This afternoon, we continue our series on the book of Colossians. We call our series Jesus: The Expression of God's Love. If you have been with us for the past few weeks, two weeks ago we started this series. Now, we are in Book Two, Colossians Chapter 2, and we will be going through everything that the Lord has in store for us as we study this important letter of Paul to the church in Colossae.
The title for our message is Who Am I in Christ? Who am I in Christ?
When we talk about who we are, we inevitably go into a question of identity. What makes us us? What makes you you? These are all questions of identity. The first thing we know about identity is that it is given.
Today, we celebrate our fathers, and often the fathers are the ones who give their family name to the children. Often, the wives even take on the family name of the father or the husband. In many ways, that means as we are born into this world, our identity is automatically given to us by our fathers. Isn't that right?
That means when you're seated there in front of me, you are not just people who existed out of a vacuum. No, these are people who are in many ways a combination of their fathers and their fathers' fathers, and their mothers and mothers' mothers, all rolled into one. The identities of all our fathers have been passed on to you.
Maybe you will notice in your family that you kind of talk the same way, maybe you have the same personalities, or you look alike. Our identity is given.
In his book Wild at Heart, John Eldridge puts it this way: "A boy learns who he is and what he's got from a man or the company of men. The plan from the very beginning was that his father would lay the foundation for a young boy's heart and pass on to him that essential knowledge and confidence in his strength. Dad would be the first man in his life and forever the most important man. Above all, he would answer the question of his son and give him his name."
Throughout the history of man, as given to us in Scripture, it is the father who gives the blessing and thereby names the son. This is a very important truth. It's so true, in fact, that no less than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, demonstrated this in His own life.
We are told in the Gospel that when Jesus first decided He would begin His ministry, He went to see His cousin, John the Baptist. He went to him and asked to be baptized. We are told from the Scripture that after He was baptized, He prayed. The Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove, descended on Him, but then another thing happened. Do you remember? A voice was heard from heaven, and the voice said, "You are My Son, whom I love. With You, I am well pleased."
It is at this point that Jesus is given His very identity. That was to be His identity for the rest of His life and ministry: the Son of God. Not only was He called the Son of God, but God made it very clear to Him that He is well-loved and that the Lord is very well-pleased with Him.
Now, isn't it true that among all of us here, we long for the love and approval of our own fathers? We all want to hear those words: "I love you," and "I'm proud of you." Here, in the very life of Jesus, He's heard it, He's gotten it. He heard no less than His own Father, God, that He is loved, and God is well-pleased with Him.
Our study of Colossians 2 takes us to three main points. The first point is this: Who is Christ? Can you say that with me? Who is Christ?
You know, the question is very important. Pastor Peter always makes it a point to remind us of this verse in John: "They know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." This is eternal life—that we know Jesus.
Paul, in his letter to the church in Colossae, makes it, in fact, his primary goal. He says, "My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
So, in order for Paul to make the church understand who they are in Christ, he needed to go back to the question of who Christ is. Paul tells them in a beautiful verse in Colossians 2:9: "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority."
Paul is saying, Jesus is God. All the fullness of the Deity is in Him in bodily form.
Now, if we do not believe Paul, let us ask Jesus Himself what He says about who He is. There's an interesting scene in the Gospel where the Jews ask Him plainly, "Who are you?" In John 10:24, they asked, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."
Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe."
My friends, is it possible that Jesus Himself could tell us who He is, and yet we will not believe? Is it possible that many times in our lives, God has made Himself known, and yet, for some reason or another, we don't believe? Or worse, we don't care?
Jesus continued, "The works I do in My Father's name testify about Me, but you do not believe because you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
Jesus has made that claim Himself. Do you know this for yourself? All the prophecies of ancient Scripture have pointed to Christ. This is the Jesus who lived, died, and lived again. He is God.
Do you know this to be true? Have you made the same conclusion as Paul?
