 This is a golden nugget for fathers in the Bible that we rarely talk about and we should My father was my hero. Obviously. I look up to my heavenly father more than anyone else But when it comes to anyone any man on earth My father Jimmy Minor is my hero now There was a time where I just absolutely Could not stand him and there were some things that he would do to mean that I just didn't like of course didn't understand it making me as a Eight-year-old nine-year-old having to get up to go to his he had us He had a clothing store get up on Saturday mornings to go to work Yeah, you know in the 70s Saturday mornings were gold you get up early in the morning and you watch cartoons And then you go out and you play after the cartoons over with well, I had to go to work with my father Didn't do anything. I mean I would pick up some trash take out boxes break down boxes and so forth And try to sweep up and so forth little goofy things From nine o'clock in the morning to about four or five in the afternoon Most of my Saturdays are going he would give me five dollars at the end now pay at the pay-at-the-m's pretty good You think that five dollars wasn't much but we're talking about 78 79 80. Yeah, five dollars was pretty good for a kid What it taught me though was to go out and to be responsible He would call me when I was a teenager at home asked me am I up No, I'm not up. Well, why aren't you up? Well, that is five o'clock in the morning six o'clock in the morning I'm not supposed to be up. Don't you know grown peep grown men get up and take care of business I'm not grown. So talk to you later daddy But his point was that I needed to be a responsible young man Not to make excuses not to blame anyone for anything I told you a story about how he told me Just to go out and just to catch the ball the ball is in the air Don't make excuses as a matter of fact if someone is hanging all over you go up and catch the ball in the way And make a highlight of it Don't give him any excuses and that's kind of been my mantra although some of the lessons that he taught me I learned later and Some of the things I didn't realize I learned from him until far after even after his death Now the greatest thing I could ever say was the fact that he came to Christ He places faith in Christ before he died. He was fortunate. My father was one of those men who was he's an old Kind of gangster so to speak and I'm not matter of fact I didn't so to speak he that was him But there was a legacy that he left that I did not know that would extend to me for the good Even when I went through my own little problems The things that he taught me I would remember those things and the reason why I'm saying that the reason why this is valuable because here On Father's Day really any time that a man can think about being a father Not being able to take care of your children or to do for your children is hard for men That is a real man. And so I honor and I salute every single man that is doing the very best He can only you know if you are doing the best you can for your children But I want to show you something in scriptures that sometimes we don't talk an awful lot about a gold nugget here in the scriptures That I think men fathers ought to look at as far as leaving a lasting legacy an example in Matthew 2732 You all know the story Jesus is being crucified. He's ordered to carry his own cross and he's weak He can't carry it. And so they get someone else to help him carry it. This is where Simon comes in verse 32 of chapter 27 says as they were coming out They found a man of serene name Simon whom they pressed into service to bear his cross We don't talk a lot about Simon as a matter of fact, we don't know a lot about Simon Until we read a little bit more as a matter of fact Let's go ahead and go to Mark and listen to Mark's account of it Mark 1521 makes his statement. They pressed into service same story same same statement a Passerby coming from the country Simon of Cyrene Notice what it says the father of Alexander and Rufus to bear his cross We don't talk too much about Simon and we don't talk too much about Alexander and Rufus However, it's interesting to note who Rufus is who Alexander is Who are these people? We don't talk much about Rufus. Well, Paul does look what he says Greet Rufus a choice man in the Lord also his mother and mine. We don't know a lot about Rufus We really don't and really truth be told we don't have to Just like we don't have to know a lot about Simon. What we do know is this Simon Prior to meeting Christ was not a father of Christ something happened after his encounter with Christ that left and Apparently a wonderful legacy with his children namely his sons his sons are named Alexander and Rufus could this be another Alexander's mention We don't know but we don't know who the who they are all we do know is that Simon is the father and Rufus is mentioned by name by Paul as a choice man Ladies and gentlemen particularly men Fathers if you have children Leave a legacy the first legacy that you can leave is to know the Lord Christ and that your children would know that you Have also had an encounter with him leave that as your first legacy so when they're older they'll be known Obviously by you and your name, but more to the point. They'll be known by his name That is something that I think that we need to speak more about maybe if more men knew what kind of legacy that they have in them to leave Especially just by simply knowing Jesus. Maybe you can't leave a a million dollar inheritance Maybe you can't leave a plot of land They can't leave a lot of things but you can leave who you know that is Jesus and to know that your children Because of your following Christ will also be named in heaven. You couldn't ask for anything better. No father could want more amen