The Perfect Father | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

Uh want to read in your in your hearing. Matter of fact, if you'll stand with me um just want to read one verse and then I want to kind of break into song that I feel on my heart. Luke 15 and verse 20. Very very familiar verse that I I believe uh some of you may be able to quote, but if not, you'll definitely recognize it. But this is referring to the prodal son. And it says, "He rose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." If you were in our our marriage retreat sessions this year, Bishop Raymond Woodward taught an incredible lesson on prodals. And if you remember, we we declared that 2025 was going to be our year of our prodals return. You still believe that? Cuz I we've already started to see it happen. I I'm already seeing some of your loved ones here, your sons and daughters coming back home. But I I believe, you know, with with Father's Day coming up on Sunday, and I don't know, I I might extend this into my message on Sunday night, but I feel like we need to preach about the perfect father because there's only one perfect father. Now, the rest of us are striving to be a perfect father. Are you thankful that you serve a God that loves us so much and is the perfect example of not only a creator, but a lover of our souls? I just want to sing this song. I I love this song and you can put my message title up. Bible simply says that our God is such a good God. Come on. You know the song. Sing with me. Oh, I've heard a thousand stories of one thing. think you're like, but I've heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night. And you tell me that you are pleased and that I'm never alone. You're a good, good father. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. And I'm loved by you. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am. You're a good good father. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. And I'm a love by you. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am. And I've seen many searching for answers for life. But I know that we're all searching for answers. Only you proide. cuz you know just what we need before we say a word. You're a good Godf father. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. I'm a love by you. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am. You're a good good father. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. And I'm loved by you. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways to us. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. To I want to hear you sing it. You're a good who you are and I beloved my God. Come on one more time. Your son so good. Good. Good father who you are. Who you are. who you are and I'm loved by you. I am who I am. It's who I am. Come on, just love him in return in this place right here. Father, we love you. There's no father like you. All of us, fathers, we just fall a little shy, Lord God. But you, Father, are perfect in all your ways. Everything about you is a lovely all everything about you is wonderful. You're perfect in all of your ways. You're perfect. You're perfect. You're perfect. Come on. I feel the Holy Ghost in this place just for a moment. Come on. And just tell them, Lord, you're perfect. You're perfect. Everything about you, you're perfect. You're perfect, Jesus. You're perfect. Oh, I love the way you love me. I love the way you love me, Jesus. Clap your hands unto the Lord and give him praise before you're seated today. Amen. And amen. In 2020 took uh to I released a book called the pathway home which was simply written out of necessity because we realized that it's very easy to sit somebody down from ministry but it's a little more difficult to bring them back into a place of leadership. But I also I I broadened a little bit and I began to to to speak or to to to write about being lost. And there's different forms and types of lost. But what I really want to to really focus on because we're speaking of the father is is the third story. Of course, it went from a sheep to a coin and then to the lost son. But while I was uh developing this pathway and bringing this pathway and trying to to make a clear and defined pathway that somebody could return back home and even back into ministry, I began to study the father and I began to see what Jesus when he told the parable, what Jesus was truly referring to is he was focusing not so much on the prodal but he was focusing on the love of the father. And uh with Father's Day day coming up, I I just I believe we can study the father. But before I get there, I first I first got to kind of lay a little foundation because without understanding the son, the lost son, it's hard to see the qualities of the father. So turn with me in your Bibles uh Luke 15 start with verse 11 and we're going to read about about this parable that Jesus told and that the parable he told about the lost son was much more defined and and thorough than any other parable that he told in the word of God. And the Bible simply says, "And he said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that fallth to me." And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and began he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent in him into the fields to feed swine. And verse 16 says, "And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him." There there are people who take a journey who know better. People who have made decisions to purposely leave the father's house. We would, I