 Let's praise the Lord this morning Hallelujah, who came ready to praise God here in the house? Hallelujah, we want to say happy Father's Day to every single father in this house And if you're ready to praise come on just show by a wave of the hand today's a good day to be alive And we're gonna praise the Lord today come on Come on sing all together. I give you glory glory come on all together. I give you glory glory I give you glory glory my Jesus Jesus Come on. I want to solve the same. We say I give you glory glory. Yeah. Yes, Lord Come on sing. Oh, are you Lord? It's your words. Come on. Say it's your love once. We say you became my king for We say you say I give you ready to keep on praising the Lord. Let's praise him today. Come on to God Hallelujah. Yes, God, we give you all the glory Lord Yes, God all the glory unto you Lord God all the glory unto you God Yes, God, we give you all the praise Lord and we could feel your presence now God Here in this house. Yes, God, we love you God Yes, all the glory unto you So let's sing all together Their mountains are still being moved Strongholds are still and God we believe it Yes, we can see it Wonders are still what you do We're same bodies and they're wonders are still what you do. We are This we are here. Come on sing the chorus one more time say We are here. We are here Because this is a move yes, it is God Oh, this is a move. Oh, this is this is a move This is a move Kitchener the worship Jesus in this place His glory is in this place. How many of you believe that he's the fool To the worship Jesus in this place. Thank you for your glory Jesus Thank you for your glory You're right now for this moment road want to be today on Father's Day Lord and to honor worship our heavenly Father Lord Lord, we just worship you right now. We thank you Lord for everything you've done Lord Thank you Lord that you've never left us never forsaken us Thank you Lord that you've always been right there with us Thank you Lord that you are ready to take up every burden Lord Thank you Lord that changes Lord that you're the same yesterday today and forever And we just worship you right now Lord. You have intervening our affairs Lord. Thank you Jesus for your presence here right now Thank you Lord for everything you've done Lord We just worship you Lord Hallelujah, thank you Lord for your father's love Hallelujah such a sweet presence of the Holy Spirit here right now and Today is Father's Day and we're gonna take a moment and honor our fathers and pray for them but first of all We worship you father of fathers Lord We thank you Lord for being our father for being the father to the fatherless Lord Thank you Jesus Hallelujah, Hallelujah It wasn't until I and I am a new father, okay? Just three months, so I'm not kind of some kind of experienced father, okay? But when I look at my daughter I Think I under I understand a little bit better of how God looks at us The kind of love yeah the love between a husband and wife is something very special But when I look at my daughter, I think if anyone ever Comes near you That's the kind of love that father has for us God He sits in heaven and go through and we think oh God he was waiting you for a second. He never did He was right there and he's working He's working for you Hallelujah So we thank you father of fathers Lord, we thank you God for what you've done for us Lord and that you never leave us Nor forsake us and we're gonna pray right now for our fathers First of all, I think honor is we give honor where honor is due if you could just raise Your voice for just a minute right now and pray for the father of our house Senior Passover silly we honor you for everything you have done, sir for leading this ship For guiding us through can we just for 36 seconds just pray for him and lift him up in prayer right now Just lift up your voice none of us would have been here if not for the sacrifices that he made Lord, we just bless Passive a silly today Lord the father of the house Lord. We pray we bless him Lord We pray that every sacrifice that he has paid Lord every price that he has paid Lord That you will just multiply it to his heavenly account Lord We pray for the never never quenched presence Lord We pray that you grant every desire of his heart Lord We pray that you'll bless the work of his hands Lord We pray that you will multiply Jesus Christ. We pray Amen, amen and amen If you are father here, could you just raise your hand? We just want to honor you right now. Can we put our hands together for every father? We are living in a fatherless generation We are living in a generation where the orphaned mindset is becoming more and more Established where people have no relationship with their fathers and we are seeing the direct Consequences of a fatherless generation if we just look on the news If we look online if we look at social media, you can see the effects of a fatherless generation So we want to take a moment to honor those of you I know it's getting increasingly hard Because there's so many different cultural trends of toxic masculinity and you should be this thing You should be that Increasingly hard to stand up for what is right as a father of a house But we want to just honor you and bless you today For the price that you pay for your family For the price that you pay for your wife and your children your grandchildren Never wavering always standing full love ready to sacrifice Whatever is needed to keep yours safe and provided for So people of God, can we just lift up our voices right now and begin to pray for every father Maybe you're watching us online and you're a father right now Or maybe you're in the sanctuary or in the second sanctuary Just receive this pray right now as we pray let's lift up our voices right now Lord I pray for every father in the house Every father that is watching us online First or second sanctuary Lord. I pray right now Lord as we are coming into a generation and a culture of orphan mindset a fatherless generation a generation that hates the father and the fathers I Pray Lord for every person here with families for their children Lord Those who are ready to stand up and face what a vision of their families Jesus I pray that you honor them today Lord expand their tent plucks Lord Whatever that you will come and intervene in their situation Lord manifest your strength in their weaknesses Lord Manifest your strength in their weaknesses Lord in the mighty name Jesus Christ we