Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
My name is Eric.
I'm one of the guys here on staff at Watermark.
How many of you have seen the new Star Wars?
Less than I expected.
If you're a guy, we're having a guy's night to go see it Tuesday night.
Talk to me about details afterwards.
But when I was a kid, I loved Star Wars.
My friends loved Star Wars.
And there's this one scene where I think it's Han Solo
tells someone to shut the professor off in reference to C-3PO.
C-3PO is just spouting out all these facts and numbers.
And Han Solo gets annoyed and he says, shut the professor off.
And some of my friends really loved that line
because they thought that I was a little bit too much like C-3PO.
So whenever I would start sharing fun facts with them
that they didn't think were so fun,
they'd just say, somebody shut the professor off.
And they would try and get me to stop sharing fun facts.
But I enjoy sharing fun facts and weird things like history.
And I want to give you a little bit of historical background this morning
of the passage that we're looking at
so that as we look at the passage,
it can make a little bit more sense to you.
So I have a map to help me do that.
Now this is a map of the ancient Near Eastern world
where I'd say probably 95% of the Bible happens within this map.
You're looking at modern day Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran,
a little bit of Turkey.
And this is what we're looking at in the passage today.
This darker area was the extent of the Assyrian Empire
at their greatest expanse,
but they weren't quite this big at this time.
And over on the right-hand side of the screen,
that red circle right there,
is sort of the heart of the Assyrian Empire.
And over on the left-hand side, that blue circle is Egypt.
And as with big world empires,
they wanted to trade with people who were a little bit far away from them.
The people in Assyria wanted goods that were made in Egypt.
And so they wanted to go from the red circle to the blue circle.
And it would seem the easiest way to do that is a straight line, right?
The shortest distance between two places is a straight line.
There's a problem with taking a straight line.
And that yellow circle is a desert.
And so if you try to take the straight line through there,
you're going to burn up and get dehydrated and die.
So what you need to do to get from Assyria over to Egypt,
or anywhere in the ancient Near East to Egypt,
is you need to take a path that follows the rivers.
They've got the Tigris there, the Euphrates there,
and then over in Israel, you've got the Jordan.
And so you follow the rivers
so that you have constant supply of fresh water along the way
so that you don't die during your journey.
And what that means is that this little stretch of land in Israel,
where Israel exists,
is a very, very valuable and strategic piece of land for many reasons.
One, all of the trade routes between Egypt and the rest of the known world
go through this little stretch of land in Israel.
If you own this stretch of land,
you can tax all the traders and make loads of money.
Also, from a military perspective,
any troop movement between Europe and Asia on land
that's trying to get to Africa,
or from Africa trying to get out,
needs to go through you.
And so if you own this little stretch of land,
you have amazing power economically, militarily.
It's kind of like the South China Sea of our day.
And Assyria is like the China of that South China Sea.
And so what you have leading up to this passage
is Assyria over here on the right.
They're like the China.
We can do what we want because we control this area.
And then you've got the green countries are Israel and Syria,
not to be confused with Assyria.
And the yellow one is Judah,
which is the southern couple tribes of Israel
that broke off from the rest of the nation.
And Assyria said,
we want to control this strip of land
because it will give us power,
it will give us control,
it will let us collect taxes instead of paying taxes.
It will give us amazing versatility
when it comes to military movements.
This is an important place.
And they're setting their sights on this strip of land.
And these little guys over here say,
uh-oh, we're in trouble.
We need to band together
so that we can have a fighting chance
of standing up to these guys.
So what happens is these green countries,
Israel and Syria,
get together and form an alliance.
Say, we're going to fight together against Assyria.
We're going to try and hold them off the best we can.
Judah, come join us.
Help us out.
And the king of Judah,
a guy named Ahaz,
says, I don't want to help you out.
I don't know if it was because
he just saw, like,
this is a losing effort,
there's no chance that we're going to survive this,
or if he was just like,
I don't like these guys,
I don't want to be on their side.