guess, call these firstderee offenders. These are sometimes people that burn bridges as they go and lose friendships as they go. And probably if you think about it, I'm sure names could come to your mind of people that you've known in the past. People and sometimes I feel it's the people we do the most for that hurt us the most. Those that we take the most time to try to develop and we give to and we we we kind of take under our wing. It's it's those people that you feel when they leave, when they walk away from home. They're the ones by far that hurt the most. And this lost son, he's not like the lost sheep. He didn't just wander away. He's not like the uh the woman that lost the coin and misplaced the truth. This this lost son, he left on purpose. I began to think of our our great nation because as I I began to think, what makes a good father? what makes a perfect father, what makes a great father? And I I began to think of our nation and with all of the shortcomings that the United States of America has and and I guess sometimes it takes traveling out of the country to realize how awesome your country is. But even with all the shortcomings and and we can turn the news on and we see what's happening in California and many cities of our nation right now. But we do have a land of democracy. It is a land of rights. It is a nation that gives its citizens the right to choose. And that's what really truly makes our nation great. Even if the rights given don't produce results that benefit the nation or the government, a great nation gives citizens rights anyway. Matter of fact, for example, when we were in quarantine back in 2020, and oh, aren't you thankful that that year has passed, COVID 19, the the outbreak that took place. And it's kind of funny cuz looking back now and thinking back now, it just seemed so elementary. But you and I remember that we when we were in the thick of it, we didn't know what was going to happen. Matter of fact, I remember talking to my wife and saying, you know, this just might be the new normal. We were going on months and months and wearing masks. I mean, we got to the point where not wearing masks felt weird. Y'all remember that? The first time you walked into a local business without a mask on, it was kind of like a at first it was awkward and then you after it was over after they finally let us take some masks off people restaurant sort of let you come in again and man it just felt awkward. But here here's what I I began to realize because I had friends overseas. I I've got a good friend named Timothy Lee in in Singapore and and we were we were talking almost daily and he would ask me how things were going in America. Of course, he being close to China, he was he was in the thick of it and he would ask me what we were doing and how we were uh you know protecting ourselves and if we were social distancing and uh if we were quarantining and of course here we are living in Tennessee and you go to Pitch and Forge and you couldn't even tell there was a virus. People just walk around just breathing on each other, you know, just I'm going to blow on you because I can, you know, and our government had the idea, right or wrong, sick or not sick, by social distancing, the country could get control of the spread of the virus. However, because of our constitutional rights and liberties of this nation, there were some people who did not follow the request of the government to self- quarantine. I like how I just made that really awkward right there. I I would talk to I would talk to brother Timothy Lee and he began to tell me he said, "You know what? our our government asked us to self- quarantine and if we don't obey the quarantine, he said people are coming up missing. He said people will walk out of the streets and they don't come home. He said I he said I've got missionary friends even in in in China. He said where you're going to get if you get if you're on the road on the streets on a day that that's not your day to be on the streets. He said, "There there's tens of thousands of dollar fines that they're finding people for being outside their house." And as crazy as it seems, you look at a a law or you look at a government that asks its people to do something, what makes America a free nation in a great nation is that our government allows us to make choices whether we agree with them or we don't agree with them. Think about it. We didn't have people coming up missing because they didn't wear a mask or because they're out on a Wednesday when they should have been out on a Thursday. If they didn't quarantine for 10 days in a hotel somewhere, we we didn't have people coming up missing because we have the greatest country I believe in the world. It's a great country because why? We have liberties. We we have a constitution that is followed. We have democracy that has followed to where we can make decisions. And I thank God for the United States of America. I thank God for the country. I know it has so many faults. And I I know sometimes you turn your television on and you wonder, man, what is going on in our nation? But with everything that's happening in our nation, thank God for the United States of America. It doesn't matter who's in the White House. It doesn't matter who's in the governor's house. It doesn't matter who your senators are. Thank God for the United States of America. It's a great nation. It's not a perfect nation, but it's a great it's a great nation. But I want you to keep this thought of a nation although we may