A Fathers Calling: Genesis 18:19

Genesis 12 and 18 as the Context for Fatherhood

I would ask if you would turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12. The focus of this message this morning will be from Genesis 18. But I want to give us a little context. So, you can turn to 12 and maybe put your finger in page chapter 18.

Alright, here now, the inspired word of God. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great.

And so you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.

Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran.

And they set out for the land of Canaan. Thus they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Morah. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land. So he built an altar there, an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. Actually now to turn to chapter 18. And we'll start at verse 16 and go to 19. Then the men rose up from there and looked down towards Sodom.

And Abraham was walking with them to send them off. The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?

For I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him.

The Call to Preach from the Word

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord I would just ask that you would be pleased to bless the preaching of the word. You know all that's on my heart and all the things I want to say, but Lord we need your word, your truth.

And so I pray Lord by your spirit that you would direct my words and that you would have prepared the hearts of those who hear. And may you be glorified. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

Two Fathers, Two Legacies: Max Jukes and Jonathan Edwards

So the title of my sermon today is A Father's Calling. And I'll tell you right out of the gate, the purpose is to encourage fathers to recognize their calling and the one who qualifies them for that calling.

But more than fathers I hope will benefit from this message. So please don't tune out because you're not a dad. In the year 1900, A .E. Winship published a study contrasting the family lines of two very different men.

The family line of Max Jukes was studied previously by a man named Richard Dugdale back in 1874 for a report for the New York Prison Commission. The actual name of this man has been changed to protect the guilty.

Dugdale realized that there were several criminals in several different prisons in New York who related to each other and whose relatives in general were mostly criminals or paupers. This led to a study of their relatives living and dead that led all the way back to Max.

And then they examined about 1 ,200 of his descendants from birth and marriage. Now according to this study, Max was born in 1720. And as the report says, he was a jolly good fellow. Not very bad. He was popular and he could tell a good story that made everyone laugh.

Of course he was vulgar. Such jolly good fellows are usually vulgar. He would not go to school, for he did not like it. He would not stay in evenings, for he did not like that. He did not enjoy being talked to, but always wanted to talk himself.

And to talk to boys who would laugh at his yarns. That's stories for some of you younger ones. He would not work, for he did not like it. He wanted to go fishing and hunting and trapping. So he left home early and took to the woods.

Max liked nature. He found a lovely spot on the border of a beautiful lake in New York State where the rocks were grand, the waters lovely, the forest glorious. There was never a more charming place in which to be good and to love God than this place where Max built his shanty in about 1750.

But he did not go there to worship. He did not go there to be good. He went simply to get away from good people, to get where he would not have to work and he would not be preached to. And this beautiful spot became a notorious cradle of crime.

Nature is lovely, but it makes all the difference in the world how we know nature and why we love it. So born in 1720 and then 150 years later, there are about 1200 known descendants of Max. 300 died in infancy from lack of good care and good conditions.

Over 300 are professional paupers. 50 women lived lives of notorious debauchery. 400 men and women were physically wrecked early in their life by their own wickedness. There were 7 murderers, 60 habitual thieves, and 130 convicted criminals.

The report of this infamous legacy inspired many sermons, public addresses, editorials, and essays. For 20 years, a hopeful contrast was sought out. And it wasn't until Winship was assigned the task of preparing an essay on Jonathan Edwards that it was actually found.

As Winship was preparing for his essay, he began to search for information about the Edwards family. And what a contrast he found. Edwards was born in 1703, a little before Max. He was a standout among contemporaries of his day.

When people referred to Jonathan Edwards, it was usually in the superlative. He was the greatest thinker, the greatest theologian. He was a prince among preachers. He was the most gifted man in the 18th century.

Hundreds of years later, we still look back and consider him to be one of the greatest theologians America has ever produced. By 1900, he had about 1400 known descendants. 13 were college presidents. 65 were professors.

100 were lawyers and a dean of a law school. There were 30 judges, 66 physicians, a dean of a medical school, 80 holders of public office, 3 U .S. senators, mayors of 3 large cities, governors of 3 states, a vice president of the United States, a controller of the United States Treasury.

