It's a blessing to be a dad. It's a blessing. One of my boys this morning said that I weighed 14 million pounds. I thought about that. Because it made me think about the weightiness of being a dad. Y'all thought about just physical weight. I thought about the weightiness. But fulfilling that position in the home. I'll be honest with you today. My heart is all over the place as far as emotions. Because I believe that just like Mother's Day. There's some this day brings great joy. Because you had the blessing to live under the leadership of a humble man who served God. What a blessing. There are others who grew up in a home with a harsh dad. And this day may bring some pain. There are some who may have grown up in a home that had an absent dad. That makes it hard. Others grew up in a home that the dad may be present, but yet be passive and disengaged in family life. Regardless of what your father was like, that man had an impact on you one way or the other. We're all born into connections and relationships and they matter. I was reading article in the opinion section and Fox News. It was an article called America's crisis is a lack of fathers. They said there's 18.5 million children who grow up without their father. I'm gonna show the other extreme because I want to encourage those that are here to see the importance of the role that you have in the development of your family and of your children. It said that 80% of single parents, of single parent homes are led by single mothers, which leads to nearly one out of four youth growing up without a father in the home. We wonder why we have the situations that are going on in our culture today. David Blankenhorn wrote a book called Fatherless America, and here's what he stated in there. He said, fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation. It is a leading cause of declining child well-being in our society. It is also the engine driving our most urgent social problems. from crime to adolescent pregnancy, to child sexual abuse, to domestic violence against women. And so we can easily see how Satan has attacked this area of the family and the pivotal role of fathers. Now, here's the good news that I have for you. No matter what background you came from, And so often, whatever you came from, you began to cast on to God. Sometimes you began to see, if you had a good father, you look at God that way. But I want you to look at God directly from the portion of Scripture to see the kind of God that He is, the kind of Father that He is. As you hold your spot, turn with me just for a minute to Exodus chapter 34, because I want you to understand a little bit about the Father who is in heaven. He has revealed Himself to us, and no matter what your earthly father was like, this is who God says that He is. Listen to this in Exodus 34, verse 6. He says, And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. long-suffering in abundance in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children until the third and the fourth generation. As God the Father demonstrates His heart to us today, the first thing that He speaks about Himself is that He is merciful, gracious, and long-suffering. That's the kind of Father that He is. That's the kind of Father that I want to be. He's also a Father who is filled with steadfast love and faithfulness. Faithfulness. He's the rock, the Bible says. Moses said in Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4 that God is our rock. He is the rock. But I tell you, men in your homes, you can be a rock to your family as you lean on the rock and lead them in the right direction. It says of our heavenly Father of God and His nature that He keeps mercy for thousands. He forgives iniquities, transgressions, and sins, but it also says this, He will by no means clear the guilty. He is a God devoted to righteousness and justice. He opens up the door for repentance, but I'll tell you, for those who fail to repent, He will drop the hammer one of these days. He's going to hold accountable. And he recognizes that that sin that the father does, the children will not give an account to the sin of the father, nor the father the account of the sin of the children. But he does recognize the fact that our sin, it begins to bore down into generation after generation. He says it goes down into the third and the fourth generation. So we need to make sure that we're getting back on target and seeking to aim for the mark of God's glory. so that we can have a positive impact. Our Father in Heaven is the perfect Father, and He was giving us an example to follow in leading our family to Him. He's also a Father of the fatherless and a defender of widows. Today, if you have your Bibles, I already asked you to turn there back to Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1, Solomon gives us some practical instructions about walking with God, walking in wisdom, walking in the fear of the Lord. And I want to lay out verse 7 through 19 as we look at this morning. The title, A Faithful Father. A Faithful Father. It says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. For they shall be an ornament of grace into thy head and chains about thy neck. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, come with us, let us lay wait for blood. Let us lurk privately for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them up alive as a grave and whole as those that go down into the pit. We shall find all precious substance. We shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast in thy lot among us. Let us all have one purse. My son, walk not thou in the way with them. Refrain thy foot from their path, for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, and they lay wait for their own blood. They lurk privately for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which takes away the life of the owners thereof. As we consider the subject a faithful father, these are the four things I want to pull out of what Solomon writes for us. And as Solomon is writing for us, you'll notice the first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs, he is constantly saying chapter after chapter, he's saying, my son. My son. He's giving us a picture of a faithful father. Number one, a faithful father fears the Lord. Fears the Lord. A faithful father will be living a life before God in obedience, fearing the Lord. Secondly, a faithful father helps develop the character of his son or his children. Number three, a faithful father prepares his children to face the world. He noticed there's some things out there, there's some temptations that a child can get into. And then fourthly, a faithful father warns his children about the dangers of sin. He gives a dark picture here, but he says that sin will take you farther than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay. It will cost you more than you want to pay. And sometimes it takes the life of those that go out there and get ensnared in these traps because sin can easily entangle every single one of us. And so, notice here in verse 7. A faithful father fears the Lord, the desire of this wisdom literature. Contrary to what we see in the world, we hear Jesus say that in the end of time that the love of many shall wax cold. The Apostle Paul tells us, he told young Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3, he says that men shall be lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God, they shall be lovers of pleasure and all these things and a lot of stuff going on in there, but I'll tell you the foundational principle here is found in verse 7 because God desires for us to hit the mark. God is not satisfied with us living with broken relationships. And as we walk in the fear of the Lord, we are going to desire to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We're going to desire to love our neighbor as ourself. And our desire is going to have close, intimate relationships that glorify God. And as the wisdom literature lays out for us, that begins with an individual relationship with God. It continues into that marriage. If you are married, whatever state you're in, worship God in that. But then it goes over into the home. Solomon is talking about these close, tight-knit relationships. It begins with a faithful father. We're talking about fathers today. And I could talk about mothers or anybody in this. It really fits. But it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. From the very get-go of this verse, we realize there is a multitude of people going in the wrong direction. There are many people in the world today that do not want to hear wisdom. They do not want to hear truth. They want what they want and they want it now. And it doesn't matter what it costs them or what it costs anybody else. So we see already Jesus laying out there in Matthew chapter 7. He says, Enter in at the straight gate. For narrow is the way that leads into life. And few there be that go in there. But he said, hey, there's a multitude of people that are going into the wide gate and going down the broad road of destruction. But a faithful father fears the Lord. This is a fundamental lesson in education. Now who is the Lord? Is He referencing here? We could go back and look in the very beginning of Genesis. He says in Genesis 2 and 4, the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. The Lord is the glorious Creator over every single one of us. He is one that is awesome in glory, awesome in power. He is so glorious that my words are inadequate to describe Him. Your minds are unable to fully grasp the greatness of who He is. He is just that big. He is just that great. He is just that holy. He's the one that set all of these things into motion. That is the Lord. He is worthy of our praise if I said nothing else. He is also the Lord God who formed man from the dust of the grounds. That should humble us and remind us. It reminds me sometimes of how brief our life is, that we are but dust. I remember working in a position, maybe it's been within the last decade, now I'm talking decades now. I used to talk months, now I'm talking decades. It's been within the last decade that I worked at a job and I saw a man fulfill his position for 30 years. Day in and day out, he was faithful. And this humbled me to see that on that following Monday, the company had already hired somebody else and somebody who I thought nobody could ever sit in that seat. Nobody ever, ever could do the work that he did like he did it the next Monday morning. Somebody was in his seat. We're very replaceable. Our life is temporary. But it reminded me that whatever time we have in these positions to make a difference, to be a humble servant, realizing that somebody else could fill this position. But for now, God has me in this position of whatever it is to serve. And so we were made from dust, but God breathed into man. He became a living being. This Lord God gave a commandment to man, and so this reminds me that we are all under authority, every single one of us. How many people do you know today that are seeking to escape authority of all sorts? We'll never escape all authority, even if you are the CEO of your own company, because we all are under the authority of God, whether we acknowledge it or not. But to walk in the fear of the Lord acknowledges that we have a higher authority. and how we treat people in our homes and out in public. We've got authority that watches over us. The Lord God in wisdom ordained marriage and the families. It is not good for man to be