pray Amen, amen and amen Hallelujah, let's put our hands together for Jesus Hallelujah Before you take a seat We had a gift for every father at the main entrance if you snuck in today and you're a father You didn't receive your gift raise your hand the ushers want to give you a gift right now to honor you as a father In the first or second sanctuary any father that didn't receive a gift raise that hand ushers are coming around To give you a gift right now, hallelujah Hallelujah, hallelujah Greet someone as you have your seats right now tell them Jesus loves and greet the father right now Find a father around you and tell them that you honor them for what they do For who they are we've got fathers. We got grandfathers. We got all kinds of fathers spiritual fathers physical fathers around us God bless you as you do so in Jesus mighty name and help me welcome Ivan up to the stage Hey, man, God bless Happy father's day to every father God bless you. We want to welcome everyone in the first and second sanctuary Can we give a round of applause to everyone in the second sanctuary? God bless you all the way in the second sanctuary We are celebrating every father and let me I want to let you know you don't have to have children to have a father's heart. Amen Amen, so carry a father's heart. This generation needs more fathers. Amen right now we have come to a time where we're gonna be giving our tithes our offerings to the house of God and Behind me. There's different ways you can give you can look on the screen at different ways you can give I want to say a quote Which Alexander the great said he said he said these words when I die This is one of his requests he had he said when I die Let my hands be hanging dangling over from the coffin I want to let everybody know that Empty-handed we've came we come into this world and empty-handed we shall go Have you ever traveled to another country? Have you Do you know that different countries have different currencies? Amen? You know that American dollars might not work in in in in China or in In Russia or in Japan or different country, whatever country you go to so what do you have to do? You go to the exchange place where you take your dollars and says can I have the currency of this nation? Because if you want your money to work in that country you have to exchange it. Amen Well, I want to let everybody know that when we die We will not be able to take anything physical with us to our heavenly country. Is there any citizens of? Heaven in this place Okay, well if if you guys are not all citizens, you know at the end of the service will have an altar call Where you can become a citizen of heaven and so Apostle Paul Tells each one of us that we have heavenly accounts and The church is one of the ways where you can exchange your currency into heaven exchange your treasures into heaven Yes, you cannot physically take anything with you into that into that heavenly place, but the Bible says store your treasures where? How can we do that? Well, you can exchange Just as you go to another country and you exchange so you can use that in a different country The church is one of the places where you can give where you can so and it's actually going into your heavenly account If this doesn't just disappear it goes into your heavenly account. Amen So I want to encourage you Every one of us we are actually racing towards eternity the fact that you are alive the fact that I'm alive is a Testimony that you know what we're gonna die Just look in the mirror you can see you're breathing, you know one day you're gonna have a last breath until maybe you're gonna be raptured I don't know if Jesus comes, but the fact that you're alive is a testimony that one day you're gonna be no more So I want to challenge you and encourage you think about your eternity eternity is a lot longer than these 40 30 60s however many years God has given you on this earth. So I want to encourage you transfer your wealth Into that heavenly account Amen, and the church is one of the places and we have a Great building flood fund that we are we are collecting. We are building another another building actually remodeling in it And God is helping us the building permits are almost almost finalized The roof is being done And so I want to encourage you those that are watching online and in the service partner with this vision We want to see soul saves people discipled healed delivered amen So I want to encourage you Partner with hungry generation. It's good ground. Amen. Amen. So let's pray father I just pray for every single person that is gonna be sowing giving Transferring their wealth into their heavenly account father. I pray your word says you love a cheerful giver Father I pray as they pour into this building fund this church this Vision I pray that you would pour into their business pour into their health pour into their families Oh God, holy spirit. We ask for a mighty mighty grace upon them Oh God, holy spirit I pray that you would be with each person and give as they give unto others Oh God father I pray that you would bless every single person here and online in the second sanctuary also in Jesus mighty name father release your glory upon them in Jesus name and buckets are gonna be passed and fix your eyes on the screen As we watch your video. Are you guys doing today? I hope you guys are having a wonderful morning We have come to a time of testimonies before I dive into it as you have seen right behind us We have watched a VBS video. So if you have any children any grandchildren nieces nephews I encourage you please sign them up. You still have time as well as our summer youth camp You have until tomorrow to sign up your teenagers We strongly believe that God is going to move within this generation that you know This generation will begin to serve Jesus and there will have an encounter and not only is it about fun and games But they will truly get to experience God for who he is amen Amen with that being said we have testimonies to encourage your faith I believe that this testimony will share today will impact your life drastically So if you can please help me welcome our testimony Can you please share with us your name and where you are from sure? Hi everybody? My name is Herman Velasquez I play on drums and bass guitar with hungry gents worship team Come on come on Can you please go ahead and share with everyone kind of your story and what God has brought you through? Sure. Well