Week 4 | “Why the World Feels So Broken”

But good morning, great to have everybody with us. Do want to welcome those of you joining us online, all of our Willow locations, and as always a big shout out to our friends who join us at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Great to have everybody with us. And to the dads, happy Father's Day to all the dads. And I just want to specifically talk to the men at Jefferson City Correctional Center. Many of you are fathers. You may not get the opportunity to see your kids today, but I just want you to know on behalf of our entire church, happy Father's Day to you guys as well. Well, even as I say those three words, happy Father's Day, my assumption is that likely hits people a little bit different in the room. For some of you, it lands very warmly. You're sitting alongside your kids right now, and you just really feel the joy of what it means to be a dad. For some of you, you called your dad on the way to church today, and that was a great, great conversation, and you're just reminded and so thankful for your dad. I know for others, Father's Day can be pretty challenging. Maybe you're estranged from your dad, or maybe there's been some difficulty in that relationship. I've got a really close friend who just lost their dad. And so I know that sometimes it actually is a day that carries a lot of weight. And so no matter where you're at in that spectrum, and no matter what the experience is like, I just want you to know we're glad you're here. We love you. We care for you, no matter where you're at with this. Happy Father's Day. We're grateful for your here. As we think about today, we're going to continue our study through the book of Revelation. Last book of the Bible, kind of a weird, confusing book. We've had a really fun time walking through the book of Revelation chapter by chapter.

Now chapter six is where we're going to be at today, so if you've got a Bible, you can open up. We're going to be in chapter six and seven, and this is where things get pretty challenging in the book of Revelation. Things turn dark. There's a season that's sometimes referred to as the Tribulation, and so I'm telling you nothing says Happy Father's Day quite like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And so that's what we're going to be at today. Sometimes when you plan a teaching calendar, it just works out, it just lines up so well. Others, it is what it is, people. I don't know what to tell you, but we'll try to make a really meaningful connection there at the end, so hang with me all the way to the end. Now as I mentioned early in the series, there's a lot of perspectives about the book of Revelation, how to approach it. So our assumptions about how to approach it really matter. Now by and large, every perspective of how to interpret the book is largely united through the first five chapters. Everybody sees it's a picture of Jesus in chapter one. He's the high priest. He's the go-between between us and God. It's actually through Jesus that we get connected to God, that Jesus is walking amongst his churches. It's a re-experience that's outside of his presence. You get to chapters two and three, you see these letters to these seven churches that were in Asia Minor, it's modern-day Turkey. And these churches were exhorted. Sometimes they were encouraged, they were challenged, they were compelled to follow God really closely in this season and promised a reward if they do. You get to chapter four and five, last week is a special week. It's this insight into the throne room of heaven and just so you know, there's a throne,

there's somebody seated on it, and you have this picture of the lamb, it's Jesus, at the center of the universe on the throne. Now for whatever your interpretive perspective, everybody's getting along up to this point in the book of Revelation. Chapter six, that's where we go very different ways. From chapter six all the way through chapter 18, it's what's often described as the tribulation. In Revelation's language in chapter seven, it's the great tribulation. So I would argue that there's widely two, this is a little simplistic, but there's widely two major interpretive perspectives that people take. And I would express it this way, that it's either a timeline or it's a template. Now what some people will take, 16 through 18, is they will think it's a timeline. It's what's going to happen the seven literal years before Jesus comes back. But it's a possibility that Revelation could be a timeline. Again, I know some incredible, smart, godly individuals that see Revelation as a timeline. As they're looking at chapter six through chapter 18, they're looking at current events, they're drawing a correlation between the two, wondering, is this the time that Jesus is going to return? I don't personally see it this way, and here's why for two reasons. First is, I've watched so many people take this perspective and preach the back end of Revelation and they're drawing a correlation to what's happening in the geopolitical climate in our day. And here's the truth, not a single one of them has been right yet. This interpretive philosophy is full of speculation. Because we don't really fully know. And I just have a hard time preaching to you speculation, and so I don't live to this particular perspective. The other reason why I would lean away from Revelation would be a timeline, because again, Revelation was a letter written to the church in the first century that was struggling,

