The Everlasting Father: “Trust Me”

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

My name is Eric.

I'm one of the guys here on staff at Watermark.

How many of you have seen the new Star Wars?

Less than I expected.

If you're a guy, we're having a guy's night to go see it Tuesday night.

Talk to me about details afterwards.

But when I was a kid, I loved Star Wars.

My friends loved Star Wars.

And there's this one scene where I think it's Han Solo

tells someone to shut the professor off in reference to C-3PO.

C-3PO is just spouting out all these facts and numbers.

And Han Solo gets annoyed and he says, shut the professor off.

And some of my friends really loved that line

because they thought that I was a little bit too much like C-3PO.

So whenever I would start sharing fun facts with them

that they didn't think were so fun,

they'd just say, somebody shut the professor off.

And they would try and get me to stop sharing fun facts.

But I enjoy sharing fun facts and weird things like history.

And I want to give you a little bit of historical background this morning

of the passage that we're looking at

so that as we look at the passage,

it can make a little bit more sense to you.

So I have a map to help me do that.

Now this is a map of the ancient Near Eastern world

where I'd say probably 95% of the Bible happens within this map.

You're looking at modern day Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran,

a little bit of Turkey.

And this is what we're looking at in the passage today.

This darker area was the extent of the Assyrian Empire

at their greatest expanse,

but they weren't quite this big at this time.

And over on the right-hand side of the screen,

that red circle right there,

is sort of the heart of the Assyrian Empire.

And over on the left-hand side, that blue circle is Egypt.

And as with big world empires,

they wanted to trade with people who were a little bit far away from them.

The people in Assyria wanted goods that were made in Egypt.

And so they wanted to go from the red circle to the blue circle.

And it would seem the easiest way to do that is a straight line, right?

The shortest distance between two places is a straight line.

There's a problem with taking a straight line.

And that yellow circle is a desert.

And so if you try to take the straight line through there,

you're going to burn up and get dehydrated and die.

So what you need to do to get from Assyria over to Egypt,

or anywhere in the ancient Near East to Egypt,

is you need to take a path that follows the rivers.

They've got the Tigris there, the Euphrates there,

and then over in Israel, you've got the Jordan.

And so you follow the rivers

so that you have constant supply of fresh water along the way

so that you don't die during your journey.

And what that means is that this little stretch of land in Israel,

where Israel exists,

is a very, very valuable and strategic piece of land for many reasons.

One, all of the trade routes between Egypt and the rest of the known world

go through this little stretch of land in Israel.

If you own this stretch of land,

you can tax all the traders and make loads of money.

Also, from a military perspective,

any troop movement between Europe and Asia on land

that's trying to get to Africa,

or from Africa trying to get out,

needs to go through you.

And so if you own this little stretch of land,

you have amazing power economically, militarily.

It's kind of like the South China Sea of our day.

And Assyria is like the China of that South China Sea.

And so what you have leading up to this passage

is Assyria over here on the right.

They're like the China.

We can do what we want because we control this area.

And then you've got the green countries are Israel and Syria,

not to be confused with Assyria.

And the yellow one is Judah,

which is the southern couple tribes of Israel

that broke off from the rest of the nation.

And Assyria said,

we want to control this strip of land

because it will give us power,

it will give us control,

it will let us collect taxes instead of paying taxes.

It will give us amazing versatility

when it comes to military movements.

This is an important place.

And they're setting their sights on this strip of land.

And these little guys over here say,

uh-oh, we're in trouble.

We need to band together

so that we can have a fighting chance

of standing up to these guys.

So what happens is these green countries,

Israel and Syria,

get together and form an alliance.

Say, we're going to fight together against Assyria.

We're going to try and hold them off the best we can.

Judah, come join us.

Help us out.

And the king of Judah,

a guy named Ahaz,

says, I don't want to help you out.