The Lord bringing me here is totally been such a blessing. It is so impactful I was serving in a church in Hermiston for 15 years But I had seen a few changes that were somewhat secular that I just thought as the you know The father I am at home and showing my kids the word of God and my wife I asked the Lord what do you want me to do about this? You know Go to hungry Jen and since I wasn't all about the cameras lights action and all this I was a little sarcastic with my prayer, you know, but I told the Holy Spirit if you want me to go to hungry Jen I'll go there and I felt something in my heart that poured in me that said go to hungry Jen so I'm here and well, I Endured a lot of pain starting January 18th of 2021. That was the most devastating year for me even 2022 So the loss of my grandpa the guy that raised me that was the first Thing that really struck my heart now being able to make it to Mexico and bury him was something very tragic to me and Also after that just not even three months after that. I got in a really big accident lost my truck that I had purchased and Few months after that my house catches on fire September 18th and then 2022 my daughter passed away She died off of a motorcycle accident flew a good 40 feet up in the air and cracked her skull and died immediately so I've I Don't have the words to really explain to all of you here Really how I've made it, but I'm gonna say one thing Psalms 40 verse 2 says he also brought me up out of the horrible pit because that's what it was out of the Mary clay and set my feet upon a rock and Establish my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth Praise to our God many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord Come on. Come on God is still doing miracle signs and wonders. I mean you've heard it here from German I mean trial and tribulation one after another after another and you may be here, you know thinking like How is he still doing it by the grace of God? You know God has done miracle after miracle in his life and it God has brought him here with such a great community Who uplifts him who has been here for him? And so German can you please share with us, you know a piece of encouragement for those who are struggling maybe with Similar things that you went through and in the feelings that they're going through What is something that you would tell them? Well, first of all, don't isolate, you know, it is normal for us to want to be alone Guys totally normal, you know, I got in trouble at work because I was isolating I was I'm a truck driver and I was locking myself up in the truck Locking literally locking myself inside the truck rolling up my windows screaming yelling. I miss my baby. I See a lot of dads here With their babies You don't know how blessed you are To have your little girls with you your little guys It isn't until you can't see them anymore You can't smell their head anymore You can't caress their cheeks You can't laugh with them anymore That's when devastation truly hits you and then the power of God will come as you allow it He is a gentleman. He has never forced himself on me He has taught me to be a father and I miss my daughter But God is my father in heaven. I would encourage you Look for somebody to talk to you. Somebody will listen. I was brought from Hermiston to Hungry Jen There's been man. Everybody here loves me Everybody around me that already knows me has given themselves to me as my brothers and sisters Even even Ari talking to me this morning. I felt a connection with her and of course. I'm going to she serves the same Papa I serve so I love you guys You guys love me back God has brought me to a place where I could grow where I could get out of the pit I would encourage others that have endured the same pain Don't isolate it is very dangerous thoughts of suicide thoughts of drugs thoughts of I'm gonna give up and leave Are gonna come to your heart the way to avoid all of that is look for somebody I'm not gonna say a community But at least somebody that can listen to you and that you know you could pour your heart out to it is Necessary for us to have a friend that we could talk to that's one of my best advice is Come on. Let's give Jesus one more Shout of praise because we are serving God who is doing miracle signs and wonders Thank you so much for sharing your testimony come on church get up on your feet And let's praise God for what he's doing in the midst of every single trial and tribulation that you are going through I just want to also encourage everybody here hearing this testimony Don't take it lightly if you're going through something reach out just like he said there's life group leaders You have life groups you have a community you have people who love on you and hungry Jen Church Promises you that we will be here to serve you as well as praying alongside you amen Amen with that being said, please help us welcome Pastor Bryson as he comes and preaches the word Good morning everybody. How are we doing today? Good good before we get started can we go ahead and play the video recap of the encounter weekend that we just had In a very simplified system, we will never appreciate What makes Christianity different than any other religion is our founder We believe is God Nigh at death not many people died, but he chose to die Why was it necessary? Because there was no other way a holy God Godless the Bible says ungodly without sin being punished Oh who you are and who's you are you have that revelation of authority inside of you So after casting the demon out, it's important to also make sure that we disconnect any generation of curse that can be attached Can we just put our hands together for Jesus? This weekend as you saw we had a powerful encounter weekend We have a life class program This was the the summation of what we have done over the last six weeks in our life class program and What we do is we take our our people who are going through life class which life class is basically for those of you who don't know it's basically a Way for you to get to know how to learn how to live for Jesus It's a class where we take people through if you're a brand new Christian life classes for you If you're getting plugged into the church for the first time life classes for you It's a place where you're gonna learn how to live for Jesus get connected in community And we end with this encounter weekend where we pray for healing we pray for deliverance We pray and people