that was being persecuted. They need hope. And if the lion's share of the book was about events that would take place more than 2,000 years later, that would have had no application to them in their current context. And so I resist seeing Revelation as a timeline. I think the better way to look at it is it's a template. In other words, will there be a tribulation in the future? For sure. But has there always been tribulation in the past, and is there currently tribulation? I would also answer absolutely. And so Revelation is this unveiling, it's this peeling it back so that we can see clearly with spiritual eyes everything that's going on around us so that we can know what it looks like to hold onto Jesus amidst all the hardship that we may face because we know that we win in the end. And so I believe that it more is better understood as a template because Revelation mattered 2,000 years ago to the first century church that originally held. It matters for us today, and it will matter until Jesus returns. And so I think looking at it as a template helps us frame it a little bit different. Now let me define, when I say tribulation, let me define what I mean by that. I would say tribulation does not exclusively refer to a global catastrophe, although that would certainly

qualify as tribulation. I would say tribulation also includes those moments when life becomes harder than faith feels prepared for and you find yourself wondering, God, am I gonna make it through this? Have you ever been there? Because if you've ever been there, I would say the book of Revelation was written for you to give us hope when we go through this thing called tribulation. And so when you look at the book of Revelation chapter six against the start of this kind of 12, 13 chapter journey through it, and there's a few things that really pop out that are principles that I want us to embrace, none of them are surprising to you. Here's the first. I would say this. The world is broken. Thank you, Sean, for your great insight about this world in which we live. But the world is broken if you haven't figured it out, right? It's not operating in the way that the perfect God designed it to operate. So let's dive in to Revelation chapter six, verse one. Buckle up. We ready for this? All right. Now when we get to underlying words, because I need you to hang with me, I want you to just say the underlying words.

Shout it out as you mean it. You'll get there. All right, so here we go. Chapter six, verse one. It says, I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, come. I looked, and there before me was a? Was a white horse. And its rider held a bow and was given a crown and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come. And another horse came out, a fiery, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword. When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard a third living creature say, come. And I looked, and there before me was a? Was a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard, it sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying, two pounds of wheat for a day's wages and six pounds of barley for a day's wages and do not damage the oil and the wine. When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard a voice of the fourth living creature say, come.

I looked, and there before me was a pale, oh, I didn't wait for you. My apologies. There before me was a? Pale horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades was falling close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, plague, and the wild beasts of the earth. Happy Father's Day. What in the world is going on here? If you remember in chapter five, there was a scroll, and there was nobody who was worthy to open the scroll, but the Lamb who was worthy starts opening up these seals, and these horses come forth that are, that mean something. So each one of these horses actually represents something. Don't look for a literal horse. Look for what that actually means. represents. And so if you look at the details, we can determine what these horses represent. The first one that comes out is a white horse. That looks like conquest. You kind of get the sense from Revelation 6 that this is the spirit of the empire. Again, think first century church, think Roman empire. What were they known for? They were known for power, for dominance,

for conquering other nations, to making them subject to them. That would have felt very, very familiar to a first century Christian. You get to the next one, it's a fiery red horse. Notice what it said about him, that they were giving authority to take peace from the earth, that the people would actually take each other's lives. That was certainly happening back in the first century. It's also happening in parts of our world today. Depending on where you're at in the world, this will feel very familiar. The third horse is the black horse. And that represents famine, which oftentimes is coupled with what's happened before it. It's given these weird details. If the rider has a scale and it's, you know, for a day's wages, you get so much wheat, for a day's wages, you get so much barley, what's up with that? I mean, think about the image. If you have to spend an entire day's wages for a loaf of bread, things are pretty scarce. The impact is quite dramatic. You get to the last horse, and this is the one that's unfortunately so familiar to a lot of us, is this pale horse. It looks like life has come from it, and that makes sense that it's the horse of death.

