Hey, guys. This is the New Heights Church podcast, and we just want to welcome you and thank you for joining us today. We hope this message inspires and encourages you. Here at New Heights, we exist to love people and point them to Christ.
Enjoy today's service. Luke, chapter number 15. We'll start around verse 11. And I'm gonna read just a little bit.
And I'm gonna give you four keys. I'm gonna read just a little bit. The story, most of the time, is called the Prodigal Son, the parable. The Prodigal Son.
But there are many Bibles out there that call it the parable of the Compassionate Father. I like that better because the. The sons are certainly primary characters in the story, but if you want to know what God is like, the Father shows us in the story what God is like. We're gonna.
Verse 11. A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. And he divided unto them his living or his inheritance. He split what the man owned between his two living sons.
And not many days after, the younger son gathered everything together and he took his journey into a far country, and there he wasted his substance with riotous or wasteful living. Verse 14. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. Somebody said, that land.
Now, it's interesting because we're finding out here a minute that the daddy was still able to raise a fatted calf at the same time. So sometimes the famine is not related to the weather. Sometimes the famine is related to where you are. You gotta understand, there is a place of blessing.
If there's a place of blessing, there are places void of blessing. You've got to make sure you stay close to the spout where the glory comes out. You got to get yourself connected and committed and don't let anything push you away from the things of God. I remember my pastor, we were riding around in his homer one time, and he said to me, he said, if I quit, you don't quit.
He said, I'm not gonna quit. He said, but if you ever saw me stop serving God, don't let it be a reason for you to stop serving God. You got to stay close to the spout where the glory comes out. You cannot be sick.
I'm telling you, the world's changing every single day. And I bet you every single generation since Jesus thought they were the generation that Jesus is coming back. I'm not saying we're not. I'm just telling you every Generation has thought that.
So you got to get to the place where you understand that as fast as the world is degrading and right has become wrong and wrong has become right, you've got to be that much more committed to staying in the things of the kingdom of God so that the world's disdain for what is holy does not penetrate your heart. The Bible says mighty family was in that land. He began to want, he was in need. The Bible says he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.
Somebody said that country. It says he went to a far off country. And he says he went and there was a famine in that land. And then he went and joined himself to somebody who had the same problem.
Yet sound like somebody offended. First thing they do is look for somebody with the same offense. Hey, can I talk to you about what I'm already mad about? Thanks.
Hey, I think you're mad about what I'm mad about. We mad about together. I'm telling you, the devil will usher that person in your life. Immediately you'll be like, wow, everybody agrees with me.
No, Bill's above sent you somebody to talk to. Just too much for Sunday. Praise the Lord. So he went to join himself to a certain to assist in that country, and he sent him in the fields to feed swine.
Somebody say swine? Swine is pigs. Pigs are a problem in Texas. I do not mind being part of the solution to the big problem in Texas.
Personally. However, Jesus, whether you like it or not, is Jewish. He was probably telling a story to Jewish people. He was talking about swine, because swine to a Jewish person is an unclean animal, not allowed to eat, not allowed really to touch it.
So the fact that this young man was so far from his father's house that he had joined with a citizen of another country and he was now taking care of what God had told him to abstain from. You can't get much lower than this. He looks at what the pigs are eating and he says, I'm not supposed to eat the pigs, man. I would like to eat what the pigs are eating.
Verse 17. And when he came to himself, the only way you can come to yourself is you have to have been there before he came to himself. And he says, how many hired servants my fathers have bread enough and to spare, and I'm sitting here starving. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, father, I've sinned against you and before you.
I've sinned against heaven and before you, and I'm no Longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants. And he rose and came to his father when he was yet a great way off. His father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell.
Somebody say fell, fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said, father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring me the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.
Bring me the fatty cap and kill it so we can eat and be married. For my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost, and now he's found and began to be married. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew out of the house, he heard some music, dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked and says, what do these things mean? And he said to him, your brother has come and your father's killed the bad calf because he has received him safe and sound. And the older brother was angry, he would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him.