alone. He ordained the home. He established these things and they're beautiful and glorious things, but the adversary today is attacking them even in this very month. The way the world has twisted and perverted things. The homosexual lifestyle. The gay marriage and all of these things. It cannot propagate itself into the next generation. It's foolishness. It's contrary to God's ways. And we need to get back to God's ways. And we don't need to compromise on God's values. Because when you begin to hear things over and over and over and over again, you begin to slip into things, you begin to think those things are okay. And I see that coming out in some of the voices of the next generation, that they're being surrounded by all these things, and rather than standing in conviction on God's Word, they begin to drift away. They begin to drift away in a lot of different areas of their lives because the culture and worldliness begins to Pull them back. But I tell you, we can get back to the starting point right here. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. The Lord God set these things up. And ever since the beginning of time, the Lord God, His wisdom has been challenged by the evil one. He said, did God really say Brothers and sisters, we need to be able to stand firm in our convictions. God has spoken. And because He has spoken, we will obey, we will follow His words, we will not back down, we will not cower to those around us, but we will stand, and having done all, He says, the Apostle Paul, recognizing that we're in a spiritual battle, and it's a battle for your homes. But actually, even before it's a battle for your home, it's a battle for your individual hearts. The adversary is looking for people to devour on every front, and he is going after, if you have a home and you have children, he is going after your children. This is why we need a faithful father who fears the Lord. We cannot be like Adam was. You know what sin caused Adam to do? And I've been counseling men week after week for over a decade. Do you know where men like to be? They like to be where Adam was when God said, Adam, where are you? There's a lot of men that are not in their role where they need to be right now. And God would say, where are you? I can take you to about 2,500 of them tomorrow morning that are locked up behind bars. They're not fulfilling their roles. And here's what Adam said. This is what sin will get you to do. Adam, when God was calling Adam to account, he said, the woman you gave to me, Do you see what Adam did right there in the sleight of hand? He said, God, here's who's the problem. It's you because you gave her to me and it's her. He said, I am not taking any responsibility for any of this mess. It's your fault and it's her fault. And how many men today do we find in that very role? But a man who fears the Lord, will be willing to take on the mantle of responsibility and say, God, if I failed or my family's failed, it's on me. I'll take it. So what is our proper response to this great Lord? It's to fear him, to reverence him, to obey him. Tremper Longman III said, to fear Yahweh as a stand and subservient position to Him, to acknowledge one's dependence upon Him. That's exactly what Jesus was teaching us. He said it very, very briefly there in John's Gospel. He says, without me, you can do nothing. Because you can do anything of any value, not depending upon the Lord. And so we are called to respond in this way. And this really sets up the trajectory of the rest of our lives. If we're not aiming for this, then we're gonna drift away. I remember being on a hunting trip with my dad earlier. It was probably some of the beginning trips that I went on, and I remember a big buck came out in the field about 50 yards ahead, and I know in the back of my dad's mind, he said, we're about to take home some meat today. I mean, it had some horns on it, and I pulled it. He said, son, get up, shoot it. Problem was, I didn't practice a whole lot. And I didn't aim very well. I don't even remember seeing the deer in the scope. I just remember seeing the big buck out there in the middle of the field. I took the gun, I aimed it at the thing, and I pulled that trigger, and the buck ran off. My dad was sick. I was sick. But I realized if the starting point, if you're not aiming, if the crosshairs is not on the right thing, you deviate. real quick. If it starts off right here at this angle, it's going to get farther out there. And so let us get back to the principle matters at hand. A wise person will worship, hold God in high esteem and consider him awesome and walk in obedience to his commands. An Old Testament scholar by the name of Bruce Waltke says this, what the alphabet is to reading, notes to reading music, and numerals to mathematics, the fear of the Lord is to attaining the revealed knowledge of this book. Without the fear, the Lord a person's life is misaligned and will go in the wrong direction. And so I want to encourage you and remind you that if we want to get things back on track, if you want your life back on track, if you want your marriage back on track, if you want your family back on track, if we want this church back on track, it's one easy step. Let us get back to where God is number one in all of our lives. And let us seek to honor Him. and let us be recognizing that there are floods of people all around us. that are going to be going in the wrong direction. He said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. There are others in the world that look down on wisdom. They look down on Christianity. They look down on you carrying your cross and loving God and loving people like you should because there's a way that seems right on demand, but the end thereof is the ways of death. So