Now, if you read this in your first century context, this was the world that the first century church was living in. They were living under the Roman Empire rule that was conquering other nations. There was war at all times. People losing their lives. It was such a scarcity perspective that you didn't have two nickels to rub together to buy even the most essentials that you lived in life, and certainly, death was around every corner. You would call that a great tribulation. Now, again, it's not just what happened in the past. It's what also still happens today. If you are a Christian in Ukraine, this makes sense. If you're a Christian in Sudan today, this makes sense. If you're a Christian in Iran today, it makes sense. Now, for us in America, it's actually harder to make sense of it because this is foreign to our everyday life, right? And by God's grace, we're grateful that that's true. We are fortunate enough, outside of events like Pearl Harbor and 9-11, we have not had a war fought on our soil since the Civil War some 160-ish years ago, and so we're fortunate that this is not our everyday reality, but what's behind each one of those is in our everyday reality, because what's behind conquest? It's people who are power-hungry who take advantage

of other people for their own sake. You ever experience that? What's behind war is violence, aggression, anger. Have you ever been the victim of that at the hand of somebody else? Have you ever had somebody take so much from you that it felt like there was never gonna be enough and the scarcity mentality and anxiety was really high? We've certainly experienced that, and when it comes to death, none of us escape it. The latest death that I read is one out of one people die. Now, I'm not trying to make light of that. I'm just recognizing that this is not just something that will happen. This is not just something that has happened. It happens. Revelation is pulling back the curtain, and it's letting us see that things are not as they should be, that there's a brokenness that exists in our culture. Now, here's the hard thing to stomach. Who's the one that opened the seal that sent this stuff into the world? It was the Lamb. It was Jesus. What up with that? That's hard to reconcile, isn't it? Because our immediate reaction is, does that mean that God is the author of evil? No.

It just means even when evil is playing out, God is still on the throne, that even when chaos characterizes our culture, the Lamb is still in control. The way I think about it is, have you ever been on a flight that gets really, really turbulent, and as a passenger, you're tossing and turning, you're starting to get nervous and it feels like things are out of control? Do you want to know who's not panicking? The pilot. Because the pilot still has their hands on the wheel and knows that it's going to be okay. Hey, in the midst of all kinds of chaos that plagues the world in which we live, just know the lamb is still on the throne. He is still in control. He still has his hands on the wheel. He's not letting go. And so here's the truth. God may allow evil for a season, but he will not let it win. He may allow it. You may not be spared from tribulation in this life, but that tribulation will not have the final word. Revelation 6 reminds us our world is very, very broken. But I think it also shares this with us, that you are allowed to ask why. That's kind of encouraging, isn't it?

Because we face some hard things in life, and I think the Bible gives us the opportunity to ask very difficult questions and to ask why. Here's what happens next. It says, when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they maintained. They called out in a loud voice, help me out. How long, sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? God, how long? I don't know what you've experienced in life. I don't know all that you've gone through, but if you've ever gone through such a difficult time, you might call it a time of great tribulation, that you're like, God, how long? How long are you gonna keep this from, how long are you gonna allow this to continue to happen? God, why are you allowing this to happen? God, what are you ultimately gonna do about it? It's actually moments like this in scripture that I'm so encouraged by just the honesty, the rawness, the realness of the word of God. The picture here in Revelation 6 are those who have lost their lives because they refused to bend their knee to Caesar and they were committed to have their allegiance only to God and in doing so,

it actually cost them their lives. They're going, God, how long are you going to allow that to play out? It's not the first time that question was asked in scripture. It actually reminds you of Psalm chapter 13 off the pen of David. David writes this, how long, Lord? Like, will you forgive me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? Like, David's just going, God, how long are you gonna allow this? What's fascinating about Psalm 13 is it's just five verses later that David almost answers his same cry out to God. He says, but I will trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the praises of God for he has been good to me. What changed? His circumstances did not change in five verses. It was actually the honesty of his heart that actually opened himself up to experience the difficulty in a different way. There's two things I want you to take away from that. Here's the first. Doubt and grief and even anger toward God are not signs that your faith is failing.