Either way,
he's not interested.
And so what Israel and Syria say is,
if you don't join our alliance,
we're going to come in and destroy your country,
A, to encourage you to join us,
and B, because we don't want you coming
and attacking us from behind
as we're trying to fight off this big enemy
from the other side.
And since Judah doesn't join their alliance,
Israel and Syria sweep in
and start wiping out the nation of Judah.
They're killing tens of thousands of people.
They capture hundreds of thousands of people.
Cities are being wiped out,
and Ahaz, the king of Judah,
does not know what to do.
And in this moment,
God sends a messenger to him,
a guy named Isaiah the prophet.
And Isaiah has a very important,
very simple message
for King Ahaz from God.
Don't worry.
I've got this.
I'm going to take care of this.
I'm going to get rid of Israel and Syria
from your land.
All you have to do is trust me.
And to prove to you that I'm going to do this,
you can ask for any sign,
anything that you want.
It can be as high as heaven
or as deep as the grave.
I will give it to you
to prove to you that I'm going to keep my word.
And King Ahaz says,
I will not put the Lord to the test,
which sounds really noble, right?
That's what Jesus says
when Satan tempts him in the desert.
But actually it's not.
Because what Ahaz is saying is,
I don't trust God.
I don't want to do
what God is telling me to do.
I've got this.
I can handle this.
Leave me alone, God.
And he goes to the temple
where the Israelites would worship God
and he strips down all the gold
and all the valuable metals.
He melts them down
and he sends them with messengers
as a gift to the king of Assyria,
the big bad guys.
And he says,
hey, do me a favor.
Here's a little gift.
Go attack Israel and Syria
and just take them out.
So the king of Assyria says,
okay.
And he marches down
and he takes out Israel.
He takes out Syria.
And then he's like,
while I'm here,
I may as well go take out Judah too.
And he starts marching in
to take out Judah
because Ahaz, the king of Judah,
did not trust God
and wait for God to rescue him.
And now ultimately,
they didn't succeed
in capturing the capital of Judah
at that time.
So the nation survived.
But the nation is a mess.
Their cities are one by one
being taken away
and conquered and destroyed.
And the land is miserable.
And it's a situation
that the end of Isaiah chapter eight
in that last verse,
verse 22 describes as,
behold, distress and darkness,
the gloom of anguish,
and they will be thrust
into deep or thick darkness.
It's a miserable, terrible,
heart-wrenching time
in the nation of Judah.
And it's at this moment
that Isaiah steps in
with Isaiah chapter nine.
And when we see the start,
especially of Isaiah chapter nine,
in the light of this context,
it helps us to understand
Isaiah is saying
something huge right here.
Isaiah steps in
and he says,
there will be no gloom
for her who is in anguish.
In the previous verse,
we have the gloom of anguish
and now we have no gloom
for her who is in anguish.
If you jump down to verse two,
the people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.
Instead of this deep darkness,
a light is shining on the people.
As we go throughout the passage,
we see in verse five,
the boots of the trampling warrior
and the garments
that are rolled in blood
because it's what they were wearing
when they were fighting,
it will be burned.
Why do you burn your battle equipment?
Because you're done fighting.
Isaiah says,
there is a time coming
when you're going to have peace,
when you're going to have hope,
when you're going to have light
in your land.
It's not here yet,
but it's coming.
And it's not dependent
on your king
doing the right thing right now.
No, it's dependent on,
verse six,
a child who's going to be born.
A child who's going to come
and it says,
the government will be upon his shoulders.
He's going to rule this nation
and he's going to rule with justice
and he's going to bring peace
and his rule is going to expand and expand,
but that's going to be a good thing
because as he rules,
he is good.
And it gives us four descriptions
of what this ruler will be like.
It calls him the wonderful counselor,
the mighty God,
everlasting father,
prince of peace.