just encounter the presence of God. How many people here this morning were at the encounter weekend How many were blessed by that all of you come on Such a powerful time. I just want to take a moment before we do that just to encourage you if you haven't signed up for life class it is a Amazing opportunity to get plugged into the church to get to know Jesus more and to grow in and God And so with that we also have our Sunday This next Sunday, we have our prayer line service that's gonna be coming up And if you have friends family members co-workers that you know, you know, they need to see The power of God displayed in a way that is undeniable This weekend is the weekend to be at this upcoming weekend This is something that we we've been doing every single month at the end of the month We see all sorts of deliverances crazy things happen You know, this is a place where if you have family that needs to be healed You know somebody who in your workplace that needs to be healed they can come this weekend miracles will happen We've seen it week our month after month Testimony after testimony and so I just want to encourage you with that do not miss this opportunity this upcoming week so make sure you invite your friends and your family and your co-workers and Last announcement we have baptism coming up this July. We're gonna be doing it in the park It's gonna be awesome We're gonna do it in the river and so if you haven't yet signed up for that go ahead and do that today You can just go on to our website. The sign up is available there It's easy to see there's just a big click button that you can click on and just sign up that way And so without further ado I Want to get into today's message and before I do I just want to say like everybody else has already said Happy Father's Day Happy Father's Day to all the men here who have worked hard for your families You've worked hard to to be a light to be a godly voice in and world that is Screaming Darkness screaming things that are ungodly. Thank you for being a man that God has wanted us to be a man You know here at hungry Jen. We're not really good with holidays We uh, we have historically known and some of you are laughing because historically We're known for just having really fire powerful You know Holy Ghost fire sermons all the time and and when it comes to holidays We rarely talk about what the holiday is about and so today on Father's Day I'm gonna do my best and I'm gonna preach a Christmas sermon I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna preach a Christmas sermon, but I am gonna preach from a passage that is oftentimes Associated with Chris Christmas. It's associated oftentimes not even in the regards of a father and that's in Matthew 1 18 through 25 and You can go there with me in your vivals or you can just go ahead and look on the screen. We'll have that but Matthew 1 18 through verses 18 through 25. This is the story of how Jesus's miraculous birth takes place and in this story We see a man named Joseph Now we're not talking about Joseph from the Old Testament who had dreams. We're talking about a man Who our father God Chose to be the father to his son Think about that for a minute God Chose this man Joseph To be the father to his son That's kind of a heavy responsibility if you think about it Now This passage it seems like it goes by quickly about Joseph and so sometimes we fail to recognize the power of what Joseph did as the surrogate father of Jesus But I want to point out because oftentimes we don't see that This man was not just chosen at random This was by God's providence God knew who he was chosen choosing to father his son And I believe that God didn't choose someone that was a mistake or that was that was going to cause harm But he chose someone that was going to be the father of choice The start the title of my sermon today is the father of choice. So coming back to this Matthew 1 18 through 25 It says this now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together She was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit because Joseph her husband to be was a righteous man and Because he did not want to disgrace her he intended to divorce her privately and when he had Contemplated this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said Joseph Son of David do not be do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife Because your child the because the child conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit She will give birth to a son in your name Birth to a son and you will name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled Look the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will name him Emmanuel, which means God with us Verse 24 when Joseph awoke from sleep. He did what the angel of the Lord told him He took his wife, but did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son who he named Jesus So we see here Joseph he's getting ready to get married to Mary and He finds out in the process Uh-oh She's pregnant Now I want to put you I just want you to realize Joseph here. He has a dilemma Joseph has a dilemma because the woman that he is engaged to is Having a son that is not his He's got Something that's happening in his life a circumstance That is very difficult Many of us here would see this as a crisis. I know I would if I was put into position and And the woman that I thought I was going to marry All the sudden has a child or is having a child while I'm in the process of a marrying her and I know that child's not mine That gets kind of difficult Would you agree? so he has a dilemma and You know what's so interesting about Joseph is that in his dilemma in his crisis His responses are out of the ordinary At least what we would see in today's society his response is out of the ordinary because when it comes to Betrothal which is actually what this process is called and Jewish custom. I know here in America we talk about engagement but a betrothal is a much more serious contract than an Engagement ring when it comes to getting married a betrothal is like a 12 month contract that a Couple goes into and the couple's parents are involved and it's a 12 month process to ensure That the woman is pure before getting into the relationship 12 months because at that point you're gonna know whether or not She has a baby and so here in the process He finds out. Uh-oh. I have a crisis and how many you guys know that it's crisis that oftentimes Really