WCC 2020-06-21 Service 10:30

Well a good Sunday morning June 21st to you to family and friends near and far. I want to give you some updates as we starting to the service this morning. First of all, I want to just let you know that fill a brown our board chairman and myself are continuing to monitor information concerning Church openings. We will keep you posted in the meantime, we are doing our driveway visits and if you would love to have Jane I come and visit this week give us a call or if you'd like to come to our house and we had some folks come to visit us that was so let us know and we'll work out something for this upcoming week. So on this Father's Day Sunday to all of you the Lord's blessing to give you a quick update on envisage. This is the last Sunday for that bottle drive for are pregnancy centers and the information is there and they've been doing Markedly well, so please get your contributions into them and speaking of contributions. I have something here. You might not have seen for a while. These are offering plates, and so I just wanted to remind you that if you haven't given your ties lately to give Leanne or Sheila call and they all work out the details with you. Okay? I also want to give you an update on what Father's Day is and I have the following scenario Father's day was a holiday that originally dated back to the Middle Ages on March 19th, the Roman Catholic Church used to celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph, but Father's day was never recognized as a holiday or a specific venue, and so it wasn't until after the creation of Mother's Day that there was even consideration for Father's Day and so it was designed to You day to compliment Mother's Day and show the and recognize the father's role in parenting children. They eat first celebration of Father's day was in Fairmont West Virginia on the 5th of July 1908. There was a mining disaster in which 361 miners were killed and a lady by the name of Grace Clayton who lost her father asked her Minister if he would hold a special service to honor the fathers who had died and he did that but it didn't take on any North American context of other groups. Try things in 1911 and 1915 as well to make it a national day of recognition, but the real impetus for Father's Day started when a lady by the name of Sonora Dodd heard of Anna Jarvis has efforts to make Mother's Day important and so Sonora set out to honor her father with a date. Celebration based on his birthday of June 5th now her dad had been a Civil War veteran, and he had raised six children on his own after his wife had passed away in childbirth, and so she wanted to make something special. It's a day to pay tribute to men like her dad and for decades she champion this cause in the United States and finally President Johnson in the 1960s For claimed as Celebration Day for fathers, and then in 1972 President Nixon declared a national holiday to be celebrated on the 3rd Sunday and in June of every year, and that's how it became a national recognize day in North America other countries don't have the same recognition of Father's Day that that we have in North America, but that gives you a little insight into this special day. I also want to now give you the birthdays. For this upcoming week Jessica Smith. And you remember the Smith family we wanted was Jessica very happy birthday on the 22nd and Steve Robinson on the 23rd as he's trying to get across the border back to Canada. Happy birthday to you Steve and a belated happy first anniversary to Rick and Kathy Anderson. They have their anniversary last weekend and I were sorry for the oversight you too, but congratulations. I also want it now go on to our prayer and praise time. First of all, this is a note appraised Catherine called me Catherine de bourgh and she's had a great Rapport. She was down at Princess Margaret this week There's No cancer, and she doesn't have to come back for six more months for for a visit. So she's thrilled about that Monica also found me to announce that her friend is now out of hospital and they are able to again be talking on the telephone. I spoke to Rhoda Goldman and her husband is due to come. Home from hospital on June 30th, and of course he has a new prosthetic foot. And so they're looking forward to being reunited for prayer David wanted to remind us that we should never take our freedoms for granted and that we need to pay for a continuing decrease in the infant of devastating impact of their pandemic and I would agree with you on that David Crystal has ask for unspoken prayer and the Wilms daughter-in-law's mother has been rushed to hospital and also heard the dad is not very well. So we don't need to pray for them. And of course Don and Steve are trying to get back across the border and they hope to arrive by next weekend. And also at Shawna is moving into her new home. Hopefully everything being said and done on June 25th. She's waited three months for that close your time and she needs to get things settled and she's praying that the process will go smoothly. She also is concerned of the stress level and how it's been affecting her health. So we we need to pray for these folks. So let's let's take a moment in and thank the Lord for everything. Our father is we we have this day together. My prayer is that your blessings are continue to be very evident and that we will certainly feel that we are people that are cocooned in your love your our father and you have a love for us that we could never fully understand but we so appreciate all that you've done for this this past week as we head into this new week Lord. We