Honoring Our Father

Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, and we'll be reading verses 1-13. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood, and you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons.

My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves. And he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.

Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the father of our spirits and live?

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Well, we are going to honor the oldest father with us today. Are there any fathers here who are more than 50 years old?

Okay. Let me cut to the chase and weed you out quickly. Are there any fathers here more than 5,000 years old? 5,000,000 years old.

Okay, God wins. He is a heavenly father. And he's clearly the oldest father. Did you know that forever and ever, there has been a father-son relationship in the Trinity?

God the Father has always been the father of God the Son. The relationship between the first two people, the first two persons of our one Godhead, is a relationship of father and son.

So, he is the oldest father among us by his spirit. He's not only the oldest father, he is the only perfect father among us.

Remember, Jesus said, Be perfect, therefore, as your father in heaven is perfect. Never did a father love his son even close to the way that God the Father loved his eternal son.

And then he created Adam to be his son. Not to share in his deity. He's image of God, but he's not God.

And yet his relationship to God is the relationship of sonship. And so, as a son of God, he depended upon his heavenly father for all things.

And he was to trust and obey God as his father. But he rebelled and became a prodigal son, didn't he? And so, he was separated from God.

He was outside of the family of God because of his sin and rebellion. And all of us, descendants of Adam, are born prodigals, with prodigal hearts that are born with our back toward God, wanting to go our own way.

And God, in his gracious counsels in eternity, has not just consigned us all over to punishment forever, but decided to save some of the sinful race to bring them back into his family to be his own sons and daughters.

But the only way for that to happen was for God to give up his one and only son, that one that he had enjoyed relationship for all eternity past, to give him up to become man for us, to become sin for us, to become a curse for us, that he might take the curse that we deserved and we might become the children of God.

It was the only way that rebels could become sons of God of whom God could say, as he does say, I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters.

God says the Lord Almighty, that he should say that to any prodigals like us is amazing grace to think that we should have the Almighty God, our Creator, as our Father, and him say, I am your father and you are my son, my daughter.

And though Jesus, God's eternal son, came to his own, his own did not receive him. And yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave them the right to become children of God.

And so by receiving God's one and only son as our Lord and Savior, we became adopted children of God. And Jesus said, there's no other way than me.

No one comes to the Father except through me. So, if you're outside of Christ this morning, you are not a part of God's family. If you are in Christ this morning, God is your family every day of your life and forever.

And that fact, brothers and sisters, is to transform the way that you live your life. Nothing is the same now that God is my Father. Believers, we're not to think of God without thinking of him as our Father.

Now, he's much more than our Father. He is our Creator. He is our Lawgiver. He is our King. He's our Judge. He's all this and much, much more.

But he's never less than our Father. So, he is our Creator Father. Our Lawgiving Father.

Our King Father. Our Judge Father. But he's always and ever our Father. And that makes a huge difference in the way that we live before him.

In fact, it's the conviction of Scripture that Christians simply don't live right without remembering that God is our Father and relating to him as such.

So, on this Father's Day, I want to remind my brothers and sisters of this great privilege that we have of having a perfect Father in heaven and urge you in all your dealings with him to think of him and to relate to him as your Father.

Your Father. Now, there'll be plenty of application for fathers along the way this morning since as we study this perfect Father, that is the pattern for all fathers.

For all who would dare take the name of Father, this is your pattern. So, in becoming more like your perfect Father, you will become a better Father. Now, when we open our Bibles and start reading, we find that God himself has given us fathers and that by them he wants us to learn something about himself.

He points to them to teach us something about himself. They become stages on which God would display something about himself.

Again, this is not something man has done. This is God himself drawing comparison between your father and my father, earthly fathers, and himself the heavenly father.

In other words, he's saying to us he is like our father only infinitely better. Infinitely better. Whoever had the best father, he is infinitely better.

But he uses fathers to teach us something about himself. Everything good in our earthly fathers comes from who? Comes from the heavenly father.

It's part of his goodness communicated to us through our earthly fathers who are dim reflections of this heavenly father.