shows what our true character is It's crisis that pulls out the real us It's like when you put a tea bag into hot water That's when the tea comes out the real Substance comes out. It's like when you squeeze a tube of toothpaste The pressure Causes the substance to come out and we even know the Bible says it's not what goes into a man that defiles him But it's what comes out of him So here we're seeing a very Unordinary response from Joseph pressures on Crisis is at hand. What is he gonna do? And this is what he does is so unexpected in this development of his relationship He has an unexpected thing. There's a child developing in his soon-to-be-wife's stomach and In this situation This is what it says here in the scripture Because he was a righteous man. He did not want to disgrace her. He intended to divorce her privately One of the things that we see when Joseph is in crisis the way he responds is Way better than I probably would have responded. I don't know about you. We see a man who's in control in control of himself now if Any of us would be in a situation we find out we've been cheated on or we think we've been cheated on Response is Gonna be not nice. It's not gonna be good But you see a man here who even in the midst of crisis He has the capacity To contemplate the scripture says this that he contemplated how he was gonna do it and he chose that to do it privately Now you've got to understand in Jewish custom If a woman is found to be unpure and she breaks the contract you have the right in Cultural custom you have the right to stone her publicly To make a disgrace of her But in this moment instead of doing that even before he knew because some of you like well Yeah, he knew it was the son of God. No before he even had the dream. He already decided in his heart I'm gonna do this privately This is really difficult it hurts But I'm gonna do this so I don't disgrace her for men here today There's a powerful lesson that we can learn and I want to encourage us because I believe there are men here today That have character where are men here today that have substance There are men here today who who can be calm and collected and controlled when crisis hits Another thing is this we see that there was an uncharacteristic Way of handling this because of the disgrace that could have came on Mary he knows that if he would have done this publicly That pretty much at that point Game over for Mary for the rest of her life if he have chose not to take this child as his Pretty much for the rest of her life She would not be able to get married. Nobody would want to marry her Nobody want to dare touch that situation because the Jewish culture. It's not like today where it's a lot more widely accepted in Jewish culture If you have a child and it's presumed to be out of wedlock You're pretty much damaged goods people are not gonna people are not going to Pay attention to you she would be in poverty. She'd be in lack and she'd have no covering So the decision that he makes Honestly, it takes a man who is secure It takes a man who is so secure and who he is to be able to Make a decision that is selfless Even when this this situation is against him it feels against him. It is a direct pain to his heart And we see another thing an uncommon decision Joseph like I said he had this right, but he was a righteous man. He chose compassion. He chose mercy over punishment I've come to realize that in life Every single one of us men every single one of us fathers here. How many fathers do we have here today? We're all faced with dilemmas Maybe it's not the same as the one that Joseph has but we're all faced with dilemmas that are Challenging and that they pull out our true substance Every man has a good reason today Good reason to not do the right thing But I know that today we have righteous men in this house this morning There's a war on men in this generation Society tells you to be weak They tell you that good fathers don't exist anymore Society tells us to be passive men and that Satan wants you to be tolerant of sin To step away from the God-given role as a man We have Machismo culture that teaches you to be a belligerent jerk and We have Feminazi Ideology that tells you to be a spineless weak man But what makes a man great? What makes a father great is his ability to take the higher ground in the face of adversity Do you hear me this morning church? I? Believe that God is looking for men God is looking for fathers who will take the higher ground Even when there's an easy way out Even when the situations don't look right I Believe God made men tough He made us tough in the capacity to make tough decisions and this is why he's called us to be the priest of the home It's not so we can lord our power over people But the scripture says in Ephesians 5 25 that we are so to submit to one another in Christ in reverence to Christ so the man He gives you the responsibility to be the priest of the home because you have the toughest decision to make Which is to be the first one to lead in submission To be the first one to make a hard decision Even when dilemmas are at your door when crisis is causing you to have to make decisions that are not favorable Fathers listen to me Listen to my words Christ entrusts you with some of the most difficult decisions that do not favor you and It will be your honor To do it for his namesake It will be your honor To do it for his namesake We have been given tough decisions Men have tough decisions to make But we won't care what culture says We won't care if they call us misogynistic if they call us outdated if they call us sexist or abusive We won't care because we will do what is right for our families Even if culture ostracizes us amen We have a dilemma But God is looking for the father of choice God has chosen you today. You may feel like an ordinary man I bet you anything Joseph felt like an ordinary man, but God deemed him worthy to be a father to his own son God deemed him worthy to be a father to his own son. Maybe today you feel ordinary Maybe today you don't feel qualified, but let me tell you something You are not a father by accident God has deemed you worthy. He's deemed you trustworthy. Oh, come on. That is good news God Frothers God has deemed you worthy to be able to make tough tough decisions Societies tell you oh, yeah, that's tough. There's a lot of things that you know what You know what is all of this whole thing is just too difficult right now life is