I don't know if it was because

he just saw, like,

this is a losing effort,

there's no chance that we're going to survive this,

or if he was just like,

I don't like these guys,

I don't want to be on their side.

Either way,

he's not interested.

And so what Israel and Syria say is,

if you don't join our alliance,

we're going to come in and destroy your country,

A, to encourage you to join us,

and B, because we don't want you coming

and attacking us from behind

as we're trying to fight off this big enemy

from the other side.

And since Judah doesn't join their alliance,

Israel and Syria sweep in

and start wiping out the nation of Judah.

They're killing tens of thousands of people.

They capture hundreds of thousands of people.

Cities are being wiped out,

and Ahaz, the king of Judah,

does not know what to do.

And in this moment,

God sends a messenger to him,

a guy named Isaiah the prophet.

And Isaiah has a very important,

very simple message

for King Ahaz from God.

Don't worry.

I've got this.

I'm going to take care of this.

I'm going to get rid of Israel and Syria

from your land.

All you have to do is trust me.

And to prove to you that I'm going to do this,

you can ask for any sign,

anything that you want.

It can be as high as heaven

or as deep as the grave.

I will give it to you

to prove to you that I'm going to keep my word.

And King Ahaz says,

I will not put the Lord to the test,

which sounds really noble, right?

That's what Jesus says

when Satan tempts him in the desert.

But actually it's not.

Because what Ahaz is saying is,

I don't trust God.

I don't want to do

what God is telling me to do.

I've got this.

I can handle this.

Leave me alone, God.

And he goes to the temple

where the Israelites would worship God

and he strips down all the gold

and all the valuable metals.

He melts them down

and he sends them with messengers

as a gift to the king of Assyria,

the big bad guys.

And he says,

hey, do me a favor.

Here's a little gift.

Go attack Israel and Syria

and just take them out.

So the king of Assyria says,

okay.

And he marches down

and he takes out Israel.

He takes out Syria.

And then he's like,

while I'm here,

I may as well go take out Judah too.

And he starts marching in

to take out Judah

because Ahaz, the king of Judah,

did not trust God

and wait for God to rescue him.

And now ultimately,

they didn't succeed

in capturing the capital of Judah

at that time.

So the nation survived.

But the nation is a mess.

Their cities are one by one

being taken away

and conquered and destroyed.

And the land is miserable.

And it's a situation

that the end of Isaiah chapter eight

in that last verse,

verse 22 describes as,

behold, distress and darkness,

the gloom of anguish,

and they will be thrust

into deep or thick darkness.

It's a miserable, terrible,

heart-wrenching time

in the nation of Judah.

And it's at this moment

that Isaiah steps in

with Isaiah chapter nine.

And when we see the start,

especially of Isaiah chapter nine,

in the light of this context,

it helps us to understand

Isaiah is saying

something huge right here.

Isaiah steps in

and he says,

there will be no gloom

for her who is in anguish.

In the previous verse,

we have the gloom of anguish

and now we have no gloom

for her who is in anguish.

If you jump down to verse two,

the people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light.

Instead of this deep darkness,

a light is shining on the people.

As we go throughout the passage,

we see in verse five,

the boots of the trampling warrior

and the garments

that are rolled in blood

because it's what they were wearing

when they were fighting,

it will be burned.

Why do you burn your battle equipment?

Because you're done fighting.

Isaiah says,

there is a time coming

when you're going to have peace,

when you're going to have hope,

when you're going to have light

in your land.

It's not here yet,

but it's coming.

And it's not dependent

on your king

doing the right thing right now.

No, it's dependent on,

verse six,

a child who's going to be born.

A child who's going to come

and it says,

the government will be upon his shoulders.

He's going to rule this nation

and he's going to rule with justice

and he's going to bring peace

and his rule is going to expand and expand,

but that's going to be a good thing

because as he rules,

he is good.

And it gives us four descriptions

of what this ruler will be like.

It calls him the wonderful counselor,

the mighty God,

everlasting father,

prince of peace.