And so we're going to look at those scriptures that where God compares himself with human fathers. As we honor our human fathers today, let them lead us to our perfect heavenly father that we might honor him for them and for himself.

So I want to consider four things that God teaches us by way of earthly fathers. Four things we receive from him as a father and the first is compassion. Psalm 103 verses 13 and 14.

Psalm 103 David is just preaching up a storm and he's preaching to himself on why he ought to be blessing the Lord and praising the Lord. And he comes to verse 13 and says this is a reason why David David, I don't care how low in the dumps you get, you should always be praising the Lord with all of your heart.

Why? Because as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him for he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust.

As a father has compassion on his children. That word compassion is a warm, emotionally laden word. It speaks of pity. It speaks of affection.

It speaks of being merciful, being loving and gracious. And notice the way the Lord describes his own compassion to us. His compassion for those that fear him.

It's not like a king has compassion on his citizens. Now can a king have genuine compassion on his citizens? To be sure. But that is not the kind of compassion that God is here.

comparing his compassion to. It's not a boss's compassion for his workers. It's not a teacher's compassion for her students.

But it is a father. It is like a father has compassion on his children. It is fatherly pity for his own children. Now dads, we may feel pity and compassion in our hearts for other people and other children even.

But our most tender pity, our deepest compassion is felt when it is our own children who are suffering or in some need.

Then is our heart most stirred within us with concern. And then do those bowels of compassion get stirred within us and move us toward our own child with the needed help.

So there is a deep emotional attachment between a father and his child. We see something of this fatherly compassion in our Lord's parable of the prodigal son. You remember the father's younger son showed such ingratitude and dishonor and dislike for his father and his rules that he said I'm out of here.

I want to live as far away from my father as is possible. And he took his inheritance early and he went away into a far country. And all that wealth that his father had worked all of his life working his fingers to the bone he squandered in wild living.

And that father's good name that he had developed in that community was now tarnished by this embarrassment to the family. And yet when that prodigal came to his senses and decided to return home what did he find at home?

He found a father's compassion for his own children his own son. even before the father heard anything of his confession the bible says while he was still a long way off his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

There was something in here that was reaching out for him out there and he ran to him and he embraced him and he kissed him and he said bring the robe bring the sandals bring the ring let's have a party kill the fatted calf for this son of mine was dead and he's alive again he was lost and he is found not this servant of mine not this business partner of mine not this friend of mine it's doubtful they would have received what this one received now it's compassion such as only a son receives from his father he pities him he spares him you know that's the word that God uses of his children in Malachi 317 I will spare them just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him and he received him back gladly he did not treat him as his sins deserved but heaps upon him untold blessing now that's a mark of a true father he feels for his children his heart goes out to them and especially in their distress he hurts for them and he would rather suffer in their place now here we have a window into God's heart for you child of God how he pities us how he spares us how he's so quick to forgive us he saw me plunged in deep despair he flew to my relief for me he bore the shameful cross and carried all my grief this is

God in the person of his son showing that heart of God to us now in your pain and suffering the devil might whisper in your ear that God doesn't care about you children of God don't you believe him for a minute believe his inerrant flawless word that says as a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him and he not only feels for his children he knows all about them it's informed pity he knows how we are formed after all he made us he remembers he doesn't forget what we're made of that we're made out of the dust of the earth we're dirt and so he knows our weakness he knows all about our frailty he knows all about our dependency and he pities us accordingly all he knows about us informs his pity towards us so what is there to know about you he knows it he knows your frame he knows what you're made of and he pities you accordingly he has compassion upon you because of what he knows about you your weakness your need and so like a father when giving out chores to his children he takes the age and the abilities and the condition of each of them into mind he doesn't tell the three-year-old to wash the car he doesn't tell his sick teenager to mow the lawn so the lord knows our limits he remembers how much we can take and in pity for us he measures out our trials our temptations our assignments our duties our responsibilities not allowing us to be tempted any more than what we are able to bear because like a father for his children he has pity on us and he knows what we can handle so he's he's that way in all of his dealings with us it's not just