don't know what the future will bring but we know that you're already in tomorrow and so for these requests for crystals request and for the ongoing issues for Shawna and I'm sure others in great stress. Is there trying to resolve things that the Lord your peace will be upon each and every one of us. We thank you too for for what you've done for Rhoda's husband Rob and we pray that everything will transition quickly and smoothly back here to Wasaga Beach for Steve and Don as they arrived back in Canada that they will cross the border in there will be no issues for them also for the Wilms daughter-in-law's family for the mom and the dad that you will superintend all that is taking place there and Lord different ones who had different health issues this past week and so father. We thank you for ongoing strength and energy and for your healing power and the miraculous ways you continue to work in our community and so is we have time to study your word on this special Father's Day. I just want to lift up all the fathers and the Grandpa's and the uncles in our church family wherever they are and Lord. Would you give them a special anointing and blessing this day and we commend them to you for your ongoing wisdom and comfort. Peace. And Power in their lives and Lord for those that have had the experiences that have touched them in different ways. May it be a time for memories this day of the impact that great men have had in our lives in so many ways. And so we bless you this day. Thank you for being our God and being our heavenly father in your mighty name. We pray. Amen.

How this morning I would like to speak to you on the Miracle of fatherhood. We often talk about fathers, but I want to speak to you about the miraculous background of of the day of up of fathering children by I want to talk to you about the old and the New Testament context of fathering and being a father it it was incredibly and continues to be incredibly profound in one's identity as a man in Jewish culture especially and to be a father was linked more profoundly to an email individual rights and privileges and in personal identity then even one's profession. And so if you weren't have it, you were to Father. It had a profound effect on you. Now. It is hard for women in the Jewish culture not to have children but is also especially hard for Jewish men and I would say men in general who are not able to be a father. I I draw up some personal observations from my own my own story and I have a sense of a personal empathy for men who who want to be Father's but can't be in in 1983 Jane and I were married and within two years. We were told by medical professionals that we would never be able to have children. Needless to say the news was devastating and the grief was all-encompassing. What we decided though was that we would continue our focus and serving the lord, but we would focus as being a couple. Well, then in 1986. We we had a child a little boy. And we lost another child through miscarriage in 1990. And then we had our first daughter in 1992 and five years later. We had another beautiful daughter and God has given me the privilege of being a father to three terrific Godly and should I say young adults? And so it's been a blessing and a miracle even to see what it means to be a father in my own life, but I want to take some time today and talk about one of the men in scripture who appeared in an uncertain uncertain terms that he would never know the miracle of Father couldn't and there are number of men in the scriptures that we could refer to but I want to talk to you this morning about Abram. Now Abram was the 10th Generation from Noah. He was born in the city of in approximately 2161 BC the city of UR was an extremely Progressive City had a population of about 50,000 people at the time. It was considered one of the largest cities in the world and it had things like a library in the University very much Beyond its day now as a as a boy Terra is father took the family and moved from her to Herrin. Herrin is up in present-day turkey. And Heron is the center of the Moon God called worship area and Tara Abraham's father worship the moon God and so Abraham had moved from to then heroin and then he married Sarah and he will became a follower of Yahweh of of God and he wanted to serve god with steadfast obedience and one of the things that God said to him was I want you to head out into a new land that I'm going to show you. April didn't know where it was. But he knew we had to go and follow God and so he was on the move for the second time in his lifetime. And remember most people were born in a place grew up in a place and died in the same place and here is Abram moving now into the land of pain in our present-day Israel. Not sure where he's going to go to and the man is 75 years old and in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. Do we read the following now? The Lord said to Abram go from your country and your Kindred and your father's house to the land. I will show you and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. And so in the map that you're going to see now, you're going to notice that in the bottom right corner, you'll see the city of her and in its right at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates river Euphrates river is the one that is been enough to Ward Herrin there in the map and so he would have traveled with his father and family up to Heron as I said in present-day turkey and then God directed him to come down into the land of Canaan and he settled in the town of shechem in that region and of course grazing pastures and