not follow everything our government asks us to do, it still becomes a great nation because of the rights. Keep that in the front of your mind because in the parable of the lost son, there there's four characters recorded. You had the father, you had the younger son, the older son, and then you had the citizen of the far-off country. But here we're focusing on on the father. And and I I believe that everyone who was listening to Jesus understood that the father represented God. And I believe we serve a great God. I I believe we sang the song, we serve a good good father. He's perfect in all of his ways. And it's not because he makes demands and looks to punish those who are disobedient, but instead I believe he we serve a great father because he gives direction but then gives us rights and allows his children to make our own choice in following that direction. Aren't you thankful that we don't serve the God of the Old Testament? And follow me with this because some of you say, "Wait a I thought we did. When we went into the dispensation of grace, we came in a whole dis different dispensation. No longer does the earth open up and swallow a city of people because they don't obey God. We came into this new dispensation, this dispensation of grace. Now we have, oh, God has dwelt among us. God has become one of us. God has taken on flesh. He's walked in our shoes. And now there's a whole different feeling. There's a whole different sense of mercy on earth because God says, "I will give you a choice whether you will follow me, whether you will obey me." And because of that, we see that we have a father who's a perfect father. He didn't punish the son in the in the parable. He didn't he didn't chase after the son and try to punish him. When he returned, we don't see that he punished him. What he did is he allowed the poor decisions that the son made to be his punishment. The father waited patiently, never stopped loving, never stopped hoping or believing that one day his lost son would return because we serve a great God. We serve a great father. But we begin, look again in verse 11. I kind of want to execute through this parable because to get to father's day and understand how our father really thinks and how our father really works, we got to understand the son. It said a certain man had two sons and the the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that father to me." And he divided unto them his living. The son's plan was not to take his portion of his father's wealth and do something productive with it. His plan was to take and to live the way he wanted to live without anybody telling him how to live. And so in this parable, Jesus described a father who responded to a rebellious son like no other father would have responded. Cuz even if a good son and a responsible god-fearing son would have asked for his inheritance before his father died, the request would have been very insulting to the father. It would be insulting in today's day. But in that culture that Jesus was teaching this parable, this would have been of insult to a father if a son would have said, "I want you to give me what's rightfully mine." It it would have been like the son was saying to his father, "Dad, I I just assume you were dead. I I want what's mine right now." And in order for the younger of the two sons to receive his in inheritance, the the possessions would have had been sold because onethird of the estate belonged to that younger son. This was inconsiderate. It was insulting to the father. But it was as if the heavenly father was nothing like an earthly father. Our heavenly father is willing to to be inconvenience in order to give us our way even if he knows our way is not the correct way as an earthly father would have said earthly father would have said no way I'm not giving you a penny you can leave you can walk out the door but I'm not giving you a thing but our heavenly father oh is willing to allow us to make our own decisions and our own choices some that will save us and others that might ruin us. And it's why he's known as the good father, the great father. He gives us the right to choose our own destiny. It's all about the freedom of rights. It's the freedom to choose. Verse 13 says, "And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance, the Bible says with riotist living not many days after I I really don't think this son's intention was to be wild and wasteful. I I don't believe his intention was to be crazy and careless." Jesus never said that the younger son was rebellious before he left the father's house. I believe he was just restless. I believe he was just sick and tired of doing what he'd always done. He he had the same landscape and the same job and he saw what he always saw and did what he's always done. And I just wonder if there might have been a restless spirit that this younger son was facing. a restless spirit that enjoys the father's possessions, enjoys living a good life, but becomes bored living under the father's sheltered lifestyle. It's it's obvious he was restless and was looking for something more of life because a restless spirit will always keep you wishing you were the opposite of whatever you are. I was even thinking of the story, the the Disney story of of Aladdin, a street smart street rat, dreams of a life beyond the dusty streets of of Agriba. He dreams of living in a palace while Princess Jasmine, the spirited daughter of the Sultan, longs for freedom from her glide for her her her gilded cage, craving the