Sundays it's it's every day as as he's pouring into the cup that he's going to place in your hand for the day before you and he's pouring in joys and sorrows rest and toil pain and pleasure and he's he's mixing that cup he's not forgetting no he knows you he's remembering what you are and in compassion he's measuring out to you your cup and there's always much to pity in us isn't there he pities our weakness and he helps us he compassion on us how great is the love the father has lavished upon us that we should be called the children of

God and that is what we are and that's how he treats us and that's how he regards us as his dearly loved children and what will a father not do for the children who have his heart so that's the first thing we see that he would teach us from fathers that his love is like a father's for his children his compassion his pity his love now the next three things are the things that flow out of that love and that compassion and that pity what will he do for those he loves well we'll see his protection his provision and his discipline first his protection children are so weak and vulnerable naive it's like like we come into some fair as little five year olds and we got we got a hundred dollars in our pockets and there's all these sharks in the fair and they're out to to steal our money and we walk through that fair and they promise us so much and we lay our money down and we aren't ten minutes until our pockets are empty we live in this world as little children so vulnerable so weak so ignorant so naive in a place of danger what a blessing to have

God our father as our protector children are weak and vulnerable so God gives them a protector in their father and the fathers protect their children whether from a dangerous dog a dangerous date I had some of those I needed to protect my daughters from dangerous television show he protects his children and in the face of any danger young children look instinctively to father to protect them don't they when I was a young boy and there were storms at night with lots of lightning and thunder for some reason I felt safer in my father's bed I don't know that I was any safer there wasn't lightning rods attached to his bed and not to mine but I instinctively looked to him and I would go to the door of his bedroom and start whimpering and crying louder and louder until he would hear welcome me into his bed his safe haven you see it was a sanctuary a safe place security

I don't ever know how I got back to my bed I was out I was asleep I was safe in my father's keeping he didn't make me any safer but I felt safe because my father he's there to protect me you see but our father in heaven really does protect us and those lightning bolts come from his arrow and they obey his mind and his will and his purpose and he does have my safety as his loving concern children of the heavenly father your protector never slumbers he who watches over you never slumbers or sleeps sometimes my dad was sleeping and no amount of sobbing would awake him but your protector never slumbers in his watch care over you

Jesus teaches us to pray to our father in heaven when you pray say our father in heaven lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one protect us from the evil one that's how we're to pray to who not to God as king not to God as sovereign not but our heavenly father our sovereign father our king father father in heaven protect us that's how Jesus prayed on John 17 father protect them from the evil one and that's how he teaches us to pray our father in heaven in Matthew 18 Jesus tells a parable he's always telling parables isn't he parable of the wandering sheep see see that you do not look down on one of these little ones he says who are the little ones who does the little children represent ordinary average

Christians who are so vulnerable to straying and wandering off so he tells the parable of the wandering sheep to show the father in heaven cares for all his little ones all his little vulnerable children with hundred dollars in their pocket going through vanity fair they're easily cheated he cares about them so he says what do you think if a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off will he not leave the ninety and nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off and if he finds him I tell you the truth he's happier about that one sheep than about the ninety nine that did not wander off wonderful story about a shepherd and his one wandering sheep and then Jesus pulls the punchline in the same way your father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost what a father we have that when we wander off there's the straight and narrow and we're nowhere near it we're out there we're out there where the devil can take advantage of us and take us captive to do his will and when we're out there and we've put distance between us and our

God he comes after us our heavenly father seeks us and finds us and brings us back he renews our repentance he renews our faith our hope our love he restores us or we would wander on forever is there not security in living under the protection of a heavenly father like that he counts his children as the apple of his eyes so believers the mortal enemy of your soul who is it that you need protection from it's the world it's the flesh your own flesh and it's the devil and they must get through your protector to get to you do you know your heavenly father has them all in a chain he's your protector your security is in him he protects you so well that apart from the will of your father in heaven not a hair can fall from your head indeed that everything must fulfill his purpose for your salvation or it won't happen that's protection from a real father that's our father's commitment to protect and to bless his children so we have a father with compassion for us it's like a father's for his children and out of that compassion he protects us another thing we receive is provision not only protection but provision children you owe a lot to your fathers do you know how much the average cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 for a middle income family in the