They're often signs that your faith is real. Because if you didn't believe in God, you wouldn't ask questions to God. And so sometimes when we're facing the hardest moments in life and doubts creep up or anger creeps up or frustration creeps up, it's not a sign that your faith is failing. It's actually a sign that your faith is real. And one of the most beautiful things in Scripture is the realness and the rawness of people of God all throughout biblical history that are willing to take even their anger, their frustration, their realness, their rawness to God, that actually becomes a doorway by which they can experience something different. Here's the second principle that I want us to take away, that hard times actually fuel God's work. I remember a small group I was a part of, shout out to our Wheaton campus. I was at our Wheaton campus. This was last year, a part of a small group. And one of the questions I asked in our small group was, tell me the time in your life that you felt closest to God was the question. I didn't know how people were gonna answer that question. But almost to a T, one by one by one, we ran around the circle and people. told some of the most difficult moments of their entire lives. It was kind of this aha moment for me,

that none of us want to go through those difficult times. But oftentimes, when God sees us all the way through it, when we look back on it, we would say, I wouldn't trade that season for anything. Not because I want to go through it. Not because it was easy. Not because it was any less painful. But God did an amazing work in that season, shaping me into the person I am today. I'm grateful for how God used that in my life. What's fascinating is hard times actually fuel God's work in my life and in your life. But what's also true is there's actually hard times that fuel kingdom work in our world. I think about it this way. Back in the first century, again, people were losing their life because of their faith and commitment to God. But what actually happened in response to that, it was actually because of people who were unwilling to bend their knee to Caesar, who was willing to give their life for the sake of God's mission, that God's mission spread like wildfire all throughout the empire. Book of Acts actually records these words. I love this. Acts chapter four, it says, those who had been scattered. Why did they scatter?

They scattered because of the persecution. Those who had been scattered preached the word everywhere they went. I haven't even heard it saying it this way. In the first century, the blood of the martyrs watered the seeds of the gospel. That's hard to hear, but just because times are difficult doesn't mean that God's not at work. It's oftentimes where God does his most amazing work. Now, why does that matter for us today? Because sometimes in our culture today, we will say things like, the moral decay in our culture is startling, or we'll get really concerned about where our culture's going, maybe making it harder for somebody to be a Christian publicly. I'm not sure. But I just want you to know, even if that were to play out in our culture, the kingdom of God is not threatened. It's actually sometimes with the greatest resistance to faith that God does his greatest work to propel the faith. Do you know where the fastest growing church is in America? It's not in America. Do you know where the fastest growing church in the world is today? Iran.

And not too far behind that are places in Asia and places in Africa where it's illegal to be a follower of Jesus. It's actually through the difficulty that God does some of his greatest work. And we take hope in the fact that the kingdom of God will always move forward no matter what political climate we find ourselves in. The kingdom of God is not threatened. It kind of reminds us of the words that Jesus said to Peter, where he says, upon this rock, I will build my church. Do you remember what he says next? And the gates of hell cannot stand against it. Isn't that good news? There's nothing that can ever happen in this world outside of the control of God. There's nothing that can ever happen in this world that will thwart God's plan through his local church. He wins. He wins. He wins. He wins. He wins. His kingdom advances. There's nothing in this world that can ever thwart that. I take that as great news.

Let me lean us into the last principle. I love this. I want you to know that you can be marked by something greater. All right, chapter six ends weird. Bear with me on this one. The sixth seal opens up. You have this earthquake. The sun goes black. The moon turns red. You're like, this is just weird. All of those are just signs of judgment. It's this picture that God will judge our unbelieving world, that God will bring his vengeance against every evil. God will make every wrong right. And what happens in the wake of these crazy symbols at the end of chapter six is all the kings of the earth are fleeing from their lives. I mean, they're like, run away. They've run into these caves and they're hiding from God, right? Because they may have so much power on this earth, but their power is nothing compared to the power of our great God. And God will make everything right. And it's just the kings of the world, they're fleeing into these caves, and then it kind of cracks me up

at the end of chapter six. Let me find where I'm at. There it is. It says that they called to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of the wrath has come. And help me out with this question and. And who can withstand it? Like, who can escape the hand of God? And those who conducted themselves in evil ways will face the judgment of God. Now, if Revelation ended at the end of chapter six, it's a pretty sad story. It's almost kind of a pretty scary story. Kind of leaves with this open-ended question, like, who can withstand this? Chapter seven tells us. Because chapter seven is this beautiful interruption to this really hard stuff, this beautiful interruption that helps us understand what it looks like when your life gets marked by the Holy Spirit of God. Because who can withstand it? A believer in Christ can withstand it. Because the believer in Christ means that their lives have been covered by the blood of the Lamb, that the cross was sufficient for your life. If your life gets marked by the blood of the Lamb, you have nothing to fear. So when it comes to the kings of this world,