If you were here two weeks ago,

Alfie looked at what it means

for Jesus to be our wonderful counselor

and why we need a wonderful counselor.

Last week,

if you were here for the charity walk,

Chris talked about,

a little bit about what it means

for Jesus to be the mighty God

in our lives.

And today we're going to look

at what it means

for Jesus to be

our everlasting father.

And what we're going to see

is that although we often

choose to live

like spiritual orphans,

Jesus is

our everlasting father.

And having a perfect,

everlasting father

gives us freedom

to live as the children of God.

We're going to take three steps

to getting there.

First, we're going to talk about

becoming an orphan.

Second, we're going to talk about

living as an orphan.

And third,

we're going to talk about

life with a father.

First up,

becoming an orphan.

So Ahaz,

as the king of Judah,

was basically supposed to be

like a father to the nation.

A king was supposed to be

a protective caregiver,

which is a huge role

of a father.

But Ahaz was a terrible father,

both to the nation

and to his own kids.

And how do we know

that he was a terrible father

to his own kids?

Because he killed them.

The Bible is very clear

that God does not want

his people

worshiping idols.

And a big part of that,

besides the fact that

they're false gods,

is that

the worship of idols,

especially in the Old Testament times,

involved doing

many terrible things.

And one of them

was child sacrifice.

And so it says

that

in

2 Kings

and 2 Chronicles,

when it's talking about Ahaz,

it says

that he caused his sons

to pass through the fire.

Basically,

they would have this fire burning,

you send in your son,

and then your son burns up,

and it's supposed to be

a pleasing sacrifice to God.

This guy did that

with his kids.

Now,

if he's that terrible

of a father

to his family,

how do you expect him

to lead the nation?

You don't.

And so when you look at

the way that he rules

the nation,

this man who's supposed

to be the protective caregiver

to the nation,

who's supposed to be

this father figure

to the nation,

when his nation

is under distress,

he strips down the temple

from everything valuable,

he sends it away

to the king of Assyria,

and the message

that he sends

to the king of Assyria

is,

I am your son.

Please come rescue me.

That's in 2 Kings 16.

He says,

I am your son.

This man who's supposed

to be like a father

to the nation

just abdicates

that responsibility

and says,

you,

this foreign nation

that God told me

not to interact with,

you're our father now.

Ahaz was not

a good king.

And why does he,

why does he fail

so miserably

as a father

both in his family

and in the nation?

Because he's living

as a spiritual orphan.

And here's what I mean

when I talk about

spiritual orphans.

A spiritual orphan

is someone

who functionally

on a day-to-day level

does not believe

that they have

a perfect heavenly father

who loves them

and provides for them.

So with Ahaz,

he is not trusting God

to provide for him

or his country.

He's taking matters

into his own hands

and he is failing

his people miserably.

And I know

as we talk about

God as a father

and what it means

for God to be a father,

there are probably

a lot of us in here

who when we think

about the idea

of a father,

it's a painful thought

because our fathers

fail us.

And I think

in Hong Kong

that's probably

like accelerated

the rate

at which fathers

fail their children.

And I think

when we,

we each have a tendency

to project

our earthly father's

failures onto God.

God.

And so when we hear

that God's our father

and we know

that our fathers

failed us so miserably,

we think,

well,

if God's a much

bigger father,

then he's gonna fail

us so much more

miserably, right?

And I think

there are three,

probably we can group

the ways that our fathers

fail us into three

big categories.

The first one,

this is huge in Asia,

we'll call the

always could be

better father.

If you come home

with a 99 on your exam,

why didn't you get 100?

If you got accepted

to Harvard,

why didn't they give

you a full ride?

No matter how much

you accomplish,

no matter how much

you do,

it is never good enough.

The always could be

better father

pushes his children

beyond what they

are capable of,

always expects more,

and their children

always live in fear

of disappointing

their father.

Second up,

the angry father.

