Father's Day June 18, 2023

So yeah. Heavier maybe serious. There's a challenge in in this video that I think we should just try to hear and it's a serious one. So let's kind of revisit the Bible text, that was read. This is Deuteronomy chapter 6 in Jewish circles, its recited and called the Shema. And that's simply because in Hebrew the first word here appear on our screen. The first word is so this is this is Jamal hear o Israel. The Lord Our God, the Lord is one, love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, These commands I give you today are to be on your hearts impress them, on your children, talk about them. When you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your Gates. So there are you you've probably seen this. There are some Jewish people who take these words very seriously. And so they have a little box that's strapped onto their forehead and they have it made you ashamed. There's a little box on the door frame of the house that has tiny little set of the Ten Commandments inside. It's a literal way of applying these words, but probably was intended to be a more figurative sort of thing. Love God, with all your heart and work that into your life. So that it's a part of your life when you get up in the morning. And when you go to sleep at night and make sure that you pass it along to your children, Something about fathering. There's there's you know your children if you're a father there's that kind of fathering. There's influencing mentoring and disa purses, something that women and men can do. There's all kinds of fathering that happens but these words I think are, especially addressed, to those persons to whom God has given this role of being a father in home, with children growing up and Two things jump out at me that I would like to talk about with you first to both questions, the first one is what would it look like if you initiated spiritual conversation and church activity in your home? If you got 100 pastors together and ask them who initiates Church in the typical household, they would all tell you the mom. And I think that's okay. I think in a home there might be at this division of labor that has been talked about and agreed upon and there's this division of labor, maybe kind of follows natural, gifting I think that's good. But what I don't think is good, is passive dads who want somebody else to initiate church or who wants somebody else to initiate spiritual conversations or who wants somebody else to pray. So this is I think that the more serious side, if we go back, where I won't, but the these words are dressed to parents in Israel. Deuteronomy is a dissection, Deuteronomy is a speech by Moses. So it's two men and women, but it's certainly to the men who are dads and so I just want to ask you what would it look like if you initiated spiritual things in your house? Maybe more than you do. And I don't think this lack of initiation is because men don't initiate thinks. So I can think, for example of something that starts with an s that men like to initiate

Sam's Club.

Like, you know, I asked Sam my wife saying if she wants to go to Sam's Club, when she doesn't even bring it up, you want to go shopping? Want to go to Sam's Club. They have these huge TVs. They have generators, they have perfectly good. Pairs of jeans, for only $14, They have you know you not just like once taken a package that had packages of steaks, what could be better? Were you thinking about another word? Yeah, I know I had another one of mine too, but I cannot for the life of me. Remember what that is right now? Men, do initiate thinks it's this isn't the issue. I don't know what it is. I think God wants to talk to us, dad's about how might we be more actively contributing to the spiritual conversation in our home and in in the homes that we influence around us. And what might that look like? It might look like prayer Prayer at the dinner table.