United States is a quarter of a million dollars $250,000 that's a lot of $5 an hour $10 an hour work isn't it that's what it costs dad you know that's why he's off to work every day of the week that's why he's off going he's providing for you and it's not cheap he's working hard for you children you know God has assigned fathers the task of being the main material provider for their families in fact God says if he doesn't provide for their families he's denied the faith and is worse than an infidel worse than a pagan that doesn't even believe in God he may be in church every Sunday but if he doesn't provide for his own family he's like a pagan in Africa that's bowing down to wood and stone he's denied the faith you see God holds him accountable God says it's serious business there's to be no deadbeat dads to have children is to have the serious responsibility of providing for them now the heavenly father does not hold human fathers responsible for their own children and then neglect his own children does he

I mean that's just patent on the surface of it isn't it he wouldn't he wouldn't hold human fathers accountable and then slip out the door and abandon his own children remember he's like his love is like a father's but infinitely better than the best of human fathers you know there's a section on worry in the sermon on the mount and according to Jesus the key to not worrying is to remember that God is your father that's the key remember that God is your father he takes care of his kids it's just that simple if you get that you have the answer to worry in your life Matthew 6 25 and 26!

therefore I tell you Jesus says do not worry about your life what you'll eat or drink or about your body what you'll wear is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes look at the birds of the air they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them are you not much more valuable than they!

in 1951 a British ornithologist named Fisher estimated that there are more than 100 billion individual wild birds on the planet 100 billion birds I don't know how he counted them they never stand still long enough at my house to count them but however many birds there are in the universe your heavenly father feeds them that's what Jesus is saying sometimes you just need to get your eyes open and to look at the birds that your father is feeding and my friend you are far more precious to him than those birds he didn't he didn't purchase them with the blood of his own son but he did you children of God just stop and think about that for a minute your worry is gone because your heavenly father cares for his children said the robin to the sparrow

I would really like to know why those anxious human beings rush about and hurry so said the sparrow to the robin well I guess that it must be that they have no heavenly father such as cares for you and me but we do have a heavenly father that's our Lord's point we act like we don't but we do the key to worry is remember your heavenly father remember who he is remember his compassion for his own children that far exceeds that of the sparrows and the robins pagans run about and worry all about what they will wear and eat and how they can live that's because they don't have a heavenly father they're depending on themselves they better worry nobody's going to feed them but themselves but not you Jesus says you have a heavenly father therefore seek his kingdom and his righteousness first and all these other things they will be added to about tomorrow you see

God's kids don't need to worry they have a father in heaven who provides for them you're not fed by a politician you're not fed by a government program you're not fed by a retirement fund you're fed by a father who is God almighty and who has moved with fatherly compassion for his children so instead of worrying start praying to your heavenly father that's what prayer is Jesus says it's talking to your dad it's talking to your father so ask and you will receive seek and you will find knock and the door will be opened for everyone who seeks finds and he who asks receives and the one to the one who knocks it will be opened and then he bolsters our faith by pointing to earthly fathers and the way they care for their children and so Jesus talks to the fathers who are present and he says which of you if his son should ask for bread will give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake the answer is none of you none of you you don't respond to his request for food with useless and harmless things and why not because you have compassion on your son you pity him you long for his good you only give him good gifts to benefit him not things to mock him or to harm him there's a fatherly disposition in a dad's heart to give good things to his children because of his special love for them there's a soft spot in his heart you've heard that he's got a soft spot for his son his daughter some kids know how to make a lot of use out of that soft spot in the father's heart but then

Jesus drives this point home 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 good gifts to those who ask him now here's the contrast between earthly fathers and heavenly fathers earthly fathers by nature!