a faithful father fears the Lord. Let us remember the Lord. Just some practical application this morning. Let us remember the Lord. When Nehemiah was seeking to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem there, they had been knocked down by the Babylonian captivity. The people had brought it on themselves because of their own sin, and God judged them. But there came a time to rebuild. Maybe you're here today and you're carrying on a legacy of godliness in your family. And I praise God as I look back on my family line, on one side of the family, there's a legacy of godliness that I want to carry on into the next generation. But in some ways, there's just a need to rebuild some things. Because of sin. Because of sin in the life. of those who should have been carrying the mantle, should have been carrying out that responsibility. They just let their responsibilities go, and there's some groundwork that needs to be doing in order to build things back up. But I'll tell you, we've got a firm foundation. The fear of the Lord is a starting place. And Nehemiah reminded the people in his days as they were rebuilding the walls. He says this in Nehemiah 4 and 14, And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not afraid of them. Remember the Lord which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. We're in a worthy battle today. Let us remember the Lord. Let us lead our homes with love. Let's encourage and evangelize others to do the same. Let us stand in the gap for those that don't have a father figure. I just mentioned to you this morning that 18.5 million children in America today, the United States of America leads the call or leads the way in fatherlessness. This country in which we live. And so that means there's going to be a need for people to stand in the gap. I say watch over your own home and keep doing a good job. Keep doing a good job. Keep praying for your family. Keep leading your family in the Scriptures. Keep leading your family into the house of the Lord. Take on responsibility as you pray and say, Lord, what would you have me to do in my home? What would you have me to do in the church? Keep taking on that responsibility. And sometimes it gets a little heavy, but ask the Lord. He's got really strong shoulders. Stronger than... What was his name? Samson. He's got strong shoulders. He'll help you to carry it. And when it gets a little bit heavy, remember this, that bear ye one another's burdens, for this fulfills the law of Christ. God has called us to take responsibility. If somebody else doesn't stand in the gap, somebody else doesn't help others, I was in prison this last week and about, they said 300 men were gonna go by and they were looking for homes and places and several of them, I remember one of them in particular, he was about 23 years of age and I was encouraging them. I said, if you don't find you a new place to go, if you don't have a plan in place, if you don't surround yourself with new people, you're gonna end up right back here. Somebody's gotta stand in the gap and point people. in the right direction. A faithful father helps develop the character of his son. Notice what he says in the next verse. My son, hear the instruction of thy father. Forsake not the law of your mother. A faithful father will love his wife. He sees here that a father and a mother working together to raise and instruct their children. A friend of mine just wrote a book called Love Your Wife. Brother Kirk Campbell. And he was talking about the importance of loving your spouse. This comes before your children. Your children are going to grow up and be out of the home, but you need to show a consistent model of loving your spouse. And many people, though, get to thinking that marriage is about them. And here's what he wrote in there. He said, if you want to make marriage about you, make it about you being conformed to the image of Jesus. That'll preach. Start loving your wife like Jesus loves you all the time. Even when your wife hurts you, ignores you, or disrespects you, respond with the love and servant heart of Jesus. I realize today is Father's Day, so you're probably going to have it pretty nice. But come next week, next month, Keep loving like Jesus. No matter how you feel, keep obeying Him. Don't do eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. Show grace like Jesus did. The faithful father here realizes that he and the father and the mother must work together in raising these children in the nurturing and admonition of the Lord. It says here, hear the instruction of thy father. The child needs to learn to obey, to hear with the intention of following those instructions. It says, forsake not the law of thy mother. the teachings of your mother. And so these things go hand in hand. And as the father and the mother are both fearing the Lord and working together and raising and nurturing these children, you know what? We do it by faith. We do it by faith. We don't know how this is going to turn out. We trust God to mold and shape the character of these children that are raising up under us. And if we don't continue to aim for God's glory, we're not going to hit the target. So we've got to continue to shoot for that mark, continue to aim in that direction. He says, My son, and so this father desires, he has a tender affection for this child. And praise God as I look across this room today, most of you have a tender affection for your own children and your own grandchildren. But I'll tell you, sin can haunt in the hearts of individuals to such a degree that they only think about themselves, and they're without natural affection. Praise God, you have a love. You have a desire to teach and to train. Charles Hodges, Princeton Theological Seminary in 1851 to 