If you were here two weeks ago,
Alfie looked at what it means
for Jesus to be our wonderful counselor
and why we need a wonderful counselor.
Last week,
if you were here for the charity walk,
Chris talked about,
a little bit about what it means
for Jesus to be the mighty God
in our lives.
And today we're going to look
at what it means
for Jesus to be
our everlasting father.
And what we're going to see
is that although we often
choose to live
like spiritual orphans,
Jesus is
our everlasting father.
And having a perfect,
everlasting father
gives us freedom
to live as the children of God.
We're going to take three steps
to getting there.
First, we're going to talk about
becoming an orphan.
Second, we're going to talk about
living as an orphan.
And third,
we're going to talk about
life with a father.
First up,
becoming an orphan.
So Ahaz,
as the king of Judah,
was basically supposed to be
like a father to the nation.
A king was supposed to be
a protective caregiver,
which is a huge role
of a father.
But Ahaz was a terrible father,
both to the nation
and to his own kids.
And how do we know
that he was a terrible father
to his own kids?
Because he killed them.
The Bible is very clear
that God does not want
his people
worshiping idols.
And a big part of that,
besides the fact that
they're false gods,
is that
the worship of idols,
especially in the Old Testament times,
involved doing
many terrible things.
And one of them
was child sacrifice.
And so it says
that
in
2 Kings
and 2 Chronicles,
when it's talking about Ahaz,
it says
that he caused his sons
to pass through the fire.
Basically,
they would have this fire burning,
you send in your son,
and then your son burns up,
and it's supposed to be
a pleasing sacrifice to God.
This guy did that
with his kids.
Now,
if he's that terrible
of a father
to his family,
how do you expect him
to lead the nation?
You don't.
And so when you look at
the way that he rules
the nation,
this man who's supposed
to be the protective caregiver
to the nation,
who's supposed to be
this father figure
to the nation,
when his nation
is under distress,
he strips down the temple
from everything valuable,
he sends it away
to the king of Assyria,
and the message
that he sends
to the king of Assyria
is,
I am your son.
Please come rescue me.
That's in 2 Kings 16.
He says,
I am your son.
This man who's supposed
to be like a father
to the nation
just abdicates
that responsibility
and says,
you,
this foreign nation
that God told me
not to interact with,
you're our father now.
Ahaz was not
a good king.
And why does he,
why does he fail
so miserably
as a father
both in his family
and in the nation?
Because he's living
as a spiritual orphan.
And here's what I mean
when I talk about
spiritual orphans.
A spiritual orphan
is someone
who functionally
on a day-to-day level
does not believe
that they have
a perfect heavenly father
who loves them
and provides for them.
So with Ahaz,
he is not trusting God
to provide for him
or his country.
He's taking matters
into his own hands
and he is failing
his people miserably.
And I know
as we talk about
God as a father
and what it means
for God to be a father,
there are probably
a lot of us in here
who when we think
about the idea
of a father,
it's a painful thought
because our fathers
fail us.
And I think
in Hong Kong
that's probably
like accelerated
the rate
at which fathers
fail their children.
And I think
when we,
we each have a tendency
to project
our earthly father's
failures onto God.
God.
And so when we hear
that God's our father
and we know
that our fathers
failed us so miserably,
we think,
well,
if God's a much
bigger father,
then he's gonna fail
us so much more
miserably, right?
And I think
there are three,
probably we can group
the ways that our fathers
fail us into three
big categories.
The first one,
this is huge in Asia,
we'll call the
always could be
better father.
If you come home
with a 99 on your exam,
why didn't you get 100?
If you got accepted
to Harvard,
why didn't they give
you a full ride?
No matter how much
you accomplish,
no matter how much
you do,
it is never good enough.
The always could be
better father
pushes his children
beyond what they
are capable of,
always expects more,
and their children
always live in fear
of disappointing
their father.
Second up,
the angry father.