things because he had many animals but then it was a temporary stent down into Egypt because there had been a famine in the area and of course you remember his nephew lot. And so when they were coming out of Egypt lot decided to go over to the area of Sodom, which is it right at the North part of the Dead Sea a beautiful land known in comparison to the To the Garden of God as it was called and in so Abram he went back up into the the shechem region, but even though he had done so many things in a short. Of time from the time you left Aaron, he was still very grieved he what he was very grieved in his heart and his mind and this grief continue to build overtime. In fact decades. He was burying this grief and we see this real grief come out in Genesis 15 verses 1 to 5 when God is talking directly to Abram and this is the words after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision fear, not Abram. I am your shield and your reward shall be very great. But Abrams said oh Lord God, what will you give me for I continued childless and the air of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said behold, you have given me no Offspring and a member of my household will be my Heir don't remember what I said it begin to the sermon to not have an heir did not have a child to not be the father of children was incredibly hard for Jewish man, and he goes on and they burn says behold the word of the Lord came to Abram and said this man shall not fear are your very own son. Shall be your are going to read those words. You're very own son shall be your Heir and he brought a remote side and said look toward the heaven. They have to look heaven in the number of stars if you're able to number them and then God said to Abram so shall your Offspring be? Remember, here's a here's a man. He's now into his 80s. No children are even though at that moment. God. Spoke had to make a choice. He had to decide what he's going to believe God or not believe God. Well, we have his response in Genesis 15:6 and 7 and Abram believed the Lord and God counted it to him as righteousness. Now. Did he have a son? And God said to Abram. I am the Lord who brought you out of of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess why because God had a vision that they were going to need land for all the errors that we're going to come from Abram. Even though he was not a father still not a father. So the result is Sarah comes up with a plan. And in Genesis 16, we read the following now, Sarah Abraham's wife had borne him. No children, and she had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. So Sarah I said to Abram behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children go into my servant. It may be that I should have changed children by her. A neighbor and listen to the voice of Sarah so Ever After Abram had live 10 years in the land of Canaan Canaan Sarah Abraham's wife took Hagar the Egyptian her servant and Dave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And Abram went into Hagar and she conceived and when she saw that she had conceived she looked with contempt on her mistress. How old neighbor for 16 says he was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. and then everything backfired and we read the following. Then Sarah I said to Abram met the wrong done to me Beyond you I gave my servant to your Embrace and when she saw that she had conceived she looked on me with contempt. May the lord judge between you and me. Wow.

Can imagine the Dynamics that went on in that 10 4 weeks? So what happened? 13 more years pass and now we read the following in Genesis 17 and verse 1 when Abram was 99 years old the Lord appeared to him and said I am God Almighty walk before me and be blameless. And then in verse 4 of that chapter, he says behold my Covenant is with you and you shall be what the father of a multitude of Nations? So it's been a tremendous Fiasco 13 years of past and God now says they broom again. You're going to be a father. So we read the following in verse 15 of that chapter. And God said to Abraham because he's now renamed him Abraham as for Sarah your wife. You shall not call her name Sarah. But Sarah shall be her name and I will bless her and moreover. I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she will become Nations and kings of people shall come from her. Dan Abram fell on his face and laughed and said stop shell a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old Shell Sarah who is 90 years old. Fairchild And Abraham said to God, oh that Ishmael might live before you and God said no, but Sarah your wife shall bear a son and you shall call his name Isaac and I will establish my Covenant with him as an Everlasting Covenant for his offspring after him. I don't know about you, but I can understand where Abraham would have started laughing at a hundred because if you don't laugh you're certainly going to cry. The idea that he would be a father when he's a century of age was mind-blowing to him. Well another year passes. And then we read the following in Genesis Chapter 18. now Abraham and Sarah were old advanced in years will yes, they were The way of the women had ceased to be with Sarah. So sterile after herself saying after I am worn out and my Lord is old shall I have pleasure? And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old but here's the kicker Point here is the Clincher for the power of God verse 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord is anything too hard for the Lord? And so at the appointed time, I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah shall have a son.