difficult situations are difficult You know economy and things like this It's just really hard to be a dad in today's society. Nobody really cares about dads anymore so it's really easy to just kind of Brush it off, but no even if The world looks down upon fathers We live in a fatherless generation and so the view of fathers is very low the view of fathers is very skewed and It's really hard for a righteous man for a righteous father to live in this society, but you have been given You've been given this Responsibility and you've been entrusted because God sees something in you to be able to be a father My question this morning is what is your dilemma? My question this morning for you is what kind of character is being revealed out of you When times are tough Not when everything's going smooth because when everything's going smooth It's really good to you know do all the right things But when things are not going well what kind of character is being pushed out of you What's being what's being revealed and I want to encourage you make tough decisions Make tough decisions for your family Do the right thing Be strong be compassionate choose mercy over over punishment Choose compassion Choose to take on burdens That maybe Nobody would get on your case if you didn't But be the kind of man that has integrity That will take on burdens that will take on challenges That Are tough Amen Not only did joseph have a dilemma, but we see in the verses after that He has a dream And this dream of his i'm going to read to you again Verses 20 through 23 When he had contemplated this an angel of the lord appeared to him in a dream Joseph son of david don't be afraid to take mary's your wife because the child Conceived in her is from the holy spirit She will give birth to a son and you will name him jesus Because he will save people from their sins all this has happened so that what was spoken of the lord through the prophet would be fulfilled And look the virgin will conceive and to give birth to a son and they will name him a manual which means god with us You know this dream That joseph had it answered two questions The first one being whose child is this? And the second who is this child? Whose child is this? And the second question who is this child? You know when it comes to being a father I think there's some there's some big lessons that we can even learn and just want to encourage you with this thought as a father Whether how you came into being a father Whether you felt like it was a favorable circumstance or not. I want to encourage you that god wants to give you a dream for your children God wants to give you a dream Now oftentimes when we think about dreams we're talking about the dream that I have See a man can have a dream for his life, but it takes a father to have a dream for his children Did you hear me this morning? It's not enough just for a man to have a dream for his own Aspirations, but what makes a father is a man who can have a dream for somebody else And I want to read to you this I want to read come back to this scripture here He begins to realize this is a child of god Fathers I want to remind you that your children While they might be your children Maybe physically they're your children. Maybe adopted. They are children But ultimately they are children of god And your job as a father is to steward that relationship You know, it makes a whole big difference It's a whole different perspective When you father not as this is my son But when you father as this is god's son There's a whole different level of responsibility that you're willing to take There's a whole different motivation by what you do Because this is not my child It might be mind physically But this is god's son This is god's daughter. It's my job to take care of them It's my job to steward them well to train them in the ways of the lord It's my job. God will hold me accountable for how I raised my children I want to encourage you fathers that you are stewards You are stewards of god's children You have a responsibility god has deemed you worthy of the responsibility And second is who is this child? God revealed to him in a dream through an angel of the lord That this is This is the son of god This is a manual. This is jesus johova our salvation jesus the name jesus means johova is our salvation This is the messiah that has been prophesied about And it becomes clear to joseph That this is no ordinary child This is not just anybody. This is a this is a child with a purpose This is a child with a vision. This is a child who has a destiny And god didn't tell mary to name the child He told joseph joseph you're gonna name your son jesus Which means johova is salvation I think there's an important truth there that we can pull from That as a father We have the responsibility to see and dream for our children to have a dream for our children To begin to see for them the destiny and call forth greatness out of them God has given us children and these children have purpose they have destiny Designed by god And it's our responsibility to call it forth as a father even psychiatrists have recognized That a father plays the primary role and whether or not A child feels loved The the deep questions of the soul A father answers this question for a child in my loved in my worthy in my desirable Do I have purpose is my life meaningful? Psychiatrists have figured it out That a father plays the primary role And this is why we see in today's society such a huge issue with identity I don't know if i'm a man or a woman Because we have children who were not told who they are They have children who grew up without having a reality that i'm loved That I have purpose That I have meaning That this is who you are And so we have people who are looking for love in all the wrong places We have people who are confused about who they are And what their purpose is God is calling us forward as dads We have a great responsibility I hope this is encouraging to you because I know there are righteous men in this room who make tough decisions and who are good fathers And we are going to stand up and we're going to pull out greatness in our children We're going to speak life. You know one of the things that I do with my kids every night Is I pray with my kids I've made a habit of this because I understand this principle that it's my job as the father To call forth greatness every night before bread every single night I come in when I pray with them I