And he answered, saying to his father, all these years I served you. Neither transgressed I any time against your commandment. Yet whenever you. Whenever my brother came back, you gave him a.
A fatty cat. And you never even gave me a little goat. But as soon as you saw your son, which had devoured your living with harlots, you gave him the fatty cap. And he said to him, son, you're ever with me.
All I have is yours. It was me or appropriate that we should be merry and glad for this. Your brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. Somebody say amen.
There's a couple things I want to point out really quickly about the compassionate Father. Number one. He saw his son coming a far off and went to meet him. But he did not condone that foreign land.
Some of you, as a daddy, you've had to watch your kids do things. They're outside of the convictions, doctrines and beliefs of your household. And you have held those doctrines and beliefs and you have tried to decide am I right or am I wrong? And I'm here to tell you the Bible says that the Father did not go and live a riotous life just to try to act like he loved his son.
The father needed the son to come to himself and know where to go when he did. Sometimes being a good daddy is holding the line when your offspring are not. So that they know what righteousness looks like so that they know what stability looks like, so that they know there's a place they can go when they do come to themselves. The Bible says that the young man came and the first thing he did is he began to say, I've sinned against heaven and I've sinned in your sight.
I say it differently. The Son repented. Every person has to come to this understanding. I'm not worthy to be called a child of God.
I repent of my sins. And as soon as you do, the same thing happens with our God. As Jesus explained in this parable, the first thing that happens is the robe gets put on you. And that robe is the robe of righteousness to cover all of your sin, all of your shame, all of your guilt.
Everything that you've done is now hidden and covered by the robe that God is willing to put on you. But the first thing that has to happen for that robe to happen, for that robe to be made available, is you have to be willing to repent of your sins. Society is where society is today, partially because the Church has decided to make Christianity a decision and not conversion. Christianity is a laying down of an old life and a recognition that my old life did not work.
I am not worthy to be called your son. And you put yourself in the hands of a merciful God. And when you put yourself in the hands of merciful God, you'll find out that he wasn't looking just for a slave. He was actually looking to inherit or to adopt you into his family.
He said, put a robot. I don't want anybody seeing what he's done. He said, put a ring on his finger. That ring would have been the signet or the sign or the seal.
It would effectively be how somebody knew which family you come from. If a letter was sent, you would have taken that seal and you would have pressed it on that letter. Everybody would have known the household that came from. In other words, if you wanted to buy some sheep in another county or another area, you would have sent a letter with your seals pressed into some wax so that everybody knew this.
This is what I want, and I'm going to pay for it. In other words, the first thing he did was wrap him in righteousness. The next thing he did is say, everything that's at my disposal is now at your disposal. It'd be like handing your son a credit card, your child a credit card.
You're not asking them to pay for it. You're telling them that they can use it. It's access to your resources. He put shoes on his feet.
The shoes on his feet simply said, I'm interested in your comfort, because, believe it or not, humans do not have to have shoes to walk, but it's way better when you do. He said, I'm not just interested in your survival. I'm interested now. The Bible says that I wish you would prosper and be in health.
He said, take the fat calf and kill it inside the party, because my son that was dead is now alive. The scripture continues to say that as they're making the party and they're having a good time, that the brother, the older brother comes in from the field and the Bible says he won't come into the party, something interesting happens. The father goes out of the party to go meet with his son. I find this very interesting because there's really two big characteristics where relationships break down.
The first one is rebellion, because the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. One of the primary reasons that the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence is because you need to fertilize your lawn. You're not taking care of what God has entrusted you with. Therefore, something on the outside looks more favorable than something on the inside.
This is where rebellion spews from. Because all of a sudden, well, if I could just be out there, boy, I would really make my way. I would really have it. I would really make it.
