Father's Day

happy Sunday, Cornerstone Apostolic Church. It's Father's Day 2025. I welcome all of you into this worship time together. I trust the blessings of the Lord are with you. The goodness of God is shining in your life. And I'm so thankful just to know that the hand of the Lord continues. It blesses and keeps us every day. I uh give honor to all of our fathers today. Whatever level, whether you're a new father or an old father, um I honor you today on this Father's Day. And I'm thankful that on this June 15th that you have joined with us. Also, it's a great privilege just to be able to be with you again.

Our CAC family, we are in transition and uh hopefully very soon hopefully we will finish our remodel of our new worship facility and we will be back live and in person. I appreciate your patience working with us, continuing to connect with us uh each week to um see what's happening in great scenic city. Uh Father's Day, of course, is uh is like many other celebrated days. Um it I don't know that I would compare Father's Day to the birth of the Christ child at Christmas. Let's call that remembering day. Uh we do have a day though for thanksgiving.

Uh and I think that's pertinent. We all need to be thankful. and that things are worth celebrating, right? Uh the birth of a baby, that's something to celebrate. Uh a marriage vow, that's something to celebrate. Things happen in our lives that are that are worthy of celebration. Um we have entire months in fact on the United States calendar that very interesting that you can celebrate this and this kind of month and for 28 29 30 days the focus is focused on that we we enjoy the celebration of things. Okay. And the fact remains that it's it's an effort to admire and to remember the things that certain people races of people uh types of people things that people have done.

It's a it's a time to remember them and to to simply celebrate them. Today happens to be one of those days. It's probably one of the most, if I may, to be quite honest, since I am a father, uh it's probably one of the most dreaded days of the year in many men's lives. And I don't want to sound harsh or coarse, but uh some consider this day, Father's Day, to be a bad reminder of what could have been or what should have been. Um, others they lament over the over the dark memories that they have of their childhood or the abuses at home. And so, Father's Day is just a reminder again of that that mess.

And I'm sorry that this day has turned out to be that. I'm not I'm not trying to help you dig up old past or old bones of the past. I'm not trying to spend a lot of time uh uncovering what you've spent your time trying to cover about your past. I am though reminding us that this is indeed a special day, special day of celebration. Now a little bit of history for those who are history persons like myself. Uh maybe it will shed a little bit of light on Father's Day and help us to understand. In the early 1900s, there was a lady who saw the beauty and the power of giving honor to mothers.

Okay, this is a side note here. Mothers. And so she she birthed an idea at a local church where she was that we need to honor mothers and and we'll call it Mother's Sunday. And the practice uh began to take traction, the the giving of flowers, the writing of poems, things of that nature began to take a hold and uh the uh state of Washington is where this particular lady lived. And there was a her father who had um five children that he had raised basically by himself. When the youngest was born, the mother passed away. His wife passed away in birth.

Um now it was not fancy in the beginning to give honor and so forth to men because men were just hard worker brute men. But um the great depression took over of course and then American wars h or America was in wars and the world front that began to happen. The whole home front the whole challenge of reconfiguring how people interacted how parents and with their kids and many fathers many husbands many sons did not come home from those wars. And so the whole landscape changed. But unlike Mother's Day which brings flowers and cards and so forth, Father's Day in itself was a different vibe, another challenge all together.

Why? Because shouldn't you give honor to whom honor is due? I think we would all agree to that. And so why is it such an obstacle for Father's Day even in our current culture? Why is it an obstacle so many for so many to be able to do so? Father's Day became, of course, a national holiday, not until 1972. Mother's Day, on the other hand, was 1914. Took a long time before Father's Day was recognized as a national day. Um, and of course, if I may, just to bring the history closer to us, uh, basically commercialism took over and how can we sell more cards?

How can we invest or get people to invest more money in buying things for the ones their dads, stepdads, grandfathers or men of influence in their lives and on and on. So, uh, the toys that men use, uh, the tools that men use, the things that men do, they begin to alter the prices, begin to make specials, and here we go. It wasn't until Richard Nixon in 1972 declared that June would celebrate Father's Day. Now, the fact that most fathers do not want to really be recognized for what they do because many fathers just simply consider it to be what they're supposed to do.