Just stopping to remember that God created this food and as a household looking in that direction, it might be prayer at bedtime and there might be somebody else. That's always initiating that wheeler to look like a few initiated that might be prayer in response to some situation that has arisen where it would be helpful to stop and pray. And in case I'm looking to you, like I'm saying, I do this really well. I'm I'm hearing this alongside you, I have my wife and I have four kids one of our kids called and ask for prayer this week. just didn't call me called Sam if I needed prayer and John and Sam were available, I'd probably go to the same and ask her to pray but I could do better and I want to do better at being the person who who is ready to initiate. Who who would say, let's pray about it and pray together. One other thing that you might indicate in your household would be some kind of family devotion. So yeah, praying at a meal or praying at bedtime would be family devotion, but in the household, I grew up in and at different times. In, in our household, we've had dinner time Family devotions, which is an excellent practice for helping a home. Have a spiritual focus and I thought I would just show you a couple of resources for that for family devotion, resources. There's a little book that you could have mailed to you, but it's also now more digital thing called today and it always has for every day. A verse that you read, or nit, unassigned Bible passage to read and then a couple of paragraphs and a prayer at the end, if you're needing it at your dinner table, you don't have to. Make up the words. You don't have to make up the prayer. You you just use this today Resource as a way to have a little devotional time with a group of people like your family. Here's another one, I'm sorry up at the top of the screen it's identified called our daily bread and it's the same exact sort of thing. Got a verse, got some paragraphs, got a prayer of the end. It says, they're at the bottom. You can find it on Facebook. There's an app. You could get it emailed to you everyday, you can find it in print. These are both good. I would say if you've got like, third graders and above sitting around a table, but if you have little people, you would perhaps want something that they can relate to better. So I have a couple of ideas there This is a book that we enjoyed having and have in our household cuz we're grandparents now, and it's still available. The Jesus story book, written by Sally lloyd-jones. So you could find that if you don't already have a copy of that. And if you come to rise up church and your kids are in our children's ministry, you may already have this box, we use a curriculum called dwell. And that curriculum has a story symbol for every story. So there's the story going on in children's ministry today. And there they have a picture to summarize that story and all of those stories symbols can be kind of put in order and it's a way that kids learn the storyline of the Bible. And there's this box that goes along with it with all of the story symbols, and with some ideas for how to talk about that particular story. So if you don't already have this box and you have children in your home, talk to Sam huizenga who's leading the children's ministry. We have some and we're always going to keep a supply on hand, so it's a way that you could have spiritual conversation in your home. And the question that we're addressing is what would it look like if you initiated spiritual conversation Church, Christianity tivity in your home. That's the first thought that comes to mind from that Bible passage. Second one is if you're going to do that, if you're going to initiate spiritual conversation, how will you grow your own faith? Those versus we read, said, love the Lord, your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. So, if you're going to just naturally out of your self initiate, some conversation in your world about Jesus, you have to grow yourself. How might you grow yourself? And I have a few things that I wanted to share with you about that. This is a Bible study book that we used last fall. Last fall, we started the Book of Revelation and we started the whole book of Revelation up to just passed Easter this year. And this fall, we're going to study the Book of Mark will do 10 weeks before Christmas before the holidays and then in January will fire up when will get 10 weeks done before Easter. So we'll have studied the whole book of Mark between fall and Easter with some breaks for things along the way. And we had a men's bible study group that met Thursday mornings at 8:30, 8:30 to 10. Recognizing that if you have a job, you are going to have a hard time coming during those hours. But rise up church has some men with flexible jobs and some men who are retired. So that's how that group got started. I would love to see a group this fall. When we start our Mark study, doesn't have to be men, could be men and women together. By would love to see a new group populated by people who have jobs and therefore, to prove that meets early or meets late and I'd be happy to help.

What's my limit 5:30? I'll meet you somewhere at 5:30 please don't, please don't make the clock. Say for something. When I have to wake up that just makes me sad. But if it says, 5 something, I'll get up and be there with you so Bible study rise up church is doing this and it would be a way for you to grow. That's one thing. Second thing is you could do a one-to-one study. I have two resources for that this is called 121 discipling. It's a 10-week course, it's not about men. Of course, it's Father's Day and we're thinking about men. But if there are two of you In this room or one of you in this room and a friend of yours who would like to spend 10 weeks together doing some foundational. Discipleship studying getting to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus. This is good material. I've used many times, Jason Rieger and Jason. Yeah. Jason's been through it.