Now, early on in my family's life, God showed us in a very special way who He is, and I'd like to share a story with you. My wife and I, we got married, and like many young couples, maybe there are some here, we were very excited to have our very first child. So, we waited. We felt like it took a very long time. One year, back then, felt like a very long time. We were already very anxious.
If there are any young couples here, don't be anxious.
Anyway, we prayed, and we got our prayer request. A year after getting married, we finally got pregnant. We were so excited! It was going to be our first child. Even before that child got to the first trimester and the second trimester, we already had the clothes picked out. That's how excited we were.
Everything went smoothly. We were very happy—until we got to the third trimester. During this time, like many mothers know, you go through routine ultrasounds. We went through an ultrasound, and that was when we found out the news.
The ultrasound results showed us that there was something wrong with the baby we had been praying for. For some reason, the bones of our baby weren't measuring correctly. The left side of her body was measuring differently from the right side. We had the results read by our doctor, and the doctor said, "This is skeletal dysplasia." We went home.
At about that time, we did just about the worst thing you could do at that point—we Googled what it was. We went to Google, and we researched what it meant. We found out that "skeletal dysplasia" is a catchphrase for around 300 types of abnormalities. These abnormalities can range from something like the child having deformities, to dwarfism, or at its worst, internal abnormalities in her skeletal structure that, at the point of birth, she would grasp her first breath and die. It is likely that the rib bones could puncture the lung, which would be very fatal.
So there we were—first-time parents, very newly married, and we were hearing and reading about all these possibilities. Honestly, we didn't know what to do. At that point, we asked for prayers from our d-group, from our d-group leaders, and just about anyone who could pray for us. We asked them to pray for us.
You see, this wasn't part of the plan. That baby was supposed to be born, and everything would be happy.
We went to another doctor and another ultrasound machine. We were very hopeful—maybe it was just a fluke, maybe it wasn't really true. So we went to another ultrasound machine and another doctor, and we got the results. The results showed that it was even worse than what we expected. For some reason, the baby was really very different. Her long bones weren't measuring correctly.
I felt so defeated. We were very depressed, very sad.
If you know my wife, she's a very brave woman, and she would always put up a very strong front. But at night, when she thought I'd be asleep, I would hear her cry, because it was just too much.
I remember my wife wrote her sister a letter around this time, and the letter mentioned something like this: "If it turns out that at the point of her birth, our baby would pass away, it would be all the more reason to look forward to heaven." She was trying to see the positive side of it, but of course, it was very hard.
It was at this stage that I figured out I needed to be strong for my wife. Dads, you all know this, right? You need to be strong for the mom, for your wife. And I knew that the only way I was going to be strong for her was if I were weak in front of God.
So I decided that I would allot one week of prayer and fasting. At night, I would not eat, and I would lock myself in the room and pray. I would ask the Lord, "Lord, please, You can't do this. Is it possible, Lord, for us not to go through this?" Of course, I asked the Lord for what was really in my heart. But at the very end of that week, I knew very clearly that the Lord was telling me something. It is this verse in Proverbs: "In their hearts, humans plan their course, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."
I knew in my heart that the Lord was telling me, "You know what, Bri? I’m going to be doing whatever it is that I want to do."
God, I realized at that point, wasn’t a genie. He wasn’t someone that I could just ask for my wish and expect to get it. God wasn’t a dog that I could put on a leash and lead around wherever I wanted. He was going to be God, and I was not.
To many, this might sound very depressing, right? But you know what, friends? In my heart, I knew that God was good. And for some reason, I knew that because He was in control, and because He was good, I could be at peace.
So I learned that very early on—that the God I worship is a God who is in control. He's got this, and I was not.
So, of course, it was time for the third ultrasound, and of course, we went to another doctor and another ultrasound machine, right? Maybe this time around there would be good news. Maybe it wasn’t really something bad, maybe it was just a mistake.
We were prepared for good news during the third ultrasound, but there was none that day. In fact, the ultrasound showed that it had gotten even worse. The deformities were becoming clearer, and the bones were all sorts of wrong. I can even remember one of the doctors telling us during that time, “You know what? It’s okay. A lot of people go through this, and dwarfs can have a very happy life.”