Okay? Men just do with the skills that they have. uh the way that a man was raised for an example as a child so many times is how that they will invest into their kids and into their wives and those people that are in their world. The nature of men of course is completely different than female than mothers. For an example, men fight, men build, uh men come up with ways to survive. It's happened through all of history. Men see things in a different way than women do. uh men are indeed capable of doing some really great wonderful things when they put their mind and their heart into it.

Now, um don't pick up a rock of liberalism today and throw it at me and and say, you know what, men are not better than women. Don't don't don't do that. I'm not going there. Where what I am simply saying is that God knew what he was doing when he created man. He also knew what he was doing when he created out of man the woman. That's biblical principle that we need to understand is that God knows that there's two different types. He knows the man and the woman are different. That's God's mind. He understands the principles of of manliness and of womanhood.

That's God's mind. There's no reason for one to dominate over the other. Men simply have to be men. And men are made to do things different than women. Women will of course do things different than men. But today is Father's Day. So I I honor you men. I honor you today. I salute you. I I pray for you men to be men of prayer. I do as pastor. I I work with you men so that you men will work. Uh I laugh with you men so that you also can laugh. I invest in you men because I need you to invest in me. Notice what it says in the book of Luke chapter number 18.

And it's very simple. Verse number one says this. He spoke a parable unto them to this end that men ought to always to pray and not to faint. Men ought always to pray and not to faint. Men, you should know how to pray. Doesn't mean, please don't mistake what I'm saying. It doesn't mean that you you have to be one of these great enduring deep uh prayer warriors that prays for 10 hours a day. No. But what it says is men, you ought to know how to pray in every situation, dad, in every place and everything in life. You need to have the ability to simply talk to God to get reference from God to get encouragement, direction, guidance, wisdom, knowledge from God.

You can speak the name Jesus. Men, you can your prayer matters to everybody around you. What the writer Luke said is that men ought always to pray. He was reverberating the words of the master. Men pray. Again, I I I will admonish you men, find a way to communicate with your creator. Spend time. Don't let conviction and confusion and and the things of this world push you into a prayer place because then you'll pray anxiously. You'll pray with wrath. You'll pray doubting, but spend time simply building a relationship and a rapport with Jesus Christ.

Mark chapter 9 says it this way. Excuse me. Verse 23, Jesus said unto him, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Men, you should pray, but second, fathers, you can believe in things of God." You don't always have to have an answer to life's great challenges. Questions are going to come and you may not know what to do, but you can believe that God can lead you and you can demonstrate that belief by how you act. You can believe that God is still the God of answers. Dad, you can if help me here, you can even believe in your wife.

You can believe in your children. You can believe in your friends. You can believe in the relationships that you're in. You You can believe. The Bible says simply here that if you understand that believing in others makes a difference, then you'll do it more. Believe in people. If you can believe, things are possible. Now, we understand that in that story in Mark chapter nine that there was a man that had a sick child and he really was desperate in the situation and he really discovered that he had tried things but he he needed the master's touch.

And so this the simple phrase that Jesus gave to him was if you can believe it can happen. So men I challenge you first of all to learn how to pray. Second of all learn how to believe in what you're praying. Ephesians chapter 6 notice this Ephesians chap this is a letter to one of the churches and verse number four. And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Number one you can pray. Number two you can believe. Number three, fathers, you can raise your child to love God. You don't have to be a saint, men.

You don't have to look for saintthood here on earth. You don't. But you can raise your child to love God. You can show your kids the love of God and what it really truly means. You can show them by the way you interact with them. You can show them how you interact with others. Allow me a moment, Dad, if you will. You you can show um the fear and the the na nurture and the admonition and the things of God. You you can teach those things by the way you talk to other people and interact with them. Your children are always watching you. By the way you worship, by the way you uh pray over your food, by the way you spend time in the house of God, by the way you walk in your daily life and that on your job and your interaction with other people.