1878 wrote this. They've gone way off target, by the way, these days, Princeton has, in a lot of regards. It says, This endearing and intimate relation between parents and children, which cannot exist where monogamy is not the law, I think that would get him in trouble today at Princeton. Binding all in the closest union which can exist among men makes the family the cornerstone of the well-being of society on earth and the type of the blessedness of heaven. You see, as Solomon is laying out here, he says that when a child comes under the authority of their parents and respects God-ordained authority, has a heart of obedience, has a heart of humility. It says, for they shall be an ornament of grace into thy head and chains about thy neck. A child who walks in the fear of the Lord and learns to trust his parents Trust those over Him. It says that this will develop a crown or an attractiveness of life. He puts here an ornament of grace upon my head. A crown in a sense. And a chain about thy neck. It really speaks of an attractiveness of life. One that grows in Christian character, that they have this something that other people are drawn to them because they see there's a difference in these children that learn to respect and have an honor for God, an honor for their parents, a desire to please Him even when the parent is not there. You see, God's ways work, don't they? God's ways work. I thought of Jesus Himself. You know when He was about 12 years of age? It says in Luke chapter 2 and verse 52, I don't know if you've thought of this before or not, but it says Jesus increased in wisdom and His intellectual capacities. I don't fully understand that. He's God in the flesh. But He said He increased in wisdom and He increased in stature. He began growing up physically. So, in his thinking, in his physical nature, he was growing at 12 years of age. He said he also was growing in favor with God and with man. We see this development, this growth. In the same process, Jesus went through everything that we go through. And so, this mother and father enjoyed being a step back. and see the fruit of their labors. You see, so often we don't see it when we're up close. I go out to my garden and look at the garden almost every single day. And some days it just seems like nothing's changed that much. But then there's some days that the corn begins to tussle. There's some days that the jalapeno plants begin to bloom into a jalapeno. There's some days when they haven't gotten there yet, well, the blackberry bush. There's some days when the blackberries turn black. And there's some days when the tomatoes turn red. And you see a noticeable difference. But brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you to be faithful day in and day out in your responsibilities before the Lord. Because oftentimes you can't see it. You don't even see the change in yourself sometimes. But others, they look in and they say, hey, look at how God is working. Look at how God is moving in your life. So don't be discouraged by the mundane and the day-to-day. Keep being faithful. Keep trusting. Keep being committed to the process. A faithful father helps develop the character of his son or children. Number three, a faithful father prepares his son to face the world. You know, as we see the children growing up here at this church, they're going to be shot out as arrows in the days to come. There's many things that they can get into, but notice what he says in verse 10. My son, if sinners entice you, don't consent. I told you there are many people that are going in the wrong direction, right? The faithful father is there to plead with his children. To say, don't be gullible. I realize you're gullible. I realize you're inexperienced at life. And how many of those have already raised their children and their children are older up that sometimes they don't want to listen. But you know you've got the experience for them that they would just listen. One of the greatest lessons you can learn is to listen to the Lord. To listen to those that are wiser over you. In the multitude of counselors, the Bible says, there is safety. When you make decisions, seek out godly wisdom that people can point you in the right direction. It says, my son, if sinners entice you, don't consent. if they say, so they're going to continue coming after you. But the father here has an affectionate desire for his son to stay on the right path. But he said, if they say, if they say, they're going to keep coming. They're going to paint a beautiful picture of everything you can get into. In this case, it's the street life. It's the street life. The streets are calling. I wonder why the streets are so dangerous today. Said, come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privately for the innocent without cause. Speaks of ambushing the innocent. so that they can get something they want. Is that not what some people want? They lack in discipline? They don't want to work? They just want to get something really easy? And so the Father is saying, hey, don't go in that direction. Don't go in that direction because that life is not the life. He says, let us swallow them up alive as a grave and whole as those that go down into the pits. And so he said, we're going to overwhelm them and we're going to get what we want. We shall find all precious substance and we'll fill our houses with spoil. He said, just come, cast your lot in among us. Let us all have one purse. You know why there's so many bad groups of friends in the world today that have lacking character? You know why there are so many gangs in our world today? It began with a child. who perhaps did not have a father or a mother who loved and nurtured and raised and cared for them day in and day out. And