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Hey there, this is Jen Wade, part of the core team here at Springs Church. We just want

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to say thank you so much for joining us and listening to our podcast. We are praying that

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it encourages you and it inspires you. And if you'd like to find out more about Springs

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Church, please visit our website springschurch.co.uk. Here's today's message.

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Yes you guys, let me just do some minor rearranging over here. Wonderful, there we go. Thanks

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Matty, I'll keep that for me. I didn't receive a rosette this morning, but I did receive

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a new t-shirt everyone. So there you go, 1 0 0. It is this one, yeah sorry, yeah, just

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to be clear. Hello, welcome this afternoon. Hello sweetheart, you okay? This one's about

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you. Yeah, hey. So we're part way through, we're actually through at middle of a, we

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normally start doing series here at Springs. We enjoy doing series of messages and we're

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actually in the middle of a point where we're not doing a series right now. Are you coming

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up here? Hello. Do you want to say hello? No, no. And so this afternoon it is my privilege

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to be able to speak to you on Father's Day. My name is Ben, for those of you who don't

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know me, I'm one of the leaders here at Springs on my day to day job. You will find me in

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the classroom at Blanfordmere Primary School over in Kingswinford. And I get to speak

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to you this afternoon on the subject of Father's Day. Why am I in the classroom? Generally

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it's teaching children, not always. So to introduce myself and my family, I've got my

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beautiful wife Jen and our two kids Caleb is in Kids Church and you've already met

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Evie this afternoon. So dads of the room, spiritual fathers in the room. I consider

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many people in this room to be a spiritual father to me whether they know it or not.

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Future fathers. Guys, I've done a bit of research into Father's Day and I think gents, we might

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be in some trouble. Some research done in 2014, so I'll admit it's a little bit outdated.

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It suggests that in terms of gift giving, Father's Day is 20th in the lists of holidays.

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I can't think of 20 holidays. So Father's Day is 20th in the list. Does anyone want

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to guess what would be first? Christmas, well done. Second in the poll, anyone want to guess

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second? Mother's Day, yes well done. So gents, in case you were wondering, it's Jesus, mothers

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and then we're down here somewhere. So just to set the tone this afternoon. I'm also very

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aware of my own status within my family and Rich is going to show a little video to show

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my status within our family. Yeah, that's real pain there guys. I'm laughing but really

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I'm crying inside. It's real pain there. Today I am acutely aware as I bring this message

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to you that Father's Day can actually be quite painful for some people and some family units

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maybe. People in the room, maybe you come from all different sorts of places today.

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Those who have lost their father, those who've had or have a great dad and some all sorts

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of family compositions and there are far more qualified fathers in the room than I. There

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are people that have been a dad a lot longer than I am. I am painfully aware I've got a

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long way to go to being a perfect dad. So this afternoon you'll be glad to know it's

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not a TED talk on how to be the perfect dad. In fact our daughter Evie this week actually

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has managed to develop a fear of stairs after we took the stair gate off and then Monday,

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Tuesday, Wednesday she fell down the stairs. So we now, yeah that was stress to me. Ben,

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if you say that people are going to think that she's fallen from the top to the bottom.

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She didn't do that. She just fell down the final few a couple of times. Anyway, now she'll

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just sit at the top of the stairs and shout until someone comes and collects her. I'm

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also pretty sure that Caleb has developed a worrying addiction to Mario Kart over the

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past few weeks and Nintendo Switch has definitely taken a battering over the past few weeks.

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But then there are our real parenting worries as well. Sometimes I'm not there for my kids

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when they need me. Sometimes I snap at them. Sometimes when it's hot and humid I just don't

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want them around me at the moment. Sometimes I'm tired or distant. And so I'm aware this

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afternoon that the quality of my own parenting doesn't dictate my ability to speak to you

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this afternoon. It's the quality of the fatherhood that we have experienced from God. And so

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this afternoon I want to talk to you about not my own parenting but Father God himself.

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Sing to God. Sing in praise of his name. Extol him who rides on the clouds. Rejoice before

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him. His name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless. A defender of widows. His God

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in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. He leads out the prisoners with

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singing. But the rebellious live in a sun scorched land. And that's from Psalm 68 verses

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four to six. I'm going to bring up that scripture very, very soon to talk to you again. One

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of my favorite theologians in the whole world, you can tell that you might have qualified

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as a Christian if you have a favorite theologian. One of my favorite theologians, that's someone

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who writes about the Bible and writes about things of God, is a man called A.W. Tozer.