evil and your heavenly father is perfectly good there is no evil no darkness no none at all in him many of us had great fathers and we honor them today but take the best of earthly fathers he doesn't even come close to your heavenly father your heavenly father and if even human fathers who still have evil within them nevertheless give good gifts to children how much more will God give to his children who ask that not only includes our physical needs what we shall eat what we shall wear what we shall drink shelter but also our spiritual needs for he says he gives the holy spirit to those who ask you see your spiritual needs you go to your heavenly father father father and indeed the spirit is the source of everything good in our lives so Jesus is telling us this father to quit leaning on ourselves to provide and to get us to turn to

God as father and say father this day my daily bread provide for me all that I have need of for spiritual life and health today he wants us to ask for more your father has a giving heart make something of it make use of it no reluctance to give to you because you are his children so seek ask seek and knock and if the truth of God being our father in heaven gripped us more we would be found knocking on his door more often I had a wonderful father who dearly loved me and because of that I could ask my father for things that I wouldn't dare to ask anyone else like for a car seemed like we never had a car available when I needed it hi dad this is son number two just checking in again

I need a car when do you need it right now and there's nobody here to come in to get it so could you deliver it out to me like enterprise does and he brought the car out to me because I'm his son and I asked him for something I'd never ask you for like cash so it's ten till seven there's an event at the school it costs five dollars each and my wife are going and we don't have any cash in the house dad got a favor could I have some cash how much do you need just ten dollars when do you need it we'll be buying about three minutes we pull in the alley and he's standing there at the alley with ten dollar bill in his hand

I lower the window take the money drive on just like an ATM machine without the fees my daughter and brothers are looking at me like I didn't know that we could do that you've got to ask and you will receive he has that kind of had that kind of heart for his children you see sonship has privileges now why did I call his number and not your number again just because he's my father and I know he has a soft spot for me his son he will do things for me that he'll not do for those that aren't his children and so I can ask things of my father that I would not dare ask of anyone else his relationship to me encourages me to ask that's what

Jesus is saying pray to your father in heaven and if you just remember that one thing at the beginning of your prayer as you pray our father in heaven remember who he is remember his compassion for you you'll pray in a way that you otherwise wouldn't pray the king king is your father the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills is your father and so I ask him things that I could never ask anyone else father forgive me for that thought again I have fallen again Lord I need grace again Lord I'm here for help father I yes it's me I was here an hour ago but I'm finding in life that I need thy presence every passing hour what but thy grace can foil the tempter's power would you help me

I'm scared I'm lonely I'm sad I'm feeling defeated I'm feeling helpless father come and help me we're emboldened to ask because we know his fatherly heart towards his children how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask so what do you need of what do you need what is it that you need daily bread forgiveness of sins protection from the evil one temptation in your life ask seek knock love at the door of your father in heaven is it some work of the holy spirit you stand in need of sanctifying you making you holy giving you power over sin and temptation to give you understanding to give you comfort and encouragement ask your father in heaven that some fruit of the holy spirit you stand in need of more love more joy more peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self control he gives the holy spirit to those who ask ask your heavenly father and he will not deny you his compassion is like a father's to his children he protects us he provides for us and lastly he disciplines us he disciplines us now think hard how many of you can remember being disciplined by your father maybe a spanking can you remember your father spanking you well he was right he said he was going to give you a whip and you wouldn't forget and here you are you are remembering that spanking aren't you now how many of you liked it at the time well no it was painful indeed that's what

Hebrews 12 told us no discipline is seems pleasant at the time but painful okay that's that's right that was my experience I don't know if it was yours nothing pleasant about that how many of you respect your father now for having disciplined you when you were wrong yeah aren't you glad he did that it was good for you wasn't it it drove out some of the folly that you were born with it underscored some important lessons in life like submission to authority and obedience valuable valuable things that you learned because dad was faithful in disciplining you and now the Lord uses this human father to teach us something about himself and he says in Proverbs 3 12 the Lord disciplines those he loves as a father disciplines the son he delights in now this is something that we are not to forget about our heavenly father and when we do we grow discouraged in our hardships remember the passage was read

Hebrews 12 there were those Hebrew Christians and they were going through hard times discouraged is what they were they were down because they misread their trials and their hardships They took them as evidence!