And what you'll find is different things. Number one, pioneers hate sons and sons hate pioneers. Pioneers hate sons because they look at somebody with inheritance and they say something like this, if I could have started, I'd be so much further along. Sons look at pioneers and say, if I wasn't just burdened with all these responsibilities of running the business, running the ministry, being a part of this family, welcome this family.
We do it this way, we have to do it this way. All my friends get to go out there and do this. And sons are sitting there looking outside the fence saying, boy, those pioneers have it good. They go watch any movie they want and come in whatever they want.
They can do whatever they want. And the sun's thinking the grass is green on that side of the fence. And the pioneers sitting outside the fence going, if I just had a little inheritance to work with, I'd be so far along right now. Because rebellion is one of the primary facets of a breakdown in a relationship.
I think something else is better. So I'm going to compare something else to what is here. Instead of using Jesus Christ as the example, for all things. The minute you use Jesus example now you understand everything can get better.
So we've already agreed. If you're comparing relationship to relationships or relationships, sooner or later you're either going to begat arrogance about how good you think your relationships are, or you're going to develop an inferiority complex based off of how poor your relationships are. This is why we don't use ourselves. Bible says we measure ourselves by ourselves.
We are fools. That's why we look at Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. So rebellion is one of the primary areas, and that's seen in the younger man. But the other one, and I think is probably more caustic.
Personally, rebellion in a. In a immature person is much easier to deal with than what I'm about to talk about. And what I'm about to talk about usually doesn't come from an immature person. It usually comes from a mature person who's let their guard down.
Immature people usually rebel, but people who are mature or think they're mature usually don't rebel. They usually just get. They usually just get offended. I can't believe they talk to me like that.
Do they know who I am? No, they don't. You're at the grocery store, nobody knows who you are. Like, don't they know that you push your cart on the right side of the aisle just like, what do they think we're in the uk?
What is going on here? Offended. And it doesn't take anything to be offended. Your brother leaves, is considered dead.
You have watched your father stare down the road every single day. Getting a report on the fatted calf. And what is the status of that calf? Is it too big?
Is it too small? Where is it? I'm sorry, sir. The calf is too big.
We're either gonna have to turn it out or we're gonna have to slaughter it. Well, then you turn that thing out, but you put another calf in there. Because today might be the day when my son comes home. Can't you just hear everybody working for him?
Yeah, boss man thinks today's the day. But we've been hearing stories about that boy out in that land. I heard he was literally feeding kids. I don't think he'd take him back.
All the while Dad's just staring down the road. Today's gonna be the day Today's gonna be the day Today's gonna be the day Today's gonna be the day. Nighttime comes and he goes to bed he kisses wife and he says his mercies are new Every morning Tomorrow is going to be the day. And all the while saying, make sure we got a calf ready, because when my boy comes home, we're gonna have a party.
And today might be the day. Seeing somebody coming down the road from a long ways off. And he said, I think that might be him. But see, a dad even knows how their son walks from afar off.
Somebody said, boss, we got somebody coming down the road. And daddy looks out there, says, it's not him. He's already talking about. He's 500 yards away.
He said, you think I don't know my boy? I know exactly how he's going to look when he comes down that road. You call if you see anyone else. And then one day he sees him coming.
Instead of standing there, instead of waiting on him to pass the precipice and to pass the threshold that says, now you're back on my property. Now I love you. God's not looking for you to get all the way back. God's just looking for you to take one step in the right direction.
He said, draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you. He's not looking for you to find your way all the way back. I'm talking to every prodigal in the room and every prodigal watching this live stream. I decree and I declare that our God is faithful, our God is able, and he's looking for me to take just one step in the right direction.
I dare you to let today be the day when you say, I don't know it all, but I'm going to take one step today before the sun goes down. The Bible says that he ran to him and he fell in. It's the same word that you several times in the Bible for something radical happening. But it literally means that he fell on him as if to never lose him again.
Rebellion is, to be honest with you, easier to overcome because most of the time spews out of the immature. Who in here's ever raised a kid? Doesn't have to happen. But even as a parent, you can look at it and go, this is happening because you don't know the whole story.