They had written over 135 books, edited 18 journals and periodicals. Many had entered the ministry. Over 100 were missionaries, and others were on mission boards. Two fathers, two legacies. These men had similarities.

They were born in roughly the same time period, even in the same region, New York, Connecticut. Both loved nature, although their reasons were a little different. However, they had vastly different worldviews that impacted how they lived their lives and impacted the influence they had on those who would follow them, their children and grandchildren.

What's incredible is how their example and influence were carried down through the years long after they passed. You know, as I was thinking of these men, I marveled that over a relatively short period of time, in the grand scheme of history and eternity, 150 years is really not that long.

And yet their impact of these men can be so far-reaching for good or for bad. And so it seemed appropriate to me to return to Genesis, where all of human history begins, and consider yet again all that is and all that is meant to be.

Creation, the Fall, and Humanity's Telos

You may know by now I love doing this. I love to go back to the Old Testament. I love to take a step back and look at the big picture. Because in the busyness of life, where we're just trying to get through today, we can get so distracted on the details of life and forget why we're really here and what our purpose is.

Genesis provides us with the answers to the big questions in life. Questions like, who are we, and why are we here, and where are we going? Genesis provides us with those answers. In the beginning, we know God created the heavens and the earth.

He created a world that is very good, filled with life and everything that is necessary not only to sustain life but to enable it to thrive. It's a beautiful world filled with awesome potential to grow in beauty and goodness.

And then he created us, mankind, to bear his image and take dominion over all creation. One author summarized our role like this, Productive, representative, rulership. To fruitfully order the world in God's stead.

What a glorious privilege and responsibility. And all the while, having sweet communion with our creator. But then came the fall. Then came sin and death entering the world. Men, instead of following after God and ruling in his stead, they went their own way, filled with jealous and murderous hearts.

Evil spread at an exponential rate to the extent that God says that every intention of their thoughts, their hearts, was only evil continually. And then comes the flood. God sends the flood to restrain, to check that growth of wickedness.

But even after the judgment of the flood, the warning of what will happen to those who rebel against God, mankind was still more interested in pursuing his own desires rather than the Lord's. Men began to build a tower seeking to make a name for themselves rather than their creator.

And so the Lord comes down and he confuses their language and he thwarts their misguided attempts at glory. My friends, what we have to remember always is that this is our Father's world. He is the creator and we are the creation.

He is the potter, we are the clay. The truth of the matter is that genuine and lasting success, joy, peace, the things that we search for, the things that we desire, they can never be found in rebelling against our telos, our intended design and purpose.

And if you look around today, you see that we're surrounded by the most extreme examples of rebelling against our telos, against our design, against our purpose. Some of us, it's obvious just how dangerous, just how much folly there is, how destructive it is to deny simple biology, to defy the God-ordained distinctions and roles of the sexes.

These errors may seem obvious to us. But what about the errors of the Max Jukes of the world? A jolly good fellow. He's not a bad guy, right? Perhaps some attitude problems, but nothing worse than stuff that we see every day.

Nothing too serious. The interesting part of this study was that we got to see how his worldview left unchecked and passed on to others and growing and growing became destructive. It was destructive, but it was more clearly seen, writ large.

And this is the history of the fallen world. Sin begets sin. To refuse to worship and obey God is to embrace evil, to make yourself God's enemy, to your own destruction and the destruction of those who will follow your example.

Left to ourselves, we're all guilty. We all stand condemned. We deserve judgment. And yet God still has a plan for this world. God hasn't given up. The sovereign creator will not be thwarted. In Genesis 12, we read him calling Abram, who up to that point had been estranged from God himself.

God reveals himself to Abram and makes these amazing promises to him that he will bless him, that he will make him a great nation, blessing those who bless him, cursing those who curse him, and in him all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Through Abraham, he is going to bring blessing to the entire world. The Lord has great plans and he begins the unfolding of this plan with one man, a former idolater. Later in chapter 18, after more conversations, more promises, establishing his covenant with him, the Lord visits Abram again.