God didn't care about them when in reality God was treating them as sons they had forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses them as sons that God is disciplining you because he loves you and because you are truly one of his children so their hardship was his discipline proving their legitimate sonship and so far from proving that he didn't care about them it was proof that they are true sons and because what son is not disciplined by his father and it was proof that he loves them and was seeking their highest good for the Lord disciplines those he loves so in their hardships they should have been encouraged instead they were discouraged heavenly father in their discipline could it be that some of you are discouraged this morning going through a period in your life where you're down because you're forgetting something about your father he uses hardship as discipline for his children because he loves them and he wants what's best for them could it be that the very things that are discouraging you are really meant to encourage you and what you're missing is your heavenly father he knows how to get good things to you and he puts you into his discipline to bring out the very best for you he's up to something good in your life he's treating you as sons that he loves he's not going to settle for second best he's pursuing the best for you so he reasons from the lesser to the greater from earthly fathers to the spiritual father in heaven moreover we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it how much more should we submit to the father of our spirits and live why why much more heavenly father because our human fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best as they thought best that's with their own limited knowledge sometimes with their own sinful loss of temper sometimes too severe other times too lenient sometimes even punishing the wrong child yes it was as they thought best and we still respect them even for their imperfect discipline how much more now to your heavenly father who knows everything and knows exactly how much discipline to bring into your life how much hardship because he's after something he's after you profiting and sharing in his own holiness his own holiness he knows how to bring us the highest good of all he knows that we will be happiest when we are the holiest and he knows how to make us more happy and he has fatherly disciplines just perfectly designed for us so when everything is going well we easily forget the pursuit of holiness don't we he knows that and he knows just how much to bring us down to remember what is your goal in

God be perfect therefore as your father in heaven is perfect be pursuing holiness that's what God is after and that's why every holy Christian is a disciplined Christian a disciplined Christian endure hardship is discipline your father is treating you as sons he's making you stronger in holiness so submit and live submit to him and live don't chafe against his hard times don't grow discouraged and jump out of your father's school of discipline because though you're hurting now under his discipline later on however it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it what a privilege to have the perfect father perfectly disciplining us for our best to share in his holiness because without holiness no man will see the Lord well God wants us to know his fatherly heart for us you won't live right you won't respond to life's troubles right your needs right your dependency right without counting on him as your father with the compassion of a dad for his son without knowing and looking to him as the father who protects and provides and disciplines us all because he loves us so fathers there's something there for you be like this father to your children

I don't know what kind of father every one of you had but I know this that whatever father human father you had this father offers to be your father if you will take his son his one and only son and trust in him as your Lord and savior you will be adopted into his family and you can live the rest of your days knowing God as your own heavenly father your provider your protector the one who disciplines you to share in his holiness you must receive his son no one comes to the father except by me he says may the Lord bless his word to our hearts we're going to take our hymnals and sing as our response number ten let's pray our great and blessed father in heaven we do thank you for such mercies toward us revealed in your word you would treat us who didn't want you didn't want your laws didn't like your your home didn't like you and that you would call us now your children we who have come by faith in the

Lord Jesus we've not counted what a privilege it is to be called the children of God forgive us for underrating the blessing and send us into this day and this week glorying that we are children of God when we think what it cost you your one and only son laid down for us undergoing your wrath and abandonment we marvel all the more at your great love our father and so who like we your praise should sing help us then as your children that our whole lives would be lived in a way to bring praise to you our heavenly father and for those who are trying to make it through this life and through the day of death and judgment without a father in heaven we pray you would call them even as you came and called the prodigal son call them home thank you that when they turn they will find a father rich in mercy rejoicing!

at this one who was lost that is now come home so do your great work among us and all over the world today increasing your family and increasing glory to your name by doing so we love you and thank you for loving us first we pray through Christ our Savior Amen