We were just listening to the doctor, half-nodding and half-shaking our heads. It was very difficult, but we had peace at that point. I resigned myself to the fact that the Lord would have His way.
During that time, I remember many of our friends would ask us, “Why are you still smiling? Why are you still here in the group meetings?” And we couldn’t explain it. We just had peace. It was, I think, what the Bible calls “the peace that is beyond understanding.”
One week after the third ultrasound, my wife went into delivery. It was going to be showtime. So we drove to the hospital, and like many dads here and many dads before us, I waited there in our room—uselessly—waiting for my wife to have her labor. Dads, remember this moment, right? You don’t know what to do. You count your fingers, you don’t know what to do. So I was just waiting and waiting.
Then, I got a call. The call was from a very good friend who was the husband of our pediatrician. His wife was there in the delivery room, and she saw our baby. She called her husband, and her husband called me.
“Bri,” he said. “Yes, po,” I replied.
He said, "The baby is beautiful."
I couldn’t understand this—it wasn’t registering in my mind. So I took my mother-in-law, and we ran all the way to the nursery room. We peeked in that window, and there I saw her for the very first time. The doctors all looked at her, examined her, and they could not find anything wrong with her.
I don’t know what happened. I wish I could tell you—I really don’t. But one thing I know: that baby wasn’t okay, and then the baby was okay.
Is it a miracle? For sure it is! How else could I explain it?
So I learned another thing about God that day. I knew that God was in control, but I also know that God answers prayers. And since then, at the very early stage of our married life, my wife and I decided that this is going to be the God that our family will worship. He is a God who is in control, He is a God who is good, and He is a God who answers prayers. And no one here can convince us otherwise.
This is now Sarah. She’s 11 years old. This is her beauty queen pose, and I always remember that story every time we see her.
The second thing that we will learn today from Colossians 2 is this: Who am I in Christ? I know Christ is God, but what does it mean for me to be a Christian?
You see, the word Christian means different things to different people. That’s why I always hesitate to use that word because I don’t know how you understand what that word means. So, I always say "follower of Christ."
I remember a story about a man who was being chased by a lion. Do you know that story? A man was being chased by a lion, and he was so afraid that the lion would come and eat him. So he ran and ran and ran. Eventually, he grew very tired, and he asked the Lord, "Lord, can You turn this lion into a Christian? Can You turn this lion who is chasing me into a Christian?"
The Lord answered his prayer, and suddenly he realized that no one was chasing him anymore. So he looked back, and there he saw something amazing. The lion was bent on his knees with his two paws pressed together, eyes closed and lifted up to heaven. He was so surprised. “My goodness! The lion turned into a Christian!” He couldn’t believe it. So he went nearer to the lion. He wanted to understand this. As he went nearer and nearer to the lion, he heard the lion’s prayer: "Bless us, O Lord, for these Thy gifts which I am about to eat from Your bounty, through Christ, our Lord. Amen."
Those were the last words he heard before the lion devoured him!
So, what kind of Christian are you? Are you a prayerful Christian, or are you a prayerful Christian before you eat your enemy? You don’t know, right?
Christian means different things to different people, and so we go back to the Bible, and we will find out how Paul describes what a follower of Christ is. Do you want to hear it? Here it is in verse 6: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him."
The very first thing we realize about a follower of Christ is that he receives Jesus. Receives means that this is something given. It isn’t something stolen, and it isn’t something you claim for yourself. It isn’t even something inherited. It has to do with a personal decision to receive Jesus Christ.
My wife and I have three kids now. We had Sarah, and we have a boy, and then another girl. Our boy, Ethan, is a very special boy. He’s very friendly. He likes to talk to people, and he likes to have friends. In our little neighborhood where we live, he’s gained for himself a lot of friends.