I'd be glad to get you what, you need to get started. And here's another version of the same sort of thing. It's called growing strong in God's family. It's produced by a Ministry called The Navigators and even though I'm a preacher's kid, and even though I went to Seminary, I really learned how to have a personal devotional life from guys who were trained in The Navigators and using this material. So, I love, this is also, these are most 10-week study. And if two people agree together that they'd like to do something talk to me, and I will get you resources and help you get started. So, Talking about how you would grow on your face. One is Bible study is hyper going to starting to fall this. You don't need anybody else to be on your schedule. You do this on your own schedule with only one other person. So it's easy to get the schedule organized. And then the last thing would be you having your own personal time that you're spending with God, either everyday or just every once in awhile. If you're never doing that at all and you start doing a time with God once a week. That's, that's a win. So yeah, I want to give you some resources to help you. Develop that life and I'm holding my phone because the one I'm using right now is an app on my phone called lectio, lectio, lectio 365, come and talk to me and I'll, I'll help you find it. I use that after every day, if I listen to it, it's 10 or so minutes long. And it's a way for me to pause and spend some time with God everyday. This is the book that I use for about 6 years straight. And I love this book. I just stopped using it because I've been through it a lot and and I and I felt like I needed to do something different but this book is called seeking God's face. And you just find out what day it is today and you go to that day and the days are only two pages long and they're all Bible material. So you're not really reading what somebody else wrote your reading some selected Bible passages for a day. There are some prayer ideas that somebody else wrote. And there's a prayer at the end that somebody else wrote. But this is a fantastic book because you don't have to think about what you read, you just open your book and you spend you can spend 10 minutes. on a day in this book, or if you wanted to, you could spend an hour Just contemplating what's in this book. So these are ideas about personal devotion. Something on your phone, a book like this. And this last book I have is a journal. It's just empty pages and I got this one free somewhere. You probably get that kind of stuff too. And you want or what am I going to do with it? For 20 years, my devotional life was open. My bible, I'm reading through a book of the Bible. I read a little bit as much as I feel like reading a day and often that would be just a paragraph or two. And then I write down, whatever I'm sensing God saying to me in this term, I heard one of the guys who influenced me said, if you're going to sit down and ask God to talk to you and God talks to you, Don't you think you should take? No. And that I found compelling. So that's how I came to fill up a bunch of journals over time.

For men and women, if you're going to love God.

with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, You need to be asking a question. What am I going to do to grow my relationship with God? If you're going to, if you're going to do that and then pass it along, then you need to find your ways to do that. That's what I'm calling. The more serious topic. Now let's go on to the second video. I'm calling this a lighter one, Father's Day in the Life. It's called

The first thing, my dad does when he gets up is going to make the coffee, okay?

Cake. Smash

and then I person came and then I heat it up and then I change it.

He fixes the car run.

Light bulb.

We have to fix the sink to give me a hammer. Bang bang. Bang, hit me up pipe. Give me a popsicle popsicle cuz it's delicious sports games that ball.

Then he grabbed the food. What are you grilling us for dinner tonight?

Hot dog. Mac and cheese. Cheese, mashed potatoes.

Strawberries, raspberries blackberries.

Been here. Thank you for a cat. Thank you for friend, and thank you for the world. The Friendship Never Ends. Amen. Dinner Replay Games. I've played

I have a Bluetooth. dropper dropper, 4 wheel drive 4 wheel drive, 4 wheel, drive Ford truck,

5024.

bedtime once upon,

Is a fire breathing. Dragon ice breathing dragon, and they all live happily ever after.

My dad. So proud of you. Read it for you.

