know. And letting them know. There's a classic phrase, you know, what's praised is repeated. My goal is that the men in my life They're the guys in my life. That are parenting around me, or maybe they're leading groups or whatever, that they would know, man, Daniel Thompson.
encourages me to be the type of father that God has been towards me.
So who needs that in your life? Who needs to hear? Man, hey, I'm grateful for the type of father you've been to me. I'm grateful for you responding to who God has been towards you in my life. Who needs to know that?
What do you tell her? Man, the altar is open. Pray A prayer of thanks, repent, I don't know what it is. Or just respond and be grateful. of the type of father God has been for us.
Let's pray. God. I asked today. That we'd remember. that you've been patient with us, that you have walked with us, that you're present with us.
And they got for everyone in this room, those things are true and they should move us. They should move us to be more patient people in general. They should move us to lay our lives down for others in general as believers, but specifically for fathers, God. We get a chance in the local church and in our homes. To be a picture.
of who you have been to us. God, I can only beg and pray and ask you. Then when my children get older, And they begin to think about God. They begin to realize like... Man, my father was just a broken picture of this, but he laid his life down to try to get us to see that.
And so, Lord, I ask. That whether it's through repentance, whether it's through gratitude. Whether it's through thankfulness. Whether it's through remembrance of the gospel. Whether it's through forgiveness.
For those of us in here who maybe our father is people in our life did not step up. Maybe it's through gratefulness and thankfulness that you were a better father than our earthly fathers. I don't know, Lord. But I do know this. that we should be moved by the type of father that you've been to us.
So Lord, moving our hearts in a way that only you can. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Mm-hmm.