He’s at that age in his life when he starts to be very conscious about the differences between him and his friends, and his family and his friends’ families. One day, my wife tells me, as Ethan was washing the dishes, he asked her a question. He said, "Mama, how do I know whether what I believe in is real? How do I know whether what I believe in is real?"
You know, it’s moments like this that I praise God for making us decide to homeschool them. You see, our kids are always watching us, and they have a lot of questions in their heads. My wife and I wanted to make it clear that when they start having these questions, there would at least be either one of us there who can answer that question for them before they find that answer out from anyone else.
So my wife, bless her heart, told our son Ethan, "You know, our family believes He is real—Jesus is real—because of the many, many times in our lives when God has made Himself real to us."
She shared, of course, that story I just shared with you, and many others. My son listened to this. He nodded his head, and he appreciated it. He understood. But then he said something very curious. He said, “But you see, those things only happened to you. They never happened to me.”
"But you see, those things only happened to you. They never happened to me."
That sentence lingered in the air. My wife realized the profundity of what he said, and she just grew emotional. She comforted him, and they prayed together. For a mother, that’s a very rare thing to witness. It was the very beginning of our son's journey of faith.
Ethan’s question is as important to him as it is to us. When we think about being a follower of Christ, we need to realize that we must get to a point where we understand that it is a gift from God that we must experience for ourselves. First, you hear about Christ—this is the time when someone who loves the Lord shares Christ with you. Here in CCF, we have a strategy called Pray, Care, Share. We intentionally pray for all the men and women we know, and we care enough for them to share Jesus with them.
Dads, I want to talk to you personally today. Are you making Christ known to your own family?
Romans 10:14 says, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"
The very first thing that needs to be done is for a person to hear about Christ. The second thing is that the person must accept Christ. But what do we mean when we say accept Christ? How does that happen? It really means accepting what Jesus says about who you are and believing that it is true. It is accepting your own human condition as described by Jesus.
Now, what is our human condition? The truth of the matter is that no matter how good a person you are, at the core of your heart and mind is a tendency to mess things up. Do you believe that? Do you agree? The Bible calls it sin. It is our own tendency to mess things up.
In fact, Paul says it eloquently in Romans 7:14-19:
"We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing."
Isn’t that relatable? Is this true for you as well? Let’s not even talk about sin yet—let’s talk about your exercise plan. How is it that the things you want to do, you don’t do, and the things you don’t want to do, you keep on doing? Why is that? It’s the sin that lives in you and me.
My friends, if you continue to believe that you’re okay, you will never get to the point of needing and accepting Jesus in your heart. We all need to realize our own sinful state in the face of God.
So what does God do? What does He do about this situation? What does He do about all of the suffering that He sees from all the men and women—past, present, and future—with all the sinfulness that lives inside of us?
God looks at this and says, "Enough. I will do something about this."
And that is the reason why He concocts a strategy that will be our point of salvation. Paul says in Colossians 2:13-14:
"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross."
On that cross, my friend, God says, "Enough. There is absolutely nothing these men and women can do to pay for whatever sin there is inside of them." It would take a God. It would take Jesus—Jesus Himself—to pay for that.
In fact, it is so serious that this is what Paul says about what Jesus did:
"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross."
Up there, when Jesus was nailed to that cross, He was thinking of you. And it wasn’t the cute version of you. It wasn’t the version of you that was very lovable. Jesus knew exactly who He was dying for. He knew your sins—past, present, and future—and, despite that, He chose to love us enough to die for us.
Praise God! That is the good news of our salvation.
But you see, Jesus did not just die. Paul said, "Having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." This Jesus, this very God, did not remain dead. On the third day, He rose again, and He is now even more alive than you and me. He has triumphed over sin. He has made a public spectacle of it. And now, my friends, He offers this to us—His gift of salvation.
Receiving Christ in our hearts means we hear about Him, we accept what He says is true about us, and we surrender our lives to Him. Paul makes it very clear that we do not only receive a Savior; we receive a Lord. You see, to be saved is one thing, but to make Jesus the Master of our lives—that means we have accepted and received Him as Lord. And He can only be Master if we obey Him, right?