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And A.W. Tozer around 100 years ago said this, what comes into our minds when we think about

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God is the most important thing about us. So since God chose to call himself Father,

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how does our earthly lens, our earthly image of our father, of our dad influence our image

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of God? According to a census done in the US in 2019, one in five children live without

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a dad in their lives. 21% of children have absent fathers in America. Children growing

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up without a father in those environments are 47% more likely to be in poverty than

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those with a present father and are 279% more likely to carry weapons and be involved in

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drugs. So when we see God, what's our image of him I would ask you this afternoon? Do

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we see a disciplinarian? Do we see a harsh, judgmental figure? Do we see God as maybe

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distant, selfish or maybe even not there when we really need him? What has your earthly

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image of your relationship with your father done to your relationship with God? Maybe

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like me, you had or have a great relationship with your earthly dad, with your earthly father.

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But without knowing, maybe that can influence your opinion on the fatherhood of God as well.

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My dad is a wonderful dad, but I grew up with a great loving and caring dad who is wise,

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he's always full of great advice. Don't worry, I wrote this in his card as well. And always

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there for us when we were growing up. But when I was encountering God, we've got one

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on the loose again. When I was encountering God for myself when I was a teenager, I personally

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found it really difficult to connect with God as an all powerful, almighty being, because

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that just wasn't the image I had of my dad. My dad was gentle and kind and patient. And

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so I struggled to connect with that even though my earthly dad is absolutely incredible. Warped

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by such confusion, how do we paint accurate biblical pictures of Father God's goodness

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and his faithfulness? When we've been the victim to worldly pictures of fatherhood,

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we have a harder time seeing God's promises to us. The Bible articulates the truth, but

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in honesty, sometimes that is not an easy thing to believe. The story is true for our

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family as well, for my family. For those of you who don't know, my wonderful wife, Jen,

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who's just run off with Evie somewhere, she's going again. You may not be aware that Jen

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has no relationship with her biological father, as we say in the family. Many years ago, Jen's

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mom, Karen, was left with no choice but to leave an abusive relationship. Jen's had no

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contact with her dad. Since Karen married Chris in 2001, we're eternally grateful that

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he stepped up to the role of dad for her and the family. As far as we're concerned, he

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is dad and he is the granddad to our kids. But when coming to faith, Jen always struggled

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to connect with the idea that God was her father when her earthly father had been such

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a disappointment. It was the phrase that I read from Psalm 68 that helped Jen connect

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with God, connected with her soul. It took her faith to a new level. It said, a father

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to the fatherless. She had a Holy Spirit revelation that God could fill the gap that was left

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during her teen years. There was an ultimate father in heaven who cared for her more than

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anything, who loved her more than anything and gave up his life so that she could connect

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with him again. Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds,

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rejoice before him. His name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless, a defender of

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widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. He leads out the prisoners

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with singing, but the rebellious live in a sun scorched land. A father to the fatherless.

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How wonderful. You see folks, the Bible wasn't originally written in English. The Bible was

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written in two languages, but predominantly when we read the Old Testament, we find that

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Psalm 68 and the rest of the Old Testament was written in the ancient language of Hebrew,

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the Hebrew people who traveled to Israel throughout the Old Testament. And the Old Testament is

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their story, the story of these Hebrew people. The word father used here, father of the fatherless

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in this language is Abai. And that means father in the most literal sense. It means the father

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of an individual. It means a father who lovingly watches over, a figure of love and protection,

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but it's ultimately quite a formal meaning of the word. I picture it like a bit like

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a stiff British upper lip version of the word father. There, but maybe not intimately close.

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Towards the end of the Old Testament, in the book of Jeremiah, we find an absolutely heartbreaking

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verse. This really got to me when I was summing, when I was putting this together. And it sums

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up just how badly things have gone wrong between us and God. It's in Jeremiah 3 verse 19 to

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20. I myself said, how gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant

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land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation. I thought you would call me father

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and not turn away from following me, but like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you

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Israel have been unfaithful to me, declares the Lord. So the whole of this Old Testament

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picture these Hebrew people and it leaves God heartbroken. That just stuck to me. I

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thought, I thought you would call me father. Can you sense the disappointment in the tone?

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God's people had turned away from him and there was a barrier of something that Christians

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call sin. Sin is stuff of the world that God can't connect with. Things like lying or cheating,

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God doesn't have a tolerance of those and so God can't connect with them. All this stuff

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is just in the way. And it meant that father God could not be the close father that he

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always wanted to be. I thought you would call me father. I thought you would call me father.

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The story doesn't end there. The Jesus came to earth. Jesus came to give us life and the

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Bible says life to its fullness. Jesus came to wash us clean, to make us new and to connect

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us to father again. In fact, he came to redefine our image of father. Jesus actually used a

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different word for father than ab or abai as you'd find in the Old Testament. In fact,

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the New Testament was written in the language of Greek when it was written down a couple

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of hundred years after the events or thousands of years, no, a hundred years after the events.