Anything can make
him go wild.
His kids live in fear
of doing something
to set him off.
Violence or yelling
can come out of this.
I went to university
with a guy
who had an angry father.
He shared with us
about how when he was
a kid,
his dad would beat
his mom,
and he was too small
or powerless
to do anything
to stop it,
so all he would do
is sit there
and watch.
And the thing
that makes this story
even more sad
is that this kid's
parents were missionaries.
So his idea
growing up
of what it means
to be a man
who loves and serves
God is that
you beat your wife.
When you take
that idea of a father
and project it
onto God,
how do you think
that impacts
the way that you
see God
as a father?
So we have
the always
could be better father,
we have the angry father,
and then third,
we have the absent father.
And this is another one
that's huge in Hong Kong.
Some fathers are absent
because they simply
abandon their families.
Some are absent
in Hong Kong
because they have
a second family
across the border
and they're just
spending their time
with the second family
instead of with
their own family.
Some,
this is a huge way
that fathers are absent
in Hong Kong,
is workaholism.
They spend all their time
at the office,
at their job,
traveling for work,
and never actually
have time to be
with their kids.
And then some fathers
in Hong Kong
spend lots of time
with their families,
spend lots of time
with their kids,
but they're so tired
and stressed
from the time
they've been at work
that during that time
they turn to things
like alcohol
or television to cope.
And even though
they're physically present,
they're mentally
and emotionally absent.
Our fathers fail us
in many ways
and we have a tendency
to project those failures
onto God.
You know,
for me,
I had great parents
growing up.
They're still great parents.
If they listen to the podcast,
hi mom and dad,
you're fantastic.
But they weren't perfect.
My parents,
when I was in school,
always told me,
whatever grades you get,
we're happy
as long as you do your best.
And for me,
my best was straight A's.
And I got straight A's.
But,
even though they were happy
with my grades,
I was always living
a little bit nervous,
a little bit in fear.
Because first off,
if I got a 95 on a project
and I knew that I could have
gotten a 97
by working just a tiny bit harder,
I knew that 95 wasn't my best.
I think I grew up
on the wrong continent.
And I would live in fear
that they would find out
that 95 was not truly my best
and be disappointed with me
for my 95.
95.
I lived in constant fear
that I would get an assignment back
and that rather than an A,
it would be a C or a B.
Because I knew
that they knew
that I was capable of an A
and I was always afraid
that I would fall short,
that I wouldn't live up
to what they knew
that I was capable of.
And I lived,
these fears were reality to me.
And as I grew up,
I took these fears
and projected them
onto my relationship with God.
Because I knew that for God,
my standard is not do your best,
the standard is perfection.
And so even though
I was one of the best behaved kids
in my school,
one of the best behaved kids
in my church,
I knew on the inside
that I fall short
of that standard.
I knew on the inside
that I have not done enough
to live up to God's standard.
And rather than understanding
the gospel
and seeing that
that's the whole point,
that I can't live up to it,
but he loves me
and accepts me anyways,
I had this feeling of shame
that just followed me everywhere
because I hadn't lived up
to the standard
that I needed to.
And I would put in effort,
trying so hard
to do better
so that God could love me
and accept me.
And rather than enjoying
being God's son
and getting to enjoy
that relationship with him,
I ended up living my life
as a show,
terrified on the inside
that God is out to get me,
but smiling on the outside
because I didn't want
anyone else to know
that that's how I really felt.
and it was because
I had taken
this false understanding
of my relationship
with my earthly parents
and projected it
onto God
as my father.
And I think each of us
does that to some extent
and because of that,
each of us
has a tendency
to live
at least somewhat
as a spiritual orphan.
So what does it look like
to live as an orphan?
I have these friends.
They're adopting
a little kid.
He's like two.
And they had the chance
to go and meet this kid.
They took him out
for dinner
and they're so excited
because like,
this is going to be
our son.