vibrant, unfiltered life of the city marketplace. Y'all y'all know the story. City boy wanted to live in the palace and the girl that lived in the palace wanted to live in the city. A restless spirit will cause you to always feel that somebody else has it better than you. Anybody ever felt that way? Come on, we can be honest with one another. I've I've felt that way before. You look, especially with social media, you know, before social media, we didn't have a lot of issues we have today. But today, you get on social media and you you see where people are and what they're doing. And of course, you know, people don't put the negative on social media. Well, some people don't put them negative. Most people don't put the negative on social media. Most people only only show the good days and they show when they're traveling. They show when they're preaching here, they're singing there and at this conference or or traveling to this destination. And a lot of times people can be living a good life. Talking about living a great life but wish they were somewhere else. It was interesting to me and and my wife. We we had a continue. We were we're we're traveling through Europe. We're traveling through the countryside of Italy and I look over at my daughters and all three are on their phones. What are you all doing? You're checking out what your friends are doing back home and you're driving through the countryside of Italy. Put your phones away and look out the window. But then I I was at my house earlier today and I thought, you know, but sometimes we could be at home and just be wishing we were somewhere else. Wish we God, if I if I just had more opportunity. What What could I be with with the potential that I have? What could I be if if I was somewhere else? And and then my mind quickly reflected back. We got to go in in Rome. We got to visit the prison where Paul wrote second Timothy. Got to go in the actual cell that they believe he wrote second Timothy. Got to go down and of course we got to walk down a staircase. I wish I would have brought a picture. I might bring a picture on Sunday. But we got to walk down a a a narrow staircase, but he got let down that you could see the hole where they would lead lead him down with a rope. It was nothing more than it felt like we're in a in a in a cave in a dungeon. You could see the old 2,000year-old. You could see where there was a place where they would leave a a candle. They put a candle holder. It was up against on the on the on the stone where they would put a candle. It looked like it was 2,000 years old. And it was just an amazing it was an amazing place. And I thought to myself, how could Paul write such a positive book? I I had to read second Timothy again just to see what he wrote while he was in this dungeon. And I thought, how could he have such a brilliant outlook on life where he could barely see to write from a candle? No daylight. He wasn't in my house. he wasn't living where I'm living. And I thought to myself, come on. Sometimes we live an entitled lifestyle. We feel like everything just has to be handed to us and we deserve it. When all along if we would just realize God is good and God is able to make us whatever he wants to make us wherever we are. Whether we're in a dungeon in Rome, Italy, or we're living in a nice house here in Marville, Tennessee, God can do with us and through us whatever he wants to do. It's all about our mindset. It's all about not getting the spirit that can come upon people. A spirit that says, "Oh, it's always better somewhere else." It's a restless spirit. It's the same spirit that comes upon students that graduate from the academy and say, "I I've got to leave. I I got to go off. I got to travel. I I got to go find another place to do ministry." While at the very same time, there's there's Bible school students that are graduated Bible school saying, "I wish I could go to Maraveville and just do some kind of ministry in Marville church." And it's crazy because those same people are are brushing shoulders. One's going out while another one's coming in. One's looking for ministry on the outside while another one is saying, "Hey, if I could get a part of their ministries, man, they're going somewhere. They're doing great things. Have you seen their kids ministry and their youth ministry, their music ministry? I just want to be a part of it." And we got young people that have grown up in a 150 voice choir, and they're looking trying to find somewhere to go. Restless spirit. Sometimes there's good excuses. I I'm proud of Parker Anne. Parker Anne's marrying a great great young man in Mississippi. She's going to go to Mississippi. Going to marry that boy. They're going to do great things in that church. God's already making a way for ministry. That that's beautiful. I'm talking about people that have no direction, but just think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Nothing wrong with Bible colleges. There's nothing wrong there. There there's nothing wrong with ministries outside of this church. Please don't get me wrong. I'm just saying when people get a restless spirit where they've got everything, they got every opportunity. You want to minister, we need you to minister here at this church. I don't know that any of our ministries are are filled up when we don't need help. From our production team to our nursery team to our coffee shop to our fit team, children's ministry, you every one of our ministries, we need help. But sometimes and and and just like this prodical