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The words were written in Greek but those wouldn't have been the words that people spoke

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at the time. Jesus didn't speak in Greek. Jesus was alive during the Roman reign in Israel

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2000 years ago. Jesus would have spoken in a language called Aramaic. When we look at

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this we find some really beautiful things here. Jesus' word for father has actually

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ultimately become more famous as a Swedish pop group than what it was originally used

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for. Does anyone know what it is? Abba, well done. The Aramaic word that Jesus repeatedly

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used for father was Abba. Now, Linz, I'm not going to ask you to come up and do your best

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dancing queen impression although we did have a little Abba playing band practice earlier.

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Thankfully, that hasn't made the cut. So why Abba? Why was this word Abba used by Jesus?

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How did that come into language? Well, it was actually one of the first words taught

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to young Jewish babies. It's a bit like when babies babble. And so the baby's first words

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in that culture would have been Imma meaning mama and Abba meaning dada or daddy. And Jesus

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didn't call God his father, his Abba like a distant overbearing father. He called him

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daddy. Why? Daddy is deeply personal, deeply close, a relationship that nobody else can

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recreate. Is it father or daddy who cuddles his children to sleep at night? Is it father

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or daddy who reads the bedtime story? Is it father or daddy who jumps in the paddling

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pool and makes a fool of himself just to make his kids laugh? Is it father or daddy who

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comforts their children when they've fallen over and hurt their knee? Is it father or

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daddy that cries with their children when they've messed up or they've been deeply

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hurt or disappointed? Is it father or daddy who lovingly guides his children and steers

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them on the right path? I reckon God's briefing to Jesus before he came to earth was, make

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sure they call me father, not Abba, not overbearing distant father. Make sure they call me Abba.

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Make sure they call me daddy. You see, it's really interesting because if you study all

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the other Jewish literature that was created around the same time as Jesus was speaking,

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nowhere in this devotional literature is the word Abba ever used as a way of addressing

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God. And yet in Jesus' teaching, the word Abba was normal. It was the norm. Abba as

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a translation actually appears, the Aramaic word changed into the Greek word because that's

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what the New Testament was written in. It appears three times in the New Testament.

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Romans 8 verses 15 to 16, the spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live

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in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption into sonship.

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And by him we cry, Abba, father. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we

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are God's children. How wonderful. Galatians 4 verses 6 to 7 also uses this word. Because

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you are his sons, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls

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out Abba, father. So we have this in our very soul. It says this wonderful in verse 7, you

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are no longer a slave but God's child. And since you are his child, thanks mate, God

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also made you an heir. Since you are his child, God also made you an heir. All because within

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our spirit there is a cry of Abba, father. And then I absolutely, I was bowled over when

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I found this verse. Mark 14 verses 35 to 36. Going a little farther, he, that means Jesus,

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fell to the ground and prayed that if it was possible for the hour might pass from him.

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Abba, father, he said, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Not what I

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will, but what you will. On its own, that verse sounds a little bit odd. To give you

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the context of this verse, these are the words that Jesus says the night before he is crucified.

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Jesus is about to be taken to be crucified and brutally murdered despite doing nothing

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wrong. Jesus took some disciples to a garden to go and pray because he felt like he needed

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to connect with his Abba, father, with his dad. Jesus retreats by himself and in his

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moment of desperation, his moment of despair, he says, Abba, father, everything is possible

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for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will. In this moment,

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Jesus is shouting out, dad, I can't do this. He's shouting out, dad, I need you. Dad, make

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it stop. He's so aware of the pain and the suffering that he is about to experience that

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he no longer cries out to father God. He no longer cries out to God Almighty. He cries

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out, dad, make it stop. Jesus is trying to help you and me know a father who loves us

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and will do us no harm. A father who will not beat us or abandon us, but will encircle

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us in his arms and let us feel his love. A father who will not let you go. Jesus wants

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to reintroduce you to his father, to your father, so that you might be whole spiritually

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and emotionally. Reclaim your birthright this afternoon to know and enjoy the love of Abba,

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father, as your father. The next time that's recorded in the Bible that Jesus would speak

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to his father directly, Jesus didn't use the word Abba. The next time Jesus spoke to his

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father was as he died on a cross for our sins. Mark 15 says this. At noon, darkness came

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over the land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried

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out in a loud voice, Elohi, Elohi, Lama sabachthi, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken

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me? And verse 37 says this, with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. Jesus isn't crying

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out daddy anymore. He's not crying out Abba, father, in this moment. He cried out Elohi,

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meaning God. Why? Well, this was the moment that Jesus sacrificed himself for us. He took

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everything that we've ever done, every sin we've ever committed and ever will commit,

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and he nailed it onto him on the cross. He took our punishment, he took our pain, he

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took the stuff that God could not connect with and he moved it aside, he destroyed it.