Now he's calling him Abraham. He went from a childless, exalted father to one who he says will be the father of a multitude. And he comes to tell him that this time next year, after all these years, Sarah will give birth to a son, Isaac.

But he has other items on his agenda with this visit. He heads down to oversee Sodom and Gomorrah. He's going to judge them for their crimes, for their sin. And he decides to bring Abraham in on his plans.

And what is his reasoning? He says, I have chosen him so that he may command his children, his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him.

God's Sovereign Choice of Abraham

There's a few things going on there worthy of discussion. But for the sake of time, I want to focus on how the Lord enables Abraham to fulfill his calling as a father. To begin with, the Lord chose Abraham and not the other way around.

This is God's sovereign election, not based on anything Abraham had done, was doing, or would do. If you read Joshua 24, verse 2, it makes it clear. He had been an idolater. He and his father before him, they were beyond the river, worshiping other gods.

So this wasn't about, oh, I've chosen him because I know this is what he's going to do. He chose him for the purpose of making him able to command his children and household after him. God chose him to enable him.

The same is true for us. But look what this calling entailed. The Lord made himself known to him. Then he calls Abraham to leave all that is familiar and comfortable to him. Leave his country, his family, his father's house.

Becoming a friend of God sometimes means becoming a stranger to those we love. How difficult that must have been. I mean, we know the complete story ourselves. We get to read the whole thing and know the Lord was going to accomplish everything he promised to Abraham.

But I have to imagine that there were many difficult moments, that there was areas and times of being uncomfortable and struggling as he followed God. And yet they were necessary. They were for the benefit of God's great plan.

He was brought to a land that his descendants would eventually possess. And I may be speculating here a bit, but I believe there was another reason to bring him far away from his family and those he knew.

His sojourning would make him an alien. Strangers to all those who were already residents of the land. Without those same familiar relationships, he wouldn't have the same pressure on him and his children after him to conform to the surrounding idolatry.

The pressure of familial obligations and identity. Now this is not the exact blueprint that we all have to follow. You get saved and you move far away. No. Things are different today. We have a body of believers all around us.

But there are similarities. God chose him. God called him that he might leave the familiar and focus on him and command his children and his household to do likewise. The Lord was about to establish a people for his namesake.

A people who were tasked with bringing redemption to the whole world. And he was beginning with one man and he would build his household into an entire nation called to serve him. Given the privilege of serving him and bringing blessings to the world.

Abraham's Example of Worship and Altar-Building

But how? How is Abraham to begin this task of leading his household and establishing this legacy? He began by leading by example. If you notice, when the Lord called him, he stopped worshipping idols and he began to worship the one true God and him alone.

If you notice, and there's a couple of examples right there in chapter 12, almost every time we see Abraham settle in a new place, what did he do? He built an altar for the purpose of worship. When we worship, it speaks volumes to those around us.

Because worship involves glory and involves sacrifice. When you are giving glory, you're giving praise, honor, distinction, in recognition of the weight of this object of your worship. Of just how important they are to you.

Just how great and wonderful they are. And when we sacrifice, we give of ourselves. Giving praise, giving time, giving talent, giving our money, giving our possessions. Just giving of ourselves, whatever we have, as a demonstration of the worth and value of the object of our worship.

So worship, giving glory, giving sacrifice, communicates to others very clearly what we value and what we prioritize. What means the most to us in this world. And we all worship something we were created to.

So we either worship the one true God, or we worship false God, an idol. But Abraham worshipped God openly. And by doing so, he was setting an example for his entire household. Wherever they went, I have to worship God.

I'm going to sacrifice to God. I'm going to pray to God. He's the one I'm looking to. He is the one who is leading me through this life and he's making that obvious to all those in his household. And by this example, he passed on to his children.

Later on we see Isaac building an altar when he would dwell in a new location. He would build an altar. We see Isaac at one point going out to the field to meditate and not to clear your mind and that sort of meditation.

The Bible tells us how we should meditate. We just heard from Pastor Anthony last week about what we're supposed to be meditating on. And so we see Isaac going to meditate. We see him building an altar.