speak to them first and I say to their face. I have them look me in the eyes And I tell my daughter mila and she's four years old. I'm starting at young I tell my daughter mila every night before she goes to bed. You're a prophetess to your generation I tell her every night before you go to bed You're going to bring healing and hope to many people You're going to bring life and you're going to speak the name of jesus And I tell to my son I go to his bedside and I say noa You are a pastor You're a shepherd You're a speaker of the truth and you will stand up for what is right. You will hold Justice and mercy in your hands I speak this over my children because I understand the principle that I have as a father To speak identity to speak truth over my children It's my responsibility It's your responsibility fathers to be that voice In a world that is screaming all sorts of confusion and chaos to be the voice of truth the voice of identity Fathers you have a hard You have a hard job Because people don't recognize you same way with joseph You know people rarely even recognize joseph in this story. It's always about mary and about jesus Everybody forgets about joseph You know and how true is that about the good fathers? We only hear about the bad dads We only hear about the fathers that that were abusive. We only hear about the fathers that are jerks But us good dads Nobody pays attention It's like we get overlooked. We get forgotten. Oh, yeah You know, yeah, that's oh, yeah, you're there. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, you know And what we do is not even appreciated. You're the fullest And all the dad said Amen But that's okay because we know our we know our task We know our responsibility We know that god has entrusted us with a great task So are you calling forth greatness And thirdly joseph had decisions that he made I want us to look not only did he have a dream But at the end of this dream joseph made decisions that were Honorable Things that he set for by example Even before jesus could see it. He was already setting an example First thing was obedience to the lord. We see we see that joseph was obedient He heard the he heard the vision Or he heard he heard the message from the angel of the lord and he was obedient to it It says that he did take her as a wife Even though taking her as a wife was going to be at his own detriment For the rest of his life. He was going to be kind of recognized as maybe Someone who got his wife pregnant before Marriage because people are because he chose to protect mary Admit that now the shame is going to be pointed at him because people aren't going to understand People aren't going to know he chose to protect her knowing that it would come on him and he was obedient He was obedient to do so John 14 15 says if you love me obey my commandments And god is not looking for Just a sacrifice. He's looking for obedience For samuel 15 22 When we are obedient we're sent an example fathers. Are we being obedient to the lord? To be a true father to be of choice Again, like I said Joseph is a great example. He was a father of choice for jesus Are we obedient to the lord? Are we showing obedience to our kids see obedience in us not just To the law but also to the lord And We also see in joseph another great characteristic another great decision delayed gratification May you may have not really realized this but it says this that He waited Until jesus was born to have marital relations with his wife Now imagine this you get married And you wait a whole year To make things happen It's okay. You can laugh You wait a whole year to make things happen That takes a lot of discipline Especially when it was his right But he delayed gratification because think about the ramifications You might you might be brushing past this but think about the ramifications If he would have had marital relations with his spouse Too early It would have destroyed the testimony That this is a miraculous birth He had a vision and he had a mission And in that vision and mission there was delayed gratification on his part Not only did the plan not favor him But there was delayed gratification Men How how often are we delaying our gratification? Are we putting our Golf clubs up so that way we can be with the family spend time with our kids So the right seeds speak the right words Are we taking the time to be with our kids? Are we delaying certain gratifications? So that way we can be the fosters that we need to be Another thing is we see he exercised faith and courage you know The one of the things that the angel of the lord used to to convince Joseph Was he used prophecy? He said this is what the prophet said look there's gonna be i'm there's gonna i'm gonna conceive his son He's gonna be born of miraculous birth a virgin birth If joseph didn't know prophecy If he didn't know the scripture Then it would have been really hard to do what god had asked him to do It would have been really hard to have the faith that this is truly the son of god Do you follow me this morning? As men we can't just be men who are obedient We can't just be men who do tough things, but we have to be men who do tough things by faith Because doing things tough alone will just burn you out It's the reason why you don't like doing tough things because it burns you out But when you have scripture when you know What is coming forward you know what the scripture said you know what prophecy was revealing You know the passages that were said then what happens is it gives you faith to believe in a tough circumstance It gives you the faith and the courage to do the things that nobody else wants to do And so he had faith and and he had courage and the faith and the word are connected Hearing comes by the word of god right faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god If joseph i believe that if joseph didn't know prophecy it would have been potentially a different story And lastly he was a man of worship Luke 2 4 Sorry, Luke 2 41 through 42 says every year jesus' parents went to gerulusum for the Passover festival And when jesus was 12 years old they attended the festival as usual catch that as usual Every year they went as usual It's obvious in joseph's life that he was a regular attender He was a regular attender of church or of he was a regular worshiper of god It was part of his life It was as usual. It wasn't just like some one big, you know time of year Oh, it's christmas and easter