Anything can make

him go wild.

His kids live in fear

of doing something

to set him off.

Violence or yelling

can come out of this.

I went to university

with a guy

who had an angry father.

He shared with us

about how when he was

a kid,

his dad would beat

his mom,

and he was too small

or powerless

to do anything

to stop it,

so all he would do

is sit there

and watch.

And the thing

that makes this story

even more sad

is that this kid's

parents were missionaries.

So his idea

growing up

of what it means

to be a man

who loves and serves

God is that

you beat your wife.

When you take

that idea of a father

and project it

onto God,

how do you think

that impacts

the way that you

see God

as a father?

So we have

the always

could be better father,

we have the angry father,

and then third,

we have the absent father.

And this is another one

that's huge in Hong Kong.

Some fathers are absent

because they simply

abandon their families.

Some are absent

in Hong Kong

because they have

a second family

across the border

and they're just

spending their time

with the second family

instead of with

their own family.

Some,

this is a huge way

that fathers are absent

in Hong Kong,

is workaholism.

They spend all their time

at the office,

at their job,

traveling for work,

and never actually

have time to be

with their kids.

And then some fathers

in Hong Kong

spend lots of time

with their families,

spend lots of time

with their kids,

but they're so tired

and stressed

from the time

they've been at work

that during that time

they turn to things

like alcohol

or television to cope.

And even though

they're physically present,

they're mentally

and emotionally absent.

Our fathers fail us

in many ways

and we have a tendency

to project those failures

onto God.

You know,

for me,

I had great parents

growing up.

They're still great parents.

If they listen to the podcast,

hi mom and dad,

you're fantastic.

But they weren't perfect.

My parents,

when I was in school,

always told me,

whatever grades you get,

we're happy

as long as you do your best.

And for me,

my best was straight A's.

And I got straight A's.

But,

even though they were happy

with my grades,

I was always living

a little bit nervous,

a little bit in fear.

Because first off,

if I got a 95 on a project

and I knew that I could have

gotten a 97

by working just a tiny bit harder,

I knew that 95 wasn't my best.

I think I grew up

on the wrong continent.

And I would live in fear

that they would find out

that 95 was not truly my best

and be disappointed with me

for my 95.

95.

I lived in constant fear

that I would get an assignment back

and that rather than an A,

it would be a C or a B.

Because I knew

that they knew

that I was capable of an A

and I was always afraid

that I would fall short,

that I wouldn't live up

to what they knew

that I was capable of.

And I lived,

these fears were reality to me.

And as I grew up,

I took these fears

and projected them

onto my relationship with God.

Because I knew that for God,

my standard is not do your best,

the standard is perfection.

And so even though

I was one of the best behaved kids

in my school,

one of the best behaved kids

in my church,

I knew on the inside

that I fall short

of that standard.

I knew on the inside

that I have not done enough

to live up to God's standard.

And rather than understanding

the gospel

and seeing that

that's the whole point,

that I can't live up to it,

but he loves me

and accepts me anyways,

I had this feeling of shame

that just followed me everywhere

because I hadn't lived up

to the standard

that I needed to.

And I would put in effort,

trying so hard

to do better

so that God could love me

and accept me.

And rather than enjoying

being God's son

and getting to enjoy

that relationship with him,

I ended up living my life

as a show,

terrified on the inside

that God is out to get me,

but smiling on the outside

because I didn't want

anyone else to know

that that's how I really felt.

and it was because

I had taken

this false understanding

of my relationship

with my earthly parents

and projected it

onto God

as my father.

And I think each of us

does that to some extent

and because of that,

each of us

has a tendency

to live

at least somewhat

as a spiritual orphan.

So what does it look like

to live as an orphan?

I have these friends.

They're adopting

a little kid.

He's like two.

And they had the chance

to go and meet this kid.

They took him out

for dinner

and they're so excited

because like,

this is going to be

our son.