We see him following his father's example. And then Isaac's son, Jacob, would also, when he was calling upon God, when God had revealed himself to him and was calling him, Jacob built an altar. And because he had gone back to that family and those things that were once familiar to Abraham, his family was being established surrounded by idolatry.

Jacob had to instruct his household, put away the foreign gods among you. Put away the idols. But Abraham, he not only worshipped, but he also instructed his household in the way of justice and righteousness.

Teaching Justice, Righteousness, and Covenant Faithfulness

Now if you're familiar with the Old Testament, if you've read through, you probably know that if you've read through Genesis and Exodus, the law of God, the precepts, the statutes, they're not recorded in Genesis.

They're not recorded until later on when Moses gives the law to the people from Mount Sinai and it's there, it's put on stone. But even in Genesis, it was clear that they already had a working knowledge of what God's standard was.

God had been revealing it to them all along even if we don't have it written down for us in that book. And the obligation was to pass down this standard to future generations. The standard involved worship, when he's sacrificing, how does he know what to sacrifice?

God had told him what he expected in his worship and he had told him what he expected in his conduct. And so there was one way of passing that down to our next generation, passing it down to the children and to their children by instruction, by telling them this is what God commands.

But as we read in Psalm 78 earlier, it was also by remembering and sharing the history of God's mighty works, his mighty deeds. So we are to tell of God's commands but we're also to show the stories, remind them of the stories of how God has saved, of the promises and how he delivered them and also how he is judged, how he has quelled rebellion by bringing judgment on those who refuse to bow the knee, refuse to love him, refuse to love their neighbor.

So we tell of God's commands and we tell the stories of what God has done for the purpose that every generation might know how they ought to live in light of these great realities. How many people around you today do you think know what they're really supposed to be doing?

How many just feel like they're just bumping through this world, trying to find happiness, trying to live something of a good life but everyone's got a different opinion on what that is. The calling of Abraham was to pass on the way of the Lord, that he would be able to bless the whole world through him and his descendants.

The calling to command our children and household after us to keep the way of the Lord is still the obligation of every parent but especially fathers who are called to lead. But there's a problem. As we read through Genesis, as we read through the rest of the Old Testament, we do see God establishing the seed of Abraham into a nation but their calling to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession is constantly undermined by their sin and idolatry.

After God had shown them so much favor, after he gave them these great promises, he revealed so many things and he blessed them in so many ways and then told them, worship and obey the voice of the Lord your God and him alone.

Keep my covenant and pass these teachings down to your children. But if you've read, you know, most of the time they didn't. Most of them didn't. The Lord had redeemed them from slavery from Egypt. He had brought them into the promised land, gave them a land for their very own possession.

He led them and instructed them through Moses and then Joshua, calling them to relationship via worship and obedience. He did signs and wonders on their behalf and he also disciplined their sin to show them that he was a covenant-keeping God and that he meant what he said and the people swore allegiance.

They said they agreed to the terms of the covenant. Whatever Moses told them, they said, we will do it. Moses told them, I've set before you today life and death, the blessing and the curse. He said, so choose life that you may live.

Joshua told them, choose this day whom you'll serve, the Lord or the gods of your fathers? The gods your fathers served beyond the river Euphrates, talking about Abram before and Terah before him and Nahor, his brother, or serve the gods who the fathers served in Egypt or the gods who the Amorites in whose land you dwell, who they served?

Choose who you're going to serve. Who are you going to listen to? Who are you going to obey? And the people answered, we will serve the Lord and listen to his voice. Amen. Great. That's wonderful. But Joshua told them, then put away the foreign gods in your midst and incline your hearts to the Lord.

He knew they were double minded. He knew that while they profess their allegiance to God, they were also worshiping other gods at the same time. Their glory, their sacrifice, their priorities in life were divided.

And he says, you can't serve them both. So they promised to honor God and listen to him. But then in the book of Judges, we see that after Joshua died and his generation, the next generation that arose, it says they did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

How is that possible? Like they're still settling in the land that they just came into. And they just buried the guy who told them. How are they ignorant of God and his ways? I don't think it's that they had no idea who he was.