But the second one is more challenging. And it usually comes out of people who've been in the house. Yeah, I've been serving you all the time. I never got out of step.
Look at me go. I did everything that was expected of me and not one thing more. You want me to feed the sheep? I fed the sheep.
Complain while I was doing it, but I fed them. I've been saved 473, 000 years. I've been sitting in this chair so long, my cheeks, I made an imprint on it. I've never let you down.
Who did you let up? When we serve God so long, we can't see past the end of our nose. We've forgotten what salvation tasted like because we haven't stirred up the gift on the inside of us. And then you start measuring everything.
I don't know if I like that song. I'm not sure. Didn't we use the Gospel of Luke last week? Shouldn't we maybe be in a different gospel by now?
I thought this church was going to Costa. They should be speaking in tongues the entire service. I remember when I grew up, we did it this way, this way, this way. It's quiet when I talk like this.
Who is he talking about? I'm talking about Jake. Just so we're clear. Jake.
Rumors. I don't understand. Now, think about the arrogance of this guy. What's going on at the big house.
And somebody who works for him says, dad's having a party. Well, you go tell my daddy that I'm not going in. Not without a personal invitation. I remember one time, not here, you know.
So my pastor, he was of a different generation than me. He got a kick out of putting you in tight spots. So we would have guest ministers come in, and so my responsibilities would increase because I'll have the same responsibilities that I have before, and then I have all these other ones. And he one time told a friend of mine who was one of the.
One of the main ushers in the church, he said, all right, we're not open the doors until 6:30. And he said, specifically, I don't want any person, nobody in that room till 6:30. And I was like, okay. My buddy standing there by the door, up walks this really nice lady.
She said, excuse me. He said, oh, I'm sorry. We still got 10 more minutes till we open the doors. And she said this.
Do you know who I am? And so I just went, sat there, got me some popcorn. I was like, I got. I got to see this.
She said, I've been in this church since before you were born. He said, I understand, and I'm not happy to say what I'm saying, but pastor said specifically, don't open this door until 6:30 for nobody. She said, well, I'm not nobody. She pushed him out of the way and walked through that door.
I don't mind one way or the other, but I promise you, I've been around people that are just getting born again, Just got born again. They still remember the taste of sin in their mouth. And if somebody said, I'm sorry, it's still a couple minutes before we can open the door, they're liable to hit their knees and start a prayer meeting right there and just say, well, thank God. We're gonna open them at 6:30.
Glory to the lamb of God that was slain. Because offense is not usually among the immature, it's usually among those who perceive themselves to be mature. I've worked for you constantly. Look what I've done.
I haven't had a cigarette in 30 years. You haven't won anybody to God either. Because rebellion usually spews from immaturity. But offense usually comes from the people who consider themselves mature.
The older son did have one thing going for him by looking right in the face. He never left. So when the father saw that there was a problem, he could go speak to it. But you can't speak to the problem if you're six lands away.
The father went out and said, let me reveal to you what you can't see. You've eaten every calf since he left. You haven't picked up the tab one time at a single restaurant. All that I have is yours.
The land you're standing on belongs to me, but you get to dance on it as if it belongs to you. You don't need to be mad at your brother. You need to be thankful of your father. See, offense is more challenging to deal with, but it is impossible to deal with when the offended leaves.
I'm not talking about church right now. I'm talking about in the big picture of life in your family. How many of you know that one person that's offended in your family, they don't come to the party. Or if they do come to the party, they never leave the tailgate standing in the backyard.
Oh, did they get there? Yeah, they got there. Did they leave? Yeah, they left.
Why? Because they were offended. Why are they offended? They don't even usually know.
All they know is you gave them this and not me, that I remember this. I'll tell this one thing, and I'm not gonna mention it again, maybe ever. I was four or five years old, I would walk into a family member's home, A large gathering. Every other child would be getting train sets, remote control cars and the like.
And I would get a card, me and my brothers, because there was a fence that had set in. And it was just radical. I would sit and watch them playing with their toys that would spin and move. And here's my little card.