son, Jesus never alluded that he was some horrible son leaving. He just he just had leaving on his mind. I'm going to go do something. Give me some money. I'm going to go do something with it. Who know? He might have went to a far off country to do something great with his life and he got caught up with the wrong people doing the wrong things, giving out money and and trying to entice people to be his friend. Cuz sometimes that's what you have to do when you go to places you don't know anybody and try to prove yourself and try to show it. In the Bible it says and as we read through the story we find out that sooner or later he runs out of money. Sooner or later there comes a fam. The Bible says like there came a famine. And wouldn't you know it was when he ran out of money. When he wasted his substance with riotous living. Riotous living. Riotous. What does riotous living mean? Is it Is it drugs? Is it alcohol? Is it women? Is it perversion? Debauchery? What is righteous living? I don't know. We don't know. Because he lived in a faroff country. We don't know what he was doing. All we know is he ruined himself because he ran out of money and he had no place to go. So what did he do? The Bible says that that he attached himself that that he he met up with a citizen from this far off country and here he is. Well, let me let me say this first before I get there because wasted his substance with riotist. It doesn't say that he wasted his finances because substance is more than just finances. When you when you live riotously and you waste your substance, you lose your integrity. You lose your self-esteem. You you lose your selfrespect. You lose your testimony. Come on. I'm talking about it's more than just money. He He lost more than just finances. He lost more than just a third of what his father gave him. He lost everything. You lose your good name in the church. You lose your reputation in the community. Money can be regained. Possessions can be regained. But it's a whole lot more difficult to regain the rest of your substance. It was from the lifestyle of Moses that the saying was brilliantly coined. There's only pleasure of sin for a season. There's only a small time. There's just a very it's a it's a small uh just a window just a season of time where there's pleasure but then it all goes up in smoke and you wake up one day Bible says in Luke 15:14 and when he had spent all there came there arose a mighty famine in the land and he began to be and want isn't it interesting that as soon as he spent all his inheritance then the famine came when you finally finally run out of substance. Then comes the famine. When you've had enough substance to take your your travels home, when you had enough to get home, nothing came to mind to go home. But now that everything is gone, then the famine comes. And when you had substance, you ignored the signs. You see, most famines, they give signs, but when you're wasting substance, you miss the signs. Bible says he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he he sent him in the field to feed swine. I I I know we understand who this citizen is. It's the citizen of the barren land of the desert of the dry land. It's a it's a citizen enjoys tempting people in the wilderness. And this lost son joins himself to that citizen. And the Bible says he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. No man gave unto him. When you get desperate, some things you said you would never eat begin to look appetizing. The corn husk, the the pig slop. Do you think six months prior this young man would have eaten corn husks and pig slop? I don't believe so. But when you get desperate, corn husks begin to look like candy bars and and pig slot begins to look like mashed potatoes and gravy. Stuff you thought you would die before you did now become your new normal. Because sadly, some people settle for this new normal and they force themselves to be content with this new lifestyle of starving and begging. People make the statement, "Ah, I'll I'll never marry him. I'll never date her. I'll never smoke that. I I'll never wear that. I I I'll never gossip. I'll never become a cheat. I I'll never become a liar. I'll never be abusive." You don't do that stuff in your right mind. But when you begin to starve, you find yourself doing things you thought you would never do. Going places you would never go, saying things you would never say, doing acts that you thought you would never do. Here, this Jewish young man has found himself in a pin filled with swine, and he's feeding the very things that can't feed him. And it was more, you know, we we think of our to ourselves, we think, oh, how horrible, how how dirty of a job to be in with swine. But that's not what Jesus in this parable, that's not what he was getting across to these Pharisees and these religious leaders. What he was trying to let them to know is this young man was in the dirtiest place a Jewish man could ever find himself. He was among the most unclean animals. A Jew, the Jew would not even they would not even be in the same region as a swine. It was an unclean animal and it was the most unclean animal. But here he is and he's feeding the very thing that cannot feed him. He's taking care of the very thing that was most despicable in his life. But in verse 17, the Bible says, "And he came to himself." And he said, "How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and despair and I perish with hunger?" He said, "I will arise and go to my father." He came to himself. That