And this is our first chance

to get to know

our son.

And they're at this restaurant

getting ready for dinner

and they've ordered

their food

and they're sitting

there waiting

and as a two-year-old

he sort of gets up

and starts wandering

around the restaurant

because that's what

two-year-olds do.

But as he wanders

around the restaurant

he walks up

to different tables

and just starts staring

and smiling at the people

there,

waving a little bit,

only he's like this tall

so he's looking up

and waving at them.

And everyone,

of course,

it's a two-year-old,

they're smiling

and waving back

and he's sort of

looking between them

and the food

and them

and the food

and at a couple tables

they like grabbed

a little piece of food

and gave it to him

as a snack.

And my friends,

they're watching

their son-to-be

and they're like,

this is so cute,

he's so outgoing

and friendly.

They realize

at a couple tables

he would walk up

and if the people

didn't offer him food

he would just reach up

and grab it.

But again,

he's two,

no one's mad about that.

And they thought,

this is so fantastic,

our kid is so outgoing.

And then as they

got home

and started doing

more research

about adoption

they realized,

actually,

this behavior

is an orphan tendency.

Because I,

as a two-year-old,

would never have done that.

Because I,

as a two-year-old,

knew that if I stayed

at my parents' table

I had a meal coming.

But for a two-year-old orphan,

they don't know

that their parents

are going to give them

a meal

because they don't

have parents.

And so they feel

the need

to walk around

and grab scraps

off the tables

of strangers

because they can't rely

on their parents

to provide.

And when we live

as spiritual orphans,

what we do

is we look at God,

our Father,

and we don't trust

Him to provide.

And we feel the need

to provide for ourselves

by going around

and grabbing scraps

off the table

of strangers

in the world.

We choose to live

as an orphan

when we sacrifice

the feast

that our Father

wants to give to us

and trade it in

for scraps

and leftovers.

Like I said before,

the main question

of a spiritual orphan

is do I really believe

that I have

a heavenly dad

who loves me

and cares for me?

And the reality is

as long as we answer

yes to that question,

we're going to be

incredibly loving,

incredibly patient,

incredibly generous people.

But the moment

we start to believe

that the answer

to that question

is no

or maybe,

we start feeling

the need

to fend for ourselves,

to defend ourselves,

to reach out

and grasp

for anything

that we can get

because we are

the only ones

who are going

to care for ourselves.

So living as

a spiritual orphan

means being controlling

and manipulative

at work

because God

might not provide

for my family

so I need to maneuver

for promotions

and for tearing

other people down.

If I make a mistake,

I need to make sure

that it can get pinned

on someone else

so that my job

is not in danger.

spiritual orphans

live incredibly

stressed and anxious

lives.

A parent

who's living

as a spiritual orphan

is going to lose sleep

about whether their kid

can get into

that top university

because I've done

all I can

and I don't know

that God's going

to take care of them.

Actually,

when we looked earlier

at the different ways

that our fathers fail us,

that absent father,

the angry father,

and the always

could be better father,

each of them

responds in those ways

as a father

because of their

orphan tendencies

themselves.

The always

could be better father

feels the need

to constantly

push his children

to excel

beyond their capacity

because he believes

their future

will be ruined

if he doesn't

because he doesn't

believe that he has

a perfect father

who's going to

provide for them.

The angry father

feels the need

to try and grasp

for control

of his world

through anger

because he doesn't

believe that he has

a perfect heavenly father

who's in control

and who's good

with that control.

The absent father

feels the need

to escape

from the realities

of life

because he doesn't

believe that he has

a perfect father

who's going to

bring him

through these realities

to something better.

every time

we choose

to react

in anger

anxiety

stress

fear

grasping for control

defensiveness

the list could go on

what we're doing

is we're showing

symptoms of the fact

that we believe

we are spiritual orphans

who need to look

after ourselves

and grab scraps

from the table

of life

rather than enjoy

the feast

that our father

wants to provide

for us.