service. So I got to go to church. No as usual He was there And imagine what that did for jesus Imagine just the example that jesus got to see a man worshiping god Now we know jesus is god and you know, there's a little bit of a different story there But it's still the same principle We still see a man who is raising his children Worshiping god leading by example I want to read to you this little story Did you hear about a little the little boy who was playing on a sunday morning while his dad was in the lounge chair reading the paper Son get yourself ready for church Are you coming to are you coming to church today with me dad? No, I'm not coming but I want you to hurry up and get ready the little boy said Did you used to go to church when you were a boy dad? And he replied I most certainly did So get ready As the boy walked away. He mumbled. Yeah, and I bet it won't do me any good either It's true that our kids are watching us It's true that our kids are paying attention to our actions our examples What happens when hard times hit? How do we respond? What comes out of us? You can't blame society you can't blame things around you to be a righteous man of god God has entrusted you with tough decisions and you'd be the priest of your home He has called you to stand up to rise up in the face of adversity Even if it's at your detriment because you know why you're doing it You know that you're not doing it just because you're trying to suffer or that you have a death wish on your life You are doing it because you understand what the prophecy said you understand what the scripture says You understand what god has for you and you have faith believing In the work that you're doing As a father a father is a selfless task A father takes work a father Protects his family a father works hard And he does so Because he understands this is not my son. This is god's son. I'm going to speak life I'm going to speak truth and I'm going to be an example in my life I'm going to be the father of choice. Do we have any fathers here today that say I'm going to be the father of choice Amen Amen, I want us to rise up I want us to pray because we live in a society That is coming against fathers And I just want us to every father in this room to raise your hand right now Keep it lifted up I want everybody else See the father around you go lay hands on them We're going to pray right now. We're going to pray for god's strength We're going to pray for god's anointing over them We're going to pray that god uses them mightily We're going to pray that god gives us the the The guts To be the father that we need to be Holy spirit. I just thank you for every father here I thank you for the righteous men in this room who are willing to make tough decisions who are willing To fight for the family who are willing To lead by example Who are willing To worship you To lead with mercy and compassion To not be influenced by culture that tells them to be belligerent jerks Or that culture that tells them To just become soft and spineless But lord, we will be men we'll be fathers That are strong and gentle We'll be men who are lions and lambs I pray holy spirit for your grace Over every man every man in this room who is a father who is tired Who is feeling weak who is feeling pain because the situations that are ahead of them are difficult And having a hard time wanting to make the right decision I pray right now that you have encouraged them That you have entrusted them with a difficult task Knowing that they have what it takes To accomplish it They have what it takes to be the man of god that you've called them to be I pray god for strength. I pray for boldness. I pray for the truth to be on their lips I pray holy spirit for your anointing to be upon them that when the family goes astray that they don't get mad at the family They get mad at the demons and they begin to do spiritual warfare I pray holy spirit that you empower them to be men of kindness of grace of gentleness to bear the fruit of the spirit To be men who have love and mercy in their hearts and compassion on those who are weak And compassion on those who are less favorable I pray god that every single man here in this room Would even desire to be a father if they're not a father yet I pray god that every father here Would be empowered this morning in jesus name In jesus mighty name amen Amen, let's put our hands together for jesus Will you bless this morning? Amen church. I want us to pray one last prayer before we end our service I want us to pray for those of you who need to receive Jesus christ into your heart as your lord and savior Some of you came here today and the idea of a father is foreign to you The idea of a good father is foreign to you the concept That a man can be merciful and kind and loving yet at the same time be disciplining and firm That's a concept you haven't yet been able to see and so you might be here having a hard time Understanding that god Is just god And that god is also a merciful god But let me tell you something today god our father He chooses mercy over punishment He doesn't desire that anybody or any of his children here in this room Would experience The torment of hell And if you're here today, and you don't know jesus as your lord and savior I want to invite you to come forward and give your life to jesus If you know in your life, you've been running from god. You've been running from your father. You've been running from the father god Jesus Jesus is inviting you to come meet him here today I want us to bow our head and close our eyes If that's you here this morning, you know, you need to give your life to the lord You know, you need to surrender I just want you to raise your hand And even in the second sanctuary Right now if that's you I want you to raise your hand Jesus is waiting for you. Thank you. I see your hand Jesus is wanting To be the lord of your life He want to he wants to introduce you to his his father So that he can adopt you as your own son or own daughter If that's you raise your hand And keep it raised In the second sanctuary we also have ministers ready. So raise your hand Right now I want you to repeat a prayer after me Say lord jesus Thank you for your sacrifice on the cross I ask you To wash me And cleanse me of my sin I ask you To purify me To be the lord And the savior of my life Come live in me And fill me with your holy spirit and jesus mighty name Amen, amen. Let's put our hands together for jesus