But for the most part, the vast majority of Israel who swore to obey God, they didn't. They didn't set the example for their children like Abraham did by worshiping God and him alone. They didn't teach their children as they were instructed to in Deuteronomy to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your might, with all your soul.

They didn't teach the Lord's ways to their children when they were sitting in their house or walking by the way or when they went to bed or when they got up. They didn't teach them by example and they didn't teach them by instruction.

And so functionally, their children were ignorant of the God who had delivered them into that land and the God who promised great blessings on them if they would only follow him. But it's not that they didn't teach them.

Do you understand that? They were always teaching. They taught, by example, the opposite of what God had instructed them. They worshipped other gods. They had gods they had brought with them from Egypt.

They had the gods of the people around them and they decided, I guess, maybe to cover all their bases to find happiness, contentment, and provision by looking to all the different gods out there. And so what they taught their children was that the one true God must not merit exclusive devotion or perhaps any devotion at all.

Their example taught their children that God must not be of greater value than anything else at all. They didn't bother to tell them of his great works, his awesome promises, his mighty deeds. Just neglected to pass that on.

Their conduct also demonstrated that God's standards of justice and righteousness did not require strict obedience. You could pick and choose what standards you like and what standards are just perhaps too inconvenient to concern yourselves with.

But as I said, the reality is that we are all made to worship and we're always worshiping something by giving it glory, by giving it sacrifice. We are showing our devotion to something in this world. And the things that we do and the things that we don't do are always communicating to others what we actually believe and what we actually value.

And so in Judges we see Abraham's descendants, for the most part, did not follow his example. They didn't. They either. They didn't truly believe God or honor him. And they either didn't recognize or didn't care that to not honor God would bring about judgment.

And not just for them. This was not just like Max Duke by the lake having to worry about himself. Look at what happened to his children because he refused to honor God in his ways. And because that was the example and that was the influence that he set for all those who followed after him.

And they carried on his example. And look at their lives. Dismissing the Lord, dismissing his ways, are never a small matter. There's not much room for growing slack in our responsibility here. How easily a precious inheritance can be squandered.

God's Faithfulness, the Prophets, and the Promise of a Messiah

But though they were faithless, God remained faithful. He remained faithful to his promises. He had promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed. And he would not be thwarted. He still planned on redeeming this fallen world and filling it with his truth, his beauty, his goodness for the good of mankind and for the glory of God.

So he continued to reach out to his people. He disciplined them. And then he rescued them. He would send prophet after prophet to warn them of judgment and to remind them of the law given through Moses and remind them of their covenantal obligations.

But as he did so, as he pointed out their sin, as he pointed out their rebellion, as he warned of judgment, he also gave promise after promise of redemption and restoration. Of a Messiah, a Savior, who would come and bring a new covenant, not like the old one that they had broken time and again.

That old covenant told them if they obeyed, they would live and thrive. But if they disobeyed, they would be cursed and die. That's what Moses says. Life and death. Blessing and curse. Choose life. But left to themselves, none of them could obey God to literally save their lives.

The fault wasn't in God. He had given them many external blessings. He had given them a good and just law. He said even the pagans will recognize the wisdom of this law. But their problem was their own sinful nature.

Their problem was that they were always desiring the things that were contrary to the Lord and his ways. As these promises of a Messiah came and talking about restoration and redeeming Israel, Israel longed for the Messiah who would come and restore all things.

But many of them didn't understand the plan and purpose of the Messiah. Many thought he would be a purely military leader who would make Israel great again. They didn't care about God's plan to redeem the whole world and to fill it again with his truth, his beauty, his goodness.

They had their own view on what constituted those things. But yet they waited for the day of the Lord. Still thinking that they were fine and the problem was everyone and everything around them. One of the last prophets to come to the people of Israel was the prophet Malachi.

His book is the last one. He started in Genesis and he says, command your children after you. And here in Malachi, this short four chapter book, there wouldn't be another prophet for roughly 400 years.