as a result of that, they went to the streets looking for a place to belong, and they found somebody on the street corner that said, I'll take you under my wing, I'll give you a job to do, I'll give you plenty of money, I'll give you some honey, I'll give you all these things, and you can come and be a part of us, and instead of doing things God's ways, we can learn how to lead people in the dark avenues of life, and we can live off this. until we get caught. I realize this is maybe more than you want to hear today because as God has led me into working in some dark, dark places, sometimes you can see the contrast. When I walk among this dark place and then I go over here and say, this is what evil and darkness in the wrong way looks like. I want to come in here this morning and say to you men, keep standing in the gap for your wife and your children. Keep taking on the responsibility. Keep loving them well. Keep being firm in your convictions. And out of love, show it. Show it first and then speak it. Because it's making a difference. You don't think about it, but it's making a difference. So see those who haven't had that kind of guidance. Now there are children that grow up in really good homes that go off track too, because sin, some people are not just driven out into sin because of the pain of their life. Some are just driven by the pure pleasure of what it might bring for a season. We saw the prodigal do that, did he not? He said, Dad, I want all the money that you can give to me. And he went out, spent all that he had and riotous living. Praise God though, there was a father that was waiting for him to come home. I'm glad we've got a Heavenly Father that's waiting for us to come home. A faithful father warns his son of the danger of sin. Notice what he says here as I close. This father says, I see the trap. I see the traps that are out there. Do you that are older in age and a higher generation, do you not look down on the youth and you say, man, I see that trap, and I see that trap, and I see that trap, and I see that trap, and you see them all out there. And so the father is warning, he's pleading, he's exposing. He says, I can tell you where this is going. And it says, in vain would you spread a net in the sight of any bird. He said, even a bird is smart enough to see that trap and to avoid it. He said, a bird can see a net that's laying out there that's ready to snatch him up. He said, son, I want you to see this because there are some things that you can get into. Don't be gullible. Don't be naive. Listen to the Lord. Learn to walk in the fear of the Lord at an early age. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth at an early age. Aim for the target of God's glory. You may be in here and say, what we do here this morning, you might say, well, that's just for the older people. I'm trying to encourage you and plead with you this morning to aim to please God from an early age all the days of your life. Life is not out there in the streets. Life is not out there in a lack of discipline and all these other things. Life is found in following Christ. So the father speaks this to his son because he loves him. He says that So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which takes away the life of the owners thereof. He's saying the sin could cause some deadly traps. Do you know we've all been foolish? Before we begin to just point fingers and you know, we all really have been foolish. We have not walked in the fear of the Lord all the days of our life, have we? Let us recommit ourselves to walk in the fear of the Lord. Let us recommit ourselves to walk with the Father and the Son. You see, Solomon is writing as a wise father, trying to train up a wise son. But we have the ultimate example in our Heavenly Father, who sent His own Son in wisdom. that He might, in His infinite glory and power, might be able to send His wise Son, the wise Son, who would walk the road and path of this life as straight as an arrow that led Him to the target of the cross. And there on that cross, Jesus says He's bearing out our sin. There was a separation that took place there at that cross. I can't explain it. I can't describe it. But I tell you, the Father was close at the cross because Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And He closed His last cry with, Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit. But there was a time that He felt the separation from the Father so that you and I could know the intimacy. with God, though we've been foolish, we can be wise. And as Paul says this in Titus 3 and 3, Titus is a good book. Titus is a good name, isn't it? He says, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, We used to fall into some of these traps, deceived, serving divers lusts, which means various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Let us be wise in our dealings and let us be faithful, a faithful father. can make a powerful difference in the lives of all those around him. If you're being faithful, I want to encourage you to keep being faithful. Don't be weary in well-doing. Keep being faithful. You're making a difference. Stay firm in your convictions. Keep loving well, and let us trust God to raise up a next generation of those that will build a godly legacy. for years to come, because God is a God who keeps mercy. Think about this, God keeps mercy for a thousand generations. Just as he's blessed us, he can bless our children. Just as he blessed our children, he can bless our grandchildren. Don't lose heart. Keep the faith. If you're here today and you don't know Jesus, and you're walking in that foolishness, I want to encourage you to come to him today and be made brand new on the inside. He's got the power to do it as we stand in sync.