So what does it

look like

to start living

as children of God

to start seeing

Jesus as

our everlasting

father?

We will only

ever begin

to live

as children of God

when we begin

to see living

as children of God

as more beautiful

than what the world

can offer us.

You know

today's passage

talks about Jesus

as an everlasting father

and if you've been

in church

for any amount

of time

that might be

confusing to you

because in church

we talk about

the Trinity

there's one God

with three persons

the Father, Son,

the Holy Spirit

and in the Trinity

Jesus is the Son

and if you ever

study the Trinity

one of the big

things you learn

the Father is not

the Son

the Son is not

the Father

get that drilled

into your head

and here

it's referring to

Jesus the Son

and it's calling

him a Father

what is going on?

But what's going on

here

is that it's not

talking about

how Jesus relates

to God

within the Trinity

it's talking about

how Jesus relates

to us

because to us

he's a provider

he's a protector

he's doing the things

that a father

is supposed to do

and so even though

in the Trinity

he's the Son

it still tells us

that we can look at him

as the everlasting

Father

and at Christmas season

we celebrate

his birth

which if you ever

think about it

is incredible

that the God

who made

the world

and the stars

and the entire universe

by speaking

would step down

and wrap himself

in human flesh

and live life

as one of us

that's mind-boggling

just sit down

and spend five minutes

trying to comprehend it

and you will have

a headache

because Christmas

is so incredible

if you look at

what God did there

but Christmas

isn't the full story

Christmas actually

has very little power

for us

if it's separated

from Good Friday

and Easter

because what we see

in Good Friday

and Easter

is that Jesus

is the perfect

everlasting Father

that we all

long for

and need

in Good Friday

Jesus

our Father

protector

steps up

and fights

the battle for us

against our two

greatest enemies

sin and death

that we could never

fight on our own

and he conquers them

how do we know

that he conquers them

because on Easter

he rises from the dead

death cannot hold him

sin cannot overcome him

and as he overcomes them

he sets us free

he is our Father

who has stepped down

who has left

the comfort

of his comfy

lazy boy lounge chair

in heaven

and come down

to enter into

the mess

of our world

and deal

with every single

last one

of our problems

at the greatest

possible cost

to himself

his life

through Jesus

life

death

and resurrection

he sets himself

apart

from our earthly

fathers

and all the ways

that they fail us

see I think

we have a tendency

to project

our earthly

fathers

flaws

onto God

but the reality

is

that our earthly

fathers

are flawed

imitations

of the true

perfect father

that we have

in Jesus

and how do we

know this

because of the cross

the cross

tells us

that Jesus

is not

the always

could be

better father

he's the

accepting father

who sees

every single

last one

of our flaws

and rather than

judging us

and despising

us for it

steps down

and pays

the price

for our failures

at the cost

of his own

life

so that we

can be

accepted

and not

have to live

in fear

of letting

our father

down

rather than

the angry

father

he is the

abounding

in love

father

who although

he has

every right

to be

furious

at us

steps down

in love

and bears

the consequences

for our sin

on himself

rather than

the absent

father

he is

the always

present

father

who came

to earth

as one

of us

living

as one

of us

so that

we can

see him

and know

him

and then

when he

went back

to heaven

sent his

spirit

to live

inside

of us

so that

the bible

tells us

that if

we are

Christians

he is

living

inside

of us

right now

empowering

us

for our

day to

day life

following

him

see in

contrast

to our

flawed

fathers

he is

the

awesome

father

he is

trustworthy

he is

reliable

he is

everlasting

he will

never

fail us

and if

you are

here today

and you

don't

know

God

as a

father

this

talk

of

having

God

as a

father

seems

confusing

or foreign

to you

I encourage

you to

talk to

me

or to

Chris