Oh, yeah, thanks. Great card. I'm 4, and my father said we are going to honor them because the word says to honor them. Because offense does not poison somebody else.
When you get infected, it poisons you. Rebellion spews from immaturity, but usually offense comes from those who think they're immature. The compassionate father. Help.
Both. Help me with the keys, please. Now, for the sake of time. Let me just go.
I want to give you four keys to being an exceptional father. Number one, an exceptional father must be stable. You must be predictable. Not all the time.
There should certainly be some surprise element to you. But you've got to be predictable. You can't be the one that flies off the handle all the time. You can't be the one that they don't know how you're going to act.
There needs to be a predictability to your life. You're going to have to become stable. If you're not stable, stable how? You've got to be godly.
You've got to be present. Here's one. You got to be involved in their life. I'm gonna tell you the secret to that.
Involve them in yours. If you're a. A pipe fitter, you're probably going to enjoy a tea party about like nails on a chalkboard. You should still have the tea party with your daughter, but you can also take your daughter with you wherever you're going.
In other words, it's not always taking yourself down there. Sometimes it's pulling them up here. I wonder where they go. I wonder what they do.
I wonder. Hey, how about we go to Walmart? Why? I don't know.
Let's go to Walmart. Take them to the auto parts store. When you go to the auto parts store, let them see what your life looks like. So involving your kids is not just getting down on their level.
The Bible actually says to raise them up the way they should go. And they should not go to an immature tea party indefinitely. So you raise them the way they should go. You raise them up.
Somebody say up. You raise them up. You pull them up. Kids don't need help being kids.
They need help being adults. And they're gonna be an example. If they don't get an example, they're just gonna do whatever they saw on tv. Number one, you gotta be stable.
Number two, you have to be an example. You have to show them by your actions what a godly person does, not just what they say. You have to show them that evangelism is a priority. For you personally, because you tell people about Jesus and what Jesus did in your life.
I don't know how I could do that. You didn't know how to weld until you did. You know how to ride rock until you did. You know how you use computer until you did.
Sooner or later you just have to decide that not knowing. It's not an infinite excuse. You have to be an example. What would you tell your kid?
They told you I don't know how you say learn, Figure it out. Read a book, Google YouTube. You gotta set an example. You want your kids to be in church, you gotta be in church.
You want your kids to worship God, you gotta worship God. Hey, go to church with your mom now. And you know, you really listen when you're in there. That's like a zero percent chance.
You gotta be an example. Here's one. You can't be offended. Don't let them hear you talk about President Biden as if he was Satan himself.
There's a time when you can share politics with your offspring. It's not when they're for. Because what's hard putting people is honor. What's easy to get in people is dishonor, disrespect.
So you gotta put on when they're young. Then you can have conversations based on your political bend and how you see things lining up. The Bible when they're old enough and mature enough to talk about it. I just threw this in there because I just want to say this.
You can't be a drunk and a good dad. You can't. You can't go suck it on Bud Light, Middle Light, and act like you're gonna show up all the time when the reality is is you are using something to try to medicate what God says he will actually do for you. You're looking for a temporary peace.
When God gives peace that surpasses all of your understanding. You gotta be an example. You gotta be stable. Number three.
Somebody said number three. We're gonna go just a couple minutes over. It's very important. A good daddy has to be honest.
You can't lie. If you're a good dad, you can't. You cannot lie. You can't be a liar.
And a good day, you can't. That means when you miss it, you can't act like you didn't miss it. If you were wrong, one of the best things they can see is the fact that their dad will say, hey, I was wrong out there. If you need to apologize to your kids, you need to apologize to your Kids, you need to do it honestly.
That's why I want to think less than they will think more than if you're honest, because they already know you're lying. Kids are not dumb. Kids are just smaller than us. You have to be honest.
You cannot lie to them ever. Everybody say ever. That means ever. You can't be the liar.