they're shaking in their boots. And yet the faithful Christ follower can stand with confidence because their life got marked by the blood of the Lamb. Let's read it in chapter seven. So cool. It says, then I saw an angel coming up from the east, having to seal the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and sea. He says, do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we what? Seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God. Then I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes. And so it's a picture, this seal, I'm gonna come back to this in a minute, it's a picture of those whose lives have been sealed, claimed by God. Those who are set apart as followers of Christ, their lives have been saved by Him. And then it numbers them 144,000. Now I wanna be careful with numbers. In the book of Revelation, numbers rarely mean a literal number. Every number means something. These numbers are rich with meaning. You can see in just the number 144,000, it's a multiple of 12. 12 times 12 times 1,000.

The number 12 is this number of completion, of wholeness. It's of God bringing things together. That's why there's 12 tribes. There's 12 apostles. You get to the picture of heaven at the end of the book of Revelation, it's actually built on 12. There's 12 angels, there's 12 stones of the foundation. I mean, you can't get away from the number 12. Incidentally, it's actually true all throughout scripture. After the feeding of the 5,000 and they collected all the extra food, you remember how many baskets there were left? There were 12. How many persons are there in the Trinity? Three, I was just making sure you're still with me. 12 is this number of wholeness completion. It's not saying that there's only 144,000 people who were saved. Not an exact number. It's representative of full, complete picture. The number 1,000 means it's a divinely appointed fullness. In other words, everybody's accounted for. From God's perspective, it's a specific number. Why? Because God hasn't forgotten even one. Now what's interesting is you turn just a couple verses later, the same group is described. It says, after this, I looked and there before me

was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb, they were wearing white robes and they were holding palm branches in their hands. So you got the 144,000 and then you got this great multitude. It's the same group. It's not two different groups. From God's perspective, he's so precise because he hasn't missed a single one. From our perspective, it's such a large group that nobody can count. There's people from every tongue and every tribe and every language, just a full representation of God's people. Who can withstand the wrath of the Lamb? Those whose lives were sealed and marked by the Lamb. Now did you notice the detail? It says it was a seal on their forehead. Here's why that matters. In a few chapters now, a couple weeks from now, we're gonna talk about the mark of the beast. Don't miss that week. We're gonna talk about the mark of the beast. Everybody, or a lot of people take that to be a physical mark. Why do we do that? When the mark in chapter seven is definitely a spiritual mark.

It's the mark of the Holy Spirit on the life of a believer. Let me read it for you from the book of Ephesians. It says that when you believe. that you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance into the redemption of those who are God's possession. When you surrender your life to follow Jesus, when you give your life to follow him, one of the promises in scripture is that your life gets sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. It's like God put his hand on your shoulder and said, this one's mine, and I'm never letting this one go. This one belongs to me. A seal in the ancient world, again, said ownership. It was possession. You belong to God. It's your identity. It changes everything. I would say it gives you three new things. I would say this, it gives you a new direction. When your life gets marked by the Holy Spirit of God, God gives you a new direction, a new purpose. He gives you this new life that's ahead. It also gives you, what I would say, a new power. The beautiful thing about the Holy Spirit being on the life of believers, that you're empowered. You don't have to live for the things of this world. You have a power greater than this world to live for God. It also gives us a new beginning.