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Why did Jesus cry out saying that God had abandoned him? Why my God, have you forsaken

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me? In that moment, Jesus felt the full weight of what life without God would be. He felt

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our sin and he felt our shame. In fact, the Bible says he didn't just feel it, he bore

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it and he took it. In that moment, our understanding of father God is made whole through his son.

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Our understanding of Abba father is made whole through the son, Jesus. 1 Peter 2 verse 24

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says this, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to

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sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. In that moment, God

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couldn't even look at his own son because he looked like our sin. He looked like the

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stuff that he couldn't connect with. He looked like everything that God stood against. He

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looked like a person who couldn't connect with his father. And then Jesus died, verse

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37 says. But I am so grateful for verse 38. Mark 15 verse 38 says, the second that Jesus

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breathed his last, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. But hang

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on a minute, Jesus wasn't in the temple. Jesus was on a hill outside of town nailed

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to a cross. How can a temple that's miles away in the middle of Jerusalem, how can a

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curtain tear there the moment that Jesus died? See in the Old Testament, the presence of

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God was hidden behind this curtain and only certain people were allowed to enter. The

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second that Jesus died, father God, daddy God, dad was able to reconnect with his people

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again. No longer was he the distant father of the Old Testament who was struggling to

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connect with his people. He was dad all over again. Daddy, able to pick us up when we fall.

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Dad, able to hold us when we cry. Dad, able to celebrate our successes, shower us with

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gifts. Dad, who's here to hold our hand when anxiety cripples us. And dad, who's here to

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pick us up and carry us when we're too scared to move. Dad, ready to die for us, time and

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time again. You see, we only experience the fullness of abba father through the sacrifice

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of his son. Only through the son can we have a full understanding of abba dad, father God.

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John 14, verse six to 10 says this, Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth and the

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life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my

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father as well. From now on you do know him and you have seen him. And Philip, who was

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one of the disciples said, Lord, show us the father and that you will be enough for us.

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Jesus answered, don't you know me Philip? Even after I have been among you for such

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a long time, anyone who has seen the father, anyone who has seen me has seen the father.

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How can you say show us the father? Don't you believe I am in the father and the father

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is in me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. Rather it is the

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father living in me who is doing his work. I love verse six there. It says, I am the

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way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you really

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know me, you will know my father as well. If you really know me, you will know my father

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as well. The fullness of father God, the fullness of dad is known within the sacrifice of the

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son. How wonderful. I am going to pray a couple of prayers shortly and Pete and the band

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are going to lead us in some response to God. Maybe you feel right now that in your heart

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you just want to sing out a song to him. Thank him for who he is as a good, good father.

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Before I do that, it would be remiss of me to not give you an opportunity to get to know

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this father yourself. This father God is available for you right now. And maybe you have never

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connected with him before. Maybe you are sitting here thinking, gosh, I want to know this guy

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a bit more. I want to know father God. I want to know Jesus. I want to explore this thing

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called faith if I can. The good news is this afternoon you absolutely can. I am going to

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pray a prayer for you right now. If this is for you, I would love you to say this in your

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heart. And then at the end, after I finish the prayer, I would ask everyone to keep their

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heads still bowed. And if this prayer is for you and if you have said it in your heart,

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you can look up at me and I will be able to come and see you later on and maybe give you

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a Bible and have a little bit of a chat. This is for people who are going to connect with

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God for the very first time. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the things that you have done

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in my life that I didn't even know about. Lord, thank you that you love me. Thank you

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that you are my Abba Father. Not distant, not judgmental, not overbearing, but you are

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my dad and you are the best dad I could ever hope for. Lord, please as I ask you now, please

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come into my life. I am sorry that I have done things that may be against you. I am

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sorry that I have done things that I didn't even know were against you. Lord, please come

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and help me with that. Please come and live in my heart and come and save me. In your

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name. Amen. And as we keep our heads just bowed for a second, if you said that prayer

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in your heart this afternoon, I would want you to do a really, really brave thing and

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just look up and make eye contact with me. That would be absolutely wonderful. Amen.

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Amen. Thank you, Lord. For the rest of us, Lord, I just pray that we would set in our

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hearts Father God again. Our good Father who loves us, who gave his Son up for us. Whoever

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comes to the Father comes through me, Jesus said. Lord, we put you first in our lives

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again. We refuse to let our images, our thoughts of earthly fatherhood be put on top of our

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image of you. Lord, we cast that away and we have an image of you in our minds as our

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dad, as daddy. Lord, we love you. In your name. Amen.

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Thanks again for listening. To hear more of our messages, make sure to subscribe to our

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God bless.