And he's still pointing out their sin and their wayward thinking. But he tells them, the day is coming. But before it does, he says in chapter three, he will send his messenger who will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming. And he points them in chapter four one last time to meditate on God's law, to understand their obligations. He tells them, I will send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction.

The Lord is coming. The Lord is coming, he says, and it will either be redemption and restoration or utter destruction. But he says, he's going to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.

What's the significance of that? What's the significance that it's so important that if it doesn't happen, God's judgment will fall? The significance is, it's the most basic requirement to bring about God's blessing.

The Lord chose Abraham so that he would be able to instruct his children and household after him to keep the way of the Lord in order that all that he spoke about Abraham would come to pass, in order that God would bring blessings to the entire world.

That's what he promised him. Through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. But if we're going to see them blessed, we must submit to him. Fathers have to love, love their children and to love them the way God tells them to love them, which means to lead them in the ways of God by practice, by example, and by precept, instruction.

And children must have their hearts turned to their fathers to honor them and to heed their instruction and follow their example. It's the only way that we can build a blessed society that will last is if we look to the Lord and then we live the way he tells us to, loving our children.

Is it hard? Of course not. You all love your children. Waiting for someone to say, do I like them? Yes, you like them. They're your children. They're little image bearers of you. You better like them.

We're called to love our children and instruct them and be an example for them. And children are to honor their parents and follow that. But the entirety of the Old Testament shows that the inability of fathers and children, they can't do that simple thing.

And that's why when John the Baptist comes in the spirit and power of Elijah, he preaches a message of repentance. And his primary purpose is to point everyone to Jesus Christ. The gospel, the good news of Christ is that we are all sinners.

Just like our forefathers before us and all those who came in the Old Testament, we have disobeyed God and we deserve death. But Christ came and he obeyed God perfectly on our behalf. And then he went to the cross and he shed his blood in order to take away our sins and to clothe us in his righteousness that we would be justified in the sight of God the Father.

In our own strength, we cannot submit to God's righteous requirements. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he gives you a new spirit and he enables you to walk in his ways. And now each believer in the Lord Jesus Christ makes the world better by one person.

Because they have become another part of God's unfolding plan to redeem and to restore the world. So in light of this being Father's Day, I want to encourage you fathers to be a father is a glorious privilege.

Our role is of such great importance and value that God bestows his title on us. Father. The Lord passed down his great promises of great blessings through the patriarchs. And he gives us the privilege of passing them down to our children.

He has sent Christ to redeem and restore us. And then he calls us to be a, calls us to be a picture of Christ in our marriages for a watching world, including our wife and children. And he fills us with the spirit of Christ to enable us to fulfill this great calling.

Fathers, recognize God has chosen you to lead your family for their good and his glory. And he's not looking for superheroes. He's not looking for the best and the brightest. In our own power and wisdom, not one man apart from Christ is capable of living up to their obligation, their responsibility.

We need Christ. And the good news is, Christ offers himself willingly. He loves you perfectly. And he's calling you to repentance. And he's calling you to newness of life in him. So look to him. Worship him.

Learn from him. And then share all you learn with your children. And tell them to do likewise with their children. And take comfort knowing that he is working through you. Don't despise the day of small things.

Don't despise past failures and missteps. God will work through you. Max Jukes was a man who didn't seem all that bad. But he was spiritually bankrupt. And his worldview and its pervasive and corrosive influence led to the ruin and harm of all those who followed in it.

Jonathan Edwards, on the other hand, knew of his spiritual bankruptcy. Knew that he was poor in spirit. And he looked to Christ the Redeemer. He worshiped him. And he instructed his household after him to keep the way of the Lord.

And all those who followed in his steps and his Savior brought glory to God and blessings to their fellow man. May we do likewise to the glory of God. If you're here today and you're not a father, I hope you realize this message is still for you.

We all have an obligation before God. We all have a part to play. We are all able to be used by God to be an example to those around us as we worship Him, as we serve Him. You can be salt and light to a watching world and bring them to our God and Savior.

And there may be some here thinking this message really isn't for them because they aren't even in a relationship with God. They don't know God. They don't have a loving relationship with Him. What are you waiting for?