We hear about Christ, we accept Him, and we surrender our lives to Him.
As a dad, I think about my three children, and it is the prayer of my heart that at some point in their lives, they will come to that decision for themselves. Because that is not something I, as their dad, can make for them. It is not something automatic. It is a decision they will have to make for themselves.
Meanwhile, what can we as dads do? We can live our lives true to our calling as Christians. We live our lives intentionally, putting hedges around our family, and allowing them to see that it is possible for a Christian to live in this world right now, walking in faith with Christ.
Dads, if your children see that it is important to you, it will be important to them, and it will make that decision so easy for them to make. It’s a decision we all make for ourselves, but dads, we can model the life of a true Christian to them.
I would like to invite a friend of mine to share with us his own journey in faith. Let’s welcome Jerylle Balwit.
The third thing we learn from Colossians 2 is this: I am free in Christ. Can you say that with me? I am free in Christ.
The third thing we learn from Colossians 2 is this: I am free in Christ. Can you say that with me? I am free in Christ.
In verses 20-22, Paul writes:
“Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.”
What Paul is trying to say is that even if we have chosen for ourselves and received the gift of God to become followers of Christ, even if that is the identity we receive, we are still in the world. The world will try its hardest to convince us that we can be someone other than that.
We read this very interesting summary in 1 John 2:16:
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
These three categories of lies are the ones that continue to entangle us in identities that are different from who we really are. Let’s break this down.
When we talk about the lust of the flesh, this is the lie that tells us we are defined by our sexual nature. It promises us infinite pleasure, but the result is only confusion and despair, especially among the young. This is a lie that tells a father it’s okay to go through infidelity because "that’s what dads do." But what is the truth? The truth is that you and I are already complete in Christ. That is the truth of our identity that we must live out.
The second category of sin is the lust of the eyes. Here, it’s talking about greed and the love of money. It tells us a lie that money is the ultimate pursuit in life, and as long as you have money, your life will be limitless. Of course, it's only as limitless as your credit limit, right? This lie has driven many of us into financial bondage.
This category of lie is something very true for me. Long before I met Christ, I believed a lie about myself—that I am a spender. My very first salary, I went on a shopping spree. I didn’t care. I believed if I had the money, I had to spend it right away. Until something happened: I heard a sermon by Pastor Peter, and there he talked about tithing and giving. He made me realize one thing that is very important—that there is nothing that I own that is not of God.
And so, I made a decision that day—I would give Sunday after Sunday, I would give. I wish I could tell you that all of a sudden, ten million pesos miraculously appeared. I wish that were the case, but that’s not what happened. What instead happened was that my mind changed. I gave my 10%, and then I looked at my 90% and told myself, "I better take responsibility for this."
That decision I made when I was still single broke generations of sin in my own family’s life. Could you imagine if the Lord had not taught me that lesson and I got married? I would have brought into that marriage so many problems. But the Lord has freed my wife and me from that, and I praise God for that freedom He offers to every one of us here.
Now let’s talk about the third category of lie: the pride of life. As you go out of this place, you will realize that a lot of people not only celebrate Father’s Day this month—they also celebrate Pride Month. And of course, we can talk about gender identity, but what Pride Month is really saying is that "I, as a man, can set for myself a destiny that would be right for me." It says, "I can make up my own rules, and I can be whatever I want to be."
You know what? This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when the serpent told the woman and the man, "You will not certainly die if you disobey God." The serpent said, "For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
That is the lie that says, "Go ahead, do whatever you want. Find every possible means to get power for yourself." But what is the truth? The truth is that we are not God. God is God, and we are not. Our application to join the Trinity is rejected.
He is God, and we are not. Only when we realize who we really are in the face of God can we truly be free.
Jesus said in John 8:34-36:
“Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Amen. That’s what Jesus is telling us today.