And this is our first chance
to get to know
our son.
And they're at this restaurant
getting ready for dinner
and they've ordered
their food
and they're sitting
there waiting
and as a two-year-old
he sort of gets up
and starts wandering
around the restaurant
because that's what
two-year-olds do.
But as he wanders
around the restaurant
he walks up
to different tables
and just starts staring
and smiling at the people
there,
waving a little bit,
only he's like this tall
so he's looking up
and waving at them.
And everyone,
of course,
it's a two-year-old,
they're smiling
and waving back
and he's sort of
looking between them
and the food
and them
and the food
and at a couple tables
they like grabbed
a little piece of food
and gave it to him
as a snack.
And my friends,
they're watching
their son-to-be
and they're like,
this is so cute,
he's so outgoing
and friendly.
They realize
at a couple tables
he would walk up
and if the people
didn't offer him food
he would just reach up
and grab it.
But again,
he's two,
no one's mad about that.
And they thought,
this is so fantastic,
our kid is so outgoing.
And then as they
got home
and started doing
more research
about adoption
they realized,
actually,
this behavior
is an orphan tendency.
Because I,
as a two-year-old,
would never have done that.
Because I,
as a two-year-old,
knew that if I stayed
at my parents' table
I had a meal coming.
But for a two-year-old orphan,
they don't know
that their parents
are going to give them
a meal
because they don't
have parents.
And so they feel
the need
to walk around
and grab scraps
off the tables
of strangers
because they can't rely
on their parents
to provide.
And when we live
as spiritual orphans,
what we do
is we look at God,
our Father,
and we don't trust
Him to provide.
And we feel the need
to provide for ourselves
by going around
and grabbing scraps
off the table
of strangers
in the world.
We choose to live
as an orphan
when we sacrifice
the feast
that our Father
wants to give to us
and trade it in
for scraps
and leftovers.
Like I said before,
the main question
of a spiritual orphan
is do I really believe
that I have
a heavenly dad
who loves me
and cares for me?
And the reality is
as long as we answer
yes to that question,
we're going to be
incredibly loving,
incredibly patient,
incredibly generous people.
But the moment
we start to believe
that the answer
to that question
is no
or maybe,
we start feeling
the need
to fend for ourselves,
to defend ourselves,
to reach out
and grasp
for anything
that we can get
because we are
the only ones
who are going
to care for ourselves.
So living as
a spiritual orphan
means being controlling
and manipulative
at work
because God
might not provide
for my family
so I need to maneuver
for promotions
and for tearing
other people down.
If I make a mistake,
I need to make sure
that it can get pinned
on someone else
so that my job
is not in danger.
spiritual orphans
live incredibly
stressed and anxious
lives.
A parent
who's living
as a spiritual orphan
is going to lose sleep
about whether their kid
can get into
that top university
because I've done
all I can
and I don't know
that God's going
to take care of them.
Actually,
when we looked earlier
at the different ways
that our fathers fail us,
that absent father,
the angry father,
and the always
could be better father,
each of them
responds in those ways
as a father
because of their
orphan tendencies
themselves.
The always
could be better father
feels the need
to constantly
push his children
to excel
beyond their capacity
because he believes
their future
will be ruined
if he doesn't
because he doesn't
believe that he has
a perfect father
who's going to
provide for them.
The angry father
feels the need
to try and grasp
for control
of his world
through anger
because he doesn't
believe that he has
a perfect heavenly father
who's in control
and who's good
with that control.
The absent father
feels the need
to escape
from the realities
of life
because he doesn't
believe that he has
a perfect father
who's going to
bring him
through these realities
to something better.
every time
we choose
to react
in anger
anxiety
stress
fear
grasping for control
defensiveness
the list could go on
what we're doing
is we're showing
symptoms of the fact
that we believe
we are spiritual orphans
who need to look
after ourselves
and grab scraps
from the table
of life
rather than enjoy
the feast
that our father
wants to provide
for us.