You have to be stable. I don't lie. You might say, I'm not telling you about that yet. We will have that conversation later.
My kids will come to me. Today I heard somebody saying this and that about President Trump. What do you think? I said, I think President Trump was the President.
I think God loves him just like he loves you and me. And more than that, you and I will talk about it later because I'm not trying to make a six year old understand geopolitical affairs, but I'm also not gonna lie to them. I'm not saying you gotta do it this way, but I'm telling you, we made a decision. We're not lying about anything, anything, Anything.
Trying to satisfy any, anything. You can't lie to them. The world's throwing so many lives. You have to be upfront about the fact that God made male and female.
You got to tell them the truth. And then you got to say, this is true, baby, the world is lying to you. Yeah, but there's a whole month dedicated to it. I understand, baby, but it's not true.
This is true. The Bible's true. And your daddy would never lie to you. Because if you'll be honest and you'll love at this level and you'll be stable, that is the balance of the correction that's necessary.
Because if you're unstable and a liar and you're a bad example when you try to correct them, they don't know where you're coming from. But if you've been stable, you've been honest, you haven't been a liar and you've been a good example, they at least have to go through the gears of, you know what? He's never lied to me before. And if you had lied to them, today's the day you stop about anything.
Can you take one more, Johnny? Can anybody else? Number four. You have to be available.
Whatever that costs for me in my house, I'm married to the bride of my youth. We have made three children together. We've been married for almost 20 years. It is not a challenge for me to be available like it would be a challenge for somebody who's divorced and their kids are in Tennessee.
But that's your lot. As in that's, that's your, that's, that's your portion right now. Whether or not that is self inflicted, whether or not, whether that was inflicted upon you because we live in a cursed world, whether or not it's because there was a death in the family, there was divorce, there was infidelity, there was fornication on the front end. Whatever the situation is that caused that situation, that's your situation.
That does not excuse you from being available to your children. Well, the judge says I only have whatever on this day, that day, the other. I get it. I understand.
But you've got to figure out how to be available. He said it costs so much. Yeah, it cost a whole lot. That's why God says he hates divorce.
I'm not mad at you. Sometimes there's good reasons why somebody needs to be divorced. I'm just telling you that's why God mapped out the plan. Here's the plan.
You deviate from the plan, God can still help you. But understand that was not the plan. God is so gracious. God still loves you.
100. You still have a phenomenal daddy. One million certain. All these things can happen, but you've got to find a way to be available.
So my kids, they live in, they live in Austin. Well, in your car ought to know by memory. The mountain, the route from here, Austin. Well, you know, I work a lot.
Who doesn't work a lot? Everybody works a lot. But you gotta find a way to be available. Because if you're not available, I'm telling you before God, somebody is.
And whoever that somebody is, now you're rolling the dice on what they're gonna hear and what they're gonna listen to you. So they don't listen to me anyway. Well, a lot of times, the first or second time they don't. That fourth or fifth time, when you've been stable and you've been a good example and you've been honest to them consistently and you've been focused and you've made yourself available.
All of a sudden now, now they start to look at you through a different set of eyes because you're not just saying anything, you're actually doing a thing. You've got to be available. Don't you show up at 7, 8 o' clock every night, tired. Just tell them to go bed and ask them they did their homework.
Because what you'll have is a shallow relationship with no substance in the relationship. If you got up early, go to work and that's the only time you Got with your kids and you bounce them out of bed. You have an hour with them before you go to work. I'm not ready to talk to them.
They're not ready to talk to you either. But you got to be available. You got to make time. You got to figure it out.
I'm telling you, when you go before that great white roll of judgment and God looks at you and says, okay, covering the blood, lamb, perfect, you're gonna be able to come in. Now let's talk about what else you did while you were down there because the Mitch didn't reward you. You're gonna say, well, I was a cracker jack welder. And God's going to say, don't care.
Well, I built seven businesses, I just don't care. Well, my career was at 17 degrees. God's gonna say, don't care. He said, why don't you care because you didn't invest in your children.