That for some of us, our past is a little checkered. The moment that you give your life to follow Jesus, you get the Holy Spirit of God. It is your new identity. You're a child of God. You belong to him. A new direction, a new power, a new beginning. It changes everything. And so when chapter six ends with this challenging question of God's judgment's coming, who can stand it? Chapter seven reminds you who can stand it. One whose life is marked by the Holy Spirit of God, not because of what you did, but because of what he did for you. And it changes everything. My friends, as I read through the book of Revelation, I can't help but think about what it looks like to continue to bend your knee, surrender your life to the only one that's worthy. It doesn't necessarily spare you from the tribulation, but it does ensure the tribulation does not have the final say. Now let me bring this around to Father's Day. Not your typical Father's Day message, I know. But here's why this matters. Dads, do not underestimate the impact when you surrender your life to Jesus, have your life marked by the Holy Spirit of God. It not only changes your life, that impacts everybody's life around you.

I would argue that one of the greatest gifts that a father can leave for his children is a life marked by the Holy Spirit of God. It'll change you, it'll change your family, it'll change you for generations. That's Jimmy's story. Jimmy grew up in a family that had what I would describe as a great tribulation. But he surrendered his life to follow Jesus, had his life marked by the Holy Spirit, and it changed everything. Here's Jimmy's story. I'd been in basic training about six weeks when I was called into the commander's office, and he said, we'd hate to report to you, but your dad passed away. So I grew up knowing the church, knowing God, and my mom and dad were both very active in our local church. It was a good family situation, but a lot of hard work. That was nearing the end of the Vietnam War, and I was in the military, and that was nearing the end of the Vietnam War, and I received a draft notice. I had to report to be inducted into the army. I'd been in basic training about six weeks when I was called into the commander's office, and he said, we'd hate to report to you, but your dad passed away.

Now that was a shock. I didn't really know how to react to that particularly. My dad's passing was as a result of suicide. That was certainly not expected. Well, the emotions that I experienced during that time were really not understanding why he made that choice, why he decided that his family would be better off by choosing suicide instead of choosing to live with us. You know, we had to wrestle with that, you know, how he came to that decision. As we started our marriage, about three years in after our first daughter was born, we had an incident happen where my granddad, he was about 80, he chose suicide. You know, we look back at the tragedy that occurred in our life. So that, on top of what I'd seen with my dad, we wanted things to be safer in our family. We knew we could not trust on our own to be able to get things done for our family, but we had to have God. Through what I did as a father and what I showed to my kids, that they understood that no matter what happens, don't choose things like suicide. Don't choose things like depending upon God. Trust Him. Know that He will direct your life. He has a plan for you, that He will guide your steps, that He will take care of you. So I wanted to be able to model that in my family. Let them know that God is there for you. He can get you through the tough times. He has a plan for your life. I'm very proud of my two kids. They individually had to make the decisions, but both of my kids have chosen to follow God and serve in ministry. That makes me very proud as a father, and I know my wife is very proud as a mother, that they have chosen that path.

And I know it wasn't me that did it. It was God through me that made it happen. As I look back on my life, my encouragement is to dance today. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Understand that through Him that opens up the pathway to God, to let Him bless you and direct you and guide you. Don't try to do it yourself. Do it with God's help. Do it with God's guidance. Trust Him, and He will bless you in anything and everything that you do. I mean, it's such a powerful story of somebody who walked through what they may describe as a great tribulation, but they gave their life to follow Jesus and created a very different trajectory for their family that would echo for generations. How do I know? Because that's my dad. And I listened to both my parents share stories of coming through really difficult seasons, and yet they came together with a commitment to Jesus and created a dynamic that my sister and I and my kids will never know the generational trauma that existed before they committed their life to follow Jesus. Never underestimate what that commitment looks like. Father, the greatest gift that you will ever give your kids is a life that's marked by the Holy Spirit of God. Give your life to Him. I'd love to close by praying for our dads. Can I do that? If you're dad in the room, I just would like to invite you to stand up, and can we just reach a hand out near a dad that's in the room, and just as a collective church, pray for our dads. Father, I thank you that the greatest thing that we can ever leave behind is not what we build, it's not what we achieve, or what we accumulate, but God, it's a life that's

surrendered to you. God, today we pray for every father. The storms of life, anchor them in your presence, God, when they feel overwhelmed, remind them that you are still on the throne. God, fill them with your Holy Spirit so that their children and their grandchildren see a faith that's real and resistant and rooted in Jesus. God, may their legacy not simply be what they leave for their family, but who their family becomes because they walked faithfully with you. God, I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.