so, when I I'm glad you liked it. When, when I watch that one, what I think about is imperfection of Dad's, right? We in comedy, we make fun of dad because they're trying so hard to be perfect and they're so obviously imperfect. So, when I think about, Being called to be a spiritual person and to help the people around me, grow spiritually and the weight of that I have to face my imperfection. And so, I think we have some words here from Jesus, to just listen to for a minute about your imperfections and what God has for you. So this is Luke chapter 11 Jesus says, which of you fathers if your son asked for a fish, will give him a snake instead. Or if he asked for an egg, will give him a scorpion. If you then though, you are evil. Know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven? Give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. So a couple of observations Jesus is talking to Father's, that's how this started and he tells them very directly. You are evil. If you then though, you are evil. Know how to give good gifts to your children. I just strikes me Jesus is looking at some dads and he's just acknowledging your evil by which he's referring to the fact that sand is in this world and Satan is always seeking to distract us and pull us away. And so you do the things that you don't want to do and you don't do the things that you do want to do. And this is what it's like to be a sinful dad, Jesus, the son of God came into this world because what the Bible says about us his true, all we like sheep have gone astray and each of us has turned to his own way. God came himself to save us from that. So here's Jesus, the son of God, talking to people and just reminding. Dad's that the things you want to do. You don't do in the things. You don't want to do you do. He gets that But notice that Jesus also says. That dad's have a heart to bless their households, if your child asks, you for a fish to give that child a snake. If your child ask you for an egg, you're not going to give your child a scorpion. If you're a dad, you want to give good gifts to your children. You want to, you want to bless your house. Jesus. Acknowledges. That this is the heart of dads. This is the heart of imperfect day. So he makes you this promise. If you and imperfect dad want to bless your household. How much more would our father in Heaven? God the the perfect father. How much more would our father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? And it's interested.

What God knows you need. Most of all is his presence inside of you, to enable you to pass on to the people around you, what they really need. So I the screen I have to summarize it is this you don't need muscles. I hope you have some muscles dad and if you do if you got them flaunt them I don't have much of them. So I don't try to flunk them but if you do good. But you really don't. Need muscles. You don't need money. I like Dave Ramsey's. I like Dave Ramsey. I like his course called Financial Peace University because I I think that really captures it Financial Peace is a beautiful thing and if you are able to have financial peace in your home, that's awesome. And I wish that for you but it's not really the thing. You need the most, the thing you need the most because if you get this right, everything else. Lines itself up properly, underneath it, the thing you need. The most is the spirit of God, inside of you, and just noticed how Jesus talks about it. God is anxious. To give it to you if you would do something good for one of your kids, how much more is God just waiting for you? To ask him to give you his spirit and he will give it to you?

So a few summary ideas for Father's Day. Thank you for being a father to someone. And I think I'm talking to everybody men and women. Thank you for being a parent biologically of a biological father and adopted father, but also like a a mentor type father, all different kinds of fathering. Thank you for being that person. Thank you, Lord, for those who have been a father to us, I wonder who you would identify today. As a person who has mentored you, maybe it's your biological father, but it could well be any number of other influential people. Also, thank you Lord, for all those people. And let's end by asking God to give his Spirit to anyone here who wants to ask for it this morning. If you. Want to ask for the Holy Spirit. Did you hear any hesitation on God's part? Do you want to ask? He would be happy to give you the presence of his spirit this morning. I don't know exactly what that would look like inside of you. It might be a dramatic sort of thing that might be a quieter sort of thing. I might have an immediate noticeable effect, it might have a more gradual noticeable effects of that. It's a few days from now. And you go while I think I see God answering that prayer, I don't know exactly how he will answer it but he said it, you ask him, he will give you the spirit. So Let's pray. And if you want to ask, God to give you his spirit. I want to help you ask him right now. So I'm going to pray the prayer in the first person and I encourage you to take it that way and make it make it your pro.

Our Father in Heaven. I acknowledge that I don't do the things that I should do, and I do the things that I shouldn't do. and it's, because I'll just send in the environment around me in this sinful nature inside of me. And what I need. Is your spirit to be present in me. To overcome. That's sinful nature. What I need is your righteousness? What I need is your life, all that come as a gift from your spirit. So, I ask you Lord. Warrior spirit. And I hear you saying anybody who asks You will give your spirit.

Let's just sit quiet for a moment.

I encourage you to just have a receiving posture.

Lord, would you show us how you are answering this prayer?

maybe while we're here at church, maybe maybe later doesn't matter how you want to do it, but would you show us? So that we can be encouraged that. Is prayer that we prayed right now you're answering the way you say you will.