means he got into his right mind. Let me tell you something. It's never too late to get into your right mind. I don't care how much substance you've lost. I don't care how much substance you've wasted, how much substance, oh, you've squandered, but oh, if you could ever get into your right mind because even in a state of starvation, it finally hit him. What am I doing here? It's never too late to change your mind. I I might be preaching to somebody who's watching by way of the internet. It's never too late to change your mind. You've never gone too far. You've never done too much. Oh, if you could just ever wake up and realize that there's a church family that's here that wants to see you return home. You've got parents that want to see you return home. You've got children that want to see you return home. When he came to himself, he said, "How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and despair, and here I perish with hunger?" He said, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto my father, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me one as one of thy hired servants." And he arose and came to his father. I want you to see something right here. He did not have the spirit of entitlement. He didn't think, "I'm just going to go home and I'm going to come back and claim what's rightfully mine." He said, "I'm going to go home and I'm just going to be a servant. I'm just going to do what all the servants do. I don't need shoes on my feet. I don't need a clean robe. I don't need to eat at the master's table. I don't need to eat at my father's table. I'll just eat at the servants's table. Uh, I'll serve my father and then I'll eat later. I'll work in the fields until my my skin is eaten down to bone. Uh, I'll do whatever it takes just to be back at the father's house. And the Bible says he arose and came to his father. And I I'm not going to teach much longer, but I want to end with this tonight. Do you know how the son found his way back to the father? is because the father never changed. And I want you to think about this because I'm going to bring this into Father's Day and I I want to preach Sunday night to our fathers. But the father was exactly who he was and where he was when the son left. And this is what scares me sometimes because what if the son would have taken the pathway home and and came to a deserted farmhouse and and came to a deserted servant's quarters and came to a a deserted barn in a deserted field. What would have happened if he would have made his way back home and nobody would have been where he left them? It's so sad. Listen, I've seen this happen. It's so sad when children backslide and their parents follow them out the door. Come on. You've seen this. I've seen this. I I've been so burdened by this. I I see a teenager. I see a teenager backslide. At first, the parents are upset. The the the parents are crying. They're mourning over their backsliding child. But wouldn't you know, but not just years later, the parents go out the same door that the son went out. And here the son comes back. What would happen? How sad would it be if one Wednesday night your backsliden son came back home, came back to church, and they couldn't even find you on the pew. Uh if, God forbid, one of my daughters ever backslide, if if one of my daughters ever leave the father's house, I want them to know assuredly that if they come back on a Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m., or they come back on a Sunday night at 6:00 p.m., they're going to find mom and dad on the same pew. They left mom and dad. If they come back on a midweek Bible study at 7:30, they're going to find mom and dad on the same pew. They left mom and dad because the father never left the househ. The father was on the front porch. The father said, "If he comes home, and I hope he does, I'm going to be watching for him. I'm going to be looking for him. And I'm going to be right here where he knows when I can be found. I feel the Holy Ghost because I feel there's fathers in this househ. We've got to man up. We got to man up and understand we are the leaders of our homes. Uh not just when our children are two and five and nine and 12. But when our children become 19 and 25 and 35, we still got to be the man of the home. Uh we still got to be a father that they can look to. We still got to be in the father's house where they know they could come to in the time of need. In the time of question, in the time of trouble, when they got questions about doctrine, when they got questions about their lifestyle, I'm still going to be my daughter's father when they're in their 20s and 30s and 40s. I've got to be a father who understands, oh, I'm the head of my home, whether they're children or whether they're adults. He's a good good father. He arose, came to his father's house. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. I I want you to stand because I'm I'm out of time and I really didn't even get to talk about the father, but this is where I want to begin on Sunday night. But it's all about the father's response. It's all about the father's love and the father's compassion. They could understand my son made a horrible decision that was disrespectful to me. It was disrespectful to his older brother. It was disrespectful to the whole house. But I still got to love him because I'm his father. I still got to show compassion to him because I'm his father. Because if I don't show compassion to him, come on, you all know the story. Who's going to show compassion to him if the father doesn't show compassion to him? Is the older brother going to show compassion? No. Because the older brother, all he's doing is thinking about himself. and what he got cheated out of. But oh, the father, the perfect father. Oh, I can't wait to talk and preach about the fab five. He did five beautiful things. Five beautiful things. He saw him. He had compassion. He ran. He fell on his neck. And he kissed his son. Was a son worthy of it, Brother Kenny? Oh, absolutely not. Did the son deserve it? Absolutely not. But that's not what kind of father we have. Oh my god. I I don't know what kind of earthly father you have or you had. Maybe you didn't have an earthly father. Maybe maybe you grew up in a a one parent household with your mother. Your father you didn't even know your father. I want you to know tonight you have a heavenly father that is a perfect father. Even if you didn't have a father, I had a father that showed me what it was what it meant to be a father. But if you didn't have a father that you could follow an example, we have a good good father. He's a father of compassion. He's a He's a father of love that sees us making mistakes and loves us through our mistakes. He He sees us taking wrong turns, but still loves us through those wrong turns. like a great nation allows us to make decisions that may not be the best decision. He's a father that allows us to make decisions. Uh that allows us to say, "Hey, this is not what you need to do, but sometimes you got to do certain things to get to places where you need to get to. It's a good good father." I want to end by singing the same song we began with. that while we sing about the father, if you've got a prodal in your family, I don't want you to think about this song and sing this song for yourself. I want you to think about it and sing about it from the viewpoint of your prodal. Can you do that? You're a good, good father. That's who you are. That's who you are. That's who you are in your prodical love by your father. I feel the Holy Ghost. I feel somebody in this place. I don't know if you're the prodical or you got a loved one that's a prodal, but they need to hear about a father that loves them. They need to hear about a father that sees them. A father that knows them and still loves them and still has compassion on them. Come on, lift your hands real high. You're a good, good father. That's who you are. That's who you are. That's who you are. And I'm a love by you. That's who I am. That's who I am. It's who I am. You're a good good father. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. I've been loved by you. That's my identity. That's who I am. Come on. Do you feel the love in this place today? Do you feel the father's love in this house? Whatever you've done. Oh, he still loves you because he's perfect in all of his ways. He's perfect in all of his ways. Oh, you are perfect in all of your ways. to us. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways to us. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways to Can you name a person right now tonight? Come on. I want you to personalize this. I want you to name a person. You don't have to call their name loud. The neighbor doesn't have to hear. You don't have to share with anybody. I just want in this last prayer that we're about to pray, I want you just to call the name of a person that you know needs to feel the love of God tonight. Come on. They've been they've been struggling. They've been drifting. Oh, God. Maybe they were in church years ago. Maybe there's somebody that backslid years and years ago. I I just want you to call their name because there's nothing impossible for our God. With God, all things are possible. And that includes your loved one right here. But come on, we're going to end this service. Come on, just just lift up both hands and pray to the father right here. Come on, the perfect father. And just call out that name and say, "God, won't you have mercy and compassion upon them? Won't you wake them up out of the pigsty that they're in right now? Let them come to their senses. Let them come to themsel. Let them have a newness of mind. And God, I pray that they would come to theirelves and oh God, that they would change their outlook on life and they would see you for who you are and would feel your love and and would feel your compassion and feel that you're not a God that's judging them, but you're a God that loves them. Come on, somebody lift up that name right now. Come on, lift up that name. Heat. Heat. Hallelujah. Heat. Jesus name. Let them see it. Oh God, let them see there's another chance. There's a second chance, God. God, I pray over this great congregation, oh God, as we go through the rest of this week, God, give great give a great work week, oh God. I pray, Lord God, protection upon families, God, as we get ready for Father's Day, I I pray you would bless every father, Lord, as we come together as families, Lord God, to celebrate our fathers, God. I pray, Lord God, for protection, Lord God. I pray, Lord God, for peace in families, God, let there be peace within families, God. God, peace among children, Lord, grown children and families, God, let there be peace, oh God, in every family, God. And God, let us reflect, oh God, your greatness as a father, your perfection as a father. In Jesus name we pray. And the church said, "Amen." Amen. God bless you dismissed in Jesus name. Remember the children, children on the field tonight. God bless you in Jesus name.