You gotta put the importance on what is most important in your life. God is looking at you as the creator, the maker of your offspring, to make the most of your offspring. And you can't do that if you're not available. If you don't have a great daddy, I'm not here to beat up on that idea.
I'm just telling you, you be a great daddy. You can be the best dad you ever heard of. But you're not gonna do a accident. You're not gonna be doing it by lying to them.
You're not gonna be doing about telling one thing and then you do another thing. You're not gonna do it by not being stable and being wishy washy. Nobody knows which dad's gonna show up. Is it depends on Neil's dad day or is it loves me day?
It won't happen that way. You got to get a place where you say, I'm going to be stable because God is stable and he's my example. I'm going to be a good example because I don't want them to have to look for somebody else. I'm going to be honest even when it hurts.
And I'm going to be available. Whatever you need, when you need it, I'm there. Well, I don't want to spoil them. Nobody ever spoiled a kid with things.
You spoil a kid without expectations. Nobody's ever spoiled with things. Jesus has everything and he's not spoiled. Expectations and a lack thereof.
So what I want, I say stuff like this all the time. But I got a new one. I want new life, church to be known as a Place filled with exceptional daddies. Daddy's in the.
In the husband, wife, kids in the same house mode. Daddy's filling that stepdaddy role. Daddy's with. With.
With kids in another city, with kids in another house down the road. I'm talking about exceptional daddies. And don't you ever, ever, ever let it. Do you ever think it's a reasonable excuse that they live far away is somehow going to let you off the hook of your paternal responsibilities?
I'm gonna tell you something else. If you're back on your child support, you need to work 25 jobs to go to go catch it up. Because your responsibilities are still your responsibilities. Even that child's not your house.
A single mother with no support is a biblical widow because you just as well be dead. With regards to how you're helping raise those kids, you say, well, I don't have enough money. Well, don't make another bill until you get paid up. Because that kid didn't ask you what you do with your extracurricular activities.
That kid wants to know that their daddy loves them, is available, does it lack them, is stable, a good example. That's what that kid wants and that's what that kid needs. See, this whole thing just happened. That's why I said that in front of you.
It might sound kind of strong today. That's because I R1 it's one of my favorite songs. This church was birthed out of this song right here. Zion is calling us to a higher place of praise.
God never calls you to less than he never says, I think you're just trying too hard. He's always calling you to a higher place. Come on, dads, let's take it up a notch. Let's take it to that next level.
Let's let the world see what Christian daddy really looks like. Can you give God a hand to praise this morning? Let's stand to our feet. If you're here, you're not living right, you're not doing right.
Jesus not Lord of your life. I'll lead you in a prayer real quick before we close. Matter of fact, the whole church is going to say it together. You need to make Jesus Lord your life.
Just pray it right along with us. Let's pray this prayer. Say this, Say, oh God, I come to you now and I ask you to save me. Write my name in your book.
I believe Jesus died and rose from the dead for my victory. I'm a Christian now, on my way to heaven in Jesus name. Come on, let's give God a hand of praise this morning. Don't forget we have New Heights class coming up.
If you're new to church, New Jesus, make sure and get signed up for that. You can do that online at the blue desk. I'm pray blessing on. You'll be dismissed and then we got to get out of here.
You're going have somebody sit in your lap. Praise the Lord, Father. Bless your people coming in, going out and seeing the field this day and every day in Jesus name. Come on.
Give God some praise before we leave. God bless you. We'll see you Wednesday. I hope you enjoyed the podcast today.
If you did, there are a couple of things that I'd love for you to do. Number one, subscribe to our show. That way, the most recent episodes will always be in your feed waiting for you, ready when you are. And secondly, follow us on social media.
That is the best way to stay up to date on everything happening at New Heights. We look forward to you joining us next time on the New Heights podcast. And if you are ever in the Bryan Collins station area, we invite you to come out to New Heights Church for a live service. I promise we'll make you feel right at home.