or one

of the

other

people

here at

Watermark

and ask

us

about

what

that

means

and how

you can

have

this

type

of

relationship

with

God

because

it

is

life

changing

what does

it look

like

when our

lives

have been

so

transformed

by our

understanding

of God

seeing him

as a

father

that we

can live

as his

children

I want

to share

a little

story with

you

that I

think

illustrates

this

really

well

I used

to work

at a

summer

camp

for

first

through

sixth

graders

parents

would drop

off

their

kids

on

Sunday

afternoon

and

we

would

have

them

until

Saturday

afternoon

so

you

got

to

see

a

lot

of

crazy

stuff

at

this

summer

camp

one

week

there

was

this

kid

he

was

probably

seven

or eight

years

old

at the

time

he

was

staying

in the

cabin

next

to

mine

his

dad

was

a

WWE

wrestler

so

you

know

they

like

pick

up

the

chairs

and

smash

each

other

over

the

head

and

climb

up

on

the

rails

and

jump

off

and

slam

each

other

that

was

this

kid's

dad's

job

and

this

kid

one

day

got

into

an

argument

with

another

kid

in

his

cabin

don't

know

what

the

argument

was

about

don't

know

how

it

started

but

I

know

that

it

escalated

to

the

point

where

this

kid

told

the

other

kid

oh

yeah

well

my

dad

can

beat

your

dad

up

and

the

counselor

from

his

cabin

was

watching

this

unfold

and

he

said

normally

I

would

step

in

and

stop

this

argument

around

this

point

but

I

love

that

picture

not

because

I

think

we

should

be

cocky

and

arrogant

having

God

as

our

father

but

think

about

the

confidence

that

kid

had

in

his

father

he

knew

that

my

father

is

strong

he

knew

that

my

father

cares

about

me

my

father

cares

about

me

so

much

that

he

is

willing

to

fight

my

battles

for

me

I

don't

need

to

worry

about

being

the

strongest

I

don't

and

so

this

kid

was

able

to

live

with

incredible

confidence

knowing

that

he

was

loved

by

his

father

who

was

so

strong

and

if

we

have

God

as

our

father

who's

way

stronger

than

this

kid's

dad's

father

who's

everlasting

as

our

father

how

much

more

confident

should

we

be

in

him

in

a

father

who

has

proven

over

and

over

again

that

he

loves

his

children

with

an

unstoppable

love

that

cannot

be

stopped

even

if

it

costs

his

life

how

much

should

that

drive

us

to

love

others

to

be

patient

when

things

aren't

going

our

way

to

be

willing

to

take

the

hit

even

for

someone

else's

mistakes

because

we

know

that

it's

not

about

me

grasping

for

everything

that I

can get

off the

table

of strangers

but it's

about

my father

loving me

providing for me

and I know

that if I

wait at his

table

if I

trust in him

if I

follow him

there is a

feast

being prepared

for me

we don't need to fear

we don't need to grasp

we don't need to live

as spiritual orphans

because we

we don't need to

love him

because we have a

perfect father who

loves us and cares

for us in the way

that no earthly

father could

and that's one of the

things that we

celebrate at

Christmas

that Jesus came to

reveal that father

to us

to be a father

to us

who protects us

who guards us

who rescues us

let's pray

Jesus we thank you

that you are a

perfect father to us

that you love us

that you rescue us

at the cost of your

own life

and that because of

your love

because of

you rescuing us

we don't need to

live in fear

we don't need to

to strive

and worry

and be anxious

and lose sleep

about the future

because you have

got us

because you're the

perfect father who

loves us

who cares for us

who never lets us

go

never lets us down

Jesus we pray

that this week

that we would see

the beauty of

Christmas

that we would see

the beauty of you

that we would fall

more in love with you

and that we would

learn to trust you

rather than living

as orphans

God I confess

that I

fail to believe

this so often

I pray that you

would transform my

heart and give me

an understanding

of what it means

to be

your son

to live in joy

because of that

to live in peace

because of that

in Jesus name

amen

amen