So what does it
look like
to start living
as children of God
to start seeing
Jesus as
our everlasting
father?
We will only
ever begin
to live
as children of God
when we begin
to see living
as children of God
as more beautiful
than what the world
can offer us.
You know
today's passage
talks about Jesus
as an everlasting father
and if you've been
in church
for any amount
of time
that might be
confusing to you
because in church
we talk about
the Trinity
there's one God
with three persons
the Father, Son,
the Holy Spirit
and in the Trinity
Jesus is the Son
and if you ever
study the Trinity
one of the big
things you learn
the Father is not
the Son
the Son is not
the Father
get that drilled
into your head
and here
it's referring to
Jesus the Son
and it's calling
him a Father
what is going on?
But what's going on
here
is that it's not
talking about
how Jesus relates
to God
within the Trinity
it's talking about
how Jesus relates
to us
because to us
he's a provider
he's a protector
he's doing the things
that a father
is supposed to do
and so even though
in the Trinity
he's the Son
it still tells us
that we can look at him
as the everlasting
Father
and at Christmas season
we celebrate
his birth
which if you ever
think about it
is incredible
that the God
who made
the world
and the stars
and the entire universe
by speaking
would step down
and wrap himself
in human flesh
and live life
as one of us
that's mind-boggling
just sit down
and spend five minutes
trying to comprehend it
and you will have
a headache
because Christmas
is so incredible
if you look at
what God did there
but Christmas
isn't the full story
Christmas actually
has very little power
for us
if it's separated
from Good Friday
and Easter
because what we see
in Good Friday
and Easter
is that Jesus
is the perfect
everlasting Father
that we all
long for
and need
in Good Friday
Jesus
our Father
protector
steps up
and fights
the battle for us
against our two
greatest enemies
sin and death
that we could never
fight on our own
and he conquers them
how do we know
that he conquers them
because on Easter
he rises from the dead
death cannot hold him
sin cannot overcome him
and as he overcomes them
he sets us free
he is our Father
who has stepped down
who has left
the comfort
of his comfy
lazy boy lounge chair
in heaven
and come down
to enter into
the mess
of our world
and deal
with every single
last one
of our problems
at the greatest
possible cost
to himself
his life
through Jesus
life
death
and resurrection
he sets himself
apart
from our earthly
fathers
and all the ways
that they fail us
see I think
we have a tendency
to project
our earthly
fathers
flaws
onto God
but the reality
is
that our earthly
fathers
are flawed
imitations
of the true
perfect father
that we have
in Jesus
and how do we
know this
because of the cross
the cross
tells us
that Jesus
is not
the always
could be
better father
he's the
accepting father
who sees
every single
last one
of our flaws
and rather than
judging us
and despising
us for it
steps down
and pays
the price
for our failures
at the cost
of his own
life
so that we
can be
accepted
and not
have to live
in fear
of letting
our father
down
rather than
the angry
father
he is the
abounding
in love
father
who although
he has
every right
to be
furious
at us
steps down
in love
and bears
the consequences
for our sin
on himself
rather than
the absent
father
he is
the always
present
father
who came
to earth
as one
of us
living
as one
of us
so that
we can
see him
and know
him
and then
when he
went back
to heaven
sent his
spirit
to live
inside
of us
so that
the bible
tells us
that if
we are
Christians
he is
living
inside
of us
right now
empowering
us
for our
day to
day life
following
him
see in
contrast
to our
flawed
fathers
he is
the
awesome
father
he is
trustworthy
he is
reliable
he is
everlasting
he will
never
fail us
and if
you are
here today
and you
don't
know
God
as a
father
this