Uh men, you can raise them. You can bring them up in a process of knowing that I I I'm not a perfect example perhaps as a man. You can say even to them, I'm I'm not maybe the best one to ask or the best one about this, but I know how to pray and I know how to believe that God will work in our lives. I am not a perfect example, but I know the one who is and his name is Jesus. You see, man, in in your faults, failures, mess ups, the struggles, and and strategies of life, you you're going to find there's many areas that you're boxed up, and you're not sure what to do.

I will tell you this, if God is included in all aspects of your life, things can be different. Now, we we can all make mistakes, most assuredly. We we don't have to live in those mistakes. We don't have to wallow, if you will, in those mistakes, but we can move forward. And if our relationship with God is paramount, our desire to have relationship with those who we love who are around us, if our if our real purpose in life is not to make billions of dollars or not to be uh number one on the job or not to be the corporate ladder of success position number one, but if our true desire is to please God, then that influence matters.

There are men that have come through my life that I I I really really still believe and I I really can see the the in influence that they had in me and I understand that they made me who I am and all of my goods, bads, and uglies. I am who I am today because people invested in me. Dad, you have that same ability to invest in your children and your wife and those around you. I want every father that's listening today, I want every dad that's that's watching in this service today, I want you to know something. I love you and I I truly believe in you.

I believe that you matter. I I believe that you matter to me. You do. I I believe you matter to those around you. Your families may struggle sometimes, Dad, to say how much they appreciate you. But I want you to know that I respect you and I believe that God's doing great, great things in your life. Fathers, I admonish you today to give God space. Give him time to work in your life. He will make up the difference where you fall short. I know he will. We all have our issues, but God is the one that can fill in the gaps for us. That's why we pray, we believe, that's why that we invest in others.

If you can learn to trust God and you can learn to lean on him, run to him, put him first, talk to him first in the morning, maybe maybe spend get a dedicated time that you spend time with him, and then you invest in that. Stay true to that pattern. Stay true to that time with God. Um, this is not a day, Dad, of Father's Day to simply show off your faults and your failures. I don't have to embarrass you. You You can do that pretty pretty good yourself. Uh, this day is not also to talk about the wouldas, the shouldas, and the couldas. I I don't I don't think that's important at this point.

This day is about honoring you and who you are and who God made you. I will say today in in this short message that I want to be a better father. I I now in my season of life, I I want to be a good grandfather. I want to be able to pass along to the next generation. I want I want to see my children raise their children in the fear and the nurture and the admonition of God. I want to see my kids become kids of prayer. And that will invest time. I want to I want to see they believe. You know what? First pray. First bring things to God instead of running off to to to who knows who from who knows where to try to get solution.

I I love the fact that I can invest in my kids even now and in my grandkids and say, you know what, let's pray about this. Let let's let's get God involved in this and watch your grandchildren light up as God begins to answer prayers for them. Watch your children notice every time God moves in their situation with their kids that Dad, you weren't always wrong. This is a day, men, that we can celebrate each other. And I honor you today, man. Work with me, would you? Um, go with me on the journey of life. Come on. I'm going to try to help the best I can, the best the Lord helps me.

Uh, let's be men who will love. Let's be men who will invest. Let's be men who will give of ourselves, of our time, and our talent, and our treasure. Let's be men that make a generational change with the one coming behind us. Man, happy Father's Day. I honor you once again. I tell you from my heart that I believe that God is doing great things and has done some incredibly miraculous things in your life. Can I can I pray with you as we close this out today? I want to pray for you, fathers. Lord, today is a beautiful Sunday. It's a day to honor and love you and serve you.

I thank you, Lord, for your goodness and mercy and grace. Thank you for the kindness you share with us every day. Thank you, Lord, for the men that are fathers, God, that are watching today. I pray a blessing in their home, in their heart, and in their life. Bless their family time, Lord. I pray for our men, their hearts to be focused on you. Pray, God, that our men would walk in honor and respect others around them. and but honor you Lord in all the choices and decisions they make. Bless them Jesus. Give them wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

Help them Lord to be men who will love, men who will be compassionate, men who will invest in the things of God. I love you Lord. I pray a special day today in their life that they would walk upright, honoring you and loving you, lifting holy hands to you, Jesus. I love you and I thank you. Bless our men today in Jesus name. Till next time, God bless you. I love you and I believe in you.