Here's the rest of the story Genesis chapter 21. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised and Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which the God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him who sorts Erebor him Isaac and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was 8 days old as God had commanded him. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born to him and Sarah said God has made laughter for me everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children yet. I have borne him a son in his old age.

20 more years pass And we read this in Genesis 22. God says he can't Abraham I will surely bless you. I will surely multiply you and your Offspring is the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore and your Offspring Shelf has s the Gate of his enemies and in your Offspring shall all please note the word All Shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. And what's fascinating about this story? Is here is where the lineage that actually leads to Jesus Christ. Originate and so when you study the Jewish lady is right through the Old Testament and and Matthew and and then Luke bring out much of of the lineage forest from Joseph Jesus mother and father. You see it's starting right on through Abraham and on through Isaac and Jacob and so on to incredible to think that he needs to Thousand Years prior to the birth of Jesus it all started because a man at the hundred had a son and so here's the conclusion of the story. We read this in Genesis 25. These are the days of the years of Abraham's life 175 years. Abraham breathe his last and he died a good old age an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people. The notice first nine which is very important Isaac and Ishmael is Son's buried him in a cave at makola in the field of Ephraim on the sun has a horror the hittite east of memory.

What does that say to you about the miracle of fatherhood? What a story what it what incredible insight into the working of God and his faithfulness to one individual epitomized in the whole world. And so here's what I want to leave with you this morning each of us. Each of us need to acknowledge. First of all, the miracle of fatherhood has reason we're all here. And secondly the reality of how God works in any situation because his line for Sarai and Abram at the time is the same line for you and I is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord. The maker of heaven and Earth is anything too wonderful or too hard for him? And so you may be in a position. You may be in a position today where you're waiting to Father something maybe maybe waited for years even decades. And your and you're waiting for God to move in a certain way take this example from Abram and continue to look up and trust that the Lord is going to work May his story May Abraham story continue to remind you that you have a heavenly father who loves you deeply and what he and will do what he has promised in his time and for his honor and for his glory and so Genesis 21 and verse 2 is so poignant Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age. And here's the key at the time of which God had spoken to him. Got a compass. It's a family as we conclude this day. I'd like to give you the benediction that I gave to you last week. I think it's again very apropos to what we're talking about on this Father's Day Sunday from Jude 24 in verse 25, and we have the following now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with Greyjoy. To the only God our savior through Jesus Christ Our Lord be glory and Majesty Dominion Authority before all time and now and forever are men and may I pray for you father again? We thank you on this Father's Day Sunday for the miracle of fatherhood, but it's not so much the actual Miracle of conceiving and having children. It's the fact that you're an amazing God and you do amazing things and you do miraculous things through human beings such as ourselves. Abram was a simple man who wanted to follow you and you bless him. It seemed like he would never be a father and yet your plans and purposes were accomplished and your will was completed and in your time you made all things beautiful and you took what was incredible grief and unbelief and turned it into laughter that was genuine as Sarah laughed and thank you for being such an amazing God for her as well. Soulard for those that are waiting in this time for miracles for fathering of situations may they have a trust and a confidence in you and Lord may you speak to them clearly and remind them that your plans and purposes will be accomplished that you might be glorified and may that be the set of all of us as we serve you this week. We would horrify you in all things. Thank you Father. Thank you Jesus. Thank you. Holy Spirit for all that you're doing we bless your name this day. amen, and amen