talk
of
having
God
as a
father
seems
confusing
or foreign
to you
I encourage
you to
talk to
me
or to
Chris
or one
of the
other
people
here at
Watermark
and ask
us
about
what
that
means
and how
you can
have
this
type
of
relationship
with
God
because
it
is
life
changing
what does
it look
like
when our
lives
have been
so
transformed
by our
understanding
of God
seeing him
as a
father
that we
can live
as his
children
I want
to share
a little
story with
you
that I
think
illustrates
this
really
well
I used
to work
at a
summer
camp
for
first
through
sixth
graders
parents
would drop
off
their
kids
on
Sunday
afternoon
and
we
would
have
them
until
Saturday
afternoon
so
you
got
to
see
a
lot
of
crazy
stuff
at
this
summer
camp
one
week
there
was
this
kid
he
was
probably
seven
or eight
years
old
at the
time
he
was
staying
in the
cabin
next
to
mine
his
dad
was
a
WWE
wrestler
so
you
know
they
like
pick
up
the
chairs
and
smash
each
other
over
the
head
and
climb
up
on
the
rails
and
jump
off
and
slam
each
other
that
was
this
kid's
dad's
job
and
this
kid
one
day
got
into
an
argument
with
another
kid
in
his
cabin
don't
know
what
the
argument
was
about
don't
know
how
it
started
but
I
know
that
it
escalated
to
the
point
where
this
kid
told
the
other
kid
oh
yeah
well
my
dad
can
beat
your
dad
up
and
the
counselor
from
his
cabin
was
watching
this
unfold
and
he
said
normally
I
would
step
in
and
stop
this
argument
around
this
point
but
I
love
that
picture
not
because
I
think
we
should
be
cocky
and
arrogant
having
God
as
our
father
but
think
about
the
confidence
that
kid
had
in
his
father
he
knew
that
my
father
is
strong
he
knew
that
my
father
cares
about
me
my
father
cares
about
me
so
much
that
he
is
willing
to
fight
my
battles
for
me
I
don't
need
to
worry
about
being
the
strongest
I
don't
and
so
this
kid
was
able
to
live
with
incredible
confidence
knowing
that
he
was
loved
by
his
father
who
was
so
strong
and
if
we
have
God
as
our
father
who's
way
stronger
than
this
kid's
dad's
father
who's
everlasting
as
our
father
how
much
more
confident
should
we
be
in
him
in
a
father
who
has
proven
over
and
over
again
that
he
loves
his
children
with
an
unstoppable
love
that
cannot
be
stopped
even
if
it
costs
his
life
how
much
should
that
drive
us
to
love
others
to
be
patient
when
things
aren't
going
our
way
to
be
willing
to
take
the
hit
even
for
someone
else's
mistakes
because
we
know
that
it's
not
about
me
grasping
for
everything
that I
can get
off the
table
of strangers
but it's
about
my father
loving me
providing for me
and I know
that if I
wait at his
table
if I
trust in him
if I
follow him
there is a
feast
being prepared
for me
we don't need to fear
we don't need to grasp
we don't need to live
as spiritual orphans
because we
we don't need to
love him
because we have a
perfect father who
loves us and cares
for us in the way
that no earthly
father could
and that's one of the
things that we
celebrate at
Christmas
that Jesus came to
reveal that father
to us
to be a father
to us
who protects us
who guards us
who rescues us
let's pray
Jesus we thank you
that you are a
perfect father to us
that you love us
that you rescue us
at the cost of your
own life
and that because of
your love
because of
you rescuing us
we don't need to
live in fear
we don't need to
to strive
and worry
and be anxious
and lose sleep
about the future
because you have
got us
because you're the
perfect father who
loves us
who cares for us
who never lets us
go
never lets us down
Jesus we pray
that this week
that we would see
the beauty of
Christmas
that we would see
the beauty of you
that we would fall
more in love with you
and that we would
learn to trust you
rather than living
as orphans
God I confess
that I
fail to believe
this so often
I pray that you
would transform my
heart and give me
an understanding
of what it means
to be
your son
to live in joy
because of that
to live in peace
because of that
in Jesus name
amen