Last Wednesday was Independence Day. We celebrated our what? Freedom. You know, there’s a beautiful Tagalog word for independence—it’s this word, kasarinlan. Do you know what that word means? We’ll have a third service in Tagalog, so we better shape up on our Tagalog skills! Kasarinlan—independence. The root word of kasarinlan is sarili—which means self. This beautiful Tagalog word is making a comment about what it truly means to be free. It is to be true to who you really are. And who you really are is this: you are a son of God, you are a daughter of God. Any other identity you give yourself, other than that, will only entangle you in sin and put you in bondage.
And my friends, we don’t want to be there. We’ve seen enough of the destruction, the hate, and the many broken families left in the path of people who have entangled themselves in sin. Generations and generations of families have fallen. Will it end with you? Will it finally be broken with you? Dads, will your family be the start of something new?
Because it’s Father’s Day, I thought it would be very fitting for us to close with a story from the Bible. It’s a very familiar story, of course—the story is entitled The Prodigal Son. It begins in Luke 15:11:
“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’”
You know, it’s true then as it is now, inheritance is given to you after the father has died, correct? Now, the younger son says, "Give it to me now." What he’s really saying is, "I wish you were dead, because I want my share."
He didn’t care very much about his own father. So what does the father do? He divided his property between the two sons. Not long after that, the younger son got together all that he had, and then he set off for a distant country. There, he believed a lie. The lie was this: that you are a man whose pursuit is pleasure and happiness. He squandered his wealth in wild living.
Of course, it’s bound to be spent—all of it. And after he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed what? Pigs.
Now to a Jew, this is just about the worst thing that can happen. You see, Jews don’t eat pork. Pigs to them are unclean. To be a man who has fallen so far from grace, and now finds himself a servant to pigs, that just about brought him to his lowest point.
And so he does something interesting. He says to himself, "I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’"
You see, this man has gotten so low, believing in himself that he is a servant—that’s all he believes he can be. He can only be that—a servant. And when he thinks of himself as a son of his father, it doesn’t make sense to him anymore. He isn’t worthy—that’s what he said.
He goes home, and something interesting happens.
While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.
I ask many people, "Do you ever remember your father running?" Many people would say no, because, you see, fathers don’t run. Especially the very senior fathers—they would walk, very slow. Fathers only run when there’s something really, really urgent, maybe an emergency. But see the heart of this father—right from afar, he sees his son. That means he spent all this time just looking out, waiting for that son to come home. And when he finally did, he saw him, recognized him from afar, and he ran, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.
Then, what does the father say? He says, "Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine"—not this servant—"this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." And so they began to celebrate.
While they began to celebrate, the father was overjoyed because his son, who was lost, had returned. This story of the Prodigal Son is one of the most beautiful illustrations of God’s love and compassion for us.
My friends, where are you now in your journey of faith? Have you run away too long from the Father? Today, I want to say a prayer, and if the prayer is true for you, I encourage you to pray it from your heart because there’s no mistake and no accident—you are here today, on Father’s Day, hearing this message that tells you, the Father loves you.
Let’s pray.
Prayer:
Lord, I am here this afternoon, and I wasn’t really thinking about what’s going to happen. But Father, I am hearing this message that says, You love me. So, Lord, I think back to all those times in my life that I am not proud of. I think back to all the mistakes I have made. I have believed the lies that the world has told me about who I am.
And now, Lord, I hear that You, for reasons only known to You, love me enough to die on that cross so that I can have a chance to be another kind of man. Lord, I don’t know what this means. I know in my heart I am not worthy. Like the son in the story, Lord, I can only think of myself as a servant to sin. And yet, here You are, waiting for me from afar, running toward me right now to call me a son.
Lord, is this true? I see it happen in other people, Lord—I hear their stories—but, You know what, Lord? It only happens to them. It never happens to me.
Lord, will You reveal Yourself as real to me too? Can I have, Lord, that freedom You are promising to so many?
Lord, can today be the start of something new—not only for me but for my family as well?
Lord Jesus, I come with nothing, nothing at all, but only faith that this is possible. In Your name, I pray. Amen.
